#and he was also YOUNGER THAN ME when he got married the first time ??? poor boy :c

[mccoys-killer-queen]

"Oh God, yeah. Thank goodness for cocaine." -Tommy Roland Shaw (b. Sept. 11th 1953)

#i didn't think i'd be reading about tommy's cocaine adventures from his early 20s but here we are #when i was about 5 years old i was in cleveland and come sail away came on the radio in the car while it was raining #i don't think it was the first time i heard it but it's the first clear memory i have of that song #and to think that pivotal moment happened bc 28 years earlier tommy was doing coke with some a&r man in chicago #this excerpt made me realize i wanna share that lyric i wrote about tommy because by GOD #by G O D #one line is a perfect response to this excerpt #styx #styxposting #tommy shaw #i feel like i need a tommy tag now #also i wanna know what the deal was with tommy's 1st wife bc they were married like 2 years but legally for 5 and clearly tommy was v upset #and he was also YOUNGER THAN ME when he got married the first time ??? poor boy :c

[sea-owl]

I have had a shitty day today.

What has put a smile on my face is your accidental marriage trope.

Tell me, what kind of a shitshow does Phillip walk in to ag his first family dinner?

How does he top the chaos with his twins?

Not going to lie, I kinda want it to end with Violet smoking a cigarette in the garage. Trying to recover

I'm sorry you had such a bad day lovley.

Let's see, I've been debating this for a while but what if the accidental marriage also happened in the Full House au. So now we got the Crane twins running wild but they're being horrible influences on their younger cousins. Meanwhile Penelope is trying to stay calm because holy shit the random man from London aka her baby daddy was also here.

The Bridgertons descend on Phillip's home so they can work out some sort of agreement for the anullment, and they're nosy. They need to see what kind of man Eloise married, even if it's only temporary. Plus, since they're trying to stay on the downlow, it would be more inconspicuous for the family to travel separately to an unknown location to the media than to one of their homes.

One by one, the Bridgertons started to show. First to show was Sophie and Benedict, who live the closest. Anthony, Kate, and Violet were next. Violet just had to scout out the new potential grand babies. She has a gut feeling this Phillip fellow and his family are gonna be around longer than what the others think, no matter what Anthony says. Daphne and Simon follow behind. Gregory and Hyacinth drove all the way from University to see this shit show, some good quality entertainment right here. Colin and Francesca are the last to arrive.

Michael can't tell who's tenser between his two friends. He can understand why Phillip is tense. The Bridgertons are a powerful family. Hell, he remembers when John first started dating Francesca how big of a deal it was. Now, here was poor Phillip who just accidentally married in on a drunken night. Penelope has a story with these people though, he can tell.

The meal itself goes well. The Bridgertons ask questions. They learn Phillip is a botanist and a part time professor. He's never been married. He's 30. Favorite color is green. His two friends live with him mainly because he doesn't know what to do with this big house he inherited, so why not let his friends live with him. Two of the four children living in the house are his. No one admits that those children are from drunken one night stands. Better to keep that quiet.

Michael and Penelope get asked questions too. More so Penelope than Michael since Michael already knows the Bridgertons.

Things start getting interesting when they discuss the plan for Eloise's and Phillip's anullment.

"We can't do the anullment right away. The media is in a frenzy right now from Eloise's posts," Anthony starts. "That being said, they'll also be in an even bigger frenzy should we do the anullment too soon or if Eloise is spotted living with one of us. Do you mind her staying here?"

Phillip looked from Michael to Penelope. While it was his house, they lived here too, and he was always fair about them getting their say. Michael shrugged, he didn't mind. Eloise could easily keep up with the kids, and it seems like she's developing a fast friendship with Penelope, too.

"That's fine," Phillip agreed. "Just as long as the children living here are kept out of the media."

Anthony nodded. If there was one thing the Bridgertons could do, it was control the narrative. If they didn't want someone to be known, they could do it. I mean, look at Francesca, no one could find anything about her online unless she shared it. "Our family would feel more comfortable if two of us could possibly check in and keep an eye on things."

Eloise raised an eyebrow. "Are you siccing a babysitter on me?"

"I'm sending damage control," Anthony shot back. "You know Colin and Francesca are some of the best at getting the media to calm down."

"Why can't it be Benedict?" Eloise questioned.

Everyone looked towards the said Bridgerton and his very pregnant wife sitting next to him.

"Very well," Eloise muttered.

"Besides," Colin said. "We'll only be checking in. Officially, Fran and I will be visiting Benedict and Sophie to help them prepare for the baby."

Michael watched Penelope tensed further as Phillip agreed to the babysitters. He really needed to get that story out of her.

Then Violet asked to see the children. "I brought some sweets for them."

Phillip and Penelope got up to go get their respective sets of twins while Eloiseled her family to the sitting. Michael follows his friends to give the Bridgertons some privacy, and he figured this was his best chance to talk to his own little family.

Once they were far enough away from the dining room and not in hearing distance of the kids, Michael pulled his friends to the side. "You two need to relax. I don't know who was tenser between the two of you. I bet if we had put some coal in your hands, we could have made diamonds."

Phillip sighed while Penelope shot Michael a dirty look.

Michael shrugged. "Hey the scary part is over. Now we get to watch Violet get the kids on a sugar high."

Phillip rubbed his temples. "Oh lord, Amanda and Oliver on sugar."

Michael laughed. "Oh, I can't wait for my nibblings' chaos. But before that," Michael turned to the short red head. "What was with you this evening? I understand why Phillip was tense. But you were just as bad."

Penelope let out her own sigh. "Do you remember the random man from London?"

"Your drunken one night stand baby daddy? Yeah, what about him?"

"He's in the sitting room."

Both boys jaws dropped. "Which one?!"

"The babysitter," Penelope answered.

Michael couldn't help himself, he really couldn't. He busted out laughing. "So let me get this straight. The Bridgertons, one of the most powerful families in the country, the same people who gave even my perfect cousin John a hard time. You," he points to Phillip, "accidentally marry one, and you," he points to Penelope, " have babies with another. All thanks to drunk nights!"

Oh this was perfect! Michael couldn't wait to see this shit show play out. Couldn't ask for better entertainment.

"Aren't you in love with Francesca? Who's the other babysitter?"

Oh now why did they have to be rude and bring that up?

#bridgerton #philoise #polin #franchael #accidental marriage #full house au #besties michael phillip and penelope #pray for them yall #they need the singular bridgerton brain cell to work in their favor #phillip crane #michael stirling #penelope featherington

[anonymouspuzzler]

As a humble connoisseur of the Psychic 7 I'm curious if u have any headcanons for them ur particularly fond of, esp if maybe its something youve never rly seen other ppl hc/talk about (tho well agreed upon hcs are also the bees knees)

OH BABY LET'S HAVE A THINK I'LL TRY TO BRAIN A SOMETHIN FOR ALL THOSE WONDERFUL OLD PEOPLE. under cut for length and spoilers

Otto: I'm so with everyone who's like "oh he's so sus and fucked up wait no actually he's normal wait no he's so fucked up". I think his brain is probably a mess but like in a way where he's able to function from day to day. I feel like maybe he's also the kind of guy who like... how to put it. He sometimes has a hard time remembering that just because he's passionate about and invested in something, doesn't mean everyone else around him is going to be equally as passionate and invested. (Especially after the Psychic 7 started splitting apart and having their own issues - hard to pull him back down to earth when you're too busy having your own breakdown.) I also really like the idea of him being at least part-Grulovian and having met Lucy when they were much younger, hence being in contact with her when they started the Psychonauts.

Ford: That man bi and he and Otto are Divorced (they never married) (they barely dated) (they're divorced) (they're still dating). Now that I write it out I think maybe he only had pretty casual relationships until Lucy. It feels like she was maybe the first and last person he really considered Settling Down with - all the more reason for him to be hit so hard by losin' her. I also love the idea of him eventually trying to become a mentor to Frazie, specifically because she seems to have teleportation powers and I feel like he'd want to hand down his unique power and help her refine that, which would be funny because she seems to resent him more than any of the other Aquatos.

Bob: I always interpret him as having lived in the Gulch before the Psychonauts were even a thing - that was just his family home, eventually Ford and Otto and Lucy moved in, he started talking to them and that was that. (I think it'd be funny if he was like, their local food supplier when they started crashing in the woods, he just kinda knew them as regulars who'd buy a crate or two of veggies every week or so, and eventually he and Otto got to talking and what the fuck Otto realizes he's a psychic and the rest is history.) I also really like the idea of Truman visiting him in the Gulch a lot growing up - this is a bit of a tangent but I like the idea of Truman pushing to found Whispering Rock and/or the Intern program when he became Grand Head specifically because of his fond memories of visiting the Gulch and developing his powers under the tutelage of the Psychic 7.

Compton: I really like interpretations where he like - kind of mutually separated from his partner on good terms. (Maybe even did it in part so his Accidental Violent Escapades slash new life in the woods doing psychic research wouldn't have a negative impact on his kid(s).) By the same token this started out halfway as a joke but I like interpreting the lady running the cafeteria at the Motherlobe as his daughter; she's got just the right combo of Sass + Eccentricity plus apparently ferrets at home, and it just feels right to me that Sam would have, like - a parent that's an employee but not an agent, y'know? If that's the case, I feel like she probably had a kinda distant relationship from him growing up (in large part due to him Fucking Off Into The Woods) but made an active effort to reconnect now that she's an adult and especially once she had her own kids.

Helmut: I think the poor guy really missed his calling with the Psychonauts shifting from spy & agent work more towards education (as we see with stuff like Whispering Rock & the Intern program & the apparent interest in kinda training/tutoring the Aquatos post-2). Like, in a world where he didn't get frozen, he'd probably running or at least working at Whispering Rock, putting on big psychic performances with the kiddos. (Granted, he would've had to have make it through the 20 years of spywork, which I think would have been tough for him.) Also I bet Quentin has like an ancient limited-press vinyl of his that sold like, 5 copies, and is Starstruck if he ever meets him and Helmut gets a HUGE kick out of that.

Cassie: LESBIAN!!!!!!!!!!! But ahem anyway where was I. I think one of the things she probably struggled with post-Grulovia (alongside uh. everything else. obviously) was probably, for lack of a better word, the like... legitimization of the Psychonauts? Like, much as she's very sweet and a natural mentor, Cassie's also rough around the edges; very much a do-what-you-gotta, anti-establishment type of gal. (love her for that.) I feel like suddenly having to work with The Government and go through official channels and be all organized and doing paperwork and reports and stuff probably rubbed her the long way and contributed to her feeling like she was getting left behind in the changes.

Lucy: This is all but text but like... I feel like Lucy probably had very mixed feelings about her decision to leave Grulovia. On the one hand, she got out of a place that was actively becoming more dangerous, out of a place where she was lonely and heartbroken after her husband's death, to this great new opportunity to use her powers and make lifelong friend and find a second chance at love with Ford. On the other hand, she had to leave behind a home she'd been in all her life and loved very much, in a time of great turmoil that she clearly feels she should have been able to do more about, and above all leaving behind her beloved sister. I wonder if maybe she tried to convince Marona to emigrate too and couldn't. I wonder if maybe part of what worsened her post-Astrolathe instability and made her suddenly rush back to Grulovia was that unconscious regret about leaving. Ain't no wonder she eventually broke, the poor thing.

#anonymous puzzler answers #long post #cosmignon #psychonauts 2 spoilers #like MAJOR spoilers don't click if you don't want the Major Endgame Stuff spoiled #psychonauts #psychonauts 2

[lixxen]

can you tell us more about Grayer and their relationship with JD?

Of course!! I love talking about my boys :)

I'm gonna do this in bullet points so I can easily edit it as I go lol. These details pertain to both my Feral Branch AU, mentions of my my troll reproduction PowerPoint world building, and it's just his character in general :)

My playlist for them

Rest of the post is UTC to save everyone from chunky TL

To start off, some background about Grayer: he is alt rock/pop rock. His father is a rock troll and his mother is a pop troll who is one of many to escape the troll tree about ten years before the beginning of Trolls 1 (I can do a whole thing on them). The two fell in love, got married, and ran off to the Never Glade Trail to have Grayer. His dad carried him, so he's more like his dad (Granite and Flora are their names)

Grayer is the same age as Bruce, so a few years younger than JD. He grew up on the trail and takes care of the family's garden (which is basically a mini farm). He and his parents are big survivalists, so he knows how to survive pretty much on his own with just a backpack on his back full of a few items. He's rather quiet with patience, but with a quick ignition to fight at things he's passionate about; being raised by a very passive rock troll who is peace and love then pretty much the most metal head pop troll you'll ever meet. His mom's a spitfire with the heat of a thousand suns. But she's very sweet <3

Back then, he actually dressed in alt style; wearing a ton of baggy ripped black cargo pants, t-shirts of rock groups his dad gave him, some crop tops with fistnet tops underneath, the whole works. Eyeliner. Black stuffed bracelets and a choker. Troll's version of Docs (but the older, better quality ones y'know?). Now days, he's just plain Jane because he's older and doesn't have as much energy to keep up with it

Within John Dory's first few years, he struggled a lot. He traveled through Trolltopia and met a ton of people. They weren't the kindest, but understood the situation with Pop. So they would help and send him on his way towards Never Glade.

When he finally got there, he basically fell face first down. He lost half of his equipment and got horribly lost. He was optimistic and trying to act brave about being lost with not as many supplies. He realized he was way in over his head; he was some boy band dude who had a dream without much training. Dude is doomed by the narrative

Grayer, while out, found John Dory. He saw JD's fire in the distance and went to investigate it. He saw JD, who was different than the other trolls who would stop by his family's home. Normally he saw various Rock, Country, or random sub genre trolls come through either for the underground cross genre clubs or for hiking.

He actually watched JD for a bit. He was nervous to approach him at first. But after watching JD fail miserably to do a ton of very basic survival things, he decided to step in. He faked them running into each other and was like "you don't look too good! Let me help you :)"

JD automatically accepted it. This dude was doing BAD. The dude was debating on finding his way back to the Troll Tree. It was that bad. He'd rather be eaten by a Bergen than die out there where nobody would know what happened to him.

He also was amazed by some random troll about his age living out here.

So Grayer taught JD how to survive out there. JD learned how to properly get drinking water, patch wounds, make basic things, garden and gather food. The works! Literally he gave him survival classes-

JD was welcomed into the home by the parents. Grayer's mom was shocked to see another pop troll and she let him stay. She couldn't let the poor kid die out there or go back. She knew what that meant

Grayer and JD slowly grew close; bonding over music. JD would perform BroZone songs for him, to which Grayer would watch with the biggest dopey grin on his face

During this time, Grayer got into a nasty fight with one of the spider things. His hair got caught and he had to cut it off. He spends nights crying about his hair, but then styles it down. That's why it's short and looks like that. He keeps it short due to him living like that for so long.

Eventually, Grayer started to bring JD to the underground clubs that existed on the Trail. They were ran by outcasts and trolls who basically got ran out of their respected kingdoms for different reasons. Some where rebellious trolls looking for fun; or they just liked the scene. The two became prominent on the scene as "the love birds". Everyone knew them and some recognized JD from BroZone

Grayer's parents actually helped establish these clubs and underground community. They make clubs out of old hollow dead trees and then undergrown tunnel systems. They helped make the first few, since Grayer's dad was in construction. He doesn't run any of them. He just did the manual labor and helped perform multiple times. Grayer's family is just respected in the scene. There's about five families they're in kahoots with (I can expand on this if anyone wants).

Plus, they help trolls in need on the trail so people tend to know about the random trolls who help save people from death in the wild

Eventually, they ran into Floyd. Floyd was running with the alt/emo/grunge trolls. Some metalheads also. He was also running with a young Riff, who was only two years younger than Floyd. Floyd also has an underground career by now and has a mini indie grunge rock band suprisingly. (Riff's parents run one of the clubs and Riff lives with his grandad and little sister in the Rock Kingdom. Riff is Floyd's drummer and companion. They met in a grunge club in the Rock Kingdom. Floyd was gray for a while and passed as Rock). Floyd is excited to see his brother and he bonds with Grayer automatically

Floyd and Grayer have a heart to heart; talking about how Grayer is in love with JD. Floyd said that if Spruce and Grandma was there, they'd give their blessing. But since they're not and he is, he gave him his blessing.

Floyd 🤝 Grayer: being in love with their companion (past Riff/Floyd moment. They're just besties now y'know??)

JD and Grayer party a LOT during these years

Queue up JD punching some jerk for trying to come onto Grayer and then getting into a brawl outside of a club with the dude. Riff pulls strings to get them not banned from every club on the trail. Part of it is Grayer's parents being staples for making a safe underground scene on the Trail, but Grayer gives Riff the credit.

Around the eight year mark, Grayer finds baby Rhonda. She was abandoned by her mom so Grayer took her in. He gave her to JD as a birthday gift! That's how they know Rhonda so well. She's basically their baby :)

Grayer, at the ten year mark, confesses his love to JD. JD looks flabbergasted before saying he wanted to ask Grayer that. He was waiting for the right moment to ask Grayer if they could commit to one another. They were practically dating

So, they get married :)

JD braids Grayer's hair into the back of his hair, just in case one day he goes back to BroZone; so from the front you can't see it but the back you can. Grayer braids JD's hair more visibly in the front and wears it with pride.

The two are a grumpy old couple. They're very sarcastic but loving to each other, especially after marriage.

Did I mention that earlier? The two are a sarcastic and sassy power couple. They don't take shit and behind the scenes are very loving.

As the years go on, they don't have any eggs surprisingly. Everyone is shocked, but the two are perfectly fine with it. It happens sometimes; not every troll produces the viable eggs.

Grayer's parents die by the fifteen year mark, and they leave everything to Grayer and JD. They are pretty much set for life. So they're pretty much domestic besides when JD wants to go on adventures.

Speaking of which; JD goes on adventures sometimes, which leaves Grayer alone for a few weeks at most. The two are fine with it as long as JD tells Grayer about it. Normally it'll be in the form of the little bat dudes, like Queen Barb's bat Debbie. They have a flock of them that live around them. They feed them, so three or four will follow John Dory sometimes when he goes on adventures. They will basically bring communication back and forth

So, to the Trolls 3 plot

Riff comes back after World Tour to tell them about Branch!! He's alive and saved everyone!! Plus the pop trolls are free :)

JD sends a letter out to Floyd, who doesn't respond. He gets worried and decides to go try the Troll Tree, thinking that's where Floyd went. He tells Grayer he'll be back in a week and Grayer kisses him bye

That week turns into a month.

Grayer is worried sick and he can tell a ton of things are happening (because of the marriage stuff. If you don't read the PowerPoint then ignore this detail). JD doesn't respond to any of his messages, as they never get to him

Like, he's convinced JD is either dying or something bad has happened. He's hoping that JD isn't abandoning him.

He goes from being worried sick to being pissed because what the fuck his husband up and left and is clearly okay and alive!!! HE CAN TELL! JD CAN FEEL HIS DISTRESS!!

Grayer gets pissed, especially when Riff comes back to tell him about BroZone. He was happy for JD, but SEND YOUR HUSBAND A LETTER TO TELL HIM YOURE ALIVE!!!

So what does he do?

He throws JD's clothing out of the window in a fit of rage. Like. The dude is PISSED. He is what, in his 30's and his husband disappeared and could have been dead! He's having a moment. Let him be angry for the first time towards his husband

JD comes home during this.

JD stares in horror at the sight of his clothing being tossed out the window and he starts to scramble to grab them and get into the pod

Grayer sobs his little heart out to JD, who holds him and apologizes. JD explains everything. Grayer feels kinda dumb but vocalizes his feelings. The two come to an understanding

And eventually, he would meet BroZone and they'd enjoy him :)

#trolls #dreamworks trolls #john dory #trolls john dory #john dory trolls #trollsona #trolls oc #john dory x oc #anon ask #ask #feral branch au #feral au

[oivsyo]

Hyūga men chilling on the hot springs [censored|sfw ver.]

For uncensored version go to my Twitter =)

ok, let me introduce them>>>

this is an adult Neji who survived the war, hope it is obvious bc of his scars. Along with Hinata Neji is the main POV in my HC.

Kō Hyūga with my redesign. I got so used to this appearance on him, so I have to remind myself that he doesn't look this way in the canon and other people may not recognise him.

He is 2,5 years older than Neji. In my HC his B-day is on 31 December because this day is Bertolt’s (AoT) b-day and my HC Kō has many things in common with Bertolt. His temper is soft  and is much like Hinata's, only that he is rather strong and is confident in his skills. His problem is the unhealthy desire to meet other people's expectations, the fear of accepting himself as he is.

He was the younger son in one of the main house’s families, but his elder brother was killed during Orochimaru invasion, his eyes torn out and stolen. It happened 2 weeks before Kō’s 17th birthday, so he didn’t get the seal. But it makess him miserable, he would happily bear a hundred seals if only it could turn his brother back to life. He has always been on good terms with Hinata, he looked after her and was supposed to be her guard. After the events of OG Kō gradually makes friends with Neji and eventually becomes one of the closest ppl for both Neji and Hinata. Kō is one of 4 POVs in my HC.

Kō is a sweet cinnamon bun and just perfect, I want to marry him but he is 2D and gay :(

Hiashi Hyūga. My fav part of this art.

Hiashi is DILF.Don't judge me.

I hc him being rather young, so that he is around 31-32 yo during Chunin Exam Arc I gave him background story and better developed personality in my hc so he turned out to be a very interesting and contradicting character.

Hiashi is one of POVs in my HC, through his character the clan’s story, traditions, political relations with the village, with Uchiha clan and inside the clan are told.

Tokuma Hyūga a.k.a Neji's main rival for the title of the most handsome Hyūga man. In my HC Tokuma looked after Neji when his father died and his mother was away on missions so he is kinda brother for Neji even tho they are not that close related. Tokuma has a rather difficult and heavy character, Neji picked some of his traits up. He is not too tall, around 175cm, and looks really young being one of the eldest among Neji, Kō and the next character. 

This one is my OC. His name is Yojiru.

At first I wanted him to be more like RtN Neji, but gradually he switched to Dandelion from the Witcher saga. He is Neji's first cousin, their mothers were sisters, so they look alike. He is almost 10 years older than Neji. He is a poor fighter and  medic-nin, but is rather well-read and knows a lot of things. He is also a talented musician, he plays some musical instruments, sings and even writes songs. He likes to tell jokes and fool around, he has a playful and carefree nature.

In the time skip period between OG and Shippuden he gets acquainted with Ko, they quickly become friends. Yojiru teaches Kō to live for himself and not to look back on other ppl opinion. Later they become lovers.

Hoheto Hyūga. He was a background character in the canon and for now he is only a background character in my HC. He is the oldest man on this art, he is around 5-7 years older than Hiashi I think he is a real clan's patriot judging from the scene with him on the war. Probably he is Hiashi’s guard and assistant.

