#anyway i love this au with all of my heart its extremely self indulgent | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

butchboromir · 5 months

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everyone knows god watches over drunkards and lovers: aka this is my extremely self indulgent rpf Scenario that i have been rotating around in my brain since dec 2022 otherwise known as ons au. if you don't wanna read about my gayass band guys look away now. you have been Warned

this au STARTS during the time period tim and ben are roommates in nürnberg. they both know matze, but not gustl (matze knows gustl tho). also you MUST be thinking about these images like this is the start of ons au

anyways. INCITING SCENE:

ben and matze are out wreaking havoc and/or chilling at matze's place or something. basically they're out of tim+ben's place for the night

tim is spending his night bringing home a guy for a one night stand (this is where the au gets its name from). also important: tim's ons looks. Unsettlingly like ben. like, long blond hair, facial hair, tall. if you saw them next to eachother you'd go Hmmmmmm.

anyways. they have a fun night it's fine. tim is like. heart not fully in the spirit of the ons but doesn't know why. but it doesn't ruin any of the fun so it's fine.

next morning, they wake up. tim makes breakfast for them (bc he is a good host) and goes to walk unnamed blonde guy out. however, as they're walking out, guess who is coming back into the apartment? yeah, it's ben and matze.

there's a comedic bit opening the door with:

ben and matze: tired and a little hungover but like. otherwise fine. they just like. chilled and stayed up at matze's apartment and now they're heading over to ben's

tim and unnamed blond guy: tim is like. you can tell he had a ons or whatevs. like. in a tank and u can see some bruises + hickeys or whatever. still has a collar on bc he managed to sleep in it somehow. poor unnamed blonde guy who looks suspiciously like ben is just standing there awkardly

we get a full faceoff that goes:

matze: looks at tim. looks at unnamed blonde guy. looks over at ben. looks back at tim and starts opening his mouth tim: looks at ben. looks over at blonde guy. looks back at ben. OhShit.JPG. turns to look at matze and starts FRANTICALLY beaming Don't Say A Fucking Word vibes at him as hard as possible ben: looks at blond guy. Huh. whatever. then looks at tim. The mechanisms in his brain that end up making him act crazy gay later on start turning into motion unnamed blond guy: looks at ben. then looks over to tim. He Understands Now.

anyways, this all happens simultaneously. everyone then shakes out of it. ben and matze head inside (ben is like. fuck this im sleepy and hungover. bye matze im going. to bed. and matze is like. ok. i am going to wait in the living room for tim i want to say hi to him :)).

meanwhile, tim and unnamed blond guy head outside. Blonde Guy: that was nice, i had fun and hope you did too, good luck with your guy tim: yeah i had a great time too, thank y– wait what? Blonde Guy: you know. the other blonde guy who came in. tim: What Blonde Guy: clearly there is something going on here between you guys + you seemed not Fully Into It at some points last night + i think that’s probably why tim: [going through internal crisis. Fuck. DO i want to fuck ben/do i like him????]

anyways, blonde guy says goodbye to tim and heads out. afterwards tim just kind of stands in the hallway for a little bit like Oh My God What Just Happened. anyways. we should all be giving it up for Blonde Guy he is a literal saint

tim walks back inside, continuing his internal crisis

cue matze, sitting ominously on the couch

matze: sooooooo. what was that about. who was that. why did your ONS look suspiciously like ben tim: Don't Say A Fucking Word matze: are you in love with ben? do you want to f tim: shut the fuck up dude he's literally in the fucking apartment

so matze is like: executive decision. we are going back to my place to discuss this.

at matze’s place:

matze: what was that. Are you in love with ben. tim: Shut the fuck up dude i think i might be a little bit but if you say anything i’ll kill you

after these events matze goes to gustl and is like Gustl i’ve told you about my friends tim and ben right. well you will NOT believe the shit i just saw

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS STUFF BEFORE FELSENFEST PREPRODUCTION TRIP:

OK. that was the inciting scene, and what gives ons au it's name. now in between this and the felsenfest preproduction trip not a Whole ton happens in terms of the au with tim and ben. like, the band starts, and tim and ben are still getting up to their usual nonsense, but not to the Current Crazy Levels

fschwanz are also present in this au, but to a lesser level. here is a chart of the dtag/fschwanz dynamic:

ALSO during this period of time: ben/hauptmann fwb situation. it's just kind of inevitable with them. like, they're kissing eachother on and off stage, calling eachother mine ("mein hauptmann/mein hodi"), etc. they're both normal about it though it's just a fun/sweet little thing.

However. Tim also knows about this (note: he did merch for fschwanz just to tour. dtag and fschwanz are often on similar festivals). and ben/hauptmann aren't trying to Hide it. this leads to a dynamic that is like:

but like, it's fine. the ben/hauptmann fwb scenario eventually breaks off, everyone is still happy and chill witheachother (hauptmann is also a saint for being able to move through All Of This with no issues whatsoever)

FELSENFEST PREPRODUCTION TRIP:

EXPOSITION: for those who don't know: in 2022 tim, ben, and felix (their producer, not taugenix) went up to tyrol for a couple of days to record/write for felsenfest. they rent a little airbnb or whatever. it's cute. now obvs i don’t have the accurate floor plans for it. but. to the best of my knowledge from the video from the patreon (and with some artistic liberties: there are only two bedrooms (and thus beds) (also one of the rooms has like… a nice big tv and the other one Does Not)

so anyways it's like. ben is. i am still undecided on if he knows he's in love or not but like at the very least he does know he's attracted to tim. he's like. not dating or anything tho, and the fwb situation with hauptmann is over

tim is like. fully aware he's in love with ben at this point. just like years and years of pining. also not dating or anything just the occasional ons or whatever

ANYWAYS. they have a nice roadtrip down to tyrol. they get to the house, start unpacking. Hey. Wait. this place only has two bedrooms. we're gonna have three people here. Uh Oh. so tim and ben are both like. ok. whatever. felix (who gets there a day later) can sleep on the couch or something + they both claim a room. the rest of their day is just hiking and having fun, it's nice, tim is tragically in love

like honestly most of this part is like. tim looks at the way the sun hits ben's profile. oh god im sooooooooooooo fucked. it's all Vibes

post hike, tim makes dinner, cute little domestic scene. somehow they come to the consensus of ‘hey let’s watch a movie or something it’s only like 7 o’clock'.

the only tv is in ben's room + because of great airbnb decor choices, the tv is just in front of the bed. and there aren’t like…. any comfy chairs.

but that’s fine, movies are better watched on a bed anyways. i’m undecided on the movie they watch but i’m thinking they settle on lord of the rings. because they are both nerds.

at this bit there’s a lot of ‘oh god how close can i sit/lay next to him without it being weird’ but it’s mostly resolved by the fact that the comfiest and best way to watch has them both super close anyways.

anyways. like… half of the way through the movie tim starts like falling asleep and leaning onto ben + then jerking awake and watching the movie again. rinse repeat a couple of times and then eventually tim is just like. totally asleep on ben. very comfy. movie ends and ben is like well i can’t just wake him up? there is CLEARLY no other alternative here, i guess we’ll just have to share the bed tonight.

next morning. tim wakes up slowly. goes ‘huh… this is a weirdly large pillow. wait that’s ben. What’! and while this is going on the sunlight is filtering thru the window onto ben. the most beautiful spring morning you could have. all blues and golds. tim carefully extricates himself from this situation and goes to make breakfast because he doesn’t know what to do with himself and staying that close would probably be bad for his mental state AND god forbid felix ends up arriving during that and sees it. like…. if this somehow gets back to matze (who takes great joy in tim’s predicament), god forbid, tim might actually die.

anyways. breakfast! sweet domestic morning + then felix arrives

felix is like i do Not care what you guys decided before i got here about the bed situation. i am not sleeping with EITHER of you. tim and ben are like ok no big deal, we can share (both not mentioning last night). we get the nice room with the tv tho. tim grabs his stuff (barely touched) from the other room and moves it over and that’s that. everyone say thanks felix for helping encourage these mutual pining shennanigans

the rest of day 2 is pretty uneventful, mostly producing and stuff. another fun hike (this time with felix) and doing a little bit of recording outside (fun!)

evening now! felix goes to his room, sees that the bed has like, not been touched at all, and goes ‘huh. i will not think about this any further’

meanwhile tim and ben are doing the ‘let’s not make this awkward and pretend nothing out of the ordinary is going (this is making things more awkward).’ song and dance. but it’s fine + they both fall asleep (separate). but you know how it is and the next morning they both wake up inextricably tangled up together. it’s just like. achingly soft i can’t convey this properly through text. tim pretends to be asleep longer than he is just to stay like that for a tiny bit longer.

day 3, more recording and then packing up!

nothing more eventful happens honestly, it’s just continual little scenes that are just like. tim being like. ‘fuck. this is the closest to having him i’ll ever get’. that’s really the whole trip honestly i cannot convey it properly it’s just all these achingly tender little moments during dinner and hiking and recording and the evenings together and both of them think it’s all they can get. Augh

CURRENT DAY, NOW WHAT?:

so, that's all the lead up. now current day is like. gay antics on stage are Ramping Up (note all these videos).

now the current predicament is both of them are being Like That on stage but Nothing further is happening between them so it's just like. Tension off the charts All The Fucking Time.

there is 100% an accidental kiss during seit an seit.

i am undecided if things should turn into like a fwb requited unrequited situation. OR alternately if a fun in vino veritas situation happens to resolve things. because this au is just for me to have fun rolling around in my head and that means as much pining for as long as possible.

ANYWAYS. that is most of ons au. thanks if you read this far

#i did NOT do this justice but What Ever. good as it's gonna get #i'd write this but i do NOT have a good enough grasp on everyone's voices to write dialogue which is obviously. like important in writing #also the ff prepro section is like a lot less thought out than the inciting scene so you must forgive it's quality

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happikattwuzheere · 4 years

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the one where gansey befriends a deer: the au

hey remember that time ronan dreamed up a deer that was described with language suspiciously similar to how adam’s described, because i sure do!!! anyway

OK.

ok. so. this au’s actually evolved a lot since its initial already-pretty-fleshed-out inception one sleepless night, so me talking about it’s gonna be more than one post, but here’s the first one well actually the second technically yesterday’s warmup doodles were also from this au but i didnt talk about it at all so

and I’m gonna start with more or less the same pitch I gave to a couple people on discord

SO. starting out: it’s standard fantasy times, vaguely medieval but no specific time period because I don’t care enough to be digging into that quite frankly, but it is somewhere in England where this is happening. Story starts with just Gansey, Ronan, and Noah. Fey are very real and known entities and there’s been a conflict in England between the fey and humans, if not in the whole country then at least in the lands that the Ganseys are the lords of but probably the whole island tbh, and Gansey’s not inherited the lands yet but he’s going to and wants to maybe find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It’s not open warfare by any means but it’s been a big problem.

To the effect of solving that, he heads to some little village that I haven’t named but it’s right next to a known fey forest called Cabeswater. This village has avoided being stomped by the local fey because, despite witches not being particularly liked by the nobility of the time, there’s a big old coven (the psychics of Fox Way, essentially) situated right by this village that’s kept things in check. Gansey’s made his excuses to his parents about why he’s officially going there but really he wants to talk to the witches and get a better grasp of the conflict from the people actually dealing with it. He and Ronan set out from home together, pick up Noah along the way--who is not a ghost in this AU, he’s a fey who owes Gansey a life debt, that’s a whole other post and THIS post is mostly about gansey and adam--but anyway they get to this village and NOBODY gives gansey the time of day.

the witches don’t let him into their house because they don’t like the nobility right back thanks and the next time he tries to visit Cabeswater won’t even let him get to the coven’s dwelling, the one witch’s daughter who regularly stops by the village for supplies and to check if anyone needs anything has a big argument with him the first time he talks to her so that’s going nowhere, and, well, the villagers are polite, but they clearly don’t take him seriously. He’s just the lordling playing at things and potentially meddling in their business to them.

So he starts hanging out just barely within Cabeswater, even though he knows that’s not wise, because he finds this perfect spot by a stream, and he’ll sit out there and think and work on the journal he keeps of all his thoughts and plans, and one day while he’s there has a straight up Disney princess experience when a deer stops by the stream and seems incredibly unafraid of him. he cherishes the experience but accepts that it probably won’t happen again.

and then it does. several times. gansey’s losing his mind. this deer??? apparently likes listening to him info dump?? it’s very therapeutic and also very magical and he’s amazed

a few times in, he names the deer “Pryderi” after a character from a welsh legend, because “such a handsome creature deserves a princely name,” [[muffled blue laughing and whispering “princely” in the distance]], and he tells ronan and noah about this experience but ronan doesn’t believe him at ALL.

one time after gansey’s particularly upset at how bad his attempts at getting along with the villagers, Pryderi actually lets Gansey touch him for the first time and gansey cannot shut up about it to ronan who’s finally like “i think you’re bullshitting me about this deer thing. im coming with you next time” and gansey’s like “well he’s a deer he might not show up if a stranger’s around and he doesn’t come every time i go down there anyway” and ronan’s like “this sounds like a lot of excuses, dick, you’re not making me believe you any more with this” and gansey’s like “>8\”

but pryderi does show up, and gansey is delighted, and ronan stares really hard at him and then goes

and gansey’s like what? nooo. but ronan keeps arguing it for the duration of the visit and the deer actually starts to look annoyed and at the end ganseys like ok maybe but i doubt it. and then hes like “well since you are a fey apparently (/sarcasm) i ought to say farewell with respect” and bows very mockingly and then the deer makes direct eye contact with ronan and bows back and gansey loses his shit

gansey continues meeting up with pryderi but even while his infodumping still happens it does so now with the knowledge that He Does Actually Understand What Im Saying, he may be a fey but he seems like a friendly one and hey that’s way more than gansey thought he would get out here, and also this deer is his friend now thanks,

he, ronan, and noah (who’s amused by Pryderi but keeps his main thoughts to himself for now) make some excursions into cabeswater, but the thing is noah’s not really native to england, he’s from the european mainland, again i’ll get to it in another post sometime, but. he can sort of help navigate cabeswater but not all THAT well so they get lost a couple times, and every time it does happen pryderi shows up and helps guide them out. there’s some very funny moments of a very jealous ronan getting into weird conflict w/ a very smug deer

anyWAY one day there’s like a festival, everyone’s drunk because its the middle ages and there’s not really a drinking age, gansey’s making another effort to make friends with anyone, and this one guy about his own age is like “ok look here i’ll teach you the folk dance everyone’s doing ok?” and gansey spends the night dancing w/ a handsome stranger, yes he will recognize the irony in the morning, but for now it goes. well badly because they’re both drunk but it’s fun, and then the guy says “ah, fuck it, i’ll finish teaching you next time we see each other” and gansey’s like “thats a little forward but ok!” and the guy (adam. its adam) panics and leaves while gansey’s back is turned and gansey doesn’t remember that last snippet of conversation the next day nor can he quite recall the stranger’s face. ronan does, because he was watching and not sure which of the two he was jealous of, but neither of them has any idea who the guy actually was.

and then like, 3 days later, gansey falls asleep at the spot he usually hangs out in in cabeswater and wakes up in the early evening just in time to hear people yelling and for Pryderi to burst into view with an arrow in his flank. he collapses in a bush. gansey snaps into “protect friend” mode and gets the hunters off his trail by being all “oh a strange buck? i saw it pass that way over there friend!” and then when they’re gone he comes back and is all “alright pryderi they’re gone, let me just--” except pryderi’s not a deer anymore. it’s a boy.

(Adam. its adam. the deer is adam.)

gansey takes him home, gets the arrow out, noah’s like “i mean he’s not a fey, i dont know what turning into a deer is about but if he were fey the iron in that arrow would already have him dead. he might be partially fey but so little that he’s human in the ways that really matter”, over the next couple days they figure out that pryderi is in fact from the village and is a young man named adam parrish who’s been labelled a changeling and is assumed dead since he was yknow shot, gansey decides for now its probably best to keep him that way, but adam’s not getting better--apparently even having had the arrow in him as briefly as he did has poisoned him, he’s desperately ill and on the third day is finally like “get persephone” so gansey tries again (he’s tried several times over these days, they’d worked out that to have survived this long he must have someone else with a small degree of fey blood teaching him the ropes and the most likely suspects are the witches, but he’s hoping adam specifically asking him to will grant him permission enough to go in) and runs into a very frantic blue en route who as soon as he makes it clear he’s got adam is like “move your ass over on that horse im climbing on too”

they get persephone, who turns into a fox rather than a deer, she saves adam, everythings cool except adam’s pissy now because he cant go back to the village and he has to give up on the attempts he had in the works to get out of town by working his way out and he takes it out on gansey who doesnt deserve it because this friendship is a mess, he’ll feel bad and take it back eventually but thats yet more posts ANYWAY YEAH theres our starting point

(also worth noting: due to cabeswater being Right There, p much everyone in this village actually has a small degree of fey blood, adam just won the genetic lottery)

tl;dr adam’s a fey-blooded witch’s apprentice and he’s been the deer the whole time and thats the start of this au ty for coming to this ramble

#longpost #trc #the raven cycle #lolsketch #gonna make separate posts w/ just the art in a sec #anyway i love this au with all of my heart its extremely self indulgent #deer boy au #because thats what ive been shorthanding it to

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megthemewlingquim · 3 years

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This Is Your Wilderness

Summary: You learn new things about the world you have entered, both the easy way and the harder way.

Pairing: Adam x Reader

Warnings: foul language (it’s a given for Adam), violence, angst

A/N: This is for @just-the-hiddles 's 3500 Follower Writing Challenge! The prompt was Bliss: A shot of pure, self-indulgent euphoria! A scent that is very, very wicked in its own way: the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate. This turned out to be much more angsty than I expected, and you can thank @empower-bi-women for that little nudge. This is also an AU where Ian never died.

“Adam, don’t be so paranoid. No one has come around for ages.”

The tall, dark figure at the window sighs. His fingers had only moved the curtain for a second, and he had peeked out and looked down, but now he shifts, lets the curtain fall again. His eyes glint in the dim lighting, and they seem black. “Yeah, but I’m still worried,” he mumbles.

“I could try and get them to stay away,” you say lightly, a suggestion you know will fail tremendously. “Say it’s all fake, what with you and your reclusiveness.” You fiddle with a chess piece, a white rook, in your right hand, glancing back up at Adam. “It’s no trouble.”

“You’re the only zombie I trust now, you know that.” Adam moves back over to where you sit cross-legged on the floor. “You’re all I have. I’ll be damned if I let you go out there alone.”

He sits back down across from you, eyeing his own black chess pieces. Currently, he is down two pawns. “Besides, if the Others find out about you, they’ll… fuck, they’ll kill you. They’d kill you and leave me alone. Because they’d want me to suffer.”

Your eyes widen and your breath hitches. Adam never speaks about the “Others” — at least, never more than a mention of the name.

“Why?” you ask. “Why would they want that?”

“Because I don’t care about their fucking wars. The zombies cause enough trouble as it is. When the vampires and werewolves started their clans, I was not there to join them. I was... I was actually trying to settle down with someone.”

“That’s why you’re in hiding? Because you love?”

“I love, yes. I love and I care and I don’t just survive. This isn’t the goddamn 14th century anymore. I don’t just drink someone and throw their body in a ditch. I get my blood from hospitals. That is if it isn’t fucking... contaminated.” Adam winces. “That’s how Marlowe died.”

“Wait, who’s Marlowe?” you ask. “Was he a friend of yours? Another vampire like yourself?”

He smiles, an amused hum leaving him. “Yeah, he was a friend. Eve knew him longer than I did but we were friends. He was a visionary, an absolute genius. He wrote most of Shakespeare’s plays, y’know.”

You have to take a second to process this, and another to make the timeline match up. “You don’t mean the Christopher Marlowe?”

“He was one of Shakespeare’s biggest influences... and one of Shakespeare's real writers.” Adam smiles. “He really died a couple of years ago. Blood poisoning from a French hospital.”

“Is that why you only use me for your blood?” you ask softly. He nods. You look down, realizing the severity of it all. “So no drugs, huh?” you ask jokingly.

He laughs, a small amused chuckle. “Yeah, no. Drugs... if you’re still helping me out, are off limits. The occasional coffee is okay.”

“‘S okay with me.” You shrug. “As long as you stay safe.”

“And I can say the same to you,” Adam says, coming back over to sit beside you. He brings you close, resting his chin on your head and cuddling you from behind. “All I’d ever want is for you to be safe. Which is why I can’t have you talking to the Others... or anyone who might know them. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” you say. “I do.”

After a long pause, you perk up.

“We should go to the store.” You glance at the electric clock, which reads 1:43 AM. “I’m sure some convenience stores are open. Do you need anything?”

“You ask me that every time we go,” Adam mumbles amiably. “I don’t need anything, no, but I’ll go with you if you want.”

And so you go.

All you get at the end of the trip is a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, and some milk chocolate bars (an essential in your opinion).

“I’ll go for my actual shopping tomorrow,” you say, getting the gallon out of the freezer.

The air is cold all through the tiny store, and the surprisingly satisfying scent of beer cooler is all around you. Adam wears his sunglasses and gloves, and looks around the shelves. He has nothing in his hands.

He glances at you. “Okay,” he says hesitantly, standing quite rigidly.

When you step up to the counter, the cashier looks suspiciously at Adam, who stands behind you, looking at a beer bottle: it has a tiny little Dracula on it. He is reading the flavor: blood orange.

It seems like the cashier had not heard the two of you talking, but had only seen you look at each other.

“Is this man here, uh, bothering you, miss?” he whispers.

You do not see it, but Adam’s head lifts, just a little.

“N-no,” you say, trying to make your voice as firm as possible. “No, I’m with him, actually.”

The cashier nods. “Uh huh,” he had said, not sounding convinced at all.

Adam comes up to accompany you at the register. Even through his glasses, you can see that his gaze is piercing. “She’s with me. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’d like to leave.”

Maybe it’s something about Adam’s gaze or his dark tone: the cashier looks slightly worried, but he does what he was told. In a few seconds, you are out, Adam following closely behind you.

“Don’t want anyone coming close to my girl,” he mutters, his breath steaming in the crisp air. “Even if he means well. We’re out in the open now. And I can’t take any chances.”

Without saying anything in response, you both make it into Adam’s car, your little plastic bag sitting peacefully near your legs. Adam turns the key and the car rumbles to a start, and he is just about to shift into drive when he looks up.

He freezes, nostrils flaring in anger. His grip on the shift tightens, and your eyes go from his gloved hand to the dashboard, to see what he sees.

As if on cue...

There are three middle aged men in front of the car, almost completely shrouded by the darkness. The sides of their faces are lit up from the left by the white light of the store’s inside.

