#also character who is so ready to fall first and harder… how could i resist

[gift-of-prophecy]

people who complain about gale yapping too much don’t understand the sixth secret love language: infodumping

#like if i’m not telling you everything about smth i love… we are not tight #i fell for him immediately bc i was like OH!!! HES DOING WHAT I DO TO EVERYONE I LOVE!!! SHUT UP!!’ #also character who is so ready to fall first and harder… how could i resist #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldurs gate 3 #bg3

[omiscurls]

hi!! could i request a diluc x fem!reader angst where they were childhood friends, and when reader gets a fiancé, diluc tries to confess his feelings but reader rejects him, gets married and moves from mondstat, and every now and then diluc sends reader letters (apologizing, asking how readers day was, hoping they come back). thanks!

unrequited

plot: reader rejects the character

contains: diluc

warnings: angsty and like one curse word, that’s all

diluc was a cute kid.

as the heir to one of the most wealthy and powerful families in mondstadt, he was polite not only to his senior, but also incredibly nice to his friends, as well. different that most boys his age, he didn’t go around yelling dumb, inappropriate jokes, and didn’t take pride in making girls feel bad.

he was always sweet to those doing worse than him in class, be it theory or sparring, and acted like an absolute saint to his adopted brother.

naturally, how could one not adore a kid like that? how could the mondstadt girls not line up to see him each time, how could the boys not want to play with him? how could anyone resist, when he had that charm to him that seemed to draw people near almost against their free will?

finally, how could you not take pride in the fact that out of all those over-the-top girls who fought over each other to talk to him, out of all those boys that never failed to bug him in each little scrap of his free time, he chose to try and get close to you?

you didn’t understand it at first, but it seemed like he genuinely wanted to know you, his eyes looking as though they were studying your expression at all times, a warm smile welcoming you each time you passed him by.

his words were careful and his sentences always strained, as if he struggled to talk, but a sense of honesty and genuine sympathy always seeped through his words, confusing your little childish brain, but also forming a warm and fuzzy feeling inside your chest. 

over the years, not only did you finally answer to his advances, but also befriend the kid. his rare smiles were reserved for your eyes only, and his mind opened up before you each and every time you talked, no restrain and limitations between you two. 

he’d sit behind you in class, sometimes passing you notes with an answer to questions you didn’t know, or a funny note about the teacher, or just simply asking if you want to hang out after school. 

you’d go to windrise and sit under the tree, talking for hours about the most useless of things, about what you thought the clouds looked like, but also your futures, your dreams and hopes. 

he’d explain math to you before every exam in the dark rooms of dawn winery, hair pulled up and tea made for the both of you, looking at your struggling with unmistakable patience and affection, but what could you know? you were kids, barely even teenagers. why would you think anything of the way he said he’ll “always be there for you” after some simple math tutoring? how could you analyze his kind stare that you never saw him wear for other people? 

and so you didn’t. 

he’d sit with you on the counter of his kitchen, carefully caressing your back as you wet his shirt with tears, quietly telling you that “they didn’t deserve you anyway” after your first ever heartbreak. to hell with the fact that his own heart was breaking a millimetre more with every word he spoke, if what he said calmed you in any way, he’d talk all night, going on and on about how you deserve the world, and nothing less. 

you held his hand at his fathers memorial service, letting him tighten his grip on your fingers harder every time, you wiped away the tears, you listen to his sobs and pleas when the two of you were alone. you offered solace to him over the next painful months, you justified every word he hurt kaeya with, only to make him feel better about himself. 

to him, you were like an angel sent from above. you restored the faith he had lost in the world, you stuck by his side and lighted up his days one after the other, how could he not adore you?

how could he not fall in love? 

and trust when i say, he did really try to avoid it. he tried pushing his thoughts away, he tried focusing on something else, tried avoiding you, tried everything. no matter what he did, his mind circled back to your smile, and unconsciously he smiled as well, even if the next second he’d look in the mirror and wipe it off his face as if it was a crime to smile. 

diluc was a cute kid, and he grew up to be a polite gentleman, whom you called a friend. and as any polite gentleman, he wouldn’t dare do anything to loose the honor you had given him, so he stayed silent. stayed silent since his in-class notes, through talks about the future, through your breakups, through all the times you had been there for him. in no universe would he ever mention how the weight was lifted off his shoulders every time you as much as looked his way, how all the clouds went away at the sound of your laugh, and how he was ready to do anything in the world to keep you happy. 

somewhere in his mind, perhaps he thought you had somehow known all along, and would reward his efforts to not complicate your life with his emotions with loving him back, but how could you know? how, if he kept it a secret that well? 

in the end, his own plan backfired on him, and he realized he had lost when you ran through his door, tears in your eyes, but a smile on your face, showing off a ring, shining in sunlight, resting on your finger.

if he ever thought “they didn’t deserve you” hurt him, “i’m so happy for you!” stabbed his soul a thousand times more painfully. 

to normal people of mondstadt, there was no change in behavior from the gloomy and serious owner of angel’s share, but a few noticed how heavy his presence was, how desperately he blinked back the sheen layer of tears, glistening in the candle light while he was serving drinks, and you were off somewhere in the back, laughing with your lover by your side. 

he had lost his chance, and now there was no way in which he could get you back. no way at all. all his life, he had built up a hope inside that one of these days, he’ll get a happy ever after, and lived with that thought through all the bad moments that came along the way, and now these years of carefully building this scenario came crushing down with the realization. 

in a desperate search of any relief, he came to the conclusion that the only thing to be even remotely at peace with himself was to... simply just tell you. 

so there he was, right outside your door, the watch on his wrist striking ten in the evening, stars shining brightly on your doorstep, as you appeared before him, merely a nightgown shielding you from the cold air of the night, a soft smile adoring your lips from the moment you realized it was him. 

“diluc? what’re you doing here this late?” you said, grabbing a coat from behind the door and closing it behind you. a foolish hope sprung inside him when you joined him outside, as he stared at you with a little grin, working up the courage to speak up. 

“there’s something i wish to tell you about” he merely whispered, gesturing you to come with him.

the walk to windrise was longer than the ones you remembered from your childhood days, and the sharp air nibbled on your skin mercilessly, to the point your legs hurt a bit when you reached the tree.

diluc turned your way and spoke for the first time in what felt like forever, but was thirty minutes.

“i hoped not to burden you with the secret i’ll share with you now, and i’m sorry for whatever bad outcome it might cause, but… truth is, i can’t keep it to myself anymore, and if i want to have some peace for myself, i have to trouble you with it.” he said quietly, settling worry in your gut.

“you can tell me anything” you assured calmly “your secrets are always safe with me”

he took one last look into your caring eyes, feeling a little better just having you smile at him, and took a breath before spilling.

“i might’ve been in love with you for the last ten years” he said calmly “and i know this is hardly the time, i really do, but i just-“

“what?”

you looked at him in surprise, blood audibly pumping through your veins as you tried to comprehend what he just said.

“i do understand that you’re engaged, but-“

“do you? do you, really?” you said bitterly, making his heart sink in regret. “because to me it seems like i waited for you all those years, i hoped, and i prayed, and i wished, and after i finally, finally gave up, you decide to mess with my emotions right when i thought i had them figured out?”

diluc was stunned. so you felt the same way about him, once? he could’ve had all he hoped for? he didn’t even comprehend the rest of your sentence fully, focusing on how you just admitted to having feelings for him somewhen in the past.

“no, i’m not trying to mess with you, I’m-“

“but you are! honestly, diluc, i knew you were somewhat insensitive, but this is blatantly cruel! what- i don’t- why didn’t you say this to me earlier?”

“i wish i did, but to me it seemed like you were always chasing someone else, and i didn’t want to-“

“bother me? is that it? you didn’t want to bother me so now you decided to try and mess with my relationship? god, i- i need to be alone right now. sorry.”

and with that you were out of your usual childhood spot, leaving him alone under the tree that shared both of your secrets and plans for so long.

a longing stare pierced through your back as you ran back to mondstadt, not going home right away, but trying to find a spot where nobody would find you.

“fuck” he muttered. he was familiar with the feeling of loss, but the fact that it was nobody’s fault but his own made it a hundred times worse.

diluc was a cute child, and grew up to be a polite gentleman. so he was there to apologize to you on countless occasions, ready to beg forgiveness for his recklessness and lack of thought, but you were never there to hear his pleas.

and so it went on, a huge wedding covered the streets of mondstadt in white while he stood in the sidelines, his friends said goodbye to you as he watched from a safe distance. you left, and so did every remaining proof of his embarrassment.

nevertheless, he sent countless letters, no address on the envelope, save for the name of the city, hoping that one of them would eventually reach you. sorrow and tears almost spilled from the words written in a tidy cursive, but he never had any certainty about wether they reached you or not.

and while he hoped you forgave him,

he knew you didn’t.

#genshin impact #genshin boys #diluc angst #diluc x you #genshin diluc #diluc x reader #diluc ragnvindr #diluc #diluc headcanons #genshin angst #genshin impact angst #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader

[smackurbeoms]

ex.

genre - smut; minho dom / reader sub, unprotected sex, orgasms.

word count: 1.8k

notes: hi there, hei here! this is ny first work here. i'm currently exploring different platforms as to where else i could share my works. i hope you enjoy this work! <33

_____________________________________

Fuck it— you uttered. You were being bombarded by senseless messages, pushing you to get off your feet and go unwind. You can't— and You don't want to. You're too busy thinking about what else you could do, something more purposeful. Recovering from a breakup is not easy. It has only been 6 months since you last saw your ex, and for now, you guess you could say that you've moved on.

A year of love (of course, with a lot of lust) is not easy to get over with. Especially if your first boyfriend is no other than the well-known heartbreaker that fixed himself only for you. Well, the breakup was mutual— you could say that you got tired of each other's toxic habits, but to say the least, he never cheated.

"Y/n, c'mon. You have got to enjoy the party. An hour won't hurt; I'll wait for you, okay?" your best friend called. She doesn't ask for many favors, so it makes you guilty to say no (like for the nth time).

"Fine," you said, ending the call to go shower. You dragged yourself to get ready, and you didn't want to look like a tormented bitch also, so you tried your best to fix up. You grabbed your silk, thin-strapped black body con, which hugged your figure oh so well, and popped on some stilettos that match the look. Your hair was brought character by some big natural waves, along with soft glam makeup as a final touch. Finally, before leaving, you sprayed some of your favorite fragrance— Bvlgari Omnia in Amethyst, to be exact, and you went on your way to the bar.

You went through a crowd of cheering and dancing people, and finally, you met your best friend. A few drinks in, and she's nowhere to be found, which you assume to be making out with some dude he had met over some online dating app or whatever.

You were drinking, still, and you suddenly smelled a familiar scent brushing through your nose. Oh no, This can't be. You turned around to see who it was, and lo and behold, there he was— your ex, Lee Minho.

Minho stood by the high bar table in front of where you were settled, making you parallel to each other. You were trying your best to avoid eye contact, but you, of all people, know how much Minho hates it when someone avoids his gaze. You were chugging down your alcohol, and as you request for another glass to one of the waiters;

"No, thank you. She's not taking any more drinks," your ex said, accompanying you at the table. Yup, he is indeed my ex-boyfriend— Minho is a very stern and protective man, particularly to you, even when you were not yet dating.

"I can drink as much as I want," you replied, causing him you raise his brow at you. "Okay then, drink as much as you want. Only if someone's going to take you home," he negotiated.

"My best friend's out there making out with someone else. Do you actually think someone's going to take me home?" you rebutted. "Exactly my point, y/n. Now don't be a brat and try to be safe for once. No one's going to protect you now."

Fuck. Well, that shit hurt.

You tried to walk out of the situation when the moment you turned around, you bumped into the serving waiter making all the drinks on the tray pouring on to me. Minho, with fast reflexes, took off his coat and immediately covered you with it. "This is why you always need company," he annoyingly uttered. He brought you to his car and drove to his place.

"Cover yourself with my coat," he glared at you. "As if you never saw it," you whispered and did as he said. You both arrived at his studio unit, and Minho immediately pulled you in front of his closet. He rummaged through his closet and handed you his shirt. "Would you mind wearing one of my oversized shirts?" he asked. You nod to his question when deep inside, you felt ecstatic to wear one of Minho's shirts again. "Shit, I don't have extra undies," you said, making him widen his eyes. "You still have...uh...l-lingeries here," he hesitated.

Seeing his kinda flustered figure elated you, so you thought— It wouldn't hurt to tease a little, right?

Without any words, you rummaged through his drawers, and there you found a basket full of Minho's favorite lingeries of yours. You grabbed a red lacy panty forgetting about the bra and hopped straight to the shower. You purposely didn't close the door, and the sound of the water trickling down your skin was enough to make Minho remember all the time you spent in bed. After showering, you realized that you forgot to bring a towel with you, so you just went out naked, making Minho's eyes widen.

"Y-y/n, w-what are you doing?" he said, avoiding to look at you.

"I forgot to bring a towel. Can I borrow one?"

"Yea, sure," he said, immediately got his towel and covered you with it. "Dry me off," you provoked, making him look at you sternly. For a moment, you thought he was a different person as he obeys your commands. He was gently wiping you down with his towel. You can see his ears go red with every second, and as you look down, an evident tent was created by his growing bulge, which was enough to turn you on. You did not notice that you were staring relentlessly at his tent, so to your surprise, you gasp at a finger slipping to your now wet folds.

"I see that I still make you wet," he grinned, circling your clit around, making you releasing soft moans. "M-minho..." you yelped. You realized that you provoked him a little too much. Minho doesn't like you teasing him. It was always him that was the dominant one— the one in control. You grab onto Minho's shoulders as your knees grow weak with all the pleasure. He slightly laughed at you and immediately carried you to his bed. He hovered on top of you, making him settle himself between your folded thighs.

"I was kind of hoping to see you wearing my shirt again because you look good in it, but I've realized you look better without it," Minho said, peppering your face with sweet, light smooches as if he's not gonna fuck you out relentlessly later. You grew impatient as he continues to shower your face and your neck with wet kisses, so you cling onto his neck and kissed him. Minho, getting the signal, slipped his tongue inside your mouth wherein both your tongues were playing blissfully with each other.

In time, he was marking your neck, and his right hand was groping one of your boobs while the other was busy fingering you deeply. It began harder and harder to suppress your moans, and your lower lip was starting to taste rusty due to his and your biting.

"Keep moaning for me, baby. I want to hear them," he said, but you wanted to tease. "Make me," you said in between your breathy moans. Minho grinned at your response and pulled you to the edge of the bed. He lifted your thighs up and knelt down in front of your intimacy. His kisses were traveling down from the back of your knee, to your thighs, down to your core. As you felt Minho's lips in your heat, you couldn’t help but arch your back and moan with pleasure. Your moans were getting louder as you come closer to your high, and Minho flicking his tongue inside you was doing no help at all.

"You're so fucking wet for me," he said, licking you still. "I'm gonna c-cum..." you moaned. As expected, Minho didn't let you release just yet.

"Not yet, baby," he said, standing up and stripping down his clothes. As he took off his boxers, his erected dick sprung up, making you hunger to ram them inside of you.

"Suck," he commanded. You didn't need to be told twice as you kneel and started to suck him in. You should be teasing the hell out of him first, but you couldn't resist the sight of his warm hard cock inside your mouth. You start bobbing your head as he guides you with his hands. Deep throats are his weakness, so you kept on doing them while looking at him. He threw his head back due to the pleasure, and you kept on sucking.

"Fuck," he groaned, lifting you up and back to his bed. With no intro, he rammed his whole length inside of you, causing you to scream to the pleasure. "M-Minho..." you moaned, making him slam himself harder. "You're still so fucking tight around me," he whispered to your ear, sending shivers down your spine.

"On all fours," he again commanded. You turned your back on him, and he again slipped his cock inside of you and fucked you relentlessly. His girth stretching you out, and you couldn’t help but moan at the shaking experience he has been bringing you.

"Fuck, yes. Keep on clenching y/n. Just like that...

"Ride," he said. Minho laid down his bed as you sit on top of his member. You grind on top of him as his hands hold your waist. Seeing his beautiful, well-structured face turns you on more, finally making you insert in length in you. You lowered yourself slowly, and as you sink yourself, Minho pulled and embraced you, pumping relentlessly in and out of you. You moan by his ears, and at this point, you couldn’t help it anymore.

"Minho, fuck. I can't take it anymore. I'm gonna..." before even finishing your sentence, he hovered on top of you and fucked you faster, deeper, and harder.

"Go on, cum for me," he whispered as he rams himself in missionary. With a loud screeching moan, you came to your release as he keeps his pace, riding your high. "Suck me off," he said, and so you did. You sucked on him to his high, and with a loud groan, he came all over your face. The both of you laid silent in the bed, and in a while, Minho carried you in bridal style to the shower and washed you off. Minho was quite silent as he does his aftercare. Finally, he got his shirt that you were supposed to be wearing a while ago and assisted you in wearing them.

"Cuddle with me," he whined, making you hug him to your sleep. He was stroking your hair, making you fall deeper into his comfort. "You were supposed to wear my shirt a bit earlier, but then you began being naughty," he whispered whining to your ear. Before finally falling into dreamland, you felt him kiss you on the forehead and tightened his embrace.

"I missed you, y/n."

#ao3 #fanfic #imagines #kpop #skz #stray kids smut #stray kids #skz smut #lee minho #lee minho x reader #lee minho x you #lee know #lee know smut #lee minho smut #dom!sub #dom!minho #sub!reader

[doodlebloo]

📓 please u are my favorite dsmp writer every single daydream u have will be amazing

Augushd this is so sweet. Ok this is the outline I HAD for my "cTubbo rescues Michael_B and revives cRanboo" fic. I don't feel like I will ever write it BUT just in case pls no one steal this lol. Essentially this is how I would write the current plotline :)

I actually already have the first chapter written LOL but I doub I will ever finish it. This is the outline I had tho. ALSO this was written before the Saving Michael lore so the reason cEret doesn't save Michael w them is bc I had no idea that would be canon. Also this is messy so sorry abt that

It's been a week and a half since Ranboo died and Tubbo is sick of waiting around. He runs off to find Jack Manifold. They have a long talk where Tubbo tries to convince him to give up his keycard, but Jack doesn't want to, ESPECIALLY when Tubbo starts alluding to possibly taking himself out with the nukes. Eventually Tubbo trades him Manifork for it and then heads off to his shift at Tubburger. It's mind numbing and tedious and he hates it and he gets a lot of thinking done. He and Quackity have a chat, and when he shift ends Tubbo says a very vague and worrying goodbye to Q insinuating that he may not be coming back, Q seems as worried as Q could be while still being in character, and gives Tubbo possibly misguided but well meaning advice before he heads out.

Tubbo expects it to be a lot harder to get Techno to come w him to get Michael, but Techno's pretty much immediately ready to go. He admits that he has a pearl stasis chamber ready to go just in case, but he DOES offer to let Tubbo make one, too. Tubbo declines but Techno reassures him that he wouldn't just leave for no reason even if there's danger. Tubbo asks if Techno would teleport back even if he were holding Michael and he says yeah probably which is good enough for Tubbo. Along the journey it's good old fashioned Bonding-Ish (as in Holding Techno Accountable type bonding) till they get to Sam's island.

Tubbo is short with Sam, angry, ready to threaten, but Sam is just sad. He gives Michael back without much resistance, and he tries repeatedly to tell them what Ranboo has done. It definitely gets under Tubbo's skin, but he ignores it bc of course he does, excusing Ranboo's actions away like he always does. He and Techno get back to Snowchester and have an Awkward but sort of sweet goodbye where Techno offers future protection if Tubbo ever needs it, and Tubbo just... Revels in Michael being back for a bit.

He knocks on the door of his old house a day or two later, because if PHIL is the only one who knows where Tommy is, then things MUST be bad. Tommy invites him in, and then cClingyduo cClingyduo cClingyduo. Barest hints of healing, hushed conversations about why Tommy finds Tubbo's house safe, Tommy doesn't like Michael at first but we already see him start to grow on him by the end of the convo. Cliffhanger ending where Tubbo offhandedly mentions "finding where Ranboo respawned" bc he can't be dead and Tommy's like "I'm... Pretty sure he's dead" and Tubbo's like "Well I don't believe that. I got no proof, no body, and there's not even a ghost" and Tommy's face falls and he's like "Oh Jesus" and Tubbo's like What and Tommy's like "Tubbo... Have you not met Ranboo's ghost?"

And then hard cut to next chapter he meets the ghost of all places in the fucking Crater. And he's short with him, reminisces about the bee dome, he's polite but he pretty quickly realizes that this just Isn't Ranboo. The ghost taunts him a bit without even really meaning to and Tubbo stops being able to handle it so he just heads into his shift. He practically begs Tommy to watch his kid, and Tommy is SO reluctant at first but Tubbo needs him so he caves. Tubbo goes to work and it's raining in LN (snowing really, more like sleet) so Quackity chills inside and Tubbo chats idly with him and casually brings up necromancy and they have a tense but seemingly nonchalant convo about revival and suddenly Quackity gets serious and he's like "Tubbo you don't want to mess with this stuff" and Tubbo's like "You know about this stuff, then" and Quackitys like "No, I know how hard it is to figure it out. If I knew it I'd have at least offered you a trade offer to help revive your husband. Damn, I'm not a monster." And Tubbo is stricken by how sweet that is but anyway they keep talking and they're both really vague but eventually they trail off and Tubbo's like "Hey big Q. Where's that slime fellow." And so Quackity is still vague but he reveals Some stuff and Tubbo only half manipulating him convinced Quackity to reveal any hints he has from cDream and Quackity doesn't like doing it but he realizes that Tubbo NEEDS this. And Tubbo thanks him sincerely and Q tells him to keep in touch and that he'll murder cDream for coming near him or Tommy and that he's sure Sapnap would help him but his voice catches on the name and Q follows it up with "And I won't say I told you so if it turns out your partner is someone you don't want back." And Tubbo isn't even mad over that, he just feels SEEN, so he thanks Q for the books and disappears into the sleet of night.

Tommy and Michael are beginning to grow close, because Tubbo will only come out of his lab to feed Michael and tuck him in at night and Michael gets bored with his same old toys and coloring books sometimes and Tommy doesn't like being completely by himself, so he comes over to sit in the lab sometimes and feels safe with the extra security layers Tubbo has put up (and as Tommy tells him one night over potions, it's quite nice to hang out with Tubbo again.) Tubbo works and works and works until he finds an old sticky note from his dead husband reminding him to take a break and after that blow he couldn't keep working even if he wanted to, so he takes a walk outside as a breather and just sits and reminisces and thinks. The ghost finds him. And it sits and reminisces with him and then it asks him to STOP, tells him it doesn't want to not exist and asks Tubbo not to kill it. The ghost tells him exactly what he doesn't want to hear: that Ranboo hid things from him, that he'd hurt Tubbo before and had plans to do it again, that his skewed worldview was worse than Tubbo thought, that he'd known he was bad and asked to be locked up. And Tubbo lets that sink in... And then he's like "You say he wanted to be locked up to protect me. That sounds like something my Ranboo would do. And maybe I don't know everything about him, but I know he'd never hurt me." And the ghost tells him some of the things Ranboo has done, finishing with "And the rest I shouldn't say", and when Tubbo denies it, the spirit slips him a memory book and floats off, seemingly happier than before (likely proud of himself for preventing Ranboo's revival and his subsequent "death"). Tubbo cracks open the book and begins to read.

Tubbo hasn't seen Tommy or Michael in days. He's just been processing. He's made a little grave for Ranboo, then torn it down to make a better one, then torn the better one apart in a hurt rage, and now he sits at the quaint memorial he's made in he woods behind the mansion. He talks to the grave, as if Ranboo an actually hear him, and he talks about how maybe His Ranboo isn't even the Real Ranboo, and maybe everyone has been right about Ranboo being terrible, and that maybe Tubbo will revive him and Ranboo will stab him through the heart. But, Tubbo finishes, even if it ends up being the death of him, he cares too much for Ranboo to leave him to rot in limbo, and he's had enough of leaving his friends to die. Tubbo sends a VERY worrying comm message to Tommy, looks up at the forming clouds, and heads off to get the body. Sam grimaces when he sees how terrible Tubbo looks. He offers help, Tubbo refuses. Tubbo asks for the body. Same leads him to Ranboo's makeshift grave. He tells Tubbo about why he'd killed Ranboo, how it had gone wrong. He tries to tell him what Ranboo has done, Tubbo just responds "I Know." He hauls the coffin into his boat and doesn't respond when Sam tells him to be safe.

In his necromancy tower, Tubbo cranks the lever to raise the open coffin up to his lightning rod, reading out spells and channeling magic and tryin mg everything he can at once. He prays aloud to Channel Membership, to lady Prime, to the Goddess of Death and the Goddess of Life, and a crack of lightning strikes the coffin. It's raining hard through the open tower and the coffin is smoking and Tubbo worries his husband will get wet in the rain and he rolls down the coffin only to find a charred mark on Ranboo's chest and a lifeless corpse. Which... Doesn't make sense, because this ritual SHOULD revive someone, and... How had Wilbur been revived? And then it hits him. He has to kill the ghost.

