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tatertotthethot · 4 years

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The Doms Next Door 2.0

THIS IS A TEMPORARY REUPLOAD FOR THIS CHAPTER CUZ TUMBLR IS RAN BY A BUNCH OF BOTS. 2.1 HERE

Warnings/AN: frequent, casually cursing; comical, gay Jimin; insecure reader; steamy flirting; tattoo/sexualized Tae 🙃. Enjoy~ (TAEKOOK EDIT ABOVE IS ARTKOOK DONE BY NONCONMAN ON INSTAGRAM)

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Your tires came to a stop outside of the tattoo shop you've seen online— a brick building, covered in spray paint and street-style art. A sign buzzed over the awning of the entrance doors, with the built-in UV lights and graffiti-styled font displaying the name of the place in neon-red letters. Kink For Ink! The name alone was what first caught your attention last week, when you Googled "Tattoo shops near me" and it pulled up a list, with "Kink For Ink" being the first option. It just seemed so uncanny and fitting at the time, considering the previous run-in you just had with the sex-crazed neighbors a couple nights before. You couldn't help but to click the link to their Instagram.

A profile came up with 53.4k followers, which immediately blew your mind... but you quickly saw why. Every tattoo and piercing, no matter the body-placement, skin-type, or quirky design, was vividly appealing— certainly done by the articulate hands of certified experts. Even in the comments of the piercings that were posted, people were praising them for the "minimal" amount of pain they experienced, despite the fact that some of piercings were done in places you couldn't even fathom the thought of having a needle jammed through.

It said in the bio that the shop is owned by the two artists that work there— Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook. You couldn't find out much about them, all their pictures showed was their work. You even went back to search for a personal account of their own, but nothing came up. You then went back to the bio and clicked a link to the official website, hoping to find out something, but you were met with a disclaimer rule at the top that automatically deemed your chances of even getting your piece done by them, slim-to-none.

• No walk-ins allowed.

• Every request/idea must be sent in through the DMs of our Instagram page. You will only be accepted only if it spikes our personal interests.

Yikes; You were instantly discouraged by this. The piece you wanted was something so common and cliché, that you actually got the image out of a child's coloring book.... It was the cartoon layout of the glass vase and enchanted rose, from the Beauty and the Beast movie. Cheesy, yes. But it was something of personal, nostalgic value. You remember when you were little— roughly around 3 or 4 years of age— when your parents started fighting and would spend all day screaming and throwing things at each other, putting you in a constant state of anxiety. But then you'd go to bed at night and pop the VHS tape, and the movie never failed to put you in a peaceful state of mind— a hopeful one. It's remained as your all-time favorite love story throughout the years. Which, is ironic, considering that the relationship itself was different, but almost as dysfunctional as your parent's. However, the fact that even the Beast was capable of change, and everything wound up so perfect and happy in the end, makes your heart happy. And even now, at age 19, it still puts you in your feelings. The previous remake of a movie is what actually inspired you to get the enchanted rose as a tattoo, after seeing it in 3D not too long ago. But you're only willing to shell out up to $200 for it, at most. You've just started college, and even though Jimin's parents own the house and let the two of you live there, rent free, you're still responsible for half the utility bills from month to month. Blowing every bit of money you have saved up, right at the start of the semester, would just be irresponsible. But $200 was manageable, and you're looking for anything that'll give you a little extra "oomph" to break you out of this introverted shell you've always known. Pushing it off would just delay it, and you were ready for change. The nose piercing you want is just a small little thing that'll hopefully add a bit of flare to the features of your face. These two guys could probably do the piercing/tattoo with a blindfold on and a hand tied behind their back. So, if it meant that you'd be able to get these things done in confidence, without having to worry about the outcome, you figured it wouldn't hurt for you to at least ask, even if they straight-up ignore you. So, after spending an unnecessary amount of time overthinking the wording of your text, you finally constructed a message in your notes and DM'd it to business page, after sending them a small, simple outline of the cartoony rose, and pressed send.

• You: Hello! I've been wanting to get this tattoo done for a very while now, and was hoping one of you will be willing to do it for me... along with piercing my nose? I know it's a very mediocre and cliché piece, and a nose piercing can be done anywhere. But I'm new to the area and I've never gotten a tattoo/piercing done before and I haven't really checked out any other places either because I found this page first. And from what I can see, you guys are pretty efficient and CRAZY talented. So, I trust it'll get done right.... only if you want to! I'm willing to pay $200 for this, but if it costs that much for just the outline I've sent then that's fine as well. But I understand if neither of you want to do it cuz that is really cheap compared to the ones I've seen lol. But either way, thx for ur time 😁

A few minutes went by and you had just unlocked your phone to check the message again, when the word "seen" popped below the message. You held your breath for a second— but seconds turned to minutes, and time went by with no reply, what-so-ever. You figured maybe you sounded a little too immature to take seriously; kind of like a prepubescent 12-year-old asking someone out for a dance... and you blew it. Which was disappointing, but predictable. So fuck it. Maybe it's a sign; you shouldn't get it after all.

11pm rolled around, many hours later. You were now hiding beneath your covers, beginning your "amateur threesome" exploration on PornHub. You were ready to see what this whole "2 guys, 1 girl" thing was all about. But just when you were about to type it into the search bar, you were interrupted by an Instagram notification dropping down from the top of your screen.

"KinkForInk sent you a message."

You audibly gasped, eyes turning to saucers as you clicked on the notif and switched over to the Instagram app.

• KinkForInk: Hi (Y/N). This is Tae, one of the artists of the shop. The tattoo you sent in is worth roughly $100... but I want to run an offer by you in hopes that you'll be interested.

— Your brows scrunched in oddity, stomach fluttering. An offer? For you?

• You: Okay, sure. What's that?

• KinkForInk: I've been looking for someone willing to showcase the custom design I've come up with, specifically for a much more... exclusive version of the Beauty and the Beast tattoo you sent. And if you'd be down for letting me and my partner put it on you, it'll be free. No charge. BUT you'll also have to sign a contract saying that you'll do a little bit of modeling for us once it's done. You think you'd be in to doing something like that, even if you get it?

— Your head spun for a second, reading the message over and over again until you could fully wrap your mind around what he was saying.

• You: Hold on... YOU wanna put a tattoo on ME so that I model for you? And it's FREE? Are you sure about this? I'm not even model material lol.

• KinkForInk: Yes, yes, and yes, you are. You'd be perfect for this.

• You: How do know that? Is it a face tattoo? Cuz I only have 6 selfies on here and you can't see anything past my shoulders.

—"Seen" came up as soon as you hit send, but a couple of minutes rolled by with no reply to the message, nor was he even typing. Maybe you came off a little rude. But it was already sketchy and it was a logical question.

— An image suddenly popped up: a screenshot of your Facebook profile. Then another— and much to your horror, it was the photo Jimin tagged you in last week, when the two of you were swimming at a local community pool. You were wearing a simple two piece, sitting at the foot of the lawn chair Jimin was also sitting in, as his legs were visible on either side of you and his lap was practically framing your ass. The photo was at an upward angle and looked so scandalous— but really, you had just asked Jimin to put sun screen on your back and he didn't want to stand up because the pavement was too hot against his bare feet. But you actually liked the picture at the time; it was just a silly joke and your ass actually looked quite nice from that angle. Plus, everyone knows nothing sexual actually goes on between the two of you, for obvious reasons. But Taehyung doesn't, so you couldn't help but dreadfully cringe when you saw the caption of the screen shot.

"Babymama 💦🍆"

• KinkForInk: Is this you??

• You: Yes, that's me. The caption is a joke tho... pay no mind to that. But this is like, really happening? You really think it'd look good on me?

— Why that picture though? You couldn't help but wonder.

• KinkForInk: Yes. Like I said, you're perfect for this piece. Are you down to at least see what the tattoo will look like? We don't expect you to be experienced with modeling or anything, but if you listen to us and cooperate, you'll do just fine.

• You: Yes I wanna see, and I'll do the best I can if I decide to get it... I'm just a bit shy, is all.

• KinkForInk: You'll be in good hands. I promise.

• You: Okay... are you going to show me??

• KinkForInk: Can't send it over a message, I don't want it plagiarized or the concept stolen. But the piece itself isn't necessarily crazy or anything, just more creative. I'd be more than happy to show you at my shop some day this week, if you'd be willing to swing by.

• You: Yeah, I can do that. When should I come?

• KinkForInk: Are you available after 5 tomorrow?

• You: I am, I get off at 4:30.

• KinkForInk: Great. Be here by 5:30, and make sure you've eaten in case you like the piece and wanna get started. It's pretty big for a first timer and gonna take a lot of time and patience. It'll have to be done in sessions but I hope you have a fair enough pain tolerance to at least get the outline of it done first.

— It can't be any worse than a bikini wax, you thought, shivering at the memory. That a story for another time. You decided on an alternative scenario.

• You: I give blood from time to time... but that's easy and doesn't really hurt that much. I think I can handle it though... maybe. I honestly don't know lol, I'm sorry 😣. But I can try my best. Can I ask where it's supposed to go?

• KinkForInk: That's okay, I'll work with you. It's supposed to go down the middle of your back. Starts between the center of your shoulder blades, and trails down the length of your spine to your lower lumbar. You'll see how it looks once we transfer a template on your back. But if you don't like it, there will be no hard feelings from my end. I can still do the tattoo you want if that's the case, free of charge just for your time.

• You: Oh no, you don't have to do that! I'd still pay!

• KinkForInk: Not if I don't accept your money. Trust me, I'm not worried about it. The nose piercing is gonna be $30 regardless, though. JK isn't so lenient.

• You: Of course. Will I have to take my shirt and bra off for the tattoo?

• KinkForInk: Yes, and for the pictures once it's done.

— Your mind blanked at that; thumbs froze over the keypad. He was typing again.

• KinkForInk: Don't let that discourage you. Again, you're in good hands. You can bring something to cover your chest. And the pics will be if your back as well.

• You: Okay, I can handle that. So 5:30 tomorrow?

• KinkForInk: Yes, please don't flake on us!

• You: Lol, I won't. I'll be there.

"They're gonna knock us the fuck out and sell our organs to the black market," Jimin declared. He had parked next to you outside of the shop, and was now sitting in the driver seat of his car with his door locked and windows all the way up, refusing to get out. You were standing right outside his door, still having to talk on the phone. "And is this Tae-guy an AllState representative or something?"

Jimin is petty. You wanted him here for moral support— which he's usually reliable for— but this time, he's just plain salty right and doing everything he can to remind you of that. Reason is, he's been begging you to get a matching tattoo with him ever since your 18th birthday, and you've always refused because of what he wanted to get.

Cupcakes. Jimin wanted to get matching cupcake tattoos... in honor of Cupcakke the legend. Sorry, but H E L L no.

You rolled your eyes, growing frustrated. He only has enough time to pop in and confirm that these two aren't gonna kill you, and then he's gotta head home to get ready for work. You were already supposed to be in there. It was 5:33pm, 3 minutes past the time.

"Jimin, you're the one that insisted on coming along! And now you're making me late!" you ranted. "I'm going in without you."

"Hold your horses, hoe! I'm finishing my blueberry slushie," He retorted, sassily bringing the straw to his mouth and loudly slurping it into the phone. He then abruptly flinched away from the straw with a disgusted expression, nostrils flared, body locking up; lips drawing into an air-tight knot that was so extreme and unnatural, it caused an ugly snort to break out of your nose.

He smacked his lips in exaggeration to the taste, face falling back into stone as an eyebrow arched over the top of his aviators; unamused and saltier than before... Like you were at fault for that, too.

"Or... Blueberry-ass, I should say."

That forced another giggle out of you as Jimin stiffly rolled his window down, phone still pressed to his ear and eyes still scowling at you behind the inspector shades. He bit down on the straw and withdrew it with his teeth before dumping the dark-blue contents of the drink out of the window, making it a point to shake the styrofoam cup empty of every drop before tossing it over his shoulder and into back seat. He then spat the straw out of his mouth with an audible "PLUUUUH!" of a French accent, and waited until the window rolled all the way up again, just so he could hang up the phone. You scoffed at this as you shoved your phone back into your pocket, scornfully watching Jimin exit the car and slam the door behind him. He snatched his glasses off his face as his cotton-candy hair swayed in the breeze, revealing his scornful eyes right back at you as he gestured for you to lead the way in exasperated manner— as if you were the one wasting his time now.

"Go on, lead us to the grave," He shooed, a snippy little shit. You sauntered away, walking up the side of the shop, then paused just before reaching the glass entrance door, when you remembered how much of a coward you are. You've never even stepped into a parlor before, and supposedly, this was a famous one. Which makes it more and more surreal when you think about it.

"Are we doing the mannequin challenge now? Is that what we're doing?" Jimin sardonically inquired.

"You go first, I'm nervous!" You whisper-hissed.

"You don't want me to go in there first— I'll show out," he reasoned, simply stating a fact.

"Please don't," you whined.

"Then, again, I'll show out?" He reiterated, as if to say duh. "How else am I supposed to break the ice? I look like Timmy Turner's Fairy-Gay- Parent."

You gave him a wary look... he's right. You sighed, slightly kicking your foot in distracted defeat. Fuck, you hated making an entrance to new places—

"Hold up— is that Drake?" Jimin suddenly blurted, holding his hand up to silence you. You honed in on the muffled track playing from behind the glass door, and Jimin's face soon light up like a Christmas tree before he spun around you, unstoppable.

"Jimin, NO—!"

"KIKI, DO YOU LOVE ME—?!"

It was already too late. The door was flying back behind him as he Milly-Rocked his way into the shop, leaving you no choice but the chase in behind him.

"—ARE YOU RIDING? SAY YOU'LL NEVA-EVA LEAVE FROM BESIDE ME— hello there."

You were panting, coming to a stop right behind Jimin, where you instantly latched on to the back of his shirt as you met the face of the man behind the studio counter. And, as corny as this is gonna sound: the world actually stilled for a solid beat... or maybe you were in the verge of cardiac arrest.

A pair of glossy-Black eyes looked up at the two of you; A series of silver-studded earrings trailed along the outer cartilages, peaking out beneath a head of soft, layer-swept hair. It was a Carmel-tinted blonde in color— thick and shaggy, and neatly spilling in waves around a headband that proudly sported a high-dollar brand-name you've never seen anyone wear in person before. G U C C I, it read— Meaning that the headband alone was probably worth more than some of your college text books, put together. It sat just a few inches above a pair of dark brows, that oddly brought out the shape of his cat-like eyes— irises like polished marbles. His ample lips had a sharp, well-defined Cupid's-bow, and a natural shade of pink that fit the porcelain appearance of his melanin-kissed complexion, to the finest degree.

And here you are, looking like an actual bum. You had just enough time to clock out of work and head straight over here to make it in time. You didn't even have any makeup on, and the only thing hiding your raggedy hair from those captivating eyes is your old baseball cap from high school. It took a second for him to take the bold presence that was Park Jimin— who was also frozen to the spot as he openly checked the guy out. He was hunched over the counter, a v-neck hoodie covering the rest of him with a thin, loose-fitting material. It was Black and allowed a full visual of his tan neck, and prominent collar bones. And it certainly didn't hide the fact that he had a pair of wide-set shoulders, either. A pencil sat in his hand— one that was laced with masculine veins, and lot of decorative ink. There was a silver ring on his thumb.. and a very heavy-looking Rolex watch.

The man cracked a grin at Jimin— a boxy one that dimpled in at the corners.

"Love the hair," he humorously began, twisting a quirky eyebrow at Jimin. You subconsciously snagged the bill of your hat as your eyes went a little wide at how mature the man's voice was.

"Love the watch," Jimin retorted, then reached around and gripped you by the wrist before pulling you into full view beside him. "You wouldn't happen to be Taehyung...?"

"Mhm," the man hummed, absentmindedly moving his wrist at the mention of his watch. His eyes cut over to you, and you swore you could see a minuscule reflection of yourself in his eyes, before they flashed back at Jimin and blinked. "You must be the babydaddy?"

Blood rushes to your ears. It's really him... a guy who looks like a high-dollar model himself, asking you to be his canvas model. Your own conscious didn't even know what to say right now. So you stayed quiet and still as Jimin took charge... which was a mistake.

"She wishes, but no. I'm the best-friend— and a gay one, at that," Jimin replied, and you knew he did that for his benefit. Thot. "I'm just here to make sure you're not gonna sacrifice her to Satan, or anything of that nature. I need her around in case I ever forget the Netflix password."

Taehyung chuckled at that, mouth opening to reveal a row of teeth shinier than Chip Skylark's. But then, you caught something behind his teeth that caused your gut to leap. A silver ball... a tongue ring. Your thoughts clouded over for a second.

"Well, I can assure you, she's safe with me," he said, looking over at you again. You blinked, nothing more. His brow arched at your lack of response, but this time, it was done more handsomely as he was still smirking at you. "Still, you don't look too thrilled to be here... You sure you wanna do this?"

"She's just nervous because you're really fucking hot," Jimin announced, unyielding. "You should feel how sweaty her hand is."

"Don't listen to him— I'm gay too," You lied in panic, trying to defend yourself from the absolute truth Jimin spoke just then. You snatched your hand away from him and jutted a finger at the door, eyes beading and lid twitching as your nerves ran amuck. "Goodbye, Jimin."

"She's a lonesome hetero," Jimin told Taehyung, assuring him with a face that showed no bluff. "One look at her camera roll, and you'd see for yourself—" You were yanking him away by the arm now, in a tug-of-war game that Jimin obviously could've won if he really wanted to. But he figured you suffered enough and eventually let you drag him out of the shop, waving bye to Taehyung before turning to look at you with beading eyes.

"I think he wants to fuck you— text me as soon as you can," Jimin uttered with unmoving lips as before he walked to his car. You stopped for a second, noticing he was actually being serious. How could he possibly think that he wants to fuck you, just from that small encounter? And what is the odd sensation currently coiling in your stomach? Things grew awkward again when you re-entered the shop, coming to a stand at the same spot... only alone now. He was still amused, it seemed. And so calm and cool despite this odd, intense look in his eyes. It gave him a Casanova effect, where all he had to do was give you that look and it'd instantly make you blush.

"He seems like a fun person to be around," he noted, somewhat honestly, but more so making fun of the red-hot appearance of your face.

"He's a pain in the ass," you muttered, trying to conjure up a smirk but hardly even able to speak properly from how dry your mouth was. It felt like there was a white-hot iron expanding in your throat. "I'm really sorry about him."

"Don't be. I'm just glad you're here— thought you'd chicken out." You nervously wiped your clammy palms over the back pockets of your jeans as Taehyung got up from the barstool behind the counter and approached you on the other side of it, a whole head-and-a-half taller than you. He was wearing black cardigan jeans and matching combat boots.. his headband and jewelry the only thing not black on him. And oddly enough, he made it look fucking fantastic.

"Mh-mm," You hummed, not trusting your voice. You've never needed a sip of water so bad in your life— he even smelled expensive.

"Well, It's very nice to meet you," he formerly began, and you mustered up the normality of placing your (dried) hand into his much larger one, as he held his out to you in greeting. And boy, was he close. So close that the heels of your spine itches to lean back from the proximity.

"It's nice to meet you, too. I'm really sorry if I'm acting weird. I'm just nervous." — Your mind struggled to stay focused on your words, arm tensing at the skin-to-skin contact. You were extra-effected by the firmness in his grip. You really wanted to look down at all the bold ink you saw dashing across the veiny surface of his tanned hand, or see if those were images or scripted letters on the knuckles of lengthy fingers... But you were held captive by those God-blessed eyes... And that fucking tongue ring. It was infecting your head in ways that weren't necessarily healthy for your current state of mind, as you saw it peering in and out at certain words.

"And physically shaking," Taehyung pointed out, brows twitching down at your trembling hand in his as if he was concerned for it. But his smirk gave off an odd sense of fascination to the involuntary symptom, like it was cute or something? Hm. He glanced back up at you, causing your dehydrated throat to bob as his other hand came to clasp over the rest of yours, swallowing it completely from the wrist down. "Intimidated?"

"V-Very," you spluttered, a small slither of saliva copulating down your throat as you looked back up at him. He absentmindedly rolled his tongue ring over the button row of his teeth as he watched you with tainted eyes— undoubtably getting cocky with that damn grin of his and proudly teasing you about your reaction to him. It gratified the effortless sex-appeal he had. You were even beginning to imagine that tongue ring elsewhere, and you literally just met him. Then, as you felt the band of a ring move along with the pad of his thumb as gently ran it across your trembly knuckles, chills shot up all the way to your shoulder. Oh... oh wow. You glanced down at his knuckles on reflex this time, and saw a four-letter word scripted in black ink across the bottom row of his knuckles, and another word scripted on the middle section of his fingers. A silver band on his naked thumb. STAY TRUE, it said.

"And why's that?"

"I.. feel like you're a celebrity," you sheepishly admitted, your other hand wedging into your back pocket as you had to stop yourself from reaching for the bill of your hat again. Is he flirting? The words seem too innocent for the way he was making you feel. It was getting so hot in the oven of his massive palms, and he wasn't even squeezing you hard enough to cut off any circulation, but yet your fingers were beginning to tingle.

