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snipsnsnailsnwerewolftales · 3 years

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Blue Moon - Part 1

A/N: See masterlist for prompts used. (And the list of amazing people who have helped me with this.)

I do not own Teen Wolf or it’s characters. Sadly.

Warnings: See Masterlist

Word count: 2,746

Xxx

“So what’s it like living with a Hale?” Stiles asked, turning away from your locker after you shut it. Both of you fell into step with Scott as you made your way to your next class.

You must have grimaced or made some face with a slight slant of your eyebrows only a Stilinski could read, because Stiles let out a snort. “That bad?”

You shrugged, sighing. “I mean, it’s not like I expected it to be a walk in the park, it is Derek Hale after all.” Scott chuckled with a gentle shake of his head, making you smile before you continued. “But I didn’t expect it to be this…. easy….. either.”

“Easy?” Scott questioned, making the same face you must have initially as Stiles let out another snort of laughter.

“Yeah, I mean, the first few days were awkward. If we weren’t training we weren’t doing anything. The man is silent, had no TV, or any of that-”

“Wait, ‘had’?” Stiles held out his hand, effectively cutting off your sentence and your steps, your shoes screeching on the floor at the sudden stop.

“Yes, had. He now has a TV, streaming services- yes, Stiles, services as in plural, if you keep your eyebrows that high they may stick that way, and it’s not the best look for you…”

“So at least there is something to fill the silence at least.” Scott resumed walking, you followed a few steps behind, Stiles lagging, jaw still dropped in shock.

“Well, yeah,” you agreed with Scott, and this time you felt your eyebrows making the face.

“But….?” Scott’s prodding was gentle, but his face held a smirk.

“But somewhere along the way we went from off handed comments during a news broadcast, or some show we were watching, to actually pausing it to have some discussion, or referencing some situation later and asking if the other had had something similar happen, or just opening up about random experiences and stuff. It’s…”

“Weird?” This time Stiles prodded, earning a glare and gentle whack on the arm from Scott.

“Well, maybe it’s because you’re…. new.” Scott opted for a more discrete word for ‘werewolf’ in the crowded hallways. “He may feel like opening up more because of the pack mentality and all.”

“No, it’s not because she’s…. new.” Stiles raised one eyebrow on the word as he addressed Scott, earning a sigh and eye roll from the young Beta. “The man is a brooding wall of leather and growls.” You chuckled at the description, making Stiles grin. “I think we finally found our miracle cure for our Sourwolf!”

“Woah, woah, woah, hold up.” You held up your hands as if to physically stop their words. “What?”

“Oh, come on, Y/N. We know you two like each other. It’s so obvious.” Stiles immediately closed his mouth, his lips a tight line, eyes wide and eyebrows in his hairline in his signature “I was not supposed to say that” face.

“What?” you deadpanned to your friend.

The bell rang, and Scott, wide eyed and smiling too broadly, gave Stiles a shove on the shoulder in the opposite direction of your next class as Stiles muttered, “Oh, look. The bell.” They both began to walk quickly the opposite way.

“Guys!” you yelled. “This is not over! But I am not responsible for you guys missing another class, what does that make, like fifteen already this semester?”

Your two friends stilled and turned on their heels, ushering past you quickly, avoiding your glare, Stiles looking at Scott and muttering, “See, Scott? I told you our class with Miss Blake was this way.”

“Ugh,” you mumbled under your breath. The sour expression stayed on your face even after you sat at your desk in the back of the class.

Chuckling, Stiles chanced a glance your way from beside you, hoping to change the subject from his ultimate fail in the hallway. “You still don’t like her?”

“I still don’t like her.” You overlapped his last few words, matching his gentle nod with one of your own as you stared straight ahead at the teacher’s still vacant desk.

“What is it about her you don’t like?”

“I just have a really bad feeling whenever I see her. Something just isn’t right.”

Scott chuckled, opening his book to the proper page. “You’re just mad that she gives you a little bit of a harder time.”

“You mean she gives me ‘more attention’?” you asked, your words rising to a ridiculous octave as they repeated Jennifer’s words she had used when she assigned you some extra credit to help raise your grade so you could stay on the lacrosse team. Your friends chuckled at your words. “I’m sorry, not everyone can be amazing at everything, being a wer-” you stopped yourself, clearing your throat before continuing- “new-” you looked at Scott pointedly, earning you a glare and Stiles’ laughter on your other side- “doesn’t allow for a whole lot of extra studying time.”

“Oh, come on, Y/N. I know you feel that way now, but it will pass,” Scott said with a smile as Miss Blake walked in, setting things on her desk, and he chuckled as you glared at her. “This is all ephemeral.”

You looked at Stiles, your face blank, voice a deadpan. “You ever buy him a word of the day subscription thing again, and I will rip your throat out.” You flickered your yellow eyes at him discreetly. “With my teeth.”

“With your teeth,” Stiles mumbled, overlapping your words, both of you nodding in agreement again. “I asked what it’s like living with a Hale, and now I got my answer.” He looked at you, shaking his head mockingly. “You’re becoming one of them. It’s contagious. We’ll call it ‘Sourwolf Syndrome’.”

Xxx

Due to your parents’ professions taking them all over the place constantly, like Allison, you were actually a year older than your friends, having to repeat a year a few grades back. But you wouldn’t change it for anything, because that’s how you met your best friends.

It helped that your parents were away on business most of the time, so no one questioned your staying at Derek’s loft for so long. You stopped by every few days to get the mail and check on the plants around the house, packing some new clothes if needed, Derek sitting outside in his car the first few times, but lately he had taken to coming in and helping you do the few things you had to do.

You told yourself it was just because of the increased threat that he wanted to be closer to his newest Beta. He didn’t have too many of those these days, you thought bitterly, smirking to yourself. You stared blankly as you rinsed out your coffee cup in the sink, and a wave of sadness washed over you as you thought of Erica, her absence still fresh and raw. The two of you had never really been close; just acquaintances at school, then pack members briefly, before she was gone.

Boyd had really withdrawn himself after that, and you didn’t blame him. You knew he probably felt how you did times ten. When Cora had been here briefly she mentioned losing a pack member was like losing a limb, and she hadn’t been wrong.

Then Derek had kicked both Cora and Isaac out of the loft, claiming it wasn’t safe with the Alpha Pack around. Isaac was staying with Scott, but you didn’t know where Cora had disappeared to. Peter was a wild card, so you didn’t even try to factor him in, and Scott outright refused to be a member of Derek’s pack. He was an Alpha with Beta eyes, and an enigma for another time.

The point was, Derek was running low in the Beta department lately.

The only reason Derek had you staying at the loft and followed you around the house when you had to go was because you were the newest, or so he said. Deep down you knew he just didn’t want to be responsible if something happened to you. He wanted to control the situation as much as possible which, you guessed, you were kind of glad, being new to this whole werewolf thing, and admittedly not wanting to stay home alone again, human or werewolf.

At least at the loft, even in the times before Derek brought home the TV and stuff, the silence had been comfortable. You’d never admit it to anyone, but just being in the presence of another living, breathing being, even one as brooding and somewhat annoying as Derek Hale, was nice.

And you sure as hell weren’t going to think about how he had helped you with your homework sometimes, especially with that English extra credit. He had a side he didn’t share often, and you were glad you got to see it. It was like a rare spotting of a mythological creature.

You smiled to yourself, watching the water in the cup filling clear now, the mug long clean, and you let your feelings wash away down the drain with the water as you turned it off.

Setting the mug in the sink, you took a deep breath, letting the feelings whirling around you fully roll off your back, rolling your shoulders back as they did.

Stepping into the doorway to the living room you saw him delicately watering some houseplant your mom babied. The first few times he had just poured water at its base, and you had to stop him, showing him how it had to be done, otherwise he’d over water it. And since then, though he had said initially that it was stupid under his breath, he took meticulous care to check if it even needed watering, and then watered it properly, like you showed him, even bringing books home to the loft about how to care for the various types of plants your mom had around the house. You found it endearing.

Smiling softly, you gently shook your head. One second you were bitter towards him, the next finding little things that made him amazing. “I’m going to go grab some clothes, my stuff got torn to hell last week when we dealt with what’s his face,” you said offhandedly, starting up the stairs. So many baddies came through this town, you got them all confused.

Derek chuckled. “Okay. You know you can always borrow some of my clothes if you need to.”

You stopped midstep on the staircase, each foot on a different step, and your grip on the bannister tightened, your knuckles turning white.

This.

This is why you had such conflicting emotions about this man. Wolf. Wolfman.

“Are you sure?” You kept your voice even, smiling softly.

He shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, makes more sense then driving all the way over here.” His voice tried to be neutral, but it was evident he was trying to cover up something he had let slip before really thinking about it.

“Thanks. I’ll remember that next time.” You nodded once to each other before you took two steps calmly and then practically ran up the rest of them to your room.

Holding a hand to your chest, taking deep breaths to try and stabilize your heartbeat, you slumped against the door after you closed it, sighing.

You tried not to over analyze what he said, but failed.

You knew he probably was making some underhanded comment about your abilities, “coming all the way over here”, really he wanted to say, “you suck at being a werewolf, you’re always getting hurt and your clothes destroyed in the process”.

“You too, wolfman. You too,” you mumbled under your breath as you angrily rifled through one of your drawers, grabbing a few things.

You chuckled a dark laugh. “But I’m an Alpha, Y/N. I’ll heal faster.” You mocked his deep tone, your search in your drawer turning into an aimless activity, the contents totally mixed up now.

He had never been around whenever you had gotten in a hit or takedown on the baddies you guys had encountered so far in your short time in this world. For some reasons you ended up on opposite sides of the battle fields, and he never said it directly, but you knew he probably thought you sucked. How else does one end up with torn shirts from claw marks and blood being covered by your jacket?

Everyone else had called you a badass, but Derek had yet to compliment or even comment on your fighting ability. But maybe, since he trained you, that spoke more to his ability and not yours, you thought with a smirk. Satisfied with the thought, you grabbed a few clothes out of the drawer before snapping it shut.

After a few steps toward the door, you slowed to a stop, absently staring at the clothes in your hand as your thoughts cleared a little from your earlier anger.

If it was a reflection on how he thought he was, that was kind of sad. Did he really think so lowly of himself and his abilities?

You had only been in this world a short time now, but even you had to admit he was a good Alpha. A good wolfm- werewolf. A good man. He was a great person to have at your back in a fight and in mundane things like math, which was also a fight, but that was a thought for another day. He was a good friend to have, period.

Shaking your head and chuckling gently at yourself, you wondered why your thoughts were everywhere. Glancing at your calendar on the wall, you saw the full moon was coming up soon and rolled your eyes. Of course.

This would pass. This was ephemeral. You groaned softly as you made your way back down the stairs. Stiles was going to pay.

Derek met your eyes when you made it to the last step, hopping the last few inches to the first floor. He set down the watering can softly.

“Do I really sound like that?” His lips twitched upward slightly.

Screwing up your face in confusion it took you a second to realize he had heard your mutterings as you disorganized the contents of your drawer upstairs. Realization crossed your face before your palm slapped to your forehead, the groan passing your lips before you could stop it.

Derek laughed, and you looked at him apologetically, to which he motioned with his hand as if waving it away and smiled at the floor where his gaze was focused. “Don’t worry about it. I just always thought my voice was deeper than that.”

He chuckled even more as you swatted his arm, laughing gently yourself. He grabbed your wrist playfully before you could withdraw your hand, and you found yourself pulled closer to him, almost toe to toe and having to crane your neck to look up and meet his eyes that looked down at you with some emotion you couldn’t decipher.

That comfortable silence hung around you two like a blanket… Until his phone rang.

As he fished it out of his pocket, you softly cleared your throat and took a small step back, feeling Derek’s gaze on you the whole time.

“Hello?” His voice was gruff and annoyed, and he was still staring at you. It almost seemed like he was upset at whoever was on the other end for interrupting his moment with you.

But that thought quickly evaporated.

“Jennifer!” He said it with a broad smile on his face, his voice a total about face from his greeting, and his eyes moving from you to the wall behind you.

It couldn’t be who you thought. There was no way. That would be too much of a coincidence.

“No, I’m not busy,” he said, turning to the door.

Grabbing his arm to stop him, he turned to look at you, eyebrows raised in question and, if you weren’t mistaken, slight annoyance.

“What?” he mouthed.

“Who is that?” you whispered.

“A friend,” he hissed.

“Who is it?” you hissed back at him.

“Your English teacher, Jennifer Blake.” He shrugged out of your grip and out your front door, motioning you to the car.

You seethed as you turned off the lights, grabbing your bag of clothes, and locking the door after you.

Reason number five hundred and sixty two to hate Miss Jennifer Blake.

Xxx

Tags: @mayahart02, @palaiasaurus64, @shydinosaurcandy, @lucyqueenofthestars, @c-breanne1999, @l4life, @ethereallysimple, @teenwolffan-with-nolife, @bellabadacadabra What’s This?

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dameronology · 3 years

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more than anything {poe dameron}

summary: poe can be oddly insightful in his own way, and with the pressure of the resistance pulling you down, it's exactly what you need (for @disastersim !! i hope you enjoy angel <3)

warnings: language, one slight innuendo

enjoy!

- jazz

Working for the Resistance could be exhausting in every sense of the worst - emotionally, physically, mentally. Constantly fighting for a cause that had no guaranteed pay off was beyond challenging and the fight - the wars and the battles and the bloodshed - didn't seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. There were days where you made leaps and bounds towards entirely wiping out the First Order, in the same way that there were days when they made strides towards completely wiping out your side of the fight. It was a constant tug of war between good and bad; of course, it wasn't all that black and white, but it was difficult to see what anyone saw in the First Order's extreme principles. That was especially the case when your own comrades packed up and left the base to join them. With that said, there were more than enough people who left that side to come to yours. Ones who saw the Resistance as a source of hope- a light at the end of an awfully fucking long tunnel.

That's what you had to constantly remind yourself off: light. Hope. Courage. All the things that you'd sworn to fight for as long as you could remember - the very values that you so desperately held onto in an attempt to not completely lose it - and the ones you kept so close to your heart. Sometimes, it was easy to do so; easy to believe that the Resistance was going to pull through and that light would shine on the galaxy once again. Other times? Not so much. It was normal to have dark days and sad days but as of late, it had been dark weeks and sad weeks. Your team of fellow mechanical engineers had done their best to lift your spirits, but the weight on your soul was a little too much. It was just something that would have to pass naturally.

It had been effecting your sleep too, to the point where you found yourself wandering the base alone at night. The only other people who were awake were those on the nightshift, and the occasional droid that would whirr around the corner. From where you sat in the garage, you would hear the clank clank clank of Threepio fumbling about the base - he would sometimes say hello, and other you help with whatever it was that you were repairing or tinkering with. For the most part, though, he kept to himself. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because his famous catchphrase of we're doomed! wasn't entirely the best thing for your morale.

So, there you were at 3AM, Poe's t-shirt hanging off your shoulders and the contents of his X-Wing laid out in front of you. Really, you were just taking it apart and putting it back together as a past time - like some kind of weird puzzle - but you were also looking at potential improvements. His only request was that you made it faster, which seemed a bit counter-intuitive when he of all people could have learnt the value of slowing down. The man was like a whirl wind, breezing in and out of different missions and meetings, barely stopping to take a break to think. The only time he truly and really calmed down was when he was with you; you were his safe space, and the only place he could let his barriers down. The pilot spent hours upon hours curled up against you, murmuring sleepily about nothing and everything all at once.

"This is a stupid time to be awake." (Speak of the devil, and thou shall appear).

Tossing your spanner down, you turned around to see Poe. He was leaning against the door, brown hair tousled with sleep and dark eyes heavy with his remaining tiredness. He was a heavy sleeper, so more often than not he didn't even realise you were gone - but if he woke up and saw your absence, there wasn't a chance in hell that he could get back to sleep. He needed you beside him at the best times, but especially at night.

"I couldn't sleep," you confessed.

"There's been a lot of that going around lately," Poe replied. He slowly approached you, holding out his arms as he did so that you could fall against his chest.

"I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, there's a stupid owl outside my window that woke me up," he said, pressing a kiss to your forehead. He gently tangled your fingers together and brushed his thumb over the back of your hand. "I sent BB-8 to deal with it."

"Of course you did," you smiled. "I just gotta put this back together and I'll come back to bed."

"What's keeping you up?" Poe asked. "You've been really quiet lately."

You'd always been hesitant to tell Poe about your doubts: he was the epitome of what a good Resistance fighter was, and the beating heart of the entire cause. He never seemed to slip up, or lose hope, to the point where you sometimes wondered if he was naive. It did make sense, after all - his mother had fought hard for the Rebellion, as had his father. Having perfect balance of a rebellious side and a heart of pure fucking gold was probably engrained into his very D.N.A.

"There's a lot on my mind," you admitted. "It never seems to quieten down."

"I get that," Poe gave your hands a light squeeze. "Wanna talk about it?"

"It's probably dumb-"

"- your feelings are always valid, even if they're dumb."

Hopping up onto the wings of the jet beside you, he stuck out his hand and helped you clamber up beside him. The hangar itself was freezing cold - even in the tropical climate of Ajan Kloss - so he wound an arm around your side, pulling you closer to keep you warm. Just Poe's presence alone was enough to pull your mind out the dredges, and the gentle smell of his shower gel and aftershave was a comfort too. It was a mixture of spicy and sweet.

"Go on," Poe said. "I'll be your therapist for the next ten minutes, and then forever if you want."

"What do you charge per hour, Doc?"

He nudged your side with a grin. "We'll get to that later."

You rolled your eyes, but continued all the same. "Everything's just been a lot, lately. All the fighting and the missions, and we keep having set back after set back and I'm tired. I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and I have no way of shifting it."

Poe's brown eyes flickered away from you for a minute as he pondered on your statement. Unbeknownst to you, he absolutely related - despite his outwards hopefulness and resilient exterior, he had days where he was exhausted too. It was made even more so by the fact that people turned to him to keep them encouraged too - he did have his own brand of ironic wisdom, after all - and it really took it out of him. It was like everybody around him expected him to keep them afloat when he felt like drowning.

"I understand," Poe replied. "The galaxy is a demanding place and sometimes it's more than we can handle. I have days where I feel like everything is going wrong and I just want to curl up in my bed and sleep forever."

"Sounds so tempting," you murmured.

"It does, but that's not how it works, sadly," he continued. "You just gotta...push forward, you know? That's much easier said than done but I find the trick is to take it day by day. Have some caff, get a hug from your favourite person and just pull through til you can collapse into bed and hide under the covers."

"And you do that? Every day?"

"Not everyday," Poe said. "There are good days too, like the ones where we get to eat lunch together, or the ones where BB-8 hacks the big screen in the canteen and shows the video of Hux falling over."

You couldn't help but laugh at that. The little droid had his own way of brightening the lives of those around him, but it was that video in particular that never failed to make you laugh. He'd accidentally recorded it on a break out mission and whenever people needed reminding that the slimy bastards at the First Order weren't completely untouchable, BB-8 would be on it.

"I love those days too," you gently smiled. "The whole day by day things sounds a lot more manageable than trying to digest the concept of time as a whole."

"Exactly," Poe nodded. "And you gotta find joy in those little things. Like, whenever I'm having a really bad day, I'll come and find you and annoy you. That little smile you get when you're trying really hard not to crack and laugh at me always makes things a thousand times better."

"I like that," you replied.

"Then one day, when we've won this fight and we can go home, we can still take things day by day, but it'll be little steps towards other things, like...marriage? I think that's the next logical step."

You thinned your eyes at him. "Is this a proposal?"

"If you have to ask whether it's a proposal, then it's not a proposal," Poe shot back. "You'll know when I'm asking you to marry me."

"I look forward to it," you pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for listening to me. You can be weirdly philosophical."

"I'm smart and good looking," Poe cheekily grinned. "Man, I really am the whole package."

"And moment's gone-"

"- I'm sorry!"

He quickly wrapped his arms around you, pulling you against his chest. His cheek was pressed up against your forehead, stubble tickling your skin as he held you, softly swaying from side to side.

"I love you," he murmured. "And truth be told, that's the thing that gets me through those bad days."

"You going soft on me, Dameron?" you quietly joked. "I love you too - more than anything."

Poe released his grip on you before taking your hand and helping you climb down from the jet. You still had a few hours till you had to be up and now that the emotional weight on your brain had been relieved ever-so-slightly, you were more than ready to collapse beside the pilot and get some much needed rest.

What Poe had said had begun to change your perspective on things; rather than viewing the galaxy as one whole glob of shitty things, you had to go through it with a fine toothed comb. Find the little things that were sprinkled amongst the bad things, like the way Poe looked at you with a sparkle in his eyes, or the way Finn laughed at words that sounded naughty but weren't naughty. Then there were the times when Leia would give you warm hugs, and when Rey would try and make everyone pancakes on quiet moments.

So yes, the galaxy could suck and yes, the Resistance could be tough, but you had the best people around you. They were the life support that was going to help you see it through.

"C'mon, baby," Poe tugged your arm slightly. "Let's go to bed."

"Yeah," you replied. "Let's."

He wound his arm around you and held you tightly, guiding you back to your room.

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron imagine #poe dameron x you #poe dameron reader insert #poe dameron fluff #poe dameron imagines #star wars x you #star wars imagines #star wars imagine #star wars reader insert #star wars fluff #star wars fan fiction

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ceo-of-daichi · 3 years

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Request ~ ‘Lydz! I need a Daichi fluff so bad. SO BAD. Could I request a long distance relationship with Daichi, and one day after s/o cries over the phone saying that she misses him, he decides to fly to her as a a surprise!! 😭💖 it can be a hc or drabble one-shot, whatever you’re comfortable with! Thank you bb ily ❤️’ ~ @mrs-kuroojinguji

Characters ~ Sawamura Daichi x Fem!Reader

Genre ~ Fluff

Warnings ~ Kinda a rollercoaster of emotions... a bit of the reader crying

Word Count ~ 1.8k+

A/N ~ Haven’t written a long fic in a while so i hope you guys enjoy this!!!💛 Thank you to @scorpiosanssexy for beta reading this☺️ Also i’m so sorry this took so long for me to write Ana😫

‘I love you baby…’ You hear as you hang up your phone, tossing it to the side. Another night where you slept in an empty bed. You had lost track of how many it's been without him by your side physically. A year? Maybe closer to two? The hope that one day soon you would wake up to his warm arms around you, his breath fanning on the back of your neck. Comfort, something he automatically provided. It was in his aura, whenever he was close and sadly you hadn’t felt it in a while.

As much as you loved the UK it was far away from home, not only your family but your friends and from Daichi. The one you wished you could spend every waking moment with, someone who you could see yourself with for the rest of your life. You felt so far away from him, 5,732 miles to be exact, a number you had spent so many sleepless nights thinking about. As your head hit the pillow you figured tonight was going to be another one of those nights.

Your day seemed to drag as all you could think about was Daichi’s words to you last night. ‘I can’t come see you yet, I'm so sorry, work is piling up and with my family wanting me home I just can’t spare the time to fly over… I’m so sorry, I'm going to have to fly over in summer.’ Was what he had said, he was meant to come see you after Christmas, but as it was early into January now you had lost hope for seeing him.

It wasn’t long before both of your universities started up again for the new term, you would have to pray he would be able to come visit in summer or you could get the funds to see him. It was getting hard to be away from him, everyday the ache seemed to worsen in your chest.

Even when you both first got together, he knew that all you needed to feel better was a hug or his arm comfortingly on your back. To be pulled onto his lap so he could hold you impossibly close, you were always someone who has loved his touch. You were addicted to it. Both of you knew that it would be harder long distance yet you couldn’t bear to break up. But it was starting to prove to be harder than you anticipated.

‘You know you don’t have to continuously stir the pasta right?’ Your roommate Beth said, you wondered how long she had been watching you. Glancing at the clock you realised you must have been there for at least 40 minutes.

‘Hm? Yeah of course I know, I just like to make sure it's done… which it is.’ You replied, as you looked down at the pasta that was now basically mush in the pan. Letting out a deep sigh you drained it and put it in a bowl.

‘You’re seriously going to eat that? Oh god no [y/n]...’ She said as she took the bowl straight from your hands throwing the whole thing in the bin.

‘Hey! I like that bowl?!’ You protested as she led you to the couch.

‘Lets order takeout, I can tell you have been thinking about him again… Still no chance he can come?’ Beth asked as she scrolled through her phone for both your favourite takeout. You didn’t reply as you got lost in your thoughts once again. You didn’t realise how obvious it was that you weren’t doing well and even though Beth knows you better than anyone, she wouldn’t mention anything unless she thought it was serious.

‘He just said he couldn’t come… It's been almost 2 years since I have seen him physically, not on the other side of a screen. I miss him so much and it's starting to get harder to talk to him over the phone because everything hurts Beth… I love him so much.’ You practically word vomit as your eyes start to prick with tears.

The hurt evident as she pulled you in for a hug, letting your tears free as if they had been trapped in your ducts for years. Quickly dampening her shirt as she tried to do as much as she could to calm you down, it was no use though. ‘Do you think he just doesn’t want to see me? Maybe he’s found someone else?’ You questioned out loud as loud sobs continued to wrack your body.

‘Hey… Hey! I don’t know much about this guy, but from what you have told me he seems like a really respectable guy who loves you. Plus he’s your boyfriend so he has to be amazing! Have you thought about telling him how you feel?’ Beth asked getting up quickly to grab you some tissue.

‘No, I haven’t! I don’t want him to think I don’t trust him, because it's not that at all…’ Before you could finish sniffling out everything you had to say your phone lit up. A bright picture of Daichi from the last time you saw him covering the screen, arm around your waist and a goofy smile adorning his face. Daichi who you loved so much, who it hurt so bad to think about for no reason other than he wasn’t here. He wasn’t by your side, he was 5,732 miles away.

As you got up to go answer the phone in your room, Beth gave you a sympathetic smile and a quick mouthing of ‘tell him’. A deep sigh passed your lips as you closed the door separating you from the kitchen, you knew she was right but something was holding you back.

Cleaning yourself up slightly you finally answered the facetime call. ‘Hey baby…’ You said greeting him with a small smile. You knew he could tell you had been crying the minute he answered when his face dropped. ‘Hey baby-girl, you okay?’ He asked and that was all it took. You couldn’t keep it from him anymore, tears spilled once again from your eyes as you told him everything.

Daichi’s heart broke as he watched you cry on the other side of the screen, he wanted to gather you in his arms and tell you it was going to be okay. That you would both get through this together, however he was lost for words. He couldn’t hold you, he couldn’t even get you your favourite food to cheer you up. He wasn’t there. As you both talked it out, he couldn’t stop apologising, every ‘i’m sorry’ that fell from his lips felt so natural yet should it be?

Once you had calmed down and the facetime ended, Daichi couldn’t get the image of you crying out of his head. How had he not seen the person he loved and cherished so much in almost 2 years?

The night was long and tiring for both of you, neither could sleep, plagued by thoughts of what’s next? What can either of you do to better the situation? You couldn’t dream of leaving him but what if you had no choice. It was 3:27am and you decided it was probably better to try and take your mind off the situation, falling asleep in front of the TV was better than not falling asleep at all.

A couple days passed, although you couldn't stop thinking about Daichi you had gone back to normal with him. You thought it was strange but since that night Daichi seemed a lot more upbeat, wanted to call you more and was texting you constantly. You weren’t complaining though, you loved how he seemed to be making more of an effort since you had confessed to him.

‘Wow you actually managed to cook the pasta properly this time?!’ Beth said, an amused expression on her face as she sat at the table across from you. This caused a laugh to erupt from you, she was right once again. ‘Yeah I guess things are improving huh?’ You replied as she laughed along. You had made pasta properly, not as if it was anything special but it tasted good you thought.

As you both chatted and giggled away you were interrupted by a knock at the door. ‘Did you order food?’ You question as you got up to answer, wondering who it could be at such a weird time as your eyes scanned the clock, 10:36pm. Swinging open the door your whole body froze.

His brown hair was tousled and out of place, his grey sweatpants hanging off him perfectly and although he looked tired and rushed to anyone else. You had never seen someone so handsome before, not being able to stop yourself jumping on him. Despite being exhausted, Daichi still managed to catch you in his arms. ‘You came…’ You whispered into his shoulder, taking in his scent. How you had missed his slightly woody smell, it smelt like home.

‘I couldn’t not come… It broke my heart to see you cry because of me, I dropped everything to come’ He smiled, as he rubbed your back comfortingly placing a kiss to the side of your head. Suddenly 5,732 miles didn’t feel long at all when you were in his arms, realising the exact reason you didn’t break it off with him originally, he was worth the ups and downs. Worth the long nights of falling asleep on facetime because of the time difference, worth every ‘i love you’ text and every ‘i miss you’ whispered over the phone.

As he let you down and grabbed his stuff to bring in you couldn’t help but admire him. Has he got bigger? His arms looked so much more refined and muscular, the 2 years training to be in the emergency services sector clearly having an effect on his body. Before you knew what you were doing you gripped his bicep softly, he really was stronger than before you thought.

‘You okay there baby? Something interesting?’ He chuckled as he watched your face heat up, scooping you into his arms again. Not wanting to admit you really liked the change in his body you buried your face into his neck. ‘I just missed you a lot…’ You confessed, not like you hadn’t told him this before but being held in his arms made it so much more real. ‘I missed you too princess…’ He whispered, lifting your chin to look at him before pressing his lips to yours.

It felt like a lifetime had passed since the last time your lips had met, but it was just as amazing as the first time. All fears and worries suddenly dissipated, the only thing that mattered right now was him and how much time you had to make up for.

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akitokihojo · 3 years

Text

Monster - Chapter 3

chapter index

Miroku woke early the next morning, groggy, uncomfortable, and insanely stiff. His head was hurting, his eyes were still heavy, his mouth was as dry as cotton, and his side leading over to his back was sore as all hell. The air felt weird. Something was off. The sensation was so predominating, it quickly overpowered the physical ailments he’d focused on as soon as he’d come to.

He blinked several times, attempting to push away the sleep that beckoned him back, the pull of the lingering drowsiness due to fatigue and medicinal properties. He wished he could stretch, awaken his muscles, but he knew that wouldn’t have the same effect as it did yesterday morning. He knew it would only hurt like a bitch. Resolving to deal with the tension in his body, Miroku turned his head, taking in his surroundings to see if he could pinpoint anything in his bedroom that may have been out of the norm to create the awkward feel in the atmosphere.

Sota sat on the edge of his bed, a straight and sullen expression on his face, brown eyes holding still on their wooden flooring. His fingers gripped the fitted sheet of his mattress, and Miroku could see the lack of color in his cheeks from across the room.

“What’s up?” He tried, his tone huskier than he’d expected.

Sota glanced up, unsurprised that he was awake, but as his voice came out, it held no conviction. “Nothing.”

“You okay, munchkin?” Miroku tried again, slowly, slowly pushing his elbows beneath him to start sitting up.

Sota didn’t say anything that time, his eyes falling back to the floor.

“You have a nightmare or something. Are you sick?”

His gaze flickered back up to Miroku but avoided his eyes, unable to hold steady on him at all. They faltered away, then wandered back up, faltered, then lifted, finally meeting Miroku’s patient, indigo stare. “Kagome’s gone.”

Miroku’s brows gave a minute twitch together, unable to understand what his younger cousin had meant by that. The corner of his lips curled downward slightly, but when there was no elaboration given, he had to, inevitably, reach for it. “What do you mean, Kagome’s gone?”

“I mean, she’s gone.” Sota stated.

“Where? On an errand?”

“No.”

“Then where did she go?”

There was a moment of hesitation, one where Sota sucked in a suspenseful breath, the hollow of his throat emphasizing before he sighed it all out and gave Miroku the direct answer he was looking for. “To fight Naraku.”

A surge of ice rushed through Miroku’s body. Any expression he was holding fell away, eyes widening, and his body moving of its own accord as he jolted to sit upright. His ribs protested heavily, feeling as if they were stabbed through and bringing him to immediately regret the action, and he groaned, clutching his side and fighting the urge to curl into himself. He shoved the held air in his lungs out, forcing himself into composure, hardly even realizing Sota had rushed across the room to support him if he needed anything. When the boy’s hand, cold and clammy, met Miroku’s bare shoulder, he glared up at him. “Tell me this was a bad dream you had.”

At first, Sota didn’t know how to answer that. There was so much panic in that single moment with Kagome’s disappearance and the inability to help Miroku’s pain, so he couldn’t help but have the words, or lack thereof, catch in his throat from the unbelievable perturbation.

“Sota, you can’t be serious.”

“She’s gone.” He finally confirmed. “Whatever you guys were planning to do together, she’s doing alone.”

“Fuck!” Miroku cursed, swinging his legs over the edge of his mattress. He had to halt, to brace himself there as he caught his bearings, willing the pain to subside in such a dramatic moment. “When did she leave!?”

“I don’t know. Sometime in the night.” The defensiveness in his tone was rising. Although he’d expected Miroku’s justifiable temperament, he admittedly wasn’t very good at keeping a level head, himself, in the face of conflict.

“And, you knew!?”

“Yes.”

“You knew when she left, or you knew she was going to leave?” Miroku interrogated.

