bioinfotmatics

[loststarphounix]

imagine... little red riding hood souda x big bad wolf tanaka-

instead of kazuichi going to see his grandma like the original story — he's visiting his sick friend, hajime, who he wants to surprise with a fresh batch of muffins that he baked himself! and then during his journey, he comes across the big bad wolf himself :0

this is super open-ended because i have little creativity atm-

(i saw art on pixiv about this and i just thought to tell you about it xD)

I hope we already know the drill! Long post ahead let’s go!

Let’s see:

Kazuichi lives in a cottage that’s attached to a smithy semi on the outskirts of the village. He mainly does commission work, primarily metalworking, but he does has a knack for toy making and secretly bakes but only shares with his friends. He hasn’t heard from Hajime in a while and after hearing from Nagito that he’s sick, decides to take him a basket of day old bake goods and go visit him.

Unfortunately, Hajime likes his privacy and as such, he lives in the middle of Jobberwock Forest, a dark, dense wood that stretches nearly 2/3 of the largest island in the cluster. Most spots in the forest that are perpetual night, where the Sun barely peeks through the dense foliage. Basically, it’s scary as hell. But Hajime is Kazuichi’s best friend - his soul brother - and he’s ill. He’ll venture into the deep, dark, evil embodiment of all things sinister forest to get to him.

So he gets ready, with his basket of muffins, apples and some leftover medicine from when he got food poisoning, as well as a book so his friend isn’t bored (he borrowed it but found his dull lol) and of course, his trusty outside wrench and pocket knife. He puts on his vibrant yellow hood, locks his home up and sets out for the wood. He’s SUPER careful to stay on the trail - like he’s habitually looking down and behind him to make sure he’s in the middle of the safe path. The woods always seem to change everyday, Sonia loves to say that it has a mind of its own which does nothing to sooth his frazzle nerves.

He’s been walking since the late morning and thinks about taking a rest, when he hears a twig snapping. The sound it so loud it makes him jump. He turns to where he thinks it originated from, but another loud sound is coming from behind him and he whips around to see two red eyes staring at him in the shadows. Gripped in panic, Kazuichi turns tail and runs, leaving the safety of the path. Our bumbling boy is booking it - somehow not tripping on upturn roots until finally he’s in a clearing a few miles southwest of his friend’s home.

He’s so exhausted that he collapses onto the nearest stump, unaware of the hulking figure behind him. The basket wobbles a bit on the ground, but it doesn’t topple over so he breathlessly calls that a win.

“Good day.” A voice says behind him and it makes Kazuichi jump like a startled cat. He snatches his knife as he moves.

He whips around and sees, possibly the hottest guy he’s ever seen. Tall, Kazuichi has to tilt his head up slightly to look him in the eye, with pale skin and dual red and grey eyes. And wearing all black clothing aside from a purple cloth wrapped around his neck. The guy even had a scar over the grey one. Hot, but most definitely a thief.

“I-I don’t have any money!” He says, hoping the other will let him go, but the other only tilts his head.

“Apologies, I did not mean to frighten you, mortal. I rarely see one of your denizens venture this far into the dark wood.”

Kazuichi can only blink. Ok…maybe he wasn’t a thief. More likely a nutcase. Pity, dude was kinda hot.

“uh…yeah. I got spooked by a giant animal and ran.” Looking around the are, he realized in growing horror that nothing looked familiar. He doesn’t even seem to notice that the guy is staring at him intently, eyes zeroing in on him sucking his bottom lip between sharp teeth before speaking. Or the way his eyes trailed down the length of his body in interest.

“You are greatly fortunate this day, Persephone. I was reared in these very lands and can navigate you to the more safer paths.”

He didn’t really understand all of that, but the stranger seemed to want to help him and despite his suspicions, he was lost. Maybe he could trust the weirdo, just this one time.

“Really? And you won’t…like do anything bad? To ,e?” He squeaked, hand gripping his knife.

But the stranger merely shakes his head. “Not at all. I, the great Gundham Tanaka, ensures your safety through these dark wood,”

“Gundham.” Kazuichi silently mouthed, eyebrows furrowed. Tale and creepy had such a weird ass name. But he’s gonna help him out so he may as well put it aside for now.

Shaking his head, he places his knife carefully back in his basket and bends down to retrieve it. Again, he somehow misses the look Gundham gives his bent form and the slight peek of tongue running across his bottom lip. The man is damn near salivating lol

“My name’s Kazuichi’s by the way. It’s nice to meet you.” The pink haired man flashed a nervous smile, which the other returned with more ease and a bit something that makes Kazuichi’s stomach flip.

“I believe I am the more fortuitous between the two of us.”

They begin backtracking through the woods and as they do, Gundham gently starts to ask Kazuichi questions - what does he do, where does he live, does he live alone. Simple questions. Nothing untowards or suspicious about them.

And Kazuichi answers each one truthfully, not really mindful of his answers because the forest is much darker than it was when he had started and having the other by his side eases him. He also asks Gundham a bit about himself as a distraction, but the man deflects; only reiterating that he grew up in the Jobberwock Forest, that he has lived there all his life and that he’ll keep Kazuichi safe.

Finally, they are in more familiar territory and the path unfurls before them. Tears of relief well in Kazuichi’s eyes. He’s so happy he could kiss the dirt road. Just before he can kneel down and actually do it however, Gundham pinches the sleeve of neon yellow hood to get his attention.

“You had mentioned your comrade has fallen to a malignant force, correct?”

“Huh? Oh yeah! Hajime’s sick.” He almost forgot his friend for a moment what with his fear of the forest and this mysterious man. “I should hurry to his house before it gets dark.” Being out here at night was so much scarier than being out in the daylight.

“Fret not, you will ensursedly arrive at your destination before the dying light of the sun. I merely asked, for do you see these fauna?”

Gundham pointed to a patch of flowers. They were small, with white petals and tall, thin stalks that bent towards a shaft of sunlight. Kazuichi’s eyebrows furrowed, but he gave a slight nod.

“These are medicinal plants.” The man informed, giving the other a charming smile. “They can assist in curing your friend. Merely steep in a concoction of tea and he shall be remedied!”

Kazuichi stared at the flowers, eye wide with disbelief. “Seriously?! But they’re all over the place!”

“This glade is their preferred choice for germination. You should collect them before you go.”

“Right!” Kazuichi took a step closer to the flowers but stopped, peaking over his shoulder to look back at Gundham with an awkward smile. “Hey, thanks again for helping me back on the path. I’m sure I took you away from something important-“

But Gundham merely waved his hand, dismissing the notion. “Do not fret, it was far more important to ensure your safe return. Sadly, I do have some business to conclude, and must leave you here. I can assume you know the way to your companion’s domicile from here?”

“Yeah everything looks a lot familiar now. I should get to Hajime’s hut in a half hour or so.” Kazuichi nodded, giving one last smile in gratitude before setting off to pick a few of the plants. He calls out one last time. “Thanks again man. I really owe you!”

As the mechanic bent down, Gundham retreated into the shadows, his eyes ensuring the other was too engrossed picking flowers, before he transformed into his wolf form and raced through the forest. He knew the quickest way to Hajime’s home, and in his quadrupedal form, he made it there in just under ten minutes. Barely skidding to a halt, he just had enough time to change back before Hajime opens his door.

He only looks a little pale, but he’s standing up straight and his breathing wasn’t labored. Excellent, this soothes his fretting mind somewhat.

“Singularity! I require a boon.”

“Hello to you too, Gundham.” Hajime chuckles, inviting the other in. “It must be important- you rarely ask me for anything.”

Crossing the threshold, Gundham wasted no time retelling his encounter with the most entrancing creature he has ever met, going on about his aura and mystical powers for surely he could not be a mere mortal if Gundham, Overlord of Ice and Ruler of these Woods, is so successfully ensnared. And through it all Hajime listens, a little bemused, but actively listening to his rants.

“I’ve been meaning to have Kazuichi meet you, but you usually keep to yourself.”

“My boon is thus: depart from your realm so that I may have succeeded in completing our courtship! In return, I shall assist you in your own quest for romantic endeavors.”

Hajime blinks, stunned. “Hold on. You want me to leave my house, just so you can make a move on my best friend?”

Well, when put like it sounds unsavory. Gundham fiddles with his scarf, a hot flush spreading down his neck.

“And I don’t need help in my love life thanks,” he said sardonically. How about this: I give you my home for the night - only tonight! - and whatever happens, happens. But you owe me by helping around my property and hunting. Whatever he brings in his basket that he made are mine. And you stay away from my bedroom.” The last sentence was said with such severity that if he were a lesser demon, Gundham would quiver.

Instead he chuckles, a low, dark sound that would seem threatening to anyone outside their friendship, but was really one of agreement.

“Very well mortal! I accept your bargain.”

Hajime takes entirely too long in Gundham’s opinion to pack an overnight bag, but he departs and Gundham prepares for the mechanics arrival. He already ensured Hajime’s personal abode was sealed (Hajime locked it) and that Kazuichi would not be suspicious of the changes dwellings (Hajime wrote a note explaining). Now he only had little left to disguise his aura and appearance. The borrowing of Hajime’s night shirt and pants and pulling the shades down in the guest room shall do the trick.

And now, with infinite patience, he awaits his prey.

[romanticahwi]

Stray Kids as Princes

requested: no

genre: fluff + a bit suggestive

ship: skz x gn!reader

warnings: a bit of suggestiveness of sexual deeds, mentions of swords and fighting, mentions of injuries, lmk if there is more

not proof read! (minors dni)

a/n: we apologize for being so inactive recently! here’s a new work we’ve been working on, we hope it makes up for our long absence.

Bang Chan

    •    Probably one of the sweetest rulers ever

    •    Incredibly approachable

    •    Gives you the best advice you’ve ever heard sometimes whenever you’re having problems

    •    Sometimes you forget he’s royalty because you just feel so comfortable around him

    •    Lots of people swoon over him because honestly how could you not? Especially since he’s so sweet literally 24/7

    •    Nobody has ever seen him unhappy before, and he has certainly never been seen angry - only slightly annoyed but that itself is a rare sight

    •    He has a big soft spot for puppies and just all things cute

    •    He might have once proposed to change the name of his kingdom to something puppy-related (Succeeded in changing the national flag to something that had puppy paws in it)

    •    He enjoys swimming a lot, and there will almost always be a crowd of fans watching him and cheering him on every time! He may get really shy about it, but on the inside, he secretly likes it and it motivates him to do better!

Bang Chan As Your Prince

    •    As a lover, this man treats you like you’re royalty too, even if you aren’t!

    •    He will never allow you to degrade yourself or put yourself down but if that’s your way of coping, he won’t hesitate to give you his full, undivided attention…and then he’ll shower you with love and very kind words (he’s incredible with them - it never fails to blow you away)

    •    His singing voice is lovely, you often ask for him to sing you to sleep which is something he loves to do! He sees it as a way to get in some minutes of practice so he can improve himself

    •    He always wants to better himself and take care of others so much to the point that he’ll ignore his own needs, so he’ll definitely need someone to take care of him

    •    You sometimes can’t believe you’re lucky enough to call him yours, but he feels the same about you too, and he’ll always make it known (You swear your heart melts a little (in the best way possible) whenever he gets shy)

    •    He’s very cuddly, he loves giving you hugs; if there’s a day that goes by where he doesn’t give you one at least once throughout the day, then you know something is wrong

    •    He giggles a lot, and anything can set him off but you find it to be incredibly endearing

    •    He is just so soft…especially in the bedroom, but there are times when things get a little more heated

    •    “In a world that was dark and grey, you came along and painted beautiful, vibrant colors”

Lee Know

 •    He seems unapproachable at first because of his icy stare, but that’s quite the contrary actually (he’s actually an incredibly warm human being)

    •    Loves to crack jokes! Most of them are cat-related, but don’t comment on that or else he’ll probably stare at you weirdly and will continue to do so until you let it go

    •    Don’t tell anyone, but he secretly loves playing with cats in his free time, and sometimes whenever he has to spend a full day tending to his ✨ royal duties ✨ you’ll find him squeezing time in to pet some stray cats or to rescue them

    •    Speaking of rescuing stray cats, he’s incredibly passionate that no cat should be homeless and each should be loved and taken care of

    •    Not just cats, but he believes any stray animal shouldn’t be left without a home or a loving owner (He himself has three cats)

    •    He’s basically the president of the kingdom’s animal rescue team, and he often checks up on the shelter to either play with some of the animals there, or he’ll chose one and spontaneously run around the kingdom to promote how adorable they are in hopes of finding them a home at the end of the day

Lee Know as your Prince

 •    You must be an animal lover like him, because you guys will spend so much time together at the shelter to play with them!

    •    He’s a little awkward when it comes to affection, specifically hugs, but with given time, he’ll warm up to it! Plus, he’s awkward in a cute way

    •    He’s gifted you a cat plushie which you’re unable to sleep without at night, sometimes you’ll catch him stealing it from you because he claims that it’s just too adorable

    •    You guys have ice cream dates a lot, because he seems to have a second stomach for it

    •    Whenever you go with him to get his portrait painted, he loves to pose in funny positions and make funny faces, there are a lot of portraits consisting of him doing so, finding a more serious one is kind of rare but hey…you’re just glad to see his true personality that he’s a bit hesitant to share with the rest of the kingdom

    •    You happened to discover this on accident, but he likes it when you ruffle his hair and look at him fondly, it makes his heart race

    •    He often guards his emotions, but you feel thankful whenever he opens up to you because sometimes you get worried when he bottles them up for a little too long

    •    He can be a bit evil sometimes, and that shows in the bedroom but he makes sure to never do something you’re not comfortable with - your needs come first  

   •    “You are my pride and joy, I feel so lucky to have you”

Changbin

• SUCH A FUN MAN!

• Nicknamed the prince of fun! Only by a few people…everyone else refers to him as the “pig-bunny prince” because he has a big obsession with Dwaekki (he might even be the face of the kingdom…literally. aka the national flag)

• You can trust him with practically anything. But do expect him to playfully tease you most of the time!

• He can be really loud! Even if you’re a few rooms down from whatever room he’s in, there’s no doubt you’ll be able to hear him

• He really loves music, he’s in charge of anything music-related (He’s hosted rap classes before, and a lot of people found them to be a bit on the difficult side because he can rap incredibly fast)

• He’s pretty chill, and kind of like a best friend to everyone - he’s that open to things and he’s incredibly reliable (He’s got everyone’s back, whether you’re close to him or not.)

Changbin As Your Prince

• He’s a very fun lover as well, your love life together is always full of excitement

• Certain activities could possibly cause him to get severely injured, and you always mentally note that you should tell him to stop, but seeing the pure joy on his face…you can’t help but to change your mind. (He’s a little daredevil, it’s kind of rare to see him mellowed-out, and when you do, you should probably be concerned when he isn’t being his loud, hyper self)

• He can be pretty affectionate when he wants to be but he displays his love for you through other actions rather than physical affection

• He too, is very good with his words! He makes you feel like you’re on cloud 9

• That “cool guy” act that he’s got going on? It doesn’t show up as much when he’s with you, because he’s just that comfortable with you. (Plus he thinks that you deserve to see the true Changbin…the man behind the prince that everyone else doesn’t get to see)

• His playfulness shows up in the bedroom too, along with ruthless teasing, like sometimes you’ll have to beg for him to have mercy on you but in his opinion that just makes things more exciting

“What was my life before? Ever since we met, I can’t seem to live without you anymore”

Hyunjin

the softest when it came to serving his kingdom

his gentle voice and soft smile always brought people to ease when they were around him

an equestrian. when not attending to royal duties, he’s always riding a horse or in the stable

as the only child and only son, he must take over the kingdom, no questions asked

throws an annual winter wonderland festival to show his gratitude to his subjects

his kind smile is loved by all

Hyunjin as your Prince

so so so loving oh my

would help you make bracelets for the small children in the kingdom

would press loving kisses to your face with that shy smile of his

would also take you on horse rides! in the morning, middle of the day, at night? you name it!

intimacy between you two was so loving and soft

he would show you how much he loves you with sweet kisses and gentle words

“everyday when I watch the sunset, I realize I’ll get to spend another day with you.”

Han

he gives off the vibe that he wouldn’t want to rule the kingdom after his father.

he wants to pursue music, but the king is against it.

so against it, that Jisung has to do what he loves behind his father’s back

very playful; loves sword fighting and horseback riding

everyone in the kingdom as a slight crush on him

he’s known for being very heroic; he’s saved many people and the protected the kingdom with an iron fist

he may not want to rule in the future, but he still cares about his subjects like family

very giving as well; always there if anyone is in a bad situation, whether it’s big or small.

Han as your Prince

very loving; loves pressing kisses all over your face, and having his hands on your body

very protective. If anyone looks at you with barely even a little interest, it’s all over.

when you two get intimate, I see him being the one to initiate everything

he would take care of you, kissing down your body with soft praises and soft touches

holds your waist gently while doing the do

“ there are many bright stars in the sky, but you’re the brightest out of them all, baby.”

Felix

the sweetest prince ever.

cares so much about his subjects; maybe more than himself

everyone loves him, and are very ready for him to take over the kingdom

hosts monthly bake sales that the entire kingdom can participate in, which also helps feed people in need

dances when he’s not attending to royal duties, and oh my, he’s a beautiful dancer

during the cold winters, he hosts as much shelter for people as he can

being the only son in his family, he needs to find a significant other soon because his father is getting old to keep running the kingdom

Felix as your Prince

no surprise, but he’s the sweetest

he can’t keep his hands off of you when you’re together

hands on your waist, holding your hand, any skinship, he’s doing it.

when you two were intimate, regardless of his roll, his eyes would be filled with so much love.

loves it when you run your hands through his hair, tugging it gently

nonstop kisses. he’s completely addicted to your lips.

“i might be the kingdoms pride and joy, but you are my absolute universe.”

Seungmin

very strategic and well educated. he knows what he’s doing, and knows how to do it well.

extremely brave. he’s saved the country multiple times.

he comes off as cold, but behind closed castle doors, he’s an energetic puppy.

loves to sing in his free time

often gets caught singing in the castle garden, and gosh he sounds beautiful

extremely protective over his family. You hurt them, he hurts you.

Seungmin as your Prince

cold on the outside, warm on the inside

will not go father than keeping his arm out for you to wrap around when you’re in public

but within castle walls? he’s all over you.

kisses kisses kisses galore

smiles brightly only for you :(

sings you to sleep every night

when you two are intimate, he usually wants it soft and slow so he can show you how much he loves you

soft praises and slow, romantic kisses

holds your hand the entire time

“you are more beautiful than the cherry blossom blooms on a sunny day.”

I.N.

playful but caring

he always is holding a smile on his face. there’s never a point and time where people weren’t seeing him smiling.

however he takes his royal duties very seriously. when someone is in trouble, he’ll put the villain in their place.

a fencer. he finds such a thrill in fighting someone with a sword.

since he has an older brother, he doesn’t have to take over the kingdom, and he’s happy about it.

ideally want to live in a forest, surrounded by trees and wonder.

I.N. as your Prince

so so so caring. he cares about no one when it comes to you.

he loves to press gentle kisses all across your face, neck, jaw, etc. he just thinks you’re so beautiful.

would love it when you showed up to his fencing matches. he loved it when you were there to cheer him on.

you two would stay up till the rise of the sun singing and giggling with each other.

would hold you close when you two eventually fell asleep.

this sweetheart would let you take any role when it came to intimacy. he was an absolute fool for you.

“When the sky is filled with sweet, bird songs, I get reminded of you.”

- atalia & arya

[early2000smovieimagines]

Meeting and Dating Napoleon Bonaparte

(Not my gif)(Requested by anonymous)

- Having worked at the Museum of Natural History for over two years, very little was capable of surprising you at this point. You’d come to expect the unexpected and you were almost always prepared for anything.

- Apparently though, there was still a few things that managed to catch you off guard: like your dear friend; and ex coworker, explaining that Ahkmenrah’s evil brother was trying to take over the world …or the fact that you’d wind up finding Napoleon Bonaparte of all people; or wax figures, …sort of attractive. 

- Yeah... that was an interesting discovery....

- So, as the story goes, Larry informed you that the museum exhibits were in trouble and that he’d be traveling to Washington in hopes of saving them from whatever danger they’d found themselves in. With very little convincing, you’d agreed to accompany him and you soon found yourself facing off with Kahmunrah and his various minions.

- Which led you to this exact moment: standing cornered in a random room as Napoleon and his guards pointed weapons at you and; mainly, Larry. 

- You watched silently as Larry and the man went back and forth, arguing about height and whatever other unimportant thing came up before you’d made yourself a little more known by complimenting the French mans plan. 

- Whether you were being serious or merely taking the piss is unimportant, all that matters is that you’d made it seem as though you found the man to be impressive and that you’d directed his attention towards you …and boy did he like what he saw. 

- He immediately walked over, putting on a smile and thanking you as he began to noticeably behave in a far more flirty way. 

- Although it wasn’t entirely successful; particularly after he slid across the floor to question Larry about your relationship, it did manage to catch you off guard and get you just a tad bit flustered. 

- But, just as soon as it began, it was over in a flash. The man forced Larry to come with him, interrupting you as you began to say that you were coming with them, telling you that their fight was not with you; which you would probably have considered to be quite noble in just about any other circumstance. 

- Your story momentarily ends here but that isn’t the last time you encounter the Frenchmen. It’s only a few months later that the Museum of Natural History gets a few new guests....

- The first time Napoleon awakens again, he almost immediately encounters Larry; which neither of them are very happy about. What he is happy about is the realization that if Larry is here, there’s a very likely chance that you are as well. 

- So; with forced nonchalance, the man asks about you. 

“And your friend ...is she here?” He says slowly, looking around as though he expects you to show up at any moment. 

“Yeah. Yeah, she’s here. She works here so …you know,” Larry pauses. “She’s probably in her office …working. Downstairs …her office.”

- They stand in an awkward silence for a moment before they both excuse themselves and Napoleon goes off in search of you.

-  He runs into you just as you’re coming up for a break, greeting you with a charming smile and a “Bonjour Mademoiselle”. And, for the first time since you first met, he properly introduces himself, kissing your hand and making it increasingly obvious that his interest in your love life was not merely a “French thing”. 

- And though you should probably be doing whatever you can to get away from the wax figure with a questionable moral compass, you find yourself unable to. Instead, you stand and speak with him, making conversation until you really need to get back to work.

- But that isn’t the last time you speak with him …he makes sure of that. It seems as though you’re the only thing that really interests him in the museum and soon enough, you’re growing quite used to; and fond of, his growing presence in your life. 

- It doesn’t take long for Napoleon to try and ask you out. I mean he conquered most of Europe; wooing a woman is childs play compared to that, right? 

- Partially. While you do like him and admit that his French flirtation is tempting, you also know that you have to be reasonable and being reasonable does not include dating a museum exhibit who is only capable of coming alive at night with the help of a magical tablet. 

- So the two of you play a game of cat and mouse where he flirts and you enjoy it but do your best to pull away when things start to get too heavy and you can feel the damning words approaching the tip of his tongue.

- You never let him get to the point of actually asking you out. You excuse yourself, you distract him, you change the subject, you do whatever you can to keep your head on straight.

- And it works, it works for a pretty good amount of time, but there's only so long that you can avoid the inevitable; especially when its obvious that you both like each other.

- So finally, the wax figure manages to get the words out, very romantically and suavely asking if you would be his, and though your mind is telling you that it really isn't a good idea, you cant help but say yes.

- He smiles and plants a kiss on the hand of yours that he was holding, telling you that he’ll meet you at your office the next night and the two of you say goodbye.

- Your first date is a stroll around the museum, talking and enjoying your newfound attempt at a relationship.

- You share your first kiss a week or so later after you have a few good dates and decide that you want to continue on with this out of the ordinary relationship.

- You’re sitting outside on the steps of the museum, looking out at the view of the city under the stars when he leans in and presses his lips to yours. You share a soft kiss before you pull away with a smile and scoot in closer to each other.

- After that, the two of you get to experience all the nitty gritty of relationships with each other.

- Napoleon isn't shy about his interest in and affection for you so pda isn’t a rare occurrence in your relationship. He adores you and he thinks that people should know that. 

- His arm around your waist; depending on your height it’s probably the easiest place for him to reach. 

- Keeping close to each other. He’ll oftentimes hold your hand or your elbow and stay right by your side, looking at you lovingly and listening to you intently. 

- Knuckle kisses. 

- Slow, romantic kisses. 

- Him occasionally just laying one on you; particularly when he’s frustrated or overcome with another sort of powerful emotion. They’re always abrupt and passionate and wind up taking your breath away. 

- He uses a lot of pet names on you; oftentimes ones that make you sound small or cute: things like my little darling, my little mouse, etc. He’ll also use a plethora of French terms of endearment on you since he doesn’t speak a whole lot of English. 

- He secretly likes when you use pet names on him but he probably won’t admit it to you; he’ll just have a little smile on his face and a warm reaction to them whenever you happen to use them. 

- Don’t even bring up the idea of him being the little spoon because he will never take kindly to it. He’ll always be the big spoon or have you resting your head on him regardless of how little sense it may make snuggle-wise. 

- The two of you are only capable of seeing each other at night and only when you can get away from work or when you’re able to get night shifts so he likes being able to have a keepsake of you. More likely than not it’s a photo or note that you wrote him which he keeps in his pocket or hat. 

- Bringing in little treats for him. He’s stuck inside a museum and his own waxy body most of the time, he’s bound to miss things from the outside world so it’s always nice when you surprise him with something no matter how small.

- Having him by your side whenever you can. He likes lazying around and just being in your presence while you work so you better get used to him. 

- He’s always the first one to greet you when he awakens or as you arrive at the museum for your shift. He likes having that honor.

- Telling him about the outside world. He’s missed a lot so you’ll definitely need to fill him in on some current events. He’d also be rather interested in hearing about his impact on the world and how people view him; just try not to mention the complex thing too much. 

- Learning about each others lives. He’s obviously going to have a lot more interesting stories but he never minds listening to yours; even if they’re really boring in comparison.

- Letting him brag about his military prowess. He’ll probably try to act all humble and modest in the beginning but will then start eagerly talking about it like you were begging him to do so.

- Hyping him up and making him all smiley with your compliments. He’s pretty approval driven so your praise and validation does wonders to his self esteem.

- His soldiers standing guard or interrupting you if something important is happening.

- His soldiers have also probably helped him execute grand gestures that he’s thought up for you.

- Trying to sneak him out of the museum and into your home every now and again. 

- If you’re able to sneak him away for a night then he’d probably enjoy going to a quiet café or restaurant; somewhere the two of you can relax and enjoy some nice food away from the typical chaos of the museum. 

- He’d definitely be the type of guy to order for you at restaurants; if you were able to go to restaurants. It’s really up to you if you want to spend your hard earned money and take the time to try to figure out a way to get him out for the night. 

- Getting him to play little games with you. You have to do something to pass the time, right? And he’s secretly a bit of a pushover for you so it’s never very difficult.

- Using his telescope to look out the windows of the museum.

- Picnics in areas of the museum or right outside on the steps.

- Marching/strutting around the Museum. Something tells me that he’d walk around with his chin held high and his chest puffed out; as though he were still emperor.

- Romantic language; though he probably speaks in French when he wants to be all lovey dovey with you. 

- Him looking you up and down. He’s fairly obvious about it but it’s up to you to know if you’d be able to pick up on what he’s doing.

- Get used to winking and borderline salacious facial expressions and gestures because they’re fairly common with him.

- Love letters. 

- He’s old fashioned; partially because he’s just old, so chivalry and social etiquette is a big part of who he is; though it might only surface when he’s around you. He’s always on his best behavior whenever he can be and acts endearingly gentlemanly.

