#please read this in a super villain voice with dramatic pauses

[pomorosea]

do you think this is a game tumblr ? do you think i will stand down and take this ?? from YOU?

watch out… i will find your ceo and force him to step down if that what it takes to get my posts on tags.. you will be afraid of me…. the beast is unleashed….

i’d be very careful with where you slept tonight…..

[sugarmaplewings-fics]

Hoodie Thief

Pairing: Eijirou Kirishima x reader

Warnings: Fem reader, super fluffy and one of my favorites!

A/N: Is it clear to you guys now that I have a certain liking for this boy? I take no criticism. This is the oneshot that was too long for the hoodie headcanons I put out a few days ago, so here it is. I absolutely loved writing this and hope you love reading it!

Enjoy!

-Sugar

---------------------- ≪ °✾° ≫ ----------------------

You drained the last of your tea as you sat on the common room couch, a textbook abandoned at your side while you took a 'break' from studying to scroll aimlessly through your phone. You were nearly alone in the room, the only other student out at this time being Tokoyami. The two of you hadn't really spoken, the only acknowledgment of each other's presence being a subtle nod when you'd come in.

You were currently thumbing through Tumblr, half-heartedly hopping around on blogs looking for new writers to read from. Casually scanning through fics, you couldn't find anything that particularly caught your interest.

The lights of the common room had been dimmed for the night, stars just barely visible from the floor-to-ceiling windows set in the walls. You liked the sleepy feeling that pressed against the back of your eyes, your thoughts having slowed to a hazy stream after a long day of being active and awake. The darkness of the room wrapped around you like a blanket, comfortably enveloping you. You were truly a creature of the latest hours. The rest of your class was probably more or less asleep, but you had other plans, deciding to wait up for your boyfriend to return. It wasn't that late yet, maybe a little past eleven, but you were prepared to stay seated for another few hours.

Contrary to your resolve, a familiar set of footsteps made their way into the common room, and you glanced up to see your red-haired boyfriend. You broke into a grin. "Hey, Eiji. Back from your work study already?"

He caught sight of you on the couch and smiled back. "Yeah. Fatgum let us go early. There was some villain paperwork he had to do on a robbery we helped stop today and—wait a second. Is that my hoodie?"

You glanced down at the red fabric you were swaddled in. "Uhh . . . maybe?"

Tokoyami had looked up, silently observing your exchange from across the room with newfound interest.

"Dude," Kirishima said. "I've been looking everywhere for that for the last month."

"Oops."

"You said you hadn't seen it!"

You shrugged helplessly, flopping back against the couch in dismissal. Your fingers went back to their work on your phone—however, this time you were carrying out your premeditated plan in the case of you ever getting caught like this.

Kirishima smirked and put a hand on his hip, shifting his weight slightly as he held out his hand. "Give it back."

"Why?"

"Because it's mine."

Your eyes flicked back up to meet his. "Oh, ho ho, I don't think so."

Eijirou frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You see," you said, standing up. "In this relationship, there is no longer a 'mine' or 'yours'." A devilish smirk appeared on your face, pausing for a bit of effect. "There is now only 'ours'."

With that, you pressed play on your phone. The USSR anthem started blasting from your speaker as you dashed off, vaulting over the couch with Kirishima hot in pursuit.

(In case you’re interested)

You were a near-even match; your own speed aided by your months of training combined with Eijirou's leftover tiredness from the day kept the two of you sprinting around the empty first floor, trying to keep your giggles quiet for the benefit of those attempting to sleep upstairs and in the dorms around you.

Your song ended and you glanced down to start it again. In your moment of distraction, Eijirou took a final, valiant leap of faith and tackled you to the ground, pinning you to the floor under you.

"Noooo!" you cried out, the hand that was holding your phone dramatically going limp.

Eijirou shifted his weight so he could roll you over, giggles still bubbling up from your throat. "Now, about taking back what's mine—" His hands started to dip under your hoodie, purposely wriggling his fingers against your sides to make you squirm and giggle more. His hands hit bare skin, and he paused, confused, digits feeling around for some kind of undershirt or tank top.

A diabolical light stole your eyes once again, smirking at his discovery that you were just wearing the hoodie. 

"Forcibly removing clothing from a lady?" you said in mock horror, smile still playing on your lips. "And out in public too? That's not very manly."

His mouth fell open at your accusation, wholly defeated by what you had said and done.

"Whatcha gonna do?" you continued to tease. "Can't take it away from me now~"

Eijirou hauled you onto his shoulder, getting up off the ground. "Sure about that, babe? You're coming with me."

He lugged you over to the elevator, still laughing as your legs flailed and your fists playfully pounded against his strong back. Kirishima grinned and waved at Tokoyami, who had been captively watching the whole affair from his vantage point on the couch. Eijirou pressed the button for the fourth floor, the doors closing you in together. He carried you straight to his room, kicking the door shut with his foot before finally tossing you onto his bed.

"Now, about me getting that hoodie back . . . ."

You stuck out your tongue, sitting up and crossing your legs over each other. "Come and get it," you taunted.

Kirishima surged forward, wrapping his arms securely around your waist as he brought you in for a kiss. You happily pushed back into him, folding your own arms around his neck. He rubbed your sides through the cloth of the hoodie, eventually slipping his hands underneath again to brush over your skin. You sighed into the kiss, letting his tongue dart into your mouth to meet with your own. He started to slowly lift the hem of the sweatshirt, the bottom of your sports bra peeking out to meet the cool air of his room. Finally, you groaned in defeat, slipping your arms from the sleeves and letting him pull away to slide it over your head.

He danced off a few steps backwards as you pouted on the edge of his bed, having difficulty in squishing down your smile. Kirishima triumphantly held up the article of clothing, sliding it onto his own body for safekeeping.

"Okay, okay, fine. You can have it back," you said, crossing your arms over your chest. "It was starting to not smell like you anymore, so I was considering returning it anyway."

"Well, little miss tsundere," Kirishima said, folding his own arms in mockery at your position. "You had it so long . . . ."

An idea struck him as his voice trailed off. He buried his nose into the collar, inhaling deeply. He could smell . . . you. It was wonderful. The perfect combination of your deodorant, perfume, sweat, and even some hints of your shampoo and conditioner. Eijirou closed his eyes for a second, relishing in the traces of yourself you had left behind.

"Uh, Earth to Kirishima," you said from the bed, awkwardly watching your boyfriend sniff his own hoodie.

He peeked out at you, wondering exactly what traces of him you had been able to smell the first day you had come into his room and stolen his hoodie.

"You are going to wash that, right?" you asked him, staring dubiously at his far too-pleased expression.

"Not until it stops smelling like you~" He sang the last part of his sentence, letting his sharp teeth flash over the collar of the hoodie in his smirk.

"Eww, I got that out of your hamper and wore it for a month." You wrinkled your nose.

"Too bad."

You rolled your eyes. "I'd offer you one of my hoodies, but I don't think you'd fit."

Kirishima shrugged, finally taking his face out of the front of the sweatshirt.

"Now how am I going to get back to my room?" You gestured down at yourself. You were glad at the rest of your choice of clothing for the day; a sports bra and high-waisted yoga pants. It was okay with you to wear that around your boyfriend, but being seen by one of your classmates in the hallway might be a little too much.

Kirishima sighed and went to his closet, pulling out one of his t-shirts. "Will this do it for you, Princess?"

You happily took it, slipping into the red material. To your delight, this one smelled like him just as much, but you opted to be more subtle than your boyfriend; deciding to wait until you got to the privacy of your room before taking a deep inhale of the clothing article. "Thanks, Eiji."

"No problem."

"How long do I get to keep it?"

He thought for a moment. "Can you please just give it back to me when I ask?"

"Will I get another one?"

Kirishima rolled his eyes. "You drive a hard bargain. You're lucky you look so dang cute in my clothes."

You giggled, finally taking your turn to pull the collar of his shirt over your nose, eyes twinkling over the fabric.

Eijirou stared at you, the intense feeling of how much he loved you suddenly crashing down on his chest. He walked back to his bed, wrapping his arms around you and laying the both of you down. "I have decided that we're going to cuddle now," he bluntly stated, nuzzling into your shoulder.

"Ooh, do I get a choice in this?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kirishima said, suddenly letting go of you and rolling over so his back was to you. "I forgot how much you hate cuddles. I'll just be over here—"

"NOOO!" You tackled him, peppering kisses all over his neck, fighting to find patches of exposed skin among the abundance of the fabric of his hoodie.

He laughed, giving in to your tugging hands and rolling onto his back. You happily kissed his cheeks and nuzzled his nose, hugging him from above.

"I was just kidding," he said. "You get all the cuddles you could ever want! I'd say you get all the cuddles you deserve, but then we'd be here forever, and I don't think that would be very productive. It would be nice though."

You snuggled into his chest, happy he was there, happy you could hold him and wrap your arms around him. "Yeah . . . ," you said. "I love you. Thanks for being my boulder."

"Thanks for being my pebble."

It should be illegal how soft Kiri was in that hoodie. The two of you spent the next hour just holding each other in bed, conversing and getting comfortable with each other. Kirishima was right. You'd gladly spend forever in his arms. You both began to drift off, sleep finally overtaking your heavy eyelids.

---------------------- ≪ °✾° ≫ ----------------------

A/N: I snatched some inspo for this from Yagami Yato’s ‘Manly Kisses’ video on YouTube, so if you’re interested, go check it out! This oneshot was so much fun to write, I couldn't handle it! I literally had to take a ton of breaks to just sit back in my desk chair and squee. 

Make sure you're staying hydrated and active, kiddos! It's important!

Love you,

-Sugar

Taglist: @basicaegyo​ @iiminibattlehero​ @pyrofanatic​​ @xoxopam4​

[shoutogepi]

As Long as You’re Safe

Bakugou Katsuki

word count : 2.1k smol boi (blurb!)

[ ☁︎, ☀︎ ]  

themes : Soooo not really sure what to call this?? Kinda angst?? But super fluff ending :3

blurb : They are fighting a villain who has the ability to see into their opponent’s memories, and also convey scenarios and images into their opponent’s mind, making them feel like real life. The villain accesses their memories of you, and realizes that that is a very weak spot.

author’s note : idk i felt like I needed a fluff sponge to clean up that nasty first post haha so heres my best janitorial work!

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

🅃he air whipped past Bakugou’s face, eyes turning into venomous slits as he finally was able to see the villain he had been called in to handle. He had been on patrol on the other side of the area, but when his sidekick didn’t respond to his messages, a gut feeling had urged him to come as backup. The agency had called when he was already halfway there, confirming his suspicion.

This was the guy? Tch. Bakugou snarled at the thought of this wimp being able to beat, well, anyone. The guy was slender and looked like he had almost no muscle or body fat. But he had to have a good quirk if he had taken out a handful of people already, so Bakugou regarded him with careful contempt. The explosions in his palms stopped as he fell from the third story of the building he’d been perched on, hurtling toward the ground.

“Hey asshole,” Bakugou yelled as his boots touched the pavement of the sidewalk. He stretched his palms in a wicked manner, cracking his neck in a swift motion.

The villain turned, a look of disgruntled annoyance simmering to the surface of his face. A malicious smile overtook his thin lips, and a glint in his eye made Bakugou growl. The man faced him directly now, and the terrified pedestrian he had been toying with sobbed as they ran towards the safety of the crowd gathering a respectable distance away. Bakugou grimaced as he noticed the limp body of his sidekick, sat up against one of the storefront’s flower barrels with closed eyes and a pained expression. From just a glance, he could tell they were alive… but they probably didn’t feel too great.

“Ground Zero,” the spindly man smiled, but to Bakugou it looked more like he was baring his teeth like a rabid dog. “How nice of you to grace me with your presence! I didn’t know little old me could pull in a top hero.”

Bakugou barked a short laugh. “You only got me ‘cause of sheer luck, dumbass. I have no clue who you think you are, but you’re about to be very well acquainted,” he paused, rolling his right wrist for dramatic effect,” with my fists.” 

He expected a range of reactions from the villain. He had been doing this pro-hero gig for awhile now, so he’d learned the ropes-- and this guy didn’t seem like the type to have an ass-whooping quirk, so he could most likely afford to physically attack.

“Now that is an interesting game plan, Bakugou,” the villain stated, voice dripping with rancor. His words shocked Bakugou for a moment, and just as a thought formed in his mind, the slender man vocalized it. “Oh shit, this fucker can read me like a book,” the man paused, an amused smile on his face,” wow, you have quite a way with words.”

“Tch. I don’t care if you’re in my head asswipe, ‘cause your skull is about to be crushed into the ground,” Bakugou replied, foot planting behind himself and getting ready to pounce.

“Hmm, are you sure? Will you treat me roughly?” the man continues seamlessly, making Bakugou’s eyes widen in confusion. Treat him rough? Who the hell does this guy think he is? Was he hitting on him? The villain’s smile only broadened, the sneer on his mouth flushing Bakugou’s stomach with dread. “At least, as rough as your girlfriend likes it?”

Bakugou’s mouth dried at his words, body stuttering as he processed the them. Why the fuck was this freak talking about Y/N?

“Y/N, yes-- what an extravagant creature. I wouldn’t have pegged her as someone who likes to be choked. Are you sure you can handle fighting me? It seems like you had an exhausting night, and rest is important for the body.”

Bakugou’s breath is stolen out of his lungs, his wide eyes turning into furious crescents at the villain’s words. That was private! The villain’s words automatically triggered his memory, even if he was trying his best to push the image away. You, underneath him last night, shaking and whimpering and making that irresistible expression as he fucked you raw. A light blush bloomed on his cheeks at the recollection, but he shoved it away as fast as he could. His eyes met the villain’s again, but this time, the shadowy figure’s features had morphed into a terrifying grin, eyes bulging out of his skull with disgusting delight.

“Oh, thank you so much for sharing that with me. Maybe I’ll try out choking her myself!” he laughed, voice oozing with excitement as he wrung his hands together.

Bakugou snapped out of his surprised state, shaking his head and clenching his eyes shut. He just had to wreck his loser and then he could go home to you.

Nothing could prepare him for what happened next. He looked back up at the villain, and his stomach plummeted fifty meters into the concrete below him as he registered the horrific scene.

The villain was standing in the exact same spot, but he had his arms wrapped around your throat. You were trapped in his hold, big desperate eyes full of tears that slid down your cheeks and fingers clawing futilely at his hold. You were wearing that maroon lingerie from last anniversary that drove Bakugou wild, your hair clinging to your wet chin as you sobbed. The noise was enough to make Bakugou’s knees shake, his heart felt like it had leapt into his throat.

“S-Suki,” you whimpered, slicing his heart into two.

Bakugou’s lips trembled at your cry, his hands clenching into fists at his side. His voice was much softer now, and he was surprised to find it didn’t break,” Let her go.” His feet planted square, he stared down the villain with a burning determination, steam practically pouring out of his nostrils.

“Now where’s the fun in that?” the man chided, one hand leaving your delicate throat and sliding down your chest. Bakugou’s fingernails broke into the flesh of his palms as the villain’s hand ran over your breast, lingering there as he gauged Bakugou’s reaction. The choked sob that came from you made Bakugou see red.

Bakugou stepped forward but immediately regretted it as the villain’s hand on your throat turned white. He watched in horror as you sputtered, face turning pink at the exertion of wriggling in his hold, grasping at his hand to no avail. “Stop! Please!” he yelled, throwing his hands up in front of him and taking a step back.

“Ground Zero!” Bakugou’s eyes hesitantly left your figure for a moment, trying to find the source of the shout. It sounded like someone was calling him, but from somewhere far away… or like he was underwater. He looked around, realizing the crowd of onlookers had vanished, and the unconscious body of his sidekick was gone as well. Actually, you three were the only people on the busy Japan street.

Just like that, the gears click into place. Looking back at the villain, his rage bubbling inside, he snarled and pushed his body off the pavement, explosions dancing on his palms to seal the gap swiftly.

The villain looked irritated at being found out, but that didn’t stop him from snapping your neck. Bakugou tried not to look at you, but the thought that you had been real just a moment ago made his chest tight as your gaze glazed over and your body slumped to the ground. He screamed as he drew back his fist, concentrating his power on his hand just as it connected with the spindly man’s jaw. His head flew backwards, a sick crack sounding as his body was flung into the air behind him.

Bakugou landed on his feet, and braced himself for a second as he closed his eyes. Not real, not real, she is not real. Opening his eyes, he looked at the spot your crumpled body should have been, only to find that it was empty. He breathed out a sigh of relief, attention sliding back to the unconscious villain in the middle of the road. He ignored the cheers erupting from the crowd behind him, feet moving on their own accord toward the villain’s figure to finish the job.

It was hell waiting to get back to you. Bakugou had to wait for the police to show up and take the loser off his hands, then he had to pretend he was fine and sign a thousand autographs, and then to top it all off, he had to take his damn sidekick back to the agency across town. The suspense was killing him. Even if he knew that it was stupid… a small, okay-- maybe large-- part of him needed you in his arms, and to know you were truly alright.

After he was done with the agency, he nearly ran all the way home. Using his quirk to shoot himself through the starry cityscape, the wind rushing through his hair, his chest still felt just as tight as it did earlier. It seemed like an eternity had passed as he finally planted his feet on the sidewalk, hand grabbing the main entrance door and nearly ripping it off its hinges. The security guard barely had time to recognize him and buzz him in, and he sure as hell didn’t bother with a “good evening”. He beelined past the elevator, instead opting to dart into the stairwell and propel himself up to the sixteenth floor with his quirk.

His legs couldn’t carry him fast enough, and he dashed through the hallway with urgency. His eyes finally landing on the door, he prayed it was unlocked because he really did not want to blast through the lock but damn it, he might just have to. He nearly cried as he jiggled the door handle, confirming his fear. His palm on the metal handle, he closed his eyes and wondered if you would kill him for blasting through another locksmith’s fine work.

But then the handle turned ninety degrees, and the door cracked open to reveal your bare face, hair looking frazzled as you blinked at him.

“Suki!” your plump lips split into a joyous grin and Bakugou’s soul almost left his body in sheer relief. You pulled him into the apartment, shutting the door behind him and wrapping your soft arms around his torso. “I was so worried about you! I saw the end of your fight on the news, are you okay?”

Bakugou couldn’t say any words, his throat felt thick and his eyes stung as he crushed you into his chest. His head hanging down to sniff your precious head, his lungs rattled as he tried not to burst into tears. You fit so perfectly in his arms, he couldn’t help but thank the universe that you’re safe, and you’re here, holding onto him tightly as he barely kept it together.

You frowned at his silence, but you decided to comfort him anyway because he seemed like he really needed it. Your fingers brushed along his spine as he clutched onto you, gathering his emotions. You weren’t used to seeing him so choked up, but you knew there must be some reason as to why he’s so silent. “It’s okay, baby,” you whispered, making a small sigh fall from his lips.

He finally looked you in the eye, and your stomach fluttered with butterflies at his expression. “I love you, Y/N,” he mumbled, warm hands taking your face and pressing your lips to his. You hummed happily against his mouth, hands lacing behind his neck in compliance. He pulled away, one last shred of doubt left to address. “Are you okay?” he inquired quietly, almost bashfully. His gaze was directed to the collar of your shit that his thumb was playing with, and you took his jaw in your hands to make him look at you.

His scarlet eyes looked so concerned and scared, your heart ached for him. “Of course I’m okay Katsuki,” you answered, looking at him deeply,” I have you to protect me!” A small smile adorned your lips as your nails scratch gently at his scalp. “Are you okay, my love?”

One corner of his mouth quirked up adorably as he tried to put on his brave face for you. “I’m okay,” he whispered, eyes closing as his lips touched your forehead gently,” as long as you’re safe.”

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

masterlist (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ 

please stop by and say hi!! i’d love any feedback <3 thanks for reading!!

𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 © 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐩𝐢 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎. 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝.

[berjhawn]

The Mask Stayed On ~ 1/2

Batman / Bruce Wayne X Reader

Summary: reader and batman have been in relationship for a while without knowing who each other really are. Is this relationship really enough for Reader?

Warnings: Love, pain, conflicted feelings, some weird kinks, thoughts of not being enough, evil siblings, ETC

A/N: So This is technically my first Batman fic so I hope you all enjoy it. I’m doing little flics here an there as I try to figure out where my Series are going. I want to spend a lot of time on them to get them perfect, so for now enjoy these little one shots. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don’t really know how it started, but after a rather difficult mission one night, I ended up in bed with Batman. Then that one night, turned into another, and another; until it became routine for us to sneak around and meet up after a mission. We did have a set of rules though.

1.)    Never remove our masks.  

Batman and I were very secretive. Only a select few League members knew what his true identity was, and the only one who knew mine was Connor.

2.)    Do not tell anyone what we are doing.

I feel like this one was more implied than enforced, and lastly.

3.)    Do not get attached. If we do, it is over.

This one. This was the one that was now the cause of my turmoil. I mean, how could I not get attached to someone I was having sex with regularly. It was inevitable. Now, here I was lying next to him in bed completely naked, save for my mask, and he was fast asleep. As I stare at his profile, I couldn’t help but want to take his cowl off. I wanted to know who was beneath the mask. If things were going to end anyway why not sneak a peek?

Yeah right, I couldn’t do that. I sigh to myself as I climb out of bed and looking around find my uniform. Spotting it in the corner I grab it and quickly put it back on. Then opening the window, I take a deep breath and run. I usually didn’t leave before him, but tonight I had too. I was not going to be able to sleep next to him and not wonder what it would be like if we showed each other who we truly were.

Finding the nearest boom tube, I type in the coordinates for the Cave, or Mount Justice. I lived in the living quarters along with a few others. I wasn’t a member of the Young Justice, hell I was older than all of them, but I frequently went out on missions together with them. It was just nicer to be with a group of super kids, rather than a group of moody adults. Even though I was a moody adult myself. Reaching home, I quickly take a shower and then climb into my own bed.

~

Waking up the next morning, I found I was no closer to figuring out what to do. All night, I had been plagued by the what ifs. What if he found out I liked him and ended it? What if he secretly harbored feelings for me and was happy, that was the least likely result. Letting out a heavy sigh, I pull on a pair of sweats and a comfy hoodie. I pull my hair up into a messy bun before I put my mask back on.

Walking out of my room and down to the lounge I am surprised that it is still quiet. Maybe they were all out on a mission. Shrugging my shoulders, I sneak to the fridge and opening it, grab a pint of ice cream, I also grab a spoon from the drawer. Since no one was here, I move over to the couch and grabbing the remote turn on The Nanny tv show, the one from the nineties. It always seemed to boost my mood when I was feeling down.

I sit there for so long I do not even notice when I run out of ice cream. Now I had a stomachache, and I was no closer to figuring things out.

“Well, this just sucks.” I say to myself as I set the empty pint on the coffee table and leaning back on the couch let out a heavy sigh. “Dear Lord, how many times am I gonna do that today?”

“Do what?” I hear a familiar voice ask from behind me and I turn to see Connor searching the fridge for food.

Connor was the only one who knew who I really was. The reason behind that was because during a mission with the Young Justice members, Connor and I had become trapped under some rubble and my mask had fallen off. After that, the two of us bonded. We became best friends. I was able to be myself and not the superhero everyone expected me to be.

“Sighing like the emotional wreck that I am.” I joke as I dramatically turn and lean against the back of the couch making him snort.

“No, you’re not.” He replies grabbing a jar of Queso out of the fridge.

“If you bring that over here, I will steal it from you.”

“You’re not strong enough.” He retorts making me furrow my brow at him.

“Just because you have super strength doesn’t mean I can’t take it from you.” I counter making him shake his head.

“Why didn’t you go on the mission this morning?” He asks and I cock an eyebrow at him.

“Didn’t know there was one.” I reply laying my head down on my arms. “I was tired… and stressed.”

“Why were you stressed?” He asks and I shake my head.

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” I add making him shake his head as he grabs a bag of chips and walks over to sit next to me on the couch. Setting the bag of chips down on the coffee table he twists the lid of the queso off and tossing it on the tabletop grabs the bag and leans back into the couch. He holds the queso up in between us so that we can share, and I smile. He really was a good friend.

“How do you feel about going out later? You know that way we can talk about some things.” I ask making him cock an eyebrow at me in confusion. “Plus, there are cameras here and I’d rather not air my dirty laundry out for the League to see.”

