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questioningwriter · 11 months

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inspired by this prompt

(It was supposed to be a one-shot, I swear. But it was longer than anticipated, so probably going to make a second part to this one. I have got to start doing more one-shots, or else I'm going to overdo it.)

(Also: I have actual followers!!!!! I didn't expect that!!!!!!! This one is for you guys!!!)

Edit: Fixed the links!

Hostage

Part 2

TW: drug use, Kidnapping, hostage

Villain woke slowly. Everything seemed hazy, like it happened in a dream.

But it was not a dream, no matter how much he wished it was.

Villain fought to sit up. He were laying on a couch in a room that looked to be an office. An office that looked strangely familiar.

"Oh, you're awake." Villain looked over to see Hero at his desk. "I was wondering when the drug would wear off."

"W-what?" Villain asked. "W-where am I? Why am I here?"

"You're in my office. The one at the Agency." Hero said, standing from the desk to approach his nemesis. "And I'm supposed to hold you hostage until Supervillain is caught."

Villain gaped up at their nemesis. He'd been tricked. Tricked and manipulated into letting down his guard, then abducted to be a chess piece in Superhero's stupid game.

"Why?" Villain asked. "Why trick me?"

"Because you're important to Supervillain." Hero said, matter-of-factly. "You're his right hand, his confidant. Without you, the whole operation goes under. Then, he can be defeated."

Villain felt sick. "You fucking monster." He hissed. "Supervillain is too smart for you. He'll defeat you."

Hero laughed. "He can try." The crimefighter pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "But we have you. What can he do?"

He cuffed Villain to the couch, then left the room. Villain felt tears sting his eyes. He'd been a fucking fool to believe the Hero cared about him, that the mighty hero had felt anything for a lowly criminal like him.

"Why?" Villain whispered. "Why can't Superhero just leave us alone."

Supervillain paced. "Where is Villain?" He growled. "He was supposed to meet me here."

"Er." One of his henchman stepped forward. "It's off topic, but don't kill me. I just got a text from our mole in the hero agency."

"Well?" Supervillain prompted when his henchman hesitated. "What did they say?"

"They said that Superhero plans to move against you tonight." He admitted, "That's not all. He's bringing the heavy hitters."

Supervillain scoffed. "That's impossible." He said. "He knows it's too dangerous to strike against me. Why would he pull such a risky move?"

"Ah." Henchman shifted. "They said... that Superhero is absolutely convinced that he's taken something of value to you."

This time, Supervillain outright laughed. "What an idiot." He said. "What kind of leverage could he have over me? There's nothing he could take."

Laughter. The Supervillain turned around to find Superhero bent over, laughing his ass off.

"What's so funny?" Supervillain asked. "I'm serious, what are you laughing at?"

"Oh, wow." Superhero stood up eyes still dancing with mirth. "You almost had me there. Wow, that's the biggest piece of bullshit I've ever heard from you. And that's saying something, since I've heard a lot of bullshit from you."

"Superhero." Supervillain glared. "What are you talking about? I don't understand. I really don't know how what I said was bullshit."

"I think you and I both know what I mean." Superhero replied. "Tell, me Supervillain, where's your oh so precious little Villain?"

Villain. God-fucking-damnit. "Where is he." Supervillain growled. "What did you do with him?"

"Nothing." Superhero said. "He's completely uninjured. Now, whether he stays that way is up to you,"

Supervillain's eyes narrowed. "I'm listening."

"Turn yourself in." Superhero looked oh-so-smug. Supervillain kind of wanted to punch him in his stupidly perfect face. "Surrender yourself, and I will personally ensure no one will ever hurt your pretty little Spitfire."

Supervillain flinched at the mocking tone throwing the nickname in his face. That-that was personal, only uttered when the two were alone, intertwined in each others arms. Whispered between kisses, gasped out as Villain shot snarky comebacks at Hero-

Wait. Hero. Hero had to be the one who kidnapped Villain. He was the only other person who Villain ever came close to letting his guard down with. Villain had told him how the two had a friendship blossoming between them. Villain must have been taken by him.

But what could Supervillain do about that now? Sure, now he knew that Villain had been kidnapped by Hero, but that didn't tell him where Villain was. He'd need time to figure it out. Time that would need to be borrowed.

So, Supervillain reached into his belt, and pulled out a switch. But not just any switch. The Switch. "Initiate plan A-23." He ordered his henchman. "Now. Thirty second count."

The men scrambled as he turned back to the hero's. Superhero looked confused. "What does that mean?" He asked.

"It means-" Supervillain pressed The Button on The Switch. The whole building seemed to hum.

"-burn in hell, you bastard." Supervillain said as the world went up in flames.

#writing #creative writing #hero x villain #hero x villain community #evil hero #supervillain x villain

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tobi-momo · 3 years

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Your Cupid

a/n: hihihihihidihgl;df im finally posting again!! so sorry to take so long! also- im so so so sorry if this is bad i really wanted to post so i kninda rushed the end, and ik its long im so sorry😭 also i hope you find out soon in the fic and interpret yourself but just to let you know the title is referring to Oikawa, not Iwa.

Pairing(s): Iwaizumi Hajime x reader | Oikawa x reader (PLATONIC)

Genre: Slowburn!!! Romance, Fluff, Angst, Comfort

Warnings: Cursing, i think that's it?

Word Count: 4k

Synopsis: Being childhood best friends with Oikawa meant you weren't going to hear the end of it when it came to volleyball, when you finally agreed to become the Seijoh manager, he suddenly started to regret introducing you to his other best friend, Iwaizumi.

It wasn’t your choice, being here. You were forced to come, Tooru practically dragging you to the gym while you whine and complain, his cocky smile and fake charm trying it’s best to convince you to stop resisting. You barely know a thing about volleyball, even though always going to Tooru’s games and helping him practice when you were little, you never really caught the whole jist of the sport. He vowed to help you, to always be there when you have questions about it.

So with an elongated sigh, and a pinch to the bridge of your nose, you agree. You would become the manager of the Seijoh Volleyball Club.

~.~.~.~

The first practice you had attended consisted of balls flying, smacking aggressively on the ground; your eyes not being able to keep up with them, instead finding entertainment in the players instead. Tooru had introduced you to them, each of them holding their hand out for you to grab and shake gently before letting go and subtly wiping your hands on your uniform. He had mentioned another best friend, one that he had been trying so hard to get you to meet, wanting to complete his holy trinity. When you refused to go anywhere he would moan in defeat, collapsing on your bed while fake pouting and turning around to pretend that “y/n doesn’t love me anymore”. You would always just hit him with a pillow after that, resulting in an all out war. You had assumed the other guy refused as well, as Tooru never mentioned if his poor friend desired to meet you.

You guessed even after the ace met you for the first time the desire still never came up, his nonchalant nod and monotone greeting of his name showing proof of that, even before he turned around to walk away without a care in the world. He never took your hand, he never even looked at you; must have been too busy, throwing the ball in the air before running and leaping upwards, smacking the ball on the other side of the court, a loud grunt bleeding through his throat when he misses his target, running to and under the net to receive the ball. You watched him, pupils stuck on the way his body moved so flawlessly through the air, the way his rough, calloused hand hits the ball, making it mold around his palm and forcing it through the air without resistance, the loud slap that echoed throughout the gym when the ball made contact with the polished floors, the annoyed glare he made when the ball didn’t go where it was supposed to.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

“Y/nnnnnnn,” Tooru mewled, his fingers waving in front of your face, his fingers snapping together to grab your attention. His head turns, eyes widening dramatically when he finds what you were so distracted by.

Only regret ran through his mind at that moment.

~.~.~.~

You had attended most of Tooru’s games, but you had never really paid attention, as your eyes kept drifting towards the scoreboard and the clock, impatiently waiting for the final whistle to be blown. This game however, was different. Your attention was nailed to this game, your hair pulled back and your hands gripping the rotation sheet ever so tightly, your breath coming in hitches when the score rises, the atmosphere becoming so much more intense than you remember.

Awe was painted all over your face as you gaze at your best friend setting the ball so beautifully among the court, it flying towards the wing spiker just in time for him to strike it down on the other side of the net, gusts of wind following after- the hair of the libero on the other team fluffing up as they stare at the number four player. You watch him smirk in victory and his hands balling up in congratulating fists. The rest of his teammates whooped and cheered, patting him harshly on the back, a shared smile between him and Tooru before their knuckles joined in a tiny bump before returning to their sides.

Then, his eyes went to yours. The sweat dripping down his heated face and his heaving chest disappeared after you caught a glimpse of his green iris’. They were piercing; cutting into your brain and engraving themselves in your memory. How were you ever going to get them out of your mind?

You didn’t notice him walking towards you, his arms slightly swaying back and forth as he walked, his quiet footsteps picking up speed only a tad towards you. Then, as your mouth opens in an attempt to speak, the light of his green eyes floods your pupils when the words catch in your throat. “I- you were-”

“Y/n-chan! How’d you think of the game? Being so up close and personal like that has to make a difference from the stands, right?” Tooru’s voice bleeds straight into your hearing, interrupting your stutter. This was one thing you’d have to thank him for later.

~.~.~.~

“Wait, I’m confused, what’s that for?” You point to an arrow on your clipboard, looking up in confusion towards anyone who would listen. The captain was busy announcing whatever he wanted to the team, making them groan in annoyance and roll their eyes, Tooru only continuing with his story.

“What’s what for?” You heard from beside you, the low grumble of his voice seeping into your ears, making you jump backwards. The palms of his hands move to grip your arms firmly so as to not let you lose balance, his rough fingers wrapping around the flesh of your arm to pull you back up. He only stares, more of a glare, if you were being honest. He looked madly confused, or it may have been his resting bitch face, you don’t know. It wasn’t until you were back on your feet when you decided to speak up again, subtly avoiding eye contact by letting your eyes zip from random item to item, finding purchase on the metal clip of the plastic board you were holding.

“Uhm, I’m just confused about what play this is,” you say, your finger pointing towards the specific circle and arrow you were questioning. His head tilts downward, his eyebrows furrowing as he narrows in towards your problem, a hand on his chin.

“That’s a back row attack.”

“A what?” You question, looking up towards him for an explanation, only finding his eyes still stuck on the paper.

“A back row attack. It’s when a hitter from the back row jumps up towards the ten-foot line and hits the ball on the other side,” he abbreviates, a little hand gesture making its way through the air.

“Oh, really? How would that work? Why wouldn’t the setter just toss the ball to a front row player?” Volleyball gets more confusing everytime you think about it. He glimpsed up at you, took a short breath, then shifted his feet, like he was getting ready for a long conversation; you just stood there, waiting for him to explain a little bit more before taking a quick look around the gym, the cart of balls standing out to your line of vision. You hold a smirk, his head following your movements as you turn around to set the clipboard on the bench and walk towards the cart full of balls, picking one up and bouncing it on the floor.

A single eyebrow raises, but he still follows you to the court. “So, if I were to toss...to,” you put a finger on your chin, pondering, “back there,” you point to middle-back, taking a step towards the spot, “where would I be over here?”

He understood immediately, nodding his head as his legs made their way to you, scaling the court with narrow eyes once he halts beside you. “Well, depending on the play and the rotation, you could be anywhere on the court, so you could toss to them from pretty much any position.” His explanation sounded brief, vague. It was just enough for you to get the idea, though.

“Uh, go stand over there,” he urges, pointing to the middle back position. “Do you know how to hit a ball?” You look at him incredulously, feeling a little embarrassed to say you barely know how to do your approach.

“Not...really?” You compromise, shrugging as you backpedal to the back row position.

“Here,” he jogs up to you, handing you the ball, “take this and go to where I was just now.” You comply, heading over to that position, shifting the ball between your hands. “Give me one.”

“What?” You question him as he pulls his ankle back up towards his back, stretching his quad.

“Toss me one and watch me.” Oh.

You do as told, under-handingly tossing the ball up towards the ten foot line, studying his footwork. His form was perfect, you thought, his right foot leading his approach until he jumps into the air, practically flying flawlessly as his arm comes up behind him at a perfect angle to shoot the ball straight down one of the back corners.

The setter on the other side of the court could see the sparkle in your eyes, the glistening of awe in your face as you admire his best friend. He had a feeling you would like him once you met him, but not like this. The idea of you two suddenly being fond of each other ate away at him, like he was about to lose someone. Maybe two.

~.~.~.~

Away games were the worst. You hated sharing a small bus with smelly boys who don’t know a thing called “boundaries”. They hover over you, their arms flailing and their mouths running. You were annoyed, to say the least, trying to refrain from rolling your eyes at the boy's antics, crossing your arms to separate yourself from them. You didn’t even get the chance to sit next to Tooru, who got stuck on the inside of Kindaichi, messing around with Matsukawa and Makki.

You were uncoincidentally stuck with the captain’s best friend, Iwaizumi. You didn’t mind him of course, as he would put Tooru’s ego in place and tell everyone to shut up before you explode on them. You didn’t know if he noticed your irritation, your bugged eyes staring out the window, your head leaning against the glass. His head was also turned your way, you guessed to doze off to the moving trees outside, but you didn’t notice the way his eyes focused on your hair, subconsciously trying to count the strands while you look away, your eyelids drooping downwards ever so often.

Your dreary state was interrupted by a plastic water bottle being caught in the air, your nose coming face to face with a hand- the hand of the man sitting next to you, you infer.

“Guys, what the hell did I just say? Stop throwing shit around!” He yells towards his teammates, their playful demeanor turning pensive, their heads rotating away guiltily.

“Thanks,” you mutter, the words barely leaving your throat when he pulls away.

“No problem,” he dismisses, forcing himself to not glance up at you when he shoves the bottle in Makki’s hands.

“Hey- what the hell?” Makki whines.

“It’s yours, dumbass, take it.”

~.~.~.~

The red marker covering the white page gawked at you, showing you how you weren’t good enough for anything better. You couldn’t look at it any longer, the bottom lip of your frown quivering before you bring the inside of your elbow up to your mouth, muffling your sniffles and absorbing the steamy tears that scurry down your raw cheeks. You were better than this, what the hell is wrong with you?

Hiding in the storage closet wasn’t a good idea, The initial plan was clever, sneaking in there to calm yourself down before practice, needing to keep an optimistic mindset. That plan was ruined as soon as you broke down though, slow, and quiet but clear footsteps closing in on the door, like they were leaning their ear in to listen. Your mind hadn’t kept up with the time, as you hiccupped and sobbed even after the door was opened and light shined through the dark.

“Y/n?” You whipped your head away, refusing to look at them as you deal with your mortification. They scoot in, shutting the door until only a little line of light cracked through. “Y/n, what happened?” They sat next to you, closely you may add, dipping their head down to try and see your face. You avoid them, trying your hardest not to cry in front of them. “Don’t turn away from me, look at me,” they hush, placing their fingertips on your forearms, gently pulling them towards their direction, your head hanging down as your arms are removed from your mouth. “Look at me.”

You sniffle with exhaustion as you drag your head up, finally letting them inspect your glassy eyes, tears continuing to run down without fail. They had felt the hot liquid stream down their thumb as they wiped it away from your face, caressing your cheek as you fret.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

You shake your head.

“Do you want my help?”

You nod. And you don’t move away when you find the vice captain’s hand reaching behind your head to cradle it as you whimper in his shoulder.

~.~.~.~

Study sessions with Iwaizumi became a regular thing. Whether it was him coming to your house and staying for dinner, or it was you falling asleep on his desk, you two never stopped doing it. Even after your grades went back up, the red marker leaving your memory almost completely when you get your new tests back. He gave you a look of approval, nodding his head a single time to show his acknowledgement. He wasn’t surprised when you came up to him and tugged him into a tight embrace, his large hands coming to hold your figure like second nature. He was used to this, your excited hugs and your bursts of energy and your lack of an attention span and your bright and sunny nature. It was funny to him how much other people burn you out, like a dying fire that needs more gasoline.

The second your body hit his, a breath slipped out, creating a little chuckle that filled your ears, the cozy warmth of his chest slightly leaning into you.

“Finally! I finally did it. Proud ‘a me?” You smirk at him, feeling a little full of yourself at the moment.

“Sure, sure, yeah,” he replies, slowly shoving your body off his, your feet stumbling as you let go of him, struggling to find balance. The hands wrapped around your arms keep you firmly planted on the ground, gently letting go the moment you stop moving around. They dive straight into his pockets, his head lifting to see your cheery expression. “You did good.”

