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genshin-no-simp · 3 years

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Diluc x Reader - Birthday Boy (Smut)

Pairing: Diluc x You/Reader (Female)

Sexual conent below the cut

Warnings: semi-public sex, tummy bulge? fluff ending.

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It took a weeks worth of preparation on your part to get everything in place, all for this one day. This one special day. But it was worth it.

After all, Diluc did deserve rest on his birthday.

You made sure there was nothing that needed doing, nothing that warranted Diluc to leave the comfort of the Manor. You were exhausted but you knew this was only a fraction of the work that Diluc did. It was your motivation to make sure everything was in order, of course with the help of Elzer and Adelinde.

And when the night before his birthday approached, you reassured him that he could take this chance to sleep in for once. Diluc wasn't against the idea but he wasn't sure if his body clock would allow him to sleep in. But little did he know, he was exhausted and only once he hit this pillows did he realize this.

When Diluc had finally woken, he groaned softly bringing his hand up as he ran his fingers through his unruly morning hair, that's when he noticed you weren't beside him. In an instant he shot out of bed, looking around. You never got out of bed before him. About to leave the bed himself his door opened and your figure came into view. You were still in your night dress. Diluc sighed in relief, then raised his eyebrow at the tray.

"What's this?" His voice low and husky since he had just woken up.

You weren't going to lie, his voice was enough to set a fire burning inside you. But today was about him. You smiled with a giggle.

"What does it look like? Breakfast of course. So sit back in bed." You came to his side of the bed.

From this close up Diluc could see properly just how little your night dress left to the imagination. Then he realized, you went to the kitchen like that, and he frowned, anyone could have seen you, which seemed to pissed him off.

"Don't worry I had the kitchen to myself, only Adelinde, Moco and Hillie are here at the moment." You knew what was running through his head. Diluc had a tendency to get overly possessive sometimes. But it's one of his faults that you fell in love with regardless.

Diluc looked away, half embarrassed and half ashamed that you knew without a doubt that he didn't want other people, especially men to see you like this. You gave another soft giggle setting the bed table down.

Diluc cleared his throat and looked at you, "what's the occasion?" He then lowered his gaze to the food and didn't know where to start, everything looked so enticing. He smiled at the eggs that you put a little extra effort in to make look like hearts.

You sat on the opposite side of him careful not to knock the glasses of grape juice over on the tray. You gave a little hum.

"Well what day is it?" You asked him instead. Diluc tilted his head, pulling the fork from his mouth. Once he was finished chewing he spoke.

"Friday." He stated matter of factly.

"Yes, but what date is it?" You cocked your head to the side, watching him. He totally forgot about his birthday didn't he? You thought to yourself.

"Um..." Diluc didn't know why but he felt pressured, as if you would give out to him, if he got this wrong.

Was it your birthday? No that's not till a few months.

Was it your anniversary? No that just passed.

At this point you were struggling to keep your laughter in.

"Luc, come on. It's your birthday." You rolled your eyes laughing.

Then it clicked, it suddenly made sense, from why you told him to sleep in, to breakfast in bed.

"That's it?" He asked, indifferently.

"What do you mean 'that's it's? You only get one birthday, and I'm going to make sure you get the most out of it." Diluc could hardly deny you, not with how passionate you were about it. But it's just another day, birthday or not.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but there's still work-"

"I do believe there is nothing for you to do today. Everything is already taken care of. It's you day." This time you were much more calmer as you smiled sweetly at him.

Now he definitely couldn't say no. He had a feeling you did a lot to get him this day of peace. Besides it's been so long since he's actually celebrated his birthday. Not that he cared to remember it considering what happened all those years ago...but maybe now is the time to move on from that, it's getting real tiring anyway.

Diluc smiled at you, yes from now on he will celebrate his birthday with you.

Diluc had to admit, it was nice, having all this free time AND getting to spend it with you. The two of you spent most your time outside, walking through the vineyard and occasionally eating a grape or two, at one point you started playing hide and seek. Instead of finding it childish, Diluc found it oddly refreshing. Just being able to let loose for once.

Currently he was hiding, making sure to keep his eye out for you and staying on the move, it was cheating of course but it added to the fun, but you were an expert at hide and seek and knew all the tricks in the book. Just as he turned around, you seemingly popped out of nowhere.

"Found yooou~" you giggled tackling him into a hug.

Caught of by both your sudden appearance and the hug he fell backwards onto the ground.

"Thought you could escape me huh?" You nuzzled into his neck.

Diluc chuckled holding you close to his body.

"I thought I would've had a better chance than that." He admitted.

You sat up on his chest, while he propped himself up his elbows. The light from the sun creeped through the cracks of the vineyards many grape pergolas. It wasn't the most private of places but nobody would notice the two of you unless they looked.

Cupping Diluc's cheek, you leaned down to kiss him, which without hesitation he accepted. It was a delicate kiss, both of you could feel the love and affection that you held for each other. It was truly something.

When you went to pull away from the kiss, Diluc pulled you back for more, shifting his weight onto his left arm, his right arm snaked around your waist his hand pressing agaisnt the middle of your back, giving you no chance to move. Diluc wasn't done with you just yet.

Gripping his shoulders you pushed him back down onto his back, Diluc gave a mental sigh finally able to take the pressure off his left arm. Now he had both his around wrapped around you securely. He made you feel so safe, you never wanted to leave his arms but lucky for you, he wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

It wasn't long before his hands started to wander, touching and caressing your body. Soft gasps and pants escaped from you, Diluc used every opportunity to dive into your mouth. The intensity of the kiss was making you lightheaded, but in a good way. Your body burned and your heart was racing. You could tell Diluc was the same, you could feel his heart pounding against his chest right under your hand, not only that but at how brazenly he lifted your pale mint dress up to touch your bare skin. It made you shudder, Diluc had opted to be gloveless today, it was certainly a change in pace compared to his usual leather. Being able to feel his skin on yours right away was making you feel impatient.

Finally allowed to pull away from the kiss, a string of saliva followed. Diluc gazed at you with hooded eyes, his normally bright ruby eyes, dark and heavy with lust. You licked your lips, sitting up on him once again. One of the straps on your dress slipped down your shoulder. Diluc held back his growl and his urge to flip you over. You weren't even trying to seduce him and he was already under your spell.

Gripping your thighs he pushed you lower down until your clothed womanhood rubbed against the bulge in his pants. You failed to catch the moan before it fell from your lips. Diluc smirked, knowing you were just as excited as he was right now.

Diluc was planning on teasing you some more before you had decided to take back some control. Abruptly you grinded yourself against him, biting your lip. It was Diluc's turn to let out a surprised moan as his hips bucked up into yours.

"Ah~ Diluc." You fumbled for his belt buckle. If Diluc wasn't as impatient he would've chuckled and teased you. Maybe it was the sun, maybe it was the free time or maybe it was just you. But he wasn't complaining. Diluc hissed in relief, feeling his member finally free of its painful confinement.

You were going to lower yourself further but he grabbed your arm pulling you into a kiss.

"No time for that." He breathed heavily between kisses. Of course there was time he just wasn't interested in that right now, he just wanted you, in which case he used his Vision to burn the sides of your underwear and discard the rest.

Now with your underwear out the way, Diluc could feel how wet you really were. It was cute how excited you had gotten without any foreplay, perhaps the fact that you were technically out in the open played a part but regardless, he was happy that it was him who made you feel like this.

You moaned against the kiss feeling the tip of his member push against your awaiting hole. Breaking away from the kiss you pushed down against him, taking him all in at once.

"Fuck!" It was so strange hearing Diluc swear but it filled you with a strange sense of pride knowing you were able to break his nobility.

The stretch of taking him all at once burned but it felt good. It was certainly much greater compared to when he would prepare you first. But you weren't complaining at all. Tilting your head back with a moan you began to bounce up and down, your slick made it easy to slide up and down. You gripped the front of Diluc's shirt for support as he snapped his hips up into yours. A series of wanton moans escaped your lips, the harder and faster Diluc went.

Your head fell forward your eyes glossy and your pupils blown wide with pleasure. Now both your dress straps had slid down your shoulders, making Diluc lose his mind. He gripped your hips so tight, there wasn't a doubt that there would be fingerprints even through the dress. You choked on your moans as you swore you could feel Diluc in your stomach. He was reaching places you never thought possible, or your were so drunk on pleasure it just felt that way, but it didn't matter what was the truth, it was fantastic.

"Ngh, haA~ mm close..." you struggled to get the words out.

Diluc grunted thrusting upwards even faster, you had struggled to keep up before but now it was just impossible. It wasn't long before you came all over him. Diluc wasn't too far behind, feeling your release edged him into his, you felt his hot seed fill you up more than your already were, you threw your head back with a shameless moan of his name. You were certain everyone around and in the Manor had heard you. But Diluc didn't care, let them know who was and had made you feel good.

You panted heavily as your body shook from the after math of your orgasm. Diluc too was desperately gasping for air as he came down from his high. Letting a soft puff of air, you looked down at Diluc and grinned leaning in to kiss him. He chuckled kissing you back.

Getting off Diluc he fixed his pants as you picked up what was left of your underwear.

"Luc." You pouted, "you ruined my panties." You huffed and rubbed your legs together, you could feel some of his cum dripped down your thigh.

"My love, they were ruined before I even touched them." He winked with a cocky smirk.

Your face flushed a deep crimson as you looked away from him, Diluc smiled wrapping his arm around your waist tenderly.

"Come on, let's go take a bath." He smiled gently, ushering you back towards the Manor. You snuggled into his side contently.

During the short trip back inside, not one of the employees dared to look in your direction. Instead of it making you feel better you felt embarrassed. You weren't surprised that they heard you but they didn't have to make it so obvious.

"Luc, nobody would look at me." You sounded more mortified than you intended as you pulled your dress off, which only added to Diluc's amusement.

"Good, they shouldn't be looking at you in the first place." He stated stripping himself of his own clothes.

Upon returning to Diluc's private quarters, you were both pleasantly surprised by the already drawn bath, with scattered rose petals and scented candles. It seems Adelinde knew exactly what the two of you needed. You were the first to settle into the bath despite Diluc's confusion, usually he got in first so you could rest against him, it felt weird that he was resting against you.

"Are you sure I'm not too heavy against you?" It was the fourth time he asked now.

"Oh for Celestia's sake Luc, I'm not made out of glass, I'm fine. But you won't be if you keep asking." At least you gave him a warning which he took to heart, despite not having a Vision yourself, you were very capable of looking after yourself.

"Alright, alright." Diluc sunk a little lower into the tub, his head now resting between your boobs.

"Oh." He said softly, he hadn't expected this to be so comfortable. You giggled softly.

"Someone looks content." There was a lot of fondness in your voice that made Diluc's chest flutter. He let out a soft hum and closed his eyes when he felt your fingers massage some herbal shampoo into his scalp.

Diluc couldn't help but think about how lucky he was to have someone like you. Someone so caring and aware of his needs. He didn't expect to meet someone like you, or anyone in general for that matter. He thought he was going to be alone, forever, and he was okay with that. Until he had met you, he didn't at the time realize just how important you would be to him, but he knows now and he's incredibly grateful towards you and towards himself, for letting him step out of his comfort zone and let someone in again.

Before he knew it, Diluc had fallen asleep, between the soothing heat of the water, your massaging and the sweet sound of your voice, they had all lulled him into sleep.

"Luc? You listening?" You asked softly, "Luuuc~" you cooed. Perplexed with his quietness, you tilted your head to the side to peer into his face, where you noticed he had fallen asleep. You grinned with a giggle.

You were so preoccupied with talking, you didn't notice the change in his breathing, as it steadied out. But now you didn't know what to do. You knew you couldn't stay in the bath but you didn't want to wake him either. But you also knew the water wouldn't go cold anytime soon thanks to Diluc, placing a kiss to his damp hair, you decided to let him sleep for a little while longer. After all he deserved it.

#genshin impact #genshin impact smut #genshin x reader #diluc ragnvindr #diluc x reader #x reader #diluc x you #smut #diluc

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v3nusaphr0d1t3 · 3 years

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i’m in love with a stripper

crossposted on ao3: <3 rating: mature warnings: strip club environment, suggestive themes (no actual smut tho) gender neutral stripper!reader x hawks. afab implied but can be read either way.

your job was to look good, feel bad, and entertain. in the most literal sense.

life as an ‘exotic dancer’ wasn’t nearly as glamorous as movies and shit made it out to be. your body ached constantly, you had nearly fought about 4 people in the past two weeks, and you came home in the morning smelling like alcohol and sweat and some random cologne. the pay wasn’t amazing on its own, so you had to rut yourself against old men to pay your rent.

and yet, it was addicting in a way you couldn’t exactly explain. you had wanted to work in the entertainment industry since you were little, a star up on the big screen. this was sort-of similar. you had eyes on you at all times, and it was your job to put on a great show. but instead of red-carpets it was party favors and gross back-room carpeting.

it was good workout, and you knew you looked good enough to taste, so that was always a plus. tonight, you were all dolled up, one of your more femme looks. your shorts were riding low on your hips, yet still stopped so high on your legs that it could be considered more of a belt than a pair of shorts. your thong straps framed your hips, bright red in comparison to the blue jean shorts. you had a red bikini top on, and a crop top that was yet again just another shred of fabric framing it. your shoes were red and tall enough to make you feel like you were on top of the world.

you had gotten used to the sashay and drama of all the bullshit presentation, perfected your sultry stare, and polished your pole skills. yes, you could use work. but so could everyone, it was an art that you were still constantly trying to learn more about.

so as you walked your way out on stage on a busy friday night, you could tell that tonight would be a good tip night. first off, there was MUCH more security than normal, which meant that someone important was probably in attendance for some kind of ‘special night’. they got bachelor parties and birthday parties all the time, but usually they weren’t this… guarded?

it was strange, but you instead focused on feelings the rhythm in your bones as you strutted your way up to the pole, starting to go into one of your choreographed routines that you knew like the back of your hand. though you supposed you could throw in some more risky moves, for whoever was currently paying for your console gaming subscription. being in the air was always exhilarating, but you were always worried about flashing too much. you knew that it would happen eventually, but you would still prefer for it not to.

you spun too fast on your way down and got that wobbling feeling in your stomach as your heels hit the stage a bit too hard to be ‘graceful’. oh well, you thought as you moved to the more floor-based part of your routine. you brought your hands up, running them over your body and pulling at your crop top, pulling it off and throwing it further back on the stage to be retrieved when you were done with your set.

you made it slow, teasing, swaying your hips to the beat of the song and running your hands back down, under the strings of your thong to snap them against your hips. it was effective, but it was hard not to wince in annoyance. you were too salty to do this shit. it was a lucky thing that you were so good at acting. you slid further onto your knees, back arched as you looked some random guy that was halfway decent and crawled forward. that was something that always racked in tips. it made folks feel engaged with the whole experience. the guy held up a 20 and you stuck it under your thong strap, moving to collect more of the money that had been thrown at you.

you were honest with yourself when you said you loved the attention that this job brought. there were many people out in the crowd that wanted you, that sat in their chair or stood amongst the sweaty crowd with a white-knucked grip and lust in their eyes, and you ate it up. you loved being wanted, it was one of the worlds wonders.

eventually, you finished your set, hair tousled from flipping it, back of your knees and your hands sore from gripping the pole, but ultimately you felt invigorated. energized. like someone had wound you up like a toy. and now you had to pounce on someone in hopes of attention and the money you needed to buy that new game you had been saving up for. comical.

you could tell a bunch of the dancers were anticipating the party that was in tonight. it was obvious they were important, and important people had money. so the dancers that weren’t on the stage currently were prowling around the VIP area, looking to advertise themselves.

you decided to do the charity work and tend to the rest of the forgotten crowd. you knew from experience that eventually the richer guests would get tired of giving their money away and eventually leave. and the rest of the crowd was just sitting there, so you slipped your way in to the seats that were closer to the stage (shitty stripper etiquette, but some of thesen dancers were fuckin’ shady sometimes) and found some dude who looked wimpy enough to play the whole deity act with.

you walked your way around the chair, placing your hands on his shoulders and beginning to rub them, your hand making it’s way down his chest as you whispered a greeting in his ear. you used your other hand to run through his hair, plucking the bill in his hand out of his hand and into your g string on your hip with the rest of them. you moved back around the chair and plopped down on his lap, feigning interest and asking him about his day, making him feel special with the whole shebang. you eventually were able to make quiet some money from that guy, surprisingly. and you left him alone and unsatisfied when the lights dimmed between sets.

now, to find someone else out of sight of the first guy. you were on your way to do that when something caught your eye. a glimmer of gold, no- not metal, someones eyes. you were momentarily mesmerized before you realized that the person attached to those honey irises was staring at you. at you. from the VIP booth. while you were in the middle of the crowd. you were never flustered, so it was new when you felt a heat in your cheeks.

you quickly put your act back on, throwing him a wink. he made a ‘come here’ motion with his finger, but you gave him a playful grin and a little teasing wave of dismissal. you had no idea what came over you to do that, but you decided to stick with this little ‘hard-to-get’ persona, and you disappeared into the crowd.

not 10 minutes later you were grinding on some guy through your shorts, just to work that 50 out of his hand. he was one of the assholes that would promise and never give. it was hypocritical for you to think that way, you supposed, but it was your job. either way, you got it from him by nosing up his neck (too much cologne) and giggling in his ear. and he put the bill in your g-string himself. gross.

you slid away from him between sets like you always did, and once again felt the heat of eyes on you. this was different, however. it wasn’t like the usual eyes on you, the gazes you had grown to crave and expect. this was predatory. you were being watched like a hawk. you spun around to find him staring at you again, this time split off from his little friends and instead sitting in a chair further back from the stage. he gave you a certain look and raised his hand, waving a bill in his hand. like bait! that was hotter than it should have been.

still, decided to make your way over to him, stopping in front of his chair, towering over him in your platform heels as he sat in the chair. he didn’t seem too physically imposing, but his energy was cockier than shit and you could tell he was bulked up. you usually didn’t fuck with these types, but something about him was just magnetic. it was insane. he leaned back in his chair, obviously insinuating that he wanted the same treatment as the others. you instead took a singular finger and raised his chin up to meet his eyes as they ran you up and down.

and that was when you realized, under the dim lights, that you were a complete and total idiot. you hadn’t even realize that the man in front of you was hawks, number two pro hero and the man too fast for his own good. you tried not to make a face, but you knew he could most definitely see in your eyes the minute you put the puzzle pieces together. what the fuck was he doing in a place like this?

