#more stories of bullies realizing that one wrong move will lose them a friendship

[artykyn]

"Be careful about being mean to the poor geek, he might be your rich boss someday!"

"Be careful about being mean to the ugly girl, she might be hot someday!"

Listen I know the *intention* of tropes like this is "don't be mean" but what they actually teach is "if you want to be a bully, that's fine, but choose your victims wisely" and "if you're a victim of bullying, it's deserved. Put in the time and effort to be worth something"

So what if the "ugly" girl doesn't become hot one day? Does that mean it was okay to bully her?

Your "don't judge a book by its cover" stories have got to spend more time focusing on the consequences of being judgmental, and not at all on the victim needing to meet a standard to be judged by.

#more stories of bullies realizing that none of their friends trust them #more stories of bullies realizing that other people are a lot happier than they are because they have deep relationships #more stories of bullies realizing that one wrong move will lose them a friendship #meanwhile everyone else can screw up and be forgiven easily #let the 'ugly' folks stay 'ugly' #writing #stories #tropes #annoying tropes #bullying #cruelty #mine

[zenmastercharles]

To Fight A Class

Marinette had been different ever since Lila Rossi came back from her trip to Achu. Her falsified trip to Achu. Lila lied about almost everything, and Marinette’s class ate it up like chocolate. Marinette tried to call Lila out on her lies, however, Lila used every word Marinette spoke and turned it against the bluenette. And her class believed her! Even to the point where they stopped being her friends.

Lila made up tales about how Marinette would confront her in the bathroom and threaten her, send her mean texts (which she backed up with fake text screenshots), and she even lied about Marinette physically attacking her when she was alone. However, Lila decided to kick Marinette when she was already down. 

Lila created a fake text number and texted another fake number posing as Marinette and her cousin. Lila, using Marinette’s identity, ranted about how stupid her class was, how she was playing them from the start, going into extensive detail about how their dreams would never become true and how dumb they all were. After Lila showed the class this fake conversation, they decided to confront her. They berated her when she got to the classroom. 

Marinette denied everything, and this made the entire class angry. It made Alix so mad she actually hit Marinette, resulting in a suspension for both girls. Marinette was sad about losing all of her friends. And was almost akumatized 6 times in a single month, only being saved because of Tikki and Plagg fighting off the akumas. Marinette was now a social pariah. Her former friends started to bully her, trip her up, pour liquids on her sketchbook, and even berated her from time to time.

They truly believed that Marinette was a bully, and that hurt her. It hurt her so bad. Adrien still told her to take the moral high ground, that Lila’s lies weren’t hurting anybody, and let Lila realize that her lies are bad on her own. Adrien didn’t realize that Marinette’s lies were hurting her. One time, Marinette yelled at Lila about her lies, and a yelling battle broke out between Marinette and most of her class, Adrien standing by. 

Afterwards, Adrien came up to her and actually berated her and said he was disappointed in her. Marinette berated him back, said something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe I used to like you’, and told him to talk to her when he’s found a way to remove to stupid stick from his ass. Adrien still didn’t realize that he had no right to be disappointed in her, and still tried to talk to her. He eventually gave up, and said to Plagg, word for word, that Marinette was now ‘unsaveable’. It was that moment when Plagg started to change his opinion on his holder.

Things weren’t getting better in her superhero form either. Chat Noir had become even more flirting. To the point where Ladybug occasionally berated him for being so flirty and not concentrating on the battle. One time, when Ladybug berated him in the middle of a fight, Chat decided to be petty. Chat left the fight, leaving Ladybug to fight all by herself. Plagg pleaded with Adrien to go back into the fight, but Adrien thought it would be okay, right?

Wrong, the villain almost killed Marinette’s parents. After that, Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship became distant. Chat Noir continued to be flirty, but Ladybug acted like he didn’t exist. One day, during a fight, Chat Noir turned up the flirt and wasn’t even helping Ladybug. After the akuma was defeated, Ladybug berated him and told him to stop acting like this. This was all recorded. The media exploded in outrage and conflict. On one side, people were acting lenient and defending Chat, and the other side was full-on roasting him. This saddened Adrien, who acted like he was the victim here. It was at that moment where Plagg decided that Adrien Agreste was no longer worthy to be his holder. Marinette had been at an all time low in both of her lives.

And guess what? BUSTIER STILL EXPECTED HER TO BE AN EXAMPLE. Whenever there was an altercation, Ms. Bustier spat out some random bullshit about being a good example for the students, and being a good class representative. Marinette was still obligated to plan fundraisers, school trips, and events. She couldn’t take it anymore, and considered taking her own life. Instead, she quit being class representative and moved to Ms. Mendeliev’s class. Ms. Bustier tried to convince her to stay, but the class was adamant that they didn’t need a bully like her as their class representative. That was indeed false.

Max was the smartest kid in the class, just barely getting above Marinette, so they elected him to class president. They planned a bake sale fundraiser, and thought of everything, except the fact that Marinette always baked 70% of all the baked goods. They were convinced that they didn’t need her, so they just bought a bunch of baked goods. Some of them tried to buy from Marinette’s bakery, and were promptly told to leave. 

So, their fundraiser started, and was garbage. Most of the customers at the bake sale didn’t like what the class had brought and thought they were wildly overpriced for being store bought. Lila lied and said hers was homemade. In the end, they raised just 50 dollars. The class was kind of low about this, but were still convinced that Marinette was a bully that was unwanted and unneeded. Speaking of the blue-haired designer.

When she switched to Ms. Mendeliev’s class, the class was worried. They knew Lila lied and had turned the entire class into sheep, and thought Marinette was some sort of spy. But when they learned the full story, they comforted her. However, there were 5 students in the class who were absolutely furious about how Marinette’s old class had betrayed her. Aurore Beauréal, Roman Reyes, Mireille Caquet, Marc Anciel, and Jeanne Lémery. 

These 5 students walked up to the Akuma Class during lunchtime and absolutely laid into them about how they’ve treated Marinette. Of course, they defend themselves and Lila busts out the crocodile tears. This ends in a physical dispute between Jeanne and Alix, which ended with another suspension. Marinette’s new friends started to mold her into the helpful, confident, and kind girl she was before Lila told all those fibs about her. 

She brought pastries in for everyone, even Ms. Mendeliev, and Ms. Mendeliev soon grew to be her favorite teacher. Her new best friends were still furious and wanted to take the Akuma Class down. HARD. Marinette denied this action because she didn’t want to be involved with them again, but when she saw Mylene make a friendship charm for Lila, she quickly agreed and revealed that she had a trump card named  Chloé Bourgeois.

Over the time where Lila was taking over the class, Chloe knew she was lying. She even called her out on it once. That was obviously a mistake. Lila spread even more lies about Chloe being mean to her. She said that Chloe paid people to wreck her windows and even wrecked her windows as “proof”. This caused the class to exile Chloe as well, which Chloe didn’t care about.

But what Chloe did care about was that Lila took Sabrina away from her. The class knew that Chloe was a bully, so it wasn’t hard for them to believe that Chloe did it. Sabrina started slightly threatening her by saying things like ‘People don’t want bullies as friends’ and ‘You can’t use your money to threaten people’. When the class confronted her about being mean to Lila, she didn’t want to take it anymore and went to leave.

She noticed Sabrina didn’t come with her. She called to Sabrina, who simply said ‘I don’t want to be friends with a bully.’ This broke Chloe’s heart and caused her to be akumatized into the Princess Dignity, who tried her best to get to Lila and force her to reveal her lies. Ladybug considered letting her hit Lila with her Blasts of Truth, but eventually overcame it and defeated Princess Dignity. Marinette heard about it and went to go look for Chloe.

She found her crying in an alleyway, where she thought no one would see her. Marinette consoled the blond, who tried to deny any feelings at first, but she eventually caved. She told Marinette about everything, and even admitted she had started liking Sabrina as more than a friend. Marinette and Chloe actually bonded over this, eventually losing hope that their crushes will ever come out of the darkness. (Marinette’s being Adrien, Chloe’s being Sabrina.)

After Marinette introduced Chloe to her new friends and told her about their plan, the blond was all in. Chloe put on an act and apologized to the class. They accepted the apology, Lila actually hugged Chloe, and Ms. Bustier was so proud that she gave Chloe a present. The group had a plan, a rather unnecessarily complicated one, but a plan it was. 

They basically turned their fingers into metaphorical shovels and digged up dirt on everyone in that class, including the teacher. What they got was a gold mine of dirt.

They created a 40 minute video demonstrating all of Lila’s lies being disproved, and for the other half was recordings about the Akuma Class talking bad about each other and even some secrets that they had mentioned to themselves thinking they were alone. Her friends were ready to post it everywhere, but Marinette wanted to give them one last chance.

Her birthday was coming up and she was planning a party. She was going to invite her class. If they said yes, she would go small. If they said no, she would go BIG. When Roman passed out the invitation slips, the entire Akuma Class walked up to her table, insulted her, ripped all of their invitation slips and half, and threw them on Marinette’s table.

Marinette shed a single tear, before releasing a convoluting smirk. Any smirk Chloe gave would pale in comparison to the smugness in Marinette’s smirk. A smirk that made Lila Rossi a bit scared. Marinette replied with a simple, “Alright. Your loss.” They could hear the uncaringness in her voice. They expected begging, crying, and apologies. Not uncaringness. 

Two months later, the Akuma Class walked into school, confused. Everyone was talking about a party hosted by Marinette. They were suspicious and checked Marinette’s social media accounts and saw that 67 pictures were taken and posted by Marinette on the night of her birthday. She had met so many celebrities. Mostly because Jagged Stone was her step-uncle, but she had some connections of her own.

She had designed dresses for Taylor Swift, Gigi Hadid, Billie Eilish (i probably spelled that wrong), and many other artists and models under the identity of MDC. No one knew that it was her, except for her new friends of course, who she told a bit after they became friends. Marientte decided to reveal herself, and people were shocked that it was just a 14 year old girl.

Especially the Avengers, who she had handsewn suits and dresses for once. This was Marinette’s plan, to make her friends regret not showing up and meeting celebrities. However, thanks to a light good luck charm placed on Marinette by Tikki, her plan took an unexpected turn for the better.

Each of the class’s Idols showed up, Lois Lane (Alya’s Idol), Marshmallow (Nino’s Idol), Tony Hawk (Alix’s Idol), Daisy Ridley (Adrien’s Idol), and so many more. Nathaniel was especially hurt when his favorite idol showed up in the picture reel. When Marinette returned, the class berated her once more about how she should have invited them and how some of them could have met their idols and gotten sponsorships.

She then reminds them that she did invite them. They remembered what they did and looked a bit less confident. They still tried to retort and say that she should have told them that she was inviting their idols. She says that she didn’t, that Jagged invited them, they were still mad, but not as mad as they would be at the end of the day. Just as school was about to end, a video was sent to everyone’s phones in Francois Dupont, even some outside of school.

The first 20 minutes were discrediting every lie Lila told. Lila tried to refute it when she saw it, but there was no way to discredit cold hard evidence. The next 20 minutes were revealing secrets, insults, and lies that the class had kept from each other way before Lila even showed her face. Nino stealing from his competition, Alix cheating in multiple races, Kim insulting a lot of his classmates and cheating, Max not even being the one who built Markov, Mylene shown not to be happy in her relationship with Ivan and even ranting about the poor brute, Alya being racist to a dude who had happened to see Ladybug detransform and wouldn’t tell her anything, and so much more. The only ones who had no dirt to dig up were Ivan, Juleka, and Rose, who were relieved.

However, then something unexpected popped up on everyone’s phone screens. A little 6 minute video revealing Adrien to be Chat Noir, posted by Jeanne with the permission from Marinette. It also showed how hostile and petty Chat Noir had been to Ladybug all because she wouldn’t date him. This made people hate Adrien and Gabriel even berated his son for ruining his reputation. 

Adrien was about to go take it out on Marinette, but didn’t expect to be swarmed by a bunch of Kwamis. They stole his ring off of him and flew off, with Plagg stating that Adrien was no longer fit to be Chat Noir before following the rest of the Kwamis. This made Adrien extremely sad, but instead of Hawkmoth akumatized him first, he turned Adrien to the side of evil. Hawkmoth revealed himself as Gabriel and managed to convince Adrien to become evil. He gave him the fixed Peacock Miraculous and Adrien became a recurring villain to Ladybug. However, Ladybug had a new team.

Ladybug decided to give Miraculouses to the friends she knew would always be on her side. She gave Roman the Cat Miraculous, Aurore the Rooster Miraculous, Mirelle the Mouse Miraculous, Kagami the Dragon Miraculous, Luka the Snake Miraculous, and Jeanne the Ox Miraculous. She even gave Chloe the Horse Miraculous so that she wouldn’t have to worry about the secret identity thing again. After a few months of Adrien terrorizing the city as Feather Rouge, they finally defeated him, they threw his ass in jail along with his father and his assistant. 

Her class, after seeing the video, started fighting amongst themselves, eventually escalating to an every man for himself brawl in the classroom. Every student in the class was suspended, but with the video, they had enough expenses expelled. They all decided to blame Lila AND Marinette for this. They went to confront Marinette, even though they all hated each other. Only to meet a badass, angry,  pizza stick weilding Chinese mother who told them to fuck off (she didn’t say “fuck off” literally, but they could tell that they should by her tone of voice). 

They eventually got to Marinette, and tried to berate her again. However, her real friends were there to defend her and scare her former friends off. Marinette thanked them and was grateful to have real friends.

(This is the first fic I’ve ever written. I wrote it in like an hour. I was rushing. I’m sorry if it’s bad.)

#ml salt fic #ml salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #sparing nobody #EVERYONE GETS DESTROYED #lila salt #ml class #i wanted to include more #but I got lazy #i need to work on that

[aliensunflower-fics]

How to Exploit Kindness [A New Kind of Lila Salt Prompt]

[ Ive seen Lila and Class salt that goes a lot of different ways. In some Lilas a sad lonely girl who will do anything for friends and the class fall for her lies through a mixture of manipulation and Lila’s genuine sad lonely but real persona. In others Lila is insane and the class get basically sucked into her cult. And in others still, Lila slowly breaks the class down by preying on there insecurities, hidden jealousies ect. There are the versions where Lila just bribes the class with connections and the versions where Lila frames Marinette until no one believes her. But I wanted to write a new idea for people to use, one that I feel is a bit more realistic. One where Marinette’s classmates are more their more authentic kind selves but still get slowly pulled into Lila’s web and where Lila is just a bit more intelligent. ]

[ As usual with all my prompts feel free to borrow the idea to write for your own thing salt, sugar, cuteness angst ect just be sure to credit me for the idea so I can read it. ]

Lila was furious! This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! She was supposed to be everyone's friend! She was supposed to finally get a cute perfect boyfriend who would cherish her like she deserved! She was supposed to be HAPPY! But no, the pathetic beetle Ladybug and that goody two shoes Marinette kept ruining everything!

No… No that wasn’t quite true. As much as she wanted to blame her problems on those two it wasn’t entirely their faults. Honestly Lila wasn’t quite sure what had happened. Her lies had been working at first, they had gotten her praise and compliments and adoration and friendship! But now? Now they were all ignoring her, unimpressed by her celeb lies! She could not understand it! At first she’d been sure it was Marinette or Ladybug maybe even Adrien had turned on her! But when she’d probed for information she’d learned that none of them had blown the whistle. So what was it! Tomorrow… Tomorrow she will find out one way or another. She needed to get them back under her thumb somehow.

 It was Chloe who gave Lila her answers. Chloe was the reason none of her classmates cared about her stories! Chloe was the idiot mayor's brat. And what a brat she was constantly wiggling her way into her mothers fashion shoots or had celebrities over at the hotel. Of course Lila’s classmates didn’t care about Lila’s celebrity connections because Chloe was always name dropping just as many people as herself. The only difference was Lila used fake modesty and shyness that made her ‘friends’ view her lies in less of a gloating light than Chloe’s haughty claims of celebrity meetings.

It was a damn shame, celebrity lies were her bread and butter, they were exciting got people to think you were important and they were hard to prove or disprove allowing Lila to easily get around the messy little detail of ‘proof’ if someone asked for pictures all she could say was that her mom didn't let her take any because she didn't want her precious daughter being targeted by crazy fans. And if someone asked her to use her celebrity connections? Well she could just turn on the water works and cry about them just being her friend for her connections. Thus her prey would be forced to be her ‘friend’ , always listening to her and doing things for her, unable to ask for anything in return. Then when her mother announced their next move Lila would tearfully say goodbye and leave all her suckers behind. But without the sway of her celebrity lies her system broke down. That was the problem with picking the school full of rich talented idiots she supposed.

