#rapidly becoming 'NANI THE FUCK'

[allora1233]

𝔾𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣

genre: angst - one shot

pairing: yandere!tendou x reader

summary: After years of being MIA, an old face comes back into your life in the worst way

tw: dark content | kidnapping | yandere | toxic | mentions of being drugged | possessiveness

wc: >1k

a/n: Made this cuz my friend @whompii is obsessed with dark content and Tendou. You're welcome.

Blurs of colors and shapes come into view as you blink your eyes open, head spinning and body feeling stiff. The buzzing hum of fluorescent yellow lights was the only sound to fill the silence as your vision started to clear. What you’re met with is an empty room, aside from the closed, white folding table that’s propped up against the barren prussian colored wall. A few windows barely illuminated the space as they were fogged up by dust and spider webs. The room was no bigger than that of an average sized master bedroom. Your head starts to throb.

You move to get up, only to then realize why your body felt so stiff. Looking down, you find yourself bound to a white plastic chair. Rope and tape is expertly tied around your limbs and chest, keeping you firmly in place. Panic sets in rapidly as you squirm in the chair. Your breathing becomes shaky as you look around, trying to look behind you.

“HELP! Someone, please!” Heart racing, palms sweating, breathing shallow. A panic attack quickly washes over your senses as tears flood your eyes, the pounding in your head getting worse. “Can anyone hear me? Please!”

You tense up as the creaking sound of a door opening behind you fills the room, your breath catching in your throat. "Oh good! You're finally awake.” The click of the door shutting makes you flinch as you try and fail to turn your head around to see who’s talking to you. “For a minute there, I was afraid I'd given you too much Rohypnol. I guess you're lucky you weren't drinking alcohol last night. You really would have been knocked out for good if you did.”

Last night? Damnit, you knew it was a bad idea to go out. You told your friends you weren’t feeling up to it, but they needed a driver and you knew how fucked up they were going to get. So you went, just so they wouldn't get in a uber drunk and to make sure everyone would be safe. How ironic.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" There’s silence for a moment, the tension somehow becoming thicker, impenetrable. It's only broken by the sound of his chuckle. It sends a shiver down your spine. 

“Perhaps I did cause some memory loss, unless you’re joking. You always were one for pranks, weren’t you?” Sure, you used to be a troublemaker when you were young, but how could he possibly know that? “Come on darling, listen to my voice. I know it’s been a while, but I know you could never forget me.”

Do you know this person? Who on Earth would do something like this to you? You never hung out with anyone shady, and you made sure to keep your friend group full of good people. He still sounded like he was at the door, and you haven't heard any footsteps yet. Maybe you can try reasoning with this guy. "I really don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you mistook me for someone."

"Perhaps this will jog your memory." The sound of his footsteps gets closer. As he approaches from behind, he starts singing. "Baki baking ni ore~ Nani wo?" He stops right behind the chair you're stuck in, leaning down closer to your left ear. "Kokoro wo da yo~"

Your stomach twists in knots as the old forgotten memories from your high school years flood your mind. You suddenly feel dizzy. It can't be…

"Tendou..?"

Tendou perks up as you finally mention his name, smiling wide as he stands in front of you. You finally get to look him in the eyes and you feel sick to your stomach. Tears glaze over your eyes once more. "Thank goodness, you still remember me! I was so worried I'd have to start all over from the beginning again."

Tendou Satori. He was your classmate and best friend back in middle and high school. The two of you were basically attached at the hip, hanging out all the time during and after school. You went to every single one of his volleyball games, cheering him on and celebrating his wins. But during your third year in high school, he just up and disappeared. No explanation or warning whatsoever. You'd tried contacting him multiple times, going to his house, asking people around school, but nothing. You honestly thought he might have just moved away.

He moves closer to you, cupping your cheeks in his bandaged hands. You flinch from his touch, turning your head away. A look of hurt flashes across the redhead's face before it's replaced with a twisted smile, one you had never seen before on anybody. "What's wrong, darling? After all these years you don't honestly think I'd hurt you, right?"

[keyofjetwolf]

I fail to understand your actions.

This scene between Rei and Minako, coming on the heels of a not insignificant amount of Other But Related Shit, has had me buzzing since the last liveblog. It’s one of those moments where it’s obvious there’s a lot going on, there’s stuff flying everyfuckingwhere, and I’m just that “What does it mean? What does it all mean??” gif.

So I’ve let it stew in my brain, breaking it all down until it’s tender and flakes easily with a fork. I’m still not sure if I’ve properly got the sense of it all, but I AM sure I need to move the fuck on, so here we are.

With Rei, things are generally unchanged. This isn’t a complaint, it’s one of the things I cherish most about Rei. She lacks insight, understanding, and encouragement, but she possesses all the self-certainty in the universe, and who needs anything more? NOT REI FUCKING HINO. She doesn’t get what Minako’s doing, she doesn’t get what Minako’s saying, but she also has no intention of applying the brakes even a little in her high speed pursuit of Minako and whatever the fuck she’s up to. That’s just the way it is and shall ever be, until Rei is presented with a more compelling reason to stop. (And even then it’s far from a guarantee.)

