#but it's the kind of wake-up call that ryuu needed to start to find himself and his resolve | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

samwrights · 4 years

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Team Karasuno as dads [hc]

For a married woman that doesn’t want kids, I sure do fantasize about my boys being dads a lot.

Asahi;

He definitely cried when he found out you were pregnant.

When your daughter was born, he couldn’t even be in the room because he was so overwhelmed with you being in pain and the fact he was about to bE A DAD

He doesn’t even remember how you started dating because he was so blown away by your beauty or so he claims but the fact that y’all were married?? And having a kid?? When did he get so bold??

Eventually he got over it cause he felt bad that he wasn’t in the room holding your hand while you literally pushed a whole ass human out ya cooch.

He fainted

The first time he held his daughter was the first time he had felt complete, more complete than when he rejoined the volleyball team in his third year. It felt amazingly right. He tries to deny the fact and say your wedding was just as wholesome but you can tell. Fatherhood is something entirely different for him

“She takes after momma’s beauty.” A simp through and through.

Asahi is a parental HOG. Which is kinda nice cause he loves doting on your child but also HI I AM MOM AND WOULD LIKE TO HOLD MY BABY???

He tells YOU how to hold her and feed her and little ticks about her personality like you aren’t on maternity leave and are with the baby ALL DAY (although he is REALLY pushing for you to just be a stay-at-home mom)

Because he is soooo doting, it’s very rare that you wake in the middle of the night to feed or change her—Asahi is ALL over it. But he is human and there are days he’s too tired to wake up from dead sleep. It’s ok, he’s your human. Daddy deserves rest too.

Asahi would totally be a co-sleeper, or at least nap with the baby as much as he possibly could.

Definitely bought her multiple onesies that say “daddy’s little princess”.

She gonna be a spoiled brat when she’s older 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Daichi Dadchi;

I mean he’s a literal running joke in the fandom

After being elected as the unofficial dad of the VBC in his high school days, it was no wonder that he was such a natural with your three munchkins.

Having three slightly older boys of varying ages, you relied heavily on Daichi to get through to them when you couldn’t.

He’s definitely the strict parent; your sons all try to take advantage of you 💀 demons

Your boys saw you as a pushover most of the time because you were just so tired.

“Just keep trying for a girl, they said. There’s a 50/50 chance, they said.” Was something Daichi would find you chanting to yourself often while you cooked dinner and the boys were playing soccer in the house and breaking something.

Even though Daichi is strict, he really tries to emphasize to the boys to treat you with kindness to make it a bit easier on you.

“Guys, please don’t make your mother rip her hair out.”

“We’re just playin’!” They would sing in flawed harmony

“One day, you guys are going to be all grown up with your own special person with your own kids, and you’re gonna love them so much that you’ll understand why I’m telling you to calm down and listen to your mom.” Asjdfkhlek.

“Ewwww, daddy loves mommy.”

“I sure do.”

Sugawara;

On god, Suga would be the most patient parent. He treats your toddlers like mini adults and not your insane nine year old girl or six year old boy.

He listens thoroughly when they are upset about something, cautiously listening to the deeper truths about why they’re upset and takes great care in making sure his children feel validated.

Super dad 🥰

But it’s not a random event; after being married to you for the last decade, he had so much practice with conflict resolution and genuinely listening to you that it was a natural tendency at this point.

For the most part, your children are incredibly well behaved. Sure, there’s an occasional incident because, well they’re kids. Your daughter, being the older of the two and nearly finished with primary school, was entering her phase of discovering boys and constantly writing in her diary.

Suga may be super dad, but he is not perfect, and for some reason I totally see him reading her diary.

“Koushi, put it back. Now.” He was just going to pretend that you using your mom voice on him didn’t turn him on and prepare him to fill you with another baby.

While he may be an expert on conflict resolution, you enforced respecting their privacy; quite a dynamic between the two of you in terms of validating your children as individuals.

“But honey, our daughter is starting to like boys.”

“At least one of the females in this house does.” 💀💀💀 with angels for children, someone had to be the clown of the Sugawara family and it was certainly you.

Tanaka;

You and Tanaka had your first baby in your guys’ third year of high school, which you would be lying if you said it wasn’t hell.

Tanaka fought tooth and nail to try to do everything from makin dinner, working, making sure you were getting rest, and of course still playing volleyball. Everything except actually trying to graduate.

“I don’t have time to study babe, I have practice and then we gotta put this squirt to bed.”

There was a constant argument about Tanaka continuing with volleyball that nearly forced you two to split. While you knew how important it was to him, there was no way he was going to graduate from Karasuno while he was trying to care for you, a child, work, and play volleyball.

“Ryuu, please. I know you don’t wanna quit but if you can’t pass your classes, you won’t be able to participate anyway.” He did not take well to that.

It took him time to come to his senses and in that time, you had kept you and your son away from him to allow him his space.

Apparently that was also a wrong move on your part.

He was so angry and frustrated being away from his mini me that he had easily conceded to retiring from volleyball if it meant being able to watch his little nugget learn how to sit up and crawl.

Yes, he goes HAM on the nicknames. Squirt, nugget, mini me, beanie baby, tyke, and all of the above. He pretty much calls your son everything but his actual name.

“I’m sorry for being stubborn.” He says one night while you help him study for his finals, your sleeping son swaddled in your arms.

“I’m sorry for making you give up something you love.”

“Nah, I got you and the munchkin. That’s all I need.”

Noya;

I love Noya 🥺 but at first, he is a chaotic parent. Granted y’all had your first child when you were still in college and he hadn’t the faintest clue on how to be a dad.

To be perfectly honest, you weren’t quite sure how to parent either.

Neither of you knew how to change diapers

Noya definitely got peed on more times than he wishes to admit

When your son was still a newborn, just around finals time, neither of you could figure out for the life of you why your baby was crying in the middle of the night. Which inherently made you cry because you had an 8am final and you had finished studying 5 hours prior 🙃

“Try to get some sleep, babe. I’ll take care of him.” Nishinoya’s voice was thick with exhaustion, but he knew how little you’d been sleeping since giving birth.

When you went to leave for your final, Noya was asleep in your living room rocking chair, baby safely in his arms with the both of them just snoozing away.

It was a struggle but the two of you faced the challenge together, one step at a time with your energetic four-year-old son as you graduated university. By the time you had all settled into a larger apartment together as a family, Noya had yet to pop the question. He was too busy having fun with his little man.

Sometimes it scared you how in sync he was with his child probably because he was still a child himself but it was sweet and endearing.

“Hey babe?” He asks softly after the two of you tucked away your boy for the evening. You raised in eyebrow at him, silently goading for him to continue. “Do you want to have another?” Needless to say, he sure as shit impregnated you that night asjckglpwm

Hinata;

With Hinata being an older brother, I actually see him being a wonderful dad. However, homie’s got a one-track mind and with him playing professionally, you’re usually left to do the parenting.

Your kids definitely like you more than Shoyo, not that anyone blamed anyone; they just never see daddy :(

BUT when he is in dad mode and home, you suddenly remember why you were eager as shit to have more kids with him 🥴 which explains ya you’ve got your third on the way

When he does come home, he automatically greets his older, 8 year old son with noogies and a brief wrestling session. For some reason, Hinata felt the need to compete with his own child 💀

Headass.

But when he sees his daughter, his world stops because he has favorites and EVERYONE in the Hinata house knows it

Always asking your 6 year old girl how her day was, asking how she was doing ruling over her imaginary kingdom and if she found her Prince Charming yet.

“Pffft I don’t need Prince Charming, daddy, he’s icky!!! Mommy says I don’t need a man!”

Where is the lie

“Your mom is absolutely right and you should totally listen to her, she’s the best queen in the whole world.”

Because of his one-track mind, he is engaged fully with your kids when he is actually home. Your son had naturally gotten into volleyball which, even after a long day’s practice, Shoyo spends hours training him.

“Do you think this one’s finally gonna like me more than you?” He asks one night while he’s doing the dishes after dinner, while you’re right beside him drying them off.

“Sho, our kids love you. But mom is home with them allllll day and has been since birth.”

“Can we keep trying until one of them finally likes me more?” 💀💀💀 “or until we have enough to make our own volleyball team?”

Kageyama;

How this socially inept clown got ANYONE pregnant was unthinkable. Of course, to anyone but you. After being with him all throughout high school, it was more of a wonder how you didn’t get pregnant sooner

This dude dirty. His one track mind, if not on volleyball, was entirely on you. Nearly every night was date night which ALWAYS ended with bow chicka wow wow 😏 you horny mfers yalll moved in together as soon as you graduated from Karasuno.

Clothing at home was nonexistent.

With the two of you in your second year of college, living in your apartment, and being 8 months pregnant, the air had dramatically shifted.

Kageyama’s once still high sex drive had been channeled into school work, working, and of course, volleyball. You were planning on at least completing your semester before taking time off to care for the baby. It seemed one of you would have to really step up, and from what it seems, it wasn’t going to be Tobio.

When he was home, which was very few and far between with how much he had going on, he had tried to dote on you as much as he could physically muster. Kisses here and there, bathing together, and lots of snuggles.

Kageyama is in charge of the nursery and there’s no room for argument on this. With him not being as present at home, he sets up the nursery as a way to communicate with his child that he’s never going to see because of volleyball

I love Kags, but he is nowhere near ready to even think about parenting 💀 which you tried to be patient with, but with the due date approaching very rapidly, you kinda needed him to step it up.

“I’ve helped.” He tries using the nursery as an argument and he had gone to every doctors appointment but homeboy still doesn’t know how to make a bottle or change a diaper

Was he prepared to have to clean up baby shit and vomit? Absolutely not. Was he going to anyway? Lmao, absolutely not. This boy only wants to be daddy, not dad.

Tsukishima;

It shook everyone and their mother when people found out that Kei not only had a girlfriend that he met in college, but that his girlfriend was a milf according to Kuroo and Bokuto

When you and Kei had first started dating, your daughter was already five. And while you obviously didn’t bring her to classes with you, she was always with the two of you for date nights. Oddly enough, he really didn’t mind.

His patience for kids, now that’s he’s older and kids are actually kids and NOT his peers, rivals that of Sugawara’s.

“Hey Tsukki,” your spawn asks at dinner one day. “When are you and mommy gonna get married? People keep making fun of me cause I call my parents mommy and Tsukki.”

“Making fun of people isn’t cool, it’s so lame. They’re just jealous cause they don’t get to call their parents mommy and Tsukki.”

👁—

That same night, Kei offers to read your daughter to sleep as if to reinforce the notion that mommy and Tsukki was cooler than mommy and daddy. Of course, he was pushing for this to hide that he was upset that children were making fun of her.

After that Tsukishima really gets into his dad role—walking your daughter to school with you or without you everyday, picking her up and giving her grandiose hugs. He made sure to lock eyes with every spectator, his height towering over many at the kindergarten. Silently telling them all “do not fuck with her, or you answer to me.”

He’s sosososo protective, I can’t. He ain’t scared to fight a toddler.

Even well after you and Tsukishima introduce a child of your own, your daughter still insists on calling him Tsukki and adamantly tries to teach her sister to say Tsukki instead of dada.

“You’re okay with the kids not calling you ‘Daddy’, Kei?”

“The only one I want calling me daddy is you.”

Yamaguchi;

This poor bean 💀 not only was he not prepared for fatherhood in the slightest, but twins?!

You both swore up and down they were evil. If one was hungry, the other one would refuse to eat until the other finished their meal. This applied to using their diapers as well.

Imagine the energy of Hinata and Nishinoya as baby twin boys, and lo and behold, yours and Tadashi’s kids.

While you had slightly more patience with them, knowing they were going to grow up eventually and become their own independent humans. Tadashi was not handling this well at all.

Low key, he felt like he was doing a horrible job as a parent and, after the boys had finally gone to sleep for the night, you’d spent a lot of time consoling Tadashi.

“Why can’t I be like—“

“Baby, you’ve got to stop comparing yourself to all of your friends. None of them have twin boys that are less than a year old.”

“Yeah but Hinata has three of them, so does Daichi—“

“Honey, you aren’t them. You’re you, so please, just be you.”

He’s ambitious when it comes to parenting—he wants to be the best dad ever, and he only gets better with practice.

That doesn’t make him wanna tear out his hair any less, but as the boys get older, it does get easier. We pretend their toddler years didn’t exist, it was a nightmare that Tadashi does NOT want to relive

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alexhogh7137 · 4 years

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The Battle Between Love and Fire-

Ivar the Boneless × Reader

Chapter Thirty-Two: Forever in Life & Forever in Valhalla

Chapter Thirty-one

Word Count 3.3k

Warnings: heavy angst, mentions of blood

Ivar's Pov:

I look up and I see my wife flying straight towards the castle. Hvitserk is riding fiercely beside my carriage while Ubbe is running with our army towards the gates of Wessex. I try to stay focused and stay strong but all I can think about is Y/n and her safety. She is four months pregnant and my heart is pounding in my chest, knowing how close she is to the castle. Hvitserk looks up as Neith flies overhead and he hisses.

"What is it, Hvitserk?"

Hvitserk "Jus-trying to stay focused. Where is his army?!" He shouted to me as we continued riding towards the gate. I look around and cannot see anyone coming from either side of us.

"Something is wrong." As soon as I said that, I heard Ubbe shouting once he reached the gate. I look ahead and I can see spears coming out of the castles rooftop, straight towards Y/n.

"Y/N!" I scream for her as the first spear pierces Ryuu. He screeches as it pierces his rough skin and I can hear Y/n scream for her boy.

Hvitserk "Y/N!" He screams for her as Ryuu gets targeted with more spears. As all of this is happening, the spears continue to shoot from the rooftops but they miss Neith and Eldr. The two dragons flame the rooftop, soon ending that attempt. I watch Ryuu slowly heading to the ground with my pregnant wife on his back in absolute terror. My life flashes before my eyes once I see him hit the ground. And what she said to me before we left for battle, comes to my mind: "Nothing is going to happen to me, my beloved. We have his weapons. There is no way he can win." Hvitserk hits his horse as hard as he could to make the horse go as fast as possible towards Y/n.

Ubbe "GO IVAR! I'LL WAIT FOR YOU, GO!" I agree and head for her. I fear what I will see once I get to her. Every possibility goes through my head but not what I actually saw.

Hvitserk dismounts his horse and runs to Ryuu who has more than five spears in his neck and body. It breaks his heart to see this dragon that he has come to love, dead before his eyes. Yes, this is heartbreaking, but Y/n's life is on the line. Where is she? When I get to Ryuu, I get out of the carriage and walk as fast as I could to where Hvitserk is standing.

"Hvitserk.." He does not respond, only falls to his knees and screams at the top of his lungs. I knew as soon as I heard my brother that she was gone. But I had to see her for myself. When I got to her, Y/n had a spear pierced in the center of her chest and half of Ryuu's body on top of her. Hvitserk is trying to pull her lifeless body out from underneath her dragon so that he can hold her. It feels like my soul has left my body and my heart has stopped beating. I try to walk to her but collapse to the ground in grief and agony. I break down and let my emotions take over as I scream out for my wife. Hvitserk grunts as he cries, endlessly trying to get her out.

