#just to say. hey. this character mattered. their feelings mattered. they were human. even if it was all for nothing in the end | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

such-expensive-mistakes · 6 months

Text

When Oliver Queen was dead, he ended up in the Infinite Realms, where he inadvertently became the mentor to teen ghost hero Phantom. After Ollie came back to life, he made a point of reaching out to Phantom, just in case the kid needed anything.

DCxDP Week prompt: found family

Author's Notes: I've tried to make this accessible as possible to those of you who aren't familiar with the Arrowfam, but here are links to character primers on Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden if you want them. If you are familiar with GA comics, then just know that this is set loosely during the 2001 run. And finally, the idea of a hero in the Infinite Realms helping mentor Danny was largely inspired by Blueseabird2's fic Grave Promises. (It's excellent! If you haven't read it, go do that!)

"Do you remember it?" Ollie asks, looking at Superman out of the corner of his eye. They're standing in front of Oliver's grave. Always made the right enemies. It's a hell of an epitaph; Ollie wonders who came up with it. Roy or Dinah, probably.

"Remember..." Superman says.

"Being dead."

Supes gives him that same look everyone seems to be giving Ollie these days, like he's not quite sure if Ollie is all there in the head.

"Never mind." Oliver waves a hand. "Just thinking."

He does remember it, is the thing. He remembers the endless Infinite Realms, as green as any of Hal's constructs. He remembers the ghosts-- the ones who had originally been alive like him, and the ones that had never lived at all. Humans and aliens and otherdimensional beings, all together in one place. He remembers being in the same costume he'd died in, only color-flipped to red. (That was just wrong. Red was Roy's color, not Ollie's.)

And he remembers Phantom.

He'd met Phantom pretty early on. Time in the Infinite Realms was tricky; it didn't move like time did on Earth. Sometimes it went slower, sometimes faster, sometimes it even seemed to go backwards. So he didn't remember exactly how long he'd been in the Realms before coming across Phantom, but it didn't feel like long.

Phantom had been chasing down some magical artifact when he'd come across Oliver-- or rather, Red Arrow-- who had picked a fight with an asshole ghost way more powerful than him.

Some things never changed. But hey, ghost arrows were pretty nifty.

Phantom had helped him out, and in return Ollie had offered to help Phantom with tracking down the artifact he was looking for. As they talked, it quickly became obvious that Phantom was doing the whole teen hero thing-- and not just in the Realms, but on Earth. He clammed up when Ollie asked too many questions, but it was pretty clear that he didn't have a mentor or anything.

"Do you have the Teen Titans in your world?" Oliver asked, having learned by that point that the Infinite Realms connected every dimension out there.

"Yeah," Phantom had said, looking wary.

"You should talk to them," Oliver said. "It helps to have someone out there on your side, who knows what you're dealing with." The Titans had been good for Roy. Not just friends, although they were that, too, but an extra support system.

But Phantom shook his head. "I can't." And then he'd gone on to describe the Anti-Ecto Acts and the GIW.

Ollie had never exactly been a fan of the government-- too much corruption, too many rich assholes using the system to protect themselves-- but this still managed to surprise him. And while he was pretty sure his own world's Teen Titans wouldn't stand for this kind of thing-- or even the JLA, no matter how badly they sometimes overreached-- he had no way of knowing whether Phantom's Teen Titans were the same ones he knew.

"Tell you what," Ollie said. "Next time you get a chance, track me down and I'll show you a few things. I don't know how much help I'll be with superpowers, but--"

"Really?" Phantom had asked, then surprised Ollie by hugging him.

That was the start of it. They'd tracked down the artifact, Phantom had left the Realms to go back and do his hero thing on Earth, and Oliver was left to second-guess himself until the next time Phantom came around.

Oliver wasn't exactly a perfect mentor. He'd done his best for Roy, but there were so many things he would do differently if he had the chance. But he was better than nothing, which was what Phantom had been working with before.

Phantom didn't need to learn archery; he had superpowers. But Ollie managed to teach him a thing or two about picking your shot and waiting for the right moment. About trusting your instincts and dodging bullets (or ectoblasts).

Phantom was cagey about anything that wasn't hero work, but Oliver managed to glean a few details. He had a couple of living friends who helped him out, he was frequently chased down by ghost hunters, and most of the town he was based in didn't think particularly highly of him. And that was on top of his whole rogue's gallery of villainous ghosts, not to mention the GIW.

"You can't make people like you," Ollie advised him. "Even if you do all the right things. You just have to trust yourself and ignore the public opinion." God knew plenty of people had hated the Green Arrow over the years.

It had been rewarding, in a way Ollie had almost forgotten, watching Phantom grow as a hero. Watching him grow more confident and more skilled-- and Ollie wasn't giving himself credit for all of that, but he'd helped bring those qualities out.

And then, Oliver came back to life.

"Where to next?" Roy asks, as they drive out of Central City. Ollie appreciates that Roy is willing to follow his lead on this, even though it's clear Roy thinks he's being ridiculous. Sure, Wally would probably have let Ollie have that old ring of Barry's if he'd asked, just like the JLA would probably have let him have the diamond-tipped arrow. But those things weren't theirs to keep or give in the first place.

"Amity Park, Illinois."

Roy gives him a skeptical look over the top of his sunglasses. "The hell is in Amity Park?" He's bracing himself to hear about some other memorabilia Ollie left behind upon his death, something else that wasn't disposed of the way Ollie had requested. Something else that other people-- even Roy-- think insignificant.

That would be easier to explain than this.

"Maybe nothing," Oliver says. "But I need to be sure."

Finding Amity Park in the first place is a task and a half. It's not on the map Roy keeps in his glovebox, and they have to ask directions at multiple gas stations across Illinois before they arrive.

It's immediately clear that they're in the right place. Amity Park is a small city-- barely even a city, really. But the property damage evident on the streets and the buildings is on par with the aftermath of an alien invasion.

Roy slides off his shades. "What on earth..." He glances at Oliver. "Ollie, what is this?"

A green streak shoots across the sky, followed by a white one.

Phantom.

"Follow them!" Ollie points at the ghosts.

By the time they arrive, it's a stand-off. The other ghost has disappeared, but Phantom is hovering twenty feet off the ground, dodging blasts from a couple in brightly colored hazmat suits.

The Fentons. Ollie had heard a few stories about them while he was in the Infinite Realms, though Phantom had been reluctant to talk about them.

"Ollie," Roy says. In his voice, Ollie can hear all the suppressed rage he himself is feeling, watching a child-- a superpowered child, but a child nonetheless-- getting shot at.

"Not yet." Ollie wants to help, but he doesn't want to make things worse by jumping in without thinking. Their help isn't needed in the end; Phantom manages to disappear from sight while the ghost hunters are distracted.

Oliver tells the whole story to Roy over dinner at the local fast food joint.

"Jesus Christ," Roy says.

"So you see why I want to talk to Phantom," Ollie says.

"Aren't you already training two kids already? You gonna add all of this on top?"

"Connor doesn't need training. He could probably teach me a thing or two. And no one is training Mia in anything." Okay, that last part isn't quite true; Oliver knows for a fact that Connor has been giving Mia lessons in archery and hand-to-hand. But as long as she's not trying to put on a costume and fight crime, he'll pretend he doesn't know. Hell, it makes him feel better, knowing that she has a trick or two up her sleeve.

"Phantom can't be much older than she is," Roy says, a hint of judgment in his tone.

"Phantom is already dead," he says. Roy flinches a little. "And he doesn't have a Hal Jordan to bring him back."

They go back to their burgers. It's not until Oliver is crumpling up his wrapper that he speaks again.

"Look," Ollie says. "This is a lot bigger than Phantom. And based on what I know of him, he's not going to want to leave Amity Park. But I want to let him know that someone's got his back."

Roy claps him on the shoulder. "More than just one person."

Tracking down Phantom for a conversation is harder than it sounds. Oliver doesn't know how much time he even spends out here, rather than in the Infinite Realms. Not to mention the handy ghost power of invisibility.

He suits up and stakes out a rooftop downtown, with Roy doing the same on the other side of town. He's just getting ready to pack it in for the night and try it again tomorrow when a familiar form materializes next to him.

"Arrow?" Phantom asks.

Oliver smiles. "Hey, kid."

"What-- how-- you're alive?" Phantom sputters a little.

"Am now," Ollie says. "A friend of mine brought me back." He gives a quick overview-- Green Lantern, godlike power, decided what the world was missing was one Oliver Queen.

"I'm going to do what I can about the Anti-Ecto Acts and the GIW," Oliver says. "But if you ever need anything, give me a call. Or just track me down in Star." He hands a slip of paper with his phone number and email on it to Phantom.

"Danny," Phantom says.

"Sorry?"

"My name. It's Danny."

"Oliver." Ollie holds out his hand and Danny shakes it. "Good to meet you, Danny."

For a while, he only hears from Danny through irregular emails and the very occasional phone call. Ollie leans on his Justice League acquaintances to help repeal the Anti-Ecto Acts and get rid of the GIW. It's slow going-- much slower than Ollie would like. Too many JL members are advising caution, wanting to find out more about ghosts and how dangerous they might be before they take a stand. Luckily, neither Superman and Wonder Woman were happy about Oliver's news, and hold a lot of sway with the American public. And rather conveniently, a number of reporters have suddenly begun looking into the Anti-Ecto Acts, stirring up public sentiment against them even more than before.

Things are looking good. And then, Danny shows up at the front door of Oliver's brownstone.

Oliver is making himself a sandwich when he hears the knock at the door. Mia (who had finally gotten Ollie to agree to let her be Speedy a few weeks back) is with the Teen Titans for the weekend, and Connor is working at the youth center for most of the day, so there's no one else here to answer the door. Ollie wipes his hands on a kitchen towel, and opens the door.

Ollie doesn't know it's Danny at first. The Danny he met was a ghost, complete with jumpsuit and white hair and superpowers. The kid that shows up at Ollie's front door is a living, breathing kid. He's got pale skin and dark hair and he can't be any older than sixteen. He's a little on the thin side, though given his age, he could just be going through a growth spurt, and the backpack slung over his shoulder is decorated with a NASA patch.

"Ollie?" the kid asks.

"That's me," Ollie says. "What can I do for you?"

"It's Danny. Phantom," he clarifies in a low voice. "From Amity Park."

He can see it, now that he knows to look. The face and build are the same, just color-swapped.

“I need your help,” Danny continues.

The kid looks like he’s about to fall over from exhaustion or stress or both.

Ollie opens the door a little wider. "Come on in. I was just making myself some lunch. You can tell me what's going on."

Danny follows him into the kitchen and takes a seat at the counter. Ollie finishes the sandwiches and slides one over to Danny.

Danny doesn't pick it up at first, busy fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie. “I don’t know where to start."

"Well, I gotta say," Oliver says. "You're looking pretty alive for a dead guy. I mean, same could be said for myself, but I told you how that happened."

Danny grimaces. "About that. It's kind of complicated."

Oliver leans against the opposite counter. "Hit me with it."

He already knows it's bad. He was worried about Phantom in the first place; that's why he gave Danny a way to contact him if necessary. Whatever made Danny travel halfway across the country to see him? It can't be good.

"My parents are the Fentons," Danny starts.

Immediately Oliver knows the story is going to be worse than he anticipated. "The ghost hunters. The ones who built the portal." Ollie had heard all about that portal during his sojourn in the Infinite Realms-- some from Phantom, some from other ghosts.

"Yeah. Well, the portal didn't exactly work at first. My friends wanted to see it, and..." Danny shrugs. "It worked better than anyone gave them credit for, it's just that they accidentally put the switch on the inside."

He can see where this story is going. "And you accidentally turned it on."

"Yeah. It killed me, but all the ectoplasm coming through the portal brought me back to life. So I'm only half-dead." Danny finishes up his sandwich but Oliver, who is familiar with the eating habits of superhero teenagers, hands him another one.

"I'm guessing your folks don't know."

"My sister does. My parents don't." Danny fidgets with the sleeves of his hoodie. "That's not important."

It seems a little bit important.

“It don’t know if there’s anything you can do,” Danny adds. “I just… I didn’t know where else to go.”

“You can stay here as long as you need to," Ollie says. There's an extra bedroom that Stanley used as an office, back when this place belonged to him. He'll need to get the junk cleaned out, but it should work for Danny. "But it might help if I had a few more details. Is someone gonna come looking for you-- or for Phantom?"

"I don't think so," Danny says. "Well, the GIW might, but they're not super active outside of Amity Park."

"We'll handle them if they show up." Oliver would love the chance to put a few arrows in them, and he's sure Connor and Mia would feel the same.

There's obviously more to this story than Danny is currently telling him, but Ollie isn't gonna press. Not yet. Long and difficult experience has taught him how badly that usually goes when dealing with teenagers.

Danny finishes up his lunch, and Ollie shows him around, eventually leaving him to hang out in the living room and watch TV. Ollie himself starts packing up the junk in the spare room. Danny might have to sleep on the couch for a day or two, until they get a bed for him to use, but it's an alright couch. Ollie has certainly slept in less comfortable places.

He doesn't realize how much time has passed until he hears Connor call him from downstairs.

"Dad?"

His tone of voice is carefully measured, but it's enough to remind Oliver that Danny is downstairs-- and that he didn't let Connor know about their new guest.

He dashes down the stairs and, sure enough, Connor and Danny are watching each other warily from other sides of the living room. Danny in particular looks like he wants to bolt.

"This is Danny," Oliver says. "He's gonna be staying with us for a while. And Danny, this is my son, Connor. He's the other Green Arrow."

"Nice to meet you," Connor says to Danny. Then, "Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ollie follows Connor downstairs to the training room in their basement. He has no idea how far Danny's enhanced senses extend outside the Infinite Realms-- or even if they work at all when he's not a ghost-- but Ollie suspects this conversation might not be as private as Connor is hoping.

"Are you sure about this?" Connor asks.

"He doesn't have anywhere else," Ollie says. "What do you want me to do?"