“I knew she was going to leave! Miroku, what are you doing!?” He extended his arms out, prepared to catch his cousin if he lost his balance as he rose to a standing, trudging over toward the door.

“Why didn’t you tell us!?”

“She asked me not to! You would have stopped her!”

“Yeah, that’s the point!”

“She really wanted to do this! She said there was no way to talk her out of it!”

“Sota, don’t you understand?” Miroku asked, winded as he braced against the doorframe of the door he’d just opened. “She could be killed on her own! We had a plan to do it together for a reason!”

“Sit down! You’re in pain!”

“She’s so stupid for going alone! We were supposed to help! God, why is your sister such an idiot!?”

“You’re hurt, Miroku! How could you have helped any? You can hardly walk!” Sota argued.

“She should have waited!”

“She should have, but she didn’t! There’s nothing we can do about that now!”

“Sota,” Miroku had barely moved a foot, leaning against the wall as he slowly turned to look at the younger boy. His heart was pounding within his chest, air pumping through his lungs like he’d run a mile, a heat in his eyes he knew his cousin felt. “How long did you know?”

Again, he hesitated with his answer, feeling nervous and strained. His jaw hung agape, but his tongue created no words, hardly breathing as he physically felt the anger coming from Miroku.

“How long, Sota?” He repeated slowly, clearly.

“Since Naraku’s men left; when I took her aside to calm her down. She told me then.” Sota admitted.

“What is going on?” His mother asked, looking shocked and upset and disheveled while she wrapped her arms around her center to keep her body heat in.

The two boys stared at her, their expressions wavering to match the other’s. Shoulders sagged and brows curved sadly, sympathetically, as they knew this was going to be the worst part of all.

Miroku couldn’t bring himself to say anything more, using the wall as assistance while he trudged down the hall to Kagome’s bedroom, Sota sticking very close while his aunt followed behind, small noises escaping her mouth as her confusion became more prominent. He didn’t bother knocking, though he’d almost raised his knuckles to rasp on the door, completely out of reflex. His fingers curled around the knob, twisting it and pushing it open.

The room was empty. Cold. The bed was unmade, the window was open, and the energy of the room felt lifeless. Kagome was long gone. He limped forward, straight to the open window, noticing the undisturbed dew and leftover raindrops on the windowsill, and even some that had made it to the wooden floor inside just below.

“Where’d Kagome go? I didn’t hear her get up this morning.” She said with a small voice. She could tell something was wrong. She was sure she’d heard her daughter’s name come from the boys while they were yelling, but she was barely waking up at the time and wasn’t quite able to process things well yet.

Miroku turned to look at her, noticing Sota had sat on his sister’s bed, his shoulders drooping further while his head had sunken down. As much as he wanted to pin the blame on Sota, he knew this was more so on him. He knew he was responsible for explaining since he’d helped originate the plan that Kagome had chosen to execute on her own. Sota actively failed to prevent the incident, but Miroku actually knew the details behind it.

“What is going on?” His aunt asked again, her tone slightly deeper, more serious.

“Auntie, sit down.”

“Tell me.” She sternly ordered.

He sighed, turning around to close the window. Again, his ribs protested, a sharp pain jabbing at his muscles and bones, so he was careful to move slowly as he locked it shut. He figured if he was able to do all this there was no way they could be broken.

“Kagome left to fight Naraku. On her own.” He said as he faced her once more, having the respect not to beat around the bush. “Kikyo’s messages really meant something to her, and you know how often she got them. What you don’t know is that we’ve kept up the training we were started on. Worse, actually.” He kind of flinched in preparation of his own admittance. “We’ve intentionally sought out demons - harmful ones - to test our strengths. That’s how Kagome really knew how to hide her powers whenever there were inspections. She’s learned how to use them pretty well. She didn’t want to be defenseless, and I agreed that she shouldn’t be. She’s a conjurer and they’re blacklisted, so she should, at the very least, know what she was capable of to potentially see why - if not only to protect herself. The thing was, and I’m sorry, but we all - Kagome, Sango, and I - planned on doing this exact thing together. She’s positive there are other conjurers receiving the very same messages that she is, so there’s probably going to be an army made up to take down Naraku. She wants to join, and Sango and I wanted to be part of the cause. But, apparently, yesterday she decided to do it all on her own. She left in the middle of the night without telling anyone. Except for Sota.”

There was a horrible silence that filled the air when Miroku had stopped talking. He could see that the information was sinking in with his aunt but her gaze stayed locked on him, only leaving to look at Sota when he was mentioned, and then shooting back to Miroku.

“You all had planned to leave together?” She finally asked.

“Yes.” He answered.

“Were you going to say anything when this happened?”

“No.” His blue eyes fell to the floor briefly, the shame evident. It wasn’t like they didn’t think about how it would affect their families; they’d discussed all the details several times over and eventually came to terms with their decisions. It wasn’t something he was prepared to face, though. “We were packed for it. Whenever Kagome felt like it was time to leave - as in Kikyo gave some sort of direct order or something - we were equipped to head out.”

“You - you were packed?” His aunt inquired, appearing somewhat taken aback.

“Yeah.” Miroku confirmed. “We kept our things hidden in the location we trained at, along with our weapons.”

She made a small sound of muddled astonishment, her brows shrugging and then furrowing. “I’d always wondered what had happened to Kagome’s bow and arrows.”

“Um - well, the bow you’re thinking of broke. We had to replace it a year ago, so we went and bought a new one.” He confessed, his jittery nerves showing a bit more.

“You - how - how did you buy a new one? Where?” She questioned speculatively.

“We’ve been doing side jobs outside of town for a while now - you know what, that’s irrelevant. What matters is that we were raising money for the trip so we weren’t empty-handed financially.”

“Good lord, it’s like pandora’s box is opening inside my house.” She groaned, rubbing her forehead. She exhaled heavily, regaining her bearings as she turned to her quiet son. “And, you knew about this?”

“Not all that.” Sota shook his head, his reply hasty while his fear of backlash rode on the surface. “When Kagome and I were in the treehouse yesterday she told me she was leaving, but she made me promise not to tell anybody.”

“And, you kept that promise knowing how dangerous the situation was?”

“It was a pinky promise.” He defended.

His mother opened her mouth like she was ready to quickly retort, but instead all he heard was the sharp inhale from her throat before she sealed her lips, leaving the air locked in her lungs as the hollow of her neck deepened. She closed her eyes, brows pinched together when she finally exhaled, once again rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.

“Anything else?” She asked testily.

Both Sota and Miroku shook their heads in reply.

“Do we know how long ago she left?”

“By the looks of it, hours ago.” Miroku said while Sota, again, shook his head.

“What are the chances of us finding her?”

“Slim.” Miroku answered. “There’s no saying what direction she went off in, and she’s got quite the head start on us. I can’t walk very fast in my condition, let alone chase after her. It’s not like we can gather up the town to get them to help out, because they’ll have questions and it’ll compromise her well-being and secret. Not to mention, even if we did miraculously catch up, it would be a fight on its own to convince her to come home.”

“So -“ There it was. The devastated expression he’d been waiting to appear on his aunt’s face finally emerged, though she valiantly tried to fend it off. “So, she’s gone?”

“We can look. See if she got far.” He breathed defeatedly. “But, yes. I’m pretty sure Kagome’s gone.”

—

“Alright, so I searched the areas we usually went to together, and she’s not there. But, she’s definitely been to the cave. Her weapon’s gone, and she took a few things from the bag we’d packed. I saw footprints in the mud nearby leading off onto the forest path, and thankfully the mud was soft so it left a deep impression. Unfortunately, it seems some horses and men have been on that path not too long ago, making it hard to follow, and where the mud gets firmer, her footprints have washed away. So, there’s no telling where she is, but we do know what direction she’s gone off in.” Sango said, a little breathless as she returned to her boyfriend’s side. She’d been flustered since the moment Sota showed up at her doorstep this morning, pale and rattled, and when she was caught up to speed after following him back to his house, she immediately went searching for clues.

“Okay, that’s something.” Miroku nodded, silently thanking her from his uncomfortable seat on the couch as he placed a hand on the back of her thigh.

“How is that something?” Sota queried.

“Because, we’ll know where to start when we’re able to follow her.” He answered.

“Thank you, Sango.” His aunt said from where she stood next to the kitchen table, sighing out a feeble ounce of stress.

“Wait, you guys are still planning on going?” Sota asked.

“Of course.” Sango confirmed.

“We’re not going to let her do this alone. The plan remains, and we’re going to help her. Unfortunately, I’ve got a handicap, but as soon as I’m good to go, we’ll head out.”

“And, my dad should hopefully be back by the end of the week. In the hopes that he won’t be out on another mission when the time comes, we’ll be able to take Kirara with us so we can hopefully catch up to Kagome faster. If you don’t mind, and I know this is wrong to ask of you, but would you keep this on the down low? We all know he wouldn’t allow this.”

“Rightfully so.” Kagome’s mother remarked. “This is incredibly dangerous, and I’m inclined to make you both stay out of this mess. We all saw a daughter violently torn away from her mother yesterday, my own daughter is now missing, and now my nephew and his girlfriend are ready to follow in her footsteps? Do you understand just what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Yes -“ Miroku barely got out before his aunt interjected.

“No, you don’t. Naraku is the demon of all demons. He’s singlehandedly ostracized beings for reasons unknown, put them on this hit list because he can, and you guys think you’re just going to walk up to him, challenge him to a duel, and leave unscathed? All because some Kikyo lady appeared in Kagome’s dreams and said so? I know you’re all adults and you’re capable of making your own decisions now, but you’re making the wrong ones so I’ll make them for you. Neither of you are going.”

“But, what about Kagome?” Sota argued.

“I can’t protect her, Sota. She’s already gone.” She slighted.

“They can help, though!”

“They’re eighteen, nineteen, and twenty acting like they’re as wise and experienced as the grown demon slayers in the village. Do any of you know exactly what those demon slayers had to go through to gain their knowledge and skills? And, don’t you answer that, Sango. I know your father’s the leader, and you’ve had a bit of experience yourself, but you don’t know the half of it. You think your dad’s told you all the stories? You think your dad’s let you in on every little, gory detail of his trials? It baffles me that you guys think training on your own and exterminating various demons outside of town would make you well-prepared for a journey like this. It’s a death sentence I won’t let you sign up for. You’re not going.”

“I understand where you’re coming from, Auntie, but we are. We’re going. Despite her decisions, I’m not going to let Kagome do this on her own.” Miroku spoke, keeping his tone as level and respectful as possible.

There was a moment of silence, one where his aunt clenched her jaw, dropped her shoulders, and plopped into the seat beside her. “You - all three of you - are too much like your fathers for your own good.”

“I know, I know.” He sighed. “It’s your number one complaint about Kagome and I. But, we’ve gotta see this through with her. At her side. I want to punch her as much as anyone in this room, believe me, but wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing she’s not alone? Wait, no, don’t answer that.” Miroku recoiled, holding up his hand to stop his aunt from saying anything the moment she glared his way.

“Thank you.” Sango softly spoke. “For showing how much you care about us. For expressing your concerns and voicing what’s on your mind. Thank you. You’re right, we don’t have nearly as much experience as we should. Truthfully, I don’t think there’s enough experience in the world that could prepare us for what we’re about to do. We’ve gotta try, though. This has been hell for us all, but imagine it from Kagome’s perspective. They’re after her. Her kind, but ultimately, her. We want to protect her just like you, we just show it in a different way. She’s justified in wanting to fight, so our way of demonstrating support and doing what we can to help is by going with her. Besides, you know Kagome. She’s as stubborn as a mule, so when her mind is made up, there’s no fighting it. There’s only going with the flow.”

Sota added his input by dramatically nodding in agreement, knowing all too well his sister's temperament and obstinance.

“She should have waited.” Miroku said again. “But, she can handle her own until we catch up.”

“Kagome can definitely handle her own.” Sango attested. “I don’t know if this matters to you, but she’s folded Miroku in a match before. She’s a tough cookie.” She smiled when her friend’s mother had to hide her conflicted giggle behind her hands, noticing her boyfriend’s slow, shifting, disapproving look from the side.

“It was funny.” She shrugged, not even bothering to hide her amusement.

“I wish I’d seen it!” Sota laughed.

“Are you guys sure?” Miroku’s aunt asked, more to see if there was any apprehension in their expressions. She could tell though, with their direct eye contact, their nods, their steady answers and confident demeanor, that even if she did attempt to forbid them, they would only be resolved to sneak out behind everyone’s backs - like Kagome. At least this way, being in the know, she would be able to help in whatever way she could. Whether that be in moral support, assisting Miroku to help him mend as fast as possible, or even making sure to help them pack for anything they may need.

Her daughter was brave. She was strong. She was like her father. What terrified her was that Kagome was mortal. But, she had to have faith. She had to take Sango and Miroku’s word for it that she could, in fact, take care of herself.

—

Kagome fluttered her brown eyes open, blinking away her sleep as she gathered her surroundings. She was fully and instantly aware that she was in the wilderness, incapable of forgetting that tidbit no matter how exhausted she was, but she needed to focus as best as she could in her sleepy stupor to make sure no demonic energies were nearby.

She was still safe.

The sun wasn’t too high in the sky yet, as far as she could tell from the trees and patchy clouds, so she had probably only dozed off for a few hours at the most, her fire reduced to nothing but flickering embers. She was still tired but she felt better than she had before, and she knew she needed to get moving. Where to? Who knows. She felt in her gut that she was on the right path, though. The only path, really.

Her back felt cramped and tense as she slowly peeled herself off of the tree she’d rested against, strands of her hair pulling while it stuck to the bark, making her groan. When she stood, dusting off her pants and stretching a bit, she felt life begin to flow through her muscles again. Kagome wasted no time in getting herself situated to head out. She adjusted her clothing, her bodice which had climbed up her chest a little, ran her fingers through her wavy hair, got her bag and bow and arrows situated over her shoulders again, and then kicked dirt over the remainder of what used to be called a fire, heading back toward the trail and on her way.

—

“Why’d you run?” Inuyasha asked.

“Why’d you chase me?” Hiten countered, an arrogant smirk on his face. His tan skin was moist with the afternoon warmth and the adrenaline flowing through his body, red eyes meeting Inuyasha’s proud stare. His long, brown braid swayed from side to side as it gradually began to still, heavy but neatly kept from his face.

“I caught wind that you’ve been a bit of an asshole. Apparently, rumors are true.”

“Yeah?”

“You wouldn’t have run if they weren’t.”

“Well,” Hiten shrugged, his smile widening, completely untroubled. “Looks like you just answered your own question.”

“I’ve warned you before, Hiten. I told you to watch your step.” Inuyasha reminded, swallowing the frustration that quickly built up in him whenever he dealt with cocky sons of bitches.

“Awe,” He feigned a pout. “Can’t you be cool and let me off with another warning, Inuyasha?”

“Unfortunately for you, I don’t like you. I don’t even know why I gave you an exception in the first place. This time, though, no chance. You killed a girl. That’s a dramatic escalation from what you did last time.”

“And, she was mighty tasty.” Hiten licked his lips.

Inuyasha cringed, his entire face contorting. “Ew! What? Hiten, what the fuck!?”

“What -“

“You ate her!?”

“Wait, what? You didn’t know that?” He questioned, all confidence fading from his expression as he looked skeptically over at his enemy.

“Does this look like the face of somebody in the know!? No, I didn’t know that! What the fuck!? Why!? You’re a fucking thunder demon, dude! You’re not even based off of a carnivorous animal! I don’t understand!” Inuyasha argued, absolutely and utterly disgusted. He was so appalled, he even took two steps away from the guy, his lips remaining distastefully curled.

“Wow - um - this is a little awkward.” He admitted, scratching his temple sheepishly. “Why are you here then?”

“Because, there’s money over your head!” Inuyasha exclaimed. “They want your head, I want their money, I got the gist of everything - I don’t know, I felt like it was a fair trade! You ate her!?”

“Y-yeah.” He shrugged again.

“Ew!” That time, Inuyasha cringed so bad his entire body convulsed, like a huge, unwelcome shiver ran down his spine. “Why?”

“I was - you’re not gonna like the answer to this.” Hiten said, giving fair warning. When Inuyasha didn’t decline further explanation, he proceeded. “She was - we were - nude, consensually of course, and - um - well, she smelled really good while we were - while I was - you know… So, like, during that I kind of wanted to - um - taste her.”

Inuyasha had deadpanned mid-speech, his mouth hanging agape, golden eyes blinking as he processed the given information. “Good sir, you took cunnilingus to a level it should have never gone to.”

“Yeah.” Hiten grimaced, nodding in agreement.

“When her soul leaves her body, it’s supposed to remain metaphorical.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Another nod, another grimace.

“And, yet…” Inuyasha grumbled.

“I took it there.” Hiten confirmed.

“Are you proud of yourself?”

“I mean…”

“Never mind, don’t answer that.” The hanyou waved off.

“I really wish you didn’t know now.” Hiten said uncomfortably. “Like, the moment’s gone. I don’t really feel like fighting anymore.”

“Hey, I wish I didn’t know either. Believe me, I have a horribly vivid imagination, so this is gonna eat at me for days.”

Hiten chuckled, attempting to hide it behind his fist as he glanced away.

“Hey - oh god. No pun intended, you sick bastard. Moment’s back! Come here, I’m gonna kick your ass!” Inuyasha yelled, grossed out.

“No, thanks! I’m good!” He laughed, jogging backward.

“I don’t even give a fuck about the money anymore! I’m just gonna kill you!”

“Didn’t know you were such a feminist, buddy!”

“Don’t you ‘buddy’ me, you creep! Stop -“ The two demons halted in their tracks, alert, one with a blooming grin and the other with wide, uneasy eyes.

“Let me tell you, Inuyasha.” Hiten spoke gruffly. "Once the taste sits on your tongue, there’s no preventing the addiction. She wasn’t my first. And, it looks like lunch is nearby. Too bad I’m a lot faster than you since I can fly and all.”

Inuyasha tensed as the demon flew off in the direction he’d smelled a girl walking not too far away. Cursing under his breath, he finally sheathed his sword, sprinting to follow Hiten.

Kagome had gone off trail. She’d seen a town in the distance, but if she looked as bad as she felt, the last thing she wanted to do was attract attention to herself. She said it was for the sake of adventure - and privacy - that she’d decided to venture through the trees, her boots crunching the leaves littering the forest floor. The trees weren’t close together by any means, leaving plenty of walking room between, light easily breaking through the treetops. She figured she’d go around the village and continue on the trail from the other side. No harm, no foul.

Until she felt a sudden and alarming spike in demonic energy. It was heading her way and fast. So fast, in fact, that by the time she’d turned around, she was staring at a man at the top of a slope, a dangerous smile curling his lips.

“Hey. You lost?” He spoke, even the click of his tongue proving menacing.

Of course. Of course this would happen right now. Kagome mentally rolled her eyes at her luck, bracing with a dragged inhale. His energy was threatening, and he definitely meant harm. There was no reason for Kagome to entertain his question. She knew what was about to go down. Without response, she ran off. All she needed was to give herself time. Just a little space. Given how fast he’d initially approached, he was going to be on her in a matter of seconds, but that was all she needed.

Kagome rolled her shoulder, allowing her bow to fall off, slide down her arm and into her hand where she tossed it over to her left. She spun back around to face the oncoming demon, her feet sliding - almost stumbling in the dirt - from the speed, an arrow plucked from its quiver and pulled back into the string of her bow, ready to shoot. The demon froze just feet away from her, his shocked expression shifting into one of entertained as he held his hands up in front of him defensively.

“Woah-ho-ho.” He chuckled. “You’re fucking quick.”

Kagome didn’t say anything just yet, eyes locked on the demon as her chest pumped air in and out of her lungs. She had good aim; she could hit him for sure. The trouble was, could she kill him? With her conjurer powers, sure. Maybe. Yes. But if, by chance, she missed, her secret was out and she was dead. Honestly, if she missed either way, she was dead. She was resolved to go ahead and use her powers before she felt the nearing aura of another demon - one not quite as strong, one with an intriguing warmth radiating from it, one she felt a compelling pull to investigate but she forced herself to leave it alone. Two demons in the same vicinity typically meant they came together. But, if she used her abilities and the other sensed or saw it, she was done for.

No matter what, the situation was looking grim. If they were together, why wouldn’t she just use her powers? Why wouldn’t she just protect herself the way she’d trained for so long now? Why was a voice in her mind telling her not to do anything she’d regret? You know what she’d actually regret? Dying on her first day, that’s what.

“What do you want?” She asked, her raspy voice adding unintentional, dramatic flare.

“I just want to chat. Come on, put the bow down.”

“Not interested.”

“What do you think you’re actually gonna do with that?” Hiten asked, smiling. “The big, bad archer gonna shoot down a demon? Even if you stuck me, it’d hardly do a thing.”

“Want to bet?” Kagome challenged.

She watched his grin twitch wider, his slimy tongue gliding out but then vanishing altogether as an incredibly powerful, whirlwind of a strike came thundering from her left, dividing the two as it brought them both to jump away.

“Hiten, you five-head, ugly ass bitch!” Came a loud, deep, husky voice. “Your fight’s with me!”

Kagome had tripped in her attempt to escape the blast of power, her butt sore from landing on the protruding root of a tree, and though she took a moment to pity her rump and rub the immediate tenderness away, her attention was still on the scene before her. It was, for lack of a better word, bewildering. Unexpected. A man with a hostile scowl stood at the top of the slope the other demon had appeared on, a large sword encircled in demonic energy held tightly in his grasp. His hair was tied in a high ponytail, light in shade - appearing silver to the eye but almost white where light hit him. Pointed, animalistic ears atop his head told her he was of demonic lineage, but his energy didn’t feel as apparent as the demon’s across from her, still standing but gaze diverted the other’s way. She took that moment to regain herself, standing up to ready her weapon again, this time keeping it aimed low until she understood just what the hell was happening.

“Faster than I gave you credit for. What a fun-sucker.” The demon grumbled.

“Leave her alone!”

If it wasn’t clear before, it was perfectly evident now. The silver-haired demon wasn’t Kagome’s enemy.

“Hiten! Back the fuck up!” He shouted, tone appearing more lethal.

“Or, what?” Hiten chuckled, taking a few steps closer to Kagome while his attention continued to hold on the other demon. Kagome took that opportunity to raise her bow and arrow then, steadying her aim and locking on his chest. His heart. The jerk was, luckily for her, too arrogant to even mind what she was doing. “What are you gonna do? The closer I get to her, the less you’re able to use your fancy sword.”

“Hiten!”

“Oh no, look’s like the pressure’s on. Who’s gonna get her first?” Two more steps forward, his long legs closing the created gap easily.

Kagome pulled her arrow back a smidge, taking a moment to center herself, holding her breath.

“Stop!”

“It’s so easy to rile you up, Inuyasha.” Hiten laughed. “You’re so melodramatic.”

“Hey, wait, that’s kind of rude.” Inuyasha feigned a grimace, dropping his sword a few inches. “I don’t think I deserved that.”

“You called me ugly.” The demon countered with an odd sneer. “And, you said I have a five-head. I’d hardly call that rude in comparison.”

“You know what, that’s fair. Go ahead. She’s all yours.” The hanyou shrugged, resting the tip of Tessaiga to the ground.

Hiten barely thought about it, cocking a brow and turning to the girl before him. There was no time to react, no time to process, his breath caught in his throat so roughly he nearly choked.

The moment he turned to look at her, Kagome released her arrow, the sharp, pointed tip piercing through the left side of his chest. His red eyes widened, crimson staining the front of his dirty, white shirt, stumbling backward two feet from the force of her strike.

“Run, kid!” The order was barked, and Kagome didn’t need to be told twice. She used no spiritual power, so there was no way in hell the demon was dead. He was merely stunned, and she wasn’t about to wait around for him to gather his wits.

She took off like a bat out of hell, racing away, slipping on leaves but keeping her footing well enough to stay balanced and jump over tree roots. She heard, even felt, the strike from the silver-haired demon’s sword, the ground rattling slightly. Hiten’s roar of frustration echoed through her ears as it shifted into a maniacal laugh, haunting, his voice growing louder as he somehow grew nearer.

Kagome was grabbed by her hair, yanked back painfully and stopped in her tracks as she was slammed against a wide, aging tree, dropping her bow in the midsts. Her scream was muted by her own, broken voice, and she fought to push his surprisingly strong body away - despite how scrawny he appeared - while he now pinned her from the front. She didn’t even bother to register whatever taunting statement slipped from his tongue, only paying attention to the torn body of the arrow still in his chest but split apart so it didn’t protrude greatly, and she grabbed the frayed, splintered end, using whatever strength she could muster from her disadvantageous position to shove it further into the crevice of his ribs, even going so far as to twist so the arrowhead hurt him further, his pained shout and agonizing features telling her it was affecting him exactly as she wanted. Demon or not, conjurer powers or not, being stabbed never felt good.

“Let her go.” Came a gruff demand, and everything stopped. The tone was so alerting that even Kagome heeded the venom-laced warning. She could barely see over Hiten’s shoulder, but she knew the silver-haired demon stood right behind him, his sword pointed toward Hiten’s back. With the way Hiten froze entirely, she was willing to bet it was pressed against him. One false move, and he was done. “Now.”

And, he did. Hiten released Kagome, his hands held above his shoulders to show his compliance.

“Behind me.” He instructed, and Kagome knew that was directed towards her. Given they were still standing so close, she had to shimmy her way out from between the tree and the demon, her squished bag sort of sticking to the bark and adding a slight difficulty to the already-awkward glide free.

As soon as she was out, she crossed to the backside of the man with silver hair, picking up her bow along the way to strap over her shoulder. He even went so far as to reach behind, grabbing the loose hem of her green shirt to pull her flush behind his back, completely sheltered by his frame while he held his sword steady with one arm. From the glimpses she’d gotten of it, it seemed huge and heavy. It was impressive to see anyone hold the thing up, let alone with one hand.

There was a rumble in the sky, growing, growing, becoming increasingly louder, surrounding them as the clouds quickly flooded above - dark and ominous. Thunder boomed as if the storm had been brewing for hours, encroaching, but Kagome could have sworn she saw patches of blue just moments ago.

“Stop it.” Inuyasha ordered.

Hiten didn’t say anything, but from the way his shoulders broadened from behind, hands still raised where they were, and head held up high, his body language was radiating obnoxious pride.

“Hiten.” He growled.

The clap of thunder was so loud that time, it startled Kagome, causing her to jump just a little closer to her savior, the fingers of her hands curling into the loose fit of his shirt. It was somehow louder than any storm she’d ever witnessed, last night’s proving incomparable. She stared directly above them, watching as sparks of electricity danced and bounced along the bottom of the dark grey quilt, this result of the friction she’d never before seen. In fact, she was sure that something like this wasn’t even organically possible.

“Um,” She began, merely whispering to the demon she held onto. “We might want to move soon.”

Inuyasha could feel the girl’s anxiety, her nerves, her fingers bunching his shirt tighter. He could feel the demonic energy soaring from Hiten, creating the dangerous scenario above, but her words were what had caught his attention. The hanyou glanced upward, noticing the waltz of the electricity.

“Hiten!”

The opposing demon only laughed, shifting his head to look at Inuyasha as he slowly turned around to face him, modestly pushing his sword aside with the back of his hand.

“Am I supposed to just adhere to you?”

“Knock it off!”

“Or you’ll what?” Hiten challenged.

“You know what!”

“Apparently, your plan is to kill me either way. So, might as well go out with a bang.” He smirked, thunder blaring at that exact moment.

Kagome unintentionally clung to the man, the booming so loud she could feel it in her chest. His large hand grabbed her hip firmly, guiding her as he began to walk backward, and she took the initiative to give him more room, not wanting to make things harder or cause him to trip, so she made her fingers release his shirt.

Lightning struck the ground just to her right, and she hissed the same curse as the man before her. He was quick. Quicker than she’d expected in the moment as he spun around, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her off to run.

“In case you’re wondering,” He began, forcefully keeping her legs moving as fast as they’d go as he sought out shelter. “He’s a thunder demon and - fuck!” He shouted, sliding in the dirt as he came to an immediate stop, lightning falling directly in front of them.

“Where are we supposed to be going!?” Kagome asked as clearly as she could when they ran off in a different direction, never minding the protesting ache in her throat.

“Wherever the fuck we can to get away from this! You want to die!?”

“Not necessarily!”

“Then keep up, kid!”

“Have you ever outrun lightning before?” She questioned. The thunder overhead was nonstop now, electricity falling wherever it could. It was like Hiten held the ability to control it, but also lacked it once the friction built up too much. Nature took over then, and Hiten was merely impervious to her fury.

“Can’t say that I have!”

“Great.” Kagome breathed, her expression falling sarcastically.

Inuyasha found a tree with a decently-sized hollow in the bottom, pulling the girl over and gripping her shoulders to shove her down to her knees and in. “Stay!”

“What?” Her tone was half frantic, half perplexed.

“Stay here, and stay low! If I get hit, I’ll be fine. You? You’re dead.”

“Hey, wait! Lightning can strike trees! Lightning can strike trees!” Kagome protested, trying to crawl out, but the demon casually shoved the sole of his boot against her chest, thrusting her back beneath.

“Stay!” Inuyasha ordered emphatically, his one free hand held up as a sign to stop.

The demon ran off then, leaving Kagome appalled in her hollow, mouth hanging open, and completely taken aback by the sheer audacity of this guy. He did not just use his foot to push her. What was she even supposed to do there? Wait out the storm and hope she got lucky? Sit back and let the boys duke it out? Sure, she’d love to say she had faith in her savior, but she didn’t even know the guy. She didn’t know what he was capable of, how strong he was, or if he was mighty enough to take on the freaking descendant of Thor, himself. Though, saying that made her feel like she was giving him too much credit. Maybe he was a second cousin, twice removed. Sure.

Lightning was more inclined to strike the tall, and while she stood at a solid five feet - two inches, the tree she sat under was significantly larger. While she was certain it held plenty of potential to be safe, it just wasn’t a chance Kagome was comfortable on taking. Plenty of times, she’d seen huge trees charred in half from strikes of lightning. Of course, the thought of being in the open range wasn’t all that desirable either, but it was definitely more exciting; no one could deny that. Sitting back and waiting had never been her thing, anyway.

She could hear them shouting, fighting somewhere behind where she was bunkered, the lightning striking the ground with loud cracks and bright flashes. Carefully, Kagome crawled out of her hole, keeping low to the ground. She peeked behind the tree to see if she could get a visual, but it didn’t look as if they were as close as she’d suspected, bringing her to quickly crawl her way to an adjacent tree, following the sounds of insults, curses, demonic sword attacks, and focused lightning strikes. The thunder roaring didn’t help any, her chest rumbling unsteadily with the noise, muting the pounding of her heart.

Kagome continued her low travels from tree-to-tree, doing her best to remain unseen and not electrocuted. When she finally found them, she realized she had the worst vantage point to help in any way. She could see more of the silver-haired man than that Hiten guy.

Her protector was breathing hard, brows deeply furrowed while he wore a dangerous scowl. The muscles beneath his black, long sleeves were visible and flexed, the veins on the back of his fists that white-knuckled the hilt of his sword prominent even from where she squatted. His fangs were sharp and threatening, and his nose crinkled with severity as he fended off a strike from the opposing demon, retaliating with one of his own that had so much force Kagome had to duck behind the tree entirely to avoid being knocked over.

From the looks of it, he wasn’t getting anywhere. Not fast, at least. Hiten was good at countering, he was quicker than was fair, and apparently packed a punch. It seemed like he needed an opening; one where he could get in his attack and make it count. And, that was where Kagome came in.

She crawled around the trees cautiously, concentrating on staying hidden, and pausing abruptly as lightning struck just a few feet ahead of her. Kagome stared at the burnt spot with wide eyes, her fearful and startled squeak silenced behind her breath as she dragged it out, an oh my god slipping out at the tail end. Kagome couldn’t even begin to help the other melodramatic noises that emitted from her throat as she realized that could have easily been her, and it took a solid moment to talk herself back into crawling forward, literally chanting, “please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me,” over and over until she reached a spot where she had a clear visual on the thunder demon.

“This will work.” Kagome whispered, pinning her back to the tree as she prepared herself. She was crouched down, one knee on the ground as she shimmied the bow off her shoulder and pulled an arrow out of its quiver, readying the nock along the string. It didn’t matter if she hit Hiten. It would help, that’s for sure, but all she intended to do was distract him. If he would hesitate, only for a moment, Mr. Silver Hair would have an opportunity to strike. And, if he missed the opportunity, Kagome had justifiable reasoning to call him an idiot.

Would that help any? No. But, justifiable reasoning was justifiable reasoning.

Kagome began to inch her way out from behind the tree, watching the patterns of their movements. It was okay to miss Hiten, but she still needed to hit as close to him as possible in order to grasp his attention. The distraction wouldn’t necessarily work otherwise.

Typically, as with any bad guy that had pride as large as a mountain, he’d stopped for an antagonizing and arrogant speech. He was bleeding from the very same eyebrow he tauntingly cocked, the crimson dripping down the outer corner of his eye, darker than his irises, and gliding slowly toward the center of his cheek. Apparently, her savior deserved a little more credit than what she’d initially given. That didn’t mean she couldn’t hopefully make things a little easier on him.