- Gossiping with each other. 

- You having any Napoleon “merch”; for lack of a better word, would make him completely smug and he’d have no other choice but to tease you for it. 

- Dealing with his overdramatic reactions and behavior. 

- Making sure he doesn't get into trouble; or at least trying to whenever you can. Sometimes it’s just inevitable so you’ll have to do your best to provide damage control. 

- Letting him handle his fights. It’s best to just sit back and let him deal with things sometimes; he likes thinking that he doesn’t need any help even when he really does. 

- Ivan probably makes sure that you have only the best intentions for Little Nippy and once he likes you, he’ll feel the need to defend and protect you as well. 

- Larry thinks you’re sort of crazy for wanting to be with a wax figure; particularly one who literally had a complex created in his image, but you just pay him no mind. 

- Napoleon isn’t an incredibly jealous person, mainly because he’s not afraid to be direct and ask questions. If he thinks something is going on between you and another person, he’s going to interrogate them to see what their intentions are. 

- But on that note: he does get jealous when you fawn over someone else; someone like a movie star, or show fascination in another exhibit; although it’s less jealousy and more him feeling insecure and wondering what they have that he doesn't. 

- He isn’t particularly protective but he also has guards he can order to watch over you whenever he perceives there to be some form of danger. That being said: he’s immediately rushing to your side the minute he hears you let out any pained/frightened noise or hears that something might have happened to you. 

- Given how sensitive he is, there’s bound to be a few arguments in your relationship. They’re never very serious but they still occur. 

- He’s easily placated with an apology or an explanation but if you’re not in the mood to give one, it still wont take him very long to forgive you and begrudgingly admit that he may have overreacted. 

- Napoleon tells you that he loves you quite a bit but he leaves it for when you’re alone or tries to say it quiet enough for the people around you not to hear. He wants people to know that you’re together, he doesn’t want them thinking he’s weak. 

- Your relationship might not be the most conventional nor is it one that’s easy to keep up for years to come, but you know that you care about each other more than anyone can know and that's enough for you. 

[padfootdaredmetoo]

Tired - Wade X Reader

Reader is a mutant who teams up with Wade & Peter on patrols and is Wade's girlfriend.

After a particularly gruelling night out she gets overwhelmed and Wade is more than happy to provide comfort.

Warnings - Panic & stress are described / Periods & Blood mentioned

*Requests are open if anyone is interested*

It was a long night of trouble. It seems that when it rains it pours in regards to both organized and disorganized crime. They must all get their horoscope from the same paper.

“Friday night will bring great promise for your illegal business affairs. If you have been holding out, make your move, now is the time to go full throttle.”

All the lowlifes seem to flock to the center of the city like moths to a flame. This meant that while we normally work as a team, we had to split up multiple times. If Peter didn’t already look like a Mac truck had run him over & reversed back for a second go, you might not feel so anxious about leaving him.

Wade on the other hand was a tank, you had to worry about the things around him more than the merc himself.

After a particularly awful fight, you really hoped that she would be the final mob boss of the night. Being on high alert for the better part of 8 hours you were starting to feel the night's events take its toll.

Making it to the meet up spot at the top of their favourite building, you laid down on your back feeling relieved you didn’t see anything requiring your attention on the way back.

Looking up at the sky starting to change colour, your mind started to race through everything that had happened. Mind calculating and trying to make sense of every punch thrown. You had gotten your period that morning, almost failed a test at school, and beaten up at least 40 people. Absently you laid your hand on your ribs and flinched at the pain.

“Babe! You okay?!” Wade called out in panic, running across the roof top to you.

“I’m good! I’m good!” You said trying to avoid causing panic. It wouldn't be the first time you got stabbed or shot. You tried to sit up but let out a moan and gave up.

“Everything hurts! But I’m good”

“You don’t seem good. Don’t get me wrong you look hot. But I think it's past your bedtime.” Big arms came and picked you up.

"Are you okay?" you mumbled

"Never better babe, took down the baddies, saved the day, now I get to carry the princess home" You were relived that he came across genuinely happy.

“You don’t have to carry me” You whispered secretly hoping he doesn’t stop.

“Yeah but I want to so hush” His voice sounded even deeper with your ear pressed against his chest.

You loved it when Wade took care of you, but guilt was never far behind those feelings. Peter checked in and told them he was on his way back to the apartment.

The whole ride back you thought about how you were being a burden. Wade never showed it, but how many times have people snapped at you out of the blue. You were a lot to handle. You had made a lot of progress with your mental health and panic attacks in the last 7 years. You didn’t have much of a choice when your mutation causes everything else around you to shake just as hard as your body does.

Wade dealt with things much like Professor Xavier & Erik did. Growing up in the mansion Erik was by far the best person to calm you down. Somehow you always knew deep down he never saw you as a destructive or an evil force. Just someone to be cared for and respected. They never made you feel like a burden.

Now as an adult you decided to take a break from the X-men and joined up with Team Red.

“Sweetums, can you get the door.” Wade brought you back to your surroundings. You reached out and opened the front door. Wade carried you through to his ensuite bathroom and placed you gently on the marble countertop.

You had no motivation to move or speak, it was a relief when Wade started to take off your clothes for you. He looked you over for any notable injuries but so far it was just a lot of bruising.

“Babe, I love you but blue ain't your colour. I shouldn’t have left you on the docs alone” He said in a sad voice, fingers brushing over your ribs and stomach.

“It was fine Wade. The humans were a slice of cake. It was their spooky mutant henchmen that really went for the gold” You mumbled. She had been able to absorb your mutation and use it against you. You gave Wade the gory details while he got himself undressed and started the shower.

“Your shaking.” He stated while pulling you into the shower. He put you directly under the hot spray and held you tightly in his arms.

Now that you weren’t fighting or running to the next fight, you realized the more you calmed down the more worn out you were.

By the way Wade started lecturing about his favourite episode of Golden Girls you knew that he knew you weren’t okay. Looking down at some point you could see blood streaming down your legs.

“Oh. Sorry. I uh-” Embarrassment flooded your face, a sense of anxiety swelling in your tender stomach. Wade only started laughing.

“Babe. I have bled on every surface of this apartment. You bleeding is never going to bother me. Unless you're hurt.” he kissed your forehead and went back to his in depth argument.

Next thing you know he’s drying you off in a towel like you remembered people doing when you were a kid. Like being in a tornado.

He disappeared and came back with one of his shirts and a clean pair of panties. You said thank you as he headed out of the bed room.

You wanted to ask him how you could help him or apologize for getting like this, but all your words got stuck in a tight knot in your chest. Your brain put the night's evening on re-run again just to make sure you didn’t miss all the things you should have done differently. Mostly you just wished you could be sassy like Peter, or funny like Wade was. You cleaned yourself up then flopped onto his bed. Breathing in the scent of his sheets. Even though Wade normally ran hot his bed was always covered with a million of the softest blankets and quilts.

After getting nested and closing your eyes something warm was placed in your lap. It was a nice plate of cheese & chicken quesadillas. Your stomach gave a lurch that informed you that you were very hungry.

Wade hopped up on the bed and sat cross legged scarfing down the too hot meal. Suddenly you were overwhelmed with feelings.

“Wade?” you said shakily. You didn't even know what you were going to tell him. There weren't words to explain how you felt. Happy, loved, safe, tired, angry, scared, embarrassed, ashamed....

“Yeah” He said between mouthfuls

“I’m not doing okay ” You looked over at him and started crying.

“Awe puppy. It’s okay. I’m here. Peter’s down the hall. Matt is downstairs. No one’s gonna hurt you here.” His eyes were filled with an understanding that only made your heart ache more.

“I’m sorry I don’t know why I feel like this” You felt tired and no matter what you thought of you couldn’t stop crying.

“If its about that cat fight earlier, you kicked her ass once. You can do it again.”

You let out a wet laugh and got down your food.

Wade took your plate and put in on the dresser, then flopped onto the bed pulling you down into him.

"I'm sorry. I normally don't cry like this" You said with a heaving chest, pain starting to creep its way into your brain.

"Even if you cried like this all the time I'd still be here loving you." He whispered in a deep voice while settling you into a comfortable spot.

As soon as you were trapped there with a full belly tangled up in a hoard of blankets and Wade's heavy limbs. You felt your body start to relax. He ran his fingers through your hair whispering soft murmurs of encouragement. That you were his and that you were safe.

[old-hyper-super-clover]

Secret Santa Event,

Day 9

This little story belongs to my Christmas project, a series of stories leading up to Christmas Eve! Check my Event Masterlist for more information, and have fun!

A/N: might contain interactions with my MCs Clover and/or Violet (no spoilers ofc), but you don't have to know them to understand the story!

There are a things in life that are true opposites. That just don't go well together.

Life and death.

Peace and war.

Math and fun.

And for our little angel child Luke, that also goes for angels and demons.

Despite all that Diavolo had tried to accomplish with the student exchange program, Luke had a hard time living in the Devildom. If you'd ask him, he'd never admit it, but he was scared really of demons. Also highly irritated by their behaviour, their culture, their... Everything.

To him, demons were bad, evil, ruthless and wild creatures. That's what he was raised with, that's what all the evidence had taught him.

Until very recently, at least.

Despite a few other things that Luke found he had in common with demons, like the interest in baking he shared with Barbatos, he was most shocked by the fact of demons willing to engage in Christmas traditions. Shocked that, out of all, THE demon prince showed a similar amount of excitement like Luke did when they heard the magical name "Santa Claus".

So, even though his stomach was turning as he thought about giving a demon a "heartfelt, heartwarming present", Luke convinced himself to give it his best shot regardless.

Before drawing lots, he hoped to get either a human or angel as partner, or Beel or Barbatos, since he got along best with those.

... He nearly gave a screech when he read the name "Satan" on his piece of paper.

No, no, oh no. That was a horrible outcome.

Out of all the brothers, Luke was kind of scared of Satan the most. Maybe it was because Satan was the only true demon, not a fallen angel like the rest. But Satan also had this aura around him, something that made Luke want to keep his distance to him.

Satan seemed so nice and polite most of the time, but Luke was convinced that the avatar of Wrath just HAD to be evil.

And the worst was, because of this crazy curse Diavolo had put on everyone, Luke couldn't ask anyone for help on this matter.

He really had to get this done alone...

----------

Days passed, and the boy didn't make any progress in coming up with a present.

Sitting on his bed at the purgatory hall, he was trying to make a list of gift ideas.

It was empty.

He knew that Satan liked books and liked being alone. Also, that one time before class, Luke had caught Satan secretly watching a video about cats.

But since Luke had tried staying away from him up until now, that was all information he had.

He couldn't just go out an buy a book, not knowing which Satan already possessed. And Luke felt like he shouldn't bring up the cat topic. He feared Satan might get very mad if Luke showed that he knew about this cat-thing...

Hence, the angel's head was empty.

And as his day of playing Santa was right around the corner, he grew desperate. And sad.

Just as Luke wasn't able to hold in his tears, the room's door opened.

"Hello Luke", Simeon greeted as he stepped inside.

"S-simeon...!" Luke furiously whiped his face in a sad attempt to hide that he was crying. "I thought you were out shopping with the humans! W-why are you back already??"

The brunet gave a soft chuckle. "Well, when I said I would be back home late, I thought that the girls would surely be escorted by the whole house of Lamentation again. But surprisingly, they were able to come alone, so we were way faster with our tour."

Now that Simeon turned around, he got a good glance at Luke. He immediately noticed his swollen, red eyes.

"Oh, dear", Simeon hurried over to sit down beside Luke, "What's wrong?"

His voice was so soothing that Luke wanted to cry his worries out. "N-nothing", he tried holding it back, however. "I... Hit my elbow."

Simeon mustered him for a moment.

"Do good angels lie, Luke?"

The boy flinched.

And finally, he opened up.

"... No...", he mumbled, then he started crying again.

With Simeon softly laying an arm around him, he started describing his problem without triggering the curse.

"I can't come up with a present... It's difficult coming up with gifts for demons... They... Well, it's not like they scare me, but it feels weird... Aren't they supposed to be bad?! So why... Why do I want to come up with an amazing present, and why can't I think of anything..."

Through a little silence, Simeon thought about what to say.

"How does Santa determine if children get toys or not?", He asked.

"Well, children don't get toys if they've been naughty. But those are demons, they are all nau-"

"Luke, are you judging the individuals or their race with what you are saying?"

The boy went silent. Turning to look him straight in the eye, Simeon kept waiting for his answer.

"I... I guess my... Present partner never did anything real mean to me...", Luke mumbled. "But...! That doesn't change the fact that I can't come up with a present... The rule was to give something heartfelt, so... I've tried so hard to not go for the obvious option, tried to make sure they will like it and be surprised and happy..."

Contemplating, Simeon stood up, wandering around the room.

"You know...", he began. "Sometimes, simple and obvious is not necessarily bad. You want to make the person happy, right? So, if you know that whatever idea will make them happy for sure, then why not do so?"

"B-but isn't... Isn't that too easy?"

Simeon gave a soft smile.

"That depends... Are you taking the easy road to make it easier for yourself, or because you are sure to spread happiness that way? Because if it's the latter, then I'd say go for it. Try to give it your own personal touch, and then everything will work out just fine."

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

A few days later, Luke made his way to the house of Lamentation.

His hand was shaking as he reached for the bell, even more so when the person he was looking for was the one to open the door.

"S-satan?!", Luke bursted out.

The demon tilted his head.

"Are you surprised to see me? In my own house?"

Ah, great, Luke was instantly intimidated again.

But, no, he would not get discouraged now...! Luke would be an amazing Santa...!

"No, I... I wanted to see you, actually." The angel said.

Satan, who had been eyeing the wrapped box in Luke's hands, looked up in surprise.

"Oh? Well, come in first. I just prepared myself tea, so we might as well enjoy that together."

So, the little blond followed the tall blond through the mansion, until both sat down next to the fireplace in the lounge.

Satan took a sip from his tea, then put the cup down, calmly waiting for Luke to address his issue.

"S-so...", The angel raised his voice. "You've probably already guessed it, but... Today, you're getting your present, and I was your secret Santa." With that, he handed Satan the box.

Satan's lips curled in a mellow smile.

"I thought as much, yes, but the occasion itself is a pleasant surprise. I will open it right now, if you don't mind."

Luke gave a tiny nod, then Satan carefully unfolded the wrapping paper (Yes, Satan is not one of those weirdos that violently rip wrapping paper. The avatar of Wrath is a gentle man).

What he looked at then was a bell cover, a container to put baked goods inside.

And through the see-through glass, the demon looked at an apple pie, also being able to smell a hint of it now.

"I-I heard that Apple pie is your favourite, so I browsed my recipes and made a fresh one for you today...", Luke mumbled, very nervous as he couldn't read Satan's expression at all.

"It certainly smells delicious", Satan then said. "Thank you, I think I'm going to cut myself a slice while enjoying my tea-"

"B-but wait...!", Luke suddenly exclaimed.

Satan stopped in his motion of standing up. And as he had wanted to put the cake down, he felt something stuck underneath the bell cover.

Curious, Satan took what seemed like a note, hand written and with little doodles on it.

After reading it, he shot Luke a truly excited glance.

"... Can you really do that?", Satan asked.

A little blush spread on Luke's cheeks.

"Well... Let me explain. I wanted to give you a book, but didn't know what books you haven't read yet... So I thought, angel literature must be something rare for you. And, uhm... In the celestial realm, we have a giant library with exclusive books that other realms can't get their hands on, so... If you tell me what you would like, I could borrow those, and maybe leave them here for you to read them... It would be like a voucher that you can use from time to time..."

A sly smirk spread on Satan's lips. "Isn't that a little nasty? Giving out holy books to a demon?"

Now, Luke's face grew an upset (but still blushing) red. "D-don't tease me! I'll only do it because Santa would have done the same! You're a demon, but can also be very nice and I appreciate how calm and polite you are, so..." He went quiet due to being too flustered.

Thankfully, Satan had heard enough. Enough to actually feel appreciated and warm inside.

"Thank you, Luke" he smiled. "I like that gift a lot."

And the angel boy smiled as well.

"I'm very glad. Oh, and... Merry Christmas, Satan."

[sorio99]

Deltarune Chapter 2: Live Thoughts

So, since the new chapter of Deltarune came out, I've played it all the way through, so, here are my thoughts as I had them. Basically a live-blog, but, not live anymore, I wrote these in my notes app before.

NOTE: Obviously there are going to be ALL THE SPOILERS for Deltarune Chapter 2 in this, as well as Chapter 1. Reader discretion is advised.

Wow, okay, so I was wrong about it being immediately explained.

Various descriptions have changed, and I’m not sure if it’s because of the change to a new game, or the one to a new chapter.

I feel like Berdly is definitely a m’lady guy.

Okay, so, we’re not skipping class this time.

I really wish we could call Toriel and tell her we’re gonna be late again, but I couldn’t see an option for that. Maybe Kris told her on the ride to school.

Okay, so, Noelle is definitely adorable, and a huge lesbian.

Susie seems lovestruck too, kinda.

SHE HAD CHALK, AND SHE DIDN’T TELL ALPHYS BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT SHE AND SUSIE COULD GO GET IT TOGETHER OH MY GOD

Okay, honestly wasn’t expecting the closet to work again.

Fricking LOVE the new transition.

Okay, so, Ralsei knows about, the real world? How, why, and what?

Oh, that, makes, a little sense? But also, if we hadn’t brought the toys over to the closet then, would they all be, dead?

AND WHAT IS RALSEI IN THIS CONTEXT?!?!

Okay, but I love the new town.

Holy shit, save points have storage, AND a spare list? Hell yeah.

So, we’re all level 2 now. I guess they moved from EXP based (or, execution point based?) to Milestone.

Love the basement for bad guys, with K. Round standing guard.

Bitch said “Child abusers live in Hamster Cage”.

Wait, he uses the hamster wheel?

I don’t know if I believe the king about his “bluff” or not. I think not, but, I don’t know.

I can see the “Susie moves to Ralsei’s castle to escape her abusive home” fic already.

RALSEI GAVE KRIS A TRASHCAN, AND SAID IT WAS FOR THE MANUAL IF HE GIVES US ANOTHER ONE OH MY GOD IM SO SORRY MY SWEET FLUFFY BOY

And of course, the moss call-back.

Oh god, Susie just said “My own room, huh.” and my heart is ready to shatter.

This girl has one actual food item in her fridge, and it’s just salsa

Oh, scratch that, there’s ice, crumbs, and jawbreakers in there too?

Oh, okay, Ralsei did give her actual food.

Entering Lancer’s room gives the cartoon Splat sound effect from Chapter 1, and his bedroom is identical to Chapter 1.

Perfect.

And the sound effect, plays in reverse when leaving? Okay.

So, explore until we’re ready to leave, huh? Seems, suspicious.

Oh my god, I just realized, the LightCandy is literally the chalk Noelle gave Susie. What the fuck.

So, for giving the Top back his cake, we get regenerating SpinCake that heals everyone for 140. Nice.

Battle challenges, huh? This should be interesting.

So, we can get a ClubsSandwich, $100, or…Jigsaw Joe’s entire life savings. Okay.

Aw, Clover has separate heads in their dialogue box!

Just realized this “dojo” also has their bed. Odd.

Alright, let’s take these challenges!

Oh, so if we act with Kris, than spare with Ralsei or Susie…got it!

He has a mercy meter. There’s a mercy meter now. I love this.

Oh, of course his life savings is exactly one dollar.

I can already tell the Graze challenges are gonna be the biggest bitches.

Okay, so, being able to rematch bosses, with different gimmicks and attacks, but based on the same logic? Always amazing.

I love the little cut-ins from the other characters with certain lines, like Susie and Lancer revealing “for a price” means zero dollars.

“Cookie and Wife”?

The Blacksmith runs a bakery where he can fuse items…okay.

Imma get a Silver Card.

What the fuck, Mr. Society?

Okay, so, we’re “leaving” through the way we came in, so “surely” we’re going back “home” to the “real world” and our “family”. Sure.

LANCER was added to your key items.

Oh was he now?

And so was Rouxls, “even though no one wanted that.”

Oh, we, actually went back to the light world. Huh. Actually wasn’t expecting that.

Jack of Spades, and the Rules Card. Makes sense.

Still LV 1 here, thankfully. No murder yet.

Okay, thankfully I can call Toriel now.

…Undyne, what the fuck?

Also? This, car horn music, I guess? Is, um…interesting.

Oh, the, computer lab. Where Toby was in Chapter 1. Okay. Makes sense.

“Guess this means we can’t start our project.” I’d say the biggest obstacle is more that we have no clue what the hell this project is supposed to be.

Hmm, we could use the computer at my house, or we could have a fun Toby Fox adventure…

My house!

I knew Susie wouldn’t allow it, also, you always wanna jump in big pits? That’s, worrying.

Computer lab time!

So, computer themed, maybe?

Rouxls jumped out, apparently. According to Lancer.

Okay, this build up is creepy, where’s the fluffy boy?!

Who is SHE?!

Was

Was that Noelle’s chatter sound?

Asking for help?

OH MY GOD

ITS THE REINDEER LESBIAN

SHES BEEN TAKEN

NOOOO

And, I suppose, this must be, our queen.

Q5U4EX7YY2E9N. Sure. I’ll stick with Queen, yeah.

Oh, she’s a computer! That…that’s probably not, great?

Oh, those plugs are bad, brainwashers. Okay.

Okay, they’re both tired…but Ralsei isn’t here. Fuck.

Aiming at moving targets is hard.

2 Werewires spared, only 4 to go, I guess!

RALSEI IS BACK, YAY!

Fun Gang, back together, working to save Susie’s soon-to-be-girlfriend!

Rhythm game to start a new bumping song. Nice.

Might live blog less from here, since, you know, the game is starting proper.

God, I love Deltarune’s look and sound, it’s so clean? And expressive, and AAAGH, I just love it!

I love angry Ralsei.

First lose control laughing moment: Kris and Susie squishing Ralsei like a toothpaste tube, to play an arcade game.

Did, did I just play Punch-Out inside an Undertale?

Curing computer viruses with Syringes…sure.

Sweet is the rhythm guy! Nice to meet you, Sweet! You and Toby are great at this music thing.

Hey, Susie can act now! Awesome!

Ralsei too, because of bullying! Yay!

Now the whole gang’s dancing!

(This is where I took my first real break, to process stuff and relax, and also to sleep)

In between thought: it’s kinda interesting that, in Chapter 1, Susie basically had to be forced to care about Kris, Ralsei, and Susie, but as soon as Noelle is in the slightest bit of danger, she’s immediately like, “We have to save her or die trying”, huh?

“Reverse diss-tracks, where the vocalist puts themselves down and praises Queen…or noise music.” That’s some, interesting taste in music.

“All our songs are only 4 seconds long!” Damn, so you’re, like, Vine musicians?

So, the Knight is opening alternate fountains, that create dark worlds out of, more mundane places? Interesting…

So, someone new is leading the rebels. This, can’t go well.

Smorgasbord 2.

Oooh, a TP raising Item! Nice!

Oh, the guy who was already working for Queen is a Werewire now. Okay.

66 up arrows. Hmmm, I wonder if I can retry at some point…

Oh boy. Here’s the queens…wait what?

Oh my god.

Go kart time.

Noelle, you traitor! How could you!

Oh, okay. Berdly I believe more.

Also, “beloved”.

I love how Queen apparently didn’t even ask him.

“Light Nerds” Good one, Queen.

That’s one weird Check for Berdly.

Berdly, for God’s sakes, Noelle is a lesbian, you idiot.

You know, given this villain rant, I think I hate Berdly more than I do King. And I’ve dealt with both bullies AND abusive dads.

Oh god, Roller Coaster Tycoon murder (also Berdly is dead)

Garbage! Saved by it again.

Oh, this place looks glitchy.

Also, Susie, you’re not the king of the trash pile. You’re QUEEN of the trash pile.

Oh god, please don’t tell me she’s dying.

Okay, good, she just needed fluffy boy hug.

Fork in the path, advantageous to split up, huh? But there’s three of us, and, two paths probably.

Okay, I can either go with the Fluffy boy who might secretly be evil, or the mean girl who might get lesbian scenes…hmmm…

I’m flipping a coin.

Okay, Ralsei it is!

Oh, Susie is upset at me getting to pick.

Oh, they’re going together.

Oh, this can’t be good.

If I had a nickel for every indie game with a cat themed metropolis on my pc, I’d have two nickels. You can finish the meme.

I swear I just saw Noelle on the right. Something big in the streets, hmmmm…

Okay, definitely saw Noelle that time. Shame the Poppups, popped up.

…I get it, Toby, but I’m still mad.

Blocked 10 ads…okay, I still love this game.

God, I’m already missing my party members.

Okay, so I still have Lancer, but, I’m really hoping Noelle listens to reason, because Lancer is, not.

Oh god no, don’t fight me now Queen. And please don’t join me.

Alright, nobody likes Berdly. Figured.

God they’re so dumb.

“G-got any room for another truce?” Noelle, I would do a No Mercy run for you, of course I’m going to help you.

I can’t believe “No Triple Trucies” is even an option.

Yay! Noelle in party!

“LV1 Snowcaster. Might be able to use some cool moves.” She’s got Heal Prayer, a more powerful (but more expensive) Pacify, and a damaging Ice move for only 16% TP.

I love her.

I don’t know what a sugarplum is myself, actually.

Noelle, you have a one track mind, and I like it.

Lancer, she’s not a cream, and we’re not making her a bad guy.

Oh, and she’s scared of mice, I love it!

Ah, she’s never been in battle before, let’s see how this goes.

See? That wasn’t so bad, Noelle.

Oh, she’s a natural!

“Needles aren’t scary…” Tell that to anyone under 20, Noelle.

Also, “subtle” pro-Vax message?

Oh my god, I just love her animations.

So, the virus and the syringe are fighting…hm…

Okay, so, first, Noelle’s defend animation, also perfect.

Second, so Ambyu-lance’s bullets block and destroy Virovirokun’s…hmm…

Have I mentioned how much I love Noelle? This funky little Christmas Lesbian can do no wrong.

Oh my god, she can’t even confidently say we’re friends, and hearing Kris say it makes her happy, I love her so much.

Okay, so, Queen drinks Battery Acid. Makes sense for a computer.

Kris is so done with this shit, I can tell.

I am both scared of and loving Queen.

Oh Jesus Christ Berdly what the fuck is that.

That is not greatness that is…I don’t know. I’m pretty sure even tumblr isn’t horny for you, Berdly.

Christ, he’s gonna break Queen by being an idiot and then he’ll be the Chapter boss.

Her eyes say lying. Of course.

“I Did Not Know You Had… Nipples” that’s, a good point.

…Berdly, you disturb me.

Second lost control laughing moment: Noelle’s cardboard robot face, and Queen just saying “Wow Cool Face”

Lancer, what is the “illusory nipple technique”?

Oh, of course the music bots built the statue. Berdly would never do manual labor.

Oh, and, they built the next “big” thing…hmmmm…

Why are we, flavors of tea???

Okay, that should be all the werewires for now.

The, clothing store, sold me, a useless mannequin, for $300. Of course.

I am going to touch the cheese.

Maus!

Cheese maze, purposely ruined to spare more Mices.

Hmm, Berdly talks about Noelle’s crush. $20 says he actually thinks it’s him, or maybe Kris at a stretch.

Noelle is now immune to mice! Yay!

Oh, CD Bagel, Seedy Bagel, just got that.

Okay, sacrifice pacifist run to kill Berdly…I’m tempted.

Uh, Berdly, Noelle just one shot both your allies. I’m not alone, you are.

Jokes on you, buddy, I’ve been dodging A+ for years!