Connor runs his hand over his face. "I don't know. But have you even talked to Mia about this? When did you even meet this kid?"

"It was a sudden development," Ollie says. "So no, I didn't. But I don't think Mia's gonna tell me to send him packing." He knows that's not what Connor is worried about; for all her bravado, Mia is still insecure about many things. "As for how I met him... that's a bit of a story."

"Okay," Connor finally says. "As long as you're sure."

Ollie clasps his shoulder. "I appreciate it."

They don't explain anything further to Connor that night, which is probably unfair to him. But Ollie doesn't really want to make Danny explain more than once, and Mia won't be back until the next day.

Danny sleeps on the couch, and in the morning, he helps Ollie and Connor clean out the spare room. Mia shows up a little after noon, having gotten a ride back from one of her powered friends, and finds the three of them eating pizza in the living room.

"You better have saved me some," she says, as she tosses her overnight bag on the floor.

"Didn't your friends feed you?" Ollie asks, but he passes her the box of pepperoni.

Mia takes a slice and perches on the back of the couch, right next to Danny. "Hi! I'm Mia." She gives Danny a look that is probably intended to be flirtatious.

Danny looks a little like a deer in the headlights. "Uh, hi?"

Connor raises an eyebrow at Oliver, and yeah, maybe having a teenage boy staying in the same house as Mia is a bad idea. Then again, he's closer to her age than the guys she usually hits on.

"This is Danny," Oliver says. "Danny, Mia is my other kid. She's also Speedy."

They give Connor and Mia the cliff's notes version on ghosts and the Infinite Realms. Danny knows a lot more than Ollie does about all of it, but he's much worse at explaining. He either gets lost on tangents about inconsequential details, or he assumes they have more baseline knowledge than they do.

"I'm sorry," Mia says. "Can we go back to the part where ghosts exist?"

"We've fought actual demons," Connor says. "How are ghosts harder to believe?"

"Ollie was never a demon," Mia says with a shrug. Then she narrows her eyes at Oliver. "Were you?"

Ollie laughs. "Definitely not."

The next week or so is pretty quiet, by their standards. The Green Arrows and Speedy go out and handle low-level crime in the city every night, though Phantom stays in at Ollie's suggestion; if the GIW is looking for him, it's better if he lies low. It's a little worrying how easily he agrees. It had never been that easy to convince him to do anything when they were training in the Infinite Realms.

Mia, who is better with technology than Ollie is, helps Danny send a message to his friends, letting them know he's safe.

"It's better if I don't give them too many details," Danny says. "Anyone who's looking for me will be watching them. All of our devices are encrypted, thanks to Tucker, but I don't want to take any chances."

Danny comes with them to help out at the youth center, even while Ollie tells him that he's welcome to stay home and play video games or whatever. Danny hasn't said anything about it, and so Ollie hasn't either, but Danny doesn't seem to want to be left alone for long.

Oliver wonders if that's because he's worried about himself or about them.

"So, where do your folks think you are?" Ollie asks at one point.

Danny shrugs. "Does it really matter?"

"Well, I'd like to know if I'm likely to be charged with kidnapping." Connor and Mia both shoot him judgmental looks, but it's not like either of them were under any illusions about Ollie's ability to be delicate. "I mean, I can handle it if I am, but I'd like to be prepared."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Danny says, and that's the subject closed for the moment.

Mia corners Ollie one afternoon at the youth center, while Danny is playing basketball with some of the kids. Danny is losing, badly. Turns out he's incredibly clumsy when he's not using his powers. The kids don't seem to mind, though, and Danny is a pretty good sport about it.

"We're keeping him, right?" Mia asks.

Oliver gives Mia a level look. He hasn't noticed anything beyond some flirting on Mia's side, but that doesn't mean much.

"Not like that," Mia says, rolling her eyes. "I mean, he's cute, but he's kind of dense."

"Funny, I'm pretty sure the same has been said about me," Ollie jokes.

"Whatever he's not telling us... it's got to be pretty bad, right?" Mia says. "But he seems happy here. And we won't let anything happen to him."

There's a lot Oliver could say here: Danny has parents, he has friends, he has a home he obviously misses. By almost every measure, he's far more powerful than Ollie or his kids, and whatever has him scared is quite possibly out of their league. But the truth is, he feels the way Mia does.

"It's up to him," Oliver finally says. "But he's welcome to stay as long as he wants to."

Green Arrow and Speedy are crouched on a rooftop, taking aim at a couple of drug dealers, when Connor's voice crackles across the comms.

"I've got eyes on some guys in white suits," he says. "At Fifty-first and Green."

That's halfway across town, though nowhere near the brownstone. If something goes down in the next few minutes, Connor is going to be on his own.

"Don't engage," Ollie says. "We're on our way."

They break up the drug deal and make their way toward Connor, who has been updating them on the GIW's movements the whole while.

"I think they're looking for something," Connor says. "They keep stopping and checking some kind of device-- I think it's a tracker of some kind."

"They're looking for Danny," Mia says.

"How did they even know he's here?" Ollie wonders, but neither Mia nor Connor have any idea. He makes a split-second decision. "Mia, head back home and keep an eye on Danny. Tell him Connor and I are handling it."

Mia is obviously put out by being sent away from the action, but she complies. Oliver catches up with Connor, perching next to him on the edge of a roof. Down on the street, a couple of men dressed all in white exit a white van and wave around a couple of handheld electronic devices. They don't look up, which seems like a mistake from people who ostensibly deal with ghosts. Convenient for the Green Arrows, though.

Trailing the GIW agents is a piece of cake. Their all-white getup makes them clearly visible from a distance, and they seem to rely on their equipment rather than their eyes or ears.

Their apparent incompetence makes Oliver get a little cocky, and that's where things go wrong. He lands on the building closest to the agents, sure that they won't look up and see him-- and he's right.

Unfortunately, their device starts beeping just at that moment, and the two men are suddenly on high alert. Ollie gets the bad feeling that something about him is what set it off. They pull out their guns and look around wildly, until one of the geniuses gets the bright idea to look up. That's when they start shooting wildly at Oliver and Connor.

Their aim isn't great, and whatever kind of energy weapons they're using are only powerful enough to do some superficial damage to the building facade, but Ollie isn't eager to find out how it would feel to get hit by one of those. Fortunately, he and Connor are both much better shots than these guys.

They shoot the weapons out of the agents' hands first, then Ollie puts an arrow through one guy's hand while Connor puts one through the other guy's foot.

For a minute, it seems like it's going to be that easy. Then, three more white vans come peeling down the street and a dozen more agents pour out. Now, it's Oliver and Connor who are pinned down, ducking behind the roof's edge to avoid getting hit by those energy weapons.

Ollie puts an arrow through another guy's shoulder, and is just a smidge too slow getting back out of the way. The energy blast is going to hit him right in the shoulder. He braces to take the hit--

A green shield appears in front of him. The energy blast hits it and dissipates.

For a moment, Ollie thinks it's the work of a Lantern. And then he sees Phantom, a bright white and glowing target hovering above the street.

The GIW agents have completely disregarded Ollie and Connor, and are frantically shooting at Phantom. Phantom is dodging the blasts easily; there's no sign of the clumsiness that he's beset with when he's a normal human. One of the agents gets an arrow through his shoulder, and Ollie spots Mia perched on a roof across the street.

In hindsight, he really should have expected this. Neither of those kids are the type to sit at home when they could be helping instead. Even so, he doesn't like it.

With Danny distracting the agents, it's much easier for Ollie, Connor and Mia to hit them. They may be outnumbered, but the GIW agents are terrible shots. At some point, the agents seem to realize this, too, and flee back into their vans, limping and bleeding, and drive away.

"Follow them?" Connor asks.

"No," Ollie says. "I don't think they're going to try anything else tonight."

The four of them make their way back to the brownstone.

"I told you to stay here with Danny," Ollie tells Mia, once they're inside and putting away their gear.

"Did you really think I was going to listen?" Mia asks.

Ollie runs his hands over his face. "A man can dream."

"Besides," Mia adds, "from where I was standing it seemed like we bailed you two out. Right, Danny?"

With a flash of light, Danny transforms back to his human form. "I'm sorry," he says. "I don't know how they knew I was here."

"I'm not sure they did," Connor says. "They were looking pretty hard for something before they went after the two of us."

"But they were looking for me specifically," Danny says.

Ollie gives Danny a closer look. He's clearly nervous. More than just nervous, he looks like he's on the verge of taking off and running.

"What makes you so sure they're here for you?" Oliver asks. It's not that he doesn't trust Danny's instincts, but he doesn't feel like he's got the whole picture.

Danny leans against the workbench, almost knocking a set of half-finished arrows to the floor. "They've been trying to catch Phantom since the beginning," he says. "I kind of made their lives difficult."

"Good," Connor says, crossing his arms.

"Plus, a lot of Amity Parkers kind of... don't like Phantom? So the GIW heard about what a menace I was, and that didn't help. But then you got Superman and Wonder Woman and all of them to talk about how bad the GIW and Anti-Ecto Acts are, and that helped, and-- I had it handled. "

"So what happened?" Mia asks.

"My parents found out. And I kind of freaked out? And I flew off, and the GIW caught up to me." Danny looks around, takes in their stricken expressions, and hurries to add, "Not for long! But then I headed back home and my parents were telling everyone I was dead. I didn't know what to do, so I came here."

Oliver's head hurts just thinking about this mess. He walks across the room and wraps an arm around Danny. "We'll get this figured out," he promises, though he's not entirely sure how. "First things first. What do you want to do about your parents?"

Mia scowls at him-- she's clearly already formed her opinion on Danny's parents. Ollie can't say he disagrees, but he's made his own share of mistakes in the parenting department. He hopes that the Fentons might be able to come around, if only because Danny clearly loves them.

"The GIW..." Danny begins.

"I've got a few ideas about them." Ollie is a little torn between hunting them down himself, pointing Supes or someone in their direction, or letting it leak to the public that these government lackeys chased a kid halfway across the country. "Do you want to go back to your parents?"

"I don't know," he says. "I miss them, but... I don't know if they'll believe I'm really me. They think all ghosts are evil. But even if they believed me..." He trails off.

"You can stay here," Mia insists. "Right, Ollie?"

"Of course he can." He didn't actually need Mia's prompting for that. "You're welcome to stick around as long as you want, but you should at least stay until we get the GIW shut down."

Danny looks around the room at the three of them. Whatever he sees must reassure him because after a long minute, he nods. "Okay. At least until then."

#dc x dp fic #dcxdp #dpxdc #green arrow #arrowfam #dpxdc week 2023

647 notes · View notes

stellar-constellations · 7 months

Note

Hey, your work is just phenomenal I'd love to see some more headcannons. I was wondering if you could do some falling in love, or dating headcannons for these characters.

Demon Slayer

Sanemi Shinazugawa

Muzan Kibutsuji

Spy x Family

Yuri Briar (as your most popular he has to be here. <3)

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Kusuo Saiki

Toritsuka Reita

Kusuke Saiki

Danganronpa

Kazuchi Soda

Bungou Stray Dogs

Dazai Osamu

Assassination Classroom

Nagisa Shiota

Karma Akabane

I hope I'm not asking to much of you! Have a great day! <3

No problem! I've been waiting for a request!

Reader is female!

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR DEMON SLAYER, SPY X FAMILY, THE DISASTROUS LIFE OF SAIKI K, DANGANRONPA, BUNGOU STRAY DOGS, AND ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM!

Sanemi Shinazugawa

If you're a Demon Slayer like him, expect to live in his estate. If you're a normal civilian, also expect to live in his estate. Even if you're a part of the Slayer Corps or not, he wants to make sure you're safe.

I hope you like bugs because he owns a Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle. He'll let you hold if it you like bugs, if not, he understands and will keep him in his cage.

You'll most likely meet Genya and get along with him well, Genya might be shy with you at first since you're a girl, but he'll want to talk to you since you've caught his older brother's eye (which really seems impossible).

All of the corps and even the Hashira were shocked when word spread that you and Sanemi were dating. The corps most feared Hashira and the sweet girl?! Some believe it's a fake relationship to steer girls brave enough to chase after Sanemi away. When Sanemi heard the rumors he tracked down who started them and gave them the beating of their lives.

All of the corps is scared of Sanemi more than demons. If you're placed on a mission with someone other than Sanemi, they're placing your life at utmost importance. It doesn't matter if they're bleeding out, letting the demon escape, or having a whole village burn down, there is nothing too big to sacrifice other than your own life when facing Sanemi's wrath.

Sanemi likes ohagi, please make some with him. Not only is it a cute bonding experience together, but it'll make him fall more in love with you.

You can't make him wear collared or buttoned-up shirts. It's a proven fact.

Despite popular belief, Sanemi is very kind with his partner. He does his best not to yell at you and if he does he'll immediately apologize for it. He doesn't care if he has to swallow up his pride, your relationship together is more important to him than a mere title. He doesn't want to be seen as his father.

Sanemi will always be gentle to you. He knows he has a scary appearance and while he's proud of his figure and scars, he doesn't want them to scare you, they're supposed to scare demons!

Sanemi would never say it, but he likes when you and Genya get along together. It makes him happy knowing two of his favorite people are enjoying each other's company like how he enjoys theirs.

Sanemi is a jealous man and he'll make it known to you and everyone around him immediately (especially if Giyuu is around). He's always picking a fight because he knows he can kick anyone's ass that he feels is getting a little too buddy-buddy with you.

If you pet his hair or gently trace his scars, he'll consider marrying you.

Muzan Kibutsuji

If you're a human, he'll have one of the Uppermoons supervising and protecting you if he's not around (it'll most likely be Kokushibo).

If you're a demon, he'll trust that you take care of yourself. He'll give you his blood every now and then so you can grow stronger as a demon (but not strong enough to defeat him in case you'd ever try to defy him. But you wouldn't do that, right?) He cannot have a weak demon as a partner, that'd be insulting to his image.