Kagome stole the opportunity, utilizing the man’s vanity against him, and she positioned herself, quickly pulling back her arrow and firing. The arrowhead whizzed just passed Hiten’s face, the sharp side cutting the edge of his pointed ear, and piercing the tree trunk behind him. Yet again, the man was stunned, his voice dying off mid-word and eyes falling to her.

Inuyasha was almost as surprised by the random arrow shooting through, the damned thing flying right passed his own head before the thunder demon’s. He glanced behind him, noticing the stupid girl staring daringly ahead, crouched down with her bow beginning to inch lower. He didn’t even have a moment to say the insult directed at her on his tongue before his opponent was moving, and fast. Hiten was taking her challenge to heart, running forward, and Inuyasha tossed his sword into his left hand, doing the only thing he could do in such close proximity. Just as the demon came close enough, he pulled back his arm and threw his fist in Hiten’s face, punching him so hard that he completely fell backwards, his head colliding with the hard ground.

“Did you get him?” Kagome shouted, almost unclearly thanks to her broken voice.

“Duh!”

“Is he dead?”

Inuyasha flailed his arms at his side in an annoyed manner. “No, he’s not dead! I punched him, you dipshit!” He yelled, and as if to back up his statement, Hiten push himself from the ground.

“What is with this chick?” Hiten murmured, using the back of his hand to wipe the blood that dripped from his mouth.

“Beats me, but she’s showing you up.” Inuyasha jeered.

“Fuck this.” He growled, his temper spiking. The thunder gave a trembling roar that rattled the ground, the out-of-control lightning strikes ceasing as the clouds seemed to boil with increasing friction.

Inuyasha couldn’t help but avert his attention upward, seeing the disturbing force of inhuman nature bubbling through the break in the treetops. This was bad. This was really fucking bad. This was an attack there was no coming back from if Hiten successfully hit the girl. It was going to be concentrated and lethal, and Inuyasha had no choice but to use his backlash wave. As much as he wanted to avoid the once-unnecessary use of so much power on an annoying fucker like Hiten, it was inevitable now. His amber eyes flew over to the astonished girl, and as if she’d sensed him, her gaze met his a mere second later.

“Run! Go! Take cover, now!” He barked.

His tone was non-negotiable, and given the amount of demonic energy in the atmosphere, Kagome didn’t much feel like arguing that she could help. Honestly, she couldn’t. She had no idea what the thunder demon planned to do, but it felt dangerous and terrifying, and if the silver-haired guy said she didn’t need to stick around for it, then she wasn’t about to.

She didn’t waste time with crawling. Since the sporadic strikes had stopped, she was safe enough to run, and she bolted as quickly as she could, heading back to her sanctuary of a hollow. Kagome skidded around the designated tree, dropping to her hands and knees and making home in the hole. Even through her shirt, she could feel the hair on her arms standing on end from the static, a high-pitched sound budding in the sky, and when a loud crash came, Kagome ducked and covered her ears, protecting herself however she could.

Inuyasha had to wait for the perfect opportunity. With a thunder demon, with the creation of electricity, came scattered energy, like sparks, and he couldn’t use his backlash wave until it all came together. He had one chance, and he was going to get this right. Hiten spared the hanyou a glance with his red eyes, smirking as he raised his right hand into the air. Inuyasha could feel it. He could feel the static, he could feel the threat blossoming, but overall, he could feel Hiten’s demonic energy forming into a saturated mass. It grew larger and larger, figuratively becoming more solid, and as a beam of blinding lightning came shooting down from the sky, Inuyasha stole the moment, raised his sword above his head, his own demonic energy surging to collide with Hiten’s as he whipped the blade to slice it through.

The backlash wave overpowered the thunder demon’s strength, bringing the attack to bounce back at him. Hiten may have been resistant to the direct wrath of the sky, but he wasn’t impervious to Tessaiga’s force deconstructing his own to be used against him. Hiten was arrogant, vulnerable, and in the end, reduced to ashes.

Slowly, as the world outside her little hollow quieted, Kagome began to unfurl. She no longer heard thunder, no longer heard shouting, no longer heard sounds of demonic attacks clashing, no chaos, no fighting, nothing. It was hit and miss as to what had happened. Did her protector win? Did the thunder demon pull through? Was it over?

Inch-by-inch, she crawled out, evaluating the atmosphere. It was calm. Her sights shifted up toward the sky, and once again, the clouds were breaking apart, pieces of blue showing through as if they were never hidden in the first place. The fight definitely had to be over.

Kagome dusted off her knees as she picked herself up off the ground, the bandages on her left hand dirty, and she made a mental note to change them when she could. Strapping her bow over her shoulder where it belonged, she ventured back over to where she’d last seen the two demons, finding herself moving wearily as she neared.

“Hey.” The husky voice startled her more than it should have, and Kagome gasped, spinning around with her fists raised to protect herself.

Inuyasha flinched back out of reaction, his palms shooting up in front of him - half out of his natural instinct to guard and the other half out of surprise. He hadn’t expected her to be so on edge after boldly disobeying him to partake in the battle; he’d figured she was gutsy and idiotic and probably too brave for her own good. That was the first time he’d gotten a good look at the girl’s face, though.

Her cheeks were red - probably from the commotion and the comedown, but her natural shade seemed fair. Maybe a degree or two lighter than his own skin tone. Her eyes were large and brown, but not that muddy-looking brown he more commonly saw in people he didn’t care to look at for more than two seconds. Hers, though deep in color, were finely blended with hues of reds and golds. An artist would have had a field day painting the detail of her irises, finding the golden circle just around her pupils, and freckling the way light caught her colors. The girl’s hair was as dark as raven, faint hints of oceanic blue glimmering in the rays of sun through the breaks in the trees and clouds. It was very faint, but Inuyasha could see it. Barely, but it was there. At the corner of her mouth, on her left cheek, sat a slight scuff of pink that didn’t belong and wouldn’t seem to fade when the heat in her face settled. And, on her neck, most disconcerting of all, housed a thick, red and purple ring that curved over the front portion. The girl, whoever she was, had recently been roughed up. No wonder she was a little skittish.

“Sorry.” Kagome grimaced, uncurling her fingers and lowering her hands. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Inuyasha replied. “Are you okay?” And, he’d emphasized the word intentionally.

“I’m fine.” She said, giving a one-shouldered shrug. There was a moment of awkward silence where the two just stood there, and Kagome’s eyes bounced around, avoiding contact with his own. When they landed on her arrow in the tree, she figured she should just politely wrap things up here, collect it, and be on her merry way. “So, um, thanks. For your help.”

“Don’t mention it.” He muttered.

“Was he a friend of yours? You two seemed to know each other.”

“I knew him because he was a murderer, and he knew me because I’ve been on his ass for a while. It’d be kind of harsh if I just killed my friend without showing an ounce of remorse, don’t you think?” Inuyasha rebutted.

“That’s fair.” Kagome bobbed her head in agreement, regretting her choice of words before his own fully registered with her. “Wait, murderer?”

“Yes?” Inuyasha arched a brow quizzically. “Kid, what did you think he was gonna do with you?”

“I-I don’t know! I didn’t really think that far ahead of time! I only processed the danger!”

“That far ahead… wait, no - what is on the other side of danger?” Inuyasha asked, confused as all hell.

“Is that rhetorical?”

“No.”

“Well, harm, typically.”

The hanyou chuckled, almost defeatedly as his chest deflated. “Yes, and harm comes in all shapes and sizes, doesn’t it?”

“Okay, now that’s rhetorical.” Kagome deadpanned.

“Good job.” He slighted.

“Alright, well it’s been fun. Thanks for not letting me die. You’re a champ. You’re the M.V.P.. You are the man. I’ve gotta get going, so I’ll be sure to watch out for any other crazy murderers in the area.” Kagome presented a sarcastic, closed-lipped grin. “Speaking of which, are they common around here?”

“Don’t get out much, do you, Kid?”

“Hey, what’s with this ‘kid’ thing? Is this a common nickname you give strangers, or what? I’m not a child.”

“No, you’re not. Not at all. It just kind of came out, honestly. Though, now that I’m looking at you, you are puny.” He grinned, enjoying how easy it was to make her cheeks red all over again.

“Ex-excuse me?”

“Small.” Inuyasha clarified.

“I am not.”

“Okay.” He chuckled dismissively.

“Hey! I’m average height!”

“Please don’t yell. You’re voice gets all high pitched and breaks like a baby goat, and I’m sure it irritates your throat as much as it does my ears.”

Kagome stared at the man for a moment, wondering if he was trying to say all the wrongs things, or if he was just that witty and knew what he was doing. “You are really good at talking to people, did you know that?” She stated with satire, sauntering over toward the tree that harbored her arrow.

“So I’ve heard.” Inuyasha carelessly remarked. “Hey, thanks a lot, by the way.”

She spared him a peek over her shoulder, catching his tone, but rightfully not feeding into it. Directly, at least. “You’re welcome.”

He swallowed his huff, his annoyance beginning to grow. “No. Thanks a lot.”

“No need to repeat yourself; I caught your sarcasm the first time. But, I decided to take it as a thank you for using this arrow here to distract Hiten so you had an opening. Therefore, you’re welcome.”

“Oh, is that what you were trying to do?”

Kagome didn’t bother answering, pulling at the arrow that was lodged into the bark while balancing on the protruding roots. It was really stuck in there, so she tried to fidget with it a little to loosen up the grip.

“It’s because of that little stunt that I had to use my backlash wave. Now I know, being the simpleton that you are, you don’t know what that is, but I don’t really think I need to explain it. Go ahead and take a look around. Do you see Hiten?”

“Nope.” Kagome replied after not looking around, her tone a little more strained than usual as she continued to struggle with the arrow.

“Right. That’s because I killed him. More than that, really. I obliterated the mother fucker. He’s gone. No longer exists. Poof.” Inuyasha explained, using his fingers to gesture an explosion. “Thing was, and here’s the kicker, there was a bounty on his head. I may have been told ‘dead or alive,’ but either way, I usually need a body to show them so that I get my money. Again, do you see a body?”

Kagome exhaled heavily, aggravated, momentarily dropping her arms from her objective and turning around to face the man. “No, I do not.”

“You do not.” Inuyasha nodded, confirming.

“I don’t see what that has to do with me.”

“Well, problem was, you didn’t listen to me and stay where I’d left you. I was doing just fine without your so-called help. Then you just had to pissed the guy off and he went into final attack mode. Are you putting two-and-two together here?”

“Oh, please. Such a macho man mentality. Face it, me shooting my arrow shut him up and stopped him from focusing on you. I hurried things along.”

“I wasn’t worried about getting things done quickly! I wanted them done right! Besides, if you weren’t waltzing around where you didn’t belong in the first place, things probably would have never escalated this way!”

“Key word: probably.” Kagome sneered, shrugging heedlessly. “That means, it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with your skills. Or, lack thereof.” She finished, turning back around to return to freeing her arrow.

Inuyasha stood there, astonished, blinking his golden eyes in befuddlement. “Oh, okay.” The hanyou said gruffly, fighting back his surprised laughter as he walked over to where she stood. He grabbed the body of the arrow, preventing her from succeeding at anything as he gave an arrogant grin.

“Careful! Don’t break it!”

“Aren’t you a little too - um - banged up to be so sassy?” Inuyasha asked, gesturing to her marks.

“First of all, I don’t think the two go hand-in-hand. Second, no. I’d say, if anything, that’s the perfect reason to be sassy.”

“Why? A little sore?” He asked patronizingly, the cocky smirk still prominent on his face.

Without missing a beat, Kagome looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Yeah. Much like your ego. And, it only took one comment. You men are so fragile.”

Ignoring his large hand, Kagome gave a few more good pulls to the arrow, genuinely impressed by how stuck it was. She hadn’t realized she’d used so much force in how quickly she’d had to move. From the corner of her eye, she could see his expression holding amusement, shock, his tongue gliding over his teeth as he silenced his laughter and swatted her fingers to stop her from tugging. In quick retaliation, Kagome slapped his hand even harder.

He pulled back, rubbing away the sting. “Crap! With reflexes like yours, I’m surprised you’re -“

“Stop talking about my bruises!” She snapped.

Inuyasha forfeited, pursing his lips and holding his hands up to concede.

With one last jerk, she finally got her arrow free, but she didn’t make any move to walk away, her mind stuck on what she may or may not look like to him. She suddenly felt self-conscious. “Does it look bad?” Kagome innocently asked.

Inuyasha’s face twisted incredulously at her one-eighty, his mouth remaining sealed as he dramatically shrugged in question.

She groaned a response, knowing exactly what he was criticizing her for, and turned away, hopping down from the large tree roots.

“You know, you’re a…” His voice trailed off as he pondered, letting her take the lead as he casually followed. “What’s the term I’d use for you?”

Oh, this was gonna be good. Kagome did an about face, her heel gliding in the dirt from her smooth shift, eyes half-lidded in annoyance, and fingers wriggling her arrow at her side. “I don’t know. What is the term you’d use for me?”

“Gutsy, that’s for sure.” Inuyasha commented. It wasn’t where he was initially going, but it would have been impossible to miss the girl’s gesture to warn him. “What? Do you think you’re tough because you’ve got a pointy stick?”

“I could take you.” She stated.

“Hah! Okay!”

Kagome merely smiled. She knew, and she knew well, that she only stood a chance if she was able to use her powers. Otherwise, no way in hell. She wasn’t the strongest brawler, and the guy was definitely cut. She was merely looking to antagonize his pride a bit. He liked to dish out some teasing, so she’d do it right back.

“You aren’t actually serious?” It seemed more of a question than a statement.

“I am.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’ve seen what I’m working with.” He mentioned, gesturing to the sheathed sword on his hip. “Tell me, truthfully, do you still think your flimsy arrow can compare?”

“Yes.” Again, if she could use her abilities, it was the truth.

“You’re kidding.” Inuyasha said wryly.

“Not at the moment.”

“Then, if I may be so bold to ask, why didn’t you handle Hiten on your own back there? When I showed up, you were already locked and loaded. Hell, you even shot him in the chest. What was stopping you from finishing him off on your own? Why’d I have to be the one to seal the deal?”

Kagome shrugged arrogantly, matching his energy and maybe even upping it a smidge. “Why break my nails when you’re right there to break yours playing hero?”

All humor faded from Inuyasha’s face, his eyebrows furrowing with a hint of indignation as he studied the girl before him. He saved her ass, and she was challenging his ego. He let go of his bounty to rescue her, and she had the impertinence to say something as bitchy as that. If that was the game she wanted to play, then fine. But, he’d come out the winner.

Kagome knew the moment the words had come out of her mouth that she’d gone too far. And, when his expression shifted precariously, a chill legitimately raced down her spine and she lost the gall to hold eye contact. Foot in mouth. Foot in mouth.

“So, you want to be an ingrate, huh?” Inuyasha asked, his voice low.

“No, that’s not it. I said thank you, and I meant it. That just came out so wrong.” She weakly defended.

“How was that supposed to come out?”

“Not -“ She bit her tongue in hesitation, knowing there was no way her statement could have been perceived playfully. “Rude?”

“How so?” He interrogated. He enjoyed seeing her discomfort expand.

“Look, I see I’ve upset you, and that’s fair -“

“Yup.”

“But, I have a feeling that no matter how I explain it or how many apologies I give you, there’s no take-backs and you’re still gonna be mad. Am I right?”

“You are.”

“Alright, so I’m just gonna get going. Thanks, again.” Kagome found herself talking faster, nervous. She reached over her shoulder and dropped her arrow into its quiver, her hands having nothing to play with thereafter and only fidgeting with one another. “Um - okay, bye.”

“Hold it!” Inuyasha ordered. The girl halted stiffly. This thought had been on his mind since he'd analyzed her bruises. Where’d she get them? Why’d she get her ass handed to her? What’d she do to deserve it? There’s no way a girl like her would get stuck in an abusive relationship - not that he could imagine. It could be a possibility, but for some reason, he could only picture her dishing the beating right back. It could be a rocky household situation, but there were no visible signs of old bruises fading to back that up. Which meant, as far as he could presume, this was a recent and infrequent occurrence. Which brought him back full circle: what did she do? “Given how messed up you look, I’m guessing you did something bad and you’re on the run.”

Kagome’s brows furrowed uneasily, a frown pushing at her lips as she turned back around to him. “No.” It took effort not to let that come out as a question, her bemusement pronounced.

“I’m willing to bet there’s money hanging over your head.” He added.

“Then you’d be out some, because you’re wrong.”

“And, I’m supposed to believe you?”

“You should. Better than wasting your time, don’t you think?”

“I think I can determine that on my own.”

“Look, I got myself into some trouble, but it’s not as deep as you’re thinking.” She tried explaining.

“You got yourself into some trouble, you’re on the run, and even if there isn’t a bounty yet, I’m sure there will be one soon enough.”

“No! Really!” She could tell whatever she was saying was in one ear and out the other. How did she get here? Sure, she insulted him, but how did things escalate so dramatically in the span of just minutes? One moment he’s saving her, the next they’re bantering, and now he’s threatening her and she wasn’t sure what to do. “Demon’s came to my village and I stepped out -“

“Shut up.” He drawled, rolling his eyes. “I tried being nice, but you dug your own grave. If you didn’t talk shit, I’d have let you stroll right on out of here without a second thought. But, something tells me I shouldn’t do that.”

And, it was true. Even if she was telling the truth, which may be slim - it was hard to tell since her body language was wonky at the moment - his gut was telling him not to let her go.

“Seriously! Listen to me, I’m trying to tell you -“

“Are you going to give in, or am I going to have to get rough?”

“Neither!” She shouted brokenly, her frustration at its peak.

“Those were your only options, kid.” Inuyasha shook his head, the fingers of his right hand curling over the hilt of the sword on his left hip. Obviously a blade was unnecessary here; he wasn’t going to maim the girl. He was trying to scare her into submission. Nine times out of ten, it worked like a charm. Slowly, he pulled Tessaiga out of it’s sheath, the sharp sound like music to his ears, but to his dismay, as he presented the weapon in a power stance, the sword was thin, dull, aged, and untransformed.

Kagome would have been lying if she said she hadn’t become the least bit horrified when the man went to pull out his sword. There was no cause for things to be this way. There was no reason for her life to be on the line right now. She’d sucked in a bated breath, the muscles in her neck tensing as she frantically thought up her next move. The demonic energy she’d expected had never emerged, though. And, the sword she once remembered looking unreasonably large and heavy was now small, frail, worn, and didn’t even seem like it was sharp enough to cut paper.

She stared at the weapon confused, holding her breath as she glanced up to the silver-haired man’s face. His golden eyes were glued to the untransformed blade, his look of disturbed bewilderment telling her that she was right. This wasn’t normal nor predicted. And, Kagome wasn’t about to wait around to find out what was wrong.

“Bye.” She said fleetingly, absolutely booking it away from him.

Her feet moved as quickly as they could, arms pumping along her sides as she simultaneously balanced herself while she maneuvered around trees and entangling roots, and willed her body to go faster. Kagome heard him shouting for her, demanding her to stop, his voice not as far behind her as she’d have liked. He was pursuing, and she didn’t even bother wondering if she was capable of outrunning someone with demon blood. She pushed herself even harder, heading over a little slope and sliding half the way down as she lost her foundation, her voice cracking from the unintentional yelp she let out from the incidental shock. Hasty to regain her footing, Kagome continued to run, her lungs burning, heart pounding, and adrenaline racing even faster than she was.

No matter how badly her body protested, she wasn’t slowing. She wasn’t safe yet. Fight or flight was in full control, and a red, neon sign was blaring flight to her brain. It was the sound of oncoming stomps that terrified her further. It was the growls he emitted, the heavy breathing, his deep voice grunting as he caught up to her that had her mind racking wildly to try and come up with a last second escape plan.

Inuyasha reached for the girl, grabbing her by the arm and yanking them both to a stop, turning her entire body to slam against the rough bark of a tree. He used his own to pin her there, grabbing both of her wrists and securing them behind the small of her back. He held them with only one hand, using his other to grip her thick hair as she continued to struggle and try to wrestle her way free. The hanyou growled a warning, pressing his torso firmly against her, one of his knees pushed between her legs to prevent her from thrashing her hips back into his groin. She was breathing heavily, frantic, but was finally settling into submission, and he shoved her cheek a little further against the tree to really solidify that he was in control.

Why was it when she whimpered the smallest “ow,” he pulled back? Why was it, when she showed an ounce of pain, he didn’t like it? Especially being the bearer of it. Felt apologetic, even. Inuyasha found himself relaxing the grip he had on her hair, allowing her cheek to simply rest along the bark as her chest pumped air so heatedly that he felt the wheeze vibrating through even her bag.

“Hey, calm down. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” He promised. He’d admit his tone wasn’t the gentlest, but it was impossible to present that after chasing the chick. She was stupidly nimble.

“Please. Please.” Kagome whispered between breaths, scared, frenzied. “Th-there’s no money. I - I swear.”

She was telling the truth.

“Why’d you run then?”

“You - please.” Kagome begged, her voice dying mid-word.

“Breathe. Come on, kid, breathe. Calm down.” He was substantially softer that time, easing a little more off of her so her chest could afford the deeper, slower expansion, while still maintaining control so she wouldn’t buck her hips back. Inuyasha was patient as he waited for her body to relax, her breathing coming more evenly, minutes passing but he didn’t mind. The last thing he needed was her passing out on him. She still shook in his hold, her bottom lip quivering, and he even noticed a tear fall from her eye, the salt displeasing his nose. She was legitimately panicked. While that was what he was initially going for, and this was unavoidable after she took off, he didn’t like it. Why? Why the fuck did it matter to him? Why was his stomach in knots and why was his chest unsteady? Inuyasha swallowed harshly, willing the unnatural symptoms to subside.

“There’s no money. I don’t have a bounty. You have it wrong.” Kagome tried again, more stable, though her abdomen rocked with a shudder from her still-prevalent anxiety.

“Why did you run?” He repeated.

“You threatened me.” She replied shakily. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

That was fair, and as soon as she’d said it, he realized the answer was painfully obvious. He didn’t give her much other choice. Still, his gut was telling him not to release her. He couldn’t pinpoint the reason, but he felt it deep. He continued on with the thought that even if there wasn’t any money yet, there may eventually be some.

“Are you on the run?”

“No.”

“Alright, look at me.” He said, spinning her around. She gasped at his speed, grunting as he pushed her back up against the tree, easily pinning her wrists above her head. Again, he only used one hand to keep them there, curling the fingers of his free hand to tilt her chin up to look at him. “What are you doing out here?”

Kagome found herself holding her breath, despite her lungs protests - having just gotten back their oxygen supply. She wasn’t expecting their close proximity, and she wasn’t expecting to be at a loss for words - which almost never happened. His amber eyes pinned her as adamantly as his body, observing her, seemingly glowing even though no light hit them from his position. Kagome willed herself to relax as much as possible in his grasp, allowing herself to breathe again as her lips parted to speak.

“I’m looking for someone.”

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#inuyasha #inuyasha fanfiction #inuyasha fanfic #Inuyasha fic #inukag #inukag fanfiction #inukag fanfic #inukag fic #kagome #kagome higurashi #miroku #sango #sota #mama higurashi #monster #akitokihojo

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hiimsociallyawkward · 3 years

Text

the wicked day

hey guys. i'm back with my random and annoying merlin thoughts. i should be studying for my bio quiz, but yk- i don't want to :,) love you @lady-ofmagic-andstars✨enjoy✨

literally every time i'm going watching i'm going to comment on john hurt that says young man instead of young boy

it's so subtle but wow. thanks i didn't need to be hurt so early on in the episode

i know i know i'm basically a child but this is so exciting

merlin is so cute

aw no not arthur being pouty abt his big birthday

I LOVE THE 'i heard that' thing so much. i love it i love it

off topic, but i love knife throwing. i've always thought that if i had to choose a weapon that's not a gun, i'd choose knifes. swords? maces? crossbows? sure. but knives?? that's where it's really at

i love arthur not wanting to overburden their citizens

ok uther? i hate him

but here? i love him

he's a good dad here. remembering arthur's birthday? that's so sweet. uther in season 4 is the only time i semi like him

AW ARTHUR AND UTHER AT DINNER

i love them

off topic but i like that arthur is wearing his 'every day' clothes, jacket and a tunic under his cape. that's it. the knights are all wearing his garb but arthur is just wearing his 'regular clothes'

hehe gwen being nervous about arthur being on the wheel is so sweet

idk why but i always get nervous at that last knife.

like of COURSe i know he's not going to get hit but it's scary.

the 'not wearing any trousers' thing omg. bbc really decided to do that

i wish we had more of this parental dynamic of arthur and uther

dam alright arthur. being out of it but still being in it enough to see the guy in the reflection? i stan

SKLFJASLDFJA uther fighting to protect arthur

literally me through his whole scene going 'oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez' on repeat.

so off topic but i kind of like the hairstyle they have for most of the guys in this show?? idk is that weird

oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez uther dying

like, i HATe him. i've been waiting for this since season 1 but this scene makes me sad

ok i don't remember the last episode of merlin so i forget what arthur says when he's dying in merlin's arms??

it's something like 'hold me' right? i feel like that has the same energy as 'stay with me' so while i can't exactly say this is sort of parallel, it's sort of parallel?

i mean, ok 1. dying in someone else's arms. 2. dying in the arms of someone you love? romantically, platonically, familial? doesn't matter. both uther and arthur died in the arms of someone they loved. 3. i'm just gonna say 'hold me' and 'stay with me' have the SAME energy, so if no one has called semi-parallels, i'm calling semi-parallels

bradley's single tear

stfu agarvaine. i'm serious. legit everytime he shows up i wanna pow pow pow him

legit. agaravaine needs to get away from morgana.

DO NOT GRAB HER ARM MISTER. LET GO OF HER

I DON'T CARE THAT YOU'RE SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH HER. LET GO OF HER RN

i've said it once and i'll say it again, i love gwen

not to romanticize death or anything but i like candle light vigils.

ok maybe slightly symbolic but probably not? ok actually i think it is, not to toot my own horn but this is also just really straightforward too.

arthur wearing 'street garb' and his 'knight stuff' sort of differentiates between 'arthur' and 'prince arthur'. the scene where merlin and arthur are looking over the vigil and merlin's talking about how there's nothing that can be done, and arthur mentions using magic, i may be off about this but i feel like he's speaking more from prince arthur rather than arthur, uther is my father.

like of course arthur's hurting, everyone knows he's hurting. but idk. i feel like he feels like he's not ready to be king. he needs more time, and he can't be king yet. so therefore, prince arthur is talking about needing to save their king.

gaius and merlin are both right here. idk what else to say.

wow merlin 'you can't stop me' love that

jeez 'maybe this is my chance to change that' little do you know what's happening soon merlin.

oh shoot.

arthur asking merlin if he would use magic to save his father? i'm just thinking back to merlin crying, but not crying over balinor because he couldn't tell arthur, and merlin having to mourn his father in secret. vs. arthur, asking merlin for advice. sharing all his worries and insecurities with gwen. begging gaius to do something more for his father. this just makes me so sad

arthur TRUSTING merlin. with everything. taking merlin's opinion on things and aw

this is dumb but tbh i really like merlin's outfit. like tbh i think i dress in the same sort of style, just ✨modern✨ sadly, no neckerchief for me but i do have a necklace that says 'heather' despite my name being 'ashley'. ily conan gray

ugh. arthur calling merlin a coward but also calling him brave?? you need to pick a side arthur

LMAO ARTHUR STOP THINKING ABOUT WATCHING MERLIN PEE

bruh arthur breaking the vase. it's so dumb but merlin referring to the vase over and over actually makes me chuckle

ok merlin going 'you have come to kill me?' reminds me of another show but i can't remember but i thought i'd put it out here anyways

oh shoot i just realized/remember that uther got stabbed on arthur's birthday. hell of a gift am i right 😭

hehe arthur 'sweeping' with the broom. silly goose

dragoon sounds so vulnerable asking for the right to use magic freely

i love you arthur. this scene, i'm like YES. arthur i love him

i love the saying 'my word'. like, i don't want people to promise me anything anymore. i want them to give me their word.

HAHA THIS IS SO DUMB. MERLIN SAYING 'QUESTIONS. SO MANY QUESTIONS'. I LITERALLY SAY IT WITH THE SHOW EVERY TIME. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME

aw arthur just sitting there with the cup and trying not to break it HAHA he's so sweet. slightly scared after that vase yk what i mean

ok i don't like morgana and everything but that necklace? that's a stroke of genius. yes girl. make up the plan as you go along

frick you agarvaine. do not scare gwen you PERV

jeez agarvainewas SO rude putting that necklace onto uther. like yes, ik you don't like him but STILL. that's just rude

i'm going to start calling people toads now

hehe arthur closing his door and merlin being right there. it's not necessarily a trope but it totally is and i love it

ah yes. merlin and the tavern. i feel like it's been referred to before but it's still funny.

ok ik arthur carrying merlin is there for kicks for the kids but i laughed anyways

apparently i have the humor of a 10 year old

this is really dumb but the scene with arthur and the two guards. i'm just thinking 'how tall are these guards'. ofc ik that the staging/perception could be doing something that might be making arthur look shorter, but my first reaction was 'bradley is 6' just how tall are these guards??'

merlin's speech about magic makes me sad

aw 'i hope, one day, that you'll see me in a different light'

dragoon has the same effect on arthur as merlin does

uther waking up 😭

AW. UTHER'S LITTLE SIGH AND THEN 'ARTHUR' BREAK MY HEART COVEY. BREAK IT A THOUSAND TIMES.

they're both so happy. this makes me so sad now. oh jeez. oh jeez. oh jeez

oh jeez oh jeez merlin's expression. AW merlin gave arthur his word. oh jeez this is very stressful and i'm only watching this

ok obviously. merlin doesn't want to see arthur in pain. but ALSO this was merlin's chance to change things once and for all. and now uther is dead. #no liam just payne

arthur's face post crying. skf;aldjfa;ldk AW

frick you agarvaine. literally die. i can't wait for merlin to kill you

i think this scene is pretty. the light on the left and the dark on the right? ok actually, i'm going to be making an off base comparison now because that's all i do.

i'm remembering this post i saw on here and it was like, arthur uther and morgana in the throne room. in order of the way they sit in the throne room, first it's arthur, uther, and then morgana

well. the really dumb and off base comparison here is the 'light' goodness of arthur and the 'dark' evil of morgana being mirrored in the picture above.

'light', bravery, doing what's right- being on the left. 'dark', evil, power on the right- and arthur in the middle of it, king

like i said, it's a dumb off base comparison, but at least the picture is pretty

oh jeez this scene

my heart breaks for both of them

merlin not being able to form a sentence at first.

😭😭😭😭 arthur please. you're breaking everyone's heart right now

you already knew i had to include this scene

arthur walking in there all alone

oh jeez he's all alone

dumb parallel number 2. arthur walking into the throne room with uther, father and son. merlin and gaius closing the door for arthur- pseudo father and pseudo son.

