#nah man I just throw things in a pan and cook 'em and hope they turn out okay

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Day whatever the hell we're on now! 330, apparently. Which is an hour before the cat woke me up by screaming in my ear because he was out of food and water. Which, fair, that's a good reason to scream, but at 4:30 am and in my ear?! Jerk cat.

Anyway, Disgusted got redone and I'm happy enough with it that it's now inked and has the beginnings of color worked out! Tomorrow I'll finish that up, and then some time after that I'll figure out what to do with Shocked/Surprised and Silly.

Also, I made food!

I had a spare sweet potato and needed to use the last pound of beef from a 3lb tube of it I'd been using for Hamburger Helper beef stroganoff. Also included is creamed corn, beef ramen, garlic powder, onion powder, onion salt because I ran out of onion powder and it needed more salt anyway, black pepper, and soy sauce. It turned out tasty, but it also didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. If I do this again, I think next time I'm gonna cook the sweet potatoes first, then the beef, use beef broth instead of water to actually cook the things in, and add in some nice Parmesan cheese. Or I may just do it as a risotto; maybe fresh onion instead of powder will tie everything together better. Either way, I liked the taste and learned a couple things about cooking beef with sweet potatoes! Yay, me!

[seasonofthegeek]

The Next Ten Minutes

A Kiribaku ghost AU I’ve been playing around with for way too long because I have exactly three tricks up my sleeve when it comes to fanfic: ghosts, vampires, and portals.

“That was a close one, man.”

Kirishima squeezed his eyes shut with a whimper as he tried to shut down the memory.

“Bakugo? Katsuki!”

He sat up in his bed and took a deep breath, willing his quirk to stay dormant. The last thing he needed to do was shred another set of sheets this week. Twice was more than enough.

He concentrated on the quiet whirl of the fan above him. The weather had been getting warmer lately and he found himself leaving it on all the time. He knew the electric bill was going to reflect that but he doubted Kaminari would care. Now, if Bakugo was still living with them…

He shook his head to throw off that train of thought and kicked the sheets off his legs, swinging them around to the side of the bed. A soft blue glow seeping in under his door caught his eye and he went towards it, hope blossoming in his chest.

Ten minutes. He just needed to distract himself for the ten minutes and then he would worry about what to do for the next ten minutes after that. 

Kaminari was stretched out and half-dozing on their couch, his eyes mostly slits as an energetic green-skinned man on the television screen attempted to demonstrate a revolutionary fry pan.

“You should go to bed,” Kirishima murmured, picking up his legs so that he could slide beneath them and sit down, ignoring the empty armchair to the side. There was something comforting about the contact.

“Yeah, but this pan is so cool.” Kaminari wiped at his mouth, frowning at the drool he felt. “We should cook more. I think I would cook more if I had a pan like this.”

“You wouldn’t cook more.”

“I could cook.”

Unspoken words settled between them. Bakugo had done most of the cooking in their kitchen and it had been woefully abandoned since… 

Kirishima stiffened and pushed the thought away. “You should go to bed,” he repeated even though the last thing he wanted was to be left alone. Kaminari was useless without at least a few hours of sleep though.

“What time is it?”

“Closer to morning than I wish it was.”

“May as well just stay up then,” he shrugged.

“Don’t you have a patrol tomorrow, or today, I guess?”

The other man yawned. “Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” He stood and stretched before turning to look down at his roommate. “You okay?”

“Another bad dream. I’ll be fine.” He could see the temptation to ask flit across his friend’s face and he was grateful when all he got was a nod.

“Try to get some sleep, Kiri.”

“Easier said that done.”

“I can call Hitoshi again…”

Kirishima shuddered. “Nah, I’ll be fine. That kinda freaked me out last time.”

Kaminari nodded. “Come get me if you need me.”

“Thanks.” He watched Kaminari disappear down the hall and heard his bedroom door close. He glanced at the remote but it really didn’t matter what was on the screen. He wasn’t going to end up paying attention to it anyway.