Muzan would regularly buy you expensive kimonos and jewelry and act as if it isn't a big deal. Not only is it to flaunt you around to demons and humans, but it's an indirect way of showing his wealth and power to others.

It's canon Muzan had six wives in the past (all who committed suicide because he was verbally abusive or he just killed them) but he wouldn't treat you like that. Those wives were a cover for his human disguise so he felt no attachment to them, however with you, he'd do just about anything you tell him to (as long as it doesn't ruin his image).

Muzan still has a hard time with emotions. If you're a demon, he'll simply just read your mind to figure out what's wrong. If you're a human, he'll straight up ask you what's wrong. Either way, he's finding out so you might as well just make it easy and tell him, don't even try to beat around the bush since he's an impatient man when it comes to unpredictable things.

When you're alone together in peace and you're reading and he's doing research to find a cure to the sun, there's always a slight smile on his face. He enjoys the tranquility of the moment.

Muzan doesn't like physical affection, in fact he hates it because it makes him feel all weak, but if you're having a bad day he'll rub the back of your hands or give you a few head pats and threaten you to never speak of this to anyone.

You wear red lipstick the same shade as his eyes, another indirect way of saying you belong to him, just don't kiss him with it in front of others because it's not transfer-proof.

If you're a human, he'll try to convince you to be a demon with him so you can be immortal forever. If you reject, he understands and wouldn't push on about it until probably a couple years later. If you accept, he'll have a small smile on his face (don't point it out or he'll make your transformation a little more painful than necessary).

He's thought of having a kid so there can be a heir for his bloodline, but he quickly crossed that idea out when realizing that kids not only are bothersome, but he's a demon so he'll live forever (he believes).

Yuri Briar

You have to really be quite the person to catch his eye!

If you're a normal civilian, Yuri probably grew feelings for you because you're a stranger that's suddenly appeared in his everyday life. Same coffee place. Same bus home. Same breakfast sandwich order. Same grocery store. Even the same apartment complex! At this point Yuri's convinced you're either an obsessed stalker or a spy so he'd be keeping a close eye on you, only to end up falling in love with your simplicity.

If you're an agent of the SSS, you often helped Yuri with his work since he tends to overwork himself. Yuri greatly appreciates your help since you're his superior and even though you have way more work than him, you still put in the time to help him with his less complicated work. He's always got your back when it comes to raids or shootouts, can't let his favorite superior getting hurt! You treat him for his good work by getting drinks after work. One day you got drinks together and Yuri realized that this is basically like a date. Ever since then his feelings just grew for you.

If you're a spy you and Yuri really have a complex dynamic, but one things for sure is that he falls the hardest. His always chasing you on the clock and off. Yuri doesn't exactly know when he caught feelings for you. Maybe it was when he first met you when you bumped into him wearing a disguise. Or maybe it was when he saw you later that day without your disguise and recognized your voice as you beat up him and his co-workers in a desperate attempt to escape from the SSS. It doesn't matter how you guys met, just remember he fell really hard.

Yuri always knows when there's something up with you. If your sad he'll comfort you with anything you need; a hot drink, blanket, comfort movie, a eight-foot-tall teddy bear, he has it all for you.

He likes buying you little trinkets such as necklaces or little keychains. He swoons whenever he sees that you're putting his gifts to use.

He loves your cooking! You can be a terrible or great cook; any food is better than Yor's.

Memorizes your schedule then perfectly plans a coincidental encounter between you two where you both can hang out.

If you ever get in a fight with someone, he'll always have your back (physical fight or verbal). Even if you're in the wrong, he'll never even think of retreating. He doesn't believe you can do anything wrong once you guys get into a relationship.

Will drop down on his knees and ask to marry you when he sees you and Yor laughing together.

Saiki Kusuo

You were a new student at PK Academy, so of course everyone got riled up to meet you. The girls wanted to know if you were smart or kind and the boys wanted to know if you're prettier than Teruhashi.

At first Kusuo tries to stay far away from you, but that never works for him as well all know. He has no choice but to accept you as Kaido and Nendo has already taken a liking to you (you were nice to Kaidou and Nendou considers everyone a buddy).

He's not as annoyed with your company as he is with the others and after a lot of thinking and rejecting his feelings, he finally comes to terms that the almighty Saiki Kusuo has fallen in love with a mere mortal.

Your relationship is extremely normal and low-maintenced that nobody would've known you guys were dating until they realized you were with him 24/7. It's to the point if somebody needed you, they'd go looking for pink hair in a crowd or go to Kusuo's house.

Three months into the relationship everyone in the friend group finally found out you were dating when Nendou asked if you're dating because you were always around each other. Teruhashi ended up heartbroken while all the guys were dumbfounded but supportive.

Kusuo isn't very romantic as his whole life he never had feelings for anyone and always thought love was bothersome. Now he thinks it's "meh" (that's the best you'll get from him).

If you're able to distract Teruhashi from him then he'll smile at you, maybe even thank you.

He wouldn't even realize how much he exactly liked you until Kusuke was in town and decided to poke fun at his brother for having a girlfriend, always third-wheeling you both and sneakily flirting with you (Kusuo almost slammed Kusuke's head into the wall for that).

If his headpiece controllers somehow get pulled out, broken, or lost, he'll steer clear from you. He doesn't want you to get hurt from his powers because he can't control them in that state.

You guys go on coffee jelly dates regularly.

His family loves you. His mom teaches you recipes and cried the first time you met her. His dad asked if Kusuo brainwashed you, but was very welcoming nonetheless (brainwashed or not). Kusuke, as said earlier, loves to use you to mock Kusuo and get a reaction out of him.

The relationship you two have is very comfortable and little pressure.

He doesn't like PDA but he'll hold your hand every once in a while if you're in a big crowd or long line (never in school though, he doesn't need that type of attention).

Saiki Kusuke

He is as obsessed as he is towards trying to win against Kusuo.

You're most likely dumber than him (not in a mean way), he just likes knowing the power imbalance you two have.

He's a moderate level of romantic, giving you flowers and chocolates every once in a while or for a special occasion, but he kicks it up a few notch when he's visiting his family so he can rub it into Kusuo's face that he got a girlfriend before Kusuo could.

He's an evil genius, you might be used as a test subject.

He'll really appreciate and love if you help out with his experiments or theories, even if he's just telling you what to do.

He asked you out by doing a survey.

"On the scale of 0-10, how much do you love me?"

"Uh, 9?"

"Close enough to 10. We're now in a romantic relationship, you cannot resist."

"Okay...?"

While his life goals and motives are questionable, he'll at least make sure that you're safe while committing his chaotic plans.

Sometimes you have to force-feed him sleeping pills so he can finally take a break from his work. Instead of being mad, he's so enamored that you would go so far as to drugging him to make him relax and care for his wellbeing. When he wakes up he'll take the day off and spend time with you.

He likes when you wear his scientist coat.

His parents also love you. His mom cried joy and hugged you when she saw you, and his dad thought that you were brainwashed from one of Kusuke's experiments (Kusuke thought of it when he first met you, but he didn't want your personality to change so he didn't go through with it). Kusuo doesn't care about you, even if Kusuke is mocking Kusuo about not having a girlfriend, all of Kusuo's anger is directed towards Kusuke.

He'll make you a mood necklace so he knows how you're feeling (a real one, not the 1-5 dollar ones you'd find in gift shops). Of course, he can just look at your body language and listen to your tone, but the mood necklace just makes things so easier (and he wanted to make you something sweet).

He has no shame holding your hand or kissing you in public. He'll treat you to expensive restaurants and clothes because he makes a lot of money with his job.

Toritsuka Reita

We all know he's a pervert. The first encounter you guys had he told you your guardian spirit as well as what color panties you wore thanks to the ghosts. After doing a quick check of your panties in the bathroom, you were very impressed instead of being grossed out like the other girls were.

You guys became friends pretty quick. Toritsuka has a very likable and funny personality when he's not being a pervert.

When you guys eventually started dating after Toritsuka's 100th confession, Saiki silently betted how long the relationship would last. It's lasted longer than 24 hours, so he lost.

Toritsuka is over the moon that you agreed on being his girlfriend. You can never be alone now, he's always with you.

He tried doing a small show for you by having the ghosts use his body but the ghosts got too carried away and wouldn't give his body back. After a scolding from you and Kusuo he didn't do it again.

Surprisingly, his perverted tendencies died down with other girls but increased with you. Your reputation in school is rivaling Teruhashi's because you saved every girl from Toritsuka's harassment.

He plans dates with you but he's really clumsy so they always fail somehow.

You thought he insulted you once but he was talking to his guardian spirit, Nendou's dad.

If you help him with his chores at his family's temple, he'll get down on his knees and do anything you want.

He convinces you to join his club, the Occult Club, solely in hopes that you'll cling onto him whenever you get scared (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't).

Sometimes he gets jealous when you're hanging out with Saiki or Kaido (Kaido took Yumehara from him). You'll have to hit him to quiet his pouting since he's being very hypocritical at the moment.

He may be a pervert, but you love him and his energetic side.

He's golden retriever energy. If you have black cat energy he'll be head over heels for you because of your chill and laid-back personality. He'll still be obsessed with you if you also have golden-retriever energy because you go along with his stupid plans and pranks and actually entertain his dumb questions a real thought-out answer.

Support him and his band. It may be terrible at first, but practice makes perfect.

Kazuichi Soda

Another man who is also obsessed with you. You have to be amazing to break his infatuation from Sonia and instead have it directed it towards you.

If you're an ultimate in the killing game, he's going to be around you 24/7 to make sure you're okay and not dead.

Insists on sleeping in the same cabin so you don't get murdered in your sleep.

He finds flowers on the island and brings them to you with heart eyes.

When someone tries to place blame on you as the killer Kazuichi will defend you tooth and nail, blood and sweat to prove that you're not the blackened. He's surprisingly backed up by mountains of evidence to prove that you were with him the whole time and that you're both not the blackened.

Will defend you against Hiyoko's relentless teasing (bullying).

He'll shield your eyes if you both discover a dead body.

If you knew him before the killing game, he's full-on obsessed about you. He knows all of your hobbies, likes and dislikes, all of it.

He tries to learn more about your ultimate (if you have one) with you.

If you're a normal high school student with no ultimate, he'll probably grow to loving you because of your interest in machines. You often asks him questions to the point he brings you to his shop and teaches you himself how to fix an engine or identify a problem. It's great bonding time.

You'll never have to pay for a mechanic again.

His smile is precious. Please compliment him.

He'll be shopping and end up buying at least ten things because they reminded him of you and he wants to gift them to you.

One of the most loyal men out there. He doesn't know other women exist on the world once he met you.

He loves it when you take off his beanie and wear it, or even better, pet his hair.

Playful love bites are exchanged between the two of you in private.

Help him braid that one piece in his hair. He's in paradise being so close to you while you brush and braid his hair.

He's definitely the guy to buy matching shirts or pajamas.

Fuyuhiko has almost punched Kazuichi multiple times by hearing Kazuichi obsess over you as his brain melts. Whenever Fuyuhiko hears your name now he panics a little inside because he's afraid Kazuichi is around and will start another obsessive rant.

Dazai Osamu

You definitely get frustrated with him a lot. Especially when he tries to kill himself.

If you don't like his suicidal tendencies, he'll tone it down a tiny bit when he's around you.

Dazai's an interesting character because of his obsession with death since he believes it'll help him discover the concept human nature. Once you understand this, distract him with ideas and hobbies that make life worth living.

Read some books to him. Dazai might complain about it at first, but at night he'll listen to the stories and fall asleep dreaming about them instead of death.

In private, he's a little more quiet and worn down. The events at the agency tuckers him out so at night he'll peacefully lay down with you and tell you about his day. Please pet his hair and tell him how much he means to you. He really needs to hear it.

Cook him breakfast, bring him some nice breakfast in bed. Dazai would be so touched at this because you care enough to make sure he's fed that you woke up early to cook for him.

If you're an agent in the agency, he'll always be watching your back. He might be playful and make a bunch of jokes, but he's very serious about you being injured in battle. He knows you can fend for yourself, but he'd rather himself be in bandages than you.

Dazai realized he fell for you when you both were taking a train to a town for your next case. It was dusk outside and you were starting to fall asleep on the window. He swore nothing looked more beautiful than orange on you as your reflection showed two of you, both nodding off to sleep.

Dazai is always excited when he sees you. Injured or not, he'll raise his hands and run to you for a hug, engulfs you in his chest as he goes on about how much he missed you and how mean Kunikida was to him.

He likes PDA. He'll always been seen either holding your hand, waist, or having an arm slung around your shoulder.

When you both have time off he'll take you around town for some window-shopping. It's just nice to be out of the house with you.

If you're out to eat, you should go to a seafood restaurant. He loves crab. He'll order alcohol but you have to put a limit to it so he doesn't try to give himself alcohol poisoning.

Sometimes he has nightmares about Oda, be there to comfort him.

He knows it's hard to date him. You being able to put up with him just makes him fall even more in love with you. He'll never let you go.

"Til death do us part" is no such thing with him. Even after, you both will always be together.

Nagisa Shiota

Reframe from calling him pretty. He very much is pretty, but it brings up bad memories with him and his mom.

He'll very much enjoy it if you gently brush his hair. When he cuts his long hair after graduating from high school, he'll still allow you to brush his hair.

Help him with his notes on Korosensei. It's a fun little hobby of his so he enjoys sharing it with you (and it helps prevent the extinction of the end of the world, or at least that's what class 3-E is under the impression of).

Speaking of class 3-E, however you ended up in the End Class, Nagisa will help you improve on whatever it was that got you there in the first place whether it be grades, delinquent activity, or just sleeping too much in class.

If you dislike English, he'll help you with it since it's his favorite subject. If you're good at science, he'd really appreciate your help because it's his least favorite subject.

Every weekend you and Nagisa meet up and have a coffee date, talking about each other and how to kill Korosensei.

You both train with each other. Nagisa helps you with hand-to-hand combat and you help him with his marksmanship.