“Sure, as long as there’s not a mission.” He replies shoving a queso covered chip in his mouth. “Your treat though.”

“Fine,” I concede making him chuckle.

~~~~

I stare at my reflection in the mirror and bite my lip. I was in a pair of black skintight leather pants, a baggy white blouse, my favorite black leather jacket, and a pair of black high heel boots. My hair and makeup were so on pointe, I would have asked myself out. I quickly slip my mask on and grabbing my purse, I head out the door and down the stairs where Connor was waiting with M’gann. I liked M’gann, but I did not like that she thought she could enter my mind whenever she wanted. So naturally, I would fill my mind with the most annoying sound in the world so she would not read it.

“Hey M’gann, what’s up?” I ask as I near them.

“Just wondering where you two are headed off to tonight?” She asks and I shrug my shoulders.

“Not sure yet. Depends on whether the bar is full or empty.” I answer honestly making her let out a heavy sigh. “You’re more than welcome to join us if you’d like.” I offer but she shakes her head.

“No, you guys go out and have some fun.” She turns back to Connor and says something with her mind to only him and I try not to roll my eyes.

“Okay, if anything comes up call Connor, because you know, I don’t have a phone.” I add making her nod.

“I’ll see you later then.” M’gann adds at Connor making him nod before he leans forward to gently kiss her lips.

“Be back soon.” He replies before turning from her and meeting me at the Boom Tube.

“Ready to go?” I ask and he nods.

“’Let’s go.”

~~~~~

“So, what you’re telling me is you’ve been sleeping with…” He pauses lowering his voice. “Batman?”

“Yeah,” I answer downing a shot of whatever was in front of me.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” He asks and I shake my head.

“I don’t know. I mean I have always admired him. He is human and yet he is one of the greatest superheroes out there. Plus, he’s hot. So, you know, he’s got that working for him.”

“Does he know who you are?” He asks and I shake my head.

“Nope, he’s never seen my face. The masks, never come off.”

“That’s weird, please tell me you know that.” He replies and I nod.

“I know, but what can ya do. The first time was an accident. But all the other times? Those are the ones I do not understand. I mean I’ve heard of him having one-night stands with girls before, so I thought it was just a one-time deal; but then he started searching me out after him missions, so I did the same.”

“You ever think about telling him who you really are?” He asks and I shake my head.

“Not gonna happen.” I reply downing another shot. “Then I wouldn’t be able to stay on the team anymore.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, I do, I mean what superhero league would willingly employ a relative of a villain.” I pause my brow furrowing. “Especially the one I’m related too.”

“They’d understand.” Connor adds and I shake my head.

“No one ever does.” I say sadly as I motion for the bartender to bring me another drink.

“(Name),” Connor starts but instantly stops not sure what to say.

“I didn’t come out here to feel sorry for myself. I came out to have a little fun, and also to get some clarity on what I should do.” I say letting out a heavy sigh. The Bartender returns with my drink sliding it across the bar towards me. I give her a wink as I reach down and pulling the glass up take a swig, I feel it burn as it slides down my throat.

“About Batman…” Connor starts making me nod, “I think you should tell him how you feel.”

“Okay? Why?”

“Think about it. If you tell him and he is okay with it, you two could get together.”

“But if he’s not?” I ask running my finger around the rim of my glass.

“Then that will give you the boost you need to end everything.”

“You’re right, however, if he says no, you know that means I’m going to leave the league right.”

“What? Why?”

“Well not permanently, just long enough to get my thoughts together.” I add and he nods.

“That’s understandable.” He adds and I nod. “You’d deserve that time.”

“I may even go back home.”

“Now that’s just fucking stupid.” Connor raises his voice slightly making me meet his gaze. “Do not do that.”

“I don’t want to ever go back there, but I’m afraid that if all this goes south and it gets revealed who I am, I’ll have no other choice.”

“You’ll have another choice, even if I have to find somewhere for you to stay so you don’t go home.”

“You’re a really good friend Connor. Even after you found everything out, you never turned against me.”

“That’s because I am you friend. I would never do that.”

“Alright, that’s enough of me being a Debbie downer, let’s drink, dance, and have a little fun, shall we?”