“(He hit me in the face with a tornado…)” Yes, Noelle, and I have papercuts on my eyelids. He do be an asshole.

Oh good, they both made Battery Acid Pies. Now we’re in a car together. Perfect. This is exactly how I wanted things to go.

Potassium

Who is this trash man?

Spamton, huh. Oh boy.

Oh god, this song has lyrics.

Oh joy, a mini boss on my own. Just what I wanted.

Oh, new game over screen! Nice.

Anyways, I hate this guy.

Okay, just one more deal, I think. I wonder what’s next.

I’m not giving you my credit card info, dude.

Oh damnit, 1% more.

Okay, I’m very scared now.

Oh, I lost $51. That’s, fair.

Okay, back in the car.

Oh my god, Queen loves Noelle too. Perfect.

Lancer took the mixtape! Nice!

Oh, he ate it…nice!

DECEMB…

Oh god she’s a little kid.

December.

I’m so sorry, Noelle. I really hope you’re going to be okay. We’ll figure out what to do.

Queen, why does everything you have explode?

Now the prize is on my head.

Susie and Ralsei! You’re back!

She can slightly heal me now…cool!

And she taught him Sarcasm. I love them all so much.

Uh, Susie! You can have it!

Okay, so, now Susie is both gay for Noelle, and suspicious of her. Amazing.

And Noelle is turned on by the threat of being killed. Have I mentioned I love these dorks?

The gang’s all here!

Uh, just got past fireworks, and, where’s Noelle?

Oh, okay. She was just watching Fireworks.

Oooo, catching mice minigame!

Oooo, more elaborate but simpler to control mice minigame!

Oooo, bucket hole!

Also, nice gay Noelle moment noted.

Oh no, please don’t take the perfect girl away from us!

Okay, so, I don’t like Berdly, but, Acid river? Bit much…

Oh, okay. He was never in danger. I hate both of you. GIVE US BACK NOELLE

GOD DAMNIT NOT THE CAGE AGAIN.

Oh, great, now we’re captured too. Except possibly Ralsei.

She only plays mobile games. Burn her.

For once Berdly is correct.

Queen, you are dumb.

Is that the super Mario world fade?

I don’t, next question.

No looking at my Search history!

Oh, hey, we can chat in here.

LANCER TIME!

YES I MISSED YOU YOU DOPE

Lancer, never say Pants hole again, and never say you were inside it either.

Lancer, do you still not know our name?!

So this is how they lampshade the tutorial-Toriel thing, huh?

Oh no, Lancer, please don’t die in here.

Um, are there rooms for all the kids at school?

Asriel…

Puzzle time!

Plot twist: Susie is not Susan.

Berdly is dumb.

Admittedly, I did brute force that second one a bit…

Okay, now Susie has outsmarted both me AND Berdly. This is sad.

Oh god, he’s gonna cry now.

Oh, my god, that’s what December meant. That’s why Berdly cares about Noelle. That’s why…oh god.

Oh wow, Susie’s a gamer. This is incredible Lore.

Oh wow, first Lancer’s face returns, now Berdly is Anime. I love this game.

Oh my god, Ralsei in a tux. I love him.

Alright, so, Lancer needs to go back to Castle Town, and we need to get the heck to Noelle. I hope Berdly’s plan actually works…

Aw, I wanted him to stay tuxedo…

Color Cafe, huh?

Oh god, Rouxls came here. I am terrified.

I love this hype manor song!

Toby Fox, why is there so much 3D Shenanigans in this 2D Top Down RPG???

Note: from here, I end up going to the secret of this chapter. Do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled on that plotline. Skip to where I say Pancake Batter.

Okay, I’m going back, and I’m gonna find this third blue check mark.

Okay, found it, now to get back to the guy…

Yay, fireworks, again!

East treasure’s hallway leading to Basement on 1F…

Oh dear.

So there’s a secret here after all…where is…

Found it!

Okay, how to open this lock, now…hm.

Well, one thing was in the field, so, maybe in the city?

Oh Jesus it’s Spamton.

$28, not a penny more.

KeyGen, huh…

If this is as hard as Jevil, I’m gonna be pissed.

Oh, great, just Kris going in. Again. Fantastic.

Oh what the fuck.

Oh Jesus Christ I hate this build up.

Oh, and I died on the elevator. That’s fun.

Okay, so I hate this elevator. A lot.

Okay! Took like six tries, but I made it past the elevator! Now, let’s see what’s waiting for me…

EmptyDisk…hmmmmmmmm…

Maybe take that back to Scamton or whoever?

…Ralsei, Susie, what are you two doing?

Okay, trash man, you better like this.

Oh Jesus Christ.

Okay, this is not what I expected to follow Jevil’s lead. But, let’s see what happens when I turn this disk in.

Oh, nothing happened. Sure it did. Just gonna walk away then…

Oh, wouldn’t you know it, something happened!

Okay, so big puppet robot man. This is terrifying.

THANK YOU SUSIE!

Roller coaster boss! Again! Oh good!

YELLOW SOUL!

Can’t write notes, gotta kill.

Spamton, oh my god. And it’s Neo’s outfit. How the fuck did I not realize before?

Im terrified, let’s GOOOOOO!

Holy shit is that the Undertale Game Over message??????

Many tries later

Okay, I think it’s actually Ralsei and Susie talking…

Quitting the game so they can get their healing items out of storage and buy some good ones extra later

Okay, third turn, and I’ve only been hit once! Granted, it did almost 50 damage to Susie, but, still, doing better this time!

Even more death later

Did he just, attack himself?

Is he surrendering?

I…I did it! I did it in one sitting! Minus quitting so I could grab healing items that did more than 40 HP!

Oh, he killed him by freeing him…….okay.

Dealmaker, huh? Let’s see what this bad boy is…

+4 defense, +5 magic (even on Kris?), and $+30%…”and…?”

Okay, Ralsei, you get that, Susie get’s Jevilstail, and I get many questions.

Alright, now back to the actual plot!

Oh…Kris has goosebumps, and Susie’s asking if they’re okay…no. I’m saying no.

I love these two so much. Now let’s save the adorable lesbian.

Pancake Batter. Alright, we’re good.

Sorry, Noelle, got distracted.

Mouse wheel!

Tasque manager helped!

Man, this room is big and empty, with an odd exit door and screens on the north wall. Hmmmm…

Toby!

Thank you annoying dog!

Okay, I still love this music. Just wanted to say that. Anyways, PROGRESS!

We’re tea covered now. Except Susie. She’s tea filled.

Oh god, I don’t trust Berdly with Susie.

God, Knight teased.

Duck ride with Fluffy Boy.

Okay, so, puzzle time, methonk.

High Five!

More duck ride!

Ralsei, do you wanna do the kissy?

Oh boy.

Oh jeez.

Oh damn.

Rouxls.

Ralsei, you read my mind.

Oh Jesus it’s the tank from the first game.

Okay, so, we, take houses? Okay.

I can’t believe some people thought this dork was Gaster.

Wow, I beat him in like 3 and a half turns because I blocked him in.

Another God Dammit because SOMEONE didn’t pay attention to what happened to Lancer.

His head is still blue…

Hey, Camera! Peace signs and hugs!

Mostly hugs.

Yay, more Susie and Noelle time!

Oh my god, my heart is breaking.

Okay, I love these adorable girls.

Oh boy, this is, weird.

“Point and hearts come out” or “Eat moss”. The choice of a generation.

Fair point, Susie.

She likes scary things, huh.

Kinky

Have I mentioned how much I love these two? Because I do.

Susie and Noelle are best girls ever, no objections.

Oh good, Berdly, don’t ruin this completely, okay?

I fucking knew it.

Noelle, you’re going to kill him, and that’s okay with me.

Susie, stop squishing him like toothpaste!

Oh boy, I get big “final boss” energy right now…

Werewerewire?!

Okay, so I just stole from Noelle’s room.

Okay, boss time.

Shit, I should’ve healed up.

Okay, so, I died, but, I can fix that!

So, this boss is calling back to how the town’s internet has gone out, a fact I didn’t even learn until watching other content last night when I should have been sleeping, because I forgot to talk to Alphys during the brief chance I had.

Also, now both she and Ralsei have made reference to the real world outside…hmmmm…

So I guess the plot is about Google search being evil…yeah that checks out.

Bitch, did you just funny runny way?

Hmm, I’d say 50/50 odds of him being a drama Queen vs. him trying to trick Susie into caring about him.

Yep, he’s trying to score a kiss. Berdly…get a job.

Alright, let’s save Noelle, and possibly the whole town.

The “Roaring” Knight?

Oh god, the determination…who is this Knight, what is going on, and how involved are we?

Wait wait wait wait wait wait WAIT

When she described the Knight making more darkness, she said they took their blade, and showed an image of a knife. Was…was this…

HOLY SHIT IS KRIS’S NIGHT SELF THE KNIGHT?!?!

Oh. It was a giant robot. Not a statue.

Susie’s dancing!

Oh yeah, he can fly.

Resistance! Yay!

Okay, so, we sentai up in this bitch.

I wonder how the hell this story would go if we didn’t go pacifist then? Because in Chapter 1, all that really changed was how the boss was defeated in the cutscene, and like a couple details later. This is, a lot more than that.

Okay, so, three rounds of HP, punch out for her turns, just keep attacking. Got it.

Two rounds down, one to go!

Yes, eat your own Baseball, bitch!

Oh, suicide attack. Well it was just a robot.

Oh. She still has us.

Oh fuck the robot is Noelle’s mom. Fuck.

Okay, so, Queen is dead.

Oh fuck, don’t take over the world with darkness all of you, please.

The Roaring?

Oh fuck, new legend lore.

Titans, Fountains, enveloping the land in devastation. Oh jeez.

Lost eternally in an endless night…that’s not paradise. That’s hell.

QUEEN IS ALIVE?!?! AND DIDN’T KNOW ANY OF THAT?!?!

Thank you, Susie!

Okay, that’s a good ending for a second chapter, it’s dark fountain time!

Susie, please don’t turn evil.

…

And, we’re in the computer lab!

Wait, Ms. Boom? Does, does Gerson have a daughter, or wife?

Lost control laughing #3: this

I love this game so much. Time to explore town again.

Okay, Alphys does crush on Undyne still, at least.

Oops, I just let all the prisoner dogs out.

Awww, Undyne likes Alphys too!

Napstablook, I love you.

Oh shit, Asgore used to be a pig?

Oh god, this Rudy storyline is gonna be depressing all the way through, huh?

Susie, can we steal the tower of the gods?

Hey, we can actually go back to Ralsei’s dark world?!

Okay, this is gonna be interesting.

Oh thank god, we can save in the epilogue now, cool.

Oh cool, King and Queen together.

Oh my god he calls her Queenie Beanie. I love this.

So, a card and a computer fucked to make Lancer, who is a card. Okay.

Okay, so Lancer DOES know Kris’s name! Just not Ralsei’s!

New battle challenges! Yes!

Might save “Ch. 2 All-stars” for another time, though…

Perfection is the mannequin reaction.

Oh my god there’s a dedicated room for listening to music I love this

Alright, time to skedaddle back to the real world.

Okay, so Alvin is Gerson’s son, and he’s depressed. Fun.

Oh, MK and Snowy are by the creepy bunker. That’s…fun.

Okay, so, Susie scared them off after they insulted Kris, because Kris said something about the bunker…hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Hey, Nice Cream Guy is one of the Ice-E’s employees! Nice!

Ah, PizzaPants. Never change.

Oh hey, it’s the little guy, who’s clone is a Gaster follower. And the bird guy’s still in the library, and the donut guy is still in his car…

Hey, Catty and Bratty are becoming friends again! Cool!

Omg, Sans’s store is open. Do I…go in?

Hell yes I do!

Okay, so, Grillby’s music still, but, different interior. Interesting…

Sans, a day and 2 years in this game are not equivalent. It’s a day and 3 years.

The trousle grows further away.

Oh jeez Susie’s been drinking the milk. Oh god.

Cool, Susie’s seeing Onion too!

Oh, never mind.

A song is coming from deep under the water…either Shyren is involved, or this is gonna take a turn.

See you, Su-

Oh! Hey mom! Meet Susie!

Pie for all!

Oh my god, Susie, my heart is breaking.

Okay, so Alphys and Toriel know about the chalk. That, kinda makes Susie thinking she’d get expelled for it, really depressing.

Okay, so, Toriel and Susie are gonna make Pie together, that’s cool. Still, pretty worried about, Kris.

Uh, I just ran the sink, and, uh…

WHAT THE FUCK

OKAY SO MY SOUL IS UNDER THE SINK, KRIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY IS IT BLACK OUT THE WINDOW WHERE ARE YOU GOING

WHAT THE FUCK

…so we get a cute scene with Susie and Toriel, then Susie asks where Kris is and…they do this sometimes?

I’m very concerned.

Okay, Toriel is concerned too, enough to say “hell”. Even Susie is shocked.

Okay, so, they’re coming back, uh, okay, this isn’t good, right?

Stopped the faucet, opened the drawer, and…we’re back?!

Kris what the fuck are you doing

And why couldn’t we find Asgore in the town?

Okay, so, we’re all sleeping in the living room. I, guess tomorrow’s the weekend, probably? I don’t know?

Susie, doesn’t have caring parents, I guess?

Oh god, Susie wants them to come to our world, but, Lancer is a playing card, he can’t…I don’t know. I’ll say it’s “far-fetched”.

There’s a festival, apparently. This seems…suspicious.

I’d take Ralsei, so you could take Noelle.

She’s asleep.

That, might not be good, in this context.

Okay, so, we’re asleep too, I think?

Oh god, Toriel’s tires are slashed, that can not be good, in any way.

Okay, night time, Toriel and Susie are asleep…now what are you doing, Kris?

That, knife…

Okay, so, yep, they’re the Knight, and they just opened Darkness in their living room. This is, not, good. And, the tv’s on, and the door’s unlocked…

What the fuck is happening?

Ending credits song sounds, techno? Is this more of Don’t Forget? Or a remix? I hear the lyrics at least.

“To be continued in Chapter 3” OH IT BETTER BE, TOBY

So, yeah, that's Deltarune Chapter 2. In conclusion: this explains nothing, raises 120% more questions, and overall is still an incredible, wonderful game. I also like how each Chapter so far has been almost as long as a full play through of Undertale, and yet we're still somehow only 2 sevenths of the way through. Oh yeah, did I not mention? After completing it, it brought me to a chapter select with SEVEN DIFFERENT CHAPTERS, only two of which were available. So, you know. THAT'S FUN!

In actual conclusion, please play this game, it's free, it's amazing, and also buy the soundtrack on Bandcamp so Toby can make some kinda living.

[flightfoot]

Let It Be Enough To Reach The Truth That Lies Ch.1

Thanks to my betas, @miabrown007, @khanofallorcs, and Marby!

AO3

-------

Well, so much for THAT test.

He’d found a Holder for the Ladybug Miraculous quickly. That girl from the bakery would do nicely.

The Black Cat was proving trickier.

Apparently, an old man on the ground, straining to reach his cane wasn’t even worth stopping for, much less helping. Granted, he didn’t see any kids around; it was just random adults. Which was weird since he was right outside Collège Françoise Dupont and he was pretty sure Bakery Girl was running here to her class.

Though, she seemed like she was late… maybe he should’ve waited until lunch period to try the test. Most of the students were probably inside by now.

With a sigh, he got up and trudged off. Hopefully whoever held the Butterfly Miraculous now would wait just a little longer before activating it.

He didn’t notice the small box he had left behind.

------

Adrien sighed as he sank into the car seat. 

Of course Nathalie and Gorilla caught him. His father probably hadn’t even noticed he was gone, but those two? They actually looked after him. They’d notice — especially Gorilla.

Though he had a feeling Gorilla hadn’t been the one to draw attention to him being gone. His job might be to protect Adrien, but well… even he seemed to realize that the lockdown his father had put him under wasn’t so much ‘protecting’ him as ‘stifling’ him.

At least, that was what he thought from Gorilla’s facial expression, body language, and him very conspicuously going to the bathroom for an extended period of time right about when Adrien would need to leave in order to run to school.

Unfortunately, Nathalie wasn’t so lenient.

He played around with the box he’d scooped up as he ran to school. He’d intended to bring it to the lost and found (assuming a student or faculty member lost it, judging by its location), but it looked like he wouldn’t get the chance.

Maybe she’d return it for him?

“Hey, Nathalie, I know you probably won’t let me head back there but… could you at least make sure this gets to the school? I think someone left it behind and I wouldn’t want them to not get it back because of me.”

She was silent for a minute. He didn’t even think she heard him at first.

Finally, she let out a deep breath and stuck her hand back. “Very well. Give it to me.”

She brought it up in front of her where she could see it. 

And choked and spluttered.

“This- how did you- where did you get this?!”

Adrien blinked, surprised. Why would just a small box — albeit a very ornate one — garner such a strong reaction? “I found it on the ground just outside the school.”

She turned halfway around in her seat, her face deadly serious. “Adrien. Do you remember anyone around? Anyone at all?”

“I- I mean, there were some random people, but I don’t-”

“Adrien. This is important. Think.” 

He closed his eyes, concentrating hard.

But-

“Sorry, Nathalie. I don’t remember. I wasn’t paying attention to that.”

She stared at him a moment, searching his face, then nodded. “Very well. They may have left already in any case.”

“They who?”

She ignored him.

“Nathalie? What’s up with that box?”

She pulled out her phone. “Mr. Agreste? I’ve got something you need to see.”

----

She refused to acknowledge him for the rest of the car ride.

He stopped trying after the third attempt. Clearly, he wasn’t going to make any headway like this.

It was like talking to his father; once he made a decision nothing Adrien said or did would sway him.

When they entered the house, Nathalie headed straight for his father’s study. He tried to tag along but-

“Adrien. I must speak to your father privately.”

He frowned. “Is this about the box?”

She just turned around, closing the door behind her.

With a sigh he walked to his room, depositing his school bag on the floor before making a flying leap onto his bed, burying his head in his pillow.

What was Nathalie hiding?

Why was that random box so important?

And why couldn’t he go to school?

He’d always had a very… constrained social circle, limited to Chloé, and occasionally Félix, whenever he happened to visit. It could get lonely sometimes and he really wanted to spend time with more kids his own age, but he’d at least always had them, plus his mother.

A deep ache filled his stomach. She’d only been gone a couple months, but it felt both like no time had passed at all, and like an eternity.

And when she passed away, so it seemed had his father.

He’d ordered a full lockdown, not allowing Adrien to see ANYONE but Nathalie, Gorilla, and himself. Not that that meant much. He seemed to live in his study now.

Adrien had been trying to give his father space.

But… while his father had lost his wife... he’d lost his mother.

And he still needed people. 

He couldn’t stay locked up in this house forever, slowly going insane with only his spiraling thoughts and memories to keep him company.

*rumble*

What was that?

He ran out the front door, expecting to see… he didn’t know.

But definitely not what was actually there.

A giant stone monster?

What the hell?! 

Could this day get any stranger?

The police shot at the monster, which seemed like a pretty ineffectual choice to Adrien. If it was made of stone like it looked, that wouldn’t do much more than annoy him.

It glowed, growing even bigger.

Well.

So much for that.

Rushing back inside, he turned on the TV. 

A surge of excitement ran through him as he listened to the newscaster. 

A supervillain? Here in Paris?

Maybe it wasn’t a good thing. Wasn’t something to hope for. That supervillain was causing a lot of damage, and judging by the police chief’s broken arm, had already hurt people.

But Adrien’d grown up on tales of superheroes and supervillains, of good versus evil, of epic battles and the triumph of the best of human nature.

He may have practiced some superhero moves a few times. His climbing wall was great for perfecting the landings.

Of course, not all superhero tropes were created equal. While he liked the regular human superheroes showing how even ordinary (well, for certain values of ‘ordinary’) people could fight against the most extraordinary foes, he loved seeing people who had superpowers intrinsically fight for what was right as well, his favorite superheroes weren’t even usually called ’superheroes’.

When he was a couple years younger and flicking through TV channels, he’d stumbled across a show in a style he hadn’t seen before, but had grown quite familiar with since.

A pigtailed teen girl struggling against a supervillain, not knowing what to do, thinking all hope was lost and she’d failed-!

Until a rose embedded itself at her feet.

A mysterious dashing stranger dressed in black giving her the words of encouragement that she couldn’t find for herself.

He continued watching, later discovering that the show was named after the titular heroine Sailor Moon. 

Tuxedo Mask — at least, while transformed �� remained his favorite element of the show, the sort of hero he secretly wished he could be.

Though with a cooler transformation sequence. Tuxedo Mask’s was pretty boring. The Sailor Scouts were far more interesting to watch.

He may have made up his own transformation sequence for Tuxedo Mask, practicing it a few times.

A few hundred times.

With what had happened in- in the past few months, he’d stopped watching it.

Stopped daydreaming.

But now it all came rushing back.

He jumped up, about to race out again-

And paused. 

What exactly could he DO here? 

He didn’t have superpowers, and his attempt at karate…

Well. There was a reason he’d dropped the class after a few sessions. 

Right now he wished he’d kept at it. Fencing didn’t seem like it’d be that useful here.

Oh who was he kidding, even KARATE wouldn’t do much. The police had already tried firing at the monster and that only made it stronger.

He’d go and follow it, see what might happen — hey maybe he could still help from the sidelines, and who knew? Maybe a superhero would show up to help! — but somehow he doubted Gorilla would let him.

Look the other way so he could go to school? Sure.

Look the other way so he could follow a dangerous, unknown supervillain? Kiiiiinda went against his entire job.

Though, that didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of jealousy when he saw a girl around his age on TV, following the supervillain on her bike. Absurdly dangerous, most definitely, but he’d change places with her in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, all he could do was watch.

A superhero DID show up a short time later. There wasn’t much info on her — the only recording was from that girl on the bike from before, and she didn’t catch the full fight — but he thought she was pretty cool from what he saw. A bit camera shy, though.

He understood that sort of thing. He’d been pretty anxious whenever the press gathered around when he was younger and less experienced.

Not so much anymore, he was used to it now, even enjoyed it at times, but for someone not used to the attention? It helped having someone there with you for reassurance and guidance.

For him, that had been his mom. 

But this girl didn’t look like she HAD anyone.

Adrien flicked through the news channels, trying to devour any info on her, the supervillain, all of this, that he could.

And then-!

“A new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into stone monsters”

Well.

That wasn’t good.

Ladybug had managed to take down one supervillain by herself (who was apparently a kid named Ivan who didn’t even remember it?) but that many? 

With no backup?

The supervillain had grabbed her during the fight. It’d been part of her plan… but with no backup, she couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and that could easily have gone wrong.

That was a lot of pressure to put anyone under, especially a kid who looked no older than himself.

Maybe staying up until midnight, browsing online forums, speculating about Ladybug, the supervillain, and the rock monster clone army hadn’t been his best plan.

Going to bed early might not have made a difference, though, he was too hyped up.

Still, even exhausted, he was determined to give escaping to school another shot…

...Aaaand was quickly shot down. Turned out Gorilla wasn’t going to let him run out there when people were turning into frozen stone monsters. Who knew?

He contemplated trying to turn his bedsheets into a makeshift rope (he’d seen it in several movies and TV shows, it had to work, right?), but eventually scrapped the idea. He may have been climbing the walls of his room, but he wasn’t THAT desperate. Yet.

The superhero Ladybug returned, but her confidence seemed pretty shaken. She stuttered and fidgeted in front of the camera a lot and seemed to wilt under some particularly harsh statements by the police chief.

Which - seriously dude? She was TRYING!

But even as unsure as she seemed, she persevered. When the giant butterfly head man, Hawkmoth, tried to blame her for causing the damage to the city, she snapped. She was NOT taking that crap.

Adrien may have jumped up and down and cheered a few times during her subsequent speech, grinning like an idiot. She was AWESOME! And that Lucky Charm thing? Inspired! He wished he knew more of how that power worked. Did she make the plan and then summon the object? That would make sense but from her look of confusion after summoning it, that didn’t seem quite right.

Sitting back he sighed. He really, REALLY wished he could be there with her.

A door opened behind him.

He turned his head.

And did a double-take.

His FATHER?! Actually coming to speak to him UNPROMPTED?!

That hadn’t happened since-!

...Actually he couldn’t remember the last time that happened. It only ever seemed to coincide with him wanting something from Adrien or chastising him for something or other.

Oh no.

He- he couldn’t be that mad about him running to school yesterday right?

Or- or maybe this was about the box? There was something unusual about it, maybe he just wanted to know more about it? Or tell him what was so important about it?

Probably not that last one.

A hand rested on his shoulder. 

“Adrien, there’s something I need to show you.”

-----

His father had a secret passage by his mother’s portrait.

WHAT.

Seriously, when had he had THAT installed?! Was that just part of the house and he’d altered it to work via pressing part of the painting?!

...Were there more?

He’d scoured the house when he was younger, searching for the cool secret passages that all mansions seemed to have in the movies he watched and books he read. Only to come to the depressing conclusion that that was NOT, in fact, an intrinsic quality of mansions.

Might have to rethink that now.

He fidgeted as they descended in the secret elevator (he was still not over that) into some large, underground chamber.

...Okay, he REALLY thought he would’ve noticed this place being excavated, it had to have already been here.

Superheroes, supervillains, secret passages, hidden chambers… he was beginning to think he was dreaming. Or maybe trapped in a comic book.

The elevator came to a halt. 

Lights slowly came on as they walked down a long suspended hallway.

At the end? A nature area with grass and bushes, some sort of pod among them, a giant window looming over everything.

Was… was his father part of a secret underground cult?!

Was Adrien supposed to be indoctrinated in as its newest member against his will?

Or was he led here as a human sacrifice?!

Normally he’d calm himself thinking that this was real life and not like, a comic or movie — but considering everything that’d happened in the last twenty-four hours (heck, in the last twenty-four MINUTES), that wasn’t much of a reassurance.

His father turned around as his own steps slowed. “Keep up, my son. I don’t have all day.”

With a shaky breath he willed his feet to move.

It- it probably wasn’t a secret underground death cult.

There’d be more people around, right? Hooded figures in dark cloaks?

Just his father (and maybe Nathalie?) wouldn’t make for much of a cult.

Yeah! So… so there must be a perfectly normal, reasonable explanation for all of this. He didn’t have the slightest idea what that could be, but he was sure it existed!

They came to a stop in front of the pod.

...it looked entirely too much like a coffin.

He’s not using me as a human sacrifice, he’s not using me as a human sacrifice, HE’S NOT USING ME AS A HUMAN SACRIFICE-

“When I- when I told you that your mother passed away… I may not have been entirely truthful.”

Wh-what?!

But that meant-!

“She’s alive?!”

His father simply moved forwards and pressed a button on the pod.

The cover opened.

Adrien forgot how to breathe.

He hadn’t seen her for two months.

Hadn’t expected to see her ever again outside of portraits, photos, and films.

And yet, here she was.

But she wasn’t moving. No medical equipment was attached to her either.

He tore his gaze away from her. He needed to know. To read his father’s expression and know he wasn’t lying. “She’s ALIVE, right?!”

Father gave a slow nod. “She’s in a magical coma… but she isn’t dead.”

...Magical?

“How…?”

Father stared forwards, lost in thought.

A moment later he sighed. “She used a magical artifact she shouldn’t have, did something she should not have done… and paid the price for it.”

Turning around, his father turned his attention back to Adrien. “You gave me half of the cure. With your help we can acquire the other half and save her.”

Gave him half?

The box!

“Was that why Nathalie was so insistent on taking that box? What was it?”

“It contained a powerful magical artifact known as a ‘Miraculous’.”

Adrien frowned. He’d heard that term before. “That’s the thing the evil butterfly man wants, right?”

