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lxvislxdy · 3 years

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Shotgun Kisses pt.2 | Bakugou K.

Links: Bakugou x stoner!reader au & Shotgun Kisses (Read these first!!)

Notes: Firstly, I want to thank you all for the positive feedback my work has been receiving! I’m extremely thankful for ya’ll!! I also want to apologize for the delay in my posting; I’ve been traveling this week, and on top of that, dealing with the gas shortage on the east coast (it’s been HELL). But hopefully things will start picking up again soon! As always, my requests are open, so feel free to send in your requests or questions!

Summary: After apologizing to you, Bakugou is still struggling to get over his mistrust of your coworker, Shinsou. When you invite Shinsou to hang with everyone, Bakugou thinks it will be his final straw. That is, until Shinsou makes a move on someone unexpected. And suddenly, everything makes much more sense, and Bakugou looks completely oblivious.

Pairing: Bakugou x reader

Warning(s): 18+!! drug use, language (if you are underage, this fic is not for you!)

Bakugou was trying.

He really, really was.

He trusted you, and he hated fighting with you (especially when it was his fault, and he had to apologize), but damnit, that purple haired bastard wasn’t making it easy on him. Still, Bakugou was making an effort, and that meant he was visiting you at work, even though Shinsou was there, too.

“Hello,” Shinsou drawled, a lazy, but definitely teasing, grin spread across his lips. He was leaned up against the counter, half of his purple hair tied back in a knot at the back of his head. “How can I help you?”

Bakugou narrowed his eyes, taking a deep breath in like Kirishima had taught him. His hands were wound into fists, shoved into his jacket pockets. “Just my regular.”

Shinsou hummed in response, turning to shout over his shoulder, “Y/n! Your loverboy is here!”

Bakugou grit his teeth, willing himself not to snap back at him. Technically, he wasn’t wrong. But he hated the teasing lilt to the other man’s voice.

As per usual, his anger melted away - mostly - when you popped your head around the corner, from the storage room, smiling brightly. “’Suki!”

As much as Bakugou hated your job, you did look cute in your apron, and he was admittedly fond of the free coffee.

You bounced over to him, definitely hyped up on too much caffeine, and wrapped your arms around him. “Hi.” You said, looking up at him.

He squeezed you against him, pulling you in for a kiss, to your surprise. Normally, Bakugou was hesitant when it came to PDA. Of course, the cafe was almost empty, and it wasn’t much of a secret that Bakugou was turning up the heat in front of Shinsou.

“You want your usual?” You ask sweetly, when he pulls away, dopey grin on your face.

Shinsou, who had slipped away during the kiss, calls over his shoulder, “Already on it!”

“Try not to spit in it.” Bakugou says, lowly.

Shinsou lets out a low chuckle, “I’ll try to contain myself.”

Apparently, this banter is friendly enough, because you laugh along with him.

“You mind if I take my break now, ‘Toshi?”

Bakugou swallows down the burst of jealousy at the nickname, fists tightening in his pocket.

“Yeah, no problem,” Shinsou tells you, as he sets the coffee down on the counter. “There you go. One coffee, hazelnut cream, no sugar. Extra bitter, just like you.”

Bakugou sneers at him, snatching the coffee from the counter and grabbing your hand to pull you along behind him. The two of you end up in the alleyway behind the shop, sneaking through the ‘employees only’ door. Bakugou sips the coffee, wishing it wasn’t so good. But damn, if Shinsou didn’t know his coffee. As far as Bakugou was concerned, that was the only thing the guy was good at. (Of course, he didn’t really know him that well, at all).

“You’re very broody today.” You say softly, looking over at him from where you leaned against the brick wall. “Something on your mind?”

Bakugou rolls his eyes, sipping his coffee again. “M’fine. Just... tired, that’s all.”

You hum, fumbling with one of your bracelets. You gaze up at him, grinning, “Do I need to call Kirishima to get it out of you?”

“Tch,” He scoffed, marching over to where you stood and leaning down over you. “Smartass.”

He leans down, capturing your lips in a soft kiss. You both taste like coffee, and Bakugou recognizes the faint, bitter taste of marijuana on your tongue too. He pulls away, raising a brow.

“What, rolling up before work, you delinquent?”

You giggled, shoving his shoulder playfully, though it’s not enough to move him away from you. “Maybe. Gonna rat me out?”

“Hm,” His lips barely brush against yours, bumping his nose against yours. “I’m sure you could convince me not to.”

“Yeah? That easy, hm?” You say, leaning forward to kiss him again, but he pulls just out of your reach. You pout, and he laughs lowly.

“I never said it would be easy.” He answers, smirking.

You feel your breath hitch again, and his lips are back on yours.

“Mm, Kats, love you, but I need to get back to work.” You mumble in between kisses.

Bakugou nips your bottom lip, but concedes, pulling away with a sigh. “Sure I can’t keep you occupied just a little while longer?”

“And people say I’m the bad influence.” You tease, laughing. “Sorry, babe. Can’t. Besides, I know you’re supposed to be getting lunch with the guys, and I’m not gonna be responsible for making you late.”

“Screw ‘em.” He says, planting another kiss on the corner of your mouth.

You smile up at him, shaking your head. “What am I gonna do with you, Bakgou Katsuki?”

“Keep me, I hope.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but it came out much more serious than he’d meant. Thankfully, you don’t press him on it.

“Yeah, and what’s in it for me?” You tease, poking his stomach. You stretch up on your tiptoes to place another kiss on his jaw, voice softer than before, “I’m here till you don’t want me, Katsuki.”

Bakugou kisses the top of your head, “That’ll never happen.”

You turn to go back inside, stopping in the doorway to look back at him. “You coming to Sero and Denki’s tonight?”

“We’ll see.” Bakugou grunts.

“Mhm,” You grin. “I’ll see you there, then. Bye, Kats!”

...

By the time Bakugou shows up, he’s the last one there. Even Jirou, infamous for showing up fashionably late to their hangouts, was already inside, sitting with you and Mina on the floor. The three of you were deep in conversation, clearly already more than buzzed - your giggles and half-lidded eyes gave you away.

Bakugou felt the tug of a smile on his lips, watching you. He was glad the day was over. Finally, he could just relax.

And thats when he saw him.

Shinsou Hitoshi was sitting on the couch, leaning over a wide-eyed Denki to get the lighter off the table.

Bakugou tried. He was trying. But even still, his hands shook with anger.

Kirishima met his gaze, shaking his head, and he didn’t have to speak out loud for Bakugou to hear his usual, ‘Breathe, man. Everything’s fine. Deep breaths. It’s not worth it.’

“Bakugou!” Mina shrieked, “You made it! I told you he’d be here, Sero, you owe me $5!”

Bakugou scowled. “You bet against me?”

Sero shrugs sheepishly.

You grin up at him from your spot by the girls, and Bakugou quickly crossed the room to sit by your side, ignoring the intruder on the couch. As he took a seat, he pulled you close to lean against his shoulder, and you instinctively reached for his hand without stopping your conversation.

“C’mon, Jirou, you should invite Yoamomo next time!” You were saying, “How will you ever get to know her if you don’t talk to her?”

Jirou, uncharacteristically flustered, shook her head. “No way. Absolutely not. Momo doesn’t seem the type to... ya know, any of this. We aren’t really her crowd.”

“So? She likes you doesn’t she?” Mina offers, puffing smoke.

Jirou’s cheeks turn a brighter shade of pink, and she slouches down more. “I dunno... Pass it here, Min.”

“I’m sure we could behave ourselves enough for a night.” You tease, grinning, “We could have a movie night! Totally sober, if that’s what you’re worried about, Kyo.”

A loud groan cuts into their conversation, from across the room, “Yeah, speak for yourself.” Denki says.

“As if you could get through a movie night totally sober, y/n.” Sero snickers.

“Hey!” You shout back, sticking your tongue out at him.

“He might have a point, man,” Shinsou cuts in. He’d been so quiet, Bakugou had almost forgotten he was there. Of course, his luck ran out. “Y/n can’t even make it through a shift sober.”

The room erupts into laughter, though Bakugou stays quiet, rolling his eyes.

“Not true!” You say, blushing as you lower your voice, “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”

Shinsou’s laugh is apparently contagious, as he says, “Are you kidding?!” He breaks into an eerily accurate impression of you, “Hey, man, what can I get for ya? Aw, totally, nice choice! Have you tried the muffins, man, they’re sooo good.”

You burry your head in your hands as everyone joins in on the joke, leaning back into Bakugou to hide. “Fuck you, dude! Fuck you!”

“Holy shit!” Denki and Sero are gasping for breath, “How are you so good at that, man?”

Shinsou grins slyly, reminding Bakugou of the cheshire cat (another reason he doesn’t trust the asshole). “Hey, a man can’t give away all his secrets, huh?”

Bakugou tightens his hold around your waist, mouth downturned into an unhappy scowl.

“I think a movie night would be nice,” Kirishima changes the subject, and Bakugou sends him a small smile in thanks. “I’m sure we’d all like to meet Momo, and if she’s as sweet as you say she is, she’ll totally go for it!”

“Yeah,” Mina says, wrapping an arm lazily around Jirou, “Besides, you’re a total catch, babe! She’ll love you!”

“Thanks guys,” Jirou responds quietly, passing the joint to you. “I’ll think about it.”

You take a few drags, offering to Bakugou, who shakes his head. You don’t push it, blowing the smoke away from the two of you.

“Man, and here I was, thinking you might finally relax some, Bakugou.” Shinsou comments.

Across the room, Denki has slouched against the other man’s shoulder, his feet propped up in Sero’s lap.

“The fuck did you say?” Bakugou snaps, glaring.

Shinsou chuckles, “Relax, dude, I’m kidding.”

“Yeah?” Bakugou growls, snatching the joint from between your fingers. “Fucking whatever.”

He takes a long drag, face red as he resists the urge to cough out of spite. Shinsou raises a brow, mouth twitching into a smirk. His fingers are in Denki’s hair, scratching lightly at his head, and the blonde looks like he could fall asleep any minute, a sleepy smile on his face. Bakugou feels an odd surge of jealousy, and frustration. These are his friends. You’re his girl. What the fuck is this guy playing at?

As Bakugou goes quiet, eyebrows furrowed and face drawn into a fierce scowl, and shoot Shinsou a look. He sighs, rolling his eyes, but silently agrees to lay off.

“You okay?” You ask, leaning back and placing a light kiss on Bakugou’s jaw.

He yanks you into his lap with a huff, pouting.

It takes everything in you not to giggle at him when he’s like this (it’s cute, okay?) but you knew that would only irritate him more.

“’Suki.” You coo, quiet so no one else can hear you, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He mutters, frown deepening.

“But-”

“I said it’s nothing, y/n.”

You sigh, giving up and leaning back against his chest. Why did he have to be so stubborn?

Besides, you aren’t stupid. You know he’s unhappy because Shinsou is here. And, by all means, Shinsou is being an asshole. But he’s your friend, and a really good friend (only a friend). You just want the two to get along, and you want to show your boyfriend that he has nothing to worry about! But, as per usual, both boys are being... difficult, to say the least.

After a few minutes it becomes clear that Bakugou’s mood isn’t going to improve, so you go back to your conversation with Mina and Jirou, absentmindedly rubbing your thumb over his knuckles. Eventually, he starts to relax, but remains quiet. He’s too stubborn to admit that you know how to calm him down, after all. And, besides, he can’t risk the guys telling him he’s going ‘soft’ (his words, not yours).

As your high reaches its peak, you forget about the exchange almost completely. You’ve moved to lay your head in Bakugou’s lap, staring up at him. You reach for his hand, bringing it to rest on your head and he rolls his eyes, fingers gently scratching your scalp. You smile up at him lazily, blowing him a kiss.

With his hands in your hair, you feel yourself begin to drift off, the conversations around you fading into a low buzz in the background.

Suddenly, Bakugou’s hands stop.

“Kats,” You whine, one eye cracking open to see what was wrong.

Bakugou’s mouth is agape, brows raised, and face red.

“Kats? You okay?”

He doesn’t answer, and you follow his gaze to the couch, where Denki has climbed into Shinsou’s lap. The blonde’s fingers are threaded into his hair, Shinsou’s firmly gripping his waist, and they’re kissing. You sit up, a laugh bubbling in your throat.

“See, bubs?” You plant a small, teasing kiss to his lips. “Told ya you have nothing to worry about.”

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bisexualreginaldpeters · 3 years

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trans luke headcanon where since like middle school before he even realized he’s trans luke cuts his hair real short and wears boyish clothes and justifies it saying it makes him look more like a rock star and when the band is still young and barely formed he’s like ‘i need a cooler name! like luke! that’s way more rock n’ roll i’ll go by luke!’ and the guys are like sure okay if you want. eventually alex comes out to luke and half expects a double coming out of some kind but luke just hugs him and is supportive so alex figures luke will come out when he’s ready but the thing is. luke still hasn’t realized it yet. whenever questioned why he’s so boyish luke just nervously goes ‘no no it’s grunge! haha totally’ because he doesn’t really have the words to explain it and he doesn’t want say anything he thinks he can’t take back. he starts writing ‘my name is luke’ to begin to express himself and those feelings. it starts off with not realizing he’s trans and moves into denial thats he’s even different because his mom turns his boyishness into a point of tension, argues and pokes and shouts ‘what are you?’ and luke can’t answer, the words get caught in his throat. his mom asks ‘do you think you’re a boy?’ and she doesn’t even sound mad, just disappointed and he can’t even bring himself to say no or argue back but admitting the truth isn’t any easier. he doesn’t mention feeling any type of way to the boys, thinking they already found him odd. although bobby and reggie and alex never really thought he’s strange for it and are supportive because luke is luke. they don’t really need to know more than that. alex suspects something but doesn’t want pry (he doesn’t know any of the terms just knows they’re people like luke because alex had a very secret interest in the community and paid close attention whenever they came on the news). luke sort of realizes he’s trans by now but doesn’t say anything. doesn’t even know how to bring it up and it isn’t until after one of their shows that someone slyly tells them that ‘you guys are pretty cool for a boy band’ and instead of correcting them luke just goes ‘we’re way more rocking than any boy band!’ afterwards reggie points out that ‘doesn’t everyone in the band need to be a boy in order to be considered a boy band?’ luke shrugs says yeah and at that point even bobby and reggie are like. mhm okay maybe there’s more to this tomboy grunge thing. alex, claiming to have the gentler touch and more general knowledge, decides to finially ask in a more discrete way, saying ‘are we not boy band because it’s not rock n’ roll or because you’re not a boy?’ and without missing a beat luke says it’s because boy bands aren’t rock n’ roll which leads to a moment of processing before luke finally has to confront that he knows he’s probably not a girl and that it went beyond wanting to look more like a rock star. it’s a big ‘oh’ moment for him to get to say it out loud in front of people but the boys remain as supportive as ever, none of them really know what to do next but they make luke feel as loved as always, and luke appreciates it more than anything

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #reggie peters #alex mercer #luke patterson #bobby trevor wilson #bobby shaw #trans luke patterson #headcanon #long post

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tartagliaxx · 3 years

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hi. i only got to play in inazuma today so here's me live reacting to the archon quest. it's a lil out of context tho so have fun trying to figure out which parts im talking abt. also, this is the only time i'm going to be talking abt spoilers for at least one week so... 🤷‍♀️

swordfish ii? cute.

Jesus Christ. and here i thought it was my lowest settings that made his hair grey… this poor kid. teppei i admire your determination but no… just no...

SCARAMOUCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

IF EVIL WHY SO HOT

you know.... scaramouche could stand still and the air would get electrified. and yknow,,, that's p... that's p attractive

ugh im disgusting myself. and here i thought i still had an inch of sanity left in me.

of all people it had to be this little jerk

scaramouche is so fucking evil. i’d like ten of him, please.

man,, they expect me to dodge this shit? that’s the biggest l i’ve heard today. none of that shit. i’m bringing out my zhong and my sweet madames skrrt

sayu is adorable… i remember when i had hopes of growing up too… alas, it has come to this.

OH MY GOD AYATO CRUMBS. I AM LICKING THAT SHIT UP. PLEASE— HE HAS A SECRET UNIT. THATS SO HOT WTF. AYATO MY DEAR, PLEASE DONT BE A REGULAR ICKY NPC BUT WHITE HAIRED…

SNEAKY SNEAK. SNEAKY SNEAK.

THOMA OH MY GOD MY MALEWIFE. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? also, sayu’s sleeping again. this girl’s got talent. is her circadian rhythm okay?

pains me to be the bearer of all bad news and no good news…

WAIT THOMA IS LEAVING NO DONT LEAVE YET I WANT TO LOOK AT YOU MORE

oh nvm he’s still in the background.

EYY WHATS UP AYAKA. YOU’RE AS FINE AS EVER.

i… i don’t like where this is going… i refuse to be the bait. i’m too hot for that. so spicy they’ll spit me right out

DONT VOLUNTEER YOURSELF LUMINE— GIVE ME AN OPTION OR AT LEAST AN ‘OH SHIT HERE WE GO AGAIN’ LINE

YES FIREWORKS THAT WOULD WORK RIGHT? PLEASE TELL ME THAT WOULD WORK-

oh thank god… wait... they… they wouldn’t ask me to be the one to set off the fireworks right?

UNFORTUNATELY NO. AFTER YOU BECOME A FREE MAN, YOU’RE IMMEDIATELY MARRYING ME THOMA ANJKFHAIGHLANGKLAHOFJLKAB

oh crap… i’m… i’m in deep.