“Sure thing, (Name).” Connor replies a smile on his face.

~~~~~~

Dick heard the commotion first as he was sitting in the mission room running over some old files for a mission. It sounded like singing mixed with people laughing. Furrowing his brow, he walks toward the boom tube to see Connor carrying a woman on his back while she sang out loudly that she was bad at love. Her voice surprisingly sounded familiar, but he did not recognize her face.

“Connor, you are the best!” she cries out as she hugs tightly to his neck making him smile.

“Woah, Connor, who’s this?” Dick asks as he nears them his eyes looking her up and down.

“What’s the matter Dickie, you don’t recognize me?” She asks making Connor’s face turn white. He had forgotten to put her mask back on. “I’m king of the world!!” She yells throwing her hands up into the air.

“That’s (Name),” M’gann says in disbelief as she moves to stand beside him. “So, this is what she looks like.”

“She’s hot.” Wally says from nearby earning him an elbow to the stomach from Artemis.

“Okay, Connor, I hate to say this, but your muscles are amazing.” (Name) says as she starts to admire his shoulder muscles. “Put me down, I wanna play!” she yells out wiggling in his grasp.

“What the hell is she on?” Dick asks as Connor sets her down on her feet.

“She was stressed, so we went out and she got a little drunk.” Connor replies as (Name) pulls her coat off and tosses it onto a nearby chair.

“That was fun.” She announces a bright smile on her lips.

Suddenly she was all over the place. Bouncing up and down as she jumped from one place to another with surprising agility. I mean they knew she was a meta-human, but this agility was something new entirely. I mean she was walking on the ceiling for heaven’s sake. Letting out a chuckle, Dick pulled out his cellphone and decided to record the whole thing. Jason would get a kick out of this.

“She gets hyper when she’s drunk.” Connor adds shaking his head clearly used to this.

(Name) continued her little acrobat show for a while before she hopped back down and noticing Dick ran over to hug him. Letting out a laugh he let her hold him tight. It was finally showing how drunk she really was. She smiled bright at him for a moment before leaning up to his ear and whispering, “I know how big Batman’s dick is.”

And then she passed out.

Dick instantly shut the recording off. What the fuck just happened? Catching her in his arms, he lifts her up carrying her bridal style and turning to Connor says, “We need to talk.”

Will Continue

[icy-hxt]

can you tell me what you think about the kids at 1a?

hi anon, I'm sorry that I took so long to answer this, when I saw your ask I felt really lazy, because there's too many people in the class lol

this is going to be a long post, since we have 20 characters to cover, so I'm putting it under the cut

okay, first of all I want to say that I don't hate any of the kids at 1a besides mineta, BUT, I do have a feeling of indifference towards at least half of them and do dislike some, I always thought that the story would been benefited if there were less people in the classes, since hori would've been able to develop them better, so don't expect me to talk a lot about everyone. also, don't take everything that I say too seriously, this is not a character analysis, I'm just doing it for fun.

anyway, the order that I'm using to list them is their seating arrangement in the class, so let's start

yuga aoyama: I already said this here before but I really like aoyama, he's ridiculous in the best way possible, he feels like a character that horikoshi took away from ouran high school club or something. since the chapter where he and deku became friends were released I felt like he deserved more screentime, because his backstory about him thinking of himself as different than the other kids in the class because of his quirk being "defective" is really interesting, I always wanted to see more of his friendship with deku and he overcoming his fears (since he was shown to be easily frightened)

mina ashido: I LOVE mina, I think that her design is so cool and her personality is really likable, when we had the kirishima flashback and we saw her protecting her friends from machia even though she was scared too was the moment that I decided that we deserved to see more of her in the story, I really liked to see she having a bigger role for a female character in a shonen, I wasn't too bad in the war but I still want more

tsuyu asui: okay, this is going to be controversial because I feel like everyone likes her, but I feel really indifferent towards her, maybe I was influenced by one of my friends that really doesn't like her but since that scene where she says that going to rescue bakugo is the same as acting like villains I started to not care about her all that much, and yes, I know that she admitted that she was wrong and everything but yeah, I don't really click with her personality (but I don't hate her, please don't be mad at me kdbdgsusj)

tenya iida: ah, what a respectable little man iida is, I really like him, I think that the way that he take everything so seriously is hilarious, like him acting super dramatically in their exams to be as similar as possible to his vision of what a villain is. I really like how he grew since the stain arc and how he decided to be a hero that prioritizes the safety of others in detriment to fighting the villains. I'm really happy that he became the focus of the story lately and that he was the one who could hold deku's hand, I want him to have a bigger role in the story for now, maybe even encountering with stain again and showing to him that he's now a great hero

ochaco uraraka: I love her personality, she's really cute, and her fight with bakugo at the beginning of the story was a highlight to me back then, but, I feel like her character became too much attached to deku after aoyama made her realize that she likes him, almost felt like her personality was gone and her only defining feature was having a crush on him, anyway, thank god that apparently she's going to have importance right now in the story because she's too much of a cool character to become just the romance interest for the male lead

mashirao ojiro: denki playing with his tail is cute, I think that is funny how horikoshi always describes him as the plain one, it was cool when he refused to participate in the sports festival because he didn't felt like he deserved

denki kaminari: oh this sweet dumbass, I love him, he's so funny and cute, I think that is that funniest thing how he just decided to call bakugo "kacchan" and is super overly friendly with him and bakugo just lets him, I actually don't think that he's "stupid" as part of the fandom seems to think, I strongly believe that people can be smart in their own ways, maybe he's not the brightest in math for example but he already showed to be able to come up with strategies, I feel like denki has a lot of anxiety inside of him because of his quirk, but i also feel like he's really genuine in trying to be a hero, overall I really like him, he's really sweet

eijiro kirishima: this swee- I mean, super manly man is amazing, I feel like kirishima is for bnha what rock lee was for naruto, I really really really like him, I love his personality and I love even more his backstory, he's really a great person and he deserves all the love that he get from the fandom, I hope that we're going to see even more of him in the future

koji koda: he's adorable, his voice is really adorable the japanese dub, his quirk is like a disney princess

rikido sato: he bakes, I like cakes and pies, we would've been best friends

mezo shoji: since I saw that hori said that he uses his mask because people are afraid of him I'm impatiently waiting for his face to be shown, and if he doesn't look like a junji ito monster or something I'm going to be pretty disappointed, anyway, I like his personality, he was really cool at the forest arc (I clearly don't remember the arcs names, I'm sorry lol), and I feel like he could have a bigger role in the story if hori finally decides to address the prejudice against people with mutant quirks

kyoka jiro: she kind of reminds me of a girl that used to bully me in middle school because of the way that she treats denki but I still like her lol I liked how she learned that is okay liking to sing and music in general and being a hero at the same time, because after all a lot of people were saved by music and/or their favorite artists, but since I find her quirk so cool I wanted to she her fighting more

hanta sero: he's funny, even funnier than denki, he has a really relatable sense of humor and I love him for that, his quirk is really cool, but I feel kind of bad for him because deku now has practically the same one and he's not the only spiderman in the story anymore (his quirk being similar to spiderman was actually what made me like him in the first place because peter is my favorite hero ever)

fumikage tokoyami: my 12yo emo self shakes inside of me every time that I see him, anyway, I really like him, how would I not? he has a bird head, he's nice without being overly friendly and dark shadow is really cute, I don't really remember everything that happened in the war but I remember him saying to hawks that he believes in him, so I really wanted to see him frustrated at his mentor because of what he did to twice please horikoshi address the consequences of twice's death, I'm tired of waiting

shoto todoroki: ah my angel, shoto was the reason why I started reading the manga back in 2015, I knew that he was going to be my favorite just by seeing his character design. I love shoto, I want him to become the happiest person in the world because he really deserves it, I know that everyone thinks that deku is what an ideal hero looks like but o me it is shoto, he's kind, sweet, forgiving, has a heart made of gold and is just genuinely a good person, I could talk about him for a whole week without pause and still find more things to compliment about him so let's move on before I write over 10000 words about how much I love him

tooru hagakure: she... exists...

katsuki bakugo: while shoto is my favorite, I have to admit that bakugo has the best character development in the hero side of the story, I used to hate him at the beginning of the series but now I love him, a lot, he shows that horikoshi knows how to write a compelling redemption arc if he planned it since the beginning, I love that he started only having "fight" points at the entrance exam for ua to now having his first priority at saving people, bakugo is other that I could talk about for hours so let's move on

izuku midoriya: I like deku when he's not putting his nose at the todofam business, he's a good kid who needs some self esteem urgently, the way that he never seemed to care about his own well being always made me nervous, even though I never felt like he was in real danger, he's the mc for a reason, to summarize: I like him personality wise but some of the narrative choices that hori made for him are not my favorites

minoru mineta: I don't care, I hope for him to vanish from existence

momo yaoyorozu: she's the stereotypical anime girl with glasses (but without glasses in this case), I like her personality, she's really cute, her quirk is neat and she's super smart but, everytime that she puts her hero costume on... I feel super uncomfortable... this is not her fault of course but I think that I would like her even more if she was less sexualized

I could write more if I take more time to think, but I'm not going to do that today, if you want to know my opinion about other characters or something more specific about the kids feel free to send me other ask

also, I'm sorry if there's any atrocious grammar mistakes on this, I didn't reviewed the text and wrote just what I had in my head in the moment at four am

[hailing-stars]

@febuwhump day 20: betrayal  don’t say clown

summary

“You’d be dramatic too if you were about to get your teeth stolen and ripped from your mouth,” says Peter, shoving his phone in his pocket.

“Uh, ripped is not exactly what happens, and no I wouldn’t,” says Tony. “And I didn’t. As you constantly like to remind me, I’m a dinosaur. I’ve already had the privilege of having my wisdom teeth taken out.”

Peter huffs and digs his back further into the seat, as if he wants to disappear into it. “But do I really need to get it done today?”

“Do you want to be in pain when they start growing in?”

“No but-”

“Then yes.”

OR

Tony tricks Peter into actually attending his appointment to get his wisdom teeth removed, after him bailing several times. 

Tony feels a sharp pang of guilt as he turns the car into the parking lot of an oral surgeon’s office. Peter’s face is still buried in his phone, so he’s got a little time before the gremlin discovers his fate and tries pulling out the puppy dog eyes.

But it isn’t long enough.

He parks the car, and Peter jerks head up from his phone. His eyes go wide as he reads the letters printed across the giant, glass double doors. “This is betrayal, Mr. Stark. Betrayal of the highest order.”

“Dramatic, much?” asks Tony, shutting off the car.

“You’d be dramatic too if you were about to get your teeth ripped from your mouth and stolen,” says Peter, shoving his phone in his pocket.

“Uh, ripped is not exactly what happens, and no I wouldn’t,” says Tony. “And I didn’t. As you constantly like to remind me, I’m a dinosaur. I’ve already had the privilege of having my wisdom teeth taken out.”

Peter huffs and digs his back further into the seat, as if he wants to disappear into it. “But do I really need to get it done today?”

“Do you want to be in pain when they start growing in?”

“No but-”

“Then yes.”

“They probably don’t even have an aesthetic strong enough to put me under.”

“They don’t,” says Tony. “Which is why I rented out the office today and paid the Avengers medical staff to assist. They have the good stuff Brucie invented.”

“Okay, but I have school -”

“-May’s already told the school you’ll be out a couple days.”

“You guys are awful,” says Peter. He unbuckles his seatbelt, and Tony knows that means Peter’s out of his excuses and arguments. All he has left is whining and pouting. “You could’ve given me a heads up.”

“Sure,” says Tony. “And then you would have conveniently disappeared and missed your appointment, like the last three times.”

“I see your point,” says Peter. “But to be fair the last time was a real emergency. The lizard guy almost destroyed me and MJ’s favorite coffee place.”

“Why does every person who fights you have a ridiculous name?”

“I’m called Spider-Man. I’m kind of asking for something ridiculous.”

“That explains it,” says Tony, with a nod of his head. In full agreement.

The conversation stalls, and Peter looks truly miserable. Another pang of guilt ripples through Tony, though he knows it isn’t logical. It’s better for Peter to get this over with, rather than wait, but there’s something written across the boy’s face that gives him pause.

“Okay, let’s talk about it,” says Tony. “Why all the avoidance?”

“I dunno,” says Peter.

“Perfectly natural to be afraid -”starts Tony.

“-I’m not afraid,” says Peter. “I just don’t wanna be out of commission for days while I recover. It’s so boring.”

“You’ll likely be medicated so I don’t see you having enough coherency to be bored.”

“That’s worse,” mutters Peter.

“If it makes you feel any better,” says Tony. “You’ll probably be healed up and ready to hit the skies as Spider-Man by morning, with your healing factor.”

Relief washes across Peter’s face, but it’s there only seconds before it’s replaced by another perplexing frown. This time it’s better. This time Tony doesn’t have to pry to get his answers.

“...You’re gonna stay here?” asks Peter. “While I’m… out?”

“Yep,” says Tony. “Pepper made me bring a bunch of SI stuff I’ve been neglecting.”

Peter swallows. “And you’ll be there? When they knock me out?”

“Knocking you out is a harsh way to put it,” says Tony, with a frown. “But yeah, if you want me there.”

“It’s just - I dunno, what if I don’t wake up for another five years?” asks Peter. “And the world passes me by again?”

“I’d never let that happen,” he tells him immediately, and with confidence he doesn’t understand.

Tony’s seen enough tragedy in his lifetime to doubt he’d have control over a situation like that, but the words had come automatically, and they seem to smooth the worry creases on Peter’s face.

“Ready?” he asks him.

“Yeah,” sighes Peter. He grips the door handle and pops it open. “Let’s just get it over with.”

Tony follows through with his promise. He’s there when the medical staff inserts the needle into Peter’s arm. He holds his hand, tells him he’ll see him in a few hours, and watches as Peter’s scared, lost eyes slip shut.

His anxieties catch him by surprise. Seeing Peter lose consciousness like that brings him back to Titan, and although he allows staff to shuffle him out of the operation room, his fears beg him to stay, as if holding onto Peter's hand will keep him from dissolving back into dust.

*

Tony doesn’t concentrate on the work Pepper had given him.

His mind terrorizes him with illogical fears and his leg starts bouncing.

There isn’t a sturdy thought for his mind to dwell on, so it’s like his mind is swimming through varied traumatizing outcomes to Peter’s very common procedure. He’s like that the entire time they’re extracting the kid’s wisdom tooth, and he’s mentally berating himself about forcing Peter to go through with it.

And then the nurse pops her head out of the door. Tells him that it’s fine. That he should go on back to the operation room, because Peter’s about to wake up.

Tony holds his hand again, and Peter’s eyes flutter open. They’re dazed and confused, but still hold that soulful Peter Parker look inside them, so Tony breathes.

Something inside him snaps back into place. Something’s been corrected and healed.

“Hey, kid, you’re back,” he says. He squeezes his hand.

“‘Ony.”

“How’re you feeling?”

“I don’t like it,” says Peter.

He wrangles around in the dentist chair, and Tony puts a hand on his chest. It’s enough to stop him, at least while Tony takes instructions from the oral surgeon, and collects Peter’s super special painkillers.

“Okay, ready to go?”

Peter slowly nods his head, and Tony wraps an arm around his back, helping him to sit up without the help of the dentist chair. Tony helps him swing his legs over the stand of the chair, and does most of the work transferring him to a wheelchair provided by the staff.

It’s the same once they get outside and it’s time for Peter to leave the wheelchair and climb into the car.

Tony offers his arm, and Peter uses it as a guide and as a way of lifting himself from the chair. Tony doesn’t let him go, keeping his hands firmly locked on his arms until he’s sitting in the passenger’s side seat, looking every bit like the lost Golden Retriever puppy he’d once tried convincing Tony to home.

He takes the wheelchair back inside and quickly zips back to his vehicle, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“You left me,” Peter accuses, as Tony sits behind the wheel.

Tony starts the engine and switches the air on. “I wasn’t even gone a minute.”

“Felt like an eternityyyy,” says Peter. He lets his head rest against the window. “Don’t like feeling this floaty. Like I’m in IT and the clown’s got me.”

“Don’t say clown.”

“Clown,” says Peter, defiant even in his drugged state. “You’ll float too, Tony.”

“Okay, clearly it was a mistake to let you watch that movie.”

“Maybe they should’ve stolen Pennywise’s teeth,” says Peter. “Dentists could’ve ended that movie before it started.”

Tony laughs, and the smile’s still on his face while he watches Peter try and fail to insert the end of the seatbelt into the connector. After a couple more misses, Tony takes over and buckles him in.

“Can’t even stop making movie references when you’re dopey, you fiend.”

Peter lets out a noise that’s between a growl and a whine.

“Which is good,” says Tony. “We can watch lots of movies while your gums stitch themselves back together.”

“Yeeesssss,” says Peter. “I love movies.”

“I know, kid.”

“We gotta watch IT.”

“Okay, veto,” says Tony. Knowing the type of villains Spider-Man attracted, Tony’s convinced it isn’t long before his kid is facing off against a serial killing monster clown. He doesn’t want to tempt the fates. “How about something nicer-”

“Ohh, the one with the dinosaurs,” says Peter. “What’s it called…” He trailed off, lost in thought, and Tony imagines those drugs must be strong if the kid’s forgetting movie facts. “Jurassic Park!”

An image pops into his head of Peter fighting an actual dinosaur, and he begins to wonder if fatherhood was going to ruin movies for him. Damn kids.

“I want a red balloon,” says Peter, out of nowhere.

“Pete,” says Tony, with a breath. “Please move on from IT.”

“But I’m floaty.”

“How about a sit-com,” offers Tony. “Nothing bad ever happens in a sit-com.”

Tony wishes life were that way, that he could move his family inside of a bubble that he controlled and where nothing could touch them.

“Okay,” he agrees. “As long as I can still have a balloon. I went to the dentist. I deserve a balloon.”

“Fine, but it’s not going to be red,” says Tony. He lets himself be consumed by hatred for this fictional clown for stealing his signature color.

He pulls the car out of the parking lot, and just before he turns onto the street and joins traffic, he notices Peter’s eyes fluttering closed.

“Tony,” says Peter, voice quiet and dazed. “Thanks for being here, you know, when I came back.”

He doesn’t know whether Peter means after his surgery, or after he was stitched back together from dust. He decides he must mean both.

“Of course, Pete,” says Tony. “Thanks for coming back.”

Peter flashes him a grin, before nodding off, and warmth fills Tony’s chest. So live isn’t a sit-com, but in that moment, everything was great and for now, it’s enough.

[ikenbar]

A Date with Kiro: The Costume Shop

Howdy folks!

So, I’ve had the idea for dates supporting my oc, Ikamara for some time now but I wanted to go a little farther in her story before trying anything. But now we are at Chapter five so HERE WE GO!! 

I also want to use the dates to show off who would be the main fella for the next chapters!! and  SURPRISE!! Kiro will be the main for the next chapter!! :D So excited for this chapter you guys have no idea. And I’ll be able to show it off next week!! Stay tuned~ ;P

-Ike and Bar Productions

Setting: Right after the happenings of Chapter four. Ike has a weekend off so she spends it investigating some leads on the Montu case.

To understand some details about the Montu case, feel free to read Chapter one, part one of my fanfiction here! If you’re just here for the sake of a Kiro date, enjoy your stay! You don’t have to read the fanfiction to understand what is happening but it would make more sense! :D

Warnings: There are none. Unless you have a problem with tight clothing and/or cute gay moments.

Date with Kiro: Costume Shop

"Sorry, mam. Like I said before, we don’t sell that here.”

I pouted, dropping the mask in my hand slightly. I had made a goal to visit all of the costume shops in Loveland city, searching for the mask Montu had sent me, hoping to find one that had sold it. But the city only had three costume shops, and I had been through all them before ten on a Saturday.

Sensing my disappointment, the shop owner continued, “If it would make you feel better, you can have a look around. I don’t know. Maybe they took something apart from my store to make it.” I thought a moment, then nodded, shoving the mask into my messenger bag. I turned and looked around the shop. It was small but jam packed full of strange outfits and costumes. Some of which seemed to be vintage. This intrigued me.

I had barely taken one step into the store before a buzzing came from my pocket. I pulled it out and froze. 

It was Kiro.

I still hadn’t quite accepted the fact that the Kiro was now one of my frequent connections. But there he was, calling me on a Saturday like we were actual friends… at least I hoped we were. Maybe I was just a question he was trying to answer. After all, how we met left a lot to the imagination.

Without wanting to waste anymore time, I quickly answered the call.

“Speaking.” I said, as casual as I could.

“Hey Super Stranger! How are you?”

Instantly my sour mood disappeared as Kiro’s happy voice filled my ears. Kiro had given me that nickname when I had saved him from a car accident. I had my motorcycle helmet on so he couldn’t see my face very well. He had called me his hero and had given me a nickname to commemorate it. And, though the nickname was corny, it never ceased to bring butterflies to my stomach. “I’m alright.” I mused, walking further into the store as I spoke, “How are you?”

“I’m great!” Kiro sang, “Guess what?”

“... What?” I asked, my smile faltering slightly.

“I found this amazing little stand that serves the best drinks! You’ve gotta come try it!”

“What- Now?” I scoffed.

“Yeah!” Kiro sang, “I don’t know when they are closing so it has to be now!”

“I’m a little busy with work.” I said, pulling at various costumes from their racks, “I don’t think I’d be able to leave it so easily.”

“You work on the weekends?” Kiro laughed slightly.

“Well superheroing isn’t really a part time gig!”

“But even superheroes need breaks!”

“Yeah, well, crime never rests.”

“But they make an amazing hot chocolate! They add espresso for extra flavor!”

The mention of coffee instantly changed my attitude.

“What do you say? Just one drink!” Kiro’s pleas increasingly became higher pitched, as if he was a child promising to do chores for a piece of candy. 

Before I could say another word, a scream came from Kiro’s end of the phone. “Oh no.” Kiro whispered with dread on his tongue, “I’ve been spotted! I’ll text you the address and you can just meet me here!”

“Are you sure that’s a good-”

“No time to talk!” Kiro hurriedly said, “Gotta go! Later Stranger!” And with that, he hung up the phone. I looked down at the phone, shaking my head uselessly at it. Despite the disapproval I felt, a smile still crept it’s way up my lips. There was no way of saying no to that man.

 With new found motivation, I searched the variety of costumes for anything pertaining to Montu. Without realizing it, I had begun looking through the superhero suits. As I scanned the clothes, I pulled out a particularly familiar looking costume. My foster brother, Sam, and I used to watch old cartoons from CDs that our foster father kept in his attic. There were a thousand collections to pick from but one cartoon in particular truly piqued our interest. 

Boot Fever. 

It was about a group of superheroes that fought villains who tried taking over their already crumbling city. It was a very old show with a very old premise but, man did Sam and I eat it up. From the characters to the animation to even the terrible voice acting, we watched that show late into the night. I may not have had great memories of my childhood, but those memories are ones I would take to my grave. 

I thought the show had long been forgotten but there I was, holding the main protagonist’s outfit. Her name was Red Sparrow. Her super power was to be able to transform her body into anything she thought of.  Sam compared her to me all the time. Though the only point he could connect us to was the fact she was strong. Because, other than that, we were complete opposites. She was very dramatic and in tune with her emotions. Not to mention her suit was extremely form fitting. And, at the time, the tightest thing in my closet was my yoga pants. Even then they would be paired with an oversized sweatshirt and a flannel around my waist.

Past all of that, I loved the fact that she wore a full face mask. It resembled the face of the bird she was named after and, though the design was simple, made her character a big hit in her time. Women's appearances in shows in that time were based solely on how revealing they were. Red sparrow seemed to take that and turn it on it’s head. Her jumpsuit completely covered her whole body, hiding her identity completely.

I plucked off the mask from the top hanger and turned it over in my hands. No one would know it was her unless they took it off. She was a mystery. I longed to be that mystery ever since I was a kid-

A loud bang came from the front door. I ducked behind the clothes rack, immediately bracing for a fight. Instead, I was met with the sound of someone panting heavily. “Welcome in, sir.” The owner of the shop said sarcastically, “Is there something I can help you find?” Curiosity overlapping my shock, I peered around the rack. 

There, weakly leaning on the door, was Kiro. He had his eyes closed as he gasped for air. He was in his usual disguise of sunglasses and a black hoodie, but the hoodie’s armpits looked to be drenched in sweat as his sunglasses slid down his equally wet face.

I quickly sunk back behind the rack, frozen in fear. Kiro can’t be here! I screamed in my head, If he tried talking to me he’d know I was Super Stranger! Then I would only disappoint him by being some lowly tv show producer with no regard for feelings! Not to mention, holding a scantily clad costume of an old tv show. I have to act fast.

Looking down at the mask in my hand, a stupid plan came to mind. Not having the time to second guess it, I quickly threw the mask on and pulled the rest of the costume off of it’s hanger. I hurried to the dressing room and pulled the curtain shut, praying that Kiro didn’t notice me go in there. I quickly started stripping down, folding my clothes and shoving them into my messenger bag as I moved. 

As I changed, I heard some screaming coming from outside of the small shop.

“I saw him go this way!”

“Quick! Don’t let him go too far!”

Some rustling came from inside the store as Kiro’s familiar voice traveled the air, “Sir, I need a place to hide! Please! Help me!”

I had never heard Kiro so desperate. Half of me wanted to jump out of the dressing room right then to help him. The other half would rather finish getting dressed first. 

The latter won.

 I pulled on the skin tight suit, regretting it instantly as it squeaked over my skin and tugged at my unshaven leg hairs. 

“I don’t know, sir.” the shopkeeper droned, “That sounds rather suspicious to me.”

“I’ll give you my autograph.”

“There is a dressing room over there you can hide in.” The shopkeeper spoke quickly and excitedly. I cursed in a whisper as I picked up my pace. After a moment of pause, quick steps approached my hiding spot. With one last zip of my costume, thankfully from the front, the curtain to the room shot open. Kiro hadn’t looked at me yet, still focused on the door where the screaming had only further increased. But, once he had, his face went completely red. 

“I-I’m so sorry!” Kiro stammered, eyes darting straight to the ceiling, “I didn’t know this room was occupied!” A loud bang came from the store’s door again. Without lingering on the awkwardness anymore, I grabbed Kiro’s arm and pulled him into the room. I pushed him into the corner and held a finger to the mask’s beak. Still bushing wildly, Kiro nodded, holding his eyes on my mask all too securely. 

High pitched voices rang through the store as they searched the shop. Some of them were questioning the shopkeeper. Others were whining about how small the store was. The sound of metal scraping against metal chimed in the mess of sounds as the girls started searching the clothing racks for him. Soon the interrogating and complaints turned even more sour as they slowly came up with nothing.

Just as I thought we were in the clear, a shadow appeared under the dressing room curtain. “Hey!” A particularly annoying voice called, “Is there anyone in there?!” I froze. Kiro couldn’t answer. He was the person they were looking for! But I couldn’t answer either because Kiro would know I was Super Stranger!

“Hello?!” The girl impatiently called. I felt Kiro’s eyes on me. 

I sighed.

“Occupied.” I resolutely boomed. The shadow flickered.