“what the fuck is someone like you doing in a place like this?” you asked, coming out of your mouth before you could really stop yourself. he only chuckled, grinning as you felt his jaw tense against your finger. the main reason you didn’t recognize him is because there was a lack of giant red wings.

“what anyone else is tryin’ to do. have a good time! it’s my friends birthday, i have a life outside work, you know?” his voice was barely heard over the pounding of the music and the bass rattling under your feet.

“what about your reputation? i’m surprised there isn’t a line to gag on your dick at this point,” you held no filter in speaking to him. you never had it with anyone else, really, and what was so special about him? he was just another dude in the club, so you did what you always did and slid into his lap, pressing your bodies together in all the ways you knew did the best. you watched something flash in his eyes as he bit his lip for a moment. he looked back up to meet your eyes again.

“well, how long did it take you to recognize me? and you’re sober, aren’t you?” hawks brought a sculpted arm up to wrap around your waist, and you slapped it away as you worked your hips against his to the beat.

“no comment. and no touching, unless you want to pay for that too.”

“i might just have to. what’s your name, gorgeous?” his face was too smug for a man who could buy the building, yet completely in the the eye of the public had a semi hard-on for a stranger in some daisy dukes.

“i don’t know, what’s yours?” you asked, raising your eyebrow. you didn’t know his real name, no one did. it was a mystery highly speculated about online, not that you checked or anything.

“fair enough, fair enough. pick one before i blow a couple hundred on getting free roam to touch you.” he said, rolling his hips up to meet yours. this shocked you, catching your breath, and you knew he had noticed by the shit-eating grin he wore.

you gave him your stripper name. it was sufficient enough to add another layer of mystery, because even though you were in his lap, you wanted to keep up this game of cat and mouse. predator and prey.

the thought of that made you tingle. you told him your rates, and he forked it over quite a fuckin’ bit. you stood up from where you were sat in his lap (thought the loss was more upsetting than you would care to admit). you took his wrist (his hand was big) and started to drag him back to one of the more secluded areas.

you had to pass the VIP area to do that, and when you did, you heard a shout. it scared the shit out of you for starters, but hawks seemed to recognize the voice. it was coming from a woman with white hair and rabbit ears, currently cheering hawks on.

“fuckin’ get some, dude!” she said, and her voice was strangely familiar as hawks flashed an award-winning grin and a thumbs up. you winked at her and pulled hawks on with you.

you pulled him into a pseudo-room in the back. not cut off by doors, but isolated and split off by room dividers. you pushed him back onto one of the booth-like seats lining the wall.

the music was quieter back here, and it was easier to hear yourself think. the lights were dim and the bass was still thumping through the floor. there was no one back here, just you and him.

“ ‘kay, so i’m technically not supposed to let you touch me, but you just paid for my groceries and they don’t really check the cameras here. also, you’re cute.” you rambled off, more genuine and clearer now that the music wasn’t so intense in the middle of the madness. and then, catching the beat, you started your ministrations, rolling your hips against his and hearing his breath catch as you wrapped your arms around his shoulders.

“so i’ve been told,” he says with a shit-eating grin.

“don’t let it go to your head, princess.” you said, and he didn’t reply, too focused on oogling you.

his hands came up to hold your waist, and he put his effort into moving along with you, and his grinding did not go unnoticed. or unappreciated, for that matter. with his hips at your waist, he raked his thumbs under your thong straps and snaps them against your hips like you had earlier. it earns a breathy chuckle from you as you watched his pupils pin. you pulled back, standing and watching his face sour as his hands were pulled from your waist. but you decided to give him a little show, just ‘cuz you had a case of the hots for him and the way he was looking at you was much appreciated.

you now stood in front of him, towering above him as you toyed with the waistband of your daisy dukes. he simply bit his lip, practically eye-fucking you. it was exhilarating. you enjoyed the lustful gazes from customers, but this was on a different level. you felt truly alive, and yet like you were melting all the same. your insides felt gooey but you kept your perfected expression hard, movements practiced, sex appeal seasoned to flawlessness. and now you unbuttoned your shorts, pulling them down to reveal your bright red thong, hips, legs and torso all one long line. he looked at you like dinner and you were fucking living for it.

you kneeled inbetween his legs, laying your head on one of his thighs in the way you knew drove people crazy.

you heard a small “god damn,” exit his mouth as he looked at you, entranced as you caught his t-shirt on your way up his body with your teeth, pulling it up and dropping it back down, promptly standing up to slide backwards into his lap. you roll your ass where you know it’s appreciated and hear his breathing speed up behind you. you can practically hear his heart pounding to match your own, like a drum to the beat. your body laid down the bass, your eyes were the melody and he was drowning.

and when it was all over, poor guy walked out of the club with his fellow semi-disguised pro-heros with a raging hard on.

and later on, when you were pulling all your money out to count it, you caught a piece of paper rolled up along a $100 bill. it was his number. a pro-hero gave you his number. that was risky, especially in the type of place they were in.

you liked the risk he took. you put his number in your phone.

#hawks #bnha hawks #bnha x reader #bnha x gn reader #hawks x reader #hawks x gn reader #takami keigo #keigo x reader #keigo x gn reader

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years

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PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 8

Releasing two chapters today in honour of my birthday! I am officially 23 years old. Oh my God, what the fuck? I feel ancient.

Rating: Explicit.

‼️TW: Reader is EIGHTEEN! Recreational drug use, smoking and alcohol consumption, deeply internalised self-loathing, very questionable moral standards. Daddy kink taken half-seriously. BDSM themes in later chapters - explicit content will come with it's own TWs. FIRST PERSON POV.

Summary: You're Peter's classmate, a child of rich and famous but uncaring parents. Getting paired up for a lengthy project with the boy was an interesting turn of events and you don't know whether to feel blessed or cursed when you develop, seemingly, a perfectly normal, harmless crush on Tony Stark. Fueled by feelings of inadequacy and boredom, your life spirals out of control - and you're lucky your newfound friends are there to pick up the pieces even if you cannot find it in yourself to believe these amazing human (and not so human) beings voluntarily give you more than a fleeting glance and an offhanded thought. And they brought cake!

A/N: I started writing this for porn and now? Look at all this plot. Disgusting! Featuring: the Hulk, more Bruce fluff, and DISASTER PARENTS. It's gonna get worse before it gets better y'all.

My beta, @miscmarvelwritings is the Peter to my Tony. Love you 3000, baby.

The beeping startled me awake, the haze of my recent memory made me very unsettled. Last thing I remembered was laying down on the couch and Peter's admission - the little! Guy! Was! Spider-Man! Holy! Shit!

Beeping intensified and I heard grumbling and shuffling coming from the side of me. A warm sensation engulfed my right hand and I smiled. I'd recognize that hand anywhere. Bruce was in the room with me so I was definitely in a safe place.

Me eyelids parted meeting a set of oddly fluorescent green eyes. Holy fuck, that was no Bruce, it was... But how? His form was slouched in an uncomfortable position over the bed, crease marks on his face. It was Bruce's body, Bruce's face but who held control over it - he was no Bruce Banner.

"No worry, Princess is safe," The voice that left his mouth was much more primal, with an unmistakable growl underneath. He watched me, alert, scanning my face with unblinking eyes. "Bruce asleep now. I keep watch."

I swallowed the unease. "Hi, Hulk, and thank you," Squeezing his hand very, very gently. "Nice to meet you, by the way."

He grinned, all teeth and sharp canines. He looked like a wolf. The look was so out of place on usually gentle Bruce's face that I had to study it, had to memorize that stark difference between Banner and his alter ego. The smile faltered slightly as he closed his eyes. "Bruce waking up now. See you soon." And with that, his head fell onto his arm, dead weight and limp.

His hair was tousled, a curly mess, and he wore the same shirt I remembered him in. Upon closer inspection it still bore minor stains of what I assumed was my blood. It was probably the only time I would get to look at him, really look at Bruce without the fear of being caught, being weird or getting misinterpreted. He was really handsome, the five o'clock shadow silver on his usually neatly shaved chin, his jawline was firm and... He really was beautiful.

His eyes slowly blinked open, the usual colour brown. Noticing me awake, Bruce immediately perked up. "Morning. How do you feel?" He asked, voice croaky and sleep-drunk.

It sent shivers down my spine. "I'm good, nothing feels amiss besides the left part of my face. That's kind of puffy," I admitted, failing to describe the full-and-pulling sensation I was currently experiencing. "I met the Hulk. He was nice." I added as an afterthought. Thought he should know.

Bruce frowned. "He does that sometimes. Sorry."

"No, it's okay. I think, I think I'd like to meet him properly one day," I admitted my biggest curiosity. After all, I've already met real aliens.

Bruce seemed speechless for a moment. "Are you sure?" He stuttered. "He's...a bit much," He parroted my previous comment about my house, much to my amusement. "You sure it's not the concussion talking?" Banner squinted at the monitor at my bedside, avoiding my eyes.

"I'm very sure," I squeezed the hand I was still holding in quiet affirmation. "Besides, he promised to see me soon."

"Oh did he," Bruce muttered darkly but I could see his face brighten nonetheless. "Right, so I'm going to call in Strange and we can see about unhooking you from all these things," Bruce gestured to the various wires and monitors.

True to his word, Strange waltzed in no more than ten minutes after Bruce called him. Seeing me, the usually stoic man began snickering, unsuccessfully attempting to hide his amusement by swirling his cape in an unnecessarily dramatic fashion. I was not impressed, Bruce was not impressed and neither was Tony who walked in shortly after all the wires were removed from my persona.

"So... Is someone going to tell me why is Dumbledore so joyful this fine morning?" I crossed my arms under my boobs.

"You don't remember?" Tony snorted at my negative head shake. "Before you passed out, you demanded cake and said Wizard here looks like Benedict Cumberbatch. To be fair, I see the resemblance, but you...." Tony paused to snicker multiple times. "You managed to butcher up the guy's name multiple times, I swear to Thor, what came out of your mouth was..." The engineer laughed, making a broad and vague gesture with his hands. "What did she say? Bubble-butt Orgy-pants?" He asked Bruce who was as unsuccessful at hiding his laughter as Strange himself. Even the wizard's cape was bouncing.

I wheezed, suddenly coming to a realization. It wasn't a concussion induced lucid dream, I had actually said that. "It's really bold of you to assume I can pronounce and remember his name while I'm sober," I said. "I just call him British-guy Funny-name." Tony cackled at that, giving me a hearty thumbs up and ungracefully plopping down at the foot of my hospital bed.

"How do you feel, Buttercup?" He was looking earnestly at me now, his sparkling brown eyes big and round and worried.

I had to distract myself to keep from literally face-planting into his lap then and there. "Good, actually." Tony nodded happily, and I raised my finger. "But for the record, Doctor Strange..." I addressed the man who turned to me expectantly. "Please don't get pissed off, I have a request..." He nodded warily. "Don't shave? I mean, now that I can clearly see the resemblance between him and you... Please don't shave off the beard or you'll look like an angry aardvark."

The men in the room gaped, most of all, Stephen - his face was somewhere between resigned suffering and surprised disbelief.

"Angry... Aardvark..." Tony fuckin' WHEEZED. "Fuck a duck..." The engineer clutched at his stomach in an obnoxious fit of laughter, Bruce was snorting too. "The fuck is an aardvark?" The lone word seemed to have a magical effect on Tony, increasing his laughter with every time he repeated it out loud.

"Duly noted," Stephen nodded with as much seriousness as he could before cracking a reluctant smile. "I see that the healing technology Tony developed has worked well, if judging only by your sense of humour returning. Good," With that, he waved his hands about and the puffy feeling from my face disappeared. "I took some liberties and added a healing spell with Loki's help." Seeing my raised eyebrow, he elaborated. "Loki was deeply touched by your kind gesture towards his teammate and offered his help. You should be good to resume your daily activities by nightfall although I recommend you take it easy. And call your mother, she stopped by and instructed me to request you communicate at the first comfortable opportunity."

The mild pity and disdain on Strange's face told me that he was the one who had actually spoken with her. She must've been especially icy and bitter considering I had interrupted her daily routine with getting punched in the face. How inconvenient.

With that, Stephen left me with a parting pat on the shoulder, taking Tony with him - the engineer managed to squeeze a whole hug out of me before being bodily (magically?) dragged behind Strange. I was really uncomfortable with all the attention I was receiving wearing only a thin hospital gown and I told Bruce exactly that - promptly, Natasha arrived with a bag I recognised as my own, an ostrich Birkin that held a cute, soft cashmere loungewear set, some basic toiletries along with a set of underwear and a pair of slippers.

Evidently, my mother packed this bag. Never in a thousand years I would wear a $1200 worth of leisure clothing at a hospital. Even Natasha whistled when I first examined the bag's contents.

"Yeah, yeah, my mother's a bit much," I said, immediately cringing at how obnoxious that sounded.

"No shit," Natasha rolled her eyes. Something told me she'd met her too.

"Wait 'til you see my dad," I replied in an identical tone, disappearing behind the door to the bathroom. It was all very luxurious, extra and overall very Stark. Friday's voice coming from the ceiling made it known that I was still in the tower, the AI informed me of the date, time, weather and the further instructions to follow Natasha after I was done freshening up.

Showers had never felt so good.

I was greeted by muted cheers and a hefty brunch on the common floor. Lots of hugs, too, even Loki paused his brooding to give me an awkward, albeit very genuine embrace. I whispered a thanks for the spell which made the moody god considerably less moody - in fact, he smiled like a child on Christmas Eve. Suddenly, I felt much less out of place with my disaster self.

The pleasant part was done and I geared up to call my own personal curse.

"Hello, mother, it's kind of you to pick up," I started the usual. I could literally feel the confusion and concern of the people in the room piercing my back. "Sorry for interrupting your meeting. Yes, I am quite well now. No, Josh can keep running your errands, I will stay at Mr. Stark's for the time being. Tomorrow morning, probably, don't wait up. I will, absolutely. Oh, is he? Wow, that's amazing. I'm so happy," I chirped. My face was one of the suffering kind. "Yes, dinner on Friday night. Okay-I mean, yes, I will ask. He's actually right next to me." I paused to turn around and look at Tony, mouthing 'she wants me to invite you for dinner'.

Tony's speed was breaking the laws of physics as he snatched the phone right out of my hand. "Hello, this is Tony Stark speaking. You know, maybe you should come over to Stark tower. Yes, the whole family. Thanks, bye." He promptly pressed the end call button right as mother had started her goodbye-have a nice day-live long and prosper speech. "How the fuck do you put up with that woman?" He started at me with a mix of concerned incredulousity.