Father scowled. “She should’ve just handed it over. That pesky little girl doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Something about that — his tone, his body language, his words — caused Adrien to take a step back.

“Father?” he asked cautiously. “What do you mean? How would that help you? What does Hawkmoth wanting Ladybug’s Miraculous have to do with anything?”

Adrien had a bad feeling about this.

In answer, his father took off his candy cane-striped tie, revealing the purple jewel underneath.

“Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise!”

A purple light flashed over him.

Leaving a man in a silver helmet and purple coat, a butterfly shaped jewel on his chest.

WHAT?!

Wildly, Adrien’s mind cast back through the extraordinary things he’d seen in the last few minutes, the secret passages, the underground chamber, his mom in a coma; all kept secret from the world.

All being recast in light of this new information.

They weren’t signs his father was part of a cult.

The secret passage, the underground chamber — both part of a secret evil lair.

And his mother being in a coma?

The hero refusing to give up an item that could cure her?

He’d seen this sort of thing before.

Sometimes the villain wanted an item, wanted something from the hero for a good cause.

But there was often a good reason the hero would fight tooth and nail to prevent them from acquiring it.

“Ladybug’s Miraculous, when combined with the Black Cat Miraculous, will allow me to save her.”

That was frustratingly vague.

“How? What do you need to do? What are the risks, the consequences?”

His father looked down on him. “I thought you missed her. That you wanted her back. What a poor excuse for a son you are.”

“No! Of course I-!”

“Do you wish for her to remain like this forever?”

“No I just-!”

“That Miraculous is the only thing standing in the way of reviving her. We MUST retrieve it.”

“We…?”

His father took a small box out of his coat.

A very familiar box.

Being held right in front of him.

“Open it.”

It wasn’t a request.

Gingerly he opened the lid.

A small black ring with a green glowing pawprint sat in the middle.

“Put it on.”

Swallowing hard, he did as his father commanded.

A light shot out.

“Wah-!”

It dimmed, revealing a small black catlike creature.

Who shook himself, looked around-

And locked eyes with his father.

“LET ME GO THIS INSTANT, YOU TERRIBLE EXCUSE FOR-!”

“I forbid you from speaking.”

The creature's mouth vanished.

“MMMMM! MMmm- MMMM!”

“Ah… much better.”

Adrien just stared, slack-jawed.

“Father, what did you just- what did you just DO?!”

“I shut up an annoying pest. If he insists on misbehaving and acting out, he no longer gets the privilege of having the ability to do so.”

WHAT.

Adrien opened his mouth to protest… and then shut it.

If he spoke up, ‘acted out’... would his father do the same thing?

He didn’t think his mouth could be sealed off.

But he wasn’t certain of it.

And there were plenty of other things he could do to him.

Suddenly, he was VERY acutely aware of how much bigger, how much taller his father was than him.

How much stronger.

Would Father ever hurt him?

Before today he’d have said ‘no, of course not’. 

Now he wasn’t so sure. He certainly paid no mind to hurting others.

The small cat creature gave his father a death glare, making gestures he guessed would be extremely rude if his forearms had actual fingers to gesticulate with.

“That,” his father pointed at the cat, “is a Kwami. They give the owners of their Miraculous powers. Simply say ‘Plagg, transform me’ and he will be sucked into the ring, much like what happened with my own kwami earlier. Each grants special powers unique to their Miraculous on top of the standard super strength, endurance, and agility. The Black Cat Miraculous gives the power of destruction; simply say ‘Cataclysm’ and you’ll be able to destroy anything you touch. But since you are a child, you will detransform five minutes later, same as that accursed Ladybug.”

He could transform?

Gain superpowers like Ladybug?

Become a superhero?!

He glanced at Plagg.

The kwami’d gone still, simply looking at him with lidded, narrow eyes, mouth still missing.

No. Not a superhero. Not while under Father’s control.

A superVILLAIN.

He swallowed hard.

He wanted to have superpowers, to run around the city, to fight and be free.

But if he had to be a supervillain, he’d rather not have powers at all.

Hesitantly he grasped the ring, slowly pulling it off.

Too late, his father spoke up. “I wouldn’t do-”

The ring was off his finger.

Plagg dropped like a rock.

“WHA-!”

Dropping to his hands and knees he cupped his hands around the violently twisting tiny creature.

His eyes bugged out as he spasmed wildly, flailing uncontrollably.

If he’d had a mouth, Adrien was sure he’d be screaming.

“What’s wrong with him?!” 

“You activated my failsafe,” Father replied. “I wouldn’t want you just leaving the ring lying around. Best you keep it on at all times, unless I allow you to remove it.”

His father did this? INTENTIONALLY?!

Ok, ok, don’t panic! Prioritize. The failsafe activated because he took the ring off, it was meant to incentivize him keeping it on at all times, so…

Fumbling around, he put the ring back on one of his shaking fingers.

Instantly, Plagg relaxed, sinking into his palm, eyes half-closed.

This… this little creature was at his father’s mercy.

And it didn’t seem like Father had much of that.

“F-father?” he said, looking up at him. 

Quickly, he dropped his eyes. Best not to seem like a threat, like he was challenging him.

Maybe Father would assert his dominance by taking it out on him.

Or maybe he'd just take it out on Plagg.

“Please. Please, could you return Plagg’s mouth to him?”

“Hmmph. Perhaps later, provided that he’s well-behaved. Keep him under control or else I’ll do so myself. Right now, I have a task for you.”

That normally would not sound ominous.

Normally, his father would not say that after revealing he was a supervillain and torturing someone.

“Yes, Father.”

His father smiled.

Adrien’s spine stiffened.

“Transform. Let me see what you can do.”

----

Left. Right. Dodge. Jump.

OOPH

He wasn’t used to being caned in the stomach.

It didn’t hurt much — the Miraculous was pretty protective as it turned out — but it was still a pretty harsh impact.

While he was off-balance Father hit him again, sending him flying into a wall.

And again.

And again.

Each time before he could even begin to recover.

Father walked over to him as he lay on the ground, struggling to get up.

Adrien braced himself for another hit.

“I expect better from you. As an Agreste, and as my son.”

He turned his back to him. “We will spar every day until you can put up even a paltry fight. I cannot have you putting up such an embarrassing performance.”

Every day?

This was going to be EVERY DAY?!

He understood training. Understood the need to practice to get better. But training was supposed to include guidance, helpful tricks, being shown a few moves. Not just being beaten by a stronger, more experienced opponent.

He grit his teeth. “Yes, Father.”

“You need to be stronger if you are to take Ladybug’s Miraculous. If we are to heal your mother.”

Mom…

He looked over at her, still peacefully sleeping, entirely unaware of everything that had happened.

If she knew, would she be okay with this?

An hour ago, he would’ve choked at the thought and yelled ‘Of course not!’ 

He knew his parents after all.

But finding out how little he truly knew his father made him doubt.

His father glanced at him. “You may leave for now. Tomorrow, you go out in the field. Do NOT disappoint.”

As he made his way to the elevator, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. “Not while transformed. Say ‘detransform’ to release it.”

“Detransform!”

Plagg spiraled out of the ring.

His mouth was still gone, but he seemed in better shape than he was right after being tortured, at least.

Oh god, Adrien didn’t want to risk accidentally upsetting his father but-

“I- I think Plagg’s learned his lesson. Please Father?”

He rested his gaze on Adrien for a moment. Then-

“Very well. But if there’s one peep out of him...”

“Thank you, Father.”

He snapped his fingers.

Plagg’s mouth came back. He opened and closed it many times as if testing that it’d truly returned.

“Y-”

NOPE.

Quickly snatching Plagg out of the air, Adrien ran for the elevator.

------

If he ever got his paws on that candy-cane son of a bitch…!

Plagg floated wildly around the room. 

Well. For certain values of ‘around’. That complete and utter BASTARD had decided that in addition to preventing Plagg from harming him, from interacting with anything or anyone else except for eating food, and forcing him to hide whenever others were around, he was ALSO on a leash.

Five feet.

He couldn’t wander more than five feet away from his Miraculous.

And since that- that torture spell would take effect the minute his ring slipped off of his Holder’s finger, that meant he was, in effect, tied to staying within five feet of Adrien.

Adrien…

He didn’t really know what to make of the boy just yet.

His father? Very clear opinion on him.

But his son didn’t exactly seem thrilled with Candy-butt’s actions.

Just his luck. OF COURSE the ‘dark power’ Wayzz had sensed had stumbled on his Miraculous. Naturally. 

He may have been the Kwami of Destruction, but sometimes it felt like he was the Kwami of Bad Luck instead.

Not that assholes getting their hands on him was entirely new, but well, usually they weren’t quite as well-versed in putting up safeguards to stop him from stealing his Miraculous back, or in extreme cases, Cataclysming their asses.

He hadn’t even been activated when the curses were applied. Which hey, on the upside, meant he didn’t have to feel them taking effect! ...On the downside, it meant he didn’t know exactly what the curses were or how many of them there were. Some of them he’d been told about, others he’d figured out for himself, but… there could still be others. He hadn’t known about the “torture if ring is removed” curse until Adrien actually did it.

Not that that would STOP him from looking for loopholes, but well… not right now. He’d been through quite enough pain already without risking stumbling across a curse that would activate the torture again.

He shuddered.

Kwamis by themselves rarely got hurt. But when a Holder transformed, fusing the two of them  together, he’d feel the same pain as the Holder.

The only time he’d felt pain that bad, his Holder had had the brilliant idea to extend his staff upwards a few thousand feet into a stormcloud, just to see what would happen.

They’d both been okay afterwards, but being electrocuted hurt.

“So, uh… is there anything you want to do? Or talk about? Or- or not do, whatever you feel like!”

Plagg blinked.

Adrien looked around awkwardly. “I know this isn’t exactly ideal and it sucks and I’m so, so sorry, but is there anything I can do to help?”

“...Camembert.”

“What?”

“Camembert cheese. The stinkier, the better.”

The kid made a face, but nodded. 

 ------

Thirty minutes and a trip down to the kitchen later, Plagg was completely surrounded with the delectable aroma of smelly, smelly cheese.

Adrien looked about ready to gag, but gave an attempt at a smile whenever he looked over at him.

A small part of Plagg got some satisfaction out of the kid’s discomfort. At least, he wasn’t the only one suffering because of the five-foot leash.

“Do you want to watch anything?” 

Plagg stifled a laugh. Kid’s nose was still wrinkled up from the cheese’s fumes and his eyes watered slightly, but he was making a valiant effort to pretend he was fine.

As far as TV went… well. He hadn’t left the Miracle Box much and Fu’s taste in shows was pretty dull, so-”

“Whatever you feel like. Unless it has to do with cheese, I don’t care. ...IS there a cheese TV show?”

“...I’ll check the guide.”

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 9/15/21

SEAN: Gonna start reversing the list more often as, no offense to Seven Seas, I am tired of Airship getting the first image every week.

So we start with Yen On, who have a plethora of “delayed from August… and July” debuts for us! Four of them, in fact.

Bond and Book (Musubu to Hon) is a new series from the author of the Book Girl light novels, which I greatly enjoyed when they came out ages ago. Sadly, they came out before the LN boom, so sold poorly – I hope this does better. It seems to be a linked story series, as the books overall involve a young man who can “hear the voices of books”, and each book has him dealing with a specific problem. The first is called The Devotion of “The Surgery Room” (a short story by Japanese author Kyōka Izumi).

ASH: This sounds right up my alley. I, too, enjoyed what I read of Book Girl and I like book-ish type stories.

SEAN: Second we have If the RPG World Had Social Media… (Moshi Role Playing Game no Sekai ni SNS ga Attara), a series which I’m going to take a wild guess is a comedy. Would you challenge the demon lord via text?

Third we have Magistellus Bad Trip. A Certain Magical Index may be dead in North America, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a new series by the same author. A VR city with gambling and high stakes is about to be taken by a young man and his succubus partner.

Lastly, we get a spinoff from The Irregular at Magic High School, the appropriately named The The Irregular at Magic High School. Seems to be more of a continuation than a legit spinoff – they’re even keeping the numbering, as this is Vol. 17. But it has to be a new series, I’m sure.

ASH: Huh! That’s an interesting way of doing it.

SEAN: Viz Media debuts Mao, the new Rumiko Takahashi series. This runs in Weekly Shonen Sunday, and is definitely a step back towards serious supernatural/horror themed stories.

MICHELLE: Kinda curious about this one.

ASH: Same!

MELINDA: And me!

SEAN: Also from Viz: a double shot of Kenjiro Hata, as we get Fly Me to the Moon 7 and Hayate the Combat Butler 38. Other than that, it’s tie-ins galore, as we see Kirby Manga Mania 2, Pokemon: Sun & Moon 11, Splatoon 13, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9, and YO-KAI WATCH 18.

Tokyopop has A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation 4.

SuBLime debuts Black or White (Kuro ka Shiro ka), which runs in Kadokawa’s Emerald. Two actors who are typecast in roles they’d rather not be doing are secretly lovers.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

MELINDA: That does sound interesting, actually.

SEAN: Also from SuBLime, we have Jealousy 4 and Given 6.

MICHELLE: I am so behind on Given already.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, too, despite enjoying the series!

SEAN: Square Enix has the 4th volume of A Man and His Cat.

MICHELLE: Yay!

MELINDA: Another yay!

SEAN: Another small week from Seven Seas. They have The Ideal Sponger Life 9, Plus-Sized Elf 7, and Reincarnated As a Sword 7.

One Peace debuts Multi-Mind Mayhem (Isekai Tensei Soudouki), based on the as yet unlicensed light novel. This story of a man with three different souls in his body – his own, a Japanese samurai, and a Japanese otaku – comes from Alpha Polis.

ASH: I am possibly intrigued.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has Orient 4 and A School Frozen in Time 3.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed the first volume of A School Frozen in Time.

ASH: I still need to read it, but I do have a copy!

SEAN: Digitally, as always, much more. Two debuts. Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! (Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita) is a BL title from Ichijinsha’s Gateau, about a guy who tries to destress after days dealing with his evil boss by talking with a gaming friend online. then they meet up in real life and… yeah, you guessed it.

The other debuts is also BL and also from Ichijinsha’s Gateau. We’re On Our Own From Here (Konosaki wa Futarikiride) is a high school romance between two boys, spurred on by a girl seemingly confessing to one.

MICHELLE: This looks really cute!

MELINDA: I’m a sucker for this type of story.

SEAN: There’s also Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 7, Ace of the Diamond 34, Giant Killing 26, Police in a Pod 4, The Springtime of My Life Began with You 4, Tokyo Revengers 22, We Must Never Fall in Love 8, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 2.

MICHELLE: Lots of stuff here that I’m interested in! Mostly the sports, not gonna lie.

ASH: I’ll admit to being fond of sports manga, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness (Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu), a title from the author of Sexiled and A Lily Blooms in Another World, so again, I would not worry about daddy-daughter issues here. This looks super cute, and is about what you’d expect: a dragon adopting and raising a human child.

ASH: Another book to add to the list to check out!

Also on the light novel tip from J-Novel Club: The Apothecary Diaries 3, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower 3, Perry Rhodan NEO 3, The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister! 2, and A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 6.

Lastly we have Airship. In print, they’ve got How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 12 and Muscles Are Better Than Magic! 3.

Two early digital debuts. The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan (Saikyou no Shien-shoku “Wajutsushi” Dearu ore wa Sekai Saikyou Kuran o Shitagaeru). Sigh. Weak. But really strong. Betrayed. Evil? Probably, but he’s our hero. Moving on.

Planet of the Orcs is from Kodansha’s Legend Novels line, and therefore I expect it to be pretentious as hell, even though when I look at the premise all I can do is sing “ORCS WITH GUNS!” to the tune of Duran Duran’s Girls on Film.

That’s a big chunk of stuff… but is it for you?

By: Sean Gaffney

[themasterisathirsttrap]

Putting Out Fire (With Gasoline) Ch. 1

Missy x reader x eventual Silver!Simm x reader Set during series 10

Mostly 10x11 and 10x12

((No warnings for this chapter))

Part 1/ Chapter 1 of ???

((Title from the David Bowie Song- Cat People (Putting Out Fire) ))

From the first wry and sweetly uttered words proclaiming false innocence when you first tumbled upon her hidden prison, Missy, without a doubt become one of the most interesting people you had ever met.

With the exception of the Doctor, that was. But even then, you couldn’t quite explain the silent, powerful magnetism that drew you to her in a way that had you returning to visit her regularly enough that it had become something of a routine.

Even more surprisingly, she seemed to tolerate your presence in a manner that had you both wary and secretly giddy.

Nice certainly wasn’t the right word for how she treated you, but she certainly played nice by comparison when you saw the ways she spoke with others and contrasted it to the cautiously curious conversations the two of you had.

Missy was an enigma.

A funny, terrifying, and beautiful enigma wrapped into the form of Mary Poppin’s evil alternate ego.

But damn was she fun.

And she might have noticed the ways your lips quirked upward into a smile at her jokes and passive jabs at the Doctor, or the way your gazes met when your eyes glimmered with curiosity at the rare story she’d share of her past.

“My whole life doesn’t revolve around you, Doctor.”

You remember her chiming in annoyance at the Doctor.

And the more you listened, the more convinced you were that what she said was true.

Not that you’d trust her not to lie.

No, you figured that even if the stories were all lies, she was at the very least the kind of storyteller that had you mindlessly grinning at her theatrical retellings, resting your head on your hands as you leaned forward in your seat.

You couldn’t be sure that she liked you, given her open and frequently voiced distaste for humanity.

But at the very least, she didn’t seem want to kill you.

Regardless, she seemed to enjoy having an audience, and company not constantly berating her.

It came as a surprise when she even humored you about stories related to her past, you listened with genuine curiosity, watching as she’d place her hands on her hips and pace about her glass stage as if delivering a dramatic monologue to her audience of one.

The first time she opted to share, you approached it in a more back-and-forth, conversational manner, but the icy glare she shot you had your question dying in your throat. Moments like that reminded you of exactly who she was and what she was capable of.

You were quick to not repeat the mistake in front of the same woman who spoke of human deaths like swatting flies. She seemed pleased about that, and often shifted to this monologue-esque style of interaction when telling a story. Not that you minded, she had you engaged at  every lilt of her Scottish intonations and occasional break for dramatic pause.

Somewhere along the line, her voice became oddly soothing to you. Despite the frequent awful things she said and flippantly colorful descriptions of even seemingly ordinary things.

You your embarrassment, you even caught yourself watching with a tilted head and soft dopey smile on your face. Her amused short laugh and the feeling of her gaze suddenly on you had your face flushing red with embarrassment under her scrutinization.

“Enjoying yourself, are you? Or did your little human brain scurry off to a daydream in the middle of my story?” Missy teased, her hands on her hips with a click of her tongue.

You were quick to shake your head, the thought of even being anywhere but present in her company sounding ridiculous in your head. You weren’t sure if you had felt that way around anyone before, to your silent dismay, but pushing those thoughts to the back of your head.

“Just listening,” you shot back dismissively, “You’re a good storyteller.”

You admitted honestly, shrugging to downplay the sentiment, but your eyes flashing to hers with a somewhat guilty smile.

Her eyes scanned over you for a moment in that way that made you feel both terrifyingly exposed and oddly thrilled.

“Hm. Well, don’t get too dreamy-eyed on me, pet.” She said, her body language easing as she seemed to accept your explanation. You kept your expression unchanged at her added endearment.

“Makes me feel like you’re not listening,” she added with an exaggeratedly sad expression, miming an invisible tear trailing down her cheek. Then she half-swung around, her skirts fanning with a flourish before taking a seat at the piano bench.

“Usually when people are properly listening to me, there’s a bit more fear than dopey grins,” her tone was sickly sweet as she paused to idly examine her nails, “Perhaps I’ve been too soft. I’ll have to let you in on some more grizzly details of my….intergalactic exploits.” She added in a thoughtful voice and a dramatic sigh.

You fought the urge to roll your eyes at the act, but shook your head instead, looking to her with a challenging look, but otherwise not moving from your position.

“Or maybe it’s just not you. I don’t mind a little scary.”

Her act dropped and she looked to you suddenly with a sharp but quietly curious look. You took the bait and continued.

“I mean—it probably takes takes a questionably sane human to come down here nearly daily and spend time with someone who could easily kill them if the mood struck, wouldn’t it?

“Well, you’re certainly either daft or insane. Haven’t quite decided which.”

“All I’m saying—is that maybe it’s not that you aren’t terrifying, but more that you stumbled upon someone just dumb or crazy enough to enjoy your sociopathic ramblings.”

You felt bold saying it, briefly fearing that you overstepped and let your tongue-and-cheek side out a little strong.

But, to your surprise, she suddenly threw her head back into a fit of laughter. The sound was infectious and you couldn’t help but let your own lips quirk back upward. She took her time regaining her composure, wiping away what might have been an actual stray tear of laugher.

“Oh. Well, At least you seem to possess some semblance of self-awareness lacking in most of your species.”

“Coming from you, I’ll take that as a complement,” you replied with an edge of wry amusement showing through.

“Don’t flatter yourself too much, pet. Just an observation.”

There it was again. You said nothing, but looked down and avoided her gaze as you felt her analyzing you.

You glanced at your phone and swore quietly at the time. You had spent far too long there.

Again.

You climbed to your feet, stretching the muscles the you hadn’t realized you had been tensing, and gathering your belongings.

“It’s late—I should get going,” you said, trying to dispel whatever effect she was having on you in your sudden urge to stay.

She turned away from you and hummed with a guarded indifference that you had come to recognize, but you hadn’t quite learned how to decipher.

The silence fell between the two of you until the sound of a shrill note on the piano jarred you enough to look up from your gathering of papers and notebooks. She didn’t look your way, but you caught the silhouette of her smile at your surprised jump. She comfortably fell into a melody that sounded vaguely familiar, but you didn’t know enough about classical music to bother a guess.

You thought she might continue to play without as much as a goodbye, as she often did in her attempt to make it clear that she didn’t enjoy your little visits as much as you did.

But maybe you were flattering yourself.

You needed to be a realist. Especially with her.

And especially with how uneasy your own muddled non-existent feelings where towards her.

You yawned, shaking the thoughts away as you realized just how tired and fatigued your muscles were from the long day of classes, staying up too late with Bill and the Doctor, and slipping away to sneak in some time with her behind their backs.

To your surprise ,as you turned to leave, she chimed out.

“Now, don’t be be roped into some silly adventure do-gooder adventure with the Doctor tomorrow.”

You looked back at her in surprise.

“You’re particularly boring when you’re tired. I can’t have you too tired to listen attentively next time,” the shift in her voice took you off guard. Back to her guarded, colder tone, but with a playful edge.

“I don’t like other people playing with my toys.”

She shot you a wink and you quickly turned away to leave while giving a short nod. Your face flushed at the gesture.

No.

You weren’t developing feelings for her.

You couldn’t.

That would be ridiculous, and incredibly stupid.

But the memory of the uneasy fluttering in your stomach when she smiled at you tugged at your subconscious, and had to admit you had never really enjoyed hearing the sound of your own name as much as you did falling from her lips.

Oh Shit.

You had feelings for her.

---

If she hadn’t yet noticed how you felt towards her, you particularly weren’t eager to let it slip out. Sure, you heard an earful of the Doctor’s warnings and the exasperation in his tone every time he found you with her. And as he reminded you that she was very, very dangerous, harbored a strong dislike of humans, and could be very manipulative when she wanted to be.

Part of you hoped that you didn’t fall into that category. But the self-preservation instinct in you reminded you that you might.

The thought that maybe she was using you to get to the Doctor sent an ache through your chest. You didn’t want to be blindsided—to be naïve enough that you were sure you’d be the exception to her distaste for humanity. You needed to be practical—despite the complete impracticality of dropping plans with classmates and friends to visit with the Time Lady. You weren’t an exceptionally emotion-driven type. But then again, you weren’t usually the crush type either.

So, you played it subtle. Or at least tried to. Your visits remained fairly regular, and she didn’t appear especially eager to scare you off, and maintained her expected level of pointed jabs, occasionally cruel, but often very funny commentary, and occasional insults that lacked the sentiment behind it to get to you.

Slowly, your visits evolved from story monologues, to listening to her play the piano, discussing books, even turning an old projector into a screen to show TV shows and films either you or her hadn’t seen.

And even her asking you the occasional question about yourself. It wasn’t until feeling quiet attentiveness in her gaze while waiting for your reply that you realized she was serious.

Despite his constant reminders not to fall for her tricks, you had absolutely developed a soft spot for the Time Lady. She had a biting wit, a wicked sense of humor, and tales that kept you on the edge of your seat. Sure, you weren’t entirely sure if they were all true. (Yet, you had a feeling most of them were, given what you knew about your other Time Lord friend).

Needless to say, you were smitten. You tried not to be obvious about it, though she was incredibly smart, so you didn’t doubt she must have picked up on it partly at the very least.

She seemed to at least like the company and audience enough to not try to trick you into your death. Which for her, seemed like at least a good start.

Much to her dismay and your delight, you could tell she was starting to openly enjoy you returning for visits so often. The way her eyes lit up and her lips curled into a smile instantly when you stepped across the threshold of the vault had you easily mirroring her expression.

By now, you were no longer phased as she swung open the glass of her “cell” and stepped out with a flourish. You responded by lifting your gifts of cheap wine into her line of sight.

You could have almost sworn she almost snorted a laugh as her head falling back in a fit of amusement. Your face warmed at seeming to get a genuine laugh out of her and you offered a cheeky grin in return as she shook her head in mock-exasperation and stepped toward to your usual comfy chair setup with a small table.

You tossed your rucksack down and set down the several containers of boxed wine. You knew Missy would complain about it the whole time, but drink it all anyway.

“Terrible. I don’t even know why I bother giving you recommendations,” she said, falling back onto the old cushioned loveseat.

“Because your last recommendation was the blood of a fresh virgin sacrifice.” Missy seemed to once more get a kick out of her own joke and crinkled her nose with a teasing smile. “—and when you finally did give an actual wine recommendation, every bottle you mentioned was at least a few hundred pounds out of my price range.”

Missy kicked her feet up onto the table with a light scoff, waving her hand in dismissal with a slight shake of her head. “You don’t put a price tag on good taste.” You shook your head, still half-smiling as you pulled out a couple of clear plastic cups that had her rolling her eyes again and shooting another look of disapproval that had you grinning again.

“You do on my budget.” That earned a small huff of a laugh from Missy as she tutted in mock-disappointment at the spread.

“Besides, I don’t think bringing you breakable, sharp glass would be very advisable, given the wines I’ve brought you the past few visits.” Missy chuckled at that. “Now that’s true. But alas, I’ll overlook that this once, just to show I can be a both fair and firm overlord.” she shot a wink at you, reaching for her pseudo-glass. You did roll your eyes at that. “How very gracious,” you deadpanned without missing a beat.

“You’ll have to open that atrocious thing,” Missy nodded towards the wine. You shot her a skeptical look, but leaned over and reached for it anyway. “Being an intergalactic genius, I assumed you would know how to open boxed wine by now.” Her lips twitched upward at the backhanded compliment. “Wine wasn’t made for boxes, dear. It’s unnatural and one of humanity’s greatest atrocities,” She kicked her legs over the other side of the loveseat, reclining with a bored expression. “—and why would I ever want to know such things when others do it for you. It’s bad enough that I’m reduced to slumming it with a plebe like you.”

That did strike a bit of a nerve, but you held it back and played along anyway as if it hadn’t.

“If it’s so much below you, then I’ll take myself and my plebian wine back to my flat to slum it alone in peace then,” your tone was light, but you couldn’t help but frown as you abruptly stood, reaching for your bag and the boxes.