"Mm, no. Just a little popular, really," he granted, teetering his head a little as he pondered the thought. You could see his vocal chords contract in his sleek neck as they project his smooth, pungent voice. "You still trust me?"

"Mhm," was all you could muster. He'd gotten even closer, to where his hand had gone into a prayer stance around yours. You were aware of how wide your eyes had gone from the awe you... you knew this was just the beginning. He was going to be very handsy throughout this whole process. But in a very twisted way, you were more than okay with that. Even if it meant you were at risk of fainting from actual dehydration. Maybe you were in over your head. But you couldn't will yourself away from this now. And then, just as a wide, heart-stopping smile edged out on that mind-numbingly handsome face, the door at that back of the room swung open, and heavy-metal rock blasted through the quiet vibe of the scenery and caused you to jump a little at the disturbance. Taehyung shot a wicked smile over his shoulder, and his next words nearly knocked you out right then and there as you beheld yet another, breathtaking sight.

"Oh, there you are," Tae eagerly acknowledged, one hand still holding yours as he walked around to grab your with the other, presenting you to the.. hulking presence in the room. "This is (Y/N), our next little experiment."

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hitsuackerman · 4 years

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Soul Chicken (Hawks x Reader)

Prompt: Soulmate AU where the first words your soulmate says to you are written on your wrist and while Hawks has an absolutely unhelpful phrase written on them, y/n has something....unique.

(so this was generated by an OTP one shot generator and it caught my attention :D it was... challenging to say the least but still fun!)

contains: 4 year age gap (not that ya’ll would mind), fluff

Soulmates.

This was the one thing Hawks always managed to save for later. With just how fast he likes to move, he regularly shoved the idea aside. It was as if his mouth acquired a bitter taste each time it entered his train of thought.

How did this enter his mind once more? Oh right. The two people he had saved turned out to be soulmates. Such luck for them, he supposed.

Not that he didn't care, though. This bird child-man always dreamed of seeing who the universe had paired him up with. But to his luck, the letters etched on his skin were almost cursed. Cursed to the point where he merely gave up his search.

The first words his soulmate would tell him. The first words that would open new doors for his feathers to explore. Despite keeping his smirk pasted on his face, his heart would ache when he hears people saying it.

'Hey'

Those were the words inked on his inner wrist. A 3 letter word that was as overused as the word 'you'. How in heaven's name was he supposed to find his other half with every other person greeting him 'hey' with different variations.

Munching on his piece of chicken, he cleared his desk and began to look over the files his agency prepared for him. Laid on his desk were the profiles of possible interns he could gather intel from.

"Todoroki Shoto." He read and scanned the bio data. Endeavor would not be happy if he took him in. As tempting as it would be, he placed it on the discard pile.

"Bakugo Katsuki." His pupils shrunk at the memory of this kid being chained to the post. All while trying to bite off All Might's hand. "Little too wild for my taste."

"Tokoyami Fumikage." He immediately stamped the approval sign on it. A fellow bird in his agency? Hella fun!

"(L/N) (Y/N)." The 4th placer in the UA sports festival. His eyes drifted to your age. "Huh, interesting. Eldest of the class due to late enrollment and personal issues. 18 while the rest 16."

Nodding his head, your quirk wasn't too flashy but made up for its efficiency. Similar to his Fierce Wings. With his index finger tapping on his desk, he turned to his desktop and began digging up information about you.

Orphaned at the age of 6 due to villain attack. Jumped from foster house to foster house, a trouble maker? Top 2 in the class, makes up for intelligence? Pleasing to the eyes. Not bad, if he were to put it more into thought.

Biting the last chunk of meat, he approved of your possible application in his agency.

-----

"Yami…" You nervously whispered as you gripped onto his sleeve. "I'm nervous. I don't understand why he'd include me as a possible intern "

"Nonsense. You proved yourself worthy during the Sports Festival." Tokoyami tried to reassure you. Behind you, the window gave him a grand view of the city moving fast.

The two of you were now seated snugly inside the shinkansen. Because it was in the afternoon, the train wasn't as crowded despite buying reserved seats in advance.

Tokoyami's words seemed to work. Letting go of his now crumpled sleeve, you apologized but he simply told you it was no big deal. Looking at your hero suit cases, your eyes landed on your wrist.

It always made you wonder, what situation would your soulmate say those words. It was all too… random yet specific. Rubbing your thumb on the rather long phrase, your thoughts were cut.

"Is that… what your soulmate is supposed to say?" Tokoyami asked as he read the sentences. "Rather unique to say that on your first meeting."

"Ugh. I know." You sighed and tugged your sleeve a little lower. "I honestly gave up thinking of scenarios on how I'd meet this person."

"You are of legal age. I think it would be much easier to access places. But seeing those words, maybe you just have to look for people eating?"

"That's true but I think a part of me just wants to be surprised as to how we'd meet and how we'd exchange phrases. I did think this person would be at a fast food chain or some sorts, but I'd like to think he's responsible enough."

Tokoyami simply nodded. Looking down on his wrist, he too, began to wonder what circumstances would bring him and his soulmate together.

Feeling the train come to a halt, the two of you began to exit and board off the train. It felt like a blur, to be saying farewell to faces you see everyday. Though it would only be for a week, you would miss Ochako and Tsuyu.

When the high rise buildings were now in sight, Tokoyami nudged your elbow and pointed to a hero holding up a sign with your school's name on it. As the two of you walked towards the hero, you saw how the sign truly matched Hawk's Agency.

Ah yes. Hawks.

Your anxiety began to creep back up. Why would a pro-hero like him want an orphan who went to school late intern for his agency? Was this some sort of pity party? Or was your quirk enough to catch his attention?

"Calm down, (L/N)." Your friend whispered as he opened the car door for you. You sat in the back as he sat on the passenger's seat.

"Are you all excited to meet the #2 Pro-Hero?" The hero asked as he set the car to drive. His cheeks gave off he was smiling from your angle. "He's a pretty chill guy, you know. So if ya'll are anxious, he'll only catch that and make fun of you."

"How long till we reach the office?" Tokoyami asked.

"2 blocks from now. It's that building over there."

The two of you followed where his index was pointing at. It wasn't easy to miss. The building was huge and it was evident that his office was on the top floor. From your eyes, it would be the perfect height to take off for his wings.

The hero dropped the two of you by the entrance. Thanking him for the ride, 2 sets of eyes watched as the car turned to the corner. Probably to park in the underground carpark.

"Shall we?"

"We shall."

The two of you proceeded to the receptionist. Judging by your uniforms, the two of you were given key cards to enter his office on the 35th floor.

"He's still out, though. Make yourselves comfortable. He won't be taking too long!" The receptionist said with a smile as she pointed towards the glass elevator. That got you thinking fire drills must be a pain in the ass with this amount of floors.

The view going up felt as if you two were flying. The way the horizon slowly showed itself was something you could look forward to for the whole week. Your bird friend agreed as well.

When the elevator doors opened, you two were met with a frosted glass wall with 2 capital 'H' on it. Similar to what his belt had. It was nice tho. Branding on point.

Before you could enter, you heard the buzzing of a phone. Feeling it wasn't yours, you looked at Tokoyami and told him it was alright for him to take it. Telling you he'd follow suit once the call was over. Pushing the door for you, you walked into his office.

The office was definitely expensive. Glass windows framed 3 out 4 corners, his desk was simple but you could tell that the material was durable and expensive, 2 large paintings hung on the wall as well. Most probably commissioned since it fits Hawks image.

Walking towards one painting, you were about to touch the edges when your vision began to blur. Your body felt as if it were being tugged into the air rather forcefully. Harshly spinning you around, you were face to face with the Pro-Hero himself.

Your heart raced when it sunk in that it really was him. He was more handsome in person. His piercing yellow eyes seemed to observe you. Watching your every move.

His hands began to roam your sides. Patting motions till he seemed to find what he was looking for. Taking it out from your pocket, his gloved hand now held on to your ID.

"Hey!"

His eye twitched. You were officially the 15th person who had said 'hey' to him in a span of 4 hours.

"I swear that phrase would be the death of me." Hawks reacted in an emotionless face. Trying his best to compose himself to a student who merely wanted to feel the painting. "Tsk. Knew that last nugget was bad luck."

Though it wasn't his intent to scare you, he just thought it would make a good long running joke for the duration you would stay. He just… snapped when he heard those words coming from you.

Looking back at you, he placed you back on your feet and took off his yellow visor. A big teasing smile appearing on his features. Complete opposite to what yours had.

"Hey, take a chill pill, my little intern. I was just messin' with ya." Hawks assured you as he gave you the finger guns.

"Y-You… S-S-Sentence…" Your mind failed to function upon hearing his first to you. The same words you had memorized and knew by heart. Your eyes were desperately trying to hold on to something but all you could focus on was Hawks and his crimson red wings in front of you.

The look on your face was a mix of shock, fear, and a slight dash of awe. What did he say that made you react that way? All he commented about was…

His mind clicked and his jaw slightly dropped. His pupils enlarged when he finally bought 2 and 2 together.

"Holy pidgeon smokes…" Hawks thought out loud while nodding his head. "Looks like things are bout to get interesting, my little soul chicken~"

You couldn't help it. A soft giggle escaped your lips when he called you his 'little soul chicken'. By now, you were positive your cheeks were all sorts of red. When he took a step closer, you bit your lower lip in an attempt to calm your rapid beating heart.

"Don't bite your lip now, birdy. We just met." He said as he used his index and thumb to make you face him. Damn. You're prettier up close.

His feathers seemed to shake a bit and he let go of his touch. A second after, Tokoyami entered the door and bowed at his new mentor. After telling him there was no need to act all business like, he pointed towards the couch and told you both to sit down.

"So today," Hawks began. "I won't let you both do much. Just get settled in and take the feel of this agency."

His eyes would linger at you when he said the words 'settled in' and 'take the feel'. When he saw you understood his implied meanings, he gave you a wink and proceeded with the necessary instructions.

"Tsukuyomi. Your room would be on the 27th floor." He said and tossed the keycard. Tokoyami caught it with ease. "And you, my precious love nugget, will stay on the 30th floor."

By now your face was numb from all the heat that had traveled upwards. Expecting him to toss it, the key card was given to you by one of his feathers. Taking it from the floating feather, your breath hitched when the feather found its way to your lips. Brushing it ever so softly before returning back to his wings.

Tokoyami wasn't quite sure what was happening. He had heard that Hawks had a carefree attitude, he just didn't expect him to hit on you right then and there. (Though he did have a feeling that at one point you were bound to get bombarded with his flirtatious attempts.)

"So… Any questions?"

"What time do we start tomorrow, Sir Hawks?"

"We start at 7am. That good?"

The two of you nodded. With that, he dismissed you both and gave you free will with what you wanted to do on the first unofficial day of internship.

"Not you though, chickadee!" The way the light bounced from his golden eyes made them glow. "We still gotta talk."

Tokoyami squinted his eyes at you. His peripheral vision on Hawks. Brushing the thought aside, he excused himself and went towards the elevator.

When you heard the ding, your heart stopped when Hawks stretched his wings. Showcasing their impressive span. They began to shake a bit with each step he took. He would spread his wings and pull them back half way before extending them once more.

By the time he was in front of you, you were all smiles as he began to fold his wings alternatively. It was all too amazing, how this person had wings as a quirk. In the blink of an eye, all you could see around you were his feathers and the gorgeousness of his face.

"What was that for, Hawks?" You covered your mouth. Trying to hold in a giggle.

"Hey. Don't. I like seeing your smile." He said as he gently held your wrist, pulling it down to reveal what his eyes wanted to see. "And that little exhibition I did was a small mating call, soul chicken."

You began to fold your arm and imitate how chickens flap their wings.

"Not as impressive as yours, but I hope that did the trick!" You were now grinning from ear to ear. Seeing him chuckle at your lame attempt at flirting caused his stomach to swarm with little lovebirds.

"Oh. It definitely sealed the deal~"

His hand began to trace your arm till he stopped on your hand bringing it closer in order to see his first words meant for you.

'I swear that phrase would be the death of me. Tsk. Knew that last nugget was bad luck.'

"I can see why your eye twitched when I said 'hey'. That's literally the most overused word." You commented when you saw his mark.

"That's what I tell myself everyday." An amused grin plastered on his face. Suddenly, his pupils shrunk and his feathers began to ruffle. "You afraid of heights, birdy?"

"Not really. No. Why?"

His arms wrapped you tightly. Bringing you chest to chest with him. His wings now spread out with the occasional flap.

"Hawks…"

"Better hug me tight, nugget. You're in for a wild ride~"

Giving your cheek a quick kiss, he flapped his wings once more. This time with a bit more force in them. You could feel your feet leaving the ground. On instinct, you immediately wrapped your arms around his neck.

Next thing you knew, you were screaming with joy at the feeling of being swooped away from your feet. Literally.

Little did you know that Tokoyami had been watching the whole fiasco.

"Things really are going to get interesting." He said with a small smile on his face. Happy that his close friend found her soulmate.

With that he finally exited the office and made his way to his room.

#hawks #hawks bnha #hawks mha #mha keigo takami #keigo takami #hawks x reader #hawks x y/n #wing hero hawks

666 notes · View notes

consumeconstantly · 4 years

Text

SBGS ch 6

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ao3

2:00AM | CoffeeVamp: marinette dupain cheng could step on me and i would thank her

CoffeeVamp: did you all see how bad ass that girl was

CoffeeVamp: she was just like demon spawn is robin? Well fuck you for being in paris

CoffeeVamp: and her file oml this girl does so much for paris and he classmates treat her like CRAP

Daddy: How do you know her Damian? Clearly you guys have met before. Can you really trust her with your identity?

Jesus: this girl has been keeping her own secret identitieS under wraps for years I doubt she’ll rat

CoffeeVamp: DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MDC

CoffeeVamp: all i ever wanted was for MDC to design smth for me but u ruined ALL my chances demon spawn !!!!

2:15 AM | TheOG: I think we can trust her

TheOG: Don’t think she trusts us tho

CoffeeVamp: yea what was with the zip ties

CoffeeVamp: do you have smth to tell us ;)))

CoffeeVamp: have u been getting spicy in paris ;)))

CoffeeVamp: remember to use protection we don’t need any mini yous around

LadyLady: she’s good. I can see why Ladybug trusts her

DemonSpawn: She’s a friend I met in Paris. She can keep a secret.

2:20 AM | DemonSpawn: I regret not trusting her.

CoffeeVamp: i cant believe that u thought someone who was nice enough to spend time wu willingly could be a supervillain

Jesus: that’s pretty fucked up man

Jesus: Surprised she didn’t rail on you more for that. I would’ve given you a beat down

LadyLady: u need a game plan to get her on your side. She doesn’t have a good reason to trust u anymore and id like it if we were on good terms with the one person that can contact lb

The OG: ^^ babs is always right

TheOG: you only have two weeks

DemonSpawn: How do I get on her good side?

Jesus: you better hope and pray because girls like that do not forgive easy

TheOG: try being her friend again

Jesus: like she wants to be his friend anymore

LadyLady: Apologize to her.

Jason is right.

It’s clear that Marinette does not want to be involved with him any longer. Marinette comes in right as the bell rings, then faces firmly ahead and doesn’t spare him a single glance. Notes that he slips to her are ignored. She doesn’t check her phone for his texts except for once, when she texts him: anything related to last night will be discussed out of school.

Instead of going home for lunch, she willingly sits with Lila, just so she can avoid him cornering her in the bakery. Damian watches them from a distance, but he’s close enough to hear most of the conversations. Most of their other classmates are taken in by some video on Alya’s. There’s a quick exclamation from the Ladyblogger, saying something about being able to meet some American celebrity, and she and the rest of the class run off to somewhere else, though not before inviting Lila and Adrien. They’re turned down, and Marinette continues to sit with the two of them.

“We’ve got a photo shoot together later today.” Adrien sounds tired. Like he’s giving up, almost.

“Would you like to come, Marinette?”

Damian can’t make out Marinette’s reply, but she must say yes, because Lila’s calculated facade slips away to reveal shock and interest. Lila entwines her fingers with Adrien’s, an act Adrien clearly isn’t expecting, as he flinches.

Marinette levels a glance at Lila, who looks surprised at Adrien’s reaction, not that Damian can blame her; she practically hangs off Adrien every day, playing up their couple relationship for the media, and Adrien never reacts like this. He inches closer. Lila reaches out to touch Adrien on the shoulder, in a gesture of soothing, but Adrien flinches again, this time gaining a distant look in his eyes and starting to breath hard. Lila goes to kneel--it’s clear that Adrien is on the verge of a full blown panic attack-- but Marinette holds Lila by her arm and shakes her head, gesturing for her to wait off to the side.

Adrien’s reactions are trademarks of an abuse victim. His reactions are rather dramatic in comparison to the clenched jaw and distant eyes that he normally sees in kids in Gotham, which leads Damian to the conclusion that this is either a more recent thing, or when he is abused, he emphasizes his weakness in attempt to get the attacker to stop. The question of who seems rather redundant; everyone knows that Adrien Agreste is the sheltered, sunshine boy who never stepped a foot out of his mansion before turning twelve. Though he models, his actions are still highly restricted. There’s not really much of a chance for Adrien’s abuser to be anyone other than the people within his immediate vicinity, so the suspects were his father, the personal assistant, his drive, or someone he works with.

He’ll have to keep this information in mind moving forward. Though Damian ordered extensive background checks on each and every student at Francois Dupont, he only read the profiles of the people in his class, and only keeps tabs on the people that are of interest.nIn Mlle. Bustier’s class, the only people who Damian is interested in are Marinette, for obvious reasons, Lila Rossi, for the sheer number of times she was akumatized during year two of Hawkmoth’s presence, Chloe Bourgeois, who may not be Francois Dupont student, let alone in France at the moment, but has a parent who currently sits at the top of his family’s Hawkmoth suspect list and has gotten countless people akumatized, and Adrien Agreste, the only person other than Marinette who hasn’t been akumatized in the akuma class. If Adrien really is being abused-- and he doesn’t really see any reason for Adrien to fake the symptoms, given that there’s really nothing for him to gain out of this situation-- that knocks him up a space on the list of Hawkmoth suspects. Victims of abuse, especially in a high profile situation, are often likely to either lash out or coop themselves up. Since he isn’t purposely excluding himself from activities, given that he converses with Marinette, Lila, and two other classmates named Nino and Alya, it’s possible that he has adopted Hawkmoth as an alter ego to pursue revenge.

All this, of course, is mere speculation. Before making any abrupt jumps in his logic, like he did with Marinette-- though he defends himself with the fact that his thoughts on her being Hawkmoth were mere speculation, and that it was merely coincidence or a case of extremely bad luck that Marinette… what, thought he was Hawkmoth as well and then passed the information onto Ladybug? Now that he thinks about it, the whole situation seems ridiculous, and he finds that Ladybug’s lack of tact when coming face to face with her supposed arch-nemesis doesn’t befit a hero of her caliber. She seemed oddly emotional about the whole thing, like his existence as Hawkmoth was a personal betrayal. But Ladybug and Damian never met before that. Why did Ladybug take Marinette’s personal vendetta upon herself? His head hurts.

Damian finds himself walking over to their table, where Marinette is speaking in soothing tones, careful not to touch Adrien at all. He calms down enough to start breathing regularly. Even though his eyes are still watery, he looks up at Marinette with a tentative smile. Marinette looks back at him with such pure, unadulterated love, that Damian blinks slowly to make sure he’s not seeing things. There aren’t many people who show emotions that don’t have some hidden barb underneath, or an undercurrent of a different emotion alongside it.

Then, Marinette sends a calculating look at Damian, and a briefer one at Lila and Adrien.

“Lila, can I talk to you in private for a moment?” Although Marinette’s tone keeps to a pleasant range, Damian finds it rather familiar. Like when Alfred pulls him or one of his brothers to the side to politely tell them what they’re doing wrong and how to remedy it. But there’s a bit of genuine ferocity in Marinette’s tone, and the Italian girl steps back.

“Adrien, I’m going to leave you here with Damian just for a second, okay? I’ll be right back, and if you need me for anything, just call.” She gives Damian a look that says if you hurt this boy, I will end you and heads off with Lila.

“Damian,” Adrien says. He’s trying to come off as calm and cheery. He misses the mark terribly. Somehow, Damian gets the feeling that the boy isn’t very good at bottling up his emotions, odd, considering that he’s grown up partially in the limelight. “I see you’re well acquainted with our everyday Ladybug. She really is amazing.”

There’s a touch of awe, and it makes Damian uncomfortable for no good reason.

He’s not sure how to deal with people who look like they’re about to cry. Damian doesn’t have to deal with that. Dick’s in charge of any emotional clean up that’s necessary in the public; Alfred helps his family manage their emotions in the manor. He decides that going with the flow is the best option in this situation. An everyday Ladybug. What an interesting piece of terminology.

“She is.” Damian admits, “We’re not currently on the best of terms.”

Damian will be surprised if Marinette even manages to civilly work with him for the rest of the week. He wasn’t expecting their subsequent interactions after last night to be the same as they were prior to her finding out that he was Robin and thinking that she was Hawkmoth, but he thought she would just interact coolly with him. Not this silent treatment. She refuses to talk to him and only looks at him with some combination of disdain and ill intent.

