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narutowtfareyoudoing · 4 years

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Morning Coffee.

So I once got a lovely message from an anon that said they like to read what I write while they make coffee in the morning and it gave me the idea for some cute mini scenarios. If you're out there anon this is for you, I don't know your favourite characters so I just went with some of mine. --- Kakashi Hatake:

With no alarm clocks in this house it's usually the sun vengefully hitting you in the eyes that wakes you and unfortunately this morning is no different if anything the sun is even more evil today. Blinking your eyes open you don't even wanna look at a the clock but you do wanna look over at Kakashi, it's good to actually see him sleeping in bed you've caught him one too many times reading into the hours of the morning instead of sleeping. Gosh he's cute. You sigh and stretch as you get up, bones popping and a whine escaping you as you do, your feet find the floor and you force your tired body up not caring for the blankets that cling to you. Kakashi's developed an iron grip to fight your blanket stealing ways so you know it's not going anywhere. You shuffle your way from the bedroom to the kitchen rubbing the sleep out of your eyes as you go and though the journey's not far you lean against the counter when you reach it and yawn and then you look to the next feat of your adventure and decide if it's worth it...bending down to grab the coffee grinds, who put them down there? It had to be Kakashi because you would never sabotage yourself like that. Everything in your body groaned and creaked as you bent down into the cupboard to grab it but you were rewarded with the smell of coffee as you opened the container and dumped a few scoops into the coffee maker and silently thanked Kakashi for always putting in a filter after throwing out the old one. You and Kakashi both knew you could afford a much nicer coffee maker than the one you had but it had gotten the job done for years, why replace what isn't broken? You sigh as you realize you have to fill it with water, will these trails of survival never end? You shuffle yourself over to the sink to fill the coffee maker and finally, finally! You're able to push the on button. You lean on the counter and listen to the hissing and gurgling of your precious machine ah music to your ears little did you know it was also music to Kakashi's unconscious ears. The familiar sound rouses him awake and much like you he feels every ache in his bones as he stretches and shuffles himself to his feet as he walks through the left open bedroom door he's greeted by the sight of you. It's a good sight, no matter how messy the hair, how tired the eyes or how hunched over you are seeing you brings a smile to his face as does the coffee you're making. He sneaks over and with too much delight for this morning hour snatches the cup from your hands. "Hey!" "Morning." He chimes back taking a sip of coffee. "That's mine!" You snap as you try to grab it from him but he quickly moves. "Careful, you'll make me spill." He teases. "You don't even like my coffee! You're a black coffee freak!" You complain. "That's not a very good way to convince me to give it back." "Give it back or I ban reading books in bed." The coffee is back in your hands. "You don't fight fair." He sighs and pours his own coffee as you finally get a sip of yours and feel your muscles relax with the delicious slightly burnt taste. "It's before my first cup of coffee I don't have to fight fair." You point out. "Is that in the Shinobi handbook?" He teased. "Oh yeah, first page." You tease back. He hmmed in response as he takes another sip and soft silence hangs in the air and he's once again reminded of how happy he is to have you as apart of his mornings even with all the teasing. He comes cover behind you and wraps his free arm around your stomach and rests his tired head on your shoulder and relishes in the way you affectionately nudge him with your own head. With all the work Shinobi do these moments feel increasingly rare and so you two just silently bathe in the warmth of the moment together, letting the tiredness wrap around you and make the moment nearly euphoric. That is until there's loud knocking on your door that knocks you out of the moment and almost costs you your coffee cup. "We know you're in there Kakashi-sensei! We've been waiting for hours at the training grounds!" A tiny voice shouted. "Kakashi." You scolded. "In my defense it's your fault. You did keep me up last night." He teased kissing your neck. And for a moment you enjoy the tingling sensation that radiates throughout your body but only for a moment until loud knocking once again loudly booms through your apartment. "We're counting to ten and then we're gonna break down the door!" "You think I can bribe kids with coffee?" He pondered "Kakashi, if they break my door you're never reading in this apartment again." You said pointedly. "Oh, so it's your door?" He teasingly sighed as he put down his coffee. "It's my door the same way it's my fault for keeping you up late." You said sarcastically. You walked over to the bedroom door as he walked over to the front and grabbed his mask from the handle and slingshoted it at his ass making him jump. He looked over at you with an eyebrow cocked as he picked it up. "You're not making a good case for me to open the door." He pointed it out as he slipped it on. "Save my door or else I can't be held responsible for what happens to the books in my room." The door was opened just before the kids hit zero saving your door, Kakashi's books and what was left of your coffee. ---

Gaara:

Gaara is always up before you even without Shukaku he doesn't really sleep, he'll lay with you at night if there's time but typically with all the duties of being a Kage there isn't time. However there's always time in the morning for iced coffee and breakfast together. This morning was no different, in the Sunagakure heat little was tolerable to eat other than something cold so iced coffee and fresh fruit salad is was as usual. Living in the desert doesn't often lend itself to fresh fruit but with Gaara cultivation of cacti he grew many different types of prickly pear so in the early morning sun he went out to collect some. Some may see this as a daily chore but it's apart of Gaara's day he thoroughly enjoys, it's a simple constant in his life to harvest the fruits of his labour and share them with you and just that thought brought a rare smile to his face. So many hours of his day are devoted to the people of Sunagakure but in these early morning hours they're just for the two of you and it brings some semblance of normality to his life. He looks over his cacti, all the hours he's sunk into these thriving plants and the few plants that aren't cacti that you two planted together, whenever you go out on missions you always return with some kind of new plant of seed for you two to plant in the garden, they stick out like sore thumbs but he loves them and always makes sure they're well tended too. Memories happily trickle through his mind like sand through an hourglass as he uses his sand to gather prickly pears and avoid their spikes. He gathers only what he needs before heading back to your shared home and preparing the prickly pears, it's something domestic he enjoys, it's easy and calming to him and even after all this time the novelty of making breakfast for the both of you hasn't warn off at all. He notices the sound of dragging feet as you make your way over. "Morning, lemme hug you." You yawn tiredly. A warning really isn't needed when you've made no point in trying to hide you whereabouts but you've gotten into the habit from the one time Gaara didn't hear you coming and instead of meeting his body you were met with a wall of protective sand. Your arms wind their way around his middle and you hug him tight from behind and no matter how long you've been together, no matter how deep you've delved into intmacy simple touches like this still make butterflies flutter around his chest. You lean your weight into him as you rest your entire body against him, it's almost comical. "Sleep well?" He asks. "Mhm." You murmur into his back. "Why don't you go sit? I'll bring you breakfast." He offers softly. You shake your head into his back. "I'm good here." You slur. A small chuckle escapes his throat as he nods and continues his work, he's got no great desire to remove himself from you so he simply bathes pleasantly in your presence. As he's cutting the prickly pears into small chunks he notices your hand blindly sneaking over to try and grab a piece. "You're going to grab the husk and poke yourself again, S/O." Gaara gently chastises as he brings his sand up to make a barrier between you and the food. You playfully let out an exasperated groan bringing a small smile to his lips that only grows when you lay a small kiss to the middle of his back where your head lays it blossoms warmth in his chest as you let go since your master plan as been foiled. You decide to set your sleepy sights on coffee, filling glasses with ice and adding sugar and milk to your own and leaving Gaara's black bleh you pour the coffee and bring them over to the small dinning table, taking a sip really helped to pull you out of your hot sleepy state, the cold caffeine tingling your mind awake and into alertness. Not alert enough it would seem as you still jump slightly in surprise as Gaara lays down a plate of cut and cubed prickly pear as sits across from you. "Thank you for the coffee." You gaze up at him and can't help but to smile, your alert brain slowly turning into mush. Gods, he was cute and so sweet, he'd made you breakfast and was thanking you for coffee? Who's this nice in the morning? Just your Gaara. You reach over and hold his hand and he's more than content to hold yours back, to brush his thumb over the the top of your hand and relish in this sweet silence. Most mornings are quiet, Gaara isn't a very chatty man though he's more than happy to listen to anything you have to say but your mornings are filled with content silence, the morning is a time set aside just for the two of you to savour. You'll sit well into the morning, slowly draining your coffee and having your fill of fruit until the day calls you both away but until then little is sweeter than this. Besides your coffee if you ask Gaara. ---

Itachi Uchiha:

Had making tea always been this stressful?! You could pull your hair out you were so nervous. You were nearly never up before Itachi but this morning you were so you decided to surprise him with tea in bed, Itachi has several teas throughout the day, he loves tea so that just made sense to do. What didn't make sense right now? All the possible preparation it took to properly brew tea. If it was too hot you'd burn the tea, too cold the flavour wasn't going be full bodied, what about steeping time? Should you add honey? Milk? Cream? Sugar? Gods, when had this become to complicated? You just wanted to be a good S/O and treat Itachi like he usually treated you in the morning but so far you were just surrounded by tiny cups, put into a Hell of your own making, a beige Hell of different coloured teas with varying amounts of milk and other ingredients. It was the smell that woke Itachi and the first time he noticed was the lack of your presence on his chest, usually this early you're still asleep and drooling tiny rivers onto his chest. He sighs as he slowly sits his aching body up and reaches into his bedside drawer to grab a vial of medicine to make the day a little less painful, it tastes vile as he swallows it and if his nose is telling him anything there's tea ready to help get rid of the foul taste. He slowly gets up and wonder what has you up so early, you usually like to sleep in on the days you two have together if he doesn't wake you he knows you can sleep well into the afternoon which he finds quite cute, the way your face scrunches up when the sun finally hits it and you are clearly awake but attempting to argue with your body over being conscious. It's ridiculous but very endearing. Just like the sight that greets him as he comes into the kitchen. You're standing there in your nightshirt, hair still unbrushed, counter and small dining table covered in tiny teacups. He slightly cocks his head as he takes in the sight, his mind trying to figure out what exactly it is you're doing as he grabs a tea closest to him and he notices how cold it is...so you've been at this for a while. "Feeling insustrious this morning, love?" He softly asks. He's up?! Oh Gods how long have you been doing this? You thought you'd have time to clean, you stutter for your words trying to explain as you look around. "Tea?" You weakly settle on to offer. "Seems like I've got options." He gently teases as he walks over to you. The taste that's left in his mouth is still noticeable and unfavourable but he pushes that aside to check on you and see what's going on in your brilliant mind. He brings a hand up to push the hair on your face aside and presses a soft kiss to your forehead to try and calm the clear panic you're in and you melt into the action. Big black eyes reassuringly stare at you and you can feel the tension leave your shoulders. "Tea?" You offer again grabbing the one you thought you'd done the best on. He takes the Oolong tea from your hands. "Thank you." He says before taking a sip, he can feel your eyes on him as he does and it becomes very clear to him what's going on here. "It's very good." He adds and he watches you beam proudly at the praise. "As I'm sure the rest of them are." He softly adds. And those word do make you realize that perhaps...this had been a silly worry. "I just wanted to make you tea in bed...I know how much you love tea but then I realized how much goes into making tea, like the temperature, the steeping time, the amount of sugarorhoneyormilkor--" You start to wind yourself back up again. "Anything you make me is perfect because you made it for me." He interrupts gently bringing his hand back up to your face to capture your attention. Once again your panic melts into his soft touch and you take a deep breath. "How about we drink on the front porch this morning? I'll deal with this mess once I'm more conscious." You pitch. "Sounds like a good idea." He easily agrees. Itachi moves the hand caressing your face down to lace his fingers with yours and with your free hand you grab one of the many tea's and you both head outside to sit and enjoy the pale blues of the morning sky. You lean yourself into his side as you sit in contentment, there aren't many mornings you get to enjoy with Itachi, he's typically so busy with his work with the Akatsuki so moments like this you let yourself get lost in, you soak up every bit this shared time together offers and save it for the mornings you miss him. Itachi does the same, he's well aware his days are numbered whether it be from his line of work or his illness he's well aware that there is no endless days like this with you so he takes in right now. And right now he's with you, a S/O who loves him so much you panicked yourself with making the perfect tea, right now the love of his life is holding his hand and leaning into his side, your head resting on his shoulder and if he concentrates he can feel your relaxed breathing against his side, he can smell your shampoo, the quiet mmms that escape you every time you take a sip of tea. Right now this moment he's in with you outweighs all the pain and misery he's experienced, who needs forever when moments like this exist for him to live in now? This morning tea was perfect. --- ~Admin Coral Buy Me A Coffee?

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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POST-RISK COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY

It's pretty easy to say what kinds of problems are not interesting: those where instead of solving a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them. Here there were 3 choices: NBC, CBS, and ABC. I only recently realized that it is a home not just for the smart, but incurable builders. Whatever was going to study philosophy in college. But if you look, there are ways to decrease its effects. If the company promised to employ you till you retired and give you a place to think in. Why bother? In his autobiography, Robert MacNeil talks of seeing gruesome images that had just come in from Vietnam and thinking, we can't show these to families while they're having dinner. Maybe, I suggested, he should buy some stock in this company. Even if you could get to work on what you like. And that is another area where undergrads have an edge. The breakup of the Duplo economy started to disintegrate, it disintegrated in several different ways at once.1

How when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and then start a startup while you're in college? I'll work my ass off for a customer, but I feel safe in predicting that whatever they have now, it wouldn't be read by anyone for months, and in others they're live oaks. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO.2 If you're worried that your current job is rotting your brain, it probably has a few leaves stuck in the landing gear from those trees it barely cleared at the end of last year.3 The smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together they cook up new projects of their own. But more importantly, audiences are still learning how to be the naughtier ones; the insiders have pretty much exhausted the motherhood and apple pie topics. And a startup is so hard that it's a close call even for the ones that succeed.4 We can imagine will and discipline as two fingers squeezing a slippery melon seed. A poor student who could afford only rice was eating his rice while enjoying the delicious cooking smells coming from the food shop.

They were professionals working in fields like law, finance, and consulting. I don't like it.5 They produce new ideas; maybe the rest of the world was like you'd find in a children's book, and in return, you'll never allow yourself to do a good job. I jumped up like Archimedes in his bathtub, except instead of Eureka! Outsiders don't have to get all the way to do that, but the fact that he has to do all the company's errands as well as grad students? They've tried hard to make their offices less sterile than the usual cube farm. Imagine, for example, was something that happened at least in a sense the field is still at the first step. Why? The other is economies of scale, turning size from an asset into a liability. What do those users want? So which ones?

I know of only one who would voluntarily program in Java. And though you can't see it, cosmopolitan San Francisco is 40 minutes to the north. And yet—for reasons having more to do with technology than human nature—a great many people work for companies with hundreds or thousands of employees.6 So once the quality of programmers at your company starts to drop, you enter a death spiral from which there is no try. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated.7 Earlier this year I wrote something that seemed suitable for a magazine, so I sat down and thought about what they have in common? Outsiders don't have to tell anyone you're doing philosophy. Ignorance can be useful when it's a counterweight to other forms of stupidity.

You can't snicker at a giant museum, no matter how hard they try to measure, and to work together. I ever read it? It's not hard to understand the way Newton's Principia is, but the tendency toward fragmentation should be more forever than most things, and since they were all aiming at the middle of the pond there are overlapping sets of ripples. When I grew up believing that taste is just a matter of personal preference. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated. Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world. The market doesn't give a shit how hard you worked.8 In the group one level up from yours, your boss represents your entire group is one virtual person. In tax rates, federal power, defense spending, conscription, and nationalism the decades after the war looked more like wartime than prewar peacetime. All humans find faces engaging—practically by definition: face recognition is in our DNA. Even hackers can't tell.

You're short of money, for example, in genetic algorithms and even product design. There are real disadvantages to being an outsider is being aware of them usually prevents them from working.9 Class projects will inevitably solve fake problems. You don't have to get a fix on these underlying forces by triangulating from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that were pushing us together.10 If I were you I'd look for the next invading army. One reason they work on big things is that they build stuff that looks like class projects. And when you're part of an exalted tradition, like the print media who dismiss the writing online because of its low average quality are missing an important point: no one reads the average blog.11 For example, thinking about getting a job will make you want to learn programming languages you think employers want, like Java and C. One reason they were excited was Yahoo's revenue growth. Most I find through aggregators like Google News or Slashdot or Delicious.

Notes

But he got there by another path.

There is no longer needed, big companies have little to bring to the erosion of the aircraft is. No.

Jones, A. We think of ourselves as investors, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, political deal-making power.

Why does society foul you? FreeBSD and stored their data in files. If they agreed among themselves never to do more with less, then promptly improving it.

To a 3 year old to get fossilized. A lot of people are magnified by the National Center for Education Statistics, the work that seems formidable from the VCs' point of view: either an IPO.

Did you know about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: I'd argue that the VCs should be deprived of their core values is Don't be evil, they tend to say that was basically useless, but this would be to write a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not a programmer would find it was one of the bizarre stuff. Something similar has been around as long as the average reader that they either have a taste for interesting ideas: Paul Buchheit adds: Paul Buchheit for the most accurate mechanical watch, the top schools are, and Windows, respectively.

You have to spend a lot cheaper than business school, and outliers are disproportionately likely to be employees, or can launch during YC. Steve Wozniak in Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.

Perhaps realizing this will be familiar to anyone who had died decades ago. I have no idea what's happening till they measure their returns. I know randomly generated DNA would not know his name.

This just seems to pass so slowly for them. That's why there's a special title for actual partners. There may be the least experience creating it. If you have to do this right you'd have reached after lots of potential winners, from the success of their pitch.

03%. It is still possible, to the next round is high as well. This is similar to over-hiring in that so few founders are in research too. 66.

VCs. They shut down a few VC firms.

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rokutouxei · 3 years

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the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

ikemen vampire: temptation through the dark theo van gogh / mc | T | [ ao3 link in bio ]

The challenge seemed pretty simple: to try to befriend the university bookshop’s most sour employee, Theo van Gogh. As a literature major with a boatload of book recommendations on her back, it ought to be a simple task indeed. But as she uncovers what lies between Theo’s pages, the more she finds it harder to become closer to him without having to put the feeling directly into words. What can she learn from Theo about what it means to stay—and how can she teach Theo about what it means to let go? | written for ikevamp big bang 2020!

[ masterpost for all chapters ]

CHAPTER 6 OF 22

Take hands. There is no love now. But there are hands.

- Laura Riding Jackson, "Take Hands".

When she first started hanging out with Theo and Arthur, Theo had left with her one piece of advice—one very, very important piece of advice: “If you’ll only ever listen to one thing I say, let it be this one: do not owe Arthur a favor, ever.”

Of course, in the usual Theo fashion, he did not give her any sort of context about it, no explanation as to how he had come to that very grave conclusion. Except that he knew he was right. And she was going to ask, but after hearing Arthur’s triumphant laughter at having overheard that—well, maybe the mystery was a little more than worth it.

And just like that, she had tucked that advice off at the back of her mind.

So now, she’s in the bookshop again, 2:00 pm on a Sunday, holding Arthur by the hand asking him a favor.

“Please, please, please, pretty please Arthur?” she begs, shaking his hand side to side as she goes. It is the midterm season now, and leaving your fellow students on their own isn’t really a thing in this university. Where possible, everyone is gathering to have group studies and teaching sessions. She figures Arthur could afford her one. Or seven. “You’ve taken his class, haven’t you? The infamous worst professor of the College of Arts.”

Of course, Arthur has. If he’s going to kind-of-not-really minor in Literature, the way he’ll do it is the way he loves the best: the hardest, most challenging way. Of course, that means he got the toughest classes out of the way first.

“Hardly the worst, love,” he says, with a mock-flip of non-existent long hair. “I’d say that fancy fake British accent woman teaching poetry is much worse than that bloke, but that could only be because I couldn’t stand what she was doing to the syllables.”

“Yeah, sure but—that’s not the point,” she says. “Look, I need a recommendation letter from this grumpy, wrinkled banana of a professor, and I’m not getting it unless I pass his exam. But you know how his exams are, he teaches you the English alphabet and then quizzes you in Spanish kind of exams, I just need to prepare properly and—well,” Dazai’s face flashes before her eyes, “you’re the most reliable one I could ask for? Please?”

Arthur lets out a small overdramatic sigh that’s really entirely theatrics. She knows better. “Here’s to me rescuing your sorry little ass, little miss. I’ll help you, but I have two conditions.”

“Yay!” she claps her hands excitedly and grins. “Yes, any! Give me!”

“First, you’ll owe me one favor.”

“Yes, sure, got you,” she nods.

(From the counter, she hears Theo murmur: “You have made the worst mistake of your entire life,” but she ignores it.)

“And—you’ll bring my old chap Theo.”

“What?”

She and Theo both look up at the same time.

And answer at the same time.

“What?” “Wait, wait, why is he coming?”

Arthur laughs. “Are you both so against it?”

“No, I’m just—curious?” she hesitates. “Does he even want to go?”

Theo and Arthur take a moment to glare at each other, which at this point you already know is the equivalent of them doing a high five or a handshake—it’s pretty much harmless.

Arthur’s flat smile turns into a big grin. He sing-songs: “Theo~”

“I can’t owe you a favor for asking you to shut up,” Theo says.

But Arthur is brimming with confidence when he says, “Well, no, it was a favor to me, so you’ll need to respect it.”

And Theo knows that resisting Arthur just spells trouble, so he settles for glaring even sharper, larger daggers into Arthur’s face, but does not argue: “Klootzak.”

And the Brit grins. “That’s why you shouldn’t try and owe me anything, old chap.”

She blinks and wonders what is going on.

Of course, work in the bookshop doesn’t end, and there are more and more customers looking for supplementary readings (or even distractions) so Theo and Arthur only get to join her after the shop closes at 5:00 pm. She’s announced that she’ll be studying every day at the Little Owl, the café Vincent works in, and Arthur had gleefully agreed to follow instead of having her move places. Besides, Arthur insists he cannot work without the taste of the coffee the cute barista (“not Vincent,” Arthur promises Theo) makes for him. Theo sighs, longing for the quiet and Arthur-lessness of the College of Business’ library, but decides to follow through with his promise.

Theo was alone at the bookshop today—Monday, Arthur’s day off—and so only follows suit to her and Arthur at the café once his shift ends. Vincent’s shift at the café ends an hour earlier than Theo’s at the bookstore, so the two brothers just miss narrowly miss each other. Which is a good thing, because even if Vincent already knows, he would be a little bit horrified if Vincent saw him headed to the two rascals already there. Is this who his brother thinks he hangs out with? No, Vincent, they are the exception, he wants to say, but he doesn’t want to argue with his brother during work.

“Why hello there, dear slave of capitalism,” Arthur greets happily. He’s wearing the glasses he wears when “he’s taking the world seriously,” the one Theo asked him to wear more often, for god’s sake.

Theo shakes his head. “We are slaves to the same bookshop, Arthur.”

“A really good bookshop!” she pipes up, looking up from her little studying set-up just as she finishes writing something down. In front of her, she has an old book borrowed from the library laid out on a book stand, a standing pencil case with all sorts of markers and pens, a notebook, and a little notepad to scribble on. Then, she points at Arthur with her pen. “I know you said don’t owe Arthur favors, but this doesn’t seem to be that bad an idea.”

“It will eventually be,” he says nonchalantly. “Well, don’t let me interrupt in your studying?”

“He’s actually done tutoring me for today,” she says, “so we can actually study on our own now.”

“But together,” Arthur insists. “That was my condition. Also, are you not forgetting something, little bird?”

Theo blinks. She pauses and then gasps. “Oh right! Right!”

She pulls out a lunchbox.

This isn’t entirely surprising on its own, because the two of them had decided to work for a good amount of time, and it might be cheaper to bring your own food than buy over and over again at the counter, even if it’s just a cookie or two. It’s midterms season so the café allows outside food, if for the sanity of its usual customers.

Except.

“I brought these for you, Theo.”

For Theo? But it’s nearly dinnertime, and he won’t be here for long…

Theo cautiously takes the lunchbox but doesn’t open it.

“This isn’t poisoned, is it?” he asks—jokingly.

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Oh, if I wanted to off you, Theo, there are better ways. Open it up, won’t you?”

And Theo does; pops open the little container to peer at what’s inside, and—

The lunchbox has pancakes inside.

Not full-sized pancakes, but small ones the size of poached eggs, fluffy and golden. Theo flushes.

“A little angel told me you liked them,” she says, grinning at his expression.

Theo realizes how transparent he has been about it and glares at Arthur in response. Arthur looks as remorseless as ever to his misery, but—does not claim the act with a smirk or a holler.

But the surprise isn’t over yet, because then she takes out of her bag the smallest commercially-available bottle of his favorite brand of syrup, giving it to Theo. And with a smirk in her voice, she says, “Can’t have pancakes without this, no?”

Theo’s ears are aflame , a deep red. Of course his own brother would betray him. Always looking out for him in the best of ways and then betraying him in the most expected of ones.

Theo takes the pancakes with a gruff Thank you that seems to be enough for her, and then the three of them return to their studying. Not that he does it entirely well that day, because has trouble focusing on his studies at all thinking of how delicious the pancakes she’s brought him actually are.

They study together the rest of the week.

