#fingerless gloves and shoulder straps will be what ends me today

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

🧚🏻‍♀️✨Bippity boppity bow chicka wow oww! You’ve been visited by the Shameless Hoe Fairy, and now you must share a thirsty thot about one of your favorite fictional babes. Go on and spread those shameless hoe vibes and your legs 😘❤️

Look... You sent this to me months ago and I'm just answering. But @undutchable11 was sharing with me some shameless thots about shoulder straps and coats. She in particular shared the gloves part, which I firmly agree with her. Fingerless gloves and shoulder straps on Nomad are just... Fucking hell the very best and needs to be used against us.

Drenched

Warnings- Fingering

Word Count- 1k

So close…

Steve was running a hand through his hair while opening your bedroom door. The late hour showed you lying sprawled out on your belly in bed, the tee you were wearing was riding up around the curve of your bare ass, your arms folded under your head and face hiding from his sight.

But he knew how your lashes would shadow just above the top of your cheek and your lips would be parted slightly, soft deep breaths signaling just how deep asleep you were. The soft whimper you would give when he would touch you, sleepy but a grin would pull at your mouth as your eyes fluttered open.

You were always so happy to see him. It didn't matter if it was between a few days to months. Every time he came back, you welcomed him with an urgency that made it hard for Steve to walk away every time.

But he always came back. As soon as it was safe again. When the authorities looking for him would bypass you once more thinking he had abandoned you.

Little did they know he couldn't ever let you go.

His hand ran over the globes of your ass, squeezing your softness in his palm as he leaned over to kiss your cheek. There, that whimper you gave. You shifted into his hold till he scooped you into his lap while he sat on the bed, your arms wrapping around his neck while you blinked wide-eyed at him trying to wake up to properly welcome him home.

“You're late Steve.” You whispered when you pressed a kiss to his bristled lips, soft against yours around his beard. You lifted yourself to straddle his lap, your hands cupping his face to feel the roughness of his beard against your fingers, the sensation making Steve relax in your touch. This man loved feeling you touch him, anywhere you desired, he craved it like nothing else.

“I know Doll, I had to wait them out.” He assured you while his fingers danced along the inside of your thighs, committing your softness to memory for the nights alone he endured. The way you spread wider for him, slicked so easily when his fingers dipped into your folds that he would groan at the warm welcome you gave him.

Your gaze grew hazy, feeling his fingers start to stroke you, the leather of his gloves a soft supple sensation pressing against your mound while his finger filled you, stroking you intimately. “Fuck Steve… I missed you.” Your hands dropped from his cheeks to fold your fingers around the straps over his shoulders, the creak of the tight leather a slight protest as you used it to leverage yourself, rolling your hips to fuck yourself on Steve's hand.

“Miss this too, watching you like this.” Steve groaned out, adding another finger that made you bite at your lip sharply, your arousal starting to seep around him while you plugged yourself back onto him. “Gonna drench my suit Doll? Rub yourself all over me so I can smell you wherever I go.”

Steve dragged up your sleep shirt, palming your breast with his other hand to pinch and pull on your nipple, making you mewl out while tipping your head back. Your hold tightened on the straps, digging your nails into the well-worn leather as you leveraged yourself higher, faster, letting him stretch you open more after almost pulling off him. The dirty talk, it always made you mindless for him, wanting more of it. Made you so fucking wet and needing more of him.

“Leave you all over my gloves Sweetheart, all for me and no one else can know I can smell my girl's sweet pussy.” He grunted while you tipped back further, bucking on his lap while his leather-clad palm ground into your clit. The sensitive little nerve made your nerves jolt.

“Yes Steve, fuck I want that.” You babbled while he dropped to drag his chin against your cleavage, biting your bouncing breasts and sucking on your nipple. The scratch of his beard made goosebumps erupt against your skin.

His fingers were messy now in you, the stretch around his digits changed to leather filling you, sure enough, you were drenching his clove, and for Steve, it was well worth losing the sensation of your pussy in his palm while you were like this. You were close, he could feel the way you fluttered around his digits as well as the mindless plea’s coming from you.

Kissing up your collar bone and grasping the back of your neck to keep you focusing on him while you fucked yourself further, he kissed you, swallowing hungry blissed moans and soft sobs when he nipped at your lip sharply. “Cum all over my glove Sweetheart, let me smell you later and make my cock hard while I'm on missions just thinking about your sweet drenched pussy.”

You nodded quickly, bouncing yourself faster while he helped you with his touch. Fingers curled just right to brush over your sweet spongy spot, the one that made you see stars in your vision and your body tense in a wave that made you shake in his hold. His thumb pressed and rubbed just right against your clit. His kiss is a filthy mess, tongue plunging to fill your mouth and you cry into it, screwing your eyes shut as the tension in your body is close to snapping.

It's when Steve pulls away, fingers against the back of your neck, squeezing gently. “Cum for me Doll.” He commands, and it's the final straw as you give in to it, the tension snapping as you rush to finish, the strained pain of tight muscles sinking into relief when you go mindless from it all.

Your arousal drenched him, his palm and his thighs were coated in you, his suit a mess. Steve gathered you in close against him, the rough material of his suit pressing everywhere around you while he pressed praising kisses against your neck while you whimpered and hid in his neck. You hadn't let go of the straps as you clung to him. Steve pressed kisses to your shoulder. “Good girl Doll, always my best girl. You whined when you felt his fingers pull from you, but the zipper sounded and the thick head of his cock pressed against your sensitive channel.

“Don't let go Sweetheart.” He instructed you next and you shuddered when he slid into you while you were still coming down

#amber answers #nomad steve is a kink #full on kink #i would do anything for him #fingerless gloves and shoulder straps will be what ends me today #fucking fuck me up #getting fingered with the fingerless gloves #yes #let me be your hoe sir

[my-darling-boy]

hello! i've recently become very interested in military fashion from the early 20th century, ideally to incorporate into my own wardrobe. unfortunately that seems to be a very niche thing, as most of what i can find is either a) just about the war or b) about men's fashion in general and not much about uniforms etc. do you have any recs for better research, tips for places to get clothes, how to style, etc... thank you, you're wonderful! :)

I think I get a lot of my WWI (British) references from a book called British Uniforms and Equipment Vol. 1 by John Bodsworth and Great War Tommy, the British Soldier 1914-18 from Haynes books; in my opinion, both give clear reps of various garments, so I’d recommend checking out visual books that relate to the country you’re interested in. Because the fashion you’re looking for is a type that is a unique product of another type of fashion, what you can do with it is entirely up to you.

Because I reenact a British private, my wardrobe now has some influenced items :P I’ve replaced some buttons on a large olive green coat with genuine SD buttons for casual wear. I’ve got thick knit scarves and fingerless gloves for colder temps (wanting a pair commissioned with the 3-finger pattern which saw your thumb and index finger separated and your other 3 fingers in one wider slot in the glove, which were historically accurate for the war at the time). British soldiers wore hobnailed brown or black ankle boots, and I’ve a couple pairs of brown boots with that vibe, besides my hobnail ones I own. Trousers at the time were obviously high waisted, and you might also consider wearing things like button braces. Watches (mostly for officers) were often small on a thin strap to be worn around the wrist, there were shrapnel guards as well that would cover the watch, and you can find repro shrapnel guard watches today. You might also think about pocket watches, small wire frame glasses, and even quirky things like a “good luck charm” somewhere on your outfit. I’ve known some people to thrift old plain jumpers and jodhpurs.

Chain bracelets and cord necklaces with medallions on the end for me are reminiscent of the IDs worn by soldiers for me. I’d wear a plain chain bracelet, but I’m weird and sometimes I take my custom reenactment bracelet out for a spin to the grocery store :P

Overall, though there were tons of uniforms around 1900-1920, a good place to start is to look at the country you’re inspired by and take a look at their soldiers. Take note of the outfit structure of different ranks and their clothing (i.e. a British officer’s clothes are going to be well fitting whereas a private’s is going to be quite formless) colours (khaki, grey, brown, tan, etc), materials (wool, cotton, metal, linen, leather, etc), and patterns like knits or stripes. Even looking outside the army ranks, you can search for naval things too. Though later wars aren’t my cup of tea, I have a genuine American sailor top from (the 40s or 50s?) which is quite timeless and can pass for earlier years at first glance. You can even find (unissued) authentic or repro canvas or leather bags which originally held gear to use as shoulder bags for books and laptops. I think I wore my British tunic as a wool jacket a couple of times one winter? Just stuff to think about!

#asks #edwardian #wwi #fashion

[skylights2000]

Switch! (Gundham x Fem! Reader) Part 6

~

I swear I’m still doing everyone’s requests. I was just so excited about this story that I ended up writing the whole chapter when I only meant to get started on it 😅

!TRIGGER WARNINGS!

There is a reference to a past suicide attempt!

This is a long one, so get settled in and enjoy! On to the story! 💜

~

No matter how much you argued that you had things to get done, everyone agreed that you needed rest. You finally gave in when Manako and Hiko promised to keep you updated on the current projects, as well as any new ones that came in.

In the end, you were thankful for the help. Though you’d never admit it, you really were exhausted, and it was comforting to have someone remind you that your business wouldn’t fall apart if you took some time off.

You slept for the majority of the next week. Gundham and Sonia spent more time at your home than at their own during that time.

Every few hours, you’d vaguely hear your bedroom door creak open, and one of them would come in to ask how you were doing.

If you were sleeping, you’d mumble that you were okay, just tired. If you were awake, they’d ask you if you wanted to eat, watch a movie, or something.

Sonia was a great cook, and whenever you felt bored or cooped up, she’d let you help her.

Sometimes, the three of you would go outside and sit on your front porch or walk down the street to the park. They always walked on either side of you, ready to catch you if you fell.

You appreciated their concern, but you eventually nudged them both ahead of you, assuring them that, yes, you were fine and would tell them if you weren’t.

On days that Gundham had to work, Sonia would keep you company. Today was one of those days, and Sonia was excitedly telling you about her upcoming date with Peko.

“Do you want to go shopping with me?” Sonia asked excitedly.

You hadn’t actually been shopping in a while. You spent most of your time working and never really went many places that required nice clothes, so you never had a reason to go shopping that much.

Maybe you could get something nice for yourself? It’s not like you didn’t have the money. But where would you even wear something like that? A date maybe?

The thought made you realize that you hadn’t been on a date in almost two years. Jeez, that made you feel like some kind of hermit.

“Sure, why not.”

Sonia clapped happily and dragged you up from the couch. “Alright, get dressed, and we will go!”

You shook your head, amused by her enthusiasm, and retreated to your room to change out of your pajamas.

~

Miu sent you and Sonia a message just as you were getting into your car.

I’ve got awesome news fuckers! Where are you?!

You raised an eyebrow, wondering what she’d gotten into this time. You turned to Sonia. “You mind if she comes along?”

Sonia just grinned. “The more the merrier!”

You smiled and answered the message.

Be outside in ten minutes or I’m leaving you behind

Ooh are you gonna punish me?

You rolled your eyes, but the smile on your face didn’t falter.

I’ll leave that to Ibuki

You put your phone in one of the cup holders and started the engine.

~

Miu clambered into the backseat the second your car had stopped and immediately launched into a tirade. “Clear your plans for Friday night! We’re goin’ to a fuckin’ concert!”

“You bought tickets?” Sonia asked, and Miu’s grin widened.

“That’s the thing! It’s Ibuki’s concert so we get in for free!”

“Isn’t that abusing your relationship?”

Miu punched your shoulder, causing you to swear and whack her knee. “Don’t do that while I’m driving!”

“It was Ibuki’s idea! She wants all of us to come!”

“All of us?”

Miu nodded, listing off people on her fingers. “The three of us, Gundham, and Kazuichi. So whaddya say?”

“That sounds wonderful!”

“Sounds like fun. You gonna need a ride?”

“Nah, I’m ridin’ with Kazuichi.” Miu seemed to finally remember that they were driving. “Where’re we goin’ anyway?”

“Shopping. Oh, we can even buy outfits for the concert!” Sonia exclaimed, and you nodded along.

“Yeah, gotta match the occasion.”

~

Miu and Sonia dragged you through several stores. Each of them found their outfits fairly easily. You, on the other hand, were having some trouble.

The clothes were all nice, and you really liked some of them, but you really weren’t sure you could pull any of it off.

Eventually, Miu got tired of waiting and started searching for you. Within minutes, she returned with enough outfits to make your head spin and dragged you towards the changing room.

You tried on each outfit, each one getting various comments of “Not that one.”, “Try the next one.”, and “Not your look.”

By the time you got to the last few, you felt incredibly discouraged.

~

“I actually like this one.” You said as you stepped out of the changing room.

Sonia and Miu, who had been having a conversation about Kiibo, turned to you. Sonia’s eyes widened, and Miu’s mouth fell open.

“You look wonderful!”

“Hot damn, you look good, kid.”

“I’m older than you.” You huffed indignantly, but you couldn’t keep the smile off your face.

“Gundham’s gonna bust the fattest nut when he sees you.” Miu laughed.

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise before you smiled awkwardly. “I think you’ve misinterpreted something. Gundham doesn’t see me that way.” You sounded so confident in the assumption that both of them were a bit caught off guard.

“Wait, you really don’t see the way he looks at you?” Miu asked disbelievingly.

You frowned at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

Miu looked to Sonia, who shrugged in response to the silent question.

“Well, how do you feel about him?” Miu asked instead.

You smiled happily. “We’re friends.”

“An’ that’s it?”

You paused for a moment, considering her words for a moment. “Hm, I’ve never really thought about it.”

You didn’t elaborate further as you headed back into the changing room, much to the frustration of Miu, who really wanted the scoop on you and Gundham.

~

The day of the concert was a hectic one. You got several new orders for various kinds of furniture, so you spent most of the day alternating between ordering supplies and cutting and labeling the wood needed for each project.

As soon as you got home, you jumped in the bath, soaking away the soreness in your body. You washed your hair, blow dried it, and set about styling it. Once you were satisfied with that, you headed back to your room to get dressed.

You’d ended up buying the outfit that the three of you liked. You were wearing a dark purple t-shirt, black jean shorts, fishnet stockings, and black combat boots. You accented the outfit with a black, lace choker that had a silver crescent moon in the center and a pair of fingerless black gloves.

You smiled at your reflection. Miu and Sonia were right. You did look good.

You grabbed your phone from your bed and sent Sonia a message saying you’d be at her apartment soon to pick up her and Gundham.

~

When you got there, you parked and climbed the stairs to her apartment. When you knocked on the door, you very vaguely heard Sonia’s voice and the dull thump of boots on the floor before the door opened.

You’re not sure who looked more surprised, you or Gundham.

Sure, you’d seen him in his long coats and dark clothes, but you’d never seen him dressed like this. He was wearing a dark red, band t-shirt, black jeans with several straps and buckles along each leg, and black boots. He had on several black and silver necklaces and twin leather bracelets on each wrist.

You finally forced yourself to look away when you realized you were staring. You waited for him to say something or invite you inside, but he didn’t. For a long moment, he just stared at you, and you hooked your thumbs through your belt loops in an effort to look calmer than you felt. People never really looked at you, so having someone openly stare at you was making you nervous.

“Um..Gundham?” You smiled bashfully, offering a little wave to get his attention.

He blinked and upon realizing what he’d been doing, he looked away from you, moving to hide his face with his scarf before remembering it wasn’t there.

As if to save him from his own awkwardness, Sonia appeared beside him. “Hello, (Y/n)!”

Sonia was wearing a beautiful, gothic style, black dress. It stopped just past her thighs and had long lace sleeves. Several thin, silver chains hung from her waist. She had on knee high, black boots and her usual choker with the pentacle on it. You couldn’t help but smile. They both looked great.

“Hey Sonia. You guys ready to go?”

When they nodded, you led them to your car. Sonia climbed into the front seat since she was giving directions while Gundham climbed into the back.

~

The place was packed when you got there, and it didn’t take long for you to spot Kazuichi’s pink hair out front. He was deep in conversation with Miu, and as you approached, you realized they were talking about their newest project. You smiled nervously. Hopefully, this time, it wouldn’t involve any weird rituals.

As soon as you reached them, Miu dragged you all inside. The place was packed, and you felt a spark of anxiety at the sheer number of people around you. You didn’t like crowds. You probably should’ve thought that part through.

Well, you were already here, and if anything did get bad, you could just politely excuse yourself.

With that thought in mind, you followed everyone inside. You found a table near the back and took a seat with the others. Miu disappeared to wish Ibuki luck before the show, and Kazuichi left after asking if any of you wanted something to drink. You asked for a soda, Gundham requested some water, and Sonia politely asked for some lemonade.

Shortly after he returned with the drinks, the lights dimmed, and the ones on the stage lit up. Miu appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Sonia’s hand then yours. “Let’s dance, bitches!”

“I don’t really know how t-“

“Fake it til ya make it, (Y/n)!”

She wasted no time dragging you two towards the stage. Sensing your discomfort, Sonia stopped Miu from dragging you fully into the mosh pit in front of the stage. Miu huffed, but her expression softened. “Ya alright?”

You smiled sincerely, albeit a bit awkwardly, and nodded. They threw their arms up and danced like crazy, and you laughed as you watched them. You bobbed your head to the beat. It really did make you wanna dance, but there were so many people around.

Sonia, ever the empath, grabbed both your hands and pulled you towards them. “Dance with us!”

They both grinned at you, each taking one of your hands. It was awkward at first because you were still a bit uncomfortable, but being with two of your best friends helped you loosen up, and soon, you were jumping and dancing along with them.

Across the room, Gundham was watching you quietly, a small smile on his face. He liked your smile, liked the way your eyes shined. Your hair whipped your face as you banged your head to the beat. The adrenaline made you feel like you were flying, like nothing existed except you and the music. After an entire week of being cooped up in your house, it felt good to just dance. 

The music made you feel high, like you were tripping on just being alive. It was strange, something you’d never felt before, but you welcomed it readily. 

No matter how much fun you were having, you ended up excusing yourself when you got thirsty. You asked for some water and headed out the side door to get some air. The cool, night air felt incredible against your skin. You didn’t realize how hot you’d gotten. You sat down on one of the benches outside. 

The vaguely heard music from inside mixed with the quiet hum of the night. It was relaxing, and you closed your eyes for a moment to just listen. You breathed in deep and let it out slow.

It felt good to be out, and it made you wonder why you didn’t do it more often. You hadn’t been out like this since you started your business. At first, it was because things were still being set up, then it was because you were busy with all the new customers, but even when you got used to everything, you never went out like this.

You opened your eyes when someone sat down beside you, and a glance to your right revealed that it was Gundham.

“What are you doing out here?” You asked curiously.

He was quiet for so long that you began to think he wouldn’t answer, but eventually, he turned to you. “I wish to inquire about something.”

“What’s up?”

“That scar on your arm. Why have I never seen it until our bodily forms were swapped?” As he asked, he motioned to the long scar that stretched diagonally across your left forearm.

“Oh.” You traced your fingers along the scar. “I usually cover it with makeup.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s kinda ugly, isn’t it?”

“Scars are a sign of perseverance in battle.”

“I don’t think you’d say that if you knew how I got it.” You murmured somberly.

“Why do you speak such nonsense?”

You were quiet for a moment. “...I tried to commit suicide once.”

He stared at you with wide eyes, too stunned to say anything.

“Sometimes I still wonder why I’m here. What point does my existence have? Does it really matter?” You tilted your head back to see the stars as you continued. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s easier to give up.”

You flinched at how suddenly he moved, but in a heartbeat, he was crouching in front of you.

“It seems you do not know the potential you hold, so allow me to enlighten you.” He watched you so intently as he cradled your face in his hands. His touch was gentle, like you were something precious, and it did something funny to your heart. “I have never met a mortal filled with so much compassion. You are humorous and strange. You are talented in your craft and an inspiration to those around you. You do not know the light you bring to this dark world.”

The sincerity in the words surprised you, but you found yourself smiling. “You’re something special, Gundham Tanaka.” You leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

He stood up, looking away from you to hide the growing blush on his face.

You still saw it and giggled softly. “Why don’t we head back inside?” You stood up when he nodded and followed him back inside.