Tubbo finds the ghost in the stupid Outpost. He's been looking for hours, and when he finally stumbles across the thing, it's singing and placing grass blocks and it's so Ranboo and so Not Ranboo that Tubbo almost keels over. They sit, and they have a long talk about the past and the present and the future, the cookie outpost and how Ranboo felt about things and how Tubbo felt about things, and it's basically every bit of cBeeduo catharsis that cTubbo needs to hear. And then the ghost sighs and it says "You're here to kill me, aren't you?" And Tubbo is like "Yeah. Yeah, I'm afraid I am." And the ghost half-heartedly tries to convince him not to, warning him about who Ranboo really is in a VERY self deprecating way, but Tubbo needs his husband back. And the ghost is like "Well, this was fun while it lasted, right? I had fun, at least, and I'm sure you had at least a little bit of fun without him." and Tubbo's like "Y'know? I actually really really didn't." And Tubbo's like "You wanna go say your goodbyes to people?* And The ghost is like "No, that's okay." And then a pause, and then "I'm sorry I wasn't him, and I'm sorry I couldn't give you whatever he gave you" Tubbo at the last second is like "I'm not sure I should do this." and the ghost smiles and is like "Then I'll do it for you. He's been itching to come home anyway." and the ghost walks right out into the rain and melts in front of him. And Tubbo is baffled for a bit, crying in an emotionless sort of way, before his brain goes FUCK FUCK FUCK RANBOO RANBOO RANBOO, and he takes his trident (Ranboo's Trident that he stole because Ranboo always let him do that fuck he misses Ranboo) and makes a mad dash for where he knows Ranboo will respawn - the prison. And when he gets there Ranboo is under a tree, confused and disoriented and gasping for air and Tubbo crouches down to look at him and Ranboo flinches away from his eyes before he meets them, "Tubbo?" and Tubbo goes blank. He picks Ranboo up and offers him his own armor, it's not waterproof but anything helps, and as Ranboo puts it on he whimpers and whines about How is he back, did Dream revive him, is Michael okay, and instead of speaking Tubbo grabs his hand and tugs gently, and he and Ranboo emerge from the tree they'd used for cover and start sprinting down the path towards Tubbo's old house, and Tubbo can't help but smile despite everything because RANBOO RANBOO RANBOO and Ranboo starts LAUGHING and it's all just perfect enough for Tubbo to ever so slightly cry. And they get to Tubbo's house and Tubbo gives him some of Tommy's clothes, Ranboo dries himself off and they sit in front of the fire. And it's deathly quiet for a good bit as they sit shoulder to shoulder until Tubbo opens his mouth to say something terrible and ends up just going "I Missed You." And Ranboo's like "Yeah God I missed you too, more than anything, actually. I still don't understand how I'm back." and Tubbo's like "I brought you back." And there's a bit of Ranboo being in awe and Tubbo acting like it's NBD, and then it gets quiet and Tubbo's like "I thought about not bringing you back." Barely above a whisper. And Ranboo's like "...What?" And Tubbo's like, "Ranboo, I know what you did to be put in the prison. I know everything you've done." And Ranboo blinks once, twice, before his eyes roll back and go purple. And Tubbo frowns, "Ranboo?" But before he can do much of anything, Ranboo is standing up and leaving, saying something in a language Tubbo doesn't understand. And Tubbo tries to stop him, to the point that they lightly tussle and fight, but Ranboo rips himself away and speaks in perfect English, "You need to let me go. I dont want to hurt you any more than I have. This is for your own good." And he walks out of house, leaving Tubbo alone in the pouring rain calling out after him.

Tubbo informs everyone that Ranboo is alive. He then informs them all that he's missing. Tubbo can tell that Techno is a bit angry with him for losing Ranboo, but they both agree to keep each other updated and look everywhere they can think of. Tubbo messages Sam, something to the effect of He knows that Ranboo has to be locked up if Sam finds him, but Tubbo would still like to know that he's been found at all. Sam agrees.

Tubbo and Tommy and Michael sit holed up in the house again, because Tommy has been getting letters sent to his dirt hut, with nothing but a smiley face printed on them, and his paranoia is so bad that he'll barely go outside.  It's just Tubbo thinking and lamenting and when Michael talks about how he's convinced that a dream he had about seeing Ranboo was real, Tubbo leaves him with Tommy and decides he HAS to take a walk, has to get away from his darling boy who he's failed. Tubbo wanders out as far as his feet will take him, paying barely any attention to where he's headed, travelling in and out of the nether and tridentine whenever he gets the chance and eventually he's walking through the woods and he hears something crunch and turns around and there's fucking RANBOO. And despite everything, he somehow looks awkward. And he vwoops out a hi, then coughs and says it in English. Tubbo is shell shocked. Ranboo starts backing away, and Tubbo rushes him, using his sword to pin Ranboo's tie to a tree. And he's like "You are not going fucking anywhere," and they fight because Tubbo knows what he's done and knows he's working with Dream, and Ranboo INSISTS that he wouldn't have used the TNT on the prison if he knew it'd kill Tommy, insists that he knows what he's doing and that it's actually DREAM that's helping HIM and that if Dream actually tried to hurt anyone he'd stop him, and Tubbo fucking explodes. He starts screaming and crying, telling Ranboo that he's an idiot if he thinks he can stop Dream on his own, that nobody can stop him, that Tubbo had worked so hard to bring him back and missed him so much just to bring back someone who doesn't care about him at all, tells Ranboo that if he's ever cared about him he'll turn around and come back home and see their son right now. And Ranboo wipes his tears away, not even flinching at the burn, and "Oh Tubbo. If you think I haven't seen Michael yet, you overestimate how easy the castle is to break into. And if you think I'm gonna hurt you, why did you marry me?" And Tubbo pulls himself back and he's like "I guess I didn't know." And Ranboo's like "I guess you didn't. You will, though. You'll see what I have planned. And it'll be good for us, and no one will ever fight again, and we'll get to be happy." And Tubbo's like "Ranboo, I don't know that you've ever known what would actually make me happy." And he takes his sword and sheathes it and walks away.

He doesn't tell Tommy what happened. They stay in the house, and Tubbo keeps Michael with him all the time instead of letting Eret babysit, literally not letting the kid out of his sight. Tubbo has been throwing himself into making traps, as many and as brutal as he can craft them, all to ignore how SELFISH he'd been to keep Ranboo to himself, how Michael hadn't even gotten to see his father for what may have been the last time ever because Tubbo wanted his husband all to himself that night, selfish and stupid and idiot. And it's a Misery chapter, Phil coming by to check in quickly and Quackity calling them both to make sure they're okay (maybe Sapnap is on the line with them), Eret stops by with food and an apology for the castle being broken into, and then eventually Eryn convinces Tommy to go on a walk, to get out and see the sun and shit, and Tommy agrees. Tubbo stays home and talks with Michael and apologizing for not believing him. And then Tommy messages Tubbo frantically, GET HERE NOW NOW NOW NOW (spam), Tubbo comes RUNNING with Michael tucked close to his chest, he bumps into Eret on the path on the way and just shoves the kid into his arms and takes off running, he skids to a stop and Tommys house is burning and ruined with a chest and a compass just like it was for the disc finale again and Tommy's on his knees and Eryn is grinning, saying something about how Tommy will have purpose again, and Tubbo trips over his own feet and vomits right into a flower bed and the world tilts on it's axis, and he and Tubbo curl up in the grass. They stay there for far too long until Tommy eventually forces himself up and offers Tubbo a shakey hand, and Tommy reads the note informing them that they have one week to head to a set of coords, and when Tommy turns the letter around it's in Ranboo's fucking handwriting.

They go to Philza and Technoblade. Tubbo doesn't want to, he begs not to, pleading with Tommy to leave it be, but Tommy insists. Tubbo pays Eret handsomely for babysitting (after all, he won't be needing money where he's going,) and heavily insinuates that Eret may be raising his kid after he dies, and Eret's insinuation in return is that he'll tell Michael stories about his parents and their adventures and make sure that he grows up knowing who they are. Eret ventures as far as a hug, and Tubbo allows himself the briefest moment to lean into it before becoming a Soldier again. Tommy and Tubbo hold hands on their way through the nether, Tommy hates the whole journey and Tubbo has to help him breathe once they get through the portal, Tubbo cracks a joke and Tommy tells him how much better he makes things and then they both get sick from deja vu. Phil is there when they arrive, they ask for Techno and Phil says he'll message and tell him to head back to the base, but he's been out looking for Ranboo so he's fairly far away. They sit with Phil and explain everything they know, and Tommy says they want help, and Phil... Basically just says it's up to Techno. Techno comes in, Tommy gives the same spiel, and when Techno starts with like "Look, I-" Tubbo interrupts, and gives the most genuine bit of emotion he's shown to Technoblade so far, and Technoblade is like "Well... I owe Dream a favor. And I can't go back on that favor. But! If you guys think Ranboo is there, I'm coming with, because I want my friend back. And if I have to fight Dream to get him back, I will fight Dream to get him back." And then he breaks and says some shit about maybe Dream and Ranboo are just hanging out and they're all gonna be interrupting, but he makes it clear that he at least wants to TALK to Ranboo. And Phil is like ah, are we gearing up then? And so Technoblade offers Tommy and Tubbo a gapple each and instructs them to be ready to go early.

Tubbo says Goodbye to his things. He says goodbye to Snowchester, to several graves, to the crater. He says goodbye to Michael, writes a note for Eret that Michael is supposed to read when he's older, texts Quackity and JM goodbye, all of which while still maintaining the false positivity that they'll make it out alive. Tubbo has no intentions of making it out alive. He thinks if he has to die to bring Michael's dad home, he will, and he thinks it's about time anyway, because his friends seem to die all the time and Tubbo never does. So they head off, and the coords lead to a weird portal that looks like Technoblade and Phil's table. And during the fight Ranboo will be purposefully not hurting them but not letting them hurt Dream either, and then Tubbo will get hurt and he'll flip like a switch and help them kill cDream. And after that there's obviously peace, because cDream is finally gone, and because cTubbo apparently knows how to revive people now (although I'd like to say that once cDream dies, the server starts running on an infinite lives system where the only death that could count is old age or something like that.)

What were Ranboo's motivations? I have literally no idea. Thats honestly probably why I didn't write it <3

and this time it isn't a mountain, but a cave. And so they travel down the darkness into this cave, and Tommy hugs Tubbo quickly and wordlessly before they go in and they hold hands all the way down, and Tubbo hopes that  Tommy looks away when he dies. And eventually they get to a strange set of corridors, stone brick hallways that sometimes lead to dead ends, sometimes empty jail cells, a maze of different passageways before they eventually find a table. In the center of the table

#asks #this is sosososo long! #also if you see any of these concepts recycled in future fics NO YOU DONT look away !!!!!!! (/lh)

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

Not The Forgiving Type

[Name] was a kind kid. He was poised to be number one until shit hit the fan. But he wasn't gonna let his dream die no matter who got in the way.

Or

The one where All Might neglects his son a little. The son eventually goes apeshit and hurts the people that wronged him on his journey to becoming the Number One Hero

Warnings: Major Character Death, Vengeance, Murder, Blood Mentions, Religious Themes/Imagery, Christianity is not portrayed in a good light, All Might is compared to God, There is no good guy, sad ending.

The thing that [Name] hates most is his smile.

Christians believe that every human was born with sin. As such, you spend every day of your life abstaining from further sins as you try to erase the red from your ledger. You’re encouraged to do acts of service, not to win the favor of God but from the kindness of your heart. Because you care about people. Yet not doing those acts of service puts you years behind if you aim to present God with a clean ledger.

[Name] was kind. It wasn’t something that came natural to him nor was it particularly easy all of the time but he made the effort. Be kind to others, the family motto. His father was like God to the people he saved. Keeping a smile on his face as if at the shine of his teeth all life’s problems would flash away. And he’d give grand speeches for no other reason than he could.

“Power” his father would say grandstanding “is for the strong to be able to protect the week” [Name]’s father had the kind of power that made the weak feel untouchable. All might would save them. They were sure of it. [Name] was sure of it too.

‘Daddy’s so strong’ [Name] thought ‘I’m gonna be strong too.’ It was a shared thought between the two actually. He was the son of the number one. The son of God. Destined to bear the weight of everyones sins. The reincarnation, who stretches himself thin for the sake of saving others. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Strong should his resolve be, lest that head roll off of his shoulders.

[Name] was four when he got his quirk. Yagi was ecstatic. There was a slim chance that the boy would be born quirkless like Yagi himself and [Name]’s mother wasn’t in the picture. A one night stand who was paid off after she showed up on his doorstep with a baby. There was no way to be completely certain what would happen, but he believed. Hoping for all hope his little boy would be strong. At the proud look on his dad’s face, [Name] smiled. He would continue to make his father proud.

At the age of nine [Name] had all but mastered said quirk. He was a prodigy who’d trained with heroes like Nighteye, and Eraserhead practicing both combat and battles of quirk. Within the next year All Might finally thought [Name] was ready. And sometime after [Name]’s 10th birthday Yagi sat him down to talk about the possibility of him being the next person to wield One For All. [Name] was more than shocked to hear that his dad had been quirkless and possessed a rare, powerful quirk. In his nervousness all he could manage was a smile, a wide confident smile that masked all his hesitation and surprise.

“I’ll be the next number one hero dad” [Name] said “And i’ll make you proud”

Yagi gave his son a matching smile “You already have. And I can’t wait to see what you will do in the future my boy”

At age 13 [Name] took down his first villain. It was illegal of course, but things are easily swept under the rug when you’re the child of God. But why should he have been punished? He was doing good for the sake of good. Saving others with a smile on his face. That was the family motto. It mattered not that the streets were stained with the villain’s blood. No, he was a hero. Heroes saved the day by defeating the villain and giving hope to the people. His actions should please God.

“He’s not ready”

“He’s my son”

“And that’s why you can’t be impartial. Take a break, spend some time with [name] and teach him how to be a hero”

[Name] creeped closer to his bedroom door at the sound of the furious whispers trying to figure out who was talking about him and why. He leaned his head against the door not risking the chance that if he opened it to take a peak he could be seen or heard.

“He’s a great kid, with a powerful quirk. He cares about stopping injustice, and he gives people hope. Like I did. He’s primed to be my successor”

“All might you know I think of you as a great hero. But he’s too much like you”

‘Nighteye’ [Name] realized

“I think he spends too much time trying to be like you that he doesn’t know the true meaning of heroics. You’re right he’s a great kid but I don’t think he’s ready for the kind of responsibility that comes with One For All.”

“Who else if not him?”

Nighteye paused, and answered cautiously “I met a kid. Resembles you in looks, a little more than [Name] does. He has a strong work ethic and made his debut into class 1B at UA. His quirk isn’t exactly strong but he’s made it so. Give him a chance”

Toshinori gave a hesitant “maybe” and the conversation ended there.

Betrayal felt like a sharp stabbing sensation. Nighteye, his precious mentor doesn’t think he’s ready enough. Doesn’t want him to succeed. Wants his father to mentor another kid because he doesn’t believe in [Name]. Ouch.

The next morning, [name] is quieter. More unsure of himself as he asks his dad to stop training with Nighteye. The relationship between All Might and Nighteye is frayed and [Name] knows that. He’s the glue keeping them together so to get back at Nighteye, [Name] will sever the connection between idol and fan. He doesn’t need Nighteye, he just needs to please his dad. He’ll train on his own and become number one. Praise be to God.

Hands gliding through the air, [Name] played with a bright red colored mist that flowed through his fingers and gathered in the palms of his hands. He would flex them, some fingers pointing down, others curled inward as if he were grabbing something with that finger only. Depending on the weight of the object he moved, his arms would flex too.

In a fight his stance became wider, more sturdy almost as if actually shouldering the weight of the object. His knees bent when he planted himself into the ground, resisting the push and pull of gravity as he lifted things with a thought and a flick of his hands. He was powerful. The kind of powerful that makes you smirk at your opponent, not because you underestimate them but just because you know you’ll win. It’s a long hard road to becoming that powerful and [Name] was damned if he wasn’t going to show it. The perfect venue was coming up too. The UA Entrance Exams.

[Name] unconsciously used his quirk to stop something from landing in the koi pond he’d been walking past. “Poor fishies” [Name] thought as he grabbed the floating book. It read ‘Hero Analysis For the Future’  He casually flipped through it, silently asking for forgiveness. He’s not a snooper; he just needed a little guidance if he was going to be the best. It was a little burnt but thorough. He heard the noise of a bunch of boys walking by and he looked up. At the sight of Bakugou [Name]’s eyes flashed red. Bakugou looked away and scowled knowing he couldn’t beat the son of the Number One hero. Not yet.

“Oh [Name]-senpai you found my book”

“Izuku-kun. I came to you for advice. But also just because I wanted to see you.”

“Of course! We’re friends you can ask me anything”

“I’ve been training a lot on my own recently because I wanted to surprise my dad with my progress but pretty soon I think I’m gonna ask him to personally train me. The UA entrance exams are pretty soon. And I want to make him proud”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine! You’re a great hero already with an amazing quirk. I think he’ll be proud of you no matter what you do”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive”

“Thanks. I’ve gotta go train, my exams are way sooner than yours. You’ve still got about 10 months right?”

“You honestly think I can make it senpai?”

“I don’t know. But I like you and you’ve got the right attitude so I want to support you. Who knows maybe you’ll make history as a quirkless hero.”

[Name] smiled and bid Izuku farewell as he headed off in the opposite direction intending to train even harder to become the number one. Everything in his life was primed so he would be the best. He was Icarus chasing after the sun on his man-made wings. But he was determined not to fall, not to drown and he refused to fail even if the sun burned him up upon first contact.

[Name] passed his entrance exams and was ranked number one in the incoming first year class. His first number one. The sports festival being his next goal, and once he finally had One For All, there’d be no one to stop him. He was sure of it. And that’s what he wanted to tell his father the day Yagi came home and excitedly told him he’d met and befriended a young boy from Mustafu called Izuku Midoriya. [Name] smiled brightly happy that the two of them had met and instead promised himself to bring the topic up the next morning.

The opportunity never came considering All Might had gone missing from the house every morning before [Name] woke up and he’d come home deflated and exhausted. [Name] would just smile at the exhausted Yagi and make the two of them dinner or tuck Yagi into the bed when he’d fall asleep on the couch. It was pretty easy for a telekinetic to tuck their dad into bed without waking him. Sometimes [Name]’s eyes and hands would glow and he’d flutter his fingers near Yagi’s temple sending him sweet dreams. After about two months of this [Name] decided to confront Yagi, and he camped out on the couch that faced the front door. When Yagi tried to sneak out [Name] spoke up

“Where are you going?”

“I’ve got some work to do early this morning”

“Everyday for two months?”

Yagi’s eyes widened, not knowing [Name] noticed his habits. And that was a part of the problem. [Name] paid attention to everything, he was a strategist who had a degree in All Might. It was how he and Midoriya became friends in the first place and why they continued to get along so well

“I’ve been training”

“For what” [Name] asked and at the slight downturn of his father’s smile he realized he’d been asking the wrong questions. “Where?” He received silence

“Who are you training dad? And don’t lie to a mind reader”

“I’ve been training Young Midoriya”

“For his entrance exams? Why not invite me? The two of us are friends and I can teach him how to spar”

“It’s just between the two of us, no need to wear yourself thin. Focus on training for the sports festival”

“I’ve been trying to ask you to train me. This is the perfect opportunity”

“Perhaps later my boy”

The disappointment barely got a chance to sit on [Name]’s face before he smiled “Have fun dad. Tell him good luck for me, yeah?” Yagi nodded and headed out the door, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. [Name] was a good kid.

[Name] returned to training alone, and cleaning up after his dad, and going to school, and listening to his dad lie, and smiling. But the feeling that he was missing something took over him and set him on edge. So he went for a walk. And who better to find than Izuku Midoriya and his dad training on a beach. [Name] reached up a hand to wave at them before realizing this is what was setting him on edge. His dad was paying more attention to his quirkless kohai than his own son. He felt another stabbing sensation similar to when Nighteye had betrayed him but this time the pain was in his chest and didn’t go away. It was accompanied by the desire to cry. And so [Name] stood there hysterical with a smile on his face and tears streaming down his cheeks. The taste of snot reaching his tongue through his teeth.

[Name] waited for them to finish training before he followed Izuku pretending to just casually bump into the boy. “Oh wow Izuku you’re shaping up. My dad says you’ve been training lately” [Name] knew the boy was horrible at lying and would probably nervously blurt out the truth between the two, and if he didn’t there was always the option of reading his mind.

“Hehe, yeah” Izuku chuckled nervously

“So what’re you training for exactly? I know you’re aiming for UA but what’s your strategy for passing the exams? Just regular old strength training?”

“Actually All Might’s been training me for something else entirely. I’ve got to go but I’ll talk about it more with you later okay?” Midoriya screamed behind him as he put some distance between the two. He was smart, smart enough not to look in [Name]’s direction anytime he lied, a strategy that kept him safe for months. All good things must come to an end.

[Name] showed up on the beach one afternoon and demanded to know what was happening. His expression was serious and his eyes glowed the moment they tried to placate him.

“I’ve been training Young Midoriya to be a hero” All Might started

“Yes I know that”  

“More accurately his successor” Midoriya finished

“Wait what” [Name] frowned

“I knew you approved of Young Midoriya becoming a hero and when I saw him save Young Bakugou from the attack I saw myself in him”

“I’M supposed to be your successor. You don’t see yourself in me? Your son?”

“Bubs-”

“Don’t Bubs me. And You!” [Name] whipped around furious, hurt in his eyes as he faced Midoriya “I told you all I ever wanted was to be like my father and make him proud. I befriended you and protected you when I could. On the day of the attack I told you I wanted to train with him and you stole him. You took him right from under me.”

“I’m sorry” Midoriya stuttered out “But you have a quirk. You don’t know what it’s like being powerless and picked on. He gave me a way out”

[Name] looked at Midoriya sympathetically, simultaneously wanting to reach out and hug the boy but also wanting to make him suffer. At [Name]’s conflicted silence Midoriya continued “Senpai, please. Can’t you just be happy for me? I’m finally getting to live my dream”

[Name] looked at him apathetically “Why would I be happy you sacrificed my dream for yours?”

“Please” they begged and oddly enough, they begged in harmony “Don’t go. Forgive us, we didn’t mean to hurt you” Their eyes were pleading almost as if they knew the second he turned his back on them, it would be the end of their relationship. [Name] got a high off of their suffering. It was the first time in months he’d truly felt happy. They got a taste of what he’d been feeling.

‘This is karma’ [Name] thought ‘God’s in his heaven and all's right with the world’ He looked at the two of them and smiled. A reassuring smile. They let out breaths they didn’t know they were holding in as he laid a hand on the side of each of their heads. “I’m sorry” he said sickeningly sweet “I’m not the forgiving type”

Neither All Might nor Midoriya had time to react before [Name]’s eyes glowed and he sent them into a nightmare where they were abandoned and lonely calling out for help only to be betrayed. [Name] walked home with his head feeling more clear than it had in weeks. He’d always thought of his father as God. And if he were God that would make [Name] Jesus.

God made Judas, and All Might made a hero out of Midoriya.

Things were awkward in [Name]’s house after that. Yagi and Izuku were still training, and so Yagi would come home to a dark house and no son to greet him. If [Name] was around when Yagi got home, he’d pretend not to notice or leave the room immediately and have his things float up to his room. Yagi knocked on his son’s door one day and though he got no response he knew [Name] was listening.

“You can still be a great hero my boy. I know you’ll do great things”

“There’s no room for me to be Number One while One For All exists”

Yagi was disheartened and walked away leaving it at that. The day of the entrance exams was coming up and Izuku would finally receive One For All. He hoped they could take it one day at a time from there, considering they’d all be attending the same school for the next few years. Midoriya went on to pass the entrance exams and earned a spot in class 1A. Yagi was ecstatic and Midoriya got a taste of what it felt like to be a hero.

The UA Sports Festival made for a grand spectacle where Izuku Midoriya had called out to the world and said “I Am Here”. He showcased an amazing power but also his poor control over said power. About a week after the festival, Izuku was attacked by villains who believed the key to his strength was in his DNA. They knew he wouldn’t sit still and let them pluck hairs, so the easiest way was to make him bleed. They ambushed him, subdued him and took him to a second location where he was bled and beaten to death. His body was found a week after his disappearance. Broken arms, legs and lacerations all over his body. The police suspected most of his injuries came from him trying to escape.

The villains couldn’t remember why they took him. The harder they tried to remember the worse their heads hurt and their eyes would glow red. Even Naomasa with his lie detector couldn’t pick up the truth. All the villains knew was that his blood was supposed to give them a boost, like some of the other illegal quirk boosters on the market. The suspects were released on bail and disappeared several hours later.

All might of course felt responsible and was weighed down with guilt. He had killed Young Midoriya through his own negligence. Heavy is the head that wore the crown. Yagi was strong enough to keep his head on his shoulders but he could not move from the position he was in.

He recalled a conversation between himself and [Name] a day or two after Midoriya’s disappearance. The boy who hadn’t smiled once since their fight on the beach gave a twisted smile as he asked “How’s your successor doing? Have they found his body yet?

Yes, All Might had done this to Young Midoriya himself. He played the part of instigator and now he was the secret keeper. He was to bear the sins of his son and himself as he prayed that unlike [Name], Young Midoriya up in heaven was of the forgiving type.

#male reader #x male reader #male reader insert #bnha x male reader #bnha x reader #mha x male reader #mha x reader #all might #that-bi-bitch-writes

[lovecinnatwist]

How would you go about writing omega Jason with Alpha Dick?

Man oh man- Omega!Jason with Alpha!Dick is always such a bop.

It depends really! I see so many fics with insecure Jason thinking Dick is too good for him which is nice and definitely in character- but sometimes it makes me crave the other end of the spectrum?

Like a confident, sexy Jason who teases Dick with his scent and body until the alpha wants to implode? I also like the idea of Jason being raised by an Omeganist!Alfred and Omega!Talia to be badass, sassy and sensual. Bras? Suppressants? Painful heats?

Not for Jason Todd!

He embraces his Omega-ninity and it wreaks havoc on Dick's hormones. Dick being a more conservative alpha would definitely find himself overwhelmed but enamored!

Here's something playful with a clumsy Alpha!Dick and confident pack Omega!Jason!

Tiddies Out - JayDick

Tags: Omegaverse, AlphaDick, OmegaJason, Pining, Crack treated Seriously, Lactating, Heat Cycles, Omega Tim, Alpha Bruce, Pup Damian- Just Dick being an obvious pining idiot and Jason enjoying his reactions-

Jason doesn’t mind being an omega. How could he when it’s one of the superior options? While Alpha’s often lost themselves to aggression during rutting season and beta’s scrambled to placate them- Omega’s got to sit back and watch the show.

Being the object of an alpha’s fascination has many perks. First off? The gifts. Lavish offerings make their way to him with little to no effort. Weaponry from Talia, Expensive silks and poisons from Ras, The latest tech from Tim and Bruce. It's an endless parade really. One of the few things that make this more bearable to put up with.