"You're not going to be able, brother."

Hvitserk "WE'RE NOT LEAVING HER!" I cry out so loud that I cannot catch my breath. Everyone that I have ever loved, has died. What do I have to live for now? Minutes later, she is out from under Ryuu and is in my brother's arms. The spear is still in her chest when Ubbe joins us.

Ubbe "Ivar..no..NO!" He runs to Hvitserk and falls to his knees. He cups her cheeks in his hands, trying to wake her up but it is useless. He slowly takes the spear out of her chest and she begins to bleed profusely.

"She's gone! They-they are gone!" I try to talk again but I hear our men scream out. His army has been unleashed and the battle has officially begun. "I can't..I-"

Ubbe "Go, take her."

"I ca-...I can't carry her." I weep.

Hvitserk sniffles and picks Y/n up in his arms and places her in my carriage. A small blood trail slips from the corner of her lips. Hvitserk stops before me and pulls me into a hard embrace.

Hvitserk "If I don't return, just know that I am joined with her in Valhalla."

"Brother-"

Hvitserk "Go." He runs with Ubbe and I get into the carriage with Y/n. When I began to head for the boats, I hault. I look down at my dagger in my pocket and I take it in my right hand and look down at my wife.

I bend down and kiss her brow as the world burns around us, "I'll see you in Valhalla, my love." And without a moment to waste, I forced my dagger directly into my heart and woke up.

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When I awake, I bolt upright and start hyperventilating. I look next to me and I see my beautiful wife, sleeping peacefully beside me. I immediately break down into tears. That dream felt so vivid and so real that it amazes me that it was only a dream.

Y/n "Ivar?" Her voice raspy. I don't say anything, I just fall backwards against the bed and pull you into my chest and continue to sob. She holds onto me and lets me ride it out before she spoke to me.

Y/n "Hey..what is it? I have never seen you like this."

I snicker "I have cried many times but you were not awake to see it."

Y/n "Please talk to me, my love. You know that you can tell me anything."

I sniffle and take a huge deep breath before explaining my dream in full detail. Y/n listened intently and held my hand the entirety of the story.

Y/n "No wonder you woke up like this.."

I chuckle, "Yes. It felt so real I just...can't even express to you how grateful I am that it was only a dream."

Y/n "It was only a dream, Ivar. I'm okay, Ryuu is okay. The battle is not for a few more days. So do me a favor and breathe." I did not even realize that I was holding my breath as she spoke.

"I love you. I love you...I love-" she crashes her lips to mine to stop me babbling on. This kiss is what I needed to stay sane, to come back to reality and out of that nightmare.

Y/n pulls away, "And I love you, Ivar Lothbrok."

"Lothbrok...I'-I've never heard anyone call me that before."

Y/n "That is your name, my love. You are not boneless to me, so why should I call you boneless? To me, you are my husband and you are whole." My breath hitches and my throat starts to burn as tears fill my eyes. I have never loved any woman as much as I love Y/n. She is my absolute world, my best friend, my happiness, and my strength.

"You...you are incredible."

Y/n "As are you, beloved." I kiss her lips softly before she deepens it. My tears sook dry as she continues to kiss me. My hand finds her jawline and I begin to rub small circles on her soft, doll-like cheek.

Out of breath, "Can I?" She smirks as she giggles.

Y/n "If you wish, my king." That was all I needed to hear before I crawled towards the end of the bed to meet her core.

"Since I had that nightmare, I am taking my time tonight princess." I watch as her eyes roll to the back of her head once I kiss her. And she purrs for me to continue.

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You and Ivar end up spending the rest of the day in bed. Not even coming out to eat so maidens come in to bring food to us.

"Is everything alright, my king?" The girl asked.

Ivar "Ah yes, thank you." He said, taking the food from her.

"Anything I can do for you, my queen?"

"No sweetheart, thank you." She bows quickly before walking out of the chambers.

Ivar chuckles, "I wonder what my brother's are thinking."

"I don't know, nor do I care much to know. I am enjoying this time with my husband." He smiles and kisses your cheek as you take a bite of food.

Ivar "You know what we should do tonight?"

"Hmm?"

Ivar "Go to our place."

"At night?"

Ivar "Why not. We can start a fire and get warm by the waterfall."

I smile, "That sounds wonderful, my love."

Ivar "I think so too, princess. I just think that we need to go to our place today. It brings the both of us so much peace, am I right?"

"You are. What if we bring Ubbe and Torvi and Hvitserk! They can enjoy our place with us!" You got so excited at the thought and you can see Ivar crack a smile as his eyes start to sparkle.

Ivar "I think that would be fine, my sweet."

"Yay!" You clap your hands together and your husband laughed pretty hard, "I'm so excited!"

Ivar "I adore you so much." You gush and kiss his lips. They taste like ale and beef but you do not have a care in the world.

"I love you."

Ivar "Always."

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Hvitserk ends up knocking on your chamber doors, asking if you were both alright. Ivar allows him in and he sits on your side of the bed, next to you and holds your hand like he always does whenever he gets the chance.

Hvitserk "So what is it? Why haven't you two gotten out of bed, hmm?"

Ivar sighs and opens his mouth to speak, "I had a nightmare, Hvitserk. We just wanted to spend as much time together as possible today."

Hvitserk "What kind of nightmare?"

Ivar "I do not want to think about it any longer. So when I am ready to talk about it, I will tell you."

Hvitserk "It was that bad?" Ivar only nods, "was it a vision or only a nightmare?"

Ivar "A nightmare. Because the weapons that were in my dream, we have in our possession."

Hvitserk "It was of the battle.."

Ivar "Yes brother."

"Well let's not talk about this anymore. Ivar and I are going to our place tonight and we would like for you and Ubbe to join us." You squeeze his hand in excitement. He looks at Ivar before accepting this invitation or not.

Hvitserk "I would love to, Y/n. Ivar has only told me of its beauty so I look forward to seeing it for myself." You bounce up and down in bed and watch both of your boys burst out laughing. That is one of your talents, you see: distracting them from themselves with humor.

Hvitserk "I will go inform Ubbe and Torvi." He got up but before leaving, he kisses your forehead and then walks away.

Ivar "He seems excited."

"As he should be! It's a beautiful place, my love."

Ivar "I know. I am glad that it is ours."

"Me too, Ivar." He leans down and kisses your lips before getting out of bed himself. You can't help but admire your husband as he gets dressed. He is the perfect amount of muscle and beauty that he can take your breath away but only looking at him. You watch as he covers up his tattooed chest with his thick shirt for the wintery air and his legs with his armor so that he can stand without them giving out on him. You get out of bed to help him with the finishing touches of his armor because he can't put himself through the pain himself.

"I'm sorry, my love." You say as you secure his knees in place.

He grunts, "No no, don't apologize."

You sigh, "I hate having to hurt you like this.."

Ivar "You are not hurting me. Think of it this way, if you don't help me with my armor, then I will be in even more pain than I am in right now because I would have to crawl my way through the house."

"Well that helped me get through this.."

Ivar smiles, "And you help me get through everyday, my little princess." He caresses your cheek, "I love you more than anything else in this entire world, and do you know why?" You look deep into his eyes, waiting for him to continue. "Because you are my world. You and this little daughter of ours." He holds your belly and rubs it softly.

"We love you more than life itself, Ivar. You are our world too. Never forget that, okay? Promise me." When you said those few words, he got flashbacks from his nightmare and all of the moments that you were on your deathbed. His stomach turns in his gut and his hands start to shake. His eyes fall to the ground and he loses his sense to speak for a few moments.

"Ivar.. hey?" You raise his face with your hands.

Ivar "S-sorry..yes I promise." He staggered.

"You worry me, Ivar."

Ivar chuckles, "I must say, you worry me too."

"Why.."

Ivar "I have seen you die..I have seen you so beaten, so broken that you were unrecognizable. Do you understand how hard that was for me? To see my wife in so much pain and I couldn't do a thing to take it away from you? Y/n, you are the only person that keeps my heart beating! So yes, I worry about you. You are almost four months pregnant and are approaching battle.." your heart breaks in your chest, hearing the worry in his voice. So you decide to pull him into your arms and just hold him for a while. You do not know how long you held each other but it was a good amount of time.

"Our future is bright, my king. The gods are with us, always. So look at me," he looks into your eyes, "We both need each other to survive. You need me and I need you. So let's just try our hardest to live, and if we do not, then we will live forever in Valhalla."

Ivar lets a tear slip from his eye, "Is that our new saying, Forever in Life and Forever in Valhalla?"

You smile, "Yes it is." You lean in and kiss his lips.

Ivar "Now, let me dress you." You giggle and get off of his lap so that he can stand to help dress you. Being able to talk about life and death with your husband is one of the greatest gifts of this marriage. It is so simple and so easy.

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Ubbe and Torvi already have their furs on when you and Ivar get to the hall. Ivar holds your hand as you both approach them with his head held high.

Torvi "There you are!" She rushes over to hug you softly.

"My apologies..long morning."

Torvi "Do not apologize. I can't even tell you how many times Ubbe and I just stayed in bed and did nothing."

Ubbe "That is before we had little Ragnar, of course." He chuckles.

Ivar "Ah yes, that little monster..speaking of, where is my nephew huh?!"

Torvi smiles, "He's down for his nap." Ivar nods and puts the fur cloak around your shoulders.

Ubbe "I must say, I am surprised about the invitation."

Ivar "Well it is time for a little change so we would like to show you our place."

Torvi "We thank you, Ivar. We are excited."

Ivar "Where is Hvitserk, huh?"

Ubbe "Waiting by the horses. We should go, before it gets too dark to travel."

Ivar "Very good, lets go."

…

You sneak up behind Hvitserk and wrap your arms around his waist, shocking him a bit.

Hvitserk jolts, "Gods.."

"Gotcha!" You giggle. He turns around and picks you up, spinning you around for a second.

Hvitserk "Don't do that! I could've-"

"No you wouldn't have.."

Hvitserk sighs, "I love you, you know that."

"I do, and I love you too." You look up and get an idea when you see Neith.

Hvitserk "What?"

"I'm going to ride Neith to mine and Ivar's place."

Hvitserk "Okay, you sure? You can always ride with me or Ivar."

"I know, I want to. And Neith needs to fly, look at her!" He snickers and then looks at the dragon, flapping her wings up and down, begging to fly.

Hvitserk "Alright, go on. I'll see you there." He kisses your forehead and helps you onto Neith. Ivar watches you take off and asks Hvitserk why he let you go, so he explains why.

Ivar "Alright well she is going to beat us there..we must get going." They rush to follow you. Ivar looks up into the sky and screams, "That's my wife!" You look behind you and smile when you find him riding in his carriage. He is your biggest supporter and your biggest idol. You hum to yourself, then look ahead to find your place. It only takes you a few moments to reach your destination but it takes Ivar and the rest of them about 15 minutes. When they arrive, you smile.

"Slow pokes." You say, petting Neith's snout proudly.

Ubbe chuckles, "When you wish that you had your own dragon.."

"Never say never, brother." His face brightens up as he hears you. Ivar walks up to you and kisses your lips.

Ivar "You looked good up there, you know."

"I heard you too, that was sweet."

Ivar "Hey, I'm a proud husband."

"And I, a proud wife."

Torvi "Alright lovebirds, show us around!" You and Ivar gladly show Ubbe, Torvi and Hvitserk around your perfect place. Torvi's mouth was ajar the entire time. Ubbe was so fascinated and Hvitserk just had a huge smile on his face, seeing you so happy.

Ubbe "No wonder you came here all the time, Ivar. It's perfect." Ivar smiles as he wraps his arms around your waist.

Torvi "I've never seen such a beautiful place."

Hvitserk "You have to take your daughter here, Y/n. She's going to love it."

"Oh I will. She will grow up in this peaceful place and one day she will find her own place with her love." You look up at Ivar from behind. He gushes and kisses your cheek.

Torvi "I love seeing you two." Ivar chuckles.

Ubbe "She's right, brother. We've never seen you so happy."

Ivar "Thank you Ubbe." He pats his brother on the shoulder before leaving to gather wood for a fire. Hvitserk helps Torvi find the perfect place for it while you and Ivar relax by the waterfall.

Ivar "You had a good idea bringing them here, my love."

"Thank you. I knew that they would love it."

Ivar "I can't wait to bring our little princess here one day."

"Yeah." You look down and rub your belly. Neith looks at you and squeaks. "We love you too." She blinks, then lays her head down on her paw to rest for a bit.

Ivar "So this is what a happy life looks like?"

"Yes it is."

The night ends with you all sitting by the fire, talking and laughing. It made you realize how grateful you are for this new life that the gods gave to you. Everything will be okay, everything will be perfect.

@hvitserkmarcosource @youbloodymadgenius @ivarsgoddess @a-mess-of-fandoms @herestherealproblem @saldelys @heavenly1927 @ivarzeitgeist @conaionaru @readsalot73

#the battle between love and fire #ivar the boneless #ivar lothbrok #hvitserk #ubbe lothbrok #torvi vikings #vikings #alexhoghandersen #alex hogh andersen #marco ilsoe #marco ilsø #jordan patrick smith

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musicprincess655 · 4 years

Link

Ryuu wakes up a week after his twenty-fifth birthday with a fully formed frontal lobe, the remnants of dream that didn’t even have the decency to be wet, and an unfortunate realization.

“Gin.”

She’s already up, of course, sipping at a coffee, but then, she’s always been the more functional one. Ryuu would argue that it’s because she’s younger and therefore spent less time in the slums before their lives found some stability in the Port Mafia. Gin would argue that it’s because Chuuya raised her instead of Dazai.

“I believe I may have…feelings…for Jinko.”

She doesn’t look suitably impressed by the earth-shattering news.

“Do you want a regular cake or a cupcake tower at the wedding?”

Ryuu is so shocked by her lack of shock that he actually answers.

“Cupcake tower.” He shakes his head. “Did you hear me? I have feelings for Jinko.”

“It’s kind of too late to go back to calling him Jinko when you’ve been calling him by his real name for over a year.”

“I have feelings for-!”

“I heard you the first two times!”

“Then tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

“I don’t know!” she snaps, although she sounds more exasperated than mad. “Woo him? Marry him? Bear his weird tiger babies?”

“That’s physically impossible. Also, no?”

“I don’t know what you want here,” she says. “General dating advice wouldn’t work on you two.”

“Dating?!”

“Fucking hell.” She sounds so frustrated that Ryuu is sure she’s about to throw a knife at him just to get him to shut up. “Try talking to him.”

“No.”

“Then eat shit and die!”

Ryuu isn’t quite sure who else to ask for help. He almost goes to Chuuya, but considering Chuuya’s – arrangement? Relationship? – with Dazai, Ryuu thinks that might actually make everything worse. Whatever those two are doing, he doesn’t think it’ll work for anyone else.

So he takes the second option presented to him: he shoves those feelings right back where they belong and forgets they ever existed. Or tries to.