#danganronpa #danganronpa imagines #danganronpa goodbye despair #gundham x reader #gundham tanaka #gundham imagine #fem reader #sonia nevermind #miu iruma #danganronpa killing harmony #kazuichi souda #referenced suicide attempt #referenced past abuse

[much-obliged-timothy]

Had another Borderlands fic idea that will never turn into anything substantial, so here’s a little one-shot based on it! A job unexpectedly reunites Athena with an old companion, retirement is very tempting, and I somehow turned a minor character with one (1) defining feature into an OC

Athena moved along the area quietly, out of sight. The path nearby was mostly quiet aside from a lone skag dragging itself along.

Janey was trying to convince her to give up taking these contracts. She wanted Athena to find a more legitimate way to make money, preferably one that didn’t involve her assassinating people.

But when this job had come her way, she couldn’t resist. 

Jack’s influence on Pandora was growing by the day. If he managed to wake the Warrior, he’d wipe out the majority of life here. Normally, Athena wouldn’t care what happened to a planet like Pandora. But the fact that she and Janey now lived here meant she sure as hell didn’t want Jack occupying the place.

There weren’t many details on her target. A higher-up in Hyperion who went rogue for unknown reasons. He was guaranteed to have top-secret information that could be used against Jack, potentially even detrimentally so. Jack was quietly sending people after him, not wanting anyone to know he was out there.

Apparently, he’d joined a local bandit gang, though Athena couldn’t puzzle out if it was to blend in or for the sake of having protection. Not that it really mattered.

The job was to capture him and turn him over to the client. Athena had other plans for him, though.

Someone with that intel? She had every intention of beating some of it out of him herself, then turning him over to the Crimson Raiders. They were the only organized movement against Jack. She had to hope they could be competent enough to take him down.

She quieted her thoughts as voices drifted her way, still a fair distance off. She found a suitable hiding place, then fell still. 

It was a few minutes before gunshots rang out and the skag on the path fell dead. Laughter, close now, came in waves.

“Stupid creatures,” a man’s voice said.

Athena peaked out from her hiding spot. Sure enough, a group of bandits were approaching the skag’s corpse. The one leading them reached it first, kicking it roughly.

She scanned their faces, immediately dismissing most of the little group. Only two stood out to her, and only one could be her target.

The two had their faces hidden with masks, but one was a woman and one was a man. Her target was the man.

She did a thorough observation of him as he watched the others kick and carve at the skag corpse. He had a gun holstered to his thigh, his hand resting on it with the kind of casual paranoia of the hunted. The way his right pant leg flared just the slightest informed her he likely had a knife hidden beneath it. He had on a weapons belt, though she wasn’t sure what kind of guns he would digistruct from it. She had no information about his fighting style.

Three grenades strapped to the weapons belt. He wasn’t armed to the teeth, but he was prepared for a fight.

She took in his outfit. Most of him was hidden by his clothing; cargo pants, a jacket zipped up part way over his shirt, combat boots, a ragged scarf around his neck, fingerless gloves, and his mask. The hood of his jacket was pulled up, hiding his hair. This was a man who didn’t want to reveal a single defining feature about himself.

She slipped a grenade into her hand, waiting patiently. She had to get them here, while they were well away from their base camp. The bandit gang was surprisingly organized and well-armed. It would be hard to capture him on his home turf. This was her best chance, as she heard he didn’t leave the base very often.

She’d been observing for nearly two weeks, gathering information, though she’d been unable to get close enough to monitor the base. She’d captured two of the gang members, torturing what answers she could out of them and finding out her target was heading out on a small but important gang job today.

“Alright,” the masked woman said. “Are you done kicking the skag? We need to get moving.”

A redheaded man waved his hand dismissively. “We’re going to reach the drop point early at this rate. We got time to kill. But if you’re gonna bitch, we might as well go.”

They started moving again. Her target was towards the center of their group, so Athena shifted her aim from the group to just behind them, at the skag’s corpse.

She rolled the grenade, watching it bump along the ground and come to rest against the skag corpse. She raised her shield just as the blast went off.

The group immediately went on the defensive, tightening their formation and yelling out orders to each other. All had their guns aimed, circled up to cover every direction. 

It wouldn’t help them. Athena took two down with headshots, aware their shields had been, if not shattered, then dangerously weakened in the explosion because they’d been at the back of the group.

The formation tightened to cover the losses, two of the members firing at where Athena’s shots had come from. She was already on the move, circling around.

She flung her shield, catching the masked woman in the legs and sending her falling against the man next to her. It created a partial domino effect, sending half the group stumbling.

Athena charged in, firing on them, trying to break their shields as fast as she could. Her target had frozen at the sight of her, but she saw his head snap to the side, looking for an escape.

He knew. Good. It was more fun when they panicked.

“Come on!” he said, voice distorted. Damn, he’d gone to the extremes to keep himself hidden. He grabbed the redheaded man’s jacket as two others fired on Athena. “We need to go!” 

She expected resistance, but the redheaded man didn’t hesitate. “Cover us!”

He and her target began to flee, heading in the direction of a denser area where they could either take cover or hope to lose her. Athena shot one of the two men left behind dead and flung her shield at her target as hard as she could.

It struck his right leg and he cried out in pain as he fell. Like she’d hoped, the impact sent him falling in a way that no doubt resulted in, at the least, a broken ankle. She hoped she’d fucked up his whole leg.

She shot the other remaining bandit dead and approached the target and the redhead. The redhead was frantically trying to get her target up, but his leg was a mess and he was struggling to get upright. He looked over his shoulder, then shoved the redhead off himself and gestured at him to run.

The target flipped onto his back, firing at Athena with an SMG he must’ve digistructed. She raised her shield to absorb the shots, continuing to stalk closer to him and watch his growing panic.

The redhead hadn’t abandoned him. He fired on Athena as well, trying to get between her and the target. She ran forward and slammed into him with her shield, knocking him onto his back. She aimed her gun at him as he wheezed for breath.

“No!” 

The target threw himself forward at her legs, catching her by surprise and knocking her to the ground. He let out a cry as his bad leg crumpled beneath him, but used the sudden momentum to slam against Athena as they struck the ground together, winding her. 

He jammed his gun up under her chin. “You going to walk away, or we gotta do this the hard way?”

“Hard way,” Athena said, slamming her fist against the side of his head. He fell off her, trying to get back up but unable to move his leg properly.

She drove her knee into his back, listening to him grunt as he hit the ground. She tried to get an arm around his neck, but he waited until she got close and then jammed an elbow back into her stomach, throwing her off himself.

He was a fighter, she’d give him that. This was a man who was determined to live.

But he was too valuable to lose, so she threw herself right back at him. Guns were too dangerous; she couldn’t risk killing him.

He wasn’t particularly competent in close-range fighting. He was just scared and desperate. She realized it as they began to trade blows again. There was little form to his attacks. He was too frantic to be strategic and too unpracticed to be very effective aside from the occasional lucky blow. 

His friend wouldn’t stay down forever. Athena grabbed her gun and tried to fire in the redhead’s direction, but her target grabbed her arm and slammed it against the ground, trying to break her wrist. She released the gun and turned her arm to cushion the blow, but the target used the sudden chance to seize her gun, firing on her.

Shots struck her from behind. Shit. He was back up.

Athena rolled away, snagging the target’s jacket and dragging him with her, putting him between her and the redhead. The shots stopped after two caught the target’s shield. 

Athena finally managed to hook an arm around his throat, tightening her hold until he couldn’t breathe, his fingers clawing at her arm. She snatched her gun back, firing at the redhead as he tried to run forward to help, sending him stumbling back.

The target suddenly threw his hand up, fingers dangerously close to her left eye. She jerked back, loosening her hold on accident. He brought his head forward and jerked it back, cracking it against hers.

She could feel her nose bleeding as she lost her hold on him. As he tried to crawl away, she kicked his bad leg, making him yell.

They both threw themselves at each other, rolling and punching. Athena ended up kneeling on his chest, fist pulled back to strike him. She’d knock him out, kill his friend, and get out of here with the target in hand.

“Athena, wait!” he cried.

She paused. How did he know her name?

“Get off him,” the redhead said, aiming his gun at her. “Get the hell off him.”

She raised her fist again. She’d ask him when he woke up in a few hours.

“Whoa, whoa, jeez, it’s me! Athena, it’s just me!” the target said in alarm. When that didn’t stop her, he panicked worse, and yelled, “Oh, fuck me: Let’s get sexy!”

That stopped her. 

She slowly lowered her fist. It couldn’t be. 

She grabbed his mask and yanked it off. He looked up at her with his only good eye, the other one milky white and blind, the scar carving through it on its path along his face.

“Not-Jack,” she said.

“Timothy,” he said, yanking the scarf off and tapping a choker around his throat. When he spoke again, his voice didn’t come out distorted. It was all Jack’s voice, but the tone was a light one Jack didn’t use. “My name is Timothy.”

“We, uh, we know the assassin?” the redhead said, looking unsure now as he kept his gun pointed at Athena. 

Tim tried to sit up. Athena backed off enough to let him. He pushed the hood back, revealing that he’d cut Jack’s hair and tried to style it differently. 

“We used to work together,” Tim informed his friend. 

“So...why’s she trying to kill you? I mean, yea, you’re whiny to work with, but you’re not that insufferable,” the redhead said.

“I am not wh- Okay, whatever, he’s got a point. Why are you trying to kill me?” Tim said.

“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” Athena said. “I got hired to capture you and turn you over.” She crossed her arms, putting a foot on his chest to keep him down when he tried to get up. “You were high-up in Hyperion, according to the intel I got.”

“I was,” Tim said warily. “I ran. I joined a bandit gang. That’s Zeno.”

“Uh...hi,” the redhead said, giving a wave with the hand that wasn’t pointing a gun at her. “Tim, what the fuck is happening?”

“No clue,” Tim said. “So can we, um, go? Not that I’m really going anywhere with a broken leg, but, you know.”

“No.” Athena pressed her foot harder to his chest. “You’re going to the Crimson Raiders.”

“The- what?” Tim said in alarm. “They’ll kill me!” 

“Someone needs to stop Jack. Since they gained the vault hunters, they’ve been a threat to him,” Athena said. “If you were as valuable on Helios as you were made out to be, you’re a valuable source of information on Jack.”

“W-Wait!” Tim said, eyes going wide. “You can’t. Athena, you can’t. They’ll kill me. Look at me! They’ll kill me in a heartbeat! No, no, actually, they’ll torture me for information first, and then they’ll kill me. Please, you can’t do this. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know and you can take it to them. Just let me go. Please. I fled because Jack was a goddamn monster and I couldn’t stand to work for him anymore.”

Athena considered. He was probably right about them torturing and killing him. 

And did he really deserve that? He was just a kid who got in over his head. She knew he’d only stayed with Jack because Jack had implanted a bomb in his face. If he was here, he’d found a way to get it out or deactivate it and then run. 

He’d never wanted to be part of this mess. She internally groaned. She’d had a soft spot for the damn kid back on Elpis, and looking at his frightened face, it was coming back.

She got up, grabbing his jacket. “You’re coming with me. I won’t turn you over, but you are going to tell me whatever I want to know.”

“Nope,” Zeno said, finger tightening on the trigger. “Can’t let you take him.”

“You can’t stop me,” Athena warned.

“She’s right,” Tim said miserably. “Let him live, Athena. Not a lot of people exactly like me. Be a shame to lose one of the few who does.”

Zeno lowered the gun slowly. “I’ll go. He can’t get back to the camp on his own with his leg like that. I’ll drag his ass back when you’re done questioning him. Politely questioning him.” He waved the gun a little. “Very politely.”

“God, you idiot,” Tim said, but it was fond. “You can’t stop Athena.”

“You can come,” Athena said, surprising herself. “But only because I need help getting him back like this. You two try anything, I shoot the redhead and go with my original plan.”

“You’ll really let me go?” Tim said anxiously. 

“I promise,” she said, unable to meet his eyes as she said it. “You left Jack. I can respect that, at least.”

“No loyalty to that absolute dick, trust me,” Tim said.

She and Zeno struggled to get him upright. Tim couldn’t put any pressure on his leg. Athena was kind of regretting fucking it up so badly.

“Here,” she said, injecting him with a health kit. “Start talking while we walk. How’d you escape Jack?”

“Yea, that’s a long story,” Tim said.

“We’ve got time,” Athena said.

Tim sighed but began his story of how he’d escaped and come to live amongst a bandit gang. As he talked, Athena wondered how she got herself into these damn messes and why she always took pity on the stupid kids like Tim. 

Still, she already knew what would happen. She’d take him to Hollow Point, Janey would yell at her for taking a contract and beating up Tim, they’d tend to him, she’d get her information, and she’d let him go. And once she let him go, she’d keep an eye on him to make sure that bastard Handsome Jack never got his hands on Timothy. 

This job certainly hadn’t gone how she’d expected. Maybe it really was time to find a new career.

#borderlands #timothy lawrence #Athena The Gladiator #borderlands fic #My writing

[starshine583]

New Friends Ch. 18

Ch.1 / Ch. 17 / Ch.19

(Chapter 18! This one’s gonna be a roller coaster!)

Felix was distraught to say the least. Marinette was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person he knew, and if she was akumatized?

Well, the world might as well end right now.

Felix knew he should transform and help stop her- the screaming crowds assured him of that -but all he could focus on was finding Agreste and making him pay.

His hands clenched into fists, Ladybug’s earrings digging into his palms. 

Yes, he was the one responsible for this. Lila may have been the one to lay the groundwork, but Adrien’s the one who pushed Marinette over the edge.

And now he was going to get what he deserved. 

Despite the growing chaos, the blonde wasn’t hard to find. He was creeping past the panicking students, most likely for a place to hide.

Typical. Felix thought bitterly. Of course he’d try to avoid the consequences of his actions.

“Agreste!” Felix spat, prowling in the model’s direction.

Adrien froze like a deer in the headlights, turning to Felix with a horrified expression. They both knew what he was there for.

“Felix, I really don’t have time-” 

Felix cut him off by grabbing his collar and shoving him up against the wall. Screams and crashes surrounded them, but it was nothing compared to the fury roaring inside Felix’s chest. Adrien hurt Marinette- one of the most precious people in the world -so much that she became akumatized. He put her down and defended a liar and a bully, and he wanted to talk about not having time?

“I don’t care what you have time for.” Felix ground out. “Do you even realize what you’ve done?!” 

He was livid, even more so that Adrien didn’t seem to care. All he cared about was himself. As usual.

Adrien cowered beneath his glare, hands coming up to struggle out of Felix’s grasp. “I-I know, Felix, I know. I’m trying to fix it, but you have to let me go. I can-”

“BUT YOU CAN’T!” Felix snarled. Lies. Empty, pathetic excuses to get out of the mess he’d put himself in. 

Another crash and a fresh series of screams rang through the school.

Felix glanced in the direction of the commotion, desperation and fear briefly washing over him.

“You can’t do anything.” He nearly whispered, letting Adrien’s collar slip out of his hands as he cast his gaze to the floor. 

Marinette was an akuma, probably doing things he knew she’d regret later.

Ladybug’s earrings were heavy in his hands. 

Out of everyone she knew, she’d trusted this sacred magic to him. Twice, in fact. He couldn’t let her down by wasting his energy on some brainless fool who didn’t deserve to look her way in the first place.

So, with a last scowl towards his cousin, Felix took off again, back towards the bathrooms. 

“Wayzz!” He panted once he was safely hidden from prying eyes.

The green kwami zipped to his side, along with another red one.

“You need to use the Ladybug miraculous, or else you won’t be able to purify Marinette’s akuma!” Tikki said urgently, hovering above the earrings.

Felix frowned. “I don’t have my ears pierced.”

As if on queue, the spotted earrings in his hands began glowing. When the light faded, it revealed a pair of clip on earrings instead. 

“Huh.. okay, so what about Wayzz?” He asked next, clipping on the earrings and hoping they stay put during battle.

“If I remember correctly,” Wayzz cut in just then, “You can use more than one miraculous at the same time.” 

Felix raised his eyebrows in surprise, looking to Tikki for confirmation.

The kwami nodded, an encouraging look in her eyes. Ladybug was out, and Chat Noir wasn’t stable as of late. They needed all the help they could get.

With a final nod, Felix closed his eyes and said the magic words. “Wayzz, shell on, and Tikki, spots on!”

~~~~~~

Alya idly scrolled through her phone as she waited for class to start. Lila was retelling her story about going to the zoo with Prince Ali to Rose, who wanted every detail. Adrien hadn’t come into class yet. Marinette and Felix seemed to be late as well, which was odd- for Felix, not Marinette. And Nino-

She spared a glance towards the desk behind her, where Nino sat next to Mylene with a sour expression. He’d stomped his way into class a few minutes ago, spitefully making a point to not sit in the seat next to Adrien. She tried to ask him what happened, but he just shook his head and put on his headphones- a simple sign he didn’t feel like talking at the moment. 

The bell finally rang, but Adrien, Marinette, and Felix still weren’t there. 

“Good morning Class. Today we’re going to review-”

Mlle. Bustier didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence before a large crash sent the classroom door flying off its hinges and across the room. Half the class screamed, while the other half dove for cover. 

Alya was the select few to remain in her seat, swiftly pulling up the camera on her phone. 

“Well!” A voice cooed, and a girl sauntered into the room. She had a deep purple dress that hung just above her knees. The pitch black spots littering the dress brought out her black, half-sleeved leather jacket. Fishnet, fingerless gloves trailed her arms, and matching pantyhose adorned her legs, leading from her dress to her dark purple, lace-up boots with heels sharp enough to kill a man. 

“It seems I’ve caught you all in one place.” She grinned, revealing her uncannily sharp teeth. “How convenient.”

Alya swallowed, suddenly overcome with a paralyzing sense of dread. “M-Marinette?”

The outfit was so out of her range of style that Alya wouldn’t have recognized her had it not been for the signature ponytails. The only difference was that her pigtails were made of small daggers instead of hair, though her bangs were the same. 

The figure’s smile fell, slowly turning to face Alya. 

The reporter nearly dropped her phone from shock. 

Black. Marinette’s eyes were an inky black that almost seemed to swallow you whole. Purple tears smeared her cheeks, similar to paint.

“You may call me Miss Fortune.” The akuma- because what else could it be? -sneered, taking a purple and black handbag from around her shoulders. “On second thought, just don’t call me.” 

Miss Fortune used the strap of the handbag to swing it in the air, vaguely reminding Alya of Ladybug with her yo-yo.

A few brave students ran for the door, but she used the makeshift yo-yo to grab the door and throw it back into the wall, effectively blocking any attempt of escape.

Alya realized too late that she should have taken cover as well, because Miss Fortune swung the purse forward, letting it wrap around Alya’s neck until the open handbag was tied securely to the reporter’s mouth. 

“You want to call me a bully, tell me all my gracious gifts to you were simply manipulative tactics and nothing more? That’s fine with me, but if my gifts meant so little to you, I want them back.”

Alya felt the ropes around her neck tighten slightly, and she gagged. 

Miss Fortune inched forward, her devious smile returning. “Tell me, Alya, all the things I’ve done for you that you took for granted.” 

She choked and gasped, clawing at the string as different events tumbled out of her mouth, her meeting with Ladybug, Marinette’s free babysitting, her and Nino getting together. It felt as if she were being hollowed from the inside out, each word taking some of her hope and happiness from Marinette’s good deeds with it. 

Her chest was starting to feel numb when the sound of shattering glass rang out and someone tackled the akuma to the ground. 

Alya gasped, yanking the purse off her neck with shaky hands. Nino rushed to her side, throwing away the offending item.

The two looked for their savior, expecting to see Ladybug or Chat Noir.

Instead, they saw a green-clad heroine facing off Miss Fortune with a round, turtle-shell shield. Nino, of course, recognized it immediately.

“That’s the other Carapace!” He said out of shock. 

The hero gave him an irritated glance. “I have a name. It’s Bouclier.” 

Alya scrambled for her phone despite her current condition. She wanted all the information on the new hero she could get. Besides, this was no ordinary Carapace- or Bouclier -from the looks of it. She knew for a fact that Nino’s costume only had green and yellow colors, but this one has Carapace and Ladybug colors. While most of the suit was green, the hood was black, along with the knee and elbow pads. The spaces around the pads were bright red, as well as the torso which was usually a light green. The inside of his shell shield was red and spotted, and Alya noticed not one, but two yo-yos hanging around his waist. 

A quick glance to his wrist and ears confirmed that he was indeed wearing both the Ladybug and Turtle miraculous. What a huge scoop! 

“Bouclier. I knew you’d come for me.” Miss Fortune glared, getting to her feet and carefully dusting off her dress. 

Bouclier held his ground, shield ready but yo-yos still on his waist untouched. “Marinette, don’t do this.”

An emotionless laugh came from her black lips. “What’s the matter? I thought this was what you wanted. To get back at the class.”

Her expression softened, and she took a step towards him with an extended hand. “Stop this nonsense, and join me. We don’t have to fight.” 

Alya furrowed her eyebrows when Bouclier tensed. The way she spoke to him.. Did they know each other? Was he actually considering her offer?

Before Bouclier could respond, the classroom door was kicked in for the second time that day, knocking Bouclier and Miss Fortune to the ground. 

Chat Noir jumped inside, baton spinning in his hands as he scanned the room for the threat.

“Great timing.” Bouclier said sarcastically from underneath the akuma.

“Where’s Ladybug?” Chat asked, ignoring Bouclier’s comment.

Miss Fortune hissed, pushing herself off of Bouclier and lunging forward to grab her purse.

“I’m afraid Ladybug’s out of commission right now.” She snipped, spinning her purse again.

Chat’s eyes widened, turning to Bouclier. “What does she mean-”

It was then the Cat noticed Bouclier’s earrings. 

“Wait, are those-”

“Focus on the akuma.” Bouclier cut him off, finally taking the yo-yos from his waist.

Alya watched as the two charged at each other. Miss Fortune aimed for Bouclier’s neck, and he ducked, sliding underneath her and standing on the other side. He then used both yo-yos to grab her by the waist and fling her out the window. 

“What are you doing!” Chat yelled, oddly panicked as he raced to the window.

“Creating distance.” Bouclier grunted, hooking the yo-yos to his side again. “We need to get her away from the class.” 

With that, the turtle-themed hero left the classroom, and Chat reluctantly followed after him.

Alya stopped the video, knowing she didn’t have enough strength to go after the three. She could only hope they stopped Marinette in time.

