#like 'tsu' is at least close enough to 'two' so in my brain its like 'oh yeah that makes sense' but anyway 😩 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shoutogepi · 4 years

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Best Friends

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𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 : 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐨 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 : 2.7k

[ ☁︎ ] angst

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞 : unrequited feelings :’( really brief mention of sex (not nsfw tho!) & also (underage?????) alcohol consumption!

𝐛𝐢𝐨 : On your last night in the dorms, Shouto realizes he has feelings for you, his best friend.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 : idk honestly i started writing this last night and was gonna abandon it... but then val tagged me in an angst ficrec and i was like ok well! this is a sign to post bc then i will have at least one sho angst on my masterlist lolll oops :o

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─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

🅃onight was the last night in the dorms. Three long years had come and went, and now everyone’s belongings were cleaned out and secured away with cardboard and tape, leaving an empty wing that was currently filled with bodies, neon lights, and red solo cups. Music was pounding through the hallways, reaching every room and allowing no one total escape from the celebration.

You had been occupying the dance floor with Mina and Tsuyu for the last half hour, and now that you had sweat off the latest drink of the night, it was time for you to set off and find your more moderate-tempered companion. The pink-skinned girl wiggled her eyebrows at you when you alerted them of where you were heading off to, Tsuyu planting a love tap on your ass as you made your way from the swarm of people. The frog girl wasn’t usually so loose, but the alcohol that pumped through everyone’s veins had left only a select few unaffected. Tsu, just like you, was one of the ones that was happily allowing the weight of daily student life slip from her shoulders.

There were plenties of warm bodies swaying with the heavy bass rattling the hallways, shadows of couples and interested singles leaning against the walls, whispers and rowdy laughs echoing as the entire graduating class of UA partied the night away. Skimming by the line outside the bathroom, your feet found their way toward the end of the hall easily enough, taking the path you had so many times before.

A creak sounded as you pushed the cracked door open, the sight of the open shoji screen allowing moonlight to stream onto the bamboo mat floor which crunched quietly underneath your tentative steps.

“Shouto?” you whispered his name, eyes taking in the silhouettes of the packed boxes against the walls before you turned and saw a shadow sitting on the mattress beside the door.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Your voice jolted Shouto from his wandering thoughts, his attention turning to you right away. He seemed surprised to see you standing there, and he peered up at you from his slightly hunched position on the couch. He acknowledged you with your name, his voice low and steady. By the sound of it, you wondered briefly if he had even had a drop to drink tonight.

Blinking at him a few times, you tried to adjust your eyes to the contrast between the bright moonlight and dark shadows. When you could finally see the planes of his handsome, somber face, you spoke, trying your best not to slur. “What are you doing over here all by yourself?”

He paused, lagging for a second before the corners of his mouth curled and his eyes crinkled at the sight of you. “Just thinking,” he answered, examining you in that intrigued way he always did. After a moment he must have reached the conclusion that you were some level of smashed, for he patted the empty space next to him on the bed with a smirk and said, “Come sit with me.”

For a moment you wondered why he was alone, but then your brain caught up with you, and you realized that his other friends were probably busy with their own issues or endeavors. Ever since Midoriya finally grew a pair and asked Uraraka out, the two had been going at it like rabbits every spare second they had. And you could only imagine how busy Iida was as class rep, trying to keep the party at least a little bit under control. Momo was definitely helping him, and you had seen Bakugou begrudgingly holding Kaminari up with Kirishima under his other arm when you’d passed by them in the hall… Leaving only you to come and rouse the half and half hero from his solitude.

“Well that’s not allowed tonight!” You exclaimed, fist slapping against the side of your thigh. You would’ve used both hands for emphasis had the other not been occupied with a half-full plastic cup. Your legs felt like jello as you moved toward him, his cool hand wrapping around your arm to offer his support and steer you into the spot beside him. You almost fell but he held you up with the one arm, chuckling as your butt finally met the safety of the duvet.

“Thinking’s forbidden?” he laughed at your insistence, the sound rich and deep as his hand lingered on your wrist.

“Yes,” you nodded vehemently, pulling your hand away from his to cradle your precious cup and shooting him a playful, sideways glare. “Brain turned off for the night. It’s in the fine print of the party rules, of course.”

Shouto gave you a funny look, eying you from the side. He repositioned himself, sitting upright and closing his eyes. It was hard for him to remain stoic when the quiet sound of your amused giggles tickled his ears, but he managed a nod before his eyes settled on you again. “Okay, I think it’s off.”

Conversation was always natural between the two of you, he never had to struggle to keep it flowing. And he liked talking with you, being in your presence. Which was the only reason why he was still entertaining this ridiculous charade.

“How do you feel?” you inquired, a goofy grin on your lips.

There was a twinkle in your eyes as you teased him, but Shouto held no qualms with your playfulness. Most people were still afraid to joke with him, believing that he was too obtuse to understand humor. Sure, he had struggled with the transition to school life in the beginning of their first year, but after you had transferred into their class second year, he found himself opening up even more than he already had.

“I feel… the same.” The grin on his lips remained, his eyes settled on your drunken form. His gaze flicked to your smile, shining in the moonlight and making something twinge in his stomach. He cleared his throat, pushing down the feeling that haunted him every time he looked at you too long. “This doesn’t really work, does it?”

You pretended to entertain the thought for a moment, eyes rolling as you considered it animatedly before your lips broke into a beautiful smile again. “No,” you giggled, shoulders shrugging in your cute, drunken fit. “But it’s easier when you’re not sober!”

He turned, faux surprise hung from his brow. “You’re drunk?” Sarcasm dripped from his voice and splashed onto you where his jean-clad thigh brushed against yours.

“Shut up!” You punched at his shoulder and pushed him away from you, shuffling yourself in the process.

Your hair swished with the movement and suddenly the soft, sweet scent of you was crashing over him. He breathed it in shamelessly, allowing himself to indulge in the warm feeling that suddenly emanated through his chest.

“You could try it, if you wanted. It really does help,” you offered your cup to him, shrugging.

Shouto eyed the red plastic cup, hesitant. He really wasn’t one to drink, but then again, neither were you. Tonight was about celebrating your graduation from UA, opening the next chapter of your lives. The thing was, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to move on when it meant leaving all his relationships either behind him or pushed to the side. Okay, maybe he was kidding himself… there was only one person he would miss having in his daily life, and that person was sitting right beside him— the same one who was the source of his conflicted feelings.

“Or not!” your hand retreated and you took a little sip, the sweet jungle juice washing down your throat easily. “No pressure. It’s your choice, Sho.”

He nearly groaned at the nickname, the one he only allowed you to call him. Grabbing the cup from you, his calloused fingers brushed over your soft knuckles. He smirked at the excitement that surfaced in your gaze as he brought the lip of the cup to his mouth, emptying the contents in one long go. The liquid was sickly sweet, masking the bitter poison that entered his body alongside it.

“That was… truly disgusting.”

“Whaaat?” You balked, grabbing for the cup in dismay. He kept it out of reach, even though it was empty, setting it on the far table instead. “It’s good, I dunno what you’re on. It’s really, really good. Heheh, just like me…”

Shouto blushed at the innocent innuendo, looking at you as you closed your eyes and let out a noise between a sigh and a laugh. He gulped, realizing that the alcohol was already taking effect and he was beginning to slip under its influence. Your method of “turning your brain off” was proving to be much more effective with the alcohol’s aid, but that was a whole other issue which he failed to foresee.

He usually preferred to keep his brain on and fully functioning, especially when he was alone, with you. That way, when you roused the butterflies in his stomach and pulled on his heartstrings, he could tell himself to just ignore it and focus on how important your friendship was to him. But now, his defenses were failing him, and there was nothing he could do to stop his heart from beating faster, palms getting clammier.

“You’re good?” he reiterated quietly, watching the way your tongue swiped across your lips, enchanted by it.

You chortled, finding the thought entertaining, apparently. “Yes! I feel really good right now.”

“Ah,” he murmured, sitting back and allowing the pillow he had propped up to sink around his form. “I feel... kinda good, too.”

A mix between a laugh and a scoff escaped you at his confession. “You feel something already, Sho? Wow, that’s so efficient.”

Shouto didn’t really know what you meant by that, but he only smiled softly at the happy look on your face. He closed his eyes and listened to the fast rush of blood in his ears, the feeling of warmth prickling at his skin. He wasn’t drunk, per se, but he felt a little lighter than usual.

You had said that drinking would turn his brain off, but it seemed only part of it wasn’t functioning. The other side of his mind was working overtime, much to his chagrin.

He was suddenly aware that this would be one of his last moments with you before everything would change. You were going to an internship not too far from his, only an hour away by train. But seeing you wouldn’t be nearly as easy as walking down the hallway… and it could only happen if the both of you found a time that worked and had the motivation to travel the distance to meet one another. He wasn’t sure if you wanted to do all that, just to see him.The realization hit him hard.

No more sneaking to one another’s room and having whispered, midnight conversations. No more studying together and simply being in your presence. No more opportunities to let his gaze linger on you longingly, nor chances for him to grab your hand when your knuckles brushed against his in the middle of your walks.

He felt sick at the thought of living without you. Maybe… maybe it was time for him to face his feelings head on. He had spent so long denying the recognition of them, the acceptance of them. The loss of you was imminent, unless he could finally force himself to say something, and it had to be soon.

As if you had picked up on his distress, you hummed quietly and shuffled closer to his side. His quirk spiked at the sudden proximity, heat flaring up as your head came to rest on his shoulder.

“I’m a sappy drunk, so I apologize for what I’m about to say,” you mumbled into his t-shirt, his skin prickling as your warm breath wandered through the seams and onto his skin.

He huffed out a laugh to ease your worries, but he stayed absolutely still, unwilling to move a muscle in case it would somehow scare your body off of his.

Then you whispered, “M’so lucky to have met you, Sho.”

Shouto choked on thin air, subtly wiping the moisture on his palms across the tops of his denim-covered thighs. Your scent surrounded him, and he couldn’t resist resting his head on top of yours, slowly breathing between your locks. “I… I feel the same, Y/n…”

It was quiet for another moment, his mind playing out a hundred ways to confess, trying to find the right words. Meanwhile, you were simply enjoying his reciprocation and the peacefulness of the quiet away from the party, completely unaware of his inner turmoil.

You sighed and he shivered as your breath scattered across his collarbone again, almost jumping when your fingers landed softly over his. How you remained so soft with their vigorous training, he had no clue. But your fingers felt so warm, so right lacing with his. His throat was thick with apprehension, a lump forming there as the seconds ticked by. It wasn’t often the two of you were sitting so close together, and he wondered if he was a piece of shit for thanking whatever God there was out there for you being kind of inebriated and so touchy right now.

Slowly, he turned to look at you, eyes wide and conflicted, taking in how truly astonishing your beauty was up close. You lifted your head from your perch on his shoulder, gaze locking with his before your lips curled into a meek smile. Digits tightening around his, you squeezed his hand and rubbed your thumb across his knuckles.

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, screaming at him to do something— anything— whatever it took for him to just form the words and tell you that he was in love with—

“Thank you for being my best friend.”

—you… He blinked, the words registering.

You continued. “I know we’re moving away from each other, but I never wanna lose you. I cherish our friendship too much for that to happen, Shouto.”

Your words cut him.

Friends. Friendship.

His blood felt like it had frozen in his veins and he had become a statue, stock still as you carried on thoughtlessly, eyes now flickering over to the moon hung low in the indigo night sky.

“Please promise me that we'll never change. We might grow as people, but… our friendship will stay intact, right? I don’t wanna grow apart.”

It hurt.

Time had stopped and his lungs shriveled up, his body aching as if you had just lodged your knee straight into his ribs. His tongue tasted bitter suddenly, and he could almost hear the sound of his heart cracking.

But Shouto was good at hiding his emotions, years of compartmentalizing them giving him an edge that no one else he knew had. He kept his face neutral, even if it felt like he was withering and dying inside.

“I just… don’t ever wanna lose you.”

It was almost impossible to force his lips into a thin, hollow smile. But he managed, even if it felt like prying iron with a crowbar. He looked into your eyes and nodded.

He understood. To some extent, he truly understood.

“I don’t want to lose you either, Y/n... Don’t worry,” he took a deep breath, forcing the next words out even if he felt like he was about to be sick.

He cherished his bond with you too much to risk chancing it, confessing to you, and throwing it all away after your certain rejection. He loved you too much to ever hurt you, and he was too selfish to let go of you, too. The only one that would suffer from this was him, and he was alarmingly alright with that.

If it meant that he got to hold onto you, even for just a little bit longer.

If it meant that you would be happy... Even if he wasn’t.

“We’ll always be friends... I promise.”

─── ・°* ﾟ✧:* • ｡ﾟ:*･☽･*: ｡ﾟ•*:✧ ﾟ*°・ ───

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afJSNKJKDKJ WRITING ANGST FOR MY BABY IS SO HARD AHH I LOVE U SHO PLS... reader is so dumb to see u only as a friend i hate that dumb bitch ughhh (TдT)

➥ masterlist

𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 © 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐩𝐢 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 . 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝.

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dizzydancingdreamer · 4 years

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Little Witch | The Mikaelson Boys

Hey lovelies, I’m finally back with some Mikaleson Brothers content. I’ve had this idea for a while and rewrote it about a thousand times. I’m not sure if I love this but I needed to just finish it. I feel like it’s not that great but regardless I’m giving it to you. It’s super fluffy and a quick burn romance but, hey, who doesn’t like kissing me you just met you know? In all seriousness I hope you’re all doing well. I know life is really off right now and I hope this helps. All my love <3 until next time loves!

Description: Hogwarts and The Originals crossover, disbelief must be suspended for this one as we all know some of this doesn’t add up, soulmate AU

Pairing: The Mikaelson Boys x Female!Hufflepuff!Reader

Warnings: there are no warnings

Word count: 6.7k

Tags: FLUFF

Tag List: @activist-af , @hellotvshowtrash , @firebirdsalvatore

(Photos not mine but mood board is :) )

“There you are, sweetheart,” her gentle voice breaks through you dreams, pulling you from the same scene you’ve grown used to seeing for the last couple weeks, “you’re going to miss dinner sleepyhead.”

You awake to a familiar picture: your books sprawled across a desk in the middle of the library and a fiery redhead with a soft smile holding a semi-crumpled cardigan towards you. Her eyes twinkle with laughter and familiarity. This isn’t the first time Arabella has found you asleep after you told her you were going to be studying. When you look down at your divination textbook you notice a small pink smudge from your cherry lip gloss. You wipe your fingers around your lips, collecting the rest of your smeared makeup.

You stifle a yawn, stretching your limbs out with a soft groan, “shoot, I fell asleep again. What time is it, Ari?”

“Quarter to six, hun,” she reaches out to brush some fallen hair out of your eyes, “we should really get a move on. Are you feeling okay?”

You nod, this time the yawn interrupting any intention to answer that you had. Your head buzzes lightly with the remnants of your dream. For weeks you’ve felt something on the horizon, something meant just for you. Three pairs of brown eyes and the warmest feeling in your chest. It’s the same feeling you’ve been waking up with every night, if not a touch stronger this evening. You don’t mind it though, it layers a warmth to your bones that this winter in the castle has stripped from you.

“I haven’t been sleeping too well lately is all,” you let Arabella help you slip your cardigan back on, straightening it and your tie, evening the yellow and gray stripes.

Her hands still against your shoulders, her concerned green eyes meeting your own half open ones, “still having those dreams, sunshine?”

You nod once more, sagging slightly from the weight of your tote when she loops it over your shoulder. Your skin tingles with slight electricity, lulling your already fuzzy brain into a deeper haze. You tug your sleeves over your hands, scrunching your fingers into a fist to try and regain some awareness.

“Hmm,” Arabella pushes the same strand of hair from your forehead again, removing her headband and putting it on you instead to keep your unruly strands in place, “remind me to make you some tea before bed. I have some herbs from the greenhouse that might help with them. Let’s go get some food into you first though, ok?

She links her arm through yours, pulling you alongside her towards the dining hall. The corridors are mostly empty, spare a few behind students. Much like yourselves, they hurry in the same direction, following the wafting smell of roasted chicken and pumpkin pie. You can’t help but shiver as you watch them rush, feeling like someone forgot to tell you something. As if everyone knows a secret that you very well must have snoozed through.

“Hey Ari,” you tug lightly on her sleeve to get her attention, “why is everyone in such a hurry? Did I miss something?”

She looks confused for a moment, her button nose scrunching tight before her mouth falls open, “oh yes, that’s right! I forgot to tell you! Some seventh year prefects overheard McGonagall talking about some exchange students from Ilvermorny. They’re supposed to be here for dinner!”

Your skin crackles with electricity, the air static with anticipation, “Ilvermorny? They’re from America?”

She nods her head cheerfully as the two of you approach the towering doors of the dining hall, “I know, it’s crazy right?”

You can hear the buzz of activity emitting from the hall before you cross the corridor, a dull roar that lights you with an even mixture of excitement and nervousness.

“They certainly think so,” you motion to the giggling fourth year girls who scurry past you, their chatter no doubt about the possibility of Hogwarts’ newest additions.

The current coursing through your body sings when Arabella pulls you through the doors. The dining hall is a flurry of activity, each house no doubt wondering if they’ve gained any new members tonight. The thought of some new Hufflepuffs warms your heart. You haven’t had any new faces around in ages it feels like. You let her lead you to a few seats left open near the front of the hall, next to the small stage.

You fall into your seat with a sigh, graciously accepting the plate of food Arabella hands you. How she made it so quick you aren't sure. Magic probably, that would make the most sense. When you glance over at her she has her wand out, levitating food onto her own plate. She always puts you ahead of herself, something you can't help but feel bad about sometimes. Regardless, it warms your heart immensely to be lucky enough to have such a caring best friend. You catch her eye and she passes you a loving smile and a wink before lowering her plate.

As you take the first bite of your pumpkin pie, ignoring the nudge you get for eating your dessert first, Headmistress McGonogal taps her wand to the podium in front of her.

“Students,” she clears her throat, waiting for the noise in the great hall to quiet, “as quite a few of you have already heard by now,” she searches you all with a glint in her eye, a small smile on her lips, “we have a few students joining us.”

The great hall buzzes at her admission, a current running through the entirety of the student body and, most of all, you. Your head feels like it’s spinning. Like you’ve just drunk a litre of fire whiskey and that if you stand up there’s a good chance you’ll fall right over. You drop your fork but the clatter it makes doesn’t register with you as much as it should. Arabella looks over at you, clearly worried, and raises her eyebrows, placing a warm hand on your back.

As you go to shrug your shoulders at her, the doors to the great hall open once more, “ah, and here they are! Please, everyone, show them your warmest welcome. They have come a long way, all the way from Ilvermorny in the United States.”

McGonogal continues to speak about Hogwarts and its connection to Ilvermorny but her speech is drowned out by cheering from all over the great hall. Well, you’re pretty sure it is. Your pulse is thundering so loudly in your ears that you can’t hear much of anything at all. Arabella stares at you still, growing more and more scared as the seconds pass. You think you say something, you open your mouth at least, but whatever words come out of your mouth don’t reach your ears. Arabella tightens her grip.

You close your eyes, squeezing them shut tightly, desperately willing your senses to go back to normal. It almost works too but then you breathe in and are hit with three scents so hard that you almost vomit. Not because they’re terrible, though, they’re anything but. No, you almost puke because of how fast you’re swamped in pine and buttery leather and the entire damn sea and how quickly it makes your heart rate spike. Are you having a heart attack? What is going on?

When you open your eyes the great hall is spinning and you know for a fact that you’re the only one experiencing this carousel ride. You have to get out of here. You push away from the table, standing on legs much too shaky for your own good. Arabella calls your name and it sounds like she’s behind a thick sheet of glass, one you can’t break no matter how hard you slam against it. The trees and leather and sea wraps around you again and your knees almost give out. There’s only one thing you can think to do and you don’t hesitate to do it.

You run like hell.

