Tumgik
#like the characters stopping and looking directly in the camera and saying people who steal often do out of necessity and we should share
gaylittleguys · 1 year
Text
book musings don’t mind me
I was really so disappointed with the long way to a small angry planet. As soon as I identified WHY it was bothering me, I just started getting so annoyed I just returned it without finishing it. I didn’t want to be disappointed because I really loved the setup and the characters, and thought it had so much potential! But I really just couldn’t get over the way it was written, and the way it felt like Nothing actually happened ever, despite there being SO MANY things that were happening. It just felt like none of it mattered? Things would come up and be resolved with a neat little moral or something to say and that’s it. But I was over halfway through the book, and I don’t think I learned more about anybody than I did in the first couple chapters. It felt so devoid of any conflict or imperfection that it just wasn’t interesting lmao. There was a review that compared it to a tv show like Firefly, and Yeah. It felt like it was trying to be an episodic tv show, with fun little side adventures with the same cast, but that’s not what I want out of a book! I’d go watch a show for that!! I want a cohesive story PLEASE. There was just too many offshoots and too many side plots that I just didn’t care and none of them were interesting. Which is a shame because the world building was very compelling and I Wanted to be invested, but there was just barely any focus on the interesting plot points. I just had such a hard time with it, and I couldn’t finish it. I skimmed through the rest of the book to see if it got more interesting, but it seemed like it was just more disconnected side stories. Which was maybe the point, but it just felt like….. uninteresting. There was nothing to be invested in.
1 note · View note
kkqueergurl · 3 months
Text
I don’t dance (or does he?) an essay by me
It’s no secret that the High School Musical Movies are favorites amongst Gen Z and Millennials alike. Written by Peter Barsocchini and directed by Kenny Ortaga, the movies made roughly around 1 billion dollars. With fans across the world, this Disney Channel Original franchise has quickly turned into a classic. 
The second movie became one of high debate, with energetic numbers like Fabulous, and heartfelt songs like Everyday. And one number in particular, a fan favorite at the climax of the movie, titled I Don't Dance. 
When Ryan has a fight with his sister, he joins his fellow Wildcats at the staff baseball game. There, he sees Chad and the other jocks in baseball uniforms. He greets them and apologizes about the talent show. They say that without Troy, there was no way they’d get up on the stage and dance, but Ryan disagrees. He makes a remark about how if he can play baseball, then the boys could dance. Chad asks as Ryan turns around if he “has game” and Ryan smiles saying he has a little. The camera then cuts to a dance number in the field, where the two boys are on opposing teams, and are often playing directly opposite each other. At the end of the number the boys end their song with Ryan hitting the ball, and sliding into the base, but at the same Chad appears, and tags him out. Ryan stands up, admitting defeat. He starts to leave the field but not before Chad can stop him, asking “If I were to do the talent show, what would you have me do?” And Ryan can be seen smirking in the corner. 
But the specific scene that got people talking was the next scene, where we see the two sitting at a picnic table, practically on top of each other, sharing a tray of fries. Chad seemed to be in Ryan’s white t-shirt, and blue newsboy cap. And Ryan was in Chad’s red baseball uniform and hat. Chad asks what Ryan ment about “a little game” and Ryan laughs saying he had been a little league champion when he was younger. Chad uses the distracted moment to steal a fry and stare at his friend.
This caused an uproar with fans bombarding the cast and team about it. Most complained about how the two didn’t get a love story, or any closure for that matter. Those complaints started rumors on how they thought Ryan could possibly be queer. Going off looks, the character is almost always in tight pants and small tops, accessorized with a hat of some kind. Or off mannerisms, Ryan is a gifted dancer and choreographer, and talks in a higher register than the other guys. It didn’t help that he never was shown dancing with any other girls. He was almost always paired with his sister, Sharpay. 
 The directing team decided that Disney wasn’t ready for an openly gay character like that, so in the third movie they had him take another character that had caused some controversy, Kelsi, to senior prom. The two had been shown hanging out in many scenes before that, but none romantic. Even his promposal was quick and more like two friends joking around. 
Fans turned to Chad for more evidence on this possible love affair. And they looked at the lyrics of I Don't Dance. It almost came across as a metaphor for sexuality. He didn’t want to dance (a typically queer hobby) even though he enjoyed it, because of his reputation as a jock (a typically straight hobby). A lyric that specifically comes to mind is when he says “I’ll show you how I swing.” While looking right at Ryan, smirking. The line seemed to have some sort of sexual meaning behind it. But that one is just a theory. 
In 2020, the director, Kenny Ortaga said he could see Ryan coming out in college. And how he hadn’t even thought fans would take it that way. Because even working with Disney, it wouldn't have been possible at that time. But in the sequel show, fans were given closure when Lucas Grabeel, who played Ryan in the movies, said Ryan was happily partnered “with twins on the way”. 
While this wasn’t what fans were hoping for, it was better than Disney just pretending they hadn’t unknowingly written one of the best queer love stories without the characters even kissing.
17 notes · View notes
amazingphilza · 4 years
Text
twitchcon :: cc!multiple x reader
fluff , platonic , gender neutral ! some mcyt headcanons if you were to attend twitchcon w them
cc’s included in order: tommyinnit , tubbo , ranboo , wilbur soot , philza , technoblade
cw: kinda lengthy for the minors (i think), not as much for the hags LMAO /hj
Tumblr media
tommyinnit
this man is so excited to be at his first twitchcon & being able to hang out with all his best friends makes it a hundred times better
when he isn’t at a panel or doing meet & greets, he’s dragging you everywhere to see the whole convention center (clingyinnit)
he is just so at awe despite this not being his first convention to attend
you’d be surprised he gets tired pretty quickly & stops over to the partner lounge
you both rest for a bit against a wall in a pretty packed hallway despite it being an exclusive area to twitch partners
every time a famous streamer walks by he will yell it out and record it then vlog your reaction, even if they’re surrounded with bodyguards & trying to get to another place quickly
he’d zoom in his camera to their face at a horrible angle and be like
“oh my god it is THE ninja. ninja famous fortnite player, HELLO.”
but he gets completely ignored
then the camera pans out to you, still really zoomed in that the capture is blurry
“ninjainnit?”
“EH?”
tommy is so confused, forgetting the bit ninja did on his twitter where he renamed himself ‘ninjainnit’ for a split second
okay tommy isn’t that athletic but he will chase you and the rest of your group down a hallway if he had to
he’d probably find a toy gun from the artist alley/seller booths and shoot you and wilbur with it
but if tommy stumbles across any of the dream team, it’s about to be minecraft manhunt but irl
and he will def play his stream music while walking or smth when he’s bored (or trying to jump dream & sapnap)
** DO DO DO DO MANHUNT MUSIC **
oh my god,, now thinking about it he’s probably the one to open like random doors of empty rooms and steal stuff while you film him
like he will take a random empty glass, a bunch of pens, a freebie t-shirt, everything he sees he takes with him and you’re just panic
“tommy we’re literally not supposed to be here, and i’m stuck here filming you. it’s surely a felony in action”
“well, it’s their fault for leaving the doors open! plus this is great content. who’s the dirty crime boy now, HM?”
you’d tell wilbur about this and he’d scold tommy and threaten him with the same pen tommy stole
tommy probably would also drag you some weird event happening outside twitchcon along with tubbo and ranboo
“pokimane is giving out free pizza to everyone if we go to this one restaurant down the street!”
“we are literally gonna get bombarded. have you forgot you’re like three of twitch’s top streamers? i’d rather pay for all of our meals than try getting free pizza from pokimane against all her other fans”
“DEAL! let’s go to five guys then!”
you unfortunately end up paying for all 3 of their meals and picking on their food instead of buying your own
even with all of them making way more money than you, they still happen to be cheapskates
OR tommy will end up getting a burrito from a taco truck, immediately making a mess of himself, then proceed to complain how messy the food is to eat despite knowing what he was getting himself into before even ordering
“shit my clothes are all ruined now!”
“well that’s your fault you got a burrito, as if it’s your first time having one”
“i mean the food is good, i’m not complaining about that but i don’t think it’s that good that it’s worth costing my red and white shirt, im just saying”
Tumblr media
tubbo
same with tommy, he is so excited
i don’t know why but i imagine him overpacking his suitcase and you making fun of him for it
anyway tubbo has his irl backpack on and streaming EVERYTHING
probably spends a lot of time at a bunch of different booths, checking out all the pointless gadgets he could buy for his stream
you’re the one to stop him from doing so
“TUBBO IT’S LITERALLY OVER TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, STOP. DONT GET IT.”
“WHY NOT?? IT WILL BE COOL FOR MY STREAM AND I WILL USE IT EVERYDAY”
“okay theoretically speaking, how the hell are you going to even bring it home? which—let me remind you—is across the country for you and not to mention the giant ocean separating america and the uk”
“free ship-pang!!!”
“i hate to break it to you tubbo but there is no way you can get free shipping on a FIVE FOOT PC. it’s nearly as tall as you! what are you even gonna do on it, hack the government???”
the arguments are all lighthearted but eventually you give in and let him splurge over a thousand dollars in different devices he claimed he “needed”
i could honestly see him visiting the beaches in san diego and going for a swim or even renting out a boat to use for a bit :D
also he’d bring benson along with him and taking a bunch of scenic photos with it in them
i have a feeling he’s the type to schedule a spontaneous meet & greet because he was bored & gets in trouble for causing a mob in a certain part of the convention
he’s like “oh god, i did not expect this many of the bois to show up AHAHAH oops”
tubbo would def pull a lilypichu and bring his melodica or ukulele and play themes while following random people/cosplayers
at the end of the day, you’d find his bag just stuffed with crap he either got for free or bought in the convention
“how did you get all that stuff? i was with you all day??? and it’s only the first day of the convention, hello?? it looks like you’ve been collecting as if twitchcon has went on for a week already!”
“HA i have my ways, do not underestimate my powers”
lani would probably tag along for the vacation honestly
like whenever someone comes up to her giving her gifts/asking for pics, you and tubbo would tease her about how famous she is
and i dunno but something about tubbo just gives me this amusement park energy and going to legoland and spending the whole day there since it’s near by and because he can
Tumblr media
ranboo
he is like a beacon in a sea of people, that’s it .
i honestly just see him causing as much chaos as the other two
ranboo would probably like take someone’s camera whether if they’re streaming or if it’s for the vlog, hold it up high, and point the camera directly above someone’s face
it did not matter how tall you were and if you had platform shoes on, ranboo was a skyscraper next to you
“HAHAH this is how i see you from this height, this is funny”
then he shows you the vid of the recording of him getting like an aerial view of your face
like you see your nose and all your pores and just overall a bad angle to be captured in
“OH GOD RANBOO DELETE THAT, ITS HORRIFIC”
i dunno why but i feel like he’d jump scare every person that was cosplaying as his minecraft character from behind for some reason
“BOO!”
“ranboo i’m not even remotely dressed as your skin—”
“don’t worry i’m practicing it’s fineee”
“you’re like the height of 2 people combined, i think you will be fine as is. you even intimidated the security at the front”
i feel like if he had his own panel he’d like pull up some undertale song in the middle of it and scare all the people in the crowd
“lore but in real life”
probably would get some matching keepsake with you from artist alley/the booths!
i could imagine like a cute keychain or smth :D
i feel like he’s the type to like randomly volunteer as a participant for those mini events in a booth thinking it would be funny but regrets it the moment he’s on stage
after introductions the presenter is like “okay ranboo, you will be given a random meme prompt above your head you won’t be able to see until after and you will have to make a random face to compliment it!”
and you can just tell by his facial expression he’s just thinking
oh god what have i gotten myself into
what is this game? who came up with this idea?
you’d laugh at him the whole time, even after he’s off the stage and finished with that small fiasco
“that was horrible. never again.”
“AHAHAH IT LOOKED SO AWKWARD YOU DID GREAT”
“I CROSSED MY EYES AND PUFFED MY CHEEKS BECAUSE I COULDNT THINK OF ANY OTHER FACIAL EXPRESSION. THE PROMPT ENDING UP BEING ‘WHEN TWITTER CANCELS YOU FOR USING PLASTIC STRAWS.’ AND WHEN I SAW WHAT IT WAS—LITERALLY WHAT KIND OF GAME–”
“I GOT PICTURES AND EVERYTHING ITS PERFECT AHAHAHAH”
Tumblr media
wilbur soot
honestly with wilbur it’s slightly more chill
he already experienced twitchcon before so he’s just glad to see his friends again after so long
insists that you explore the convention yourself rather than sticking with him the whole time but you do anyway!
wilbur would probably have like a mini concert and gets you front row seats with the rest of the group
but that doesn’t mean before it that you’re not helping him set up
“y/n please– my amp is so heavy, i can carry it”
“don’t worry! i’m strong” :D
and musically talented or not, he will probably bring you and the rest of his friends up to stage to just vibe and sing a bunch of random acoustic songs
it’s not like some big concert hall stage,, i imagine more like a casual thing w a slightly higher platform from the ground yk?
after spending a long day at the convention he’d also bring everyone across the city to la jolla or smth !
you’d all probably have dinner there and chill, watching the pretty sunset
“this place is really pretty but oh my god im gonna lose my breath hiking up this stupid hill, please slow down”
and wilbur is like ??? because he’s completely fine with his long legs and everything
“just walk faster”
“no, you walk slower”
AHAHAH and for context traversing through la jolla by walking around the town is a bit hard since it’s basically on a bunch of hills (walking up from the beach to a restaurant actually is actually sm work, trust me ive been there)
wilbur honestly doesn’t spend that much time in the actual convention center, he’s probably sightseeing a bit of san diego with you instead
but i could imagine him staying at the tabletop games area playing dnd or smth
“c’mon y/n, come join!”
“uhh i’m not sure, i’m not the best at roleplay and...”
“it’s fine don’t worry!”
he’d pull you in with him and end up enjoying yourself even if it was your first time
and if you’re of age, you’d be wilbur’s +1 at the twitch partner party and make sure mans doesn’t too drunk
if it’s not too late in the night, you two would chill at the beach after the party
it’s just a nice, calming moment after all the loud music mixed with hundreds of conversations at the party
also something about like taking polaroids pictures with wilbur just seems to go hand in hand for me
i’m not sure why but you will be taking lots of pics with wilbur for sure (not necessarily you both in the photo, but of sceneries as well while you’re together!)
Tumblr media
philza
literally a dad on vacation with his children, it doesn’t matter how old you are
need sunscreen? surprisingly has it
want a snack? probably has a small granola bar somewhere in his bag
but same with wilbur, he’s more chill like this isn’t his first time at twitchcon
omg he’d def bring you to the artist alley and just buy a bunch of fanart and stuff tho
“oh wow look phil, someone made a giant poster of the dream smp and shit!”
“holy shit that’s so good what the fuck!”
and he’s like rushing to that artist’s stall to buy a poster or print
idk why but phil seems like the person to know where he’s going all over the convention center
he probably had a copy of the directory map but yk
you just have trouble reading it bc all the signs seem to be misleading to you
nothing really crazy screams out to me of what phil would do at twitchcon besides like go to a few events, spend a bunch of time w his friends, etc
HOWEVER i could see him wasting a lot of his time at the gaming area and testing new games that are currently on the works of being developed
like “woah y/n, this vr game is sick, you should try it out!”
ngl i feel like phil would plan a visit to disneyland for everyone, like he gets the tickets and everything but once you’re at the park it’s free reign, y’all go everywhere with not much of a plan
the minors would try to cheap out phil and pay less than the others even though everyone else fully paid phil back and everything LMAO
ok but if he’s feeling nice, phil will buy everyone cotton candy/pretzels :D
and if you’re not hungry, he’d at least get you a mickey balloon
HE WILL HAVE MATCHING MICKEY EARS WITH MUMZA YES .
ALSO STAYING FOR THE FIREWORKS THOUGH OMG
just in general, best idea phil had for taking everyone to disneyland :D
Tumblr media
technoblade
surprisingly techno is really calm despite this being like one of his first conventions
but when he finally settles in and gets comfortable, he’s showing the same energy
if you’re playfully yelling, he will yell back
however there’s still those awkward moments that are unavoidable
idk why but something about him makes me think that if you feel tired and want to go back to your hotel room, he’d go with you just to make sure you get there safe
he probably also needs a break from being around everyone else for a moment too LMAO
i could also see him searching far and wide in the artist alley for fanart of himself AHAHAH
walking around with him in the convention consists of someone yelling “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD” every 5 minutes but you don’t really mind
something about him makes me think he’ll be forced into playing minecraft twitch rivals along with the rest of sbi or smth
and he’s like “oh god, i’m going to be on stage? and people will see my face while i play minecraft?”
“i’m sure it will be fun!”
“i mean i like being competitive and feeding my ego, but i’m not that desperate.. well”
do i imagine techno getting easily tired of being surrounded by a bunch of people and just going back to his hotel room with phil and watching some anime with him? yes
and will you watch even if you have no idea what’s going on? also yes
i feel like after a while of you guys hanging out in techno’s room, the rest of the gang will just slowly join you guys
like eventually everyone is there; you, techno, phil, wilbur, niki, tommy, tubbo, ranboo, etc
and techno is like “wha– where did you guys come from?” because his room is basically packed
and niki could be like “oh we can go if you want!”
then techno just insists that she’s fine “but who let the child get in?” clearly implying tommy’s presence
“OI!!”
eventually techno gives in with the company and someone gets a bunch of board games to play from the front desk
lots of yelling and laughing for sure
when it becomes late at night, techno is like half conscious, you’re on your phone, wilbur is staring out the window & enjoying the night view, tommy is passed out on the couch from tiredness, tubbo & ranboo is still wide awake quietly talking, and phil & niki are helping clean up the giant mess
eventually everyone brings themselves to go back to their own room except tommy who won’t budge
you give techno a look and he immediately understands what you were thinking
he rushes to the bathroom to fill up two cups with ice cold water and handed one to you
“on three?”
“okay.. one”
“two”
“three!”
then both of you pour the water on the poor child’s face
he jolts awake and saying a string of curses
“what the fuck techno? y/n too?”
“get out” is the only think techno says that before tommy rushes out with his stuff and you leave right after
a/n: i honestly can’t wait until conventions open up again though,, phil and ranboo were talking about vidcon earlier and omg.
also i kinda want to take in tommy requests but i’m not sure??? it would be both cc! and c! x gn!reader for sure tho. i love writing him to bits but who knows, maybe i’ll only stick to my ideas,, or not. send in a tommy x reader request, might do it, might not, but he’s my fav cc if you can’t tell so! :D (i dunno if i will keep it strictly platonic, but unrequited crushes and stuff are fun to write hehe,,)
edit: let’s hope i fixed all the grammar mistakes LMAO we love writing late at night :) /s /hj
2K notes · View notes
kodzukyan · 3 years
Text
better with you (until it kills me)
notes: it's always missing baji hours here </3 fluff, angst; alternative ending: always, always you
summary: four times you think you are in love with baji keisuke, and the one time you tell him.
wc: 3.7k
You're reasonably sure the only reason he chooses you to pair up with for the Japanese literature project is that you sit next to him, but it surprises you all the same. You don't think you have much of a presence in class, but you don't think you can say the same about your new partner, Baji Keisuke.
His slicked-back ponytail and thick frames make his presence seem like a poindexter, but there's something about his bruised knuckles and his fierce aura that makes him feel ferocious. You've noticed him hang out with the school delinquent on multiple occasions. You also think you've seen him laugh wildly as he beats up some of the local thugs who crowded around the said delinquent he's friends with.
He isn't who you expect him to be at first glance, and that intrigues you more than you like to admit. You're too nervous to openly ask, so you settle for stealing glances at him from the corner of your eyes.
So, when he really decides on you and submits the partner form, you don't know what to think.
In the time that you two are partners, you've discovered a couple of things about him. First, his handwriting and kanji absolutely suck. Despite that, he writes a letter addressed to someone named Kazutora every week without fail. As if that isn't endearing enough, it gets even more so when he pouts at the complex characters that he often gets wrong and the inevitable smile that breaks out whenever you show him how to write them correctly.
("Oh, thanks! I would probably fail my kanji tests without you and Chifuyu. Kazutora probably can't even understand what I'm saying," he laughs rambunctiously.)
Second, he's genuinely an unexpectedly good partner in terms of being punctual about meeting up. However, despite being on time, there is little progress on the project. Your work times often end up in discussions about random life topics rather than the project itself.
(“Do you like cats?” he asks out of the blue one day, head on the table and books already forgotten.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” you humor him because you’re also tired of researching Japanese literature.
“Wanna see my cats? They’re all strays,” he sits up suddenly, eyes lit and smile bright.
You nod, and he proceeds to take out his phone to show you pictures of his cats. You note his lock-screen is a picture of all his cats, and his camera roll is just full of his friends and mom, motorcycles, and the said cats. With shining eyes full of excitement, he tells you their names and their personalities in detail.
"Do you think cats recognize their names but choose to ignore us whenever we call them?" he resumes the conversation after he finishes showing you his gallery. He leans back as he balances his pencil on top of his pursed lips.
"Maybe. Depends on the cat? Maybe they just hate you?" you mimic his pose. You suppose thirty minutes of work is enough progress for the day.
"Ouch," he grimaces as if it shatters him directly in the heart.)
Third, sometimes he comes with his hair down and without his glances, with stains on his clothes that he claims are ketchup, despite it not smelling like that at all.
("Uh, hey, sorry I'm late today," he offers sheepishly as he runs a hand through his unbound hair.
"Oh, it's okay," you finally say after you take in his shaggy appearance. You try not to think about how handsome he is despite the bruises forming on his face. "Are you… okay?"
"All good! The ketchup bottle just randomly exploded," he laughs nervously and awkwardly. "Anyways!! The project!!"
You stare at him dubiously but nod anyway. "Okay, if you say so…")
Fourth, he has an extremely charming smile, especially when his fangs are in full display. To some, it may look fierce and menacing; to you, it looks cute, especially when his eyes are always brimming with life and his laugh is full of vitality.
More often than not you catch yourself staring at him because he's just so intriguing.
You try to ignore your racing heart when your stolen glances become shared ones, and he flashes you a grin softer than the smiles you've seen.
-----
“Uh, hi.” You say shyly as you enter through Baji’s window. It’s not frequently you seek out Baji at his own home, especially through the window he keeps open almost exclusively for stray cats to seek shelter.
“What the fuck?” Baji drops the stray cat he's cuddling as you give a slight wave, causing the cat to meow loudly at the sudden change in demeanor.
“Sorry to drop by unannounced. I, uh, just wanted some company.”
You feel vanishingly small as you awkwardly laugh and piece together some words that make sense. Home is supposed to be full of warmth, but your home is more of a house with people than a home with love. It’s a truth you’ve long accepted, but some days, it feels a little extra cold.
Therefore, you run, and somehow you end up here, in the comforts of Baji’s room.
Maybe you are currently a stray cat, feeling a little more lost than found. Maybe you find that he’s the sort of comfort that warms you a little when your heart feels heavy. Maybe you are just a little bit in like with him, and he is the first person you want to see whenever you’re feeling down.
The room is silent aside from the soft paps of cats moving around and the periodic meow. Then, he pats the spot next to him, and you make your way there. As soon as you sit down, he hands you a cat.
“Here, hold her. She’s nice,” he comments as he places the calico cat he dropped earlier in your lap, petting her as she adjusts to her new position on you.
She narrows her eyes and softly purrs in your lap as Baji pets her, and this makes you feel more in the moment than in your head like you’ve been. Your initial baffle turns into a smile as she purrs louder when you pet her, and just like that, you feel a little more found than lost.
You lean on his shoulder as you continue petting the calico cat in your lap. You keep your eyes on her as she climbs onto his lap and nuzzles him in an attempt to hide your burning cheeks and your drumming heart from your proximity.
“Thanks for giving me a home when I don’t want to be in my own,” you tell him softly, airly, almost as if you’re letting him in on a secret.
He stops playing with the cats for a moment and pauses. Feeling his intense stare, you peek through your lashes up at him. His broad grin and sharp canines are in full display, and his smile looks a little more boyish than wild. He tousles your hair as he laughs aloud boisterously before he props his head on top of yours.
“You’ll always have a home here.”
-----
It all started when a group of thugs looked at you inappropriately and made some comments that made you uncomfortable. You grip the ends of his sleeve just a little harder and press yourself behind him, trying to make yourself impossibly small. Baji, seeing your small form and downcast eyes, removes your hand from his sleeve and places it in his hand. Knowing Baji and him knowing you and your every mood, he does not stand for it. He simply flashes you a reassuring grin before he squeezes your hand and runs straight at them.
He throws the first punch, and you could just stand there in shock as he pummels through them and beats them up. He has cuts and bruises everywhere, and you’re certain he’s taken on a few nasty hits on his ribs. Though you’re equally confident that these thugs are absolutely 100% in worse shape than he is.
“Oh my god,” you sob frantically as Baji wobbles back to you, ferocious smile on his face softens as he sees you. He pats your head when he notes your teary eyes. You’re not even sure when you start crying, but the tears just don’t seem to stop. “Are you okay? Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Are you -”
He clutches your tear-stained face in his hands, “Look at me.”
Your eyes meet his, but you can barely see him over your tears as you continue your incoherent rambling.
“Hey,” he tries once more, voice more frantic as he struggles to find words. He finally just squishes your cheeks and yells, “Do you think I care about anything else but you right now?”
Your eyes widen, and the tears forming fall freely onto his hands. Oh, oh, oh, you think to yourself as your beating heart rapidly thumps at an exponential speed, maybe he’s also falling. When you meet his steady gray eyes, the shocking realization that maybe you’re not the only one dumb and possibly in love stops your tears.