After graduation, you and Nagisa end up moving in together. You're very supportive of his decision to become a teacher for delinquents.

He's not very big on PDA, but he will occasionally hold your hand or hug you.

Whatever your dreams are, he's really supportive and helps you to succeeding.

You both like to people-watch and put genuine thoughts in their lives. It's a fun little thing to do and it's very entertaining.

You'll stand up to Karma's and Rio's relentless teasing about Nagisa's androgynous looks, he really appreciates it and thanks you for coming to his defense.

Your door is ways open if he needs to get away from his house and mom. You guys spend a lot of nights sleeping together in the same bed and talking about life.

Karma Akabane

You need to keep him on a leash the way he's always disappearing and starting trouble.

If you're shorter than him, he loves to tease you about your height. If you're taller than him, he'll grab your shirt and pull you down to his height and make a teasing comment.

He likes superhero movies and will watch them with you. You'll have movie marathons on his couch as he explains to you some backstory about the characters, their powers, and etc.

He'll try to have you ditch class with him. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn't.

Because he gets into fights often, he has quite a few enemies, so he'll always have a watchful eye on you in case they try to target you.

He invites you to his house often. You guys hang there a lot because his parents are wealthy and traveling a lot.

He might make stupid decisions like getting himself into fights for fun, but he's smart academically and he'll help you study (with a cost, of course).

When you train with Karma, he'll point out your weak spots. He's ruthless when you're training but he just wants you to be prepared in case you're in a sticky situation and have to end up fighting.

He'll convince you to help him do pranks on Korosensei.

Canonly, his most prized possession (other than you) is a collection of spices from around the world. By having this, there's a good chance he's a good cook and will cook food for the both of you (maybe even lunch if he doesn't feel like buying it from the school).

Since he works as a bureaucrat as an adult, his schedule is tough and crowded. On his days off he'll make sure to spend every second of it with you.

Compliment his eyes, it'll get him flustered.

If you retort with your own teasing comment when he decides to mess with you, he'll be slightly impressed and bark back, resulting in a little friendly competition between the two of you.

Sometimes he won't pay attention in class (or ditch entirely) so give him your notes. He'll act like he doesn't need it but he's more grateful than you think.

Thank you for requesting! I really enjoyed making this!

I hoped you enjoyed this fanfic and thank you for your requests and support! Feel free to ask for anything else or any other characters from my masterlist! This applies to everyone reading, follower or not!

466 notes · View notes

kitscutie · 8 months

Note

hey! I'm not sure what all to put in an request. I'd love a kit connor x reader (fem preferred) about dating or fluffy things! Legal age of course

you belong with me (kit connor x fem!reader)

𝗉𝖺𝗂𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗀: 𝗄𝗂𝗍 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗇𝗈𝗋 𝗑 𝖿𝖾𝗆!𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋

𝗐𝖺𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀ꜱ: 𝗇𝗈𝗇𝖾!

ꜱ𝗎𝗆𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗒: 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗄𝗂𝗍'ꜱ 𝗃𝗈𝗎𝗋𝗇𝖾𝗒 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝖿𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗇𝖽ꜱ 𝗍𝗈 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋ꜱ 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝗅𝖾 𝖿𝗂𝗅𝗆𝗂𝗇𝗀 '𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗍ꜱ𝗍𝗈𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗋'.

𝖺/𝗇: 𝗁𝗂! 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗄 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗋𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖾ꜱ𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝗇ꜱ𝗐𝖾𝗋, 𝗋𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖾ꜱ𝗍ꜱ 𝖼𝖺𝗇 ᖯ𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝗒𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 ꜱ𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖺ꜱ ꜱ𝗂𝗆𝗉𝗅𝖾 𝖺ꜱ 𝗍𝗁𝗂ꜱ ^ 𝗈𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝗎𝗍𝗅𝗂𝗇𝖾 𝗈𝖿 𝖺 ꜱ𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍 𝗐𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗇! 𝗋𝖾𝗊𝗎𝖾ꜱ𝗍ꜱ 𝗈𝗉𝖾𝗇!

It all started during lockdown. You received a call that you had gotten the role of Florence Smith (a very British surname) in the new show 'Heartstopper'. You were already familiar with the comics - perhaps even a fan.

Florence was Imogen's shy but sweet friend that tended to sit in silence while the other characters spoke, though she did have some key roles too. Most importantly being that she was Nick's girlfriend at the start of the show until he realises he has been hiding his true self and meets the wonderful Charlie Spring.

Their relationship was supposed to be pre-existing, supposedly having dated for a year which meant you and Kit had to seem pretty comfortable and 'in love'. Even when you had just met.

The rehearsals began and all of the cast met, including you and Kit. The first time you saw him it almost felt surreal, he quite literally embodied your ideal man. Golden hair that fell effortlessly into all the right places, freckles littering his skin in a way that reminded you of constellations and most importantly and amazing personality.

You were shy at first, much like everyone, you had only done small jobs and this was completely different, an actual Netflix show with seasoned actors. It was a lot of pressure.

He never made you feel like the under dog. Like the one who didn't know what you were doing, in fact, he went out of his way to help you out. Pointing out who did what, talking to a crew member when you weren't quite sure what to say and it all warmed your heart.

It didn't take long for you two to become best friends. You were both in your final year of A-levels and it was complete and utter hell, though he made it a little more bearable. Both of you were currently working at D's in drama which wasn't quite ideal and so, you became revision buddies.

Days at each other's houses turned into nights together, and it all just felt so incredibly right. You never had a friend as good as him, someone who treat you so humanely, even if that was the bare minimum.

It all scared you to be honest, feelings evident to everyone except him. Even fans.

They would point out the small things, like how you would sit on Kit's lap whenever there were no chairs available in the back of one of Tobie's vlogs, even though Joe and Bash did the same. Or the way the two of you were often seen playfighting in the back of behind the scenes clips.

It wasn't like you hadn't kissed before, practically every scene your characters shared up to the break up contained a kiss and so it became easy to see it all as, well, real.

The hugs, the handholding and the pecks on the cheek. It all felt so real and then it was gone. And filming was over.

It didn't really effect how often you saw Kit, the cast became best friends outside of filming and so you still saw him every day, though it felt different.

The bubble you had been living in no longer existed, the two of you were real people not characters and even realer was the crush building inside of you for your 'best friend' and no matter what Joe told you, you couldn't see the boy liking you back.

Shortly after filming ended the first season got released and it was crazy. Not only did you have an influx of followers but an influx of people 'shipping' you and Kit.

It was stressful, feeling as though your secret was being revealed even if Kit saw it all as fans being fans, it was as if they could see right through you.

The two of you would laugh about it, the way they made compilations of him 'being in love' with you for ten minute straight. Or how they would tweet that you held onto his hand for a little too long at a red carpet. Deep down you both knew, it meant more.

Slowly he began to flirt, little things to gage your reaction, and when it made you blush instead of laugh and slap him in the face he realised maybe the theories weren't all that crazy.

Flirting became out right date proposals and it all felt so surreally perfect. He could have anyone and yet he wanted you.

By the time filming for season two rolled around the pair of you were official and known to the public, not exactly on your own terms but there was only so long you could walk on the street together without giving into the urge of holding his warmer hand.

Now instead of playfights and handshakes the cameras would catch the two of you napping together on set or cuddling on the sofa in a cast mates living room.

"I love you." He told you one cold night in December as you watched 'The Grinch'. It was your favourite Christmas movie. He knew that.

"I love you too." You replied, leaning up to place a kiss on his jaw line from your position lying with your head in his lap.

You knew at that moment, you belonged together.

#kit connor x fem!reader #kit connor x reader #kit connor #kit connor x actress!reader #nick nelson x fem!reader #nick nelson x reader #nick nelson #heartstopper fandom #heartstopper netflix #heartstopper fanfiction #heartstopper fic #heartstopper fanfic

504 notes · View notes

tojiscursedtool · 28 days

Note

SFW Headcanons for Male!R being a normal person in the JJK world and just encountering Yuji every so often during normal day stuff and slowly becoming good friends with him.

୨ . ࣪ my best friend . ୨ . 🌅

Note ~ I sobbed at the end.. there’s your tragic ending though I hope you like it(*´-`)..(I screamed and cried.)

MENTIONS — Male!Reader, close friends with Itadori, Blood, Death of !Reader, shibuya incident mentioned, grieving, depression.

ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐

— !YuujiItadori who meets you at a movie theater for another human earthworm movie! He thought it was cool to see someone around his age enjoying the same stuff as him since Nobara n’ Megumi were either too busy or didn’t want to watch a ‘weird’ movie like that..

— !YuujiItadori who makes sure to get your number so you guys can hang out more and maybe introduce you to his other friends!

— !YuujiItadori who calls/texts you daily to ask to hang out and even asks you about your day and what you did, sometimes when you were free he’d even offer to get you guy’s food, his treat!

— !YuujiItadori who considers you a best friend only after a short time of knowing him, you both know a lot about each other since the both of you would everyday and hang out with him almost everyday when you guys got the chance, you even hang out with his friend group too!

— !YuujiItadori who is a really nice guy and a great listener, if you’re having a bad day or need help with something he wouldn’t mind helping one of his best friends out. And if you were feeling bothered by something he’d insist you talk to him or at least let him listen to your struggles so he can try to cheer you up or help you out, you are his best friend after all that’s what a friend is for!（╹◡╹）♡

— !YuujiItadori who tries to get your mind off of hard things especially school, he wasn’t that bright but even if you needed some help with work or anything of the sort he sure would try!!…or use some cheating AI app and say some dumbass shit like “hey man..it gets the job done okay?” With a silly laugh.

— !YuujiItadori who tells you how much he appreciates you and how he likes hanging out with you A LOT, how you’re a chill guy and a funny one at that as well!

— !YuujiItadori who DEFINITELY made you both create a secret handshake only you two know about since you guys are such good friends!

— !YuujiItadori who would probably tease and pull a little prank here and there, nothing serious he would probably slap the back of your neck(not hard ofc!!), the ‘made you look!’ classic, play fight with you, etc. he would DEFINITELY steal a fry from you when you were looking and be like “woaaaaah..who did that..not me!! You’re definitely seeing things man..” as he’d do the crazy sign, you knew he was joking and he made you laugh so you never had a problem with him.

— !YuujiItadori who defends you if someone tries to start with you or is mean to you, he doesn’t like when people are rude to his friends, especially you. You both are close and doesn’t get why someone would be rude to you.

— !YuujiItadori who accepts and understands anything you are/do, he isn’t a judging guy. As long as you aren’t like those really mean judgmental bullies or just a strange weirdo he could care less. You’re his friend nothing would change that no matter how you are.

— !YuujiItadori who invites you over to his place so you guys can stay up late and eat a shit ton of snacks you both are sooooo gonna regret later..

— !YuujiItadori who invites you over to his place so you guys can hang out, play video games, and watch horror or scary movies then laugh about them later and make fun of each others reactions. He’d definitely wear some corny cheesy PJ’s of his favorite movie/video game, or wear a “I paused my game to be here” shirt as a joke..

— !YuujiItadori who rants to you about his interests and comics he’s into, like DBZ, Naruto, Bleach, Etc..he loves reading manga and you like listening about it you think it’s cool on how he knows a lot of characters and plots that are interesting to hear about. He even recommends you some stuff to watch/listen to and you both end up chatting about it for hours!

— !YuujiItadori who probably makes you guys wear matching shirts for shits and giggles, it would say some dumb or corny shit that would probably annoy you..not ACTUALLY annoy you but probably make you wanna punch his chest and question why you’re his friend sarcastically, he knows you enjoy being his friend and that you two are extremely close.

— !YuujiItadori who isn’t able to come with you on Halloween due to a mission he’s sent on but he doesn’t tell you that because he doesn’t tell you anything about sorcerers or curses since you can’t see or know about them..but implies you guys can hang out the next time he’s free! He uses the excuse that he has to help Megumi with some personal stuff and he’ll definitely hang out with you as soon as he can.

— !YuujiItadori who isn’t able to control the curse inside him, Ryomen Sukuna. As Sukuna is going on a rampage killing off innocent people and stuff like that he notices you, he knows you’re close to Yuuji..he kills you in the most gruesome way making Yuuji watch as his own best friends body was being sliced, punctured, beaten by something he SWORE he could control.

— !YuujiItadori who is finally able to get to be in control of his body but it’s already too late, you’re gone. Your body is cold and he’s ruined. You were his best friend, a guy he could go to for ANYTHING. He’d try to shake you awake and try to look around for a medic or anyone that could help but everything around him was either burnt to a crisp or dead. Gone. It was pitch black but the moonlight dimly reflected on your body and he saw all the blood..the wounds..how your lifeless eyes were looking at him even though you were dead.

— !YuujiItadori who has a complete break down, who curses Sukuna meanwhile Sukuna is mocking and laughing at him. Mocking the words you were screaming out as Sukuna killed you, “Itadori! Please stop! I thought we were..friends..what are you doing?! STOP!!” He kept mentioning the way you screamed and other gruesome details. All Itadori could do was scream and cry holding onto the corpse that was once your body full of life.

— !YuujiItadori who was depressed for days, weeks, and perhaps even months. He couldn’t get over you..he would seem less happy and when he’d see things that you guys would talk about he’d slightly tear up or frown. Remembering all the memories the both of you shared, how you would always talk to him and hang out with him. He’d miss the times you both would spend with each other.

— !YuujiItadori who would text your phone number daily until it went to green and not delivered, someone else had your number now and he was completely devastated. The one last thing he could contact you with was gone, he’d even try to visit your gravestone and try to talk about the good times you both had. How you were his bestfriend and how he missed you so much. How he wish he could do a better job at controlling that damned curse inside him. He swore on everything it would NEVER happen again.