Seven weeks. It had been seven weeks since…

Kirishima closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. He had to be able to at least think about it without losing himself. He’d survived the first ten minutes of being awake today; now to move onto the next ten. It shouldn’t be this hard still but he couldn’t seem to shake it. Maybe he and Kaminari should move. It might be easier if it didn’t always feel like Bakugo could stalk through the door at any moment.

It was okay if he couldn’t talk about it yet. He’d decided that and he was comfortable with it but if he couldn’t even be alone with himself and think about it…that probably wasn’t great. He should see the therapist again. It was dumb to quit going.

He inhaled deeply once more and steeled himself.

Katsuki Bakugo.

He tensed and felt his skin ripple. That was okay. If he needed to harden to do this, he wasn’t going to fight it. At least his sheets were safe in his room and the clothes he was wearing weren’t important. He’d stopped wearing Bakugo’s after shredding the first shirt and crying over it.

His mind cautiously pulled the memory out. The edges of it were hazy as if Kirishima’s mind was trying to stop him for protection but that was okay. He welcomed that extra safety; he needed it. 

It had been a hard battle. Three of the pros had been critically injured but they finally had the upper hand. Bakugo had led them fearlessly, taking out the last two obvious villains. Two-thirds of a city block was practically on fire but all civilians were evacuated and the villains had been taken down. Things were finally looking up and then…

Kirishima ground his teeth together. He remembered looking back at Bakugo with pride and relief. It had been without a doubt the hardest battle they’d fought but they were both still standing and no one on their side had died. It was a hard win, but it felt good.

“That was a close one, man.”

Bakugo snorted. “These idiots should’ve given up when we gave ‘em the chance.” He looked back at the burning buildings. “Accountant’s not gonna like that. Insurance either.”

“Yeah, it was necessary though.” Kirishima held up a finger as he shot him a tired smile. “This time. Besides, we got everybody out.”

That’s when it all changed. He remembered the way it sounded when the cloaked villain unleashed his quirk. He could see Bakugo’s eyes widen as he shoved his partner out of the way, the exact moment when his soul left his body.

Kirishima shuddered and his hardened skin creaked as he did. He couldn’t stop the flow of memories now. He heard the sound of Bakugo’s body hitting the debris-covered ground. He heard the muffled yells of other heroes taking the villain down. He saw familiar red eyes staring at him but there was nothing behind them anymore. They were wide and sightless and he remembered how bitter it tasted when he fell to his knees and vomited. 

He could only recall the funeral in snippets. There had been a lot of people there. He remembered someone helping him get dressed but he couldn’t remember who it was. Kaminari maybe, or Ashido.

The tiny agency he’d opened with his roommates had been put on temporary hiatus and Kaminari had moved over to Midoriya’s for the time being. He’d assured Kirishima there was room for him too when he was ready.

If he was ever ready…

The thought of going back out into the field now filled him with more dread than he could process. He could barely bring himself to leave the apartment.

Seven weeks. His savings would run out soon. He needed to get his crap together.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t realized it was a possibility that something would happen. It was one of the consequences of becoming a hero. Casualties happen. He just never imagined Bakugo would be one of them. 

He stared numbly at the television until the sun poured in through the windows, and with a heavy sigh, he pushed himself off the couch and shuffled back to his room.

_____________________________________

Bakugo cursed as darkness overwhelmed him once more. “Damn it, I almost had it,” he swore, closing his eyes and concentrating again. His apartment swam in front of his eyes until it settled into a mostly solid state. Kirishima was on the couch, his skin hardened as he stared into nothingness.

“Okay, let’s make this count,” he growled, glaring down at his hands. There was the slightest fizzle of smoke and his left hand began to fade away again. “No! Eijiro! Look at me! Kirishima!”

The living room melted away in a flood of colors and then Katuski found himself in darkness again. “Well, this is great,” he muttered.

He felt drained, tired, exhausted, and every other word he could think of to describe the empty feeling inside. He tried to ignore the darkness that surrounded him and opened his palm so tiny explosions lit up his field of vision. It didn’t matter though; nothing but inky darkness stretched out past the light. 

“I don’t know why I can do it here and not there,” he growled, causing a bigger explosion. 