'he'll never know who i really am'

i want to do a DEH post soon but jeez. the line that hits hardest for me in DEH is 'i never let them see the worst of me. cause what if everyone saw? what if everyone knew? would they like what they saw? or would they hate it too? and jeez that's all i can think about when i think about merlin and his secrets

again. no liam, just payne

asldkfja;sldkfjas dlf merlin waiting for arthur

i have so many feelings

i love the show of affections for his father. you already know that uther wasn't affectionate when arthur was growing up, but still. forehead kiss? i love it

I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO FEEL THAT YOU WERE ALONE. i hate this and love this so much. i'm not saying merlin is completely selfless, because merlin wants magic to be leagalized and arthur is the way to do that. but omg merlin not wanting for arthur to feel like he's alone breaks me

first, merlin being physically alone while waiting for arthur. arthur was technically alone too, but he was with his father

but also, merlin being alone in the sense of his magic. no one knows except for gaius. lancelot knew and then they killed him. merlin is so alone when it comes to his magic, and morgana's enchantment only pushes merlin into his 'magic shell' more. arthur thinks magic is pure evil, and merlin is made of magic. what does that mean would think of arthur. this hurts me so much i'm so sad

friend 😭

arthur asking if he's hungry and them getting breakfast together

ok this sound track

pendragon red. i actually stan

gwen wearing a purple dress?? color symbolism?? nah i'm over thinking

ASIFA;SDLFJAD HE'S KING OF CAMELOT

IT'S LIKE I WANT TO CRY BECAUSE I'M SO PROUD RIGHT NOW.

oh jeez oh jeez.

and merlin saying 'long live the king' at the end of the episode?

chills

Anyways! I’ll be back next week to rant more about aithusa so I’ll see you then! thanks I love you bye

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

Text

Survey #367

“i should warn you that you may fuck me, but chances are i’m gonna fuck you over”

Where was the last place you went for vacation? The beach. When was the last time you wore makeup? Halloween. Do you watch soaps or drama series? If so, which ones? Not currently. What’s your favourite tomato variety? I hate tomatoes. What was your very first pet like? Dad had a dog named Trigger when I was born, but I have no memory of her, so I'm excluding her. I consider our first family pet to be Chance, a cat my mom took in after finding her literally in the trash. She was... god, incredible. She was a loyal friend, and I can imagine no greater mother than she was (she legit fought off a rottweiler head-on to protect her kittens). She was so smart, so gentle, and just simply amazing. I'll always miss her. What was the best school project you remember doing? Looking back, despite the fact it TERRIFIED me before, that would be my senior project presentation. It was about snake misconceptions and fallacies, so I made a slideshow to present to the special ed class. I made drawings for them to color, word searches, all that kind of stuff. They were just the sweetest and seemed really into it. What’s your favourite type of fish to eat? None. What kind of an old person do you think you’ll become? I really... don't like thinking about this. Like I'm weak enough now at 25, I can't imagine how my, say, 60s would be. I hope and just about pray that my physical health will improve, but I'm just going to exclude that part entirely from this answer. Personality-wise and such, I have a feeling I'll be the quiet and sweet kind, the one that loves her (hopeful) spouse like crazy, and comes most alive on Halloween if I live in a place where children come trick-or-treating. I imagine I would LOVE that. I'd love to be the type that goes on morning jogs to help stay spry. Which well-known person’s death shocked you the most, if any? Steve Irwin and Chester Bennington might be tied. Both were so, so sudden. Steve was like, invincible to my childhood eyes, and when I heard about Chester's death, I thought it was just a sick rumor. Two amazing people that died way too soon. What’s the craziest colour you’d dye your hair? That would depend on personal opinions. I want to dye my hair LOTS of colors though, if that tells you anything. What’s the coolest hobby one of your friends has? Uhhhh. Idk. Name a video game you can play over and over again: Shadow of the Colossus. It's a pretty short game if you know what you're doing, and it's super relaxing to me and just so goddamn pretty to look at. Every time I've played it has just been a pleasant experience. Do you like meatloaf? Yeah, it's fine. How about Meatloaf? I know who he is, but I've never really listened to his music. Do you take time to do charitable work? If so, what do you do? No. ;_; Especially with all the free time I have, I really should... What is something that will make you laugh instantly? Okay, don't ask, but if I for a SECOND see that commercial of Mr. Clean dancing while he's cleaning, I will die because of memories. What is something you hope you will never inherit from a specific relative? Diabetes. It runs heavily in my family. Name a movie you wouldn’t watch solely based on its name: The Human Centipede. No. Thank you. Have you ever played in a stack of hay bales? No. What’s your dearest souvenir? The stuffed moose I got at Cabela's during a visit to Ohio. I named him Brownie, and he was my "childhood plushie" we all have. Is there a lot of graffiti around your neighbourhood? Not in the actual area I live in, but there are DEFINITELY places where it's a pigsty of distasteful shit. Have you ever made your own soda? (Soda Stream doesn’t count!) No. Do you have a hobby that forces you out of the house? If so, what is it? Nature photography. Have you ever been part of a theater group? No, that stuff doesn't interest me. What’s the most ecological thing you do? We recycle, and I also use metal straws. Would you stop eating meat, if you had to raise and slaughter it yourself? Absolutely. There is no fucking way I could do it. What’s your favourite board game? Why do you like it best? I like Clue just because of the mystery-solving factor, and I think it's kinda cool how you can think ahead and use other's findings to your own advantage to win the game pretty early. Besides English, what other languages can you speak? Some German. It's gotten pretty weak with neglect, though. Besides English, what other languages can you read? I can read German well. What thing/person/happening has made you the happiest you’ve been? This is a complicated answer that I just don't feel like elaborating on. What’s the most freeing thing you’ve ever done? Letting Jason go. Have you ever had a restaurant dish that was made with bugs? If not, would you even want to try one? No, and I'm not interested. Have you ever tasted birch sap? No. How about the young buds/shoots of spruce trees? No. Which edible flowers have you tasted? Honeysuckles. What has been your worst restaurant experience? Well, it's a fast food restaurant, but lemme tell you about my vegetarian encounter with Burger King. I ordered their veggie burger. Which they have. It's not a secret. These idiots gave me a bun with tomato and lettuce, and I think mayo on it, after sounding confused when Mom was ordering for me. Mom went back in there of course to tell them, and oh god was the manager pissed, lol. I got my veggie burger in the end. What’s the most immature, adolescent thing that still makes you laugh? Some sexually inappropriate jokes can still get me sadly, lol. Have you ever had a life-threatening condition? If so, what was it? Not literally, but boy do I think depression counts. Do you ever compare your life to somebody else’s? If so, why? Y E P. I can't tell you why, I just... do it. I look at other's successes and am just like, "Why aren't I there yet?", and beat myself up about being a failure. What is a food item or a dish you absolutely cannot stand? Brussel sprouts, asparagus, runny eggs, many other things because I'm just mega picky. Have you ever had a custom print done on a shirt? If so, what was it? Just the spray paint kind that vendors like to do at the beach and stuff. I don't remember any I got, though. What does your favourite mug look like? It's black with a Markiplier quote on it, given to me by Sara. :') Do you ever read other people’s survey answers? Yeah! Friends', anyway. I love learning all the obscure things about them. Do you like daytime or night time better? Why? Daytime, specifically early morning, because it's better for my depression. Are you more comfortable as a leader or a follower? A follower that isn't afraid to speak up when I'm really against something. What is your favourite song right now at this very moment? I've been really into "7empest" by Tool lately, and the synthwave edit of "Voices" by Motionless In White. If you watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, who was your favourite character? I don't remember it well, but I think I liked the butler. Was there even a butler? Who was your first online friend? Emma. :') Do you have any plants in your home? No. If you wear makeup, what’s the most outrageous colour you use? I only ever use black. What was the last photograph you took? My cat being adorable while sleeping. <3 Have you ever submitted a video to Funniest Home Videos? No. What was the first sport you learned how to play? I want to say soccer? I absolutely hated it. Do you have a headache at the moment? Yes, actually. I've really been attacked by the Covid shot side effects. Are your parents still together? No, thank god. What was the last hot food you ate? I made a chicken and I think pesto (some Italian noodles, idk) Healthy Choice bowl for dinner last night. Have you ever seen a meteor shower? No. :( Do you ever feel afraid people will question your sanity? I'm sure people have before, and back then? Rightfully so. Which X Factor audition(s) was/were your favorite? Never watched it. Were you a straight A student in spelling and grammar? Always. It's so weird how it's gotten worse with time since leaving school, even though I write... Were you a straight A student in math? Yeah, no. I usually got Bs or Cs. What is your favorite shade of yellow? Pastel. I don't really like yellow. What is something you want to accomplish before you turn 30? Have a stable job. Are you afraid of getting yelled at? YES. Do you feel a connection to the moon? It's not something I think about, so not really, but I do believe all things in the universe are connected in some way. We are simply a part of nature, as all else is. What does your heart long for? Contentment in who I am and where I am in life. I know I also miss being in love. Do you know what your purpose in life is? We have no innate purpose; we make our own, and I want mine to be to show others that there is always hope for yourself in yourself, and also to spread the message of love of all animals. Did you decorate a pumpkin this year? Last year I didn't. I really should change that this go around. Have you ever seen a fox? Yes! They're a kind of rare sight here sadly, so when I had the opportunity to photograph a fox tragically as roadkill, it was a photographic experience I won't forget. God, I wanted to pet it (I obviously didn't), but I did talk to it about how beautiful (s)he was as I got some shots. I never had a harder time leaving one of those angels I've taken pictures of. Do you find Halloween fun or scary? FUN!!!!!! Is there anything about Halloween you find offensive? Not at all. What do the trees look like where you live? I mean, there's a variety, but the staple that you see literally everywhere are pine trees. What is your dream vacation? Somewhere with mountains, clear lakes, cool weather, beautiful and various wildlife... What was the best vacation you’ve been on so far? Disney World as a kid. What is the best class trip you’ve been on? The zoo in the 5th grade. It was the one occasion I got to see meerkats. Did you like field trips when you were a kid? I lived for them. Do you find museums boring or interesting? I find science museums to be very, very fascinating. Art ones are great, too. What are three issues you are passionate about? LGBT rights, the pro-choice movement, and wildlife conservation, to name a few. Would you ever wear a shirt with your country’s flag on it? No. I'm not patriotic enough at all. What size is your bed? Queen. What’s a medicine that makes you sleepy? When we were experimenting with my Klonopin dosage, I learned that 3mg was enough to knock me on my ASS. Do you like bath bombs? I mean they're pretty, but I wouldn't waste money on 'em. Who are your favorite small YouTubers? Yikes, a looooooot. But this also depends on what you think qualifies as "small." Most of my favorite "small" YTers are tarantula keepers or sub-1M let's players. Who are your favorite big YouTubers? Markiplier obviously, Snake Discovery, Good Mythical Morning (even if I don't watch them anymore, they are veeery dear to my heart and I will always support them), Sam & Colby... Again, there's a lot. When you don't watch TV and YT instead, you really get attached to a lot of them. What was your favorite girl group when you were growing up? Would you believe me if I said Pussycat Dolls? haha Do you like Disney movies? Um, DUH. Were you ever in the popular crowd? No. Have you ever used an outhouse? UGH, at like childhood sports games, yes. I could NEVER nowadays, oh my god. Could you possibly write a successful novel? I think I have the creativity to, but not the dedication. Are there any foods that make you gag? Beans, for one. I just canNOT with them. It's a completely involuntary reaction. Have you ever had blonde highlights in your hair? I think I did? Who was the last person you video-chatted with? The lady who was seeing if I qualified for TMS therapy. Do you think sleeve tattoos look trashy? Definitely not, I love those. If you had to get a portrait tattoo, who would it be of? I don't actually want one, but if I did, I'd go to a serious professional to get THE Darkiplier smile. :') If u know u know. Do you have any stickers on any of your electronic devices? No. Do you think half blonde/half dark brown hair is attractive? It looks great on some people, but it's not my favorite combo.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''leave a scar'' by marilyn manson

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winter-is-lost · 4 years

Text

TRANSFORMERS : MTMTE

Rodimus x Cybertronian! Reader

Y/n = Your name

Y/f/c = Your frame colour

Warnings : I'm honestly gonna stop adding these 'warnings' cause trust me even I have absolutely no idea how it's gonna turn out. But I hope I can do well and hopefully, it turns out good. :)

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《 Reader's P.O.V.》

Betrayed...Tired..Exhausted...No. All this felt like an understatement.

..I was done..

My autobot badge, that I once wore with such pride and joy had long since lost it's shine, now rundown and broken, covered with my energon. One could only imagine how it still managed to hold on to me. Then again, I wasn't in a good shape either now, was I? No. I had managed to snag a ship and barely escaped.. My ship crashlanded on some random planet. I didn't care which as long as it was away from there.

Pulling myself out of the wreckage of my ship I proceeded to make my way towards an urban inhabited area. I struggled to maintain my balance, stumbling here and there before my body eventually gives up making me fall like an asteroid. I place my hands near me, trying to push myself off the ground.

A futile attempt...

..What's the use anyway..It's not like I have any place to go to...any one to return to..what does it matter..

I lay there on the ground. Bright red warning signs flashing infront of my sight. It was happening...Is this how I was gonna go...

I laid there for God knows how long before I heard the sounds of pedesteps rushing in my direction before coming to a stop near me.

I felt someone placing a servo on my shoulder plate and shaking it gently, as if in fear of causing any further harm to my already damaged body.

"-eed a doctor. You los-"...barely being able to listen, I somehow managed to catch a glimpse of the bot...Orange..with..with glasses.

"-be ok. Just..just hang in ther-"

That was the last thing I could make out before my optics offlined...

===============================

{ years later }

"-so, I think it would be a nice experience for us to go." Rung turned away from his datapads to look up at me with a soft smile gracing his faceplates.

We were both preparing for the journey we were to take part in. Rung informed me yesterday of a mech designated Broadi..no wait - Daud..no,no..YEAH! Rung informed me yesterday of a mech by the designation Rodimus who had proposed a journey across space in order to find the Knights of Cybertron.

Unsurprisingly, Rung wanted to leave on this journey too. Of course, not because of finding the Knights or anything, but because of his love for space ships and the journeys they bring.

I mean, it was pretty obvious to me as I was placing his models of the ark ships into a box so it would be easier to carry while he was making sure he handled all the data and knowledge of his clients properly before leaving.

"Yeah, you're right. It does seem like it's gonna be fun, so why not." I reply as I place another one of the models into the box.

It was kinda true. I was actually going along because of him.

You see, after the war has just barely ended mostly everyone knows how to fight. Then, there's Rung. Now, I don't mean to sound like I'm berating him but he just...he can't fight..he doesn't even have the build most average mechs have. On top of that, he's kind-hearted and a gentlemech, which is nice but makes it all the more easier for someone to harm him.

People are willing to use others for their own benefit, to achieve their goals, even the ones you know for the longest of time, trust me, I'd know...and that's where I come in. I make sure to keep him out of harm's way to the best of my abilities, he's someone that I care for and respect like a..a..what was the organic term for it...a brother, yup, like a brother. The universe needs more good people like him.

Besides...he did save me all those years back, so God forbid if I let anything happen to him. Of course, he doesn't know that..or maybe he does but just pretends that he doesn't, but let me tell you, aside from physical *ahem violent* confrontations, he can handle himself just fine - the guy's been aboard all the Ark ships, that's gotta mean something right.

===============================

"NEXT!"

Finally. After standing in the long line of passengers waiting to board the Lost Light for what seemed like a thousand cycles. It was finally our turn. Rung and I made our way towards the 'Head of Security' for one final inspection before being allowed aboard the ship. Since I was Rung's assisstant, sort of, I remember this guy, he was Rung's client for a couple of centuries. His name was..Red Alert, I think.

"ONE HUNDRED MILLION! That's an impressive serial code,..Er.." Red Alert looks up at Rung with a suprised expression plastered across his face plates. I clench my dentas together in an attempt to hold my laughter.

After everything and everyone was on board and with our ship Quantum jumping God knows where.

Everyone was called by Rodimus, the ship's captain for a debriefing about the current events. I didn't hear much because I don't know why but there was something about this guy...something familiar...weird because I don't remember seeing him before.

The longer I looked at him, that feeling of familiarity turned into a slight feeling of unknown dread settling itself into my fuel tanks.

The debriefing was done and everyone around me was leaving to handle the task at hand, just as I was going to leave as well, I ended up making eye contact with Rodimus.

That feeling of dread and slight anger mixed with some sadness came back to me as I stood there frozen in my spot. I could tell he felt something too just by the way his optics widened and his jaw hung open. As if something unexpected had happened. As if someone you had once lost to the realm of death had come back...

I saw his mouth move slightly, as if trying to whisper out a name. MY name..?..

"..Y/n." I was brought back from my trance when I felt a servo touch my shoulder. Looking down at the owner of the hand, I was quite relieved to see Rung looking back up at me with concern evident across his faceplates. "What's wrong Y/n?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," I give a small smile to reassure him. I decided not to worry him about something like this, afterall, it could just be a side effect from that faulty quantum leap.

《 Rodimus' P.O.V. 》

There had a been a breach in the hull caused by the sudden quantum leap. We had 40 crew mates drifting across space that we had to save. We NEEDED to save. No way am I gonna leave MY crew behind.....Not this time.

After giving everyone a brief idea of what had happened and what needed to be done. I was preparing to leave for the mission - gathering back the 40 lost crew members, when my optics landed on a familiar Y/f/c bot. Is that...No. It can't be. Nope. Not real. She/he isn't real...is she/he?

She/he turned her/his helm in my direction and our optics met....it was her/him...But how..I..I thought she/he had...I thought she/he had died when our team was attacked back on Ki-Aleta...

But she/he was here, right here, on my ship, right in front of me...

I wanted to call out to her/him, but before I could I noticed a slightly smaller mech with an orange frame and slim built approach her/him. Their interactions reminded me of how we used to be like this back in the day. She/he was always there to lighten up the entire team even at the darkest times, no matter how tough or impossible a mission would seem, she/he never gave up. She/he always had our backs..My back. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel something more for her/him. I thought I had lost her/him back on Ki-Aleta. She's/he's here..I need to talk to her/him..

As I look back to see her/him and the orange mech making their way back to their quarters, I push back my thoughts of her/him and attempt to focus on current mission.

===============================

{ A time skip to when the Lost Lighters found a sparkeater aboard the ship, brought to you by Rung's adorable noodle arms }

===============================

《 Reader's P.O.V. 》

As I was sitting on the edge of the bridge in the Oil reservoir I couldn't help but let my thoughts run back to that Rodimus guy and this dreadful feeling of familiarity. He did remind me of someone though... Someone I'd rather forget about. His optics, I had a feeling like I'd seen them before, but I hadn't even met this guy...right?..

Though I was getting kinda suspicious of him being someone from my past. The similarity between the names. The way he had addressed the crew, the way he spoke, even his colour scheme was similar...so similar to an old friend..one that I was close to, one that I loved, one that I trusted....all just to see him leave me behind admist the enemy and the dead bodies of our team mates.

I had hoped that he would return, he might have just gone to get help. How silly...

I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of emergency sirens going off. As I made my way out of the ship's oil reservoir, a voice on the hallway's comm informed everyone of a little inconvenience that had occured and advised everyone to find a room and lock themselves in for a short while...for safety reasons...

Just turning around the corner and witnessing the dead body of a crew member I sadly did not remember the name of, was enough to convince me that this was more than just a 'little inconvenience'. Approaching the dead body I did what any rational bot would do,

I poked it.

I flipped the dead body over and instantly wished I hadn't. This guy wasn't just plain old dead, he was completely sliced up. His brain module had been torn out, his chasis was ripped apart...But what horrified me the most was his damaged spark chamber. It was as if..as if something had clawed it's way through.

I nearly jumped when I heard the sound of the elevator door opening in the distance, followed by the sounds of rushing pedesteps. Leaning from behind the corner I saw Rung running down the hall with a blue bot, Skids as I remember, seconds later a Sparkeater running after them.

Wait..

A SPARKEATER?!

I moved out into the hallway and saw an elevator with the door ripped open. Inside there was a yellow and blue bot with a briefcase strapped to his arm looking back up at me from his place near the far back corner of the elevator, obviously terrified. Suddenly it hit me, there was a sparkeater on the loose...right now after Rung...

I turned around and tore down the hallway to where I saw them going. The Engine room, that's where I found them.

My eyes landed on the Sparkeater as it was rushing towards..towards..RUNG who was being held in place by Rodimus?!

Infuriated was an understatement. I was beyond that. HOW DARE HE?!

"NOOOO!!" I dashed towards them but before I could reach I felt someone stop me and hold me back in place as I continued to kick and move out of there grasp.

I had to do something. I wasn't gonna let anything happen to Rung. I couldn't.

Not only had he saved me, he was my closest friend. I couldn't just sit back and watch him die, I couldn't just not do anything. I couldn't LEAVE MY FRIEND.

Then I saw it, admist it all, the resemblance, the similarity. It was him..It was him all along...Hot Rod...and he was still ready to give up someone else to save himself.

I glared at Rodimus as he held Rung in place despite hearing him protest. HOW CAN HE DO THAT TO A CREW MATE?!

I kicked myself free from my captor but ended up getting hit behind the helm by someone. The last thing I saw before blacking out was Rung being shoved to the side.

===============================

When my optics onlined I came to realize that I was laying on a metal berth probably in the medical bay.

Slowly getting up I placed a servo behind my helm where I was hit.

"You're up early."

I snapped my helm towards the source of the sound, clearly not expecting anyone to be there before.

When my optics landed on the all-too-familiar flame design. "You..." I glared at him.I clenched my servos and through gritted dentae I tried to control my anger. "Where is he .?.."

"..I'm righ-"

"Not YOU. Where is RUNG!?" The scowl on my face probably showed him that I was not in the mood to joke around.

*sigh* "He's fine. He's in his

habsuite."

I nodded my helm slightly in acknowledgement.

He managed a small smile, "Your

new friend was quite stubborn.

He refused to leave and wanted

to stay in case you woke up.

Ratchet sent him to his habsuite."

My 'new friend'.?...

"Yup, he's like that. Doesn't like leaving his friends behind." I remarked, putting a subtle emphasis on 'leaving' and 'friends'.

His smile faltered as he turned his gaze away from me before he stared at me again, this time there was a sad look in his optics which almost made me soften before I remembered all he had done both to me as Hot Rod and to Rung as Rodimus and I hardened my glare further.

"I..I'm sorry Y/n. I kno-"

"What for? Letting others die? Prioritizing a stupid oracle over the lives of our friends? Abandoning us just to save yourself? Leaving me behind in Ki-Aleta between the enemy fires and the dead bodies of our fallen team mates?" Speaking those words it came back to me, all the pain, the hopelessness, the anger, the sadness..the betrayal...

"For all of them Y/n. I'm sorry.

I regret leaving you like that

but I had to do it."

I let out a dry chuckle at that,"Of course you had to."

"I was under strict orders Y/n.

Orders the rest of you didn't

know about."

"So?.. I thought we were a team. Do you realize if only you had informed us of these 'strict orders' before, we would have gone there better prepared. GIZMO AND DOWNLOAD WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!" I felt my voice waver at the mention of our long dead team mates.

"Y/n-"

"SAVE IT HOT ROD! Even when you had a chance, you chose to save yourself. When you left us..left ME behind, Rod, I was in denial. I still believed like a fool that you would come back. You'd be there. You wouldn't just abandon us like that. I kept hoping that you'll be back.....but I could only keep hoping so much. One day I realizd you weren't coming back. That was the day I realized we were all just acceptable losses to you, just collateral damage.."

I placed a servo across my optics to hide the Lubricants threatening to leave them, "..And to think I loved you..Trusted you with my life.."

"Y/n..Look, I know what I did was

wrong, but like I said, I was under

the strictest of orders.." He paused,

probably to see if I would interrupt

him or not, before speaking again, "I should've told all of you. I thought if I did then it would complicate the mission too much. But now, seeing how things turned out for all of us, it would have been better if I had."

"Rod..sto-"

"I went back."

I removed the servo covering my optics and looked at him. Instead of anger, there was slight shock mixed with sadness in them as I processed what he just said.."Huh..?.."

"I went back for you. All of you. I couldn't find anyone except Dealer. I thought you had died Y/n and it was my fault. I spent so many sleepless nights wondering all the different ways I could have saved you, all the different 'what ifs'. I was frustrated and angry at myself for letting you suffer that fate."

He reached his servo out for mine, holding it gently, softly as if I would break.

"I know..It's not much use saying sorry now. Nothing I say can ever excuse my actions, but please Y/n. Give me a chance. A chance to make up for all of it. I finally found you after so many eons, after I thought I lost you forever. Even though I know you hate me, just give me one chance to rebuild our trust and all that we had. Just one more chance to make things right. Hmm?"

"Rod.." I looked up at him. I saw the sincerity in his optics. No matter how much I tried, even after all that happened, I still couldn't hate him, my anger was slowly fading, giving way to sadness. The sight of our servos clasped together, drowned me in nostalgia.

"..I could never hate you..*sigh* It may take a while for us to go back to the way we used to be. Rod..I may be able to forgive with time but..but it's gonna be hard to forget.." He gave my servo a small reassuring squeeze. "But I'm willing to take a chance and start over."

I looked at him and saw relief mixed with happiness in his optics.

"I'll never abandon you..never again."

A small but genuine smile spread across my faceplates as I felt my spark warm up. The feelings for him, I had once buried within me started to resurface, slow yet steady.

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Aightttttt peeps so that was it with this one-shot. I hope you had fun reading this (I know it was kinda long and maybbbbe sort of all over the place, sooooo thank youuuuu for bearing all that.)

I'm open to all advices and suggestions, so please feel free to speak your mind on how I can improve.

Have a good day everyone~

#transformers #transformers+headcanons #optimus prime #rodimus #lost light #red alert #mtmte rung #transformers idw #idw tf #tf idw #mtmte drift #mtmte cyclonus #mtmte brainstorm #mtmte rodimus

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siren-queen-imagines · 4 years

Text

Four Years Later

Requested by a lovely, lovely anon!

I have been through the wringer with this one. Sooo many ideas came to me for this but I settled on one and it turned out to be therapeutic for me in a way. With that being said, I apologize if you can’t relate to the version of the reader I wrote. I’ve been dealing with stuff so I left some of it in this story. I hope you guys all enjoy!

Prompts Used: 6. “Losing you was the most unbearable pain I’ve ever felt.” 11. “I wasn’t ready to say goodbye - I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye” 14. “I may be an idiot, but I’m your idiot.”

Masterlist

(gif by me)

You and Damien shared a laugh as the two of you collapsed on his bed. You guys had just come back from a long day of work and decided that a night of movies and junk food at his place would be the best way to unwind.

“I don’t know, I think if I start a new series, we’ll never sleep and knowing your taste in anime, I won’t want to miss anything by falling asleep.” You told him when he suggested that you should start ‘Danganronpa’ tonight as he wanted to rewatch it.

“But see, I’ve already seen them so there’s a chance that I’ll remember where we left off without spoiling future episodes for you.” Damien insisted.

“There’s a chance you’ll remember? Oh, you poor, tired fool. How much you wanna bet you’ll fall asleep before I do?”

“Then you’ll remember. Your sleepy memory isn’t all that bad.”

“You would have to be an idiot to trust I’ll remember before I fall asleep.”

Damien smiled at you, turning on his side to face you.

“Then...I may be an idiot, but I’m your idiot.” He gave you a peck on the lips. “Sooooooooo?”

You couldn’t help but smile at the hopeful tone and look in his eyes.

“Okay.”

“Great. I’ll order dinner. Pizza or Sushi?”

=================================

“Damien, hey. What are you doing here?” You asked, with a surprised smile on your face. You definitely weren’t expecting him to show up.

“This is gonna sound weird but I really need to talk to you.” Damien replied, a sheepish smile on his face.

You moved aside and let him in.

“What’s weird about us talking?”

“Because it’s about us...our relationship.”

Oh. Maybe not as weird as he would think because you were considering talking to him too. You had been broken up for 4 years and even though the two of you had become friends again, the break up was never really spoken of. And Damien needed it to be because he felt there was something you held back on. He had been talking to Shayne about it and even he agreed that everything down to the timing was...off, for lack of a better term.

Damien coming over tonight was Shayne’s idea. It was time to finally get some answers so that Damien can either decide to try to get back together with you or move on for good.

“What about it?” You asked, sitting next to him on your couch.

“Part of me has always wondered if you and I could or should get back together. Like, I still don’t get where everything went wrong. I thought we were happy.” Damien admitted.

“I don’t know if we should do this, Damien.”

“I have to. I need to make a decision about something and I can’t decide if we don’t talk about this.”

You sighed, running a hand through your hair, considering this for a long moment. You were looking to talk to him about this too, why were you so reluctant now that it was time.

“Please, Y/N.” Damien continued, taking your hand in his.

=================================

“Come on, Y/N, pleeeeease?” Damien begged, smile on his face as he held onto your hand.

That stupid smile. How dare he use it against you?

Because it worked and he knew it.

“Okay, fiiine.” You groaned for added effect.

“Yes!! Okay, let’s go!”

Shayne had shaken his head as he and Courtney followed you and an excited Damien to wait in line for a rollercoaster.

Honestly, you were neutral on rollercoasters and that’s only because you tend to have some anxiety about them. Once you went through the first one, you were fine but the previous night was spent at Shayne’s where someone had the brilliant idea to marathon the Final Destination series. And guess where the first death vision in Final Destination 3 took place? A rollercoaster.

You knew the odds of that happening were minimal but it didn’t help you from experiencing flashbacks. It did help though to have Damien reassuring you that it was gonna be okay and distract you while you guys waited.

=================================

“Okay.” You agreed, taking a deep breath after. “Where do you wanna start?”

Damien took a moment to consider that. He didn’t think you’d agree to talking about it so he hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“When you decided to break up with me...did you plan it or was it a spur of the moment thing?” He asked. “It was just too sudden. It had to have been something else.”

You sighed again, leaning back into the cushions on your couch. Your glance remained on your hands because you couldn’t look at Damien.

“Do you remember our break up?”

“Of course I do.”

“There was something else I meant to tell you but, um...I couldn’t so I chose in the moment to break up with you instead.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me? Did I do something to make you feel that you couldn’t trust me?”

“Of course not. I just...I just couldn’t.”

=================================

Your stomach was running rampant with butterflies and you felt nauseous and nervous all tied up into one. Damien grabbed a hold of your hand as he drove, kissing the back of it and smiling at you. You smiled back at him before glancing out the window, listening to the music.

You were gonna tell him. You had to tell him. He was your boyfriend, he needed to know.

You had decided to let the two of you enjoy the day together. Damien at least deserved that before you shifted the mood. Before it turned to endless amounts of worrying on his part; before it turned into him deciding to cancel his plans with his friends so he could stay with you; before it turned into him possibly wanting to put his life and dreams on hold until you were good again.

Oh god. You couldn’t do that to him. He didn’t deserve that. He deserves to be happy and there’s a chance he wouldn’t be if he was with you.

“Y/N?” Damien called out to you. “Hey, you okay babe?”

You were brought back to reality as you looked around to see you guys were already parked in front of you place.

“Damien...I think we should break up.” You said suddenly.

You looked over to Damien, who looked like he had just been slapped in the face.

“I’m sorry.” You added before opening the car door.

“Wait, wait, wait. Talk to me.” Damien practically begged when he came back to his senses. “What’s going on? Why?”

“I just--there’s no easy way to say that I fell out of love with you.”

Okay, what the hell? WHY WOULD YOU THINK TO SAY THAT? You could’ve come up with something else but no, you had to practically twist the freaking knife.

“You fell out of love with me.” Damien repeated to himself sadly.

=================================

“That’s not a straight answer, Y/N.” Damien told you, a hint of irritability in his tone.

“I know, Damien.” You shared his tone. “I’m still having a hard time talking about it.”

“What was so bad that you chose to break up with me instead of tell me? Did you cheat on me?”

“No, no. I never would’ve done that to you.”

“Then what?”

You wiped at tears building in your eyes as you got up and began pacing.

“I found out that I had a rare autoimmune disease. It was gonna take a toll on a lot of things in my life and I broke up with you to keep it from affecting yours.” You finally said.

“What?”

Damien was shocked. Why would you hide this from him? Why would you think that breaking up with him would help anything? You were sick and you thought the best course of action was to break up with him when you needed him the most.

“I was sick, Damien. I still am. I haven’t told anybody.”

“Why not?”

“Because I knew it would get back to you. I knew that if you found out, you would drop everything to take care of me when I needed it. I would’ve held you back.”

“No. That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. I haven’t been in remission for longer than 3 months. I go to the doctor so much and we still haven’t figured out a treatment that will stick. You remember when we started being friends again? When I would cancel plans? That was because my body physically hurt so much, I couldn’t get out of bed or want to move. I get sick easily and am almost always sick. It was why I was so run down all the time during the last few months of our relationship and why I was losing weight without doing anything.”

You stopped pacing and sat back down.

“You would’ve stayed to take care of me, Damien.” You continued, taking hold of his hand. “Your friends would’ve gotten sick of you cancelling on them and you would have probably insisted on taking shorter days at work...you probably would have ended up resenting me after a while.”

“Y/N...” He squeezed your hand, wiping the tears from his eyes with his free one.

“Losing you was the most unbearable pain I’ve ever felt. More than the bad days of my illness have ever been. I honestly believed and still do believe I did the right thing.”

“I--I could’ve never resented you.” Damien told you.

“I didn’t want to give you the chance to. You have worked so hard to get to where you are and where you were when we were together. I didn’t want you to throw it all away for me.”

“You mentioned remission. What exactly do you have?”

“It’s called Churg-Strauss Syndrome. Easiest way to put it is that my immune system is confused because it’s overproducing eosinophils and sending them to my lungs. So this confusion is causing my immune system to attack my lungs.”

“So the remission would be stopping your immune system from overproducing the e--eo--si--”

“Yeah. But it’s rare enough that there’s not enough research for a definitive way to treat it.”

“I wish you would’ve told me, Y/N. We could’ve made it through this. You didn’t have to go through this alone.”

“Just because you didn’t know, doesn’t mean you and Shayne and everyone else weren’t there for me. I wasn’t alone. You guys made sure I didn’t feel that way even if you didn’t realize that.”

Damien had leaned forward, your hand still in his as his forehead rest against yours. The two of you cried as you allowed Damien to take the time to let everything you told him sink in.

“When we broke up I wasn’t ready to say goodbye--I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye. Not to you.” Damien expressed with a sniffle. “I still want you, Y/N. I still want to be with you after all of this. Your illness could never keep me away from you. I love you too damn much.”

Honestly, if you hadn’t let your overthinking get in the way, this is what you would have hoped to hear from Damien when you told him. You let go of his hand and cupped both sides of his face and kissed him.

This...this felt right. Just moments ago you felt breaking up with him was the right thing to do...but now, as you kissed him, you realized it was a mistake. You never even gave him a chance to figure things out and make his own choices about your relationship.

“I love you, Damien.” You whispered when you pulled back from the kiss. “I’m so sorry.”

“I forgive you. You did what you thought was right. Even though it was a bit misguided.” He couldn’t help but smile. He had you back.