This one is a rather new OC that is based on one of background Hyūgas from the anime. I HC that he is Natsu's older twin brother. They are from the main house so he doesn't have a seal, and Natsu being the younger twin has it. At the moment I don’t have any ideas about his personality, I'm choosing a name for him from Aki and Haru.

****

This is my first drawing for Naruto Horny ASK, that I've joined recently, and it is kinda redraw of this mangacap. I liked the composition I decided to finally draw all my handsome white-eyed men together

#hyuga neji #neji hyuga #Neji Hyuuga #Hyuga Clan #hiashi hyuga #tokuma hyuga #byakugan #tokuma #neji #Hyuga Headcanon #hoheto hyuga #i'm a simp for Hyuga men #my artwork

[dark-elf-writes]

I was thinking about your Pretty Young Thing AU and started wondering: While Oboro has a great group of friends does anyone dislike the age gap? Is he called a MILF Hunter in a mean way? Is Inko scorned for getting with a rich young man? I’m assuming when they get more serious he helps her divorce Hisashi, does this happen and how does he react? (Does Inko lose friends *cough*Mitsuki*cough* over this? Does she get shunned by the hospital?!)

Oh god imagine the media.

… also agreeing seeing your post on IiDeku: I would love to point out the opportunity for childhood friends to lovers IiDeku here.

You caught me right on an upswing of energy that came out of nowhere so I apologize if this gets out of hand.

In Oboro’s immediate circle everyone is pretty chill. He gets some side eyes from some of the other heroes. Endeavor once made a snide comment but got quiet real quick when Oboro asked how much older he was than his wife. I can see there being mostly an issue because Inko is older than Oboro as heroics is, unfortunately, a pretty male heavy industry to be in so while taking a younger wife/lover is seen as normal a man having an older woman for a partner would cause some raised eyebrows. Considering I see adult Oboro as well over six foot and jacked with heavy scarring (and probably pretty high up in rankings tbh. I could see him at least in the top fifty) no one is bold enough to say anything to his face for the most part. Particularly after he cuts the “locker room talk” real short and may or may not come home with busted knuckles once or twice.

But Inko, poor sweet Inko.

After the first pictures leak of the two of them together while she’s at work, her coworkers start talking behind her back. “Isn’t she married?” “Have you seen his face?” “No wonder her husband left her.” And she’s not blind, okay. She knows that there’s a type that men like Oboro tend to chase after and it’s not her. She’s short, has packed on a few pounds between late shifts and being a single mom, and while she sees herself as pretty she’s no model. Still, those first words he said to her ring in her ears whenever she starts to doubt. “I think that’s my choice, yeah?” And he chose her. Time and time again, he came back and proved that he loved her and that he was happy with her. That he wanted to be a part of her family.

So she keeps her head high and tries not to let the whispers get to her. She does love her job, works herself to the bone even after getting with Oboro, so she tries not to pay any mind to the hisses of “gold digger” sink in either. Oboro chose her, respected her, loved her and at the end of the day that was all that mattered.

(It hurt, however, when Mitsuki pulled away. “You couldn’t even get divorced first?” She asked as if Inko’s husband hadn’t put the entire globe between them and left her with the barest scraps of a savings account that she had never put his name on and a one bedroom apartment to raise their child. As if she hadn’t had to hold Izuku as they cried year after year when Hisashi ‘forgot’ to call for birthdays or Christmas. As if she hadn’t slept on a couch for years so Izuku could have the bedroom until she saved up enough to rent them their two bedroom. Inko had been single in every way but in a court of law for years and she thought the woman who was her best friend would be happy that she had finally found someone who cared in the way Hisashi never had.)

The media storm was initially terrible but through a few favors and a possible deal with the devil (Oboro agreeing to also teach at UA) it was silenced ruthlessly. Hizashi alone was responsible for the end of no less than fifteen journalists’ careers and Nezu sunk so many gossip rags and talk shows that he is the Macbeth of the industry. No one dares speak his name lest they summon his wrath.

But for Hisashi?

He had all but forgotten his wife and kid. Had moved on. They weren’t his problem. Inko could handle it. After all, he was the man of the house. Of course he should be out making them money. Never mind that he never sent any of that money back home, never mind that he hadn’t so much as thought his wife’s name in years, never mind that he brought plenty of other women to bed and had sold his wedding ring for a new watch.

Then he gets served divorce papers and his perfect little fantasy shatters around him.

Inko didn’t want him anymore. Didn’t need him. And when he finally found the right number for her after dozens of calls that were definitely jacking up his phone bill a man answered.

“Shirakumo residence.”

“I want to talk to my wife”

“Who?”

“Midoriya. Inko.”

“Oh I think you mean my future wife.”

Needless to say Hisashi ended up throwing his phone at a wall and Oboro gained an enemy for life. Not that he cares. He has Izuku hanging off of his arm as they chattered away about a cat they saw with Uncle Shou when they were walking back from the park and Inko laughing with Nemuri in the kitchen over glasses of wine. He has his family, all of it, close at hand.

(And years down the line when Izuku comes to him and Inko to tell them about their “new boyfriend” that Oboro has watched them slowly fall in love with over the last nine or so years he also has five hundred yen of Tensei’s hard earned paycheck and the knowledge that his kid is going to end up just as happy as Oboro is.)

#the elf talks #mha #bnha #pretty young thing au #oboro shirakumo #inko midoriya #it did in fact get out of hand #also I’ve made so many iideku posts recently I have no idea which one it was #but also yes #I love this au so much okay

[al9ayf]

ᥫ᭡ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐫 | trafalgar law x f!reader

✧ chapter 5 :: the wait

｡˚ word count: 5.0k

｡˚ tags: @punem699, @toshirolovebot

your fleet entered wano’s waters mere hours after the sun rose. its harsh seas and storms were now in full effect, and you took shelter inside your cabin until further notice. eira was with you, getting you dressed and ready for the day that was about to come. you sat at your vanity, deciding which jewelry you wanted to wear. a must-have was your wedding ring that always sat on your right ring finger now. it was an emerald-cut diamond wedding band. it’s the only one of its kind from the mines of a country that no longer exists in the north blue. it was beautiful, yes, but it wasn’t the reason why you always wore it. the sole reason was that you truly loved your husband and still to this day miss him. it was an everyday reminder that he was still there with you on your finger—right ring finger.

after eira finished with your hair and added an accessory to it, you finally decided on which jewels you wanted to wear that matched your outfit today. you got up from the chair and headed out of the room to make your way down the hall. eddard was speaking to one of the soldiers, but when he saw you coming his way, he immediately stopped and bowed.

“my queen,” he said, smiling. you smiled back and told him to walk with you. you headed to the meeting room on the opposite end of the ship to discuss a few things about wano again.

“any news on aegnor?” you asked about your younger brother as if he was still a kid, but he was only one year younger than you. he had a dragon, a wife, and three children, all at the age of twenty. sometimes you felt bad about making him marry young, but when you realized you couldn’t have any children, you couldn’t risk your bloodline ending.

“the prince is carrying your duties well, it seems,” he said.

you hummed, pleased with his answer. “and what is the weather like up there?”

“bad, as usual. we should arrive at the cave soon. by then, we should all be prepared and ready to go,” he said, opening up the door for you.

“good.”

you stepped inside and headed over to the table with a big map on top of it. you loomed over it and scanned the country of wano and its territories. eddard cleared his throat and sat on the chair next to yours. “this week, we should have a clearer plan on when we will attack kaidou,” he said. “but for now, we should focus on what we will do after we take his throne. i have a few suggestions.”

you continued to let him speak while you laid back in the comfortable chair. “assuming that not many enemies stand in our way, we should first ensure the safety of the people in the country. they will need clean water and food once we take over since most of their people are poor and live in harsh conditions,” eddard said.

“i agree. but we should also focus on taking down anything that has to do with kaidou,” you said, zoning out as you looked at the map. “this is a new beginning for the people of wano. anything remaining of his horrible reign should be taken down so they can start anew without being afraid.”

“i’ll write that down.” he got up from the chair and grabbed a pen and paper. you tapped your finger on the arm of the chair and blinked a few times to stop yourself from zoning out too much.

“when they see who came to save them, the people will want to fight for me,” you said. “and whatever enemies we have left, we should give them the choice of death or bending the knee.” eddard nodded and continued to write down everything you said.

as he wrote down all of your ideas, three knocks came at the door. lexer came in with law behind him. you felt your stomach turn at the look of him, and your cheeks became warm. “trafalgar wanted to talk with you, my queen,” he said. you looked at eddard, and he excused himself before leaving the room. lexer stood at the door, and you allowed him to speak.

“we will arrive in wano sooner than we expected—around a few minutes before we reach the cave,” he said. you thanked him, and he left. law walked around the table, looking at all the various plans and notes that were written down on different pieces of paper. you stood up from your chair and walked up to him, smiling as you fiddled with your wedding band.

law picked up the piece of paper eddard was writing on and started to read it. you held your hands. “you wanted to speak with me?” you asked, waiting for him to talk. you were hoping that he actually didn’t have anything important to say and that he just wanted to be with you. but your hope ended when he took a seat and placed the piece of paper in front of him.

“i came to talk to you about kaidou,” he said. “since you have the upper hand here, try to find out about his schedule and his people. we need to know what he does so it can be easier for us.” he looked at you with those commanding eyes. “but be wary.”

you came up behind him and placed your hands on his shoulders, leaning your face down to his. “i always am,” you said, sneaking a kiss. “you’ll be surprised as to how many people i’ve fooled in these types of situations.” you sat down in the chair next to him as he picked up the piece of paper again.

“what if they don’t bend the knee?” law asked as he read it again. you raised an eyebrow, but when he showed you what he was reading, you saw that eddard hadn’t finished writing what you were saying. you grabbed the paper from him and placed it somewhere else.

“they burn,” you said casually.

“and you don’t have any second thoughts about killing people?”

“what second thoughts would i be having?” you leaned in close to him. “i’m giving them a choice—my enemies will have a choice. they would never have given me one if i was in their shoes…”

you stood up from the chair. “do you have a problem with that?” your voice was serious, not playful. you were getting upset, law could tell, and he didn’t want you to get mad at him now. he looked away from your eyes and went to go grab your hand. his thumb went over your wedding ring, its diamond so pure and clear that it sparkled under the nearby light.

“no,” he said, looking back up at you. “i would be a hypocrite if i did.”

he watched your expression go soft, and you seemed to give him a look of approval. even though the both of you were closer now, you were still in a way higher position than him. you were still a queen, and he was still a pirate. there was never going to be an equal ground between the two of you.

when the boat suddenly rocked and came to a stop, you let go of law’s hand and sighed. “we’ve arrived.”

you left the meeting room fast and headed up to the deck. another one of your advisors was waiting at the top of the steps, and you grabbed onto his hand as he led you toward the end of the deck where eddard was standing with a den den mushi in his hand. you were in the cave already, but the crane was coming down slowly above you.

you picked up the call. “y/n! it’s been too long since you last visited!” kaidou’s voice echoed from the speaker. “last i saw you, your niece had just been born.”

“four years ago now, was it?” you asked. “i suppose it’s been a while. i would’ve visited more often, but after the war, i’ve just been focusing more on my kingdoms and countries. but i am here now, at least.”

“yes… i saw your dragons before i even saw you. they are such interesting beasts.”

“very…” you wanted to protect them from him, but you knew that they would soon be in a clash.

you chatted with kaidou for a bit before ultimately ending the call since you would be on the surface in a few minutes. law came out onto the deck with eira following behind him. the two made their way over to you.

“you must get ready. what are you doing out here?” you asked law as eira helped you slip on a pair of gloves. you fixed them yourself and made sure they were comfortable.

“how will we stay in contact once we get there?” he asked. “den den mushi’s won’t be—“

you cut him off. “wano has a system called smail’s. my soldiers will get you and the rest situated with them, and the plan will continue as normal from here on out. now get ready; you can’t mess this up now.”

you walked past him, but he suddenly grabbed your arm. you looked at him almost in shock but then softened your gaze. “yes?” you asked, moving his hand away. you gave him that infamous smile of yours.

he gripped his sword a little tighter. “there’s something you should know,” he said. “i trust that you can make good decisions, but taking wano’s throne isn’t one of them.”

you looked at him, all confused. “you’re not talking about that little kid, are you?”

“that country was devoted to his family. it will be difficult trying to get them to bend the knee to you and not to him.”

“why do you care so much?” you took a step closer to him, leaning your face towards his. “do you believe that child knows how to rule?”

you cupped his cheek. “he is only eight. who else knows how to rule better than me? that country needs me. that child needs me.” your voice was low. “don’t you agree?”

law grabbed your hand and moved it away. “i do agree,” he said, keeping a hold on it. “you conquered most of the new world, i wouldn’t be surprised if you usurped somebody from their throne.”

he let go of your hand and started to walk away from you. you glared at his back but then followed him. he wasn’t going to have the last word. the two of you went below deck where nobody was around, and you ran up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

“why do you care?” you snapped, stopping him in his tracks. “you’re acting like you care about the people! like you care about that child! you’re a pirate, and you only care for one thing—“

law turned around. “you’re right,” he said, cutting you off. “i don’t care about what these people go through. i’m only there for kaidou, and that’s it, but taking away somebody’s birthright just because you save their country doesn’t sit right with me.”

he leaned against the wall. “you’ve seen it with your brother and sister. do you want this to happen again but with an eight-year-old boy?” law asked.

you inhaled sharply and shook your head. you hated how right he was, but you needed that country more than ever. you didn’t want to fight with him. you looked away from him, sighing.

“i have no right to counsel you, but you will cause a civil war if you take the throne,” law said. “don’t do it.”

you took a few seconds to think to yourself. you didn’t know whether to be mad or take his advice. finally, you looked back up at him. “if this were coming from any other person, i would have ignored them,” you said. “… maybe you are right, law.” you smiled at him and then left, leaving him alone. yes, you were angry, but you didn’t want to create conflict with him. after all, it was only going to create more problems that weren’t needed. for now, you would have to keep those plans aside.

once your ship reached the country, you saw kaidou standing with his crew members and soldiers. you stopped yourself from showing a look of anger as you left your ship. you walked right up to kaidou with your people behind you. he greeted you before the both of you headed off towards his ship to get to onigashima, where he resided. once everybody got on the ship, you and kaidou finally had a chance to talk.

“i saw that straw hat luffy and trafalgar law took back dressrosa,” he said. you felt the wind blow through your hair, and you didn’t dare turn to face away from it. it was a comforting feeling.

“yes…” you said. “i met them after news broke out that they defeated doflamingo.”

“you were with them, yet you didn’t do anything?”

“your alliance with doflamingo was none of my business. besides, i had just gotten dressrosa back after ten years, i wasn’t going to give up that opportunity.”

kaidou got angry and smacked his hand down on the rail of the ship. you didn’t react. you didn’t want to show him that you were scared of anything. you only turned your head and looked directly into his eyes. “the smile factories are done for because of them. and you had an opportunity to kill the both of them—“

“i am your ally, not doflamingo’s,” you snapped. “because he got defeated doesn’t mean that i am on the same side as those two idiots. i’m only allied with emperors of the sea, not warlords.” he gave you an even angrier look. he really was a beast. but you glared back even harder.

kaidou suddenly let out a good laugh and turned to look back out at the sea. you felt a sense of relief wash over you. he could be intimidating most of the time, if not all the time.

“this is why we are such good friends!” he exclaimed. “i love a woman who doesn’t feed into any bullshit!” kaidou let out another deep laugh and turned to look at you.

“how about we celebrate with some wine?”

when you arrived at the island of onigashima, you were immediately directed to your state of residence. it was by an open field, big enough for your dragons to sleep and relax. you enjoyed the thought of having them close to you because you felt more protected that way. before you parted ways with kaidou, he informed you that the first meeting about the reverie would be held tonight and that you could explore the mainland if you wanted to. you thanked him, and he walked away with the rest of his crew. once you headed inside the home, you couldn’t help but laugh a little. kaidou had so much trust in you, and it was kind of amusing because you never noticed it before.

your people started to unpack everything and make the place more homely. you and eddard walked around looking at the place, making sure there were no listening devices, just in case. nobody found anything, so you finally sat down in a chair to relax. eira stood next to you, but you told her to sit on the chair beside you instead. you played with your wedding ring as you started thinking about the plans of taking this country. so many opportunities and so many ideas your head hurts just thinking about them.

you sighed and held your head in your hand. this was going to take a while.

—

one week passed. you didn’t leave onigashima since you were so busy, and after the news broke out that luffy became an emperor of the sea, kaidou was on edge most of the time and took to drinking. you automatically became luffy’s ally but made sure to assure kaidou that he wouldn’t stay as one for long. of course, you thought otherwise secretly, but if it was just to keep the alliance between the two of you for now, then so be it. as well as luffy becoming an emperor, you spent most of your time updating the straw hats and law with what was going on with kaidou but mostly kept some information to yourself so you could tell them in person. you didn’t want to draw too much attention to yourself, so you finally decided to leave for oden castle today, where they were staying.

you changed from your regular clothes to something that fit more of the country’s style and even had a dragon-inspired mask made for you so you could hide your identity. you left on drago and kept the other two behind. you didn’t want them following you since it would draw too much attention. you missed the feeling of riding your dragons. it’s been so long that you almost forgot the feeling of how good it felt. as oden castle approached, you felt a sense of unease. you felt uncomfortable. but you pushed it aside since you had matters to attend to.

drago landed by the castle where everybody was already inside, and right as he took off to quickly leave, law came out from around the corner to see you walking towards him as your dragon left. you took your mask off to reveal your face and then placed it by your side. he looked good—he looked really fucking good. you felt your heart beat faster and your cheeks becoming warm. you speed-walked over to him and grabbed his shoulders, bringing him down to your height.

you kissed him gently and fast. “i missed you,” you said after pulling away. law only hummed at your answer, which you barely even noticed since you moved away from him to look around.

“where’s the rest?” you asked, looking back at him. he turned to look back at the castle, his body brushing up against yours.

“waiting for you inside,” he said, looking back at you.

“what, they won’t even come outside to greet me?” you felt a bit disrespected. if it weren’t for you, they would’ve had a harder time getting on the island.

“they’ll be out here any second.” you only rolled your eyes and sighed. you didn’t want to enter the castle for fear of it collapsing on top of you. besides that point, you didn’t want to stay for long anyway. it was too risky to be out here with them, let alone in an area with a massive population nearby.

the remaining people of the alliance came out of the castle, with luffy being happy to see you again. with drago occasionally flying around, you explained to the group the information you gathered from this week alone. “now that straw hat is an emperor, he is set on killing the both of you now,” you said, looking at luffy and law. “especially now that he knows you’re here in wano…”

“does he suspect you at all?” nami asked.

“no, not one bit,” you said. “but to stay on the upper hand here, i have to plan with kaidou about taking you down. my advisors and i are trying our best to give him bad solutions.”

“what’re they planning?” sanji asked, concerned and angry.

“there are no solid plans yet, but for now, just try to lay low so they don’t know all of you are here. i’ll take care of it, so just stick to your part of the plan.”

“if kaidou is planning on getting us first, then we better hope it isn’t before the fire festival.”

“don’t worry, i’ll make sure of it.”

they all thanked you before going off their separate directions. you and law walked a few ways away from everybody else until you were out of their sight but still in earshot of their conversations.

“thank you for giving us more time,” said law. “but you didn’t have to come here to say all of this. the smails are here for a reason.” you looked at him, unsure of what he meant. it made you nervous.

you yet again held your hands and played with your wedding ring. “i wanted to see you,” you said. “did you not want me to come?”

law was a bit taken aback by your question. “no, it’s not that,” he said. “it’s too risky, especially since your dragon likes to stay close to where you are.” you leaned against him and grabbed his free hand. you stroked the back of it with your thumb.

“dragons are curious creatures; they will not be suspicious if drago hangs around one area for too long. besides, nobody knows i left. only my advisors know…” you reached your hand up to his cheek and caressed the soft skin. law held himself back this whole time. you were a risk before you even entered wano, and now that the two of you were here together, it was even more dangerous. he could get you killed. but while you stood there before him, giving him all your attention and vulnerability, he so badly wanted to have you right then and there.

you started moving closer to his lips, and as much as his brain screamed no, his body screamed yes. and right as you were about to kiss him, he moved away. law slipped his hand out of yours and leaned against the wall, shadowing his face with his hat. your face had an expression mixed with confusion and hurt, but before you could say anything, you saw lightning and heard thunder. you turned your head and saw kaidou hovering above the nearby town in his dragon form. you didn’t have time to process it before law quickly moved away from you and ran to the others. you stood there flustered and upset but knew there was something more important to deal with right now. you followed behind him and met up with the others. you couldn’t stay here any longer now that kaidou had appeared for god knows what reason.

they all stood there in shock, watching him. he was massive, a bit bigger than your dragons. you stood in front of them all and felt the wind blow in your hair. because of the storm kaidou had racked up, it felt like you were riding on your dragon. you shut your eyes and inhaled sharply. “only a dragon can kill a dragon…” you said. you turned around and looked at everybody.

“this is dangerous,” you said. “i suggest leaving the area for now.”

penguin, who was looking at kaidou through a pair of binoculars, only reassured everybody that he was too busy talking with his crew mates. you weren’t going to take any chances, so you quickly left. drago was nowhere to be seen, so you had to run out of that forestry area and down to the town yourself to find drago in an open and secluded field. you weren’t expecting kaidou to be here at all.

as you ran down the treacherous hill, you suddenly heard law and luffy behind you. you stopped running and stopped them, confused as to why they were coming this way. “he’s here already! let’s just beat him up now!” yelled luffy.

“you idiot, you’re just going to get yourself killed!” law yelled at him, smacking him across the head.

“kaidou is stronger than you think. you won’t beat him now!” you chimed in.

“i’m strong enough!” luffy exclaimed, then ran past you. he only managed to run a few feet before kaidou suddenly turned to face oden castle and breathed out a huge blast of fire. the whole mountain shook, and debris started to fall all around you. law wasted no time in grabbing you and bringing you up to him, shielding you from anything that could harm you. by the time everything stopped falling, you both realized that luffy wasn’t there anymore. you looked at law with concern all over your face. he was angry and clearly in shock.

“your crew—“

he cut you off. “my crew will be fine!” he snapped, looking down at you. “you need to get out of here, now.”

“you must leave as well! all of you guys need to leave! he will find you!”

drago suddenly landed behind you, breaking a few trees so he could land. law ignored your concerned cries and pushed you towards your dragon. you went to grab him again, but he used his devil fruit powers to leave the area quickly. drago screeched as if he was begging you to get on top of him. you forced yourself to move to mount your dragon, leaving the area before kaidou or any of his armies knew you were there. as you rode back to onigashima, you couldn’t help but feel upset over law’s cold demeanor. it felt like he was almost ignoring your touch, and it made you feel insecure.

drago landed in the field by your residence in a matter of minutes. you got off of him and rushed inside. eddard noticed your panicked movements, but before he could ask you anything, you ran to your bedroom to get changed. you had to pretend like you never even left the area. once you got back into your regular clothes, you heard knocking at your door before eira entered.