There was no reply from the darkness but there never was.

His memories were hazy. He remembered fighting a large group of villains who’d decided they were going to take over the city. He remembered something bad was going to happen and then…

And then he was here, wherever here was.

He had no way to track time so he mostly used the times he was able to see his apartment to have some sort of counter. He’d been able to make it there thirty-two times so far.

Thirty-three times now, his mind corrected.

Thirty-three times and not once had he been able to get Kirishima or Kaminari’s attention. He wanted to be angry. In fact, he was angry but he knew why they weren’t out looking for him. He’d watched them enough to realize what had happened.

He was dead.

More than anything, it pissed him off. He shouldn’t have been taken out by some nameless asshole who was able to get in a cheap shot. He was Ground-fucking-Zero. He was the number one ranked hero in Japan who left his very-well paying position at the top agency to start his own just because he could. 

And now…

Bakugo forced another explosion and felt a familiar sting. It took very little to wear him out now. He wondered if that’s why he was stuck here. Maybe he needed to wear himself down to nothing before he could finally move on to what was next. His mind flitted close to the fear that there was nothing next but he ignored it.

One thing he knew for damn sure was he wasn’t going to sit around and just wait for something to happen. He would make it happen.

_____________________________________

“You look like shit, Ei. When was the last time you bathed?”

Kirishima’s eyes shot open and his body went still. He waited for a long moment and then exhaled softly. A dream. It was just another dream.

Bakugo froze in his place perched on the dresser. “Wait, did you actually hear me?”

Kirishima shot up, wide eyes swinging around the room. “Bakugo?” he whispered. When there was no reply he slid his hands into his hair and pulled on the roots, hoping the pain would bring him back to reality. “Just a dream,” he murmured to himself. “Ten minutes. Get through ten minutes and—“

“I know that ten minutes shit is from Deku, isn’t it?” Bakugo scoffed. “It sounds like something from him.” He straightened. “Can you see me or what?”

“Am I going crazy?” Kirishima turned on his bedside lamp and strained his eyes as they adjusted to the dim lighting. “If…if someone is here, can you talk again?”

Bakugo felt a small seed of hope blossom. He’d never made it this far. Usually by the time he thought he got through to Kirishima or Kaminari, he would get pulled back into the darkness. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move closer to the bed. 

Kirishima yelped and scrambled back as a soft glowing light appeared across the room and moved closer. He got ahold of himself and watched it warily. “Who are you?”

There was no verbal reply but the light began to pulse in a jerky rhythm as it grew larger. 

“Bakugo?” he asked, voice hopeful. “If you’re Katsuki Bakugo, give me some kind of sign.”

As if speaking his name had broken though one of the barriers, Bakugo was suddenly there, floating just above the surface of the bed. His face was screwed up in concentration and he only lost it when he heard Kirishima’s soft gasp. He opened his eyes to see familiar dark red ones looking at him in wonder.

“How?” Kirishima’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I don’t know,” Bakugo admitted. “You’ve never seen me before when I talked to you.” He tried to force himself down to the bed but his body stayed stubbornly hovering over it.

Kirishima swallowed and reached out a hand. “Is this real?”

“I sure as hell hope so.” Bakugo felt nothing as the other man’s hand went through his arm. They both stared at the spot with matching frowns. “But I’m pretty sure I’m dead and that pisses me off.”

There was a choked sound between a laugh and a sob and then Kirishima was covering his face, a wave of apologies spilling out between his hands. “I’m sorry. Bakugo, I’m so sorry. I—“

Bakugo felt a nagging pull from the darkness. “Wait! Not yet.” He ground his teeth together. “I’ll come back, Ei. Watch for me! I’ll come ba—“

Kirishima blinked away the spots from his vision as the bright light died and then he was alone in his room again. He stared at the spot he was certain Bakugo had just been in. 

“Is this real?”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

A tremor ran down his spine but he moved back enough to lean against his headboard. He was wide-awake now. Whatever had just happened was real and Bakugo had told him to wait so that’s what he would do.

He would wait as long as he had to.

Buy me a cherry coke?