He’s a heavy milker. Always has been.

Maybe it’s from growing up in an abusive household. Perhaps it's in response to being closer to the pack’s pups or hell, maybe his body is just gearing up for the imaginary children it wants to have. Regardless of the reason Jason’s tits are aching.

They seem extra tender tonight. The cold dingy air does little to ease the tension under his armor. He shifts and the way his pads squish under bullet proof chest plates is a pain. He curses and tries to ignore it. Something that’s getting harder as the cotton under his clothing reaches its limit. Tsk- 4 hours his ass. It’s barely been 2 and he’s about to make a mess of his gear.

As annoying as it is. He reluctantly reaches into his kit to get two fresh napkins to change. Other omega’s might be shy to do this in public but Jason has always been more practical about it. Breasts are breasts, no reason to get all crazy about it.

Though it probably didn’t hurt that Jason himself had a nice rack. He knows what the other heroes say about him behind his back. His figure has never been more appreciated than now in his prime. The dip in the pit did wonders at helping him bulk up. Thighs thick, emphasising his trim waist. In the throws of season his ample chest gives him an illusion of an hourglass figure. While some people would say omega’s should be small and dainty, he has yet to meet an alpha or beta who can resist him.

Not to be vain but he is nothing else if not attractive.

He’s got his top half way off when the sound of a near violent thud echoes out in the darkness. The hiss of pain gives away the alpha before his scent can. Jason doesn’t even turn in his direction. Instead he keeps his attention on the sopping pads under the compression shirt. He hisses as the gentle adhesive pulls from his throbbing mamories.

“ You alright over there goldie? “

He gets a groan for an answer. A nicer person would have maybe let the other man know about his current state of undress. Too bad that Jason isn’t exactly known for being ‘nice’. He carefully wraps up one cotton cloth. Once he’s clean and dry, he applies another. It’s quick and easy work. The slight chill does wonders against his flush skin.

The worn form of Nightwing crawls from the side of the building. There’s a pretty good bruise on his cheek Jason is 90% sure that the acrobat had a less than graceful landing. He’s always been weird about nudity. Even back when they mostly had the same parts. He rolls his eyes as the man pointedly tries not to look at him. He can’t help scoffing at the false modesty.

“ Hood. You shouldn’t do this out in the open like this. Anyone could see you. “

Everyone knows Jason is an omega, by extension that means Red Hood. It’s one of the reasons why his territory is so well protected. No one wants to cross an omega. While the fangs in their mouths were now more for scruffing kits, no one had forgotten the days when they were for hunting prey and tearing out throats.

He would flash his at Dick but he’s wearing his helmet and would probably just looks stupid. He manages to get the other pad off. It’s absolutely drenched. His left teet is definitely working harder than the right. The sheer weight of the cotton makes a loud squelch as it hits the little plastic bag at his feet.

He snorts. “ And you know what they’d say N? Best tits in Gotham. “

The alpha’s face is anything but amused. The furrow of his brow and spike in his scent is territorial and aggressive. It’s laughable really considering the fact that between the two of them, Jason is actually the one in charge of protecting the pack. It’s all a part of being the lead omega.

Whether Bruce or Dick want to accept it or not.

“ Stop objectifying yourself like that. “

Jason enjoys the feeling of being clean and dry as he gets the other cotton adhesive on. It’s a welcome sensation. Especially when he straightens his armor and it’s a little less chafing and tight.

“ It’s only objectication if I say I’m only a nice pair of tits Wing. Luckily I’ve got a nice set of thighs too.“

He pays Dick no mind as he stands and packs away his used pads to be thrown away later. He might have to call it an early night at the rate. With the way fall is quickly approaching his heat is just dying to make an appearance. Perhaps he could get away with offering himself to the foster system. With the amount of milk he’s making now it would be better for the pups who need it to benefit instead of it all going to the trash.

“ Hood! “ The sound is a scandalized growl. It’s funny enough that Jason throws his head back and laughs free and clear. With the voice modulator it’s mean and menacing. Amusement bubbles in his chest. He can’t help taking off his helmet so that Dick can take in just how wide his smile is.

“ Sorry Wing. I’m a pretty girl. What can I say? “

Talia is nothing but progressive. While many omega’s in the west suffer from low self esteem. Jason learned his worth quickly. Confidence is beauty. The more one loves themselves, adores them selves and takes time to know themselves the more they blossom. It’s a deep healing that not everyone gets to understand. A privilege for a few chosen omegas. He cocks his head and smiles and see’s the exact moment Dick starts losing his footing in the conversation.

The alpha is tongue tied.

“ That’s not what I mean and you know it Hood. “

Jason shrugs. Once he’s got his stuff away he’s ready to run roofs and actually get some work done.

“ Sorry Goldie. It’s 2021 and haven’t you heard? Red Hood says free the tiddies. “

He doesn’t wait for a response as he makes a running start towards the edge of the building. It’s always such a thrill. He tucks a bit to clear the gap. The moment his legs touch the concrete the sound is silent despite the bulk of his frame. Dick calls after him but he loses the words in the wind. Laughter bubbles up in his throat. He wouldn’t be a prude just because his family wanted to be sexually repressed more than they wanted to be happy.

Dick doesn’t try to catch up with him and Jason finishes the night patrolling with Tim and Stephanie.

He manages to get an entire three hours out of the next set of pads. Instead of changing out in the open he accepts Alfred’s invitation back at the manor for a warm bath and cookies. Tim stares at his chest while Jason gets himself decent.

Tim is a gorgeous omega, with a slender petite frame and porcelain doll-like features. He always seems to get shy in the presence of Jason’s more unconventional curves.

Jason knows what low self esteem looks like. The younger omega wears it no matter how much bravo he tries to exude. Jason brushes against him briefly and lightly. His usual fragrance is marshmellowy from the sweetness of milk that clings to it.

There’s an immediate blush as Tim ducks away. Clearly he’s embarrassed from being caught. Though in reality where is the shame in a little boob appreciation amongst omegas?

“ You know Timmy, you gotta stop wearing bras. Maybe if you show a glimpse of those pretty pink nips Kon would take the hint. “

Tim goes red from his ears to his chest. Jason can practically see the steam coming from his ears. He slaps his hands over his petite breast quick enough to hurt. Jason wants to let him scamper off but instead he presses into his space even more. Long gone is the perfume of pup, now that Tim has come fully into his omega hood. Every day his scent leans more and more towards caramel and sugar.

“ Uhg you’re such a jerk. “

Tim tries to dodge out of his hold but Jason gets him anyway. The omega yelps and Jason ducks him right between each swollen peck. They are red and tender from patrol. He hasn’t put on new pads yet so some milk beads at his nipples. The little shriek Tim lets out is hilarious.

“ You’re going to get milk in my hair! Jason stop- God you suck- “

The omega fights and Jason lets him go before the two actually get into it. It’s light and playful. Well for the most part. Tim gets some milk on his face and the teen honest to God looks terrified. He curses all the way to the shower stall to take another quick bath all while Jason cackles at his misfortune.

“ I swear to God, when I start milking I'm going to get you back Ten fold! “

Jason rolls his eyes. As if.The last thing Jason’s afraid of is milk. It’s a natural thing. God everyone in this pack is repressed.

“ We’ll see about that Timberella! “

The omega hisses and Jason has to hold back a laugh as he leaves the shower. He’s so light and high from the interaction that he completely for gos a shirt. Not that he really wants to wear one. Not with how milk heavy and tender his chest is. Alfred’s always been pretty cool about it too. Being from the 60’s and all that jazz.

Jason maybe gets half way through the cave before the sound of metal crashing draws his attention. Dick walks cleanly into one of the metal tables in the middle of the lab space, knocking over tools and gadgets.

Bruce is thoroughly unimpressed from where he’s helping Damian stretch before bed. He’s in half of his costume, suppressors and scent blockers gone. The sheer disappointment in Damian’s gaze is astonishing.

“ Richard, please control yourself. “

The alpha looks like a deer caught in headlights, his mortification absolutely palpable in the air.

Jason does catch his eyes on his chest though. He smirks and sees the moment horror grows in those bright blue eyes. Instead of heading towards the stairs he decides to circle back towards the group.

Bruce chuffs from his position on the floor. He doesn’t stop what he’s doing but does tilt towards him in reverence. It’s been the biggest change in their dynamic. Bruce finally learning to respect Jason as not only a pack mate, but the pack omega. He greets him with a scenting.

Unlike Dick the alpha seems to pay little attention to his milking.

Damian’s puppy nose twitches as he leans towards him. It makes his heart flutter really. While Damian would never ask, Jason has thought of offering his breast many times. While Technically too old for it, they’ve all done their fair share of growing up too quickly. Something that Jason Laments as well as appreciates.

He scents Damian more thoroughly than Bruce, making him bristle. The boy tries to move out of his hold, hands swatting him away.

“ Todd cease your pestering immediately! If I smell of milk my peers will assume I still breastfeed. “

Jason snorts and pulls back from the prickly pup. Bruce gets a stupid fond look on his face and for a brief moment he feels it echoing on his lips.

“ And what’s wrong with that? If your pack omega is milking of course as a pup you’re welcome to it. “

Damian’s green eyes widen a fraction. His mouth opens in disbelief. Clearly, Damian in fact did not know that. Bruce stares as well, his scent turning into a sweet blend of ‘love-admiration-awe’. It draws a shiver up Jason’s spine. The tender mix of affection from his pack blankets over him like a net of spun sugar.

Jason doesn’t know why he feels drawn to look at Dick. The alpha hasn’t said anything in the past minute. He cuts his gaze to the stone still alpha and his heart flutters in excitement. The looks of jealousy and want is so strong that his intentions sparkle clear like aquamarine in shallow ocean waters.

The alpha is so much more honest when he thinks Jason isn’t looking.

He grins at Dick.

The alpha immediately shrinks in shame and embarrassment.

“ And of course any alpha spending my heat with me. “

#cinnatalks #Alpha!Dick #Omega!Jason #Omegaverse #Answer #Ficlets #Tiddies out #jaydick

[katsukisbimbo]

As The World Caves In

✯ pairing: hawks (takami keigo) x gn! reader

✯ genre: angst. just angst

✯ summary: you knew what no matter how bad keigo fucked up. he would be the only one for you.

✯wordcount: 1.6k+

✯warning: angst. it’s so sad. swearing. major character death.

✯ n/a: i cried so hard writing this. it was just so hard to write because of my immense love for hawks. also read this while listening to “as the world caves in” by matt maltese! it hurts more!

sometimes, you wondered what your life would be like if you rejected takami keigo’s advances towards you. lately, keigo has been too busy for you and would leave and go under radar for weeks at a time without informing you. being with him made your anxiety shoot up at the thought of him never coming back. at the thought of you finding his body cold and decaying. at the thought of never being able to hear him call you kid again.

it’s been two weeks since you’ve last seen him. you were worried, but it’s not like it was his first time doing this. you lounged around in your pajama’s as you had a day off today. you laid on your couch as you reminisced your sweet times with keigo, wanting nothing but to be in his arms.

—-

“kEigO! you fucking DICK!” you yelled as you felt your bird brained boyfriend drop you into the freezing cold water of the lake. he was bent over laughing, clutching his stomach at the sight of you drenched and freezing head to toe. you couldn’t help but admire how beautiful he looked while he laughed. you knew about keigo’s past. you knew that he didn’t have much of a childhood, and you were the one who helped him experience things that he should’ve experienced when he was younger.

“i’m sorry kid, i couldn’t resist! you look too cute pouting at me like that” he chuckled as he walked towards you to wrap his arms and wings around your shivering figure. your scowl dropped as you snuggled your face into his warm chest, relishing this moment with your boyfriend.

“hey keigo? are you gonna leave me again?” you questioned as you tilted your head up to peek at his face, catching him grimace at your question. you already knew the answer. you decided to push your negative thoughts out of your mind and just live in the present with keigo.

“you know i don’t like leaving you kid, but i have to. it’s my job, it’s our job. don’t worry about me, i’ll be back before you know it” he comforted as he pressed a loving kiss onto your forehead.

you just nodded and hugged him tighter, feeling your hot tears threaten to overflow and cascade down the apples of your cheeks.

you both stood there, holding each other as if it was the last time.

—-

you felt your phone vibrate on your stomach, pulling you from your daydreams. it was your agency calling. it must’ve been big if they were calling you on your day off.

“hello?” you answered getting ready to put your hero costume on.

“y/h/n! please get down to musutafu now! hawks needs assistance and nobodies available! he’s in big trouble!” they yelled.

that’s all it took for you to drop everything and run to your lover.

—-

“do you ever think we’re going to have kids in the future?” you question your boyfriend as you two watched the sunset rise on top of your building. you turned your head to look in his direction but he already had his eyes on you. you surely would have blushed if he did this while your relationship was still new. (he’s done it before)

he smiled at you and turned his whole body to face you, making you do the same. he brushed the stray hairs out of your face before cupping your cheek. he was fondly looking at you before he decided to speak.

“we’re gonna have all the kids you want kid. we can have a whole basketball team! just imagine that! we can make our own or adopt!” he giggled excitedly.

it was rare to see your boyfriend like this. most of the time he was very serious, especially during patrol as he took his job quite earnestly. the way he did his job with care and thought was admirable. sure you were in the top 10 as well, but he was number two. you strived to be like your boyfriend.

“i wanna have so many kids keigo. i wanna have a nice house, a dog, and the whole white picket fence thing. i want the whole package.” you whispered as you kissed his chest while drawing patterns on his left hip with your pointer finger.

he let out a breathy laugh and took your hand that was on his hip and placed it against his face, snuggling his cheek against it. you gently caressed his cheek with your thumb, making him sigh in content.

“i love you y/n. i love you so much” he whispered as he moved to capture your lips into an innocent kiss.

what started as an innocent kiss soon turned into a heated makeout session as keigo slipped his tongue into your mouth, rubbing his tongue against yours which caused you to let out a low moan.

you felt him pull away as he hovered over you, raking his eyes down from your glassy eyes to your kiss bitten lips.

“how about we get started on the whole baby thing?” he questioned with a smirk.

—-

you soon arrived at the scene where keigo was supposed to be. it looked like a ghost town. buildings and streets were empty as you checked for anymore civilians in the vicinity. you soon heard a loud crash a few blocks away from your current location and ran towards the sound.

—

“you haven’t been home much keigo” you grumbled as you stirred your tea in your mug. your boyfriend sighed as he felt irritated that you were bringing this up again.

“how many times do i have to say it y/n? it’s my job.” he rolled his eyes.

“don’t give me that shit keigo. i know its your fucking job. it’s my job too. but you’re leaving so often now. i don’t even know if you’ll come back alive. for all i know you could be coming back to me already cold. i’m just worried. and i don’t know where you go either. it’s just not the ideal situation.”

he scoffed. “being a hero is NEVER an ideal situation y/n. you fucking know that. oh wait, you don’t. you don’t have the same responsibilities as me because they don’t trust you enough with that shit. they’re not just gonna let a rinky dink hero take care of shit they can’t handle”

you couldn’t believe that he just said that to you. all you wanted to do was scream and yell at him. you wanted to tell him how much of an asshole he was. you want him to feel what you were feeling. instead, you just turned your back on him and walked away, not looking back to see if he would follow you.

you soon felt a hand grasp your arm and you were turned to face your solemn looking boyfriend.

“y/n- i didn’t mean that. i’m so sor-“ you grasped his hand holding your arm and pushed it off. feeling your tears finally cascade down your heated cheeks.

“i’m done keigo.” you said as you turned your back on him once more. not seeing him fall down to his knees.

you wanted to go back to him. you wanted to tell him that it was okay. and that you were both just upset. but your pride was too hurt, and so were your feelings.

—-

you felt your thoughts running a mile a minute. was that keigo? was that the villain? who was it? who got hurt?

you soon found out as you arrived on the scene, seeing your former lover covered under a pile of rubble. his once luscious wings were bent in odd angles, most of his feathers already gone.

“keigo. KEIGO! please wake up, keigo wake up please i’m so sorry keigo! please wake up birdie. please wake up” you wailed as you shook him.

“hey baby bird” he coughed as he brought his arm up to pet your head, knowing that you liked getting head pats when you were nervous.

“keigo, wait here okay? just wait i’ll go find that stupid villain and beat their ass okay?” he just nodded and let let his hands rest on his stomach.

—-

“KEIGO! keigo! i’m back! i beat the shit outta that guy and i called for an ambulance. you’re gonna be okay” you panted as you laid yourself right beside keigo’s figure.

he smiled at you and took your hand in his, rubbing smooth circles on your warm palm. keigo looked deathly pale. you sat up to inspect his injuries and saw that his jacket was soaked in his own blood.

you couldn’t believe that you didn’t notice earlier. why didn’t he saying anything? or did he not even feel it anymore?

“k-keigo? talk to me okay? stay awake baby. stay awake for me” you cried as you placed his head onto your lap. he nodded slightly and coughed out a little blood, which you gently wiped away.

“you and i are gonna make the prettiest babies one day. i’m so thankful that you came into my life. without you, i would’ve stayed lost. *cough* you made my days so much brighter pretty bird. i can’t w-wait to marry you one day” he wheezed, mustering up a smile.

this only made you cry harder.

“yes my love, we will. i’m gonna marry you kei. i’m gonna give you the family that you want. we’re gonna name our first son enji right? you’re such an endeavour fanboy. i remember when you told me that i got so upset beca-“ you cut yourself off when you noticed that hawks had gone silent.

“kei? keigo? why am i the only one talking keigo? keigo please. please you can’t leave me. keigo i love you. i’m so sorry baby. please. keigo.” you sobbed, holding his now cold body closer to yours. you heard the ambulances arriving. but it was already too late. he was gone.

“it’s always gonna be you keigo” you whispered as you pressed a one last kiss on his forehead.

#boku no hero academia #anime #bnha #mha #my hero acadamia #hawks #hawks x y/n #hawks x you #hawks x reader #hawks angst #takami keigo x reader #takami keigo x you #takami keigo #takami keigo x y/m #bnha angst #mha angst #hawks pro hero

[organabanana]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supergirl Rating: T Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen  Characters: Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen (Supergirl TV 2015)  Additional Tags: implied supercorp dumbery, alex's malfunctioning gaydar, strap-on talk, Domestic Fluff Summary: Alex and Kelly discuss sapphic culture, watch a movie, consider strap-ons, and make the most of same-day delivery. I could pretend there's a plot here but honestly it's just domestic fluff for a cute little prompt. Notes: Written for the prompt "Imagine Me & You" for the Pride theme at @femslashexchange. First time writing Dansen so I hope you'll enjoy!

[ao3 link]

“Stop staring at me like that! I thought you people were supposed to be non-judgmental.”

If Kelly takes issue with Alex’s tone when referring to psychologists as ‘you people’, she certainly doesn’t show it. She just keeps staring, body turned to face Alex’s on the couch and palms neatly resting on her knees like she’s trying to keep her composure in the face of an unhinged patient or something.

Which is, if you ask Alex, an overreaction.

“We are. I wouldn’t say I’m judging you per se, it’s just—“ Kelly presses her lips together for a moment, clearly trying to come up with non-judgmental words to convey her very judgmental (Alex can read it all over her face) thoughts. “It’s just— you’ve really never—“

“Never.” Alex shrugs, like it’s no big deal. Actually, you know what? She shrugs because it’s no big deal.

“But you’ve… I mean, at least you must be familiar with it? Word of mouth, if nothing else?”

Alex contemplates for a moment, lips pursed slightly as she looks up like she’s expecting to find some kind of cue card on the ceiling of their apartment.

“Not really?” she finally decides, after a few moments of soul-searching, “I don’t really— I mean I know it’s uh… lesbian adjacent?” Alex illustrates how unsure she is about that particular statement with a swishy hand motion, but it clearly does nothing to impress her girlfriend.

“Lesbian adjac— Alex!” Kelly’s eyes widen as she finally loses all semblance of professional poker face (not that she’d been doing a great job before, mind you) and lets out an incredulous chuckle. “It’s not lesbian adjacent, it’s— it’s a cornerstone of sapphic culture!”

“Oh come on, Kel!” It’s Alex’s turn to laugh now, more than a little bit charmed by just how passionate her otherwise very rational girlfriend seems to be about something as silly as this. “It’s so not a cornerstone of sapphic anything. Strap-ons? Sure, I could see that. Some dumb—“

“Do not finish that sent— wait, did you just say strap-ons?”

Alex shrugs. She said what she said. She’s also acutely aware of the very visible (and oh, so very pretty) glow on her girlfriend’s cheeks, no matter how hard Kelly tries to look unaffected.

“Anyway,” Kelly shakes her head just so, and Alex could not possibly be any more enamored by the way she clears her throat and shifts on her seat, “as I was saying, I’m surprised a lesbian over thirty has never seen Imagine Me & You, that’s all.”

“Eh. I’m not much for rom-coms. Can we go back to strap-ons for a minute, though? I feel like there’s a conversation to be had there.”

Alex can see the struggle right there in Kelly’s eyes. Will Kelly Olsen drop an argument, mild as this particular one may be, before it’s been thoroughly resolved? Will she give in to the heat Alex can nearly feel radiating off her cheeks and talk about sex toys instead?

“Would you wear it, or would I?” Alex asks, choosing to give her girlfriend a small nudge in the (obvious, if you ask her) right direction.

“You don’t like romantic comedies?” Kelly says at exactly the same time, looking at Alex like she’s suddenly sprouted a second head.

Alex groans, throwing her head back against the couch in such despair she nearly doesn’t hear Kelly’s next words.

“You. I think?”

Oh.

Alex is once again fully engaged with the conversation, licking her lips as she straightens her back and turns to focus on her girlfriend. “Yeah?” Alex can feel heat rising to her own cheeks now, oddly flattered by Kelly’s choice. “You think?”

There’s a certain warmth to Kelly’s smile when she looks into Alex’s eyes. The kind of warmth that lets Alex know Kelly has somehow read her thoughts and understood them, likely better than Alex herself. “I think you could pull it off, yes,” she says, long fingers wrapping around Alex’s and tugging lightly to encourage her to get a little closer.

Alex would love to be the kind of woman who can keep this back and forth of flirty banter going for a while. She’d love to be the kind of woman who can tease and flirt and play the part of the cool lesbian who knows she’s hot stuff. But the thing is, Kelly is just so beautiful. She’s soft and warm and she thinks Alex could pull off a strap-on and she’s practically begging for a kiss (which Alex immediately gives her, of course, she’s not a monster), and how could Alex possibly resist?

How could anyone, really?

Those cool lesbians simply have never had Kelly Olsen’s bedroom eyes directed at them.

“Wanna go on-line shopping?” Alex whispers between the second kiss and the third, grinning when Kelly’s fingers slide into her hair, “I bet they have same-day delivery.”

Kelly chuckles, light and sweet against Alex’s lips and fully obliterating whatever crumbs of coolness Alex may have had left. “In a rush, are we?”

“Lil bit, yeah,” Alex freely admits, a bit too taken with the way Kelly smiles at her to care if she’s proving once again she’s not the coolest where her girlfriend is involved. But, again — how could anyone resist? Kelly shifts on the couch, smoothly readjusting their position until she’s on her back with Alex on top of her, and Alex is pretty sure she’s peaked. Life simply doesn’t get any better than this.

(Alex has thought she’s peaked, on average, around twice a day since she started dating Kelly. Don’t you dare judge her.)

Kelly’s neck smells faintly of lavender when Alex trails kisses up warm skin towards the spot right behind Kelly’s ear.

“Soap thief,” she whispers, teeth gently nipping and making Kelly let out a sound that falls somewhere between a laugh and a gasp, “for shame.”

Kelly doesn’t answer right away. She lets Alex bask in the feeling of having the upper hand for a few seconds, slips her own hands under Alex’s shirt to grab at the solid muscles on her back, spreads her legs so Alex’s thigh can slot between them… and then she speaks.

“Will your cock be lavender too?”

Alex makes a sound. Unfortunately, because it’s neither sexy nor dignified. She sputters, really. Nearly chokes on her own breath. In her defense… well, honestly, she doesn’t think she needs a defense. Who wouldn’t be disarmed by her girlfriend, all warm and soft and rocking against her thigh with purpose, suddenly bringing up lavender cocks?

Come on now.

“W— would you like it lavender?” Alex manages to ask, voice slightly higher than normal as she pushes herself up on her hands to look into Kelly’s eyes. And maybe also to shift her weight onto her knee, her thigh pressing a little harder between Kelly’s legs. “Do you want it lavender?”

“Baby,” Kelly sighs and arches her back just slightly — just enough to make the column of her neck impossible to resist, so Alex presses an open-mouthed kiss to Kelly’s throat and feels the words vibrate against her lips as they come out, “I want it yours.”

***

Alex’s brain doesn’t fully recover until nearly two hours later, when she’s sitting at her desk staring at the tracking website for the package they will be receiving at some point within that same day.

Technology, right? What a wonderful thing.

“Are you still watching that?” Kelly’s tone is teasing as she walks out of the bathroom brushing her fingers through her freshly washed, still wet hair. “Are you expecting it to just teleport here by sheer force of will?”

Alex shrugs. She’s familiar enough with Martian tech to hold out hope for that happening. And honestly, considering the requests Kelly made regarding size while choosing the (lavender, yes) toy, Alex is pretty sure not even staring unblinkingly at her screen fully qualifies her as the most eager person in the room.

“You know it won’t be here for at least a couple hours,” Kelly insists, “but I know just how we could fill the time.”

It’s like a switch has been flipped. One second Alex is staring at the screen, and the next she’s pretty much forgotten there’s a package to receive. Alex wouldn’t call the look on Kelly’s eyes flirty, exactly, but it’s certainly something. Playful, maybe. Is playful better than flirty?

Alex is oh-so-ready to find out.

“Yeah?” Alex says, already on her feet and moving towards Kelly.

Kelly nods, eyes practically sparkling as she sits on the couch once again.

And Alex, of course, follows her.

Who wouldn’t?

Kelly kisses her first. Something short and sweet that leaves Alex smiling and hoping for a reprise. But instead, Kelly speaks.

“We can watch Imagine Me & You.”