Did I mention how much I love that about Rei? I LOVE THAT ABOUT REI SO FUCKING MUCH. I lack whatever characteristic it is in the human condition that keeps one from adoring every single last drop of pure distilled Rei Hino. The harder she digs in, the more she bucks against any effort to rein her in, the more enchanted I become. Minako is being STUPID and making STUPID DECISIONS and that she may in fact have a meticulously reasoned explanation for everything she does is irrelevant. Rei doesn’t get it, so it doesn’t matter. You can’t bully her out of her chosen course of action, you can’t order her out, you can’t threaten. She’s completely immovable.

And Minako has NO IDEA how to handle that.

She can’t doubletalk her way out of this, it’s like commanding the Piccadilly Line to go be Bakerloo for a while. The train has one track and one track only, and there’s no shifting that without an inordinate cost of money, time, and manhours, or some magic power to warp the laws of reality as we know them.

Can you dissolve reality and rewrite it in accordance to your wishes, Minako? No? Then Rei’s going to press you about all this until the world explodes or she gets answers, sorry.

So Minako bends, however slightly, and gives Rei an opening. This brings me to my most brain-consuming question: Is this what Minako wanted? I’ve been batting that little catnip mouse around my head, and I’m still not completely sure how I feel about it. Quite probably because I’m not convinced Minako does either. She’s fixated on Rei far more than any of the other girls, even Usagi (IN A SAILOR MOON JOINT CAN YOU BELIEVE), and no small part of that is due to Rei just being 10,000% Rei at any given moment. Minako is invested in Rei beyond her being Mars, but also can’t (won’t?) separate Rei FROM Mars. So she’s trying to crowbar the things she’s loving about Rei – her shrewdness, tenacity, sense of duty, stubbornness – into Senshi tools Minako can wield, completely ignoring (or arrogantly assuming she can sidestep) how those exact qualities are what’s going to make this NIGH IMPOSSIBLE.

This scene is Minako’s admission that no amount of orders and downdressing are going to work on Rei, though of course Rei doesn’t get the satisfaction of knowing it. If she can’t keep Rei from trying to “solve” what’s up with the Princess, she’ll just redirect.

IT’S BRILLIANT. It may also be full of shit, I don’t know that part yet. (Reminder that I’m not looking for answers, please no spoilers!) I would’ve thought they HAVE “awakened as a Guardian”, but maybe it’s something to do with remembering the SilMil, even just knowing who the actual fucking princess is. Or maybe it’s Minako pulling it out of her ass, I’d believe that too. Either way, for our current discussion purposes, she’s stopped trying to pretend there’s nothing hinky going on, instead telling Rei that she’s not GOOD ENOUGH to know of Things Hink. Minako’s SMART, and hits Rei dead on target with something she can’t possibly resist: A CHALLENGE FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Something else I can’t quite settle on though is why Minako’s doing all this. To make Rei stronger, to protect the princess, blah blah right got that. But with the dog situation, Minako was also trying to teach Rei to THINK. And here in this scene, she seems to have specific designs on Rei’s role on the team.

THEY HAVE A LEADER MINAKO IT’S YOU

Of course, that’s a sometimes food right now. Minako fucks off every other day without warning, so I get beefing up the home team to work just fine without you. That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel like Minako’s training her substitute, it feels like she’s training her replacement. Which, again, is smart disaster planning in the event of her death, I’m into it. But also I can’t stop thinking about how Minako is actively and consistently baiting the Dark Kingdom, how many close calls she’s had just in the handful of episodes we’ve seen, and I’m wondering more and more, does Minako have a plan where she SURVIVES? If she doesn’t, does even she realize it? And if these answers are no, oh Minako, you’ve never needed a hug more than you do right now.

Can you even imagine if Rei gets wind of that? “I fail to understand your actions,” Rei tells Minako, and maybe that’s more true than either of them could have thought.

[anonauthorsworkshop]

Hey is it alright if you explain about the skills thing and what else might come up about that in still kinda confused about it?

Hi! The whole skills thing is supposed to be very fucking confusing. It’s inspired by the light novel Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka?

Basically, it’s like skills in a video game. Think of Pokemon. It’s basically “Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!” but more complex and not with all of those happy rainbow sunshine magicks yet. MC can obtain new skills through certain circumstances and can also level them up. It’s like muscle. The more you work out the stronger your muscles get.