He sighs in relief when your tears gradually stop, and as if all the tiredness accumulated in his body hit him all at once, he falls down onto the ground.
You try to catch him as best as you can, and with the combined effort of mostly himself and partially you, he breaks his fall. He lays sprawled out on the ground. After you check for wounds and find none too serious, you sit with your knees tucked under you by where he lays and moves his head onto your lap.
All around you are the battered bodies of the thugs you’ve encountered, but all you can see at the moment is him and his gray eyes that disappear into crescent moons as he flashes you a grin. He’s too tired to move, but he raises a fist up into the air in victory anyway.
“I got you.”
-----
"Wanna go on a ride?" he texts you.
It’s almost midnight when he texts you, and it’s probably way past when you should stay up. But your heart flutters at the thought of adventure, at the thought of him, so you quickly respond, “Okay, but be quiet! Don't wake my parents up again, stinky!!!”
You can already imagine his sheepish smile when he sends you a "that was once!!! my bad" back.
After sending him a quick ":p", you silently put on some clothes more fitting to go out than your pajamas. The sound of his motorcycle announces his greater-than-life presence long before his text does. Grabbing two scrunchies, you sneak out your window.
He only greets you with a goofy smile and a wave, hair free-flowing in the wind. Under the moonlight, his gray eyes twinkle with vigor and youth. It knocks the air out of your lungs as you glance at him because he's beautiful, ethereal, and alive. He smiles smugly when he catches your stare, but he holds his hand out for you to take.
"Hi," you whisper under the twinkling stars as you put your hand in his.
"Hey," he whispers back as he curls his fingers around your hand before adjusting to interlace your fingers together.
The quietness and intimacy of this moment drown out the world - the sound of cars driving by, of cicadas flying, of the world standing still. The only thing keeping you from floating is his hand and the sound of your heartbeat.
"I got you a hair tie." You offer softly with an equally soft smile, eyes pointing to the scrunchies on your wrist.
"I got you a hoodie," he responds as he nods to his motorcycle. "Because I knew your dumb ass would, once again, forget to dress for the winds."
"I'm dressed decently enough. You, though… please tie your hair… It hurts like hell when it whips in my face," you laugh lightly.
He rolls his eyes. "That's also what you said last time before you ended up stealing my hoodie, and I ended up being cold!" he complains, but there's a certain fondness in his voice.
You only stick your tongue out childishly at him. You would rather bite your tongue than admit that you are always slightly underdressed for the occasion so he would keep giving you his hoodies.
He tugs your interlaced hand and pulls you closer, and as you stand so close to him, you think close isn't quite close enough. The two of you linger in that position for longer than what should be appropriate for friends, but you think you have been tiptoeing around that line for a while now. Your heart races, and you're sure your erratic heart is beating fast enough to generate heat to keep you warm against the cold winds.
He pulls away first, moving to grab his hoodie before he roughly puts it on you. He laughs when you complain about your ruffled hair, but as his hoodie and scent engulf you, you could only shyly smile. He takes a scrunchie despite complaining about how poofy it is. As he settles in his bike and you settle in behind him, arms tight around his waist, you think this is probably what holding the universe in your arms feels like.
He rives his bike loudly despite your warning, but you find that you could care less right now as he takes off. You are young and dumb, but the wind is running through your hair as the two of you are chasing the moon, and it makes you feel so alive. Neon lights and starlit skies blur together as he speeds through familiar roads, and the brisk winds drown out your loud laughter. It feels like you're feeling everything at once, but your head is so clear.
You think you can understand why he loves riding so much because the only thing that you can hear is your loud heartbeat, and the only thing that matters is you're living.
He finally stops at a local 24-hour diner. The moonlight shines through the window by your table. You are still feeling the wild wind in your hair, cold air on your face, and the warmth of Baji’s back on your arms. It's way past midnight now, and the yellow lights of the diner feel a little more homey than dingy. He’s munching on some fries, occasionally waving one in your face whenever he’s trying to make a point about something. As you watch the various expressions on his face, a smile makes its way to your face.
“Hey Keisuke,” you grab a fry and jab it at him in the middle of his sentence. He stops his mid-word as he stares at you, head tilting slightly and mouth still gaping. There is a particular word that you keep thinking of whenever you think of Baji, a feeling that lingers and fills your heart up. You know what it is. You think you know at least, and in moments like these when you’re just watching his goofy self munching on fries while boisterously laughing at something dumb, all you can think of is those four letters.
“You’re my best friend,” you whisper before you eat your fry. Best friend, you think, encompasses a lot of things and feelings as you stare at his childlike grin, heart fluttering and mind blanking because all you see is him. You hope he knows, hope he gets that best friend is a loose term because he is so much more.
When he meets your eyes and his gray eyes crinkle in mirth and laughter rolls off his lips, you think he does.
“I know,” he smugly nods before he drops another fry into his mouth. “I guess you’re pretty cool too.”
You stick your tongue out at him and feel a warmth in your heart that matches the pinks of his cheeks. Maybe it’s adrenaline still in your blood, maybe it’s the moment, but it makes you devious, brave even, as you lean over and chomp down on the fry he's holding.
He stares at you with his mouth wide open, looking absolutely flabbergasted and offended. “Hello? That was my last fry!”
“Sorry,” you giggle, not feeling all that sorry at all. You know he’s not truly that offended because he has that stupid grin on his face, because he’s always soft with you. A part of you does feel a little sorry when you see the small pout that arises on his face. “I’ll treat you to yakisoba later?”
He turns away from you, face still slightly sulky as he huffs silently.
“No? You don’t want yakisoba?” you ask. You still find it amusing that Baji Keisuke, the first division captain of the Toman Gang who would punch someone on the streets for no reason other than just because he feels like it, is pouting because you stole his last fry. If anyone from any rival gangs sees Baji Keisuke now, they probably wouldn’t believe this is the same person.
“Fine,” he huffs softly, “But don’t think one yakisoba is enough.”
“Then,” you begin, your heart pounding loudly in your chest as you work up the courage, “What about this?”
He turns to you in confusion, and before your courage runs out on you, you crash your lips onto his before you pull away.
“Repayment,” you mutter meekly, eyes avoiding his because you’re sure he can feel the heat radiating off your cheeks from where he’s sitting.
“Hey,” he tugs on your hand under the table. When you finally look at him, he continues, “Just one isn’t enough.”
He kisses you again.
-----
Home is supposed to be the place you come from, but you think it's more like a place you find, pieced together from scattered bits of feelings, emotions, people along the way. Somewhere along the lines, home becomes less of a place and more of a person. Your home becomes the boy with the sharp canines and long hair that gets tangled by the stray cats he keeps, the "I love you" declared loudly with kisses and the longing looks in between, the comfortable warmth of his body next to yours as you chase sunsets and live in your own infinity. Your home is Baji Keisuke and the constant image of him in your mind and the infinite pieces of him in your heart.
Infinity, though, is awfully short, you think, as you see him lay surrounded by bouquets, eyes closed in eternal slumber. He's always looked good in white, but when his tan complexion is nearly as pale as the white roses surrounding him, you think white is an awful color on him. His eyes always shine with possibilities and promises, and while you've always joked that his sleeping face is cute because he always looks so innocent, adorable even, all you want now is to see him awake.
His heroism and love for his friends are always something that you love about him, but in turn, it feels so incredibly cruel to you now. For as short as he has been in your life, he becomes pieces embedded so deeply in it that it makes you whole. You cannot imagine a world where there is no Baij, where he isn’t there to punch a hooligan on the streets or feed stray cats at night or hold you when your world is crashing. You cannot imagine a life where he isn’t here to shine a bright light in your life without his laughter and goofy personality. Suddenly the world blurs around you, and you can't breathe as droplets of water hit your clenched hands on your lap.
You hold his hands. Cold, cold, cold, when they used to be warm enough to light a fire in you. There are so many things you want to tell him, say to him, but the speech you prepare in your head drowns in silence as your voice gives out on you. All the words in your head just come out as broken sobs. You feel the sympathetic and equally broken glance of his mom as she embraces you, but all you can think about is that he won’t open his eyes.
Baji Keisuke has always been bigger than life, you think, because he becomes a part of everything in your life. There are traces of him everywhere - him with his cats on your lock-screen, the random memes he sends you at night, the little notes he leaves you written in his ugly penmanship with love. When you think of these things, you feel like your heart is breaking all over again.
People tell you to be strong, and while you want to retort because how can you when he’s gone?, you find that you cannot say a word without crying. You’re tired of crying too because your eyes are already so, so raw, but it seems like all you can do is cry. When you think you've finally run out of tears and your tears finally stop, a new batch takes over even at the slightest things that remind you of him. You feel so pathetic because you can't do anything without water leaking from your eyes, and you hate yourself for being so weak.
You tune out the somber tone of his friends and the broken tone of his mom because you don't want to accept a reality where he isn't here. But luck is never on your side because he never opens his eyes again, and you never get to tell him how much you love him. All you get are flashbacks and memories of him and emptiness in your heart and soul. You tell yourself you have to be strong and smile and live for the both of you, but you can't. Not when he isn't here, not when he isn't with you anymore. Every time you think about that fact, your heart breaks again.
"Hey, stupid," your broken sobs ring loudly in the deafening silence, "I love you."
The words you’ve wanted to tell him for so long are finally in the open, but there is no answer.
736 notes · View notes
miraculouscontent · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Who wants more sad statistics~?
Because say hello to the color-coded guide to Marinette blame/mistakes! Obviously there’s some room for debate (even I struggled with how to color an episode from time to time), but it should be mostly accurate.
Blue = "Marinette wasn't really blamed for anything notable and didn't really suffer from Adrien" Cyan = "Marinette was blamed for something unrelated to Adrien that she didn't do/she shouldn't be made to feel bad for" (this one is probably the most subjective) Green = "Marinette was blamed/made a mistake but it had nothing to do with Adrien" Yellow = "Marinette doesn't technically make a mistake or get blamed, but is negatively impacted by her crush on/relationship to Adrien" Red = "Marinette either was blamed for/made a mistake that related to Adrien."
"Negatively impacted by her crush on Adrien" could mean generally anything, but it leans towards Marinette embarrassing herself in front of Adrien, characters making snippy/unnecessary comments about her crush, and things that wouldn't have happened if her Adrien crush didn't exist. In the case that Marinette makes a mistake/is improperly blamed for something not about Adrien (cyan/green) but also is negatively impacted by her relationship to him (yellow), whatever is given more attention will take priority. There could've easily been a lot of cyan+red episodes had I allowed myself to use two colors.
Now look at all that red, which is easily the most frequent color, and then try and tell me that Marinette's crush isn't just a tool to humiliate her and force her to make mistakes in order to fit the "Marinette makes a mistake" quota.
I've put the explanations below on my decisions for each episode, as well as the tally for everything together:
Season 1
"Stormy Weather" (red) - Marinette blames herself for leaving Manon, and they're only at the park in the first place because of her Adrien crush.
"The Bubbler" (red) - Marinette uses Lucky Charm explicitly to stop Chloe and Adrien from dancing together.
"The Pharoah" (green) - Ladybug drops her schoolbook; relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but seems to be why the show forces Marinette to awkwardly try to keep Alya in the museum instead of just having Tikki directly point out where to go.
"Lady Wifi" (green) - Marinette overslept while doing homework and was late for class
"Timebreaker" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for not being home to give the cake to Nadja... who came early and thus Marinette shouldn't have been expected to expect her
"Mr. Pigeon" (yellow) - Marinette embarrasses herself in front of Adrien, with Alya making faces at her all the while
"The Evillustrator" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for ditching Sabrina when she has an akuma to worry about, accused of "being like Chloe" (i.e: the person who Sabrina immediately goes back to anyway)
"Rogercop" (red) - Marinette, after being accused, states that everyone has the potential to be guilty, but sidesteps Adrien when someone suggests it
"Copycat" (red) - Marinette, panicked by an embarrassing confession she left on Adrien's phone (thanks to Alya), steals it to delete the message (also thanks to Alya)
"Dark Cupid" (red) - Marinette forgets to sign the love letter addressed to Adrien, which Alya laughs at her for
"Horrificator" (red) - Marinette is pressured/convinced to play Mylene's role instead when Alya throws out that she'd be kissing Adrien
"Darkblade" (cyan) - Marinette doesn't want to run for class representative because she already has enough on her plate (...what a monster?); both Alya and Alix make snarky comments at her for this
"The Mime" (green) - Marinette deletes a video on Alya phone and spends the rest of the episode trying to recreate it
"Kung Food" (cyan) - Marinette blames herself for defending her great uncle and insulting Chloe (again... what a monster?), which leads to Chloe sabotaging Wang's cooking
"Gamer" (red) - Marinette enters the gaming competition solely for Adrien
"Animan" (yellow) - Marinette offers to get Nino a date with Alya, an event that wouldn't have taken place if not for Marinette's crush (either there wouldn't have been a zoo trip at all or Alya wouldn't have been there); in addition, Alya tells Nino about Marinette's Adrien crush, which Marinette is distraught by
"Antibug" (cyan) - Ladybug is blamed for "not accepting help from others" (except she did at the beginning of the episode) and not listening to Chloe (who is a habitual liar)
"The Puppeteer" (green) - Marinette folds to Manon's "baby doll eyes" and gives her something that Nadja insisted she not have
"Reflekta" (green) - Marinette tries to steal Guiseppe's SD camera card so Juleka's picture will need retaken
"Pixelator" (red) - Marinette shirks her job as Jagged's gopher in order to get back to Adrien as soon as possible
"Guitar Villain" (blue) - Not much happens, just cool Marinette stuff; there are technically scenes of Marinette embarrassing herself around Adrien, but either no one else was there to witness it or there wasn't any significant reaction to it
"Princess Fragrance" (red) - Alya forces Marinette to go talk to Adrien, which results in Marinette tripping and losing Tikki
"Simon Says" (cyan) - Marinette... I guess is at fault for struggling to keep up with schoolwork and hero duties? That's what you get for wanting to help people, Ladybug
"Volpina" (red) - Marinette is mocked for being jealous, her following Adrien is presented as her doing it jealously (she literally says that she's going to warn Adrien about Lila stealing the book from him before Tikki stops her, but okay), and she yells at Lila as Ladybug, which is also presented as being "only about Adrien."
"Origins - Part 1 (Ladybug & Cat Noir)" (green) - Ladybug neglects to capture the akuma, having forgotten that detail
"Origins - Part 2 (Stoneheart)" (green) - The mistake from Part 1 carries over... the episode also may or may not blame Marinette for encouraging Ivan.
blue - 1 cyan - 6 green - 7 yellow - 2 red - 10
Season 2
"A Christmas Special" (red) - Marinette's "Adrien blindness" causes her to jump to conclusions and believe that a Santa Claus lookalike is an akuma
"The Collector" (red) - Marinette lies to Master Fu in order to protect Adrien, not able to believe that Adrien could be Hawk Moth
"Despair Bear" (red) - Marinette goes to Chloe's party for Adrien and is repeatedly mocked/teased for this
"Prime Queen" (cyan) - Ladybug "makes a mistake" in getting upset at Nadja for trying to pry into her romantic relationships and her potential romance with Chat Noir
"Befana" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for "lying" to her grandmother about going to a birthday party with her friends (she didn't) and "not wanting to spend time with her" (she did, Gina is the one who neglected Marinette for literal years)
"Riposte" (cyan) - One of the more subjective ones, but going frame-by-frame, Adrien's saber bends first yet the episode calls Marinette "flustered" and "new to fencing" to say that she's wrong in her choice
"Robostus" (blue) - Mostly free of crush and mistakes, episode focuses primarily on the main plot of the akuma being caused (if I had a color for Marinette just normally being mocked/embarrassed though, it'd be here)
"Gigantitan" (red) - Needs no explanation: Marinette is embarrassed in front of the girls multiple times and the entire subplot causes the akuma that almost hits Gorilla
"The Dark Owl" (green) - Ladybug orchestrates a situation in which the Dark Owl could save her so as to not hurt his feelings, which ends in him being found out, humiliated, and akumatized
"Glaciator" (red) - Marinette is upset because Adrien didn't show up to get ice cream with her, which leads to her blowing up on Andre
"Sapotis" (blue) - Marinette goes largely blameless for everything; not much here
"Gorizilla" (yellow) - Multiple "jokes"/"mocking" about Marinette revealing skin/being in her pajamas in front of Adrien
"Captain Hardrock" (blue) - Surprisingly void of blame on Marinette despite her being depressed over Adrien; if anything, Luka apologizes for making a teasing comment when she was upset
"Zombizou" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for being upset with Chloe for ruining her gift for Miss Bustier
"Syren" (cyan) - Ladybug is blamed for keeping secrets from Chat Noir (look at the Adrien stans for reference)
"Frightningale" (red) - Marinette is bothered by Chloe being Ladybug, but Adrien is involved so the fandom can easily put blame on her concerning her Adrien crush (see Marinette salters for reference)
"Troublemaker" (red) - Marinette's Adrien pictures are intentionally inflated/exaggerated to humiliate her more
"Anansi" (green) - I wouldn't argue if someone suggested that this is a cyan: Marinette "makes a mistake" in cheating Nora's arm-wrestle with Nino since Nora was being unreasonable
"Sandboy" (green) - Marinette agrees with Tikki that they should do something to help Nooroo without asking Fu
"Reverser" (cyan) - Marinette peeks at Marc's work and tries to help him work with Nathaniel (I see, so when Alya meddles to push Marinette past her comfort zone, it's fine, but--); she also embarrasses herself in front of Adrien over this
"Frozer" (red) - Marinette suffers because Adrien's an idiot and has tons of people in relationships to ask advice from, and he chooses to ask Marinette; Marinette appears to be "blamed" for either wanting to move on (due to the girls fighting) or agreeing to go with Adrien, along with a "bonus" (almost earning a cyan) due to Chat throwing a hissy fit over her rejecting him
"Style Queen" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for thinking that the magic ladybugs would bring the miraculous back to Fu (see "Sentibubbler" covering for Chat for reference on how the narrative sees this)
"Queen Wasp" (cyan) - Carried over from "Style Queen"; Ladybug is blamed for losing the miraculous
"Malediktator" (red) - Marinette is made to feel bad for being glad that her bully of many years is gone (almost earning a cyan here, or even a yellow), and this is all due to Adrien; he also unintentionally convinces her to give Chloe a miraculous (her "mistake" according to future episodes), which sets off a slew of events that makes her suffer
"Catalyst" (cyan) - Alya not believing Marinette due to her Adrien crush carries over from "Volpina," almost earning this a red, but Marinette also lies about her gift for Heroes' Day. However, the fact that she is completely sleep-deprived from the night before and was being made fun of for only bringing macarons is largely ignored by the narrative and treated too much as her fault
"Mayura" (red) - When going to correct her mistake from last episode, Adrien throwing a pity party for himself makes Marinette go back on it
blue - 3 cyan - 9 green - 3 yellow - 1 red - 10
Season 3
"Backwarder" (red) - Marinette gives Adrien the wrong letter (due to each slip of paper she has conveniently looking the exact same but the episode clearly indicates it to be her fault); she's also humiliated over this
"Weredad" (cyan) - Marinette lies to Chat Noir in a panic to protect her identity. The fact that Chat Noir is an idiot who wonders why Marinette might be on her own darn balcony and that Tikki doesn't offer a better solution for the situation is given no attention
"Chameleon" (red) - Alya believing that Marinette is only upset with Lila over Adrien presumably carries over from "Volpina" and "Catalyst;" Marinette's relationship with Adrien also seems to make her more inclined to believe in what he says about doing nothing about Lila
"Animaestro" (red) - No explanation needed; Marinette's Adrien crush makes her more inclined to believe Chloe (remember "Malediktator" and "Zombizou"?) when Chloe claims that Kagami stole her seat next to Adrien, which convinces Marinette to team up with Chloe against Kagami, and this leads to Marinette being embarrassed over her crush
"Bakerix" (green) - Marinette makes a mistake in... I guess riling up her grandfather? (this one's pretty subjective and I wouldn't argue with anyone who says this should be cyan)
"Silencer" (blue) - Regardless of what "Crocoduel" says, Marinette isn't blamed in this episode for challenging Bob Roth
"Oblivio" (cyan) - Marinette seems to weirdly be blamed/punished for getting upset with Chat Noir if the smugness of Chat+Alya about the taken picture is to be believed (perhaps """explained""" in "Reflekdoll" about Chat having his role to play as the "sense of humor")
"Stormy Weather 2" (yellow) - Marinette spends a portion of the episode sulking about the little progress she's made with Adrien
"Reflekdoll" (red) - Needs no explanation: Marinette's anxiety is caused by Adrien and she's blamed for it despite Alya orchestrating everything
"Oni-Chan" (red) - Marinette chases after Adrien and Lila, which is made to be completely about Marinette's crush on Adrien despite Marinette telling Tikki about her actual concerns (which end up coming true as Kagami gets akumatized)
"Miraculer" (cyan) - Chat gets snippy with Ladybug for not telling Chloe right away (apparently assuming that Ladybug doesn't have other obligations to attend to like school; she even tells Chat that she "wouldn't have time that day"), and Ladybug was literally about to before the sentimonster and Miraculer show up
"The Puppeteer 2" (red) - Marinette repeatedly pushed and punished for liking Adrien, then punished again in front of Adrien (who she thinks is a statue) when she was actually just taking the advice that Tikki gave her
"Desperada" (red) - The guitar scene (i.e: "huh, who would've known that my wingwoman for Adrien was actually trying to wingwoman me with Luka one time!"), Aspik (i.e: "wow, the guy who I thought was perfect because that's what the narrative is always telling me actually doesn't fit what the narrative was telling me!"), and that's all I need to say
"Startrain" (blue) - Mostly mistakeless on Marinette's end; the focus is on other characters/plots (again, if I had a color for Marinette being mocked/embarrassed though, it'd also go here)
"Kwamibuster" (blue) - Marinette isn't blamed for anything; even though Master Fu isn't aware of the events at first, Tikki apologizes to Marinette in front of him later
"Feast" (yellow) - Marinette is briefly distracted by Adrien until Alya chides her so that she can show Marinette the information she might as well have hand-delivered to Hawk Moth
"Ikari Gozen" (red) - Marinette tries to sabotage her and Kagami to prevent Kagami from meeting up with Adrien
"Timetagger" (cyan) - Tikki notes Marinette's bad excuses (which are due to the sheer amount of akuma) to the point where Alya had replaced her as babysitter before Marinette explained that she couldn't show up (I wouldn't argue with anyone who said this should be blue instead)
"Party Crasher" (red) - Marinette tries to crash the secret boys-only party in order to spend time with Adrien
"Gamer 2.0" (cyan) - Marinette+Ladybug is blamed for being upset that they have no time for anything, with Ladybug in particular "making the mistake" of taking over and failing due to Chat constantly goofing off despite her urging
"Chat Blanc" (red) - Marinette is pressured/threatened by the girl squad (specifically Rose) enough that she decides to sneak into Adrien's house
"Felix" (yellow) - Marinette, after "finally" confessing to Adrien (for like--the fourth time), ends up running off and rambling in front of Luka (not knowing that he's there), which embarrasses her
"Ladybug" (red) - Alya's doubts of Marinette's hatred of Lila (implied in "Volpina" and stated in "Catalyst" to be about her crush on Adrien) carries over as Alya chides Marinette for blaming Lila, and had Marinette not listened to Adrien in "Chameleon," Lila may have been stopped early on and she wouldn't have gotten expelled (otherwise, the episode would've gotten a "cyan" because how dare Marinette be emotional at being accused of cheating and get angry at Lila)
"Christmaster" (red) - Marinette lies to Chris (in the exact way that Alya does to Manon in "Stormy Weather" but sure) in order to protect her darn privacy so Chris doesn't find out about her chest full of Adrien gifts, which leads to Chris getting akumatized
"Heart Hunter" (red) - Ladybug neglects to detransform due to being distracted by Adrimi happening, which leads to long-lasting and overly harsh consequences
"Miracle Queen" (red) - Ladybug's mistake carries over from the previous episode
blue - 3 cyan - 5 green - 1 yellow - 3 red - 14
Total: blue - 7 cyan - 20 green - 11 yellow - 6 red - 34
182 notes · View notes
queen-swagzilla · 3 years
Text
PATREON PREVIEW: Searching For You In the Background
WARNINGS: Heavy angst, hurt no comfort, major character death
-----------------------------------------
"Hey Hagakure," Izuku said, sliding up to his invisible classmate. She jumped, because how the hell did he notice her? "Why aren't you partying?"
It was almost the end of their second year, and it was Katsuki Bakugou's sixteenth birthday. The celebration (that Katsuki 100% did not ask for) was in full swing around them. "I'm on photo duty," she explained, holding her camera up. "Kiri thought that if he couldn't see the photographer, he'd be less likely to blow up the camera."
Izuku barked out a laugh but stifled it quickly—eyes flicking to Katsuki to make sure he hadn't heard. "Let me do it," he suggested. "You go enjoy yourself."
"But then you won't enjoy yourself, Green Bean," she replied hesitantly.
"Of course I will," he assured her. "I'm not really into crowds, I just like being nearby," he explained. Besides, it wasn't about him—it was about Katsuki. Katsuki probably wouldn't want to even look at his birthday photos if Izuku was in them, so the best way he knew how to appease his classmates with his presence and let Katsuki enjoy his birthday was to enjoy it from the sidelines and make sure that he didn't taint the memory.
Hagakure faltered. "Are you sure?" she asked, and the excitement in her voice steeled his resolve.