Alex groans, and she’d be lying if she said there isn’t at least a bit of dramatic flair involved in the intensity of her despair. “Kelly! I told you I don’t like romcoms!”

“But you love romance!” Kelly motions in the general direction of the shelf that’s nearly overflowing with little mementos of their life together. A box full of movie theater tickets, a dried flower from the first time they celebrated Valentine’s day, the cork from the first bottle of wine they drank in their home… and the collection is very much maintained (and steadily grown) by Alex. “How can you not like romantic comedies? They should be right up your alley.”

“I like real romance. Not… fake, decaf romance.”

And it’s not a controversial statement, Alex thinks. It’s pretty much common sense. There’s real life, and then there’s movies. There’s real romance — the kind that makes her laugh and cry and get butterflies in her stomach — and then there’s Hollywood’s version of romance, which feels hollow most of the time. Everyone knows that, right?

So why is Kelly looking at her like she’s just cracked some kind of code?

“What? Stop being creepy. I liked it better when you were judging me earlier.”

“But you like big dramatic romance movies,” Kelly prods, “right?”

“Well, sure, but that’s different.”

“Because…” Kelly nods encouragingly.

“I don’t know, Kel. I guess because rom-coms are just kinda…” Alex sighs, “I don’t know.”

“Insubstantial?” Kelly offers, “hard to engage with beyond mindless entertainment? Alienating, even, in a way?”

“Right!” Freaking finally, Kelly gets it. Alex isn’t weird. This is a universal phenomenon, obviously. “Exactly! Exactly that.”

“Honey,” Kelly pats the back of Alex’s hand affectionately, voice down to just barely above a whisper, “that’s ‘cause you’re gay.”

Alex scoffs, somewhere between amused and outraged. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Kelly’s eyes narrow just slightly. There’s a glint to them that Alex knows very well. It’s the look Kelly gets when she knows she’s right.

“Tell you what,” Kelly says, leaning over to grab the remote from the coffee table and then leaning against Alex’s side as she turns on the tv, “you watch this one movie with me, indulge my scientific curiosity, and if you haven’t changed your mind by the end I’ll drop the subject forever.”

It’s not a bad offer. Alex purses her lips and pretends to think about it very seriously anyway, just because it’s one thing to be thoroughly whipped when it comes to her girlfriend, but it’s a whole different story to not even try to pretend she can put her foot down once in a while.

Besides, she loves the way Kelly’s face lights up when Alex finally (inevitably) says yes.

“Okay, fine,” Alex sighs just to offset the sheer size of her heart eyes when Kelly does, in fact, light up, “one movie.”

Kelly practically flies through their streaming options, clearly more than familiar with the location of Imagine Me & You. And there are so many questions Alex could ask. So many ways she could poke fun at her girlfriend for what’s clearly a bit of a fangirly obsession. But right when Kelly presses play, Alex notices something that pulls her attention in an entirely different direction.

“Piper Perabo! Oh, I love her,” she sighs, wrapping an arm around Kelly’s shoulders as her girlfriend snuggles into her preferred movie-watching position, “I watched Coyote Ugly a million times as a teen. My mom ended up getting me the DVD so I’d stop renting it every single week.”

Kelly chuckles lightly, draping one arm across Alex’s waist. “And that didn’t give you any hints that you might have been a bit gay?”

Alex shrugs. Whether she’d been really oblivious or just in denial, she’s at a point in her life and her journey now where she can make a bit of fun of her teenage self. “What can I say? My gaydar’s never been the most finely tuned.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Just look at the Kara thing.”

“The what now?” Alex looks away from the screen to stare at Kelly instead. As far as she’s aware — and she’s a very observant vigilante, mind you — there’s no such thing as ‘the Kara thing’, whatever that means. And what would that have to do with her (lack of a) gaydar, anyway? “What Kara thing?”

“Nothing,” Kelly points at the screen, “watch the movie.”

“No, what did you me— is that Cersei Lannister?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s so good in this. I may have a bit of a crush.”

“On Cersei freaking Lannister, Kel?” Alex lets out an amused chuckle. “I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that.”

“Will you please just watch the movie?”

“Fine, fine, sheesh,” Alex moves her hand down Kelly’s side just to gently poke at a particularly ticklish spot, “but I can’t promise I won’t be too freaked out about Cersei to fully focus.”

But there’s Piper Perabo in a beautiful wedding dress flashing a beautiful smile, and really, not even Cersei Lannister being on the receiving end of that smile can stop Alex from getting sucked into the movie and what’s happening in it.

She watches a ring fall into a punch bowl and exchanged looks and smiles. She hears, much to her surprise, unspoken lines between Piper Perabo and Cersei Lannister that make her smile at the screen because yeah— yeah, she’s been there. She’s smiled like that. She’s felt like that. She’s so enthralled by the movie that it’s only when she feels herself laugh at Cersei’s friend calling herself ecstatic that she realizes she’s been quiet for a while.

“Ok, that was funny. Most rom-coms aren’t even really coms.”

“You’re enjoying this,” Kelly says, her voice full of teasing glee.

Alex feels color rise to her cheeks. “Will you please just watch the movie?”

Kelly doesn’t argue this time.

There’s a science presentation in the dark, pinky fingers nearly touching, a very questionable choice at the movie rental place — “oh, no, you don’t want to learn from Georgie’s Bush” — and then there’s a date.

Alex feels Kelly hold her a little tighter when Rachel asks Luce — who cares about Cersei Lannister, anyway? — to put both her arms around her, and she feels herself smile like a fool when the lily’s meaning is shared. And then. Then there’s almost a kiss, but not quite, and Rachel barging into the flower shop, and Alex is fully invested now. There’s simply no turning back.

“Oh! Oh, no, Rachel, it can’t be over!” She says out loud, because this poor conflicted woman clearly needs advice. “Don’t leave her— oh, she’s back!”

Alex has seen so many on-screen kisses. So many.

She’s watched hundreds of love stories, from cartoons to dark thrillers and everything in between. She’s been having regular movie nights with Kara since she was a teenager, and most times the chosen movie has at least one romantic storyline, if not several.

But this.

This lands somewhere deep inside her chest. And when the kiss ends because Luce has thorns in her bum, Alex realizes there are tears running down her face.

“You all right, baby?” Kelly shifts to press a kiss to Alex’s cheek, catching a tear with her lips.

“Uh huh,” Alex nods. And then she stops nodding. She even stops holding Kelly, because she needs both hands to cover her eyes. “Oh, God. Oh, not him. I can’t watch this.”

But she does anyway. Through the spaces between her fingers at first, and then fully because one of her hands is covering her mouth now, the other holding Kelly once again.

“Don’t tell her to go!” She says, voice watery and just a little shaky as she struggles to keep herself together. But it lasts only as long as it takes for Luce to ask Rachel to remember her, because, “she won’t—“ Alex hiccups, “she won’t remember anything else, Kel.”

“I know, honey.”

Alex nods. She’s crying now. Really crying. Watching Rachel tell her sleeping husband doesn’t help, and neither does her conversation with her parents — though it does pull a watery chuckle out of Alex — or Luce’s talk to her mom. She’s still crying when people pile into a car and start chasing Luce’s cab, because she knows this is going to have a happy ending. Right? That’s the beauty of romantic comedies.

“Oh, the song!” She stage whispers, pointing at the screen when the cyclist rides past the car, and then gasps when Rachel climbs onto the roof of the car. “She’s gonna do it, isn’t she? She’s gonna call number nine a wanker for her lady?”

“A bit cheesy, huh?”

Alex’s eyes widen in utter disbelief. “Cheesy?” She tears her eyes away from the screen once that last kiss is over just to shoot Kelly an indignant look. “How dare you.”

Kelly chuckles, something soft and quiet as she rearranges herself on the couch to free her hands so she can help wipe tears from Alex’s face. “So? What did you think?”

Alex sniffles. She’s not quite done crying yet, but she can still try and maintain at least a crumb of dignity after spectacularly losing this particular argument. “All right,” she concedes, shrugging one shoulder like she’s not at all still a bit weepy over Piper Perabo getting her girl, “it was okay.”

“Yeah?” Kelly reaches for the tissue box on the coffee table and holds it so Alex can take one (or five).

“It wasn’t awful,” Alex says, blowing her nose, and then contemplates simply leaving it at that. But she can’t help herself. “Can we watch more?”

Kelly grins. “More romantic comedies?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” Kelly echoes, pressing a lingering kiss to Alex’s lips, “we can start a bit of a sapphic movie night tradition. We can ask Kara and Lena to join in.”

Well, that’s weird. Don’t get her wrong, Alex loves her sister and Lena and watching movies together, but she’s not following Kelly’s leap from sapphic cinema to them. And her confusion must be written all over her face, because Kelly explains even before Alex can ask.

“You know. To expand their film horizons.” There’s something in Kelly’s tone that makes Alex feel like there’s more to it than that, but she’s a bit busy dealing with her post-movie emotions to investigate. “Besides, Lena always brings amazing wine when we have them over.”

Alex is about to agree — Lena does have excellent taste in wine — but the doorbell distracts her before she can.

The doorbell.

Same-day delivery.

“Oh, it’s here!” Kelly practically leaps to her feet, pressing the button to let the delivery person in and standing by the door to wait for them to make their way upstairs.

“Dammit, Kel. Look at me,” Alex sniffles and grabs a handful of tissues to try and fully dry her face, “how am I supposed to — and I quote — ‘fuck you into the mattress’ like this?”

Kelly winks at her just as the doorbell rings. “Trust me, baby. I’ll help you with that.”

And you know what? Alex has no reason to doubt that she will.

#dansen #dansen fic #supergirl fanfic #alex danvers #kelly olsen #fic

[sayuricorner]

Miraculous Ladybug salt x JJBA “Biodad!Jonathan Joestar” AU Headcanons part 4: Arc 2 “The Bizarre USA Adventures

Part 3        Part 5

AU concept

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Warning 2: This AU content salt don’t like don’t read!

Warning 3: Child abuse, human triffacking

Here’s the part 4 of the headcanon of the “Biodad! Jonathan Joestar” AU!

This part will be about the arc 2 of the AU “The Bizarre USA Adventures”!

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

(This picture is an edit, the pictures used are from JJBA and ML which belong respectively to Hirohiko Araki and Thomas Astruc)

Litle recap regarding the arcs:

->This AU had 5 arcs:

-”The Bizarre Origins”

-”The Bizarre USA Adventures”

-”The Bizarre Mass Resurection Mystery”

-”The Bizarre Family”

-”The Bizarre Final Showdown”

-You can read their summaries/concepts in “Biodad!Jonathan Joestar AU concept”

-You can also read the headcanons part 1 to see the arcs’s place in the AU’s timeline.

- You can also read the headcanons part 2 for informations about the ML characters who are stand users and for additionnal headcanons as well.

Arc 2:”The Bizarre USA Adventures”:

-Take place after “Miracle Queen”.

-Marinette’s life became harder ever since she became the new guardian of the miracle box, the akumas being more dangerous day by day and Lila’s lies made her “friends” turning their back on her and isolate her.

-She try as much as she can but sometimes the presure was nearly unbearable but thankfully she still got her parents, her true friends like Luka and Kagami and [Viva la Vida] by her side.

-Times to times because of the pressure Marinette cry at night and her make the best she can to comfort her by hugging her until she calm down and fall asleep.

-Marinette’s parents noticed how low their daughter’s mood was and it worried them, they tried more than one time to convince Marinette to transfer to another school but everytime she responded “It’s fine, I’m fine and it’s not their fault! They’re my friends and they will realize one day that Lila is lying!”.

-Tom and Sabine decided it would be for the best if Marinette spend some times outside of Paris so they contacted Gina and after they explained the situation to her, she propose them that Marinette came spending summer break with her in the USA.

-They talked to Marinette about this who wasn’t sure about this idea, Paris need Ladybug what will she do if a akuma attack the city while she’s in the USA?

-Tikki convinced her to go to the USA with Gina, it would be good for her and now she was the guardian and had access to all the miraculous so if she need to go back to Paris if there’s an akuma attack she can use Kaalki.

-After thinking about it Marinette decided to accept her Nonna’s proposition and go to see her for summer break in the USA.

-The first week was rather relaxing with Marinette traveling around the States with her Nonna, until Gina got a mysterious call.

-The call was someone from “her job” who was asking her urgently to come quickly ‘cause there’s an emergency.

-After her call Gina planned at first to leave Marinette at a hotel while she go to her work place to take care of this “emergency”.

-But right before she can find an hotel both grandmother and grand-daughter are attacked by a mysterious stand ennemy which forced Marinette to fight them with [Viva la Vida].

-Despite not being a stand user Gina guessed Marinette was one by the way she was fighting and it was quite a surprise for her.

-Since she doesn’t visit her son’s family often, Gina wasn’t aware that Marinette became a stand user.

-After the stand ennemy was take care of, Gina realise it will not be safe to leave Marinette on her own while she’s at her job so she got no other choice but to bring her along.

-Marinette was shocked to learn that her Nonna’s job was as scientist at the well know Speedwagon Foundation and that Gina’s job is studying and keep an eye on assleep ancient beings know as the Pillar Men.

-Turn out that when she was younger, Gina was a young Hamon user who was under the teaching of Lisa-Lisa and had fought alongside Joseph and Caesar against the Pillar Men in 1938.

-She even saved Caesar’s life during his fight against Wamuu before the latter could kill him.

-Unlike the “Battle tendency” canon the Pillar Men aren’t dead, they have instead been turned into stones and the SPWF is holding them to keep an eye on them and study them and Gina, with Caesar, is at the head of the scientists team who are study them.

-After the Pillar Men’s defeat Gina and Ceasar keep training their Hamon and by so still look young, except in Gina’s case she was training less so while she still look younger she’s not physically looking like she’s 20 unlike Caesar.

-So the emergency the Foundation call Gina for was a group of stand ennemies who infiltrated the Foundation to steal secrets documents, documents from Gina’s departement included.

-Gina and Caesar go take care of the thieves and Gina told Marinette to stay in the lobby in safety.

-Hamon users can fight stand users by using hamon to detect the energy of their stands.

-The two Hamon users were able to stop the thieves but unfortunatly during the battle a stand ennemy with a electic type stand provoked a power failure in the whole building cutting also the power of the UV lights which were weakening the Pillar Men and keep them as stones.

-And because of this the Pillar Men get back their strenght and are once again awaken.

-As soon as the alarm of the Pillar Men’s room ringed, Gina and Caesar quickly go their only to find with horror that the Pillar Men are awaken.

-The Pillar Men recognised them and Kars even throw at them snarky remarks and ask them where Joseph is.

-The two Hamon users refused to ansver him and are preparing to fight them.

-Meanwhile Marinette had a bad feeling, she feel her Nonna is in big danger and that she must go help her.

-Discretly she slipped away to transform into Ladybug and go search for Gina and Caesar.

-She found them fighting the Pillar Men, both Hamon users injured.

-Ladybug saved them with her yo-yo before they end up seriously hurt or worse.

-When seeing the yo-yo and Ladybug, the Pillar Men were shocked and Kars even murthered like “A ladybug holder?”.

-The two group stared at each other with Ladybug staring at them in defiance and staying on her guards.

-Kars came back to his snarky and arogant self and being like “Well what a surprise! It’s been a very long time since we saw a miraculous holder or anything related to the miraculous! If I remember well last time was when we saw Atlantis being sunk by the kwami of destruction isn’t that right Wamuu?” , “Yes! master Kars!”.

-Ladybug don’t had the time to ract that Kars is suddenly face to her, looking at her closely and making comment about how young she look for a miraculous holder.

-This make [Viva la Vida](in Ladybug’s form) react stepping between her user and Kars and emaning an intimidating energy.

-Feeling the atmosphere becoming very tense Gina intervened by sayin if they still want the stone of Java they waste they time as the stone was destroyed and no other ones existed so why wasted their time for a quest which will lead them to nothing?

-The two argued with Gina trying to make Kars accept to had negiciations for a time until Kars is like, pretending to thinking, “You know what? We will play your game Hamon warriors but on one condition! I demand a fight against her!” while pointing at Marinette.

-Kars met a Ladybug holder in the past and want to see what the current one can do.

-Despite Gina’s and Caesar’s protests, Ladybug accept the challenge.

-Wamuu asked kars to let him fight Ladybug wchich Kars accepted.

-Both Ladybug and Wamuu get ready to fight while the others were observing from a safe distance, Gina also used a talkie-walkie to warm the SPWF to not intervened.

-Joseph arrived at this moment the foundation having contacted him about the Pillar Men but the employees told him everyone was ordered to stay away from the Pillar Men area and so all they can do is watch through the security cameras.

-The fight between Ladybug and Wamuu was hard and intense, Ladybug had a lot of difficulties even with [Viva la Vida]’s powers being incrased in her Ladybug form and as Wamuu was about to seriously hurt her Kars stopped the fight.(I’m sorry I suck at fight scenes! T_T)

-Kars seemed satisfied with what he saw in this fight, that despiste her obvious lack of fighting experiences her resistance to Wamuu’s attack for such a long time was impressive.

-At the same time Joseph and SPWF security guards arrived ready to fight only to be welcome by the sight of the Pillar Men not showing any hostility and Kars smirking is even like “Well look who’s finally here! Long time no see Jojo!”.

-Joseph angerly tell them that whatever they planned it will not work ony to had Kars laughing at him and is like “Oh Jojo you can’t be anymore wrong about the situation! You see your “friends” and we had a little “talk” before you came and they made some good points about doing a rampage on those pathetic humans would be for nothing since the stone don’t exist anymore so we decided to accept to negociate and play by your rules... For now!”.

-After explanations from both Caesar and Gina about what the heck is going on and more talks, the Pillar Men are bring back to new holding rooms with new UV lamps of course.

-Ladybug profit from everyone being distracted to slip away and transform back into Marinette.

-After everything is back in order Gina introduced Marinette to Joseph who was shocked to learn that Gina’s grand-daughter is a stand user.

-During the rest of her’s and her Nonna’s stay at the Foundation, Marinette learned more things about stands and how to to control them.

-She came accross the Pillar Man times to times but was always making sure to quickly go feeling Kars’s stare on her.

-After that misadventure Gina and Marinette get back to their trip and for a good the trip was calm, until they get to Florida.

-At first things were normal until they hear about a high rate of children kidnapping which keep going up for a time.

-This made Gina worried for Marinette so she decided to not let Marinette out of her sight while they stay in Florida.

-As for Marinette thinking about those poor kidnapped children made her blood boiling, her inner hero screaming at her to go save them and bring the kidnappers to justice.

-Marinette waited that her Nonna fall asleep the next night to sneak away from their hotel room, transform into Ladybug and begening her search.

-After a long search, spying and a little miracle from [Viva la Vida]’s powers, Ladybug finally found the kidnappers’s base in a warehouse at Port St. Lucie.

-When she infiltrated the base, learn more about the kidnappers and their goal.

-The kidnappers are part of a human triffacking network and they kidnap people, mainly children, who had a stand as stand users had a very big value in human trafficking market.

-Ladybug is absolutely horrified by what she found out and became more determinated to save the children.

-She found where they were holded but she end up being busted by some of the kidnappers who happen to be stand users.

-After a long and hard fight Ladybug managed to beat them thank to her Ladybug abilities and her stand.

-The police was alerted and when they arrived at the warehouse they found the kidnapped children unharmed and the kidnapper inconcious and tied up.

-Ladybug left the warehouse without being noticed by the police and go back the hotel.

-The next day news about the kidnapped children having been found were spreading across all the state.

-Gina noticed that Marinette had bad bruises and the news about the kidnapped children having miraculously been found made her suspicious.

-Gina interogate Marinette about her bruises Marinette simply said she had a bad fall “You know how clumsy I can be Nonna!”.

-Gina didn’t buy it but acted like “Of course I know Marinetta but please be more carefull I know you want to help and do good but it’s not a reason to not look after your health!”.

-To Marinette the message was clear: her Nonna knew she had something to do with the kidnapped children being found and while she was proud of her she don’t want her to put herself recklessly in danger like that again.

-Gina after that bring Marinette to the nearest hospital to make sure she had no severe injuries despite her grand-daughter’s protests.

-At the hospital Marinette is treated but the doctors and nurses were agitated because three children of the kidnapped children were brough to them but those three kid’s case was special.

-Those kids, Donatello(14), Rikiel(13) and Ungalo(13) weren’t kidnapped like the other kids, their own parents sold them to the kidnappers and the obvious abuse those kids had been victim made them wary and completely untrustfull of everyone.

-And the situation is even more complicated with Rikiel who seem not well at all but the two other boys don’t let the hospital staff even come near them.

-Marinette and Gina feel extremely sad for those boys so they decided to try to convince the boys to let the doctors heal them.

-When they meet the boys in their room Marinette noticed Rikiel was indeed not well at all and his stand was the reason for that.

-Marinette thought that if the boy’s health problems are due to his stand than maybe [Viva la Vida] can do something about it?

-When she approached them the boys were were at first very wary of her and were threatening her but after a few talks Marinette managed to convince them to let her trying to heal Rikiel.

-With [Viva la Vida]’s miracle powers, Marinette appeased Rikiel’s stand and stop it from hurting Rikiel any further much to the three boys’s shock.

-After a few more talk Marinette convinced them to let the doctor check them up althrough the boys are still mistrustfull.

-During the boys check up, the doctors made DNA test in hope to find relatives of the boys, instead, the found out that the boys are brothers from the same father.

-One of the doctors who also cheked up Marinette earler noticed the boys had the same birthmark than Marinette so to be certain he made another DNA test of her with Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo and it was revealed that Marinette was also the boys’s sister much to the kids’s and Gina’s shock.

-Until a solution is found for the boys they are staying in the hospital and Gina and Marinette decided to stay in Florida for the rest of their stay in the USA.

-During the rest of her stay Marinette get to begin to bond with her newfound little brothers.

-Gina called Tom and Sabine to tell them the situation, the Dupain-Cheng couple were shocked to learn that Marinette had apparently three brothers from her bio father and were horrified when Gina told them about the boys’s situation.

-After thinking about it Tom and Sabine decided to adopt the boys, no children, especially not those who are “family” one way or another, will suffer on their watch.

-After a long administrative procedure, talk with the boys who end up accepted the Dupain-Cheng couple despite being still incertain and thank to Gina’s connections with some administrators of the USA goverment, Donatello, RIkiel and Ungalo are offialy adopted by the Dupain-Cheng.

-Tom and Sabine come to the USA to spend the rest of Gina’s and Marinette’s stay in the country with them to bond with their new adopted sons, finish some administrative documents and make some arrangements for the boys therapies.

-After everything was settled up, the Dupain-Cheng family with their new family members all get back to Paris.

-Ever since it was found out that Marinette was the boys’s sister and they all had a birthmark which was familiar to her, Gina had suspicions about the kids’s bio father identity and decided to investigate on it as soon as she can.

-As for Marinette all this bizarre adventure which give her new knowledge about stands and new litlle brothers lift up her spirit, finding a new determination to face whatever life is going to throw at her.

-But Marinette don’t know that those bizarre adventures are only begin and that they will became even more strange.

Additional headcanons:

-In the past the Pillar Men met the former Ladybug Aztec hero Micazoyolin, the latter fought them to free his people from them as he saw the Pillar Men as bad people who pretended to be gods to enslave his people.

-He fought them by challenging Kars in a battle, with the premise that if Kars loose the Pillar Men will leave the aztecs’s lands and never come back but if  Micazoyolin loose he will recognize them as gods.

-The fight was hard and violent but in the end it was Micazoyolin who win and the Pillar Men left as the deal stated.

-Wamuu and Santana were only young children when this happened, seeing  Micazoyolin ‘s honorable warrior ways during his fight against Kars marked Wamuu and inspired him to become an honorable warrior too.

-The second time the Pillar Men had “contact” with the miraculous was when Plagg sunk Atlantis.

-It’s during those times that Kars learnt about the miraculous wish but after learning that a hard price must be paid for the wish he decided to not take reckless risks and stick to the “stone of Aja” plan.

-After the Pillar Men situation was took care of at SPWF Tikki talked to Marinette about them, warning her about how dangerous they are and told her about how one of her former holders, Micazoyolin, fought against them in the past.

-Gina didn’t had suspicions about Marinette’s bio dad’s identity earler ‘cause her departement in the SPWF was more focused on the Pillar Men so althrough she know about Dio(Jonathan), she don’t know all the details.

-As for the Joestar birthmark since Gina don’t see Marinette often she only saw it a few time so she tend to forget about it.

-Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo bonding with their new family and with Marinette show to each other their stand and what they can do.

-[Viva la Vida] bonding with Donatello’s, Rikiel’s and Ungalo’s stands, giving them hugs and also hugging Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo.

-In this AU unlike in the Jojo canon Joseph still do Hamon training, just less then what he used to in part 2, and by so he still look like he was in “Star Crusaders”.

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TAG LIST :( a reblog will get you a place in the tag list! ^^)

@sir-david-von-templo , @wrecker-radioactive , @secretlawyercolorscissors , @whitetiger1337 , @enkiduvhs​ , @coffeeoverdosedshipper

#ml salt #miraculous ladybug #jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba #crossover #ml au #ml au idea #bio dad au #bio dad jonathan joestar #marinette dupain cheng #gina dupain #tom dupain #sabine cheng #caesar zeppeli #joseph joestar #kars #esidisi #wamu #santana #tikki #donatella versace #rikiel #ungalo #headcanon #headcanons #lila salt #class salt #bustier salt #marinette deserves better #pillar men

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] To Save A Brother

 He has the other half.  Darkness's fingers brushed across the medallion that hung around his neck.  He wanted to duel this person.  He could sense other things as well - this carrier of a Spirit Gate Key was a powerful Firestarter as well as -  he frowned, taking one more step forward.  Perhaps being closer would tell him if he read this correctly.

Oh.  He was.  It wasn't something he'd expected, not here and not now.  Darkness did not like this.  The bearer of the Gentle Darkness, here and now?  That would make for an excellent duel without a doubt, but it would stand a risk of awakening the power itself should it still sleep.  He didn't want to take the chance on facing his old adversary without being properly prepared.