He can’t manage to give her the same treatment, both because he is on a mission and because he can’t fault her for thinking that he was Hawkmoth. The situation is really, rather comical, but he spent enough time ruminating on his actions the previous night to pick up on all of the red flags that made her come to that conclusion, and even is she was a hero for a short period of time, he can’t expect someone who is, by and large, a civilian to have the same investigative capabilities his family does. If anything, he is ashamed of himself for jumping to the conclusion that she was Hawkmoth, when instead, it turned out she is working for Ladybug.

However, the Marinette he’s seen so far doesn’t seem the type to hold grudges, especially not when it comes to any pressing issue, and he finds that all of the decisions she makes are heavily logic-based and influenced by Sabine’s values, who is definitely an upright woman if he’s ever seen one. Marinette has too strong of a work ethic to actually ignore Damian when it comes down to it, but he has to wonder why she acted so blatantly hostile to him. Her character combined with her actions just don’t match up, which means there's another reason why she’s acting this way.

While Damian excels at extracting raw data and testimonies from people due to brute force, and is decent enough at getting people to do what he desires, determining the source of a person’s frustration, what drives a person-- he needs more work with that. He’s much better at getting people mad. And Damian doesn’t think he’s seen Marinette mad at anyone except for Celia DeVries. She has nerves made of steel and patience carved from diamond.

“I hope you figure it out.” Adrien says with such sincerity that it’s frightening. He’s surprisingly pure-hearted for a model entrenched in a mega corporation like Gabriel. The entertainment industry, particularly the fashion side of business, is a very cut throat world. Adrien doesn’t seem like a person who’s been in the public eyes for years. “Please be a better friend to her than I am. I really wanted to do more for her, but my hands are... tied.”

Lila is subdued when she and Marinette return. Her eyes dart to Adrien, and she frowns and bites her bottom lip. Then she looks away and crosses her arms.

“Let’s get back to class. I’m excited to go to the photoshoot after school! I haven’t spent any time with you in so long, Adrien.” Marinette doesn’t sound like she’s faking it. She sounds so genuinely happy, and Damian wonders if he can make her sound like that again. If he ever made her sound like that.

Adrien looks at Marinette, then asks Damian, “Would you like to come too?”

The look that Adrien gives him tells him to say yes, even though he can feel the cold that radiates off Marinette. Damian agrees; it’s time to try Barbara’s suggestion and apologize, and since he doubts that he’ll get a word in edgewise when they’re working together at night, he has to try apologizing sooner.

The rest of the school day slips by in a blur.

Then, the four of them are out on the streets, and Damian finds their combination unnerving, to say the least. He’s still on bad terms with Marinette, and Marinette has never been on the best terms with Lila. She’s going to this shoot solely for the opportunity to be with Adrien, and something about that unsettles Damian. Still, regardless of how Damian feels, the photographer on the set of Adrien and Lila’s shoot loves all four of them.

“Fantastico! Adrien’s friends are rare finds. It’s true about what they say; beautiful people, they associate with beautiful people.” The photographer flits around Damian and Marinette, getting uncomfortably close. Damian shoots him a glare, but the photographer simply takes it in stride.

“Yes, yes, the most beautiful eyes, so passionate. The perfect measurements, too! Lara,” he calls to one of his assistants, “Get them all to makeup. These four are who I’ve been waiting for to fulfil my vision of envy. Gabriel will have to wait on his magazine spread. I’ve been inspired!” The photographer circles the four of them, like a hunter and his prey.

Out of nowhere, the photographer grasps Marinette’s chin, and despite the initial flinch she gives-- he’s not sure whether she was going to kick or punch him, but the sudden spitfire in her eyes said she was going to do something-- she settles into a locked jaw and curled fingers. Damian sees a slight jump from Adrien as well, which seems unusual; on the way over, he talked about how he worked with this photographer before and was very comfortable with him. He regaled them with funny stories of how he tended to reference spaghetti in shoots that were less pleasant to make the models laugh.

“Ah, Adrien, you have truly delivered the favor of Fortuna upon me. I cannot believe I never saw this earlier. You have brought this girl to shoots before, have you not? I never forget a beautiful face, even when I am focused on other things.”

Marinette calmly displaces Vincent’s hand from her face. “Thank you for the kind words, Monsieur, but I think it best that we just watch the originally planned shoot. I am no model and have no interest in being one.”

Vincent gives Marinette a once over, like he’s not used to people disagreeing with whatever vision he has for the day. “From one artist to the next-- this project is important to me. I’ve had the idea for years, but have yet to come across the perfect models to portray it. What will it take to convince you? ”

At this, nearly all the tension that Marinette has coiled up in her shoulders dissipates. Vincent has said the right thing. “I see. Really, Vincent, I think it’s best that you continue with the Gabriel shoot. M. Agreste wouldn’t be happy if he found out that his spread was delayed.”

“But the Muse, Mademoiselle! She runs away so quickly. And the four of you are perfect.” Vincent turns to the other three.

“Surely, you understand. Mlle. Rossi, M. Agreste, you must have felt an urge to do something so strongly that it pulls you in. And you,” he looks more closely at Damian. “You are an artist as well, aren’t you Monsieur? I can tell. It’s in the hands and eyes. Art, she comes, but she is fickle. If I don’t do this now, it will be gone forever. And the pursuit of true art means more than any Gabriel spread.”

Surprisingly, it is Adrien who responds first. “I might not understand art, Vincent, but I know what you’re talking about. The feeling of wanting to do something badly, to set yourself free…”

He twists his ring. Marinette looks at him sadly again, hands twitching like she wants to hold him to provide comfort.

“Besides, I don’t really want to do a Gabriel spread today. I haven’t spent time with friends in a long time, and I don’t think anything could make me happier than doing a photoshoot with you three right now.”

This makes Lila look at Adrien in a curious sort of way. Not the sad look that Marinette is giving him, but one of a slowly dawning realization. When Adrien references her as a friend, she looks happy. Proud, almost. Then, she looks like she’s connecting dots in her head, and she doesn’t look happy with the conclusion that she’s drawn. As soon as the frown touches her lips, Lila shifts back to an impeccably crafted mask.

Damian doesn’t agree with the sentiment that they are friends. He has barely had a full conversation with the blond, though he will admit that Adrien does have more of a brain than the rest of his classmates. He looks at the ill-concealed shadows beneath Adrien’s eyes and sees Tim.

Lila agrees almost immediately after Adrien finishes speaking. “Inspiration is fleeting. Art waits for no one.”

Marinette purses her lips. She asks Vincent, “You won’t get in any trouble for this?”

“I can handle any backlash Gabriel throws at me. Heaven knows that man has pissed off one too many photographers before.”

“You can, but what about everybody else involved?” She looks at Adrien, specifically. He fidgets with his ring again, and sends Marinette a look so pleading that she sighs. “Fine. I don’t mind doing the shoot.”

“Fantastico!” He turns his gaze to Damian.

“I’ll do it.” He’s never been particularly fond of photographers, given that the invasiveness of the media has led his family to various unpleasant situations, but Cass went through a photography phase, and out of all of his ‘sibling’ relationships, he is the most willing to indulge her.

“Will you tell us what the subject of the shoot is?” Marinette has inched closer to Adrien. Adrien pauses, stops fidgeting with his ring, and looks at Marinette. A world weary smile creeps onto his face, and his hand reaches out for Marinette’s like he wasn’t expecting himself to do that. He looks surprised when he finds his hand in hers, tenses for a moment. But Marinette doesn’t say anything, and rubs soothing circles on the back of his hand with her thumb. This seems to relax him more than fidgeting with his ring. He sags, and Damian can’t bring himself to feel anything but pity for Adrien. Lila looks curious, but not jealous.

Vincent surveys the four of them again, a growing smile on his face. “No, I think the four of you are already perfetto. A little direction here and there, but yes, yes, this is very good.”

“Lara, bring them to makeup. You know what to do. I must set up! Don’t call Gabriel; we will most likely be taking this to a second location at sunset.” Then, Vincent is off, muttering something in Italian under his breath.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to do this shoot,” Adrien rambles as soon as they get into makeup. “Vincent is such a great photographer and he’s taken really good care of me over the years. He’ll take good care of all of you as well.”

He continues, a little softer. “I really wanted to spend time with the three of you, together. I--I think it would be really nice if we could all be friends.”

Damian has his eyes closed because eyeshadow is being applied, but he can practically feel the surprise rolling off Marinette.

“Adrien, we are friends already.”

“We are, but we’re not really close. The only person I talked to often was Nino, and recently, father has-- ” he breaks off, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, before speaking quickly in an attempt to speak up before losing his nerve. “But I don’t just mean friends with me, I mean the four of us. I want the four of us to be friends.”

The makeup artist who is working on Adrien shushes him, but Damian gets to open his eyes. Adrien is clearly nervous. He’s not shaking-- he is bred far too well for that-- but he has reverted back to fidgeting with his ring. He tries to bite his lip, but the makeup artist shakes her head and tuts.

The girls are both silent, and Adrien looks so nervous that he has to do something. He doesn’t think he’s interacted like this with anyone as nervous as Adrien before; his brothers were all big personalities, as were the Teen Titans. He may have come across nervous or anxious civilians as Robin, but those situations were more straight and cut, involving little to no talking. Damian decides to that a cross between how he interacts with Dick and how he interacts with the people he saves is the best bet for this situation, though his tone comes out more condescending than he planned.

“Why the four of us?” Damian can’t really see why Adrien has singled out the four of them. As far as he can tell, there’s no good blood between them. Adrien, Marinette, and Damian all harbor varying levels of dislike or discomfort towards Lila; Adrien, Lila, and Damian have all fucked over Marinette in various ways (or so he Damian assumes on Adrien’s part-- he is sure they would have been closer, otherwise); Lila, Marinette and Damian haven't talked to Adrien in any capacity that implies that they're more than mere acquaintances; Damian has done nothing that would put himself in the favor of the three.

Adrien fidgets even more, and the makeup artist smacks him and says that she doesn’t want to have to redo his eyeliner. “I think we all have a lot in common. And, I might not be good at showing it, but I like the three of you.”

Marinette makes some noise in disbelief and Lila narrows her eyes.

“Hear me out on this, guys. All of us try to help people when we can,”

“That’s basic human decency, Adrien,” Marinette says.

“Me, helping people?” Lila scoffs.

“We help people out more than most people do-- and Lila, you really do help people. Sure, you might not have been telling the truth about all of the celebrities or all of the charities you worked with, but you’ve helped a lot of charities throughout the years.”

Damian quirks an eyebrow. “And me?”

“I’ve heard about Silverstein and Company.” Adrien says, then continues on with his list of Reasons Why They Should Be Friends.

“None of us like telling people about our problems.”

This is met with no resistance.

“And we’re also all lonely.”

Silence.

Marinette’s makeup artist breaks up the oppressive silence, “And all good looking to boot!”

“It’s true what they say about the most beautiful,” Lila’s makeup artist says, “They’re always so troubled.”

Marinette laughs, but it’s strained. “Don’t worry Mademoiselle. We’re just being teens.”

“Loneliness isn’t a good reason to form relationships.” Lila says. Her voice is quiet. She looks off to some fixed point in the distance.

“It’s not the worst reason there ever was,” Adrien shrugs, satisfied now that he’s said his piece. His shoulders are back a little more now. Whatever happens next is up to them, not him. “And I like all of you. I think we all have very unique personalities that could work well together.”

Marinette shrugs her shoulders. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about relationships, it’s that initial compatibility means very little in the grand scheme of things. Relationships can work as long as you work for them. They might not be the fairy tale storyline that people chase after, but relationships that are worked on last longer. Adrien could be right. We might be able to all be good friends.”

Lila fixes Marinette with a stare. “You’re willing to be my friend? After what I did to you?”

Marinette shouldn’t be willing to be friends with Lila after what she did. In fact, after reading multiple books on healthy relationships when trying to cope with Chloe way back when, she shouldn’t be willing to be friends with any of them. It feels fucked up, but Marinette realizes that Damian, who believed she was a super villain, has the least strikes against a healthy relationship currently.

Even though Marinette knows that circumstance doesn’t excuse any of them-- Marinette doesn’t excuse her stalkerish tendencies back when she first met Adrien, either-- she knows that the three of them are just teens who have too many responsibilities and problems on their shoulders. They’re capable of change, and as both Ladybug and Marinette, she wants to believe that someone’s past actions doesn’t mean they can’t move forward. Perhaps their current actions should be taken with a healthy dose of cynicism, and perhaps their past colors how much Marinette will be able to trust them in certain areas, but throughout her years of existence she’s seen that there is no person who has only done good in their life.

“You’ve been better lately. I respect someone who changes themselves for the better.” What Marinette doesn’t say; she’s mostly willing to try this tentative friendship out for Adrien’s sake, because Lila seems to be the only one who can get Gabriel Agreste on her side and Marinette needs her help if she and Adrien’s trust if she can ever dream of emancipating Adrien.

Marinette is also confident that Lila is currently coming into her own, and knows that Lila didn’t have any good example to model herself after during her formative years. The fact that she’s changing now? It’s honestly pretty impressive, and even more so considering the people that are in Mme. Bustier’s class aren’t exactly cut from the most inspirational cloth. Why Lila is trying to change is something Marinette is curious about, but they’re definitely not close enough for Marinette to ask Lila that. There is also the very important fact that Lila has not been akumatized this entire year, nor has she gone out of her way to encourage someone else’s akumatization.

A small smile settles on Lila’s face. “Thank you. For what it’s worth, I am … sorry for what I did to you back then.”

Marinette hums with her eyes closed as a light layer of shadows placed on her crease. “I accept your apology. While we’re on this topic, I’d like to apologize to Adrien. I’m sorry that I haven’t been a very good friend to you. You’re an amazing person, and I want you to know that. Your self-worth should never be degraded by other people, and I really hope that you can come to rely on me.”

A watery, affectionate smile from Adrien. “Marinette, you’ve always been one of my best friends.”

“I regret what I said to you yesterday,” Damian cannot muster an apology-- he does not apologize, certainly not for doing his job, but Marinette is… useful. He needs her to accomplish her mission, and she’s kind.

There is no verbal response from Marinette, but she’s looking at him, at least. She hasn’t looked at him all day besides the one glare she gave him that told him to take care of Adrien.

Lila looks between the two of them. “What are you sorry for? I was under the impression that the two of you were great friends.”

He is sorry, if only slightly, but it takes a lot for him to get an apology. If anything, Marinette should be apologizing to him, for mistaking him as Hawkmoth, right? “Last night was--”

Marinette cuts him off with a sharp laugh. “Damian here thought I was Hawkmoth.”

Adrien bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, you thought Marinette was Hawkmoth? Out of all the Parisians you could choose! You know she goes around the city saving random people, right? She’s our everyday Ladybug. Doesn’t sound very supervillainy to me.”

Lila laughs too, and the tension in the preparation room finally breaks. “Please, if Marinette were Hawkmoth, she would have gotten Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous already. Have you seen what a planner she is?”

This gets Adrien to fake shudder. “It’s true. If Marinette really were Hawkmoth, she’d be so powerful. She knows everybody’s deepest fears, can kick ass and take names, and can come up with the weirdest plans that solve everybody’s problems in an instant. Imagine if she went to the dark side.”

“She would make an awful akuma.” Lila agrees. “How powerful you are as an akuma is linked to how strong you are mentally and how strong your emotions are when the butterfly lands on you. Whatever makes Marinette upset enough to have an akuma after her would probably be the result of some very strong emotions.”

“She’d be strong enough to level the entire city.”

Marinette is bright red, and if it were not for the fact that mascara is being applied to her lashes, she’d probably have her face buried in her hands. “Okay, okay, I would be an awful akuma. But I won’t ever be akumatized, so it’s fine.”

Adrien thinks of Marinette being an akuma more, and his face goes pale. “She really would be able to steal Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses successfully.”

“No, she’s too morally righteous to do that. She’d probably go after Hawkmoth and win while she was akumatized.” Lila looks pensive. “All akumas retain most of their original personality traits, just exaggerated. Some even have some semblance of control over their actions.”

“If that wouldn’t be one of Anime’s top 10 betrayals, I don’t know what is. Hawkmoth akumatizes Marinette and then she rightfully kicks his ass.”

“Guys,” Marinette hisses. “I won’t ever become an akuma. Never.”

“You say that like you can refuse Hawkmoth,” Lila laughs. “You can certainly go after akumas, but refuse them? No way.”

Adrien zeroes in on Marinette’s hesitance. “Have you?”

Marinette shifts in her seat, her mouth set into a grim line.

“You have,” Adrien says with a touch of awe. Damian is impressed too; no reports of people being able to refuse an akuma have passed through the many hours of research he’s spent scouring the internet. He understands why Ladybug put so much trust in Marinette. “When?”

This sets Marinette on edge. Her back straightens into a board.

Lila picks at her fingernails in shame. “Did I?”

Marinette doesn’t respond, but the tremble of her mouth and her silence answers the question well enough.

Damian doubts he’ll ever get the full story of what happened that first year when Lila arrived. Marinette isn’t one to snitch, and Lila is both unwilling and tentatively ashamed of the past. Adrien won’t answer out of courtesy. Damian will never go to any of the other classmates to hear a bastardized version of what went down. He supposes he’ll never find out the whole truth.

Marinette’s stylist claps her hand. “Okay, enough teenage angst for today. All of your makeup is done, so it’s time to get into your outfits. Let’s go, kids.”

They’re silent as they dress.

The shoot is a flurry of excitement. There are many whispered conversations, but Marinette can’t keep track of half of them. Whenever she isn’t in a shot-- which is fairly rare as she seems to be the main subject of whatever Vincent is shooting for-- Marinette focuses on what needs to happen next. Though she’s still not currently the biggest fan of Damian or the Justice League, she will give them a fair chance, because as much as she hates to admit it, she needs the help. Batman is right. Even though she wasn’t actively working on the case for the first year, she still had plenty of time to gather evidence to back up her main suspects. Her lack of expertise in technology hinders progress greatly.

Not to mention that because Marinette was so wary about hurting Adrien and so swamped trying to keep a balanced schedule, she wasn’t able to find enough evidence to feel safe in her convictions. Master Fu warned her of incorrectly accusing Gabriel in the eye of the public, and he hasn’t come out to fight since the Scarlet Moth incident. She’s tried to investigate Gabriel in his own house, but any evidence slips through her fingers. He’s a very careful man.

Now that the promise of college is coming up, Marinette needs to take Hawkmoth down. Marinette doesn’t want to continue her schooling in France. Not anymore. She wants to go to a foreign college, where dreams of akumas won’t plague her at every step. Half the reason she finds herself on the streets as a civilian constantly is to erase the gory imagery of death and blood that linger in her mind eye from akuma battles. Seeing happy and alive citizens in all of the areas where Hawkmoth attacked make her feel better, but aren’t enough to chase away her nightmares entirely.

Marinette moves through the rest of the photoshoot in a haze. When she is in shot, she focuses on whoever she’s shooting with. Lila, with sharp green eyes, barely begins to lower her guard when Marinette directs the conversation towards past modelling shoots she’s been involved with. They interact unnaturally at first, but after starting to talk about Dior’s Spring/Summer ready to wear line, they find that they have similar tastes in silhouettes, though not in color.

She forces herself to ignore the fiasco that was last night, and talks to Damian about small nothings that don’t touch on anything important. When she runs out of topics, she begins to talk about Renee, and his gaze shifts to something resembling regret and some other emotion she can’t read. Dealing with whatever issues Damian has is not ideal. He’ll have to sort out his feelings on his own.

Adrien’s expressions are the easiest to read. Whenever he’s in a shot with Marinette, he is happy, plain and simple. There is less weight on his shoulders, and as Marinette attempts to cheer him up with poorly thought out puns, he looks like a kid again. He even starts punning back, and Marinette can’t believe how much she missed that. Chat Noir stopped punning a while ago, and it hurt in unexpected ways.

Really, Marinette just wants Adrien to be happy. Adrien is Chat Noir. Her best friend. Her partner. Marinette thinks Adrien deserves the world. She wants to pave a path for him so that his entrance into the adult world is easier, because the facade Gabriel has built of a picture perfect family attempting to cope with the loss of a mother and wife isn’t what Adrien needs.

Maybe Marinette wants him to have the childhood he wasn’t afforded. Marinette clings to warm memories of her own childhood, where Maman trained her in self defense and Papa taught her how to bake when things get particularly hard nowadays. Her heart warms when she sees Adrien give shy smiles to Damian and Lila. She’s proud when he strikes up conversations with them.

In all honesty, the only part of the shoot Marinette remembers is the last section of group photos they take when they move to a second location. It’s a cold day in Spring, which means Parisian tourists are more likely to be found inside an art museum, rather than on the beach. Adrien convinces them all that they should run around the beach, and somehow, they end up playing some extremely difficult version of capture the flag, but without the flags.