Your head snapped up at her sudden grip on your arm. You blinked at the silent speed with which she had risen from the chair and now stood beside you. The glint in her eyes offered a stark reminder of exactly who she was.

“Don’t you dare,” her voice dropped to a low threat that almost sent a shiver down your spine, but instead you offered her a quietly challenging look, meeting the icy heat of her gaze with quiet defiance that said then play nice.

You released your grip on the box and her grasp loosened.  You tossed your bag back towards your chair with a sigh. “Fine.”

Then at least don’t act like you’d rather me leave.

The thought remained unsaid, but you hadn’t anticipated the heavy silence that fell between the two of you then. But you had grown painfully aware of her sudden closeness to you. Something akin to regret seemed to shift in her gaze. Your breath nearly caught as she raised a hand and let her fingers softly graze your jaw before, in a rare moment of hesitation on her part, she let her hand fall back to her side.

You knew that despite her half-hearted attempts to insult and belittle you, you saw exactly what she was actually trying to do.

She enjoyed your visiting time every bit as much as you did. Despite her efforts to get under your skin. You occasionally caught the slight look of pride hidden in her gaze when you stood your ground and didn’t flinch at the things she’d say just to elicit a reaction.

After a long pause, she looked back up to you and made a faux cat claw gesture with her hand. “Rrrraaaoooww,” 

you couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous sound and pantomime. Which, you were quite sure was the idea, as the added coldness dissipated once more. She plopped back onto her sofa with a huff. “Now that we can put the claws back, pour me a glass before I change my mind.” You shook your head softly, crouching down and opening the spout on the box before pausing and reaching back for your rucksack. “Right away, your highness,” you added dryly.

From your bag, you pulled out a small bottle with the dim glinting reflection of foil at the top. Out of the corner of your eye, you caught Missy’s brows raise, but said nothing as you unwrapped the foil and set the small corked bottle on the table.

“Alright, now this is bordering on overkill—what’s the occasion? I see you’ve brought the top shelf gutter wine for me, and you even bothered to bring those bloody red cups that make it feel like an American frat house in here. So, tell me. What’s gotten you so worked up?”

You turned back to her with barely concealed grin,

You hesitated. You shouldn’t be surprised she knew you well by now.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” you said and paused, hesitantly meeting her pressing gaze. Missy smirked at that. “And it’s not my surprise to give away.”

Missy leaned forward, with a teasing smile. “Ohhh, so the Doctor! Come on, tell me. Don’t worry, I’ll act surprised.” Her finger bopped softly on your nose before giving a dramatic look of surprise. “See? It’ll be a little secret for just us girls.”

You had expected it would end up like this, and you had a very strong suspicion that the Doctor had expected you to tell her before he did. Maybe to get her warmed up to the idea.

“Well….yes, the Doctor spoke with me earlier today, ” you paused, furrowing your brow as a pang of guilt shot through you at the possibility that the Doctor hadn’t planned on you telling her. However, the weight of Missy’s pressing gaze left little room to back out of what you had started, so you spat it out.

“He was open to letting you out for an adventure in the TARDIS…..to see how you’d do. Responding to a distress call, or something.” “—he wants me to play him?”

You hesitantly look up at her, truly unsure how she would react.

You knew their history was complicated to say the least. But as far as specifics went, they were few and far between. Not knowing much about their history to begin with made it difficult for you to predict the reaction of an already unpredictable woman.

But her face lit up as a sly grin fell across her lips, her head falling back as she erupted into a thunderous laugh. After a long moment, she regained her composure to lean forward in her seat, propping her chin up on her hand.

“He wants to give me a go at playing him? Hilarious. A bit like playing Doctor Who style probation, is it?” “Ah….a bit? I suppose.” To your relief she laughed at that, the tenseness in your shoulders easing as she visibly relaxed and her face light up, gears visibly turning in her head at the possibilities.

“Yes. Playing goody-good Doctor shouldn’t be too hard,” she turned back to you, leaning forward again in her seat, as if sharing something in confidence. “Besides, I’d love to show him just how easy it is to do his job, just to rub it in his face for a laugh,” she added with another pondering expression, more thinking out loud than to you. Her eyes snapped back to yours after a moment, sparkling with mischief as she stood and slowly paced past you.

“S’ppose either way that’s better than 70 more years in the vault…” You nodded, looking over the back of your chair and smiling softly as she seemed to come to life at the notion of seeing something other than this same room. She turned and walked back towards you, hands resting proudly on her hips as she swayed with each step. “—And am I to assume he’ll be supervising this little excursion?” slowed to a stop behind your chair. “That was one of his conditions.” “Supporting expendables and all?” “Ah. I…you mean Nardole and Bill? “—and you.” You blinked in surprise, mildly offended. “I can come if you like…. calling me an expendable isn’t exactly an assuring start.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, of course you’re coming.”

You nearly jumped at the feeling of her hands suddenly at your shoulders as she stood behind your chair. Her face dropped to hover over your shoulder, close enough to feel her breath against your cheek. You froze, but didn’t move away from her touch.

“Besides. The Doctor gets his companions, I should be allowed mine.”

Did she just…?

“So, don’t be so tense, pet,” her hands slid down the outside of your arms to rest on either side of you. Her lips moved closer to your ear as her voice lowered. “Stick close, and don’t wander off, and you shouldn’t have too much to worry about,” She finished with a quick peck to the side of your cheek and straightened back up to full height. “Now, the bubbly,” she said, extending her hand expectantly. If was anyone else, you might have asked for a please before even moving, but somehow, knowing full well that she wouldn’t even if you had, you found the light order strangely endearing coming from her.

You reached forward and grabbed the mini-champagne, passing it and a glass to her. She gave you a sly wink and draped herself sideways over the arm of your chair as she readied the bottle as you held the glasses. The cork shot-out from the mini-champagne with a pop! And you made a noise of complaint, but couldn’t help but laugh as the booze quickly fizzed over and splashed onto you. You held the glass as she poured until it was overflowing, causing more to slosh onto you from the too-full cup.

“Hey—rude,” you grumbled as she purposefully poured even more into the glass and nudged you so its contents splashed onto your shirt and by now had the jeans on your leg nearly soaked.

“That’s what you get for being clumsy,” she clicked her tongue in a mock-patronizing tone. You reached to try to grab the bottle when she moved it away and held a finger up. “Ah-ah, this is my gift, remember. I didn’t have to share.” “But you didn’t share!—you could have had two glasses from that,” you offered indignantly. “And yet, here you are, making a mess in my vault, covered in what would have been second glass. So, in a way, I did share didn’t I? See, I’m becoming more giving already.”

You shot her an unamused look that had her smiling slyly at you once more. You made a small sound of annoyance, but otherwise didn’t bother questioning her logic at this point, and poured yourself some of your boxed wine. She raised a glass and stuck a pose pausing for dramatic effect. “A toast,” she began, stopping to take a cheat sip of her own overflowing glass. You found a smile forming on your lips as you raised your own glass.

“To what exactly?” “To freedom, bitches.” “—well, sort of,” you added quickly with a near snort of a laugh, ignoring the exasperated look she sent you.

You didn’t want her get any wrong ideas about the Doctor’s intentions, but held up your glass anyway. “Ugh…fine. Then to sort of freedom, bitches!” She revised with as much enthusiasm as you clinked the plastic cups together.

“I’ll drink to that.”

-----

Note: I will be jumping back and forth between this and another fic, so keep your eye out for that!

storytag list:

@c-s-stars​ @anteroom-of-death​ @twistedgoddessoftimelords​ @justaproudslytherpuff​ @hallospaceboyy​

[lifeofanerdygirl]

Leap of Faith

Kara and Lena spend some much needed time together as they work on repairing their relationship. However, after Lena discovers who Kara has been seeing in her absence, she’s filled with jealousy. Despite the fact that they still have a long way to go, she realizes she’ll have to take a chance and show Kara how much she means to her. Luckily for her, Kara is thinking the exact same thing and taking a chance on her feelings for Lena.

-

The atmosphere of Lena’s office feels different. It isn’t cold with a sign that reads "By Appointment Only” hung outside her door. Yet, it isn’t warm and welcoming like it was before either. It’s like one of a friendly coworker that Kara occasionally chats with and not an office belonging to one of her best friends that she frequently visits carrying bags of food with a warm smile plastered across her face.

However, she’s here as a friend this time, not a caped hero, after what seems like an eternity, enjoying lunch with another friend. For them, this is a huge step towards repairing their relationship. Of course, they aren’t back to best friend status yet, as she knows that’ll take time. However, time isn’t an issue right now, as she is just happy to be in the same room as Lena without them arguing and screaming at each other.

They sit on opposite ends of Lena’s white couch, happily munching on their meals, which consist of fries and burgers from Big Belly Burger which Kara had insisted on bringing. The space between them feels as if they are on opposite sides of a cliff, a huge void in between them. Either hasn’t felt like taking the leap of faith over to the other side quite yet, as they are afraid they wouldn’t make it across and plummet into the dark depths below.

“So what’s new in the life of Kara Zor-El?” Lena asks before popping a fry in her mouth, enjoying the perfect combination of salt and crunch.

Using the name Zor-El now instead of Danvers feels like she’s speaking a foreign language and realizes that it’ll take some time to get used to.

“Oh, not a whole lot.”

Kara shrugs and takes a large, Kryptonian sized bite of her burger, causing a few of the excess toppings to ooze out and plop onto the paper wrapping below.

“I guess I’m seeing William,” she adds a few seconds later.

When Lena doesn’t respond, she glances over at her and notices a confused look on her face. Kara realizes that she must not have heard her correctly due to the amount of burger that was stuffed in her mouth and therefore her words came out more of a garbled mess than she realized. Although, subconsciously she probably did it on purpose as she didn’t know if she wanted to discuss the whole William situation quite yet.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that. What did you say?”

Kara’s mind retreats from her thoughts and back to Lena. She swallows down the remainder of her burger and takes a large gulp of her drink to wash it down before fully turning her body towards her. She sighs. There was no avoiding this subject anymore.

“I’ve been hanging out with William who’s a new employee at CatCo. We’ve been on a few dates which honestly have felt more like hangouts now that I think about it. I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about him. He’s a nice guy though.”

Lena notices the way Kara seems to shrug off the fact that she’s potentially dating someone as if it’s no big deal. Which doesn’t seem quite right as usually when you’re in that type of situation it is a big deal. However, she decides not to pressure her further and opts for a typical ‘Kara/Lena conversation’ response. Well, at least before she found out about Kara’s secret and her whole world came crashing down.

“So you mean to tell me that while I was off working on Non Nocere with my evil brother, you were dating a guy and I didn’t get to hear about it?”

Lena smiles, shaking her head and pops another fry in her mouth, her eyes remaining fixed on Kara’s. It’s been too long since she’s teased Kara about something and it felt good. Maybe this was the start of their relationship returning to normal.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Kara states, smiling and lets out a small laugh. “And don’t worry, there’s nothing too exciting about him anyway so there wouldn’t have been any interesting stories to tell.”

She shrugs. It was simple. She had turned to William because she had lost Lena. However, she wasn’t going to explain to her that she did so in order to distract herself from her broken heart.

“So, does he know your secret?”

Once again Lena draws her out of her thoughts and with a hard-hitting question at that. Yes, Kara knew that would be one of the first ones she would ask her, yet she still feels the sting from it.

“No, of course not. I barely know him.”

Going on a couple of dates with someone did not equate to letting them know her deepest, darkest secret.

“Well, good,” Lena says, taking a small bite of her burger.

She was happy that Kara hadn’t told William. Hell, it took Kara three years just to tell her, and by the time that happened she already found out from her brother. Even though Kara didn’t tell him, Lena couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that William was by Kara’s side for the past few months.

“So, when are you going to see him next?”

Curiosity is definitely getting the better of her as she intends to find out more about this William and who she’s up against. She had her boxing gloves ready to go if need be.

“We’re going out for drinks tomorrow night after work. He told me there’s this new bar that just opened up that he wants to take me to.”

“Huh. It doesn’t seem like a decent place for a date night. Especially, when you’ve only been on a couple of them,” Lena blurts out before she has a chance to think it over, and her cheeks immediately turn pink.

Suddenly, there’s a shift in the atmosphere between them and it feels like old times, but with a new layer added to it. Something that has always been there, but wasn’t quite at the surface. Lena had just taken the leap of faith over the large void and landed on Kara’s side of the cliff. She still stood several feet away from her and her arms may have been flailing on the way over and she may have tumbled to the ground instead of landing gracefully on her feet like a cat, but she was on Kara’s side nevertheless.

Of course, Lena is jealous. Considering their history of longing stares and way too frequent blushing plus now bashing where her potential best friend’s partner wants to take her on a date, it couldn’t be anything else. Instead of simply replying with Oh, I don’t mind, she chooses a question and hopes that Lena can detect where this conversation is going.

“Okay, so what would be an ideal date night then for someone you’ve just started seeing?” Bright, blue eyes stare directly into green and a small, playful smile, forms across her face, thoroughly enjoying the banter they have started.

Lena quickly whips her head down and stares at the remnants of her food, playing with a fry on her plate, her mind racing and trying to decide what to say. Was Kara asking what an ideal date night, in general, would be or one that she specifically would take Kara on? Does that mean Kara likes her back? She decides to merge the two scenarios to play it safe, hoping that it really was the latter.

“A nice dinner, which of course I would pay for. That way we can have the perfect location to talk where it’s not so loud and get to share a decent meal.” She turns to fully face Kara now and sees eager blue eyes staring back at her. It takes her a few seconds before she remembers what she is talking about, as Kara’s eyes always seem to leave her speechless. “I feel like getting to know a person this way is ideal as a good majority of people enjoy food and then, in turn, it puts them at ease. However, it should be a nice place, but not over the top. I may be rich, but I’m not about to show it off to my date.”

Damn, Lena had the perfect answer. Going on a date with food is always a good option considering she is hungry most of the time and knows a meal from a nice restaurant is a million times better than any bar food. Plus, the setting is much more romantic, and the fact that she is willing to pay? Her heart is swooning and she can feel it beating faster in her chest. 

“Wow, maybe you should take me on a date then. As a friend of course,” Kara adds quickly, indicating that it is platonic. (Okay, so maybe it isn’t entirely platonic, but she isn’t one hundred percent sure how Lena feels so she has to add that in just to be safe). “That way I can show William that my friend date was much more romantic than his actual one.” 

They can feel the atmosphere in the room continue to change, as it grows lighter and feels more electric. The space between them on the cliff decreases as Kara takes a few steps forward.

She laughs and glances down at the discarded remains of her meal which consist of a fourth of a burger and a half container of fries that are starting to grow cold. She picks up a napkin and fidgets with it, twisting the paper and shredding it to pieces within a matter of seconds.

Kara is secretly hoping that she’ll say yes, knowing that the jealousy would probably be getting to her and she’ll want to show off to William whether it be platonic or otherwise. She’s also hoping that maybe by the end of the date they’ll realize that this really wasn’t a friend date at all, but an actual one.

“Okay, Miss Zor-El, I’ll take you on a date. Are you free this Saturday around 6pm? I’ll pick you up.”

“Yes, Miss Luthor, I am. It sounds like a date.” 

Kara’s blue eyes get lost in Lena’s green ones and small smiles form on both of their faces with the accompanied blush on their cheeks.

They’re now only a few feet away from each other, as each had taken a few more tentative steps forward. However, whatever occurred on their date could be the deciding factor as to if they would close the distance between them or end up miles apart.

[judgmentofcorruption]

Episode 3–He Dies in the Snow Field; Scene 5

Judgment of Corruption, pages 98-104

Kayo living in Pixie had been a complete lie.

“I’m not so foolishly honest as to write down where I live in documents like that.”

Gallerian had protested that this was an illegal act, but Kayo didn’t pay any mind to that at all.

“If you’re going to prosecute me for it, do as you like.”

It was a provocation done with the knowledge that Gallerian was in no position to do that right now.

Naturally, even if he wasn’t in this situation, Gallerian would never have taken legal action against her. It was for the purpose of making her his collaborator that he had declared her innocent, after all.

--To give the main points of the explanation Kayo gave after that, this was the gist of it:

This facility, “Lunaca Labora”, was one of the places where she could rest. Only one of them—Kayo’s place of residence was not set in stone. Given her position, she apparently had several hiding places prepared in every region.

Just as Hel said, Lunaca Labora was an artifact of the old era. Kayo didn’t say how it was that she found this place, but she did explain in brief regarding its origins.

In the old era there had been the Magic Kingdom. In it was a researcher by the name of Seth Twiright, and supposedly “Lunaca Labora” was a research facility that he had created, established secretly under the barren snow field. As it was belowground it sustained very little damage from the “Great Catastrophe” that destroyed the Magic Kingdom, and remained on until the present day in its current state.

She said that here they were able to conduct medical procedures that surpassed modern science. It was proof that the Magic Kingdom had possessed incredibly advanced technology that defied what was normally possible, and it made sense that Hel’s father Heaven Jaakko had been searching for it so desperately.

After the “Great Catastrophe”, Seth had created a sorceress here.

“’The Red Cat Sorceress’—Are you familiar with that name?” Kayo asked Gallerian.

“…That figure has popped up several times, historically. There’s ‘IR’, who was said to be involved with the Venomania Event, ‘AB-CIR’ who was the owner of the Heartbeat Clocktower, and ‘Abyss IR’ who worked behind the scenes before and after the Lucifenian Revolution—"

“I’m impressed. That’s quite extensive knowledge you have.”

“I learned that during my course on violations of the special laws on magic. Any student of Levin University’s law school would know it.”

“This place was where that ‘Red Cat Sorceress’ was born. Seth put the soul of a girl on the verge of death inside a red cat plushy. The red cat became immortal with magical powers, and had the power to bend people to her will—”

“Where did you get this information? That wasn’t written anywhere in my textbook, at the very least.”

Kayo only gave a thin smile, not answering the question.

“…Well, whatever. If nothing else, it’s clear that you have a very detailed knowledge of magic. That is what I was seeking.”

Gallerian told her of his idea that he needed someone with knowledge on “witches” to reform the witch trials.

“—I see. So that’s why you declared me innocent.”

“Please work with me. You must know yourself, don’t you? Who I am the son of.”

“…Yes. Of course.”

“If you revere Elluka, then—”

“Wait a moment. We have something that takes priority over that right now, don’t you think? …I will give the matter some thought. However—first we must take care of Loki.”

“I have one more question on that. You—all of you, seem to have some grudge against Loki, but why is that? He himself is little more than a mere judge, like me.”

“Rather than Loki—it’s more his family…Really, it’s the Freezis Conglomerate we want to do something about. Though, well, all of our views on that do differ slightly.”

And then Kayo began to talk about her own motives.

“Elluka Ma Clockworker had received the patronage of the Freezis Conglomerate. The people who led it were trying to use the considerable magical power that she possessed to grant their fondest wish.”

“Their ‘fondest wish’?”

“Immortality… This, at least, is not something that one can gain so easily no matter how much money you have. This is something that started in the era of Shaw Freezis, the founder of the conglomerate’s previous incarnation, the Freezis Foundation. In actuality, Shaw had been able to secure an extremely long lifespan through the use of magical power. …Think this absurd, do you?”

“…I’ll hold back on voicing my opinion for now. Please continue.”

“That is why by all rights Elluka should never have been captured by the World Police, and even if she had she should have been judged innocent at the trial. It was known at the time that Hanma, the Dark Star Courthouse director, would change the verdict. But things didn’t play out that way. –She was betrayed. By the conglomerate,” Kayo said, her expression twisting.

“Are you sure of that? Or is it just your theory?”

“It’s fact. I heard all this from internal members of the Freezis Conglomerate.”

Kayo looked around at all the people around them.

“Beginning with Bruno, and excluding you and I, everyone here works for them—publicly, at least.”

“Everyone--Even…even that tiger-looking person there?”

“You mean Feng? I hear he’s kept on as a pet.”

The tiger—Feng--made a small groan. “…Though extremely reluctantly. It’s the only way I can afford my food.”

Gallerian closed his eyes. He appeared to be sorting through Kayo’s story just then in his head.

“—If what you say is true…Then the mastermind responsible for killing my mother—”

“Is the Freezis Conglomerate. They realized that they could not attain immortality even through Elluka’s magic. And so, to exterminate Elluka and her allies who stood as obstacles for them, they started a certain ‘hoax’. They took the bizarre events that were beginning to happen all over the world, and created the public idea that it was the work of ‘sorceresses’—or rather, ‘witches’.”

“I feel like you’ve gotten a little ahead of yourself there. You haven’t explained why the ‘witch hunts’ are still going on now that my mother is gone.”

“The conglomerate wishes to destroy all the sorcerers and sorceresses in this world. If they cannot be useful to them, then those who can use ‘magic’ that exceeds the scope of human knowledge are nothing more than a threat. Think this sounds crazy? It is crazy. The Freezis family has become a band of madmen who have forgotten the noble spirit that their ancestor once held.”

“…And Loki? Does he know all of this?”

“Who knows? But I’d wager he doesn’t. He was a child barely come into his own awareness when Elluka was executed. It is certain however that he is a member of the crazed Freezis Family. …You’ve had experience with that yourself, yes?”

“…I had always thought that Loki was a purely good person.”

“Perhaps he is that. But purity isn’t necessarily the right thing. There is ‘pure evil’ too—those who are called ‘HER’, in the old language. That is the true nature of the Freezis family as they are now.”

“…”

Gallerian appeared to be struggling to decide on what he should say.

Understandable. Kayo’s story had been a long procession of statements that were hard to grasp for the average person. Ordinarily it wouldn’t be out of turn for him to laugh it off as some ridiculous fantasy.

--Appearing to steady his nerve, Gallerian replied, fist clenched, “I still can’t trust you all. Everything you’ve told me is a bit hard to swallow. –But I am sure that you all have the intention to go against Loki. That means that our interests are aligned. …And it’s certainly true that right now I need people to work with me.”

“…I’m glad you can see reason.” Kayo put a hand on his chest. “I didn’t want to have to do anything untoward towards you if I could help it.”

“’Untoward’? Were you planning to torture me or something?”

“Rather than torture…More like ‘brainwashing’.”

“Don’t make me shiver. Cut it out. I’ve no wish to have my head be tampered with by some ancient device,” Gallerian said, holding out his right hand to Kayo. “Well…While I can’t see us becoming friendly, I do hope we work well together, Miss Kayo.”

“No need for formalities. –And I don’t much care for being called by my proper name. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d prefer you call me by my pen name, ‘Ma’.”

“Very well—Then, to our partnership, ‘Ma’.”

As a strange crew of many secrets watched on—

The two of them shook hands.

.

--Life, or rather fate, is a progression of crossroads.

So then, I wonder if Gallerian’s choice will ultimately have been the correct one.

That will probably become clear through some more observation.

.

…Though I’m betting that he’s made a mistake!

<<prev------directory------next>>

[monsieur-fancy-hat]

How abt an AU where dazai and chuuya are in the mafia together and atsushi and akutagawa are in the ADA

Send me some characters and an AU for me to write headcanons/prompts for.

Ended up rewriting this like twice but I hope you enjoy!!

Some parts of it were taken from the canon BSD AU light novel, BEAST.

Ages during the backstory:

Akutagawa Ryuunosoke- 11 or 12

Nakajima Atsushi- 8 or 9

Akutagawa Gin- 8 or 9

Dazai Osamu- 16 or 17

Nakahara Chuuya- 16 or 17

Odasaku- 20 or 21

Let’s start with Akutagawa and Atsushi’s backstory!!

Akutagawa and Gin have a mother. She abused them, because she believed that she had to work three times harder to take care of them as she was a single mom. She also hated the kids for looking so eeriely like the fathers (cause half-siblings).

So after a while, Akutagawa and Gin fun away from home. They take as much cash as they feel comfortable with, take important belongings (weapons), a coat given to Akutagawa by his father, and other necessities.

The end up in the slums for a while, before an orphanage takes them in. They’re far away enough from their mother that it’s pretty much safe. But the orphanage learns about the mother and stuff. And they decide that maybe they should go into the foster care system? The orphanage isn’t sure right now, so they just let the kids stay.

So Akutagawa and Gin stay at the orphanage. They’re kinda loners, cause they don’t talk to people besides themselves. Some kids believe that Gin is mute (so they make fun of her) and Akutagawa -even at the delicate age of 12- has a death glare that makes grown adults run. So he uses it o the bullies. And if he’s not around... well, Gin has her way of taking care of things (stabby stabby).

But one day, this mysterious guy talks to Akutagawa. This mysterious man starts talking ‘nonsense’ about special powers and stuff. He also explains that Akutagawa might have some.

Akutagawa doesn’t believe the mysterious guy.

But a week later Gin was cornered in a alley by a college kid, who was trying to do.... non-consenting inappropriate things to her. And Gin, being Gin, had a knife out and was about to stabby stabby, when this random kid jumps on the college dude.

And he starts trying to hang onto the college guy by his neck and yelling for help

And Gin is just stand there wondering what the heck is going on

The orphanage staff rush into the alley to see a white-haired kid biting a college dude (who is still trying to shake him off) and a little girl, who kinda looks like a ninja, slipping what they think looks like a knife into a pocket.

They bring the police to arrest the college dude.

Everyone is wondering why he has cat-like scratches on his back and tiger bites on his neck.

Gin is interested by the white haired kid (which, you know, Atsushi) and brings him to join her tiny friend group.

Akutagawa, not a huge fan of him...

And apparently, neither are the orphanage staff.

Atsushi’s 8 or 9, Gin is 8 or 9, and Akutagawa is around 12.

Akutagawa and Gin get the least abused by the staff, cause they are great at not getting into trouble.

I mean, Gin was scolded a couple times for the incidents (“You shouldn’t have run off on your own! And if you’re gonna run away, then don’t come back!!”). But that’s pretty much it.

Atsushi, on the other hand.... let’s just say that the staff have some problems with him.

Gin (and sometimes Akutagawa) usually patch Atsushi up though, so he’s not alone!

They become decently good friends. Woohoo!

But Akutagawa starts thinking that Atsushi is secretly a tiger. Cause bite marks. Also cause he heard rumors that there was a white tiger around the orphanage grounds.

So he meets up with the mysterious guy, and tries to get some answers. Cause he wouldn’t want Gin to be hanging out with someone who could hurt her. That’s a no-no.

Sadly, mysterious guy hasn’t heard about this either. So... oof.

So one night, Akutagawa gets waken up by something crashing outside.

He puts on his coat and decides to go check it out, correctly thinking it’s the tiger.

Atsushi-tiger (he’s a baby tiger, just so ya know), seeing Akutagawa, goes to attack him.

And Akutagawa hears someone shout “Use your ability!!”

Akutagawa is kinda confused, and kinda angry, so he just says the first thing that comes to mind (He remembers that when he was younger, really really young, his father would show him how he sewed cloth together. How many shades of black you could use, and all the different styles. Mr. Akutagawa showed his son one of his favorite pieces, a black coat. He named it Rashomon. Cause I need this story to make a bit of sense.)

“RASHOUMON!”

Boom

Parts of his coat fly towards the tiger, trapping him.

But it can’t hold him for long, and Atsushi springs right back at him.

But mystery guy comes in the middle of them, and activates his ability.

“No longer human.”

In a flash of white light, Atsushi is found on one side, laying face-down bottom-up on the floor.

Akutagawa was standing on the other side.

Mystery guy offered Akutagawa a place to belong. A place to go home to. He even said Gin & Atsushi could come, if Akutagawa wanted.

And Akutagawa doesn’t know what to think.

Thankfully, he doesn’t have to, cause ANOTHER MYSTERY GUY COMES OVER

He has dark red hair, and a beige trench coat.