Well with Chloe ruining her system she’d need a new one. Scrolling through her classmates' social media for a clue she sneered at their overly cheerful and cutesy posts. Always encouraging one another and posting encouraging puff pieces about this or that. Always acting like they were so nice. As Lila scrolled over a charity fundraiser event that Alya had retweeted from Milene a sudden thought crossed her mind. Her classmates were very ‘nice’ and annoyingly so. They were always butting into each other's business, always being SO concerned, always organizing events to help each other and appreciate each other and going to charity events.

In fact now that she thought about it the stories that had intrigued her ‘friends’ always had some sort of charity garbage attached. Saving Jagged’s kitten or raising money for some cause or other that always got her heaps of praise. Sure saying Clara whatshername stole her dance moves got attention but not in the same way saying she raised money for some green project. Was it really that simple? Sure her classmates all loved Marinette for her extreme generosity and kindness but was it REALLY that simple? She needed to check.

 It was actually that easy. One simple little lie about how she pulled a blind old man out of danger when he was nearly run over and suddenly the class was bathing her in praise. And the ‘fact’ that the whole very real thing made her miss first period and sprain her ankle? Well that was just the cherry on top. Suddenly Max was offering her a copy of his notes and everyone was back to caring for her like she was a princess. The fact that Marinette looked like she was seething only for sweet naive Adrien to keep her mouth shut was just so perfect. She’d found her golden ticket. Her classmates were truly ‘good kind people’ and nothing could be exploited quite like kindness.

With this knowledge Lila would easily be able to destroy Marinette, sure she wouldn’t be able to do it quickly but slowly she would replace her, with every good deed she made up with every act of false modesty she would build a reputation greater than Marinette’s she would replace her and become there new ‘everyday ladybug’ and the best part was she wouldn’t have to say ANYTHING against Marinette. Not. A. Thing. No sweet righteous Marinette would eventually snap, sadly for her it would probably be too late with how much control Adrien had over her, so when it happened Marinette would look like the jealous crazy girl going after the girl that was kinder, sweeter, and better than herself. As for Adrien… Well she had a hard time believing it at first but he really was an idiot with a pretty face as long as she was careful as she built her new reputation he would genuinely believe that she was changing for the better and then he'd fall for her.

The best part was, her classmates were genuine. As she built her new good girl heart of gold persona they would genuinely come to love her, all the loyalty Marinette got to enjoy all the perks of being friends with such talented, kind, sweet people would become hers. Slowly no matter how Marinette struggled she would lose, eventually she’d have nothing left. Of course she’d need to be careful with her lies but that was easy. Bring the class to a charity here and there and tell them that she was the one who gave the idea for the charity to the actual organizer but didn't want any credit because she was just that kind and humble. If they tried to make her do actual work then she’d have a sudden accident that would require she sit down.

And then once she’d done more photoshoots with Adrien for Gabriel she’d ‘convince’ the man that a charity would make him look good and boost sales. She’d MAKE her lies true all while winning over her future father in law, and heck maybe she’d even pocket a little of the money, she could use a better wardrobe and the extra would be perfect to buy her ‘friends’ the occasional ice cream or presents. In between that she’d just lie about saving people or volunteering on weekends. Maybe even let it ‘slip’ how she was a temp hero for Ladybug . One of the sweetest parts was that between volunteering with Lila, there own activities and hanging out with Lila so she could ‘thank them for their hard work’ no one would be spending a second hanging out with sweet pink little Marinette, they'd abandon her without even realizing it because they’d be SO busy. Sadly this plan of hers would take a little more work then her others, but it would be worth it to become the queen bee of the class- NO the school! And when Marinette eventually slipped up and looked like the biggest jealous bully in the school. Well she’d have no choice but to leave the school with her tail in between her legs.

Victory was looking sweet and satisfying.

 [ And where it goes from here is up to you. Lila can win, she can slowly convince the class and school that she's a model citizen and an everyday hero. She can sneakily maneuver the class to not spend time with Marinette slowly separating the girl from her friends. In this way Alya and the rest of them don't become evil salty versions of themselves who overnight hate Marinette and love Lila, but rather they are good naive people who got slowly separated and tricked by someone who wants to use their genuine talents and skills to make herself look better. Adrien who is already shown to be naive and wants to believe the best in people, can fall into Lila’s trap and become genuinely convinced that his high road method really worked and ‘reformed’ Lila into a better person. OR Lila can fail, she can claim to be the wrong temporary hero for ladybug, or she can pick the wrong charity to lie about, or get exposed any number of ways and the class can realize with horror that because they are kind but flawed people who are perhaps too trusting and gullible that they got pulled away from Marinette through subtle manipulation and so they can be redeemed because instead of turning into outright bullies they stayed the same kind people they always were but just got genuinely tricked which is something that can actually happen in real life. You can go heavy salt where Marinette does eventually leave the school or class heartbroken that her kind friends have fallen prey to a bad person Marinette cant find a way to expose. Or you can go clever salt where Marinette figures out Lila’s plan and fights her from the inside slowly exposing the cracks in her facade. Or you can go sugar and redemption where maybe just maybe Lila actually LIKES being nice to people and having real friends who dont care about her fake celeb connections, maybe she honestly redeems herself and even makes amends with Marinette. You can do genuinely anything with this idea and I hope to see this generate some new less *and suddenly everyone is evil* content for those that like salt and angst. ]

#my writing #ml salt #lila salt #lila salt prompt #now technically there isnt any actual class salt or adrien salt in here because its more of a prompt but to be safe il tag it anyway #adrien salt #class salt #ml salt prompt

[alfredosauce50]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do some Romano + Prussia x royal reader (separate) headcannons? I'm a sucker for a good forbidden romance and would be happy to see what you want to do with it. Thank you!

Yes, of course! Sorry for the kinda late response--I got carried away writing other things. What a coincidence that I've been doing a lot of exploring in fantasy! The reader is referred to as she/her.

Forbidden Romance Headcanons - Prussia and S. Italy

Prussia - The earnest pickpocket and sheltered princess

Unfortunately, Gilbert is on the wrong side of history. As an albino, he's been an outcast ever since he was born. In an age of superstition and class divide, his parents had no problem abandoning an extra mouth to feed. Especially when they were a demon with magical powers. Left to fend for himself as a baby, he only ever survived thanks to the generosity of an old neighbor. When they passed away due to old age, he had to get on by himself on the streets. Stealing, lying, whatever it takes to get some quick cash. And he's been doing it ever since he was five.

He loved fairytales ever since he was a kid. His guardian always told him these stories before bedtime, after all. They said it was good luck to give the princess a flower, and he remembered this a few years later during the royal parade in town. Pushing through the crowd of onlookers, he held out a small dandelion hoping you would take it. Before the guards could swat him away, you took the flower with a smile. All you remembered from that time was a small and dirty face gleaming up at you. And, of course, a pair of striking red eyes you would never forget.

In his adolescence, he became a thief with quick hands. It wasn't until he took on the most dangerous job of all did he make himself a public enemy. Stealing the royal family's jewels. And he would've gotten away with it if he wasn't forced to take a detour through the princess's bedroom. Unbeknownst to him, you were wide awake. Immediately, you recognized him as the little boy from that day. Without thinking, you hid him in your wardrobe until the guards left. That was the start of a strange friendship forged between two people from two worlds--a dirt-poor criminal and the well-loved princess of a thriving kingdom.

He visits you from time to time by climbing up the side of the castle. When he first did it, you practically throttled him by his collar, screaming, “Do you have a death wish? They'll throw you to the lions if you get caught!”. He simply responds with, “The awesome me never gets caught! That's why I'm here, ja?” Soon, this becomes routine until you learn to trust him.

Gilbert loves gloating about his adventures as a street rat, whether it's about singlehandedly beating up gangs of bullies or outrunning the palace guards. As a sheltered person of royalty, his stories reflect experiences alien to you. But it opens your eyes to things you've never seen, and it's very fascinating.

If he's not telling grossly exaggerated anecdotes of his greatness, he'll bring in board games and cards he “borrowed” from his friends. You've never played with them before as your parents deemed them unrefined. It fills him with pride to see you enjoying yourself so much, especially when he's teaching you how to play.

You don't go out very often, so he always brings back little trinkets and souvenirs. When you found out he stole them all, you would hit him on the head and tell him off. “Where did you get these from? Stealing and giving these to the princess--do you know how stupid that sounds?” Then, you would pinch his cheek until he tears up and admits his wrongs. “I-I thought you would like them, okay? I wanted to give them to you as a present...” The next day, you would accompany him to the shops he robbed and pay the owners back.

He gets upset and embarrassed when he realizes those gifts aren't gifts at all. Not when you paid for them yourself! One of the ways he shows affection is through giving gifts, but that unfortunately clashes with not having money. So he's eager to make something out of himself, even if he has to work as a bottom feeder and face unfair treatment for what he looks like. When you find out, his boss gets one hell of a time dealing with you. After that, he uses whatever small amount he earned to buy something for you.

As he grows out of his old habits, he becomes more honest. In fact, he's so determined to prove himself that he shows up one day with a homemade board game scribbled out on a spare piece of parchment. He's nervous and twiddling his fingers, and that's when you know you have to help him get back onto his feet. He's so touched by your kindness that he shows you a secret he's been hiding forever--he can do magic. It's one of his skills that let him become so good at stealing in the past.

After some practice to touch up his abilities, you try convincing your parents to let him work in the palace as an all-rounder. With the magic dancing in his fingertips, there's nothing he can't do. He has a green thumb, good reflexes, and the horses in the stables listen to him better than the caretaker! He can't forget that you encouraged him to let go of his doubts and previous identity as a petty thief. There's nobody in the world he looks up to more.

On the night of your eighteenth birthday, he's invited to a ball to celebrate. Once again, he finds himself anxious to see you in your dress, especially when he's quite glammed up himself with his suit and hair slicked back. While you teach him how to dance, he tells you he looks ridiculous. But you think otherwise and make it explicit. That's when Gilbert realizes he's completely smitten with you. He embarks on another journey to improve himself until he thinks he deserves you.

South Italy - The plebeian pâtissier and renegade royal

War has ravaged the kingdom and eaten into the state's reserves, leaving inflation rates at an all-time high. The suffering middle and working-class take it up to their rulers in a coup d'état, killing the king and queen. And now, they're searching for the princess amidst the chaos of an ungoverned dominion. Romano couldn't be more indifferent to such a cause, only ever caring about putting food on the table. He works day and night helping out his family's bakery, making what he can to get by. However, he's forced to take a side when he finds a girl on his doorstep on the verge of starvation.

Unable to turn away someone in need, he nurses you back to health. However, he does so with spite, wondering to himself why he has to give what little he has left to a princess. When you feel better after a few days, he's eager to send you off but changes his mind as you leave. Romano can't bear to let you face certain death, or worse, knowing how bitter the townspeople are about the unpopular war. So he welcomes you back with a sharp sigh with his head turned away. “Alright, alright, you can stay. Now stop making that pathetic face, you spoilt principessa--it's depressing.”

He relays a few house rules as conditions for keeping you around. You have to help him with chores. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, everything. Considering you always had someone doing those tasks for you, you're hopeless at it. He'll swat your hand and show you how to do things right with an annoyed scowl. “No, no, no, no, no! You're doing it all wrong. This is how you do it. What do they even teach you in that palace, huh? Books? Maths? Books about maths? Well, they won't keep you alive, you know!”

Because he's so observant and strict, he's a good teacher, and soon, you get the hang of everything. Before, he had to open his mouth to correct you every few seconds, but now, he can just watch you do his work with his arms crossed. It's a little demeaning to have someone watch your every move, but inside, he's relieved you're finally fitting in and not a complete waste of his time and resources. In reality, he never wanted to send you off and hoped he could just handle an extra mouth to feed. Not that he'll ever tell you.

When you're out and about, he makes you wear a cloak to hide your identity. When he's forced to interact with people, he'll hold you close and play everything off without arousing suspicion. Even if your hood falls off, he won't react--he's screaming inside in panic, but he's a great actor when he needs to be. You're totally not the princess, just a crazy similar doppelganger. The cloak is there so that people don't make a fuss. When they leave, he'll turn to you and scream how much of an idiot you are. But really, he was just worried to death--and you have a feeling he was. So you hug it out and leave him cussing with a red face.

As you two grow closer, his cousin Antonio notices how much he cares about you despite his efforts to hide it. It's a problem. He approaches him and warns that if people found out he was hiding the princess, he would get killed with her. Romano heats up and screams, telling him that he already knew what he got into the second he let you into his home. When he's asked why he's still keeping you around, he responds with, “It's not fair that her parents fucked up, and she has to face the consequences. Just like how I never wanted to run this stupid bakery--I wanted to be a painter, not burn my hands in the kitchen all day!”

Unbeknownst to him, you overhear the conversation. The next morning, he discovers that you're gone and loses his head. While he's screaming and crying, he's swarmed with the possibilities of what happened to you. He's a bit of an overthinker, but his paranoia is deserved--were you taken away in the middle of the night? Are you even still alive? He spirals down a path of self-loathing until he confronts how much he misses you, then his regret of never being frank with his feelings. Romano didn't understand what he had until he lost it. To say this was a wake-up call--to be more honest with himself--would be an understatement.

A week later, you return unscathed. Turns out, you left to stay with the owner of a paint shop owner your family always supported and bought from. You present him with a gift of some high-end oil paints, brushes, and canvases. When he sets them all down, he'll pull you into a tight hug, and once again, tell you how stupid you are. While he has you in his coils, you smile to yourself as you pat his hair, happy that you also got something in return. Some transparency. “I just thought I'd give you something... For all the trouble.” You'd say, and he'd shush you with a few hard kisses. “You were never a trouble. I wanted you to stay, so I'm more to blame than you.”

As the political situation of the country calms down, so do the anxieties of angry neighbors pounding on his door. You return to his home much to his content. Now that you're just as good as him at icing cakes, you spend more time running the bakery. This gives him some time to paint, and he can't be happier. Once you both get settled, he discovers another hobby on top of making art. Making coffee! The bakery evolves into a café lavishly decorated with his paintings, and it becomes the most popular establishment in town. You both realize how overrated it is to want to be anything more--you never bring up your title ever again.

#hetalia #hetalia headcanon #headcanons #forbidden romance #royalty #princess #aph romano #aph south italy #aph prussia #romano vargas #gilbert beilschmidt #hws prussia #hws south italy #alfredosauce50 #hetalia headcanons #axis powers ヘタリア #axis powers hetalia #request #ask answered #hetalia x reader #reader insert

[faulty-writes]

Alright, this was actually sitting in my Google docs for a month or two. But I finally finished it, that being said. I hope you enjoy it!

WARNING: This fanfiction contains manga spoilers.

[ You met Tomura when you were attempting to run away from two bullies and despite witnessing one of them turn to dust by Tomura's hand. You maintained an odd but meaningful friendship with him until you were forced to relocate. Now years later, Tomura suddenly remembers you when he sees you on the news and he's determined to track you down in order to resume his friendship with you. Even if that means blackmailing you into staying. ]

"You will now be known as Tomura Shigaraki…" those were the very words that changed his life. Separated him from the rest of society and stirred that deep-seething rage within him. However, this was something you had yet to know.

Especially being the age you were when you first met the boy formerly known as Tenko Shimura. The other kids weren't so fond of him. In fact, you heard many rumors, some of which you didn't believe before you even laid eyes on him.

Like how Tomura was the neighborhood creepy kid and wore extra hands, whatever that meant. You honestly weren't sure and maybe you were just looking for trouble when you began asking questions. Like where does the creepy kid live and what makes him so scary?

The other children would provide you with answers, but their tales seemed too embellished for your liking. In fact, they sounded like something out of a fairy tale. But given the fact that the world itself was the mirror image of a comic book where most were gifted with some type of quirk.

Where heroes, villains, and vigilantes sought out their own form of justice, maybe it wasn't too far-fetched to believe some parts of the stories. Of course, even so. You understood what it was like to be considered an outcast considering your parents were well-known heroes

This, in turn, made the other kids assume you thought highly of yourself. But in reality, you didn't have that much self-confidence. But that didn't stop the other kids from bullying you which caused your fateful meeting with Tomura.