A movement in the shadows caught his attention.  Someone walked towards the dorm building - Osiris Red, he knew from the memories of his current host - though it didn't seem that this person belonged there.  They wore a blue uniform, and though he was too far away to see the tab on their collar, another part of him whispered strongly that they too were a Firestarter.  Perhaps not quite as strong as the one who wore the other half of the medallion, but still quite strong.

His host twitched harder inside of him.  Darkness took a better look at this new person as they came closer to the dorm.  He had access to all of memories of his host and it took a few moments to click.

Well.  It seemed that this was the sister of his host.  How interesting.  He'd been aware that his host had a sister, who was a Firestarter, but he'd never thought that he would encounter said sister on this mission.  He considered for a few moments, then made up his mind.

Power stretched outward, encircling both the girl and those in the building who he could sense as being awake.  There were only four of those, and one of them was the other Key Carrier who wore the half-medallion.  Once he disposed o the girl, Darkness, decided, he would duel that one as well.  If they knew one another, then seeing her defeated would dishearten him and give him a better chance to win without awakening the other Darkness.

Not to mention, he just couldn't resist the urge to cause despair and heartache no matter what.  The thought of doing so to his host and his host's sister at the same time was far too tempting to resist.

Asuka had been on her way to talk to Juudai, worried that he would be the first one targeted by the Seven Stars.  After all, he was an Osiris Red, and while he'd proven his talents more than once over the last handful of months, these strange evil duelists might not be aware of that.  She fidgeted with the Key that hung around her neck, wondering again what it would be like to duel in one of these Duels of Darkness.  She'd heard they weren't the sort of duel that Duel Academia had all the time, but she wasn't certain of what they would be like.

The circle of dark energy engulfed her without warning.  She'd barely even reached Juudai's door when it swept over her and into the room beyond.  When she could see again, she stood on a silvery disk, and she wasn't where she'd been before.  It took a moment to grasp where that was - at the volcano.  Right over the lava, in fact. 

"Asuka!"  She jerked her head around to see Juudai, Shou-kun, Hayato-kun, and Theodis-san a distance away, also on a disk like hers, but theirs was more enclosed.  The Healer Cat sniffed around, tail lashing, clearly uncomfortable without solid ground underneath her.

She started to take a step towards them.  But before she could, lava leapt up all around, arching in graceful smooth arcs over the shining disk beneath her feet.  The lava shaped itself into something that resembled dragons, roaring fiercely before they splashed into one another and out of the lava there stepped a new figure.  He stood taller than Asuka, with brown hair tinged by the light of the lava. 

Most of his face was hidden behind a black mask that resembled a dragon's features.  Around his neck there hung a medallion similar to the one Juudai had taken to wearing after their experience in that other world.

"You're one of the Seven Stars,"  Asuka declared, staring at this stranger. He smiled - it wasn't a smile that fit on his features.  What little Asuka could see told her that he should smile freely and happily.  This near-smirk wasn't his at all. 

"I am Darkness,"  he introduced himself with a tiny nod of his head.  "And you are one of the Keepers of the Keys.  I challenge you to a duel."  Before she could answer, he raised one hand, and a card flickered into existence there.  "The loser will have their soul sealed into this card."

Asuka tensed herself at once.  She'd not thought that she would be one of the first challenged.  But she'd been entrusted with this key and she refused to let it go without a fight.

"If that's what you want, then I'll fight you!"  Asuka declared. She glanced once again to where her friends stood surrounded by lava.  "But when I win, I want my friends released!"

Darkness chuckled, a very low, dark, smooth sound.  It didn't fit him any more than the smirk did.  "Of course.  But the question is, can you win fast enough?"

No sooner had he asked that then Shou yelped, and Asuka looked in time to see him pulling his hand away from the lava.  It didn't look as if he'd been more than mildly scorched but she could tell Juudai was the only one who might be enjoying the heat.  She squared up her shoulders - time to fight.

"I will take the first turn,"  Darkness declared, shuffling his deck.  Asuka got ready.  This wouldn't be an easy duel at all.  "I summon Spear Dragon, in attack mode, and set one card face-down."  Spear Dragon appeared, mostly brilliant blue wings and a long sharp beak, pointed towards her.  "Turn end.  Do make this interesting, Tenjoin Asuka."

How does he know my name?  She hadn't mentioned it.  Perhaps they all somehow knew the Key-Keepers?  She didn't have time to worry about it now.  Instead, she drew her first hand and checked it out.  She could work with this.

"I summon Cyber Gymnatics!"  Before her there appeared one of her favorite monsters, clad in a tight-fitting black outfit, well-muscled, and long blonde hair.  She didn't have the highest attack but what she had to make up for it was her effect.  "I activate her affect by discarding one card from my hand.  I can destroy one face-up attack position monster my opponent controls - in this case, Spear Dragon!"

Cyber Gymnatics leaped upward and spun towards the far side of the field, slamming one foot hard against Spear Dragon's neck.  The dragon let loose a cry of pain before vanishing in a spray of light.  Asuka wasn't done yet, though. 

"Now that you don't have any defenses, Cyber Gymnatics attacks you directly!"  Once again her monster leaped forward, and this time slashed her hand directly into Darkness, who barely flinched back.  He chuckled as the attack ended and Cyber Gymnatics returned to Asuka's side of the field.

"Is that all you're going to do?"  He asked.  Asuka didn't like the way that he smiled. 

"I set one card face down and end my turn,"  she said.  Whatever he tried on his turn, she'd be able to handle it.  This wasn't as terrifying as she'd feared it might be.

But Darkness quickly disabused her of that.  "I activate Call of the Living Dead, summoning Spear Dragon back from my graveyard!"  Once again Spear Dragon appeared before him.  Asuka tensed even more; he could have done that earlier and prevented all damage to himself if he had.  What did he have in mind? 

"Next, I summon Mirage Dragon!"  The second dragon appeared there now, this one a half-see through creature of gold scales and silver hair.  "While Mirage Dragon is on the field, you cannot activate trap cards during the battle phase."

Asuka's eyes widened and she took a step back.  Her eyes fell to her face-down card - Double Passe.  If she couldn't activate that, then she would have to revise her strategy and fast. 

Darkness laughed.  It scraped against her soul, like a sound that she knew should be pleasant and yet it had been warped beyond all understanding.  "Are you afraid?  Do you understand that you're going to lose now?"

"Don't listen to him!"  Theodis snapped, voice rising above the sound of the lava.  "You haven't lost yet!"

"She's right!"  Juudai agreed wholeheartedly.  "You can take this guy, Asuka!  We all believe in you!"

Shou nodded, casting repeated nervous glances to the lava.  Juudai had slipped himself in the front of the little group, one hand resting on Theodis' head, staring at the duel displayed before them, as if he weren't surrounded by boiling lava.  Asuka wondered for a heartbeat if he could hear the voices of the lava.  Any Firestarter could hear the voice of fire, but lava was another thing altogether.  She knew she wasn't that strong, but Juudai wasn't a normal Firestarter at all.

She shook her head to clear it, focusing back on what was happening before her.  Darkness wasn't finished at all.

"Battle!"  Darkness declared, pointing towards her.  "Spear Dragon, take out Cyber Gymnatics!  Spear Crash!" 

At once the blue dragon surged forward with a mighty flap of its wings and stabbed that long sharp beak right into Cyber Gymnatics' heart.  Asuka screamed as pain racked her, flowering outward from her own heart.  She didn't fall but only by sheer stubbornness.  Slowly she shook her head again, trying to think instead of just suffering.

"Wh-what was that?"  She murmured.  Darkness chuckled. 

"This is a Duel of Darkness.  The pain of your monsters - that's your pain too.  You'll feel every bit of damage done in this duel.  And so will I, of course."  Darkness waved one hand casually.  "But I think you'll not enjoy it the way that I do."

Had he felt this when she'd attacked him directly?  He hadn't acted like he did.  Was he lying about that?  Asuka couldn't even begin to guess right now and had no time to think it over. Not when Darkness hadn't finished his Battle Phase.

"Mirage Dragon!  Attack her directly!  Mirage Crush!"  Forward it surged, claws raking her from head to toe.  Asuka screamed, falling back again, dropping down to one knee as her life points dropped to thirteen hundred.  She almost expected to see blood when she looked down at herself, and only when that didn't happen did she remember that to some extent, these were still holograms.  They weren't solid - yet she'd felt the weight of the claw sinking into her flesh and ripping through her.

"If you want to surrender,"  Darkness told her, "then I will take your Key and seal your soul into this card.  The pain will end.  You'll know nothing, ever again."

Asuka's eyes narrowed.  Slowly she pushed herself to her feet, swaying ever so lightly as she did.  She'd never heard the voice of the lava, but the fire it sparked called to her.  The volcano had always been friendly to the Firestarters of Duel Academia and now wasn't any different.  She could also hear the voices of her friends, Juudai and Theodis, Shou and Hayato, demanding to know if she was all right, encouraging her to keep on going.

For his sake,  she told herself.  I can't find my brother if I don't keep on going.  If I lose this fight, I'll never see him again.  She'd waited too long, searched too long.  She wasn't going to let that happen.

She glanced towards Darkness, and thought she caught a glimpse of brown eyes behind the mask.  The light of the lava made her uncertain of what she saw, but - was it?  Fubuki wasn't the only person with brown hair and brown eyes in the world.  But he did play a dragon deck.  It had been a long time since she'd seen her brother duel, so she couldn't be certain.  But - she pressed her lips together.

"Is that all you've got?"

Darkness laughed, and the heat around him rose, to the point even she noticed it.  That was wrong by itself; Fubuki was a Healer, not a Firestarter.  This heat felt wrong.  Not like a Shadow Flame; but something else altogether. Asuka had no names for it, but she knew wrong when it presented itself to her. "Turn end.  Do your best."  Darkness taunted her.  Asuka fully intended to.

She drew her card for the turn and relaxed a fraction.  She had cards enough to deal with the situation but this would make it that much easier.

"All right, Darkness, you'll see just what my best is!  I activate Cyclone, targeting your Call of the Living Dead!  When that goes to the graveyard, it takes Spear Dragon with it!"  And that removed the strongest monster from Darkness's side of the field.  All she needed now was a way to get rid of Mirage Dragon - and she had that already in her hand.

"Now, I summon Cyber TuTu!"  Before her there appeared the low-level ballerina, who spun into place delicately and fiercely, regarding the dragon before her without a scrap of fear. 

Darkness chuckled as he regarded her.  "She's not very powerful, is she?  I don't think my dragon has anything to fear from her."

"No, your dragon doesn't,"  Asuka agreed, allowing herself a grin.  "But you might.  I'm not attacking with Cyber TuTu.  She's not here on the stage for long.  I brought her out in order to call someone else!"  She flicked out another card.  "By the effect of Prima Light, I sacrifice Cyber Tutu!  Cyber Prima, dance on in!"

A tight silver bodysuit covered her new monster, along with golden hoops that hovered at her hips, and smaller ones in the form of bracelets at her shoulders and wrists.  A fall of silver-white hair gleamed bright in the lava-light, and she stood fiercely in front of Asuka, ready for battle.

"Cyber Prima!  Take out Mirage Dragon!"  This wouldn't cause nearly as much damage as she would have liked, but even seven hundred was better than nothing.  She couldn't guess yet what his ace card might be but the sooner she finished this duel the better.  If she kept feeling the same damage that her monsters did, then she wasn't sure of how much more she could take.

Mirage Dragon vanished in a puff of sparkles as Cyber Prima slammed into him, Darkness's life points dropping down to twenty-five hundred.  Still a long way to go, but Asuka believed she could do it.

Darkness brushed it off easily though as she set her last card face down and ended her turn.  "You're not that bad.  I might almost regret finishing you off - but probably not."  He regarded her thoughtfully before he drew his own next card and then pointed towards her.  "Do you hear the cries of those dragons that you've destroyed?  They shriek from the graveyard, demanding vengeance for their passing!"

"You're getting into this a little much,"  Asuka muttered.  She'd never been fond of those who were too over-dramatic in duels.  Spirits or no spirits - and she hadn't made up her mind on that - it was still a game.  Though a very deadly one right now.

But Darkness continued as if she'd not said a thing.  "You will suffer for what you've done! The souls of the dragons demand it!  Now it begins!  I summon Black Dragon's Chick!" 

In front of him there now appeared a large red egg, From the egg there burst a small dragon, not quite small enough to hold in one's hands. It glared at her and Cyber Prima, hissing in anger as it did.  Darkness wasted no further time.

"I send Black Dragon's Chick to the graveyard and summon Red Eyes Black Dragon from my hand!" 

The chick explode into light and that light coalesced into a gigantic dragon, sleek and black of scale, with sharp red eyes that peered as her as if she were the source of all it hated in the cosmos.  Asuka's attention shifted from the dragon to Darkness's mask and back again.

It's the same.  He's wearing the Red Eyes Black Dragon Mask.  Something else clicked.  She couldn't see his face properly still, not with the mask there, and the shadows cast by the lava made it even more difficult to be sure.  But the more she listened to his voice and the more she stared at him, the more certain Asuka became.  She wasn't sure at all of how or why, but - but she'd done it.

She'd found her brother.  Now she just needed to find a way to find him inside of whatever it was that used his body.  She didn't know how this Darkness entity did it, but he wore her brother like a suit, and that wasn't going to happen any longer if she had anything to say about it.

"Your dragon only has a hundred more points than Cyber Prima,"  she pointed out.  "That's hardly anything at all."

"Oh, you're quite right on that."   All around Darkness, shadows cast by the lava stirred and twisted and rose upward, dancing in a frenzy that sent chills down Asuka's spine.  "Therefore, I send Red-Eyes Black Dragon to the graveyard to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!" 

The shadows converged on the great black dragon, wrapping all around it and blocking it from sight.  When they pulled away, the dragon looked larger, but slimmer, with a sense of intelligence that Asuka didn't find reassuring in the slightest. 

"Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon draws power from every dragon that's been sent to the graveyard," Darkness declared.  "With Spear Dragon, Mirage Dragon, Black Dragon's Chick, and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, that makes his attack 3,600!"  He regarded her carefully.  This strike would finish her, taking her last thirteen hundred life points in one fell swoop. "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, attack!  Bring me the victory with Darkness Giga Flame!"

"Not so fast!"  Asuka declared, gasping the words out as quickly as she could.  "I activate my traps!  Spirit Barrier prevents me from taking damage at all, and Doble Passe allows me to make this attack on my monster a direct attack on me - and then I can directly attack you with Cyber Prima! Go! Closing Reverence!"

Even as Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon blasted a stream of intense black fire at her, Cyber Prima leaped over the flames, dodging them gracefully, and landed in front of Darkness, striking at him with all of her might. Darkness fell back a step himself, his life points dropping to a mere two hundred, and he snarled, eyes flashing like red coals.

"You won't do that again next turn,"  he promised. Asuka knew he was right.  Doble Passe would go to the graveyard at the end of this turn.  Spirit Barrier would remain, being a Continuous Trap, but it required her to have a monster on the field.  If he could destroy Cyber Prima, then she would have no defense whatsoever. 

If this were her brother - if he used Fubuki's deck - then she knew that in that deck rested cards that could either destroy Cyber Prima, destroy Spirit Barrier, or inflict effect damage, which Spirit Barrier wouldn't negate. 

He wasn't done with her now.  Two more cards remained in his hand.  He tugged out one of them.  "I activate Fire Dragon's Blazing Bullet, and choose the effect of dealing eight hundred points of damage to my opponent!"

Asuka had time to think of how petty this was before fire engulfed her.  Firestarters weren't burned by fire, no matter how weak they were, and she'd always been one of the strongest.  For the first time in her life, she knew what it felt like to burn, and not in that glorious way that Firestarters did.  She screamed, falling face forward, trembling from head to foot.

Firestarter.  Firestarter.  Another voice whispered to her.  She flinched at first, but then others joined in.

"Asuka!  Asuka!  Stand up!  You can do this!" 

"Yeah!  You've got this!  He's only got two hundred left!" 

"Idiots."  That voice cut over the other ones.  "She's lost already.  All she has to do is stop breathing.  Then I will duel you, Yuuki Juudai."

Slowly Asuka's head cleared.  She dragged in a breath.  The fires called.  She glanced over to where her friends were and saw that whatever it was that protected them from the lava had drawn backwards. They'd not fallen in yet but it wasn't that far away.  So she needed to finish this.  She needed - she didn't know what she needed.  All that she could think of right now was to win, to overcome that dragon and destroy those last two hundred life points.  But Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon had thirty-six hundred - even with Cyber Blader, she had nothing that could top that.

Wait - wait.  One card. One hope. 

"So you don't want to peacefully lay down and die?"  Darkness taunted her as she swayed to her feet, small flames of her own beginning to dance around her.  "I'm going to extinguish those fires of yours!"

"My fire will cut through your shadows to what lies beneath, Darkness!"  Asuka shot back.  "All I need is one card to finish you off!"

"Try your best!" 

Asuka drew her card.  "I activate Pot of Greed, and draw two more cards!"  She knew how slim her odds were, but if she were going to go down, then she'd go down fighting every step of the way.  She smiled at the sight of her two new cards - exactly what she needed.

Juudai always thanked his deck when he got a good draw.  Asuka wondered if she should start doing the same thing.

"I summon Cyber Petit Angel! When this card is successfully summoned, I can add Machine Angel Ritual from my deck to my hand!"

She'd only recently added Ritual monsters to her deck.  Perhaps this was why she'd wanted to do so.  Regardless, it was time.  Cyber Petit Angel wiggled little metallic wings and the card she needed appeared in her hand from the deck.  She moved on; better to get this done before Darkness could counter her.

"I activate Machine Angel Ritual!  By tributing Cyber Prima and Cyber Petit Angel, I Ritual Summon Cyber Angel Dakini!"

A tall armored woman spun into existence before her, blue-skinned and red-haired, with armor of gold.  The top two of her four arms held swords while the bottom two held a long staff.  "When Cyber Angel Dakini is summoned, then you select and destroy one of your monsters."  Asuka smiled a thin-lipped smile.  "And you only have one monster."

Darkness jerked in surprise as Dakini struck his mighty Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon with her staff, and it exploded into a pile of scales and dust that faded away a breath later.  She could see his eyes widen as he understood what was about to happen.  Asuka didn't give him time to fear it.

"Cyber Angel Dakini!  Direct attack!"

At once Dakini leaped forward again, this time swiping both of her swords across him.  His life points drained away entirely, and he fell, screaming, the card that he'd declared would hold her soul on her defeat now glowing ever so softly.  Asuka wasn't sure how she stayed on her feet, but she tottered towards him, even as light flared up around them.  When that light cleared, they weren't over the volcano anymore, but on the side of it.  Her flamelets faded away and she collapsed next to the black-clad body.

"Asuka!  Asuka!"  Ryou hurried closer, Misawa and Professor Chronos with him.  Juudai, Shou, Hayato, and Thordis hurried as well, coming to check on her.  She didn't care; she was fine.  But she pulled the body into her arms, noticing vaguely that he still breathed.  She slipped the mask off of his face, hardly able to think or breathe right now, especially as she saw that it was Fubuki, it was her brother, he lay there unconscious, but alive.  Tears coursed down her cheeks and she didn't care.  She'd held those back far too long over the last two years.

Slowly she looked up at Ryou, the only other person who might understand how she felt right now. "It's him,"  she whispered.  "It's Fubuki.  That other soul - Darkness - it's gone now."  She could see the card discarded to one side.  There was Darkness, staring back at them through the chains. Maybe 'gone' wasn't the right word, but it would do.

Asuka closed her eyes and let herself slump forward, her mind going dark and restful.  This time when she woke up, Fubuki would be there, and she could get answers on what happened, how he'd vanished and why he'd vanished, where he'd been all this time, and why he worked for these people wanting powerful and evil cards. 

She'd done it.  She'd saved her brother.

The End

Notes: Okay, let's face it. Asuka was robbed when it came to her search for Fubuki. All it really did for her in canon was get her kidnapped by Titan (an event I can assure you didn't happen in this AU), and then after that she just kinda floats around uselessly in the plot. She wasn't even allowed to be the one to set Fubuki free. No, that had to take second place to Juudai and his eternal need for fun duels! Not this time, though. Also, I mainly set this in my Healer/Firestarter AU for the grins and giggles. This might not be the best duel but I think it works.

Lastly, I sorted out this duel and wrote it all today. The idea has floated in my head for ages and it just slammed in that this would be perfect for today's prompt, even though I had my other fic ready anyway. Meh, ideas.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #gxmonth2021 #ygo gx #tenjoin asuka #tenjoin fubuki #au: healer firestarter

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FANDOM: The Old Guard (2020) SERIES: - RATING: General audiences WORDCOUNT: 4 776 words PAIRING(S): None CHARACTER(S): Nile Freeman (POV), Yusuf Al Kaysani, Andromache the Scythian, Niccolo di Genova (mentioned), Sébastien Le Livre (mentioned). GENRE: Mutual care, Nile Freeman character introspection. TRIGGER WARNING(S): None that I can think of :) SUMMARY: Nile misses her mother but doesn't know how to talk about it or with who. fortunately, Bâtard the emotional support tortoise is here to help. NOTE(S): This was originally written for Nile Week 2020 but never put online because of reasons, so now here it is, longer and better written than it was :D Hugest thanks to @avaniesque for the most excellent beta work :D [ALSO AVAILABLE ON AO3.]

Nile gasps when something soft bumps against her foot, hurriedly wiping at her cheeks as she turns towards the door. It looks empty at first, the cobwebs they didn’t bother dealing with earlier in the day gently swaying in the air. There’s some shuffling along the dusty floor, a light click of nails on stone, and then a small oblong head appears near the bottom. This is swiftly followed by short scaly legs and a black and brown shell wrapped in a crocheted lab coat. Nile tenses, unprepared for any sort of human company at the moment, but relaxes when it becomes apparent Booker has not elected to follow his pet around.

Said pet has now fully entered the living-room and is beelining for a strawberry resting against her right pinky toe. It looks good enough to eat, as does the rest of what Booker feeds it, which Nile still doesn’t really understand but who is she to tell Booker how to care for his pet? Bâtard, of course, is unconcerned by her surprise and eventually gets to chomping on the strawberry.

Nile’s eyes are dry by now, the tight press of sadness around her heart still present but past its peak, at least for now. It still takes her a couple of seconds to realize the small square of bright white on the side of Bâtard’s outfit is a piece of paper. She picks it up to find a few words from a hand that hasn’t yet lost the impeccable penmanship of its first life. Apparently it’s hard to let go of habits people beat into you with a stick. The note reads : “He’ll keep your secret as long as you keep paying. First one on me.” It makes Nile smile.

(Andy, Nicky and Joe are all just as capable of impeccable calligraphy, but when free not to pay attention to it they tend to revert to script letters. Booker is the only one who insists on torturing them all with permanent cursive written with fountain pens on special paper.)

She doesn’t know Booker all that well, yet. Seven years ago, he was the quiet grumpy member of the group who didn’t seem to care much whether Nile stayed or left. Then he was the one who made a pretty compelling case against Nile seeing her family again—revealing himself to have some unresolved issues in the process—and then he was the one whose issues exploded all over the rest of the group. Now he’s mostly the one who was brought back way too soon, who knows it, and tries to make himself as scarce as possible because of it.

Mostly, it means that while Nile is the one who’s exchanged the most words with him so far, it’s also pretty much been limited to the topic of...well. His tortoise. All in all, much less informative about the man compared to just watching him settle said tortoise up in every safehouse they use, no matter how temporary. (Nile would help, but she’s not entirely sure how the others would take it. It seems prudent not to.) Or looking at the cozies the tortoise parades around on a regular basis...or, as the case may be, discovering he’s taken the time to bedeck his precious reptile in a new outfit for the sole purpose of leaving it (uncharacteristically) unsupervised in Nile’s company just so she has someone to talk to.

“You’re not who I want to talk to either,” she says, because she’s under no illusion that her solitude today has been accidental. “I mean, I know they’re trying I just—”

Nile sighs, wiping at her face in a vain attempt to clear her head, but the gesture only brings fresh moisture to her eyes as she tries to swallow down her frustration. It feels almost silly, in the grand scheme of things, to be this upset over this, but, well... Hearts do what they want, and there’s nothing Nile can do about that, so eventually she looks down at Bâtard’s scaly little head and tells the tortoise:

“It’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow. She’s turning sixty-five and I—”

Nile claps a hand on her mouth to stifle the sob wrenching itself out of her, but it feels piercing and loud in the quiet evening air nonetheless. She breathes around it for a bit, unwilling to attract company just yet, and reaches down to rub Bâtard’s head with her forefinger.

“I want to be with her,” she eventually confesses to the tortoise. “I want to be there and hug her, I—I miss my mom.”

Nile knows she can call. They’ve got burner phones, Copley’s skills to keep them hidden, and an uneasy truce with Quynh ensuring the biggest threat they’ve faced so far isn’t much of one for now. Three years ago she wouldn’t even have had that: her mother and brother both convinced she was dead and buried somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. She believes with all of her heart that her mother and brother would never blame her for living when they can’t.

Her mother is starting the second half of her sixties, and she’s not there to see it. Her mother, who’s growing older and greying a little at the temples. Her mother, who deserves better than never knowing when they’ll see each other again, with little-to-no news in between visits. Her mother, who was there for her in every way she could and every way that counted, and for whom Nile wants to be there but can’t. Her mother, who will not be there forever.

(Sometimes, the thought hits Nile out of nowhere, and it takes an impossible effort not to drop everything right then and there to jump in the first flight to Chicago.)

“It’s just—” Nile pauses, trying to pick her words so she can really make Bâtard understand, as impossible as that is, and continues : “They’re great. All of them. They’re—even Booker’s not so bad. I mean, I’m kind of stuck in the middle of the family feud so that’s not the best feeling, but... They’ve gone above and beyond to help me feel welcome, they’ve taught me so many amazing things…. They’re just...not my mom.”

Bâtard, done with his strawberry, lifts his head to look at her, and Nile swears he even leans into her scratching, just a little. It’s a pleasant surprise and she finds herself smiling, not very bright but present nonetheless. It soothes something in her, too, not to be alone right now even though she’s not ready for human company. Both her mother and Jordan have allergies so they’ve never had pets before, and Nile never really longed for one either. Right now, though, she thinks she understands a little better what endears them to people.