And he seems to recognize mystery guy #1.

“Dazai, is that you?” “Oh! Hi there Oda! Isn’t this a surprise. I’ll be taking the kids and leaving now, if you don’t mind!”

Yup. It’s Dazai and Oda!

Also, FYI, Oda does mind. Cause Dazai left the A.D.A. a couple months ago and no one has had any contact with him ever since.

Oda is upset and wants Dazai to come back. And Dazai... doesn’t give a damn.

They have a standoff-staredown.

And while they do that, Akutagawa goes over to Atsushi to check if he’s alive and okay.

Dazai and Oda fight, but Dazai can’t bring himself to kill Oda and leaves alone.

Which leaves Oda with an uncounsious Atsushi and a tired Akutagawa.

Oda decides that he should take these kids in. So he goes to the orphanage the next day and adopts Atsushi.

And Atsushi is sad cause he thinks he’ll be separated from Gin and Akutagawa.

Which is oof.

But Oda ends up fostering the Akutagawa’s.

So he just ends up with 3 more kids. Woohoo!! And the other kids too, but they’re all younger than them (3-4 at the time).

So Oda has his hands VERY full. Too nice.

He brings them to the A.D.A.

And Kunikida scolds Oda cause “You were supposed to be looking for that bandaged idiot! Not going around taking in more kids!!”.

But Oda interrupts him and says, “I talked to Dazai.”

And everyone goes quiet for a minute. Cause if Oda spoke to Dazai and he still won’t come back, it’s over.

Dazai has defected from the Armed Dectetive Agency.

Oda spends his time training Atsushi and Akutagawa. They’re both young and a bit confused about what’s going on (“What the... I’M A TIGER?!” “Yes, Jinko, we know.”)

But they all get along quite well, so yay!

The trio grow up together, and they eventually become official members of the A.D.A. Gin is an assistant.

She, Naomi, and Haruno become friends. Gin is still closest to Atsushi though.

And that’s their [back]story.

But now... it’s time for Dazai’s!

So, Dazai & Oda went to school together. Dazai had a not-so-great home life, so moved away at 16.

He lived by himself for a month or two, living off weird part-time jobs. Due to his smarts, he managed to skip two grades. So he’s a freshman in college. I think.

And Oda is in his third year of college.

Dazai lived at the school dorms, cause he got a full-ride scholarship. Cause smart.

Dazai has known about his powers for a while. Some weird doctor guy went to him and tried to get him to join some mafia thing, but Oda advises him to not.

So he doesn’t. But he is interested.

Dazai & Oda end up in the A.D.A.

And Oda has a great time there. He likes the people. He has fun. It’s great.

But Dazai... nope. He hates it. He can’t suicide attempt without someone being there to stop him, he can’t wear bandages without being sent to Yosano to get a check up, he can’t even be gone for a day without being chased down by Kunikida or Oda, wondering where the he’ll he’s been.

Dazai is bored and sick of the A.D.A.

So he leaves.

After a huge argument with Oda, Dazai leaves. And Mori, predicting this would happen, appeared to say “I told you so.”

And so Dazai, at the young age of 16, is taken in by the Port Mafia.

And he’s pretty good at it too!

He loves playing mind games and doing interrogations and killing people who NEVER SEE IT COMING~ (sorry, wrong fandom-) and just being evil~

A couple months later, he’s on track to become a executive. He’s already a sub-executive under Kouyou.

But then, Fifteen (Well, it’s more like Sixteen...) happens

And Dazai meets the cutest redhead he’s ever seen in his life.

Also Dazai is a kinky man has a thing for gloves.

ALSO MOTORCYCLE & CHUUYA

So of course Dazai is in love intrigued by the tiny sixteen year old.

“What the f*ck I’m still growing!!”

“Sureeeeeee-”

“F*ck off.”

“So creative, Chuu~”

“I will torture you until you die from the pain and then I’ll burn you and chop up your ashes and scatter them in the sea so that there’s no way you can come back.”

“Oh. Sounds like fun!! I mean, excluding the pain part, I’d love to die with you~”

“...why are you like this?”

Since Mori is a sadist and Dazai, a masochist, Chuuya and Dazai become partners.

“Please NO.”

“Please yes~”

And they were roommates.

oH mY gOd thEy wEre rOommAteS

[cough cough] ANYWAYS

Chuuya and Dazai become partners. They murder people.

Dazai thinks it’s fun, and Chuuya can’t help but go along with Dazai’s shenanigans. Chuuya is very in love annoyed.

The two become a feared duo, but some who know them personally (Kouyou, Mori, & Hirotsu) know that they’re really just lovestruck teens.

It’s really cute.

And que the next backstory!

So. Chuuya’s backstory. I tried making up a new one for him, but I didn’t want to diverge too much from canon, so his is pretty much the same.

Now, the plot. Well, it’s more somewhat connected headcanons that plot, so... oof. The backstories all happened 10 years ago, so everyone is 10 years older than they were before.

Ages:

Atsushi- 18-19

Akutagawa- 21-22

Gin- 18-19

Dazai- 26-17

Chuuya- 26-27

Oda- 30-31

So. Atsushi is going grocery shopping, yeah?

And Chuuya is also grocery shopping, yeah?

And they bump into each other. And Atsushi doesn’t recognize him, but Chuuya remembers from one of Dazai’s drunk ramblings about trying to recruit some white tiger kid and a black coat?

Either way, Chuuya doesn’t really care. But he decides to tell Dazai once he’s home.

But only after he finished shopping for some fresh, non-canned crab.

But as he’s picking out a crab, the grocery store gets attacked by some ability users.

Oof.

And Chuuya doesn’t want to intervene (and risk his identity/secrecy to the public, who have limited knowledge of ability users).

But white-tiger Atsushi just goes flying towards one of the robbers.

And Chuuya knows.

So obviously, he tells Dazai. And Dazai, being Dazai, pretends he doesn’t remember.

Later, he goes to visit the A.D.A.

To see his ‘replacements’.

But he’s super chill about it.

And by ‘chill’, I mean smiley-evil. Like when he was talking to Mori during the A.D.A. & P.M. meeting (in canon).

Atsushi and Akutagawa are a mix of confused and worried.

And Akutagawa is lowkey wondering why the heck this random guy, who looks suspiciously familiar.

And ohhhh it’s that guy who tried to kidnap him a few years ago!

Wait. It’s the guy who tried to kidnap him a few years ago.

And Akutagawa takes Atsushi and they leave the A.D.A. building.

They end up on a we’re-denying-that-this-is-a-date-but-it-really-is.

But like they’re obviously lowkey dating, so yeah-

Like come on, Gin has been shipping this since she was like 9.

Also Dazai (after getting in a fight with with Oda, again oof), on his way home, he sees Atsushi & Akutagawa on the way back, and thinks of his boyf riend~~

And Dazai ships it SO HARD!!

But he first must go home to Chuu~

And that’s all I can think of right now. Also I really wanna get this posted cause it’s super late. I also gotta start the others. ;-;

HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!! ♥️

[charlie-and-yoshi-rp-hell]

Episode 48: Recovery

The two halves are finally back together. Now the boys need some time to relax and renew their bond.

(PS: Sorry for being inactive for almost a year now. Life got in the way and I was busy finishing my Bachelor´s degree, and had to fight off depression. I´ll try to upload a bit more frequently. A huuuge thank you goes out to the followers who are still here. <3 )

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

Yoshi Raven: Of course the ghost tried attacking him but it was over in a few seconds. Arthur watched them fuse back together, he heard their screams but he didn´t dare getting closer - he might end fused with Lewis and he wasn´t sure if that´d be healthy.

But when he was one person again and dropped on the floor, Arthur rushed to him and sat down next to him, a worried look on his face. He sensed that there was just one end to their connection and not two - the spell had worked.

He looked at Vivi, smiling happily. "Thank you so much, Viv. Thank you."

Arthur looked back at Lewis, gently touching the locket and sending some energy.

"... Lew? Can you hear me?"

Charlie McCarthey: Upon further inspection, Lewis' ghost form was breathing. After about 6 breaths or so, that slowed and stopped. After that, the anchor responded, pulsing orange wearily as if responding to Art's question.

"He's going to need rest after this, Arthur." Mystery commented softly, walking up to Lewis' other side and nudging his hand a little with his nose. Lewis grunted tiredly and rolled over onto his side, still lying on the ground.

Yeah...m'up.

Yoshi Raven: "I know, Mystery. I can see that." he mumbled and gently hugged Lewis.

"Welcome back, cotton candy. I missed you. Come on, you´ll go sleep now." Arthur whispered while helping him get up on his feet.

"Are you okay? How do you feel, Lew?" he asked, hugging him again. Yes, he had enjoyed having two of him but just one now was even better. Much, much better.

Charlie McCarthey: Lewis stood on shaky legs, shaking his skull until his fiery pomadour flickered back into shape.

"I'm okay... dizzy. A little confused."

"That's a common side effect, the book says." Vivi assured, and Lewis nodded absently, finally seeming to notice Arthur's skinny arms wrapped around him.

"Hey.... are you okay?" He asked, the events of the previous hour catching up to him. Lewis immediately started to look guilty.

Yoshi Raven: "... yeah, I guess. I´m glad you´re back together. Now, let´s move you in the bed, you need to rest. We can talk later."

Arthur gently pulled him to the bed and made him sit down, then walked back to Vivi and hugged her, not saying anything. He also petted Mystery´s head.

"Thanks, you two. I´ll make a nice breakfast tomorrow but I guess we all need some rest now."

Charlie McCarthey: "Of course, Artie." Vivi pecked him on the cheek, and did the same to the still exhausted looking ghost. Lew grunted sleepily, and leaned back on his palms.

"You don't sound okay." Lewis muttered as he shifted into his human guise. It was worth the power it took. He felt a little better when he looked... human.

"Art. I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

Yoshi Raven: The mechanic got back to Lewis and before he could finish his apology, he just kissed him.

"I know, Lewis. I know." Arthur mumbled, sounding tired. He leaned against him, enjoying the warmth of his body. Yes, it was his Lewis for real.

"It wasn´t your fault. I was too selfish, we should´ve reversed the spell earlier. But... I liked having two of you. It was new and interesting but I risked everyone´s safety. I knew ghosts are possessive of the one they love but you still have your... let´s say human conscience that keeps you from doing bad things. Your ghost half didn´t have this anymore. So please, don´t blame yourself. I´m the one who should apologize."

Charlie McCarthey: "Artie, no. Hey, you're allowed to want things, buddy. You didn't know the ghost side would go downhill that badly and that fast, huh? No one could have been prepared for that." Lewis soothed, pulling Arthur into his arms.

"You weren't selfish, maybe poor judgement but we were sort of keeping you busy." He chuckled.

Yoshi Raven: That last statement made him blush slightly and he leaned against him.

"Let´s say all of us were idiots. We don´t need a discussion right now. I´m tired, and you need sleep too." Arthur grinned and poked Lewis, then moved out of his hug and lied down on the bed.

"Come on, I want my single heatpad back" he purred, patting on the matress next to him.

Charlie McCarthey: "Agreed." Lewis smiled, lying down next to Arthur. He folded himself carefully and curled an arm around the mechanic's waist.

"Your heating pad is right here." He assured, the anchor pulsed warmly.

Yoshi Raven: He moved as close as possible, snuggling against him.

"Don´t you dare getting up before I wake up. Got it?" he asked, putting the sheet over them and kissing Lewis again, grinning.

Charlie McCarthey: That was all the coaxing Lewis needed.

"I won't." He soothed, eyes crinkling in amusement as Arthur wiggled down under the sheets more.

He curled around Arthur's smaller body and it felt like he lost awareness the second his head hit the pillow. For a long, long time, Lewis body stayed 'off' and he simply focused on healing.

Yoshi Raven: Arthur was sleeping for a long time, too. Now that there was more room for him, he could finally move around in his sleep again without hitting against another body.

He woke up very slowly the next day, looking at Lewis. When he turned around, there was no one else, no second Lewis. Good. He looked back at Lewis and touched his cheek gently, caressing there. If he was still too tired, he wouldn´t wake up but if he was fine, well. Arthur let him choose and still showed some affection.

Charlie McCarthey: For once, Lewis was the late riser. He was pretty much out of it for a soild hour or so after Art woke up, and spent this time lying on his side, still and quiet and wrapped around Arthur. Eventually though, his body started forcing itself back to 'awake' mode, and the ghost's eyelids flickered. He buried his nose in the pillow and groaned, tightening his hold on what he presumed to be Arthur.

That took...more out of him than expected. He needed to get training with Mystery, and soon.

Yoshi Raven: He didn´t do much more and let him rest but as soon as Lewis started waking up, Arthur placed small kisses all over his face. "Hey... Lew, sleepyhead. Come on, get up. You can´t get all the rest you need at once ~ " he whispered but when there was no reaction, Arthur wiggled out of his hold and sat down on him. "I´ll stay here until you get me down, cotton candy."

Charlie McCarthey: Lewis pitched a snort over his shoulder and calmly raised an arm. His palm met Art's waist and with out a word he pushed him off his body and--gently, mind you--onto the mattress. And off Art toppled into a pillow limbs and pillows.

But Lew lifted his head to see this, grinning at his other half.

"Mighta worked if you weighed more, buddy." He suggested breezily as he rolled onto his back and stretched.

Yoshi Raven: "Eh, next time I´m gonna put the van in here and onto you" he giggled, "And yes, believe me I´ll make it work."

He shoved the pillows away and sat up, looking at him a bit worried.

"How do you feel? Better? Still tired? Any aftereffects of the spells?" Arthur asked, tousling his hair a bit. He wondered if the behaviour of the "evil" ghost half would affect him for some time - he hoped not, though.

Charlie McCarthey: "Well, a little bit of a headache. I think that's from the joining. Two minds and all, you know. But, no side effect, I don't think?" Lewis frowned, giving himself a mental once over. "Yeah, I think I'm alright." He smiled warmly to reassure Artie, pulling him over his lap to kiss him good morning.

"C'mon. Want breakfast?" Oh Lew. Still determined to take care of others first. Especially when it comes to food.

Yoshi Raven: Arthur sighed, glad that he wasn´t suffering more than a headache. This would fade away. But then he wasn´t thinking about his own health and he had to give Lewis a warning glare. "I do want breakfast but I´m gonna make it. You be a good ghost and sit in the kitchen without helping. Got it?"

He moved from his lap and to the door, waving at him to follow.

Charlie McCarthey: Lewis grumbled, but it was a lighthearted one. He got up and trotted after Arthur like a puppy, snapping his fingers for his deadbeats.

"Well at least let them give ya a hand." He said, the nest of purple bodies cooing and trilling as they swarmed their master, clearly relieved there were only one of him now. They had been confused of to obey, and had taken to hiding the past few days.

Yoshi Raven: "Of course I´ll let them help. I have missed these cuties." Arthur petted every Deadbeats head when he was surrounded by their tiny warm bodies. He entered the kitchen and gave them tasks to do while he started making pancakes. Of course he made sure Lewis was sitting on a chair and not secretly wandering and helping.

"By the way, I haven´t seen our 'cat' for a long time.... Gear? Come here boy!" he called, looking for the two coloured small ghost.

Charlie McCarthey: "I think he was hiding out with the rest of them--yep, here he comes."

Gear glanced at Lewis warily, but upon deciding this was in fact the one and only Lewis there was, chirruped and beelined for Arthur.

Lewis sighed. "I don't blame him for being skittish of me... my memories of a ghost aren't exactly friendly ones." He muttered guiltily.

Yoshi Raven: Arthur let Gear land on his shoulder and petted him gently.

"Well I don´t know what your ghost half did when he wasn´t close to me, but I can imagine. But as I said, it wasn´t your fault. A ghost that´s just focused on... owning someone would hate every creature that was disturbing him."

He started baking the pancakes and had to stop Gear from stealing the finished ones.

"You know... it wasn´t the possessive behaviour that scared me. It was that the ghost half wasn´t listening to what I wanted anymore. Well, and that he tried taking over against my will. I know that you would never do that, and that´s why I´m calm. I know I can trust you and I´m sure Gear and the others will notice you´re back to being nice." Arthur smiled at Lewis, giving Gear a smaller pancake.

Charlie McCarthey: Lewis was quiet for a while, watching his whole world stand there cooking and feeding bits of pancake to the orange deadbeat. It... really made him happy. So, so happy, to be a part of the world still and to be allowed to exist with Arthur. He reached out mentally, that strong magenta aura curling protective tendrils of power around the smaller, chipped orange one on the other end of the bond.

His gaze was warm and soft as he observed the two, and though ghosts can't cry, his eyes still looked watery.

"Yeah. Yeah, you can trust me Art." He stood, feeling the urge to close the distance so he could hug Arthur from behind and bury his face in the crook of Arthur's neck, nuzzling him basically.

"I promise. I'm yours." Saying I love you, while useful, meant less than this statement.

To a ghost, there was no better way to say you loved someone than by promising yourself--and all the power that came with you.

Yoshi Raven: Arthur sensed the warm, protecting blanket around his soul and it made him smile. This was what he was used to. A gently, warm soul on the other end of their connection.

"I´m yours too, Lewis."

He placed the finished pancakes on three plates and let the deadbeats move them on the table so he could hug the ghost. Arthur put his arms around him, face buried in his chest and staying like this. After all the wild nights, both of them needed a lot of hugs, kisses and affection.

Charlie McCarthey: Their relationship was built on so much more than just sex--even if the sex was damn good. This stuff--the hugging and kissing and just general cuddlin--was super important too, especially to the ghost who needed the stable connection to keep himself... human. Arthur kept him sane, kept him protective and needed.

He hugged his other half tight, giving a little laugh at the way Artie burrowed against him.

"Comfy, there?" He joked happily, rubbing Arthur's shoulder with a hand in an absentminded manner.

Yoshi Raven: "Yep. If I wasn´t hungry, I´d stay like this for the next few hours." he giggled and looked up at the tall ghost.

"Besides, the smell of the food will soon bring our two other dorks in here and we better get out of their way. I don´t need foot prints all over me."

Arthur slowly let go of him and sat down on his chair.

"Soo, what are we gonna do if there´s no mission for us? Do you have ideas or plans?" he asked while taking the first bite.

Charlie McCarthey: Lewis laughed at Art's comment about the chowhounds.

Sitting down at the table, he made sure Arthur got plenty of food for himself while Gear wiggled into Arthur's lap and looked cute for scraps.

"Hmm, if we don't have a case... you wanna go flying again?" He asked with a tiny grin, his amused look saying he knew what the answer was going to be.

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(Previous) - (Next)

[kiruuuuu]

Smoke/Mute oneshot in which two nerds fall for each other. Also, as usual, part of it devolves into utter chaos :) (Rating T, fluff fluff fluff + humour, ~9k words) - written for my kindness war with @nutbrain 💖💖 Take that! I do hope you enjoy it and I hope you also know how much I adore you. Please never change 💗

.

Mute raises an unimpressed brow. When Sledge told him he was about to meet their ‘chemistry whiz’ who apparently matched Mute’s own penchant for anything science, he’d pictured something…

Well, not something like this. Not an aged goon too short for the t-shirt he’s wearing (yet filling out the sleeves nicely nonetheless), not someone folded onto his chair like an ape, and certainly not someone with a haircut better suited for the military than a lab. He’s an odd mix of latent energy, smug grin and laziness, and Mute immediately decides not to like this show-off.

He’s always been picky and so far it’s served him well – while other friend groups publicly fought out private issues, complained about betrayal, miscommunication, ignorance, Mute sat in his corner with his one or maybe two friends and simply watched. Focusing on his own success, he’s always fared better than if he tried to get along with those around him, and the results don’t lie: mid-20s, and he’s just been recruited into one of the world’s best special forces. He works well enough in a team and is aware his superiors can’t demand more than that, even if Aurelia expressed the wish for him to socialise more than he’s used to. Her right-hand man briefly tried to bond with Mute over their shared heritage but backed off as soon as he earned a carefully blank stare. He knows more than he lets on, Six does as well, but for now they’re leaving Mute be.

Going by his gut feeling, trusting his first impression has rarely failed him, and so he fells his judgement while the hoodie-clad thug in front of him greets him cheerfully. “How ya, nice to meet you, I’m told you can backseat engineer a tad and help me with my project. Been a right bastard recently, innit?”

Mute blinks. Self-centred, he writes on his mental list, outgoing – the horror! –, big mouth, carefree. None of the bullet points make him want to spend more time in this guy’s presence than necessary. It doesn’t help that it’s entirely unclear who or what has been a right bastard, whether it’s the project, the dude, maybe Mute himself, who knows? He sounds like one of Mute’s former classmates who dropped out to sell weed and graffiti abandoned stations at night. “Yes”, he replies hesitantly to buy time. “So… what is it you’re working on?”

In an entirely misguided attempt at getting Mute settled in at the base, Sledge has spent most of the day sending him back and forth between operators with increasingly mundane tasks which Mute identified much too late as intended conversation starters which usually resulted in two lines of awkward small talk and a task done mostly in silence. He nearly refused to step anywhere near this last SAS member but when Sledge mentioned the magical word science, Mute’s interest was piqued. Seems like this will be just another disappointment, however, because this schoolyard bully surely isn’t -

“A Lewisite derivative less prone to hydrolysis and ideally as long-lasting as Adamsite while being less identifiable. I don’t want those bloody terrorists shooting up on dimercaprol immediately to counter the effects.”

Well. Mute briefly considers whether he’s merely saying this to be funny, maybe learnt it by heart to impress a few birds in the pub, but when he spots the emblem of arsole on this guy’s jacket like the crest of a prestigious school, he realises that he’s dead serious. “You realise that’s illegal as fuck?”

This earns him a bright smile. “Yep!”

“So you want to poison a whole group of people”, Mute clarifies, just to be sure.

“Lethally poison them to death until they die”, the man confirms with an amused nod and again, it takes Mute a moment to register he’s not being facetious.

He throws a glance at the chicken scratch notes spread out on the table separating them. They look chaotic yet detailed, and most of all they look like a challenge. “What did you say your name was?”, he wants to know distractedly and almost misses the lazy grin spreading on the guy’s face.

~*~

Mute still doesn’t like him. Contrary to how often they hang out, Smoke certainly ranks nowhere near his favourite people to spend time with which might seem unfair but he’s just – annoying, really, won’t stop bragging or talking too loudly, keeps taking and using Mute’s stuff without asking and is much too handsy for his tastes. He never properly learnt personal boundaries and is forthcoming to the point of rudeness, at least in Mute’s opinion, but for some reason gets along well enough with most of the other operators. It baffles Mute how easily he navigates social situations, does so without a care in the world and, while Smoke gets yelled at often enough, he also gets what he wants a surprising amount. Mute was brought up to be reasonably polite, withdrawn, not a bother, and Smoke is… the opposite. He goes out and declares for everyone to hear, so someone is bound to listen. It’s enviable, in a way.

But no, Mute’s personal ideals resonate much more closely with Glaz’, and Twitch’s, and Rook’s, and together they form an alliance of loyalty and trust and meet up just to be themselves. It’s a relief not to worry about what comes out of his mouth and even more of a relief to realise he’s actually found friends in Rainbow. He doesn’t consider Smoke a friend, not really, more of a necessary evil which just won’t go away and so he’s developed coping mechanisms.

This, too, sounds harsh in his head. He has to admit there are moments when he genuinely enjoys Smoke’s company.

“Why are you so quiet, lad? Cat got your tongue?”

Compared to Thatcher, Smoke is an angel. As awe-inspiring and competent as the SAS legend is, he seems to take personal offence to Mute mostly keeping to himself and has set out to coax the social chameleon, the starry-eyed, hopeful young man out of Mute who’s been dreaming of being a part of the whole his entire life yet was too awkward to figure out how. Little does he know that under Mute’s taciturnity hides an even more misanthropic nerd who’d be happy surrounded by nothing but technology for the rest of his life. Not all who talk little have little to say, but not all who talk little secretly want to star in High School Musical.

“Mike, you must’ve spent the first twenty years of your life in silence”, Smoke pipes up from where he’s lounging on one of the other tables in the workshop, letting one of his legs dangle and playing a freemium game on his phone, “because with how you dither on, you sound like you’ve something to catch up on, now that you’ve one foot in the grave.”

Mute has to admit: he’s excellent nuisance repellent. He hides a grin as Thatcher’s attention shifts. “I certainly would spend twenty years in silence if it meant you’d have to shut up yourself.”

“Gladly, if it’d make you stop molesting the youngins. I saw you chase Manu around yesterday, she should really get a restriction order.”

“All I wanted was to help her calibrate her gun -”

“She’s bloody GIGN, granda, she was born with a Magnum in her tiny baby hands. And whatever you do, she’ll never calibrate your gun.”

Despite knowing Thatcher genuinely only wants to help, Mute leaves the two to their usual banter, content in not being a part of it: they both seem to enjoy their bickering and it’s best not to make himself a target. Besides, Smoke thoroughly relishes being insulted, if his and Mute’s early interactions are anything to go by. Smoke called him young, Mute replied with ‘as young as you wish you were’ and since then, he’s been a puppy following him around with a delighted expression, fawning over every harsh comment directed at him.

“Oi, babe”, Smoke addresses him and Mute wishes he’d mind the nickname, yet whenever he remembers the other ones which were in the running, he can’t. “You think Mike here hates molecules whose atoms are all in covalent bonds?”

The question comes so out of thin air that Mute needs a second to process it. “I – what? Why?”

“Because they’re unionised.”

Mute stares at him for a bit longer before it clicks – it’s Thatcher and he means the other pronunciation of unionised and dear Lord, the joke is fucking atrocious, it’s impressive how awful it is, and before he knows it, his sides start hurting. Air eludes him as he does a silent laugh which hurts and Smoke has never looked this stupidly proud before. Not even after he made Glaz throw up by shovelling vanilla pudding out of a mayonnaise glass into his own mouth.

“What”, says Thatcher, looking completely unamused. “Are you laughing at me?”

Gasping, Mute shakes his head and waves him off, and Smoke is still grinning triumphantly. “Copper carbon potassium”, he mutters and sets Mute off once more because only he would call someone who massively outranks him a cuck and hey, that gives Mute an idea. While the two continue barking at each other, he pulls up the periodic table on his phone and starts putting things together.

Seconds before the two actually come to blows – and Smoke would have the advantage, Mute has seen him in the ring and he does not mess around –, he announces: “Fluorine argon thallium iodine carbon potassium erbium.”

Watching Smoke repeat it in his head and translate it feels like waiting for a firecracker to go off, and he’s not disappointed when it does and the other man dissolves into full-bellied laughter which nearly throws him off the table.

“What does that mean?!” Thatcher is getting more and more agitated.

“He called you a fartlicker”, Smoke chortles and Mute doesn’t even get to defend himself, explain that it wasn’t at all aimed at Thatcher, before the very same rolls his eyes and simply storms off.

“I didn’t mean him”, Mute complains and crosses his arms when Smoke saunters over to plant his arse on his table instead.

“Oh, I know, but now he’ll be pissed for a week and leave you alone.”

“I’ll apologise.”

“Are you nuts? Don’t feed into his ego. Vain bastard.”

Mute scoffs. “Says you.”

And oh, the surprised face he earns is entirely warranted. He doesn’t suppose anyone looks at Smoke closely enough to notice him glancing in the mirror a lot, or that his mismatched and ill-fitting clothes are carefully chosen and that he takes pride in his appearance. He certainly makes sure his muscles show at least. “Yes, well”, Smoke murmurs, having lost the thread of their conversation and idly running his hand through his short hair. “Oh, speaking of – I should have this cut.”

“Don’t. I like your hair.”