No. Scratch that. You run like hell is chasing you and, well, maybe it is. Maybe hell is a person, or people, perhaps even three people, and their footsteps pound down the corridor behind you so loud they echo through your chest. Your kilt whips around your legs, your hair flying behind you as you clear the corners as they come. You can feel them, whoever they are, gaining but slowly. You can make it, you know you can.

It’s midwinter, the thick of February, and yet you feel like you’re wading through lava. The halls should be ice right now but your blood is scorching you from the inside out. You pull the sweater from your chest as you run, not thinking twice before dropping it, never stopping. Your skin is charged with electricity and you want to scream and tear your heart out but you can’t, not now. You feel them like they’re right on your heels, the triplet of scents swirling furiously around you. You need to get outside. Now.

You make it to the courtyard, practically leaping off the cement steps, but a hand catches your arm midair and you stumble. You see the ground hurtling towards you in slow motion, the cobblestone path laughing at you. You squeeze your eyes shut, waiting for the stones to bite into your side but they never do. Instead you’re wrapped in pine, two warm arms pulling you into a firm, hot chest.

You thought your skin was electrified before but that was nothing compared to what is now. Everywhere your body touches the person holding you prickles with static. You can almost hear your flesh crackle, each one of your veins roaring so loud that all you can hear is your blood rushing through you. It’s like a tsunami, waves of fire and power and fucking pine rolling over you unrelentlessly. You aren’t quite sure if you’re still breathing.

You feel another pair of hands on your back, rubbing up and down, spreading the fire like butter over your shoulder blades. Your body reacts on it’s own, your back arching into whoever it is behind you, your head falling onto a shoulder that smells like summer at the beach.

A part of you is screaming to run. To jab your elbow into their stomach and fight like hell. However, against all of your better judgement, the feeling is fading and fast. Hands skim down your arms lightly and you fight the delicious shiver that crawls up your spine. You don’t realize you’re still clinging to the first person until your fists squeeze around the cotton of their shirt. Their hands hand loosely off your hips and you don’t even want to acknowledge how much you like it.

Instead of fighting, you pry your eyes open, only to stare directly into strikingly familiar brown eyes. Your breath catches in your chest, your head still against his shoulder. He leans closer towards you, blonde hair falling down his face slightly. It looks entirely soft and you squeeze your hands tighter, resisting the urge to touch this stranger’s hair. His scent, that overbearing ocean, wraps around you again. He definitely doesn’t feel like a stranger.

“Hi love,” his voice is soft and lulls you deeper into his chest, his nose skimming the arch of your cheekbone, “you’re lucky we’re fast. That could have been quite the fall.”

He chuckles lightly and your cheeks flame, the noise like the wind chimes you hung in the greenhouse your fourth year. His laugh hits you in the gut and radiates to every inch of your skin, cooling the flames but also concentrating them lower. Too low. Your traitorous core sets on fire from the mixture of his musical laugh and mesmerizing eyes. Merlin, you don’t even know his name.

You look away from him but you can’t escape his eyes no matter how hard you try, looking directly into an identical pair of warm, brown eyes. The man in front of you, the one with his hands squeezing your hips, is also frustratingly familiar. He’s tall, his chest, the one underneath your fingertips, is broad and heaves up and down with every breath. Your body, being the wanton force of nature she is, longs to have you wrap your legs, and every other part of you, around the man in front of you. When the blonde behind you wraps his arms around your stomach, reminding you that he’s still there, you want to do the same to him as well.

Memories prickle the edges of your mind, the dreams you’ve been having for weeks now flashing behind your eyelids every time you blink. The warmth in your bones and the molten brown eyes. The same electricity that is burning through your chest and head and core, only now it’s a million times stronger. You shake your head. Not at the man in front of you but at yourself. No way are these the men from your dreams. That’s impossible, Right? And besides, there were three eyes in your dreams.

“There you guys are,” a voice, steadily approaching and as slow and tantalizing as honey, pulls your attention away from the men surrounding you, “I can’t believe you left me to explain what was happening to McGonagall.”

You meet the third pair of eyes with an audible gasp, his sharp leather scent curling around you despite the distance between the two of you. It sinks into your skin and puts you in motion, like the potion you needed to break whatever paralyzing spell you were under. You pull yourself so suddenly from the two men that they don’t have time to catch you, putting some much needed distance between all four of you. You force yourself to ignore the way your heart aches already. Your hand finds the wand in your kilt pocket. Stupid girl, longing for men you don’t even know.

You find your voice but only enough to mutter hastily, “Were you chasing me? Aren’t you supposed to be meeting, like, the whole school right now? What in Merlin’s name is going on?”

The newest male takes a step towards you, his eyes drawing up and down your body, reigniting the heat that has been slowly subsiding and lingering on your hand wrapped around your wand. He smirks at you, like he knows something that you don’t and, honestly, he probably does. You pull your bottom lip between your teeth. His hair is dark brown and just as touchable as the previous two. You squeeze your fist tighter.

“One question at a time, darling,” he takes another step and you tense your shoulders instinctively even though your body is fighting the urge to run to him, “we’ll tell you everything. Can we go inside first, though? You look like you’re freezing. Is this yours?”

His question isn’t really a question, in his hands is your cardigan. He picked it up for you? You let your shoulders sag slightly and your grip loosen. He doesn’t know you, why did he bother picking it up?

“I-,” you release the wand slowly, “yeah that’s mine. Thank you.”

He’s right about the cold, now that you aren’t sandwiched between the other two men the chill nips at your fingers and legs. You go to take your sweater from him but he holds it open, beckoning you to turn around and let him put it on you for you. You sigh but oblige, tucking your arms into the soft wool with his help. His hands smooth down your arms once you’re settled, the familiar sparks following their path. You’re head squeezes with confusion and you want to scream if only to release the pressure.

You turn in his hands, meaning to break his hold but only ending up closer to his chest, “what is going on?”

He wraps his arms around you, pulling you closer to his chest. The ache in your heart eases drastically and you breathe in the leather once more. Merlin’s sake, this is exhausting. Even so, your limbs feel lighter in his arms. His eyes burn into yours and you don’t even try to look away, letting him extract whatever information he wants from you. You’re almost sure he can read every thought flashing through your eyes.

“Can’t you feel it?” His hand brushes your cheek, your skin buzzing on cue, “feel us? Like there’s a string pulling you to us, right? We feel warm, don’t we, and you want to be near us. You feel like you know us but you don’t know how or why.”

You find yourself nodding along to the words of a man whose name you don’t even know yet, your hands finding their way to his chest.

“Who are you,” you turn to meet the other two, your eyes wide, “all of you.”

The second man, the one who caught you, steps forward, holding out a hand for you to take. You aren’t sure why but you look back to the male in front of you, the one with his arms still tight around you, for approval. He nods, letting his arms fall almost reluctantly. When he releases you, you’re quickly pulled back into the pine scented chest. You don’t like how easily your body moulds to his, how his body seems to have some sort of claim on yours. How all of their bodies do.

“Elijah,” he rests his chin against your head, caging you against a chest that feels too much like home to make any sense, “I’m Elijah. You were just talking to Kol and Klaus-”

The hands, the same ones from before, once again rest on your back, drawing a traitorous sigh from your lips, “is right behind you, love, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Your heart squeezes dangerously at his words, letting them fill you with the warmth of his promise. Even if your rationality doesn't accept it for the immediate truth it is, every other part of you does. You pull out of Elijah’s arms and turn to the ocean of a man behind you, throwing your arms around his neck without a second thought. He, too, feels like coming home. He takes no time squeezing you against him and burying his face in your neck. You feel hands behind you move your hair away from your neck and then a nose drawing up the exposed bumps of your spine.

“I don’t understand any of this,” you mumble into Klaus’ shoulder, “I don’t understand what any of this means.”

“Of course you do, darling. You can feel it in your bones,” Kol pushes his nose against your temple, his lips skimming your ear before tugging the lobe between his teeth.

Merlin. His teeth on your skin sends heat pooling in the pit of your belly. You tighten your arms around Klaus, biting back an embarrassing moan as he laughs again. This time the sound echos through your chest and wraps around your heart, grabbing on and refusing to let go. Kol’s lips skim down your jaw, nipping lightly at your throat in a way that is completely inappropriate for a man you just met but you don’t care right now.

Arms wrap around you from behind and you sink back into them, letting Elijah spin you and haul you into his chest. Your head is spinning from how quickly you’re being passed around by men you don’t know. Your heart stings slightly, the comfort you feel in the large male’s arms screaming at you. Perhaps you don’t know them but your body has been waiting centuries for them and is more than ready to reunite. You don’t hesitate to wrap your legs around him.

“Baby,” your heart stutters and his pupils expand like he can hear it, “do you mind if we go back to our dorm before anyone sees us?” Elijah glances over your head, searching around the courtyard before landing back on yours, “This is a lot to explain to one person, let alone the whole school.”

Your cheeks flame for the millionth time and your head whips around, searching the courtyard yourself for any prying eyes. You breathe a quick sigh of relief when you don’t see anyone. He’s right and, besides, you really are freezing now, your exposed legs two icicles.

You smile gently at him, savouring the way his eyes draw to your lips, “that’s probably a good idea.”

You go to unwrap your legs from his hips when he stops you, his hands tightening around your back and thighs, “may I?”

Your eyes widen, your hands stilling on his shoulders, “you want to carry me?”

He leans his forehead against yours, his nose brushing yours gently, “very much so, baby.”

Your heart feels like it restarts, kicking your pulse into overdrive. You don’t trust yourself to speak, your entire body engulfed in pine and flames like a forest fire that you never knew could exist. You just nod, your arms snaking around his neck and pulling you flush against his chest. You can feel every breath he takes, closing your eyes when he begins walking.

The hallways, thankfully, feel empty and you don’t open your eyes, letting yourself sink into Elijah’s chest like you’ve been doing it your whole life and this isn’t your first experience being held by someone as large and strong as him. Your fingers, laying on the back of his neck, can’t resist shuffling through his hair. You’re already in his arms anyway, so what’s the harm. Just as you thought, his hair is soft to the touch and mesmerizing. You tangle your fingers through it, the last dregs of anxiety seeping from your bones.

When he starts down a staircase that you aren’t anticipating you tighten your fingers, squeezing your thighs to keep from falling out of his arms. In turn Elijah releases a breathy groan, one that hits you directly between your thighs. When you open your eyes you’re met with a coal black instead of the warm brown from minutes ago. Your breath catches in your throat but not from fear, albeit it should be. You know you should be painfully afraid of this man, whom you barely know, whose arms are wrapped around you so tight it almost hurts, but you aren’t. Not even a little bit.

Not even when he opens his mouth and you see two, very sharp looking fangs poking out of his gums, “Eli?”

You don’t know where the nickname comes from and, honestly, you don’t care. All you can think about is the irrational heat growing between your legs and his hands, once again squeezing your hips. Who is this man and why do you want him to press you against the stairs and do unspeakable things to you? You look over his shoulders at Kol and Klaus, whose eyes aren’t quite the same charcoal as Elijah’s but definitely not the sunshine whiskey that they were before. You have to bite your lip again to keep from squeezing your legs harder around Elijah.

“Come on,” Klaus steps ahead of you and Elijah, glancing back over his shoulder and smirking teasingly, “I can hear people leaving the Great Hall.”

You furrow your eyebrows at him. How can he possibly hear the Great Hall from here? You glance back to Elijah, the sight of his fangs flashing through your mind. You shake your head, not wanting to think about any of this right now. You reach a hand up, cupping his jaw and running your thumb over his cheek like any of this at all is normal.

“Klaus is right, Eli. We need to figure this out before it gets around the school.” More than it already is, you add in your head.

The four of you somehow make it to their dorm and you breathe a sigh of relief when it’s segregated from the rest of the dorms. McGonagall probably gave them their own dorm to make them feel more comfortable. You’re just thankful to be away from the open space. You already know the entire school will be talking about what happened. Merlin why is it always you? You’re just a Hufflepuff, you didn’t sign up for any of this.

Their dorm is magnificent. The doorway leads into a moody common room, surrounded with cozy browns and greens. The walls are lined with bookshelves and there’s a window looking out into the lake. The waves lap against the glass and you giggle as a few fish swim by, stopping to look into the room and then continue on their way. The room smells like all three of them. Like every plain of earth and sea and air. There are four doors leading to what you can only assume are their bedrooms and bathroom. Compared to your dorm, which you love but also share with five other girls, this place is an oasis.

Elijah sets you on an incredibly soft, brown leather couch and you pull your legs up, tucking them underneath you. Kol settles next to you, his arm resting on the back of the couch, behind your head. Klaus sits on your other side, pulling your legs from under you and over his lap, his hands rubbing circles on your calves. With your back now to Kol, you can’t help but let your head fall to the side against his arm, soaking in the warmth of his skin. The dungeons are colder than you thought they would be. How do the Slytherins do it? He laughs quietly, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and pulling you to lay against his chest.

Elijah settles on the coffee table in front of the couch, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring at you with a look only slightly less hot than before. You hold a hand out for him, one he quickly takes, threading his fingers between yours, pulling your knuckles to his lips. Klaus’ hands are slowly working up your legs, now wrapped around your knees and steadily moving higher. You squeeze your eyes tight before opening them and staring at the ceiling, avoiding three pairs of brown eyes to the best of your ability.

You sigh gently, leaning into Kol’s hands as his fingers search through your hair, scratching at your scalp in a way that makes you almost keep your thoughts to yourself if only to ensure he doesn’t stop. But you need answers now.

“Okay, I’m serious this time,” your eyes train on a bookshelf, counting the books to keep yourself focussed, “who are you? You clearly aren’t like me, you aren’t witches, but you definitely aren’t regular people,” you suck in a breath, your eyes stalling on a thick book titled The History of Mythical Creatures, “so what, pray tell, are you?”

Your eyes stay focussed on the book but you don’t want to entertain the thoughts flowing through your mind. You had to read that volume in your seventh year myth class. Just because you’re a witch it doesn’t mean you’re used to the creatures you’re taught about. There’s a reason every student at Hogwarts takes eight years of defensive magic.

“You got us, little witch,” Klaus’ hands are above your knees now, kneading your exposed flesh with skilled fingers, “clever and beautiful. The perfect mate.”

Your eyes snap from the bookshelf, from the book that you know holds the answer to their identity, to the blonde lazily licking his own extended fangs. Mate. Did he just say mate? There’s no way he just said mate. Impossible. You’re a witch. As far as being mythical goes, you’re as close to normal as it gets. They, however, are something stronger. You can feel the power rolling off of them.

“I,” your mouth falls open, your mind spinning, “what?”

Kol laughs from behind you, his chest rumbling under your back. He pulls your hair to the side again before capturing your ear with his mouth again.

“You heard him, darling,” he tugs your earlobe between his teeth, pulling a tiny gasp from you as, “your ours. And, I hate to break it to you, but we’re pretty hard to get rid of. ”

Klaus’ hands squeeze right below the hem of your kilt, lighting your skin with the delicious sparks. If his hands weren’t there you would be squeezing your legs together for sure.

“He’s right, love, I’ve tried. Many times,” Klaus smirks at Kol in only the way an older brother could and it hits you.

“Oh, Merlin,” you close your eyes again, heat flaring across your face, “you’re brothers. All three of you are brothers. What is going on, Helga help me.”

All three of them laugh and Elijah kisses your knuckles again, “yes baby, we are in fact brothers. It’s been a long millennium.”

“Millenium?” You feel faint.

He laughs again and you wish you could pluck the sound out of the air and hold onto it for the rest of your life. When you look at him all you can do is smile and run a hand down your face. A thousand years, huh? Klaus’ hands trace lazy circles on your inner thighs as Kol’s lips find your neck, his teeth scraping your skin in a way that has you sinking even further into his buttery leather arms. When he bites down a touch harder you can’t help but wonder what kind of experience a thousand years would allow a person.

A thousand years. Your chest stings unexpectedly as another thought hits you. It must be the day for that.

“I don’t think I’ll live a millenium. I probably have a few hundred years but a thousand? Not even close,” your heart stutters, a cold chill running over you, “You’ll all outlive me.”

Three growls sound in the room and you almost jump out of your skin in shock before you realize that they’re coming from them. Kol tightens his arms around you protectively as Klaus’ hands find your hips under your kilt, squeezing you like you just suggested you’re going to die tomorrow. Elijah drops from the coffee table, sinking to his knees in front of you and throwing an arm over your stomach.

“You’ll be living a lot longer than that, baby, I assure you of that.”

You reach a hand towards Elijah, curling your fingers through his hair on instinct, “I may be magic, Eli, but I’m not immortal. It’s not the same for me.”

He leans into your palm, rubbing his cheek against your fingertips, “that’s an easy fix.”

Your head spins, the pieces connecting in your head as you stare into his serious eyes. For the first time all night a tinge of fear zaps your chest. Immortality is no joke.

“You want me to become like you?” You look away from him and Klaus, who nods in agreement with his brother, “You want me to become a-”

Kol nips the back of your neck and you try to ignore the pleasure rolling through you in the midst of the most serious conversation of your life, “a vampire, darling. You can say it. We’re vampires.”

The word echoes through you, bouncing around your head and lungs, fluttering in your stomach before finally settling directly between your thighs. Merlin. You sit upright quickly, pulling your legs from Klaus’ dangerously skilled fingers, and all but stumble over Elijah and the coffee table in order to put some distance between you and the brothers. You scrub your hands over your face, your entire body feeling more alive than it ever has in your short lifetime. But you know it can’t last.

You keep your hands over your eyes, letting the open air sooth you for a moment before speaking, “I’m just a witch. Just one witch and not even a good one at that,” you peel your hands from your eyes, opting instead to tug your hair, “I’m more of a farmer, honestly. I spend all my time in the library or the greenhouses. I’m not mate material. I’m definitely not,” you swallow thickly, your throat closing all of a sudden and without your permission, “vampire material. You have the wrong girl.”

As soon as you say the words they feel wrong but they’re already out of your mouth and you have to live with them now. For a long moment nobody says anything. It’s just you standing in front of them, your eyes refusing to open and your hands ripping at your hair. Your legs tremble beneath you and it feels like your heart is trying to crawl out of your throat. If it can’t be with them then it would rather stop beating altogether. The cold air of their dungeon dorm nips at your legs and fingertips painfully and you revel in the feeling of something other than the torrent of emotions that you’ve been battling for the better half of an hour.

You feel a rush of air in front of you, forcing your eyes open just in time to see Kol standing in front of you. You open your mouth, ready to let even more words that you know you’ll regret out, but you find that you can’t speak. Not because you don’t want to, though, but because Kol’s mouth is now crashing into yours and, gods, does it ever feel like you’re breathing for the first time. Kol’s mouth is oxygen. Like before this moment you were dead and his lips are life. You grip his shoulders, your fingers digging into the taught muscle to keep yourself upright against this force of nature.

His hands wrap in your hair and he tugs gently, swallowing each moan like it’s candy and he can’t get enough. Your hands crawl from his shoulders to his hair, doing the same to him. He groans, a sound completely different from Elijah but so similar at the same time. When his tongue finds its way between your lips you see stars. Your blood sings like you’ve walked through a magnetic field, your veins buzzing with a foreign kind of power. This time you don’t feel like you’re home, you know you are.

Kol pulls back a fraction, his lips brushing yours while he speaks, “you feel that?” His hands move to your cheeks, your skin like a current where he touches you, “I know you do, I know you feel me in your veins, darling. I don’t have the wrong person. Fate doesn’t make mistakes. You’re perfect for me.”

Your eyes widen and you push back the swell of emotion rising in your chest.

A pair of arms wraps around you from behind, a riptide pulling you into an ocean of a man, “me as well, my little witch. Besides, I quite like farmers. Tell me, can you grow strawberries?”

You try to stop yourself from sagging against his chest but you can’t and you don’t actually want to. His head falls on yours as if he’s been doing it for years.

“Pumpkins,” you whisper. You don’t know what else to say, knowing full well you aren’t ready to answer the other questions, “I grow the best pumpkins in the school.”

Klaus’ chest rumbles like a cat purring against your back, “pumpkin pie it is then, love.”