You only smile in response, opening your mouth before a hand was planted on your shoulder.

“Y/n-chan! How’d you do? I heard trusty Iwa-chan helped you study!”

“Shut up, Shittykawa,” Iwaizumi grumbles.

“I did really well, thanks to trusty Iwa-chan,” you emphasize, a glare shooting your way once the sound of your voice finds Iwaizumi’s ears. He didn’t like that. Tooru giggled, his hand half-covering his mouth to ‘try’ and stifle his laugh.

“Well, I did amazing too, in case you guys wanted to know.” A cocky grin made its way through Tooru’s face.

“We didn’t.”

“That’s awesome, Tooru!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m amazing.”

“Shut up, Crappykawa,” you and Iwa both chant in unison.

“Aw, c’mon, you guys!”

~.~.~.~

“I have to admit something, Y/n,” Tooru blurts in your room while he sits on your bed, his head hanging low while his fingers trace the thread patterns of your blanket. You spin your chair to face him, the atmosphere brought down when you see his quiet expression. Oikawa Tooru was never quiet.

“I thought letting you two meet was a good idea, I wanted us to be the power trio,” he strained a chuckle. “I just didn’t know that you two would become more than friends.” Your eyes expand, your breath immediately slowed and your movements coming to a full stop.

‘What do you mean by that, Tooru?”

“You know what I mean,” he waves you off dismissively. “I see the way you look at him, Y/n. I see the way he looks at you. I’m like the biggest third wheel in the world.”

You were confused, shocked. Was what was coming out of his mouth true? Did you really have different feelings about him than anyone else? Did he have them for you?

“I was mad, at first.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Like, really mad. I didn’t want you guys to have all that lovey-dovey stuff together when I’m right here, you know,” he gestures to himself; your head tilts in understanding, nodding. “I guess you could say I was jealous. It just irked me that you two never wanted to meet and then when you do you immediately fall head over heels for each other, completely ignoring the fact that I was the one to bring you two together.” He didn’t feel left out, like he did before, though. He had watched you two for a while, realizing that you two need him just as much as he needs you and you two need each other. He felt as if this was really who he belonged with. You guys.

You just stared at him, the cogs in your brain trying their best to process his words, your fingers coming together into a fidget. Your wide eyes landed on his, and although his pupils were nailed to the bed, you could see the sadness that didn’t belong. His eyebrows were furrowed in a way that made him look like he was worried, regretful, yet his lips stayed thinned together as his hair dangled in front of him. You could tell he was trying really hard to say this. Even if it was The Oikawa Tooru, he wasn’t invincible.

You try to recall all the times you’ve met with Iwaizumi, all the conversations you had, all the tiny contact you made when your fingers had mistaken each other’s arm or fingers for the textbook, all the times he caught your lingering gaze, but refused to let it go, the times he caught up with you after practice, slightly jogging towards you and stopping once he reaches the same spot as you- you naturally having to speed up every once in a while as his legs were much longer than yours.

“You’re right,” you mumble, your words coming out slow and smooth, your eyes focusing back on him from the blurry space you just dropped yourself in. His eyes have a double-take on your face, moving back and forth from the blanket to your face of realization. “I do like him more than a friend. And it’s because of you.” His back stretches upwards, sitting up straight. “So, thank you, Tooru.” It was now his turn to be utterly stunned- thank...you? “I’m glad you convinced me to join the volleyball club, to meet Iwaizumi, to allow us to have these experiences together, thank you.”

What could he say? “Your welcome”? It seemed unfit for the situation, he figured. So instead of plastering on a confident smirk and showing his “Great King”, he exhales deeply, looking straight into the holes in your eyes. “Just don’t break his heart, yeah?”

You nod in assurance, returning a determined eye. “I can do that.”

~.~.~.~

The next few weeks passed slowly, like the clock gave an extra two minutes with every second that went by. You had barely seen him, as he walked away from you every time he noticed your presence. He refused to look at you, the back of his head being the only thing to face you during practice. Why was he avoiding you?

“Iwa.” He doesn’t look up at you from putting a ball back in the cart, shutting his eyes before turning around. He stops when your hand grasps his arm, pulling him into a stop. He tugs his arm back, your grip hardening on his flesh, your sharp glare not letting him leave. “Iwaizumi.”

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose while screwing his eyes shut. “What.”

“Why have you been avoiding me?” You bring your hand up in the air with question.

“Why have I been what?”

“You heard me. Now answer me.” Your tone was strict, firm. It annoyed the hell out of him that it made him want to confess.

“I haven’t been doing shit. Stop following me like a lost puppy,” he growls, side eyeing you.

“Excuse me?” Your head bucks back, surprised. With one last tug, his arm is out of your reach as he walks away with his dark demeanor.

Then, he was gone.

~.~.~.~

You had spent a couple days thinking about it. How the conversations were so short, how he just completely dismissed you. Tooru watched you two go back and forth between bickering, you usually being the one to start the conversation before he tells you to fuck off. He was curious as well. You mean, that’s what you assumed from the conversation they were having in the gym before practice, ceasing your stroll when you hear their voices echo throughout the room, your body hiding behind the door so they wouldn’t notice.

“Iwa-chan, we talked about this, she just wants to be your friend, stop being so mean to her!”

“Whatever.”

“Iwaizumi, I’m serious. Stop being so cold to her,” the captain’s voice changes, his playful attitude gone in a swift motion, replaced with a scowl when Iwaizumi’s wide eyes find him. “What did she do to make you like this, huh? Such a meanie, Iwa-chan.”

“I’m not,” the number four defends, looking Oikawa up and down before taking a step back.

“Oh, I think you are,” he taunts, “you too were getting along so beautifully, it looked like. What happened? Scared?” He smirks.

“Of what?” Iwa’s eyes twitched, his face flushed.

“Of her not liking you back.”

The ace stammers, his mouth not knowing what words to spit out as he looks his best friend in the face.

He was serious, wasn’t he.

Iwa stood there, gaping at Oikawa’s satisfied expression while stumbling on his words, trying to find the best one to respond with. But he couldn’t. There was nothing he could say at this moment that would change the way Oikawa thinks, because Iwa knows he’s right. He knows.

~.~.~.~

You were frozen in place, your heart seemed to stop working, you couldn’t tell. Your nerves had stuttered a couple times- you weren’t sure you were even alive at this point. The hand that placed itself on your mouth had fallen to your side, leaving your silent gasps less silent now. Thankfully, they hadn’t heard you, but once you rushed inside with purpose and resolution, the gym door slamming shut, their heads had whipped your way.

“You’re telling me you liked me this whole time?!” You shout to him, walking closer and closer until you arrive right in front of him. His eyes stayed glued to you, confusion stirring back and forth throughout his whole system. He was scared. “Is that why you’ve been a dick to me?”

“I didn’t-”

“Now, now, Iwa-chan, let her talk.”

“Tooru,” you lour, “stop talking.”

“I’ve liked you since I saw that jump serve you did at my first practice, and you’re telling me that you like me too? Even though you’ve been avoiding me and pushing me away and telling me to leave you alone and-”

“You what?”

“What? I like you? Yes! I do! Now can you finally stop acting like an asshole?”

Silence.

“Uh…”

“He means yes, Y/n,” Tooru cuts in while patting the vice captain on the shoulder, laughing it off.

You take a deep breath, running a hand through your hair as you sigh. “Okay,” you exhale, “well, then...are we? Do you-”

“Mhm! He would love to,” Oikawa answers again.

You look at Tooru once more, biting your lip to hide your smile before nodding once towards him.

Thank you, Tooru.

im so sorry for this mess oh my god

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REQUESTS: OPEN

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softomi · 4 years

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And The Best Boyfriend Award Goes To....

Nominee One: Suna Rintarou

Dreadful, that’s how you felt. You moved slowly, you slumped into your seat, you groaned. Your boyfriend wasn’t even paying attention to you. He was simply resting on his desk, head buried in his arms but you knew that he was listening. He just always liked to pretend like he couldn’t hear your whining.

“I don’t want to be here! Babe.” You’re calling to him.

He finally looked at you, “What’s wrong?” He still rested his head on his arms, you were following his actions. Your head resting on the desk as you looked at your boyfriend; wishing for once he could give you some sympathy.

You were pouting, “Mother nature visited me.” It was short, sweet, one of the closest ways you could address your period without actually saying it.

“Well, what’d she say?” You almost throw your stuff at him; only he would ever ask a question like this.

“She said I’m not pregnant.” A sigh escaped your mouth, sure this was supposed to be good news for him and you but it’s not fun when you’re the only one suffering.

“Well.” He quirks a brow at you, “Isn’t that a good thing?” He thinks he’s funny but he wasn’t to you.

You turn your head to look away from him, a groan on your lips, “Ugh, you’re the worst boyfriend ever. I’m dating a robot.”

You were talking with some of your girl friends, some were also going through their own time of the month and could empathize with you. They ranted on how their own boyfriends were just as bad as yours; perhaps some of the others were just a tad bit worse.

“Ow.” A chocolate bar bounces off your head, landing right in front of you. When you turn, you see your boyfriend standing with his hand in his pockets, “What was that for?”

“Stop telling everyone I’m the worst boyfriend.” He hands you another chocolate bar but this time it’s one filled with almonds. He pats your head, one of the only actions he’d actually do in front of people. He walks away as he hears the group of girls coo, a blush on his cheeks when he hears you flaunting your boyfriend.

You’re smiling, taking bits of the chocolate to eat as your friends whine about jealousy. That’s how it started.

Nominee Two: Miya Atsumu

He had just heard about what Suna did, he felt betrayed. Now he had to go above and beyond for you; you who was mad at him because when you snapped at him accidentally, he told you to chill because you were on your period. He was thinking, he was wondering, just what beats chocolates?

“My love.” He was trying to butter you up with his sweet words, “I’m sorry.”

You hum, “You heard about Suna didn’t you?” You shrug his hand from your arm, “Don’t try and include me in your dick measuring contest. You’re still the worst.”

You ignored him for the rest of the school day, even during lunch when he tried to pick at your food, you swatted his hand away. He was practically pouting the entire day, shooting daggers at Suna who had his partner snuggled right up to him. He missed your hugs.

“It’s Atsumu.” Osamu had burst into your club meeting, sweat trailing down his forehead, calling you for an emergency.

You rushed behind the male as you two made it to the gym; Atsumu was on the ground, holding a hand to his chest as you came to his side. You were panicking, “Tsumu, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t.” He’s coughing until suddenly he stopped, his hand gripping the back of your neck as he pulled you down to meet his lips, “I can’t live without your kiss.”

Needless to say, you slapped him across the face; storming out of the gymnasium as he ran behind you. You were on the verge of tears when he pulled you to look at him.

“You’re the absolute worst, do you know that.” You hit his chest, “I thought you were actually hurt.”

“But you’re talking to me now.” He’s smiling, “Look, I got you this.” He’s pulling a rose out from behind him, “It’s a secret though, I snagged it from the garden club’s rose bushes. They banned me after the last time I stole their tulips for you.” He watches your eyes soften with the rose, “Am I forgiven? Am I the best boyfriend now?”

You take the rose from him, “Fine, but as consequence, you need to snap a video of you buying pads, chocolates, and flowers to all the members of the volleyball club.”

Nominee Three: Miya Osamu

Club activities weren’t over but you watched as Atsumu and his girlfriend reconciled out in the courtyard. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t jealous, you had heard about his stupid plan from your own boyfriend. You didn’t think she would actually fall for that; but as your own boyfriend approached you in the hall, you told yourself you weren’t going to fall for his sweetness.

“Hey, don’t walk away from me.” Osamu follows behind you, “You still mad?”

“I don’t know, are you still stupid?” Yes, you were still angered and annoyed. He invited you to go swimming over the weekend but when you told him you were on your period, he told you to just hold it in. It wasn't the dumbest thing he’s ever said to you but the fact was that he wasn’t considerate enough when you tried to explain that girls just can’t hold it in; instead he high fived his bros as if it was a joke.

“How many times are you gonna make me say sorry?” He’s still following you.

You don’t even look back at him, “The fact that you have to ask means that it hasn’t been enough.”

He’s sighing, “What do you want? Flowers? Chocolates? A giant teddy bear? I’ll rob Atsumu for you.”

You were so close, so close to cracking a smile but you kept your composure; turning to him abruptly. For a second he thinks you’ll come running into his arms; heck, he’s even got his arms out ready for you.

“Go out into the courtyard, profess your undying love for me.” You coldly turn away.

You knew he wouldn’t do it, he was too reserved to be shouting professions of love out in the open for everyone to hear. Even when he confessed his feelings for you, he hid you between the corners of the library; handing you a love letter before scampering off shyly. But you didn’t know the extent his feelings of love reached, you didn’t know that he would literally do anything for you.

“Hey.” Your friend came running into the classroom, a large grin and giggle on her face, “There’s a crazy person out in the courtyard.” She looks at you, “He kind of looks like your boyfriend.”

Your heart drops, you’re running to the windows, opening them to see him proudly standing in the middle of the courtyard with a megaphone, “Can you hear me?”

Students have now gathered from all the windows, the crowd answers a screeching ‘yes’ to him.

“I love my girlfriend y/n.” He looks straight at you.

You’re blushing profoundly as he opens his mouth once more, a teacher comes running out of the building. Students are laughing as he’s being scolded by the teacher. You meet him when he comes out of the office, your hand tucked behind your back.

“You’re stupid.” You say to him, draping his arm over your shoulder. He puts a tight hold on you.

“For you I am.” He kisses your hair.

The Winner: Kita Shinsuke

Ah, young love. It made you want to laugh, the way the second years were running around the school trying to cease their lover’s anger. It also made you smile, the way your own boyfriend was bending backwards for his younger friends. The three stooges had all come to you one by one; of the three, Suna was definitely the only one who listened.

“Where’s Kita?”

One of your friends had come to visit you in the gymnasium, you looked up, the pencil in your hand tapped against your chin, “I think he’s at the office, Osamu got in trouble.”

“Typical of the second years.” Your friend mutters before she bids you a farewell.

It wasn’t long until he showed up, slight annoyance on his expression, “Sorry.”

You’re leaning forward, a grin on your lips, “No need. What happened with Osamu?”

Kita frowns, “He has to do a week of clean up duty after school, meaning we’ll be down a hitter for our practice match Friday.” He’s about to return to practice when he suddenly remembers, “Oh, here, I accidentally activated it on the way here.”

You take the small heat pack from him, the warmth taking over your palm, “What’s this for?”

“Your cramps.” He drapes his jacket over you, “If you put it in the pocket, you can use it to apply heat on where it hurts the most.”

You were blushing, your lips suddenly in a pout, “How perfect are you.” You’re opening your arms for him, inviting him for a hug to which he can’t refuse. You press a kiss onto his cheek, “Best boyfriend indeed.”

It’s the one time you’ll see his face go red, it’s as if he’s buffering for a second before going back to his normal stature. Composed, poised, and calm; he turns back to the team. His hands on his hips as he starts to give a lecture on how significant others shouldn’t be distracting the players from the game.

“But.” Suna raises a hand, “How come your girlfriend can come to our practice and ours can’t?”

Kita freezes, as the team looks back on you; your attempting to hide the growing smile on your face. He was definitely caught; it was true, technically you weren’t supposed to be in the gym.

The captain coughs, “She’s our unofficial manager, so she’s allowed to be here.”

“If that’s the case, my girlfriend’s the unofficial manager too.” The men snicker at the comment thrown into the crowd but their laughs suddenly cease when Kita steps forward.

“Ten laps around the school yard, everyone, now.”

#haikyuu x reader #atsumu x reader #osamu x reader #suna x reader #haikyuu scenarios #atsumu scenarios #osamu scenarios #kita x reader #suna scenarios #haikyuu #atsumu #osamu #suna #kita

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saphirered · 3 years

Note

Could you do one with essek where S/O is a part of the M9 and is a Eldritch Knight and he is just simping over a strong + smart reader? (Maybe even S/O saving essek?) I hope you have an amazing day!