"She's an acquired taste," I groaned. "You just wait. My dad. I..." I literally had no words to describe the upcoming disaster. Tony had no idea what he just had condemned all of the tower's inhabitants to. "Why am I like this? Why are they like this?" I raised my head up to the ceiling as if the AI living in it could give me all the solutions to my life's problems.

"Get some rest, Princess," Bruce was kind enough to spare me any more misery as his warm, broad hand steered me towards the elevator by the small of my back.

As he dutifully fluffed my pillows and handed me a glass of water and my smartphone, I unashamedly basked in the soft attention I was receiving from the older man. I still felt somewhat groggy; best case, I'll fall right asleep and if the dreamland avoids me, I would browse tik tok and Instagram until something else would strike my fancy. The gentle murmur of him describing the latest lab incident I missed out on and the hands combing softly through my hair were the best sleep aides I could have ever asked for.

Bruce is too precious for this world. Too pure.

Friday rolled in with the force of a pissed off rhinoceros. Dad had flown in on a Thursday afternoon, stopping by the house to drop off his suitcase and happily dangle the keys of a brand new Chevrolet Corvette in front of my face before briefly stopping to ruffle my hair, kiss mother on the cheek and drive off into the sunset to "catch up with people at the studio". Jetlag wasn't a word in that man's vocabulary, he probably snorted a line or three as soon as he stepped out of the airport.

I could carry my groceries in the bags under his eyes. He just waved off any of my attempts to get him some rest only showing mild interest when I spoke about my friendship with Tony Stark, absolutely disregarding the rest of the team sans Captain America and the billionaire himself.

I might as well have been in front of a trainwreck, watching it happen second by second. The moment all three of us stepped out of the elevator onto the tidied up common floor, I had the sudden realization of exactly how much we weren't a family.

We were the exact opposite of that.

My mother, tall and slim and perfectly posed in a sleek blue dress with diamonds glittering around her chin, neck and fingers, her obnoxious greed proudly on display. My father, in his early fifties, well-groomed and fit, in his tight designer pants and a plain white t-shirt under a stylish tweed blazer. He looked ridiculous. Only Tony could pull off something like that (I shuddered. Sigmund Freud sends his regards!). And me, little old me, in my $900 jeans, $1500 Gucci sneakers and a mesh crop top I got at Hot Topic. At least, amidst this mess, my eyeliner game was on point.

I smiled sardonically at Steve who came to greet us. He looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Captain Rogers," My father greeted him with his Hollywood smile.

"Steve," An equally fake and toothy grin came from the superhero as he gallantly greeted my mother and swept me into an unnecessarily tight hug.

Point one, my father smirked. Somewhere in the corner, Wanda made a gagging noise - quietly, of course, I only knew about it because she did her telepathic mumbo-jumbo to make me aware of her stance on this particular matter.

Point two, my mother loudly announced she was vegetarian while simultaneously praising the catering services that Tony used. Clint had enlisted Bucky and Thor to help him cook and now all three were smiling awkwardly as mother spoke about the "incredibly talented immigrant workers".

Point three, dad made it his JOB to brag about my skills and achievements as if he was the one encouraging me to pursue them. It was fair, I suppose, since he paid for it but alas, it sounded a lot less like he was a proud father and more of a "look at what my puppy can do". I had to tip my proverbial hat to Tony and Bruce there, they both began to describe our lab work in such unnecessary detail, using so many long words, even Loki began quietly chipping in with totally random, long, difficult words. Confusion was beginning to seep through the eternally cheerful facade that my dad wore.

Or maybe it was the coke and Adderall wearing off. Who knew.

"Peter?" Came the dreaded question from my mother. I shook my head in quiet despair as Peter visibly cringed at my mother's voice.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"That vile boy has been taken care of," I could absolutely see Natasha saying the same thing and the only difference laid in the fact that I knew my mother wouldn't actually kill a person. She would hire someone to do it for her. "It's really unfortunate my daughter got in the middle of that sort of situation."

Wow. My mother just called Peter a coward. Wow. Tony briefly went cross-eyed with anger.

"Baby, why you bein' so quiet?" Dad, the mitigator that he was, intervened before a real shit storm could start. Which meant, as usual, putting me on the spotlight. It was me between a rock and a hard place: nothing, and I repeat - nothing I ever did or have done was good enough for both of my parents at the same time.

"I'm fine, dad, just chillin'," I replied, pushing my food around on my plate. He hated it when I ate too much, which was really anything more than two glasses of water and a salad. Being around models on a strict avocado and coke diet really skewed his sense of normal.

"Nah, baby, you're brooding," His teasing tone could've fooled anybody. Just messing around with a teenager. "Come with me tonight, there's a party, Billie Eilish is going to be singing. Not my style but you like that weird goth shit, might cheer you up a lil'," Dad joked and everybody around the table smiled happily at last. Everyone except Tony that was - his press-tour smile was still glued to his face. I hated it. It was unnatural.

"No, dad, you go have your old people fun," I rolled my eyes.

"Jesus Christ," I heard mother mutter on my other side but she kept quiet beyond that.

"C'mon, don't be a spoilsport," Dad insisted.

"Actually, we have a project planned up in the lab..." Tony trailed off, attracting confused looks from his teammates and friends. Pete looked at me in pure envy.

"Alright, alright, dad, I'll go with you, jeez," I mumbled, flushing from the sheer amount of embarrassment flowing through me. Partying with your own father, how sad and pitiful is that?

"I'm very upset at you ditching me," Tony poked a fork in my direction but didn't press the matter further. I avoided the looks of my friend's friends. I avoided the hell out of Bruce who kept making his perfect, round puppy eyes and radiating so much kindness and support I nearly choked on my intermittent sips of water.

"Alright, we will be waiting downstairs with Josh, say your goodbyes," Mother announced as she subtly towed my father towards the elevator. He'd had a whiskey too much and felt particularly chatty much to Tony's displeasure. "Thank you again for your hospitality."

As soon as the doors closed behind my parents, the group of superheroes erupted into a confused debate. I saw Tony blankly staring at the ceiling. Bucky cursing. Thor overly calmly talking with Loki.

Beyond caring about anything, my face flamed as I made a beeline for my dad's latest, untouched glass of whiskey (single malt, neat, double) and downed it in one go. The conversation stopped promptly, people eyeing me with visible concern. Steve was outraged.

"No," I announced, stopping any and all questions, slamming the glass on the table and departing towards the elevator that had made its way back upstairs. "Just no." Were my parting words as the doors closed once again on a startled and disgruntled group of superheroes.

Please check your blog settings before requesting to be added to the taglist. I can't tag some of y'all.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem @as-i-layhereinyourbed @sleep-i-ness @gigglyfox01

#party favours #bun writes #stephen strange x you #stephen strange x reader #Stephen Strange x y/n #tony stark x y/n #tony stark x reader #tony stark x you #bruce banner x y/n #bruce banner x reader #bruce banner x you #LMFAO BEING A DISASTER RUNS IN THE FAMILY

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a-wolf-and-his-boy · 4 years

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End of March: Sterek Fanfic Recs’

Hello all! With everything currently happening in the world, I will be adding a lot more fanfic recommendations than previously because I, and mostly everyone, is on lockdown. I hope you all enjoy and stay safe, we all need some Sterek to kill the boredom and get us through the day and, most importantly, inside. x

you know you’re on my mind by bibliosexual [9/9 - 16,371 - Teen+]

If there’s one thing Derek’s learned in life, it’s that crushing on someone who lives on an entire other fucking continent is probably a bad idea.

Shattered into Ash by Dexterous_Sinistrous [3/3 - 24,008 - Explicit]

Peter sneered, “Let him get the better of you. It’s foolish of me to think you could rule as a King.”

Derek turned a glare on his uncle.

“Tell me, will the Dread Wolf of Triskelia bow down to a boy”

Part 2 of The Dread Wolf

monday i can fall apart but by friday i’m in love by tryslora [1/1. 5,609 - Mature]

It's just past five in the morning and Stiles is barely awake, wearing only sleep pants that hang low below his pregnant belly, and he can't get the damned brand new jar of decaf coffee open. But he has a neighbor, and he's too tired to think that waking someone else up at this hour might not be the best (or politest) of ideas.

The Second Coming (of Werewolf Jesus) by lupinus, uraneia [3/3 - 40,104 - Explicit]

Stiles was enjoying his senior year until his crazy English teacher decided he made the best candidate to gestate Derek's kid. Now Stiles is a seventeen-year-old pregnant dude and he and Derek have to figure their shit out, because in nine months they are going to be tied together for the rest of their lives.

Foolish devouring things, build your castle in me by LunaCanisLupus_22 [1/1 - 23,181 - Explicit]

“I will marry you,” he declares. “But should any more harm come to my father or my people, I will raze the earth itself until I feel the lifeblood drain from your corpse and paint my skin with it.”

It is not an idle warning, but from the princeling it has none of the desired effect. Derek feels no fear, but in this instance at least diplomacy triumphed over the spilling of more blood. It is all the same to him anyway. But Regent Peter was most insistent they avoid a drawn-out, gruelling war.

“Then we have reached an accord.”

Or the barbarian sterek war AU that nobody asked for.

A Convenient Marriage by Dexterous_Sinistrous [10/10 - 53,164 - Explicit]

Stiles took a deep breath, his gaze dropping from Derek’s as he turned to look back in the vanity's mirror. He looked at Derek’s distorted image in the reflection, noting how he could only see part of Derek’s body-his hand, adorned in rings, wrapped around the handle of an ornate cane.

The image of a powerful man, who did not belittle himself for the sake of an uncle's bastard.

Derek was much more than the rumors speculated, and Stiles was intrigued by that. ~*~ Or, the regency romance novel where Stiles is having Peter's baby, and Derek marries him for propriety's sake, (or so Stiles assumes).

show me something beautiful by starcanopus [1/1 - 9,063 - General]

Isaac is the one who first catches sight of the ring, an entire two months after the captain had joined the 14th precinct. It’s somewhat pathetic, really, considering the fact that an entire floor full of detectives hadn’t noticed right off the bat.

But when he does see it-a thin, silver band so innocuous that it could have just been a trick of the light-he trips headfirst into a recycling bin, earning a dirty glance from his boss through the window of the man’s office and Isaac kind of wants to sink into the ground and never come back out, but he has a duty to fulfill: spreading the news to every floor of the precinct that the captain is married.

Captain Derek Hale is married.

The healing touch by devilscut [17/17 - 96,591 - Explicit]

Stiles loses his temper with the rest of the pack when they all make excuses not to volunteer to help their Alpha. Deaton has instructed that for the next 24 hours Derek can't use his hands after he seriously injures them in a magical entrapment. Seeing the emotional hurt that Derek's selfish pack has inflicted on him when they argue and try to get out of it, Stiles volunteers to stay and then proceeds to give the rest of them a verbal ass-kicking. He then takes care of his friend, the Alpha, Derek Hale, while trying to work out what his feelings are towards the werewolf.

The Make-Out Kings of Beacon Hills High by Siriusstuff [1/1 - 7,972 - Explicit]

A 5+1 fic about the trials and tribulations of two horny high school sweethearts, Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale.

The Land of Milk and Honey by MereLoup [1/1 - 12,750 - Explicit]

Derek had followed Peter to many a business dinner. When Peter was trying to woo a client, he pulled out all of the stops. He would spend however much money was necessary to ensure that the client was impressed and felt like the most important person in the world.

Peter Hale had a gift when it came to client relations. Derek had been to just about every five star restaurant in Manhattan, so much so that the shine of expensive business lunches and dinners at exclusive restaurants had begun to wear off just a bit.

All of the safety precautions were a little strange, and they were definitely atypical from the normal places they had attended. Derek wasn’t exactly sure why, but he didn’t really care. Every place had their niche.

But once they passed through those doors, everything made complete sense.

This wasn’t a restaurant at all. It was a bar.

An omega milk bar.

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numbjaw · 4 years

Text

Suspicious Minds

Prompt: Erasermic. I see you specialize in angst. Hizashi saves a woman and she ends up kissing Hizashi (who is with Shouta and he didn't kiss back) and it gets photographed. It circulates around UA before Hizashi finds out. Shouta finds out and breaks it off with Hizashi thinking he's cheating but doesn't say way to him. Class A is protective of Shouta and refuse to let Hizashi near him. Todoroki is the one who figured it out and they decide to help Hizashi win back Shouta. And it works. - phoenixtodoroki

Shoto Todoroki was too buried in his studies to get involved in the gossip huddle taking place towards the front of the classroom; it wasn’t that he didn’t notice, he just didn’t care. Through hushed tones and electrified whispers, he put together some clues: something about a photo and someone of notoriety ‘cheating’. Based on Tenya’s quietness, it probably wasn’t cheating of the academic kind.

With the League of Villains currently in retreat again, things in Musutafu had been pretty mundane and quiet lately - a so-called “purse-snatcher” week. It was really no wonder some celebrity scandal was fueling the interests of his classmates this morning; there simply wasn’t anything else to talk about.

Shoto continued to look through his notes, even as Aizawa came in and sent the rest of 1-A into a clumsy scramble back to their seats. Aizawa, of course, punished them for not being seated with one of his newest challenges: an entire hour of complete silence. And by silent, he meant silent. Anyone who made so much as an involuntary sneeze would have a lap added to gym class the following week, and more laps added for anything remotely resembling noise after that - absent-minded pencil-tapping and skipped-breakfast-stomach-growling included.

Personally, Shoto enjoyed Aizawa’s silence tests, priding himself a little on being the only student who hadn’t been given an extra lap so far. Even straight and narrow Tenya, Class Rep, had fallen victim to Aizawa’s strict practice when one of his pencils had accidentally rolled off of his desk and clattered to the floor. It must’ve haunted him quite a lot, because Shoto noticed that Tenya had now attached grips to his pencils - something they hadn’t seen since elementary school - to prevent them from rolling around.

This hour was different, though. Not a single student made a sound, but Shoto had a strange feeling that it wasn’t because they were seriously trying their best to avoid running laps. There was particular tension within the classroom, and only himself and Aizawa seemed to be outside of it. Had whatever gossip his classmates been on about that morning been that captivating? Man, it really was a boring week...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nemuri Kayama watched as Hizashi yawned into the corner of the teacher’s lounge, one of his gloved hands clutching what had become his third cup of coffee that morning. It was a little more than his usual two, but nothing too out-of-the ordinary she supposed. Still, something about her fellow instructor seemed off lately.

Literally the loudest person in the entire school, maybe even the world, Hizashi had been a little less obnoxious lately. Tired, even. She wondered if this was the effect of dating Shouta Aizawa, a man who literally kept a sleeping bag folded under his desk.

“Long patrol last night?” She asked, to which Hizashi glanced wearily over his shoulder.

“Huh? Oh, something like that,” He answered with a little grin, despite his visible exhaustion that his sunglasses did little to conceal, “Nothin' too exciting though. How about you?”

“Oh, you know my nights are always exciting…” Nemuri winked, almost causing Hizashi to choke on his coffee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the hour, Shoto was fairly sure he had every word in his notebook memorized. As long as Aizawa didn’t pull any “logical ruses” about what would be on the exam next week, Shoto was fairly confident that he had nothing to worry about.

Upon being excused, the silent treatment ignited 1-A into simultaneous, unintelligible blabbering, which made Shoto sincerely miss the quiet. But a few words overheard from Izuku and Ochaco caught his attention.

“Mr. Aizawa doesn’t know yet,” Izuku said.

“Deku! Are you sure?” Ochaco exclaimed, “What makes you think that?”

“Well, several things,” Izuku began, clutching his chin thoughtfully, “He acted completely normal, for starters. I know he’s really professional and calm no matter what’s happening, but this is something really personal to him. I really don’t think he would have punished us into a silent hour if he knew - that would have been the last thing he would have wanted. Instead, he would have wanted to be engaging with us, talking to us, keeping his mind off it…”

“That makes sense…” Ochaco said, “What do you think he’ll do when he does find out?”

Izuku sighed and looked down sadly. “That I don’t know…”

“Hey,” Shoto greeted, finally took an opportunity to step into their conversation, “Not trying to be rude, but what are you two talking about?”

Izuku looked up and Ochaco tilted her head.

“You don’t know?” She asked, to which Shoto shrugged.

“I wasn’t part of the class huddle this morning," He said matter-of-factly.

“That’s right…” Izuku remembered, before looking around carefully, “It’s about Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Yamada.”