“S-sorry!” She said, obviously startled by my voice. The shadow quickly disappeared. Avoiding Kiro’s eyes, I walked over to the curtain and peered out of the room, just in time to watch all the girls leave the store. I sighed once again and straightened myself, letting the curtain fall back into place.

“You should be safe now.” I said, turning back to face Kiro. He was staring at me wide eyed and mouth agape. His face had significantly returned to it’s normal hue, if not for a slight blush on his cheeks.

“S-Super Stranger?!” He scoffed, finally letting his eyes stray from my face and to my body. I folded my arms and popped my hip.

“Eyes up here, chief.” I deadpanned, signalling for him to adjust his gaze. He did so, his blush rushing back through his face.

“Sorry!” He chuckled nervously, pulling his eyes from me completely, “I just never thought you’d have such a…”

“Yes?” 

“... Such a love for such an old show! I mean, how old do you have to be to know who Red Sparrow is?!”

“Apparently not old at all.” I walked over to Kiro and tilted my head so our eyes met, “Suggesting that the twenty-three year old Kiro knows about it.” Kiro tensed. Then he laughed, releasing some of the obvious tension that rode on his shoulders. He looked at me adoringly through the mask.

“I can’t believe it, Super Stranger! You saved me again!” Kiro raised his arms. I held a hand out.

“They were just some fangirls.” I insisted, pushing Kiro backward, “No big deal.”

“Of course it’s a big deal! Who knows what they would have done if they caught me! Let me make it up to you.”

“That isn’t necessary.”

“Come on it’s the least I can do! Hey! That drink stand I was telling you about isn’t too far from here! Let’s go there!”

“And how do you expect to get out of here with those girls looking for you?” I asked, folding my arms again. Kiro’s eyes flickered back to my body. Then, a strange emotion sparked in his eyes as he let them linger there.

“I just need a new disguise!” He said rubbing his hands together. I slowly looked down at my outfit.

“... If you think you’re getting this-”

“No, this shop is full of costumes! I wonder…” Kiro walked past me, being careful not to touch me. He paused at the curtain, checking that the coast was clear, then he moved out of the room. I had only been alone for a couple of minutes until Kiro had returned, costume in hand. I froze.

In his hands was the costume of Complex Cell, the sidekick to Red Sparrow. He could duplicate himself up to a thousand times and not break a sweat, easily confusing the enemy long enough to take them down. He also just so happened to be Red Sparrow’s love interest. 

“What are you doing?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“What do you mean, Sparrow?!” Kiro beamed.

>>>

“I can pay, Kiro.”

“Who is this Kiro?!” Kiro boomed, handing the shop owner his card, “For I am COMPLEX CELL!!” I rolled my eyes. The moment Kiro had put on the costume it was like he had completely disappeared, only to be replaced by Complex Cell. The overly confident, motivating, annoyingly positive sidekick of a superhero… so in reality not much had changed other than how he spoke, which was cute at first but it got boring quick.

“Come, dear Sparrow!” Kiro laced his arm into mine, “Hot chocolate awAITS US!!” He took his card and skipped out of the store, pulling me closely behind him. 

The moment I stepped out of the store, I immediately felt the eyes of the world on me. I may have been comfortable with my body but I had never been that exposed before. I normally would be wearing at least a jacket but now… 

“Hey.” Kiro tugged on my arm, “You ok, Sparrow?”

“I’m not Red Sparrow.” I said through my teeth, “Do you realize how much we stand out?! Everyone’s staring!”

“The sidewalk is practically empty.”

“Emphasis on practically.”

“Stranger,” Kiro laughed and tapped my arm lightly, “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Remember, you’re not the only one dressed up like this! I’ve got your back! Besides, you look amazing!”

My heart leaped through my throat, “... You really think so?”

“Of course!” Kiro looked down at me. His mask only covered the top half of his face, exposing his glistening smile, “I’m disappointed more people aren’t looking! More people need to see how amazing you look!” I elbowed Kiro in the side but still felt the uneasiness lift from my shoulders. There was nothing Kiro would say that could make me hate him.

“Red Sparrow!?”

Kiro halted in his steps and spun around. A small child smiled brightly at Kiro and me. She was tugging at her father’s jacket, pointing at us excitedly. “Dad! Dad, look!! It’s Red Sparrow and Complex Cell!” Kiro released my arm and struted confidently towards the kid.

“Hello, dear child!” Kiro boomed, , smiling brightly and laughing dramatically as he knelt to the little girl’s eye level, “I see you have spotted Sparrow and I! But I am very surprised that someone as pretty as you could know about us!”

“I watched you guys win battles with my mom!” The girl giggled, blushing at Kiro’s shining face, “I really like how you guys save the day! Everyday! I especially like Red Sparrow.” The girl looked hopefully up to me, “She’s my favorite!” 

“Well today is your lucky day!” Kiro turned to look at me as well, smile somehow brighter than before, “Isn’t it, Sparrow??” I looked between the two of them, frozen in place. I know what Kiro wants. He wants Red Sparrow. But I'm not Red Sparrow! I’m Ike. The horrible, cold, distant-

A sparkle flashed across the little girl’s eyes. A sparkle I was all too familiar with…

I sighed.

“My dear adventurer!!” My voice jumped to action as I threw my hands in the air and cat-walked over to the girl, “I am honored to be considered your favorite superhero! Pray tell, just how are you doing this fine day?” I knelt down next to Kiro and posed for the girl. Her face lit up beautifully, smiling brighter than even Kiro. Before I could say anymore, she ran into my arms, wrapping her arms around my neck tightly and nearly tipping me over. I kept my arms out, looking to Kiro for any kind of help he could give me. He merely grinned, flashing me with adoring eyes. I frowned uselessly at him. He was no help. 

I patted the little girl softly on her back, “M-My! You startled me.” I awkwardly said in Sparrow’s voice, “What’s this for?”

“Last year, my mommy died.” The little girl’s whisper stunned me even further, “She was sick and spent a lot of time in her bed. But we would still spend time together to watch you save the day! She said that she liked you because it didn’t matter what happened to you. You would always make sure the bad guys would lose. And that’s why you’re my favorite! Because you were my mom’s favorite!”

Anything I wanted to say was blocked by a lump forming in my throat. Tidal waves of emotions crashed through my heart as the girl’s grip remained tight around my neck. I may not have had that kind of experience before, nor did I want to experience it, but hearing it come from such a small voice made me feel so bad for her. Like I was next to her on that bed and watching those shows with her mom. The only person I watched those kinds of shows with was Sam and if I were to lose him…

I wrapped my arms around the little girl, pulling her closely to me as I cradled her. “You and your mother have quite an amazing taste.” I said, heroic voice faltering slightly, “But, you should know one thing. I am only a hero because you allow me to be one.” The little girl pulled away from me.

“What do you mean?” She asked, her big eyes filled with curiosity. I smiled lightly and moved my hands so I was holding her arms.

“I am only a hero to protect people like you! Without you, I would be nothing.” I tilted my head and winked at the girl through my mask. The girl shook her head and pushed my hands down. 

“That’s not true.” She smiled, “You don’t need someone watching you to do the right thing! You should be able to do it because you know it’s right! That’s what my mom always said!” My finger twitched. Without a moment to waste, the girl turned to her father.

“Daddy! Daddy! Can you take a picture of us!!”

>>

The girl and her father walked joyfully away, leaving Kiro and me in silence. A hand rubbed my back. “You alright, Stranger?” Kiro asked, finally dropping his hero facade. 

“... How can a girl that young be so smart?” I asked softly, folding my arms and adjusting my posture to one that better suited me instead of Red Sparrow. Kiro laughed.

“You know, I was thinking the same thing!” He said through a chuckle, “I guess it’s true that wisdom comes from experience.” Kiro’s words left us in another meaningful silence.

“... She reminds me of my foster brother.” I said, my voice trailing slightly. Kiro’s head snapped to me in my peripherals. 

“You… were a foster kid?” Kiro asked, tone shifting dramatically.

“We used to watch Boot Fever all the time when we were growing up.” I continued, ignoring Kiro’s question, “He would dress up and pop popcorn because he was so excited to watch it with me.”  I turned and caught Kiro’s sparkling eyes. I rolled my own and shoved him from me. 

“Don’t look at me like that.” I deadpanned. 

“Stranger!” He said, closing the distance between us again with open arms, “You’re opening up!” 

“Yeah, yeah.” I mused, looking round the area we were standing in, “Where is this drink stand you have been raving about?”

“Oh!” Kiro quickly grabbed my hand and pointed behind me. A cute, wooden, mobile drink stand  sat on the other side of the street. Steam wafted up from a false chimney, gracing the cool air with the soft smell of caramel and cinnamon. Two people stood in line for the drinks, but other than that the street was nearly empty. “Luckily for us, those girls didn’t see me at the stand.” Kiro excitedly said into my ear, “And there is no line! Let’s go!” Kiro pushed against my back. I quickly swatted him away and started walking to the stand on my own. Kiro quickly followed, clapping his hands together like an eager child.

The couple at the stand left with their drinks, leaving room for Kiro and me to walk up. The woman manning the stand looked me up and down. A charming smile flashed on her lips. “Red Sparrow?” She asked, leaning on the counter and arching an eyebrow.

“Barista?” I asked, folding my arms again. She laughed and stood up straight.

“No need to get defensive, Red.” The barista said, “You look good!” A sharp blush struck my cheeks. Arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me backwards and into a chest.

“I know, right?!” Kiro giddily chimed, rubbing his head into my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and flicked Kiro’s forehead. He whined and pulled away from me to rub his head. The barista chuckled and turned to her drinks.

“So, what will it be, heroes?” She asked, avoiding any more eye contact with me. I looked at the menus on the side of the stand, then at Kiro.

“... I’ll have an iced caramel macchiato, subed with white chocolate mocha, coconut milk, and a mocha drizzle.”

Kiro and the barista looked at me in shocked silence. I turned calmly to Kiro. “Anything you’d like to add, Cap?” I asked Kiro casually. His look of astonishment never faltered.

“...You really drink that kind of drink?” He asked with a laugh.

“Oh not at all.” I tactlessly chimed, casually looking at the tip of my gloves, “I just told you I was a foster child. I’ve got to throw you off my scent before you figure out my secret identity.”

“Oh a drink order won’t throw me off!” Kiro laughed and casually approached me, “Just you wait! I’ll figure your identity out and we can be heroes together!... Speaking of which,” Kiro leaned forward, eyes shining beautifully, “Did you ever come up with a superhero name for me like you promised?”

I didn’t know if it was how close he was standing to me, the soft aroma of romantic scents, or the fact that he fit into that superhero costume so well, but every word I wanted to say got caught in my throat. All I could do was look him in the eyes. Eyes so gorgeously blue, I could swim in them…

“Hey, Red.”

I snapped to and looked over at the barista. She shook the iced drink in her hand. “You gonna pay for this or make me stand here holding it in the middle of fall?” She asked, tone dripping in annoyance. I cleared my throat and nodded, taking the drink from her. 

“As for you, Captain.” I said, regaining my composure as I turned back to Kiro, “Your hero name is one of importance. I will tell you what it is in due time.”

“So in other words, you don’t have one yet.” Kiro sighed, pouting slightly.

“I do too!” I huffed, stepping away from the stand and gesturing to Kiro to follow, “I’m just not going to expose it in a place where everyone is listening!” Kiro laughed and pulled me into a firm side hug.

“Alright Stranger, I’ll let you off this once.” He sighed, pulling me down the street with me by his side, “So what are you up to for the rest of the day! Are you free to hang out?”

“Me?” I scoffed, brushing off Kiro’s hand from my shoulder, “What about you? Does Savin even know you’re out here?”

“Today’s my day off! Which means I’m all yours!... if you’ll have me?” Kiro’s eyes sparkled like diamonds as he awaited my answer. My hand drifted to my messenger bag where a lump graced my fingertips. I dedicated the whole day to finding anything I could about Montu… but I suppose the costume shops were a bust, and I had no other leads to follow… 

“... Where to first?” I asked, adjusting the messenger bag on my shoulder. Kiro beamed and laced his arm in mine. With that, we had continued our walk down the street, starting a meaningless conversation and going nowhere in particular. And, for the first time in a while, 

I was alright with having no where to go.

(Next)

[illneverrecover]

growl | kth (m)

➛pairing: Kim Taehyung x reader  (per usual) ➛summary: Clearing his throat, he tries again, gaze intense. His eyes are about to fall out of his skull with the power of his attempt at a telepathic message to his friend. “Come on, Jimin. Ask me. You know what? I’ll help you. I pick dare.” A sly glint of amusement pulls at the edge of Jimin’s mouth, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. You look back and forth between the two of them, not sure what was happening but sure as hell knowing it was going to be nothing be trouble. “I dare you to sing a song that shows off your best growling for our girl here,”  ➛genre: non idol!AU, friends to lovers, slice of life, smut ➛word count: 4605 ➛rating: explicit/mature (y’all been knew) ➛warnings:  alcohol use, cursing, cliche use of ‘truth or dare’, Seokjin singing dope songs at karaoke, Jimin being chaotic, slight dirty talk, semi public sex, oral (male receiving), swallowing, Taehyung being a secret softie. ➛notes: Firstly, I would like to start off by saying that this fic idea came from @destiel1597 and the pure lethal sex that is 5th Muster Taehyung™, so this is truly their fault. The both of them. Secondly, y’all should’ve known that the minute I saw  5th Muster Taehyung™, I’d have to let the thirst out somehow. I don’t have self control. Lastly, shoutout to my bby @taetaesbaebaepsae for assisting me & @purpletigertaetae for spamming me with rude Tae inspo to fuel the thotting. You the best.  I promise my next fic will be about another member. If Tae would just RELAX I wouldn’t have to be like this!! ➛song: Toxic - Alex & Sierra (which is the version Tae sings in this. Listen to it and picture him singing it and tell me you wouldn’t do the same). Ma City - BTS 5th Muster version (which you should go watch immediately if you haven’t - this growling Tae was the muse for this entire sinful piece.) 

                             ᴄʀᴏss-ᴘᴏsᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ AO3;; ʟɪɴᴋ ɪɴ ᴅᴇsᴄʀɪᴘᴛɪᴏɴ 

“How many times are you going to dare me to sing this song?”

Seokjin’s face had a thin sheen of sweat, the bright disco lights of the cozy karaoke booth bouncing off his skin, showing the exasperation evident on his face.

“Until it stops being funny. So…” you look around at the others, pausing to sip at your drink. “Never. Get to it, lover boy.” 

He sighs heavily but did as he was told, picking up the microphone and waiting for the flatscreen to start scrolling with the lyrics. The first few bars of the song blared through the speakers, and the guys gave supporting hoots to encourage him. 

Despite his earlier protest, he quickly gets into it, eyebrows furrowed as he dramatically swings the mic, belting out the first few notes. “I gotta take a little time, a little time to think things over...I better read between the lines, in case I need it when I'm older…” 

Next to you, Taehyung laughs deeply, throwing his head back as the elder continues, eyes glistening with unshed tears. No one else in the room was faring much better, every single person in some stage of cracking up at his theatrics. Forcing Seokjin to sing Foreigner songs is always hilarious, and one of your favorite parts of your friends bi-monthly karaoke meetups.

No one really knows when or how the tradition started (though rumor has it, it was at your drunken demand to ‘show off the golden pipes’), but these nights in the same small private room of your local karaoke bar had quickly become the favorite in your friend group. Twice a month, regardless of what was going on, everyone agreed to meet up for dinner, drinks, and the most ridiculous yet always entertaining game of truth or dare - karaoke style.

It was typical of your friends to never do anything the normal way, and this was no different. Instead of selecting songs of personal preference to sing for the room, they were always chosen as either a dare, or a failure to participate in a truth. It was asker's choice, and the victim wasn’t allowed to veto, less they wanted to foot the entire bill for the evening. And between seven men in their mid twenties and the pickled livers of you and your friend, Nari - that was a hefty price to pay. 

Seokjin reaches the chorus, the build up so intense that it’s no surprise when he drops to his knees, his tenor still in pitch and  beautiful despite the theatrics. “I want to know what love is! I want you to show me! I want to feel what love is, I know you can show me!” 

He’s clutching at his chest while staring into Yoongi’s eyes, the younger man expressionless as if this performance was something he saw on the regular. Which, to be fair - it was.

Slinging back the dregs, you lean to grab the bottle of vodka on the table before a large hand beats you to it, Taehyung smiling down at you as he scoots closer. “The usual, milady?” 

You slap his arm, eyes rolling. “Gross, no one says ‘milady’, Tae.” 

He giggles, filling it halfway with the liquor before topping it off with some seltzer - just the way you like it. You were only two drinks in, but the honeyed sound of his laugh always flustered you, a light burn flushing your cheeks. His long, dark hair was wavy and messy in that perfect way that made you want to sink your fingers into it, and between that and the peek of golden chest through the undone buttons of his dark dress shirt, you found yourself feeling thirsty. Well, thirstier than you normally were for Kim Taehyung.

It had become a running gag with the other guys - your little school girl crush on Taehyung, something that they used to tease you at any given opportunity. It seemed to personally offend them that you wouldn’t say anything to the brunette, and no matter how many times you explained you didn’t want to fuck with the group dynamics, they couldn’t seem to stop sticking their noses directly into your business. You’d be annoyed by their immature comments if it wasn’t for the fact that the handsome man seemed completely oblivious to them - and your feelings. 

Thank fuck for that. 

Handing you the freshened beverage, Taehyung moves to pour more into his glass before settling, large thigh pressing into your own. He has always been an affectionate guy, so when he threw an arm over your shoulder just as Seokjin hit the last notes of the song, you didn’t blink an eye. 

However, Jimin did.

He had been watching all night, seeing the way his best friend was buttering you up, going out of his way to try and make you laugh, to make you smile. The way you would scoff and roll your eyes to hide your heated cheeks or the way your thighs were pressing together any time he touched you. Taehyung’s feelings for you were practically neon red signs to Jimin, and yet you seemed obnoxiously unaware - something that was starting to make Jimin crazy. 

Getting involved probably wasn’t wise - neither party had asked for his help. But since when did he ever claim to be wise? Jimin prided himself on being a meddler - he couldn’t just not meddle. Especially when such an opportunity presents itself.

Bowing to the loud cheers, Seokjin moves to sit back down on another sofa, chugging the remnants of his glass. “Alright Joon, it’s your turn - Truth or Dare? And try not to be lame this time, please.”

Namjoon scoffs, faux offense on his face as he glares at his elder. “Hey! Picking truth isn’t lame! I’m telling you my deepest darkest secrets here!” 

“Pretty sure admitting that you want to touch Nari’s tits isn’t a secret, but nice try,” Yoongi deadpans, causing the room to break out in laughter.  You tried to focus on the game, on what ridiculous question Seokjin had prepared for Namjoon, but instead all you could feel was the warmth of Tae’s arm draped around you, all you could think about was how he smelled like a mixture teakwood and lavender, and how much you wanted him to ruin you.

“Y/n!”

Snapping your eyes towards the shout, you come face to face with a deviously smirking Jimin, leaning forward on his knees. He was twirling the straw in his glass like a super villain, and everything about the look he was giving you had your nerves on edge.

“Yes, Jimin? Is there something you need?”

“It’s your turn - truth or dare,” he coos, eyes dancing with mischief. God, he’s such a fucking Slytherin. You were in for it now - you could feel it in your bones.

“Last time I picked ‘dare’ you made me sing half of Evanescence’s discography-”

“Hey, to be fair, you knew it all  by heart and fucking nailed it,” Jungkook interjected, giving you a proud grin.

“Well - yeah, okay I did, thank you very much - but as I was saying, I’ve learned my lesson. I pick truth,” you reply smugly, glaring at the dark haired man. Jimin may look sweet, but luckily you know better than to ignore his cunning.

Which is why you shouldn’t have been surprised when he started cackling.

Eyes creasing into half moons, he threw his head back, running a hand through his hair as he faces you once more, eyebrows waggling. “What’s one thing about Taehyung that you find attractive?”

You choke, grappling for your drink to soothe the burning in your throat, though you were sure it was only making it worse. Face on fire, you looked at him with wide eyes as you cough in a feeble attempt to remember how to speak. 

A warm palm starts patting your back, the man in question leaning down to look into your eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, Tae, I’m fine,” you glare at Jimin, his victorious smirk enraging you further. The last thing you want to do is answer this truthfully; anything obvious is going to weird Taehyung out, but you know if you try and give a lame answer, Jimin will have no issues calling your ass out for it.

“Well, I like his singing voice…” you murmur, eyes focused on the ice melting in your glass, which you immediately bring to your lips once more.

Jimin rolls his eyes, scoffing. “His singing voice? What does that even mean?” he kicks at your leg, pushing you further. “Like… the tone? Or just how it sounds?” he sputters incredulously, choking back a laugh.

“Fuck you! Yes, how it sounds. And also when he does that deep growling thing?” you shiver, shaking your head. “I don’t know, it just gets me. It’s really hot.” 

Whoops, seems the vodka had done some of the talking for you, but it was too late to take it back. You feel your skin heat, but you hold your head high, raising a brow at Jimin in defiance.

The room falls silent for a beat, all eyes on you until Jungkook wolf whistles, everyone breaking out in hoots and yells. You turn to the man next to you, expecting him to blush coyly or even brush you off with a gentle smile - he was nothing if not kind - but instead you find a shit eating grin peering down at you. Cocking your head, you look at him questioningly, but he just winks before slugging back the rest of his drink, his gaze drifting to Jimin’s over your head.

It was all he needed to hear.

Your words were the perfect fuel to the fire of alcohol in his veins to make Taehyung feel bold, yet he was still sober enough to know that this could finally be his chance to show you how he feels.

“Jimin, ask me a question.” Taehyung declares, leaning back into the sofa, dark eyes dancing with mischief. 

“Technically, it’s Y/N’s turn to ask-” Namjoon mumbles, but is quickly shut down by the shouts of displeasure from the group, Hoseok and Jungkook both nudging him while the latter murmurs something about being a ‘cock block’. 

Clearing his throat, he tries again, gaze intense. His eyes are about to fall out of his skull with the power of his attempt at a telepathic message to his friend. “Come on, Jimin. Ask me. You know what? I’ll help you. I pick dare.”

A sly glint of amusement pulls at the edge of Jimin’s mouth, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. You look back and forth between the two of them, not sure what was happening but sure as hell knowing it was going to be nothing be trouble. 

“I dare you to sing a song that shows off your best growling for our girl here,” 

The room erupts in cheers and howls once more, your eyes widening as you reach for your glass. Shit, you’re going to need more vodka to survive this, and you know it. 

Taehyung moves languidly to the front of the room, the side of your body he had been pressed to all evening now left cold. He scrolls through the screen with a sharp focus, honeyed gaze looking over at you every once in awhile to make sure you were still paying attention. And the smile he would give when you were- it practically had your heart in your throat. You looked over at Nari, trying to get her to join you on your couch of pain, but she just blew you a kiss before settling back into her spot next to Yoongi, throwing you a shrug.

That bitch.

All too soon he gives a cheer of victory, looking out over the group as he selects the song, moving to the microphone stand. He poses in front of the room, everyone in attendance on the edges of their seats with anticipation for the music to start.

And then the first notes ring out, and a switch flips.

Gone was the sweet and goofy man you’ve all come to know, and in his place is a demon in black, looking like pure sin. His eyes darken as they land on you,  his lips curving in a confident smirk as he grabs the mic to pull closer to his mouth. Sensual plucks of guitar fills the room in a familiar tune, though a version you hadn’t heard before - the upbeat pop turned into a song of seduction.

“Baby can’t you see, I’m calling. A girl like you should wear a warning. It’s dangerous, I’m fallin’...”

Taehyung is all lust powered flirtation, hips seductively sliding back and forth as he continues to croon the lyrics, casting his molten chocolate eyes to your own. He was dancing closer, his steps slow and purposeful, and you felt the rest of the room fade away as you focused on him - and only him.

The chorus hits, and he smoothly switches from his velvet baritone to growling along with the lyrics, body rolling before sliding on his knees directly in front of you, so close you could see the sweat trail down his neck to bury into the open V of his shirt.

“Taste of your lips I’m on a ride. You’re toxic, I’m slipping under. With a taste of a poison paradise I’m addicted to you - don’t you know that you’re toxic?” he purrs, leaning into you,  a singular finger coming to trace up the exposed skin of your calf.

Everything was suddenly too hot, the room too stifled - you couldn’t get any air to cooperate and flow into your lungs, all your blood pooling in your cheeks. Your heart is racing, sweat dotting your hairline as you stare at the dark haired male in front of you, unable to pull away.

“I think Y/N is about to orgasm in the middle of this bar.”

“Min Yoongi, I swear to FUCK, I will murder you,” you force between clenched teeth, turning to glare at the blonde in question. You can see the retort build on his lips before a palm cups your cheek, pulling your attention back forward.

Taehyung was a breath away from you now, pupils blown wide and voice dangerously low as he continued singing, each word dripping with desire. His hand curves around your jaw, a finger slipping down the long column of your neck until it graced the thin skin of your collarbone.

“Too high, can't come down. It's in the air, it's all around...Can you feel me now?”

Fuck, he was going to ruin you.

Mouth falling open, you squeeze your thighs together uncontrollably, your hands death gripping at the sofa beside you in an effort to keep yourself from moaning. It was embarrassing; how easily his performance was turning you on, how a few throaty murmurs of a song from this man had you falling apart. 

Taehyung was nothing but sinful temptation, and he knew it. 

A small part of you heard the cat calls and lewd shouts from your friends, but you couldn’t concentrate on them. Not when the tall sex god was leaning nearer, using your knees as leverage to pull himself up so he could push your thighs completely together, walking himself forward until he could perch into your lap. Oh my fucking God, he’s sitting in your lap.

The music swells into the ending crescendo, and he continues to rasp the lyrics in low, dulcet tones, eyes never leaving your own. “Intoxicate me now, with your lovin' now. I think I'm ready now, I think I'm ready now,”

You gasped, the intention of the words and the vehement look in his eyes making it seem like it was more than just a song - it was a statement, a confession. Breath seized in your rib cage, your bottom lip trapped between your teeth to stop you from asking more.

Shit, you were ready to risk it all for Kim Taehyung.

Before you could say anything further, he growls out the final lines of the song, the sultriness of his voice causing electricity to race down your spine as he holds out the final note. The music finishes, and his chest is heaving with the effort of his seduction, eyes sparkling with pride.

The entire booth erupts into boisterous claps and cheers, several of the guys standing in ovation causing Taehyung to chuckle nervously, the switch seemingly flipped once more.

He slides off your lap, panting as he moves to pour himself some water, leaving you to gape at him fully. His dark curled locks are dampened with sweat, and despite the easy grin on his face you could clearly still see the fire burning deep in his gaze.

“What the hell, Tae! Where did that come from?” you shout, though a smile was already on your face. “You gotta warn a bitch first, damn. I think I’m sweating,” 

Hoseok moves to stand beside him, slapping a hand onto the younger’s shoulder. “Yeah man, I mean she’s probably dripping everywhere by now.” 

You shriek in indignation, punctuating the sentiment with a lime wedge beamed directly at Hoseok’s over-sized skull.

“Hey, don’t attack me! What, do you need us to get you a pad?”

“Sincerely fuck you, Hobi.”

While the others continue to congratulate Taehyung for his one man show, you suck down the rest of your drink, moving to stand. Your knees wobble, and you’re unsure what affected you more - all the booze you drank, or him. Damn, you need a moment.  Slinking toward the exit, you search for the bathroom,  relief washing over you as you spot it down the hallway. 

You’re about to grab for the handle when lithe fingers wrap around your wrist, pulling you to turn around before your back is pressed to the cool wall of the club. You hiss at the contact, eyes blazing as they take in the culprit - Taehyung. 

“Tae?”