See, Ryuu is good at anger. He recognizes it in himself, knows now how to ramp it down or let it take him as necessary, knows how to use it, TED talk to follow. What is he supposed to do with something so much softer?

It should be easy to ignore. But like an amorphous block, the soft edges of the feelings squeeze out no matter where he tries to shove them down.

Ryuu doesn’t think Atsushi has noticed anything is off. He’s sure Atsushi would have said something by now otherwise. As an adult, Atsushi has all the observation skills of a detective and none of the reticence for sharing his observations that he used to. The new confidence is annoying, and has led to annoying things like Ryuu being forced to buy Atsushi food all the time, and in general, Atsushi is somehow more annoying than when he went running scared from Ryuu’s every glare.

And Ryuu has feelings for him anyway. His taste leaves much to be desired, and he needs to come up with some synonyms for annoying.

This systematic denial works for all of two weeks, and Ryuu is ready to celebrate the success of creating a new normal so seamlessly that Atsushi hasn’t even noticed they have a new normal, when it all goes to shit.

They don’t have quite as many people to beat into the ground to protect Yokohama as they did when they started their partnership, but every so often, a new group thinks it’s a good idea to disturb the peace. Ryuu and Atsushi, for their efficiency alone, are the best choice for dealing with it.

Some syndicate from Europe seems to think they have the right to expand into the Asian market, and they’ve set their eyes on the port of Yokohama for their first step in. They don’t have nearly the same aversion to city-wide destruction that the Port Mafia do, which makes this the Armed Detective Agency’s problem too, and, consequently, Ryuu and Atsushi’s problem. They’re in charge of stopping and containing a Gifted vanguard while the combined strategic might of Dazai and Mori deal with the rest of the syndicate.

It’s a tough fight, but Ryuu gets to let loose and use his Ability to the fullest. His deal with Atsushi to not kill is long since over, but he developed habits during those six months that he hasn’t bothered to shake, and the fight isn’t the bloodbath it could be. Still, when the last person raises their hands in surrender, Ryuu is almost gasping for breath. He may have learned to work smarter instead of harder, but working smarter is hard on him in its own way.

“Good work today,” Atsushi says, wiping blood from an already-healed cut off his mouth. Even after all this time, the praise still sends a thrill down Ryuu’s spine.

Then Atsushi lifts his head, and his eye are so wide, and he looks so happy, smiling without reservation at Ryuu, and Ryuu doesn’t know what his face does, but it must be pretty spectacular because Atsushi’s smile fades.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine,” Ryuu says, turning on his heel to get away from Atsushi and the emotions he wears so openly. He needs to find a bar, one Atsushi won’t follow him to, and he doesn’t stop to consider the implications of skipping their post-mission dinner arrangement for the first time in years.

When Chuuya finds him, he’s getting systematically drunk.

Which, granted, doesn’t take much, He’s always been a bit of a lightweight, probably due to how severely underweight he’s been for most of his life. That’s not quite the problem it used to be, and one shot isn’t enough to take him out at the knees anymore, but he doesn’t even have to use his fancy mafia paycheck to get well and truly plastered.

“So I know I’m about to sound like a hypocrite, but it’s barely five,” Chuuya says, and while his words are chiding, his tone isn’t. Ryuu is still working on reading people’s intentions, but Chuuya has never been hard. He’s worried. “Wanna talk?”

“Stupid fucking Jinko and his stupid fucking doe eyes,” Ryuu mutters before he can stop himself. He’s had six shots. He wishes he had a better excuse.

“Oh, so it’s that kind of drinking,” Chuuya sighs. He raises his hand to catch the bartender’s attention, elegant and confident in one motion. “Whiskey for me. Water for him.”

“I’m fine.”

“Akutagawa.”

Chuuya rests his hand on Ryuu’s head, and Ryuu is almost ashamed of the way he leans into the touch immediately. Despite all the jokes even he himself makes, he’s not a dog. Still, to have someone touch him without even the intention of hurting him…it’s nice. It’s uncommon. It’s, perhaps, something that shouldn’t be so uncommon from a superior.

He’s so drunk.

“Do you want my advice?” Chuuya asks after the bartender sets both of their drinks down and Ryuu throws back half the tall glass of water.

Ryuu is silent for just a beat too long.

“Kid,” Chuuya sighs again, not angry or even exasperated, as is more common with him and Ryuu recently. He sounds faintly amused. “I know we’ve talked about this. You’re allowed to say no to me.”

“It’s not…” Ryuu tries. “I just…” He has to parse it into words, the fact that after Gin, Chuuya was the first he thought to turn to, and why he didn’t in the end. “I don’t know if I, necessarily, want the answer I think you’ll give me.”

“What answer do you think I’ll give you?” Chuuya asks. His hand is still on Ryuu’s head, pulling until Ryuu is very nearly tucked into his shoulder.

“Two options,” Ryuu says. “Something I can’t use, or something I won’t want to.”

“Ah.” Chuuya takes a sip of his whiskey. “You know I’ve had relationships with people other than Dazai, right?”

“That’s where the something I can’t use comes from.”

“So my relationship with Dazai is too fucked up, but all my other relationships are too normal?” Chuuya asks, summing it up entirely too well.

“I don’t think I can do normal,” Ryuu says. “I’m pretty sure he can’t either.”

“I can’t tell you how to fix that,” Chuuya admits. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be where I am. Which isn’t a complaint, by the way. I’m happy. But I’ll admit parts of my life are less than functional, and that’s down to choices I’ve made. That being said…” he gives Ryuu’s hair a little tug until Ryuu is truly resting on his shoulder, head momentarily stopped from spinning, “…I doubt Nakajima would kick you out of his life for anything at this point.”

“You think I should talk to him too,” Ryuu says.

“Gin’s smarter than you give her credit for.”

“She told you about this?”

“I just know she’s the only other person you’d tell about this,” Chuuya says. “You’re not actually that complicated.”

“I talk to Higuchi about stuff,” Ryuu pouts. He won’t admit he’s pouting.

“You’re not cruel to her anymore,” Chuuya says. “So no, I don’t think you would’ve told her about this.”

“I want another shot.”

“You should probably be done for the night,” Chuuya advises. “Listen. I don’t know how this is gonna shake out. I don’t know Nakajima well enough to guess what he’ll do. But I do know you, and I can tell you that you’re gonna be okay.”

“You think?”

“I think it would take another city-destroying disaster for you to not be okay,” Chuuya says. “And that wasn’t an invitation. I’m enjoying the peace. It’s good for business.” His phone chimes. “Your ride is here, and you’re cut off.”

“You called a car?”

“Like I said,” Chuuya says, getting to his feet, “I know you.”

Having a superior care so openly about him is still a bit of a new experience, and rather than try to examine anything Chuuya said, Ryuu just collapses into bed when the driver drops him off, hoping he’ll just forget everything by the morning. He doesn’t, of course, because that would be too easy.

Things were fine between him and Atsushi before, but suddenly, there’s a new tension. Ryuu panics, convinced Atsushi knows, but after a day of careful observation, he’s almost positive that Atsushi actually doesn’t. Atsushi isn’t shying away from the parts of their alliance that Ryuu, a few years ago, had reluctantly labelled as friendship. He doesn’t have a problem with their casual conversation, and their shared food arrangements have picked up again without so much as a mention of one missed.

In fact, the only thing that has changed is actually something Ryuu’s seen before, just not in years.

They’re friends now. Beyond just tolerating his presence, Ryuu does like having Atsushi around. He even has these new mushy feelings that make him a little sick to his stomach if he thinks about them too hard. But none of that changes the fact that sometimes, Atsushi annoys the ever-loving fuck out of him.

Snapping at Atsushi usually only gets Ryuu an eye roll now, or sometimes a shut up if he says something particularly spiteful, but ever since Ryuu bailed on dinner, every time he snaps at Atsushi, instead of the customary dismissal, Ryuu gets a flinch like he used to when they first started working together.

And seriously, what the fuck? He knows Atsushi isn’t scared of him anymore. For one thing, they’ve proven a few times that Atsushi can beat him into the ground if he wants. For another, Ryuu has calmed down a bit and Atsushi has stuck around enough to figure out how to exist in the same space without killing each other. They haven’t had a serious fight in years.

Ryuu can’t figure out what Atsushi’s sudden problem is, and doubly can’t figure out why it would’ve started after he skipped buying Atsushi food once. It’s almost enough to push the mush feelings that started this whole mess to a backburner, only surfacing when Ryuu’s eyes linger too long on the clean, lithe lines of Atsushi’s body, and he knows he’s not the only one who stares, anyway.

And then a new group surfaces. A remnant faction of the Guild that has apparently spent the better part of five years biding their time and preparing to take revenge on both the Port Mafia and the ADA. Since Ryuu and Atsushi were the ones to take down Fitzgerald, the faction prepared the most for them. From the beginning of an attack they only had the slightest warning for, Ryuu and Atsushi are methodically separated from everyone else.

They’re losing. Badly. Ryuu doesn’t know where any allies are except for Atsushi, and then only because Rashomon still has a tendril on him. Blood pours down his leg from a shot above his knee, and Ryuu resists the urge to favor the leg in case he has to run again. He ducks into an alley and slides down the wall, trying to catch his breath, get his bearings. He hasn’t had to legitimately fight for survival in a long time, and though his life has made him no stranger to pain, he’s not as young as he used to be, and his body protests when Ryuu tries to demand movement from it.

“Aku.”

It seems Atsushi has found him. Ryuu doesn’t even bother to snap at him for the nickname. Atsushi picked up the habit a few years back, saying Ryuu’s name was too long for him to yell, and Ryuu has begrudgingly gotten used to it, only putting up token protests now. He hurts too much for those, though.

“We have to get clear,” Ryuu tells him.

He heard some distant explosions he’d bet his coat are Chuuya, and where they find Chuuya, they’ll find the Black Lizard – they’ll find Gin – and they’ll find Dazai, or at least Dazai’s mind, talking through an earpiece and entirely out of the fight, safe where he’s most effective. Those allies would be enough to turn the tide, if only Ryuu had any damn clue how they could get clear.

“I have an idea,” Atsushi says.

“That is not your area,” Ryuu counters. He can’t help himself. Everything hurts.

“I know you’re mad at me, but trust me on this,” Atsushi pleads.

“I’m not…” Ryuu is so taken aback he needs a second to organize a response. “Why would I be mad at you?”

Generally speaking, he’s almost never mad at Atsushi anymore. If he is’ it’s a fleeting anger, gone as soon as he recognizes it. He has no clue why Atsushi might think he’s angry enough to revert their relationship back five years.

“Because you skipped dinner, and you made this face…” Atsushi trails off, and Ryuu…

His taste leaves so much to be desired. Atsushi is an idiot, all personal growth aside, and Ryuu realizes, with a degree of horror, that he feels something very close to fond.

“That’s not why,” he says, voice gruff, and he’s once again lost control of his face. Atsushi searches his eyes, and Ryuu sees the moment the truth dawns on him.

“Are you…?”

“You said you had an idea?” Ryuu interrupts. He keeps his eyes off Atsushi’s face.

��I do,” Atsushi says. “I need all of Rashomon.”

Ryuu instinctively holds his Ability closer. He’d given all of her to Atsushi earlier, a standard play when they’re in an all-out fight, but it only works when Atsushi takes all the hits. After he got shot in the leg, he pulled part of her back.

“Do you think you can hold onto me?” Atsushi asks.

“Why?”

“I won’t be able to hold onto you.”

“You’re going to get us both killed,” Ryuu accuses without heat. He can already feel himself relenting.

“Trust me,” Atsushi begs.

Ryuu does.

“I guess another trip with the world’s worst Uber driver isn’t the worst way to go,” Ryuu sighs.

Atsushi crouches in front of him, hands careful on Ryuu’s leg as he clambers onto Atsushi’s back. It aches, but Ryuu holds with both his arms and hopes for the best.

“Use Rashomon to amplify the jump,” Atsushi tells him. “And leave me plenty of slack.”

“Slack…why?” Ryuu asks, but Atsushi is already gone under his hands, replaced with a tiger. “Oh.”

Atsushi’s muscles bunch, and that’s all the warning Ryuu gets before they take off into the sky.

The tiger can’t fly, but the jump is so powerful, especially with the added strength of Rashomon, that it feels like a near thing. They soar above the building they’d been sheltered behind, over the heads of their enemies, and by the time anyone thinks to attack, it’s already too late.

“East,” Ryuu shouts above the wind. With the new vantage point he can get a better idea of where Chuuya is. Atsushi can’t answer him, of course, but he obeys anyway, touching down and running towards the explosions. They’re almost to relative safety when a strike from the side sends them both sprawling.

An Ability user approaches them, hands crackling with something obviously dangerous. Ryuu doesn’t stop to think. He just attacks, Rashomon rushing the man in furious tendrils. He pulls back at the last minute, and when the dust clears, the man is unconscious and full of holes, but still breathing.

Ryuu is just turning to see if he needs to pull emergency first aid skills out of his ass when he gets an armful of re-humanized Atsushi and a pair of lips hitting his own like a punch. He doesn’t even have time to respond to the kiss before Atsushi shoves him back by the shoulders.

“Wait, shit!”

Atsushi regrets the kiss. Atsushi regrets him.

Ryuu’s hand twitches towards the phone in his pocket. He can leave this all behind and start a new life. In Iceland. He can use the Duolingo app Chuuya made him download to learn the language. He’ll herd sheep. He’ll change his name to Sven.

“I was supposed to ask for consent first!”

“What?” Ryuu – Sven – asks.

“I’m supposed to ask for consent before I kiss you!”

This doesn’t…feel like rejection. Sven – Ryuu – takes his thumb off the Duolingo app.

“You’ve been thinking about kissing me?” he asks.

“I was…I mean…” Atsushi flushes red. “For a while now? I never thought you’d want me to, but then you did, and…”

Leave it to Atsushi to charge right through all the hesitancy Ryuu’s been feeling. He always has been the kind to leap before he looks.

In a better world, they’d have time to let this play out like a shoujo manga, time for them to gaze into each other’s eyes, time to work up to a kiss much softer and slower, something a first kiss deserves to be.

But it’s not a better world, and they’re still not safe, but they’re close enough to allies that they can make a run for it.

“We have to get out of here,” Ryuu says. He can already hear enemies approaching. Atsushi lets go of his shoulders, and they both start running, Ryuu limping on his bad leg. “And Atsushi?”

“Hm?”

“Buy me dinner first.”

Ryuu doesn’t watch Atsushi take that for the consent it is, but he knows the message is received when Atsushi reaches out to squeeze his hand as they run, letting it drop so they can move faster. They’ll probably have to talk this out when they’re safe, because Gin is right; they need to talk. But now they both know it’s not one-sided, and it’s as good a starting place as any.

In spite of the pain in his leg and his lungs, in spite of the danger they’re still in, Ryuu can’t help the grin that spreads across his face as he runs, Atsushi by his side.