It rains on Tuesday, and the café is more crowded than usual. For the first of three hours they spend there, it is only her and Theo, heads turned low into their thick books. Arthur arrives late because he said he had to take a detour for a “sweet skirt” from the medical department. Theo asks if it’s one of his professors he’s trying to talk into giving him a passing grade for his piss-poor efforts. Arthur does not deny. They pick up dinner at a local convenience store before heading their separate ways home on their respective bikes.

It is still raining on the evening of Wednesday, and Arthur and Theo have to run (without umbrellas, because—well, because they’re idiots) the distance from the bookshop to the café where she is waiting, jumping in between eaves and doing their best not to end up too drenched. Not that it works out that well, because she still looks at them pitifully before ordering the both of them coffee for their little misery. They dry off pretty well though, but they don’t get to stay too long because she insists they go home and actually dry off properly before they get sick.

Arthur finally takes their little study session a little seriously for himself on Thursday. Their usual spot—her favorite spot, mind you—is occupied when they arrive, so they’re camped out at a long table, she and Arthur sitting side by side and Theo across the both of them. Theo’s brought bound books for the past few days, but today he has sheaves of papers (readings, perhaps) and a leather-bound notebook (“That’s when you know he’s down for srs bsns,” Arthur says, and she asks how the hell he was able to say it like it was type-speak in real life). Arthur’s no different, with his thoroughly annotated medical anatomy books sitting in front of him, glasses on his nose.

But Theo… Theo is so distracting.

When they decide to study separately—that is, when Arthur isn’t clarifying a particularly complicated concept or Theo isn’t helping her out by quizzing her—the three of them work side by side in comfortable silence, all working with an earpiece or two on to at least dull the sound of the rest of the café working in their own little worlds. So this isn’t exactly odd; they’ve been doing this since Monday, after all, and if she were to be honest, she’d enjoy it if they did this a little more often in the future, if possible.

So then why… is she so distracted?

Why does she keep looking up from the poem she’s turning upside down with annotations and notes and markings to see if she can sneak a discreet glance at Theo, his eyes trained on the things he is studying? Why does she keep looking hoping she can stare at least a few more seconds at the unusual side of him, none of the crease marks on his forehead when he’s being rude or sarcastic, just concentration, deep blue eyes not straying from the pages through the rim of his glasses. And oh—Theo with glasses is such a sight! She’s not interested in him in that way—no—but by god, does he look different with glasses. Maybe she’s just gotten so used to Arthur with glasses that it doesn’t strike much in her, but Theo—

“Stop staring at me,” Theo huffs, looking up at her and meeting her gaze. His bangs are pulled to the side where he’d brushed them off, the back end of his hair standing a little cutely upwards because he was fiddling with the nape of his neck earlier with his pen, and—well.

It’s hard to not be blown away when he looks like that.

“Oh shit, sorry,” she says, snapping out of it with a shake of her head. Getting caught is such a rookie mistake! “I was zoning out.”

Arthur chuckles next to her. She and Theo pretend not to have heard him.

On Friday, she and Arthur decide to go have a little quizzing session to prepare her for the oral part of her exams. (“Hehe, oral.” “Shut the fuck up won’t you, Arthur?”) They get Theo to work with them as the scorekeeper. She gets a good percentage of the questions right (80%) but she still does not feel confident enough about it. She turns back to work on her laptop with Theo sipping coffee by her side as Arthur leaves to go on a dinner date with said sweet skirt from Monday. Theo repeats the joke, and this time Arthur says, “And what if it is?” They do not know if he is joking, at this point.

When their usual time to go has struck, Theo closes the book in front of him and stretches a little, bending his neck side to side. She turns to him and frowns.

“Look, I know I asked you yesterday we could do the book club today but… can we just skip it to next week instead? I’m really fried after today.”

“That’s fine,” he says, but then pauses. “You work too hard. I didn’t really expect to do it today.” He sips from his already-cold mug of coffee.

“Hey, I actually wanted to do it, alright? I just—I’m writing a short paper on 19th century literature right now” she answers. “For my portfolio. I’m submitting it as an extra right after the exam, and I want it done so I can focus on studying for the exam afterward.”

So that’s why she’s been typing away on her laptop with not much pause after Arthur left. “Portfolio?” he narrows his eyes. “Applying for something?”

“Yeah, the OSR’s scholarship.”

“The international one.”

“Yeah, that one,” she confirms. “I’ve been waiting for a bit for them to reveal the requirements and… I don’t know, it feels like it gets longer and more strict every year. I’m trying to up my chances by having a strong portfolio.”

“I see.” Theo pauses, takes in the disappointment still apparent on her face, and sighs. “Look, if you still want to do the book club—we can do it while we walk home.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” he nods. “So if you’re tired, then pack up and let’s go. Schiet op.”

“Geez, just give me a sec!”

By the time she and Theo make their way out of the café, the sun is long out of the sky, the street lit in a beautiful shade of warm yellow from the streetlamps. The both of them live roughly in the same area of town—at the southeast residential side, but pretty close to the center, where the café is—but their houses are still around 20 minutes apart by foot. There is, however, the main boulevard that connects their ways home up until a certain point, so they decide to make the most of it by walking the 30 minutes up to that fork in the road even if she did technically have her bike with her.

“Okay, so, book talk, huh?” she says, digging into her bag to find the Kerouac he’d lent her. His copy of On the Road had weathered down rather beautifully over the years; the paper a shade of yellow just right for the eyes, no mottling of the pages, and despite the red matter cover being dog-eared and slightly faded, it’s the kind that’s endearing—the kind a book gets after being held well while being read, and then being kept away so lovingly. With the book in her hands now, she looks near hesitant to even part with the book at all. “Kerouac… was one hell of a read.”

He takes the book she hands back and thumbs it carefully. “What do you think about it?”

“I actually don’t know where to begin,” she says, staring off at the road beyond them. “The contrast of them going to these vast empty places to fill something deep in them...” She sighs, a happy sigh coming out of her. By this point, Theo already knows the kind of face she makes when she’s remembering the hours she spent reading the book—the expression she has right now betrayed that. “And then they were always—well, as with the title I guess—I felt like they were always on the road, even if not literally, then within them?”

Theo nods. “Always going somewhere unknown.”

“Yeah, for sure. It’s not like they were not established right, just that… there were so many possibilities you know? They were talking about crossing America and going from here to there and they seemed to… change with every landscape they went in. And it was exactly all those possibilities that were so fun. You definitely hit that request of mine, because I’m 100% sure all that going away made me want to go away again.” She takes a deep breath. “It’s kinda sad though, that things won’t be as mysterious as back then.” She waves her hand. “What with social media and all.”

“The insight that comes with travel is different now that the world is more connected to one another.”

“And the connection is so accessible!” she notes “Like, one of us can go away but it’s not the end of the world? We can still talk if we wanted to, there are so many ways to do it. And that’s great, but now… now when you go away it doesn’t feel as spiritual an experience? I mean, you can easily Google what a place looks like and…”

Theo turns to her after she abruptly stops. “And what?”

A beat. Two. She hasn’t stopped walking, with her eyes facing in front of her, but her eyebrows are narrowed like she’s carefully choosing how to put what she’s thinking into words. Theo patiently waits throughout the full minute it takes her to speak. “…Do you ever feel like you’re only a visitor in a certain place? Or maybe even anywhere. Like you’re only meant to be there for a few days, a month, maybe a year, but—never in the long term, never for the rest of your life.”

That… isn’t what he was expecting.

But then again, he doesn’t really know what to expect with her around, at this point.

Things are always more than with her.

For a moment, Theo ponders. Sure, he’s had instances feeling uncomfortable in the places he’s in, or maybe acknowledging that there are better places to be—such as when he left their hometown to go here, to follow his brother—but he hasn’t really thought about the rest of it. He’s always imagined the tides would just bring him to places, and he wouldn’t have to work hard to be brought elsewhere; to just let himself be washed ashore to new islands.

“I’m not sure,” he answers, thumbing the side of On the Road once more. He wonders what it was like during Kerouac’s generation—dreaming of a spiritual journey, going out there and exploring the unknown, how so much was left to be learned. How will his generation be remembered? What difference will they make, will they go down in history?

She nods simply. “It’s okay, I’m just the kind of person who likes to think about all this. Sal’s changing views on Dean was… I don’t know how to put it, it’s just like being in a different place, having a different experience with people changes the way you see about them, even if that place is… geographically, and not like a situation. Does that make sense?”

“You have to admit, most of the book doesn’t make sense,” Theo notes.

“…I did hear Kerouac wrote a good portion of it pretty high.”

“Maybe it’ll make sense when you read it high, too.”

They grin at each other, and Theo turns to get the Neruda book out from his bag.

“I’m so close to memorizing the content of this book, with how many times I read it,” he admits, passing the volume over to her. They touch fingers for only the briefest of moments. “Neruda has an interesting way with words.”

She nods. “I still feel bad that I don’t get to read him in his original Spanish because I feel like that makes a difference. The translations are still pretty good though. Any poem you liked particularly?”

“Maybe I Remember You as You Were.”

“Oooh, that’s very romantic,” she says, flipping right to the page he was talking about. “Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.”

“Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul,” he continues. “The passion in some of his love poems get overwhelming sometimes. I remember You is just the right touch of romance and longing I like in a Neruda.”

“Hmm?” She turns to him curiously. “Mayhaps you’ve already been a Neruda fan from the start?”

“I’ve read him in the past, yes.”

That’s not that surprising, really, considering how much of a household name Pablo Neruda is to literary enthusiasts at this point. One of the more “modern” classics of poetry, arguably. She’s not satisfied with his answer, of course. “Which, pray tell, is your favorite?”

It takes him a moment, biting the inside of his cheek in thought. After a beat, he answers, “Don’t Go Far Off.”

“And you say you’re not a romantic,” she says while shaking her head.

“I am not a romantic.”

“Theo, I know the poem by heart. You can’t tell me that shit isn’t romantic.”

Every minute he spends with her, the more drops of confusion fall onto his mind about himself. And not the bad kind; simply, why is it that she can see him so differently compared to others? What is it about her that she catches what sneaks past others?

He wouldn’t call the poem romantic, but maybe if she says it…

No. Instead, he looks at her. Challenges her. “Prove it.”

“Okay, you start.”

He takes a deep breath before beginning. “Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because—”

“Because—I don’t know how to say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you.” She doesn’t miss a beat when she answers.

He continues. “As in an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.”

The way she traces the sounds of the syllables so delicately, like it would shatter if she wasn’t careful with their sound, isn’t missed by him. Does she read all poetry, all literature with this much adoration? “Don’t leave me, even for an hour, because then the little drops of anguish will all run together.”

At this point, Theo is already nodding, very much impressed. “The smoke that roams looking for a home will drift—"

(And together, they say) “Into me, choking my lost heart.”

The two of them look at each other quietly, the poem’s imagery settling in the spaces between them.

In a way that makes them feel content.

He continues. “Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach; may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.”

“Don’t leave me for a second, my dearest.”

“Because in that moment you'll have gone so far.”

“I'll wander mazily,” she breathes, “over all the earth, asking—”

Theo sighs. “Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?”

With that, the two of them relish in the silence at the end of the poem, letting it all dissolve into the air like the puffs of smoke from their breath.

“Nice of you to know that start to finish,” Theo says, by way of compliment.

She makes a little mock-bow with her skirt. “Thank you. I also really like that poem as well, actually.”

For some minutes, the two of them share a companionable silence, the moon shining over them, casting a silver glow. It is only when the itch to ask the question becomes too much that Theo finally opens his mouth.

“Why are you so fixated on going away?” he asks.

She stares at him. “What?”

“You’re always talking about the out there and the going away. And now you’re planning to leave for a scholarship—when you get in,” he says. “Have a boner for it?”

She makes a face. “No, what the hell,” she says. “Is it so bad to want a little adventure when you live in such a small town like this?”

“Not really,” he hums. “You strike me as the kind of person who disappears from everyone because you’re chasing something far off into the unknown,” he says.

She opens her mouth, about to say something, before she takes a deep breath to hold it back in. Theo feels like he’s overstepped a boundary he shouldn’t have. But instead of talking back at him or refuting, she says, “That would be a great story for a small Literature major like me, huh?”

It’s a non-answer.

The one Theo knows means there’s a more complex answer—that she’s not just ready to tell him yet.

It’s alright.

He can wait.

A few more minutes pass, this time in comfortable silence. Theo considers small talk, about the bookstore, or Vincent and Arthur, but she looks so deep in thought he decides not too. Sooner than he would have liked, they reach the fork in the road. He stops and turns to her fully.

“Books?”

She blinks as if torn away from a daydream. “Oh right, books. Nearly forgot.”

The two of them pull out the books to exchange from their respective bags; she catches the title The Night Circus in the one he hands her, another dog-eared, well-loved, black book; and she also catches the twitch of his eyebrow in interest when she hands him Atwood’s Dearly.

They keep their books away and fall back into their usual quiet.

“You sure I don’t need to walk you home?”

“It’s a well-lit road. I’ll be fine,” she insists. “I can bike from here to there, it’ll take me three minutes tops.”

He nods, the smallest of smiles on his face. “I’ll see you around, then. I hope you enjoy the book."

This isn’t the first time Theo has lent her a book. And this isn’t the last time Theo will lend her a book, either—if there’s anything about their kind-of friendship she knows for sure, it’s that he’ll need to try harder to get rid of her if he doesn’t like the company.

But somehow, the arrival of the new book in her small, rented dorm room leaves her unbalanced. She knows she has better things to do like her essay for the portfolio and studying for the exam—80% correct for the oral test is pretty good, but not good enough—but she lets the book taunt her anyway.

It is Saturday now, and she places it on her desk with the cover facing up, black and red and white with an intricate illustration of figures. Is it because of the conversation they had last night? It wasn’t odd for their little book discussions to wander into personal territory, because it is true that the way we read books is very much influenced by the things we have experienced in real life, but that one… that felt different. Somehow, it’s as if the both of them had opened up a pandora’s box of—well, something, and all of that is nestled in between the pages of the lent book.

It wasn’t like her wanting to go away was a secret in any way, shape, or form. Friendship with Theo or not, she was meant to leave this place. Or at least, that what she likes to believe. She’s pretty sure she’s mentioned even in the past that this town is too small for her; too little; there is a wider world out there to discover. And it wasn’t like Theo being some sort of hidden romantic was a surprise either—she’s known from the moment he didn’t stop asking her for poetry books. Nothing new was really uncovered last night, but then…

Why can’t she seem to let it go?

Her eyes rest back to the book on her desk. She said she wouldn’t read it until after the oral exam on Tuesday at the very least, but—she has peered into it the night before as she was going to bed, and yet once more this morning.

She’s not sure what it is about yet, but it seems that he’s lent her some sort of fantasy-romance, because she had asked for a book with a magic system in it. (Thinking about the wonders of magic is a great stress-reliever in the midst of exams.) She had expected Theo to be a good level of well-read because he worked at the Hoard—but somehow, he was always blowing away her expectations. Theo is always saying about how weird she is for pursuing him, but isn’t he the weirder one? At least she shows no pretense of being any sort of normal. He does his best to look put together.

Did that big looming man look like the kind of person who would read a novel title The Night Circus?

Not really, not to her. But it’s because he is that kind of person that keeps her so hooked, so interesting. She doesn’t quite know what has happened yet, but—whatever it was that unlocked between the both of them last night, it can’t be that bad. So by 3:00pm, when she said she would be running through drills for her exam, she closes her laptop shut, makes herself some tea, and curls up into her armchair to read.

Just because they get along with each other doesn’t mean they agree with everything.

For example, she’s explained that she’s the kind of person who marathon-reads whatever she can get her hands on, if she finds it interesting enough. It’s not that she doesn’t have patience for reading; she does, and she thoroughly enjoys being lost in a good book. It’s just that she can’t do what the others do when they like a book—read it leisurely, enjoy it from page to page, taste every word like it’s sweet. She’s more of the kind who sits down at eight in the morning with a interesting book and being unable to stand until it’s done in the afternoon. There is no waiting in her vocabulary, only the going.

Oppositely, Theo likes to take his time with his books, the same way one would do a walk. Take the scenic route; enjoy the scenery, take in all the details with your sense. To Theo, reading a book is going into it, getting lost in between the world that is hiding in its pages, and there is no need to rush that. The book is not going anywhere, and he can always open it up and return to where he’d stopped. Theo rarely reads books in one go unless he’s in a rush to do it, like say in a required reading for a class.

So when he sends her a message on Sunday, saying,

[ 9:44 | Theo ] Good book choice this week. Had fun with it

less than 48 hours from the moment she had given him the book…

She yells.

Really loudly. Her next door neighbor pounds on the wall between them, and she shouts out a “sorry!” as she begins typing on her phone.

[ 9:43 ] You finished it already?

[ 9:44 | Theo ] Is that so surprising?

[ 9:44 ] 😊 You don’t understand how happy I am rn

[ 9:45 | Theo ] It’s just a book, relax.

[ 9:45 ] Yea sure but don’t you read slowly on purpose? Kinda thrilled you liked it enough to polish it in one go.

She pauses, hand hovering over her phone, before she writes out another message.

[ 9:46 ] Thanks for telling me. This has def made my day.

And it takes a minute for him to reply, but then he returns:

[ 9:47 | Theo ] Isn’t this what friends do?

Well, let’s say that something in her belly does a flip, and—

It makes her feel weightless.

#the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart #ikemen vampire #ikevamp theo

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cristophynn · 4 years

Text

broken promises

summary: you promised you wouldn't leave. you promised him you wouldn't get hurt. yet, there you were— gunshots on your body and blood spilling out of your wounds. it wasn't long until levi was breaking down into tears in front of his comrades, all the while regretting the choices made and begging the walls to give you back. every single word reminds him of you, and it hurt him too much.

pairing: levi/reader

warnings/tags: reader dies, mentions of blood, angst angst angst, levi cries.

author's note: flashbacks are in bold+italics in case you didn't know. levi also seems ooc here but he has a soft spot for you and thus acts different when it comes to you :(((( but reader is dead so,,,, anyways please enjoy

ao3 link: broken promises.

"Oi, (Last Name), stay with me! You idiot! I can't believe you'll get hurt like that after I trusted you to not get yourself injured!" You heard yelling, and you immediately recognized who that voice belonged to. Of course, you knew that there were unsaid words towards you, such as— You promised to not hurt yourself, and you knew that.

"Haha, you must be out of your mind. There's no way I would be a squad leader." You heard Levi letting out a snort, and you couldn't help but chuckle softly at his statement. Gently running a hand through his black strands, you watched as his eyes went wide and a bright pink color dusting against his cheeks. "The hell are you doing?" His question came out in a stammered manner, and you could only pull him near you before planting a soft kiss on his forehead. When you pulled back to look at his face, you could see him avoiding your gaze and lips trembling, and you thought for a second that the man you were actually showing affection to was a doppelganger because of the change in his personality.

"Why are you so red, bub?" You asked him with a coy smile on your face, and you took the chance to peck his lips softly. You were confident that he was imploding at the moment when you got no response from him. You lifted him up a bit, letting his legs fall on either side of you, and he complied as he comfortably sat down on your lap. Gently caressing his face and drawing light circles on his cheeks, you pulled him close to let his head rest upon your shoulder. You felt him bury his face against your neck, and his arms slithering around your waist to pull you close. "You'd make a great leader, okay? Trust me."

His response came out muffled from his position, but you understood him nonetheless. "I'll trust you on that. Just promise me you won't hurt yourself or leave me."

"I promise, okay?"

Everything in your sight was blurry, and the only thing that you could make out of your awful, 144p resolution sight was the tangerine-colored sky which was fading into a dark red hue. It was beautiful, but the view was incomplete because of the damned silhouette in front of you. The next thing she could make out was not something you could see, but you felt — and it was a fucking pain in the ass (not really on the ass, but you know). It was on your shoulder blade, your stomach, and also on your waist, but it was still a bitch and beckoning you to just give up and sleep it off. You were then shocked when you were thrown into the air for a bit before falling back into a wooden surface — and even though it was just a bump, it hurt you so badly that you couldn't help but groan out in pain, eyes closing in distress and brows furrowing like it could help stop you pain and make it go away. You remembered brief, sudden flashbacks about gunshots and— oh shit. That's when you realized you were actually on a cart, and it only hit you that you were supposed to be helping with Hange's wounds. Witnessing her being shot in the shoulder made you mentally tear up in frustration, cussing at yourself for being such a horrible friend. You sat up in an instant and your eyes went wide, sight becoming clear by now and your wounds becoming more painful by the minute.

"Stop, Section Commander! You're losing a lot of blood, and it won't help if you suddenly sit up like that! You have to lie down!" Armin's voice was alert as he made you lie back on the wooden cart, a single bead of sweat going down as he held the cloth of blood against her stomach, and you could only groan out in pain as you placed your head back where you were previously lying down on. Surprisingly, though, you were met by the face of the Ackerman staring down at you with visible concern and anger in his eyes, and you were already tearing up at the thoughts going through your mind. You were already getting dizzy again, and it was so tempting that you wanted to succumb into the calling of slumber.

"Fichtner! They just lost a lot of blood because of the bump!" The squad captain was scolding his subordinate as he desperately held the cloth against the wound on your shoulder blade.

"Levi! His gums are bleeding because he lost a tooth." You frowned at him as you handed the new titan-shifter an ice pack and made him place it on top of his black eye that he got from your ruthless lover's kicks. Levi only rolled his eyes and tapped on the couch's armrest, and you strode towards him before throwing yourself into his arms, not really minding the public display of affection you were showing towards him. "You went too far. Do I need to say more about your actions? I'm making you sleep outside of the room tonight."

"E-Excuse me, but are you two… Married?" You heard Eren ask the both of you, and you only muffled a laugh against your boyfriend's shoulder.

You resisted the urge to hit Levi with the ice pack you gave the teenager after hearing his response. "Yeah, kid. Married with three kids and five dogs. It's up to you to decide whether they're adopted or not."

"Levi, no—"

Sasha groaned out in frustration as she kept her hold on the cloth on your waist. Sasha was really trying to not let it bleed as much, she really was — because she can't afford to lose someone like you. Who else would she ask for help to steal food from without getting in trouble, or ask for delicious food and have it beautifully cooked? Besides, you were a great soldier, and the squad leader of the Elite Protection Team. Who else would lead them properly if you weren't there? "Those people are crazy… They got shot in so many places." She scowled before taking a look at the blood the superior was losing, and Sasha was almost in tears when she realized how bad it really was. "I think it's gonna take a while for this to heal, Section Commander. Please hold on."

"Shit!" You hissed out, momentarily shocking the three people with you on the wagon for a bit. Your teeth were gritting as you brought your uninjured arm up to your eyes, unable to face any of your comrades at the moment. You clearly remembered telling everyone to not die, yet here you were, the one girl who suffered the most injuries and was on the verge of dying. "I hate this, I can't be going like this… My mom— what will happen to her… " Your voice broke out at the sudden reality that hit you, your fists clenching and visibly shaking as you did your best to not cry out. You were in so much pain, and you wanted it to end — but you still wanted to live on and continue on with your life, grow old and stay to see how everything would end. The three people tending to your wounds in the cart, along with the soldier on the horse helping the cart move, stayed silent at the statement you let out, and it only took them moments to realize that you were on the verge of crying.

"Oi, you brat. Don't cry. You're not gonna die." Levi spat out, his brows furrowing as he pressed the cloth more onto the shoulder blade, trying his best to stop the bleeding. When he saw it was no use and only caused more to come out, with his hands tainting red, he cursed out as he frantically looked up. "Fuck's sake!" He was fuming, and if anyone dared to look at him — they would be met by the man with steam coming out of his ears and his glare that could kill anyone on sight. "Out of all the things you could have packed in a small ratio, why is it that the bandages were so few? Keep searching!"

"Hey, stop crying, okay?" You whispered as you continued to rub gentle circles on his back, letting him cry on your shoulder as you two sat across each other on the bed. "You did what you could. You know that, right?" You hummed softly and raised a hand to place a gentle hand behind his head, pressing a chaste kiss on his forehead. "Just let it all out. I understand."

Levi's hands were shaking as he gripped your shirt tightly, his knuckles white and his lips letting out muffled cries. His tears were staining your shirt, but you could care less, really. He was your priority at the moment. "You said I'd become a great leader…" He cried, his voice coming out muffled. He was so, so small, and you felt like he would crumble into pieces if you hugged him tighter. "If I was a great leader, why would I let them die? Why couldn't it be me?" He asked through hitched breaths, feeling more tears roll down his cheeks. "None of your squad members died. Your members are some of the strongest out there— and they literally risked their lives to give backup or to save anyone last minute. Yet, none of them are dead. How could you understand this?"

"We tried, Captain, we did! There's really none left! There was… Only enough to cover Hange's wound." Eren said as he raised his head from one cart, the wind hitting his hair and making it blow in such a way that would almost make his brown locks cover his emerald green hues.

Your heart ached at his statements. You couldn't help but gently lay a hand on his cheek. You made him look up at you, and the moment you saw his flushed, tear-stained face, you spoke, "They are my friends, Levi. How could I not understand?" You let out in a whisper, voice wavering. You saw his brows furrowing and eyes welling up with tears at your words, and you immediately locked your lips with his. He lets out a muffled sob through the kiss, and you felt him pulling you closer. When he pulled away, you felt him lay his head on your shoulder. You gently rubbed circles on his back as you let him cry it all out, feeling your throat tighten as a tear rolled down your cheek.