You feel a hand close around your arm, pulling you from both Kol and Klaus and into a pair of arms that rival the dark forest. Elijah lifts you against his chest, giving you a moment to wrap your legs around him before he walks the two of you to the window. He looks out in the water and it eases you knowing that you don’t have to answer to his molten brown eyes.

“I know this is a lot to take in right now, baby. I know you’re scared and tired, I can feel it. You don’t have to make any decisions right now. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t. But just know that we’re here because something stronger than time itself brought us to you. No mistakes were made,” he catches your eyes through the reflection of the glass, “I’m ready for whatever challenges this brings. I’ve been ready for a thousand years, ten lifetimes, and I would wait fifty more for you,” he pulls you further up his chest, pressing his forehead against yours, “just think about it. That’s all I’m asking.”

You can’t stop yourself from pressing your lips against his, catching his bottom lip between yours, “graduation.”

He pulls back, his eyes wide and his eyebrows scrunched together, “what?”

You pull his face back to yours, stealing another kiss that he doesn’t hesitate to return, “I just need until graduation. I need to finish my last year here, it’s my home. After that, I’m yours.”

He crushes you against him as soon as the last syllable leaves your lips and you let yourself giggle freely. He looks at you in awe, a smile blooming across his face like he just won the lottery. Kol and Klaus are next to you in an instant, their faces almost mirror images of Elijah’s. Your heart soars at the sight of the three boys you met less than three hours ago who you’ve just promised the rest of your life, and longer, to. It sounds ridiculous still but nothing has ever felt so right.

“Well, brothers,” Klaus’ eyes shine happily, “it looks like we’re going to be here longer than we thought.”

#the originals #to #klaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson imagine #klaus mikaelson x reader #elijah mikaelson #elijah mikaelson imagine #elijah mikaelson x reader #kol mikaelson imagine #Kol mikaelson #kol mikaelson x reader #Harry Potter #hogwarts #hufflepuff reader #hufflepuff #tvd #the vampire diaries

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our-heroes-rise · 4 years

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request for class 1-a reacting to reader who likes to hug as a way to say thank you and sometimes a hello/goodbye. if that's too much then maybe just the boys! 😊

YES OMG YOU MAY THIS WAS SO CUTE!!! the way i format my response to these type of requests actually made it pretty easy for me to do all of them, considering that i had at least half an idea of what i wanted to write for each. hopefully i didn’t miss anyone important! fight crime and kick ass, baby vigilante! <3

midoriya: he’s normally flustered by any sort of physical affection. not that he isn’t used to receiving it (his mom is very affectionate) but because - well - he’s never had friends who do that sort of thing. but he appreciates your hugs! they make him feel warm and cared for. so even if his face is redder than a tomato he will always return them. but he’ll hide his face in your shoulder so no one else can see how red his cheeks are. and once he’s comfortable enough he’ll shyly ask for a hug when he’s feeling down or simply needs to feel cared for.

todoroki: shoto.exe has stopped working. his reaction the very first time he receives one of your hugs is him just awkwardly standing there with his arms sort of poised half way in the air at his sides, not sure where to put them. he really can’t remember the last time someone hugged him. “oh. . . your welcome.” he’s sort of surprised by how much he enjoyed your embrace and will inevitably end up looking forward to the next time you hug him. he gets better at it the more often you do it, learning to relax into it and wrap his arms around you, adding a small awkward pat to the back because physical affection is still something new to him. after some times has passed (like a lot of time) he’ll become comfortable enough to where he won’t outright ask for you to hug him, but he’ll make small motions to you to indicate what he wants. like a small grabby hand motion, or tugging you into his arms/side without a word.

bakugou: this one. oh boy. it most likely takes a long time for him to do anything worth receiving a hug because let’s be honest, he’s a major asshat the first semester. but when the time does come after he has helped you study for an exam you for sure thought you would bomb and end up getting a top score on, he’s stunned as fuck. “the fuck are you doing?!” “you helped me get an A!” that still doesn’t answer his question but he’s not a moron, he gets the gesture. and he’ll never admit it but your hugs are nice. so, he returns your hug with his arm slung across your back, and gives you a hearty pat on the back, sort of half assed and grunts his acknowledgment. then he pushes you away grumbling, “alright that’s enough of that shit.” he’s not big on hugs but they’re tolerable if they’re from you or kirishima.

kirishima: he’s all for it! when you hug him expect him to squeeze you back just as tightly, crushing you against his chest, even if its just his normal one arm bro-hug. if it’s been a while since you’ve seen each other he’ll pick you up off the ground to shake you in his enthusiasm or whirling you about in a circle. his good bye hugs will always be a bit longer, burying his face in your shoulder or resting his chin on top of your head. he makes it clear that your presence will be missed. eijiro is hands down the best hugger out of the boys and will always make you feel loved and warm with his embrace.

iida: tenya is very good-natured when he receives one of your hugs for the first time, returning it with a gentle squeeze and light pat. occasionally he will say that it’s a bit much, especially if you’re being overly enthusiastic about it during class, but that’s only because he doesn’t want to seem off task. he appreciates your thank you hugs very much, it’s a very heartwarming add on to let him know that you were grateful for whatever he did for you.

tokoyami: very much like todoroki the first time, has no clue what the hell is happening, brain has shut down, can’t compute. “ah. . . right, you’re welcome then.” awkward as s h i t. he’s just not used to being found as approachable enough for hugs, people usually shy their physical affection away from him. once he’s used to it though he never really hugs back. he’s just not a fan of giving hugs, but he doesn’t mind receiving them. which is why most of your hugs will end up being both of your arms wrapped fully around him from the side while on of his hands pats yours in acknowledgement of your affection.

jiro: and you’ve flustered the every living crap out of her! it isn’t that she’s unused to hugs, she’s just never met someone who hugs to say thank you, even for small favors that don’t take much time. she does love it though and it warms her heart to know that she means that much to you. but her hugs will always remain to be a bit brief, just because she knows she can be a bit awkward and she doesn’t want to make the situation uncomfortable for the both of you.

kaminari: your hugs are the best and kaminari will die defending that statement! he loves your hugs no matter the form; full chest to chest, side bro-hug, or from behind. no matter the type of hug they make him feel all happy and giddy inside, he looks forward to them every time he sees you. he always makes sure to return your hugs just as tightly, leaning his head into yours for the added closeness. he finds himself doing small favors for you through out the day just so he can get his thank you hug fill.

ashido: honestly, if she isn’t hugging you 24/7 already then she will definitely start after you’ve initiated it. her hugs are clingy and tight, not in the annoying way though. sometimes, when the hug is over she’ll hang onto your side a bit longer, resting her head on your shoulder as you carry on with your life. she likes to surprise you with hugs, coming up behind you to wrap you up in a tight embrace, overflowing with bubbly giggles.

sero: truthfully he’s a little awkward getting a hug from you for the first time, simply because he wasn’t expecting it. he warms up to the gesture very quickly though, once he realizes how nice your embrace is. is like kaminari where instead of outright asking for a hug he’ll gladly do you a favor in hopes of being treated to one of your top notch hugs.

momo: a very earnest hugger. she is taken by surprise the first time she is taken into your arms, though afterwards she always makes sure to return the gesture very well. she gives you a tight squeeze and a soft pat on your back to let you know that she is grateful for your kind-hearted affection. her hugs just make you melt because they’re always so warm and sweet, like she’s pouring all of her heart into them. the best hugger out of the girl’s

aoyama: pff lord this boy. he really does love your hugs, he thinks it’s a very sweet gesture of yours. “oh mon ami, you are so lovely! how kind of you!” he gives you a bright grin and returns your hug with earnest, patting your back with both hands. his hugs usually go by quick before he flutters off to some other place in the class room or dormitories like the social butterfly he’s come to be, but that doesn’t make them any less meaningfull.

sato: bear hug! exactly like kirishima where he’s all for it your hugs and showing your appreciation through physical affection. he’ll show his affection with not only hugs, but sweets as well! he’s hugs, like eijiro’s are all encompassing and strong, long lasting and warm. definitely the type to maybe make you feel like you can’t breathe for a brief second before you remind him that you need air and he stutters out an apology with a small embarrassed laugh.

uraraka: she thinks your hugs are the sweetest thing ever! once you’ve made it clear that she can hug you, she’ll bound over to you every single day and pull you into a good morning hug warm enough to make you want to fall back asleep again. she’s a runner up to momo’s hugs.

tsu: she’s very reserved with her return of affection, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t love your hug any less, she’s just on the quieter side of PDA, platonic or not. however she will admit to being the first to ask for one of your hugs when she’s feeling down, they just have a way of making her feel at peace.

shoji: strong hugs in return to yours, definitely, but not the type that make you feel like your lungs are about to collapse. his embrace is firm and comforting, allowing you to know that he is thankful for your hug, yet still short enough to let you know that he’s being polite in not declining your display of gratitude. he’s just a bit reserved.

koda: oh very very flustered at first, kind of like midoriya, but he’s giving you a big wobbly grin and hugging you tight so you know he’s not uncomfortable. he is also use to physical affection he is just extremely shy, even around close friends. don’t worry though he will never turn away one of your hugs, they’re one of the favorite things about his day.

ojiro: very friendly and bro-type hug in return, but he’ll briefly rest his cheek on your temple for the added sense of intimacy, to show that this does hold meaning for him. unless you two are really close you’ll never really get further than a side hug. his chest to chest hugs are far longer and he’ll then move his cheek to the top of your head or your shoulder, nuzzling slightly into your warmth.

toru: presses her face into your shoulder and loves every second of your hug. literally thinks you’re the sweetest and the way you show you’re thankful is absolutely adorable. will not hesitate to ask for another hug later on in the day, especially if she sees mina hanging on to you as well.

#bnha #mha #shouto todoroki #katsuki bakugou #izuku midoriya #uraraka ochako #momo yaoyorozu #Kirishima Eijirou #todoroki x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #midoriya x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader

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comicgeekscomicgeek · 5 years

Text

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 43: An Internship of Fire and Ice

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia!

Earlier chapters can be found here

While she hadn’t received as many offers as, say, Toshi or Katsumi, Izumi had had enough that she could have had her pick of Heroes to intern under. Her grandfather’s former sidekick Burnin’ had been the highest ranked of them and the ice-wielding Thriller-Chiller had not been far behind her. They or others she had received offers from would all have been fine mentors. But while all of them would have had something to offer in turns of wielding fire or ice, none of them would have been precisely what she needed.

Unlike many Emitter Quirks, which loosely obeyed the laws of physics in terms of at least requiring personal energy to function, Izumi’s Quirk functioned very differently. She did not “make ice”, but instead absorbed heat, which she could turn into fire, had to turn into fire eventually. Her training from her father and at U.A. had helped her strike the balance she needed in these abilities and her regulator rig helped as well, but she still needed further practice in making certain she did not exhaust herself or ruin her body in using her Quirk.

She needed someone who understood that. Someone whose Quirk came with drawbacks of its own, that had to be circumvented and navigated around.

That had brought her to the GrapeBolt Agency, the agency co-owned by her Uncle Denki and Minoru Mineta. Neither of them were ranked above One Hundred in the Hero Charts, with Uncle Denki being Number One Hundred Twenty and Grape Juice being ranked One Hundred Nineteen. Given the number of Heroes currently active, those were still highly respectable numbers, but not exactly star makers. Grape Juice was notable, however, for being the fifth most popular Hero with children under eight, after Uncle Izuku, Lemillion, Aunt Tsu, and his wife, Rodeo.

“So anyway,” Uncle Denki said, waving a hand expansively, “this is the break room. Got a fridge, microwave, everything. Even a toaster oven. But we usually get take out for lunch, if we’re not out on patrol.”

The Agency was a small one, all things considered, but still moderately successful. Outside of Uncle Denki and Mister Mineta, it only employed a pair of sidekicks and a couple of secretaries. Mister Mineta himself handled the books, as Uncle Denki was very bad with managing money.

“You’ve really got to stop ending the tour here, Denki,” Mister Mineta said. “Why even have a tour? Not like we have that many rooms.”

Uncle Denki just laughed and grinned. “Not every day my favorite “niece” comes out for her first Internship! Gotta do something special for it!”

Izumi bowed her head slightly. “I am thankful for the opportunity, Uncle Denki.”

He gave her another grin. “You’re gonna be a star, kid, trust me on that one. We just gotta set you up for success.”

There was a small TV suspended from the ceiling in the breakroom, and it was turned to a local station, where a news bulletin broke in.

“We interrupt this episode of “Mount Lady In the Morning” for a special news report. We’re receiving reports from Yaveen City where the Villain Terri-Bull is engaged in a standoff with local police, following a bank robbery. Fortunately, the Number Seven Hero Rodeo is on the scene to engage.”

Next to Uncle Denki, Mister Minta’s face lit up with a proud smile. “Go get him, honey,” he said quietly.

***

“Okay, I’ve got an idea about what I want you to try,” Uncle Denki said. His Agency was small enough that it did not have its own training room, but fortunately, many municipalities offered government run facilities smaller agencies could use. He’d taken her to one such place while Mister Mineta took the sidekicks out on patrol.

The room was wide and long, but otherwise empty. He’d requested that all targets and obstacles be turned off for the time being.

“So,” Uncle Denki went on, “my problem is that I can’t put out too much energy and I can’t take in too much energy without wrecking my brain. Chihiro’s got the same problem. I taught her what I could, and she’s a lot better than me at it, but her limit’s a lot lower too.”

Izumi nodded. Her friend rarely damaged herself in quite the same way Uncle Denki did and when she did, the results rarely lasted as long. But it was still a risky she took when she employed her Quirk. Chihiro was interning with her mother, who was working with her on ways to use her Quirk that did let her put her electrical energy to other uses.

“But you’re a little different,” Uncle Denki went on. “Basically, you’re moving energy from one spot to another. Heat out, heat in, heat out again.”

She nodded again. This was nothing she did not already know, but it was good to go over the facts. Uncle Denki was obviously having what Aunt Kyoka called a “good day,” because he was making a lot of sense.

“And you’ve got the regulator rig Yaomomo and Mei designed for you, that stores some of that heat so you don’t have to worry about holding onto it. But I think that’s part of what we need to look at.”

He waved hand in front of her. “Okay, so you’re gonna make some ice for me. Maybe a cube or something? Unless you’re into ice sculpting. By all means. You do you.”

Another nod and she pointed a hand towards the ground, drawing the heat into her body, leaving behind a perfect thirty centimeter by thirty centimeter cube of ice, solid all the way through. She could feel a warmth spreading through her, the heat she’d absorbed the make the ice. It didn’t hurt, not yet, but she could feel it underneath her skin, growing warmer the longer she held onto it. Without her regulator rig to pull it out, she would need to dispel it on her own before it forced its own way out.

“Okay,” Uncle Denki said. “So you’re holding onto a lot of energy right now. Just like me when I absorb a big jolt. But instead of letting it all out at once, or even letting a little out from a fixed point, I want you to concentrate. Focus on all that heat.”

She closed her eyes, mentally picturing the heat inside her, a warm, orange-red glow suffusing her entire form. It flickered and pulsed with her heartbeat, growing steadily stronger and brighter.

“Now,” he continued, “I want you to slowly… slowly… slowly… release all that heat, all through your body. Picture it just slowly flowing out of you.”

Her eyes still closed, Izumu focused further on the heat, picturing it passing through her body to the outside. In her mind, the colors representing the heat flowed, layer by layer, until they were outside her body. And she could feel it leaving her, but there was no flicker of flame, just a feeling of warmth, like standing in the bright sun.

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, the rush of heat was gone. Izumi’s eyes snapped open.

Uncle Denki gave her a thumbs up and a big grin, though he looked a bit flushed. His hair no longer stood up at odd angles and was damp and plastered to his head. “Not bad, kid,” said. He checked the thermometer he held in his hand. “Though you raised the temperature in here by a good five and a half degrees putting that all out.”

Izumi realized she was sweating significantly, which was not something she normally did. She also felt a tiredness deep down to her core, her breathing coming in long, slow gulps of air. It was only with a concentrated effort that she remained on her feet. “I am sorry,” she said, feeling her knees starting to give out.

Fortunately, Uncle Denki was on the ball, quickly moving to her side and letting her lean on him. “Hey, no apologizing. If I had a yen for every time my Quirk backfired, I’d have… a lot of yen. Maybe not as much as Kyoka’s last album sales, but still a lot.”

She shook her head, clarity slowly returning to her thoughts as the moment of weakness passed. “I may have been successful… but I doubt I could do that in the field. It took far too much out of me.”

“Hey,” Uncle Denki said. “You listen to me. You’re not going to get everything right the first time. You did something different today… And you keep trying it, you’re gonna get better. I just know it.”

It was a nice thought, at least, though Uncle Denki had always been incredibly optimistic. But in this case he was also right. She’d done something different with her Quirk, managed its needs without unleashing terrible flames. If she could learn to diffuse her heat like that when she needed to, then she could increase her utility many times over.

It was one more step towards being a Hero.

***

Foot patrol was an interesting experience. Bother of her parents did it, albeit on what she understood to be an irregular basis. Nearly all Heroes patrolled to some extent or another, some more than others. For some, that might be flying over the area around their Agency. Others, like Cellophane, might swing from building to building. Others would walk the streets and interact with the citizenry. Uncle Izku, she knew, made an effort to interact with people on the street whenever possible, despite the demands of his position as the Number One Hero.

Her father, she knew, like herself, had great difficulty interacting with people. The internet was full of “Shoto Interview Follies” (Though that was a significantly smaller number than the “Chargebolt Screw-ups”, which she considered to be a bit mean spirited.). His Agency had, at Mother’s insistence, a large and highly dedicated PR department. Though she personally saw little wrong with the answers he gave.

Uncle Denki, though, was firmly in the category of interacting with the people. And he was good at it, speaking easily with everyone he met. She envied that. She had her friends—Katsumi, Shinji, Toshi and the rest—but words did not always come easily to her, and her skills in reading people were practically nonexistent.

“Stop him! He’s got my purse!”

Izumi followed the sound of the voice and saw a young man, probably only two or three years older than her, racing down the street, a woman’s purse in his hands. He seemed to be… riding on a trash can lid? The lid was glowing faintly, letting him float a few inches off the ground, yet propelling him with at least as much speed as a skateboard (Chihiro had been obsessed with them for a few months, before a regrettable leg break.). Some kind of magnetism, perhaps? Or low-level telekinesis?

Regardless, he was a criminal and in need of stopping. And since he was using his Quirk in pursuit of his criminal endeavors, he was already taking a step towards becoming a Villain. That his Quirk was not directly harmful would likely lessen the charges, but it would not go well for him regardless.

“May I?” she asked.

Uncle Denki shrugged, though she could see faint sparks dancing around his skin, likely just in case she proved incapable. “Knock yourself out, kid.”

Izumi nodded and pointed, raising her hand up as she conjured ice. In an instant, a wall of ice sprung up directly in his path, too late for him to turn. He slammed into it, hard, bounced off, and well to the ground.

“…Or knock him out, that works too,” Uncle Denki said.

Izumi checked the regulator band around her right wrist, the lights still blinking a soft green. Nothing to worry about for now. But she could still feel that heat, and she concentrated, pushing it out, this time picturing it more like a cloud of steam from a kettle. She directed it, and it was enough to cause the ice she’d called to melt.

It hadn’t felt nearly as bad this time either.

“Getting better,” Uncle Denki said, giving her a thumbs up.

Maye she was at that.

***

Uncle Denki had insisted that Izumi come home with him, rather than bunking at the Agency. He had explained that if he did not, Aunt Kyoka would kill him, at which point, being left to raise their three children alone, she would have to bring him back to life, just so she could kill him again. Izumi was reasonably sure he was exaggerating, but Aunt Kyoka’s temper was quite legendary.

Regardless, she enjoyed their home, which was next to Katsumi and Toshi’s, and also Chihiro’s younger siblings: younger brother Reo and younger sister Hikari. Chihiro was a dear friend, but it was clear that Reo most took after their mother in the intelligence and common sense department, though Hikari had somehow nearly convinced Uncle Denki that eating dessert first was now the classy thing to do, before Aunt Kyoka intervened with an admonishment not to take advantage of his idiocy. Uncle Denki had only put up a token protest that he was not an idiot.