It felt good not holding onto this secret anymore. Maybe as you continue to get through this, it’ll be easier with Damien on your side; with your support system being stronger.

#damien haas x reader #damien haas imagine #smosh imagine #damien haas

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maryqueenofmurder · 4 years

Text

Impulse x Grian x Ren

Part 1: Impulse x Grian x Ren

Part 2: Impulse x Grian x Ren

Impulse woke up the next day at the crack of dawn. It wasn’t by choice. Ren threw open the door of Impulse’s R.V., holding a chicken. The chicken squawked unhappily. Ren looked at the chicken, raised an eyebrow, and walked outside. Ren then came back inside without the chicken, which he had most likely left outside.

“Come on, man! The sun is up, and we have a big day ahead of us!” Ren was excited, even if it felt weird without Grian. It usually didn’t, but knowing he basically wouldn’t be there all day made something in Ren’s heart twinge.

“Give me a break, Ren, I went to bed at two in the morning.” Impulse groaned. Seeing Ren made him really happy, he’d missed him while he worked on redstone last night. That was kind of weird. However, seeing Ren was marred by the fact it was six in the morning, and he’d only gotten four hours of sleep.

Ren instantly regretted waking him up. Impulse never got enough sleep. Ren would just go on his own, so Impulse could go back to sleep. “Oh! sorry to wake you up, you can keep sleeping.” Ren told him apologetically.

“No, I’m awake now, might as well stay that way.” Impulse said grumpily. Ren winced. Impulse immediately regretted the harsh tone he spoke in. He sat up.

“It’s okay, I needed to get up eventually.” Impulse reassured Ren.

Ren left Impulse’s R.V.. Impulse followed him out, resigned.

“Since Grian’s not here, this’ll take longer, so I packed some snacks. Here’s the list of stuff we need.” Ren gestured at the backpack he was wearing, then at the list he was holding. Ren grabbed Impulse’s hand, and pulled him towards the Nether portal.

Impulse’s stomach started to do flips. His heart fluttered in his chest, and his hand involuntarily tightened around Ren’s. Why did this make him so nervous? They arrived at the Nether portal all too quickly, and yet it felt like it had been forever. Ren let go of Impulse’s hand and stepped into the portal. Impulse followed as soon as Ren went over.

The next couple hours sped by in a whirlwind. Ren’s energy was contagious. His optimism quickly enthused Impulse. Impulse could not remain somber long, and let an amused smile grow on his face.

They went from shop to shop, buying and restocking. Ren would chat with whoever they met, and Impulse would wave joyfully.

The pair got a lot of bemused looks. The two probably cut an odd figure, hanging out together publicly without Grian. Or maybe it was the way they bounced off each other, Ren’s lovable attitude and Impulse’s casual compliments flustering many, and confusing some. Probably the ones who thought Grian was dating Ren. Ren was just being, well, Ren. He was really likeable.

The two -Ren and Impulse- hung out one on one, but their areas of expertise didn’t often overlap. Plus, they had their own personal projects to work on as well. So they weren’t alone together all that often.

They’d just finished up their business in the shopping district when they ran into Doc.

“Oh hey man!” Ren said cheerfully. Impulse’s good mood slipped away from him, like water between his fingers. He hung back awkwardly, not having expected to see one of the guys they were protesting against.

“Hey.” Doc greeted him amicably. He looked around, noting Impulse. And the lack of the third member of their trio. He glared at them. “Where’s Grian?” Doc said in a suspicious tone. It was likely that he thought an unsupervised Grian would cause huge problems, especially for him and Area 77.

Ren’s smile wavered, and dropped. “He’s working on Sahara business right now.” Ren stared at the ground sadly, and Doc just stared at him, probably either judging the truth of his statement, or panicking internally at managing to make Ren sad. Impulse shot Doc a nasty look, upset that he’d ruined Ren’s good mood.

Rockets sounded in the sky, and Mumbo landed nearby clumsily. Doc called him over with a friendly, “Mumbo!”, and a hand gesture.

“Ah, yes, what do you need?” Mumbo asked, smoothing his suit down.

“Grian’s working on Sahara business, right?” Doc inquired.

“I, um, yeah. Why does it matter?” Mumbo asked curiously.

“Grian wasn’t with these two, and I needed to be sure he wasn’t wreaking havoc on Area 77 while I was gone.” Doc replied. Mumbo nodded his head, and looked at Ren curiously. Ren was still staring at the ground, downcast.

Doc examined Ren closely, then nodded slowly. He put rockets in his hand, then turned to Mumbo, nudging him. Mumbo gave him a look, and shuffled slightly. He glanced at Ren, then at Doc again, clearly confused,

“I’m going now, thanks for telling me HOW GRIAN IS.” Doc clearly emphasized the last part of the sentence, and nudged Mumbo again, harder than before.

“Oh!” Mumbo exclaimed, realization in his eyes. Doc then rocketed off. Hopefully he’d gotten everything he needed, he didn’t look like he was about to leave, Impulse thought. Doc obviously knew Ren liked Grian, or at least was missing him

Ren stared off at him, before his eyes widened and his head snapped towards Mumbo.

“So how’s Grian?” Ren stared at Mumbo with a near-uncomfortable intensity.

“He’s fine. We brainstormed for a bit, and then he left to build. Iskall’s grinding, and I’m getting… stuff.” Mumbo checked a list in his hand, hesitant to give details on what Sahara was doing.

“Grian misses you, though.” He was quick to reassure Ren.

“And you, Impulse. He’s happy to be with us, we Architechs haven’t hung out in a bit, but he told me he regrets not having time to watch the sunrise with you, Ren.” Mumbo informed Ren, who promptly turned bright red. Mmbo gave him a fond smile, and walked past them.

“That’s all I know.” Mumbo said apologetically, waving as he walked deeper into the shopping district. Yep, Impulse thought, he definitely knows that Ren is into Grian. Then again, who doesn’t know?

Impulse snorted. Ren was still bright red, but now was hiding his head in his hands. It was cute. It definitely fits his lovable personality.

Impulse grabbed Ren’s hand and slotted their fingers together.

“Come on, Ren, I think we’re done here.” Impulse pulled Ren behind him as they walked to a Nether portal. If Impulse had looked behind him, he would have seen Ren’s face go even more red at the physical contact. But Impulse didn’t look, and so Ren went unnoticed.

After that, they spent some time at farms, and stopped at one for snacks. Nothing particularly noteworthy happened, and they quickly crossed off all farm-related objects on their list. It was getting closer to lunchtime, so they had to hurry if they wanted to get everything before they met up with Grian.

Next they did a bunch of grinding. By then, the sun was high in the sky, and they were grinding sand. The sun beat down on them, and the two of them were hot. Impulse was sticky with sweat, and so was Ren.

-------------------------------------------

Impulse and Ren got back to hippie camp at around lunchtime. The food had already been cooked, so Impulse just practically collapsed next to the extinguished campfire. Ren grabbed a bucket and filled it with water.

Impulse lazily moved so Ren was in his field of vision. Ren dumped the bucket of water over his own head. Impulse jerked up.

“What’d you do that for?” Impulse questioned him.

“I was hot.” Ren explained.

“You’re all wet now.” Impulse pointed out. Ren shrugged, and pulled off his shirt.

Impulse was suddenly unable to coherent. Ren was fine. Like, model worthy. At least to Impulse. There was water dripping down his pecs. Impulse’s face was burning. He ripped his eyes away from where they were admiring Ren’s sculpted chest, and buried his face in the ground instead. He inhaled, breathing in the scent of the grass. And some dirt. Oops.

Impulse started coughing and choking, expelling the dirt from his lungs. Ren hurried over to him, concerned. Ren rubbed circles on Impulse’s back as he finished coughing. Having Ren that close did not help, and despite stubbornly avoiding looking at him, Impulse was still bright red. Luckily, it could be passed off as a side-effect from the coughing fit he just had.

“Geez man, you okay?” Ren asked. Impulse nodded soundlessly.

“Okay. Better put my shirt back on before Grian arrives.” Ren was still clueless that his shirtlessness was what had caused the incident, but he preferred to have a shirt on.

Impulse nodded again, knowing that Grian would definitely not be able to handle shirtless Ren.

Of course, Grian chose that exact moment to arrive.

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emmyrosee · 4 years

Note

part 2 for the axel angst please!!🥺💓💙

The searing sun peeking in through the windows was the first thing to rouse you awake, and maybe that was for the best. Last night lingered on your tongue like a bad hangover, going stale as it mixes with the acidity of the new day.

The house was almost unrecognizable; Axel’s belongings tossed without care and broken everywhere. Clothes, photos, jewelry, some of his scholarship memorabilia and alumni shit, it didn’t feel the same. It felt more like a horror film set than a home.

You gently sat up off the hard, cold floor, back nerves scolding you wildly as your head spun around, refusing to settle on one thing. Trying to focus only increased the nausea cemented in your stomach. Every fiber of your soul hurt, every part of you was drained with exhaustion.

You reach down to push yourself off of the hardwood, and you flinch when your hand lands on a mop of sorts. When you retract your palm and look down, Axel lay sleeping next to you, ever the loyal mutt. It brought you a twisted sense of comfort to see the exhaustion and sickness ectched on his once beautiful features, and if it were any other case, you’d want nothing more than to bring him to bed and nurse him back to himself.

You hated that you still wanted to do only that. You reach down to caress his cheek, and a sudden memory wracks through you-

It’s her. From last night. Axel’s hand caressing her flawless cheek.

You once thought Axel flawless, too.

As if burned, you yank your hand away from him and place it to your chest, the sting of tears prickling your eyes. With a deep, settling sigh, you push yourself up from the hardwood, letting yourself finally rise from the floor. You shook from lack of energy and shambled like a zombie to the bathroom. You look at yourself in the mirror and get lost in your own eyes, the hollowed pools dulled with dustiness. You wondered how you let a man get such a reaction out of you, you’d never let it happen before.

But this wasn’t just any man. This was Axel Cluney, the one man who your heart refused to let go. The man who was saving paycheck after paycheck to buy you a diamond ring before riding off in the sunset with you in his Mustang.

His two babies.

It didn’t matter how bad you hated him and wanted to watch him burn and collapse, go mad without your love.

It just didn’t.

The cold water you splashed on your face does nothing to spark the stale feeling in your body, if anything it makes you realize how numb you are.

A broken, scratchy call of your name snaps you out of your thoughts as you stare at yourself. It’s desperate, needy, like a sick baby who needs it’s mother to calm the illness that wracks through their body.

“Please… where are you? Let’s talk about this, please.”

You chuckle to yourself at his words. What’s there to talk about? What else could either of you begin to say? You lick the corner of your lips and dry your hands and face on a dirtied towel, tossing it randomly back onto the floor. You exit the safer confines of the bathroom before passing Axel; he looked even worse awake than he did asleep:

Tousled wildly was his chocolate brown hair, eyes sunken in like a corpse. His once lively pools of green were glazed from expired tears and swollen from already fighting new ones.

“Hi-“

“What do you want for breakfast?” You say flatly, pushing past him and making your way to the kitchen. He follows, ever the loyal pup, only stopping on one side of the island to face you.

Silence seems to be law as it lingers between you both, his constant gnawing at his bottom lip increasingly making you concerned for canker sores to form on them. It was a nervous habit of his, and you hate how much you care about it.

“Stop eating your lip and eat your breakfast,” you mutter in annoyance, sliding the plate of buttered toast his way. You fix your own mediocre breakfast, feeling too sick to eat as you pick at your cereal. Looking up from your bowl and through your lashes, you see him toying with the warm bread, eyes darting from his plate to the clock on the stove.

“It’s 7:15,” he says aloud to seemingly no one. You wonder if it’s secretly to you, a silent hope that you didn’t mean it when you told him he had to be put by seven.

You shrug, “so finish eating and leave.”

“I don’t want to leave,” he says, almost a snap. “I want to talk to you like a fucking adult.”

“And I want to know why you need to lie to me,” you yell, tossing the bowl in the sink. It shatters with a spine tingling clink, but you can’t find it in yourself to care.. “Like, I know the truth, I saw you with this little brat, you were touching her and smirking that stupid smirk, I literally just need to hear you say it.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say!” Axel yells back. “Nothing happened! She came to the garage, Harrison was still working on her car, I took her to dinner-“

“WHY DID YOU TAKE HER TO DINNER!” You screamed, tearing at your hair. The room falls silent as you continue to stare at him, chest rising and falling with each deep gasp you took. “Why-why-why the mustang, why the sudden change of your appearance, why!”

“Is it so weird to believe that I can form relationships with a customer to increase my business?” Axel snaps.

“No, it’s not! You should! But never has anyone ever changed everything about them for a client!”

“I didn’t change everything!”

“You’re right,” you say, chest rising and falling against your pained heart. “Your bullshit attitude and lack of respect will never leave you, no matter what shitbox you drive to seduce women.” You cross your arms tightly over your chest as you pace the floor. Then, you snicker despite yourself, “sorry. Your clients.” With a final glare, you sink back to the floor, knees folded tightly to your chest. Loud pads of footsteps approach you, and out of the corner of your broken eyes, you see legs fold down as Axel sits next to you. He leans his head on your shoulder, sniffling softly.

“What do you want me to do… what can I say to fix this?”

“What’s your story, Axel?” You mumble. “I just want the truth… was there nothing, was it playful flirting, is it a, b, or c, like… what is the fucking truth, Axel?”

The lump in your throat burns like acid as he says nothing, shoulders stalled as if he forgot how to breathe. Your hand comes up to card his hair softly, his tears sticking to your chest. “I think you need to go,” you mumble sadly. He chokes on a sob and shakes his head, his grip around you tightening. Your nods are numb to counteract his shivering no’s, it makes you sick to have to see him like this, let alone be the one to send him away.

“I wanna fix this,” he whimpers. “Please… I want to fix this.”

“How?” You ask. “How in the name of fuck are you going to fix this? Because please, if you could, do it, Axe!”

Once again, nothing. You’re not fully sure what you’d expected, but it certainly wasn’t silence. Some dramatic reveals, or a word of assurance that you’re absolutely insane for even thinking he could want to be with anyone else.

And that’s true. You know it is.

But there’s a stranger before you, and until words of charm and poetic justice slip out at an unforgiving pace, you wouldn’t know how you’ve known him.

“This won’t work…” you mumble to the air. “Not like this… there is no way we can come back from this. Not like this.”

“Then we will just have to fix it,” Axel says, words shaky. “We always fix it. Always. There’s never been anything we can’t-“

“Alexander,” you interrupt, effectively silencing him. His eyes are sleepy and wet with his sobs, making your heart physically ache. Your lungs squeeze, and you will yourself to speak. “No. Not now.”

“Is this the end?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you still love me?”

Yes. With every fiber of your soul and being, yes.

“I think so,” you murmur.

“Can you please think about this?” He practically begs. “Please?”

Yeah. You can give him that. You close your eyes and nod, letting the feeling of exhaustion weigh you down.

Broken, almost robotic, Axel slowly stands and shambles towards the door. He numbly, with minimal movement, opens the large entrance, and the light cutting around him makes him look different than you’d seen him these past few hours.

Better. Cleaner. Refound.

One foot crosses the threshold, and he pauses, quickly spinning on his heel to look at you.

“I’ll go, but you need to listen to me.”

“Axel,”

“No.” He says sternly. Your stomach hurts at the gruff, no-negotiate tone of his voice, but you say nothing as you eye him. “You’re going to listen to me, and you’re going to listen good because if this is the last time I’m going to see you, I’m not hiding shit.”

With a thick beat of silence, you swallow the lump in your throat and watch him, nodding slowly. He inhales sharply; “for two years, I gave you the best of me. There is no ‘better’ part of me that I’m saving for someone else, you’ve got him. You’re always going to have him.” He blinks rapidly, and though his voice barely cracks, a new wave of tears flow down his flushed cheeks, splattering on the expensive leather of his jacket.

“And I’ve done everything I fucking can to keep you away from the asshole I once was, and I thought I did a pretty good job. Apparently, not, because here I am making you cry and feel less than like the queen you are. You fuckin’ know that I’d rather have needles shoved in my fucking eyes and razors slicing under my nails than see you cry, and to know that I’m the cause of that is sickening to me.

“I can’t give you the truth you want because I don’t know the truth. I don’t know what I did last night. I don’t think what I did was cheating, but I’m not going to sit here and argue with you about it, because you’re the smartest person I know, and if you’re hurt from something I was too dense and downright stupid to not know would hurt you, then I need to accept that yeah, I guess I cheated like the fuckhead I am, and I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to see me again. And you have the right to sit here and hate me and despise me all you want, but you’ve got my heart, and I’ll be damned if you don’t get to keep it.

“You need to take time to heal. I got that. And I respect that. I’m going to be at the garage; and when you decide what you want to do, where you want to go, I’ll be there. You are the-“ he cuts himself off with a deep crack of his voice, and upon coughing in his fist to compose himself, you’re left absolutely speechless as to what to say.

“You are.. the single, only thing I want in this fucking life. And I had you and I might’ve lost you. And If I didn’t lose you, I absolutely don’t deserve you. I never did. And if you’re done playing this charade where you think I’m better than I actually am, just leave my stuff in front of the garage. If you never want to see me again, I’m not going to force you to have to look at me.”

There was the poetic explanation you’d wanted.

“When you do to clean up later, the bowl in the sink is broken. Don’t hurt yourself on it.”

With that warning and a quick spin on his heel, Axel slams the door shut behind him, hard enough to shake the good plates his mother bought you both, and leaves you to yourself and your thoughts, your mind a mush as you try to process every word that he said effortlessly. It was like it was rehearsed, and you wonder what bounces around his own mind now, as his truck starts and peels out of your driveway, leaving the rest of fate in your clammy, tear soaked hands.

——

Tagging; @gothguitargal @babyboy-cody @madamaholmes @walkxthexmoon @yesloverboy @billofourtime @kathryn-jane @jadelynlace @multi-fan-lover @shenevertricks1831

I tagged people who originally asked for part two way back, as well as new people who enjoyed it, if you read it and made it this far, I can’t thank you enough for your continued support🥺❤️

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psychosistr · 4 years

Text

Friendly Four Verse- Meetings Part 3: Liquidator

Summary: Investigating some disappearances along the coast lead the Terrific Trio to a life-or-death battle against the forces of the sea. Thankfully for Megavolt, Quackerjack, and Bushroot, the sea seems to be on their side.

Notes: The final chapter of this installment and, as promised, it’s gonna be another long one. Hope everyone enjoys it!

-First Chapter-

The Liquidator was the last to join their little rag-tag group of heroes, but he left the biggest impact. Saving the whole city tended to do that…

There had been reports of ships going missing on their way to St.Canard for weeks now, as well as a string of missing people from the bay and the beach itself. Sadly, one or two missing ships and an occasional missing person’s report were common place in a city so rampant with crime- but the current wave was reaching unprecedented levels.

Determined to get to the bottom of the strange spiriting away at sea, the trio of heroes (duo plus one, Bushroot still tried to insist) arrived at the beach to do some investigating. Unfortunately, Megavolt’s glaring weakness was making things more than a little difficult.

“Oh for the love of-! Would you get away from the water already?!” Bushroot shouted before stretching his long arm several feet over to where Megavolt was standing dangerously close to the incoming tide. He grabbed the electric-powered hero and physically dragged him back to the much drier sand. “Are you actually TRYING to short out?!”

“Sorry..” Megavolt at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed as he rubbed at the back of his short-haired head before pointing at the spot he’d just occupied. “But I think I found something!”

“We’ve been over this, Sparky.” Bushroot sounded an awful lot like a parent lecturing a child that had ignored them several times already. “It’s too dangerous for you to get wet. If you see something, just get me or Quackerjack to take a look at-” He stopped suddenly and looked around with a scowl. “Wait..where’s Quackerjack?” He spotted the brightly colored clown in question further out in the water with a pink snorkeling set on as he looked beneath the waves. “You two are seriously going to be the death of me..” Bushroot grumbled before stretching both his torso and arms far enough to physically reach the snorkeling jester and drag him back to dry land. “Having fun?” He asked in a voice dripping with dry sarcasm.

Quackerjack answered the sarcasm with a bright smile and a nod. “Yeee-p.” He replied jovially, even popping the P at the end of the word for added effect. “Lots of neat fish out there!” The way he grinned made it hard to tell if he was seriously that childish or if he was just playing it up to further agitate the other duck.

Bushroot let Quackerjack go and rubbed at his temples with his leafy fingers, taking a moment to close his eyes and collect himself. “How the heck you two got anything done before I came along is a mystery…” He exhaled a long-suffering sigh before opening his eyes and looking at his companions (he refused to say partners or friends yet) again. “So, have you guys actually FOUND anything?”

“Well, the fish are busy stockpiling weapons for their rebel army.” The words that left Quackerjack’s mouth were said with the same amount of seriousness he said almost everything with…which was hardly any and sometimes made it hard to tell whether he was joking or not.

“What, did they tell you that?” Bushroot asked with a roll of his eyes.

“No, don’t be silly, Bushy.” Quackerjack said with a chuckle. “Fish can’t talk!” He reached into the pouch on his belt and pulled out a tin of fish bait. “I bribed ‘em with some treats and they showed me their weapons’ cache. The rest was just pantomiming, but I got the gist of it- something about an evil queen about to wage war on the city or something.”

Bushroot opted to ignore Quackerjack’s explanation and instead turned to Megavolt as if to pretend Quackerjack hadn’t said anything at all. “Did YOU find anything, Sparky?”

“Don’t call me Sparky.” Came the automatic reply before Megavolt pointed back to where he’d been standing earlier. “And yeah, I found this weird chunk of yellow stuff in the water over there.”

“Yellow stuff? Great, maybe it’s poisonous…” Bushroot, feeling once again like the responsible parent trying to look after two overly active kids, walked over to the spot in question and looked around for the “yellow stuff” that Megavolt had described. He found it quick enough, and was actually surprised when he reached into the water to pick it up. “Huh?” His hand pulled out an odd cube of something yellow and rubbery. It was shiny like plastic, but squishier like silicon or rubber- almost reminding him of lemon gelatin. What was REALLY surprising, though, was that it had a strand of seaweed passing through the middle of it, like it had formed around the seaweed and inadvertently severed it from its source. “What the heck is this stuff?”

“Uh, Bushy, I think we’ve got BIGGER things to worry about!” Quackerjack’s urgent tone of voice caught Bushroot’s attention, making him turn to see the jester pointing out to sea. “A LOT BIGGER!”

He was about to ask what the other meant, but then he saw what the other duck was pointing at and his eyes widened in alarm before his head hung low and he face-palmed into his waiting leaves. “You have GOT to be kidding me.” Before he could once again dwell on and lament his life choices, he was being dragged away at a brisk pace by Quackerjack and Megavolt’s now-too-familiar grip on his sleeves.

Finally getting his feet under him to run with the other two, Bushroot glanced back briefly to see the source of danger they were currently fleeing from:

A giant tsunami-sized wave of water.

Thanks to Bushroot wrapping his arms around the other two and Quackerjack pulling out his bat (they didn’t see where from- seriously, where did he keep that thing??), they managed to get away from the beach by jumping up into the air, flying away using the bat’s rockets, then using Bushroot’s unraveling feet and Megavolt’s magnetic abilities to latch onto one of the taller buildings further in-land and quickly scale their way to the top before the wave hit.

The building was tall enough to avoid the harsher force of the wave, but the wind and pressure generated was still strong enough to send someone flying. To avoid being separated, Bushroot wound his arms tighter around his friends and unraveled his legs in order to weave them around the metallic railing along the top of the building.

“What the heck?!” Quackerjack shouted over the roar of the wind and water around them while clinging to Bushroot. “Since when is Audobon Bay a tsunami-zone?!”

“It’s not!” Megavolt shouted back to him. “Something must have triggered it! Something like-”

“An army of whales?!” Bushroot asked in an alarmed tone of voice.

“Yeah! Something like that would do it!” Megavolt nodded in agreement.

“Something like that DID do it!” Bushroot inclined his head back out towards the ocean when the first wave began to recede. “Look!”

Megavolt and Quackerjack looked back out towards the ocean as Bushroot instructed and saw, to their surprise, a literal army of whales (sperm whales, to be precise) lining the horizon- all of them decorated with military-like badges and uniform sashes made of common sea-fare such as seashells, kelp, and coral. Seated atop what could be described as the lead-whale due to its extra adornments, was what appeared to be a throne made out of coral.

When the wind and air-pressure died down, Bushroot let the others go and re-formed his feet so they could all walk to the edge of the building and get a better look at the creatures that caused the sudden tsunami.

To help get a better view, Quackerjack reached into his toy pouch and pulled out a glittery pink kaleidoscope. Peeking through it, he twisted and adjusted the view until he could see far enough and gave an impressed whistle. “So THAT’S the evil queen the fish were talking about..gotta say, she definitely fits the bill..”

He handed the unassuming toy to Megavolt so he too could get a look at the coral throne and the person occupying it. When he looked through, he was momentarily impressed to find that, while it still had the shifting rainbow edge of a typical kaleidoscope’s view, the toy also doubled as a powerful telescope that gave a perfect view of its target.

Megavolt saw what could only be described as a female fish mutant sitting on the whale’s back. She was short in stature, but the chipped trident she carried and the various scars and torn fins on her body, along with her dark scales and ripped black body-suit, gave the accurate impression that she was a lot stronger than she looked. “An evil fish queen..that’s definitely a new one for the villain-list..” He said mostly to himself while handing the kaleidoscope off to Bushroot.

Bushroot looked over their enemy-of-the-day as well. “Wow, that’s something you don’t see every day.”

Quackerjack took back the kaleidoscope once Bushroot was done with it. “What, a fish mutant leading an army of whales?”

“No,” Bushroot didn’t even bother looking at him when he handed the toy over to the jester. “You being right about something.”

The duck-duo spared each other a smirk while side-eyeing one another, the healthy dose of sarcastic humor helping to alleviate stress in life-threatening situations for them.

Before Megavolt could tell them to stop joking around, the sound of a loud, bellowing horn brought their attention back to the ocean and the looming threat of the whale army ready to drown the city.

“People of the surface, I am Neptunia- Queen of the Seas!” The fish-mutant had a large conch shell set up in front of her, serving as a megaphone to broadcast her surprisingly regal voice out to the entire city. “For too long the creatures of the deep have suffered under your wasteful ways- polluting our waters with your trash and chemicals, stealing our citizens and resources for food and decoration- but no more!” She held her trident aloft in the air, the army of whales bellowing in response. “Now WE will be the ones on top while YOU suffer below us!!” She then leaned closer to the shell and blew into it, the same bellowing horn sound ringing through the air once again.

At her command, the whales turned around so their tail-ends were facing the city, raised them high into the air, then slammed them down into the water in unison. The resulting impact sent another tsunami-like wave rushing towards the city, driving the heroes into action.

Megavolt looked down at the streets where the people who survived the first wave’s assault were still stranded or injured in the water. “Quackerjack, help me get the civilians to safety! Bushroot, see if you can block off the water somehow!”

“On it!” The other two heroes shouted at the same time before all three of them jumped off the side of the building together.

Bushroot used his long-reaching limbs to grab onto and swing across a series of street lamps and building ledges. As he moved through the air, he reached into one of the pockets on his coat and pulled out a handful of seeds, tossing them down to the ground as he went. “A few philodendrons..some Chinese evergreens…English ivy…and some cork and oak trees for good measure..” With a wave of his hand, the plants began to grow and sprout up at an impressively fast-rate. The trees took root deep in the ground below while the ivy and more hydroponically inclined plants wove around them to help form a make-shift barricade. “Good thing there’s plenty of fresh water already.” Bushroot said as he finished planting the natural barrier.

Meanwhile, Megavolt used his magnetized boots to skate along the sides of buildings and any powerlines that weren’t already destroyed. “Get on top of the cars!” He called over the panicked screams of the people around him as he ran.

The citizens scrambled to do as they were instructed and got on top of any vehicles they could find. Once the majority of them were in position, Megavolt concentrated his electricity and magnetism based powers into his hands and aimed them at the vehicles. The resulting blasts of yellow and blue caused the cars to thrum to live and drive forward on their own. Megavolt controlled their direction with his magnetism and made the cars drive in a straight line towards a free-way ramp.

As the cars got up onto the ramp, Quackerjack was waiting on standby to grab the people off the top and take them to safety. To this end, he’d set up a large area of what appeared to be silly-putty by the base of the tallest flat-topped buildings in the area and had secured himself, as well as a small army of moving teddy-bears, to the roof with a brightly colored rainbow of bungee-chords.

“Alright, boys!” Quackerjack called out to his small, fluffy army. “Remember- the floor is lava, so let’s hurry before this situation gets any hotter!” And with that he leapt from the top of the building to grab the first group of people that arrived on top of the cars, flanked closely by his teddy bear army.

Quackerjack began a pattern with his fuzzy friends of leaping down, grabbing people off the top of the cars alongside his bears, taking them up to the roof, letting go while the silly-putty bounced the cars away to make room for the next group, and repeating the process again once the next vehicle got close enough and leaping over to clip their bungee-chords to the top of the next building when the top of one got too full. The unusual system worked surprisingly well, the plant barricade that Bushroot set up helping to deter the water long enough for Megavolt to guide the vehicles over to Quackerjack so he could get them up high enough to avoid the rising water levels.

It wasn’t until the last vehicles was being unloaded that a problem began to present itself.

Said problem was more waves being sent towards the city. Apparently the fish queen had taken notice of their meddling and changed up her strategy. The whales were now staggering their attacks, resulting in waves that were less intense in size, but much more numerous.

The repeated barrage wore away at Bushroot’s plant-wall and began to create gaps that he rushed to fix, but were growing more numerous by the second. “Could you two hurry it up a little?!”

“We’re going as fast as we can!” Megavolt shouted back to him while guiding the last car towards Quackerjack.

Right on time, Quackerjack and his bears jumped down to grab the final group of people just as a particularly powerful torrent ripped a sizable hole in the natural barrier that had kept it at bay. The resulting surge of water that flooded in through the opening began to quickly submerge the surrounding area.

Quackerjack had been in the middle of grabbing a woman off the top of the car when the waves of water suddenly hit. “Hold on- this ride’s gonna get a little wet an’ wild!” He said to the woman while holding onto her tightly.

The water got to them before the bungee cord could get them back up to the roof. The stretchy cord kept them from being swept away, though, and Quackerjack tried to pull both of them back towards the building. The current proved too strong, however, and the hero and his charge ended up getting buffeted by the waves and slowly dragged under.

“Quackerjack!” Megavolt raced along any available metal surfaces and wires to get to his comrade, Bushroot not far behind. “Hold on, we’re-!”

His exclamation changed into a surprised gasp when a torrent of water suddenly rushed beneath Quackerjack and the woman in his arms. It submerged them briefly before crashing back towards the building, going against the current and racing up the side of it in an odd, rolling motion. It splashed over the edge of the building and deposited the pair along the edge safely where they coughed up any water that had gotten into their lungs before the water receded back down into the rest of the flood below.

The other two heroes were momentarily stunned by the odd wave that had washed Quackerjack back to safety, but they soon recovered and joined him up on the roof with the other civilians.

“You still breathing, clown?” Bushroot asked with an air of indifference that most would consider rude, but the other two were well-aware by now that it was just his way of hiding his concern.

“Yeah..” Quackerjack spit out some sea water that had gotten in his mouth and shook his head to get the water out of his cowl. “Don’t think I swallowed too many fish..” He got to his feet with Bushroot’s help (Megavolt tried to offer him a hand up first, but Bushroot beat him to it with a stern look to remind him that shocking both himself and Quackerjack wouldn’t do anybody any good). “Hey, you guys might think I’m crazy-”

“Bit late for that.” Bushroot said without missing a beat.

Quackerjack rolled his eyes briefly but continued. “-but I’m pretty sure I saw a face in that water just now.”

“A face?” Megavolt repeated with a confused expression. “You sure it wasn’t just the lack of oxygen messing with your vision?”

“Maybe..” Quackerjack shrugged, looking down at the water with a thoughtful expression. “But I’m PRETTY sure it was real…”

Bushroot clapped his leafy hands together, the rustling sound getting the other heroes’ attention. “We can discuss Quackerjack’s growing need for therapy later. Right now, we need to focus on stopping those whales before the little mermaid out there decides to turn the next state over into beach-front property. Any ideas?”

Megavolt looked back out at the sea and their current enemy while weighing their options. “If I can get close enough, then one good zap should knock her out. The only problem is GETTING to her without shorting out.” He looked back to Quackerjack with a quirked brow. “This might be a shot in the dark, but do you have any giant pool noodles or surf boards or something?”

Quackerjack tilted his head back and forth as he thought the question over. “Hmmmmmmmm…no, I don’t think so..” He suddenly snapped his fingers. “But I think I’ve got something else that’ll do the trick!” The jester reached into his toy pouch and pulled out-

“A rubber ducky?” Bushroot asked with a deadpan stare at the grinning clown.

Quackerjack squeaked the small yellow rubber duck in front of Bushroot’s face as if to confirm his assessment. “An all-purpose rubber ducky, thank you very much!” He gave the duck a firmer squeeze and it began to rapidly inflate into a rubber raft with a proportionately big head on the front. “All aboard the S.S.Bath-Time!” Quackerjack said with a grin.