“What about them?” Shoto asked, though he felt he already had enough clues to guess. He just needed to confirm it.

“We think Mr. Yamada might be cheating on Mr. Aizawa,” Ochaco whispered, her tone as serious as it was concerned.

Shoto had to lean back slightly. So, his hunch had been right, the cheating scandal involved… their teachers? Oh man. Boring week aside, it was no wonder everyone had been so invested.

“Seriously?” was all Shoto could say as Ochaco handed him her phone.

On the screen was an image of Present Mic in his street clothes, lip-to-lip with a slender brunette in a pencil skirt, the blurred lights of the city outlining their features in what would have honestly been a beautiful photograph of a couple locked in an romantic, late-night embrace if it weren’t for the simple fact Yamada was supposed to be with Aizawa.

“No way,” Shoto breathed as he took in the photo, “Who took this?”

“Not sure. Mineta said he got it from a friend of his who was working downtown last Friday.”

Shoto’s brows lowered in suspicion. “How do we know it isn’t a lie? What if this was taken years ago?”

“Yeah, I thought that, too,” Izuku said quietly, “But look right here…”

Izuku pointed to the edge of a billboard in the photo, that, though a little out-of-focus, had an advertisement for a movie. Shoto squinted, unable to make out a date, only two characters, pointing up at a shooting star. It seemed familiar enough...

“That movie is in theaters right now,” Izuku said.

“Meaning this picture is definitely recent,” finished Ochaco.

Shoto felt a sudden pang of remorse for his homeroom teacher. Suddenly, it all made sense… but at the same time, it didn’t. At all.

Only students and staff at UA knew, but Aizawa and Yamada had been together for close to a year, having only gone public about it a few months ago. Obviously, no one within UA was surprised about it, but the tale of two opposite Pro-Heroes finding love sparked a tabloid firestorm for the first few weeks after they came out about it. Reception was positive, but mostly in that purposely-supportive-therefore-grossly-insincere kind of way, where more conservative sources questioned both the hook-up itself and the school; they were both UA teachers, after all. Though sparse, it was still enough for Principal Nezu to make a statement, quickly shutting down any claims of unprofessionalism in regards to staff relations at the school. After that, most of Japan generally didn’t care, other than Yamada’s radio fangirls and maybe Ms. Joke, who had finally figured out why Aizawa had always been so quick to shut down her not-always-joking advances. Still, she seemed to be their most genuine supporter of all, not shying away from teasing Yamada for ‘beating her to the punch’. Well, apparently Yamada had beaten her to the punch from the time they had both been students themselves at UA: half of their lifetimes together.

That’s why Yamada suddenly cheating on Aizawa didn’t make sense.

Shoto worriedly looked up to Izuku and Ochaco. “How many people did Mineta send this to?”

“Well, first he sent it to Ashido, who sent it to Aoyama, who then sent it to…” ブツブツブツブツブツブツブツブツ

Shoto spaced off as Izuku recited the entire order of recipients, who thankfully only seemed to be from Class 1-A. So far, anyway...

“We can’t let this get outside of our class,” Shoto said, “Not until we know the truth about it. I need you guys to help me contact everyone and find out where else this picture was sent.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shouta Aizawa could tell something strange was going on with his students. Not only did they, for the first time ever, all succeed in not making a sound, they had seemed to be mutually preoccupied with some kind of knowledge that he was unaware of. He threw out the idea of it being a possible seven-month early surprise birthday party right away. Thoughts of any anniversaries as a teacher or a Pro-Hero were also scrapped. There was literally nothing significant in April other than his upcoming anniversary with Hizashi, which he was certain his students had no knowledge of… unless Hizashi had said something.

Shouta felt himself smile as he sifted through the paperwork on his desk, a daydream of Hizashi sneakily getting their students in on some kind of surprise anniversary gift. It wasn’t completely irrational, Shouta figured.

But then again, when was love ever truly rational? If at all? He certainly had it bad for the Voice Hero...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hizashi was trying his absolute best to avoid his fourth cup of coffee that day as he walked to his classroom, where 1-A would be gathering shortly. Shouta had already texted him a heads-up about how unusually they were behaving by actually… behaving. Hizashi joked about being a little grateful, considering the absolute lack of sleep he’d had the night before. Shouta had replied with something along the lines of knowing a good remedy for sleep, combined with a winking emoji, which made Hizashi forget all about his need for more coffee.

Yamada, Hizashi:

Don’t tease me at work like this

Read at 11:36 AM

Sho 🐱❤️:

Or what?

Yamada, Hizashi:

I might just need to have a private meeting with you

Read at 11:36 AM

Sho 🐱❤️:

I really enjoy meetings. ;-)

‘Again with the winky face?!’

Yamada, Hizashi:

Class is starting soon.

I’ll deal with you later.

Read at 11:38 AM

Sho 🐱❤️:

You better.

Tenya Iida was one of the first students in, as usual. But as Hizashi greeted him, he was met with a not-so-usual response: a very reserved “Morning” in lieu of his usually pitch-perfect “Good morning, Mr. Yamada!”

It only continued as more students almost seemed to cautiously shuffle into the room. Some of them neglected to even greet him at all, and probably most striking was how every single one of them sat at their desk and said absolutely nothing to each other.

“Sheesh, Shouta wasn’t kidding…” Hizashi thought. He hadn’t seen them like this since their first day at UA.

Hizashi cleared his throat and looked over the students thoughtfully. He was never one to break under a tough crowd. Whatever prank, scheme, or demonstration Class 1-A was on about today wouldn’t phase him. Clearly, they were all dead-set on silence today,maybe out of protest for Shouta’s continued push for it, so Hizashi would have to assure the next fifty minutes went exactly the opposite of quiet. His specialty.

Thinking quickly, he targeted Tenya first. No matter what was going on, he was certain the Class Rep would always have an opinion to declare - especially when it regarded ethics. Seeing as all of the instructors were collaborating on the exam, his lessons were crossing into Shouta’s, and vice-versa.

“Iida,” Hizashi started, “Can you tell the class the definition of a ‘vigilante’?”

Tenya stood up, though some hesitation was clear. “Vigilantes... are groups or individuals who act independently, usually attempting to perform the duties of Pro-Heroes, but outside of the law and without licenses. Despite acting in good faith… vigilantism is considered illegal.”

“That it is! Don’t let the Good Samaritan act fool ya,” Hizashi praised, as Tenya sat back down. He then noticed Tenya bowed his head, as if ashamed - but why? He’d answered perfectly. Was it because he answered anything at all? Was 1-A really attempting a silent protest? Not in Present Mic’s class. “Righty-o. So! Can any of you tell me what you should do if you encounter a vigilante out in the field?”

Silence and stillness. It was a hard-ball question, Hizashi supposed. Shouta’s so-called “problem child” Izuku Midoriya would probably be a good student to call on, Hizashi figured. The kid wasn’t so much as a goodie-two-shoes as he just genuinely wanted to excel whenever he could, even if it meant going against the grain from time to time. The perfect student, as far as Hizashi was concerned.

“Nothin’, huh? How about… Midoriya. Tell the crowd what you think you should do if you encounter a vigilante.”

Izuku mirrored Tenya’s hesitation, but eventually stood none-the-less. “They’re considered criminals… so maybe apprehend them, but...” Izuku said, before his eyes swept up at Hizashi, “It depends on the situation…”

Hizashi tilted his head. Why had Izuku said that so… directly? “Go on...?”

“Right,” Izuku murmured, then looked back down, “If a vigilante is encountered during an incident with a villain, you’d have to prioritize the villain over the vigilante. But, if a vigilante is assisting a citizen, it’s best to help, or at least take over if possible. And, I suppose if a vigilante is encountered alone, you should attempt to apprehend them, but no matter what the circumstance, you must contact the police as soon as possible.”

“Nailed it! That was a mouthful, though - y’all catch all that? I hope you did!” Hizashi sang, shifting through Aizawa’s notes. He really did hope the rest of 1-A had paid close attention, as Izuku had just supplied the exact correct answer to one of their upcoming exam questions. It was hard to tell, though. No one was asking questions about it. No one was asking for it to be repeated. No one was speaking unless called on. No one was even taking notes. Hizashi’s smile faded slightly.

“Can anyone name which statute that affected vigilantism?” He asked.

The weird tension in the room only seemed to thicken like humidity when Hizashi called on Momo Yaoyorozu, who wasn’t so much distressed, but rather… angry. Towards who or what, Hizashi had no idea, but it certainly wasn’t him… right?

“The Rhode Island New State Statute,” She said effortlessly, without even looking at Hizashi.

“How many vigilantes were affected?” Hizashi challenged, to which Momo met him with a glare.

“Over a hundred.”

Hizashi waved a finger at her. “Ah-ah. How many exactly?”

“You know, maybe you should answer that… how many others?” Momo said, “Or was it just the one?”

Hizashi tilted his head as the rest of 1-A looked to Momo in shock.

“Do you… not know?” Hizashi asked, looking over his sunglasses at Yaoyorozu.

“Oh, I know. We all know,” Momo muttered, before sitting down, looking as though she was close to crying. The rest of the class seemed to have absorbed her words, which seemed to affect Mineta the most as he down-right sunk into his seat.

On second thought, maybe 1-A was better off staying silent after all. Honestly, Hizashi hadn’t been so relieved for a class dismissal since he’d been a student himself. As soon as 1-A had finished filing outside, he texted Shouta immediately.

Yamada, Hizashi:

Yooooooooooooooooooooooooo

you were right! 1-A was OFF AF

Hizashi, mostly confused, tried not to think about why Shouta didn’t respond to him right away. What had Momo meant when she said ‘how many others’?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shoto managed to catch Momo out in the hallway while Izuku and Ochaco got stuck behind a wall of students departing for lunch. She was still flustered, he noticed.

“That was a little harsh back there, don’t you think?”

“How was it harsh?” She shot back, “The guy’s a total sleazebag, cheating on Mr. Aizawa like that!”

“Keep your voice down,” Shoto warned, “This’ll only get worse if it spreads.”

“Well, maybe it should,” Momo argued, “He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this.”

Shoto looked over his classmate sympathetically. He understood her pain well, as they had both developed a special bond with Aizawa after the final exams; just the idea of someone trying to hurt their teacher made his left side want to ignite.

“Look, I’m not disagreeing, but whether it’s true or not, we owe Mr. Aizawa his privacy. Can you imagine the media circus if that picture gets outside of our school?”

Finally, Momo’s dark eyes softened with the realization of the matter; she couldn’t imagine how downright embarrassed, ashamed, and angry Shouta would feel if that image of his boyfriend got plastered over every tabloid imaginable, along with pictures of him, and maybe even UA...

“You’re absolutely right, Todoroki… I’m so sorry,” She sighed, and calmed herself, a familiar confidence returning to her eyes. “What do we do?”

“First, we need to convince everyone else to delete the picture off their phones. Deku and Uraraka are already working on that part. I was thinking about tracking down Mineta’s friend, the one who took it in the first place, and find out if they sent it to anyone else other than Mineta. Maybe even get a little more context behind it, too.”

“Todoroki…” Momo realized, “You... really don’t think Mr. Yamada cheated, do you?”

“I just don’t want to believe that he actually did,” Shoto sighed, “So, will you help us out?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yamada, Hizashi:

Yooooooooooooooooooooooooo

you were right! 1-A was OFF AF

Read at 12:08 PM

It was late in the evening. Hizashi’s once-mild concern over being left on read had graduated to a storming panic. It was absolutely unlike Shouta not to text him back unless something bad had happened; their status as both Pro Heroes and teachers at UA doubled this chance, and, of the two of them, it was usually Shouta who wound up hurt. Hizashi personally wasn’t sure if his heart could handle another hospital visit. Stomach continuing to knot, Hizashi attempted another text.

Yamada, Hizashi:

Getting kinda worried. You ok?

Shouta didn’t make him wait any longer, which normally would have been a relief if it weren’t for the single word that he replied with.

Sho 🐱❤️:

No.

Yamada, Hizashi:

What’s wrong?

Sho 🐱❤️:

You should know.

Hizashi swallowed a growing lump in his throat as his exchange with Momo Yaoyorozu that morning rang out in his head.

“Do you… not know?”

“Oh, I know. We all know.”

Yamada, Hizashi:

???

I have no idea

Did I forget something again?

Sho 🐱❤️:

It would seem.

Yamada, Hizashi:

Can’t be our anniversary, that’s next week... :)

Can I have a hint?

Read at 8:40 PM

Yamada, Hizashi:

Sho?

Read at 8:47 PM

Yamada, Hizashi:

talk to me!

Read at 8:52 PM

Yamada, Hizashi:

I honestly have no idea what’s wrong. But I’ll make it right, whatever it is. Don’t leave me in the dark, Sho. Please?

Hizashi’s thumb hesitantly hovered over the call option on the phone screen, but he refrained, chalking it up to a really weird day. Maybe Shouta just needed to sleep off whatever it was, Hizashi thought, as he went on to wonder what exactly he had forgotten about that had made Shouta react as he did.

What had he forgotten? Shouta’s birthday was November 8th… right?

Suddenly, Hizashi wasn’t really sure about anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Touma Okamura was the childhood friend of Mineta and also the spark of what was becoming a wildly-growing forest fire for UA. Despite the best efforts of Shoto, Izuku, Ochaco, and Momo, it had seemed news of Present Mic’s after-school activities had already leaked outside of their class, and possibly UA. It was only a matter of time before Aizawa found out, if he hadn’t found out already. For Shoto, it was more important than ever to get the context behind the damn picture, which would hopefully stomp out the flames before the smoke was noticed by the press.

Shoto was pleased that Momo had decided to join himself, Izuku, and Ochaco on the trip into the city. The location of the photo was right outside of a gaudy souvenir store in Downtown Musutafu. It was a constantly-busy, loud area of town that never seemed to sleep or be without traffic. Shoto felt his stomach turn a little when he saw the movie billboard from the photo, “Lost Stars”, prominently displayed on a nearby rooftop. And just below, Touma, wearing a work apron.

Touma was similar to Mineta in nature: immature, rather small and squirrely, but with a Quirk that was similar to Ojiro’s - a large tail, but more lizard-like, striped with green and brown scales.

“Thanks for meeting with us,” Izuku said, as Touma just nodded, looking more bored if anything.

“No biggie,” Touma said, “Mineta gave me a heads-up about you. But just so you know, I only have five minutes before I have to get back, so I gotta make this quick. What’d you wanna know?”

“For starters… just what was going on before and after you took that picture of Present Mic,” Shoto said, crossing his arms.

Touma looked up at the sky as he recalled back. “I had a late shift that night. Got out around 9PM. I was on my way out and when I saw Present Mic and that lady. Actually took me a second to recognize it was him, and once I did I wanted to get a picture… and that’s pretty much when they kissed.”

“When you say they kissed… did it seem… mutual?” Momo asked carefully.

Touma shrugged, “I don’t know. I mean, he didn’t exactly stop her.”

“How long did it last?” Ochaco asked, and Shoto took notice of Izuku beginning to blush slightly.

“Eh, not long. Maybe only a second and she went on her way. He kinda stood there a minute watching her before walking the other way. It was pretty weird now that I think about it.”

“Did Mic seem… okay?” Shoto pressed, knowing they were running low on time.

“I don’t know. He seemed fine to me. Maybe a little confused, but fine.”

“Okamura. Why did you send the picture to Mineta?” asked Izuku.

“Because it was funny,” Touma explained, grinning in a way that definitely explained his friendship with Mineta, “I knew Present Mic was one of his teachers, and come on, that lady was super hot. I knew Mineta would get a kick out of it!”

“He’s going to get a kick out of it, alright,” Shoto muttered, as Momo glanced at him worriedly.

“Did you send the picture to anyone else?” Ochacho asked, to which Touma shook his head.

“Nope,” Touma started, “I mean, I posted it on my feed, but I didn’t tag Present Mic in it or anything.”

“Wait. You… posted it… online?” Shoto asked slowly.

“Yeah. Like, I only have maybe a hundred followers? That’s not many at all. Practically nobody else saw it. I’m kinda underground, you know?”

Shoto had to step away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hizashi awoke to a loud knocking at the door. He blinked wearily in the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the window, unsure as to when he had managed to fall asleep or, more so, how. Before Hizashi could check his phone, he answered the door, somewhat surprised to see Shouta standing there.

“Hey,” He smiled at first, until realizing Shouta didn’t look too pleased and was cradling a cardboard box.

“You said you wanted a hint,” Shouta said coldly, shoving the box into Hizashi’s arms, “Hopefully this will suffice.”