So far, their ‘Scrutinize’ skill basically allows MC to know what something is. For instance, when they looked at SCP-049, the Scrutinize skill recognized him as “Doctor,” and recognized the contents of his bag as “Various medical tools.” Obviously this doesn’t seem very useful but keep in mind this skill is still like Level 1. MC gave this skill the name of “Mysteria,” short for “the mysterious voice in their head”

Fear Resilience is self-explanatory. They become more resilient to fear. This skill has been leveling up rapidly because their mental state is horrible if I do say so myself and they fear for their life constantly

Amplified visual/auditory/scent perception is also self-explanatory. Basically gives MC better seeing, hearing, and uhhhh smelling abilities

Not explaining the Target skill yet because it’s spoilers, you’ll see in the next chapter. Sorry if I missed anything! MC will gain and level up more skills as chapters go on. Also note that MC already has some skills that they just don’t realize they have yet

[lihikainanea]

I also love the idea of drunk Tiger at a bar, Bill mingling with friends and she starts to get soft. She makes little whimper noises under her breath and so many people around her is too much for the Little Human at the moment. So she walks outside to call him, but he’s outside having a social smoke. He sees her face and that’s HIS face, she doesn’t show that to anybody so he quickly walks over, making so excuse that they forgot to do something, and he takes her home.

oh fuuuuuuuuuck god you got me with how he looks over at her and he sees that look--that look that is only for him, within the safe confines of their dynamic. And there she is, falling apart in public and Bill just can’t get to her fast enough. He probably wraps her up--NO wait we’re not there yet. Let’s rewind.

We all have those nights, don’t we? Nights where you really just don’t feel like going out, but you have to. You have friend obligations, it’s someone’s birthday, whatever. And sometimes the nights where you don’t feel like going out turn out to be the BEST nights of your life, and sometimes they are just exactly what you thought they would be: shit. Absolute shit.

Maybe tiger has been a little fussy all day, maybe she hasn’t. Maybe she was fine and just really felt like having a quiet night in with her Big Dude but now they have to get dressed and she has to put make up on and they have to spend the whole night barely touching each other and tiger is just already mad about it. But they get there, and Bill gets her a drink. She pounds it back a little too quick for his liking and he bends to her ear, whispers a mildly authoritative easy, kid before he puts another wine glass in her hands. He gives her a warning look and she nods to acknowledge his light command, and goes slower on this one.

And it’s fine, you know--it’s not a huge night out. Just a restaurant, and then a bar. But it’s everything tiger didn’t feel like doing and she doesn’t even have Bill’s touch to ground her. I HC that even when they weren’t boinking they were fairly touchy--he’d always have his arm around her--but tonight she just wants to hold his hand and tuck into his chest and feel his kisses on her face and she can’t have any of that. Plus, she hit her limit with....people-ing. It’s just too much. Too much conversation, too much noise, too much interaction and she’s starting to get overwhelmed. Friends are asking prying questions that she doesn’t want to answer, or they’re talking her ear off about things she’s not really tuned into because she’s just stuck in her head. She loves her friends, she does, but we all have those moods where we just...canNOT.

So she starts to get a bit overwhelmed. Bill is chatting with some of his buds and she doesn’t want to interrupt so she slips away to the bathroom to try and get a few deep breaths in. It works a little, but once she steps back out into the bar she’s gobsmacked with that feeling again. She looks around for Bill but he stepped out for a smoke and she just..starts to slip a little. I don’t think she gets full on small, necessarily, because man tiger is a badass BITCH and she can handle this, and she needs safety in order to feel small and this isn’t a safe space for her to get like that.

But I do think she gets small in a lighter sense, where she’s getting overwhelmed, she’s having a hard time staying in the present and calming her heart rate, and she just wants Bill because Bill will fix it. Bill will get her back breathing right, will get her heart to slow down. Bill will ground her, he’ll make her feel safe. And she needs that. Maybe her friends are noticing she’s spacing out a little or maybe they’re not, but either way tiger feels a cold sweat start to break out on her back, starts to feel a bit of a wheeze in her chest as she’s trying to get a breath in, and her eyes are rapidly scanning the room but she can’t find Bill--and he’s ridiculously easy to spot, towering over everyone else. She keeps her eye line high but when she doesn’t see him, she starts making her way to the door to check outside.

And like, maybe it’s winter right? And it’s cold. But tiger has one mission and that’s to find him so she wanders out without her coat. And he’s there, a few feet away from the entrance, a lit cigarette in his hand as he brings it to his mouth for a drag. His Little Human Alert dings and he looks over and tiger is just there searching for him. Her arms are crossed over her front and she’s already shivering, and when she locks eyes with him he sees it--the look on her face. His look. The one only he’s supposed to see. He tosses his cigarette on the ground and doesn’t even say anything to his friends, he just starts making his way over to her immediately. 

And when he gets to her--uuuunnnnnf GOOD DUDE BILL--I’ll bet he just opens his coat (it’s DEFINITELY one of those long, beautiful trench coats he’s been wearing lately. Collar popped.) tucks her in there under his arm and wraps some of his coat around her.

“Hi sweet girl,” he murmurs lowly to her, “You’re okay.”

He waits until he gets her back inside, finds a bit of a darker corner near the coat check. Then maybe he just gently grabs her chin, tilts it up, looks into her eyes. Just to get a better read on her. And her eyes are shifty and she’s definitely slipping but she’s still managing to hold his gaze. She bites her lip sheepishly, a little embarrassed, and he just gives her a small smile.

“Come on kid, I’m taking you home,” he tells her, and god she almost deflates with the relieved sigh she lets out. He tucks her protectively under his arm, brings her to the coat check. He takes care of it for her, gets her coat, holds it out for her and slips it onto her. With all of his experience at glitzy Hollywood parties that he hates, Bill has become a master at ghosting. Just...disappearing. And nobody quite knows when the hell he left. So he tucks tiger under his arm again, says to one or two people that they’re headed home because tiger has a headache, and then poof--he’s gone.