Megavolt just chuckled at the toy maker’s usual enthusiasm while Bushroot shook his head with a barely restrained smile. “Quackerjack, you’re a genius!”

“Tell me something I DON’T know, sparky.” Quackerjack replied with a wink.

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

Soon the trio of heroes were riding over the turbulent waves with ease thanks to Quackerjack’s surprisingly sturdy rubber raft. He’d given a brief explanation about counter-balancing weights and a solar powered turbine, but it had been too hard to hear him over the loud whale songs and crashing waves (though Megavolt made a mental note to try asking him about that engine later- they’d have to compare notes sometime).

They’d almost reached the whale the queen was on when something reached up from within the water’s depths and smacked them away. “!!!!” They all shouted in surprise and clung to the raft, looking up to see a pair of giant tentacles flailing about above the water now.

“Oh, great..” Quackerjack said once the raft had reasonably settled again. “A twenty-foot tall calamari buffet and we don’t have ANY dipping sauce.”

Bushroot shook the water out of his petals and glared at the squid that decided to show the rest of its body that had been hidden below the waves. “I think I’d be fine with some sashimi right about now…”

The giant squid glared down at them and tried striking their boat again. Its actions gained the queen’s attention and she looked over to them from her throne with a mildly irritated expression. “You look like the rude peasants that stopped my waves.” She jumped from the back of her whale onto the backs of a few others until she reached the squid and landed on its head. “So, what brings you all the way out here, if I may ask? Come to surrender?”

“Other way around, villain!” Megavolt said while pointing a charged finger in her direction. “We’re gonna give you one chance to call off your army before we send you back down where you came from!”

Neptunia let out a loud laugh, leaning against the side of the squid’s head. “Ha! These locals ARE amusing, wouldn’t you agree, Sebastian?” Her laughter was gone in an instant, turning instead to an icy glare as she pointed her trident down at them. “Now then, darlings, I will give YOU one chance to get your little dingy out of here before my men decide they want duck and rat kebobs with a side salad.”

“Wow, I’ve been upgraded from a weed to a salad- what an honor.” Bushroot said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes as he stood up and prepared to fight.

“I know, right!” Quackerjack chuckled while standing up as well. “Before you know it, you’ll be treated as a full-fledged main course, Bushy!”

“If you guys don’t stop with the food jokes, you’re gonna make me hungry.” Megavolt complained as he stood alongside his comrades with a crack of his knuckles. “We can make one more seafood or fried fish joke, but then that’s it for the food quips, okay?” He adjusted his safety glasses and held out one hand. “Now, let’s take down this deep-sea deviant!”

“Just try not to earn your sea legs today, alright?” Bushroot said while grabbing Megavolt’s hand. At a nod from Megavolt, Bushroot swung him back before launching him off towards Neptunia.

Megavolt landed next to the fish-mutant on top of the giant squid and tried to hit her with an electrically charged fist. The fearsome fish, however, was much more agile than one would assume, and jumped over his attack to counter with a smack using the blunt end of her trident.

While their third member did battle with the sea-queen, Bushroot and Quackerjack took the boat around and began attacking the whales. Bushroot handled the steering at the boat’s rudder while Quackerjack lobbed his exploding red dodgeballs at the tail fins of any whales they passed. Just like during his fight with Bushroot, the balls burst when they hit their targets and covered them in a squishy but sticky red putty that caught on anything they came in contact with- including each other.

As Bushroot saw the whales struggle to get free from each other, he couldn’t help but shake his head slightly in sympathy. “That won’t work unless you can rip your own body parts off- trust me, I know.”

“Good thing we’re not fighting lizard people again!” Quackerjack chuckled while pulling new exploding dodgeballs out of his toy pouch, activating and then throwing them in a steady pattern.

Meanwhile, Megavolt was having more than a little trouble beating the surprisingly strong fish woman. In addition to having the home-field advantage of the squid constantly catching her every time he managed to knock her off-balance, she was also incredibly strong for her size and could easily lift him whenever she got a good hold on him. Add to that the fact that there wasn’t anything metallic for him to grab onto, and one could see why exactly Megavolt was struggling with the fish queen.

He felt like he’d finally caught a lucky break, however, when he managed to grab her arm. “Time for some extra-crispy fried fish!” He channeled what he thought was an appropriate amount of electricity into his hand and experienced a brief moment of elation when his amphibious attacker suddenly went limp…an extremely brief moment, it turns out, as she soon turned the tables on him by grabbing his arm in return. “Huh?!”

She looked up at him with a smirk. “Sorry, darling, but I’ve received better shocks from electric eels.” She used her grip on his arm to suddenly lift him up and toss him towards the water a few miles away. “Why don’t you go ask them for some lessons?!”

“MEGAVOLT!” He heard Quackerjack and Bushroot calling his name in alarm, and even caught a glimpse of them racing towards him on their boat in the distance.

They were too far away, though, he realized with a growing sense of panic. There was nothing for him to grab onto, no way they could reach him in time- just him and the vast ocean that would soon be his watery grave. As he began to lose his forward momentum from the throw and saw the water drawing closer, Megavolt closed his eyes and braced himself for impact with-

-with something squishy?

Opening his eyes hesitantly to make sure this wasn’t some sort of cruel near-death fantasy, Megavolt was shocked to see that he’d reached the surface of the water, as he expected, but it wasn’t water anymore. What he found himself laying on instead was a strange, rubbery yellow substance that looked a lot like the cube they’d found by the beach earlier.

In addition to the strangeness of finding himself suddenly (albeit gratefully) lying on a surprisingly buoyant substance of unknown origin instead of shorting out in the ocean like he’d dreaded, there was an additional anomaly within his yellow make-shift life-raft that Megavolt noticed right away:

Hands.

A pair of hands moving about within the rubbery substance had supported him when he’d landed, taking great lengths to make sure he didn’t hit his head or get whip-lash, and had since then begun to move to the edge of the unknown mass. Once they were on the edge, Megavolt saw something shift in the water by the hands and his little rubber island began to move slowly towards the direction that he’d last seen Quackerjack and Bushroot in.

“Megavolt!” He heard Quackerjack shout his name as the boat he and Bushroot were on got closer. “You alright, Sparky?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, never taking his eyes off of the water by the hands. There was something odd about the way it moved, rolling about as if it were its own current. In fact, if he looked close enough, he could almost see a faint outline where the water looked a little different, almost like a person’s silhouette. “Hello..?” He asked, reaching out to touch the strange body of water. Unfortunately, making contact with the water was a terrible idea as it resulted in a spark of electricity that made him stumble back and nearly fall off of the yellow island and into the water below. “Ow!”

“Megavolt!” Over the sound of Bushroot calling out his name, Megavolt could swear he heard someone else’s voice yelp at the same time his own had and that there was a sudden and abrupt splash coming from the area he’d touched. “Idiot!” Bushroot’s long limbs stretched out and caught Megavolt before he could fall into the ocean. “What were you thinking?!”

“There’s someone in the water.” Megavolt said once Quackerjack had gotten the rubber ducky boat close enough for him to climb in. He looked back over to the spot he’d last seen the mysterious hands and was disappointed to find they, and the oddly moving current of water, were no longer in sight. “Hey! Anyone out there?!” He tried looking around for the silhouette he’d spotted earlier, but it’s hard to recognize a body of water WITHIN a body of water.

“You saw something, too?” Quackerjack questioned eagerly while searching for anything different in the water.

“Yeah- a pair of hands.” Megavolt explained while the two of them looked around. “And I KNOW I felt something in the water when I touched it.”

“You sure you didn’t just fry your nerves?” Bushroot asked with a disinterested expression.

“Well I’m pretty sure my fried nerves didn’t have anything to do with THAT.” Megavolt shot him a mildly irritated look and pointed at the strange yellow substance before returning his attention back to the water. “Hey! If anyone’s there, thanks for saving me! We could really use your help, though!”

There was a moment of silence, just long enough for Megavolt to doubt himself and what he’d seen, but then they heard him.

“Y-You…want m-my h-he-h-help…?” A deep but timid, gurgling voice asked them from somewhere within the water below them.

Much to their combined surprise, they saw a face appear within the water. It was simple and hardly noticeable had it not been staring dead at them, consisting of nothing more than two round eyes that were barely darker than the deep water around them and a slight line for a mouth.

Their reactions were….intense, to say the least.

“Woah!” Quackerjack gave an excited shout and leaned over the edge of the boat to get a better look at the face, nearly falling out in the process. “I knew it! You saved me too, right?! Are you MADE of water?! That’s awesome!”

Megavolt clung to the boat to keep from falling out while curiously examining the face looking up at them, attempting to see if he could spot any sort of body or silhouette in the water’s depths again, but finding none. “How big are you? Are you the size of the entire ocean, or are you just a concentrated mass mixed in? Do you suffer from any sort of diffusion effects?”

Bushroot just stared at the face in the water for a moment, a look of surprise on his own more solidly defined face. “Quackerjack was right. Twice in one day, too. We’re probably all about to die..” Giving a shake of his head and a sigh, Bushroot soon recovered from his initial shock and looked back to the water. Being much calmer than his companions, he noticed a few signs of discomfort on their new liquid-cohort’s face- the way his eyes shifted, the way he’d open his mouth to say something but close it again, the fact that the water around his face seemed to dip downward in an attempt to physically back away from their barrage of questions. Feeling an odd pang of sympathy for the watery creature and knowing how both Quackerjack and Megavolt could be oblivious to social cues, Bushroot firmly grabbed the two heroes that were half-way leaning out of the boat and firmly yanked them in by the backs of their shirts. “Geez, haven’t you guys heard of a little thing called manners? You’re supposed to wait until the third date to ask a mutant about their powers.” He shot them both a stern glare before looking down at the concave-face by the boat. “Sorry, I know they can be a bit much.”

“O-Oh, it-it’s f-fi-f-i-i-fi-” He seemed to struggle with his speech for a moment before rising back up to be level with the water’s surface. “It’s okay, I-I don’t m-mi-m-mind.”

The speech impediment was becoming glaringly obvious now that they’d had more conversation with him, but the three heroes (two plus a tag-along, Bushroot would have insisted) chose not to call attention to it.

Megavolt was about to say something else to the fascinating water creature, when the sound of loud splashing from earlier began to resume. “Huh?!” Looking back to where they’d left Neptunia and her army, he could barely make out her and her squid freeing the whales from the putty by summoning electric eels to fry the substance to a crisp and peeling it off. “Looks like break time’s over, guys.” He looked back down at the unnamed figure in the sea with a small smile that was partially pleading, but mostly understanding. “We’ll understand if you don’t wanna help- but, if you do, we’d appreciate anything at all.”

And with a quick wave to their new friend, the three took off back towards the tyrannical queen and her army of sea creatures while the hidden figure in the ocean stared after them.

“So, what’s the plan this time, Sparky?” Quackerjack asked while steering the boat so that it would counteract the swelling waves and not send any of them flying off.

“Don’t call me Sparky.” His reply came automatically. “And..same as before, I guess.” Megavolt admitted with a frown. “I’ll try to take down the diva of the deep while you two find a way to stop those waves from reaching the city.”

Bushroot looked at Megavolt with one brow cocked skeptically. “Hate to break it to you, Sparky-”

“Don’t call me Sparky!” Megavolt cut in briefly.

“-but you didn’t do too well against her last time.” Bushroot continued, ignoring Megavolt’s interruption as if he’d never said anything at all. “You got any OTHER plans?”

“Not really..” Megavolt rubbed at his neck while avoiding eye contact with the plant duck. “But..there’s not really much else I can do out here: My powers can’t do anything against those waves, but I can’t just sit by and do nothing.” He looked back up to the pair of ducks in the boat with him, giving them a slightly embarrassed but genuine smile. “The lives of the citizens come first, no matter what- that’s why I have to trust the hard stuff to the heroes that can actually save the day this time.”

The other two ended up smiling at him, although Bushroot tried to play his off by rolling his eyes. “Sappy as usual, huh, Sparky?” Before the usual retort could come, Bushroot reached over and flicked his leafy fingers against Megavolt’s forehead. “We’ll do what we can, but don’t go getting yourself dunked again, okay? Unless getting saved twice in one day by a living puddle is something you want us to tease you for.”

“And you know I’ll have fifty water related puns ready by the end of the day!” Quackerjack grinned teasingly at the electrically themed rodent. “But, hey, if we win it’ll just be water under the bridge!” He laughed at his own joke, falling over momentarily when Bushroot shoved him in retaliation for it.

“See what we have to look forward to?” Bushroot sighed while shaking his head. He looked at Megavolt, holding his hand out to the other man expectantly. “If I have to go through more lame jokes like that, you’ll BOTH be sleeping with the fishes, got it? So no losing.” The thinly veiled words of encouragement and the light squeeze to Megavolt’s gloved hand conveyed everything that the botanist refused to say.

Megavolt smiled softly and returned the squeeze to Bushroot’s own leafy extremities. “Same goes for you two- I don’t feel like finding a mime and a ball of sea-weeds floating in the ocean later.”

Bushroot smirked and flung Megavolt back towards Neptunia just like before, both of them ignoring Quackerjack’s enraged shouts regarding the insult of being compared to a mime even in death.

When he landed on the back of her whale, Neptunia gave the superhero a deadly glare. “Shouldn’t you be six feet under by now?”

Megavolt returned the glare with a challenging grin while charging his hands in preparation for another fight. “Haven’t you heard? Heroism is unsinkable- unlike you and your low-tide dreams of conquest!”

The fish queen grabbed her trident and spun it around, the bored look in her eyes clearly giving away how she felt about a second-round against the city’s protector. “We shall see how water-tight your ideals are when I’m through with you, nave.”

With that, the re-match was underway.

Megavolt had learned his lesson about the small sea-femme’s strength and stuck with distance attacks this time, favoring long-range shots of electricity over his earlier grappling. Neptunia, on the other hand, was trying to close the gap between them with flying leaps and swift thrusts with her trident that the rodent barely dodged.

After knocking her away with a particularly powerful plasma-pulse, Megavolt spared a glance to the whales around them to check on his comrades’ progress.

He wasn’t disappointed.

Quackerjack and Bushroot had resumed their earlier task of trying to stop the whales, but with an update to their tactics: This time Bushroot was the one working to incapacitate the whales while Quackerjack focused his efforts on stopping- or at least slowing down- the waves. The mutated botanist tossed seeds into the water near the whales and commanded them to grow, sprouting up into gigantic kelp forests that wrapped around and tangled the aquatic mammals’ tails to restrict their movements. Meanwhile, his more colorful companion had utilized a slingshot to shoot what, at a distance, looked like tiny capsules into the water along the path of the waves. When the capsules made contact with the water, however, they suddenly expanded at an incredibly fast pace- transforming into giant, brightly colored sponges shaped like dinosaurs, flowers, animals, and many other fun childishly cute things that absorbed the swelling waves before they could get too far.

“Yes!” Megavolt gave a quick cheer of excitement when he saw how well his friends were doing. Oh, he was so glad he wasn’t doing this hero thing by himself anymore! Honestly, there was no way he could’ve handled this one on his-

A loud, bellowing horn suddenly sounded off a few feet away from the sparky superhero, causing him to wince in pain and fall to his knees while covering his sensitive ears. When he recovered from the pain and looked towards the source of the debilitating sound, he saw Neptunia blowing into the seashell horn/megaphone from earlier.

Focusing his energy into his hand, Megavolt sent out a quick blast to break the horn, but the attempt only seemed to further amuse the tidal tyrant. “Too little too late, darling.” She told him with a smirk. “I’m afraid it’s time for the REAL attack to begin!”

Right on cue, the waves began to ripple and churn around them. Within seconds, a battalion of blue whales and a few colossal squids rose up from the water’s depths. Raising her trident as a signal to the newly revealed soldiers, the sea creatures heeded their queen’s call and raised their tails and tentacles in preparation.

Megavolt’s eyes widened in alarm and he turned to his friends, trying to warn them of the impending rush of doom about to head their way. “Guys, get out of there!!” The warning, unfortunately, came too late. Before his eyes a great surge of water was started in unison by the various sea creatures in attendance- a much larger, and far more powerful one that rivaled the tsunami that first struck the town- and Bushroot and Quackerjack were eclipsed and swallowed by the massive wave when it rolled over them. “Quackerjack! Bushroot!” Megavolt rushed to the edge of the whale he was currently standing on, desperately looking for any sign of the two other heroes within the chaotic current. When he found none, he fell to his knees, a look of shock and despair painted across his face. “No…” His voice shook around the simple word, his mind not wanting to believe the situation at hand.

“Aw, poor little washed-up hero. So much for heroism being ‘unsinkable’.” He heard the villainess’s voice drawing closer behind him, but he didn’t have the presence of mind to even bother facing her. “Don’t worry, darling- you will be joining them soon enough.” Megavolt could see the shadow of the fearsome fish’s trident, poised to strike.

“…….” Preparing to finally get back up so he could fight to avenge his friends and do what he could to save the city (even if he wasn’t sure what he COULD do yet), both Megavolt and Neptunia were startled to see a large, rubbery, bright yellow bubble suddenly breach the water’s surface- a bubble containing a water-logged but still breathing Quackerjack with Bushroot holding him protectively as the waves rocked their colorful container. “?!!”

“What?!” Neptunia stared at the bubble in an amusing mixture of anger and shock. “What in the seven seas is that?!”

Megavolt’s face lit up with an excited, confident grin at the realization of exactly what, or rather who, was responsible for the bubble that saved his partners’ lives. “That, you sinister sea creature, is heroism at its best!”

In perfect timing to demonstrate his point, an unnatural swell of water suddenly rose up in the path of the tsunami-sized tidal wave and rushed forward to meet it. Rather than meeting the other wave as water, though, the countering water-wall began to turn into the same bright yellow rubber that had already saved each of the heroes once that day.

The bouncy material proved to be water tight, not allowing any of the liquid through, and even repelling it back out to sea. What’s more, whenever some of the water began to push over the edge of the rubber-wall, it would quickly be converted into the rubber’s mass to help reinforce its structure. Whenever one of those changes occurred, interestingly enough, Megavolt could see a person-sized silhouette moving within the rubber, the figure rushing wherever it was needed to help reinforce the wall and protect the city.

Once the tsunami sputtered to a halt and the waves had calmed down, the rubber wall began to shift once more. This time, it changed shape into what looked like a giant cannon and opened fire on the various sea creatures under Neptunia’s command. The cannon would fire large balls of the rubbery material, but in a looser state. When the balls made contact with the various whales and squids, they would rapidly harden, immobilizing them in rubber shells.

“What?! What’s going on?!!” Neptunia sputtered while looking at the state of her army. “My army! This-This cannot be happening!” Once every squid and whale- minus the one that the pair were currently standing on- was encased in rubber, the cannon dissolved and another unnatural swell of water formed a wave that flowed smoothly & rapidly across the ocean’s surface, scooping up Neptunia’s entire battalion and washing them far out to sea. “NO!” She bellowed in rage, raising her trident threateningly. “The ocean is my domain! The tides bend to my will! I am the queen of the sea!!”

“The sea d-disagrees!” A familiar voice (well, mildly familiar to Megavolt, at least) challenged the underwater usurper while two large waves formed on either side of the whale. The waves soon shifted into a pair of giant hands that grabbed both Neptunia and her whale while forming a protective bubble around Megavolt similar to the one Quackerjack and Bushroot were still in. “Heroes everywhere agree, though- messing with St. Canard is dangerous for villains of all shapes, sizes, and species!” Once Megavolt’s bubble was safely floating on the water below, the large hands lifted the whale and the tyrannical terror of the deep high into the air. “So stay away, or you’ll get double your karma back- guaranteed!”

And with that threatening sales pitch delivered, the hands performed a more literal pitch and, after encasing the whale and the angrily screaming sea-queen in a rubber cube (reminding Megavolt of those gelatin molds people did with fruits or vegetables inside), proceeded to chuck the rubbery prison far off into the horizon in the same direction as the other creatures from before.

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Sometime later, the small group of heroes were gathered on the beach. Their helpful new friend had helped out once again by moving all of the water out of the city and back out towards the bay- he’d even managed to remove any trash and debris from it and left it all in a few dumpsters around the coast.

When he spotted the face in the shallow water along the coast (much smaller now given the lower volume of liquid it was shown in), Megavolt walked over to it excitedly with a grin. “That was amazing! Seriously, we can’t thank you enough for what you did. If it wasn’t for you, we’d all be six feet under by now.”

Quackerjack looked down at the face and nodded in agreement. “He’s right- without you, we’d be all washed up!” He laughed at his own joke, earning an elbow to his side from Megavolt and a smack to the back of the head from Bushroot. Once his giggles had died down, he gave the living water below them a more sincere, less joking smile. “You were great, though, really.” He playfully nudged Bushroot with his elbow. “You’re seriously giving Bushy here a run for his money as ‘most amazing mutant in Saint Canard’!”

Bushroot shook his head at the comment. “Funny, I didn’t realize it was a contest.” He looked back down at the water, a half-smile tugging at the corner of his beak. “But…I guess I could give up the crown for someone like you, since you saved our lives and everything.”

If it was possible for water to blush, they would swear that was what was happening: Two little spots above the face’s mouth had turned slightly darker and there was a bit of steam coming off of them. “W-W-Wow..tha-that’s-that’s …the k-k-kind-ki-n-nicest thing anyone’s s-sai-s-said to me in a l-long-l-long t-ti-i-ti-” He paused to take a breath before continuing. “Th-That’s..the nicest thing a-anyone’s said to me in-in…in a while. Thank you.” It seemed to take some focusing to get everything out so concisely, but he looked relieved to have accomplished it.

Megavolt smiled down at the watery face in understanding. He may not have had a problem with stuttering, but he’d dealt with his fair share of difficulties due to his own “quirks”. Little things like remembering a previous conversation or an address were easy things for most people, but, for him, they were daily challenges he faced with varying degrees of difficulty. He imagined that getting through a sentence like that was a similar struggle for their new friend.

“You deserve that- and a lot more, too.” Megavolt stepped a bit closer, silently acknowledging Bushroot’s leafy hand on his shoulder with a gentle pat as it attempted to dissuade him from getting too close and risk shorting out. He bent over slightly and held a hand down towards the water with a bright smile on his face, hoping that it would be more inviting and less overwhelming than when he first tried to talk to the living liquid. “We would love to have you on our team. If you want to, that is. Like I said before, it’s fine if you don’t want to, but we could really use your help.”

The creature in the water stared at his hand in surprise. “You…Y-You really…want m-m-m-me-e…?”

Quackerjack planted one elbow on Megavolt’s back and leaned on him casually while pretending to look around the coastline. “Oh, do you know any other selfless, heroic, life-saving, super cool living bodies of water around here?” He asked sarcastically before grinning down at the face in the water. “Of course we want you! You’ve got cool powers AND you’re already good at saving lives? We’d be crazy not to ask!”

“Sanity is still questionable, at best.” Bushroot shoved the harlequin off of the rodent’s back with a roll of his eyes, causing him to fall into the shallow water and muddy sand below (though he was quickly helped up by a watery hand that rose up out of the surf). After smirking down at the other duck’s sand-covered face, the plant-duck redirected his attention back to the other mutant. “Either way, there’s no way you could be any worse at it than me.”

Megavolt looked over his shoulder with a frown and a mildly chastising look as he softly spoke the same words to his self-deprecating friend that he always said in these situations. “You’re a hundred times better than you think you are.” He smiled fondly when the usual darker green color settled over Bushroot’s cheeks and he turned his head away in hopes that his long petal-hair would obscure the sight from the others (it never did, but it was endearing to watch him try). Laughing quietly to himself for a moment at the adorable way the grumpy plant-hybrid crossed his arms, Megavolt returned his attention to the water once again, his hand still outstretched as an offering to their potential new member. “So, what do you say? Want to join the greatest superhero team in Saint Canard?”

There was a long moment of silence from the floating face. Then, without warning, it faded away without a single word. Megavolt’s smile slipped, his mind already going over what he must have said wrong to drive away such a wonderful hero. Maybe he’d come on too strong with the team up offer? Quackerjack had gone for it immediately, but Bushroot had taken a while. Maybe he should have-

A hand stretched out of the water towards Megavolt’s own. Just before making contact with it, the water’s consistency changed to rubber so that it could grasp the shocking-superhero without shorting him out. The hand was soon followed by an entire body of water- a person’s body, that is, not the entire ocean. As it rose up from the shallows the water began to take a more defined form, shifting into that of a dog- the water on his body even changed to create the image of a pair of dark blue pants with a lighter blue top and a dark blue tie. When he opened his eyes and smiled shyly at the stunned superheroes, the trio instantly recognized the blue dots from the previously more simple face.

The water-dog shook Megavolt’s hand with his own rubberized one, taking a deep breath before giving them a proper introduction. “Has your city been ruled over by a tyrannical duck with a height complex for far too long? Are a motley crew of thugs, criminals, and/or supervillains causing trouble for superheroes and everyday citizens alike? Then call on the reliable services of THE LIQUIDATOR for all your crime-fighting needs! One round with this hydro-powered hero and the bad guys will be alllllll washed up- guaranteed or your money back!” He finished his introductory sales-pitch with a wink. His confidence quickly deflated, however, when the other three people on the beach just stared at him silently with the same wide-eyed expression. “Um…w-was that to-t-too much..?”

All at once the trio returned to their senses and properly welcomed their new member with open arms- literal ones in Quackerjack’s case.

The colorful clown-hero whooped loudly and wrapped his arms around Liquidator’s shoulders. “You’ve already got a cool name AND lines prepped?! Oh, you are a keeper, buddy!” (They were all too excited to notice the way the dog’s ears twitched slightly at the term of endearment.)

The excitement in Megavolt’s eyes shone brightly enough to be seen through his safety glasses as he looked at Liquidator’s rubberized hand in his own. “Okay, I’ve gotta know- how are you doing this?! Did you just alter the chemical composition of the water to-”

He was interrupted by a leafy slap to the back of his head. “Remember, Sparky- third date.”

“Don’t call me Sparky!” Megavolt said with a pout before looking around at the small group of allies he’d found himself with a slowly growing smile. “I guess we’ll need a new name, huh?”

“Yeah, we’re not the ‘Terrific Trio’ anymore.” Quackerjack raised one hand, keeping the other around their newest member’s shoulders. “Ooh! Ooh! How about the ‘Fearsome Four’! It sounds cool and I know you’re a sucker for alliteration, Sparky!”

Liquidator frowned slightly as he looked at the clown beside him. “D-Doesn’t sound very fr-frien-f-friendly..”

“Friendly…” Megavolt said the word aloud, tapping his chin in thought. “Friendly…” Then, as if to act as a visual representation of his epiphany since there were no lightbulbs to turn on above his head, a shimmering bolt of electricity raced upwards from his boots and curled around his torso all the way up to his head before dancing off the tips of his hair and whiskers. “That’s it!” He beamed at his newly formed team and held a hand out in front of him. “From now on, we’re the ‘Friendly Four’!”

Quackerjack chuckled at the other hero’s enthusiasm and placed his hand on top of the gloved one of his friend. “Sounds good to me, Sparky!”

Liquidator smiled and placed his hand on top of Quackerjack’s. “That…That d-does sound a lot n-nic-cer.”

Bushroot sighed in annoyance, his hands currently shoved deep in his pockets. “I don’t know why you guys insist on including me in your head-count. I keep telling you: I’m not a hero.” Just as Megavolt and Quackerjack were about to argue the subject with him for what felt like the millionth time, they saw one leafy hand leave the confines of its coat pocket before joining the pile. “But…you guys would look pretty stupid if you ran around calling yourselves the ‘Friendly Four’ and there were only three of you…so I guess I’ll stick around until you find someone better to take my place.”

Quackerjack laughed and smiled at the other two members of their group. “You hear that, guys? We get to keep Bushy forever!”

“Hey, I didn’t say that!” The ex-botanist snapped at the toymaker with a harsh glare that was easily tempered by the visible blush on his green cheeks.

As the two launched into a teasing argument over Bushroot’s place on the team, Quackerjack using Liquidator as a living barrier between himself and the irate plant-duck when the greener mutant tried to catch his non-powered ally, Megavolt looked at the other members of his team with an affectionate smile. For at least two decades he’d been fighting for this city all by himself. Now, though, now he had a team.

Things were likely going to get rougher before they got better for the rag-tag group of heroes, but, one thing was for sure:

This team had a bond between them that would not be broken- not even by Negaduck and the other forces of evil plaguing their city. The Friendly Four were going to save the day, no matter what!

<-Previous Chapter Next Story->

End Notes: Well, that concludes the first story for my Friendly Four universe. I hope everyone enjoyed it ^//////^ I have a lot of ideas for this universe and, for the first couple of stories, they’ll be set up like this with each character or pair of characters getting their own chapter that matches with the theme/title of the story.

Also, just as a funny side note, I didn’t originally intend for it to happen, but it ended up being that each of the heroes ended up defeating the same character their villainous counterparts took out from the Justice Ducks. I always intended for Liquidator to be the one to confront Neptunia, but Quackerjack and Bushroot taking out Shamutt and Morgana just kind of happened by accident and I ran with it.

Gizmoduck was left out on purpose, but don’t worry- he’ll get his appearance in the next installment, and it’ll leave quite an impact on the heroes *cue evil chuckling with lightning flashing in the background*

#negaverse #friendly four #megavolt #quackerjack #liquidator #bushroot #quackervolt #liquiroot #bushvolt #quackerroot #liquivolt #liquijack #ot4 #neptunia #nega-megavolt #nega-quackerjack #nega-bushroot #nega-liquidator #nega-neptunia

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melodramaticarting · 5 years

Photo

My first fanfic on Tumblr! This is for an anime called Bungou Stray Dogs. I’m a little obsessed with the character called Osamu Dazai in it. He’s named after a real life author, and his power “No Longer Human” is named after one of the guy’s works, which I read for research purposes.

After getting an image in my head (concept art picture above this text), this is my take on some thoughts/diary entry things Dazai has on different things other characters have said to him so far. Spoiler alerts for the anime and manga, which is all I've gone through for now.

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Life Had a Meaning?

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No Longer Human. Hah, I was never human.

Other than surviving for as long as possible (a human’s common sense), there’s very little meaning to life for me. I am a creature…that is somewhat emotionally deprived, generally speaking. I knew that much. The term was…psychopath, I think? An old man I tortured said that to me once. Most people set values and goals in life because of a feeling called “I want this to happen” has urged them to do so.

Allow me to present my resume. The world is my oyster. I am cunning and uninhibited by the laws of common men. I am dedicated and relentless with virtually no emotional fatigue if there is a goal. My record of “136 murders, 312 cases of extortion, 625 cases of fraud, along with various other sundry crimes” should prove these points if nothing else. Or did I really do those things for a reason in the first place?

So tell me.

What exactly is the point of living? I can own the world around me, destroy it, nip it’s buds and watch it re-grow in morbid fascination, but it wouldn't even be worth the work put in for it. Logically speaking.

Why does it matter? Is it because someone assigned the act of living a value?

“...man fears death and yet, at the same time, man is drawn to death… It is a singular event in one’s life that none may reverse.”

I wanted to unravel the secret in that phrase. I thought it would give me reason to live if I solved it’s puzzle, so I decided to use life for it instead. It became my raison d’etre, for death. That which has evaded me to this day. Successful suicide has proved to be a long-term project I must put everything into. And sadly, In the meantime, I’ll have to live. Ah, how I want to sleep till the end of the world like a log instead. The physical pain suicide attempts usually give me aren't that nice. As opposed to what everyone thinks, I’m just used to it.

The pain of drowning in your own blood when your lungs are punctured by bullets, it gives a burning sensation like your chest is on fire. The pain of involuntarily gasping for air when they don’t fill up because it’s leaking at the same time. The pain of actual water flooding your lungs when you drown in a river, when you can’t fight the involuntary response of your mouth opening to breathe anymore. The nausea that takes over your head when low blood pressure settles in, because you lost too much blood. Your body fights when you tell it to stop wasting effort, so you just let it. Then it gets excited all on it’s own, pumping blood more fiercely than ever to keep you awake and functioning. Sometimes weird things pop up, like that “life flashing before your eyes” thing. I just see a hole most of the time though.

It’s like an alarm clock you can’t snooze, so annoying. Then it gets really, really cold. I totally can’t stand those things. Just like that GSS Soldier who attacked Randou-san. I asked him if he wanted me to cut it short. Even though it was more than he deserved. I thought I’d be kind, but Chuuya stopped me.

Oh…right. A human doesn't think like this. I must carefully manage my persona on display. Like that scene I staged for him when we went to rescue Q in one of The Guild’s basements. I threw the knife down and muttered a logical half-hearted excuse for not killing him, like keeping myself valuable to the mafia. In truth I could already think of so many other ways to achieve the same effect, but one must be tactful when playing human. A moment of giddiness bubbled across the surface of my sinful pride as Chuuya said, “how naïve. Your goody two-shoes act also puts me off.”