~~~~~~

Bouclier ignored the burning in his lungs as he chased Miss Fortune across the rooftops. After her threw her out of the classroom, she started running around the city, probably to tire them before striking. 

It was working.

“We’re never gonna catch up with her this way.” Chat huffed, lagging behind a bit.

“What other choice do we have?” Bouclier called back.

Miss Fortune abruptly stopped on one of the rooftops, nearly causing Bouclier to run into her.

Chat wasn’t so lucky, full on tripping into the akuma. She used his momentum to flip him over and off of the roof.

Bouclier swiftly took out his yo-yos, grabbing onto the string with each one. He then yanked as hard as could, breaking the strap and catching the purse when it flew into the air.

He waited for the akuma, waited for the dark power to melt off of Miss Fortune and bring back Marinette, but nothing happened.

A cackle came from Miss Fortune, and he looked up just in time to see her spin and kick him in the stomach. 

Bouclier grunted when he hit the rooftop, watching her pick up the broken purse.

“You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?” She grinned, pulling the purse completely in half. Still no akuma. Instead, the purse turned into two yo-yos. 

He scoffed in annoyance, scrambling to his feet and grabbing his own yo-yos. The akuma was definitely in her purse, but how was he going to get it if he couldn’t break it?

A faint groan caught his attention. Chat Noir. His cataclysm ability. That could work.

Miss Fortune tisked towards his defensive stance, idly swinging both halves of her purse as she strolled forward. 

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can fight together. Take down Hawkmoth, take care of Lila and the others. We’ll be unstoppable.” 

Bouclier winced at the repeated offer. It was certainly tempting, if he was being honest. But this...

He met her eyes, hollow, devoid of the light that once shone so brightly.

This was not Marinette. This was not the person who’d befriended him in spite of his stiff attitude. The one who lit up his life with a simple smile. The one so kind and compassionate that she would do anything for anyone, whether they deserved it or not.

The one he’d fallen so deeply in love with. 

“I’m sorry.” 

He truly was.

“But I can’t stand by you this time.” 

Miss Fortune frowned, genuine disappointment crossing her features for just a moment. Then she shook her head and sighed.

“If you’re sure you won’t change your mind.” 

Her yo-yos swung forward, wrapping around Bouclier’s arms and chest so he couldn’t move. He struggled against the hold, helpless as she walked forward to grab his earrings.

“Looks like I’m on my own. Again.”

Bouclier gave her a sad smile. Not if he had anything to say about it.

“Chat Noir!” 

Miss Fortune’s eyes widened.

“Cataclysm!” The cat-themed hero cried, grabbing the strings between her and Bouclier.

The purse disintegrated instantly, a black akuma rising from the dust. Bouclier swiftly caught the akuma, and ran to Marinette’s side.

He barely let the magic wash off her body before scooping her up and heading in the direction of her house. She’s going to want time to recover.

~~~~~~

Marinette awoke to the rush of wind in her ears and a pair of arms wrapped around her. She cracked an eye open to see passing rooftops. Where was she? Who was carrying her? The last thing she remembered was ranting to Felix in the bathroom. Then everything went fuzzy…

She gasped. 

Had she been akumatized? What happened to Felix? How much damage did she cause? Were they able to fix her in time?

“It’s alright. You’re safe now.” A familiar voice said softly, their grip on her tightening slightly.

Her gaze snapped upwards, coming face to face with Bouclier.

“Felix.” She breathed. He was okay. Thank goodness he was okay.

He glanced down at her with a small smile that made her stomach flip.

“I’m taking you home. The school won’t mind your absence after what just happened.” Bouclier informed gently, stopping on what Marinette recognized as her balcony.

She nodded. Some time to herself sounded nice. She had a lot to think about. However..

“Will you stay with me?” 

Some company also sounded nice, especially some time with Felix. She just realized she loved him, after all. Gosh, how was she going to tell him? How does one plan for these sort of things?

Felix tensed, abruptly setting her down. “I can’t. I need to get back to school.”

The answer was short, almost panicked, though she couldn’t place why.

“Oh. okay.” She faltered, pushing back the disappointment. “Will I see you later then?” 

The blonde shook his head. “No, I.. My mom has something planned tonight.”

Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. Excuses? Why wouldn’t he just talk to her?

“Felix-” 

He cut her off, taking off the earrings- she vaguely noticed the red and black leave his costume -and handing them to her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

He was gone before she could even blink.

The ravenette frowned. What was that?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a bright flash of light and a cheery voice.

“Marinette!” Tikki cried, snuggling into her holder’s cheek.

Marinette giggled, lightly cupping her kwami in a small hug.

“I’m sorry I caused so much trouble.”

Tikki shook her head. “Not at all! I’m just glad you’re back.” 

Marinette smiled, tilting her head to put on the earrings. “Thanks. Let’s go talk to Maman and Papa. I’m sure they were worried too.”

~~~~~~

Adrien sat down in seat, still rubbing his jaw from yesterday. Marinette was lucky he was such a good friend or else he might’ve gone to the principal's office to report her behavior. 

“Can you believe it?” Alya said eagerly from behind him. “A hero using two miraculous? And a new hero at that!” 

He bit back a growl. Ladybug missed the fight against Marinette’s akuma yesterday. That alone wouldn’t be so bad had she not entrusted her miraculous to a stranger. Chat Noir’s been on the team way longer than Bouclier! How could she give it to him instead? Did their partnership mean nothing to her?

“That’s so cool, Alya!” Rose chirped, cheerful as always. “What was his name again?” 

“I think it was ‘Nuclear’.” Alix answered.

“Bouclier.” Nino corrected.

Adrien winced, hyper aware of the fact that his best friend wasn’t sitting next to him anymore. They hadn’t spoken since their argument yesterday. Even Plagg’s started getting snippy with him. Why did everyone act like he was the enemy here? They were the ones causing all of the problems! He just wanted to keep the peace, for all of them to be friends again. Was that too much to ask?

Alya waved off the comments. “Either way, he’s got to be the one responsible for all of those shields in the other battles. I wonder why Ladybug gave him her miraculous. I hope she’s okay.”

Chloe scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Of course she’s okay. It’s Ladybug. She probably took a day off or something.”

A day off? Adrien almost laughed. His Lady was much too obsessed with professionalism to do such a thing. 

“Would Ladybug do that?” Kim asked, as if he were reading Adrien’s thoughts. 

“No. She wouldn’t.” Alya answered in Ladybug’s stead, throwing Chloe a pointed glare. 

Chloe only hummed. “Well, she should. Goodness knows she could use one.” 

Adrien nodded in agreement. They could both use a break, possibly together, under candle light, with no Bouclier in sight. 

The chatter died down a little when Marinette and Felix walked into the classroom. Both glared at him as they passed. 

Adrien looked away, mostly because of Felix. He’d never seen his cousin get so angry before. If it hadn’t been for the akuma, Adrien had a feeling Felix would’ve done a lot more than grab his shirt. 

“Ladybug will come back soon, and I hope she can tell us more about Bouclier when she does.” Alya grinned, watching the video on her phone for the fifth time that morning.

Adrien inwardly groaned. That makes one of us.

~~~~~~

Marinette absently stabbed her food with her fork. Not only did Felix stiffly reject her invitation to hang out yesterday, he also refused today when she asked if he was eating lunch with them. He didn’t talk to her during class either, despite her efforts. Or even look at her really. Why was he avoiding her? Did she do something wrong?

“Are you gonna eat, Mari?” Aurore asked curiously, pulling her from her thoughts.

Marinette gave a tight smile. “Ah. No, I’m.. not really hungry.” 

The group exchanged a few looks.

“Is this about Felix?” Luka was brave enough to ask.

The ravenette straightened, her cheeks tinged pink. “What? No. Why would you- I mean, that isn’t-”

Aurore giggled, the others giving her a knowing glance.

“Come on, Nette. You two couldn’t be more obvious if you tried.” Wayhem remarked, only making Marinette more flustered.

“I- We’re not- t-two?” Did that mean they thought Felix loved her too?

Kagami calmly set her spoon in her bowl and crossed her arms over the table. “Felix can be complicated. He’s not exactly tuned in to his own feelings.”

Marinette squeaked. “S-so he’s not avoiding me?” 

“I guess you’ll just have to ask and find out.” Luka smiled. That was easier said than done. When would she even ask him about it? What if he won’t answer her questions?

Too many scenarios ran through her mind at the suggestion, but Marinette knew she had to do it. Felix meant everything to her. She’d be darned if she let him slip through her fingers because of some wild anxieties. 

Her chair scratched across the floor as she shot to her feet. “I’ll see you guys after class.” 

The others nodded, each giving her an encouraging smile as she left. 

Marinette raced passed the other students, down the hall, and through the front doors. If she wanted to ask him, she had to ask him directly, face to face. Felix didn’t tell her where he would be eating for lunch, but if what Kagami implied was true, she had a hunch she knew exactly where he was.

~~~~~~

Felix ran his hands through his hair, watching Marinette’s name flash across his phone screen for what had to be the tenth time. Why was she calling him? Better yet, why wouldn’t he answer? 

You know why. A voice hissed in the back of his mind.

Yes, He knew. It was because he was in love with her. Fighting her yesterday.. Finally getting her back and being able to hold her close.. he realized that Marinette meant everything to him. He couldn’t ruin their friendship over  something as fickle as love. Too many things could go wrong. What if she didn’t reciprocate his feelings? What if they only dated for a week and realized they didn’t like each other that way? Or at all? 

Felix sighed. 

Nevertheless, he still found himself wanting to be with her. The way her eyes sparkled when she talked about her passion, or how her laughs sounded like bells and made him feel lighter than air. She was a dangerous addiction that he just wanted more and more and more of everyday. It was why he decided to eat at the restaurant where they first met. It was a wonderful reminder of how much joy she’d brought into his life.

“Forgive me, Master, but wouldn’t it be easier to just talk to her?” Wayzz helpfully suggested from the safety of Felix’s bag.

“You think I haven’t tried?” Felix groaned. Talking to Marinette used to be so easy. You just.. Talk to her, and she’ll listen. Now, any time she so much as looked at him he was rendered speechless. 

She probably thought he was a jerk, avoiding her all day, but how do you tell your closest friend that you’ve fallen hopelessly in love with them? That you have no idea what to do with these sudden feelings?

A small commotion at the front of the restaurant caused his gaze to flick to the door. Any distracts were welcome at this point.

His heart skipped a beat.

Marinette stood in the doorway, searching the tables with a fiery determination. 

It only took a few seconds for her bluebell eyes to land on him, and she was at his table in an instant, giving him no time to hide.

“Are you avoiding me?” 

The questions was so straight forward that Felix wasn’t sure how to respond. So he blurted out the truth.

“Yes?” 

Wrong answer. Wrong answer!

Hurt etched across Marinette’s face, similar to the ache quickly spreading through his chest. why did he have to be such an idiot!

“I see.” She said, gripping the side of her jacket. “I’m sorry to bother you then.” 

“W-wait!” Felix was on his feet before he could fully register what he was doing. 

Marinette gave a pained smile, stepping back. “Felix, it’s fine. You want your space. I get it.” 

He resisted the urge to face palm. “No! That’s not what I want!” 

The ravenette frowned, now confused. “Then what do you want.” 

You. His mind screamed. Always you.

But he said nothing. Why wasn’t he saying anything!

Marinette nodded, taking his silence as an answer and turning around. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but I’m always here if you wanna talk.” 

She started walking away, and he panicked. 

“I’m in love with you!” 

No! Why did that have to be the first thing to come to mind!

She stopped walking. 

He stopped breathing. 

Slowly, Marinette turned back to him, eyes wide with shock. “You what?”

He swallowed, shrinking towards the booth behind him. “I-I’m..” 

Should he say it again? She clearly asked, and he’d already messed everything up. What other damage could he really cause?

“I love you.” He finally repeated, trying to look anywhere else but at her. He didn’t care to see her reaction or her panic towards not returning his feelings.

She stood there frozen, mouth agape and shoulders slack. Gosh, why did he ever think this was a good idea? She’s probably trying to sort out a rejection right now. He’d never be able to see her again. The best thing that ever happened to him would be gone in an instant because he couldn’t keep his stupid mouth shut.

Then she did the simplest thing in the world. She leaned forward, and she kissed him. And his whole world cracked open.

Tag List:  @unabashedbookworm@bluerosette23@minightrose@kuroko26@im-here-for-the-content@angstyrastuff@clumsy-owl-4178@fanboy7794@choaticneturcl@bigcheeseyboi@burntnugget-tae@ayuchan07@honorisfortheweak@knightrose15@mjisntme@rhub4rb@simplythebestbug@wilhelmares@zebrabaker@dargeon-lissa @kristycocopop @alumneia @kaydenth3gayden@thornangelic727@flirtshobi @whatamessofwords @offically-over-it @flashflashitsash@thewingting @aegyobutpsycho2 @zoeytheweeb@zeyheartstaylor@friedchickening @roseinbloom02 @totalgaydrama @god-is-dead-and-so-am-i @bitterheart12224 @krunchy-tuna @trapezoidoxide @izzynuggets @imfreakingmagical@vixen-uchiha @dani-ari @azureocean33 @tinkerbela @drama-queen-supreme @nerdyleafeon @tinybrie @jarofbuttons @crazylizardlove @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @legendaryneckjudgestudent @coniferyl @chocolatecustarddanish @evil-cricket @derpingrainbow @crazylittlemunchkin

#Felinette #Felix Culpa #New Friends AU #sorry for it being so bumpy #I tried

[justanotherlifeff]

Levi Ackerman × reader

Genre: Angst, Hurt/comfort, Fluff, matured themes, slowburn

Warning: There's mentions and descriptions of underage rape and suicidal themes and self harm and other triggering stuff.

(Y/N) POV

"You mean to say that you managed to convince Marie to transfer from the survey corps just two days before the expedition?" Hanji asked me with disbelief. "Yes" I simply answered. "Well, we don't even have time for replacement... Why exactly did you do that? And don't bring up the reports on her endangering the squad. If that bothered you, you would've done this earlier." Hanji asked in a flat tone. "I thought I could make her obedient. However, if she has the guts to try to open her shirt and try to seduce my husband, I don't think she would ever listen to me. I need obedient soldiers in my squad, not people who try to steal their superior's husband." I answered with the same flat tone.

"Huhhhhhh? That bitch did that? Oh sorry.. I keep forgetting that I'm the commander now and I should be.. Ahem... A bit more reasonable but yes, Marie will be transferred to the Garrison tomorrow as getting the paperwork done would take time. I have sent the papers to Commander Pixis already before talking to you because I knew that you must have a reason for making this decision." Hanji answered giving me a mischievous glint. I gave her a victorious smirk of my own because I got an useless burden off my shoulder. I went back to the stable and saddled my horse to go back home. Hanji was in Utopia district with her squad.

She left for Utopia 3 days before the expedition. Marie gave me her letter requesting transfer only a few hours after the talk we had at my office. I left for Utopia with Levi and Farlan that evening. Levi and I had dropped off Farlan at Historia's Orphanage on our way to Utopia. It was an 11 hour journey and so, we reached Utopia at dawn. The first thing we did was send the letter to Hanji's office by a cadet, take a small nap, had breakfast and went straight to Hanji's office. It was already afternoon when I was called to talk to Hanji. We already were done with lunch by then. "So, how did that go?" Levi asked me. He was already in the stable when I arrived, his horse ready to go. "It was alright. Hanji approved of the transfer. We just have to go back and I'll see that everything goes smoothly." I answered, as I saddled my horse.

Levi answered with a "hmm" and was silent till I was done with the saddling. "Do you want to see how Farlan is doing on our way?" Levi asked me. I personally felt uneasy not having Farlan near me, given that I spent every second of my time home with him. I knew that Levi felt odd too as he always looked after Farlan whenever I was cooking or cleaning or busy with something. "Yeah. That's a good idea." I muttered as we both got up on our horses and galloped out of the stable and out of the scout regiment branch.

"(Y/N) SAN!" the kids in the orphanage yelled happily as they ran towards me. I didn't see them for a while and so, didn't mind when they all tackled me to the ground. "Oi calm down! I already have to fight titans and having to fight you kids now aren't helping!" I told them trying to sound irritated but the smile on my face betrayed me. "Oi brats. Get off her." Levi walked towards them and they all got off me immediately. Obviously, they were all scared of him. "(Y/N)! Welcome back!" a smiling Historia came towards me from inside the orphanage as we stood at the yard. She had Farlan in her arms.

"Yeah... I just had to see Farlan before going." I muttered with a smile as I took Farlan from her arms. "He's doing very well so far. The kids love him." Historia smiled at me. "Thank you for taking care of him. I'd not trust anyone about this besides Hanji and Mikasa." I answered her with a smile. Levi was already beside me and took Farlan from me. "We will be late if we delay more now." he muttered, holding Farlan. "Yeah... We have to keep going..." I muttered sadly. I wasn't ready to leave Farlan alone for so long, that for a life threatening expedition. I trusted mine and Levi's ability to survive though. I kissed Farlan's forehead before Levi handed him to historia again. We bade eachother farewell before going back on our way.

The next day

I woke up at dawn. Levi woke up a little later after I was done making breakfast. The expedition would start today. After taking a bath, a very long one since we won't be able to do that for 3 days. We both dressed in our new uniforms, ones that were heavily insulated to protect us from the bitter cold. Green overcoats with a fur lining inside, our usual white pants as they are warm enough and fingerless gloves to protect our hands from frostbite but retain the perfect grip on our swords. Our boots were good enough to keep the cold out of our feet. Wearing earmuffs weren't an option as that would hinder our ability to hear clearly and decrease survival rate further.