#shin soukoku #sskk #akuatsu #atsuaku #bungou stray dogs #bsd #my writing #bsd!oneshot

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labyrinthofmagicdrabbles · 4 years

Text

white dragon

fandom: magi

pair: hakuryuu ren x fem!reader

chapter: dream [1/15]

~~~~~~~~~~

It was always the same dream

He was running, he could tell by the click-clacking echo of his boots. Where exactly he was running to, he did not quite know, but what he did know was that he was running from something, towards someone.

And he felt so small, smaller than the child he was in that dream, so weak, scared, and helpless that there was nothing more he wanted then to run into the safety of his elder brother's chambers and curl up into the secure warmth of his brother's arms, protected from all that would dare to harm him.

But he couldn't do that; not while trying to escape the smoldering flames that so quickly ate up the path behind him, covering and destroying everything in its wake, leaving nothing but ash. Closer and closer they grew, he could feel the heat lick at his skin. The fire would eat him up too, just as it did his beloved brothers, if he didn't hurry.

The thick fumes of smoke blinded and blurred his vision, clouded his lungs, but he didn't care. He had to escape. He had to find them. He had to find her.

Through the sounds of the flickering flames and drawn out yells of servants and nobles alike, he would hear a voice that fell familiar on his ears. A pleading, desperate voice that cried out his name—so close, yet felt so far away.

"—ryuu!"

The darkness was an endless, spiraling hall that pulled the voice further and further away the closer he came to it. It would grow louder with each cry of his name, the tone more frightened than the last.

And it tugged at his heartstrings, plunged a knife in and twisted it. He could feel the cry build up in his throat as he pushed himself harder, his mouth falling open and her name escaping his lips in a soundless call, repeating over and over like a pleading prayer.

"Haku—"

He stumbled, tumbling to the ground and falling in a heap of weakened, exhausted bones. Liquid slides down his cheeks, thicker than tears and redder than water. He tries to lift himself, but his limbs have turned to stone. Gravity becomes his enemy, and suddenly he can't move at all; no matter how hard he tries, how hard he wills himself to do so, he couldn't move.

But then suddenly, the halls seem to melt away, and he sees her.

Beautiful as ever, despite the blood and bruises that cover her body; hair a mess and white robes tattered, torn, and burnt, tears staining her lovely face and looking so helpless, as a dark figure hovered over her fallen frame.

"—RYUU!"

In the figure's hands, a steel sword, long and sharp, glistens with blood in the dim light of the fire. One single step they take towards her is enough to send her scrambling backwards as quickly as she can, eager to put as much distance between them as possible.

Another step.

The figure becomes visible—

—And Hakuryuu feels his heart stop, his breath caught in his throat. And around him, the world becomes cold.

Because there, standing with cold, dead eyes, tall and fearsome with his white robes stained with blood—is him.

No, that's not him, that can't be him—he had given up his hatred and desire for vengeance and destruction. He had moved on, moved forward with his life. So why was he standing there with those cold, hateful eyes he once had years ago, looking down at her with such disdain, covered in her blood. He had hurt her.

Why?

He would never hurt her—he had hurt a lot of people in his life, by which he still held much regret for that in his heart to this day—but not her, never her. He loved her, how could he ever want to hurt her?

'STOP!'

He continues forward in slow, agonizing steps as the woman tries, but fails to get away as the figure suddenly lunges forward, and then has her trapped, the shadow of his body straddling her panicked form, keeping her stuck beneath his weight.

Her cries escalate into hysterics as the figure raises the sword, the tip of it glinting in the glow of the fire.

And he can do nothing but watch in horror— scared, weak, helpless, poor little Hakuryuu—useless as always

'HAKURYUU DON'T DO THIS PLEAS—'

The sword swings down and the sound of blood splattering fills the air as the screams give way to silence.

"NO!"

~~~

"Hakuryuu!"

Mismatched blue eyes snap open as the former emperor of the Kou Empire is startled from his sleep by the worried call of a female's voice. He jerks up, sweat pouring down his forehead and heart racing as he tries to catch his breath, anxious blue eyes scanning the area around him.

Inside of his chambers, he realized, it was rather dark, save for the faint glow of a dimly lit candle. But it was the same, pale colored wall aligned with various trinkets and paintings, the same papers stacked neatly in the corner of his desk; no smoke, no flames, no terror—just the simple decor of his chambers.

"Are you okay, Hakuryuu?" The gentle voice interrupts his racing thoughts and a small hand places itself on his shoulder, causing his gaze to break away from the setting of the room and rest on the owner of both the voice and hand, his beloved.

He doesn't give an answer, and before he could stop himself, his hands grasp her shoulders in a tight grip, all but roughly turning her smaller frame towards him as he frantically scans her form. Every inch of her skin, her body, checking any and every part of her that could possibly have been harmed or out of place.

Now, if this kind of thing were something out the ordinary, [Name] would have smacked his hands away and demand that he tell her what was wrong, as his strange behavior was scaring her and at her current state, she could not afford to be scared—because being scared would lead to being stressed, and stress would not do the two of them well at all.

But safe to say, sadly, she had grown quite used to this.

Grabbing her husband's wrists, she gently removed his shaking hands from her shoulders and took them into her much smaller ones, thumbs messaging his clammy skin.

"It's okay love," she leaned in placed her lips against his own in a quick, gentle kiss. "We're okay...you were just having another bad dream."

Soothing as her words were, they did not do much to help against the tight ache in his chest, the tremor of his body. Though, the softness of her body against his was enough to keep him sane at least. He swallowed as he felt heartbeat slow down to the normal pace, his breath slowly becoming even again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks, eagerness lacing her soft tone, then frowns when he shakes his head. There he went again, keeping his troubles to himself. As he always did.

It was a long period of silence before he spoke.

"I...apologize if I startled you again." His voice is husky with sleep, eyes drained by exhaustion. He attempts to pull his hands from her grip but refrains when she tightens it. "Did I wake you?"

"No, Ryuu, I was already up," smooth lips form a soft smile and she lightly gestures towards the swell of her belly, growing bigger and bigger with each passing day. "This little one makes it a bit difficult to get some good rest anyways."

He gives a weak chuckle. "I suppose I should apologize for that as well?"

"What? No, of course not!" She removes her grip from his hands, much larger than her own, and moves to cup his scarred cheek. "You should never apologize for such a wonderful thing, Ryuu. After all, I love our little Hakuro so much already. Being able give him a younger sister or brother and having our family grow is truly a blessing."

"I know love, I know." He pulls her into his arms and smiles when she snuggles into his chest. "I was only kidding."

He lays back down on his back, the tightness in his chest now gone as he's able to finally breathe again.

"But still," he speaks after a long moment of silence as he turns to face her. " It is not fair for me to bother you with my burdens. In your current state—"

"Hakuryuu, I'm pregnant, not an elderly ill woman. Whatever 'burdens' you carry, I can carry as well. We can handle them together. Please, do not be afraid to share them with me."

"But you shouldn't—"

"No—You shouldn't try to keep anything from me." She sits up once more and gives him that look she always gives him when she's serious. "Hakuryuu, I am your wife. As I promised you from the day we got married, I will be by your side, always. I will carry your burdens. Always." She grabs a hold of his hand once more and laces her fingers with his own as her gaze softens. "You are not alone anymore, Ryuu. I need you to understand that."

And you never will be again.

I do understand. I understand perfectly, it's just that— He goes to counter, but before he could her lips immediately meet his, claiming them with such a passion he knew she could not express with words, and like always, she leaves him breathless.

Before long, they part for breath and she rests her forehead against his. "I love you, Hakuryuu. Very much. As does our little Hakuro, and Judar, Kougyoku, and all of the others. And soon, this little one will love you just as much."

Her words pierce through his heart, and a light feeling, a warmth, spreads throughout his chest and body as he feel tears start to form in his eyes. Not tears of distress or pain, no, tears of joy. Of relief. Never in his life, had he been touched by such words.

In such a cruel world that had always been controlled by destiny, he had always thought he was doomed to live the rest of his life alone, where he would most likely waste away until he ended up in an early grave; put there by either by war or by himself, being driven mad and consumed whole by his hatred.

Living life with a beautiful wife at his side, surrounded by their children, friends, and family, free from all torment and ghosts of the past was simply something he only ever dreamed about, something that he had secretly longed for deep down in the lowest depths of his heart.

But he was no fool. Dreams like that only existed in the fairy tales his brothers used to read to him at night. He would never be a Xu Xian, he would never find his Bai Suzhen. Someone like him would never find love or happiness.

Or so he thought.

When he first tried, it had been a failure. Though Morgiana was a strong, beautiful women who he had once wanted by his side, she had not been the one for him. Her heart belonged with another man, and that man would be the one to give her his in return. He had been bitter about it, before, yes, but that had been in the past.

Now, he lived for the future. For his godsend, his beautiful wife who stood at his side, as well as their child.

Because sometimes, the things one searches for in life doesn't exist only in dreams; they can be right there alongside them the whole time, but they have to open their eyes to see.

And he had been so blind before.

"I know," he finally speaks, and he moves to press his lips slightly against hers, trailing light kisses from her lips, to her nose, to the corner of her eyes, and finally, to her forehead. "And for that, I am truly blessed. I shouldn't keep my troubles to myself."

"No, you shouldn't."

He smiles as their fingers intertwine once more. "Because you are with me."

"Because I am with you."

They lay like that, together, as the world around them seemed to melt away, all previous problems from before seemingly vanished as they took comfort in each other's presence.

Then suddenly, a soft knock on the door.

Husband and wife pull away from each other and sit up once again as the door slides open, and in the doorway is a small figure, who stands with stuffed dragon clutched in hand, dark hair tousled, and rubbing his tired [e/c] eye.

Worry washes over Hakuryuu like a tidal wave as he looks at his son. "What's wrong, Hakuro?"

Said boy clutches his stuffed animal tight and looks at his parents with tears in his large eyes. "Roro have bad dream," Hakuro speaks in a small, shaky voice. "Roro wants to sleep with Mama and Baba."

Seeing his son in such a state just felt all to familiar. It tugged at his heartstrings, a boy so young and innocent like his son didn't deserve to suffer through any nightly terrors; he should only dream of pretty gardens by the lake, and flying on white dragons.

"Of course, baby, come here." [Name] opens her arms which is enough to send Hakuro running straight into them, mindful of her growing stomach of course. She lays the boy between them as Hakuryuu runs a hand through his son's midnight hair, before leaning and giving him a kiss on his small head.

"It's okay, little one. Your mother and I will be here to keep all the bad dreams away." Lying down in a comfortable position and ready to get some rest this time, Hakuryuu wraps an arm between the two (or three) people he loved most in the world.

Hakuro yawns, snuggling into the warmth of his father's chest. " M'kay. Night Mama, Night Baba."

"Goodnight, baby."

"Goodnight, little one. Sweet dreams."