I’m sorry this took a while. Work have been hectic so I’ve hardly had time to write. I hope this is to your liking and have a great day yourself 😘

At first glance you definitely fit into the ‘heavy hitters’ category with a physique displaying your strength, on par with Yasha. And while you don’t hide the fact you could crush skulls with your fists you do not live up to the strong-as-a-giant-dumb-as-a-rock stereotype. You are what some may refer to as the perfect balance between ‘jock’ and book nerd; days off spent training during the day while studying well into the wee morning hours. You are a magnet for knowledge and your expertises far surpass the limits of trivial subjects they focus on the arcane. Your roots come from Evocation and Abjuration but you’ve been expanding your knowledge beyond those two schools. The prospect of a ninth school of magic, one you had no access or even knowledge of before brought great promise of broadening your horizons.

When you met Essek for the first time he might have been slightly dismissive. Not disrespectful in any way from first impressions you fell into the same category as Beau and Yasha, presumably just different. He was nothing but friendly and respectful towards you but the moment Caleb asked to learn some Dunamancy and when Essek agreed your request to join in on this lesson surprised him. Regardless, he happily allowed you to join. After your early morning runs you found yourself at Essek’s tower discussing books you had read, things you had encountered and even openly deliberating the ongoing conflict.

You had lost track of time after a quick sparing session with Beau and got dragged into her next routine with Fjord. You ended up having to correct Beau’s ‘teachings’ at times to the point where you took over ending up into another round of sparring sessions with Fjord.

“Again.” Fjord comes at you again swinging his sword. While he certainly knows how to use a falchion his proper technique could use some improvement. You block, parry, turn left around him, strike with the pommel of your own sword against his back and send him stumbling.

“Footwork. Again.” You say once he’s recovered. He makes sure his feet are in the right position, blade angled right and takes a deep breath as he swings again. This time more calculated and mindful of where he steps and which foot he moves first. You block his hit.

“Much better.” You praise as you push him back putting some distance between the two of you. This time he does not stumble but instead stays steady on his feet. This time you strike giving him the opportunity to parry. He does but comes in a little too close to properly strike and leaves his defences open, a deadly move in close quarters. You shoulder check and kick his feet from under him. Fjord falls to the ground and you hear Beau snicker from behind. You hold out your hand to help Fjord to his feet but behind you you feel a punch hit your side. Sneaky little… You take the punch and while Fjord tries to pull you down you instead pull him up, the momentum pushing him in Beauregard behind you and the both of them barely manage to catch each other.

“This is how we’re gonna play now?” You give a ‘come at me’ motion and with a grin Beau does. Dropping your sword to the side and out of the way deciding when dealing with a monk not wearing any kind of armour or protection, you’re not intending to actually hurt it’s probably best to not use live steel. Hands up defensive you see Fjord dispel his blade into its dimension too. Game on.

Beau strikes. You take the first hit but counter with a kick at her shins and a punch to her shoulder. Fjord moves in next you prevent him from moving to your back and manage to keep him to your side. With a high kick you kick Fjord back a few feet. Beau takes this opportunity to go for your other leg but you stand strong and turn it to your favour coming back around with a kick to her side. This goes on for a while, a back and forth of Beau and Fjord teaming up against you. They manage to land some good hit but so do you, to the point where Fjord is almost out of the fight. You notice them make eye contact. You call shenanigans.

Fjords summons his blade swinging down so you summon yours back to your hand, side stepping and blocking the attack with a quick parry sending Fjord to the ground on his ass. This move took you into Beau’s space who took the opportunity to hit you. You could feel your limbs nearly freeze up for a moment but shrug off the stun. If they’re playing dirty so would you. With an open palm you strike against her sternum releasing a shocking grasp. For good measure you use your newly acquired sapping sting spell to knock her prone. You walk over to Fjord kicking the blade away from his grasp, a foot on his chest while you hold the tip of your blade towards Beau.

“Cheaters don’t win against me.” You grin helping Fjord to his feet and dropping the blade out of offensive mode. You grab Fjords blade and hand it back to him with a pat on his shoulder. You notice Beau is awfully quiet after her defeat. You see her staring at the doorway with a raised eyebrow and a grin as she crosses her arms.

“Looks like we got an audience to witness our ass whooping.” Your back still turned you expect it to be one of the others.

“Seems like he’s been paying more attention to our champion than us, though. Let’s leave them be.” Fjord picks up his things and begins to push Beau out of the room. You finally turn around and see who witnessed your little training session and when you see the floating white-haired wizard looking at you in awe you have a minor panic attack.

“Essek, by the Storm Lord. I am so sorry. I must have lost track of time…” You begin apologising as he is taken out of his trance.

“Give me ten minutes. I’ll get changed and freshen up a bit if you can still spare the time. I’m so sorry. I should have told Caleb to remind me of the time.” You go on and Essek floats over to you.

“No need for apologies. You were otherwise engaged. Though I would still appreciate your presence in this endeavour.” He reminds you of your appointment later in the day, or rather now. They had caught a spy with a similar skillset to yours and Essek had asked for your expertise in their questioning.

“Of course yes.” You take him back out of the training room and to your chambers. He waits outside your door while you get changed and make yourself look presentable washing the sweat from your skin and change into your regular clothes.

After you’re done the two of you make your way to the prison making small talk. Essek seems a bit more awkward than usual to the point you swear you see a slight blush creep onto his cheeks at one point but that might just be the cold.

“You have learned quickly. Clever use of your newfound spells.” Essek mentally slaps himself for the way the words came out. Meant as a compliment but sounded like a dig at you.

“I know. I’m sorry. If anyone knows you don’t just use combat spells for fun and games it’s me. It won’t happen again. Believe me, your teachings are much more valuable than to be used for fun and games.” You really didn’t mean to slip up and use Dunamancy for something as trivial as a fun sparring match. You should have known better.

“No. My apologies. I did not mean to say it like that. You use your spells cleverly. They compliment your skills and your skills are… exceptional.” Was that a direct compliment coming from the Shadowhand himself? You raise an eyebrow at him pretty sure he caught onto your bewildered look. You feel the blood rush to your cheeks. If you knew one thing about the man it was he did not just give compliments. Not to anyone and when he did you had not witnessed it.

“So about this prisoner…” You change the subject as you approach the prison. There seems to be some kind of commotion going on and no guards up front. You both exchange glances before rushing inside.

There’s a cowering guard in the front room. Essek goes over to him and seems to have some colourful words for the man while you keep an eye out around. The limited light makes it more difficult to see but you can hear just fine. After Essek finishes the guard rushes out of the prison, to get reinforcements you assume. You begin moving towards the hall that leads deeper into the Dungeon of Penance while Essek joins you. You push a finger to your lips before pointing ahead.

Watching up ahead you see a few unmoving figures. Essek notices too but stays at your side. It’s too quiet and there’s too many hiding places.

“Any weapons on them?” You whisper as Essek takes a look.

“All standard equipment accounted for except for one long sword, a dagger and a crossbow.” Essek relays back to you inspecting the bodies.

“I assume this is your prisoner’s doing.” Right as you say that someone jumps out from the shadows and makes a run for the Shadowhand. You notice before he does and grab Essek by the collar of his mantle pushing him away and to the other side of you as you summon your sword to deflect the attack. A second attack is made but you manage to prevent it from hitting Essek who’s still caught off guard. In your move to grab the blade you take out some gold dust, speak the words and the swinging blade is stuck in the air. The prisoner tries to grab it but is unable to move it, stuck mid-air.

“That wasn’t very nice!” You retaliate with an attack. Hit. Essek manages to cast a quick magic missile striking the prisoner who puts some distance between you. He takes out a crossbow and aims it at the two of you.

“You really prepared to die here? Put down your weapons and we can figure this out. No need for more bloodshed.” You try to persuade. From the corner of your eye you watch Essek reach for his components. The movement provokes the prisoner and he releases an arrow. You just in time manage to deflect trajectory of the arrow and prevent it from striking Essek but the second arrow scrapes your arm, the majority of the impact reduced by the edge of your bracer, it still leaves a bit of a scratch. You’ve had far worse. Essek looks at you bewildered, eyes focused only on you.

“I suggest you do what you save the staring for a later moment and help first?” You say in a half joking manner. He snaps out of it. Essek completes his spell and the prisoner is pulled backwards seemingly pulled in by some gravitational pull crushing his bones. The body falls to the ground unmoving. You go over to the body to make sure the prisoner is actually done for.

“You are… exquisite.” You can barely hear Essek say under his breath. You freeze up for a moment not having seen that one coming. At that moment the cavalry comes in. He makes sure everything is sorted and you can go on your way, leaving them to clean up the mess, currently no use for either of you.

“Are you hurt?” He breaks the silence while the two of you make your way back. You look at your arm. Nothing but a small scratch. But a fraction lower and it might have cut something vital but you know what you’re doing.

“No. All peachy.” The silence continues, both of you retreating into your own minds as you walk, or well, float in Essek’s case. You take a moment to look back at the past hour, his words repeating in your head and his ‘off’ behaviour.

“‘You are… exquisite.’? That’s what you said before.” You try to mimic his voice. You may not be the best impressionist but you got the message across. Essek goes to speak but presses his lips back together swallowing whatever he was going to say.

“Don’t tell me it’s going to take another fight with someone to get answers out of you. I might just have to show off in that case.” You wink jokingly with a half smile.

“I wouldn’t complain.” That comment leaves your mouth agape and you stop in your tracks for a hot second to recover.

“I don’t know if that’s sarcasm, a challenge or you actually mean it.” You fall back in line at his side nearing the tower.

“I wouldn’t complain.” Essek repeats once more.

“Well then, perhaps I should find a nice and rowdy tavern or talk to the Aurora Watch to join some training sessions to grant your wish.” You suggest only half serious with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s a date.” He returns your expression as you reach his front door.

“Though, for now I think some reading would be just fine. Would you like to join?” He opens the door and waits for you. You step inside but stop and lean in a little bit.

“It’s a date.” You say with a smug smile and kiss his cheek as you enter looking over your shoulder. You seem to have the ability to make the Shadowhand swoon and boy, could you get used to it.

#critical role x reader #mighty nein x reader #essek x reader #critrole x reader

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seasonsofeverlark · 3 years

Text

$1 Smooches

Author: @alliswell21

Prompt: Everlark and a Kissing Booth [submitted by @mandelion82]

Rating: G

Author’s Note: Modern AU. ~1600 words _____________

“That game was rigged!” Katniss seethed.

“Lower your voice, Brainless! Do you want the carnies to curse you? I don’t, I’m standing right next to you!” Johanna hissed, slapping a hand over Katniss’ mouth.

“I’m sure carnival workers consider that a derogatory term,” Prim sighed, done with her companions silliness.

“Anything is offensive nowadays,” said Johanna, winded, after Katniss shoved her away.

Katniss scowled, giving another shove for good measure, “Cut it out, Johanna!”

Prim rolled her eyes. “You are aware, this is a charity event benefiting the hospital I work for, right? all booths are operated by volunteering hospital employees, which means the ring-the-bottle game wasn’t rigged,” Prim stared pointedly at her sister, “and nobody is getting cursed!” She glared at Johanna next, “Behave!”

There was nothing Katniss hated more than disappointing her baby sister. “I’m sorry, Prim, we’ll be better,” Katniss glared at her friend, “Right Jo?”

“Fine! But I demand a greasy, deep fried treat, and a big sugary drink to go with it!”

“Yay!” Primrose clapped, hooking her slender arms through her sister and friend’s elbows, “Lets have some fun!”

The trio came to a food booth, Prim piped in, “I’ll ordered us a funnel cake and two giant lemonades, you guys go find another game, I don’t mind waiting in line,”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah…and then we can go to the booth my department set up. My favorite nurse in the whole world is manning it!”

Katniss and Johanna walked past the inflatables and the bouncy castle, trying not to bump into families with rambunctious children, and then, they saw a ridiculously loud-excuse-of-an-eyesore-shack painted in pepto pink, decked to the gills with giant red and pink hearts sprouting from every corner of the stand, and a large, white sign crowning the top, announcing: “$1 Smooches”, spelled in blinking light bulbs, with a neon yellow arrow pointing downwards.

“A kissing booth?” Johanna arched her eyebrows, curiously.

The queue to the booth was very long and to Katniss’ surprise, composed mostly by female patrons.

“What. Is. that?!” Gasped Johanna, pointing to the booth while fanning herself with her free hand. Without further comment, Jo grabbed Katniss’ hand and marched straight for the kissing booth line.

“What—?”

“Come on Brainless, I have two singles in my wallet and a tube of chapstick ready for the hunk selling kisses!”

Katniss was momentarily confused, until she saw a muscular man with a boyish, lopsided smile, taking a crisp dollar bill from a very enthusiastic woman; a second later, the man puckered up his pink lips, and leaned forward, just outside the big window of the booth, forearms flexing deliciously against the sleeves of his polo shirt; a wayward curl of his ashy blonde hair fell over his forehead in just the right way.

“Oh!” Katniss gulped, falling into step with her best friend.

The line advanced impressively fast, for how long it was. In a matter of minutes, which was truly appreciated, since nobody particularly enjoyed being sandwiched between the baking sun and the suffocating blacktop of the lot. The girls were second to next line, but Johanna started sneezing uncontrollably, thanks to the cigarette smoke of a passerby.

“Ugh! This is a hospital’s parking lot! A no smoke zone!” Jo rasped angrily, “Here!” She shoved a balled up wad of cash into Katniss’ hands, and before her friend could stop her, she went after the smoking a-hole, to rip him a new one.

Katniss found herself at the front of line very suddenly, and the man beckoned her forward, lopsided grin, so inviting, she stepped up without consciously deciding to.

The man studied her quizzically for a moment, “Hello, there,” he greeted, “Are you an employee at Panem General, or are you a guest? You look familiar,” he said.

“Guest,” Katniss answered, a little too fast. She stepped backwards, rethinking her situation, the woman directly behind her, gave her a weak push forward, to keep her from stepping on her toes.

The man looked at the ball of cash in Katniss’ hands and smiled brightly. “Would you like to make a donation to Panem General’s pediatric wing? Every dollar counts,” he said softly.

Katniss nodded bashfully, not really understanding his words, too preoccupied with how velvety soft the man’s voice was. She handed him the whole wad, which apparently was $5 in crinkled $1 bills.

The guy took only one, and placed the rest of the money on the counter, next to Katniss’ hand, before leaning forward to brush his lips against Katniss’.

There was no telling how long the kiss lasted, but judging by the aggravated buzzing of complaints coming from behind Katniss, it had been long enough to warrant an annoyed calling out.

“Hey! Stop holding up the smooches!”

Katniss opened her eyes, shifting down to the ball of her feet. She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes and stretched on the tip of her toes during her kiss. She stared at the guy, who looked slightly dazed as he admired her back; his smile seemed even more crooked than before.

“Oh my gosh, you found our booth!” Prim cried out, startling Katniss. “Oh, and you met nurse Mellark!”

“What?!” The crowd behind Katniss grew restless and annoyed by the second. “I haven’t met any nurses—“

Katniss peered back at the booth suspiciously, expecting to see this nurse her sister spoke so much about, but the only person currently in the booth was the kissable blonde man, watching his sister with arched brows and surprise in his deep blue eyes.

“Hi, Peeta!” Prim waved, the guy in the booth waved back, but the next person in line stood in front of him, blocking his view.

“Wait…” Katniss pulled Prim further out, before the mob of angry women throttled them, “That man is nurse Mellark?” She asked, pointing back as discreetly as she could; the man was looking at them with badly veiled concern, while still trying to do his job, as host of the smooching booth. “You mean to tell me, the handsome man kissing half the fair is the nurse Mellark you’re always gushing about, with the home baked cookies and the cute little drawings for the oncology patients?” Her gray eyes x-rayed her sister.

“Uh, yeah,” Prim sounded a bit too nonchalant. “He’s amazing, let me tell you,” she sort of mumbled, studying her cuticles.

“Hey! What did I miss?” Johanna came back munching on a box of nachos, swimming in melted cheese. “Oooh! Elephant ear!” She said, snatching the funnel cake Prim was holding awkwardly.

“Primrose forgot to mention that her most favorite nurse in the whole world is a HE!” Katniss snapped.

“What?!”

“What’s so wrong about that? Men can be nurses,” Prim shrugged.

“But you didn’t tell me he was a man!”

“Well, you didn’t tell me you were a sexist pig, Katniss.”

“I am not!”