Smoke shoots him another astonished glance and pets his semblance of a hairstyle. Mute does like it more now that it’s grown out a bit, and he bets Smoke could look cute with it even longer. “You really should stop catering to people’s egos, they might get used to it.”

“Trust me, I’ll be the first one to mercilessly argue you into the ground, should the situation call for it.” It wouldn’t be the first time either, not after Smoke claimed drinking through a straw not only made you more drunk but also faster, that alcohol is a good way to stave off the cold and that people eat five spiders in their sleep each year. At this point, he’s half suspecting Smoke of digging up misconceptions purely so he can witness Mute tearing them apart.

“Now let me check whether you can spell ‘turdsniffer’ with the periodic table.” He takes a seat next to Mute and together, they try to come up with the best insult they can. Mute is extremely happy with CoCKBaSiN, Smoke proudly presents BUMnOsEr, and by the time they land on AmErICaN SnOBScAm, both of them are having trouble breathing.

“If everything else fails, we can always call people C4H4AsH”, Smoke concludes and points at his jacket. “A good old-fashioned arsole.”

Of course. Mute is beginning to wonder whether he ever washes this particular piece of clothing. “And no one will be the wiser.”

“Except for us. Because we have such good chemistry.”

“Alright. You can stop now.”

“If we were a laser, we’d be set on stunning.”

“James.”

“Is it getting hot in here or is this just our bond forming?”

Mute corrects himself mentally: there is no way in hell this idiot could ever be cute. “Why do I even talk to you.”

“No idea”, Smoke retorts cheerily. “But I’m glad you do.”

~*~

Unsurprisingly, he needs a little help from those who know him better than he does. They’re having lunch together, Rook in his everlasting hunger went out voluntarily to buy them fancy sandwiches and is still complaining about the place being out of baguettes whereas Twitch happily wolfs down her ciabatta without a peep, and then Glaz says mid-munch: “We’re having a spa day on Sunday. Has Julien asked you already?”

“Can’t, I’m setting skips on fire”, Mute shrugs and grins at Twitch’s horrified expression. “Not literally. But we have some hypotheses to check and usually, it ends up with us burning our notes because everything went arseways.”

“Arseways”, Rook repeats quietly to himself and Mute is relieved none of them know enough about English and Irish dialects to notice just how much slang he’s picked up from Smoke along the way. He’s made the mistake of greeting Montagne with an automatic ‘how are you’ before and ended up with intimate knowledge of the man’s health-related problems.

“You can always ask Jordan for help, just mention the setting on fire part and he’s in”, Twitch suggests reasonably and for a second, Mute actually considers it. He doesn’t mind Thermite, the man is sociable enough to fill silences before they turn awkward and perceptive enough to leave Mute alone when he needs it. Still, he was looking forward to a weekend of loud music, a few drinks and greasy takeout which he allows himself so rarely, with no space for anyone else. And while his friends’ plan of just chilling probably would drain the tension out of him just as effectively, he’s not going to ditch Smoke after he already agreed.

“You’re seeing James a lot recently”, Glaz comments in between bites.

Is he? More than he used to, Mute supposes, but it’s gotten better. The bragging has diminished or stopped bothering him so much seeing as Smoke usually includes him in it these days, and they’ve found more common ground – music was a big one, ultimately there’s not much of a leap from hardcore punk to avant-garde metal seeing as they can meet somewhere in the middle, and gaming is another. Even the fact that Smoke only ever wanted to play the games in which he’s better than Mute has subsided. They compromise more, Mute realises: Smoke tests his limits less often and Mute doesn’t judge as much anymore, the verbal pushing and shoving has turned into good-natured playfighting. It’s not about who’s right, it’s about having a good time, and on the rare occasions on which they bring up serious topics, Mute doesn’t get as worked up anymore and Smoke knows when to take a break to sort his thoughts.

“I like him”, he summarises his musings with a nod.

“And I remember the time you called him a copper nitrogen terbium argon”, Rook chimes in.

“Silver. Ag is silver, not argon.”

“I will literally never be able to remember this.”

Another reason why Mute is glad to have Smoke – there are some inside jokes they share which just don’t translate to his real friend group. “He’s much more bearable these days.”

“He’s worn you down”, Twitch corrects him with a smile and he doesn’t object. “Why don’t you ask him if he wants to join? He’s nice enough and he can’t be worse than Jules.”

“Hey!”

“Sure.” Mute shoves the rest of his brie with cranberry into his mouth and gets up to track Smoke down. The words echo in his head: he’s nice enough. There’s a few descriptions he’d deem fitting for the Brit but nice isn’t one of them – above all, he’s opportunistic. If there’s nothing in it for him, he won’t do it, but fortunately ‘entertainment’ has proven to be reliable bait for him, rendering him predictable. Mute likes this. He knows what to expect, knows when Smoke will play along, and also knows he does so willingly. Smoke doesn’t mind being tricked or manipulated into something provided it’s done overtly.

When he finally stumbles over him, he’s not alone: Fuze is talking rapidly at an irritated-looking Thatcher with Smoke at his elbow, and judging by everyone’s body language, it’s a topic which should’ve been cleared a while ago. Meaning it’s about being team captains. Since Fuze can express his displeasure best in his mother tongue, he tends to seek out colleagues who know it well enough, Thatcher unfortunately being one of them – Smoke seems to be his moral support, though he appears less supportive and rather more bored to tears.

Fuze has been a thorn in Glaz’ side for a while, ever since he dropped a comment about Rook which left his younger teammate secretly shaken and uncertain, and Mute has to fight down the urge to provoke the Uzbek whenever he sees him since. He can’t stand anyone messing with his friends, especially not on a topic like this. And with Smoke standing there, hip cocked and expression unguarded, he gets an idea.

“Hi, sweetie”, he mutters quietly enough to be convincing yet loud enough for Fuze to hear and puts an arm around Smoke’s shoulders.

He might be slow on the uptake sometimes, but right now Smoke’s spontaneity triumphs. Making it look natural, his face lights up and he wraps an arm around Mute’s waist, pulling him closer and greeting him with a soft: “Hey, babe.”

Before them, the Uzbek momentarily loses his train of thought before continuing his rant.

And oh yes, if there ever was anyone perfect for this kind of stunt, it’s Smoke. He spends half his time touching Mute already anyway, fixing his clothes, fiddling with his phone (including taking it out of his pocket), feeding him usually questionable things, leaning into him out of laziness, peering over his shoulder while steadying himself on him – the list is endless and has long stopped bothering Mute though he rarely initiates contact himself. Right now, he’s very glad for this familiarity between them.

Seemingly uninterested in the proceedings, Mute pushes a hand into Smoke’s half-long hair and starts petting it. It’s as soft as its glossiness promises but if he’s honest, he wouldn’t have minded one bit if it was coarse or greasy because the face Smoke makes all of a sudden is priceless. He didn’t expect his features to go slack like this, for him to melt into this touch completely, and he has to suppress a chuckle. It seems he’s finally found an off switch. The longer he massages his scalp, runs his fingers through black hair, the more the grip around his torso loosens and the more Smoke sways in place. He looks like he’s got trouble keeping his eyes open and it’s, well, it’s endearing in an unexpected way. And Mute already knows he’ll shamelessly exploit this knowledge in the future.

Still, he hasn’t achieved his goal of pissing off Fuze enough for him to stop hissing at Thatcher, and so he pauses his ministrations to watch in amusement as Smoke returns to this plane of existence very, very slowly. He blinks, shifts his weight and presses his compact body more against Mute’s in the process, and he’s so dazed and adorable that the one thing which most likely will achieve the intended effect doesn’t even seem like such a bad idea anymore.

So Mute leans down and kisses him.

Fuze trails off mid sentence.

It was just a brief touch of lips on lips, but despite his stupefaction, Smoke possessed the presence of mind to tilt his head into it, slide his eyes shut and capture Mute’s lower lip between his own for a second and hey, that’s much better than him shoving his tongue down Mute’s throat as a joke or maybe him slobbering all over Mute because that’s kind of what he was expecting. When it’s just nice instead, he makes no move to hide his smile and straightens back up to catch Fuze’s eye innocently.

And while Smoke’s hand drops lower and starts groping Mute’s butt, the Uzbek’s expression darkens. He spits one last sentence at Thatcher and turns around on his heel to stride away with purpose.

Wordlessly, Thatcher just looks at them.

“What just happened?”, Smoke wants to know meekly, visibly overwhelmed with the situation and Mute could really get used to this.

“Fuze was being a scandium astatine tungsten holmium rhenium”, Mute explains matter-of-factly.

Thatcher shakes his head with a grin. “Little shits”, he murmurs, but to Mute’s ears it sounds grateful. He leaves them to it, still holding on to each other for some reason.

“You wanna take a spa day with us instead of vegetating in the lab this weekend?” He’s gently massaging the base of Smoke’s skull now and notices his eyelashes flutter. Cute. It’s cuter than it has any right to be.

“What, give up gaming till morning for sitting around and talking about feelings?”

Mute snorts. Is that what he thinks they do in their spare time? “I’ll pet your hair if you say yes.”

“… when are you guys meeting up?”

And he can’t help but give Smoke a quick hug while laughing before relaying the details.

~*~

“Mark.” A hand on his shoulder, him curled around a warm body, and a pleasant dream lingering – he’s not at all ready to wake up. “Mark, get up. It’s late.”

He huffs a sigh, hears it echoed from the small creature next to him and stretches before cracking open an eye. Sledge is regarding him with a fond smile, whereas Diana, pressed against him on her side, pretends to be still asleep. The living room is empty save for a myriad of bottles and glasses and oh, that means everyone’s gone already. Sledge has already changed into sweatpants and a loose t-shirt, pads around barefoot and tidies a little while Mute sits up on the couch, strokes the corgi lady’s soft fur with one hand and checks his phone with the other. u home yet?, Smoke asks and it’s just like him to remember Mute’s schedule despite being on the other side of the world.

was sharing body heat at Seamus, gonna head back now, he replies and pictures Smoke’s slightly irritated expression. While he’s never had an issue with Glaz, Twitch and Rook, Mute’s newly-developed friendship with Sledge caused frankly amusing uncertainty which surfaces either in territorial aggression or thinly-veiled jealousy. He ignores Mute’s assurances that the Scotsman has a long distance boyfriend somewhere seeing as no one has ever heard him mention him (but Mute knows the signs), and instead tries his best to keep Mute’s attention, unaware that he’s competing with Sledge’s dog more than anything, and that no one could ever surpass the small fluffball.

“How’s James?”, Sledge asks in a tone so natural that Mute wonders when it became so self-evident that he’d know about every detail in Smoke’s life.

“Bored a lot. Now that they’ve cleared out the base they’re just staying in the hopes of catching some stragglers who didn’t get the memo. Unlikely, but Six is right in saying if there’s a chance, they should take it. He’ll probably be back some time next week, or so he hopes.” It’s past three now, so no wonder everyone’s gone already. Since he lives in walking distance, Sledge probably figured he’d let him sleep off all the alcohol he consumed much too fast earlier – without Smoke around, it’s only half as fun, thus Mute drank like he was getting paid for it and must’ve passed out while cuddling with Diana.

His phone buzzes. It’s a singular question mark and Mute can’t help but grin at its passive aggressiveness. found the perfect snuggling partner, he replies and figures there’s no need to be cruel, so he attaches a photo of the corgi now rolled up into a ball.

“Want to take some of Moni’s salad with you?”

Mute perks up at that and trails after the Scotsman into the kitchen. Normally he’d have left straightaway, but he’s got nowhere to be tomorrow since Rook and Twitch want to go clothes shopping and Glaz was prescribed some quality time with the rest of his team, and Smoke is unavailable. They’ve both wrecked their sleep schedules over the past weeks due to time zones, and still there’ll be a period tomorrow when Mute won’t be able to contact him. He’s not looking forward to it. If he asked, Sledge would let him sleep over and probably entertain him the entire day, but it’d be inevitably coupled with a few stern words Mute imagines normal dads to direct at their children, and he’d rather avoid parental guidance. He’s old enough to make his own decisions now. Like taking photos of himself naked and deleting all of them a second later, because no. Just no.

“I can’t believe there’s some left over”, he states to distract himself from what he’d even do with nudes.

“There wasn’t. She set some aside for me earlier because she knew all of you would devour it.” And though Mute knows Sledge is kind and caring, he can’t help but wonder whether he’s feeding him specifically because Twitch snitched about him accidentally skipping meals. He should ask her tomorrow.

what about me?, Smoke wants to know and Mute almost hears his pout in his head. If he’s honest, it’s not even close. Diana is affectionate to a ridiculous degree and has never accidentally elbowed him in the crotch so she’s the clear winner – but he has to admit there was an evening they spent pressed against each other on Glaz’ couch which was uncomfortable until Mute stopped fighting against Smoke and simply put an arm around him to save space, and he barely caught anything happening on screen for the rest of the film because there was also a casual hand resting on his thigh -

“Do you miss him?”

Mute realises he’s been staring at his phone for entirely too long and Sledge is already done putting some of the delicious potato salad into a container for him. His cheeks start heating up but he can’t deny it, so he nods. It’s been a few excruciatingly long weeks and though Smoke’s expressive enough in texts, it’s just not the same.

“Have you told him that?”

And here we go. He rolls his eyes, snatches the salad with a muttered thanks and goes to put on his shoes. she smells better, he types out just to be a brat.

He pauses in the door when Sledge calls his name and expects him to meddle some more, already prepares his defence: Yes he knows, yes he should tell him, but what if he doesn’t reciprocate, and it’s such a commitment, and it’s been a while, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, and what if they don’t want the same thing -

But Sledge just says: “Get home safely. Good night.” He probably figures Mute knows all of which he’d like to say instead.

On the way back, his eyes are glued to the screen once more. They exchange good-natured banter, gossip a little over some of their colleagues’ work ethics, and then go back to complaining about the whole mission which currently separates them so inhumanely.

I sware tho when im back ill spend one day eating one day sleeping and one day gaming

Those are three different, consecutive days I assume?, Mute clarifies. If so, that sounds like a party I’d like to attend.

babe ill invite u to any party esp if its just us two

Mute is beaming. Smoke is probably expecting him to pick his message apart, make a crude joke about parties in his knickers, plan ahead for when he does come back or maybe even switch topics entirely, and on any other night Mute would indeed go for one of these options. But he’s still giddy with a slight buzz, remembering the dog’s warmth and wishing it was Smoke’s instead, that he instead makes an offer. Provides bait, in a way. Gives Smoke a chance.

Do you enjoy spending time with me that much?, he asks.

And though he firmly expects Smoke to laugh it off maybe or just take a while to reply, it’s nearly instant and so open it tugs at his heartstrings. yes, Smoke writes. Nothing else. Mute’s cheeks are starting to hurt. There’s no sarcasm, no dismissal, just a yes and he couldn’t have hoped for a lovelier answer.

That is, until he receives the next message and realises he was wrong, oh so wrong.

iodine lithium potassium uranium, it reads.

And while it’s not perfect and a little awkward, he couldn’t care less because today is the best day of his entire life. He actually tears up a little, scans the words over and over again and ignores their turning blurry, tries to come up with an appropriate reply – it needs to be just as honest, that much is clear, Smoke is taking a leap and Mute needs to make sure he catches him, and that’s when he runs into a lamp post.

It’s a miracle it hasn’t happened sooner, going by how little attention he paid to where he was going, but that doesn’t make it any better. He hits his head on metal, hard, clutches the valuable potato salad with one hand but drops his phone with a loud clatter and a curse. A quick glance establishes that yes, it’s actually broken, pieces having flown off, screen cracked, and still he doesn’t care.

Because Smoke likes him. Likes likes him. And looking back, it was glaringly obvious, wasn’t it? But somewhere among the countless hours they spent together, Mute had convinced himself that a friendship is all it was and that he should feel guilty for the surreptitious glances every time Smoke took off his shirt in his presence, that he shouldn’t mess with their dynamic and maybe Smoke only allowed him to touch his hair and no one else because… well, there was no good reason, now that he thinks about it. It’s remarkably long by now, Smoke hasn’t had it cut once and Mute vaguely remembers complimenting him on it. It suits him. Mute wants to bury both hands in it and hold him still while snogging him silly.

The phone is a goner. Doesn’t even turn on, so he puts it in his pocket, rubs the pounding spot on his forehead reminding him of his obliviousness, and only then realises the problem with this whole situation: he’s got confirmation from Smoke now.

But Smoke doesn’t know about his feelings. He doesn’t know Mute likes him back. And like this, he can’t tell him.

.

“The fuck?”, Rook slurs drowsily upon opening his door. He’s wearing pastel pyjamas with polar bears.

“I need your phone”, Mute replies, breathing hard from having run all the way. The conversation with Smoke made him go the wrong way yet once he’d oriented himself, it turned out the Frenchman’s flat was closer than anyone else’s, so he’d come here. “It’s an emergency.”

“Is anyone hurt?” He wobbles back into the apartment and emerges again carrying a potentially life-saving device.

“Only James’ pride”, Mute mutters and snatches it out of his hand. Then realises yet another problem. “This is his old number. You don’t have the new one?”

Rook looks ready to fall asleep against the door frame. “Wha? He has a new one?”

“Yeah, he dropped his phone in the sea two weeks ago. Fuck. Do you know who might have it?”

“The hell’s going on, Mark? Is he okay?”

If he wants Rook’s cooperation, he should probably tell the truth. “Yes, but he told me he liked me and I accidentally smashed my phone, so I can’t answer him. He’ll probably go to sleep soon and I don’t want him to think I’m ignoring him. I’d really like to text him. And I know it’s dumb and I probably shouldn’t have woken you up -”

“Call Timur.” Mute hesitates. “I’m serious, call him, he might have it. He won’t mind.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mark, you’ve never asked us for help in anything personal. When your jammer went arseways and you were bummed for a week, we had to forcibly drag you out of your flat. Yes, I’m sure. And I’m glad you’re here.” He still can’t bring himself to wake up more of his friends, forcing Rook to take his phone back and call Glaz himself. “Besides, you two are made for each other. Manu is gonna scream my ear off when I tell her.”

He smiles at that. “Do you want some of Moni’s potato salad as thanks?”

“No answer.” Rook hangs up, distractedly glancing at the object Mute is offering him. “Wait, did you say Moni and salad?”

.

A few minutes later, they’re in Rook’s car, listening to horrifically repetitive pop music and eating salad. “What about Seamus?”, the Frenchman suggests with his mouth full while Mute is busy calling next to everyone on Rook’s friends list.

“You know he’s gonna be the smuggest git. I’d rather avoid all the I-told-you-so.”

“Fair enough. Here we are.” Rook parks the car in the middle of the street and together, they knock on Glaz’ door until it swings inwards to reveal an extremely unhappy Kapkan.

“Oh shit”, says Mute. Apparently quality time implied a sleepover. He hopes they’ve only woken up one of the pack.

“There better be a huge fire somewhere”, the Russian growls.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that”, Rook begins to explain when one by one, the other Spetsnaz flock to the door to stare them down. Glaz, at the back, seems more worried than angry, but everyone else is visibly resentful.

“You know what, forget it, we’ll find someone else”, Mute tries to interject and avoids Fuze’s furious stare, but it’s too late.

“Mark needs to confess to James, but he destroyed his phone and I don’t have the new number. Do any of you have it?” There’s a certain impressive quality to watching Rook, still clad in baby blue bears and physically less imposing than literally every single one of the discontented men before him, calmly ask them for help with such a mundane issue.

As expected, Fuze basically explodes. “What!”, he yells and only narrowly gets stopped by Kapkan and Tachanka before he can lunge at Mute. “You two weren’t even -”

“Have you asked Manu?”, Glaz pipes up from the back, over the raging Uzbek’s shoulder.

“I will skin you! Fucking brats -”

“She’s not answering either, probably set her phone to silent. You think we should stop by?”

“Do you think this is funny? Ridiculing -”

“Worth a try. I’ll tag along.”

Mute ends up with Glaz on his lap in the front, while the three angry Russians occupy the back bench: Fuze is pissed over the Brits taking him for a fool just because they acted flirty whenever he was around, Kapkan is pissed that Fuze is pissed, and Tachanka is pissed over having to sit next to the other two. None of them are wearing any shoes – or shirts, for that matter –, except for Glaz, fortunately. It’s a complete mystery to Mute why they came along, but now he has to deal with aggravated Russian being thrown back and forth behind him.

“What about Seamus?”, Glaz inquires curiously and nearly falls into Rook’s lap at a particularly sharp turn.

“He’d be a smug shite and I don’t wanna deal with that.”

“Fair enough.”

.

Twitch is clad in pastel pyjamas with a cupcake print. She also seems understandably intimidated over being faced with six guys upon opening her door, three of which disgruntled and rearing for an actual fist fight.

“Mark needs to declare his undying love to James but blew up his phone and now none of us have his new number. Do you?”, Glaz explains the issue so badly that Mute wants to smack him.

“Why are you on their side? They were constantly provoking me!”, Fuze hisses in the background.

“Then it’s your own fucking fault for getting upset about love”, Kapkan snarls back.

Once Twitch is done literally hopping up and down with unbridled joy after having confirmed it three times, she admits: “I don’t have it, no. Didn’t he only give it to you, Mark? Have you asked Seamus?”

“We don’t wanna deal with his smartarse attitude”, Rook explains.

Twitch blinks, uncomprehending. “You can’t be serious.”

.

She sits perched on Mute’s lap for the drive whereas Fuze is forced to sit on Tachanka's, a fact over which he seems utterly infuriated. A small brawl happens halfway through, with Glaz trying to stay out of it as much as possible, and Tachanka threatening to open the door and dump Fuze’s crusty arse outside, and if Mute is honest, he hasn’t had this much fun in ages. It’s like free entertainment, and though worry nags at him, he knows they’ll eventually be successful.

Sledge is remarkably awake and even a little flustered, even more so when he eyes the crowd on his front lawn. “Is the world ending?”, he asks politely.

“Do you have James’ new number?”, Mute replies with another question and ignores Fuze kicking at his heels before getting dragged away and shoved around a bit by Kapkan.

“What, did you lose your phone after he confessed to you and now you can’t answer him?”

“How does he know everything?”, Rook whispers in Twitch’s direction, awestruck.

“That was a lucky guess”, Mute accuses him, because how.

Sledge pinches the bridge of his nose. “Mark, he told me a month ago that having you would make him both the happiest and the luckiest man on earth.”

Mute gapes at him. In the background, Kapkan snaps: “You hear that shit? That’s fucking cute, you numbskull, and you’re not going to rain on their parade!”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” Sledge’s deadpan tone implies that he’s thoroughly done with both of them – probably hinted heavily, with either of them dismissing him. “Come on in. I don’t have his number, but I know someone who would.”

They file into the house which doesn’t look much different to how Mute left it more than an hour ago, which is odd: the same lights are still on, meaning Sledge didn’t go to sleep, yet the mess is still there. He must’ve been doing something important if it kept him up till now.

“Mike’s known him for a while, so he’s likely to have James’ number”, Sledge announces and starts rifling through drawers. “But he turns off his phone at night and I don’t know where his stupid caravan is parked right now. I wrote it down somewhere.”

Mute spots a closed but running laptop on the coffee table. “Maybe you’ve got it saved on here”, he wonders and just as Sledge chokes out a panicked Mark no, flips it open.

And is faced with a very handsome, very hairy, and most importantly very naked guy on a webcam who seems surprised to see him.

He closes the laptop again. They could’ve heard a pin drop in the following silence.

“Well”, Sledge murmurs, “that, uh, was Adriani- Adriano.”

That answers that question. Mute’s face is burning.

“Tell him we’d like to meet him properly once he’s put some clothes on”, Tachanka speaks up cheerfully.

“Guys, I found more of Moni’s salad in the fridge”, Rook announces with his mouth full just as he enters the room, though he stops dead when all faces turn to him. “What? Did I miss something?”

.

For some reason, Thatcher looks the least surprised out of all of them to receive a gathering in his abode – or rather in front of it, because his moving temporary home hardly offers enough space to house eight people. It was a relief to take two cars to get here, even if Sledge seems ready to murder someone after chauffeuring three arguing Spetsnaz around.

“This puppy here wants to propose to James but since he melted his phone in the microwave, we need you to tell us exactly where he is so we can fly over”, Tachanka explains even worse than Glaz did previously and Mute just puts his head in his hands.

Thatcher scowls at them. He’s wearing pastel pyjamas with rocket ships on it. “Is this a joke?”

“Do you know James’ new number?”, Sledge takes over with a deep sigh and yanks Fuze aside the moment he tries to elbow Kapkan. Mute is no longer surprised over the fact that the Scotsman feels more like a dad to him than a friend. “I believe it’s time sensitive.”

“I don’t have it”, the old man grumbles, much to everyone’s exasperation, “but I know someone who does. Just a phone call away, come in.”

Easier said than done – one by one, they squeeze into the limited space, with Rook and Twitch climbing up to the bed and letting their feet dangle into Glaz’ field of view, while Fuze and Sledge sit down by the tiny table. The rest stands awkwardly as Thatcher rummages around aimlessly until he finally finds what he’s looking for. Namely his phone.

“That’s where you keep it?!”, Sledge wants to know, aghast. “What if there’s an emergency?”

“Well you’re all here, aren’t you.” Thatcher takes another two minutes to turn it on and by then, Mute has lost all patience.

“Let me do it”, he offers politely and adds silently: for the love of Christ. “Who am I calling?”

“Tze Long. He’s an old friend from Hong Kong, James and I know him from years ago. He’ll know.”

He vaguely remembers hearing the name before, so he navigates to contacts, tries not to look too hard at the notes Thatcher has added to a few of them, like Brunsmeier (public nuisance) and Cowden (good lad) until he lands on Nizan (hide all food). It takes him a few seconds to regain his composure but then he’s finally spotted the name Thatcher mentioned and presses the green button. He doesn’t have to wait long, seeing as it’s currently morning in Asia, but he was not at all prepared for the booming greeting nearly shattering his eardrum.

“Morning, honey, having trouble sleeping again? Want me to read you another bedtime story, hm?”

And though Mute has never met this man in his life, the sultry tone makes it painfully clear there’s absolutely nothing innocent about his offer. Even worse: since Thatcher set his phone’s volume to eleven, literally everyone in the cramped room heard.

Mute has to correct himself: today is one of the worse days of his life.

“Give me that”, Thatcher hisses and snatches the phone out of Mute’s hand. “Listen, I have visitors.”

Since he failed to lower the volume, all present continue to hear both sides of the conversation, whether they want to or not. “Wonderful! I’ve been telling you to get out more, dearie, have more social contact or you’ll end up a bitter old fart.”

“That means you need to behave.”

“I always behave. You know me. I’m extremely obedient.”

The two Frenchies on the bed are shaking with silent laughter whereas Thatcher is getting redder by the second. “All we need is James’ number. Do you have it? We have a youngin here who wants to marry him.”

“Just confess, actually”, Mute chimes in but gets ignored.

“Oh my. Yes, I have it. Do you have something to write?” Sledge holds up his phone with the notes app open as confirmation, and what follows are the longest five minutes of Mute’s life because Thatcher insists on being dictated one digit at a time, repeats it even though everyone can hear the man on the other end of the line clear as day, and then asks Sledge to confirm it. They go through the process twice to be sure and by the end Mute is ready to strangle somebody.

Thatcher thanks his ‘friend’ and hangs up on him mid-sentence, to everyone’s relief, seeing as any sentence that begins with ‘and remember to replace the trousers that we’ can’t end well. And then it’s done. They hold a collective breath as Sledge pulls up the number he just saved and presents his phone to Mute.