“I’m...scared,” she admits, keeping her voice quiet like it’s going to make a difference. “I know I’m going to lose her one day, that’s inevitable, but I don’t want to find out about it months later because my brother couldn’t reach me...I don’t want to find out about his death from nephews and nieces who’ll barely know who I am, if they know I exist at all.” Nile sighs again, sobs crowding in her throat and tightening her voice as she admits: “I wish I hadn’t listened to Booker.”

That last admission is what breaks the dam, and all of a sudden Nile is sobbing again, and she couldn’t stop if she wanted to. There’s misery here, and anger too, maybe even more than there was at the beginning. It was...easier, in a way, to pretend to be dead. She had to mourn, of course, and that tore at her and still does sometimes, but it was a clean cut. It was simple.

Now her mother knows she’s alive and her brother knows and it’s a relief for all of them, but it also means Nile has to be the one consciously deciding not to call home until she’s in a safe enough place to do so, not to text until she can do it from a sufficiently untraceable phone. The temptation there is a hundred times harder to resist because it would be so easy not to.

“If it makes you feel better,” Joe’s voice says from the threshold, “I think we can all sympathize with that sentiment.”

He’s being quiet and careful—it’s the middle of the night after all—but Nile is still startled, and she pretends to glare at him until he tilts his head in quiet enquiry. In response she sighs, wipes at her wet cheeks again, and waves him over. He smiles, something almost like relief in it, and steps lightly into the living room.

“Mind the doctor,” Nile tells him, gesturing at the remains of the strawberry, as he lowers himself on the ground next to her.

“The doct—you mean Bâtard?”

“Yeah he’s—”

In that instant, Nile realizes she has no idea where Bâtard went. He was chilling by her feet, seemingly content to go to sleep soon, and now he’s nowhere to be seen. The realization is enough to send Nile’s heart racing, horrified at the thought of being the one under whose watch Bâtard meets an unfortunate end.

Sure, it isn’t her pet and she and Booker aren’t really close—not like she’s becoming with the others, at any rate—but 1) Bâtard doesn’t deserve to die and 2) it doesn’t take a genius to realize his demise would be absolutely disastrous for Booker’s mental health, and no one wants to see the consequences that could have on the rest of them. Joe must have gone through a similar realization, because as soon as Nile falls quiet he tenses and gets back up into a crouch.

“Please tell me we didn’t lose the tortoise,” he whispers, like he thinks Booker might be listening in on them.

“We didn’t lose the tortoise,” Nile replies because it’s barely been five minutes and Bâtard cannot possibly have gone far in that time frame.

“Good,” Joe says while Nile rummages through her pocket for her phone and turns the flashlight on, “because I don’t think any of us are prepared to deal with the fallout of—”

“We did not lose the tortoise,” Nile interrupts, her tone firm enough to pretend she’s not actually nervous about this. “Can you turn the light on? I’m getting nowhere with this.”

Joe does, and Nile spots Bâtard almost instantly, ambling in his unhurried stroll towards the fridge like he knows where the treats come from...maybe he does, Nile really doesn’t know enough about tortoises to tell. Either way, it’s a relief seeing him there, and she turns to let Joe know she’s found their target.

“Oh thank God,” Joe sighs, sagging with it. “I really don’t want to find out what Booker would be like if we lose him.”

“You know,” Nile remarks as she follows Bâtard’s mosey to the fridge, “I’ve been thinking maybe it’s time the lot of you had a talk about this.”

Joe winces, and Nile can sympathize with that if she’s really honest. She doesn’t feel the same about what happened, but then she doesn’t have a shared history with Booker the way the others do; it’s easier for her to let go faster. Still, Booker’s been back for nearly three months now, and Nile is getting tired of feeling like she needs to be walking on eggshells between the two parts of the group. Joe sighs.

“Which ‘this,’ do you think?”

“All of them,” Nile retorts, careful to keep her voice gentle. She’s not trying to force anyone into anything, after all. “Just...it’s been months, and you’re still avoiding each other. You all need to talk.”

Joe sighs again, running a hand over the nape of his neck. He looks like he might be ready to talk with someone, but the very thought of it makes Nile want to recoil. Another day, maybe. When she’s got more energy, and more space in her head for other people’s problems.

Not right now.

“Remember you’re on my strawberry,” Nile says, smiling to turn it half into a joke, “if you need a consultation you pay your own fee.”

“Alright,” Joe chuckles, good natured even in the middle of the night. “That’s fair.”

He sobers up soon after, growing quiet and serious to ask: “Is it working for you? Or would you like to tell me what’s going on? I’ll even listen for free, if you’re short on strawberries.”

Nile snorts. The truth is, she does feel better for having told him what was going on, even if her ‘consultation’ was accidentally cut short. She’s not sure how much of this she wants to share with the team just yet. There’s never an easy way to tell people who want to help you that they can’t because they’re simply...not who you want at that moment.

“Actually, I’m good right now,” she tells Joe. “Take you up on it another time?”

Joe visibly hesitates, something a little worried in his frown, so Nile gives a fond smile and leans up to squish him in a hug as much as she can manage.

“Thank you,” she tells him, relaxing when he returns the embrace just as tight and actually lifts her up against him. “I’m good, I promise. It’s not─you can probably guess most of it, honestly. I just...I feel kind of awkward about it, I guess.”

“Because we’re too close?” Joe guesses, and Nile nods.

“Sometimes it’s just easier to talk to someone uninvolved.”

“Well,” Joe says, something too wet in his throat to be only about Nile, “I’m glad you have that then. Just...just know I mean it.”

“I know,” Nile promises, chest warming from the care and the obvious concern. “Now go to sleep, old man.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Nile gives Joe a playful shove, snorting when he pretends to stumble, and watches him go with the stretch of a smile sinking into her cheeks. Slowly, the air around her grows still again, the vague sounds of a forest at night and a door creaking barely even noticeable.

How much sleeping is actually taking place on the other side of the safehouse, Nile doesn’t know. She learned very quickly that no one on this team is capable of normal sleep patterns. It’s quiet all the same, and after a few seconds of standing in place, she goes to the fridge, retrieves a peach quarter from Bâtard’s snack box and she plops the offering in front of him, turns the light off, and sits back down next to the tortoise.

“Alright,” she tells him, “maybe I wasn’t completely fair with your dad. I mean...he was wrong, but it’s not like he was trying to be cruel. And he did have a bit of a point.”

She still can’t quite stand the thought of losing her family. It’s unavoidable, she knows. One day, maybe, she’ll make her peace with it, but for now...no. She doesn’t want to think about that any more than she already has tonight.

“I know there’s a purpose,” Nile tells Bâtard. “I’ve seen it. I’ve witnessed it. And we’re getting better at it! I know I’m doing more good here than I used to as a soldier...but sometimes I wish there wasn't a purpose and I could just go home.”

Bâtard, either oblivious to or unconcerned by Nile’s predicament, keeps munching on his piece of peach, and Nile can’t help but smile down at him, reaching to rub at his head once more.

“You really are a good listener,” she tells him. “You’re still not my mom though. She’s the one I want to talk to.”

Bâtard looks up then, and straight at Nile with something that could almost pass for a purposefully flat expression...and, really, he’s not wrong. It’s nearing three am here which makes for...maybe ten or eleven in the evening in Chicago? And sure, Mom’s not so young anymore and could probably use the sleep...but today is her birthday, and Nile’s always tried to phone her on the day before, and she has a burner phone with her so, really, what’s stopping her?

Maybe the possibility of displeasing Andy, a bit. But, Nile thinks as she dials, they’re leaving tomorrow aren’t they? If she’s going to do it, at least she’s picking the least inconvenient time for it.

“N─yes?” Mom’s sleepy voice mumbles into the phone, better at the incognito game than she was when it all started two years ago. “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Nile says, and smiles at her mother’s joyful, wordless exclamation. “Am I waking you up?”

“Nevermind that,” mom chides, “nevermind that! How are you? Where─well no, you can’t tell me where you are, but how are you?”

“Better now,” Nile says in a sigh, warmth and bittersweetness spreading in her chest as she leans back against the wall, finger still tracing circles on Bâtard’s head. “I mean. I miss you, but at least I get to hear you now.”

“Oh, I miss you too baby,” Mom says, tears audible in her voice, “but I’m so glad you called! Don’t tell your brother, but it’s definitely my favorite present this year!”

Nile smiles again, a little wobblier than she’d like, maybe, but not forced. This isn’t ideal and she wants more, but it’s better than not calling the way she’d planned to do. At her feet, in the dim silvery light of the moon, Bâtard looks just a little smug.

“Not a word,” Nile promises, knowing her mother is going to share the news herself anyway. “How was your day?”

“Oh it was nice! You know how I told Marjory down the street I felt ready to celebrate a little more this year now I got used to you being dead and all, so she treated me to lunch at that new Italian on the corner─you tell your Nuncio he was right, by the way, osso bucco is delicious. And then we went for a stroll in the park, and I was a little worried, because I’m still supposed to be grieving, but you’re alive and I wasn’t sure I’d look suitably emotional when we passed your favorite spots, but I do miss you so it really wasn’t that hard and all in all it was nice and Marjory’s none the wiser so I’m calling it a success.”

“I’m sorry,” Nile says, unsurprised when Mom tuts at her in response. “I know, I know. I still wish you didn’t have to lie to her.”

“Nile, baby, if Marjory knew, she’d understand. Now you stop worrying about her and tell me what your day was like.”

“It was alright,” Nile says, rolling her neck as the tension slowly seeps out of it, the breaths coming slower and easier now that she’s actually doing what she’s wanted to do all day. “I missed you. Jaamal taught me how to draw a dog, though, and then Antaram kicked my butt in training again.”

“Just you wait a few years,” Mom says with a chuckle, “then you can take advantage of her age.”

Nile snorts, even though she seriously doubts Andy will let an aging body get in the way of remaining the best fighter of the group. She might look past forty─although she doesn’t remember how long she’d lived before she died the first time─but she’s also been fighting since before horses were domesticated (or near enough), and all that expertise doesn’t just go away.

It’s still an amusing thought, though, so Nile chuckles along with her mother for a bit before continuing.

“It’s not that bad. I’m learning a lot.”

“Of course, of course! I’m just saying.”

“Of course,” Nile repeats, still smiling. “Anyway, that’s about it. Nuncio made us tagine, Jaamal made fun of him because apparently he cooks like a christian─I’m pretty sure that’s an inside joke. And then I was feeling a little down so Blàsi lent me Bâtard, and now I’m here.”

“Is Bâtard Franklin’s name?” Mom suggests when she hears Nile hiss at her slip up.

“Yes, but I don’t think he deserves it,” Nile says, grateful for her mother’s help. “I think we’re bonding. Either that or he just wants me for my fruit.” Mom chuckles. “He’s wearing a doctor’s outfit right now, by the way. I think it’s one of the homemade ones.”

It looks lumpier than the ones Bâtard wore at the beginning, at any rate, but in a way that makes it even cuter. Not that she needs the cozies to find Bâtard cute anymore. It’s entirely possible the tortoise doesn’t care one whit about her─she really doesn’t know a lot about them─but it’s clear that this little late night conversation was enough for Nile to bond with him.

“Oh, well, send me a picture if you can,” Mom says with the tone of a connoisseur readying to look at a newbie’s attempt, “see if I can give Blàsi some pointers.”

“I’ll try my best, but you know I can’t make promises,” Nile says, sadness creeping up again. “Places to see, things to do...you know how it is.”

“Speaking of,” Mom asks, “what time is it where you are? I mean─you can telle me that, right?”

“I can,” Nile says, smiling at her mother’s effort. “It’s uh...almost one AM.”

Nile yawns, unbidden, and then sighs.

“I think I need to go.”

“Yes you do,” Mom chides, teasing and firm all at once. “You’re not going to accomplish anything if you’re dead on your feet─off to bed, Nile.”

“I don’t want to,” Nile protests, not trying very hard to keep the pout out of her voice. “It’s your birthday.”

“It’s okay,” Mom says, and the tone of her voice is like a hug Nile wants to linger in forever. “I understand. I’m just glad you called.”

“I’m glad too,” Nile says, wiping at a stray tear on her cheek. “Happy birthday, mom.”

“I love you, baby,” Mom says, and Nile grins through a fresh wave of tears.

“Forever and ever?”

“Of course forever,” Mom promises with something like an amused eye roll in her tone. “Now go to sleep.”

“Yes mom. Bye.”

“Bye bye, love you.”

“Love you too,” Nile says, and then she reluctantly disconnects the call.

She’s still feeling blue, it’s true, but it’s a different sort of ache now, the sort that’s softened enough to be a fond remembrance of someone you love rather than a knife to the heart. It isn’t something Nile has figured out how to value yet, but it could be, someday, maybe. With a watery sigh and a smile, Nile bends to pick Bâtard up─he’s fallen asleep, it seems, all snuggled up in his shell and entirely unresponsive in the time it takes for her to scribble a quick thanks at the bottom of Booker’s note and bring Bâtard back to his terrarium in the old parlor.

“M’ci,” Booker mutters from the seat to her left, and Nile almost has a heart attack.

When she turns to scold Booker for it, however, he’s already back to sleep─or feigning sleep, she’s not entirely sure─his back to the door to the bedroom and turned towards the only unboarded window, which they’ve been using as an entry and exit point. Nile sighs, shaking her head, and goes to the room she shares with the others, only to jump again when she lies down on her mattress and finds herself face to face with Andy’s eyes shining in the moonlight.

“I fear the day my sleep patterns start matching yours,” Nile whispers to Andy, and sighs when all that garners her is a sharp smile. “How are you not dead on your feet?”

“I’m old enough to transcend the need for sleep.”

Nile punches her in the shoulder.

“Feeling any better?”

“Yes, actually,” Nile says, trying to shift into a comfortable position. “I talked to my mother...it’s always too short but. It’s good.”

“Good,” Andy says. There’s a pause, and then she adds, “Nile, I’m sorry.”

Nile blinks at the darkness. It’s been seven years, and while she knows full well Andy is perfectly capable of recognizing her shortcomings, it’s the first time Nile hears her actually apologize for anything. She’s got a right to be a little startled, she thinks.

“I was with Book on this,” Andy explains when the silence between them has stretched a little while longer. “Not seeing your family again, I mean. I didn’t think it could turn out well, either...sure didn’t do him any good. Or Lykon, for that matter.”

“To be fair,” Nile admits after a beat, “I get it. I’m probably just very lucky. And I...I’ll lose them anyway. Sooner or later. I don’t─I’m glad I still have them for a bit, even if it hurts but...sometimes, I think at least the clean break was...easier.”

Andy stays quiet at that, eyes still looking at Nile in the darkness. Nile resists the urge to squirm under those eyes, but she’s not surprised when the urge to elaborate becomes too strong:

“It’s just...before my mom saw us, I didn’t have to wonder how this was affecting everyone. No contact, stay out of Chicago for another fifty years, maybe a little more, and that was it. It hurt, but at least the path was clear. Now I keep wanting to call her not knowing if I should. I have to use fake names to tell her about the most important people in my life, who she’ll never meet─I’m making her lie to her best friend!”

On the other side of the room, Nicky snorts in his sleep, and Nile smiles through her anguish as it morphs into a soft snore.

“They’ve been friends since elementary school, you know,” Nile tells Andy when she’s sure Nicky isn’t waking up. “They tell each other everything, and now my mom has to lie to her because of me. I don’t know how she can bear it.”

She pauses, breathing through the sudden tightness in her throat, and concludes:

“I don’t know how long she’ll bear it.”

Andy hums.

“I don’t have any advice for you Nile,” she says eventually. “I don’t really remember how that went for me, it’s been too long. But...even now, sometimes I─it’s hard, living without your family. Even at my age.”

“I...I didn’t know you felt like that,” Nile admits. “I thought you’d grown past that.”

“I don’t think we’re meant to,” Andy says. “I can’t remember what my parents looked like, or what it was like to be a child...but I do know what it’s like to want someone else to take care of your shit for a while.”

Nile grins, surprised into a light laughter that’s almost a giggle. Sometimes it’s easy to forget Andy is as human as any of them, even if she’s the oldest person on Earth. Discovering moments of relatability is always a delight and a relief all at once.

“I know we’re not your mom or your family,” Andy says after a while, the smile fading from her voice as she grows more serious, “and we’re not trying to be. But you’re─I won’t get angry if we’re not enough. You don’t have to...to hide it from me. You don’t have to stay alone and just...assume. There’s been too much of that lately.”

Nile can’t see Andy’s face in the darkness, not when her eyes aren’t angled to catch the moonlight, but it’s not hard to guess where she’s looking. In the doorway, Nile can see the outline of Booker’s seat, one hand dangling over the armrest─bottle free for the second night in a row, though there’s still an empty glass nearby on the floor.

“What I mean,” Andy says, startling Nile again, “is that you don’t have to be ashamed if we’re not what you want or need. The fact that you value your family isn’t a weakness, or a flaw. Just because we’ve─just because most of us grew out of it doesn’t mean you’re wrong for still needing more time, especially when it’s so recent. This...I didn’t tell him that, and I should have, so now I’m telling you. Not to protect us, but because it’s true.”

“Thanks, Andy,” Nile says.

“Sure. Now go to sleep,” Andy orders fondly.

Nile snorts, gives Andy a light punch in the shoulder, and turns over to go to sleep.

#The Old Guard #Nile Freeman #TOG Fic #NileFreemanWeek2020 #Fanfiction #Bâtard the tortoise #s: Bâtard verse

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Episode 12

So, we start this episode with our heroes having to give up their swords. I like that with everything he’s been through, Lan Wangji doesn’t put up a fight here. He willingly gives up his sword without any resistance. It’s the smart move: he’s already injured, the Cloud Recesses has been nearly destroyed, his brother is missing (and in the book, his father is also dying). And it stands to reason that Jin Zixuan is the one who protests—his clan so far has been protected from the Wen Clan: they are wealthy, they certainly are a large clan, and they have the resources to keep the Wens at bay, seemingly.

“Though I am disgusted with Wen Chao, I’m not gonna bring any trouble to our family during this time.” Welp. That was short-lived. I think this thought of his lasts for about 12 hours before he can’t take any more of Wen Chao’s shit.

As if regular Wen Chao wasn’t horrible enough, now we get sleazeball Wen Chao. This is, of course, important later, that he takes a liking to MianMian. She’s essentially marked from this point on. But can I say that I love how she’s the one who steps up to assuage Wen Chao, rather than the Jin Zixuan? She steps up like a boss, takes Wen Chao’s gross comments in her stride, and stops her master from making a big mistake.

And it’s nice to get some actual character development for Jin Zixuan too. Prior to this, we know he was engaged to Jiang Yanli, but had no interest in marrying her. He basically acted like a big dick, without any real redeeming qualities. But now we see that he is not interested in going along with the Wens’ indoctrination, even though his dad told him to just be a good boy. Brings in the theme of the younger generation wanting to pave their own path. The older generation (the majority of the clan leaders) end up being pushed aside. Their ways don’t work against the Wens. A lot of our heroes (I use that word lightly in some characters’ cases) end up being forced to grow up really fast here—they come of age as they are literally fighting a war. They form identities on those battlegrounds. Idk what I was saying, I started to ramble.

And just as a side note, Wei Wuxian kept glancing at Lan Wangji throughout that scene, maybe searching for a reaction, maybe an opening to speak, maybe just wanting Lan Wangji to look at him—seeking that connection. I think he is desperate to find out what has happened since they parted in Qinghe.

Ugh, Jiang Cheng, I couldn’t care less about your little crush on Wen Qing! Stop being so emo about her! Seriously, this is the dumbest thing they added into Untamed. This stupid “romance” that amounts to nothing and really adds nothing to either character, especially Wen Qing. Omg but imagine if they had gone with their original plans to make Wei Wuxian hook up with Wen Qing—the drama between him and Jiang Cheng! Or maybe this was the compromise. Like, “we need to make Wen Qing the romantic object for one of the boys…hmm…who should we pick…Eeny meeny miney mo….” I hate it, really. I don’t give a damn about the comb or the eventual life of loneliness that you have ahead of you, Jiang Cheng. Just stop. You’re not marriage material—you’re not fit for that, okay? You get to be a grumpy uncle, at best.

This will never not be funny to me. The absolute gall he has here, to gleefully volunteer to recite, and then to decidedly recite the wrong principles. But see what I mean about him immediately causing trouble? He’s looking for a window to talk to Lan Wangji and he finds it in misbehaving and forcing a punishment onto himself. It’s as if he’s fine behaving and being a good boy for the Jiang Clan, unless something is going on with Lan Wangji, which it most certainly is. More fuel for the fire for Jiang Cheng, I’m afraid, more proof that perhaps Wei Wuxian values Lan Wangji just a little bit more than him.

Also, everyone’s reactions here: Jiang Cheng is pissed (of course), Nie Huaisang is bemused (“Oh, you rascal!”), Jin Zixuan seems to be impressed (“You go, girl!”), and Lan Wangji…I think this is the first time that Lan Wangji actually looks at Wei Wuxian. They don’t make eye contact, but he looks up, and as his eyes flick back down, it’s as if he’s uttering a silent “thank you.” It’s such a quiet moment, juxtaposed to Wei Wuxian noisily reciting the Gusu Lan principles. I think Lan Wangji is just so appreciative here to know that he isn’t alone. He may seem alone—his clan lost many, his brother is missing—but he is most certainly not alone, because Wei Wuxian is here too. I’m getting all emotional now.

Okay, now they’re making eye contact, hahaha! Do I think Lan Wangji is a little annoyed that he has to cart shit around? Probably a little. But I actually think that he’s more annoyed that Wei Wuxian might be making things harder for them all in his desperation to have a talk with Lan Wangji. Like I said, Lan Wangji appreciates that Wei Wuxian is with him, making him feel that he’s not alone, but he also doesn’t want to make things worse. His clan is in a bad state right now, and at this point, he has to still be concerned that if they go too far against the Wens, that could come back and spell bad news for their families. Wei Wuxian has already forced that issue to the back of his mind, because he’s so focused on finding out what happened at Cloud Recesses. I can understand why Jiang Cheng is pissed, since Wei Wuxian told him he’d keep his head low, and he’s currently doing the opposite. More tension, I love it!

It’d be really easy to look at this scene and make it all about wangxian and how Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian so much and would do anything for him (this is, of course true), but that’s not what this scene is all about. It’s about three out of the five major clans seeing how oppressive the Wen Clan is, it’s about standing up for what’s right, even if it looks like you’re going to lose the fight. Jin Zixuan could have kept his head down and continued to shovel shit, but he didn’t. He stood up and used all the clout he had to try and put a stop to the abuse that Wen Chao is doing against Wei Wuxian. At this point, we know that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian will help each other out—it’s happened before, it’s not news (not that I don’t fucking love it), but Jin Zixuan, who up until this point has had a pretty poor relationship with Wei Wuxian, didn’t have to do anything, but he did. He knows this is wrong, he can see what the Wen Clan is doing is wrong, but he’s mostly powerless to stop any of it. His threats are inherently empty, but nevertheless he tries. It doesn’t mean he likes Wei Wuxian, but it does mean that he knows Wei Wuxian is right to stand up to the Wens.

I love this. All of this. Lan Wangji putting himself between Wei Wuxian and Wen Chao, only to be whipped aside, and then getting up (on his broken leg) and doing it all over again. Just like Jin Zixuan, he’s literally standing up to injustice, but it’s different, right? It’s different because this is Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, two people who’ve been through dangerous situations together, two people whose beginning was extremely rocky—but they are two people who grew to understand and need each other. I don’t think either one of them could pinpoint that need, but I think it’s there, just below the surface. Lan Wangji could never stand aside and watch Wei Wuxian be abused, and the same is true for Wei Wuxian. Right or wrong, they have a desire to protect each other. Because, like I said before, I think Lan Wangji knows they are all treading on thin ice right now. He’s seen his home destroyed and he likely doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Wei Wuxian. I would be amazed if he wasn’t thinking about that right about now—how will my actions affect him? Nevertheless, he won’t stand by and do nothing, even if it means taking that risk.

I also kind of wonder what Jiang Cheng would do here. I feel like he would try to protect Wei Wuxian (he does so later with his mother), but at the back of my mind, I still feel like Jiang Cheng has this deep resentment of Wei Wuxian that is always hiding just below the surface, just waiting to show itself. Wei Wuxian got himself into this mess, and maybe, in Jiang Cheng’s mind, he deserves the punishment. And that’s not to say that Jiang Cheng would agree with the Wen Clan, because obviously he does not, but part of me thinks he might be thinking, if only a flicker of a thought across his mind: “Serves him right.” I have a dark fascination for Jiang Cheng—I don’t want him to ever really be a good person hahaha.

Can I just point out that Lan Wangji never lets go of Wei Wuxian here, and it is a thing of beauty.

Until this moment, of course. Wen Chao asks if Lan Wangji wants to join Wei Wuxian in the dungeon, and 100% Lan Wangji was ready to do just that until Wei Wuxian stops him. He makes the decision to be taken alone. He doesn’t want Lan Wangji to get in any more trouble. He’s got to realize by now that Lan Wangji was taken to Qishan by force and probably finds that idea disturbing at the very least.

The look on his face really kills me here. Again Lan Wangji is in a situation where he is powerless. This is just like back at the Cloud Recesses. He fought—yes, he fought with everything he had, but in the end, he couldn’t stop them. He had to give up the Yin Iron shard, he had to go with the Wens to the indoctrination. And here is again: he tried to stand up to them, but ultimately he’s forced to give up and live to fight another day, as they say. And if you look at Jin Zixuan, he’s visibly annoyed—he feels like he shouldn’t be treated this way, that his standing in the Jin Clan should protect him from this. Lan Wangji, though? He looks defeated here. Not fall-on-the-ground-sobbing-defeated, but definitely defeated. He wants to do more, but realizes that he can’t. This whole mini arc for him is like one battle with himself after another. He’s struggling to find what exactly is his place in this world, what’s his place with Wei Wuxian, what’s his place in his own clan.