And sweet dreams they all did have, any trace of nightmares gone and forgotten at that moment as a peaceful slumber had finally lulled them into it's grasp.

~~~~

#queued #magi x reader #hakuryuu x reader #hakuryuu ren x reader #magi fics #x reader #reader insert #magi reader insert

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shinsoukokuvalentine · 5 years

Text

Heavenbound (3)

(3 is here! For those curious, yes I will be including the alligator scene in this fic. Just... Likely not in the way you think. I can’t wait ^^

Read the first chapter on Ao3!)

237/365: Soon You’ll Come Home

“How exactly do your powers work?” Ryuu asks. He sits across his tea table from Atsushi, who wolfs down the food that Chuuya made for him as if he hasn’t eaten in days.

Knowing Fitzgerald, that might be accurate.

“Mostly moonlight,” Atsushi says, his mouth full of rice, “but I have a little control over it too.”

Chuuya passes Ryuu his own bowl, sitting beside him, lazily eating.

“Didn’t look like it back there,” he says. Ryuu shoots him a small glare, but Atsushi nods solemnly.

“Moonlight transforms me without my choice. But even when it is my choice, the more I transform, the more chance there is of the tiger completely taking over,’’ he murmurs.

Ryuu hasn’t touched his food. He only sits, watching Atsushi.

“You talk like you’re two separate people,” Chuuya says. “Well, relatively speaking.”

Atsushi picks his head up, giving a gentle but sad smile. “It seems like that sometimes,” he says.

Ryuu sighs, standing from the table. He’s heard enough for one night. “Well, whenever you’re done,” he says, “you can sleep on the couch. I’ve set a spare set of pajamas there for you.”

Atsushi whips around to him, eyes wide and practically sparkling. “Really?” He asks, and Ryuu nods, turning his back to enter the hallway. “I hate to inconvenience you…” Atsushi murmurs, causing Ryuu to shrug.

“You’re not,” he says plainly, but behind him, he hears Atsushi sigh a little.

“I’ve never met anyone as kind as you.”

Ryuu pauses in the hall’s entrance. Him? Kind? With all the bullets he’s fired, all the blood on his hands, all the bodies he’s left in his wake?

He says nothing. He closes the bathroom door behind him, turning the shower on, letting steam fill the room like a cloud.

Leaning over the counter, he looks at himself in the mirror. He looks no different than before; same gray eyes, same black hair, same gaunt face. He doesn’t feel as if he’s died in the past twenty-four hours. It could have all been a drunken dream.

But the gold watch hits against his chest as he straightens his back, the ticks of its second hand matching the exact pace of Ryuu’s heartbeat. It wasn’t a dream.

And the only thing keeping him alive hangs around his neck like an albatross.

Gingerly, as if he were handling an egg, Ryuu takes the watch off and sets at aside before stepping into the shower. The water practically burns his skin as it hits him and runs down his body, but it feels cleansing. It washes away Fitzgerald’s Ryuu, the one who blindly trusted, blindly followed orders.

And a new Ryuu is left behind, one that will carve his way straight through everything Fitzgerald holds dear.

Ryuu closes his eyes. The water burns, but he feels it. The dead don’t feel. He’s alive.

But another image cuts into his thoughts, one not unlike the vision he saw when he first met Atsushi. In this picture, the weretiger smiles again, despite the blood splashed across his face. He stands over a familiar, blond corpse before he moves to Ryuu’s side, taking his hands, moving to meet his lips.

Ryuu feels his heart pounding as he breaks from his fantasy. He sighs a little, leaning his head back, letting the hot water splash onto his face. Atsushi is purely for business, he scolds himself. He’s a weapon to be used to solve Ryuu’s Fitzgerald problem.

“But what if he could solve all my problems?” Ryuu finds himself asking out loud, eyes open to the ceiling, water beating hard against his steadily calming chest. Unanswered, his words hang in the bathroom with the rest of the steam.

Silk pajamas on, watch chain around his neck, Ryuu yawns as he steps out of the bathroom. Casting a glance towards the living room, he sees Atsushi sprawled out on the couch.

“He’s fast asleep,” Chuuya mutters as he leans against the opposite wall. Ryuu nods, watching as Atsushi’s chest rises and falls with breath, his mouth hanging slightly open.

“I don’t get what you’re doing,” says Chuuya, eyeing Ryuu from under the rim of his hat. “I thought we were going to kill it.”

Ryuu hums a little as he closes the bedroom door. Plans change. Desires change. But Chuuya would never understand, could never hope to understand the aching, empty hole in Ryuu’s chest, the one perfectly sized for Atsushi.

“What better revenge is there,” he says, picking his words carefully, turning to watch Chuuya with eyes like steel, “than using Fitzgerald’s own monster against him?”

Chuuya’s eyes widen. “You don’t mean-!”

“The weretiger is our weapon now,” Ryuu says as he walks to his own room. “And tomorrow, we use him to start assembling a criminal ring rivaling Fitzgerald’s.”

Chuuya stares at him for a moment. Then, slowly, his grin returns, as if the possibilities that Ryuu saw in the warehouse were suddenly revealed to him; a vision carved with bullet holes and tiger claw marks. He pushes himself off the wall, slipping on his shoes as he nears the door.

“I don’t see why we can’t do one better,” he says. He waits in the doorway, watching Ryuu with sparks flickering in his eyes. “We could be-!”

“A mafia,” Ryuu finishes. He allows himself a small smirk of his own, and he fixes his gaze on some far-off, intangible point.

“And it starts with my monster.”

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Fitzgerald smiles politely, as if they had a choice in the matter. “You see, there’s a small problem I’d like us all to focus our energy on addressing.”

John frowns. He knows each and every one of Fitzgerald’s glossy smiles, and this one never means anything good. This one nearly assures that someone in the room is in danger of death.

That smile remains on Fitzgerald’s lips as he presses a button on his desk, which pulls down a screen from the ceiling.

“But first, a short video clip,” Fitzgerald says. “Very short.”

The room’s tension nearly turns tangible as everyone Fitzgerald called to his office sees the image on the screen. The outside of his warehouse is instantly recognizable, and if something happened to anything in that building, they might as well all have guns pointed at their heads.

“As you can tell from the sunlight, this was taken during the day,” Fitzgerald explains. “Earlier today, in fact. Even more interesting,” he says, pointing at the steadily ticking timestamp in the screen’s corner, “it was filmed before we returned the tiger to his spot there. Now, pay attention; this part is important.”

The room collectively holds its breath as the screen’s image remains still. And nearly simultaneously, the group jumps as the warehouse footage turns to static.

Wordlessly, Fitzgerald pulls something from beneath his desk. John stares at it as his heartbeat accelerates in dawning realization and fear.

The bullet is still embedded in the camera, which now sits on Fitzgerald’s desk, lopsided.

“From this footage, and from visiting the warehouse not an hour ago, I’ve come to a few conclusions,” Fitzgerald says. His smile has gone. “First, someone shot my camera. Whoever did it was in the warehouse with us when we deposited the tiger there.” His voice drops dangerously low, and he watches the group from under a furrowed brow. “And no one noticed.”

Nervous eyes in the group dart to each other, knowing that whoever is responsible likely won’t see the sunrise in the morning.

“I know this much because they took something of mine,” Fitzgerald goes on to say. “According to that timestamp, the camera was shot right before we arrived. The thieves would’ve been in the warehouse when we got there, having taken nothing, for their quarry had yet to arrive.”

Behind his back, John’s sweaty hands grasp each other. The pure anger in Fitzgerald’s eyes is something he’s only seen a handful of times before, and the implications of his words seep into his skin like venom.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Fitzgerald spits, an edge to his voice that slices through everyone in the room, “I want my tiger back.

“And I want it back now.”

Atsushi crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at Ryuu.

“I’m not going in.”

Ryuu rolls his eyes. “You came all the way here,” he snaps, “only to refuse to work with us?”

Atsushi scowls, turning his face away, eyes narrow. Ryuu’s fists shake at his sides. Chuuya twirls his lockpick on his finger, rolling his eyes as they wait beside a seemingly inconspicuous inn in an underdeveloped part of town.

“You don’t have to do anything hard,” Ryuu practically growls, struggling to keep his tone even through his gritted teeth, pointing at the inn’s back door. “Just go in there, show them who you are, and stick around while Nakahara-san and I do the talking.”

Atsushi scoffs, and he takes a small moment of his time to cast his indignant gaze back on Ryuu.

“You sound just like Fitzgerald,” he spits before turning away again. From behind him, Chuuya frowns and reaches for his gun.

“Listen here, you little-!” He starts, but Ryuu shoots a silencing glare his way. They won’t get anywhere with threats - and he won’t have anyone even suggest laying a hand on Atsushi. If the weretiger’s going to work with them, to work with Ryuu, he’s going to have to trust them.

“Listen, Jinko,” Ryuu mutters. “Do you want to kill Fitzgerald?” He asks as calmly as he can, and Atsushi looks back at him again, saying nothing. Ryuu takes his minimal response as a silent yes. “Then we have to start here.”

Though he doesn’t look away again, Atsushi still huffs. “He’ll be powerless without me anyway,” he mumbles. “There’s no point.”

Frustration boils in the pit of Ryuu’s stomach, and he does his best to keep it from rising to his face. Atsushi is nothing but a puzzle he needs to solve. Threatening him won’t work; not if he wants to keep him. In that case, the solution would obviously be bribery, but the weretiger wouldn’t willingly use his powers in this way, even if he was paid to do so. Maybe he could be bribed with something else.

For a moment, Ryuu tries to put himself in Atsushi’s place, trying to discover what he might want, and he doesn’t have to search long to find something familiar.

Some of the harshness falls from Ryuu’s face. Before him stands Fitzgerald’s new toy, a man suddenly thrust into a world he was unprepared for, a man given promises of something better.

Before Ryuu stands himself, ten years ago.

His mind falls backwards, back to the day he first held his own in a gunfight. The bullet wounds hurt, and he screamed as if the sun itself burnt his skin, but two bodies had fallen still at his feet. The other gang members had ran like the cowards they were.

“Well done.”

Ryuu whipped around, still holding his gun out, shaking. At the end of the alley, a blond man clapped and smiled.

“Where’d you get that gun?” He asked. Ryuu gritted his teeth as he glared at him.

“It was my dad’s,” he grunted.

The man tilted his head. “Is your father around?” He wondered. Ryuu shook his head; he had taken the gun from his father’s bleeding corpse. Still, the man smiled. “Do you have a mother, then?” Ryuu shook his head again. “A place to stay?” No.

“Then I’d like to make you an offer,” he said, stepping forward. He crouched in front of Ryuu, right in front of his gun, holding out his hand. “If you come with me, and use your gun for me,” he smiled, “I’ll give you a place to stay.”

Ryuu brings himself back to the present. Not a second of time has passed, and Atsushi, the man so much like Ryuu from ten years ago, still glares at him. Ryuu takes a deep breath.

“Atsushi,” he says calmly, slowly, “if you do this for us, I promise-”

Atsushi’s glare falters. His eyes widen slightly; Ryuu has his attention.

“-We’ll find you a place to stay.”

Atsushi turns his head completely to Ryuu, then his whole body. His scowl falls, but he doesn’t smile yet, as if he’s afraid to be optimistic.

“... My own home?” He asks.

Ryuu nods, folding his hands behind his back as Atsushi’s own arms unwind. “With your own bed. You won’t be sleeping on my couch for long.” As best as he can, he offers what’s supposed to be a kind smile, but Chuuya visibly winces. Atsushi doesn’t seem to notice. His shoulders relax, and his own smile gently forms on his lips.

“You won’t regret this,” he promises, pushing past Ryuu. Now behind him, Ryuu’s lip twitches.

“I certainly hope not,” he mutters to himself. Even so, he finds himself watching Atsushi closely for a small while, perhaps hoping that he can see that innocent smile again.

As soon as Chuuya’s picked the lock, the door swings open, and the first guard glares them down.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He snaps. His short red hair sticks out in all directions, and a bandage is spread over the bridge of his nose. He glares daggers at the trio, reaching for what must be a gun, but Ryuu holds up one hand.

“We’re simply here to talk,” he says. “We have a business proposition.”

The man narrows his eyes. “Leave your weapons,” he growls.

Coughing slightly into his hand, Ryuu nods, giving over his gun with his other hand, and Chuuya does the same. They don’t need them anyway. Not with Atsushi.

The guard shoves them in front of him, begrudgingly walking with them down the staircase behind the door, taking them to another door at its base. Atsushi stays close to Ryuu, eyes instinctively darting around, searching for possible escape routes. The anxiety on his face deepens when he finds none, but Ryuu sighs.

“There’s no need to be worried,” Ryuu murmurs into his ear. He catches the guard watching them, but he doesn’t care. He’s allowed his secrets for now. “Remember what you can do.”

Atsushi looks up at him again, and every small glimmer of light on that dark staircase seems to reflect in his eyes. He takes a deep breath, then offers a meager smile, and Ryuu turns away before he allows that smile to distract him.

Unlike the wooden one at the stair’s top, the bottom door is solid metal.

“Hirotsu-san!” The readhead calls. “You have visitors!”

The door clicks. Again, the first face they see watches them with hostile, suspicious eyes. This one, their black hair pulled back, hides the lower part of their face behind a mask.

“I took their weapons, Gin,” mutters the redhead, holding up their two guns. Gin nods, opening the door wider, revealing the room to them.

Weapon racks line the walls, filled with everything from machine guns to katanas. Dozens of pairs of eyes whip around to stare at them, all except the eyes of the man at the room’s end, who watches them warily, yet calmly.

“And why have they come to visit me?” The older man says, sitting atop the crude throne of an overturned shipping crate. Ryuu steps forward.

“I’d like to propose a merger,” he says upfront. The older man smirks.

“I don’t merge with unknown delinquents,” he says. “I can offer you a position in the Black Lizards, but everyone starts at the bottom.”

Ryuu allows his expression to harden slightly. “You don’t recognize me, Hirotsu-san?” He asks, “Even after your men fell like flies at my feet the last time you challenged us?”

There’s a moment’s pause as Hirotsu narrows his eyes, watching Ryuu with scrutiny. Then he stiffens, eyes widening for just a second before they turn harsher than before.

“Akutagawa,” he spits. He snaps his fingers and instantly, it’s as if every gun in the room clicks. “What does Fitzgerald want with me this time?”

Every barrel points at Ryuu, Chuuya, and Atsushi, but Ryuu doesn’t take his eyes - now nonchalant again - off of Hirotsu, even when he feels Atsushi step close enough to him that their wrists brush.

“He wants nothing to do with you,” Ryuu says. “I do.”

Hirotsu scoffs. “And that is?”

“Just as I said,” Ryuu states again, eerily calm, “a merger. The Black Lizards will join Chuuya and I as we build a strong enough mafia to destroy everything Fitzgerald has.”

In spite of the room’s tense atmosphere, Hirotsu gives a small huff of a laugh.

“A mafia?” He repeats. “Even if you did manage to build one, no one can face off against Fitzgerald’s ring and live. Besides, when did you become intent on destroying Fitzgerald instead of kissing his boots? Jealous, young man?”

Ryuu’s lip twitches. Keeping his voice as steady as he can, he answers at nearly a growl, “Fitzgerald grew jealous of me and attempted to have me killed.” The watch chain weighs his neck down, and if he pays close attention, he can feel every tick of its second hand against his chest, a constant reminder of how successful Fitzgerald’s attempt had been. He has half a mind to run, the fear of dying again turning his blood cold.

But the thought of revenge brings that blood back to its boiling point, and he’s reminded where he stands, in front of one of Yokohama’s most dangerous gang leaders, and there’s no turning back now. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke is not a coward.

“Was that when he replaced you?” Hirotsu asks haughtily, causing a small scowl to form on Ryuu’s lips. “Word spread quickly about his new pet.”

From behind Ryuu, Atsushi gives a short, disgruntled growl.

“Maybe,” Ryuu grunts, “but he no longer has that weapon.”

Hirotsu raises an eyebrow. “Oh? And how can you be sure?”

Ryuu looks behind him at Atsushi, watching as the irritation fades from the tiger’s eyes, only to be replaced by a small hint of fear. It doesn’t make it to the rest of his face, but Ryuu sees it. Wordlessy, he nods, hoping Atsushi understands.

You can do this, he thinks, frowning. You HAVE to do this.

As if he heard him, Atsushi closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath before gritting his teeth, and suddenly, his arms begin to glow blue.

Members of the Black Lizard gasp. That annoying redhead jumps. Atsushi squeezes his eyes shut in pain as his arms shift, growing inhuman muscles, fur, and claws at the end of his fingers.

“I’m sure,” Ryuu finally answers Hirotsu, who stares at Atsushi with his mouth slightly open, “because I have that weapon.”

Atsushi gasps, struggling to keep his transformation minimal, but Ryuu pats his shoulder.

“That will be all,” he says quietly. With a small sigh, Atsushi shrinks his arms back to their original size.

“Think of it this way, Hirotsu-san,” Ryuu says, folding his hands behind his back once more. “If I have Fitzgerald’s tiger, imagine what I can do to Fitzgerald. And if I have Fitzgerald’s tiger,” he lets that thought hang in the air for a moment, icicles forming in his eyes and in his next words.