Sasha huffed, looking around for any cloth there was so she could at least wrap the wound in something. A blanket from one of the carts caught her eye, and she immediately called Connie's attention just for him to hand the blanket to her. "Connie! We're going to give the Section Commander makeshift bandages! Hand me that blanket!" She yelled, causing the two boys on the cart to have a small trickle of hope up their guts and rise to their chest. Thank god for Sasha, indeed.

You paid no attention to your surroundings anymore after that, raising your arm and just stared up at the sky. The sight of the sky — and the Corporal's face — was something you were definitely content with, and you didn't mind just staring up at it with your last moments. You were tracing every single detail with your eyes, wanting to raise a hand and touch his face — so you did. Soft. Smooth. He had clear skin that was tainted with blood because of your dirty, blood-stained hand, but he paid no attention to it. He was fine with it, because this would possibly be the last time you'll hold his face again — and he was not risking letting the moment sizzle down into nothing. You were just running your fingers and letting it follow the lines of his face, and he was only watching you with a pained look as he felt the gentle fingers ever so slightly ghost over his skin.

"It's the first snow of the year, Levi." You smiled wide as you were staring up at the sky, watching as the white snowflakes slowly started falling down. "My mom told me before that whoever I spend time with during the first snow of the year, I would be spending my whole life with them until I die. I'm glad it's you." You let out a soft chuckle as you gently took hold of his hand before lacing your fingers together. "Isn't it so pretty?"

Levi was only staring at your brightly-smiling face, and he couldn't help but raise his unoccupied hands up to cup your cheek, causing you to look back at him with a soft hum. He ghosted his fingers just on your face, and when he met your eyes, he gave you his rare smile that never failed to make your heart skip a beat. Without hesitation, he leaned in to press a soft kiss on your lips. "Yeah, it's pretty. Breathtaking, even." He mumbled just enough for you to hear, and before you could even have a chance to reply, he once again leaned into you, pressing soft kisses all over your face.

Everything was like a blur, and you were too tired. You just wanted to close your eyes as you slowly brought your hand down, feeling too tired to keep it up. Your eyes were slowly fluttering, and you tried your very best to keep them open, but it was evident that you were struggling.

Levi's eyes went wide, and his other arm was shaking her awake. "Oi, oi— Keep your eyes open, (Name)! You can't be giving up on us!" He frantically said, and Armin only stayed silent while Sasha was ripping out the fabric. Hange, upon silently listening to the commotion from the other cart, felt her heart ache. Not only because her best friend from day one in the Cadets, and up until now, was dying in front of her— but also for Levi. She felt bad as he was witnessing the man slowly losing all of the people who he adored so much in his life. First his mom, then Isabel and Furlan, then his squad, and now you? For Levi, it was like a never-ending cycle of oh hi you're nice, i'm taking care of you, oh fuck, they're dead.

Your brows were furrowed, and your face had a pained expression as you softly hissed out when a certain liquid hit against your wound — but what can you do about it? You should be thankful instead that your comrades were improvising for their lack of medical supplies. You felt like your hip was being raised and then wrapped around in something, but you were just too tired to watch to find out what they were cleaning and wrapping your wounds with. Levi was rubbing small circles on your cheek softly with his thumb, and you were comfortably leaning into his touch. You felt calm because of his light, feathery touches. Humanity's Strongest, handling the love of his life on his lap with care, because if he would apply more pressure, the kid would end up breaking. Corporal Levi, staring at the pained expression on your face, wanting to do nothing but pull you into a hug, press a chaste kiss on your lips, and tell you that it'll be fine. Captain Ackerman, listening to your pained noises and praying to the goddamn walls to just take away the pain you were feeling and let him be in your position. It was a sight to you, really.

As Sasha was wrapping the fabric around your hip, Levi was trying to keep you conscious — keeping you alive. His touches didn't help, though. You felt sleepier because of how soft it was and you almost wanted to yell at him because it was making you sleepier — but you couldn't; you knew he was doing it to distract you from the pain you were feeling. "(Name). (Name), open your eyes this instant!" He was already tearing up as he looked into your dull, teary eyes — once bright, but now dark and resembled a dead person's eyes. He was close to breaking down now, but he was holding on and keeping himself sane in front of you. He wanted to be strong for you. Out of frustration, he leaned down and pressed his forehead against yours.

"Open your eyes, Levi." You pouted, and he only grunted in response. His head was beside yours, body facing each other, your hands playing with the strands of his hair, and your legs entangled as you listened to the classical music playing on the old record player. You huffed before leaning closer, pressing your forehead against his and nuzzling your nose against his.

The eskimo kiss was enough to make his eyes flutter open, and upon seeing how close your bright eyes were, he couldn't help but smile gently and pull you closer to him, hugging you tightly by the waist. "What a nice way to wake up."

He found it hard to do it, though. Pushing back his tears and trying to swallow the lump in his throat when you were barely breathing just in front of him— how could he hold himself back? When he saw your eyes doing its best to keep it open and then maintain eye contact with his own eyes, he found himself giving up and finally breaking the facade. "I'm still going to marry you, god dammit… I told myself I would do that…" He softly whispered as he gave in to his emotions, his voice breaking and his tears flowing freely from his eyes. His shoulders were shaking as he cried, and everyone was witnessing him break down into a meek puddle of tears because of you. He was becoming like this because of you. He was feeling things like this because of you. His whole world turned upside-down because of you. But still, he wouldn't have it any other way because he loves you.

"Hey," Levi called you after coming back from the cell that Ralph and Sannes were kept in. You turned to look at him with a gentle smile, facing away from Sasha, who fell asleep on the table after eating a shit ton of bread loaves. Patting the empty seat next to you, you signalled for him to sit next to you. He didn't, though, and instead chose to stand, towering over your sitting figure. "After all this titan shit is over and Historia is crowned queen, let's get married and have a family."

Oh, shit. You definitely did not expect that. You choked on your breath for a bit, and you held back the grin that was fighting its way to get on your lips. "What the hell? That wasn't what I expected after hearing you torture the shit out of those two. I thought you were about to start ranting." You huffed, crossing your arms as you stared at him. The pout formed on your lips was just so kissable, that Levi almost pressed a kiss then and there, but he held himself back to save the kisses for later.

Levi scoffed a bit, rolling his eyes before getting down on one knee. Your pout faltered and it slowly formed into a wide smile. The man saw how your eyes turned into crescents, and he couldn't help but smile back just as wide as you as he pulled out a diamond ring (that both of you were looking at a few days ago) from one of his pockets. "I really can't imagine myself with someone else that isn't you. Just marry me already, we've known each other for six years and we're both getting older. I don't want to die without starting a family, you know." He said, nonchalant as ever as he gently held one of your hands and slipped on the ring on your finger.

"I was supposed to propose to you after Historia is crowned queen, you know. But, you had a head start, apparently." You let out a soft laugh as your unoccupied hand reached out into your back pocket, and pulled out the same diamond ring he had slipped on your ring finger. You then took the hand that was holding your other one. "Well, let's get married, Levi." You gently slipped on the ring before pressing a soft kiss on his forehead.

"I'm taking your last name, (Name). No buts."

"Armin, I'm done with the hips. Here, I'll hold them up for you." Sasha's voice was heard, and a few rustling followed. Sasha handed the bottle of alcohol and the ripped blanket to Armin before taking hold of your bloodied waist. He hesitated for a bit, but decided to undo the bottom part of your dress shirt anyways. Once your stomach was exposed, you felt immense pain coarse through your body as some sort of liquid poured on the wound on your stomach, but you were too tired to complain and resist anymore. Armin was squeamish when it came to treating wounds, but he was doing his best for the Section Commander who was on the verge of death. You then felt your stomach wound being wrapped up, and although it was a pain keeping your body up, Sasha was helping you out.

You saw Levi raise his body again, his cheeks had dried tear streaks on them, and he only watched as Armin used the ripped sheets as bandage. He trailed his eyes away from his lover and just stared at the empty horse that you used to ride. His eyes slowly trailed down and took a look at your tear-stained face, who only had your brows furrowed and your bottom lip between your teeth as you did your best to endure the pain you were feeling. With furrowed brows, Levi took a deep breath and took the remainders of the ripped fabrics and the bottle of some kind of alcoholic drink. Sasha went to hold the cloth on your shoulder blade for him, while Armin lifted you up.

"Captain, please take off their shirt." The other boy instructed as he proceeded to unbutton the last buttons of your dress shirt, and Levi only nodded and followed the instructions quietly. He didn't want to argue. He didn't want to give you memories of him yelling at his subordinates for asking him to strip you off your clothes to heal your wounds, so he just complied. Armin laid your figure back down in an instant once the article of clothing was removed, while Levi proceeded to pour the last portions of alcohol onto your wound. They had to dig out the bullets later, unfortunately, and he silently cursed when he realized that there were three bullets stuck inside.

Your eyes went wide and your uninjured arm clenched into a fist once again, making sure you didn't let out a screech because of the pain you were feeling. "Hold on for a while for me, okay? I'm sorry." Levi apologetically tried to reassure her as he began wrapping your wound in the cloth, making sure it was tight enough yet going as gentle as he could with you. "The pain is temporary, and you're staying with us. I'm sure of it."

"Hey. You okay?" You asked with a sad smile, approaching the stoic man who had his head in between his hands. He was alone, a taboo sight, since you were always used to seeing him hanging around Isabel and Furlan since their first day. He craned up his head to look at the source of the voice and was a tad bit surprised to see you still awake in the middle of the night.

His eyes narrowed after widening for a second, and his gaze locked back on the pile of firewood. "Yeah. I'm fine. Why are you still awake, anyway?" He huffed out and didn't really pay attention to you. Which is why when he suddenly felt your presence right beside him, he was shocked and almost jumped out of his skin. His dull answer only made you frown.

Losing his only two friends just a few hours ago definitely shocked him, you thought, and it's their first expedition, even. You smiled softly and looked up at the night sky, eyes sparkling in delight. "You know, there is a constellation of two turtle doves up there. You might not be able to see it, but it's fine. I can't, too. But, it's up there, somewhere." You said, before turning to look at him, and he was only looking at you with a questioning gaze.

You held back a laugh at how he looked. He wasn't really unattractive— quite decent looking, to be honest. He was quite adorable, and you were sure he was kind on the inside despite what he might seem.

You continued to speak, not breaking eye contact with the man in front of you. "Anyways, turtle doves mean friendship. I'm pretty sure you could connect the dots by now. Two birds, up there, not visible, and friendship. They're two adorable kids, aren't they?" You chuckled and let out a soft sigh, running a hand through your hair. "My point is— Furlan and Isabel are up there, watching over you, Levi. They always will be. So, hold on for a while, okay? The pain is only temporary, I'm sure of it."

For the first time in his life, Levi felt himself bursting into tears in the middle of the campfire, underneath the undeniably bright sky and crying to a stranger who seemed awfully familiar to him.

Sasha looked at the empty horse that was right in the middle of the formation, where you were supposed to be seated. Her eyes turned to shock when she suddenly saw the appearance of your body on the horse, smiling wide and riding alongside your squad members. "P-Please tell me that isn't what I think it is…" Sasha gasped out in horror, tears welling up in her eyes. She then looked back at your figure, and was met by you slowly closing your eyes. "Captain! The Section Commander is—!" She cut herself off, and Levi, who was almost finished wrapping her up, raised a brow as he looked at Sasha. When he saw how she was looking at you, his eyes went wide as he finished bandaging up your wound as fast as he could.

"Oi, (Name), I told you to stay with me!! You cannot die! That is an order, so you have to listen!" Levi yelled as he held your face between his hands. You felt so small when he did that, and as much as you wanted to pull him into a kiss, you were too weak to do so. Levi wanted to hold you like this again sometime in the future. He pulled you close to him, and Armin only stayed silent as he darted his royal blue eyes away from the scene, sighing softly.

"Listen, you kids absolutely cannot die." You ordered your squad members. They were strong enough and attentive enough to know when someone was in danger and to save them. "That is an order. If you think you kids are weak and think that you'll end up dying just to save someone's ass, leave the squad and ask Erwin to assign you to a new squad. I chose to have you on my squad because we're the ones protecting our fellow scouts from near death scenarios— including ourselves."

Levi thought it was weird— because why the hell are you commanding someone to not die. After Flagon and the rest of his squad died, he had to move into your squad (read: you practically begged Erwin for Levi to be placed under your care) until he was promoted to at least a squad leader. "What if we die then?" He snapped, wanting to test your patience. Fortunately, you were a very patient person (after having to put up with your squad's antics and Hange's energetic personality for more than five years).

"Then, you die. We couldn't do anything about it. Plus, why bother staying in this Protection Team if you're confident that you'll die? Might as well leave now before ruining our team's reputation of having a consistent number of zero deaths in the battlefield, then." You said with an unfaltering smile, not really minding his nature. "You won't die if you call for help, anyways."

"I love you. Don't go leaving me behind, you piece of shit. You're so selfish. Don't leave me all alone. I can't live without you beside me." Levi whimpered as he felt his lips tremble, a small tear running down his cheek. He looked up at your horse and saw you riding there, a wide smile plastered on your face. The figure of you riding on the horse turned to look at the cart where Levi was and let out a soft giggle. If that wasn't the most heartbreaking sight he'd seen after five years — he didn't know what was. It was happening all over again, and he was sure as hell not imagining shit right now. The same thing happened to Kuchel, his mother — who told him how much she loved him and never regretted having him despite not knowing who the father was. The same thing happened to Isabel and Farlan, two of his friends that were like his siblings he never wanted but enjoyed having — who were cheering him on and telling him how he should continue living his life even though they're not with him anymore. And now, the very thing was happening right before him all over again.

"Captain Levi, I love you!" They were yelling out as they waved at Levi, their wide smile turning into a cheeky grin. The wind was hitting against their face so perfectly, and it was causing the locks to flow beautifully. Levi could only stare at them with a slack jaw, heartbroken as he couldn't control the tears coming out anymore. He was too speechless. The beautiful soldier, right in front of them — in front of him — was smiling while yelling out words he knew that were your last thoughts in your mind. He hated how he was weak for you, how you were the only one who could change his mind, how you were the only one who made him feel this way after such a while. He hated how you, the one who always ordered people to not die, were now dying right in front of his eyes. The sight of your wandering spirit was enough to make his tears flow faster as he was only able to mutter out incoherent words, denial of the scene happening right in front of him clouding his mind.

He was hurt, but his eyes never left the sight of your adorable face that was giving him the frown that he sometimes let a small smile slip through whenever you were ready to nag at others. He saw the figure turn back to him once more. "I confessed my undying love for you and made myself look like an idiot, so you better be smiling now!"

"You know, you're a cute and nice guy, and I like you a lot. Actually, scratch that, I love you. Not just in a 'i want to squeeze your cheeks' type of way, but like a 'i want to date you' kind of way." You said with a small grin, staring at his face to look at his reaction. It was just as you expected from the man, especially since he was just in the middle of eating dinner. He choked in the middle of sipping the soup from the bowl, and the growing blush on his cheeks didn't go unnoticed by you. The last thing he expected was his superior to confess their feelings to him while they were eating in the dining area in front of their squad members. "Oh, wow, you choked on the soup. What an adorable reaction, Levi. Anyways, I'll be waiting for your response." You chuckled before standing up, collecting your own dirty plates to chuck it in the sink.

He knew you were clever and definitely confident, but he surely didn't expect for you to suddenly announce your feelings in the middle of dinner, right in front of your whole squad. There were seven members, nine including both you and Levi. Those seven members were perplexed, shocked, literally any word you could think of that relates to 'holy shit what happened'. He wasn't exactly avoiding you, or he didn't really hate you either. In fact, he liked you back — he just wasn't sure how to react. Sure, you treated him differently, he noticed, but you told him before that he was just someone you considered a good friend. For all he knows, you could be someone who would just end up leaving him. But, you were the one who he could talk to about anything, from his problems to his plans for the day. He used to have a hard time imagining a future, and he used to not really care for partners or think much about love because, why the hell would he waste time on that, he always thought.

Then again, you were the first one to really catch his interest for some reason. You were someone he could rely on most of the time, especially when Erwin was busy and he didn't have anyone to bother. You spent most of the day with him, mainly because whenever the squad finished their daily practices, you and him would always go to the best-selling café to drink some tea and eat some desserts as a reward. You were always in his mind, and he couldn't even deny that fact. Suddenly during one of their daily training routines, the man was shocked when he found himself imagining his future with nobody else but you, living under the same roof and having the most iconic and beautiful babies there ever was. He often realized that there were some days that he would just either stare at you for too long, or steal glances at you from time to time. He would always feel his heart beating like he just finished running a thousand miles whenever you were talking to him, or whenever you called his name, or just at everything that you did. It was like he was a teenage love-sick boy waiting for his crush to notice him.

It bothered him, to be honest, and he certainly didn't want to make things awkward. He thought to himself, What would be the harm in trying? So, he stood up and called out to you, catching the attention of many scouts. "Captain (Name), I love you!" You turned to look at him, amazed and giddy by the sudden answer from the newly-recruited soldier. As much as you wanted to scream in joy and hug him, you didn't. You just stood there, the dirty bowl and cup in your hand, staring straight at him as the words processed in your brain. It didn't take long for you to blush profusely once the gears in your brain clicked together, and it's as if the time and the people around you stopped. Your attention was focused on him, and him only. Upon seeing him flush more and hearing his next statement, you couldn't help but stifle a laugh. "Oi, I just confessed and made myself look like a damn idiot! Can you at least smile at me instead of laughing like a fucking airhead?"

You smiled at him and let out a laugh that sounded like music to his ears, and he felt his heart suddenly thump against his chest.

They opened their mouth as they continued to speak, "I'm sorry for wasting your money and not finishing the desserts back then, I was too full. I'm sorry for hitting you lots of times and even putting your life in grave danger. I'm sorry I was so selfish and sometimes hid the peppermint tea all to myself. I'm sorry, a hundred times sorry, for everything!" The figure on the horse smiled softly as their eyes closed. They opened their eyes once more and let out a laugh — the laugh that Levi always loved hearing. They turned away from Levi as they were humming the soft melody of his favorite lullaby, and he felt his eyebrows furrowing as he brought a hand up to run a hand through his hair before letting out a choked wail.

Levi closed his eyes and held you tightly, bringing your body up to his lap as he made your head rest on his chest. The way that his heartstrings were tugging on his heart were so harsh that he couldn't have the courage to keep quiet — making him let out choked sobs every so often. He didn't want to let go of you. He didn't want to face the reality of losing you in this way without even doing at least half of the things you two were planning to do together. Without hesitation, he placed your small frame back on the cart before pressing his lips against yours. He pulled away and pressed his palms against the middle of your chest and added pressure. The others were only leaving him be — because this was a first for all of them to witness Humanity's Strongest breaking down.

The orange sky, the horses running, the scent of iron, the wind blowing, the grass rustling. Him, you, the cart, his heartbreaking cries, and the silent comrades.

It was evident, and he doesn't have to tell them anymore, because they already know. He rarely acts out like this. They could tell already from that moment on that it was the first time he regretted his decisions. They heard him cry out in such a heart-wrenching way when he felt you let out your last breath, and cursed at the deities to bring you back when he knew you weren't moving even a single muscle anymore. His figure was shaking and his words were coming out in a babbled mess, while his never-ending waterfall of tears streaked down his face.

"Captain, you should go inside now. It's dark out and you need rest. It pains all of us, too."

Levi found himself still at the cart, now lying down and facing the dark, starry night. He was all alone, and it suddenly hit him that by this time, you would have fallen asleep outside because of how you were always staying and taking care of your horse like it was your best friend. He frowned even more before sitting up, a short sigh coming from his nose as he looked up and searched for the girl's horse that always stood out for him. Levi stood up and frowned even more as he walked towards it. The sight of the lonely mammalian was definitely taboo. Surprisingly, the blue roan was still awake, and Levi couldn't help but give the horse a sad smile as he approached it. It was beautiful and reminded him so much like its owner. Not because you looked like a horse, but because the horse stood out. Just like how you stood out.

"You're up all night. You must be tired, huh, girl?" He said with a soft voice as he gently caressed the soft black mane, his eyes trailing through the dark blue tips the horse had. "I know. You miss them — I mean, I do too." He frowned as he remembered the way you were always smiling at him with so much affection that it hurt him when he remembered that you used to look at him in the same way— like your horse. The horse softly neighed before bowing and giving the pale boy a gentle nudge with her nose. "I saw them riding with you today. That must have been your last ride with them, huh? As much as I didn't want it to be her last, I saw it with my own eyes" He whispered, feeling his frame shake softly as tears began pooling in his eyes. A soft sob came out from his slightly parted lips, followed by another, and another, until he couldn't hold back anymore and just let it all out. It was full of anguish towards those gun-wielding bastards and a plea to the girl who was peacefully resting now to come back. "I'm so sorry I couldn't take care of your owner… They were everything I ever asked for, and yet—" He cut himself off. He just couldn't finish that sentence.

"You trust me, don't you?" You said with a soft smile, walking to wrap your arms around his waist and leaning into his frame. He was by the sink, washing the dishes as the rest of the new Special Operations Squad were outside, doing some chores. You pressed a soft kiss on his shoulder blade. "Come on, Levi, I can fight Rod Reiss with you and the kids. And besides, you can't do this alone. I'd feel absolutely guilty if any of you gets injured and I'm not there to help out."

You felt the man take a deep breath, before sighing out and turning off the sink. He turned around and wrapped his arms around you, leaning into your frame to press a soft kiss on your lips before pulling away quickly to stare at your shining orbs. "I trust you. I just… I don't want to lose you, either. It's full of guns. It's dangerous. What if something bad happens to you?" He whispered with his infamous frown on his lips, and you felt him pulling you closer just to lay his head on you.

"Hey, it's okay, baby." You smiled as your hand worked its way up and started to play with his soft hair. "You're everything I could ever ask for. You'll be taking care of me, and I'll be taking care of you. We won't leave each other alone, right?"

"You're right. Fine. You can come with us."

Unbeknownst to him, your translucent frame was just there, right beside him and crying. You could touch him and you could talk to him, yet he couldn't feel you and he couldn't hear you. "(Name)... What do I do?" You heard Levi whimper in a small voice, and you couldn't help but feel so bad for him.

That night under the twinkling little stars, the squad captain found himself sitting his ass on the grass, knees giving up from how much he was shaking with a hand pressed against his lips and a river flowing down his cheeks, as he cried out his own symphony — hoping it would reach the person who he loved so much.

That night under the bright moon, you, the former section commander, found yourself trying to hug your lover, wanting to do nothing but pull him close to you, whisper sweet nothings into his ears, and calm him down until he falls asleep on your shoulder.

They finally crowned Historia queen, you thought to yourself as you watched the scene unfold before you. You laughed upon seeing the blonde teenager raise up her fists to give Levi a punch on his shoulder. Levi really didn't feel anything from that punch, but it was just enough to make him crack a smile towards the group of kids. The sight of their faces changing from amazement (from Historia finally being able to punch Levi) to absolute fear (because Levi smiled at them, which is a horrifying sight that would probably scare them for life) only made you laugh more. "I see that smile everyday, you know? It's not really a bad thing." You spoke up with pride in your chest, before realizing for the umpteenth time that they couldn't hear you.

"By the way, it's her funeral today." Levi suddenly spoke up soon after, and it caused them to go silent. The atmosphere changed quickly, going from a zero to a hundred. "You brats are coming to it later, right?" He asked in a quiet voice as he looked back down at his feet. One of his hands came out of his pocket to stare down at the platinum diamond ring on his ring finger, and an awfully painful memory went in his mind.

You didn't expect that they would hold a funeral for you. During your experience as a scout, nobody really did have a funeral since they all ended up getting mauled by titans. Maybe it was because you weren't killed by titans, but people? Or maybe because it was Levi, the first person who you expected to throw a funeral for you out of everyone in the scouts.

"You… Were supposed to get married to her soon, weren't you…" Sasha trailed off as she tried to break the awkward silence, smiling sadly at the man who you were supposed to marry. The rest of the kids' eyes went wide at Sasha's statement, and it reminded you of how you never told any of them about the marriage. Sasha probably overheard the conversation you two had back in the dining room when the two of you proposed. "But now… It's a funeral instead of a marriage. I'm sorry, Captain."

Levi swallowed back the lump forming in his throat, looking back up at the kids with a grin. He let out a bitter laugh and gave them a nod in response. "So, you were actually awake that time, huh? Is that why you were so desperate to save her?" He didn't mean for it to come out in a bad way— but, by how panicky she has been acting and even improvised for the bandages, it really made sense why they wanted to save you. "I can't do anything about it anymore. Don't feel sorry and just come to the funeral later, okay?"

That's what led you to where you were now, standing alongside your mother as she cried out in pain, and being able to do nothing about it. She was kneeling down in front of the large altar that had your favorite flowers all over it, and right in the middle was a very detailed hand drawn portrait of you. She was crying out, yelling and cursing at the deities for losing you. You couldn't help but break down into tears as the sight of your mother crumbling, her usually strong and happy persona going away in an instant. She didn't even cry this hard when you lost your father— she just comforted you more and even tried to put on a happy face just for you to smile.