⋆｡‧˚ʚɞ˚‧｡⋆

#yuji itadori #jjk itadori #jujutsu itadori #itadori x reader #jjk fluff #fluff #jjk x male reader #male!reader #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #x reader #friendship #itadori fluff #itadori x you #SFW #sfw headcanons

152 notes · View notes

reginnaofallwaters · 24 days

Text

☆ HONKAI STAR RAIL

duckin' (boothill x gn!reader)

tw: none

additional: hint of forbidden love, a lot of censored cursing tbh

a/n: i'll proofread this when i wake up lol. i just had an idea and i needed to do word vomit before i forget all of it <//3 anyway hi :)

A relationship between human and cyborg.. How did that even work?

That was the question you always heard when the people of your planet met your boyfriend.

Granted, cyborgs were, in a way, still human. Not completely for sure, but still human. They had human feelings, human desires, human minds. It just so happened they had a body of steel and metal. There was no denying, however, that cyborgs felt.. a little inhuman sometimes. Their bodies was one such example, the steel often glinting underneath the light. Often times, they had.. "unique" features that weren't present in normal humans. Some had retractable arms, extended legs, and even extended—

Let's not go there.

Point is— cyborgs weren't quite human. Their unique features would make regular humans fear them. But, hey, this was the whole damn universe, of course there'll be the occasional weirdo or two with the sheer amount of planets that littered the whole, wide galaxy (I mean, Planet Screwllum literally exists), but that's to be expected.

Anyway, where were we? Right. Unique features.

For one, your boyfriend, a cyborg named Boothill, had this fun, little tech embedded in him called the Synesthesia Beacon. It was a translator device that allowed one's thoughts and consciousness into a language the receiver could understand. In this case— you.

Oh, and it was so, so hilarious.

And it also just happened that someone tinkered with his Synesthesia Beacon (Aeons knew who but a part of you thanks them for it). As thus, any fun curse words he wished to say were basically censored.

"That fudging idiot!" Boothill hissed lowly under his breath. "Can't forking believe that someone messed around with my Synesthesia Beacon. How the heck did they manage to do that anyway?"

You bit back a laugh and attempted for a gentle smile to hide your smirk. That obviously failed with the way Boothill shot you a warning glare.

"Ya sure ya weren't behind this, darlin'?" He plopped himself onto the seat next to you, cold, mechanical arms immediately wrapping around your waist like it belonged there. The thought made you a little happy. Just a little, of course. "Maybe ya did this to mess with me, hm?"

"I would never," you retorted with a chuckle. "I can't even trust myself with tinkering with elaborate machinery or whatnot, what made you think I'd have the balls to mess yours up?"

"Hah. Fair enough," he replied. "Still. Look at me. I sound like a character from those duckin' kid shows."

Boothill's face contorted, an unpleasant sneer forming on his lips at the realization that a simple 'damn' got censored too. God, that expression was hilarious.

"Pfft—" You really, really couldn't hold it back for much longer— "Duckin', huh?"

"Sweetheart, ya know I love ya, so spare me the laughin' and just don't for the love of frills— The fork?! Frills? Frills? Are you friggin kiddin' me right now? That friggin' son of a birch, I swear."

You laughed silently as he continued to rant on (Read: Attempt to cuss) with no end. You shifted in your place to face him, gently removing his grip on your waist. Once you've faced him, you gently cupped his cheeks, eyebrow raised.

Boothill stopped.

You always had that effect on him. One simple touch was all it took to rid him of all of his anger. It didn't matter whatever shit he was worrying about, the moment you touched him with a knowing glint in your eye, he immediately went quiet each time. His shoulders relaxed, obsidian eyes softening, and the deep frown on his face easing into a neutral line.

"You calmed down much more quicker this time," you hummed, thumb gently tracing his cheek. "Color me surprised."

"Duh, because it's ya, sweetheart," he murmured in reply, nuzzling further into your touch. "Don't know how ya do it, but ya always make me feel calm. I like it."

You didn't reply this time, your other hand reaching out to remove the hat atop of Boothill's head and placing it aside. Your fingers threaded itselves through his long, black and white locks, brushing aside the occasional tangle. His hair wasn't soft and perfect by any means but.. you didn't mind.

You still recalled the way your friends and family were.. rather concerned for you once they learned of your relationship with Boothill. In your planet, cyborgs, mechanical, and inorganic life forms weren't exactly welcome. It was taboo to even interact with one. Yet, you went ahead and got yourself a cyborg boyfriend anyway. Of course, they would be concerned.

Putting his whole "cyborg" origin aside, Boothill's personality and position as a Galaxy Ranger was something to.. definitely worry about. Galaxy Rangers were known for being lone travellers throughout the universe. Rarely do they travel in groups unless subduing an evil that a Ranger couldn't deal on their own. Wouldn't you be just abandoned? Be neglected? Those were the words of your loved ones.

Boothill wasn't like that in the slightest. Despite his outgoing and unrestrained personality, he made sure to never leave you alone for too long. Made you sure were happy first and foremost. Wasn't that enough? Wasn't him doing his best enough?

As you gaze into his eyes, you smiled again.

Yes. It was definitely enough.

"I love you," you said.

"I love you too, sweetheart," he said in turn. "Too duckin' much."

"..Pfft. Duckin'."

"I take it back. I don't love ya anymore."

"Hey!"

So, how did a relationship between a human and a cyborg work?

You don't know. It just did. To your planet, it was a taboo. To you, it felt right. It didn't matter to you one bit. In the end, Boothill being a cyborg did not matter.

And wasn't the most important thing here was love? You love him. He loves you.

That alone was enough.

#hsr x reader #hsr boothill x reader #boothill x reader #☆knights' writings

146 notes · View notes

doumadono · 14 days

Note

Emergency request!

Yesterday evening the Aurora borealis was visible where I live, my family went to get a better view but I stayed home. Still, it was visible even from my backyard. But I missed it entirely because I had terrible diarrhea and vomited, and now I feel ugly, gross and unlucky.

The worst part was seeing texts of family and friends saying 'look outside' and 'it's amazing' sent five minutes after getting sick, and later when they got home no one asked if I was okay. The only solace I have is that if I'd gone with my fam I'd have probably shit myself.

Could I please request Shouto comforting me after having to miss something like that due to sickness? Something I "might never get to see again"? He's my comfort character.

If this doesn't qualify as an emergency I totally understand.

Aurora borealis - Shoto x Reader

A/N: I'm so sorry to hear about your difficult evening. It's understandable to feel disappointed, but please know that missing the aurora borealis doesn't make you any less lucky or worthy. Your health and well-being are the most important things. If it's any consolation, I'm sure there will always be more opportunities to witness the beauty of nature ♥

EMERGENCY REQS MASTERLIST

Shoto sat on the edge of your bed, concern etched into his features as he watched you curled up under the blankets.

Your face was drawn with exhaustion and frustration, the events of the evening clearly weighing heavily on your mind.

He reached out a gentle hand, resting it on your shoulder. "Hey," he said softly, his voice a soothing presence in the quiet room. "Are you feeling any better?"

You glanced up at him, the faintest hint of tears glistening in your eyes. "It was supposed to be so beautiful," you murmured, your voice tinged with disappointment. "I've always wanted to see it, and now I might never get the chance again. And no, my tummy still hurts."

Shoto's heart ached at the sadness in your voice. He knew how much you had been looking forward to witnessing the natural wonder, and it pained him to see you feeling so downcast. But he also knew that there were more important things than seeing a celestial display. "What matters most right now is that you take care of yourself."

You sighed, leaning into his touch as he wrapped an arm around you, pulling you close. "I just feel so… ugly and gross," you admitted, your voice barely above a whisper as a single tear rolled down your reddened cheek. "I feel so unlucky," you confessed, your voice tinged with sadness.

Shoto's grip tightened ever so slightly, his warmth a comforting presence against your skin. "You're not ugly or gross, baby," he said firmly, placing a kiss to your temple. "You're human, and sometimes our bodies don't cooperate the way we want them to. It's okay to feel disappointed, but please don't be so hard on yourself." Shoto's hand gently brushed against your hair, his touch soothing. "As I said, your health comes first, always."

You sniffled, a tear slipping down your cheek as you leaned into Shoto's embrace. "Thank you," you whispered, your voice choked with emotion. "You're the best boyfriend."

He pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, his lips warm against your skin. "Anytime," he murmured, his voice a soothing melody in the quiet room.

After leaving your shared bedroom where you were resting, Shoto's mind raced as he thought of a way to bring the beauty of the Aurora borealis to you, even though you couldn't witness it in person.

Remembering Denki Kaminari, your common friend from U.A. times, was a streamer, he quickly reached out to him. Shoto pulled out his phone and dialed Denki's number. After a few rings, Denki finally answered.

"Hey, Todoroki! What's up?" Denki's cheerful voice came through the line.

"Hey, Denki. I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I have a favor to ask," Shoto replied, trying to keep his tone steady.

"Of course, man! What do you need?" Denki responded, sounding genuinely interested.

"Well, you see, the Aurora borealis is visible tonight, and… well, my girlfriend is feeling really sick and couldn't come out to see it. And since you're frequently streaming on YouTube, I was wondering if you could stream it on your channel so she could watch it from home?" Shoto explained, feeling a bit awkward.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before Denki spoke again. "Wow, that sounds like a great idea! I'd be happy to help out! Let me jus finish my gameplay! Just give me a few minutes to set everything up, okay?"

Relief flooded through Shoto as he thanked Denki profusely. "Thank you so much, Kaminari. This means a lot to me and Y/N. I owe you one."

"No problem at all, Todoroki. Just glad I can help out. I'll let you know when the stream is up and running," Denki replied, his enthusiasm evident in his voice.

With a grateful smile, Shoto ended the call, feeling a weight lifted off his shoulders.

After some time, Todoroki returned to your shared bedroom with his laptop and a cup of freshly brewed mint. He passed you the cup and turned his computer on and navigated to YouTube.

"What are you doing, Shoto?" you asked, puzzled by his sudden actions as you slowly sat up, wrapping blanket around your shoulder, still feeling a little nauseous.

"Just wait and see," he replied with a small smile, his eyes focused on the screen.

Then, to your surprise, you saw Denki's stream pop up on the screen, the vivid colors of the Aurora borealis dancing across the display.

"Is that…?" you started, but Shoto cut you off with a nod.

"Yeah, it's Denki. He's streaming it live for you," he said softly, his eyes meeting yours with warmth and understanding. "I asked him if he could do that, and he agreed instantly. It's handy having a friend who's a YouTuber," Shoto chuckled softly.

As the night sky painted itself in shades of violet, teal, and emerald, the ethereal dance of the Aurora Borealis began. The camera panned slowly, capturing every mesmerizing movement of the celestial phenomenon. The colors shifted and swirled, creating intricate patterns that seemed to come alive before your eyes. As the stream continued, the intensity of the auroras seemed to grow, casting an enchanting glow over the landscape below. Trees swayed gently in the breeze, their branches silhouetted against the shifting colors of the sky. Occasionally, a shooting star streaked across the heavens, adding an extra touch of magic to the already mesmerizing scene.

The chat buzzed with excitement as viewers shared their awe and wonder at the natural spectacle, asking Kaminari for his opinion as well.

You couldn't believe it. The beauty of the phenomenon filled you with awe, and tears welled up in your eyes as you realized what Shoto had done for you. "Shoto, I don't know what to say," you whispered, overcome with emotion.

He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you close. "You don't have to say anything," he murmured, pressing a kiss to your forehead. "I just wanted you to experience this, even if you couldn't be there in person. You mean everything to me, and I'll always go the extra mile to make you happy."

#emergency request #bnha x reader #shoto fluff #shoto todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x you #mha fluff #todoroki shoto x reader #shoto todoroki #shoto fic #shoto x reader #todoroki shoto #shoto x you #shoto x y/n #mha fic #bnha fluff #todoroki shouto #shouto x reader #shouto todoroki #shouto fluff

94 notes · View notes

gold-rhine · 3 months

Text

What the guard dogs are for

There are some things you never want to hear your secret years-long crush saying, such as “I’m getting married,” “I think we should stay friends” or “I’m the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity.” Wriothesley’s very bad, no good day of trying to unravel conspiracy theories, fumbling a tea party with Chief Justice and learning Teyvat’s ancient history and vishap lore from the leading expert lector.

Genre: angst and misinformation campaign

Characters: Neuvillette\Wriothesley, Enjou

Warnings: sfw in a sense that nothing even remotely sexy happens, but there is dissociation, ptsd episode, brief mention of self-harm, and Enjou doing same thing he does in canon, which is not quite gaslighting? Anyway, let me know if you feel any other warnings need to be added.

Chapters: 1 out of 2. Wordcount: ~8k

With his morning tea, Wriothesley riffled through the reports as usual. Nothing was marked urgent, so he started with the most boring part, - the official ones. The production numbers, coupon consumption statistics, everything is prepared for Neuvillette’s upcoming inspection, which was mostly a formality, but he would want it to go as smoothly as possible.

Reports from the surface informants. Traveler stirring up a ruckus with the research institute… Well, about time, that pit couldn’t go on forever pretending that massive explosions are just a part of science routine.

Next, creatures called “vishaps” appeared recently in Erinnyes Forest. These vishaps are apparently a lesser form of dragons, and connected to Liyue vishaps, also lizard-like creatures, though in Liyue they are aligned with geo, not hydro. Non-hostile to humans, aside from one accident. But in that one they fought back against the hunters sent by nobles to capture them as novelty pets. So the only regrettable part was that they didn’t get the nobles, only their lackeys. For shame.

Next, there are gangs with new lingo going around, which generally was a good thing to pay attention to as they usually ended up in Meropide. Wriothesley frowned, reading the lingo translations, as he suddenly felt old. “Trendy Zaytun Peach” was something he’d got called for taking it up the ass a lot in his days, but now it’s a hip and cool nickname with the youngsters.

Informal internal reports. Victims of beret society are rehabilitating fine, preparations for the wedding are underway. Good. Albert, a new guy from the shop, is sending him tea. Quite good tea at that. Obviously a bribe attempt, though he didn’t ask for anything as of yet, so it was basically free. Everything was fair in love and bribes as far as Wriothesley was concerned. You could throw everything at the feet of your beloved as to the feet of your targeted bureaucrat, and receive nothing and you would have no claim to complain. Now, the fact he wouldn’t take it into account when making decisions about their proposals, and sometimes would even consider it a negative, was a different matter altogether.