“my queen, kaidou is here…” she said. you could hear the fear in her voice. she was still a young girl of only seventeen, so it was only natural that she was more afraid of him than the rest of you. you smoothed out your clothes and sighed.

“of course he is,” you muttered, leaving the room with her behind you. kaidou was in the living room drinking a large cup of beer. you sat on the chair across from him and put on a fake smile. “welcome! i didn’t know you were coming.”

“i got straw hat,” he said. you heard the slur in his words. he was drunk, and he still got luffy? you were amazed, to say the least. you let out a deep breath and clasped your hands together.

“what’re you going to do with him?” you asked.

“break his spirit and make him submit to me,” said kaidou, throwing the cup onto the floor. “he’s better off as my subordinate than dead.”

“breaking straw hat’s spirit will be tougher than you think…”

“i don’t give a shit. i have him in prison; that is all that matters. he won’t ever be getting out of that shithole.” he stood up and headed for the front door. you followed behind him to at least see him goodbye. he came here for a two-minute conversation just to fucking leave right after. what a waste of time.

“oh,” he said, turning around to face you. “we’re having a business dinner tomorrow. there’s something important i want to discuss with you.”

“i’ll be there,” you said. he grumbled something before eventually walking away with his crew. you walked back inside your house as a soldier of yours shut the door. you sat back down on the chair and held your head in your hand. fucking straw hat.

—

the next night you found yourself sitting next to kaidou at his dining table. you had already finished eating, so you moved on to your second cup of wine, divulging in it more than the conversation at hand. but when it finally came to the end of the dinner, and kaidou’s subordinates had left the room to leave the two of you alone, you two started to finally discuss something other than the straw hat alliance.

you were disinterested at the beginning of the evening, but when he started to talk about your dragons, armies, and kingdoms’, you perked up a bit.

“i was next in line for the throne,” you said. kaidou had shifted the conversation to your armies and people and why they wanted you, a woman, as their ruler instead of your younger brother. “my older brother only fathered bastards and wasn’t set on marrying anybody soon, so when i killed him, i was the only person fit to become queen. the new world has never seen such peace ever since i started my reign.”

“and those armies—“

“loyal to me,” you cut him off. “they chose me. everybody chose me. yes, it was my birthright, but the people love me. they saw me for who i am—a queen…”

“y/n the peaceful,” he said as if it was an insult, but you shook your head.

“no, i will be known as the conqueror, not the peaceful…”

kaidou laughed at the self-proclaimed title. you kept the stoic face, though, and watched as he stifled his laughter with beer. you stayed silent, and when he turned back to look at you, your face only showed seriousness.

“little girls cannot be conquerors,” he said. “only men.” you weren’t a man, nor were you a little girl. you are a woman at the age of twenty-one. kaidou then leaned down close to you, his large frame shadowing and engulfing yours so easily. but you weren’t scared or intimidated.

“i will be the true conqueror of this world,” he said. “i will rule it with you by my side.”

you didn’t like the sound of his tone. “what are you proposing?” you asked. “we are already allies as long as you stay breathing.”

“we both want power and to rule over this world,” he said. “if we have each other’s forces and gather more allies, we will be unstoppable.” you opened up your mouth to say something, but he cut you off.

“i’m proposing a marriage for power over this world.”

ch. 6 !

#one piece #one piece x reader #law x reader #trafalgar law x reader #one piece x y/n #one piece x you #trafalgar law #one piece law

[fwb-anon]

the idolz and their controversies... part 1

because we love drama

i don't hate any of them btw <3 i just like to make the world as realistic as possible with people doing some questionable shit or having controversial actions/opinions at times...

gonna get beheaded for that but LET'S START WITH GOJO <333

gojo (ex... whatever the big jjk group is called, former tripleS + GG member)

he's actually fine, at least for someone who's been an idol + a producer for like... almost twenty years sheesh

does get a lot of rumours but we don't care about those

his biggest controversy is basically the one that.. he hasn't "fixed"... putting "" because truth is everyone is divided on this ("does he really need to fix it?" you decide booboo)

anyway, he uses aave despite being the palest japanese mf ever ❤️​ some black fans don't care, others do care, some non-black fans don't care (not that... we care about their opinion...), some non-black fans do care, one of the pro arguments is "well at least he uses it correctly" so you decide if you're pro or anti gojo now /J... /hj i know some of y'all are extremists

has been called greedy as a producer but let's be real he's a man so he doesn't actually get called out a lot for this + he's one of the most popular idols anyway so who cares (if it were a woman tho...)

okay so this one is actually fake af but he's been called xenophobic and racist towards panda (who's chinese) and yuuji (who's half dominican) because they had less than 2 seconds of line in a song. gojo didn't respond to that, but a week later the behind recording was out on socials and everyone was able to see that 1/ panda actually had more lines but got outsang by most of the group (understandable, he's not a vocalist), 2/ yuuji can't sing to save his life, so giving him one line was already very nice of gojo

okay everyone, you can breathe again it's over for gojo's controversies

shikamaru (from hanafubuki)

oh god where do we start

nah tbf he only has one big controversy and it's: he's sexist

OKAY SO technically he isn't anymore because he got women's studies classes as a trainee otherwise he was kicked out for being a sexist little shit

he does have.. "traditional" views but honestly he's also very open minded

got accused of being sexist because he said he "sees himself with a boring job, a wife, two kids, and his wife cooking dinner for him when he comes back from work"

gonna play devil's advocate and say that's literally how it works with his parents and they like it that way, so

also he said (after being accused of sexism) in a radio show that while that's how he sees his life in twenty years, he wouldn't mind it if his wife was like "no i wanna work too"

they'd just have to agree on a schedule and all, especially for the kids (he wants kids so there's no way he's marrying someone who doesn't tho which is... common sense)

jiraiya (ex wabi-sabi, now soloist)

he's not sexist but he's been labelled a pervert... ngl he does like to look at women's bodies BUT he doesn't make them uncomfortable... leave me and my old man alone... where is @sexygeriatric-retirementhome :( <3 i'm still working on your ask i just take years to reply

has a tendency to date younger people, mostly women but sometimes men (bi icon) <3

has had some ableist comments in the past, mostly when he was a teen though, and although he never addressed it he's never done it again so... you decide...

(btw you gotta realise bro was technically in the public eye from 1991 [pre-debut era] to... well... nowadays... so he's been an idol for 33 years so yeah)

has been caught with porn magazines on his shelves LMAO he's such a loser <3 he was a teen when that happened and also had a gf at the time so that was fun LOL

has struggled with an eating disorder as a late-teen/young adult, which led to him being in a very poor mental state and "giving advice" on how to lose weight. <- pls don't excuse that, that's just the explanation as to why he said those things in the first place ❤️​

he did talk about it a decade later and said he was wrong, also donates yearly to charities (mostly anorexia related ones)

oh yeah i forgot but he's also been accused of having predatory behaviour towards young idols (hanafubuki's neji, bureikou as a whole, kismet's konohamaru)

basically -> he hugged neji when neji was crying (neji was 16). he regularly compliments bureikou (girl group with the naruto girlies + AFAB NARUTO YEAAA), also has a very close bond with naruto herself since he's her godfather, DID talk about her body as in "she's growing up fine" (you take that as you want honestly)... did make a joke about naruto growing up fine but being so tall yet so flat (<- didn't phrase it like that tbh but that was the joke, naruto is 180cm tall and flatter than sakura). konohamaru is his nephew in this au and the way he's been teasing him or even hugging him rubs people the wrong way, mostly because of the previous things (for people who think he's actually having predatory behaviour) and because kono was 15 when he debuted. honestly idek, you make up your mind <3

gonna be real he probably has way more, he's been in the industry for 30+ years LOL but yeah brain is smol

neji (hanafubuki, soloist)

has had ableist comments in the past, mostly about shino's quirks (fyi shino is on the autism spectrum) -> owned up to it and apologised to shino and shino's dad, literally people learned about it because neji mentioned it during a public apology when they were having a concert

neji is basically if character growth was a person

bro is gay as hell (and dating shino!!!) but was homophobic so... character growth <3

honestly props to shino for staring at neji and thinking "i will talk some sense into him" cuz LOOK AT THEM NOW <33

a few fatphobic comments towards choji during predebut era too, but gonna be honest he quickly changed his mind and is literally "choji's husband" (and choji is his wife <3 <- their dynamic is light hearted) so ykw i don't think choji would be fine with that if neji was still fatphobic

again: ✨ CHARACTER GROWTH ✨

i'm hungry so i'll make a part two later

geto will be in it.. if i don't forget

#fwb.idolz #cw eating issues #cw ed mention

[paintedvanilla]

Hi! Sorry if you’ve already answered this, but what inspired your takes on Jack’s extended family in your fics?

hi!! sorry it took me so long to answer this ask, i was going to wait to answer it until i finished my most recent fic, but then i posted that and i just. didn't have the energy. so!! hi!!

i don't really have a specific source of inspiration for my choices about the narrator's extended family. i've always enjoyed writing ensemble stuff. i think my decisions for the narrator's family dynamics were based on my own interpretations of his characterization and influenced by my own biases and probably other various subconscious trains of thought happening in my brain. but nevertheless here's a breakdown of each decision!!

his mother: the narrator was raised by a single mom from the age of six onward, that much is obvious from the source material. i mostly work off of the film, because i've watched it so many times its details are more readily available for me to recall. i get the sense that his mom is no nonsense but also a bit of a pushover when she doesn't feel like putting up a fight, which is often. she was not the most attentive but that's not entirely fair to say because she was a single mom. i think the narrator's family was quite poor growing up, especially once his dad left, and she was working to support him and his sister. i think she's relatively soft spoken and quite reserved.

his father: obviously for this one i had way more of a base to work with, just based on the way the narrator talks about his dad in the film and the book. he's an asshole. he doesn't really give a fuck about the narrator. i do believe the narrator and his sister were this man's first kids. he did not marry their mother. he's never married any of the women he gets involved with. i think he's a scumbag. the narrator is, actually, genuinely, his only son. all his other kids are girls, which i think plays a huge factor in when he skips town. it has to do both with when the woman he's involved with starts to become boring to him, and when the oldest daughter he's fathered from this particular woman starts to like. become conscious and develop a personality. The whole:

"Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate."

the sister: i chose for the narrator to have a sister, particularly an older sister, because i examined his character and something about me just led me to the conclusion that he FEELS like a younger brother to an older sister. she's about two years older than him. she's really good at pretending to enjoy herself. where the narrator utilizes apathy as a coping mechanism for the Everything about being alive, his sister swings hard in the other direction and uses enthusiasm and toxic positivity. i have more i'd like to explore with her, i think she definitely has the capacity to be more insane, and i think the narrator would love to see that. they have a relationship where, as soon as she was old enough to talk endlessly about any given subject, she would use the narrator as an audience. especially when they were teenagers. she could talk at him for hours while he sat in silence and afterwards she'd be like, "ok good talk" and he'd just give her a thumbs up. he knows she'll be back, same time tomorrow. it doesn't bother him. and i think he does listen, sometimes, halfway, he retains some of the details. after he moved for his job, she would call him and continue to do the same thing, and he didn't mind because he doesn't have a lot else going on. he doesn't have any friends. no one else is calling him. she stopped doing it after she got married because now she had a husband to subject to this, but now that she's getting divorced i think the narrator will be hearing from her more. also, he walked her down the aisle at her wedding. and five minutes before he did this, he told her that if she didn't want to go through with it, he'd help her leave her fiance at the alter. she played it off like he was making a bad joke, but he was being 100% dead serious.

the brother-in-law: i made the decision for the brother in law to just be fucking. lame. because i thought it would be funny if the narrator's sister is married to just like. the pinnacle of everything the narrator never wants to be. like, the narrator is also lame, but at least the narrator is having good sex and is getting the shit beat out of him on the regular and doesn't actually believe in any of the mission statements of his company. the bil is like the polar opposite of tyler, and the narrator thinks no one should settle for less. he's always hated his bil, has a vague inclination that his sister deserves better, but is still consumed by apathy so has never really done anything about it.

the nephew: the nephew is probably the least developed out of everyone here, which is really ironic because my idea for his character is basically that. he has a lot of the same ambitions that the narrator and his sister originally had, but is putting more of the sister's energy into it. that is, until he gets to college and completely fucking spins out. he drops out after one semester and becomes addicted to smoking weed. he'd be a walking panic attack otherwise. i think he made himself so sick about what he wanted to do with his life he just gave up. now he works at a smoke shop and is almost always high.

the niece, aka danny: i have to thank @rabbitmotifs for really pushing me into developing this little menace. when i first wrote "the idolatry of suburbia" i wanted to keep everything really light and vague because i was not ready to come to terms with the fact that these are technically oc's. but holly really pushed me into evolving danny's personality until i was eventually brave enough to pick out a name for her and employ it. you can fit so much lore into this kid. danny thinks her uncles hung the fucking moon, tyler durden is her favorite person in the universe, even after he snapped at her in my most recent fic. danny definitely has more inclinations towards batshit insane behavior and she indulges them without really questioning them, so when she's with her uncles she doesn't feel ostracized for just being herself. she loves these men. and she's definitely got some gender things going on. if you see her emulating tyler's portrayals of masculinity, no you didn't (she'll get embarrassed).

and as an extra special bonus, tyler's people:

tyler's mom aka mable durden: listen i was really pondering my orb for this one and it just came to me like a fucking premonition. i disregard everything tyler says in the movie about "his" family, i think these are just projections of the narrator's relationships, so tyler is practically a blank slate. and the idea that tyler never knew his father at all, that he was abusive towards his mother so she left him before he was even born, that durden is his mother's maiden name?? oh that shit made me fucking bonkers. i didn't know how to handle it when the thought first occurred to me. tyler gets ALL his mannerisms from his mother, he siphoned like his whole personality off of her. she's The cigarette mom of all time. i think she could be very mean, but it's because she was over worked and poor and dead fucking tired all the time. she loved tyler a lot. she was the type who interpreted "physical affection with your kids" as "roughhousing" and this obviously influenced tyler in many many ways. she's the reason the way he shows love and affection is not through words but through actions and physical affection. she's also the reason he's addicted to nicotine. and i do believe she was a chronic complainer of her son being taller than her.

sam: ok i'll be totally completely honest i read "the parts of your hand grenade heart" by @grave-the-demon and i was BOMBARDED with the "tyler having a sister" spores. i added sam into my draft of "every man you've ever been" VERY late in the writing process. but i didn't want to just. steal the dynamic away from grace so i changed my answer a little bit so i wouldn't be accused of plagiarism. sam is like a sister to tyler. she's going to be his friend for his entire life, but he does not have such a connection to her that he can remain stationary for her. he'd only stay still in one spot for two people: his mother and the narrator. also, i need everyone to understand that sam is like. really hot. like she's so fucking strong and super fucking sexy in a Gay Woman type of way but the narrator has never been attracted to women a day in his life so he just doesn't perceive her as attractive so it never gets stated in the text. but please know this.

i'll be honest, i made the decision when writing "the idolatry of suburbia" to give the sister one boy and one girl because i didn't want the narrator to refer to anyone other than by their identifiers: my mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece, my nephew. this continues in "every man you've ever been" whereas all the characters introduced in relation to tyler are given real names: mable durden, samantha hanes. and in "see me on the eight o'clock news" danny is only given a name when sam points out the presence of a relationship between her and tyler. sam mentions that danny seems more related to tyler than to the narrator, asks for her name, and it is immediately stated. prior, even in that fic, the narrator had only referred to her as "my niece" because i'm a creative writing student and i need to be playing 8D chess all the time.

anyway, that's my little spiel. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#op #anon #fight club

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

This is an excerpt from a story I am working on. PA Works didn’t give us that playdate scene they hinted at during the sixth episode, “Love is Blind.”

Submitting this for #kazukiweek2023 for daycare/night out prompt @bdcharacterweek

“Rei, Rei, Rei, come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Kazuki checked Rei’s possible bolt holes in the loft, but the bathroom was empty and so was his unused bedroom. When he turned the glass door handle to the terrace, cigarette smoke surrounded his friend like a smoke bomb listening to his headphones as he swayed his head. No wonder he didn’t budge at Kazuki’s arrival at all.

Kazuki touched Rei’s arm softly, careful not to surprise the younger man, whose eyes were closed listening intently to his music. Kazuki would love to know what type of tunes that required his friend’s attention and concentration, a face devoid of worries at this moment. When Rei finally noticed him, he was red in the face and quickly turned the music off.

“Kazuki, what the hell?!”

“Dude, I just want to tell you that you still have 30 minutes before you pick up Taiga and his mother from the train station,” Kazuki informed him. Rei’s eyes turned shifty, collected his things and stood up.

“Why fetch them from the train station anyway? I thought they just live nearby,” Rei grunted his way to the door.

“They went to see Taiga’s grandmother in Kanagawa too. She’s bringing the kid here after that.”

For security reasons, Kazuki suggested that they they should meet on a neutral place for the child’s pickup and back. Sato, at first, was not impressed. Doubt was etched on her voice when Kazuki talked to her on the phone. When they met at the Aozora daycare to fetch their children, she was apprehensive to talk to him in person. Their interaction mostly happened either with private messaging or Line chat group with the other moms anyway.

“You can trust me, Mr. Kurusu, but can I trust you?” She appeared hurt.

“That’s a bit forward, Ms Kawasemi. Of course, you can. It is a matter of our household policy. I hope you understand.”

But her anger and doubt vanished as soon as she saw her son and Miri leaving the door while holding hands. Both children shared that sympathy that somehow bothered Kazuki initially. He thought Taiga was giving his daughter a hard time. Observing Miri develop her own way of thinking and set of morals truly fascinated him.

“Oh well, Taiga doesn’t stop talking how Miri did this or Miri did that. I guess, we’ll see each other on Saturday then,” Sato smiled. Her heart melted seeing Taiga clung to Miri. She finally succeeded releasing the poor girl from Taiga’s strong grip. Sato waved goodbye and quickly forgot her somewhat heated conversation with Kazuki earlier. Taiga was eager to tell her his stories as his small hands clutched on to her skirt.

Kazuki gazed at the two figures slowly dissipating from his view. Sato was not classically pretty but wore a kind and comely face. She initiated the first contact explaining to him how grateful and happy she was that Miri was a good influence on her child. On the other hand, rumours spread like wildfire about Sato and her husband cheating behind each other’s back.

Not my problem, not my partner, Kazuki noted.

He watched as the other mothers pick up their kids. These women used to have their own lives before they got married. Now what they had were absent husbands and fathers and so much housework. Furariimen these men were called. Husbands and fathers who don’t return home immediately avoiding their duties.

At least, Rei caught early on why there should be a division of labour at home if they wanted to make this family work. He’d grown so much as a person after Kazuki “ran away” in June. It was a wake-up call: taking care of a sick child, cheering her on her endeavors. He volunteered more often to bring and pick Miri up to and from the daycare centre apart from helping at home. He also got interested in cooking. His French toast was way better than a month ago. But the way he drenched the bread with cinnamon was over the top. Oh. Strange categorising Rei with the nursery mothers’ husbands. Kazuki shook his head smiling at his inanity. They still had a lot of things to talk about.

#buddy daddies #kazukiweek2023 #kazuki kurusu #rei suwa #miri unasaka #taiga #taiga’s mom #prompt: daycare/night out #my fanfic stuff #buddy daddies fan fiction #my fic stuff

[alannybunnue]

It would be nice to combine my headcanons and those of the OG.

The reader died giving birth to a girl (she could be called Rhaella. Let's add salt to the wound 🙂).

Baelon knew about the letters between reader and Vaegon, however he preferred not to comment on it.

Rhaella was born and raised being overprotected by her siblings. Being sweet, soft and loving with her family, friends and servants just like her mom, but an ambitious, cunning, calculating and cruel woman with whom she considers a threat to her (girlboss with the power of sarcasm and irony on her side). Her siblings don't want to admit that they scare off each and every one of their suitors (coughDaemoncough)(Rhaenys and Aemma facepalm in the background 🤦🏻).

When Aemma died, the possibility of a marriage between Viserys and her was put on the table, but Miss Cunning was ahead of everyone by telling them that she had already secretly married a nephew of Rickon Stark (a knight younger than her). and that there was no way they were going to separate him from her, since she could be pregnant. You don't have to be smart to know that this statement ended in a tremendous scandal. (J&A wanted to strengthen their ties with the North, right?? There they are, their granddaughter listened to them) (It was the first time Viserys was seen fainting, and Gaemon and Daemon white as sheets). It took several knights and dragonkeepers to prevent Daemon from going to kill (or make Caraxes eat) the poor Stark boy who dared to deflower his little sister (not knowing that she was the one who hit on the boy. The girl is the one that rules in the relationship), (Gaemon still shocked in the background 😨).

Rhaella and her husband had several children (they were very passionate about it, okay?😏🔥💖) and like Cregan and the rest of the North, they were also on the side of the Blacks.

She was the only rider of the Cannibal (the damn dragon only trusted her 🖤). She found it by chance in a cave near Dragonstone when she was a child. And, instead of trying to ride him, she sang to him and talked about how lonely she felt, without friends and with the men in her family making her feel suffocated, and she asked him to be friends 😊. That was how Rhaella got the most terrifying dragon after Vaghar (The beginning of a great friendship😊🖤).

She also survived the war (she was also forgiven by Aegon), and she and her family stayed to live in Winterfell.

One of her daughters ended up married to the son of Aemond and Alys (younger than her too...The apple doesn't fall far from the tree 😅😋) and they both founded House Whent (from which Catelyn's mother descends 💖).

.......again I let myself go (this is what excites me💖😊).

The plot connections in this post are so much and it scares me....

Rhaella is pretty much a girlboss

The idea of a Rhaella's child marrying Aemond's son also scares me for some reason (but at least it gives the boy some lore) and also....

Yeah Alys, fuck you, your boy never became king 👌😚

#ask #a song of ice and fire #yandere concept #yandere x reader #house of the dragon #yandere imagine #house targaryen #vaegon targaryen #baelon targaryen #house mallister #mallister!reader

[insomniac-jay]

For the Record

After the arrest of the Music Meister, Barry learns a shocking truth about the musical villain.

Misc: Baby's first time writing Flash, Flash/Barry Allen experts (my mutuals) please tell me I got him and Iris right

@calciumcryptid @honeysgalaxy

•

Flash watched as the police took Music Meister away. For a theater guy, he was stronger than expected. Not to mention his hypnosis powers threw Flash in for a loop. But nothing he couldn't handle.