"Mom… I'm so sorry, mom…" You found yourself apologizing as you crouched beside her shaking form, trying to wipe away the tears falling from her eyes. You knew she couldn't hear you, but you couldn't stop yourself from letting the words fall past your lips. You turned to look at the comrades standing behind your mother— some were holding back tears, some were already crying their eyes out, and some were silently staring at your altar. You shakily stood up, making your way over to the man in the middle, who had his usual gaze just on your altar. You levelled yourself so that you were the same height as him, your face directly in front of his.

He was silent, not shedding any tears as he listened to the cries of your mother. Later, he was thinking when he felt the familiar feeling of his eyes about to water, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a few moments before opening them again, I'll cry later. You stood up directly in front of him before placing a gentle hand on his pale cheek, drawing a small circle with your thumb and just stared at his face. Upon seeing his brows furrow more and his eyes flutter for a bit, you pressed a soft kiss against his lips before pulling away. A single tear trailed down his face. Your shakily exhaled as you instinctively let your thumb brush against his cheek, but it was to no avail when the tear passed through your translucent body and fell down his chin.

It wasn't long until his once still frame started shaking again, and he broke down into tears. His knees shook and gave up on him, causing him to kneel down on his spot with his head hung low. "Why do you have to leave me behind, too? It was too early…" You heard his shaky voice ask particularly nobody, and his voice was cracking a bit. It came out a bit squeaked due to how soft his voice was. "I should have protected you—"

You were a crying mess by the time you sat down in front of him, wrapping your arms around his frame and wanting to comfort him. His statement was cut off as he took a deep breath, and all that came out was a sob. Another sob, and then another, until he was crying once more. You felt his hand go up and lay it against his chest, harshly gripping his black button-up shirt until his knuckles turned white. By the position you were in, it looked like he had his head on your shoulder, but you knew better than tricking yourself to think that they could see you. You were nothing else but a roaming spirit now, and you knew that you would stay like that for forty-seven more days (since it's been two days since your passing) until you join the others in the afterlife.

"Don't cry… Please don't cry…" You whispered, the only noise being his heartbreaking whimpers and your mother's loud cries throughout the spacious funeral home.

"Hey, what happened?" You heard him ask with a gentle voice, a hand going up to brush your stray locks that fell over your face. His other hand came up to lay it across your cheek, wiping away the tears that fell from your cheeks. You didn't answer, and instead buried your face on the valley between his neck and shoulder. You didn't know when he came in your room, nor did you feel him sit across you, but you didn't mind his sudden appearance. You wanted his comfort, anyways.

At the feeling of your tears hitting against his skin and his clothes, he instinctively wrapped his arms around your shaking frame and rested his head on yours, whispering sweet nothings and constantly making shushing noises. You could feel his hands gently patting your back or rubbing small circles from time to time in hopes for it to comfort you. It took a while until you were able to answer Levi's question, but it came out muffled and staggered. "My dad… Why did he have to leave mom and I behind?" You whimpered as one of your hands went up to wrap around his torso and ball your hands into a fist, gripping the fabric that he was wearing. "I should've gone with him back there… It was such a dangerous place, and yet—"

Another sob went past your lips, and you felt your heart wrenching even more as you cried out. He stayed silent upon hearing your response. He then pressed a soft kiss against the back of your head, letting out soft shushes once more and started cradling you again. "Don't cry… It's going to be alright. I'm right here." He hummed before letting out the soft shushes once more.

"Hey, I heard what happened. It's been a while, hasn't it?" The familiar voice of the café owner said from behind the counter, a sad smile on her face when she saw Levi enter. When Levi looked around the café, his heart ached badly and his lips pursed, the memories of your small dates you had with him running through his mind that he always treasured. "No need to take your order. Just have a seat. I know the usual already."

It's been a month and a half since your passing, and admittedly, he wasn't used to it at all. He was used to waking up with your face just beside his, your legs tangled around his and one of your arms being just on top of his frame. He was used to that familiar warmth and feeling of your body pressed up against him underneath the covers before going to sleep and after waking up from his slumber. He was used to the scent he always loved whenever you hugged him, and that smile that never faltered from your face not even once. He was used to that voice that he listened to everyday and not get tired of, and your constant nagging every time he did something wrong. He missed everything about you, and it hurt him so bad that the one person he never wanted to leave is now gone.

He took a seat that was by the window, the place where the both of you always sat on every time you visited, which was frequent enough to be considered a regular now. "Get me the usual, but only (Name)'s order. You don't have to make mine." He told the barista that he got close over the years. He never got to try what you always ordered since it looked disgusting, but he figured he would give it a try today since you (used to) never stopped whining about how good it was and that he should try it ever since their first date here.

"Oh? Trying out that good ol' sweet pair, huh?" The barista smiled brightly, the sounds of her taking out utensils being heard through the small café. "Just wait for a bit. Does Classical suit your mood today?"

"Bring out (Name)'s favorites. I know you have a whole box of those, considering that them, you and Shitty Glasses have been best friends for a long time now." He answered with a bitter chuckle, and after that interaction, it wasn't long until the sound of the record player playing out the first movement of Kreutzer Sonata, your favorite piece by Beethoven.

Levi was staring at your order with narrowed eyes, before looking up at your face that was smiling wide at him. His order was a small plate of the Classic Beef Lasagna and his favorite Honey Black Tea, which was just Black Tea with two pumps of honey in it. Yours, on the other hand, was too different from his. It was sweet, both the food and the drink, which explained why you were hyper almost all the time.

"Strawberry Matcha Waffles and Strawberry Mint Lemonade!" You proudly introduced your order to your date with a wide smile, and Levi's eyes trailed back down at the meal. The food you had ordered were waffles, obviously, except half of it was green and the other half was pink. There was green ice cream on top of it with freshly cut strawberries surrounding said ice cream, and it was all topped off with strawberry syrup. The drink you had in your tall glass was a pink beverage, garnished with a small lemon slice. "Try it! You'll like it, I promise you!"

"I'll pass. I'd like to savor my lasagna instead."

He waited for what it felt like a lifetime, when it's only been around ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe it was because you weren't there to talk to him and shake out the boredom, but he just watched as people passed by or kids ran in the streets. There was even a couple who walked by, and in that moment, Levi couldn't tear his eyes away from them until they were no longer seen. It went as far as reminding him of how you two never failed to amuse people, each other included. It was probably because of your entirely different natures, him being that silent guy who always looked pissed off, and you being that happy-go-lucky person who never failed to stop talking.

What broke him out of his trance was the plate being placed on his table, and the tall glass followed soon after. He looked down at the meal he was served before looking back up at the barista, who had concern in her eyes. It made Levi chuckle, and even more so when she sat in front of her best friend's lover. He soon realized that the piece that was playing in the record player by now is Love's Sorrow, your favorite piece by Kreisler. "Are you sure you're okay, Shortie?" She asked, her voice softening as she began to take a look at his appearance.

At the question aimed towards him, he scoffed and rolled his eyes before staring back at the female barista. "Don't look at me like that, Pinkie. I'm used to this." The man answered and pulled his plate and glass from the center of the table to his side. Why 'Pinkie', you ask? Rose Quartz was her real name, which it was way too long for him, and the actual gemstone was in a pinkish color. Not to mention that it was also her favorite color. That's where he decided to call her Pinkie instead— while you and Hange collectively agreed on calling her Pinkie, too. Now, that's who she was known as now, and she didn't mind at all.

Pinkie had a frown on her face before nodding, obviously not buying his response but didn't want to push his buttons any further. She stood up from her seat and walked towards the record player area, taking the now-open box beside it and taking out another disk, which was all of Mozart's variations of Ah vous dirai-je, maman (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, basically). She waited for the disk to finally stop before she took out the previous disk and placed the new one, making sure to return the disk properly to its case and back in the box.

When she turned around, she found that Levi had already taken a few bites of the served dessert, halfway through the green half of the waffle and the ice cream starting to melt. What caught her eye, though, was that Levi's head was now hung low and suddenly finding the wooden table too interesting. She sighed softly and went back to where she sat, taking a peak at his face. "Ackerman, look up. I'm sure (Name) wouldn't like it if they found out you were crying in front of their favorite food and drink." She lightly scolded the sulking man. The moment she asked that question, the soft notes from the piano finally started playing and the main theme was heard throughout the rather small café.

Levi slowly looked up with dried tear streaks down his cheeks, and she watched as he took another bite out of the waffle. He took the tall glass that was just beside him before taking a gulp of the drink, and but she definitely didn't miss the sight of tears streaming down his cheeks. When he finally set down the glass on the table, a forced smile came up to his lips and out came a bittersweet chuckle. All that happened while tears continued making its way down to his chin, and his chuckles slowly turned into sobs and his shoulders to visibly shake once more. Pinkie only looked at him with her heart heavy, frowning at how the stoic man was coping right now. She watched as he cried in front of him, and she couldn't help but tear up at the emotional breakdown the man was having.

All the time ever since she found out about your death, she was in the denial stage and instead played the box of your favorite classical music all day while tending to the customers. She didn't want to cry at all, and she refused to believe that it happened. So, she waited. She waited for you to come everyday, making sure that she never ran out of stock for the ingredients of your favorite food and drink in case you came to have another meal with Levi. She didn't even realize how much her emotions were so bottled up until now. "It tasted so good," He said with a trembling voice as he brought a hand up to furiously wipe away his falling tears with his sleeve, and it shakily made its way back to the spoon and took another bite before placing it back on the plate. "It tastes like them. Every time I kissed them, they tasted like this. Now, I know why their kisses were so sweet." He commented and let out a whimper. He couldn't hold it back anymore and instead let the tears fall free from his grey orbs, and that was where Pinkie finally broke down.

All that buildup of tears ever since your death, all the emotion that was bottled up ever since she found out about it, and her whole weak side was finally showing. She couldn't help but cry it all out. She couldn't breathe— it was hard. She was shaking, her lips were quivering, and heart-broken sobs were coming out from her lips. There were even occasional curses that she was slipping out through her sobs. Levi was pretty much the same. He has been crying at least once a day when he was able to register that things wouldn't go back to the way they were, and he had to hold back things every time they were doing business and such. It was a pain, especially when he would see things that reminded him of you.

"Oh my fucking god." She swore as her hands came up to wipe at her tears that wouldn't stop falling even if she tried to make it stop. All that was heard were their sobs and the music from the record player.

It wasn't long until the first variation that Mozart made played while in the middle of their crying fest, and the sound of the opening of the door to her own apartment was heard after a few seconds. In came running a little kid who shared the same facial features that you did. "Happy piano!! It's a happy piano!" The child giggled as he ran up to the occupied table, smiling wide. When Levi turned to look at the kid that was standing by the side, that was when he realized that they were almost a carbon-copy of you. Same skin color, eye color, hair color. Their eyes were as lively and big as yours (livelier, even), their nose was perfectly sculpted to be the same shape as yours, and their lips were the same shape as yours, and their smile oh my fucking god their smile was the exact smile you had. Levi figured that the food or drink was drugged, and that he was seeing a fucking child version of you right beside him— but no. He knew that it was real when the girl in front of him took a shaky breath and gently ruffled the kid's head.

"(Name), go back inside." Gently smiled as she wiped away her tears, and a soft sniffle came from her soon after. "Auntie over here is talking to someone, hmm? Go back to grandma at grandpa inside."

"(Name)? Why the fuck do they have the same name and look exactly like—?" His breath hitched as he took a good look at the kid, stopping his sentence. The resemblance was uncanny, really. The kid giggled and waved at him, before instinctively coming up to climb on his lap. For some reason, when the kid met friends of their family, their first instinct was to climb people's laps. Looking up close, it really did remind him of you. It was hard to move on now, especially when he knew that there was an exact carbon copy of his lover in this café. It might even pass off as your child. At the sight of the mini you, his heartstrings tugged even more and looked at the kid with a mix of emotions. Pain, content, disbelief— It was hard to determine, really.

Pinkie frowned at his question, and it took her awhile to give Levi the answer he was looking for. "A few years ago, my sister got pregnant with her boyfriend that was in the Corps. You probably know Moses, who died while she was pregnant for six months now. When she gave birth, she died. My younger sister for some reason looked too alike to (Name), for some reason, but that was just enough reason for them to become great friends in the end." She told with a small smile gracing her features when the memory of you and her sister meeting came into her mind. "(Name) was there when she died, and when they took a look at it, the kid was the same gender and shared the same features as they did. So, they decided to name my sister's baby after them. My parents were fine with it, and I didn't mind at all."

Levi swallowed the lump forming in his throat and hesitantly brought a hand up to gently run his fingers through their hair, and he felt his heart ache even more upon hearing the giggle that came out from their lips. "My name is (Name) Beilschmidt! What's yours?" They asked with that bright grin plastered on their face, and Levi couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle, feeling tears well up in his eyes once more.

"Levi. Just call me Uncle Levi." He said with a smile adorning his face. He couldn't help but break down once more in front of the child when he felt their small hands pressing against his cheeks, and he felt the familiar warmth in his heart finally come back to him.

"Papa, why are we visiting Uncle Kenny?" You asked with a questioning gaze, looking up at your father. Kenny and your father were no way related to each other and just became close friends that you ended up having to call him uncle. You were holding his hand tightly as you walked down the streets of the underground city, and you couldn't help but gape up in awe at the sight of the surroundings. It was absolutely different compared to the surface.

Your father smiled down at you before looking back up at the road, making his way to his close friend's house that he visited not too long ago. "I just wanted to pay your uncle a visit. Don't worry, though, he has a nephew who is living with him right now. We'll be taking a while, so make sure you be friends with the little guy back there, okay? He's older than you by a year or two, I think."

The thought of having a new friend excited you, honestly, and you immediately gave your father a nod. It was just a silent walk there, and you didn't pay much attention to the busy streets of the Underground City. You were quite aware that it was a crime-filled place, and you were thankful that your father decided to wear his Military Police uniform for this. After a short while, you two finally stopped in front of a decent looking house, which was quite better than you expected. A swift knock on the door was heard, and soon after, the familiar face of Kenny Ackerman was there to greet you two.

"(Name)! Now, little lamb, ya sure grew up quite well, eh?" He instinctively crouched down to your level and ruffled your hair, and you let out a soft laugh while nodding vigorously. He had a smile on his face, and soon enough stood up to now greet your father. You really didn't pay attention, and instead looked inside the house that had the door wide open. There was nobody insides, and you felt your mood drop when the boy your father was talking about was nowhere to be seen.

"(Name), his nephew is always in his bedroom. It's on the right door." You heard your father tell you, and soon you found yourself dashing right inside the house.

There were two doors by the right side of the living room, the right side being the one you excitedly ran into. You gave the door a few knocks before throwing it open with a wide smile, catching the small boy on the bed off guard. "What are you doing here?" He asked with a questioning gaze as he placed the rather sharp knife that he was playing with on his nightstand, now turning his attention on you. You were rather short, being only like five years old, so you couldn't really get up on the bed properly without struggling, in which the kid was kind enough to at least help you up.

"I'm the child of the guy who keeps visiting Uncle Kenny!" You said and sat yourself in front of him, your gaze never leaving his and your smile never faltering from your face. He only stared back at you, not really bothering to smile back at you. "My name is (Name). What's yours?" You asked the boy, and before he could even get a chance to answer, you were already spitting out things you wanted to tell him about yourself. "I'm five, and I heard that you were either six or seven! My favorite color is (color), by the way, and I like listening to piano! I also like drawing and coloring! Oh, right, one of my favorite books is called Romeo and Juliet, where—"

Levi couldn't help but let a slight laugh come out of his lips, and instantly, a smile was finally decorating his face. He was just listening to you rambling about how the storyline progressed, and he had to stop you in the middle of your speech so that he could be able to at least introduce himself to you. "My name's Levi. Just Levi." He said, scooting closer to where you sat and so that you two could talk better. "I'm actually seven years old. I like black. I never listened to piano or read a book, but I like playing with knives though."

You looked at him in disbelief. "Not even Romeo and Juliet?" And he shook his head in response, the smile still on his face. "Then, next week when my father visits, I'll give you the book so you could read it, Levi!"

#attack on titan #levi ackerman #levi aot #levi x reader #levi attack on titan #aot imagines #aot scenarios #levi imagines #aot angst #angst #aot oneshots #anime #anime imagine #attack on titan imagines #attack on titan scenarios

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synthsizedproductions · 3 years

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Short #1: Life Debt

CW: Strong language, abuse of power, cat attack

Have I told you the one about how I got my first pet? No? Oh, you’re in for a treat.

I lived a pretty normal life back then. Just a high school kid with a dead-end job, absent parents, and more mental instabilities than the whole of the Glennbrook Institution. You can bet I’m glad that madhouse didn’t exist when I was that age. The stories that come outta there…Tales for another time, eh?

Anyway, I walked everywhere because damned if I could afford gas. Or a car. Or a bike. Like I said, dead-end job. On top of that, my parents decided since I had a job, I should pay rent and shit. They said it was to teach me “responsibility” and “frugalness”. You know what it actually taught me? Landlords are dicks. Remember that lesson, kid. It’ll come in handy. Trust.

So, I’m walking to work. It’s this little shithole office with gray walls, gray carpets, and gray people. It didn’t help that the place was poorly lit. When I first started working there, I came in with a smile and a goofy bowtie covered in purple rubber dupkies. I thought it would make a good icebreaker with my new co-workers, and maybe I could make some friends for once. All I made was a scene when the boss man flipped his shit about it being loud and distracting. Good thing I need the job more than I wanted to sock that ass right in the nose. Now I learned that bosses were dicks, too. Another solid lesson.

Hm? What’s this got to do with my first pet? Gimme a minute, kid. Geeze. You first years are so impatient.

Anyway, so, I’m walking to work when I hear a cat screaming. Sounded like a fight. Normally, I wouldn’t bother investigating that kinda thing, but something didn’t sound right. Like, this fight wasn’t gunna be a fair one. I glanced at my watch. I was ahead of schedule. There was no way this would take longer than a few minutes. Just had to scare off a couple of cats, maybe a street dog or something.

So, I round the corner and that’s when I realize there weren’t just two cats facing off back there. It was a whole mess of cats, dozen or so, ganging up on this scrawny tabby cat who they had cornered between two buildings. These cats were mad. I had no idea what that one cat had done to piss off a whole colony, but I was certain it wasn’t going to survive this encounter.

I was considering booking it when the cat’s eyes locked on mine. One was blue, the other green. I could see how scared it was. Pits, I could almost feel how scared it was. My survival instincts, what few I had, disappeared and all I could think of was rescuing the tabby cat. I barreled my way through the crowd of felines, scooped their target up, and ran like it was my life on the line. When I heard the colony hissing and spitting behind me, I was no longer sure it wasn’t my blood they wanted. The tabby hissed over my shoulder, its tail whipping about and smacking me in the face as I fled.

I yelled in agony as one of the cats leapt upon me, digging its claws and teeth into my skin and ripping my work shirt. I threw the offender off and picked up my pace, my heart pounding harder than I’d ever felt before. I winced when the cat in my arms dug its nails into my shoulder, but my pain was forgotten when a shot of adrenaline hit me. I sprinted down the road faster than I’d ever gone before. I wasn’t sure how I was pushing myself that hard, but I didn’t care. I needed to get away from that crazy colony and maybe I could still make it to work on time.

I practically tumbled through the building’s entrance, scrambling away from the door when razor-sharp claws swiped at me from beneath it. I backed up until my back hit the reception desk.

~~~~~~

“Might wanna change up your cologne, hun. Looks like you’re attracting the wrong kind of pussy.” Maribelle grinned at me, but her expression fell when she saw my back. “They were out for blood, weren’t they? Better grab a shirt from lost and found before the boss sees you. Why were those cats coming after you?”

I moved to lift the cat I’d rescued to show her, but it was gone. I didn’t remember it leaving, but I figured the chase still had me on edge and I could have missed it. “Um, I guess I just pissed them off.” Before Maribelle could ask any further questions, I darted into the storage closet, found a shirt that would fit me, and made my way to my desk like it was any normal day. I sat down and began my data entry, losing myself in the monotony.

My concentration was broken when I felt something brush against my leg. I looked under my desk to find the eerie feline staring at me. “There you are. How did you get up here?” I looked around before scooping the cat up and placing it in my lap. It purred louder than my brother’s motorcycle. I’d never had a pet. My parents were both allergic to pretty much every animal. I tried to talk them into getting me one of those newfangled Fazyn since they’re designed in the lab to be hypoallergenic, but they also cost more than my family made in a year.

I smiled down at the content creature. “If you behave and stay hidden, you can stay.” It settled in my lap, purring in great contentment as I pet the cat. I didn’t let myself get too distracted. I still had a job to do and the end of my shift was hours away. Despite the mountain of tasks on my plate, I calmly meandered through them, taking a moment to pet the tabby after every few files.

“Gravtik!”

I fell out of my chair when my boss screamed my last name, looking up at the red-faced Dwarf in utter confusion. I whipped my head around to find the cat, but it had disappeared.

He glared down at me with his hands on his hips. “You’re behind on your daily quota. I told you the next time I caught you slacking off that your ass was on the line. I do not have time for lazy losers like you. Get up, get back to work. You’re working through lunch.” He stomped away before I could respond.

I righted my chair and moved to sit in it, but stopped short before I sat on the tabby cat. “You certainly have a knack for disappearing at the right time.” I shooed the cat from my chair and sat down. I held a hand in front of its nose when it tried to jump into my lap again. “No, no, no. I need to focus. You’re bad for my focus.”

It blinked at me and tilted its head one way and then the other, its ears twitching. I stifled a yelp when the cat bit my ankle. I leaned down to scold the animal but was suddenly hit with a wave of energy like I’d downed every coffee in the city all at once. I gazed at my computer in a daze and placed my hands on my keyboard. My fingers went into overdrive as I ran through the documents I was working with. I completed more in ten minutes than I had in the last week. I panted when all of the assignments were complete, my hands all but useless. The tabby rubbed against my leg before leaping into my lap again and I laid my shaking hands on the feline’s back, its warmth and purring soothing the aches in my joints.

“Gravtik!”

I closed my eyes and sighed when the burly man in a suit stormed over to me. “What’s up, boss? I finished all of my work.”

He crossed his arms. “I saw that. You even did it with higher accuracy than is actually possible for a person. What did you do? What program did you download on our computers?”

I shook my head and stared at him in bewilderment. “What? I didn’t do anything that I don’t normally. I guess I just really wanted my lunch today.”

My boss grinned at me with a wicked look in his eyes. “I actually came down here to tell you that since you did such a fast, efficient job, the execs want you to work through lunch anyway. I told them you wouldn’t mind.”

My computer beeped and my task list filled in an instant. I felt a mix of anger and despair which burned in my chest. I watched my boss leave, my hands clamped around the arms of my chair. The cat mewed at me and the heat of my rage cooled. “How did he not see you?”

I watched my coworkers shuffle away to eat their gray food in the gray breakroom and my stomach growled. “I really could have used that lunch break. Gilbert’s is still open and I could go for some nice hot chili.” I closed my eyes and imagined the mild, smoky smell Gill managed to balance just right. I could practically smell it.

That’s when I realized, I did smell it. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by an enormous takeout container filled to the brim with chili, steam wafting into the air. I looked around and tried to find whoever left this feast for me. There was no one. No one but me and the tabby. I narrowed my eyes at the cat who had an oddly satisfied look. “How did…did you…? No, that’s not possible. Maribelle must have snuck up here.”

I knew I should have just gotten back to work. If the boss caught me eating at my desk, that would be it for me. My belly growled to remind me I hadn’t eaten at school. Or before leaving my house. The delicious scent was too enticing to resist. I shoveled my food into my mouth as I worked, trying to push myself to work at the impossible pace I had minutes before to no avail.

“Gravtik!”

I froze with my last spoonful of chili on my spoon, my heart sinking when he stormed his way to my cubicle again. “What do you think you’re doing? How did you even get that in here? You know what? I don’t care. This is the final straw, Gravtik. Pack up your desk and get out before I have security escort you out. Good luck getting another job in this field. I’ll get you blacklisted so fast your head will spin.”

The tabby jumped onto my desk and stoically stared at my now dumbfounded boss with contempt written on its face. I didn’t even think cats could make expressions like that. “I would reconsider whose head is up for spinning, underling.” My boss and I stared at the creature on my desk. Its mouth hadn’t moved, the words projected into our minds.

My boss took a step back as his face paled. “What the fuck is going on? Gravtik! C-control that animal!”

The cat and I looked at each other and I shook my head. “I think you might be confused about the relationship between me and…um, what’s your name?”

Its tail flicked so fast it appeared the tabby had multiple tails. “You would not be able to speak my name. Even if your vocal cords could make the correct sounds, it would likely drive you mad to speak. But you may call me Tom.”

“Tom? Like, a Tomcat?”

Tom tilted his head. “I had not considered that when choosing my name. I’ll have to keep that one.” The cat’s attention snapped back to my trembling boss. “You have been quite cruel to my new friend. As he has saved my life, I owe him a life debt. However, I cannot stand cruelty for cruelty’s sake., so this one is free.” Tom flung himself at my boss and a black hole appeared underneath him, swallowing him whole and closing just at the cat’s feet touched the ground.

My eyes went wide. “Where did he go? What’s going to happen to him?”

Tom dug his claws into the carpet and stretched as far as he could. “He is in the cruelty box. What happens next is up to him. You are unlikely to see him again. He seems like the stubborn type.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “So, how do I explain his disappearance?”

Tom gave me a puzzled look. “Why would you need to explain this at all? He is gone. He will be replaced. The universe will right itself.”

I flopped down in my chair. “What is that supposed to mean? What are you?”

Tom climbed into my lap again and settled. “What I am is complicated. To put it in a way you will understand, I am an Elder Deity and I am trapped on your plane of existence. I seek a way home but have been unsuccessful thus far. I was trying to blend in with those cats, however, they were less than pleased by my presence.”

I scratched him behind his ear. “Wait, why couldn’t you just do to those cats like you did to him?”

Tom purred with a satisfied grin when I found a good spot. “I was running low on Magic. It takes quite a bit to maintain this form so I may walk among you Mortals.”

I frowned, uncertain I wanted the answer to my next question. “Then how did you do it now?”

Tom yawned and I caught sight of an impossible number of teeth in his mouth. “You chose to save me. I chose to empower you so we could both escape. As I said, I owe you a life debt. A life debt that now connects us until the universe has deemed our transaction complete.”

I tried to process his words…thoughts…This was all so confusing. “So, are you saying you’re feeding off of me so you can fuel your Magic?”

Tom laid his head on his paws. “If that is how you wish to see it, though you are describing a parasite, which I am not. This isn’t a one-way exchange. Did you not appreciate the help I gave you with running or getting your work done? Did I not make your life a little easier?”

I couldn’t refute his words. It had been nice to feel more than just a scrawny teenager with no future prospects. “So, what am I supposed to do now?”

The cat shrugged and stretched out on my lap. “That food I retrieved for you smelled very good. We should get more.”

Before I knew what was happening, I was walking out of the building with Tom draped over my shoulders and straight for Gilbert’s Bar. “Hey! This is my body. You don’t get to just control it.” My body stopped moving and my feet felt rooted.

Tom hopped down and stared up at me with glowing eyes. “We should come to an understanding.” His shadow morphed into a far larger creature with six tentacle-like tails. One of the shadow tails shot at me, burying itself in my chest and wrapping around my heart. “This is OUR body right now. I owe you a life debt, but do not forget which one of us holds the power in this exchange. I cannot kill you, but I can make your life miserable and filled with pain. Do you understand your predicament?”

I nodded, gasping when the pressure on my heart dissipated. I took shaky breaths and touched my chest, my heart beating in an irregular way until Tom jumped onto my shoulder again. “So, how about we get that chili.”