He smooths his hands up your arms until each palm is flat against the wall on either side of your head, effectively trapping you in place. His pupils are brimming with depth-less lust though the smile on his face is sweet, the clash making your head swim. 

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you back there,” he murmurs, eyes searching your own. “But it was the perfect chance, and I had to act on it. I couldn’t just sit back and wait any longer, Y/N.” 

“Wait any longer for what? I’m not sure if I’m following-”

“Wait any longer to tell you how I feel about you. Wait any longer to do this.”

You weren’t expecting for his mouth to press against yours, but your lips moved automatically, parting and sighing to accommodate him. His body soon followed, relaxing against your form as his hands moved to cup your jaw. You groaned at the feeling of him, your fingers wrapping around the base of his neck to tangle into his hair. 

Feeling him like this only makes you want more, tongue moving to lick at the seams of his pout before he was sliding his own in kind. He groaned when they met in the middle, the sound causing arousal to pool rapidly low in your gut. Dragging his teeth against your lower lip, he gave you a nibble before pulling away, forehead pressed to yours.

“Does this mean you like me too?” he questions breathlessly, small smile on his face. 

“I’ve always liked you, Tae,” you whisper, turning his head so you could suck at the tender spot under his jaw, his answering whine encouraging your ministrations. “I liked you when we were friends, and I think I like you a bit more after that display.” 

He chuckles lowly, digits sinking into your hair only to pull you back to meet his gaze. “When we were friends? What, are we not friends anymore?”

“Well, not just friends, I hope….” you purr, leaning forward to press your mouth against his swollen bottom lip. “Friends don’t know the way you taste, do they?” 

A groan of your name is his only response before he’s back on you, licking into your mouth with such fervor your knees start to shake. His tongue is relentless, seeking to savor you fully before moving to taste the skin of your neck, your collarbone, the top of your breast. Falling into the lure of Taehyung was all too easy - almost enough to have you forgetting that you were in some stale bar’s dim hallway. 

Grabbing his shoulders, you spin until you have effectively switched places, Taehyung’s tall form now pressed against the wall as you nibble at the exposed skin of his chest. “I think you deserve a performance of your own, don’t you think?” you sigh, eyes inspecting his own, awaiting his approval. 

“I think I’m one lucky bastard who would be a fool to say no to someone as amazing as you,”

The blatant affection in his voice makes you freeze, your throat tightening with every hopeful squeeze of your heart. You were trying to convince him to let you suck him off in the karaoke bar bathroom, and he had to go and say sweet shit like that? 

Shaking your head, you giggle at the sentiment. “You’re too good to me, Tae,” you hum, hands gripping his biceps to drag him towards you, legs propelling you back until you feel the door give way, the light to the restroom automatically clicking on. 

A victorious grin quirks at your lips when you see the private bathroom empty, and a quick flick of your wrist has the door locked just as Taehyung envelopes you into his chest. 

His kisses only intensify, lips undressing you until you were soft and wet and pliant, grasping for anything you could to ground you to him. You make quick work of several more of his buttons until you could nip and bite at his chest unrestricted, your hand fumbling with his belt. 

A low, throaty moan echoed as you grasp his length, freeing him from his trousers enough that you were able to feel him completely in your palm. His cock was just as beautiful as he was, long and thick and dripping with precum, and the thought of having it in your mouth had a rush of arousal flood between your thighs. 

You wince when your knees hit the cool tile, though the promise of tasting him numbed any senses but the ones attuned to him. You thumb at his leaking head softly, his groans edging you near until you could smell his excitement, breath ghosting hot on his cock. Mouth falling open, you slide forward until his hardness was resting on the bed of your tongue, your lips closing to give the tip gentle sucks.

“Fuck, love.  You don’t have to do this, you know, we can-”

Swirling your tongue, you push further, hollowing your cheeks to take him deep into your mouth until he was kissing the back of your throat, your nose nestled into the coarse hairs against his pelvis. His size already had your jaw aching, but the way he groaned your name made it worth the discomfort, and you glide back until only the head remained.

Letting him fall out with a lewd pop, you lick a wide strip up the side of his cock, peering up at him through your lashes. 

“Do you want me to stop?”

“God, please don’t.” 

The words were barely out of his mouth before you moved yours back over his length, taking him as deep as you can each time, relishing the way he stretched your throat. You couldn’t stop imagining how he’d feel inside you, how intense and satisfying the initial burn would be when he was fully sheathed in your aching cunt - how much sweeter your orgasm would feel because it was caused by his cock, caused by him.

His dulcet whines and soft moans were the only sounds besides the wet slide of your mouth, and hearing him sound so desperate for you had you mewling against him, your fingers itching to press against your throbbing clit. 

“You’re taking me so good, love. Feel so fucking amazing  wrapped around my cock,” he hissed, a hand lowering to tangle into the tresses at your crown, guiding you gently. “Such a good girl for me. I’m going to make you come so fucking hard when we get home,”  

His hips started thrusting to meet your movements, the slides becoming sloppy as he got close to his peak. “With my fingers, my  mouth, my cock. I’m going to have you coming so much you’re going to have to beg me to stop.” 

The naughtiness of his words had you moaning around him, the vibrations causing him to let out a cry of your name. You’re sure your panties are ruined at this point, the tops of your thighs sticky with arousal, and as much as you want to touch yourself, you wanted to fall apart under Taehyung even more. 

Pulling off to let air return to your lungs, you glide over him with your fist, urging him to let go. “Come for me, Tae. Let me taste you,” you rasp, before sinking your mouth down him once more. 

“God, you’re so fucking perfect. You gonna swallow me, love?” he breathes, both hands coming to wrap deep in your hair as he continues his pumping, lust filled gaze boring into your own. You nod as you blink up at him, your lips swollen with abuse.

“Fuck, that’s it.. So good, love, I-I’m coming-” 

You still as he tugs at your locks, holding you in place as he thrusts his length deep in your mouth, the warmth of his release coating your raw throat. Swallowing, you allow him several stutters of his hips before he pulls away, hands smoothing to cup your face. 

“Holy hell, Y/N, that was…. Are you okay?” Worry etches his brow as he reaches out for you, taking in your messy appearance - saliva mixed with come dripping from the corners of your lips, black mascara trails smudging the edges of your cheeks. You’re gasping for air, but you couldn’t help the satisfied smile as you took his hands, allowing him to raise you to your feet. 

“Seeing you fall apart was one of the hottest things I’ve ever witnessed, Tae. I’m more than okay, trust me.” 

He blushes at your words, and the irony that the complement made him more shy than when he was ramming his dick down your throat not lost on you.  

He tucks himself back into his pants before adjusting your clothes as well,  delicate thumbs rising to wipe away the remnants of your shared tryst off your face before giving you a chaste kiss. 

“So, does that mean… you’ll go out with me?” he questions hopefully, giddy anticipation in his eyes. You weren’t sure if you would ever get used to the rapid switch of power Taehyung wields between sweet and sin, not that you were complaining. 

“Yes, Tae. I’ll go out with you,” you grin, the brightness of his smile infectious. “Plus, I seem to recall someone promising to make me come so much that I’ll be begging them to stop…” you trail off, mischief evident in your teasing glance.

Throwing back his head with a honeyed laugh, he pushes open the door, arm gesturing out to the empty hall before him. “Ah, yes - I believe you are correct. After you, milady,”

Groaning, you slap his chest as you walk past. “Say that again and I’ll go home with Seokjin.”

[imyourliquor-youremypoison]

A Girl’s Best Friend (Peter Parker x OC) - Part 8

Synopsis: Diamonds are man’s best friend- or dogs are girls’ best friends, wait… how does the saying go again?

Warnings: Family issues; Peter has a crush and it’s complicated; mention of assault; good dogs; College AU; aged up! characters; TONY STARK IS ALIVE AND WE ALL LIVE IN A HAPPY PLACE CALLED DENIAL

A/N: In this story, Peter has Tom’s dog, Tessa.The dogs in the story play a minor but key role.

Word count: 3.2k

Part 7 <<< >>> Part 9

MASTERLIST

“Hey, kid,” Tony called him, making Peter look up from the 3D project he was working on, some new gadget for his suit. “Care to give a hand? I only have two.”

               Tony was struggling with a giant pipe that he was trying to bring all the way across the room to the opposite wall, to achieve not even God knows what. Peter had asked, mind you, but the answer had been as vague as it was complex, and he wasn’t entirely sure he understood any of it.

               With Peter’s help, it was done quickly. Tony often forgot the kid had super strength – or maybe he just didn’t like to be reminded of his own lack of superpowers when he wasn’t wearing the Iron suit. Peter thought the second option more likely, as Tony had sounded immensely offended that one time Peter called him ‘old man’.

                  He grunted when they put the pipe down, then stretched his neck.

 “Haven’t seen your face around in a while,” he commented. “I chose to take it as a good sign. Nothing bad happen in Queens these days?” Tony inquired.

                Peter shrugged – he had definitely picked up that habit from Emmeline.

“Nothing worth mentioning,” he answered, sitting down on the pipe, elbows resting on his knees. “It’s been a while since anything serious happened. It’s mostly small crimes, robberies, drug dealings, sexual assaults.” His mouth became a little dry. “I’ve got it, don’t you worry, Mr. Stark.”

“It’s been how many years and you still call me Mr. Stark. I’m gaining in age but I’m still Tony for you,” he told him – again. He might as well repeat it until his tongue fell off, Peter would always call him Mr. Stark, doing otherwise went against everything he was taught.

“What about you? Any villain sightings to report?” Peter asked, electing to ignore his previous remark because they both knew it wasn’t going to happen.

“Mmh, no. It’s been terribly boring the last two years. I keep all my eyes open but nothing worth my attention came up.” He sat on a desk chair and rolled it all the way back to his desk, opening his emails and creating a 3D projection to show Peter. “See this? I’ve been filtering the emails of all the politicians and important figures that are, were, or plan to come to New York. I’d appreciate it if you could keep this on the downlow by the way, it’s not exactly legal, I just took the liberty,” he added, sending Peter a sharp glance. Peter raised both hands in the air.

“Anything interesting?”

“Oh, the usual threats from unhappy and concerned citizens of our beautiful city, but they all appear to be all bark and no bite,” Tony said offendedly, deleting messages as he spoke. “But then, there’s this one. It looks pretty personal so I’m not too worried, but it’s the only serious one. Looks like mister mayor did someone dirty.”

                Peter froze. Tony was reading through the message again, trying to pick up clues but it was too short and to the point to hide any kind of intertextual clue about the person who sent it. It was a death threat, telling Pascal Gerard to go f*** himself and that he should stay locked inside if he didn’t want a bullet between the eyes.

                He couldn’t help but wonder what Emmeline would say if she knew her father was receiving colorful death threats. A part of her wouldn’t be surprised, that he was sure of. He half expected her to send some of them herself – she was big on letting out the steam after all.

“Should we keep an eye open then?” Peter asked.

                He would keep both eyes open, regardless of what Tony told him. Both eyes wide open and set on Emmeline.

“I’ll take care of it, kid,” Tony said, spinning around to face him. “No need to worry, politicians are used to these messages, it’s nothing new under the sun.”

                He wanted to keep his mouth shut, he should have kept his mouth shut, but Peter couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“What about his family? He has a daughter, right?”

                Tony stopped mid-gesture when he was about to throw a decorative art piece in the air, staring at Peter with a curious kind of smile.

“He does, yes. She’s the same age as you,” he told him, not dropping the self-satisfied smirk. Peter really should have kept his mouth shut. “Actually, I’m pretty sure she’s majoring in biophysics at Columbia too. What a coincidence!”

“Alright, I get it,” Peter said, rolling his eyes and standing up. “You already knew, you were baiting me!”

                Tony had the gall to look offended.

“I would never.” Peter squinted his eyes. “So, how are things going? Asked her on a date yet? Is she as smart as she is pretty?”

                Peter groaned and ran a hand through his hair, turning around. He should have known better and just kept his damn mouth shut.

“Actually, she is. Now that you mention her, I wanting to ask you something-“

“No.”

“You didn’t even let me say what I-“

“Yeah, no. It’s a no,” Tony cut him off, wincing and shaking his head. “A big no.”

“Would you let me finish?” Peter crossed his arms over his chest. Tony had watched him grow up and gain in confidence over the years, but since he still couldn’t bring the kid to call him ‘Tony’, he still held the authority. “She could come work in the lab. Her place is here, I know it.”

“You know jack shit,” Tony said with an eyeroll. “My lab isn’t the right place to hit on a girl, Peter.”

“I’m not asking because getting her through the doors of the Tower would make me earn points with her,” he assured Tony. “Though it would. Just sayin’. Please, think about it. She’s very resourceful, she might have some good ideas you’d like to listen to.”

“It’s still a no. What about keeping your secret identity a secret?” This argument was always Tony’s last resort, Peter could already taste the victory.

“She doesn’t know I’m Spider-Man but everyone knows you're Iron Man. Even if she finds my Spidey underwear in your lab, she won't connect it to me, but to you. You're an Avenger, Spiderman is an Avenger. It makes sense.”

Tony rolled his eyes and pointed at Peter with a piece of hand shaped metal he that picked up from his desk.

“You-“ he began, pausing for dramatic effect. “-are justifying bringing her here because you want to show off to the girl you like. Are you a peacock, Peter?”

“No, bu-“

“Then don't act like one.”

“I'm not, Mr Stark, just-“ Peter closed his mouth and shook his head, becoming serious now. “Trust me on this, please. She belongs in this lab. And also... also- I'd like you to meet her.”

  *

  Tony ended up agreeing and Peter would never know what convinced him. However, he was content with seeing the look of bafflement on Emmeline’s face when they entered the elevator in Stark Tower, and F.R.I.D.A.Y asked Peter if they were going to the lab. Her eyes shone brighter than a kid’s a Christmas morning.

“Did the elevator just speak to you personally?” she wondered.

“Not the elevator, miss,” the disembodied voice came again. “My name is F.R.I.D.A.Y and I am the A.I created by Mr. Stark to help him manage his affairs.”

                She asked F.R.I.D.A.Y relentless questions until the doors opened again and Peter dragged her out.

“C’mon now, F.R.I.D.A.Y is everywhere, not just in the elevator.”

“That is correct,” the A.I spoke again when they entered the lab. “I’m at your service if you need anything, miss Gerard.”

“She knows my name!” she wondered, eyes going wide.

“Yes, she has facial recognition and everything,” Peter explained.

                But Emmeline’s attention was elsewhere already. She didn’t know where to look, she was surrounded by what must certainly be the most advances pieces of technology in the world, only God and Tony Stark knew what all of these machines could do, and she was in the presence of one of them.

“Ah! You must be Emmeline,” Tony quipped, smiling as he turned around on his chair, a strange piece of metal attached to his head and covering his right eye. He removed the helmet-like device and set it on the table. “Peter told me a lot of good things about you.”

“Did he now?” she laughed nervously, squeezing Peter’s arm tighter than necessary as a warning. What on heaven and earth did he tell Tony Stark about her? “I’m sure he exaggerated.”

“I’d be greatly disappointed if he oversold your abilities,” Tony said, coming up to greet her. He wiped his hands on a towel and swung it over his shoulder before shaking her hand as a formal greeting. “But we’ll find out soon anyway.”

                She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Peter. He shrugged. He didn’t know what Tony had planned for her; he only knew what work he was assigned.

“Peter, why don’t you go play in a corner and leave us alone, will you?”

Tony smirked and Peter knew, he knew it was payback for insisting on bringing Em here. Tony often helped Peter get the full experience of having embarrassing parents, which he never got to experience with his own. Reluctantly, he scooted over to his workshop, still glancing towards Em and Tony who now walked to a different part of the lab, their backs turned to him.

Peter was patient. He was very patient. He waited to whole hours before leaving his desk to go see what Emmeline was working on. He could see her being crouched over a desk through the glass walls of the office Tony assigned her. Sometimes she stood up and stood by the 3D holographic table but he couldn’t make out what she was doing.

When he knocked on her glass door, she jumped back so high he had to make fun of her.

“Ha. Ha. So funny. Buzz off, Parker, I’m busy trying not to throw away my one chance at impressing Tony Stark,” she said, shoving him out of her way.

                Peter resisted and pushed back, looking over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

“The Iron suit?” he asked, surprised. “What did he ask you to do?”

                She sighed and stopped trying to kick him out.

“He asked me to take a look at it and suggest modifications to improve it.” He knew that tone, he recognized that tone because he was usually the one using it. She was stuck. “It feels like working on a finished product. Of course, everything can always be improved, but this suit...” She let her fingers run over the blueprint of the helmet, following the line of the mask. “It's the most advanced and complex piece of technology I've ever seen, and it's been undergoing constant upgrades for years and years by the one Tony Stark. It goes underwater and to space. Resists scalding and freezing temperatures alike. Has a wider range of weapons than anything I can think of. The A.I provides more information than any built-in system ever could. I just- I don't feel like I can do anything better. I’m just not… there yet.”

“He’s probably just testing you, to be fair. I don’t think he expects you to actually improve his suit in one day, even he can’t do that. Like you said, it underwent upgrades over the course of the years. It didn’t become that-“ He made a hand gestures towards the blueprints. “-in one day,” Peter tried to reassure her.

“I’m sure you’re right.” She didn’t sound convince, and while Peter understood where her frustration came from, he couldn’t do anything about it. He didn’t have the slightest idea how to improve Tony’s suit, and even if he did, she wouldn’t want to cheat and use his idea. “I’ll tell Tony.”

“If there’s anything-“

“You got me in, Peter,” she interrupted him with a smile. “You’ve already done more than enough.”

                With a tight-lipped smile and a nod, peter wished her good luck and returned to his own devices, keeping an eye on her back the whole time. She told F.R.I.D.A.Y that she’d like to speak to Tony and he came not five minutes later.

“I can’t do it. It far above my level, and I would take me days just to browse through all the features the suit already has, let alone come up with a new one. I’m sorry.” The shame and self-disappointment were clear in her voice. Tony gave her a crooked smile.

“Alright, kid. Let’s find you something more in your range, yeah?” He never expected her to do anything to his suit, he only wanted to assess her reaction when he put her to a task too great for her. He watched her look at the blueprints, flip through his notes, listened to his journal entries and disassemble his suit with the 3D table to try and see all the layers. She had done good, even if she thought otherwise. “Follow me.”

                Head down and spirits at their lowest, Emmeline followed Tony from desk to desk, watching him take this or that device in his hands, have a quick look at it, then put it back down, probably deciding that it was yet another thing that was beyond her abilities. She was wasting his time.

                They were approaching Peter’s workshop now, catching his attention. Emmeline looked up and winced a little, wishing he would focus on his work – she was embarrassed enough of her failure.

                Suddenly, she froze mid-stride and looked to her right. Something had caught her eye, and Tony noticed. Something red and blue, stored away behind a glass panel.

 “You know Spider-Man,” was the first thing she said when he looked over his shoulder to see what fascinated her so.

“Hum?” Tony hummed, pretending to be disinterested. “Oh yeah. I'm his designer. He swings by some times,” he chuckled as if he was in on a joke she didn’t get.

From the other side of the room, Tony could see Peter glaring at him and making big arm gestures to tell him to stop talking. He had left the nano suit there on purpose.

                For months now, Emmeline had contemplated the idea of telling Peter about her encounter with Spider-Man. Not because the super hero kept nagging her about talking to someone about her traumatic experience, but because she felt alone with her secret. Like it was a wall between her and Peter.

He caught her daydreaming sometimes, looking into the distance, eyes trained on the skyline, and when he asked her what she was thinking about, she was tempted to tell him the truth. That she was thinking about Spider-Man. Of course, he wouldn’t understand. How random that would be! She could have to explain what happened, how Spider-Man saved her and then made it his duty to check on her every now and then. She would admit to missing his visits now that they became scarcer and scarcer.

But would he understand? Would he even believe her? A part of her liked to think that Peter wouldn’t put her word in question, but it didn’t mean that he would understand. Besides, sharing her secret with someone else felt akin to betrayal. She had confided many a secret in Spider-Man, and she hoped he didn’t repeat any of them to anyone. Maybe he had too. Maybe he had told her things he didn’t tell anyone else. How would he feel if she shared that with a boy on the sole ground that she liked him?

Therefore, she kept quiet. She kept everything to herself.

“Can I take a look at it?” Emmeline asked before she could think twice.

“Oh, it's not finished and I had something different in mind since suits don't seem to be your thing-“

“I actually have a few ideas for that one,” she said, rather cryptically, eyes not deviating from the suit behind the glass panel. “Can I see it up close?”

“You look much more interested in Spider-Man's suit than mine,” he commented, barely hiding his grin, watching Peter walk towards them from the corner of his eye. “Are you a fan?”

Em flinched and finally turned towards Tony.

“He... helped me out once. I'd like to repay the favor if I can.”

Peter froze and stayed back, watching Tony's proud grin and Em's beaming smile when he gestured her to go in and take a closer look.

“Well, if you feel up to the task, I won’t stop you. Maybe Peter can give you a hand? He looks bored.”

                Tony pivoted on his heels and grinned like the Cheshire cat. Peter blushed and stuttered out something about being busy, even though he was standing right there behind Emmeline and Tony, looking mightily interested in what they said, and not at all by what he had been working on up until now. To be honest, he hadn’t gotten a lot of work done today, his mind had been elsewhere.

                Emmeline doesn’t take no for an answer and quickly gestures him to come with her and together they stand in front of Spider-Man’s nano suit. It hovered over a magnetic table designed to keep it afloat and she looked on, in fascination.

“How does it even work?” she asked, to herself mostly, but Peter still answered. Stunned, she turned to him, frowning. “How do you know that?”

                He blushed.

“I- I’ve met him once. He’s cool. And nano technology is so wild, I had to study his suit.” It was the closest thing to the truth he could tell her. She seemed to accept his explanation, however lousy it was. “Look, if you use this panel…”

                He began to show her how to make alterations to the suit, demonstrating that it would instantly adapt to whatever changes she would make to its design and functions. Emmeline asked more questions than Peter could answer but he tried his best nonetheless. As soon as she understood the basics of how it worked, she began to draft something, talking about adaptability and stealth, and Peter listened to her in utter fascination, barely following her train of thought but enthralled all the same.

“What do you think? You like it?” Emmeline asked him after showing him her concept.

Peter had a funny moment of brain freeze where he couldn’t answer. It felt like she was asking him Spider-Man, owner of the suit, instead of Peter Parker, fellow student and engineering amateur.

“I think it's great. But how will you make it work with the...” He began pointing at something on the 3D model and Emmeline nodded.

                From afar, Tony watched on, sipping on his cup of coffee, looking deeply satisfied and feeling a sense of accomplishment. The two of them worked great together. They probably hadn’t noticed yet that it was pitch-black outside and the whole afternoon had ticked by in a blink.

                The elevator dinged and Pepper walked out, interrupting Tony’s musings. When she saw him smiling fondly, she followed his gaze. He had told her about Peter bringing his crush over, she knew who the girl was.

“The kid's all grown up now, isn't he?” Tony asked her.

She laughed, reminding him that Peter had been quite grown up for a while now, squeezing him arm gently and urging him to leave the two alone and come join her and Morgan instead. It didn’t require a lot of convincing.

.

.

.

Reblog to save a writer

Taglist: @justanothercynicalgenzkid @of-virtuoso

[asterythm]

A is for Amour || Prince of Your Dreams (7)

Pairings: Slow burn Logicality, eventual Prinxiety Word Count: 3.9k Chapter Summary: "Once upon a time in a far-off kingdom, there lay a small village at the edge of the woods..." So the story begins, as Roman’s heard repeated hundreds of times before. But every fairy tale must have its villain -- now, who could that possibly be? Chapter Warnings: emotionally abusive/manipulative character originally inspired by Deceit, gaslighting, food mention

<< First Chapter || < Previous Chapter || Read this chapter on AO3

***

Auburn.

That was the colour of Roman Foley’s hair, a lovely kind of cross between red and brown and gold and all the other warm and fiery tones in between. It was already quite a handsome colour during the daytime, but right now it looked positively gorgeous (a fact that certainly hadn’t escaped Roman’s notice). The warm light cascading downwards from the street lamp above Roman’s head gave the impression that there was a fiery halo of sorts framing his face, illuminating his features with an almost otherworldly glow. 

But of course, he wasn’t just standing around for the sake of looking good; he’d just wanted to be able to see his friends’ faces as he talked to them. Though it was biting cold out and Roman knew that he had a limited amount of time before he had to head to rehearsals, it was only a couple of minutes extra that Roman wanted to spend chatting — surely that would be okay. 

Besides, Roman’s best friend Kai Brenton was in the middle of the funniest story, and Roman didn’t want to leave without finding out how it ended.

“…so then I told her, that’s not a weasel, that’s my sister!” finished Kai, a wide grin on his face. Roman laughed again, loudly. 

Not all of them found the punchline quite so amusing, though. On the other side of Roman, another of his friends spoke up between sips of green tea. “Uh, pause, pause, pause — you have a sister? How come you never told us about her?” Remy Somnus asked.

“What? What made you think I had a sister?”

“That was the whole point of the joke, Rem,” said Elliot, elbowing his fraternal twin in the ribs. “Come on, were you even listening at all?”

Remy scoffed as he drained the last dregs of tea from his plastic Starbucks cup. “Okay, whatever, my bad. You know I love you, Brenton babe, but I had more important things on my mind.” He took careful aim before throwing the cup in a graceful arc through the air. It landed in the snow next to the trash can he’d been shooting for. “Dang.”

“Yeah, it’s chill. You know I don’t really care.” Kai gave his sassy friend first a shrug, then a punch on the shoulder.

“Ow! Hey, you just said you don’t care!” protested Remy. Rubbing at his sore shoulder, he looked between Elliot and Kai. “What’s with all the violence today?”

“I meant that I don’t care about you not listening; littering is a whole ‘nother story. Pick up your trash, moron. Mother Nature works hard to protect us. You’d probably have better aim if you weren’t wearing those sunglasses all the time, by the way.”

Remy did as he was told, jogging over to grab the cup… but not without protest. “Okay, seriously? Is no one gonna, like, ask me about what I was talking about just now?” Roman’s ever-sassy friend loudly complained over his shoulder in a mock-annoyed tone of voice. “Like, with the whole more important things on my mind thing? I’m gonna be honest, I’m feeling a little unappreciated here.” Remy bent down to pick up the plastic cup, tossed it into the bin, and made his way back to the group. “But, you know, any of you could speak up right now. And make me feel not unappreciated. It would be, like super easy to satisfy the curiosity that’s probably… burning inside of you right now. You just have to ask.” 

A pause. 

“Oh my gosh, do I have to spell it out for you guys? Why do I even try? I don’t even know why I try. Seriously, all you’ve gotta do is say —” 

Fondly grinning, Roman interrupted his friend. “Hey, Remy, what were you talking about just now with the whole more important things on your mind thing?”

“Aha — there we go, thank you!” Remy glared at Elliot and Kai. “See, guys, this is why Roman is, like, a hundred times better than all of you combined.”

Out of the corner of his mouth, Roman mumbled, “Sometimes I feel like you’re even more dramatic than I am, Remy.”