With great alarm, Hizashi realized all the contents inside the box were things of his that he had either gifted to Shouta or things of his that he had left at Shouta’s apartment, and Shouta was now walking away.

“Shouta, wait, I don’t understand what I did!” Hizashi called after him, setting the box down at the doorstep and running after the fellow instructor, who was making a beeline for the nearest stairwell, “Shouta!”

“Stop,” Shouta said, pausing halfway down the stairs, “Stop treating me like a fool. It won’t work.”

“I’m… not…” Hizashi trailed off, “Shouta -”

“Stop calling me that,” said Shouta, “We’re done.”

“I…” Hizashi said quietly, “Hold up a second, would ya…? I seriously don’t understand what I did…”

“If that’s really true,” Shouta said, “Then we really have nothing else to talk about.”

“Sh - Aizawa…” Hizashi tried, but it was as if he had suddenly swallowed a razor blade. Was Shouta using his Quirk on him? No, his eyes weren’t red. They were hurt.

“Going forward, I’ll maintain a professional relationship with you - but only for the sake of our students. I’ll expect you to do the same. Goodnight, Yamada.”

“Aiz…”

Shouta was already gone, leaving only the echoes of his quickened footsteps behind. Hizashi lost track of time again, standing at the top of the stairwell until the sun left the sky. Was this a nightmare? It certainly felt like one. Actually, no. Nightmares felt real. This didn’t feel real. Only the ache of his legs and the cold breeze felt real.

Hizashi walked very slowly back to his apartment, unable to stop thinking about the way Shouta had looked at him. The box was still on his porch, and within it was everything that apparently reminded Shouta of him. Hizashi heavily debated whether or not to take it inside or just throw it off the balcony, eventually deciding to take it in, hoping it was all a nightmare, or that it was some kind of cruel prank, or some strange spell Shouta and their students had fallen under…

Strange spell...

Hizashi found his phone, not surprised to find a text from Shouta telling him he was on his way to drop off his stuff. He swiped past it, then opened a search engine instead.

“Quirks that make someone break up with you for no reason”

A definition of Quirks popped up, followed by several Cosmopolitan articles.

“Break up quirks”

Several ‘breakdown’ lists of quirks, missing the phrase ‘up’.

“Quirks that erase love”

Hizashi should have known better, as the keywords ‘quirk’ and ‘erase’ brought up a slew of Eraserhead results, including his favorite picture of Shouta - a press shot of him in his Hero gear, demonstrating his capture weapon. Shouta hated the picture, just as he hated every picture of himself, but Hizashi loved it.

He loved Shouta.

Just what the hell had he done?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Present Mic’s Newest Gig - Has Eraserhead Been Erased?”

The headline and accompanying picture was inescapable. It was on every social media feed, television, jumbo-tron, and grocery store newsstand in Japan.

Despite this, Aizawa still showed up to school, on time and on schedule, looking as he often did - disheveled and tired. It was a little comforting, Shoto thought at first, though the toll of the breakup going viral made itself known in other ways, such as Aizawa acting far more apathetic than usual. He called on literally anyone who raised their hand, even if it was the same students over and over. When provided a wrong answer, he didn’t probe too hard for the correct one like he usually did, simply stating the correct answer himself before moving on, voice monotone and passionless. Well, more monotone and passionless. He allowed Katsuki to doodle something that remotely resembled Deku with his hair on fire, while Denki and Eijiro passed notes (as if they didn’t have cell phones) and, probably most profoundly, allowed Rikido to sleep in class.

Shoto exchanged worried looks with Momo, who also seemed to have noticed their teacher’s unusual lack of spirit as well. Shouta Aizawa was running on auto-pilot, pushing himself to teach while his personal life was being put on blast by every seedy media corporation in the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class 1-A, with the exception of Shoto, Izuku, Ochaco, and Momo, seemed pleasantly surprised to find Midnight standing at the podium in English class. Unlike Aizawa, news of the picture had apparently sent Yamada into hiding.

“Mr. Yamada is home sick today, so I’ll be taking over for him,” Kayama explained, careful not to give away too much, “After lunch, you’re all to return back here for Art History. I’d rather not have to shuffle my things between two classrooms if I don’t have to, so I’ll shuffle all of you instead. Work smarter, not harder… depending on what you’re doing, anyways.”

Minoru Mineta made a semblance of a wheeze, one of his first signs of life since the scandal had begun. He’d been unusually quiet otherwise, probably sensing he’d made a mistake by carelessly circulating the photo throughout the school and not having the foresight to stop Touma from posting it to social media before it was too late.

Kayama did her best to get through Yamada’s “ineligible” notes, mostly sticking to having them read from a book written entirely in English. But just like Aizawa, they could sense she was somewhat unfocused and troubled, checking her phone far more than usual.

Once 1-A was dismissed for lunch, however, all Hell broke loose.

Shoto wasn’t sure who had spotted Mr. Yamada first, but a majority of the students had already cornered him in a hallway near the entrance. For being a Pro, Yamada looked positively startled and broken, his usual spike of hair hanging in uneven locks around his face.

“You know, if you’re sick, you shouldn’t be here,” said Katsuki, arms crossed as he stared at his teacher defiantly.

Shoto knew that tone of voice and his heart leapt; sometimes Katsuki was an even bigger hothead than his damn father was, but he wasn’t dumb enough to go head-to-head with a teacher on school grounds, was he? It seemed as though Izuku picked up on this as well, as Shoto spotted him trying to rush up to the front of the stand-off where Katsuki was.

“Yeah. Go home, Mr. Yamada,” agreed Eijiro, stirring up the other students, some of whom were outside of 1-A.

Before Shoto and Izuku could attempt to break up the line and share what they had learned from Touma, a very loud and very obvious voice, second only to Mic himself, broke out over the crowd.

All Might, dressed in his sunflower-yellow pinstripe suit, rushed beside Yamada in a cloud of smoke that generated solely from how fast he’d appeared, and looked out over the student body, smiling like usual, like there wasn’t a single thing wrong in the entire world.

“Mr. Yamada, a quick word?” All Might said, knowingly stepping between Yamada and the students, before a rush of wind shot out over their heads.

Just like that, All Might had swept Yamada out of the scene. In his wake, a small form appeared - Principle Nezu.

The atmosphere changed immediately as he looked over them, usual tea cup in hand.

“Students, shouldn’t you all be in the cafeteria?”

No arguing with that.

As they re-routed to the cafeteria, Shoto couldn’t help but think of how calculated the teacher’s rescue operation had been. Geez, what had Yamada been thinking, coming on property at a time like that? There was no way he’d get anywhere near Mr. Aizawa, not if Class 1-A had anything to do about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The teacher’s lounge was thankfully empty as Toshinori escorted a very distraught Hizashi inside.

“Would you like a coffee, or tea?” Toshinori asked, to which the other blonde simply shook his head ‘no’.

Toshinori took to the couch across from Hizashi, whom he hadn’t seen look this bad since an incident during his Bronze Age days. But at least those had been the kind of wounds that could be healed by Recovery Girl.

“I thought it was all bad enough,” Hizashi said after a while, “but now the entire school seems to hate me, too…”

“They don’t hate you,” Toshinori said, though he knew his words weren’t exactly convincing, “They’re simply suffering from the same amount of ignorance as Mr. Aizawa is.”

Hizashi forced a small laugh, but returned to leaning on his knees and staring at the floor. “I just can’t believe they’d believe it so easily. Well, no. That’s not true. I get the kids. But Shouta…? Smartest guy I know… how could he doubt me so much, y’know?”

“Haven’t you talked to him?”

“I’ve tried to. Several times. But he’s blocked me on just about everything you can be blocked on. Even our work email, somehow. That’s why I was going to try to catch him today, during lunch. Didn’t expect the entire student body to tell me otherwise, but yeah, here we are... I just want him to hear me out, for five minutes. That’s all it would take to explain to him that I have no idea who that girl even was and that she kissed me because I’d got her purse back from some crook! It all happened so fast that I wasn’t even sure it happened at all. I seriously didn’t even remember it until the tabloids came out… ughh, I can’t believe this…”

Toshinori watched as Hizashi ran his hands through his hair, yanking the strands up in frustration.

“Well, maybe I can have a word with Mr. Aizawa?” Toshinori offered.

“Ha,” laughed Hizashi, “Good luck. He won’t hear anyone out. Not me, not Ken, not even Midnight… they’ve all tried but he just gives them this generic ‘please don’t talk to me about personal matters at work’ crap!”

The door opened, signaling the arrival of Principal Nezu, who seemed a little less-than-enthused, to say the least. Hizashi and Yagi greeted him, but he strode past them to look out the window quietly.

“It seems that even our students are buying into what the press is selling…” Nezu pondered aloud, “And if our students believe it, then that’s the only truth that will matter.”

Hizashi watched as Principal Nezu turned to look at him. “Mr. Yamada, I understand this is a personal matter for yourself and Mr. Aizawa, but if it’s going to affect UA in this way then I must ask you both to come to a clear resolution immediately.”

“Tell Aizawa that.” Hizashi remarked, folding his arms.

“I already have, and he says he’s already requested professionalism from you. I’m sorry for how things are, truly, but you’re going to have to abide by this request or I’ll be forced to… restructure.”

“You mean you’ll fire me?”

“That’s not what he said, Yamada.” Toshinori cut in.

“All Might - please…” Principal Nezu took the last sip of his tea, then cleared his throat, “Mr. Yamada, there are many other schools who could… appreciate what you have to offer.”

“Tch…” Hizashi just nodded his head, mostly in disbelief.

“Have a good rest of your day, both of you,” Nezu said.

No sooner than the door closed, Hizashi stood up slowly. “I think… I’m gonna head home. Think about things. Say, Yagi. If you do happen to chat with Aizawa… ask him if there’s anything of his he wants back. Catch ya later, I guess...”

Toshinori could only watch on as Hizashi sauntered towards the door. He grit his teeth.

‘I’m sorry, Mr. Yamada, but I’m not going to ask him that.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Izuku felt as though he was underwater, too lost in thought over the situation with his teachers to really hear any of the talking going on around him. Eventually, a concerned voice caught his attention - Ochaco’s.

“Deku, aren’t you going to eat?”

Izuku looked down at his plate, finally realizing that he hadn’t touched it yet.

“I… don’t really feel hungry…” Izuku answered slowly, before looking up suddenly. “I need to go. I’m sorry. I’ll catch you in class, alright?”

“Deku, wait!”

Izuku left behind his tray, Ochaco, and the cafeteria. Maybe it wasn’t too late to catch Present Mic and ask him for his truth himself, like Shoto had suggested. Without thinking, Izuku burst into the teacher’s lounge, only finding a startled Toshinori Yagi.

“Young Midoriya!” He exclaimed, smoke puffing around him as he took his Hero form, “Students are not allowed in the faculty lounge, you know!”

“All Might - where is Mr. Yamada?” Izuku asked, though even he had to admit it sounded more like a demand, “I need to talk to him about something.”

“And what would that be?”

“The picture!” Izuku said, “Todoroki, me, and few others… we don’t think it’s what everyone is hyping it up to be. We just want to hear Mr. Yamada out.”

All Might paused, reverting back to his true form, then turned to Izuku.

“I think I may be able to help...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That evening, Toshinori watched uneasily as Shouta poured himself shot after shot of whiskey; what had once been a brand new bottle was steadily falling under the halfway-mark, and Toshinori had yet to pour any for himself. He knew Shouta needed this, though. Not the alcohol, but what it provided: an escape from the situation. If it weren’t for his duty to Class 1-A, Toshinori was pretty sure that Shouta would have left the country by now. So Toshinori merely allowed his friend to imbibe, but only within reason... reason that was quickly reaching a limit.

Shouta was dead-set on gaining the Don’t-Give-A-Fuck Quirk that alcohol so easily provided. He’d repay Toshinori for the bottle later and do penance for his sins with what would surely be the worst hangover on record the next day. Just so long as he could forget how to feel for a while. Forget the picture. Forget Hizashi. Forget the world.

Shouta reached for the bottle again, but found a large hand suddenly placed over his own. He stared at it, struggling to focus, then realized it was Toshinori’s. He glanced up at the other man, confused.

“You might want to slow down between shots,” Toshinori advised, with a polite smile that Shouta suddenly felt drawn to.

Wouldn’t that be something, Shouta thought drunkenly as he took in the rest of Toshinori, sitting so closely beside him. Wouldn’t that be just the thing to end the tale of him and Present Mic - for him to instead be with All Might. Toshinori wouldn’t cheat on him. He was too valiant, too kind, too...

Toshinori recognized the shift in Shouta’s eyes way too late; it was only a second, but Shouta had already moved in for a kiss. It took a lot for Toshinori to turn away from him. Aside from looking like an absolute hermit, Shouta had always been really beautiful to him, with a heart too big than he let on. But that heart was shattered right now and Shouta was drunk on half a bottle of whiskey.

“I’m sorry,” Toshinori breathed as he clenched his fists.

Shouta didn’t ask why. He just turned away and fell quiet again, his long dark hair falling over his face like a curtain. After a moment, Toshinori heard the sound of the bottle scraping off the coffee table and the sound of liquid being poured into a glass again.

“I think you should stop, now…” Toshinori said hesitantly.

“You won’t let me kiss you and now you won’t let me drink,” said Shouta, and Toshinori wasn’t sure if he had meant to say it out loud.

“Because I think you’ve had enough, Aizawa.”

“Aizawa…” Shouta repeated mockingly, chuckling to himself. He’d had enough, alright.

“Shouta,” Toshinori corrected, his voice settling back down to it’s more natural state, “I know things are stressful for you right now. As someone who was in the media spotlight nearly their whole career, I know how... intrusive it can be. But I promise it’s temporary. It’ll blow over as soon as the next thing happens. You just need to ride out the storm.”

“I’ve been riding it out,” Shouta argued, “And when it blows over - what then? I’ve still lost my best friend. Hm. Figures. It’s all I ever seem to do...”

Toshinori swallowed hard, understanding that Shouta was referencing Oboro Shirakumo, whom he had lost in an accident back in their high school days. Before Toshinori could even articulate how to respond to that, Shouta rose up from the couch suddenly.

“We never should have done it,” Shouta began, “I knew it would ruin our friendship. I told him it would. But he said he loved me, Toshinori. And I believed him, and we…”

Toshinori watched as Shouta cringed from a memory that he would never know of. He wanted to hug his friend, badly, but he knew Shouta would probably react in a way that wouldn’t be easy to reject. Toshinori wasn’t sure if he’d be able to deny Shouta another kiss. But for the sake of Hizashi, Shouta, and their students, Toshinori kept his distance, allowing Shouta to pace back and forth across his living room instead.

“I was an idiot, you know,” Shouta continued, “I had suspicions about him for months…”

“O-Oh?”

“Lying about where he’d been, constantly tired, smelling like women’s perfume…” Shouta said of Hizashi, “And I never questioned him. Not once. Do you know why? Because love turns you into a completely irrational fucking idiot.”

Toshinori didn’t know how to react to Shouta’s sudden outpouring of information; he knew Shouta wasn’t lying, he had no reason to, but he also knew that Hizashi wasn’t that type of guy. He was eccentric, funny, and loud - God, was he loud - but he wasn’t some heartless playboy. He openly gushed over Shouta every chance he got. He played songs for Shouta over the radio every single night. He was Shouta’s best friend for over a decade before they finally realized there was something a little more than friendship going on, a friendship that Toshinori knew neither of them would throw down the drain for something that hadn’t been substantial.

“I think that may be your problem, my friend,” said Toshinori finally.

Shouta stopped pacing and smirked. “And what’s that, Yagi? That I’m an idiot? You can say it. No need to keep playing shy. Tell me the truth. Tell me I’m an idiot.”

“No, though you are acting like one right now,” Toshinori said, “Your problem is that you never questioned Yamada, one way or the other. You never asked him yourself what was going on. You only assumed as much.”

Shouta suddenly glared, eyes flashing red, his hair rising from off of his shoulders, “Are you suggesting that I should have? He only would’ve denied it. He acted like he had no idea what I was talking about, and now that it’s on every single news site and he hasn’t bothered to say a single word to me in person.”

“That’s because the students haven’t let him get near you,” Toshinori finally revealed.

Shouta’s gaze changed back to normal and his hair fell back into place. “...what?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shoto felt exhausted by the scandal that never seemed to end. His fellow classmates seemed to feel the same. Everyone missed how things had been before - before their teachers were estranged and unfocused. The rumor floating around about Present Mic possibly being transferred to another school was met with a strange reception, too: some were happy about it, but despite everything, a good few were upset. It seemed as more time had gone on, more of their classmates had started to feel as he did, that Yamada actually hadn’t done anything wrong and that it was a total misunderstanding.