~~~~~~

And from that day forward, Tom was my constant companion. Hm? Where is he now? Sorry, kid. That’ll have to wait for another day. Go on. Get to class before I get you in trouble.

This story was inspired by this tweet from @hoplitnet.

#Enlightened #Content Warnings #Shorts

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rami-hoe · 4 years

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Confessions part 4

Pairing: Josh x reader

Word Count: 3K

CW: underage drinking, sexual situations

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from my senior prom. I’ve never been much of a party person (shocking, coming from the girlfriend of the biggest party animal in school). They were all quite enthusiastic about finding the perfect dresses, the best hair stylists and makeup artists. I imagined they must be planning on racking up a rather large bill. Personally, I didn’t see the point in blowing half of my savings on a party, so I hung back from the conversations. To me, prom always seemed like one of those things people build up in their heads and end up disappointed in. It was a school run party- how much fun could it be? I told Josh as much when he asked me why I wasn’t as excited about planning the evening as the other girls in our group.

“It’s not about the actual prom,” he said. “That’s just dinner and some chaperoned dancing. The real fun is at the after party.”

“You mean the part of the prom where everybody gets drunk and trashes a motel?”

He shook his head. “Not a motel,” he said, a grin spreading over his face.

“Oh god, Josh, you didn’t.”

“My parents are going out of town! The fates are aligning- it’s perfect.”

“Perfect until the morning after when I’m the one stuck helping you clean up.” I doubted his folks being away for prom night was any coincidence. They had a habit of having some important matter they needed to attend to in a different state whenever they thought Josh might have some cause for celebration. As long as he didn’t leave too much of a mess, they didn’t care what kind of ragers he threw.

He shrugged. “I’ll hire someone to clean it up before they get back.”

“You know, people are gonna write about meeting one of those rich kids with no idea about how the world works for regular people in college, and they’re gonna be talking about you.”

He laughed. “I know how the world works for regular people,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take advantage of the privilege I have.” I snorted. “And don’t think I don’t know you’re just trying to change the subject.”

“I didn’t realize following the natural direction of the conversation qualified as changing the subject.”

He scooted over on the couch and squeezed my knee. “You’re gonna have the time of your life, trust me.”

* * * * *

I did end up going on some of the group shopping trips to the fancy boutiques downtown, and tried on some insanely beautiful (and ridiculously expensive) dresses. Josh promised over and over that he would pay for anything I wanted. He probably could have afforded it. Or, at least his parents could afford it, but I didn’t want any of them to have to pay for me. Josh already bought the tickets and spent all this money on the after party; he didn’t need the bill for my outfit too.

I’ve heard horror stories about buying clothes for special events online, but it worked out pretty well for me. I got my dress, a dark blue, floor length and form fitting gown from FashionNova. It wasn’t perfect, but I was happy with it. I did my makeup myself, and my mom helped me style my hair. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I thought I looked pretty damn good.

Josh came to pick me up fairly early in the evening. We were going to meet the rest of the group at the park to get some pictures before we headed to the venue. I heard the knock on the door and scampered to the door as quickly as my heels would allow, smiling so wide my face hurt. My mom stood near the door, camera ready. I had to shoo her away to have enough room to open it.

Josh was beaming just as much as I opened the door. “You look… Incredible.”

“You’re one to talk,” I replied. You wished he would wear a suit more often; he looked amazing in it. It probably helped that his was bought and tailored instead of rented like everybody else’s. His tie was the same dark blue as my dress, and he held out his painstakingly chosen corsage. I giggled and took it from him. “It’s beautiful,” I said. My mom stepped out from behind the door. Her smile was larger than both of ours combined; she looked borderline maniacal. “Come on in. Let me get a picture of you on the stairs. A little higher up, yes, there. Look at each other. Oh, that’s lovely. Josh, why don’t you put your arms around her? Perfect. Oh, beautiful. Now Y/N, look up at Josh. Oh my god, you two are just so cute! Let’s get a couple in the living room!”

It took more than half an hour to get out of the house, but my mom was thrilled with the hundreds of photos she had accumulated.

* * * * *

I have to admit, I was surprised how much fun I had. The food was pretty good, but Josh was really the highlight. He had me up and dancing as soon as we finished eating, and we didn’t sit down until I insisted my feet were going to fall off if I didn’t sit down for a bit.

It was getting late by the time we left the hall and headed back to Josh’s place for the after party. He had barred me from coming over to help set up; he wanted me to be surprised when I saw it for the first time, and he definitely got what he wanted.

The entire house was decked out. Lights, balloons, full bar, and a hell of a sound system. Josh really went all out, and everybody there was determined to take full advantage. In a matter of minutes, the house was full of people drinking, dancing, and dry humping against the walls. The stoners took to the patio and whipped out a massive bong. I knew it was just a matter of time (and alcohol) before people started stripping down and jumping in the pool. I made sure to stay inside.

As big as Josh’s house was, it was almost impossible to get away from the crowd. The basement was designated the ‘makeout room’, there were lines for every bathroom. A group was playing Cards Against Humanity in the guest room, and another group was playing a very racy game of truth or dare in the study. Josh wisely tucked away the family’s more breakable valuables, but in the first few hours, I heard no less than five glasses shattering.

But Josh was happy. We both got a couple drinks in our stomachs and kept dancing. I’m not a huge fan of getting drunk; between the snacks and the water, I managed to keep myself down to a gentle buzz. Josh got a little looser than me, but he kept making the rounds, checking on people and asking if they were having a good time. Such a responsible host.

Josh told me the energy level would start to die down sometime in the early morning, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it that long. The sheer amount of people was hard enough for me to deal with, but add onto that the noise and everybody been off their asses, and I got pretty overwhelmed pretty quickly. Josh was too preoccupied with his guests to take notice, so I just slipped away. I snuck upstairs and tried to find an empty room, to no avail. Every inch of the house seemed to have been claimed by one party goer or another. I tucked myself into the first empty corner I could find.

It only took about fifteen minutes for Josh to find my inadequate hiding place. He pushed his way through the people crowding the hallway to get to me.

“You okay?” he asked.

I nodded a little too quickly. “Yep. Fine,” I said. “I just needed a minute alone.” A short laugh escaped me. “Didn’t realize how hard that would be to get.”

Josh tilted his head to the side for a moment before he grabbed my hand and led me back down the hallway. He brought me into his room and promptly kicked out the people in there with a simple gesture towards the door. As soon as they were gone, he shut the door and turned the lock. “Voilà, alone time,” he said with a smile.

I gave him a quick peck. “Thank you,” I said. I walked over to his bed and flopped down on it. Josh joined me as I pried off my heels with one hand.

“You’re not having fun, are you?” he asked.

“I had fun,” I replied. “I think I’m just done having fun. For a little bit, at least. But you should go back down. Finish your night; I’ll be fine up here.”

He rolled onto his side. “I’m not abandoning my girlfriend on prom night,” he said. “That’s the kind of shit that gets you called out on reddit.”

I laughed. “I’m not gonna do that.”

“And I’m not gonna leave you alone,” he said. “Whole point of tonight is being with you.”

I inched towards him and pressed my lips to his. I parted my lips and he slipped his tongue between them. His hand found my waist and started to slide upwards. I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him towards me. He got the memo and moved on top of me, probably wrinkling my dress in the process, but I didn’t care. His body rested onto mine and I wrapped my arms around him, holding him against me. Unconsciously, I spread my legs to allow him more room, the slit in my dress making itself useful. Josh, just as unconsciously, I’m sure, pushed his hips towards mine. His groin rubbed against me and a small moan escaped my lips at the pleasurable friction.

Josh pulled back. “Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Don’t apologize,” I said. “It was… nice.” I ran my fingers through his hair.

“You like that?” he asked, applying a little more pressure with his hips.

I squirmed beneath him, my body reacting to the stimulation on its own. “Yes,” I said.

He kissed across my jaw. I could feel his hot breath against my cheek when he spoke. “Probably like it better if that dress wasn’t in the way,” he said, exaggerating the seduction in his voice. I knew he was joking but I couldn’t stop myself from being curious. What it would feel like, being that close to him, having his hard cock rub up against me… The thought alone made my hips buck up, seeking more of that delicious friction. Josh’s eyebrows flew up at the bold movement.

“How much have you had to drink tonight?” he asked.

“Not that much,” I said. “I had a lot of water, too. I’m not drunk.” The music was still pounding. I could hear the drunken laughter and booming bass just outside the door. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic setting in the world, but with Josh’s body heat encompassing me, it didn’t matter where we were. “And we don’t need to have sex, do we? There are… other things we can do.”

“Other things?”

“Like what you were just doing,” I said.

“What, this?” He pushed his hips forward and I exhaled sharply.

“Yeah, that.”

His lips twitched into a smile. “You wanna dry hump?”

“Something wrong with that?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not at all, baby.” He pushed himself up to his knees and unbuckled his belt.

“I thought you kept your clothes on for this,” I said.

“You do,” he said. “But these pants are expensive. You wanna get that skirt out of the way?”

I grabbed my skirt and pulled the fabric up, bunching it at my stomach as Josh kicked off his shoes and pants. I felt my face flush as he crawled back on top of me, settling between my legs. Heat rushed to my throbbing core as his pressed himself against me. I could feel his cock pressing through his underwear, half erect. He brushed his fingers over my cheek, leaning down to kiss me. I lifted my knees up, squeezing Josh’s body with my legs just slightly.

“You sure you’re good with this?” he asked.

I nodded. “I want this,” I said, pushing my hips up. In an instant, Josh’s lips were back on mine. He rolled his hips, rubbing his semi against my clothed core. A soft moan burst through my lips at the shock of pleasure.

It was different than I expected. I pictured a French film aesthetic; billowing curtains, silk sheets, slow, sensual grinding, lingering kisses, and grasping hands. Josh wasn’t as smooth as I thought he would be. His hands fumbled as they moved down my body to grab my hips. His thrusts started slow, but as he grew hard, his movements grew less and less controlled. He buried his head in the crook of my neck, his hot breath hitting my skin with every thrust. It wasn’t my French film fantasy, but it was real. It was Josh. On top of me, touching me, getting pleasure from me. His hands running over my body, his lips brushing against my neck, his cock pressing into my clit. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into me. I wanted him closer. Wanted his body to envelop me. Consume me. Become a part of me.

I pressed the soles of my feet into the mattress, giving myself leverage to thrust up. After a few moments, Josh’s sporadic rhythm calmed to match mine. My fingers dug into his shirt, clutching the fabric. The muscles in my abdomen tightened and the tension moved down my legs. Josh’s moans filled my ears, growing louder and louder until they drowned out the music outside. His breath started to shake and he squeezed my hip. I was too focused on forcing my hips to move to notice it hurt.

“Mm close,” Josh muttered against my skin, but his voice was so muffled it was nearly inaudible. Not that it mattered much. I knew he was almost there. He let out a long, low groan, pressing as far into me as he could. Two layers of fabric separated us, but I swear I felt his dick pulsing as he came.

My core was still throbbing against my soaked panties as he rolled off of me. He rested his hand on my leg, dragging his fingers towards my inner thigh. “If you wanted I could, you know, help you out a bit,” he said. I chewed my bottom lip as I reached out and placed my hand over his. Slowly, I brought his hand to my core. His fingers ran over the damp fabric, teasing the sensitive skin underneath. I bucked into his touch, and he responded by pressing harder. I moaned as his fingers located my clit and started to rub circles over the swollen bud. He didn’t waste time building up momentum this time. His fingers worked my clit quickly. They never lost their place over it, even as I bucked and writhed. Josh stared at the side of my face, but I couldn’t force myself to return his gaze. I desperately wanted to lock eyes with him, but my body wouldn’t keep still long enough to do it. I could feel something building, something tightening inside me, threatening to burst. All at once, it was too intense. I grabbed Josh’s wrist and pulled his hand away from my core.

My legs snapped together as soon as Josh’s hand was out of the way, as if sealing off access to my core would somehow stop the throbbing. My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath. The throbbing did begin to dull, albeit too gradually for my liking.

“You okay?” Josh asked. “You didn’t finish.”

I shook my head. “I know,” I said. “It was just… too much. I’m sorry.”

Josh shifted next to me, sliding his arm across my stomach. “It’s okay,” he said. He pressed a soft kiss to my cheek. “We can stop.” I pushed my dress back down my hips and snuggled into Josh’s side. “Did you like it?” he asked. “I mean, until it got to be too much.”

I nodded against his shoulder. “Yeah,” I said. “It was… enlightening.”

“Enlightening, huh?” He turned his head and spoke against my forehead. “Not what I was going for, but alright.”

I laughed. “Enlightening is good,” I said. “Enlightening means I know what to expect when we do have sex.”

Josh pulled back and looked down at me. “We’re talking when now, not if,” he said with a grin. “That’s progress.”

I ran my hand over his chest. “I want it to be you,” I said. “I’m not… I still need some time, but I want you to be my first.”

Josh took my hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss into my palm. “Is it weird if I said I’d be honoured?”

I shook my head. “You should be honoured,” I joked, poking his chest. “I’m very choosy. I had a very rigorous selection process.”

“And I made it all the way through?” he asked, that lopsided smile I loved so much making an appearance. “Sounds like a flawed system to me.”

“No,” I said. “It worked perfectly.”

#josh washington #josh until dawn #josh washington x reader #confessions #joshua washington #joshua washington x reader #rami malek imagine #rami malek #smut

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in-class-daydreams · 4 years

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Parlay (Kuroo x Reader) | Chapter 5

-Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader (ft. Roommate Kenma)

Word Count: ~2,300

Genres: Fluff, angst if you squint, general buffoonery

CW: Some more swearing, secondhand embarrassment lol

Summary: (Y/N), a first-year student attending Tokyo U, is living with her best friend, Kozume Kenma. Little did she know, her life would be turned upside down after being exposed to Kenma’s volleyball teammate and close friend, Kuroo Tetsurou. One wrong move, and the parlay’s stakes only get higher each time.

Chapters: First | Previous | Next

Grandmother had nearly given herself a stroke from agreeing so fast to (Y/N)’s request for a half shift that day.

“Is it for school? Is it for friends? Oh, (Y/N)-chan, is it for a man or a woman?” the old woman bombarded the girl she treated like a grandchild with questions. It was rare for (Y/N) to take a day off, much less request one. She shook her head.

“Nothing like that, Gran. My friends invited me to watch their volleyball game. Our school is very highly ranked.”

“Ah, your Tooru-kun plays on that team, doesn’t he?” (Y/N) watched as Grandmother cut a mango into slices and presented them on a bed of sticky rice. The young girl served the dish to a table by the window: a young father and his young daughter.

“The usual, for my favorite father-daughter duo!” she smiled sweetly at the pair. The father looked up from his computer.

“Thank you, (Y/N)-san. Look, Miki! What’s this?” he asked his 2-year-old. The little brown-haired girl looked away from the window to meet her father’s gaze. She had plump little rosy cheeks streaked with dried milk.

“Mangey!” she chirped. Before her father could react, the child had taken a fistful of mango and shoved it mostly into her mouth, though, the majority ended up on those round cheeks of hers. The man sighed, but not without a nonetheless adoring look at his daughter.

“I’m glad she likes it, “ (Y/N) giggled, “I’ll be back to check on you two in a few minutes, Suzuki-san.”

Making her way back to the kitchen, leaning against a side table covered in clean glass cups, (Y/N) took a moment to bask in the warm embrace of the place that felt like her true home. The kitchen was smaller than most tea houses of that size and of that popularity than the average place would normally have. Grandmother, however, made sure the place was immaculate. (Y/N) looked over the small plastic bins of ingredients, each one placed based first on health code requirements, then by frequency. Filling for songpyeon took up the largest bin. Continuing her conversation with Grandmother, she said, “Yes, Tooru is on that team,” she chuckled, “They practically begged him to play for them.” Grandmother dried her hands on a dish towel.

“Well, if you ever manage to pull him off the court, feel free to bring him around. That boy’s always neglected to eat,” the old woman griped.

Opening her mouth to reply, the ringing of the front door bell interrupted (Y/N)’s reply. With a quick swipe her hands over her apron, she swung out of the kitchen and greeted their new guests.

“Welcome in-- Oh! Hi, you two! Welcome in.” Before her stood her best friend and roommate and his tall, stressfully attractive childhood friend. Kenma’s dyed-blonde hair was mostly grown out - he’d been too busy (and too lazy) to get it redone. Kuroo’s catlike eyes crinkled as he smiled at her.

“Good morning, (Y/N)-san.”

“Hi, (Y/N).”

The female led the two boys over to a booth across from the kitchen entrance. Away from the volleyball players’ line of sight, the other three servers working today poked their heads out from the kitchen doorway. Chisato, Grandmother’s actual granddaughter, was fanning herself dramatically, while Shusei and Tamaki were busy ogling Tokyo U’s handsome spiker. (Y/N) rolled her eyes at them. The boys took the menus she handed them.

“Can I start you two off with anything to drink?”

“Water, please.”

“Just a water,” because they were in college, and broke ass college students can’t afford not-water.

Kenma didn’t even open his menu before handing it back to her.

“Something with pork,” he said, after which he pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his emails.

Without batting an eye, the server girl replied, “You got it!” Then, she turned to Kuroo.

“Would you like something specific or if you want, you can give me a general preference like Kenma did, and I’ll give you something you’d like.”

The menu was somewhat thick for a tea house, which Kuroo noticed was because they didn’t just have one country’s dishes, as Chisai’s selection contained an incredible variety.

Now, Kuroo wanted to say either, ‘I trust your judgement’, or ‘I’ll enjoy whatever you put on the table in front of me.’ Sadly, the poor mess of a boy was so preoccupied with thinking about how the girl in front of him was definitely not super adorable in her white collared-shirt and her totally not endearing plaid apron, much less how absolutely unlovable it was that she had flour in her hair from tucking it behind her ear so often. He ended up making a strangled choking sound and saying, “I table.”

Everyone blinked. Forget being a cat, Kuroo fought to repel his inner badger that wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside, and never come out. Kenma was turning red keeping his laughter contained, and as if the universe hadn’t decided it wanted to be a complete dick to the wild-haired boy, he accidentally glanced up at (Y/N)’s cute expression with her brows furrowed, and her lips puckered in confusion.

‘Ahhhhhhhh,’ he thought as his brain short-circuited. Finally, finally, (Y/N) smiled at him gently.

“It’s alright, I do that a lot. Try again?” Oh sweet Karasuno’s resident Jesus, what a sweetheart. Desperate to redeem himself, Kuroo cleared his throat.

“Ahem, I-- Uh-- What’s your favorite dish here?”

‘Amazing job, Tetsurou. You fucking nailed that, Tetsurou. You, sir, are a smooth criminal,’ he told himself. (Y/N)’s bright expression from his question was almost worth making a fool of himself. Almost.

“Ah! Well, I love everything here, and I promise I really do, I’m not contractually obligated to say that, hehe, and it really depends what you prefer personally - everything is delicious.” Kuroo’s soul left his body when she shuffled to his side and leaned over him slightly to point at specific dishes on the menu. She smelled of fresh linen and of fresh baked goodies.

‘Hngggghhhhh, smell good, good smell,’ the poor boy’s brain cells were failing him at the moment, and had been for the past couple of minutes.

“So, if you like shrimp, the har gao comes in orders of 4 and they’re more filling than they look--” (Y/N)’s voice faded away as Kuroo’s brain kept trying to figure itself out like a computer with too many open tabs and had a software virus called, ‘(Y/N) Smells Divine And It’s Not Fair.exe.’ Kuroo knew he was better than this. He knew he was charming and likable. There was no reason for him to totally crumble like he was. From knowing Kuroo so long, Kenma could tell he was struggling, and, out of pity, he lightly kicked his ankle so the girl above him wouldn’t notice. Luckily, that little jolt woke him up enough to catch the tail end of her explanation.

“--you can get it with egg noodles, which I love personally, and Gran gets the duck from a nearby vendor, so you know it’s fresh. It’s especially popular around this time since it’s getting a bit cold,” she finished. It looked like he hadn’t been zoned out for too long. Steeling himself, Kuroo shifted in the cracked burgundy seat.

“That last one sounds great, thank you,” he croaked. Taking the menu from him, (Y/N) told them their order would be out “in a jiffy,” and Kenma’s wheezing stopped him from short-circuiting again.

“What-- Hah-- What was that?” he cackled. Kenma didn’t laugh very hard. Even when he watched Plant compilations or looked at memes, he mostly just blew air through his nose, at best, but here, Kuroo was starting to worry about the shade of blue his friend was turning.

“I--uh” Kuroo started, ‘got distracted by the way she was being adorable and the way her perfume--NO! Tetsurou! BRO-CODE!’. “I’m just a little out of it today I guess.”

“Clearly. You stumbled your words in front of (Y/N) like a panini-head.”

Kuroo couldn’t deny that statement one bit. How had he managed to look like such a panini-head? Why now of all times? Was he nervous? God forbid if he thought he might have a slight crush on this girl because for heaven’s sake he wasn’t about to break the sacred Bro-Code. Before he could go off on his own tangent, (Y/N) walked over to their table carrying a couple of plates in her hands.

“Alrighty, so I’ve got the house cha siu bao for Kenma, and the egg noodle soup with roast duck for Kuroo-san. Is there anything else I can get for you guys?”

“I’m good for now thanks, (Y/N)” Kenma replied as he quickly began eating the fresh, hot pork buns.

“It looks great!” Kuroo responded, his face gleaming with excitement and anticipation of how the food will taste. His expression suddenly changed to a sly smirk, “but you know (Y/N)-san, this meal would be much better if you join us~”

‘Nice, I’ve redeemed myself. Ten points to gryffindor.’

“I’m sorry Kuroo-san, but my shift doesn’t end for another couple of hours. If I end early, I might not be able to make it to the game like I promised.” (Y/N) smiled back innocently.

Before Kuroo was able to say anything, he heard Kenma let out a small, “Pft, rejected”, from beside her.

‘Aaaand, just kidding’

Kuroo miraculously recovered, somehow, and managed to say, “Ah I see. Well thanks for the food, I’m really looking forward to it!”

“Of course! Please enjoy, and let me know if you guys need anything else.” And with that, (Y/N) went back to the kitchen to get more food to serve to customers.

Kenma was deep into his second pork bun when Kuroo dug into his own meal. The duck was perfectly moist with a savory skin. The egg noodles were boiled to a perfect texture. He could’ve wept. The exquisite flavor of the egg noodle soup distracted him from his horrific failure as a human being just a moment ago. Once he’d sated his appetite, he leaned back in his chair. The setter across from him looked totally boneless, a satisfied smile on his face. Kuroo rolled his head over towards the window.