And my train of thought kind of splits here because on the one hand I love this idea that like, he brings her to his car, right? And tiger’s already doing a little better because her immediate stress has been taken away and has been replaced by BILL who is like, her antidote to everything. But she could still use a bit of comfort, so maybe when they get to his huge SUV he opens the passenger door for her but she kind of looks at him, ducks under his arm, and opens the back door instead. 

“I need a minute please,” she mumbles, “Just...get in here with me.”

And she gets in the back, grabbing his hand and pulling him in with her. And when he shuts the door behind him and looks at her questioningly, she just crawls onto his lap as best she can, curls up on his chest there and tucks her face into his neck. She just needs that cocoon, like her little safety closet. And sometimes when she doesn’t have access to a closet or a physical small space, Bill becomes her closet and she just curls up there on him and he wraps his arms around her.

And that’s exactly what happens. She curls up in his coat and he wraps it more around her, his arms holding her tightly, for just a few minutes. Until she tells him she’s okay--however long that takes.

But also I low-key love this idea of like...tiger’s okay but she’s definitely fussy and uncomfortable still, and now that she’s alone with Bill she can really show that vulnerability to him and let him fix it for her. So maybe he opens the door and she climbs in, and they start driving home. But tiger has a death grip on his hand and he still doesn’t like the wheezing he’s hearing in her breath, so maybe he goes to untangle his hand from hers. And she whines--that pitiful, fussy whine--and he hushes her gently. Just reaches over and instead, he taps two fingers softly on her mouth. She doesn’t quite open for them but she doesn’t object either when he pushes just the tips in, and she wraps her lips around that. A few minutes later and she’s probably holding on to his wrist lightly, a little more relaxed now and taking a good inch or two into her mouth. When they pull up to the house he undoes his seatbelt, turns towards her as much as he can, grabs her chin gently with his other hand.

“I need these back kid,” he wiggles his fingers lightly in her mouth and he swears she blushes a little, “But let’s get you inside and changed into something more comfy, and then you can have them back.”

And listen, maybe it’s one of those nights where tiger just needs a good cuddle on the couch, some physical closeness with him, and she’s back right again. Or maybe now that she’s home she can really feel safe enough to slip fully into her small head space--which she had basically been fighting the entire night. And once Bill gets her changed into one of his shirts, maybe he’s digging in his drawers for something and when he turns around, tiger is on her knees for him. He’s not surprised but god he swears, his heart just flat out fucking explodes every time he sees her like this. And he walks over to her slowly and when he’s within touching distance she reaches up, paws softly at his belt buckle, his thighs, looks up at him pleadingly.

“Go on, sweet girl,” he tells her as he hooks her hair behind her ear, “Take what you need from me.”

Mmm, delicious nani.

[ichirostitties]

It’s great to see another HypMic imagines blog around!! Can I request some headcanons for how Ichiro, Dice, and Samatoki (desperate ofc) react when they’re attempting to flirt with their crush, but their crush doesn’t understand the flirting and just thinks the guys are being super nice all of a sudden? Hopefully that made sense agsjjfkvkv. Best wishes for you and the blog!!!! ꒰#’ω`#꒱੭

aah thanks also this is a v cute ask they r all babey (yes even mr hardcore)

Ichiro

-POOR BOY he really has no experience with this at all :^( it’s basically canon that his only relationship experience comes from light novels/manga and all that nfdjfhssj

-he was probably SO NERVOUS he’s liked you for so long!! for ages he was trying to drop subtle hints (’subtle’) but you just didn’t understand him. he’s so nervous cause he wants to tell you but he just..can’t

-it’s just..,,this one day in particular you guys are hanging out alone FINALLY (since jiro and saburo are at school, he has the day off and you happened to be free too!), and he’s dropping so many hints (it’s up to you whether or not he uses purposely cheesy pickup lines to no avail lmao) he’s tried EVERYTHING. 

-he asked you to go to the movies sometime (he was like “so uhh..,,,would maybe wanna see this [insert cheesy romantic movie title here because ofc he would pick that to be as obvious as possible] together sometime y/n??”) and u were like “yeah i’d love to!! how did you know i’d love to see that movie you’re so thoughtful! :) is it ok if i bring some other friends too?” and he just internally cries because he MEANT just the two of you because it’s a movie COUPLES see together

-you guys were chillin on his couch probably watching uhhh NARUTO like weebs or something and he even tried the ‘accidental contact’ strategy but you just apologised and moved your hand away (he cries again because he just wants to hold ur hand aw)

-so in the end he’s tried all of the worst flirting strategies ever and not only did none of them work, you didn’t understand aNY of them (although you DID notice he was being a little more touchy than usual) and he’s sitting there wondering what to do because he’s so nervous!!! He’s sure he’ll have to actually confess at this rate and he’s never done it before his poor mc big bro heart is beating so fast!