Their eyes seem black, and their faces are deathly pale.

“Stay in the car,” Adam hisses, his voice dark and angry.

“Adam—” you try to protest.

“Stay. In. The fucking. Car.” Adam’s teeth are gritted, and his voice gets even angrier, if that’s possible, but he never takes his eyes off of the three men in front of you.

“Wh-what are they going to do? Wh-wh-who are they?” you ask, stammering.

“Lock the doors,” is all he says.

He takes the key out of the ignition. The car stops its rumbling. He opens his driver door and steps out, placing the key in his back jean pocket. He shuts the door behind him.

“Adam!” you whisper, knowing he can still hear you. “Adam, get back here! We can just drive away.”

You see him mouth something: No.

You lock the doors.

Your ears are unable to pick up what they all say: but I will fill in the details.

One of the men steps forward, his white teeth showing in a sickly sweet smile. “Adam,” he says, welcoming in tone. “It’s been a while. When was it we last saw each other, hmm? 1805?”

“Walter… Henry… Jesse,” Adam says quietly, nodding at each of the men. “It has been a while, yes.”

The first man — Walter — glances toward you, and winks. “We've come to talk to you about enlisting. But... this is much more interesting. What’cha got there, huh? A little mouse?”

The name is not positive, nor is it cute. With Adam, it would be. But, right now…

You’re already petrified. From a wink, and a bittersweet smile.

Your heart pounds.

You know, then, that they can hear it. All of them. They can hear your heart racing, the blood rushing through it. They can probably see you shaking, hear the breath leaving your mouth in trembling whispers.

Adam. Adam, run.

“She’s no one,” Adam says darkly. “She...found out about me. I have to kill her. She can’t know about me. About us.”

“How did she find out?” asks another man. Quite tall, nice looking, with light brown hair and stubble at the jaw and cheeks. A gold chain is around his neck, and he wears a brown jacket and white t-shirt. He is also pale, extremely pale, just like his friends, and his eyes seem black.

“There was a friend of mine who broke the confidentiality agreement. That friend is dead now. I killed him, too. But she also has to go.”

“Did she tell anyone?”

“No, Jesse, she didn’t.”

“Good,” the third man — Henry — says. He looks nice, too. Black hair, olive skin. He looks a little older than Jesse or Walter, though. “We can’t let that happen, now, can we?”

“Hey…” Walter says, getting an idea. His smile is not a good one. “Why don’t we help you out? She’s gonna die anyway, isn’t she?”

Adam, by all means, should say yes. It would give him some more time to banter, to discuss horrible ways of torture and death. It would help to keep your cover. He should shrug, say yes, and let you out of the car. Then, he should rip the other three vampires to shreds.

But he doesn’t.

Adam growls — and though you are not able to hear it, you can see his expression. It is hunger, it is defiance, and it is anger. “You are not to touch her. She’s mine: mine to kill, mine to torture — ”

“Yours to marry, yours to love?” Walter asks, mockingly. “Yours to fuck?”

Adam freezes.

“Nobody we know — you least of all — would ever get that protective of a fuckin’ zombie. What are you not telling us, Adam?”

“Get the fuck away from us,” Adam snarls, suddenly furious. “I don’t want any part in your little wars — and neither does she.”

“So you’re admitting it,” Jesse says, almost excitedly. “You love her, don’t you? That's what this is about?”

“That, and the fact that that he hasn't joined a clan in his entire existence,” Walter murmurs over to Jesse. “We discussed that already.”

“I told you once, I’ve told you a million times: I don’t want to be involved with you,” Adam groans.

“You know it’s frowned upon. Both things,” Jesse says.

“A vampire hasn’t mated with a zombie in centuries. And you remember how that went, don’t you?” Walter takes a singular step forward.

Adam’s eyes narrow. “Don’t,” he growls, his voice practically dropping a whole octave with anger.

“It’s only for the good of our survival, Adam. You mustn’t blame us,” Henry says, a mad glint in his eye.

The next five seconds happen with lightning speed. You only recognize the sound and feel of broken glass when it hits you, and a bloodied hand unlocks the door. You blink, it seems, and you’re suddenly pulled roughly out of the car and onto the cold pavement below. Then, you’re hoisted up into someone’s grasp, and into standing position. They still hold you tightly and roughly, and their grip is harsh. A cold hand is slapped onto your mouth.

You scream through it, though, your voice muffled and frantic.

In an instant, Adam’s alert, animalistic, beastly. He growls again, and spits out, “You will not harm her!”

“Adam, what are they doing?” you pant frantically through the hand covering your mouth, knowing that he can hear it loud and clear.

“We’re gonna fuckin’ skin you alive,” the one holding you whispers, gripping you even tighter when you flail and whimper in fear.

“No, you won’t,” Adam murmurs. “Let her go.”

“How do you think this’ll go, Adam?” Henry asks. “You think you’re gonna come out on top? You think you’re gonna stay away from our destiny? You need to help us, Adam. You need to be a good soldier and join us in the wars.”

“I’ll die first!” spits Adam.

“No. You won’t. But she will... whether you say yes or no. Because you’ve gone against our code anyway. Being with... and mating with... a mortal. Now, Adam, you’re better than this.” Henry’s tone becomes condescending.

Adam’s eyes glint with offense and anger. “If you say one more word, I’ll fucking kill you.”

“Not if we kill her first.”

You hear something, then. The breathy sigh of someone holding you... it sounds like a grin. A hungry grin.

You’ve heard that noise before. It happens whenever Adam drinks blood... yours included.

Your stomach drops to your feet.

A childish, delusional part of you wants to say something. Hey, ya want some chocolate? We got some in the car, it smells really good! Really sweet! Sweeter than blood!

You go mad, flailing and screaming, trying desperately to escape, but the one holding you keeps you in his grasp.

“It’s dinnertime,” Henry says, and his voice is a growl.

The next ten seconds happen in a blur. You hear several whooshing noises, feel light brushes of wind all around you, and see blurs of black, white, and gray all around you. You also hear growling — feral, ferocious, angry growls.

You land on the pavement, scraping your knees. Not enough to draw blood, but they sting all the same. In a frantic rush, you scramble as far away from the fight as possible. And that is what it is — a fight. A fight between four —

Three vampires. One of them has dropped to the ground in a heap. You fight the urge to vomit when you notice his head is at an extremely abnormal angle. It is not Adam, however.

Adam was the one, you realize, that has broken the vampire you don’t know to be Jesse’s neck. Adam is lunging, swiping, roaring at the other vampires, who are doing the same. They dodge each other’s grasping hands and punches. You can see flashes of white in the middle of this: fangs.

“Go!” Adam screams, and the breath leaves your lungs. You’ve never heard Adam shout. His voice has never risen above an indoor voice or a menacing mutter.

“Not without you!” you cry desperately. “Adam, they’ll kill you!”

“RUN!”

This time, you know there’s no argument to be had. You run as fast as you can away from the scene, tears stinging your eyes and your legs burning with the effort.

Eventually, you have to stop your running and settle for walking on the cracked sidewalks. Something howls as the night grows deeper and darker. Fortunately, you know the way home, and you also know that whatever is out there, howling at the moon, will not hurt you. Adam made sure of that one.

You’re a lone figure, shrouded in darkness, walking back to safety with cold arms and stinging knees. Occasionally, you glance behind your shoulder, but you don’t see anything.

After a long while, you start to hear the rumble of a car’s engine driving up behind you. You look behind you and see that this car is driving quite close to the sidewalk. Moving further to your right, you avoid it — that is, until it slows to your walking pace and stays beside you. Keeping your head down, you try to walk a little faster. The car, you notice, looks a bit like Adam’s, but it is not. Your heart pounds, and you almost start to run when a car window is rolled down, and —

“Hey — what’re you doin’ out here?” A soft voice. He sounds like he’d be a surfer in another life.

You recognize it. “I-I-Ian?” you stammer, your eyes widening. You turn to the car and exhale a sob of complete relief. It is Ian, driving slowly beside you and looking at you with the utmost concern.

Ian has known you for a long while, ever since you started dating Adam. He has always been sweet, kind, and considerate, and has always been a good friend to the both of you.

“Y-yeah,” Ian says softly, “what... what’s the matter, sweetheart? You ok?”

You shake your head. “No,” you mutter. “A-Adam got into some trouble. We were attacked in the parking lot of some shitty convenience store. He t-t-told me to run, and I did. R-Reluctantly.”

“Holy shit...that’s fucked up,” Ian says incredulously. He leans “Is Adam still there?”

You feel tears rising to your eyes again and you sniff. “I don’t know where he is... or if he’s ok, and — and — I don’t wanna go home and wait and find out that —” Your voice is dangerously close to cracking.

“Hey,” Ian says, his voice a little firmer now. It still keeps its compassion. “Y’want me to take you home?”

“Would you?” you ask desperately.

“Of course, sweetheart, come on in.” He leans over and, with a little grimace of exertion, unlocks and opens the door. You can't get into the car fast enough. You slam the door beside you and slump against the seat.

“We're gonna get you home, ok? It's not far from here. Want me to turn the heater on?”

You drive in silence for most of the trip. Ian must know you don't want to talk too much.

Ian's head comes into your peripheral vision. You're looking down at your feet.

“Hey... Adam's gonna be fine,” he says softly. “He can take care of himself. Something about him just tells me that. My guess is that he's driving home now, actually. He probably fucking destroyed whoever did this to you.”

You nod. You know it's true.

“He cares about you a lot. He loves you. I've... I've never seen Adam look at someone the way he looks at you. Well, maybe except his wife. But... that was some time ago. And she—”

He stops himself. You can both feel the tension there, and you shuffle nervously in your seat.

“Anyway,” Ian continues hesitantly, “he — he cares about you. He'll come back, yeah?”

“Yeah,” you whisper.

You get to the house, Ian driving slowly up to the curb. The house, as always, is dark.

“Check the back?” you ask. Ian drives further, and you crane your neck to eye the garden. There's an empty spot where the car normally would be.

Your heart sinks.

“Hey, sweetheart...” Ian says. “It's alright... I'm sure he's just...” But he trails off. “A fight wouldn't take this long,” he mutters under his breath. You can still hear it.

There's a pause in which none of you move. You're hesitant to get out of the car and into the house. Ian watches you, waits for you. The rumble of the car is quiet and hypnotic.

“I don't... I don't wanna go in alone,” you say, and you inwardly scoff at your own childishness.

“I can stay with you if you want,” Ian says. “Adam mostly leaves his doors unlocked, doesn't he?”

“Yeah.”

“Why is that?”

You hesitate. “I don't know.”

But you do know. Regular people are pretty much out of the question — they wouldn't come in, because they think the house is abandoned. If they do come in, Adam could play it off as nothing suspicious and get them to leave as soon as possible. The werewolves wouldn't hurt you, and vampires suffer awfully bad luck if they enter a threshold uninvited. If the Others did come in, well... Adam could take care of them, couldn't he?

“Maybe it's because he's all reclusive. He probably doesn't think anyone will actually come in. Those rock 'n roll kids are exactly that. Kids. They won't do anything.”

You nod. “Er... could you stay with me, Ian? Please?”

He smiles. “Yeah,” he says. “I can do that.”

Ian parks the car on the edge of the road, and shuts off the engine. The cold seeps in your skin again and reaches your bones.

You both get out of the car and walk up to the door. It opens without any struggle.

The house itself is completely dark, and there's no sign of Adam anywhere. The room upstairs — Adam's studio — is completely silent and dark, and he's not in his bed.

Without any words, you two go into his studio again and turn on some lights. Together, you sit on his couch and wait.

After some time, Ian sits up suddenly.

“Oh, shit! We should've called the cops!” Ian cries.

You shake your head. “No,” you say.

Ian looks at you, baffled.

“Ian, Adam's... not one for the police. And, like we said before, Adam can take care of himself. He's strong like that. I'm sure he's...” you trail off. “I'm sure he's fine.”

“Did they have any weapons on them?”

“I don't think so,” you say, remembering the flashes of pointy white teeth.

“Then, what the hell happened afterward? Why isn't Adam back yet? If they didn't have any weapons, and you know Adam can throw a punch and take care of himself, then why the hell isn't he back yet?”

“I don't know,” you say miserably. A part of you thinks Ian is somehow mad at you, but the rational part of you takes over, and decides that he is not.

Ian pauses.

“Fuck it, I'm calling the cops.”

“No,” says a voice behind you. It is sharp and commanding, but you recognize it in a heartbeat.

You turn to look. Standing in the doorway, all battered, bruised, bloodied, is Adam. His sunglasses are nowhere to be found, and neither are his gloves.

“Oh, my God,” you whimper, rushing toward him. Immediately, you're engulfed in his scent, his warmth, his comforting embrace. It's a rush of relief. “You're — you're okay,” you whisper, sniffing as tears of relief come to your eyes.

“Baby, it's alright,” Adam murmurs, “I'm here. I'm here and I'm okay. It's all OK. We're fine.” He rubs your back with a hand.

“Adam, what the fuck happened, man?” Ian asks. “We were worried sick.”

“I'm sorry,” Adam says. “That took way longer than expected. I was also questioned by the authorities. They're looking for the kids now.”

Something tells you that this is not what happened.

Ian looks at Adam skeptically. But, after a few seconds, he shrugs. “I mean... I'm just glad you're alright, man. And I'm glad she's safe, too.” He gestures toward you with a small smile.

“Thank you, Ian,” Adam says gratefully. “Thank you for keeping my love safe. Thank you for staying with her. Now... I think it's time for you to go... Do you need anything before you take off? You can piss in the garden if you need.”

“You sure you don't need anything? You wanna take a look at those bruises?”

“We'll be fine, thank you,” Adam says.

Ian blinks. “You never fail to amaze me, Adam.” He stands up, and rubs your shoulder. “G'night, sweetheart. You're in very good hands now.”

“Thanks, Ian. See you soon, ok?” you say.

“Alright.” He starts to walk down the stairs. “If you guys need anything at all, just hit me up. Later.”

You and Adam don't speak until you both hear his car driving away from the house.

“What did they do to you?” you ask immediately, suddenly frantic and worried, stepping away to get a good look at Adam.

You blink, it seems, and Adam's bruises, cuts, and overall tired appearance are gone. He looks perfectly normal now.

“They did that,” Adam says. “I killed two of 'em. One of them got away.”

“Did anyone see you?”

“No, thank God for that.”

But there's something... off... about the way Adam looks. He seems sad, worried.

“Adam... what is it?” you ask slowly.

“One of the Others got away. He's bound to have talked to his clan by now. I'm still not gonna join them. And I'm sure as hell not gonna give you away and leave you.”

“So... what's gonna happen?”

Adam takes a deep breath. “How do you feel about Tangier, Morocco?”

#jth3500writingchallenge #adam olla #adam x reader #adam olla x reader #adam headcanons #only lovers left alive

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krabstick32 · 4 years

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Hi! I love your writing so much!!! May I please request a self indulgent giyuu fic where the reader has some self esteem issues, like having long hair to cover most of her face and is plus size but has a good heart! Thank you that would make my life!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Wardrobe Malfunction

Requested by: anon

Pairing: Giyuu x Reader

Synopsis: Dress up was supposed to be fun. Your clothes say otherwise.

Tags/warnings: This work does have slight implications of self-esteem issues and body dysmorphia/body dysmorphic disorder. I’d like to say that this is not meant to offend anyone, and also to apologize for any faulty interpretations.

A/N: To the anon who requested this: i’m so glad you like my writing 🥺💖 bUT I AM SO SO SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG WITH YOUR REQUEST :(((((( I feel terrible for taking an actual month to finish this, and i’m not even 100% satisfied with it :(( As an explanation though, I was working on something entirely different for you. It was a modern high school au, 5+1 sort of fic, which was almost finished but for some reason felt wrong...so I thought up of a new idea aka this.

Anyway, i hope the wait was worth it anon, and i hope ya’ll enjoy it too!!

Blood Demon Arts were a complicated skill set that special demons possess. Some use it for fighting, some for catching humans, yet some were just downright weird.

A fight with a low-level demon teaches you that.

Barely five minutes into the fight, and you were already sheathing your Nichirin Blade back in its scabbard. You were fine, if not a little uncomfortable from the weird slime-like substance that came from the demon coating your uniform. The fight wasn’t difficult, but the demon was a little perverted. It didn’t even try to fight all that seriously, and instead kept trying to sneak glances under your skirt.

There were only minor scrapes around your skin—though now, you wish you could say the same for your clothes, because it starts melting.

Maybe that demon wasn’t as low-level as you thought because the corps uniform was made to withstand damage from low-level demons, but this odd liquid was enough to let parts of it disintegrate and expose your skin. Fortunately, it didn’t sting, burn or give your skin rashes—only melt off the fabric that covered your decency.

That was your last spare uniform too, because you’ve been sent to a lot of dangerous missions lately. This was the only one you had at home, but thankfully, you’ve placed a quick request for a few new ones to be sent to you.

You were lucky to have been able to beat it, so once you quickly lopped of the stupid demon’s head, you panicked and whistled for your bird to bring in kakushi. You didn’t know if this was Oyakata-sama’s foresight’s work, but you were grateful that three female kakushi pushed through the treeline, and quickly rushed to you once they noticed your predicament. One of them took care of the demon’s remains while the other two moved to you and wrapped you securely in a blanket, protecting your dignity and easing your panic.

Even if you were pretty much healthy and good to go, the girls—Chiyo, Tsune, and Hatsuko were great company as they escorted you back—ushered you to one of the many rooms in the butterfly estate. You argued that you weren’t injured and that you didn’t want to burden the butterfly nurses and the kakushi, but the girls told you that the estate wasn’t too busy, and that there was plenty of room for you.

The room was standard with a cot, a bedside table, and a few chairs for visitors, where a spare set of clothes for you was folded over. You were fine, but you were still grateful for the short time you could use for rest and for the girl’s thoughtfulness. Spending the time worrying about what you wear on your next mission would be a waste, so you lie down and try to close your eyes instead, to calm down your nerves.

The sound of shuffling doors brings you out of your light nap just in time to see a head of jet-black hair pop in.

A smile makes its way across your face as you watch your boyfriend slide the door close as quietly as possible. Giyuu looked good—clothes the same, hair unruly with the bare thread of his hair tie attempting to keep it tame—but what was new was the small package under his arm.

“Are you feeling okay?” He asks when he sees you sitting up, and takes a seat on the nearest chair. Your smile sweetens when he looks back up, feeling your heart beat a little faster as his eyes soften out of its usual steely, and impassive gaze.

Dragging your mind out of its haze, you wave off his concern and reply, “Oh, this is just a formality—I’m fine.” Well, physically you were, but you’re reminded that all is not well when he glances around the room only to find the folded tatters of what remains of your previous clothing sitting innocently on the bedside table. “Wish I could say the same about my uniform though.”

“This should solve that.” Giyuu hands you the mysterious package and it gives you a moment to notice how nicely it was wrapped.

Lightly, you run your fingers over the black ink your name was written in, on a small tag attached to the white twine wrapping around brown packing paper. The twine intersects in a small tied ribbon right at the middle, and is sealed with a piece of wax stamped with the corps’ insignia. “Ah, is that why you’re here?”

“No, I was on my way to see you when I heard you were here. That—” He gestures with his chin “—I just brought in from the kakushi.”

You choose to ignore the way your cheeks flush when he mentions his intentions and instead show surprise. With how busy the kakushi were, you were pleasantly surprised that it took them only four days to make your uniform. “Oh, thanks, that was fast of them.”

“It’s your uniform right? I can wait outside so you can try it on.”

Already flustered from his previous responses, you try to answer, “Ah, yeah, yes. Thanks, I’ll just—um, yeah.” Only to sound like a bumbling idiot. Eloquent as always.

Embarrassed by your mess of a mouth, you look down at your hands and feel your hair come to cover your heated face. Looking at him in the eye right now would reduce you to a pile of flaming ashes, so you’re grateful your long hair has saved you yet again from his piercing stare.

Before Giyuu leaves though, you hear a light chuckle until he’s gone and you’re left with the sound of the door sliding back shut and the thought of how unfair it is that he can easily get you to smile and then flustered at the next second.

The moment you let the uniform unfold, something tells you that there was something…wrong. For one, there were too many holes in it—one on each shoulder, and an entire chunk around the stomach. The fabric felt silkier than what you previously had—even the skirt was much, much shorter than what you remember requesting for.

But a quick double check on the wrapping paper confirms that this was your uniform, so you try it on. It’s been a while since you’ve ordered a new one, maybe you just…weren’t used to it? Or maybe there were new rules in place?

If it wasn’t already bad when you first looked at it, it was even worse when you were wearing it.

How is this even supposed to protect me?

The only thing covered was your chest (not even counting the skin in the middle!), your forearms, and half your thighs. The uniform was too revealing and boy, did you want to crawl in a hole right now. You felt exposed—too exposed. You've rarely felt good in your own body, and now was no exception.

Just the thought of somebody else seeing you like this? What would they think?

A pit forms in your stomach, and something black and slimy wraps around your shoulders and around your neck. You feel constricted, like you couldn’t move or breathe, and your nails were digging in too hard into the clammy skin of your palms.

You weren’t like Mitsuri or Shinobu. You didn’t have a great figure like the love pillar, or a petite frame like the insect pillar. Instead, you found yourself staring into a mirror more often than you’d like, only to feel disappointed in your oversized body. In fact, you’re extremely lucky to have gone this far without a demon catching up to you given how slow you feel your body makes you.

You shouldn’t be crying over this—it was childish to throw a fit over something like this, but you feel horrible.

A knock from the door interrupts your thoughts and Giyuu’s voice carries over through the wooden door.

“(F/N), are you okay? Should I get Shinobu?”

No, he can’t see me like this.

Quickly, you scramble back to the bed where you placed your hospital clothes, and yank the stupid uniform you requested off your body and shove it under the bed. “Ah, no! I-I’m fine, I’m just changing again!”

You slip the button through the last opening and walk towards the door to let Giyuu back in.

Maybe I should send him back?

You could say that you were feeling sleepy or that you weren’t feeling too good, but he came all this way and… or maybe he was here to see someone else? You were his girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he was automatically here for your company.

You were too far gone in your own fears that you completely forgot that you were the reason why he was even here in the first place.

Hopefully, he leaves without question. Your hair will hide your face so he shouldn’t notice how it was burning or how there were small drops of tears in your eyes. But this was Giyuu, the Water Pillar, one of the strongest demon slayers in the entire corps, and your boyfriend. Nothing gets past him, especially if it concerns you.

He doesn’t even get through the threshold before he notices. “He—(F/N), what’s wrong?”

“...It’s nothing,” You say, angling your face away from you. I just feel tired all of a sudden. How about we see each other tomorrow? If you’re free of course. I know how busy you can get.” And you rarely saw each other too. It was a shame your issues just had to swoop right in.