It was assumed that all the titans that aren't already killed are either abnormals or ones that were too weak to travel to the executioner from hell or didn't go there by chance. Dealing with abnormals are much much harder than normals. The districts in wall Maria were safe as the gates were sealed in every district, even in Shiganshina. That bastard beast titan did that one thing right. It would take us 20 hours to travel half of wall Maria as we intend to, however, we cannot leave one spot missed. There's a chance that we could encounter the beast titan, the cart titan and Reiner. We just couldn't afford to leave a small area untouched. We could fight for 10 hours before the sun sets. The first expedition is solely to take out any titans, not the shifters, however, you can never be too careful. We usually kept our horses at a small shed we made in our yard.

After saddling the horses, we galloped towards the headquarters, I went to the supply room to get mine and Levi's gear. We were a bit late as Levi insisted on getting clean properly and bathed for nearly an hour. Levi was assembling all the soldiers in our team and asked me to get his gear for him. Just as I was at the entrance of the supply room, I saw Marie getting out of there. "Oi Marie. What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be going to the Garrison barracks?" I asked her with suspicion. "Yes. I was taking my gear." she answered simply before she left.

"Why didn't she do it earlier? Was this intentional? Did she mess with mine or Levi's gear? No... I did her a huge favour by not ruining her career. Anyone with common sense knows that there's still a high chance that I'd survive with a messed up gear, a higher chance for Levi. No one in the right mind would try to sabotage my gear. That's practically ruining their lives by themselves." I thought as I strapped onto my gear and walked out of the room with Levi's. There wasn't any time to check the gear now. There's 30 minutes left till 6am. We need to be going now.

"Listen you all. I will be repeating the plan once again. Once we all get in position, the team furthest, the one near the wall Maria would shoot flare signals. The closest to them would do the same and it will go on till it reaches the members closest to Trost. The same will be done in the opposite way to indicate the start of the expedition. Levi heichou and I would be in the middle. If squad 1-4 faces any major problem, notify Levi heichou as you all are under him. He will be in squad 5, closest to you. Squad 7-9 would do the same but with me. I'll be in squad 6. Use smoke signals to contact any of us the same way we would start the expedition.

If the issue isn’t major, use red signals to ask back up from the closest team. If the issue is major, use black signals and we will be there as soon as possible. If a snow storm starts, retreat immediately near wall Rose. We will be moving in a straight line and so, we will all be able to meet at one point in that case. The teams furthest from wall Rose will have to cover a distance of about 1508km in this expedition. We would have to adjust our speed with that. Every one hour, we would shoot green smoke signals that would be used at the start of the expedition too to help everyone detect each squad's position. Speed will be adjusted according to that.

The signals will start from the squad closest to wall Maria, and the other team will adjust to their speed and position and shoot a signal again and so forth. The formation cannot be broken at any cost. We will travel 503 km each day, search every spot for titans. It would generally take about 7 hours to travel that distance each day but we need to make sure no titan slips our hand. We would take a look inside every city, every building, and make sure no titan escapes our sight. The supply wagons will be stationed with squad 5 and 6 as those are the most heavily guarded squads. Squad 1 and squad 2 will be moving together when we are near the districts and will separate as the districts end. Just one more advice to you all, stay alive." I lectured the soldiers.

We were on top of Wall Rose, a cold wind blowing and a somewhat calm atmosphere. The place outside the walls were white with snow. Winter expeditions had a different advantage towards us. The sunlight level is lower during winter and thus, titans will be less strong. Taking them down in open ground will be easier. However, there's no telling for sure if the new recruits can do that. After all, things like that come from experience.

"Let the expedition begin!" I shouted as we got down the wall with everyone else and were on our horses. I wondered how uncle Erwin felt when he did that. This feeling of fear, guilt, determination and excitement... Did he feel all that too? As I was the strategist in our team, Hanji left the entire team under my command. Levi was in charge of keeping everything in control and our biggest weapon. His experience would help me make quick decisions about unfamiliar scenarios. Basically, Levi was controlling my decisions with his experience while I controlled the team with my strategies. This was the beginning of the 67th expedition.

3 hours later

My squad was in position, traveling in the middle of the formation. We didn't encounter any titan yet and I was glad to know that Hanji's predictions may have been right. Most of the titans were killed by the executioner from hell. The survey was going well, however, squad 8 would be travelling in a village as we speak. They will have to search every building there. We decreased our speeds as the map says us to do so, to let squad 8 pick up the pace with us within the next hour. However, just as I thought everything was going smooth, a black smoke signal was detected from squad 7.

"Diana, take command of the squad. I'll go take a look at that." I instructed my second in command and charged towards squad 7. It took me about 7 and half minutes to reach squad 7 only to find that another smoke signal had been shot in squad 8. Damn it... They couldn't take the abnormal even with perfect manoeuvring grounds? It took a total of 15 mins to reach squad 8 and two people were already dead there. 5 abnormals were chasing them and they were trying their best to avoid them. Obviously they couldn’t hold off that many abnormals.

Just as I looked back, there was a titan standing next to the building behind me. An abnormal. It had a grotesque smile and dived at me but I jumped away at immediately. I went to use my 3DMG to get away from it but the strings shot out and away from the equipment, suddenly breaking with the force. I took a quick look at the torn metallic string and it was clear that it was cut. Marie sabotaged my equipment. The titan dived at me again and jumped away at the last moment, gripping it's hair to use it as a rope and used the force on it as the titan got up to fly upwards and slashing the titan's nape barely, using the blades on the titan's back to slow my fall down. I met squad 7 on my way there and I needed quick reinforcements.

Not just recruits, I needed Levi here as getting 4 abnormals without a 3DMG was impossible. I shot a black smoke signal, hoping that squad 7 would understand the emergency. I saw squad 7 doing the same thankfully and I knew my squad was smart enough to inform Levi. With that, I tried my best to hide from the abnormals, that the three remaining members from squad 8 was keeping busy and I searched for the bodies of the two deceased members so that I could take one of their gear.

Levi POV

We have only encountered one abnormal so far and it seemed like shitty glasses did a good job predicting the amount of titan we could face. Things were going pretty well till I saw a black flare being shot from squad 6. (Y/N)'s squad needs help? How is that possible? "Mikasa, take command." I commanded Mikasa as she was the most capable out of all my squad members and rushed towards (Y/N)'s squad. After reaching there, I found no Titans, however, (Y/N) was nowhere to be seen. "Oi, where's (Y/N)? What's with the black flare?" I asked her second in command. "Heichou, (Y/N)-san went to check on a black flare that came from squad 7.

They shot another black flare just now. I assumed that (Y/N) san asked for backup." she explained. I noticed that black flare too. "Okay. I'll be going then." I told her before galloping to squad 7. No titans were there and I could see a black flare from squad 8. They should be in a village now. That's probably where they encountered titans. I didn't waste any time and sped my way to squad 8. It took me about 23 minutes to reach and I found three recruits barely hanging onto their lives, trying to keep away from 4 abnormals. (Y/N) was nowhere to be seen. I didn't waste my time and sped towards the titans and just as I tried to use my 3DMG, the wires broke when they were shot. I was taken aback by that.

I probably maintain my gear better than anyone else in the survey corps. What the fuck just happened? Before I could react, an abnormal caught me from behind. I was struggling in its hand when the titan suddenly fell flat on its face, dropping me. I landed on my feet to see (Y/N), running at me.

"Levi, Marie sabotaged my gear. I'm guessing she did the same with yours. I had my doubts that's why I was able to escape the titans. There's a body with a 3DMG attached to it 2 houses from here. I got mine there too. I'll hold them off. Hurry!" (Y/N) briefed me on the situation and I left her to handle it while I ran towards the location she pointed me to only to find a titan standing there. However, it was a 2 meter class. It sped at me as it was an abnormal and I got up the stairs of the house next to me, used the railing to jump high enough and cut the titan's nape flawlessly.

I could see another 12 meter class drop in the distance as I reached the bodies. One of them didn't have a gear. I assumed that's the one (Y/N) is using. I took the gear from the other soldier and strapped it on quickly and joined the fight. (Y/N) killed one more titan and assisted me to get the fifth one. "You guys are very less in number. I'll send someone from my squad. Fall into formation for now." I commanded the 3 soldiers left as (Y/N) called both of our horses. "Hai!" the soldiers saluted before I motioned them to be at ease and got on my horse as (Y/N) got on hers.

We travelled together towards our squads as I told her, "You should've just expelled her out of the survey corps." "Yes. I know. I figured that she would take the chance I gave her and use it properly. I'll have to talk to Hanji about it and get her a criminal offence." (Y/N) answered, with a grave expression on her face. "It'll be alright. See you later." I told her as I parted from her after she reached her squad.

Day 2 of expedition

We were closing in to the titan forest near Karanese district. Only mine and (Y/N)'s squad will be going through the forest as our positioning was like that. The peaceful atmosphere didn't last for too long after we entered the forest. It seemed like hoards of abnormals were in there, just waiting for someone to enter. My squad, including me shifted to ODM gear, getting as many titans as I can. I was getting them all flawlessly while Mikasa was a big help too. The others were struggling. There were about 40 titans in this forest and after I was done with about 20 and my squad got 10 more. I heard the sound of one more ODM gear and (Y/N) came to assist.

I was fascinated by the graceful moves she was making with her body, the flawless use of ODM gear and the clean cuts she made. She moved in perfect harmony with me, assisted me in my kills and took assist from my moves too. She made me feel like both a proud mentor and a husband. She got 4 more titans, Mikasa got one as I took down the 5 remaining titans. "(Y/N), what are you doing here? Where's your squad?" I asked her as she landed. "Well, we entered the forest before you, cleaned up about 28 titans. I had to take down most of it but the squad got like 7 of them. Some titans fled in your direction and I followed them and got here and helped you out." she explained. This is why I loved her. One person who doesn't have to be the damsel in distress was all I've ever asked for. The rest of the expedition was more or less peaceful.

Day 3, end of expedition

The expedition was over as we reached Utopia district at evening. I had a titan kill of 54 as I had to assist the squads under me a few times. (Y/N)'s titan kill was 43 as she had to assist the squads under her too. All squads encountered heavy numbers of titans and apparently my training helped them. 20 people from our team died. A total of 177 titans were killed. We got 5 more black flares in the entire expedition. I got 3 and (Y/N) got 2. Most of the titans were abnormals as Hanji predicted. There were a few titans that were too deformed to move fast enough and we killed them easily. It was the same as every other expeditions. The parents of the dead demanding answer. This time, (Y/N) was the victim as she made all the plans and she was in charge.

"YOU GOT MY SON KILLED! HOW COULD YOU! YOU DIDN'T EVEN BRING HIS BODY! ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?" a woman was shouting at (Y/N). (Y/N)'s head was bowed. I didn't know what she was thinking. "That's enough. Your son was useful for the recapture of Wall Maria. He killed a titan before going out. I'm sure he won't appreciate it if you call the people he gave up his life for monsters." I told the woman, putting a hand on (Y/N)'s shoulder but she shrugged it off.

"Levi, I need to deal with this on my own." she told me before facing the woman. "I am very sorry for your loss. I truly am. Your son was very brave. I wasn't there when he died but I heard from his squad mates about how he took down a titan as Levi heichou says so. Levi heichou tried his best to save as many people as possible and so did I. I'm a mother myself, so I know how it feels. If something happened to my son, I would feel as if death for myself is better. I won't judge you for being angry. You have every right to be angry. It was your son who laid his life on line. No mother would ever want their children to do that. I understand that. If calling me the monster helps you ease your pain, I will gladly take that name for myself." she told the woman, who now looked at her with surprise.

The woman broke down and started crying before sitting on the streets. (Y/N) kneeled in front of her and rested her arm on the woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry. No one deserves to die. Your son deserved a better leader. I'm sorry we weren't good enough." (Y/N) told the woman, her eyes showing remorse but her face as hard as a stone. "(Y/N), we have to go and report to HQ and pick Farlan up." I told her as I stood beside her. (Y/N) got up and got on her horse. The other parents of the dead saw this scene and didn't question (Y/N) anymore. They understood the message she wanted to give.

The bodies that could be recovered were distributed before we went to pick Farlan up and travelled to Trost. We reached Trost at 3AM. I held Farlan to my chest the whole time as I was warmer than (Y/N). Farlan wore warm clothes but still, you couldn't be more careful. (Y/N) left for home with Farlan while I went to report to Hanji on her behalf. Our team was lucky that most of the abnormals we faced were concentrated towards mine and (Y/N)'s squad. Hanji's team lost 40 people. Infact, they had to stop at Krolva district to take in reinforcements from the Garrison. It wasted time but was effective in getting rid of all the titans on their path.

"So, we have to make do with 140 scout members for the next expedition." I stated, raising an eyebrow. "No. We will take support from Garrison. They will send their most elite soldiers with us. The next expedition won't be too hard as we took down most of the titans left anyway. By the way, what did you want to tell me about Marie?" Hanji asked me before I explained the whole situation of her destroying our gears. "She actually did that? Well, I'll talk to Pixis personally about it. I'm sure he will take action as he's (Y/N)'s father. Other than that, he was never much fond of indiscipline except for when it comes to drinking." Hanji answered.

"Wait, you know?" I asked her, quiet surprised. "Yes of course I do. She told me on your wedding day. Didn't she mention it to you?" Hanji asked me. "Well, she might have forgot. Things weren't very steady back then as she was pregnant and all." I muttered. So Hanji knows. I'll have to ask (Y/N) about it. "Well, I'll have to make reports now. Being commander is such a pain... It even affects my titan research... Anyway, you may leave." Hanji told me and I left. At least we were all safe for one more day. The 67th expedition was over.

To be continued...

[AUTHOR'S NOTE:(Y/N) and Levi left from Trost to go to utopia at 7PM and reached Utopia at 6AM. (Y/N) was called in Hanji's office at 2PM and they reached Trost at 11 PM that day.

Given that Orvud district is 80 km far from the Reiss Chapel, and that the distance between wall Rose and Wall Sina is 130 km, it could be assumed that every district is 20 km long, and the distance between the reiss Chapel and Utopia district is 30km. It could be assumed that Historia's orphanage is near the Reiss Chapel as she owns many lands there and possibly other lords had land there too. So, Levi and (Y/N) would reach Historia's Orphanage by 24 minutes.

Taglist: @reality-is-often-disappointing, @kingtamakimurder

#levi aot #levi x reader #levi attack on titan #shingeki no kyoujin levi #levi x fem!reader #levi×reader #levi ackerman #captain levi

[hardyimagines]

Fitz

This is called ‘its 2 am and I can’t sleep so I wrote this in 30 minutes’ also I watched this today and can’t get him out of my head!!!

DRABBLE ( SHOCK )

Warnings: smut (;

———

“Jesus, would you just drop it?” The heaviness of your tone warned the surrounding men to back off. Your agitation was seemingly growing by the second and the gun that Bridger had aimed at John wasn’t helping the situation at all. Your hands were set firmly on your hips, jutted out to the right side as you scrutinized the situation. “Put that down before you hurt yourself.” Bridger looked toward you, lips curving downward at your lack of worry. Did you not think he would pull the trigger and blow Fitzgerald’s brain all over the blanketed snow?

Fitzgerald was sat calmly on the rock he’d been sat on for an hour. His boots shuffled noisily in the crunching ice below as he adjusted himself on the boulder. It was beginning to irritate his rear, not exactly the most ideal surface to be perched on. He pushed another piece of meat past his lips, unbothered when pieces of it clung to his strands of facial hair. You moved past Bridger and took it upon yourself to brush away the gross-looking piece of food from his beard.

Bridger lowered his weapon then, eyes falling to the ground in defeat. He doubted he’d ever be able to shoot a man that wasn’t a physical threat. He took a small step back and then another before turning on his foot and heading back down the small hill toward the circle of men gathered around the growing fire.

You let out a heavy breath before pinching John’s beard. Tugging on it in the slightest to draw his attention solely on you, you sent him a glare before moving around the rock so you stood at the ledge of the cliff. Peering down at the river, you watched the racing water, crashing against itself and hidden rocks to create large splashes and life-threatening waves. You folded your arms, unable to admire the scenery because you were too alert for threats. There was no peace here, despite how it appeared.

“You just gonna starve yourself till your body eats its way from the inside out?” Fitzgerald muttered gruffly. His fingers pinched the raw meat, tearing it from the bone it was attached to.

“I don’t like that..” You told him firmly. “You know I dont. I’d rather eat some fish.” You hated fish. “Why the hell cant you cook it? You’re going to get sick eating it raw like you do.” Turning to face the man with a squint, your arm extended, finger pointed toward the flame a few feet away. “Sitting in the circle for ten minutes to warm the meat up won’t kill you, you know?”

“Being near Glass is bound to do the trick.” He bit back. Rising from his spot on the rock, he instantly towered over you. The coat that had been draped around his shoulders began to slide off of his broad form, unnoticed by him, so you stepped forward and swiftly caught the collar. Drawing it more securely around him and back into its proper place, you let your hands linger on his shoulders.

“You are such a baby.” Your words were a whisper. A playful tone danced in your insult.

Fitzgerald seemed to like the atmosphere you’d created, for he stepped closer to you, blue eyes gliding along your features as you smirked up at him. He lifted the meat, already cradled in the center of the two of you. But you swiftly stepped back and pushed his hand away.

“Oi, come here.” The hand that wasn’t coated in fresh blood extended toward you. He grasped ahold of your hip and easily drew you back toward him. “I wasn’t finished messing with you.” The meat in his hand was tossed on to the rock, instantly staying in place because of the amount of snow.

“I don’t want to be anywhere near you.” You teased, hands finding the middle of his stomach in order to keep some distance between your body and his. It was pointless, but he let you think you were actually doing something. He pretended to be restrained for a second before he managed to overpower your arms and lug you into him completely.

“Come on, give me a kiss.” His puckered lips were so very inviting, but the speckles of blood in his beard reminded you of what he’d just been feasting on.

“Baby, I really don’t want to kiss you after you were chowing down on some raw meat.. I love you, but I do have some restrictions.” Staring up at him intently when he trapped you against his bulky body, you weakened the longer he held you.

“Oh, you don’t want to kiss me?” He whispered, leaning in nevertheless. “Don’t break my heart, now..” He whispered as quietly as he did when there were threats present. You shivered noticeably, lips parting so you could let out a shaky breath. You heart thumped deafeningly, rendering you silent for a second.

“I do want to kiss you,” You elbowed him in order to get away. “but not when you taste like dead meat.” Shoving him back and away from you, you took the advantage of him being momentarily stunned before rushing toward the small hill so you could join the other men around the fire.

Glass watched from his peripheral, the way that you and Fitzgerald messed around with one another. He couldn’t believe it. John Fitzgerald was a cold, heartless son of a bitch that no one would miss should he fall ill or be slaughtered. Glass took a bite of the fish he cradled, dark eyes illuminated by the glow of the fire. He shared a look with Henry, neither one of them understanding how a man so cruel, so heartless, so careless, could fall in love. John went from beastly and inconsiderate when around them, to this playful, loved up teddy bear when with you. It was mind-blowing. He was two different people.

John was quick to follow you back toward the group of tired men. Nobody lifted their gaze to him, but most lifted their gaze to you. Soft smiles, polite ones, were exchanged. The men shuffled to make room for you, but didn’t bother making a space for the man that you — for some reason — loved. They knew he’d settle down behind you. You practically collapsed in the snow, kneeling in front of the fire happily. Basking in its warmth, you leaned forward to grab a stick and some of the raw meat on the plate in the corner. Jabbing the sharp end of the twig through the food, you stuck it in the flame and watched as the heat cooked your meal.

Fitzgerald lowered himself down behind your kneeling form. His legs opened wide, offering you the perfect place to settle down once you were ready to eat. He removed the canteen strap from around his neck before placing it by his side. The water sloshed noisily inside the hollow bottle, catching your attention for only a second before you looked back to the fire.

Bridger was avoiding all means of eye contact with John, too afraid to look at him after holding a gun to his head. He’d done it for a stupid reason — simply to show that he had some sort of power over the previous situation. It was about direction, where they needed to go, how they needed to get there. Long story short, they disagreed and Bridger thought drawing his gun was wise. It wasn’t. Fitzgerald would remember that.

Dropping down on your rear, you settled back and against John, small hand finding his thigh as you used his chest as a steady surface to lean on. Your knees bent, closed-toed shoes smushing the snow beneath them as you happily munched on the cooked meat.