You were on your way to school when it happened. Despite your quirk being rather impressive, you still couldn't control it and your parents strictly forbid you from using it. This was in part due to the fear that if their child illegally used their quirk and harmed someone as a result. Their reputation would be ruined.

You wished you didn't feel obligated to play by the rules considering you found yourself running down the sidewalk with two bullies hot on your tail. You stumbled over your own feet a few times but forced your legs to continue carrying you.

Their mocking cries were still so close and you glanced around. Trying to figure out where you could possibly hide or at least stray them off your trail. However, you noticed that the buildings were becoming more decayed the further you ran down the sidewalk.

The normal bright red bricks you were used to seeing were now dull, covered in layers of slime and dirt. The windows to several buildings and houses were cracked or completely broken. Some even had wooden boards up in place of windows.

You slowed your pace, panting softly as you glanced at a wooden fence ahead of you. Planks of wood were sticking out crudely, only being held in place by a rusty nail or two. You glanced over your shoulder, the haunting smirks of your bullies caused another shiver down your spine and you took your chances running for the fence.

"Come on, come on!" you frantically exclaimed, trying desperately to find a space to squeeze through. You then began to pull at several planks, hoping one of them would snap off. Surely enough, after trying a few. You ended up stumbling back when one of them finally gave way.

Unfortunately, you only managed to break off half of it but there was still enough of an opening for you to climb through. "Yes!" you exclaimed in victory before tossing the now half-broken plank to the ground and quickly rose back to your feet.

It was a little difficult, but you managed to step halfway through the opening before you were suddenly pulled back. Your head smacked into the portion of the plank that had remained intact. 'Come back out you coward!' one of the bullies shouted as their grip on your wrist tightened.

"Let go of me!" you demanded as you dug your feet into the ground, you refused to get pulled back through. To be subjected to whatever unnecessary punishment they wanted to put you through. You pressed your foot against the fence and pulled with all your might.

Such was not an easy task for someone so small, but you found yourself stumbling back and onto the ground. A soft hiss came as you lifted your arm, noticing a series of deep red scratches that were left along the length of your forearm, more than likely the last attempt from your bullies to keep holding onto you.

However, this was forgotten when you saw their faces in the frame of the broken part of the fence. 'There they are! We're coming for you, Y/n!" one of them stated and you frantically got up to run. But yet again you found yourself stumbling back when you hit something and ended up back on the ground.

"H-Huh?" you frowned, feeling tears begin to form in the corners of your eyes before you saw him. He was tall and looked slightly malnourished, his skin was pale and he appeared to be hunched over. He had ear-length black hair but you couldn't see his face given the fact a hand was covering it.

Actually, several hands were covering him. Around his throat, shoulders, and down the length of his arms. You couldn't help the scream that escaped you, it was like you were looking at someone from a horror game.

'Is this...' any thoughts halted when the boy tilted his head and began to observe you. Then he lifted his arm, that's when you noticed his long thin-looking fingers and the way his nails were bitten and uneven. He took a step towards you and you closed your eyes.

Expecting to feel that hand somewhere on your body, yet he paused when he heard the commotion caused by the bullies that were kicking and punching at the wooden fence. ‘Come back out, Y/n!’ they shouted again and you felt a shiver run down your spine as you watched one of them attempt to squeeze through the opening you created.

This resulted in their body sticking halfway through. It didn't make you feel any better knowing that the fence was shaking and you suspected that at any moment, it would collapse. You turned back to...oh God. What was his name!? At that moment in your life, it didn’t matter.

You found yourself stumbling to your feet, ignoring the dirt you were covered in and those scratches on your arm that continued to sting. With no rational thought left, you reached out to grasp the front of the mysterious boy’s shirt.

You couldn’t see his facial expression, but you did notice his body language. The way his arms went back and his spine curved so he was leaning away from you as if he either didn't want you to touch him or he didn't want to touch you.

But regardless of that, you leaned close to him or as close as you could without touching the hand that was placed over his face. “Help me please!” you frantically exclaimed as your hands trembled, somewhat losing their grip on his shirt as you turned back to see someone’s foot go through one of the wooden boards that made up the fence.

You turned back and shook the boy. “Help!” you pleaded once again before feeling something hit the back of your head, you let out a cry and reached up to grasp the back of your hair. “Hey!” you shouted as you removed your remaining hand from the boy’s shirt and turned around to see the damage done to the fence.

Chunks of wood were missing and cracks were visible in several planks. The bullies were now stepping through the broken fence with wicked smiles on their faces, ‘Nowhere to run now’ one of them said as they began to stomp towards you. However, the second bully stopped them by grasping onto their shoulder.

‘Wait, look…’ they pointed towards the mysterious boy you had run into and you turned to look at him, wondering what was so wrong. He looked scary, maybe even creepy but he couldn’t be dangerous. Right? How wrong you’d find out you were.

Still, you turned your attention back on the bullies. Watching as the first one smacked that hand off their shoulder. ‘So what!? That Shigaraki is a freak! Not like he’ll do anything, come on!’ they grabbed the other's arm and beelined for you.

A whimper escaped as you took a step back, holding your hands out which seemed to catch Shigaraki's attention and he found himself observing you once more. However, this didn't last long as the leading bully proceeded to shove him out of the way.

You wanted to shout, but all sense of courage left you when one of the bullies grabbed your arm and roughly pulled you forward. You could hear the soft pops of your bone echo as your arm was stretched out.

"Let go!" you demanded as you tried to yank your arm back, but the bully seemed unphased. The second bully walked over and reached out to grab a section of your hair before giving a painful yank which caused you to let out a hiss.

‘Gonna cry?!’ they taunted. ‘Aren’t your parents pro heroes? You’re pretty weak, huh?!’ you squeezed your eyes shut, curling your free hand into a fist. You wanted to hurt them, somehow make them pay for what they were doing to you.

But if you wanted to be a future hero, violent actions wouldn’t necessarily vote well for you. So would you just have to take your beating and move on? ‘We’ll teach you to mess with us,’ you could feel that hand tighten in your hair before they stepped back.

What followed was you catching the scent of something burning and you were quick to realize it was their quirk. That's when fear overpowered your anger especially as you watched those flames in the palm of their hand grow bigger.

You squeezed your eyes shut, just waiting for the burning impact of that fire. But, it never came. Instead, you felt the grip on your arm loosen. “Huh?” you slowly cracked your eyes open and noticed the bully with the flame quirk was now backing away with their hands up. Almost as if they were scared or surrendering.

Then you turned to look at the bully who was loosely holding your arm. They looked shocked, their eyes wide and their jaw hanging open. You almost wanted to ask if they were okay when you noticed their skin and hair turning brown. Then cracks began to appear across the length of their body.

A gasp came when you then watched them turn gray and crumble to dust. Their pressure on your arm now vanished and you watched as that dust brushed over your arm and mixed with the dirt on the ground below.

You pulled your hand back, cradling it to your chest. “W-What just happened?” you muttered in disbelief, your eyes focused on that dust pile before you noticed a shadow. Swallowing, you slowly raised your head and saw the one known as 'Shigaraki' standing before you.

His hand was outstretched and you took a step back. ‘I’m getting out of here! You’re a freak man!’ your attention was now turned to the second bully who wasted no time in running in the direction they came from.

You were holding your breath as you watched them squeeze back through one of the broken sections of the fence. The echo of their steps sounded as they ran down the sidewalk and you finally let out a sigh before looking back at Shigaraki.

“Um…” you weren’t sure what to say, but he did technically save you even though you weren’t entirely sure how he did so in the first place. A gentle breeze came to carry the pile of dust away and you took a step forward.

“What was...that?" the question lingered in the air without an answer before you reached up to rub the back of your head. "T-Thanks for...saving me, I guess?” more silence filled the air and for a moment you wondered if Shigaraki could even talk, he didn’t say anything when you bumped into him and he wasn’t saying anything now.

“M-My name is…Y/n, what’s yours?” you only knew part of his name so far, but it didn’t seem like he was willing to speak to you. He only tilted his head to the side. Did he understand what you were saying, or was he observing you again?

“Uh…” you glanced to the side, feeling the heat rise in your cheeks. What else could you say? You glanced down at his hands, once again reminded of how slender his fingers were and without thinking, you reached over.

Gently grasping his hand, you turned it slightly in your palm. But when you felt him tense up, you blinked and looked up. “Hm?” you were surprised that you had gotten that kind of reaction from him. “Are you...does this make you uncomfortable?” you questioned and watched as he slowly shook his head, then you heard his voice.

It was soft but scratchy, barely audible. Yet somehow you managed to understand him. “Why…” he began, making you grow more concerned as he began to tremble. “Why...are you touching me?!” the question was hissed out and you immediately dropped his hand. “S-Sorry!” you exclaimed as you held your hands up.

“I was only-” your words came to a stop when a shadowy figure appeared behind Shigaraki, while you weren’t sure what or who it was. You felt an intense wave of fear wash over you and tried to fight the feeling of your stomach twisting into knots.

More than likely that was your gut feeling telling you to run far away despite the fact of not knowing what you were seeing, but then the shadow spoke. “Tomura…” it said and you recognized the voice as belonging to a male, but his tone was deep and held a certain amount of authority to it that you knew shouldn’t be crossed.

So you remained quiet and latched onto your lip. But your eyes never left the shadowed man. But the sound of Tomura’s voice was distracting and caused you to turn your attention towards him and maybe you were too young to understand why he called the man, “Master.”

But either way, you felt small at that moment and brought your hands up to your chest. You watched as the man Tomura called 'master' reached down to laid his rather large hand against the top of his head.

“You did well,” the man said before his eerie laughter filled the air, making you take a step back. But you ended up stumbling over your feet and yet again found yourself falling to the ground. A soft hiss escaped you as you tried to push yourself back up, missing how the man frowned.

Then he slowly approached you, kneeling down to offer a friendly hand to you. “Y/n,” the way he spoke your name sent a chill down your spine and you immediately froze, no longer caring about that outstretched hand.

“It’s quite a pleasure to meet the child of one of the local heroes here, though I do hope they watch their backs.” the threat seemed to go over your head. But you still sensed there was more to his words and glanced at Tomura who for the moment seemed frozen in place.

Was this his father, his caretaker maybe? How could someone stand to be near someone so...scary? Maybe you’d never fully understand it, but you found yourself crawling away from the man. Effectively distancing yourself from him.

Luckily he seemed to take the hint and slowly rose back to his feet. “Pity,” was the only word he spoke before turning to Tomura. “Come,” he said, almost as if the young boy was a dog. But the single command was all it took for him to move.

You paused and watched from your position on the ground as the two of them made their way to the closest building. The door gave an eerie squeak as it opened and as the man walked inside, you caught a glimpse of what he looked like.

Though you couldn’t make out his face or hair. You could see he looked just like a regular man and he was wearing a black suit and tie. Then your eyes shifted to Tomura who wasted no time in stepping through the doorway. However, he stopped and turned around to look at you, or at least you assume he was.

You weren't entirely sure at first but that burning sensation that began to overwhelm you was the only confirmation you needed to know you were correct and you couldn't help but feel a tad uncomfortable the longer those eyes were on you.

You wrapped your arms around yourself and glanced away as if that would shake the feeling of being some type of prey. Part of you wondered if he was as bad as his ‘master.’ You weren't sure if you wanted to find out and yet, you found yourself wondering if you’d ever see him again.

After a few more moments, he finally turned and closed the door behind him. Leaving you in the empty courtyard covered in dirt and scratches. You slowly turned to look at the fence, the images of what occurred just moments earlier fresh in your mind.

But at least you now knew the weird kid everyone spoke about and a few weeks later, you found the courage to return to that very same courtyard. The fence was still broken but at least it made it easier to climb through.

You keep your hands close to your chest as you ventured further into the area, pausing only to look at the buildings around you. One of the buildings, in particular, had a small balcony and you flinched when you saw Tomura standing here.

Unlike the previous time you saw him, those hands were absent from his body. Your eyes widened as you took note of his face, the most outstanding feature of which was his piercing red eyes. You could faintly make out the wrinkled skin that surrounded those eyes and his lips which also had scarring.

His hands were curled around the metal railing of the balcony, but only three out of five of his fingers were touching it. But those eyes continued to stare at you as the silence kept growing. A gentle breeze came and you watched his unruly black hair carry with it.

Your throat tightened as you tried to think of what you could possibly say to him. “Uh...” you brought your hands up, tapping your index fingers together. “H-Hi?” you almost hated how you stuttered, but your greeting was only returned with an angry expression.

'Oh...' you thought before nervously glancing back and forth. He wasn't responding, what else could you do? You swallowed and took another step forward. "Do...you remember me?" you asked, watching as Tomura tilted his head. "I was here before…" you continued.

"You saved me from those bullies?" he had to remember. Yet again silence filled the air. "I saw your...master?" Maybe if you talked about him, Tomura would feel obligated to start or continue the conversation?

"Is he your father? He's pretty scary an-" Tomura tightened his grip on the railing and dangerously leaned over it. "Don't insult my master!" his voice was high and slightly raspy, but even so. It caught you completely off guard and you stood there like a deer in the headlights.

'So his voice really does sound like that,' you thought, not that it was bad. But what happened next completely threw you off guard and made you take a step back, you were tempted to run but something kept you where you were.

The fact that Tomura had wrapped all five of his fingers around the railing was seemingly normal. But to watch that perfectly fine metal grow rusty within a matter of seconds right before your eyes and then crumble to dust wasn’t.

Your hands clamped over your mouth as you watched that dust be carried off by the wind, just like that bully. Your eyes quickly looked back at Tomura who slowly turned and began to walk down the stairs that were attached to the balcony.

You remained where you were, just watching as the boy proceeded to walk over towards you. More silence filled the air before you glanced to the side. “Uh…” you weren’t sure what to say and the fact Tomura was staring at you in such an intense way made you somewhat uneasy.

But even so, you felt the desire to ask him the question that was threatening to burst from you. The rumors may have been true and maybe Tomura wasn’t the most friendly, but he still saved you, and you were hoping for a new friend.

Having someone to protect you wouldn’t hurt either. “Do you want to be my friend!?” you shouted, taking a step closer and invading his space much more than you intended but Tomura didn’t move back. You partly found that strange when you realized just how close you were to him.

Just inches away from his face and yet close enough to feel the warmth of each other’s breath. “Friend?" Tomura questioned as if the word was foreign to him and you assumed it was. Still, you nodded. “Don’t you want a friend, what do you do um...all by yourself?” you questioned as you shyly took a step away from him.

Feeling a soft flush wash over your cheeks as you placed your hands behind your back. You heard a frustrated growl before Tomura reached up to scratch at his neck which would have been normal if it didn’t seem like he was digging his nails far too deep.

Leaving behind almost bloody lines. “Are you okay?” you questioned as you reached out to take hold of his hands, but he ripped them away from your grip moments later. “Don’t touch me!” he hissed out, making you flinch in the process.

“Sorry!” you said as you raised your hands up, trying to show you meant no harm. He muttered something under his breath, though you couldn’t make out the words. You assumed they were about you. But maybe he was too afraid to touch anything with his hands considering what happened to the railing.

“Are you...afraid of your quirk?” you hadn’t actually intended for the question to slip, but it was too late to take back now. “None of your business!” Tomura hissed and for a moment you wondered if he was going to hurt you because he stepped closer to you with his hands raised up as if he were ready to choke you.

But instead, he paused and lowered them. “Why don’t you just leave, master won’t be happy that you’re here,” you blinked, there he was using the term ‘master’ again. He turned to walk away but you reached out, grabbing hold of his hand.

“I said don’t touch me!” he snapped as he tried to pull his arm back which caused you to tighten your grip, you were not letting go and Tomura seemed surprised at this. His red orbs widened with curiosity before that anger returned.

“Let go!” he demanded as he began to flail his arm up and down, but your grip remained. “Your quirk isn’t hurting me!” you exclaimed and all at once he came to a pause. He narrowed his eyes and you felt a chill go down your spine when he looked at you.

His eyebrows were slit and his jaw was slightly clenched as if he wanted to say something but also wouldn’t allow himself to. But somehow, you found yourself smiling and squeezed his hand. Though you didn’t realize the actual danger you were putting yourself in by touching the hand of someone with an unstable quirk.

Especially having witnessed how it worked on top of that. But, Tomura seemed to take that reassuring squeeze well and glanced at your conjoined hands. “You’re just like…” his words came to a pause and he looked back at you before pulling his hand out of your grip.