-you probably notice that he seems to be sweating up a storm and you ask if he’s okay and I think that would do it for him honestly

-he takes a deep breath and is like right.,,ok mr mc big bro u got this in his head and turns to you with the reddest face you’ve seen in a while and blurts out that he really reaaallly likes you and he’s had the biggest crush on you for so long!! and he even tells you how he’d been trying to flirt with you all day (honestly flirting for ichiro is sending the ‘:3′ emoji) but you didn’t notice so he decided to just tell you and he Really hopes you feel the same way

-you’re like “oh…oH” and then it all clicks and you FINALLY understand why he was acting the way he was, and you give him the biggest smile ever because you really like him too!! 

-”I really like you too, Ichiro!” and the moment you tell him all his nerves just drop to 0 and he’s SO HAPPY, he doesn’t even register you apologising for not understanding his advances cause he’s too busy trying to believe that this is real and he really just did that and you actually like him back

-and now u r dating ichiro and u guys went to that cheesy romance movie and maybe u smooched him and maybe he cried himself to sleep that night because of how happy he is

-wow this turned into an entire scenario oOPS BUT ANYWAY basically i think ichiro would just confess out of sheer desperation because he’s never really experienced this before and he has no idea how to best handle the situation

-he’s just a big soft nerd idiot but he’s the best big brother ever and we love him anyway :’) ily ichiro ughhh this made me wanna go on so many dates with him

Samatoki

-angery man

-Samatoki would actually be pretty good at flirting honestly, he’s probably had a lot of positive reactions from people in the past so when you don’t really get what he’s implying he like ???? nani the fuck

-he’d probably repeat himself expecting you to get it but you just. don’t and he doesn’t actually know how to react at first.

-he’s not shy when it comes to this stuff, but he does get embarrassed easily when he has to admit his feelings. flirting was so much easier for him because he can just pass it off as not being that deep

-he probably becomes more aggressive with his flirting, like he starts leaning into you more if ya get what i mean

-he just goes with it the first few times it happens, but when you’re continuously oblivious to him he rapidly gets very frustrated, and he becomes more pouty as time goes on and you still just don’t get it!!

-he has trouble expressing his true feelings. he’s such a tsundere oh dear

-he wouldn’t get mad at you though, he really doesn’t want to hurt you even if he does come across as prickly, he just doesn’t really know what to do other than get angry at himself for not just telling you straight away

-you notice he’s feeling down so you ask him what’s wrong and he just blushes and looks away like the dumbass he is. his heart aches when he hears the concern in your voice and he really just wants to tell you. so he mumbles something but you can’t quite hear him, so you ask him to repeat himself and then he turns to you that’s when he confesses to you because he’s tired of feeling like a coward

-he tells you he’s liked you for a while now, and that it’d be fuckin great if you felt the same way otherwise he’d probably never be able to talk to you again (he probably says it all while looking to the side because he’s a stereotypical tsundere when it comes to this and i love him)

-you sort of take a moment to process it, but when it all clicks you realise how much he’d been dropping hints and you’re sorta like damn ok..he’s really smooth im just a dumbass ok but it’s ok cause you guys can both be dumbasses together!!

-he’s still waiting for your response, so you just lean in and kiss him on the cheek and he goes. very red but once he realises that means you feel the same way (it takes him a full 5 seconds), he has the biggest cheesiest grin on his face and gives you a REAL BIG SMOOCH because he’s secretly a pretty big dork

-soft samatoki makes me go sicko mode oh my god

Dice

-DICE’S FLIRTING IS SO STRAIGHTFORWARD AND HE REALLY DOESN’T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAN’T REALISE HE HAS A BIG FAT CRUSH ON YOU???

-he’s literally been like “u look hot” and you’re like “aw thanks dice ur the nicest friend!!!!” he literally had question marks in his eyes the entire day

-he has tried EVERYTHING he even used “ya like jaaazzz???” from the bee movie but you thought he was just making a horrible reference and depending on how u feel u either refused to talk to him for the rest of the day or laughed until you cried because he’s such a clown

-he really doesn’t care that much, he’d LOVE to date you but hanging out with you is fine too so he wouldn’t be in the biggest rush to confess. Honestly he’d probably have a blast finding out just how far he can go before you realise how he feels (in a way it’s kinda like gambling cause he never knows when you’re gonna get it ooooo)

-after a few weeks he probably starts to get pretty desperate tho. he sees ur hand once and goes apeshit cause he wants to hOLD IT SO BAD he just wants 2 give u a big soft hug (dice gives the BEST hugs just saying) and now he realises that maybe he should just tell you

-and Dice has no shame, so he does! he goes up to you and is like “hey so uhh..,,,i’ve literally been dropping hints for weeks that I really like you so would you maybe wanna go on a date sometime??”. 