John pressed his lips against the back of your head, leaving his mouth there for a few moments as he relaxed. He was warm. He didn’t know if it was because of the fire or your little body, but he was grateful for both. His lips moved from your head, down and around to your ear, resting there for a moment before he spoke lowly — almost inaudibly.

All the men around the fire found it difficult not to watch the pair of you. You were the only girl they’d seen in months and of all the men in the group, you’d chosen the meanest one. The smallest ounce of affection reeled them in so when you craned your neck around to inspect the bearded-bloke, they couldn’t stop staring. You lifted your hand to his cheek and pinched it softly before stealing a soft kiss. Shyness didn’t accompany John, not in the slightest. He didn’t care if the entire group watched him bend you over and take you on a sprawled out pelt, but you were a bit more.. classy.. than that.

“Quit it.” You whispered against his lips in response to the disgusting things he’d just whispered in your ear. You discreetly squeezed his thigh before looking back to your food. In attempt to distract yourself from the bubbling want in your belly, you pinched the meat and pushed it past your lips.

John didn’t mind the fact that you were playing hard to get. He knew it was because of the group. If nobody was here, he knew you would’ve rolled over on to your back, opened your legs, and begged him to do whatever he wanted. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that the pair of you were crazy about each other. It wasn’t a secret that you had sex. So he didn’t know why you were being so shy about it. His fingertips trailed along the length of your arm, so rough and cold against your skin, but still welcomed. He wore torn gloves, fingerless now because of all the hard labor he’d had to do over the last several months. His free hand found your hip, gliding along the waistband of your trousers. You briefly looked south when his thumb grazed the button on your slacks, but you didn’t say anything. He was just being John, he wasn’t actually going to do anything.

Your fingertips were red from touching the meat in your hands, tongue and teeth the same despite the fact that you’d cooked it semi-thoroughly. It wasn’t well done, it had been a little under medium rare. You let out a breathy sigh before looking toward the stars as they began to twinkle above. It was getting darker by the minute.

Shadows danced alongside the flame, joining in the branches of the swaying trees. John was continuously tracing the button on your trousers, caressing the cold metal as if it were really all that interesting. All of the men had lost interest and were now either trying to doze off, finish their meals, or get closer to the fire. You finished off your own meal, tossing the stick into the flame onced you were done. John drew you into him even more securely then, unable to resist from being your main source of warmth. You closed your eyes and gave yourself over to his touch.

Months ago when you’d been found scavenging through their campsite, they’d been ready to kill you. Fitzgerald, in fact, was the first one to remove his weapon from its holster. You weren’t a woman then, you were just a threat and you would’ve been disposed of if it hadn’t of been for your quick tongue. You’d explained how you’d been taking from your own camp whilst sleeping. The French, so angry and careless, had swept you from your sanctuary and taken you from your friends. Who knew if they were even still alive? You were very, very lucky to have escaped the bastards who’d taken you — one little mistake they’d made and your ran for days. You hid in tight spaces, avoided all open areas. You’d been on the run until the men you resided with now had found you. John’s group was nothing like the French. Nothing at all.

Fitzgerald had been on the side of the men who thought it was wise to kill you. You could’ve been a liar, a scheming thief, a heartless bitch with no care in the world for the men. And you probably would’ve been shot if it hadn’t of been for Glass. He found you necessary to keep, should an actual problem arise and a trade was needed. It was ironic, how you’d ended up with the rudest bloke of them all — but you considered yourself lucky. Beneath the hard, tough exterior of Fitzgerald was a cuddly teddy bear and he was all yours. He’d grown so attached to you and your smart mouth.

Fitzgerald undid the button on your trousers, instantly making you straighten defensively. Verbally asking him what the hell he was doing would only draw attention to the pair of you, so you remained silent. Your eyes dropped to his hand and your own fingers followed. Grabbing at him to try and shove his greedy palm away, you swallowed thickly. “Fitz.” You hissed breathily, attempting to be as silent as possible. He paid you no mind. The tips of his fingers moved under the waistband of your trousers, slipping further and further under the material until he was wrist-deep in your pants. The urge to gasp was strong, but you swallowed it down and instead let out a strangled whimper that you tried to disguise as a cough. It worked.

His fingers grazed your slit without hesitation, delicately caressing you. He was careful, slow, and beyond grateful for the warmth you gave back to his fingers. His mouth moved to your ear, husky and low as he spoke. “Close your eyes and keep calm.” His hips pressed against your lower back. “Let’s not draw any attention to ourselves.”

You craned your neck around slowly, mouth skimming his chin before you spoke against his beard. “I’m breaking up with you.” You grumbled sweetly.

He smirked visibly. “Well, then I’d better savor this, shouldn’t I?” He marked his words by firmly pushing his fingers against your clit and rolling the hardened bud gently around in a slow circle. Your eyes fluttered shut, body growing heavier and heavier as he held you. He leaned in and kissed your nose before adjusting his head so that your face fell into the crook of his neck.

The only person able to see what the two of you were actually doing was Glass and that made John feel completely in control. Cocky. Hot with pleasure to rub this into the bastard’s face. He wasn’t sure why he clashed so much with the man, but he did.

John took his time to pleasure you like he said. One finger made its way to your entrance, sliding into you with so much ease because of how wet you were. The other fingers played with your clit, poking and teasing and rubbing the bundle until your feet were squirming in the snow. He took pride in what he could do to your body. Red-faced, heavily breathing. He loved the way your knees pressed together and your hands fisted in the icy snow. You were the loudest woman he’d ever been with and he got so much pleasure from that. So to see you squirming, so desperate to make a sound and let him know how good he was doing, it made him feel quite powerful.

Glass knew what the two of you were doing. He was the farthest thing from an idiot, but he wouldn’t give John the satisfaction of knowing he was watching. He tried to distract himself, tend to hawk, look at the food, watching the surrounding trees to ensure that they weren’t being stalked — anything to keep from ogling the pair of you.

Fitzgerald added another finger, pumping it simultaneously with the other and jus as agonizingly slow. He wasn’t usually so tender with you, he was a rough lover, a hard, fast man that took the dominance and ran with it. This was a different side to him, one that you actually quite liked.

Your toes curled inside your boots and your teeth sunk down on your bottom lip. Nibbling at the pink flesh until it was sore and swollen, you didn’t stop fidgeting until your body grew tingly. “Oh, John..” The words were impossible for anyone to hear. He felt your clenching around his fingers, making his job in pumping them a little bit more difficult. Your back pushed into his chest firmly, feet sliding in the snow as you arched slightly. He moved his mouth to your neck, attempting to mask your orgasm with a look of mere pleasure from a neck kiss. You whined breathily, thighs closing and trapping his arm in place. He could tell you wanted to thrust your hips, rock them vigorously in order to draw out your orgasm, but that would be too obvious, so instead you twitched and wiggled, eyes clamping shut as wave after wave of ecstasy ran through you.

It took a few moments for you to come down from your orgasm, but once you had, you were unsure of whether to punch him or kiss him. He withdrew his fingers from your trousers, lifting them instantly to his lips so he could lick them clean. He blamed it on the fact that he didn’t have a rag, but you both knew it was merely because he wanted you to see just how much he enjoyed you. Your soft eyes moved along his face before you lifted yourself up and rotated around. Kneeling between his spread thighs, you hooked your arms around his shoulders and pressed your lips against his own. He let out a moan of surprise, hands lifting to steady your hips as your mouth assaulted his. You slid closer, moaning unashamedly into his mouth. This part — you didn’t care if everyone watched or heard. He swallowed each of your sounds with ones of his own, grunting and humming each time you suckled on his tongue. His hands moved south to your thighs, gripping them so he could guide you completely on to his lap. Forcing you to straddle him in his seated position, his hands returned to your hips, urging you to grind against him.

“Mh..” You drew back breathlessly. “Let’s go.” You hissed. Standing from his lap, you shoved your messy strands of hair out of your face. Leaning over in order to snatch his hand, you lugged him up with difficulty.

John would’ve asked questions, but he already knew where you wanted to go. Somewhere — anywhere private. Who was he to deny you?

He followed obediently as you pulled him away from the bright, cracking fire and through the trees until it was impossible to see. He had no time to ask questions before you had him on the ground, covering your body like a blanket as you laid in the ice cold snow. Your hands were on his waistband, undoing his belt and shoving at his trousers desperately. You hadn’t wanted him this badly in months, not since the very first time the pair of you had slept together. It was exciting — risky, hot, and it made you feel so happy.

How he had such a strong effect over you, you didn’t know, you’d been trying to enjoy your meal and now here you were, hungry for something so different. You supposed that’s what love did to people.

—

Morning came around sooner than anybody would’ve liked. You were fast asleep against Fitzgerald’s chest, sleepily nuzzling into him the brighter that it grew to be. His arms were wound around you snugly, protecting you from the cold wind that whipped around your bodies now and again.

Glass was fast asleep, Hawk was messing with a stick, Bridger was on lookout duty. Henry was peering down at the river. Anderson was snoozing still.

You rolled around again when the sun’s rays weaved through the tree branches and shone down directly on your face. Whimpering in distaste, your hand moved to your face, shielding your eyes from the alarm clock that you didn’t ask for. Opening your droopy eyelids, you leaned up on your elbow, sleepily peering down at Fitzgerald as he slept soundlessly. Your heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. So peaceful, unbothered. You stole a very small kiss, a brush of the lips before you rolled to the side and leaned up on your knees. Rising so you could stretch, your arms extended high up into the air, hands closing into tight fists as you woke your body up fully. There was no going back to sleep now.

Stepping over Anderson’s legs, you made your way toward the ledge where Henry was and peered out at the water that noisily raced along stream.

“Sleep alright?” He inquired quietly.

“Mh, crick in my neck, but that’s bound to happen.” You told him quietly before sending him a soft smile. “You?”

He nodded. He didn’t speak again for a few more moments. “It’s quiet.” He adjusted the rifle in his hands. “Where are all the animals?”

You lifted your gaze to him, arms folding over your chest. His words made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, stomach churning in disapproval at his assumption. “You think someone’s near?”

Henry pursed his lips. “Arikara don’t ever come this far.” He whispered softly. “You stick close to Fitzgerald.” He turned away from you then. “I reckon it’s the French.” He didn’t want to scare you — but at the same time he did. Letting your guard down was the last thing anyone needed and he wanted to be sure, even if it meant scaring you into it, that you were safe and protected.

You stiffened visibly before slowly moving your gaze back to the stream. All the memories of being held hostage by the French came rushing back. You felt sick, cold, and afraid all at once. It was enough to make you think you were going to pass out. You wobbled on your legs before hurriedly moving back toward your space beside Fitzgerald. You never wanted to be held hostage again, not by the low-life, scum of the earth pricks who’d had you before. Your hands fisted against your boyfriends chest, beating against it firmly enough to wake him.

“The French are near.” You whimpered out brokenly. “I can’t go back to them, John.”

He was bleary-eyed, momentarily confused. Your words didn’t register within him for a few moments, but once they had he was up and his rifle was in hand.

Their was a pop to the left, a loud crunch and then the sound of a gunshot. Glass was awake in seconds and Anderson rolled into the fire from the sheer shock. They dusted themselves off before lifting themselves up and all at once, the men prepped themselves for a war.

The French were here and not a single one of them was visible.

———————————————————————

Drop a comment if you liked this!!!! I am obsessed with it when you guys leave feedback / gifs / cute shit. 🥺🥺

Tagged: @peakblogbecauseimweak @bsotstory @mollybegger-blog @morphoportis @ghost-of-student-sufferings @drippydownes2002 @ellar21 @sovereigngoth @willowick13 @xxxxxeroxxxxx @wheresthewater @anrm1 @pansexualginger @marvelgirl7 @evilspretty-dead @heyitscam99 @wow-he-cute @haroldpain @justrepostandlove @sparklyreaderx @emerald-bijou @multireality @innerpaperexpertcloud @goodiesintheclosetlove @giftofdreams @ihclipse @meer0rauschen @inkedfandom @thatsamegirl @doct0rstrange @jakechillenhaal @shanty-lol @centerhabit @clevertheoristpainter @jamierdr @favouritereadings @badmaax @thephuonganh @wewillfindourwaythere @uhhhemilyrose @scarrasco1325 @matoki-darkpanda @bignastyfan-nz @97freaknik @hot-and-spiceyyy @azayamari @shane-isa-shame @chimthighz @azayamari

#tom hardy x reader #tom hardy imagine #john fitzgerald x reader #john fitzgerald imagine #the revenant imagine

[mxliv-oftheendless]

Black Dahlia (Chapter 10)

ALLLRIGHHT, TUMBLR! Strap in y’all, cuz the final battle of this crazy story has arrived! I hope I did this epic scene justice (but knowing me I probably didn’t), but that’s up for you dear readers to decide! Read on and enjoy, bc I’m SUPER excited for y’all to read this chapter! 

Tag: @cosmicrealmofkissteria

Back on Earth, the Star Portal glowed again, and the transport shot out.

“Remember what you’re gonna do?” Starchild asked Heather.

“Wait until after the second verse, you’ll introduce me, then I come out,” Heather replied easily.

Starchild smiled. “Great.” He threw an arm around Heather’s shoulders and hugged her tightly, a look of excitement clear on his face. “This is gonna be awesome!”

As the transport landed back into the ground, Demon contacted Manny. “We’re here, Goldman!” he said. “Open the gates, and let the Army in. We need to rock and roll!”

KISS and Heather quickly flew off to the main stage and headed backstage. Heather briefly put a hand over her face, and her face and hand glowed black and purple. Then, an intricate painting of a black dahlia flower appeared over her left eye.

It was the face markings she had used back in the 80s: her usual small black flowers along the right side of her face, and a larger black dahlia over her left eye.

Then the rest of her glowed, and her outfit changed. Her black leather jacket remained the same, but she now wore a tighter shirt that was a color purple so dark it was nearly black, black leather pants, and black platform boots with thin silver chains that, although lower than the guys’ boots, still raised her up a few inches off the ground. Dark purple lipstick appeared on her lips as her hair turned black again, and the look was completed by black fingerless gloves, dark purple nail polish, and black eye shadow.

When she was finished, she turned to Starchild, who had been watching her costume change. He looked it over, grinned, and gave her a thumbs up. “Lookin’ good! I mean, not as good as me, but still!”

Heather scoffed and smacked his arm. “Whatever. I look fabulous and you know it.”

Starchild laughed, and for a moment, Heather could swear it was 1981 again, and they were both getting ready for a concert. She’d missed this, the casual banter, and the exhilaration that came from knowing that you were about to play before millions of screaming fans. She could even hear the screaming fans right now, even from backstage.

The stage lights darkened, and the cheering got louder—the concert was starting soon.

“Okay, we’re gonna get onstage. You wait back here and wait for my introduction,” Starchild said to her.

Heather nodded. “Got it. Knock ‘em dead!”

A few seconds after KISS went onstage, Shandi appeared, wearing a headset and, Heather was pleased to see, clothes more fitting for a head techie. She glanced over at Heather, and did a double take, looking at her in surprise. “So you are going to be playing with them,” she said. “Did the guys clear you on what’s going to happen?”

“Yep,” Heather nodded. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Great. Here.” Shandi handed her a black sphere—a smoke bomb. “They told me to give this to you. Good luck!”

“Thanks. Same to you.”

Shandi walked off, leaving Heather alone. There was a pause, in which all she heard was the screaming of the KISS Army. Then a familiar voice boomed out of the speakers, making her smile widely.

“ALLLLLRIGHHHTTT, KISS WORLD! YOU WANTED THE BEST, YOU GOT THE BEST! THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD… KISS!”

The opening chords to “Detroit Rock City”, then the drum beat, and then it sounded like the world exploded.

Even from backstage, the magnitude of what was going on out onstage was flooring Heather. It seemed that in the years she’d been gone, they had increased the scale of their stage theatrics. More explosions, more pyrotechnics, more flashing lights, and more lasers. Starchild’s powerful voice crashed through the speakers, the bassline made the floor vibrate, the drums pounded into her head, and the electric guitars screamed out. And any minute now, she would be going on and being a part of all that. Adrenaline began to rush through her veins, and a smile of pure delight burst across her face.

All too soon, the first and second verses were done, and Heather heard Starchild shout into the mic. “How ya doin’, KISS World?”

The crowd screamed back in reply.

“We got a surprise for all of you here tonight! Tonight, we’re gonna bring out someone for you all to meet! She’s a very special friend of ours, going way back to before KISS was even thought of! She played with us for a while, and tonight she’ll play with us again! Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Heather McMann, the Black Dahlia!”

Heather threw the smoke bomb down on the ground, and disappeared in a gust of smoke.

Onstage, there was an explosion in the middle of the stage, and from out of the smoke, Heather emerged. The force of the screaming audience nearly lifted her off her feet, but she raised her guitar pick and began to play.

While Starchild was the rhythm guitarist and Spaceman was the lead guitarist, Heather had been what they dubbed “the harmony guitarist.” She was responsible for playing notes that harmonized with Spaceman’s lead guitar line. Her harmony line blended well with the other guitar lines, to create a sound that was entirely unique to their band. And she could tell the crowd was loving it—their cheering had gotten louder, if possible.

Starchild went back to singing. “Movin’ fast, doin’ ninety-five. Hit top speed, but I’m still movin’ much too slow. I feel so good, I’m so alive!”

Heather smiled slightly at that lyric. That was describing her right now perfectly.

“I hear my song playin’ on the radio. It goes—”

Heather sang into the mic with Spaceman, her more feminine voice blending nicely with all the guys’ voices. “Get up!”

“Everybody’s gonna move their feet!”

“Get down!”

“Everybody’s gonna leave their seat!”

Heather suddenly felt a rumble shake the stage, that definitely wasn’t from KISS’s pyrotechnics. And it was then that she remembered what they were even supposed to be doing in the first place. They had to stop the Destroyer, obliterate him for good.

And luckily, this time around, she knew exactly how they were all going to do that.

Spaceman launched into the bridge, and his blue glow formed around him. A blue light came out of his guitar, and flew up into the air. Heather knew what the light had been—it would be their way of projecting their astral forms into the portal to wherever the gang had led the Destroyer.

Starchild and Heather joined his playing, and Starchild turned purple, while Heather turned black, purple, and red. Shafts of light their respective colors flew out of their guitars, joining Spaceman’s. Catman banged his drums, him and his drum set glowing green, and Demon’s bassline shook the stage, their green and red lights flying into the air.

As they played, all of them in deep concentration, Heather’s sight shifted out of focus.

She was back in the portal. Behind her was the KISS Kraft, and before her was the Destroyer. He truly lived up to every menacing description of him… but Black Dahlia was not afraid.

Spaceman was projecting powerful blasts of lightning at him. Catman was swinging his claws, creating deep indentations in his body. Starchild’s Starbeams made deep fissures in his sides. And Demon’s Demonfire created giant burn marks. The Destroyer was roaring in pain, being blown back away from the KISS Kraft. He was weak, almost destroyed (no pun intended). But it still wasn’t enough.

Black Dahlia raised her arms. Black/purple/red flowers appeared in the air around her, and she sent them flying towards the Destroyer. They landed all over his body, and one after the other, exploded. The Destroyer roared in pain once more.

Then suddenly she was back at the concert, and Starchild was singing the last verse.

Heather felt another explosion shake the stage that wasn’t from the pyrotechnics, and smiled widely.

They had done it. They had finally done what their ancestors had sought to do thousands of years ago… all with the help of her nephew and his group of mystery-solver friends.

If I’m dreaming, I never want to wake up.

“I got to laugh, ‘cause I know I’m gonna die… Why?”

Heather wanted to laugh herself at that lyric. They were not going to die today. Not today, and not for a long time after this.

“Get up!”

“Everybody’s gonna move their feet!” 

Their playing seemed to have extra energy to it now—probably due to what they had just accomplished.

“Get up!”

“Everybody’s gonna leave their seat!”

And with the final chords, and one final leap into the air from Starchild, the song ended and the stage went dark.

Immediately, Heather felt Starchild tackling her in a hug. She could hear him laughing in her ear, and she was laughing too. Spaceman was raising his fist in the air, smiling like there was no tomorrow. Above them on his platform, Catman was pumping both his fists, shouting in victory. And Demon was smiling too, a rare, genuine smile.