Johanna giggled, stuffing her face with fair food.

“Nurse Mellark is a great care provider who loves children and does his absolute best to bring joy during the worst time of our patients’ lives…What does it matter if he’s a guy? He’s great! What did you expect anyway?” Prim countered defensively, stubbornly.

“I don’t know! An elderly lady, with lots of motherly wisdom or something… I mean, every time you talked about nurse Mellark, you mentioned delicious homemade pastries, and finger paints, and sweet bedtime stories… I never pictured nurse Mellark to be so…”

“Manly,” Johanna finished, looking at the man in the booth, dreamily, finally having caught on. “He’s more of a tall tree trunk I’d like to climb like a koala bear in heat… now where’s my cash, brainless, my lips are ready for some smacking,”

“Johanna!” Katniss growled, but her friend waved her off. A thought occurred to her just then. “Prim…” Katniss whispered into her sister’s ear, “Are you…okay with this?” She said motioning to the 20 or so women in line. “Are you okay with all these people kissing nurse Mellark?”

Primrose’s lips twitched, “Why wouldn’t I be? This booth was sort of my idea… it was actually more about Doctor Odair selling the kisses, but nurse Mellark was very good sport, volunteering, ” She rolled her blue eyes.

“Mmm… I just thought, maybe you had a thing for him?”

“For Peeta?!” Prim said loudly, before laughing hysterically.

Katniss’ eyes shifted everywhere, and to her chagrin, the man in question— Peeta, apparently— looked up at his name.

“Not so loud!” Katniss hissed, but got interrupted by a booming voice.

“Ladies, it is time for me to take a break.” Announced nurse Mellark— Peeta— A chorus of disgruntled patrons filled the air, but the man raised his hands placatingly, “Not to worry everyone, my pinch hitter, Doctor Odair, is ready to take over!”

As if by magic, the most attractive man Katniss had ever seen in her life— besides the beautiful male nurse, of course— popped from beside nurse Mellark and a collective swooning sigh rapped over the small crowd.

Prim laughed. “Come on, I’ll introduce you guys properly. You’re going to love Peeta!”

“Hell no! I’m paying double for the new guy! You gals go ahead,” Johanna called, wolf whistling at the newcomer, waving two dollar bills in the air.

A moment later, Prim had dragged Katniss to meet her most favorite nurse, secretly crossing her fingers as she made introductions…she thought Peeta and Katniss were perfect for each other, and she wholeheartedly hoped they would kick it off right away, so when she was wrinkly and white haired, she could tell her grand nephews and nieces the story of how their grandma paid a dollar to kiss their grandpa for the very first time.

#everlark #everlark fanfiction #winter 2021 #Valentine’s Day #alliswell21 #submission #prompt

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a-cupof-jo · 3 years

Text

Set Up My Heart Pt. 9

PT.8 - PT.9 - PT. 10

College volleyball player!Johnny Suh x reader

Rivals-to-lovers

Fluff and angst

Synopsis: Ever since that fateful day Sophomore year of high school, Johnny Suh had been an insufferable thorn in your side. Once you made it to college you thought the two of you would never have to see each other again. That is, until a sudden school transfer has the entire university buzzing.

Warnings!!!: Mentioned divorce and adult topics. Some strong language. Please don’t read if any of these make you uncomfortable or may be detrimental to you.

We’ve been seeing Y/n’s story in college, but how did she and Johnny become so combative with each other? Will Johnny’s high school story tell all?

Second half to Johnny’s side of the story.

“Nervous?” Johnny asked as he leaned over the wall separating the court from the bleachers.

Y/n grunted as she continued warming up, “Why would I be nervous?” A ball flew her direction as the opposite team started on warm up drills. She swatted it back toward the girl who chased after it. “I’ve been to a state championship before."

Johnny shrugged, "But with a completely different team, with a completely different record. Plus, this time you’re going against said team."

Y/n set the ball to herself as she mulled over Johnny’s words. Johnny couldn’t help but watch her. If they asked him, she was the strongest player on the team. A true all team player. It wouldn’t matter where they placed her, Y/n would thrive in any position, "I don’t think that’s going to be a downfall for us. If anything, that makes me more confident.”

“Oh,” Johnny raised an eyebrow.

Y/n grinned, “I may have moved schools, but they didn’t change teams.” She gave him a slight wave as her coach called everyone in. He sighed as she ran away. He had full confidence in the team, but something didn’t sit right with him. Why were you so confident? Did you know something about RVHS that maybe no one else did?

Johnny watched as the RVHS team sent looks to his school’s team. More importantly, he noticed that the glances landed on Y/n a majority of the time.

“It’s going to be an interesting match,” Kun slid into the seat next to him. “RVHS has been undefeated for the past 3 years.”

“They are a foundationally strong team,” Johnny nods as he watches the teams serving balls across the net. “But they don’t take risks. They only play well because the opposing team plays well.”

“Meaning,” Kun handed a camera over to Johnny.

“Meaning, that when they come across a team that doesn’t always play to perfection,” he took a picture of the net trying to focus the camera correctly. “They can’t make strong plays, which then leads them to not being able to convert points."

"So,” Kun hesitated. He tapped his pen against the notebook sitting in his lap as he watched the court. “We actually have a chance at winning.” Johnny nodded his camera clicking. “All because we play less fundamentally?"

"Not just because of that,” Johnny flipped through the pictures he’d taken. “but also because we are able to take fundamentals and convert them into scrappy plays."

"What? How?” Kun furrowed his eyes at Johnny. Johnny set his camera on Kun’s lap shrugging before standing and stating he was going to the bathroom. Kun looked down to see a picture of Y/n shining up at him. She smiled at the camera through the net. He grabbed the piece of paper sitting on the bench next to him. If they were going to win, then everyone was going to want to know about the prodigy that is, Y/n.

He held his breath as the ball came down the side of the net. The setter lunged for it getting it in the air so the libero could set it to the outside hitter. Johnny felt a little disgruntled. The play was messy, but in a way that could have worked to the team’s much needed advantage. Had they set it up for Y/n or the libero to kill there is a higher chance that they would have won the point. Instead, the volley continued.

The fourth set of the match had Johnny on edge. He could see the tension stirring through both teams. RVHD had won the second and third set, but SJHS had won the first and now had a two point lead and was about to take the fourth. Johnny had watched the entire time trying to write down and follow plays as well as take some shots. RVHS was playing just how he thought they would. With precision and not taking unnecessary risks. It seems that SJHS was following their lead, and it wasn’t working greatly for their benefit. A cheer went up from his bench as SJHS scored the final point. Johnny cheered as he watched the score change and teams switch courts. Whoever won this set was going to be named state champions.

Johnny glanced over at Kun staring at the court, “It’s going to be a miracle if we pull this off.” He scratched a note onto the paper sitting in his lap.

“There’s still a chance,” Johnny noted. “If we can take this set then we win.”

“What are the chances we take this set?”

He watched as the team captains were called back to the refs stand. The clock read 3 minutes before the next set. “If we start playing like we should then,” Johnny plopped down in his seat, “If we were playing to our ability and strengths, we would actually have a chance of winning. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.” He watched as the teams settled on their respective sides of the court. Johnny trailed off and the stands went quiet as RVHS’s setter served the ball. “They are really going to have to find something deep down inside of them, fast. Skills alone are not going to allow them to win.” He scoffed as RVHS put a second point on the board.

Kun shrugged his eyes not glancing away from the court, “It’s hard to believe that we could come so far after all the years of never even making it to the final tournament.” He tapped his fingers on the bench watching as SJHS scored a point and was finally moving up on the scoreboard.

Johnny narrowed his eyes, “Are you feeling okay?” He tilted his head trying to get a clear view of Kun’s face.

“Yeah, why,” Kun jolted as Johnny came into his line of view.

Johnny shrugged, “You just seem a little jittery. Is the game that exciting to you?” Johnny glanced at the court noticing that SJHS had caught up to RVHS at 5 points for each team.

Kun crossed his arms across his chest, “I’m just trying to figure out how we got this far. Just because we got Y/n L/n? She is a great player, but a team is only as strong as their weakest player. So it doesn’t make sense. Plus, nobody even knows why she transferred here.”

Johnny frowned at him, “At this point, I don’t think that matters right now.” He couldn’t help the way his words came out harsh and short, “Y/n has obviously become a big part of the team and pretty much everyone at school likes her.”

“I didn’t say that she wasn’t,” Kun hissed. “I’m just saying it’s weird.” He rolled his eyes, “Let’s just watch the game.”

Johnny let out an exasperated sigh and tried to focus on the game. The teams were in a 30 second timeout and Johnny could see the heated discussion coming from SJHS’s bench. Y/n had her hands on her hips listening as the coach was waving his clipboard around. The ref blew the whistle as the time out ended and the teams were back on the court. Johnny narrowed his eyes as he watched Y/n say something to the setter. The setter looked confused and apprehensive, but nodded along to whatever she said. Johnny felt himself getting antsy as the ball was served to the other side of the net. With a score of 10 to 11, there was desperation to make up those points and win this set.

He held his breath as the opposing teams setter dove for the ball but missed it as it hit the outside line. SJHS only needed 5 more points to go to take the set and win the state championships. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t surprised that the next 2 points came easy. RVHS had seemed to give up. They were not moving as fast and they hesitated before making an attack. Another point was scored off a deep float server, and excitement rose in his chest, they were going to win this set, they were going to win the State Championship.

The ball flew over the net and the opposing team finally made an attack. Y/n dived for the ball and watched as it shanked away from the setter. Johnny pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as the outside hitter set the ball up to the center of the front row. The outside and opposite attackers jumped at the net as the setter hit the ball over the net. The other team scrambled as it shot towards them, landing at the corner before bouncing out of the court. Johnny was on his feet as he listened to the ref announce game point. He watched as the setter moved to serve the next ball. It flew over the net with precision, but instead of landing on the floor or shanking off an arm. RVHS’s libero delivered the served ball directly to their setter. The middle hitter was in the air before the ball left the setter’s hands and they sent the ball over the net, trying to convert the point.

SJHS’s opposite hitter dove for the ball as it clipped the tips of the blockers fingers. “It’s up. Go ten!” Y/n backed up the court as the setter drove the ball to the middle of the court.

Johnny’s breath caught as she jumped through the air. The ball connected with her palm before shooting back across the net. The team dove for the ball putting it up in the air before the SJHS defense sent it down just out of reach of RVHS’s front row.

Johnny jumped up with a cheer as the ref called the point and the teams dispersed. He watched as the teams shook hands before turning to cheer or slouch back to their locker rooms. He grabbed his camera snapping pictures of the excited team. His lens landed on Y/n as a teammate scooped her up in a hug. He could help but grin at the sight as his camera clicked. Her eyes looked up and again her gaze caught his through the lens. Johnny snapped another picture before pulling the camera down and sending her a thumbs up. She smiled at him before jerking her back head towards the locker room. She gave a motion that said 15 minutes and he nodded in agreement.

“Well this was unexpected,” He couldn’t stop smiling as he turned to where Kun was sitting. He froze as he noticed Kun, along with all of his stuff, was gone. “Kun?” He glanced around the stands not seeing the shorter boy anywhere. Gathering his things he rushed out of the gym and down the hall. He wandered the halls for 5 minutes before moving back towards the locker rooms.

Voices met his ears as he turned the corner to the back hallway. “Her parents were going through a nasty divorce. She was talking to lawyers every week, sometimes multiple times a week. Her mother was the one making all the money. Her dad was laid off from his job and spent all her mom made on alcohol and porn.” Johnny’s eyes widened as he saw Kun standing across from a shorter girl. Her hands dropped to rest on her hips the letters RVHS flashed down the dim hall. “Her mom got custody and the two of them moved here to get away from her dad.”

Kun nodded as he scribbled down words on his pad of paper, “That’s it? What about Y/n’s volleyball career? Did any of this affect the season last year.” Johnny leaned closer as Kun’s voice dropped off.

“None that I know of. Y/n was always a private person. She never spoke to us about her home life. I don’t even think she had very close friends,” the girl sighed obviously done with the conversation. “It doesn’t really matter. Ask her about it if you’re so curious. Make sure you don’t mention my name.”

“Of course,” Kun closed the notepad. “Thanks for your time.” she gave him a nod before turning into a room behind her. Kun sighed and walked down the hall towards Johnny. “Oh,” he stopped as he came face-to-face with Johnny. “Hey, going to get some comments from the team?”

“Yup,” Johnny fiddled with his camera. “It should only take a few minutes.” Kun nodded before stepping around him.

“Great try to get your articles to me by Monday evening so we can release them on Wednesday.” Kun called from his place down the hall.

Johnny sat outside the room. He could hear laughter and excitement from inside the room. He heard the door click before it was pulled open and laughter spilled into the hall. “I thought you said 15 minutes?” He teased as he stood from the bench watching as Y/n slipped out of the room. He glanced down at his watch, “It’s been 17 minutes.”

“I’m sorry that you can’t be patient,” she grinned at him as she combed a hand through her hair.

Johnny smiled back as he pulled out his small pad of paper, “I’m on a tight schedule. You see, I have to interview this girl that just led her team to their first state championship in over 5 years. I don’t see why it’s so important but.”

“Get on with it, Suh,” you give him a light shove before sitting on the bench he had just stood from. “What do you need to pick my brain about?”

“You were great out there,” he threw her a smile before clicking his pen and resting the tip on the paper. “I just need some remarks on the game.”

Y/n leaned back against the wall, her head tipped sideways to watch him write, “I’m really proud of the team first of all. We worked really hard this year to make it to the state championships. I am so lucky to know all of them and to be able to grow with them. Every team is unique and has their own stories and personalities. I am blessed to have such an open and welcoming community with these girls. Initially we did not fit together very well. Coming from a team that is very fundamentally based to a team that really does play to have fun was such a big change. I didn’t enjoy it at first, it was all so new, but the team really helped me out!”

Johnny nodded along as he tried to jot down her words as she spoke them, “Great! And then do you have anything to say about the tournament or the game?”

“I really loved playing all these great teams. They all worked so hard and played so well. I look forward to competing against them again.” She smiled at Johnny as his hair flopped in his eyes. Johnny would have never thought that having to write for the school paper sport section would make you two closer. Both had been skeptical when Johnny started to follow the team around to games, but the two found that it worked to their favor as they started to work on Chemistry together and eventually other classes. Johnny helped Y/n with english, while Y/n carried his geometry grade. The two fell into a rhythm outside of school, but in school, peers would think the two hated each other. “My dad tried to call again.” Her voice changed tones. It went from happy to timid. “He left a message saying that he wanted to see me and congratulate me on the state championship.”

Johnny closed his notepad, “Would you like some advice? Do you need me to talk to him?”

She shook her head, “Just sit here until the team comes out.” Johnny nodded leaning back to rest beside her.

“ With a Successful Season, Volleyball Prodigy Turns Out to be a Fraud” by Qian Kun and Johnny Suh

Johnny had to reread the sentence over and over again. “What the hell is this.” He turned sharply to the editor sitting at the large table sitting at the front of the computer lab. “I never allowed you to put my name on this.”

Kun glanced up to peer at Johnny’s screen, “Oh we were running out of room on the sports page. Between your article on the volleyball tournament, Wooyoung’s on the soccer tournament, and my own summarizing the two seasons we had to condense. So we took bits and pieces from each article and made four articles. Two on the tournaments and two on the season summary. So some of your articles replaced mine.”

“But why didn’t you tell me,” Johnny pleaded with him. “And how did you even come to this conclusion. Absolutely nothing I said ever pointed to that and I didn’t give you permission!” Johnny could feel his face heating up as spoke to Kun’s uncaring figure.

Kun glanced at him through the glasses perched on his nose, “Johnny, this story is what the paper needs. It’ll get people reading and we can get permission to do the paper again next year. I thought you of all people would want this.” He sighed as he shuffled a couple papers next to the computer screen, “Besides the teacher approved it. If they thought that it wasn’t okay they would have said something.”

“Kun,” Johnny threw his hands up. “We both know that they don’t care about the student body. They are just trying to look out for themselves. If this comes back to bite us, you know they will throw us under the bus.”

Kun didn’t look up at him, “That’s not going to happen.”

“We are spreading false reports.”

“No, we are telling people the truth.”

“About someone’s private, personal life. We can’t do that, Kun. She never agreed to sharing that information.