-He wouldn’t seem like it, but he is actually a little nervous. After all, he’s some hopeless homeless case addicted to gambling, why would you ever like him back? But for as few brain cells as Dice has, he actually has more sense than the others and thinks that hey, you must like him at least a little to have been hanging out with him for as long as you have

-when you say that you like him a lot too, he feels his heart swell!! he’s really happy and gives you one of his big signature grins. You apologise for being so clueless, you really thought he was just trying to be nice or entertaining in general cause that’s how he is with everyone else

-Dice pulls you in for a Big Dice Hug and assures you that it’s fine, he’s just as bad as you seeing as he still believes literally everything that falls from Gentaro’s mouth despite knowing how he is, and that he had a lot of fun trying to flirt with you using literally any tactics he could think of (even the kabedon didnt work smh)

-dice is such a genuine person i really can’t see him not confessing. he’s just a babey please give him lots of love and food

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 12)

Like many other things about them, Nick’s office was similar to, but still distinctly different from Freya’s own.

The floor space was also crowded and sectioned off, but this time, by furniture—tables, comfortable sofas, even a small wooden platform that was attached to the storage nook in the ceiling, provided a place to cram more people in at once than was probably recommended by the fire department. Papers, books, and random items filled his bookshelves and racks, but they were constantly changing arrangements or here today and gone tomorrow, Nick never leaving a crafting project, a book, or a stack of paperwork unattended for very long, if it wasn’t just the belongings of a harried student using his office as a more convenient storage area than their dorm. All throughout, specially wired and powered lamps beamed sunlight or a very good imitation of it in even the most out of the way nook or cranny, always casting the room in a friendly, warm glow.

And of course, there was the snack bar in the corner, always well-stocked with alcohol, coffee, food, and its crown jewel: Nick’s own personal slushie machine, great expense and effort invested in it to make it take Mistral spring water and produce ice that tasted exactly like fresh snow from Atlas, the kind you could have picked up anywhere in the continent.

Jasminka, Ruby, Constanze, Sucy (plus two armed guards), Jaune, Yang, and Amanda were crowded around it, the first two marveling at the multitude of exotic flavours Nick mail-ordered from all across Remnant, the next two eyeing the machine and the visible mechanisms with great interest, the last three crying out in agony as they suffered brain freeze.

“Oh my fucking, fucking, fuckity-fuck, shit, argh!” Amanda cried as sat on a nearby chair, her head nearly touching her knees from how far she was bent over.

“My skull is cracking open like an egg!” Yang screamed as she writhed on the floor.

Jaune just whimpered and cried as he sat on the floor with his back to the base of the machine.

“Told you an Atlesian brain freeze is a whole different beast,” Nick said as he sat behind his desk, nearly hidden by the stacks of paperwork he was working on.

From where she sat with Diana and Lotte, Blake sighed, her ears twitching with annoyance. She tried to focus her attention back on their books and notebooks spread out on the coffee table in front of them, before she heard someone knocking on the door.

“Professor Schnee?”

“I got it, Belladonna,” Nick said as he pressed a button on his desk. “They replaced my inner ear canals too when they were turning me into a rip-off Dustman, don’t worry.”

The double doors swung open, and in came Weiss in a wheelchair, Akko pushing her while a nurse followed shortly behind. Everyone stopped and looked up, even the stabbing, rapidly expanding pain of an Atlesian brain freeze forgotten as they saw them.

“Hey Weiss!” Ruby said, waving with one hand while her other held a strawberry/firemelon slushie. “Wow, you recovered fast!”

“She didn’t actually,” the nurse said. “She just insisted she wouldn’t leave her room with any of the tubes still attached. So if we could all make this quick, that’d be much appreciated.”

“Don’t worry, this won’t take more than half-an-hour, tops,” Nick said as he put his pen down, earmarked the paper he was working on before he got up from his desk. “Everyone from batch 7, line up in front of me, enough space to step up when I call your names specifically.”

In short time, they all were, even if Yang had to have a hand on the back of a chair, and Amanda and Jaune were helping keep each other up.

“Normally, we’d have done the whole team assigning ceremony yesterday in the Great Hall, with Lionheart, a big-ass screen with your names and faces on it, and the good ole initiation buffet afterward, but these aren’t normal times, so I guess you’re all going to have to be content with me, my office, and everything I have in the snack bar.

“So without further ado, let’s get right to it, kiddos:

“For the next four years, barring death, crippling injury, dropping out, or getting any of your asses expelled for whatever reason, the other members of your team are going to be the people you do EVERYTHING with here in Haven.

“You will share the same dorm as them, you will train with them, you will go to the same classes as them, you will learn to act as one fighting force on the battlefield, you will work together to keep your collective grade point average up, and you will sure as shit have to learn how live together peacefully, or at the very least not kill each other until you get your hunting licenses.

“From here on out, it won’t matter to me if you were the top student in combat school, you were the one that just barely passed the grade, you got in here through your personal achievements out there in the real world, or anywhere in-between—what matters now is what you’re going to be here, in Haven, today, tomorrow, and for however long you’ll be in this school.

“You will all pass together, or you will all fail apart. You will all stand together, or you will all fall apart. You will either prove to us that you’ve got what it takes to be a real huntsman or a huntress together, or you will all start looking for different careers apart.

“Do you all understand? ‘Sir, yes, sir!’ is the only answer I want to hear, or else you can just go walk back out that door, and don’t even bother asking for a slushie to go.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” they all said with varying levels of enthusiasm.

Nick scowled. “You know, I’m getting the feeling not all of you do—I SAID, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!”