“It’s fine with me if that’s what you really want, but are you sure it’s nothing?”

You feel warm fingers caress your chin before his hand moves back up to cup your cheek, and that’s when your walls chip and break. You lean into his touch and peek through your bangs to see a soft look in his eyes—a look you only ever saw on the rare chances you catch him looking at you or when he had a plate of freshly-cooked salmon daikon.

“You can tell me anything if you want to, I’ll listen.”

Of course you knew you could tell him anything, but actually telling him about something so stupid had you fidgeting with the hem of your sleeve. “I know this will sound stupid, but my uniform is wrong.”

“The uniform?”

Further hunching in on yourself, your body starts sweating, and you feel like your tears were about to spill over. “It looks terrible. There was no fabric around my entire stomach, it only covered half my things and—! Ugh, I know, I know it’s really childish of me to be complaining so much about it but I didn’t feel comfortable in it at all. I hate it—” and i hate my body “—It doesn’t look right on me, I’m too big for it.”

You breathe out a small sigh and look down at the floor. Melting through the floorboards sounded nice. “Maybe it’s just my fault—if I was thinner or prettier it would probably fit me better. I don’t know…I thought it would be similar to what I had before.”

“...Look at me,” Giyuu says after a while, and takes your hands when you don’t seem to reply any time soon. “Do you trust me?”

Immediately, you look up to him and answer with no hesitation. “With my life.”

“Then I hope you’ll believe me when I say that it's not your fault.” His lips curl slightly upward when your gaze moves from the floor to him. He’s glad that he caught your attention, because he wants you to see how much he means the words he’s about to say.

“I don’t care if you’re thinner, or prettier or about anything else. As long as you’re happy, healthy, and alive, it’s more than enough.” Giyuu places his forehead against yours, and for a moment, you forget why you’re worrying so much.

“To me, You’re the kindest, prettiest, most perfect person in my eyes, and I hope you see yourself the way I do. You have a heart of gold, and you’re plenty perfect just the way you are. You don’t need to change for anything or anyone.”

Giyuu wasn’t really good with words, and he knew that. In fact, at the moment you were seeking comfort, he was in over his head. He thought he was being redundant and talking himself in circles, so he did panic a little when the tears started slipping from your eyes. Panic changed into relief though when you wrap your arms around his torso.

You were well-aware that he wasn’t good with words, so you were caught off-guard by the reassurances he was giving you. You never knew how much you needed to hear those from him, to be reminded that he liked you just as you are.

As easily frazzled you were with a somewhat constant need for reassurance, you’ve gotten used to the fact that receiving verbal assurance from him would be rare if not nonexistent. So you’ve gotten used to his quiet support. He was always there when you needed him, and tried to comfort you the best way he knew how. You appreciated it, and even came around to care for his silent quirks, but hearing him say how much you meant to him, was incredibly comforting, and

“If you hate your uniform, I've heard that Shinobu had problems with hers too at first so I'm sure we can ask Shinobu what she did with hers. I can even place a request for a new one for you.”

Giyuu was never very good with words, but he always made it up with his actions.

“That would be nice.”

BONUS:

You really appreciated that Giyuu was with you the entire time your horrible uniform was alive on this earth. As promised, he helped you handle the uniform issue, and came with you to Shinobu’s office (who was more than willing to hand you the oil and matches).

“Oh? (F/N)-chan? Tomioka-san?” She greets when she ushers you two in her office. “I haven’t seen you two in a while! I’m surprised Tomioka-san is here with you though. I thought he avoided social interaction?.”

Giyuu grumbles at her teasing, but you know these two were friends, even if both of them didn’t want to admit it. “I’m still here.”

You squeeze your boyfriend’s hand, before smiling sheepishly at Shinobu. “It’s been a busy few weeks. We should catch up sometime, but that’s not really why we’re here.”

The Insect Pillar tilts her head in curiosity, and asks, “Oh? Then how can I be of service?”

“Well, you see, all of my uniforms were ruined from my past missions, so I requested for a new one, but um…” Giyuu handed you the clothes you’ve placed back in the wrapping paper which you bring out and let unfold to show Shinobu how it was clearly not your style.

Air seems to freeze over as the seconds tick by with your ‘uniform’ hanging from your hands.

Giyuu was standing behind you, so you couldn’t exactly see his reactions, but you could see how Shinobu’s ever-present smile turned sinister, and looked like she was ready to stab someone with her sword.

“I think they got my size wrong. Giyuu told me that you mentioned having the same problem before, so I was hoping you could tell me how you got yours fixed.”

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Shinobu’s smile stays eerily plastered on her face, “Oh, it’s simple! You can just burn yours. Don’t worry, I burned mine too and I lent the oil and matches to Kanao and Aoi, so you don’t have to feel bad—I’m more than willing to lend you the oil and matches I used. How about I join you two to go to the kakushi? I have a vague idea of who the tailor might be.”

As per Giyuu’s words, It wasn’t your fault. One of the kakushi in charge of making the uniforms was too blame and decided to take some… creative liberties with yours.

When Giyuu saw the scraps of cloth Maeda-san—or scum-glasses as everyone promptly nicknamed him— back in Shinobu’s office, you thought his face didn’t change or move an inch. Shinobu wanted to laugh, because unlike typical Giyuu fashion, everyone who saw him the entire day could see the pulsing vein on his temple that seemed like it would pop any minute. It was clear that he was pissed off, as he handed you the oil to douse the clothes in and gave a readily lit match, but she found it a little sweet that he was a bit more transparent when it came to you.

After the fabric was reduced to ashes in front of Maeda-san, a new agreement was made about your uniform, and as a temporary solution, Giyuu lent you a few of his spare uniforms for you to wear on duty. You had plenty of kimonos and hakamas to wear, but you primarily wore those for training and didn't particularly provide the same protection the corp’s issued uniform did.

It was a little tight around your chest and your hips, and a bit too long for your arms and legs, but you could still move around comfortably without busting a button, so you took it gratefully, and wore it for the week your uniform was being made.

He was with you when your new uniform arrived. The two of you were eating snacks on the Water Estate’s engawa when a kakushi—in a nice surprise it was Tsune—dropped by with a new package, similar to the one Giyuu handed you before. You thanked them and hurriedly went in one of the empty rooms to change, leaving Giyuu to drink his tea alone as he waits for your return

“Giyuu!” You call as you join him back on the engawa. He turns only to be blinded when he sees you smiling to high heaven. “Look, it’s perfect! They got the measurements right this time.”

The uniform you wore right now was just like your old one, and he could see that it clearly made you happy. You even twirl in place, gleefully modeling your new skirt and uniform blouse to him.

“I’m grateful you lent me your uniform, but I;m more used to wearing skirts.” Laughing lightly, you look down at your clothes, carefully running your fingers across the fabric. “I’m so glad this one’s perfect!”

Without an ounce of shame or hesitation, Giyuu tilts his head towards you and says, “You’re the one who’s perfect.”

Oh my god, your heart is going to explode.

Looking down at your tabi socks, you let your hair fall over your face, if only to hide the red flush on your skin. “Giyuu, are you sweet talking me right now?”

“No, I’m being honest.” From the sound of his voice, he was being one hundred percent, and a quick look on his face confirms it, even if there was a little mischievous glint in his eyes. He knew you were getting flustered and in extension, knew what he was doing to you.

You sit down at your previous spot right beside him before taking your teacup from where you placed it on the tray to hide the small smile on your lips. “Okay, okay, you can stop now, you’ve made your point.”

“But I’m serious, you look perfect.” Giyuu leans over, wrapping an arm around your waist and places a soft kiss on your cheek. He tugs you closer to lean against him and watches how your skin changes into a deeper red. It makes him think that he should voice his thoughts about you more often.

“Ah, Giyuu! Stop it!” You giggle, but ultimately return the favor, peppering his face in kisses and smiling at him in a way that makes his heart beat faster.

He may have been a little sad that you won’t be wearing his clothes anytime soon now, but seeing you comfortable and smiling…

Well, that was more than enough for him.

A/N: A gentle reminder to those who reached the end: please know that you are a beautiful and wonderful person. You are loved, you are valued, and have people who care for you, okay?

A huge thank you for reading! online classes are being a little pain, so even if I really missed writing (and reading) fanfics, I might be a little rusty :(( hopefully ya’ll enjoyed it 🥺

Again, to the anon who requested this, i am so so sorry that it took me this long. i hope you still liked it tho 🥺🥺 (i also might post that modern hs au i was talking about earlier, so keep your eyes peeled for that <3)

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the-gay-prometheus · 3 years

Text

Frankenstein AU Segment - “Home Again”

Ok fun fact: I’ve been working on a segment for about two weeks now.

Second fun fact: This is not that segment, but instead something I wrote entirely spur of the moment in the timespan of about 1 hour total.

It’s extremely self indulgent, I’ll be honest. From writing an entire big useless paragraph of Henry horseback riding because I’ve been missing horseback riding and horse related things all day, to the entire actual context of this segment being... well... being what I wish I could have through my transition. If anybody wants to be my Henry and support me unconditionally as I go through my own transition that would be greatly appreciated jhebdjdfhbvjhdvbfv /hj

Anyways- So! This is something totally different than all of the other ones I’ve written so far, because it takes place quite a bit before Victor even goes to Ingolstadt - in fact, it takes place before he even chooses the name Victor! That means you’ll see a character named “Em” (who Henry recognizes as “Emily” at first) - and that character is young Victor!

TW: Mention of blood - absolutely harmless in context, but it is mentioned so it’s worth a tw. Otherwise this is a very generally wholesome segment (other than a small argument between Henry and his dad).

As always, likes, reblogs, and comments of any kind are greatly appreciated!

“Henry! It’s nearly time for supper!”

“I’ll be right in, father!” From a leisurely walk through the green pastures of his home, Henry urged his red roan mare into one final canter across the field. In the golden light of the slowly setting sun, her mane, tail, and the feathering of her hooves flashed like threads of shimmering copper as Henry’s own vibrant auburn hair flew behind him whipping like fire in the breeze. His hazel eyes set their sights on the stables beyond, and he tapped his heels once more against the mare’s sides, pushing her into a swift gallop. Enthralled by the rush of the wind against his freckled skin, Henry let go of the reins and extended his arms outward. He felt the air pass through his fingers and he imagined instead that they were the feathers of great wings catching the current and soaring through the sky. Though it lasted only a moment, his heart pounded with joy within his chest, still so full of adrenaline even as they approached the gate that led out from the pasture and to the stable. He dropped his hands back to the reins, pulling back gently until his mount slowed her pace back to a walk. Both human and horse panted, the mare chewing idly on her bit as Henry hopped out of the saddle and pulled the reins over her head. He led her into the stable, humming a happy tune to himself with a skip in his step. Grabbing her halter from its hook, he took her into her stall, unbuckling and removing her bridle before replacing it with the halter and tying her to the rope that hung from the wall inside. She stood quietly, each breath sending up gentle plumes of dust that glittered in the light which filtered through the stall window.

After removing her saddle, he began brushing her patchy roaned coat. Ordinarily she was a steady, quiet mare, but Henry noticed that she kept twisting her ears toward the stall which was used for hay storage. Every now and then she would lift her head and flare her nostrils, turning toward the direction her ears were trained upon. “Do you hear something over there, girl?” Henry asked softly, watching her inquisitively. Nearly as soon as he said it, there was a soft thud from that same location, which caused him to jump and the mare to utter a low nicker. Henry pat her neck gently and cautiously stepped out of the stall, staring down the hall toward the source of the sound. “Hello?” There was a rustle within the hay, then another soft thud - followed by a quiet voice that Henry couldn’t make out what it was saying. Instinctively he grabbed a pitchfork that leaned up against the wall, pointing it toward the stall defensively. “Who’s there?” Then came a cough, more rustling of hay, and then - a small, thin figure with short, messy hair stumbled out into the hallway, promptly tripping over their own feet and falling to the ground. Henry gave the person an odd look and turned the pitchfork upright, resting on it like a walking stick. “Can I… help you?” he asked curiously, confused as to why some stranger was hiding in the hay. The stranger struggled to push themself up, and in the dim light Henry’s eyes widened as he beheld the stranger was covered in dirt and… blood? As they lifted their face, Henry suddenly dropped the pitchfork to the ground in shock. “Emily?! Is that- is it really you?” he breathed, rushing to the figure and kneeling down. Surely enough, the stranger smiled up at him with kind brown eyes.

“Oh hi, Henry,” they managed to croak - before promptly collapsing unconscious.

When Em’s eyes fluttered back open, the first thing he saw was Henry standing over him, a look of worry on his face as he gently rubbed at his dirty skin with a damp towel. He gave the ginger haired boy an odd look. “Uh… Henry?”

“Good lord thank goodness you’re awake!” Henry exclaimed. Em blinked at him.

“What… what are you doing?”

“Hold still - I’m trying to figure out where all this blood came from!” Em couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

“Henry. Henry-” He reached out and gently grabbed his arm. “It’s not my blood.” Henry stared, then gave him a curious look, and slowly set the cloth down.

“Oh thank goodness,” he breathed with relief. There was a pause, then his curious expression returned to one of concern. “Whose blood is it?”

“Cadaver,” Em replied simply, turning away and coughing into his shoulder. “It’s a long story.” Henry stared a moment longer, then smiled.

“Well I can’t wait to hear it.” Em smiled in return, but his smile quickly faded when a muffled voice called from somewhere outside. Henry glanced up. “I’ll- I’ll be right back. Father wants me in for supper.” Em nodded. “Don’t go anywhere!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Clerval.”

Henry sat anxiously at the table, fidgeting with the silverware and wishing he could be back in the stable with Emily. Secretly stuffed into his pocket were a few pieces of bread he intended to smuggle to his dear friend, while the food on his own plate went relatively untouched. His father sat at the head of the table, his mother directly across from him, and as usual there was awkward silence between them. “So. Henry,” his father began, breaking the silence. Henry sank in his chair, wishing he wasn’t being spoken to at the moment. “Have you decided?” Henry glanced up to him.

“Decided? Decided on what?”

“Is that not what you were doing out there? You said that you would be able to think of which trade you want to pursue better while on horseback.” Henry sheepishly looked away.

“Oh. Right. I… yes. I was thinking about it,” he answered at a length. “Definitely was thinking about that.”

“And?” He could feel his father’s gaze on him, and he shrunk down further in his chair.

“And… I still haven’t figured it out yet?” His father sighed heavily, his fork clattering onto his plate as he pressed his head into his palms.

“Henry, you’re a young man now. You need to start taking your future seriously!” he exclaimed, exasperated.

“I’ve got time! Besides, I have an idea of what I want to do but-”

“Please don’t say ‘travel the world and write stories,’” His father cut him off, mentioning his goals mockingly. Henry frowned.

“That is exactly what I want to do. Yes.”

“Traveling and story writing don’t pay, Henry!”

“Yes they do!”

“Not enough they don’t! We have talked about this before Henry - either you take up the family business or you take up a different trade. There is no other option!”

“I have plenty of options! Just let me go to university!”

“Absolutely not, Henry.” Henry groaned, putting his forehead on the table.

“Why can’t you just let me do what I know I’m meant to do?” he grumbled.

“Because this family has a reputation to keep, and you are the only one to keep it!” his father exclaimed. Henry glanced up at his mother, but she simply stayed silent. He groaned louder and looked back at his father.

“Permission to be excused?” he muttered.

“Yes but-”

“Perfect. Thank you. I’ll be back later.” With that, Henry stood and hurried out of the dining room, leaving his father to shout something after him - though his mind was too preoccupied to hear what it was he said.

“Emily?” Henry called out in a quiet whisper as he reentered the stable, lit lamp in hand. He glanced around, waiting for a response, then called out again. “Emily?!” When no response came, he ran to the hay stall to find his friend still lying on the hay, still as stone with his eyes closed. Henry stared at him a moment longer. “...Emily?” Still no response. In the dark, he couldn’t see the rise and fall of his chest, and he grew frightened. He reached out, grabbing his arm and shaking it. “Emily!”

“Good god Clerval!” Em suddenly exclaimed with a gasp, jumping awake. Henry let out a sigh of relief as he nearly fell back.

“Oh thank goodness you’re ok.”

“Of course I’m ok, Henry! I just spent months walking here from Paris on foot, I’m exhausted,” Em explained. Henry’s eyes widened.

“You got all the way to Paris?” Em thought for a moment, then smiled.

“I did.”

“What was it like?!” Henry exclaimed, his expression brightening. For a moment, Em was lost for words. He had forgotten how much he missed Henry, how much he missed the way his hazel eyes would light up and sparkle at the mention of anything that peaked his interest, how strands of his ginger hair would fall in wavy tangles over his freckled cheeks… he blinked the thoughts away, then grinned.

“It was horrible, disgusting, and absolutely wonderful. I hated it and loved it all at the same time.” Henry chuckled.

“Sounds like Paris to me.” He slowly sat down, turning and resting his back against the hay bales Em lay upon. “So what brought you back? Did things… not work out there?” Em shrugged.

“Things were ok for the most part. It was a rough life, but it was a lot of fun. I made friends, learned a lot about… well about a lot of things, I suppose. Never had a true home, but I felt home enough out there on the streets with the friends I had.” Henry felt a sudden pain in his chest at the sound of that, and he glanced down at the floor. “We got into some trouble though. ...More like I got into some trouble and unfortunately somebody else got partially blamed for it. And then, I guess, I realized I needed to come home.” He looked down at Henry. “Or at least to as much as a home as I’ve got.” Henry turned his gaze up to him and smiled slightly.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here safe now.” Em nodded.

“Me too.” There was silence between them, Em tapping his fingers idly on the hay beneath him as he thought about his next words carefully. “But that’s… not the only reason I came back.” Henry turned his eyes back ahead.

“Oh?”

“Yes. See- there’s something I discovered-”

“Some scientific marvel?” Henry teased, grinning. Em smirked.

“Well yes, but no.” He hesitated, staring up at the ceiling. “It’s… I’m… I discovered something about myself.” More silence. “Henry I- … Henry I’m actually…” Em sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled harshly. “I discovered that I’m… a man.” Henry blinked, then looked up at him.

“Is that it?” Em shot his gaze down to him.

“What do you mean ‘is that it?’” Henry shrugged. “You’re not… you’re not upset?”

“Why would I be upset?”

“...I don’t know, most people seem to think it’s crazy- or weird or- unnatural- but it’s not! It’s-”

“Emily. You don’t need to justify yourself to me.” Em froze, staring down at him as he gazed back with a smile. “If you say that’s who you are, then it is who you are. Who am I to say otherwise? Who is anyone to say otherwise? You know yourself better than anyone else.” Henry’s smile suddenly faded as he realized there were tears dripping from Em’s eyes. “I- Was I supposed to be upset?” Em sniffled and let out an awkward laugh.

“No- no I’m just-” He paused, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I don’t know what I was expecting but… I guess I just wasn’t expecting you to be just so accepting.” Henry looked up at him with a sympathetic gaze.

“I’ll try not to be too offended by that,” he mused sarcastically. Em giggled and waved his hand dismissively.

“You know what I meant.” Henry nodded. “My point is… thank you. I couldn’t possibly ask for a better friend than you, Henry.”

“I do have one question, though.”

“Hm?” Em looked down at him, suddenly feeling himself fill with anxiety.

“What does this change? I mean… is there anything that’s different about you now?” Em breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well… for one thing, I’ve been going by just Em for a few years now.” Henry nodded, taking a mental note of that. “But I’m still trying to think of a better name for myself. Maybe… you could help me with that at some point?” Henry grinned.

“I’d be honored!”

“Excellent.” With great effort, Em started to sit upright, struggling to put his weight on his shaking arms. “There is… something else, though. Another reason why I came here.”

“Go on,” Henry encouraged, standing and hopping up onto the hay bale to give Em some support to sit upright. Em took a deep breath.

“This is going to sound crazy,” he began. “I need to… perform surgery.” He paused, and turned to look at Henry, who was staring at him blankly. “On myself.”

“Okay! When do we-” Henry began, until what Em had just said fully registered in his brain. “Wait, what?” Em grinned sheepishly.

“I need to perform surgery on myself,” he repeated, more confidently this time. Henry blinked.

“...That sounds incredibly dangerous. Is there something wrong with you? Why can’t you, I don’t know, get a real doctor to help you?” Em frowned.

“Well it’s nothing that’s wrong with me- it’s just…” He sighed. “I’m… I’ve grown up, I guess. And even though I never really felt weird in my body before, things started changing and suddenly it just… didn’t quite feel right anymore, if that makes any sense. Apparently it’s a common symptom of being… well… whatever I am. See- I had this friend, his name was René and he was… you know, the same as me. He used to tell me all the time how he wished there was a way to just get rid of the parts of himself that didn’t feel right, and- well you know me, Henry, when somebody says they wish something was possible, I have to find a way to make it possible.” Henry listened carefully, and nodded with a grin.

“That’s for sure.”

“Well… that’s when I decided I would try to figure it out - that way I could make it happen for him, and maybe even train him so he could do the same for me! Henry, we could’ve changed the world for countless others like us!” Henry blinked.

“...So why didn’t you?” Em suddenly went quiet, then exhaled softly.

“I knew it would take an awful lot of practice, and no doctor would ever reasonably let me apprentice under them for such an undertaking so… I may or may not have taken matters into my own hands.” Henry stared blankly. “Hence… cadavers. René helped me steal the tools I needed and aided me with breaking into the morgue every night so I could practice. All was going well, but it turns out people don’t seem to be overly keen on evidence being tampered with or bodies being ‘desecrated.’ So one night just as I finally got every part of my methods down correctly, we got caught. We both ran, but we had to split up and… I know René slipped but… I was too busy with my own pursuers to turn back for him.” He stared off into the distance, a suddenly sorrowful expression in his eyes. “I hope he’s ok… but it was then that I realized it would be unsafe for me to stay, and the only other person I could think of who could help me with such an undertaking as this… was you.” Henry’s eyes widened.

“Em I hardly think I’m qualified-”

“You don’t have to be! I can teach you. I’ll do most of the work, and you just have to do what I tell you, and everything should work out just fine.” Henry crossed his arms with a sigh. He thought it through, and although he wanted so badly to say no, the look of determination on Em’s face convinced him well enough that this was something his dear friend so desperately needed.