“Imagine what I can do to you.”

Silence freezes the room. The only sounds are cautious whispers and Atsushi’s tired pants.

Finally, Hirotsu clears his throat.

“If we join your Mafia,” he begins, voice cautious, “we’ll be… Financially compensated, correct?”

Ryuu nods. “As soon as you get the money to come in, you’ll get your share,” he assures them.

Hirotsu frowns. He looks at the floor, then at his gang. No one says a word.

Finally, and with a sigh, Hirotsu stands. He takes a few steps forward, until he’s directly in front of Ryuu, before he bows.

“To destroy Fitzgerald, and to take back Yokohama,” he says, folding a hand over his chest, “the Black Lizard is in your service.” He frowns as he stands, watching Ryuu with narrow eyes. “You’d best make good on your promises, boy.”

Ryuu looks behind him, watching Atsushi fearlessly face every member of the Black Lizard that dares approach him, only to have them scuttle back.

“As long as I have that beast,” he says, “you have nothing to worry about.”

Pain feels as if it’s erupting through Ryuu’s entire body.

You can never come back.

Hands so cold they burn his skin grasp at him, clinging to him, dragging him down into scorching hot mire.

You can never come back.

Darkness surrounds him; thick, gooey darkness that can be felt, only interrupted by the frequent columns of flames bursting from the charred ground. Screams and horrid laughter fill his ears.

You can never come back.

Every time the words repeat, they come across more distorted than before. Soon it sounds as if Kouyou’s voice itself is melting, burning along with Ryuu and everything around him, drowning out his cries of pain.

He struggles to keep his head above the surface of the boiling, oozy dark, but soon it flows into his mouth. It fills his lungs, his head, his entire body, until he can’t struggle anymore. All he can do is scream.

You can never come back.

Gasping for air, Ryuu jolts awake. He sits straight up in bed for a moment, shaking, before he throws off every sweaty blanket and grabs for his watch on the bedside table.

He pops it open. It still ticks, its time always accurate, even though Ryuu has never set it. He sighs a bit, holding it tight against his chest so he can feel every movement of its second hand. He still lives.

Tucking the watch beneath his shirt, Ryuu slides out of bed. The electric clock on his bedside table says it’s one a.m., but Ryuu’s fresh nightmare keeps him from wanting to go back to sleep immediately. Instead, he rubs his eyes and yawns a bit as he flips on a lamp and makes his way to his bedroom door.

As soon as he opens it, he hears something scuffle in the living room. Pieces of his dream flash in front of eyes eyes, of horrible creatures writing in the dark, and sudden panic grabs his body, causing him to stiffen. Immediately - too uncharacteristically terrified to rationally consider what might actually wait for him in the dark - he flips on the light next to the door.

Atsushi freezes. He stands like a rabbit caught in headlights, blinking with wide eyes at Ryuu, fully dressed and holding a bundle of Ryuu’s clothes in his arms as he stands between the living room and the door. Ryuu instantly scowls.

“What are you doing?”

Atsushi’s eyes dart away from Ryuu’s. “Uh…” he says slowly, shuffling a bit on his feet. Ryuu can feel his rising anger cause his features to tighten.

“You’re running out on me,” he growls. Though he keeps anger on his face, fear runs through his veins. To lose the weretiger would be to lose everything.

Atsushi frowns, bunching his shoulders up, watching the floor. Though he could easily still run, his shame spreads to his face and ties his feet together.

“... I can’t stay here,” Atsushi mumbles, and something within Ryuu reluctantly crumples when he sees how hurt Atsushi looks.

“And why not?” he says, keeping under wraps whatever weakness Atsushi’s instilled in him.

“... I don’t want to be used as a weapon,” Atsushi admits softly. He wraps his arms around himself, still not meeting Ryuu’s eyes, his own golden irises seemingly glowing in the dark room. Ryuu sighs.

“You won’t have to for much longer,” he assures him. “Word will get out, and by the time this whole city knows and fears you, you’ll be long gone, okay?”

The weretiger sighs, then he murmurs, his voice so soft and quiet that Ryuu can barely hear him.

“But I don’t want to be feared.”

Ryuu’s next words leave his mouth before he realizes they’ve gone.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

Atsushi looks up at him suddenly. His slightly-open mouth closes, and they stare at each other there, the night’s darkness and the hall’s light wrapping around their bodies.

Ryuu pulls his lips tight. Unsure what prompted him to speak, he clears his throat.

“We’ll start looking for a home for you tomorrow, okay?” He says quickly, changing the subject. “I know someone. He fosters children, but maybe he knows someone that’ll take you in.” Besides, that man is on Ryuu’s list of potential allies. He wouldn’t be going too far out of his way to try to recruit him now.

Just a few moments ago, Atsushi refused to make eye contact with Ryuu. Now it seems as if he can’t look away, and he holds the clothes in his arms like a security blanket, pressed tight against his chest.

“... Okay,” he says after a moment. Ryuu holds back a sigh of relief.

“Good,” he says, nodding once. He turns around to return to his room, but as if he has eyes in the back of his head, he stops, an incomplete feeling buzzing in his chest.

Ryuu looks behind himself. Atsushi still stands there, looking away again, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. Inwardly, Ryuu releases that sigh.

“Do you want to stay in my room?” He asks as if such a thing would be more inconvenient than stopping the sun, but Atsushi nods anyway, slowly, looking up at Ryuu with eyes like a begging stray dog’s.

Ryuu almost watches him with suspicion as he wordlessly opens his bedroom door, motioning with his head for Atsushi to come inside.

Under Fitzgerald’s leadership, Ryuu’s not unused to people with two faces. People will put on a show, smiling and saying sweet words until they can sneak a gun against your head, and then their mask falls. Ryuu knows he’s no exception, but he can typically tell when someone’s hiding their truths, as long as they’re not as experienced as someone like Fitzgerald or Steinbeck.

But Atsushi. Ryuu looks behind his shoulder at the weretiger, who watches him as he pulls his spare futon from the closet and sets it out. Atsushi seems to have two sides, but neither of them appear fake. The first is ferocious to the point of being feral, full of wrath and rage, with anger as sharp as his claws. The second is far more gentle and trusting, fragile and humble, as if he wouldn’t love to crush at least one man’s skull in his feline jaws. Both are genuine. Both are Atsushi.

Both draw Ryuu ever closer, ever deeper.

“Done,” Ryuu mutters, putting the final pillow and blanket on the futon. “You’ll be more comfortable here than on the couch, I’m sure.”

Atsushi nods. He utters a small “thank you” before settling in, his shoulders rising and falling with his relaxed sigh. Ryuu climbs back into his own bed, purposefully facing away from Atsushi after he turns off the lamp. The weretiger must not understand his body language.

“Hey, Akutagawa-san?”

Ryuu grunts once in response.

“Did you work for Fitzgerald?”

His question gives Ryuu pause, so he says nothing, brow furrowing.

“I thought you did,” Atsushi continues, his voice a sleepy murmur, “because of things you said. And things the Black Lizard leader said.”

It takes a minute, but Ryuu finally finds his voice. He clears his throat.

“Yes,” comes his simple answer. He feared that answer. He feared answering Atsushi, who might hate him, judging all the atrocities he’s done, pushing him away again.

Instead, Atsushi gives a small hum.

“Did he buy you, too?” He asks.

Ryuu’s worries quiet. He turns his head slightly so that he can see Atsushi’s face, but the weretiger stares at the ceiling, eyes still glowing.

“No,” Ryuu says slowly. “He… Practically took me in.”

Atsushi gives a sad smile and a humorless chuckle.

“If only,” he says. “He heard about me because gangs couldn’t keep their mouths shut, and he bought me. Before that I was a black market prize.”

Atsushi winces as if the memories themselves hurt. “I was a one-man freak show. They would keep me around until they grew tired of me, then they’d sell me to the highest bidder. Before I was bought the first time, the orphanage treated me like an animal, cage and everything.”

Ryuu turns back to staring at the wall, almost shaking a little. Emotions stir in his chest that he can only label as that ever-present loneliness, that fear of losing what he’s coveted for so long, so he channels them the only way he knows how.

“I’ll kill the next person who lays a hand on you like that,” he snaps. Atsushi sighs a little.

“A lot of them are probably already dead,” he murmurs. “They’re not worth it, either. Focus your energy on someone more important.”

The supernatural glow of Atsushi’s eyes intensifies as his eyebrows knit together.

“Like Fitzgerald.”

The pure hatred with which Atsushi says his name causes Ryuu to sit up in bed to look at him. Like a switch was flipped, every ounce of gentleness in Atsushi’s countenance has been erased, leaving nothing but malice and deep-rooted pain.

That passion ignites an entirely different shade of his beauty.

“I can’t stand what he does to innocent people,” Atsushi goes on to say, squeezing his eyes shut, dimming the room by taking away that small light. “He doesn’t care. He thinks their lives have no value at all, not even his subordinates’ lives. I hated doing what he told me.” He takes a shaky breath, in and out slowly.

“He’d make me kill those people for him, Akutagawa-san,” he murmurs, and just as quickly as it came, the rage is gone. The pain in his face overpowers it, and he crosses one arm over his eyes. “I’m a monster.”

The silence after his words almost feels heavier than the words themselves. Mouth dry, Ryuu’s thoughts jumble together until they’re tangled, thoughts of how Atsushi would hate him if he ever saw Ryuu’s body count, of exactly how little Ryuu cared for those “innocents” he would kill on a daily basis, of how twenty-four hours ago, Ryuu would’ve agreed with Atsushi: by definition, the weretiger is a monster.

But now. Now it’s different. Now he’s seen more jagged edges of Atsushi’s multi-faceted soul. Now he has begun to understand. Now he’s overwhelmed, overwhelmed by Atsushi and his beauty and his soul and the beauty of his soul, so says the first words he manages to form, nearly whispering into the dark room,

“No you’re not.”

He hears Atsushi make a soft noise in the back of his throat. The weretiger moves his arm from his face, and his eyes shine directly on Ryuu, who doesn’t move. A frown pulls his lips taught and forms worry lines around his eyes, but still, Atsushi smiles.

“You’re not afraid of me, and you don’t think I’m a monster,” Atsushi says, echoing Ryuu’s words from before. A hum on his lips, he then curls the blanket around his shoulders, yawning slightly. “You’re the first to say that, Akutagawa-san.”

Once again, Atsushi closes his eyes, leaving the room in darkness aside from the few remaining streetlights outside the window. Ryuu takes a deep breath, lying down as well.

“Oi, Jinko,” he mutters, trying to keep the edge to his voice as something within him softens. “You can call me Akutagawa.”

Atsushi gives a small huff of a laugh, as if he sees right through him, even in the dark with his eyes closed.

“Then goodnight, Akutagawa,” he says, sleep making his words slow and blurred together.

Stomach turning in knots, Ryuu grunts in response, closing his eyes and willing his nightmares to stay away. The only image he sees as he falls asleep is Atsushi.

#shin soukoku #sskk #atsuaku #akuatsu #heavenbound #don't worry; this alligator scene will actually have something to do with the plot and move it along #even though i love the original for how bonkers it is #also the italics aren't coming in right so if you want to read this in its original formatting please read it on ao3 #and leave a comment and kudos while you're at it #validate my lovechild

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rayraywrites · 5 years

Text

Chapter 5: Everything but the baseball

Prompt: Free Time - Day off/Vacation

Characters: Sawamura Eijun, Kuramochi Youichi, Kawakami Norifumi, Furuya Satoru

Rating: General Audiences

Total Word Count: 4105

AO3

Summary:

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going” — Sam Levenson

A day of for him doesn’t mean he sleeps in. It just means he does things a bit different.

Many people found it difficult to wake up before the sun. Something about how their minds were never truly functional till the sun was already up in the sky. And when they were forced to be up that early, they grumbled and whined.

But for him it was as simple as breathing. Waking up with, or even before the sun, had been a habit of his since his childhood days. You couldn’t grow up as a farm boy and be expected to sleep in. He would wake up before the sun in order to find that ten minutes alone time before his chores would start. So coming to Seidou, where practice didn’t begin till 5:30 am? Most days he was awake, waiting for his alarm to go off. Kuramochi-senpai had made it very clear that he wasn’t allowed to leave the room when the sun hadn’t even begun shining.

But some days, he got the opportunity to sneak out and be by himself so early in the morning. Carefully slipping his shoes on, and muffling the hinges with his towel so that no noise could be heard, he stepped out of the room. The minute he would make it out of the border of the dorms, his careful saunter immediately changed into a free-spirited run, sprinting at break-neck speed to appreciate the chill of the morning air and the quietness of the still half-asleep world. Making it to the field, he dropped his things in the corner of the steps, a water bottle still filled from the previous night’s planning, alongside his phone and keys.

Dropping to the ground, he began his morning stretches. Feeling the pleasurable pull in the back of his thighs as he stretched his legs out, he let out a happy groan. Reaching out to touch his toes, both individual legs, and together, he could feel his body awakening alongside his mind.

Standing up, he began his morning run at a slow jog, wanting to avoid any injuries caused by being overly excited. As his pace quickened, he allowed his mind to wander to the coach’s announcement from the previous night.

Kataoka Kantoku’s face was as impassive as ever, but there had been a slight upturn to his lips that belied his pride. “Good job everyone on our win today, the game was extremely well played.”

They had won the practice game, completely one-sided. The only reason the game had gone the full nine innings was for the sake of the game being a practice one – the more practice the better after all.

“So because of your good work, and with training week beginning soon, I’m ordering you all to take a day off. That means, tomorrow, there will be no practicing of baseball. Running and weight training will be allowed, but even then only for a minimal amount.”

It had felt as if the coach’s eyes had been locked on him during the whole announcement, pulling a bright blush to his face while a scowl grew on his lips. Even worse, it hadn’t escaped his teammates awareness either, for they all laughed at his expense, knowing how easily he would over-practice in his zeal.

So all he could do now was run a little, and not even to his full extent because he knew that coach would be made aware somehow. He wouldn’t be able to pitch at all tomorrow if he pushed himself too hard. With a soft whine, he slowed his run back down again, and changed his direction to head back towards the steps. Picking up his water bottle, he pulled off the lid, taking a large gulp of water. He could feel some of it spill out onto his chin, and instead run down his neck as cold rivulets. With a loud gasp, he finished swallowing and reached up to wipe the extra water with the back of his hand.

His phone showed that it was only 5:45 am, so he doubted that anyone would be awake yet, not with a day off. So his walk back towards the dorms was quiet, not wanting to disturb anyone’s sleep, even if he was full of energy. His room was still dim as he slowly eased open the door, the sun having not had a chance to seep into the room just yet.

Walking over to the window, he shifted the plants on the sill so that when he was finally allowed to open the curtains, the ones requiring the most sun would be at the forefront. With a gentle smile, he stuck a finger into the soil of his cactus, checking if it would need any water since it had been a few weeks since he’d watered it. Realizing the soil was a bit dry, he went to pull his finger out of the dirt, and accidentally brushed it against the sharp spines of the plant. With a wince, he pulled his hand back towards his chest, cradling the finger gently.

Seeing that his hand was fine, he laughed slightly and leaned down to pick up the watering can. With practiced ease, he gave every plant that needed water some nourishment, and a little extra love for his beloved sunflower. He had begun humming as he always did when working with plants, smiling to himself as the plants seemed to waken under his careful fingers.

–

Unbeknownst to himself, his humming had quickly transitioned into actual singing. When he lost himself to his plants and music, it was hard to pull him out of it.

“Imagine all the people. Living life in peace~”

While Asada had taken the day off as an excuse to go visit his family, Kuramochi was still asleep in the room, and found himself waking up to Sawamura’s singing. And like clockwork, every time he’d stumbled upon the singing, he found himself blushing even though his eyes continued to track every single movement of the pitcher’s. He had, however, winced slightly when he saw that Sawamura had hurt his hand, but luckily it was the right hand and it didn’t seem that any real injury had occurred.

Eventually, Sawamura was done and the singing stopped. Kuramochi immediately closed his eyes, working on bringing his breathing back to normal, as if he was asleep still.

–