“You really wanna be friends with me!?” he snapped and though you were a little saddened by the fact he pulled away, you nodded. Tomura clenched his jaw and his hands curled into fists. “Why would I want to be friends with anyone!?” he snapped as he stomped his foot against the ground causing you to flinch back.

“Uh...b-because…” you frantically tried to think of an answer. “W-We can do it in secret!” you blurted out and though you were unsure as to why those seemingly random words left your mouth, you hoped Tomura would agree to it.

After all, if he was so worried about being friends with anyone, a secret friendship could work out. “Secret? What do you mean secret!?” he questioned and you watched as his fingers twitched slightly.

Part of you wondered if his quirk brought him any pain, but you didn’t want to push your luck by asking another seemingly personal question. “Well…” you began as you brought your hands up and once more shyly pressed the tips of your fingers together.

“Maybe...we could meet every other day, somewhere you want and...play?” you suggested, though your words came off as more clueless than anything, and that caused Tomura to raise his eyebrow. “Are you guessing...what’s the point of guessing!?” you flinched and shook your head.

“I wasn’t guessing!” you stated in your defense. “I was...suggesting," you were unsure of how he’d react to your words or what actions set him off. Maybe too many words confused him or maybe when someone was unclear of their intentions towards him?

“Mm…” Tomura groaned and once again reached up to begin scratching his neck, you could see the red lines that were created just a few moments ago but you weren’t sure if you wished to stop him this time.

Instead, you allowed him to do as he wanted even if the urge to grab his wrists and pull them away was strong. “Fine!” he suddenly snapped before he lowered his hands, allowing them to smack against his thighs. Then he pointed to the ground.

“Meet here...tomorrow at 8 PM, you got that!?” it sounded more like an order than a friendly agreement and yet you found yourself nodding. “Okay,” you replied before Tomura turned and began to walk away. “Huh, wait! Where are you going?” you questioned.

Yet Tomura continued to walk away. “Master will be angry if I’m late for training, don’t forget our meeting,” why he felt the need to remind you yet again that you were supposed to meet him was strange. But you didn’t question it, rather you watched him disappear back into the building he had come from before you turned to leave.

Somehow you recognized how he was feeling, your parents at times subjected you to training and you always felt bad when you fell short of what they expected. Part of you wondered what they would think of your new friendship with Tomura.

But then again you did say it would be a secret friendship and as promised that’s exactly what it was. Despite it being difficult at times to sneak out of your house to meet Tomura who always seemed to prefer seeing you at night.

But it was nice to know you had someone to talk to and someone you could call your friend. Even if the two of you shared a dark secret that came back to haunt you just a few weeks into your friendship. Though Tomura had gotten used to you and your touch and the way you would cradle his hand.

He even let you guide him around and you were relieved at how well your friendship was blossoming. But since news of a missing child spread, the very same child that you watched Tomura turn to dust. A curfew was set for all children in the surrounding area.

If any children were caught roaming the streets after dark, they were to be escorted back home by a member of the police force. Yet for a while, you had managed to avoid such a thing happening. “Tomura...what if they find out!?” The question came one night after you two had almost been caught for the third time.

You knew your luck was eventually going to run out and if that happened. You could only imagine how disappointed your parents would feel. “The heroes can’t do anything…” he replied and at that moment you had believed him.

Considering you knew they could never actually find the missing child, the missing bully who was so cruel to you. But as you previously suspected, your luck ran out the day Tomura and yourself had agreed to meet at the nearby docks sometime after midnight.

The police seemed to be anticipating your arrival or maybe they were simply stationed there for another reason entirely. Either way, this is the very thing that ended your friendship with Tomura. When your parents found out about it, they blamed Tomura for the fact you willingly disobeyed them and broke curfew.

This prompted them to take drastic action and relocate from the seemingly dangerous town you had lived in your whole life. Luckily they never suspected you of having been a witness to what happened to that missing child.

But without so much as a goodbye, you were taken away from the only home you had ever known and the only true friend you ever had. It should go without saying that your parents expected you to follow the path of a hero.

While you weren’t opposed to doing so, you always seemed to stop yourself from reaching your full potential whenever you thought back to the first night you met Tomura. Could you honestly call yourself a hero if you had allowed someone to get murdered?

Despite the fact you were indeed getting bullied by them, still you somehow managed to graduate and become a semi-known hero. Though underground work was your specialty. The most recent of your accomplishments had caught the attention of the news.

Which was your single-handed capturing and arrest of a small group of individuals belonging to something called the Paranormal Liberation Front. “Hm, it’s nice to know what shit they put on TV these days,” Dabi grumbled as he tilted his head back and downed the last remaining bit of beer from his can.

The television displayed the short interview taken with you after the arrest was made and the reporter was asking you a few questions. “How’d they end up capturing all of them!? I bet they had help!” Himiko accused as she pointed at the television with an angry scowl across her face before she turned to Tomura.

“Right Shigaraki!?” she questioned, but it appeared the man was too focused on the television to answer. His eyes were wide as if he was surprised by what he was seeing, but such emotion was very rare coming from a man of Tomura’s stature.

“Huh?” Himiko blinked and watched as Tomura rose to his feet and walked up to the television. Dabi cocked his head to the side, taking note of Tomura’s strange behavior as well. “What’s the matter with ya?” he questioned in a snarky manner before waving his arm.

“You’re blocking the TV, move, why dontcha!?” he snapped, and while Tomura normally didn’t let any type of disrespect go without proper punishment. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He stood there watching the digital image of you continue to talk.

‘Tell us Y/n what first inspired you to become a hero?’ the reporter held the microphone up to your mouth. Tomura continued to watch, feeling a strange sense of recognition as he looked at you. ‘Well...’ your voice echoed from the speakers of the television.

‘When I was a kid, I used to get bullied a lot. Then one day I squeezed through a broken fence while the bullies were still chasing me,’ the gears inside his mind continued to turn. Then a memory from when he was small began to surface.

‘I ended up running into another kid who lived in the neighborhood and in a way he was bullied too,’ Tomura tilted his head up, his eyes narrowing as he looked to the ceiling. “Bullied…” he repeated the word as his bangs slowly fell to caress the sides of his face.

His memory as of late seemed to be unlocked. Bringing back numerous long-forgotten moments from his early childhood and while he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to remember them. He raised his hands, his fingers straining as they curled inward.

“That’s right...they used to call me, heh, a freak…” a chuckle left his mouth as he kept his head tilted back, but he continued to listen. ‘But he saved me from those bullies and I haven’t forgotten that,’ you folded your hands in front of you and turned your attention to the ground.

Tomura missed the way you frowned before looking back at the camera. But he caught the sad undertone within the next words you spoke. ‘I never properly thanked him, but my family moved to another part of Japan and I never saw him again. But I think of him every day,’ you finished.

The sound of the reporter's laughter echoed before they proceeded to wrap the story up. “What the hell is wrong with ya?” Dabi’s voice came and it was clear he was slightly annoyed by Tomura’s antics, Himiko on the other hand seemed rather accepting.

“Ohhhh, do you know that hero Shigaraki!?” she questioned excitedly as she hopped to her feet and proceeded to bounce up and down. Tomura blinked and slowly lowered his head, then pointed at the television. Your image still remained on the screen as you waved goodbye to the viewers.

“Y/n…” he spoke your hero name as it was displayed on the bottom of the screen, catching the attention of both Himiko and Dabi. “Is our next target,” he declared before he turned to Dabi. “Figure out where that hero will be next,” he instructed, in turn causing Dabi to scoff.

“Why do I always get stuck with the lame work?” he questioned, but nonetheless would comply with Tomura’s wishes. Though you took your job as a hero seriously, that doesn't mean you didn't set time aside for yourself.

Though it was a little troublesome when you received attention as most people recognized you out of your hero costume. But that was alright. It had still been a pleasant day at the mall and you let out a sigh of relief as you placed your bags onto the floor and took a seat on the edge of the fountain.

The sound of the running water seemed to put you at ease as you glanced around and listened to the chatter as it filled the air. It was nice to see how busy the mall could get and how happy everyone seemed to be while in one another's company.

"Do you make that a habit?" came a high raspy voice that almost sounded familiar. “Huh?” you turned to look at the person that spoke. It was a man dressed in red shoes, dark pants, and a black hood that concealed his face.

But you could still make out the strands of silver wavy hair that hung down to frame the sides of that pale face and you noticed how severely chapped and scarred his lips were. However, you decided to keep such a comment to yourself and addressed his question.

“Make what into a habit?” more confusion washed over you as the man chuckled and proceeded to take the seat next to you. Though considering this was a public place, you couldn’t exactly tell him not to sit next to you.

But you still felt some unease and yet something seemed familiar about this man. But you assumed it was only due to the fact that he probably reminded you of someone you saw in one of the many crowds that often occurred after you finished saving the day.

You glanced at the man a moment more before looking ahead of you, mistakenly leaving yourself vulnerable. As soon as you felt three fingers grasp the back of your neck, an involuntary gasp escaped you. However, before you could turn your head, the man gave you a simple instruction.

“Keep looking forward,” he stated as his grip grew tighter and you could feel how his nails began to dig into your skin. “You know this reminds me of about a year or so ago when I was sitting here with one of those Yuuei brats…” the word left his mouth in a growl and you felt your heart begin to accelerate.

You had felt fear before. In fact, it was a normal part of your everyday hero work. Knowing that whenever you went on a mission or faced a dangerous villain, there was a possibility that you wouldn’t come back alive. But even so, you didn’t want to die here.

Not in public and not in front of all of these people. Your jaw clenched and you slowly glanced at him from the corner of your eye, catching a brief glimpse of a smile. 'Is he happy to be doing this!?' you frantically thought.

“Hopefully, you’re a little more cooperative than him. Now tell me something, hero…” you noticed how his voice softened, that previous anger from his memory of a Yuuei student gone for the moment. But you still debated about answering him.

“...What?” you replied, continuing to feel the pressure of those nails creating indents to the back of your neck. “Do you remember me?” he questioned and your body slightly jolted as you once more looked at him.

His hood was pulled back some and you could finally see his eyes which were colored red and had a severe amount of dried skin surrounding them. ‘Why is he asking if I remember him?' you thought, you certainly didn't recall meeting him before.

Then again, 'The...boy I met when I was small had red eyes too, but dark hair. Don't tell me...no, I refuse to believe that!’ Tomura must have sensed your realization. Even if you choose to deny it as many heroes in your position would. But that was just the nature of heroes, wasn’t it?

His fingers squeezed your neck, heroes never wanted to face the real problem until it was too late and yet they still got people gawking over them. “You already know what my quirk can do, don’t you?” your body stiffened as the image of that metal bar crumbling to dust came to mind.

“So I wouldn’t suggest trying to run now,” he leaned over, wanting to catch a glimpse of your terrified face, and boy, you didn’t disappoint. Your eyebrows were knit together, creating crease lines across your forehead and your eyes were full of confusion and fear.

Feeling rather satisfied with himself he leaned back with a content sigh, there was something so riveting knowing when you backed a hero into a corner with no escape. He brought his leg up, resting it across his opposite knee and you watched as he lightly swayed his foot almost as if he were listening to a catchy song.

“You know, I wasn’t sure at first,” you wanted to turn to look at him, but you couldn’t bring yourself to move at the moment. Not with the continued pressure of those fingers on your neck, not knowing what he could do to you when all five fingers made contact with your skin.

“Why that image of you on television seemed so...familiar,” you could hear his voice heighten in pitch and he tilted his head towards the ceiling as another laugh escaped him. “That is until one of my lackeys dug up some information on you,” your eyes widened.

‘Lackeys?’ you thought. “Oh, I bet you didn’t even realize you had someone stalking you,” a twisted smirk appeared across his face as he leaned close to your ear and a shiver ran down your spine when you felt his hot breath. “Watching your every move,” God...were you really that blind or unaware?

He could have had this ‘lackey’ attack you or worse the people around you. “Oh and before you ask, yes...I know where you live,” that alone made your stomach drop, at any moment the ‘lackey’ or Tomura himself could have broken into your home and done God only knows what.

“Well anyways,” Tomura said as he leaned away from you and turned to look at the crowd that continued to chatter amongst themselves, completely unaware of the danger you were in or the potential danger they could be in. Society was stupid or at least in Tomura’s opinion it was.

“Then it hit me,” it was slightly amazing how he could go right back to the story as if he hadn’t told you something that could mentally scar you for life. “You’re that brat from my childhood.” Despite the word ‘brat’ coming out with yet another growl, he chuckled a few seconds later.

“The one who witnessed me kill that other kid, heh. Bet you never told anyone about that, huh? Guess even heroes can hold dark secrets,” another shiver ran down your spine and your hands tightened around the edge of the fountain.

Your vision blurred and you felt a wave of dizziness wash over you as your thoughts multiplied. For years you had been keeping that fact a secret and for one good reason. If you revealed what you allowed to happen as a young child, that you were a witness, an accessory to murder.

Your hero career as you knew it would be over, it wouldn’t matter to anyone that the incident occurred when you were only a child. Everyone would just ask why you didn't do anything, why you didn’t try to save someone from certain harm or death.

Did Tomura know that as well? The sound of his laughter seemed to bring you back out of your thoughts and you flinched when you noticed what he was doing. He was bent over, his hand still grasping the back of your neck, and a wicked smirk was on his face.

“Oh, you look horrified. Isn’t that funny? A hero who's afraid of a little murder, pff,” his smirk was quickly replaced with a present frown and an unamused expression played across his features. “Isn’t that what you’re good at?” his voice carried a certain tone to it, almost as if what he was stating was a known fact.

Maybe he was right in a sense, not all heroes were good. But they certainly weren’t murderers. Your nails dug into the concrete foundation of the fountain and you opened your mouth to speak. That is until you felt him press a fourth finger against your neck and you immediately froze.

“Oh? Were you about to say something?” he mocked. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of my quirk now,” once more your eyebrows came down and you weren’t sure what he was talking about. You did recall trying to hold his hand as a child, but once more you were in doubt that this is the monster that little boy grew up to be.

“Why don’t we take a little walk?” he suggested as he stood up and a cry left your lips as he proceeded to yank you up by the neck. You reached up, wrapping your fingers around his arm. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned as he looked down at you.

His red eyes now holding a dark appearance to them and that unamused expression was back on his face. “You try and pull my hand away and I’ll either disintegrate you or let go and you can watch me murder these innocent mall-goers,” well that made your choice clear.

Though you were angry and felt utterly defeated for having so carelessly found yourself in this situation. Maybe it was clear why you were in the lower ranks. “...fine,” you replied as you released your grip on his arm and yet again heard him chuckle.

“Wise choice, hero,” he stated before he began to drag you through the crowd. “Play nice and I’ll keep my word,” you weren’t even sure where he was guiding you. But part of you suspected he’d just take you to an empty field where he’d finish you off.

Instead, you found yourself being guided through the equally busy streets of Japan with nothing but the sound of silence between yourself and Tomura. That is until you finally came to a stop. “Hm…” it wasn’t hard to figure out you had stopped in front of some type of large business building.

“Detnerat Company?” you read the sign out loud, though it didn’t sound at all familiar to you. “Mhm,” Tomura responded with a nod, he had lowered his hood some time ago. Revealing his shoulder-length hair and some bandages that you assumed he got from some type of fight he was in.

But unlike when you were a child, you prevented yourself from asking about the origin of the bandages. Instead, you simply began to walk inside the building. Even with Tomura’s hand still grasping the back of your neck, everyone seemed to act as though everything was fine.

They greeted or bowed respectfully when Tomura came into view and for a moment, you didn’t want to believe he owned some type of business. But that seemed to be the only explanation as you two entered an elevator and you watched Tomura press the button to the executive floor.

Your hands curled into the front of your shirt as you felt the elevator begin to move, giving a soft ding with every floor it passed. You were slightly worried about what the top floor held and debated about the possibility of you getting ambushed.

Your neck pulsed and part of you wondered if Tomura’s hand was getting cramped from having kept his hold on you for the last hour or so. You slowly glanced at him and he still looked unamused with that present frown on his lips.

You stumbled some when the elevator finally came to a stop and hissed softly as Tomura just yanked you back towards him. You wanted to take your chances, reach up and attempt to yank his hand off your neck but when the elevator doors finally opened.

You found yourself being thrown forward. “Ah!” you stumbled over your own feet with your arms outstretched to attempt to cushion your fall. Your knees hit the floor first, followed by your hands that pulsed from the impact of trying to catch yourself.