HE’S BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING US AGAIN EVERY DAY SINCE HE GOT THERE ANFLaglvbajlfblabvljabefva;bfalLJBLJDABVBAALSNADL tumblr user @tartagliaxx is broken. she is now irreparable. she has no regrets. goodbye.

ehem… what if… you and i… and hotsprings… together?? JUST KIDDING. PG-13 OVER HERE. NOTHING INDECENT WHATSOEVER MOVE ALONG NOW

poor thoma,,,

oh come on ayaka… cut us some slack… i just watched lumine wheeze bc of evil purple mist only to be dragged into 2 timeskips and an entire training arc. dont let her be yet another traumatized shounen manga protagonist… altho, it might be uh… too late for that…

oh dear… is thoma going to get another round of diarrhea?

OF COURSE. OF COURSE IT’S ME DOING ALL THE WORK. OF COURSE IT’S ME WHO’S RISKING MY LIFE ALL OVER AGAIN. GOD! GIVE LUMINE A BREAK. BEING A TRAVELER DOES NOT MEAN IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE.

hello yoimiya… still looking as bomb as ever i see……… mhm… gonna see myself out rn…

HELP MY SHITTY GRAPHICS COMPLETELY ERADICATED HER BROWS

oh god… are we dying because of fireworks? forget getting caught by the patrol… we’re about to light up an untested firework that was made to be a billion times more explosive….

NO. SHE SAID IT. SHE SAID THE CURSED SENTENCE. WHATS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? IDK YOU TELL ME. YOU JUST SENTENCED US TO DEATH YOIMIYA GREAT GOING still love you tho.

man… these patrol guards aint shit… i literally walked an inch behind their backs and they did nothing… its a surprise the rebellion still hasn’t won when they place guards like this in their ranks………. ok that was kinda mean i’ll apologize in a bit.

SAYU OMG… DONT WORRY I’LL SNEAK YOU OUT AND RISK MY LIFE willingly JUST TO RESCUE YOU. ILYSM HONEY YOU’RE DOING SO WELL

no, paimon. it’s not but we’re doing it anyway 🤡

NO ONE TOLD ME WE’RE GOING TO RUN. I WENT COMPLETELY OFF COURSE. first try tho 😏

HELLO THOMA. HELLO AYAKA.

HELLO SAYU. HOW DID IT GO? IM GUESSING IT WENT WELL BC YOU’RE STILL ALIVE?

oh no….. she’s worn herself out…. man,,, this is why you dont make convicts out of kids….

WE ASKED SAYU FOR AN INCH AND SHE GAVE AS TEN THOUSAND MILES. SAYU MY CHILD YOU EXCEED EXPECTATIONS

god, don’t remind me. as hot as the shogun trying to kill us w her blade was, i don’t appreciate almost getting murdered on screen (even if we most certainly have plot armor)

awwww is thoma worried about me uwu owo? dw i have like… a lumine w 6% crit rate by my side

sigh… i dont want to leave yet… cant i just stay by thoma’s side and not go to war for a change?

it was at this moment that tumblr user lei saw the wonders of being a housewife.

oh sara… my stars… i’m so sorry. i feel so bad for you but at the same time… this oddly makes me want to write a song for you ABJFJKABJABCABVABVKA I KNOW JACK SHIT ABT SONGWRITING WHY AM I THINKING LIKE THIS

well… there she goes…

oh…. oh….. yae is stealing my heart. WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO (i have an alt for a reason heehee)

DEAR LORD. PLEASE STEP ON MY NECK SARA.

these guys got guts to say ‘i’m sorry ma’am’ to THE kujou sara.

oh old man… you’re dead. you’re so dead.

man… this old man is a simp? sheesh.

YES. GO TELL EM PAIMON. PREACH THAT SHIT LOUD AND CLEAR.

oh my god… is that dude dead? i probably should’ve uh apologized b4 he flopped down to the ground ig…

MAN,, SARA’S DOWN FOR THE COUNT?? tbf i didnt expect much but…. also, AYE SIGNORA’S SO ICY.

she’s calling me out for being a simp ;-; heart been broke so many times or smth

OH SHIT LUMINE SPOKE. MAN,, WHY IS SHE SO COOL.

oh… i love this part of the vow… im suddenly inspired to write… how about a wedding au? an angsty wedding au?

goddamn… it’s been nice knowing you all…. i dont think i’ll come out of this alive if signora went out like that…

WHATS HAPPENING? ARE YOU SAYING KAZUHA WENT THROUGH THIS BS? IS LUMINE OKAY-

DID THEY REALLY JUST STORM THE ENTIRE FUCKING CAPITAL?? THEY HAVE SOME NERVE.

FUCK OMG KAZUHA AHHAHFHAFHAHGKJABKASBGA IM TEARING UP WTF WHY AM I GETTING EMOTIONAL- HONEY BUN THATS SO HOT OF YOU TO DO

oh… oh it’s time for round two? haha… time to… say my goodbyes….

yo… there are actual tears in my eyes… like… idk why… but that cutscene? shit man… that hit me…

hm… i feel bad for the shogun… ultimately, there is reason behind every act no matter how horrid. no matter how unreasonable, the reason one thinks of is always justified on their end. whatever everyone else thinks pay little effect on whether the act is fulfilled or not. also, her little laugh? i’m extra deceased.

the animation's fire as always wtf

oh but my kokoro... oof... my kokoro... ugh...

I’M SO FUCKING DONE AJKFHAKJBVAK- WE BEAT A HARBINGER AND FOR WHAT? she should’ve just tossed that gnosis into the ocean or smth...

HAH OMG SCARAMOUCHE. WHAT A MAN. I’M- I WAS RIGHT OMG. I HAD A LIL THEORY AND ITS JUST SMTH I HAD IN THE BACK OF MY MIND. I NEVER THOUGHT IT’LL ACTUALLY COME TRUE DEAR LORD. so now ig i have to admit i think abt him a lot and he has a soft spot in my heart 🥺 he’s evil you see and you know what my type is? evil men or at the very least, men with the potential to be evil. ugh so annoying.

scaramouche banner when

bc i sold everything worthy of money in me (read as my organs) for albedo, i'll sell my soul for him how about that?

EYE- makoto huh… well… fuck…

it’s day 400 of being ayato less even if he’s like… teased a million of times (jk it’s like… a grand total of seven but thats still p high)

im so… sigh…

i wonder if i’m still alive by the time sumeru releases… at the very least, i know my brain wouldn’t be.

....we were literally a captain for like... one second. that is so sad.

#˗ˋˏ°• afternoon tea rambles •°ˎˊ˗#inazuma spoilers

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babysizedfics · 4 years

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4!!!

-🍼

vee shows michael her pacis

vote from this concept voting post!

so its the first time michael has visited the house since vee told him about her regression. he was super supportive and understanding - honestly it made a lot of sense given what he had seen of her behaviour

and michael reassured her that he was okay with it all and that she can regress with him if she wants to. so before michael visits, vee purposefully doesnt hide any of the little items around her room as she had done every time he visited previously

and when michael comes in he sees the sanrio and winnie the pooh colouring books on her bed. he just smiles and asks if she was doing colouring before he got there

vee gets a bit shy because its so much more real to have him actually talk abt it openly, and she just shakes her head, blushes and starts to chew her nail

michael obviously notices her nervousness so he doesnt push anythinf and they just sit down on the bed to watch a cartoon - michael isnt into kids shows rlly but hes been watching steven universe with vee recently

and eventually vee notices michaels gaze has wandered during the show and hes looking at the bedside table - she looks and goes rlly red because she FORGOT that she left out a couple of pacis,

she looks up at michael kindve scared that hes gonna think its weird but he just gives her a soft little look and whispers "do you wanna show me them?"

vee squeaks and quickly hides her head behind his shoulder and he giggles "its okay we dont have to" and goes back to watching the screen

but vee is chewing her lip and fidgeting with michaels sleeve and then after some internal debate and a lot of nervousness she tugs his sleeve

so michael looks down at vee and she just,, points to the pacis silently

michael nods "yeah kitty, i saw the pacifiers. did you wanna show me them?"

and hes sounds kind, michael is always so kind, that she nods rly shy but clings to his arm tighter, not moving to pick the pacis up.

so michael reaches over and picks both of them up and puts them gently in her lap,

her fingers go to the lilac sparkly one instanty and turn it over in her hand and michael prompts "is that your favourite one? its definitely your favourite colour"

and vee just smiles and feels less shy and "um yea.. i think so.... but- but um i like all of them really..."

and she tells mimi abt all the different colours she has and how nice they feel in her mouth and she even mentions that she uses them when big sometimes for anxiety - she flips the dark blue one over to show him the clear teat and explains that one is better for chewing. thats why she has two next to her all the time so if shes little she goes for the softer cloudy teat and if shes big and anxious she uses the firmer clear one and it helps her breathe slowly

michael is actually super impressed and curious about that "oh! oh like oral stimming! like the chewy necklaces!" and vee smiles "yeah!"

then the convo abt the pacis goes quiet and vee is leaning against him and fiddling with the lilac paci in her lap, smiling softly down at it

then suddenly michael asks, sounding almost shy "kitty? can i maybe... ask you something?"

vee feels her heart stutter. she gets rlly nervos and her eyes tear up in a second because oh no hes uncomfortable he thinks its weird he's gonna ask me to never show him little stuff again oh no

she rlly quiet goes "mhm" and braces herself

then mimi asks rlly sweetly "can i maybe see you with it in? its okay if not i just kinda wanna see..."

vees cheeks quickly go hot and she pulls back a little to look up at him and check his facial expression

he's smiling a little shyly. "i promise its not because i wanna laugh or anything i just... i dunno i just wanna see, i think itll be cute" and hes a bit blushy

vee is completely thrown off by michael actually wanting to see her use her paci but,,, she hesitates then RLLY quickly puts the paci in her mouth and hurriedly covers her face with both hands

mimi giggles and says "aww vee, its ok! but i cant see you" and he rlly gently puts his hands on top of vees and she doesnt react badly so he pulls them away from her face and chuckles "hello kitty!"

at the nickname she slowly looks up at him and is sucking the paci noticeably now to help with the nerves. its bobbing in her mouth and shes blushing and her eyes are wide and michaels face instantly lights up and he coos "AWWW KITTY 💖" really gushing and adoring

vee breaks into a big big smile behind her paci and she squeaks and buries her head on michaels shoulder again as he tells her "vee oh my gosh, you look even cuter than I thought!"

"nooo mo mo" vee giggles embarrassed, itching to crawl into mimis lap but theyve never done that before so she just settles for wiggling her butt on the bed and pulling her skirt down to make sure mimi can't see her pullup

"yes yes! youre so pretty kitty~" michael says really baby talky and pokes her cheek softly (he knows she loves being called that) (she squeals a little)

michael doesnt draw too much attention to vee after that, after the little blushy giggle fit he asks her if she is regressed and she takes her paci out to say she isnt, if she was regressed she wouldnt be able to talk or really sit up on her own

so michael asks more about how she uses the pacis as a grownup for anxiety. and after talking about it they both simultaneously pause then go...

"do you think you might wanna try?"

"do you think it would make me calm?"

and then they both giggle and vee hands the dark blue paci to michael smiling rlly big and her chest is bubbly with excitement because mimi is making this feel so NORMAL and fun!

and thats why when patton walks into vee's room twenty minutes later with snacks and appl mango juice, he is greeted with the image of vee sucking her sparkly lilac paci and having fallen asleep on michaels shoulder, and michael just scrolling on his phone and spinning the blue paci in his mouth

patton actually immediately whisper apologizes, he thought that michael would be embarrassed and that it was meant to be a secret

but michael isnt embarrassed at all, he asks through the paci "oh hi pap! are bose cookiebs?"

pat nods and places the snacks on vee's desk then quietly asks if michael regresses too (he was totally ready to adopt btw lol)

but michael just laughs and takes the paci out and is like "nah i just wanted to see what it feels like but i dont think theyre for me. kitty sure looks cute with them though"

then he looks down and smiles at sleepy vee whos just blinking awake and she asks rlly quiet and high pitched "wh- mimi?" through her paci

michael giggles and looks rlly softly down at vee as he pokes her nose "im still here, kitty. you fell asleep"

and vee sighs and buries her face against his arm and suckles on her paci more

michael laughs and wiggles his arm to get her to stop faling asleep "vee no cmon your dad brought snacks! i wanna eat, get off"

and of course that makes vee cheeky and she wraps both arms tightly around mimis arm and closes her eyes as if she's asleep but shes smiling mischievously behind her paci

"nooo im hungry" "im theepy!" "no youre not sleepy you were already sleeping!" "till theepy" "youre not, youre hungry" "nop hungy" "YOU ARE im speaking it into existence your so hungry right now" "nooo thtop it!" "no i wont stop you are LITERALLY starving you want a cookie so so bad right now, you want a chewy sweet cookie and nice cold apple mango juice" .... "arrghhh now i wan cookieth and juith!" "hahahha"

and patton just watches on with the softest smile because hes so happy vee found such a wonderful supportive friend

#I LOVE MIXHAEL I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM #little/big michael #little/big concepts #little/big ocs #agere virgil #ts agere #cg patton #asks #🍼 anon

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lettrespromises · 4 years

Text

> LettresPromises informs you : You have one notification.

> Letter object : The tamer of the flamboyant flames of passion.

> Todoroki Shouto sent you a letter, would you like to read it?

@mangosnakesandpeaches sent a letter : ❝heyo! its aydudenoway, just moved to my writing account! request number 1/3 : okay okay, so ya know how people always tend to write like, dom shouto and sub reader? what about dom reader and sub shouto. like, damn as much as i like dom shouto, kinda want to see some dom reader nglll. could this be a drabble/imagine and not too too graphic NSFW? i hope this is okay! ahhh okay okay so idk if you started writing my request (dom reader) or not, but could i add onto it real quick? breathless Shouto is all im saying. im so sorryyy for this being so sudden! if you can't add it, thats okay!❞

author’s letter : ❝dear @mangosnakesandpeaches, thank you once more for trusting me with your ideas and letting me express through words the love i have for this man and this man only!! hot take but i do kind of feel you.... like.... shouto is low-key a sub to me (aside from pegging ofc.) anywhoopsies!!! i hope you’ll like this and i tried not to make it nsfw which was a bit confusing but?? nonetheless, i hope you’ll enjoy this promised letter.❞

Genre : Erotic but not explicit smut, fluff. (Please consider that the characters are aged up.) Warnings : Cursing, foreplay, innuendos, sexual deeds. Word count : 1.6K.

After personally handing crushing losses to many villains throughout the entire week, admiring the hint of a shy smile adorning the face of civilians torn by fear as a gleam of hope while they’re being saved, secretly glancing at the newfound scars worn as medals on the abused flesh of your skin when no one is looking, any hero would be mentally and physically drained, as if your body was just the host of vacuity. And rightfully so.

Thus came the ever so needed tradition of self-care with Shouto, this renaissance of an evening was held every Friday night ever since you both graduated from U.A. No word was needed, the sole acknowledged information of today’s date was enough for the both of you to understand that today had your name as a synonymous of self-care written all over it.

This context explains why you found yourself enveloped in Shouto’s embrace, a physical testimony of just how much he loved and cherished your presence, if you will. These oh so special Friday nights also drew a contrast with your everyday life as heroes, it was also the perfect opportunity to say (or paradoxically declare in a silent manner) just how much your presence was needed to one another as the cons of being a pro-hero weighed on your mind like the sword of Damocles. To put it more harshly, the inevitable curse of never knowing if the day you were bound to spend together would be the last represented said cons.

His arms found shelter on the area above your hipbones, and every time he would let his genetically given large palms roam on this area, he would always wonder if said area had been carved to fit perfectly the form of his hands— Shouto liked to think that perhaps this was yet another sign that you were meant to be, he always tried to find poetic parallels everywhere.

His thumbs were brushing invisible shapes on the flesh of your hips left bare by the intervention of Shouto’s hands, these brushes were anything but calculated, yes, they did respect a certain common pattern— but each time they felt similar, they always felt new at once. The semi-random nature of his gestures were the living proof that the documentary being played on the TV was semi-interesting as well.

You, on the other one hand, were sheltered in Shouto’s warm and welcoming embrace, your head fit right in the crook of his neck, and as per usual, Todoroki found yet again another poetic parallel drawn by your jointed souls. Nonetheless, if Shouto’s stare was focused on the succession of bright lights radiating off of the TV, yours was laying on the personification of your source of happiness— your boyfriend himself. After all, wasn’t staring at him way more interesting than some documentary being played? Nothing could compare to some well-deserved ‘staring at Shouto session’, but said sessions came with the slight danger of being caught, oh well…

« Love, I believe you’re doing it again. » Shouto blurted out which made you unconsciously flinch in response.

« Doing what exactly, mhm? » Oh, the fake tone of innocence could have been heard from miles away, and it sure as hell didn’t go unknown under Shouto’s radar.

« You know what I’m hinting at— staring. » But this time, it was his turn to stare at you, it was a mutual game now.

« You’re saying that as if staring at you was illegal, I mean, looking this hot should totally be considered illegal. » Shouto’s blood rushed under your newly left comment, causing his cheeks to adopt a rosy tone.

« Y/N, I’m a pro-hero, I’m not quite sure I can be considered as a villain… Is looking a certain way truly illegal? Should I change something about my appearance? » His heterochromatic eyes found yours, and a certain desire for reassurance chimed in the way.

« Shouto, baby— of course not! You’re perfect the way you are, I was only messing around, you know? » His desire for reassurance fades away and instead, you are met with a gleam of content as you continue :

« What I meant to say was… You’re so handsome, so out of this world… » Each word leaving your lips and connecting to his eardrums was accompanied with the fitting gestures to emphasize just a bit more the comforting undertone of your speech. It all began with a swift shift of position— you were now sitting on Shouto’s lap, a crucial position which guaranteed you the upper hand of physical exchanges.