Somehow, Marinette ends up on a team of her own, for the sole reason that she’s the only one wearing white, and the person who holds the opposing team’s flag is Damian. She tackles him onto the sand, but not before both Lila and Adrien are hot on her tail. They end up in a pile, and Adrien’s laughter rings so sweet and true, that Marinette’s heart fills with love. She shifts, so her body is facing skywards instead of into Damian’s arm, and she reaches one arm across Damian’s body to grab Lila’s hand, who flinches at first touch, but relaxes. Marinette’s other hand finds itself tangled in Adrien’s hair, and despite the cold weather, Marinette is content.

She looks towards the horizon, where the sun is setting in a million different colors, and finds herself longing for a time where every day can be just like this moment.Where there is nothing filling her head except thoughts of the people who make her happy. Her eyes shift straight up.

Where morning fades into night, the sky is so very, very, blue.

Marinette’s room turns into an organized warzone at night.

The area of her room that was previously used to hold up various sketches and mood boards for designs in progress turns out not to be an upholstered wall, but a curtain that hides two whiteboards and a small library of books on the psychology of emotional manipulation, manuals of martial arts, and various books on strategy. The shelf above her desk space holds a projector that Marinette uses to project images from her computer onto the left white board.

“I’ll catch you up on my previous attempts and what you have to know in order for this partnership to work.” She takes her tablet out, flips through several screens, then uses her fingerprint to unlock a folder of notes. “This is a chronological list of things that Ladybug and I have attempted in order to find Hawkmoth’s location. There is a separate folder with suspects for identity that’s alphabetized. If you’re interested in more in depth analyses of past akumas, I can send that to you and your team’s emails now, as most of the information is readily available online. I’m assuming that you have a team, correct?”

“Yes, I can send their email addresses to your number.”

“No, for any information regarding Hawkmoth or superheroes in Paris, you can contact me through this number and email address. Ladybug and I both check it regularly; it’s a safer, more encrypted way of communication.” Marinettte taps her Miraculous communicator and connects it to her computer, so she can work on a bigger screen. “Which person is your main point of contact?”

“Oracle.”

Marinette contacts Oracle through video call. She doesn’t want to have to explain everything twice even if their partnership turns out to be nonviable. It takes a few moments to get through, but a woman’s face pops up on the screen. She’s a redhead and doesn’t wear a mask. Her coloring is obviously different from the rest of Batman’s affiliates, and despite her initial grievances with the white films over the vigilante’s eyes, she understand why it’s necessary; their suits aren’t magic, and there’s nothing stopping people from running facial recognition software and matching them up to people who reside in Gotham.

“How did you get this number?” Oracle asks warily.

Marinette moves her chair slightly so that Oracle can see Damian, who's currently looking at her tablet on her chaise. “I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, your point of contact in Paris and the one who will be working with you for the next week. As you can see, Damian’s already viewing some information that Ladybug and I have compiled over the years. Please get the rest of your team on this call. I’d like to get all of the basic information out of the way now.”

“Damian?” The girl on her screen is a dead ringer for the girl they compiled multiple files on yesterday, but she can’t get a trace on where they’re calling from, which makes her suspicious.

Damian shoots her a text, confirming that it is actually him in the room, then goes back to scrolling through the tablet.

Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Batman all appear on the screen shortly.

“Great, the gang's all here,” Marinette says unenthusiastically. “I’ll say it one more time. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I will be your primary point of contact during your two weeks trial period here in Paris. I’m assuming that your team has been brought up on the events that occurred last night. In order for this attempted partnership to go more smoothly, I will provide you lists of suspects, past attempts at revealing Hawkmoth’s location, and more detailed information about all of the past akumas that have appeared. These files will only be available to you for the week unless the collaboration goes successfully. Damian has already given me your contact information.”

As an afterthought, Marinette adds, “Don’t bother trying to copy any of the files. You won’t be able to. You also won’t be able to pick up on my location through this video call; I’m using a Miraculous Communicator. The magic makes it so that any technology other than another Miraculous will be unable to find any identifying location.”

Marinette knows about this thanks to Max’s brief stint as Pegasus. Though Marinette had not yet learned spells that would allow her to materialize her communicator outside of the time that she was suited up, she had Max try to find Ladybug’s location after sending him a text. He and Markov were both unable to.

“Since the Justice League insists on sticking their nose where it does not belong,” Marinette can’t help but be bitter about this whole situation, despite the fact that her frustration with Damian has decreased. “Ladybug and I have created a plan to make full use of your resources while you’re still butting in. I’ve sent a list of which organizations need monetary support. Most are affiliated with mental health.”

“Let’s move onto how you guys as a team can help us. As far as I understand, Batman’s team is proficient in technology and investigation. For the past two years that we’ve actively been on the case, nobody has had those skill sets and been in the long term possession of a Miraculous. The police attempted investigation for the first year, but their evidence and information was largely unhelpful. I will give Damian the Miraculous Communicator that I am in possession of to use his skills with so long as he tells me what he’s doing with it and he uses it while I’m in his immediate vicinity. He can try to find out Hawkmoth’s location on it, perhaps with a greater degree of success that we have been able to.”

She goes through the checklist she made one more time, just to make sure that she didn’t miss anything. She doesn’t really expect anything much to come out of this collaboration, except for the reassurance that the Justice League won’t interfere at the end of the week. Speaking of: “One more thing. I want a notarized agreement that the Justice League will not interfere in Paris, nor will any of their agents of affiliates be sent here if this collaboration doesn’t yield information that is already known.”

“Got a lotta spark in you, don’t you, little mouse?” The vigilante called Red Hood-- the one with a helmet instead of a stupid domino mask-- laughs.

Marinette scowls. So far, the Justice League-- particularly the vigilantes of Gotham-- have not left her with a stunning first impression. Maybe she’s a little biased, but they certainly don’t seem to have any respect for her. Still, she only has to work with them for two weeks. “My name is Marinette, but clearly your helmet hasn’t shielded you from the memory loss that frequent concussions have clearly given you.”

“She got you there, dumb ass,” says Red Robin, a grin a mile wide on his face.

“Hood,” sighs Oracle, sounding highly stressed. Marinette decides that she is the most likeable. “Like I said earlier, we want to be on good terms with Marinette.”

“I’ll get you the documents and funds by tomorrow.” Batman’s voice is just as gravelly as the first time she contacted him. She finds that the more she hears him speak, the more pleasant she finds his voice. An acquired taste. “Even if this week is unsuccessful, the Justice League will be more than happy to continue to fund these organizations. Is there anything that Ladybug, Chat Noir, or you need personally?”

“None of us are going to use the Justice League’s funds for personal gain, Batman.” The accusations grates on her.

“Batman means,” Nightwing shoots a look to the side of his screen. Interesting, Marinette thinks. All of Gotham’s vigilantes are in one location, judging by their backgrounds and the location tags that her communicator provides her. Perhaps they have a headquarters of some sort. Back when there were extra heroes on the Miraculous team, Marinette sometimes wished that they had a location that they could all reliably gather at without revealing someone’s identity. It certainly would have made strategy easier. “That being a hero without any support is difficult. It must have taken a toll on your personal lives. If we can aid in any way, we will. We can excuse absences or hire tutors as necessary.”

“I’m no hero.” But Nightwing’s proposal may actually be helpful. Even though Marinette is making the grades necessary to go to the colleges that she wants, her continual absence and tardies aren’t very flattering.

Then her mind flashes to Adrien. Can she use this offer to get him out from underneath Gabriel’s thumb? Marinette doesn’t know if she can do that. He’s already in a delicate position-- and already at risk, thanks to the photoshoot earlier today-- and she’s not sure that Gabriel won’t move towards drastic measures if anything changes on Adrien’s end. If she wants to get him away from Gabriel, she may have to reveal his secret identity.

“Ladybug will make the decision for herself; she has access to everything that is said during our meetings. Chat Noir isn’t in the loop about our communications or any of the investigations that Ladybug and I have done. Ladybug says that he’s stressed in his civilian life, which is why his appearances have been decreasing,” Marinette admits. “I’ll leave it up to Ladybug to give your offer to Chat Noir. If I can get a reliable excuse to get out of class or get to class late, that would be greatly appreciated.”

“Chat Noir doesn’t know?” Red Robin sounds horrified.

“He’s currently a high risk for being akumatized. Ladybug didn’t want to risk it.”

Red Hood crosses his arms. “So you have more of a job than Chat Noir does in all of these Paris heroics, huh?”

Even if Chat Noir did know, Marinette would have her hand in the pie at least twice as much as him.

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m just more available than he is.”

“And more trusted than he is,” Red Hood insists.

It’s not that Ladybug trusts Marinette more than she trusts Chat Noir, it’s that Ladybug is Marinette. But she’s not going to admit that. Not to them, and certainly not until Hawkmoth is taken down. Maybe not even then. She can only imagine the looks of devastation that she’ll get if she does admit that she’s been Ladybug all these years. Her parents will freak out, Adrien will probably feel heart broken and betrayed, and Alya and the rest of her classmates will inevitably rail on either her or Lila or both of them. It just doesn’t sound appealing to her anymore, though she can certainly remember a time not so long ago where she so desperately wanted to expose her identity.

“You’d have to ask Ladybug that,” Marinette settles on. She copies and pastes one of the many messages that she has pre drafted and schedules it to send a few minutes later, so Batman’s team receives a communication from Ladybug while Marinette is at the white board. She spent all of last night preparing for this meeting, imagining so many scenarios that she barely slept. The email she’s sending will suggest what Damian should attempt to do with the Miraculous communicator that Marinette has. She adds in an extra comment that she trusts Chat Noir with her life, and that she’ll talk to him about offering him help in his civilian life, but won’t mention anything about the Justice League.

“Why doesn’t Ladybug just use her own communicator to join in on these calls?” Red Robin asks after receiving her email.

Marinette turns from the white board, where she is listing the past three akuma attacks and where her top three suspects were at each of the times. “There may be magic surrounding her identity, but that doesn’t mean Ladybug wants more time for all of you to try to figure out her identity.”

“Sounds irresponsible of her,” says Red Hood. “Leaving a civilian to do all of the dirty work. Who are those people you have listed on the board?”

Marinette decides to let the comment about Ladybug slide. Red Hood is currently her least favorite out of all of Gotham’s vigilantes, but she has to remind herself that respect is mutual, and Ladybug hasn’t really given them much to go on.

“The top three suspects for Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste, the CEO and head designer of Gabriel. Nathalie Sancouer, Gabriel Agreste’s personal assistant of over twenty years. Mikael Bordeaux, CFO of Silverstein and Company's French holdings.”

Oracle takes off her glasses and wipes them. “Sounds like your top candidates are all people in pretty high positions.”

“Agreste,” repeats Nightwing. “Agreste, as in Adrien Agreste? The boy that’s in Damian’s class?”

“The same,” Marinette says, not sure she likes where he’s taking this conversation.

“Hold up,” Red Robin says after a few moments. “Why is it that Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancouer are on your list? Both Gabriel and Nathalie have been akumatized before. That should automatically take them out of the running.”

Marinette shakes her head. “That’s what I thought in the beginning, while the police were still in charge of the case. But based on my understanding of akumas, it’s very possible that Hawkmoth can transform, send out an akuma, then detransform and let themself be akumatized.”

The whole Collector incident was a deliberate ploy to throw her off. She spent at least half a year convinced that Gabriel and Hawkmoth couldn’t possibly be one in the same, despite the fact that he had the Miraculous Tome.

“What about Adrien, then? He’s the only one in your class that hasn’t been akumatized, sans yourselves, he hangs out with the people most likely to cause and become akumas, and has caused a fair number of akumas himself. Besides, he must know it if his dad’s Hawkmoth, which means he could be Mayura or even Hawkmoth himself.” Even if Red Robin presented her this theory before Marinette knew Adrien was Chat Noir, she wouldn’t have believed it.

“Adrien is not Hawkmoth.” Marinette isn’t sure how to explain how she knows without revealing his alter ego. She can’t tell them that he wielded the snake Miraculous either, because that contradicts her earlier statement that she didn’t know any of the other holders.

“Demon Spawn,” Red Hood says. “What do you think about Adrien? You’ve been in a class with him for the past month.”

Damian finally looks up from Marinette’s tablet, blinking to bring himself back into the situation at hand. “What?”

Marinette scoffs, remembering that he thought that she was Hawkmoth. She’s not upset about it, but she doesn’t trust his ability to discern alter egos-- at least not magical alter egos. “I wouldn’t trust Damian’s ability to read people as reliable evidence to tell whether someone is Hawkmoth or not.

This causes a myriad of reactions from Batman’s team and most of them are surprisingly loud. Red Hood whoops, “Roasted,” while Red Robin laughs and pounds the desk in front of them. Oracle smiles wide, her eyes crinkling. Even Batman manages to draw a smile to his face.

This makes Damian put down her tablet on the chaise and flush slightly. “I said I was sorry for that.”

Marinette thinks about brushing him off in annoyance but decides against it. Just based on the evidence that he gathered, it wasn't an awful assumption, and the Miraculous magic probably prevented him from even thinking about the possibility that she could be Ladybug, leading him to the next most possible conclusion. “It’s fine.”

In fact, even if Marinette can’t trust Batman and his affiliates with Chat Noir’s civilian identity, she should still try to maneuver Adrien away from his current situation. She can call it in as a personal favor to Marinette, and as long as they have human decency, they should agree to her request. She’s been gathering receipts that detail Gabriel’s systemic abuse of Adrien for years. This is a good opportunity to begin Adrien’s emancipation process. She’s currently on her way to a better friendship with Adrien, and since Batman insists the Justice League has all the resources that she wants, there’s no reason not to take advantage of them. She turns back to the camera.

“Adrien is not Hawkmoth and wouldn’t know whether his father or personal assistant are. In fact, it would be preferable to remove Adrien from Gabriel’s care; Adrien is in danger of being akumatized because of how awfully Gabriel treats him, and I have the evidence necessary to take him to court. I just need a legal team that’s good enough to go against a billion dollar company.” And time to convince Adrien that he needs to leave. That may be a more difficult task, considering the unending love and forgiveness he’s displayed for matters concerning his father so far. Honestly, sometimes Marinette thinks that he never learned how to hold a grudge.

“Noted. Let’s come back to that later, though. I want to talk about some other suspects you have on this list you gave us.” Oracle readjusts her headpiece and shoots a glare over her shoulder, presumably to tell the rest of her team to quiet down and get back on task. They certainly have an interesting team dynamic. They’re much warmer to each other than Marinette first expected them to be. They’re certainly closer than she and the Miraculous Team had been, when there still was a team, at least.

Oracle shares her screen. On it is a picture of Andre Bourgeois. “If Hawkmoth is able to be akumatized, then Mayor Bourgeois is one of our top suspects. The Justice League has compiled multiple lists of suspects before we sent Damian to Paris. He stopped a lot of international press for akuma attacks and has caused multiple akumas.”

Marinette frowns. Mayor Bourgeois being Hawkmoth crossed her mind a few times, but she always decided that he was largely incapable and had little motivation. “What are your criteria for deciding who might be Hawkmoth? I highly doubt Mayor Bourgeois is Hawkmoth, despite him stopping the press.”

“We determine how many akumas a person has caused, how much damage the akuma caused to the person’s primary residence and workplace, and how well they’re connected to the people being akumatized. Andre Bourgeois has been involved in the akumatization of slightly more than half of all the akumas that have occurred, so long as we include his relation to his daughter and wife and there has been extraordinary little damage done to the arrondissements that he frequents.”

“Interesting. Share the list with the contact information I sent you earlier. You share some of the same criteria as we have come up with, but you’re drawing the wrong information from what you have. Akumas caused is also one of our criteria, as well as the damage that has been done to the person’s residence. I don’t think that a person’s personal relations play much into who ends up being akumatized, however, there’s good reason to believe that Hawkmoth is in a position of power, or at least well connected. They seem to know what’s happening in the city before it ever hits the news.” Marinette opens a program on her computer, then turns on the projector to display a map with pins.

“We’ve been interested in the location of primary suspects at the time of akumatization; Ladybug believes that Hawkmoth’s Miraculous power is restricted to Paris. Which means that Hawkmoth needs to be in or close to Paris at the times of all akumas, which crossed Mayor Bourgeois of my list a while ago. He’s been absent for multiple akumas when he needed to go to conferences outside of Paris. The purple dots are Gabriel, the red ones are Nathalie, and the blue ones are Michael. You can see that they’ve all been in Paris every time an akuma occurred and within a ten mile radius of where the akuma was first spotted. That’s quite unusual, considering they’re all in high positions of companies that should typically have them travelling.”

There is also the little detail that Marinette found the Miraculous Tome in the hands of Gabriel Agreste, but Marinette doesn’t feel safe indulging them with that information yet. If she tells them, they will want to see pictures of the book.

“How haven’t you cracked this case wide open yet?” Red Robin looks at the screen appreciatively. It’s clear that Marinette spent a lot of time on this.

Marinette bristles. She may have a good amount of information, but her proficiency with technology leaves much to be desired. It took her an unnecessarily long time in order to get the map up and running. “Well, Red Robin, that might have something to do with the fact that neither Ladybug nor I knew anything about how to use technology in the way that was necessary to track him once the police handed over the case in the second year. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that falsely accusing someone as Hawkmoth could ruin their entire life.”

Master Fu warned her against direct actions against anyone on her suspect list. In fact, he outright forbade her from doing anything, and although she no longer takes his words at face value after the many bumps in their relationship, she’s not going to try to ruin any of these people without evidence. Especially not Gabriel, not when he’s Adrien’s father.

Red Robin frowns.

Marinette takes a deep breath. She’s too tense. She’s been taking every word that these vigilantes say as something they don’t actually mean. Marinette needs to relax. Jumping to conclusions helps no one.

Damian’s eyes are on her, and she’s sure he’s passing judgment. She needs to get out of this situation, get out of this headspace. It’s not productive or healthy.

“I think we should end this meeting now,” Damian says, and Marinette begrudgingly agrees with him. She knows this is his olive branch.

“You were the one who was upset at the lack of time,” Oracle points out. “We don’t have much time. We need every minute we can get.”

“Marinette has given us plenty of information to digest for one night. We’ll regroup tomorrow and start on coding the programs to determine Hawkmoth’s location.” Damian reaches over Marinette to end the call.

Obstinately, Marinette refuses to look him in the eyes. She’s been flip-flopping this entire day, and it’s not doing any great wonders for her mental health. Everything’s been coming to a head in these past few days, and it isn’t a good feeling. She can feel the pressure on her shoulders, the expectant gazes of all of Paris to do her duty and expose Hawkmoth, but she feels the weight of the inevitable backlash Adrien will face if her theories are true.

The past few days feel like three years compressed. People she’s never interacted with have inserted themselves into the fray, and the big leagues have pulled out all the stops. She just talked to Batman and his team. He’s been in the hero game for decades, and she’s in the room with his son, Robin.

Everything is just too much.

Marinette feels like she’s been a bad Ladybug. Like she hasn’t done enough to find concrete evidence of her primary suspects because she is afraid of what will happen after. She’s half surprised she hasn’t gone into hysterics yet, but then again, she’s gotten very good at holding herself together when everything around her falls apart. The added touch of an outsider makes the fragile balance she’s achieved teeter.

Damian takes her distressed appearance personally and heaves a sigh. “Look, I --I didn’t think that you were Hawkmoth all along, only for a day before everything went down. I don’t know what I wanted out of you, but your friendship was nice. I did genuinely want to be friends with you, and I still do.”

This makes Marinette feel even worse. She’s trying so hard to find fault with Damian-- which is surprisingly easy-- in order to distance herself. She can’t afford to get attached to someone who can hurt her and is likely to hurt her, because an akumatized Ladybug is the last thing Paris needs. But hearing him apologize so genuinely means that Marinette can’t summon up a negative response. She may not be able to say that she truly knows Damian, but she knows that he is a very prideful person. It can’t have been easy for him to apologize to her so openly. An acidic response rests on her tongue for a moment before she pushes it back.

“You were just trying to follow up on a lead. I shouldn't blame you.”

“But you do.”

He hit the nail on the head. Marinette grimaces, letting her eyes flick over Damian’s hunched shoulders and set jaw. She doesn’t blame him for thinking that she’s Hawkmoth, but she does blame him for getting the Justice League more involved, which makes exactly zero sense if she evaluates the situation logically. Her heart feels like Damian is the element of change; if he never arrived in Paris, Marinette would still have everything under a better semblance of control. It doesn’t matter that Batman said the JLA had been looking into Paris for half a year, and that even if Damian weren’t sent, there would have been someone else.

It’s fitting that in order to move forward, they must break down whatever security that Marinette has built into her life, because life is just cruel enough to mess her up like that. Right now, she’s a wreck mentally, emotionally, and even physically. Marinette can feel her throat closing up.

“It’s not your fault,” she offers. “And maybe if we get out of our current situation, we can try being friends again. But right now? I-- there’s just too much stress on me, right now.”

Damian understands this, but as he descends the steps of her ladder, Damian can’t help but wish that she felt otherwise.

Omake

“How is it that Mayor Bourgeois is not in your top three suspects for Hawkmoth? He’s stopped a lot of international press about the akuma for the first year!”

Marintte deadpans. “Honestly? The man is way too stupid to ever be Hawkmoth.”