“As long as you think we can pull it off, you know I’ll always be here to help,” he reassured him with a smile. Em grinned, suddenly lurching forward and embracing him in as tight a hug as he could muster. Henry sat stunned, his cheeks suddenly burning as he felt himself blush, but he nervously chuckled and wrapped his arms around Em in return, not realizing that Em’s own pale cheeks were turning bright pink, until both of them awkwardly released each other and sat there turned away from one another. “Well… I suppose I should be off to bed,” Henry muttered, still with a sheepish smile on his face. Em flopped back down onto the hay, resting his hands behind his head. “We can talk more in the morning and- oh!” Henry pulled out the bread he had smuggled from his pockets, and held it out to Em, who gladly snatched it and immediately began shoving it unceremoniously into his mouth. “Figured you were hungry so… heh. Anyways… I’ll see about bringing you breakfast tomorrow too, just like old times.” Em grinned up at him.

“Jus’ ‘ike o’ ‘imes,” he answered, mouth still full with bread. Henry hopped down from the hay bales, taking his lantern once again.

“I’m glad you came back, Em,” he mentioned, standing just outside the stall door. Em turned and glanced back at him, smiling brightly.

“I’m glad to be back. I missed you, Henry. Nothing is ever the same without you, you know.”

“Same to you, Em.” With that, Henry strode out and quietly closed the door behind him. As he started back toward the house, he paused, turning back toward the stable with a bittersweet gaze and a flutter in his chest. You have no idea just how much I missed you, he thought. But you’re here now, and that’s- that’s good enough for me. Filled with a sudden surge of energy, he jumped into the air with an exclamation of joy and ran back to the house, twirling and prancing as he ran until he was dizzy from the thrill. He paused at the door, panting, looking back toward the stable with a massive grin and a glimmer in his eyes. “Oh Em,” he breathed out loud, chest heaving as he caught his breath, “I can’t wait to see the person you become.”

#frankenstein au #tw blood mention #ask to tag #lmao i considered proof reading this but it's 11:26 PM and i'm exhausted so. hopefully there's no huge errors in it fbvdvhbjvhdbvjfhvbdfv #we'll see i guess!

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dudeandduchess · 4 years

Text

Kyōjurō x F!S/O: Bed Weather (Fluff, Modern AU, SFW Scenario)

Summary: Kyōjurō and his wife snuggle in bed, talking about their future child, while rain is pouring outside.

Note: This was self-indulgent as hell, since it’s the rainy season now. 😂

***

The soft sound of rustling sheets stirred (Y/n) from her light nap, making her slowly blink her eyes open and savor the ever-welcome sight of her husband sliding next to her in their bed. He gave her a soft smile, one that had nothing but love and affection for her— which had her heart racing faster inside her chest.

“Did I wake you? Sorry, baby.” Kyōjurō’s voice was hushed for once, seeming so off on him due to his jubilant personality and general loudness. But (Y/n) appreciated his softness all the more, as it was a side of him that only she was privy to.

Out of all the people Kyōjurō loved, the quiet and serene side he showed at that moment was something that was only for her. Because she made him feel so soft; she was the silence and solace that he needed in his life, and it was really smart of him to have never let her go.

With a shake of her head, silence stretched upon the couple— something that was warm and comforting, instead of awkward and cold. It helped stave off the chill that the pouring rain outside brought with it, and added a much more comforting vibe in their bedroom.

“Did you wash your feet first?” (Y/n) asked quietly, inching closer to her husband and wrapping her right arm around his middle, while the left one stayed folded between their bodies.

In response, Kyōjurō hauled her closer to himself; holding her tight especially when he felt how cold her legs and feet were, despite having been under the blanket. “Yes. I didn’t want to upset you again.”

The young woman rolled her eyes at that, holding back a chuckle to keep her husband from knowing that she found his little teasing remark humorous, at the very least. It would just push him to start teasing her more, and that wasn’t what she wanted to deal with— since he could be such a big child about things like that.

“I only get upset because you always bring dust onto the bed, and it feels rough.”

Kyōjurō laughed at that, something much more subdued than his normal boisterous laugh— but a laugh nonetheless. He then leaned forward and pressed an affectionate kiss against his wife’s forehead; letting his lips drift down and trail butterfly kisses all the way to her lips. “I know, it won’t happen again. Promise.”

“Good.” With that, (Y/n) closed her eyes and closed the gap between their mouths— lingering for a couple more seconds, before pulling away and nuzzling her cheek against his chest.

Another bout of verbal silence stretched between them, filled only by the soothing sound of the rain falling on the roof, as well as the droplets ricocheting off of the windows.

The way that they were tangled together was already comforting— enough to lull (Y/n) to drowsiness— but it was the way that Kyōjurō drew nonsensical patterns, with his fingers, across her back that really had her fighting off the urge to succumb to sleep.

“How did your doctor’s appointment go today?”

(Y/n)’s eyes blearily opened at that, before closing once more. She then readjusted her hold on Kyōjurō, before slinging a leg over his hip; hooking the back of her right foot to the back of his knee all to make herself more comfortable.

“She said that things are fine with the baby, but that I need to eat more fruits that are rich in vitamin C,” She explained softly, to which her husband nodded at with a soft hum

He already had a plan to buy her a basket filled with oranges the following morning.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t go with you,” Kyōjurō apologized sincerely, pausing with his aimless doodling on her back, before pressing another kiss to her forehead.

A small smile made its way onto (Y/n)’s face at that, right as she answered, “You can come to the next one. I made sure to ask for a Saturday appointment, so you won’t have work.”

It was such a simple sentence, and an extremely simple thought, but it warmed the young man’s heart all the more— bringing tears to his eyes, which he desperately tried to blink back.

The tranquil air between them only added to his emotional response; coloring his feelings such a soft yet simultaneously vibrant red for his wife, and the tiny life growing inside her— a tiny life that they made.

“Oh, I did record the little nugget’s heartbeat for you to listen to. It’s on my phone.”

Reluctantly, the blond pulled the tiniest bit away from his wife so he could get her phone, which she had put next to his on his nightstand. The lamp momentarily blinded him, yet it was worth it when he managed to unlock the phone with her passcode: their exact marriage date.

Well, the first one where they eloped, anyway.

That had caused such an uproar with (Y/n)’s entire family, but it was a story for another day. They liked him a lot, but the problem was that he and (Y/n) couldn’t wait another year to get married, so they’d decided to run away instead.

It was a good thing that, after the first few months or so, her family had forgiven her— all because they had promised to hold a proper wedding ceremony in the future.

While Kyōjurō got a bit lost in his memories, his thumbs brought up the Voice Memo logs— with the one and only file staring him in the face.

He couldn’t really explain why, but his heart began to race especially as his thumb hovered over the file itself. Nervous couldn’t even begin to describe how he felt; it was a mix of that, excitement, happiness, and a little bit of fear.

Not fear of having a baby, but fear of not being a good enough father to his child. Still, he pushed those thoughts down and played the recording.

And instantly, the sound of a fluttering heartbeat filled the room— playing over the rain falling outside. It was soft in its cadence, but it could have been considered loud what with the way that it totally had Kyōjurō enamored.

His eyes looked down at his smiling wife— whom still had her eyes closed. And he was glad that she couldn’t see him, because he felt his own tears bubbling to the surface.

The longer that he heard their baby’s heartbeat, the more that things seemed surreal. It calmed and excited him all at once; making him want to run up to the top of the house so he could yell in joy, all while rendering him so weak and jelly-kneed right where he was.

He couldn’t even bear to move, at least until the minute-long recording had stopped playing.

Then, in one fell swoop, he found himself clutching (Y/n) tight to his chest— burying his face in her hair as he tried his best to keep himself from outright crying.

“Thank you, (Y/n)... for everything.”

#rengoku kyoujurou x reader #kyoujurou rengoku x reader #rengoku kyojuro x reader #kyojuro rengoku x reader #demon slayer x reader #demon slayer fanfic #kny x reader #kimetsu no yaiba fanfic #rengoku kyojuro #rengoku kyoujurou #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #kny rengoku #kyojuro rengoku #rengoku x reader #rengoku kyōjurō #demon slayer rengoku #jen writes

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nagitoandkokichioneshots · 3 years

Note

OKAY HELLO OMG I HOPE YOU ARE TAKING REQUESTS !! i really like the way you write its super cool and i want you to keep going lolz anyways can i request a scenario where nagito, reader and hana are spending an afternoon together, the reader came home early from work which means that they can hang out, i think that would sound fun. i would love to see hana interact with her mom !!! okay so good luck

-Mod Mikan: Hello sweet nonnie! First of all, thank you for your kind words! I’m not very confident in my writing skills, but I still enjoy making X reader fanfics with my fictional crushes, so your feedback and praise means a lot to me, it really does! And this idea is SO CUTE! I had so much fun writing this, I truly love domestic life au’s, so thank you for your request!

“C’mon Mama! You have to show me around the beach!” Hana squealed, pulling her mother by the arm. The (H/C) female chuckled, as she power walked with her three year old daughter to the wide body of white sand. (Y/N) felt the rush of the grainy sand flood between her and the (F/C) flip flops she put on today. It was days like this where the ultimate (Y/T) had the day off. It was rare, but that’s what made her days off even more enjoyable. A day with the whole family was precious and the Komeada’s enjoyed every second of it

“Hey, wait for me!” Nagito ran towards the two beautiful rays of hope, slinging a black duffle bag across her shoulder. Hana giggled, holding onto her mother’s hand as they stopped at an unoccupied portion of the beach

“Sorry Papa. You’re too slow~” She giggled, earning herself a light scold from (Y/N), who was lying a Minnie Mouse beach towel for her daughter

“Hana, you know your Papa needs a little more time when it comes to our races. We have to encourage him, like we do with you all the time!” She explained, pulling the platinum blond up in an upsie. She peppered her face with kisses, making the toddler squeal in her mother’s arms. Cute giggles were muffled out by more baritone, deep laughs coming from her father

“Thank you, my angel. But don’t worry about me. The important thing is that we all made it, and now we can finally relax,” He said, running a lanky hand thorugh Hana’s neatly done braid. It was usually Nagito who does Hana’s hair in the morning, and 99% of the time, it’s a messy, but cute braid. (Y/N) has managed to braid her daughter’s hair this morning into a much neater and elegant design, even adorning it with tiny white flowers to match her two piece bathing suit

“You’re right, Papa. But can we explore? I want to build a sandcastle, go swimming, play volleyball, get ice cream, collect seashells, a--” Hana’s ramble was interrupted by her mother setting her down on the beach towel along with her pink barbie backpack

“Well maybe we can take it easy for a little while and start with that sandcastle, okay? Mama can help you out if you want,” (Y/N) flashed a sweet smile to her, already kneeling down. Nagito couldn’t help but let out a grin himself. It warmed his heart to see his angel and flower of hope playing together. As said before, (Y/N)’s days off were scarce, so saying Nagito lived for these moments would be an understatement--he considered them a blessing, even after all this time

“And Papa can go get some ice cream for us. Hana, cookie dough like always?” He waved his daughter’s favorite ice cream flavor in his question, making her (E/C) eyes light up. She nodded, whipping her braid back and forth as she did

“Yes, Papa, Yes!” She cheered, producing another series of cheerful laughs from Nagito. He then turned to his wife, asking her a similar question

“And you, my angel? (F/F), I assume?” He asked, earning a nod from the older female

“Thank you, Nagito,” She smiled. Nagito kissed both their heads before running off to a concession stand. (Y/N) turned her attention back to the three year old, as she started to shovel out some sand into her yellow plastic spade

“I want a big castle! Like the ones the princesses live in in the fairytales Papa tells me before bedtime. So we have to get A LOT of sand, Mama!” Hana exclaimed, dropping her bucket only for a split second, allowing her to motion the immense amount of ‘sand’ with her hands. (Y/N) chortled yet again at her daughter, but Hana’s cheerful smile faded into a neutral one, scooping sand into her bucket

“You....You’ll be able to read to me for bed tonight...right Mama?” The pale skinned three year old asked her mother. (Y/N) felt her heart ache at her daughter’s slightly gloomy smile, not wanting to disappoint her. After all, was she even going to say no?

“Sweetheart, I’d be more than happy to read to you any story you want for bedtime,” Her mother offered, making Hana look up from her filled bucket placed upside down in the sand. Her goofy grin was plastered back on her face, as she crawled onto her mother’s lap, kissing her cheek

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mama!” She hugged her tightly, (Y/N) nuzzling her cheek with hers. She felt some sticky lipgloss on her cheek, but she didn’t care. The hug was broken, only for (Y/N) to remove the bucket, revealing a mound of sand in the shape of the castle’s base

“No need to thank me, darling. Come on, let’s go surprise Papa with this palace fit for a princess!” She booped Hana’s nose, making her blush. Both girls worked hard for the next few minutes, molding sand into pillars, poking windows into the castle, and digging a moat around it. The sound of light footsteps shoveling through the sandy landscape signaled the return of Nagito, holding three ice cram cones in his hand

“Rocky road for my flower,” He flashed a bright smile towards Hana, handing her the waffle cone, making her gleam with the hope that Nagito adored. “(F/F) for my angel,” He gentle transferred the second cone from his hand to his wife’s. “And plain vanilla for someone like me,” Just like Hana’s, his joyous smile faded into an indifferent one, as he sat down on the beach chair. (Y/N) mentally shook her head at her husband. They’ve been married for three years and had Hana just a few weeks after their wedding. It would be safe to say that Nagito’s self confidence have been raised more than he could ever imagine and he certainly does feel more value and worth within himself, especially being near his angel’s side. But old habits that lasted since childhood are extremely difficult to break

Well...it’s progress from “worthless trash” (Y/N) thought to herself, a mature smile creeping back onto her face, as Hana licked her cone, still sitting on her mother’s lap. Hana turned to her father, surprisingly keeping her face clean from her sweet frozen treat as she continued to indulge in it

“Papa, what do you think of our castle? Me and Mama made it together,” She motioned her head towards the mountain of sand sculpted into an elegant design that resembled an ancient citadel. The white haired male simpered, admiring the work of the ultimate ballerina and the ultimate (Y/T)

“It certainly beautiful, my darling. But I can’t say I’m surprised. Symbols of hope like you two can only create the best!” He planted a kiss onto Hana’s forehead, making a faded pink blush dust upon her cheeks once again. Nagito moved to perform the same action onto his wife, but she just smirked, stopping him with pressing her index finger to his lips

“Oh? And is my dear marshmallow trying to steal a kiss from me?” She winked cheekily at him, making Nagito form a surprised expression on his face

“Huh? (Y/N) is teasing me today?” He questioned her, his licked getting slower as his vanilla soft serve shrunk in size. As for the (H/C) female, she quickly chomped the last of her cone, tossing the napkin into a nearby trash can

“Oh love, don’t think of it as teasing. Think of it asssss~” Just then, (Y/N) stood up, tightly holding Hana, her tiny legs wrapped around her mother’s bare waist. She ran off with her daughter into the ocean, creating a huge splash as they cannonballed into the lukewarm waters. The toddler shrieked from the sudden surprise and the water hitting her bare skin. However, she laughed joyously after her body became accustomed to the new temperature, still clinging onto her mother to support her tiny body in the large body of salt water

“Join the fun, Nagito! Hana is right, you are pretty slow~” She chaffed at her husband, lightly splashing water onto the toddler’s rounded face, making her yelp in a mix of shock and cheekiness

“H-Hey! (Y/N), weren’t you the one who told Hana to give me a break from running?!” He pouted, making his way into the ocean as fast as the sickly man could. He tossed his shirt onto the beach chair and kicked off his shoes before entering the vast ocean. He searched for his family, before spotting the two girls half swimming-half walking towards them

“Now that wasn’t funny, (Y/N)! Not only did you tease me, but you stole my flower away! This was supposed to be a family day,” He sulked, making (Y/N) place one of her hands on Nagito’s cheek, stroking it gently with her thumb

“Aw, poor baby. I’m sorry, Naggie. Can you forgive me??? Please???” She singsonged to him, pulling Hana up so their heads were at level with each other. Hana also made the same puppy dogged eyes with her mother, asking for his forgiveness

“Pwease, Papa???” She asked him too. Who was Nagito kidding? He couldn’t say no to his two favorite girls

“Well...just this once. After all, this is Mama’s day off,” His glower was replaced with his usual merry expression, making both girls shout in happiness

“Yayyy! Come on, Papa! I wanna swim!” Hana grabbed her father’s arm in her free hand, along with her mother’s in the other one. Half swimming and half walking, she treaded along the water’s surface before creating a tiny splash as her white skinned body flopped into the deeper waters, still holding onto her parents’ hands for support

“Hana, not too far, darling. We don’t want you getting kidnapped by pirates out in far waters,” Her mother joked, warning her to stay close. Nagito reached for his wife’s free hand with his, smiling at her before they joined their daughter in the salty ocean

****************************************************************************************************

“That was the best, Mama!” Hana exclaimed, tightening her little legs that were circling around her mother’s waist. (Y/N) flashed a smile, this time, a semi-tired one mixed in with her usual bright one

“I’m so glad you had fun, my flower. We should definetly do this again when I get another day off. And don’t forget, Mama still promised you a bedtime story when we get back home~” She nuzzled her nose with Hana’s, as Nagito let out a giggle

“Well that’s just the cutest sight ever. The angel of hope and the flower of hope cuddling!” He got inside the driver’s seat of the car, setting a small baggie down in the cupholders. (Y/N) blushed at Nagito’s statement, setting the toddler down into the warm cushions of her carseat. Hana squirmed a bit as (Y/N) secured the seatbelts across her little lap, as if she was trying to see what was in the contents of the baggie

“Papa, can I see my seashells? I collected a lot!” She asked her father, earning a side grin from the male. He reached his hand towards the mini drawstring, making it land on the toddler’s lap with a gentle toss

“There you go, my love. Now it’s time for my other love to join me in the front,” He winked at (Y/N), patting the passenger’s seat in the front. The (H/C) female kept her faint blush on her cheeks, crawling beside Nagito in the front of the car. As Hana poked a slightly chubby finger inside the cinch sack, thrilled to see the collection of shells she picked up, (Y/N) turned to Nagito, a relaxed sigh fell from her pink lips

“This was a much needed break. I missed this, Naggie...” She admitted to her husband, making Nagito form his usual, carefree smile on his face. He pulled out of the parking lot of the beach, turning onto the street

“Me too. It was so nice for your boss to let you have a day off when you’ve been working so hard, my angel. Hana really missed you,” He responded, keeping his keys on the road. He kept one hand on the wheel, the other one creeping to touch his wife’s. He stroked his thumb upon her knuckles, keeping her at ease. She looked down for a split second before turning to him, another smirk forming on her face

“You know, Hana loves her Papa as much as she missed her Mama. Would he care to join us for a bedtime story???” The female questioned him, every word of her sentences laced with a flavor of sweetness. Nagito’s smile crept wider, seeing his daughter admiring the elegantly spotted scallop shell between her fingers from his mirror

“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind someone like me intruding your mother-daughter time?” He asked his wife for reassurance, earning an eye-roll from her. However, this only lasted for a split second, as the thumb that was stroking her knuckles was yanked into a hand-holding position, each finger interlocked with each other

“We would be offended if you didn’t!”

#nagito komaeda #nagito komeada kin #danganronpa x reader #danganronpa #danganronpa x y/n #nagito x reader #nagito headcanons #nagito oneshots #danganronpa nagito #nagito x you #danganronpa oneshot #danganronpa goodbye despair

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psychosassicvampire · 3 years

Text

ok the people want details about the skate park au

@pixeliis @futuristicwormsociety come get your food

its all very fast and loose but these are a handful of my concepts [proceeds to unfurl a scroll about as long as todd is tall]

- yes dirk actually skates and he’s not tony hawk but he’s decent

- todd is mesmerized by this anyway because we are starting off on s2 levels of “dirk is so important to my life” adoration. in reality dirk is fairly awkward and dorky but todd just has sparkles in his eyes about it. also dirk has cool jackets which more than makes up for a lot of awkwardness especially in the eyes of your bi peers

- todd does NOT skate (yet). he takes an adolescent amanda to the park so she can skate because she’s badass and cooler than her brother and he sits on a bench nearby to draw or carve mindlessly into things or does some spray paint graffiti and tagging while he ‘babysits’ per their parents’ request. eventually dirk rolls around and befriends amanda as his fellow skate park buddy and todd is starry-eyed about him from afar. he secretly draws dirk in his sketchbook sometimes.

- amanda catches on to her brother’s crush and she keeps trying to set them up. she’s 11 or 12 and it becomes one of her personal missions. young girls are extremely tenacious in their goals. meanwhile todd is shy and has dreadful self esteem with both girls and guys so he resents this.

- dirk occasionally leaves his jacket with todd at the bench and asks him to watch it for him while he skates with amanda - dirk gets along with kids well. todd can almost never speak in response to his requests but he usually nods his head hopelessly about it. at some point dirk asks todd why he doesn’t skate too. he’s just embarrassed to try something new and says he can’t. dirk calls bullshit and takes it upon himself to teach todd and get him used to being on a board. they do have to hold hands for this sometimes. todd falls a lot. hence the pink bandages. amanda gets a habit of yelling “KISS HIM” across the concrete at random intervals of their nearness which todd apologetically waves off as his sister being weird, oh you know how sisters are, and please shut up amanda.

- neither of the siblings have pararibulitis at this time nor have either of them lied about it yet. they can skate and get injured to their heart’s content... for now.

- i have to credit theo @drawyourgunsr5 for the basis of the family feud which adds our romeo and juliet flavor. dirk’s family has recently come over from england and are wealthy enough to have bought out the business that the brotzman’s parents used to work at, and they have since lost their jobs. the brotzman family has been falling on hard times for it since, and the parents resent the gentlys for it. when they find out dirk is a gently, and that he frequents the local skate park, they are furious. eventually the brotzman parents bar either of the kids from going back to the park, though todd blows them off and does so anyway. dirk hates his own family and their claustrophobic expectations on him as their heir and would rather run away and be a rebellious skater wannabe, spending ridiculous amounts of his parent’s money on leather jackets they dont approve of and spending time with the mall rat kids. so he is on tenuous ground with his own family.

- todd is 18 so he technically could just run away from home and the tension therein but he’s sort of a third parent to amanda because the parents have to work so much at various part time jobs to make ends meet they’re almost never around and he doesn’t want to abandon her.

- dirk could also run away from home and nearly has plans to, though his consequences for doing so would be costly. later on when dirk and todd are finally in the realm of acknowledging their crushes on each other under flickering lamplight on the concrete, still warmly radiating the heat back from the summer sun, dirk admits he would give up everything his family has to offer him, all of the money, all of the influence in high places, to be with todd, and that todd is the single most important thing that has ever happened to him (spoken with all the naive drama of tragic teens in love and also sound of nothing).

- todd isn’t so confident about a dramatic escape being the best move, and he’s especially not thrilled about giving up a potential for security. his family struggles a lot and in the back of his mind he knows he or his sister could have a pararibulitis onset attack any day, and being out of money doesn’t bode so well for any of that. he loves dirk for dirk, but he also knows that while money doesn’t buy happiness it sure as hell can make life more possible. he’d rather try to keep things copacetic with the families if he can, at least initially.