« You’re divine, Shouto… » The longer your eyes met his, the more you were secretly convinced that he was indeed out of this world, thus, you underlined this statement by tracing an invisible line from the corner of his lips to his jawline under his intrigued facial expression. An intrigued expression, perhaps, but he was begging to hear more.

« You’re have all the qualities one could dream of, don’t you? » This rhetorical question was signed with the manifestation of the presence of your lips upon the flesh of his neck, Shouto let out a gasp he ignored he was holding and tilted his head to give you more room to play with as an answer, longing for the next lines of your tirade. Instead, the soft pressures left by the pecks were replaced with biting motions, and interchanged with sucking motions at times. This newfound balance of pleasure on Shouto’s newly bruised skin was the cause of a chain reaction— first, his lips parted as if he was gasping for oxygen, he didn’t need it, it was more like a precautious deed than a clear remedy to something he needed; then, his lids closed shut, in anticipation of the bliss which was bound to course every inch of his body; eventually, a deadly sin named gluttony got the best of him and encouraged him to let his palms wander on your derrière. A bold action quickly reprimanded by a quick slapping motions on the back of his hands.

« No touching, got it? Keep your hands to yourself and maybe, just maybe I’ll reward you. » A sentence so embedded with delicious sin which became amplified under the spell of your whispers, right against the shell of his ears. There was no vocal response on his end, only a line of chills from the back of his neck to the bottom of his spine, sure, it wasn’t vocal, but it was such a sweet way to respond to the temptation.

This comment would be stating the obvious but you had the monopoly of the game, you controlled the fate of the protagonists and bent the rules your way— some would call it cheating, you’d call it having the world at your feet. An adventurous hand traveled underneath the fabric of Shouto’s shirt and, on its journey, felt the various kinds of reliefs sculpted on his body. The rock hard sensation of his abdomen against the soft flesh of your palm was one of the sweetest contrasts. Your hand followed a vertical path— first, a journey near his pectoral muscles, and a tragic fall to his growing bulge right beneath you, you couldn’t help but bow your lips into a grin which echoed to a thousand of hidden desires and beyond while Todoroki looked at you with pleading eyes.

« Aren’t you such a good boy to me? You did as I said, baby, keep going for me, yeah? » Shouto knew that the way you would pronounce each individual word was a hint to what was bound to happen, and the precise manner you moaned « good boy » near his eardrum was just a mere indicator amongst a myriad of them that you would not give up on your iron hold any time soon. Your lips eventually met his once more in a heated exchange, the advantage of the height played in your favor to assert dominance and set the done of the secret ballet between your tongues. Meanwhile, your palm was dangerously stroking the oh so growing bulge in Shouto’s underwear— and when your tongue would twist in a clockwise direction, your hand would do the opposite and vice-versa.

Shouto could feel you through all his senses— and although his lids were shut closed, this couldn’t prevent him from picturing your frame towering over him, he would always remember everything about you, even the most trivial details anyway. The gluttony in him cursed at him and screamed to touch you, but he knew better than to fall under the spell of his temptations. If he couldn’t manifest his pleasure physically, he could still do it orally— and thus a silent melody resonated in your mouth at the contact of your tongue with his. Said melody ended in the crescendo of the volume of his uneven breaths after breaking your kiss due to the lack of oxygen.

His cheeks were crimson red, his mouth was set agape to let fresh air fill his lungs again, his eyes echoed nothing but an irresistible paradox of pleading and will to continue further, his head felt dizzy under your sweet toxins which had just penetrated his mind… He was so addicted to you.

You let a smirk grow on your face in response to the aftermath of your antics, knowing very well that this was just a way to foreshadow what was bound to happen : « You’ve been so good to me, pretty boy, so, so good. Guess who’s going to have his reward now, baby? »

He knew he was going to get his reward, but at what cost?

#shouto x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #shoto x reader #mha x reader #bnha x reader #shouto todoroki #todoroki

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lifesucksheres20bucks · 5 years

Note

For prompts (this is gonna be so basic but I have this weird love for when secret relationships are found out) reddie being caught by the losers, or (if you want angst) being caught by Mrs K

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG BUT HERE IT IS! THNAK YOU FOR THE PROMPT

Eddie was never one for secrets, well not with his friend, at least. His mom was a totally different story. She was a hard headed woman with hateful morals, especially when it came to the lgbtq+ community. “They’re all sinners , those disgusting parasites” she said every time they would hear something queer related on the news. Eddie would just wince and stay quiet. He hated hearing those words but didn't dare say anything against them. He couldn't bear the thought of her finding out about his secret.

It was plain and simple, he was in love with Richie Tozier, his childhood best friend.

They started dating about a year prior, after confessing their feelings for each other at their senior prom. Dating Richie, this far, has been a breeze because they were both out of Derry for College. Out of sight out of mind right?

Eddie has been back home for summer break for about a week and it’s been extremely hard keeping the secret to himself. Especially since his mother is constantly checking up on him.

He saw Richie every single day, catching up on the missed time they had apart in College. They mostly hung out at the quarry with the rest of the losers, or at Mike’s farm, safe places they could just be themselves.

One morning, after staying the night at Richie’s, Eddie woke up to the most beautiful sight in the world: a quiet, sleepy Richie. He always loved the way Richie looked in the morning. Hair all messy, glasses off, lips slightly parted.

“Man, does his lips look good in the morning, almost like their begging to be kissed”, Eddie thought and that’s exactly what he does.

“Mmmh, good morning Eds. Someone’s excited to see me, Richie says between kisses.

“I just couldn’t resist, you just looked so peaceful and I had to ruin that”, Eddie smirks.

“ Oh you wanna make mad? Keep kissing me to see what happens when Angry Richie comes out”

Eddie takes that as his queue to continue kissing his boyfriend. After a couple of minutes their full on making out like a couple of teenagers. They were both so entangled in each other that they didn’t hear the door from downstairs open, or the faint screams for Eddie, or the loud creaks in the staircase. The only thing they heard was the piercing scream that came out of Sonia Kaspbrak’s mouth.

“EDDIE ARE YOU- OMG EDDIE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? MY SON IS KISSING ANOTHER BOY? THIS IS NOW HOW I RAISED YOU! YOU’RE A GOOD STRAIGHT BOY! NO SON OF MINE IS GOING TO BE A FAG THATS FOR SURE!”

Sonia then drags Eddie out of the bedroom and out the door in record time. Richie is right behind them yelling at her to let Eddie go. She only yells in return about how HE did to her Eddie bear and how Richie was a horrible influence on him. However, Richie could only concentrate on the painful cries coming from his boyfriends lips. He was crying and shaking so much, pleading to his mom to let him go, that she was hurting him. Seeing Eddie like this broke his heart.

Richie’s attempt to get Eddie back failed. Both of them soon drove off and Richie was left crying on the sidewalk.

The car ride home was a long and silent one. The only thing heard was Eddie’s choked up sobs. When they finally pulled up in the driveway. Sonia simply said, “Were going to Bangor tomorrow, they have this camp that can help you with your sickness Eddie bear, I heard about it on the news, go pack a bag, we’ll leave first thing in the morning”

That’s exactly what Eddie did, he went up to his room and packed a bag. He wasn’t planning on staying until the morning. Instead, Eddie waited until his mother went to bed and snuck out his bedroom window. He had done this hundreds of times but this time felt different, it felt better. Like his relationship with Richie finally had a real purpose, he was meant to be with Richie and this confirmed it.

Fifteen minutes later, he was at Richie’s window. He quietly knocked on the glass and the window opened immediately, he realized Richie was waiting, or hoping, for him to come over.

“Eddie, baby, are you okay? Omg im so sorry I couldn’t stop her. Shit Eds, im sorry, im such a horrible boyfriend..” Richie said while tears streamed down his face.

“No ‘Chee, it’s not your fault. She’s a disgusting human being and I just got stuck with her as my mother,`` Eddie said as he wiped the tears off of his boyfriend's cheek.

“What happened? Why do you have a suitcase? Are you leaving Derry?”, Richie voice was full of concern.

“No sweets im not leaving Derry. I don’t really want to get into it right now. I just needed to leave that place once and for all, im 18, she can’t force me to stay anymore. I just, mhm, do you think I could maybe stay here until the summer break is over?”, Eddie asked

“ Yes Eddie you’re always welcome here, you know my parents love you so much. They will literally throw me out, if it meant you getting a bed in our house, Richie said as he kissed the smaller boys temple.

“Chee, she’s going to hate me forever, my own mother will disown me. How could someone even think of doing that to their child”

“I don’t know Eds, maybe it’s for the best. Starting a new life without your mother being in control of it, a life that you’ve always dreamed of, with the best best boyfriend in the world, that loves you more than anything, an amazing group of friends that will love you no matter what and my folks who love you as much as they love me. That’s your family Eds, the people that love you unconditionally.” , Richie wraps his arms tightly around his boyfriend and rubs his back until the quiet sobbing stops.

“I love you so much Richie, I don’t know what I would do without you.” Eddie inches his face closer to Richie as he says those words. Richie cups his cheeks and closes the gap between them, sharing a long passionate kiss.

“I love you too my little Eddie Spaghetti”

#eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #REDDIE #reddie prompt #reddie imagine #reddie au #reddie one shot #reddie fanfic

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theskyeandsea · 5 years

Text

Tangled Weeb of Lies || Orion, Winston, and Skylar

Location: Skylar’s Apartment

Trigger Warning: Chronic illness symptom mentions

Backdated: Friday, February 28th

Glancing around her apartment, Skylar let out a sigh. Everything looked good. She’d cleaned up a little bit, gotten some snacks ready to go in case Winston and Rio wanted to eat something while they watched, and had a large mug full of fresh coffee. Swiping her forehead, she glanced at her hand with a grimace before wiping the slight sheen of slime against her jeans. Nope, she wasn’t going to deal with this right now. She was going to have fun anime night with her friends and it was going to be fun and she wasn’t going to even think about the pelt that was draped over the chair in her room. Nope. Totally not going to think about it. Hearing a knock at the door, Skylar hurried across her apartment and smiled, hoping she didn’t look too exhausted. “Hey! I’m glad you could make it, come in.” She said.

Winston stepped through the front door as Skylar let them in and rummaged in their rucksack for the snacks and soda that they had brought as their own donation to the anime night snack fund. They looked at Skylar and was pleased to discover that she looked relatively healthy all things considered. They didn’t know exactly how long it had been since she’d last changed but she was definitely running down the clock on it again. “Hey! Thanks for having me,” they grinned and had to admit that they were a little excited, it had been a while since they’d just hung out with friends and enjoyed some anime, “am I the first person here? I didn’t know what snacks to bring so I got a selection…” they didn’t know if they were at the stage with things were hugging Skylar was appropriate so they didn’t even try it, just kind of awkwardly waved.

“Of course,” Skylar said, though her eyebrows scrunched together at their slightly odd wave. Brushing it off, she continued, “Mhm. But, it’s a small group. Just you, me, and Rio. Orion-- do you know him? He’s really sweet.” She was honestly glad that it was a small group. She wasn’t totally sure she could handle hanging around many people, her nerves were a little fried after everything she’d been through. The past two months had been hard enough, but the onslaught of magical garbage affecting her life had hit a fever pitch last Friday. She’d just wanted to go on a quiet date. And now poor Shiloh had been roped into things too. Ugh. Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she nodded, “And please, don’t even worry about the snacks. I’m not going to be eating any.” Before she could say anything more, she heard another knock at the door. “Ah, sorry. That must be him.” She said and headed to the door, “Hi! Welcome in.”

Orion stood near the door awkwardly trying to convince himself to go up and knock on it. Of course, the idea of having an anime night with people he didn’t know well was scary enough in itself, but the underlying meeting was just as terrifying. Rio had never purposely tested someone before to figure out if they were a species other than human. In all other cases, he had been with his family and praying that the tests would fail, refusing to do them himself. But tonight had been a special case. If Skylar was a Fae or werewolf or anything, Rio would have to come up with a plan b to keep her protected. But one thing at a time. Rio had snuck into his sisters room, stealing a silver ring as well as an iron ring, to cover both bases. He had slipped them onto his right index and ring finger and grabbed ahold of his bag of snacks and ran out of the house before his parents or sister had the chance to ask where he was going. Rio finally decided that it was now or never, so he took a deep breath and went to knock at the door. When they answered, he lit up with a genuine smile, “Hey! Skylar! So nice to meet you in person! I’m Rio. Or Orion. I don’t know if you’re a hand shaker or a high fiver?” Rio asked curiously, holding his hand out, rings exposed and ready to test the waters. From the doorway, Rio could see who he assumed was Winston. “Hey there! Nice to meet you!” He might as well test both, just to be safe.

“Nice to meet you too, in person.” Skylar said with a smile before opening the door to let him inside. Tilting her head a little bit in confusion, she blinked. “Um, hand shake, I guess? Do you prefer Rio or Orion?” She asked as she shook his hand quickly, hoping that her hand didn’t feel too slick in his. Shutting the door behind him, Skylar gesture over to Winston and the small offering of snacks she’d set up for the get together. “I’ve got some snacks over there, popcorn and some chips and things. There’s also Mountain Dew in the fridge, so help yourself to that. There’s also beer in the fridge for you, Winston.” She nodded in their direction, “Or help yourself to anything on the bar cart. It’s all fair game.” She really hoped that she was making a good impression on Rio-- he seemed really nice and she could honestly use some nice, nerdy friends.

Winston made their way over to Rio and gripped their hand firmly but politely. They hate it when the cops in the station would crush your hand in a hand shake. “Hey, I’m Winston, it is nice to get to meet a fellow weeb.” They laughed at their own joke before heading back towards the couch. “I’ve also brought some stuff,” Winston said and nodded for Orion to help themselves. “Thanks Skye thats sweet of you, can I get anyone else a drink while I’m at it?” They headed towards the fridge, the thought of an ice cold beer playing fresh on their mind. “Are you a big anime fan?”

Orion shook both of their hands! Without either of them burning! “Wooh!” Orion exclaimed excitedly after successfully acquainting with his new friends. “Uh sorry... just excited to be here.” He laughed nervously, scratching at the back of his neck and holding up the assorted bag of little Debbie snacks that he had brought along, “These are open to anyone. Uh thanks for inviting me! I’m super excited to meet you both and have some people to watch anime with! People call me both, but most people outside my family go with Rio.” He was clearly nervous and rambling. Winston had called Skylar, Skye. Should Rio do the same? Too much overthinking. “Oh! I’m a big anime fan! But I’ve never really had anyone to watch it with. I’ll take a Mountain Dew while you’re in there. Thanks!” He needed to calm his nerves if he had any chance of being invited back for another anime night. “So what are we watching?”

Eyebrows scrunching together in mild confusion, Skylar stared at Rio for a moment, but her expression quickly shifted back to normal after his apology. He was probably just a little nervous. She’d known her fair share of introverted people in college and there were always a few people who sort of overcompensated when they wound up meeting people. Poor guy. With a welcoming smile, Skylar nodded, “Rio it is. And thanks! I accidentally ate a large lunch so I’m not that hungry.” She said as she took a sip from her coffee mug. “I’m glad you two could make it, I haven’t watched things with people like this in a long time. Um… I know we talked about Haikyuu, but I’m also open to pretty much anything. Maybe nothing super gorey or gross?” She said, “Do you have any preferences, Winston?”

“Sure, I’ll stick with Rio if that is what you prefer,” Winston replied as they inclined their head gently, “So how did you too meet? I thought that after I met Skye I would know all the nerds in town but it is always a blessing to add another one of us to the hive mind.” They hadn’t been able to say something like that in a while, too much hanging out with people because they knew stuff about the supernatural world and not enough hanging out with people so they could play D&D together. Winston shrugged. Before grabbing some Mountain Dew for Orion and a beer for themselves. Skylar seemed set with her mug of coffee. “I’ve never watched Haikyuu and I’ve never really given any sports anime a go, but I am down to try something new. If we get bored we could always try something new. I don’t really have a preference it’s just cool to meet some new people and find some new anime to watch. Could always do with new recommendations if possible.”

“Oh, we met online and started talking about anime and stuff like that. Then we decided to try to meet up and have a little anime night. So here we are!” Orion explained, noting Skylar’s mention of not being hungry. One of the tests for supernatural creatures was diet. Many species had specific dietary restrictions that hunters could use to exploit and expose the creature’s secrets. Was that what this was? Or was she just truly not hungry? But Orion laughed at Winston’s comment, “Hive mind. I like that!” He grabbed the Mountain Dew from Winston and popped the tab open, taking a long drink. “Thank you! I really enjoy a lot of sports anime! It’s actually been around a really long time too. There was a Japanese animated short film back in 1928 called Animal Olympic Games! Most critics credit that as the first sports anime.” Orion mumbled off the top of his head, not sure why he thought that would be important information for either of them to know. “But I’m, among the few that I have seen I would say that Haikyuu is my favorite. It’s just really cute. But exciting.” Oh boy, they needed to start quickly so Rio could shut up apparently.

Rio seemed a little bit more excitable than Skylar had expected; or maybe she was just feeling more out of it than she had thought. It had been a little over two weeks since… Ricky and Remmy had forced her to change. She should be fine. She should still be okay. But the way she was feeling, it was worse than normal. “Mhm! It’s really neat that White Crest has a system for people to connect like this. It’s been really nice as someone who’s not super extroverted.” She said as she walked over to the TV and connected her laptop to the HDMI cord. Listening as the other two hashed out the details, Skylar waited for her computer to boot up. “Really? That’s neat, I didn’t know that!” Tilting her head at Winston, she spoke up, “If you want, we could start from the beginning of the show, so you have an idea of what’s going on? It’s totally your call, I’m not up to date.”