With that done, he headed back to his bed, and stripped of his practice clothes. With none of his roommates awake, he wasn’t in as much of a rush as usual, though he was also slow, because it was only after he took his shorts and shirt off that he realized he wasn’t sure if he had any clean regular clothes left. Luckily, he still had one of the baseball tees Wakana had bought him for his birthday last year – he’d outgrown it slightly, but for a day off it was fine. Stretching his hands upwards to the sky, he felt the last bit of strain in his back from the day before’s game disappear. Slipping on the shirt, and a pair of khakis, he relaxed a little.

Because the day was so beautiful, he decided to go outside to read his manga, rather than stay cooped up inside. Reaching for the books shoved underneath his bed, he managed to find the latest volume of Kimi ni Todoke that he’d borrowed from Haruno. Kanemaru had been breathing down his neck for the past few days to get his hands on it as well, so he had to finish it today.

Straightening up from his bed, he accidentally made eye contact with Kuramochi, who had apparently woken while he had been puttering around the room. Curiously, his senpai’s face was bright red, but questioning Kuramochi-senpai was never a good idea. So with a bright smile, he greeted him.

“Good morning Kuramochi-senpai! The sun is shining very brightly today, would you like to join me for some reading or something outside?”

His smile dimmed a little at the glare he received from Kuramochi, and then the sharp hit on his head made him scowl. Backing away from the bed, he went to pick up his things and stomp out, but stopped by the sheepish voice calling him back.

“Ugh...sorry Bakamura. It’s just your voice is too loud and it’s too early.”

He whirled back around to glare at his senpai, who only laughed loudly before speaking again.

“Kyahaha, don’t make such a pouty face baka. You go enjoy your day reading your stupid shoujo manga, and I’ll enjoy my day with video games.” Kuramochi waved his hand dismissively towards the door.

With a huff, he headed towards the door, throwing one last annoyed glance back towards Kuramochi before reaching to open the door. Just as he was about to slip out, the shortstop called out one last comment that had him spluttering and blushing – both from embarrassment and anger.

“Oh by the way, Bakamura you’re singing isn’t half bad, but maybe not so loud when others are trying to sleep alright? Kyahaha!”

Grumbling about stupid senpais under his breath, he ran out of the room, back towards the field. But this time, rather than going down the steps fully, he simply sat himself down on the side of the steps, pressing himself into the grooves of the cement and hill. Slipping on some earbuds, and pulling out his manga, he easily lost himself in the pages.

Crying at Sawako’s diligent attempts at making friends with everyone in her class, her growing friendship with Kurumi, and everyone’s relationship struggles. He grinned brightly at Kazehaya developing relationship with his father, and even laughed at how similar it was to his own grandfather. As much as he loved baseball, there was just something simple and carefree about the characters in shoujo manga. They had their passions and loves, but it was friendship, romance and personal development that came first in their lives rather than a sport. Though, he did have to say, he was a bit partial to this one because Ryuu played baseball too.

I kind of wish I was as cool as he is with Chizu.

As the sun began raising to approach its peak in the sky, he began shifting slightly away from the corner he’d tucked himself into. As his feet moved to stretch out, they brushed something against something soft that had him raising his head from the manga. Blinking, he was momentarily stunned to see Nori-senpai sitting near him with a pair of headphones placed on his ears. He noted the absence of a book, but saw a rubix cube that the other pitcher was fiddling with.

Ripping out his earbuds, his moment of quiet realization quickly ended as he shouted in surprise, “EHHH? Nori-senpai, what are you doing here!?”

Luckily, unlike some of his other senpai, Nori wasn’t one to hit him when he was loud. Instead, his fellow pitcher simply sighed, removed his headphones from his ears and tucked them around his neck. From there all he did was just nudge Eijun, a subtle signal to quiet down, making him blush lightly.

Still, he quirked an eyebrow and gestured for Nori to answer his question.

“You looked like you were comfortable, and I wanted to know what you were listening to but didn’t want to interrupt your reading.” Nori laughed, something he normally didn’t hear which pulled a smile to his own face. “You were crying when I got here Sawamura, so I was definitely not willing to bother you until that was done.”

Giggling, he shook his head, and replied, “you could have if you wanted senpai, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.” Unlike Kuramochi-senpai or Miyuki, Nori had never teased him about his shoujo manga, so he never went on about it during their rare conversations. “As for my music, it was just a playlist of anime soundtracks Wakana recommended me.” Pulling up his music app on his phone, he turned it around to show the other pitcher. “There’s about 60 sixty songs that are on the playlist,” he scrolled through them quickly with his thumb, “all of them are supposed to be soothing so I like to listen to them when reading manga.”

Nori nodded, before reaching for his own phone and pulled up a specific album on his phone. “I think you might like listening to this artist as well then,” he turned his phone around to show a photo of an album. “They remix the old legend of zelda game soundtracks - Majora’s Mask. It’s really lovely, and I think you might actually enjoy them!”

It was always fun to discuss music with Nori-senpai. He always suggested fun artists or songs for him to listen to, and somehow he always knew that Eijun would enjoy them. So he trusted that these would be just as interesting to listen to. Another thing he enjoyed was that on days like this, Nori-senpai wouldn’t force him into a long-drawn conversation. Eijun was naturally loud and enjoyed being around people, but sometimes he liked spending the day a little quieter and on his own.

Their conversation ended soon after, and he put his earbuds back on to finish the last bit of the manga volume in his hands. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as Nori raised the headphones back onto his ears – to himself, he laughed as he realized they were those cute cat ones that Shirasu-senpai had given Nori for Christmas last year. And like before, Nori continued fiddling with the rubix cube, easily finishing and scrambling the cube over and over again.

Another half hour or so passed in this manner, in which he finished the volume as well as the playlist he had been listening to. Standing up, he shook out his legs to allow blood flow to return smoothly. Straightening out his pants, and dusting off his shirt, he then leaned down to pick up his things and turned back to face Nori. Running a hand through his hair, he let his hand slide to the back of his neck.

“Guess I’ll see you later Nori-senpai! You should join me for my morning run tomorrow!” With a bright grin, he began to walk away, heading back to his room. Hearing the response to his question, he simply waved his hand in acquiescence and continued on his path.

Upon entering his room, he could see that Kuramochi-senpai had woken up and had now situated himself in front of the tv to play video games. Glancing at the screen he could see that it was one of the games that the shortstop had been raving about wanting to try out for a few weeks. However, he couldn’t remember when they’d had a moment’s breath for Kuramochi to have bought it. Apparently his confused thoughts had translated to not-so-quiet mutters, for Kuramochi grunted out a reply in the midst of a combo attack from the enemy.

“Borrowed it off of a guy in my class.”

Making the appropriate sounds of understanding, he walked towards his own bed, dropping the manga and phone down, while reaching towards his desk. Unlike the rest of it, there was one corner that was always kept clean and organized, even if it wasn’t obvious among the clutter. Tugging out his sketchbook and pencil case, he then went back to his bed to grab his phone once more. Calling out a loud goodbye to Kuramochi, he left the room once more.

Checking the time, he realized it was already past noon, so he changed his direction towards the cafeteria. Hopefully some of the kitchen ladies wouldn’t mind giving him the food in a packed container so he could eat outside. Luckily, with it being a day off, they were a bit more accepting of his odd request. Smiling at them brightly, he bowed deeply. Normally he would spout some archaic phrase of thanks, but he was excited to get back outside and settle down for the rest of the day. Waving and calling out greetings to the members of the team who were in the cafeteria, he proceeded to the exit, already trying to figure out what his focus was going to be.

As he wandered around the edge of the baseball field, he saw something poking out of the ground, somehow having evaded the lawnmowers. Smiling to himself, he sat down beside the plant, fingers already itching to turn the bright yellow petals into brushstrokes on his page. Immediately, he whipped open his sketchbook, past rough drawings of his friends, the baseball field. His fingers brushed Kuramochi’s face, drooling in his sleep while the shortstop was hunched over a pillow – he had fallen asleep during a video game marathon. His eyes got caught on a sketch of Nori and Miyuki playing catch together, smiles on both of their faces. He quickly flipped through the pages filled with his teammates, and landed on a blank page, closer to the end.

His tongue stuck out as he began roughly outlining the flower, using only the lightest of pencil lines to just get the geometric shapes of each part of the plant. Then he picked up his pen, letting his hand flow on the page. He had been drawing since he was a little boy – his one shelf at home as filled to the brim with sketchbooks. Once the flower was complete, he pulled back the sketchbook, bringing it to his eye level to see if there was anything he could do to make it better. Adding a line here or there, he made a satisfied noise and signed the top corner.

With a soft sigh, he continued sketching, a few more flowers from different angles, a sketch of the landscape – combining the field, the stairs, and the dorms all into one, and some random other things he felt like doodling. Drawing was soothing, like his plants and reading, it was a break from his more hectic life here at Seidou, and just overall. So when he would get the chance, he would try and document the important things in his life as sketches. The moments that fit the phrase “pretty as a picture.”

In the middle of a sketch of his shoes, he felt someone come near him, their height blocking the light he needed. With a scowl, he turned around, ready to shout for them to move out of his way. But seeing Furuya standing there with a confused look on his usually stoic face, only made him shake his head in annoyance before calling out, “Furuya if you’re going to hang out here, get out of the way – we only have a few more hours of sunlight after all!” Gesturing for the other pitcher to move, he turned back to his sketch. Glancing at his shoe that he’d propped up against his pencil case for some nice shadows caused by the angle, he made some final adjustments as Furuya settled down beside him.

Throwing a confused look to the other boy, he shook his head and focussed on his drawings. He noticed that Furuya had brought a baseball, which was rolling through his hands. A reprimand was on the tip of his tongue, ready to accuse Furuya of practicing when they were expressly forbade from anything rigorous. However, he stopped, eyes entranced by how at ease Furuya was when he was holding a baseball, how the normally tensed body slowly relaxed the longer the ball was in his hand. And more importantly, how pretty a picture it made.

So with slight adjustments to his posture, he slowly skipped onto another clean page, pulling out more of his pencils and rubbers to create another drawing. This time, his muse was Furuya and the baseball that meant so much to them. He could tell that Furuya had realized he was now the model, for his actions became slower, as if to help Eijun by staying still. But instead of being helpful, it only added stiffness to Furuya’s wrist and fingers, so he shook his head, encouraging his teammate to keep moving and be himself.

Wide, broad strokes defined the geometric shape of the palm, a rough circle placed the ball carefully onto the page. Then tube-like structures began shaping the fingers, the three circling around the ball, carefully cradling it in an understated strength. And then, he pulled out his heavy-weight pencils, a blending stump following to add the shadows that curled under each finger, that spread across the ball in patches. He continued to glance at Furuya’s hand that had yet to stop fidgeting with the baseball. In the dim evening light, there was limited light bouncing off his nails, but Eijun wanted to give it a view of early morning, as if light was slowly growing on the hand as the sun rose in the sky. Pulling out his white pencil, he added highlights, once more blending them into the rest of the hand.

Like each sketch, he held it away from himself, to see what needed to be fixed, and what was fine. He scowled at the shape of the tip of the middle finger and adjusted it, using his eraser to clean the edges of the shadows a bit more. When he was finally satisfied, he signed the drawing, before clearing his throat to attract Furuya’s attention.

“Here, you can take a look,” turning the sketchbook to face Furuya, Eijun tried to act as if his opinion meant nothing, “if you want of course.”

When Furuya reached out for the book, he handed it over, albeit a little hesitantly. And yet, there was no negative comments, only Furuya staring at it blankly. Pouting at the lack of a reaction, he crossed his arms, huffing out a breath in impatience.

“Well? What do you think? Did I do okay? What’s wrong with it?” He was definitely getting much too worked up over the sketch, but something about actually showing the person who he’d drawn was very nerve-wracking. He’d managed to go this long, with no one ever seeing his art, at least never ones of themselves. Harucchi had seen the one of oniisan-senpai in the middle of catching a ball, and had demanded a copy of it immediately. But that was the only time – everyone else who knew he drew assumed it was only landscape and plants.

But even after his prompting and pestering, Furuya didn’t reply. Instead, all he received was an intense glare from the other pitcher, making him scowl righteously in response. Then Furuya slowly ripped the drawing from the sketchbook, making him reach out in shock. And before he could formulate a response, the pitcher stood up, and walked away.

Scrambling up, he shouted after Furuya, confused and a little upset. Not so much because his drawing was taken, but because even then, he hadn’t been able to read Furuya at all. With a loud sigh, he dropped back to the ground, and packed up all his things. It was nearing sunset, and he knew that if he wanted to get away with an evening run, he would have to get back to his room soon.

The rest of the evening continued without any pomp, he simply dropped his things back in his room and then headed out with Kuramochi for dinner in the cafeteria. Eventually managing to escape everyone heading to Miyuki’s room, he changed into the same clothing from that morning, and worked out some of the pent up energy he’d been unable to expend from the lack of practice. By the time it approached lights out, he’d managed to slightly tire himself out. In the back of his mind, he could vaguely remember the threat of a math test later on that week, and managed to focus for about thirty minutes, but gave up quickly to instead go to bed.

Waking up early, meant that he often went to bed early to compensate. An athlete needed an appropriate amount of sleep after all. Unless you were Miyuki, who most of the team wasn’t sure actually slept.

Another day complete, another day off taken care of. His eyes slid shut, satisfied with everything he’d done that day.

–

Waking up the next morning, slipping into his practice clothes again, he headed out for his run. Exiting the room, he was surprised to see something stuck to their door. Pulling it off, he blinked, before laughing brightly at what he saw.

It was a crude drawing of what was supposed to be a hand holding a baseball. A left hand.

“It’s horrid. How cute.”

Here’s Eijun’s first drawing of a daffodil & his drawing of Furuya’s hand holding the baseball: (drawn by yours truly)

And then, here's Furuya's attempt at a hand :D

#daiya no ace #sawamura eijun #kuramochi youichi #kawakami norifumi #furuya satoru #ace of diamond #diamond no ace #eijun week #day 5 #ray ray writes

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shirayukiwistalia · 7 years

Text

history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes

Everyone wants Obi’s backstory, but do you know who we know even less about? Ryuu. How does a twelve year old boy living and working on his own in the royal palace of all places not mention his family or past even once? Anyway, I love my son, and you should too.

Thanks to @garrack for encouraging me to post this <3

On AO3 here

Summary: Ryuu hasn’t gotten nearly enough sleep when he shows up at the examination hall in the palace. There are whispers as he walks into the room, and he feels stares latch onto him as he takes a seat. It’s unpleasant, but all he knows is that if he passes he’ll be able to learn more about the plants that fascinate him so much.

Ryuu is eight years old when he first arrives in Clarines. He doesn’t really remember much of the journey, but he remembers how the forests stretched on for days and the rivers glittered in the sunlight. He wonders if he’ll have time to see what plants grow in the countryside, but his carriage doesn’t allow for many stops. He manages to venture out at night, when they stop to rest. He gathers a scroll of paper and a dip pen, a birthday gift from his grandparents, and settles in a meadow illuminated by the moonlight, scrawling sloppy letters onto the uneven surface as he leans in close to examine the flowers swaying in the breeze.