“No way anyone could ever be more dramatic than you, hun,” quietly shot back Remy before he cleared his throat to address all three of them. “I’m so glad you asked. See, the thing is, you ladies have all been acting real stressed out lately, about school or work or home stuff or whatever, and TBH it’s really stressing me out too. You know we can’t have that. Stress makes you wrinkle up. So I took it upon myself to head down to my favourite club, the good ol’ Lemon Lime Loophole, and I rented out a private karaoke room for us four.“ As Remy spoke, Roman watched both Kai and Elliot perk up with delight. Remy continued, “Just a fun night out to relax and unwind. Dear Britney Spears knows it’s been too long since our last karaoke night, and you all obviously really need it.”

“Hang on, did you actually?” exclaimed Elliot, eyes gleaming. 

“Remy, that’s perfect!” Next to him, Kai bounced gleefully up and down. “Aah, this is gonna be so much fun!”

“I know, I know, I’m the best. Say thank you, Remy…”

“Thank you, Remy!” Kai and Elliot chorused like little children, almost in perfect unison with each other, before returning to their enthusiastic babbling, faster and louder until they were almost tripping over every word before flying to the next. 

Roman, in the meantime, said nothing at all.

But none of his friends noticed Roman’s uncharacteristic silence: Kai and Elliot were already enthusiastically working out a list of songs they wanted to get through before the end of the evening, and Remy was busy soaking in the praise, obviously pleased with himself and the positive response to his brilliant idea.

After preening for another moment or two, Remy said, “Come on, let’s hurry. We’ve got twenty minutes to get there or they’ll give away our reservation to someone else. I’ll drive, cool?” 

That was when Roman finally spoke up. “Guys…” he began. “I’d love to come along — really, I would. But I have a rehearsal today, remember? For Into the Woods . You didn’t forget, did you?” He was dismayed to see the joy in his three friends’ faces immediately fizzle out.

“…Well, damn,” mumbled an uncharacteristically spiritless Remy at last. “I did forget. Sorry, Roman.”

(Yeah, thought Roman — though of course he didn’t say anything out loud — I kind of figured as much.)

“Maybe — maybe we can reschedule!” It was Kai this time, trying (and failing) to hide his disappointment. “We’ll find another time when we can all go together.”

“Wait, what? No! No, that’s not what I’m saying at all!” Roman spluttered in surprise. “No, you guys can totally go ahead. Don’t let me stop you! I mean, yes, I wish I could be there with you, but just because I’m not coming doesn’t mean you have to give up on this, too.”

“But… I don’t want you to feel bad about missing out.”

“Honestly, it would just make me feel way worse if I knew that you skipped out on your karaoke night just to make me feel better.”

Elliot hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, positive!” Roman said, much more confidently than he felt. He forced a smile. Showing any kind of weakness or doubt was out of the question; he had to convince Remy, Elliot and Kai that it really was okay for them to go ahead without him, and the only way he was sure he could convince them was by convincing himself of the same thing. It was undeniably easy to tell how much his friends wanted to do this. Roman was determined not to let his own scheduling conflict stop them. “Go on, go have fun. Just promise me you’ll do something from Hamilton for me, okay?”

“...Okay,” Kai finally agreed after a long pause. “Thanks, Roman.”

“And Remy has to be Peggy.”

“Hey — what? Hell no!” 

“Relax, Rem, I was kidding! Agh! Don’t hurt me!”

***

“I must have her —”

Prince Charming paused dramatically, taking a deep breath before raising his chin and hardening his features into a resolute mask —

“— to wife…“

Holding the ending note (a high one, for sure, but nothing that he couldn’t handle), Prince Charming stood from the painted drama box he’d been sitting on and crossed the stage to meet up with the Other Prince. One strong and rich, the other clear and sweet, their voices together formed a beautiful blend to fill every square inch of previously empty space in the rehearsal room.

Prince Charming made eye contact with his scene partner a beat before the music cut off. He grinned. The Other Prince grinned back.

A second of silence.

And then the scene was over, and Prince Charming was Roman and the Other Prince was Kyle again, and the silence was broken by the sound of sparse applause from a handful of the other cast members who had been watching the duet play out. It wasn’t the first time that they had gone through the song without any mistakes or silly little slip-ups, but it was the first time that the entire scene had gone off without a hitch. Both Princes had followed their blocking to a T and not once had either of them needed to call for line. The scene had come together perfectly, and both of them knew it.

So, apparently, did his director, Adri. Satisfaction was clear to be seen on her glowing face as she joined in on the scattered applause. “Excellent work, Roman, Kyle! You’ve still got to pay attention to your volume and make sure you’re not pushing the tempo of the song too much, but otherwise, that was flawless. Keep up the good work.” She turned to address the rest of the room. “Alright, folks, that’s the last of our scene-by-scene work for the day. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water. We’ll take five and then run the show from the top, so you’re all going to want to be well-hydrated.” 

The room leapt to life the second she finished speaking. Roman and Kyle shared a quick high-five before making their way offstage, chatting all the way.

“Awesome job, Roman!” said Kyle encouragingly.

“Oh, thank you so much! Right back at you, of course. This scene is going to turn out marvellously, I can just feel it.”

Kyle nodded, cheerful. “Well, I could go for a cup of coffee. Want anything?”

“Coffee?” Roman raised his eyebrows. "At half past nine? Kyle, it’s been dark out for at least two hours already. How do you expect to get any sleep tonight if you drink coffee now?”

“Ehh… I guess you’re right. Maybe I’ll just get bubble tea or something instead.”

“Boba’s good.” Roman said with a nod. “Just make sure you’re back before break’s over or Adri might bite your head off.”

“Heh, yeah — wait, you’re not coming with?”

“No, I think I’ll hang back. Go over the script a few more times before we start, you know? And maybe get some notes from Adri while I’m at it.”

“Gotcha. No worries. See you soon, man.” Kyle grabbed his coat and stepped out with a wave goodbye. Roman wandered over to his backpack to grab a drink of water. Then, he pulled out a granola bar and, munching on the healthy snack, he began flipping through the pages of his script. He was checking for any issues, anything that might get in the way of a flawless performance (he would settle for nothing less), making sure he hadn’t forgotten any of the blocking or any lines since the last time they’d run the show all the way. As expected, though, Roman’s careful search turned out to be unnecessary. 

Which was great, except now he had nothing to do; he’d realized only after getting to rehearsal that he’d left his laptop at home by accident, meaning he couldn’t spend his break finishing up any schoolwork like he would typically do. Roman reached for his bag, put away his script. Without anything to keep him busy, it wasn’t long before his mind began freely wandering. His imagination took him anywhere and everywhere and nowhere in particular all at once — then suddenly made a crash landing somewhere familiar: a private karaoke room within the walls of the Lemon Lime Loophole night club. 

Roman still couldn’t help but feel guilty for turning down Remy’s kind offer. His three friends had seemed so disappointed when he’d said that he couldn’t go with them, but it couldn’t be helped; he’d made the commitment to attend rehearsals and he had to see it through.

But, well… to be completely honest, Roman may not have agreed to go with the three of them even if he hadn’t had rehearsal that day. Not because he didn’t want to, or because he didn’t think that karaoke with his friends would be a fun time — Roman was sure that if he had gone with his friends to the Lemon Lime tonight, he would have ended up having the time of his life singing crazy show tunes or Disney songs with them.  

There was just one problem: what would Monet think? If the simple act of convincing his boyfriend to let him visit home every other weekend made Roman feel like he was walking on fragile eggshells, then trying to schedule a time and place to hang out with his friends was like — like strapping on ice skates with working chainsaws in place of blades and dancing a complex, fast-paced jig on top of those same eggshells. 

It would often end up taking days or sometimes even weeks of careful negotiations before Monet was willing to let Roman go anywhere without being by his side at all times. And even then, there were still rules that Roman had to follow: no flirting, be home by x o’clock, no more than four drinks, if anyone tries to hit on you then leave immediately, don’t show too much skin when you go out, send me a text and a photo every hour… All reasonable requests, and Roman could certainly understand where his boyfriend was coming from, but the fact remained that they were rules nonetheless. Sometimes it felt like the list never stopped growing.

It didn’t help that the three people who made up Roman’s closest circle of friends were all attractive young men the same age as Roman, either. Though Roman was being completely honest when he told Monet that all of them were only friends, Kai, Elliot, and Remy were undeniably handsome and there was, of course, never a dull moment with them around. 

It was easy to see why Monet, committed as he was to their relationship, might get a little bit distressed over how often Roman was hanging around the three of them. In fact, when Roman looked at the situation from his boyfriend’s point of view, he realized that Monet was already being generous enough, letting Roman spend as much time as he did with his group of friends. It wasn’t fair of Roman to ask for even more. And yet Monet was still willing to give it to him, under the right circumstances. 

Roman sighed. That boy really is incredible.

So though a night of karaoke with his friends was a pleasant thought in theory, Roman had known the second Remy extended the invitation that there was no way he’d be able to go. Really, he was grateful for the schedule conflict between Remy’s reservation and his rehearsal. Explaining that he couldn’t go because of a prior commitment was so much easier than explaining that he couldn’t go because his boyfriend wouldn’t like it; that latter option made Monet sound like a cruelly controlling criminal, which he wasn’t — but though Roman understood Monet’s motives perfectly well on his own, he had found that he always ran into difficulty when he tried to explain them to other people…

Two sharp claps interrupted Roman’s train of thought. A quick glance at the clock on the wall revealed that his break was over. Just as well; Roman’s spirits were starting to sag a little, thinking about the karaoke he was missing out on. But there was plenty of singing to do here at rehearsal, wasn’t there?

Roman rose to his feet, tossed the granola bar wrapper into the trash, and did some quick warm-ups to ensure he was fully prepared; a few brief stretches, a vocal sigh, one or two quiet tongue twisters. He finished up and turned just in time to greet Kyle, who was rushing in with a half-finished plastic cup of bubble tea in his hands. The sight immediately reminded Roman of Remy’s antics with a similar plastic cup earlier that day, but he quickly pushed the thought aside. Stop thinking about them, he ordered himself. It’s rehearsal time. Focus!

“Kyle, just in time,” Roman greeted with a smile.

Kyle put his drink in a safe place where it wouldn’t spill over and made eye contact with Roman. He didn’t smile back this time. “Who’s Kyle?”  

“Oh. Right, my bad.”

Kyle — pardon, the Other Prince — was apparently in character already. Perhaps Roman ought to be doing the same.

Roman breathed in, deeply, drawing as much oxygen into his diaphragm as he could, and let his eyelids flutter gently shut. Then, he slowly released the air from his lungs, and released all the bits and pieces of “Roman” with it.

While the young man melted away, the music began. Light, crystalline, clear, bouncing. Then, gently, came the singing: 

“I wish —”

“More than anything —”

By the time the young man opened his eyes again, Roman had dissolved into the background, no more than a ghost fluttering between steady, rhythmic pulses. 

“More than life —”

“More than jewels —”

And in his place, standing where Roman had once stood: a perfect Prince Charming.

“I wish…”

***

Roman was so tired by the time he got back to his and Monet’s house that evening, he ended up collapsing on the couch only seconds after he’d finished hanging up his thick winter coat. Stretching, Roman let out a huge yawn. The rest of his rehearsal had gone just fine, but the single granola bar he had packed for himself hadn’t been completely sufficient to keep his energy levels up. After all of the jumping around and running back and forth and vocal work, the drive home that day had been a long one.

Hearing Monet shuffling up behind him, Roman turned around. He watched Monet take in Roman’s state of being for a brief handful of seconds, then Roman’s boyfriend gave Roman a small smile and sat down next to him on the couch.

“Hey there, Prince Charming. Long day, huh?” 

Roman let another yawn, somehow even bigger than the last, escape. That was answer enough.

“Oh, you poor thing, you must be completely worn out.” Monet shook his head as he wrapped a protective arm around Roman, pulling him close. “I’m so proud of you, Princey. You’ve been working so hard on this show of yours! I’d bet you anything that when show week begins, you’re going to be the best actor on the stage.” 

Roman snuggled up against his boyfriend’s shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent. Hot chocolate on a cold winter day. "Heh. You’re just saying that.”

“No, I mean it. You’re crazy good, Ro,” Monet insisted. “You’re definitely going to become a world-famous actor some day, I’m sure of it. And then every time I see that cute face of yours plastered on a billboard or magazine cover or something, I can point and say, ‘You see that guy? Roman Foley, the bright shining superstar? He’s my boyfriend, you know.’ Everyone’s going to be so jealous of me.”

“I, uh…” 

For some reason, Monet’s usually welcome compliments left Roman feeling a little hollow inside today. But I suppose it’s the thought that counts. 

Luckily, though Roman was tired, he wasn’t so out of power that he couldn’t even act out some enthusiasm for Monet’s sake.

“...appreciate that,” he eventually settled for, giving Monet a quick peck on the cheek before returning his head to its resting position. “You’re always too good to me, you know.”

Roman felt his boyfriend’s shoulder shake a little bit as Monet chuckled. “Oh, trust me — I know.”

With that, the two of them were back to cuddling. It was nice, but Roman couldn’t help but feel like he should be saying something.

“You are coming to watch the performance, right?” he eventually settled on.

Roman couldn’t see his face, but he could tell from his tone of voice that Monet was smiling. “Of course I’m coming to watch the performance. I promised I would, didn’t I? Trust me, Ro, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Then, all of a sudden, Roman’s head hit the couch cushions. Monet had stood up without warning and was now watching Roman expectantly. 

With a considerable amount of effort, Roman pushed himself back up to a sitting position, grumbling. “Come baaaack... I was comfortable!” he whined. “Don’t just abandon me here, Monet.”

“It’s getting late, and you’re tired. I wasn’t about to let you fall asleep on top of me. You’d have woken up cramped and sore all over.” Monet reached out and grabbed Roman’s hand. “Come on, sleepy head, let’s get you to up the stairs and into bed.” Ignoring Roman’s further protests, Monet pulled him to his feet. 

Roman swayed in place for a moment before heavily settling back down onto the couch. “Nuh-uh, not moving. Couch soft.”

“The bed’s softer, silly. I already said, you’ll be sore in the morning if you sleep down here. Let’s go.”

Hearing a note of impatience in his boyfriend’s tone, Roman gave a small groan, but got up just like Monet asked. He leaned on Monet all the way over to their staircase, at which point Monet remembered an unfinished assignment and left Roman to fend for himself. So Roman climbed up the stairs and got ready for bed on his own, all the while swearing he could hear scattered notes and lyrics from Into the Woods still bouncing sluggishly from ear to tired ear:

It takes two . I thought one was enough, it’s not true — it takes two of us .

Humming the song’s simple melody, Roman slid with a contented sigh under the soft gold and red covers of the double bed that he and Monet shared. 

(You came through — when the journey was rough, it took you — it took two of us.)

Monet had been totally right, just like he always was. The bed was way softer.

(It takes care — it takes patience and fear and despair — to change.)

But something was distinctly missing: the warmth of another person beside him. 

(Though you swear to change, who can tell if you do?)  

Tired though he was, Roman always felt so small when he lay all alone in their large bed. Even as he drifted off, he found himself wishing for someone to lie there next to him.

(It takes two.)

***

[next chapter]

General: @surleytemple @starryfirefliesbloggo @icecoldparadise @lyditist @fandom-random2405 @beach-fan @ihateitwhenyourejustvague @starryeyedhomicide @unring-this-bell @flix-net @follow-pheonix-inside @thelowlysatsuma @residentanchor

AAmour: @romanticsanders @thatrandomautist @mirror2thespirit @pokii-jonas @basicmillennial @starlitparfait

Let me know if you’d like to be added to or removed from either list!

[vgckwb]

ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 10: Facing Forward!

While Alya and Nino were waiting for Marinette, Beyyo showed up to greet Alya. “I agree with the assessment that you are worthy of wielding a miraculous” he said.

Alya nodded. “Thanks, um…”

“Beyyo. My name’s Beyyo” he said.

“Oh. Well thank you Beyyo” said Alya. Beyyo left.

Beyyo was returning to Vlad, when he saw Marinette. He decided to say hi. “Marinette.”

“Oh, hi Beyyo” Marinette said, as Tikki popped out.

“What do you want?” Tikki asked.

“I suppose it’s only fair to tell you that we tested Rena Rouge” said Beyyo. “Don’t worry, she passed.”

“Well, that’s good” said Marinette.

“But how did you figure out who Rena Rouge was?” Tikki asked.

“Carapace told me with permission from Rena” said Beyyo. “Wait, what am I saying, we all know who these people are, right?”

“Nino just told you it was Alya?” Marinette said.

“Good, so we are on the same page” said Beyyo.

“Why?” said Marinette.

“They thought that since we are determined to test everyone who has a miraculous, it would be easier to tell me and just get it over with” Beyyo told them.

“I guess that’s true” Marinette said.

“Speaking of, this guardian you mentioned” Beyyo said. “Judgement Wolf said that he would do it on his terms, but I’m not willing to wait. Where is he?”

“We’re not telling you” Tikki said.

“Besides, we already talked to him, and he only has one term” Marinette said. “It should be simple enough, and in line with your ideals.”

“Well, what is it?” said Beyyo, now curious.

“He wants Judgement Wolf to tell me who he is” said Marinette. “After all, he knows I’m Ladybug. I should know who he is, right?”

Beyyo was shocked. “We’ll talk about this later” he said, leaving. Marinette and Tikki giggled.

Marinette arrived at the cafe and satd at Nino and Alya’s table. “Hey Marinette” said Nino.

“So, how was spending the night Adrien’s?” Alya asked.

“It was great” Marinette said in a normal voice.

Nino and Alya were shocked by this. “Wow. You said that like a normal human being” Alya said.

“Is that weird?” Marinette asked.

“Well, it’s just, when you talk about Adrien, you usually get really nervous, or really into it” said Nino.

“NINO!” Alya said.

Marinette was shocked. Nino was right. She does usually do stuff like that. “It’s OK. I know he knows” she said.

“Marinette, I’m so sorry I told him” Alya said.

“It’s fine” said Marinette. “But, for the most part, it really was just like hanging out at anyone else’s house.”

“So, what happened?” Alya asked.

“Well, Nathalie, the Agreste’s assistant, bought me this really gorgeous nightgown” Marinette began. “Then, after I changed, Adrien complimented me” her voice started to squee. It went back to normal as she continued “Then Adrien asked me to do something for him.” Alya and Nino were intrigued. “He wanted me to get the last achievement in Ultimate Mecha Strike III.” Alya and Nino were shocked. “So, I just spent the remainder of the night doing that, while Adrien watched. Then, he thanked me and put his hand on my shoulder.” Marinette got nervous and then said “Then I freaked out, and said I was tired, and we just went to bed.”

Alya and Nino chuckled. “Marinette, you gotta get out of your own head sometimes” Alya said.

“I know” said Marinette, disappointed in herself. “But I did get to sleep on Adrien’s bed” she said, really into it.

“So, where did Adrien sleep?” Nino asked.

“He got out a sleeping bag and slept on the floor” Marinette said. “He and his dad had a fight about it, which woke me up.”

“Not cool. You’re the guest. You should get the bed” Nino said.

“Adrien said that, but then his dad asked why I didn’t take the guest bedroom” Marinette explained.

“That place has a guest bedroom?” Nino asked.

“Adrien said that as well” Marinette said.

“Looks like you two are rubbing off on each other” Alya said. “Look Marinette, you’ll get your chance” she said, putting her hand on Marinette’s. “And when you do, know that I’ll be there for you.”

“Thanks Alya” said Marinette.

Earlier, Beyyo returned to Vlad at the photo shoot. “So, how’d it go?” Vlad asked.

“Well, the telling Alya part went fine,” said Beyyo, “but I ran into Marinette afterwards.”

“Oh? And what’d she say?” Vlad asked.

“Well, I told her that we tested Alya, and then she told us this guardian’s condition” Beyyo said.

“‘Condition’? As in, only one condition?” Vlad asked.

“Yes” said Beyyo. “He demands that you reveal yourself to Ladybug.”

“Is that all?” Vlad said. “Should be simple enough. Just gotta find the right time.”

“Why not right away?” Beyyo asked.

“Because we’re busy. Besides, I like being dramatic” Vlad said.

“Of course you do” said Beyyo.

“Look, this guardian isn’t using any of these miraculous, is he? We should be fine for a while.”

Beyyo sighed. “I guess.”

“Hey Vlad!” Adrien called out. Beyyo hid.

“Hey Adrien” Vlad said. “How was spending the night with Marinette?”

“It was fun” Adrien said.

Vlad did not detect a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “Well, what happened?” he asked.

“She just helped me with a video game problem. Marinette’s good at video games” Adrien said.

“That’s it?” Vlad said.

“Yeah. Marinette was tired afterwards” said Adrien. “So, she slept on my bed. I got to sleep on the floor!”

Vlad sighed. “Adrien, Adrien, Adrien. What are we going to do with you?”

“What do you mean?” Adrien asked.

“You had a girl alone in your room,” Vlad said, “and you didn’t even think about doing something romantic?”

Adrien laughed. “Marinette’s just a friend” Adrien said. “I gotta go get ready. I’ll meet you back here when I’m done.”

Vlad took out Beyyo. “I thought Adrien was just bad at picking up signals, but the problem seems to be deeper than that. Am I missing something?”

“Yeah, you’re missing the fact that Adrien is in love with Ladybug” Beyyo said.

“But she is Marinette” Vlad said.

“But he doesn’t know that” said Beyyo.

Vlad gasped. “You’re right Beyyo. We gotta figure that out one of these days.”

Meanwhile, when Adrien was alone in getting ready, Plagg popped out and said “as much as I’m not a fan of romance, I have to agree with Vlad on this.”

“Come on, Plagg, you know I’m in love with Ladybug” said Adrien.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t practice, or ask her for advice” Plagg said.

“Yeah, but you saw how she acted when I mentioned I liked someone after the wax museum incident” Adrien said. “I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. Marinette really likes video games, so I asked about that.”

“So that was a ploy to keep her happy, and nothing else?” Plagg said.

“Well, I really can’t double perfect the true final boss of Ultimate Mecha Strike III. So, I guess you got me there” said Adrien. He finally got ready and joined Vlad for their photo shoot

Meanwhile, in front of Agreste manor, Tom rang the doorbell. The camera peered out to see Tom and Sabine holding a box of cookies. “I didn’t order any cookies” Gabriel said.

“We know, Mr. Agreste. These are for your assistant, Nathalie” Tom said.

There was a slight pause. “Nathalie, did you order cookies?” Gabriel asked.

“She didn’t. We made these for her as a thank you gift. She bought our daughter, Marinette, an absolutely wonderful nightgown” Sabine said.

There was another pause. “Put them in the box. I’ll see to it she gets them” Gabriel said, opening the box. The couple put the cookies in the box. The box then closed.

“Well then Mr. Agreste, have a good rest of your day” Tom said.

“And they’re fresh, so you better eat them quick” Sabine said. The couple left.

Gabriel grabbed the box of cookies and approached Nathalie, who was working on stuff. “Nathalie” said Gabriel. “These are for you. A thank you gift from Marinette’s parents for the nightgown you bought her.” He put them on her desk.

Nathalie looked at the box, and then at Gabriel. “Did you think about what I said last night?”she asked.

Gabriel looked at her. “Yes” he said. “Adrien is my son. The last thing I would want is for him to abandon me on his own free will. However, I am also Hawk Moth. I have to create an unfeeling world that makes super villains. Despite my best efforts, Ladybug and Cat Noir have given the people of Paris hope. People are people, however, and people have bad days.”

Lila is in her room looking at the picture she took of her and Adrien, when she receives a text. Gabriel continues “Besides, we have an agent in the field that can make people’s lives more miserable.” Lila reads the text. “I’ve already instructed her to step up her game and cause chaos around Paris.”

Back at the manor, Gabriel continued on “I’ve decided to relax the rules around Adrien. And that once a week, I will spend some time with him. Between my job and being Hawk Moth, I have a lot on my plate. But I can always make room for my son.”

Nathalie smile. “Thank you sir.”

“You should eat those right away. They’re fresh” Gabriel said, walking out. Nathalie took one of the cookies and took a bite. Her face was delighted.

Adrien got home from the photo shoot. “I’m home father” he said. He looked up, and found that surprisingly, his father was actually there.

“Hello Adrien. We need to talk” Gabriel said. “Step into my office.” Adrien was worried. Still, he walked to his father’s office. They both took a seat. “I’ve decided to relax some of my restrictions around you” Gabriel said. Adrien was pleasantly surprised. “Of course, you still have to practice piano, Chinese, and fencing, and still model, but outside of that, you are free to do as you please. As long as you return to the house by midnight. Also, once a week, you and I will talk.”

Adrien gave his dad a hug. “Thank you father” said Adrien. Gabriel hugged his son back.

They broke the hug. “I have to admit something” Gabriel said. “I’ve...never gotten over what happened to your mother. It’s why I bury myself in my work so much. It eases the pain of her not being here. However, you find relief elsewhere. I don’t want to lose you, son. That’s why I’ve been protective of you. But it’s unfair for me to ease the pain with what I do and not let you do the same. Nathalie helped me realize that.

“Thank you father” Adrien said again. “I gotta go find Nathalie and thank her too.” Adrien went to Nathalie’s office. Gabriel smiled and followed behind him.

When they got there, Nathalie was lying down on her desk. “Uggggghhhhhhhh” she groaned.

“Nathalie?” Adrien said.

Gabriel saw the box of cookies empty. “Nathalie, did you eat all of those cookies?” he asked.

“They were soooooooooo gooooooooooood” Nathalie groaned.

“Come on son, let’s let her rest” Said Gabriel, leading his son out of the room. “We can tell her afterwards.”

“Uggggghhhhhhh” Nathalie groaned again.

[fanficparker]

My Home (Part 17)

Peter Parker x Reader

Part 17… Peter Parker

Word count: 1.88 k words

Warnings: Angst, Some action, big fantasy words, swearing

A/n: Tell me if you want to get added to the TAGLIST of My Home! For more parts see ‘MASTERLIST’ in my profile description! Taglist in the reblogged post. Tell me if you wanna get added :) PS: IF YOU COULD REBLOG IT, THE FIC ISN’T GETTING MUST ATTENTION ON TUMBLR….

Peter’s POV:

"What do you mean by was still alive? Does she --- is she dead?!" I was hunted by my own words.

"Well yeah! I tried my best not to kill her. But she didn't tell me where the ring was. Stubborn wasn't she?" that evil Dorothea spoke up with a pout.

I clenched my fists tight, so tight that if I had longer nails they must have pierced through my suit and skin. My eyes felt like they were burning as tears rushed down my face, hidden under my mask.

The word 'was' associated with Y/n was too much for me to bear!

First Uncle Ben! And now Y/n!

It's my mistake every time, Uncle Ben was trying to make me understand things and I ran off, leaving him alone to deal with the danger following him. And Y/n! She wasn't telling me, rather she was begging me that she has changed, she wanted to protect our planet, but I let her go. I handed her to death itself!

"And most importantly, Liz doesn't deserve Peter."

And Peter doesn't deserve Y/n. Because I deserve to be alone.

"Where are you lost Spider, Spider-Man? That's what people call you right?" she asked in her nonchalant voice.

I can't let her know that I'm broken. I have to be strong. Come on Spider-Man, you gotta save the world, that's what Y/n wanted before dying right?!

"Don't waste my time. Just tell me where the ring is?" she questioned again, dramatically blowing air over her long black nails.

I don't think her nail polish is wet.

Her thin, long arms with those disgusting long black nails made her look like a 70s vampire.

"The ring? Do you mean a wedding ring? Well I'm in no mood of marrying you."

"Uff..." she groaned tilting her head back in frustration. "And I'm in no mood of spreading pedophilia, kid. Just give me that ring."

"What's your actual plan? Let's get a straight deal- if you tell me what's your plan, I'll tell you where the ring is! " I raised my eyebrows. I literally have no interest in talking to her but I'm trying to buy some time to think of a valid plan, but in reality, I have zero idea what am I gonna do with her.

"I like deals. Okay, you little humans should know what Queen Thea has planned for you. Believe me, it is for your own benefits."

"That's what all bad guys say. I'm used to it. Just tell me what's your plan. Ruling over the world sounds cliché to me. I hope you got something new."

"Cliché. I don't do cliché. I do real..."

"Shit?"

"Business!"

"You're doing it for money. Dollars work on your planet too?!"

She groaned again at my comment.

She tries to remain calm, but gets irritated really soon - weakness noted!

She took a deep sigh before continuing her words.