Raising an eyebrow, Winston passed the can of Mountain Dew over despite the fact that they couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Orion had a bit too much energy already. “Are you guys both relatively new to White Crest then?” Winston had been using the messaging boards since they could type and had been as such benefiting directly from there. Orion however seemed to really know their stuff about anime and Winston was starting to wonder if they might not be the most nerdy person in the room. They would obviously have to work harder to establish themselves as the apex nerd. “Sure, we can start from the beginning or you can throw me in at the deep end and I can tell you if I start drowning. Whatever you guys want.” They were starting to wonder if they needed to have someone here to help them make decisions since they all seemed to nice to do that.

Orion was talking too much. He knew that. But he figured it was either talk too much or cower back into his shell and not talk at all. Honestly he couldn’t be sure which one they would prefer. His nerves about the Fae testing hadn’t helped either. “I’ve actually lived here my whole life.” Orion shrugged at Winston, “But um... I didn’t get out much when I was younger. So.” Orion took another drink from his can, shaking it absent-mindedly to find that it was already more than halfway gone. “I’m fine with starting at the beginning. I think it’s important for context.” Orion eyed the hallway that he assumed led down to the bathroom and bedrooms. He tapped on his soda can idly and considered his options. Was he the kind of person to try to rummage through somebody’s personal possessions? Was it justifiable if it was to try to protect said person? “We should definitely get started before I start boring you guys with the history of Japanese volleyball.”

“I moved here back in August, so I’m the only newbie here.” Skylar said with a small smile before taking another sip from her coffee mug. Winston’s off-hand metaphor made her wince slightly at the thought of swimming, of having to-- nope. No, she wasn’t going to think about that right now. This was all about nerdy, normal people things. Not crazy, magic seal things. “Sounds great to me!” She said pulling up the first episode of Haikyuu before pausing. “You guys don’t have a problem with subs, right? It’s just easier for me.” She said, brushing her hair as casually as she could so Rio could see her hearing aids. It was a bit more subtle than saying “hey I can’t understand what’s going on because lip reading doesn’t work on cartoons” and tended to work. “And hey, I’m a fan of random trivia. I’d be happy to hear all about that.” She nodded.

“Oh, I guess we must have missed each other at high school or something,” Winston felt somewhat guilty for just assuming that Rio was brand new to town, but they seemed to have gotten away with it to some extent. “I am more then happy to have subtitles on,” Winston honestly was kind of lazy at paying attention to everything that they were watching, and as a result they often had subtitles on so they could back read anything they didn’t quite hear.” They popped their beer open and drank a mouthful, before settling into a sofa. “Is volleyball a big thing in Japan or something?” they asked casually, feeling themselves grow slightly hot under the collar as they felt somewhat embarrassed by their apparent awkwardness.

“Probably, I was pretty quiet in school. Mostly kept to myself.” Not everyone could be as outgoing as his sister, but Orion hadn’t thought much about it since high school. It hadn’t been a very fun four years of his life anyways; he’d rather just forget it ever happened. “Subs are perfect. I prefer them actually.” Orion agreed, catching a glimpse at the hearing aids that Skylar was wearing. He remembered her mentioning it online when they talked about ASL. “Sports in general are really popular in Japan,” Orion began, surprisingly thankful that the two didn’t seem annoyed by his random bursts of nerdy knowledge, “About 85% of kids in Japan are involved in some type of sport at school, it’s a little less nichey than sports in America tend to be. There’s even a national Holiday in japan specifically dedicated to sports.” Taiiku no hi. Orion decided against saying the name in case that was a bit too far on the nerdiness scale. “But volleyball has been around in Japan since the 1920’s. The debut of Volleyball in the Olympics was even in Tokyo. The women’s Japanese team took home gold.” He felt bad that he seemed to be monopolizing the conversation and decided to settle down into an open spot near the television. “Okay, sorry. We can get started now. I’m done I swear.” Orion laughed nervously and hoped that someone would put him out of his awkward misery.

Taking a seat on the sofa farthest away from Winston so as not to crowd them, Skylar hummed in amusement-- strange, how White Crest could feel like such a small town with so many coincidences, and yet stuff like this happened. Two people who had similar interests, had grown up here their entire lives, had never crossed paths. Well, she was happy to bring the two nerds in touch, she was happy to have more dorky friends who were into the same things she was. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She said with a smile as she settled into the couch, tucking her legs underneath her. Oh wow, Rio really knew his stuff. And Skylar liked to think she was a bit of a trivia dork, but she had nothing on him. The most she knew was silly random fun facts about… bananas and things about sign language. “You’re all good, really. The more you know, you know?” She said, jokingly making the sign for rainbow, mimicking the meme. With a laugh, she started the first episode and watched as the animated characters appeared on-screen.

Orion could calm down long enough to enjoy a few hours of solitude and nerdy company, right? He couldn’t control his outright laugh at Skylar signing rainbow to reference the meme. “Clever” Orion laughed, settling back into his seat when she hit play so they could jump into the first episode. Orion quietly sang along to the opening theme song, hoping that he wasn’t too loud to disturb the other two from watching. Once they had gotten into the groove of the show, Orion could feel his anxiety finally start to calm down. But he kept catching himself eyeing the hallway. Against his better judgement, he couldn’t stop thinking about what more he could do to make sure he could keep Athena away from his new friends. Eventually after a couple of episodes of distraction, Orion couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey uh – Sorry. Could I use your bathroom really quick?” Orion asked, waiting for the permission to be granted before hopping up from his seat. “Please don’t pause it for me! I have seen this episode a hundred times. I can jump right back in! Be back in a minute!” Then he ran off down the hallway and towards the bedroom doors.

Skylar grinned, quietly pleased that Orion had understood her joke. It was kinda nice to have someone around who understood ASL more than the generic alphabet and question words. As they got into the show, she noticed that he had relaxed a little, something that honestly made her feel better about her hosting ability. Rio had seemed so nervous being here and she really didn’t want him to feel that way. He was super sweet, in person as well. As they made their way through the episodes, Skylar just felt… off. No matter how often she tried to focus on the anime in front of them, her mind drifted, cycling through worries. What did Shiloh really think of her? Would Remmy be okay? How was Nadia doing with her post-possession situation? Why was Nic out killing vampires? Was it really okay for her to take Alain’s self help books, what if he needed them? Why was Evelyn asking her all those questions? What about Blanche, was her magic nightmare situation still going on? How was poor Morgan dealing with her curse, did she need someone to talk to? Was Ricky ever going to forgive her? Would he even want to? All the questions weighed heavily in her mind, and her shoulders slumped deeper into the couch. The Karkinoids, the giant lobster boy, the eyeball that she still saw when she closed her eyes-- what were they? Why had they appeared? What had she gotten herself into, what had she gotten Shiloh into? It was-- It was too much. Dimly aware that Rio was saying something, she glanced over to where he’d been sitting and realized he was no longer in that seat. The episode they’d been watching had long ended. How much time had passed..? “Um, okay! I’ll just keep it going.” She said with a slight shrug at Winston. Where had Rio said he was going?

Though they were ignorant of this, unlike the other two, Winston was completely engrossed in the anime. They were drawn in by the detail, the art style, the tone. It was a difference from what they had previously been involved in in terms of their anime viewing experience but variety was the spice of life and honestly it was nice to do something that didn’t involve Ghouls, Fairies or Magic. Glancing over at Skye, they noticed the glazed look in their eyes and sat up gently as Orion left the room in search of their bathroom. “Hey,” they whispered, “you doing okay? You look like you’re a million miles away…” they gave her a reassuring smile before leaning back in their seat and placing a few kernels of popcorn into their mouth and chewing thoughtfully on the snack, “Orion seems like a cool dude.”

Orion rushed as quietly as he could into the hallway and gently pushed open the first bedroom door, peaking inside. Upon inspection, he wasn’t convinced that that was Skylar’s room. And pulled the door shut as quietly as he could and moved past it, eyeing the bathroom and then moving for the other door. He eased it open, noting the blue walls which stood out from the rest of the place. Against one wall stood a bookshelf that held stacks of comic books and manga along with a few pop figures. Bingo. Orion squeezer through the small opening and suddenly found himself standing in the middle of Skylar’s room. This was wrong. He knew how wrong this was. Maybe he didn’t deserve friends in the first place, if this was what he would have to do. But it was too late in this case, so he pushed himself forward, forcing himself to inspect the bookshelf and then the closet. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for, but figured he would know if he found something. Ingredients for a spell, a pool of blood, being a Fae for dummies, anything. He moved to the bed and found nothing before finally inspecting the desk. He searched through the drawers, trying to be thorough in his search while also maintaining some level of privacy. He was ready to give up his search on account of not finding anything until he bumped into the desk chair. Clothes were tossed over the back of the chair, a detail Orion had completely ignored until he was up close and the bottom of the pile caught his eye. He carefully lifted the other clothes on top and his eyes widened at the discovery. Skin. He moved his hand to touch it and felt the leathery surface. Finally, all the pieces seemed to finally click together. Skylar was a selkie.

What if there was nothing she could do about all of this? What if Ricky was right, what if she had to confront-- Skylar forced herself back into the present and realized that Winston had said something to her. “I-- Sorry. I’m fine. Just a little tired, that’s all.” She said with a shake of her head before bringing her coffee mug to her lips. She’d refilled it twice over the course of the episodes, which would usually be enough to bring her energy levels up to normal at this time of the month. But… it wasn’t working. She still felt drained, the coffee wasn’t helping, and she couldn’t get out of her head. “Rio seems really nice, mhm. I’m glad he had this idea. Maybe if we could make this a regular thing.” She said before glancing down the hallway. Wait… “Didn’t he say he was looking for the bathroom?” Skylar asked, her expression shifting to one of confusion. “Why’s the bathroom door open?”

Raising an eyebrow at Skylar’s response, Winston counted backwards in their head to the date that Ricky and Remmy had forced Skylar to change. “You sure?” they asked with a frown, not willing to push the issue considering that it was obviously an issue for Skylar, but they wanted their friend to be safe and well. They forced themselves to take a long breath and watch the anime. Skylar was her own person and she had her own level of autonomy. She had her own life and she could make all her own decisions without Winston’s help. Rising from their chair, Winston made their way over to the living room door and looked around. “Why is the bathroom door open?” they asked in agreement, “Maybe Orion just went the wrong way or something?”

The news couldn’t have been any more relieving, and Orion had to physically force himself from cheering aloud or prancing around like an idiot. Skylar was a selkie! A selkie! Sure, being human was the safest bet for Skylar, but this was better, no, safer than the alternatives. The only thing Orion could think of to test a Selkie would be their dietary restrictions, and that would be easy enough to work around. Plus, Orion had befriended a selkie! How cool was that? He placed the clothing back on top of the skin and made his way back towards the door. When he slid back out into the hallway he looked over to realize that both Skylar and Winston had apparently realized that Rio had not just gone to the bathroom. “Uh- wrong door” he laughed awkwardly, semi thankful that he had been an awkward disaster the entire evening so that he had that excuse going for him. Without another word he made his way into the bathroom, splashing his face with some water from the sink. He would sit in there for a few minutes, try to calm himself down. He hadn’t done anything wrong per say. Technically he had, but for the right reasons. This was totally forgivable, right? This was good. Maybe now that he had learned the truth he could finally just enjoy the anime night with his friends. The stress of dealing with his sister would have to wait another day. But just to be safe he was going to spend another minute or two in the bathroom practicing some breathing techniques.

“I’m sure,” Skylar said with a rather forced smile on her face, ignoring the way that her body was starting to ache in that familiar, ever-present way. The way that followed her around, day after day, no matter how much she rested or slept. The way that shouldn’t be happening right now. She should have had more time, she’d needed more time to just be normal. Why couldn’t she just be normal? Reluctantly, Skylar shifted from her place on the couch and followed after Winston to peer down the hallway. But, even as she looked over, she saw Rio scurry into the bathroom door with an awkward laugh, shutting the door behind him. He’d been awkward all evening, poor guy. “I don’t know how he could have gone into the wrong door-- it’s just our rooms and the bathroom down the hall.” She blinked with a shake of her head. Rio wasn’t some kind of pervert was he..? Had she made a mistake inviting him here?

Raising an eyebrow as Winston spotted Orion leaving Skylars room and promptly making a beeline for the bathroom. “I mean maybe check your room to see if anything has gone missing,” though they had to admit that Orion wasn’t exactly the type that seemed suspicious and this may well have just been an extension of their awkwardness but Winston didn’t want to take the risk that there was something more going on there. It seemed unlikely that someone like Orion was not human or was even aware of the supernatural, but then again Winston hadn’t known about it. “I can try and keep him distracted if you want, it was probably just an honest mistake though…” Pausing Winston looked to Skylar to see what she wanted to do, this was her place after all. Her call.

Grimacing, Skylar nodded. Winston had a point, there was an easy enough way of dealing with this. “Thank you. If he comes out before I do, just try and distract him somehow?” She asked before hurrying down the hallway. She slipped inside her room and glanced around-- her bookshelf looked normal, her sheets was still haphazardly tossed in an attempt at making the bed, and her chair. Eyes widening, she hurried over to her chair. Her skin. Her pelt. Shit. How could she have been so stupid to just leave it lying out? Had he found it? Had he taken it? Was he going to sell it on the black market like Ricky had said people did? Oh god. But, there it was. Under the clothes she’d hidden it under. Letting out a small sigh, she relaxed a little. Hang on. That still didn’t answer the question-- why had he been in her room? Oh no, he wasn’t actually a pervert, was he?

Footsteps down the hall made Orion’s heartbeat even faster. His hands were shaking and he could feel sweat collecting on them. He flushed the toilet, never bothering actually using it. He washed his hands and wiped them dry on the hand towel. He pushed back out into the hallway, glancing back quickly at the bedroom door. Skylar wasn’t in the living room anymore, she must have gone into the bedroom. Orion felt light headed from the guilt and his stomach began hurting. He wasn’t going to throw up in Skylar’s home, right? No... he needed to remain calm. Or as calm as possible for him. “Hey!” Orion muttered casually as he walked back into the living room and reclaimed his original spot. “Is Skylar okay? She looked a little out of it earlier.”

As Skylar left, Winston quickly came up with a lie. They weren’t sure why they had decided to suggest that they lie to Orion because they were perhaps the worlds very worst liar. They hoped that everything was in order. “Hey!” they replied jumping a little as Orion appeared once more, “I think she’s doing okay,” they replied their brain doing their best to churn out a lie that was plausible, “she just went to get changed, she was sat here and there was a … a …” their brain was blank, “a spider!” They paused for a sharp intake of breath because Skylar didn’t seem the type to be bothered by arachnids. “Anyway, there was this … uh spider and I hate spiders they give me the skeeves and so I spot this … spider and I kinda jumped and that made Skylar jump and as she jumped she was about to drink some of her coffee so it was in her hand and I think some of it spilled on her and she went to sort that, probably just cleaning up now or maybe she’s getting changed… i don’t know because I’m here with you and not out there with … her.”

With one final, troubled look around her room, Skylar grabbed one of the sports mangas from her bookshelf and walked back out to the living room, holding it up at her guests as she returned to the living room. Rio was back in his spot and Winston seemed… a little out of sorts? What had they said? “I… remembered that Haikyuu is kinda similar to Koroko No Basket and decided to grab the book my room, in case you wanted to borrow it?” She said, holding the book out to Rio to look through. But, her eyes were trained on Winston. Did her story match with theirs..? What had they said to Rio to distract him? Oh god. They should have lined their stories up before she’d gone into her room. Her stomach churned slightly, she hated lying, she hated making things up so much. Particularly when it was over something that could be easily found out. Dammit.

Orion followed along with Winston’s story to the best of his ability. Admittedly, it seemed pretty obvious that they were lying to Orion. “Oh... uh I get it though, spiders scare me too.” That wasn’t a lie, Orion was terrified of the things. Though he was terrified of a lot of things so spiders didn’t necessarily make the top of the list. “Yeah, that makes sense. I hope she’s good. Is the spider gone?” He confirmed that it was a lie when Skylar came out giving a completely different excuse wearing the same clothes. Orion laughed nervously. They all knew each other was lying, but how did Orion explain to the two that he had a (semi) legit reasoning for glancing through the room? Especially in front of Winston; who knew what they knew about Skylar? Orion wasn’t willing to out her just to save his own skin. “Oh! I haven’t read that yet!” Orion smiled as wide as he could and tried to sound casual. Did his voice just crack? Jesus. “Thank you! I really appreciate it. I can get this back to you soon, I promise. Uh-“ he motioned to change the subject, “are you doing alright? You look a little out of it.” Why did he have to ruin every good thing that happened to him?

Winston’s eyes went wide as they realised that Skylar hadn’t changed. “Hey, you managed to … get the stain out already, you really must give me that recipe you know to do that. I spill … stuff on me … all the time.” They really needed to get better at lying, this was not going to work out if they were going to continue putting themselves in these situations. Glancing up at Skylar, Winston frowned as they realised that Skylar didn’t really look herself. She didn’t look ill per se, more that there was something off about the way she viewed the room. A weird sheen in her eyes. “Do you want to come and sit down, maybe you should have a drink or something?” they looked at Orion and hoped that their lies would be forgotten. They wondered what was really going on here, was it possible that they were in danger. Winston would’ve normally written it off as simple miscommunication and misunderstanding, but suddenly they were so sure. After everything that had happened maybe they were getting a little paranoid.