He hasn’t gotten nearly enough sleep when he shows up at the examination hall in the palace. There are whispers as he walks into the room, and he feels stares latch onto him as he takes a seat. It’s unpleasant, but all he knows is that if he passes he’ll be able to learn more about the plants that fascinate him so much. The head pharmacist introduces herself quickly and then outlines the practical exam. He perks up at the mention of the herb garden because he’s never been in one before, and the idea of seeing one makes him forget his discomfort.

The greenhouse is absolutely wonderful and filled with so many herbs that he almost thinks he’s dreaming. Every plant is thriving, boasting vibrant hues and fragrant smells, and for moment Ryuu is struck speechless. He has only ever observed plants in natural environments, taking frequent trips into the forest or to the lake back home. He’s never seen such a large variety of plants all in one place before. The canals are pristine, and the water is so clear that he can see the bottom.

He gets to work immediately, taking out his pen and starts an inventory of all the plants in the garden. He’s not even halfway through before a certain plant catches his eye, and he all but runs to it in his excitement. He reaches into the soil and breaks off a root, bringing it to his mouth to taste it. His eyes widen when a sweet flavor spreads on his tongue. The flowers have yet to bloom, but he knows that it is yura shigure. He takes in the placement of all the plants and the flow of water in the garden, and he knows what he must do.

Garack arrives three days later, utterly dumbfounded as she takes in the state of the greenhouse. There is water all over the floor and bags of soil tipped over, mixing into the puddles and forming a concoction of mud that has been tracked throughout the garden by a pair of child sized shoes. Crinkled papers with dirty fingerprints lie haphazardly in the few clean areas in the greenhouse, such as the dry patches on the floor, the corners of plant boxes, and is there something in that fern over there?

Underneath the one tree in the garden, Garack sees a boy curled up against a bag of soil. His face has streaks of dirt, as do his clothes, and she’s pretty sure there’s at least three different types of leaves in his hair. She walks over to him, careful to avoid the slippery puddles on the ground. He’s sleeping, she realizes, as his chest softly rises and falls as he lies there. She has heard of Ryuu, the prodigy who has been studying plants since he could walk. He’s so very young, and his sleeping face only emphasizes that. Before Garack realizes it, she has already crouched down and moved his hair out of his face.

No, no, what is she doing? She has never met the boy before, and he is an applicant, not friend or family. She stands, making as little noise as possible so he doesn’t wake up. Whatever he has done, it looks as if a storm has passed through the room. She reaches for the paper in the fern to find out what he has done to the place… and is met with one of the most unique formats of note taking she’s ever seen.

It takes a moment, but she manages to figure out that the page she’s holding is about the necessary environmental factors needed for the yura shigure plant to bloom. She looks up and immediately spots the brilliant red flower across the garden. The soil has recently been put in—the flower has been transferred from a different location. Garack walks over to the worst disaster zone in the garden, and she finds that many of the plants have also been moved. A sweeping glance of the room tells her that not all the plants were transferred—a section of the garden is lifeless, flowers and leaves drooping toward the floor.

A grin makes its way onto her face, and she holds back a laugh. The boy actually tried to replant everything! Based on the chaotic state of the garden and the exhausted child under the tree, he must have struggled to do as much as he could before finally falling asleep.

“Yatsufusa,” she calls. “Can you bring Ryuu back to his assigned room?”

“Yes, Chief,” he replies, gently gathering the small boy into his arms. The pair cautiously make their way back to the entrance, and Ryuu doesn’t even stir.

“Can you believe this?” she muses aloud. “He really tried to save all these plants.”

“Does he pass?” Yatsufusa asks, looking down at the boy with curiosity.

“He didn’t actually succeed, but he didn’t have to,” she replies.

Garack glances at Ryuu again, who doesn’t seem like he’ll wake up any time soon.

“Well,” she lets out a chuckle. “It’s really a formality. His reputation precedes him. He’ll definitely become a wonderful pharmacist.”

Ryuu wakes up in his room when the sun’s rays peek through the curtains. He feels kind of… dirty. He sits up and looks down at himself, and then comes to the realization that he desperately needs a shower. How did he get back anyway? Wasn’t he in the garden? Wait a minute… the exam!

Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he is about to run back to the greenhouse when an envelope on his end table catches his eye. When he picks it up, he is surprised that it has some weight to it. He opens it, and there is a rectangular object of some sort inside. He takes it out, and a long cord attached to it follows. His eyes widen. It is an official identification tag for royal apprentice pharmacists. A note is also included in the envelope, so he takes that out to read it.

Dear Ryuu,

Congratulations on becoming a royal palace pharmacist. Please report to the Chief Pharmacist Garack Gazelt next week to begin your apprenticeship.

I look forward to working with you.

Chief Pharmacist of Clarines Garack Gazelt

Oh. He’s done it. Ryuu holds up the identification tag, staring at it in wonder. He’s a real pharmacist now. He feels warm and giddy and oh wow he’s actually done it! He can’t help but smile as the tag catches the light, reflecting a beautiful blue in the sun. He can’t wait to get started.

At least, he wants to get started, but there’s a mountain of papers on the Chief Pharmacist’s desk that is so high he can barely see her. He can hear the sound of a pen writing though. She doesn’t seem to have noticed his entrance, but his shyness starts to take over. She is the best pharmacist in all of Clarines. What if she doesn’t like him because he’s so young? It won’t be the first time it’s happened. He hesitates at first but eventually finds the courage to speak.

“Um, excuse me…” he manages to get out, trailing off. No response. He tries again.

“Excuse—excuse me, Chief Pharmacist!”

He hears the writing stop, and then a head pops out from behind the stack of paper. It’s so sudden that he jumps, startled.

“Ah, Ryuu!” Garack exclaims warmly. “Congratulations on passing the exam. Welcome to the royal pharmacy.”

The sight of only the chief’s head above stacks of paper is so bizarre that Ryuu forgets himself and stares. Garack tilts her head in confusion.

“Hm? What is it?”

“Ah, thank you for allowing me to work here,” he says, stumbling over his words a little. “And, um, thank you for the congratulations.”

Garack smiles and comes out from behind the desk, walking up to him. She holds out her hand.

“There’s no need for that,” she says. “You earned it.”

“Thank you,” he says again, shaking her hand lightly. Garack frowns.

“No, no, you have to do it more firmly,” she says, tightening her grip before he can pull away. “Like this!”

She shakes his hand almost vigorously, and Ryuu isn’t sure how to react. He settles with a look on confusion on his face.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he finally says. He then realizes that he is the only person here, besides the man wearing a bandana who was proctoring the exam.

“Um, am I the only one who passed?” he asks.

“You are,” Garack confirms. “It’s a difficult exam, so not many pass each year.”

That’s unexpected, but he’s glad that managed to pass the exam. He nods to show he’s listening.

“Normally, I’d assign you to a senior pharmacist, but all of them are currently stationed outside of the capital, so I’ll be in charge of you,” Garack says. “If I’m not available, then ask Yatsufusa here. He’ll be able to answer most of your questions.”

At this, Ryuu stares. Personal training from the chief herself? What an amazing opportunity!

“Please take care of me.”

“Great!” Garack says, clasping her hands together warmly. “Then please start familiarizing yourself with our plants and plant storage.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As he faces the wall of shelves, he feels excitement bubble up in his chest. The exam already feels a million years away, but the future is here and now and ready for him to take.

#akagami no shirayukihime #ryuu #garack gazelt #writing #sometimes i write things

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shirayuki-wisteria · 7 years

Text

Forgiving is Easier, but Forgetting is Harder

Obiyuki Week, Day Three: Forgive

Title: Forgiving is Easier, but Forgetting is Harder

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this fan-fiction except my horrible grammar and writing skills. All of the characters or cities mentioned in this fan-fiction belong to Akiduki Sorata unless said otherwise. Any references to real people or places are purely coincidental.

Synopsis: Even though Shirayuki had forgiven Obi when he failed to protect her in Tanbarun, she couldn't completely forget about it, not with such a constant reminder of it showing up everyday of her life. What is the constant reminder of her kidnapping? Had Obi even forgiven himself for his failure?

SPOILER ALERT: This prompt spoils a bit of the Tanbarun Arc (chapters 20 – 26),. You have been warned!

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Shirayuki retired to her bedroom after a heard day's work of trying to find the cure to the mysterious disease that was sweeping the city. She did a few stretches to make sure her muscles weren't so tense before she prepared a bath with lavender scented candles to relax in. After that needed bath, she quickly dried off and slipped into her long nightgown that went all the way to the floor. When she went to go grab a book from her bookshelf to read, she heard a soft knock on her door. “Come in! The door's open!” “Good evening, Mistress! I just came by to see how--” The young herbalist turned around to see why had he stopped. “What is it, Obi?” His mouth was wide open, blinking several times in disbelief. “Your... cheek...” “Hmm?” She asked as she involuntarily lifted up a hand to touch the cheek he was staring at. Immediately, she felt the scar. Eekk! I forgot that when I washed my face, it washed away the herb remedy that covered my scar up! Obi hung his head low, staring intently at the floor. “Have you always had that scar?” She stood still as she responded. “Ever since Umihebi hurt me with her weapon before, I've had this scar.” “Does anyone else know? “No. I usually cover it up.” “Not even the Master?” “Nope, not even him.” Neither one of them could think of something to say, so they both let the silence continue on. When Shirayuki couldn't stand it any longer, she decided to break the silence. “Are you okay, Obi?” He slowly lifted up his head, and she could suddenly see the pain he was in. “That's the question I should be asking you, Mistress.” She quickly made her way towards him before putting her arms around him. “I don't blame you one bit for what happened to me, Obi. I know that you'll beat yourself up over it, but don't blame yourself for it, okay? It's my fault for not listening to Umihebi when she first told me to go below deck.” Almost as if on impulse, Obi tentatively lifted his hand to cup her cheek. He gently inspected it with his thumb. “The reason it left a scar is because Umihebi's weapon—the modernized kusarigama—has a blade that kills cells and prevents them from healing. It has something to do with the metal inside it and the pressure the wielder uses.” She gave him a look of astonishment. “How did you know that?” He removed his hand from her cheek and shrugged before heading to her personal makeshift workspace. “I'm an ex-assassin so I was taught that you shouldn't use a kusarigama on hostages or merchandise. If we did, they taught us a simple herbal remedy that could easily heal the infected area.” As he rummaged about, trying to get the needed supplies to make it, Shirayuki gazed at him as she watched him closely. “Do you miss being an assassin?” He gave her a mere shrug, not even paying a glance in her direction. “Some aspects of it, I do. Like being free and being able to leave whenever I please. But other aspects—like not being close to anyone or being able to protect anyone else but myself—I don't in the least bit.” Obi finally managed to find all the needed supplies—an herb grinder, a mixture of herbs, and bandages—and got to work on grinding the herbs. He tried to ignore the stare she was sending his way. “How did you learn how to grind herbs like that?” Shirayuki asked in amazement. He continued to grind them until he was sure they were liquidized, then grabbed a nearby bandage and smeared it on. “I learned a lot of this from watching over you and Ryuu. It's amazing how you do this so easily. At first, it took me a long time to master it, and even now, I'm not as good as you.” She smiled sweetly at him. “You've gotten good. Better than I was when I was first starting, that's for sure.” Obi felt his heart begin to ache as he gently placed the bandage onto her scar. Don't look at me with those kind eyes... I don't deserve it, after all, I put you through... He couldn't bear it anymore, so he quickly pivoted on his heel and decided to busy himself with cleaning his makeshift workspace. “Obi,” Shirayuki began in a sweet, heart-warming tone, “you never answered my question. Are you okay?” The Prince's Knight carried on like she had said nothing and continued to tidy up. “Aah, you put your personal stock of herbs inside the pouches, right? Which way is it organised again?” “I organised them alphabetically and I wrote the labels onto the leather of the pouches. Anyhow, can you please answer my question?” “Aghh, clumsy me; I forgot where you put your herb grinder! Where was it again?” “In the small, makeshift-compartment I made for it in my dresser that's beside my bed. Can you please stop dodging the question and answer me?” “Man, I must be getting a mild case of Amnesia! Where did you tell me you put your bandages at—” At this point, Shirayuki was fed up with his constant dodging of her questions. She had gotten out of her chair and somehow now stood in front of Obi, looking him in the eye. “Why won't you answer the question?!” He couldn't make eye contact with her, so he just put the bandages up on her shelf, along with all of her herbs. After that, he faced her but kept his eyes to the floor. “You want to know how I feel? Fine. I feel like a failure of a knight—no, of a man for not protecting you when you needed it most. I let you get kidnapped and almost sold into slavery, and now you have a scar to remind you of it.” “Obi, it's alright. You did your best—“ “I don't need your pity or kind words. I'm not worthy of it.” After a minute or so of full-on silence, Obi decided to glance up at her to see what was wrong. When he did, he wished he hadn't. She was now clenching her fists at her sides as she trembled—with the remembrance of fear or of sadness, he did not know—and her eyes were now brimming with tears. “S-So let me get this straight,” She began in an unsteady and wavering voice, “what I say doesn't matter?” “It's not like that—“ “Yes, it is!” Her shrill voice cut through to his heart. “You told me what I said didn't matter back then in the forest, when I went after you. You said that nothing I could ever say would make a difference, so I didn't say anything. Do you know how that felt? To have someone who tells you that nothing you could ever say would help them heal?” “I didn't mean it like that!” “Then what way did you mean it? It seems to me that there's only one way to interpret it!” “When I said that, I didn't mean your words didn't matter to me! I meant that no matter what kind words you wasted on a failure like me, I could never, ever deserve them! I still don't deserve them, to this very day!” At this point, he was staring her dead in the eye. Of course, he couldn't see her clearly, since she was blurry due to the tears beginning to brim inside his eyes. “Do you understand now?” He asked in a quiet, sorrowful voice. “Why I don't want you saying kind words to me?” “Obi,” She began in a quiet voice but gradually grew surer and surer. “you do deserve every kind word spoken to you. How many times have you saved me without fail? One failure, compared to all of those times you succeeded, doesn't matter much.” “You're just saying that to make me feel better...” “No, I'm not. I'm saying this because I care about you.” “Care for someone who can actually protect you.” “I am. That's why I'm caring about you.” “It's wasted on me...” “I can assure you it's not.” They let the eerie silence envelop them for a moment, but Shirayuki broke it soon after. “Obi, I've forgiven you. It's about time you've forgiven yourself so we can both move on.” He clenched his fists even tighter. “And why would I do that?” “Because seeing you hurt like this hurts me! Obi, I love you! I'd never want to see you hurt like this ever again!” His eyes began to widen as he took in her words. “W-What?!” Her voice, unwavering and sure, rang true. “I love you, Obi. With all of my heart, all that I am, I love you.” “M-Mistress, you're making a mista—“ His lips never got to finish saying those words because she pressed hers against his. Their kiss was unlike anything Obi ever imagined—it was sweet, pure, but also passionate at the same time. When he received her feelings, he decided it was about time she receive his. He kissed her back slowly and unsurely at first, but gradually, he began to allow himself to love her. They parted only when they needed air, both out of breath. “Do you understand why I need you to move on, Obi?” A smile played on his lips. “Your message has been received loud and clear, Mis—“ Shirayuki pressed a finger against his lips to silence him. “Please don't call me Mistress anymore. When I tell Zen how I feel about you, I won't be your mistress anymore. Please call me Shirayuki.” “Okay,” He said with uncertainty. “Shir... Shira... Shirayuki.” She smiled sweetly at him. “I want to wake up to your voice saying that to me every day. That'd be enough.” He smiled back at her. “Then I promise that every day, I will wake you up with the faintest whisper of your name in your ear.” She pressed her lips against his, both losing themselves in the kiss. This wasn't your ordinary fairy tale, but it was theirs all the same. Living happily ever after forever more.

#Obiyukiweek17 #Obiyuki #AnS #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair

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