Your hair was hanging in your face and you could hear Tomura step off the elevator which then closed. You remained on the floor, trying to gather if anyone else was present in the room. But you were only greeted with the sound and vision of Tomura walking past you.

“Get up already hero,” he stated as he walked over to the large set of windows that made up one of the walls of the room. Allowing him a view of the cityscape. You lifted your head, looking confused as you watched Tomura’s reflection in the glass.

It was a little unnerving to see those red pupils slowly move to look at you and more than likely from Tomura’s position, he could also see your reflection. “I said get up,” he repeated, the words coming out with a hiss and it was clear to you he was getting impatient.

You swallowed down your fear, why did he bring you all the way to the top floor only to release his hold on you? Maybe because there was only one logical way of escaping, you turned to look at the elevator from over your shoulder.

You also doubted your chances of actually trying to jump out of the window considering how high up you were. Maybe Tomura had already figured out he could effectively trap you in this room? Still, it would be dangerous to anger him and part of you still refused to come to terms with the fact this was the same boy you met all those years ago.

But somehow as you rose to your feet, you couldn’t help but picture that same little boy who stood on a balcony looking down at you. That same feeling of being small washed over you, Tomura was still looking down at you.

But as a hero, you were more than accustomed to playing the part you were assigned. Acting as though nothing could actually bring you down and it was those ‘acting’ skills that made you straighten out your posture which seemed to catch Tomura’s attention as he turned around to face you.

His eyes tracing you from head to toe as if trying to detect more weaknesses. You narrowed your eyes, trying to force yourself to be unshaken by the man. Funny, you never felt this way as a child. In fact, Tomura was the one person you enjoyed spending time with, regardless of your strange friendship.

The more peaceful moments of your childhood were spent conversing with Tomura in private with the darkness of the night covering you. Where no one could touch or bother you, much like now. “Huh?” you found your defensive stance fading when Tomura held his hand out to you.

No words exchanged, just his fingers flexing slightly as if motioning for you to take hold just like you did all those years ago. You latched onto your bottom lip and glanced up at Tomura, feeling a shiver course down your spine as you noticed his stare hadn’t averted from you.

“Take my hand!” he suddenly snapped which caused you to stumble back. His voice seemed to echo in the empty room and you could hear the glass bottles that lined the shelf on one side of the room rattle. “What?” the word involuntarily left your mouth, and in response, you could hear Tomura’s teeth scraping together.

Oh right...don’t want to anger him. You held your breath and with some uncertainty placed your hand in his, though you noticed how cold his hand was and the rough texture of his skin. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t afraid when all five of his fingers closed around the top of your hand.

But you didn’t have much time to think as you were forcefully pulled forward. You ended up smacking your chin into Tomura’s shoulder and your free hand pressed against his chest. You clenched your jaw, trying to prevent yourself from hissing as you felt Tomura’s grip tighten painfully around your hand.

His nails began to dig into the thin layer of skin that made up the top of your hand. If that wasn't any indication he was feeling angry, the three fingers that came to grasp your jaw were. A cry left your mouth as your head was painfully tilted up and you were forced to watch as Tomura leaned down to your height.

You could feel the dry strands that made up his hair caress your cheeks as he pressed his forehead against yours, making sure you couldn’t look away from him. A strange feeling came over you when you realized Tomura was enjoying inflicting this type of pain on you.

He knew his actions would cause both a painful and shy reaction in you. Despite the fact he was hurting you, the way your heart accelerated when he leaned close, made an affectionate gesture towards you was undeniable. Was there something wrong with you?

Another twisted smile came to Tomura’s face just before he spoke. “You’re just like her,” he stated as if you were supposed to know who he was speaking of. A soft hiss escaped you and your knees bent when that grip of his continued to tighten around your hand.

You could feel your bones creak and you wondered if he was planning on breaking them. Your fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt. “What...what are you talking about?” you spoke from behind your clenched teeth, now feeling a sense of anger fill you as you glared at Tomura.

But he only seemed to be amused by this and leaned away from you, and in doing so, released his hold on your jaw. But you could feel the indents he made with his nails which pulsed softly, then that smile of his faded.

“I hate her,” he stated before he yanked your hand over his shoulder causing your chest to press against his in the process. One of your legs was raised, pressing against Tomura’s hip while the foot of your opposite leg just barely pressed against the floor.

Then he leaned down, though unlike before he didn’t feel the need to press his forehead against yours. Rather, he seemed too absorbed in his anger. “And I hate you,” he growled before violently shoving you away, and once more you found yourself stumbling before falling to the floor.

Your hand was now aching and you clasped it in your opposite palm, trying to rub it to ease the pain and discomfort that was currently pulsing through your bones. Jeez, just how hard did he squeeze it? Naturally, your fear was still present.

But your anger almost overpowered it as you glared at Tomura from your position on the floor and watched as he began to circle around you. It was almost impossible to follow his emotional pattern, he flipped between anger and happiness so quickly.

From sanity to insanity in the blink of an eye. Just what happened during those years you were away from each other? Had his father or ‘master’ as Tomura called him, damaged him this much? “You call yourself a hero in this twisted society, you enjoy that title. Don’t you?” he continued to walk around you, eyeing you like prey.

“But you’re no hero, are you?” Where was that question coming from? You continued to rub your sore hand, refusing to answer him. “I'm sure you’d never admit that because the truth is...if the rest of those ‘heroes’ found out what you did, what you allowed happen," he paused in front of you.

"You’d be considered the enemy, they’d turn on you so fast, wouldn’t they? A so-called member of their own kind,” he loomed over you, waiting for your response. A soft growl rumbled in your throat and you lowered your hands before cautiously standing on your feet.

“What are you talking about?” you hissed before pointing your finger at him. “What happened to you!? You weren’t like this when we were…” on second thought, was that even a valid argument? No one was like they were as a child, but a large part of you.

Maybe the hero inside of you wanted to know what Tomura had been through and if there was any way you could possibly save him. Some heroes still believed in ‘It’s never too late’ and sadly you were one of them. But in Tomura’s case, it might be a tricky and slippery slope.

“Heh,” he took a step towards you. “Isn’t it better to allow people to have the memory of you being a hero rather than learn just how heartless you are,” he questioned. “After all,” he tilted his head back and that smile on his face grew larger, almost psychotic.

“You are an accessory to murder,” yet another cry came when you found yourself suddenly being pulled forward thanks to Tomura’s fingers which were currently curled into the collar of your shirt. Your hands immediately reached up, grasping Tomura’s wrist.

But unlike you, the pressure of nails digging into flesh didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. In fact, he continued speaking. “And what would people think of that, hm? Knowing the hero they look up to is nothing but a villain in disguise” you felt your throat go dry and your heart sunk in your chest.

Your face twisted in disbelief, your eyebrows were raised and your jaw hung open. Was this what checkmate felt like? You couldn’t deny he was right, your image would be ruined if word spread that you not only witnessed the murder of a child when you were small, but that you allowed it to happen.

That you indeed were an accessory to it. Your hero career would be tainted and yet, “Is that all you wanted to say to me?!” you snapped before taking a step back. Successfully yanking Tomura’s hand away from your shirt.

“That you’re only trying to blackmail me!?” Though not a terrible plan, it didn’t exactly seem like the evilest thing one could come up with, and yet it was effective enough to put your hero career on the line. “What do you want!?” you slapped your hands against your thighs, looking at Tomura with an expression between confused and angry.

“Hmph,” he glanced to the side, his lips now perched to one side. “You’re just like her,” he commented, repeating an earlier statement of his that seemed to confuse you all the more. “What…who are you talking about!?” you demanded but kept your distance from Tomura as he raised his hand and seemed dazed as he stared at his palm.

“Hana...always held my hand,” your head cocked to the side. “Hana?” you repeated, assuming she was another friend or perhaps someone from Tomura’s past that held some special type of significance to him. “...my sister,” he whispered as he lifted his head up and looked at you.

Once again he seemed to shift into some type of calm sanity. “She was never afraid to hold my hand either,” he stated before his eyes darkened, and that distant look was present in them once more. You take a step back, but Tomura only countered this move by continuing to walk forward.

Despite your commands of, “Stop!” he continued to force you into a corner. His hands slammed against the wall, one on each side of your head. “But she left,” he stated and somehow something finally seemed to click.

When you met Tomura, he was living with his ‘father’ and seemingly was an only child. Had his sister died, what about the rest of his family? Was that why he addressed his ‘father’ as ‘master’ because he wasn’t actually blood-related to the man?

So many questions filled your head, but none of them could actually escape due to the next set of words that left Tomura’s mouth. “But you won’t,” somehow you knew that wasn’t a threat, nor a command. It was a fact.

“After all,” he began, his voice sounding more chipper as he leaned away from you. “Isn’t that what old friends are for!? To keep secrets!?” he questioned as he turned to walk away from you with his hands folded behind his back.

“Of course, I’m sure hero society will be shocked when they find out you’re missing. But what’s one less hero anyway?” he said as he shrugged his shoulders and made his way to the array of glass bottles that were previously rattling due to the volume of his voice.

You remained against the wall and watched him pull out two glasses. “Kurogiri isn't here, so I suppose I’ll have to make the drinks myself,” he muttered and though you weren’t sure who ‘Kurogiri’ was, you assumed it was another member that made up Tomura’s group.

Still, you heard the soft ‘clinks’ of ice hit the glass before the sound of liquid followed. You slowly eased off the wall and watched as Tomura glanced over his shoulder at you, seemingly unbothered by the way you continued to stare at him.

“How about a toast to the now-former hero?” you knew by his tone that he was mocking you. But still, he turned around and raised a glass in the air. The ice swirled around the brown-tinted alcohol and you didn’t miss that smile of satisfaction that came to Tomura’s chapped lips.

“You’re going to stay here forever,” he commented just before he tilted his head back and proceeded to down the drink. Somehow, you knew he might be correct. But even so, you would figure out a way to save him and bring out that boy you used to know.

#tomura x reader #shigaraki x reader

[masterthespianduchovny]

Let’s talk about this Nate and Rebecca comparison again. 😊

There is a reason why I forgave Rebecca and why I’ll forgive Nate if he has the same introspection and emotional beats that she did surrounding the apology sequence.

Keeley gives Rebecca an ultimatum. “Either you tell Ted or I will.”

So the pressure to own up to the clusterfuck she created was there. It was time sensitive and she stood to lose a friend if she didn’t comply.

Rebecca calls Ted into her office saying that she’ll get straight to the point and not procrastinate while ironically doing neither.

We see this is difficult for her. It’s clear that she cares a lot for Ted and is realizing how much she stands to lose—not just her image, but Ted as friend as well, which is why she loses her nerve and sends him away.

Then Rupert comes in and drops a bomb, he and Bex are expecting. He dresses up this revelation as kindness and compassion opposed to callousness and cruelty. That he came to tell her face to face to watch her become distraught in real time. He revels in her pain. He wants to be the cause of it.

And the thing is: they both know this.

They both know he’s not trying to soften the blow of the new, but rather, add to it.

Rupert tries to frame her as hysterical. He tries to make her feel not good enough to have his child. Something he emotionally manipulated her into not having. A discussion they probably had for years, which he made her feel bad about.

Only to impregnate a younger woman and deem her “worthy” of having his child.

And he does hurt her.

We see the tears and the understanding as to how vile and evil is in Rebecca’s face. We see the understanding that Rupert gets off on emotionally harming her.

In that moment, Rebecca decides that she’s not going to be Rupert, she’s not going to end up like him. She’s not going to get off on others misery even if it’s his. It’s not her and so many people have gotten hurt, or could’ve, in the process.

Although she wants to keep ted in her life, as her friend, he has a right to know what she did. He has a right to quit and go the press. She’s not justified in what she’s done to Ted just because Rupert harmed her. And harming all of those people in the process just to hurt Rupert wasn’t right.

Rebecca sheds her fears and owns why she did because she doesn’t have the right to be shielded from Ted’s rightful anger. She doesn’t have the right to shield herself from something that is long overdo. She doesn’t have the right to take solace in a friendship that she feels she doesn’t deserve.

She deserves whatever Ted throws at her.

So she goes to face Ted and doesn’t justify or excuse her actions. There is not only remorse, there is also ownership of her actions. She doesn’t ask to be spared, plea for anything, beg, or influence Ted to take it easy on her.

In fact, she expects him to quit and tell the press, which she expects to weather after he airs our her dirty laundry.

And you know what, she was 100% prepared to accept accountability and responsibility for her actions.

Now this doesn’t erase the harm she did, but 1. Rebecca expressed remorse 2. She apologized 3. She was accountable 4. She didn’t try to influence him to forgive her and didn’t expect him to. 5. She gave him the space and freedom (no crowd) to make whatever decision he felt was appropriate even if she suffered massive consequences, which would’ve been deserved.

To be far to Nate, he’s in the middle of his story. So he didn’t have the same gut punch moment. We’ll see what that looks like at the end of the season.

What we get is Beard calling him out for what he said to Colin, Nate wondering if Ted knows, and being told to apologize.

I must note that Nate doesn’t appear to be remorseful about what he said, he just doesn’t want to get in trouble with Ted. Even if you argue that either Nate shouldn’t have to apologize to Colin since Colin used to bully him or that their relationship is too complicated to get to that point yet, Nate is still one of Colin’s coaches. If Nate isn’t mature enough to separate their history from their current relationship, he shouldn’t be a coach.

Remember, Roy was literally called out about this an episode or two ago and immediately corrected his behavior when called out by Ted. He cannot be a coach and selectively coach players. It doesn’t work that way.

Nate not only doesn’t give Colin the space and freedom to process his apology, the apology was insincere. There is no reckon king, reflection, or sincerity in his words. He’s apologizing because he has to and not because he means it.

The thing is: Nate should’ve apologized for allowing their past history interfere for his coaching responsibility and acknowledged that Colin did emotionally and physically hurt him, but it’s something he’s working to move past to be great at his job.

However, the person who really deserved the apology was Will and that’s what further highlights the entire charade. More so than Colin, Will deserved the apology and to be treated with respect. He deserves not to yelled at, afraid, and not to go to work at a hostile environment.

Instead, Nate further focuses on Will and his hostility increases.

Again, we are at the middle of Nate’s story, so anything can happen. But don’t get mad at me for using this comparison when I wasn’t the one who made it. Rather than people mentioning how Rebecca was forgiven for the fucked up shit she did, people should’ve said, “look at where Rebecca was around the half way mark in the first season and look at where she was in the finale; even though it looks bad, Nate still has time to turn this around.”

Instead people want to say, “y’all forgave Rebecca and Jamie for worse shit.”

Rebecca and Nate’s apologies are vastly different. After Rebecca apologized to Ted, she went and genuinely apologized to Higgins. Nate read a mean tweet and went and verbally abused and threatened Will.

For the third time, Nate is in the middle of his story and it does him a disservice to compare him to people with completed arcs. To people who has self reflection, made amends, and made active changes to become better people and useful to the bigger picture. Because we went on these full journeys, we’re able to forgive. Nate is still working through his shit and his actions aren’t a good look at all.

Let’s not set Nate up to fail currently by comparing him to people who have dealt with their shit heads on and learned from it. Let’s compare Nate’s journey to the middle of their stories and stress that his story isn’t over yet.

And let’s acknowledge that people have the right to feel angry and disturbed at Nate. Or how the power imbalance is vastly different from kitman and player v kitman and coach. This isn’t to say Jamie and co weren’t wrong to bully Nate, however, currently, as an assistant coach, he has more power over Will than the players did over him. Although Ted and Beard can override him, that relies on them always being around and seeing shit AND Will not being frightened to come forward. He may not think he’ll be able to or have support. Especially because they’re a crew, the Diamond Dogs.

Relying on other coaches to save or spare Will undercuts any reckoning and accountability for Nate. He needs to come to the realization that his behavior is fucked up and he shouldn’t be tormenting the kitman for any reason.

#I’m so fucking long winded #😔 #🥴 #I like to be thorough and clear #lol #rebecca welton #ted lasso #nate shelley

[smutsonian]

f*** being friends

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Steve is in love with his friend but he doesn't want to ruin their friendship

Warnings: mentions of copulation, making out (it gets heated), jealous steve, awkward steve, lil bit of angst, brief mentions of being bullied (verbally), mentions of game of thrones, i’m hoping for this to be really sweet and fluffy that y’all get diabetes in a healthy way, writing mistakes bby

Characters: Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanov, Erik Lehnsher (xmen), Cisco Ramon (the flash)

Word Count: 6.5k yikes

an: i have no idea where those characters came from but they’re there. also, hi! im posting something lmao shocker :o ctto of this picture

masterlist

The supersoldier who woke up in the wrong century would’ve been going through a whole lot of hell alone if it wasn’t for the cute scientist who was considerate and patient with him in helping him adjust to his new surroundings after the time-hopping incident. Fury took him to the tower that was owned by the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist (as he likes to be called) after he tried to run through the streets of the modernized city of New York with his bare feet and that’s where he met her.