Still, something the Music Meister said stuck with Flash.

"She's waiting for me at home."

Who was "she"? His mother? Maybe a younger sibling? He felt bad for the guy. Sure he tried to rob the bank, but knowing that there was someone he had to take care of made the arrest bittersweet.

For now, Flash hoped that Music Meister would start reforming sooner or later. He'd even help him if he wanted. For now, the law would taking the reins from here.

•

The courthouse was packed with reporters, spectators, and lawyers all awaiting the trial of the Music Meister. Outside, an even larger crowd formed, mostly made up of journalists trying to get the inside story and a glimpse of the criminal.

Barry had his eyes on a group of women sitting in the front row. The one in the middle looked like she'd been crying for hours while the other two were comforting her.

"It's okay, Christie," one consoling her told her. "He's gonna be back home with you in no time."

Both Music Meister and the judge arrived at the same time, making the room go quiet. His muzzle was back on, preventing him from using his powers.

Music Meister and the crying woman made eye contact with each other. Barry sensed the intimacy and unspoken feelings between them. The woman didn't look angry or disappointed; rather, she looked forgiving and sorrowful. As for Meister, Barry could tell he wanted to reach out and wipe the tear forming in her eye.

"Who is she?" He whispered to Iris.

"That's his wife."

Barry stopped.

"His wife. Music Meister is a married man."

"His who?"

This had to be a lie. No way. Absolutely no way that the distraught woman at the front of the courtroom was Music Meister's wife. Also, the implication that the "she" Meister talked about before his arrest made him added even more questions. When did he have time to get married? Was it even legal?

"You're lying to me."

Iris narrowed her eyes. "I'm not. Why don't you look at his records yourself, genius?"

"It's just...you never hear about rogues being married."

"I know. Couldn't believe it when I first read his records, either." Iris snapped pictures now that the trial began. "And to a civilian too. That's not something you see everyday."

After a nearly 4 hour trial, the verdict was delivered. Music Meister was sentenced to three years for robbery but had the possibility of parole.

Fitting his status as a Metahuman, he'd be sent to Belle Reve.

Barry watched as Meister and his wife, whose name was Christine, embraced each other. No tears threatened to spill out her eyes again. He then planted a kiss on her forehead with the muzzle still on.

"Are you sure that's his wife?" He asked Iris again.

The hard time he had believing that not only was Music Meister married, but to such a well put together woman was apparent.

Iris wordlessly handed Barry the file as she took pictures of Music Meister being escorted out of the courtroom, Christine and her friends following behind him.

Later that night, Barry busied himself looking through Music Meister's records. Sure enough, his martial status confirmed what Iris said, but also had additional information such as his previous arrests for misdemeanors in his home state of Louisiana and a copy of his marriage certificate.

"Poor Christine," Barry mumbled. Given how sad she was over the news, he guessed that they had a good marriage. "I better go pay her a visit at some point."

#jay's writings

[chernobog13]

MGM’s feature film Tarzan the Ape Man (1931), and its sequel, Tarzan and His Mate (1934), both starring former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, turned out to be huge successes for the studio.  They also cemented in the public’s mind the image of the monosyllabic, grunting ape man.

That iteration of the ape man was so popular that it was used in the non-MGM film serial Tarzan the Fearless (1933), starring another Olympic swimmer, Buster Crabbe.

Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs praised the films in public (they were making him money, after all), but privately hated their portrayal of his most prized creation.  So he partnered with a family friend, Ashton Dearholt, and produced the 12 chapter-serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935).

The serial starred yet another Olympian, Henry Brix, in the title role.  Ironically, Brix had been MGM’s first choice to play Tarzan in their films.   Brix, unfortunately, broke his shoulder while filming another movie.  MGM went with their second choice, Weissmuller, and the rest is history.

Frankly, just by physique alone I think Brix is the superior Tarzan.  Even in his early films Weissmuller always looked a little doughy to me.

Brix’s Tarzan was also extremely faithful to the character from Burroughs’ novels: the cultured, educated, literate Lord Greystroke who spoke several languages, yet was unmistakably a man of action.  This was the last time Tarzan would be depicted so until 1959′s Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure.

Once the troubled production was completed (and that story is practically a book in itself), movie theatres were offered two different was to exhibit the serial: as a stand-alone feature 70 minutes in length, entitled Tarzan and the Lost Tribe; or a feature-length (65 minutes) first episode, followed by the remaining 11 chapters.

Reviews of the film were generally poor in the US, and The New Adventures of Tarzan was the last Tarzan serial ever produced.  However, like most Tarzan films of the time, it was a great success overseas.  So much so, in fact, that in 1938 the last ten chapters of the serial were edited together to become the feature Tarzan and the Green Goddess.

Brix felt he was typecast after the serial was released, so he soon changed his name to Bruce Bennett.  That’s how he’s billed in the numerous films and television episodes he appeared throughout the 1940s and 50s.

Some trivia regarding The New Adventures of Tarzan:

- The film was set, and largely filmed, in Guatemala.

- Producer Ashton Dearholt, who was married, met his leading lady, Ula Holt, on a previous trip to Guatemala.  Dearholt was so smitten that he took Holt home to live with him.  That promptly led Dearholt’s wife, Florence Gilbert, to leave with their two children and divorce him.

- Dearholt also played Raglan, the villain of the story.  He claimed he had to step in to play the role when the actor hired for the part, Don Costello, got sick. This earns him the “George Santos Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire Award,” as there was no Don Costello.  It was just a story Dearholt made up because he always planned to act in the film.

- Edgar Rice Burroughs fell in love with Dearholt’s ex, Florence Gilbert, when he first met her in 1929.  During filming of the serial in 1935 Burroughs divorced his wife and married Gilbert, despite (or perhaps because) her being 30 years younger than him.

- Tarzan’s chimpanzee companion in the film was named Nkima, not Cheeta as in the MGM films.  Jiggs the chimp played both roles, and he was paid $2,000 for his work in the serial.

- Herman Brix was hired at the salary of $75 a week but, other than his travel and accommodations in Guatemala, never got paid for his work.

- There are stories that Brix was personally chosen by Burroughs to play Tarzan.  Brix himself stated that he only met Burroughs briefly after filming had wrapped.  The only actor Burroughs actually picked for the role was Jim Pierce, for 1927′s Tarzan and the Golden Lion.

#The New Adventures of Tarzan #Tarzan #Herman Brix #Tarzan and the Green Goddess #Tarzan and the Lost Tribe #movie serials #Edgar Rice Burroughs

[lightlycareless]

happy belated halloween!! for another fluffy ask to fill the void- what would naoya, naoaki, and y/n would have dressed up as for halloween as kids?? (pretending as if the zenins wouldn't have been awful spoil-sports and actually LET either of them celebrate,,)

Hello!!!! And happy Halloween to you too!!!

First of all, thank you so much for your patience! This one-shot certainly took more than what I expected to finish it, but in my defense, allot of things happened hahahaha Also, I received it just when I was going through a very hard personal time, so reading your fluff request arrived just in the right time. Thank you 🥺❤

But now that I'm on a small holiday from work, I'll be able to do a lil bit more of writing :> Starting with this request that I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED writing. Let's say that I filled some very needed fluffy needs that the main fic deprived me of 😳

Now, without further ado, here are the warnings of this chapter:

Overprotective!Eiichi (a.k.a Y/N's dad) Delusional!Naoya, Oblivious!Naoaki, and Protective!Ren and Hinata lol. Minako and Tomoko want a normal day out. Y/N is just living her life, happy as it always should. Also, I took this oneshot as the perfect excuse to develop a bit more of Eiichi (although it's more about him lol), Minako (Y/N's mom) and... well, have what we probably wont have on the angsty shitshow I created on the other story haha.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!! Super long oneshot under the cut.

When Minako, your mother, told Eiichi, your father, that she intended to celebrate Halloween with Tomoko and her family, he… was hesitant to agree.

No, scratch that. He wasn’t hesitant, he was in absolute defiance. 

And it’s not because of personal animosity towards Tomoko—far from that. He’d actually met the woman on a previous occasion and they got along quite well. She was generous and funny, the kind of person that made you feel welcomed, seen. 

And all of this is without taking into account Minako's undying admiration for her: Because when it came to incorporating new people into their social circle—or, more specifically, his family—his spouse's opinion was highly regarded.

Both knew that if Tomoko came along, their kids would be in good hands.

In other words, he did not hold any negative remarks about her.

It was her husband that he disliked very much.

Eiichi had no idea how a much older man like Naobito could have gotten together with a much younger woman like Tomoko, much less marry her and subsequently have six children together!

«Oh, that poor woman» he muses, reminiscing back on the many times where Eiichi would find himself silently conmenming Naobito’s actions. 

Starting from Minako dropping everything on the spot and rushing to her friend's side as soon as she learned that her pregnancy was one of high risk—the one that introduced Naofumi into the world. Tomoko’s world was slowly turning into one of chaos and concern, and Naobito was seemingly nowhere to be found, limiting himself to subsidizing her with any medical attention she and their son would need, as if emotional support didn’t matter.

Or when he did the exact opposite when their youngest child was born. From the stoic, distant father he was with their previous 5 children, he was now all over her when it came to their 6th. All because he was to be the heir. And although that was an agreement that was struck many years later… Eiichi suspected Naobito already had a hunch.

Nonetheless, your father knew very well that prying in their business would do more harm than good, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t harbor a certain degree of distaste towards Tomoko’s husband, the consistent reason of why he’s always so averse towards Minako and their children visiting the Zen’in estate—why did they even need to maintain amicable relationships with their competitors?! Aren’t the Gojo’s and the Kamo’s sufficient enough??— or subsequently inviting him to these gatherings.

To make matters worse, Naobito wasn’t just careless towards his wife, he was also inconsiderate of his children’s fun. Once he starts feeling bored, he’d hurry them to leave every few seconds until one of them budges, like the aggravating buzz of a mosquito he just couldn’t wait to get rid of.

Well, there’s no use to dwell on things he can’t change, more so when Tomoko insisted that Naobito was a rather good husband and father when no one was around to see, he was just too busy as the head of one of the biggest companies in Japan, and too shy to demonstrate otherwise on the public (he has an image to uphold, after all, one that suits well with old money)

«Shy» Eiichi scoffed at the label Tomoko would use one day. An adjective that he never thought could be used to describe Naobito, an obnoxious, crude man.

But if she’s content with their relationship… they’ll support it.

However, once he was informed that only Tomoko and her children would be the ones assisting, none of these things continued to matter.

An announcement that cleanses him with relief as he could finally focus on what really matters. On the actual significance of this occasion!

And what made it so special, you ask?

Well… it's nothing short of his baby's first Halloween spent trick-or-treating!!

Oh, it was a moment both he and his wife had looked forward to for a long time now! 

… To much of their unexpected surprise.

Halloween is generally regarded as an appropriate activity for children thanks to all the activities that take place: such as dressing up, going out to get candy, and even pumpkin carving! It goes without saying that a fun night was certainly guaranteed if any of these were involved.

So, one could only imagine the shock your parents were received with when you, who had just become old enough to participate in such a celebration, stood heavily against it.

But that didn’t deter them. In fact, they tried to convince you by going into heavy detail of the previously listed activities, sweetening the deal by how fun it would be if you’d participated with your siblings and friends!

… To no avail.

Thus, a different approach was to be taken.

Eiichi, knowing your sweet tooth, attempted to bribe you with candies that were exclusive to the season, flavors that would not appear again, that is, until next year. 

And it seemed to work judging by the way your chubby hands snatched the offering out of his grasp as soon as you locked eyes on it. 

You’d then hum along to his words, giving them the impression you were actually considering their invitation…

Only to go behind their backs and grant them a dose of reality by rejecting them once you ate all of the candies.

Minako, startled by your enigmatic answer, began to search for the reason behind your rejection. Was it because you’ve unwittingly stumbled onto the scary side of Halloween?

If that were the case, then she couldn’t blame you.

There were certain participants that leaned into the dark aspect of this time. Defined from gruesome to frightening, classifications that were solely made with the intention of provoking unsettlement, something hardly appropriate or desirable for children your age.

And that didn’t limit to imagery, of course… There were also people who breathed life into these depictions through costumes, transforming themselves into a walking nightmare.

If somehow these turned out to be the factors that pushed you away from enjoying Halloween, then Minako feared no reasoning could help you see differently. Not when you’ve rejected them so many times already.

That was not the case, however— At least not entirely.

Turns out that the biggest reason behind your lack of participation was because of large crowds.

Up until now, the only instances you've ever seen of Halloween being celebrated was via the unruly, overcrowded parties that took place in the sleepless streets of Ikebukuro through broadcasted segments you’ve stumbled upon when watching T.V. alongside your older brother, Ren. 

And you, prone to growing anxious before large groups of strangers, needed no other justification to stay as far away from it as possible. You’ve seen enough of it, in full color and in high quality (as good as it can be with a television dating from ‘97) to not believe in your parents' contrasting words.

So that’s the whole truth of what you believed Halloween to be in the early years of your life: heavily crowded parties with ugly costumes.

But now that the problem was out in broad daylight, your parents could decisively assess an efficient solution. Thus, they came up with a secure and tranquil version of a halloween festivity: Trick-or-treating in a nearby familiar village, owned by none other than your clan.

For the influential leaders of the L/N clan, creating a safe space with the support of the inhabitants of said village (after providing the enough financing to do so) was an easy task, as well as the bare minimum when it came to their children's comfort and happiness. Nothing was out of their reach if it pertained to Ren, Hinata, and you.

Besides, Minako wanted to indulge in something private for once, especially after she began to feel the mental fatigue of having to roam through large crowds. So she wasn’t very disappointed when this change of plans occurred.

This could also be beneficial for the village’s kids, to motivate a sense of closeness inside the community as well as provide distraction from mundane everyday tasks to remember what life is all about. 

And while at it, this also worked as a good excuse to see Tomoko again. They've been wanting to catch up for the longest time, and now that their schedules finally match… it's the perfect opportunity! 

So, after arranging a meeting with the representative of the village, Minako and Eiichi managed to form an agreement with the inhabitants to organize a small version of a festival with all expenses accounted for, in exchange of borrowing their facilities to create an area where everyone is invited to have fun.

Fast forward to Halloween night, children and parents alike partake in a hurried frenzy to oversee the last details of their perfect trick-or-treating outing before departure.

“I still wish Y/N would’ve dressed up as something scary… like Sadako from the ring!” Eiichi laments, for he’d always been an avid fan of horror and there’s nothing he would’ve liked more than to share this with his family.

He genuinely believes it would’ve been hilarious to see his adorable young daughter dressed up as a popular horror icon, more so if he taught you how to deliver a convincing portrayal of the well-dwelling ghost in hopes of scaring at least an unsuspecting passerby.

“That’s too scary for a kid her age, dear” Minako’s soft voice interrupts his thoughts and grounds him back to reality by reminding him as to why that was a bad idea. “Besides, this is her first time dressing up. It’s only fair that she chooses what she wants to wear"

Maybe once you’re a few years older, she would support his suggestion. 

After all, she held the same opinion when it came to dressing you, the youngest of their kids, as something that frightened many, and continued to do so years after the novel and movie were released. 

It would certainly be amusing to see how an adorable girl like you could pull off something as scary as Sadako. But just as they discussed before, you were too young to be consuming any horror material, and adding that this night was your first time going out for candy (after much insisting, that is) they had to be careful to not do anything that might push you to reject them again. 

So, doing what any good parent would do, they kept off limits any media that was unsuitable for your age whilst supporting your decision when it came to your costume.

However, being married for over a decade, and known each other for far longer, Eiichi had grown to distinguish each of your mother's tones, mannerisms, and even subtle facial expressions to understand that sometimes what she says, doesn’t actually reflect what she intends.

And that’s exactly what’s happening: Minako hid an underlying aim behind her words, and once he was sure of this, a grin parted his lips before proceeding to retaliate with this newfound fulfillment.

“But that's not what you really think, do you?"

Minako shoots him a quick glance, an expression so stern that makes Eiichi feel he might’ve misjudged her circumstances, to which he’s more than ready to apologize for… that is, until his wife sighs dramatically, the facade falling off her face and revealing the true nature of her emotions.

“Oh, of course not!” She cries, placing her hands over Eiichi’s shoulders and rattling him gently to emphasize her frustration “We finally got the 3 of them to go out on Halloween! It was the perfect time to dress them up in matching costumes!!"

To say that your mother had been dreaming of this moment since she started a family with your father, would be an understatement. 

She always loved the idea of forming a family of her own, having kids, raising them, watching them grow and become successful on their own… overall, she yearned for a domestic life.

There was one thing that she looked forward to particularly the most, however, and that was partaking in celebrations together, such as Halloween.

It wouldn’t be the first time she'd seen either of her children in costumes, of course. She’d dressed Ren, Hinata, and you before on each 31’st of October for as long as she can remember.

But this was the first time her 3 kids would be actively going out together, so it was only natural that she wanted to show them off! Thus, she prepared herself accordingly for their costumes, taking inspiration from none other than one of her favorite artists.

For your older brother Ren, she'd gotten a custom made black tuxedo with a white undershirt, black bowtie, black dress shoes, and of course, the iconic baggy crystal socks that would pull the whole look together— although your mother knew that Ren's charming smile would be the one to do the job.

Moving onto Hinata, Minako would go a bit bold and get the head-to-toe leather outfit, decorated with a wide array of belts and buckles that would jingle whenever she moved, all while making sure it remained both stylish and comfortable enough for her courageous daughter to keep on adventuring— but even if the seamstress didn't manage to mix these two factors, Minako knew that this wouldn’t stop Hinata from doing what she wanted.

And finally, you. Your mother had gone for another two piece suit, but contrary to Ren's, yours was to be white. You'd also wear a black shirt for contrast, but matching a black belt. A golden handkerchief tucked in the coat's pocket to accessorize, and lastly, but not least, a plushie tiger that would serve as the figurative cherry on top to complete the reference she intended to portray.

Everything was perfectly set in her mind. With clothes and styling ready to go, all that she needed to do was organize a photography session to immortalize this precious moment, which she was already a few steps ahead due to ongoing talks with a photographer she’d found through a friend’s recommendation.

But even with all this preparation, it was never meant to be, for her children had other plans. And always the supportive parent, she decided to put her wishes to the side and make the three happy. 

"I can always do so another day" she reassures to herself "And we could also do something just for the 5 of us. On a day you don’t have to work"

"Ah, don't even remind me." Eiichi groans, forehead furrowed as he reflects on his unlucky night that’s yet to start. 

He’d already set in stone that he was going to accompany his family for trick-or-treating, more than ready to put everything on the line to be there, but an unexpected emergency at work would put a screeching halt to his plans. 

Your father tried getting out of this predicament by appointing someone else to take care of this problem, but since the corporate world doesn’t really care about western celebrations, as well as him being the main head of the company, he had to set an example and oversee the issue personally.

Sometimes, he just can’t help but feel that life is playing a twisted game with him—but all things considered, that’s only your father being dramatic as usual.

"You don't know how awful it feels to be away from my family on this important night” he deplored, looking down to the ground.

"I can imagine… but don't fret, dear. I’ve already prepared myself with the best available camera to take pictures!” Miano exults, eyes sparkling with unparalleled enthusiasm. “Leave it all to me!...”

She then takes his hand, giving him a coy smile.

“And who knows, maybe I’ll give you a consolation prize”

Eiichi blushes. Even after all these years together, she still manages to fluster him.

“I—I’d like that” he sheepishly admits, and Minako can’t hold herself from pecking his lips, a gesture that she would’ve prolonged had they not started to run late by now. 

“But for now we have to check if the kids are ready! I told Tomoko-san that we would be meeting up at the village and I don’t want to make her wait!” Minako points out.

“Ah, yes, of course” Eiichi nods as he lifts his wrist to look over to his watch, relief washing over him upon realizing they’re still over an hour and a half away before their meeting time. But if he considered ETA to the village, which was around 20 minutes, and if the kids weren’t ready… “Looks like we still have time, but we gotta hurry the kids if we wanna be there before her at least”

“Let’s go then”

Minako and Eiichi rush through the familiar path leading to the living quarters as they greet the many servants that saluted them back, without relenting their speed.

After a few minutes, the couple finds themselves only a few yards away from the area where they know their children are getting ready. They slow down to regain their breath, and Eiichi takes this moment to voice one of his many, many concerns for tonight.

"I'm glad Naobito isn’t coming" Eiichi begins “Can’t imagine the way he’d ruin this night for us”

“I know, I know” Minako attempts to soothe his unjustified anxiety, for he already knew it would only be Tomoko and her boys. 

However, just as he’s capable of uncovering her hidden intentions through her words, she’s competent enough to do the same. And by the way he decided to bring up this topic seemingly out of nowhere while unwittingly tensing his shoulders, she knows he’s been holding back something possibly out of fear, and it’s in her duties to ease him by reminding him that he can trust her, and everything will be fine.

“Just think about the kids and their fun. Besides, you know Tomoko-san would never put our children in harm's way”

“...I know. I'd trust her with my life, but you know Tomoko has never been my concern… I… I just don’t like the fact that a bunch of boys are going to be around my baby girls! And when I'm not there!!”

And there it is. The other reason as to why he'd been so on edge about this whole ordeal once it was revealed the Zen'in kids would attend. 

Sure, he disliked Naobito and worried non-stop when the prospect of his presence was up to debate, but now that that matter was settled, his mind couldn't wait to jump onto another topic to torture himself with—it was just his nature.

Or was it always the main factor behind his initial reluctance…?

Eiichi never held back when it came to voicing just how overprotective he was when it came to his children, a sentiment that he'd carried ever since Minako revealed to be pregnant for the first time.

A feeling that grew when Ren was born.

Worsening when Satoru began to lurk around the estate whenever he apparently didn’t have anything better to do—unwanted attempts from the elders to cultivate better relationships with other influential clans.

Reaching an all time high when you, the youngest of the family and the last one to leave the nest, started going to school.

Growing in a society where men were not expected to contribute in the domestic part of marriage, Minako was glad that Eiichi was very involved and protective of his family, even going as far as to perceive it as cute. 

But having gone through this ordeal many times without anything major happening, she’s starting to believe that perhaps his concerns are leaning more into the irrational side of things.

Eitherway, your mother assumes she can’t be too harsh on him, considering that the Zen’in kids were boys in their totality, a fact that led Eiichi to hyperfocus on you and your sister. 

Had they been girls, Ren would be the recipient of his attention—same story, different protagonists.

“I only agreed to this because you wanted and… well, Ren is also going and I trust him to keep them away from our daughters!” he goes on.

“They’re not going to do anything, Eiichi" Minako reiterates, feeling guilty that her husband was unfairly dumping a non-corresponding responsibility on his oldest son on a night that was supposed to be fun. One that he should take to relax as well! "They’re going to be fine, besides, they’re too young to be thinking about girls or boys! Look at our babies, the only thing they’re looking forward to is getting candy!”