He’s almost forgotten why they’re all here, but the serenity of this moment hits him out of the blue – he’s about to make a life-changing decision, yet he’s convinced it’s the right one. He really, really likes Smoke. Absence did make his heart grow fonder, he spent a few sleepless nights reminiscing over all the genuine, heartfelt, entertaining, meaningful moments they shared and realised he feels incomplete knowing he can’t just meet up with him, can’t just take a spontaneous day trip by his side or just laze around at his place. This is one of the things Smoke has learnt: leaving him alone. Not always, but sometimes Mute just needs time for himself, and of all people he didn’t expect pretentious, flashy, loud Smoke to acknowledge it.

He can’t wait to tell him that he feels the same way he does.

“Can you let me through?”, he asks, expecting the others to move out of his way for some privacy, and reads the room much too late. He’s almost furthest from the door, a door three Russians are blocking. Kapkan crosses his arms.

Okay. He gets it. He interrupted their sleep, wasted their time, irritated them to hell and back, and yet they stuck it through. They… kinda deserve to hear this.

Wordlessly, he dials the number and tries not to let his racing heartbeat affect him – anxiousness is crawling up his throat, clogging it, and the fact that he’s doing this in front of eight other people doesn’t fill him with confidence. What if Smoke’s sleeping already, went to bed confused and dejected? What if he’s changed his mind in the meantime? Every beep increases his dread and leaves him more restless than before and he’s not even aware of fidgeting until Sledge reaches out and squeezes his hand reassuringly. He could’ve smooched him for the gesture, just like he could’ve thrown something at Rook for pulling a dumb grimace simultaneously.

And then Smoke answers the call. “Yeah?”, he says, sounding tired yet curious. He hasn’t gotten any sleep all night and it must be morning for him too.

“James? It’s me.” Twitch gestures emphatically and so he switches to loudspeaker, as much as he doesn’t want to. Even Fuze looks invested at this point.

“Oh, how ya babe. What’s the craic?” Now that he knows it’s Mute, he’s much more lively and Mute wants to kiss him so badly it hurts.

“My phone died, I’m really sorry. Or rather – I walked against a street light and smashed it on the floor.”

“Shit. Are you alright? I could tell my messages weren’t coming through, so I figured something happened.”

His concern feels like a warm blanket. Mute is grinning like a lunatic but is long past caring at this point. “Yeah. Well. I’m just calling – I need to tell you something.” Tachanka stands up a little straighter, the smile on Glaz’ face grows and even Thatcher looks almost proud.

“Do you?”

Just like his question earlier, it’s a prompt. And just like Smoke earlier, he won’t leave him hanging. Mute gathers all his courage, looks around the room… and no.

He has a reputation to uphold. He can’t just blurt it out, can’t lay himself bare like they’re expecting him to.

And so he asks: “Are you a carbon sample, James?”

Visible and, on Smoke’s part, audible confusion. “Huh?”

“Because I’d really like to date you.”

Rook puts a hand over his eyes, Fuze continues to frown in ignorance and Kapkan rolls his eyes so hard it must’ve hurt. But somehow, Mute knows that he did exactly the right thing when he hears Smoke’s relieved laughter, undignified chortling conveying just how grateful he must be to hear this. “Babe”, he chuckles in disbelief, “you’re unbelievable.”

And despite the presence of so many other people, this is still only their moment, because it’s only the two of them giggling like idiots. “So”, he begins once their amusement has died down a little, “does that mean we’re -”

“Yes”, Smoke cuts him off. “Hell yes. There’s no way I’m gonna sleep now, I can’t wait to see you.”

“Fucking finally!!”, Kapkan yells and the entire caravan erupts into chaos – there’s cheering, clapping, a few complaints over their behaviour in the past, and Rook and Glaz actually exchange money. Thatcher pats him on the back, Kapkan nearly breaks one of his ribs with a meaningful nudge and Tachanka loudly proclaims his blessing. Mute just laughs, caught in the middle of it all, picturing Smoke’s flabbergasted expression over the sudden commotion and wondering how in the world he’s going to explain the whole situation to him later.

“The hell’s going on”, the phone in Mute’s hand asks and even he doesn’t know.

“I’ll talk to you later, James, love you, bye!” Smiling, he hangs up and switches to text messages, starts outlining the events of the evening while the storm continues to rage on around him.

“Admit it, you coward!”, Kapkan barks, and Twitch calls for a celebration, Sledge mentions he’s tired and would rather go home, Tachanka predictably exposes him with a crude comment about his boyfriend waiting for him, Glaz remarks favourably on Thatcher’s pyjamas, and Thatcher mentions he’s got a few pieces of cake in the fridge for an impromptu party, to which Rook replies with his mouth full that there’s only one piece left, and eventually even Fuze murmurs: “Alright, it was a little cute.”

But Mute only hears half of it because he sent Smoke a heart and received a heart back as well as the follow-up of with how much electricity there is flowing between us we must be a galvanic cell and good Lord, he wasn’t even aware of how fucking doomed he was.

~*~

Smoke is radiant.

He looks good on a bad day, but right now he’s bloody gorgeous – sleeves pulled up to reveal tanned skin, long hair combed back instead of parted according to no logic at all, and eyes gleaming. With every moment that passes, he becomes more and more ethereal, incorporeal, unapproachable, like a piece of art which can’t be touched or else it’d be ruined, like a mirage. They haven’t seen each other for a month so he might as well not be real at all, or maybe all their conversations over the past few days didn’t happen and Mute dreamt of his interest being reciprocated, and if nothing happens in the next second -

Smoke drops his duffel bag, reaches up and pulls him down for a kiss. It’s sweet and impossibly tangible, convinces him that this is really happening and so he prolongs it, relishes the contact of lips on lips. When they part, he’s left light-headed. “I’m back”, Smoke informs him unnecessarily.

“You’re early.” He nods. Both of them are beaming. “You didn’t even go home?”

“I came straight here.”

It’s a little awkward, Mute doesn’t really know how to react other than grinning like a dumbass, but it seems neither of them mind. “You wanna take a shower after the long flight?”

“Wanna join me?” He hesitates and Smoke picks up on it, carries his bag inside and closes the door behind them. “Babe, don’t worry. We’ll go slow. We can just laze around all day, do nothing. I’m just happy to be here.”

Mute is not fully convinced that it’s what he himself actually wants, but he agrees with the sentiment of finding their own pace. “Me too”, he admits quietly and runs his fingers through dark hair. It’s as soft as always, the feeling addicting, just like Smoke’s mouth, and so he kisses him again. They’re both oddly shy, conscious of themselves, and Mute recognises it as uneasy vulnerability. This is uncharted territory for both of them and in order not to overstep any boundaries, they tread carefully. “You look so fucking good”, Mute murmurs in between kisses and smiles when Smoke hums contentedly.

“See, when you say things like that, it’s really hard not to just spread my legs and tell you to go ham”, Smoke mutters, making him snort and interrupt their making out. “But I’ll be a gentleman. I promise.”

He senses there’s more to it than that. “If?”, he prompts expectantly, brows raised.

And Smoke’s smirk is unbearably smug. “If we do it on the table periodically”, he finishes.

They look at each other. He’s so fucking perfect Mute just wants to hold him and never let go.

“We’re going to be insufferable, aren’t we.”

It’s not a question, more of a fatalistic statement, and yet Smoke agrees with a joyous: “God I hope so.”

[kylorenisthedarkside]

Dark Desire: Chapter 1

Word Count: 2,510 

Pairing: Harry Hook x Reader 

Summary: (Y/N) is the daughter of Belle and Beast, and the sister of King Ben. She’s a much more shy and quiet version of her brother and likes to hang out with books than people. King Ben continues with his program of recruiting more VKs from the Isle to come live with them in Auradon, and one day, they bring alone The Sea Three. One of them takes an interest in (Y/N) and starts to hang around her more than the others, surprising (Y/N) herself. What happens when everything is not what it seems and secrets/plans start to spill out? 

It has been six months since the arrival of the core four from the Isle of the Lost. Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos have all adjusted well to their new life in Auradon. Each of them strive in their own talented ways, making friends with others, and doing more good than evil. With that, it has been decided that the program to recruit more kids from the isle continue on successfully Each week, King Ben and the core four meet up to consult on who shall be recruited from the isle to come live in Auradon. The previous week, they all decided on Dizzy, the granddaughter of Lady Tremaine and Celia, the daughter of Dr. Facilier to join them in the beautiful mainland. Upon arriving for the present week, Ben has conducted a meeting with his friends to decide who will be joining them next.

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos have all arrived in Ben’s office and sat down at his grand meeting table. Ben respectfully sits at the head of the table surrounded by piles of folders and applications with the pictures of the Vks they are deciding on bringing over. “It has come to my attention that you four have been acquainted with some of these Vks in the past, and they have made quite the namesake for themselves since you all have left. Before we officially decide, it is only fair of me to ask you all how you feel about these possible recruits.” He looks around the table, waiting for someone to speak. Evie looks curious as she tries to glance over at the pictures. “Who are they? There are many VKs you could be talking about.”

Ben flips the photos over and pushes them towards her so she can take a good look. “Gil, son of Gaston, Harry, son of Captain James Hook, and Uma, daughter of Ursula. Do any of these names sound familiar to you?” Mal suddenly glares as her eyes glance over the picture of the sea witch’s daughter. “I’ve heard of them……nothing special.” Ben doesn’t look convinced. “Your face says otherwise. What is it, Mal?” he asks his girlfriend. Mal waves him off as she crosses her arms over her chest, looking away from the picture. “Nothing. Just…..out of all the VKs on the isle, you had to choose between these three?” Ben looks hopeful. “I’ve been reading their application, and it seems as if they need to come over to Auradon the most. Look, even Uma wrote a note on her application saying that she desperately wants to get off the island and live a better life.” Mal snorts, not believing him. “Uma doesn’t beg. She secretly wants something and is using this program to get it.”

Jay places a gentle hand on Mal’s arm. “Maybe they’ve changed? I mean, look at us. We never thought we’d be in this position in a million years. Perhaps we can give them a chance for a better life. Everyone deserves at least that.” Evie nods in agreement. “Yeah, M. I know you and her have never really gotten along, but maybe having her here in Auradon can change that. Maybe you two could even become friends.” Mal rolls her eyes. “Yeah, okay, first of all, that’s never gonna happen, and second…..she could be constructing an evil plan to destroy us all and our guards would be down because we were too busy trying to make them feel welcome. This is how she’ll strike.”

Ben chuckles sheepishly. “Mal, I think you’re looking too much into this. We have security here, guards lined up all around us. We would be alerted at a moment’s notice if anything bad were to happen. We have defenses if she tries anything. No matter what, the people of Auradon will be safe. I mean, it worked out so well for the four of you, maybe it can work out for these three as well. We just have to give them a chance. Isn’t that the whole point of this program?” There’s silence around the table for a few moments as Mal thinks this through. She glances at her friends, who give her encouraging nods. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them back up to look at her boyfriend. “Alright, fine. We can give them a chance. But, if I smell anything fishy, they are booted right back to the isle, okay?” Ben nods, smiling softly as he grabs the VK photos and places them back in their correct folders. “Then it is settled. Gil, Harry, and Uma will be the next arrivals in Auradon!” The table erupted into cheers, except for Mal, who still feels very skeptical about this whole ordeal, but if it makes Ben and her friends happy, then she is willing to give it a chance. She just hopes that it doesn’t backfire on them later on.

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

The pounding of the school’s marching band can be heard outside as the whole school is waiting out by the front entrance for the new Isle of the Lost recruits. The crowd cheers as Fairy Godmother, Ben, Mal, and (Y/N) exit the school and walk across the paths to stand in front of Beast’s statue to welcome the recruits. A long black limo drives up the pathway towards the school, the crowd cheering louder as they get closer and closer. (Y/N) stands a step behind his brother and Mal, feeling a bit shy to meet the VKs. It happened the same way back when it was Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos joining them for the first time, except it was Princess Audrey standing with Ben and not Mal.

The limo makes its way to the front of the school and the driver hops out of the front seat, walking towards the back of the limo to open the door for the new arrivals. The music instantly stops and the crowd silences as a sword suddenly flies out of the car and lands in the lawn, right in front of the band. The first thing to pop out of the car is a shiny silver hook. “Oopsie, daisy. Sorry, mates. Just makin’ sure it was safe to come out.” The one and only Harry Hook appears out of the car in all his piratey glory. He is suddenly slapped on the arm as a beautiful dark-skinned girl climbs out of the vehicle. “Calm down, Harry. We aren’t on the isle anymore, remember? No one’s out to get us.” Harry rolls his eyes as he grabs his hat from inside the car to put it on his head. “Ye can never be too careful, mate. Bad things always happen when you let yer guard down.” Mal suddenly stiffens when she hears Harry say that. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Ben though. He wraps an arm around her waist as he glances at her. “Hey, it’s going to be alright. Trust me on this.” She feels comforted by the presence of Ben’s arm around her and nods slowly.

“Whoa…...what is all this green stuff on the ground?” a third voice suddenly says. Gil, son of Gaston, slowly climbs out of the limo as he looks around the place, admiring its beauty. Uma rolls her eyes. “It’s called grass, you dummy. It’s like seaweed, but for land.” Gil’s eyes widen in sudden recognition. “Oh…..cool.” Uma rolls her eyes and faces forward towards the welcoming committee, Harry right by her side. Ben smiles at the three and steps forward to extend a hand of welcome. “Welcome to Auradon. I hope your journey here was comfortable and pleasant?” Uma looks down at the hand in front of her, not amused. “Right…..” Ben awkwardly retracts his hand and folds them in front of him. “Right, well, as you may have guessed it, this is Auradon Prep, the school you will be attending. I’m King Ben, son of Beast and Belle. I will make sure your stay here will be as painless as possible.”

Gil looks over at Ben at the mention of his parents. “Oh, hey I know you. Your dad knew my dad, except they didn’t really get along well at all.” Ben chuckles nervously. “Yeah, of course. Anyway, over to my left is Fairy Godmother, she is the Headmistress here at Auradon Prep and will later on give you a tour of the school.” Fairy Godmother approaches them with a big, warm smile. “Welcome, dear ones. I can assure you that your time here in Auradon will be a magical one.” Uma snickers at the old lady’s excessive perkiness. Fairy Godmother frowns slightly. “I understand that you are new arrivals here today, but I always treat my students the same way as every one. With that in mind, I hope you all can remember for future circumstances that I do not tolerate attitude.” Uma snorts as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Fairy Godmother gives them all one final look before stepping back and letting Ben take over once more. Ben clears his throat to avert the attention onto him. “Continuing on, I’m sure you all know Mal, my girlfriend.  I can see you two have a lot in common and can slowly become great acquaintances, perhaps?” Uma clicks her tongue. “Not in this timeline, we won’t.” Mal huffs as she looks away from the young sea witch. Ben frowns, but tries to continue on with the welcome ceremony. He gently moves Mal slightly to the side, so he can introduce his sister. “And last, but certainly not least, this is (Y/N), my sister. She will be showing you around Auradon and where you will be staying in the dorms.” (Y/N) nods with a soft smile. She opens her mouth to say something, but is suddenly interrupted by a slowly approaching pirate with a sultry expression. “Well, well, well. Harry Hook, and you ...little duckling, are ravishing,” he says with a soft, almost whisper-like voice. (Y/N)’s eyes widen at the look Harry is giving her. She isn’t used to this kind of attention, and suddenly has lost all the will to speak.

Harry smirks when the princess doesn’t say anything. “Aww, what’s the matter, dove? Cat got yer tongue?” If she wasn’t surrounded by guards, Ben, his girlfriend, and basically the entire school, (Y/N) would have definitely gone weak in the knees by just hearing that gorgeous accent alone. Ben glares at the pirate that won’t take his eyes off his sister. Before he can say anything that he might regret later, Uma puts out an arm in front of Harry to keep him from coming closer to the princess. “Harry, settle down. We are with company.” Harry huffs lowly and slowly, but hesitantly averts his eyes away from Ben’s sister. He backs away slightly to stand next to Gil behind Uma, but that doesn’t stop him from making subtle glances at the princess every now and then.

After awhile, (Y/N) finds her voice and has the will to speak once more. “Uh, hello. As Ben said, I’m (Y/N). I will be showing you around the area and the place where you will be staying as you attend Auradon Prep. I will also be handing your school packets with all the information about your classes and when you will be attending them.” She glances over the three, but her eyes pause at Harry as she sees him fiddling with his hook in his mouth while purposefully giving her a look with those icy blue eyes. Her cheeks turn a shade of red and finds the urge to look away from the unshameful pirate. She clears her throat and composes herself, unaware of the dark haired pirate smirking at her. “Right, well, shall we get going? We’ve got lots to look at.”

The crowd slowly disappeares, going back to their regular scheduled days as the new arrivals start to follow (Y/N). Harry is standing particularly close to (Y/N) as he walks by her side. Every now and then, he would glance towards her, studying her facial features and trying to get a good look at her. For an Auradon kid and the daughter of the royal family, she doesn’t seem too bad. Perhaps he’ll take the time to get to know her during his time here. (Y/N) is totally oblivious to the pirate’s constant staring as she is focused on leading them around the campus and showing them the places where the students like to hang out the most. Gil seems to be the only one that looks interested, while Uma looks bored. “And over here we have our state of the art tourney field. This is where the players practice and play home games throughout the school year. We are quite proud of our tourney team, so far we are undefeated.” (Y/N) explains as she leads them onto the field.

Gil looks excited as he runs around. “Everything is so……..green! Ooh, what’s this red part in the middle of the field?” I chuckle. “It’s called the kill zone.” Surprisingly, all three of them widen their eyes. “Oh, no no. It’s not what you think. See, what happens is that if you are ever running through the kill zone, someone on the sidelines shoots out discs at you to try to slow you down.” Uma snorts. “You guys come up with the strangest things to do for fun.” She walks around and nudges Harry in the side as she passes by him. He nods and clears his throat as he approaches me. “So, what do yer do for fun around here, lassy?”

(Y/N) shrugs. “I don’t really have much time for myself. Being the sister of the king keeps me pretty busy. But, on the rare occasion that I do find some downtime, I like to curl up in a ball by the fireplace in the library with a good book. It helps keep the stress down.” Harry hums lowly as he slowly approaches her. “Sounds pretty boring. Don’t ye have friends to hang out with?” (Y/N) frowns. The subject of friendship always puts a damper on her mood. She suddenly retracts and hugs the books in her arms close to her chest, as if shielding herself from the world. “I…….don’t have any friends, actually.”

Harry looks a bit surprised by the fact. He never expected the princess of Auradon to have no friends. He would have guessed that she’d be the most popular girl in the kingdom, but alas he was wrong. “Really? Ye don’t have any friends? That’s…...surprising. Why is that?” The young princess bites her lower lip nervously, suddenly at a loss for words. “I…..because…….c-can we not talk about this please? Let’s just say, I prefer to be alone.” There’s a bit of awkward silence in the group before (Y/N) clears her throat. “Right, well shall we continue with the tour? There’s lots more to see.”

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Chapter 2 may appear if this part does well 

[applekitty]

‘game dedede’ is not a good person to ship escargoon with and here’s why

im glad my escargoon analysis resonated with lots of people. i saw some comments on it, which i feel the need to reply to because they’re on my post. a small few comments have been about the main focus of this whole multi paragraph crazed yammering; game dedede

(content warning: i talk about the horror comic killing stalking for four paragraphs. wow i bet this content warning doesn’t give mood whiplash at all)

now, game dedede isn’t much of anything. he’s a non-character, as he has no discernible personality in the games that isn’t really much of anything more than a catalyst for people to project a personality onto. as are all the game characters, because kirby isn’t focused so much on plot and indepth character development as it is about the gameplay. nintendo’s always been good at gameplay,  so they have basically stuck to what they’ve known and sprinkled small plot bits around places and entirely discarded anything other than hints personalities so that way they have an excuse for pure gameplay and fun to occur. it’s the same way with mario, and zelda, and usually basically all of their properties. yes, even pokemon, though usually when pokemon gets too plot heavy we get games like sun and moon, which are basically just cutscenes upon cutsc- 

what was i talking about? oh, right, game dedede.

game dedede is usually seen by the fandom as a variety of things, but the main one is nice. and by nice i mean he is usually portrayed as someone who is typically valorous and is doing the right thing, not someone who is necessarily pleasant, though some like to make him pleasant or jolly. if you know me or have even been on my blog even once on pc you’ll notice the cool deviantart stamp i got from one of my friends. i fully agree with the things it entails; dedede not being your typical uwu ‘do nothing wrong’ monarch that he’s often now plastered as because he did the whole ‘i help this cat’ in rtdl or because he wanted to keep nightmare from coming out of the fountain in nightmare in dreamland and.. whatever the name was of the game that it was a remake of.

people usually want to be able to root for the protagonist, and since dedede was a protagonist and / or in the right in a few occasions, we want to see him as a good guy doing good guy things. and there’s plenty of different ways to take that, as there’s both evidence for and against him being a morally light character. but that’s not really the point of what i’m talking about here. regardless of your own personal opinion on how ‘game dedede’ morally is, he is not a good person for escargoon to be with. there’s a reason why i said someone should be shipping him with an oc rather than game dedede, and it’s precisely because ‘game dedede’, even if he somehow zapped into the anime verse, would not be good to ship with him.

and it’s not based on chemistry or because game dedede is secretly or openly evil or something like that. it’s purely because escargoon is still a victim of abuse. and if you’re someone with a few braincells you want him to get out of that abuse and go find a new husband who’ll love and care for him. for escargoon to get game dedede seems to make sense at first because escargoon is so devoted to the anime one, but when you look at it, it’s not healthy at all.

this is essentially taking escargoon’s old abuser, wiping away all the ‘sins’ of his character just to make it so escargoon can date him. just so he can date an idealized version of his abuser. this person is quite literally just his abuser but with a mental coat of paint. 

allow me to draw comparison.

i’m going to go off here about a comic that i warned about at the top of the post. i’m not going to go too indepth about it due to the sheer nausea i might cause people if i do. it is a rather extreme example sheerly due to the content of said comic, but i can’t think of another better one off the top of my head. there’s a comic named killing stalking which was a big note for socio-political talk i think a few years back. it was a horror comic about a killer and a stalker wherein the murderer takes the stalker in, breaks his legs, and keeps in his house. the stalker, who already had sexual interest in his kidnapper, is abused due to various here and there reasons, and then after a while the comic begins the two’s sexual-romantic yet still abusive relationship. here’s the thing. the two of the characters are both men, so the relationship is gay.

many took to tumblr and various other medias smacking the comic for the display that it created (the comic chock is full of fairly nauseating things that are worth calling disgusting, but are expected of a shock horror comic) and the association it made between gay men and murderers, as well as making gay men look predatory and dangerous. normally said comic wouldn’t have been much of a problem or very noteworthy if it were about a straight pair, but it was about this Evil Gay Murderer Pair, so it was a source of controversy like shit is an attractor of flies.

despite the controversy that the comic had gotten, and the treatment in-canon it had of its characters being very clearly evil and in the wrong and clear deservance of being detracted, something strange happened. not in the comic, but in the people who decided to support said comic. people decided to support it for a number of reasons, one being that ‘oh it’s a horror comic i like horror despite what controversy or effects it may have on people’. i remember seeing it once, on my dashboard, i think. or back in the day when i was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with this comic that everyone on my dash was just going to town on. people were shipping the two main, gay characters with eachother. and they weren’t doing it in a way that was ‘oh the murderer is so hot look at him in all this blood’ sort of way. it was in a much more.. ‘cozy’ position. it was fluffy. it was shown as cute. at first i thought it was because people were fucking weirdos, but i remember this one caption that has been recalled in perfect paraphrased clarity to me.

‘some people make aus to make their ships more angsty, but i’m out here making mine healthy lol’

people were taking the murderer, the main person who was causing the problems in the comic, and turning him into a loving husband for the stalker (who was shown as very mentally ill and in desperate need of love and attention). people were making the pairing that the comic itself showed as horrifying and awful to be fluffy and cute and devoid of any problems. so that way the victim was no longer hurt. it was an au. the murderer had a new personality, he was a changed man who never hurt anyone, so he was perfect for the stalker. that way, the ship could be had but there would be no issue whatsoever.

and to be quite honest, that’s what we have here. we have an offshoot of that. though obviously the source material is much less dangerous in our case, we still have a victim in desperate need of love in an abusive relationship with someone who hurts them. then, we have people shipping said victim with a new version of that abuser just to wipe the slate clean. just to keep the ship going without anyone objecting to it, because it can all be explained away as an au or what have you. though, i’m sure the ship in killing stalking was very much bashed by people (at least, i hope it was), while this one isn’t.

i can hear my strawman in the replies already going ‘well thanks for the tangent. but ching, game dedede’s a different person. he is legitimately a different canon than anime dedede, meanwhile this is people making things up that the canon doesn’t support. if you dated a twin you won’t apply the sins of the twin on the other one, would you?’ and if this were a real life situation, you’d be correct. 

it’d be wrong to place the sins of one twin onto another sheerly because one was an abusive asshole. but since is a real life scenario, putting a victim of abuse back with someone who looks exactly like their abuser would most certainly create extreme fear and panic in that victim. it wouldn’t matter if one of the twins hasn’t done anything, the potential relationship would forever be ruined and it’d be out of their control. and no one, no self respecting person, should ever have a victim date them if they look exactly like said victim’s old abuser. that’s just asking for mental troubles and constant panic attacks.

but that’s if this were real. it’s not real. this is video games and cartoons. it doesn’t come down to that, it comes down to us and what we decide to do, and what we decide to ship. these are not real people. we are putting them together for our own amusement because you’d think they’d get along. and doing this with a ship like this with game dedede says, to me, "I do not care if it is abusive in canon, I want to ship it anyways without any problems or people calling me out, so I’ll make it so people can’t do that by stripping the abuser of their abusive characteristics and make it so this abusive ship is all sunshine and rainbows". this is especially poignant if escargoon is stripped of all his abuse as well, allowing for him to be shipped more easily. it is quite literally going ‘nope’ when one is confronted with the very real trauma of a character and discarding it. don’t get me wrong, some things in canon should be discarded in some sources of entertainment, but a character’s abuse being discarded entirely for the sake of shipping just does not sit well with me.

of course, people who ship it are absolutely not thinking this maliciously when they ship discountdesuka, but that’s what it is irregardless of what they are thinking.

‘game’ dedede / escargoon is a ‘what could’ve been’ situation. 

it is an idealized version of dedesuka, one which throws a key aspect of escargoon’s out the door purely for the fluff and the cute gay moments that could’ve been. and sadly enough, it’s probably what escargoon dreams and hopes could happen (which is arguable because escargoon gets suspicious whenever dedede is nice to him), but it never does.

i understand why people do it. i know they don’t have some secret plan to be evil by creating secret abusive content that has hidden messages in it so everyone will ship abusive ships or something ridiculous like that, and if you thought that i thought that you’re very wrong. 

in some’s cases (as shown by the tags on my escargoon post), they want to reclaim a relationship which was blatantly homophobic in execution and turn it into something better. others just want a cute ship because their version of ‘game’ dedede is morally better than his anime counterpart, and wouldn’t hurt escargoon. they want to make wholesome content to drown out canon’s shows of abuse and negativity. which is understandable to want, but to show respect to the concepts the show puts out, isn’t something that should be embraced with ‘game’ dedede/escargoon. 

but there is no undoing what anime dedede/escargoon is in the show, and what it means to give escargoon over to ‘game’ dedede instead. ‘game’ dedede / escargoon is not abusive by any initial means, but it is still something that should not be shipped regardless.

it is disrespect to escargoon’s status as an abuse victim to  ship him with the same exact person who abused him and say it’s okay because ‘he has a different personality’. 

i am begging you. please ship escargoon with your oc or some other game character.