“SIR, YES, SIR!” they thundered.

Nick smiled. “Now THAT’S what I like to hear.” His expression turned serious. “Antonenko, Yanson, Belladonna, von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, step up!”

They all did,  Lotte twiddling her thumbs, Jasminka pausing her slushie drinking, Blake looking wide-eyed and nervous, and Constanze looking as grumpy as ever.

“From here on out, you are Team BLJC, lead by Blake Belladonna!”

Blake blinked, her mouth falling open. “S-Sir…?!”

“You got any complaints or questions about who I chose as a leader or put you in a team with, you do it later when we’re done. Now, BLJC: step aside! Xiao Long, Manbavaran, O’Neill, Arc, step up!”

Jaune’s eyes widened. “Professor Schnee…?”

Nick glared at him. “Later, Arc.” He turned back to the others. “From here on out, you are Team JAYS, lead by Jaune Arc!”

Jaune blinked, before he stared at Nick like an alpha beowulf plus pack had mysteriously appeared right before his eyes.

“Hey, would you look at that!” Amanda said as she clapped the stunned Jaune on the back. “Congratulations, Johnny Boy!”

“Save it for later, O’Neill,” Nick said coolly. “JAYS: step aside! Now: someone wheel my granddaughter up to me, and Cavendish, Kagari, and Rose, step up!”

The nurse took over for Akko as they all stood together in a line. Ruby looked from side-to-side, wondering who was going to become their leader, Akko and Weiss just shot each other knowing looks, while Diana stood stock straight, her face impassive and serious.

“From here on out, you are Team AWRD, lead by Atsuko ‘Akko’ Kagari!”

Save for Ruby, it was as if you had just struck the newly formed team in their chests, thundering blows that stunned them and rendered them slack.

“N-Nani?!” Akko blurted. “Seriously, Uncle Nick…?!”

“Yes, seriously.” Nick replied. “Now, all of you: back here with your teams!”

AWRD scrambled to make room for the others as they all formed a semi-circle around Nick. He put his hands to his hips as he gazed at them all, some faces excited, some nervous, some disappointed, some confounded, some completely and utterly terrified.

“I know it might feel like we just randomly lumped you all together based on who’d make the nicest sounding team names, but believe me, unlike one of the other hunstman academies, we don’t leave your team compositions up to chance. Know that to the best of all of your professors abilities, we debated and carefully chose who’ll be working with who for the next four years, and who’ll be leading it.

“It may not seem to many of you that we made the best choice in team compositions, and you’d be right—because it’s up to all of you, not just your leaders, to do the rest of the work from here on out, become what we hope to high hell you can all become at the end of your time here in Haven.

“That’s all I needed to say, and you needed to hear: DISMISSED!”

Diana, Akko, Jaune, and Blake all tried to step up at once, Nick held up both his hands and stopped them. “One at a time, and in private. First up, does anyone else here have any questions?” No takers. “Good, then get your stuff, make one last trip to the snack bar if you’d like, then get out, your new dorms are waiting. For the rest of you...” he looked back at the four.

“I’ll go last,” Blake said.

“Kind of you, Belladonna. The rest of you, we going to start volunteering, too, or do we do this the old-fashioned way?”

“The old-fashioned way…?” Jaune asked.

“Boulder, Icicle, Blizzard,” Nick said, making a fist, and a V with first two fingers, before opening his hand flat. “Also known as three of the leading causes of death to Atlesians, behind Grimm and each other.”

“Oh!” Jaune said. “You mean Rock Paper Scissors. Sure, I can do that!”

“All three of you at once then,” Nick said. “If you all cancel each other out, try again.”

Akko, Diana, and Jaune formed a triangle, their hands held out, eyeing each other with varying emotions on their faces.

“Boulder, Icicle, Blizzard, go!”

Jaune won, Diana groaned as she and Akko faced each other while he stepped to the side.

“Boulder, Icicle, Blizzard, go!”

Diana lost, fuming, before she forced herself to relax, turned around, and left the room.

“Diana...?” Akko asked as she followed after her, but she didn’t respond.

Nick eyed them with concern, before headed behind his desk, pressed the button again and locked his door behind Akko. “Come with me, Arc, have a seat,” he said as he walked to the snack bar. “Want a hot cocoa? Good stuff for killing brain freezes, if you don’t know the tongue trick.”

“There was a tongue trick…?” Jaune said.

“Yeah, works like a charm, but that’s not important right now,” Nick said as he poured himself a mug of hot chocolate from a steaming vacuum flask, into a giant, well-worn red mug. “So, cocoa?”

“I could use one, thank you...” Jaune mumbled.

Nick poured him out a smaller mug, one with a friendly cartoon Atlesian bear on it. “Careful, I can only ever make it blazing hot—you won’t completely dissolve the flavour rocks otherwise,” he said as he handed it over.

Jaune thanked him, warmed his hands on the mug, blew on it gently, then took a tiny sip. “AGH!” he screamed as he burned his tongue, accidentally spilled the rest of it all over his lap.