- they meet in secret often, and on one or more occasions dirk has climbed into todd’s window unannounced. separately, dirk has invited todd over to his place and had the bright idea they both climb in through a window there too, whereupon dirk tells todd to push his bum to make him go up. (his own house is harder to climb into and he is a fool.)

basically theyre obsessed with each other and theyre stupid and i was like yeah but what if our boys had more piercings and looked like they woke up after sound of nothing more often (because this look changed me)

and then i realized i could do what i want so i did and i am

thank you for attending my self indulgence

#dirk dyes his hair black and todd bleaches his hair every now and then #dirk does it because he wants to rebel in a very passive and classic way against his uptight british parents #todd does it because he's queer and insecure and alternative and what else are you going to do when you can't get more piercings every time #you wish you could change yourself #you bleach your hair.#also todd helps amanda do ombre dye kits from the convenience store to her hair in their bathroom sometimes because he's a loving brother #it's the little things. or the extremely grandiose gestures if you're dirk.#he lives large even if he tries to blend in with the other kids in suburbia.#he skates to the park but he does have the 'vette. he leaves it at home to not draw attention to himself #todd sees it in the driveway the first time he sneaks over and freaks out behind the hedges about it #dirk says he traded in the car his parents DID buy for him to have this and they hate it but the title for the gift car was in his name so #they couldnt stop him. but they hate the decisions he makes.#they think his bright blue wrapped vette is a gaudy immature eyesore and theyre right and i fucking love it #alright im shutting up now #but thank you for your comments i live for these kindnesses #dghda skatepark au #dghda au #brotzly #todd brotzman #dirk gently #amanda brotzman #replies #futuristicwormsociety #pixeliis #.txt

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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So just out of curiosity, what inspired the whole Beacon Bay idea? What kind of sharks and dolphins are they? This entire thing is very intriguing to me and I can't wait to see more.

So first off, anyone who’s ever played soundingboard to my original stuff like Moukie or Adam can attest to the fact that I’m ocean obsessed, so there’s pretty much nothing I’m interested in that isn’t a mere two or three steps removed from an ocean/merfolk/sea witch AU in my head. Gimme anything and like, five minutes, and I can make it ocean themed. Space operas included. I grew up near the ocean, been surfing for ages though of course I haven’t in years, blah, but like. I’m a big fan of the deep blue sea. Its just....neat. ghaskfhalkfhla

So I’ve always had a bunch of ocean-set concepts. This particular AU came about from like, smashing a couple of them together to preserve them when my plans for doing original stuff with them fizzled out, at least for the time being. Cuz the other thing about me is the way some people like, take their fanfic and file off the serial numbers to turn it into original novels, I more often do the reverse, lmao. When I have something I can no longer do something with original-content-wise, for whatever reason, but I still like the idea, I turn it into fanfic so I can still play around with it whenever I want and like, have purpose to that, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting time by still ‘indulging’ in that concept or whatever.

Like my Batfandom fic By Lost Ways, as I’ve mentioned before....that actually started out as an original high fantasy novel set in my ‘Tales of the Citadel’ shared universe. BUT the setting ended up being similar enough to a sci-fi project I wanted I to move forward with, ‘Waveriders’ (the one with the sky pirates and the ATLA-style benders only instead of evoking the four classical elements, waveriders could each ‘hack’ a different kind of wavelength, that one) like....basically, the projects FELT similar enough in setting and various superficial elements that I started to feel derivative of myself moving forward with both, so I picked Waveriders and then recycled the setting and a lot of the plot of the sky-set fantasy novel for fanfic, just for fun.

Same thing here, though Beacon Bay is basically the mash-up of two different shelved original projects. Basically, its the plot of a CW-style show about teen sirens and the sea witch making like the Fagin to their Oliver Twists, from a pilot I wrote years ago.....it got some interest but I refused to make it less gay because lol have you met me, so it ultimately never went anywhere but I still liked the plot.

And then remember the werewolf books I mentioned awhile back, that had the mongoose shifters in them? LOL. Yeah, so I’d written two and a half novels in that series and had this whole expansive worldbuilding of twelve different shifter clans each with their own innate magic, patron deity/creator, etc, but all my agent and editor contacts at the time were like yeah sorry, shifters are over for now, and I was like wow, can’t believe cancel culture’s real and publishing cancelled werewolves, wtf, rude, and then I was like eh, still wanna play in this universe especially with the dolphins and shark shifters which I never even really got to in those books, so I’m just gonna air-lift them out of that and drop them smack in the middle of my CW siren plot and fanfic away to my heart’s content and call that ‘being productive’ when I feel like it.

Anyway, found family was a big theme of those books and the world-building I did there in general, because again, have you met me, I’m not predictable or anything (shhh, the word is consistent), and one of my initial things there was I wanted the various shifter types to all have innate magic, because for literally no real reason that I can discern other than Whimsy, I have always been Team Werewolf in vampires vs werewolves, and I was tired of werewolves always being by default the underdogs in those narratives. Even if that does make for a good pun.

SO, I wanted to come up with werewolf magic that felt natural and organic to werewolves, like nothing too flashy or obscure, but that would make them a legitimate threat even to other supernatural creatures. And I made it so each of the shifter types were granted an active and a passive magic by the god that created their type of shifter, and with werewolves, their active magic was that of the pack gestalt. I took the idea of ‘their whole is greater than the sum of their parts’ that TW kinda briefly touched on when presenting (but never really doing much with) the idea that the more wolves in a pack, the stronger that pack was.....and I decided okay what if being part of a pack upped stats all across the board AND all shifters have a SLIGHT innate resistance to magic, being innately magical beings themselves?

So a werewolf pack, with enough pack members, would thus not only be formidable in strength, speed, senses and speed of healing....but compound that innate shifter resistance to magic, which in a single shifter is negligible, like, just enough to make them slightly harder to track with magic or curse or whatever.....but in a whole werewolf pack, that adds up to make the pack effectively immune to foreign magic. Vampires can’t compel them, demons can’t possess them, witches can’t curse them, etc. So a lone werewolf, not part of a pack, is formidable, but nothing another supernatural being can’t take on. But a lone werewolf who IS part of a pack....different story entirely, because now most other supernatural beings, no matter what their USUAL strengths, are reduced to taking on that werewolf hand to hand, as their own supernatural gifts or spells or whatever, like, aren’t gonna do them any good against these particular foes. And werewolves are USED to fighting with just brute physical strength and attributes, which gives them the edge against opponents who are more used to being able to fall back on magic in battle.

But as much as I like sticking to a theme, I like to diversify that theme where possible, so when it came to the other shifter types, I wanted to similarly come up with ways where ‘the whole would be greater than the sum of their parts’ but in like, entirely different ways.

So with dolphin shifters, their ‘passive magic’ (in quotes cuz that’s not quite the right word for it but whatever) is that they’re all empaths, with their more active magic being weather manipulation. Their empathy is a two-way street....they project emotions as well as just feel other peoples’, which ties into the fact that their patron deity was Dionysus. Dolphin parties....legendary. But in an extremely wild, dangerous and Bacchanalian kinda way. In terms of Beacon Bay specifically, this is a bit of a problem for the BB dolphins, as the closest thing they had to an official Triton (the dolphin shifter version of an Alpha) was Peter, but they were like nope, not loving this guy, and kinda drove him out of town in the AU S1 backstory of this ‘verse, which means Scott and the others are kinda just making it up as they go along, and don’t really know the ins and outs of BEING dolphin shifters. (Derek is....elsewhere, in this. Mostly).

So bottom line is they have reputations around school for being loud obnoxious goofs and trouble-makers, constantly playing hooky and such, but its because they don’t really know HOW to safeguard against spilling their emotions onto everyone around them so they try and err on the side of being the life of the party whenever possible, as that’s better than the alternatives in their opinion. And when they’re just having bad days and bumming hard, the whole pod will just skip school and glomp around the bumming pod member whilst self-caring, rather than like, accidentally bum out the entire school.

But their weather manipulation magic is where the gestalt idea comes into play with them, as I love weather manipulating powers, but I didn’t want to make them all Ororo Munroe, y’know? Only Ororo Munroe can be Ororo Munroe. Don’t make me scoff. I’ll do it. I’ll scoff so hard. SO I went with the idea of weather control married to manipulating storms via song and was like, okay what if a dolphin pod is like, a symphony of shifters.

Basically, its like each individual dolphin shifter is a single voice in a chorus, and there’s magical equivalents of being a baritone, an alto, etc. Like, none of them can whip up a storm on their own. Its more that each of them can summon or conjure a PIECE of a storm with their song, with it being different for each of them....symptomatic of their magic as an expression of them as an individual. So for instance, Scott’s song is ‘tuned’ to lightning. He can call down a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.....but he can’t summon so much as a drop of rain to save his life. Literally. Its an actual plot point at one point. Whereas Isaac’s song is all about calling down rain, Boyd’s is more of an arctic wind, and Erica’s kinda summons a pressure front that in harmony with the two of theirs can whip up a mean waterspout. And then Corey’s all about conjuring fog banks with low visibility while Liam can whistle up a strong, gale-force wind but sucks at using his song as a precision instrument. Etc, etc. But the real magic is when they all use their voices and magic in concert....as a group, they can summon huge magical thunderstorms.

Also, one thing I love about using different kinds of shifters is the opportunity to explore enhanced supernatural senses that aren’t just keen sight, smell or hearing. So the dolphin shifters aren’t like wolf shifters in being able to detect chemosignals or anything like that....in fact, their sense of smell isn’t much different from anyone else’s. But they do have an ability to use what’s effectively supernatural echolocation even above water, and their sight is adapted for optimal viewing underwater, making them particularly good at seeing in the darkness even on land.

(Also, related but somewhat tangential to both the shifter senses and dolphin ‘voices’....all dolphin shifters have a strong talent for mimicry, but this isn’t technically a form of magic, more just a combination of their control over their voice and their keen senses of pitch, etc).

The shark shifters, on the other hand, have some of the keenest senses of all shifters. Not only is their sense of smell even better than a werewolf’s, they’re sensitive to changes in pressure, for one thing. Which means on land, they can even feel changes in atmospheric pressure.....so like, the shark shifters of Beacon Bay could be in math class and then ‘feel’ a sudden drop in air pressure and thus even before some strange weather phenomenon occurs, they’re groaning like ugh fucking A, what the hell did the damn dolphins do now.

Also, their magnetic field perception is such that they can kinda ‘sense’ when people are around, just by being aware of the approaching magnetic field of another living being.

And then with the sharks, I was looking for ways to lean into the associations we have with sharks and blood, but subvert them to be less macabre and more communal. And another big theme of mine in general is like, I am DETERMINED to go to my grave shouting at the top of my lungs “Its THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT IS THICKER THAN THE WATER OF THE WOMB, NOT BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER, HOW DID PEOPLE GET THAT SO BACKWARDS ITS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF HOW ITS USUALLY STATED!”

Like, that’s just...HUGE pet peeve of mine. Its like nails on a chalkboard, lmfao, that drives me nuts. That phrase is usually cited by people using it to express like, the idea that there’s no greater force than family, specifically BIOLOGICAL, ‘blood’ relations, but its literally meant to be the exact opposite, that the blood of CHOSEN bonds, of covenants, of vows or promises, is a greater force than the water of the womb, ie being born of the same womb, as in biological siblings. The entire point of the phrase is biology ain’t shit, family is what we choose. And somehow it got turned ENTIRELY around.

(Note: Okay, so for the record, its not ‘somehow’, there’s actually a very clear reason for why that particular interpretation gained so much momentum, and that’s because for a long time it was conflated with an old German proverb from like a thousand years ago that basically translates to “kin-blood is not spoiled by water.” Which basically was meant to mean that nothing can ‘dilute’ blood relations, not time, not distance, not water. So that phrase DOES correspond to the idea that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ Problem is, there isn’t a direct trace from that particular proverb TO most USAGES of ‘blood is thicker than water,’ which when you throw in the OTHER phrase, which in its entirety is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” what you end up with is a lot of people SAYING that one when they actually MEAN to say ‘kin-blood is not spoiled by water’ and that’s where the meanings get switched. But I fucking digress. Per usual).

Anyway. So combine that particular pet peeve with my found family fixation AND the fact that this is about magic and magic means I can do whatever the hell I want, fuck your biological connections mwahahaha.....I decided to base shark magic on the idea of the blood-ties of family....but CHOSEN blood-ties, as in blood of the covenant ties.

What I mean is okay, so it first of all just made sense to me to have shark shifter communities be heavily focused around adoption, because like....let’s be real, shark shifters going around biting people to change them into shifters, and then people magically healing from....shark bites....was going to attract a lot more attention than people turning after being attacked by other types of shifters. Not to mention the fact that not only are shark attacks always big news, part of why they’re big news is because they’re actually pretty rare.

So, shark shifter communities were never really gonna propagate via lots of random shark shifter attacks turning people. So the way they DO expand and grow is by, well, family. Both biological AND adoption...as well as of course shark shifter communities taking in people who ARE attacked by rogue shark shifters, when that does happen.

But bottom line is, there’s an additional element in play in shark shifter communities, beyond just the gene pool....and that’s like, a magical tidepool of talents, let’s call it. Because I do love me some alliteration. But also tidepool of talents is just a cool phrase, IMO.

Anyway, the main part of shark shifter magic, and how THEIR whole is greater than the sum of their parts, is that any shark shifter can draw upon or channel the talents, skillsets or knowledge of anyone else in their communal family. And whenever that family gets added to, the talents, skillsets and knowledge of the new addition gets added to the pot, so to speak. So shark shifters are kinda all like Rogue, if Rogue’s focus was less on the superpowers of other people and more on things like Beast’s scientific knowledge, Cyclops’ strategic skills or Cable’s weapons expertise.

And then their ‘passive magic’ is a form of psychometry whenever they come into contact with blood. By touching even just a drop of someone’s blood, they can get a vision of how that blood was spilled or even get a sense of where the person who spilled it is now.

As to the types of sharks and dolphins they all are, for that I went with the thing about the shape you take reflects the person you are.....all the shifters here are full shifters, and there’s no genetic component to their shifting, its purely magical, so like....just because Peter turned the various dolphins of BB doesn’t mean they all turn into the same kind of dolphin he was. In fact, I don’t even know what kind of dolphin he was on account of I don’t really care tbh, lol. Whereas Erica’s an Atlantic spotted dolphin, Liam’s a pygmy killer whale which looks like an orca just tiny in comparison and is actually a dolphin, and I found that combination of factors hilarious, etc, etc.

Same thing with the shark shifters. Even among biological relations, there’s a ton of variety of shark types. Like the twins aren’t even the same type...Ethan’s a blue shark and Aiden’s a bull shark, Tracy’s a tiger shark and Hayden’s an angel shark. Danny’s actually a throwback to an unnamed prehistoric shark, not Megalodon big but big enough to shut up Jackson when he goes on about being a great white shark. Shark and crocodile shifters are the two oldest shifter clans, old enough that literal dinosaurs fall under the umbrella of their shifter type, and thus occasionally show up even in modern generations.

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p1nkymilk · 3 years

Text

PhuTian enemies to lovers AU part 2: The Wound

holy crap somehow i knocked out 3k words, this is extremely angsty and definitely OOC and hellla self-indulgent so proceed with caution hahaha

warning for spoilers, and mentions of wounds and blood but nothing too graphic

Once my AO3 acc gets created, I''ll post there too but till then its on here as well sdogbsdigbosid

note: in this AU, Tian did not own the car, and it wasn't his friend that killed Torfun. She died of a random car accident. And also, Tian knows of his father's involvement. Here, they had to strike a bargain such that Tian would only be allowed to leave if his father had eyes watching out for him there. Phupha is ordered to keep a close eye on Tian, but he only knows that Tian's health isn't that great. He thinks that the main reason that he has to escort Tian around is because Tian is rich and privileged. At this point, he only knows very vaguely about Tian's health problems so he doesn't take them seriously. Also warning Phupha is definitely acting like an ass, but he will redeem himself in later chapters

The next morning, Tian got up and stretched, sighing because of the ache of his back from the hard mattress. The hard mattress and the tiny teacher's house didn't bother him as much as the memories from last night. It wasn't that Tian was in love with the obstinate, cold chief by any stretch, but when he first arrived, he was so impressed with the chief, his dedication, his skill, and most of all, how much he truly cared for Pa Phun Dao and its people. He wanted to make a good impression on the Chief, but even with Tian trying his best, it wasn't possible. And it hurt just a bit more because the Chief was handsome, one of most handsome men that Tian had ever seen in his entire life.

Well, it's a good thing I'm not here to fall in love, Tian mused as he picked up his brush and toothpaste. For a second, he took a deep breath and stared at Torfun's old name tag, which flooded him both with guilt and strength. I'm here for you, Torfun. I need to go on. I need to finish what you have started. Although, I really don't know what you see in Phupha.

Tian went outside and brushed his teeth, and then went back in and changed his clothes to a fresh pair. There was a knock at the door. Tian quickly answered it, opening the bamboo door wide.

To his absolute and utter shock, it was Phupha, glowering like a raincloud, standing up straight in his forest ranger uniform, looking a bit like a Greek--er, Thai God in the morning sunlight.

"Chief, why are you here?" Tian asked, surprised, just managing to conceal the frown off of his face.

"I have to walk you down to the school. It's special orders, that's why a rich kid like you gets a chief to walk him down the fifteen minute walk," Phupha responded curtly.

Tian winced. He knew that his father was using his influence to make sure that Tian, with his fragile health, was protected in this physically taxing environment. It was the most he could do just to convince his father not to have another, more medically advanced teacher's house built for Tian to stay in.

"Okay," Tian responded quietly. "Let's get started then, the sooner that we leave, the sooner you can be finished of this chore with my subpar company."

Tian was hoping for a flicker of pity, something, from the ranger's eyes, but all he got was a steady glare of stone, and then Phupha started walking.

"Hey, slow down!" Tian said. "I can't keep up!"

Phupha rolled his eyes, and slowed down a little, but not enough.

Tian tried to make small talk throughout the walk, but Phupha never responded well, more than a few short words. He clearly did not want to continue the conversation. It didn't stop Tian from doing his best through the conversation, but Phupha was a wall that did not move an inch.

Phupha left Tian with the much friendlier Yod and went on to continue his duties with a nod towards Yod and nothing towards Tian.

Yod winced. "He's really not a bad guy. He'll take some time to warm up, but he has a good heart. In the meantime, Rang and I are here to support you! And Dr. Nam, he is a good guy as well." "Thank you so much sir," Tian said gratefully, his eyes full of warmth. Yod's heart softened for the young volunteer. He was a little privileged, sure, but it was clear that he was a good person. He made a note to speak to Phupha about going a little easier on this young man. It was already difficult for Pa Phun Dao to receive volunteer teachers, and no one should ever look a gift horse in the mouth.

Tian introduced himself to the kids in the school house, the boisterous boy Ayi, the curious Khaoneung, the quiet Inta, the inquisitive Meejoo and the sleepy looking Kalae.

"Your name is Tian? Like Seetian!" Meejoo exclaimed, grinning.

"Not quite--" Tian started, but was interrupted by Ayi saying "What are we going to do today Seetian?"

"Today...." Tian said, thinking for a while. "We are going to go on a field trip!"

"I don't know if it's a good idea," Yod said hesitantly.

Tian wanted to prove himself, he wanted to show the world (and himself) that he really could be a teacher who helped his students, even if he was just doing this for Torfun.

"Us teachers--we are showing our students how to understand the world, right? What is a better way than to immerse the students in it?"

"Alright, if you say so...I'll come with," Yod said. "Stick with me at all times!"

Tian flashed Yod an excited grin. "Thank you so much, sir! Come on, guys!"

The kids were bursting with excitement, just like Tian and Tul back in secondary school, the morning right before the field trip to the aquarium or science museum. Tian smiled. Some things are just universal.

The group set out together, and Tian pointed out the different colors of all of the items around them, teaching them how to say each one in English. Meejoo especially was drinking in the knowledge, her eyes bright.

They were walking across the bridge to go to the waterfall. Yod suddenly got a call on his walkie talkie that something urgent came up. Tian convinced Yod to let him take the kids, promising that they were safe in his care. Yod didn't look like he wanted to agree, but he nodded anyway and sprinted off.

Tian and the kids finally got to the waterfall, and they had fun splashing around and swimming. Tian taught them the names of all of all of the items in English, and taught them about the scientific properties of water. They were drying off and getting ready to walk back. Suddenly, Inta asked, "Where's Kalae?"

Tian looked around the shore but couldn't find him. Heart racing in alarm, he swept the water with his gaze and saw Kalae sitting on the ground in an outcrop of rocks in the water, clearly in pain and very scared.

"KALAE!" Tian shouted in alarm, and ran through the water, swimming through when it got deeper. He got to Kalae, thankfully, and clambered onto the rocks, lifting him up, and carrying him back through the water. When he got onto the rocks, he stumbled and skinned his knee, but he didn't care about that at all. All he cared about was getting Kalae to safety.

"AYI! GO GET HELP!" Tian yelled. "GET THE DOCTOR!" Ayi was the oldest, so he'd have the best chance of success. He nodded and sprinted off. Tian laid Kalae across the grass once they got back to the shore. Kalae had a bad injury on his shin, the skin split open with blood streaming down his leg. Not only was he wincing from pain, he also looked terrified at the amount of blood flowing from the wound.

Tian forced himself to stay calm. "Kalae, look at me. I want you to answer these math problems while we wait for help. What's 7 plus 5?"

Kalae struggled to even formulate the thought, but he eventually answered, "twelve..."

"Good job Kalae, good job, now--don't look down!-- tell me what's 13 plus 5?"

"Seetian, I don't feel good, it hurts, it hurts..." Kalae cried, his chubby cheeks wet with tears.

"I know, Kalae, and I am so sorry. For now, focus on me. Tell me what 13 plus 5 is."

"eight....teen..." Kalae said.

"Hey, Kalae, I'm here now, you'll be okay," a smooth, assured voice sounded from next to Tian. He turned and saw a man in a white coat with an honest looking face.

"I'm Dr. Nam," He said quickly as an aside to Tian. "You can step back now. I can take care of this."

Dr. Nam cleaned the wound, holding Kalae's hand through the sting of the antiseptic, and then securely wrapped a bandage around it. Kalae was then helped onto a stretcher, and Yod, who was manning the ambulance, drove him to the clinic with Dr. Nam right next to him.