“She did,” Kun gave Johnny a once over. “She shouldn’t have told a reporter her secrets if she didn’t want them told. It’s our job to find the skeletons hiding in people’s closets.”

“I can’t believe you,” Johnny spun as he heard the small voice. Y/n stood in the doorway to the lab her phone clutched to her chest. Her eyes shone with unshed tears, “You were using me for some shitty story in a HS paper.” Her face darkened as she stormed into the room, “I trusted you. I told you things that no one else in this school knew, and you turned and blabbed it for the entire school to see.”

“Y/n I never-”

“Save it,” she held a hand up. “You’ve said your piece. You’ve said what you think loud and clear. You twisted my words. Made me sound like a stuck up bitch. ‘Y/n spoke briefly on the season stating, “Every team is unique and has their own stories and personalities. Initially we did not fit together very well. Coming from a team that is very fundamentally based to a team that really plays to have fun was such a big change. I didn’t enjoy it.” Y/n showed contempt for her teammates and school as a result of her parents recent splitting and her forced departure from RVHS.’ Believe me I get the message.” A tear slipped down her cheek, “I hope your happy and you get whatever fucking promtion this article was for.” Johnny reached for her arm as she pulled away from him. “Don’t you dare.” She sent a glare at him before turning out of the room and storming down the hall.

Sadness and anger coursed through Johnny as he turned to Kun, “Take my name off of that article, now.” Kun rolled his eyes as he watched Johnny race out of the room after Y/n.

Jonny had almost caught up to her when a group of his teammates stopped him. They had agreed to a friendly tournament against the girls volleyball team. They said that the competition would be fun and that it would boost student morale. Johnny didn’t feel convinced and he tried to listen as they told him about other events they were trying to set up. He glanced around trying to find Y/n, but she had disappeared and so did his chance to make things right.

The cafeteria was busy the next week as the school buzzed with gossip, drama, and the upcoming student council events. Johnny was trying to weave his way through crowds of students as he searched for the table his friends were sitting at. As he caught sight of them he felt a body run into his as his tray flew up landing square in his chest.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Johnny looked up into the eyes he had been wanting to see all week. Y/n stood in front of him, hands raised with napkins sitting in them. Her eyes hardened as she realized who she ran into. “Here,” she shoved the napkins into his hand before spinning on her heel and walking away.

Johnny followed after her, “Wait, Y/n, can you let me explain.”

“Explain what, Johnny?” She turned to him, fire in her eyes, “Why you used my story for your personal gain? Why you let me think that you actually enjoyed being around me? Why everything I told you in confidentiality was just stewing for the enjoyment of our peers? Why you let me start to like you?” Johnny gaped at her as she yelled at him. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I don’t want to hear an explanation from you. Any respect I had for you, is gone.”

Johnny felt anger course through him as she spewed words at him. She never let him speak. She thought she knew what was going on, but she didn’t. He did not work so hard to get Kun to let him release a new article refuting the previous statements, for her to yell at him and doubt his actions towards her. “You’re right. You won’t listen so I won’t talk. We’ll just forget all about everything that happened before. You are a stranger to me.” His voice was cold and his words clipped.

“Perfect,” he could see her walls grow higher and higher. She turned away from him and stepped up to her own table. “Just so you know,” she turned to look at the food staining his shirt. “Food isn’t a good look for you.” Johnny scowled as she rolled her eyes and turned to her table of friends. He brushed the food off his chest before turning away from the table, turning away from Y/n. If she didn’t want to listen to him, he was done trying to make her. His heart gave a tug as he glanced back and she stared back at him, but instead of her face falling into a small smile it tightened into a familiar glare.

@beyond-gethsemane, @lanadreamie, @michplusb @qianinterprises @stayctday @jaxminskale @infnteen @nanascupid

*Reposted from previous blog*

#johnny scenarios #nct scenarios #nct 127 scenarios #johnny fluff #johnny angst #johnny x reader #johnny suh

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beyondtheticklecloset · 3 years

Text

Rainbow Lace (Big Windup Fluff Fic)

Summary: It's Abe's birthday, and some of his friends come over to celebrate him on his special day.