Lying in the guest bed, she noticed a text from Katsumi on her phone.

Katsumi: You up?

For a little while longer.

Katsumi: Today was rough, Izz.

Please, tell me about it.

Katsumi: I was out on a rescue with Aunt Ochaco. Saw a guy die. Right in front of me. Couldn’t do a damn thing. He was already dying by the time I got there.

I am sorry. I cannot imagine what that must have been like. Are you all right?

Katsumi: Yes.

Katsumi: No.

Katsumi: Yes.

Katsumi: I don’t know.

Do you wish to talk about it?

Katsumi: Iz, when have I ever wanted to talk about my feelings?

Katsumi: Don’t answer that.

Katsumi: I mean, I know there’s nothing I could have done. But I still feel like shit for it.

I am sure that you did all that you could. I would never expect anything less of you.

And I am sure you will try all the harder to save whoever you can.

You are strong, capable, and determined. But you must also sometimes be prepared for the worst.

Katsumi: Damn right I will.

Katsumi: Thanks, Izzy. Guess I just needed to talk. Talked to Dad and Papa and Aunt Ochaco said some of the same stuff.

Katsumi: You always were the only one who could talk sense into me. Even Toshi can’t do that.

I wish I could offer more comfort. But I am here if you need me.

Katsumi: Thanks, Izzy. Your Internship going okay?

I stopped a purse snatcher today.

Katsumi: Good job!

She may not have been the best with words, but it seemed like she was good with words when it counted.

Perhaps that was enough.

***

“Dammit, Denki!” Mister Mineta yelled, looking up from his desk in the smallish office the two Heroes shared. “I told you, you can’t business expense anything you impulse buy when you shock your brains out! It’s not deductible, even if you shock yourself in the line of duty!”

Uncle Denki looked up from his own paperwork. “Are you sure? Because that’s pretty much the only time I do it these days,”

“You forgot to carry the one,” Izumi said, looking over his shoulder. Paperwork was not exciting, but it was a necessary part of the Hero work, so her internship included some exposure to that as well.

“Did I?” Uncle Denki wailed, slapping a hand against the side of his head. “Dammit…”

“And I see several other mistakes on previous lines.”

He let out a frustrated groan. “…You want a job as my personal paperwork checker, Izumi?”

“You couldn’t pay her enough,” Mister Mineta said.

Her eyes fell on another piece of paperwork on Uncle Denki’s desk, one which carried with it the logo from her Uncle Izuku’s agency. Given the mountain of unsorted or poorly organized paperwork that covered nearly every square inch of the desk, it was a surprise she could find anything at all. Perhaps she only would this one because it was next to the only island of cleanliness of the desk, a picture of Aunt Denki, Aunt Kyoka, and their children. Plague Case File – Important, the paper read.

The name… struck a familiar cord with her, back through years and years of memories. Something her parents had said once, long ago, when they thought she couldn’t hear. It was buried, without context, but she recognized it instantly. But what was it? And why was it important now? It was just a word.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the document.

“What’s what?” Uncle Denki asked, his eyes tracking her fingers. “Oh. Oh! That! That’s… that’s… Nothing! Nothing! Definitely not an update about the search for a missing Villain who nearly killed you when you were a kid!”

“Really?” Mister Mineta shouted, standing up from his desk, which due to his height, was shorter than average. “She’s been here two days and you go and blow it!”

He came around and pointed a yellow-gloved finger at Uncle Denki. “What was the one thing, the one thing we were specifically asked not to do?”

A guilty look washed over Uncle Denki’s face. “Tell Izumi about Plague.”

Mister Mineta pounded a fist into the palm of his other hand. “And what did you do?”

“Told her about Plague.”

“Yaoyorozu is going to kill us.”

***

Uncle Denki and Mister Mineta had asked her to step outside while they had a discussion. Considering that the yelling had started as soon as she’d closed the door to their office behind her, she suspected it would be a very loud one. So she’d set herself in one of the plush chairs in the small waiting room outside the office, where their beleaguered looking secretary just shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it,” the dog-headed woman who’d been introduced to her as Ms. Wan said. “There’s hardly a day that goes by where those two don’t fight about something. It usually doesn’t last long.”

“Thank you,” Izumi replied, giving her a polite nod. Ms. Wan returned her attention to her computer.

The sounds coming from inside the office were muffled but still loud. Most of the yelling seemed to be Mister Mineta, with Uncle Denki offering apologies, though it sounded a bit like they had placed a phone call as well.

She pulled her own phone from her pocket and called up a search engine on the browser. Entering the word “Plague” brought her a significant number of results, none of which were helpful, since it was not an uncommon word.

There were a few links to news articles referring to the recent Quirk Virus outbreak in hyperbolic terms, but she quickly discounted those. Whatever the Virus was, there had been no outbreaks in a few weeks now. While she did not doubt that whoever was behind it was still out there, it did not seem to be the threat it once was.

Annoyed at herself for not having thought her search choice through, she instead searched on “Plague-Villain.”

That, at least, brought her a great number of results, many of them news articles. She scanned the dates, all of them were at least a decade or more old. She would have been around four or five years old then.

It was, she realized, about the same time as she had first fallen ill.

***

Izumi’s searching had turned up a number of different things. The first was the picture of a sickly man, glowing slightly green, the skin on his face stretched thin like a skull, with just wisps of white hair remaining. But there were also several important facts.

One, Plague was a Villain who had threatened nearly all of Japan over a decade ago with his Quirk to generate diseases, alongside another pair of Villains called Manticore and Bloodstorm. He’d personally been responsible for several different outbreaks, some of which had claimed multiple lives. Including one which compromised the immune system, caused muscular weakness, difficulty breathing, and problems with Quirks.

Two, he had claimed that he and many others had been imprisoned by the government for having “dangerous” Quirks, Quirks that were threats to everyday society and people.

Three, following a conflict with Deku, he had voluntarily surrendered himself to custody, even going so far as to offer cures for those still infected by his plagues.

Four, and this was probably unrelated, her grandfather had retired at the same time, confessing to his crimes against his family, and choosing voluntary retirement in exchange for leniency.

Five, though Plague’s claims were never substantiated, a number of people who had thought to be dead or missing reentered society within a few months of him turning himself in. It was also around this time that some of the more restrictive laws around Quirk use began to be relaxed.

All of it painted an… incomplete picture. There was too much here she didn’t know. But she could draw some conclusions already. Had she been one of Plague’s victims? It would have explained why Uncle Denki had said he’d nearly killed her. The symptoms of some of the diseases matched much of her own lingering issues with stamina and prolonged physical activity, as well as properly regulating the outputs of Quirk. The pills she took three time a day included an immune system booster, a complex vitamin, a nausea suppressant, and an oral steroid. These too, seemed like the perfect counters to the lingering effects of one of these diseases.

No, there was no doubt about it. She had been a victim.

A foggy memory returned to her, half distorted by fever and time. Her mother, watching over her in a hospital bed. Uncle Izuku, rushing in, a piece of paper in his hand. Mother, looking it over, stating that she could make it.

Izumi had little doubt that she would never have been as physically formidable as Katsumi. She had inherited a good deal of her constitution from her grandmother, Rei. But she had always blamed her illness and much of the subsequent frailty on the whims of a fate, the same random chances that let to cancer or other terrible diseases.

It seemed now, however, that there was a face to this.

There was someone to blame. Someone who was now loose on the world again.

And she did not know how to feel about that.

#my hero academia #their hero academia #my writing #fan fic #fan fiction #izumi todoroki

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chemicalmagecraft · 4 years

Text

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 22

I dismissed the text box as I walked onto the arena. Todoroki and I glared at each other and I looked at his level.

Cold

LV 40

Todoroki Shōto

"Won't this be a cool fight, folks?" Mic-sensei shouted.

"Both Midoriya and Todoroki have proven themselves to be capable of great feats of power," Aizawa added. "Be on the lookout for flying ice."

"Alrighty, I want a clean fight, you two!" Midnight declared. "Try not to freeze the audience again. Go!"

Todoroki started the fight off by sending an encroaching wall of ice at me. I waved my hand, causing the ice to shatter before it could even get close to me. I was still struck with a wave of biting cold, but I just warmed myself back up with some fire magic. Then I infused myself with ice magic. Snowflakes fell off my body as frost spread along the ground by my feet. Todoroki shot another ice wall at me, but I destroyed it again. This time, though, the cold didn't even bother me. I could feel it, but with Ice Aura active I was much more resistant to the cold. I activated Open Mind to try to get a better read on Todoroki.

"-get in closer so he can't... Wait, what is that magic? It's almost like he's... Hang on." For some reason the Wii theme music and the Wii Shop Channel music started playing over each other in his brain.

Todoroki took advantage of my confusion to charge at me by surfing on a wave of ice. Before he could touch me I sublimated the ice he was standing on and punched him in the gut with low-power OFA. "Were you able to sense me reading your mind!?" I asked him incredulously after he slammed into an ice wall he made.

He blinked. "Yes." I deactivated Open Mind. "Can you not sense magic?"

"I can see magic if I use a certain spell, but I can't just sense it..."

"Oh. I assumed you could because of how you draw in ambient magical energy to replenish your mana reserve."

My eye twitched. I inhaled and clasped my hands together. "Okay. This... is neither the time nor the place for whatever the hell exposition you have. Can we... Can we talk about this later?"

Todoroki shrugged. "That's fine." Then he clenched his fist. The frost by my feet surged up, trapping me up to my waist in ice. "This battle won't last long, anyway."

I used a partial application of Ice Embodiment to walk through the ice. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Todoroki." I shot a beam of ice magic at him, which he blocked with a wall of ice. I Flash Stepped into his ice wall, merging through it and to the other side. I saw his eyes widen right before I punched him in the face with an ice-wreathed fist. He tried to catch me between two ice walls, but I switched on Ice Embodiment at just the right time to merge with the ice. I exploded out of the ice, caught the shards I'd made, and threw them at Todoroki. He blocked them with yet another wall of ice, but I noticed something before he did.

"Just like I thought, you're getting cold," I said after using Sound Embodiment to get behind him. He turned around, slower than he would have before, letting me see that his right side was covered in frost and he was shivering. "That's the thing about Quirks. They have the potential to be even more powerful than magic even when less energy is used, but they usually have some drawback. Kacchan's Quirk lets him make powerful explosions, but it hurts his arms. Uraraka's Quirk lets her erase gravity, but it gives her nausea. Tsu has frog powers, but also a weakness to extreme temperatures. And you? You're resistant to your Quirk, but not immune." He sighed, his breath visible. "Sure, you'd be fine if you used your two sides in tandem, but you don't. Here everyone's going all-out, but you're only using half your power!"

Todoroki glared at me and tried to hit me with another ice attack. It was weaker and slower, though, so I dodged it easily. "Did my father bribe you into forcing me to use his power? And after what you told me..."

I growled and tossed his ice at him. "This has nothing to do with him!" He tried to charge at me again, but I threw him away even easier than the last time. He was almost thrown out of the ring before he managed to stop himself with a wall of ice. It looked like he'd switched to using ice mana instead of his Quirk, which meant he traded the high power he was used to to not be affected by his ice, but the damage was already done. He was covered in frost and visibly shaking. "Everyone here is giving it their all and here you're holding back half your power, literally!"

Todoroki dashed at me with a significantly smaller wave of ice compared to before. I made blades of ice on my shoes and skated away. "Why are you doing this?" he asked me.

"How could I call myself a hero if I couldn't save one person?" I asked. "Now show my your full power!"

"I refuse to use my father's power," he said.

I growled. "IT'S YOUR POWER, NOT HIS!" I screamed. I saw a flash of something in Todoroki's eyes, and flames danced off his scar.

This Life Is Mine

LV 42

Todoroki Shōto

I smiled. Not only did his level raise by two, but his title changed to something much more uplifting. "Why?" he asked me as his entire left side lit ablaze, warming up his right side and dispelling the ice. It looked like he was also resistant to temperature shock. "Why were you so insistent on getting me to use my fire?"

"It's like I said. I wanted to save you." His fire flared.

"Shōtooooooo!" Enji screamed from the sideline. I glared at him. He looked over at me for only a moment, but thanks to Tactician and the fact that I knew what to look for I felt... I guess the best way to describe it was the "level" of fear he was feeling. It was either zero or so minimal that I couldn't feel any fear on him, but I still felt something there. I pulled on it, raising the amount of fear he felt as high as I could. In the span of a moment, his expression of joy turned straight to terror, and was it just me or did a dark stain appear on his pants?

"Right, so where were we?" I asked Todoroki as Enji slinked off like a coward.

Todoroki smiled at me. It was small, but I definitely saw it. "I believe we were about to get this fight started for real." His fire roared and he swiped his right arm at me. Incredibly thick ice spread out from all around him, frost spreading onto his hand but immediately melting off. I grinned and jumped towards him, sailing through the wave of ice. I readied a One For All-enhanced punch as he glowed red-hot. The air around him shimmered as he pointed his palm at me. I activated Mana Dome. Before we could even clash, he caused an explosion by superheating the air that had been chilled from our icy fight.

I was blown back by the sheer force of the explosion. I saw the ground sail under me, and in my desperation clawed at it. Ping. Before my fingers touched the concrete, they transformed into sharpened white claws that I used to dig into the ground and slow myself down. Skeletal, another of the past wielders' Quirks. Hopefully it just looked like ice, though... I still grabbed the two chunks of ground that my bone claws tore up with molten mana and turned them into giant lava shuriken, like a lavabender. I got up and saw Todoroki just barely in the arena, saved just in time by a wall of ice. I chuckled. "You up for more?" I asked over the roar of the crowd.

Todoroki got up. "Of course," he said.

I threw my lava shuriken at him. He froze one and shot the other with a fire blast. He still had to dodge because fire-based attacks are not the best at stopping molten magic, but I gave him an A for effort. It was good to know he was using his fire, at least. He threw an ice attack at me, which I dodged, and hit me in the face with a burst of fire. That hurt, but not enough to stop me.

I grinned and slammed the ground. "Limit Break!" I shouted. Glowing cracks spread along the ground around me. Lava erupted from the ground and converged on me as I merged with it. "Molten Tiger!" I shaped the lava around me into, as I said, a giant tiger, with varying levels of heat used to make the stripes and other details.

Todoroki gaped at me for a second before giving me a small smile. Small flames danced around the left side of his body, a preparation for the sheer amount of ice he produced and then compacted into the shape of an Eastern-style dragon, which he froze himself by just the feet onto the back of. "Arctic Dragon!" he answered. We roared at each other and charged. I sank my red-hot teeth into the side of his dragon while it dug into my shoulder with teeth made of white ice. Each bite made my MP take a hit, while at the same time my bites did the same for Todoroki. Still, with his Quirk he wasn't expending nearly as much as me. One for All helped, but it looked like Todoroki was coming out ahead...

I dug my claws into the ground, creating cracks that stretched out under Todoroki's dragon. Lava erupted, curling around its thin body before solidifying in the chill. That took a big chunk out of my MP, but it was worth it to immobilize the dragon. I swiped at Todoroki with my claws, causing him to eject himself from where he was standing on the dragon's back. While he was still in the air, I opened my mouth and spat a high-powered fireball at him. While the heat didn't affect him much, the concussion from the blast knocked him back to the edge of the arena. Before he even landed, I slammed my front paws into the ground. Cracks spread along the ground, and right after Todoroki landed the ground he crashed on was sent flying backwards by an eruption of lava. While he was able to immediately chill it enough to turn the lava into a surprisingly stable column, the concrete gave out from the sudden changes in temperature and he fell out of bounds.

Midnight cracked her whip. "Todoroki is out of bounds! The match goes to Midoriya!"

Todoroki sighed and slumped down. My Molten Tiger collapsed as I left it and then walked over to Todoroki. The left half of his uniform was almost completely burned away from his own fire. "You okay?" I asked. I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry, I might have overdone it a bit..."

Todoroki shook his head. "I'm fine," he assured me as he got up. "I suppose if I'm out of the tournament anyway, I should talk to Shuzenji-sensei?"

"Oh, yeah. That's probably a good idea! You might not even miss out on too much, there's a TV in the temporary office." I thought for a moment. "Do you want me to take you there?" I asked. "I know where it is and I'll back you up if your father tries to talk to you."

Todoroki considered it. "Sure. I'll tell you about how I can sense magic on the way." He held his hand out.

I shook his hand. "Let's go, then," I said with a smile.

xoxoxo

"I believe I promised to tell you about my ability to sens-"

"Shōto," Enji interrupted. "It's good to see you using your fire. You should train, though. You have no control over it. Just look at your poor shirt!"

"Enji," I growled, taking a step forward. He flinched before I even thought to use Fear again. Good. I could live with my friend's abusive father developing a conditioned fear response to me.

Before I could actually use Fear, though, Todoroki stepped forward and put his arm in front of me. "Let me, Midoriya." He glared at his father. "I forgot about you, out there. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though, so I'll think about that." He walked past Enji. "We're leaving now, Midoriya."

I glared at Enji as I followed Todoroki. You'd better believe I used Fear on him.

"As I was saying, I believe I promised to tell you about my ability to sense magic."

"Yeah, how did that happen."

"To be perfectly honest I have no idea." He was silent for a moment. "I technically know what caused it, but not really. About a year ago, maybe a little less, I was resting after a particularly... intense... training session with my father." I winced. "I don't know if it was that I was in a bad state, or if it was something that would have happened to me anyway, or what, but while I nursed my wounds I felt... something. It was a wave of magic, more powerful than anything I've seen since, yet at the same time I didn't see anything. Perhaps it was just because I wasn't used to my new sense, though. I passed out, and when I woke the next day I could feel magic teeming in everything. It was... an adjustment... but eventually I gained a feel for it. It was a tremendous help. I could feel the fire within my father, letting me know where he was and how agitated he was without even seeing him."

I winced again at the implications. "Soooo... what was it you said about me absorbing ambient magical energy?"

Todoroki shrugged. "Everyone does it, as far as I can tell, but I've noticed that you do it much more, and you seem to increase your intake at times."

I nodded. "That's probably Meditation or Mantra. I've tried to teach other people how to use them, but nobody seems to be able to figure it out. If there's a part that I've been doing automatically, probably due to my Quirk, that'd explain that."

"I see. You said that you can see magic, right?"

"With a spell called Eye for Magic, yeah. It doesn't seem to pick up the ambient magic, though. Just spells and stuff."

He stopped walking. "Watch, please." He closed his eyes. With Eye for Magic I saw that his mana was acting in what looked like a similar way to how mine acted when I used Meditation. It was a bit different, though... "It's nowhere near as good as yours, but it helps in a pinch..."

"That's... interesting. Do you think you could teach other people to do that?"

He shook his head. "Not likely. I was only able to figure it out because I could sense the magic, which I don't know how I figured out in the first place."

I sighed. "Oh well." I saw the sign for Shuzenji-sensei's office. "Right, we're here. Do you want me to go in with you or..?"

"No, that's fine. Go watch the tournament."

"If you say so." I pulled out a small piece of paper and wrote my number on it. "Just in case you need someone to talk to," I offered.

He accepted it. "Thank you, Midoriya."

xoxoxo

On the way back to the stands, I bumped into Aoyama. "Are you okay?" I asked. He looked really queasy.

"Ah, non non," he said. "Don't worry about me, ça va bien!" He had an uneasy smile.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Your belt was melted."

Aoyama smiled for a bit before sighing. "You see, my belt... it was made to help me control my Quirk, as my power is too much for my body to handle. I don't know if I can do this without it..."

"I believe in you," I said. "I'm sure that if you do your best, you can do well. And remember that even if you don't think you can use your Quirk, you still have magic and your fists, right?"

Aoyama beamed at me. "Merci," he said with a twinkle.

"De rien," I replied.

He gasped. "Tu parles francais?" he asked excitedly.