But how could they prove it, other than the word of Mineta’s idiot friend who had started the entire thing to begin with? Aizawa wasn’t having any of it, plain and simple. Shoto had tried to talk to him and he’d been shut down quicker than the time Aizawa had stopped Izuku from throwing a baseball.

It wasn’t until Izuku pulled him aside and informed him of the first promising news he’d heard since everything had begun: Izuku had gained some information from All Might, who had apparently had a little heart-to-heart with Aizawa after school hours, which revealed much more to the situation.

Aizawa wasn’t reacting based solely on a picture or the ensuing tabloids, as everyone had originally thought. He was reacting to several months-worth of suspicions over Yamada, who apparently had been very secretive over his whereabouts and even smelled like perfume at times. The revelation made Shoto’s stomach tense up. Had he been wrong, then? Had Mr. Yamada really cheated after all?

The only way to truly know was to ask Mr. Yamada himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We came because we wanted to get your side of the story.” Shoto said to Present Mic after the rest of the class had filed out. Only himself and Izuku had stayed behind.

“Why? Gossip well getting empty on you?” Yamada sneered, pretending like the paperwork on his desk was more important; most of the pages were blank, Shoto noticed.

“No, Mr. Yamada. We… sincerely just want to hear you out. We don’t believe all the tabloids or what everyone else is saying. We don’t think you cheated on Mr. Aizawa,” said Izuku.

“Then that makes two people on the entirety of planet Earth,” Yamada huffed, “Honestly, after being drowned in this for a week, I’m starting to think I really did.”

“Well, did you?” Shoto said, voice firm.

“‘Course I didn’t! That picture - that lady - I have no idea who she even was.”

“But… she’s kissing you…”

“Yes, yes, yes, because I was able to stop some jerk from stealing her purse. She was so grateful about it that she decided to jump up and smooch me - pfft, it was so quick that I forgot it even happened.”

“No wonder you were so confused when Mr. Aizawa dumped you…”

“Ya think?! And of course when I saw the picture on the news it finally clicked. But thanks to good ol’ 1-A, I couldn’t get two seconds to explain myself to him. And he’d already blocked me on everything. My only outlet was my radio show, but my producers put me on a leave of absence so I couldn’t get the word out that way either. I was really tempted to just start screaming about it from a rooftop, loud enough for him and all of Japan to hear me, buuuut that’d probably lose me my license… then again, I’ve pretty much lost everything anyways, so what would it matter? I’m kidding! Sort of.”

Shoto and Izuku glanced towards the door, where they saw Toshinori give them a thumbs-up.

Shoto cleared his throat. Stay focused. “What were you doing downtown that night, anyways? You weren’t in costume, so it definitely wasn’t Patrol, and it was too early for your radio show… and far.”

Yamada removed his sunglasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, “You won’t believe me… ah, but what’s new? That was because of a side-gig I picked up about two months ago.”

“Side-gig?”

“I was washing dishes, alright?!”

“Is that code for -”

“Midoriya. No, it’s not code for anything. I was li-ter-ally washing dishes at Tonkatsu.”

“Tonkatsu? The ramen shop? Why?” Izuku asked the obvious.

“Because it’s my favorite hobby, on top of teaching you little annoyances, screaming at would-be villains, and running a radio show every night until 5am,” Hizashi said sarcastically, “To earn extra cash, duh.”

“Extra cash? For what?” asked Izuku.

“Sheesh. You kids really ought to stick to Hero work instead of detective work...” Yamada said as he fished out a small box from his jacket pocket.

“Mic -”

“This,” Yamada said, flipping open the ring box to reveal a sleek, tungsten engagement ring.

“You were going to propose to Mr. Aizawa…!” Izuku marveled, before clasping a hand over his mouth. Crap. Aizawa was right outside the door with Toshinori. Had he overheard that?

“Glad I didn’t have to explain that part, too,” Yamada teased, before sighing and tucking the box away.

“I don’t understand, why didn’t you just tell Mr. Aizawa that you picked up another job instead?” Shoto asked.

“Because he would’ve figured it out! Just like he figured out every single other thing I tried to surprise him with! When I got the idea to propose, I knew I had to be sneaky about it or he’d catch on! I just thought he might be a little smarter and know it wasn’t because I was freaking cheating on him! I guess I gave Eraser too much credit…”

Izuku jabbed Shoto with his elbow suddenly.

“U-Um. What about the perfume?” Shoto asked.

“Perfume?” Yamada repeated.

“Mr. Aizawa said you came home a few times, smelling like women’s perfume…” Shoto asked, feeling awkward as he did so.

“Did he honestly tell you guys that? As a class? Wow, he really does hate me now, doesn’t he?”

“So it’s true?” questioned Izuku, doing well to hide the fact they were the only two students from 1-A who knew, and only due to All Might letting Aizawa drink himself into a practical coma.

“Ugh. Yes, okay? But it wasn’t because I was cuddling up to some no-name lady during my dishwashing gig. It was a… personal thing…”

Shoto looked to Izuku unsurely, then back to Yamada. No way Izuku was going to ask the weird questions. Shoto cleared his throat, biting the bullet. “Do you... like smelling like a woman?”

“NO!” Hizashi boomed, his Quirk slightly blowing both Izuku and Shoto’s hair back.

“I’m gonna spit this out as quick as I can and then I’m done playing Sherlock with you two, ya dig? One time Aizawa and I planned a sort’ve - I don’t know - picnic-y thing…”

“That’s ah... cute…” tried Izuku, voice cracking. Shoto wanted to smack his own head.

“Shuddap! It was very impromptu,” Yamada said, crossing his legs, “So much so, that we didn’t realize a freak storm was rolling in and wheeeew - before we knew it, we were being doused in rain. It was so heavy that we had to stay underneath a tree for almost two whole hours until it finally let up enough for us to bounce. By the time we got home, we both had this… I dunno, earthy, rainy smell going on? Then Shouta made fun of my hair, which was totally ruined. He said I looked like a ‘sad daffodil’, so I told him he looked like a komondor. You know - that dog that looks like a literal mop? And then… he just started laughing.”

‘Mr. Aizawa laughing…? Why is that such an unsettling thought?’ Both Izuku and Shoto thought.

“I mean, I could’ve sworn I swapped Quirks with Ms. Joke for a second because I’d never made him laugh that much in my life… and ever since, I started checkin’ this perfume store next door to Tonkatsu for something resembling the rainy smell from that day.”

“The day you made him laugh,” Izuku echoed.

“Yeah. Never did find that smell again, not that it really matters that much anymore…” Hizashi sighed, before standing, “So, are we done here or -”

He trailed off, as he noticed Shouta standing at the door, mouth parted slightly in shock.

“Hizashi… is all of that true?” Shouta asked.

After a moment of shock, Hizashi fought back a sad smile. “‘Course it is, dummy. You really think I’d throw us away for anyone else?”

Shouta looked down, and Shoto noticed a slight trembling on his teacher’s shoulders that didn’t seem to be from his capture weapon.

“I’m… sorry,” Shouta murmured, “I acted completely irrationally. I should have spoken with you about it, instead of...”

Izuku watched a shift in Hizashi’s face and he glanced at Shoto worriedly. Shoto looked back, equally unsure if they were being rude by staying. Just when they got the thought to sprint to All Might and leave the two instructors in peace, Hizashi suddenly got down on his knee before Shouta and withdrew the box from his jacket once again.

“You said it yourself once,” Hizashi said as he gently opened the box, “Love isn’t rational. Makes even the smartest people stupid. Surprise, by the way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gym class was brutal.

Well, at least for everyone except for Izuku, Ochaco, Shoto, and Momo.

It was especially brutal for Mineta, who had… somehow… earned an extra 20 laps around the track that he was expected to finish within the period.

As most of 1-A jogged along the track, Shoto glanced down from the bleachers at Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Yamada, who stood side-by-side, observing, smiling, and sometimes even laughing - about what was anyone’s guess - but it was nice to see them somehow closer than they were before, and that UA was back to normal.

Shoto looked to Izuku, who was looking worriedly at the track.

“Hey, what’s your deal?” Shoto asked him, “Do you feel guilty or something?”

“Yes,” Izuku admitted, “It feels weird just sitting here while everyone else has to run.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts, Midoriya,” Momo said, sunglasses on and feet propped up on the bench beside them. Ochaco mirrored her.

Shoto smirked at the girls and looked back at the track, where Mineta was visibly wearing down and practically sobbing as he struggled to keep running.

“Only 14 more to go, Mineta!” Cheered Present Mic, which was replied to with an audible groan.

“Thanks for everything, guys,” Shoto said suddenly.

“Hey, no problem. We should really be thanking you, you know,” Izuku said.

“Yeah, if it hadn’t been for you, we probably would have believed it like everybody else,” Ochaco stated, causing Shoto’s chest to stir.

“Seriously,” Momo chuckled, tilting her sunglasses up, “I was about to take Mr. Yamada out before you talked to me… thank you, Shoto.”

“Yeah, thank you,” Ochaco added.

“No problem,” Shoto sighed, mostly from relief, then looked up at the sky as a few clouds drifted over the sun.

He wondered if it might rain. He thought about the story Mr. Yamada had told them about the picnic, and Mr. Yamada and Mr. Aizawa themselves, dressed in gym clothes, running the same track when they were his age. Would he go on to know someone from 1-A for that long? Would he develop some kind of relationship like that, with someone he already knew from here?

Shoto had never really thought about it before that moment, but as the clouds moved and the sun returned, he found that he liked the idea of it.

The End

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for this prompt, phoenixtodoroki! I really enjoyed writing it. First attempt at erasermic. Still feeling out all the characters and things. If you liked this, please drop me an ask for anything you’d like me to fill relating to this ship - I’d like to keep my spark going. Thank you for reading. I’ll put this on my ao3 soon.

Also, I was thinking of writing a bonus companion fic to this one regarding the disaster picnic - let me know if you’d like that sort of thing! ^^ - numby

#erasermic #erasermic fic #phoenixtodoroki #slight erasermight because i have no self control #id like call this genre angsty cheese

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lovelyirony · 5 years

Note

54. “Come closer.” for IronWidow!

Fury’s Academy was considered a wonderful place for those of the world that were magical, mystic, or just described by most of the outside world as “weird.” Mermaids, vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, and any other creature attended and interacted with others.

But there was one that stood out especially, mainly because he was really the only one of his kind in a long time.

Tony Stark, resident man-made creature. Frankenstein’s monster, essentially. People weren’t exactly...made anymore. Tell that to his father, who had wanted a super-genius as a son and stitched him up and animated him and decided that he didn’t look human enough and ditched him.

Apparently, he also was strange enough that most of the monsters chose not to interact with him. They usually talked about him, looking at his bolts and stitches and different eyes.

Tony usually asked if they had a problem, flipped them off, or kept to himself. All he had to do was get out of this school, take an online university course or find somewhere that didn’t look at him as weird, and he’d be fine.

School wasn’t too bad. As long as he didn’t really make much attention for himself, the worst he got was a stare or two. And none of the really popular kids really gave him shit.

In fact, he kind of...liked one of them. Natasha, a fairy. She was someone that everyone wanted to be with, know, but she was also not trusted worth a damn. He couldn’t see why. The only time she would ever actively trick or deceive someone is if they were being an asshole first.

She also didn’t look at him like he was a freak. Just like he was another person in her world.

So yeah. She was also incredibly beautiful and had funny comments.

And then they have a group project. Tony hates group projects. Usually people ask if they can have his school email. He gives it to them, they email him about the project, and that way they don’t have to go to a coffee shop with someone as obvious as him. It’s fine.

The teacher assigns Tony to Natasha, Bucky, and Sam’s group. He looks up in surprise. He knows one eye goes wider than the other, and he sees Bucky’s gaze avert. Great.

Tony moves over to their space, taking a spare desk.

“So, uh, what do we wanna do?” Sam asks. His gaze is down.

“We’ll meet for coffee at Fae’s,” Natasha says. Her eye contact doesn’t break. “I can cover Napoleon in the early years, but I’ll need help setting up the presentation. Tony, wanna help me pick out the design?”

Tony starts.

“Uh, yeah,” Tony says. He doesn’t meet her eyes. “I can get there.”

“Great,” she responds with. “Bucky, Sam, please don’t be late or order a just-black coffee.”

“Okay prissy,” Sam says, rolling his eyes. “Not my fault that you can’t handle plain black.”

“It’s called having taste,” Natasha says. Tony smiles a bit. It’s just natural dialogue, something he’s never experienced. “Tony, what kind of coffee do you like?”

Tony freezes. No one’s really asked him a question like that before.

“Oh, um, I usually make my own,” he says. “But if I’m getting fancy coffee it’s usually something minty.”

“Good choice,” Bucky offers.

It’s a start, Tony realizes. They’re being nice to him.

He smiles as he exits the classroom. Even if the younger kids don’t look at him, at least some people were nice to him.

Natasha personally get why people treat Tony like he’s some sort of freak. He’s just like the rest of them, really. Has cool eyes, the kind that she wants.

“Are you sure about Tony?” Bucky asks.

“Yes,” Natasha says. “I think he’s nice and he needs some friends. We can be friends.”

“Okay,” Bucky says. “But if this backfires...”

“It won’t,” she says. “I know it won’t.”

Tony calls Sharon about this. She goes to a different school, but only because Peggy offered to take her. Tony isn’t really immediate family, even though he goes to all the holidays. At least the Carters don’t really treat him differently.

“They could be friendly,” Sharon says. “I know Natasha. She’s not mean on purpose at any time.”

“That’s good to hear,” Tony says, tinkering with a robot. “How are classes?”

“Good, except for my magical history class. We’re reading about some stupid bullshit human tale and assessing it. I’m currently on my seventh page of ranting.”

“Academic ranting?”

“Mostly. I think one or two curse words fell in. How are your classes going?”

“Eh, alright. People still don’t think that I’m just studying and working harder in engineering classes, but that’s to be expected when your brain technically isn’t all-the-way-your-own.”

“Fuck them dude,” Sharon says. “I know that you’re gonna kill the game.”

“Thanks Shar,” Tony responds, smiling. “I gotta go, we’re getting coffee pretty soon. Thanks for talking with me.”

“Any time, you know that. Love you!”

“Love you too.”

He breathes deeply, looking at his options. He chooses red plaid, a long jacket, and gloves. He can hide some of his changes, and that’s what he’s looking to do. Getting on his glasses and ear buds, he walks to the shop.

Natasha has already commandeered the best table in the shop. She waves to him and he waves back.

The barista is nice. Her name is Jane, and she tells him that his earrings (small skeletons) are very cute and she wishes she had a pair like that.

“I found them at the craft store,” Tony admits.

His drink is four dollars, but he tips her five. She grins and waves bye at him.

He sits with Natasha, who says that she ordered a caramel frozen drink.

“It’s already cold outside,” Tony teases.

“Worth it,” Natasha says, sipping some more. “How’s the mint?”

He’s surprised that she remembers. But he says it’s fine and he even manages to wave at Sam, who smiles and waves back.

He sets his stuff down. “What should I order? I’m thinking the blueberry or the pumpkin.”

“Blueberry,” Tony answers. “This shop always goes heavy on the flavoring for pumpkin and it tastes bad sometimes.”

“You sound like you’re a regular,” Sam says.

“My cousin Sharon and I used to come here all the time before she went to study abroad,” Tony says.

“Sharon Carter?” Sam asks, eyes wide. “Holy shit, you have the coolest cousin in the world!”

“Sam has a bit of a crush on her,” Natasha adds helpfully. Sam flips her off and goes to order his coffee.

Bucky comes in, holding treats.

“From Ma,” he adds. “Tony, you like peanut butter?”

“I can’t say I’ve tried the cookie form of it,” Tony says, taking one.

It’s...normal. They don’t ask him questions about his stitching or his eyeballs or anything else. They ask him about his favorite colors and least favorite songs, and Natasha actually shares his same sense of humor.

He finds out that she lives kind of by him. Two blocks down. She knows Ana and Jarvis because they walk their dog in the morning before school and say hi to her when she’s out walking her cat.

“Your cat is Cinnamon?” Tony blurts. “Oh my god, you’re the reason why Ana wants to get a cat!”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Natasha responds. “But hey, if you ever wanna come closer to see Cinnamon, feel free.”