"Absolutely," he assured her, holding his hand out for the camera.
"Thanks, Mido!" she said, handing it over and giving him a quick hug. "Let me know if you wanna trade-off later, okay?"
"Sure," he agreed, smiling sweetly. As soon as she bounded away, turned on the screen on the back of the camera to flip through the photos she'd already taken. Thankfully, there were only two and he wasted no time deleting them. It's not like they'd ever make it into a photo album.
The party had turned out really well. Izuku was glad he'd been there to subtly give suggestions because it had been headed toward catastrophe until he started nudging them in the right direction.
Instead of the skull-shaped vanilla passionfruit cake that had been on the menu, Sato had made a dark chocolate cayenne cake shaped and decorated like a grenade. Instead of red and black streamers, Izuku had pointed out how Katsuki chose military green or sunset orange whenever he wasn't wearing black.
When it came to activities, he steered them away from movies and dancing and toward party games that would appeal to Katsuki's competitive nature, from Twister to the new Hero Melee Battle Royale game.
Izuku caught all of it on camera—from the soft, pensive look on Katsuki's face before he blew out his candles to the manic grin on his face as he pummelled Sero and Kaminari in HMBR.
The only time Katsuki looked directly at him was during the group photo, and Izuku hid his face behind the camera immediately. He'd only been in his line of sight for ten seconds, and he was already scowling. The faster he got this over with, the faster Katsuki could go back to enjoying his birthday as though he weren't there. "Smile on three! One, two—"
"Wait, on three or after three?" Ashido interrupted.
"He said on three," Sero rolled his eyes.
"Whichever one works," Izuku assured them, eyes flicking to Katsuki who was already getting agitated.
"Can't even figure out a fucking photo," Katuski snapped, making Izuku flinch back. Dammit. "When you hear the nerd say three just keep fucking smiling until he says stop, it's not that fucking hard!"
"Ah, sorry, Kacchan," Izuku winced. "He's right—when I say three, smile! I'll take a few shots so that you can choose the best one." He lined up the camera again. "One, two, three!"
The class smiled, and Izuku took a few shots. Then, because he couldn't help himself, he zoomed in on Katsuki's relaxed, half-smile—the one that told him that he'd genuinely enjoyed himself—and took a final picture.
He might have to ask Hagakure to sneak him a copy.
By the time the party wound down, people had collapsed into post-sugar-high comas on the couch—most notably the Bakusquad, all of whom had fallen asleep across their leader as the latest All Might biopic played. Ashido and Kirishima both had their heads in his lap, and Sero and Kaminari were on the floor, leaning against his legs. Katsuki was awake, eyes on the screen. As subtly as he could, Izuku snuck to a better vantage point and took a final photo—of Katsuki relaxed with people he liked, enjoying the last few minutes of his birthday in peace. If Katsuki saw him, that tiny precious smile would vanish.
He returned the camera to Hagakure. "Thanks for taking over, Mido," she said, hugging him again. "I hope you had a good time, too!"
"I did!" he assured her, and he wasn't even lying. It was good to see Katsuki unwind for real. He hadn't been this relaxed in years—unable to really enjoy himself under the weight of the pressure he put on himself. "I'm actually gonna go back and steal some of that cake for later. It was awesome."
"It was!" she exclaimed. "I was worried that Sato might go overboard with the spice, but it was really nice! It was so nice of you to—"
Izuku shushed her hurriedly. If Katsuki was alert, they were technically still in hearing distance of the couches. He tilted his head in the direction of the hallway, indicating that she should follow. "I don't want him to know I had anything to do with this," he explained quietly. "It'll ruin it for him."
"Oh come on," she chided. "You guys are way better than you were at the beginning of the year, and he had a really good time! I bet he'd be grateful," she insisted.
"I'd rather not take the chance, you know? He never gives himself a break, so I want him to just enjoy this without anything ruining it," he replied. Based on her arm movements, he assumed she was folding them sternly. "Really, it's not a big deal, I just gave some pointers and you guys did the rest, right?"
"Not really," she drawled. "He would have dipped right after the cake if it weren't for you."
"He would have dipped before the cake if he'd known that I planned it," he shrugged. "It's really not a big deal. As long as he had some fun for once, you know?"
Hagakure was silent for a long, tense moment. "Fine, I guess," she muttered. Izuku sighed in relief and turned to leave. "Hey, Mido?" he looked back. "He's really lucky you know. To have someone who loves him as much as you do, I mean. Who's willing to step aside to see them happy and make sure he gets everything he wants. People go their whole lives without that."
"I don't—"
"I don't mean it like that. Well, I do, but maybe you don't. Either way, he's lucky to have you. And someday he'll realize that. Hang in there, okay?"
He stared at the space above her shirt, heart beating a little too fast. He was too obvious. Not good. "Please don't worry about me, I'm really okay," he assured her. "I just like making other people happy."
"Just make sure it's not at the cost of your own happiness. It's okay to want things for yourself."
No, it wasn't. Not when it placed a burden on others. Not when it would ruin any progress he'd made with Katsuki. He couldn't risk wanting anything, because everything he wanted would only end up further away. "I will," he lied. "Goodnight, Hagakure."
The rest of this chapter is already posted on my Patreon! Patreon fics will be posted one month before they're released on Ao3. Read it here!
94 notes · View notes
Note
Hi! I saw that you might be interested in writing fics about Sigyn x Loki and it’s totally fine if you don’t want to do this because it is a little angsty and doesn’t really fit your description of what she was doing during Thor but could you maybe write something where Sigyn dies somehow a little before the events of Thor happened and Sigyn’d death was what lead Loki to do New York. And maybe he was pardoned and joined the avengers and they notice that Loki wears a ring and they start getting really curious. Maybe they ask him or Thor about the ring and find out about Sigyn. I know it doesn’t really fit what your version of Sigyn was doing during Thor but I would really like to see how you write this.
A/N: You’re right, this isn’t how I picture Sigyn in the MCU. I want her to be a more active character and really don’t like fridging my ladies if I can help it. That all being said, it’s a fun thought experiment.  Consider this just an AU where Sigyn dies.
Also, this kinda turned into a thing, so enjoy!
Tumblr media
Word Count: 3.3K
The transition was gradual, to say the least. Nobody really trusted Loki, apart form Thor. But then again, Thor would trust a rabid dog not to bite him if it asked nicely enough.
He had vouched for his brother’s changed ways and Loki himself hadn’t done anything directly to contradict Thor’s word. Plus, it was hard for them to deny how he had come to the rescue on their behalf and the world at large.
Still, there was an unspoken understanding to stay out of each other’s way. Only occasionally did Loki interact with the rest of the team outside of missions and even then it was mildly antagonistic, like a little kid looking for attention from their siblings.
Eventually, it just got comfortable, for lack of a better word.  They’re weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies either and that seemed to be enough.
So perhaps it wasn’t a surprise it took them almost six months to notice the ring.
Natasha was the first to catch it.
She stood on the edge of the mat, watching Loki spar with his brother. 
It was just a casual observation.  She spent most of the match counting how many times one of them missed a weak spot of the other. Finally, Loki took the advantage and managed to disarm his brother, but not before something fell out of his shirt; a silver chain with a solitary gold ring dangling from the end of it.
Natasha frowned, her eyes focusing on the tiny object. It was just a simple band, no jewels or markings from what she could see. The only thing which struck her as odd was the size.  It was much too small for the likes of Loki.
Her eyes darted to the man in question, who stared back at her with a guarded expression.
Without a word he helped his brother to his feet, and tucked the necklace away.
He wasn’t telling and she wasn’t asking.
The next was Steve.
He couldn’t sleep, which wasn’t so unusual.  Even before he went into the ice he wasn’t much of a sleeper.  The scientist who worked on him said it had something to do with the serum. He just didn’t require as much sleep as the average person.
On nights like these he found himself wandering, allowing his thoughts to shuffle lightly in and out as he feet carried him where they liked. It therefor came as a surprise when he noticed one of the lights in the kitchen turned on and a single figure sitting at the island.
Steve stayed in the shadows, watching with suspicion and curiosity.
Loki did not seem to know he was there.  A long forgotten mug of something sat on the surface beside him.  His eyes were only for the ring between his fingers.
Steve stiffened waiting for something, anything to happen.  Knowing Loki it was a magic ring of some kind.  Perhaps he was working out a kind of spell or curse.  But, the longer Steve waited, the more he realized nothing was going to happen.
His eyes then turned away from the ring at to the man holding them.  His heart twisted.
Sorrow permeated Loki’s features, and the resignation that it was all there would ever be.
Steve knew that look.  He had worn it often enough on sleepless nights.
“Do you require something, Captain?” Loki said, turning his head up to meet his gaze.
Steve immediately stiffened, automatically preparing himself for a fight.
“No, just getting some air. What are you doing up?”
“The same as you,” he said, smoothly.  “Just getting some air.”
It was obvious neither bought what the other was selling, but it was also obvious neither were in a position to ask any further questions.
“I’ll leave you to it then.” He turned to leave, but found himself pausing before he could stop himself.  The familiar ache was back in his gut.  It was what had woken him up and it was back with a vengeance, recognizing it’s own pain in another.
“I’m sorry,” he said, before he could stop himself.
Loki’s gaze darkened, but still his grip on the ring remained ever gentle.  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
Steve shook his head. “No, I think you do.  And I’m sorry.”
The other man remained silence, but gave a small nod.
Steve took it as his leave to go and walked away.  It wasn’t his place to ask and so he wouldn’t.
It was Clint who finally got it out of him.
He never trusted Loki, for obvious reasons.  The rest of the team might have been able to buy the changed man act, but none of them had had their mind permanently screwed with like his had. He played nice while on missions, but was soon as they were off the Quinjet, he kept as far away from Loki as possible.
So, when Natasha told him about the ring, he was more than a little suspicious.
There had to be something about the ring.  It had to be a talisman Loki could use to trick them.  Maybe it turned him invisible or he used in for illusions or whatever magic crap he called it.
Clint started to keep his eye out.
Once he was looking for it, it was obvious Loki took it wherever they went.  It was always tucked away, buried under clothes and armor.  Even when they were back at the compound, Loki never let it leave his body.
Once in a while, he’d catch Loki running the metal between his fingers in thought, followed almost always by some sort of interjection about whatever mission was at hand and how to improve it.
He had to begrudgingly agree that most of Loki's suggestions were decent ones.  Maybe the ring gave him a type of insight; seeing into the future perhaps? 
Either way, his suspicion was growing stronger everyday.  There had to be someway to figure out what it was. 
It took about a month for him to get his chance.
Loki always kept the ring on while he was around other people; however, he wasn’t so careful while he was alone. Through some carefully place cameras, Clint discovered he did slip it off before going to sleep and whenever he went into the shower. 
Sneaking in when he was sleeping was out.  Clint observed easily enough the man was a light sleeper.  Even with all his training, he doubt he could come up with a decent excuse if he got caught, which only left one other option.
He waited until the end of a particularly grueling mission.  Everybody was exhausted and a hot shower seemed like heaven, just the opportunity he needed. 
Clint followed Loki to his room.  He didn’t enter until he heard the water running.  After that, it was easy enough.  In a flash he was in and out, holding the cool metal between his fingers and booking it to the lab.
A part of him felt childish. It was more like stealing a few bucks out of his brother’s wallet, rather than a high stake’s espionage to reveal a traitor.  Desperate times, he guessed. 
Just his luck, Tony and Bruce were already tinkering away when he burst in.
“How quickly can you guys analyze this,” he said through panting breath.
The two scientist looked up in confusion.
“Somebody sell you a knock off ring?” Tony said, dryly.
Clint shook his head, not having time for jokes.  “It’s Loki’s.”
That got their attention.
“What does it do?”
“How’d you get it?”
“I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.  We have maybe ten minutes before he realizes it’s gone.”
Bruce shot Tony a skeptical look, but Tony ignored it.
“Let’s see it.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Clint handed it over.
“I’ll get a sample and see what it’s made out of. If there’s anything not of Earth we’ll find it.  Bruce?”
Banner gave a reluctant sigh.  “I can check for energy readings.  If it’s anything like Thor’s hammer, something might turn up.  But, I honestly not sure what I’m looking for. You never said was Loki was using it for.”
Clint shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I just know he won’t go anywhere without it and he keeps it out of sight as best he can.  Nat only spotted it on accident and apparently he gave her this really weird look.”
“Weird how?”
“Just weird, like she saw something she shouldn’t.”
“Good enough for me,” Tony said, already placing the ring under a microscope. “Ten minutes you said?”
“Eight now.”
“Let’s get to work.”
Two minutes in Tony discovered the ring was mostly gold.  There were trace amounts copper and nickle, but only enough to keep the metal from being malleable.  Really, it wasn’t anything one wouldn’t find at a local jewelry store. 
Bruce meanwhile, found nothing.  No radiation, no magnetic field, no anything to indicate it wasn’t just a completely normal ring.
Clint ran his hand through his hair in agitation; they had three minutes at most.
“There has to be something!”
“I’m telling you there isn’t,” Bruce insisted.
“It can’t be, why else would he have it?”
“Sentimental reasons? Maybe it’s his mother’s.”
Clint scoffed, but a nagging sense of doubt crept into his gut. “No.  You missed something.  Tony?”
“Not much, just that it’s stronger than it should be.”
Clint perked up at this. “How do you mean?”
“I mean there isn’t a scratch on it. If it has the amount of gold the computer says it does it should have some kind of wear on it, but nothing.  It’s perfectly preserved.”
Clint turned to Bruce.  “See, that’s weird right?”
Bruce rubbed his hand behind his neck.  “It is a little weird, but let’s not forget Loki isn’t exactly a local.”
“You’re defending him?” Tony accused.
“I’m not saying that.  I’m just saying we have to look at all the options.”
Clint opened his mouth to protest, when the doors slammed open behind him. 
They were out of time.
“Stark,” Loki snapped. “I want a look at those cameras you–”
He stopped, physically halting in his place as he eyes quickly shot to the ring on the table.
His expression remained cool, but Clint was just able to catch look of panic flash across his features. 
“Ah, there it is,” he said, smoothly.  “I’ll take that back now, if you don’t mind.”
He made a move toward it, but Tony was faster.
“You were looking for this,” he questioned.
Loki’s eyes narrowed.  “Yes.  I had misplaced it, but now that it’s found, I would like it back.”
“This is yours then?”
“Of course it’s mine.”
Tony nodded, giving a “what do you know about that” expression.
Clint straightened.  He could feel the tension rising between the two men.  Something was going to happen, he just had to be ready for the signal.
He was so focused on the scene in front of him, he failed to notice Bruce sneak carefully out of the room.
“It’s an interesting ring,” Tony said.  “Sturdy.”
“Indeed,” Loki said.  His mask was slipping, the frustration slowly melting it off his skin.
“I’m curious," Tony continued, "what exactly is so special about it? I’ve been running every test I can think of and nothing’s wrong with it.  Absolutely nothing.  It’s literally, the most perfect ring I’ve ever seen.” He took a pause, casually glancing in Clint’s direction.  “Might want to step back from that Barton, highly corrosive.”
Clint looked behind him to see a full beaker of bubbling liquid behind him.  Holding back a smile, he instantly understood.
“That’s all very well,” Loki said. “But it does not stop it from being mine.” He held out his hand.  “Return it to me, now.”
Tony smirked.  “Think fast.”
In a second, the ring was in the air, not towards Loki, but right for Clint.
He caught it mid-air, just in time for Loki to pivot towards him with murder in his eyes.
Clint didn’t hesitate.  Spinning around, he held the ring over the beaker silently daring the so called “god” to move.
Loki stayed in place, even as he vibrated with rage.
“Careful with that,” he warned, his voice sharp and cold as a knife.
“What is it, then?” Clint challenged.
“It’s a ring. Nothing more.”
“Really? Then I don’t see what I can’t just…” The chain slipped between his fingers.
“Don’t!” Loki snapped.
Clint caught it.  The ring remained intact, swinging dangerously close to it's demise.
Loki visibly sighed in relief, but something in his eye gave Clint pause.  It wasn’t just anger or even fear, it was pain.
He pressed his lips together, his mind whirling with what it could possibly mean.
“Why do you care about this?” Clint asked, again.
Loki’s eyes never left the glinting metal, as he shook his head.  “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes.  Clearly you’ve already convinced yourself it serves some nefarious purpose.  You will not accept anything short of that explanation.”
“Give me a better one then.”
Loki lip twisted.  “I think not.  You see Agent Barton, I believe it’s perfectly within my power to take my ring back from you. The only choice you have is whether you want to keep it or your hand.”
With a flick of his wrist, a knife appeared in each of his hands, glinting sharp and ready.
“What is going on?” Thor’s voice echoed in the small room.
On instinct Clint turned his eyes away from Loki.
It happened in an instant. The sting of the cut. The cool metal slipping between his fingers.  A blast from the corner of the room. A brush of air. And a knife embedded in the wall behind, with the small chain dangling from the hilt.
Clint turned to see Loki thrown across the room.  Tony’s now armored arm was still raised, and ready for another attack.
Looking down at his own hand, Clint could see a trail of blood sliced across the back.
“What the hell?!” he snapped.
Loki struggled to his feet, leaning against the wall for support.  His brother was at his side in an instant.  Bruce stepped in the middle of it all, his arms spread wide.
“Everybody, calm down,” he said.  “Let’s not make this a bigger mess than it already is.”
“You’re seriously showing your belly, now?” Tony accused.
“Take it more like a warning growl,” Bruce countered. 
The threat was obvious, making Tony visibly shocked.  He backed down, lowering his arm.
Thor supported Loki, bringing him fully to his feet.
“I’ll ask again, what is going on?” Thor said, will all the authority a prince of Asgard could muster.
“Just a little disagreement over stolen property,” Loki said, smoothly. 
Thor’s eyes went to the necklace still swinging against the other wall. The anger on his features nearly matched Loki’s.
“Stark?”
“Me,” Barton interjected.  “I wanted to know what Loki was hiding.  From the length he’s willing to go to to get it back, it must be something.”
Thor shook his head.  “Do you have any idea what you might have done?”
“No, that’s kind of the point,” Tony said.  “What is it, the One Ring or something?”
“It’s a personal matter,” Loki said.
“No good enough.”
“Clint, drop it,” Bruce snapped.
“No! What is it? What the hell can be so important that you’re willing to finally drop your changed man act to get it back?!”
Thor let out a long sigh. “Barton, you can not–”
“Enough, brother,” Loki cut in. “You wanted a story Agent Barton? I’ll tell you one.
“Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a prince.  Second born of his family, he grew accustomed to being looked over by others; his subject, his friends, even his father would easily pass him over."
"Does this have a point?" Clint interrupted.
Loki said nothing. 
Clint's frown deepened, but it was obvious there was no other way he was going to get an answer out of the would be king.  So, he kept his mouth shut, until Loki started again.
"The prince grew resentful, turning deeper and deeper into himself. It came to the point where nothing else existed, except the darkness.  Until one day, he came upon a maiden practicing spells in a garden."
For the first time in Clint's memory, a soft smile came to Loki's lips.
“She was beautiful and intelligent, and the prince offered to teach the maiden what he knew.  She asked what he wanted in exchange, and the only answer he could give, was her company. And so they practiced and talked, and little by little the darkness around the prince began to fade. He was still second to many, but their opinions no longer mattered.  In the eyes of the maiden, he found light.”
He shook his head.  “The prince was never sure what the maiden saw in him, but it was enough for her to agree to marry him.  He then presented her with a ring.  An ordinary ring to some, far too simple for a soon to be princess, but in it held a spell.  The ring would never fade or tarnish, as long as his love for her survived.”
He blinked, his expression darkening.  “But love cannot protect one from death.  Long after they were married, but not nearly long enough, a plague tore through the kingdom.  It infested every corner from the lowest commoner to highest lord, until finally, it arrived at the palace gates.  The prince’s eldest brother, his mother, and wife all caught the disease. After weeks of uncertainty, it was determined they would pull through, save for one. The maiden, his light, died in his arms while they slept."
Loki paused, swallowing down the emotion clearly rising in his throat.
“The darkness returned with a vengeance, to which the prince succumbed.  He turned against his brother, his father, and everyone else he blamed for his failings. Slowly but surely, he pushed them all away until he found himself falling to an abyss, completely and utterly alone.
"But, that was not the end of the prince’s story.  For you see, the prince was not as alone was he thought.  Another found him, and offered him something he had no had in years; hope.
"He told the prince he sought six stones, that when combined would bend the universe to his will, including bringing back what was long dead."
Loki's eyes grew even more distant, his hand going to his chest, instinctively reaching for a familiar chain.
"He promised the prince he could bring back his light.  All the prince had to do was conquer a single planet. A simple task, the prince thought.  And so he went, ready to burn a world for the chance to see his love again.”
A sardonic smile spread across his face.  “But the prince failed and in his failure, he realized while he might be willing to pay such a price for his love, she would not feel the same.  And so he set to make amends, all the while keeping a symbol of their love close to his heart as a reminder of the light he must always remember is there.”
Loki paused, looking up to his captivated audience. In a room full of people compelled to give the have word, not a sound was uttered.
Maintaining the silence, he walked passed all of them to where his heart hung.  With a small tug, he pulled the knife from the wall, and lay the necklace gently in his open palm.
“Does that answer your questions, Agent Barton?” he asked, taking a moment to run his finger over the flawless gold.
Clint blinked, unsure of what to really say.  He really only had one question left to ask.
“What was her name?”
Loki glanced at him, and for the first time Clint saw him, not as a would be god, but as a man, tired and filled with regret.
“Sigyn.”
125 notes · View notes
binch-i-might-be · 3 years
Text
The More You Know
This is the aforementioned short story. It’s unfinished, a blatant Welcome To Nightvale rip-off, and I got extreme whiplash reading it again because one of the characters is named Alex.
Anyway. Can you tell we found out about my grandma’s dementia diagnosis when I wrote this? lmao
also, to reiterate: I wrote this around 2016, I think? It’s been years pls don’t judge me ok :’)
POV first person, wordcount 3.1k
The small town lay in silence, and honestly, that wasn't very unusual. I couldn't really remember a time when it didn't. The shops were closed, the windows all nailed shut with old planks of wood, and in the little corner-store the sign that said 'no help wanted, keep walking' was still firmly in place.
I smiled. It was all exactly like I remembered; exactly like I left it. Like the sign told me, I kept walking, but I didn't hear any steps following. Which was not good, considering I had brought my friend Alex along. He really should keep walking.
I turned, adjusting the backpack slung over my shoulder. »Alex? You need to move,« I said. He stood there, trying to peer into the shop in between the gaps left by the planks. Which was also not very good.
»Why is everything barred? You get a lot of storms here or something?« he asked as he straightened.
»Yes. Or something.«
He frowned, but thankfully caught up to me with a little jog. We continued down the road, in the direction of the woods that never drew any closer, and passed the veranda of Old Lady Miller. Old Lady Miller had a lot of free-running chickens, and it was better not to look at them directly if you wanted to keep your secrets.
She was sitting in her rocking-chair, watching us pass. My grandma once told me Old Lady Miller had already been Old Lady Miller when she was a child, but her chickens hadn't been as many back then.
Alex did another nervous little jog to walk beside me. »Are you sure we should be out here? I mean, no one else is. Maybe there was a storm-warning.«
»Don't worry. It's actually a lot livelier than it normally is.« A chicken crossed the road right in front of us. »Don't look at the chicken,« I told Alex, staring straight ahead.
He looked at me, frowning in confusion. »Why not?«
I looked back at him. »Why did the chicken cross the road?«
»What?«
»To steal your secrets and your memory of every chicken-sandwich you ever ate. Don't look at the chicken.«
He didn't look at the chicken and we got to the crossroad without incident. My family lived straight ahead, at the end of the road, in a nice little house with a nice little garden, bordering the woods that seemed so far away.
»So... what's going on here? Where are all the people? Why are there chicken roaming the streets?« Alex asked, trying to not sound too nervous.
»It's typical, really. Most of the townsfolk doesn't come out if it isn't absolutely necessary. I told you, there's no reason to worry. Everything is fine.« It was understandable Alex was nervous. In my time away from home, I had noticed a slight difference in the happenings of things–not that I thought it made much sense.
»...alright,« he sighed. Still sounded a bit suspicious, though. »So... your brother. You have a brother, right? Does he still live with your parents?«
»It's nice of you to change the subject. But no, he doesn't. Arden likes to live his own life.« And suddenly, we stood in the driveway of the house. Alex looked around, obviously confused, then turned around and looked back. The dirt-road lay winding behind us, despite us having just passed the crossroad a minute ago.
»Don't think about it,« I advised. He looked so suspicious it was almost endearing.
We went up the driveway and up the steps of the veranda. There were four deer-skulls lying in the corner, which was one more than before I'd left, but otherwise, nothing seemed to have changed.
»That's... very charming decoration you've got there,« Alex said, audibly hesitating.
»It's my grandma's. She likes to collect things. You'll see,« I answered. It was the only warning I was allowed to give him. He didn't respond.
I pushed the door open–it was never really locked–and stepped inside. The smell of old wood and burning herbs hung heavily in the air, but it always did, and I would be disappointed if it didn't.
»I'm home!« I called out. My mother came promptly out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of fresh Christmas-tree shaped cookies. It was July.
»Hello, dear! I'm so glad you're back! Your father was getting worried. You know how he gets when you stay out after nightfall.« 
I could almost smell Alex' confusion. Apparently, my mother could, too.
»And who is this young man? Where did you find him?« she asked, excited at the prospect of some fresh blood in the house.