"Business in the sense that both the communities will be benefited. Humans and... better humans, that's me and my people. With the power of all 3 rings, I could manipulate every element on Earth. With that, I will get the whole Earth under-water as you did with our pretty Atlantis."

"What?! How's it beneficial? Aren't all living creatures gonna die? "

"Think far! Future consequences! You must have read it in school- 'Life originated from the sea', therefore, with so much quantity of biomass underwater, new organisms will evolve, better people, better humans, a new Earth, no more pollution, greenhouse effect. No more crimes! A whole new start. A better start! A better life!"

"That's rubbish! Senseless! You call it science! Are you insane?!" I blurted out, my eyes squinted, nose scrounged. "And what benefit is it gonna give to your people?" I questioned.

"It will take about a billion years for the advance species to take over, by that time we Chromicoms can make use of the vacant area, you know. Chromicom isn't a really big planet like your Earth, and we deserve to stretch our arms. Relax!" she yawned waving her hand on her mouth.

"How the fuck you can feel sleepy at this time?" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Because I don't need to work," she said and I could hear some banging noise behind my back plus my tingling spidey senses. And in a split second, the debris of the exploded museum building felt like moving. I looked back at Dorothea in utter confusion, her hands were waving in the air, the two rings she was wearing looked exactly the same like the one Y/n used, but they were shining.

Whenever Y/n used the ring it never glowed, but her rings were glowing.

I looked back at the flinting sound, amplified. The small stones were floating in the air, joining with each other. For a minute I was just seeing how the rocks and stones got lifted and got attached with each other, and finally when I could understand, 3 dog like creatures made of stones were running towards me!

What the fuck! She can manipulate objects? Antikeímenokinesis! Are you kidding me? Can anyone fucking provide me with the list of all possible supernatural powers? At least I could come prepared!

Upon realizing those stone creatures were trying to knock me out, I webbed the top of the nearby tower swinging, but one of the 3 stone creatures threw its hand on me, by hand I mean a big piece of rock cutting my web, making me fall on the ground. I groaned as my bones dug into my skin pressed against the concrete pavement. I couldn't even get up when all 3 of them got on me.

I would have really pet them if they weren't made of stone. They are freakin' crushing me under their weight, their hard stone body felt like jabbing through my skin. It's so painful, feels like giant rocks were rolling all over my body. They were sniffing on me, trying to smell. Can stones even smell?!

One of the dogs stopped just at my suit pocket, the exact place I kept Y/n's ring in. My heart skipped an uncomfortable number of beats. I have to get up and face this. I pushed off those stone creatures webbing them up.

"You got the ring, right! Just give it to me, and you'll be able to meet Y/n... after death," she said walking towards me.

"Well... That's not gonna happen." I announced swinging again to the tower.

At least she can't fly.

"You don't want these innocent citizens to die, right?!" she said in a dramatic sad tone, making my swinging come to a halt. I twisted my neck only to see a small coffee shop packed with people afraid of this bombarding of the museum, surrounded by a ring of flames. Dorothea's rings were glowing again, she was directing the fire from the exploded museum towards the coffee shop

Pyrokinesis...

Why do villains enjoy blackmailing us? Can't they just fight us instead of involving any innocent life in between? They do the exact opposite cause they are the bad guys. And now I'm the good guy, so I gotta do my job.

"Leave them alone, and fight me!"

And she directed the fire nearer to the coffee shop. The screaming of the people amplified, some people were even tapping the transparent windows violently with a frightning face.

"Just give me that ring, and I won't hurt them." She was affirmed.

I didn't respond, looking for ways to stop her, but how? Can't I just web her up? With that inanimate object controlling power, it won't stand a chance.

The screams became ear-splitting. The Gas Station just next to the coffee shop was making things worse.

"Okay, I give up." I couldn't let her take over those innocent citizens in cold blood. She smirked, the fire became still like someone has pressed the pause button. She stretched her arm, a stone flew towards me. She shook her head, indicating me to put that ring on it. Even though I hated doing this, but I can't let them die like that, maybe I could figure out something afterwards. My shaky hands put down the ring on the stone and it swiftly flew back to her. She instantly lifted the ring, sliding it on one of her fingers.

"Now leave them." I repeated. She only replied me with a smile, but not just a smile, the evil smile.

"Nooooo... " I screamed and abruptly some metal rods came flying to me, pinning my arms and feet tightly to the tower I was leaning on. I couldn't make any move, the metal rods were too much for my strength, why am I not Captain America?!!!! My freakin' super strength isn't enough to rip off these thick metal rods.

My eyes widened as the flames rose up again, travelling towards the coffee shop, the screaming voices hit my ears again, my vision getting blurry.

"Why are you doing this? I gave you the ring!" my throat felt like choking. "You guys should get yourself ready to see the mass deaths, it's just the start... Like an inauguration." she gloated, utter satisfaction and pleasure in her voice.

"Please" I begged, my voice fainter than before. She looked away enjoying the painful screams. I flutter shut my eyes tight, seeing myself losing, seeing innocent people dying, begging for mercy.

But in the other minute, I fell on the concrete floor again, my back hitting the floor, accompanied by a loud noise of splashing water. I opened my eyes immediately, only to see the whole place drenched in water. The fire was extinguished. Dorothea was too drenched in water. She was pulling back her now wet hairs in disbelief, appearing surprised as 'what just happened?', just like me.

Before I could think further I could hear the loud whooshing sound of the wind, the small pebbles and leaves that were lying on the ground previously got pushed farther due to the rising air currents, so were the bits of paper and Dorothea's long wet hairs.

And with a swift movement, the wind speed multiplied about a hundred times, knocking out Dorothea, making her fall on the ground.

"Sorry for kicking your candy ass." Another voice, that voice I was dying to hear caught my ears. I turned my lying body, only to see a tornado of dark winds. It was all I could see at the first sight, but it soon started diminishing as a small figure started to appear. And at that moment, she was standing right in front of me.

"Y/n." my lips automatically formed the words.

"Seems like you missed me already." she grinned, walking towards me helping me stand.

"So, you-you are alive?" No matter I felt extremely happy, but hell surprised at the same time.

"It's a long story." she reckoned.

"You tricked me into thinking you were dead. Of course I have time."

TBC) Taglist in the reblogged post. Tell me if you wanna get added :)

PS: IF YOU COULD REBLOG IT, THE FIC ISN’T GETTING MUST ATTENTION ON TUMBLR….

[all-things-tmnt]

Thoughts on “Requiem” and “Owari”:

It all has led up to this...not just this season, but this entire series so far has been inching us closer and closer to this ultimate battle. Super Shredder is stable, and taking no prisoners; not even Karai. With all reserves long forgotten, Shredder sets out to claim his ultimate revenge that he’s been after for so long, but now the turtles are out for revenge as well. This is it; the final battle, and there will be pain, struggle and loss. What’s going to happen? Let’s break down this season four finale. I don’t know if you want spoilers are not, but they can be found under the cut, so if you don’t want them, don’t keep reading. If you think you’re emotionally ready for "Requiem,” I promise you that you aren’t. If you still want to watch it, click here.  If you think you’re stable enough after “Requiem” to handle “Owari,” it’s here.

A requiem is a term used – mostly in the context by Catholics – to describe a mass celebrated to honor the dead. Hint, hint. Owari– Japanese for “close” or “end.”

Interesting things in “Requiem”:      - Shredder gets stabilized just in time for the finale. Greeeeeaaaaaaatttttttttt timing.      - Aren’t Footbots supposed to be adaptive? Shouldn’t they be better at fighting Shredder? I mean I get he’s more powerful now but these Footbots aren’t performing like that normally would.      - I wouldn’t say there was ‘no emotional reaction’ there. He did pause briefly to identify her...but I will say it’s unsettling to see him be able to kill her and not care now. That spelled trouble. The one advantages the good guys had is gone.      - The writers themselves are even openly acknowledging here that they parallel their parody shows on the finale. I’m dead.     - The stairs joke had me rolling.      - That awkward moment when Chris Bradford sticks his butt in your face.      - That even more awkward moment when after he sticks his butt in his face, the child still willingly accepts the piggyback ride.      - Okay...the fall thing was a little too in your face. (Mainly because this episode got spoiled for me and I already know what happens at the end but I mean even if I hadn’t, I would have figured it out from that alone.)     - This entire Leo-Splinter scene in the dojo hurts me and I’m not ready to talk about it here so we’ll just save it for the break downs.      - Super huge appreciation bullet for the fact that Karai and Shini went to hide with the Mutanimals because they knew their old lair wasn’t safe anymore. Karai has gotten so much wiser and Shini is just awesome so...     - That predictable moment when 10 seconds after you point out the place you’re staying is safe from your biggest enemy, the alarm indicating that your biggest enemy is there goes off.     - “Is anyone actually watching the monitors?” - Shini / me. Also, Shini’s sassy pose is my life.      - @ me *is upset we missed like half of what apparently has been the greatest battle ever.*     - Shredder: “I AM HERE TO KILL ALL OF YOU.” *Leaves without killing anyone.*     - Why does Raph say, “hurry, Leo!”? Why not “Hurry guys!” or even “hurry, Sensei!”? Why is it specifically Leo? Hahaaa.     - Splinter literally pulls Karai out by her arm. So you know how painful that would be assuming that even worked? Don’t ever tell me her arm was not disconnected by this action.       - The fact that Leo knows CPR appreciation bullet. (I want back story on how he got trained in that.)      - The fact that Leo was the only one who reacted in that way dis-appreciation bullet. (I think it should have been Donnie, personally.)     - LEO’S FACE WHEN HE SAVES KARAI IS MY FAVORITE MOMENT OF THIS EPISODE HANDS DOWN.     - Splinter having that vision telling him which enemies went which way only further fuels my theory that HE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN but also kinda kills it because if he knew then why would he send half the team after the wrong pair and I just don’t know what’s going on anymore.      - Not saying Splinter’s advice wasn’t good or anything but what on earth does “leading from your heard” have to do with this situation, exactly? If anything, Leo is using his heart to voice his concerns about this plan not being good at all.      - Four seasons in and Leonardo is still the worst driver I have ever seen. (Seriously, he’s lucky there were no people on that sidewalk.)     - Revisiting old areas for fight scenes makes me happy.      - #ThrowbackThursday #ThrowingItBackToTheLastThursdays     - The rocket-shooting horses are a bit much...     - I super appreciate going back to the Wolf Hotel for this battle, because I recognized it as the first place the turtles fought Shredder before Raph even said it, so I’m already both aead of the curve AND pumped.      - 2012 forever throwing that full moon in my face...but seriously, nice entrance.      - Um, Splinter’s back should definitely be broken– no, he’s fine? Okay. Moving on.      - Casey going to catch Raph warmed my heart...even though he fell off the building as a result. He was okay in the end...but seriously, Casey moving to save Raph like that. Best friend points.      - You’re gonna try to convince me that Splinter can take the beating he took and keep fighting, but April gets on little but and she’s useless? April is (arguably) more or less the most powerful being on that rooftop because of her powers and she only uses them when it’s convenient. (She could literally levitate Shredder off of that building and drop him if she wanted to.)     - It was so nice of Shredder to pause and wait for Splinter to get over there in front of April and Raph before he started shooting. He’s such a polite villain.      - I’m just sitting here wishing we could watch Donnie’s fight more because he’s all over that carousel showing off how adaptive he can be in a fight and we have to sit here and watch the Leo-Season-Four-Trope where he gets hurt/almost dies only to be saved by someone else at the last minute.      - Pretty sure Leatherhead just casually murdered Rahzar and we just kinda breeze through that so I mean...okay...     - YOU WANT ME TO SIT HERE WATCHING THIS AND BELIEVE THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS BATTLE WITH SUPER SHREDDER, APRIL HAD TIME TO FACETIME DONATELLO AND ASK FOR HELP. I CAN TOTALLY BUY THAT SHE WOULD CALL, BUT SHE LITERALLY JUST SKYPED HIM FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE.      - That awkward moment when Splinter pauses and it’s the typical moment of, “the good guy has the chance to end this now but stops for whatever reason, thus allowing the big dramatic thingy that’s about to happen to happen.”     - I think we all hate Shredder just a little more for calling Splinter, “brother” just now.     - Leo’s scream is so confusing. I mean it’s implied that he saw Splinter die, but Splinter was stabbed after Leo screamed? I don’t get the placement of that scream.     - Also, Seth Green’s scream is 11/10, would recommend, one of his best moments in this show if not his absolute best.      - Seth Green’s moment when he says “father...father.” is 151827367289128372891827284/10 definitely recommend, I want that on my tombstone when I die and I want the quote to be credited to Seth Green. Like, guys, I’ve heard that line too many times at this point and it still gives me chills.      - Also, look at Leo’s eyes. Look at how huge they are. I’ve sucked at pointing this out for a majority of the episode, but the eye animation has been so incredible.      - They really love giving April the super saiyan hair these days.     - SUPER APPRECIATION BULLET FOR CASEY AND THE 1990 REFERENCE. THEY EVEN DID THE “OOPS” LINE.     - Leo’s hand on Splinter’s torso is literally shaking while he’s holding Splinter’s body. Like, the animation in this episode and the attention to detail...I can’t. It’s so good.      - Seth Green’s line of, “no, please...” is 94875483920938478290938476718928374382938478912837891028374829128374678912387483923847678292394723985649024889342089429172095739874829462398794060/10, definitely would recommend and at this point, I’ll probably have “I survived Seth Green’s performance in Requiem” tattooed on my body at some point in my life being 100% serious. Guys, Seth has KILLED IT in this episode. I can’t even believe how great he’s doing.     - On a far less serious note, I know this is a children’s show and we can’t really see blood or anything totally graphic, but Splinter looks surprisingly well put together for someone who was just stabbed through the chest and thrown off a building to crash onto the ground and fall to his extremely untimely death.     - I lost it when Mikey said “poppa...” I lost it.     - I lost it again when they all carried his body away.     - I refuse to feel anything over Shredder still being alive because I knew that was the case but still slightly annoyed.      - This is probably not something I should point out considering the trauma we all just went through, but...Where is Slash? They literally left Slash on that rooftop.  Interesting things in “Owari”:     - I’m actually so glad they buried Splinter out at the farm house and that they had all of their friends and allies there to wish him goodbye, because Splinter really did touch so many lives.      - PIGEON PETE IS THERE. OH MY GOD THERE HE IS!!!     - KIRBY O’NEIL IS ALSO THERE. LOOK AT THIS GATHERING OF ALL OF 2012′S LEAST RESPECTED SIDE CHARACTERS!      - Seeing April in her old outfit threw me for a second. Hahaaa.      - They totally got me with that shot of all the turtles by his grave. I really thought Leo was going to be alone there. So when he faded and his brothers were still there, I was surprised. Good for you, 2012. You still have some surprises for me.      - Drugs are bad, Leonardo. No but seriously, if vision Splinter becomes a regular thing, I would be okay with that, because one; it showcases and highlights just how much Leo depends on his father and how lost he is without him (especially with that “I can’t go one without you, father...” line) and two; it keeps Hoon Lee in the series.      - Even in the hospital, Karai’s makeup is still fierce enough to kill a man. Slayyyyy.     - Seeing these five interact like siblings is the happiest thing I’ve seen in this series in ages and I feel like I’m alive again.      - Casey’s new mask appreciation bullet.      - Black outfits appreciation bullet.     - Okay, so...I gotta say the goofy dialogue bugs me a little bit. This is supposed to be a serious moment where they’re gearing up to end their greatest villain, and avenge literally every wrong thing he’s done against them...and we get dialogue about toes. Like, I know we have to throw in some light stuff for the children watching...but that’s the best they could do? It feels like they’re not taking this moment seriously; both the turtles and the writers.      - I guess Leo finally canonically said Booyakasha.      - Love the concept of having to battle our way through the woods.      - The arrows gave me flashbacks to season two’s finale. Feels.      - The lighting in this whole forest fight sequence is 10/10, would recommend.      - April’s powers confuse me more and more with every fight.      - I’m pretty sure Raph just murdered Fishface.      - Yes, because Super Shredder would be lying in bed chillin’ like a villain.      - NO 2012. DO NOT TRY TO CONVINCE ME BAXTER STOCKMAN WAS HAPPY AS A FLY. We have seen him complain numerous times about his mutated for and make multiple attempts to become a human again. I do not buy that whole monologue and refuse to believe that Stockman wanted to remain a fly.      - I cracked up when Donnie called him “Michael.” You guys, I seriously cracked up and I don’t even know why.      - 2k3 references all over the place in this funfest of an episode.      - We’re wasting a lot of episode time taking out enemies that are not the Super Shredder...     - Casey should have been dead. Casey should have definitely been dead by the time they finally shut down those traps. Although I will say I laughed at the emojis.      - SINCE WHEN CAN APRIL EVER DO THAT? SINCE WHEN CAN SHE MAKE A FORCEFIELD? WHAT EVEN ARE HER POWERS ANYMORE?      - Incase you guys had forgotten that Leo was now suffering from extreme amounts of pressure to be leader now, Tiger Claw was given a line to remind you of all of that.      - I’m sorry but Leo’s lines in his fight with Tiger Claw are so lame and I’m dead.     - TIGER CLAW KEEPS PET TIGERS AND I’M EVEN MORE DEAD.     - SINCE WHEN CAN APRIL JUST FLOAT ALL OF HER FRIENDS? I AM SO DONE AT THIS POINT. LOL.     - Oh, there’s Shredder. Nice. We have...five minutes to defeat him, if we want some sort of closure scene after this. If we don’t want that, we have seven minutes. Aaaaaaaaand, go.    - Aaaaaaaaand Casey and April don’t even get to do anything. Nice.     - It’s canon that Raphael’s best insult in the moment they all starred Shredder down was “freak nut.”    - It’s canon that Michelangelo’s best insult in the moment they all starred Shredder down was “cheese grater.”    - Serious appreciation bullet to the camera angels and choreography of this fight. It was so cool to watch all the turtles fighting in sync for a few moments and landing hits.     - Also absolutely LOVED watching them attempt to retromutate Shredder. Like seriously, A+ choreography for this entire fight sequence.     - At least April gets to be somewhat useful in this fight...    - GO MIKEY GO MIKEY GO!    - Super appreciating this Mirage-ending setup. I knew Ciro wanted to go this route to close this arc but seeing it actually happen with the 2012 spin on it is really cool.    - Watching Leo question Shredder while they were fighting one on one was really interesting, and even more so when Shredder paused and actually questioned what he was doing for a single second. But Leo didn’t even give him a chance to finish the thought, which absolutely raises so many questions. Where could that moment have gone had Leo not immediately stopped Shredder from contemplating his destiny? Like honestly, the curiosity is consuming me right now.    - I’m really glad Super Shredder paused long enough for Leo to have that vision of Splinter.    - THANK YOU 2012. OMG. THANK YOU FOR RECREATING THE CLASSIC MIRAGE ENDING. I WILL FOREVER WISH THAT IT COULD HAVE BEEN SPLINTER TO END IT ALL, BUT I’M ALSO MORE THAN PERFECTLY CONTENT IT WAS LEO. LIKE, GUYS, THAT’S THE CLASSIC ARC AND SEEING IT REINCARNATED IN WHAT HAS BEEN A GREAT SERIES SO FAR REALLY JUST DROVE IT HOME. I’M SO PUMPED RIGHT NOW. ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE WAS ALWAYS THE POSSIBILITY THAT NICK WASN’T GOING TO LET CIRO AND BRANDON DO THIS ENDING. LIKE SERIOUSLY, THE FIRST TIME HE PITCHED IT TO THEM, IT GOT SHUT DOWN SO HARDCORE. BUT THAT WAS SO LONG AGO AND I’M JUST SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW. GUYS. GUYS. SEND AN AMBULANCE.     - Well...that ended fairly quickly. I mean we don’t even get to see them celebrate or hug or anything.    - Yeah Leo delivered the final blow but it was actually a team effort to get there and everything else so...can we throw some recognition to the others, too? No? Okay...    - This ending scene feels really final. We still have season five and possibly other seasons beyond this, but as far as the main story goes, this does feel like an ending and I’m pretty grateful for that.     - Here’s to you, season four. You ended on a high note.  If you’re still alive (no pun intended there) after all of that, let’s try to keep hanging on for these break downs. I’ve already said this in the bullet points, but I’ll say it again; this finale was spoiled for me about a week ago on my dashboard because someone didn’t tag their spoilers...but I digress. The point of this breakdown is to talk about that little moment with Leo and Splinter in the dojo. I think it makes a lot of sense that Leo would be the one to confront Splinter about his “being distant.” See, the thing is, Splinter and Leo are so close, and to see how much the thought of eventually losing Splinter scares Leo in this opening scene is a reminder of that. It’s a pretty subdued moment from an emotional standpoint, as in there’s no snapping or lashing or anything. Just Leo trying to keep his composure as his father reminds him that one day, he’ll be on his own, and it was just a really sweet moment...but it begs the question, did Splinter know what was going to happen? I think he did. He seems very calm while telling Leo he’s going to be gone one day, and very adamant in reassuring Leo that when that day comes, Leo can handle it. The fact that Splinter had been meditating and “distant” prior to this scene strongly hints that maybe...just maybe, Splinter knew something like this was going to happen. And that makes everything totally heartbreaking. Also, side note: I super appreciate Splinter telling Leo that saying he was chosen “because he asked” at the time to temper his ego was a phenomenal explanation and as a person who has spent the last four seasons bitter over the fact that it was because Leo spoke up that one night in the dojo, I feel like I’m at peace. Hahaaa. The voice acting in "Requiem” was the best it has ever been, but there is one actor who so greatly out shined everyone else. Do NOT ever try to argue with me and say that "Requiem” wasn’t Seth Green’s absolute best performance as Leonardo in an episode. Don’t ever try to, because I will fight you until the day I die that Seth Green has never impressed me more than he did on this one. From the way he screams to the way his voice breaks when he’s calling his father, I had chills throughout this entire episode when Seth delivered lines. Since his first episode, I’ve always felt like Seth was trying to fit into the role. And it was especially difficult for me to see him as Leo, who is my favorite, because of his acting roles in the past, like Chris Griffin in Family Guy, or the evil son from the Austin Powers movies. In the beginning, you could tell he was new and awkward, and it made me miss Jason Biggs as Leo more than ever. But he slowly grew into his role as the leader and blue and I’ve slowly adapted to his voice. Now, with this episode under his belt, I can honestly tell you guys I love Seth as Leo, and I couldn’t even imagine this episode with anyone but him voicing the blue turtle. I just can’t even...I’m still so awestruck at how great he did, and I couldn’t ever praise him enough for this episode. Give him an Oscar or an Emmy for part one.  ...Which makes it weird to see how he kinda lacked a little in “Owari.” I don’t know what it was, but honestly, Seth fell short of the bar he set in that first one in the second half for me. Not saying he didn’t do okay...but after hearing his voice crack and break and just leak pure emotion in that first episode, I was honestly expecting the same level or greatness I’d seen in “Requiem” to be present in “Owari,” especially considering the big events that happen in that second part. Part of me believes it was mostly due to Seth not having as many like earth-shattering lines and screams like he did in part one. I mean, granted, we went from “no, please...” and “father...father” in “Requiem” to “you’ve used up your nine lives, pussy cat,” but still... Granted, he did have some good moments in “Owari,” too, like his conversation with Splinter and even his conversation with the Shredder, but for me, it was no where near “Requiem’s” level of awesome. So now that we’ve seen what Seth is capable of doing in this role, I hope we get more dramatic moments in season five, specifically so we can hear Seth’s talents come out again. It would be a crime not to. Alright, let’s talk about the big event of the first episode...Splinter’s death. This is tricky to explain, because there’s things I loved about this and things I don’t like about it, but overall, I think this death scene did more good things than bad. So let’s talk about the bad and end it with the good. And no, I’m not saying I’m glad Splinter’s dead or it’s great he’s gone.      - The thing is...this is about the fourth time we’ve watched Splinter die. Yes, fourth, if you think about it. First, in the season two finale, Shredder threw him into the drain thing and for a few minutes, we had to assume he was dead, even though it was immediately explained that he had survived at the very end of that same episode. Then, we have the death at the end of season three in “Annihilation Earth,” when he died to be brought back to life via time travel one episode later and ultimately saved from that death 15 episodes later. Finally, the third one came in “The Super Shredder” and/or “Darkest Plight,” where after their battle with Shredder, Splinter pulled both he and himself into the chasm near the underground city, and the turtles had to go searching for him an episode later (you might not consider that a death but some of us do, especially when April has the line, “I can’t sense him”). Anyway, the point is, we’ve seen this happen, three times before this instance, and it kind of pushes me to believe this isn’t anything new, which feels a little short for me. I always expect new and exciting things from season finales, and this wasn’t new and exciting for me. And, because I’ve seen this happen, it doesn’t emotionally phase me as much as I want it to...which sucks, because this should have so much of a bigger impact than it did.      - I think what’s most offensive to me about Splinter’s death is not that it’s been repeated so many times, but that of all the characters in this show, Splinter was the one who deserved to die the least. Not just because he was a good person and he did so many good things and he raised these four heroes and all of that...but honestly, the man never got any resolve. And I guess you can argue that that’s what makes this death so dramatic, but honestly, like I’ve already said a bunch times, we’ve seen this happen already. This is a man who’s lost everything so many times before, and was given fleeting moments of happiness to compensate for that. You know what we never got? A moment where Splinter and Miwa could be happy and honor Tang Shen together. A moment where this father and daughter, after being ripped apart for so many years and so many times by so many horrific circumstances, like kidnapping and death and mutations and etc., could truly just breathe and enjoy each other company for the sake of finally being done with all of the bad and work on building a future with their little family all reunited. Or many a moment when Splinter could have meditated and been at peace knowing that everything was truly past him and nothing like that would happen again. OR SPENT MORE TIME WITH HIS SONS (OTHER THAN LEO!) Because we’ve seen some good moments between Leo and Splinter in the series, but moments with the others were far and few. There was just so much Splinter needed in life that he never got, and so much that he deserved and we as viewers who watched him go through all of those terrible things in his life deserved to see. Splinter deserved true peace and happiness after all of this, but he’ll never get it. It makes me feel like the writers said, “Splinter dying would be a good big dramatic event to stick in this finale so let’s just got with it.” Honestly, I would have been happier if they’d like paralyzed him or made him lose a limb or something. As long as he was alive and got to exist knowing that everything was finally over and that he and his sons AND DAUGHTER could be happy together. Karai didn’t even get to say goodbye to the father she was just starting to know, and honestly, she is seriously just a victim in this show as well. But, because I’m not totally cynical, I can say that of all the times we’ve seen Splinter die, this was the best one in the worst possible ways. This was, without a doubt, the most violent death we saw Splinter experience, hands down. He was stabbed through the chest back in season three, but this time, he fell off a building. And he hit the ground. And his sons watched it (and definitely heard it, but that’s an entirely different thing, I’m sure; point it, it was beyond scarring.) And you know what they did right this time around? The writers made sure nothing else was going on when this happened. The Kraang weren’t invading, the world wasn’t ending, none of it. It was just stillness and silence as they Splinter is impaled and then thrown off the building to his death. You know what the best thing the writers did this time is? We get to see the emotion. We get to see the initial reactions. We get to witness the boys break down and hear them cry in agony as they come to terms with the fact that this time, there is no undoing this. We’ve never gotten to see the boys break like this before (aside from Raph freaking out in the season two finale), and it’s about time we got to see it happen. In fact, the emotions we see are so perfectly laid out and heartbreaking, that you can totally forgive the fact that this is not anything new. It’s almost like we can overlook Splinter’s previous deaths, because it’s finally the proper emotional response and it’s like we’re really seeing this for the first time. Watching these four boys break down at the loss of their father is the most beautiful thing this series has done so far, and the reactions are a part of what has solidified “Requiem” into my list of top favorite 2012 series episodes. These reactions are what I’ve been waiting for every time we’ve seen Master Splinter die, and I feel like all that waiting might have made it the more impactful. But seriously, props to the voice cast for their super deep cries of pain and the animation team for the mannerisms we see, like the shaking and the curling up and everything else. This death scene was hands down the best we’ve ever seen.   