 The female scientist contrasted Tony Stark so much that it made Steve wonder how Tony even managed to get someone like her to be his assistant scientist. Steve didn’t have to wonder about how you were able to handle Tony because he was a hundred percent sure that you will be able to get along with anyone because you’re… you.

 While Tony was an obnoxious guy who likes mocking him, you were nothing but sweet to him. Going out of your way to make him feel comfortable and show him how time has changed the past. You taught him everything he should know and anything he wanted to know and in return, he bestowed you stories from his time before, during, and after the war and the supersoldier serum. 

 When you told him embarrassing stories about Tony and confessed that you sometimes get vexed by your boss that resulted in you ‘accidentally’ making one of his suits dance crazily while he’s in it, you and Steve shared a laugh and thus, started a genuine friendship.

Tony groans dramatically when he sees Steve giggling at his assistant while they’re making something in the kitchen. He walks over to them and knocks on the counter to catch the pair’s attention before giving them a faux smile. “As much as I love seeing capsicle giggling like a halfwit, I’m gonna have to ask you to stop stealing my assistant. We’re in the middle of discovering what must be the most important information in the world and you’re out here stealing her for shits and giggles.” Tony looks at the captain with a stern look before noticing your dramatic eye roll. “Hey-” he was about to chastise you when you cut him off.

 “Tony, learning how to bake chocolate chip cookies isn’t the most important thing in the world but I admire you for asking me for help for the sake of Morgan. But please, stop being so dramatic.” you chuckle at the end of your complaint. Tony bites his lip as Steve looks at you with such fondness without you even noticing it and he doesn’t know if he should feel sorry for the love-struck captain or be annoyed at how stupid and juvenile he was being. Just ask the girl out, goddammit.

 You turn to look at Steve before sighing, “Well, duty calls.” you shrug and smile at Steve when he reaches a hand towards your face to fix a stray hair away from your face. You stood frozen, staring at his ocean eyes that were staring right back at you before he started blinking and looked away. “Alright. I’ll see you later?” he asks as he looks back at you and you nod at him with a smile before walking past Tony. Tony rolls his eyes at Steve before pointing at him. “You clearly have it bad for her, cap. Why don’t you do us all a favor and just ask her out?” 

 Steve gawks at Tony, his face tinting a tiny shade of red before shaking his head. “What are you talking about? We’re just really good friends, Stark. I don’t even want to have this conversation with you.” Steve’s jaw clenches before he too walks out of the kitchen.

 Good friends my ass. Tony shakes his head in disbelief, smirking to himself. This is going to be fun.

  Some members of the team were in the kitchen, elbows on the counter, and tired out of their minds. Sam has his head on the counter, Natasha was taking a bite out of her sandwich every now and then, and Clint was slurping the milk from his cereal bowl. There was a mission the day before and everyone was showing how much it took a lot out of them.

 Y/N was putting whipped cream on top of the iced chocolate drink she made when Steve walked in. His face showed how tired he is but it quickly lightened up when he saw Y/N grinning at him with the iced chocolate. Steve made his way towards her and sat beside her, watching her put colorful sprinkles on the whipped cream before sliding the glass in front of him.

 “There ya go! Made with love and all.” she laughs at her own joke and Steve grins at her before taking a sip, earning a mustache made of whipped cream. “So good” Steve closes his eyes as he moans dramatically, making Y/N laugh even more. When Steve looks back at Y/N, she chuckles at him before making a motion towards the space between her nose and her upper lip.

 “What?” Steve smiles as he tilts his head to the side.

 “Here, let me…” Y/N gets a tissue before leaning towards Steve’s face and gently wiping the whipped cream off his face. God only knows how much I want to kiss his whipped cream covered lips. 

 Steve stared at her face, heart fluttering at the closeness of her face and gulps when he sees her looking back at his eyes. Those eyes will be the death of me. I wonder if she’ll look at me like that when I’m giving it to her good. 

 He watches as her eyes flutter towards his lips and then back to his eyes before he’s leaning closer to her face, his lips almost brushing against hers. Fuck.

 A bang interrupted them and they quickly pulled away from each other, awkwardly trying to compose themselves. Bucky seats beside Sam who was glaring at him. “You just have to stroll in here, you armless shithead.” 

 “Not cool, dude.” Clint chuckles before dumping his bowl at the sink. Natasha just sighs before taking another bite off her sandwich. 

 Y/N’s ears perked up when Sam’s words registered to her brain. Armless shithead. 

 She turns to look at Bucky before cursing under her breath. “Oh gosh, Bucky. I’m so sorry! Your arm reattachment scheduled this morning completely slipped out of my mind. Oh god. I’ll bring it up here now. Just give me a sec.” Y/N stumbles out of her chair, earning a concerned look from Steve who held his hand out just in case the fidgeting scientist falls. Y/N successfully runs out of the kitchen unharmed, leaving two supersoldiers confused.

 “What’d I do?” Bucky asks Sam who just shakes his head at him. Nat did the same thing as Sam did when Bucky turned to look at her. Steve still stared at the door that Y/N left in, thinking about how he almost kissed her and realizing how stupid he was. He could have ruined their friendship right then and there. She was so jumpy and awkward right after too. She probably got spooked by his actions. 

 “Why the constipated face, capsicle.” As if he wasn’t suffering enough, Tony enters the kitchen with a smug smile. “Barnes ruined his chances of kissing the little scientist.” Sam scoffed as Bucky gasped. “Oh shit. Sorry, punk. I didn’t know you were making moves already. Thought you would never do it. Sorry for ruining the moment. You’ll get—” Bucky’s teasing words were cut off by Steve’s booming voice. “Will you all just stop it?! We’re just friends. Stop pushing it. I don’t see her that way so please, just stop. We’re friends and that’s that.” Just as Steve’s speech was ending, a flustered Y/N walked in with a huge box. She walks over to Bucky and starts fumbling with his arm.

 Steve curses under his breath as he realized that she just heard his ‘confession’ and it’s not exactly what he wanted her to know. It’s exactly the contrary to what he’s feeling. He wants to be more than just her friend but he didn’t have the guts to do something about it. He also didn’t want to ruin the beautiful friendship that they already have. Relationships are too complicated and he couldn’t risk losing you just because of his stupid feelings. 

 “There! All done!” Y/N smiles at Bucky and Steve finds himself yearning for her to smile at him like that every-fucking-time. Bucky thanks her and winks at her that made Steve’s insides boil with something he didn’t have an idea about. Y/N picks the box up before walking over to Tony who was standing beside Steve. Right before she gets in front of Tony, she slips and before she knew it, her face was falling down the floor- only to be stopped mid-air as firm arms found their way to her waist and her shoulders.

 She was hoisted up and was met with Steve’s face just inches away from hers. “I got you.” Steve smiles.

 Y/N coughed and pulled herself away, making Steve’s smile flutter ever so slightly. “Umm, thanks. I gotta get back to work.” She smiles at him before turning towards Tony and starting a topic about their current topic about using vibranium as something he didn’t have an idea about. He sighed in disappointment as he realized how he managed to fuck up his friendship with her by trying to preserve it. How does that even happen to someone?

 “Is it just me or does the supersoldier serum affect the brain badly?” Sam pipes up after Y/N leaves the room to go back to the lab. Bucky elbows his ribs in response while Tony laughs at Sam’s words.

 “It’s just Steve who’s being an idiot. Don’t drag me into his lack of brain cells” Bucky muttered under his breath. Tony pats Steve on his shoulder before leaning up to his ear to whisper something.

 “Just friends, huh?”

Steve was nervous that you would bail on your weekly movie nights with him in his room where the two of you will watch movies that he missed while he was frozen. His nerves were getting the best of him until you knocked on his door only to greet him with a huge smile and arms full of snacks that were almost covering your face. “Movie night?” Steve swore that your giddy voice sounded like angels singing.

 Steve felt his heart flutter at the sight before shaking his head back to reality and easily grabbing the snacks out of your arms and setting it down on the foot of his bed. You skipped over to the bed and plopped yourself on it before looking at Steve with a raised eyebrow. 

“So… What are we watching tonight?” The anticipation in your voice made Steve smile before scratching the back of his neck.

 “Can we continue the game of thrones?” He asks and Y/N thought that him blushing was the cutest thing in the world so she couldn’t do anything but to nod. I mean, how could anyone say no to that face?

 You opened up a bag of chips while Steve tinkered with the tv attached to the wall in front of the bed. As the opening song started playing, Steve hopped on the bed beside you, grabbing the bowl of popcorn before laying on his back beside you and scooched closer to you. You smiled at that and laid your head softly on his shoulder which he seemed to like because he chuckled before stealing a piece of chip in your bag. You playfully glared at him as he only booped your nose in return, laughing when some powder from the chips were left on the tip of your nose. He leaned closer to your face, pausing for a while before blowing the powder residues on your nose. You felt your heart skip for a moment before turning back to the tv as the show continued to play.

 The room was dark with only the tv being the source of light but it’s enough for you to watch Steve’s every reaction to the show that you’ve already watched yet willing to rewatch it as long as it was with Steve. He was in one of the earlier episodes where Danaerys was betrothed to Khal Drogo. The tv was playing the scene where Danaerys’ handmaid was teaching her how to make love to Drogo. Your body warmed up at the scene, remembering how graphic this series can be and turned slowly to see Steve’s reaction. You expected him to be fidgety and awkward but he seemed to be really focused at the tv screen so you turned your head back towards the screen and continued to watch.

 Steve was trying his best to not have a panic attack right then and there. The scene was making him flustered and the effects of it were going straight to his crotch. He saw you move your head to watch his reaction but he did his best to act nonchalant and he was so relieved when you looked away from him that he almost cried. He thanked all the gods when the scene ended but his eyes widened when the screen showed Khal Drogo entering the tent butt naked and heading straight to Danaerys. When the man started ramming into her, Steve knew that he was fucked.

 Y/N nostrils flared in embarrassment as she watched the screen as it showed a very erotic scene. She turned her head sneakily to see Steve’s reaction once again but was surprised to see that he was already looking at her, their faces just an inch apart. 

 She looked at Steve’s eyes and was shocked to see that they were darker than usual, pupils dilated and his breathing erratic. She stared at him for a brief second before asking if he’s okay, genuinely concerned for the supersoldier. 

 “Steve, are you ok—” Y/N thought that she could’ve died right then and there when Steve closed the space between their lips and kissed her hungrily. Steve’s lips were so soft against her and when he plunged his tongue into her mouth, she almost came right then and there. This was how she’s deeply, madly, and hopelessly in love with the man. 

 Steve couldn’t explain the feeling he felt when she kissed him back. He could almost hear the wedding bells ringing when she moved her hands to caress both sides of his face. He placed the bowl of popcorn beside her head before placing his hands on her waist, easily manipulating her body so he was on top of her as he continued to kiss her lips like a starved animal.

 Steve felt her hands traveling up to his hair as she arched her back. Steve’s eyes went to the back of his head when she felt her grinding against his hard-on and he was thankful that her mouth was on his so she was able to swallow his moans. He responded by grinding his hips down against hers, earning a tug on his hair and a whine from her lips that made his eyes snap open in shock. Shit. 

 Steve stumbled as he quickly pulled away from her, knocking the popcorn by her head off the bed and making popcorn scatter all over the floor. “Shit” Steve looks at the mess on the floor and back to you, lips plumper after his assault. “Shit” he says again. “I’m so sorry.” He whispers. “Shit, Y/N. I’m so sorry! I didn’t—” He cuts himself by cursing at himself again and again.

 Y/N pushes the hurt she’s feeling at the moment. What was he about to say? That he didn’t mean any of it to happen? 

 She places a hand on Steve’s left cheek and it seemed to immediately calm him down. “Breathe, Steve. It’s okay. Everything’s fine.” You smile at him which he returns sadly.

 “I’m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I was just… I don’t know what got into me.” Steve stuttered, almost crying. That’s not how he wanted it to come out.

 Y/N looks at Steve with a faux smile. Ouch. Saw that one coming but it still hurt like a motherfu—

 “I shouldn’t have done that.” Steve shakes his head. 

 Y/N gives Steve an understanding nod. And here I thought things couldn’t get uglier.

 “I mean… I don’t want to ruin what we have. Our friendship, I mean. I love being friends with you and I love what we have and I don’t want to ruin that because of me.” Steve tries to explain. Keyword: tries. “I mean you’re obviously the most gorgeous person in the world but I don't want to lose what we have just because of a kiss or a ruined relationship, do you get what I’m saying?” Steve looks at you hopefully. Clearly, he’s not very good at explaining things but you nod nonetheless.

 “I totally understand. I mean… I’ll be more than fine to try things out with you but I understand where you’re getting from. I wouldn’t want to lose what we have either. I guess being friends is the best idea for you.” Steve flinches at your words. Your tone was sweet but your words were hurting him and it’s his own fault too so that just frustrated him even more. 

 “How about we forget about what just happened and stay as good friends, deal?” Y/N gives him a friendly smile. How the hell is he supposed to just forget about what happened. That was easily the best thing that’s happened in his life and he drove the woman he loves the most to tell him to just forget about it.

 “Deal.” Steve smiles. I am a fucking idiot. I managed to put myself in the ‘friendzone’. 

 Y/N nods and starts to head for the door before looking over her shoulder towards Steve.

 “Goodnight, Steve.” And then she was gone.

 Steve’s smile fell and he turned around to study the mess left behind. Popcorn all over the floor, game of thrones playing on the screen, and a very hard cock under his pants.

 Fuck

That was it for Steve. He knew he fucked everything up when he barely saw you and talked to you anymore. When you no longer made him the usual iced chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles that you always made him, it broke his heart. But what really broke his heart is when you started skipping out on your movie nights with him. He’s beginning to think that you’re spending extra hours in the lab with Tony just to avoid him and it did horrible things to his heart.  Y/N cursed at the turn of events. She hated how the movie night incident turned out but she was ready to make things go back to normal but of course, Tony decided to overload her with work. She didn’t blame him though. They were at the peak of their research and they’re almost done with it and Tony wouldn’t stop until they finished. Y/N stayed to help her mentor/boss until they got to finish the work. She couldn’t deny the fact that she too is excited about the outcome of the research so she kept herself busy.

  She saw how it affected Steve though. She saw how his face would light up every time he would catch her taking quick snacks in the kitchen but she would watch that handsome smile disappear from his face when she waved at him to say goodbye and run back to the lab just to continue on her work. She knew that Steve being Steve, he would blame himself for it so she made a little bit of time to explain how things are currently hectic in the lab.

  Steve felt a little bit of weight lifted from his shoulders when she approached him after training one afternoon. She handed him his shield as she talked about a few changes and improvements she did here and there. He was so happy that she was finally talking to him again that he couldn’t help but just admire the way her lips moved and her eyes looked at him with a glint of excitement as she talked about his shield.

  “Steve?” Her smooth voice brought him back to reality and he smiled at her adoringly, patting her shoulder awkwardly before thanking her for the improvements she did on his shield. “I just want to point out that I’m not avoiding you.” Y/N bit her upper lip as she looked at Steve shyly. Steve thought that she could never be more adorable than this.

  “Tony and I are working on this research and we’re both really working our asses off. We’re so hellbent on finishing the research so we’re always working on it over time. I just… I don’t want you to think that I’m avoiding you.” She finished with a breath. 

  Steve looked down at her, processing her words before breaking off into a grin. He leaned down to give her a hug which she gladly returned before pulling away. Steve cursed at himself for immediately missing the way she felt against him. 

  Steve lets out a loud sigh before smiling at her. “Thank, god. I thought I scared you away.”

  “Never” she grinned before looking down at her wristwatch. “Well, I gotta head back to the lab” she gives him a smile before offering him a handshake, saying “Friends?”

  Steve bit the insides of his cheeks as he remembered the position he put himself in. 

  He gripped her small hand with his big ones before nodding. “Friends.”

  Y/N thought that the day she and Tony get to finish their research would never come but here’s Tony now, planning a party for the achievement. He’s also telling you something about introducing and showing you off to an old friend of his that he invited. Max Eisenhardt, you heard Tony say. He was a fellow scientist who specialized in magnets and Tony can’t wait to show him your research about vibranium.