“Haven’t we come to the conclusion that Hawkmoth is stupid though? He couldn’t steal jewelry from two untrained teenagers for years!”

Marinette decides not to take offense at that, and concedes. “Fine, maybe he should be on the list. I’d certainly akumatize Chloe and Audrey Bourgeois if I had to interact with them on a daily basis.”

_______________________________________________________

will these be regularly scheduled? absolutely not, even though i have the whole thing finished because i get the feeling that i am going to Change Things sooner or later (somebody please smack some sense into me everything in this story goes awfully very soon and the plot goes wonky and AHHHH)

#maribat #sbgs #miraculous ladybug #dc #daminette #original content #adrien agreste #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne

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lavenderek · 3 years

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hi, A/3 volunteer back again! i hope i can answer your questions properly, but i’m on mobile so sorry if i get a bit confused. it’s also going to be quite long but i hope you can figure out which questions i’m replying to. let me know if you need any more clarification!

1 - as tag wranglers, we don’t moderate content via deletion, etc - we just move fics into the correct tags, and it’s typically on a fandom basis (for example, i might solely wrangle for something like the supernatural fandom only). i’ve never come across ‘problematic’ tags since most of the time, it’s just sorting tags into like... more general tags? so example - someone tags a fic with ‘kinda fluffy kinda angsty’. we would then kind of make it so that tag redirects to ‘fluff with angst’, even though it still appears as the original tag on the fic. does that make sense? i’m also a little unsure of the other questions you had here - which is totally my fault, i’m in the middle of writing an essay for uni that needs to be in in like... 12 hours and my brain is frazzled - but if you were asking about a situation where if i was concerned that a single user had a collection of fics that were all entirely based upon something illegal and reported their entire account to mods, would it be deleted - i’m not sure. tag wranglers are kind of like low-level moderators, and we’re not what would typically be thought of as moderators since we simply reorganise content versus actually removing it. since the reporting process is typically through the site itself and is handled by an entirely separate team, i cant speak for how they think or what their process is.

2 - it’s up to our judgement as to if we want to report it, but again, the tags we wrangle are VERY general. tags like ‘dead dove don’t eat’ and stuff that are typically full of polarising content arent something i’ve come across, because i think they make up a minority of most fandoms when put against tags like ‘fluff’ and ‘angst’ and even stuff like ‘chocolate’, lmao. i’m not certain what happens when a report is processed and the fic is found to be removable - what i do know though is that with fics that are seen as breaking specific laws (i.e depictions of CSA, slander, etc) mods are often a lot more hard-handed for several reasons (reputation both within the community and in terms of the fact they could very much get in legal trouble). again though, i’m a low-level moderator and don’t see that side of the process. however, if i report something and it’s not taken down, i’m not implicated in any way. it’s been a while since i’ve been on the site and reported anything so i’m not entirely certain if reporting is 100% anonymous or if you have to supply details like email, but i think if you DO supply things, it’s to ensure you aren’t mass-reporting someone (bc i think that counts as targeted harassment). email is also possible to fake, so i think you can make the process anonymous if you want to. as for how often i personally report fic - not often. i’m a CSA victim (which is why this topic is touchy for me tbh), and i don’t like to go through the process because i find it arduous - you have to give an explanation as to why you’re reporting the fic, and i find it triggering at times. i’ve also never been in a position where i have found a fic while actively volunteering that i feel has been necessary to report, so i can’t speak for that either. all of that being said - i’ve heard of and seen on one occasion fics and entire accounts be deleted for harassment/slander - in particular, i’ve heard multiple times that accounts dedicated to purposely like... making fun of? or like technically harassing? kpop boy group members have been taken down because even though their content is ‘technically’ fanfiction, it’s obviously just there to incite hatred against a specific person. so, imo, if mods are quick on taking down accounts obviously run by 14 year olds in fandom drama writing numerous fics where boyband member A calls boyband member B stupid and tells him nobody likes him, i think they’re very likely just as serious about taking down more serious content. that’s just my opinion and my personal experience though, and it’s distinct from my volunteering.

overall, on the whole topic of CSA on the website - it’s really tough even just as a basic content moderator. there’s lots of reasons as to why people post it, and though people are very obviously welcome and encouraged to think critically about everything, it’s a fact that the topic is really really difficult to manoeuvre (culture, who is posting it, when was it posted, why it’s being posted aka vent fics, etc). as i said, i’m a CSA victim myself, so i understand the frustration, but it’s too nuanced and difficult a topic to be able to say ‘ban it all’. however, i do think the site is doing their best to crack down on stuff that is very obviously on there for one specific reason, and i also think generally, they’re changing things so people are able and sometimes encouraged to anonymise themselves by not giving any profile info and to protect themselves by turning off comments completely, etc. i find that you can make it really easy to curate your posting experience so that essentially, you can post but nobody can really interact.

3 - i like tag wrangling! i got into it because i saw a position on the front page of the site and decided to go for it. it wasn’t very taxing to get into and you don’t have to put much work in - a couple of hours a week is enough, and they’re understanding about work/uni/etc. it’s easy to meet other people through volunteering, and they ensure everyone is over 18. i don’t read through fic myself - just through tags, and then i sort them into their proper places. if something is tagged wrong, we don’t get in touch with the author, we just do our best to reorganise the tag so it redirects into the correct place - again, for instance, if someone writes a fantasy AU that they tag with ‘high fantasy prince/princess AU’ and that tag doesn’t exist, we would sort it into the main tag for a royalty AU or something like that. re: monetisation of fics: technically, monetised content is not allowed on A/3 - if someone is advertising their patreon or kofi in their authors notes or profile, you’re supposed to report it just as a general user. i think it’s because it puts the site at risk of being sued or something? but as a low level mod, i don’t HAVE to report these things unless i see them while i’m tag wrangling (aka i see a tag like ‘my patreon is XYZ!!!!! send me money!!!!!!’) and i personally don’t report monetised fics because ... i don’t find it a prominent issue, lmao. people are also learning to avoid it by being like this is my tumblr or this is my twitter, and when you click on their social media they link their patreon or whatever There instead. also, idk who decided the colour scheme! i think it was just like a generally agreed upon thing with the site designers. i also think there’s been convo for a few years about dark modes and stuff on the site, but i’m pretty sure the site has to get a few more things out of the way before they’ll prioritise that (i know they’re trying to work on a better moderating system for things like spam and harassment atm bc the spam filter absolutely sucks dick lol). i’ll totally drop a mention like WOW, wouldnt it be AMAZING if we could have this SPECIFIC COLOUR SCHEME, tho <3

thank you so much for responding!!! this is really cool to know, i've never even seen a post by an a*3 worker before so you're a total unicorn right now

heh uni-corn because you're in uni. sorry i'm tired too

good luck on your paper!

#haters #who is this even #long post

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wullu · 4 years

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I’m fairly certain I have said this before, but Imma say it once again.

One of the things that sets Flower of Evil apart from other dramas (in addition to exploring a romantic relationship thru the lense of serial killers and shadows of the past) is the way the drama is a culmination of many different stories and characters.

In most kdramas, other than the leads (and sometimes not even the female lead) the remaining cast of characters do not get to be fully fleshed out people. They are often the salad dressing. If you took them out, the story wouldn’t suffer for the lack of them. I mean, even second leads so often are characterized as one-note characters!

Flower of Evil subverts that by having everyone play an important role and fleshing them out as much as possible with the 16-episode format. Nobody here is salad dressing, tho I could do without Baek Hee Seong, but I suppose every garden of paradise has its serpent and in FOE it’s him and Yeom Sang Chul.

The plot is centered around Ji Won and Hyun Soo but so many other characters play a role in helping the story move forward. In short, I really love the focus this drama has on the little things. Stories are often made richer by focusing on the little things and allowing characters, be they lead or supporting, to be whole. My understanding of most of the main players in the plot and their fleshed out character profiles are under the cut. Please note, there will be spoilers!

I’m gonna list them out for clarity:

1. Jeong Mi Sook trying to prevent Hyun Soo from making an irreversible decision and trying to explain his side to Ji Won or even deciding, she’s the one who will break out of her cage. Hee Seong has been terrifying her from the start but she asked him to run, because he wasn’t worth being killed by Hyun Soo. He deserved to pay for his crimes instead.

2. Woo Chul deciding that his superiors need to only know this much and feeling terrified at what the new revelations imply for them, but even after he finds out, his priority is making sure his team members are safe. He may not always purchase coffee for everyone. But when push comes to shove, he’s shows what his priorities actually are. His team 😭

3. Eun Ha recognising the danger she is in and locking the door and only opening when her mom came. Eun Ha being a transparently affectionate child and when Hae Soo sees her photos and meets her, it’s like finding some lost vulnerable part of her self. Nothing like the unconditional acceptance of children that can undo you real quick.

4. The Baeks realising that in their quest to protect their son, they became people they never wanted to be. And that they were blinding themselves from the start. Mi Ja wondering if she’s doing the right thing all throughout, Man Woo losing more and more of his patience as he tries to clean up behind Hee Seong and both of them realizing, once you go down a dark path, it’s very hard to return. And also, that the outcome they were hoping to prevent was inevitable any way.

5. Jae Seob knowing something is off and following it up, and wanting to protect Ji Won at all costs. Also him and Woo Chul having an antagonistic but trustworthy relationship and him also mentoring Ho Joon and stating how people find him difficult to like, but that does not stop him from being himself. Jae Seob is a man committed to uncovering things, no matter how uncomfortable they feel or what secrets they reveal. That jokey personality is a layered over a determined and strongly principled character.

6. Ho Joon handling the more difficult aspects of being a cop by learning to take lives if need be, dealing with the aftermath of a crime scene and keeping his cool in the midst of chaos. I mean, at first he seems like such an innocent and well-meaning character who adores both of his Sunbaes and then as the story moves on, you see theres so much more to him than just being the maknae of the team. Whether it is calming down Ji Won after their fast and furious ride or having the foresight to turns on the camera monitor or even deciding to put out the news that Ji Won is dead, Joo Hwan shows himself as such a capable and conscientious person.

7. Hae Soo trying to amend wrongs and dealing with the guilt of her father’s crimes and realizing that it’s very hard to do things by yourself but also bravery is something that does not always happen in front of everyone, rather it’s that moment of iron clad surety you have when you know exact what you want to do, and to go ahead and do it.

8. Moo Jin making the choice to take off the rose tinted glasses and realizes he needs to see things for what they are. And realizing that you can’t just pick up things from where you left there. You have to realise how you behaved and own up to who you really are. Also, you really got to understand how to communicate with the girl you love, instead of just harping on asking her to ditch her brother, once more! 🙄

9. Hee Seong being a stuttering, scared mess once he realizes that he’s at the mercy of Hyun Soo and showing that under all his swagger and bravado, he’s just a cowardly man who enjoys exercising power over others and uses fear to control them, but cannot handle the heat when it is turned on them. He thinks he’s amazing because he’s so powerful and in charge, but all it is takes is one person to stand up to him and he loses composure so quick.

10. Yeom Sang Chul doing his best to save his own ass, and he’s so over taken by greed that it becomes his very undoing. He really has no redeeming qualities and without henchmen or money, he’s pretty much useless. Fitting that he dies without all the trappings of grandeur around him.

11. Even Park Kyung Choon, he’s so far gone with the desperation of looking for his wife but once he’s subdued, and in the hospital, he’s able to have a proper conversation with Hyun Soo. A remorseful, regretful one.

12. The housekeeper, Park Soon Young, she’s seen so much and she’s been thru so much and the Baeks have helped her, but at the same time, she realises she does not want to be a part of this household where so much evil is being perpetuated. She makes the decision to leave and she draws her own conclusions. Nothing is fed to her.

I mean, I could go on a bit longer but yeah, I hope I made my point. In conclusion, FOE, you done did good.

#kdrama #tvn flower of evil #flower of evil #lee joon gi #moon chae won #aspects like these are just so satisfying #my commentary #I have a lot of feelings #!!!

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thebullmonkey · 4 years

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Favorite Things: SANDITON Edition

For some reason, the first season officially ending its television run over here in The States has bummed me out even more, despite my having properly finished the season weeks ago and having already completed at least 5 full re-watches at this point.

I guess it just feels extra scary now about the fate of our dear Sanditonians? Sanditonites? Regency Cinnamon Rolls? Whatever you want to call them - I have this odd feeling of missing them even though I can watch them pretty much anytime I want. Is that weird? Am I weird? Don’t answer that!

Anyway, here’s a random, probably anachronistic list of some of my favorite Sanditon moments & things....

Every adorable Charlotte smile

The way Sidney says “Miss Heywood” whether in annoyance, anger, or secret desire

“New maid?”

Every annoyed Charlotte look - Rose has SUCH an exquisitely expressive face!

THAT SIDNEY EYEROLL

The way Sidney growls “What is it?”

The way Sidney softly questions “What is it?” to Charlotte when she’s birthing the Regatta idea

The way Charlotte & Sidney look so good standing or walking next to each other - they just look like they belong together forever

Young Stringer’s cartoonish accent in comparison to every other character’s “standard” English accent

When Esther’s all “hey you wanna walk with me” and Charlotte agrees but is too slow and Esther looks back at her after literally 3 paces like “BITCH, KEEP UP”

When Esther tells Charlotte she is “that bitch who will poison another bitch in my way” and Esther doesn’t break eye contact or her stride

Arthur talking about eating 6 or 7 slices of toast on the reg like it’s NBD

Arthur offering to make Charlotte some toast

The way Crow yells “BABERS!!” repeatedly

Crow just being an unapologetic drunken fuckboi

The Sidlotte pineapple luncheon party scene - especially how sweet it is that Sidney’s serving Charlotte soup

Arthur having about enough of Lady D’s insolence at his future BFF, Georgiana, and ravaging that rotten ass pineapple in vengeance

When Lady D calls out “Mr. Parker” and all three brothers turn around in unison - each one with their distinct personalities showing through

Tom and Sidney dressing alike for the Regatta - so cute

Basically the whole Cricket match & when Tom says “I really don’t think I am[out]!” (The timbre of his voice sounds exactly like how he spoke in "Love Actually" and I am always here for “Colin - God of Sex!” (But also FUCK TOM PARKER FOREVER, THO)

The way Sidney looks confused and aroused when Charlotte roasts him at the luncheon + tells him to STFU - she’s trying to concentrate - during The Cricket

How Sidney goes from stoic to cinnamon roll throughout 8 glorious episodes

Sidney’s soft voice

Georgiana not giving an ounce of a fuck about Edward & her immunity to his charms

"Who is your favorite poet?"

When it doesn't look like the laborers will show for The Cricket and Edward's all "CAN WE GO?!"

Every perfect thing Babington says to Esther

Esther's hair when she wears it down

The smile Esther gives when she & Lady D are playing cards after she didn't die

All the satin looks for the rich ladies (Georgi & Eliza's bitch ass)

All the WIND

The ROWING SCENE

The way Sidney says "Come on" to get Charlotte in the boat

THAT FUCKING ROWING SCENE

Sidney taking liberties and stealing body touches during that entire scene

"Keep your back straight..." & the impish laugh after he'd gotten away with such an intimate touch

Dr. Fuchs needing actual liquor to deal with Arthur & Diana's silly asses

WET SIDNEY

Charlotte's luscious wavy hair at the start of Ep 8

The Truest Self speech

All of Sidney's side eyes & spying on Charlotte's Young Stringer interactions

Young Stringer's bestie - that dude has balls and is so ride or die! Always supporting his bud in the fiercest way

The way The Beaufort girls say "Mr. Hankins"

The way the Beaufort girls always fawn over Sidney

"Admiral Heywood" - that whole adorable ass scene

Sidney's constant posing

The London carriage scenes with Char & Sid as a whole

The London carriage scene where Sidney emphatically says "I-COULD- NOT-HAVE-BEEN-ANY-CLEAR-ER..." That sounds EXACTLY how I imagine Theo actually argues IRL with people 😂

All the dancing

The brothel scene

Honestly - every Char & Sid scene is what I live for

Lady Denham ROASTING TOM'S USELESS NO-INSURANCE-HAVING ASS

Mary being so wrecked that Charlotte is leaving

Lady Susan's EVERYTHING

THAT👏MOTHER👏FUCK👏ING👏KISS

Sidney being awkward as fuck in general - but especially pre-💋

Charlotte being inquisitive & speaking her mind respectfully but also telling Sidney he sucks when he deserves it

The Char & Georgi friendship

Young Stringer & team winning the Regatta

Every profile shot of Sidney - good lord Theo is good from every angle!

BASICALLY ALL OF IT

Even though things are up in the air and I often say to myself "I kind of wish I never watched Sanditon..." (because FEELS, y'all) I'm so so so glad I did. I haven't been touched by a show or story or characters like this in a very long time. They will always be with me, I will always have random Sanditon quotes and scenes and images in my brain, and I will adore and cherish this series for the rest of my life.

FINGERS STILL MASSIVELY CROSSED THAT THE GODS BE KIND AND GIVE US A PROPER ENDING IN A SECOND SEASON.

#sanditon #sanditon season 1 #so many more favorite things but im old and tired #char and sid #sidney parker #charlotte heywood #miss heywood #the parker brothers #residents of sanditon #sanditon pbs #sanditon masterpiece #otp

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unicorn6664 · 4 years

Text

Strangers Bucky Barnes x Reader Part 1

Warnings: mention of suicide, gunshots and a lot of fluff

Words: 6798

Summary: Bucky is trying to get better, and be an Avenger. He meets you and you get close and Bucky begins to fall for you. He starts to have nightmares, that he’s afraid will come true.

A/n: Hey guys! This is the first chapter, and my first fanfic to put out. I got inspired by the fanart below, it’s not mine but don’t know who made it so fanart credits to whoever made it. :)

P.s the gif’s are not mine.

Enjoy!

It’s late, and you are walking your dog Geezer before going to bed, as you always do or else you have a dog keeping you awake all night. You’re on your way back home, but stopped while crossing the bridge. You hear someone crying, and find a manly figure sitting on the edge. You walk up to him and ask, “are you alright?” He turns his head to face you, he removed some tears, “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks,” he says. You smile and look down at the river, “you know I can see you have cried, and you’re sitting on the edge of a bridge, and I don’t want you to jump if that’s your plan,” you said and face him. You look directly into his deep blue eyes, and you can see the tears he’s holding back. You take your hand up in front of you, “I’m Y/n, and this is my dog Geezer, what’s your name?” He takes your hand, “Bucky, and I was not planning to jump,” he says. “Okay, how come you sitting there on the edge?” you ask. He looks at the river, “I like the view, and it takes my mind of things ,” he says.

A couple of minutes pass before either of you say anything. “You don’t have to stay here,” Bucky says breaking the silence. He turns around and jumps of, and looks at you. “You can just go home, I’ll be fine,” he says. “I just don’t think you should be alone out here,” you say. Bucky looks behind you and say, “well I’m not going to be alone,” and he was cut of by another manly voice, “Bucky what the hell?” You turn around, and see some well known man approaching, but don’t quite remember the name. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, I have called and texted you, are you serious? You can’t just do that,” says the unknown man. Then he looks at you and takes his hand out for a handshake, “Oh, I’m so sorry I’m Steve Rogers,” You shake his hand, “I’m Y/n,” You think to yourself, Captain America of course, but you will not mention it right now, you can always fangirl another day. “Well nice meeting you, but will you excuse me I’m going to take my friend back home,” Steve said with a smile, and an evil look at Bucky. “Of course, I hope to see you around Bucky,” you smile. You walk your separate ways home, and Bucky kept looking back at you.

The next day at work you could not hold it back anymore, you had to tell someone. “Amie hey, guess who I met the other night?” “Who, was it a hot guy?” Amie asks. “Yeah you can say so, but I met Steve Rogers,” you said with a huge smile on your face. “Holy…..like Steve, like Captain America, how?” she ask in shock. “Well he came as I was talking to his friend, and he had been looking for him, and……” Amie cuts you off, “What was his friends name?” “His name is Bucky, why?” you ask. “Oh my God, do you know who he is?” you shake your head. Amie starts looking through all of her papers, and pulls out a picture. “Does he look like this?” she ask with huge eyes. “Yeah, why do you have that, who is he?” you ask still confused. Amie takes you to the side, “who is he Y/n? He’s the winter soldier, James Buchanan Barnes also known as Bucky. I’ve have been writing about him all week,” Amie explains. “So what you are saying is, I just met the winter soldier last night?” you ask. “Yeah, but what I know is he’s recovering, and trying to become an Avenger to make the world better. It’s kinda cool,” she says and waits for you to answer. “Well that’s good to know,” you replied.