When Starchild let go of her, Heather looked out at the crowd. The crowd was still going wild, and there were spotlights out on five forms crowd-surfing above everyone’s heads. When Heather looked closer, she saw it was the kids and Scooby Doo. They were all unconscious—Scooby’s tongue was lolling out of his mouth—but they seemed completely uninjured. Relief flowed through her, and if possible, she smiled even wider. They had beat the Destroyer, and the kids were all right? She almost asked Starchild to pinch her to see if she was dreaming.

They still had to worry about what would happen when the kids woke up, and the Crimson Witch. Not only her, but the other Crimson Witch, the one that had put this entire night into motion.

But they could worry about that later. For now, they had a concert to finish.

#black dahlia #chapter ten #black dahlia series #the epic final battle has arrived! #hey shandi is this the synergy thing you were talking about in one part of One Small Life? #please let me know bc i'm rather curious #anyway... #the destroyer has been destroyed! #(pun fully intended :P) #now they just have to deal with the two crimson witches #i'm sorta introducing my theory on explaining the crimson witch in the movie #but more on that next chapter #kiss au writing #scooby doo and kiss: rock n roll mystery #my writing #stay tuned for chapter eleven!

[ayopro69-blog]

Trick or treat!

Treat! My first draft of Hell!

Hell

There are days when she’s happy, the highest she’sbeen in years. It’s those times that she wears the biggest smile on her face,pale cheeks flushed to a rose red. Her beautiful lilac eyes glisten in theshining sun, brightening anyone’s day; her silver, short hair gracefullycatches the wind, tamed and elegant. She has her pride and confidence on hersleeves, prepared for the expected and unexpected to be tossed into herdirection. It’s the best qualities of her that spring from her personal darkness,the way she’s supposed to feel around her best friends. This beautiful side ofher is the reason that when she’s unaware, he gazes into her genuinely, andfeels nothing but love for her. She’s the person everyone knows her as. She’salways fine. Nothing beats her down.

           It was just the way she was thatFriday. She was smiling wider than ever before, and she was feeling as powerfulas a super woman in a manga. The rising sun rose only to get a glimpse of thisbeautiful work of art standing quietly by the stop sign of a four-wayintersection, the very same one she’s been waiting at for the school bus eversince she can remember. Her skin looked silk smooth, softer than ever before,revealed clearly by her purple and violet stripped, off-shoulder, elbow-lengthsleeved shirt. On her hands she wore black leather, fingerless gloves with apatch to reveal the backside of her hand. Her knee-high, denim blue skirt gentlyfollowed the breeze which chilled her legs, only covered by black and whitestripped tights and a pair of black leather flats with a thin, small strap onher feet.

           The fall weather was nice, but notall the time. It was uncomfortable and felt like a season one just sort ofdealt with for the sake of not complaining. Yet, it did share it’s moments ofjoy, like the pleasing moment when the leaves change, and the crisp air pilesthem up on the cool ground beneath the tree trunks. It was this kind of weatherthat she enjoyed and dreaded, but it was better than summer’s scorching heat.

           “Hey! Rei!” a familiar voice calledout to the teenage girl.

           She turned and smiled brightly tothe owner of the voice, a teenage boy with messy, short brown hair and gleaminggem green eyes. He wore a blue tank top underneath a white collared,button-down, short sleeved shirt, a pair of tight fit grey jeans, and a pair ofblack and white sneakers. On his wrists, he wore black and white checkeredbands. She nodded lightly before greeting him with a warm, “Good morning,Mitchell… How are you?”

           “Good.” Mitchell answered as hewalked up beside her. His smile grew on his face as he admired her positivedemeanor. “You feeling okay today?”

           Rei nodded once more. “Yes,actually.”

           “Wow, that’s a first… in a longtime.” Mitchell gave her a thumbs up. “I’m proud of you.”

           She couldn’t help but look away.“Thanks…”

           “You’re welcome.” Mitchell clearedhis throat. “So, do you have any plans for the weekend?”

           “Um… no, actually.” She paused. “Whydo you ask?”

           “Um,” he began, burning red face ashe spoke, “I-I, uh… I-I was j-just w-w-wondering s-s-something…”

           “Go on.”

           “I-I-I, uh… I-I mean-… Y-y-you-….”

           She blinked.

           Stumbling over his words, hesuddenly wasn’t able to form even a single sound that formed a word or phrasethat logically made sense. His mouth just shut down like a power plant thatjust lost electricity. Unable to snap out of the trance, he stopped attemptinghis words, staring down at the ground in shame.

           Rei curiously reached out to touchhis shoulder, but stopped herself immediately. What was he going to ask thatmade him so flustered? Whatever it was, it had to be serious. Mitchell alwaysshut down when he had something important on his mind, unable to express histhoughts into words. She wished she could give him the strength to speak, butit was nearly impossible.

           “…I’m sorry.” Mitchell finally brokethe silence.

           “N-no, it’s not your fault,” she reassuredhim, “It’s okay.”

           “Maybe one day, I’ll stop being asocial freak.” He forced out a laugh.

           Before Rei could make a response,the school bus arrived. The bus driver opened the doors so the two could enterbefore speeding off. The bus driver was always running late, so he drove fastand didn’t care if the students sat down in time. Rei and Mitchell gripped ontothe seats tightly to catch their balance before finding the adrenaline to sitdown beside each other. They mostly sat in silence, watching as the familiarfaces got on. The nerdy boy that is obsessed with comic books. The jock thatadores his muscles more than women. The tiny punk who looked like he’d beatyour ass in a minute. The silent Japanese kid that had huge glasses that willfall off his face one day. The skinny bitches that think they are so beautifuland perfect, all whom which have to travel in groups of three.

           And then there was the strangelesbian and Satanist. She had cold brown eyes that would kill a man if helooked too close, the snarl of a panther, a black, laced fedora that sat on topof her violet-dyed bobbed hair with eyebrow-length bangs. She wore a blackshirt with shoulder-length sleeves, a purple and silver glitter design ofchaotic, abstract lines on the front, the back of the shirt laced to reveal herpale skin. On her arms, she wore long fishnet gloves, pointed to wrap aroundher middle finger. She had baggy black slacks and a pair of knee-high, black,leather boots, buckles and straps decorated around it. She was a girl thatwould bite your eye out with her single move of a growl her lips might dare toutter.

           When she entered the bus, being thelast stop the driver had to make before reaching the school, she darted on witha lustful rage, like a model on a runway. She always made quite the entrance,everyone making notice and giving her the undivided attention she deserved.Mitchell clung to Rei’s arm like a warrior with a shield as she passed throughthe crowded bus to sit in the very last seat in the back of the bus, as herusual routine would hold. Only today, she broke the norms.

           As the goth entered the bus, shestopped as she passed by Mitchell and Rei’s seat. A sinister smile grew to herlips as she chuckled lightly.

           “W-w-what’s so f-f-funny?” Mitchellhad to ask, afraid to hear her answer.

           Her soft voice cooed, “You look sopathetic sitting there with your girlfriend like that.”

           “G-g-girlfriend!?”

           “Yeah… and I feel so bad for you…”

           “D-do you?”

           “Yeah…. What’s your name, kid?”

           “Uh, M-mitchell. T-this is myfriend, R-rei,” he motioned his head towards the silver haired girl beside him.

           “A true pleasure to make youracquaintance, my darlings,” she laughed again before introducing herself. “Thename’s Hana. Hana Overly, but you may feel free to refer to me as Satan’sdaughter if you’d like.”

           “N-no thanks. H-hana is good enoughf-for me…” Mitchell murmured, just loud enough to be heard.

           “Would you like to sit down?” Reioffered, scooting closer to Mitchell to make room for the violet hair girl tosit.

           With a nod, Hana smiled. “Sure.Thanks.”

           Mitchell’s eyes widened as hewatched the spooky Satanist sit down beside his childhood friend. What on Earthwas Rei thinking?! Hana was a crazy girl that would probably cause them Hell ifshe desired it even for a minute. Why was it suddenly an obligation to talk tothis chick?

           “So… Hana,” Rei quietly asked, “Whatdo you enjoy as a hobby?”

           “Besides reading and practicingworshipping our lord and savior? I’d have to say listening to music or pushingaround punks.” Hana laughed at the thought of ruining some kid’s day, pushinghim into a garbage can and watching the humiliation plaster onto his face.

           “The devil is not our lord andsavior. God is.” Mitchell chimed in. “He is the holy light that brought us lifeand will bring us peace on Earth in the near future.”

           “Pfft! Please… you expect me tobelieve some homeless bum in a toga is going to wave his hands and bring joy onEarth? How is he supposed to stop war or end violence by waving his hands? Arewe supposed to be silenced by his jazz-hands just because it’s the homeless bumin a toga waving his hands?!” Hana laughed viciously once again.

           Mitchell glared at her. “God is nota homeless bum. He is the almighty, powerful creator-…”

           “Who wears a toga and waves hishands.” She interrupted.

           Rei frowned, listening to the restof their debate the rest of the ride. Once they arrived at the school, she feltlike she could breathe as everyone left the bus, following behind the brunetand violet in silence. Maybe if she was quiet, she could inch in a word tochange the topic. With how much Hana and Mitchell were bickering back andforth, Rei wasn’t sure that would be easy. Still, she patiently waited for herturn as the three walked into the school building, through the hallways untilthey each reached a long set of lockers. Rei respectively went to hers,isolated from her other two friends by approximately fifteen lockers apart.Hana’s and Mitchell’s ironically were placed beside one another’s.

           At this point, Rei couldn’t hear theconversation her friends were having anymore, allowing her mind to travel asshe opened her locker, taking out textbooks from her locker and replacing themwith the ones in her backpack. It was like she could feel rain clouds formingin the sky, brewing up a storm as they began to scatter. Trying to shake thethought, she closed her locker and returned to her friends, who were stilltalking about their religious differences like one was better than the other.Finally, Rei snapped.

           “It doesn’t matter whose God isbetter than whose!” Rei spoke up, “What matters is that you both have faith ina figure of spiritual status that motivates you to reach your goals and succeedin life.”

           The two grew silent, not sure how torespond. Mitchell and Hana must have been quiet for about a minute before theyfinally broke the silence.

#ayopro #writing #artist #hell

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #479

Top Ten Captain America Costumes in the MCU

Argh, it’s Sunday morning and I haven’t written anything! That doesn’t usually happen! Right, it’s time to just bang something out without any degree of care or attention just so I can get something up as soon as possible.

In truth, I’ve got quite a few ideas for the next few weeks, but they all require a bit more finessing and long-winded waffling than I have time for right now, so I’m going to scratch an itch that I’ve had for a week or two. I read a list online (yes, I read other lists) on the exact same topic that I’m covering today. Now, I normally don’t like doing that; if I see a list of, say, favourite Pop Tart flavours, I might start compiling my own mental list, but I don’t want to be seen as derivative or plagiarising (not that anyone would really care unless I lifted the list wholesale, of course, but I’m me and I’m weird), so I tend not actually write that list. I think it’s happened once or twice, because the topic has piqued my interest; but very often in those cases I sort of shelve the idea and work on it and make sure that my list is different. Anyway, long story short, that’s what’s happened today too, except that the process has been accelerated. Basically, I read a list online about the Top Ten Captain America costumes, and I disagreed with it so much I wanted to do my own, and so that’s what you’re getting this week. And they’re all illustrated via the medium of toys!

Hopefully next week I’ll actually get round to doing one of my other, more interesting, more time-consuming lists. We shall see!

Anyway, suit up, Avengers Assemble, on your left, etc, etc, etc.

Avengers: Endgame (2019): pretty much ticks all the boxes: suitably comics-accurate; good-looking helmet that shows off Chris Evans’ face to a flattering degree; cool fingerless gloves; straps and padding give it a utilitarian look without making it look super-armoured; maintains the stars-and-stripes motif without it looking like a fancy-dress outfit. Also, crucially, it has a really cool mesh-style effect across the breastplate, which echoes the mail/scales on his comic outfit.

Captain America: Civil War (2016): superficially close to the Endgame outfit, but there’s a bit too much going on in the chest department. They’re very close at this point, but some elements still come across as a bit too busy.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): very, very similar to what came later – it’s clear that they’d settled on a style at this point that worked well. But I’m not fond of the coloured segments coming out of the star emblem, and actually I feel the white stripes on the arms are a bit distracting. The simpler, more utilitarian look of the later costumes is better.  

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): I guess the first three are all variations on a theme, and this is where the differences come in. here we have a suit that’s supposed to look like it was developed eighty years ago, so it’s a bulkier thing, with more overt padding and strapping. As a result, I think it looks a bit weighty and top-heavy, but the design is great, and as a “1940s Cap” outfit, it’s excellent. No wonder they pulled it out of storage for Winter Soldier.

Captain America: The First Avenger – modified USO outfit (2011): this is what Cap wears when he goes AWOL to rescue the POWs during the movie. He’s wearing his gaudy USO outfit, but pulls on some combat pants and a bitching leather jacket, and heads off into battle. There’s a really cool Indiana Jones/The Rocketeer vibe to this outfit, and it’s excellent. The only reason I don’t prefer it to the standard First Avenger duds is because it’s not really a Captain America costume, is it? It’s like when he’s fighting in his civvies in Winter Soldier. But it’s still cool.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018): basically the costume from Civil War but modified; he loses the helmet and the star from the chest, significantly darkening the whole uniform. He also roles up his sleeves and – in a crucial addition that really makes the whole thing sing – grows a sexy beard. Feels a bit too dark and moody to be proper Cap; and I guess you could make the argument that he isn’t Cap at all at this point. But still, solid look.

Sam Wilson, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021): this year saw the debut of a new Captain America in the form of Sam Wilson. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a very good show that occasionally skirted genuine greatness, and spent most of its runtime teasing the inevitable debut of Sam as Cap. His suit, when it finally debuted, was cool enough, although there are various areas that annoy or detract; it’s fair to say its reception was a mixed as the show itself. On the plus side, well, it’s very comics-accurate, it definitely looks like Cap, he’s got cool wings, and the colours and design are mostly good. But for me it’s a bit too bulky, and there’s too much white on the top half. It’s more pronounced when seen in motion in the show itself, but it does detract from the overall look. I think Cap’s suits on film tend to work better without the segmented colours on the arms, and like I say I’m not keen on how white the top half is, so if they add a bit of blue to those areas next time round I think it’ll be genuinely excellent.

The Avengers (2012): when this suit first debuted, I thought it was excellent, but time has not been kind. I think the feeling was probably that Cap needed a “superhero suit”, something fairly sleek and modern to contrast with the bulky forties design. But it ends up making him smaller, and the form-fitting mask does him no favours. The colours are probably a bit too bright, we’re segmenting the arms again, and the thigh zips and those weird panels on the shoulders are very distracting. At least his arse looks good in it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014): mixed bag this one. On the one hand, lots of design decisions made that there way into later, more refined, versions of the costume. The sleek-but-reinforced, padded look, that marks it as a modern interpretation of the First Avenger costume, is established here; as is the more practical helmet, and fingerless gloves. But it’s such a serious, sombre uniform; all dark blue, with no red and white tummy stripes. The pronounced silver stripes beside the star are doing a lot of lifting to make this seem like a bold, interesting outfit, but it’s not quite enough. The basic ideas were there, but it needed brightening up a bit. However, it did fit the film and tone perfectly.

John Walker, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021): I was torn here. There are, by my reckoning, eleven different Cap suits across the MCU (not counting when he was wearing the time travel suit in Endgame). So here I had to choose between John Walker or the gaudy costume Steve wears in his USO shows in First Avenger. Reluctantly, I chose Walker, as the USO suit really isn’t a good look for fighting crime (or Nazis) in; too skin-tight, not armoured, and the fit of the mask is terrible. Also I’ve sorta-kinda-half covered it when he straps on Indy’s jacket and rescues Bucky and co. Even so, Walker’s Cap outfit isn’t great; far too dark, with horizontal red stripes across the chest, a segmented “A” emblem on the breast that appears to be some sort of button or clasp, and the whole “A-within-a-star” on his helmet is a bit daft. However, it definitely works, because it’s just a little bit wrong; the colours too dark (even the red is more blood-red), the broken-up patterns of the clashing horizontal and vertical lines… even the fact that his helmet doesn’t seem to fit right, making his face pudgier and his ears stick out more. I think this is all deliberate, to discombobulate us, to make us know that this Cap isn’t right. In all these respects, I guess it’s a success. Unlike Walker himself.

Now let’s finish on a song.

#top ten #films #movies #marvel #mcu #captain america #avengers #chris evans #steve rogers #anthony mackie #sam wilson #the falcon and the winter soldier

[zoemurph]

to have a friend, chapter 9: $202

on ao3 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

that noise you hear? its me. screaming. college is horrific and im super screwed please write this essay on the decameron for me

im ALMOST done with nano!! (as you can tell from the wordcount) there might not be a chapter update by the end of the month but i will hit my goal! wow magic. little bit of a shorter chapter this time cause uhhhh ive never claimed to be good at this

shoutout to my lovely friends for all their contributions to this fic. particularly thank you to cam for the amazing project name

warnings: anxiety, hints of bad eating habits

enjoy!

Evan pulls off his scarf and hangs it in his locker.

It’s finally snowed.

It snowed a few times before, October is notorious for it’s random snowstorms, but this is the first time this year it’s stuck. It started snowing Sunday morning and almost an inch gathered by mid afternoon. It was pretty light and uneventful, but Evan still made a point to send a picture of a snow dusted tree to Connor. Connor had replied ‘aesthetic’ and sent a picture of a plant Cynthia put in the living room that was mostly just dying.

Evan hangs up his coat and shoves the mittens in the sleeves. November is ending and only now does he really need to wear a coat to school. And take the bus. It’s hell.  

“So this is why you have a locker,” Connor says.

“You have a locker too,” Evan reminds him.

Connor laughs. “No I fucking don’t, not if I can’t tell you which one it is.”

Evan shakes his head. “You’re just lazy.”

“Yes.”

“But if you ever need to hang up a coat you’re welcome to use mine.”

Connor tilts his head. “Ev, what makes you think I’m weak enough to wear a winter coat?”

Evan stares at him. “The fact that tomorrow it’s supposed to be like six degrees out?”

“We die like men,” Connor says simply. He pulls Evan’s spanish textbook out of the locker and hands it to him.

“You die,” Evan says pointedly. “And your hands are freezing.” Evan stuffs the textbook into his bag and zips it shut. “Do you own gloves?”

“Cool fingerless gloves because it fits the aesthetic,” Connor says, wiggling his fingers.

Evan closes the locker. “You’re the worst.”

Connor bumps their shoulders together. “Come on, Ev, admit they’re cool.”

Evan shakes his head. “They really aren’t.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Connor says as he opens the door to the stairwell.

“Do you think I lie to you?” Evan asks, stopping to look Connor in the eye.

Connor stares at him.

Evan holds his breath. He doesn’t lie to Connor. Nothing he does is a lie. The question is will Connor figure that out. And if he does, will he hate him for it.

Connor rolls his eyes. “You just haven’t seen them yet. They’re cool.”

“Whatever you say,” Evan mutters. He starts down the stairs. “Has Jared started yet?”

“Started what?”

Evan opens the door at the bottom of the stairwell and holds it for Connor. “He has your phone number right?”

Connor frowns. “Yeah? Is something horrible about to happen?”

“What’s your definition of horrible?”

“Evan.”

“What?” Evan stops walking. “Don’t you go down?” He nods to the stairs.

Connor shrugs. “Yeah, but I can go the long way with you. What is Jared going to do?”

“Thanksgiving is Thursday,” Evan says slowly.

“Thank god. I don’t know how we’re getting through Wednesday but I’m fucking dying.”

“We have a half day, Connor.” Evan steps closer to him to squeeze past a group of students crowded around a locker.

“Who cares.” Connor looks down at him. “Anyway, what shit is Kleinman up to? And what does Thanksgiving have to do with it?”

“What happens after Thanksgiving?” Evan asks.

“People try to kill each other over jeans?” Connor suggests.

Evan snorts. “I-I mean, yeah, but it’s Christmas—”

“Jared is Jewish,” Connor interrupts. “I’m also Jewish. You’re Jewish.”

