“Are you ok?” Ren can’t quite make Akechi’s face on the darkness of the room, only lit by the dim light of a distant lamppost that comes through the window, but he can hear the concern on his voice. It sounds strange on him.
“It was just a bad dream, sorry I woke you up.” His voice is still shaken from the nightmare, making him sound less convinced than he’d like. “I bet now you regret staying here instead of going back to the comfort of your own apartment where no-one would bother your sleep,” Ren tries to joke. Not that he believes Akechi will ask about his dream, but better brush it off just in case, he doesn’t want him to know he accepted Maruki’s deal even if it was just in a dream. However, Akechi doesn’t answer. Ren sees how he opens his mouth, as if he wants to say something, but closes it again in an almost imperceptible sigh. It almost looks like he doesn’t know what to do.
It’s not until he takes a hand to his eyes, trying to rub away an annoying itch, that Ren realizes why.
But Akechi can’t see it, can he? The room is almost in complete darkness, there’s no way he can see the tears on his eyes. Though the uncertainty Ren can guess in his posture, the way he won’t look away from him, his body slightly leaning forward, head tilted and a hand slowly closing into a fist between them as if he wasn’t sure whether to reach to him or not, says otherwise.
Scared, Ren tries to scoot back, to put some distance between them and hide in the darkness so Akechi can’t see his face, but his back is already against the wall. There’s no escape. Instead, he turns his head away from Akechi’s gaze and attempts to wipe away his tears, but no matter how much he brush, they just keep coming.
Why is he crying now of all times? He hasn’t cried in years, he doesn’t even remember the last time he cried in front of someone. He didn’t cry when he was sent to Tokyo, he didn’t cry when he was being tortured, he didn’t cry when he wasn't able to save the one person he wanted to save the most nor when that same person asked him to end his life once more only a few hours ago… so why now? It had been just a dream, a fantasy of his mind, or maybe Maruki’s last effort to persuade him, to show Ren the life he was throwing away, a life in an old café that felt more like home than his parents’ house ever did, surrounded by people who cared for him, his friends, his boyfriend… people who, just as in the dream, would hate him if he choose that path once they realized.
“Ren” Akechi’s voice is soft, softer than he ever thought possible. It only makes it harder not to whimper like the irrational little kid he’s being.
“I’m sorry,” is all he can say.
He hears Akechi sigh again before a hand falls on his shoulder. Ren cowers, trying to get away from the other boy, there may be no way to hide he’s crying now, but that doesn’t mean he’s willing to let anyone see him like this. Not even Akechi. However, his reaction only makes Akechi harden his grip and, before Ren has time to react, the detective is pulling him against himself, making Ren bury his head against his shoulder and awkwardly stroking his back.
“It’s ok.” Akechi says, each word echoing in his body.
Ren feels ashamed, being comforted by Akechi of all people. He is the one with a reason to cry, he is the one who will stop existing tomorrow, not Ren. Still, something breaks inside him with those words and the sobs he’s been trying to hold finally escape.
He doesn’t try to restrain himself anymore, instead he clings to Akechi’s shirt and lets his tears run free, wailing loudly, shaking, crying as he hasn’t cry since he was a child.
It’s like he’s crying for all the times he didn’t cry before, as if all the fears, regrets, anger, anxiety, pain, grief that he has been accumulating during the last year fought to finally get out, as if his body were too small for all of those emotions and had finally exploded.
He attempts to tell Akechi he hasn’t change his mind, that he’s not accepting Maruki’s deal as much as it pains him, but the only words that come out his mouth when the hiccups allow him are cracked up I’m sorrys. Yet, somehow, that seems to be enough for Akechi to understand.
And it hurts. Because Akechi knows him well enough to understand those hopeless sobs, to understand that he doesn’t want to be seen but needs the comfort of his hug. Because he had never felt so free, so seen, as he does when they’re together. Because, despite all of that, he’s still going to lose him again.
And he doesn’t know how he’ll be able to bear it.