»That's my friend Alex. We met a few months ago.«
»Welcome to our humble home, Alex,« she chirped and went off into the kitchen again, presumably to put the tray down. We stood in silence for a few moments, simply listening to the clattering in the kitchen, but then Alex spoke up.
»What did she mean, 'when you stay out after nightfall'? You have been gone for literal months.« He wasn't suspicious anymore; just a little bit scared. Creeped out. That was alright with me. I turned around to face him, and smiled.
»I would tell you time works differently here, because that sounds mysterious, but honestly–my Mom's just always very confused. Sometimes she still sets the table for five people, even though Arden has been gone for quite a time now. She just baked Christmas-cookies.« It was the truth. My mother really didn't have all her wits together anymore, but that's what happened to outsiders staying here too long.
Alex frowned, but then seemed to remember the existence of illnesses like dementia and kept his mouth shut. She didn't really have dementia, but I decided to let him believe whatever made him more comfortable.
I started down the hall, with Alex following close behind, the floorboards creaking loudly with every step we took. It wasn't easy to sneak in here past curfew; but then, it also wasn't easy to survive past curfew.
In the middle of the hall were three possible directions to choose; as a child I always thought of it as a little crossroad in our house. There were the stairs to our right, laden with potted house-plants and herbs, and also loose dirt lying on the stairs nobody ever bothered to clean up.
To the left was the door to the living-room. It was a big, illuminated room with many windows; that was why we only ever stayed in there during the day. Well, except for my grandma, of course. She stayed there however long she pleased. I thought whatever roamed the woods at night was too afraid to fuck with her.
Up front was the kitchen, where my mother was still clattering around, probably cleaning up after herself. From the kitchen, one could go to our veranda; our second, more relevant veranda behind the house. The veranda overlooking the garden, bordering the woods.
When we were kids, my brother and I were only allowed to play in the garden in the summer, because the days were long then, but that was also the time when the stench of rotting flesh was the strongest.
Well, you couldn't have everything. I stole a quick glance behind me and saw that Alex was looking around curiously. His eyes caught on the wall to our left. It was clustered with stuff–mostly crucifixes my grandma had gathered over the years, even though no one really believed in the conventional gods around here.
Besides those, there were also many family-pictures; my brother and I when we were kids, our family outside in the garden, my parent's wedding-picture, my grandma when she was still young–that one photo of us all gathered in the living-room, playing monopoly. No one knew who took that picture. It was just on the camera-roll one day.
Alex made a confused little humming sound that drew my attention. He was looking at a framed newspaper-article and squinting at the headline.
»Man drowned after breaking into closed swimming-pool?« he read. »It isn't even from around here–it says Hamburg there.«
»Yeah... we only got our hands on that because it's the only document left of my grandfather. My Pa's a little sentimental, you see.«
At that, his eyes widened in terror. »You mean-« He whipped around to the article, then looked back at me in silent horror. »That's your grandpa?! And you framed the article and hung it with your family-pictures?!«
»Well, yes. It's not a big deal. Gran likes to be reminded of him sometimes.«
He pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes tightly. »That's so fucked up, man.«
I raised an eyebrow at him, a little grin fighting its way onto my lips. »You think that's fucked up? Dude, you've come the wrong place.«
Nightfall approached quickly. Well, actually, it didn't; but it sure felt like it, with Alex pacing and mumbling to himself in the living-room while Mom and I watched from the sofa, fairly uninterested. I told her about the things I'd seen and done in the past months and she listened gladly. It was nice to talk to someone from home; everyone else was exhausting to have a conversation with.
I looked out the window in caution, noticing that the sun was setting behind the woods. We needed to leave the room soon. I told Alex as much and was met with a new-found suspicion of anything concerning me and my family. It was ridiculous.
»C'mon, Alex, only yesterday you trusted me enough to come home with me. What happened?«
He stopped his pacing and stared at me for a while, his eyes looking like he was having violent flashbacks of something unpleasant. »This place happened!«
I sighed, uncrossed my legs and got up. »Chill out, dude. Nothing is going to happen to you. At least as long as we leave in a few days time, but we planned to do that anyway, so I don't see what the big deal is.«
He sputtered, seeming to choke on his own words. »Well, first of all, I would have appreciated if you had told me that you basically lived in Night Vale! Secondly–what do you mean 'as long as we leave in a few days time'? I'm feeling slightly threatened here!«
I heaved another sigh. »No one is threatening you. Well, no one is threatening you in particular. It's just that this place does weird things to outsiders if they only stay here long enough–I mean, you've met Mom, so you should know what I'm talking about.«
He looked at the open door my mother had left through a few moments ago, then back to me and repeated that a couple of times frantically. Stepping closer to me, he lowered his voice to a whisper. »You mean- when 'outsiders',« he gestured quotation marks into the air. »Stay here long enough, they become... like her? This place gives you dementia?«
Why did he always have the need to find words for everything? »You could certainly say so, even though that's not really it. But for the sake of simpleness–yes. It basically gives you dementia. The people who were born here are pretty much immune to it, though.«
Alex breathed in and out a few times, presumably to gather his wits. »What do you mean, 'pretty'?«
For fucks sake, could he just stop picking all the relevant words out of my sentences?
»Some people are a little easier to influence than other people. No big deal there, though. It only happens like once every generation. I think.«
He stared at me thoughtfully, as if considering my words; and probably figuring out which snippet he would pick out next to make me explain some more.
I glanced out the window again, noticing it was about time we got out of the living-room.
»C'mon, we need to get out,« I said, obviously interrupting his inner monologue. He narrowed his eyes at me, but stepped out into the hall nonetheless. I followed and closed the door firmly behind me.
»Why exactly do we need to leave the room now?« he asked nonchalantly. Ah, Alex. You think you are starting to figure things out, don't you? Keep trying, buddy.
»It's the things living in the woods. You don't want to mess with them–even though things have been considerably calmer since Arden left, we still don't want to take a chance with those fuckers.«
And there he went again, looking extremely uncomfortable. »And what are 'those fuckers'?« He really liked his quotation marks, didn't he.
»Who knows,« I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. The only thing we knew about them was that they came out at night and ate pretty much everything consisting of flesh. Except grandma and Arden, of course.
He frowned in obvious frustration. »Why do none of you people know what's going on around here? You fucking live here!«
His little outburst didn't really impress me, so I simply shrugged again. »Ah, you know. No one really cares.«
»What do you mean-« he began, but I stopped him right there.
»If you fucking say 'what do you mean' one more time, I'm gonna haul your ass out into the garden and leave you there with the Woodkeepers. Fucking watch me, mate.«
He looked slightly taken aback at that, but recovered quickly enough, his gaze sweeping me from head to toe. 
»Is this why you are never impressed by any horror-movie we watch? Because you live in a horror-movie?«
Now, that was hilarious. I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. Alex was first surprised, then pleased with himself.
»Probably,« I answered, grinning.
Mom made dinner and Alex and I set the table. We didn't have anything to do anyways. Grandma was still out on the veranda, pinning shed snake-skins she had found somewhere to the side of the house.
Alex watched her with interest from the window and grandma ignored him. Mom was humming in the background, checking on her meatloaf in the oven. It was the kind of strange domesticity I had missed during my time away.
»You said since your brother had left, the... Woodkeepers, I think you called them, hadn't been as persistent. Why is that?« he asked quietly as I stepped up to him and leaned on the windowsill.
The old oil-lamp illuminating the veranda flickered, and grandma stopped what she was doing for a second to throw a stern look into the darkness beyond, making a shooing hand-motion. The flickering stopped and she continued undisturbed.
I let my head fall against the glass of the window. »Because Arden is... well, he's special. Not special like Gran, but still. Special.«
»If I were to ask how exactly he is special, you would say you don't know, right?«
»Yep.«
He heaved a tired sigh. »How can you live with this not-knowing? It would drive me crazy.«
I smiled and vaguely gestured in my mothers direction. He followed my hand, and his eyes widened comically in understanding.
»No,« he said with an unbelieving shake of his head.
»Yes,« I retorted. »And that's the only thing I know.«
Half an hour later, grandma had come back in and was staring at Alex. She had been at it for a few minutes now, and it had crossed the 'uncomfortable', the 'creepy' and now the 'really unsettling' mark.
Alex looked over at me, seeking help, but I couldn't do anything. Grandma would take her time, no matter what.
Finally, she swept her intense gaze over to me and leaned back in her chair.
»I hope you didn't bring him here to tell us you are marrying him,« she said, with an obvious edge to her voice. Alex managed to look both offended and relieved at once.
I snorted. »Of course not. We are friends, Gran. You know my standards.«
At that, he only looked offended.
»No offence, Alex,« I said.
»Full offence!« Grandma butted in. She stabbed a crooked finger in Alex' direction. »That one wouldn't even last two months here!«
»That may be,« I answered as I seated myself next to Alex and patted his shoulder encouragingly. »But we aren't here to stay and we're also not here to get married. Don't you worry, Gran.«
»Still,« she continued. »Imagine what your father would say if you were to marry that one. I would never hear the end of it!«
I chuckled lowly and Alex threw me a dark glare. 
»I know. Where is the old man, anyway?«
»He went to visit your brother, dear,« My mother said from the kitchen-counter. »He should be back soon.«
Grandma shook her head. »That brother of yours, Arden, he is only making trouble these days. He keeps disturbing the Woodkeepers; they even went and took a chicken from Old Lady Miller! Can you believe it!«
I frowned and looked over at Mom for confirmation, but she kept her back to us. Alex looked as confused as I felt.
»How is he disturbing them? I thought he was off doing his own thing.«
»That is what keeps disturbing them! Arden doing whatever Arden is doing!«
I didn't answer. It seemed very improbable that Arden of all people could be railing up the Woodkeepers, but when grandma said he did, it must be true. And Pa probably wanted to stop him from whatever it was he was doing out there.
Before I could continue my hypothesizing, three gunshots in quick succession sounded outside, breaking the peace and making Alex jump in his seat.
»That's gotta be Pa,« I mumbled to myself and got up. The door swung open as I jogged down the corridor, revealing my father in all his glory. The shotgun with the three barrels was slung over his shoulder and he looked grumpy as usual.
He kicked the door shut behind him and threw the shotgun from him, toppling a big potted plant.
»It's always the same with those three,« he muttered under his breath and unclasped the breastplate he wore for obvious reasons, then ruffled my hair as he walked by.
»It's good you're here, Ryn. I need you to talk to your brother.
14 notes · View notes
Text
I Don't Know How to Love Him, Pt. 2
Bruce Banner x GenderNeutral!Reader, Set during the entirety of The Avengers. Part I of Unknown- will likely span all of Avengers, Age of Ultron, and Infinity War.
You are a former shield agent who gets dragged back into the business after Loki steals the tesseract. You meet a cast of fun characters along the way, and maybe even fall in love.
Part 1
Word Count: 2,050
Contains: Mistrust/Angst?, Research, Discussions of Norse Mythology, Sleipnir
Inspiration: I Don't Know How to Love Him
Facial recognition technology detects Loki in Stuttgart, Germany. Instead of flying down to confront Loki in the quinjet, you are held back as a last resort in case something goes terribly wrong with the mission. Fury doesn’t want to blow his best assets on a capture mission.
After taking a shower and checking out your new, temporary bedroom, you head back to the lab to check in on what Bruce is up to. Turns out, nothing that interesting.
“Hey Bruce”
“y/n? I thought they’d send you out with the others.” He is startled by your entrance.
“I’m just the backup, Bruce. Only needed if things go south out there. Which, hopefully, they won’t” You respond.
“Or you're here to babysit me” He retorts, still not trusting you.
You roll your eyes. “Bruce. Do you really think I would have left you alone for almost 5 hours if I was really just here to make sure you didn’t turn into the Hulk?”
“Maybe that was just to make me feel comfortable. There are at least 5 surveillance cameras in this lab alone. I counted 10 in my room.”
“If it makes you any better, I have 20 in my room.”
His facial expression tells you that he doesn’t believe you. Still, his blood pressure is remaining even, a significant improvement from a few hours earlier. Not really concerned for any of Shield’s property and wanting to gain his trust, you systematically destroy every camera in the room by flinging an ice spike through them one by one.
“Better?”
“Why are you so desperate for me to trust you?”
Ouch. “I didn’t realize one of your several doctorate degrees was in psychology”
“It’s not. I’m sorry, that was rude.” He nervously fidgets with his hands.
“It’s fine. And you're right- I want you to trust me because I want to help you gain control over the Hulk.”
“Why?” He’s still searching for reasons not to trust you. You won’t give him any.
“I would’ve wanted someone to help me.”
“Your powers seem a little easier to control”
You scoff. “Yeah, now. Not when I first got them. Do you know how many people I almost boiled alive back then?”
“A non-zero number.”
“I once was so angry that I accidentally evaporated my high school’s swimming pool. Thankfully, no one was in it- but if they had been- I would’ve made people soup.”
“That’s not a pleasant thought.” He shakes his head, having unfortunately imagined the worst outcome.
“Exactly. Look, even if you don’t trust me, I think I can still help you get things under control with the Hulk. And in return, you can try to figure out my powers.”
“What makes you think I’m interested?” At least he’s stopped doubting that you are there out of genuine interest in helping him, and not for some nefarious reason.
“I have yet to meet a scientist who hasn’t been.”
“Okay. Deal.” He holds out his hand, and you shake on it.
“Deal. Now. Where would you like to start?” You say, having a ball of water in your right hand and ice in the other.
“Farther back than that. Are you spontaneously creating water or are you using the water in the air around you?”
“The latter. I’ve been in zero humidity climates before and the only water I was able to control was my own bodily fluids and those of the people around me.” You respond, evaporating the balls.
“And as far as you're aware, your ability to change the state of water is unlimited?” He has brought up a notepad on one of the computers and is typing away.
“As far as I know. I’ve never tried anything extreme, like evaporating the ocean or pulling all of the water out of the atmosphere. So there might be a limit- but I’ll probably never have to discover it.”
“You mentioned the ocean. Did you ever try controlling it or pushing part of it aside while in the Coast Guard?”
“Oh, all the time,” You begin to explain, “I couldn’t be too obvious about it or the other members of my team would’ve found out about my powers- but I would hold back a few waves to make rescue operations go smoother, or make the area around the person who needed to be rescued oddly calm. Those sorts of things. I think I probably could have created a dry spot in the center of the ocean if I wanted to, but that was never necessary, and probably would’ve led to a couple broken bones”
You can see him thinking of various possibilities as he continues jotting down notes.
“So, it sounds like you change the states of water in your immediate surroundings, and are then able to manipulate that water in whichever way you choose.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Can you make an ice ball encircling your hand, please?” He asks you, looking up from his notes.
You comply, and he begins to make his way closer to you. “Do you mind?” He asks.
“Go for it” You respond, having been poked and prodded by scientists before. He gives you a slight smile before gently touching the iceball currently encircling your fist.
“And you're not feeling that, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Either my touch or the iceball surrounding your fist” He responds, still running his fingers across the top of it.
“Nope, It’s not even cold.” You respond.
This seems to set off a lightbulb, as he walks over to another part of the lab, grabbing a portable microscope. He puts it directly on the iceball, even with the top of your hand.
“I’m going to need to hold onto your arm to make sure it doesn’t move. Is that okay?” He asks for consent again, which you appreciate. The Shield scientists took one yes to mean you were okay with everything.
“Absolutely.”
His left arm steadies your right, as he keeps his right arm where it was previously positioned on the iceball, holding the microscope. He peers through it and smiles to himself, letting go of your arm and removing the microscope from the iceball.
“You’ve got a barrier between your skin and the ice.”
“I do?” You ask, melting away the iceball. “I didn’t know that.”
“You’ve tried to manipulate your own internal fluids before, right?” He asks.
You think back to times where you’ve tried to stop yourself from choking on a glass of water with your powers- it’s never worked.
“Unsuccessfully, yes.”
“That’s because of the barrier. It must have been part of the mutation- preventing you from injuring yourself with your powers.” He explains to you, just as Fury walks into the room.
You eye him suspiciously as he announces, “We’ve captured Loki. Dr. Banner, this is for you.” Behind him, a few shield agents roll a cart in holding the scepter, which they’ve placed in some sort of holder. They take it off the cart and place it on the table, closest to the windows facing outside the ship.
“Colonel Y/n, with me.” Fury directs.
“Dr. Banner,” You say, giving him a polite wave goodbye, before following Director Fury out of the room. Bruce watches as you leave until you are no longer in his line of vision.
“So you’ve caught him?”
“With some help.” Fury admits, begrudgingly. He hands you an earpiece, which you promptly put in your ear.
“Let me guess. Stark?” You weren’t sure Fury had ever been directly involved with Stark before this, as news of him being Iron Man made it to you through regular news media. But you were sure he was now, even if he hadn’t been before.
“Yup. Another Asgardian, too.”
You raise your eyebrow, but don’t say anything. You arrive at the empty containment cell, waiting for the Shield escort team to follow behind you. You can feel his eyes on you before you see him- they’re piercing. You look eyes with him as he is shoved into the glass cell, right after a shield agent uncuffs him. He doesn’t seem to react to this treatment- in fact, he seems to be thriving. His blood pressure is also suspiciously even for someone who just got captured.
You stand by as Fury and Loki exchange words, Fury trying to emphasize that he’s lost and Loki hinting at the fact he hasn’t. After insulting Bruce, Loki turns his attention towards you.
“And who’s this supposed to be? Your personal bodyguard?” Loki attempts to insult him.
“This is Colonel y/n. They’re going to keep you company for a little while.” Fury responds, walking away from him.
“You expect this agent of yours to withstand me?” Loki calls after him.
“Yes,” You begin, stepping into Loki’s field of view, “And I have a lot of questions.”
“Do you, now? Tell me, do you expect me to reveal my plan to you?” He asks, pacing around his cell.
You chuckle, “Of course not. My questions have nothing to do with your plans.”
Loki is slightly puzzled, but his facial expression remains even. He gives no hints about what he’s thinking. “Only if I can ask you questions.”
“That sounds like a fair deal. But since I’m the one outside of the cage, I’ll ask my question first. I admit it’s been burning in my mind since I first heard it was you trying to invade the Earth. Did you or did you not give birth to a horse?” You are dead serious when asking this question.
“What?” He is so surprised that his facade has dropped, giving way to genuine confusion.
“You know, Sleipnir. You transformed into a horse to distract a giant’s horse so he wouldn’t complete the fortification of Asgard in time. Your distraction caused you to become pregnant with Sleipnir, which you later gifted to Odin.” You say, pacing in a large circle around his cell.
“I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Sleipnir is my father’s horse, yes, but that’s the only part of the story that’s true.” He responds, now intrigued by your odd tale.
“That’s. Admittedly a little disappointing, as I’m not sure how I’m supposed to make fun of you for that now.”
“Why did Fury send you to guard me?” He asks you his first question.
“That’s a loaded question with many different answers. I don’t know exactly, but if I had to guess, it was because of my interest in Norse mythology. Fury probably thought I would be an annoying distraction because of the many questions I want to ask.” You are technically telling the truth, although without your powers, Fury probably would’ve been way more hesitant to put you in this situation.
“I see.”
“Wait. Did you say Odin is your father?” You ask, having just realized the implications of his earlier response.
“Yes. I believe my brother is on this ship as well.”
You turn away from him and ask the name of the other Asgardian over your earpiece. The name that is given back to you is not one that makes sense.
“Hold on. Thor’s your brother? What? That’s not-”
Loki cuts you off, “I believe it’s my turn to ask a question.”
“Yes. Go ahead” You are trying to figure out how the myths could have been so wrong, and are scratching your head about what happened to Helblindi and Býleistr.
“A lot of the other members of the team sent to capture me are enhanced somehow. Do you have powers?”
“Yes.” You do not elaborate before asking your question. “You are still married to Sigyn, though, right?”
“Your mythology says I have a wife?” His entire demeanor changes in a way you find hard to describe.
“Yes. She’s sometimes described as the Goddess of Victory, sometimes the Goddess of Fidelity. Mostly she pictured trying to ease the burden of your various punishments.”
“Wrap it up, Aqua Marine.” You hear in your earpiece. You roll your eyes- Stark.
“While I’d love to stick around and continue asking questions- I’m needed elsewhere. Enjoy contemplating your existence.”
“One last question-”
You cut him off. “It’s not your turn, Loki.” You announce, before walking out of the chamber holding his cell. You begin the trek back towards the lab, to figure out whatever Stark wanted.
9 notes · View notes
viktorhargreves · 4 years
Text
some thoughts i have on the s2 promo stills
Tumblr media
I think Ben is appearing either in a dream or to someone other than Klaus. The reason I believe this is the color composition for the shot and the framing. The Umbrella Academy is a dark show. Literally. And the season two promo pictures are no different from season one. Why the sudden departure from this? Promotional photos directly from the source (i.e. the production department) usually are not put through filters so this is how it will be shown in the show. So why the brightness? I think it’s either a dream or revelation (you know the cheesy trope where the sunlight streams in and someone finally pieces things together) or maybe it’s a vision that someone has of Ben. Contenders for this? No idea. But judging from the body that’s strung up on the ceiling (yeah, I didn’t forget that part) it could be Vanya. Or I could be totally wrong. Either way, the body does hint towards Klaus’ telekinesis, something he has in the comics that we have yet to see in the show (besides the suitcase debacle). 
Tumblr media
We know that Five is the last to be sent to the 60′s so if he’s stuck in a new time with no one around what does he do? Find a mannequin and make a new friend (or something more). Maybe what we are seeing is him about to home-wreck this bitch and steal little miss blue-dress here. Or maybe he’s looking back at a different character... the villains of this season perhaps? Or maybe The Handler makes a comeback? Either way, he looks cautious and if he is looking at someone less than savory then the set up we see could be set up to mock him rather than a harmless department store display.
Tumblr media
The paper reads: “S.J.C.C. asks... Have you experienced DISCRIMINATION by your employeer?” Not much comes up in Google for a look into who S.J.C.C. could be but I personally am SYKED to see The Umbrella Academy hopefully tackle race issues. Especially at this time in the world, it could be what people need. Also a new hairstyle for Allison which I love. I personally hope Allison is thriving but this is the 60′s and even though The Civil Rights Act was signed in ‘64, there was no across-the-board stop of segregation at once. I hope for her sake she stays safe.
Tumblr media
Again, we know that Five is the last one to arrive. Perhaps he gathers them all to this place to tell them about the newest apocalyptic event about to take place. But a barn? Not sure why. Everyone else is dressed in back, however, even Klaus which is very telling that something is wrong. Allison has lost the hair bump (she was probably just wearing it to fit in). Luther has a beard which is very telling as well because the only other time that we have seen him with one is when he woke up from his surgery (supposedly after a long period of time) so if it was in his control he would shave it off to be the good little soldier that dad made him. Maybe being stranded in Texas in the 60′s made him depressed like we saw towards the end of season one or maybe he just wants to live a little. Diego’s outfit looks very similar to his vigilante outfit in season one but with what looks like either shoulder pads or a hoodie. This could be one of two things: he is still a vigilante using his powers for good, or he works a job like construction or something similar judging by the cross-chest harness. And Vanya. Look’s like she’s wearing a suit jacket. Peak gay. No further comment. 
Tumblr media
GOOD GOD!!!  What to say, what to say. As it’s been pointed out already by many other users, Ben. Is. Holding. Keys. That means he is corporeal and has a physical body. Whether this is for a short period of time like when he punches Klaus in season one or if this marks the beginning of a new era of Ben-filled The Umbrella Academy is unknown. Klaus is a fashion icon. That much we been knew. Although, his beard is longer than the promo pictures despite being in the same outfit. Longer than the picture above too. I’m excited for this scene regardless of what it is about, but if I had to guess: Klaus is motioning for Ben to give the keys to him. The car broke down. Klaus gets out and tries to fix it by popping the hood, only he knows nothing about cars. He gets angry and throws the keys. Ben catches them. Klaus is then irritated and asks for them back. That’s just my take. Klaus looks like he’s smiling but it could be the natural face a person makes when they are squinting from the sun (this is Texas and those are sunglasses (also water is wet)).
Tumblr media
#justgirlythings. Vanya is the only one who seems uncomfortable, also where are Klaus’s shoes? If you look in the background it appears this isn’t a salon as you would guess on the first look but rather someone’s house. Maybe this is a way to time travel without Five? Or some other sci-fi device like the shoot that Cha-Cha and Hazel used in season one to get their orders. Either way, there is a lot more going on here than we know from first looking and I wouldn’t put it past anyone that this is an important still to remember and keep in mind.
Tumblr media
Iron Man references aside (thank you Justin Min), look at her entire body posture and language. Clenched jaw, clenched fists, forehead straining, eyes closed but not clenched like the others, neck straining. Vanya appears to be in the middle of nowhere so maybe she’s testing her powers? Last time we saw her testing her powers it was in the middle of the woods with Leonard so maybe this will be a good parallel. What else to do in the 60′s when you’re stranded than to try out your superpowers that you just remembered a few days ago?
Tumblr media
Vanya! Is! Happy! She is definitely smiling and looks genuinely more happy than she did with Leonard in any event. The blonde woman is Marin Ireland who plays a character “Sissy”. Variety and Netflix have stated that Sissy is "a fearless, no-nonsense mom from Texas who married young for all the wrong reasons". Maybe, and I’m just spit-balling here, she married young because of internalized and outward homophobia that is probably rampant in the 60′s and in Texas. She meets Vanya and the two begin a relationship. Friends? Lovers? More? Vanya’s right hand is either on a gear shift (manual transmission i.e. stick shift cars were much more common in the 60′s than now) or on Sissy’s knee. I like the idea of her resting her hand on Sissy’s thigh and smiling, maybe driving off on a new life together. 