Despite practicing over ten thousand hours, I've yet to achieve true mastery. Dogs can still sniff me out if I don’t keep them occupied, even the occasional human that acts like one. When someone comes close enough scratch the surface, they see The Hole, and they run in fear. I am a hopeless cannibal, serving this bottomless pit that will never be satisfied. If only I could find something that could fill it up.

“You told me that you might find a reason to live if you lived in world of violence and bloodshed..”

My hand slipped off the edge. No, don’t talk about that Odasaku. Now’s not the time.

“I did, but who cares-“ The edges of the hole are further crumbling away. Didn't that man see it?

“You won’t find it.”

…What are you saying, Odasaku? That’s not true. Don’t tell me that. It’s not. You’re wrong, Odasaku, please be wrong. Stop it.

“You must know that already. Whether you’re on the side who kills people, or the side who saves people. Nothing beyond what you expect will appear. Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity.”

What are you doing? You’re scaring me. I’m shaking. No. Stop. Stop digging this hole more. Stop making It bigger.

“…What should I do?” An inhuman voice is crying to the sky. Is it mine?

“Be on the side that saves people. If both sides are the same, become a good man. Save the weak, protect the orphans. Neither good nor evil means much to you, I know... but that would at least be a little more beautiful...”

“How do you know?” I stopped trying to mend the edge. A pit so deep, there’s not even blood.

“Of course I know. I know better than anyone.”

Does a monster have to be alone forever? Can they be with others?

“Because…I am your friend.” I had a hole in me too.

“Your methods…your sadistic way of hollowing out your enemies’ heart…Your blood…is Mafia black, more so than anyone else’s in this country.” Higuchi sounded so cold when she said that. I just wanted to share myself and connect sincerely with others, just like Kenji. People always ended up confessing their hearts to him, didn't they? It was just the same thing.

But it’s alright, she doesn't have to understand. Odasaku taught me that day already. Monsters could make friends, too.

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One day I found a guide. Someone who had been where I am, and he found a way out. He told me how.

I didn't cry when he died, because only humans cry. I've long been disqualified as a human, but I’ll take a look at where he pointed. He gave me a new direction.

…maybe a reason to live, too.

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“Nakajima Atsushi-kun, do you know whose grave this is?”

“No, but it’s someone dear to you right?” Did he just mean sentimentality? An emotion reserved for humans?

“…Why do you think that?”

“I've never seen you visit a grave after all.”

“Does it look like I’m visiting a grave?” Am I acting like a human?

“It does…why?”

…He’s just like a dog.

“Was it someone you loved?”

Haha, what a naïve face. Great for molding. I've been trying to do that. A little differently than my hellhound back at Port Mafia. My little kouhai that is strongest when he is chasing after me. Like a beast, without a single care for dignity. Another reason I left the mafia.

What? I didn't just leave because Odasaku told me to. No, even my tolerance had a limit sometimes. Mori sacrificed my friend to get a Gifted Business Permit (I do acknowledge it was a logical course of action.) All I could see from then on was a piece of paper dyed in his blood, that would stain my hands forever, if I stayed. That would be a liability for me in the future. I also placed a bomb in Chuuya’s car before leaving.

Exploited Ango to erase all my past crimes on paper.

Severed the connection between the accelerometer and Ango’s airbag to make sure he landed within an inch of death.

Just a little exchange to clarify personal boundaries between old friends. A natural course of friendship. Then there were the women, right. I didn't know what to do with the women.

“I’m gonna send your address to every woman you've left crying.”

I think real fear struck me for a moment. Chuuya…sometimes I think he’s a woman too. He fucks like one.

He also…doesn't leave me alone like one.

“Enemy of all women!!” His name-calling that night reverberated in my head for a while.

As a mentor, I love both Atsushi-kun and Akutagawa equally, but they just couldn't be raised the same way. It would be best he didn't realize, but I do wonder sometimes why Akutagawa doesn’t understand that. His strength is best brought out by pulling out the rug beneath him. He developed an intense desire to survive in his childhood days, and I attached that to a leash (what good is training a dog that you can’t control?). A pathological need for approval from me. It’s like a drug that makes his growth self-sufficient. Atsushi-kun on the other hand, needed a warm and loving environment. He’s too paralyzed by trauma.

When Atsushi-kun asked me how he should feel about the headmaster’s death, I repeated what I most commonly saw. “When someone’s father passes away, they will cry.” (The only death that ever arrested my conscious for more than a moment was Odasaku’s. I can only say it made the hole bigger, which I didn't know how to explain in words.)

Another reason being his first teacher already having taken up residence in that part of his heart, where his abuse carved out a gaping cavern. It would be unwise to compete for the same space, or use the same paralyzing trauma as a motivational device. Atsushi-kun’s fragile mentality requires my daily presence right now, but I do see him improving as time goes by. In a way he’s actually stronger than Akutagawa because of that.

“Victory is yours, Atsushi-kun.” I remember how his face lighted up at those words. I was right. “Your spirit prevails, and this city is saved.”

And with that setup, Akutagawa will crash at him repeatedly for me, and Atsushi-kun will always stop him. Iron sharpening iron, meaning I have less work to do. There’s too much to prepare for before judgment day, I can only nurture so many soldiers at the same time. Especially if they’re in two different organizations that can butt heads anytime. I even have to take care of the toys around Atsushi-kun to make sure they don’t break.

Kyouka-chan was so distressed because she killed thirty-five people, so I gave her some inspiring pep-talk—and compared her case with Atsushi-kun. I couldn’t let her know how many people I've killed. How annoying. I reminded myself again it was for Atsushi-kun’s growth. Raising him was essential in the quest Odasaku guided me to ---save people. To save myself.

“People exist to save themselves...”

Can I believe Odasaku had a feeling called “care” for me, and I for him? Did we need to be certified humans for that?

“A mafia member who doesn't kill...huh,” Odasaku…are you telling me I’m in the right place? Were you leading me to Atsushi-kun? Hah…if only you could see this. He even made the hellhound I trained swear off killing for six months. That’s so incredible. You were right. Being on the side that saves people just might be way more beautiful.

A/N: Yes, I researched how people die and what it feels like in case you’re wondering.

#bungoustraydogs #nakajimaatasushi #osamudazai #anime #manga #fanart #nakaharachuuya #dazai #fanfic #no longer human

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lcuistcmlinscnarchive · 5 years

Text

After Niall’s Party | Lou + Haz.

Where: Louis’ House When: Niall’s Birthday Sept. 2018. What Happens: Harrys stays the night after everyone goes home and the boys allow themselves to be physically closer than they have been in a really long time.

Louis: The point when Niall had fallen after the karaoke in the very, very early hours of the morning had been when Louis had said to himself that the Irishman couldn't get worse. Spoiler: he did. And to say that he wasn't slightly relieved to get his best mate out and into the Uber would be a lie. Drunk Niall was a lot, and Louis sent him on his way with a hug and a 'text me in the morning so i know you're alive - lou :)' written on his hand. As he stumbled slightly back up to his home, Louis stopped along the way to say goodbye to another group of friends, hugs all round before he moved back into his home, knowing that Harry was still there. Louis rejected the thought that he'd ever leave without saying goodbye, and he'd seen him not long before he'd helped Niall out to the cab.

Harry: Harry was in the living room area trying to get the TV back to its regular setting, since the party had dwindled down to very few people left. He had one single button on his shirt still clinging shut, his curls were messy and he had shiny, sleepy eyes, he wasn't sure where he'd set his phone down and he could not find his *shoes*. But in his drunkenness, he'd finally got the TV back to normal and turned the volume down to a more reasonable level before setting the remote down on the back of the couch, picking up the bottle of water that Louis had given him earlier. He turned around, smiling lopsidedly at him when he came into the room, "Hey, Niall head home?"

Louis: Louis got stopped once more in the doorway to say goodbye to some more people, and by the time that he was in the house it seemed that a majority of people were gone and the few that were lingering were getting their stuff together to follow suit. He looked around for Harry, spotting the younger man's curls through the doorway and automatically moving towards him with a slightly drunken swing in his step, a casual wave thrown at a guest as she made to leave. "Yeah, yeah, we're off parent duty," Louis joked, running a hand through his hair and sighing dramatically, "now we just gotta try and get him through to twenty six, huh? More importantly now, Haz, how *you* doin'? Feelin' alright, yeah?"

Harry: Even if he was pretty *lit*, Louis saying the words 'we're off parenting duty' to him made his heart flutter and his nose crinkle up a little in a way he probably shouldn't have allowed it to, knowing he'd simply been making a joke of how they'd taken over the job of looking after Niall the deeper into the night they got and the drunker he became. "Feelin' good, yeah, feelin'... *lit*, as they say." He grinned, unscrewing the cup from the bottle of water and bringing the mouth of it up to his lips to take a quick sip from it. He didn't really want to ask the next question, but the part of him that felt like he should overrode his lack of desire to, so he went ahead and did so with some playfulness but mostly reluctance in his tone, "S'that that... s'that mean I should be heading out too, then? Because ah, if you think so, then this then becomes the part where I admit I've lost my shoes and phone." He admitted with a laugh, running his fingers through his hair as his cheeks went just the slightest shade of pink with embarrassment as how much he'd allowed himself to drink. The joint they'd smoked with Lauren and Natalia before they'd headed out had been the icing on the already very drunk cake for him, and he was practically floating by then.

Louis: Louis pressed his lips together in a lame attempt to keep his smile on the down low, but the corners of his lips gave him away as he took in 'lit' Harry. He'd always loved this version of him - flushed cheeks and messed up hair, dazed eyes and that raspy, drunk edge to his voice that Louis would never stop loving. Honestly, Lou had loved every version of Harry. It was just suddenly painfully evident to him that he hadn't seen this side of him in years. "No," he said way too quickly to be chill as Harry mentioned leaving, "I mean, uh-" a soft laugh escaped as he tried to cover it, clearing his throat, "you can stay," he paused again, adding quickly, "if you want to. I mean, we can look for ya shit tomorrow, then. When we're in better places t'do so. The, urr, the guest room - it's made up. I didn't mean.." he cleared his throat once more, eyes finding Harry's instead of looking down at the ground. "As long as that's not where Niall took his mystery girl earlier, anyway."

Harry: Harry didn't even try to disguise the smile that came over him when Louis was so quick to say the word 'no' at even the suggestion it might be time for him to head home, wondering what was going through his head for the umpteenth time that night. "I did *drive*, so I mean... s'probably for the best, yeah?" He said about staying, even if the thought of it was making his drunken heart race. Louis hadn't actually implied that he spend the night *with him*, just that he could stay over. 'Like mates'. He tried to tell himself, but he wasn't buying it until he heard Louis clarify that he definitely meant the guest room, that he hadn't meant it like that. And Harry accepted that with a nod as he met his eyes, drunken sleepy smile unfaltering. Even if he had come to the party driving his own car and opted to drink anyway, he still had never expected Louis to invite him to stay in his guest room at the end of the night. That meant that inwardly he was thanking God or the universe or whatever force exactly it was that had granted him something like that; that had allowed him to have done something so right even if it was just having a few too many and losing a couple of his belongings around Louis' house throughout the course of the night. "Hopefully he was respectful enough to just use the guest *bathroom*. But if it's gross I can always take the sofa." Harry knew it wasn't the kindest thing to say, but it was more a dig at how Niall had interacted with Barbi and really any other woman who'd come near him over the course of the evening. "Thank you. For offering, I mean, s'awfully nice of ya." He was aware that Louis just as easily could've called Harry an Uber just like he called one for Niall, told him to come and pick up his things when he found them in sobriety tomorrow. But he didn't. And that filled the younger man with a sense of hope he should have known better than to have.

Louis: Lou had his hands behind his back, one hand holding onto his other wrist as he tried not to drunkenly sway too much. It was safer that way, to be sure that he wasn't going to make the fuzzy decision to reach out to Harry's mostly open shirt and pull him closer - to be sure he wasn't going to do anything to fuck this up. The cigarette he'd had about forty five minutes prior had sobered him up barely enough, but that didn't mean he truly trusted himself with Harry. Things just felt so delicate. "Alright, yeah, s'alright," Louis said with a soft smile of his own, relief washing over him when Harry agreed and didn't react like it was a weird offer. He took a step closer, reaching over to the back of the couch and switching the tv off with the remote, suddenly painfully nervous. "Lemme show ya where it is," he said simply, knowing they both needed to pass out. He then let his hand find the small of Harry's back, head nodding out to the hallway to signal 'after you', eyes darting through the kitchen when they passed it to check that the door was shut. The house was a mess - even more of a mess than Louis usually had it - but it wasn't bothering him at all. He was more focused on letting Harry take the steps first, hand sadly falling from where it had been resting on his back but Louis was still half watching to make sure Harry was alright, the other half paying attention to his own feet and making sure he didn't trip forwards into Harry and create a small domino effect. "S'the last door on the right, Haz," he spoke soft, his accent always thicker when he had been drinking but less so when he was sleepy. Lou felt his own body begging to lie down, to give into drunken exhaustion, but he wasn't going to do that until he knew Harry was tucked up in bed with everything that he needed.

Harry: "Y'are all done playing host, yeah?" Harry asked, drunken grogginess shining through in the way his words all ran together a bit, but not enough to make it hard to understand what he was asking. "Needa lock up er anythin'?" He asked softly after watching Louis turn the TV off, hyper aware of his hand at the small of his back even if he wasn't all that aware of much else. He didn't know what time it was, or if they were really the only two people left in Louis' house. He didn't know how many lights needed to be turned off or what a mess there was to be cleaned up, all he knew was that they seemed to be on the same level of drunkenness, and that was enough for Harry to go on without feeling like he was being overly hopeful. He carefully stepped forward, the saunter in his step that came with having too much to drink alive and well as he walked, which had him taking notice when he felt his ex's hand drop from his back. The entire way down the hall he was considering his next move, what he was going to say or do to stop Louis leading him there from being the end of the line for the night. And then he stopped, slowly turning to face Louis completely after opening up the door to the guest room that'd been pointing out to him, just holding onto the knob and studying his face for just a few seconds. He could see that they were both just as close to likely passing out the moment their heads hit the pillow, but that didn't stop Harry from not wanting their time together in consciousness to end just yet. He didn't want to say goodnight. So instead out came a question so daring and without consideration for consequence, it was like his last remaining remnants of liquid confidence were speaking for him, trying to ring the last bit of magic out of the night so he could savor it for all it was worth. He only hoped Louis wanted to savor it just as much. He met his eyes, head tilting just a bit as he felt for the light switch to the guest room and flicked it on, swaying a little where he stood, "...Lou, will ya..-" He wet his lips, barely a beat of hesitation before he just did it, "...D'ya think you can...stay?" He asked, his heart feeling like it was going to beat out of his chest by the time he got the words out, "Sleep with me. Jus'... next to me?" He didn't realize it sounded a little like he was pleading and less like a *casual* request until those last three words.

Louis: Technically he wasn't done playing host since Harry was still there, but it didn't feel that way. Maybe because the only time that he'd known how to 'host' with Harry around before then was to do it with him. It felt like parties they'd thrown together years back, making their way up to their bedroom together when everyone had either passed out or gone home. All Louis could do was reassure Harry that he'd sort the house out tomorrow, take the steps one at a time and follow him to the guest bedroom as directed. He told himself it was so that he could make sure the room was alright for Harry to stay in, but in reality he was just trying to cling onto the night and make it last that little bit longer. When Harry turned to face him, Louis got confused and let his eyes scan the other's face as if there were a clue there as to what the problem was. In reality, Louis just found himself subconsciously taking a small step closer to the man who still felt so familiar, hand coming up to rest on the wall next to them to steady himself a little. Their eyes meeting gave a drunken Louis something to focus on, and the first three words that came from Harry's lips had Lou wanting to say 'yes' almost as quickly as he'd said 'no' back when Harry had mentioned leaving when they were downstairs. Lou could feel the sincerity in the question, but it felt like such a bold thing to say that for a beat he thought he was hearing things. They'd so carefully sidestepped these moments - Louis generally keeping his hands to himself whenever he felt the itch to reach out to touch and instead saving everything for those long hugs every time they met or parted ways. But the second the question fell from Harry's lips, Louis wanted it so bad. If he were sober, perhaps common sense would reason as to why this wasn't a good idea. But he wasn't sober, and he couldn't say no to Harry like that. Lou nodded, only slightly at first before it became a little more sure. "Yeah, yeah - course," he said softly, hand finding its way to Harry's back again to show that he'd follow him into the room, even though he was half expecting the younger man to suddenly change his mind. His heart was thumping, his mouth had gone dry and suddenly it wasn't only the alcohol making him feel woozy. But all of that didn't matter when Lou's mind was just a constant stream of Harry Harry Harry.

Harry: The moment that he saw Louis nod his head yes in response, everything started to feel more like a dream. The fuzziness from the combination of the excessive amount they'd both had to drink and the weed they'd smoked not quite an hour before had already been enough to make reality feel slightly altered around them, but this shift in the atmosphere between them was indescribably different than anything else that had happened over the course of the evening. He felt Louis' hand at his back again and even if a part of him was nervous, he found the contact put him at ease. As they stepped deeper into the room Harry felt butterflies fill his stomach and his chest, but in his state of still clinging to that last bit of fearlessness that came with the level of drunkenness he was right before he his body was ready to pass out, he didn't let those nervous butterflies stop him. For a moment, he even thought those butterflies were going to dare him to do what he really wanted, which was to lean down and kiss him with more urgency than he'd ever kissed him with before. But he didn't do that. Instead he let them guide him, resulting in him taking a step forward, turning so that his body melted into Louis' in an act of pure adoration as he expressed how grateful he was that he hadn't turned him down when he'd asked him to stay, that he hadn't simply sent him home in an Uber in a way that could have left him questioning everything and feeling empty. His chin came to rest comfortably, familiarly in the crook where Louis' shoulder met his neck as his arms wrapped around him in a surprise embrace. His eyes drifted shut for just a few seconds, and he found himself breathing Louis in, the point of his nose just barely grazing his throat from where he had his face turned into it. "Thank you." His voice was throaty and gruff when he finally spoke, "F'not kickin' me out." He tacked on in a tone that suggested more lightheartedness, more joking, but it was clear from the way he still held onto Louis for a moment that he meant exactly what he said. "Or for tellin' me no." When he finally pulled back from the embrace it was with tangible reluctance, and his fingers went right to the last remaining fastened button on his shirt, plucking it open. He'd barely taken half a step back from Louis by the time he was tugging it down his shoulders and letting it drop thoughtlessly to the carpet, hands traveling down to unfasten the buckle on his belt, fumbling just a little with it and the fly of his jeans. Once he finally managed and began to work them down his thighs he wound up backing himself up against the edge of the bed and just letting himself have a seat on it, abandoning the tight trousers he'd worn just for the occasion right there with his shirt, "..Ya want the other side, don't ya?" He asked when he looked up at Louis, worried that he'd somehow forgotten which he preferred over the last year since the last time they'd dared to sleep beside one another like this. Even then, neither of them had ever been drunk or daring enough to allow it to happen with so few layers and so much vulnerable inhibition between them.

Louis: Louis' hand on Harry's back was gentle, the pad of his thumb rubbing lightly across his skin through the material of the shirt in a show of affection that he wasn't aware that he was doing. He then kicked the door shut behind them, not bothering when it came to rest still slightly ajar, and before he knew it Harry's arms were around him and suddenly he was able to feel each time the younger man exhaled. All that his fuzzy mind could compute was the feeling of soft curls against his cheek and strong arms around him, with Louis melting into both simultaneously as he felt the most relaxed that he had done throughout all of his hosting duties. But then again, Niall's drunken fall and Ariana's embarrassing confession of love and Anwar's over-indulgence in harder drugs all felt like worthwhile stresses if it meant that he got to fall asleep next to Harry at the end of the night. "Thank you for stayin'." It was barely a whisper but he knew that Harry could hear it due to the otherwise silence of the room and the way that he felt the shell of the younger man's ear brush against his own lips as he spoke. Louis didn't mean to watch as Harry let his shirt slip to the floor but he couldn't look away, blue eyes following the way that the shirt fell down his biceps and wanting so badly to reach out and touch because he just needed to be close. But he just couldn't, regardless of how easy it would be to take a small step forwards, get up onto his tiptoes a little and kiss him. He couldn't do that when they just needed to get in bed, and Louis needed give into the sleep that his body was craving. Everything between them was so delicate already, he almost hated himself for even letting himself think about it. Lou crossed his arms over his front to grab the hem of his band tee, pulling it over his head in a surprisingly smooth motion and abandoning it on the floor. The jeans weren't so smooth, and he stumbled a little as he pulled them down and kicked them off alongside the shoes he'd been wearing to go out and take Niall to the Uber, but they lay there abandoned eventually. When Harry remembered his side of the bed, Louis smiled lazily and nodded his head barely, "yeah. Yeah s'perfect. If y'get in then I'll get the light." His voice sounded tired even to himself, socked feet padding back to the light switch to flick it off when he could see that Harry was ready and then make his way around to the other side, hands feeling out for the fabric of the comforter and navigating that way. The moment that his head hit the pillow, Lou could feel the effects of the alcohol and weed magnify whilst his muscles started to relax into the sheets. The wave of comfort, familiarity and affection that came from lying next to Harry settled him even more as he shifted onto his side to face his ex, arm tucking underneath the pillow as he lifted the other one ever so slightly in the air. The "come 'ere," that followed was whispered low enough for Harry to pretend he didn't hear it if he wanted to - maybe he could pretend he was already asleep - but they both knew that the offer was out there. Louis just needed to be close, and the fact that Harry had asked him to stay told him that the need was mutual. Because cuddling and falling asleep just sounded like the most perfect way to round off the party.

Harry: Harry's previously heavy-lidded eyes were wide and glassy as he met Louis' gaze, smile easily matching his when he saw it, since he was both relieved to be right about which side of the bed to let himself fall back on and that he hadn't been alone in being unable to keep from watching him undress. Even if they had seen each other in just about as little clothing then not too long ago during their play date at his own house with Freddie, Harry was aware that everything was different about that moment. He couldn't help wondering if it was his one chance, to be loud and clear about how deeply the love still ran on his side. He thought maybe the safest way to do it would be to express his desire somehow, just to see if it *could* be just as easy as falling right back into one another. He'd felt it so many times over the course of the summer, the possibility that maybe they were creating a second chance for themselves, slowly and carefully. But he also knew there was a possibility that he'd been reading too far into it, that Louis really was trying to be *just friends* for essentially the first time since they'd met. That they were never going to quite make it back to where they'd been before the summer that had broken them, no matter how much Harry had wanted to since then. No matter how sure he was that Louis could feel it too, sometimes. He pulled back the comforter and climbed into bed as he watched Lou head over to turn off the light, the sheets cool and soft against alcohol-warmed skin, the pillow a welcomed support to his heavy head. But he didn't want to go to sleep. The light flicked off and even with as relaxed as his body had begun to feel just from being able to lay down, his mind was suddenly alert, almost bordering on frantic. What if he fell asleep beside him without making a move at all? Without saying anything? What if he wasted his chance? He was asking himself so many questions by the time he felt Louis slip into bed on his side, and he dared to look over in his direction in the dark from his position on his back just as he was turning over to face him. His breath caught in his throat when he heard those two soft, barely-there words hanging in the air between them. And suddenly he realized... maybe he didn't have to push it just to make himself clear. Maybe he didn't have to lean in and ask Louis if he could kiss him in exactly the tone, touch him in exactly the way he knew might make him unable to tell him no, the way his mind had begun to yell at him to do so that chance he'd convinced himself he was about to miss wouldn't be wasted. Maybe for all they weren't saying, and hadn't been saying in the last three months, there was plenty being communicated between them. Maybe for tonight, they could just be close, and that could be enough. Harry shifted over without a second thought, fingers gently grazing along Louis' forearm as he felt for him, letting his arm come to rest over his midsection and immediately letting out a gusty sigh, sounding far too relieved that he hadn't had to ask Louis anything, even to hold him. He knew that if he stayed facing him that he wouldn't be able to focus on anything but how much he wanted to risk it all for just a taste of him, so he carefully turned over so that his back was toward him instead but their heads were on the same pillow. He positioned his head so he wasn't weighing on the arm Louis'd tucked under the pillow, and his hand laid on top of Louis, once he'd wrapped his other arm around him, his back pressed to his chest. He let out a shaky breath, so conflicted between the alertness caused by the quick, heavy beating of his heart and the fogginess in his head, how much peace it brought his body to fit like that with Lou again. He suddenly wished he'd had less to drink just so he could be more *present* for it. But he knew that no matter what, it was being burned right into his memory, like every moment of significance he'd ever shared with Louis in the past eight years. And with that thought came the courage to tuck his fingers into the spaces between Louis', not quite holding his hand, but wordlessly trying to tell him how much he needed him not to move away.

Louis: Louis was absolutely terrified that he'd somehow managed to get all of this wrong. Even though he felt that he and Harry were on the same page, there was no way to know for sure and that's what was so scary. Uncertainty. For a long time he thought that maybe they'd fucked up too much and life was just going to keep leading them apart from one another, but then suddenly it flipped and they'd been given a summer of reconnecting and starting to intertwine themselves back into each others' worlds. Harry had shown intent to keep growing closer through letting Louis bring his stupid mates to the show in Detroit and the way that he'd put so much effort into spending time getting to know Freddie. Louis really didn't want to mess that up, and something as simple as raising his arm like that in a request for both physical and unspoken emotional intimacy felt like it could do just that if it wasn't what Harry wanted, too. So when he felt the mattress start to dip and heard the rustle of the sheets in the otherwise silence of the room, Lou could almost feel the tensed up anxiety and fear wash away from him and all that was left was the pure desire to wrap himself up behind Harry Styles and hold him. Just like he had done in multiple different cities, states, countries, continents all those years ago. He'd missed this, and the heart thumping hard in his chest was a brutal reminder of just how much. He shifted his arm under the pillow a little to make sure that Harry had room to be rest his head comfortably, and his hand found Harry's hip under the covers as they shuffled closer until they were flush against one another and then he slid it around until Harry was wrapped up snug and tight. It felt inexplicably safe, like they were in their own little bubble and nobody could disrupt this or ruin the moment no matter how hard they tried. It shouldn't have been a surprise how easily they managed to fit back into this - how their bodies just knew exactly what to do in order to accommodate the other. Harry was warm and soft and familiar even after all this time, and Louis couldn't help but let out a groggy smile when he felt Harry's fingers in his. He squeezed them between his own, a silent way of saying goodnight as he fought the desire to drop down and press a soft kiss to the centre of his shoulder blades like he always used to. He started to do it, too, head ducking down out of habit but catching himself at the last moment, instead pretending to shuffle a little closer (if it was even possible) and letting his head rest back on the pillow again. Louis was so tired, but every part of him wanted to stay awake. To take in the change in Harry's breathing as he drifted off and the way that he'd feel the younger man completely relax against him. Louis wanted to peer over and to not just remember, but to actually see how beautiful Harry looked when he slept and remember all those nights when this was what he came home to and he'd felt so, so lucky. It was in this moment - with his arm tightly around Harry and body flush against his all the way from his chest down to his feet which rested behind Harry's ankles - that drunk Louis knew just how fucking gone he was for this man. Even after all this time the love was real and strong and there, and that was the last thing that Louis thought about before he fell asleep.

Harry: There was a part of Harry that still felt like he should test their limits, especially with where the pair of their hands with Louis' on the bottom came to rest on his hip. He knew it would've been easy to guide his hand elsewhere, to purposely rut back against Louis from behind until, even in their incredibly drunken, barely-awake state, they were unable to keep from crossing the line. But the bigger part of him was content in the knowledge that Louis asking him to move that close to him without any underlying ulterior motive could be taken as confirmation enough for him. He didn't need to do anything like that in order to feel like he hadn't wasted whatever opportunity this particular ending to the night had brought them. He squeezed Louis' fingers back, relaxing into him so that the curve of his body was pressed taut against his from their position on their sides, feeling a comfort he'd almost (but not quite) forgotten. Harry's breathing gradually slowed, and eventually his pulse followed, his mind allowing him to toss away the thought that falling asleep meant he wasn't taking enough advantage of what was happening between them. The warm, slow, rhythmic gusts of air he felt against the nape of his neck as Louis' breathing became more even from behind him served to soothe him, to stop his mind and his heart from racing, and as he began to doze off the pace his own breathing began to match. He felt every part of their bodies slotting together like pieces meant to fit finally finding their place again, his thumb running slowly over Louis' and down the side of his hand, the rope and the anchor invisibly aligning as he did so. As much as he wanted to stay awake and appreciate the importance of the moment, he couldn't help giving into the absolute serenity that had washed over the two of them, all while hoping to god he would still have a chance to let it all sink in when morning came. That both the stars of tonight and the sun tomorrow would be on their side, the way he'd felt they were on so many occasions before.

Louis: The first thing that Louis was aware of the next morning was that he hadn't closed the curtains before falling asleep the night before. The sunrise poured into the room and reflected off of the light walls so much so that Louis' hungover brain couldn't handle it. Almost immediately after he'd opened his eyes, he'd resulted to shutting them again and it was lucky that he didn't have to look at the clock on the bedside table in order to know that it was way too early for him to even think about being a functioning human being. He stretched his legs out, feet brushing against the back of Harry's as he did so. The two of them had naturally drifted at some point in the night, Lou's arm still around Harry's middle but nowhere near as snugly as it had been before, and yet their fingers had somehow managed to stay intertwined, albeit extremely loosely. The first thing that Louis did was fix this, linking their hands properly and shuffling forwards until they were flush against one another again. His other hand had managed to move in the night in a way that was awkward but somehow not uncomfortable, hand poking out from under the pillow on the other side of Harry. Lou could feel the soft exhales of breath hitting his skin to match the rise and fall of Harry's chest, and although the older man wasn't really awake enough to fully take it in it still managed to soothe him and keep him in the most relaxed state. Every natural instinct in his body told him to pull this man closer, muscle memory telling him to do exactly what he had done over a thousand times before all those years earlier. Now that Louis had shuffled forwards they were just as close as they had been when they had fallen asleep the night before, except this time Louis moved his head closer on the pillow until he could feel Harry's messy curls against his nose and cheek. They were soft and inviting, and it was no secret to anybody who'd known them back when they were together that Louis had always loved Harry's curls. He used to massage them when he felt affectionate, run his fingers through them when he felt thoughtful, pull at them when they fucked and then kiss the top of them afterwards as they lay in each others' arms just in case he had hurt them. It was also customary for Louis to nuzzle into them whenever the opportunity presented itself and for no reason at all other than it simply felt like home. He'd nuzzle them when they hugged and no one was really paying attention to them, when Harry sat across his lap at parties, as he pressed a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek or more relevantly when they lay in bed, Harry tucked up against him just as they found themselves now. That's the reason why Louis' muscles acted on instinct, face burying in the back of his curls and all but melting into their warmth and softness. At this moment he ran his thumb along Harry's and sighed happily, still sleepy as he let himself settle up against Harry's hair and ignore the way that it tickled his nose a little each time he exhaled. Everything was so much like it used to be and despite the hangover as Louis slowly came around, it was the best morning he'd had in a really, really long time.

Harry: The only way to describe the how Harry felt the next morning was completely and entirely at home. The warmth that filled the guest bedroom from the curtains that hadn't been drawn shut the night before had been welcomed, even if the light against closed, hangover-heavy eyelids hadn't been. But in his half-asleep, half-awake state of being too afraid to move and appear conscious and aware of his surroundings, he still found himself relieved when he felt the weight of Louis' from behind him rock just slightly, and heard the sound of them being brought shut, closing out the morning sun. He was grateful not to have it interrupt them, but even more so to feel Louis stretching out behind him, making no apparent move to shift away from him. That gratefulness was quickly replaced with pure elation as he felt Louis' fingers re-intertwine with his own, perhaps more solidly than they had at any point the night before when they'd been on the brink of falling asleep. He managed to keep his breathing slow and even, his head thankfully positioned in such a way that it wasn't obvious when his eyes blinked open, remaining half-lidded as he gazed ahead of him, still feeling fuzzy-headed and finding everything about the atmosphere between them so dreamy and delicate. It took everything in him to keep himself from letting a full-body shudder rock through him at the intensity he felt when Louis scoot closer to him so that they were pressed just as flush together as they had been the night before. He almost couldn't believe it; even in his wildest, most optimistic dreams, he never would've imagined that the magic might carry over into the next morning. But it was all the same magic and more as he registered the familiar feeling of Louis nuzzling himself into his hair from behind, and even in his state of pretending to still be entirely asleep, he couldn't help it when his fingers squeezed Louis' just a little in return. It was almost too much for his heart to take, as his body yearned for him to turn over to face Louis, to lay his head on his chest and feel his fingers gently threading through his curls the way he had so many other mornings, to listen to and feel the slow, rhythmic rising and falling of each breath he took. He knew he couldn't do that, he knew giving in to the desire to would be risking rejection no matter what might have been happening then. So instead, in his groggy state, he mentally begged himself to just savor it, to let it be a memory he could revisit on lonely mornings he woke up alone in his own huge bed, achingly nostalgic for a time when waking up beside Louis was the only norm he knew.