You finished at work and you and Amie headed to your place, to get some dinner. While walking, Amie couldn’t shut up about the story of the winter soldier, and it was interesting. There is this one thing she said, that he has a metal arm. You didn’t see a metal arm, but he was probably covering it up. When you approached the bridge where you met him last night, he was standing there again looking at the river. You lift your finger to make Amie stop talking, and she say “what?” You start walking up to him, “Hey Bucky, hi it’s me Y/n,” you see him turn his head, and he waves at you. “Hey how are you?” you ask. “I’m good thanks, how about you?” Bucky asks, but before you could answer Amie interrupted. “Y/n who….. okay um..hi Mr. Barnes. I’m Amie, huge fan,” she says pretty shocked to see him in real life. “Hi, just call me Bucky,” he says and reaches out for a handshake. Amie shakes his hand and looks at you in excitement, and you just nod with a big smile. You turn your attention to Bucky, “Yeah Amie is my coworker, she has been writing the article about you that came out this morning,” you say just to make Amie a little bit more freaked out. “I actually read it this morning, it’s really good. Good job,” he smiles at her, and she freaks out even more. “Well we better get going before she faints, talk to you later,” you smile and wave goodbye.

When you arrived at your apartment, Amie jumps all over the place. “I can’t believe it, I just met Mr. Barnes and he liked my article. Isn’t that crazy?” she asked. “Yes it is, but I’m still surprised how you didn’t faint in front of him,” you laugh. “Hey I��m grown up,I don’t faint in front of famous people, how would I still have my job?” she asks a little offended, but she knows you're just kidding. “I know I know, but a whole other question, what do you wanna eat?” you ask, and you can see on Amies face she doesn’t know. You grab your cooking book in hope of finding something, but it ends up as always with chinese food.

Later when Amie headed home, you opened your computer. You found Amies article, so why not read it? After reading it, you just wanna check facebook before going for the walk with Geezer, even tho he’s already annoying you. You ignore it for just a moment, and you hit the search on facebook. You search “James Buchanan Barnes” but no one comes up. So you try “Bucky Barnes” instead, and there he is. You click on his profile, and just look to make sure it’s him. One of the first photos is one he is tagged in, with him and Steve. You like the photo, and click follow and close the computer. You find Geezers leash, and make yourself ready.

You are walking the usual route, and you are just in your own thoughts until Geezer starts to run and pulls you with him. “Geezer wait!” you yell and loses his leash. You start to run after him, and then he stops at the bridge at a familiar figure, who gets down on his knees to pet Geezer. You run over, “I am so sorry, he just wants to say…..oh Bucky hi. I didn’t see it was you, you’re alright?” you asks after the events yesterday. “Yeah I’m fine I just went for a walk,” he smiles. “So, does your friend know you’re out?” you ask with a little smile. Bucky laughs, “ yeah, so no Steve comes looking for me,” you both laugh, and you break the laughter asking, “so are you heading home now, then?” “Yeah I probably should, or else Steve is coming,” he says. “Well me and Geezer can take a little longer walk today, let us follow you home,” you say and Geezer barks as if he knows what you just said. You start walking, and you ask, “so where do you live? You have your own apartment or do you live with the other Avengers?” He looks over at you for a second, “yeah i live with the others, but I want to have my own place, but Steve won’t let me. He says i shouldn't live alone before at least 3 years have passed” he says. “Well then you just gotta wait those 3 years or what?” you ask. “Yeah i think so, I don’t wanna get into a fight with him again,”

You and Bucky kept talking, you talked about work, he talked about all the things he finds interesting, things that he missed while he was the winter soldier. Suddenly you already arrived at the Avengers compound. “We’re already here? Oh well, it was nice talking with you. We should grab a cup of coffee sometime,” “yeah that would be nice,” Bucky says. You said goodbye, and Bucky said goodbye to Geezer as well, and you headed back home.

Bucky went inside, and met Steve waiting for him. “Who was that?” Steve asks curiously. “It was Y/n from yesterday,” Bucky answers, and walks past Steve because he knows what he’s about to say, just like he did yesterday. “Buck you know I think you should get to know her, make a new friend,” Steve says with a smile. “Okay but why is it so important to you?” Bucky asks. “It’s just she seems like a good person, and she also seems good for you. She came up to ask if you were okay, even tho she didn’t know who you were,” “I know Steve, but can’t we take this later I wanna go to bed?” Bucky asked,, and Steve nods.

When you finally came back home, you noticed something on Geezer. A little piece of paper, you take a look at it. It’s Bucky's number, you put it on your kitchen table and go straight to bed. You just have one problem, you can’t sleep. You keep thinking. Has he seen that you added him on facebook? You can’t keep your curiosity till tomorrow, so you find your computer. You find facebook, and you have one notification. You click on it, and see Bucky added you back. You smile and go out to the kitchen, and find his number. You put it in your contacts, and sends him a text.

Bucky can’t sleep, he is really trying. He turns around and his phone lights up. He takes his phone, and reads the text. - Hi Bucky it’s Y/n, thanks for your number:) -

Bucky smiles to himself, and answer. But before he finished Friday interrupted, “Mr. Barnes I sense an activity of light from a phone, should I turn on your night light?” Bucky sighs and rolls on to his back, “no Friday, thanks,” he puts his phone down and tries to sleep again.

You wake up the next morning to your alarm, and Geezer trying to push you out of bed. You just turn it off and lie there for a moment. You don’t really have to get up, because you had earned a day off, so you could do whatever you want. You reach out for your phone, and you got a message from Bucky. - Hi, of course. So I was wondering, if you are not doing anything after work today, if you wanted that cup of coffee? - You smile and start texting. You press send and get up to get some breakfast.

Bucky didn’t get any sleep, but he nearly jumped over to his phone when he got the message from you.

Y/n - I’m not doing anything today, I got a day of, so I’m ready when you are :) -

Bucky - I only have to do some paperwork for today, so how about 11 am? -

Y/n - Alright 11 am it is, where should we meet? -

Bucky - How about at the brighde? -

Y/n - That’s a deal, see you then:) -

Bucky puts his phone in his pocket, and went down to get all the paperwork done as he promised Pepper.

After you finished your breakfast and texting Bucky, you put on some music and take a bath. When you’re finally done you look out the window and see the sun shining and no clouds in the sky. Why not take a nice summer dress on, so you start looking through your dresses. You finally found it, your knee long yellow flower dress. You put it on, and you also put a little bit of mascara on just to look like a human. You put your hair in a messy bun, and take a look at the clock. It’s already 10:45 am, so you hurry to get your shoes on, kiss Geezers head goodbye and say “you are not coming with me today, so look out for the bad guys,” and you are out the door. You walk as fast as you can, because you don’t wanna be late and when you finally arrive at the bridge Bucky is waiting for you.

Bucky senses a familiar figure approaching, in the corner of his eyes. He turns around and smiles at you. “Hey, you look like someone in a hurry?” he asks with a laugh on his face. “Haha very funny, so where are we going?” you ask. Bucky looks down at you, “I don’t know. I haven’t been on that many cafe’s yet,” he says, kind of embarrassed. “Well that’s alright, what about we start with starbucks?” you ask. Bucky just nods and you lead the way to the nearest starbucks.

You got your usual iced coffee and Bucky tried it because you said it was good, and you didn’t lie. While walking, you told Bucky a bit from your childhood, and then asks “so Bucky if it’s okay I ask, and you don’t have to answer, but how was your childhood back then?” and look up at him. “Oh you really want to hear that? well uhm it was okay but nothing like yours and……” he continued telling stories and how he met Steve, and you smile to yourself.

Both you and Bucky haven’t seem to notice that you had reach your apartment. “Oh we are here, I can go up and get my dog? It’s late anyways and I gotta walk him before it’s too late,” Bucky smiles and nods and wait outside, as you go up and get Geezer. While Bucky is waiting, someone approaches him. The person stands right in front of him, with his head looking down. “Can I help you?” Bucky asks calmly, as the person face him and says, “Hail Hydra,” and punches him. Bucky fell to the ground, he tries to get back up to fight back. But before he gets to it, he gets hit again and the Hydra agent starts to kick him. Then Bucky finally get a grip of his ankle, and pull him down. He gets up, and as he is about to hit the agent he sees a gun pointed at him.

As you are getting Geezers leash you hear a gunshot from outside, you run to the window and see a man running away and a too familiar figure laying at the ground, “Bucky….” you say to yourself and start running down the stairs. You forgot to close your door so Geezer follows you. When you get down, you see Bucky lying on the ground breathing heavily. “Omg Bucky what happened, are you okay?” you ask and see the blood coming from under his shirt. You then go to him to look at how bad it is, but he stops you. “Please, don’t. Just get me upstairs and call Steve,” Bucky says, and you just nod. He puts his arm around you, and you help him upstairs with Geezer right behind you. When you get upstairs you take him to your bedroom, and find your first aid. You find Bucky’s phone and call Steve and put him on speaker.

Steve is eating dinner with the others at the compound, when he gets a call from Bucky. He Picks up and, “Hey Buck……” he says and gets interrupted. “It’s Y/n you have to get here now, Bucky got shot, please hurry,” you say and tell him the address. Steve immediately gets his gear just to be sure, and is on his way.

You try to remove Bucky’s shirt, but he won't let you. “Please, can we just wait for Steve to come?” he begs. But you just take a scissor and cuts his shirt open, “you really want me to wait with this?” you ask while you take the bullet out. He mourn in pain, and he takes his hands into fists and put them on to his face. You start to clean the wound afterwards, you get him to sit up and put some bandage on when you hear Geezer bark, and Steve bursting into the bedroom as youre laying Bucky back down.

You and Steve head to the living room to talk, while Bucky rests. You start to cry, “oh I’m sorry, I was just really really scared,” you say and sit down on the couch and Steve joins. “No don’t be, of course that’s scary,” he says. “He wouldn’t let me see how bad it was at first until I just did it,” you sob. “That’s typical him, but is was good you did it anyways. He did that too back in the 40’s,” Steve explains. You keep talking for a bit, and then you look at the clock, “omg it’s really late you wanna stay over, you can join Bucky then I’ll take the couch,” you say and get up. “No no I take it, it’s your apartment, and I don’t think Bucky minds you being there,” Steve says and winks. You giggle a bit and find a pillow and a spare blanket.

When the couch was ready for Steve, you go to the bathroom to get ready for bed. You slowly walk into your bedroom, and try to get to bed without waking Bucky up, but then he says, “don’t worry I’m not asleep yet,” and smiles. You lie down beside him and ask him, “do you need anything?” “No I’m good thanks, and thanks for fixing me up, even tho I told you not to,” he says and turns his head to look at you. “Of course,” you smile, and you both go to sleep.

The next morning Bucky wakes up, and feel some weight on his chest. He looks down to see your head laying on it, he slowly lifts you up and slides out of bed and lays you back down. Bucky walks out and closes the door when he hears, “Goodmorning,” behind him. He turns around to see Steve sitting on the couch with a smirk. Bucky grunts at him, he knows exactly why Steve looks like that. The door was not fully closed when Bucky walked out, so Steve got a glimpse of your head laying on Bucky’s chest. Bucky heads straight to the bathroom. Bucky walks back out to the living room. “Natasha is picking me up in a minute,” Steve says. “What about me?” Bucky asks a little confused. “I thought you maybe wanted to stay for a little longer,” and even before Steve could say more Bucky says, “Stay? I can’t stay, that wouldn't be safe. Plus I don’t want her being here alone because that agent probably saw me with her,” and they keep discussing about what to do.

You wake up hearing them discuss, and you get up. You go to the living room, and “what’s going on?” you ask, and they both look at you. Bucky leaves, and goes to the bedroom. You look at Steve really confused. “He just don’t think it’s safe for you to be here alone, after last night. He wants you to go back with us to the compound, if you wanna,” Steve explains. “You look surprised,” “yeah of course, I can go pack some stuff. I got one question tho, what about Geezer?” you ask. “Don’t worry he’s coming too,” Steve smiles.

You head to the bedroom to get some clothes to put on and pack some stuff, but also to check on Bucky. You open the door and slide in, and slowly close it. You see Bucky sitting on the floor beside the bed. “You okay?” you ask. Bucky nods even tho you can see he’s not, you crawl down to him and give him a hug. He slowly puts his arms around you, and you just sit there for a moment. Then you break the silence, “hey I’m going with you guys,” you say and pull back to look at him. He smiles, and you get up and start packing.

When you finished packing, the famous Black Widow, also known as Natasha Romanoff, came to pick you up. You sat in the back seat with Bucky, and Geezer on your lap, and Natasha and Steve in the front. When you arrived at the compound, you were greeted by Wanda who were taking you to the guest room, and Dr. Banner who took Bucky with him, to make sure nothing else was wrong except for the wound you fixed yesterday. You got to your room and Wanda says, “make yourself at home. There's a closet to your clothes, and your bathroom is right behind that door,” and she points at the door. “Is there anything else? Or else you can just call FRIDAY, or ask one of us,” she says. “Thank you very much, I will,” you say and smile, and she leaves you for now till you have unpacked.

Some hours later, it’s time for dinner. You slowly open the door, and Bucky is standing there about to knock. “I was just about to ask if you wanted some dinner?” he said. “I would love that, and was there anything else than the wound?” you ask a little concerned. Bucky shakes his head, moved to the side, and leads you to the dining room. You go in to join the others, and they greet you both.

You eat and talk for hours, and get a couple of drinks after dinner. You turn your head to look at Bucky and give him a smile, and he smiles back. But suddenly he stands up and leaves very fast. You look at Steve, because you don’t know if you did anything wrong. Steve gets up to talk to him, and you keep talking with the others, but keep an eye on the hallway.

Steve walks down the hall, and reaches Bucky’s room. He knocks before walking in, “you okay Buck?” Steve asks. Bucky doesn’t say anything. “What the hell happened?” Steve asks. Bucky looks at him, “I don’t know okay, I just have a weird feeling about her, that I can’t explain. I just don’t know what it is,” he says. Steve knows what it is, but Bucky doesn’t quite believe him.

After some time you are on your way to your room, and you meet Steve in the hallway. “Hey is he okay?” you ask. “Yeah kind of, but he would like to be alone right now. You can talk to him tomorrow if you want,” Steve suggested. “Oh okay of course, well goodnight then,” you say and walk to your room. You find your phone and text Bucky, but you don’t expect an answer. You put your phone down, and get ready for bed. You’re lucky you didn’t have to walk Geezer today because of the big field they have.

Bucky is looking at the ceiling, laying in bed thinking. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his phone light up. He turns over to lay on his side, and check his phone. It’s a message from Y/n. - Hey, just want to know if I did something, I’m sorry. But goodnight:) - Bucky don’t know what to say right away, so he just put his phone back and try getting some sleep.

You wake up in the middle of the night really thirsty. So you get up and silently walk out to the kitchen to get a glass of water. While standing by the sink, you hear someone approaching. Just when you put the glass down and turn to go back. You bump into Bucky, “oh I’m sorry I didn’t see you,” you whisper. “It’s okay, just can’t sleep, and heard some noise,” he says. You nod, “okay but I will go back to bed,” you say, and before you can leave. Bucky takes your arm and says, “by the way, at dinner you didn’t do anything wrong,” and let’s you go. You leave the kitchen, and go to your room.

Bucky stands in the kitchen thinking about what to do, because everyone is asleep. He walks down the hallway, and stops at your door. He then slowly knocks, and waits to see if your still awake. The door opens, “hey” you say looking tired. “Can I maybe come in?” he asks. You open the door so he can come in, and you go over to the bed and Bucky just stands still. “Come,” you say and make room for him. “I just don’t wanna be alone,” he explains. You just nod, “okay, that’s fine, just try to get some sleep,” you said and smile. You both went to sleep, and Bucky could finally sleep.

Bucky wakes up early, he looks over at you, who is still in a deep sleep. He gets up and see if anybody else is up, he knew Tony, Nat and Sam were going on a mission, and don’t know if they already left. He slowly walks around the compound to look after them, but they’re nowhere to be seen. He goes to his room to put some clothes on, and go for a walk.

Hours later you wake up, to Geezer basically standing on your face. You laugh and push him away, and sit up. Then you notice that Bucky has left, but he probably woke up before you. You go to the bathroom, and get ready for the day, not that anything is happening today because it’s Sunday. You go out to the kitchen where the others are, “Goodmorning, have you seen Bucky? He’s not answering his phone,” Steve says and looks concerned. You shake your head, “sorry no I haven’t seen him yet, have you looked for him?” you ask. “Of course I have, I’ve looked all over the place,” Steve says a bit frustrated. You think for a moment, “can I try look for him?” you ask. “Please, because I can’t find him, just wanna make sure he’s safe,” Steve explains. You nod, and find Geezer and starts to go for a walk. You have an idea of where Bucky could be.

Bucky is standing by the bridge, enjoying the view. He takes a sip of the ice coffee he bought, the same one that you got the day you were hanging out. “Morning Bucky,” you then say. “Oh morning, hey Geezer,” he says and squats to pet Geezer. You see the iced coffee in Bucky's hand, “huh, you got iced coffee without me?” you ask a little offended and smile. “Oh yeah we can go grab one for you if you want to,” he suggest. “I would love that, but then we should go back, Steve is a little worried about you,” you say. “Has he texted, and called?” he ask, and you nod. “Well I didn’t bring my phone so,” he smiles. You laugh at him, and you both go to get you an iced coffee.

When you and Bucky got home, you were greeted by a not so happy Steve. “Where the hell were you, and why didn’t you answer your phone?” Steve asks. “I just went for a walk, and I didn’t bring my phone,” Bucky responded. Steve and Bucky kept talking, while you went to your room to lay in bed. You fell asleep for just a minute. You woke up again, to a knock on your door. “Come in,” you say and lift your head to see who it is. It’s Bucky. He walks over, to sit beside you. “Oh hey Buck,” you say and sit up. He looks sad, “Is something wrong?” you ask. “It’s just Steve always gets angry when he doesn't know where I am,” he explained. You sit in silence for a second, and you say “I think it’s just because he’s worried about you, and scared for losing you again,” you smile.

You sit and talk for a bit, when you notice Bucky just staring at you while you talk. You pause, smile and ask “what?” He didn’t answer, he leaned in and kissed you. He pulls back, “I’m so sorry,” he says, and gets up and walks out. Before you could say something, he was gone. But if you did say something, it wouldn’t help because you don’t know what you would say. You are just surprised that he just did that, and didn’t have any words in mind. You sit for a minute, before you get up to find Bucky. On your way down the hallway to find his room, you meet Steve who stops and asks, “I just saw Bucky run to his room, do you know if something is wrong?” “Nope, I don’t know. I’m on my way to see if he’s okay,” you say. When you finally reach his room, you knock on the door.

Bucky walks up to his door and opens it to see who it is, even though he knew it was you. When he opened the door you walked in, and he closed it again. “Y/n I’m really sorry about that, I wasn’t thinking I…..” before he could explain, you interrupted “It’s okay, it happens. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, because you kinda ran away,” you laugh. “I know, I just thought it was wrong, because you didn’t say anything,” he explains. “I just didn’t know what to say, I hadn’t seen that coming,” you say. Bucky puts his face in his hands, and starts to cry. You walk over to him and put your arms around him. “Hey, it’s okay,” you say, a little concerned. You pull back to look at him, “I’m sorry it’s just….. I don’t know,” he says. “Don’t be, you didn’t do anything,” you say and put your arms around him again.

Bucky pulls back, “I’m just a little confused these days and Steve is kind of stressing me out sometimes,” he explains. You look at him for a minute and then say, “I think you should tell him that, just so he knows.” He nods, and doesn't say anything. You sit there in silence until you get up, and walk out the hallway. You go to the living room and find Steve, “uhm I think Bucky would like to talk to you,” you say. Steve leaves, and you sit down and join the others.

There passed a good 2 months, and you were still at the Avengers compound. After 2 weeks you had been there you said you could go home, but Bucky insisted you stayed for longer. Nothing had happened the last 2 months, not even anything in public. Bucky was just scared anything would happen if you went back home, but now you were packing so you could go home. Bucky has promised you he would drive you home, so you could stay for dinner and say goodbye to everyone.

After what had happened between you and Bucky, things were a little awkward, the first couple days after. but then you started talking again, and now everything is fine. He started to come more and more into your room at night, so he could sleep. He didn’t really know why he did it, he just kind of felt safe, and had less nightmares. He still has some, but you kinda calmed him down so he could sleep again afterwards.

Bucky knocked at your door before he walked in with Geezer. He smiled at you and said, “I’m going to miss going on walks with him,” and you laughed to yourself. “You're always welcome to go with us on walks or come pick him up for one,” you offered. Bucky smiled even more, “thanks,” he said. He walked out again, and left you alone with Geezer so you could pack the last stuff.

Later that day it was time for dinner, and saying goodbye. After an hour or so you were ready to go, and you got in the car with Bucky. You didn’t really say anything on the way to your apartment. When you arrived, Bucky helped you get your stuff and then you talked. “Well I should probably get going before a certain Rogers comes after me,” Bucky laughs, and gets up from the couch. You followed him out to the hall and said goodbye.

The next couple of days, you and Bucky mostly just texted, and he came to pick up Geezer for a walk. Even though you told Bucky he could just come and pick him up, he always texted to ask if he could walk with Geezer. Bucky had picked Geezer up this afternoon, and then Amie came. Her car broke down, so she asked to sleep on your couch and drive with you to work the next couple of days. You of course said yes, you didn’t mind and it’s easier than picking her up in the morning. You guys were drinking coffee, because Amie had to tell you what happened when the car broke, and it was not that interesting. But you didn’t know that much about cars, only how to drive and all that.