Tumblr media
Like. The Gang’s all here, Scoob. Even Ben! Allison is talking, it seems so to have Ben in the shot is odd. Usually Ben only appears when Klaus is the main character of the shot or the scene since he can only see him. Except, maybe everyone can see him!! Klaus can summon Ben as seen in the season one finale so maybe he was able to do it for a longer amount of time. I personally really hope that we see more of Ben (which the stills lead me to believe) and that they will develop not only his character and backstory more but his powers as well. His power rivals only Vanya’s is sheer amount of destruction it can cause. The room, however, where they all are looks unassuming. It could be where Five has taken up a residence, could be a house of one of the other siblings (we know that some of them did in fact settle down and start lives in Texas), or maybe it’s just a safe place to meet as a team. Either way I am psyched!
Tumblr media
It’s safe to assume that these are the assassins. Whether they are with the organization that The Handler was with is unclear. What is clear is that I get Stranger Things vibes from these guys. It might be the white hair and dark, cloudy road. Either way, these guys are played by Tom Sinclair, Kris Holden-Ried, and Jason Bryden left to right and they play Oscar, Axel, and Otto respectively. 
Tumblr media
Diego, Diego, Diego. My son. Disregarding the long hair and beard completely because I refuse to acknowledge it at this point, here is my interpretation of the scene. This is a flashback in the same fashion that we had a Diego flashback in episode three of season one. That flashback had Grace helping Diego through a stutter and then in one camera motion showed current-day Diego sitting on his old bed. This could be the same kind of thing, with current-day Diego sitting where he past self was and watching a scene unfold around him. Why else would he be in his uniform? How could it fit? How could he be back in the mansion?
-----------
That’s all I have to say about it for now but my ask box is OPEN for theories, possible explanations, or hypotheses on season two or any of the promotional stills. Time travel is messy. Let’s see what happens on July 31st.
150 notes · View notes
lettheladylead · 4 years
Text
avoid the unhappy ending (ch9)
ships/characters: Goldie, Beakley, Scrooge/Goldie words (ch9): ~1600 summary: Goldie comes to town to see Scrooge. Instead, she somehow manages to run into literally everyone else. ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27108943/
[1 & 2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Chapter 9 under the cut:
Before going in, Goldie took a deep breath to prepare herself for an inevitable battle. Her shoulder was still hurting quite a bit and her knees were starting to flare up. Stupid arthritis. She rolled her shoulders to make sure everything was in place and ready to move around in case this got messy fast. Beakley was a tough old broad - not as tough as her and not as old as her, but it was still good to be ready.
She moved as quietly as possible towards the entrance and slowly made her way inside.
Beakley’s back was facing her as she entered the kitchen. But this was Beakley - when someone was nearby, she knew it. No need to try and scare her.
“Twenty-Two.”
“O’Gilt.”
Goldie crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“You’ve been wandering around the manor for over two hours,” Beakley said as she continued chopping vegetables. “I’ve known you were here since - peh - Duckworth informed me.”
“Oh.” Goldie stood up straight and rubbed her arm. That was embarrassing, but she couldn’t let it get to her. At least she wasn’t being attacked. “I assume he told you why I’m here.”
“You’re here for Mr. McDuck, according to you,” Beakley answered curtly. “I know you’re actually here to steal something, but go ahead and continue your charade for all I care.”
“It’s not a charade,” Goldie said, mocking Beakley’s accent. She walked over and leaned against the counter, looking at the vegetables and the very sharp knife being used to cut them. “He’s just been very difficult to find today, is all.”
“Perhaps that’s on purpose,” Beakley said as she shoved the chopped carrot to the side and grabbed another one. “Have you considered the possibility that after all these years he’s finally done with your attitude and lack of respect and complete insincerity when it comes to his feelings and he just doesn’t want to see you anymore?”
Goldie ignored the trite analysis and continued to stare at Beakley's knife movements, noticing a definite increase in roughness as she spoke. “No need for jealousy, Bentina.”
The housekeeper struggled to hold back a noise of disgust that Goldie found absolutely hilarious. “Not in the least,” she added. “Your bad taste does not influence the rest of womankind.”
The blonde chuckled and leaned fully on one hand, elbow propped up on the counter. “I’ll have you know he was very cute back in the day.”
Beakley finally stopped and turned to Goldie, glaring at her. She pointed out of the kitchen door, where a giant portrait of a younger Scrooge was visible on the far wall. “Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded of what he looked like back in the day.”
Goldie smirked at the portrait and chuckled. “It’s different in person. He was just...it’s different.”
“How cute.”
“Speaking of cute, your granddaughter is very feisty, you know that?” Goldie picked herself up to sit on the counter.
Beakley held the knife tightly and pointed it at her. “Get down. And stay away from her, she doesn’t need anything from you.”
Goldie didn’t move. “Oh, really? She was asking me all kinds of questions. Seems like there’s a lot she wanted from me that her dear ol' grandmother can’t help her with.”
The knife got closer to her chest. “ Down. ”
In her head, she tried to balance the scales of her own pride versus her lack of interest in getting stabbed. Hmm. Hmmmmmmm.
Goldie hopped back down and leaned against the counter again. Beakley looked genuinely surprised before going back to chopping.
“I’ve raised Webbigail well enough to know not to trust a word you say.”
“Naturally,” Goldie chuckled. “So...Scrooge?”
Beakley shrugged. “I wasn’t kidding before. If he wanted you to find him, I’m certain you would’ve found him by now. He’s got security cameras in every hallway, after all.”
The blonde pushed herself off the counter and walked to the fridge, opening it up and looking at what was inside. There was an unopened water bottle waiting for her to take. “Well, I’m not leaving until I see him, so you might as well just tell me.”
Tumblr media
“Della mentioned you were planning to stay for dinner for some godforsaken reason - is that why? And put that back!”
Goldie closed the fridge and uncapped the water bottle, taking a long sip. A half-second later and there was a knife jabbed into the side of the fridge next to her head.
“Kind of aggressive, don’t you think?”
“Is it even possible for you to ask before taking something? Is it a biological impossibility or are you just so frustratingly consistent that you feel like you have to act this way?”
Goldie took another sip, grabbing the knife and tossing it back at Beakley who caught it between two fingers with ease. “Interesting question. I’ll answer if you tell me where Scrooge is.”
That carrot was done. Beakley moved on to the next one. Cooking for so many people seemed like a hassle. “No, I don’t think I will.”
“And of course, you’re the only person who actually knows where he is.”
“That’s likely true.”
Goldie took several big gulps of water. “This house is too huge and ridiculous. I just want to see him - is that such a big deal? If he doesn’t want to see me, fine, I’ll be out of his feathers soon enough. But I came all the way here so I’m going to find him even if I have to wait for him to come down for your dumb family dinner.”
Beakley responded with a low hum. Goldie glared at her.
“And if I’m waiting, I guess I’ll wait here with you, Bentina!” She smiled brightly and finished off the water bottle, tossing it onto the floor.
The chopping stopped. In that moment, the air became frozen and stiff - like something bad was about to happen. Something very, very bad. Goldie felt some of her arm feathers standing up straight in anticipation. Maybe she’d just made a mistake, but pettiness towards the housekeeper was worth any price. (Okay, not any price. She had her limits.)
Fortunately (or unfortunately?), Beakley just leaned over and picked up the bottle, tossing it into the proper bin. She was suspiciously calm about this entire situation. “Wouldn’t you rather be annoying Louie again?”
“Annoying? I think he likes talking to me.”
“I’m not surprised you think that.”
Goldie rolled her eyes and stepped forward to the center of the kitchen, just standing there and looking around. She knew how much Beakley hated her, but it was almost funny the efforts she was going to make her seem entirely unwelcome by everyone in the house. Maybe she was right, but it’s not like Goldie spent her time trying to get people to like her. “So what would you do if I married Scrooge and moved in here? You’d have to deal with me every single day.”
Chop chop chop. “I don’t have to worry about that because I know you’ll never do it.”
“Heh,” Goldie chuckled and pushed some of her hair back. “When you’re right, you’re right.” She felt an uncomfortable sadness creep at the corners of her mind and frowned, not sure what the issue could be. The housekeeper didn’t say anything that she didn’t already know.
She turned back towards Beakley only to see her staring directly at her, looking angry and a bit concerned. Goldie shook off her immediate embarrassment at having been seen in a slightly vulnerable mindset and walked over to the counter again.
Beakley was still staring at her.
“What?”
“What exactly are your intentions with Mr. McDuck when you find him?”
“Pfft,” Goldie almost laughed. “My intentions? Besides a quick roll in the hay -”
“Ugh.”
“...it’s just been a while since we last talked.” Goldie poked a finger against the countertop and slid it around in a small circle. “I wanted to catch up. Let him talk about some adventure and then I’d tell him about my much better adventures.”
There was silence for a few moments as Goldie continued to slide her finger around. "Maybe he'll start reminiscing and we'll just talk about the past for a few hours while doing absolutely nothing. And he'd ask me to stay a while and I'll pretend to consider it but leave while he's sleeping anyway,” she finished with a shrug.
She didn't need to look up to know that Beakley was staring at her again. It was embarrassing, but a normal consequence of rambling like a lovestruck teen. Quackfaster was still wrong about her, of course, but after how her day was going...
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you almost sounded sincere."
Goldie hummed softly. "Almost."
They fell into silence. An odd, almost companionable silence where it didn't feel like either woman was planning to hurt the other. Goldie didn't see how it would benefit her and Bentina was both too busy getting dinner ready and, against her better judgement, considering the possibility that Goldie should stay for the evening.
"...so what’s going on? An anniversary of some sort?" Beakley asked suddenly.
Goldie blinked at her. "I already told Duckworth it's not anything."
"And he told me as much. But I don't believe you." Beakley had moved on to the celery. "You're both being very nostalgic today."
"I'm…" Goldie blushed a bit, knowing Beakley wasn't wrong about her wistfulness, and reached over to grab a piece of chopped carrot, popping it in her mouth. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about."
The housekeeper contained the urge to slap Goldie's thieving little hand and sighed loudly instead.
"He's in his treasure room."
Goldie's eyes widened and she looked at Bentina with suspicious curiosity. She didn’t appreciate being lied to, especially not such an obvious lie. "I already checked there."
"Not that treasure room," Beakley said with a groan. "He's in the Klondike Room."
33 notes · View notes
spidxysense · 4 years
Text
Back to You | 13
Summary: He broke your heart, but you’d always love him. Two souls that not even the universe could tear apart, even if you wanted it to at times.
Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader x Timothee Chalamet
A/N: Yay I updated! I hope you guys like this one, I was stuck for a bit there but once I sat down and got to typing, I really finished it in one sitting. I was just planning on updating it bit by bit lol. Let me know what you guys think, Love you!!!!!!
Word count: 2,591
Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Tumblr media Tumblr media
-------------------------------------------------------
You were in the car with Troye, it had been a few months since you came back home from Italy, and by home you meant your shared apartment with Troye in LA. Now you were out looking for a dress to wear to the premiere for Celia. You’d tricked your manager to think that you’ve been sick the past week but it was like Troye had a no Bullshit radar. The second he stepped into your shared apartment last night from his trip to Australia he knew you were pretending to be sick so you could miss the premier.
Troye pulls down his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose, giving you a side eye as you glared at him, “Sweetie, don’t give me that look.” he rolls his eyes, “I thought everything was going great? You agreed to release that album you’d been holding onto for who even knows how long anymore. You and Timothee kissed-” You wince at the sound of his name, “Troye…”
He groans, “No! Tell me you didn’t ghost Timothee Chalamet, you asshole!”
You put your hands up in defense, “In my defense, I did not ghost him. He’s filming a movie, he’s off his phone because he’s focusing on the movie and-adn well, he’s starring in the movie with Lily-Rose Depp, he’ll forget about me.” You try to reason, finally opening up your insecurity to your best friend who probably already knew from the beginning.
His grip on the steering wheel gets tighter, “So what? You tell me you let Tom go, a week later news breaks that’s he’s dating Zendaya which by the way makes him a fucking asshole. Now you’re back to being this insecure girl who thinks some pretty french girl can steal this guy who’s like practically head over heels for you?” He pauses from his rant, “What are you two even?”
You shrug, "Which is why this situation is perfect. I have a chance to think things over and so does he… in case he realizes he made a big mistake. I don't know what we are, I mean, we just kind of agreed that we both like each other."
He groans, parking the car, "You two are cute you know? Like I want to bash your heads together cute because nobody will take the first step."
You hop out the car, slamming the door as cameras rush to your presence. Troye's hand on your back guides you through as he insults the paparazzi for hounding celebrities as their day jobs.
He passes by the aisles of clother, already picking something out for himself while ylu see a few pretty numbers tp buy for everyday use, "You are perfect, Y/N. Just like fucking insecure." He trails behind you, which you don't need to be, might I mention." He hands you a dress, pushing you to the dressing room, "I thought you might want to emulate her character so I thought this would be perfect."
You rolled your eyes, "At least Timothee won't be at the premier tonight." You sigh in relief, "He would never abandon filming just to go to some premiere. So that's one less person I have to worry about."
Troye gapes at you, "Oh honey, if you were anyone but you, I would agree, but I already know you're worrying about the fact that he's off in some european country with Lily."
You bit off a dry piece off of your bottom lip, as you changed, keeping silent because both you and Troye knew that what he was saying was right.
He sighs, “Look Y/N, at the end of the day all that matters is, is he someone you see yourself with? And if he is, then why the hell would you throw that away? Or even let anyone take from you? You need to boss the fuck up and I’m sorry if I’m hurting your feelings but I am so done with you being and feeling so sorry for yourself when you know you deserve better but aren’t taking it when it’s being handed to you.”
You open the door with a heave, “Because it feels like I don’t deserve it!” You were already wearing the dress but you slump down on one of the couches, “How can you not understand that the guy I let go, who was my first love is dating the very person he cheated on me with? How can you not understand how absolutely soul wrenching that is? That even if I want to be with Timothee, I can’t because I don’t know how to be with him properly. Because he’ll know and feel all these thoughts in my head and all these terrible feelings I have after Tom replaced me with the person he was with when he hurt me?” The tears are pouring out as you feel the flashes from the cameras outside but you didn’t care. Let them see because you were so tired of not being allowed to hurt, “I don’t know how to do this Troye, not without hurting Timothee, and I don’t want to do that… not anymore, he deserves the absolute world and where I am now, I can’t give him mine because there’s almost nothing left of it.”
Troye looks shocked as he gets on his knees next to you, hugging you with all his might, “Alright, well I guess tough love was the wrong move to use on you.” He pulls apart from you, grabbing your arms at the side and looks in your eyes, “But Y/N, have you ever wondered what Timothee wants? Based from everything you’ve told me it seems like you guys haven’t even talked about whatever the two of you are and Timothee wouldn’t be the type of person who’d tell you what he wants because he just wants you to get what you want.” He smiles sadly at you.
You sigh, “Alright, I’ll talk with Timothee when he gets back.”
He gives you a pat on the back, “That won’t even be for until a few months so you have time to think for yourself.” He grabs you by the hand, pulling you up to stand, “And that dress definitely embodies Celia. You’re wearing that tonight.”
You laugh, “I look like I’m going to prom. Is it really alright for me to wear this?”
Troye rolls his eyes, “Sweetie, this is your movie, you can wear whatever the hell you want. You could even come in a sack and nobody would have the right to tell you not to wear what you want.”
-----------------------------------------------------
The light flashes in your eyes when the car comes to a hald and you step out, blinding lights from cameras and the ones directly pointed at the red carpet and suddenly you can’t breathe.
Troye’s hand guides you through the walkway onto the carpet but you can’t seem to get a grip on the reality in front of you. It had been so long since you last did a red carpet which was from The Greatest Showman. This was an indie movie, but given the success of the first one, it had garnered a lot more fans. Luckily you’re stopped by an interviewer.
“Y/N! You look fabulous!”
You smile shyly, “Thank you so much, you look beautiful tonight as well.”
She laughs along with what you said as she proceeds to her question, “So, how much chemistry should we be expecting from you and Timothee in this movie? You’re known to be very electric with your onscreen partners in your scenes so there’s no doubt in me that the sparks between you two will go absolutely haywire.”
You laugh, “Well, you know we did our best so hopefully the scenes are captivating and we were able to capture Luca’s intended emotions for the scenes.”
She nods, almost seeming like she wasn’t even listening, “And how about Timothee? He isn’t here tonight, will you and Armie be fine without him?”
You look around, “Oh is Armie here now?” You spot him along the carpet right as he looks over at you, waving and running over.
“Y/N!” He hugs you, as the interviewer stares at the two of you.
You wrap an arm around his back, “To answer your question, we won’t be needing Timothee.” You laugh.
Armie grabs hold of the mic in the interviewer’s hand, “This is live right?” He looks over at the interviewer who nods, “Timmy if you’re watching this, I hope you know we’re having the time of our lives here.”
He gives you a big smooch on the cheek, ruffling your hair and going back to the carpet with his wife who gives you a wave and blows a kiss towards you.
“Alright, so a few weeks ago, your team released a statement that you’ll be releasing your new album which from what we all understand has been in the making for a very long time?”
You nod, already expecting the next question out of her mouth.
“So is it safe to say songs from these past months since you last released an album will be in there.” You smile, nodding, “Then is it safe to assume we’ll be hearing some songs inspired by Tom?”
And there it was, “Well, you know this album will be a double release so it comes from all these beautiful moments since my last album, whether that be me in love, me falling out of love, hurting, laughing. I just think it’s gonna be such an important album for me since it captures so many beautiful moments in my life that I’m just very glad to be treasuring and emulating in my songs.” 
“And you aren’t nervous at all for any backlash? Since it has been a while since we last heard a song from you and since you last performed live, especially considering how your last tour ended up.”
You nod along, not taking offense to the questions, “Yeah, well you know, I have been writing songs and they’ve been given to other artists so there’s not too much worry in me that these songs won’t be well liked, and in terms of tour I just don’t think that’s something I can really handle still since the last one had me in a really bad place mentally, and this is something I really want my fans to understand, that mental illness isn’t something we can ignore until we pop. We have to handle it the best way we can and sometimes that just means we have to avoid things that might bring us bad feelings.”
Suddenly the crowd goes wild as a car comes to a stop, the person inside stepping out. You crane your neck trying to get a good look at who it was, but the amount of people was too much so you decide against it. It was probably a celebrity that wasn’t in the movie and is going to the premier or a close friend of Armie’s or Timothee’s, maybe it was Saoirse Ronan.
You look back at the interviewer who had spotted another up and coming celebrity, “And here we have George Mackay!” He waves towards the camera, giving you a grin and standing next to you after the interviewer called him over.
“I don’t quite know why I’m here for the interview seeing as it’s not my premier.” He laughs, “But I am very excited to watch this movie.” He gestured towards you, “This is our first time meeting but I am a very big fan.”
You cover your mouth, “You were so great in Marrowbone.”
“So, here we have another up and coming actor, George Mackay at the premier. Many of our viewers have said that you two should do a movie together soon.”
You giggle, “Well I don’t know, only if George is up for it.” 
He laughs, “I’ll have my agent call yours.” He jokes, “I’m quite excited for this one, You don’t really star in too many movies anymore so seeing Y/N in a movie is quite a treat.” He scratched the back of his head.
“Aren’t these two just adorable?” The interviewer laughs.
Suddenly an arm snakes around your back, and you turn only to see brown curly hair.
“Oh my! What a surprise, Timothee Chalamet has just arrived at the premier!”
Somehow George had made his way back to the carpet, Timothee now moving over to where George stood just moments ago.
You laugh nervously, “We thought you were still in Europe.” 
He looks at you, a light in his eyes, “I would never miss the premier for our movie, are you kidding me?!”
She gestured towards you, “What can you say about Y/N? How is she looking tonight?”
He takes a look at you up and down, “Well you know, that isn’t really in my line to say but she looks great, absolutely stunning. I think Y/N and I are the same in the regard that we pick our own clothes for these things, right?”
You nod, “Totally, and I only really wanted to look good because I knew if you somehow ended up here tonight you’d outshine me.”
He laughs, “No way! How could I outshine you, I mean come on!” He looks at the camera gesturing towards you, “Look how beautiful she looks!” You blush at that.
The interviewer laughs, “Well, we just got a first hand look at the chemistry we were just talking about, Y/N. You two look like you’re on a date night.” She pauses, “Now Timothee, now that you’re back how was Europe, what did you miss most in the States?”
He grins, “Well it’s pretty cold there, and what did I miss, well not really too much. Who I missed though is a whole different question.”
You laugh nervously, realizing you weren’t ready for the whole freaking world to know you and Timothee had confessed mutual attraction.
The interviewer points at Timothee’s arm around you, “Now that’s been going on for a while now, do you have anything to tell us?”
Timothee opens his mouth, but you beat him to it, “Well you know Timmy, always comfortable with everyone he meets. He’s just such a goofball that’s very easy to get comfortable with him.” You laugh.
He somehow gets the point and laughs along, “Yeah yeah, exactly. One night during the filming I hopped in bed with Armie and his wife.”
“So do you have any words for this movie, Timothee?”
He nods, “Of course, well Armie and I are just so lucky that Luca didn’t realize we were two of the biggest idiots he’s ever met, and I’m just so thankful that this movie brought me to Y/N here, who is just so lovely and was the only sensible one among Armie and I. I really hope we stay in touch since a lot of these movies you know, once the filming is done, the same goes for the relationships and friendships you build with everyone here.” He takes a breath, “I’m very proud of what we’ve made and I really hope nobody has any regrets with the movie.”
“Alright, well, I’ll let you two get to it. Thanks for giving us your time guys.” You wave at the interviewer and spot Luca along the carpet who was giving you hand signals to stick by Timothee the whole night.
You stand next to Timothee as pictures of the two of you were taken, “We need to talk.” You look up at him, right as he looks down at you.
“Okay.”
107 notes · View notes
Text
Yandere Villain Izuku x Reader part 2.
Part one is something I wrote a few months ago when I first started my blog! I got a request to post part two, but if you weren’t some of the few who read part one Here it is right here! ---> Part 1
“Wow another date?” I was hoping to sneak out without my Aunt seeing me. I forced a smile on my face and turned to see her standing in her bath robe. “What? No, I’m just meeting a friend.” I shrugged and clutched my purse a little tighter. “Oh is that right?” She paced over to me and grinned. She grabbed my zipper on my coat and tugged it down. “Meeting a friend in such a formal outfit?” This was the nicest dress I’ve ever owned. I didn’t buy it or pick it out. Izuku sent it to my specifically for tonight. It was a brighter emerald green, silk, it was tight and went down to right above my knee. It had spaghetti straps, and it showed off the best part of my curves. “You’ve been sneaking out late at night every day for two weeks. Who’s the lucky guy?” She smoothed out some of the material on my dress. “This looks expensive, how did you afford this?” She smiled and gave my outfit more inspection. “Alright fine, you caught me.” I rolled my eyes and smiled back. 
“A really lovely, luxurious man came into the flower shop. He’s been taking me all around the city to some really amazing places.” She gasped and covered her mouth. “Did he buy you this? What kind of places?” She grabbed my small purse and looked at the design. “This is also super expensive!” Her excitement faded and she handed the bag back to me. “Usually when men spoil you so much right away they, uhm.” She pursed her lips and bobbed her head back and forth like she was bouncing her choice of words around in her mind. “They expect something from you.” She said carefully. “He’s not like that, he’s been amazing. A perfect gentleman.” My frustration started to grow. I looked at the clock hanging on the wall, the car he sent should be here any second. “Listen I have to go now. He’s hosting an event for his associates tonight.” 
“How are you getting there?” She had her arms crossed now. “It’s almost 11pm!”
“He’s sending someone to pick me up. It’s not like I’m walking around like this! Can you just relax please?” I sighed and turned the door knob. “Don’t wait up alright?” My aunt followed me out into the hall and to the elevator. “I want to see this car. I have a really weird feeling about all of this.” I didn’t argue, but this is why I didn’t mention anything. I may be new to this country, but I’m not an idiot. I walked ahead of her ad outside. A long black limousine was parked and running. “Oh my god...” She whispered under her breath. The driver opened the back door for me, to my surprise Izuku was actually sitting in the back seat. He was wearing an all black suit, it was well fitting. His tie was a darker green then mine, and the only color in his outfit. “Hello my darling, you look beautiful as usual.”  I took a seat next to him and the driver shut the door. I rolled the window down to wave to my aunt. She walked to the side of the limo and bent down a bit to see inside. “Well now who is this?” Izuku said sweetly.
“Hi, I’m Y/N’s Aunt... I just came outside to see what was going on is all...” She spoke softly, her eyes squinting at Izuku. “Well you kids have fun tonight... Please bring her back safely.” She left with a wave, turning around one more time before going all the way back inside.
“Sorry about that Izuku, she’s a little protective of me.” I rolled the window back up and scooted closer to him. He took my hand in his and kissed my knuckles. I love the details on his arms, light scarring over his wrists adding a bit of character to an otherwise flawless man. “That makes two of us. She seems like a nice lady.”
“I’m a little nervous for tonight, are you sure you want to introduce me to all of your work friends?” I resisted chewing on my lip, not wanting to ruin my lipgloss. “They’re more like employee’s, but of course. I want my entire world to know that I have the most lovely...” He trailed off a bit. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” He looked my in the eyes and held both of my hands tightly. “I want to ask you to be mine.”