Finding no point to debate, Eiichi concedes with a soft “I guess so…” 

Because if there was one thing that always helped him calm down when stress was eating him alive, was his wife’s candid nature.

Minako was never one to lie… At least of important matters, because he's caught her one too many times engaging in late night snacking when she was supposed to be sleeping, or binging through the tapes of recorded episodes from the shows they were supposed to watch together, but that's a topic for another time.

So, without anything else to bring to the table, the conversation arrives at a swift end. And just as they arrived at the room their children were in, quickly identified as Hinata’s room thanks to the sunflower stickers placed around the frame

Eiichi steps forward and steadily grasps the shoji door open, revealing the following sight:

Just by the vanity table on the far right of the room, a readied Hinata was looming over you with the intention of helping you into your clothes, asking you to place your hands on her shoulders as she extended the bottom part of your attire for you to slide your feet in. 

You tried to fight her off, reminding her that you were more than capable of dressing up yourself, but Hinata heard no reasoning, not when she wanted you to look as perfect as possible. Demonstrating just how excited she was for going out with you on halloween for the first time ever.

Across from the girls, on the other side of the room, sat Ren by the edge of the futon, already in costume, patiently waiting for his sisters to finish.

He actually tried to help you too, but Hinata, being the type of person who liked to do everything herself, ended up pushing him aside.

Not wanting to waste his energy on something he knows he won’t be able to change, Ren decides to let this go and instead focus on distracting himself by playing with the edges of his sleeves until it was time for their parents to pick them up—all while keeping an attentive eye on his sisters if anything rises to the occasion.

Too engrossed in their respective activities, neither of the kids failed to acknowledge the presence of their parents, who were already inside the room. That is, until Minako closes the door a bit too loud which causes them to snap their heads in their direction.

“Mom! Dad!” With a toothy grin adorning her lips, Hinata is the first one to greet “We’re almost done!! I just need to get Y/N-chan ready, get my hat, and we’re ready!”

“And a jacket" Minako says upon noticing her daughter to be wearing a basic light blue colored dress t-shirt underneath a navy blue vest; to make matters more surprising, the shirt is not even the one she got custom made for her, the one with long sleeves and thermal fabric to provide warmth during a cold autumn evening. 

Where did Hinata even get this?

«I'm 100% sure it was Sumire's mom» Minako rightfully assumes. «And I can already see how it happened. Hina-chan probably used her puppy eyes to get her this shirt instead… I really have to tell them to stop pampering my kids!»

"But mom… nobody is going to get what I'm dressed as if I’m wearing the other one" Hinata whines, but Minako is stronger than Sumire's mother when it comes to resisting her adorable pouts and thus, does not relent.

"No. You're going to get sick, besides, the jacket is also in the official uniform so I assure you everyone is going to know what you’re dressed as" 

“Justice will keep me warm!” Hinata retaliates, and Minako just laughs.

“Alright, officer” Eiichi chuckles, going ahead to retrieve the jacket hanging from the nearby closet and handing it over to her  “You still have to wear it”

“...Fine” Hinata sighs, taking the jacket from her dad’s hands and wearing it once and for all. Once ready, your sister immediately springs back to aiding you, but before she’s able to grasp the slider from your zipper, your father steps in.

“I’ll take it from here, Hinata. Go help mom get the rest of the things instead” he gestures over to Minako and Hinata nods.

“...Ok dad!” Ren concludes that the only people capable of swaying Hinata away from her determination are their parents, wondering if that’s a skill that could be harbored one day as he’s being pulled towards their mom by her younger sister.

Once by their side, Minako places her hands behind their backs and gently guides them out of the room, giving one last glance back to her husband before stepping out.

“See you at the entrance, dear” She says, and with that, she closes the door.

No longer hearing their distant footsteps, Eiichi glimpses back at you to immediately notice something… peculiar.

“Why are you making that face?” he asks, proceeding to kneel down to your eye-level. At this height, he’s able to take a better look at your curious face and he can’t stop a chuckle from bubbling past his lips: brows pressed together, eyes shut tight and lips pressed into a thin line, all whilst standing perfectly still, you were the epitome of concentration that undeniably contrived from Hinata’s influence.

“Hina-chan told me to not move or I would ruin my costume” You disclose “Don’t talk to me papa, I don’t want to mess my costume!”

“That’s not really necessary” He corrects, moving a strand of hair away from your forehead and threading it behind your right ear “Breathe, Y/N. You’re turning blue”

And as if by command, you deflate before him with a deep exhale, a reaction that earns you a warm smile and a pat on the head from him.

Now that you’re comfortable, he goes ahead and performs the last adjustment on your costume by pulling your zipper all the way to the top.

“There, it’s done” Eiichi informs, standing up in hopes of getting a better look at you and catch any details he might’ve missed. “How do you feel? Comfortable? Cold? Itchy? Or do you maybe want to wear something else? Mama has another—”

“No!” Your cry, shaking your head and putting an abrupt halt to his redundant barrage of questions. Because just as your parents and siblings were excited to have this night out with you, you too wanted it to be as perfect as possible, under your own terms!  “I want to wear this one!” 

“Alright, alright” he concedes, raising his hands as a sign of surrender “I just want to make sure you’re not cold on your first night trick-or-treating”

“I’m not cold” You confess, in fact, you don’t even think it possible considering you were wearing the two long-sleeved shirts mom had given you to wear underneath your onesie, as if the latter wasn’t made of polar fleece already.

A preemptive strategy Minako was astute to take, for she was all too familiar with your tendency of running cold throughout the night. And she couldn’t call herself a good mother if she let you go out underdressed, could she?

But how about overdressing? 

Eiichi didn’t need to pry further beyond your red cheeks to understand he’d asked the wrong question.

“Are you running hot?”

You press your lips together once more and hum, permission enough for him to ease from you cotton constraints.

“Is that better?”

“Yes” you nod, and now that you’re free of the shackles of warmth, you’re finally able to focus on what’s keeping you filled with emotion “I want candy!! Candy! Candy! Candy!”

“Someone’s excited to go trick-or-treating” He smiled, holding you carefully before lifting you up to his chest “If there’s nothing more I need to do, let’s go meet mama and your siblings”

“Trick-or-teething!” you cheered again, wiggling your arms in the air.

“Treating” He corrected.

“Teething”

“Treating”

“Teething”

You frown out of confusion, failing to understand why your father was correcting you for saying the world correctly—or so you perceived.

He’d continue to insist a few more times, stopping only at the sight of his wife and children by the car. 

It’s only then that he realized this was a fruitless endeavor, for even after all his attempts, you’d continue to pronounce treating as you could.

However, he didn’t let this fact place much weight in his mind, for he knew that this was an issue that would resolve itself with time. Nothing more than a pet peeve of the moment that he wouldn’t allow to distract him from his beloved family any longer.

So once everything is accounted for and the group is safely secured inside the car, Eiichi turns on the engine and drives onto their next destination.

“We’re here!” Minako sang once the bright lights of the village became clear on the horizon. It’s a tune that efficiently snaps the children’s attention to her, prompting the same energy she presented once their eyes fell on the same view.

“Are you excited Y/N-chan?!” Hinata turns over to you, securely seated between your siblings. Any big family would understand the unspoken agreement of the youngest sitting in the middle, and while it never usually lingered in your attention, there were times you’d want to switch sides with your siblings just so you could see what’s outside—like today.

“Yes!!” You say, wiggling your short legs in the air as you stretch your neck to see past Hinata and outside the window, only to be disappointed when all that received you was the astounding darkness of the countryside. “Mama, how much longer until we get there?”

“Just a few minutes” Eiichi answers instead, occasionally glancing into the rearview mirror to awe at the excitement of his children, only to frown upon sensing  a growing commotion behind him thanks to the thumping on the back of his seat, courtesy of a cheeky Ren.  “Hold on to your seats until we park, kids. Or I won’t let you get off the car”

The warning he issues is enough to calm them down into the manageable level of stifled giggles and hushed whispers. He wanted them to be enthusiastic, of course, but not at the expense of his driving.

And just as he forecasted, it wouldn’t take long before the paved road transformed into one of dirt, noticeable by the change in sound coming from the tires, signaling their arrival to the village.

Eiichi drove deeper and deeper into the village, wanting to get them as close as possible to the meeting point, a small grocery store located on the main street, just between a pharmacy and a coffee shop. 

Eventually finding a parking spot, your father parks and turns off the engine.

The noise of the motor quieting down is the only cue the children needed to unfasten their seatbelts, with Hinata helping you to unbuckle yours and subsequently getting out of the car, before sprinting towards the trunk. All this with such an impressionable speed that didn’t even allow their parents to formally announce their arrival.

“Daaaaad, open the trunk!!” Hinata says while perilously pressing the button placed on the trunk’s handle, further denoting her desperation, much to Eiichi’s agony “daaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!”

“Hold on, sunflower. You know papa doesn’t like it when you do that to his car” Minako reminds as she walks towards them, to which Hinata immediately retracts her hand, shame on her face as she pouts a muted “I’m sorry”

“Just be careful” Eiichi echoed as he unlocked the trunk and pulled the hatch open “I know how excited you are to go out with your sister and brother, but just remember to be a bit more… calm, when Tomoko-san is here with her kids, alright?”

He knows it’s a running joke between him and his wife to announce how much he dislikes Naobito and what not… but he’s still competent enough to understand that his children are a separate identity from him. They were also Tomoko's children, and he wouldn’t like it if his children added more to her already full plate by being rude.

That doesn’t mean he’s not going to encourage her to raise hell if any of them decides to do something funny towards them, he’s just asking her to be a bit more… considerate when they’re around.

“Ok…?” Hinata and Ren confusedly look at each other, finding his warning to be a bit unnecessary… for they had no issues with Tomoko, whom they’d grown to admire due to her amazing storytelling, cooking, and kindness, so they wouldn’t even dream of insulting her!!

Her children, however, they’re something else. In fact, there’s one kid in particular your siblings are desperately hoping he wouldn’t be able to attend… but that’s an answer that will only reveal itself once they’re here.

For now, they’ll focus on getting their baskets out of the trunk.

“Thank you, Ren-nii” You smile as you take the basket from his grasp. Being too short to reach into the compartment, less when most of the items were located on the far side of the same, left you in an unwanted predicament of needing help. Thankfully, your older brother being the taller of the 3, was able to jump into your aid, just like he always did when things were out of reach for either.

“You’re welcome, sis” he says, giving you a smile of his own, making your grin grow even wider.

“Where did you tell Tomoko to meet up again?” Eiichi asks as he looks at their surroundings, realizing there’s nobody there yet. A fear of having mistaken her directions begins to creep in the back of his mind.

“Just outside this store” Minako gestures to the convenience store as she takes out her phone. She didn't want to voice it out loud, but seeing her husband’s worried reaction has caused her to feel the same, forcing herself to alleviate this uncertainty by reviewing their past messages, or checking if she’d received any new ones.

Her shoulders relax upon realizing there are no new unread messages on her notification center that might imply they’re in the wrong location, however, the clock did inform that Tomoko was running late, and these two factors often led the sender to imagine the worst possible scenarios.

“I’ll just text her we’re here then” Minako informs, unlocking her cell phone and typing a quick, straightforward we're here, before sending it.  “Done. Let’s wait over here in the meanwhile”

“Alright” Eiichi gathers the children and leads them away from the store’s entrance, so as to avoid blocking the path of oncoming traffic, which really didn’t complain much about, too focused on greeted the people they quickly recognized as the leaders of the L/N clan, as well as complimenting their children’s costumes.

“I wonder what kind of candy we’re getting this year” Hinata ponders, looking back to last year's successful harvest, which she’d naturally shared with you. “I wouldn’t mind getting more lemon gum so I can give them to Satoru and see his ugly face twist” she darkly chuckles.

“That’s weird, Hinata” Ren twists his mouth in disapproval, why did Hinata have to be so weird with Satoru? “Anyways, what about you, sis? What kind of candy do you want to get on your first Halloween out?”

And so, you begin to think: first remembering the pumpkin lollipop your father gave you, before moving onto your mother’s pumpkin and chocolate candy, back when they were trying to bribe you into going out tonight.

But as much as the seasonal flavors were delectable to your tongue and wouldn’t mind getting more… none stood a chance against your all time favorite.

“I want mo—”

“Oh, look who it is!” Minako’s shrills as a familiar black car passes before them, the noise pausing your and your siblings' conversation in favor of seeking their mother “It’s Tomoko-san, she’s finally here!”

“Wait a…” Eiichi whispers upon catching two peculiar observations: first, the size of the car which he considers to be unsuitable for a family of 8. Second, the person sitting on the driver’s seat, a foreign face that would later have him boiling with anger once recognized.  «Seriously? Naobito couldn’t even bother dropping them off himself?»

His worries would eventually switch recipients when the luxurious car comes to a full stop just a few feet away from them, with the door swinging open to reveal the first attendant of the night, the eldest of her children— 14 year old Naoaki.

“Naoaki-kun! Over here!” your mother sang as she waved at the teenager, who grinned in turn before turning back and helping his mom and his youngest brother, a 7 year old Naoya, out of the car. 

The small boy wasn’t too keen on this action though, evident by the way he sulked past his brother’s offering hand and darted straight to his mother’s side.

“Come on, let’s receive them!” Minako urges towards her family.

“Uh, honey… are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Eiichi says, taking the lead and guiding the children right behind her.

“Eiichi, don’t start now”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I hope I didn’t make you wait that long…” Tomoko breathes as she rushes towards your group while pulling the hand of her youngest. “I had to make a few stops, but we’re finally here!”

“It’s nice to see you again, Tomoko-san. But… aren’t you missing half of your entourage?” Eiichi acknowledges the elephant in the room, glancing over to her two out six children, and while it’s nothing more than an innocent, genuine question from his part, it’s his wording that has Minako swiftly elbowing him as a form of reprimanding. “Ow!”

“Oh, that’s fine” Tomoko chuckles, dismissing her friend’s worry by following up Eiichi’s statement “I wasn’t counting on you two to not notice I’m missing 4 boys for tonight”

“You were thinking it too, Minako” Eiichi jests back, and she rolls her eyes while smirking.

“Yeah, but I would’ve said it differently” Minako says  “Anyways, is everything ok?”

“I wish” Tomoko sighs “Naofumi wasn’t feeling that well for the past few days, so it’s only right that I didn’t bring him along. As for the rest… well, you know how siblings are, if one of them says no, it’s more than likely that the others will mirror them”

“Tell me about it” Your mother agrees with a chuckle “But that’s awful, what does he have? Is he ok?”

“Do you need medicine? We can help you with that” Eiichi offers. Your parents could only imagine what poor Naofumi is going through, always the feeble one… it’s terrible that of  nights, he had to get sick on this one.

“Oh, thank you, but it’s fine. Naobito already covered everything. Still, I wish I could’ve stayed behind to take care of him… but I don’t think it would be fair for those that wanted to come” Tomoko responds, nudging towards the small boy beside her, whom she smiles warmly at once he glances up at her “Junko-san insisted on helping me out, to which I rejected profusely since she’s pregnant and I didn’t want her to get any more stress than necessary… but that’s stubborn Junko-san to you…”

“How could I forget that!” Your mother gasps, clasping her hands together “That’s wonderful! And after all that she had to struggle… She deserves this happiness. Tomoko-san, you need to tell me everything!”

“Umm…as much as I would’ve liked the two of you to keep talking… I think there’s some small matters to tend to” He says, referring to the pairs of eyes that were tensely looking at them, as if telling them to hurry up so they can get candy.

He hated playing devil’s advocate and having to rush the two good friends who were only catching up after not seeing each other for a while, but if they wanted to participate in all the activities planned for that evening, they would have to adhere to the schedule.

Besides, he too had to leave in a matter of moments if he was to get to work on time as well.

“I also have to leave in a bit” Eiichi eventually reveals, much to Tomoko’s surprise.

“What? You’re not staying?” She gasps, a noise that pushes the already settled seeds of guilt deeper into his chest.

A statement he was genuinely afraid to communicate, for it meant finally informing his children that he would be absent. Eiichi wanted to keep this fact a secret for as long as he could, in hopes of avoiding a sourful reaction from appearing on his kid’s faces, but that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

However, he didn’t count on the shattering of his heart, that is, until he heard your soft voice speaking up in the representation of your and your sibling's thoughts.

It’s time to face the lights.

“You’re not staying… papa?”

“No, little one, I gotta go to work” he says crouching down to your level “Something came up and I gotta go fix it”

“…Can’t someone else go?” you debate. “I don’t want you to leave”

“No, it’s something that I have to do personally” He apologizes, but his words do nothing to alleviate the overwhelming feeling both are feeling for his departure. And upon noticing this, Minako steps in.

“Papa is very important in his job, so there are things that only he can do” Your mother explained. “That’s why he has to be there”

You give her words a few seconds of thought, doing your best to process what it meant to be the only person who would do a certain job; or your father’s importance at his company. But it still didn’t make sense to you. Couldn’t someone else’s dad go instead of yours?

“…I guess” you eventually relent, feeling the hopelessness of nothing changing even if you tried. You would come to understand this situation with time, but it wouldn’t make it any less upsetting. “But don’t take too long! Or you won’t get candy!” 

“I certainly won’t give you candy” Hinata says as she crosses her arms. She’s acting indifferently, but Eiichi knows that deep inside, it’s only a facade to hide how hurt she truly felt.

“I’ll think about it” Ren shrugs, and just like his daughter, it’s an act to hide the fact that they’re going to miss him.

“Well, how about you save some for me, hmm?” He asks, gently tapping your nose with his index finger, a gesture that has you scrunching your face, but immediately folding to his request.

“Ok, but I’ll only give you the ones I don’t like” You compromise, extending your little finger “Pinky promise!!”

“Fair trade” he agrees, intertwining his finger with yours, an adequate exchange for having to miss out on spending time with his kids, or so he assumes. “But promise me something, that you’ll have fun even if I’m not here—and that you’ll let your mother take pictures!” Eiichi says, now referring to all of his children.

You, Hinata and Ren nod in agreement. Eiichi was about to stand up to get ready for his departure, but your tackle of a hug stops him from doing so. A sight that causes Tomoko and Minako to awe in adoration.

Eiichi melts into your hug as long as he can before having to regretfully pull himself away from your short arms and onto the rest of his kids, who were seemingly hesitant to accept his hugs, but didn’t move away until he did.

He’d then approach his wife to give her a kiss on the lips and a hug as well. A gesture to show his overwhelming love for her, of course… but accompanied by ulterior motives.

“Pleasepleaseplease take lots of pictures, until you run out of film if necessary!—but don’t take any of the boys! I don’t want them in the family album with our babies” He whispers against her ear, low enough to avoid Tomoko’s ears, but clear enough for Minako to roll her eyes in incredulity—Eiichi being dramatic, yet again “Please”

“Eiichi, relax. Just go do your work and let me worry about the photos” she kisses again, placing her hand over his cheek and caress him in reassurement “Good luck, dear”

“Goodbye Tomoko-san. Please be sure to let Minako know if you need anything” Eiichi offers, before looking to her kids “...Naoya, Naoaki”

“Goodbye, L/N-san” Naoaki responds with a nod “And please don’t stress. I’ll be here to help okaa-san and Minako-san with the kids” 

Eiichi blinks.

He knows it’s not right to have opinions of… kids in general. They’re just children after all, they have yet to grow and mature into capable adults… but he just can’t help it! More so when he’s taken aback by Naoaki’s seemingly reassuring words… 

Which unsurprisingly leads him to misinterpret his intentions to be nothing more than a mockery of his unwanted predicament. And could anyone blame him? He went into this situation already holding preconceived notions about their intentions.

Eiichi was secretly glad that only two of them were able to assist, for it meant that his adorable daughters were out of danger from any unwanted prospects (delusions of a worrisome father), one less burden to carry… at least partially.

Oh, but Naoaki was on another level of concern, far from the realm of his daughters, and onto one of the horrors fellow parents have warned him about: his teens!

Naoaki… well, from a distance, he’s a kid that Eiichi has been able to observe as somewhat calm, even helpful when it comes to supporting his mother… but then, he remembers the quarrels he often has with his brothers, and this overruled whatever was previously stated.

More so because his oldest son is already 10 years old! Meaning that he could start looking up to Naoaki for inspiration!! And if that happened… Oh no… he wouldn’t like for Ren to start having issues with his sisters! Not when they got along so well with one another!! It would literally break his heart to see his family breaking apart…

With that in mind, could anyone blame him for not liking Naoaki either? (Does Eiichi like any of the Zen’in kids?)

Oh, but at this moment in time, all that he can do is hope that his dear Ren is strong enough to look away from the enticing defiance that comes with their teens… and stay on the path of righteousness he and his wife have set before him.

And with nothing else to worry about, and no pending farewells to carry out, Eiich gets into the car and leaves.

With his car out of sight, and the chauffeur retiring for the night, the mother’s are able to move on with their itinerary… but not without doing proper introductions between the groups, 3 of which have already started to attack each other with silly faces to kill time and show their disdain for one another, discreetly enough to avoid getting the attention of the adults, but still holding the same damaging intent.

“Good evening everyone!” Tomoko says, completely unaware of the battle going on between one of her kids and your siblings, for her voice served as a warning for them to put on their best demeanor—an act  that still doesn’t stop Naoya from silently cursing them.

Her beautiful golden eyes—the same ones as Naoya’s and Naoaki’s— proceed to scan each and every face before her, admiring their cute chubby cheeks to the point where she wants to go ahead and pinch them, but stops herself as to not make them uncomfortable, besides, she already has an lovable 7 year old to dote on, so she isn’t sacrificing much.

So instead, she moves on to admire similarities to their parents, to which Minako is king.

“Aren’t you all adorable? It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you, you’re all so grown up…” she notes, moving closer to the children.

“Thank you, Tomoko-san! It’s nice to see you again, I’ve actually grown 3 inches since we last saw each other!” Hinata boasts, standing up proudly as to show off her height.

“I think I’ve remained the same, officer” Tomoko chuckles, a playful jab to Hinata’s costume “I definitely feel safer with you around”

“At your service” She bows. Naoaki holds back a stifled chuckle, amused by your sister's commitment to her role.

Fortunately, his gesture remains overtly neglected in preference to Naoya's eye-rolling response, which she managed to catch just at the last second through the corner of her eye. It’s only when Tomoko moves onto Ren that your sister retaliates by sticking her tongue out, much to Naoya’s offense.

“Now, you’re definitely taller than what I remember” She says, placing her hand above his head and shuffling his hair. Ren remains quiet. “And you’re… a skeleton, right? It’s pretty cool… and surprisingly accurate! Your makeup is amazing as well!”