Tian was, firstly, relieved that Kalae was going to be okay. But then, guilt and self-loathing hit him out of nowhere. All he could do was stand there, stare at the waterfall, his heart turning and turning inside him, making him feel nauseous with guilt. The wound on his knee from the rock hurt and stung, but he wasn't even focusing on that. Kalae got hurt way worse, and could have died because Tian didn't have an eye on him.

Phupha walked up to Tian, storms brewing in his eyes. Tian internally prepared himself for whatever hurtful thing Phupha was going to say. Even more, Tian didn't mind that Phupha was going to scold him, because he deserved it. His first day, and it was such a disaster. It honestly couldn't have gone worse.

"You should go back," Phupha said shortly. "Back to Bangkok. At least there, you will not hurt anyone else." After saying this, he didn't even look for Tian's reaction, just walked away.

Without even being conscious of it, Tian's eyes started to tear up. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he stood there, barely able to blink.

"Chief, that's too far," one of the other rangers called out, walking closer to Tian. "Hi, Tian, I'm Rang," he said in an even-toned, kindly voice. "I'm one of the other forest rangers stationed at Pa Phun Dao along with Chief, Yod and Dr. Nam who acts as the medic. It's true that you probably should have looked out better for the kids, but this was an accident that could happen to anyone. Please remember that. It could have happened to anyone. Even the chief."

"Thank you, sir," Tian responded mechanically, mustering up as genuine of a small smile he could for Rang.

Later that night, Tian was lying on his hard mattress again, still in the same drenched clothes earlier from that day, his knee throbbing. He couldn't stop thinking about his mistake, that resulted in Kalae getting hurt. He didn't even want to start to think about how everyone in the village would see him, with distrust, and the rangers just with a cold pity.

There was a knock on the door, suddenly jolting Tian from his thoughts. He slowly walked to the door, putting weight on his right food because his left leg was hurt, and opened it. Tian saw who was on the other side and groaned internally. He wasn't equipped to deal with anymore cruel words that day, even if he deserved them.

Phupha's eyes narrowed in distaste. Tian just stayed quiet.

"Meejoo told me that you got hurt. Why didn't you say anything?" Phupha said, surprising Tian. That was not what he was expecting.

Tian kept silent for a second as he tried to figure out what to respond. He wanted to say "because I didn't think you care," but he decided to be more mature and not cause more problems. "I didn't think it mattered, Chief," he responded, voice devoid of emotion.

"If the wound gets infected, my supervisor, who reports to your father, will kill me for messing with the son of an important government official." Phupha responded after a couple seconds of silence.

Tian winced internally. Somehow, without realizing it, he had hoped--a little, just for some kindness. He should have realized that it wouldn't come, not from him.

"Show me the wound," Phupha said. "I've brought antiseptic and bandages. I'll dress it."

Tian moved forward to try to roll his pant leg up, but suddenly the wound sang with pain and Tian tipped forward, right over the steps. He thought he would fall on the ground, but thankfully he was caught. Not so thankfully, it was by Phupha. For a short second, Tian's hazy brain forgot who it was that caught him. He felt so safe and secure in the strong embrace, his face cradled tight against Phupha's chest. But he realized that it was Phupha's chest, and he scrambled back instantly. Phupha's arms shot out to catch him, and Tian looked up into eyes that were flatly annoyed. "Relax. If you fall over again, that will just cause more wounds and more problems." Phupha guided Tian by the shoulders outside to the bench right under one of the orange lantern. His movements, although precise, clinical and clearly trying not to touch Tian more than he had to, were not rough.

The Chief reached over and rolled up Tian's left pant leg.

"How did you know the wound was there?" Tian asked, thunderstruck.

"That was the leg that buckled first," Phupha responded shortly, continuing to roll up the pant leg until he got to the wound. He took a quick breath in.

"Tian, this wound is pretty big. You need to be transparent about when you get hurt."

On a day when Tian was more well-rested and less emotionally wrecked, or a day where Phupha hadn't said cruel words beforehand, Tian would have been able to interpret that statement for what it was, a clinical concern. But to his exhausted brain, Phupha was somehow saying that not only was Tian selfish, he was also someone who was trying to cause problems by hiding things.

"Don't worry, Chief, if the wound gets infected I won't tell anyone, and definitely not my dad. That way, you won't have anything to worry about," Tian said back, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

Phupha looked up at Tian for a split second, and there was a flash--a milisecond flash-- of regret in his eyes.

"It's not just that, Tian. You're the teacher of this village. Your health is important," Phupha said, trying now, for some reason, Tian didn't know why, to sound more diplomatic.

"If it were up to you, I wouldn't be the teacher of the village starting tomorrow. But I'm not going to go back. I made a horrible mistake that resulted in one of the kids getting hurt badly. Tomorrow I will go and apologize to Kalae and his parents. But I am not going back. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I can't, I can't go back, I can't--" What started out as a measured and rational sentence was slowly unravelling into panic.

"Tian," Phupha said sternly. But Tian wasn't even listening. He was thinking about Torfun. He didn't deserve this heart of hers. She did. Not him. But he has ended up with it. That's why he needs to stay, that's why he needs to dedicate his life to Torfun, so he can do a pale imitation of whatever greatness she would have accomplished. Torfun would not have let a child get hurt. Tears started to stream down his face again.

"Tian!" Phupha said, louder this time. Tian snapped his head back down to Phupha, startled by the loud noise.

"Tian, I shouldn't have told you to go back. I apologize," Phupha said tersely, looking into Tian's wide, shocked, tear-filled eyes, and then studiously continuing to dab antiseptic onto Tian's leg. "I shouldn't have said that, alright? I'm sorry. So stop panicking. No one is going to make you go back." Phupha looked right into Tian's eyes, holding his gaze.

Tian just nodded, wiping his face with his sleeve and sniffling.

Phupha wrapped the bandage slowly and carefully around Tian's knee.

"Can you stand?" Phupha asked quietly. Tian nodded, and slowly got up. Phupha stood stock-still for a moment, and then moved slowly to help Tian. But Tian didn't want to lean against him. Tian just wanted to go to sleep. Tian wanted to be born with a healthy heart. Tian wanted to be someone else: someone strong, someone capable, who didn't let kids get hurt. Someone with a shine so golden it could compare to Torfun's. Someone so bright that Phupha wouldn't hesitate to treat them tenderly.

So Tian moved away from Phupha, the movement sudden and jarring. Phupha saw that, and then his eyes, so strangely open in the lamplight, closed up again and became the pools of black stone that they usually were. Tian moved back towards the house, his movements jerky, and he brushed past Phupha, his arm touching--for a milisecond--Phupha's arm. And that was all that was needed. For suddenly, Tian was catapulted into a memory again. Here, Memory-Phupha was the one who was crying. He was crying silently, his eyes closed shut, and Tian could feel his memory self wrapping his arms around Memory Phupha, and stroking his head softly. "It's okay, it's okay, mountain of mine, you're here with me now, I forgive you, it's alright, you're the only one for me, don't you know that, the apple of my eye? " And then memory Phupha didn't say anything at all, but cradled memory Tian to his chest. Memory Tian melted into the warmth. Memory Phupha used his hands to move Memory Tian half a foot away, scrutinizing his face, and then he tenderly wiped the tears from Memory Tian's face, that Tian hadn't even realized were falling while he was giving Memory Phupha that reassuring smile. And then memory Phupha kissed above the high points of memory Tian's cheekbones, right where the tears were falling previously, quickly in succession, but so, so tenderly. Tian sighed in relief, and the memory suddenly faded.

Phupha had the strangest look on his face. There was still refusal and anger, which hurt Tian's heart, but something else that frankly, Tian was too exhausted to figure out.

"Thank you for dressing my wound, Chief. Goodnight," Tian said politely but emotionlessly, struggling to get up the steps, but ultimately succeeding. Without turning around, he opened his door, closed it behind him, fell on top of his mattress, and instantly went to sleep.

#atots spoilers #atots phupha #atots tian #atots fic #a tale of a thousand stars #a tale of 1000 stars #phutian

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asherranceoftheheart · 4 years

Text

Icarus Falls - Ch. I - What A Wonderful World!

Story Summary: “You'll never leave me alone right?" "You think I'd actually let you go?"

A story about the slow descent and corruption of a lonely man, a demon who learns that bonds go both ways, brothers who deeply regrets their words spoken out of anger, and a conflicted man watching them all fall down from the distance. Here's a Puppet!Chase AU that was written with extreme self-indulgence so beware and read the tags before entering.

Chapter Summary: It’s Sad Chase Hours, my friends! (:( Pairing/s: None, Platonic Character/s: Jack McLoughlin, Chase Brody, Antisepticeye, Mentions of Other Septic Egos Genre: Angst Chapter Warning/s: Creepy!Anti, Self-Deprecating Thoughts (Thoughts like I’m not as good as the others, etc.), Sadness (Archive Of Our Own Edition) Note/s: If you wanna get tagged in this fic just tell me lmao. Also I’d advise the people who has an AO3 account to follow and subscribe to this fic there cause it’ll be easier to get notifications that I’ve updated the story. Oh and Jack McLoughlin is basically NOT Sean. He’s based on him but his motivations, personality, and etc. are different. So I guess please consider him as like another Septic Ego?

Nearly an entire year has passed ever since his best friend had been rushed into this hospital and was declared to be under a comatose state without showing any sign that he was going to be waking up soon. The chemically clean smell of the hospital that originally made him sick now barely affected him. Don’t get him wrong, he still hated the smell but when you’re here every three days it stops affecting you and is basically just a part of the background like the constant beeping of the heart monitor that originally drove him rather mad.

He held Jack’s thin hand, pressing the cold palm against his cheek and closed his blurring eyes.

“I miss you so much…” Chase choked on the heavy, bitter tar of sadness clinging to the inside of his throat and the wire of thorns made out of his guilt constricting suffocatingly around his bleeding heart. “I should be the one in your place, not you… I’m the weakest, most useless one among all of us. It shouldn’t have been you.”

The stinging burn of his tears welled up in his closed eyes and he furiously blinked them away even as his body heaved with dry sobs.

Pathetic…

While all the others are out there trying to find the cure to help Jack wake up from his coma, he was stuck here moping around, constantly crying like a little crybaby…

Powerless, useless, waste of space Chase…

He snapped out of his self-deprecating thoughts when he felt something squeeze his hand lightly. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought he was just imagining the action out of desperation. He looked at Jack’s sleeping face and humorlessly smiled. Somehow, even when the man was in the depths of his coma, Jack always knew whenever he wasn’t being kind to himself. When he was awake, he’d just painlessly whap him on his back or shoulders before pulling him into a tight hug to murmur against his hair that he’s going to be okay and that whatever mean thing he was telling himself wasn’t true.

“Hey! Don’t think of yourself that way, Chaser. If it weren’t for you nobody’d be dragging Henrik off to sleep or to eat something for the entire day and would’ve just kept on working regardless of how much he was already suffering. Jackie wouldn’t have anyone to chill and relax with when he’s trying to take a break from his superhero job to remind him that he’s human and he needs to rest too. Nobody would be dragging Marvin, screaming and spitting like a cat, out of his stuffy bedroom to enjoy the day outside and to be nicer to others rather than continuing his foot in mouth syndrome. You’re important to us Chasey so please, please never think of yourself that way.”

He could still hear Jack’s voice pleading with him while he used those silvery blue eyes to melt most of his self-doubt and self-hatred away… At least for the time being.

Chase laid his cheek on his crossed arms on top of the bed and he held Jack’s hand tightly as if he was afraid that the comatose man would disappear if he wasn’t watching over him carefully. The effects of sleepless nights, repeating extremely vivid nightmares, and the constant emotional and mental torment from Him finally took its toll on the weary man. A wave of exhaustion poured over his entire body and he could feel his eyelids being weighed down by fatigue.

He drifted off to sleep in mere seconds.

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A hand was squeezing his cheeks and pulling them apart. Chase grumbled and attempted to turn over to the other side to escape the menace who was snickering at his futile attempts.

“Good morning Chasey Wasey,” he heard Jack coo at him mockingly in a tone used to humor babies. He hissed angrily when he felt a hand ruffling his bed hair furiously making it even worse than usual. “Time to wakey and facey the day, sunshine!”

“Fuck off, Jack,” Chase grunted as he pulled up the blankets to cover his face and swatted the hand that tried to squeeze his cheeks again.

His only warning was a sigh before someone was suddenly jumping on him and laying their entire body weight on the previously sleepy man. His eyes snapped open just as his blanket was forcefully pulled down and a pair of hands with wriggling fingers began to attack his ticklish sides. Chase began to squeal like a pig and squirmed like a worm trying to escape the smirking Jack’s trap while he howled with laughter.

“Jahahahahahack! Stahahahahahap!” Chase began to curse the snickering man who ruthlessly kept dancing and digging his fingers up and down the cursing-laughing man’s sensitive sides to hear him scream.

“Awwww, why should I? Look at you, you’re having so much fun right now!” Jack grinned down at the rapidly growing red face. “Coochie coochie coo!”

The older man only took mercy on Chase after his laughter had evolved into soundless screaming and he looked like he just stopped breathing with how hard he was laughing. Jack chuckled and rolled off the panting man’s body to flump over, spread-eagled to his other side. He draped an arm over Chase’s face and snickered when he shoved it away with an irritated grunt.

“You… are… a… motherfucker,” Chase huffed out every word with a hiss, righteous vengeance burning in those teary baby blue eyes that had Jack internally adding to his mental notes to watch out for the upcoming revenge from the other man. “I’m… going… to… fucking… kill you.”

He propped himself up on an arm and teasingly poked Chase’s soft, flushed cheek with a grin.

“Is that any way to talk to your father, young man?” Jack dropped his voice in a teasing mockery of a stern father’s loving but scolding voice.

Chase rolled his eyes and gave Jack a look that could wither up an entire tree in three seconds.

“I didn’t realize you signed up for my child support, Dad,” Chase narrowed his eyes dangerously and sassed him back with a sickly sweet smile and a voice dripping with poisoned honey. “I’m sure Marvin would be very interested to find out about this little fact.”

This time it was Jack’s turn to shudder and look at the younger man with a little bit of fear. They both knew that if Marvin ever heard of their little jokes, he was not going to leave Jack in peace. That magician was determined to have Jack take responsibility as their ‘parent’ despite the fact that trying to get that legally acknowledged is going to be a piece of hell to explain. Not that that matters to Marvin of course. The prideful man could out-stubborn even a rock.

Jack pouted and Chase’s smile widened. This was definitely a win for Chase.

He smacked his palm over the little bastard’s smug face and yelped and gave Chase a disgusted look when he felt him lick his palm. He snagged his own hand away and wiped the saliva off his shirt while Chase sat up trying to pat down his fluffed up hair that was flying all over the place.

“You literally don’t know where this hand has been, you little shit.” Jack told Chase who arched an eyebrow at him and looked him dead in the eyes, no sign of regret or remorse over his previous action.

“What? Are you one of those crusty dirty bastards who never washed their hands when they go to the bathroom? Are you a crusty, dirty old man, Jack?” Chase taunted his creator who snapped and pounced on him to lock his head under his arms while he noogied his creation. “I’m going to tell Henrik you’re one of those dirty bastards and then you’ll get five hours worth of lecture for your crusty ass!”

“No you fucking won’t or I’ll tell Henrik that you haven’t been eating anything else other than Mac and Cheese for dinner for the past week just because he said that it wasn’t healthy for you and you, the complete child you are, decided to spite him because you said quote that Henrik is not the boss of you end quote.” Jack growled back at the other man who was still trying to pull his head out of his armlock.

Jack smirked victoriously when Chase stopped squirming and looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

“... Truce?” Chase finally decided after a few minutes of their stubborn staring contest. He was pouting sulkily.

Jack snorted and gave Chase’s hair another ruffle before he finally let him go, “Truce. Anyway, get your ass up. We’re supposed to be meeting the others for lunch outside today.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chase grumbled but the next words still came out as easily as breathing to him. “Love you, bro.”

The words albeit it had been grumbled out was still painfully sincere. It lit up Jack’s weary face with a fond smile. He pulled Chase into a big hug and buried his face into that fluffy brown hair.

“Yeah… Love you too, Chaser.”

-----------------------------------------

“...dy? Mister Brody, visitation hours are done,” Chase slowly, reluctantly stirred from the peaceful dream that he tried with all his might to never wake from.

He didn’t want to wake back up into the cold reality where he had to face that he was all alone and carrying what felt like the entire world on his aching back. He wanted to stay in that memory where his family was by his side and his closest friend and brother would be there to shake him awake ready to greet him with a smile and a lively spark in his eyes. However, he knew that he couldn’t postpone reality any further and he also knew that Jack and the others wouldn’t want to lose him to the world of bittersweet memories. There was no need to add one more unimportant baggage with another comatose friend to the other’s stress.

Chase forced himself to open his eyes and his hand was still loosely being squeezed by Jack in his sleep. That was the only reaction they ever got from him. He hoped that the others at least read his messages reporting Jack’s ‘progress’ over the past months. It’d be nice to try and be optimistic in believing that this means that Jack was slowly regaining his strength again.

“Good evening, Mister Brody,” Chase sat up at the sound of the familiar voice. He rubbed the crud made from sleep from his eyes to blink up at one of the doctors that had been assigned to care for Jack.

The man had neatly cut auburn hair, freckles dusting his pretty face like a night sky full of stars, and a pair of kind grey eyes. Doctor Adam often allows him to stay a bit later than usual for visitation hours, probably out of pity especially whenever he sees his god awful face.

“Evening Doc,” Chase muttered with a rough voice and glanced at the clock. He let out a groan and rubbed a hand down his face when he saw that the clock’s hands were pointing at nine o’clock. “Thanks for giving me an additional hour, Doc.”

The man just patted his shoulder and gazed at his comatose patient’s blank face. If one didn’t know better, they would think that Jack was merely in a deep sleep.

“You slept the entire day away since you came in before lunch. Have you been getting any sleep on your own, Mister Brody?” The gentle inquiry made Chase wince as he thought about his sleep schedule or rather to be more accurate, the complete lack of it. “Please try to get some rest by yourself. Nobody would be happy if you were to follow after your brother’s footsteps into this hospital.”

Chase sighed and rubbed a thumb on the back of Jack’s hand. It’s not like he can tell the doctor that sleeping peacefully and living well is not an option in a household where you have to deal with a demon who follows your every step, save for when he comes to this hospital, to torment you and push you around. Thank fuck Marvin used a powerful warding spell on this place before he and Jamie vanished on a trip to find a spell that could wake Jack up. He did ask his older brother why he couldn’t use the same spell around the house but Marvin explained that the hospital is connected to a powerful leyline so the spell is automatically powered to be kept up without his influence. The house doesn’t have the same advantage.

He understood his brother’s explanation and dismissed his own suggestion. He didn’t want to take up too much of Marvin’s energy when he should be focusing it on more important things. Marvin gave him one of his rare hugs and thanked him for his understanding before he was off. Jamie followed after him but not before staying back a bit longer to talk to him.

“Are you truly sure that you will be alright by yourself?” Jameson furrowed his brows as he asked his older brother. Chase plastered on a convincing smile and gave the youngest ego a hug before letting him go.

“Take care of our stubborn big brother. He’s a bit prickly but since you both have the soul bond he’s more likely to listen to you and be nicer to you. Keep yourselves out of trouble, okay?” Chase stood up on his toes to kiss Jameson on his forehead before gently pushing him towards the direction Marvin left. “Go. Don’t worry your head about me. I’ll be fine. You guys would be going through more dangerous tasks than I do.”

Jameson looked like he wanted to say something before he must have thought it wasn’t worth the effort before he gave him one last squeeze and a kiss dropped down on the crown of Chase’s head before he ran off to follow their magician.

He hasn’t heard anything from them in months but Chase knew that they were fine. If Anti had captured them, he would’ve been gloating about their unfortunate fate day in and day out into Chase’s ears.

“I’ll try to take care of myself, Doc.” He returned his mind back to the present and gave the concerned doctor a small smile. “You’re right. Nobody would want me to follow Jack here.”

‘At least… not yet,’ Chase’s dull eyes dimmed further at the dark whisper of his mind.

He stretched his arms out and faked a big yawn to hide the dullness of his eyes that were only accented by the dark raccoon-like black bags circling them. Chase stood up, gently prying Jack’s hand from his own, and leaned over to brush his chapped lips against the cold skin of his forehead. Sometimes, his morbid thoughts would rear in and tell him that he was basically caring for Jack’s corpse at this point. He brushed away his brother’s growing bangs from his thin face.

“His hair’s getting pretty long,” Chase idly commented as he twirled a brown lock around his pinky finger. “We should trim it soon.”

“We should,” he heard Doctor Adam walk behind him and grab his shoulder with a firm squeeze. “You look exhausted, Chase. Are you sure you’ll be fine going home on your own?”

The fussing from the other man painfully reminded Chase of the times Henrik would nag him over his health. He’d often tell him to call him or one of the other guys to come pick him up if he was too tired from his shoots to drive home on his own.

Poor Henrik… Ever since That Day, he had gone missing, probably spirited away by the demon that was tormenting all of them. Jackie followed soon after telling them tersely that he’s not coming back until he finds the other half of his soul bond. He did tell them to call him or text him if they managed to find a solution to Jack’s coma or if they found Henrik but other than that he had been ghosting them (or well, Chase) since he left. Chase wondered if the second leader of the group managed to find any other clues about Henrik other than that time when He managed to take over Jack’s tumblr to post the taunting images of a vacation postcard that grew bloodier and glitchier with every post edit before it was erased from existence as if it had never been there in the first place. He sent Marvin and Jackie messages about what happened but he has no way of knowing if they saw it or even believed him.

“I’ll be fine. I took a cab coming here,” Chase shrugged off the warm hand from his shoulder and pushed past the unresisting taller man’s body, “It’s getting late. I won’t get you into more trouble for letting me stay past visiting hours again.”

“You look like you’re only getting your good night’s sleep here and it’s not like you’re disturbing our patient,” Adam scratched the back of his head and gazed at the tired slump of Chase’s shoulders. “Be careful on your way home and please get something to eat… You haven’t eaten anything the entire day.”

Chase wisefully didn’t say that he hasn’t been having that much of an appetite to eat anything for the past months. Everything just tasted like cardboard in his mouth and it was taking him more energy to get food down into his stomach than any other activity. He still forces himself to try and eat something three times a day despite his lack of appetite. After all, you can’t hide extreme weight loss in a recorded video easily unlike the makeup he would expertly use to hide the black bags around his eyes. He does have to care for his body or else the community would notice that something was wrong.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll eat something when I get home.” He waved off the doctor’s concerns and inclined his head towards Jack. “Bye Jackaboy… I’ll see you in three days.”

He looked back at the doctor who was now checking his patient’s numbers to see if there was anything they should be worried about or if there had been any positive change.