I nodded. "Oui, un peu." I confirmed.

He sparkled some more. "I didn't know anyone else in our class spoke French!"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Learning. I don't suppose-"

"Oui! Of course I'll help you with your French!"

I smiled. "Thanks. If you want I'll help you with magic. Speaking of which, good luck with your match!"

#bnha #bnha fanfiction #fanfiction #The Gamer Hero Deku #Gamer Hero Deku #GHD CH22

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monetfatalia · 6 years

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Heat Rises (Todoroki X OC)

Chapter 5

All credit for artwork goes to the original owner.

Word Count: 3,819

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

•••

This is no time to talk you idiots, if we all strike now we can kill him—UGH!” All Might’s speed was astonishing as he took out the villains between him and the group I’d gathered by Aizawa. He picked up all five of us at once and had us a good distance away from Shigaraki and his Nomu before I could blink. When he set us back down he handed Mr.Aizawa off to Tsu and Midoriya.

“Everybody back to the entrance. Take Aizawa with you, he doesn’t have much time.” We all looked up to him in that moment.

“Yes sir.” Mineta scrambled to help the other two hold up Aizawa.

“What about Rue? She overused her quirk saving us from those villains and—“

“Go Midoriya.” I cut the freckled boy off from where I sat on the ground. My breathing wasn’t as bad as I was expecting but all the muscles in my body had cramped up at once making it hard to move.

“No no no. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. He’s still fast father. Of course a government hero relies on violence. I wasn’t prepared, I couldn’t even see him when he moved. But he’s not as fast as I thought he would be. Not as fast as he used to be. I guess it’s true after all, he he, All Might really is getting weaker. And little Ruine seems to have gotten much stronger.” I didn’t miss the confused glance All Might sent in my direction at Shigaraki’s deranged mumbling.

“All Might you can’t, that brain villain took one for—“ it was my turn to give a questioning look as Midoriya cut himself off mid sentence. “—uh I smashed him and didn’t break my arm this time, but he wasn’t fazed at all. He’s too strong” This time All Might cut him off.

“Young Midoriya.” He threw the scatterbrained boy a thumbs up. “I got this. I’ll keep Miss Foster safe.” He actually turned throwing up a piece sign which seemingly convinced Midoriya who reluctantly started carrying Aizawa away with Mineta and Tsu. Once they were out of hearing distance All Might glanced down at me again.

“Can you stand young Foster?”

“No, but I can tell you the easiest way to end this mess.” I grimaced trying to move my legs under me.

“What do you mean?”

“Shigaraki, the one covered in all the hands. Take him out first and the bird brain shouldn’t be an issue. From what I can tell it only takes orders from Shigaraki, and without his orders it should become compliant.” I huffed.

“Then I’ll end this quickly… CAROLINA SMASH!” All Might advanced on Shigaraki, but not quickly enough as Shigaraki muttered the abominations name using it as a shield. And a highly effective one at that. The Nomu had taken All Mights hit head on the same way it had done to Midoriya and remained unfazed, only looking at All Might’s smaller frame as the water behind it blew in all directions from the blowback. The Nomu swiped both hands towards the symbol of peace making him dodge as he realized his attack did no damage. “Guess he wasn’t wrong when he said it has no effect on you!” All Might got in several more blows while evading the Nomu’s attacks before taking a leap back. “It doesn’t even matter where I punch you does it.” The Nomu advanced after him resuming blows.

“That’s because Nomu here has shock absorption All Might. The only way you’re going to hurt him is to slowly gouge out his flesh. Of course I don’t think he’ll sit back and let you do that. You’ve finally met your match.” All Mights flow of attacks changed and he was quick to take up position behind Shigaraki’s pet beast.

“Thanks for telling me how to beat him.” All Might grabbed the Nomu by the middle lifting him into the air. “All I have to do is wear him down, and then it’s on to you.” I watched from a couple feet away as All Might threw the Nomu over his shoulder and behind him in a move powerful enough to put the Nomu’s head underground. Or at least it should have been. When the smoke cleared something much worse was revealed.

“Hey Hey Hey now,” the close proximity of Shigaraki’s voice caught me by surprise making me scramble to try getting my legs under me and stand. “I wouldn’t bother struggling, you’re in no position to run.”I stilled feeling Tomura’s hand wrap around my neck. His grip wasn’t the strongest but I wasn’t worried as much about that as I was about the finger he lightly tapped against my throat in warning.

“Damnit.”

“And you were so confident of your victory just a moment ago.” Shigaraki’s chuckle pissed me off as it was the same taunt he used when we were kids.

“Agh…what kind of cheap move was that?” My attention snapped back to All Might who was put in a bad position by the warp villain. Instead of the Nomu’s head being crushed in the ground a warp gate was opened bringing half the Naomi’s body through to where it now had a grip on All Might’s rib cage, where blood had already begun soaking through his shirt.

“Nice, you were trying to bury him in the concrete so he couldn’t move around anymore. Sorry, that won’t work. Nomu’s as strong as you are, that won’t stop him.” Shigaraki laughed again tightening the grip of his four fingers on my neck. “Nice Kurogiri, we’ve got him right where we want him now.” The warp gates began shrinking and I watched as more blood bloomed from All Might’s wound making him visibly grimace.

“Let go All Might, for the sake of your student.” All Might looked in our direction quickly taking notice of the situation before letting go and trying to pry the Nomu’s grip off of himself instead.

“Hold on Foster!” I frowned, risking turning to look at Shigaraki who tightened his grip in response.

“You won’t kill me. The master wouldn’t let you.” I stated quietly not backing down from his look of warning.

“Master isn’t here right now.” He brought his other hand down on my crushed shoulder letting all five of his fingers rest there. I grit my teeth as I watched the bruised skin crack under his touch before graying as it died. My throat was already raw but a small scream tore through it anyway before Shigaraki removed his destructive touch but keeping my neck captive preventing me from curling in on myself in pain.

“You monster, how dare you use a innocent child as a hostage. If this is the best you can do you picked the wrong place to attack. You should just give up now.” All Might was very obviously trying to provoke the villain but I couldn’t find it in myself to care at the moment.

“She’s far from innocent All Might. Kurogiri.”

“Normally I wouldn’t want blood and viscera flooding the insides of my warp gates. But I’ll make and exception for a hero as great as you. Since you’re to fast to see with the human eye, Nomu had to restrain you. And once he’s pulled your body halfway through… I’ll squeeze the gate shut! I’m going to enjoy tearing you to pieces.” My head was spinning at the warp gates words and all I wanted to do was curl up and disappear. The sound of distant footsteps from several directions snapped me out of my pain filled haze as I saw Midoriya run past me.

“Midoriya don’t…” I knew he didn’t hear me as he jumped aiming for the Nomu restraining All Might before Kurogiri, the warp gate, got in the way.

“How foolish.” I heard the warp gates garbled words before there was an explosion knocking him back.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY DEKU!” Shigaraki’s hands tightened around my throat at the newest interruption cutting off my airway. I started clawing at his hand in an attempt to loosen it. Simultaneously witnessing as Bakugou took down the warp gate pinning him to the ground, and the Nomu was encased in ice from his leg to right below his grip on All Might freezing half his body.

“One of your poorly trained thugs told me you’re here because you think you can kill All Might.” The monotone voice did nothing to comfort me as my mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water in desperation for oxygen. With the Nomu’s body frozen All Might broke its grip freeing himself before making a move in my direction only to stop.

“One more step and I’ll turn her to dust.” Shigaraki’s warning was deadly his grip allowing the smallest bit of air to leak through keeping me conscious, all while his fifth finger tapped lightly against my throat. The tables were turned though when a yell resembling a battle cry sounded behind me making Shigaraki dodge whoever it was and release me. I barely caught myself with my hands in a coughing fit, thankful for the precious air filling my lungs.

“Are you ok Rue?” Kirishima kneeled down next to me wary of my injured shoulder.

“I could be better, but I’ll be fine for now Spike.” I replied doing my best to hide my grimace with a smile. He gave me a doubtful look but moved so he was supporting my good shoulder and lifting me up so I was standing.

“Geez Rue, no need to be so manly.”

“Guess I found your body that time you smoky bastard!” Bakugou called out smugly.

“The symbol of peace will not be defeated by delinquents like you.” Todoroki voiced facing the two remaining villains.

“Kachaan, everyone.” Midoriya was quiet while wiping tears away.

“I wish you guys had shown up five minutes ago…but I’ll take what I can get I guess.”I muttered sarcastically earning a astounded look from my red haired friend holding me up.

“Do you even have a limit?” I think the question was rhetorical because Kirishima looked lightly intimidated.

“Of course I do, I hit that about ten minutes ago when this shitbag showed up.”I decided to answer anyway throwing a nod in Shigaraki’s direction. Everything was at a standstill for a moment before Shigaraki’s raspy voice broke the silence.

“Kurogiri, how could you let this brat get the best of you? You’ve gotten us into a real jam here.” He was panicking and it was starting to show.

“Heh, you got careless you dumb villain, It wasn’t hard to figure you out. On,y certain parts of you turn into that smoking warp gate, you use that mist to hide your actual body as a kind of distraction thinking that made you safe. That’s why we missed, but if you didn’t have a body then you wouldn’t be wearing this neck armor. Right? You’re not immune to physical attack’s if they’re well aimed.” Kurogiri let out a light grunt prompting Bakugou to let off several small explosions in response. “Don’t move! You try anything funny and I’ll bow your ass up so bad they’ll be piecing you back together for weeks!”

“Whoa, that doesn’t sound very heroic.”

“He needs a T-Shirt that says that.” Kirishima and I looked at each other and smirked before nodding in agreement.

“They escaped uninjured and captured two of my strongest men. Kids these days really are amazing. They make the league of villains look like amateurs, can’t have that.” Shigaraki looked almost complacent with his hands woven together in front of him. “Nomu.” The word itself put me on edge before I watched the creature lift itself back through the warp gates breaking the ice that held it but losing almost half its body in the process.

“How is that thing still moving? He’s all messed up.”

“Stay back everybody.” All Might commanded.

“Shit.” The word slipped from my mouth as I watched it try to hobble forward before the remaining ice shattered revealing new muscles and tissue.

“What is this? I thought you said his power was shock absorption.” All Might sounded anxious and surprised whereas I was anything but. I knew as soon as it regenerated, exactly who made this abomination.

“I didn’t say that was his only quirk. He also has super regeneration. Nomu has been modified to take you on even at 100% of your power. He’s basically a highly efficient punching bag that hits back.” Shigaraki’s admission had everyone falling into a defensive stance. “First we need to free our method of escape.” My eyes widened in panicked realization and I pushed away from Kirishima desperately. “Get him Nomu.” I wouldn’t be fast enough. Bakugou wasn’t gonna be able to dodge in time. I didn’t even take a single step before the blowback of the Nomu’s hit sent me flying back several feet before hitting someone else. When I hit my injured shoulder collided with something and I let out a short scream reeling away from whatever it was and gritting my teeth to prevent any further sounds from escaping me.

“Ugh, such force.” I distantly heard Midoriya’s comment as we all regained ourselves watching the cloud of dust dissipate. When it did the Nomu was revealed now crouching next to a freed warp gate.

“Are you alright Ruine?” Todoroki was the closest to me and looked concerned. He probably was the one I was thrown into.

“Not really, but I’ll get over it.” I grunted letting the boy pull me up on my feet.

“KACHAAN!” There was a stiff grunt snapping all of our attention to a unharmed Bakugou sitting only a foot from Midoriya.

“Kachaan!? Woah that’s awesome you dodged him.”

“No way,” I whispered.

“Shut up, no I didn’t you damn nerd.” Bakugou said still looking shocked himself.

“Then how’d you get over here?” Kirishima asked getting to his feet. I watched as Todoroki seemed to catch on before speaking up.

“Is it it obvious?” I rasped following the marks in the concrete to the broken wall. The other three caught on quickly all on their feet when the smoke cleared to reveal their teacher looking worse for wear.

“All Might!” Deku called out looking positively horrified.

“These are kids and you didn’t hold back!?” Despite his injuries All Might looked livid.

“I didn’t have much choice he was threatening my companion, besides these kids are no angels. The plain looking one, he tried to kill me with a maxed out punch. What kind of hero does something like that? You think you can get away with being as violent as you want if you say it’s for the sake of others. Well you know what All Might, that pisses me off. Almost as much as little Ruine being amongst such trash. Why do people get to decide that some violent acts are heroic and others are villainous. Casting judgement as to what’s good and what’s evil. You think your the symbol of peace, heh, you’re just another government sponsored instrument of violence. And violence always breeds more violence. I’ll make sure the world understands that once you’re dead.”

“You’re nothing but a lunatic. Criminals like you, you always try and make your actions sound noble, but admit it your only doing this cause you like it. Isn’t that right?” There was an obvious challenge in All Mights voice, and it served its purpose judging by Shigaraki’s annoyed body language.

“Even with Ruine out, we’ve got them outnumbered.” Todoroki stated a firm look taking up his features.

“And Kachaan found the mist guys weakness.” Midoriya added holding his hands up for a fight.

“These dudes may act really tough, but we can take ’em down now with All Mights help. Heh let’s do this.” Kirishima finished hardening both his arms.

“Don’t attack, get out of here.” All Might ordered stepping between the five of us and the villains.

“You would’ve been in trouble earlier if it weren’t for me remember? You need our help.” Todoroki protested looking a bit agitated.

“I thank you for your assistance, but this is different. It’s gonna be alright, just sit back and watch a pro at work.” A quick sense of deja vu rushed over me of All Might giving the same reassurance right before he was restrained.

“But you’re to hurt. You’re bleeding and your almost out of tim-“ Midoriya cut himself off yet again this time covering his own mouth like whatever he said was a secret. We didn’t get time to decide as Shigaraki spoke.

“Nomu, Kurogiri, kill him. I’ll handle the children.” His growled orders had panic running through my veins as I looked at the four boys around me. “Let’s clear this level and go home.” Shigaraki took off running for us with an excited gleam in his eye.

“Heads up we’re fighting after all.” Kirishima announced. Everyone fell into a defensive stance and I followed suit to the best of my ability.

“No matter what don’t let him lay a hand on you! He’ll disintegrate you in seconds.” I told them leaving no room for argument. Before Shigaraki could get close All Might leaped forward colliding with the Nomu and creating a backdraft that sent everyone a minimum of 20 feet away from them. I tensed waiting for the in pact on my shoulder again only to have Todoroki catch my wrist holding me in place.

“Weren’t you listening? One of his powers is shock absorption.” Shigaraki growled landing as gracefully as to be expected from the blast.

“Yeah what about it?” With that All Might looked himself into a devastating duel against the Nomu. The backdrafts from their blows had everyone else struggling to stay standing and nobody would be able to get near them. I gripped Todoroki’s wrist not wanting to get thrown back and he gripped mine holding us both down.

“He’s gonna fight that brain guy head on?” I could barely hear Midoriya over the wind in my ears.

“Woah they’re so fast.” Kirishima was easier to understand since he was right next to me.

“Ruine can you do something about this wind?” Todoroki asked. I looked at him funny until I noticed the trembling of his body. He was holding me stable as well as himself putting a lot of strain on him.

“I can try to lessen some of the blowback.” I grunted. Todoroki’s was holding me stable by my good arm so in order to lessen the blowback I needed to use the other one. Gritting my teeth I moved my arm in front of me in one swift motion setting a cone like wind barrier. It forced the brunt of the blowback to the sides leaving a more manageable current to stand against. The only problem was the flare in my shoulder was only getting worse holding up my arm and my breath was already labored so I didn’t know how long I would be able to keep it up.

“Woah Rue! You need to stop, your arm is…”

“A mangled mess? Yeah I’m aware Spike, thanks for the reminder.” I yelped as a more powerful backdraft hit the barrier making me flinch.

“No I mean, lifting it like that is making it worse, you’re bleeding a lot.” I didn’t feel the warm liquid trailing down my side until Kirishima said something, but I had no intention of stopping.

“Kiri, I need you to tear off a piece of my jacket and tie it around my shoulder.” I gulped feeling my head become lighter at the blood loss combined with my quirk use.

“What!? No I—“ “Kirishima!” I cut him off before Todoroki used his hand on my wrist to pull me in front of him.

“I got it, just lean against me so I can tie it off.” Todoroki’s calm voice forced me to settle and lean back against him without complaint as he ripped a long piece off the bottom of my costume jacket. He wrapped it around the decayed part of my shoulder loosely before pausing. “This is gonna hurt.” He warned. I nodded my head with my eyes clenched shut telling him to go ahead, and he quickly tightened the bandage before tying it forcing a whimper from my lips. The wind barrier had faltered for a moment before I looked back up focusing on keeping the wind diverted. From what I could tell All Might was winning despite the Nomu’s number of quirks, but they were moving to close to my barrier forcing me to use my quirk even more just to keep it up. The edges of my vision were starting to fade bit by bit and I felt like Shigaraki was suffocating me all over again, causing me to stumble backwards right into Todoroki. He didn’t say a thing and moved to hold me up.

I can’t keep this up much longer

As I thought it I caught a glimpse of All Might throwing the Nomu into the ground before my eyes fell shut. Watching the fight was wasting energy I needed to keep up the barrier. And I did just that, while All Might was speaking, while the ground shook beneath me, and even after the sound of a crash and explosions came from somewhere up above me. I didn’t dare let it down until Todoroki tapped my good shoulder making me open my eyes. As soon as I did, the barrier fell and without Todoroki’s support I would have too. There was a large whole in the dome of the U.S.J. and the Nomu was nowhere in sight. However the warp gate and Shigaraki still were.

“You can let me go now Todoroki.” I said turning my head to look at him.

He raised a questioning brow at me. “Can you stand on your own?”

“No, but you don’t need to hold me. I can sit on the ground.”

“There are still two villains here, one of which seems set on harming you. Leaving you on the ground would make you an easier target, besides you look like you could use someone in your corner.” I couldn’t help the small grin that lifted the corners of my lips.

“Is this your way of accepting my friendship Todoroki?” I mumbled curiously. Todoroki didn’t answer looking away towards All Might, who happened to look like he’d been hit by a bus.

“I guess I really have gotten weaker. Back in my hay day five hits would’ve been enough to knock that guy out, but today it took more than 300 mighty blows.” When All Might turned to face Shigaraki and his warp gate my eyes flickered to them, and Shigaraki was shaking. “You’ve been bested villains. Surrender, we all want to get this over with quickly.”

#fanfiction #bnha #heat rises #imagine #my hero academia #scenario #shoto todoroki #todoroki x reader #oc #all might #bnha oc #katsuki bakugou #aizawa shouta #kirishima eijirou #bnha shigaraki

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italicwatches · 6 years

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Comic Girls - Episode 11

Today I have to decide whether or not to do a batshit thing to build hype for Smash. But also, it’s Comic Girls, episode 11! Here we GO!

-It all starts at the dorm, where the girls have gotten one of those career-goal surveys from school to fill out. Which has them in a bit of a trouble, since three of the four here already have their plans figured out and even Kaos knows her goals, she’s just struggling to, you know, achieve them. Of course, they all have to put down more than just the obvious first choice…

-So what’s Ruki’s backup plans if this manga train stops? She’d love to teach children. And Kaos gets all sad about the idea of losing Ruki and Tsubasa says, and I quote, “How could you leave Kaos behind to take care of other people’s children?!” And Koyume even backs her up. I’m sorry, Ruki, you’re stuck with this little pink blob thing for life.

-Opening!

-So why teaching, and especially at a nursery school of all places? Low supply, high demand, and she loves working with kids. Really, as much as she loves manga, Ruki would still be pretty dang happy if teaching was what paid her bills, and it’d be a lot more stable…She intends to get the license after she graduates, in fact, just so she has the option if things go sideways. …Just don’t draw any smut in front of them on accident. That’s how you got into this mess in the first place, remember.