Evan glances up at him. “I know. He has this playlist of Christmas songs that he blasts in his car. I don’t know why. But he also has a playlist of Jewish parodies.”

“I’m sorry what?”

Evan sighs. “There’s one that’s called Shalom and he sang it for like a week. Basically, December is Jared’s favorite time of year because he can be an asshole under the guise of being ‘festive’.”

Connor groans. “Please don’t say he’s going to send me links to all these videos.”

“He will. I’m warning you.” Evan pauses. “Uh, this is my stop.” He motions to the classroom to their right.

Connor nods. “Cool. I’ll see you later, I have to go block Jared’s number.”

Evan smiles as Connor walks away and takes a deep breath before he goes into the classroom and sits down.

His pocket is light.

It’s Monday. Connor didn’t pay him today.

Evan rests his chin in his hand and hides his smile.

Maybe Connor just forgot. But it feels nice. Like this is real.

That’s what Evan wants.

—«·»—

“I’ve been talking to Baz,” Alana says, flipping through her notebook as she walks. Evan nods. “I think she might be a good advisor for the club? Students typically feel relatively comfortable talking to her and I know she’s discussed mental health at the beginning of the year before.”

Evan tightens one of the straps of his backpack. “Okay. I, um, we need a name before we talk to her?”

Alana shakes her head. “I think we can just discuss the idea with her, even if we don’t have all the details solidified yet. If she’s against the idea, regardless of the current state of the details, we have to find a new advisor.”

“Oh.” Evan steps away from Alana to let someone pass between them. “Do you… Like… Does it ever feel…not worth it?”

Alana furrows her eyebrows but doesn’t look over to him. “What do you mean?”

“You won’t even be around for the club, n-not really?” Evan shrugs. “It’s…a lot of work for something you won’t be around to see, I guess.”

“Well…” She slows her steps. “I mean, hopefully it’ll start next semester, and if not we can always say we took the step to start a discussion of mental health in the school but…it could help other people?”

Evan’s ears burned. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know you didn’t,” Alana says. “I’ve wondered it myself. There’s no glory in getting the details perfect if you aren’t there to run it, but if we help other people, I think it’s worth it in the end.”

Evan walks up to his locker and puts in the combination. “Y-you’re right, sorry I just— sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s valid to think about.” Alana taps her nails against her notebook. “Now if only we could come up with a name…”

“A name for what?” Connor asks.

Evan looks up at him in surprise. “Isn’t your next class on the other side of the school?”

Connor shrugs. “Who gives a shit?”

“A name for our club,” Alana says, fixing her glasses. “It has a focus on mental health and starting a conversation about it in our school.”

“This club,” Connor says. He tugs on the strap of his bag. “What are you working with for names?”

Evan and Alana exchange a glance.

“Nothing,” Alana says after a moment. “I was thinking maybe we could have the word ‘project’ in the name, but I haven’t come up with anything that’s stuck. Do you have any suggestions?”

“The Fuck Project,” Connor deadpans.

Evan covers his eyes with a hand.

“We are not calling it the Fuck Project,” Alana says.

“It’ll get people’s attention,” Connor points out.

“Not in a good way,” Evan mutters. He drags his hand down his face and looks at Connor, who’s grinning at him.

“We do need to get this approved by the principal,” Alana adds. “And that name will give people the wrong idea, that is absolutely not what this club is about.”

Connor shrugs a shoulder. “Temporary name, congrats, I helped out.”

“Not really.”

The warning bell rings and Alana glances over her shoulder.

“I should go,” she says, “but I’ll text you about Baz?”

Evan nods. “Y-yeah that’s— okay yeah. I’ll see you later?”

Alana smiles and hurries down the hall.

Connor watches her leave. “Baz?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Um, yeah.” Evan grabs the books he needs and closes the locker with his foot. “We need an advisor and Lana thinks Baz might be willing to help? Have you had her?”

Connor shakes his head. “Baz teaches the CP kids, usually. I’ve been, uh, honors.”

Evan blinks. “Oh yeah, I forgot college prep was a thing. She taught regular english sophomore year.”

“You had her?” Connor asks.

“Uh…kind of?”

Connor furrows his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Bad semester,” Evan mutters. “I, uh… There weren’t a lot of classes I…went to?”

Connor nods. “Got it.”

“Don’t you have class?” Evan asks quickly. His head is starting to spin.

“Yeah, I just.” Connor steps closer and Evan’s heart skips a few beats. “I’m sorry I forgot this earlier.” He presses a bill into Evan’s hand.

Evan closes his eyes.

Right.

Right. Right, of course. Connor just forgot. He didn’t mean anything by it. He’s sticking to the agreement.

Evan feels sick.

He crumples the bill up in his fist. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he mumbles.

“It won’t happen again,” Connor promises.

Evan’s hand feels like it’s on fire.

—«·»—

Jared tosses his bag onto the couch and disappears into the kitchen. “Have you gotten any better about keeping food in your house?” he shouts.

Evan rolls his eyes. “Why do I need t-to buy food when you do it for me?”

Jared leans out of the doorway. “Fuck off, man, you never buy the chips I like.”  

“Exactly.”

Jared glares at Evan and ducks back into the kitchen. “Hungry?”

“Not really.” Evan reaches into his pocket and grabs the ten dollar bill Connor handed to him earlier. “Meet me up in my room?”

“Sure, stealing this chocolate, B-T-dubs.”

“I can’t stop you,” Evan mutters. “Bring up your bag! Don’t leave it on the couch!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

Evan leaves Jared to pull apart the kitchen and heads up to his room. He leaves his backpack on his bed and pulls open his closet, pushing aside sweatshirts to get to a shoebox he’s buried. He pulls the ten out of his pocket and stares at it for a moment before he takes the top off the shoebox and puts it inside. Then he covers it back up with his sweatshirts and closes his closet door.

Now he can pretend it doesn’t exist.

When Jared kicks open the bedroom door with popcorn in one hand and chocolate in the other, Evan is sitting on his bed with his laptop open.

“Wow, lame,” Jared says. Evan glances up at him. “I’m kidding,” Jared says quickly. “That’s exactly what I did yesterday.” He drops down into Evan’s desk chair. “How’d you spend your weekend?”

Evan shrugs. “Same. S-some homework and uh…spent Friday with Connor.”

Jared opens his bag of popcorn. “I’ve been fucking dying to know, what have you spent all that money on? Murphy has to have given you a shit ton at this point.”

Evan stares at his laptop screen, rubbing his hands on his pants. “N-nothing yet it just…it feels weird.” He can feel Jared’s eyes on him and feels a panic build in his chest. “It feels weird! It’s just— it’s in a box in my closet.”

“Sweet.” Jared stands up.

“Jared!”

“Okay, okay, yeah, that was kind of dicky.” Jared falls back down into the chair. “I wasn’t going to take it, I was joking. Your money dude, you earned it with your weird uh…situation.” Evan makes a face. “Don’t fucking do that with your face, you know this is weird.”

“Shut up,” Evan mutters. He could go into a coma right now and that would be fine.

“We can start a list of things you could buy with it.” Jared throws a piece of popcorn into the air and tries to catch it in his mouth. It bounces off his right lense and lands on the floor. “I’ll get that later. Anyway. List.”

Evan glances to his closet.

“One, not shitty sneakers. Two, shirts that aren’t polos. Three, so much candy. Four, a video game. Five, multiple video games even, I don’t know how much money you have. Six, something nice for your mom cause you’re a real momma’s boy. Seven, a fuck ton of yugioh cards—”

“Yugioh cards?” Evan interrupts.

“Yes.” Jared throws a piece of popcorn at Evan. “Let me finish.”

Evan shakes his head. “I think I get it.” He closes his laptop and swings his legs over the side of the bed. “You don’t want the money sitting in my closet.”

“No shit.” Jared tosses Evan the chocolate bar. “You can have half. But yeah, you’ve got money, dude, it’s not gonna fucking collect interest if it’s in the back of your closet or anything. You’re spending all this time doing this bullshit job, why not actually use what you get paid?”

Evan opens the chocolate bar and breaks it in half before handing the half in the packaging back to Jared. “I-I already told you. It feels…weird. I don’t know.”

“You know,” Jared says as he takes the chocolate, “this is kind of a sugar daddy situation.”

Evan immediately goes red. “Oh my god.”  

“Minus the sex stuff,” Jared says casually. “And the age difference, cause I don’t think Murphy is that much older you, is he?”

Evan is ready to melt into the ground. Or die. Or both. Both would be perferrable. “Jared, please—”

“Sugar buddy,” Jared says, snapping his fingers. “Connor is your sugar buddy.”

“This is the worst.”

Jared takes a bite of chocolate. “Do you have a better name for this?”

Friendship? Evan wants to just call it friendship. That’s totally not the case but—

“We can call it platonic prostitution if you want.”

“If you say that again I am kicking you out of my house.”

Jared holds up his hands in surrender. “Valid. That is totally valid.”

Evan starts breaking up his half the chocolate bar into smaller pieces. “I just… I don’t know. It’s weird. It’s a weird situation. But let’s not call it…that.”

“Yeah,” Jared agrees. “Fucking weirdass… Kind of regret helping out with it, honestly. It feels like a trainwreck I can’t look away from.”

“Really comforting there, Jared,” Evan mutters.  

Jared spins in the desk chair. “I’m just saying, what started out as a funny ha ha losers thing has gotten decidedly less funny.”

Evan furrows his eyebrows. “What was this funny?”

“Dude, come on, at least the first week was fucking hilarious,” Jared says with a crooked smile. It seems forced, but it’s still there.

Evan grimaces. “It wasn’t.”

Jared loses the smile. “Okay. It wasn’t funny, my bad.”

Evan makes a strangled sound. “Do you talk to Connor?” Some of the chocolate is starting to melt. He pops a piece of it into his mouth.

Jared snorts. “Hell no. We coexist, are you really going to ask more of us?”

“No,” Evan admits. “But if I tell you something, you won’t tell him?”

Jared gives him a weird look. “Tell him?”

Evan stares at him with wide eyes. “You’re already judging me!”

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are!”

Jared throws his hands in the air. “I don’t even know what I would be judging you for!”

“I want Connor to stop paying me.”

Jared stares at Evan.

Evan’s hands start to sweat and his heart races. He looks down at the chocolate in the palm of his hand and eats it before it can melt any more. He wipes his hands on his pants. Then he wipes them again.

“Yeah, no shit,” Jared says once the silence is too long and too awkward and too uncomfortable.

Evan groans and collapses on the bed. “I just—”

“Want to be friends?” Jared offers.

“Um…yes, but also—”

Jared sits up straighter. “You didn’t.”

Evan pulls on his fingers. “I…what?”

“You’re in love with him!” Jared shouts.

“No!” Evan almost falls off the bed as he scrambles to his feet. “No, I don’t—”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! It’s just— it’s just a crush oh my god, Jared.”

Jared raises his eyebrows. “You said crush.”

Evan’s face gets hot. “Uh, yeah I— it-it’s not… I mean… I don’t think… It’s not like a big…deal? Or anything?”  

Jared stares at him. “Evan, it’s a big deal.”

Evan laughs awkwardly. “W-we don’t have to make it one.”

Jared squints. “Okay… I still have to kick your ass in Mario Kart. You ready?”

Evan takes a breath. “You’ve never been able to beat me, Jare. Especially since you keep choosing Rainbow Road.”

Jared jumps out of his seat. “Hell yeah I do, I’m going to mop the floor with your blood.”

Evan smiles. “Okay. If you say so.”

—«·»—

Jared loses. He swears aggressively as he reaches for his wallet to buy dinner.

“I hate you,” he hisses as he shoves a box of mozzarella sticks at Evan.

“Thanks,” Evan says. “Let me know when you want a rematch.”

Jared flips him off and grabs his sandwich off the table.

—«·»—

Heidi comes home as Jared is getting ready to leave. “Jared!” she says in surprise as she puts her bag down on the kitchen table. “I had no idea you were coming over.”

Evan and Jared look up from the television.

“Hey, Heidi, just wanted to steal your TV.” Jared tosses his Wii controller onto the couch.

“Your bag is still in my room,” Evan reminds him.

Jared shoots a fingergun at him. “Thanks.”

“Don’t leave on my account,” Heidi says, pulling her hair out of its ponytail.

“Nah, I have homework,” Jared says. “The moms want me home soon anyway.” He checks his phone and makes a face. “Yeah I should go, but thanks for letting me invade your house.”

“Anytime, Jared,” she says.

Jared grabs his bag from Evan’s room and bumps his shoulder against Evan’s as he goes to leave, wiggling his eyebrows.

Evan rolls his eyes. “Shut up,” he whispers.

Jared mimes zipping his lips. “See you tomorrow in hell.”

When Jared is gone, Evan finds his mom doing the dishes in the kitchen. “Can I help?” he asks.

She holds out a pot. “Dry and put away?”

Evan nods and takes it from her.

“It’s nice that you’re hanging out with Jared again,” Heidi muses. She washes a cup and sets it aside for Evan.

“Hm?” Evan dries off the pot and puts it in the cabinet next to the oven.

“You and Jared. You haven’t really spent a lot of time with him lately.”

“Oh.” Evan grabs the cup. “He’s been over. We…hang out and stuff.”

“That’s great.” She smiles at him. “It’s good that you have a friend.”

“Friends,” Evan corrects quickly, feeling guilt twist his stomach. He should be better at this. This friend thing. He should be making more progress than he has.

Heidi looks at him in surprise. “You’ve never mentioned anyone else before.”  

“Uh, yeah.” Evan keeps his eyes on the dishes he’s drying. “Connor.” He says it and then tries not to think about it. “And um…Alana?”

“Oh!” Heidi puts down the dish soap. “Well that’s great! We should try to have dinner with them sometimes.”

Evan ducks his head. “Mom.”

“I want to meet your friends!”

“I— uh…okay, I’ll um, ask them about it.” Evan decides he should never speak again. He keeps digging his holes deeper and deeper.

Evan talks with Connor by his locker. He walks with Connor in the halls. He smiles and laughs and pretends his chest isn’t constricting.

Connor looks at him and sometimes it feels real.

The ten isn’t in Evan’s pocket anymore, but Evan can still feel it’s presence.

They sit together at lunch and Connor pokes at Evan’s jello with a straw and Evan tries to keep his heartrate under control. Connor rambles on about something that happened in AP Lit — which is apparently the only class he pays attention to in any way — and Evan mostly just nods. Connor keeps looking at him and he kind of feels like dying.

Evan feels like he’s dying and then Connor smiles at him and better and it’s worse and Evan hates every part of his existence.

Connor bumps his shoulder against Evan’s and the butterflies in Evan’s stomach fluttered.

—«·»—

Evan sits at his desk and does homework. He hates it but it gives him something to do. His phone buzzes from where it’s plugged in next to his bed. Evan glances at his Spanish textbook. He gets up and checks his messages.

From: Connor To: Evan      can i call?

Evan’s throat immediately feels like it’s closing him. There’s an anchor wrapped around him and it’s dragging him down. Down down down—

He tries to type out a response but his hands are shaking.

Another message pops up on the screen.

From: Connor To: Evan      fuck its not bad shit i just realized how that sounds      im home alone and larry just got back and i dont want to talk to him      if im on the phone hell probably leave me alone

Evan takes a deep breathe and presses his palms against his eyes. It’s fine. It really is fine.

He replies as fast as he can, but it still takes him a minute to calm down.

From: Evan To: Connor      YEah fo course sorry for takin g so long to rpely

Connor’s response is almost immediate.

From: Connor To: Evan      you didnt take long at all ev youre fine      sorry if i scared you      gonna call now

Evan stares at the screen of his phone. As soon as ‘Incoming call from Connor’ pops up, he hits answer.

“Hello?” Evan sits down on the edge of his bed and grips the blankets.

“Hey,” Connor says. He sounds kind of tired. “Sorry if I freaked you out, didn’t think before I sent that.”

“It’s fine,” Evan promises. He doesn’t want to think about it anymore. A moment of panic. They can move on. “W-what do you want to, um, to talk about?”

“Don’t really know,” Connor admits. “Nice to talk to you, you sound different over the phone.”

Evan smiles. “So do you.” Connor’s voice sounds a bit deeper. Maybe rougher. “Someone thought I was a dad once when I had to call to cancel an appointment.”

“What?” There’s laughter in Connor’s voice and it makes Evan’s head spin. “How the fuck?”

“I don’t know. I-I just— I was trying to cancel and they were like ‘the patient’ and I was confused but was too scared to ask and then they asked my relation to the patient and were like ‘are you his father?’ and I was just kind of like… Well no, I’m the patient.”

Connor snorts. “Amazing. I’m proud of you for cancelling your son’s appointment.”

Evan leans back on his hands. “N-no they— we sorted it out. I almost threw up afterward but uh…probably could’ve gone worse.”

“Phone calls aren’t your thing, huh?” Connor asks. “Sorry for making you do this. If it’s easier for you we can stop.”

Evan shakes his head and then realizes that Connor can’t see him. “No it’s fine. Really, it’s okay with you. It’s nice.” Whoops that was more than he was supposed to share.   

“Okay, if you’re sure. Let me know if you want to hang up.”

“Of course,” Evan murmurs. “Uh… I asked you this like…three hours ago, but how was your day?”

“Pretty shit,” Connor admits. “Right now I’m uh….eating grapes.”

“Well that’s good. You didn’t eat lunch.”

“I never eat lunch.”

Evan hums. “Okay, that’s true.”

“What about you?” Connor asks. “Have you eaten anything today other than shitty cafeteria food?”

“Uh…no,” Evan says slowly. “I’m not super hungry.”

“Get a drink or something for me.”

Evan smiles. “Are you trying to parent me?”

“Fuck, Zoe’s rubbing off on me, isn’t she? How the fuck?” Evan imagines Connor dragging his hand through his hair.

“Her and your mom,” Evan points out. “They aren’t that similar, you know.”

There’s a slight pause. “I guess you’re right. I don’t notice that shit. Zoe’s just…Zoe. I don’t know.”

“Outsider’s perspective,” Evan suggests. “I also don’t live with them, so I might be wrong.”

“Huh.” There’s a pause. “Okay but hydration.”

“I’m going,” Evan promises. He stands up from his bed and heads down the stairs. “Are you staying hydrated?”

Connor clears his throat. “Uh…” Evan smiles as he hears Connor’s bed squeak as Connor stands up. “Yeah of course.”

“You’re going to get a drink, aren’t you?” Evan asks. He walks into the kitchen and pulls a cup from the cupboard.

“No,” Connor says quickly. “Definitely not.”

“Okay.” Evan fills the cup with water and takes a sip. “So uh…sports?”

Something on Connor’s end shuts. “I’m gay.”

Evan rolls his eyes. “Okay. Then you choose the conversation starter.”

“Okay. Did you know that eggplants are fruits?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck there goes my fun fact.”

Evan laughs. “I’m sure you can think of something else.”

“Don’t have faith in me, Ev, it’ll end badly. But give me a second.” Evan drinks his water as Connor thinks. “Okay. Want to hear lots of random shit about Ancient Egypt? Zoe and I had a phase.”

Evan sits down in a kitchen chair. “You know I do.”

“Well get comfortable, because this is going to be a while.”

#evan hansen #connor murphy #deh #convan #tree bros #my fics #to have a friend #death level: 100000

[zacklover24]

To the stars and back Chapter I

Summary: Ever since Luna was young she had known she had a destiny and her destiny and her path in life have been sent out before her since the day she could walk. By orders of the king Luna has no choice in helping Sora and his friends defeat organization 13 and bring balance back to the light and dark sides.

Rating: T 

Pairings: Seifer and OC, Sora and Riku down the road 

Tagging: @itshaejinju, @nykamito, @aquacura, @nemo-ne-impune-lacessit, @rikusqueenofhearts, @mandakatt, @insomniacapples, @bluechocobo, @dr3aming-of-stars

Summer mornings in twilight town were hot, sticky, and gross. And this was before the sun was at it highest point in the sky. For the resident's of Sunset Terrace they were feeling the heat. For the couple living in one building the heat was starting to become unbearable. It was home to seifer, the head of the disciplinary committee and everyone wondered how he got a nice apartment but, at the same time no one questioned how the blonde had such nice apartment, in the nice part of town.