Steve finds Y/N in the kitchen a few hours before the party starts, making her famous iced chocolate milk. “Do my eyes deceive me or is that my most favorite chocolate drink in the world?” Steve walks over to her, placing his elbows on top of her head before placing his chin on them. “Congratulations on finishing the research, Y/N. I’m really proud of you.” He sincerely says and he watches her duck under his arms and looks at him with a playful smile. “Thank you, Steve.” She makes a move to fix her hair before looking back at the glass. “And yes. This is your favorite drink” she winks at him.

“Well, not to be presumptuous or anything but… is it for me?” Steve bites his bottom lip as she pretends to think about it before nodding. “Of course, it is! It’s been so long since I made you one so I figured I’ll make you one before the party starts.” She grins at him before handing him the glass which he gleefully takes before drinking it, not minding the whipped cream that stained his nose and his lips. 

 Steve’s heart leaps in joy when he hears her laugh at him before handing him a towel. “Clean yourself up, captain. I’ll see you later at the party.” She waves at him before leaving the kitchen. Steve would’ve preferred it if she was the one wiping his face but he settled with cleaning his face on his own.

You settled on wearing black slacks, a white button-down shirt, and a pair of black flats. Tony mentioned something about introducing you to his scientist friends so you figured that a formal attire would suffice. You were barely starting on fixing your hair when Tony barged in. He took a quick look at you before smirking and dragging you out of your room and into the elevator. 

 “What the hell, Mr. Stark. I wasn’t done—”

 “You already look amazing. Cap will definitely lose it.” Tony smirks at you and before you could even say something, the elevator door opens. He gently pushes you out of the elevator before pulling you towards a middle-aged man who smiled at you immediately when he saw Tony dragging you towards him.

 “That’s Max Eisenhardt” Tony whispers to your ear before pushing you towards the guy. You stopped yourself from falling onto Max and he was nice enough to steady you by placing both of his hands on your arms. “You okay?” He gently spoke with an accent you couldn’t quite name.

 Y/N cursed at Tony in her mind for putting her in this situation. She manages to give the man a smile before nodding flusteredly. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Mr. Max. I’m Y/N. Mr. Stark’s lab assistant.” Y/N offered a hand for him to shake but he quickly shook his head. 

 “No need for formalities. Call me Erik or Magneto.” He reached for your outstretched hand and pulled on it until you fell onto his chest. He wrapped his arms around you before chuckling and pulling away. You gave him an awkward smile before nodding and sneakily walking away when he and Tony started talking about magnets and whatnot.

 Steve’s blood boiled when he watched the interaction between one of Tony’s friends who calls himself Magneto and Y/N. The way he shamelessly grabbed you and flirted with you made Steve think of horrible things on how to dismantle a man’s arm. He hated this feeling. He was so sure that he’s jealous. He knows that he’s jealous.

 Tony somehow managed to push you towards Magnet—or was it Magneto? Max? Erik?— every time he would find you hiding from the guy and you managed to sneak away every time as well. He seemed like a really nice man but he could learn a thing or two about taking hints. She politely rejected him five times already and he still hasn’t given up yet. Y/N just have another guy in her mind and possibly her heart so she couldn’t be bothered by any other person. She’s got eyes on Steve and him alone.

 Steve felt so proud and giddy whenever you would politely dismiss this Magneto guy’s advances on you. He would watch as you would shake your head with a smile before leaving the guy. He enjoyed watching the guy get rejected over and over again but at the same time, he hated seeing you so uncomfortable. 

 Steve couldn’t do anything but watch as Tony introduced you to a bunch of other threats scientists. He was doing his best to remain calm but when he saw you smiling and getting cozy with one of the younger scientists, he couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t do anything and he didn’t have the right to be jealous so what the hell would he do? He also couldn’t just stay and watch as another guy wins her heart.

 Steve settled on ditching the party.

 “Y/N, is that you?” A familiar yet strange voice spoke up from behind her as she was ducking behind a wall, avoiding a certain scientist. 

 Y/N felt like the angels above blessed her when she saw a familiar face when she turned to look at where the voice came from. “Cisco?! Is that really you?” The smaller man with long hair nodded while grinning at her. He spread his arms to his sides before saying, “The one and only!” 

 Y/N couldn’t help but squeal and jump on her heels as she jumped into his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could. She knew Cisco from freshman year in college up until they got their own jobs in very well known industries. “Oh my god, it’s been so long!” 

 The two continued to talk and catch up with each other’s lives until a point where Cisco bid his friend farewell saying something about needing to be home for his family.

 Y/N tries to look for the one person she wants to be with but fails to see his face at the party so she decides to look for him at the compound before a certain Magnet named scientist comes for her again.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Y/N groans as she closes Steve’s door. She frowned at him before asking, “Why’d you leave the party?” 

 Steve closed his eyes before letting out an exasperated sigh. “The atmosphere was becoming a little too much for me” he gives her a cheeky smile, patting the spot beside him on the bed. Y/N happily plops herself down beside him before nodding. “Yeah. Tony’s really good at being too much with his parties. Also, I think his friend got mad at me” 

 Steve frowned at that. “Magneto?” his face reddens when he sees her watching him, probably wondering how he knew the scientist. She’s probably thinking how much of a creep I am and how I was watching her the whole time. 

 Much to Steve’s relief, she chuckles under her breath before shaking her head. “So that’s his name! I understand why he got so annoyed now!” Y/N laughs and Steve just watches her with a smile on his face. 

 “Why? What happened?” Steve asks, praying to god that no asshole tried to hurt you. “I kept calling him Magnet instead of Magneto...” Y/N watches Steve as he lets out a laugh, his eyes closing, and little wrinkles forming at the sides of his eyes. Why is he so beautiful?

 “Tony seemed determined to push that guy to me though…” Y/N stares off into the distance and Steve managed to get all the confidence he could get to ask. “Seems like he was trying to set you up with a lot of his scientist friends.” he chuckles but it was so dry, he was scared that she might see how annoyed he was with the idea.

 Y/N tilts her head and looks at him with furrowed eyebrows and at that moment, Steve felt his heartache for not having the guts to just ask the woman in front of her out. How can she manage to make his heart feel like this every single time?

 “What do you mean? Magneto’s the only guy he’s setting me up with” Y/N’s voice cuts Steve's internal battle with himself. 

 “What about that guy with the long hair… I think his name was Cisco?” Steve pretends to not know his name but in all honesty, he’d done every research on the guy as soon as he got to his room.

 “Oh! Cisco!” Y/N’s face lights up at the mention of her friend’s name and Steve felt his heart break a little at her excitement. “He’s an old friend from college. He’s a very nice guy.” Y/N starts and Steve prepares himself for the heartbreak that’s inevitable.

 “We were both freshmen and I used to get bullied by this group of guys. You would think that being in college would stop all the stereotypes and all that but no. These guys would always torment me just because they can but then Cisco, I didn’t know him yet, stood up for me. Even though he was much smaller than the guys and is completely outnumbered, he still fought them and instead of me being bullied, it was us two getting all the torment. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.” Y/N laughs at the end of her story, remembering the event in her mind. 

 Steve’s blood boiled at the thought of people bullying you. If there is anything that he hates the most, it was bullies. As much as he tried to hate this Cisco friend of yours, he genuinely sounds like a nice guy. Kind of reminds him of himself.

 “I can’t believe how we both turned out to be. We’re both scientists now but it looks like he’s doing much better than I am.” Y/N looks down and shakes her head with a smile.

 “What do you mean? If you ask me, I think you’re doing a hell of a job!” Steve’s voice cracks a little and he couldn’t help but blush as Y/N looks up at him with a smirk.

 “I know. I’m working for Tony Stark, for goodness sake. It’s just Cisco is living the complete package of adulthood. Being married, having kids, and all that.” Y/N sighs, standing up from the bed before moving towards the door.

 Oh… Oh!

 Steve stood up from the bed as fast as he could, walking towards her with determination. 

 “Woah, Steve. I’m just going to get some snacks—” Y/N stops talking as Steve pulls out a small velvet box from his slacks and hands it to her. 

 “I uhh… Congratulations on the research, Y/N. I’m really proud of you.” he guides her hands to open the box, revealing a vintage necklace with a scarlet gemstone.

 “Steve… You honestly didn’t have to.” Y/N admires the necklace before running her fingers against the red stone. Steve takes the necklace and moves to stand behind her. “May I?” He asks her to which she quickly nodded.

 Steve stared at Y/N and admired how she managed to look ethereal with or without the necklace. “You know… I bought that necklace for you a few months after I met you.” This was it. Steve couldn’t keep his feelings from her anymore. He might regret it later but at least he got to tell her how he really feels.

 “You did?” Y/N whispers under her breath as she looks up at Steve when he tilts her chin up with his fingers.

 “When you were tasked to babysit me, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About how you were so understanding. The way you were so patient with me. The way your eyes lit up each time you would tell stories about something you’re passionate about.” Steve gulps before continuing, “I knew I was fucked when you laughed at one of my lame jokes. I remember how angelic your voice sounded and how everything seemed to disappear and all I could see was your face.”

 Y/N stared at Steve with hooded eyes. It felt like she was in a dream. She watched how his eyes glossed and watched him breathe through his lips before he leaned closer to her, lips barely touching.

 “What about being friends?” Y/N watches him as he bites his bottom lip.

 “Fuck being friends” he breaks the distance and kisses her with determination. One of his hands finds its way to her back while the other cradles her face, pulling her closer to him as if he didn’t want any space between them. 

 Y/N’s hands find their way towards the back of his neck, pulling him closer with the same determination. They didn’t pull away from each other until they needed to breathe. 

 Steve goes back in for another kiss, guiding her back to the bed and positioning himself on top of her.

 Their night was just getting started and wouldn’t end any time soon.

  Steve stared at you while you peacefully slept beside him. You looked otherworldly wearing nothing but the necklace he gave to you, rays of sunshine hitting parts of your skin, and his blanket laying on top of your body. He decided then and there that he will always want to wake up to this view. He wants to wake up every day with you beside him. He smiled at the idea. 

 His cheeks tinted red when he remembered how you looked on top of him and how you looked under him. How you became breathless because of him and how your body squirmed under his touch. Just the thought of you makes his cock spring back to life. It doesn’t help that you’re currently staring at him with a small smile and tired eyes. 

 “You’re awake!” Steve breathes out, eyes widening a little.

 “Good morning to you too” Y/N chuckles at Steve's reaction before turning to look at the ceiling.

 “You’re beautiful, you know that?” Steve leans down to kiss your lips, then your nose,  and then your forehead. You smile up at him before kissing his lips.

 “So we’re not friends anymore?” Y/N raises an eyebrow at him before giving him a cheeky smile.

 “I want to do this the right way.” Steve watches Y/N tilt her head in confusion.

 “Let me take you out on a date,” Steve asks. 

 “I think you got your sequence a bit mixed up, Steve.” Y/N grins and Steve retorts with showering her face with kisses making her giggle under him.

 “Okay! Okay! I’ll go on a date with you on one condition.” Y/N straightens up before staring at him seriously.

 “Anything” Steve responds immediately.

 “I’ll go on a date with you if you agree to become my boyfriend” Y/N gives him a toothy smile.

 “I will gladly be your boyfriend… I guess I’m not the only one who got the sequence of dating all messed up, huh?” Steve teases her and she just laughs in return, taking Steve’s dress shirt from the floor and putting it on. It was big on her so it fell just above her knees and she rolled the huge sleeves up to her forearms.

 Steve admires her in his clothes. Another view that he would always want to see. He stands from the bed only to pull her body on top of him as he lays back on the bed.

 “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let you go.” Steve’s voice was deep and sincere and he loved how her body responded to his voice.

 “I’ll only leave you when you no longer want me but I’ll still be there to watch over you. I’ll always be there when you need me.” Steve turned her body around so now they were chest to chest.

 “I don’t think that’s possible.” Y/N watches Steve as he furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

 “I will never not want you. Besides, I got it bad for you just as you got it bad for me.” Y/N leans her face closer to his, pressing her forehead against his. 

 “How do you know that?” Steve smiles as he looks at her lips before looking back at her eyes.

 “Because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let you go as well.” Y/N grins before pressing a kiss on his lips and him immediately responding to the kiss by pulling her body closer to his. A kiss that sealed their relationship because they were no longer just friends.

#steve rogers fluff #steve rogers smut #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers oneshot #captain america #captain america imagine #captain america fluff #captain america smut #captain america x reader #friends to lovers

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

I know it's been said before buy I just have to say I know the whole demetri and yasmine plot was just so that all the gay undertones of the rivalry and obsession and tension between Demtri and hawk could be easily overlooked

Lololol Anon you’re not even WRONG

Once they yeeted Moon out of the picture the writers were like “Oh shit, better No Homo it again!!!”

I guess in the writer’s (very feeble) defense, they DID set it up kinda, by having Demetri be like “Wow!!! I’d love to have Yasmine spit in my face!!!” and then very atrociously trying to hit on her at the beach party. But I thought his sorta-crush on her was just supposed to be like...comic relief??? Like “haha look at this nerdy guy being hot for this sexy popular chick he’ll never, ever get, isn’t it good memes???” I mean, him coming on to her at the party and just FAILING at every level was so incredibly funny BECAUSE of how much someone like her was just...never going to go for a dude like that in a million years. Like I thought that was the whole joke??? And Cobra Kai seems a bit more realism-leaning than some teen shows in how the teenagers actually act, so I figured from that angle it was gonna be the trope of “nerdy guy into hot popular bitchy girl” set up...but then, Reality Ensues, and she’s not only not remotely interested, but mildly to moderately disgusted at the idea. And that’s the comedy of it.

So yeah, after Season 1, I thought we were done with that whole arc, and it was literally just like...a joke “love” subplot to balance out the more serious relationship difficulties Miguel was having at the time. But now...Yasmine’s back, I guess??? And she apparently did a full 180 and is sorta nice now and went through a bunch of Character Development offscreen, none of which we got to see? So I GUESS her and Demetri were hinted to eventually become a thing, just like...very, very poorly. And in “hints” I assumed we were in no way meant to take seriously at all.

But yeah, the Yasmine/Demetri thing DOES seem kinda thrown in last-minute, given how finished that arc felt back in s1. And we only ever really get to see Yasmine when she’s interacting with Demetri, so it really feels like she was only brought back to be his love interest, which like...VERY weird flex, Cobra Kai writers, but okay :/

It IS incredibly sus how much time and energy Hawk and Demetri devote to their rivalry in particular, rather than like...idk, moving on with their lives??? Just ignoring each other and doing their own things, now that they are officially no longer bros and are in different friend circles, etc etc? Like they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to fuck with each other when they could just like...chill and move on. Like Demetri, a socially-awkward dude with limited people skills, works up the balls to get onstage and roast Hawk in front of an entire partyful of peers. Hawk SEARCHES THROUGH AN ENTIRE SCHOOL to hunt down Demetri at the school fight. Hawk goes up to Demetri on the first damn day back at school just to GLARE at him ominously (which I also just realized is RIGHT after some freshman girls give Demetri moony looks as they pass--jealous much???) Later on, Hawk coulda ignored Demetri and finished eating lunch with his Cool New Friends, but instead he goes out of his damn way to bust Demetri’s project and then come over and roast him about it. Demetri then eagerly goes over and reciprocates said roasting and spends that entire fucking soccer game tryna screw with Hawk in particular. They fricken almost IMMEDIATELY go for each other in the Golf N Stuff fight, IIRC. Really, they devote more time and energy to each other and their Rivalry™️ than either does to like...any other character? Like are Eli’s thoughts 90% “what’s the next thing I can do to fuck with Demetri?” Are Demetri’s thoughts 90% “what’s the next thing I can do to fuck with Eli?” Because like...I just don’t think obsessing over another man that much, even in a negative context...is very straight XD

There’s also the fact that their arcs are WAY more intertwined with each other’s than ANY girl either of them dates or interacts with. I mean ffs, Moon dumped Hawk BECAUSE of how he treated Demetri--even Hawk’s supposed Straight Romantic Subplot™️ ties directly back into Demetri! And the only reason Demetri joins Miyagi-Do at ALL and doesn’t just like...fade into the background in Season 2 is to show HAWK SPECIFICALLY that he can “fight back.” And later we have DEMETRI being the one to make Hawk realize he’s gone too far with Cobra Kai (i.e. his guilt after breaking Demetri’s arm) and ultimately being the catalyst that makes Hawk SWITCH SIDES! I honestly think every major point of development for both characters directly involves the other in some way--you could even argue Eli initially becomes “Hawk” in part because Demetri quits Cobra Kai, and isn’t around to stick up for him anymore--so he has to find another way to protect himself from bullying. Even their sense of “dojo rivalry” is mostly just about each other--Hawk’s animosity toward Miyagi-Do lowkey seems to stem almost entirely from Demetri in particular joining it and “betraying” him, while Demetri’s animosity toward Cobra Kai basically entirely comes from Cobra Kai taking Eli away from him. I literally like...cannot think of a single thing in either of their developments that doesn’t tie into the other in a major way. 