Nick sighed as Jaune started screaming even louder, setting his mug down on the coffee table, picking Jaune’s mug from his lap with his robotic hand, before touching his shoulder with his organic hand. His screaming wavered to a stop as red-gold energy suddenly surged from Nick into him; the burning, searing pain of the cocoa didn’t disappear entirely, but it was suddenly much more bearable, like it had been sitting out for ten minutes or so before he spilled it.

“How’d you do that…?” Jaune asked.

“My semblance,” Nick said as he pulled away. “Got more than enough to help me survive whatever the hell Remnant decides to throw at me next, only makes sense that my special power is sharing the surplus with others.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Indeed it is, but we’re not here to discuss semblances, are we?” Nick said as he settled into the seat across him, the cushions flattening, the sturdy wood creaking from his weight. “So what’s bugging you, Arc?”

Jaune looked down at his cocoa-soaked pants. “It’s just, well… everything about this whole team: who I’m with, and especially that you put me in charge of it...”

“Can you please get more specific?”

“Well, there’s Sucy, and I don’t think I really need to elaborate on that, and I mean, Amanda saved me back in the Hills, but then she started dragging me straight into all those Grimm, and she refused to do or go anywhere safer because it’d be ‘boring,’ and Yang just scares the crap out of me—did you know she literally explodes into fire when she’s angry? That’s her semblance, she explodes, and--”

Jaune groaned. “I just don’t think I’m cut out to lead them!” he said to Nick, before he stared down at his pants once more. “… Or, you know, be in a team with them, in general.”

“On the contrary, Arc, I think you’re the best guy I could have chosen to lead these three.”

“But just—why…?” Jaune asked.

“Well, I can’t let you read the entirety of your old professor’s entire recommendation letter for confidentiality reasons, but among other things, she mentioned that you got along well with others, whoever they are; are very adaptable even under intense pressure and imminent danger to life and limb; and you’re a pretty selfless, honourable, and honest sort of guy in general.

“Now, does this sound like the kind of leader that sounds like he’d be great for pulling together three different students, with three very different personalities, with three completely different backgrounds, with three different exceptional aptitudes, but all with a reputation for bad behaviour, abrasive attitudes, and getting into so much trouble all of them have been arrested at least once?”

“...”

“I asked you a question, Arc, and I’d really appreciate an answer.”

“… Yes, sir.” Jaune said.

“And do you think that, based on your old professor’s recommendation, you’d be a fit leader? Or do I have to call her and ask her to give me a new assessment, without all the fluff and the exaggeration to help get you into Haven?”

Jaune’s eyes widened, before he shook his head. “Ah, no sir! I mean, the calling my old professor—I can be a leader, I’ll be a great leader, I’ll--”

“Arc.”

Jaune stopped, sighed, looked at Nick with shame all over his face.

Nick’s eyes softened. “Look, Arc, I know it’s terrifying—the transition from combat school to huntsman academy, going from training simulations to fighting actual Grimm in the wilderness, being chosen to be the leader, whether you want to or not.

“You don’t feel ready. You don’t feel like you should be here. You don’t think it’s time to say goodbye to being a teenager and hello to being an adult, with all the crap and responsibility that entails.

“But the thing is, Arc: I believe you’re ready for this. I believe you should be here, and so did Frosty, Ursula, and Lionheart himself. And I’m ready to help you figure out how to deal with life, whether that be in class, on the battlefield, or anything else you might need help with—Haven believes in a very holistic education, after all.

“Now… can you believe you can do this, Arc? Work with these three, be their leader, and become one hell of a hunting party together?”

Jaune looked up, before he looked back down at his pants, and shook his head. “No, sir.”

Nick frowned. “You free to talk tomorrow around five PM after class, Arc?”

Jaune nodded. “Yes, Professor Schnee.”

“Five PM tomorrow it is—feel free to reschedule, but know I’ll have people coming in and out of this office 24/7 soon enough,” Nick said as he stood up. “You want another cocoa for the road, Arc? It’ll screw up the flavour, but I can put in just enough ice so you won’t fuck up your tastebuds again.”

“No thank, you Professor Schnee,” Jaune said as he stood up. “Oh, and sir?”

“Yeah, Arc?” Nick asked as he picked the mugs up.

Jaune smiled a little. “Thanks… for believing in me.”

Nick smiled. “No problem, Arc. Come on, I’ll see you to the door.”

As the double doors opened and Jaune stepped out, Nick peered at the two waiting benches on either side of him. Diana and Blake quietly studying on one, Akko sitting restlessly on the other, an invisible wall between them. “Your turn, Kagari,” he said.

“Okay, Uncle—I mean, Professor Nick,” Akko said as she got up, cast an uneasy look at Diana as she stepped into Nick’s office.

Diana didn’t even bother to look up, her attention entirely focused on her notes.

“Something happen?” Nick asked after the doors were closed behind them.

“Nothing, Uncle Nick,” Akko said. “We just kinda, looked at each other earlier, before Diana sat down with Blake and started comparing notes again.”

Nick frowned. “Silence is never ‘Nothing,’ Akko—believe me, Frosty has taught me that the very hard way.”

Note:

BLJC – Blackjack

AWRD – Award