I smiled and shook my head yes. “Oh Izuku, of course I’ll be your girlfriend. I love spending time with you.” I giggled and kissed his cheek. He smiled for a moment and then his face had a more serious glare to it. “Y/N, I need complete devotion. Loyalty is the most important thing to me...” He put a hand on my cheek and cradled my face. “From the moment I saw you I knew you were special, but I need to hear from you that you will be loyal to me, 100%.” I blinked a few times, giving him a look of light confusion. “Yes Izuku, I don’t want to be with anyone else. I’ll be loyal, I promise.” He put his other hand on my face as well and pulled me close to him. Giving me a sweet, gentle kiss on my lips. My heart fluttered, our first kiss was spontaneous and in the moment, my favorite kind of gesture.
He pulled away and I laid my head on his shoulder, we enjoyed the ride across town in silence. Smiling and stealing kisses from each other, the only noises I could help but make were soft giggles at his tickling touches.
We pulled up to a very busy hotel. “Take a deep breath and keep that beautiful smile on your face, doll.” I nodded my head that I understood.
People poured out of the lobby level casino, drunk, noisey and in very formal attire. People gasped and stopped their conversation when Izuku got out of the limo. He walked around the vehicle, taking me by the hand and helping me step out onto a red carpet. Camera’s suddenly started flashing, people yelled for his attention but kept their distance. Several large and threatening looking men met us half way to the entrance, surrounding us and pushing people away, giving us space. I held onto his arm tightly, trying to smile but suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. Izuku leaned into my ear and whispered to me. “Keep breathing love, you’re doing great.” He waved to the crowd and smiled.
Why are there so many paparazzi?
Inside the lobby was a bit better, we didn’t stop to talk to anyone that was standing around. We walked through the party goers who stepped quickly out of our way. Security was letting in a line of people to a gorgeous ballroom, Izuku’s body guards lead us directly to the door. The security guards opened a velvet rope and we stepped inside.
People danced under flashing colorful lights. The music was blaring, shaking the entire room. Izuku nodded to his guards who spread out across the room, leaving us alone. “Care for a drink?” He asked directly in my ear so I can hear him. I nodded my head and we walked away from the crowd to a closed off room guarded by even more security. The room was dark and people sat on leather couches and chatted instead of danced. Classical type of music played from a speaker, next to a private bartender. He snapped his fingers and a waiter brought us two glasses of champagne. Izuku sat down in a large arm chair and patted his leg with his free. “Come here love, sit on my lap.” I blushed and took a sip of my champagne. “I-izuku there’s people watching..” I said quietly over the rim of my glass. “Do as your told darling. I want everyone to see my beautiful girl...” He peered at me with hungry eyes. I couldn’t help but smile, every word he say’s feels like honey in my ears. I took a seat on his muscular leg and sat perched with a straight back. He placed a hand on my lower back, his thumb resting at the base of my spine.
“Midoryia!” A man approached the two of us with a large smile. “I’ve been looking for you all evening! Where have you been?” The man held his hands in front of him, clasped in front of his belly. He held onto his own fingers with white knuckles, a bead of sweat gathered at the base of his hair line. “I had to run a few errands... Did you need something?” Izuku looked lightly disinterested, sipping his drink casually. He played with the fabric on my dress, more occupied with looking at my body than listening to the man. It was painfully obvious, I shifted a bit uncomfortable, trying to not make eye contact with the man. “I uhm, heard you wanted to speak with me. I was on one of your projects in Tokyo.” Izuku broke away from looking at me and glared at the man. “Ah, Ito-san. I did want to speak to you.” He sighed and lifted his hand from my back and put it on my neck, playing with my loose hair with a light smile. “Luckily you’ve caught me at a good time.” He gulped down the rest of his wine and someone rushed to take the empty glass from his hand. He looked at the man from his feet to his head. He snapped his fingers and three men wearing dark gray suits with strange blue scales for skin came to his side. “Could you please help my friend here? I’m busy.” He waved his hand and the guards swept the the sweaty man away. He protested, pushing against them. “Wait! I’m still useful, sir! SIR!” Izuku didn’t look his way. He stared dreamily at my face. My eyes glanced towards the commotion, my line of sight breaking away from my date for just a moment. “Ah ah ah, love. Eyes on me.” He gently guided my chin away from the scuffle and held my face looking at him. “Where are they taking that man?” I asked in a whisper. None of the other party goers seemed to notice really, or if they did they surely didn’t care. “Oh my sweet dove, he’s nothing you need to worry about.” 
“I’m... I’m a little uncomfortable.” I squirmed a bit in his lap. It felt like a hundred eyes on the back of my head, people stealing quick glances at the two of us. Whispering under their breath.
Izuku looked devastated. His brows furrowed and he pulled me to rest on his chest, holding my head and kissing my forehead. “I’m so sorry love, I should have eased you into my more... extravagant lifestyle. That’s my fault.” I wormed my way out of his strong arms to look at him. “I think I should probably go, I have work in the morning and-”
“No, no don’t be ridiculous.” He spoke sweetly, but something gnawed at the back of my head. “You live all the way across town, and I have a room here.” His fingers curled around my hips digging into my skin. He kissed the nape of my neck and I closed my eyes. His lips sending goosebumps along all of my exposed skin.
The golden elevator doors shut and Izuku swept me into his arms. Slamming his mouth against mine, he pressed me against the back wall of the elevator. He pulled on my hair, making me gasp and grip his shoulders. His mouth trailed along my neck and jaw, showering me in kisses. “My sweet darling, I love you.” He whispered between each connection with my skin. “Y-you do?” I swallowed hard, his strong arms pressing us together tightly, almost squeezing me enough to hinder taking deep breaths. “Yes, I love you with everything in me.”
The elevator door opened to a beautiful penthouse suit. Izuku pulled me into the lavish room, sweeping me off of my feet and pulling me towards the bed. He laid me on my back, the sheets soft and silky. His lips ran over my neck, he almost giggled between kisses he seemed so giddy. 
Izuku’s head snapped up suddenly, breaking me from my trance. “Ah, well this is annoying.” He sighed. “Izuku what’s wrong?” 
Izuku quickly shoved me to the floor, I rolled off of the bed and hit the ground with a thud. Before I could even yell in protest, the window burst open with an explosion. I crawled under the bed frame and held in a scream. What the hell is happening?
“Well hello Kacchan. Careful about making a mess of things, there’s a civilian in the room.” Izuku’s shining black shoes were directly in front of my eyes. “We finally have you this time, your team of sharks won’t have a way to keep you out of jail. The police are raiding your party down stairs as we speak.” The man spoke with a lot of anger behind his voice. “Where are you hiding your hostage?” He yelled, the other pair of feet stomping closer to Izuku in large black boots. “Hostage? Oh, darling come on out please. I awkwardly shuffled my way out from underneath the bed. Izuku’s strong hands pulled me off the ground and dusted the glass off of my pretty dress. “Kacchan my old friend, this is my darling fiance. Would you like a drink?” 
The man standing in the room with us I instantly recognized. Pro hero Ground Zero, a hulking, powerful man stood with furrowed brows. Posters of his face littered the city. “Shut up Deku. You’re under arrest.” Izuku paced over to the hotel bar and started pouring himself a glass of wine. “And for what am I being arrested for this time? Again, are you sure on the drink?” 
My heart slammed in my chest, I felt like a rock was stuck in my throat as I just watched the interaction. How is Izuku so calm? 
“You’re the gang leader of League of Villains. I’ve traced it all back to you.” He spit on the hotel floor. “I knew you’d never make it as a pro, but to stoop so low-” 
Izuku drank the glass of wine with a sly grin. “Are you done ranting? I’m getting bored.” 
The blonde man leaped across the room with a growl, slamming Izuku’s head down on the counter. The wine glass he was drinking fell to the floor and shattered. Izuku laughed as Ground Zero placed him in hand cuffs. “Just like old times Kacchan! I’ll never forget all the times you tried to kill me. I’ve miss this-” Ground Zero slammed him against the counter again. “Shut up!” 
“Stop! What are you doing?” I was able to break free from my shock and cry out, tears stinging my eyes. “Izuku isn’t a villain!” The hero’s stone cold glare stared me down, keeping me from running to Izuku. 
“No worries darling. 3... 2...” Izuku’s eyes flicked over to the penthouse elevator just as the light blinked with the tone, signalling that the doors are about to open. A man with bright red hair stepped into the room with a few uniformed police officers trailing right behind him. 
“You have to let him go Bakugo. He’s clean. The whole place is.” The Red Riot, another incredibly famous pro hero. “What do you mean, we had everything completely planned?” Ground Zero screamed at his partner but didn’t let Izuku up. “We swept the entire building. There’s not one thing out of order, and his alibi for the diamond heist completely checks out.” 
“If you had simply asked, I would have let you know that I was with my darling over there for the majority of the week. I’m expecting the chief of police will be excited to receive my complaint about brutality.” Ground Zero let Izuku stand up but didn’t remove his cuffs. “Oh shut up Deku. A shove like that didn’t hurt you at all.” 
“I’ve been telling you for years Kacchan, I’m the CEO of my own company. I worked hard and honestly to get where I am.” Izuku snapped the handcuffs off of his wrists with little effort. He set the broken metal down on the table and dusted off his suit. “But you’ve always been obsessed with me.” 
“That’s it!” The red haired hero jumped between the sparking fist of his explosive partner. “Cool it Katsuki! We’ll get him next time.” 
‘No, no you won’t. Because I haven’t done anything wrong.” Izuku was looking over the hero’s shoulder, staring directly at me.
I hadn’t said anything in awhile. Izuku had us driven to a different hotel. I gripped a hot cup of coffee and wore a fuzzy white bathrobe. Izuku sat shirtless next to me on the bed, flipping through T.V. channels before giving up on finding anything interesting. “How was your shower?” He asked sweetly, breaking the silence. 
“Are we not going to talk about what just happened?” I said looking down into my cup. 
“We can talk about anything you want too. If you have questions I’ll-” I cut him off. “Questions? I just watched you get your head slammed into a counter by the countries top hero. I’m confused and...” My voice cracked a little. “Scared.” 
“Oh honey. oh darling come here. I’m so sorry.” He took my coffee and set it down on the nightstand before pulling me into his arms. I rested on his shoulder sort of stiff. “Izuku I want to go home...” 
Izuku didn’t say anything, his hand sort of fell off my body. “You want to leave?”
I regretted saying anything almost instantly, the hurt in his voice was very clear. “I think I just need some sleep. I have my shift tomorrow and-” 
“Oh!” Izuku cheered up, snuggling in closer to me. “Well I’ll call your boss. I’m sure they’ll be alright with you taking the day to rest after hearing from me. They’re very appreciative of my business.” 
“That wasn’t really what I had in mind.” 
Izuku pulled the blankets over us and put a hand on my head, holding me close to his body. “No I insist, don’t worry darling. I’ll always take care of you.”
I laid still but I didn’t close my eyes, a heavy unease was sitting in my chest and stomach.
I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.
136 notes · View notes
warsmith-38 · 3 years
Text
How I would do RWBY pt. 7
War Arc.
Season Seven.
The Cabal is standing room only and Salem is enraged at recent turn of events.
Complains loudly to Myrmidon.
Myrmidon assures Salem that the current plan is not only progressing smoothly but Ozpin still has no idea what it is.
Salem calms down and her mind turns to Cinder. Particularly the fact that Ozpin has captured Cinder.
Salem wonders if she ever told Cinder about the current plan.
She realizes that, yes, yes she did.
Salem is once again angry.
RWBY and JN(P)R are enjoying relative peace as next moves are planned.
Neo is the most cooperative with authorities out of team CEMN.
Due to being, more or less, just hired help she isn’t all that helpful.
Emerald and Mercury are in a similar situation due to being Cinder’s direct underlings and not Salem’s.
All they know is what Cinder told them, which was only just enough to keep them compliant.
Cinder is the one that would have information but is quite tightlipped about things that aren’t insults.
Ozpin wants answers but Ironwood draws the line at out and out torturing a teenager.
Cinder is just waiting in her cell with one arm cuffed to a chair.
WBY and JN(P)R all have a go at trying to make her talk. (Ruby isn’t allowed near her)
Blake tries empathizing with her situation, formerly being one of the bad guys herself.
Cinder says that Blake was an easily swayed idiot who didn’t know what she was actually doing.
Ren and Nora try good cop bad cop.
Cinder calls both of them morons.                                                                  
Weiss tries bribing her with money and medical help for her missing bits.
Cinder tells her to eat shit.
Jaune tries a ‘you’re a deranged psychopath, prove me wrong’ approach.
Cinder taunts him by talking about killing Pyrrha.
Not only does Jaune have to be pulled out of there, Ren and Nora have to be talked down from cutting the cameras and shank-rushing her.
Ironwood offers her a plea bargain. Spill on Salem and don’t get hanged for heinous war crimes.
Cinder rebukes all of it to varying degrees of profanity.
Penny’s turn.
Penny doesn’t ask her any questions or try anything.
All she says is that she forgives Cinder, that someone should even if no one else ever would.
Cinder is a little unnerved but remains uncooperative.
Everyone calls it quits for the day.
Ruby sneaks into Cinder’s cell when no one is looking.
Cinder almost has a heart attack out of fear of what Ruby will do to her.
Gives her an emotional speech on how Cinder and Salem ruined her life and the worst part is that it was her new best friend that did it.
Ruby is found and escorted out of the cell.
Cinder, having slightly awakened her long ignored heart, says that she did consider Ruby a sort of friend.
Ruby tells her to go to hell.
Yang notices that Cinder’s veneer is peeling.
Decides to take her shot.
Yang surmises that Salem was involved, to a degree, in raising Cinder.
Cinder confirms but also is insulting.
Yang talks about how she knows a little something about parental figures who don’t give a crap.
Cinder gets angry, says that she knows that Salem cares about her.
Yang says that if Salem cared then why did Cinder have to go to Atlas to try and get her attention again?
Cinder starts flinging insults about unloving mother figures.
Yang flings back better ones.
Cinder brags that they’re all dead anyway.
Says that Salem’s big plan is to set off a special bomb-like grimm that will turn another chunk of the planet into grimm land just like the territory around her sanctum.
Ensuring a lack of stability that will force the rest of the world to adapt and evolve.
She doesn’t know where Salem is planning to set it off though.
Everything across the previous seasons was trying to maximize chances of it going off without a hitch.
Weakening potential target areas, providing distractions, eliminating threats, things like that.
That or it was just another attempt to kill Ozpin. Sometimes both. Mostly both.
That’s when she realizes that she just told Salem’s master plan directly to her greatest opposition.
Says that her talking won’t matter and will enjoy watching Salem kill all of them.
Yang tells her to stop being such a chuunibyou.
Ozpin’s Council (Him, Ironwood, Glynda, Qrow, Winter, RWBY, JN(P)R, Ciel, mad scientist) start trying to deduce where Salem will set off the grimm nuke.
Atlas is too militarized, even with the troubles there. Vacuo is too close and wouldn’t provide much strategically. Menagerie and Mistral are both too out of the way to be of use.
The target is Vale. A centralized zone that still has yet to completely recover from the events of the school arc and will further fragment the free peoples of the world.
Not to mention that it’s Ozpin’s personal favorite kingdom. Just another insult on a very long list.
Everyone packs up and heads to Vale for a very somber return home.
Emerald, Neo, and Mercury offer to properly switch sides on the grounds that they had no idea about the whole ‘fuck over the world’ thing.
They only signed on to cause a little trouble and get paid.
They want to help stop Salem now, especially if they’re probably considered expendable collateral.
Offer is appreciated but the handcuffs stay on.
Upon arrival in Vale, Ruby and Yang are immediately accosted by Tai.
Tai is upset with Ruby for running off and not doing so much as ever calling him and he’s upset with Yang just for not calling ever.
He’s proud of his girls for doing so much to help the world, but still.
Raven is there too and offers Ruby a hug from her new stepmother.
Tai and Raven reveal their wedding rings, showing that they have in fact tied the knot (Tai’d the knot).
Yang BSODs for a moment.
Raven has a moment with Yang and Ruby, saying that she took the scolding to heart and realized that, yes, she was a piece of shit.
Came back to Tai to try and start making up for things.
It took a little work but Tai is no longer a depressed, overprotective, neglectful, sad sack of crap, so maybe it’s not the worst thing that she’s back.
She’s also given all the intel she acquired while part of the Cabal.
R+Y are skeptical but intend to burn that bridge when they cross it later.
Cinder sneaks out of her cell.
Tries to bust EMN out too.
They rebuke her, saying that they would rather not help permanently fuck over a continent and by extension the world for no real reason beyond ‘because you said so’.
They would rather live in the world, not destroy it.
Cinder leaves them to rot, finds her gear, and steals a new robo-arm for her trouble, doing everything she can to stay under the radar while she thinks of what to do next.
RWBY + JN(P)R have trips down memory lane as they walk through the ruins or the rebuilt versions of their old haunts.
Remembering the good times and the bad.
The trials and tribulations as well as the warm memories that they keep dreaming about returning to.
Then they get to work.
They scour the recovering city of Vale first for any sign of anything grimm or Salem related.
Team CRDL, who stayed in Vale as volunteer workers and security, say that aside from a few more grimm raids, nothing special has happened in months.
CRDL assist as much as a team of jobber jabronis can.
Surprisingly, they don’t act like cunts.
Ozpin realizes that the only places that haven’t been searched were the places he’s kept secret.
Reveals his illuminati style cave with monitoring equipment that has tabs all over the world.
It has cameras and stuff in places that Ozpin has absolutely no right or need to know about.
Low and behold, grimm have tunneled into it.
Myrmidon is in there, checking up on things.
She introduces herself to the main characters and then cheeses it, leaving a distraction force of grimm.
After they’re dealt with, they turn their attention to the big fucking elephant in the room.
Massive, bulbous, monster of a centipede grimm is right in the center of the chamber. The grimm nuke.
They’ve found it, sure, but now what do they do?
The Council has a brainstorming session to try and come up with a solution.
Can’t just kill it, it’ll go off.
Raven’s portals only go to people she’s bonded with in some way and it would still fuck up wherever it was teleported to.
It’s a living thing so disarming it like a conventional bomb is not exactly possible.
EMN are questioned on what they might know about it but aren’t able to help much.
This is when they realize that Cinder is gone.
Search effort begins to stop her from fucking everything up.
Yang and Jaune eventually find Cinder.
Keep up the browbeating even as they fight her.
Cinder says that even if she wanted to help, Salem would kill her if she did.
Yang calls Salem a bitch.
She says that Salem’s about to kill her anyway when the thing goes boom.
Cinder relents and says that she’s not sure but Ruby’s white fire is probably the key.
Salem had Summer killed out of fear of her semblance potentially interfering with this exact plan.
Cinder about to am-scray while Yang and Jaune are distracted by putting plan together.
Jaune stops her.
Punches her in the face, hitting the side that can see.
Says that that was for Pyrrha.
Cinder runs off rubbing her jaw.
Begin white fire surgery.
They cut small, precise, holes in the grimm and Ruby burns the resulting goo deluge.
Plan is working shockingly well. Grimm is losing explosive fuel by the truckload.
Takes some time, but eventually all that is left is the monster itself and the explosive trigger.
Trigger goes off in a pathetically emaciated whiff.
Everyone celebrates.
Then they realize that they still have a massive centipede grimm monster that is in the top ten largest ever recorded grimm underneath Vale.
Said massive centipede grimm turns on default mode. Default mode being rushing towards the nearest living thing and killing it.
Said grimm bursts into downtown Vale with more grimm coming behind it.
Right when they had just finished cleaning it up.
Season final boss time.
RWBY, JN(P)R, CRDL, EMN, and the living elements of STRQ fight the grimm.
Professors of Beacon are also helping as well as The Council in general.
Cinder, in her attempt to get out of there, gets caught in the fighting too.
Fuck it. CFVY and SSSN show up from Mistral on Ozpin’s request for backup.
All. The. Warriors.
EVERYONE gets a hit or two in on the grimm.
Big final hit with everyone involved.
Grimm is dead.
Salem is back in her sanctum watching this on a crystal ball or whatever.
Her own rage and frustration at what happened spawns a whole new horde of grimm.
Screams loud enough to break all the glass in her sanctum.
Ruby and Cinder have stare-down after grimm is dead.
Both silently decide that there are bigger fish to fry and go their separate ways.
Big celebration party. World saw RWBY kick absolute ass.
Cinder is out of options so she is now on her way back to Salem.
Myrmidon is sharpening her spear/sword/rifle.
She can’t wait.
Season seven done.
5 notes · View notes
dlwritings · 5 years
Text
Never Have I Ever | Tom Holland
masterlist found here
pairing - Tom x reader word count - 2,193 warnings - implications of sex and mention of nudes A/N - for the two anons who requested | the Never Have I Ever bit is based on this classic One Direction interview
summary - You and Tom had been dating for a while, and a stupid iCloud hacker caused some intimate pictures to leak. When things get a little awkward at an interview, your cast mates had your back.
Tumblr media
It’s in the moments when life is going really well that one should start to get suspicious. Especially when your life is so publicized, you should always be on your toes.
You should’ve known when things were going so well with Tom that they were bound to come crashing down eventually.
Your relationship had been going on privately for about six months. You met on the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home. You weren’t playing an important character or anything, just one of the background students going on the European trip. Something about you just caught Tom’s eye. The more time he spent with you, the more he realized he was falling for you.
However, your publicists were both very strict about your relationship needing to remain private. While nothing about the two of you being together was illegal, the world didn’t exactly need to see Hollywood heartthrob 23-year-old Tom Holland parading around with up-and-coming singer-slash-actress 18-year-old (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Everyone on your teams could already see the headlines, and they wouldn’t exactly do wonders for either of your images. Tom would be seen as a perverted cradle robber, and you would be seen as a ladder-climbing slut. It was pretty much a lose-lose situation.
So, you kept it on the downlow. Your friends, immediate family, and fellow castmates knew, but you never went public about it. This didn’t mean you couldn’t go on dates together, but PDA had to be minimal to non existent. This wasn’t a huge deal, because you weren’t one to make out with your boyfriend in public anyway. So, everything was going fine.
Again, that was when you should’ve realized everything was about to go to shit.
There were a few weeks when Tom was filming in Prague and you didn’t need to be there, so you were home in London. During those weeks, it was only natural for you and Tom to have some intimate conversations. You were both young, and going from almost daily sex to none at all wasn’t easy. You sent him a few pictures, he reciprocated, there were a few steamy phone calls and some text messages here and there, but that was it. It was all normal young adult behavior. The only thing was, neither of you were considered normal young adults.
You got the phone call in the dead of night. One phone call you might’ve missed, but the endless stream that was coming in was impossible to ignore. You saw the caller ID read Monica - manager, so you answered it, feeling panic settle in your chest immediately. Monica was a friend at this point -practically an older sister- but she would have no positive reason to call at 1:00 in the morning.
“Everything’s fine,” she said as soon as you picked up.
“Monica-”
“Someone hacked Tom’s iCloud,” she said.
“Okay,” you said slowly. “So?”
She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Apparently, the two of you have shared some, um, intimate phot-”
“OH MY GOD!” you screamed. “NO! No way! FUCK!”
“It’s okay,” she said, trying to calm you down. “It’s okay.”
“It’s very clearly not okay!” you shouted. “My naked photos are on the internet! You know who has access to the internet?”
“I mean-”
“Everyone!” you said. “And you know who is a part of everyone?”
“(Y/N)-”
“My mom!” I shouted. “My mom is going to see naked photos of me. She probably thinks I’m still a virgin! Oh my god. The whole world is going to think I’m a slut.”
“Okay, but you’re not a slut,” Monica said, her voice soothing.
“But-”
“It’s very important to me that you know that this does not make you a slut,” she said. There was that older sister vibe coming out. “Everyone shares nudes, alright? Someone else stealing and sharing those doesn’t make you a slut. Okay?”
You took a stabilizing breath. “Okay.”
“We took the picture down where it was originally posted,” she said. “I’m sure people have already saved it though, but you know what? It’s going to be fine. We’ll tackle the PR when it comes up. There’s nothing we can do about it now except handle it like adults and remind the world that you and Tom are both adults.”
Tom.
“Okay,” you said again. “Thanks for calling me.”
“Try and get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Sleep,” you scoffed. “Right.”
As soon as you hung up with Monica, you called Tom. He picked up on the first ring. “(Y/N)-”
“Why’d you put it on the cloud?” you shouted, unable to stop yourself.
“Everything backs up automatically!” he said defensively. “This isn’t my fault!”
“Well it isn’t my fault!”
“I’m not saying it is!”
“Whose fault is it then?”
“The 40-something-year-old pervert who hacked into my account and leaked the photos!”
You couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. Tom did the same, and you ran a hand through your messy bedhead. “This is a disaster, Tom,” you mumbled.
“I know,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” you said, waving a hand dismissively even though he couldn’t see it.
“You know, it’s going to be brought up next week during press,” Tom said. In your sleepy state, you had forgotten that next week, you were starting press for the film. You sighed into the receiver.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” you said.
The following week came, and neither you nor Tom had responded to any of the internet’s comments on the nudes. Your publicists both decided it would be best to address the situation only when it arose during an interview. That way, the words could come directly from your mouths without any chance of misinterpretation or poor wording from a tweet or Instagram post. It would also come across as more professional than if Tom blabbed about it during an Instagram live.
The first interview that happened was on Jimmy Kimmel Live. You had both done an interview with Jimmy before, and he was one of the nicest guys on late night TV. You hoped he would be kind about it all. Maybe, if you were lucky, he wouldn’t even bring it up. To make the night even better, you would be sharing the couch with Jake, Jacob, and Zendaya. You knew you’d be a little bit more at ease with them there.