Word Count: 1,353

~~~

“Happy birthday, Abe!”

Abe stood at the door, taking in the four smiling faces standing on his front porch. Well, three smiling faces and one nervous-looking face. “Thanks, guys,” he said, stepping aside to allow them entry. “Come on in.”

Tajima, Hanai, Sakaeguchi, and Mihashi all shuffled over the threshold, shivering from the cold and getting to work taking off their shoes and coats. Abe helped hang up their things as his mother poked her head out of the kitchen.

“Oh, perfect timing, boys! Dinner is almost ready. I’m so glad you could make it.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Abe,” Hanai said, bowing to her. “We’re happy to be here.”

Abe waved for them to follow him down the hall. “Come sit down and warm up. It’s cold out there.”

“Why’d you have to be born in December, Abe?” Tajima asked teasingly. “It was cold walking all the way up here.”

“I can’t help it, and you didn’t have to come.”

“Of course we had to come! And I want to give you your birthday present right now, before we eat.”

Abe turned back to him, a look of genuine surprise on his face. “Huh? Birthday present? I – you didn’t have to—” But before he could finish, the cleanup hitter wrapped his arms around his waist and squeezed hard, lifting him up into the air with the force of his hug. Abe gasped. “Hey! Put me down!”

Tajima managed to twirl once, holding tightly to a flailing Abe who clutched onto him for support, looking more and more surprised by the second.

Hanai chastised, “Put him down, you dork. You’re going to get him sick if you spin him around like that.”

“You’re not prone to dizziness, are you, Abe?” Tajima asked, setting the catcher back on his feet.

“N-No, but still.” He briefly caught sight of Mihashi’s wide-eyed look before he turned to lead them into the dining room. “Come on. Let’s eat; I’m starving.”

After dinner the boys relocated to the living room for video games. The four guests took turns being the odd man out, making sure Abe got to play the entire time if he wanted to. After a little while the cake was brought in and they lit the candles to sing, applauding when the catcher eliminated all sixteen flames in one breath.

“What’d you wish for?” Sakaeguchi asked.

“He’s not supposed to tell you,” Hanai countered. “It won’t come true if he does.”

“I don’t really believe in that stuff anyway,” Abe said, taking the corner slice offered to him by Tajima. He glanced at Mihashi when he felt eyes on him. “What?”

“N-Nothing,” Mihashi replied, stammering as he always did. Their communication had gotten slightly better in the last half year, but not enough for him to be fully confident speaking to the catcher yet. “Just…h-happy birthday, Abe.”

Abe paused, nodded. “Thanks.” He continued to watch the pitcher as he took his first bite, inviting the others to dig into their slices as well. What’s up with him? He’s always pretty anxious but this seems different, somehow. I hope he didn’t stress out about getting me something. Maybe I should have told the guys not to bother. But would that have actually helped, or just made it worse for him? I never know with that guy.

His suspicions were confirmed when – once they were finished with the cake – Hanai, Sakaeguchi, and Mihashi all hurried back into the foyer to grab the presents they’d brought with them and hidden until this moment.

Hanai got him a baseball movie. Sakaeguchi gave him the first three volumes of a manga he’d been meaning to read since he found out about it in August. He thanked each of them, but when he turned to Mihashi, the pitcher suddenly seemed near tears.

“What’s wrong?” Abe asked, trying to keep his voice gentle. One thing he’d learned about his friend over the last half year was that softer tones helped to calm him down when he was high-strung.

“I…I didn’t…I’m worried you won’t…” Mihashi shifted uncomfortably, trying to keep it together. “My present…”

Even without Tajima’s usual translations, Abe could tell what was upsetting him. It was exactly as he’d feared. The poor guy had stressed himself out trying to find something to give him, and now he didn’t feel like it was good enough. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll like it. I’m grateful you got anything for me at all. You didn’t have to.”

Mihashi hesitated, then slid a small, rectangular wrapped package across the table to him and waited. Abe opened it up within a few seconds, surprised to see five pieces of rainbow lace sour candy inside. “What?” he exclaimed, glancing at the nervous pitcher. “Did you know these are my favorite? Or was it just a lucky guess?”

“S-Sakaeguchi told me you l-liked them,” Mihashi replied. “But I…I didn’t know they were your favorite.”

“Yeah, dude.” Abe smiled, opening up one of the wrappers and taking a bite of the sweet and sour treat to enunciate his point. Mostly for Mihashi’s sake, but he really did love them. “These are great. Thank you.”

Mihashi’s eyes lit up, seeming relieved. Tajima nudged him with a wink, and they went back to playing games and nibbling on cake for a couple more hours until it was nearly time for bed.

As the others gathered their coats and shoes and prepared to leave, Abe thanked them again for coming over and for the gifts, and they all wished him well one last time before filing outside.

Hanai, Sakaeguchi, and Tajima made it out the door just fine, but before Mihashi could follow them, Tajima turned around and stopped him. “Nuh-uh, Mihashi. You have one more thing for Abe, don’t you?”

Mihashi froze, looking panicked all of a sudden. Tajima grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around to face the catcher, who stood just inside the door, watching with confusion and concern. Abe tried to smooth things over by saying, “It’s all right, the candy was enough…” But before he could finish the thought, he saw Tajima waving at him from over Mihashi’s head, over exaggerating wrapping his arms together in a way that clearly meant “hug.”

Surprised, Abe glanced back at Mihashi, who stood shivering in the doorway, not looking at him. Mihashi wants to give me a hug? What for? Because it’s my birthday? The catcher looked back at Tajima, then at Mihashi again, then stepped over the threshold into the cold December night to fold his arms around his pitcher, despite feeling a little awkward about it.

He was even more surprised when Mihashi immediately relaxed, hugging him back with more fervor than he was expecting. Abe saw Tajima beaming at them and couldn’t decide if this hug was because they were truly becoming friends after all this time, or if it meant something more that he didn’t know about. Either way, he wasn’t going to be the first to pull back.

“Thanks for the candy, Mihashi,” he said quietly. “It really is my favorite. I don’t get to have it much, so it means a lot that I got some today.”

“Y-You’re welcome,” Mihashi stammered, then released him, looking up at him with rosy cheeks and bright eyes. “Thanks for being my friend, Abe. Happy birthday.”

Abe’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. In the meantime, Mihashi turned and hurried down the steps to catch up with the others, and all four of them waved before disappearing from sight.

Abe remained rooted to the spot in the cold, watching his breath puff out in front of him. He still couldn’t form words, even after he regained his senses enough to go back inside and close the door.

Thanks for being my friend? He replayed Mihashi’s voice in his mind, aimlessly wandering back into the living room, where four more pieces of rainbow lace candy lay on the table waiting for him. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of them. Same to you, Mihashi. Thanks for being mine.

#fanfiction #big windup #oofuri #fluff #fluff fic #abe takaya #mihashi ren #hanai #tajima #sakaeguchi #birthday #appreciation #caring #hugs #cute

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glapplebloom · 3 years

Photo

Which of these soulless corporate movies is the least soulless?

Welcome to the Space Jam. Its your chance to do your dance at the Space Jam. Alright? Alright. Both movies are about a Basketball Star Teaming up with the Looney Tunes to play Basketball. So let’s see which one is the better of the two, starting off with...

THE STORY

Original - Aliens have come to kidnap the Looney Tunes. So they decide to have their fate decided by a Basketball Game. But when the Aliens stole the talent of other NBA players, the Looney Tunes decide to kidnap Michael Jordan (yes, they kidnap Michael Jordan as pointed out by Teen Titans going to the old Space Jam Website). After Hijinks they win the game.

Sequel - Lebron’s son got kidnapped by Al G. Rhythm and to get him back he must beat Al in a Basketball game. Thing is he is forces to get a team and he was sent to the Looney Tunes world where he finds Bugs alone. The others are seeing other Warner Brother properties so Bugs and Lebron work together to get them back. Thing is Lebron wants some heavy hitters and despite his efforts he only got toons. Even worse, the basketball game is not straightforward, more people’s lives are on the line and Al got his son to play for his team. Only until Lebron learned that he shouldn’t push people to be like him do the toons come back and win the game.

Winner - Sequel. Calling the original a plot is giving it too much credit. Its more of a concept that is put together than an actual story. If New Legacy’s story is more complex, its only because it has actual progression as things change.

THE BASKETBALL STAR

Original - As a kid, Michael Jordan was destined for greatness. He knew he wanted to be a big time basketball star and as a promise to his dad will also become a baseball star. He retired and is trying his best, but he’s not a good baseball player. It doesn’t help that others are treating him as something special (because they all want some free shoes ~Starfire). So when the Looney Tunes kidnap him, he didn’t want to help until the Monstars messed with him. Now back in the game Michael plays like he never lost a step and help the Looney Tunes win.

Sequel - As a kid, Lebron wants to play basketball. But he’s also a kid so he enjoys having fun like playing a Gameboy Game complete with Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle. But because of that, he lost the game. His coach at the time said he could become a great basketball player if he focused. So he did and became King James. Now an adult, he wants his kids to be basketball players too, but his youngest son prefer to make video games. This causes a riff that allows AL G. Rhythm to manipulate his son to work with him. Lebron, forced into the Warner Serververse has to make a team and is stuck with the Looney Tunes. He thinks they could win if they stick with the fundamentals but between the new rules and bias ref, they’re losing badly. So badly an argument breaks out between him and the Toons during halftime. When he figures out he’s treating them like his son, he realized the only way to win is to let them be them. With that knowledge, he ask his son for forgiveness and earns it. After winning the game, he lets his son go to the E3 Game Camp instead of the Basketball Camp.

Winner - Sequel. Lebron has an actual connection with Looney Tunes as a kid, was excited to meet Bugs, has a character arc that takes place throughout the entire movie. Even if you think he’s a bad actor, he at least felt like he was invested in the story.

THE REFERENCES

Original - For Background Easter Eggs, you got a few Looney Tunes Alumni, though they do repeat. Cameos feature other Basketball Stars and Bill Murray. And references are to things of the 90s: Dennis Rodman, Pulp Fiction, Beethoven and Babe, and for some reason Disney. I think the most clever is Larry Bird appearing. In one of the few sports things I know, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were rivals. How do I know this? I played an NES game about their rivalry.

Sequel - Background and References subtle and not were all about Warner owned properties. As old as Casablanca to as new as Rick and Morty. We got to see the DCAU once more, references to old Looney Tunes gags and places, MC Hammer, Hanna-Barbera, Mad Max: Fury Road (and one I think is a Nostalgia Critic Reference) and so much more. In fact here’s a video featuring them all. Favorite of mine, Michael Jordan’s Cameo.

Winner - This is all your own preference so feel free to pick who you think wins here.

THE SOUNDTRACK

Winner - No competition. Between the title song (turned meme), the inspirational song (sang by someone who doesn’t know how to use a toilet), and the Monstars Anthem the new one can’t compete. But I will say for those thinking that Porky Rapping is “cringe”, the original also had a certain Rabbit rapping.��

THE VILLAINS

Original - The Big Bad is Mr. Swackhammer, owner of Moron Mountain and voiced by Danny DeVito. Sadly he doesn’t do much but be the big bad boss of Nerdlucks. As their tiny small self, they don’t leave much of an impression but they really stand out after stealing the talent of stars and become Monstars. They become big, mean and slightly more different.

Sequel - Al G. Rhythm is an algorithm the Warner Brothers studios use to help make movie ideas. He wants some recognition and thinks if he can get Lebron on board he can earn it. Sadly, when Lebron refused, he didn’t take it well. So when he saw Lebron’s son take interest in him and ran away from Lebron, Al used that to his advantage. With that, he makes Lebron force to play a basketball game while manipulating his son to not only allow him access to his data but get him to play as well. The Goon Squads are a result of that as its Lebron’s son’s data on other basketball players mixed with superpowers.

Winner - Give Don Cheadle a Disney+ Show Disney! As great as Danny DeVito is, he’s just not in it long enough like Al. Can be manipulative yet also very agro.

THE TOONS

This category will be done differently. I’ll be focusing on their takes on Bugs, Lola, and the Rest. I am not including Daffy in this equation because he’s perfect in both.

Bugs - In the original, Bugs is Bugs. Wisecracking, carrot chewing, master manipulator as always. In the Sequel, he’s one of the few that stood in Looney Tunes world because that’s where he could be him. But the loneliness made him miss everyone (after all, how can he pull off schemes and pranks without victims). And while in the original Bugs saves Lola from being squashed, Bugs risks his life to ensure Lebron doesn’t get deleted when executing the glitch. It makes Bugs’ actions seem more noble than just saving the girl he likes.

Lola - In the original, she’s a “sexy” no nonsense girl who plays basketball, and that’s it. And despite her attitude, became a damsel in distress and Bugs’ prize for rescuing her. in the sequel, she wants to do her own thing, even doing an Amazon Trial to become one, but failed to complete it when Lebron and Bugs was in danger and finding out Lebron’s son was in the line. So she’s there to give the team another good player and also be a moral support. In fact, its thanks to her that Lebron realizes what he’s been doing to his son.

The Rest - If the original got one thing over the Sequel, its number. A lot more Looney Tunes play in their game in comparison. With the exception of Granny who was a cheerleader, every toon was in the game at one point. I can’t say the same for the Sequel. With that said, the Sequel did get to show their personalities more. Like compare Wile E. in both. In one he gives the Monstars a bomb. The other has him using an Acme device, placing bird seed on the button to get the Roadrunner to press it repeatedly, only to have himself be caught in said machine. They all got the chance to do their thing instead of sharing a spit take.

THE BIG GAME

Original - The Looney Tunes are losing badly in the first half. Why? Because they didn’t go looney for... Reasons. After being tricked into drinking Michael’s “Special Drink”, then they decide to go looney. This allows them to catch up but then the Monstars decide to take them out, which they do despite these attacks being pretty tame to what they can normally take. With a few seconds to go, Michael scores one more basket to win.

Sequel - The Looney Tunes are losing badly in the first half. Why? Because Lebron is forcing them to play normal basketball despite their opponents and the game itself is anything but normal basketball. When they came back, they came back Looney and managed to catch up and even get ahead. But then Al decides to cheat since he controls the game. Thanks to this being the kid’s game, they know that if they perform a glitch they can take control away from Al long enough to score one more point and win. And thanks to Bugs’ sacrifice and his son moving a power up right underneath him, Lebron slam dunks the final point and wins.

Winner - The sequel. There was no reason for the Looney Tunes to be less looney in the first half in the original and its short live as each one gets taken out. Meanwhile the Sequel gives a valid reason for everything to happen.

My Winner - Space Jam: A New Legacy

Both movies are basically overgrown commercials trying to get you to buy stuff. The original was based off a Shoe Commercial and banking on your nostalgia on Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan the Basketball player to make you interested in seeing him back on court and new Looney Tunes content. The new one is basically for HBO Max. And both movies have also not credited people who deserve to be credited. But between the two of them a New Legacy actually feels like its trying to justify its existence.

Lebron has a connection with the toons through childhood, has actual stakes in the game, and actually feels invested in the events. The original was basically the Nike commercial stretched to a movie length. And to me, that makes a New Legacy a better movie.

#other

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jojounerd · 4 years

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obey me sinblings as volleyball players

i saw this and ive been sitting on the idea for like a while now so might as well get my thoughts out now. check out all of @obaby-obeyme‘s comics theyre so good snsnsfks

Lucifer (S)

perma stressed in practice, not only does he have to juggle his regular work, he has to wrangle all his brothers and keep the order to make sure that it goes smoothly. without everyone goofing off.

i mean,,, coordinating the attacks is a setter’s job. and they get to touch the ball a lot. do u think lucifer would take sets from anyone else? no i think not.

also a really strong server. loud, high velocity, and a nasty spin that makes it go straight to the ground.

ull never see this man dive after the ball hes the setter yknow so he trusts his team to bring the ball to him with a smooth pass.

ok wait maybe he might trust satan to handle attacks but not always.

there was a game where the opponents had super analyzed lucifer’s strategy and would keep shutting down his sets, while beel was doin p good he didn’t want to overexert him and he started rushing his sets

satan wasn’t having any of it and called lucifer out on it. said that they needed to switch it up.

and boy was the opponent in for a new kind of hell. when you put this boy on the offense-

he’s daring you to try and block him. but face it, you Can’t. this boy is a Monster.

Mammon (L)

uhhh was abt to put him as mb, and go on some spiel where lucifer sets to him a lot bcs mammon has the speed to keep up w his tosses

but thinking abt it more,,, having him as libero makes sense. bcs hes the shortest–*mcshot*

got the best fuggin control. those receives *chefs kiss* perfection. the arc, the parabola HGNNN.

has the speed and agility to go after really far out balls and save them with his leg/foot. has definitely jumped into the crowd/over a barrier for a receive multiple timess.

hes the guy who gets ragged on the most during practices (bcs lucifer wants perfect a-receives like wth lucifer you’ve got like 5 other receivers--) but he also hypes up everyone when team spirit’s are down during a game.

Leviathan (MB)

super analytical of his opponents, can quickly pinpoint weak spots in their defense.

doesn’t get fooled by time delay attacks or pipes.

hes more quiet and sometimes forgets to communicate when hes focusing really hard on the match.

he’s that kind of blocker who makes you feel like you can only spike a certain way in order to not get caught by the block

imagine you’re avoiding his block so you go for a cross court spike but you just spiked it right to mammon. oof.

but he does get p tilted when hes not performing at his best or when he gets tooled (his biggest pet peeve as a blocker because that’s not fair the blockers are there to stop the ball from crossing the net but no apparently you can also use the blockers as a way to score points thats plain unfair.) and can sometimes beat himself up p badly. his bros are there to snap him out of it and focus on the game.

Satan (MB)

during practice (and even during some games) he likes to experiment with different lineups and switch up player positions. as a result hes got p rounded out skills.

i mean,,, it just kinda makes sense. he seems like the kind of player who could easily deduce where the ball’s going to go. the one who times the three-man blocks.

bro he does not hold back at all when he spikes. even if he’ll be blocked. he will try to spike through. and the scary thing is,,, the more worked up he is, the harder his spikes get.

for the most part tho p solid all around, sometimes even sets (when lucifer’s in a bad spot see above)

that cheeky mb who’d make scathing remarks to the other team if they make rudimentary mistakes. things like calling their blocks a sieve stuff like that.

if u somehow manage to piss him off during a game good luck his spikes are now 10x harder rip to your arms.

Asmodeus (WS)

during practices hes the type of player who would do a spin and a twirl right before serving the ball. does it during practices, has done it during actual matches.

has a fanclub and they show up during practices and theyre so fuggin noisy--- but he revels in the attention

theres a certain flair and grace in his movements that you just cant help but get drawn in. but oop- dont get distracted bcs oop he was just a decoy and you just look like a fool now.

he doesn’t hit as hard when he spikes. but,,,BUT,,,he tools the blockers. he aims for the sides of their arms to get the ball sucked in or the edges of their fingers to get a wipe and it’s literally so fucking annoying ngghghrh

sometimes, when he’s doing two-man or three-man blocks, he knows he gets targeted as the shorter blocker, so he makes sure to switch with someone taller right at the last second.

also joins satan in playing mind games with the opposing blockers. he’ll act all charming and friendly at first, and then he’ll start roasting their form. but then other times he chats up the opposing players and tries to get their number.

Beelzebub (WS)

sometimes, when they go on runs, he breaks away from the group w belphie to go stop by somewhere to eat. now lucifer makes them run in the front of the group to keep an eye on them.

strong side hitter. that’s it. he’s their ace.

no block can stop him. lucifer’s strong, but beel has raw brute force thats just a bit stronger

good luck trying to. but you’re just gonna get your arm ripped off.

also a really strong server but doesn’t have as much control as lucifer does.

even in the back, his backrow spikes are still super fucking strong good luck to the opponents.

whenever hes up to serve, he reminds everyone to watch their heads. (mammon didn’t listen and went down one time during a practice game now he makes sure to steer clear of the ball’s path when beel’s up to serve.)

Belphegor (WS)

during practice, you’re hardly ever going to get him to do more than the bare minimum.

so you know kunimi from haikyuu? that’s exactly his playstyle.

minimal movement, no wasted energy. until the latter half of the game.

oh man, again? he’s going for a third spike a-fucking-gain?