“Same goes for seeing our dog,” Tony says. Friday loves the attention of basically anyone, and Natasha smiles.

“Definitely. See you on Monday?”

“I’ll see you on Monday.”

Tony grins to himself as he gets to his house. He thinks that this is finally a good start.

#i always put a 'keep reading' link as i'm writing and then as soon as i hit post it disappears #that's homophobia at it's finest tbh #lovelyirony writes #natasha romanoff #tony stark #sam wilson #bucky barnes #YES ANA AND JARVIS RAISE TONY #IT'S GOOD

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sugarless--girl · 5 years

Text

Day 4: Café — Celegiri

Kyoko meets Celestia at her favorite coffeeshop

Read on AO3

Kyoko had been frequenting the same café for a year now as it had the best coffee around her campus. She was a bit of a coffee snob and thus liked her cup to be made perfectly. Her best friend, Makoto, was a hot chocolate connoisseur and was absolutely useless when it came to what actually went into a good cup of coffee. Luckily, The Grind always had something good.

She went to her usual spot in the back corner of the café, near a large window. It was nice and secluded and that more than made up for the fact that she had to share the table. Kyoko had chosen that table when the rush was overwhelming enough that there were no empty tables left so she was left to share it with another college student. That other college student wore a gothic Lolita ensemble that made her stand-out quite a bit. Kyoko didn’t mind sharing the table with that girl as it was much better than sharing it with the frat guys that had been eyeing her help since she stepped into the café.

And it had turned into a bit of a routine. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Kyoko would stop by the café before her 9AM class and study for a bit at the secluded tables. The other girl would be—9 times out of 10—reading some book. The book would vary greatly and it wasn’t hard to deduce that she was an English major or something else similar—most college didn’t have to luxury of reading for pleasure. Either that or she had a great deal of free time.

The girl smiled at her when she sat in her usual spot and Kyoko returned it with her own rare smile. She had a cute smile. They didn’t speak much to each other—or at all, if Kyoko was being honest here—and mostly kept to themselves. But today, Kyoko recognized the author of the book the girl was reading.

“Eoin Colfer? Wasn’t he the one that wrote the Artemis Fowl series?” Kyoko asked, breaching their self-imposed, no-talking clause.

The girl simply smiled. “Yes, it’s another one of his standalone books. It’s a mystery novel,” she said, lifting the book to show the cover. Half-Moon Investigations.

Kyoko nodded and thought for a moment. “Was it assigned by one of your professors or—?”

The dark-haired girl shook her head, her raven-twintails bouncing with the movement. “Nope. It’s a children’s book after all. I’ve been a bit brain-dead after my first set of midterms and thought something easy to read would be for the best.”

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. “So you decide to fix this….by reading more.”

“It’s better than lying around thinking of god-knows-what. Better to distract your mind than to get distracted by the overwhelming despair of life,” she said airily.

“Not a bad idea,” Kyoko said, quirking a smile. “Are these your first midterms or what?”

The girl smile widened as if she sensed the direction of Kyoko’s probing questions. She couldn’t help it—Kyoko was a criminal justice major and it was in her nature to be curious of others. “I’m a third-year. What about you?”

“Third-year as well. Kyoko Kirigiri.” Kyoko stated simply

“Celestia Ludenberg, pleased to meet you.” Celestia (wasn’t it nice to finally attach a name to her face?) said, dipping her head in greeting.

And thus it became part of their routine. They’d share a table, three times per week, quietly doing their own work but occasionally adding remarks on. Celestia had a deep interest in horror—as if you couldn’t see that through her gothic Lolita fashion—and enjoyed whatever tidbit of criminal psychology Kyoko had to offer. She enjoyed these talks as Celestia was a good conversationalist. It had been some time since she met someone she enjoyed talking with this much. Makoto was fun and all, but there was distinct lack of spark. Celestia….captivated her somehow.

“There are these ridiculous tests that go around on the internet that claim that you can predict a person’s psychopathy.” Kyoko said, sighing as she glanced down at her notes. She had been studying before the topic of what she was learning in class came up. Their current unit in her criminal psychology was on psychopathic traits. It was a topic she was highly interested in but somehow the internet had to ruin it. So, she had a bit of a beef to pick with the online articles running the ridiculous tests.

“Like?” Celestia asked, lacing her fingers underneath her chin.

“Okay, I’ll tell you a story that’s floating around. So the story goes that this girl is attending the funeral of her mother. She met an amazing guy there--her dream guy, essentially. And so she falls in love with him"

"That fast?" Celestia asked, unimpressed.

"It’s part of the riddle, so just go along with it." Kyoko said, smiling. “Don’t believe in love at first sight?”

“I believe in attraction at first sight, but love? Whoever says love is lying to themselves.”

“Harsh.”

“Harsh, but true. It takes getting to know a person, doesn’t it?”

Like we are, right now? Kyoko wanted to ask but it didn’t seem right or appropriate to tease about their friendship like that. It rubbed her in the wrong way. So she did the next best thing and changed the subject.

"Anyway, a few days later, the girl kills her sister. Why?"

Celestia’s fingers tapped her chin, and Kyoko noted the decorative jewelry she wore. How did she have the time to get dressed in the morning? And for that matter, how did she keep her fingernails so perfectly painted. Her thin, long fingers always stood out to Kyoko. They were so elegant—more so with the accessories.

“Is it because she wanted to see the man again?” Celestia asked and Kyoko’s attention snapped back to her.

“Yes.” Kyoko said, slightly taken back that she answered the question so fast. Well, perhaps it wasn’t a surprise consider how smart the other college student was. “How did you know?”

“Well I knew because this was a riddle. If you said story I wouldn’t have guessed otherwise. Maybe I would’ve said that she found out the man was dating her sister and she kills her in a fit of jealousy. But riddles are written so that all the necessary information is in the riddle itself.”

“That does make sense.”

“Though it’s not a very interesting riddle,” Celestia said. “It’s not particularly logical”

Kyoko smiled. “That’s the point though. They say that most psychopaths would get the riddle.”

If it was even possible, Celestia looked even more unimpressed. “Really now?”

“The riddle was said to be developed by a famous psychologist but of course, it doesn’t actually say who.”

“So it’s fake.”

“Most definitely.”

“I see…..”

“Either way, it turns up every now and then in articles. It’s frustrating because it perpetuates this idea that psychopaths are boogeymen to be feared as they’re not like you and I. While it’s true that they have different brain chemistry from the majority, it doesn’t mean that they’re liable to go on killing sprees. I rather dislike pop psychology.”

“Well said.” Celestia said with a smile. “You’re quite passionate about this, aren’t you?”

“It is my major. Not much sense in majoring in a subject I don’t like.”

“That’s quite admirable.”

“You’re full of compliments today, huh?” Kyoko asked, arching an eyebrow

Celestia just covered her mouth and laughed. Kyoko admired Celestia delicate mannerisms—something she lacked. The black-haired girl would’ve stood out in a crowd, simply with the way she carried herself.

“Is it so wrong to admire someone for their passion? I feel like everyone I run into is just going through the motions. It’s refreshing, honestly.” Celestia said, stirring her tea (she’d switch it up every now and then). Kyoko stared at her, trying to see if Celestia meant anything deeper than that. She wasn’t sure.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” Kyoko said, tucking a purple strand behind an ear. She kept her eyes locked with Celestia, unwilling to break eye contact in case it broke this strange atmosphere.

Celestia, looked away.

“It’s time for your class isn’t it?” Celestia asked, sounding distant. Kyoko wanted to stay with her longer but she knew it wasn’t practical.

“Yeah…I’ll see you on Friday?” She said as she gathered her textbook and notes.

“Of course.”

Kyoko drummed her fingers in annoyance. She sat in her usual spot at their Café but this time with Makoto across her.

“Are you sure she’s gonna show up? It’s nearing finals you know.” Makoto asked as he took a sip of his disgustingly sweet drink.

“She always sits here.” Kyoko said, still glancing around.

“Why don’t we ask the baristas if they’ve seen her around? If she’s a regular then they have to know when she shows up.” Makoto suggested before glancing to the register.

She blinked. Why hadn’t she considered that? Kyoko wasn’t in her right state of mind if she forgot about an insanely obvious answer. Makoto was shooting her worried looks so he clearly noticed as well. Perhaps the stress of her upcoming finals was stressing her out.

“Yeah….let’s go do that.”

A girl with brown hair tied up in a bun was manning the register. “Asahina?” Makoto asked, as he read off the name tag. “We were wonder if you’ve seen a girl with, um—“

“With black hair and red eyes come in recently.” Kyoko interjected smoothly. “She usually wears some sort of gothic Lolita ensemble”

Asahina blinked. “You mean Celestia?”

“Yes.” Kyoko asked, as she folded her arms. She gripped them, as if to give herself support.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen her for a while now….” Asahina said, trailing off.

“When did she last come in?”

“I dunno, a week ago?”

Great. That was around the time they stopped meeting. Kyoko sighed. “Alright, thank you.”

“You’re her friend right? Did you guys have a fight or something?”

Kyoko frowned at the intrusive question but answered anyway. “We haven’t. I just haven’t seen her for a while now. Yeah.”

Makoto’s expression was sympathetic. He turned to Asahina to ask her a question of his own. “Do you know if anyone knows where she’s been?”

“I can try asking around.”

“Please.” Kyoko said, trying to keep the hint of desperation from creeping in.

Asahina turned around and called out, “HEY GUYS! Have you seen Celestia??” Kyoko winced at the volume but no one in the café seemed to mind all that much.

“Celestia?” A large muscular girl said. “I think I saw her at the campus Starbucks the other day.”

Asahina gasped dramatically. “She ditched us for….Starbucks?? Wait, Sakura why were you at Starbucks??”

Kyoko would’ve paid a bit more attention to their conversation but she was already hurrying back to her seat to gather her things. She heard Makoto thank them before catching up to her.

“You’re gonna go now?”

“No time like the present.” Kyoko muttered

“Uh, okay.” Makoto said without adding anything else. She appreciated the fact that he knew when to back off. Kyoko wasn’t sure if she could properly convey the jumble of thoughts running through her head.

It didn’t take long to reach the campus Starbucks. Kyoko stepped into the café and scanned it for a familiar face. It seemed like luck was on her side as she spotted Celestia immediately. Maybe it was because she’d barely seen the other girl for a while now, because Kyoko focused in on Celestia, to create some sort of tunnel vision. She missed her. It had only been a week and yet she missed Celestia.

Kyoko hadn’t felt this strongly about anyone in, well, ever. Was this….

She’d examine her feelings later.

“Is that her?” Makoto asked, as he went to stand next to Kyoko.

“Mmh.”

“Alright, I’m gonna go get hot chocolate.” Makoto said, thoughtfully stepping out of the picture.

Kyoko strode towards Celestia. She pushed aside any doubts she might’ve had—she needed to hear it from the source, herself. No point in listening to the irrational thoughts in her mind.

She slowed to stop in front of Celestia and waited for the other girl. It was cute how sucked into a book Celestia would. It’d take a few moments for her to realize that Kyoko was staring at her. Celestia didn’t take all that long to notice Kyoko though.

“Ditched the Grind for Starbucks, huh?”

“K-Kyoko,” Celestia stuttered out and dropped her eyes to her lap. Kyoko pulled the chair to the table and sat down.

“Was it something I did?”

“What?” Celestia asked as her eyes snapped to Kyoko’s.

“You weren’t at our usual spot for a week now.”

“I….”

“So, if I did anything wrong I apologize. But I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.” Kyoko had wracked her brains to see what she did wrong to upset the other girl but nothing came up. But she’d rather fix whatever it was she did than let it fester and ruin their friendship.

Celestia toyed with the pages of the book before she said, “it wasn’t anything you did.”

“Then what?”

“Well….suppose….”

Kyoko waited patiently

“Suppose I caught feelings for you?”

Kyoko blinked. “That’s it?”

Celestia glared at her. “What do you mean that’s it?? It’s been me for a while now.”

“No I mean—” This wasn’t what she was expecting at all but it was….a welcome surprise, “—what made you think I would’ve rejected you?”

“Well the statistics of you being anything but straight held me back.” Celestia said quietly

“I’m bisexual.” Kyoko said calmly—her outward expression doing nothing to betray the thudding of her heart. “Not to mention I’ve rather enjoyed your company this past month.”

“So you mean to say…..” Celestia asked looking up, straight into Kyoko’s eyes.

“Well, you’re going to have to spell it out for me.” Kyoko said with a wry smile.

“You’re going to make me work for this aren’t you?” Celestia asked with a pout

“Call it your punishment for ditching me.”

“Well, maybe I won’t ask you out.” Celestia huffed, but her smile quickly gave her away

“So you don’t want to see that horror movie with me on Friday? I can’t believe you’re going to turn down free tickets.”

“I—since when were you so smooth??”

“One of us has to be.”

Celestia looked unimpressed but let out a small laugh. “Fine, I’ll grace you with my presence.”

“So generous.” Kyoko mocked before turning serious. “Come to me next time, alright?”

“Alright.” Celestia murmured. “I kinda hate the coffee here anyway.”

Some links to when Kyoko was talking about the psychopath riddle: link 1, link 2

#femslash february #femslashfeb2019 #day 4 #cafe #danganronpa #kyoko kirigiri #celestia ludenberg #celesgiri #celegiri #kyoko x celestia

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nani-lahiffe · 6 years

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Fighting Over a Lady’s Love: Chapter 2

Summary: Nino has a productive weekend, gets shocked by the news, gets shocked by Alya, and has the worst Monday ever.

Read Chapter 1 here or read it all on ao3 here

When Nino woke up this morning he felt energized and ready to face the day. It is the beginning of the weekend which means he has a whole two days to do the things he was yelled at for not doing the day before. He quickly turned off his phone so he wouldn’t be tempted to look at it. He also has already told everyone on Friday that he was going technology free during the weekend just so he could get caught up with everything that he has been slacking. Alya called him smart for thinking of that and wished that she could do the same, but the Ladyblog is too demanding. Not only did this tactic work, but by Sunday evening he managed to get ahead of his homework schedule by two weeks.

“You have made some great progress these past couple of days. I am quite proud.” Wayzz says flying over to Nino cuddling up to his cheek.

“Thanks, little dude, I couldn’t have done it without you.” Nino smiles at him and strokes his shell. If it wasn’t for Wayzz always motivating him and helping him figure out the material he couldn’t understand, Nino wouldn’t be as successful as he is now. He even helped clean Nino’s room which was definitely not an easy task. Maybe I should make him his own playlist to thank him, and so he can chill during the day while I’m in class.

“You deserve a break, Master Nino.”

“You know how much I hate it when you call me that.”

Wayzz laughs and with a smirk he says, “I know.”

Nino chuckles and jumps onto his bed. For the first time in two days he turns on his phone and was pleased to see that his friends and girlfriend kept their promise of not messaging him. He sent a quick message to the group chat between him, Alya, Adrien, and Marinette to say that he was still alive, and immediately went to social media to see what he has missed. Though what he was seeing was definitely not what he was expecting.

Love Between Paris’ Superheroes?

On Friday night a few spectators were enjoying the nice weather when they saw Ladybug cuddling up with another one of Paris’ favourite superheroes, though not the one we were all expecting. It seems as if Ladybug might be more of a turtle fan rather than a cat one. Yes, you read correctly, Ladybug and one of the newer heroes, Carapace, were seen holding each other very closely and intimately up on a rooftop.

One onlooker, Ruben Musquet, took the pictures that are shown below and had this to say, “We were trying to enjoy a nice night so we all went up on the roof of our apartment building, which is when we noticed Ladybug and Carapace. We just thought that they were running around like they usually do around Paris until they started hugging and stayed like that for about 10 minutes. Even when that was over they were still physically close to each other. That is when we really started thinking that something was going on between them. Our suspicions were confirmed when they kissed.”

Nino was used to gossip and rumours about him being spread around but that last sentence made him do a double take. When the hell did we kiss? He scrolls through the article to get to the pictures and sees grainy pictures of him and Ladybug. One of them hugging, one of him rubbing her arms when he was comforting her, and another of when he kissed his cheek. Though of course from the angle that the picture was taken from it looked like an actual mouth to mouth kiss.

Nino immediately starts panicking. He leaves that article and sees what the rest of the world is thinking about this.

Move over Ladynoir, Carabug is the newest ship in town.

Is Chat Noir jealous of the newest competitor to Ladybug’s heart?

Top 10 reasons why Carabug is better than Ladynoir.

Top 15 reasons why Ladybug should be with Chat Noir instead of Carapace.