“Thank you, Tomoko-san.” he nods, feeling appreciative of her compliment of his handiwork in the makeup department “And yes, I’m a skeleton that glows in the dark, but you can’t see it right now because of the light” 

“No way!” She gasps, inching closer to admire the fluorescent paint “And you had all this custom made, Minako-chan?!”

“I told you, the seamstress I found is impressive” she grins proudly “Maybe we can get something fitted for ourselves in the future”

“I’ll hold you to that!”

Naoaki can’t help but cringe at his mother’s implication of wanting to participate in Halloween—was she really considering dressing up? Wasn’t that like… a kids thing? Oh, but knowing her… she just might.

Anyways, wanting to maintain his sanity, he doesn’t pry any further.

And finally, it’s Tomoko’s time to move on to you.

“And you, little Y/N. You’re growing too fast!” she exclaims “You were like what… 4 years old when I last saw you? Stop growing already!”

You don’t respond outside of a whine when Tomoko decides to finally indulge in her desire and pinch your cheeks.

“Now, what are you dressed up as?” she asks, raising an eyebrow as she fails to recognize the pair of red eyes and shining white grin printed on the hood of your onesie.

“Gengar!” you exclaim, but Tomoko remains clueless as ever, causing you to frown and press your lips together in disappointment. 

She’d be the nth person that night that doesn’t get what you’re dressing up as… but not to her oldest son, who steps in prompted by familiarity.

“Oh, from Pokemon, right?” Naoaki observes, and the disappointment you were reeling in flies out the window when you realize there’s actually someone out there who finally understands what you’re dressed up as!

“Yes!” you say with the biggest grin your lips permits you to do, a picture worthy smile that makes Minako regret not having her camera out and ready “You like pokemon too??”

“A little” he responds “Cool costume by the way, all of you really”

Hinata and Ren silently thank him for his unforeseen compliment, wanting to limit their interaction with him as much as possible due to his relation to Naoya, contrasting your decision of sticking to his side for the rest of the night to partake in more conversations of your favorite videogame.

“I don’t know who Gengar is, but you sure look scary!” Tomoko says, giving one last pinch to your cheeks before walking back to her children’s side “Good work, everyone. You all have really good costumes, and I’m sure you’ll get lots of candy!”

“I’m sure your boys will get lots of candy too, more so if we tell them that it’s Naoya’s first trick-or-treating as well” Minako recalls and Tomoko gasps.

“Oh, right! It’s Y/N’s first trick-or-treating as well!” Tomoko excitedly responds “And in that note… I don’t think either of you have met yet”

It’s time for Hinata and Ren to object… at least in their minds.

They want to step in and clarify that their introduction won’t be necessary for Y/N is never to meet him again, but knowing they held no power over your mother’s decisions, they resentfully limit themselves to stand on the sidelines as they observed their mother guiding you by the hand towards their mortal enemy, the youngest of the Zen’in brothers.

You, on the other side… well, haven’t really given any attention to either of the boys in front of you, outside of Naoaki of course, who you’ve solely become interested in thanks to his apparent knowledge in Pokemon—since both your siblings had other interests, and Satoru, your other friend, was fan of another franchise. A bit too fond perhaps, to the point he’d criticize your preference whenever he could, pushing you to avoid the subject with him all together.

Either way, Naoya had remained under the radar for you, meaning that you were more than fine with greeting him, even open to establishing a friendship, contrary to your fuming siblings who wanted nothing more than to keep him away from you.

But in Naoya’s eyes… you were far from under the radar.

In fact, you two have yet to meet (formally at least, since the first time they met you were nothing more than a toddler, and him being a year older didn’t mean much) but he already knows that he’s going to dislike you.

He hated the reality of becoming acquainted with another L/N kid who was only going to torment him, an assumption he founded due to his broken relation with the insufferable Hinata and mundane Ren.

It wasn’t always like that, of course, they actually got quite well at the beginning.

But when he started to feel comfortable with them, that’s when things got complicated: out of nowhere, Naoya started to show off by belittling them for having better toys than them, nicer shoes, sharper pencils, or even a cooler face. Whatever that might be…

From there, it was a constant battle between the three of who’s better—a fight that Naoya believed to be winning, had he not forgotten that he was going against 2 children, meaning that Ren and Hinata could simply pluck him out of their social circle and keep having fun.

An unexpected change that had him suddenly feeling ignored, much to his surprise, something that he already endured in a household of 6 children, and wasn’t to accept so easily, so he retaliated even harder.

Well, it’s not his fault that your family is too poor to give them the latest toy on the store shelves, or that they have to earn things instead of just asking for them. In his eyes, it was obvious that your siblings were calling him nasty nicknames because they were jealous of him and his status.

And he expects you to be the same.

Thus, when you approach him in a seemingly shy manner, he can’t help but remain unaffected towards you. 

He believes your reaction to be nothing more than an act to appease the adults around them, to fool them with your innocent demeanor and get them to lower their guards, so that when they turn around you’d begin to insult him, just like how Hinata and Ren did as soon as he got out of the car, they even went as far as to mouth how ugly his costume was as soon as they laid eyes on him! 

So what’s taking you so long to do the same?!

He continues to stare at you, hoping to pry the answer out of your face. 

Even when you finally glance up to see him, with those big round mesmerizing stupid eyes of yours, he doesn’t relent in attempting to be intimidating.

The silence between the two kids urges one of the mothers to step in and rush introductions.

“Say hi, Naoya” Tomoko says, nudging her kid closer to you before hissing “don’t be rude”

Naoya frowns.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Naoya Zen’in” He bows, enunciating his last name in a particular way as if to show off the prestige that his family carries.

He briefly glances over to your sister and brother upon seeing the disgust on their faces, which only serves to irk him even further, leading you to be the victim of his reprieve.

Oblivious of the fight between him and your siblings, you blink, remaining silent as you analyze his costume from head to toe. There’s something familiar about his costume but you can’t put your finger on it quite yet… so you just continue to stare at him, unknowingly rubbing Naoya the wrong way.

With your hood partially covering your face, he’s wide open for you to give him one of those typical nasty scowls from Hinata, or uninterested pouts from Ren. So, why are you taking so long?! Finding a way to insult him differently from your siblings maybe?! 

And he’s not the only one to notice your silence, prompting Minako to give you a gentle nudge to speak up, but just as she’s leaning closer to you, something finally dawns on you to talk, giving Naoya an unexpected answer, doubling down with your wide grin and chirping words.

“Wow!! Cool costume!!”

And the world seemed to stop, or that’s how Naoya felt when this happened.

To say that he fumbled his subsequent actions would be an understatement. 

He was straight up speechless when you finally granted him a response—and not any response, a compliment—one outside of his carefully procured script of nasty remarks, leaving him to drench in the feeling he could only describe as the main villain from an anime revealing to the protagonist that he’s only been using a small percentage of his power!—with you being the villain and he the protagonist, of course.

“That’s not your name, Y/N” Minako giggles and you blush out of embarrassment.

“Oh—yeah. I’m Y/N, nice to meet you!” you add nonchalantly before turning back to your mom “Mama, can we get candy now?!” you jump excitedly, a sight that only adds to your unexpected intentions, which Naoya cannot find himself to accept so easily.

He tries to find any deceit behind your words, behind your actions, a follow up to the deceitful play you were putting before the adults to lower their guards.

But by the way you’re so…. Unaware of him, focused entirely on something else, he fails to do so.

But—but how could this be?! You’re related to that arrogant Hinata and gullible Ren, how could you be so different to them if you have the same blood?!

…

…

…

Oh.

Oh.

Like clouds dispersing after a rainy day, he suddenly understands why.

It’s because they’re so insufferable that you’re so different from them! 

There’s no way someone who genuinely appreciated his attire would actually get along with your ignorant siblings. 

Yes, that had to be it. It was only a matter of time before someone from their own family noted how aggravating they were, which means that you and Naoya are more similar than he initially perceived.

This was your way of seeking help, wasn’t it? That’s why you approached him! You resonated with him, ever before getting to know each other. Different from your siblings, you managed to avoid their brainwashing because you just knew he wasn’t as bad as they might’ve hinted!

It’s like that manga… the one that said that powerful users are naturally drawn to each other…? Or however it went. All that Naoya knew was that this was a fated reunion, meant to happen tonight of all nights!! Now that he thinks about it… there was something that was pushing him to go with his mom, and oh, how glad he was to have come!

It doesn’t take much longer for him to declare that he wants to stick by your side for the rest of the night with the intentions of getting to know more of your mysterious nature, completely ignoring any other possibilities, more so the one that had you reacting that way simply because you eventually recognized his costume from one of the shows you watched alongside Ren on Saturday mornings before breakfast, what was it called… Super Sentai?

Naoya was dressed up as the black one, the one that was often considered cooler amongst viewers, just behind the red one. He even had the helmet! And it wasn’t just any kind of costume that a parent might find at a retail store, the amount of detail dictated that it must’ve been a replica of the original. 

Certainly, his commitment (as well as his parent’s willingness to spend that much money on a one-day attire) to the show was to be appreciated.

And that was it. Nothing more, nothing less. 

A compliment brought from genuine fondness, as well as recognition, for the show and what it represented for your brother and you.

But how would 7 year old Naoya come to understand this? Not even Minako’s compliments of her own were enough to make him realize that it was just… that, a compliment. 

Or when you repeated the same phrase onto Naoaki, who kindly informed you that he wasn’t dressed up, he was simply wearing a civilian attire—an black and white tartan shirt, underneath an oversized varsity jacket, and some denim pants to go alongside his white sneakers—much to Minako’s disappointed, who still remembered that curious boy who dressed up as a mummy many, many years ago…

No, not even that would help. 

He’d remain as oblivious as ever as the world went on without him, leaving him behind to be stuck in his mind the echoing sound of your appreciation, believing it to be something else than what it really was.

Maybe after the kids—who started to replicate your sentiment to pressure them forward—were sated, would Naoya come to this conclusion on his own. One could only hope.

“Oh, before we start, let’s take a picture!” Minako suggests, quickly taking out her camera and gesturing to the group to come together so as to fit into the frame “The youngest on the front, please!”

Naoya is quick to glance over to you, the perfect opportunity to stand by your side is enough to fill him with motivation, but just as he was to scurry to your side, your sister is faster, bumping into him and completely blocking you away from him.

Had she been any harsher, she would’ve sent him stumbling down, labeled an accident from an eager sister who wants to be with her youngest sibling.

But Hinata was too cautious to do anything by accident, as evidenced by the devilish grin appearing on her lips as she looked back at Naoya.

“Better luck next time, chump”

Naoya, offended beyond belief, resentfully accepts defeat as he stands besides Hinata instead. He wanted to go over to your other side, but your brother was there instead.

It seems that your siblings had caught wind of Naoya’s new intentions as soon as they became clear in his eyes, and wanting to keep his grubby hands away from you as long as possible, have also set a new mission for them to perform through the rest of the night.

The youngest of the Zen’in children eventually focuses to the front and onto the camera lens, with the straightest, most serious face Tomoko has ever seen that causes her to gesture at him to smile by doing so herself.

He tries his hardest to obey by pulling the edges of his lips up, but his defeat only allows him to give a side smirk—opting to place all his efforts on plotting his revenge instead.

“1… 2… Cheese!” Minako declared, and within seconds, the camera flash beams onto the party.

She has yet to reveal the picture, but she knows that it’ll be one that she’ll look back with fondness, even though Eiichi will probably be more than not upset with her for going against their agreement, but she really couldn’t care! She’s just happy to see her friend again and to be spending time with her family as well as her’s. A fun, exciting night, just as the parents always intended it to be—he had nothing to worry.

Completely ignorant to the fact that Eiichi’s fear of one of the Zen’in kids catching interest on one of their daughters is slowly becoming a reality.

Up to that point, Halloween had been the greatest night of your life—and that wasn’t an exaggeration.

Let’s start by breaking down why.

First, and perhaps the most obvious reason why, the candy. 

Although a bit apprehensive in the very beginning when realizing you actually needed to go up to different doors and request the candy, which only made your timidity skyrocket to the heavens, soon became an inconsequential obstacle once you saw the sweets deposited on your basket.

From there, it was all smooth sailing, to the point you became comfortable enough to be the one to sing the customary trick-or-treat chant— the magical words that summoned the candy guardians to the front gates of their impressively decorated fortress and granting your party a hefty amount of their treasure— which up to that point, had been Naoya’s responsibility, but solely because he wanted to impress you with his “confidence and maturity”, not because he wanted to do so.

The second reason was your company. Naoaki, to be precise. Sure, you enjoyed being with your siblings, even meeting a new friend! But while this could be considered a separate occurrence from Halloween itself, in your mind it made no difference. 

The teenager unwillingly tagged along thanks to his mother's insistence. He attempted to skip this all together by reminding her that he was too old to indulge in these activities and that he also didn’t even bring a costume, so what was the point? 

But Tomoko, having raised 6 rowdy boys, wasn't one to be swayed so easily, so she firmly put her foot down and demanded him to have fun by shoving an extra basket onto his chest.

So, he’s here, much to your conversational delight, and Naoya’s jealous demise.

To your delight, because it meant you could spend more time talking to him about Pokemon! 

Or more like interrogating, for he was the only other person you knew that liked the same thing as you did, and he was much older, so it meant that he must’ve done much more, right? No one in their right mind would pass an opportunity like this!

It gave you the perfect justification to gravitate more towards him, bombarding him with thousands of questions regarding his favorite pokemon, his favorite moment on the T.V. show, or if he’d managed to get one of those evolutions that can only happen via trade.

“I haven’t” you confess “Because I have no one else to play with”

Naoaki didn’t know whether to feel bad for you, or chuckle for how blunt you were being. Well, guilt ended up overwhelming him at the end, prompting him to engage deeper into conversation with you—as well as forcing Naoya to make a mental note to demand his father to buy him a gameboy as soon as he came back home.

This is where Naoya’s demise would step into the picture. 

While you were overtly happy for being able to go out, get candy and meet someone who liked your favorite videogame, Naoya was suffering a hell of his own.

One that pushed him to see your interaction with his brother as some kind of competition: to steal your attention from his idiot older brother, who was completely oblivious of Naoya’s internal conflict, and get it all for himself!

He’s already on a losing streak against Hinata and Ren, so he’s not about to go and lose to his brother as well, the one who had only played pokemon once in his life and immediately dropped it after he got past Misty because it was “too repetitive”!!

He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and yet, you can’t keep away from him! Can’t you see he’s lying through his teeth?!

… And your siblings don’t make it any better.

Naoya might’ve hinted at having bigger tolerance towards them—perhaps because he sees them way less compared to his family, but in reality, they were just as detestable as Naoaki. 

It all started from Hinata and Ren being unhappy at the adults for placing you as Naoya’s partner for the night, the youngest paired together, they justified when confronted by your sister, only for tonight.

An explanation that went over their heads and propelled them to follow on their insurgent mission.

The first to act was Hinata, by cutting off Naoya each time they were done with a house.

You had the tendency of running to your mom to show off what you’ve gotten. Nothing alarming on it’s on, that is, until your sister caught sight of Naoya trailing you like a shadow.

This is where Hinata would step in, imposing herself between your path and his, with a smug smirk on her face that only served to taunt him, forcing the young Zen’in heir to glance over her side, trembling with desperation as he acknowledged her.

“Move, ugly!” Naoya commands, tightening his knuckles while knitting his brows.

“Make me” she dared, and Naoya groaned. It’s surprising how nasty kids can get when determined.

Ren, on the other hand, would pull you by the hand to his and Hinata’s side whenever it was time to move onto the next house. 

His towering height covered you from the mother’s sight to the point that neither suspected you’d gone out of formation. Actions that lead for this endeavor to be successful for the first couple of houses, that is, until Minako eventually noticed Naoya alongside his solitude.

“Ren, let Y/N walk with Naoya-kun” Ren held back a grunt as he freed you from his grasp.

It’s from that point forward that Naoya decided that your mother was to be a trusted ally he could use for future plans. But as much as she’d proved herself to be a powerful piece in this conflict, her actions only granted him a temporary advantage, he had yet to win the war.

In fact, he’s yet to do so much more, for he also realized that he’s barely managed to get in a word with you—and that’s without counting the insistent actions of your siblings and his own brother.

And he doesn’t know why. He’s never struggled before. In fact, he rarely struggles in anything—his family has said so, he’s some kind of genius! 

Well, maybe with his cousin Toji, who he considered the epitome of coolness, has he stammered with his own words. But even then, he’d only done so once or twice. Toji-kun was out of everyone’s league, so it was natural many would be intimidated in his presence. Even his stupid older brother knows not to mess with him!

«Would he approve of you?» Naoya briefly wonders as he glances back at you.

You weren’t like any other of the girls he’d spoken with, or attempted to, before, that’s for sure. 

There’s something about you that constricts his throat to the point where he can only whisper and stare at you, who in turn, greet him back with a cheerful hello whenever grazes cross, only worsening his already strained condition.

Was it because you liked things different from what other girls did? You don’t strike him as the kind of kid that would bother with girly stuff, not when you recognized his Super Sentai costume and you were dressed up as a videogame character. 

You’re already way above them—his equal. Eeh, well, maybe not that far. He still thinks of himself as above everyone else, but you’re up there, just a step below him, but very close to him.

Either way, none of his previous disadvantages managed to discourage him from stopping from doing what he needed to do. 

So when Tomoko and Minako announced it was time for a short break, he knew this would be his moment to seize!

The mothers guided them through a dimly lit path and onto a nearby park which they’d previously agreed on to use to rest in, take a breather, check everyone was ok, get something to drink and/or eat, before continuing.

It’s at this moment that Tomoko would reveal why she was late in the first place: she had to pick up the bottles of water and snacks she’d promised Minako she would bring (as sign of gratitude for preparing all of this for their children) for them to consume if any got thirsty or hungry—it was tempting to just reach into their respective baskets and eat the candy they collected, but until they were safely searched through and cleared of any unwanted objects, none of the kids were permitted to eat them. 

Besides, sprinkling a bit of fruits and vegetables here and there could do no wrong if they were already going to indulge in sugar.

“Is anyone hungry? Thirsty?” Tomoko asks, unzipping her backpack and taking out various small bottles of water which she placed on the nearby table. “Or does anyone want to go to the restroom instead?” 

“I’ll take one” Naoaki says and his mother hands him the one in her grasp ‘Thanks”

Minako moves closer to her friend, intending to grab one for herself and her children, when suddenly, a current of cold air lands on his back, traveling through every centimeter of her spine, resulting in a shiver that has her freezing on the spot.

“Ugh, that was… awful” Minako complains through gritted teeth while rubbing her hands against her arms. Her desperation to warm up takes her to look back to the nearby coffee shop she’d eyed moments earlier, her face brightening up when a new suggestion crosses her mind “I know, do you guys want to get something warm?” 

“No, thank you” you shake your head, still buried in the warm layers your mother and father buried you underneath. Hinata and Ren mirror your answer with a nod of their own. Naoaki gestures as his bottle before politely rejecting her offer, and Naoya keeps quiet.

“What about you, Tomoko?” Minako now looks at her, who is currently opening a bottle of water and handing it over to Naoya.

“I think I’ll have a coffee” She responds “I’m already getting a bit sleepy and we still have the rest of the night to go through”

“Rough night, hm?” Minako jests and Tomoko blushes.

“Stop it, I’m just worried for Naofumi, that’s all”

“He’ll get back on his feet before you know it, don’t worry. Worry instead about how you want your coffee so I can go get it”

“Oh, there’s no way I’m going to let you pay for it!” Tomoko yelps, hand reaching inside her backpack and taking out her wallet “Tell me what you want and I’ll get it”

“Haha, that’s funny” Minako teased, jolting away from Tomoko’s hand, which she frequently presented to offer her card “But no, stay here with the kids, I’ll pay it”

“Minako” Tomoko warns.

“Tomoko” the other replicates.

“I swear if you don’t—”

“Mom, L/N-san, why don’t you both go? I mean, I have no issue looking after the kids for a while” Naoaki interrupts, hoping that his serene solution will bring peace to the bickering he was never fond of. 

“Are you sure, Naoaki-kun?” Minako asks with hesitation, for she doesn’t want to dump him with 4 children as much as she finds accompanying Tomoko very endearing. “I don’t want to overwhelm you”

“Don’t worry about it, I have 5 siblings, there’s nothing they can do to scare me” 

«We’ll see about that» Naoya thinks as he crumples his now empty bottle of water.

“Besides, mom hasn’t seen you in a while” Naoaki sheepishly adds, scratching the back of his head “and I… like seeing her happy”

Tomoko’s lips part into a heart warming smile at her son’s gentleness. Always the attentive one, she’s proud to have raised a good natured kid like him.

So, after the women and Naoaki go through all the things they’ve brought in case of an emergency—which they doubt will happen, since they’re only going a few yards away, but a mother can never be too sure!—and asking for a second time if any of them want something (to which they reject once more) they depart.

Tomoko was still somewhat hesitant of leaving them behind, worried that someone might attempt to do something against’ them, a natural concern to have in a village she’s yet to become acquainted with, but Minako squashes her burdens by reassuring her there was nothing to worry about, for she’d chosen this neighborhood specifically for how safe and calm it was known to be.

“Maybe we should worry about our kids disobeying Naoaki” the two joked instead as they kept walking towards the store.

And once out of sight, Naoaki makes haste to turn around and start tending the group.

“So… how’s the night treating all of you?” he asks awkwardly, unsure how to start to distract them.  “Do you want something to eat? Drink…?”

Sure, he’s had plenty of experience dealing with children… who coincidentally were his siblings… 

He doesn’t presume he can treat Minako’s children the same as he’d done with his siblings, but … well, it must count for some kind of experience, right? And he did make a promise he intended to keep.

However, it's safe to say that he’s never been this intimidated before. Certainly not by a child whos unimpressed face made him question why he even agreed to this: Hinata being the subject in question

It’s almost as if she’s sensing his fear by the way she’s intently staring at him with a piercing gaze that tells him he’s performing a terrible job and that he should let a professional handle this, like her, unless he wants to make a fool out of himself.

So, after a few seconds of intense critiquing and intimidation, Hinata steps in.

“Alright, baskets on the table” Hinata asserts, acting as the first example before starting to dig through her mountain of sweets “This is our moment to switch candies if there’s something we don’t like before our mother’s come back, so we have to be quick about”

Taking this as an opportunity to finally socialize with you, Naoya makes haste to move onto your side, but just as he’s stepping closer to you, Ren abruptly cuts him off, again, by placing his own basket on the spot next to yours.

The young Zen’in shoots him a dangerous glare, but the oldest of the L/N family pays him no mind as he digs through his own candy, as if this had been nothing more than an innocent coincidence, which makes Naoya scoff as he now moves onto his side.

“Someone gave me a sweet potato” Ren confides, pulling the culprit out of his basket and placing it on the middle of the table, subsequently causing all of the group to quizzically stare at it.