lowkey makes you wanna drop the ball just so this dam rally ends quickly

also does a lot of cheeky dinks over blocks before slamming the ball down and catching the receiver offguard.

#ive played vball for 0.5 seconds #and ive watched+read haikyuu #so i know what im talking about jkjkjjk #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor

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winunk · 3 years

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Under A Peach Tree | iv | Akaashi Keiji x fem!OC

Chapter Four: Can I Call You Tonight?

Pairing: Akaashi Keiji x fem!OC

Summary: Akaashi isn’t sure why but he wants to spend more time with Sasaki. He’s struggling to figure out his feelings and doesn’t want to push Sasaki’s boundaries.

Genre: romance, angst, humor if you squint and think I'm funny

Warnings: cursing, incompetent author who literally does not know how to update regularly, cringe anxious teens, broken caps lock key

Word Count: 1.8k

Check out the series playlist here!

I fucked up.

I watched her walk away from me.

I fucked up.

The train was shaking me, but I couldn’t feel it.

I fucked up.

I hung my bag on a hook next to my desk.

Why couldn’t you just tell her that you wanted her around?

I dried my hair with my towel, staring back at the boy in the mirror.

Why do you even want her around?

I sunk into my bed, wrapping myself in the covers.

Tomorrow came too soon. Before I knew what was happening, I was unlocking the club room and getting all the equipment ready in the gym.

Focus, Keiji. You’ve got to get this team to the Spring Tournament again.

I began warming up as the rest of the team trickled in. I set the volleyball off the wall, and it came back perfectly to my hands.

This isn’t enough.

I started going faster, running back and forth, bouncing the ball of the wall from different angles.

Just hit that same spot.

I kept going, sweat dripping down the side of my face. The cold air of the morning pricked my skin.

Just--

I slipped. My shoes screeched against the gym floor, stopping my feet as my body flung too far to the left. I landed on the hard ground, a sharp pain in my ankle.

I fucked up.

“Akaashi-san,” Onaga called out, rushing to my side. “Are you alright?”

I rolled over onto my back, sprawling out on the floor. “I’m sure I’ll be okay,” I reassured him.

I’m definitely not okay.

I accepted his help up, and my knees almost automatically buckled. Pain flared up in my ankle.

Well, shit.

“Yeah, you’re going home.”

Onaga called Yuka and Coach Yamiji over to help me to my feet. He explained the situation to them, and Coach gave me a pointed look before telling Yuka to wrap my ankle and lock me out of the gym.

“You’re not going to actually lock me out of the gym, are you?” I asked Yuka.

She slid the door shut with a slam.

So much for being her favorite senpai.

I started on my way home.

Where did I go wrong?

I grabbed a bag of ice on my way to my room.

I’ve never been kicked out of practice like that before.

I set the ice bag against the part of my foot that hurt the most and sat down at my desk. I started to do some work written on my to-do list, but I kept glancing at my phone. I wasn’t sure why, but I kept checking to see if Sasaki had messaged me.

Yu-chan must have told her about my injury. She had to have given Sasaki my number for managerial reasons.

I picked up my phone and started looking through my social media apps for any missed notifications.

Why do I want her to message me so badly?

I opened the video calling app on my phone and called the first person on my recents list. Really, he was the only person on my recents list.

Maybe I just want attention right now.

“AGAASHE!” Bokuto’s hair filled up most of the screen. His eyebrows filled the rest. “How are you? You never call this early in the day.”

Do I want his advice or do I just want to catch up with him like normal?

“I finished my homework early, so I thought I would call you, Bokuto-san,” I replied, rubbing the nape of my neck. “How have you been?”

“I’m doing GREAT!”

I turned down the volume.

“I took Coach’s advice and stopped practicing on our days off!” he bragged. “I’ve been spending so much time just WALKING AROUND! THERE’S SO MANY FOOD STALLS HERE!!! I’LL JUST STOP ON MY WALK AND PICK UP SOMETHING TO EAT AND BE ON MY WAY!!!”

I smiled. “That’s good for you, Bokuto-san,” I said. “You always seemed a little more tense during those week-long training camps. Training nonstop didn’t do you well.”

“BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, AGAASH!!!” he exclaimed. “THE FOOD HERE IS SO GOOOOD!!!!!!”

“I’m sure it is, Bokuto-san.”

He continued talking about how much he was enjoying Osaka. Bokuto rambled on and on about the food. He had been upset that he wasn’t on the official roster for the team at first, but he was in the pool for the team to pick players from.

“It’s actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be, Akaash!” he shouted. “I’m getting to play a lot of games without feeling the pressure weigh down on me.

“I mean sure, I have to be good enough for them to put me on their team, but everyone here is good. Not that the guys at Fukurodani aren’t good. These guys are just so good. I don’t feel like I’m being pushed into a corner though. They’re pushing for me to be better in a good way.”

I nodded along. He gave me the opportunity for me to talk about what universities I was applying to. As always, he tried to convince me to go to a school with a good volleyball team so i could play.

“Hey, why are you upset?”

I blinked rapidly, his question washing over me like cold water.

How did he know?

“I’m not upset, Bokuto-san,” I responded, trying to slow my breathing.

My heart was beating faster as my mind scrambled for something, anything, to say to shake Bokuto’s interrogation.

When was he able to read me this well?

“How was your game with Nekoma yesterday?” Bokuto asked instead. He was narrowing down on everything that could have gone wrong in the last 24 hours.

I nodded my head, looking at the stack of books on my desk. “It went well,” I said. “We lost, but only barely. They have a pretty solid team while we’re still trying to get the first-years working in sync.”

Bokuto scratched his head. “Didn’t you say there was a really good first-year hitter?”

“Mamoru-kun.”

“Mamoru-kun! How is he doing?” Bokuto asked, light flashing in his eyes. “Is he giving you as much trouble as I gave you?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Bokuto-san, you weren’t as troublesome as you thought you were,” I reassured him. “But, uh, Mamoru-kun is shaping up very well. Anahori-kun actually got to play quite a bit in the last set of the game as well.”

His eyes narrowed and a wide grin graced his face.

Ah, so he’s caught on.

“I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG!” he shouted. “What’s got you so wound up?”

“You seem awfully happy that I’m upset, Bokuto-san.”

“AGAASHEE!!!”

I sighed. “So there’s this,” I hesitated, “person that I’ve gotten close with. I asked them to help Yuka-chan with her manager duties--”

“Haha! You said duties!”

“--but yesterday they quit out of nowhere,” I finished, ignoring Bokuto’s comment. “I don’t know if it was something that I did wrong, or if the team was actually stressing them out.”

My mind flashed back to Onaga’s arm around Sasaki’s shoulders. I felt my blood boil thinking about how uncomfortable she looked.

Bokuto scratched his chin. “What does this have to do with you losing to Nekoma?” he asked. Didn’t you guys just play them last weekend at the training camp?”

“I think I just got nervous with them watching,” I admitted, not realizing that it was the truth until I said it. “It’s the first game that they’ve watched, and I really wanted to impress them.”

“Oh?”

I sighed. The storm that had been brewing in my mind for the past couple days was finally settling down into a soft drizzle.

“They’ve been really distant from me, but I can see the intelligence behind their eyes. I want to spend hours talking to them about literature and school. I want to ask them a million questions about how they think the universe works.”

Bokuto laughed heartily at me.

“Why are you calling me then?”

“Wha--”

“Bye Akaashi!” he shouted. “I think you know what to do!!!”

He hung up on me. I couldn’t believe he just hung up on me. My own face looked back at me in shock.

Bokuto’s voice echoed through my room, through my mind. The phrase repeated itself over and over again.

I know what to do.

I messaged Yuka-chan.

“Took you long enough,” she sent back before sending me what I asked for.

I didn’t ask her what she meant by that.

How did Yuka-chan and Bokuto-san catch onto my feelings before I did? I’m still not even sure just how I feel.

“Hi, it’s Akaashi Keiji,” I typed out.

The blinking cursor mocked me. My thumb rapidly deleted the message and tapped out a new one.

“Hey, it’s Akaashi.”

I sent the message, my stomach uneasy with nerves.

“Can I call you tonight?”

The bubble indicating that Sasaki was typing popped up almost immediately. I felt like I was going to throw up.

Throwing my phone on my desk, I wrung my hands.

My phone buzzed, and I scrambled to pick it up. I couldn’t have her thinking I left her on read.

“I’m about to shower, but you can call me in an hour.”

I sighed in relief.

She doesn’t think I’m weird.

My phone vibrated again. “Are you alright? Did you need something?” she asked.

“I’ll call you at 19:30,” I texted back.

I’ll just explain to her what I need when i call her. Perfect. I get to talk to her.

Why do I want to talk to her?

I spent most of the next hour killing time. I cleaned my room, though it didn’t need much cleaning. I walked to the kitchen and stared at the contents of my fridge. I sat on my bed, staring at my closet in contemplation before deciding that I didn’t need to change my shirt.

By 19:28 I was lying on the ground, staring at the clock on my phone.

Should I call her exactly at 19:30? What if she thinks that’s creepy? Should I call her a little bit sooner? What if she’s busy and misses the call? Should I call her a little bit later? What if she thinks I forgot to call?

I groaned in frustration, slamming my thumb down on the screen. I quickly put my phone on speaker and laid it down next to my head.

With each ring, the pounding in my chest felt louder. My stomach felt like it was trying to dig its way into the ground.

Why is this so nerve-wracking?

“Hello?” a voice called out from the speaker on my phone. “Akaashi-san?”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Hi, Sasaki-chan,” I replied.

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Taglist: [Open]

a/n: Most of this playlist/fic will be Dayglow songs. I love his music so much and they just vibe.

fun facts:

**I 100% made up Bokuto’s situation (I don’t know how pro sports works in Japan)

**Bokuto is Akaashi’s BEST FRIEND!!! just because he’s loud doesn’t mean he isn’t emotionally intelligent and knows what Akaashi needs!!!!

#akaashi keiji #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#volleyball #akaashi keiji x oc #akaashi keiji x fem!oc #oc #original character #krites #hq #fukurodani #fukurodani gakuen #fanfic #fanfiction #uapt #under a peach tree #can i call you tonight #dayglow #can I call you tonight?

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thekitchenismykingdom · 4 years

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Lovestruck Fanfiction

Relationship: Lucien Rivercrest/Roman Tarrenglade Rating: G Summary: Roman is a huge baseball fan and goes with Lucien to see the Mariners play against the Blue Jays. A catch, a kiss, and a fun date. A/N: Lucien and Roman have such a fun dynamic in the series. Of course I’d end up shipping them. Roman is the “idiot sandwich” to Lucien’s Gordon Ramsay lol

Cheers rang out in the stadium as the sun shone down on the rowdy fans of Seattle. Beer sloshed in cups, popcorn flew through the air, and vendors waved their pretzels around for sale. A couple, one dressed appropriately for the occasion and the other more casual, sat in the middle of the stadium behind second base. The clear baseball fan of the two held a jumbo, overpriced hot dog in one hand and a small container of a bright red jam, the same colour as his hair in fact, in the other. He poured some of the jam onto the hot dog, and when satisfied, snapped the container closed and put it away.

Examining the hot dog carefully, from the line of yellow mustard to the jam he had just put on, Roman finally took a bite.

"Mmm, I can't believe I haven't tried a hot dog until now," he said between chews. "Human food really isn't that bad!"

Lucien hummed and munched on his peanut snacks. A little too sweet for his taste, but they would do for a ball game.

"Perhaps I could convince Liora to add these to the menu..." Roman continued, musing to himself after each bite.

Lucien stopped chewing and glanced at Roman.

"Yes, because these 'jumbo' hot dogs in tasteless buns belong next to my petit fours and raspberry charlotte."

"I would make them just as fancy as your petit fours, Lucien! They would be gourmet."

"Assuming I baked the perfect bun to go with them, maybe."

"I can jazz up any food and you know it," Roman countered with a huff. "This jam I whipped up from cooked gengan fruit adds a wonderfully complex spice and sweetness that pairs perfectly with the tangy mustard and this, ah, all beef hotdog."

Lucien smirked, but put his hand on top of Roman's and gave it a small squeeze.

"Come on, the bottom of the seventh is about to start."

Lucien could see the excitement in Roman's face, feel it in the way Roman gripped his hand as the game wound down to its final inning. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Mariners were losing to the Blue Jays by one run, with only one man out, and one of their best hitters was at bat.

"The Mariners are so close! A run would tie it, and another would win the whole thing!"

"I didn't think they were any good," Lucien mumbled, and Roman glared at him.

"The true point is to go on a date and watch a baseball game, but they have a chance at victory! Even bottom teams win sometimes."

The Blue Jays were also in the bottom, a fact Roman was well aware of, and Lucien sighed.

His eyes were drawn back to the diamond with a CRACK as the batter swung and hit the ball, sending it into the corner of right field.

"Oh, oh! Fair ball! FAIR BALL!!!" Roman shouted and cheered as the batter ran across first, then second, and finally slid into third plate just as the ball went sailing into the third baseman's glove.

"SAFE!"

Roman whooped and punched his hand into his shiny baseball glove.

"Come on boys, get a homerun. A homerun!"

"Yell a little louder and maybe they'll hear you," Lucien teased, settling into his seat and stealing a sip of Roman's drink.

"Oh Lucien, at least pretend to have fun," Roman muttered, eyes rolling as he focused on the game.

"I am," he defended. "I always have fun with you." When Roman didn't respond, Lucien turned back to the game.

The second batter stepped up to the plate and rolled his shoulders before setting up. After a moment the pitcher wound up and sent a nasty screwball straight into the catcher's glove. The batter didn't even twitch.

The second pitch was a fastball, and this time the batter swung. He just missed the ball as that too went flying into the catcher's mitt.

Roman had a hand over his mouth, rubbing his face as he shimmied to the edge of his seat. One more strike and the batter would be out.

Taking some time to loosen up, the batter kicked at some dirt on the plate and set up once more, the bat moving loosely in his grip. The pitcher wound up and unleashed a slider. The batter swung and missed as the ball suddenly dropped, once more into the catcher's mitt.

A collective groan could be heard in the stands, but Roman stayed focused on the game. The next batter made his way to home plate, a fresh trade from another team. Roman turned to Lucien and said, "This guy will do it. I know he will."

"You can predict the future now?"

"Laugh all you want, but I know we're winning this thing," Roman sniffed and turned back to the game. Lucien stared at him before looking back to the game himself, and watched a bad pitch almost miss the catcher entirely. A ball on the first pitch.

The second pitch was a fastball and the batter just got a piece of it, fouling it. Lucien looked around to make sure no one was watching and quickly drew his sigil for a luck spell. He then sat back and watched a curveball go past the batter as the umpire signalled for a second strike.

"Oh come on, come on..." Roman said through gritted teeth. Lucien almost laughed at the sight, not really understanding Roman's interest in this human sport but happy to go to games with him all the same. He refrained from laughing, however, wanting Roman to enjoy the experience.

The batter finally set up, planting his feet into the dirt and staring down the pitcher. With the ball in hand and having received the signal from the catcher, the pitcher finally wound up and threw a hard fastball. With the loudest CRACK of the game the ball hit the bat and went sailing into the air and over the field.

"Roman, get your glove ready! It looks like-"

"I GOT IT!!!" Roman yelled as he jumped up from his seat and caught the ball. He cheered and whooped and held up the ball in his glove as the announcers went wild.

"A two-run homerun and the Mariners take it 5-4 over the Blue Jays! What a spectacular finish!!!"

"Oh Lucien, I can't believe it! I knew they were going to win, of course, but to actually catch a ball from a homerun? A ball from the game-winning homerun!? It's a dream come true!"

"And what are the odds you would catch the homerun baseball after predicting a Mariners win?"

They were walking back to the cafe hand-in-hand and Roman briefly let go to once again examine the baseball, turning it over in his hands and running his fingers over the red lacing. It seemed to Lucien he had done that at least 15 times since leaving the stadium.

"I know you had something to do with it," Roman said.

"Perhaps, but I had nothing to do with that homerun. Your man came through."

"That he did! I told you he would."

"Was it the highlight of the game for you?" Lucien asked, and Roman nodded.

"Of the game? Yes, definitely the best part. The whole thing was fantastic, except the fourth inning, and we had such great seats, and the food! I always love trying out human food when we go out."

Roman was gushing about the sheer amount of food one could purchase at a sporting event, talking about the hot dogs covered in chili and cheese, the giant salty pretzels, and massive bags of popcorn. Lucien smiled to himself, watching Roman's already bright eyes sparkle as he talked and talked about everything he liked at the game.

"-And I know it's not your favourite thing to do, but going to games together truly is some of the best time I've spent with you, Lucien. Putting up with my extreme enthusiasm and the human food-"

They stopped abruptly just outside the café and Roman grabbed Lucien's hand, turning to face him.

"It means the world to me, and I will always be grateful for every day we spend together, every meal we eat together, just...everything. It is all so, so special to me, and I love you all the more for it."

Roman leaned forward and gave Lucien a soft kiss on the cheek, and Lucien turned his face to capture Roman's lips in a stronger kiss, chest tight with emotion at the sweet words Roman said just for him.

"You're special to me, too," Lucien murmured, keeping Roman close. "The most special person in my life. That won't change."

Roman's cheeks reddened as deep as his hair, only overshadowed by the brilliant smile on his face.

"You sweet-talker, you. Come on, I think there are some leftovers in the kitchen. Those peanuts aren't exactly filling." His smile turned into a devilish grin then, as he added, "Unless you'd prefer a different kind of-"

"Just get inside," Lucien grumbled, rolling his eyes at Roman's antics and the untimely shattering of the moment. Roman followed Lucien into the cafe, snickering all the while.

#lovestruck voltage #sweet enchantments #lucien rivercrest #roman tarrenglade #lovestruck fanfiction #lovestruck fic #my writing

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sticky-wicket-urn · 3 years

Text

IPL Round Up: Week 1

Toby Reynolds, 18/04/2021

It is one week into the start of the IPL and to everyone’s surprise, Mumbai Indians are not top! RCB have taken the tournament by storm, winning three from three under Virat Kohli’s leadership. At the other end of the table, Sunrises Hyderabad are propping up the table without a win. Although they have played two of the top sides, pundits and fans expected a much better start for Hydrabad.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB have always had a star-studded side but this seems to be the year that it has finally come together. Kohli has moved to the top of the order to replace Aaron Finch, allowing Maxwell to slip in at number four. Maxwell went all of last season without scoring a fifty or hitting any sixes. This season everything seems to have clicked for him and he has returned to the player we know him to be. Maxwell is the leading run scorer with 176 runs at an average of almost 60 with a strike rate of 150. He has been ably assisted by AB de Villiers, who has come in towards the end of the innings and really excelled with a strike rate of 190! He has played two match winning performances so far: taking RCB right to the death against Mumbai and hit 76 against KKR today.

RCB have also been helped on the bowling front by leading wicket taker Harshal Patel and New Zealand pace man Kyle Jamieson. Patel took five in the first match and has continued his form since. Jamieson has been more expensive than Patel but has also chipped in with some handy runs down the order. RCB also have a threatening spin trio of Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Yuzvendra Chahal. All have had impacts on the matches but none with a match winning performance. As the tournament continues, I expect them to take more wickets and become more dangerous with the balls due to the pitches wearing.

Delhi Capitals

Last years runners up have had a varied start to season with a high scoring win and tight loss. They have an Indian packed batting line up with fifties for Dhawan, Shaw and Pant so far and have relied on Woakes in the first match and Rabada in the second to take wickets alongside opening bowler Avesh Khan. Surprise package of last season, Anrich Nortje is yet to play due to Woakes’ performances in the first matches while Nortje was playing for South Africa. It is likely he will come in for Tom Curran or Steve Smith as the tournament progresses. Curran has struggled to make a good impact on the tournament so far, being hit by Chris Morris to lose the match against Rajasthan and Smith can interchange with Indian vice captain Ajinkya Rahane as an anchor at number three.

Delhi will be hoping for their top order too keep making runs and converting their fifties into large scores and hopefully hundreds. Aussie all rounder, Marcus Stoinis has failed to score many runs yet and was hit for 15 in his one over of the tournament but todays innings bodes well as he guided Delhi to what turned out to be an easy chase after Dhawan batted very impressively for his 92.

Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma’s side were heavy favourites before the tournament started and since their first match against RCB have shown why. They lost a tight first match but have since shown they can hold their nerve against KKR and Sunrises in two matches that went right down to the wire. Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya have used the spinning wickets of Chennai well and are leading the attack well with Bumrah and Boult dominating at the death with perfect execution of their yorkers.