This fucking dog. I hate this. I hate that they went with practical over CG here. It looks so bad. Has anyone reading this seen Neverending Story? Yes? Okay, that’s what this reminds me of. 1980s special effects, but this was made in 2018. My friend and I are watching the series together (yes, I have two simultaneous rewatches going), and she likened this to Xena: Warrior Princess special effects. I think that’s pretty apt—1990s television, extremely cheesy and hokey. Honestly it ruins the whole scene for me. Xiao Zhan’s acting is great here—he is terrified of that fucking semi-animatronic dog at the other end of that cell. Although, I commented to my friend, if that had been a puppy, Wei Wuxian would have been just as terrified. I definitely relate. Dogs scare me—a lot sometimes. I had several dogs jump on me as a very young child and I’ve really never recovered. That doesn’t mean I don’t like dogs—I like them a lot! But I wouldn’t choose to be around a wild, poorly behaved dog. Like, just no.

Also, since I’m not really commenting on Wen Qing/Wen Ning stuff (because it’s mostly padding to me), but Wen Ning just wants to have friends! Wen Qing is coming from a good place, yes, but he has no fucking idea why she won’t let him talk to Wei Wuxian, a man who he clearly looks up to from the little interaction that they’ve had together. Honestly, I really wish they had kept in the archery contest when Wei Wuxian sees Wen Ning shooting arrows (I know they kind of moved it, but it’s not the same).

Wen Chao is really just trying to stop Wei Wuxian from actually breaking down this cheap-ass door. Seriously, it looks like it’s supposed to be rock, but it’s moving quite a bit. Now I’m just being mean, aren’t I? Honestly I love the low budget stuff (Mystery Science Theater 3000, anyone? I mean the good one. Not that crap that they put out recently), and I’m just poking fun.

Oh, my gosh, I just had a funny thought. How did Wen Chao know that Wei Wuxian was afraid of dogs? Maybe Jiang Cheng told him hahahaha. I mean, not like you’d need to be afraid of dogs to be terrified in that situation. It was a funny thought, in a dark way.

So I took this screenshot to set up a contrast. Lan Wangji is relieved to see Wei Wuxian alive and well, and in pretty good spirits for someone who spent the night with an enormous mythical-like dog. He doesn’t say anything—he just watches.

Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, at first is relieved to see Wei Wuxian, but he quickly pushes him away when Wei Wuxian attempts to make physical contact with him. This isn’t the first time. He did that in Lotus Pier as well. He doesn’t hesitate to brush Wei Wuxian off. I know that Jiang Cheng cares about Wei Wuxian—I know that—but he cares less about Wei Wuxian than he does about other things, like his family. There’s a distinction for him. Yanli, his mother, his father—they are all his family. Wei Wuxian was practically raised as his brother, but it’s clear that he doesn’t see him as a brother at all. He sees him as a subordinate, someone who should listen to him and report to him. I don’t think his anger here is that Wei Wuxian could have been killed, I think it’s more that Wei Wuxian could have caused the Jiangs trouble.

There’s a poignant sense of a loss of their youth here. So much has changed, and it’s changed for the worse. The sense that they took so much for granted is palpable. It’s really sad. And it’s not played for laughs at all. They all miss those days back at the Cloud Recesses when they goofed off, learned a lot, embarked on a journey to find the Yin Iron shards, a journey that ultimately was the root of all the chaos that they are currently living in (again, within CQL verse). I like how it’s just Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, and Wei Wuxian who are actually having a conversation, but they keep panning over to Lan Wangji as they fondly remember their time in Gusu. Like the land he lives in, he has changed too. His scope of the world is so much bigger now: it’s not just about rules anymore, and who’s following or not following them. There are worse things than bringing Emperor’s Smile into the Cloud Recesses.

So Wen Chao has laid it all out before them now: Cloud Recesses has been taken over, Qinghe is going to be taken over, Jin Clan is cooperating but will be attacked if Jin Zixuan steps out of line, and Jiang Clan could be next. Jiang Cheng is obviously upset about the prospect, not to mention Wen Chao called his father a coward. It’s nice to see Wei Wuxian, who only a few hours ago was on the other side, trying to restrain someone else. But he knows now that the Wens are not above anything—murder, torture, absolute destruction—and Wei Wuxian is one of those people who doesn’t mind harm coming to himself, but cannot abide harm coming to others, especially those he is close to. But Wei Wuxian is obviously pissed too, and it’s taking every fiber of his being to resist the urge to lash out again. He understands now: they need to watch themselves during this indoctrination.

There was a time when I might have turned a blind eye to Jiang Cheng’s remarks here, when I might have assumed he was coming from a place of concern. This is not that time. Wei Wuxian is so caring, so kind, so welcoming, and Jiang Cheng is just none of those things. He is very much a person who places his own safety (and his family’s safety) above anything else; he is a person who doesn’t really get it when they say on the plane, “put your own mask on first before assisting others” because he would literally never not put his own mask on first. Know what I mean? And I think the concept of working together here, seeing the Gusu Lan Clan as allies, doesn’t phase him. He’s like, it’s us or them, and he chooses us. And this is all logical, but I’m only saying it because that’s not what Wei Wuxian is about. Wei Wuxian’s “us” includes the Jiang Clan (yes), but it also includes Lan Wangji, Nie Huaisang, and the other clans that are being held ransom by the Wens.

And I still say that Jiang Cheng is continually jealous of the attention that Lan Wangji receives. He wants to be the most important person in Wei Wuxian’s eyes—he is the future clan leader, after all. He wants Wei Wuxian to support him and him alone. He doesn’t understand this loyalty to another clan, especially someone like Lan Wangji, who he still thinks dislikes and disdains Wei Wuxian.

I love their faces. I love how genuine Wei Wuxian is here. I love how he asks several times how Lan Wangji’s leg is. I love how Lan Wangji stoically answers each time that he’s fine. And I hate that the episode ends right here lol. Look at that smile, though! How could you say no to that smile?

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

#cql #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #jin zixuan #wen chao #wwx #lwj #cql rewatch #mdzs #mo dao zu shi

[thegreatestofheck]

Ocean and Alcohol Pt. 3 ✘JJ Maybank✘

Part One! Part Two! 

(not my gif. All credit to pterparkcr!)  Part 3/? Word Count - 6371 Warnings - Abuse mentions, underage drinking, swearing, steaming fluff (is that thing? idk)  Synopsis - The party at Sarah Cameron’s has a rocky start, but ends rather well in your opinion.  Taglist - @lovelymaybankk​ A/N - As with the other parts in this series, it’s in the second person with a named character! Thank you so much to lovelymaybankk for being a wonderful supporter, I really appreciate it! If anyone wants to see the playlist I listen to while writing these, let me know. Thank you all, I love you a million!

When you finally got home, your dad was sitting on the bottom of the stairs, just like Kid had been the night before. “Hey, Dad,” you said, setting your keys in the bowl by the door. “Hey, sweetheart.” From the tone in his voice, you knew a teary-eyed apology was on its way. You groaned inwardly as you shut your eyes. “I...I wanted to apologize for last night.” “It’s not a big deal, Dad,” you said, opening your eyes and putting on a smile. “But it is.” He pushed himself off the stairs and took a few hurried steps forward. He stopped when he saw you flinch and step backward. Tears brimmed his eyes and he covered his mouth with his hands. “I hurt my baby girl and my boy and I….” He broke down into tears, falling to one knee as he sobbed. You grit your teeth, trying to blink away a few tears of your own. He did this almost every time. He either pretended like it never happened or he cried, there was never another option. You preferred the first because you never felt obligated to comfort him, like you did now. “Dad.” You walked over to him and dropped down next to him. You wrapped your arms around him and he leaned into you, clinging to your arm. Every piece of your heart shattered as you heard him cry. His tears soaked through your pajama shirt. You hid a sob of your own by planting a kiss onto his head. Keeping your breathing steady, you slowly peeled him off of you, putting your hands over his teary cheeks. “There is one way you can make it up to me,” you said, plastering on a smile. “Anything,” he choked out. “Anything.” “Sarah is having a get together tonight and she wants me to come.” “You...go out?” You heard the concern in his voice so you pushed harder. “You know how much I like Sarah, and I know you want me to make better friends. This is me trying.” When it was clear he was still mulling it over in your mind, you pulled the last stop you knew would guarantee a yes. “And...Rafe will be there tonight.” “Rafe?” The tears were immediately gone from his eyes. You nodded, though your stomach sickened. “I thought you hated him.” “He’s not as bad as I thought.” A lie. He was worse. “Well, if someone responsible like Rafe is there….” You resisted the urge to laugh. “As long as it isn’t a party, you can go.” A grin spread across your lips. You leaned down and kissed your dad on the cheek, just one more foot in his goodwill door. “Thank you, Daddy.” You helped him to his feet and brushed away a few of his stray tears. “I love you, sweetheart.” “Love you.” As soon as you were upstairs, you vomited the words out of your mouth. While you were glad that you had been given permission to go to the party, you hated how low you had to go to get there. Making your dad bend to your will was generally easy and very rarely did you actually feel bad about it. After all, his favorite past time was beating you senseless, so why couldn’t you manipulate him to get the things you wanted? It seemed like a pretty fair game. You brushed your teeth twice before heading back to your room to start homework. As soon as you opened your computer, you knew that you were going to get very little done. Your mind went, as it usually did these days, straight to JJ. You weren’t sure how to feel. You fought the last time you spoke to him, but you also spent the entire night thinking about seeing him at this party. And then you saw him kiss another girl and then spent the entire day wanting to murder him. And now you were just double confused because he seemed ready enough to introduce you to one of his best friends. Your mind was all over the place and none of those places was homework. In hopes to drown out your own thoughts and focus better, you turned on some music. But then the song that you and JJ ‘danced’ to came on and you were thrown into all over again. You found yourself humming and tapping your foot instead of typing out your essay. Eventually, frustration overcame you and you tossed your computer onto your pillow and shut off the music. You spent the next few hours trying to not think about JJ and focus on your school. It had never been hard to focus before. You knew you needed to go to a good school to get a good job to be able to take care of Kid once your dad was out of the picture, and that meant getting good grades now. Homeschooling wasn’t too hard for you, but if you didn’t get most of your work done today, you were going to suffer for it later. JJ and his stupid smile were really throwing a wrench in every single one of your plans. The time came for you to pick Kid up from school, but he texted you asking if you could pick him up from a friend’s in an hour or two. As long as you got him home before Dad got home, you usually let him go and do whatever he wanted after school. You wanted your brother to have the social life you never did. You didn’t have a big sister to cover for you or pick you up from wherever when you were his age. But that didn’t matter. You were going to be the big sister that you always wished you had. 

You somehow managed to focus long enough to finish the essay and start on your math homework. It didn’t take long for Kid to text you to tell you to come and pick him up. The entire drive there and back, you were worried that you would somehow run into JJ like you had before. “Are you okay?” Kid asked, looking up from his comic. “Hmm? Yeah, oh yeah.” “Why do you keep looking out the window?” “No reason.” 

Now consciously aware of your wandering eyes, you tried to keep your gaze fixed on the road ahead. The sun was starting to go down and the only thing you should be worried about right now was getting Kid home quickly and finishing your work, not JJ. Luckily, you made it home without any unwanted visitors and a few minutes before your Dad got home. Kid sat on the ground in your room munching on some potato chips while the both of you worked on school work. You heard your Dad pull into the driveway. You and Kid glanced at each other and shared a knowing smile. It always felt like a victory when Kid was able to do something without Dad finding out. After a few minutes, your dad knocked on your door and opened it. “Hey, Kiddos.” “Hey, Dad.” “Tacos good for tonight?” “Sure,” Kid said. “Elm?” “I’m going over to Sarah’s, remember? They’ll have food there,” you said with a smile. Your dad’s face fell for a moment. 

“Ah, yes.” “And I’m sure if I don’t get enough to eat, Rafe would be more than happy to get me something,” you added, praying that your dad worshiped Rafe enough to not double back on his word. “Rafe, yes. I’m sure he will.” He sighed. “How was work?” You asked, hoping to change the subject. “Good, good. Busy.” 

“That’s good.” The air went stale when no one said anything else. “I’ll call you when dinner is ready, Bradford,” your dad said, looking down at Kid. He nodded, returning to his homework. “Thanks, Dad,” you said as he turned and shut the door. 

You spent the next hour finishing up as much homework as you could before getting ready. You couldn’t remember the last time you put real effort into a party outfit. But this time you tried on at least five different outfits, asking Kid each time if it was alright before finally landing on something you liked. “Is that boy going to be at Sarah’s?” Kid asked, now sitting on your bed as you checked yourself out in the mirror again. “What boy?” You eyed your brother carefully. “That boy that was here a few weeks ago. The one who snuck out when Dad and I got back from our trip?” 

You let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know,” you said, mentally punching yourself for overthinking things again. It didn’t matter if JJ was going to be at Sarah’s party because you had no intention of talking to him. Either you were going to end up crying (again) or you were going to punch him, and you were sick of crying. Even if JJ was there, you weren’t sure why you put so much attention into your outfit. You dropped to the floor, pressing your hands against your eyes. You heard Kid climb down from your creaky bed. He sat next to you and bumped your shoulder with his. You let out another sigh and leaned your head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” you whispered, afraid that your voice would break if you spoke any louder. “For what?” “For bringing my silly drama into your peaceful Friday night,” you said, lifting your head and trying to give a smile. Kid shook his head. 

“You go get prettied up for this boy, El.” 

A smile broke out on your face and you felt your cheeks heaten. Kid bumped your shoulder again and you scrambled upward to grab your makeup from your bathroom. Kid turned up the music and jumped back onto your bed. You bobbed your head, sitting in front of your mirror, as you finished your look. It was nearly seven by the time you were finished. “Ready?” You asked Kid. He looked up from his comic and pursed his lips, checking to make sure everything was in place. “Ready,” he confirmed with a smile. You walked over and kissed the top of his head, an unusually cheery bounce in your step. “Bye, Kid,” you said. “Be back by 12!” Kid said, deepening his voice to mimic your dad. You laughed as you slung your bag over your shoulder on the way to the door. “Bye!” You hurried down the stairs, smile glowing on your face. “You’ll be careful tonight?” Dad said from the kitchen. You startled and turned around. “Yeah, Dad. It’s just a few girls, there’s nothing to worry about.” “And Rafe?” You were about up to your ears with all the talk about Rafe, but if it meant you could go to this goddamn party, you would kiss up as much as you needed. “Yes,” you said, trying not to let your dad see the exasperated sigh you wanted to let out as you said it. “And Rafe.” 

His final nod said that you had made it past the last wall of permission. You had to keep yourself from running out the door as fast as you could. Once you were outside, you bolted from the door all the way to your car. Blasting the music in your car got you singing at the top of your lungs as you drove, probably faster than you should have, to Sarah’s house. 

Tannyhill wasn’t very far from your own house, only a 15 minute drive, but with anticipation gurgling in your stomach, it felt like forever. By the time you reached the house, you could tell that the party was in full bloom. A sudden spark of anxiety shot through you. What exactly were you supposed to be doing here? The only person you really liked was Sarah, but she had all of her own friends. So you sat in your car for five minutes before finally plucking up the courage to go inside. You were beyond thrilled when the first person you saw offered you a red cup with vodka. “Please,” you said and downed the entire thing. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be taking alcohol from strangers at a party, but your nerves were already so fried from worry that you didn’t care who you took what from, as long as you were buzzed before anyone started talking to you. It didn’t take long for you to find Sarah, and to your surprise, she actually left her friends to come over to you. “Elma!” She said with a smile. “Just call me Elm,” you said as she neared. “Elma is a stupid name.” 

Sarah giggled, already plastered, and handed you another cup of alcohol, which you gladly took. She dragged you over to her other friends, who gladly accepted you. You could tell they were all drunk off their asses because they took the time to speak to you, which wasn’t something most Kooks took pleasure in doing. 

Two hours later, you heard hollering from outside that could mean only one thing; the pogue take over. Like the idiot he was, JJ was the first one in the door with a kegger in his hands. How he managed to carry the thing on his own like it was nothing was beyond you. Everyone in the house was silent for a moment and part of you was afraid they would all attack. But then a large cry of cheers erupted and you knew for a fact that everyone was drunk out of their minds. You were going to join in on the cheering when you saw the girl that JJ kissed yesterday walk in right behind him. Maybe it was the alcohol or the deep-rooted, unresolved trauma you buried deep in your chest, but you stood in a sudden flurry of anger and marched outside. You were on your fifth cup of beer and you could feel it affecting you. You should have tried to find the place where the music was loudest and dance out the alcohol, but all you managed to do was step outside and breathe in the weed smelling air. You just needed to breathe for a moment, you told yourself. You were being overdramatic and you needed to calm down. Of course, the universe was still punishing you for whatever the hell it was you did wrong because your moment of calm was soon interrupted by the one boy you assured your father would protect you, but who was also the same boy who was most likely to kill you. “What are you doing here, Elma?” You heaved out a disgusted sigh and hung your head. “I’m enjoying the party, Rafe,” you said, taking another drink from your cup. 

“I don’t want you in my house.” 

“First of all, this isn’t your house. Second, your sister invited me here. And lastly, as you can see-” You motioned up to the sky. “I am clearly not inside.” Rafe grabbed your wrist from behind and you spun around to face him, whatever joking mood you were in fading instantly to anger. “Don’t touch me,” you spat. “Get out.” “You can’t tell me what to do.” “What are you going to do, hit me again?” “Yeah, I might.” 

You were seconds away from doing just that, when someone interrupted. “Let her go, Rafe,” JJ said, standing a few feet away. You rolled your eyes, downing the rest of your beer. “This is none of your business, pogue,” Rafe said, not taking his eyes off of you. You tilted your head to the side, one of the worst ideas you ever had popping into your head. “Rafe-” “Hey, Maybank,” you said, turning to look at him. “Shut up and learn to read the room, maybe.” Without giving him the chance to say anything, you stood on your toes and kissed Rafe full on the mouth. Did it make you want to vomit? Sure. Would you have rathered punch him in the face? Yes. Did it make you feel any better at all?    Hell no. Especially when Rafe kissed you back. You waited to hear the door open and shut again before pulling away from Rafe. He lingered where he was for a moment, eyes shut and lips puckered. You cringed at him and wiped your lips with the back of your hand. “God, you’re pathetic,” you said, walking away from him. You went back inside to grab another drink, taking one shot of something before grabbing another cup of beer. You walked away from the house, wind stinging your eyes and making them water. At least, that’s what you told yourself to convince yourself that you weren’t about to cry. You walked out to the docks where you hoped you could be alone. You sat on the edge, kicking your feet back and forth over the water, your untouched beer beside you. Your mind was like mud, an unfortunate side effect of not spending your drunk energy on dancing. You could barely finish one coherent thought, which was never good. Finally, after a few minutes of trying to have a dramatic existential crisis without being able to think properly, you had enough. You slid off your sandals, setting them beside the beer. Taking a few steps away from the edge of the docks, you ran and jumped into the cold marsh. The chill kickstarted your system again. It was like a reboot. The mud was washed clean from your mind and you felt the return of your senses. You stayed beneath the water as long as you could. Once your lungs started to scream for air, you made for the surface. You gasped in air once you broke through, treading water to keep you afloat. Now shivering and wet, you swam over to the dock and reached up to pull yourself out. To your surprise, there was a hand waiting for you, offering your help out. You looked up at JJ, who stood with his other hand in his pocket. You took his hand and he pulled you out. Standing beside him, you were suddenly unsure of what to say. After spending hours thinking about it, you were silent when it really mattered. You started shivering almost as soon as the night chill hit your skin, but you tried to hide it. “I have a sweater in John B’s car, if you want to borrow it,” he said. Apparently your hiding skills weren’t at their prime. You nodded slowly and followed as he headed off toward the beat-up, old van that the Pogues drove around in. Neither of you said anything for a while. “Why’d you drive off this morning?” He asked suddenly. You turned your head to look at him with a cocked brow. “That’s your only question?” He shrugged so you let out a sigh and decided to answer. “Well, the last time we spoke, we didn’t really finish on the best of terms and then I saw you kiss that girl and I then I was, well I hit my head last night pretty hard so I was out of it and then Pope was there-” “Pope just happened to be there.” “Yeah? Well-” You tucked a piece of hair behind your ear as you approached the car. “I guess I just freaked.” JJ pulled open the side door of the car and grabbed his sweater, handing it to you. You held it for a moment, unsure if putting on his sweater was the best idea. You were about to give yourself a full-blown essay about all the reasons it would be a bad idea when a sudden bluster of wind blew past, sending shivers up your spine. You quickly pulled the sweater on over your head. It took all of your remaining brain cells working together to not think about how warm it was or how much it smelled like him. “I didn’t kiss her,” JJ said as he slid the door shut. “What?” “That girl. I know what you’re talking about, but I didn’t kiss her.” Guilt turned your cheeks red. “Oh.” You looked down as the two of you started to walk away from the van. “I’m sorry then.” “For what?” You stifled a smile. “I may or may not have spent that entire day plotting how to kill you and dispose of your body so no one could ever find it,” you said, a smile pulling at your lips. JJ laughed and looked at the ground before looking back at you. “How would you do it?” “Let’s see,” you said, pulling your hands inside the sleeves of JJ’s sweater. “I think I settled on drowning you. You see, if you kill someone and then throw their body into the water, too much water gets in their lungs. Any coroner could see it from a mile away that something fishy happened.” “Duly noted.” “Yeah, and then I would take you and your boat out somewhere and capsize it somehow.” “Man, remind me to never piss you off again.” 

You let out a laugh. When the smiles fell from both your lips, you spoke again. “I’m also sorry I kissed Rafe.” 

“I’m pretty sure that hurt you more than it hurt me,” JJ said with a laugh. You stopped walking and put a hand on his wrist. He turned back toward you and the look in his eyes told you enough. “I really am sorry.” With a soft sigh, he pulled his hands from his pockets and placed them just below your jaw, tilting your face up toward his. He leaned down and instead of kissing your lips, he placed a long kiss against your forehead. Eyes fluttering shut, you breathed in a deep breath. You saw a flash from behind your eyelids. A storm must be coming. You didn’t care. JJ pulled back for just long enough to look into your eyes before dipping back down and kissing you properly. This wasn’t like before. It wasn’t needy or desperate or full of desire. It was something else. Something softer. Something far more terrifying. There was another flash. “You wanna get out of here?” You asked, looking up at him with a smile. He nodded and you grabbed his hand, leading him toward your car. “You left your shoes,” he said, pointing back toward the dock.    “Oh, yeah.” You took one step in that direction, but he stopped you. “I’ll go get them.” Before you could say anything, he took off toward the dock. Watching him run toward your shoes, you felt a smile slowly pull its way up your lips until you were grinning like an idiot. A question floated at the front of your skull, a question you refused to fully ask, even in your own mind. When JJ returned to you, shoes in one hand, he smiled. “Shall we?” “We shall.” 

The casual stroll to the car felt just as natural to you as breathing. Your hand itched to be held in his, but you didn’t want to push your luck tonight. Besides, holding hands was way too personal for you. You didn’t want to hold his hand. That would be so silly. You slid into the front seat of your car as JJ climbed in beside you. “You know, I’ve never seen a kook with an uglier car,” he said, closing the door. You looked at him and let out a confused laugh. “In the best way possible, of course.” “I’ll have you know,” you said as you put the keys into the ignition and started your car. “This baby could outrun that stinky van of yours any day.” “Hey, don’t insult John B’s van. We love that thing.” “Yeah, whatever.” You pulled out of the driveway, maneuvering around the other cars without hitting a single one. “Where are we going?” He asked. “What, are you afraid I’m actually going to kill you?” “I wouldn’t put it past you.” You let out a mock-hurt laugh, your heart hammering at the sound of his own. “I’m glad I let off murder vibes,” you said. JJ leaned toward you. “You wouldn’t hurt a fly,” he said before kissing your cheek. “Excuse me?” You were trying not to take your eyes off the road, but JJ sitting so close to you and smiling like he was made it very difficult. “Didn’t you see me beat the shit out of Rafe?” “Yeah. Once. And you were drunk.” “Oh, please, I’ve done it a hundred times. I practically grew up with the guy,” you said. “Really? “Um, yeah. You really think the only practice I get fighting is when I’m swinging at my dad?” You scoffed. “No, sir. Rafe and I have been beating the shit out of each other since we had the muscle strength to swing our fists.” “Now that is interesting,” JJ said, leaning against his closed fist. “You find that interesting?” “Interesting, terrifying, sexy. Whatever you want to call it.” “I bet you I could beat your ass,” you said. “Was that a threat or a challenge?” “Both.” “Pull over and we’ll settle this now.” “Hold your horses, bucko. I’m almost to our destination.” JJ laughed, leaning his chair back. “There’s the bucko thing again.” “Shut up.” A few minutes later, you pulled off the main road and onto a narrow dirt road. “I am starting to feel like you are taking me somewhere to kill me.” “Hey, I already told you my murder plans and we turned away from the ocean, not toward it. For now, you can be pretty certain I’m not going to kill you.” JJ turned to look at you with a smile. “For now,” he said in a fake ominous tone. When you finally came to a stop, you were parked on an empty plane. With nothing but grass below you and nothing but stars above. You reached into your backseat to grab a few blankets you kept stored back there for the times you and Kid did this exact same thing. You slid out of the car with a giddy grin on your face, JJ following after you. You tossed the blankets on the ground but had no time to do anything else before JJ tackled you to the ground from behind. “What the hell?” You cried, trying to push him off of you but only succeeding in getting more tangled in the blankets. “I thought we were going to see who wins a fight?” JJ said, pinning you down and hovering over you. You glared at him. “Oh, it’s on.” You spent the next few minutes rolling around half in the blankets, half on the grass. The fight ended when you found yourself straddling JJ, your hands against his shoulders to keep him pinned. “I think,” you said, breathless. “I think I win.” 

“I let you win.” “Oh, really?” “Yeah.” You breathed heavily through your nose and sat back, moving your hands from his shoulders so he could move if he wanted to. But he didn’t. “Can I tell you something?” JJ sat up on his elbows. “Go for it.” 