Struggling to not just blink at the two of them in confusion, Skylar nodded slowly, “Uh huh… it was just a little spill-- not a huge deal. And I got distracted by the book because it was on the shelf next to me. Mhm!” Nailed it. Before she could say anything else that could make things weird, Skyar nodded and sat down on the couch, taking her spot once more. As the two of them asked her if there was something wrong, she frowned at them. What was going on? Was it that obvious that she wasn’t feeling her best? Glancing down at her hands, she saw that a thin film of slime had developed on her palms, but she did her best to hide that by folding her arms across her stomach. “I’m fine, really. Just a little tired, but that’s nothing super uncommon. Um… Are we still going to watch?” She asked, gesturing to the anime boys that were running around on her tv screen. The sooner they just dropped the question, the better. She didn’t want them asking her questions she couldn’t really answer.

Orion wasn’t convinced that Skylar was alright like she claimed, but it was hardly Orion’s business. There must have been some reason why she was trying to convince them that she was fine. Maybe she was just tired. Orion shrugged towards Winston as if to say, I hope she’s fine. Then at least, Skylar offered to continue watching the show. Things couldn’t be too messed up if they were going to be jumping back into the tv show, right? Orion let out a sigh of relief, falling back into the chair and trying to force himself to relax. Everything was going to be fine. Orion was going to befriend both of them despite the awkwardness of tonight. He needed some friends like this. “Yeah we should jump right back in. Sorry for holding things up.” He welcomed anything to change the subject from their obvious lies and hopefully give some room for the three to forget everything and bond over anime like they had been doing before.

Winston knew that they were all aware that there wasn’t something quite right here. But apparently all of them were way too awkward to confront it. Winston’s tenous grasp over their magic was not something that they wanted to test now. So they sat there, and watched several more hours of this anime. In doing so, they had to admit that they really came to enjoy Orion’s company, despite the weird situation that was hanging over them. When it eventually got to the later hours of the night, Winston realised that they had work in the morning. Stiffling a yawn at the end of their current episode, they forced themselves from the couch. “Look, guys, I’ve got to go home,” they said as they pulled their glasses off an rubbed their eyes, “I’ve got to be at work in a few hours and I need to get some sleep, but … yeah I had a great time.”

The next few hours of anime passed Skylar by in a slightly listless haze. She was aware of what was going on, but the tiredness was getting to her in a way that her normal methods of just weren’t handling. But, she did her best to seem as engaged as possible. She laughed when the other two did, she nodded along to the opening music, she tried to just be normal. When what she was going through was anything but. And, to top it all off, there was the matter of Rio… poking around in her room. As Winston stood up to walk out the door, Skylar nodded. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it’d gotten that late. Thanks so much for coming by.” She said, walking them to the door. Fingers twitching at her side nervously, she glanced back at the couch. Mmmmmm. She really had to know why he’d been in her room and this was as good of an opportunity as she was going to get. Speaking as casually as she could, Skylar asked, “Since they have to get to work tomorrow, Rio… do you mind helping me clean up a little?”

Orion was able to settle down enough to enjoy the anime for a few hours. He usually used anime when he was stressed out as a distraction. It got his mind off of reality and gave him some time to unwind and relax. That actually seemed to be working, despite the awkwardness of the night. After a while, Winston mentioned it getting late and began to pack their things. Orion hadn’t even noticed all the time that had passed. “It was super nice meeting you. I’m glad we got a chance to do this.” He smiled at Winston, nervously fumbling with the rings he had stolen from his sister. His little ploy had been so stupid. He should have just come for the anime night and left it at that. “Oh yeah of course. I’d love to help.” Orion agreed nervously.

Yawning, Winston collected the remainder of the snacks that they had brought with them, stuffing them into a rucksack and pulling their jacket on. Rubbing a finger behind the lense of their glasses, they nodded and smiled at Orion. Despite all of the weirdness earlier, Orion seemed cool. “Hey, dude, you too, we should definitely make sure that we do this stuff again, maybe on a weekend or when I’m not working.” With that they double checked that they had the last of their belongings and headed out into the night.

Skylar smiled as Winston said their goodbyes and shut the door behind them. Just the effort of getting up and going to the door was draining, but she hid it as well as she could. She had no idea why she was feeling so awful. She'd been trying her best to take care of herself, reading the self-help books, and doing whatever she could to ease some of the stress that had been thrust upon her. This was part of why she'd wanted to have anime night-- it was meant to be something fun and normal and cool, but her body was just... ruining it for her. Letting out a sigh, she did her best to offer a genuine smile as she turned around to face Rio. "Thanks again for offering to help clean up, I really appreciate it." She said with a nod, putting a chip clip on one of the open bags. "Um... did you have a good time?"

Winston left for the night which just left Orion and Skylar alone in her place. Despite a few hiccups, Orion had enjoyed himself and hoped that the other two had as well. He was in the kitchen, throwing out the cans and bottles from the night and trying to organize the array of snacks that they had brought over. Orion couldn’t help but wonder what was on Skylar’s mind. His fingers drummed against the countertop nervously. “Hey, yeah of course it’s my pleasure.” He answered suddenly, realizing that he had spaced out for a moment. “I had a great time! It was really cool to have people to talk to about the shows I like to watch. Thanks again for inviting me over.” Were they going to talk about the bedroom incident? He didn’t want to, but he was afraid things would be worse if they didn’t. What would Orion even say? What excuse did he have, really? Aside from the truth, which was completely out of the question.

Skylar blinked at Rio's answer, a little confused by his body language. He'd been a little antsy all night, but there was something else about him. Why was he being so... odd? He almost seemed like he wasn't fully present, if that made any sense. But... she couldn't really judge. She hadn't been feeling like herself in a long time. "I'm glad that you had fun. I'm really hoping to make this a more regular thing." She said with a nod. But... she still wasn't a hundred percent sure how she felt about Rio. There was just something... off. Grimacing, she stared at the stovetop of the kitchen before turning around to face Rio. Looking him directly in the eyes, Skylar spoke up, "Um. Do you mind if I ask you something?" She could feel the sweat trickling down the side of her face; or, at least, she hoped it was just sweat. Either way, she really just wanted to ask him and get it over with. "Why were you snooping around in my room?"

Skylar did not look great, but Orion wasn’t sure that it was his place to make a comment on it. She had been lethargic the entire night and had looked a bit out of it, but Orion had hoped it was just exhaustion. But now, standing up with her in the kitchen instead of glancing from a chair, he could see that it was more than just Skylar being tired. It didn’t help that tension sunk between the two, both thinking about the same incident without either saying anything about it. But then finally, Skylar asked the question. What had Orion been doing in her room? All night, he had convinced himself that it was justifiable. That he had a good reason for doing what he had. But was it truly necessary? He was so stupid. “I- uh wasn’t snooping.” He began, but it didn’t feel right coming off his lips. They tasted bitter, “Sorry that’s not right- I didn’t mean to snoop.” That was closer to the truth. Sure, he had walked into that room on purpose, but he had never wanted to do it in the first place. “I walked in and I should have left immediately but I-“ He couldn’t explain to her the truth, not without explaining his family to her. “I saw the skin.” He finally settled on. That was what this entire night had boiled down to and it was a conversation the two would have to have eventually. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. “I didn’t know what it was at first, so I went in because I wanted to know what it was.” He shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see her facial reaction just yet. “Which was wrong. And I shouldn’t have done that and I’m really sorry.”

The tiredness Skylar had felt all night had sunk into her bones as she listened to Rio. Folding her arms across her chest, her fingers gripped at the sides of her shirt, as though she could just physically hold herself together. If she could just keep it together, she would be okay. But, the second he mentioned skin... Her blood ran cold. What? He'd seen her skin, had he gone in there purposefully? But, it was still there, it was still there. Wait. Her eyes widened as she realized that he'd said skin, not pelt. Not something that... a normal person who saw a seal pelt would say. "You... you went into my room, and you saw my skin. And you don't think that's snooping?" Her voice shaking with both anger and fear. What was he going to do now? Why did he know. "How, how do you know what it is? Rio, why were you looking for things in my room? Why... why are you here?"

This wasn’t going well. Understandably, Skylar didn’t seem to take the news that Orion found the skin very well. “No, no. You’re right I’m sorry. It was snooping. But.. I didn’t want to snoop. ” Orion couldn’t seem to find the right words to say. Were there any right words to say? “Listen, there are some bad people in this town.” How did he tell her the truth without telling her the truth? “They want to hurt people that are… different.” His mouth was dry, but his palms were sweating and he wiped them against his jeans. He didn’t feel like he could make eye contact. He may start crying on the spot. God, that would be embarrassing. “I’m here for the anime night! I swear. But while I was here… I needed to know. So I could make sure you were safe. I- I don’t care that you’re a Selkie. I just don’t want others to find out and hurt you.”

Skylar shook her head slowly from side to side, as though that would make any of this situation less real. No, no, no. She'd been so careless, so stupid. She'd sent back the safe to Ricky and now she only had herself to blame for this. If she'd just kept the safe, then Rio would have never known that she was a Selkie. "Why did you need to know? Why couldn't you have asked me? If-- if you'd asked me, if you'd said that you were trying to help me, I would have told you." She said, trembling. "Who are these people? How do you know about them, and who-- who are they? If you're trying to help me, I need to know. I deserve to know if someone tries to hurt me for being something-- something I don't even want to be!" Her voice broke and tears began to streak down her face as she stared at Rio, still trying to comprehend what he had told her.

“I couldn’t just ask.” Orion whined, not proud of the emotion slipping into his voice. He hated crying. He definitely didn’t cry in front of people. “I didn’t- I couldn’t know if you were going to tell the truth. It’s why I wore these stupid rings.” He held his hand up as evidence. “There are hunters!” He couldn’t bring himself to tell her the whole truth. Knowing about his family would only put her in more danger. Not to mention himself. If he were to over tell them the truth about him then… well that might be his family’s final straw. “I’ve seen the awful things they can do and when we became friends I just- I just wanted to keep you safe.” But then Skylar broke Orion’s heart. She hated being a Selkie? All she was trying to do was live her life. Orion was the one that should hate what he was. He did hate what he was. “Skylar… There is nothing wrong with wha- with who you are. You deserve better than that.” Dang it. He wiped at his eyes with his forearm. This was definitely the worst.

Blinking through the tears, Skylar sucked in a deep breath and attempted to calm herself down. But, the more Rio kept talking, the more questions came to mind. What was he talking about? Hunters? His rings? What did he mean by this? What did any of this mean? "Are you a hunter? What are the rings, what are they?" She asked, trying to work through the thoughts racing through her mind. There was just so much that she couldn't even begin to understand with what he'd just said. "I--" She held up her hand, signing for him to stop. She didn't need someone who had just... outed her to try and reassure about what she was as a person. "Don't. Don't tell me that, I don't want to hear that. What I need to know," Skylar took in another shaky breath, "Is are they going to attack me? Are you going to hurt me?"

The words hurt Orion. They weren’t even accusatory, more questioning than anything. But it didn’t make the question hurt any less. Was he a hunter? “No. God no. I’m not a hunter.” That wasn’t a lie. Genetically, maybe he was but he would never become his family. He refused to accept that title as one of his own no matter what his family tried to force upon him. “I don’t- It doesn’t sound good. But I want to be honest here. The rings are silver and iron. It’s a way to test if a person is a werewolf or Fae.” He wanted to try to explain more to her, to try to make her understand or at the very least make her less afraid. But he had ruined it. He stopped talking immediately after she signed at him, freezing in his tracks. “Ok. I’m sorry.” He held his hands up in surrender and crossed them back over his chest. “No! No! No. I would never hurt you. Or anybody. I don’t want anybody to get hurt. Nobody is going to hurt you.” He was going to make sure of that. Whether Skylar could forgive him or not. Whether she ever spoke to him again. She would make sure that his sister stayed away from her.

Swallowing through the lump that had formed in the back of her throat, Skylar nodded. Okay. He wasn’t a hunter. But he knew about this? He knew about werewolves and fae and how to tell what they were? He knew about Selkies? How could he… Rubbing her fingers together, she shook her head again before unhooking her hearing aids from her ears, shoving them into the pockets of her jeans. She didn’t want to hear any more of this, she really didn’t. She couldn’t handle finding out about all of this. Focusing on reading his lips to compensate for her lack of hearing, Skylar’s hands clenched at her sides. “How do you know that no one is going to hurt me? I need you to leave. Right now. I can’t deal with this right now.” Skylar signed, pointing at the door.

Maybe Orion had still kept some hope alive. Maybe, despite the tears and the anger and the fear, Orion still wondered if a friendship was salvageable. Maybe, just maybe, Orion had deluded himself to believe that he did deserve friendship. But Skylar took out her hearing aids, and Orion knew that the conversation was over. The door had closed and Orion was locked out. At least the one benefit was that Skylar probably couldn’t hear his sniffling any longer. At least she was safe, and Orion knew that Athena’s initial tests wouldn’t show anything.”Yeah, of course. I get it.” He signed back at Skylar. He thought about leaving the bag of snacks on the counter for Skylar, but remembered that her diet wouldn’t exactly allow for that. So he grabbed onto the bag and made his way towards the door. He held onto the knob for a long moment before turning around to sign at her again. “Thanks for inviting me. I’m really sorry. Again.” Then he was gone.

#p: twol #p: winston dane #p: orion quinn #chronic illness cw

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catravandece · 4 years

Text

Two OPs in one night bc today made me needlessly anxious. Here are some things I think abt modern au mdzs fics (some of which can be applied to canon as well)

wangji needs more friends. only being friends with ur brother and ur partner’s friends aint healthy. i know hes a shy guy but i crave those sweet sweet platonic dynamics

for this job i nominate song lan&xxc, mian mian, whoever lan jingye’s parents are and also jiang yanli

think about it. two soft souls with deep wells of devotion. yanli totally knows lwj is gone on her brother and becomes his confidante/secret wingman. weekly lunches where he flatly recites every ridiculous thing wwx did that week and yanli just goes “yup. mhm. i see” with a tiny smile cuz she can see the hearts behind wangji’s eyes

wei ying “inventor of useful things, chaotic leo energy” wuxian is absolutely an experimental engineer of some kind, tech developer or a goddamn librarian.

hear me out on the librarian thing (yes i am also an aspiring librarian i just got my masters and will use every excuse to trot it out fight me)

librarians respond to the needs of their community. wwx found what was lacking in regular cultivation and invented shit to fill in the gaps

public libraries become swarmed with children and teens in the afternoon during the school year. who in this cast is the best with children besides yanli and maybe jfm?

libraries are all about protecting the rights of their patrons. freedom of information is the whole deal, which is the opposite of government institutions and corporations that use misinformation to push agendas. if the cultivation world post-Sunshot was a unified government, then wwx who came from that government, saw the rights of the Wen survivors to exist and protected them is deffo the library.

he created a classification system for spirits and corpse monsters thats taxonomy babey!!!

cardigans

im tired now might think more later

#it speaks #mdzs #so many Things happened today and now i have a headache probs from sugar #deal with it by dumping my dumb thoughts out #i probably wont ever write fic of any of this so feel free to steal

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maryniss · 3 years

Text

How Does Waiting Sound?

Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs

Summary: How did Dazai named his ability?

Why won't Oda leave Dazai?

***

On a last mission before leaving the Port Mafia, Dazai and Chuuya finally find the perfect name for Dazai's ability.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Relationships:

Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Dazai Osamu&Oda Sakunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Characters:

Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs) Nakahara Chuuya (Bungou Stray Dogs) Oda Sakunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs) Original Female Character(s) Yoko Ogawa

Tags: oh boy here we go - Freeform;thats why i dont like writing long fics because of the tags;anyway;Drugs;Drugs Made Them Do It;Underage Drinking;does chuuya care they are underage?fucking no;oh yeah;Swearing;Angst;Light Angst;Fluff;Nakahara Chuuya is ticklish;Blood and Violence;i selected blood kink accidentally there are no kinks here;Murder Family;Odasaku Hunts Dazai's Thoughts;Riding Motorcycles(aka Jenna)’Motorcycles;I love Chuua's motorbike as much as I love cherry's carla’Port Mafia Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs);But he quits the very next day so not pm dazai really idk;Tags Are Hard;i wrote this because the thought of how dazai named his ability kept me up at night;and yeh;I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping;soukoku kiss i forgot to tell y'all that;Gentle Kissing

Notes: Pfff...cant believe i finished this im so happy rn. so i have one important thing to say before.

YOKO OGAWA is a real Japanese writer. This here doesn't make any assumptions about her real life persona, this is only a fanfic. That is all.

OK, yo now lets see. So, what is this fic really about? idk but soukoku kiss so im happy with that.listened to this while writing hehe

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mIVbG8EnA6JgSqzgk87pA?si=LVJB_uZyRQqIIMejQeSzgg

Dazai smiles, even if he is not happy.

Dazai smiles because he is happy.

Dazai never cries.

He smiled at that moment when his life changed. That day when he got a good beating from a child much smaller than him (even if that stubborn redhead would never agree with him about their height)

Dazai always thought that he was special. He was indeed. After all, the people around him were human. They died. Everyday. Every single day, before his eyes. Sometimes, he killed them himself. Other times, he had to witness blood shed from afar.

It still hurt. But, he got used to it. He was strong enough to do so. It was like he didn’t feel it anymore, actually. Just like when you get used to the sound of a broken clock; it is as if it never existed in the first place.

But, Dazai felt something, he was just burrowed too deep into his thoughts to reach his feelings. He... he felt like he was...

No Longer Human. Dazai spent a lot of time thinking about the name of his ability (and, no, we would never tell anyone how it got that name; personal reasons) and he concluded that it fit perfectly.

Walking down on a random street, Dazai thought about it again. Actually, he had told somebody about the origin of his ability’s name. The sun threw pretty, orange, almost transparent curtains of light, making Dazai seem like an angel that has just ascended from Hell.