Then you had Geezer coming to your rescue, as he came running into the living room. “Hey boii,” you said, and looked out to the hall where Bucky came into frame. “Hey Buck, you want a cup of coffee?” you ask. “No thank you, I should get going anyway. But I don’t know if I can walk Geezer tomorrow, but I’ll text you,” he says and smiles. He then noticed Amie, “oh hey um, Amie was it?” he asked. “Yes hi,” she said, and couldn’t get more words out. Bucky waved goodbye, and took off.

Amie looks at you with big eyes, “what?” you ask. “How the hell do you get the winter soldier to walk your dog?” she asks, still surprised. “You remember I was at the compound for 2 months, he really likes walking with Geezer. I just said he could walk him any time,” you explained. Amie still couldn’t believe it, that he just walked in with Geezer like it was just a normal day. Which it was for you, Geezer and Bucky. Because it happens kind of everyday now, but you knew it helped Bucky mentally somehow.

You and Amie went to bed early, she took the couch and Geezer slept with you in your bedroom. You didn’t close the door fully, but that was for Geezer if he got Hungry or thirsty in the middle of the night. You got ready for bed, you lay down and fell asleep.

You wake up to Geezer barking and your phone lightning up. You take your phone, it’s Steve calling and you look at the time, and it is 1:23 am. You pick up and walk out the hall to shut Geezer up. “Hey Steve,” you say. “Hi sorry for calling, it’s just I think I heard Bucky scream, and he’s not in his room, do you know anything?” Steve asks. “No sorry Steve he hasn't texted me or anything, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” you promised. As you end the call, someone knocks at the door and Geezer starts to growl. You look through the spy on your door, and see Bucky on the other side of the door.

You quickly open the door, “hey Buck are you okay?” you ask. Bucky doesn't say anything, and you just stand there. You notice on his shirt he has been sweating, he has big black circles under his eyes, and his eyes are full of tears. You take his hand and pull him inside, you look at him and ask again, “are you okay Buck?” He puts his arms around you, and you do the same. You rub your hand up and down his back, and he starts to cry. You pull back, and cup his face and move his tears with your thumbs. “Hey hey, what’s going on?” you ask. Bucky takes a deep breath, “I just had an awful nightmare,” he said. You hug him again, and then you walk to your bedroom.

You close the bedroom door, and walk to the kitchen. You take your phone and call Steve, “Hey, you got anything on Bucky?” Steve asks. “Yes, he’s here. He got a nightmare he said, and that’s all I could get out of him,” you explain. “Okay, well give me a couple of minutes and I’ll pick him up,” he says. “No Steve it’s fine, you go back to bed. You can pick him up tomorrow instead,” you say. Steve agrees, and you end the call. You walk back to the bedroom, and Bucky is sitting in the bed.

You walk over to him, and his head falls onto your stomach. You put your hand on his head, and nuzzles his hair. Bucky takes your other hand, and shakes it carefully, “I’m sorry,” he says. You pull back, “don’t be sorry, you had a nightmare. It’s okay, but you should try getting some sleep now okay?” you ask, because you’re not sure if he wants to sleep. He nods, and you turn off the light. You both lay down, and Geezer opens the door and lies down at your feet.

The next morning you wake up with Bucky’s arms around you, and you slowly sneak out of bed so you don’t wake up Bucky. As you walk out to the hall, you close the door and walk to the kitchen. “So what’s that all about?” Amie asks, and points in the direction of your bedroom. “What do you mean?” you ask. “You and Barnes, sleeping together? Your door was open and I had to pee so you cannot say he isn’t in your bedroom right now,” she says. You laugh at her, “he had a nightmare,” you explain. “About what?” she asks, “I don’t know, and if I did I wouldn't tell you,” you say. You start to make some coffee, and Amie says “Y/n” and points to the doorway where Bucky is standing. “Hey um, is it okay if I take a shower?” he asks. “Of course let me grab you a towel,” you say and smile at him.

You gave Bucky the towel, and as he went to the bathroom, you hear a knock on the front door. Amie was already on her way to open the door for you, but you walked in front of her and got the door. “Oh hey Steve, Bucky is taking a bath, but I just made coffee,” you say and points to the kitchen. Steve walked down the hall, and entered the kitchen. Before you could go grab a cup of coffee too, Amie stopped you. “Hey Steve? HEY STEVE? Do you know who he is?” she asks, shocked over you being so casual around them. You laugh at her, “yes Amie I know, he’s Captain America.”

While Amie tries to take that in, you go grab a cup of coffee and talk to Steve. “So do you know why he came here?” Steve asks. “No he hasn't talked about it really, so I don’t know but nothing happened to him and that’s the important thing,” you say and take a sip of your coffee. As you and Steve talked Bucky came out to the kitchen, he sat down until Steve was ready. You hugged Bucky and Steve goodbye, Steve and you agreed on if it happened again you texted each other, whoever noticed first.

When Bucky and Steve arrived at the compound, they parked the car in the basement. They both got out and Steve had to stop Bucky before going inside. “Hey what happened, what was the nightmare?” Steve asks. “It’s nothing, okay.” Bucky says. “Tell me what was it?” Steve asks again. “I just had a nightmare. Of me, killing Y/n. I’m sorry but I had to see if it was true,” Bucky explains, and starts to cry.

Taglist: I don’t have one yet :)(

#bucky barnes #buckybarnes #buckybarnesxreader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #buckybarnesxy/n #buckybarnesfluff #marvel #mcu #bucky barnes fanfiction

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advernia · 4 years

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hi hi!!! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ mmm… i try not to expect something out of an unreleased route (bc most of the time i am horribly betrayed lmao) but there are loads of stuff i hope to see! forgive me for being rambly tho haha!

mousse. i actually have no idea what to expect from his route but what i do know is that his current position as a diplomat bothers me in a lot of ways lmao! but anyway… naturally we should be getting details on why he left the red army in the first place, so maybe on that side i do wish we’d get more insight on the workings of the red army, i guess? not that i’m expecting something super detailed or anything (tho it would be great if cybird feeds us with details), but for starters, maybe something more concerning the chosen bloodline - for instance, how did it come to be that for the red army, those thirteen certain families are the only ones strictly allowed to fill in that one position in the chosen ranks??? do relatives or family branch members count??? additionally, is mousse the first case of someone stepping down / refusing to take over their designated rank??? i’d like to think that he isn’t, but then again i maybe wrong???

alternatively… maybe mousse’s route could fill in some bit of cradle lore too? lmao i mean he is a diplomat and alice is a ‘visitor’, so he’s the best suitor to fit in the role of a tour guide. maybe a little more idea on how cradle works as an actual country, bc god i can’t even imagine how it functions properly. who knows, maybe he actually knows about that abandoned building in the forbidden forest + why it’s there in the first place. maybe he can actually elaborate the background of the goddamn 500 year conflict. if he actually does, bless my soul.

on relationships… while mousse is neutral but a former red, i imagine we’ll be seeing more of the ra guys rather than the ba, maybe… that’s fine with me since i’m interested in learning more about his relationship with lancelot, and maybe how he interacts with kyle + edgar since we already have a general idea of how he is around jonah + zero. but since the neutral faction has increased now, i’d like it if most of his interactions would involve more of his fellow neutrals. they need more screentime.

and finally, romantically… man, that ‘love at first sight… or is it?’ bit on his profile really gets me. oh, i will be ridiculously happy if that whole ‘love at first sight’ thing is interpreted as just sheer interest on mousse’s part. he’s in love with the visitor from the land of reason, with alice the second who hails from the same land as the first alice. he’s in love with the thought of her, a person who lives in a world so different from his own…but has he ever seen alice the second as the woman she is, as another human being??? this is probably unlikely to happen as mousse doesn’t seem too cold as a character but OOOOHHHHH I’D LOVE TO HAVE A TWIST（○□○）

tl;dr: a focus on red army history / more expository stuff on cradle. a toss between mousse interacting with the ra + neutrals, preferrably more of the latter. if cybird pulls a surprising twist / interpretation on mousse’s ‘love at first sight’ for alice, then i will LIVE.

dean. for starters, i’d like a little more understanding on how the boarding school he works in operates haha… i get it’s open to all regardless of status (red/black, noble/commoner maybe?), but what type of school is it, is it a regular one or a military academy of sorts??? if it’s a military type, to what extent are the students trained - basic combat/magic or are there advanced classes or all that shebang??? from what age are you able to enroll in it??? who runs it??? probably someone from the neutral faction / government itself but seriously speaking, is this the only school available in cradle??? if you’re wondering why i think that, i just find it odd that two different factions that have been in constant conflict still send their kids to study in that one school where anyone and everyone is accepted… i’d imagine the red side isn’t so happy about this more than the black side is, but maaaybe it’s a government-mandated / treaty / pact thing??? tbh i’m still on the fence on those ideas since there’s a lot more questions that would arise from that but… yeah. just… details, pls _(:3」∠)_ oh, more bonus points if we get more info about the day everything went dark!

anyway… dean being a professor appears underwhelming but it’s pretty interesting to take into account that he probably trained all(?) of them army suitors so… personally i’d be interested if there’s your teacher vs. student(s) fight scenes lmao. preferrably with dean still able to hold his own. bonus points if he taunts his opponent in the process with words like ‘i see you’ve forgotten your fundamentals’ or something haha! even more bonus points if we get dean/alice fighting the forces of evil magic disciples together!!! oh, that would be so good.

it would be fun if dean’s the type to subtly poke his former students with their dark history past mistakes when he sees them / needs them to settle down or smth. maybe he has dirt on someone like luka (and no, it isn’t about him feeding birds on the rooftop lmao). maybe he’s the only one who can make sirius & lancelot feel nervous easily, holy shit. but again, as dean’s a neutral, i’d prefer his interactions to involve more of his fellow neutrals. especially dalim. though that might be a given considering their relationship. i will greatly appreciate seeing more of the tweedle twins dynamic. even more if it turns out that the main conflict/antagonist of their individual routes happens not to be amon, but their other half and it’s not because of alice. AHHHHHH ( ･ᴗ･̥̥̥ )

idk what dynamic they’re gonna shoot for with dean & alice, but i do hope it doesn’t give off your ‘teacher-student’ vibes aha…… considering how dean’s personality appears so far though, i’d like to think that a slow burn would be fitting for them…? maybe something similar to lancelot’s where the conflict is given more focus than the romance itself.

tl;dr: background on the school + the day everything went dark. teacher vs. student(s) fight scenes + dean/alice fighting duo. dean being lolz evulz to his former students. tweedle twins drama, bless. if dean/alice gives off the teacher-student dynamic, well… can’t say i didn’t see that coming.

dalim. oh boy, while i’m trying hard not to expect anything for now, i can’t help but pray for something good with dalim. i think he has the best potential among the new three since he’s only (or first) suitor in an actual antagonistic position - he knows it, he accepts it, and he’s still going with it. if cybird handwaves a redemption arc for him thru the flimsy power of kira-kira labu (or friendship), i will be very, very, very disappointed. seriously.

anyway, there’s a lot of question marks surrounding him that i want answered but of course, more dirt on the magic tower. perhaps whatever details about the tower that they failed to address in harr’s route they can add + elaborate here, though i really wouldn’t mind knowing more nitty gritty on the human experimentation bit. then there’s the matter about the regression magic he developed. though maybe all before that detailed stuff, maybe some background about how dalim came to be a magic disciple would be good. and how and why he manages a pub on the side. origin stories are a must.

not gonna lie though - i’m more interested in his social life, his relationship with amon the first priority. how long has he known amon, did he approach amon or was it the other way around, when did he start serving amon, do amon and he have similar goals, how ‘loyal’ is he to amon, was he already amon’s subordinate when amon killed his father, did he help amon kill his father, why does he even serve such a guy in the first place... yeah, all that and more. hopefully those are going to be addressed. then there’s dean... if dalim’s goals + ambitions are purely for the sake of his older twin, i’m gonna cry a river. even moreso if his determination is so strong that he still chooses dean over his kira-kira labu for alice. now if cybird really does pull that off, consider me IMPRESSED. HOT DAMN.

them aside, in general his relationship tree seems complicated... he has strained relationships with harr + zero + loki + oliver, though it seems that he and harr still can seem to hold ‘conversations’ with each other... lancelot + seth don’t like him... idk if he was already involved in the day everything went dark operation, but if he was then ray + fenrir would definitely knock him down... lmao that’s a lot of hostility there, and that’s as dalim. as dum, zero + ray + fenrir + oliver are still wary of him haha! well, i hope his interactions with the rest of the cast will fare better / some of those relationships may not be as strained as they seem???

and the romance... since dalim’s human experimentation is a step farther and darker than edgar’s history of murder, there is no way you are going to make me swallow the possibility that he could go down the same route and be pardoned by cradle through trial. or in any way going to be redeemed + forgiven / set free quickly. no, i won’t accept it either if amon does something similar to a claudius and suddenly decides to say that he pulled dalim along for the ride (rather, i’d be furious). ends i’ll accept are dalim himself demanding for or receiving proper judgement for his actions. the feelings between dalim and alice are there & acknowledged, sure, but sadly regardless of what ending they physically cannot be together.

too angsty??? maybe it is, since i personally feel that his situation has the potential to feel more... well, military/war-fitting than the other suitors. i’m not hoping for that scenario simply because i want that extreme angst + drama, but rather because it somehow doesn’t sit right with me that someone so goal-focused, someone who seems to have walked down the wrong path of his own volition, who stated himself that he isn’t human and won’t let ethics stand in his way (zero’s route), would allow himself to be easily forgiven for all that he had done. it’s like a disservice. believe me, i like redemption arcs. but for something severe like what dalim dabbled in for what seemed like years... redemption almost sounds too kind.

i hope whatever they have planned for dalim would appear reasonable and satisfying, both to how they will portray his character and to the plot of his route as a whole.

tl;dr: more magic tower info. his history with amon. tweedle twins drama, bless. more insight into his relationship tree. cybird, dalim/alice’s foe yay has potential, pls don’t mess it up.....

#askdfghjl #the read more break went into the ask bubble like???#it looked odd so i transferred my response to text instead #i'm alright thinking about mousse + dean but dalim... ooooh boy #this ask made me laugh bc i recalled that some friends and i talked about something like this last year and it was messy #this post isn't any better than those convos lmaooo but i'd like to say i tried #i have other backlogs but i'm too excited to be home + finally sleep in my bed again BLESS

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set-phasers-to-whump · 5 years

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whumptober day 25

prompt: fever (alt prompt #3)

whumpee: malcolm bright

i don’t super like this but it is what it is yknow

He jolted awake, feeling immediately that something was wrong. Granted, he often jolted awake feeling that something was wrong, but this was different. He hadn’t been dreaming, he’d just-woken up.

It was freezing, was the first thing he noticed. He shivered in the cold and forced himself out of bed. He felt dizzy as he stood up, but that was nothing new. He let his head clear for a second, then got dressed for work, finding himself a warm coat and burying himself in it.

He arrived at work still shivering. His head had begun to ache on the way, and it was absolutely pounding now. He just needed to sit down, though, he told himself. All he had to do was sit down, and he’d be okay.

But he couldn’t be expected to sit still all day-there were murders to investigate. Three people had died so far, and Malcolm had come up with a profile the day before which had revealed five possible suspects. The NYPD was in the process of narrowing that list down, and he was helping.

Or trying to. His thoughts kept wandering, to his mother, his father, his days at Quantico, but mostly to his physical state. He was sick, and he knew it. He also knew that if Gil had even the slightest notion that he might be sick, he’d be sent home immediately. So he was pretending he wasn’t freezing, pretending he could see completely straight, pretending his head didn’t feel like it was being crushed in a vice.

He was doing a pretty good job, he thought. He provided commentary on the discussion as usual, but offered no additional insight. He was too tired to think of anything new.

Fortunately, they narrowed down the five-suspect list to two possible killers. Malcolm carefully looked over their information.

“It’s him,” he said finally, tapping one of the files. “He has a previous conviction.”

“Yeah, for theft,” JT said. “Plenty of people have previous convictions for theft. Not like the dude tortured some little animals or something.”

“It’s him,” Malcolm insisted. He could feel it.

“We have to talk to both of them anyway,” Gil pointed out. “We’ll do this one first.”

The three of them arrived at the man’s apartment fifteen minutes later. “It’s a shady area,” Malcolm pointed out.

“Thanks,” JT muttered. “Super helpful.”

Malcolm made a face at him, but JT had already turned away from him to knock on the door. “NYPD!” he called.

No response.

“Lights are off,” Gil said. “He might not be home.”

“No, he is,” Malcolm interrupted.

“How can you be sure?” JT asked, knocking again.

How could JT not be sure? Malcolm wondered. Couldn’t he hear the voices coming from the other side of the door?

“No?” JT said. “What voices? Gil, are there voices?”

Malcolm hadn’t realised he was speaking aloud, but he knew he was right-there was a conversation going on just behind the door that he couldn’t quite make out. He tried the knob. The door, unsurprisingly, was locked. He kicked it.

Gil grabbed him by the arms and spun him around, away from the door. Before Malcolm could stop him, Gil was pressing the back of his hand to his forehead.

“You’re burning up,” he remarked. “You didn’t think to tell me you had a fever?”

Malcolm flinched backwards. “I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’m really fine.”

“Malcolm, there aren’t any voices,” Gil said gently. “You’re hallucinating and you have a fever. One might assume those things are related.”

Malcolm turned his attention back to the door. “We can knock it down,” he suggested. “Or-”

“What part of ‘you have a fever’ are you not getting?” JT asked. “You’re not thinking straight.”

“I’m always thinking straight,” Malcolm said, and toppled sideways into JT.

Fortunately, JT had quick enough reflexes to catch Malcolm before he hit the ground. Unfortunately, JT had very little patience for people collapsing on the job, and he promptly flung Malcolm over his shoulder and walked back to the car. Gil followed him, reasonably assured that the suspect wasn’t home.

And he wasn’t home, but it didn’t matter-Gil had just started the car when his phone rang.

“We got him,” Dani told him. “Your suspect. He turned himself in maybe two minutes ago. Apparently he ‘couldn’t deal with the guilt.’”

“What a saint,” Gil said coldly. “We’ll be back a little late. Just have to make a quick stop.”

“Where’re we stopping?” Malcolm asked drowsily from the backseat. He sat up from where he’d been leaning unconsciously against the window.

“Your house,” Gil told him. “You’re going home and getting some rest, and some medicine, and you will not come back to work until I tell you to.”

“I won’t,” Malcolm said, leaning back up against the window as they pulled into the street.

“You won’t what?”

“Any of it,” he said. “I won’t sleep and I won’t take any drugs and I’m coming back to work with you right now.”

JT rolled his eyes. “How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked.

Malcolm looked at JT’s hands, but there were four of them, and they looked wrong. Dead. He pushed himself back into the door of the car, clamping his eyes shut firmly. JT only has two hands, he told himself. And they’re normal hands. Not dead hands.

He looked back at JT, who looked at him with a quizzical look on his face and blood dripping from his eyes.

Malcolm once again tried to push himself backwards through the car door.

“Hey,” JT said concernedly. “Bright. Bright!”

Malcolm kept his eyes shut. He shook his head. “It’s not real,” he whispered to himself. “It’s not real.”

“What’s not real?” JT asked.

“Malcolm, look at me,” Gil instructed from the front seat. Malcolm cautiously opened his eyes, sighing in relief when all he saw was the familiar face of Gil, turned slightly towards him.

“That’s dangerous,” he muttered. “You should focus on the road.”

Gil smiled and turned his head back to the front. “Just look at me, okay, kid?” he said. “Whatever you’re seeing, it isn’t real, I promise. You’re sick.”

Malcolm nodded, staring resolutely ahead at the back of Gil’s head. “I feel weird,” he observed.

“You’re sick,” Gil repeated. “You’ve got a fever. It’s normal to feel weird.”

“Oh,” replied Malcolm, and he closed his eyes again. He was so tired.

They arrived at Malcolm’s house fairly quickly. He was mostly awake, but not in any state to make his limbs cooperate. Therefore, JT once again threw Malcolm over his shoulder, lugging him up the stairs and into his house. He dropped Malcolm unceremoniously onto the couch and leaned against the wall.

Gil busied himself with locating something to reduce the fever, but of course, Malcolm’s home was completely devoid of drugs. He therefore settled for a cool, wet washcloth and sent JT off to the pharmacy.

“Don’t want medicine,” Malcolm told him, once he’d been informed of where JT had gone. “I might not wake up, I might get stuck in a dream, it’s dangerous…”

“I’ll stay with you, okay?” Gil offered. “I’ll make sure you wake up.”

“You don’t have to,” Malcolm said, not very convincingly.

Gil was already calling Dani, making sure he didn’t need to come back to the precinct.

“It’s pretty cut-and-dry,” she told him. “I mean, we’ll need you tomorrow, for sure, but I think we’re good for the afternoon. What’s going on?”

He told her. “He didn’t say anything?” she asked.

“He never says anything,” Gil said. “I should’ve seen it sooner, but I was so focused on the case…”

“Well, he’s alright now, isn’t he?” Dani pointed out. “Resting?”

“Somewhat. I sent JT to get some fever reducers, and I’m staying so I can wake Malcolm up. The drugs make it harder to wake up,” he explained.