Seifer woke before his partner. That was rare his partner normally got up before she was normally up taking a jog, heading out to spare or doing something, but then again she did come home well after midnight. And speaking of her, seifer pulled her closer to his chest she would be leaving soon. The heat be damned he was going to miss her.

“Seifer I swear.” His partner warns, her voice was heavy from sleep and she had yet to wake up fully. He smirked and ran a hand down her toned arm. Seifer did love the fact that his partner was toned from her years of fighting. Add that on top of the fact she had gotten some color, when she first came to town she was too pale but now after some time in the sun she had a nice tan.

“Sorry luna.” He says pressing a kiss to into her long midnight black locks.

“No, you're not you do this every morning.” Now luna was awake as she rolled over to face him. To seifer,  luna had the most beautiful eyes, they were round and remind him of aquamarine.

“What can I say? When I see the most beautiful girl in twilight town sleeping next to me I have to take action.” He smirks stealing a kiss.

“Your incorrigible.” Luna tells him kissing back. Luna broke apart from the kiss and stretched her one arm upwards cracking her shoulders. “Or do you know that I'm leaving today?” She asks him getting out of bed.

“Your leaving today?” He asks stunned. Is that why she came in late?

“Sadly yes. Master yen sid, said that today is the day.” She informs him picking up clothes from the floor and leaving, luna was very skilled and able to do much without her prosthesis on.

“It's been a whole year?!” He yells at her, he ventured and guess to say she was heading to the bathroom to shower and get ready for her day.

“Yup!” She yells back. Seifer let out grunt and ran hand over his face. He had been dreading this day since they meet a year ago, and yet he couldn’t believe it had been a full year since they meet.

It's  hard to believe that it been a full year since the pair meet. It all started a year go tomorrow (funny how she would be missing there one year anniversary), Luna had come to twilight town looking for someone. And that someone wasn’t Seifer. Sure they meet by chance. Luna had warned into the sandlot and the two had a struggle match for awhile. Ri, Fu, Vivi and Hayner little gang were all in shock as she was able to hold her own but in the end he had lost. But seifer wasn’t mad, struggle was one of the many things that pair had boned over. Luna loved it since it gave her time to train and Seifer loved to fight luna since she posed a real challenge.

A few weeks later the pair went off to get ice cream, she wasn’t a fan of sea-salt, which wasn’t a down side for him but not the point. Luna told him that she was here waiting for the young keyblade wielder by the name of Sora. (Luna confided in him that she like Sora was a keyblade wielder one of the last.) Sora had been put into a deep sleep, he trying to gain back what he lost, whatever that meant. So now it was a full year later.

“Do you have to go?” Seifer asks sitting up once Luna came back in the room. Luna had done her hair in a braided ponytail, while she also put on her arm, it looked like her real arm  except it was made from some metal that Seifer never learned the name of. All he knew, was that the arm was lightweight yet very durable. According to luna the arm could handle a lot of damage before breaking and becoming useless.

And it seemed she was back to her normal clothes, she wore a  blue jeans, heeled ankle boots, soft purple crop-top vest with white lining underneath, fingerless gloves, and a light blue jacket that is waist length, and a black belt. And on her right wrist is a a red scarf, and lastly there was her jewelry. Which was pair of silver crescent moon earrings  with pieces of moon stones on then, the  earrings hang from fish hooks and a orange five point star that hung around her neck.

“You know that I have to.” She tells him sitting down on the edge on the bed. Luna didn’t want to leave twilight town she had grown to love it, and grown to love seifer and her friends. This wasn’t fair. Seifer and Luna both let out a sigh, “I don’t want to you know.”

“I know.” Seifer mutters, he had a thought, “Your going to miss me.”  As he got out of bed and started looking around the room. The room for once wasn’t a total mess. Ever since he meet luna he had kept the room neat and tidy. Sure he had left his clothes from the night before on the floor but he glad he did.

Luna rolled her eyes, “That was given love bug.”  she says with a chuckle.

“Not what I mean honey bunny. Now where are you, there you are.” He picked up and tossed his black tuque at luna, “You're going to be going go to worlds and places that I can’t even dream about. So take my hat as a reminder that I’m always with you boo.” Luna gave a him a small smile and put the hat on,

“Thank you.” She whispers.

“Your welcome now go. Can’t keep this kid waiting.” As he stole one last kiss.

******************************************************************************

Luna was told she would find sora, donald and goofy at the old manor. When she had gone to see yen sid the night before he told her, her new orders. She was to joungery sora and guide him. Luna let out a weary sigh, as she headed for the manor. She hopped he was awake. Luna arrived to see Donald and Goofy and a youth brown spiky hair wearing. Well, he wore a red jumpsuit that has a long zipper running through the middle, ending with puffy shorts. He wears a crown-chain on his left side and a loosely worn blue belt. Over his jumpsuit, he wore a black hoodie that is blue on the inside, and black on the outside with white sleeves ending in grey edging. He wears white gloves on his hands with blue, black and yellow straps. He wore the crown pendant around his neck. His shoes were mainly yellow and black with belt-straps holding them closed. The lower portions are grey and end with a small triangular patch of blue. The whole outfit looked to small on the boy.

“Excuse me,” Luna  says approaching the group. “But is your name Sora?”

“Who are you?” Donald asks glaring at Luna.

Luna gave them a smile, “Name’s Luna and I’m here to help.”

End of line

#To the stars and back #Kingdom hearts #Kingdom hearts OC #Luna #Sora #donald duck #goofy #Sora and Riku down the road #seifer almasy

[purple-possibilities]

Kakashi’s Outfits in “Two Steps Back, One Step Forward”

Soooo, @hiraeth-wings asked me today what Kakashi is wearing in my fic 2sb1sf, considering how remiss I have been on describing his clothing lol.  I think the only thing I ever mentioned was Kakashi’s glistening biceps as he does upside-down, one-handed pushups…which, hey, isn’t that the only thing that matters?  Well, since I spent far too long writing (and shittally drawing) this up for her, I thought I might share it with you all in case anyone was interested. So please enjoy this really long explanation featuring finger drawings done on my phone using the Notes App on the iphone.  You’re welcome, world.

Kakashi’s clothing changes depending on what he’s doing.

If it’s something official, where Tobirama and Hashirama would be dressed up, then Kakashi would be wearing the Senju dress clothes (the kimono top, haori, and hakama ensemble all the Senju wear).  (Guess who hates seeing Kakashi wearing this??? Guess who, once they’ve been dating for a bit, gives Kakashi a closet full of Uchiha-styled clothing???)

When Kakashi first gets to the past, he’s wearing his ANBU stuff (I’m assuming like, 20ish year old Kakashi made his way to the past, like post the Tenzou stuff but before Sandaime sent him to be a jounin sensei. He has two copies of Icha Icha Paradise with him, since I hc that he always has at least one backup copy of Icha Icha on him, in case something happens to the first (you’re welcome, Kakashi.  You can pay me back later in a tbd favour ).

At the time my story starts, that stuff is worn down by now. But, it kind of inspires the type of clothing he wears.

When fighting:

black sleeveless undershirt like in ANBU, with a black long-sleeved shirt with attached mask on top, the Senju clan logo on each shoulder (where the Uzumaki red spiral is on the jounin uniforms) and black pants. At this point in time, the Uzumaki have not signed a treaty with the village.  That meas Hashirama is unmarried, and Mito isn’t here yet.

He has a breast plate, that looks like Hashirama’s pretty much, but it’s forest green or silvery grey (he wanted it to be grey but Hashirama insisted that it be coloured lol, so there’s this running gag where Kakashi takes his armour to be painted grey and wears it grey one fight, but Hashirama steals it and has it repainted green, and Kakashi has to wear it until he can get it painted grey again).

There are no pauldrons (the shoulder armour) and no tasset (the skirt looking thing that covers the crotch and upper thighs). (Tobirama and Hashirama (and later Madara) give him shit for this but he says it weighs him down and refuses to wear it).

Over Kakashi’s mask is a metal face mask. It sits directly above his cloth mask, ending just below his jaw. It curves down under his chin a bit but not to his neck. It’s made up of five overlapping plates. Hashirama gave it to him as a joke when he wouldn’t wear the pauldrons. Kakashi (being Kakashi) wore it anyways. You can’t have enough masks, right?

(Forgive the crappy finger drawing I did on my phone lol, and the random line through the senju logo (and how shitty the senju logo is) i totally didn’t notice accidentally marking that up. oops.)

He still has his usual navy kunai pouch and white bandages strapped around his right thigh, and three khaki pouches across the back of his hips.

He has plated vembrances, that stretch from just below his elbow to the top of his hand (there are four plates in total on each vembrance), reminiscent of his vembrances from his younger anbu days (like the image on the right: https://m.imgur.com/kok8MMA) and they match whatever colour his breastplate is.

He still wears fingerless gloves with the silver metal plate on the back of the palm. The gloves end just above where his hand meets his wrist, and sit tighter to the skin than his jounin uniform gloves. There’s a buckle on the underside of his wrist, and there’s a little window between the top of his palm and the bottom of his wrist where a flash of skin shows (Madara is a little obsessed with that bit of skin on the inside of Kakashi’s wrist, the pervert).

His pants are tied down from mid-calf to the top of his ankle with bandages, and on top of that he has a short pair of plaited greaves that resemble his vembrances.

He has black sandals, like Hashirama and Tobirama’s, but connected to his greaves is a metal plate that covers the top of his foot.

In the series of chapters where Kakashi is working out and then Madara drags him to see Tatsumi, Kakashi is wearing just his sleeveless undershirt (Madara gets to ogle Kakashi’s biceps with those handstand push-ups lol) and gloves, his pants with the bandages around his right thigh (but not kunai pouch) and the bandages around his ankle. He’s wearing the sandals mentioned above, but the top of his foot is exposed because he’s not wearing any of his armour.  He also has one pouch on the back of his left hip, where he’s keeping Icha Icha and some weapons.

In the chapter to come, he’s wearing almost the same thing, but he has his long sleeves shirt on as well, with the sleeves rolled up to show his forearms…unless I change my mind. But that’s what he’s wearing; there’s even a  description! Isn’t that fantastic?

Tadaa! I hope you enjoyed these shitty drawings and the description!

#hatake kakashi #two steps back one step forward #2sb1sf #just a little piece i drew #just a little piece I wrote #on glorious madakaka stuff #kakashi's outfits #uchiha madara

[cupnoodle-queen]

CHASING SUNS: Chapter 8 Power

1,949 words MY BABY IS GETTING SO BAD ASS! I love rereading this chapter, so happy with the scenery. UGH. Also, I had serious song motivation for this one: Hard Time by Seinabo Sey was on repeat, such a good track. Tagging friends @blindbae @nifwrites @themissimmortal

Cam flexed gloved fingers over the hilts of two weighted short swords, turning them to catch the light, their intricate filigree designs worth marvelling. They were lighter than she expected, yet she could already tell her arms would be jelly after a long fight.

Gladio looked at her expectantly. “Well?”

“They aren’t very short.”

Her response was met with an eyeroll. “That’s because you are. Average height people have no problems with their size.”

“I am average height,” She protested, though would be lying if she denied having straightened her back a bit.

Gladio took a step closer to Cam until only inches separated them. Dangerously close; she could smell his shower gel. He looked down at her with a smirk. “So am I.”

She shoved him away, doing her best to ignore the sudden flutter at her hipbone. “To hell you are, I haven’t seen anyone your size around here.” Cam holstered the weapons and sighed, her breath a bit visible in the chill of morning air.

“Just something to get used to, I guess.”

Her first hunt with the swords was nothing to shake a stick at. Her wrists were weak, lacking the muscle and stability of seasoned swordsmen. Gladio had warned her they would be sore, but she didn’t complain. Change required pain, she thought, a temporary albeit necessary evil.

After her second hunt, cleaving her dominant sword down on the skull of a Bashura, she’d anticipated the soreness. It was there, lesser though. Icing them at the end of the day made it all worthwhile.

The third hunt was awkward. Flans are not meant for slicing and Cam took a beating, Gladio having to offer a shoulder as she hobbled their way back to his Jeep. The contact made her forget about the pain. It was a welcome reprieve.

It was only after countless hunts, when she’d stopped icing her wrists altogether as it wasn’t required, upgraded her swords to sharper ones, so many snapshots of the dead in her phone that she had to flick her finger to scroll past them all, did Gladio finally change up their almost daily routine. “We aren’t going hunting today.”

Cam laced up her new combat boots, the glint of metallic accents and shiny leather catching her eye. “Oh? What’s up?”

“I’m showing you how to duel.”

Her head shot up at him. “We are?”

“Yeah.” He worked a kink out of his neck and leaned against the Jeep. “Figure you’re used to those things enough to not take my arm off.”

“Wouldn’t want to mess up your tattoo.”

“Heh,” he chuckled dryily. “Paid decent gil for it, I’d rather keep it on my body.”

Right on que Steph slinked over like a jungle cat, skimming a milky hand across the muscled plains of his shoulders. “I’d rather be on your body, big guy.” she stopped in front of him and tilted his chin into a heavy kiss, her lips parted and devouring his mouth.

Another part of their daily routine was having to endure Steph’s petty attempts at getting a rise out of Cam, often succeeding but not to the point of Cam saying anything. She’d look off in another direction, fiddle with her fingerless gloves, tighten a strap on her chestpiece, anything to distract herself from the pang at her hip, stinging like barbed wire dragged across her skin.

After Steph had finished saying goodbye to Gladio, they headed out. The spot he chose was overlooking a massive gorge, the city of Lestallum on the other side. The residual light that spilled over the hub offered just enough to keep the daemons at bay while they sparred.

Cam stood before him, several paces away. “Now what?”

Gladio had his massive great sword drawn, casually rested over his shoulder. From hilt to tip the thing must have neared her size. Nervous tremors rolled off her in waves. His tone was casual.

“Attack me.”

Her eyes bulged. “No, I’d rather not be killed today.”

“Do you trust me?”

Cam hesitated. “Yes.”

“Attack me.” 

His eyes looked up at her with steadfast determination. Ready for her.

With nothing to lose she drew her swords, inhaled, exhaled and charged forward, weapons poised to come crashing on him. Her heart screamed at her and the fire at her side shot pain to her core. This action went against her nature, against the path the Astrals mapped for them.

In a blink Gladio’s sword swung up and over his head, landing between her blades with a harsh CLANK. Cam could tell he wasn’t using his full strength otherwise she would be toast. He jutted the blade sideways and in some gesture that broke physics laws, pulled the swords from her grasp with a twist of his wrists. They flew from her grip and landed on the asphalt, clattering.

Cam froze, still trying to comprehend what happened. Gladio sighed. “Think it would be that easy?”

“One can hope, right?”

As Cam gathered her weapons off the ground, Gladio offered pointers and tactics. “Focus on your opponent’s body language. The side they relax their weapon on. Where they’re looking, ‘cause they’re tryin’ to figure you out as well.” He rested his sword back on his shoulder and paced to the side. “Never let them in your head. They do that and they get you off guard, you’re done for.”

Flicking her wrists and letting a kink out of her neck, Cam considered his advice. She studied his movements, how he carried himself; upon first glance it was even and strong, but with extra attention to detail, Cam could detect the slightest window of opportunity. There was a hesitation in his composure, as if he were struggling to keep his breathing rhythm steady. His shoulders seemed to dip, chest emptied of air. Vulnerable.

Cam readied herself, the little nod that Gladio gave her que. This time she did not charge him, opting instead to play the slow and stealthy card. Cat and mouse at it’s finest. Her eyes never left his, demanding his full attention, watching his moves from her peripherals. She was patient, eager to strike but at the same time hungry for the overtake so she circled and so did he, a slow stalk of amber alertness.

Finally, there. Cam was agile, her wrists long since accustomed to balancing the blades she wielded as she leaped forward towards her prey, her centric force directed without straying course. Her blade clipped the edge of his sword and he faltered; it was unexpected, startled. Her other blade met the opposite side and he flinched, though kept a firm hold on his weapon. Cam reeled back and struck again, this time he was ready for her and their blades bounced against each other's, the loud clanking harsh on Cam’s ears, metal against metal and almost sparking on contact.

The exchange lasted longer than Cam anticipated, the transfer of energy against their steel back and forth getting her blood pumping, adrenaline tapped and mainlined, sweat beading along the now scarring wound on her face. Every chance she got to make eye contact, she did. Not only did it light a fire in her, but it got him off guard for the slightest second.

As the days went by their dueling interactions lasted longer, each one pushing her further and honing her reflexes. It engrained itself in her everyday occurences, her balance improving, attention to detail skyrocketing. Her body was adapting as well, the clothes she wore on her back when she first arrived at HQ becoming baggy around her frame, the spare tire she carried most of her adult life melding into taut flesh over toned muscle. She dreamt of it, matching his blows with mirrored tactic and finesse to counter the movement. Soon enough she craved the thrill of competition more than that of the hunt. Soon enough she almost leapt from her bunk everyday, excited to push her limits.

Soon enough, the pain of Nolan’s absence was pacified, the void filled with the fight. With Gladio.

Try as she did to deny herself, she was letting her soulmate marking get the better of her judgement. She had the color of his irises memorized, the duration of his breaths timed to the millisecond, the little grin he gave when she lasted longer than the previous fight, how invested he was in her, how much he strived to better her. It made her better. It made her want to be better.

Not once had she succeeded in disarming him, though. He’d rendered her weaponless multiple times, but she held her own as she improved, their exchanges and clanking of blades back and forth the soundtrack of Cam’s life.

On one especially rainy evening, as they sparred like they had every night before, something shifted in Cam. A momentous quake in her mind, her lifeblood and essence. Her arms windmilled with speed and fury of a seasoned fighter towards Gladio, rain pelting against her already soaked-through armor, wet curls of her loosening ponytail splayed against her shoulders and neck. She was beautiful death and fury absolute. A machine. Terrifying.

For a fleeting moment Gladio’s heart stammered, watching the construct of lethality, a creature of his own creation before him, land blow after blow to his weapon’s edge.  And then, he’d missed the chance to counter; Cam’s blades all but fused to his sword, a force he’d never imagined possible from the petite woman knocking it from his grasp, the great sword smacking against wet pavement.

Cam was starstruck. She hesitated, the rain cold refreshment on her screaming muscles, before she let out a body-rocking laugh. She’d finally succeeded in disarming her opponent, disarming GLADIO, the physically strongest person she’d ever met. She chuckled so hard her already exhausted lungs struggled to maintain airflow.

Barely a month ago she’d lost the love of her life, her home, her purpose, darkness of her own creation fogging her mind. But now, standing beneath the sheets of downpour, holding her weapons as an extension of her form and not  foreign objects, having bested her opponent before her, she was a complete one-eighty of her former life.

Powerful. Confident.

Lethal.

Gladio smiled, seeing her full of life and overjoyed. He’d never heard a genuine laugh from her before, and it’s dulcet sweetness softened his shell. He was proud of his protege, the girl who’d turned up one day after setting his heart aflame years before, stoking the flames and rekindling the fire. Her skin glistened in the rain, the light from nearby Lestallum making her skin sparkle.

He was near her without even noticing, his body acting on impulse, fueled by the alignment of stars predetermined before their birth. Cam was frozen in place, their torsos barely touching as Gladio placed a hand on her waist, tugging it forward as his head lowered, lips parted, rain-drenched and needing hers. Though darkness existed around them his eyes were a light at the end of the tunnel, promises of warmth and happiness and-

Suddenly Gladio’s phone went off, interrupting their shared musings. He exhaled, backed away from Cam and answered the phone call, his voice sandpaper. “Yeah?”

Cam knew who it was without asking. It was always the same, his red-haired siren beckoning his return, ensuring he didn’t spend more time with Cam than her. Promises that she was his world like reciting a script.

It was dismal to listen to, so Cam would throw her weapons in the back seat of the Jeep, get in the passenger seat and watch him through the windshield, a silent film of answering repetitive questions and tired assurances.

She rubbed the sun at her hip, the blaze renewed.

#gladiolus amicitia #chasing suns #chapter 8 #gladio x female OC #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv #ffxv soulmate AU #gladio soulmate AU #angst #hurt #combat