Everything about the interview was going fine at first. Jimmy was asking you all questions about the film and what life behind the scenes was like with such a crazy cast. After the commercial break, Jimmy informed the audience that you would be playing a game. The game, of course, had already been approved by your PR team. That didn’t mean you had any idea what it was.
“We’ve asked Twitter to send in their best questions for never have I ever,” Jimmy said. “Now, I’ve not seen any of these questions, but they have been cleared by our team.” Jimmy handed the five of you paddles that read I HAVE on one side and NEVER on the other. “I will be playing too, because I think it’s only fair,” he said with his usual smile.
You could hear your heart beating in your ears, but you painted on your superstar smile to mask your nerves. Surely the questions wouldn’t be that bad if Jimmy’s team cleared them.
“From Paula comes, Never have I ever danced naked in the rain,” Jimmy said.
“In the rain?” Tom said.
“Naked?” Jacob clarified. Jimmy nodded with a laugh as he flipped it to the NEVER side. Everyone put NEVER except Jacob.
“Alright, Jacob?” Tom laughed.
“Listen, we’ve all had some wild nights, alright?” he said. “This is a judgement free couch.”
“Alright, next,” Jimmy said with a laugh, “comes from John: Never have I ever joined the mile high club.”
You and Tom looked at each other for a millisecond that you hoped wasn’t caught on camera. Even though it was a lie, you put NEVER. There were some things you just weren’t going to reveal about yourself, even if the whole world had already seen you naked. Jake put I HAVE, and swore he wouldn’t say who he joined with. 
“From Alex: Never have I ever-” Jimmy cut himself off with an awkward laugh. You could tell he wasn’t too thrilled with the questions either. You wondered if someone would get fired after this. “Never have I ever been naked in public.” More questions went by like that: smoked a joint, slept with someone twice or half my age. All things that could stir up PR nightmares and just made you into a liar. 
Jimmy started to read the next. “From Kayla: Never have I ever-” It was evident he was upset, and you wondered for a moment if he’d even read it aloud. “Never have I ever taken a nude photo.”
Laughter spread across the audience as you all played with the paddles in your hands. You couldn’t even get yourself to look at the camera, and Jimmy threw his paddle over his shoulder. “Whoever picked these questions,” he said with a slight laugh, “is in for a stern talking to tonight.”
“Honestly, what did they expect?” Jake asked. “You give us these paddles, and you really think we’re suddenly going to answer these questions? Like Yeah!” He waved his own paddle in the air. “I’ve done all the drugs! Cocaine, heroine! Marijuana is a pussy’s drug.” At this point, you couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or serious. Still, the audience laughed, and Jake threw his paddle behind him too. He looked at the camera and pointed at it. “We know what you sick perverts want,” he said, “but listen here. These kids-” He pointed at you, Tom, Zendaya, and Jacob. “-are media trained superstars, alright? You really think that Tom “Spider-Man” Holland is gonna stand up and say, This morning, I woke up, rolled a joint-” He was doing a terrible British accent while miming his actions and had everyone dying. “-and then took a dick pic before running through the streets of Los Angeles butt ass naked? You really think this guy is gonna say that? They’re not gonna say that!”
Zendaya took the paddle from Tom and took yours as well, then put them together so the I HAVE sides were touching and both sides of the paddle said NEVER. “They might as well say this, Jimmy,” she said, thrusting the paddles back into your hands. “Never, and never. Never. Never.”
“Yeah!” Jacob agreed. “You all are sick!” He folded his arms across his chest with a sarcastic huff, and everyone applauded him while laughing. You almost had tears in your eyes.
Within a few minutes, the show went to commercial break, and Jimmy apologized profusely to the five of you, mostly to you and Tom since everyone knew the questions were directed more at you. “I honestly had no idea what the questions were,” he said. “I have no idea why they were cleared.”
“It’s fine,” you said. “I think it’s safe to say though that you guys-” You looked at Jake, Zendaya, and Jacob. “-saved us.”
“We’ve always got your back,” Zendaya said, giving your arm a comforting squeeze. You smiled and laid your head on her shoulder while Jacob reached out and squeezed your hand. Jake was talking quietly to Tom, and you could see in both of their eyes that Jake was saying something meaningful. Tom was smiling appreciatively and nodding along.
By the time you and Tom got back to your hotel, the clip of you on Jimmy’s show was already trending. You showed Tom all the tweets, and the two of you shared a laugh. “Glad we can laugh about it now,” Tom said, getting under the covers of the bed beside you.
“Oh believe me, I’m still crying inside,” you said, “but the others made it a little easier.”
“And I didn’t?” Tom teased.
“You’re the one who got them leaked in the first place,” you said.
“You said-”
“I’m joking, div,” you said, hitting him with one of the pillows. Tom laughed and lightly smacked you back. You eventually curled back up to his side, and Tom put his arm around you.
“In all seriousness,” he said, “I’m really sorry this all happened.” You looked up at him to see him already looking down at you. “It’s not fair that this shit is already happening to you. I feel like, like I’m supposed to protect you, you know? And I just fucked that right up.”
“You don’t need to protect me,” you said. “That’s an extremely outdated gender role.” You placed a kiss to his neck, just below his jaw. “But I appreciate you looking out for me. We can’t control the rest of the world. Just ourselves. Just because I can’t trust the rest of the world to respect my privacy doesn’t mean I can’t trust you.”
You were both quiet for a long time, and just when you thought Tom had dozed off-
“You’ll still send me nudes when I’m away, right?”
“I hate you.”
----- ----- ----- -----
TAGLIST
@bangtan-serendipity | @planetdemon | @the-singing-clown406 | @tomshufflepuff | @bluelalal | @grandloser | @jackiehollanderr | @mindset-jupiter | @bisexual-sk8r | @feel-like-gold | @runaway-apple | @miraclesoflove | @marvelismylifffe| @wonderbyers | @coraz0ndcristal| @lizmarvel​ |  @hannihannelora
417 notes · View notes
bangtan-gal · 5 years
Text
Unseen
Hwang Hyujin x Fem!Reader gang!au powers!au Warnings: implied smut, swearing, attempted murder (kind of??), major angst i’m really sorry oops, dubious consent, excessive drinking, theres a lot of backstabbing in this, y/ns character is very questionable, dfhdohfdihfsh Word count: 10.3k once again im really sorry, this is kind of dark and sad and oopsies? And although I’m pretty sure people know this, I’m just going to put a disclaimer that this is not how I see any of these members. The characters created in this were just for the sake of the plotline. Thank you!
Tumblr media
The hum of the bar sounded far away as you shifted the white powder into thin lines. Your friends crowded around you, swaying in excitement as they waited for you to finish your assault on the drugs. Once you did, you stepped back, allowing them to sniff it up like a bunch of dogs. Laughter and cheers broke out as someone finished first and you clapped along with them. Puppy dog stares were thrown your way as the coke completely disappeared and you pulled another bag out with a roll of your eyes. 
A smirk pulled over your lips as another round of applause consumed the place. You stepped away, letting your friends decide how they distributed the drugs. With a sigh you slid into the booth, taking a sip from your water bottle. The feeling of a thousand eyes watching you made you feel itchy, but you forced yourself to remain cool as you kept your interest on your friends’ actions. That was the biggest problem of being your father’s daughter: the constant attention, the judging, the silent whispers when you passed by. As stupid as it sounded, these people viewed you as if you were a god of some sort. It made no sense considering that you had nothing to do with the business and you never would. You had zero interest in your father’s business, but it was just the fact that your father was so respected that had people watching every little thing you do. 
And you knew what they said whenever they say you. ‘Is she really his daughter?’ ‘How could someone so smart have such a troublemaker as a child?’ ‘Does he know what she does when his back is turned?’ Your father did know what you did and whether he approved or not, he said nothing. It had been made clear ever since you were old enough to understand that the only thing you shared with your father was blood. As long as you smiled and looked pretty for the cameras, you were free to be as stupid as you wanted. And that’s exactly what you did. 
“It must suck to be compared to him all the time.”
You pretended to be surprised as you craned your neck to meet the stranger’s gaze. You’d seen him staring you down earlier and had watched with a sly smirk as he approached as carefully as he could. He tilted his head, his sandy blonde hair—obviously dyed—shifting along his forehead. He reminded you of the pretty boys you always ran into at the gala, from the expensive, but casual dress to the cold, calculating stare that burned in his eyes as he observed you. But like every other time, you decided to bite the hook he threw your way to see what he was attempting to sell. 
“A bit,” you hummed, turning away and sipping your water again. If he wanted to talk, he’d have to sit down in your eyesight. You weren’t going to give him the ego boost of turning to look up at him. You forced your smirk away as he sat down in the booth with you. “But it stopped affecting me a long time ago.”
He nodded, gaze flicking to where your friends argued over the splitting of the drugs. 
“I suppose I can’t relate to that one,” he muttered, “my parents aren’t really the kind to live up to.”
Your gaze remained cool, but the comment took you by surprise. At this point, most of the boys would be trying to convince you that both of you were in the same boat: overbearing parents, hating the rich life, miserable with their lives. Your eyes unintentionally narrowed, wondering what kind of game he was going to play at. 
Maybe he’s not playing a game. 
You brushed aside that thought. Not once in your life had you been approached by someone who didn’t have an ulterior motive. Their belief was that someone like you could get them anything. It wasn’t exactly a lie, you probably could, but their main goal was your father and little did they know that your father would never give you anything. His number one rule was that you had to get everything on your own. He built his company from the ground up, now it’s your turn. 
This boy just had a different strategy than the others. 
“I doubt you rebel to gain your father’s attention. Actually, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with him, right? This is all for your own sake.”
This time, you failed to hide your surprise. Your lips parted as you side-eyed, setting your water bottle down. He wasn’t even paying attention to you, he was just staring at the people who kept glimpsing over in your direction. You looked over at them too, eyebrows furrowing until they looked away with a sheepish gulp. You turned back to the boy, eyebrows raised.
“Got any more assumptions you’d like to make about me?” You asked. He chuckled and shook his head. 
“Well then, I suppose I should get out of your hair now,” he huffed, standing up. You watched as he sauntered away, back towards the bar. You bit your lip and then with a sigh, you stood up and hurried after him.
“Hey—look, I’m sorry about being cold, it’s not everyday a nice person approaches you in a club after you’ve just given your friends a bunch of coke. I’d like to talk a bit more…” you trailed off, uncertain of what exactly you were doing. You were never like this. “But let’s do that outside, yeah? It’s kind of loud in here.”
He grinned at you and then as corny as it was, offered you his arm. Your elbow linked with his, a sarcastic smile pulling at your lips as the two of you left the club. The cool night air was a relief as it brushed against your bare arms and you breathed it in. The crisp taste was a big step up from the disgusting smell of sweat, alcohol, and the bitter scent of drugs. The two of you walked down the sidewalk for a while, not saying anything to one another. 
“You know, if we’re being honest here: I didn’t know who you were until just a few moments ago. The people I was sitting next to were talking crap about you, but it just seemed like they didn’t know you at all and I wondered how they could be so mean to someone they didn’t even know,” he muttered, “so that’s why I talked ot you. I supposed I… felt bad I guess.”
You tilted your head, a small smile pulling on your lips. Then you ducked your head, face starting to heat up.
“Well… thanks. I guess you’ll need a proper introduction then; I’m Y/N,” you murmured, shaking his hand. 
“Hyunjin.”
The two of you kept walking. You didn’t realize it at first, but it seemed you were moving towards you apartment a few blocks away. Truth be told, you didn’t know what you were doing. This wasn’t exactly who you were: you didn’t just start making friends with outsiders, you stayed in your tight friend circle, using it as a protective shield. But you couldn’t deny that you were willing to let this guy take you to bed, for whatever reason. 
“Why do you let them treat you that way?” He asked. “The people that judge you. You’re not so bad, why let people believe that?” You stopped walking, staring at the ground in front of you. There were a few people who could see past your front of not caring, but they never asked you if you were okay truly on the inside. They never asked why. Although, you never asked yourself ‘why’ either and you weren’t sure you had an answer.
“Why?” You repeated, looking up at him. Then you shrugged. “I wish”—you coughed—“I wish I knew why.” 
Something flashed across his face, but it was too fast for you to be able to read it. He tucked his hands into his pockets, a melancholy smile on his face. 
“So, did you have any plans of dragging me out here or we just going to walk until we run into a wall?” He asked, successfully taking your mind off of your inner struggles. Then you shrugged, brushing against him. 
“Well, my apartment is right around the corner, I’m sure we could talk more there.” 
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
You lead him back to your apartment, swiftly unlocking the door and stepping into the place. You were glad you had decided to clean your place on a whim. When you turned around to ask if he wanted anything to drink, you found him directly behind you. His lips crashed against yours and you gasped into the kiss, your hands clutching at the front of his jacket. He pulled back, dark eyes searching your face.
“I hope this is what you meant when you said talk more,” he mumbled, laughing slightly. You chuckled, wrapping your legs around his waist when he hoisted you up. 
 ➻➻➻➻➻ 
Your phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. A loud groan fell from your lips as you rolled over, sleepily searching for it on the nightstand. Your fingers gripped it and you opened it, eyes blearily squinting at it. There were a bunch of texts from your friends, asking where you were. There were two texts from your mom, wishing you goodnight and you smiled at that. 
You shut off your phone and set it down, but when you tried to shut your eyes, they kept fluttering open from the light peeking past your curtains. And it didn’t help that it was freezing cold. Your arm flopped across the bed as you tried to grab your blankets, only to realize somebody else was completely burrito-ed in them. With a gasp, you sat up, pressing a hand to your head. 
“Ah, fuck,” you huffed. You didn’t even drink last night, but you must’ve been so tired because your memories were struggling to sort themselves out. He approached you, you shooed him away, but then decided against it and now he’s in your bed… stealing your blankets and completely naked. “Wow.”
You stared at him for a few seconds before deciding to just let him sleep and then you’d carefully nudge him out the door once he woke up. You pulled a sweatshirt and shorts on, stumbling on sore legs to the kitchen. It was embarrassing; your legs were all wobbly and there was a trail of clothing leading out of your bedroom. In silence, you made yourself cereal and sat down on the floor, spooning it half-mindedly into your mouth. Due to your lack of trust for people, you weren’t much of a ‘one-nightstand girl,’ but you decided to break it just because of some pretty, poetic-sounding boy? A boy with a suspicious purple, gradient tattoo of a tiger. 
“Do you always sit on the floor when you’re eating?”
Milk sloshed everywhere as your spoon accidentally dropped into the bowl. You glanced up mid-chew, staring at the boy. He was on the other side of the island, so all you saw was his bare upper-half; and it made you wonder if he had any pants on. His hair was a mess and his under eyes were puffy. 
“I didn’t have the energy to walk back to the table,” you commented. Your body shook as you stood up and the clang of you placing the bowl on the counter rang through the kitchen. 
Thankfully, he had pants on.
He shifted nervously, his gaze studying the clean, white interior. 
“I-I should probably leave,” he stuttered. You nodded slowly, watching as he looked around for his shirt.
“So was all that smooth talking last night just to get into my pants so you could go back to your buddies and brag about it?” You queried. He froze, staring at you. You crossed your arms.
“No, I—”
“That tattoo, that’s a gang symbol right? The big one that resides in the Deep City? Go you, you can go back and laugh about how stupid I must be to sleep with some guy after knowing him for ten minutes!”
He take a deep breath, eyes closing for a moment.
“I was supposed to kill you Y/N.”
For a split second, it felt like you couldn’t hear anything. Your ears started ringing and your heart just stopped. He had a million chances last night: you didn’t exactly keep a physical or mental guard up around him last night. You fell asleep in the same bed as him. Yet, you were still alive. Your mouth went dry.
“Th-then why didn’t you?” You whispered, eyes wide as you stared at nothing in particular. You couldn’t find it in you to look at him.
“Because the reasoning behind it was stupid, especially considering just how… how human you are,” he explained, “I guess it’s just the people I live around and the one’s I’ve interacted with always seem so inhumane that I forgot there’s people out there who aren’t stepping on anybody that gets in their way.” 
You could’ve died last night. 
Hyunjin approached you slowly, placing a hand on your shoulder.
“You were my mission and I couldn’t finish it,” he said, his hand slowly sliding down your arm and then letting it go. “But I fear that I may have put you in more danger than if I just killed you.”
You looked up quickly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He laughed, but it was high-pitched and shaky. 
“Chan is going to be pissed, that’s what it means. The point of killing you was sending a point to your father, but with nothing happening, he’ll continue to just go through with what he was doing.”
You watched as Hyunjin started pacing, his brow creasing and lips turning down. You were glad that you were still alive, but part of you was really starting to feel bad for him. Maybe it’d be better if he did kill you. This Chan guy must be fucking terrifying.
“What exactly is it that my father is doing?” You asked slowly in a low voice. 
“Your father has been getting in contact with gangs throughout District 9 and has been gradually cutting off the lower class from the trading cites. His business has become as successful as it has today because we gave him his start-up sum and we agreed to back him up as long as he followed the rules we set. Unfortunately by doing what he’s doing he’s broken those rules and we decided to send him a warning, which h—”
He was cut off by the obnoxious ringing of a phone. Hyunjin stiffened, pulling his cell from his pocket and staring at the device. Teeth dug into his bottom lip as he looked up at you. 
“Look Y/N, you should be dead. As far as my gang knows, you are dead, got it? I need you to stay low and not attract attention to yourself until I can think up some solution. I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And with that, Hyunjin answered the phone, muttered a ‘Hi Chan!’ and then raced out of your apartment. You watched him leave, heart hammering. But the fast pace of your heart wasn’t from fear—a smile was pulling over your lips as you remembered all the crap your father used to spew about building from the ground up. All these years you’d been forced to believe your father was some kind of god, but he was just as human as everyone else: a human who had gotten himself in quite a mess.
You gave yourself an hour to get ready before you slid into your car and raced towards your father’s work. Around this time he’d probably be enjoying a salad in his office, reading through the newspaper, and probably muttering to himself about what he would be doing if he wasn’t stuck in his office. Your palms grew sweaty as you pulled into a staff parking spot and made your way into the building, waving at the receptionist as you passed by to the elevator. You stared back at yourself in the doors as they closed, thinking through what you’re going to say. 
Your chin stayed high as you marched down the hallway towards your father’s office. The door was cracked open and as you peeked in, you were slightly pleased to see that you were right. You swung the door open, letting it loudly bang against the door stopper before you fully stepped into the large space. He looked up, both eyebrows raised as you strutted towards the desk, plopping yourself down in the seat. Your father chewed his salad slowly, fork hanging halfway between his mouth and the container. He set down the fork and swallowed, wiping his mouth.
“What brings you here Y/N? I thought you’d still be bed around this time, nursing a hang over,” he grumbled. You scoffed, crossing your arms and leaning back in the seat. 
“Don’t act like you know me so well; ‘cause if you did, you’d know I don’t drink,” you muttered, “and I came here to talk about business. I mean, why would I visit you in the dainty little work place if it wasn’t to talk about something work-related?” 
Your father looked more disappointed than the time you came in to tell him you crashed your new car. He didn’t prompt you as to what you came to talk about, instead he went back to eating his stupid leaves. A grinding noise filled your head as you pressed your teeth together and out of defiance, you threw your legs onto the desk. He didn’t even flinch. 
“I heard you’ve been talking to some gangs—what are you planning? Going to start some trouble?” You snapped. That caught your father’s attention, although you had to have a trained eye to notice it. He only paused his chewing for a second, one of his eyebrows ticking upwards slightly and his nostrils flaring. You bit your lip to hold back a smirk. “Are you trying to use them to get out of whatever agreement you’re stuck in? Maybe try to get info out of them?”
You paused, tilting your head, but your father refused to grace you with a reply. 
“I think it’s funny that you’re doing that, considering how you made an agreement with that one gang—Miroh—isn’t it? They’re the ones who invested in your company and they can probably topple everything you’ve created with just a bat of an eyelash, but you still have the guts to go against them? Sometimes I really have to wonder if we’re actually related,” you hummed, looking down at your nails.
“How do you know all of this?” His voice was dry as he asked the question. You looked up, feigning surprise.
“Oh so now you want to talk?”
“Y/N, tell me how you know all this? Who told you all this?” He snarled, tossing your feet off the desk. You refused to let yourself flinch, keeping your gaze cool as you stared him down. You leaned forward, elbows resting on your knees.
“Do you really want to know, father? Do you want to know how they were planning to kill me in order to get to you? And how I so willingly let one into my apartment; and not just my apartment, but my bed and well, m—”
He cut you off by pounding on his desk. “You’re lying—if they wanted you dead, you’d never see the light of day.”
“You don’t seem too upset by the idea of me getting slaughtered by one of your friends.”
You couldn’t help but smile, seeing just how ticked off your father was. It may have been childish, but getting under his skin was one of the few things that brought joy to you. 
“It’s true, but the one he sent wimped out for whatever reason. Told me to ‘lay low’ as to not attract Chan’s attention. He also told me about what you’ve been doing: so is it true? Are you drabbling with other gangs? What are you getting into; drugs, sex-trafficking, using them to kill people who get in your way? What about cutting off those who can’t pay for the luxuries you bring to this district? Why would you do that? You’ve always hosted a fair business so that everyone would have a chance to get up on their feet and survive; why decide to stop helping those in need now?” You kept firing the questions, watching as his eyes got darker and darker. He took a deep breath, eyes closing for a millisecond, before he opened them again to stare you down. 
 “At the end of the day, Y/N, this is my business and it’s my decision what I do with it. I don’t understand why you care so sud—”
“Because I’m not going to be killed because someone wants to soil your name. I don’t even owe you that much.”
Silence followed after that. It was a truly amazing sight. You had never seen your father look so stumped by something you’d said before. He’d always kept the same, blank, uncaring face on whenever you would talk. But now he sat in front of you, mouth hanging slightly open. You had more to say—a lot more actually—but feeling like you just had the last word was a pretty good feeling; so you stood up, gave your father a tight-lipped smile, and then left the office. 
 ➻➻➻➻➻   
A week later and you found yourself stuck in your parent’s home, eating a pint of ice cream all by yourself. You had been arrogant to believe you’d make your father stop was whatever he was doing with the half-assed speech you gave him. He continued with whatever business he had with a few of the gangs throughout District 9 and to keep you safe from Miroh, he demanded you come home and hide behind the tall walls and many bodyguards of this place.
“You know your father doesn’t like you eating in the living room, Miss Y/N,” Hattie, the butler, murmured as he stepped into the room. You took another large spoonful of the ice cream.
“Yeah? Well tell him I don’t like my life being threatened because of his dumbass actions.”
You didn’t even like vanilla ice cream, but it was the only sweet thing you could find in the hellhole. 
Hattie cleared his throat, “well, you are expected to be ready by six tonight for your father’s banquet. This isn’t something you can ditch.”
You opened your mouth to argue, but he tutted at you and motioned you upstairs. With a loud groan, you stood up and dragged yourself upstairs to take a shower. Nearly an hour later, you stepped out and made your way to your room. A long dress was draped across your bed, a sticky note attached to the top. It was a note from your mom, saying you looked good in black with a little smiley face. No matter how much you hated your father’s little events, you couldn’t go against your mother’s wishes. Making her happy was one thing you could properly commit yourself to. 
You took your time getting ready, not bothering to pay attention to the time. The dress highlighted your body where you needed it and the black silk did look good on you. You curled your hair at the ends and kept the makeup application light. You stared yourself down in the mirror for a few seconds, wondering how tonight would go. There would be cameras and interviews and all you had to do the whole time was keep a smile on your face and pretend like you were your father’s number one supporter. You turned as the door opened and sighed when Hattie stepped in.
“Your car is waiting,” he murmured. You grumbled a thanks and grabbed a pair of white heels and followed him downstairs to the car. Neither of your parents were there, instead there were three bodyguards seated in the car. Your expression fell as you slid into the passenger’s seat, eyeing the bulky trio in the back. 
“You guys are going to look terrible in pictures,” you grumbled. 
The ride there was painfully tense and quiet. The chauffer wished you luck as he dropped you off and you thanked him for the ride before walking into the hall. It was already almost full, businessmen and women conversing and milling through the place. You wandered through, eyes searching the place desperately for your parents. You spotted your mother quickly and hurried towards her. She smiled at you, offering you the second flute of champagne that she held. 
“Well it seems I was right, you look stunning in that dress,” she murmured, smiling at you over the glass, “of course, you always look beautiful.”
“Thanks, m—”
“Obviously you got it from me!” She flipped her hair. Then she patted you on the shoulder and slid away, smiling and welcoming the guests. You stood there, clutching the flute in your hands, watching as people moved around you. You faltered as your gaze settled on a tall and lean figure dressed in all white, with an oddly familiar mop of blonde hair. As if sensing your stare, the boy turned around, eyes widening when he saw you there. At first, you thought it was surprise, but instead, horror was painted across his face. As quickly as he could he pushed through the throng towards you.
“What are you doing here?” He asked, sounding breathless once he was in front of you. You snorted.
“This is my father’s banquet, did you just expect me to stay at home with a bowl of cereal?” You snapped. Hyunjin glanced around, his hand wrapping around your bicep.
“Ok I get that, but the problem is that you’re supposed to be lying low,” he hissed. You frowned, eyeing the sea of people, starting to question what or who Hyunjin was scared of. Then you paused, breath hitching slightly.
“What are you doing here? Where're your friends?” You whispered, unconsciously pressing closer to him. “Please don’t tell me—”
His expression said it all. You cursed under your breath, worrying where your mother was.
“Chan… still believes you’re dead,” he muttered, “but since your father hasn’t changed at all… he decided to take matters into his own hands.”