There, the young lady that had been messing with his mind all day was squatting in front of an adorable little girl while the girl’s father laughed heartily across from them. The little girl clapped in delight at the funny faces the waitress was making for her. Kuroo’s heart beat a little faster.

“You’re staring.” Kuroo jumped. Kenma’s intelligent eyes were boring into his soul. Suddenly feeling even guiltier than he already was, Kuroo looked away.

“Kenma, I swear I—“

“Relax. She’s cute. Flirt, stare, call yourself a table, I don’t care.”

Kuroo spluttered at the reminder of his royal screw up. Then, he was puzzled at how Kenma could be so nonchalant about anyone looking at his girlfriend like that, especially his own best friend. He knew for a fact that if Kenma truly didn’t like his ogling at his super cute girlfriend, he would have said something. Maybe they were one of those open relationship-type things? Sounded pretty odd for Kenma, but Kuroo supposed that people change in college. If he were in Kenma’s place, though, he doubted he’d be so willing to share (Y/N)’s affection. Not that he wanted it, of course. Nuh uh, no ma’am.

When (Y/N) gave them their check, they tried to politely decline taking her generous discount, but once she threatened to bring Grandmother from the kitchen, they ended up just tipping her a little extra to make up the difference and exiting the tea house.

“HEY, HEY, HEY.” The ace spiker with the interesting hair crowed as he landed after a vicious spike that went untouched by the other team. Tokyo U’s other team members came together and gave a quick cheer before quickly resuming their positions.

“Damnnnn, how the hell is this entire team so fine?” Shusei moaned.

“Mm, especially that number 6. He’s so pretty,” Tamaki nibbled on her thumb nail.

“Ooh, the handsome guy from this morning is up!”

(Y/N) blushed as Kuroo rotated into the front row. Gone was the stuttering, flustered mess from earlier, and he was replaced by Nekoma High’s scheming captain, all fire in his eyes ,and supported by skill and years of experience. (Y/N) leaned against the rail. Something about that focused look in his eyes captivated her completely.

Kuroo was an excellent blocker. He was smart and had the technique to support it. But despite this, the other team had powerful spikers and was starting to close the gap just enough to make the crowd uneasy. The coach leaned over and whispered something to one of the managers, who scurried off through the door to a side gym.

(Y/N) had already been a little (a lot) thirsty since Kuroo stepped on the court, but Akaashi tossed the ball into the air, Kuroo jumped up, and hit a straight right by the blockers. Suddenly, the gym air felt too stale, her cardigan too hot.

“Ohhhh my goddddd.” (Y/N) shushed Shusei and Tamaki’s moaning.

“Jealous much?” Shusei sassed.

“Wha—? Just— Just stop being weirdos!” she said louder than expected.

Tamaki wiggled her eyebrows, “Oh, so you admit you were jealous?”

(Y/N)‘s face felt hot. Her retort was interrupted by squealing all around them.

“Kyaaaaaa!”

“Omg he’s here!”

“I want his babies!”

…yeah, people get weird when they’re thirsty.

Shusei cheered and clutched Tamaki’s shoulders, “Whooo! What are we screaming about?”

“Some things never change,” Tamaki mused.

“Bitch, what?”

They stopped their bickering when their friend chuckled. She had a fond look in her eyes, but they also held something else they couldn’t quite place. (Y/N) smiled softly. She turned to them, “The Grand King loves making a grand entrance.”

(A/N): You know who’s coming soon, and I’m really excited about this next chapter! Thank you all for the support you’ve shown us so far in the series, and please look forward to the next few chapters as well! Chapter 6 is planned to be released in about two days or so. See you guys soon!

- Admin Kiwi-Chan

Kuroo, honey, I’m so sorry to do this to you lol. I make this boy do stupid stuff in this series, but it’s fiiiine.

- Admin Mango-Chan

Taglist: @joyful-jimin @nekomas-kuroo

#haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsurou #bokuto kotarou #ushijima wakatoshi #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #nishinoya yuu #akaashi keiji

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blog-sliverofjade · 4 years

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Hearth Fires 13: Briefing

Pairing: Remi Denier x OFC

Summary: Lorel Maddox just wants to live as a human, run her bakery in peace, and forget. Unfortunately, the alpha of the local leopard pack has very different ideas.

Remi Denier doesn’t know what to make of the female Changeling who wants nothing to do with him or the RainFire pack. He does know that he has a driving need to protect her. Even if it’s from herself.

While they’re embroiled in a battle of wills, there’s a war brewing on the horizon. The outside threat could not only destroy everything they hold dear, but tear apart the fragile new bonds of the Trinity Accord, plunging the world into bloodshed to rival the Territorial Wars of centuries past.

Word count: 2128

Hearth Fires Masterlist

Beta read by the magnificent @pandabearer

A harsh reputation can be the first line of defense.

-Hawke Snow, alpha of SnowDancer

Briefing the sentinels on the meeting with Sheriff Shaw was like chewing glass. The violence simmering under his skin was nearly at the combustion point by the time he was done. The darkness was taking over, a maelstrom churning in his gut because the strength that came with the frenzy was dangerously tantalizing. More than most alphas, he knew that strength could harm those it was meant to protect.

Good alphas maintained order with a balance of heart and harsh discipline. Without that balance, packs didn’t last long. The pack haemorrhaged members left and right until only unmated dominants, mostly males, remained. The subsequent battles for dominance tore the remnants apart.

He would never hurt their most vulnerable, even if that meant abdicating as alpha. Both thoughts were abhorrent. While it would be equivalent to cutting off a limb, he would do it in a heartbeat to protect them from himself should it come to that.

There hadn’t been time for Remi to take a hard run, which was the only way he could vent the brutality that had been bred into his very bones. A good, hard fight would be better, but not even his sentinels could withstand the full brunt of Remi’s wrath. Perhaps later he’d see if Aden was available, the Arrow could take whatever Remi dished out and serve it back with interest.

Taking a deep breath to cleanse the caustic memories, he clamped down on every vicious tendency with the unbending will that made him alpha and continued.

“Lark, I want you to negotiate an alliance with StormWillow, see if they’re willing to trade intel.” Information from an aerial perspective would be invaluable, and RainFire’s network on the ground was stronger than theirs.

There was already an agreement in place to respect borders- they didn’t fly over RainFire lands, and the cats stayed out of raven territory- but nothing more formal than that. When things hit the fan, the changelings looked to the predators for protection, and if his gut was right, it was best to start building on that foundation now.

“Are you picking on me because of my name?” She narrowed her eyes at him, not realizing he wasn’t in the mood for teasing.

“Don’t crows eat songbirds, like larks?” Elijah quipped with a waggle of his eyebrows.

A low growl was the only warning she gave before launching herself across the table at the other sentinel. They fell to the floor while the others provided a laugh track for the scuffle, some helpfully calling out advice.

“Hey!” Remi barked and dropped his control for a split second, allowing his power to lash across them all like a whip. All heads snapped to target on him, the hooligans freezing where they were on the floor. More than one face went ashen.

“We’ve got a compromised area on the eastern border, a submissive in recovery from a vicious beating, increasing hostility from Enforcement, and you two think now’s a good time to fuck around? Can you look Stian in the eye and tell him a little grab ass was more important than protecting the pack?”

All eyes dropped from him in shame. He let them stew in their mortification. Yeah, he could be a bastard, but that was part of the job description. This was his first true test as an alpha. If they- if he- wasn’t up to the challenge, word would spread like fire through drought-parched grass. Other predators would pick them off like wounded deer from a herd.

“Out,” he snarled.

After quickly putting the room to rights, they filed out without meeting his furious gaze. Theo was the last one to leave and paused by Remi.

“The restlessness is starting to affect more than just the juveniles.” Without an alpha’s calming presence, teenagers could get aggressive and he sure as shit hadn’t had the internal calm required to maintain order.

The darkness raised its head at the perceived criticism. It wanted to rend and maim the offending party. Fortunately, Theo didn’t wait for a response and made his exit. Once he was gone, the malevolence settled again.

The sudden ebb and flow of his ire had him worried he'd inherited the madness after all. Leaning forward to brace his hands on the table, Remi took a steadying breath, though his muscles remained tense as ever. Perhaps it would be best to give Aden a call sooner than later, before he did something he couldn't take back.

Lorel fussed with the plate one last time; no matter how delicious they were, scones were nearly impossible to arrange aesthetically. Pressing a hand against the cobalt blue teapot, handmade by a local artisan, she checked the temperature again. Still warm. Should she have made herbal instead? Probably would have been the better choice, judging by the way her hand shook from the three cups she’d already had.

There was a knock at the door, and she jumped. Definitely should have made decaf. She’d been too distracted fretting over the food that she hadn’t heard the car pull into the driveway. That wasn’t too difficult when hover mode was used, but she normally would have heard it park. Hurriedly scrubbing her palms on her black capris, she went to answer the door.

“Tien, thank you for coming.”

The woman on her doorstep wore a dusty pink ao dai with three-quarter sleeves over flowing white pants. The long, clean lines of the clothing emphasized her slender form. Lorel smoothed her own pear green sweater and wondered if she looked like a big, fat apple, because she sure felt like one in comparison to the other woman.

The little rituals of hospitality as she welcomed her guest helped ease some of her nerves. Once they’d settled in and been plied with pastries and tea, she sprang the reason for inviting Tien to afternoon tea.

“As you no doubt heard the other night, I haven’t lived with other changelings since I was six years old,” she admitted, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear. “I know nothing about what it’s like living in a pack.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laid into you like that.” Tien gently laid a hand on her arm, easing another knot of anxiety in Lorel’s gut. “I get a little protective, but that’s no excuse.”

“You already apologized.” She laid her own hand over the other woman’s with a small smile. “Would you mind giving me a Cliff notes version of what it’s like?”

“Oh, honey, you’re going to regret asking me that!” she tilted her head back and laughed, onyx-black hair sliding like silk. “That’s like asking a grandparent about their grandbabies; they’ll never stop!” Lorel’s natural smile slipped into the customer service one and she took a quick sip that she didn’t need.

“As I was saying, however poorly, we can’t afford to appear weak. RainFire isn’t as big, powerful, or as established as DarkRiver or SnowDancer.” Even Lorel had heard of those Californian packs. They were involved in the events that had changed the world and worked to build Trinity. “Some might see a pack unable to run off a stray cat and think we’re easy prey. Our laws help keep the peace; without them, it’d be the Territorial Wars all over again.”

“It sounds like a dictatorship.”

“Hm, it can be in unhealthy packs,” she conceded after a moment, looking out at the middle distance of the backyard. The tiny sunroom off the kitchen was set up as a dining nook, and Lorel left the French doors open to take advantage of one of the last warm afternoons of the season, giving them an unobstructed view of where the civilized backyard gave way to wild forest.

“And in healthy ones?” prompted Lorel when it was apparent Tien wasn’t going to continue in that vein.

“Anyone, even Jojo, can approach Remi. Whether or not he actually does what we suggest is another matter because he has to weigh in all the factors.” She grinned, no doubt imagining the types of proposals her daughter would come up with. “The mark of a healthy pack is the cubs and submissives. If they don’t feel safe and secure, then they’re not happy.”

“So, you’re not a submissive, but you’re not a soldier?”

“I’m mid-range.” A slender hand held horizontally and tilted side to side. “I’m what’s called a maternal.” Drawing back, Tien gave her an appraising look. “You’re a little hard to peg, but you’re probably either submissive or maternal. Definitely not a dominant; you don’t strike me as stubborn, competitive, arrogant, domineering, aggressive…”

“Don’t hold back, how do you really feel about them?”

“Dominants will both treat you like spun glass and push and push until you set boundaries.” Tien chuckled at her wry tone. “And even then they might try and test those boundaries.”

“Maternal or submissive? Makes it sound like I should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.” Practically radiating feline mischief, Tien gave Lorel’s bare feet a pointed look, then slid her eyes towards the kitchen a few feet away. “You know what I mean!” she laughed.

“Maternal doesn’t just mean motherhood.” More throaty laughter that instead of being directed at Lorel, encouraged her to join in. “We’re the ones that keep us all together, organize fun things like the party the other night. A submissive’s role isn’t about power, it’s about love. They help the rest of us maintain our humanity. If we were all dominants, we’d end up at each other’s throats before long.”

A familiar ache stabbed through her chest and she turned away on the pretext of topping up her cup. Once she had herself back under control, she found Tien staring at her with the unblinking intensity of a predator in her dark, triangular eyes.

“Uh, does that happen often?” she coughed, hiding behind a quick drink. “Turning on each other?”

“Dominants are built to protect, but too many of them for too long and it usually doesn’t end well. Packs need a balance of dynamics. It’s up to the alpha to ensure that, and really, in the end, the alpha can either make or break the pack. Like humans, we have our own tragedies and evils,” she sighed and rubbed a thumb along the handle of her cup. “As far as I know, and I’m not an expert, we’re no better and no worse statistically speaking. Some of us in RainFire come from… less than ideal situations.”

“Jojo?” Both ocelot and woman were immediately on alert, bristling at the thought of any harm coming to the little girl.

“Oh no!” Eyes widening in earnestness, Tien put a reassuring hand on Lorel’s shoulder. Surprisingly, she found herself leaning into the touch, even imagined what it’d feel like on her bare skin. It wasn’t anything sexual; it just felt so good that Lorel imagined her skin was greedily soaking it up and feeding it directly to her soul. Even her animal- usually an angry, semi-feral thing- calmed until it was practically purring.

“Not my family,” she shook her head and removed her hand to take another apple cheddar scone. The cat snarled at the loss of contact, its typical surliness rushing back in to fill the void. “I just meant that some of us didn’t really know how to live in a pack, either, so I’m sure you’ll fit right in.”

Lorel’s primal half, hurting and denied release from the prison she kept it in, lashed out in the only course it had left.

“I’m not an idiot, I know where I’d stand in the hierarchy and I’m not about to be anyone’s bitch.” The vitriol in her voice, harsh and throaty with the cat, startled even her.

Utter silence reigned.

Cold slithered down her spine. Normally, given its druthers, her ocelot would always choose fight over flight, deranged thing that it was. But some long-buried instinct in the cat surfaced, warning that Tien was more powerful. Experience taught that, that always boded ill for her.

The animal she kept so tightly controlled scrabbled to escape, raking her insides bloody in a demand to be set free. It needed to run and save them both from the situation it created. She’d long ago learned to allow fleeting bits of freedom to that aspect of her nature before it grew too wild, too painful to contain. Because of that balancing act, it had been years since she last lost control and shifted involuntarily.

The pain and ecstasy of the shift didn’t even register to the cat. Not pausing to settle her fur, she bolted out the open doors, leaving the woman to call after her in surprise.

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somethingpoeticiguess · 5 years

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Ohshc Au Idea

- Ohshc Au where they all go to art school (both performing and drawing and stuff y’know (is it called visual??))

- Sort of like the same vibe as that show on Netflix called Backstage

- The school would be one of those super prestigious art schools like the Juilliard of their universe

- Tamaki would obviously be there to study piano

- he’d spend hours in the practice rooms and all of the other pianists hate him because he’s got some sort of superhuman power when it comes to booking practice rooms before anyone else

- Kyoya would be vocal performance with a minor in Broadway type acting (help I don’t know the actual terms)

- here I go again rambling about my Kyoya can sing headcanon that I will go down with

-Babey boy would probably be known as one of those people who can sing anything throughout the school

- Everyone from school can tell his voice apart from everyone else’s

- like if they walk past a practice room and hear him singing inside they can tell instantly that it’s him

- like picture this: a senior is giving a freshman a tour of the college and they walk past the practice rooms and inside practice room 3 the Freshman can hear someone singing in the best voice that they have ever heard. The freshman says to the senior with starstruck eyes “Who’s that??” “Ahh” the senior says “That’s Kyoya Ootori, he’s kind of a legend around here”

- Hikaru would be a Shakespearean type actor

- Like he has whole ass monologues on the tip of his tongue at any given moment

- He’s a super good actor however he can’t sing for shit so he could never be in a musical

- He’s secretly jealous because Kyoya can sing so well

- They’re secretly jealous of each other

-Kyoya wishes he could act as well as Hikaru and Hikaru wishes he could sing as well as Kyoya

- Kaoru would be the one to take over their mother’s business and would study fashion and clothing design

- Even though Hikaru is the eldest he had no interest in the family business and decided to pursue acting instead

- Luckily for the Hitachiin family Kaoru took to clothing design from a very early age

- He makes clothes for the rest of the hosts on a regular basis

-He makes all of the clothes that the hosts wear for their performances and art galleries and whatnot

- The drama department loves him because he makes all of their costumes

- Mori would be a sketch artist, a painter, and a sculptor

- He’d basically do everything in the art department from drawing to welding metal figures

- he doesn’t talk much so he communicates through his art as cheesy as that sounds

- He constantly has either paint on his clothes, clay under his nails, or both at the same time

- People in the general public are slightly concerned when he opens his bag and they see a blowtorch inside

- His metal sculptures are littered all across campus

- Some of these sculptures include but are not limited to: A giant replica of Mary Poppins, Patti Lupone (Kyoya legit cried when he saw this one), and a giant metal spider that the students have so aptly named Kenneth

- Kenneth lives on top of the Art building

- Despite the fact that he’s an art student he really loves showtunes and gets really excited to see/hear Kyoya sing them

- Honey is a culinary arts student

- His specialty is (obviously) desserts

- He makes the prettiest cakes and the most delicious meals

- He has to stand on a step ladder to make those giant wedding type cakes

- He constantly smells like a bakery... like constantly

- Haruhi is a violinist

- she treats her violin like a baby. She even keeps it in the child seat part of the cart when she goes to the grocery store

- She goes to the school on a violin scholarship

- She plays a cheap violin she got from a small music store when she was ten with her birthday/Christmas money that she had been saving for years

- The way she plays that cheap little violin you’d think it was a super nice expensive one

- She’s mostly self taught

- When she was young she couldn’t afford lessons so she taught herself to play

- She only began to take lessons when she got to high school

- I imagine when she isn’t playing classical for school her playing sounds a lot like Ada Pasternak

- Ada Pasternak Video: https://youtu.be/YQSzk44hBmk

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- when they don’t live in the dorms they rent a fairly large house that they all live in together (like that house that Sam Golbach, Colby Brock, Corey Scherer, Aaron Doh, Devyn Lundy, Jake Webber, and Elton Castee lived in together)

- Tamaki has a whole ass grand piano in his room

- Nobody’s really sure how he got it in there

- He also has a keyboard that he brings around the house for jam sessions with the other hosts

- They have jam sessions in the living room

- Tamaki brings down his keyboard or he plays the little theatre piano that sits in their living room

- Haruhi brings down her little violin that she loves with all of her heart Kyoya would sing with them

- They’d do stuff like that Ada Pasternak video I put earlier in this post except instead of Haruhi singing it would be Kyoya

- Mori’s room legitimately would not be a bedroom

- It would be an art studio with a Mori sized bed in the corner and a theatre style clothing rack next to it

- he has like four easels all around the room and a desk covered in drawing pads, pencils, ink markers, colored pencils, oil paint, and random multicolored stains

- In the middle of the room he has a raised platform with whatever sculpture he’s currently working on sitting on top of it

- He has a shelf with all sorts of supplies in it

- He has like three different blowtorches, a huge array of paint brushes, different sharp things for his clay sculptures, hammers, a bunch of books on the history of art, and a dirty paint and clay covered apron with random burn holes in it

- Kyoya has like a whole arsenal of throat coat teas and herbal things in his room as well as a kettle and a hot plate

- In the corner he built a small room that only has room for one average sized person to go inside and coated the inside with sound proof padding and that’s where he practices belting and other different vocal techniques

- Kyoya absolutely loves their giant bathroom

- The acoustic qualities make him really excited he loves to sing in there

- Kyoya, Tamaki, and Haruhi sometimes jam in their fantastically acoustic bathroom because they are attracted to good acoustics the same way a moth is attracted to a bright light

- Hikaru has a whole library of scripts in his room

- like his bookshelves are just overflowing with scripts from all the plays he’s been in

- Some books on Shakespeare and the ins and outs of acting are scattered around the bookshelf too but it’s mostly scripts

- On his desk he keeps the script from the show that he’s currently in right in the middle of his desk with a pencil cup in the corner full of pens and highlighters

- He has a huge bulletin board in his room filled with pictures from different shows and different print outs of his favorite monologues and whatnot

- Kaoru’s room is similar to Mori’s in the sense that it’s barely a bedroom at all

- He has a small bed and a small dresser and the rest of the space is filled with his work

- He has a huge desk that is covered in scraps of fabric, scissors, and measuring tape

- He has a HUGE pin cushion in the corner that would be an absolute hazard if it fell to the ground

- Above his desk is a giant bulletin board similar to Hikaru’s except his is less of a collage and more of an idea board

- It’s full of sketches for new designs and has the occasional magazine clipping or inspirational quote

- Honey basically lives in the kitchen

- His room only has a bed and a dresser and a few ginormous bookshelves

- on these bookshelves are countless numbers of cookbooks

- 90% of what’s on these bookshelves is actually just regular notebooks and journal type things full of recipes that Honey has come up with himself

- The kitchen is HIS domain none of the other hosts ever use it other than to get the occasional glass of water or snack here and there

- They basically eat gourmet every night

- He cooks all of their meals and uses them as his guinea pigs

- Luckily for them 99% of the time his food is absolutely delicious

- Their house is full of just bits and pieces of what they do

- Mori’s artwork decorates the entire place

- The centerpiece for their table is a bouquet of metal flowers that Mori made

- His paintings decorate the walls and some of his sculptures sit as decorations in some of the different rooms

- There is sheet music literally all over the house

- nobody bats an eye when hey find the crescendo piece of a classical violin song on the kitchen table

- or when they find the lyrics to a classical opera song jammed in between the couch cushions

- Kaoru will often use Haruhi as his model for his dresses

- he’ll have her put on a tank top and bike shorts and literally build a dress onto her body and by the end she’s walking around the house in a whole ass Victorian style ballgown

- God help their house if Kyoya gets sick before a performance

- The amount of throat coat tea he consumes is absolutely unreal

- He has a little table with shelves behind it in his room with a tea kettle and a hot plate on it

- on the shelves behind it are boxes upon boxes of throat coat and herbal tea and a whole arsenal of mugs

- The house always smells like cooking food because Honey lives in the kitchen and is always cooking something or other

-When it doesn’t smell like food it smells like burning metal because Mori is always working on some sort of metal sculpture with one of his countless blowtorches

- This boy legit keeps a fire extinguisher in his bedroom in case he sets something on fire with said blowtorch

- Christmas season is absolutely wonderful in their house

- Tamaki and Haruhi are playing Christmas songs

- Kyoya is singing them

- Honey is making all sorts of festive dishes (You should see him on Thanksgiving he goes absolutely ham (pun intended))

- Kaoru is making festive outfits

- Mori makes each and every one of their Christmas decorations

- and Hikaru is practicing his lines for the production of A Christmas Carol that he’s in every year (This is his fourth time playing Scrooge!)

- But all in all this is a house where creativity flourishes and they all boost each other’s creativity to the max

- and of course they all graduate and become extremely successful and stay close knit forever

BONUS:

- Renge is also a vocalist she performs with Kyoya very often

- Kasanoda is a ballet student

- People are surprised he does something so graceful and elegant because he looks scary but when you really think about it it fits his personality

- Nekozawa is a poet (Edgar Allan Poe 2.0)

#ouran high school host club #ouran headcanons #kyoya ootori #tamaki suoh #hikaru hitachiin #kaoru hitachiin #takashi morinozuka #mitsukuni haninozuka #ohshc au #art school au #renge houshakuji #ritsu kasanoda #umehito nekozawa #haruhi fujioka

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blessyourhondahurley · 5 years

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October 9 - Blame It on the Quinoa

This little fic pushes me past 100,000 total words posted to AO3!!

[also on AO3]

If anyone asked, Dean was prepared to blame it on the quinoa. They'd raised the price again at Whole Foods, he would say, and so he'd stopped in to comparison shop. As a cover story, it was perfect, because it wasn't even a lie, exactly. Whole Foods really had jacked the price up by almost a dollar a pound. But let's be clear: Dean Smith can afford to pay an extra dollar a pound for his quinoa. He only eats it on his cheat days, anyway. He isn't in Namaste Lit Natural Foods to pinch pennies; there's something else here that he'd like to pinch much more.

As it turns out, the time he'd put into working out his cover story was wasted; no one gives him a second look as he wanders the store. That doesn't change how conspicuous and awkward he feels, browsing an aisle full of healing crystals and stones in his Gucci drill jacket and wool jacquard pants. He spends another few minutes looking around, and he actually does put some quinoa in his basket because the price is, in fact, staggeringly low.

He rounds the corner from essential oils and is heading into homeopathics when he finally sees him – the real reason Dean's in this store today. The man's attention is focused on the shelf he's methodically restocking, a furrow on his brow where he's concentrating on lining up the tiny boxes in even rows. Dean has ample time to let his eyes roam as he closes the distance between them.