He stopped and looked around himself. He knew that his instincts would not fool him; he knew the street he was on.

If he turned around the corner, he would find the bar, the same as always. Unchanged, as his feelings.

He hated himself. Not only when he was going to the bar, even though he promised himself that he would never go there again. Not only when he let everyone around him down. Not only when he did what he thought was right instead of what he wanted.

He hated himself in general. And, to tell you a secret, there was only one other person Dazai hated.

He entered in the bar and, as always he saw Oda sitting there.

“Were have you been? You are late! , “smiled his friend with a drink already prepared in his hand.

Dazai sat down in the cold and empty room. He did not have time to tell Odasaku how he got to name his ability.

“The usual?, “ asked the bartender.

“Mhm, sure.”

Dazai relaxed against the back of the chair. There was a clock in that room, but it was broken.

“Hard day?” Odasaku’s tone was concerned. Dazai smiled to himself and nodded.

“Kind of. How about you?”

“Nothing special.”

The barman brought two glasses of whiskey and put them on the table. Dazai looked at them and saw nothing, nothing more than the person who should have drank that, right next to him.

“You know, actually, there is something that I want to tell you.”

Oda left his glass back on the counter and smiled at Dazai.

“Do tell. I am pretty bored. What could happen that would make you want to talk like that, so suddenly?”

Tik-tok-tik-tik-tok. The clock on the wall sang its broken song.

“It’s not a so good story; but I want to tell you.”

“Ok, I am listening, Dazai.”

The brown-haired man inhaled deeply and looked at the glass in his hand. He then drank it all and slammed it against the table. The drink next to him was untouched. Dazai called for the bartender and ordered two more drinks.

“Ok, so where should I start?” Tik-tik-tok-tok-tik-tok.

“From where you see fit.”

Dazai tried to remember. The details of the day his life had once again taken a 180 turn. It was late spring, or maybe already summer, and the sun was setting almost shyly.

“Yeah, it was a golden afternoon. And the sun was smiling down upon…”

“Wait, I already know this story.” Dazai looked puzzled. He was sure he never told Oda this one. Their drinks were waiting on the counter. Tree, in total and one empty glass.

“Are you sure? I don’t remember...”

“No, I don’t actually know this one in particular. But, I do know who this is about.”

Dazai understood then and he smiled melancholically. The Oda in his hallucinations really knew him that well, huh? He bet that the real one would have also guessed.

“Whenever you talk about that person, you get all poetic and dramatic, as you are covering yourself with another layer of protection, so that no one can see into your heart. “

Dazai gulped and took a mouthful of whiskey. The alcohol burned down his throat, and then up again to his brain. It was not a big problem; Dazai could handle his drinks quite well (or so he thought).

“Well, you are right, but you’ll hear me anyway, right? It’s not like you have a place to be. And this one it’s not like all the stories about Chuuya that I told you before.”

Dazai may sound all confident when he talked; but deep in his heart, in that numb place of his heart, where he could not reach his frozen emotions, he was scared. If he would had have problems with his kidneys, he would probably piss himself very often and not only because of his disease.

Oda sighed and the clock on the wall did too. The sound of something that doesn’t function anymore.

“Of course, go on. I won’t interrupt you anymore.”

***

“Oi, I can’t believe that old geezer! Putting us to work when he is relaxing in some exotic country! ,”said Chuuya, not so subtly, drawing other’s people attention. The afternoon sun was making him look like an angel that had just descended from Heaven. His hair was high-up in a ponytail and it was the first time Dazai saw him without his hat.

He was beautiful, not that Dazai would ever admit that to Chuuya, god no! He wouldn’t even admit it to himself. He always caught himself staring; against his own will, of course. He liked to look into Chuuya’s eyes. Because he felt like they were alike. They tried to hide their feelings; or, better said, never got a chance to expose them in the first place.

Chuuya’s eyes were always full of light. Nor hatred, nor any other emotion tainted them. They were pure and Dazai admired him for that. He would never tell Chuuya that, again, that was a very big no.

But, it was something. To have eyes blue like the sea, like the reflection of a world full of freedom, like the blue sky Dazai could never see completely. Everything was written there.

“Now, where is that building and those bastards? Let’s kick their assess quicker, ‘cause I wanna drink something.” Dazai smiled at his partner and showed him to turn left.

“Oh, Chuuya, but you are still underage! You can’t drink! , “ said Dazai, being surprised at his own words. It was not like him to make such comments. Irrational and not funny at all.

“You really are dumb, right? If I am going to go beat some guys and steal whatever, I am sure that I am allowed to drink. It’s not like I have respected the law before.”

They walked down a dark alley, chatting or fighting or both at the same time, because that’s how their conversations usually work. Dazai telling Chuuya that he liked his shoes; Chuuya checking to see if he really did take his good pair today; Dazai shattering all of his hopes down and laughing everything off; and then Chuuya smacking his partner and mumbling not-so-beautiful nicknames.

That’s how they work. Like a broken clock.

But, even broken clocks strike sometimes the right hour. They may have seem to not pay attention around them, but it was quite the opposite actually.

They knew they reached their destination, so they tried to focus on the shadows around them; on the sounds of steps that were so loud, even if both Chuuya and Dazai could feel the effort of the people following them to not be heard.

They silently looked at each other.

“We finish this fast and then we go to drink somethin’?”

“Ok, but if you get drunk you’ll let me drive your motorcycle.” Chuuya seemed to hesitate, but he also didn’t want to go drinking alone. He was not afraid or something, it just felt lonely…

They finally reached the building from where they were supposed to extract…

“What are we supposed to take from here? , “ whispered Chuuya. “ Is there some human trafficking that we should take care of?”

“I think that somebody took something from Mori-san, like documents or boring things like that, “whispered Dazai back.

“I swear that I’ll kill that man if he ever sends me to bring him some piece of paper.” Dazai chuckled and looked one more time at the building.

Yeah, of course it had to be a night club. Why did fancy people (or actually people who considered themselves fancy) always came to nightclubs? Where were they supposed to search for those papers? In somebody’s underwear, or what?

And this one didn’t look like a very expensive one. The big sigh with “ NightClub Insomnia” shined pink and green, those cheap neon ones. The windows were dark, so you could not see inside. Or maybe there were just some thick curtains.

Chuuya moved forward and stopped, making a disgusted face.

“Eww, here smells like piss and bear.”

“Let’s go inside then, though I think that there smells even worse, “ answered Dazai. The moon was already high in the sky, illuminating Chuuya’s fragile silhouette. The brown-haired man almost laughed at himself. Fragile? Yeah, sure. He should say that after he beats Chuuya at a one-on-one fight; though he liked when he is being pinned down, and when the redhead smirks triumphantly from above him, his long hair almost brushing over Dazai’s lips…

“Are we going or are you afraid that you’ll be kicked out because you are a minor?”

Dazai snapped out of his dreams and focused on the mission at hand. After they are done, he would go with Chuuya to drink. And he has time to admire his partner (and hate himself for doing so) afterwards.

“Well, if the police catches us, we can just beat them.”

And, so, Dazai and Chuuya entered on the club’s door.

From afar, Yoko Ogawa was observing them. She gestured and her guardians nodded.

The woman resisted licking her lips ( a nervous tic that she has since she was little) as she looked at the two young boys trying to make their way through the crowd. The night has only started, and she already had them where she wanted.

Lights, loud music, neon colors, dancing, people and sweat, drugs, drinking, and the smell of cheap wine and beer, mixed with another one that Chuuya had sensed since he first arrived. An old woman sitting in the corner, wishing she had listened to her wife. She should have took some lip balm with him.

Well, it was not so important. Because, that night was the night she would catch the Double Black. Soukoku. She would be the one to do so.

Soukoku, huh? Just a bunch of kiddos. Yoko Ogawa had two reasons that forced her to break her first marriage, and another two that forced him to get married again with her second wife, the one that was always telling her to use lip balm.

The first reason that determined her to divorce from his wife was that she was not good with children. She didn’t have the patience, the determination to play with such despicable creatures.

And there was another one… oh yeah. Because she accidentally killed his children.

Well, this was her wife’s fault! She should have not left her with them!

She did once, she could do it again. She whispered: “You are dead, Soukoku”, but the club’s liveliness made his words seem dull and not true at all.

***

There are 3 glasses still full of whiskey on the table. There are 3 glasses with only the ice left in them.

“It’s pretty hard to tell this story in the 3rd person,” sighs Dazai, propping his head in his hand. The room is still empty and cold; he gathers all the drink in one place and puts them in a circle.

“Why are you telling it in 3rd person then? You can… , “ he stopped and reached for the glasses that Dazai was playing with. “ That’s mine, you can order more if you want to do whatever you were doing with them.”

“Ok, ok here you are.”

“Thanks. So, why are you not using the first person?”

“Well, that’s because this is not only my story. You’ll see.”

The clock made a disharmonic sound. The room was quiet then for a while and Dazai took another deep breath. That was the moment that their plan to go drinking went wrong. Though Dazai got to ride Chuuya’s motorbike afterwards.

***

“You were right, it really does smell worse here,” yelled Chuuya, trying to make himself heard over the sound of the tasteless music that some DJ- Chuuya would very much like to go and teach that DJ what good music was supposed to sound like- was playing.

“I don’t know what you are saying. This smell kind of reminds me of your apartment. There is the same smell of cheap wine and…”

“That’s because of a certain someone only buying me wine at the smallest price!”

“You should go buy your own wine then!” A woman, almost naked of course, approached Dazai and put her hands on his shoulders. The brown-haired man pushed the woman away; her breath was smelling like beer and there was another odor, a musky and sour one that made Dazai scrunch his nose.

“I am sorry, but I have no such tastes in women,” said Dazai and went on, trying to catch up with Chuuya. He could his small partner ahead of him, avoiding the strippers that were coming for him like a wild group of animals comes for its prey.

“Chuuya, look there!,” shouted Dazai, trying to get the chibi’s attention. Chuuya turned to him and followed the direction that Dazai was showing with his hand.

There were the men that they had to meet to retrieve the documents. Port Mafia didn’t like to spill blood uselessly. So, Mori-san gave them the order to try and negotiate first for the documents, giving them some money in return.

Neither Dazai, nor Chuuya understood the old man. They could just beat those guys and take the documents and that was.

It was almost as if there was something that they didn’t know; as if they were fooled; as if they were going right inside a trap.

Yeah, Dazai knew that was very probably. A trap. He was more than sure about it. He didn’t know if Chuuya realized this; but he trusted his partner. He knew that Chuuya could protect himself, even if he was being in disadvantage. For fuck’s sake, Chuuya was literally a god, so Dazai should not worry about the redhead so much.

The brown-haired man looked around. An elegant dressed woman, wearing red lipstick, her hair tied up in a practical bun, sitting on a celadon sofa, that was probably bought from the SecondHand shop next to the club; Dazai could tell that the sofa was not very comfortable, but what could you expect from such a place? She didn’t seem like a bad person. Besides her, there were two women. Dazai scanned them quickly. A gun hung loosely next to their hip. It was pretty dark, but Dazai could also see the shine of some small, sharp blades. Total: around six. There could also be some hidden ones, in their boots, their hair and maybe even a small bomb in their mouth. He was not so sure, but they needed to pay attention.

Chuuya and Dazai looked at each other. After years of missions when they needed to be silent, they developed some kind of secret language only between two them; almost like they could reach each other’s minds and pull out the thoughts directly from there.

“Do they pose a threat to us?”

“Maybe to you, I am capable of protecting myself.” “Ok, but you won’t let me die this time, no?��

“…did I ever let you down, Dazai?”

Dazai smiled.

“No, chibi, let’s go. We do this quick and then we go to that new bar, right?”

“I swear, if you call me…” Chuuya stopped mid-sentence, looking somewhere between Dazai. He blinked four times and then he took hold of Dazai’s hand.

“We gotta go, Dazai. This is not ok. Fuck the files, this is a big ass trap. We haven’t been careful enough…”

Dazai turned to see what frightened Chuuya so. He blinked himself, telling himself that it was impossible. This mission should have been an easy one. What kind of Ability User did they have the luck to stumble across this time?

The club was slowly melting, its walls, people and everything peeling down, letting bright sunlight come in.

“Come on, Dazai, move!” The brown-haired man needn’t be told twice. It was not like them to run; normally, Dazai would not run with Chuuya. But, that day was the last day when he would be recognized, officially, as a member of the Port Mafia. He did not want to go around, killing people as some kind of maniac.

He was crazy, he knew that already. But, even crazy people had their moments. Just like broken clocks.

And, Chuuya always run. Not because there was something that he could not handle. Dazai bet that his partner could fight with a dragon from those fairytales Oda used to read kids before sleep and he would win, without even scratching himself. Maybe he was foolish and greedy to think that Chuuya was scared for him, for Dazai; maybe he was just blinded by the light coming from Chuuya’s eyes to think that the redhead really did care for him that much.

“Ok, Chuuya, let’s go.” They did not get out in time. They didn’t and Dazai is somewhat glad because of that.

***

“Could you just bring me an entire bottle? I am feeling bad for always telling you to bring two more glasses of whiskey,” chuckled Dazai, not a hint of nervousness in his tone. The barman nodded. Dazai looked at the bar’s door and then at the clock on the wall. He could almost hear Ango coming in, mumbling something to himself, and then taking a seat next to Dazai, sighing and ordering something to drink.

Dazai knew that he would never come here again.

“Well, what happened then? Why did you stop?” Oda looked at him with tired eyes, yet ready to find out whatever Dazai wanted to tell him.

“Just a moment of silence. I thought about my friend who died right before this story took place.” Tik-tok-tok-tik…

“Oh? Do I know them? Who is this friend of yours?”

“You.”

The bartender came with two bottles in his hands and put them on the counter.

“I only said one, though.”

“The other one is for the man right there,” said he, nodding towards the empty chair where Odasaku should have been.

“There is no one there.” The bartender lifted his shoulders and shook his head. He filled his arms with the empty glasses Dazai had drank and smiled fondly at the only client that was still coming to his bar. And then he left, leaving Dazai with the sound of a broken clock and his very own hallucinations.

“I can’t believe that you didn’t order one bottle for me,” laughed Oda, punching Dazai lightly. The brown-haired man sighed; it really was a mistake to come there, but it didn’t matter anymore.

“Old men can’t handle their drinks,” answered he, sipping the remaining whiskey from his glass.

“Hey, I’m only five years older than you.”

“You are…” Dazai bit his tongue. He almost said “dead”. “Ok, let’s continue the story, then. If not, I feel like I am going to fall asleep and you will never know what happened.” Oda nodded and Dazai started to tell his story again.

***

Chuuya and Dazai did not stop to look; they had enough experience to be able to apply the rule number 1 in such cases: never look. You can think about it afterwards. First survive.

The club was collapsing, the people transforming into thin smoke threads. Glass shattered on the floor had also started to disappear and then there was no sign of the location where Dazai and Chuuya should have had a nice and reasonable conversation to take back those documents.

They were now on an island, both of them could hear the distinctly sound of waves of the sea. Seagulls flew above them and as both of them stared up, at the blinding sun, at the clear, blue, day sky, somebody approached them.

“Welcome! My dear kids, this is the Memory Police! Couldn’t be more happy to have you here!”

Chuuya and Dazai turned back and faced the woman they saw in the club. She was alone this time. The two exchanged a look.

“She is the Ability User.”

“Well, we are not very happy that we are here so,let’s go back so we can take those documents and bring them to our boss.” The woman smiled; now Dazai saw that she was not wearing red lipstick, but a purple one. She didn’t look as pretty as before.

“You know that you can’t keep us here with only an Ability, right?, “continued Dazai, all while shooting his most charming smile at the woman.

He was more than sure that the island they were on was part of her ability, so one touch and it would probably vanish. Actually, he was standing on it already, so it was probably already melting, but given that it was such a big object it would take longer for it to go away. But, whatever other spells there were hidden on the island, Dazai nullified them all.

“Oh, I do know that, which is why I don’t intend on keeping you here…”

Chuuya was done listening to the woman’s crap. “What the…,” he threw some gravity discs in her direction, “fuck do you want?” The woman didn’t even move; she raised her arm and made a swift motion, as if she was at a concert and she was the bandmaster. The discs vanished. Chuuya and Dazai were left looking at her surprised; but then they remember the number one rule, the golden rule they must always follow.

They had to do something, but what could they? Why wasn’t Dazai’s ability working already? And what was that from before? Could the woman also nullify somebody’s gift? There were too many questions and Dazai had the answer to only one of it.

No, the woman didn’t have the same ability as Dazai, because that would mean that there was somebody else, another Ability User that brought them to the island. Also, she didn’t even had to touch the discs, they simply went voosh and bye-bye Chuuya’s attack. So, it had to be the island. Maybe this was like some sort of environment where she was able to do whatever she pleased and whatever satisfied her. In other words, a secluded space where she ruled every single rock, every single tiny bit of sand, every single force and every single person.

Well, that would have been bad, if only Dazai wasn’t there. After all, that was his job: to make him and Chuuya un-vulnerable to such attacks. But, why was it not working? Maybe he should get closer to the woman, maybe if he touched her…

“Chuuya, let’s do the thing we did then, when we had to steal those diamonds…you know.” The redhead looked at his partner. He sometimes couldn’t believe that such a fragile person (even though Dazai was much taller than him, but we do NOT talk about that here, in the Port Mafia gang) could make his world so much more than the red angry he used to see. That was before he met Dazai. After that, after they became a team, there was always a black dot in Chuuya’s red world that was jumping and fooling around, making the boy’s head spun.

Chuuya hated that little, tiny, stupid thing! He hated it for confusing him so!

But, it was nice. To be able to see something else than red. Something else than blind anger.