“And what exactly does that entail?” You asked. It was then that you realized Hyunjin was slowly starting to usher you through the crowd, pushing you towards the doors. “Hey, wa—” “Hyunjin!” 
The boy stiffened and you did too, head jerking up as two boys dressed in similar suits appeared. One had light brown hair while the other had black. The brown-haired one’s gaze shifted from Hyunjin to you and from just the stare, you felt dead. Part of you wished Hyunjin had killed you because the look of pure, uncontrolled rage really had you fighting the urge to pee. His gaze shifted back to the blonde.
“Why is she still alive?” 
Hyunjin awkwardly laughed, “uhhh… surprise?”
Both of their expressions showed that they were definitely not impressed by this surprise.
“That’s why nothing changed, dammit,” the black-haired one huffed, silver eyes flashing as he looked towards you. You looked down, not liking the energy either boys were giving off. Was this your execution? If it was you hoped it was quick and you prayed they didn’t chop your head off. You wanted to be buried as one piece—rest in peace, not pieces. 
“Chan, come on, I know we’ve done some really radical things in the past, but… she’s an innocent human. Why should we be dragging her into this?” Hyunjin pleaded. 
“Yeah!” You piped up, “my dad doesn’t even like me… he’d probably just continue anyway…”
You trailed off, lips pursing as the one you assumed was Chan stared you down. 
“Is everything okay over here?” One of your bodyguards walked over, expression calm as he surveyed the three. This was just getting better. Chan eyed the bodyguard, then looked around at the people around you. Some had started to watch. He cleared his throat.
“I apologize for the mess.”
The bodyguard frowned. But before you could stay around to figure out what he was planning, Hyunjin grabbed your hand and dragged you out behind him. He carelessly shoved people out his way and burst through the doors. You sprinted behind him, just barely managing to keep up with your high heels on. 
Then you just stopped running. You tried to keep going, but your body was no longer listening to you. Hyunjin turned around, face paling once he saw your face. Exhaustion started to pour into you and keeping your eyes open became a chore. Hyunjin cursed and started physically dragging you. You proved to be much heavier than he anticipated.
“Minho, come on, get the fuck out of her! You and I both know this is completely wrong,” he growled, pulling on your arms.
“Chan ordered it Hyunjin, it’s pretty simple,” your mouth moved, but the voice that came out of you was different. It was deeper and more husky. “Now not only will she die, but I fear that you won’t see another day.”
“And what will killing her do?” He snapped back, pulling more desperately on you, “her father has no regard for her. He’d grieve for maybe a day, but then go back to what he was doing.”
“You and I both know that her death is more for political reasons than anything else.”
You didn’t like talking about your death as if this wasn’t your body. 
The blonde paused and then met your stare.
“You recover pretty fast from any damage your host takes, right? But I doubt you do from any damage your actual body does.”
You wish you knew what the living fuck was going on. Hyunjin disappeared before your eyes and without your consent, your body turned around, gaze searching the area. And then you gasped and there was a sharp pain in your head. You slumped onto your knees, pressing your fingers to your temple. It felt like you had just come up for air after being underwater for a long time. Hyunjin appeared again and he scooped you up with ease, sprinting away. 
 ➻➻➻➻➻ 
“Why can’t I go back to my apartment or my father’s?” You huffed, curling tighter into the blanket as Hyunjin paced the room. He frowned at you.
“Because those are the first two places they’d look,” he grumbled.
You rolled your eyes.
“You know, I find it funny that you suddenly have decided to hide with me and ‘protect me’ once your life has also been threatened,” you griped. He stopped pacing, turning to you with a furrow of his eyebrows. His eyes glimmered and then he snorted, soft laughs following the noise. 
“‘Once my life has also been threatened’? My life was threatened the second I decided to keep your ass alive so don’t pull that shit on me. I was keeping you safe by not interacting with you anymore. How would I explain to Chan why I would be missing for a few hours every day? It’s not like I can just flat out tell him that I’m visiting the chick I was supposed to kill!” He snapped. He shook his head, pinching the bridge out his nose. “God, if I knew you would such a fucking nuisance, I would’ve snapped your neck without batting an eye.” You opened your mouth, but closed it, deciding not to poke at him any longer. You didn’t know what or who exactly he was, but the energy that vibrated off him let you know that you weren’t just playing with fire. Hyunjin’s pacing started up again and you let out a sigh, burying yourself deeper into the blanket. He hadn’t explained where you were, just saying that it would be a safe place until Chan found a different solution. According to Hyunjin, Chan was not one to waste time and was probably already had another plan of action. He said that they might try looking for you for a while, but eventually they’d lose interest and would stop. 
The place you were staying at was pretty simple. Almost everything was white: the walls, the floor, the counters, the couch, and anything that wasn’t white was a light gray. The simplicity was enough to drive you insane. The lack of excitement in the place made you feel trapped, despite it being said that white makes things seem bigger. You wanted to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.
And the only way to do that was by working willingly with Hyunjin. 
“Okay, but let’s say that Chan still demands both of our heads after he’s come up with another solution… is there a way to talk him down?” You asked, “or maybe there’s a way to get out of here soon and convince him to do something else?” Hyunjin shrugged, slouching down into the armchair. “Unfortunately, Chan’s really stubborn, even when he knows it’s not necessary. He might not try to kill you once this whole thing has blown over… but I doubt I’ll be as lucky.”
You didn’t want to feel any compassion for him—he tried to kill you just a week ago and probably could’ve cut you just seconds ago—but somehow this whole time, you’d missed just how much he was risking. He was still young now and the gang had risen up five years ago—he’d grown up with those boys and now he was losing that family… for you. He was losing his life for a complete stranger. He didn’t deserve any of it. 
“W-what’s your exact plan then?” 
“Make sure you’re safe and then I suppose I’ll leave and find somewhere else to live,” he muttered, shrugging. You shook your head. 
“You can’t just go alone—”
“Y/N, I truly do appreciate your concern, but you should be worrying for yourself. With you no longer being an option, Chan will come up with other ideas… that won’t hurt you, but I fear they’ll do something much worse... “ he trailed off, glancing at the clock on the wall. He cleared his throat. “It’s getting late, we should probably get to bed and we’ll talk more in the morning.”
You wanted to talk more, there was so many more questions that you had, but the exhaustion in his face stopped you. The two of you bid each other goodnight and then you walked to your room, carefully shutting the door behind you. You laid in bed silently for a while, trying and failing to fall asleep. You were wide awake, worry worming its way through your stomach. There was no way you were going to get any shut eye tonight. You sat up, clicking on the lamp beside your bed and then jumped.
“What the living fu—”
The light-brown haired man from before stood at the end of your bed—the own you assumed was Chan. 
“I’m not actually here in case you were wondering how I got in here,” he stated, “I’m actually just a hallucination your mind is creating instead of talking to a different voice inside your head. A member of mine has telepathy, if you’re curious.”
Your mouth opened and closed, but you found you had no words. Chan studied the place and then let out a sigh.
“It’s unfortunate you don’t know where you are or else we could hunt you down and get this over with.”
You blinked, trying to find something to say. 
“Why are you here?” You squeaked out. 
He let out another audible sigh.
“Y/N, I’m not a cruel man. Are my actions always right? No. I’ve always taken it upon myself to make sure that everyone here lives a fairly safe life and mostly behave under a stronger power. You were probably a young teen around the time that the JYP district cut us off and let us fall into a brutal world full of crime and poverty, so you probably remember that, right? I started Miroh because people should never live the way we lived and my goal was to create a power to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. 
“Your mother’s business idea offered a solution that we desperately needed. JYP cut us off because the docks were never safe, but by one simple form of transportation, they would happily start offering us goods again. So we offered them money. Now your parents are taking the money and power they have and using it so that gangs can help them rid of people that they no longer want to feed or help. I apologize that my first idea was to kill you and yes, I heard what you said earlier, but it seems you don’t know the truth about the business,” he stated. His head tilted, eyes glinting. “It is true, Y/N, that if your father was head of the company, killing you wouldn’t do a single thing. But, since it’s your mother who sits back and pulls every string and is the reason for every action that has happened in the company, your death would have worked to our advantage. Your mother was the… ‘all powerful mastermind’ while your father was just the face of the company. She was the one giving commands while pretending to be the perfect trophy wife and mother.”
“You’re lying,” you breathed out. Chan snorted. As the two of you stared at one another, you saw something that was more than a hungry predator. It was a strategist, a puppet master, that wouldn’t stop at anything to get what he wanted. It didn’t matter if that was true or not, because he already had you in his clutches. 
“Y/N, I’m here to make a deal and since I think you’re more like both your mother and your father than you think… I have a feeling you’ll accept it.”
You snorted, “you wish.”
He raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming on his lips.
“I don’t wish on shooting stars Y/N, that’s too risky for me.”
 ➻➻➻➻➻ 
  Several days passed in that apartment, just you and Hyunjin spending every single hour of the day together. The air between you two was tense, with Hyunjin becoming more stressed every day. You found him planning what he was going to do after this whole thing blew over and reading over his terribly made notes, you felt really bad for what you’d gotten him into. He didn’t seem to have much idea of what to do, except that he had to leave District 9 and just start over somewhere else. It didn’t matter how many times you asked him if he was okay; he just continued to claim that it was time for him to grow up and move on.  
 “So… you’re really going to go?” You asked, sitting down across from him. He glanced up from the stack of papers in front of him and shrugged. 
“Well, it’s either that or possible death,” he huffed. There was a joking lilt to his tone, but it wasn’t a good enough cover up. 
“Alone?” He searched your face.
“I mean… yeah. The only person I could really bring along with me is… you and I wouldn’t do that to you if it means you could live happily and safely here,” he explained, looking back down at his papers. “Plus, I doubt you’d want to come anyways.”
“I’ve complained a lot Hyunjin, but I do enjoy your company. You have a big heart and we’re all human, right? No one deserves to be alone.”
He laughed, but gave no response. Hyunjin continued to flip through the papers, writing down notes and pausing every now and then to mumble stuff under his breath. You leaned across the table, straining to see what he was looking at. 
Papers and maps of the other districts stared back at you. JYP was crossed out with big black letters spelling out “not an option.” SM district had question marks on it, YG had possibility written on it, and district V was also crossed out. 
“Why isn’t JYP an option?” You understand V—it was right next to 9 and wasn’t walled in and overly protected. Chan could storm in there anytime and easily find him.
“Chan has connections in JYP—one of our members used to live there,” he sighed, “and honestly, I’m still not comfortable with how close it is. At least there’s a whole district between here and the other capitols.” You nodded, although truth be told you didn’t know much about the other districts besides 9 and JYP. You had never been educated on the places beyond the border and had been raised to believe that this district was the best possible place for you to live. Even now you didn’t know much: you didn’t know how big the overall place was, how far away the other districts were, and if they were “known” for certain things. Hyunjin seemed to realize this quickly.
“We were both part of the generation that was raised to believe that leaving this district would do nothing for us,” he said, a melancholic and nostalgic tone taking over his voice. He seemed to zone out for a while and you wondered what he was remembering. It must’ve been childhood memories from elementary and middle school: during the time they’d been very adamant about that statement. “I guess the only difference between us was that you had to continue through highschool and I dropped out and learned from those around me.”
You nodded and stared at him, wondering if the two of you had ever been in the same school together. 
“You know that teaching wasn’t what the District 9 government wanted. JYP enforced that upon us: they were desperate to keep us in so that nobody would have any idea of leaving to go there. They were worried about over population or being overrun by ‘lesser, untrained beings.’ They were trying to brainwash us.”
“Is that another reason why JYP isn’t an option?” 
Hyunjin shrugged and continued writing down notes on the paper. You watched him, fidgeting in your seat. What would happen after all of this is over? Would you actually be safe or would you have to go with Hyunjin? “You know, I wasn’t lying when I said I’d go with you,” you stated. He didn’t look up, but you still saw the way his lips rose. You got up and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. Neither option felt safer: staying here and hoping for the best or following Hyunjin into an unknown plan. He was smart and seemed to know what he was doing, but you also had to take into consideration your other options. 
“Y/N, I’m grateful for you offer.”
You blinked, surfacing from your thoughts. Hyunjin reached over you, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet. Your body shivered as he brushed against you and the smell of a light cologne infiltrated your senses. 
“The only problem is that I’ve vowed to keep you safe and I’m not even sure if I’ll be safe beyond here,” he whispered. He didn’t move from his position—his arm rested on the counter beside you, glass in hand, chest just inches away from your back. You were total strangers and yet he cared more about your well being than both of your parents ever had. 
“You didn’t even know me,” you murmured back. 
His other hand fell on your lower waist. 
“You don’t have to know someone to know they don’t deserve to die because of their family’s actions…” he trailed off and you felt him lean closer. His warmth seeped into you. “Plus, I have to admit, I was pretty stunned by how beautiful you looked that night.”
You laughed, trying to brush it off as corny, but your body gave you away as your cheeks started to burn. 
“Really?” You mused, “are you talking about in the bar or when you had me pinned beneath you on my bed?”
Hyunjin chuckled, his chin resting on your shoulder and arms completely wrapping around your body. You turned your head slightly, meeting his dark stare. His fingers were soft as they reached up to brush across your jawline and gripped your chin. His lips hit yours and he carefully pushed against you. It was a completely different feeling from the last time, he was less persistent. It was sweet and delicate and had you feeling like you were waltzing through the sky. He pulled back, eyeing you through half-closed eyelids. A dopey grin covered his face.
“Honestly, I’ve been waiting to do that again.”
You paused and stared at him for a few seconds.
“You risked your life for me, despite me being a complete stranger,” you said softly. Hyunjin’s face changed, his lips starting to fall. “And you continue to do it… and we don’t even know each other.”
You turned around to fully face him.
“At least let me get to know you a bit so I’ll feel less guilty about everything you’re losing for me.”
A silent agreement passed between the two of you and you walked into the living room, both of you sitting down on the couch, facing one another. Hyunjin took a deep breath and then relaxed. He tilted his head, a lopsided smile taking over his face.
“Why did you join Miroh?”
He sighed, “going right in aren’t we”—he licked his lips—“I wanted a family. A real one. And when I met Chan I was offered the chance to live a life with other boys my age and grow in a close knit circle. I had friends that I could rely on for everything.”
Your lips pursed and you looked down at your lap. “And you gave that up for the sake of my life.”
“Y/N… I’ve killed innocent people before and I’ve always hated it. I guess you… were more like my chance to escape. To prove to myself that I wasn’t a completely horrible person,” he murmured. You nodded, trying and wishing you could understand the situation he was in. But despite growing up under similar conditions and probably only metres away from one another, the two of you had two completely lives. It was something you could probably never completely fathom.
“What’s your favorite color?” You asked, going light.
Hyunjin grinned. “You really like asking hard questions, don’t you? I like black and white.”
“I said the singular form,” you huffed. He shrugged and brushed his hair out of his eyes.
“Let me ask you a question.”
“Okay.”
“Would you actually come with me if I asked?” You faltered and looked away from his stare. You studied the curtains behind him and pursed your lips. You had offered to go with him, but the question was if you could. Could you leave behind this life you’d grown accustomed to? Did you technically owe it to him because this was happening because he saved your life? There wasn’t much here for you: you parents would never give you the company, you didn’t have any “real” friends, and sometimes you felt lost here. But what was to say somewhere else would be anything different? Although…
Although maybe being with someone who truly cared for you would help. Help you feel like you belong, like you have somewhere to call home. 
“I-I think it would be hard… but I think if you asked and really meant it, I would,” you whispered in reply. Hyunjin nodded and paused for a moment.
“I don’t want to be alone Y/N and I want you to come, but I’m not going to ask you to,” he stated, “I have a feeling that taking you away would do more damage.”
You didn’t want to dwell on that; you didn’t want to get caught up in some fantasy in your head and then get your heart broken. 
“Where are we?” “I can’t tell you, it could risk Chan finding us.”
“Right. Sorry,” you mumbled.
“No need to apologize,” he sighed and then glanced at the clock, “I’m going to head to the store, okay? Stay put.”
He got up and you let him leave. You had learned quickly that Hyunjin had a way of locking the door on the outside and there was no way to leave while he was gone. You let your eyes shut as you fell back against the couch, wondering what you were supposed to do. 
“Couldn’t have tried any harder than that?” You jumped, eyes flying open. Chan stood across from you, arms crossed. You opened your mouth, ready to point out that it wasn’t like you could pry the answer straight out of his head. 
“I have to say, I’m slightly concerned right now. It’s really hard to tell if you’ll continue with our agreement or if you’re going to fall for him and his carefully worded poems,” he snipped. He looked around, examining the place. “Y/N, I can tell that you’re starting to like him—actually, you already like him, but your feelings are quickly growing stronger. And I know that right now, you’re not happy with your parents lies, but you and I both know that going with my idea is a much better thought than following Hyunjin into the unknown.”
“You don’t have faith in him? He grew up with you, didn’t he? He must have inherited some of your wit and intelligence or whatever,” you snuffed, “he seems to have a good idea of what he’ll do.”
“What he’ll do without you. You going along changes plans. He’ll have to decide what is better: your safety or his life. I’ve been surprised how dedicated he’s been to you up to this point, but how do you that someday he isn’t going to wake up and realize that all this shit he’s doing for you isn’t worth it? He might just ditch you in some district you’re unfamiliar with and leave you to fend for yourself.”
You grit your teeth. “I don’t believe Hyunjin would do that.” “The only thing you know about that boy is his age, his favorite color, the taste of his lips, and how he feels inside you,” Chan hissed as he walked towards you. He crouched down in front of you. “Hyunjin was trained to survive and you aren’t weak Y/N, but he’ll realize quickly that his best chance of survival will be without you. Trust me. All of my boys have been trained to even ditch one another if it means they’ll see another sunrise.”
You blinked, leaning away from him even though he couldn’t hurt you. Your heart was starting to race. You didn’t like the position you were in.
“I’ve been inside your mind Y/N, I’ve seen your deepest desires and darkest secrets. I know you wish to belong somewhere, to feel like you have purpose in something. With this deal, I’m giving you that chance. So are you going to take it or risk everything you’ve ever known on a boy that has a million secrets that he’ll never tell?”
“I—” you cut yourself off as you heard the door click. You didn’t realize how much time had passed. “I’ll get the information you need to you by tomorrow.”
Morning came too fast. Your head was pounding as you sat up in bed. You groaned, but despite how much pressure was in your head and how sore your body was, you had to get this over with. . You left the room and made your way into the kitchen, staring at the empty wine-glasses and two wine bottles on the table. Of all the things you’d done in your life, you’d never felt this dirty. 
“One of my parents' apartments in Glow Town.”
“I can’t believe I did this just for that,” you whispered to yourself. You pulled your sweatshirt tighter around yourself, you were really fighting the urge to throw up. As you looked up, a boy appeared in front of you. The same one from that night—Minho you believed. 
“Well,” he hummed, “let’s go.”
He held out a hand and you didn’t ask a single question and just took it. Your stomach folded in on itself as you disappeared. You jumped into a new place—a fancy office. You turned around as you inspected the place and stared at Chan. He sat at the desk, spinning a pen in his hand, dark eyes concentrated on you. Sympathy burned in them. 
“Y/N I kn—”
“Can I please go shower?” You asked, your voice raspy. “I-I don’t feel the best and I think a shower would help.”
Chan frowned and glanced at Minho. Then he nodded. Minho lead you out of the office, being careful to not touch you. The place was nice: simple just like the other apartment, but it had more elegant touches. You noticed a few other boys as you passed through the halls, but none of them said anything. 
“Everything that you need is in there.” He opened a door and you mumbled a ‘thank you’ before stepping inside and closing the door behind you. You wasted no time turning on the shower and letting the steam fill up the bathroom. You stepped in and then slid onto the tile bottom, bringing your knees up to your chest. Your teeth dug into your lip and you pinched your eyes shut. 
Your cries were soft as you buried your face into your knees, body melting. It didn’t feel right to be sitting there, knowing you were safe while Hyunjin’s life was on the line. You gasped, covering your mouth and wished that you hadn’t taken the deal. You should’ve let Hyunjin leave safely. Your parents had lied to you your whole life and although your mother understood you, she barely took the time to talk to you and hangout with you. Would it have hurt that much to let them die? Hyunjin had only cared for you in the short time that you knew him. The least you owed him was a chance at freedom, but you took that away too. 
“I fucked up, I’m so sorry,” you mumbled to the air. You felt disgusting. You scrubbed your whole body down, not stopping until every inch of you was bright red. There was nothing you could do to get rid of what you did. It would hang onto you for the rest of you life. 
There was a knock on the door and someone told you to hurry up. So you gave yourself another minute to calm down and then stepped out of the shower. There was a stack of cleanly folded clothes on the counter and you quickly put them on. You brushed through your hair with your fingers and then stared at yourself in the mirror. Your eyes were red and puffy and parts of your arms were still red from your vicious scrub down. Dark circles sat under your eyes and there were teeth marks in your lip from where you angrily chewed on them. Then you bent down and searched through your jacket, finding the necklace you’d taken from Hyunjin. You stared at it and then tucked it in your pocket. 
You opened the door and found Minho waiting for you. He didn’t make any comment on the fact you’d been obviously crying. He led you back to Chan’s office, but this time he let you go in alone. You did and stood nervously in front of the table.
“Please sit.” “What are you going to do to him?” You rushed out. Chan tilted his head.
“What do you think? I’ve already sent a team out to get him,” he hummed. You swallowed and played with the end of your shirt.
“You’re really going to kill him?” 
“He went against my orders and betrayed the gang, he deserves much worse. I’m showing him mercy by doing that,” he said.
“But that’s really being thrown on my shoulders,” you deadpanned. Your hands curled into fists. This wasn’t what you wanted. You couldn’t take this.
“Y/N. you suspected what would happen, but you still gave me a location. We all have to deal with backlash throughout our lives. What you did was for the best.” He said it like it was so simple: as if someone wasn’t going to die. “Now, I put you in charge of your parent’s company. You don’t think it, especially now, but you’re a good person Y/N. You’re the perfect person to run this type of company—you want to help those in need, I saw that inside you. You just have to move on and not let this drag you down. I don’t want a repeat of this situation in the future.”
You slowly sat down in the chair, hands gripping the armrests. 
“Your parents already understand the situation. They know what happens if they resist. You’ll be announced as the new CEO in two days and in those days I expect you to go home and rest. Try to sort this out and not be such a mess that day.” He looked up at you and sighed. You probably looked like a charity case. “I don’t want you all teary-eyed up on stage. That won’t work in your favor at all. You need the general public to love you.”
“Yeah,” you huffed, “I understand.”
“Now,” he said, clapping his hands together and standing up. “I have a driver downstairs for you, so let’s get you going.”
Chan escorted you downstairs. The millions of stairs made for an awkwardly long walk. Neither one of you said a word, the only sound being your footsteps echoing loudly in the staircase. You stepped outside and you shielded your eyes from the sunlight. You were about to duck into the car when you were distracted by a commotion. A group of boys were getting out of a car. Chan tried to push you into the car, but you resisted, watching in confusion. Then you recognized Hyunjin, struggling against two of the boys. Your mouth fell open and you didn’t realize that you shouted. You stepped away from the car, watching as the three boys starting moving him towards the building entrance. Hyunjin glanced around and met your stare. For a second, you saw this look of relief in his eyes and something warm, but in a flash in disappeared. There was the startled look of realization and then the hurt and anger that followed.
“Screw you!” He snapped. You stepped back as he momentarily escaped his hold, lunging for both you and Chan. He spit on the ground, his eyes darting between the two of you. But his gaze still softened when it landed on you and you felt bad that it made you feel a bit better. Hyunjin paused and licked his lips. His voice cracked. “I really can’t fucking believe you.”
A shaky breath escaped you as the boys managed to get him under control and he was dragged away. This was your fault. You covered your mouth and quickly crawled into the car. Chan tried to bid you goodbye, but you shut the door before he could. You reached for the necklace in your pocket and stared at it as you were driven away. You pressed it to your chest.
“I won’t let myself forget you,” you murmured under your breath.
 ➻➻➻➻➻ 
A year later
  Your arms ached as you trekked through the grass. It was slightly muddy, due to the rain just hours before. The place was empty, not a single human in sight. Only gravestones with the occasional soggy bouquet of flowers in front of them. It was slightly cold, a light breeze pushing through your clothes. The sun wasn’t anywhere to be seen, leaving you with just the depressingly, dark clouds. 
You still resented Chan and hated the monthly meetings he forced you to go through, but part of you had to owe him this. Him being willing enough to have a small funeral for the boy and give him a gravestone. He hadn’t wanted to, but you had argued for this. Given it your all. 
A year had passed since that day. You still regretted everything and sometimes it became too much to bare But somehow, you forced your way through it and now you had a reason to keep going. Just a small reason, but it was good enough. 
You paused, staring at the stone for a while. It was a simple gray stone with no fancy carvings. It only held his name on it: no dates and no quote. There were no flowers or candles, just the head alone. You sighed and carefully crouched down, placing the bouquet down.
“That’s your daddy,” you whispered softly to the bundle in your arms. Tears pricked the corners of your eyes, but you smiled. You looked down at your daughter. She was awake, dark eyes staring up at you. “You should always be proud to be his daughter, Noe… he was the best person ever.”
You paused and took a second to wipe away a stray tear. 
“He would’ve made an amazing father.”
You brought her up to your chest and kissed her head. You stood up and then looked at the sky. She was your one reason to keep going. The only thing left of him that you had. You wouldn’t let yourself forget him.
And you hoped that his memory lived on with her.
ldufoehdfdlfhdofh i cried
230 notes · View notes