Louis: All of his senses were now entierly committed to Harry. Feeling the way that their hands linked together like they were designed to do exactly that, the smell of Harry's shampoo and the sound of his soft exhales into the otherwise stillness of the room. It was the tickling of the curls against his nose that started to bring Louis round, waking him up even moreso as his eyes started to open and he had that moment of wondering where the fuck he was. It had been a really long time since he'd woken up in someone else's bed - even longer since he'd found himself so intertwined with another person - so why did this feel so comfortable and normal? His head was pounding, resting against the pillow with his face still buried in Harry's curls. It all came back to him at once, body stiffening momentarily as he noticed that it was his ex boyfriend whom he was holding so tightly. The warmth of Harry's skin was addictive, and whilst Lou's brain was telling him that he had to pull back he could still feel his whole body fighting against it. But the truth was that they'd both come so far from where they'd been when they'd seen each other at that Hershey show. It felt so delicate, and Louis felt so fucking lucky, he couldn't let himself fuck that up. So reluctantly he shuffled his fingers out of Harry's, giving them one final squeeze before he let them go and placed his ex boyfriend's hand gently down on the sheets. He then moved his newly free hand to rest on Harry's hip, half on the material of his boxers and half on the skin. Then he started bringing his forehead up until it found the junction where Harry's shoulder met his neck and rested on the curve there, the curls still brushing against his cheek and he just stayed there for a moment. He let himself take Harry in for a second before he snapped out of it, slipping his arm out from under the pillow that they were sharing as gently as he could manage. The pad of his thumb stroked Harry's skin on his hip once before it was gone, Louis having to put some kind of distance between them as he pushed himself out of bed. His head was pounding, legs wobbly as he padded around to Harry's side of the bed and then out of the door. He stopped off at his room to throw on a baggy shirt and some joggers and grabbed the biggest things he could find that he could offer Harry to wear. He was pretty sure that the shirt he was holding in his arms actually had used to be Harry's, but he tried not to think about that. There was only one glass in the bathroom, so Louis filled that up with water for the both of them and grabbed some Advil out of the medicine cabinet before making his way back to the guest room.

Harry: Sometime in between Louis nuzzling into him from behind, the state they'd sunk into with the curves of their bodies fitting together with their hands tied up like that, Harry had dozed off again into a delicate kind of sleep. One that wasn't difficult to stir him from, especially with something as soft but seemingly deliberate as the way that Louis squeezed his hand right before he let it go. He hadn't even been made aware that they'd been laying there long enough for him to fall back asleep until he felt Louis' thumb graze over his hip and then the weight of his body moving from behind him. As warm as his own body was running from the way-too-many shots he'd downed the night before, he still felt just a little colder the moment that Louis was no longer close to him. He felt the loss of it immediately, which was to be expected. What he wasn't expecting to feel as he started to come to wakefulness was his own dick laying half hard up against his thigh. He waited until he heard the sound of Louis' coming around to his side of the bed and then making his way out of the guest bedroom to roll over onto his back and confirm his own self-betrayal and yep, he was definitely visibly bulging a little bit through his underwear. 'Fucks sake.' He breathed out, immediately grabbing for the sheet to cover his lower half since it'd slipped down his frame in the act of rolling over, trying to think of *anything* that would stave off one of the most inconvenient erections he'd ever had in his life. Anything that would keep it from becoming more obvious. And by the time Louis walked back in he was sure his face was more than a little flushed and he looked stupidly flustered but he hoped it could just play it off like it was the hangover setting in. Disorientation at where and how he'd just woken up. He *was* an actor now after all, right? "Hey. Mornin'." He greeted him, voice still thick with sleep-filled gruffness that he cleared his throat to try and get rid of. "S'it even morning?" He thought to ask afterward, keeping his arm laid over his lap even as he sat up and not willing to move from under the sheet just yet. A soft hint of a dimpled smile that he couldn't hide came over him when he recognized one of the t-shirts he was holding. "Thought I'd lost that." He admitted, smile becoming fuller and less reserved as he nodded at it with his chin. As he sat up even more, he became aware that his head was starting to throb dully, that his mouth felt dry and his eyes were still sleepy, even if the panic that the semi he was still trying to cover up had brought him into a state of wakefulness.

Louis: Louis had half-expected Harry to still be asleep when he'd walked back into his guest bedroom, and he wasn't at all eager to have to be the one to pull him out of that sleep. He'd looked so calm and peaceful, Lou almost felt it'd be cruel to bring him out of that and into the morning of hangovers and advil. Maybe it was just a selfish part of Louis not wanting his ex boyfriend to leave just yet - scared that bringing him into the morning would mean that Harry would have to leave straight away. But instead he was met with the fact that Harry was already awake and sat up, tattoos illuminated through the soft glow of the sunrise peeking through the window and making him look even more beautiful than he always did. If this wasn't all something that his heart ached for so actively, Louis would feel frustrated that they were in the position where they'd crossed so many lines whilst simultaneously not crossing any. Staying the night next to someone wasn't generally something that required any kind of meaningful discussion usually but why did it feel like their passing out next to each other meant they really needed to sit down and chat? Why did everything have to be so delicate that a simple action could require a thousand words to follow? Then again, they wouldn't be LouisAndHarry if things ever stayed simple. "Hmm?" Louis asked in question, pretty much being knocked out of his train of thought as he looked down at the shirt he was holding, "oh. Think I wore it often enough, decided I deserved to be gettin' custody of it," he joked, handing it over to Harry with reluctance when he realized that he may never get it back. It's not like he didn't have more of Harry's old stuff in his closet, but he didn't feel like he had enough to be so carefree in giving them back like that. Still, he handed them over, waiting for Harry to put them down before handing him the water and advil. It was in this movement his eyes landed on the slight bulge beneath the sheets, and as he pieced that together with Harry's flushed composure he realized what the problem was. He made eye contact with Harry, mind flashing back to mornings with wandering hands and kisses that were equal parts lazy and needy, taking care of each other and starting the day off *right*. Louis had to snap himself out of it, forcing himself to counteract his thoughts and put some distance between them as he took a step back and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Erm, yeah, it's, er -" he moved over to pick his phone out of his pocket of the clothes abandoned on the floor the night before. "It's eight thirty. I'll be downstairs, yeah? Puttin' a cuppa on and evaluatin' the damage," he said, slipping his phone in the pocket of his joggers and forcing one foot in front of the other until he was down in the kitchen, cradling his hungover head in his hands and trying not to linger on the thoughts of a half-hard Harry Styles upstairs in his guest bedroom and how much he really wanted to go back up and rejoin him.

Harry: Being face-to-face with Louis again like this for the first time since he'd settled in behind him last night was sort of a surreal moment for Harry no matter the inconvenient boner he was dealing with- it confirmed for him that it was all very real and not just a really good dream. How ridiculous it was that he'd let something like a bit of drunken cuddling go right to both heads, the one upstairs optimistic that maybe Louis wouldn't want him to leave right away. It was such an unexpectedly tender moment despite that, the way Louis seemed not-quite-willing to hand the t-shirt over after joking about getting custody of it from having worn it so much when they were together and sharing clothes was second nature. It prompted Harry to nod immediately in agreement, "I think you have too. Kept plenty of your things, after all, you've earned this one." He made a move to set them strategically on his lap, both the shirt and the joggers, but a part of him was certain in those brief few beats of shared eye contact that followed him moving to reach out and gratefully take the water and Advil from him, that Louis had seen exactly what he was dealing with that had him looking so visibly flustered. The *clear* reaction came with the body language that followed, the way he quickly moved to put a few feet between them as he reached to retrieve his phone out of the little pile of abandoned clothes they'd left there on the floor. Still, hearing him say that it was not only still morning but rather early at that also gave him a sense of relief he wasn't expecting, as if it being earlier in the day somehow might give him license to hang around a little longer. "Thank you." He said before quickly popping and washing down the advil with a few swigs of water, about to habitually offer it to Louis to see if he wanted a drink of it when he heard the second part of his sentence and watched him turn around to make his way out of the guest room again, and that's when Harry's face flushed much warmer than it had before, his heart pounding a few times in what felt like the hollow drum of his chest. "Alright, meet ya down there." He called after him in a desperate bid to appear casual before clearing his throat. He couldn't let his body betraying him like that stop him from getting to spend as much time there as possible, that much he knew as he set the water on the bedside table and threw the sheets off of himself, getting a good look at what he was sure Louis had just seen the outline of before muttering another "Fucks sake." Under his breath and moving to throw his legs over the edge of the bed so he could rise to his feet and get dressed. Naturally, the pair of joggers Louis brought him fit a bit *too* snugly, so he still had to sit and think about scenarios that were anything but arousing, like the urgency in the way his ex moved to get away from him. What that might have meant. Even more helpful was letting his thoughts wander to what might have happened the night before if Ariana hadn't made such a fool of herself- if he'd actually had to deal with seeing one of his closest friends and the love of his life hook up on the night of another close friend's birthday. That was enough to at least flag his erection and make it so he could finish the act of getting dressed, as long as he didn't allow his mind to wander to and linger on the moment they'd shared sitting there at the bar together having a laugh at the way she'd gone about her embarrassing dedication and serenade; *that* would have just made him nostalgic for a time when they were constantly sharing moments like that while knowing with every certainty that it didn't matter who else wanted either of them, they only wanted each other. He was no longer sporting that semi by the time he came downstairs holding the emptied water glass, he *was* however sporting the shirt Louis had brought him, and some really cute messy bed head. "Shit, bit of a disaster innit?" He observed aloud as he glanced around, "S'not as bad as it could've been, though." Without missing a beat he began slowly stacking empty solo cups inside one another, and when he came to one that needed dumped out he took that as an excuse to make his way into the kitchen, "We'll get stuff picked up some and... maybe make some breakfast or something, yeah?" He suggested, refusing to indulge himself in thoughts of what he'd rather be eating than hangover food for fear he'd wake his dick back up and be right back where he'd started upstairs with no chance in hell at concealing it.

#&. ⸢after niall's party⸥#&. ⸢h.styles⸥#posting this ten years later lmao

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ninjadurtles · 6 years

Text

“I’ve Seen The Way You Look At Me When You Think I Don’t Notice”- Ethan Dolan Imagine

Requested?- “Number 50 with Ethan, please? Love your writing💖” from @obsidiandolans

Word Count- 1516

Author’s Note- Hi! Thank you so much for your message and for giving me free reign on what to write haha. So I went with number 22 from the prompt list. I hope you enjoy it, lovely!

I’m currently taking requests if anyone would like to pick something from the prompt list or request anything else and I promise I am slowly but surely working through them. x

Masterlist

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.”

You furrowed your eyebrows, glancing up from the revision notes you’d been poring over to focus on Ethan, who was staring resolutely at his own work, jaw tense.

He’d been sitting in silence, pen clenched in hand, for the last twenty minutes or so since showing up in a stormy mood and practically ignoring all of your attempts at conversation. You’d noticed the lack of pen actually meeting paper out of the corner of your eye but you’d kept your mouth shut, not wanting to irritate him any further.

“Huh?” It was the only word you could manage in your confusion over his bizarre behaviour.

He huffed. Dropping the pen, he splayed his fingers, stretching them out a few times before finally turning his head towards you.

“I said, I’ve noticed the looks you give me when you think I’m not paying attention.”

You felt your stomach drop. You’d thought you’d been being subtle in stealing glances at Ethan when you could. Clearly not. The fact that his picking up on it had put him in such a foul mood only made your insides twist up further with unease and regret.

“I’m sorry,” you murmured as you stared at your notes, unable to keep eye contact with him. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

He huffed again. “Well, you did.”

You bit your tongue to keep from snapping at him to go find a new study partner if the thought of you being into him was so repulsive.

You’d first met Ethan in your shared Physics class, when the drawling words of your professor were drowned out by some colourful language coming from the boy on your right hand side. You’d known you weren’t missing much, seeing as your professor was utterly terrible. Still, you’d tried your best to ignore him but it had been difficult when your peripheral senses were flooded with his choice swears and aggressive crossing out of everything he wrote. He gave up halfway through, slumping dejectedly in his seat with a loud sigh and it took all your motivation not to join him. That had become the pattern for the next few weeks after he decided that he liked the sitting two seats down from you on the back row. You’d finally approached him as he’d been roughly shoving his notepad into his backpack after he’d spent the lecture looking like a kicked puppy.

“Physics sucks, huh?”

He lifted his head from the desk, offering you a shy smile. “Yeah, no kidding. Worst fucking thing I’ve done.”

“I’m Y/N. I’ve found it sucks a little less if you have someone to work it through with.”

“I’m Ethan. And erm, yeah. That sounds good.”

And that was the start of you and Ethan working together. You both hadn’t commented on how, at first, it definitely felt more like you were tutoring Ethan but if the grateful looks he sent you and the impromptu take out he’d show up with were anything to go by, you knew he’d appreciated the gesture. But after a while, it just became you and Ethan doing all of your work together, finding it less boring to spend the time in each other’s company than alone.

So, yeah. It did hurt slightly that he was so put out by your attention.

“Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think you’d notice. But I’ll stop since it obviously bothers you so much.”

“Of course, it bothers me!”

You scoffed in disbelief. You hadn’t expected someone like Ethan to feel the same way about you but you’d honestly never thought he’d be so disgusted by you being attracted to him. “Get over yourself. It’s not like I was doing it on purpose.”

“Right. I’m just so dumb you can’t help but stare at the idiot.”

You blinked. “What?”

“Look, I know I’m not the smartest person in the world. But I’m not as stupid as everyone thinks. I’m definitely not as stupid as you think I am.”

“I- what?” You sat there, stunned.

“Look, I know what people think of me. I didn’t get here coz I got amazing grades. I’m the loud, obnoxious kid who got here coz he’s good at hitting a ball with a stick.”

“Ethan-“

“And it’s fine. I’m used to people thinking I’m dumb by now. I probably don’t help with all the stupid shit I do with Grayson. But I just hoped you wouldn’t be one of them. I mean, yeah, I know the whole reason you came over to talk to me was because you saw I was flopping physics. But I thought you’d know by now that I’m not some dumb jock. So, yeah. It does hurt a little when I catch you judging me while I work.”

You took a few moments to absorb what he said, completely taken aback.

“Ethan, I promise you, I don’t think you’re stupid.” You speak slowly, trying to convey the truth behind your words. You’d never expected Ethan to believe that that’s what you thought of him. “You’re one of the smartest people I know. I love studying with you because I know that if I get stuck, you’re right there to help me. And you’re not just smart. You’re intelligent. That’s why I love talking to you- you challenge me and my way of thinking about things.”

He shook his head sadly, completely dismissing what you’d just said. “You don’t need to lie.”

“I’m not lying, Ethan.“

“Well, why else would you be giving me weird pity looks?”

“They’re not weird pity looks.”

“You didn’t deny you were giving me looks though.”

“I just- you’re pretty to look at, okay?” You exclaimed, flustered. His eyebrows shot up in surprise and you felt your cheeks flush. That was one way to do it.

“I’m pretty?”

You ducked your head, picking up your highlighter to resume what you’d been doing before Ethan decided to speak up and embarrass you further. “It’s not like that’s news to you. You know you’re good looking.”

“You think I’m good looking?”

You snorted at the stupid question. “Stop sounding so surprised. Everyone thinks you’re good looking and you know it. I can’t imagine I’m the first person to stare at you. God knows your legions of fans can’t take their eyes off you at your hockey games. So I’m not being creepy or anything. I’m just appreciating the view. So, like I said, not a big deal.”

His hand closed over yours, effectively stopping you in the middle of mindlessly highlighting the paragraph you’d randomly selected. “You’re going to have the whole page highlighted at that rate. Key-words, Y/N. That’s what you told me.”

You shook your head at him fondly, feeling the embarrassment start to fade gradually as Ethan resumed acting like his normal self. Maybe you hadn’t just made this completely weird and ruined your friendship.

“Hope you enjoyed the ego boost,” you told him. “It’s the last you’re going to get.”

He laughed, pulling his hand away from yours and you found yourself missing his warmth.

“I always enjoy an ego boost from beautiful girls,” he said casually, leaning back in his chair to watch you. You rolled your eyes even as you felt your cheeks start to heat up again as he observed you with that stupid smirk of his.

“Ethan, stop.” The last thing you needed right now were insincere compliments to awkwardly return the favour.

“Almost as much as I enjoy going on dates with them, to be quite honest,” he continued.

“Shut up, Ethan.”

“I’m free tomorrow if you are.”

You stared at him solemnly. “I don’t need a pity date.”

“It’s not a pity date.” You shook your head as you turned to face your work again, losing the courage to look him in the eye

“Literally, just drop it.”

His hand covered yours again, forcing you to turn your attention to him.

“It’s not a pity date,” he repeated. “You said it wasn’t pity looks and I’m telling you it’s not a pity date, okay? It’s a real date. A pity date’s what you’re going to have to take me on once I end up messing up our real date. But until then, like I said, it’s a real date because you think I’m pretty and I think you’re pretty too.”

You were still for a few beats as his words sank in.

“Yeah?” He prompted gently.

Biting your lip to hold back your smile, you nodded. “Yeah. Sounds doable.”

He grinned, waggling his eyebrows. “I’m all about doable.”

You stared back at him for a few seconds, feeling light and bubbly at the thought of going on a date with this beautiful boy before he broke the moment, reaching for his textbook. “Right, time for work. Where do you wanna start from?”

You couldn’t help your little smile as he scooted closer than usual, nudging your shoulder with his as he flicked to the last chapter you’d worked through.

Yeah, you could get used to this.

Thanks a bunch for reading!

Click here to see the prompt list and here if you’d like to check out my masterlist for some reason!

#my writing #ethan dolan imagine #ethan dolan one shot #dolan twins imagine #dolan twins one shot #ethan dolan #dolan twins #grayson dolan #grayson dolan imagine #grayson dolan one shot

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demons-n-daydreams · 6 years

Text

Oblivious

Pairing: Minho/Reader, fluff, blink-and-you-miss-it angst

Warnings: violence (a fight)

Requested by: anon

Request:

Hii Honey :) I saw your requests are open. Can you please do one where the reader and Minho are quite close and running partners and she's just as sassy as him. She often drops hints that she likes him more than just a friend but he doesn't get it and so one night during the bonfire all drunk she's flirting madly with Gally and Minho completley loses it, challenging him to a fight. Minho wins but he's hurt and reader is taking care of him and he confesses his feelings for her. Thankssss

Word Count: 3.1K

Author’s Note: Sorry this, along with a bunch of other requests, took a little while. Life’s crazy. Anyways, as you can see, I was really creative with the title… not.

Summary: Minho’s an oblivious idiot who really doesn’t know how to pick up on other’s emotions. (spoiler: so are you.)

Your name: submit What is this?

It was an unusually hot day today. You could feel yourself tiring out much faster, the heat of the humid air draining your body of energy and making you pant. You and Minho had stopped for more water breaks than normal, and eventually, your canteens ran empty, the two hours planned for your run now seeming impossible. About twenty minutes after you both ran out of water you stopped and took yet another break, leaning side by side against the stone walls to get some shade. After long moments of failing to get the willpower to move, Minho gave up, panting tiredly, “It’s too shuckin’ hot. We ain’t gonna finish today. Head back?”

You sagged in relief. Wiping your forehead with the back of your hand to try to remove some of the sweat stinging your eyes, you groaned, “Shuck, yes. ‘Bout to sweat my buggin’ tits off.”

Minho snorted, shoving your shoulder. “Aww,” he mocked playfully, “we can’t have that, now, can we, she-bean?” You let yourself believe that you didn’t imagine the once-over he gave you. Heat that had nothing to do with the blazing sun raced down your spine at the smirk he sent you, the smug little expression unfairly attractive. No person that sweaty and red should have been able to look that good.

You shoved him back, not bothering to suppress your grin. “Slim it, Mean-ho. You’d be devastated, and you know it.”

Minho raised an eyebrow, then lunged, hands coming up to tickle at your sides. You shrieked with laughter, instantly recoiling towards the wall behind you to try to get away. “Who you callin’ a mean ho, huh?” he asked, grinning as he tickled you mercilessly. “Huh?”

“Minho!” you cried desperately, nearly choking on your laughter as you slapped at his hands. “Shuck, sorry! Please! Please!”

Minho was laughing too, and after a few more seconds of your squirming and shrieking, he finally stopped his attack. Your chest fluttered a little when he didn’t release his hold on your waist, your faces less than foot apart. Your wide smile slipped into a suggestive little tilt, eyes staring up at him from under your lashes. For a moment, you were staring into each other's eyes.

“Well, this is nice,” you murmured, a little smirk rising on your face and you laid a hand on his bicep.

And then, with the same oblivious, casual smile he always had when you tried to hit on him, Minho pulled away and said, “Don’t get too comfy. Race you?” before taking off.

You stood at the wall, for a second, stunned. Are you shucking kidding me? You narrowed your eyes as you stared in irritated disbelief at his retreating back, and facepalmed, shaking your head in exasperation before you ran after him yelling, “Shuckin’ cheater! Come back here, slinthead!”

This month’s Greenie's name was Mitch. He was short and stocky, skin a light cocoa and dark hair cropped short. Newt assessed him while giving him the Tour, deducing that he’d probably end up a Builder.

“So,” Mitch said after Newt had explained every job in the Glade, body language no longer as tense as it’d been when being pulled from the Box. “Is it just us? No girls?”

Newt inwardly groaned. He hated this question, and it seemed as if every Greenie obsessed over it. Then they always found out about Y/N, and always were obnoxious for days as they went through what he like to call the “Y/N Effect”. The first stage was intrigue at her existence as the only female in the Glade. The second was amazement; compared to many of the boys residing in the Glade, Y/N was exceedingly competent- there was a reason she’d been made a Runner. The third stage, which most grew out of (but some didn’t, like Minho, who refused to admit it), was an intense, all-consuming infatuation, which was not helped by Y/N’s dry, charming sense of humor and inclination for physical contact.

“Actually,” Newt sighed, “there’s one. Y/N. She’s a Runner.”

Mitch’s eyebrows went up. “You put the only girl here in the most dangerous job?”

Newt just shook his head, not bothering to make a fuss at the sexist comment he heard every month from every clueless Greenie. “She can take care of herself. Better than most of us shuckheads.”

Mitch didn’t protest the fact, just shrugged and took it in stride. He tilted his head as if to ask another question, but abruptly stopped walking, pointing off towards the North Door. “That her?”

Newt turned to where he was pointing, watching you and Minho exit the Maze. “Yeah.”

Mitch looked at you appreciatively, eyes roaming up and down your figure, clad in only a thin, long-sleeved shirt and shorts. “What are my chances?”

Newt’s head snapped over to Mitch, eyebrow raised. “Good luck with that one, Greenie. She’s pretty much taken.”

Mitch deflated a little, watching as you shoved Minho’s shoulder playfully, the expression on your face obviously flirtatious. “I’m assuming by him? And what do you mean, ‘pretty much’?”

Newt laughed at his disappointment. “I mean, the two shanks haven’t admitted klunk, but the last Greenie who made a move got his nose broken. Best to stay out of it, mate.”

Mitch just shook his head disappointedly, before moving past the matter, focusing again on more important aspects of his new life. “So, what kind of stuff do Builders work on again?”

Even though you’d made it back to the Glade early, by the time you’d arrived, the Greenie had already come up. His (sadly, not her) arrival had the Gladers buzzing; the day had been hot and the work hard, and everyone was looking forward to unwinding at the bonfire. By the time the fire had been lit, everyone was bursting with energy, their exhaustion from the day long forgotten.

After about half an hour of joking around, you and Minho had split off, him with Newt and you with Gally. Most of the Gladers found it strange that you were so close with both Minho and Gally, seeing as it wasn’t exactly a big secret the two Keepers didn’t get along at all. But you and Gally both had clicked despite your strong personalities, ever since you’d come into the Glade a few months after him. You’d gotten so close to him, in fact, that you’d been politely ignoring the bets the other Gladers had made behind your backs as to whether you’d end up with Minho or Gally. But your relationship with both boys were like night and day; with Minho, he was your partner in every sense of the word. You trusted him to support you when you needed him, and despite your playfulness and flirting, you knew that he meant something to you that no one else (at least, not that you remembered) had ever meant to you before.

With Gally, the flirting the others had constantly ribbed the both of you for was really just a misinterpretation of your closeness. He was a rock in your life, almost like an older brother. Still, despite this, even Minho had commented on it, almost irritated at the thought of you with his “rival”.

You paid no attention to the whooping and catcalling as you walked with Gally away from the fire, going to help him carry crates of his special “drink” (which, much to your dismay, he still hadn’t told you the recipe for) from the Homestead. They booed when you flipped them off, and you laughed, sending Minho a teasing wink when you passed by him. To your confusion, he didn’t laugh or wink back, an almost angry look on his face as you walked off.

You raised your eyebrow at him but he just looked away from you, still looking slightly pissed off. You made eye contact with Newt, who (strangely) gave you an exasperated look, shaking his head before going back to Minho. You furrowed your brow before ultimately shrugging off their weirdness, not wanting to deal with it when you were supposed to be having a good time.

“So,” you turned to Gally as you both made your way to the Homestead, “you finally gonna tell me what’s in the moonshine?

Gally scoffed, looking down at you while raising an eyebrow. “You really think that was gonna happen, shank?”

“Why you gotta do me wrong like that, Gally?” you pouted, running a hand through your hair to keep it out of your face. “Don't I treat you right?”

He snorted, making you shriek when he poked your ticklish stomach. “Slim it. Don’t think I don’t know it was you who convinced Dan to take my clothes when I was taking a shower last week. I swear, you’re the only one who gets away with this klunk.”

You widened your eyes innocently, putting a hand on your chest as you gasped offendedly, “Me? Wow, Gals, didn’t take you for the type of man to accuse a woman of such a crime. ‘Sides, you were the one who tied my wrist to the bed while I was asleep and made me late for a run! Alby and Minho nearly had my head. I can’t believe you, that was so mean!”

As you both approached the Homestead, Gally threw his head back and laughed, opening the creaky door for you. You stepped past, grinning at him despite the faux-ire in your voice. That had been pretty funny, looking back now.

You both bantered and laughed as you made your way back to the fire, setting down the crates of mystery moonshine and taking one each.

Heading over by the fire to sit side by side against a log, Gally swung an arm around your shoulders as you continued to joke around. His booming laughter rang in your ear as you ranted about Adam, last month’s Greenie who continued to make pathetic passes at you despite your constant rebuttals. You didn’t notice the death glares you were getting across from the fire, too involved in your story.

“Bloody hell, Minho,” Newt sighed, running his hands through his fluffy blonde hair in exasperation, absolutely done with his best friend. “Could you make a move on Y/N already? It’s sickening, watching you act like a jacked-up klunk about her.”

Minho didn’t tear his fiery glance away from the girl in question as she sat with Gally, responding in a flat voice, “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, shank. I ain’t actin’ any different.”

Newt scoffed, thumping Minho in the head and ignoring his indignation. Shifting on the log they were sitting on, he said, “That’s because you’ve been gone on her since the day she came out of that buggin’ Box. She feels the same too, you know, you’re just too jacked to see it. Just watch, one day Gally’s going to make a move on her, and you’ll still be sitting your dumb arse here, watching her slip out of your fingers-”

Minho stood up, shoulders tense. “That slinthead ain’t getting klunk!” He stood there, looking like an idiot, still glaring in Y/N and Gally’s direction. “You know,” he said after a few moments, voice worryingly calm, “Gally didn’t fight at the last bonfire. I think I’m going to offer. Help him blow off some steam, ya know?”

Newt rolled his eyes, watching Minho storm around the fire, anticipating the impending clusterfuck that was about to take place.

You stood outside of the fighting ring next to Newt, eyebrows furrowed as you watched Gally and Minho prepare to fight.

“What’s up with him?” you asked, bewildered at Minho’s unusually aggressive posture. “He get too much moonshine, or somethin’?”

“Honestly,” Newt sighed, rolling his eyes, “you two are the dumbest shanks I’ve ever met. Bloody deserve each other.”

You looked up at Newt, slightly offended. “What? What did I do?”

Newt shook his head, but before he had a chance to reply, Minho threw the first punch, catching hard on the side of Gally’s face. You jumped, wincing as Gally stumbled back before lunging forward, punching Minho back with a pissed off expression on his face.

Minho staggered under the blow, lip split and blood coming down in a little stream down his chin. With fire in his eyes, he charged, tackling Gally to the ground with a wild cry and throwing hit after hit, holding nothing back. After a few hard punches Gally blocked Minho’s fist by shoving his arm to the side, wrestling him underneath him, both boys grunting as they struggled. Gally gained the upper hand, growling as he slammed his fist into Minho’s face, and you covered your mouth in horror, unable to look away from the violent display. The boys all jeered and whooped as Minho threw Gally off, sending him rolling across the dirt. Your breath caught in your throat at the look of pure rage on his face. While both Gally and Minho had both fought in the ring before, you’d never seen Minho this intense and brutal. He stood menacingly over Gally, pulling his foot back to kick at his side before Alby walked into the ring, saying, “Alright shank, you got ‘im. You got ‘im!”

Minho stopped, chest heaving as staggered back from Gally’s groaning figure, turning away to face you. You looked at him warily for a moment before asking cautiously, “You good?”

Minho nodded jerkily, opening his mouth to reply before wincing, hand coming up to wipe at the blood leaking from his swelling lip. You sighed a little before grabbing his arm.

“Let’s get you to the Med-jack hut,” you said, leading him away from the crowd of boys. Jeff moved as if to follow you, but you waved him off, assuring him, “It’s okay, I got it. Been there too many times with this dumb shank, we’re good.”

He nodded, turning away to help Frankie pick Gally up off the floor. You were tempted to help him out, but someone was already handling him, and one look at Minho’s bleeding and bruised face had you wanting to clean him up as quickly as possible.

You sighed, shaking your head at Minho. “Jeez, shank. Let’s get you patched up.”

Minho was uncharacteristically quiet as you sat him down on a bed and rummaged through the cabinets, looking for a clean towel and some wound disinfectant.

Wetting and wringing the towel, you turned back and stood between his legs, reaching for his face. He winced as you dabbed at his hurt lip, but you had no sympathy for him, still a little shocked at his uncontrolled, violent display earlier.

“Why the shuck did you go so hard, slinthead?” you fretted, cleaning the already-swollen and split skin at his cheekbone. The blood on his tanned skin reddened the towel as you swiped at it as gently as you could. “Gal piss you off, or somethin’? I can talk to him, if you want. You didn’t have to beat his face in.”

Minho shifted uncomfortably. “Naw- he- he didn’t- shuck. It’s just-” he cut himself off, refusing to look you in the eye.

“What?” you asked, growing confused as he continued to avoid your gaze. “Hey,” you tried to look into his eyes, concern rising. Setting the towel down, you gently grabbed his chin, forcing him to face you. “What?”

He sighed, face pinched and hands gripping the side the bed, tight enough to make the muscles in his arm bulge. “It- he was talking to you. His arm was around you, and you were laughin’, and I just…” he trailed off, mortification clear in his voice.

You stared at him in disbelief for a moment, hand dropping and stepping back. “Were you- were you- jealous?” you asked, confusion coloring your voice a little. At his embarrassed, hesitant nod, an indescribable high soared through your body. You choked out, “Klunkin’ hell, shank, why didn’t you say so?” before lunging forward, covering his lips with your own.

He stiffened for a second in shock, then came alive under your hands, arms wrapping around your waist. His mouth was hot under yours, bottom lip swollen on one side, and his tongue peeked out, smoothing over your lips to coax them open.

You opened for him without hesitation, sliding your tongue against his as heat ran through your body. One of his hands came up between your shoulder blades, bringing you closer, while the other slid down, gliding over the backside of your thigh before guiding you to climb into his lap, lips temporarily parting as you straddled him. He took advantage of the separation to place his hot mouth on your neck, making you tilt your head back and moan as he sucked a mark into your feverish skin. Your hands gripped at his shoulders, and you let out whimper as his left hand tightened around the back of your thigh. His right hand came up to grip at your side, directly beneath your breast, thumb grazing the underside.

“Oh- Minho-” you gasped as he pulled away, leaning back to admire the mark he made. He flicked his gaze up to your eyes, and the two of you sat there, panting and staring at each other for a few moments. Just as he leaned back in to reconnect your lips, you blurted out, “I can’t believe you thought that I would get with Gally.”

You immediately flushed red, chastising yourself for ruining the mood, but Minho burst out into laughter. After a few seconds of embarrassment, you joined him, both of you laughing hysterically like a bunch of jacked-up klunks.

“Damn, she-bean,” he sighed, once you’d both settled down. His hands were resting on your hips as you continued to straddle him, big smiles of both of your faces. “Guess I shoulda said somethin’ earlier, huh?” His expression shifted to slight indignation. “Though it ain’t like you gave me any indication!”

Your face dropped, and you stared at him in exasperated disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?” At the flat look he sent you, you threw your hands up in the air, climbing off his lap. “I can’t believe you, Minho!”

You walked away from him, trying to hide the amused grin on your face as he trailed after, calling for you to come back.

@mrsbarness, @arulaa,@ty-picalfangirl

#minho #minho imagine #imagine #the maze runner #reader insert #the maze runner imagine #minho x reader #tmr #tmr imagine

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