-Well, Koyume’s thinking she could always fall back on her family’s sweets shop! She knows most of the recipes already! Oh hey it turns out Kaos’s folks also run a small shop, but they do traditional Japanese confectionaries, not Western sweets like Koyume’s folks. Koyume suddenly totally wants to do a fusion collab. East meets West! They’ll take the treat community by storm, Kaos! Would anyone even buy that…They could build it into a great cultural icon! Have enough space to do events, work with up-and-coming idols, it’d be the coolest! Koyume please focus on your actual current plans and not your wild ideas for if those plans don’t work out.

-So what about Tsubasa? Nothing. And she is NOT putting down anything her parents would want god dammit! …Tsu, you got issueOMINOUS CHANTING. We can never escape. I’m sorry what were we talking about? Oh, right, jobs. Tsubasa is having to figure out actual plan Bs to continue her rebellion. How about being a superhero? No, that’s too unrealistic. A professional swordswoman, maybe…You, you know what, let them help—

-SUZU IS HERE

-FROM THE CRAWLSPACE

-SHE WANTS TO BE A GHOST WHEN SHE GROWS UP

-Actually she also wants to be a caregiver. There’s lots of demand for it back home, as she casually starts to lower a rope to come down to the ground. …Suzu, you’re as much of a dork as Tsubasa. Also she really does want to be a ghost when she grows up. KAOS RUN FOR IT SHE’S COMING FOR YOU

-So after they banish Suzu to the shadow realm, back to this damned form. Tsubasa still has no idea what to write after ‘manga artist’. And Kaos…Kaos has the problem that she has no idea of anything she could do. She’s much too clumsy to help out at her parents’ shop…And she’s the only one without a serialized gig! She’s doomed, DOOMED she tells you! And cue Ririka to come check up on them.

-Soon they’re all talking over coffee and tea, and she explains her own past…How she was facing much the same decision. She was nearly serialized when she was your age, you know…But, she gave it up. The pressure of being a professional manga artist just…took the fun out of it for her. The freedom. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit in front of actual working pros, though she did get to to release a one-shot volume, “The Afternoon Smells Like Oranges”…

-Kaos perks up. Because wait. Wait wait wait. YOU’RE Rika Sonoda-sensei?! You still have fans! Look at all these reviews! And Ririka is embarrassed, most of all to admit that even under that, she just, couldn’t hold up her end of things…It’s one of the reasons why she runs this dorm, to give people a better place to work, to find the strength to be able to do what she couldn’t. Because there is nothing that makes her more proud than seeing an artist become strong enough to stand as a professional…And of course, she still does some hobby work from time to time.

-…Kaos wants to see it. Right now. Right now right now! Koyume also wants to see it! Nnnnope. (It’s all incredibly trashy yuri manga, isn’t it. I remember the flashback scene, I know you were pushing for girls smooching on the cover!)

-But then it’s a firm cut to the notice going up. The dorm’s final days in its current state. Everyone’s got to have their crap gone by February 2nd, because that’s when the wrecking crew is coming. It’s a painful moment for all of them…As Ririka decides she wants to make their remaining time special. And since nobody has deadlines, she needs help going through the storage room…Full of the history of everyone she’s held in these dorms. It’s all got to get organized, boxed, and ready for its next home…And treated right.

-There’s tons of history and weight in this little storage room. Sketches, photos, reference books…Everything that years and years of growing young professionals used. All carefully stored in closed book cases, to keep them safe from the ravages of time. Tsubasa and Kaos end up talking about those damn career forms…Tsubasa just gave up and wrote “manga artist” twice. Let them try and call her on it. But Kaos…Kaos still doesn’t even know if she’s confident enough to write it once. She absolutely wants to be a manga artist…But she gets so scared…

-That’s normal. It’s a scary thing to do. All you can do is just…Put the fear aside, and keep pushing forward. Focus on the dream. Now, come on, help her get this poster down…And when that poster comes down, there’s something behind it. A simple drawing on the wall. A little cheer for the artists still to come, written by someone who long since left this place. The history hits her like a freight train, and she properly realizes she’s standing upon the shoulders of giants…!

-Hard cut to Kaos and Koyume trying to get all fired up. Which mostly means a lot of wiggling and shouting.

-And then it’s night time, and Kaos has been working her ass off all day…When Koyume goes to get her something to drink, and finds Tsubasa and Ruki sipping cocoa. Everyone’s having a bit of a late night, it seems…I can only assume it’s the last night in the dorm, or close to it.

-But then the next meeting, when Kaos brings four storyboards to the meeting with Mayu. She, needs, to, have, SOMETHING accepted before the dorm shuts down! So, each of them is a little different…The first is a rom-com, borrowing some skill from Koyume. It’s…Well, it’s very Kaos. Her idea of strong and manly is firewood-chopping and mighty lung capacity. And full of ridiculous dad-jokes. Because her best concept of ‘manly’ is, well, her own dad. That’s kind of adorable, actually.

-So next. It’s a naughty comedy! She pulled from Ruki but it was like 2 in the morning and seemed like a good ideate the time even if now it feels like a terrible plan in the stark light of day. Also Kaos’s super simple chibi stylings don’t, entirely, work with eroticism. And also the height of perversion that Kaos can internally parse into her art is panty shots. Oh and the firewood again. You’d think someone so thirsty could go heavier.

-Third storyboard…It’s a comedy isekai! You know, that actually has a lot of potential meat on the bone. Meat that Kaos wasn’t really able to properly use, because it’s very cliche…Though Mayu points out that it just needs one good twist. Find a way to make the protagonist stand out, and…he’s chopping firewood. I’m sensing a pattern. Mayu is quietly despairing…

-When the fourth one comes up. It’s core slice-of-life, with a lot of the lessons she’s learned in her life so far…And without a lot of the real zaniness. No, without the over-the-top comedy, the cutesy art is able to just be…cute, and let the real heart shine through. The feel of a girl running on genuine fears and loves, passions and anxieties…It, it’s genuine. Mayu has to admit that she’s a bit brain-drained from chewing on all of these, as it’s been hours now, but…Let her hold onto this one. She wants to read it again in the morning.

-And so Kaos is off…Having left behind her manuscript with Mayu. For a simple, heartfelt manga about four plucky lesbians by the name of The Lord of the Ri—Er, I mean, Comic Girls. Yeah, that. Kaos is full of uncertainty herself, but as she walks home under the light of a full moon, and remembers that simple cheer that was on that wall, from someone who themselves finally escaped rejection hell on their last days in the dorm, she feels like she’s at least gotten her path forward…

-Even if she ends up staying up half the night in fear. Until she gets a call! From her mother! Oh, wh—ANOTHER CALL! It’s from Mayu! Who lets her know…She’s been APPROVED! She made it! She’s getting published! Not just that, they want her to expand Comic Girls into a two-parter! If the surveys come back well, it could even be serialized! Oh god, OH GOD SHE MADE IT! Making it. You ain’t there just yet, kid. Deep breaths!

-And everyone hears and YES you did it! You DID IT! Even Suzu is there, openly admitting she only shows up out of nowhere.

-So when the morning arrives at school, everyone’s got those career forms. Tsubasa’s is simple: Choice one? Manga artist. Choice two? “There’s nothing else.” It is true to her. And Kaos?

-…Kaos no.

-Kaos you’re doing into my bad place. That’s my bad place, stay out of there. I have it just comfortable for me. But anyways she wrote manga artist in the first choice so that’s the important bit.

-Episode 11: My Life Has Reached Its Peak

-Credits!

Well, much like Kaos’s own manuscript, this episode skipped a lot of the absurdist comedy to just…Be really from the heart, for a minute. And it hit fuckin’ hard, too. I guess now we will see what happens in our wrap-up, and if Kaos can stand on her own two feet, next time in the finale. Episode TWELVE of Comic Girls! Wait for it!

#where I watch #recap #anime #comic girls

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i-w-p-chan · 7 years

Text

Red Crystal, Part 4 (Final)

When the Vongola crew asked Enma if he wanted to be dropped off in the City or at the Temple, he picked the City; the walk would give him enough time to think about what happened with him.

But when he went down to Vongola City, he met up with Skull, "Oh, Skull, hi."

"Why the unenthusiastic greeting?" Skull sniffed imperiously.

Enma smiled in amusement, "It's not you, I'm just tired."

"Oho?" Skull's eyes gleamed and he draped himself over Enma's shoulder, "First day at the job, eh? How was it?"

"Exhausting. And very informative."

"Informative is good, no?" Skull straightened up and gently elbowed Enma in the side.

"Yeah." Enma hesitated slightly, wondering if he should tell Skull or not before throwing caution to the wind, "You know the island, where you found me? I'm from there."

"Well, no shit."

"Not like that! I mean, the mountain? There's a town behind it."

Skull's eyes zeroed in on him, "Oh?"

"But no one is there anymore. They are all… gone now. It seems I'm the only one left."

Skull threw an arm around Enma's shoulders, "Well, you're here now, right? Alive and well? On your way to rebuilding your life? You have a job, you have a place to stay when only, what, three days? Four days? ago, you had nowhere to go and didn't know what to do with yourself. That's a great achievement."

"Well, I guess you're right."

"Tell you what? Since you're done for the day, and I can't find the Head Priest anywhere, how about we go and hit one of the food houses to celebrate your new job?"

Enma returned to the Temple late at night, exhausted but feeling slightly better.

He was met with Tsu on his way to his bedroom.

"Oh, Enma! Sorry for not meeting up with you these last couple of days." Tsu sounded tired as they gestured to Enma to continue walking, "Hazards of being a Priest, I'm afraid, and juggling two jobs." Tsu sighed, "That's what we get for having two separate lives. Why did I even decide to join the Temple in the first place?" Tsu shook their head, "Anyway, if you don't have anything tomorrow, then how about we finally get to those lessons?"

Enma considered the topic; the events of the day certainly had him consider taking the lessons with utmost seriousness, "Sure. I honestly can't wait."

"Did you start with anything without me?"

"Meditation."

Tsu hummed thoughtfully, "That's a good place to start, have you been doing it for the last couple of days consistently?"

"Yeah, I didn't feel comfortable practicing anything without supervision, so I stuck to meditation."

"Good, good." Tsu stopped in front of Enma's room, "At least we could start you off with basic things instead of starting on meditation. Good night, Enma."

"Good night."

Enma met Tsu the next day after breakfast in the secret library room; Tsu was already sitting on the couch with various books spread around them.

As Enma headed towards them, Tsu asked, "What do you want to start with?"

Enma flashed back to the open doors in his hometown and blurted out, "Sealing."

"Huh." Tsu's tone was neutral, "I didn't expect you to pick something like this; usually sealing isn't one of the first thing someone picks out." Tsu searched through the books before getting out a book on sealing and handing it to Enma.

"Before we start, did something strange happen with you yesterday? I know that you went to the island, did you find something there?"

Enma curiously looked at Tsu, who must have understood what Enma was wondering about as they said, "You know the Temple put out a request to explore the island."

"Oh, the request Skull picked up."

"Yes. Anything of note?"

Enma replayed his memories of the previous day and mentioned the one that stuck out vividly in his mind and he felt comfortable enough to voice out loud, "My boss kissed me."

"WHAT?!" Tsu squawked out, clearly shocked and incredulous, "What do you mean your boss kissed you?! Why didn't I hear of this before?"

"It's okay." Enma waved a hand, "He didn't mean anything by it."

"Where…" Tsu started, stopped, and started again, voice strained, "Where did he kiss you?"

"On the mouth."

Tsu radiated incomprehension, their hands grasping their robes tightly.

"Hey, it's okay. Come on, what about the lessons on sealing?"

"Sealing? Oh, yes, sealing," Tsu muttered distractedly before shaking themself out of their stupor.

"Okay, let's begin."

Enma logically knew that the topic of sealing was a complex and difficult one, he just didn't realize how much until after the tenth consecutive day of lessons on sealing when he laid down on his bed, feeling his brain leaking out of his ears. He hadn't received a call for a job from the Vongola during, and he didn't know whether to consider it a blessing (the lessons were time, energy and attention consuming by themselves, he didn't need something else on top of it all) or a curse (the lessons were extensive and time-consuming and he wouldn't have minded something different to take his mind off of it).

Luckily, Tsu seemed to understand his predicament and gave him a couple of days to himself.

Enma spent the first day of his break walking around the City and wandering the Vongola offices. The second day, he spent at the Temple with Tsu and some of the other Priests.

Tsu even dragged him to watch the sunset from the Temple's balcony.

Enma leaned on the railing, his eyes gazing at the setting sun in the distance, its glowing figure gradually disappearing behind the Walls, leaving the sky dyed in pinks and oranges and the Walls glittering with a rainbow-like sheen.

"Hey, Enma," Tsu started.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why I gave you a day off from lessons?"

"Because we needed the break?"

Tsu hummed, head bowed over the railing as they appeared to be staring down the straight drop from where they were perched and into the sea below, "Something like that. There is another thing: I needed you well-rested to do something."

"What is it?" Enma blinked.

Footsteps echoed in the air as someone ascended the stairs leading up to the balcony. Moments later, Skull appeared at the top of the stairs.

His eyes landed on the two of them and he headed towards them, slowing to a stop a few meters away.

"Oi, Head Priest!" Skull crossed his arms, "I've been scouring the island for around two weeks now, are you not done with that request yet? Because I gotta tell ya, I'm not going to occupy my time with a single request. I've got other things to deal with, you know?"

Tsu turned to face Skull, "You're right. But I find it curious that you never mentioned the town beyond the mountains. I know Enma told you about it."

Enma stiffened; how did Tsu know about the town?

"If you knew about it, why would you need me to tell you?"

"Good question." Tsu leaned back on the railing, "I only needed to know that you know where to find it, is all." Tsu reached up to their hood and pulled it back, causing Skull to draw back from shock.

"Wha-?! What are you doing? Why are you taking off your hood?!"

Enma would like to know the answer to that, too.

Tsu merely smiled at Skull, "It's because I'm retiring from my position as Head Priest."

Enma cocked his head to the side, "Is juggling two jobs that stressful to you?"

Tsu looked at him with slight surprise, "In a way, yes. But also because recent development may cause me to be away from here, so I won't be able to attend to my duties at the Temple."

"Oh." Enma fiddled with his fingers, Tsu gave him a curious look.

"You." Skull pointed at Enma, "Are taking this way too calmly. And you-" He pointed at Tsu, "-Did you just decide on retiring?"

Tsu shrugged, "Not really, I already told the other Priests. Starting from tomorrow, another Head Priest will be taking up the mantle."

"And where will you go?" Enma asked, subdued.

Tsu looked up to the sky, and Enma and Skull followed their gaze to see the Vongola's ship flying over to the Temple.

"You work for the Vongola?" Skull gave them a piercing look.

Tsu's lips stretched into a wry smile, "In a way."

The ship descended, only halting when it was low enough to stretch the gangplank to the balcony.

"Enma," Tsu started, their voice already changing from its usual soft tone to something deeper, stronger, and surprisingly familiar to Enma, "The Vongola is here with another job for you."

"What job?" Enma wished someone would explain just what exactly was happening.

"You know why you asked to learn sealing."

Enma stiffened, "The… doors?"

"Yes." Tsu's hands went to the neckline of their cloak and tugged it over their heads to take it off before discarding it over the railing and letting it float down to the waters below, leaving them in pants, a shirt and a coat.

Enma was stricken with the similarities between Tsu and Tsunayoshi; if Tsu had a different eye-color and their hair was longer and spikier at the top, they'd have easily passed as Tsunayoshi's twin sibling.

Then Tsu blinked and the orange in their eyes receded to leave amber in its wake.

"This is the end of it, I guess. Come on, Enma. We have a couple of doors to close." Tsu reached to the ornament keeping their hair in place and took it off, carefully hiding it in their clothes; their hair tumbled down in a long braid and wild spikes and Enma was left swallowing dryly as he had to affirm to himself the transition Tsu just made into Tsunayoshi.

Tsu (? Tsunayoshi?) gestured to Enma to climb up the gangplank, which he did, Tsu-Tsunayoshi following in his steps, leaving a very shell-shocked Skull behind.

Once Enma reached the deck and the gangplank was pulled back for the ship to fly off, Enma turned to look at Skull, who looked back at him with a glint in his eyes. Enma did not know what the glint meant, but it comforted him.

He was confused, and had a lot of questions, but at the moment, what mattered was knowing just what Tsu-Tsunayoshi wanted from him.

The journey to the island was a quiet one with a somber atmosphere.

Enma didn't know why, but he knew he felt terrified. There was a sense of finality in what he was about to do (if his assumption was correct). Looking at Tsunayoshi who was just leaning on the ship's railing and the way the other crew members (there was almost twice as many people this time around, Enma vaguely noted) milled about, subdued, Enma knew there was no turning back from this point.

(Deep inside, Enma desperately wished to know what brought him to this point. Many questions whirled around in his mind, unvoiced. Enma wondered if Tsunayoshi had answers and if he would answer truthfully if asked.)

The ship reached the island and half the crew descended- Tsunayoshi, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Lambo, Mukuro, Chrome, Hibari and Ryohei, accompanied by Enma.

Kyoko and a guy with long, silver hair watched them leave from the deck.

Enma's group trekked silently through the woods, crossed the river and climbed the mountain.

At the same spot Tsunayoshi stopped last time, they stopped again to let Tsunayoshi get out two vials and offer one to Enma.

The group didn't start moving again until after both Enma and Tsunayoshi drank the medicine in the vials.

Enma honestly had no idea how a liquid could stop someone from succumbing to the flashes like the one he had when he was here the last time. He was honestly half-skeptical of the 'medicine' being effective.

The skepticism lasted until he reached the town and a heat coursed through his veins, burning through the images and echoes that threatened to swallow him up.

Tsunayoshi led the group through the town to the doors. Right at his heels, Enma kept his eyes focused ahead, refusing to spare a glance to the pedestals lining the place.

Enma broke off from behind Tsunayoshi and walked to a spot in front of the doors and lowered himself to the ground on his knees.

The actions felt ingrained in his body, like a muscle memory he didn't know he had before.

His hands moved before stopping mid-air.

He- he was missing tools. He needed to use something to properly do… whatever he had to do.

Chrome walked to his side and offered him a bag he accepted quietly and rummaged through it to get out a couple of brushes, a very small bowl, an inkwell, a small blade and bandages.

Chrome stood and stepped away as he started working.

He first took the blade and pressed it against the pad of his left index finger, deep enough to break skin and cause blood to well up. He dragged the blade down his finger, creating a red line of blood; he repeated the same action to his other five fingers before breaking the skin of his palm in three lines.

He then repeated the same process to his other hand before dripping the blood into the bowl. After he deemed the gathered blood enough, he grabbed the brushes, each in one hand, and dipped them in the blood- and then he proceeded to use both brushes to draw intricate designs and symbols on the floor in front of him.

As he worked, the rest sans Tsunayoshi walked forward towards the doors, shoulders set and backs straight, almost as if they were heading to war.

Enma refused to look at them as they, he knew without needing to look, passed the doors into the other side.

After Enma finished, he carefully put the two brushes at the center of the design he just made and reached for the bandages. He quickly and efficiently wrapped them around his hands.

A part of him was marveling at how he didn't flinch at the pain, the self-inflicted injury to get the blood, and the ease with which he handled the whole procedure- and wondered how many times he'd done it already in the past.

He stared up at the sky and realized something important: for all he created the best seal he could think of, it was useless against the doors as they still stood open. He needed someone to close them.

A movement from the side drew his attention to Tsunayoshi who moved to crouch next to him, careful not to smudge the seal, and reached under his shirt to a bag that was hanging around his neck and gave it to Enma, "You've done your duty." Tsunayoshi tightly clasped Enma's hands around the bag, making Enma wonder what it contained.

Tsunayoshi stood and walked to the others beyond the doors. Enma did not want to look, but he forced himself. It was important that he watch now.

Tsunayoshi stood among his people, facing Enma, and raised his arms to the side.

His eyes were bright and not as pupil-less as Enma was used to seeing- there were compass-like pupils marking them and Enma's breath caught in his throat.

Strings of symbols curled around Tsunayoshi's arms and extended out, reaching to the edges of the doors and clasping them. The strings then pulled, dragging the doors to the middle to close them.