“Hahaha, what the hell??” Naoaki is the first to react to the bizarre sight. It’s so comical, he can’t believe someone actually gave kids a goddamn vegetable instead of candy! “That’s worse than raisins—might as well given you nothing”

Unfortunately none of the kids respond to his comment, and the silence between the group and him only pushes him deeper into the ocean solitude he’d been drowning in since he was left in charge of them.

Well, it’s expected. The only one of the group that seemed to like him was you and that was solely for your shared interest in pokemon, which if he had to be completely honest… he didn’t like that much. But he wasn’t to go and break your heart like that. So he’d just remain quiet and let you enjoy your sweets.

“Anyways” Ren circles back everyone's attention to him “You seem to have gotten a lot of the candies you wanted, Hinata”

“Yesssss” She cheered, grabbing a handful of the lemon candies beginning to envision herself torturing Satoru “But I also got a lot of these” She says, now referring to the different colored bunches of hi-chew’s she placed alongside her weapon “Didn’t you like them, Y/N-chan?”

“Nope” you shake your head, hand still stuck in your basket as you search for a candy wrapper that caught your attention just moments ago “I like chocolate more, and mochi too!” you inform, finally pulling out the candy you were looking for with a grin… only to realize it wasn’t what you believed. “But I didn’t get any mochi at all” 

Maybe mochi isn’t traditionally given during these seasons?

And like clockwork, a Naoya that has been desperate for an opportunity to portray himself a charming prince of sorts and charm you with his generosity, takes this moment to finally, once and for all!! To step in and get the spotlight on him.

“What kind of chocolate do you like, Y/N?” Naoya asks confidently (or so he believes his voice to have sounded), looking straight at you. You blink, diving into deep thought as you pouted, debating which out of all the chocolates you tasted were the best. There’s too many that you like, but if there’s one that you like the most, it would have to be—

“Well! If there’s something you don’t like, you can give them to me” Hinata yelps, pulling out a bag of the colorful candy and placing it in the middle, just beside Ren’s tragic sweet potato. “I trade you these hello kitty strawberry marshmallows for those lemon candies”

Naoya groans at another interrupted attempt, loud enough for Naoaki to glance at him and ask him if there was anything wrong, to which the youngest simply scoffed as a response. 

And you, too focused on the exchange before you, didn’t notice anything at all.

“Deal!” You grin. They might not be chocolate, but they’re still pretty good, so you don’t hesitate to switch them from the middle of the table with help of your older brother, and place them into your basket.

The conversation between your siblings seems to go on for a while, from exchanging sweets to rumors of the streets that are hinted to give bigger and better candies. Undeniably, the people that were often considered to be on the rich side of socioeconomic standards, and subsequently, able to afford the good brands.

All this pushes Naoya further and further away from you whenever he tries to chime in, that at one point, he just stops trying.

“Maybe we can convince mom to go there, get a king sized kit kat bar!” Hinata hypes, gently nudging you by the shoulder. A revelation that Naoya takes note to remember well, for if it wasn’t of any relevance, why bring it up? “It’s like the size of 3 bars! Can you imagine that, Y/N-chan??”

…

…

…

Silence.

“Y/N?” Hinata tries again, and once more, you don’t respond to her enthusiasm, at least not the way she expects. Instead, she’s received by a pout and a frown on your chubby face, portraying distress.

“Are… you ok?” She cautioned. Words that are quick to set off  alarms in everyone’s mind.

You lean into Hinata’s ear to whisper.

“Where is mama?”

“She’s still at the coffee shop” Naoaki, who had kept an attentive ear after this upsetting question, finds it appropriate to step in and responds in her stead. “I don’t think she’ll take longer though, is there something you need?”

“No…” you look away, cheeks burning out of embarrassment for having him respond to the question you intended only to be heard by your sister. A gesture that Naoya takes unkindly, for his mind believes Naoaki did so with the intention to shame you, and after all you gave him…

This might’ve just been his desperation trying to fill the blanks though, for he’s the only one that thinks that. 

Ren and Hinata are on the same page as Naoaki when it comes to worrying for you. They fear that you’re too embarrassed to tell them what you need in the presence of strangers, leaving them stranded in a position of uselessness—something that the teenager was not going to let happen.

“It’s ok, you can tell me” Naoaki reassures you, and it’s only after you see his genuine concern as well as your siblings' comfort, that you finally confess.

“I need to go to the restroom”

“Oh” Naoaki blinks, taken aback by this unexpected revelation. “Uh… I—”

“Why didn’t you tell mom you wanted to go before??” Hinata huffs.

“Don’t talk to her like that, Hinata” Ren disputed.

“Because I didn’t want to go!” your whine back “Where is mama??”

“She’s not going to be here for a while…” Hinata mutters as the frustration to solve this matter plunges her into urgency. Sure, you knew how to handle these types of situations on your own, and when you needed help, mom was always there to step how.

However, she wasn’t there, and to make matters worse, all of them were in a relatively unknown public location, details that only made you feel more uneasy.

But after considering all of this, there’s no way Hinata was going to let you overcome this on your own, or wait for someone else to do so instead… If your older sister allowed it, she would not be living up to the role of the one she’s dressed up as. Or her role in the family!

“I’ll take you” she asserts, glancing over to Ren for approval, which he grants with a nod.

And after getting all the help she needed, retrieving the paper and soap Tomoko had brought along to use just in case, granted by Naoaki, Hinata intertwines her fingers with yours and begins to head over towards the building she guesses to be the nearest public restroom. 

Naoaki offered to take them as close as possible, but your sister, not wanting you to feel any more embarrassed than you already were, asked him to keep a lookout from the table and inform their mom of their location if she was to return first.

The oldest Zen’in never imagined someone so authoritarian could exist in the small body of an 8 year old, but here he was, dumbfounded once more by reality. 

But that observation falls to irrelevancy when it comes to keeping a close eye on the walking girls.

As much as unexpected your little trip to the bathroom had appeared to be, it didn’t really affect much of your enjoyment of Halloween. Sure, it's somewhat inconvenient, more so because you didn’t have your mom by your side in a strange place like this, but you had your courageous sister, and your brave brother looking out for you, instead. 

So you know that once this is dealt with you’ll be on your way to more fun, and more candy too.

Unfortunately, your trip to the restroom was not destined to be as smooth as both would’ve wanted.

Because just as Halloween is a special occasion for children to go out and have fun, there was also another demographic group that intended to do the same. The kind of people that often went above the limits to get a good laugh for themselves through the expense of others.

But that was something that you didn’t register, less when you were having a good time yourself with your family and new friends, which eased you deeper into lowering your guard as you’d continued to walk besides her, hand in hand, towards the nearest public restroom.

In your mind, There was nothing to worry about, nothing to observe, nothing to beware..

Not even the rustling bushes or the reticent whispers coming from the shadows behind it swayed you otherwise. 

A compromise that you were not aware that you needed to take, but would regret ignoring when the concealed figures established their outrageous appearance as soon as you and your sister were within grasp.

“AAAAH!!”

It all happened in a blur, too fast to recount with detail. Where the girls once enjoyed their peaceful yet essential stroll, now stood petrified at the ghastly presence of the different horror figures appearing just from the darkness and out of the bushes:

A pale ambiguous creature with long dark hair and bloodied lips, a red skinned demon with black horns and long fangs ending just beneath it’s chin, and lastly but not least, another pale skinned woman with a gory smile that stretched from ear-to-ear—arms stretched to the sky to enlarge their presence onto their victims whilst releasing a deafening growl that pushed the girls to wail even more.

It’s only then that the teenage perpetrators realized the immeasurable mistake they committed.

“Oh no, nononononono” One of them would lament, quickly retracting their arms back to their side as they frantically look to one another “This wasn’t supposed to happen! We weren’t supposed to scare them!”

But it was too late, for both your sister’s and your cheeks were drenched in tears, evident by the light reflecting against their skin.

“Why didn’t you say something?!” The horned devil snapped back, giving the one in charge of lookouts a sharp smack on the arm “I thought you said it was safe!”

“I—I thought” the wide-smile woman, popularly known as kuchisake-onna, stammered. “I thought I heard footsteps! Like adult footsteps, you know?! How would I know they would be different?!”

“You idiot!!” The first one chastises one last time before glancing back at the sobbing young girls who were now hugging each other as tightly as they could, and softening their voice “H—Hey, kiddo, I’m—I’m sorry we didn’t—”

“Get away from her!” Hinata interrupts with a shrill as she jumps between you and the regretful group, who have now removed their masks to increase the veracity of their apology, show they were just another bunch of stupid teenagers doing a stupid innocent prank, revealing their identities to be of two men and one woman—but it was all for naught for Hinata was never interested in their intentions, she just wanted to protect you, even if she was scared beyond belief herself.

Hoping to appeal to their sorority, the female wrongdoer moves closer to the girls, but the intimidating gaze of a protective older sister squashes their intention before it can even come to full fruition.

Or so that’s what Hinata believes—a wave of confidence engulfing her spirit as she moves you further behind her back and away from their danger, utterly oblivious to the real reason behind their cowering figures, an angered teenager briskly closing the distance between the two.

“You need to leave, now” The infuriated male demanded. Hinata turns to face the voice behind her, and soon realizes who was the one that intimidated them all along: Naoaki, holding the most angered face she’d ever seen a man carry before, accompanied with a  resentful Ren and a slightly startled Naoya. 

The group had seen everything from afar with utter disbelief at the audacity of these unruly teenagers for doing such a prank on young children. Had they really been that insensitive?!

But where the kids remained somewhat uneasy to voice their disapproval, Naoaki did not hesitate to bring out his confrontational nature.

“We didn’t know, we didn’t mean to—”

“I’m not fond of repeating myself twice. Less to people as shameless as you” Naoaki raged “Leave, now!”

The teenagers need no other reminder to understand their presence to be unwanted, hence they expeditiously begin to gather their belongings: objects that ranged from toilet paper, cans of string foam, and even eggs, presenting unbelievably sight to Naoaki which only deepened his exasperation for them before ultimately leaving.

He keeps a hardened gaze on their backs, as if to prevent them from doing another stupidity, and once he considers them no longer a hazard, he flickers his attention back to the sniffing children.

The sight is enough to squeeze his heart with guilt, gaze softening as he kneels down to their level.

Hinata, although she still cried, had actually started to calm down once realizing the monsters that scared them were nothing more than idiots inside costumes, whose possibilities of returning now that Naoaki confronted them were slim to none, giving her a sense of confidence that allowed her beating heart to begin slowing down.

This gives her time to reflect on what happened, and she can’t stop herself from feeling so naive for having fallen for something so silly, something that Satoru had done in previous occasions… but before she could go on resenting her lack of action, she settled for worrying over your unresolved emotions.

You unfortunately continued to be affected by this whole incident. As the youngest of the group, you still have yet to earn enough discernment to understand that this was nothing more than a prank, a seemingly victimless act… but even if it was nothing more than a joke, it felt real to you, enough to keep you wailing, heart painfully beating against your chest as you attempted to wrap your head around this whole incident, but failing to do so.

So, the only thing you could do was rub your tears away with the fabric of your sleeves as you wailed for your mother, a sight that caused your companions to murmur soothing words of encouragement in hope to make up for her absence and calm you down, at least until she’s back.

"It's ok, Y/N-chan. They're gone now" Hinata would attempt to comfort you by taking you into her arms and pushing you close to her before patting your back. Ren joined his sisters by wrapping his arms around them.

“You don’t have to cry anymore” Naoaki joined, but you’re barely able to respond with anything else outside a whimper or a sniff, muffled by your sister’s chest.

There are no words to describe just how frustrated he feels for allowing this to happen, and subsequently, failing to provide you a remedy. 

In fact, he feels regretful for permitting the teenagers to leave, but there really wasn’t much he could’ve done at that point that wasn’t to shout reprimands at them, which half of them would’ve been obscenities. 

Very tempting indeed, but that would just be to alleviate his frustration, no help to you or your sister.

His mind progresses to other realms of solutions, going through countless alternatives until he reaches one one that makes his eyes widen with fulfillment and determination, as well as hope for it to work.

Naoaki jumps back on his feet and rushes back to the table where their things have remained behind, intending to reach for his basket, earnestly digging through the candy whilst isolating a particular confection.

Once done, he makes way back to the group, but not without bringing your basket as well as his carefully selected lineup.

“These are your favorite, right?” he asks, kneeling down to your level once more and extending his hands for you to see what he’s referring to.

You slowly raise your gaze from your sister’s hug and over to Naoaki’s hands, blurry eyes widening in surprise once he begins to pour the countless chocolates onto your basket.

“You can have them all, Y/N. Just don’t cry anymore, ok?” Naoaki smiles softly, proceeding to pet your head  “Your sister and brother are very worried for you, Naoya and me as well”

You first glance over to Hinata and her concerned puffy face with glossy, reddened eyes, the visible aftermath of the panic she was put through alongside you.

You then look at Ren, who although managed to avoid being directly affected by this incident, was just as distressed as Hinata, evident by his creased forehead and the frown on his lips—further proving the truth behind Naoaki’s words.

Naoaki is giving you a warm smile, as if to assure you that everything is truly indeed, even if you felt your heart telling you the opposite. He even went as far to attempt to comfort you by giving you all of his chocolates…

And Naoya… even if he barely speaks to you, to see him so concerned for you, you can’t help but feel thankful. As well as guilty, for you don’t think he wanted to see anyone crying tonight.

Overwhelmed by the much needed presence of your mother, as well as your companions unshakable support, you can't help but break into tears once more.

"Y/N!" Minako’s unexpected voice snaps you out of trance, causing you to swirl your head over to her direction and squint your warm eyes to make out the appearance of the approaching figure. 

Once recognizing your mother, you immediately peel away from your sister’s and brother’s arms and run towards her, arms stretched to allow yourself to be pulled up by her as you break out in tears once more.

“It’s ok, little one, it’s ok. I’m here now” she croones, kissing the top of your head as you push your face deeper into her neck, inevitably wetting her skin, but it doesn’t bother her at all. 

She then moves closer to Hinata, pulling her closer to her figure and hugging her with her free arm. She might’ve stopped crying, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t in need for her mother as well.

It’s only after a while of basking in the comforting presence of your mother that your sniffles begin to quiet down, which Minako takes as a cue to finally ask.

“What happened? I just saw a group of kids running away and Y/N’s cries”

“Somebody scared Y/N-chan” Hinata says through a runny nose and a strained throat, which causes Minako to hold her even closer to her.

“Naoaki scared them away” Ren adds, gluing to his mother’s free side and hugging her leg.

"Oh no, that's terrible" Tomoko frets, worriedly looking over to her own children as if to check they weren’t equally affected as Minako’s children have been.

Naoaki seemed to be rather… unaffected by the incident, outside of being concerned for you and your sister. He was evidently pissed that this had even occurred in the first place, not bothering to ask the culprits the reason behind their actions—he was not interested in justifying them, not when he had bigger things to do like step in and protect the young girls. But she could also find underlying guilt behind his eyes… misplaced guilt, for how could he know there was someone planning something as unfortunate as this?

From there, she glances at Naoya. While he hadn’t been in the actual crossfire, he was still present. Present enough to be affected by this sour turn of events, made evident by the heavy shift on the atmosphere caused by the upsetting sight of the horrifying teenagers and the two crying girls. 

What transpired was also enough to perturb him to the point where he’d actually stuck to Naoaki’s side in efforts to seek comfort, eventually turning into the form of Tomoko’s hand, which he grasped almost immediately after she was within arms reach.

A gesture that has Tomoko looking down to her youngest out of concern, and through a silent understanding, she declares.

“I… think it’s better if we call it a night”

"Yeah. I think that's too much excitement for today" Minako kisses your forehead once more upon feeling you relax against her embrace, finally, calm and quiet after venting all the anguish from your heart. "I’m so sorry Tomoko-san, truly. I assured you that this was a safe place where our kids would have fun, but they did not. I don’t know how I can make it up to you”

Your mother attempts to bow with you in her arms, but Tomoko rushes to stop her.

“No, Minako-san, don’t worry about it. It was just an accident” She says “Besides, you’re not responsible for their actions. You have nothing to be held accountable for, please don’t torment yourself for this”

Minako mouths a small, but earnest, thank you, before moving on with their next trajectory of the night.

Both mother’s ended up calling their respective partners to inform them that they would be returning home much sooner than expected.

Your mother intended the call to be of the informative nature, notify Eiichi that they’d be grabbing a cab back to the estate so he wouldn’t have to drive down to the village, but considering the overprotectiveness nature of her husband, she anticipated him freaking out as soon as he knew of the scary incident that led to this change of plans—and he did.

There was no way Eiichi would sit at his desk, arms crossed, miles away from his family, while they needed his solace. So he miraculously pulled a few strings to temporarily get out of work and go pick them up personally.

Meanwhile, Tomoko’s husband… Well, he didn’t say much. Outside of being glad that the night had ended earlier than anticipated for he wasn’t fond of his family staying out late. She intentionally avoided reaching the subject of the “prank” for she disliked having to entertain a husband who had the habit of questioning the integrity of others whenever something goes differently to the accorded, when it was a simple unrelated accident. Not everyone had a ridiculous amount of money to spend in perfection, more so when this was a “casual” night for the kids.

As expected, Naobito was unavailable to pick them up but still reassured her that a chauffeur would be there in his presence as soon as possible. Neither her or her children were surprised by this decision, but there’s no denying that at least one of them hoped he would have done differently. Isn’t it alarming enough that they had to leave early?

Outside of this, it was safe that all the kids were disappointed that they had to leave early. 

They had yet to go to the rest of the neighborhoods, visit the ones where the rich people lived and get the good candy, as well as partake in the activities the community had set up for them, such as carving pumpkins, trying out masks, or going through a pumpkin patch.

Well, Hinata and Ren weren’t too bothered by that. Not when it comes to placing your safety first. And they were also tired from butting heads with Naoya.

But if there was one kid in particular that didn't like the whole leaving the party too soon thing more than the others, it was Naoya.

And not because he wanted more candy, he could always get that at home just by asking for it.

It's because he didn't want to leave you just yet.

Now that he’d managed to get through the mental turmoil the past succession had placed him in, he realized that he would be able to see you… god knows when. He counted with the rest of the night to make his move, but his plans were cut short because of those stupid teenagers.

But the thing that he hated the most was how they made you cry.

He never knew he could feel so sad from watching someone's teary face, that is, until he saw yours.

Naoya resented the fact that he just stood there, petrified by the horrifying noise of their screams and your frets, unable to do anything to help you because he was too startled himself, which inevitably left the road wide open for his brother to become the hero of the story, yet again.

Naoya was supposed to help you. He was supposed to be close to you and protect you. He feels confused, guilty, sad, for not being able to do anything at all throughout the night, when Naoaki did the exact opposite.

Sure, he was glad that his brother stepped in to put a stop to all this, but… he just… Well, first of all, he wasn’t expecting him to actually go above and beyond by giving you all his chocolates when that should’ve been him! Secondly, the fact that he hasn’t done anything to get to know you better is enough to have him reek with dissatisfaction.

But far from him trying to make himself the hero of the story, which don’t get me wrong, he still wanted to be…

He wanted to see you happy again. He didn’t want this night to end on a sad note for you.

So, determined to make things right, if only for one time during this night, he makes haste to take advantage of the last moment he’d have with you before leaving to make the biggest sacrifice a kid can make during Halloween night.

"Y/N" he calls, and you, now standing to your mother’s side once you begged and pleaded towards her to let you down once you began to feel a bit better, turn around.

"Hi…" you say, a yawn appearing mid way just to reflect how tired you’d ended up after all the emotional and physical exhaustion of your first trick-or-treating session, much to your dissatisfaction. “Sorry… Hi” you try again with an apology and a smile.

Naoya blinks for a moment before falling back in place by pressing his lips together as his gaze falls to the floor. This wasn’t supposed to be as nerve wracking as it was, but even then, that wouldn’t stop him, not when he already committed to the idea.

He takes a deep breath, gathering all the courage he can get to do what he wants next.

With his heart beating on his ears, ruby cheeks and brows pressed together, he stretches his arm and finally looks up to you.

"Here" he says, nudging his basket full of candy closer to you.

Now it’s your time to falter while eyeing his offering with much caution and wonder, unable to interpret the true intention behind his gesture outside of… well, what?

"Take it" Naoya feels obliged to clarify upon seeing your confused pout, carefully dangling the basket before you once more.

"Why?" you eventually ask, tilting your head to the side.

"I don't like it" Naoya lies, but he really doesn’t know what else to say to convince you. "I want you to have it"

You don’t seem to be convinced by his answer, which only makes Naoya feel more and more anxious by the second. First, because he suddenly felt the sharp gazes of your siblings stuck to his back, so he wanted you to make up your mind before they started to close in.

Secondly, because he felt like you were rejecting him—and that meant that his brother had managed to make more of a… lasting impression on you. And he dreaded to think that even when he finally gathered the courage to talk to you, it wasn’t enough.

Had he miscalculated your initial reaction towards him?

However, all of his worries were for naught, for after a few seconds of consideration, your small arms stretched to his and grabbed onto the handle of the basket, carefully taking the object away from him. 

It’s only for the briefest of moments that he’s able to brush against your fingers, but he already knows there’s nothing softer in this world that he’d rather hold.

Naoya’s anxiety has an unwanted return when he sees you silently stare at his offering, his worry lingering back to Naoaki, fearing that you might see his actions as a poor plagiarism of his… 

But his worries were for naught once again, for you’d eventually look up to him to give him another one of your loving smiles, one that cemented his first victory of the night, for it’s a reaction Naoaki hadn’t received in his moment, as well as ensuring your happiness before tonight ended.

“Thank you!” You grin, pulling the candies closer to you, seemingly overjoyed to receive an addition for your harvest.

“You’re welcome” Naoya sheepishly responds, face even redder when he catches you staring at him with that big toothy smile of yours longer than he anticipated, before turning around with the intention to return by your mom’s side.

It’s at this moment that he feels an itch on his throat, one that he has the extreme need to alleviate.

“Y/N?” he calls, and you turn around.

Curious e/c eyes falling on his face as you fathom the redness forming on his cheeks through the dimness of the street light, making you wonder if he was feeling sick.

“...Don’t cry” he murmurs, and you blink for a few moments before a frown settles on your face.

“I’m not crying” you explain and he scoffs.

“I mean” Naoya looks away, feeling more embarrassed by the second as a pout forms on his lips “Don’t cry again. I don’t like it when you’re sad”

It’s his way to say that he wants to make you happy, but you, not having the same perception as he did, limit yourself to take his words as those of comfort.

“I don’t like being sad either!” You respond, giving him another smile “But thank you, Noya-kun! And sorry for worrying you”

Naoya can’t help his heart from soaring upon hearing the adorable butchering of his name, which far from interpreting it as a mispronunciation, he takes it as a nickname. Another privilege he holds over Naoaki and possibly even your siblings.