“The reason I was so quick to think the worst about you when I saw you with that girl, I guess-” You paused to give yourself a moment to breathe. “I guess it was easier that way.” “How do you mean?” “Well, if I could convince myself you were just messing around with me I felt like I could still walk away without feeling hurt. I figured that I could just forget everything and move on and go back to living like I was before. I’m just...not used to caring about someone other than Kid and especially not so quickly,” you said. “So you care about me.” JJ smirked and made a face at you. You rolled your eyes, not even trying to keep down a smile. “Well, shit, Maybank,” you said, mimicking his smile. “What else am I supposed to do when you kiss me the way you do?” “Can I tell you something?” JJ asked. “Only if it’s appropriate.” 

“I spent the first week after I was at your house trying not to think about you,” he said. Your heart started to pound, lost somewhere deep in your stomach. “Kinda failed at that one, didn’t I?” “Look at us, two people with emotional issues talking about our feelings.” You needed to say something to cover up the fact that your stomach was currently doing turns like some kind of freaking ballerina. “Aw, hell. The world’s going to end.” 

JJ lay back, placing his hands on your hips and looking up at the stars. “Do you wanna know something?” He glanced at you instead of answering. “I don’t want to kiss anyone else. Just you” JJ worked his way to sitting up, sliding you into his lap. He moved one hand to your cheek, running his thumb along your cheekbone. “Purple,” he said. You tilted your head to the side and blinked. “My favorite color. You asked me to think about it and I decided my favorite color is purple.” You smiled, pulling your lower lip between your teeth to try and cover it up. “Purple is a wonderful color.” JJ pressed his lips against yours. Instead of the ocean, this time you felt the expanse of the sky above you. Maybe the universe hadn’t been trying to lead you away from JJ, but push you right toward him. The kiss was short, leaving you wanting, but it was obvious that JJ had something else that he wanted to say. “I don’t want to kiss anyone else either,” he said, his eyes still closed, almost as if he was afraid to say it to your face. This time you didn’t smile and instead pulled him in for another kiss. Nothing else mattered. You were sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean, but you could breathe perfectly fine. You were no longer drowning. You weren’t exactly sure when the kiss shifted from something like a contract to full of macking, but it did. Maybe it was when JJ moved his other hand to cradle your head or when you pulled his shirt off...somewhere in there. If you had still been in the car, the windows would have steamed up from how hot your breath was. When JJ dropped his lips to your neck, he moved his hands down as well, lifting his sweater just enough to get his hands against your stomach and back. His hands were calloused, rough, but it felt good against your skin. “JJ,” you breathed. You could tell that he appreciated being called by his first name from the way his hands curled against you, his teeth grazing your neck.    “Do it again,” he whispered, his lips ghosting over your skin as he made his way back up to your lips. “JJ.” 

You knew it was dangerous to push your limits like you were. The last two times this happened, you had gotten out of this before the anxiety took over completely. Last time JJ was aware of what he was doing, in control of how far he was going. But now, by where his hands were and by the way he clung to you, you weren’t sure he was thinking about that right now. And you weren’t sure you could stop yourself before you were overcome. At this moment in time, there was no fear, there was just JJ. You would have pushed and pushed and pushed until you were right on the brink. But you were already overboard, why not go deeper? Luckily, the universe was looking out for you. A deep thunderclap echoed across the sky, making you jump and a quiet shriek flew from your mouth. JJ laughed, just as out of breath as you were. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little lightning?” He asked. You glared at him. “I was preoccupied,” you said, putting your arms around his neck. Just before you kissed him again, the sky let out another burst of thunder. You sighed, closing your eyes. “I guess Mother Nature is cockblocking me,” JJ said. You dropped your forehead to his shoulder before rolling off of him. “I guess.” “We should get in your car before it starts to rain.” 

“Man, I really wanted to look at the stars,” you sighed, starting to collect the blankets off of the ground. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gotten distracted.” “Maybe you shouldn’t have been so distracting.” He helped you move the blankets into the car. You barely had time to shut the front door before the rain started to pour. You pulled a mirror out of your purse and caught a glimpse of your neck, which was absolutely riddled with hickeys. “Dude,” you whispered, tracing one with your finger. You glanced over to JJ, who was hiding a smile behind one of his hands. He shrugged at you. You smacked his arm, revealing the laughter he was trying to keep in. “You’re lucky I carry concealer or I would be murdered in the morning.” “Hey, listen-” “What? What’s your excuse?” “You have very nice skin.” “My skin is nice so you have to give me a million and a half hickeys?” JJ shrugged again, laughter shaking through his body. “I’ll give you more if you want them.” 

A bolt of lightning split open the sky. “I think Mother Nature said no to that one,” you said, peering out of the windshield at the sky above. “Whatever.” JJ leaned his chair back and put his hands behind his head. “Where to next?” “I can drop you off wherever before I head off.” You weren’t one hundred percent sure if JJ was staying with his dad or not and you didn’t want to be pushy. “You’re not going to tell me that you turn in at 12? The night is still young!” “If I’m not home, my dad will have my head on a platter,” you said, starting the car and beginning to pull out. “Live a little, remember?” “Yeah, well, if I live too much it’s my little brother who pays for it, remember?” “Right.” “So, where to?” “I’ve been staying with John B.” “Alrighty then. To John B’s.” When you pulled up to John B’s house, you weren’t surprised to see that the van was still gone. “Kiara, Pope, and John B must be having the time of their lives,” you said with a laugh. “I hope you don’t feel too excluded.” JJ laughed. “None of them are having as much fun as me,” JJ said. You rolled your eyes. The rain had begun to dwindle as you parked, so the two of you ran inside as quickly as you could. For a moment, you just looked around. This house was like nowhere you had ever been before. For the first time in a long time, the word home popped into your head. But, then again, you weren’t sure if it was the house or JJ’s arm that was hooked around your waist. “I’ve never been to a house on the cut,” you mused, running a hand over one of the cabinets, looking at all the wall hangings. “Well, it’s not much,” JJ said, grabbing a bruised apple off a shelf. He took a bite.    “It’s….” You looked around again and finally shook your head. “Anyway, I should get going.” 

As you turned toward the door, JJ gently grabbed onto your wrists. “Ellie-” “JJ.” “I want you to stay.” “I can’t. My dad-” “Just for once don’t think about you dad!” JJ walked past you, running his hands through his hair. “There’s so much more out there than him. You don’t have to be afraid of him.” “I’m not...I’m not afraid of my dad. I’m afraid for my brother. If I’m not there to take it, he deals it out to Kid. I can’t let that happen.” “So, you just act as your dad’s personal punching bag?” “Don’t you?” It was clear that you were both at an impasse. You weren’t sure if you had gone to far, so you carried on in hopes that there was a chance he would understand. “I know that you’ve only ever had to take care of yourself when it comes to your dad, so I don’t blame you for not understanding, but it’s...it’s different when there is someone else that depends on you. I mean, who am I to enjoy things like watching the stars or parties or hickeys when it’s my brother who has to pay for it?” JJ tightened his jaw, but nodded slowly. You stepped forward, taking his hands in yours. “Please, JJ, just-” You closed your eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “Just give me some more time to figure everything out, alright? I want nothing more than to be able to stay with you tonight and just forget everything else, but I can’t. I just can’t.” You begged him with your eyes to understand. You didn’t want to finish this night the same way you had the last time you talked. Finally, JJ nodded, squeezing your hands. “I got you,” he said. “Thank you.” You started to take off the sweater he loaned to you but he shook his head. “It’s cold out there,” he said. “And you don’t know when it’ll rain.” You nodded, leaning up to give him a kiss on his cheek. Before you got back down from your toes, JJ grabbed your face for one last kiss. It may have been one last attempt to get you to stay, but you couldn’t. This was one whirlpool you couldn’t risk jumping into. You stepped back and left the room before he could say or do anything else. When you made it back to your car, you felt like crying. Leaving JJ alone in that house felt like leaving a puppy on the side of the road. It felt wrong and it made you sick, but you couldn’t leave Kid to the wrath of your father, so before the tears had the chance to fall, you reversed and started the journey back home. 

#jj maybank #jj x reader #jj obx #jj x oc #john b obx #pope heyward #pope obx #kiara outer banks #kie #rafe cameron #sarah cameron #outer banks #obx #series

[digitaldialogue77]

In the film Moonlight, the main character Chiron was bullied as a child for being gay. This film seems to portray a heteronormative environment with an emphasis on what masculinity meant to the characters in the film. This can be seen by the way the main character is treated throughout the film, and the struggle that he goes through to become the man he is at the end of the film.  Masculinity in the film to have a very dry cut definition of what it was to be a masculine man, with an emphasis of a man having a woman to fit the heteronormative idea of what this should look like. Throughout the movie Chiron did not show interest in women, he was trying to figure out who he was. One scene in the movie he was talking to Juan about sexuality, and he was asking about the names that he was being called by other kids who were bullying him. In the first part of the film Chiron meets a man that becomes a father figure for him, someone he looks up to throughout the film. Juan was a drug dealer, who met Chiron when running from Terrel in one of the scenes that was a part of the beginning of this film. Chiron meeting Juan set up the story for the rest of the film, in the third part of the film it shows Chiron following in Juan’s footsteps. Juan taught him that it was okay to be gay but not to let people push you around for being who you are. Throughout the movie Chiron seems to feel like he is alone and has no one to relate to because all the other boys are talking about girls and seems that heterosexuality is pushed on him.

Chiron got a lot of mixed messages from his environment; on one hand he had the boys at school bullying him because he was different but on the other hand, he had Juan who supported him and created a safe environment for him. The boys bullying him at school led Chiron to lash out and cause problems. At the beginning of the movie Chiron was lost, he did not really know who to believe or who to believe. He had Juan but he also had his mother who was a drug addict and was mentally abusive towards him. While Juan was teaching him and helping take care of him, his mother expected him to be there to take care of her and when she needed have money to support her habit. This living situation led him to follow Juan’s example and become a drug dealer which is shown in part three of the film. Part two of the film showed Chiron in his teen years where he was shown to have a friend named Kevin. Kevin was influenced by the other boys at school in public but when him and Chiron were alone, he treated Chiron like a true friend and supported him. Kevin played an important role in Chiron’s life, as one of the only people that Chiron had romantic feelings for. In part two of the film Kevin, and Chiron kiss while they are sitting on the beach at night in the moonlight. This is symbolic because, this is the first time that it seems like Chiron has really found who he is, and Kevin helped him do that. Chiron seems to feel safe to be himself around, without the fear of being judged. Kevin and Chiron have a falling out and Chiron leaves the area where he lives and moves to where the third part of the film takes place. This leads into the third part of the movie where it shows Chiron grownup. At the end of the movie, Chiron travels to visit Kevin, after receiving a phone call from him. There are a lot of unresolved feelings between Chiron and Kevin because of the way they left things when they were kids. When Chiron goes to visit him, I feel as though it was more to confront Kevin about what happened when they were kids. Chiron seemed to hold on to that because it was one of the biggest betrayals that he faced throughout the film. Overall, Chiron had negative experiences with his mother and the boys at school which possibly made him feel even more lost or what he was feeling was not what normal boys felt. He had Juan and Kevin that helped him find himself, Juan helped guide him even after death and Kevin helped Chiron realize who he was and what the feelings that he was feeling meant.

It seems like at the beginning of the movie Chiron was trying to conform with the normality of things, or what was portrayed as heteronormative. While being bullied, he struggled to find his identity, so it was easier to blend in. As Chiron got older throughout the movie, the audience can see that he is starting to become the man that he was trying to be as a boy. As he got older, it was easier for him to resist his heteronormative identity and be the person that he wanted to be. The ending scene allowed us all to see that Chiron was truly happy with who he had become and with who he was with. The ending scene showed the audience that Kevin was the only true love that Chiron felt throughout his life.

Chiron’s sexual identity was limiting in parts one and two of the movie, because he had a hard time accepting that he was different from the other boys. The other boys made it hard for him to be who he was because of the constant bullying that he received from them. Chiron seemed to feel trapped in the life that he had because there were many people in his life that created a negative environment. With the boys who were bullying him to his mother who expected too much from him as a kid, he felt powerless. He could not even express how he was feeling without some sort of retribution. When he got older, he became a drug dealer to gain status and to feel like he was in control of something in his life even if that was not his sexuality.  Kevin calling him was a turning point in his life, when he received the phone call from Kevin, he dropped everything to go visit him. When seeing Kevin again all the feelings he had for him came rushing back and empowered him to tell Kevin what he truly felt. He told Kevin that he was not with anyone since him, and in this moment, Chiron was ready to accept who he really was.

The film Paris is Burning focuses on people’s personal accounts of what it was like to be a performer in drag balls in New York City. Drag balls were used as a way for people of all backgrounds to express who they were. The drag queen culture was big in New York City at this time, and the backgrounds of people in this culture included transgenders black men. The balls were set up so that the participants walked down a runway in a costume of their choosing, while dancing with the style of dance that they chose. Voguing was a very popular move when these balls were taking place. In the movie Paris is Burning it focuses on personal accounts of people who were a part of the LGBTQ community. These balls were a way for the community to get together and have fun in an environment that was safe for them.

The drag balls were uplifting for the people in the LGBTQ community, creating positive a positive environment. Receiving support from other people in this community helped uplift the participants. While receiving positive messages from this environment, they participants had fun and enjoyed doing the balls as it was one of the biggest outlets to show off who they truly were. They did this through their costumes and the way they danced.

The people who were giving the interviews told the stories about how they were empowered by the drag balls that they got to be in. They drag balls were a way for them to resist the heteronormative culture that society creates. Feeling liberated by this drag queen culture they found it harder to submit to the heteronormative state of mind that society has. They were able to dress how they wanted and be who they wanted represented in their dance style walking down the runway. The people were limited by their sexuality because this was one of the only places where they could feel comfortable being themselves. Stepping out in their normal day lives where heteronormative people found it hard to accept who these people were was a challenge for these people to be who they were without fear of retribution solely based off of how they looked and dressed.

References

·       Jenkins, B. (Director). (2016, September 2). Moonlight [Film].

·       Livingston, J. (Director). (1991, August). Paris is burning [Film].

[klbwriting]

The Sparrow and The Rogue - Part 2

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy

Pairing: Ben Hargreeves/female!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of abuse, once again fighting

Summary: The Umbrella siblings learn about what’s been going on in this timeline, One lives a day in his life, and has a pretty fun date trying to kill his wannabe girlfriend

              Even though the Umbrella siblings were promised an explanation that evening they never got one.  At least most of them didn’t.  There was a debrief to the small group of powered adults by Lila and Eight and then Diego and Lila disappeared somewhere while the rest of the group had dinner with what they discovered were a team called the ‘Rogues’ and they were kidnapped from directly under Reginald’s nose.  Most of them had chosen names while a couple stayed with their numbers, liking the way they sounded.  Eleven was very happy now that they kept their named now that Stranger Things was popular and they had the same powers as the character in the show.  They were giving rooms in the hideout, having to double up with the Rogues already there.  It was a surprise to no one that Diego was just fine sharing with Lila and Allison was almost a little nervous to share with Eight not knowing what her power was.

              “You look happy,” she said, trying to break the ice with the girl who was texting and had a smile on her face.  Eight looked over as if she forgot Allison was there and blushed, putting the phone under her pillow quick.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

              “Its no big deal, just don’t tell Lila about it ok?” she said. Allison nodded with a smile.  “She would be very annoyed if she found out I was texting with someone inside the Sparrows.”

              “Ben?” Allison asked, sitting up now, full ready to have some girl time.  Eight considered this, then finally sat up herself.  She never got to talk to anyone about One and how confusing things were between them.  

              “Ya, he’s One here, he was your brother?” she asked. Allison nodded.

              “Ya, he was killed on a mission when we were teenagers. Klaus could still see him, he communes with the dead, but the rest of us weren’t so lucky,” she said.  

              “What was he like in your time?”  Allison considered how to answer.

              “We weren’t super close, he was always close with Vanya and Diego, he was so kind to everyone, especially the ones dad was hardest on.  I remember one time I was walking by Diego’s room while he was practicing his speech and Ben was in there, they had to have been 7 maybe, and he was just sitting there listening and encouraging him.  Diego was crying after a bit of not being able to get a word out and Ben just took his hand and said ‘don’t think about dad, just think about talking to me, you know you can take your time with me’.  That’s who Ben was, just the best,” she said, getting a little teary thinking about her lost brother.  Eight smiled and moved to sit next to Allison, a comforting arm going around her shoulders.

              “That version is still here.  I have seen moments of that person in One, that kindness,” she said. “My first memory is with One, when I think we were 4, its really simple, I had fallen and scraped up my knee during a morning run and dad was livid at me, even at 4 I was always too big and slow for him to tolerate so he made me do extra laps and One was there with me the whole time, ran every single one next to me even though he was faster and could have been done, he stayed with me.”  

              “That sounds like Ben,” Allison agreed.  “I hope maybe we can get past this, I don’t know what dad is planning but I’m so tired of running around and being chased, just so tired.”  Eight nodded.

              “Get some sleep, no one will wake you up tomorrow so you can get a good rest,” she said, moving back to her bed and laying down. Allison followed suit and she closed her eyes, drifting off to a music box playing now in the room.  She hadn’t noticed one being around before but Eight must have had next to her somewhere.  Once she was sleeping Eight lifted a hand and the music box across the room stopped playing, letting her fall asleep also.  

 -------------------------

             Number One was going through the motions today. He had woken up early as usual and went to the kitchen to help mom make breakfast.  He knew she couldn’t really appreciate it like a person, but he thought she enjoyed spending time with him anyway.  He could feel his father’s present before he saw him, entering the kitchen and giving him a disproving look, still angry about dinner no doubt.

              “Good morning Number One, feeling a little less rebellious today?” he said, sitting at the breakfast table and looking through a morning paper.  One glared at the eggs he was plating and set the plate down in front of Reginald a little harder than he meant.  “Ah, I see you are still in a mood.  Very well, you will be in charge of leading drills this morning, now eat your eggs.” One didn’t say anything but internally he groaned, drills made everyone hate him for days.  He ate in silence with the rest of his siblings before standing and telling them to get up and get to the yard.  They shot him death glares before doing as asked, knowing the punishment was worse than the drills.

              Two hours later and his siblings were off again, probably meeting in one of their rooms to talk about how much they hated him and his kiss ass ways.  One however, had more work to do, heading out to do his first patrol of the day.  He had no idea why dad sent him to do patrols instead of waiting for something to happen, especially now that the Umbrella siblings had shown up.  First the patrols were for them, then they became patrols for general crime, but now that the word of the Horror had spread no one would dare commit a crime in the city limits unless they wanted to die a horrible death over 30$ in some purse.

              This time out in the city gave him a chance to release some stress that he needed.  He found a park nearby and soon was casually swinging watching the kids around him and reminding himself of why he dealt with everything.  Without the Sparrow Academy the apocalypse would have happened two days ago.  They had saved history, keeping the timeline on track after something called ‘The Commission’ went belly up in the 60s due to some kind of explosion.  Where they had left off Reginald had picked it up, first on his own, and then when the 43 were born, with the 15 he had been able to get his hands on.  They had been whittled down to 6 humans and a box that told them where to go and got them in and out.  Ben may have hated his father but he would protect these people, always.  

              One patrolled until lunch, stopping at the kitchen table to eat alone before going to his room and checking his messages on his secret phone.  Before he could open it he had to hide it under his pillow as his door was shoved open and Number Two walked in.  Two stood silent for a second, seemingly realizing that he had caught One doing something he shouldn’t.

              “You alright One?” he asked suspiciously.  One stood up, facing off against his sibling, mustering up his bravado.

              “Ya, what do you want number Two?” he emphasized the word two just to irritate them.  They growled, glaring.

              “Dad wanted to have us trade patrols tonight, I’ll take 9th to 15th, you take the old trainyards,” Two said.  “Starting now, I’m supposed to watch you leave.” One gritted his teeth, anger seething through him.  

              “Let me get ready, I need to get my shoes,” he said. Two just stood in the doorway watching as One went back to his bed, sitting down and tying his shoes extra slow, hoping something would happen to make Two glance away.  Someone must have heard his silent plea because something clunked in the hall making Two look around for a fight.  One grabbed the phone and shoved it in his pocket before standing up.  “Alright, you want to walk me to the front door too?”  Two glared and let him pass by, closing his door behind him.

              After he was outside and a couple blocks away he texted Eight, letting her know of the change of plans, before heading down to the trainyards, thinking about maybe doing some sprints while he waited for her.

 -----------------------

              The Umbrella siblings sat in the main room of the hideout with Lila and Eight, Lila explaining what had happened to the Commission and what the Sparrow Academy had been up to.  They knew that after the Commission was taken down those in the ‘Resistance’ had taken up control of the timeline under rule of Lila and the kids she had collected from over time, starting with Eight.  

              “We developed the traveling technology by stealing what Reginald had already figured out.  The briefcases were big and too easy to lose, too much of a hassle, so instead Reginald created watches capable of the travel,” she explained.

              “How did he figure that out?  I watched the Commission try for decades to create that kind of technology,” Five cut in.  Lila glared at him, still not exactly happy that he was alive after killing her parents, no matter who had ordered the hit.

              “I don’t know, took a few tests to figure out how to use the watches, but now we can track where the Sparrows go and then fix whatever they mess up in history, keep the timeline on track,” Lila explained. Confusion rippled through the room.

              “What do you mean you fix the Sparrows messes?” Luther asked, sitting forward, the chair creaking loudly.  He made a face and waited for someone to say something just so he could hit them.  

              “The Sparrows travel around on orders from dad to ‘fix’ history, ya know, kill Steve Jobs before the iPhone, assassinate Abe Lincoln when he’s running for president, take out Thomas Jefferson, although that last one I really hated to fix,” Eight said.  “Such a brilliant mind, such a shit fucking person.”  She stood up and went to stand by the open door, Lila looking over at her.

              “What’s wrong with you?” Lila asked.  

              “I’m warm, there’s a draft over here,” Eight explained, leaning on the wall, hand in her jacket pocket.  

              “Why don’t you just take off the jacket?” Klaus asked, getting elbowed by Allison.  “What?”

              “I like this jacket,” was her answer before she looked out the doorway.  Lila rolled her eyes and returned to the original conversation.

              “So after we fix their messes, they make more messes.  We’re not sure what exactly Reggie is trying to do but either way, we know we have to make sure history happens as expected.  Except for the apocalypse, none of us could really muster the desire to stop fixing that,” she said.

              “So now we’re in no mans land?” Vayna asked, getting a little nervous about bringing about another end of the world scenario. Lila nodded.

              “Honestly, only Five has lived past the apocalypse and now that it didn’t happen I don’t know what the game plan from here is, I just know what happens in actual history to keep that on track, what those changes bring in the future is a crap shoot,” she said.  “Isn’t that right Eight?  Eight?”  She turned to see the doorway empty, no trace of Eight left in the hide out anymore. Allison sat in her seat and smiled softly, having an inkling where she was going, hoping that maybe she could turn Ben back to their side.  

 ----------------------

              Eight had gotten One’s message and headed towards the trainyards.  She passed by Number Four along the way and realized quick that One was being followed. She acted like she was patrolling, hoping to not have to fight Four but knowing it was a possibility.  Four however, let her pass, clearly just being around to watch their brother and what he was doing.  Once at the trainyards Eight dipped through old train cars, running up and down tracks until she saw One.  She approached him slowly.

              “You have a friend around,” she said.  One’s eyes flashed the area and he caught a quick glance of crimson ducking behind a car nearby.  “So I guess this is another fight to the death?”

              “Guess so,” he said with a smirk.  Eight smiled back sweetly.  “No powers?”

              “No powers, pinky promise,” she said before diving towards him, fist raised.  

              One easily blocked the shot, moving around to fire back with his own fist.  Eight easily dodged and punched his stomach, pulling the hit so it didn’t actually hurt. One doubled over anyways, spearing her around the waist and taking her to ground, just out of view of Four.

              “So, ready to play dead?” he asked, holding her shoulders down as she laid under him, watching him closely before nodding.  He smiled down at her before standing up and walking around the car, hands raised above his head as in victory.  He knew once Four saw this they would call out to him.

              “Hey Number One!” Four called as expected, walking over the tracks.  One hurried to meet them, not wanting them to actually see that Eight was alive.  “You finally got the bitch!”

              “Yup, finally caught her by surprise, she said no powers like an idiot,” he said, chuckling darkly.  Four nodded and laughed.  “Well I’m going to finish my patrol and head home, but ya know, gotta get rid of the body first.”  Four nodded.

              “Need help?” they asked.  One shook his head.

              “Nah, I got it, just going to shove her under the traincar, no one will find her and if they do animals will do the job first,” he said.  Four nodded, turning and walking away without another word.  Four was easiest to trick and One was glad dad hadn’t sent Two or Six after him.

              Once he was sure Four was gone he headed back to the traincar to find Eight sitting against the wheel, having been listening. He took a seat next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching, hand gently finding its way over to hers on her leg.  He linked their fingers and sighed.

              “Well, that’ll lighten things up for a bit, dad will think you’re dead for awhile,” he said, looking at her.  She nodded and looked at him.

              “You know we can’t do this forever, one day we have to either tell all the truth or run away,” she said.  “We could go to the 90’s, relive our childhood but ya know as adults.  I’ll be old enough to buy myself Backstreet Boys tickets.”  One laughed and shook his head.

              “Someday, but I can’t leave this behind, I mean we’re fixing history, making sure everything keeps on track,” he said. Eight sighed and rolled her eyes. “I know, you guys think we mess it up, but we don’t, we help, we save people, you guys are the ones who come around messing it up again.”  

              “We honestly don’t know who is fixing what,” she said.  “I just wish I knew what dad was planning for, why he’s doing all this.”  

              “He’ll tell me when I’m ready,” One said indignantly, trying to justify why he was so readily going along with Reginald.  

              “I hope he does, I’m curious which side I’m on,” Eight said.  She looked at him.  “Enough talk, I don’t think we really came here to talk.”  One nodded, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers, kissing her until he ran out of air, then taking a breath, and going right back in.

#The Umbrella Academy #ben hargreeves #ben hargreeves x reader #ben hargreeves series #ben hargreeves fanfic #umbrella academy fanfic #umbrella academy