“Doc, please keep taking good care of my big brother.”

“Of course, you take care of yourself as well, Mister Brody.”

With one final glance at his brother’s face, he turned around and mustered up all the flimsy strength in his heart to prepare himself for the war that will greet him when he returned to that house.

-----------------------------------------

Chase paid the cab driver his fare and gave him a nice tip for the smooth drive. Before he exited the cab, he bade the old man farewell and wished him a safe drive. He slid out of the car and closed the door behind him, watching the cab disappear off into the distance then told himself that he can’t keep putting the upcoming event off. He deeply breathed in, his lungs expanding with the chill of the evening breeze before letting it out slowly through his nose to calm his racing heart.

He looked up into the darkened windows of the house, the lack of light giving it a more ominous look even before he caught sight of a pair of green eyes watching him from the windows on the second floor. There was unrestrained delight in those eyes as they relished in the sight of his obvious fear and internal conflict that kept him from moving his frozen legs to enter the house.

“Stop being such a wuss, Chase,” he whispered to himself as he swallowed around the lump in his throat and forced his shaking legs to walk up to the front door.

He unlatched the collection of keys swaying from its place on his front belt loop and flipped through them before coming to a stop on the front door key. He fumbled with it, trying to stall for more time, and inserted the item into the keyhole. The man hesitated for a second, knowing just what awaited him behind that door before he gritted his teeth and forced himself to turn the key. The click of the lock opening sounded like the bell that would sound for one’s death. He pulled the key out and reached over to wrap his sweaty hand around the ice cold steel surface of the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open.

The pitch darkness of the hallway made him feel small and helpless to whatever lurks within its shadows. He resisted the urge screaming at him to turn around and run back to the hospital with his tail tucked between his legs. He dug his nails in his palms, forming faint crescents, before he stepped inside the dark house and closed the door behind him. The hair behind his neck rose along with the goosebumps on his arms. Someone was watching him.

The feeling of being watched has grown worse now that he stood all alone in the dark. It was as if His eyes were everywhere, focusing their unblinking gaze upon his shaking form. He leaned back against the closed front door and fumbled blindly for the lock. He already has enough in his own plate dealing with the being lurking in this house that he doesn’t want to deal with impromptu home invasions. He switched the lock up.

“... I’m back,” he doesn’t know why he kept doing this even though he knew that only one person (and it was his most disliked and feared person at that) would be there to listen. His words carried through the still air of the house and Chase grimaced when he heard the previously subtle static grow louder as He approached.

He shook his head and gathered up the shattered pieces of his courage and journeyed on to the kitchen. While he doesn’t have the appetite, he could still make do with a sandwich or two for food. He’d flick on whatever light switch he’d encounter on his way to the kitchen and he began to lose some of the tension in his muscles as the dark house soon brightened up. Don’t get him wrong. He’d never fully turn off his guard while he’s outside of the hospital’s warded boundaries but light always had a way of easing some of his worries and burning away a little bit of that fear.

When he reached the kitchen, he headed straight for the cupboard to grab a box full of teabags to get a kettle started up. He used whatever flavor his hand could snag from the box first before putting the other teabags back in the cupboard. Then he walked over to the fridge and opened its door to look at his selection of food.

Normally, if this had been the past and he had the energy and enthusiasm, he would’ve been cooking homemade food because it was his favorite activity other than filming videos and trickshots, playing the piano, or doodling or sketching something that caught his interest. However, it’s been a while since he did any of those hobbies. He didn’t really have any room in his energy output to be able to invest some time in his own passions.

Most of what was inside the fridge delivered fast food and a rare takeout box. Occasionally he’d get the energy to eat outside since he was sick of the silence of the house but that happens probably twice or thrice a month.

He wasn’t in the mood for anything especially heavy so he chose the club sandwich that came with his ordered salad a week ago. He gave it a careful sniff and shrugged when it smelled pretty normal.

When he closed the fridge’s door, he didn’t react to His sudden appearance behind it.

“Hello, little Brody,” the demon purred, His creepy inhumane wide smile stretching out further until it looked like it was about to split His face apart when He saw his hand tightly gripping his sandwich. “Did you have fun visiting Jack today?”

Chase swallowed the biting words ‘Don’t say his name’ down his throat to let it sit heavily in his stomach. He found that the best way to cope with the demon’s presence was to ignore Him and give Him no attention until He grows bored of you for the rest of the day. It’s not a perfect tactic. Sometimes it angers Him and Chase is left with new bruises covering up the side of his back that makes it difficult to sit in a hard chair but he made do. He turned around without looking back at the smiling demon and returned to the whistling kettle. The strong fragrance of peppermint filled the room and its scent lessened some of Chase’s drowsiness. He turned off the heat and poured himself a cup of tea before going to the living room.

“Still ignoring me, Chaser?” The high pitched giggles grated on Chase’s nerves and ears but he determinedly pretended that nobody was shadowing his steps, blowing little puffs of cold air behind his neck. He gritted his teeth and stopped his twitching arm from spinning him around and striking Him on the face. That would just encourage Him to retaliate.

He hastened his brisk pace and placed the cup of scalding tea on the table before collapsing on the couch. He reached out to grab the remote control of the TV from the table before turning it on and navigated the screen to Netflix. He decided to continue watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and maybe even bring some cheer to himself. His dull blue eyes never wavered from the screen in spite of the intent, sneering gaze burning a hole through him coming from the side. He only leaned over to pick up the mug that was still smoking hot.

“Have you finally received any notice from the cowardly magician and fake hero that they’ve actually read your messages or are they still pretending that you have no important information to tell them?” The demon crooned, His poisonous words managing to directly hit all of the weak points of Chase’s insecurities.

His hand tightened around the mug's handle. He felt Him shuffle closer almost until their arms were touching together.

Ignore Him Chase. Ignore Him. He’s just taunting you. He’s just trying to get a rise out of you. You know His games. You’ve been playing it since December last year. He is lying to you. Do not believe His lies.

“Leaving you with no way of contacting them for emergencies, ignoring all of your calls and messages… One would think that you’re just an unimportant nuisance to them,” He giggled, He was so close now that Chase could feel the static that clung to His presence teasingly sparking up against the skin of his arms. “Such loyal and loving brothers you have there, Chaser.”

He suddenly grew hyper aware of the heaviness of his phone that had been stuck in his front pocket for the entire day. He didn’t power up the thing ever since he woke up this morning until he was sitting in the taxi cab on the way back. He texted Marvin and Jackie’s number to give them the weekly updates on Jack even if there hasn’t been any change at all. He began to type out that He has been haunting him and stared down at that part of the message with a blank gaze before he erased the parts mentioning how he was actually doing and just said that he’s been fine if not a bit tired.

Sometimes, when Chase was feeling a bit selfish, he wished that they would send him back something, even if it’s just the single letter K to tell him that they’ve been reading his messages. Originally, he told them about his daily nightmares about Him and how He was starting to show His presence around him but the lack of replies felt… cold and uncaring. It felt like he was annoying them about his complaints and should just suck it up. It wasn’t like He was kidnapping him or anything.

So he stopped. He only texted them now for reports on Jack’s state.

His head was beginning to hurt, more specifically the side of his head was beginning to hurt like a bitch. Ah. He was getting too emotional.

He bit down on his tongue, the pain snapped him out of the emotional downhill he was starting to fall into and to stop him from snapping at the demon and defend his brothers from the lies that He was spewing from His grinning mouth.

“Stubborn, so stubborn… You do know that everyone considers you as the weakest link of the group right?” Chase felt the shivers run up and down his spine when those ghostly fingers began to brush the top of his hair. “Poor useless, powerless little brother… You lost the only person who stood by your side while the others who swore to be your brothers abandoned you, left you to face the monster all on your own.”

Chase abruptly stood up, the mug that was filled with tea that had gone cold fell over to the floor as his loosened grip let go of it, the sound of his racing heartbeat roaring in his ears while he tried to ignore the demented cackling coming from his tormentor. His words kept bouncing around his head and in a futile attempt to forget it, he held up the ruined sandwich that he had unknowingly crushed in his hand and tore into it.

“You can’t run away from the truth, Chaser.” He crooned right next to his ears, His dark presence loomed over his shaking body. “I truly do wonder if the others would actually come to your rescue if you cried for their help?”

Chase looked down at the remaining pieces of the sandwich in his hand and at the feel of cold tea on his feet.

His sandwich tasted like ash in his mouth.

-----------------------------------------

Chase ran his fingers through his wet hair and walked out of the shower, wiping off his wet feet on the bathroom mat so that he won’t accidentally slip and crack his skull on the toilet. Knowing Him, He’d probably just laugh His ass off at his own stupidity and then the last thing that he would see would be that demon’s grinning face. That would be a shitty end to an already shitty life.

When he said that the hospital was the only safe place in the world against Him, he was sort of lying. For someone as creepy as He was, He still doesn’t invade the bathroom space especially when he’s taking a bath so that’s one place he can have some temporary peace whatsoever. It’s not that everything stops when he’s in there. Like…

Chase looked at the mirror and saw that he was crying tears of blood again. He reaches up, wiping the crimson liquid away from his cheeks, feeling the squish of the blood on his fingers, and spreads the mess all over his face. However, when he looked down he already knew what sight was waiting for him.

His fingers were clean.

When he looked back up into the mirror, there was not a shred of evidence that blood had been streaming down his cheeks a few seconds ago.

It was sickeningly funny in a fucked up way how such a thing that would’ve incited extreme panic attacks and mental breakdowns in the beginning barely fazed him anymore. He squeezed his dry fingers together and sighed. After all, there were worse things to panic about other than illusory tears of blood at this point in his life.

After their little one-sided conversation in the living room, Chase decided to take out his airpods and plug them up to his ears while he cleaned up the mess his tea made on the floor and finished up the remaining tea on the kettle and his smushed up sandwich. He could see Him snickering at his valiant attempts of ignoring Him at the corner of his eyes but Chase just averted his sight and began singing loudly to the lyrics of the songs screaming against his ears. Once he chugged down his tea, forced the tasteless sandwich down his throat, and cleaned up his mess, he dragged himself upstairs and decided to go for a hot shower before going to ‘sleep’.

The heat was both a comfort and a hit on the face about how this entire bullshit situation was the reality that he has to live with. A comatose best friend, a missing brother, a demon haunting nearly every second of his day poking at every raw wound of insecurity in his psyche, and a bunch of distant brothers who were too busy with their own respective tasks to listen to him… A tiny part of him wanted the ex-wife and children in his backstory to be real so that he could at least worry about something else other than the supernatural stuff but the bigger part of him wasn’t cruel enough to wish this messed up situation on anyone just because he wanted to feel a little less lonely.

He stepped out of his shower once his skin turned slightly red from the temperature of the water. No doubt he’s going to feel the rawness and sensitivity of his skin in the morning if he wasn’t feeling emptier than usual but for now, he just didn’t care. He changed into an oversized clean blue shirt and black shorts after he finished drying his hair with a towel and walked out into his bedroom.

The place was what you would frankly call a Mess. Dirty clothes formed into small mountains all around the corners of the room, a bunch of dirty mugs and plates sat on the table, his laptop in sleep mode settled on top of his unmade bed, and a trashcan full of empty packets of chips and snacks that he couldn’t be bothered to take out. Chase looked around his room and could just imagine Henrik or Jack’s fussing over him and the mess. They’d drag him out of his bed and help him clean out his room or get some sunshine.

God… He missed them so much…

He trudged over to his bed and replaced his laptop over to the floor. He slipped under the sheets and crossed his arms under his head while he stared up into the dark ceiling of his room. He could feel His gaze staring right at him, watching him do nothing if not for the sole purpose of reminding him that he’s not alone.

…

Would it be fucked up if he said that some part of him was glad that He was there? Save for the people in the hospital and his other absent brothers, everybody thought that he was Jack. He couldn’t let it be known that the man was in a comatose state as that would just bring more questions than reasonable answers that they could answer with. He has to pretend to be him in front of the public because nobody needs Chase but a lot of people need Jack.

The demon was the only one outside of the hospital to acknowledge that he was Chase and it’s so disgustingly, pathetically refreshing to him. He was the only one who ever calls him by his name now and it helps him remember that he wasn’t Jack, he could never be Jack.

Maybe after all this is over… If he’s still alive by then, he’ll dye his hair an outrageous color again so that nobody would ever make the mistake of calling him Jack.

“Oh Chaser~” He hates that the nickname that held such fond memories for him was now tainted by the eight months of hearing it being hissed out with mockery by the demon who couldn’t help but ruin everything that previously made him so happy. “Still giving me the cold shoulder while you’re about to sleep? How rude.”

Chase closed his eyes and turned over to lay on his stomach and bury his face into his pillows. He felt the side of the bed dip as He sat on it. Still, he feigned deafness to the sound of static popping and hissing in his ears while he tried to force himself to go to sleep. He felt his entire body tense when a painfully familiar hand started to play with his hair in the same way as Jack often did to him in the past.

“You’re lucky I’m in an indulging mood today, Chaser,” His voice dropped while His static grew louder. The hand that had been gently playing with his hair suddenly tugged on the strands while claws threateningly grazed his scalp. “On any normal day, I wouldn’t have stood for such disrespect.”

The healing bruises all over his body twinged at the same time while he listened to those words.

‘I know,’ Chase thought numbly. ‘I know that very well.’

The touch lightened once more now that He had delivered His message effectively. As those fingers glided down his hair to massage the weak spot behind his neck, he couldn’t resist melting against those hands. Unconsciously, he had moved his body closer to the gentle touches that his body has been craving for months. He wanted to laugh at the sad fact that the only physical contact he has felt over the past year came from the demon who also hurt him every single day. He heard Him chuckle as he chased His touch greedily.

“There, there, big brother’s here with you now,” Chase shuddered as He impeccably imitated Jack’s loving tone, tears springing up from behind his closed lids when he couldn’t stop the wounded whine that just escaped him. “Shh… You’re tired aren’t you, Chase? Go to sleep. I’ll keep you company for the night.”

He should be fighting this. He shouldn’t be taking any fake comfort from the demon… But he wasn’t strong enough like the others and he was so, so lonely... So they’ll forgive him if he gave in just a few times right?

“You think too much,” Chase sniffled at the perfect copy of the way Jack would express his fond exasperation while helping him go back to sleep after one of those terrible nightmares.

It hurts. It hurts that this feels like his big brother never left but he knew perfectly well that this was just another cruel game He was playing with him.

“Goodnight, Chaser,” He whispered into his ears while He continued to pet his head.

“Goodnight… Jack.”

#jacksepticeye #writersofjack #chase brody #antisepticeye #jack mcloughlin #Icarus Falls!AU #tw blood #tw hospital #tw coma #angst #hurt no comfort #creepy anti

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lunar-light873 · 5 years

Text

Asheiji Accidental Sugar Baby AU

(Part 1, I guess) • First off, since I am a wimp the canon didn’t happen. - If this did take place in canon, I’d say it’ll be when they stayed in the luxury condo. Though, I think Ash taking Eiji or having some of his men accompany him on a bunch of shopping trips or high end restaurants would draw too much attention. • Max is a high profile journalist who travels a lot for work while his family stayed home in LA . - His marriage with Jessica did suffer a bit because of this, but they worked things out. - When Michael was only a few years old, they decided that they would adopt another child. Originally, they wanted to adopt someone who was closer to Michael’s age, but during the process they bonded with Ash. • Ash had a difficult childhood with his mother leaving him at a young age, and his older brother who had been the only one to take care of him enlisting in the military. - And, no. Ash wasn’t abused in this AU because I just want Ash to be safe and my heart cannot take it!! - His biological father was still asshole though - How he ended up in foster care? I’m still working on that. - He and Griffin are still very close, and they visit each other when they can. - Ash loves and is very protective of Michael • Anyway, after he was adopted it becomes apparent that Ash is extremely intellectually gifted. - He devoured information. Was always in local libraries reading as many books as he could in his spare time. - He hates attending school, so he would take any opportunity to skip grades and test out of courses. - Ash graduates high school at 15 with honors, and a full ride to college. -He graduates with his masters at 19. • Because I cannot control myself, I’m tossing in a bit of Professor Callenreese in here, too. - Ash eventually gets a job as a professor at Columbia University, where he is the youngest professor they have. - He’d of course had to move to New York for his new position. - While he wouldn’t have that luxury condo, he’d still have a very nice apartment especially when he gets tenured. • Eiji’s backstory mostly stays the same. - Except, instead of coming to New York to work on a article about American gangs, Eiji got a paid summer internship at photography studio. - Ibe can either work for this studio or owns its. - Original plan was for them to share an apartment while Eiji is in America • They met when the studio that Eiji works for was hired by Columbia’s PR department to take photos for next update to their brochures - Eiji found Ash reading in the library, and thought he was a student -Ash doesn’t correct him immediately just be funny - Eiji finds out that Ash is a professor soon enough when a faculty member needed to talk to Ash about lesson plans - Ash manages to get Eiji’s number and convinces him to get coffee together. This all I got so far, but I’ll try to come up with more about the actual relationship within the next few days. Just wanted to lay some ground work before I drive straight in to the self-indulging part of this AU. Feel free to use this as you wish!

#Lunar’s fic #or at least fic idea #mostly like will use this outline later #banana fish #asheiji #ash lynx #eiji okumura

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randomxfiction · 6 years

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I apologize if this took too long. Before you start, here’s a nice warm hug. As always, thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy.

A/N: This won’t make sense if you haven’t read the first two parts. Links for previous chapters at the end of the post.

KakaSaku // Soulmate AU Part III of III

Slow, dreadful weeks had passed since that damned day. A tired and casual Kakashi in his old shuriken-pattered PJs finally emerges from his bed, starting his day with a pair of half-lidded eyes. The sunlight peeks faintly from the cloudy sky as the remnants of a recurring dream fade away from his memories. His sheets were still cold from last night, and the winter breeze has made his windows icy. Indeed he is back in Konoha, complete with snow-capped rock faces and white-cloaked roofs.

After a few quick stretches and a couple of yawns, he still feels lightheaded from the lack of sleep. His nights have been fairly longer thanks to a series of unproductive contemplation-- formulating numerous scenarios that he knows could never turn into reality. From the moment he stepped out of the Hidden Fate's temple, until today, the thoughts swirling his head haven't stopped even for a second. Ultimately, for some reason, the warmth of the place seeped through his usual detached self, and there, lingered. It is quite for the peace that fallen upon Konoha these days, that his duties as Hokage are almost always not critical. A couple of towering paperwork on his desk, Leaf festivities here and there, and the occasional Kage summit. Honestly nothing major. The young, rising jounins of the Leaf have been extremely dutiful with their respective tasks, thus further minimizing his job to take care of the higher, more complex decisions. Still, this doesn't mean that he can stay up all night to spend his time for random, aimless musings about.. a girl. All the more, a former student. A freehand run over Kakashi's head, scratching the mix of silver and pink that springs messily above it. He definitely hates feeling like a sloppy, crushing teenager.

But no, he thought, she's not just a girl. Better yet, she's not the same student he used to teach and scold and desperately save whenever her life was in trouble. This girl had matured more than just in beauty, strength, and intellect-- but also in her unwavering kindness. Something that he will always be proud of as her teacher. "Fuck it." Cursing under his breath, he forcefully shakes his head clear. It's time to yet again start a day in the office despite the frosty, morning breeze. As he slips in his Hokage robe, his stance and expression shifts in a snap from the sluggish sleazeball to a highly dignified shinobi. "You are the Rokudaime, Hatake Kakashi," he scolds to himself, "You cannot indulge in this." A simple chant before fixing his hat in place, and he trudged his way through the snowy pavement. ***

"Hokage-sama??" His personal advisor greets him with a pair of widely surprised eyes. "Morning, Shikamaru." Kakashi strides straight to his desk, obviously hiding his usual lethargic mood by sporting a pretentious, overly-focused facade. Hat and robe neatly worn, he then proceeds to scan through waves of unfinished reports he left yesterday. "Please do me a re-run for today's tasks," he asks in a borderline commanding tone. "Hokage-sama, uhm, would you like me to ask someone to bring you some tea?" Although it was common knowledge that he is very unlikely to ask for anything early in the morning, Kakashi's eyes were still glued to the papers scattered around his desk; clearly he's left unbothered despite the advisor's odd inquiries. "Please, drop the lord," he answers mechanically. With a gaze still lowered and undefiantly busy, his freehand traveled under his hat and reached for his hair, scratching and playing around with its threads-- quite a habit he formed in time. "What's for today again?" Perhaps, the sleep-deprived Rokudaime found freedom from the shackling, everyday thoughts of Sakura by completely drowning himself at work. Shikamaru sighs. What a drag it has been these past few weeks. It's like the man in front of him had his senses muffled over a thousand folds. The advisor clears his throat, hesitant and weary. "Kakashi-san.." he reports, "It's the weekend." "What?" Kakashi lifts his gaze and saw his subordinate in casual clothes, cradling a couple of scrolls in his arms. "Fuck," he curses upon such embarrassing realization. "Is it really?" Shikamaru nods, holding his amusement. "Kakashi-san, you seem to be out of your head these past few weeks," the advisor confessed. "What? No, no, I'm fine. I just--" "Going to work on a weekend doesn't really suit that description." Shikamaru cuts his statement while raising an eyebrow. "This week, you didn't leave the office even for lunch break." "I wasn't hungry." Hearing the Hokage’s lame excuses made Shikamaru suppress the laughter he’d been trying to hold for a while. "It seems to me that you haven't slept a single wink. Let me clear your schedule for tomorrow so you can catch up with rest," he suggests politely. Rest? He doesn’t have time to rest, Kakashi thought. He can’t rest. The moment he stays still, his mind is instantly filled with thoughts of Sakura. He cannot afford being pre-occupied day-in, day-out without eventually going insane. "Wait, no, we can't do that," he firmly protests. Deep inside he really wanted that day off. A whole damn day of sleep and endless naps. He craves for long, proper rest of course, but he knows well that staying at home reading Icha Icha won't stray him off of those thoughts either way. In fact, his love for sleep regressed because of a recurring dream that he always tried to stay away from. "There's a lot more to do, isn't there?" After mentally remembering their current tasks on hand, Shikamaru replies confidently, "You're lucky there are no pressing matters for you to attend to. The Winter Festival has been a success, and the Cherry Blossoms Festival is still a month from today. So I'm pretty sure you can have your leave." Cherry.. blossoms.. what now? It took him only two words to trigger a flustered face. Kakashi then instinctively grabs the part of his hair where the pink clumps gather the most, like a natural defensive measure. { "They remind me of cherry blossoms." }

Suddenly, he remembers everything the old woman said. Destiny, soulmates, and manifestations. He sees Sakura's grieving face as she weeps for the love of her life, who endlessly rejects her purest intentions. Noticing the Rokudaime's burning red face, Shikamaru mistakes it for a high fever. "Kakashi-san, are you sure you're okay?" "Y-yes," he fakes a smile to ease the budding concern of his subordinate; praying he won't make a big deal out of it. "Don't worry, I just--" "I'll contact the Leaf Hospital right away and schedule an appointment for you," Shikamaru hastily opens the door with one freehand, ready to take off. "I said I'm fine, Shikama--" Wait a minute. Hospital? "No, no, I don't think an appointment is necessary," Kakashi immediately followed up to further negate the idea. Just by thinking about it made him fist clumps of hair, almost wanting to rip it away from his head. The last thing he would want to happen now is to run across her. Heck, he won't even know what to do once he gets in her presence. { "Why are you hiding it?" }

Once again, the old lady's words rang loud in his ears. Sensing the Rokudaime's disapproval, Shikamaru remembers how much Kakashi hates staying in the hospital. Still, as his personal advisor, he's also quite aware of his royal stubbornness. He is, in fact, responsible for the Hokage's well-being no matter how much of a drag it is. Maybe, disobeying orders to prioritize Kakashi's health won't make him lose his job. So, being the genius he is, he came up with a better idea. "Sorry, I forgot you don’t like hospitals. In that case, we'll just send over Sakura-san so at least you'll feel more comfortable." "Wait, no--" "Please wait for her here,” and the door shuts close.