“Are you sure it’s gonna work?” Chuuya asked just because he was used to do so. He trusted his partner completely, meaning that he would follow whatever plans Dazai came up with.

“Have I ever let you down, chibi?”

Chuuya smiled. Did he really hate that Dazai called him chibi? Yes.

“Well, if you say so…but don’t call me that anymore.”

Chuuya smiled. Did he really hate that Dazai called him chibi? No.

Dazai winked and the redhead rolled his eyes. From somewhere very close to them, they could hear the waves crashing onto whatever they were sitting on (an island, an ability or a giant lion-turtle with magical powers). The seagulls seemed agitated – maybe a storm was coming.

“Well, lady, we would love to stay, but he have to go.” Dazai backed a few feet away, discovering that Chuuya was no more by his side. He could see the hole that his partner dug for them to escape, the sand starting to cover it up already.

“Oh no, I am afraid I can’t do that.” Yoko Ogawa smiled.

‘You see, this is my island. Not some playground for such bastards like you.”

And, suddenly, Chuuya was above Dazai’s head floating in the air and the brown-haired could see that he was not using his ability. The redhead looked down and wriggled his legs, he tried to come down but to no use; he got the same feeling as when he was a kid and he couldn’t control his ability. But, now, it wasn’t he that was the problem.

“Dazai, do something!”

Dazai looked at his partner and there were a hundred thought that flooded onto him at the same time. Unfortunately, his instincts took over before he could react rationally. Dazai shot Yoko; she didn’t dodge, she just stopped the bullet with her very own hand.

The little piece of metal was not on the island anymore. When she opened her palm, there was no sign of her previous action; the skin was fine. That did not surprise Dazai. He had a vague idea of what the woman’s ability was…

“DAZAI. I swear to god, I-“

“Shh, little Chuuya,” said Dazai flashing a snakey smile at his friend, “the adults are trying to solve this.”

Yoko Ogawa laughed. The seagulls flew over their heads, not a care in the world. Did they care that Chuuya was hanging seven meters high up in the air and something happened to his ability?

No! And guess who also did not? Dazai. Or at least, that’s what Chuuya thought.

“You consider yourself an adult? Please, you can’t even drink legally.”

“Well, maybe that’s true, but I still think like one. For example, your ability. What do I know about it? That it’s called “Memory Police”. Why I don’t know and I don’t care but I definitely won’t be coming to you to help me choose the name of my ability.” Dazai looked around discreetly. There really was no one around. Now, there was no turning back, anyway. He would just tell the woman what he knew and he would try to resonate with her. If not, there was Chuuya; he knew that he was not alone.

“Oh and also, this island or whatever this is… this sand is not part of your ability. I don’t know, you probably put it here, but this is not a real island.” If Yoko Ogawa was impressed, she didn’t show it.

“You control everything here: even gravity, that’s what Chuuya can’t use his ability. Or, better said, using his ability doesn’t have any effect.”

“Well, aren’t you a clever one?” Yoko looked at Chuuya and with another swift motion of her hand, she let him down. The redhead almost smashed head first if Dazai didn’t run to catch him.

He did not fall into Dazai’s arm, unfortunately, because his long cultivated instincts kicked in and at the last moment he made a pillow of air to sustain himself and then he let himself down carefully.

“You really are clever, but too bad you won’t be around here anymore to see the rest of the story.”

“What…?” Dazai then realized. It was like a premonition; he knew what would happen and it really did happen like that: in the next three seconds, he was thrown around in a black hole, and he was back in the club. The loud music (who played such bad music? Dazai should teach them a lesson later) and the neon lights were messing with his head; he felt like throwing up.

“Wake up, pretty boy ‘cause mama has to give you some pills. You’ll feel better then.”

A voice that Dazai very much did not like was the only thing he heard before he fell asleep. His last thoughts ran off to Chuuya.

Dazai hated himself in general, but now that he had left Chuuya alone, his hatred towards himself seemed to increase. A little.

***

Dazai woke up on the island; he felt his limbs numb, and he tried to move them. He couldn’t, and that didn’t surprise him so much. The memories of what happened yesterday (had it already passed a day? It was hard to tell) came to him slowly and he opened his eyes, even if the bright light was uncomfortable.

He could hear the seagulls, the waves of the sea; and he could smell the salty wind. His eyes started to adjust, but his vision was still a bit hazy. Dazai could see that he was somewhere above the ground, in a metal cage. He did not see Yoko Ogawa.

“Chuuya. Where is Chuuya?”

Dazai found the answer to his question in no time. In the same cage as him, too far away for Dazai to reach and touch him, there was Chuuya, breathing hard. His head was hanging loosely and the red hair covered almost all of his face. He could see that Chuuya was trembling and he could also see the sweat glistening off him in the light of the artificial sun. Chuuya never sweated. Dazai suspected that both of them had been drugged.

“Chuuya…Hey, Chuuya,” whispered Dazai, his voice going hoarse in the middle of the sentence. The redhead didn’t move. His hands were pinned above his head, cuffed with iron chains covering his small palms completely. His long-sleeved shirt revealed some delicate skin; and Dazai then saw it.

How could he not from the start, he didn’t know. Chuuya’s hands where covered in that red, snake-like pattern that Dazai did very much not like; the stripes seemed alive, as if there was something impure lurking under his skin, some kind of disease, some kind of filthy demon. Dazai shuddered.

So, his partner used Corruption. What was he thinking? Didn’t he knew that the woman controlled everything on the island? That he had no chance of winning?

But, why was he not doing anything now? How much time has passed since Chuuya was in that state? Again, Dazai was left with too many unanswered questions.

He tried to calm himself. He looked above himself and saw that his hands were also pinned up like Chuuya’s. He tried to think logically; would Chuuya use Corruption if Dazai was not around, if he hadn’t chance to come back to his human-self? No. That was for sure.

Which meant that it had to do either with the island, with Yoko Ogawa’s ability or with the fact that they both have been drugged. Dazai chose the second option. So, what was it? What kind of drug? He could only take guess: maybe it was something that brought Corruption to surface; and even if Chuuya tried to use the ability, he could not, because Yoko was controlling the gravity around him, so that he could not escape.

So, the woman was probably around here. Dazai should be careful about what he was saying, about how he revealed his plans to Chuuya. But, Yoko Ogawa didn’t know that Dazai figured that much, so maybe he could use that to his advantage.

A seagull stopped on the cage, making it move a little.

“Are you awake already?” The voice came from down, from under the cage. It made sense; it was the only place where Dazai could not see. The brown-haired man didn’t say anything, and the other part also stopped asking questions.

Right now, Dazai had one big problem; he needed to touch Chuuya, so that he could deactivate Corruption. But, how? He didn’t even feel his hands. He didn’t feel his whole body, damn it!

“Chuuya, are you awake?, “ asked Dazai, but he got no response. He knew that the woman was clever; she did manage to bring them into this situation, after all, so he had to be careful.

“Chuuya!” This time, Dazai called his friend loud enough that it was impossible for Yoko not to hear.

“Oh, so you are awake. Then shall I explain the situation you are into right now? You have to understand the rules of the game form the start, so that you don’t make any mistakes.” Dazai tried moving his fingers, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded or not; they were like a piece of meat attached to his body with a rope. Useless.

“If you would be so kind.” Dazai could almost hear the smile in the woman’s voice as she spoke.

“Well, I think that you figured pretty much already, but I am too excited so I am going to tell it to you once more. So, you both have been given a drug. Yours is just something plain, and it was not administrated in a big quantity; you still need to see this plan unfold right before your eyes and you can’t be high for that to happen.” She stopped and took a deep breath. She seemed to be happy with herself. At the same time, Chuuya made a slight movement, but Dazai saw it. His friend was starting to wake up. It was going good.

“And, well maybe you asked yourself: what does that drug exactly do? And maybe you thought that it brings out the god-form of your partner. And you are right, but not entirely. Because this drug doesn’t only bring your partner’s inner demon…”

Dazai clenched his teeth. Chuuya was more of a human that that woman would ever be. Chuuya was not a demon; maybe he looked like one, maybe he sometimes acted like one (only around Dazai though), but he was not a demon.

How should Dazai put this? He always found himself admiring Chuuya, that succeeded in keeping his humanity, even when he had the powers of a god. Dazai couldn’t even do that, he, a regular person.

Chuuya was more human than Dazai would ever be.

“…it forces the kid to fight with it.” Dazai almost missed the last part as he tried to escape from his shackles. He stopped his action at once. What did Yoko mean?

Suddenly, Chuuya jerked forward. His chains hit the metal bars of the cage and clinked; like the bells on a wedding day. It was as a veil had been put over Dazai’s eyes, over his intern logic. He felt physical pain by just looking at Chuuya, just by looking at his small partner struggling like a trapped animal, his body spasming uncontrollably. And, all Dazai could do was watch.

Chuuya cried in pain. He was breathing hard, almost chocking on something that was not there. His eyes were hollow; two white, milky spheres, showing no emotion, empty. There was a liquid rolling down his cheeks, from his eyes, something like tears, but with a coarse density. Chuuya was shaking and crying and Dazai could not do anything.

“See, this is the thing the drug does. He will die in no time.”

It still hurt. But, he got used to it. He was strong enough to do so. It was like he didn’t feel it anymore, actually.

No, this time, Dazai would not get over it. He just lost Odasaku. He could not lose Chuuya. Not him. Not him, not him, not him…

His head was spinning. He lied, he lied. Dazai fucking lied! He felt it all, he felt the pain, he felt the guilt of his past actions hanging around his neck, suffocating him every time he tried to go down, towards the mortal world, towards what he loves. He hated it.

Dazai fainted. Right then and right there. It was too much, too much, too much, even for him. Tears poured out of his close eyes; he had finally let his guard down.

The seagulls sang a song only for the two of them; only for Chuuya and Dazai to hear. The birds sang in their crooked voice; they sounded like a broken clock.

Chuuya fainted from all the pain shortly after his partner, but he knew he was not going to die. After all, he had somebody else to protect from death.

***

Dazai woke up in white room. To be honest, he had first thought that he died. That was how he always thought the afterlife would look like.

Well, he would have definitely be dead if there wasn’t a certain redhead lying motionless on the floor. Suddenly, the memories of the club, of the island, of Chuuya shouting in pain came back to Dazai and he ran towards his friend.

It couldn’t be… Were they both dead? No, no…

He knelt down and checked Chuuya’s pulse. There was nothing. But, his partner did look normal. He didn’t have the red stripes over his body anymore. But, he was not breathing. Did they really die? Was that…

Chuuya sit up straight, slamming his head into Dazai’s nose. The redhead coughed a fistful of blood and then wiped his mouth with a gloved hand.

“Chuuya~!,” screamed Dazai in surprise.

“What the fuck… Where are we?”

Chuuya looked around, clearly confused. Actually, what was there to look at? They were literally in a room (or maybe it was a white infinity) and the boy seemed even paler than before.

“Ah…” Chuuya shoved his head into his hands. “Don’t you tell me you actually convinced me to commit double-suicide with you!”

The redhead took Dazai by the collar of his coat and swung him around.

“Or, what stupid thing did you do to bring us into this kinda situation? I swear…” Dazai laughed wholeheartedly and Chuuya raised his fist. Ah, yes. The good ol’ fight between friends – or whatever they were.

“Chuuya, don’t! Wait, let me explain!” The little boy calmed down a bit. He took a deep breath and sat on the floor, cross-legged. Or maybe it was the ceiling or another wall. He didn’t even want to think about their situation. His head hurt already so bad, and he still had to deal with the nuisance in front of him.

“Ok, then go on, you shitty…”

“Shh, Chuuya, don’t use such words,” said Dazai, putting his index finger on Chuuya’s lips. The redhead looked at it and his blue eyes hid emotions Dazai could not recognize. But, whatever was lying there, he could for sure say that those ocean-like orbits were luminous. So bright and so lovely, Dazai would love to drown in them. A perfect way to die, he considered. He sighed; if only Chuuya would let him.

“OUCH! CHUUYA!” Dazai retreated his wounded finger and looked at his partner. There was a fresh, red stain on Chuuya’s lips, from the blood that had flowed out Dazai fingers; Chuuty really bit him!

“What are you, seventh grade? A dog should not bite his master!!” As Dazai was wrapping up a small bandage over his finger, Chuuya licked his lips; such a salty taste made him shiver for some reason.

“And, for you to know, it was not my fault. You tried to shut me up! From using cursed words or whatever… Fuck that, I always curse!”

Dazai made a tsk-tsk sound, but said nothing more. Chuuya looked at him and sighed, laying on his back. He thought about the situation they were in. It was most likely a dream caused by the drugs he and Dazai have been injected with.

He would not want to wake up.

“Chuuya, let’s play a game! I’m bored! Let’s play truth or dare!”

He would very much like to wake up.

“Oi, Dazai, shut up I am trying to think.” No, he wasn’t but Dazai didn’t knew that.

“Oh, ok, I’ll be quiet, you need after all some practice.” Chuuya did not say anything; every word would be like fuel to an already massive fire. He, for once, shut up.

Did he think that Dazai would leave him alone? Yeah.

Did Dazai leave him alone? Nope.

“Chuuya~! Let’s play, please!! I’ve got some really good questions!”

The redhead ignored him at first, pretending to be asleep. Of course Dazai hadn’t fallen for it. The brown-haired man decided that if that was how Chuuya would play, then he wouldn’t be nice either. With only a war-like scream, Dazai hurled over Chuuya and started to tickle his sides. Chuuya burst out in laughter, trying to push Dazai off, but without succeeding.

“Dazai you ~haha~ little brat, if I put my hands on you!!~stop –hahah- don’t tickle me there!”

“I’ll stop if you play Truth or Dare with me.” Chuuya continued to laugh and he chocked, but Dazai had no mercy. He tickled him until his fingers hurt.

“Ok, ok, ~hiC~ I’ll play, get off you mother ~HIc~fucker…”

Dazai got off in an instant, clearly pleased with himself. Chuuya tried to catch his breath; the touch of Dazai’s fingers still felt so real to him. There, on his left ribs, a little lower than his heart, where he was most ticklish. There on his stomach, where Chuuya didn’t like to be touched (he didn’t mind now tho). There on…

What was he thinking?

He got up, sitting with his legs crossed again. He eyes Dazai that was also standing like that, at only 4 inches away from him. He reached out and punched his friend.

“I’ll kill you, Dazai, you shitty suicidal maniac, if you ever do that to me again!” Dazai only laughed; he was already good friends with these kind of threats; that he knew would never actually happen.

“Ok, Chuuya, you go first!” Chuuya sighed.

“Geez, I feel like a seventh grader, not that I’ve actually been to school before…”

“You do have the behavior of a seventh grader, but unfortunately not the brains of one.”

“Do you want to have no brains at all?”

“Is this the question you are asking for the game? Then, no I don’t really, but I would rather blow them up myself. Not the best way to go, but it’s an option, I guess.”

Chuuya shook his head. How did he end with such a moron?

“How can we play when you are making this so difficult?” yelled Chuuya, suddenly wanting to slap Dazai. In fact, no, it wasn’t suddenly, he always wanted to slap Dazai, yes, the urge was always there. And moments like these was what it took for him to actually do it.

“Chuu~huya, it’s not your turn anymore!” sang Dazai, smiling and provoking Chuuya with his gaze. The redhead calmed himself; he should not use his energy on that bastard after all. He sighed again; he felt like he did that too often when he was around Dazai. He did it rhythmically, like the sound of a good, completely functioning clock.

“Ok, then you go now.” Dazai beamed and Chuuya’s heart sink; was that what made him happy?

“Chibi…”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Shrimp…”

“If you call me that, I’ll call you mackerel for the rest of our lives.”

“My life won’t last, I’ll make sure of it so I don’t really care.”

“Just ask the question already.”

Dazai shot Chuuya an evil smile. The evilest smile Chuuya had ever seen. His brows furrowed. He was getting kind of scared…

“Truth or Dare?”

“What?” asked Chuuya, still a little bit lost into his thoughts.

“That’s how you play the game, chibi. Or did you not have someone to teach you that?”

“O-of course I played before!” stuttered Chuuya and he tried to show Dazai that by looking directly into those brown-red eyes, eyes like the withered camellias in Chuuya’s room that he forgot to water. His lie didn’t get past Dazai; but the boy decided to drop it or else Chuuya might really beat him.

“Ok then Truth or Dare?” Chuuya thought for a second.

“Truth.” Dazai closed his eyes and put his hands together as if he was meditating. Chuuya rolled his eyes, but the corners of his mouth were still lifted upwards. Just a little bit.

“Hm~It has to be a really good question…” Dazai sat like that for several minutes in which Chuuya just looked at him.

He always thought Dazai was beautiful. Like a withered camellia. Don’t ask Chuuya why, he wasn’t good at poetic descriptions, Dazai just seemed like a camellia person. His hair was soft like the small petals of his favorite flower. He was even built like a camellia; slim and tall (Not so tall that Chuuya couldn’t outgrow him someday, though), a slender silhouette, that Chuuya felt like he should take care of everyday.

Else, it would wither away.

“Ok I know. Say Chuuya, is it true that a few days ago, when you screamed in the middle of the night was because Koyo waxed your leg?”

Chuuya chocked on nothing. Well, that was true, but how did Dazai find out?

“Uhm…Yeah, it’s true. It hurt like a bitch. I don’t know how women do that on a regular basis.”

Dazai laughed out loud, startling Chuuya.

“Why are you laughing, you miso-“ Dazai wiped a tear and lied down, looking at Chuuya upside down.

“I am not laughing at women, I am laughing at you, ‘cause I didn’t expect you would admit it. Either way, I already knew because I was the one who set it up. I have also filmed it!”