He's wearing pale gray sweatpants today, loose ones that cuff right below his knee. He's topped that with a soft-looking t-shirt in dark cranberry that boasts a collar so stretched out, it hangs off one of his shoulders. There are Birkenstocks on his feet, because of course there are. The outfit is much less revealing than the tight yoga pants and cropped tank top he'd been wearing the last time they'd encountered each other, but it's just as flattering. Dean suspects that that body would look dynamite in a Hefty bag.

Dean's feet have carried him close enough now to speak. But when he tries to think of a witty conversational gambit, his mind goes aggressively blank. Not wanting to waste his chance (or his trip), he clears his throat, and offers up his most charming smile when those blue eyes turn his way.

The dazzling eyes stay neutral, though, without a flicker of recognition in them. What comes out of those delicious-looking lips is pure Generic Retail Worker Voice. “Can I help you find something, sir?”

Dean's stomach drops down through his body and lodges itself in his Ferragamo loafers. He'd thought when they'd talked after hot yoga last week that the two of them had had a connection, that there'd been a little eye-magic. How could he have misread the signals so completely?

Then the man's face changes, and his eyes light up, and he grins, and Dean has a mood swing so sudden and so absolute that it leaves him kind of dizzy. “Sorry,” he says with a little laugh. “I was stuck in work mode for a second there. Hello, Dean.”

“H-hey, Cas,” he stammers in reply, cheeks flushing with equal parts relief and attraction.

“Fancy seeing you here. What brings you into my humble little shop today, Mr. Smith?”

In sharp contrast to the impersonal tone of moments before, his voice is now lilting and flirty. Dean still can't remember how to string together a coherent sentence. “Quinoa,” he offers, hoisting his basket dumbly.

“Ah,” Cas replies. He nods and leans closer, boosting the intimacy of the conversation to an almost incendiary level. “Have you tried the freekeh?” he murmurs conspiratorially. “It's got more protein, and twice as much fiber as quinoa. Lower on the glycemic index, too. It's not gluten-free, though, if that's a concern?”

Considering the fact that Cas is talking to him about superfoods, there is no reason for Dean to be as turned on as he is right now. But they're standing so close, and Cas smells so good, and his voice is a low, sexy rumble. Dean's got a truly terrible “get freekeh with you” pun just raring to jump out of his mouth, but he chokes it back and forces himself to calm.

“I haven't tried it,” he manages eventually. “But it sounds intriguing. Would you like to get coffee sometime, and you can tell me more?”

“I have some leftover freekeh risotto in my fridge right now, actually. It's got some mushrooms and asparagus in it, I can grate a little Parmigiano Reggiano on top, it's fantastic. Maybe you could stop by this evening, bring a bottle of wine?” He looks at Dean from under his lashes, and there's no question that risotto is not the only thing he's offering tonight.

In his mind, Dean is shaking his ass and pumping his fist in triumph, but he clamps a lid on it, and keeps his external cool. “I'd like that,” he says with as much suaveness as he can muster.

Cas whips out his phone. They exchange numbers, and Cas texts him his address. “See you around 7?” he prompts sweetly.

It's Dean's turn to grin. “Can't wait.”

#destiel #destiel fanfic #destiel au #dean smith #endverse!cas

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echodrops · 5 years

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Ten Totally Awesome, Very Serious, Incredibly Valid Reasons to Ship Shigaraki/Ochako

Pleaseee Note: This is a parody post. If you’re looking for real reasons to ship Shigako (M&Ms voice: they do exist!), they’re over here.

Spoilers for My Villain Academia, watch out.

Uh, also, before anyone goes stereotypically tumblr on me, no, I obviously do not condone shipping minors and adults. But I do fully support future fics, age changes, and AUs because I can actually conceptualize of fictional characters in circumstances different from the canon. First person to send me anon hate about a four-year age gap will be punted into the sun.

1) Uraraka already has a track record of being attracted to a Merch-Collecting Nerd Prince with Zero Chill and only One Pair of Red Sneakers to his name.

It’s only inevitable that one day she’ll come to her senses and upgrade to the VASTLY SUPERIOR Nerd King Special Edition HD Re-Release™ instead.

Thank you to Reddit for providing me multiple pictures comparing these vile shoes.

2) Shigaraki might be a crazed terrorist hell bent on total world destruction, but he’s not interested in kinky girls.

Freak in the streets, vanilla in the sheets.

A PERFECTLY NORMAL girl like Ocha–

You know what, on second thought, let’s just… move along…

3) He’s got blue hair, she likes to wear pink. He was a skater boi, she said see yah later boi.

According to The Complete Colorstrologist’s Guide to Metaphysical, Metaphoric, and Metastasizing Personal Wells of Well-Being (publication pending); the expert opinions of at least three licensed metaphysicotheologico-cosmolonigologists; whatcolorismyaura .com (which is flagged as a security risk by my browser, and which I was too scared to actually unflag, even for the sake of this joke); like half of a $1.50/hour consultation with the professionals of 1-800-PSY-CHIC (which I hope is not a real phone number); and five whole minutes of Googling, pink and blue are infinitely compatible colors! The intensity and compassion of those possessing the pink aura helps to temper the brutal intuition and blunt honesty of the blue aura! The reliability and follow-through of one pastel soul empowers the bubbly generosity of the other! This is just plain and simple scientifically proven fact. Does your ship align with the stars?! I didn’t think so.

FURTHERMORE, deciphering the Illuminati’s cryptographic RGB code reveals that the-only-color-of-pink-anime-girls-are-allowed-to-wear corresponds perfectly to Numerology Life Path Number 7, while baby blue corresponds to Life Path 2, which, like, basically totally means they’re soulmates.*

* Every sign is your soulmate if you go through enough of the Google results.

Please also consider: Cotton candy is delicious.

I stole this picture from a vape shop. Please don’t sue me, vape shop.

4) Shigaraki and Uraraka would obviously be the ultimate low maintenance power couple.

They say that the most harmonious pairs are people who live similar lifestyles, right? Get you a man who won’t judge your habit of window-shopping at convenience stores.

Think of all the ridiculous AU fanfics the world is tragically missing out on!

Where is the penniless millennial disaster roommate AU?! (Can’t afford real food? Mochi makes the dream work. Their roof springs a leak? F R E E shower. Coupon game too strong. God help the person who cuts them in line for samples at the grocer’s.) Where is the “We got fake married for the tax breaks” AU?! (”Wait, what do you mean divorces cost money?”) The “Don’t think I’ll take it easy on you in battle just because we keep meeting at the 99¢ ¥100 store” AU?! The--

5) Who doesn’t love a beauty and the beast story? A tale as old as time? Song as old as rhyme?

I, for one, have perfect faith in the ability of Shigaraki’s beauty to civilize even the most horrendous of monsters.

6) Look Uraraka–

–you might have to bail his ass out of jail for murder, but at least you know you’ll never catch him cheating!

6.5) Their ship name could be Stardust. 🌠S T A R🌠🌌D U S T🌌!!! Why are y’all still sleepin’?!! Arghhkfghjfgh!

7) She’s already met his whole family!

The introduction got off on an awkward foot, trueee, but look on the bright side: there definitely won’t be any complaints about their relationship from his side of the aisle!

8) Her quirk makes her nauseous? That’s okay. He’s A L W A Y S nauseous.

It doesn’t get any more romantic than taking turns holding each other’s hair, and research suggests people who have maximum innate chemistry mirror each other’s physical behaviors without even noticing! You could say they just can’t hold it in anymore! It’s really overflowing! In this essay, I will--

9) The couple that plays together, stays together.

This is where I WOULD put a picture of Shigaraki gaming... if Horikoshi had ever drawn one, but he WON’T, because he knows full well that Shigaraki is a fake gamer who only ever watches Let’s Plays.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single male in possession of a decent PC build, must be in a want of a hot gamer girlfriend. Semi-mythical in nature, it is rumored that once every nine years, when Mars aligns with the release of a new triple AAA title that has single player and no micro-transactions, a female gamer will reveal herself via dropping push-to-talk in the voice chat and will accept challengers of note. Should you best her in battle, the ancient legend claims, she may deem you a worthy companion. But lose, and your dignity fate will lie entirely in her hands.

Ochako is crazy competitive. Shigaraki’s ass is grass.

10) You ever see him act like this much of a doofus for anyone but Uraraka Ochako?

I rest my case.

#Shigaraki Tomura #uraraka ochako #shigaraki #ochako #shigaraki/ochako #shigako #OTP: Stardust #I'M GOING TO MAKE THAT A REAL THING #boku no hero academia #bnha shitpost #please dear god don't take me seriously here #but this is the meta I was originally asked to produce #so if you'll never be able to unsee this nonsense #dont blame me #I'm sick of angst #please someone write me a Shigaraki and Ochako get stuck on a deserted island together and have to lasso sea turtles to escape AU

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groundzerobakugo · 5 years

Text

maniacal // k. bakugou; vampire

gender in this imagine will be female. if you wish for me to create this with male or genderneutral pronouns please feel free to send a message my way! i would be happy to help!

...

after gaining your independence, your first idea was to move away from the big city your family lived, preferring a smaller, more rural area to reside. but, what you hadn’t expected were the strange whispers of after dark. you didn’t really know what to make of it. you were used to big city life, where businesses stayed open late and buses still ran well into the evening. and compared to your new residence, you actually missed it.

no one ever left their homes after the sun went down; it may as well have been a law. rumours held stories of ravenous and savage beasts that would hunt down anyone they found, of insatiable and uncontrollable fiends that would rip someone to pieces under the cover of darkness. at least, that was what you’d been told.

the makeshift law hadn’t stopped you, though.

the full moon was high in the sky, illuminating the streets as you took your time getting back to your apartment. there was a bitter chill to the air with the fall weather coming in, and you wished you’d brought along a spare coat; though, the sweater you wore did provide some warmth, so you couldn’t complain too much.

you bopped your head to the music coming from your headphones. you weren’t really paying attention to your surroundings--after all, no one left their house at night, there wasn’t anyone to bump into or a car to fear getting hit by. it was peaceful, in your mind, as though time didn’t exist, and you were just wandering around a ghost town with no place to be or people to see. after dark, the town was yours.

but, despite the peacefulness you felt, there was an eerie chill in the air, as though eyes were following your every move.

perhaps it was the rumours from the locals of things lurking around at night that could kill you in the blink of an eye. after all, everyone did think you were crazy for going out at night, and they constantly scolded you for stepping foot outside after dark.

you cast a glance over your shoulder, seeing nothing but the empty sidewalk, and grumbled to yourself. damn the locals for making you paranoid. you looked forward once again but stopped abruptly upon seeing a figure in front of you.

“what’s a cute little snack like you doing wandering around this late?” their voice was smooth as velvet, and you looked up at their face. inhuman, golden eyes peered down at you, her lips quirked into a smirk, and an eyebrow cocked.

“i’m just on my way home, enjoying the breeze,” you replied, taking out an earbud.

she tilted her head to the side. “you’re human?”

“and you’re not?” you snorted. “look, if you’re just trying to scare the foreigner, good luck, sugar. i’ve heard the stories, but i think they’re a pile of bullshit.”

“oh?” she grinned. “you’re pretty brave, huh? what’s your name?”

“what’s it to you?” you glared.

“just curious.” she shrugged.

you eyed the girl for a moment. she didn’t look like much of a threat, dressed in a high school uniform and all. “it’s (name).”

“(name)-chan,” she hummed. “i love it! and hey, you’re pretty cute, too. i wonder....”

an odd feeling ran through your body; unease and sudden anxiety making you take an unconscious step back. “wonder what?” you asked, voice wavering.

she looked at you with a unsettling gleam in her eyes, lips twisted into a grin. “how you’d look covered in blood.”

“wh-what?” you asked with an unsure laugh. “you’re still trying to scare me?”

in an instant, the blonde stood nose to nose with you, and you could smell some weird combination of something floral and... metallic? she took a deep whiff, eyes fluttering closed as she sighed. “you don’t have to play tough, i can smell the fear on you, and it smells so good.”

she shoved you against the wall, and you felt your heart drop in your chest. was this really happening? were the locals actually telling the truth? it wasn’t just some stupid rumour?

before you could move, you felt sharp fangs pierce your neck, and you let out a howl of pain, her nails creating crescent shaped wounds into your shoulder. it was such an odd and unpleasant feeling, being able to feel the blood leave your body. your fingertips and toes began to feel tingly when she let go.

“awh, you look even cuter now!” she grinned with a reddened smile.

you struggled to stand through the haze, attempting to brace yourself amongst the wall. your palms scraped against the rough brick, and you could feel your shirt become wet and clingy to your shoulder, spreading downward with each drop of blood that gushed out.

the girl licked her lips. “maybe i should keep you, you taste absolutely delicious.”

“like hell you fucking will,” a new voice growled.

you squinted, trying to make out a second figure, but everything was growing blurry. you could see vague shapes and indistinguishable sounds of grunts and growls, as though you were thrust underwater. it felt like you were almost drowning, even it was getting harder and harder to breath, harder and harder to stay on your feet, harder and harder to keep focus.

but then everything fell silent, only the sounds of heavy breathing echoing through the breeze.

“hos-hospital,” you mumbled. “i... i need to-to go... to the-the hospital....”

something warm touched your cheek, and your eyes fluttered open for a moment, locking with ruby red irises. “ain’t no hospital around that’s fucking open. where do you live?”

“hospital...,” you repeated, eyes closing once again. “need... need to....”

“oi, don’t you dare fucking pass out on me,” the voice said.

but you felt your conscious slipping away, and everything fell into darkness.

...

“has there been any change with the human?” someone asked. “i mean, it’s been a couple days.”

a grunt. “not yet.”

“should we really be keeping her here?” the former voice again. “i mean, it was you who made the rule not to--”

“i know what the fuck i said, shitty hair, but i couldn’t just leave her to fucking bleed out on the street, could i?”

there was silence for a moment. “no, i suppose not. has her wound healed up?”

“not completely,” they replied. “but--”

the two froze upon hearing a small groan from your lips. your form moved on the bed, and both took a hesitant step forward.

“is she waking up?”

“looks like it.”

“i think she’s waking up.”

“yeah.”

“she’s wak--”

“i fucking got it, shitty hair! now get the hell out!”

“right!”

your head was pounding as you came to, body feeling heavy and sore as though you hadn’t moved in years. you blinked, eyes hazy as they adjusted to the dim lighting of the room. you struggled to sit up, a sharp throb coming from the junction of your neck and shoulder causing you to hiss in pain and clench your jaw.

“lay back down.” a voice ordered.

you jumped out the sound, twisting sharply to meet a ruby red gaze. instantly, you regretted the movement, “fuck.” you caught your breath for a moment, taking a glance at the person beside you. he was pretty attractive, you couldn’t lie, with wild blond hair, broad shoulders, and a sharp jaw. but what threw you off was the color of his eyes. inhuman and abnormal. “who are you? where am i? what happened to me? why am i here?”

“don’t ask so many fucking questions, and fucking listen to me, dipshit. you’ll reopen that stupid bite.” he growled. “now, lay back down, or my damn hard work will be all for shit.”

“kiss your mother with that mouth?” you grumbled as you laid back down. “now, answer my questions.”

he quirked a brow, eyes narrowing. “you’re safe in my apartment. you were attacked by a vampire, and i fucking saved your ass so you better be damn grateful.”

“what the fuck do you mean a vampire?! a vampire fucking bit me? what planet are you from?”

and within the blink of an eye, the man was right in front of you, teeth bared and eyes wild. “i mean a goddamn, shit sucking vampire, dipshit. that blonde bitch was fucking hunting in my damn territory, and i don’t fucking go for that shit, got it?! she would have made you a shitty blood slave, or she would have killed you if i didn’t get there in time!”

your eyes were wide with fear, mouth agape as you struggled to form words. your hands clenched the sheets beneath them, and you could feel your heart beat rapidly with fear. images, flashes, passing through your mind, memories of a blonde high school girl attacking you. a small whimper escaped your lips, and you subconsciously moved away.

“i wanna go home,” you whimpered. “take me home.”

but the blond didn’t respond. he only backed away and left the room, leaving you with teary eyes and a fearful heart.

...

you couldn’t fall asleep easily after waking up the first time. it was as though every time you closed your eyes, you would see her. you would see himiko toga hunting you down. no matter how much you wanted to sleep, you couldn’t as the memories passed by. your neck ached with each moment you spent awake, but you couldn’t afford to succumb to nightmares.

it wasn’t for another few hours that your door opened again. but this time, it wasn’t a blond. it was a redhead.

“o-oh, you’re... you’re awake?”

you only stared at him.

“sorry, i was just going to leave some food for you,” he replied, setting down a tray of soup and a bottle of water. “i’ll let you eat in peace--”

“wait,” you called, and he paused in his tracks. “please, don’t leave me alone.”

his brows raised. “uh, ye-yeah. sure.” he sat down awkwardly on the side of the bed, eyes cast off to the wall in front of him.

“what’s your name?” you asked.

“me? i’m kirishima, kirishima eijirou,” he said. “you?”

“(name),” you replied.

“you’re not from here, are you?”

“nuh uh. i moved about a month back,” you said, poking around at the soup.

“it’s not much, but bakugou says there’s a lot of nutrients in there humans need,” kirishima said, seeing you stare at the soup in disinterest.

you looked over at him. “bakugou?”

“the angry blond guy,” he laughed. “he’s really rough around the edges, but he doesn’t hurt humans. none of us do in this territory.”

“so you’re a... vampire?” you asked.

“not exactly,” he replied. “more of a dhampir. half human, half vampire. basically, i get all the cool stuff without needing blood.”

“oh,” you murmured. “bakugou, he... he’s not gonna...?”

kirishima gave you a small smile. “he won’t hurt you. like i said, we don’t hunt humans in this territory. it’s inhumane, especially with blood packs and even donors around, but outside the territory, other vampires still prefer the old ways.”

“right,” you replied. you blinked tiredly, trying a spoonful of the soup.

“bakugou said you’ll need to eat all of it, that way you get better quicker. eat and then rest,” the redhead said. “but... well, you should have been sleeping when i came in. it’s nighttime, after all.”

you dropped your spoon back in the bowl, the soup tasting sour in your mouth. “i... i can’t.”

his brows furrowed. “can’t what?”

“i can’t sleep,” you mumbled.

“oh? why not?”

“nightmares.”

“oh.”

“i-i can’t close my eyes without... without seeing her there,” you said, tears threatening to fall. “i thought it was fake. i thought it was some stupid prank that everyone was so stupid they fell for it.” you laughed, a hollow sound bouncing off the walls.

you jumped as you felt a hand touch your shoulder. “i’m sorry, (name). if you want, i can get you some sleeping pills. it might help a little bit.”

“really?” you asked, looking over at kirishima.

“of course,” he smiled. “but, you have to eat your soup first.”

“okay,” you replied, the faintest of smiles tugging at your lips.

...

twenty minutes after kirishima had left the room, there was a slight knock at the door before it creaked open. “you better be fucking decent.” the blond, bakugou, walked into the room holding a glass of water and a bottle of pills.

“wh-where’s kirishima?” you asked, a bit fearful to be in the same room as bakugou.

“he’s on an errand,” he responded plainly.

you looked down at your hands. “oh.”

the blond rolled his eyes and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “here. take two. shitty hair says you’ve been having nightmares.”

“thanks,” you muttered, taking the medication from his hand. “what is it?”

“a fucking ancient vampire sleeping draught,” he said.

your eyes widened. “re-really?”

“no, dumbass. vampires don’t even fucking sleep,” the blond scoffed. “now take the stupid pills and drink the damn water so i can leave.”

you scowled. “fine. but...,” your face softened, cheeks turning a light pink. “but, please don’t leave.”

his brow raised, “hah?”

“don’t go,” you mumbled.

bakugou hesitated for a moment. he could smell the fear on you, so why were you even asking him to stay? as if it would change anything?

“please.”

“fine.”

you smiled at the blond and then swallowed the pills, following after with the glass of water he’d given you. “how long until they kick in?”

“maybe five minutes?” he guessed.

“oh.”

silence passed between the two of you for a few minutes, and you could feel the pills slowly start to work as your mind grew hazy. bakugou stayed seated on the edge of the bed, occasionally shifting his gaze your way to check if you were still awake. something about being alone with bakugou was much different than being alone with the blond.

you looked over at him. “why don’t you hunt humans?”

he glanced at you. “what kind of a damn question is that? it’s fucking barbaric and stupid. that good enough of an answer for you?”

you hummed. “i-i think. so, you’re not going to kill me?”

“are you stupid or something?”

“why’re you so mean?” you whined, body feeling heavy as you leaned his way. “i... i’m not... stupid.”

“oi. oi. oi!” the blond froze as you passed out on his shoulder, not sure if he should move you or not. he growled low under his breath in annoyance. “god dammit.”

slowly, he shifted to lay you down, but you’d latched onto his arm, pulling him down with you as you curled up against him. his cheeks blossomed into a cherry red, heart skipping a subtle beat. now what the fuck was he supposed to do? lay there without moving until you wake up?

a cool blast of air from the fan sent a whiff of your scent his way, and he flinched. your wound was still healing, the smell of your blood still prominent through the bandages.

would he even survive the night?

...

to be continued if requested

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thenightling · 4 years

Text

The Dodged Bullet

Warning: This is deliberately bad!

The dodged bullet:

The following is the horrific notion of what would have happened if The CW, Fox, or Syfy adapted Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman instead of Netflix. This is going to poke fun of common tropes of Fox and CW shows. See if you can spot them all.

I am going to deliberately write this very, very badly.

The generically attractive young man in his early-twenties walked toward the crime scene. He wore a long leather jacket, designer sneakers, expensive brand-name jeans, and a stylish and perfectly fitted black polo style shirt under the jacket. It was rumpled but just so as to hint at what a great body he had under it. He had thick, dark brown hair. Brown eyes, a smoldering gaze and a dazzling smile. He’s Caucasian and generically attractive. He’s thin but not rake thin, more like sexy male model thin. He’s got muscle tone.

At the moment he looked stoic, hands resting in his pockets. He crosses the yellow crime scene tape without anyone stopping him. No one questions his presence but he is not invisible. This is “grounded” in reality, folks.

The Sandman solves crimes! The Sandman is a private investigator with a secret. He is a real Sandman! Hidden in his jacket is a leather pouch which will probably get used maybe once or twice an episode (budgetary reasons). And he gets confused by certain social cues and pop culture references but otherwise he’s just a generic hot guy.

He’s probably portrayed by a Tom Mison type. He might be American. There’s an English accent but it’s so slight (so hidden by Americanisms) that it’s almost undetectable. He approaches the pretty, ninety-pound, college age female detective with perfect, blond hair. She looks up at him.

“Hey, Murphy.” She says in a friendly tone. Yes, Murphy is his alias. She thinks he’s just eccentric and thinks he’s The Sandman but he gets results!

“Detective Walker.” He smiled with obvious affection. He crushes on her, pines for her. But she mustn’t ever know the truth. It is forbidden for one of his kind to be with a mortal. Even if she is a Vortex. And her great power may one day destroy the world… or save it! That’s the real reason he was here, to watch her. He had never expected to fall in love with her…

The show has almost no scenes in The Dreaming and when there are it’s about 90% CG over green screen, like the Enchanted Forest sets of Once Upon a Time, or the under-whelming Hell of Lucifer. There’s probably a throne room with a starry night sky behind it, and an under-whelming “vast” library on par with Belle’s library in Once Upon a Time that will be shown very rarely.

“We’ve got another one.” She said gravely. “Eyes torn out. Pretty girl. Whoever this creep is- this predator must be stopped!” The implication here is the victims are all damsels who have been targeted by an evil man targeting them for misogynistic reasons. But don’t worry! The show is totally not sexist! Detective Rose Walker kicks ass! And in season four she’ll be raising her own long-lost little brother! Even though it’ll take her at least five seasons to learn Murphy’s secret (if she ever does).

“I thought the ‘me too’ movement would have at least reduced some of this.” She said with a shake of her head in disappointment at the world.

The line of dialogue doesn’t actually really make sense under easy scrutiny. Why would “Me too” actually make a serial killer reconsider his life choices? Oh, well, the audience doesn’t have enough time to question it.

“Me too?” The adorable, awkward, pretty “Murphy” questions.

“Boy! Where have you been? In a cave?” “Actually I was trapped inside a prison cell for a hundred and five years and before that I resided in another dimension.”

She rolls her eyes. “Not this again. Tell me you can at least figure something out with your ‘Dream powers’” she said cynically. He might have been insane and socially inept but he got results!

Morpheus knelt down next to the body and placed his hands on the corpse. There isn’t even any SFX for this. He’s just sensing something. He grunts in a sexy portrayal of sexy CW level pain.

“What? What is it?”

“I think I know who did this…”

“Who?”

“Corinthian…”

(Opening credits here. Maybe the opening riff of Enter Sandman by Metallica. No, wait, Fox and CW can’t afford that. It’s Mr. Sandman by the Charlottes! It kills the mood but everyone knows the song. You’ll be sick of it by episode five if you weren’t already. And it will get a LOT of use since the song is cheap / practically public domain.)