He perked up reading the last report. There was a new conspiracy, whose agenda was not very clear, as they were more careful than the others, but the gist was something against Neuvillette, so Wriothesley was tracking it for some time. It was hard to get anything concrete though, as they were pretty good at keeping a low profile, but now apparently one of the members by the name of Jacque got into the Fortress on unrelated charges, and he was reportedly not the brightest shank on the block.

Wriothesley made the arrangements.

Half an hour later, he happened to stroll by when Jacque was being beaten up by three guys in the shadowy corner.

“Hey, what’s going on here? Leave him alone!” he said, walking up to them.

“Oh yeah?”, said one of the bullies, turning to him. “Well, make me!”

They were paid double for the pretend fight. It might have been an overkill, usually Wriothesley would go for just scaring them off without combat. Especially because anyone who’s been in the Fortess for some time or had a head on their shoulders would understand that nobody would try to openly fight the Duke outside of the fight club arena. But Jacque was as fresh as they get, allegedly stupid, and it was Wriothesley’s first chance at any info in two whole months, so he decided to make it as impressive as possible.

He went as easy on the guys as he could, they theatrically threw the fight and retreated.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, kneeling next to the guy in the corner and putting his hand on his shoulder for emphasis.

“Yeah, yeah, I think I’m fine,” Jacque muttered, shaking his head.

“Why did they attack you?”

“They don’t want me to spread the truth...” Jacque said with heavy emphasis. “But uh, thanks for helping me out.”

“No need to thank me. I feel bad enough that honest folk like yourself get picked on in MY Fortress. That’s not how I want to run my place, so it’s only natural that I stand up for you.”

It took a moment, but finally the guy gasped.

“Your fortress? Are you… the Duke?”

At least he knew what “Duke” is.

“Yeah,” Wriothesley grinned, turning up the charm. “And allow me to get you a couple of drinks to compensate for the rude welcome you’ve received so far.”

He got them to the Coupon Cafeteria, where best meals were already arranged, and generously poured alcohol into the poor guy, listening to the story of his life and misfortunes that brought him to the Fortress, nodding empathetically. He didn’t ask about Neuvillette at all, to not spook the target, trusting that he will come to this anyway, and finally his patience was rewarded.

“You know, you’re good!” the guy said drunkenly after some time, clasping his hand on Wriothesley's shoulder, which he beared stoically, grinning with all friendliness in the world.

“You know, they say we can’t talk to you because you’re bought by that lizard, but I think you’re a good guy. You just don’t know all the facts!”

“Which are?”

The guy leaned closer to him and lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. “Neuvillette is an evil dragon!”

Wriothesley choked on a laughter, which was way too obvious to turn into cough even for the dunce this stupid.

“No, you don't understand! Dragons were enemies of humanity that Celestia conquered. But they come back when killed! They reincarnate! He is a hydro dragon who was reborn in a human form so he could more easily trick us!”

Wriothesley blinked, remembering Neuvillette standing under the rain, and the old children’s song. “Hydro dragon, Hydro dragon, don’t cry….”

“He put our rightful archon Furina on that trial, right? No one else saw the verdict, so he pretended she was declared guilty. He forced her to abdicate and took the power for himself!”

Wriothesley realized long ago that Neuvilette, of course, was not human. It was clear to any idiot who talked to him for longer than a minute in an informal setting, not to mention a lifespan of at least five hundred years. But there were a lot of options other than “evil dragon”. There were old gods who did not receive archonhood, but instead decided to serve the archon, like Liyue’s adepti, and he always assumed Neuvillette was of the same kind. But the idea that Iudex was some kind of evil monster with a grudge against humanity was ridiculous. Especially when he showed up at the Fortress and saved the entire Fountaine and Wriothesley’s own hide from the flood.

“Really?”

“Yeah! We should restore our true archon Furina to her rightful throne!”

Furina’s insurrection? Interesting. Wouldn’t peg her for someone capable of this type of conspiracy.

“And did Furina herself give us her blessing?”

“She can’t speak publicly, as this monster threatens her.”

Hmm, inconclusive on Furina’s involvement.

He spent more time with the drunk Jacque, trying to get more details, but couldn’t get much more than unhinged ramblings on how evil the dragons are and how insidious it was for a dragon to pretend to be a human. He had to leave to prepare to Neuvillette's arrival the next day.

_____

Neuvillette stepped out of Opera Epiclese into the rain and slowed down his pace to prolong the sensation. It was a bit of what humans called guilty pleasure, as he felt guilty from inflicting rain on humans for his own pleasure. Though from his understanding, humans felt guilty because they saw this pleasure as something bad for themselves. Even if often this supposed harm made no sense to Neuvillette. Eating too much food until a human's stomach hurt was at least understandable to see as such, but he heard one of palais’ secretaries say that romance novels were her guilty pleasure. How could humans feel guilty for something as simple as reading? He stopped and asked her why she would feel guilty for reading, because melusines kept telling him that socializing with humans is very easy, you just need to ask them questions about themselves and let them talk about what they like. Well, it didn’t seem to work, as the secretary stumbled, started hyperventilating and emanated levels of panic and anxiety comparable to someone in the defendant’s chair. Sensing human emotions did not actually help Neuvillette in communicating with them, as he could not discern the reasons. He asked her if she perhaps came into possession of any cursed texts? He could generally sense the stench of corruption and there was nothing on her, but there was always a possibility that it was a curse he could not register. She panicked even more and vehemently denied. At this point he decided to give up on socializing, as it was obviously very distressing for humans, but felt obliged to tell her that if she ever did read anything she felt was cursed, to inform him. He hoped it would assuage her fear of reading. She thanked him, stuttering, and after that day avoided him at all costs.

The rain was a compromise solution in any case. Neuvillette always felt a bit strained and uncomfortable in his body, but after obtaining full dragonhood and most of the memories of past lives, the human shape felt downright stifling. He now remembered thousands of years of being something much bigger, long coils that could easily crush the spire of Opera Epiclese. Now, when he looked at his own reflection, it was hard to comprehend that this small and ridiculous frame was actually him. In addition, all of his memories and instincts called him to be submerged in water. But even with his poor understanding of humans, he realized that seeing the Iudex floating in the river would alarm humans much more than him standing under the rain. So rain was the closest solution he could get at his position.

He summoned rain instinctively, to be as close to engulfed in water as possible. It was a bit embarrassing that even humans noticed it and composed a rhyme, even if that rhyme was inaccurate. He didn’t cry, as vishaps didn’t cry at all and even his current human shaped body didn’t have tear ducts. The closest he could pinpoint to human experience, as he understood it, was being stressed and desire to be comforted, for which water was his best remedy.

And currently he was quite stressed, looking over the Fontaine laws in an attempt to revise them. The current system that treated justice as theater was clearly imperfect, which he realized long ago. But he never saw himself as authorized to change it, as humans were the responsibility of the archon and even without it, he was well aware he didn’t understand humans, so he knew it wasn’t his place to question the human justice system, to which he was only a temporary guest. But now, as fontanias became part of Teyvat after his decision, and so, a part of his responsibility as Teyvat’s god of life, even if the usurper tried to deny him, he couldn’t ignore the need for change any longer. The problem was that he did not understand humans any better, so it was very stressful to try and restructure their systems of governance.

He extended a hand, catching raindrops on his palm, when he noticed a silhouette near the elevator to the Fortress, and stopped himself from visibly controlling the weather.

Wriothesley caught his eyes and grinned, approaching him at brisk pace, umbrella over his head.

“Greetings, Monsieur.”

“Good morning, Your Grace.”

Wriothesley always somehow managed to make a “Monsieur” sound more impactful than Neuvillette could “Your Grace”, despite one being a noble title and another just a polite greeting.

“Would you like to…?” Wriothesley extended his arm with an umbrella, without actually covering Neuvillette with it. In the past, as a part of playing a role of “normal human”, Neuvillette accepted such offers, though there were not many aside from Wriothesley who dared to approach him with it. But now, as he was a full-fledged dragon, at the height of his power and influence in this land, surely he could afford to discard this role? Surely he could afford to be himself at least in this?

“No, thank you,” he said, smiling and trying to sound as cordial as possible, so that Wriothesley would not think it was a slight against him personally. “Don’t take it as offense, but I actually like being under the rain.”

The Duke smiled back, shaking his head.

“No offense taken, but why didn’t you say it last time? I felt like an idiot forcing you under an umbrella.”

“Really?” Neuvillette perked up, falling in step with the human. “You could tell that I…”

“Hated it? Yeah, for sure.”

“....prefered not to have an umbrella.”

Wriothesley let out a low, guttural bark of laughter that somehow got to the dragon despite him not being interested in humans in general.

“Not only I could tell I disturbed you, but I had to walk on the flowerbed to get to you, and then I trailed dirt in the Palais while everyone here glared at me for the audacity. Meanwhile you walked on the same dirt, but stayed pristine!”

“I’m sorry for…”

“Hey, don’t apologize. I’m just kidding, don’t worry.”

Neuvillette met the greyish blue eyes of thawed ice directly and sensed that he was truly not bothered, which didn’t make much sense. But Wriothesley was one of the very few humans who was not scared in the dragon’s presence. He was, probably, the only one who emanated only positive emotions at their meetings. Neuvillette mostly encountered negative reactions in his daily life at the trials, so he could not tell apart which positive feelings exactly that he read from Wriothesley due to the lack of exposure. But perhaps…

“I wouldn’t want you to feel unwelcome at the Palais,” Neuvillette said after a short pause.

Wriothesley grinned with a careless shrug.

“Then I will be there, even if the rest of your bureaucrats make faces. As I said, don’t worry.”

Neuvilette frowned, but didn’t see much point in pressing this further. After a confrontation with Navia, the dragon realized that his lack of understanding of humans hindered him, instead of making him truly impartial. Especially now that he was de facto in charge of the entire Fontaine government. And practice showed that only direct interaction with humans could give valuable experience, as watching from the Iudex seat did not allow him a nuanced understanding.

So perhaps, if Wriothesley was a rare human who was not scared of him, and he proved rational and trustworthy in the years they knew each other, Neuvillette could confide in his true nature and maybe ask for advice in understanding humanity?

“Perhaps staying for some tea would make up for this past offense?”

Wriothesley stumbled for a moment.

“Seriously?” He sounded as casual and ironic as usual, but the surprised burst of positive emotions from him was bright and obvious. “After all these years you finally decided to deign my humble office with your presence?”

“It’d be a completely unofficial visit, of course.”

“Sure, sure. It was never my secret plot to bribe you with a tea party, trust me, even I realize my tea is not that good.”

His voice was ironic, but for a moment Neuvillette could see his crooked grin turn into a genuine smile. So, reassured that he was not imposing, Iudex nodded and followed the human into the Fortress’ entrance.

_________

The inspection itself was mostly a formality. The Court of Fontaine technically had no direct authority over Meripode, but it provided guards and substantial resources, and so it had a right to oversee the use of these assets. The actual budgeting was done on the regular in behind the scenes reports though, as the data was not visible in the in person visit. Still, it was a time honored tradition that got Neuvilette to show up regularly.

“Take a seat. It will take me a minute to make tea.”

Neuvilette gracefully sat down on the visitor’s chair In Wriothesley office, folding his hands on the cane. He still sat with a ramrod straight back and perfect posture, but there was a certain lightness to him today, which was hard to put into words.

“The inspection is over, yet you are still nervous.”

Wriothesley knew he had a poker face good enough to cover it, yet Neuvillette saw it anyway. He had theorized for a long time that the Iudex could sense emotions, but usually he would not acknowledge it directly like this. “I wasn't nervous about the inspection to begin with. But inviting a high and mighty Iudex himself to the tea for years and then disappointing him when he finally accepts would be a devastating faux de pas. They will mock me on the first pages of all the papers tomorrow.”

Neuvillette frowned slightly.

“I must underline that I’m not here in any official capacity, and I would hope I’m talking to Wriothesley, not the Warden or the Duke. If you agree, I would ask that we leave the titles at the door.”

“No, of course,” Wriothesley, who had fantasized about leaving titles at the door and then clothes on the floor for actual years, said quickly, frantically recalculating how he could turn the tea party to wine tasting, which best wines he had confiscated in his storage and how he could make turning on the gramophone and then maybe leaning against the edge of the table in front of Neuvillette look natural and smooth. “Absolutely. I was just joking anyway, don’t mind it.”

“Ah, I see. I apologize, I’m unfortunately prone to missing humorous intent, so I appreciate your clarification.”

With how far the Iudex went out of his way to assure people of his good intentions in informal situations, Wriothesley really didn’t understand how everyone found him so intimidating. Especially because he very often had to interact with assholes in positions of power who did try to intimidate him on purpose and the contrast was very apparent. Neuvillette projected an aura of power without really wanting to, and then tried to over-explain himself to make others feel at ease. His earnest awkwardness was something like the clumsiness of a huge beast like an elephant trying not to step on the gaggle of kittens at his feet.

“In any case, there is nothing to be nervous about. After all, tea is liquid, and it’s really hard to make liquids unpleasant. So far I think only Fonta truly managed it.” Neuvillette drummed his fingers on the table and glanced at Wriothesley. “To be frank, if crimes against water could be prosecuted, Fonta would receive life in prison.”

Wriothesley snorted. “So no sugar in your tea, I take it?”

“No, thank you,” Iudex said politely and then, after a short pause, “And to clarify, I was not serious. There is nothing wrong with people liking sugary drinks, of course. I was just making an attempt at a joke.”

He really was horrendously bad at pretending to be a human. How could anyone hear him talk and still believe he’s a scheming manipulator was beyond ridiculous.

“No, I got it. It was a good joke,” The Duke grinned, placing a teacup in front of Neuvillette and sitting down across the table with his own.