“Makes sense,” Dani said. “He’s lucky to have you.”

“Don’t I know it,” Gil said, smiling to himself. “He’d be back at work right now if he’d been given a choice.”

“That sounds about right,” Dani said. “Hey, do me a favour and let him know he was right? About our killer, he had the right man.”

“I’ll tell him,” Gil promised. He hung up and turned to Malcolm, who had already fallen asleep on the couch. He smiled and found a blanket to drape over him, then sat down next to him and waited for JT to get back. He’d have to wake Malcolm then, make him take some medicine, but for now, he could sleep.

this is kind of eh but its been a long week lol,,,should have something more polished tomorrow hopefully tho

#i say hopefully bc im Doing Stuff tomorrow so i might be busy but we'll see #whumptober2019 #altno.3 #fever #hallucinating #malcolm bright #prodigal son #my writing #i say things

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fortheloveofkuroo · 5 years

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Downpour

You sighed. The sky is looking gray and cloudy. Looking so gloomy and sad. With a slight of a not-so-heavy-but-not-so-light-either rain.

Another bad weather and now you're stuck in the school. All alone by yourself. Actually today makes your third time being stuck in the school untill dawn.

It's actually kinda funny. Somehow you can predict the weather and you still forget the silly little umbrella. This morning's sky is already so dark and in this state everybody will atleast bring their umbrella. But not you.

"Crap, i think i left my wallet in the class-" "Ah it's raining."

Your heart explode. Someone's voice is behind you. And it sounds familiar. A tall figure is now standing behind you.

You turn your head quickly, looking at the boy with two tone hair, heterochromia eyes, and those emotionless yet charming face. His brown-torquoise eyes are staring right into the gray sky. Guess this time you're not the only one who got stuck.

"Aren't you going home?" he turn his face to yours and made an eye contact. And this got you nervous as hell. I mean, how can you act normal around this perfect charming man without feeling nervous. And it's getting worse when he move himself to stand next to you.

Your cheeks are burning, heart heating fast. Why? Because you got a crush on him. I mean, come on who doesn't?

It's all started when you met him on elementary. At first, you hate him. He's so cold and mean. But a weird feelings started to appear in your chest when you see him smiling to himself when he eats his favorite meal and eventually you fall for him in the 3rd grade. He's already famous. He's good looking and smart and strong. You actually admire his scars, despite those cold gaze and unsociable self.

Then Junior High is coming. Once you both graduated, Shoto went to a nearby famous Junior High. He's gone and you just throw your feelings away like it was nothing. Like those 3 years of memories never happened. Still, sometimes you remember how silly yourself trying to talk to him and get to close to him.

"It was a puppy love. I know nothing back then." those are the words you keep thinking when you remember the pieces of memories about him. But you aware that this feeling could go back someday.

And it does. When High School starting, you expect nothing. Really. Untill on your second year, He applied to your school. Same grade, but different class.

You feel nothing. Even though there is a slight hope waiting inside your little heart, you choose to ignore it. The first day of school is getting closer. And you looking forward to see his face. The fact that waiting to be able to saw him again is somehow.. Exciting? Like is he getting taller? Does his voice change already? And all of the basic stuff you want to know.

And the day is here. You saw him. Quickly making your way to him. You greet him with a cheerfull "Hi!". You already prepared yourself for getting no reply, instead his gaze met yours and a small smile curve on his lips. all of sudden his hand reaches your arm and grips it. "You're here? You study at this school?" he ask you obliviously. Duh, you're actually wearing the uniform right now.

You laugh. His oblivious self is still there. But he changed a lot. And the fact that your heart skip a beat when his hand touched you. What does it mean?

"Hi."

Your mind went blank. Shoto smiles? Is this a dream? You look shocked and Shoto just stood there infront of you with his oblivious face. And his first day of school are filled with girls surrounding him. But the way he only show his smile to you is just doesn't make sense to you.

Another day when Shoto made your heart almost popped off your body, It's Lunch. Just when you make your way downstairs, a voice rings in your ear. It's him.

"Uh hey." he walks quickly to match your pace. You, who's now red as hell only nods.

"Aren't you going to eat? Let's go." his slender hand pat your arm and he just disappeared. And that little contact is enough to make you blushing like crazy. Right after buying your lunch meal, you pass him quickly. Avoiding any eye contact that possibly will just make you nervous and awkward.

Then there's today. You two, alone got stuck. You silently steal a glance at his side profile and your cheeks already heating up. Goddamnit why did he always manage to steal your heart?

"You didn't bring your umbrella?" he asked, without turning his head. Still staring blankly at the sky. You shook your head. and sits at the entrance.

Shoto sigh. "It's practically dark this morning, why don't you bring one?" You frowned. "Well how about You?" looking at his empty hands you're assuming that he doesn't bring any umbrella too.

"Well actually yes i didn't bring one for myself too." Shoto agree. You smiled when he sits beside you and hums. He's still the same Shoto you know. But what happened to him after all of these years just to comeback and i don't know, see you again after all this time?

He tilted his head. Eyes locked on yours. His different-colored eyes are just stunning. But your heart is too weak for that so you have to look away. Not too long, you hear a little chuckle. Shoto laughs.

"W-What's so funny?" you asked. Panicking if maybe something weird is on your face. He shook his head and once again smiles. Ah those smiles. The smiles that melts your heart. "You're so red. You look like a boiled crab." Feeling insulted, you hit his arm. "How dare you!" you shouted. Shoto only laughs.

"So.. Are we planning to stay here untill the rain stop, or?"

Shoto glances at you. Then gave one more smile to you. He stands up. Is he going to ask you to go home together with him? So you followed him and stands up too.

"Actually i-" "Sho!"

a high-pithed voice come from the hallway surprises you both. A beautiful girl with a black silk-like hair appear with an umbrella in her hand. She smiles to Shoto then to you.

"This is Momo." Shoto introduce her to you. She bows and smiles gracefully. "It's nice to meet you (Y/N)-san. I hear a lot about you from Shoto."

"She's my girlfriend. Isn't she pretty?" he smile. Those precious smile.

Your eyes widened. Your smile slowly fading. Did he just said "girlfriend"?

"I'm actually planning to go home with her. Is it okay? You're alone though." Shoto asked you with a worry face and you quickly shook your head. Eyes looking down with a forced fake smile.

"It's fine. You can go. Be carefull. The road is slippery." you smile. Eyes avoiding his face. Making sure that he doesn't find out your teary eyes.

"Alright then. See you (Y/N)." he left with her girlfriend. Sharing the same umbrella. You clenched your jaw. Looking up and stare at the ceiling. Prefenting the tears to go down and spill.

Your head is a mess. At this time, you don't even care what will happen. So you grip your bag and run. Running through the heavy rain. Cold water keeps hitting your skin. Making your hand and legs tremble. It's cold.

But the view infront of you is more painfull. Looking at them, the boy you always loved and his perfect girlfriend, holding each other's hand and feeling each other's warmth under the same umbrella in a heavy rain.

Yout forced a little smile. Atleast your tears aren't visible now.

---

It's actually a Normal High School!AU. And this is true story hehe. This story is actually my story. But ofc i added something to make it more dramatic. Untill now my feelings are still unstable lol it's okay tho hope yall enjoy this short story!

#boku no hero academia #boku no hero imagines #bnha imagines #bnha todoroki #shoto todoroki #todoroki shoto #todoroki shouto #bnha #my hero academia

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hitsuackerman · 4 years

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Unpredictable (Overhaul x Reader) pt.6

a/n: uhm... a lot happens here tbh xD its pretty long tho ;)

warnings: this cannot be read solo, a bit of harassment

Links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 7

Masterlist to my other fics: here :)

Overhaul’s waiting list: @jjk-biased @infinite-universe-love @dirtypride @blackymomo03

The ride was quick and you were now facing the entrance of the hotel. The facade of the hotel looked like it was fresh from a Gatsby movie. Golden lights illuminated every few meters of the hotel making it glow ethereally. Counting the floors from your window, you estimated it to be 8 or 9 floors. It was extravagant. Nothing more to it.

When the car drove to the entrance, the doorman was quick to open the door once the car came to halt. It was a surprise when Overhaul offered his arm to help you get out of the vehicle, in those killer heels, you had to accept. Biting your inner cheek, you had to admire how solid his arm was and how classy his tux felt.

The contact was short. Once he saw you were out, he wasted no second of removing his arm from your hand. Walking 5 steps ahead, you didn’t bother complaining with his actions. Somehow, it was also better this way. This gave you more opportunities to move freely.

The same doorman quickly opened the main entrance and even asked for your coat.

Once the coat was gone, you felt the chilly wind graze your back. It wasn’t too much to handle, of course. Your body just had to adjust. As you were thanking the employee, you failed to see how your companion did a double take when he saw just how classy you looked in your outfit. He would never say it but, he caught himself just before his jaw could drop any further. Thank goodness he had the mask.

“You clean up nicely.” He commented.

You matched his pace effortlessly and realized that he had just complimented you. Facing him, your mouth formed a small ‘o’ and once again, you blinded him with a smile. Strangely enough, even for him, it was satisfying.

“You just complimented me~” Your voice was playful and the cheeky grin on your face was something you just couldn’t hold back. “You look sanitized yourself.”

Underneath the mask, he couldn’t fight back the developing smirk. This would be an interesting night, he was almost certain.

Calling to mind the invitation, the event would take place in the biggest event hall the establishment had. Once you were inside the elevator, the built in LCD screen monitor showed to you which floor you had to go to. As soon as the screen was tapped, the elevators went up and the music began to play.

Of all the things your mind could have thought of, you recalled what Gei said. On how if he were to ever disappear when the food would come, you could find him in the men’s toilet. Lowering your head, you tried to hold back your laughter. It all backfired when you ended up snorting.

“What’s so funny?” Overhaul asked. His eyes remained focused on the LCD screen.

“Nothing that concerns you…” You replied. Fingers covering a portion of your mouth. Curse Gei and his imagination. Clearing your throat, you quickly changed the subject. “So, what exactly is going to happen in the gala?”

“From what I have gathered, the head of the Fukuo Kai wants to gather a few villains to join him.”

“How would he do that though?”

The doors opened and both of you were now facing a hallway, letting you step out first, he followed shortly. Both of you walking side by side, with a safe distance in between. The hallway floors were carpeted red and the entire area smelled of roses. Noticing that he was still silent, he was probably thinking what ways the boss could gather people.

“It would probably depend on his mood.” He finally answered.

When the event hall was now in front of you, rope barriers lined up showing you where to go. Though there was really no need since it was just a straight walk from where you stood. There was a golden podium with 2 uniformed staff ready to greet you both.

“Names?” The taller one asked.

“Shinoda.” Overhaul answered.

Now that you heard him saying a name, it had dawned to you that the profile you had for him did not include his real name. Surely that wasn’t his real name. The way he said it so nonchalantly made it look so natural. What was his name? It would be a rather personal question to ask and that was something you weren’t ready for. Not yet, at least.

When the doors were open, the soft classical music serenaded your ears. The lights were dim but the spotlight on the stage was bright as ever. Tailing behind your partner, he brought you to a high top bar near a large window. He thought it would be a good vantage point to quietly observe people.

A waiter came by and filled your water goblets up. Observing the room, there were still plenty of vacant tables. It had only been 20 minutes since you left the house, so there was still 40 left to kill.

“How did you get the invite, Shinoda?” You asked him. It was weird saying that name. Somehow, it just didn’t fit his face. “It was sent to the Shie Hassaikai.” He replied as he began to remove the strap from his right ear. Holy shit. He was actually going to take his mask off. Except, there was a gut feeling in you that didn’t want him to.

“Wait…” You managed to speak. He froze in place, his smooth cheek now partially exposed. What you'd give to see all of him but things just felt off around here. It was as if a pair of eyes were watching your every move. Playing it off as a normal conversation, you broke eye contact and surveyed the area once more. “Don’t take your mask off.”

How you told him subtly hit different. He didn’t really care if people saw him without the mask during an event like this. Yes, he’s the Shie Hassaikai boss but he preferred to stay away from the limelight. Were you actually thinking of his safety despite him being more than capable of defending himself? Either way, he placed the strap back on and watched as the hall became packed.

With the hall now jam packed, the both of you went separate ways but agreed to come back after 30 minutes.

Blending in with the group was basic to you. What made things difficult was the possibility of Akuji catching your train of thought. Trying to look for a familiar face, you were only met by stares from the guests.

“Looking for me, pretty lady?” A voice said from behind you. Turning around you were met with a man with piercing gray eyes. His hair kept back and his stubble framing his jaw. Stretching a hand, you accepted it out of courtesy. “Name’s Akuji.”

Swiftly transferring his grip to your wrist, he pulled you towards a secluded high top table. Yanking you even closer, he snaked his arm around your waist and held on to your side firmly.

“So what’s a fine lady like you doing in a gala like this?” His face, a little too close for your liking.

“I’ve heard about you.” There was no room for thinking. Whatever came to your thoughts, you had to say it. “You have a pretty strong quirk. What brings you here?”

“I have some business to deal with. You with someone, sweetcheeks?”

“My boss.”

“And who might that ‘boss’ be?” He brushed his nose on your cheek. Feeling you trying to push yourself away, he tightened his grip on your waist and pulled you in even tighter. The faint smell of mint and cigarette was not the best scent.

“Shinoda.” You promptly answered. Saving no room for complaining thoughts. “Though, he will be displeased if he sees you groping me like this. He’s quite known for his anger issues.”

“A threat?” His eyes widened with delight. Just as he was about to talk, a deep voice introduced itself. Turning both of you around, you stared at an old but muscular man. His hair gray, face a tad wrinkled, but his frame showed years of hard work. “Ah. Just who I wanted to see.”

“Still cornering women, Akuji?” The man said. He rested his elbow on the bar and eyed you. A satisfied nod followed as he looked at the man still touching your waist. “What’s your name?”

“I was instructed not to casually give my name.” That was a good one. But was it good enough? “He says not to trust anyone here.”

“Fair enough.” The old man replied. Looking back at Akuji, he cleared his throat and reached for something in his breast pocket. Extending his hand, a business card sat snuggly in between his index and middle finger. Akuji stared at the card and hummed.

“Well, it would be a pleasure~” He shortly tucked his hand and the card in his pocket. “Till then.”

It had barely been 5 minutes and the two men had already gone separate ways. Akuji, however, still kept his hold on you. His actions had changed from groping to steady up and down movements. It was evident he was enjoying the sensation of touching another woman.

“Sir,” You finally had enough. This would be the second time someone defiled you today and you were not living. “If you don’t let go of me I swear, there will be consequences.”

“Feisty.”

“Did you not hear what she said?”

Glancing over your shoulder, you were more than relieved seeing his face. But, the look in his eyes and the aura he was giving was something you had not felt before. His usual calm features were replaced with his eyebrows pulled down together. The same golden eyes you came to adore were glaring at the man holding on to you. His fingers began to play with the hems of his left hand’s glove.

“Shinoda-san!” Akuji greeted Overhaul. His palms remained glued to your dress. “What happened to that previous secretary of yours? The one with blue hair? Was he not to your liking?”

“Akuji.” Overhaul’s voice was deep and his jaw clenched. You watched as he freed his hand from the rubber confinement. “Let her go.”

You felt your mind lighten. His grip on your thoughts was now nonexistent. If your hypothesis was right, Akuji was now focused on reading Overhaul’s mind. Perhaps that was his quirks downfall, he could only do it one person at a time…

“Someone’s protective of their employee~” Akuji taunted Overhaul. Either this man was dumb or just plain fearless. Attempting to hold on to Overhaul’s wrist, he managed to read his mind and went with the left one instead. When his hand made contact with Overhaul’s exposed skin, he saw the look of hatred and disgust in his eyes.

“This is why I don’t like attending events like these.” Lifting his other hand, you saw how he had overhauled his left hand’s glove. Not wanting to catch attention or to cause a scene, you immediately ran and wedged yourself between the two men. Your palm resting on his chest as you pushed him ever so slightly.

“Enough. Shinoda-san.” You tried to calm him down. He was still focused on Akuji. Finding the courage, you managed to snake your hand and cup his masked cheek. Your hands were shaky as you had literally just invaded his personal space even more. When you managed to make him face you, you stared into his pupils and gave him a small smile. “Calm down. Not here. Please.”

Feeling his chest lower as he exhaled, his eyes darted back to Akuji.

“Don’t touch me.” Pulling his wrist away, his free hand held on to your waist as he tugged you closer towards him. “And do not ever touch her with your filthy hands.”

Putting his palms into the air, Akuji took a step back. The picture in Overhaul’s mind was one he would rather not want to read again. Ogling one more time at you, he lowered his head with a smirk before he left the both of you alone.

Allowing yourself to be dragged by him all the way back to your table, you kept stealing glances at his face. He was still angry but his level-headed state was slowly coming back. Upon arriving at the table, he still hadn’t let you go from his hold. Craning your neck to look at him, you waited for him to talk.

“Explain what the hell just happened.”

“I was trying to look for how he would gather people but then I remembered that Akuji would be here. I recalled that he could read minds and I think he used his quirk on me.” You explained. Heart beating rapidly in your chest. “I wanted to think up something but I realized that it would only result in failure.”

Now that you were talking about it, you remembered the exchange they had.

“But I got something out of it. There was this old man who gave him a business card. Perhaps it could be related?”

Rubbing the bridge of his nose with his left hand, he reached for something in his pocket and presented it to you. Your eyes widened when you saw the same one from before.

“That man you just saw was the leader of the Fukuo Kai.” Placing the small piece of paper on the table, he looked at you once more. The look and feel of his anger, gone. “Be more careful. It would be most troublesome to have to clean up any sort of mess.”

Noticing that the skin on his wrist was inflamed, you chewed on your lower lip and felt your guilt rising.

“You’re breaking out.” You pointed out.

“What are you talking about?” The arm wrapped around your waist was feeling fine.

“Your wrist. Where he touched you.”

Right. He forgot about that. Shaking his head, he brushed your statement and told you he could fix it in an instant. Freeing you from his arm, he took a step back and began to heal himself. It was only a small patch of skin so it was gone in a matter of seconds.

Taking the card, you placed it in your purse. Telling him that you got what you needed, he reached for his phone and called for the car to pick the both of you up. The air between you two began to grow more and more tense as the seconds flowed by. It wasn’t long before he received the message that the car was now waiting at the drop-off area.

Inside the elevator, the silence was killing you. The music was nothing but a nuisance.

“Are you mad?” Breaking the silence. He did not answer nor bother to look at you. “Look. I’m sorry, okay? I lowered my guard down for a few seconds and it led to all of this.”

“Learn from what just happened, (L/N).” His eyes eventually found yours. “I might not be there to help you.”

“Thank you, though.” Heat was now rising to your cheeks, you knew it. “For saving me back there.”

The doors opened and you stepped out first. As the both of you walked towards the lobby, you saw the car on the opposite side of the door. The doorman recognized you and immediately went to the back to fetch your coat. Accepting your clothing, you wished him a safe night before exiting the hotel.

Seated in the car once more, you let out a long sigh and leaned onto the backrest. Your trench coat, jacket, and your boxed heels laid in front of you. With everything that had happened, you failed to get any food in your system. The WcMac you ate had already vanished.

“Overhaul.” You were really going to do it.

“Hm?”

“I’m hungry…”

“You’re really burden, do you know that?” Lowering the partition by 2 inches, he faced you once more. “What do you want to eat?”

“Mendy’s…” If you could melt into the leather chairs, you would.

“And stuff your face with grease?” Whatever you could see of his face was etched with annoyance. But the way his pupils were a bit dilated told you otherwise. “Nemoto. Shipotle, now.”

“Shipotle?” You questioned as the partition closed. “You seriously think they’re healthy?”

“No.” He replied flatly. “But they have a decent menu offering healthy meals. Take it or leave it.”

“Fine. I won’t complain.”

After the short drive thru in Shipotle (Nemoto and Chrono also ordered but they didn’t tell), your hands were now full and Overhaul was carrying both your jackets. Quickly opening your door, you placed your food on the small table beside the door and took both your jackets from him. When you saw the jacket your boss defiled, you felt like puking and seized it in your hands.

Overhaul was standing in the lobby. Probably to say farewell.

“I have one last favor.” You lifted the piece of clothing and gestured for him to hold it. “Destroy it.”

“May I ask why?” He wouldn’t mind tearing it apart but the request was all too sudden. Something must have happened a few hours ago, he knew it.

“It’s filthy.” That’s all it took. Witnessing his quirk in action, you saw how the cloth morphed and seemingly exploded into nothing. “Wow.”

“Any more favors?”

“None that I can think of.” You beamed. Once again, you couldn’t see it but his jaw dropped underneath the mask.

“In that case,” He bowed. “I shall take my leave.”

“Good night, Overhaul.”

“And to you, (L/N).”

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so.... did yall like the smol interaction with bird daddy? feel free to message me if you have any questions or if you wanna be tagged :) take care!

#overhaul x reader #overhaul #bnha overhaul #mha overhaul #chisaki kai x reader #bnha chisaki kai #mha chisaki kai #chisaki kai

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