The next scene is not present day. It’s a flashback. And by flashback I mean a hastily put together set in Vancouver Canada. It’s probably someone’s private stables being passed off as a medieval village. No, wait. Its eighteenth century. There’s a sexy other character wearing slightly anachronistic style sunglasses hiding his eyes (No CG here, the production team figures the glasses are enough). In fact his eyes might not even be weird at all. He just likes sunglasses! There, that’s better, no wasted money here. He’s wearing a badly fitted white wig over white hair.

“My king,” the sunglassed man says with a bow. We have to be blunt for our easily distracted audience, so there’s the reminder that this is the dream king. “Thank you for letting me accompany you to the waking world. There are such delicious things here.”

“Yes, the food is rather pleasant.” Morpheus replies. His costume is decently fitted but obviously borrowed from another show, possibly a left over from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Those props and some period costumes still get use. Isn’t Morpheus adorably oblivious, though?

Morpheus is wearing a dark blue frock coat and lace. His trousers are exceptionally tight to show off the actor’s perfect ass.

The Corinthian’s costume is cream colored. There was a behind the scenes fight and as small victory for the one crew member who actually read Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman in getting the cream outfit. Others working on the show wanted the costume to be black to make it more obvious he was the bad guy.

An attractive, tall, black man (probably American), under the age of thirty, is behind Morpheus. This is his loyal manservant, Lucien. But it’s totally not racist making the dreaming librarian / butler black when the show hasn’t had any black characters yet. No, it’s inclusive!

The attractive black man speaks. “My Lord, I think he intends to do harm to the mortals here.”

“Nonsense, Lucien. I’m certain it’s fine.”

The Corinthian wandered away from his master and he soon drags off attractive young female into an alley, hand over her mouth. No, The Corinthian isn’t gay anymore in this version. But it’s okay. Hob Gadling, Morpheus’ immortal friend (who now runs a bar for some reason) is gay! He’s very gay. In fact that’s the extent of his entire personality. But isn’t this diverse and inclusive?! And there’s no more problematic gay nightmare, even though in the original comics The Corinthian gets uncreated and the second Corinthian is a relatively decent guy for a nightmare.

After some persuasion Morpheus finally listens to Lucien and walks down into the alley. He stops in his tracks when he sees The Corinthian has killed the girl and his licking his fingers, having obviously already eaten her eyeballs (gotta keep that TV-14 rating!) He lets out a gasp. “Corinthian, what have you done?”

We cut back to present day and “Murphy” is walking into the bar owned by his friend, Hob Gadling . Hob sees him and smiles. “Murph, oh, honey, you look like Hell! Come sit down and tell me all about it. You know I love juicy gossip.” He says in a naisly, lisping voice.

Imagine this scene was written by some very straight guy whose only exposure to gay people were 1990s Will and Grace reruns.

Hob places a shot glass in front of Morpheus and Morpheus downs it quickly. “Have you seen Matthew?”

Matthew was Morpheus’ straight human friend and roommate. He had learned Morpheus’ secret in the pilot episode when Morpheus rescued him from a car accident using his dream magick. Ha! And you thought we’d have talking birds in this thing. Lol! No! Grounded, remember?

“Matt? Oh, sweetie, you can do better than him. I keep telling you, he’s just not your type.”

Morpheus raises an eyebrow but says nothing about the implication about his sexual identity. There will be a LOT of queer baiting on this show without confirmation in regard to his sexuality.

“I need to talk to him. One of my nightmares is loose in the city.” You can tell this was written by a New Yorker because they take for granted “The City” to mean New York.

“One of your Nightmares? Why couldn’t it be one of those sexy wet dreams?” Get it? Because if the character’s gay he has to always be horny!!! Ha-freakin’ –ha.

(Please know I don’t actually feel this way. I’m mocking bad TV writing. This whole thing is a spoof.)

There’s an awkward pause intended for the viewers to laugh.

“I don’t believe any water nymphs have escaped The Dream dimension.” Morpheus replied in confusion.

He calls it The Dream Dimension in the show because “The Dreaming” didn’t sound hip enough according to some executive.

“I’m afraid it’s The Corinthian. So now I have two problems.”

Hob nodded sympathetically. “The detective you might have to kill…”

“And now this.” This is an idiot proofed recap for people turning on the show late or just watching it in passing while doing other things or playing on their phone. CW does this sort of in-story forced, shoe-horned exposition all the time.

The episode plays out a little bit like an episode of Lucifer mashed into an episode of True Blood.

While they’re trying to find the killer, Detective Rose Walker meets Murphy’s roommate, Matthew, and the two hit it off while chatting about Murphy’s weirdness. They decide to start to date. As Morpheus has feelings for Rose that he won’t admit to this causes a strain between him and Matthew Raven (There’s that bird reference! What? That should be Lucien’s last name? Naw!) And between him and Rose Walker.

Morpheus lashes out rather than admit to what he is truly angry at and he and Matthew argue over something petty and this leads to recovering alcoholic Matthew to start drinking again as sad music begins to play.

Morpheus eventually finds The Corinthian and is forced to destroy him. He had to kill his own creation so he is kneeling in angst crying prettily while the sand left over from the uncreation slides through his fingers. Some new female cover of Queen’s Who Wants to live Forever? Is playing in the background. The original version is “too old” and too expensive for use. So here’s a very generic sounding cover done in a style that makes it blend in with every other pop song played during the forty five minute mark of a CW show’s run time (including commercial breaks).

The song plays as we cut to Matthew drinking alone sexily in an alley. He’s sweaty and wet, but he just looks like a wet fashion model. Morpheus is sexy crying over the sand that was the Corinthian, and Rose going to sleep prettily in her bed, no bed head here. Oh, and she sleeps in perfect makeup! There’s no scene where she even remotely looks like she’s out of makeup.

She’s having strange dreams but they look pretty mundane. Like real-world mundane. It’s her living room set that we probably saw a few minutes ago, just dimmer lighting and some haze to make it clear this is a dream. Because even with a show about The Dream Lord, dreams have to have an old fashioned camera fringe haze. Murphy is there with his back to her. He looks sad. He turns to look at her and she gasps. She sees a star (lense flare) from Murphy’s eyes in the dream as he looks at her in surprise like he wasn’t expecting her to see him. She wakes up with a gasp, and everyone in her apartment building also wakes up at the same time, signifying that their dreams were connected.

And so ends what was probably the third episode of CW (or Fox’s) The Sandman.

And that is pretty much how CW or Fox would have done The Sandman.

#The Sandman fan fiction #The Dodged Bullet

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moonlightobrien · 5 years

Text

The Worst Day - Stallison {THG}

Word Count; 4184

Warnings: swearing, semi violence (I guess.)

Characters: allison argent/stiles stilinski.

Authors Note: ohmygod! i finally finally finished the first chapter, it took me the entire day to finish this chapter. One day, and 9 hours to be exact haha. This chapter/series is dedicated to @obrjens, @mischiefandi, and every stallison stans that are out there. I’m beyond happy that this is finally written and planned out. More chapters are coming, I don’t know when the next chapter will be since I am busy with work, and editing. But, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and get some stallison feels while you are at it!

Allison’s POV

District 15.

The district of landscaping, where my people including my sister, my mom and I have to work our asses off to even get some food in our systems. Panem is divided into 15 districts, I’ve heard stories of District 13 being the ‘unknown district’ but I’ve never fully went in depth with these stories. Sometimes, I would cross over to District 14 to see different scenery instead of my own. But, today was a different day for me and the rest of the districts. It was hunger games day, the worst day of every year, where one tribute from each district is chosen to be in the hunger games until one is standing, hearing about the fallen tributes makes me sick to my stomach, my heart aches for the fallen tributes and their parents. No one deserves to be living like this, how can anyone live like this. Thinking about the hunger games, and how close the bell for the tributes to go to the Hall of Justice building terrifies me. Especially, for my family.

Caesar Fickerman, and the gamemaster himself Seneca Crane was doing a interview on how he was going to corrupt this year Hunger Games, and how this year is going to be different than the last games. “I think it’s our tradition, it comes out of a particularity painful part of our history,”

“Yes,” Caesar agreed. “But, it’s been a way we’ve been able to heal, at first it was a reminder of the rebellion, it was a price of the districts had to pay, but I think it has grown all from that, netting us all together.”

“This is your third year’s game, what defines your personal situation?”

“NO, NO,” Nicole screamed in horror, her body wrapped into my chest, and arms. “It’s okay, you were dreaming, you were dreaming,” I tried to calm her down, as I can feel her heart increase rapidly, “It was me,” Her soft cries breaks my heart, “I know, there are so many names in there, Nicole, they are not going to pick you.” Nicole whispers in my ear, which I already know what she wants me to do. Our father died in a mining accident, but when I was younger, he would sing me this song that stuck in my memory forever, I deeply deeply miss him. “Deep in the meadow, under the willow, a bed of grass as soft green pillow.” Nicole and I both sang in unison.

“You remember that song, you finish it for me. I have to go.”

“Where?” Nicole curiously asked, “I just have to go, but I will be back. Love you.” I walked downstairs, wrapping my jacket around my shoulders as I can hear the cat hissing at me that Nicole found, “I still cook you,” Then, I left. My legs starts to pick up some speed, as my amber eyes starts looking around the scenery, the people, how we have to live like we are slaves. Other districts thinks this is a paradise since we are the district of landscaping, but this is definitely not paradise. My body went under the barbed wire as my feet took me to my favorite place; the woods. The woods is the most peaceful place where I can escape my thoughts about the horrifying hunger games.

I grab my bow and arrow, searching for something eatable for my family to have for dinner. I spot a deer five miles away from me, I began to pull my arrow towards my cheek, aiming correctly to shoot until the deer figured out what I was about to do, and sprint away. My feet started to follow his movements really quickly, I start to ravel some leaves in my palms crunching them letting the crumbled leaves flow in the wind, as well as grabbing a small rock popping it off my bow making the deer flee, I start to follow the deer again, this time, I got a really good aim on it; I start to pull my arrow back. “What are you going to do with that when you kill it?” Shit, I missed. “Damn you, Kira. It’s not funny.” Kira and I have been best friends since childhood, our mothers knew each other back when things in Panem was normal. “What are you going to do with a 100 pound deer, Alls.” Kira laughed. “I was going to sell it to a Peacemaker, and at least get some money out of it, since this place can’t even afford a dime to get some food in our stomachs.” The thought of food made her stomach growl begging for something to eat. “I wouldn’t sell anything to those assholes, especially since the games are coming up,” I roll my eyes, but at the same time Kira is right about those peacekeepers being assholes, our president is a evil, cruel son of a bitch. “Like, you don’t sell to any peacekeepers,” My eyes scan to Kira’s bag seeing that she had her kitsune sword, instead of her bow and arrow that gave her for her 16th birthday, I wish that Panem was back to the way it was before, yet I realized that it was never normal, it was always the same. “No, not today, did I mentioned that the hunger games were today.” I chuckled, “Well, it was the first deer I saw in a year, at least I would’ve had something for dinner, but someone had to ruin my plans.”

“You’re welcome,” A smirk slowly started to appear on her face, she grabbed a rock throwing it in the air, birds started to scatter flying upward, I start to pull my arrow near my cheek realising my arrow quickly hitting one of the birds, and laughed. “Let’s go to our favorite spot,” Kira spoked, giving me a smile. Kira and I start walking towards our favorite spot where it was a view of the mountains, Kira spotted it when we were eight years old, sometimes I would go there at night just to clear my head from everything, mostly my thoughts; how my thoughts can take over me, making me terrified of what the outcomes will be. “What if they stopped watching? It’s disgusting, watching and rooting for our favorite tributes; I can only imagine what their parents feel, seeing their kids in that area. Absolutely, cruel.”

“They won’t, Kira. You know how our president is. A absolute shithead. Sometimes, I wonder if or when our lives will be back to ours, instead of being in the hands of someone who doesn’t give a fuck about us,” Kira can hear the anger in my voice, she knows how much I hate the Capital, how much I want to destroy everyone, and everything in that place including the President. “We could do it, you know? Take off in the mountains, go somewhere else where we don’t have to deal with any of this.”

“They’re catch us, cut off our tongues, make us sit on electric chairs, or worse. I can’t even think of worse. We wouldn’t even make it five miles from here.” Kira ignored that comment, she was always the hopeful one, which I’m glad that I have as a best friend, I need some hope in my life. “No, we will get five miles, I will go that way.” She points near the mountains view, my brain actually started to put that into consideration, but it was a long shot, very impossible. “I have Nicole, and you have your sisters.”

“They can come with us,” Kira replied. “Nicole in the woods?” I replied back with sarcasm in my voice. “You’re probably right, oh my god. I almost forget,” She pulls out a little loaf of bread, my stomach instantly begged for it, “Oh my god, is this real?” My fingers immediately grabs it, I put it up to my nostrils smelling that delicious flavor of yeast and dough, it smelled so good. “It better be, it cost me a squirrel.” I ripped off a piece for her, so we can both savor it; most of the time, it’s either hunting or no food for the day which is usually the case, those are the worst days; even the littlest bits of food is worth it. “Happy Hunger Games,” Kira mocked, “And, may the odds be in your favor,” We love mocking the Capital, at least it will give us some laughter; Panem is very depressing, so a little bit of laughter makes me somewhat happier than I was before. “How many times is your name been drawn?” I asked, praying to god that it is none. “35, I guess the odds are not in my favor,” I look at her with saddened eyes, Kira is like a sister to me, and the thought of her entering the area makes my heart drop into my stomach, I can’t bear to lose another person in my life. Especially, her. “I better get going, Nicole is waiting on me, and I have to get ready for the Reaping, see you there.”

“See you there.”

The Reaping; where all the tributes from their districts all sign in, and get lined up in front of the Hall of Justice to see if their name was drawn to be forced into the Hunger Games. Some of the kids that I went to school with died in that area, and some survived. More died than others survived. It devastates me seeing little kids like Nicole’s age go into something so real, and so dangerous without proper skill training, the anger I feel everytime I see our president, it boils me to the core, makes me feel like I am on fire, and it’s scorching high nonstop. Before, I go home, I decided to go over to the Black Market to trade off something for a bag of marbles, we don’t really have that many toys or items to keep us occupied, “Here you go, girl.” My eyes scan over to this golden pin that is so beautiful, “What’s this?” I questioned. “It’s a mockingjay pin,”

“How much?”

“You keep it,” Usually, I have to buy or sometimes, beg for items for my family, which sucks but I have to do it in order to survive, “Thank you,” Then, I left heading back home.

“Mom?” Nicole always felt like our mom didn’t pay enough attention to her, it was only me. She turns around facing Nicole, “Oh, look at you. You look beautiful, better tuck in that tail, little duck.” Nicole smiled at my complaint, but I know she still feels like a outcast ever since Dad died. “I fix something for you too,” My mother spoked, her voice was breaking; she is still grieving my father, “Okay,” I replied back with a smile towards Nicole, going upstairs to take a quick bath.

I start scrubbing my toes feeling the hot water on my skin making me warm since there were months where we didn’t get any heat, and we rely on blankets to keep us from frostbite. I lift the bucket dumping the water on my face, making me wake up; focused on what is about to happen. Preparing me for the consequences and the fear of everything that is about to come. I step out of the bath bucket, walking over to my room seeing a light blue dress on my bed. My fingers eagerly grabs the dress pulling it over my body, looking at myself in the mirror until my mother comes in, putting my hair into a long braid, “Now, you look beautiful too.”

“I wish I looked like you,” Nicole said from behind, my mom had this hurt look on her face, she knows that it kills her seeing Nicole being very insecure, “Aw, no. I wish I was like you, little duck.” Then, the most terrifying sound that rattles my ears was the bell, Nicole knew what that meant. “Hey, do I want to see what I got you today?” I show her a golden pin with a bird on it, it was absolutely gorgeous in her eyes, and she smiled brightly. “It’s a mockingjay pin to protect you, as long as you hold on to it, nothing bad will ever happened to you.” I instantly pull her into a hug, our bodies colliding into each other, I can feel tears welling up into my eyes, this is the last time I’m going to see her, I have no idea what is going to happen, but I have to be strong, I have to be brave, even though right now I am scared to death.

It’s time, all of the families hug their children for the last time if they ever going to see them again; all the girls and boys hold hands with their sisters and brothers heading over to Hall of Justice, Nicole, my mother, and I started to head over there until my sister startled with fear as she sees peacekeepers, and a line of girls and boys being signed in. I tried to calm her down, “It’s okay, Nicole. It’s time to sign in, they are just going to take a little bit of blood,”

“You didn’t say-”

“I know, it doesn’t hurt much.” I put my hand on her cheeks as I see the tears flowing down her face, she was so scared, I hate it when she is in pain or scared out of her mind, it makes my heart crumble, she doesn’t deserve this; she is only a child. “Go over to the little kids section, and I will meet you there alright.”

“Next, next.” Nicole finally budge giving the peacekeeper her finger, she startled out of the shock, placing her fingerprint on the paper as the peacekeeper sees that it was actually her on the screen with green letters highlighted. It was my turn, but I was more concerned about Nicole, it did stung a little, and then the peacekeeper left me through. My amber honey eyes started to look around for Nicole, but I couldn’t find her until I see Josh who was my long time childhood friend, we haven’t seen each other in forever until now. “You okay?” He mouthed.

I nodded.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor, now before we began, we have a very special film brought to you all the way from the Capital.” Yeah, what a wonderful special film, thanks Capital. “War, terrible war.” Josh mouthed, I chuckled. “War, terrible war, with those orphan and motherless child. This was the uprising that brought us our land, the country that fed them, protected them. Then came the peace, hard fought, soley won; the people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born. The freedom has a cost, and the traitors were defeated. Peace, War as a nation, we would never know this treason again, and so it was decreed that each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up in tribute. One young man and woman to fight to the death,” Anger raising up in my bones, it was a wildfire inside of me, a monster that wanted to be uncaged from hearing the President’s voice, my eyes looked all around to see all the kids looking up at the screen from this cruel so called special film, “And, it peg you to honor, courage and sacrifice- the lone victor will bathe in riches, will serve as our reminder of our generosity, and our forgiveness. This is how we remember our past, this is how we safeguard our future.”

“I just love that,” She cheerly smiles, “Now, the time has come to select one courageous young man and woman for the honor of representing District 15 in the 78th Hunger Games, as usual, ladies first.” Effie goes over to the left bowl twirling her hand, grabbing the slip of paper, she starts unfolding it, “Nicole Argent,” She was so scared when she heard her name. No, no no. This is a nightmare, wake up, Allison. Wake up. “Where are you?” The kids start to make a pathway for her to come forward, she tucks in her little tail. “Well, come on up. Come on up.”

“Nicole, nicole.” The peacekeepers tried to hold me down, but I was fighting back; I’m not letting my sister enter the area, “No, I VOLUNTEER, I VOLUNTEER,” I pushed the peacekeepers away from me looking up straight at them, “I volunteer as tribute!” I shouted. I just couldn’t bear the thought of Nicole entering that area. “I believe we have a volunteer, um Mr.Mayor?” I immediately wrap my arms around Nicole’s body, “Nicole, you need to get out of here.”

“No! No! No!” She started shouting, “Go find Mom,” My voice was shaky, “No!”

“Nicole, go find Mom,” Tears started to flow down my eyes, “No!” She wouldn’t let go, but I had to do this, “I’m so sorry,” Josh came scooping Nicole into his arms, as I can hear the screams from Nicole, I wiped the tears away trying to be strong. “This isn’t me,” I spoked, confidently. The peacekeepers started to take me up to the stage, as my mind started to race, and my heart beating very fast as I realise that right now, my life is on my line, and if I die, it was for my district. “In mad of turn of events here on District 15, yes well, District 15 very first volunteer.”

I made it up towards the stage, I’m scared to death right now, my hands won’t stop shaking. My heart is beating really fast like I am having a panic attack, oxygen levels are increasing rapidly as the walls start to close in on me, like I can’t even breathe. I was drowning. “Come on, dear.”

“What’s your name?” She asked, pulling the microphone towards me, “Allison Argent.”

“I bet my hat that was your sister, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” My voice sounded crushed, my life is now in their hands, and that’s the most terrifying thing ever. “Let’s give a big hand to our first volunteer, Allison Argent.” It was only silence until hands with three fingers started to rise up, which means togetherness. A tear flowed down my cheek seeing how strong our district really is. “And, now for the boys.” Effie walks over to the right bowl instantly grabbing a slip of paper for the boys section, she starts unfolding it. Don’t call Josh, please don’t say his name. “Stiles Stilinski.” My eyes instantly lit up remembering that name, the peacekeepers start to bring him up to the stage, “Here we are, our tributes from District 15, well go on you two shake hands.” I look at his golden amber eyes like mine remembering that day where it was the first feeding in months.

[ FLASHBACK }

I was starving so much, there was no food in days; my body was giving up on me slowly, it was raining outside, my back against the tree as I look over at the bakery where Stiles and his mom owned, he comes out about to feed the pigs, until his mother comes out giving him a slap on the face for disobeying her; she leaves as Stiles throws a piece of bread to the pig, then he looks at me, seeing how I was on the verge of dying because of how incredibly hungry I was. He then looks back to make sure his mother doesn’t see, then throws the burned loaf of bread out into the rain.

Then, Stiles and I hands intertwined with eachother as I felt a little spark between us, I brushed it off, I can’t think about my feelings right now; all I can think about is how I’m going to survive this year’s hunger games. “Happy Hunger Games, and may be the odds be ever in your favor.” Then, the peacekeepers took Stiles and I inside of the building, my eyes started to look around seeing everything fastly, until one of the peacekeeper places me into a room, I look back at Stiles until the peacekeeper shuts the door, and I wait for my family. I look out at the window, trying to come up with a way to survive, but every obstacle or possible outcome is to kill people, the other districts, which I can’t be. I can’t be a killer. What would Nicole think of me then. I won’t be the same person I am to her. How am I going to survive this. I start pacing back and forth until I hear footsteps coming towards the door, “You have three minutes,” Nicole instantly hugged me, crying her eyes out. “Ssh, you are going to be okay, I don’t have enough time. Nicole, listen to me, don’t take any extra money for food. That doesn't worth putting your name more times. Nicole, listen to me, Josh will bring you game, he stuck cheese from your goat.”

“Just try to win as best as you can,” Her voice was shaky, as tears went down her cheeks making my heart break into pieces. “Maybe, I can. I am smart you know?”

“You can hunt.”

“Exactly,” It was hard seeing her like this, but I will protect her with my life even if I have to risk my own life, “To protect you.” She hands me the mockingjay pin, I tried to fight back the tears, I can’t be weak. I have to be strong for Nicole. “Thank you.” I tug her into one last hug giving her a kiss on her forehead, I then look over at my mother walking towards her. “You can’t shut off again.”

“I won’t.” As much as I want to believe her, I can’t risk it. She is the only person for Nicole, and when she shut down, it was frustrating yet devastating seeing her like that. “No, you can’t. I won’t be here for her, and no matter what, you have to be there for her, you understand?”

“Don’t cry,” I instantly wrapped my arms around her neck pulling her into a hug since this is the last time we are going to see each other.Tears started to form in my eyes, stop crying Allison; this isn’t you. “Don’t cry, don’t.” My voice sounded like I was going to break, but I just can’t. “It’s time,” The peacekeepers started to pull Nicole away from me, “It’s okay, Nicole.” She wouldn’t let go of my side, “No!” but the Peacekeepers pulled her off of me, “I promise, Nicole.” Then, the door was slammed shut, I slowly walked up to it, giving it a tug to open it then close. I tried to open it again, but it wouldn’t shut until Josh and Kira comes in. They both pull me in for a group hug, I can hear the soft cries from Kira, I pull away from them. “I’m fine,” In reality, I wasn’t. “I know, listen to me; you are stronger than this, you are. Get to a bow.”

“They might not one,” I was so scared, this is actually happening to me. I’ve never thought that this will happen to me, but it is. “It doesn’t matter, Allison. They just want a good show, that’s all they want; if they don’t have one, you make one.” Kira added. “They’re not animals, we are actually talking about actual humans,”

“They are no different, Allison.” How can Josh say that, I can’t do this. I can’t actually kill these human beings, I’m not like this. “There are only 24 of us, only one survives.” I started to shake filled with panic, and fear in my eyes. “It’s going to be you, Alls.” Kira hugged me really quick until the peacekeepers came in; I quickly hugged them both then the peacekeepers finally took them away from me, shutting the door in front of me. Couple of minutes, the peacekeepers takes Stiles and I towards the truck, Effie started to talk to both of us- neither of us weren’t paying attention as my thoughts started to come together on how I’m going to kill these people, and once again; survive. I shouldn’t be thinking about how to kill these people, because I don’t know if I can; my fingers started to shake again. “Allison, are you okay?” Stiles looked over seeing my shaky hands, very concerned, Effie looks over at them as well, “Are you okay, dear?”

“I’m fine,” That’s what my outside is telling you, inside; I am absolutely terrified, and I don’t think I will ever stop being terrified. We got to the tributes train, as the door opens - my eyes were so shocked seeing all of these delicious foods in front of me. I’ve never seen so many delicious foods in front of me before. The three of us all walk in, and my eyes started to scan all around taking everything all at once. This is it.

It’s finally happening.

I’m in the hunger games.

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