Chuuya was confused. He felt like Dazai would do that, he could really see him, but that was also something that he did not expect.

“You… what?”

***

“Dazai, I think that’s enough drinks you had there,” said Oda, visibly concerned for his friend. The bar smelled like his favorite whiskey; Dazai held a glass in his hand, the bottle the bartender had bought more than three quarters empty.

“BOOO, you shut up, you just a hallucination…” Dazai looked at Oda through half closed eyelids. The clock on the wall made a ding-dong sound, reminding them that the midnight had come. Dazai almost jumped off his chair.

“Dazai, stop…”begged Oda, but the brown-haired man didn’t even cared as he chugged down the bottle.

“No, Oda, I am not here to listen to you, you are here to listen to me.”

`I have listened to you enough. I changed my life because you said so. You can also listen to me right now.`

Dazai didn’t say that, but it wasn’t necessary because Odasaku heard it anyway. After all, he did live in Dazai’s head.

***

They played Truth or Dare for hours. Days maybe? They didn’t know. It was like a dream; with each question, Chuuya and Dazai would insult each other more, would find more dark secrets about each other.

With each question, Chuuya and Dazai would love each other more.

Right now, Chuuya was standing in Dazai’s lap, the taller man (though Chuuya still had time to overgrow him! Let’s not forget that) combing his long fingers through the red hair. It wasn’t silky, but not wiry either. It smelled like strawberries.

The room they were in wasn’t white anymore. It was filled with their stories and with their laughter, with their love, with their hate for each other. It was more like a pretty orange-pink shade. Their voices echoed in the colorful infinity.

“Chuuya, it’s your turn.”

“I feel like we don’t even have what to ask each other anymore.” Dazai started braiding Chuuya’s hair gently, careful not to hurt the boy in his lap.

“Come on, think of something.” Chuuya closed his eyes and scrunched his nose.

“Dazai, do you really want to die? So bad that you…” Dazai’s hands stopped their movement and the room seemed to become colder. He cleared his throat; he was afraid that his voice would break when he gave Chuuya the answer. He gathered his courage and finally admitted to somebody else than himself.

“Yes. But I’m a coward. I can’t do it. I love this world, even if it scares me. Even if it hurts. There are so many beautiful things here. And I’m just too afraid to leave them here.”

Chuuya didn’t say anything, just placed himself better into Dazai’s lap.

“I don’t think you are a coward. I think what you are doing is an act of dumb courage.”

“Really?” laughed Dazai, starting to braid Chuuya’s hair again.

“Yes. To decide to live into this world, to just live here alone… You feel lonely, don’t you? Since he died.”

Dazai gasped. He knew who Chuuya was referring to. Was it yesterday that Odasku died? Or was it better than a week since then? Dazai couldn’t tell. But it hurt like hell. And it was still stinging his heart, like an open wound that will leave a very big scar.

Dazai lied.

“He was just a friend. I will get over it. I am used to this.”

Chuuya suddenly reached for Dazai’s face and touched it with his gloved hands. It was as if they were high; high on their secrets, stories and whispers only they had ever heard.

“Don’t lie.” Dazai averted his gaze.

“It’s my turn. Truth or Dare?” Chuuya felt his heart sink.

“Dare.” Dazai looked down at Chuuya again and got closer. Chuuya’s hair was half braided.

“I dare you to kiss me.” Chuuya blinked and he looked into Dazai’s eyes. He saw it then; that sad happiness. He would do it; he wanted to. He wanted so bad to do it.

“Ok.” Chuuya lifted his head and Dazai lowered his. Their lips found each other, almost clumsily and it was only a brief touch but both their hearts felt like they would jump from their chests and ran off together, lost into the colorful infinity that only the two of them had built.

They alone. They were alone together.

They kissed delicately, and the next thing they knew, they were back into the cage on the beach. Back to reality and their separate loneliness.

***

The sun was setting lazily behind Dazai. He opened his eyes and he felt his head hurt. The smell of slat and the sound of waves. His wrists hurt. He took a deep breath and vomited.

“Oh, finally! I thought you were dead!” Yoko Ogawa’s voice was like a harsh ringing in Dazai’s ears.

“I would love to, trust me…” The brown haired man looked around him; he was still in the cage, but he could now move his body somewhat. Chuuya was in front of him, though he looked paler than before. His arms were tied up, but the metal gloves around his hands were no more. Probably from all the gravity pressure he and Yoko exerted. Chuuya’s head was resting against the metal bars and Dazai sucked in a breath.

One of his eyes was blue and wide open, but dark somehow; looking dead. The other was still a white ball, the light reflecting on its shiny surface. There were tears of blood coming down on Chuuya’s cheek from his blue eye; from the other, something as tears but much more dense. Dazai wanted to reach and wiped them away, he wanted to so bad.

His face, his body, every inch of skin Dazai could see was covered in those red stripes, like camellia petals. He felt like he would vomit again. They were a dark nuance of red, an ill light still coming to the surface from under them.

Dazai had a lot of time to think in his dream (which he could not remember very clearly) One thing he knew, he and Chuuya came up with a plan to escape. Well, it was based on Dazai’s guesses about Yoko’s ability, but if what he thought was true, then his plan was flawless.

Kind of. He hoped so.

“How long have we slept for?” asked Dazai, but expecting to not be answered.

“About three hours. “ Hm. It felt like a lot more time to Dazai. He wondered if Chuuya had the same dream… He shook his head. It was impossible.

“Why didn’t you kill us while we were sleeping? It would have been easy.” He heard the sound of feet on sand and he looked down. Finally, he could see Yoko. The woman looked up at him, a malicious smile stretching on her purple lips. Kind of the worst combination possible with the orange light of the sun setting on her face.

“Well, where would be the fun in that? You have to watch your friend die first.”

Dazai scoffed. Did the people around him thought that he could not take it? That he was not strong enough to?

Maybe they were right, but they would never know. Because Dazai never cried. There was always someone that would see him; he had to always be ready, he could never let his guard down. Even when he was alone, he was not. His fifteen year old self was laughing at him from the mirror, and his head was stuffed with voices that were not his own. Or maybe they were?

And then there was Oda. Since he died, he followed Dazai like a blood ghost, guiding him, protecting him and making the voices from his head go away at times. Even now, he was standing in the cage, dripping blood from his wound.

“Do you have a plan?” Dazai ignored Odasaku and responded to Yoko instead.

“I already watched my friend die. Actually, no, I watched my friends die. There were more. I am the only one left as you can see. Chuuya is not my friend.”

Yoko remained silent for some time and then pointed her index at Dazai.

“You are just a kid; you know nothing about this kind of things, but you still think you do. You still think you are above the world. You think that…”

She stopped mid-sentence and flicked her wrist. Dazai’s shackles tighten around his hands and he felt as if they were almost chopped off. Blood started to drip on the metal floor, mixing with the vomit from earlier. Drops of the strange mix trickled down onto the sand. Dazai held his screams in.

“You think that you know how this world is! You know NOTHING!” Yoko twisted Dazai’s left wrist. He squeaked in pain and like that, with his eyes shut close, he did not see Chuuya slowly getting up. Neither did Yoko Ogawa.

It was as if the woman had gone mad. Yes, she was crazy, there was not a single thing about her that could be described as sane, but what happened to her?

Dazai didn’t know that, like him, Yoko Ogawa heard voices, he didn’t know that he was followed by her own ghosts dripping in blood that she spilled.

“Kill them…” “Yes, now…like you did to us…”

“Murderer….! I hate you.”

“Mama, don’t! Mama, mama, hahaha…”

“Do it, darling, kill them, kill them, kill, kill, kill…”

“Kill, kill…”

“Mama!”

Yoko ignored them and broke Dazai’s left hand. Tears rolled down her face. The voices of her family hit her like the waves hit the island. A storm was coming; the sky was getting grayer, darker and it was not long before rain started pouring. It hit the metal cage violently. Yoko’s makeup didn’t seem to be waterproof; her mascara was all over her face and she was still twisting Dazai’s arm, without mercy.

The boy closed his eyes and bit his lips and did not make a sound. It was raining as that day.

“Do you have a plan?” Odasaku would just not leave him alone.

“I do, I do… Now quiet.”

Suddenly the metal cage shuddered and Dazai opened his eyes only to see a red flash in all the grayness surrounding him. It was Chuuya, it had to be! And yes, here he was indeed! It seemed that Yoko could not control two things at a time. Dazai’s guess was correct. His plan didn’t involve in getting his hand destroyed though, but it didn’t matter anymore. He was just glad that it worked out.

He heard Chuuya grunt and he watched down to see his friend trying to reach at Yoko, a fight where both sides had gravity as their ally. Who would win?

Chuuya looked up at Dazai. His eyes were not hollow; they were both blue and full of live and he smiled as he pushed harder and harder until Yoko was half buried in the wet sand. The sea was ragging.

But, suddenly two women came running. They were behind Chuuya, so he didn’t saw them, but Dazai did. His shackles were now merely some pieces of chopped metal. And he still had one good arm. He quickly escaped from them and jumped off, holding his gun pointed at the women. They looked at him surprised and then at the cage, at Chuuya and at their boss and exchanged a look.

They charged forward and Dazai shot them. He missed. He missed and the women could have killed him, but there was no need. They ran towards him but did not stop. One of them pulled out a blade and cut Dazai’s stomach. He collapsed and cursed his weakness. But, he did not cry.

He caught a glimpse of Chuuya being thrown over and that was all. Then he fainted again.

*** “Well, you sure fainted very much in this story,” said Odasaku, looking at a half-wasted Dazai from across the table. He didn’t even try to stop him anymore. Chuuya would come to pick him up afterwards anyway.

“Yeah~!I was ~hic~ dipressed.” Dazai’s head was spinning, but he wanted to finish the story. There was only a little bit to it…

“You mean depressed?”

“Yeah, what~hIc~ever now shut up and listen, Oda! This is a legendary story! I bet those kids of yours will love it!” Odasaku sighed and looked at the watch on his wrist. It was a little bit after midnight. He nodded towards Dazai as his friend started to narrate his love story again, interrupted only by his hiccups and the sound of a broken clock.

***

Dazai woke up with a stinging pain flowing from his arm, exhausting his whole body. A seagull was picking at his hair and only for that reason did Dazai sprung up and made the bird fly away. His whole body was feeling hot; did he have a fever?

He tried lifting his right arm, but it was too hard. He looked down at it and the sight of Chuuya’s fingers being intertwined with his made him recall everything that happened. He quickly checked Chuuya’s heartbeat; it was there, and Dazai let out a joyful breath. It was weak, but it was ok, everything was going to be ok…

Dazai got up and put Chuuya’s arm over his shoulder. His left arm was completely ruined; it didn’t even hurt anymore, there was only a sense of numbness. It was going to be alright, repeated Dazai to himself, struggling to walk with Chuuya hanging on him

He would go and leave the Port Mafia. Maybe Chuuya would want to come with him. Maybe they would go overseas and start their own business. Maybe something like an orphanage, maybe they would buy a house and they would stay there.

Chuuya wouldn’t have to use his ability anymore. They would be normal, they would be good people, better than they are now. Yes, and maybe he and Chuuya could go watch the pink cherry flowers bloom, they could make snowmen in the winter, they could everything neither of them got a chance to as a kid.

They could watch the moon on a windy autumn night, while the pie they had tried to cook for hours is burning in the oven they set wrong. The moonlight would illuminate Chuuya so beautifully, accentuating his blue eyes. And maybe Dazai could lean down and…

“DIE! Die you filthy bastards, you motherfuckers, you gross me out! Die, die, die!!” Yoko Okawa’s voice startled Dazai as the woman came towards them. Her hair was a total mess, and her purple lipstick has been replaced by red stains of dried blood. Only now did Dazai see the other two women lying lifeless on the sand, face up, eyes open, their throats violently split by human hand.

Dazai tried to go out of Yoko’s path but he felt an overwhelming force pinning him down. He looked at Chuuya who opened his eyes. They were not full of freedom; there was nothing else than pain and anger there. He didn’t know where his friend gathered all that energy to keep going.

It was a mystery for him.

Yoko approached, her legs trembling.

“Die, die, die!” cried she as tears ran down her face, as her hand was gripping on a pointy rock as she was slipping on the blood the ghosts around her left behind them.

“Mama, come to us…”

“Don’t kill them, mama! We love you!” “Darling, we are waiting. Come to us.”

She stumbled and she fell face forward on the rock she was holding. Dazai winced; blood splashed on his clothes and he heard the woman murmur:

“I am coming, my kids.”

And then the island fell silent. Chuuya coughed and Dazai looked down to see the red sand before him. The redhead did not stop and only now did Dazai notice the wound on his torso. It seemed like a knife cut and even if Chuuya tried to suppress the hemorrhage, it was still bleeding pretty hard. His friend went numb in his arms again and the island disappeared right before Dazai could assure Chuuya it was ok.

***

They were back in the club. The people around them seemed to not notice anything unusual about the two members of the Port Mafia.

Dazai’s mind was finally starting to function. He needed a hospital for Chuuya, quickly or else it was possible for him to…

No, he first had to get out of there. The music (who the FUCK plays such bad music, now let’s be serious!) was making his head hurt and the smell of piss and beer didn’t help either.

He took a deep breath as soon as he was outside. His muscles were sore and his left arm started to awake. But, Chuuya was his priority. Dazai rummaged through Chuuya’s jacket and he pulled out the keys of the motorcycle (Jenna, that was what Chuuya named her) and smiled tired. He clicked the red button and he heard a ding-dong noise.

He loved Jenna! It was on her way to Dazai and Chuuya. The brown haired thought; once he had Jenna, he would bring Chuuya to a hospital. What was the closest one? Hm…

“Dazai…” Chuuya’s voice was hoarse as he spoke. “Dazai, please don’t leave me…” Dazai looked down at his friend surprised and chuckled. He brushed Chuuya’s hair out of his face.

“But, you are a god and I am human. We can’t be together.” Dazai felt a stinging pain in his heart as soon as his words left his lips. It hurt him more that the pain in his arm, more than anything he ever experienced.

“Then, from now on… you’re no longer human. So, just stay with me.” Dazai’s heart twisted in his chest and he nodded, even Chuuya could not see him.

“Ok, Chuuya. I’ll stay with you forever.”

***

“And this is how I got the name of my ability,” finished Dazai, smashing the empty bottle of whiskey on the counter. Odasaku nodded.

“Hm, I guess it could have been worse.”

“You, shut up! You old hag ~HIC~!!” Dazai covered his mouth. “HGG, I feel like throwing up…” Odasaku sighed and pated his friend on the shoulder.

“Well, I should go.” Dazai sprung up and pointed accusatory at the man in front of him. The empty room smelled like Odasaku’s favorite whiskey.

“You will leave me here? In this ~bleaghh…” Dazai had thrown up on Odasaku’s shoes and the man looked indignanted at the only one that was still keeping him alive. He smiled and he exited on the door.

“Don’t worry, I’ll always be with you. And, don’t forget that there is someone else you are waiting for.” Dazai didn’t hear those words as he was already asleep.

***

In the other part of the town, a phone rang. The man who owned it put his glass of wine down and answered.

“Who is it?” The man listened closely to what the one who called him had to say. He nodded a few times and then said:

“I understand. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Chuuya went into his garage and pulled Jenna out and as he was thinking about what he was going to do, he smiled. That dumbass.

***

The door of Lupin opened as the clock struck midnight again. It was definitely broken. Chuuya eyed his former partner, that was sleeping on the counter, his hair covering his closed eyes. Chuuya approached and he felt something slippery under his feet.

Of course he had to walk straight in Dazai’s vomit. Of course there was no other way. The bartender appeared and greeted Chuuya, smiling at him. The redhead nodded.

“Thank you for calling me. Do I have to pay for anything?”asked Chuuya, already drawing his wallet out of his jacket.

“No, no, it’s ok.” Chuuya frowned at man and slammed 50 bucks on the table.

“For dealing with this idiot for such a long time.” The bartender smiled and sighed.

“I see you know how…peculiar this man can be.” Chuuya burst out in laughter as he drew Dazai’s arm over his shoulder and exited from the bar in the cold night.

“I know better than anyone.” He walked with Dazai to Jenna and he tried to wake up the man. By slapping him hard on the face. It worked.

“Ouch, what was…” Dazai’s face lighted when he saw who had come for him. “Chuuya! I’ve been waiting for you!” Chuuya rolled his eyes and raised his palm warningly.

“Hop up right now or I’ll slap you again.” Dazai looked at his friend and he chuckled. He sat up on Jenna, almost falling once, but Chuuya put him back in place.

“Chuuya~!”

“What do you want, motherfucker?? Isn’t it enough that I came to pick you up, drunk, at such an hour!?”

“Can I sleep at your place?”

Chuuya hoped on his motorcycle and almost punched Dazai. He started Jenna and screamed over the sound of her motor:

“You are crazy!”

“I am!”

Dazai smiled and nestled himself into Chuuya’s body. It smelled like peaches and wine. He closed his eyes and let himself fall back into sleep.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Chuuya” murmured he as his eyes close one more time. Chuuya remained silent as they left Lupin far away behind them.

Waiting for you sounds like a broken clock.

****

End Notes

And, yes, while they stayed in that white room (i leave it to you to decide what that was) dazai did tell chuuya that he was leaving the port mafia. and yes chuuya did punch him and he also told dazai that he cant come with him and refused to explain further. for that, he had to let dazai tickle him because i REFUSE to believe dazai left like that he cant he is better that this

i think? ok hope you liked it bye bye muah

#soukoku #dazai x chuuya #dazai osamu #chuuya nakara #bungou stray dogs #fanfiction #bsd fanfic #my AO3

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