He did it.

He won. He made you happy. And his older brother has no clue!

And he never would, because Naoaki… well, he was just in another entirely different realm when it comes to the antics of his youngest brother. 

Serves to show what the usual dynamic between the youngest and the eldest was like back in the estate—it’s no wonder the rest of the siblings had no issue sitting this one out once they heard Naoaki and Naoya would be attending, cloaking behind poor Naofumi as an excuse.

Nonetheless, Naoya would enjoy the victory his sacrifice brought him, a step closer to winning your heart. 

He knew that you’d enjoy this candy, and whenever you unwrapped one of them, you’d think of him! Now, isn’t that a bigger accomplishment than what Naoaki ever achieved in his life? (Outside of saving you, but that’s something that he’ll get to do another time)

Oh, how naive of him. If only I knew you were happy for some other reason....

It wouldn’t take long before your father arrived, and when he did, he jumped out of the car as soon as the engine shut down, not bothering to check if he’d closed the door appropriately or if he even parked correctly inside the delimited space. Traffic tickets had no weight in his mind, not when his sole focus was zeroing on his family and embracing his poor daughters followed by endlessly peppering their chubby faces with kisses as he frantically inquired.

“Are you ok Y/N?! Hinata?! Is either hurt?? Where are those damned—”

“They’re fine now, Eiichi” Minako reassures him “But that doesn’t mean you should be all over our babies”

“I’m not a baby” Hinata retorted.

“Minako! How could you say that?!” Eiichi gasps theatrically “Not after they got scared!—by the way, Hinata, you’re still my baby— I won’t stop till they get what they deserve!” 

Your mother can only shrug and sigh as a response. She knows there’s no way to talk sense into him when he’s like this, so instead, she decides to move and bid farewells to Tomoko and her family.

“And that’s our cue to leave” Minako regrets with a nervous smile.

“Outside of what happened, I had a good time” Tomoko smiles back, moving in to hug her best friend.

“Likewise. I’m glad you were able to come”

“I hope to see you at Junko’s baby shower? I’ll be sending the invitations soon!” Naoya’s eyes sparkle with anticipation at the prospect of seeing you again. This time, he’ll be equipped with all the knowledge he can get of pokemon after his father buys him all the games!

“I’ll be there” Your mother promises. She then waves goodbye to Tomoko’s kids, Naoaki being as gracious as ever by expressing how happy he was to see her again, and Naoya… well, as reserved as he always was, except for a curt nod and a wave, dignified for his only ally of the night.

The family of 5 eventually make their way back into the car, each kid waving the Zen’in’s one last time through the window as the engine started up once more, and then, disappeared, giving closure to the celebration.

Once the car was out of sight, Tomoko sighed, slumping her shoulders as she reflected back to her present children.

To say that she was glad that Naoya and Naoaki had remained somewhat… amicable throughout the whole night was an understatement. She was overjoyed as well as she was anxious.

They were known for being rowdy towards one another for the simplest of reasons, and although she guessed that could extend to the rest of her kids, these two had seemed to have a personal vendetta against each other.

Tomoko tried her best to control that aspect of their personality, but she eventually gave up after realizing that no matter what she did, no matter what incentives she gave to promote a healthy relationship, it was never enough.

So she just resigned with the assumption that they’d eventually grow out of this, mainly when Naoya is a bit older, for he was usually the prime instigator of their arguments.

Their good behavior had given her a dose of much needed tranquility, and after all that occurred, she assumes they’ll remain like that during their trip back to the estate, and for the rest of the night.

«A moment of peace and quiet» She says, giving them a small smile.

“I’m proud of how you two stepped up to help Y/N-chan and Hinata-chan. Thank you” She praised “I’ll prepare something for the two of you tomorrow, but for now, let’s just wait for the chauffeur”

Naoya smirks, feeling a shudder urge of righteousness sprouting from deep inside him as he recounts his honoring moment before you, while Naoaki mouths a simple thank you, his mind already set somewhere else. Anywhere else to kill time so he can go back home and retake his plans.

There was a horror movie that he wanted to see scheduled for broadcast at midnight, and he wasn’t about to miss it for anything in the world, mentally preparing a list of snacks he’d want to indulge whilst watching the movie, that is, until the absence of a certain… particularity catches his attention from the corner of his eye, interesting enough to prompt his inquiry.

“Naoya, where is your candy?” he asks, and as if he’d spoken the biggest offense in the world, his youngest brother retaliates.

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” Naoya snaps back, blowing a raspberry at him followed by a punch on his arm “Stupid Naoaki!”

Tomoko sighs.

«And that’s all it was, just a moment»

The first thing that Eiichi did as soon as his shift ended was head straight back home to his awaiting family, who had agreed to wait for him to compensate for their abrupt change of plans, as well as his absence.

The excitement of spending time with his children before the 31st ended, as well as the pictures his wife took for the family album, was enough to encourage him to power through the rest of his tasks, and in record time no less

Back at the L/N estate, Eiichi wasted no time to head over to the living room, where the servants had informed him his wife and children were to be.

The kids were out of their costumes and dressed up comfortably in their pajamas, surrounded by popcorn and candy baskets, as they sat before the T.V., a Halloween movie on the screen.

The first one to notice his presence was you, to which you reacted by jumping up from the pillow you were sitting on and rushing to him, hugging his leg.

“Welcome home!!”

“It’s good to be back, little one!” He says, lifting you up and kissing your right cheek “Did you miss me?”

“...A bit” you admit through giggling “we’re watching a movie!”

“I can see that” Eiichi looks at the screen, but he’s unable to identify which movie they’re watching by the frozen frame on screen—Ren would later inform him it was The nightmare before Christmas “Care to make space for me?”

“Actually, I think there’s something you’d rather do instead” Minako says with a proud grin , taking out the album covertly hidden behind her and offers it to her husband “All pictures from tonight, printed and organized by child”

Eiichi carefully places you back down to the ground and rushes his way towards his wife, adoration filling his eyes as he cheers “You’re the best!” it’s not her time to be covered with kisses “I can’t believe you already had them printed!”

“Well, we did buy the printer so we wouldn’t have to go out and wait for them to be revealed” Minako explains “It’s one of the many pros of having our own computer at—”

“Mom, can we watch the movie?” Hinata says. She’d been patient enough to let their parents talk and catch up once dad was back, but after hearing them gush about their shared interest in pictures, she grew restless. They didn’t need to be present to talk about that, right? Or pause the movie for that matter!

“Alright, alright” Minako chuckles, pulling herself up from the floor with the help of her husband and handing Ren the controller “We’ll be in the other room if you need anything, ok?”

The kids don’t respond, their attention already stuck on the glowing screen before them as soon as Ren hits the play button. 

With all the calm of the world, Eiichi can finally enjoy the recollections of his family's first trick-or-treating together through the glossy imprint of the stills before him.

He opens the album. The first section is dedicated to group photos in general, his family standing alongside Tomoko’s.

Eiichi remembers exactly what he told Minako before he left, but it didn’t mean he’d blow up if she did. After all, Tomoko is someone he considers a dear friend and was glad that his wife went ahead and took pictures for them to have as well, she always had a good eye for photography after all.

He just wouldn’t hang their pictures on the wall, though.

He’d eventually move onto the next parts, his favorite ones. The pictures exclusively  portray his family. The way their enjoyment appeared to be portrayed in each photo was enough to fill him with happiness—even considering making a postcard for his distant relatives. ..Should he do such a thing?

Nah, these are precious memories to be shared with others, he’d rather keep them for themselves. 

Now, the parts he was looking forward to the most. Starting with Ren's section.

He was rather quiet and collected, so it was natural that the camera would catch this as well. Most of his pictures portrayed him rather… serious, with the occasional smile or peace sign appearing every 3 or 4 pictures. «I guess he wanted to play into the obscure aura of the undead with his skeleton costume. Eitherway, they’re good pictures!» Eiichi would move on to the next part, Hinata’s.

The one that always followed her mother’s lead: if there was a pose that Minako wanted her to make, she’d strike immediately after and with such fluidity that had her parents thinking she’d be a good model if given the opportunity. A natural before the camera! And she really played the role of a police officer, going ahead to show off her badge and whatnot, which only made her photos even better.

And finally, you. He didn’t want to admit it out loud, for a parent isn’t supposed to show preference over any of their children, but he was secretly looking forward to your photos the most. And could anyone blame him? It was your first halloween going out trick-or-treating, it was only natural that his attention would gravitate more towards you! 

You were still shy, as expected of your age, but Minako managed to get some good pictures of you showing off your purple onesie of a character he still can’t put his finger on quite well. There were moments where you’d appeared introverted before the camera, hiding underneath the hood of your attire, and others where you seemed to dive into character, baring your teeth before the lens, intending to look intimidating.

Well, whatever the outcome, he was glad that you and your siblings had fun, and adoringly so!

Oh, he wishes he could’ve been there to see his family in person. But he could always look back to these pictures whenever he’s feeling particularly nostalgic.

Certainly, there’s nothing that could possibly ruin—

Wait.

Wait a minute.

There's …

What is that? A blemish?

Is… is he seeing things?

No. That can’t be, it’s right there before him. A detail that… Did Minako not see this?

Did she accidentally skip this picture, perhaps? 

A small detail that he doesn’t like… at all.

Whenever you appear, there's something, or more likely someone lingering close to you.  A black uniformed kid just… standing there, either a few feet away from you, if not beside you.

He analyzes the picture for a few moments before moving onto another one, and the other, and another. It's not long before he comes to the crashing realization that most of your pictures were alongside this boy!  Not even in Ren’s, or Hinata’s. Just yours.

Eiichi is at a blank state of mind when it comes to remembering who is the one behind the mask, that is, until he stumbles into a picture where the face of the uniformed kid is fully revealed. An answer that has him losing all of his breath as swirls his head over to his wife, who jolts as his sudden reaction.

"Why– why is— Is this Naoya?!" He says, taking out one of the many incriminating pictures from the album and handing them over to Minako, who could only frown in confusion.

“Yeah…? What about it?” She asks, still confused.

“What do you… Why is he next to our baby??”

“I didn't see anything wrong with it, it's a good picture, wouldn't you agree?” Minako persuades, and Eiichi groans.

"No! It has Naoya in it! I thought I told you I only wanted pictures of our kids!"

"I know, I know. But I wasn't about to ask Naoya-kun to step away from the picture! What would Tomoko-san think of that after all the ones I’ve taken of Y/N alone, hmm?"

"But is there really not a single picture without him there!

"Pfft, you’re exaggerating, dear! Minako says, glancing over his shoulder and onto the album "See? There's some of Y/N alone, I even asked her to pose so she could show off her costume"

"And I greatly appreciate you for it, but still… Why are there so many of her with him…? Not even Naoaki is here…" he murmurs, eyes glancing back down to the pictures. He scans through them quickly, counting just how many pictures Naoya photobombed.

Only to abruptly stop when a familiar sight catches his attention.

A basket. More precisely, a white colored basket.

Naoya's basket. 

The one in the picture…  there’s something intriguing about it, enough to make him stop passing through the pages. Almost as if he’d seen it before, and rather recently at that, but he doesn’t remember where…

Just where exactly did he see it? Not as his job, none of his employees brought any candy… maybe at the—

He freezes.

Oh.

Oh no.

He knows now, he saw it in his house.

In the living room

Just besides the couch.

A shiver travels through his spine as countless scenarios traverse his mind, all leaning into the worst possible outcomes.

He needs an answer, and he needs it now.

Eiichi wastes no second to barge through the door as he rushes through the living room, an alarmed Minako trailing behind him as she repeatedly asks him what’s wrong.

She eventually catches up to him to the even more confusing sight of her husband standing near you. Poor Minako has yet to understand the excruciating pain Eiichi is going through as he murmurs the following.

"Y/N… my pumpkin, my sugar cookie, my precious honey bear…” he asks, voice trembling as he leaned closer to you, his words although low, are loud enough for Hinata and Ren which reprimanded him with a sharp shh! But even then, that doesn’t stop him from moving forward. “Where did you get those candies…?" His fingers reflect the shivering state of his voice as he now points to the still full (although a bit less than when it was given to you, thanks to your efforts) incriminating bucket in front of you.

And just as if you'd remembered a misplaced secret, you mouthed a quiet "oh!" before jolting out from your cushioned seat and grabbing the container, a chocolatey grin on your lips as you proudly exclaimed.

"Noya-kun gave them to me!" You shove the basket towards him, finally revealing the reason why you were so happy to get them in the first place "They're for you, that way we won't share!"

"Oh… so that's where they came fr–" Minako murmurs from the door frame, but the rest of her words don't go past her lips thanks to the interrupting shrill of an overprotective father who just realized that his worst fear had become a reality.

"NOYA?!" he cries, flickering back to Minako, as if asking if she was aware of this "HE ALREADY HAS A NICKNAME?!!"

"Dear, quiet down, some are already asleep" Minako, now by his side, cautions him as she places her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down before any of the sleeping staff or family members come check if everything is alright… or complain. 

“Dad! Shut up!!” Hinata groans. Having lived and grown with their father, they're no longer moved by his melodramatic antics, nurturing some kind of resistance that limits them to give him a scowl as well as a warning glance whenever he goes off on his delusions, such as the one Ren is giving him right now.

You, having yet to reach their level of expertise, all you can do is give him a confused pout in return, which still works very well with what’s happening around you.

"But–but she–" Eiichi says as he's pushed out of the room by his irked wife, who wasn’t willing to discuss in front of the children who just wanted to make the best of the only night they could stay up without worrying about school the next day "I won't allow it! It'll be the last time they're ever invited to trick or treat with us!" 

"Huh?!" She exclaimed "Tomoko-san won't like that, you know!"

"I can't allow that boy to be near our precious daughter! She's too good for him! Or anyone for that matter!!"

"You couldn't possibly be serious, Eiichi" Minako rolls her eyes. "Besides, they're just kids! Y/N doesn't really care for anything else other than her cartoons and Naoya just gave her the candy because she was sad. And apparently Naoaki did the same too."

"HE WHAT?!"

"Dear, you need to calm down" Minako suggests "Hear yourself. They were concerned because she was sad, that’s all. Also, you can't be over protective about her for all her life"

"But she… she won't stay small for too long, and before we know it, she'll get married!! Look at Ren, he's already 10!" Eiichi shrieks “And from there, a teenager, he’s going to college, he’s moving out, and then—”

"Worry about that when it happens" She comforts "You’re worrying too much about the future, that you’re missing the present! Our kids couldn’t really care less about those things. Ren just wants to listen to music all day, Hinata wants to be with the horses, and Y/N wants to play videogames. Do you really think they have time to think about girlfriends and boyfriends?”

“... I mean, if you put it that way…”

“It’s the only way, Eiichi”

"... I guess" he sighs, looking away, feeling embarrassed for his over the top reaction. "...I just got worried, I guess."

"There's nothing to fear, just… be there. To love them, to cherish them, to protect them. Y/N is too young to notice it, but if you keep on like this then she won’t trust you to tell you things. Besides, I think the real issue here is Naoya not having candy for Halloween, we can't let Y/N think that's right… I can’t believe I didn’t notice, and she didn’t tell me either!"

"I know… I know…" Eiichi grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles as an apology "I’m sorry. Thank you, Minako. You’ve always been the better half of this marriage”

“Oh, stop it Eiichi” She laughs “We compliment each other, I’ve always believed that”

“I guess I really do have to take it one day at a time. I just can't believe she's already 6"

“She is growing pretty fast…” she giggles, kissing his hand in return "How about you continue looking  through the album and select the better pictures? Or better yet, change into your pajamas and join us to see a movie. Who knows? Maybe Y/N will let you have some of her own candy instead—just promise me you’ll keep quiet, I can already see Hinata losing more and more of her patience by the second"

"Oh, I better behave then" he laughs back "Y/N can be very protective of her sweets and I wouldn’t risk angering Hinata… or Ren, did you see his face? If looks could kill!"

Minako laughs.

Thus, your mother goes back to the living room while Eiichi heads to their bedroom to change into something more comfortable and join his family.

Your mother would like to say that this conversation wasn't really brought up ever again, or that it didn't take much of space in her mind, that would be a lie however, for the mention of Naoya liking you was one that she never considered in the past, more so when Hinata and Ren already avoided him like the plague.

But now that she thinks about it… it all became obvious to her.

Naoya sure seemed comfortable whenever around you, as well as his lingering gazes he placed on you whenever she was lucky enough to catch them at the moment, or how he’d respond attentively to you whenever you referred to him, when he kept his interactions limited with your siblings or even Naoaki…

She thought of it as just socializing, getting to know each other with the hopes of becoming friends, but now that Eiichi pointed it out… she can’t wonder, had Tomoko noticed this as well?

Nonetheless, that’s something she’d keep locked behind her lips, buried deep inside her mind. 

Maybe she’ll bring it up next time she sees Tomoko, probably at Junko’s baby shower…

But if she had to give her opinion about this whole ordeal, a label for a lack of better words, then she has to admit that…

"Y/N and Naoya look cute together" 

#prompt series: jujutsu kaisen #naoya zenin #naoya zen'in #naoya x reader #naoya zenin x reader #naoya zenin x your #jjk naoya #naoya zen'in x reader #i had a bit of fun with this #:> well not a bit #a lot #thanks for the ask!!! I hope you like it #ill be posting some extra notes these days

[smartycvnt]

Meeting the Family

Pairing: William Regal x Reader

You were beyond nervous for tonight. Wrestling wasn't a big part of your life, despite having grown up around it. The sport was everything to your father, uncles, brothers, and cousins, but you had never really been bitten by the wrestling bug. You hadn't even been to a show in almost ten years. However, just a few months ago you had secretly gotten married to William. You had yet to meet his son Charlie, who was now wrestling on NXT. William had come back from AEW to WWE just to help coach his son and some of his peers. You thought it was admirable, especially since he had been so happy working alongside the BCC at AEW.

"You can relax a little. This is all going to be fine," William said as he placed his hand over yours. You relaxed a little as he squeezed gently. You hadn't met Charlie yet, not as William's wife at least. He had introduced the two of you earlier, claiming that you were an acquaintance that he had met during some media thing. That was true enough, although not at the time. The two of you had met while you were promoting your new television show, which William would be getting a guest star spot on. He had also set up a meeting for you to use some other wrestlers as background or recurring characters.

"Do you think he'll like me?" you asked. William nodded, absolutely certain that Charlie would love you. William knew that it'd be a bit awkward since you had been one of his son's first celebrity crushes, but William would enjoy teasing him about it. "I don't think I've ever been this nervous to meet someone else before."

"You're quite charming and extremely lovely my dear. Charlie would be an absolute fool if he didn't absolutely adore you. I'm counting on having to tell him to behave actually. He's got all my charm and none of my tact, poor fellow," William said. You could tell that he was joking, especially about the tact, which William did lack a bit. He was a shameless flirt, almost to the point of getting himself in trouble. You didn't mind it, but you knew that if he didn't watch himself in some spaces that it could become a problem.

William walked you around backstage and introduced you to a few of his old friends and colleagues. You were introduced to some of the wrestlers who had signed up to audition for parts on your show as well. Everybody seemed pretty nice, and William felt comfortable enough to leave you there to talk to them while he ran to get Charlie. You had gotten sort of lost in chatting with Hunter about some of William's old stories when William approached the two of you.

"Not embarrassing me I hope," William said as he placed his arm around you. You gave him a look like nobody could embarrass him more than he had himself in his drunk recollection of various mishaps in matches or traveling. "Y/n, this is my son, Charlie. Charlie, this is your new stepmother, Y/n."

"Stepmother?" Charlie asked. He had obviously expected William to introduce you as a girlfriend or partner, not his new wife. "Someone moves fast."

"She's a good chunk of years younger than me, no use in waiting around," William joked. You slapped his chest as you moved forward to hold your hand out for Charlie to shake.

"Nice to meet you," you said, ignoring the way William was still going on behind you. You were an actress for a living, but had yet to meet anyone more dramatic than William. "Sorry for this being dropped on you so suddenly."

"Something tells me that's not your fault. The pleasure's all mine, I'm a big fan," Charlie told you. William gave you a look like he knew you'd get along with Charlie very well as he pulled Hunter aside to talk to him. "Do you like wrestling?"

"It's not really my thing, but I've been around enough of it to know what's going on. Good luck tonight, I think you'd make a good champion. Your father tells me you're a good man, much better behaved than he was at your age," you said. You had a little joke about Charlie seeming better behaved now than William was, but you held it back.

"Bar wasn't set too high," Charlie joked. You laughed at his comment, causing William to glance over at the two of you. You liked how easily you fell into step with William and his son, especially after having been so scared about meeting Charlie in the first place. You'd hate to admit it, but William was absolutely correct about you having nothing to worry about.

#wwe x reader #wwe #wwe imagine #wwe imagines #william regal imagines #william regal imagine #william regal #william regal x reader

[derangedthots]

Someone said jaceluke with possessive Luke? bc I'm more than ready to hear about them. Imagine an au where Luke is an alpha and patiently watches as his brother is courted by all these lords and ladies of the kingdom and ofc Aemond included. So when it comes time for Jace to choose his husband at a big ball Luke invites Jace to dance and there in front of everyone bites his brother claiming him as his own. Everything is chaos and confusion, Aemond is petrified for a moment but is ready to rip Luke's throat off, he will not let Luke live after this, that little shit knew what he was doing and Aemond will make him pay but Daemon gets in the way and avoids the disaster. There is nothing to do, Jace has Luke's mark and biological and legally is his brother's omega now. Luke declares that it was an accident, his rut arrived early and the smell of omega from his brother simply took the animal out of his biology, he mourns his apologies especially to Jace. Everyone believes him, even Jace and that only makes Aemond's fury increase, he knows that Luke lies, he knows because Luke looked at Aemond all the time on the other side of the room when he bit Jace. That bastard bit Aemond's omega and wanted him to see it.

First he took his eye without receiving any punishment and now he took his omega and will get away with it... again. The jaceluke marriage is announced in the morning, even if it is a politically poor movement Viserys is ready to launch a wedding even bigger than his daughter's. They are called the new jaehaerys and alysanne, Daemon is pleased with the turn of events (the queen Alicent even suspects that he is the mastermind of the crime) Jace thinks that being married to his own brother can't be so bad, also Luke is his sweet younger brother and he does not doubt that he is embarrassed for having lost control, Jace will not make things more difficult for him, he will make sure this marriage works. Aemond will have to settle for one of Borros' daughters after all

no bc this got me twirling my hair and kicking my feet fjsks we really love making aemond suffer fr and luke stays being his lifelong nemesis getting away with everything😭😭🤭

#and you know jace would forgive luke anything aemond can't win😭😭