Is there tension between Team Miraculous?

Every documented interaction between Ladybug and Carapace that will make you realize that this ship has been sailing for a long time.

Nino has the feeling that he should avoid being Carapace for a while, especially around his teammates. Though he is still scheduled for a Monday night patrol which he is now currently dreading. Friday’s squabble of who loves Ladybug more is going to be minor compared to the yelling he is going to receive since his team must think that he and Ladybug are together. And poor Ladybug is already so stressed from everything, and this is definitely not going to help with that.

Nino’s mind goes to Alya, his actual girlfriend, and starts thinking how crushed she might be when she finds out Ladynoir is ruined, and hopefully that opinion will be quickly changed. He heads over to the Ladyblog to see what Alya has written to find that there haven’t been new posts since Friday. It is very unlike Alya to just ignore the Ladyblog. Even when there is no important news she always plugs in fan work and theories to keep things alive.

He tosses his phone away and sighs. He has patrol tomorrow night so for now he should just sit back and try not to think about how all of Paris thinks that him and Ladybug have a thing going on.

As evening turns into night, Nino realizes no one has messaged him back yet. He lies down in bed and wishes that Paris calms down by tomorrow.

Surprisingly, Nino is the first one of his friends to get to school. Thankfully he didn’t wait long until Adrien’s car pulled up to the school.

Adrien starts getting out of the car and Nino yell, “Hey, dude!” He rushes over to see his friend and quickly stops once he takes a full look at his friend’s face.

“Hey, Nino” Adrien says in a weak voice. The boy was the definition of a hot mess. Disheveled hair, dark bags under his eyes that clearly shows the lack of sleep he has gotten, and eyes that look like he spent his weekend crying.

“Are you alright? What happened to you? Is it your dad again, because if it is I will literally fight him for you.” Nino wraps an arm around Adrien to try and comfort him as they walk towards the school.

Adrien cracks a small smile at that. “No, it’s not about my father, but thanks. It’s just this girl… I guess I thought we were closer than we actually are, and one-sided feelings kind of suck.”

Nino always had a feeling that there was someone in Adrien’s life, especially since he seemed to never consider anyone at school as a romantic choice. Also knowing how big of a romantic he is, it was weird that he hasn’t gone on millions of over-the-top dates. “Come on, dude, you’re a model! How can she not like you?”

Adrien gives him a sad smile and says, “I guess looks aren’t everything.”

Nino cringes at his bad choice in words, and he turns Adrien to face him. “I know plenty of girls here that actually like you, and I know that you will get along with them. Don’t even think about rolling your eyes at me. Trust me when I say they actually like you and not model you. You being hot is just an extra perk.”

He lightly chuckles at that and looks Nino in the eye. “Thank you.”

From all the advice he is giving out recently, he should change his career path from DJ to therapist.

One second, he is walking towards the school with Adrien, and the next he is being dragged away by Alya into a secluded part of the yard. When Nino realized where they were heading he was pretty excited to spend some quality time with his girlfriend, and then he looks at her and realizes that she, like Adrien, has also been crying.

Alya turns to face him and shoves her phone into his face. On it was the picture of his and Ladybug’s kiss. “Tell me what the hell is this?” Her voice was as fiery as her hair.

Nino just looks at her confused. “Uh, looks like Ladybug and Carapace hanging out?”

“Don’t do that to me, Nino, cut the bullshit. I know you are Carapace, so please, tell me what the hell this is.” Alya’s voice is strained, and she is trying to control her temper.

At this moment Nino felt his heart drop, because of course she knows and is misreading this situation. “Alya, I-.”

“You think you can become a superhero and cheat on me? Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out? This whole time you have acted like you were uninterested in Ladybug, but in reality, you two were together! Even around the team you acted like you didn’t care about our argument on who she cared about more, because obviously you already knew that answer!”

At first her words weren’t making any sense, and slowly he pieces together her whole statement and realizes a secret that should have been obvious to him. “You’re Rena Rouge.” He whispers.

Of course, Alya would be involved in the team’s fight. She has loved and looked up to Ladybug since she first arrived, has a blog dedicated to her, has risked her life to help Ladybug, and the first person Ladybug has trusted with a miraculous. No wonder he hasn’t seen her throwing herself at akumas lately, she was there as Rena the whole time.

“Yeah, I am. Surprised?” She says bitterly.

“You have it all wrong. Ladybug and I are not dating. She was having a rough time yesterday after the little fight that broke out. Hell, she was crying in every picture that those civilians managed to take! As a good friend, I was trying to comfort her!”

“Then explain the kiss!”

“It was on the cheek and she was thanking me! It meant nothing to the both of us!”

Alya looks away from him. “Just… don’t talk to me for the rest of the day.” She runs off towards the school.

“Merde.” Nino whispers to himself.

He walks back to school alone and enters the building. Across the hall Marinette gives him a strange and undecipherable look that he feels like he should know what she is communicating to him, but his brain is fried from the morning that he has already had. She is probably wondering what is going on with Alya, and I definitely can’t let anyone in on that secret.

The rest of the day continues awkwardly, and it does not make it any better that everywhere he goes he is hearing about the Ladybug and Carapace situation. It makes him more bitter, Adrien weirdly gets sadder, Alya burns with rage, and Marinette looks uneasy. Alya he could understand why she acted the way she did, but the other two are an anomaly. He assumes Adrien just gets sadder about his own love life every time someone else’s relationship is brought up. Then with Marinette, well she has always been a firm believer of ensuring the heroes have privacy in their lives, which Nino currently wishes more people were like. She must be annoyed that their privacy has been broken.

By the time the end of the day arrived, Nino couldn’t be happier. He was tense and on edge the whole day, and now he is speed-walking away from the school and everyone in it. Sure, he wishes to talk to Alya to maybe make up and make out, but one look at her face says that he probably should not approach her yet. Maybe Alya will be calm once I’m done patrol, so I can visit her, if Queen Bee doesn’t murder me first.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #nino lahiffe #alya cesaire #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #djwifi #carapace #ladybug #chat noir #rena rouge #queen bee #chloe bourgeois #my writing

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chemicallyx · 6 years

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So a lot has happened since my last post everyone! Of those many things, some of which I will have to reveal at a later date, I was able to get out and have a somewhat impromptu trip to New York City, New York! The reason? To attend the U.S. Career Forum there, which is a career event oriented toward people with Japanese & English language abilities and interests. So for those of you who might be coming back to the US and want to pursue jobs in the US or in Japan with Japanese companies, this is for you!

Heading out

So this was the first leg of the trip. I bussed down to Boston South Station on the Concord Coach Line – which is pretty nice. If you’re heading up to Maine I’d recommend it. And if you’re ever having to linger around Boston SS and you need a snack or something, don’t feel like you have to stay in the bus station, which has limited options. My boyfriend recommended popping over to the train station next door because there are many more options available for whatever you may need – coffee and snack for me – and it was good advice. I felt better grabbing something at Au Bon Pain than I did at McDonalds. D:

After that I made the switch to a Peter Pan bus that would go to the NY Port Authority bus station. This… was not so nice. The drive down was good, but their buses are really not in good shape. The most vexing part was really only that none of the outlets were functioning on the bus, and I knew I was going to need my phone for navigation in New York so I wouldn’t just be that lost tourist.. A word to the wise: conserve your battery on the way down. Also, the bus was incredibly noisy – lots of parts seemed like they were shaking loose there.

And maybe par for the course for a Friday afternoon arrival, but we were scheduled to arrive at the Port Authority station at 1:45pm. When did we arrive? 3:30pm… Thank you gridlock New York traffic! I started to wonder why anyone even bothers to drive there.. more on that later.

That being said, we were on the bus for too long!! But the bright side is we drove all the way around Central Park in the process, which I wanted to see. 🙂 It looked really cool – the scenic views were what kept me from losing my noggin in the middle of that lengthy bus arrival. From just outside the city all the way in, it was very, very New York. Up until now I didn’t know what that meant when other people said that, but now I do. So metropolitan, everything that everyone was doing just seemed like a natural, normal thing to do. I don’t know. Maybe if you’ve been you’ll know what I’m talking about.

One key observation that I had early on that persisted throughout my impromptu trip involved a pretty high level of horn honking. As a person who was once told that my ‘laugh point was low,’ it was pretty amusing, and no matter where I went in the city I heard fair amounts of horn honking. I think if you live there it becomes more like background noise and you notice less, but I definitely noticed it as an “outsider.” That being said, it certainly did not detract from the ambience of the city life – rather, it enhanced it! There’s no illusion when you’re lulled to sleep by occasional horn honks.

Anyway, to continue my tale, the first thing I had to do – well, second – was eat. I was starving after being on that bus for hours. So I went to Go! Go! Curry, which I found while Googling food on the bus, and I chose it because it wasn’t too far from the station. So I popped in there and ate ravenously.

Go! Go! Curry…

gone.

It seemed like most of the clientele was male, probably because of all the carbs involved, but I had no shame. I hadn’t eaten in like 6 hours! And it was pretty delicious.

Since it was in the area and the theme of my journey seemed to be ‘Japan,’ I decided to pop into the NY Kinokuniya, which is right across from a nice park and a subway stop. I walked through some of the fashion district to get there and it was pretty scenic. My history of watching Project Runway found me excited to be in such close proximity to Mood, lol. But I pressed on to Kinokuniya because it is so natsukashii (なつかしい）. I really long for some of the things I miss about Japan, being away from it and all. So I took myself in there and grabbed a book for my boyfriend, checked out a few more, longed for a wonderful bookstore such as Kinokuniya where I live, and then decided to head to my hotel digs.

I want this book

and this book!!

So I got on the subway. Now I’ve heard a lot of things about the NY Subway (thanks 30 Rock), so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had to experience it right? I had bought a Metro Pass at the Hudson News in the Port Authority – a 4-rider – and used that to get on. I was in subway mode with my headphones and I stood most of the way. Nothing strange really happened, except a small kid came onto the subway selling snacks. When there were no takers he quickly moved to the next car. Other than that one occurrence though, nothing really happened at all. So I felt like the myth was busted. Rode down to Delaney St. and exited toward Essex St. above ground. I was in the Lower East Side, which was another thing I had to get used to on the journey – the Boroughs!! I was like which is where? half the time. Pretty handy to check out a map and try to remember though because subway signs say things like ‘Toward Uptown,” “Toward Downtown,” or “Toward Brooklyn,” and unless you know which area your destination is in, those signs aren’t exactly helpful.

The Digs + Lower East Side

Anywho, I walked myself a couple blocks down to the Blue Moon Hotel. You can find my Booking.com review here. It’s great value for the money if you’re willing to be a little far from you need to be. Lower East Side seems to be in a hopping area with a lot of night life, which makes sense when you consider it’s near NYU, so there isn’t a shortage of things to do.

I took a shower immediately because I felt gross after being out in public that long, you know the feeling. After I jumped out I was better able to appreciate the digs.

Speaking of things to do, while I felt pretty tired from the ride and the walking, not to mention I still felt I had a little prep left to do for some of my interviews the next day, I made myself go out to get a quick bite & drink. I went all the way to NYC so I should enjoy it right? was my line of reasoning. I stumbled across Goa Taco, and let me tell ya, I love tacos, so I went in.

I got a spicy margarita and a pork belly taco. It. Was. Delicious. goa taco is totally happening – there isn’t a lot of seating area but I liked the crew’s vibe and the shop was playing hip, current music, so it felt very New York and I enjoyed sitting there eating for a bit, watching people come and go. That spicy margarita though…. delicious. If you stop in and are of age, you HAVE to get one. I love a marg, but this one way exceeded expectations. 🙂

I headed back to the hostel/hotel, jumped in my bunk, did a little bit of prep, and went to sleep. I knew I’d have an early morning so I had to get my intelligence (and beauty) sleep…

U.S. Career Forum NY

So the next day I set out pretty early. And of course the best way to start my day is with a nice little breakfast snack and an amazing cup of coffee.

Lucky for me, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters cafe was right down the street from Blue Moon. I had know about this shop before because of a bit of a connection through my boyfriend’s family, so I was really excited to find it right next door basically. I was even more elated to find out how delicious their dark roast pour over and baked goods were!

The scenes

and the eats!

It was a pretty refreshing breakfast. That was a piece of raspberry banana bread by the way, and it was AMAZING. I was in the first rush of customers who were approaching just as the doors opened on Saturday at 8 AM.

And yup, I was wearing a suit. Japanese style. That’s in the Blue Moon elevator right there.

So anyway I jumped on the subway after this, and shortly came to realize that the subway is definitely less reliable on weekends than it is weekdays, and it is a point that a friend of mine who lives in New York now reiterated to me later. So if you find yourself in the city rushing somewhere, it could be faster to take a Lyft or something, depending on the time of day. Just something to keep in mind.

Lucky for me though I had a lot of time. The doors of CF open at 10 am and the event ran until 5 pm, with a short 5-6 pm happy hour following. So I got off at the closest stop, which was Penn Station and walked for 15 minutes or so to the Javits Center. It was further than I anticipated, but it was good to get some exercise.

For many people, you may not have to arrive at the Career Forum as soon as it opens, but if you’ve scheduled a lot of interviews in advance using their website or via email, you’ll likely be putting in a whole day. I certainly did. I had 4 interviews lined up and a lot of resumes prepared to hand out to all the different booths along the way. Really your effort in advance and the day of makes the experience for you, so I think it’s well worth the time put in ahead of time to have things arranged and lined up for you once you arrive.

Part of what precipitated my journey was also that I received/was approved for the travel scholarship down to the event. They’ll give you a reimbursement based on where you’re coming from to hopefully offset the costs involved with going down. So even if you aren’t sure you’ll get it it is worth a shot to apply. I didn’t think I would get it and I did! So that’s what helped me decide to go down.

All in all I think it was a useful event for me to really see where I want to end up. I’m kind of at a nexus point in my career, so I want to make sure the next step I take is the right one, and being able to go to this really helped me realign my compass so to speak. I think it can help others too, so it’s well worth going to one of these events.

After Career Forum

So after Career Forum I had plans to meet up with a friend from university and we had a blast. She’s been living there for going on 7 years now, so she knows a lot about NYC. So we checked out a couple awesome places. The first being sake bar decibel.

Sorry the photos are a little blurry, but it was dark! It was a pretty awesome place. We had some delicious food, and they had amazing sake! It was an excellent place and we stayed there for a while just chatting and catching up. Eventually we ran the clock though and had to order more or scoot, so we decided to scoot.

We walked around for a bit to decide what to do next, and we ended up heading to a place she knew about called Angel’s Share, which is located through a discreet door inside of a Japanese restaurant called Village Yokocho. It’s a speakeasy concept so it’s one of those ‘secret’ locations, but even though it’s secret, it was pretty popular, lol! It’s like that everywhere I feel with speakeasies once the word gets out. But if you get the chance, I highly recommend stopping in. Their cocktails were out of this world….

That’s something that I think is pretty impressive. The level of NYC cocktails is off the chart. I though some of Portland’s restaurants put together some awesome cocktails, but the NYC game is pretty strong. So if you’re interested in sampling and are of age, it’s something definitely worth looking into. Just any cocktail bar will probably be amazing, but Angel’s Share was pretty much the best I’ve had yet. It was a tequila-based drink with burdock-infused mezcal. I don’t recall the name of the drink, but think about those components alone! Pretty amazing.

So my friend and I continued chatting for a while and enjoying our adult beverages and we were considering doing karaoke, but I’m just too old – hahaha! So we went to our respective homes and I got back at about 2:30 am (which is a stretch for me nowadays, lol). I knew I had an early morning (8:30 am return bus), so I showered ASAP and got in bed. I decided to grab a Lyft the next morning to make sure I made my bus in time. I was exhausted with the whirlwind trip, but since it was my first time in NY I was glad to do it. I think everyone should go check it out. Really it seems like a place where anyone can belong, and I think that’s one of the best parts about the city. It was great to feel that vibe for a weekend. Needless to say, I made it back to Maine safely and in better time than the way down, which was a huge relief.

Did my journey get you curious about New York? Send me a message or comment below and I’m happy to share my impressions or more info about Career Forum. 🙂 Until next time!

A Spontaneous Journey to NYC So a lot has happened since my last post everyone! Of those many things, some of which I will have to reveal at a later date, I was able to get out and have a somewhat impromptu trip to New York City, New York!

#bilingual jobs #Career Forum #career forum NY #English jobs #Japanese jobs #Japanese-English #Javits Center #jobs #journey to NYC #Lower East Side #New York #New York City #random

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