Next thing I want to break down is each character’s reactions to Splinter’s death, because each one was hella interesting and if I don’t break them down, the stress will kill me.      - We gotta start with Leo, because he absolutely had the most shown reactions, as in, this episode showcased him the most, and I know that upset some of you. I’ve had quite a few messages telling me that this episode was so painfully Leo-centric, that it almost wasn’t fair at all to the others that went through the exact same thing as he had been; the loss of their father. And to some extent, I agree with you and feel we should have seen a little bit more of the others...but I’m actually completely fine with the way this panned out and that we saw Leo so upfront. It’s not because I’m biased and because Leo is my favorite, but more so of how the way this episode has been structured and how the series overall has shown us how close they are. I’ve never seen Leo, or any of the turtles, refer to Splinter so much as their father in one single episode. It’s like Leo was reminding us the entire time that he’s more than just their teacher, but he is their dad, and hearing it so many times made watching them lose their father all the more unbearable when it happened. But looking at Leo specifically, can you imagine how scared he is? How that conversation he had with Splinter a few hours prior just had to be replaying in his head? How Leo realizes that he is truly and completely on his own now? Leo’s always had Splinter to guide him when he didn’t understand things, and he’s still so young. That safety net is gone, and Leo is all too aware of that. You can hear it in the way he begs for Splinter not to be dead. “No, please...” He’s saying, “please don’t leave us. Please don’t leave me; I can’t do this on my own. I’m not ready. I need you.” All of this mounting pressure and responsibility that has just fallen on Leo is why they showcased him the most here, and it’s evidence from expression and emotion that Leo has never been more lost in his life. And he can’t even speak, because he’s trying so hard to be strong, but even he can’t stop himself from crying. And the little moment he remembered, when Splinter gave him his katana...my heart hurts, because he was definitely remembering how Splinter had told him that he knew from an early age that Leo would be the leader some day. And look at him now. Dear God, my chest is ripped open and I am bleeding out.        - Donnie is so broken that he can’t even speak, which in itself is something we don’t see regularly. See, Donnie is always the one who has a way of explaining things. Donnie always knows what’s going on and how to process the events around him, because he’s the smartest being in the group and probably in all of existence. Here, he’s utterly silent. Here, he can’t understand what’s happening or why. All he knows is that he’s hurting beyond measure and he can’t for the life of him figure out how to make it stop. He can’t fix this. There’s no equation he can solve or no one thing he can invent that can undo what has been done. Nothing he can do can bring his father back. His father, who didn’t always understand his inventions but who always supported him in making them. His father who always had a way of teaching him the things he couldn’t figure out on his own and who raised him since day one. His father, who was his biggest support system in life and who never failed to be there for him no matter what was going on. It’s gone. It’s been ripped away from him in the worst way imaginable. And he’s faced this loss before, but there was always something else to focus on. Wether the Kraang were invading or the world was ending, Donnie always had to put his pain on hold to focus on something else. But now, there is nothing else. There’s just the death of his father, and Donnie has never known that one could hurt this badly. Nothing scares Donnie more than being unaccepted, and the one person who accepted him the most is gone. So all he can do is just cry.      - Casey is behind Donatello in the background and his response is pretty interesting to see. He just folds his arms and looks away like he’s too tough for this whole thing, but really, he’s so hurt to have lost Splinter. We never really saw them as close, but I’m sure they had their moments, and honestly, look at the timeline. Casey was scared beyond reason when he first met Splinter, because rats were Casey’s phobia in the beginning. But overtime, Splinter helped Casey conquer that fear, and I’m sure Splinter helped Casey in other areas as well. In the beginning, Casey couldn’t even look at Splinter because he was afraid of what he would see; now, it’s the exact same principle, but for entirely different reasons. And that in itself is tragic.       - If you didn’t feel like you were being stabbed repeatedly when we saw Mikey, you weren’t watching the right scene and I encourage you to go back and actually watch it. Michelangelo is the child of this group; he is the most innocent and the most pure. And he just lost his dad. Mikey can’t even breathe; seriously, when you listen to him before he’s able to say “poppa,” he’s struggling to breathe, and that’s exactly what I would expect from Mikey. As scatterbrained as Mikey can be, he’s not stupid, and Mikey definitely understands the gravity of this situation. He understands the finality of death, and how this time, there’s no bringing Splinter back. It’s a sharp contrast to how we saw Mikey handle this scenario the first time in the season two finale...when he was the one comforting Raph and telling Raph that “Splinter would be okay.” Now, he’d got no one to console him, because they’ve all lost the same thing, and Mikey knows this time, it’s not going to be okay. He can’t have his father back this time. And no one thing that anyone could say to him would make this okay. Nothing is going to take that pain away. Especially when you remember that Mikey actually saw Splinter hit the ground. He observed and heard Splinter’s body smash into the concrete as he and two of his brothers desperately tried to catch him and failed. He heard Leo, who he’s always known to be in charge and on top of things scream in recognition that they failed to do anything useful in this situation. We see Mikey collapse into sobs while still holding Splinter’s hand in the end, and my soul is totally crushed for him.       - We actually see Raph walk up to the group and it’s very evident that he’s still in complete and utter shock. It’s like mentally, he hasn’t fully processed what just occurred. And seeing it first hand hasn’t made it any easier to understand. But now everything’s slowed down and he’s forced to face this heart-wrenching reality that his father is gone. His father, who has always understood him when no one else did. Who always was quick to forgive and empathize with his temper issues because everyone else around him failed to get it. The one person who understood him better than anyone is gone. The one person who raised him to understand that his anger did not define him, and who taught him how to channel and control his rage. That support system is gone, and Raph must feel like he’ll never have that level of understanding in his life again. Splinter never failed to reassure Raphael that his anger issues were a part of who he was and that he could use it to bring about change and positivity rather than destruction. Can you imagine losing the one person who has never given up on you since day one, because he was once where you were in life. Raph can’t, and yet, there he was, suffering that exact loss. All he can do is cover his face with his hand and wipe the tears away, because even though he’s the tough guy in the group, even he isn’t strong enough to hold back the tears.       - We don’t see much of April’s reaction initially. Well, we know she was angry, because she shot Shredder off the roof with a psychic blast powerful enough to shatter a cement wall. But sadness-wise, we only get a quick glimpse. But because we’ve seen how close April and Splinter are over the series, that quick little shot of her and Casey walking behind the turtles sadly is all we need to know April feels like she’s lost her own father. In a lot of ways, Splinter did father her. Splinter was always there to help her, wether it was training, offering her a place to stay and protection or anything in between. And April cannot believe she lost that in the ways that she did. Splinter was April’s adopted father, and the two of them were so close since day one. They might not be related by blood, but the loss hurts her just as much as if they were.  You know what upsets me a lot in this finale? how little a role Karai got to play. I mean, seriously, the girl is one of the biggest aspects of this story, and she didn’t even help get to avenge her father. Or get some payback for all the hurt and suffering and lies she experienced in her lifetime. Karai deserved just as much a happy ending as Splinter did, and in a lot of ways, she is happy now, and I like to see that. But at the same time, I wish we could have gotten to see her take some of her own happiness for herself. Watching her fight for 30 seconds in part one and then lying in a hospital bed to be told her real father was dead and not get to see her kick some butt like we know she can hurt a little.  The pacing for “Owari” was all over the place, and not in a good way. I mean, I get that it was a nonstop battle episode, and I think it definitely had to be...but this episode would have been A LOT better if we could have spent two full episodes on breaking into Shredder’s evil fortress. Seriously, 2003 gave this arc like a full four episodes, and they took their time to really go through getting to the final battle with Shredder. In this episode, much like 2003, the turtles have to go through all of Shredder’s forces before they get to him, but they gave themselves four entire episodes to do just that, and a full episode to battle the Shredder. Here, we have literally 22 minutes to take out MULTIPLE henchmen AND THEN Super Shredder himself.  The ending of “Owari” is a decent wrap up for the main story. They did a pretty good job tying up the main plot, but there’s still a lot of unanswered questions and loose ends that worry me. What about Timothy and his story? If Rahzar and Fishface are still alive, will we see them again and will we retromutate them as well (honestly I was kind of hoping for that to happen)? Will Leo and the others still have visions of Splinter in the future (or is it just Leo since he’s considered the most spiritual in this series)? What about other mutant villains we’ve seen over the last four seasons, like Snakeweed or Spiderbytez? Those are just the tip of the ice burg; there’s still a lot left that I hope we get resolution for in the coming season or seasons, depending on how far they was to take it. This finale ties up our major story, but we need to address our other side stories as well. Don’t let me down, season five.  I guess I’ve ranted enough, so let’s get ready to close this out with final thoughts...but there’s just so much to say. Looking at season four as a whole, it had a lot of weak moments for me. I felt the space arc dragged at times and the resolution to “Annihilation Earth” wasn’t as strong as it should have been. I also felt a little cheated with April’s corruption arc and how all of the build up led to one episode and a resolution I wasn’t totally a fan of. Leo’s constant trope throughout the season – especially in the space arc – of almost constantly dying and getting hurt got super repetitive and annoying at times as well. There were moments of this season that drove me absolutely nuts and there are definitely rants of mine to prove that. However, season four wasn’t a total loss. For all the chaos and discord, they also had some really high points; I felt that some of the episodes we got were the best of the series overall.  When I compare these two episodes side-by-side, I think “Requiem” wins out. While I appreciated the Mirage-based ending and the brilliant filmography and choreography of “Owari,” it just didn’t hit the emotional levels “Requiem” did. “Owari’s” fast-pacing hurt the episode as a whole a little bit. I was really excited to see Leo deliver the final blow, but I think the other characters deserved to get more hits than they got. We had to go through so many other bad guys before we got to Shredder, and Shredder was the whole point of this episode. They did a great job in the time they were given, but they should have given themselves more time. Expand on Raph (maybe?) killing Fishface. Show us Leo’s reaction to Tiger Claw’s comments after they had a moment to stop and for him to process them. Let Donnie struggle to believe that his retromutagen really didn’t work for a few minutes. Give Mikey a few more epic shots as he swings his nunchucks in battle. It was all just so rushed. And the moment when Shredder was actually pondering what Leo had said to him about destiny...where could that moment had gone had we had more time for it? When you rush an episode, you lose the potential for those things, and you can argue that we already had so much emotion and grief to deal with from having to see Splinter’s death, but this episode called for even more expansion on that in so many moments, and we just didn’t have the time for it. We didn’t even get to see the boys run up to Leo and jut all process that their brother had both survived and ended the ultimate battle they’ve all been fighting for years. There’s no way they held those reactions in until they were all on the rooftop with Karai. So many things needed to happen that didn’t. "Owari” was a good episode, but for me, “Requiem” shined so much harder. It did an excellent job in setting us up for the final battle with the Shredder, which ended entirely too quickly. All of the little details and development that went into “Requiem” really showcased how wonderful this show can be. From little things like the animation of the eyes with the pupil shrinkage and expansion to how hardcore the cries and dark moments were, it was a phenomenal episode with very few flaws. I wish that “Requiem” could have been the episode to lead up to the two-part finale, and not have it as part one of the finale itself. So for “Requiem,” I’d give it a 9.5/10 and “Owari” gets a 8/10. We’re not through yet; season five is coming. Honestly, “Requiem” set a new standard of episodes for me in this series. I want to see those same emotional highs come out in the future of this series. We’ve already established that things can get insane in this show, but season four overall especially. We saw everything from more violent action to actual character deaths to so much more pain than we’ve ever seen, and I’m extremely optimistic that season five can keep this momentum going. Like Casey said at the very end, Tiger Claw is out there and he has a serious revenge complex now. On top of that threat, we have so many loose ends to go back to as well. There’s a lot I want to see in season five as well. I want to see Karai and the turtles team up more; maybe even live together. I want to see the turtles struggle to adjust to life without Splinter for a while; Leo learning how to be a leader truly on his own, Raph have outbursts and no one to empathize with him, Mikey try to cope without having a dad, and Donnie go through life without Splinter’s wisdom and guidance to reassure him. I want to see Alopex come back as the fight with Tiger Claw gets more sever. I want to see Casey continue to improve. I want to know just what the hell April’s powers are, because they keep changing. Hahaaa. So much. So many things. And I’m confident season five can take us there. If anything, they’ve already promised us more multi-episode arcs, which will be cool.  Season five will begin with “Scroll of the Demodragon,” in which the turtles meet new foes after they were sure they’d defeated all the old ones.  We have a bit of time in between now and the season five premiere, so let’s talk about this finale, and about season four as a whole. Send me all of your thoughts here. Previous review for The Tale of Tiger Claw here. All season four reviews here. All episode reviews index here. Podcast review here.

[piperchu]

DotD rewrite Episode 1: Day of the Departed

It’s here! There are a few minor tweaks in this one, like dialogue changes, plus Yang isn’t evil. Go ahead and read!

Episode 1

Day of the Departed

The sun shone hot down on the pink dunes of the Sea of Sand. The sky was turning shades of pink and purple. The rocks in the desert cast long shadows across the ground. Sunset was fast approaching.

Suddenly there was a rumbling sound somewhere in the distance. The rumble turned into a roar, and a large motorcycle tore across the ground. The Raider Bike’s driver was a young man dressed in a ninja gi. “Move, move, move! We’re running out of time! Pick up the pace!” Kai yelled into his radio.

Another large vehicle, the Rock Roader appeared behind it. “Kai’s right, we’re already cutting it close!”

Two more vehicles appeared. “Roger that, Cole!” Nya said from the second Raider Bike. “Zane, do you have a read?”

“It may be too late,” Zane replied from the Titanium Ninja Tumbler, “unless we break all speed limits! Increase velocity!”

“Already on it,” PIXAL confirmed. Another vehicle suddenly appeared out of the dust, Lloyd at the driver’s seat.

“Ninja, I’ve reached the rendezvous point. Where are you?” Wu asked from the screens on the vehicle’s dashboard.

“The museum is still five clicks away!” Lloyd answered in his Ultra Stealth Raider Bike. “We’re on our way.”

Suddenly a small craft caught up to them up in the air. “Look up, kids! Jay to save the day! Race you there, Lloyd!” Jay called from the cockpit.

“I still don’t understand how you got the Super Sonic Raider Jet,” Lloyd said, shaking his head.

“Uh, ‘cause I called dibs! Guy who calls dibs first gets it! Right Cole?” No answer. “Right Cole? Cole?” Still nothing. A sudden realization hit Jay. “Lemme go get him! He’s drifting off again!”

Cole looked at his hands. They were fading again. Not another one of these episodes! “No. No! Come back! Come-” he pleaded.

Jay was heading back, only to see Cole’s tread assault hurtling through the air straight for him. “Cole! Look out!” He cried. Jay took a quick dive and only just missed it.

Cole regained control finally. “S-sorry Jay,” he apologized.

Jay sighed. “I know you’re a ghost, but I’m still in the living world, and I’d kinda like to keep it that way!”

“Ninja! Time is of the essence!” Wu exclaimed.

“He’s right!” Cole said. “Engage!”

“We have one last shot if we want to make it. Combine for maximum impact!” Lloyd commanded.

The vehicles began to converge and combine. “Locked!” Kai confirmed.

“Loaded!” Nya added.

“And, jet speed reporting for duty, sir!” Jay piped. He lowered the jet and latched onto the combination. Cole and Zane also put their vehicles in place.

“Fire all engines!” Lloyd directed, and they all zoomed off.

The Ninja sped toward the city, tore down the streets and finally skidded to a stop at the Ninjago City Museum. They jumped out of their vehicles and rushed over to Sensei Wu, who was standing on the front steps of the museum. “Sensei Wu!” Jay panted. “Are we too late?”

Wu looked up at the sky where the moon shone bright green. “There may yet be time,” he answered.

The ninja raced up the steps. “NINJA-GO!” they shouted, and Spinjitzued inside, Misako and Wu closely following.

Moments later, the Ninja walked out of the gift shop, carrying orange lanterns and now feeling much more relaxed. “Haha! Mission accomplished!” Jay laughed.

“Good thing we got to the gift shop before it closed!” Lloyd remarked.

“Yes,” Zane agreed. “A Day of the Departed celebration is incomplete without a Day of the Departed lantern.”

“I don’t know about you all, but this has got to be one of my favorite holidays! There’s lights, there’s costumes, but the best part is the candy!” Jay exclaimed. He turned to a kid with a pilot’s helmet on. “Go long, kid!” The boy’s eyes widened in terror, and he ran to the front of the group. “Hey, what was that?!”

Lloyd put his elbow on Jay’s shoulder. “Jay, take it from me,” he began, almost as if he were a wise old man teaching him a valuable lesson. It was so dramatic it was comical. “Candy is a child’s greatest treasure. No kid is going to be willing to give up that sweet, sugary goodness for free.”

“Yes, enjoy the fun and festivities,” Wu encouraged, “but never lose sight of the true meaning of the Day of the Departed. Today is about remembrance. We light lanterns to remember our ancestors… and to settle our debts.”

“Yeah, got it, got it.” Jay babbled. “Lanterns, ancestors, debts, but candy too, right?”

Suddenly a voice that sounded like it had a slight cold came up behind them. “The Ninja! The Master Wu!” The speaker was a man in a red suit with glasses and a very long grey mustache.

“Dr. Saunders,” Wu acknowledged.

“Oh, please, we are all friends, ah, you must call me by my first name, yes, Sander, yes?”

Kai snorted softly. He leaned over to his sister. “Dr. Sander Saunders?” he whispered into her ear.

Unfortunately, Dr. Saunders heard it, but didn’t seem to take offense. “At your service!” he laughed cheerily. “I am so pleased to be seeing you at this now. We are opening our new exhibit. Come! You see! Come!” He led them over to a set of double doors. Opening them, he announced, “Might I be presenting… the Hall of Villainy!” Everyone gasped. All the mannequins looked very realistic. He pointed to each one and introduced them. “Cryptor!”

“Very realistic,” Zane observed.

“Kozu!”

“Uncanny!” Lloyd remarked.

“Chen!”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Nya groaned.

“Samukai!”

“...Is he looking at me?” Jay asked nervously.

“Maybe from the past,” Wu reassured him.

“And Morro!” Dr. Saunders finished. “Checking this out! We don’t just open on Day of Departed. It’s Day of Departed lunar eclipse! A special eclipse!”

“The rarest Yin Yang eclipse,” Wu informed, looking at the moon chart Dr. Saunders was pointing out. “Unlike most eclipses, it lasts for two weeks instead of one night.”

“Ah, poetic, is it not? Scary holiday, scary exhibit, scary moon, there is magic in the air… BOOGLY BOOGLY!” None of the ninja were impressed by Dr. Saunders’ attempt at spooking them. However, the exhibit was a different story.

“It’s… every villain we’ve ever faced,” Kai breathed.

Cole walked toward a specimen that caught his eye. “Not every villain….” he corrected more to himself than to Kai. He was facing a weapon encased in glass underneath a painting of a familiar face.

“No, there are many more to unpack,” Dr. Saunders continued. “Overlord, Golden Master, all the ones who tried to destroy you. Exciting!”

“Uhh, yeah, e-exciting…” Jay agreed nervously.

Cole walked nearer to the weapon and painting. He began to read the description. “‘Although known to some as the Master Without A Student, Honakuna Yang will be remembered by most as the creator of airjitzu, the most powerful martial art in history.’ Huh, actually, I remember Yang as the guy who turned me into a ghost.” Then he called behind him, “Hey, uh, Dr. Saunders, what’s the story on this thing?” He put his hand through the glass. “Hello? Dr. Saunders? Anyone?” No one answered.

“Hey, what’s that?” Nya rushed over to the case.

“Ah, you have a good eye, Nya!” Dr. Saunders complimented.

“Wha- her?! I’m the one who spotted-” Cole stopped. No one seemed to hear him. In fact… “Hey! Watch it! You guys are walking right through me!”

“The Yin Blade belonged to Master Yang, eh, it is said to possess much dark magic...”

Cole came to a realization. “They don’t hear me… or see me… it’s like I don’t exist anymore… And it’s all your fault!” He finished by yelling at the painting.

“Cole… come… come to me….” said a voice.

“Uhh, tell me you heard that?” he asked Jay. Jay didn’t notice.

“Come Cole….”

Dr. Saunders was still talking. “...which is why it is in this case made of clearstone, the hardest substance known to human, impenetrable by any living being…”

“...Cole…” The painting called.

“Yang…” Cole responded softly.

“...Close the circle…”

“Close the circle?”

“...Close the circle…”

“Close the circle…” Cole shook his head. Then he realized he was alone. He walked over to the window. To his horror, he saw his friends outside, saying goodbye to Dr. Saunders.

“Thank you so much for such an informative tour, Dr. Saunders,” Wu said. They shook hands. Then Wu turned to the Ninja. “Ninja, tonight is the first night of the eclipse. At midnight we will return here for the concert. But first, we must go forth and honor those we have lost… those who have departed. We honor our ancestors because if we never look to the past, we cannot envision the future. On the Day of the Departed, we pause to remember those we have lost, and enjoy our time with those we are still fortunate to have.”

Reality came crashing down on Cole. “They don’t realize I’m gone… maybe… I’m departed….” As he stood there in the window, watching them go, his sadness turned to anger at a certain someone. Yang was at fault. It was all his fault. And Cole wasn’t about to sit here while none of his friends could see or hear him. Cole had never wanted pure revenge on anyone before. It wasn’t the way of the Ninja. But I’m not a ninja. I’m a ghost. Cole’s fists balled up. He turned to leave. He didn’t care about what anyone said; he had a debt to settle.

Back in the Sea of Sand, the other ninja rode away. “See you soon!” Kai shouted to everyone over the noise of the engines.

“Happy Day of the Departed, everyone!” Nya waved. With that, everyone left for their various destinations.

In the Corridor of Elders, Lloyd and Misako lit a floating lantern. After making sure it had enough hot air in it to let go, Lloyd released it. Slowly it rose up into the sky. As it passed Garmadon’s stone statue, it cast its warm glow across his face.

Back in Ignacia, Nya held up a lantern in front of Kai. He lit up his hand and used it to light the lantern with a warm red glow. Nya placed the lantern on the table under a picture of their parents, the masters of water and fire.

In the Birchwood Forest, Zane walked toward the ice statue of his father. He placed a lantern in his open hand, and stepped back for a moment of reflection. This was his creator. He touched the snowy floor with his shurikens, and the ice power traveled across the ground and encased the statue with a fresh layer of ice.

Back in the junkyard, Jay sat on a bench outside the trailer where he grew up. They were looking at photos of Jay just after his parents found him on the porch. “Aww…” Edna cooed. “That’s when I gave you your first teddy bear.”

“Well, yeah, that thing was your best friend,” Ed agreed. “You took it everywhere.”

Jay laughed at a picture of him refusing to eat peas and carrots baby food. “I never really liked vegetables, did I?” he chuckled.

“We still loved you, Jay,” Edna said, her head on Jay’s shoulder.

At the mountain on which sat the remains of the old monastery, Wu made tea next to a picture of his father. “I raise this cup of Remembrance Tea to you father,” he said, holding up the tea cup. “We never forget.”

It was only a few minutes until showtime, and backstage, Lou was beginning to worry. Where was his son? “Cole, Cole where are you? You were going to light a lantern with me before the show!” he lamented. Lou’s quartet slid in.

“He still not here, Lou?” Gary asked. “C’mon, put a few notes to it! It’ll make you feel better! Bum bum bum bummmmm! Gave you your voice… gave you your soul… gave you your heart, now my heart is goooone…”

The others joined in. “To pieces!”

“Pieces!”

“Pieces!”

“Pieces!”

“Ooo la la la la la oo la la la la la!”

“Ooooooooooooooooooooo!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Just then Dareth entered. “Hey, guys?” he said, trying to get the four performers’ attention. But they seemed entirely absorbed in their art. “Hey! Guys, listen!” Still no answer. “Guys. Guys! GUYS! STOP IT!” Finally they finished. “Ah, kids! Always letting you down! That’s why I don’t have ‘em. Not because Gail keeps turning down my marriage proposals even though I’m an excellent provider.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway! It’s a good thing your manager is here to help you focus on the important things!”

“What’s more important than family?” Lou asked crossly.

“A paying gig for a festival audience! Have a good show, boys.”

Dareth raced onstage. “Hello Ninjago!”

Lou sighed. What could have happened to Cole?

Cole drove through the desert in his Raider. He had to do this. He drove for what seemed like hours. Dry desert turned to fluffy snow, fluffy snow turned to grassy plains. Finally the visibility dropped, for fog was closing in. He’d have to go the rest of the way on foot. Cole exited the Raider and walked through creepy, skeletal trees until he finally found it. Yang’s temple.

Cole burst through the door. “Alright, Yang! Show yourself!” he shouted into the empty entrance hall. He walked further in. “You hear me? Show yourself!”

“Cole,” a deep voice suddenly said. Cole looked to the right and saw Yang emerging from behind the staircase. “You received my message. I have something important to speak with you about.”

“Really? Well I’ve got a message for you. It’s direct from the business end of your own weapon!” He pulled out the Yin Blade from behind him and pointed it at Yang.

Yang gasped. “The Yin blade! But, how? It’s encased in solid clearstone! That case is impenetrable-”

“Not to a ghost. Which thanks to you, I still am!” Cole didn’t care if he was sounding scary even to himself. Yang was going to pay.

“W-what are you going to do?”

“There’s magic in the air. You know, eclipse and all?”

“Please, where is your holiday spirit? It’s the Day of the Departed.”

“Uh-huh. And I’m settling my debt!” Cole let out a vengeful cry and leapt toward Yang, blade in hand. But Yang jumped out of the way, and the blade hit a large vase instead.

“You foolish boy!”

“What?” Cole asked. Suddenly the vase began to let out an eerie glow.

“You’ve broken the seal on the Vase of Wicked Souls Past!” Yang yelled as the light from the eclipse shone a beam down on the broken vase. A sickly green gas started to swirl around inside of it.

“Woah! What’s happening?!”

“The consequences of your rash behavior!” Yang responded angrily. Streams of green smoke began to escape from the vase. They slithered out of the temple doors and into the surrounding woods. Quickly they made their way across the land and toward Ninjago City. They weaved through the streets and snaked into the Ninjago City Museum. As they went, the lanterns they passed turned green. The smoke soon made its way into the Hall of Villainy exhibit. Each strand of smoke began to circle one of the villains. At first nothing happened.

Then they all blinked.