***

Moments later, a knock on the door made Kakashi jump out of his chair. Is she here? Screw you, Shikamaru. His legs were frozen and he feels like his heart rate is storming faster and faster. What should I do? My hair, shit, my hair. Where's my hat? Another knock came, this time, louder. Fuck! "Coming!" Kakashi stumbles as he reaches for his hat and hastily puts it on. He strongly believes that it would be easier to hide than explain. Finally, he swings the door open and in his surprise, he was greeted by a pair of huge, round busts tucked inside a green robe. "Tsunade-sama!" "Ohh, Kakashi. You seem happy to see me. How are things here?" He wasn't particularly sure if he was indeed happy that the visitor wasn't Sakura, but thinking about it, is Tsunade honestly any better? The Rokudaime straightens himself as the Medical Sannin sashays her way inside her former office. "Everything is fine and under control," he answers in a stiff, soldier-like tone. Perhaps, even after being a hokage himself, Kakashi never outgrew Tsunade's intimidating superiority. "At ease, Rokudaime." The blonde shinobi sits down on a nearby couch legs crossed, feeling familiar with the office she once devoted her life to. "And please, Kakashi, remove the headdress." "I-I'm sorry, what?" He knew she will make a fuss after seeing him in it. Of all the hokages, she's the only one who never believed in the hat nor the robe, and all the symbols it stand for. Fuck it, what is she doing here anyway? "I said remove the damned head dress. What are we here, in a conference?" Tsunade eases herself in a nearby couch, shuffling her body to relax in the soft, chilled leather. It must have been irritating for her to go out of her way to visit and see such a formal atmosphere. "But Tsunade-sama, it's a rule to--" He still tries to convince her. What a morning it has been for him, he thought. He's not even really sick but right now he feels like he is about to be. "Oh for heaven's sake, Kakashi, just put it down." If he puts this down, it will not only make Lady Tsunade see the growing threads of pink, but also Sakura, who might arrive in any second. "Um, were you sent here by the Hospital?" he asks, desperate to dismiss the conversation. His freehand holds the tip of the hat, putting up a show that suggests his further action. "No, but I had word from Shikamaru that you weren't yourself lately. So I thought I'd drop by." Tsunade stares at him with the eyes of a well-versed doctor. In her head, she's already diagnosing him even from a short distance. "Coming to work on a weekend? Really?" Tsunade sounds exasperated. "They say you weren't even eating. Tell me, what's been going on with you lately?" She's thoroughly convinced that something is up. Kakashi sighs audibly, like a heavy thing is constantly being forced down on his shoulders. In his mind, he believes that there is nothing wrong with coming to work on a day off. However, what scares him is that maybe, the people around him is starting to notice that his actions are getting more and more different than the usual. Hatake Kakashi, you're being paranoid. Just get over it. Okay? The winter breeze blew outside and a window creaked open, making the room feel colder than it is supposed to be. Defeated as he was, he strips himself off of his hat, and the silver and pink threads appear before her very eyes. "Oh." Tsunade was dumbfounded with what's infront of her. "That's.. that's familiar." A shade of pink she's very well fond of. Sweaty days and sleepless nights of training, for three years, she saw this same pink infront of her in this very room. The shy Rokudaime sincerely bows his head. A silent plea for utmost secrecy. Tsunade understood his expression and immediately stands up from the couch to secure the door shut. Her instinct tells her that this is the reason why Kakashi has been acting strange. Then, she walks up to him to further examine. He kept still while the medic expert run her fingers through the absurd tangle of colors. It seems that the pink clump is continuously growing, tainting most of the nearby silver threads around; making it all the more impossible to hide. One look and she knew exactly what it is. From the tales of Hiruzen that she heard decades ago, and all the extensive research she had done in the past, she is quite sure of what she's looking at. A partner destined by fate, a manifestation in its rarest form. But.. with his very own student? The universe must have blessed them with humor. Finally, she speaks, "You already know what this means, don't you?" Kakashi nods, emotionless. Tsunade expects nothing less from him. She knew that he will grow restless upon possessing such a mysterious thing. "So,” she sighed, “Sakura, huh?" *** A slight knock on the door startled them both, and Tsunade immediately shuffles away from Kakashi's desk to meet the person waiting outside. The Rokudaime then successfully wore his hat back, just before the door completely slides open. "Kakashi-sensei! Sorry, it took me a while." The young lady with the pink hair emerges from the doorway, red-nosed, and wrapped in the thickest jacket she probably owns. She greets her patient with a big, excited smile, who, in return, immediately glanced away from her sight. It wasn't long enough until Sakura notices another familiar presence in the room. "Oh, shishou? You're here too?" She holds a tray of prepared organic medicines and a pot of herbal tea. Tsunade motions her inside, investigating her student's hair as she enters. The oblivious young lady puts down the tray and automatically pours tea for the two hokages. Fortunately, she was not able to read anything from the previous thick atmosphere she just barged in. Kakashi, in his hat, lowered his head to hide his flushed face. What the fuck is wrong with you, Hatake?! He can feel his cheeks burning as she grows near. That’s your student! "Sensei," she lightheartedly scolds, her palms clamped on her waist, "I was asked to check you up.. on a weekend." She then proceeds to chuckle. "What's wrong? It's not very likely of you to catch a flu." Sakura attempts to peek under Kakashi's headdress, casually trying to meet his evasive face. "The last time I saw you, you were sleeping in a ramen shop," she further tease him, while the back of her hand snakes on the crook of his neck to confirm his temperature. Under his hat, his vision is somewhat limited. Kakashi took whatever he can get a sight on-- Sakura's winter clothes, from the torso down to her snow-dusted shoes. No matter how hard he tries, he can't manage to look straight to her. He wasn't prepared to meet her emerald eyes, not yet, not with these feelings. Tsunade carefully watches them from a distance. As she is well reminded of Kakashi's situation, her squinting eyes kept their focus on Sakura's ponytail. Just an innocent ball of pink hair neatly tied behind her head, but as her apprentice moves, she learned that streaks of black threads seem to appear hiding inside, and the light reflecting on each strand reveals a slightly bluish undertone. Kakashi kept silent while Sakura is rummaging through her medical equipment. "Sensei," she warns, "your temperature is high. Are you feeling lightheaded?" The pink medic continues to diagnose her patient, asking questions but failing to receive a single bit of response. In his head, Kakashi knows this is not how regular nurses treat their patients. Sakura's actions are more gentle, more concerned, an extra dose of thoughtfulness from her approach is very apparent and his heart is seriously not handling this well. Their teacher-student relationship made her grew really comfortable around him. Years-worth of missions helped her learn exactly how to treat her sensei, and make him feel better. Hold it together, Hatake, this should be over soon. "Sakura," he clears his throat, "it's fine, this is nothing." "Sensei, I know you're strong, but please don't neglect your well-being," she lectures. Her palm carries a medicine pill she prepared that is made to reduce high fever. "Here, drink this," handing them over successfully, she then placed a glass of water on his desk, and like a child he complied. "Surely I wasn't summoned here just to treat a petty fever," Sakura steps closer to him, invading the smallest personal space he needed in order to breathe properly.

What is she doing?

"I've been told you weren't yourself lately, Kakashi-sensei." Few more steps and their knees will touch. "Is something bothering you?" Sakura crouched slightly, bending her knees forward and resting her arms on it to form her balance.

Too.. near..

"Let me check if your pupils are dilated." She suddenly pokes her head under Kakashi's hat, confidently easing her way in, until their faces meet closely against each other. "If you're feeling something, sensei, now is the time to tell me." His eyes widened. A pair of emerald eyes emerged staring directly at him, gleaming like jewels infront of his face. God, she's beautiful. Struck in awe, Kakashi's lips parted to a gasp when he felt his hat suddenly moved from his head. Before he knows it, Sakura's freehand is holding its side, ready to strip it off of him. Shit! Kakashi froze and everything went slow motion. He knows that the slightest movement he'll make might tip the hat away, and could expose everything in plain sight. He can feel her slowly tugging, inching the hat higher over his head. Unnecessary actions might even rub her the wrong way. He can't think straight, not with their faces like this. "Sakura, that's enough," a voice suddenly roared, echoing against the walls. From another corner of the room, Tsunade orders her to a halt. Sakura's movements stopped mid-way, and slowly, she distanced herself away from Kakashi’s desk as she straightens her posture. "What's the matter, shishou? Have I done something wrong? Isn't it protocol to check a patient's--" "That's enough," she interrupts her apprentices' explanation, "I'll take this from here." The blonde medic nin glances to Kakashi, who's secretly out of breath. You owe me one, Rokudaime. "But.. shishou.." Sakura insists. She's confused with what she might have done wrong. Never, not even once, had she skipped steps nor disobeyed medical protocols during check-ups. It boggles her mind to be ordered to stop halfway. "It's uhm.. a hokage thing," Tsunade instantly made-up something just to cover things up. "You know.. stress, pressure, all that village management problems getting into our veins. It comes and goes. He'll be fine." Sakura nods to her master, trusting her diagnosis word per word. She glances back to Kakashi with a concerned face, and the warmth that stayed on the back of her hand bothers her. His temperature seems to be on the brink of convulsion. His head is still covered with the head dress, gazing low and breathing heavily. Is he really fine?

"Thank you, Sakura," Kakashi murmurs in a raspy, breathless voice. Tsunade reminded her to leave a few medicines before heading out. A pair of pink eyebrows stitched together while she pack her things away. The room fell in total silence, with only Sakura's footsteps being heard as she slowly strides towards the door. *** Right after she left, the two hokages exhaled in relief. Tsunade flopped back to the couch, and Kakashi is finally able to relax his tensed body. That was really fucking close, he thought. "Rokudaime, your plans?" Cutting straight to the chase, Tsunade starts her interrogation. She knows that they have to come up with a good solution before everything goes beyond their control. "There's only one way to get rid of this, but the price is far too high," he answers and she agrees sympathetically, knowing well enough what he was referring to-- another innocent life, yet again to be sacrificed.

“You can’t keep this forever, Kakashi,” the blonde medic warns.

Grey clouds gather outside creeping in over the Leaf. The sunlight went dimmer as the wind started to howl. A clear signal that a snowstorm is brewing.

“We will dispatch a small ANBU squad to conduct a search mission,” she further suggests, biting her tongue with the bad taste her words had left in her mouth. “They take pride in handling confidential matters. You already know how this works.”

Kakashi remained silent, his mind feels like being jack-hammered by thousands of possibilities; a hundred feasible solutions, all going down to that one dark path.

“I can’t,” he whispers inaudibly.

“We don’t know if there were still some of them out there, but we need to try,” Tsunade can almost taste the blood in her words. She can’t believe her advice either, but it is regrettably the only way.

In her defense, Kakashi is not just a guy who can be left alone walking around with such apparent manifestation. It’s not just an open attack to him, but also to his reputation. He is the Hokage, and he is in love with his former student? Not a good sight. What would the villagers think about him once they learned about this? Ultimately, what would his own students feel?

“Tsunade-sama.. I can’t.. it’s impossible,” he answers in a shaky, weak voice. He can feel his temperature constantly shooting up, and the walls are starting to spin around him. Lightheaded and nauseous, he stops a vomit pushing through his throat.

“I really can’t.. I’m sorry..”

“Kakashi, you are the Hokage!” Tsunade’s loud, roaring voice broke. She never wanted to force him down that road but the situation falls hopeless.

Something needs to be done, or else, there will be consequences.

“I’ll step down and exile myself,” he blurted. This is the most logical solution he came up with from all the previous nights of contemplation. His body feels wobbly and a sharp headache darted across his forehead, crawling upto the back of his neck.

“That’s bullshit. Naruto is not yet ready-- you know that,” she sounds exasperated, “And what, exile? What you’re saying is counterproductive--”

“It’s still better than killing someone,” he retaliates, cutting the blonde medic mid-sentence.

Both of them fell silent.

Kakashi is starting to lose consciousness but he tries to fight back. His arms and legs felt extremely heavy, like each nerve is being paralyzed by the second. He struggles to focus on their conversation, and any moment he might black out.

What is happening to me?

After quite the uncomfortable silence, Tsunade speaks again, her voice is calm but heavy. An emotional appeal that she uprooted from the deepest corners of her own heart.

“Could you.. atleast.. consider Sakura?”

The situation is infact a two-way street. If he eventually came out to the public like this, it won’t be just him who will earn hate, but Sakura as well. She will be forever entwined with the floating gossips and nasty rumors. She will become the talk of the town, a household name-- the girl who made the Rokudaime step down from his post. Tsunade knows at this point that she’s being completely selfish, but Kakashi’s decision could directly ruin her beloved apprentice.. forever.

“She is your student,” Tsunade added, “and mine, too.”

I know that.. fuck. I know that! Screaming in his head, he pushed himself to the desk and buried his face on crossed arms. The stress in the air is palpable, and he feels like running out of breath.

In his head, he knows he can’t do it. He just can’t. It’s impossible for his conscience to do such a thing. He already did a lot of mistakes in the past! A lot of people already sacrificed their lives for his sake. He cannot let the old lady die because of this, and if he does, how different is he then, to the feudal lords who murdered her clan? To the people who used their wealth and power to take innocent lives for their own selfish reasons?

{ "Now then, what will you do?" }

Please.. I can’t do it. Obaa-chan..!

Helpless as he is, he starts sobbing on his desk. Tsunade watches him, unable to do anything in the midst of his misery. It must have been tormenting for him, she thought, wanting to save a life over his.

At this point, Kakashi’s sliding into unconsciousness. His senses are dimming more and more. All the pain and agony in his chest are spilling out, and if there’s anything - just one thing - that he wanted right now.. it’s Sakura. Her eyes, her face, her gentleness. He craves it, he wanted her to take away all this suffering.

He needs her by his side, praying for a world where he can shower her with all his undying admiration, to give her the affection she deserves.

Tsunade saw with her very eyes the physical toll it took on him. He’s trembling on his desk, fists curling up in his hair, and she can feel the hot aura radiating from him even from a short distance. She knows this is not the best time to speak further more of what she learned earlier, but she had to do it. He needs to deal with this one way or another.

“Kakashi,” the former hokage calls, grabbing back his attention. "I have to tell you something,” she proceeds with a confession looming in her mouth.

He lifts his head to meet her gaze and then she continued, "I noticed something earlier in Sakura's hair bun."

Kakashi’s mind spins, his temperature already exceeded convulsion. "What about it?" he answers. Hers got revealed as well? "You understand that these manifestations go by pairs, right?" Kakashi nods in delirium, pushing himself to continue the conversation despite being in the brink of unconsciousness. "What did you see?" he asks. Silver threads? Like mine? Does this mean that I.. we..? Tsunade proceeded cautiously, carefully mouthing her next words, and Kakashi did his best to focus. In his head, this must be it. Most awaited answers come to flash before his eyes. Sleepless nights, and recurring nightmares. Long days of drowning in endless paperwork. Streaks of pink and silver tangled in a fucked-up mess. Thoughts of her gentle, loving face. Do I love her? This is it, this is what his mind needed. Should I be with her? This is where it all ends. Answers. I need answers. "Sakura's hair.." she starts. Please just tell me.. "Appears just like.." Are we really.. "Sa-" Destined.. "Su-" For.. "Ke." Each other..? - Hug me. :(

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#kakasaku #kakashi #sakura #soulmate #soulmateau #fanfiction #tsunade

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we-steer-the-ship · 6 years

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Tbh, while I am fond of you trying to promote body positivity, I feel you tend to go overboard, like with the Harvest Goddess story.

Thank you for your honesty, anon. And trust me, I do understand where you’re coming from. I do feel there is a bit of confusion in regards to the things I write and that’s definitely my fault for never giving a proper explanation to differentiate the two factors going on here in my little story telling experiments. So if you’ll indulge me, I would like to try and explain.

The two key elements at play here are: 1.) Body positivity. Specifically, fat acceptance. And let’s be real, the kfp franchise has built itself around that by having its main character being a fat panda who, among other things, was insulted for his weight. And, 2.) Feederism. A lifestyle that is pretty self explanatory but, for the unitiated, basically means that things like feeding/eating, fat, being fat, weight gain, etc…are things that make someone happy. And in certain contexts, it can also add to more adult-like stories (or as you guys like to call them: sin). (Side note: a person who lives a feederism lifestyle may not always be into all the things I listed as it varies from person to person. But generally speaking, these things are all aspects of feederism).

In the past, I’ve written fics that typically fall into one of these two categories, but there is often overlap as I try to fuse the two together. For example: “Living The Panda Life: Part 1” is more of a body positivity story. It’s a simple slice-of-life kind of tale centering on Po and Tigress celebrating their ten year wedding anniversary. The only significant change in this AU is that Tigress is now fat and she is also happy and confident in her appearance. But then “Living The Panda Life: Part 2” goes to the other category by focusing more on the Feederism aspect. Delving into things that were sort of hinted at in part 1 only now they get the spotlight. (Side note: I would like to point out that part 2 was really only written because I received several requests for it as many readers were curious to see a new type of sin fic).

But as you can see, there is a clear divide between those two parts as they each have a different focus. Part 1 focuses on their life and family and romance, it just so happens that Tigress is also fat. Part 2 takes a peek behind the curtain to spotlight the how and why Tigress is fat and showing how much she actually enjoys it.

Now, why do I do this? Well, as stated above, this is an experiment to try and tell stories that have both elements in them. For years within the fat acceptance community, people have argued back and forth on whether body positivity can coexist alongside feederism. Some say you can only have one and not the other, others say you can have both, it’s all over the place.

Me, I’ve always felt you can do both. And in the format of story telling, if done right, you can have both elements present in the story. Now, am I doing it right? I have no clue. I’m just testing it out and trying new things with it and seeing what comes of it. Whether it turns out good or bad, I at least want to try. And in the meantime, I’m having fun doing so.

So with a story like “The Harvest Goddess”, I’m attempting to merge the two into one. Body positivity is exemplified by the inhabitants of the cheetah village being accepting and loving of fat bodies. Feederism is exemplified by the introduction of Kora (and will be expanded upon once Lady Qwin makes her debut).

So again, I’m trying to do both. “The Harvest Goddess” is, at its core, a story about Tigress coming to discover herself in new ways and find answers to questions she’s always had. It just so happens this character driven drama (which will get more emotional and dramatic in upcoming chapters) also happens to be set in a place where fat is the standard of beauty and feederism is just a part of their collective everyday lives.

The women of this island are all fat to some degree. Some are only slightly chubbier than Tigress while others are bigger than Mei Mei. Then there’s Kora who is the biggest cheetah on the island. The women here love themselves and their bodies and celebrate the beauty they see in themselves. That’s where the body positivity comes into play. And as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that the reason all the women here are larger is because they openly indulge on an overabundance of food and have no qualms about whether they put on a few pounds or not. Some women though, like Kora, actively enjoy eating and gaining and are still openly loved and supported by everyone around them. That’s where feederism comes into play.

An attempt to blend these two facets together into a cohesive story that has drama, emotional stakes and all the other things people love about stories and fanfiction. Just wait until we get to chapter 6 and you’ll see why Tigress is so important to these cheetahs. From there, the story becomes more of a character driven drama with a few tear jerking moments, angst, happiness and love.

Also, in regards to me going overboard. That is also true at times, and is ESPECIALLY true with “The Harvest Goddess” and the will-probably-never-be-posted-even-though-its-been-finished-for-months “Living The Panda Life: Part 3”.

The overboard approach to certain elements is meant to appeal to a certain niche audience of followers I have who want these specific kinds of things in a fic. Plus, for me, it’s just fun to write and try to push the extremes and deliver fics that are vastly different than the other 99% of kfp fics out there.

I have had people ask me how such extremes work because its unrealistic and shouldn’t exist. First of all, this is a series about anthropamorphic animals that talk, do kung fu and use things like chi and even straight up magic (like in LOA). So, you know, it’s a fantasy. Its NOT meant to be fully realistic. But having said that, I still create realistic (or at least semi-realistic) reasons within the story as to how these extremes are possible anyway because it keeps the naysayers at bay.

For example, (and this will obviously be described in more detail in upcoming chapters) but you noticed how the cheetahs use a very powerful form of chi in “The Harvest Goddess”? Yeah, that’s an important plot detail that will come into play soon.

Even in my other stories that are currently in development like my Zootopia fic “A Growing Girl”; Xing’s extreme weight is caused by newly developed and untested experimental medicines that end up working too well and have rather extreme side effects on her. In my story “Heavy Hearted”, Juryo is so large because she was cursed by a witch (think Beauty and The Beast type of magic spell). And in “The Harvest Goddess”, the use of a new and more powerful form of chi is a contributor to these things. I always try to have these things make sense within the confines of the story I’m telling.

And lastly, if you think “The Harvest Goddess” is overboard now…well…let’s just say you are NOT going to like when Lady Qwin finally appears in the story. Fair warning.

Thank you for letting me explain myself. I hope this rambling has made sense for not only you, but anyone else who is reading this and has had similar thoughts or questions.

At the end of the day, these are just silly little stories about talking animals who do martial arts and sometimes some of them get fat. So let’s not take things too seriously and just let everyone here have fun in their own way. Some of my fics are aimed at a specific audience and are not intended to appeal to everyone, while my other more “normal” fics are meant to appeal to the general audience at large. So there’s something for everyone either way. I just enjoy writing what I write and greatly appreciate whoever finds enjoyment in them.

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