Neuvillette gave him a graceful nod with a little smile and picked up his cup, giving it a swirl before tasting.

“Hmm. Interesting. Poignant. Bitter,” he said thoughtfully, tilting his head.

Wriothesley was about to mention that this sort was not usually bitter, but Iudex continued.

“Not by nature, but forced by circumstances. Not nearly enough water to be nourished, so it had to adapt and conserve strength, letting leaves seen as unimportant to die and concentrate on survival of the main branches. But there is not just hunger… there is a dream of rain. An ache of something not ever known, but yearned, longed for, without realizing what it is. But then…” Neuvillette closed his eyes for a moment. “It happened. There is a memory of luminous joy of water not gathered by mere drops, but drank in full, overwhelming, a feast after a life of fighting for scraps of morning dew. It had tasted rain at least once in the end.”

Wriothesley put his own cup down, leaning forward in disbelief.

“No way. This was a harvest from a drought year and it’s normally a mild sort, considered unusually strong in this season. How could you know this? Are you cheating?”

“You’re welcome to test me with other samples,” Neuvillette said with an air of a magnanimous ruler granting a boon and put the teacup down with a delicate clink.

“Oh, I’m taking you up on your word, trust me,” the Duke grinned, but then paused. He didn’t want to spoil the mood, but he remembered how strongly Neuvillette felt about the perceived melusines conspiracy. Wriothesley had to tell him about the evil dragon idiots just to make sure he’s not thrown off balance later. That’s what the guard dogs are for, after all.

“Actually, before we move forward with testing your psychic tea reading abilities, there is something concerning official business that I think you should know. And then we can forget it completely.”

Neuvillette inclined his head with a small smile.

“There is a small group of conspirators, - and I must reiterate, it’s very small - who operate on the ridiculous idea that… uh, that you’re some kind of an evil dragon who schemed to overthrow Furina.”

Neuvillette's smile froze.

“You don’t have to worry about it, really. It’s negligibly small, and well, anyone with a working brain would not believe that you’re a monster in disguise.”

Iudex was silent for some time, not meeting Wriothesley’s eyes.

“Are melusines implicated in this?” he said finally.

“No. No, there’s no connection to them in this stupid theory.”

“Good. That's good. They do love living with humans so much.”

Wriothesley suspected that Iudex was taking things kind of out of proportion again.

“Listen, it’s really nothing…”

“No, no, I understand. It would be so unacceptably horrifying for humans to learn their ruler is a… monster.”

Neuvillette's voice wavered, but his face was impartial, strict, previous lightness gone completely. Wriothesley saw his hands tighten their grip on the handle of his cane a moment before he abruptly stood up.

“I must apologize for impropriety, but I have important business in the Palais which was inappropriate for me to neglect for so long. I must beg your leave to depart.”

Wriothesley stood up too, scraping to understand what he did wrong.

“Wait, it’s not…”

“Thank you for your time, Your Grace.”

Wriothesley shut his mouth, the title feeling like a slap for the first time in his life. The formality and politeness somehow only made it worse. He took a deep breath and willed himself to sound calm.

“I hope you have a nice evening, Monsieur Iudex.”

Neuvillette left in what for his usual dignified pace could be considered a hurry. Wriothesley followed him without being seen, partly to make sure he doesn’t get bothered by inmates and partly on an instinct to investigate.

At the Fortress’ entrance, he watched Neuvillette walk under the rain, lifting his head upward. The blue strands of his long hair glowed and so did his coat-tails. They extended, shining brilliant bioluminescent blue, trailing behind the Chief Justice, in a moment looking like fish’s fins, then the next - as colossal snake’s coils. Sea waves crashed against the ridge without any wind, rising high, reaching to a lonely glowing figure of Iudex. With bated breath, Wriothesley watched Neuvillette extend a hand, as if catching raindrops - and rain stopped mid-flight in the air, lingering over his palm, waves frozen cresting over the earth. The raindrops gathered in a shuddering spheres, and then stretched upwards, against all laws of gravity. Wriothesley’s heart skipped a beat as Neuvillette closed his fist and the rain flew backwards to the skies.

Wriothesley stormed back into his office and frantically searched through the reports, pages flying about, until he found the one about vishaps. He looked at the photos, seeing similarities he would never look for before. The dark blue color of vishap’s hide was nearly identical to Neuvillette’s attire, but that was small beans, easily written off as coincidence. Their eyes, bright magenta with white vertical slice of a pupil, resembled Iudex, but there was room for debate, as his eyes were much paler, lilac merging into gentle blue instead of a bright pink, even as white vertical pupil was so similar. What really struck Wriothesley after all this, was actually the little blue feather at the side of the head of both vishaps and Neuvillette. It was identical and looked so… deliberate. It had to be chosen and placed precisely like this.

Still, this was not enough. He needed more evidence. He needed… he needed answers.

He walked to Jacque's block as quickly as he could without alarming inmates, but when he got to the conspirator’s room, Jacque was sleeping on the bed and a man was sitting on the chair next to him, reading a book. He looked up when Wriothesley walked in and stood up, clumsily dropping the book. He was tall and gangly, had dark hair, Inazuman features and light brown eyes behind the glasses.

“Who are you?” Wriothesley was really not in the mood for playing games.

“Well, my organization caught wind that you are interested in learning some… historical information, and our poor Jacque is really not the best source, which is why I’m here to answer any questions you have,” the man gave him a groveling smile. “You can call me Enjou.”

“Not here. In my office. Follow me.”

When they got there, Enjou whistled musingly.

“Uh, what a nice office! Must be a pretty sweet gig. I wish I had an office instead of slinking in dump ruins all the time.” He sighed theatrically. “So, I assume your main questions are on the vishap situation. I…”

“Wait,” Wriothesley said, walking up to one of his wall cabinets. “You can’t expect me to just believe you on your word.”

“Oh, of course, of course! You’re free to rough me up a bit first. Maybe a little bit of torture? But only a little bit, I’ve got a glass jaw, haha!”

Wriothesley didn’t live so long as an undisputed champion of fight club to not recognize a freak who gets off on pain. He grimaced, walking up to the table where Enjou was already trying to rifle through the papers. He stopped with an apologetic grin and put his hands up. Wriothesley put a glass vial on the table.

“Drink.”

Enjou raised his eyebrows.

“Are we dining and wining first or?...”

“It’s a truth serum,” it was a secret project of the Sumeru Akademiya, before the sages were overthrown. Dendro Archon reportedly could read the thoughts of people, and sages were trying to replicate the effect at least partially. Wriothesley came into possession of it after using his network to get the sages connected to the needed people in Fontaine institute, as Fontaine was at the cutting edge of mech technology and the sages were apparently building an artificial god. Didn’t pan out for them, but the serum worked. Wriothesley was sure of it, because he tried it on himself first.

“Oh! How exciting! How does it work? Will it perhaps burn my insides in agonizing pain if I lie?”

“Drink,” Wriothesley said through gritted teeth.

Enjou smiled and drank the vial in one shot.

“Well, nothing is burning so far, but the evening is young, haha,” he said, smacking his lips.

Wriothesley took a deep breath.

“Why are you here?”

“Huh? What do you mean? To explain the history to you, as I said.”

“Because of the goodness of your heart? What’s your agenda? Your goal?”

Enhou cleared his throat.

“Well, first of all, I do believe in uncovering and spreading so-called “forbidden” knowledge. But with your particular case can you really question my agenda? I didn’t come to you first. You were the one who sought us out. I didn’t even want to be here! I was doing my own thing without knowing about you, to be honest! But, well, I am in an organization with some unfortunate morons who thought that recruiting a convenient idiot and then sending him into underworld prison to make sure he isn’t heard is a great plan. And then when the Warden takes note of the idiot and gets him to blabber, these same morons go, Enjou, you have to get there, because you’re a vishap expert! Ugh.”

Enjou shook his head in seemingly sincere frustration.

“But um, yeah, I’m not trying to recruit you or anything. We know how you’ve disposed of House of Hearth agents and how you generally obstruct Fatui’s activity, and we just don't want you to do the same to us. Because we’re not your enemy! So I’m here to provide you with the necessary context to see that.”

Wriothesley drummed his fingers on the table.

“Okay. Start talking about Neuvilette and vishaps.”

“Well, Neuvilette is a Hydro Dragon, that should be obvious. To clarify, Hydro Dragon here means Hydro Dragon Sovereign, because technically all hydro vishaps are hydro dragons. If you didn’t know, which is understandable, as you’re more of a fighter type and not a bookworm like myself, haha, vishaps are primordial elemental creatures, original rulers of this land and mortal foes of humanity. Long before Archons, there were Dragon Sovereigns in charge of each element. Then there was a war with Celestia, specifics of which are not widely known, but we do know that Celestia won, dragons were largely eradicated and the huge chunks of powers of Sovereigns were taken from them and given to the Archons. Hydro Sovereign was killed.”

Enjou made a dramatic pause, before leaning forward with a grin. “But you see, vishaps reincarnate. Neuvillette is a Hydro Sovereign reborn in a human shape. There was actually an Inazuman prophecy about it, recorded in the Byakuyakoku Collection. That Hydro Dragon will descend in a human form, and it specifically mentions a cane. This really baffles me, to be honest. How could they predict the cane? Why does he even need a cane? Surely not because of any weakness, he’s an immortal dragon, 500 years is very young for him. And the records say when Neuvilette took his position as the Iudex some 400 years ago, he already had a cane. Was he born with it? Like, had he sprung fully formed, with a cane? Did he pick it up as, I don't know, honorary agreement with a prophecy? Or were his fashion choices actually predetermined to the degree that the prophecy knew them millenia ago?”

“Get back on track,” Wriothesley growled.

“Oh, sorry. Hmm, this serum works by forcing you to spell your thoughts out loud, yes? Well, then it’s not my fault I’m even more blabbering than usual!”

Wriothesley clasped his hands together and said slowly, carefully watching Inazuman’s reaction. “Even if he is a hydro sovereign dragon, as you say, this alone does not make him evil, as your conspiracy claims.”

Enjou fixed his glasses. He really had the hands of a bookworm, no work calluses or fighting scars. But there were spots of reddened, peeling skin that looked like burns that didn’t get to fully heal before getting burned again.

“Did you miss the “mortal foe of humanity” bit? But okay, sure. This is Fontaine after all, presumption of innocence and all that. I mean, I can’t read his thoughts to tell you under oath that he’s evil, so don’t take me to court, hehe!” Enjou grinned, clearly pleased at his own joke. “But I can tell what I know and ask some questions. My first question is why, after losing a war and presumably being killed by Celestia, would an ancient dragon god want to serve a servant of Celestia? The Archon, who rules with what is actually his own power? Unless he had some sort of agenda, perhaps? And come to think of it, why would Hydro Archon put a mortal foe of humanity into a position of such institutional power?”

“Are you implying Neuvilette forced Furina to give him the position of Iudex?”

“Well, I wasn’t here!” Enjou raised his hands defensively. “But why else would he become the Iudex?”

“There are higher beings and gods serving archons in other nations. Like Liyue adepti serving Rex Lapis.”

“Morax was known as the prime of the adepti. None of them could compare with him at strength. Same with yokai and Baal in Inazuma, she was the strongest by far. It’s natural that they would accept servitude. But here…” Enjou glanced at Wriothesley with a sly smile. “If you had to make a bet on a direct fight between Neuvillette and Furina, who would you bet on? Come on, I know tales that her own court would not listen to her until the Iudex tapped his cane.”

Wriothesley couldn’t really argue with this. When the Primordial Sea started breaking out, he himself sent for Neuvillette and didn’t even think to ask the actual Archon.

“In that case, why didn’t he just kill her immediately? Why would he play the judge?”

“Well, you see, he would not get his power back from just killing her. It would just pass to the next Archon. No, the Hydro Archon had to destroy her own throne. And running out the ruler requires a long game, as you know very well yourself, You Grace.”

Wriothesley kept a calm face, but something must have given him away, as Enjou grinned predatorily.

“Next set of facts and questions. You know of the infamous Archon trial, of course? When it was revealed that fontanian people are actually oceanids, given human shape by the previous hydro archon, Egeria? And the prophecy of the flood works because Primordial Sea waters dissolve fontanians into their oceanid forms. Well, the flood actually came. Why were fontanians not dissolved?”

“I’m sure you’ll tell me that.”

“Hehe, yes. It was because Neuvillette turned them into real humans with his powers of Hydro Sovereign. How generous of him, yeah? The question is, why did it take him so long? It’s been 500 years, and yet fontanians were made human only minutes before the flood.”

Despite a feeble bookworm posturing, there was a shadow of unhinged madness in his eyes, dangerous enough that in any other case Wriothesley would cut contact. But the stakes were too high right now. He needed to get all the information he could out of this lunatic.

“You might also remember that on the same trial it was proven that Furina is not a Hydro Archon. And I can tell you that the actual Archon, Focalors, was in the Oracle machine the whole time. Sorry, I’m not even trying to pronounce that full name, haha!”

The urge to punch this bastard was overwhelming, but Wriothesley kept himself in check, mostly because he could tell he was being baited into it and he didn’t want to give the piece of shit the satisfaction.

“Anyway, Neuvilette had an audience with her right after a trial, and as result she killed herself and gave him power back. You see, Hydro Archon doesn’t have the ability to turn oceanids into real humans. All of you were just… things, playing at being humans,” Enjou said with a smirk that looked more fascinated than mocking. “But Hydro Sovereign, the original god of life, does have the power to do so. And he also, conveniently, has control over the Primordial Sea, which you, Your Grace, already know as he stopped the flood in your own Fortress.”

Wriothesley raised an eyebrow and Enjou smiled with a shrug.

“Again, I was not there! But I do know Hydro Sovereign controls the Primordial Sea, and that there is an entrance to the Sea in the Meripode Fortress. I also know that there was some emergency in the Fortress, where inmates were told to run as close to the surface as possible, and then Monsieur Iudex visited and the disaster was somehow avoided.”