Their three matches have been low scorers with no side passing 160 yet which hasn’t allowed for their long batting line up to show off its skill. Suryakumar Yadav has continued his form from 2020 and leads their side in runs scored and is the only player in their squad to pass fifty. The return of Quinton de Kock seems to have made their batting line up more rounded, even after Lynn scored 49 in their season opener but Pollard and Hardik Pandya have not managed to find their form from the last few seasons as finishers.

Chennai Super Kings

CSK are surprisingly high on this table in my opinion (even if it due to Net Run Rate). They have a very mixed squad. It is full of all rounders with Bravo and Thakur down at numbers nine and ten, but their average age is extraordinarily high. They have six players over the age of 35 and half of their squad over 30. Dhoni seemed to have lost it a bit last year in the UAE and hasn’t found the form he had in the early years of the tournament.

Sam Curran and Moeen Ali are the two English players in the squad and have both been in fine form so far. Moeen Ali has shown why he was wasted sitting on the RCB bench over the past few years. He is their top scorer after two matches and is striking at 150, while Sam Curran is coming in lower down the order but still smashing the ball all round the park. He has a strike rate over 200 and won the battle against his older brother in the first match, taking him for over 20 in an over.

CSK failed to win the first match after a slow start meant they put up a score of 188, well below par and allowed the Delhi Capitals to chase it down with eight balls spare. In the second match, Deepak Chahar tore through the Punjab Kings top order taking 4-13 and limiting Punjab to 106 before they chased it down in 15 overs.

Rajasthan Royals

The English contingent of the IPL have had two ok first games. They have heavily relied on captain Sanju Samson in the first match, who blasted his third IPL century and was a few metres away from hitting a six off the final ball and carrying his side home to victory against Punjab Kings. The main controversy of this match was that Samson turned down a single off the penultimate ball to put Chris Morris on strike needing four to win. Morris was visibly angry to be sent back by his captain but in my opinion, Samson was more likely to hit a boundary (either the six needed to win or a four to take it to a super over) than his South African counterpart. The one criticism I have would be that Samson could have possibly come back for two and sacrificed Morris at the non-strikers end but would have risked running himself out.

Morris then showed why he Samson should have taken the single in the Royals second match, bludgeoning 36 from 18 after David Miller fell for 62. After the match, Morris said he knew his role was to slog at the end and was happy to do it for the team.

The biggest new for Rajasthan was that Ben Stokes would be out for three months and the rest of the tournament due to a fractured finger in the first match. This allows fellow Englishman Jos Buttler to slide up to the top of the order and Miller to take his place in the middle order. Buttler had an outstanding tournament a few years ago after he moved to the top of the order for Rajasthan and dominated so it is not all bad news for Royals fans.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Before the tournament, I predicted KKR would just about make the cut for the playoffs due to Eoin Morgan’s captaincy and their world class overseas players. This hasn’t been the case yet. Morgan has failed to fire with the bat; Russel, one of the most devastating batsmen ever in both T20 cricket and the IPL, has been more use with the ball; and both Shakib and Cummins haven’t made the biggest impact yet. I am sure this will soon change though.

For the first three matches, KKR have relied on their home grown talent at the top of the order to score their runs. Rana, Gill and Tripathi have all made runs at a good rate but KKR have failed to push on from being in good positions in matches with a lack of quick runs down the order. Against Mumbai, “DreRus” took 5-15 from two to slow Mumbai in the final few overs. However, he then struggled with the bat and scored a tentative 9 from 15 as KKR fell 10 runs short.

KKR have failed to win the tight matches so far which seems to be due to a lack of finishing ability from the middle order, if they can fix this problem (and with Morgan as captain, I am sure they can) then I think they have a good chance of finishing in the top four.

Punjab Kings

Even with KL “King Legend” Rahul averaging over 70 at 150, Punjab Kings (formerly King’s XI Punjab) have struggled so far this year. They have just lost to Dehli Capitals after setting an impressive 195 to win but their inexperienced bowling line up failed to defend it. Rahul and Agrawal put on 122 with Agrawal smashing 69 from 36, while his partner crawled along to 61 off 51 before Hooda and Shahrukh Khan came in to blast the ball round at the end.

This was the second high scoring match they have been apart of. They have a strong and experienced top order but have a younger and less experienced bowling line up and almost no tail a Richardson bats at number seven. Arshdeep Singh is only 22 and this is both Meredith and Richardson’s first seasons in the IPL. Shami is their only seam bowler over 25, but is backed up by two experience spinners. You could see this inexperience in the match vs Delhi as Dhawan took the game away from Punjab. As the tournament progresses, it will be interesting to see how the younger players will adapt to conditions and deal with an increase in pressure and if Punjab try to lengthen their batting lineup.

Sunrises Hyderabad

David Warner’s side are sat at the bottom of the table without a win. They have lost three close matches. With three players in the top 11 for runs scorers so far, you might expect such a strong squad to be further up the table, but the lack of power hitters down the order seems to be catching up with Sunrises. Bairstow slotted in at number four in the first matches to accommodate for Saha up the top and performed well but struggled to stay at the crease during the key moments. He was caught slogging across the line when Hyderabad were in a commanding position, causing a batting collapse and loss against KKR and has since moved back up to opening.

Hyderabad have been changing their team a huge amount so far during the IPL. They have played six overseas players, as well as having Kane Williamson on the sideline. Hyderabad were often selected as the side most likely to steal the crown from Mumbai before the season started but unless they can find some finishers, it seems unlikely that this will happen.

Rashid Khan, as usual, has been performing very well. He has four wickets with an economy rate of 5.33. He hasn’t blown any teams away yet, but arguably more importantly, his economy is under six, building pressure and helping others in the side take wickets. If he can keep this up, it is likely Hyderabad will continue restricting oppositions to low totals.

Predictions

From the first week it is always hard to tell how the season will progress. I think it is likely that Mumbai, RCB and Delhi will progress to the knock-out stages but the fourth place is up for grabs. Right now I think I would go for KKR, just because they haven’t hit their heights yet and I can see them start winning matches they shouldn’t if Morgan and Russell get into form.

#cricket #ipl #ipl 2021 #rcb #mumbai indians #csk #delhi capitals #rajasthan royals #kkr #punjab kings #sunrisers hyderabad #virat kohli #kohli #kohlibait #dhoni

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state-of-divinity · 4 years

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Haikyuu!! baseball AU - karasuno edition

a lil baseball au for karasuno w/explanations for each plus a few headcannons for play styles!

Daichi

2nd baseman

2B covers both first and third base, requiring a player who is mindful of all teammates strengths and weaknesses and able to cover for them

you need a good arm to play 2B, as well as good aim, and Daichi’s aim is near perfect

Daichi can catch even the most aggressive of hits, and his quick reflexes help stop the ball before it makes it past the infield

he is a powerful hitter but lacks the precision to aim where he wants

runs quite fast, can usually dive for 2nd base if he tries

Sugawara

catcher

the catcher leads on defensive plays and has the full view of the field, and therefore must be smart and be able to strategize quickly, two of suga’s strengths

the catcher is the team’s emotional focal point, and usually has to calm the pitcher down when worked up

catchers and pitchers also usually use hand signals to quickly decide plays without alerting the other team

has a pretty weak hit but can aim fairly easily

a good sprinter but tires easily

Asahi

1st baseman

1B should ideally be tall and strong, which Asahi is both! not only strength in throwing, but strength in catching fast balls

1B is expected to cover for other’s throwing mistakes, so they have to be okay with leaving the base for the 2B to cover

1B comes in contact with the ball a lot, and while the pressure of constantly being relied on wore on Asahi, he came to enjoy having others look to him to stop plays

the powerhouse hitter of the team, forces the other teams to push their outfielders way back, but can usually manage a few homeruns per game

not the fastest, but his strong hits mean he has more time to run so long as the outfielders don’t throw it fast enough

Nishinoya

center fielder

CF are in charge of all outfielders and primarily go after the ball the most, and Noya loves diving for crazy fast and crazy high balls, his speed being his biggest advantage

CF covers both left and right fielders, and covers for their errors

CF always has 2nd bases back in case a player tries to steal or a force out is in play, and Noya eagerly rushes to cover for Daichi if he has to step off 2nd

his batting is average but he zips around the bases before anyone even realizes, loves to steal any chance he gets

Tanaka

3rd baseman

3B is the hot corner for most players (unless you’re a lefty) which means they have to have quick reaction time and know where all runners are at all times

Tanaka intimidates the other team with his lightning fast reflexes and how closely he shifts forward from the plate to discourage blunts

gotta have a strong arm to play 3B, but Tanaka occasionally throws too hard and Asahi has to jump or let right field cover him

another powerhouse hitter with incredible running speed, but can sometimes fall for pitcher’s baiting them or messing them up with quirky pitches

he likes to steal bases like Noya, but is a bit more obvious with his leading and gets caught often

Kageyama

pitcher

pitchers (especially good pitchers) only have one goal: to get the batter out with their pitches alone, and Kageyama has perfected his fastballs and curve balls

pitchers have to cover for everyone infield and are usually under the greatest pressure, so they must thrive under that, and Kags’ focus only increases with every play

the team trusts him to make the right calls, and if he ends up with the ball, he’ll throw to whoever he needs to in order to get the out and keep them from scoring a run

he’s a fairly decent batter with average running speed, and will almost always risk sliding into second or third base if he can get away with it

Hinata

shortstop

shortstops are usually tall because they need to cover the gap between 2nd and 3rd, but Hinata makes up for that with his speed

shortstops need a good arm and good aim; hinata’s arm is great, but his aim is not always perfect

covers 2B a lot, relying on Daichi to snag the ball and throw it to him to get the out

not a powerful hitter but has a great eye and can hit even balls intended to be strikes, also incredibly fast at rounding bases

can usually taunt players into thinking he’ll steal bases, other teams have a hard time telling whether he’ll try to steal or not

Tsukishima

relief pitcher, right fielder

switches in and out with Kageyama; though Kags has fast pitches, Tsuki is good at playing mind games with the batter and tricking them into swinging at bad pitches, and their deadly rotation keeps the other teams on their toes

when he’s pitching, he and Sugawara can come up with quick plays and can calm their team down when the stakes are high

if Tsuki knows a batter is powerful, instead of risking a homerun, he’ll usually intentionally walk the batter

he’s not a strong hitter or runner, but he isn’t easily fooled by crazy pitchers and won’t be baited into swinging at bad balls

when playing in RF he doesn’t have a powerful arm, so he’s thankful the ball doesn’t come to him as often

Yamaguchi

right fielder

RF don’t get the ball that much (unless the batter is left-handed), but often has to cover 1B

RF needs a strong arm to throw all the way to 3B, and usually has to rely on Daichi or the pitcher to throw it the rest of the way

he’s a good strategizer and figures out batter’s habits pretty quickly, and will often call out where he thinks the ball will land, which is almost always correct

he’s a quirky batter who can trick the other team into thinking he’ll swing and then goes for the blunt, but he can also aim with great accuracy to the other team’s weak spots

not a fast runner and is usually too scared to slide into base

Ennoshita

left fielder

LF has to cover for 3B, which, luckily for Ennoshita, Tanaka is a strong 3B, but when it slips past him, Ennoshita is quick to recover

he has a strong arm and good eye for which runner is the easiest to get out first

knows noya is way faster than him and lets him get the balls he can’t, but he still has his work cut out for him when hinata misses a ball infield

he’s a decent batter and average runner, but he sometimes gets too eager and swings at bad pitches

LF is required to cover 3B, and Ennoshita will sprint to the bag if Tanaka leaves

#haikyuu #haikyū!!#haikyuu!!#haikyu #hq #hq!#baseball au

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hms-chill · 4 years

Note

prompt for rwrb! established relationship + hogwarts au where henry is a quidditch captain and alex is the commentator for the game :)

Hello! I’m so sorry this took ages, but I’m (hopefully) back to writing things! Life was hectic for a bit there!

Also, I’m really sorry, but I’m not totally comfortable writing a Hogwarts AU. I haven’t read the books, and I worry that I would unknowingly perpetuate Rowling’s problematic views. This isn’t to say there aren’t good Hogwarts AUs (there are, I’ve read them and they’re great!), only that I am unfortunately not the person to write them. So, instead, here’s a high school baseball AU that hopefully gets to the heart of what you were hoping for!

“You’re a Catch(er)”

“It’s a fine afternoon out on the baseball fields today, folks, sunny and hot but that’s just what we’d expect. And while the rest of us are trying to cool down, our varsity Trojan baseball team is warming up on the field. I’m Alex C-D, and I’ll be bringing you all the most important info during this game, along with my good pal Nora H. The district insisted she join me in the box today, since apparently, I need, quote unquote, ‘supervision’ to keep me from getting, quote unquote, ‘distracted’.”

“I’m here to keep him from spending too much time talking about his boyfriend,” Nora says, leaning into her mic and rolling her eyes.

“Which is unfair, really, because I spend the perfect amount of time talking about everyone. It’s not my fault that a certain gorgeous, kind, talented, sexy catcher just so happens to be involved in every play. It’s not my fault that he spends so much time squatting, and we get a great view of his--”

Nora presses a button to take them off the air, and the radio broadcast goes to a commercial while music plays over the stands. Alex grins at her and leans back in his chair, stretching a bit and glancing out over the crowd. He’s just out of reach of the rolled up scorebook she’s trying to hit him with, and they both know it.

It’s not a bad turnout today, despite the heat. Alex sees his sister, June, and Henry’s sister Bea in the crowd. He waves, but he’s looking past them and out to the field itself before he can really stop himself. Almost automatically, he finds himself looking for sandy hair, and he’s got a wink and a wave for his boyfriend. Henry waves back, rolling his eyes a bit as Alex grins.

Their ad break ends, and Nora starts to read off different players’ stats. Alex keeps quite until she gets to Henry, and just before she moves on from him, Alex ads, “He’s also got the highest number of announcer boyfriends on the team, that’s right folks. Henry Fox, the most beautiful man alive, number four on the field but number one in my heart.”

Nora ignores him, but he knows how this goes. She’ll be professional and serious the first few innings, after which she’ll realize that there are times when baseball is, quite possibly, the most boring sport in existence. She’ll be down to his level of shenanigans by the fourth inning at the latest.

The first inning is slow. Alex gets in a good “Who’s on First?” reference while Nora’s introducing the team, but it drags, and he can tell she’s getting just as bored as he is, even with her spreadsheets and scorecards to keep her company. So, when the they finally get their third out and while the visitors are warming up, Alex says, “Tell y’all what. We’re off to a bit of a slow start today; send us your best jokes. Tweet ‘em, message us on something, send carrier pigeons if you have one. We’ll read some on air between innings, and if anyone makes Nora spit out a mouthful of water I’ll buy you a candy bar or something. Now we’re up for the bottom of the first, score is 2-0 Lightning, but that’s just because our Trojans haven’t had a go yet. First up is Basil Watton, with a batting average that Nora’s about to tell you, because I just dropped math.”

“It’s 0.28; I can read numbers. First pitch is a strike, and on the second, he’s connected! That’ll be a single for Watton, folks! Now we’ve got Dorian Hallward, with a batting average of 0.30.”

“Just remember, folks, Henry Fox is up fifth, so stay tuned. And Pez is seventh, so you’ve got him to look forward to, too.” And so the game goes. Henry gets a double, knocking in two runs, and Alex nearly cheers over the next batter. Pez gets Henry in with a single, and they end the inning 2-4.

Alex reads off a few baseball jokes that people have tweeted them between innings, making sure Nora’s got a mouthful of water before each one, but none make her spit before they go to a commercial or music break. In the next inning, they get to see Henry throw for an out at second, whipping the baseball over Pez and halfway across the field. Nora cuts the power to Alex’s mic, but he’s cheering so loudly he can still be heard faintly over hers.

Henry gets out his next at bat, but he gets someone in, and that’s enough for Alex. By the third inning, Nora is pretty clearly losing interest in being professional. When Alex slips her a note offering to get them popcorn at the next commercial break, she nods furiously as she reads batting averages. He gets them both bags of popcorn and some m&ms to mix in from the concession stand as soon as he can, and they spend the fourth inning stuffing popcorn and candy into their mouths while the other’s talking. By the end of the inning, they’re trying to catch each other with full mouths, making a game of it along with the baseball they’re reporting on. Still, Alex makes time to let everyone know that, when Henry takes the catcher’s mask off as the teams switch positions, his matted down hair looks very, very sexy.

In the fifth inning, with two outs on the board, Henry steals home for a run that could put them in the lead. His helmet is knocked off as he slides, and Alex leads the crowd in holding their breath as the umpire dusts off the plate, trying to make sure Henry’s touched it. There’s a tense moment, then the umpire’s arms are out to his side, and Alex is cheering over his announcement of “Safe!”. Henry pops up and jogs to get his helmet, blowing a kiss to the press box as he does. Alex makes a sound that is not entirely human as Nora unplugs his mic for the rest of the inning. It’s probably for the best.

The other team pulls ahead in the sixth, but not by too much. Alex is back by the end of the inning to lead everyone in the classic baseball seventh inning stretch. It’s a tradition he’s brought to school games, and even some of the team warming up get into it, fitting toe touches and hamstring stretches in between warm up throws. As Henry walks out to squat behind the plate, he does a toe touch. The view from the press box is stunning.

Alex keeps it together. Mostly.

Despite their stretching, the seventh inning isn’t great. The other team pulls ahead again, and it drags, a series of foul balls and single hits making an already painful inning worse. Alex tries reading jokes to keep people entertained, but Nora doesn’t laugh hard enough to spit, and the crowd is losing energy. When the teams swap, Alex plays the most exciting song they have while Nora crunches numbers.

“We can definitely come back, it’s just... the bottom of the lineup’s got to start performing for us.”

Alex nods, glad their mics are off. The break ends, and they’re in the bottom of the seventh, starting near the bottom of their lineup. These hitters are the ones who struggle a bit, who are better for their defence than their offence. The first baseman and shortstop are the seventh and eighth positions, and third base is ninth. But to Alex’s surprise, they all make it on base. It’s with the bases loaded that Basil Watton hits a double, knocking two in and making sure everyone knows they’re still fighting for a win.

The home team takes the lead in the bottom of the eighth, and they go into the ninth with a one point lead, cautiously hopeful. If they can hold this lead and get three outs, they won’t play the bottom of the ninth, and they’ll have won the game.

The first out comes from a ball hit straight to Pez, who passes it to first. The runner never stood a chance.

The bases are loaded when it happens. Two strikes, and Pez pitches. The batter connects just a second too late, just a fraction too low. The ball flies straight up, and the batter takes off running. Henry’s helmet is off, and Alex breaks his trance to lean toward the microphone.

“And it’s up-- this could be out number two folks, Fox has his helmet off, he’s going for it, we can see his sexy tired concentrating face, and he’s caught it! that’s out number two! And the runner on third is trying to steal. He looked back, but the second base runner is there; he’s got to go. He’s sliding, but Henry’s got his glove down. All eyes on the umpire, and... He is OUT! Ladies and gents, both and neither, that is out number three! That’s game, folks! Whoooo!”

“Stay tuned next for our team interviews, but for now, enjoy this last word from our sponsors.” Nora takes them to a commercial break, and Alex is out the door with their portable mic, running to the field to give Henry a massive hug. They’ll get pizza with the team now, and then Henry will be all his. They’ll get to celebrate an amazing game, and he’ll get to spend time with the star of the show.

Notes:

I’m so sorry this took ages! Life, fam.

Anyway, some notes on positions:

Henry as catcher, because they’re relatively easy to overlook, but they’re super important to the team and actually call the shots from behind the plate. This seemed like something Henry would really enjoy, since he’s pretty cognitive and a good leader, but he doesn’t love the spotlight.

Pez as pitcher, because he does love the spotlight. The book mentioned that he sort of absorbs attention, which felt right for a pitcher.

Nora as a scorekeeper, because stats! Our gal loves stats; baseball is perfect for her. It’s like... all stats.

#rwrb #rwrb fic #red white and royal blue #red white and royal blue fic #henry fox mountchristen windsor x alex claremont diaz #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #high school au #red white and royal au #rwrb au

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