Enma was frozen in place, the only thing stopping him from breaking under the pressure and desire to sob was the heat still coursing through him since he drank whatever 'medicine' the vial he was given, held. A part, deep inside him of him knew that he was losing the last connection to his past in that very moment.

And then the doors closed.

Enma clutched the bag to his chest, fingers trembling slightly, wondering what was supposed to happen next.

He felt a sharp tug in his chest as the seal created on the ground glowed brightly, its edges expanding and spreading to the doors, entwining and crisscrossing to form a tight web covering the entirety of the doors. The glow receded, leaving behind the seal's lines made from red crystal rather than the blood they were made from originally.

Enma backpedalled until his back hit the wall of one of the houses and slid down to the ground, curled up and tightly clutching the bag in his hand.

He didn't know how long he spent in that position before Skull found him and he didn't remember how he made it back out and into the ship.

It was the second time Skull found him in the island and brought him out, stumbling, lost and confused; it was the second time that Skull brought him out and it was like he was brought into a new world that was both familiar and not.

This time, they rode the ship back to the main land. But everything was already different. It was someone Enma didn't know behind the wheel, there were other people Enma didn't know walking around the ship, and Enma knew that he was going to find a different Head Priest when he returned to Vongola City.

At least he had Kyoko and Skull with him.

Enma directed his attention to the bag he had kept tightly held to his chest. Opening it, he carefully spilled its contents to his hand and lap.

Crystals of different forms, colors and sizes tumbled into view.

He stiffened as he looked them over; there was one, perfectly round, reddish-pink crystal, a group of brown shards, a cracked, blood red, oval crystal and a group of shining, orange, drop-shaped crystals.

His breath hitched in his throat as he gingerly touched the reddish-pink crystal.

An image flashed in his eyes of a little girl, red-haired, red-eyed with the same pupils as his, smiling widely.

Tears spilled out of his eyes as he curled up around the crystals he held and wailed.

End

Keep an eye out for the AUAU which will be a companion fic-slash-sequel of sorts. It's going to be posted in a couple of days~

Title: Red Crystal – Reload

Summary: Tsunayoshi of the Vongola picks a different choice and decides to be perfectly honest with Enma from the start.

#khr #red crystal #kozato enma #sawada tsunayoshi #head priest of the sky temple/tsu #skull #yamamoto takeshi #gokudera hayato #chrome dokuro #rokudo mukuro #hibari kyouya #sasagawa ryohei #sasagawa kyoko #lambo bovino

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starglossie · 3 years

Photo

title: stress relief rating: m tags: fwb / eventual relationships / humor + fluff / maybe angst most likely not word count: 7.3k+ chapters: 1/?

summary: oikawa is a law student on the verge of a burn out, and iwaizumi hajime just happens to know a really great way to relieve stress.

written for iwaoi week day two w/ prompts: university, fine arts, coffee shop.

can be read on ao3 or under the cut below!

Oikawa pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His eyes twitched. Sharp stabs of pain traveled up his temples. He squinted at his Macbook screen. He had put in a good amount of work with his outline for Contracts. So far, he’d managed to copy and reorganize his notes from lectures and his book into a cohesive skeleton. The topics were outlined in an organized fashion. He even had color coding.

His brain hurt something awful, though.

“It’s almost three a.m.,” he croaked. He’d been in the library all day attempting to gather his life together and get a work on his revision materials.

Usually, Oikawa was ahead of the game when it came to balancing doing homework and reviewing what he’d already learned. The past month and a half though had thrown him off his path and right off a cliff. He pinched at the bridge of his nose.

Every joint in his body ached. When he yawned, he felt the exhaustion really settle on his bones. Finals were coming up. About three months away. Oikawa was at the top of his class. Sitting dangerously uncomfortable at number one. He was no genius, though. He hadn’t climbed to the top on coattails and summer breezes.

No, he’d clawed his way up there. With gnarled teeth, snarled bone, and blood from his adversaries, caked underneath his nails. .

He rubbed his eyes and closed his computer. He wanted to cram in another section but the clock—screaming how close the sun was to coming up—and how little Oikawa had slept in the past three days were all too loud to ignore. Tonight would not be another night of self destruction, he decided.

“Up and at ‘em, Tooru.” Oikawa packed away his books, highlighter, book stand, and laptop, and put them in his bag. He reached for his coffee cup and opened up the lid. What met him was one feeble sip of a honey almond milk flat white. Oikawa frowned. “This is a top ten anime betrayal…” he grumbled as he brought the cup to his lips to down the last remnants of his hope, sanity, and bliss, all in one gulp.

Whoever said law school was an incredible experience filled with rewards and life-long lessons could get hit by a truck. Then a bus. Then eaten by a shark.

Oikawa had never been more stressed. While he was a competitive little gremlin who enjoyed putting in the work behind the scenes to show up on stage and outshine everyone and anyone—law school was incredibly taxing. Though that’s not really new. This semester, however, was taking the cake in taxes.

As he headed home to his off-campus apartment, Oikawa debated—not for the first time—the pros and cons of dropping out. Yes, he was in the spring semester of his second year. And he had stellar grades. He was on Law Review and his Note Topic he’d written on the harms of using purposefully difficult vocabulary to gatekeep legal knowledge was accepted to be published in next year’s journal. He was the lead attorney on his school’s Mock Trial team. And he was sexy. Objectively, life was grand.

Oikawa climbed up the metal steps on the side of his apartment building. They were slippery from the rain storm that had passed by earlier in the evening. Oikawa had forgotten his umbrella and raincoat, which had forced him to stay on campus later than usual to get his work done. No way he was lugging ten pound books, notes, and a computer all the way to the bus stop. His apartment was about an hour away on a good day, but when it rained, the campus-owned, 24-hour buses were even slower.

He yawned. His jaw popped. He wanted his bed so badly. His knees creaked as he climbed the three flights of stairs to his floor. The world smelled of post-rain. Where the wooden steps smelled of wet bark. And the earth smelled of dew.

“Fuck you, rain. If you hadn’t come by, I'd have been in bed earlier.” He had many grievances against Mother Nature to file. But he’d do that after he shoved some food in him and went to bed.

As he reached the top of the steps he spotted someone leaning against the balcony. He froze. He saw his neighbor step out of their open door, talking to the man on the balcony. The man leaning against the balcony was shirtless and wearing gray sweatpants. He had spiky black hair and a silver piercing hooped on the top of his right ear. From his view, Oikawa could see the beginning of a black tattoo on the man’s left shoulder. His neighbor was also just in sweats.

A small trail of smoke curled into the space between his neighbor and whoever his guest was. Oikawa couldn’t catch what they were saying, but heard the clicking of a lighter. The soft rush of an inhale from the stranger. Oikawa shouldn’t be looking at this. He didn’t particularly care what his neighbor got up to, or who he got into. And it was nearing four in the morning and Oikawa had a lecture in about seven hours. Sleep should have been more pressing.

Yet for some reason, he couldn’t move. He watched his neighbor laugh, then curl his hand around the back of his guest’s arm. Oikawa’s grip on his messenger bag strap tightened. His breath caught in a gulp as he watched his neighbor bend down real freaking close to his guest’s face. His neighbor’s eyes were closed until they weren’t. They opened slightly.

And they met Oikawa’s widened gaze point. Blank. Center.

Right then! He should really get going.

Oikawa double timed it to his door. Once he got the door, he opened his bag and fumbled around for his keys. God. Shit. Where were his keys?

“Just my luck,” he felt around in his bag and came up with pencils, markers, and a gum wrapper he really should have thrown out in a trash can instead of putting in his bag.

Then he felt his pockets and remembered, oh right. They were in his jacket. Feeling his cheeks redden, and his back get incredibly hot—were they looking at him? He sure hoped not. Oikawa wasn’t into watching people get it on in public. Or well, he could be. If drunk, and properly convinced, but he at the very least had to be participating in it.

Just as he found his keys and slipped them into the door, his neighbor called out to him.

“Yer back late, Oikawa. Books got ya by the balls?”

Oikawa’s loose grip transformed into a titan crunch. He turned the lock as he turned his head, putting on his award-winning fake smile. “Tsu-chan! Good morning!” Now, he got the chance to see Atsumu’s guest properly.

What the fuck? He’s so hot.

Maybe it was one of those ‘attractive people attract attractive people’ things Hanamaki had always told Oikawa about. Oikawa knew that intimately. Because he was attractive. And Atsumu, objectively, was attractive. Until he spoke, then he was ugly.

But this guy? Whoever he was? With his strong jawline, tanned skin, charcoal eyes, and dark eyebrows. Holding a cigarette between his lips. His gaze, that looked somewhat bored—barely interested—was zeroed in on Oikawa. With such an intensity it made Oikawa want to do terrible things, many he couldn’t quite name. This guy was stupid attractive. Way out of Atsumu’s league.

Maybe he was drunk and didn’t know better. That had to be it. It was the only logical conclusion.

“Don’t mind me!” Oikawa continued as he pushed open his door, “I’m about to head in and completely forget our meeting in favor of sleeping. For my sanity, you know.”

“Yeah?” Atsumu leaned against the railing. “Ya could have done that sooner, ya know. Instead ya chose to be a creep”

Oikawa popped his lips quite loudly, “Well! Someone was giving me a free show! Hard to ignore that when you’re sucking face outside my door.” He turned to Atsumu’s guest, “Tsu-chan brings the horrible out in me, sorry about that.”

Atsumu’s guest for the night barked out a laugh, “Yeah.” He took a long drag of his cigarette, then snuffed it on the railing. “I found that out pretty quickly, myself.”

“Not true!” Atsumu pouted, “I brought great things out of you tonight. Like yer pretty little moans and yer-”

Oikawa slammed the door to his apartment before he could hear something he really, really didn’t want to hear.

“Tooru, you look like roadkill.”

“Thank you so much, Kou-chan!” Oikawa threw his hands in the air. Loud enough to have a few heads turn. “I love when you point out all my insecurities and flaws in broad daylight.”

Suga beamed. “It helps keep your colon clean.” He poked Oikawa on the side.

“Ow!” Oikawa jumped from the touch. Suga snickered and slid into the seat opposite of him. They sat on two, plush white chairs in the large hallway of their law school building. Oikawa had camped out there with his laptop balanced on his knees right after class.

He liked working in direct sunlight. And these two chairs, surrounded by potted plants, always sat right in front of windows as tall as skyscrapers that welcomed all the sun and its glory.

“How much sleep did you get last night?”

“I was in bed by 5 and up by 9 so technically 4 hours.”

“Technically?”

“Yeah,” Oikawa’s glasses slid down the slope of his nose as he typed away on his computer. “Technically. Because in bed doesn’t mean asleep. I probably entered REM around… 5:20? So really, I’m on about three hours of sleep. Unless you count the night before yesterday. Which my volleyball coach used to say the night before the night before was the most important night for resting before a big game because-”

“So you’re delirious,” Suga cut in. Oikawa glared up at him over the top of his computer monitor. Suga shrugged and reached for his phone. “I’m not wrong.”

Suga’s phone dinged and his fingers flew across the keyboard. Oikawa adjusted his glasses and closed his laptop. “Interesting how you’re suddenly all up in your phone when you’re with me but you know I die without constant attention?”

Suga kept texting, “RIP, my dear friend... I’ll speak at your funeral, I promise.”

Oikawa frowned. Suga was one of the few people in law school he genuinely liked. Suga was funny, friendly, and incredibly messy. He was entertaining to have around. He was also one of the few people willing to call Oikawa out on his bullshit. Which Oikawa always appreciated having around, even if he never vocalized it. And probably wouldn’t vocalize until maybe his funeral. Or at all.

“Rude and uncalled for!” Oikawa drummed his fingers on his laptop. He had practice for Mock Trial later that evening until about nine. His Law Review paper needed to go through another round of edits too. He also had to review his notes from lecture today and continue updating his outline. Oh, he should probably schedule in time to eat and sleep and poop too.

But when? With what free time?

Suga peeked up from his phone, “Wow,” Suga frowned, staring for a few seconds more. “You’re stressed,” he concluded.

Oikawa felt like he’d just gone under a microscope. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Oikawa turned his head as he heard his voice being called. A group of girls walking by had called out to him. He slapped on a smile and gave them a wave, while silently praying they didn’t come up to talk to him.

His prayers fell on deaf ears, apparently.

“Oikawa-senpai,” one of the underclassmen approached with two girls behind her. Oikawa vaguely knew her name. It started with a T. And that’s as far as he’d go with that. Her curly hair fell to her shoulders, and she wore a very bright red lipstick that somehow didn’t stain her teeth as she smiled bright and wide at Oikawa. “We wanted to know if you were coming to our class mixer this weekend.”

Ah right. Yes. A social life. He had to find time for that too.

“Where’s my personal invite, ladies?” Suga leaned forward in his seat, fixing a pout on his face. “I’m hurt! I’m wounded!”

The redhead behind the brunette laughed, “You’d come whether we invited you or not!”

“The mixer was your idea!” The dark-haired girl placed her hands on her hips.

Suga stuck out his tongue, “And it’s a good one.”

Oikawa couldn’t tell if it was the lack of sleep or not, but Suga was more hilarious than usual. He threw his head back and laughed, feeling the tiredness cling to the sound. He needed coffee. And a nap. At least thirty minutes. So he could be somewhat of a person to lead his team tonight.

He’d have to navigate these girls first, though. “Hmm, let me check my calendar! I’d love to come, but I want to make sure I don’t double book myself. I’ll text you?” Oikawa pulled out his phone and gave it a wave.

“Sounds good,” Tsumugi, that was her name. Tsumugi-chan smiled. “We’ll see you there, Oikawa-senpai! Sugawara-senpai!”

As the girls walked away, Oikawa turned his attention back to Suga. “I need coffee.”

“Oh, heck yes.” Suga jumped out of his seat. “I was waiting for you to say that. Let’s go! You need, like, seventy shots of caffeine inserted into your arm via IV at this rate.”

Oikawa packed up his stuff and slung his bag over his shoulder. He ran a hand through his messy hair and followed Suga out of the law building. “Okay, now you’re just exaggerating,” Oikawa said as they made their way to the bus stop. There was a local coffee shop in town about a ten-minute bus ride from the school. Most of the students went there for their midday breaks, coffee stops, or study sessions.

As the bus pulled up, Sugawara pulled out his wallet, as did Oikawa. He took out his bus card as he climbed the steps and swiped in. “Am I? Or am I telling you the truth, as I should, because I’m your bestest friend.”

“You’re more of a best pal,” Oikawa quipped as he scanned his bus card and followed Suga to the middle of the row. The bus was pretty empty. A few people were scattered in different seats, so it wasn’t hard to find two open ones. They clambered into a pair of seats in the back, elevated above the other seats. “A trusted comrade in arms, even.”

“Thank you so much,” Sugawara drawled. He claimed the window seat. Oikawa took the middle seat. Their knees bumped as the bus crawled from the stop and headed down the road. They passed buildings and people. On the way to the coffee shop Oikawa and Sugawara discussed the upcoming mixer.

“How do you have the energy to plan a party and study?” Oikawa took off his glasses to clean them with the hem of his shirt. He held up the glasses, squinting. Were they still smudged? A tad. So he went right back to cleaning. “I don’t even try to kid myself anymore. I don’t even pretend to act like I still have the social battery for that stuff.”

Suga was still on his phone. Type type typing away. Oikawa was a nosy bitch. And wanted to know who had sucked up all of Suga’s attention when he was in the almighty presence of Oikawa Tooru. So, because he knew he could, Oikawa leaned forward. Pressing his shoulder against Suga’s so he could get a better peak at his friend’s phone. All he managed to catch was a D for the contact photo and one flirty bitmoji before Suga’s fist connected right into his nose.

“Ow!” Oikawa fell back into the chair. Bumping and jostling around with the bus. His nose ached something awful. Bright red and stinging. He cupped his bruised nose and scowled. “That was rude! That was a tort! I’m taking you to court!”

“That was self defense, and I’d win that court case hands down.” Suga looked so fucking pleased with himself. The gremlin. “Who said you could look at my phone? An invasion of privacy is a tort, too.”

“We should have never gone to law school,” God, hearing himself and Suga talk about law related things in a casual, joking context made him want to hurl. Thankfully, the bus rolled up to the coffee shop in time. And that cut their conversation short as they stumbled out of the bus and went inside.

Their coffee shop was creatively named: Coffee. With a giant coffee cup sign that lit up past midnight on the weekends. Oikawa had asked the owner about that once and the owner had told him it was intentional. A sort of beacon, or a northern guiding light, for all the grad students up late doing work.

“Y’all don’t know the first thing about self care,” the owner, Osamu, said as he gave Oikawa Tooru, the moth that had followed the bright light of his sign, a decaf green tea latte with almond milk and an onigiri on the house. “So I figured lemme at least give y'all a pick me up before you crash several hours later. Which by the way, go to bed.”

Osamu was great. And after that, Oikawa made an effort to not only visit his cafe at the ass crack of night.

“I’ll grab us a table,” Suga said, motioning over to a circular table by a window. “Coffee on you?”

“You’re just grabbing the table to get out of ordering the coffee,” Oikawa said but he reached into his bag anyway for his wallet.

“Bingo!” Suga winked and without any more shame, sauntered over to the table before anyone else could claim it.

If Suga wasn’t so pretty and charming and a gremlin, Oikawa wouldn’t fall for his tune.

Oikawa went to the register. He searched for any signs of Osamu but found a worker at the coffee machine instead. The worker had short, cropped black hair but what it looked like fully was hidden by the black cap on his head. Oikawa drummed his card against the counter as he waited.

“Hi!” he called out. The worker turned his head and then, suddenly, Oikawa was punched in the gut.

Holy shit. It was him.

Oikawa had no idea that Atsumu’s hook up worked at Coffee. Nor that he would see him so soon. Atsumu’s hook up regarded him for a minute, before realization washed over his face. Oikawa’s breath caught in his throat as the man’s lips slowly pulled into a lopsided smirk.

“Long time no see,” Oikawa frantically dropped his gaze to the man’s name tag.

Iwaizumi.

“What can I get you?”

Iwaizumi.

“... You good, dude?”

“Right!” Oikawa jumped to attention. God, he hated this. Why was he so flustered? He’s seen hot people before. Fuck, he was one of the hot people. A random man (Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi) shouldn’t have him so off balance. “I’m good. I’m coffee.”

“You’re… coffee?” and now Oikawa wanted nothing more than to obliterate on the spot. Iwaizumi looked more amused than put out. In hindsight, that was probably a good sign. In current sight, Oikawa wanted to cease being in existence. “Then I’m tea.”

Oikawa snorted despite himself. His ears burned red at the tips. “Hilarious. Thank you for joking along and not making me feel like a dumbass.”

“That’s what I’m paid for.” Iwaizumi rested his hands on the counter. “So how can I help you, Coffee?” Oikawa caught a flash of his tattoo from his rolled up sleeves. He wondered what the full sleeve was? He wondered how big or small it was? If it had taken him hours in one sitting to get done or if he’d finished it between multiple trips? He wondered if his ears had hurt when he’d got them pierced. He wondered if Atsumu already knew all of this.

He wondered why he was wondering any of this at all.

“Can I get a chai latte and hazelnut iced coffee?”

“To go?”

“For here. I’m with a friend.”

Iwaizumi’s eyes trailed over Oikawa’s shoulder. He dragged them back once he found whatever it was he was searching for. “A study date?” he asked, punching in Oikawa’s order into the machine.

“Something like that,” Oikawa quipped, then suddenly, “but platonically!” he had no idea why he felt the urge to add that on. “We’re platonically… studying, together.”

Iwaizumi fixed Oikawa with a long, flat stare. Oikawa, not for the first time, wondered why he was blessed and cursed with a horribly beautiful mouth. He was going to be a lawyer for fuck’s sake! Why was he so nervous speaking to a stranger? He had to get it together.

Finally, like daybreak coming after a long night, Iwaizumi huffed. “That’s good to know.” Thank God he didn’t find Oikawa strange. “That’ll be 1400 yen.”