Ren has no clue how much it takes him to run out of tears, it could have been hours, days, weeks even, for how exhausted he feels. The grief and pain haven’t disappeared, he doesn’t think they ever will, but they are lighter now, more bearable. Akechi is still holding him, and, even though it’s probably selfish of him, Ren doesn’t pull apart. They’ll have to part ways in a few hours so he wants to keep Akechi as close as he can until that happens.
“I’m going to miss you."
“I’ll miss you too”
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Need a the Waynes Lived AU where Martha’s a vampire. She snuck in a Wayne Gala for a potential late night snack, but Thomas thought she was a socialite.
“So, what do you do?”
“I drain people of their life sources.”
“Oh, you’re a CEO too?”
She can’t drink Thomas’ blood because he smokes too much, the baggy eyes indicate long nights spent on his feet during surgery, which means it’ll taste bitter, and she saw him drown 10 whiskey shots in one go.
It’s a taste thing, nothing against him.
He is, how ever, very handsome, and she decided she’ll be his house cat for the time being. Fast forward two years later and they have a vampire cherub of a baby named Bruce.
Babies usually don’t come out with fangs and tiny bat wings, so, yeah. His wife’s a vampire. Cool.
“How come I’ve never seen your wife outside during the daytime, Tom??”
“How come I’ve never seen you mind your own fucking business?”
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there are a lot of evil people in the world and a lot of darkness in the world and so it’s very important for me to stress that now more than ever is the time to spread kindness and compassion. combat the evil by not only not partaking in it, but actively refuting it. destroy the notion that being compassionate or generous or kind to someone is uncool or embarrassing or even scary. be the change you want to see. start a chain reaction. positivity only breeds more positivity. do an act of kindness for someone so that that person who is too afraid to do it themselves can see you, realize that they’re not alone, and perhaps sheepishly follow your example. and then the next person who is too afraid but sees that person can do the same. when bad news comes out about bad people or horrible atrocities in the world it’s such an easy impulse to despair, and obviously it’s important to feel what you need to feel. grieve. be angry. be sorrowful. be empathetic. but dust off your pants and get up and be a part of a chain reaction that, no matter how small the scale, and spread compassion and love and care. all the reasons why you might not—“it’s hard! it’s scary! people will make fun of me! it’s useless because there’s too much evil!” are all grade A arguments as to why you should. you have no idea how many people you could inspire to do the same. even if it doesn’t get you anyway far, you can at least say you have the nobility of trying. please choose love and please choose life. you are worth loving and you are worth inspiring others to love
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i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.
i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?
and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.
the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.
deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.
deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.
people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.
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Thinking about the fact that Mabel and Dipper didn't know they had two great uncles.
Yeah they are 12 and at 12 I had a shotty understanding of my family tree- But really? Nobody brought up their great uncle? Stanley? Especially since they'll be staying with his twin brother, Stanford?
Shermie never went to Stan's fake funeral, which to me means the twos relationship was strained on some level. If Shermie is older that means his view of Stan was poisoned in some way, that even as kids they weren't close. If the Shermie is younger then he never even got to meet Stan and all he knew about him was how he failed his family. Hell, people probably barely mentioned Stanley TO Shermie.
The fact that Stan had become a black stain upon the Pines family name makes me so vividly upset. Stanley faked his death and the family just- seemingly decided to strike him from the record. To pretend he didn't existed to spare themselves the sadness and shame.
Stanford and Shermie Pines. The only children worth mentioning of Filbrick and Caryn Pines.
It was never Stanford that was lost to the world. It was Stanley, ever since he had to leave New Jersy- it was always him that had to be struck from the record. Change his name, change his state, change his affiliations, destroy the remains of ghost that was Stanley Pines. Kill him so the family doesn't bring him up, doesn't ask questions, stops asking "Stanford" about his twin.
I just keep thinking about the fact that since the day he made one single mistake all the way up until Ford walks out of that machine- Stanley Pines was killed and did not exist. And Stan himself had no one to blame, he had to play the part in his own demise- He is the only one who ever knew Stanley was alive and has been for decades.
He lives in the multitudes of every personality he's ever taken, all in the hope that he himself can stop being Stanley Pines.
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