Wriothesley frowned.

“If he was really a mortal enemy of humanity, why wouldn’t he just let the gates of Meripode break and the flood happen right there and then? We would all be gone and he wouldn’t need to lift a finger. Instead he ran to help when I… when the Fortress called.”

“And what would that achieve? He still wouldn’t get his power back,” Enjou shrugged dismissively and then smiled, almost wistfully.

“No, you know what I would do if *I* was the Hydro Sovereign with an ability to take human form? And if the Archon who held my power hostage was relatively weak AND had the prophecy involving a flood of the Sea I control? Well, I’d infiltrate human society, take a position of high authority and make sure the humans not only see me as the personification of law and justice, but also respect me more than their own Archon. And when the prophecy deadline is coming up, I’d make sure I have people loyal to me in some key positions. Such as Royal Duelist… and the Warden of the Fortress.”

“He didn’t make me the Warden,” Wriothesley gritted out.

“No, but he did make you the Duke, didn’t he?” Enjou smirked with a wink. “Our sources say the Court was not thrilled to give the highest noble title to you. And if the Iudex did not throw his own weight behind it, it would have never come to pass. How generous of him.”

It was true, Wriothesley’s own informants reported that the Court loathed to give him a title, let alone as high as the Duke. Neuvillette was the only one who fought for him and fought hard, because usually Iudex’s one word was enough to make a decision, but here the stalemate lasted for two months. They wanted to compromise and give him the viscount, but Iudex wouldn’t budge, so in the end, they caved.

Wriothesley never asked Neuvillette for the title. Neuvillette never mentioned what he did for the Warden and never dropped anything even as close as a hint of asking anything in return.

Unless you see it as a part of centuries long game, where mundane favors didn’t matter, but being called first to the access of the Primordial Sea did.

“Ah, you’re starting to get it, don’t you?” Enjou sensed blood in the water, like a proper shark would. “Then I would orchestrate a public court hearing to absolutely discredit the current ruler and corner the actual Archon. And when Focalors is forced to talk to me…. I would make a bargain. Saving the lives of all fontanians in exchange of getting my full power back and Focalors dying. Isn't it ironic that the dragon playing human was the one to turn human-shaped water things into actual humans?"

Enjou leaned back against his chair, grinning with satisfaction.

“And then I’d have an entire country loyal to me as a ruler, which would make a great foothold to use for attacking Celestia.”

Wriothesley took a deep breath.

“You really expect me to take you on your word? You might believe it yourself, which will pass the truth serum, but the word of a lunatic is not evidence.”

“Oh, of course not! I would never expect you to take my lowly word for it. Instead, why don’t you take Monsieur Iudex’s word?”

Enjou made a dramatic gesture of spilling a heap of conches onto the table. Wriothesley raised his eyebrows, when the other man poked one of them awkwardly.

“Now that I have reclaimed one of the Seven Authorities from the hands of the usurpers, I have regained my true form,” a calm voice that was undoubtedly Neuvillette, said out of nowhere. “I am now a fully fledged dragon, powerful enough to judge the rest of the gods. My final destiny is to judge the Usurper-King in the heavens above.”

“This could be faked,” Wriothesley said automatically, just to argue, but his heart already fell.

“You wound me! These are his words, and I spent an entire night fishing them out for you, I’ll have you know. It’s quite hard to capture this. You’re welcome to listen to all of them and see for yourself.”

Almost against his will, Wriothesley reached out and touched one of the conches.

“…I shall fulfill my vow to judge all of The Seven in turn, even if the sky should fall and the ground give way.”

Wriothesley took an abrupt breath through his teeth. Enjou sighed and stood up.

“I think it’s better for you to listen to this alone. After, you’re welcome to reach out to us, but please don’t make any hasty decisions. I’ll see you soon, Your Grace!”

Enjou walked down the stairs, and by the time Wriothesley got to them, there was no one there. The Duke couldn’t bring himself to focus on that though. Instead, he walked up to one of the wall cabinets and took out a bottle of whiskey he was saving up as a possible gift.

He didn’t bother with the glass. He fell down into the chair in front of the conches and clenched his fingers on the bottle, icy veins springing up from under them. He took a sip and touched another conch.

“…my grievances with the usurpers have yet to be settled... They owe a debt of blood that shall not be forgotten.”

He drank, staring blindly into the distance, and listened, and the quiet words burned worse than whiskey sliding down his throat. He caught himself on a familiar thought. “This can’t be happening. This is too monstrous.” The same feverish thoughts he had when he discovered the truth about his foster parents.

As if by now he shouldn’t have learned that nothing is too monstrous in this world.

“As a survivor of the dragon race who has regained my full dragonhood, I must fulfill my oath and obligations even if it means returning all the water in the oceans back to the heavens.”

It really did sound exactly like Neuvillette. Wriothesley tried to find the lie, something that sounded fake, but not only the voice, but the cadence and word choice fit. And it sounded calm, impartial as usual too. And then there were hydro vishaps appearing in Erinnyes…

Fuck, was it really that easy to fool him? Was he really this big of a fool? He learned to distrust sweet words and warm smiles, and he was so sure that he wouldn’t get caught in the same lies ever again, even if he sacrificed his ability to love for this. But all it took was a seeming opposite, direct and harsh, too cold and intimidating to appear manipulative, but endearingly awkward just sometimes, just enough to make him believe that… That there was something true and clear in this rotten world. That he could trust in *someone*.

“Nothing will stop me from rendering judgment on each of The Seven.”

He went through all of the recordings, frantically at first, wanting to find contradictions, then, when none were found, numbly re-listening to the few that hit the worst.

“…also the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity. “

Wasn’t it too obvious in hindsight? Why would the Iudex stake his own reputation on Wriothesley’s title? How could you not see it coming? Oh, because you thought you “deserve” it for turning this dog-fighting pit of a prison into something with a modicum of fairness? Because you thought he recognized your redemption? Gods, what are you, fucking fourteen again, did you learn nothing, why would anyone ever care about you, you naive goddamn idiot?

Soon, the bottle was somehow almost done. At this point he was running one recording on repeat, mindless and purposeless except for repeating slashes of pain, familiar rhythm like the knife on his wrists years ago.

"Hydro Dragon, Hydro Dragon, don't cry." Whoever had penned that rhyme, as well as the Fontainians who came to believe in it, must not have known the Hydro Dragon all that well, considering that they thought the Hydro Dragon could cry. What did they take said Dragon for, some sort of bleeding heart who grieved for humans and the heavens alike?”

If this was true… If this was true, then Wriothesley didn’t just get fooled himself. Then he helped a monster take control of the country and potentially use it in war against heavens.

He clenched his hand and it took him a moment to realize he broke the bottle he was holding in it. That pain from glass pieces in his palm felt small and distant now. But at last, it spurned him into action.

If this was true, he only had one shot. He’d already told Neuvillette of the dragon conspiracy, like a good little idiot eager to please. And any tyrant worth his salt would make sure to take him out after his, especially now that he outlived his purpose in giving access to Meripode vaults. He might have some time because of how oblivious he was, dismissing the conspiracy openly, but it couldn’t be long.

He couldn’t take his time. He couldn’t hope for the better. He had to act like it’s the worst option possible. More than anything, he needed to confront Neuvillette, dragon Sovereign or not. He had to fix this, no matter the cost.

He realized he needed leverage. Brute strength was out of the question. Even before the flood, Neuvillette absolutely destroyed Fatui Harbinger in one flash, quicker than anyone in the audience could see what happened. Wriothesley would put himself against Harbringer with no hesitation, but he wasn’t an idiot. If this was how powerful Iudex was before, then after allegedly gaining his full power, there was no way Wriothesley could threaten him. No, he needed something else.

He took out the paper and wrote a note, taking care to not stain it with blood. Fortunately, he held the bottle in his left hand, so he could keep it out of the way.

“....and so confess that I, Wriothesley, Warden of the Fortress of Meripode, killed Chief Justice, Iudex Neuvillette.”

He finished the note and carefully put in his signature, then folded the paper into an envelope and closed it with his personal seal. Then he walked up to a safe, one of the hidden ones, and punched in a code. When the safe opened, he rummaged in it for a moment, until finally taking out two vials.

This was sold to him as the poison that could kill a god.

#rhine writes #rhine writes light #neuvillette #wriothesley #wriolette #genshin impact #enjou #i had a lot of fun with enjou here #anyway let me know what you guys think

107 notes · View notes

jotarosblkwifey · 1 year

Text

JJBA: Love is Unbreakable. Intro

[Pic above from @/StickerTricker on Twitter!]

Synopsis: Y/n loves playing dating sim games, they intrigue her with the different plots, characters and special routes that one may do. So when her best friend introduces her to a new one. She realizes that maybe she needs to back away from the screen.

Pairings: Various JJBA Characters x Reader, Original Characters x Reader.

Rating: 16+ (Later Parts maybe +18)

Warnings: Stalking, Obsession, Possessiveness, Scopophobia, Kidnapping, Stockholm Syndrome (In some endings), death, murder, threats of harm, Mentions of Suicide, Depression, More to be added.

Enjoy...y/n.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Come on! You have to try it! I searched all over for this game for you!"

You felt awful a bit.

(B/F/N) had come back from a trip she went on and handed you a switch cartridge. You had told her not worry about you when she left, and that she didn't have to get you anything. But, her being the best friend in the whole wide world.

She brought you back an Otome game.

She had gotten you into them at first, sucking you in with The NIFLHEIM and Obey Me: One Master to Rule Them All.

They were fun. The storylines were moving, the artwork was great and the characters were lovable!

So when she held this new one in front of you, you had a feeling this one was going to become your new obsession.

It was based off of the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, an anime that you loved to sit down and watch. You found it entertaining that no matter what, foolishness seemed to follow the Joestar Bloodline. So you were excited to play this game based around it.

“Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure…Love is Unbreakable. Hey, it's a play on one of the season’s names too!” (B/F/N) says and you nodded along. You turned the box over on the back to read the description.

‘Play along as your own character in the different stories from the hit Series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure! Help Jonathan Defeat Dio in Phantom Blood, Fight alongside Joseph in Battle Tendency, or even Join Jotaro and his friends to defeat DIO once again in Stardust Crusaders! Fall for your favorite Joestars and who knows! Maybe they’ll fall for you too~’

“I’m probably gonna stay up late playing this tonight..”

“Well, Don’t let me stop you! I just wanted to stop this by! I still have to go unpack!” (B/F/N) gave you a kiss on the cheek and a big hug before leaving out.

You grabbed your switch and decided to head to your room to start up your new game.

—---------------------------------------------------

You placed your switch on the dock and watched as the screen lit up, seeing the several characters zoom across the screen before the title screen popped up.

You smiled as you pressed start.

A pretty woman character popped up on the screen. She had pretty sky blue hair with swirly green/blue eyes, she had freckles and pretty mocha brown skin. She seemed to be staring off before ‘noticing’ you.

“Oh Hello! Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!!! My name is Melody Musik! Welcome to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Love is Unbreakable!”

She was bright and bubbly, she must be an OC of the creator of this game. She surely followed the JJBA character style to a tea, dressed to stand out in a crowd.

“What is your name?” Her voice was sweet, you hurriedly typed in your name and you watched as her eyebrows furrowed together before her smile returned.

[Please Insert your name]

…….Y/N…L/N……...

“Your name is Y/n, Correct?”

[Yes]< [No]

“Such a pretty name! Now, Pick your story line~!”

[When you pick your storyline, it will be a special version of the story. Please choose carefully as once you start, you won’t be able to choose another one!]

[Phantom Blood]

[Available routes: Jonathan Joestar, Dio Brando]

Join Jonathan as he goes about his life beside his evil adoptive brother Dio. Help Jonathan Defeat Dio or either Join Dio and reject your humanity.

[Battle Tendency]

[Available routes: Joseph Joestar, Kars]

Join Joseph, the descendant of Jonathan and Erina as he comes over to the states. Follow him as he defeats Straizo and ends up with more than he can handle in the form of the Pilarmen. Will you defeat them? Or will you Join Kars in his quest to become the ultimate lifeform.

[Stardust Crusaders]

[Available routes: Jotaro, Joseph, DIO]

Time to Join Jotaro in saving his mom from DIO and his minions, Take a trip across Egypt and defeat the minions in his way. Will you stay alongside Jotaro or Will DIO persuade you to join him in his path to destroy the Joestars

[Diamond is Unbreakable]

[Available routes: Josuke, Jotaro,Joseph, Kira,}

Welcome to Morioh, 1999! There's a serial killer running around that you have to help find. Join Josuke and Jotaro as you try to figure out just who this killer is. Maybe the killer is in plain view. Or maybe he’s just a simple man who wants to live a simple life doing simple things.

[Vento Aureo]

[Available routes: Giorno, Bruno, Doppio/Diavolo]

Dio has a kid?! Join Giorno as he travels through the ranks of the mafia to defeat the boss of passione, the most powerful mob in Italy to become a Gang-Star. But, the boss may have his eyes on you. Be careful of who’s around you.

You stared as Melody explained each plot line and how you would fit into it. She pointed to each one and showed the available routes and the ‘difficulty’ level of the romanceable characters.

“Of course all the villains are hard…but that's not going to stop me!” You say excitedly and it was almost like Melody was giggling at you. You brushed it off as she continued to speak.

“Oh and don’t worry! I’ll be alongside you in every story! If you ever want to know something or you get stuck!” She smiles at you and shows the various looks that she’ll have between each series. From having her own ancestors in Parts 1 and 2, to being similar to Jotaro and being in 3, 4 and 5.

Though you kept getting the feeling that Melody was something more, you got a little Doki Doki Literature Club or John Doe type vibes from her.

“Tch. I doubt this game is going to be sentient. If so I would feel so bad for you Melo.” You said giving the tutorial character a nickname. You could’ve sworn you saw her blush and avert her eyes, before quickly returning to her idol animation.

“So! What are you going to choose?”