They completed the transaction. Iwaizumi reached for a plastic cup and a black sharpie. He hesitated, and then glanced up at Oikawa. “Should I write your name as Coffee or do you go by something else?”

“It’s Oikawa,” Oikawa felt a surge of something akin to hunger. A desire to hear his name spoken on this man’s tongue. Just once. “Oikawa Tooru. But,” he added quickly. “You can just say Oikawa.”

“O-i-ka-wa,” Iwaizumi’s enunciation of his name did something awful to Oikawa. He felt like he’d been struck by lightning and was rushing down a steep hill all at the same time. He watched Iwaizumi’s fingers intensely as he marked up the two cups. He noticed that Iwaizumi wore rings. Two silver bands. One on his index finger and one on his thumb. Oikawa had a sudden urge to stroke his thumb over them several times.

God, what was wrong with him?

“I’ll call you when it’s finished.”

“Thanks.” The word felt wrong on his tongue. He wanted to say something more, but wasn’t quite sure what. Did he even need to say anything at all?

Oikawa went back to Suga. Who was still, surprise surprise, on his phone when Oikawa sat down.

“Okay, spill,” Suga raised his head as Oikawa sat down and fixed him with a curious gaze. “Who are you texting? Who's the D? A dick appointment?”

Suga threw his head back and laughed, a blush staining his cheeks. “No! I mean, his dick is great and I’ve had several appointments with it since we’ve met…”

“Incredible!” Oikawa clapped. “I’m so glad one of us is getting laid,” he said with all the fake sincerity he could drizzle onto his words. “Who is he? To circle back to my question!”

“Why are you so in my business?” Suga retorted. “Who’s the cute barista you were chatting up, huh? Let’s get into that.”

“I’m cross-examining you here. Not the other way around!”

“Let’s call it a plea bargain,” Suga grinned.

“God,” Oikawa slid into his chair. “I hate this. Can we stop using legal terms when we chat? Can we be normal for five minutes?”

“Never,” Suga crossed his legs and played with the ripped part of his rubber phone case. “I think it’s become a coping mechanism now. We make so many law school jokes because if we’re not joking, we’re crying.”

That was far too real. Oikawa had to give him that. They kept going on in circles about Suga’s mystery D while they waited for their coffee orders. After an aggressive line of questioning, Suga finally relented and told Oikawa that he was talking to a guy named Sawamura Daichi. Daichi was an older guy Suga had met out one night when he was clubbing. According to Suga, Daichi made a living as a bodyguard for some CEO.

“His abs,” Suga’s mouth had a little drool on the corner, “they were so solid. I could build a four story house on them they were so stable and delicious and-”

“I can’t believe it’s not even demon hours and I’m sitting here hearing you objectifying poor Daichi-kun.”

“Hey!” Suga sat up in his chair. He pointed an accusatory finger at Oikawa, who stuck his tongue out playfully in return. “He told me I could objectify him if I wanted to. Since it’d only be fair ‘cause he kept talking about my ass like it was-”

“Here’s your order.”

Iwaizumi placed their coffees on the table. Oikawa’s heart skipped several beats. Suga made a quick grab for his coffee and cupped it in the palms of his hands.

“Oh, I thought you were going to call us when it’s done?” Oikawa wanted to find another place to land his gaze. Like the plants hanging above their heads or the way Suga slurped his coffee like he’d been dehydrated for days. Instead, he kept his eyes on Iwaizumi. He played with the brim of his hat as he spoke.

“You looked busy with your conversation. Didn’t want to interrupt that.”

“Ah, were you checking us out then?” Oikawa felt like such an ass. Flirting with people while they were on the job was such a scummy move. Why did he do that? Why couldn’t he have started flirting once Iwaizumi got off the clock.

Wait no. Why did he even want to flirt at all?

“I’m s-” he went to speak, but Iwaizumi was quicker.

“I was. But just you.”

Oikawa’s mouth hung open. Suga took an incredibly long sip of his coffee. Slurping loud enough to break the sound barrier. Iwaizumi smirked and turned on his heel, walking away to the counter to tend to a customer that had just entered.

Once he was gone, Oikawa heard Suga start cackling.

“Oh my God. You’re a disaster!” Suga had to put his cup down because it would jostle too much from how hard he was laughing. Oikawa’s lips pulled into a deep frown. Suga making fun of him was completely unwarranted! Was he disastrous at that moment? Yes. Did it need to be ridiculed? It could be—but not here.

“Don’t laugh!” Oikawa hissed. “Stop it,” he hissed again. But Suga just took one look at Iwaizumi who was talking to a customer and lost it all over again. “You’re the worst!” Oikawa flipped Suga off.

Suga flipped him off right back, “If you come back here to awkwardly flirt and panic around the hot barista again please alert me. I must know.”

Oikawa reached for his coffee and hoped the cold from his iced coffee would cool him down. And if he happened to steal glances at the cute barista who also, apparently, had slept with Atsumu Miya (for why?), then what of it?

At some point, the words on Oikawa’s screen began to blur together. He pinched the bridge of his nose underneath his glasses. God, he was tired. He was so tired. This past week had been so hectic. His computer had a day after his coffee run with Suga. So he had to resort to handwritten notes for three days. His fingers still cramped from how furiously he’d taken notes to make sure he got all the important information down. Suga was a godsend and had made an extra sheet of notes for Oikawa for their classes. So tonight, after he’d gotten his computer back, he was able to make a fresh sheet to put everything together.

Mock Trial had been a disaster this week, too. His team's been doing so well at first. Moving smoothly from openings to direct examination, but once they’d started practicing their cross-examinations, everything had gone downhill. The witnesses had forgotten their stories and the attorneys couldn’t keep their line of questioning straight enough to get through the important parts. Oikawa had told them to call it early that night. Start fresh again tomorrow. He could still see the frustrated and disappointed looks of his teammates as they’d filtered out of the classroom one by one.

He still felt the tinge of failure on his skin. Etched and caked so deep down, no amount of scrubbing could get it out. If his team failed, it was a reflection of him as a captain. He had to rework their strategy. Figure out a way to get his team back on track and confident enough to kill it at upcoming competitions.

But God, if Oikawa wasn’t on the very precipice of burn out right now.

Oikawa Tooru didn’t like to burn out. Well, who really did, right? Oikawa specifically hated knowing the crash and burn was coming. It always started slow. With irritation and clipped remarks. With not being able to focus for long periods of time. With indulgences becoming more and more gluttonous compared to a reward for hard work. Oikawa liked efficiency. He liked being on top of things. He liked being high functioning and even higher performing.

Of course, burn out was natural. You work at something so long, so rigorously, and without putting on the breaks—you wipe out. His therapist had encouraged him to seek self care. And while Oikawa had nodded and smiled and said “You got it, Doc!” he had not performed an ounce of self care since his last session three weeks ago.

He glanced at the clock on his computer screen. It read, in a rather gentle voice: 2:05 am.

He didn’t have class tomorrow, thankfully. But he did have to go into his internship to represent a client.

Oikawa shut his computer. He should go to sleep. That would be self care, right? Choosing himself over his work? But he had so much to do. He wasn’t on the ball with any of his tasks.

But sleep was persistent. He rubbed his eyes. The world was a bit blurry. “Okay, Tooru,” Oikawa made the executive decision then and there that sleep was a necessity. “Let’s go to sleep and be a normal person.”

Once Oikawa reached the top of his apartment steps, he smelled cigarette smoke. His heart raced a little. Wondering, if maybe, where the smoke was—there would also be fire.

Iwaizumi leaned against the railing. This time, in a t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulder and a pair of jeans. His face turned towards the city. Illuminated by the soft glow of the buzzling lamp light hanging above his head. Oikawa gripped the strap of his bag. He wondered if he should say hi. They knew of each other, right? A greeting shouldn’t be too crazy.

“Hi hi!” Oikawa waved. His voice cracked. Ah shit.

Iwaizumi turned his head slowly. The light at the end of his cigarette glowed, a lazy firefly that could barely keep its light on. He raised an eyebrow—the one with a small gap in the brow, and then smiled. With a bit of teeth. And this time, from where Oikawa could see him standing, he could finally get a good look at Iwaizumis’ tattoo. On his shoulder, down to his forearm, linkedin thick black lines were leaves that spiraled down Iwaizumi’s arms like ivy vines. They curled and looped around an inked sword that went straight down Iwaizumi’s arm. Oikawa’s fingers twitched. He wanted to outline the shape of Iwaizumi’s tattoo with the tip of his fingers for hours.

“Oh, hey.” Iwaizumi gave a small wave himself. “We meet again. You worked late?”

“Unfortunately,” Oikawa brushed his hair back. His glasses slipped down his nose slightly. “Law school work is piling up, as all.”

“Ah, right.” Iwaizumi took a long drag of his cigarette. Then exhaled. “Osamu was telling me about that. How you law students come into his shop at the ass hours of the night, looking like zombies, begging for some caffeine to make it through the day.” Another drag. Another exhale. “Sounds stressful.”

Oikawa chuckled, but it was void of any humor. “Stressful doesn’t even describe the half of it.”

“Yeah?” Iwaizumi said. “Well, let’s hear it.”

Huh? Oikawa blinked several times. Rapidly as his brain scrambled to catch up with what Iwaizumi had offered. An opportunity to converse more. Why in the world did that make Oikawa feel so… so… excited?

“You sure?” Oikawa took one small step for progress, one giant leap towards his devastation. Until he stood right beside Iwaizumi. They both looked out towards the city scape. The night was dotted with the lights of homes still awake. With people still up. With the stars covered by the darkened clouds hanging above the city. “I’m sure Tsu-chan will be out here any minute looking for you. And if you couldn’t tell from last time, me and him don’t get along. It might be a brawl.”

“I like brawls,” Iwaizumi reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a cigarette. “You smoke?”

Oikawa shook his head, “No. It burns my lungs and I rather like my lungs.”

“Understood.” A beat later, “You want me to put mine out?”

“No, you can keep smoking. I don’t mind it.”

Iwaizumi nodded. “Alright then. Go off, as the kids say.”

“The kids?” Oikawa scrunched his nose up. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five. You?”

“Also twenty-five. But I don’t make a habit of talking like I’m fifty.”

“It’s not for everyone,” Iwaizumi said. Okay, excellent. He had wit and humor. Oikawa wouldn’t be bored, at least.

“You really want to hear me complain about school?” Oikawa could name seven other things he’d rather do than listen to someone go on about school, especially if he wasn’t in school himself. Wait, was Iwaizumi in school? Oikawa furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you do?”

“Two questions at once, very lawyer-y of you.” Oikawa scowled, which, apparently, Iwaizumi found hilarious, because he laughed. It was a husky, low sort of chuckle. That scraped at the corners of Oikawa’s sanity, right to the bone. He felt a burn, similar to the inhale of a cigarette, glow in the root of his chest. “To answer your second question first: I work at the coffee shop, but you knew that already. I’m also in school, so yes. To answer your first question,” Iwaizumi’s cigarette butt lit up like a firefly in the night. “I’m interested.”

He was interested. He was interested. Oikawa was transfixed on Iwaizumi and the light of his cigarette. On the rough way Iwaizumi spoke yet delivered his words so carefully. As if Oikawa was someone important, and as such deserved to be treated with tenderness. Oikawa’s lips pulled into a small grin despite himself. Slowly turning into a devil’s grin, a mischievous curl at the ends.

“Promise you won’t get bored?”

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow, the one with the gap, before matching Oikawa’s smile. “Only if you promise to keep me entertained.” he replied, with a crooked grin and smoke trailing out on his exhale.

Oikawa’s heart stuttered.

Iwaizumi stared at Oikawa for a long time. Oikawa held back the urge to flinch. His mouth felt dry from how much he had talked. Just talked. On and on and on about the few highs and many lows of law school. It was weird. Oikawa usually didn’t talk about his struggles. Not because he wanted to pretend like he had it all together, because he didn’t. All he did was try, and try his best, and then do better than his best, and then keep polishing and working and fine-tuning his progress until he got the results he wanted.

He knew he wasn’t a genius. He knew he wasn’t a prodigy. But he knew he was the epitome of hard work. He knew his strengths, and capitalized on those to make up for his weaknesses. He sharpened his weaknesses so if they were to ever come to light, he could navigate them with ease. He worked relentlessly and restlessly to rise above. His rankings showed that. His test results showed that. His current social position at school showed that. His work reflected that.

There was a price to pay for all that success, however.

Oikawa's shoulders were tense all the time. He hadn’t gotten proper sleep in two weeks. He was more irritable (than usual, which to Suga was very surprising as he thought Oikawa couldn’t get any more irritable). His focus and concentration were slipping and falling through his fingers like sand. He hated it. He hated being burned out. His eyes burned. His shoulders felt heavy. In this moment, as he expelled all his frustrations over Mock Trial, how he felt like a failure of a captain to his team, of the pressures of balancing life and work and everything--how he just wanted to turn himself off for a few days--everything had just come out.

And Iwaizumi listened through it all. Without judgment. Without pressure. A force of nature that said, so quietly and present like the vapor trail of smoke that had long since gone out from Iwaizumi’s cigarette, I’m here.

Oikawa could have cried. But if he did, it wouldn't be around a (hot) stranger.

“So that’s…” Oikawa said, curling his fingers around the railing, “my story!” He managed a brilliant smile. That didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I didn’t bore you after all, right?”

Iwaizumi shook his head, “Nah. You were good. I was entertained,” and those words had no right making Oikawa shiver. But they did. And he’d blame it on the cold, early morning instead of the heat twisting in his gut.

“I think it’s only appropriate I ask if you need to vent, too,” Oikawa motioned towards the door leading to Atsumu’s apartment. “Unless, uh, you need to get back there. To Atsumu.” He wrinkled his nose. “Though if you ever need to vent about that, I’m all ears.”

“Nah, he’s asleep. I’m in no rush,” Iwaizumi said. Then a beat after he added, “You guys don’t get along.”

“We’re like two dumpster cats fighting over the last fish bone. Though I’m the prettier, fluffier, less smelly dumpster cat.” Oikawa said.

Iwaizumi threw his head back and laughed. The sound was glorious. Rich, deep, beautiful. Oikawa’s gut twisted. “He said something similar, that’s so funny. You guys are kind of the same,” Iwaizumi wiped at the corner of his eyes.

Oikawa gasped, like he was electrocuted. “We are not! Take it back, Iwaizumi Coffee Shop Worker and Student!”

“Now what the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know your full name.”

“Would you like to?”

Suddenly, Iwaizumi was very, very close.

A stutter in a heartbeat. “I-I. Well.” Oikawa licked his lips, dropping his gaze to Iwaizumi’s mouth and then shooting it back up to Iwaizumi’s eyes. “If you’d like.”

Iwaizumi tilted his head, eyes remained glued on Oikawa. His gaze, unlike Oikawa’s, was slow to crawl down to Oikawa’s lips. As if he was trailing the tip of his finger down the slope of Oikawa’s nose, to the curves of Oikawa’s lips, to touch and to feel. Oikawa sucked in a sharp breath. His grip on the rail tightened. Iwaizumi’s eyes widened slightly, then he smirked.

“I’d like,” came out slowly. “You can know my full name. It’s Iwaizumi Hajime.”

Iwaizumi Hajime.

“Yours?” Iwaizumi continued. Still so close. Still so hyper focused on Oikawa.

“Oikawa-” Oikawa exhaled heavily through his nose, “Oikawa Tooru.”

“Oikawa Tooru,” Iwaizumi repeated. Oikawa had never enjoyed hearing his name from someone else until this moment. The buzzing light above them flickered. The cars below them drove on and on. The lights were dimming from the windows of houses going to sleep. The world was going, and turning, and sleeping, and staying awake, and here was Oikawa talking to Iwaizumi Hajime against the railing with his apartment a few feet away.

He liked it.

He liked this moment, a lot.

“Thank you for listening,” Oikawa said quietly into the small space between them.

Iwaizumi’s eyes searched Oikawa’s face. He rubbed at one of his rings. “You want some advice?”

Oikawa snorted, “If it doesn’t involve dropping out of law school to join a circus or a pyramid scheme, I’m not sure I want to hear it.”

“No, it’s nothing that dramatic.” Oikawa wanted to say that his escape plans were not dramatic and instead well-thought-out when Iwaizumi kept going, “You need a stress relief.”

“That’s what my therapist said, too. I’ve yet to do that, but I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe that’s because you haven’t found an option for stress relief that’s…” Iwaizumi leaned forward, “worth your time.”

“Yeah?” Oikawa asked, completely oblivious. “Like what?”

Iwaizumi’s hand rested on the nape of Oikawa’s neck. It was the hand with his rings. Their coldness pressed against Oikawa’s skin, making him shiver. Iwaizumi was now consuming Oikawa’s space. Enough that, if Oikawa dared. If he tried. He could lean forward. He could lean forward and-

Iwaizumi kissed him.

Oikawa’s eyes slowly grew and grew, until they were the size of Jupiter’s moons. Iwaizumi’s eyes weren’t closed either. They were narrowed, taking him in. As his mouth gently pressed against Oikawa’s. The kiss was a bolt of fire, a blaze of lightning. Oikawa’s fingers twitched on the railing. He inhaled, and Iwaizumi pulled back.

For a second, neither of them moved. The cars kept going, and distantly Oikawa could hear someone’s alarm going off. The light above them kept buzzing and buzzing but everything was so faint. Everything was so, so damn faint.

But Oikawa could feel the cold metal of Iwaizumi’s rings still on his neck. Present and overwhelming.

Oikawa’s nostrils flared, “Iwaizumi Hajime?” His voice cracked.

Iwaizumi smirked, “That’s me. And my suggestion? You need to get laid. And my offer?” Iwaizumi pulled his hand until his palm cupped Oikawa’s cheek. And his thumb, the one with the ring on it, traced the lines of Oikawa’s bottom lip. Oikawa felt delirious and ready to pass out and was on the verge of exploding. “I’m a real good stress reliever.”

Oikawa’s brain shut down. At that very moment. He forgot what it was like to have rational thoughts that didn’t revolve around sex and Iwaizumi Hajime and wondering what it would be like to taste his lips again and how smoke had never tasted so good until Iwaizumi Hajime had kissed him and how Oikawa might get addicted to nicotine if kissing Iwaizumi, just lips along, was like that and-

“You in?” Iwaizumi’s soft question broke through Oikawa’s inner disaster of a monologue. “If not, that’s okay. I can also be here to listen, too. I just thought, y’know. You’re not ugly, and I think we’re attracted to each other, so I figured...” Iwaizumi pulled his hand away to scratch at his nose. He looked a little shy now. The audacity of this man to look sheepish after pulling off such a bold stunt like that.

“No,” Oikawa blurted out. Iwaizumi’s face shifted into shock. “No, I mean-Yes. Yes, I’m in.”

What happened next, Oikawa never anticipated. Iwaizumi’s face morphed from shock to utter delight. His eyebrows arched to his hairline. Three little crinkles formed in the corner of his eyes, closed with content. As he smiled, brilliantly, with the tip of his nose reddening just a bit. He was adorable. He was so fucking adorable. Oikawa was going to die. He was going to die and Iwaizumi would be his cause of death, this much he was sure.

“That’s good. I’m glad.” Iwaizumi tugged on Oikawa’s bag strap, pulling him forward. Oikawa stumbled a bit, making an ‘oof’ at the sudden gesture. Iwaizumi leaned his head up and gone was his boyish charm, his utter delight.

Now he had become a predator, and Oikawa was his prey.

“Wanna relieve some stress right now?”

Oikawa never liked being prey. Never enjoyed the thrill of being hunted. But under Iwaizumi’s gaze, dark and filled with playful mischief—filled with promises he intended to keep. Oikawa’s mind went to a million places at once. All of them were filthy. All of them were wonderful.

Oikawa fell. He wrapped his arms around Iwaizumi’s hips, his fingers digging in as confirmation. His own smile was wicked and sharp and full of wanting. “Only if you promise to make it worth my while.”

“I intend to.”

#iwaoi #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #haikyuu #my fics

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