Like to put it plainly, Moon and Yasmine feel like a single step in each of the boys’ character journeys--a single turning point to spur them in a certain direction. But Demetri and Hawk just...ARE each other’s character journeys. They’re not a step for the other to discover something about themself or get pushed in a certain direction--they just ARE the entire arc for each other, if that makes any sense. Like you could argue BOTH Demetri and Eli/Hawk’s arcs like 90% center on how to navigate their relationship when Eli gains confidence and their interests diverge and they no longer need each other the way they used to. Like??? Name ONE aspect of either of their arcs that doesn’t tie directly into their undying gay love friendship in some way??? It’s INCREDIBLY integral to both their stories and is just...SO much more compelling to watch than either of them making out with hot girls at parties or in the hallway. And them repairing their relationship and/or evolving it as needed, realizing that they love each other too much to let one another go, even if they’re both somewhat different after everything??? And realizing it’s a romantic kinda undying love they’re feeling, because really, what good reason is there for it NOT to be??? We HAVE enough male characters in media already with strictly platonic/brotherly friendships, why not just let two male characters with a compelling story, a strong prior friendship, and REALLY good romantic chemistry just like...be gay??? It feels natural, it’s a good ending to their arc, it feels narratively satisfying in a “Finally having the ‘will they or won’t they’ couple get together” kinda way...why not do it??? It makes ALL the damn sense and would be incredibly thematically interesting and SATISFYING, but y’all writers are COWARDS DAMMIT

Just gonna make that crack ship from Season 1 canon so we can prove that Demetri isn’t gay, no sir??? No Homo my guy??? We can only have one (1) LGBT character per television show, or the “traditional values” viewers will come for us???

Pre Season 3 I honest to god was hoping that part of Demetri’s arc, if he ran into Yasmine again, would be him realizing that he could honestly do better than someone that bitchy and vile, and having enough self-respect to just...lose interest in someone who’s going to push him around, act like he’s beneath her, and talk smack about his friends the second she thinks they’re “lame.” Maybe it isn’t too late though, and we’ll see this in Season 4? Here’s to hoping, because I am going to THROW HANDS if this fricken pairing is ENDGAME endgame. Like...what even do these people have in common, besides getting wedgies??? Do they even have like...any of the same interests??? At all??? How are they going to build a lasting relationship off of...both having gotten a wedgie? And being mean to people sometimes, I guess?

Like, sure. Let them date for a bit--they’re horny teens, they’re prone to jumping into relationships for not exactly the most deep and meaningful reasons. Physical attraction, teenage horniness, and raging hormones are no joke. So sure, I can see them having a fling solely because they both think the other’s hot. But you wanna tell me they’d LAST??? No SIR, I must inform you I Do Not Buy it.

(Tfw you meant to do a short ask making memes about what a crackship Demetri/Yasmine was in Season 1 and you ended up having WAY too much to say about All The Things and now it’s 3 am and you’re typing like a madman. I probably cycled back across the same 5 points like 5 times each because it’s late and I’m not thinking straight, I apologize.)

#hawk x demetri #demetri x eli #binary boyfriends #hawkmeat #demetri x hawk #eli x demetri #elimetri #demetri cobra kai #eli moskowitz #hawk #yasmine cobra kai #moon cobra kai #cobra kai #cobra kai season 1 #cobra kai season 2 #cobra kai season 3 #my askbox

[chrispaulcolfer]

What do you think of Kurt’s relationship with:

Rachel

Mercedes

Santana

any other friendship with girl? Brittany or Tina?

Oh boy. Okay.

Rachel: hate it. Hate the way it transitioned to sudden besties out of no where. Hate how it turned Kurt into her cheerleader 90% of the time while she took the 10% to reciprocate (Swan Song for example, that was a good pep talk from her to him). Hate how when he's not with New Directions, she's happy to help him try for a solo because he's her "only competition". Yet, when he tries for leading man material at McKinley, she too laughs in his face. When he gets the NYADA letter and she doesn't, she turns his excitement into her pity party. When he wins Midnight Madness, she turns it into "I guess I'm not talented enough and won't audition for anything". I hate how when she ditches him for fake friends who bad mouth him, she doesn't see that as a red flag to ditch them, until they vote for him and not her. I hate how she manipulates Elliott into claiming Kurt kicked her out when it was her own damn choice, and disowns Kurt when he didn't automatically take her side by playing referee for her outlandish claims against Santana. I hate "my best gay", it isn't cute, it isn't quirky, it's stupid and Kurt Hummel does deserve a better best friend who doesn't just use him to hoist themselves up. I'm glad Colfer called it the fuck out in his episode, even if it was magically fine at the end again just because she showed up to his Peter Pan show - shocker. I hate how she destroyed him being the actual student president by cheating, but that's fine because she owns up to it I guess? Like they still had to claim the cheerleader the winner who did nothing all year, when they could've had Kurt who would actually have done something good, but aT LeAsT sHe WaS HoNeSt right?????? I mean she is the one who also decided to run against him for a hot minute too, but SHE DROPPED OUT GUISE. BFF'S. It would've been so much better if they both went to New York, and then agreed to be roommates because it would be cheaper and we see them expand into actual friendship from there. Kurt doesn't need to stay relevant as a character just by being Rachel's best friend on the fact they both are into Broadway. THAT is the stereotype. Because remember, he's gay and she has two gay dads, so meant to be in each other's lives. Also ew having Rachel as a surrogate, what the fuck. No. Keep that controlling person away from any child of Kurt and Blaine's, that'll just cause more problems.

Mercedes: Maybe it's Colfer and Riley's friendship chemistry showing on screen, but I love and will forever love this friendship. I love that Kurt can admit he's wrong with her! ON HIS OWN! No sob story, no passive aggressiveness, no call out. Him realizing encouraging her to lose the weight was wrong? Growth. No, it isn't a perfect friendship, but it didn't start out of no where either. Kurt being dumb with trying to set her up with dates so he didn't feel bad in befriending Blaine. Mercedes letting her religious blinders encourage Kurt to go to church with her - but at least she approaches this conversation honestly, she doesn't sugar coat it from her point of view, which is good. They're both honest with one another. They're in each other's corners. Kurt Hummel heart eyeing every time she performs is the best. And it's dumb that it got pushed to the back for season 3 and onward. It should've grown from high schooler kids to young adults like a fine wine, instead of getting overlooked. There was potential of Mercedes being the surrogate, or even just another egg donor! But you know, some people needed to be zeroed in on and characters had to be tied to that characters hip, and Mercedes wasn't it.

Santana: Can you imagine how great (or terrible) this could've been if Kurt remained on the Cheerios? We can dream! But what we got in S4&S5 was great. Nice bantering, a mutual respect and understanding becoming a thing over time. They made pacts! They swore to each other about things off screen! She and him would've made a dangerous duo in New York if Rachel never moved back into the loft. She could've encouraged him to loosen up more, he would've helped her unlock a more vulnerable side of emotions when it came to catching feelings! Would've loved to see them bonding more like they did with the boyfriend arms watching TV! We were robbed, and s6 destroyed it all together, so. I wish we could've seen them on double dates, with Dani and Blaine. I wish we could've seen her trying to hook him up with guys in season 4! But no, two Slytherin's teaming up is too dangerous I guess. Fuck you glee.

Brittany: In the first season, it's nice to see that Brittany was the popular girl but still showing up to Kurt's house and dancing with him. It's because of her he joins the football team, briefly, and we get to see him kick ass at it and make a win for the Titans for the first time in however long! That's a big deal. I'm glad that she also approaches him in his "straight" phase and offers to help. And I'm glad she encourages Santana to go support Kurt during Prom Queen. BUT ANYTHING AFTER THAT, is null and void. Because she suddenly becomes this overly stupid child who only wants things done her way. When she offers to help him with his running for class president, she only focuses on him being gay and that's it - because it makes him a unicorn? It's a homophobic school, you really think shoving it in the bullies faces won't get him laughed out of a win? And he ditches the idea last minute anyway, so why bother going with that twist anyway? And when he gives her the rundown on what he wants to do, she ignores him and does it her way. When he gets mad, all of a sudden it's poor Brittany, she was just trying to help, Kurt's a meanie face. And when he (stupidly) accepts her idea for the campaign posters, she's like "oh by the way, I'm running against you now sorry I didn't tell you lol". And the bullshit of season 6 of her telling him that he needs to get over Blaine, then magically wants them to be in her and Santana's wedding? No. Keep her as far away from Kurt as possible after season 2.

Tina: Remember when Kurt fake dates her first? Wouldn't that have been an interesting play throughout that episode? Seeing Burt ask about Tina, Kurt bringing Tina over for dinner, Kurt and Tina discussing this new beard-ship for his dad, and then when he comes out, she would've been so happy for him? WE WERE ROBBED, YET AGAIN. We see them being friends throughout the seasons, but there isn't any growth with it. We don't really see her and Kurt doing things outside of school again. We see her help him for his NYADA audition as Christine (which he replaces her for Rachel, big shock, fuck you). We see him defending her against the jock bullies in the hallway. We see them walking to glee club together. But there's still nothing expanded on so it just falls flat. Clearly she and Kurt talk still after he graduates, as they both enjoy gossip. But what else?! We don't know! It had potential for friendship outside of school and outside of just gossiping! But alas.

#answered #anti Rachel Berry #anti hummelberry #anti brittany pierce #long post #fuck glee basically #😌 kurtanacedes ot3 basically. could've had it all.

[casualotptrash]

Fixes to the Persona Series- Social Links

This was originally going to be the whole point 6 in my Fixes to the Persona Series post, but it was basically the same length as points 1-5 combined so I didn’t want to make the post mega-huge.

Link to the whole post about this topic.

(Spoilers for a lot of P3 things, including the plot and second awakenings) 

I’ll start off with this point, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?

I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.

I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear. 

Now I’m going to go into the structure of how social links are made and how they affect the characters. I have so much to say about this it’s not even funny. There are two major parts to this, but the second heavily ties into the first, so I’ll just go through them one at a time while trying to make sense.

The first part is that, simply put, integral character growth should not be tied to social links. The completion/tipping point of a character’s growth seems to be signified by their second awakening taking place. For example, in P3, all of the cast members awaken after a big event happens in game which causes them to grow. Most of this is them learning how to move on past the deaths of their loved ones, but still the idea remains the same. The game still has some pretty significant social links with party members too, so it’s not like the social links really suffered from this. In fact, I would say it made the social links even better, and it did this by fleshing out the characters further.

For this example, I’m going to use Akihiko’s growth from the story and social link in P3P because I feel like I know it quite well and it’s one of the best examples of this.

In the main story, it’s clear that Akihiko has a couple of problems. He’s quick to fight, reckless with his own health, and cant let go of the past. Along with these traits, he also cares very much about his friends. He considers Tartarus to be a training ground, is actually injured for the first few months of the game, scolds the MC, Junpei, and Yukari a bit for going out to the alleyway (where Shinji saved them) because it was dangerous, and desparately wants Shinji to rejoin SEES. Him and Shinji, on multiple occasions, talk about the incident where Shinji killed Ken’s mother. Akihiko says that Shinji needs to let go of the past, and Shinji echoes the same sentiment back at him.

What all of these problems step from is the death of his sister, Miki. They were both young and orphans, along with Shinji, and one day during a fire Shinji held Akihiko back from running back into the burning building. Inside the burning building was Miki, who Akihiko was trying to get to, and sadly she died in the fire (I’m pretty sure all of this isn’t revealed until P3P with his social link, but in any version of the game we find out that Miki is dead). Because of this, he felt powerless and from then on strived to be powerful enough to save those around him, which is why he’s obsessed with training to such a degree that he doesn’t care about personal harm to himself.

All of this eventually comes to a head when Shinji dies in the story, and Akihiko isn’t able to save him. At a memorial for his death, Akihiko says this:

“I was too obsessed with power. Ever since I lost Miki, that's all I've cared about. I thought that if I was strong enough, I could protect anyone. But I was wrong... And now You're gone too... I'm such an idiot. In battle, there's always a chance of dying... I knew that! But I was so focused on fighting that I didn't notice anything else! It didn't matter how tough I was! Look what happened!”

He cries for his friend, and then is reminded that this is not what Shinji would want. He would want him to keep living his life, and finally let go of the ghosts of his past. So, this is what he does. At that point, his character growth basically reaches its climax and he awakens to Caesar. This all happens in the main story of the game.

Now, how did they decide to do his social link in P3P? Personally, I think it was genius. Due to all of that growth being integral to the main story, they could not just take it out and shove it into a social link. They had to find another thing to make the social link about, and instead of making it about something pointless they connect it to the main growth in the game. (Note, this social link is only available in the FeMC route)

In general, what his social link is about mirrors his growth in the main story a lot. In the beginning, he treats the MC with an overwhelming sense of care, almost to a condescending degree. You’re always going out to eat, him saying how much you need to eat to grow strong, and jogging/running with him. Taking out the more romantic parts of the social link (although they are *chefs kiss*), eventually it progresses to the point where he asks you if you can stop being the field leader of SEES. Of course, he immediately takes this back and laments that you couldn’t just do that. You have the option to question if he thinks you arent good enough for the job, and he quickly says that the MC is capable, and he didn’t mean to imply that you werent, but he doesn’t want you to be in danger. The social link is frozen after this, as Akihiko doesn’t know how to balance his overwhelming worry and concern about the MC being hurt.  

After Shinji’s death, the social link continues and he reveals the event of Miki’s death. At one point even says he feels like he doesn’t deserve to live because she died. It’s a very sad event, but because of his resolution from the main story with Shinji’s death he is able to open up to the MC. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that he’ll never get over the anger and sadness he feels for his sister’s death, and he accepts that she is dead, but he feels guilty because he wanted to ask you to bear this burden with him. He also starts to wonder what his feelings toward the MC mean, because he is very conflicted, and admits he might be seeing Miki in you (hence the overwhelming protecting nature he has for you in the link, and slightly condescending big-brother tendencies).

In his rank 9, he admits that he was tired of losing what was important to him. He thought that it would be better not to let things get too important, rather than risk losing them. He realizes this is wrong, and says he now knows he needs to work to protect everything precious from him. If the romance route was taken then he sees you as a precious loved one, while if the romance route is not taken he likens you to the status of Miki, aka a precious sister to him.

As you can see from the synopsis, a lot of what was in the social link is directly tied into his main growth in the story, however it is also not integral to his main growth. It stems off of it, not the other way around. Whoever made the extra social links in P3P did an amazing job at doing this exact thing, perhaps because they couldn’t change the growth in the main story. Either way, it’s a perfect example of how social links should be done.

If you’re interested in watching the growth from the social link directly, here is the link: Akihiko social link rank 1-10

You might be thinking, how is this issue really that big of a problem? Akihiko was a great character before his P3P social link, so if the growth is there either way (in story or social link) then it should be fine. My answer to this is in short, as the series progressed from P3 this problem got worse to the point where it negatively impacts the characters. The reason this got worse and impacts the characters so much, especially with the ones from P5, is because of the nature of how social links are set up. Obviously, social links are optional. They have to be, because not everyone is going to finish all of them in one run. This presents the unique issue of needing to make social links meaningful, but also not necessary. I would think anyone who reads that sentence would immediately understand how those two things do not mix well, especially when almost all of the important character growth is pushed into the social link. I’ll be using the social links (party members specifically) in P5 as my example to illustrate this because they’re the best for this.

At the very best, party member confidants in P5 feel like they contribute a good bit of character development alongside the story (on the surface). At the very worst, confidants in P5 feel like they actively contradict the story. Ann is probably the best example of this, but it happens to the rest of the main cast too, to varying degrees. I’m not as familiar with Ann’s confidant as Akihiko’s, but I’m going to try and do my best.

Essentially, Ann’s confidant is about finding her passion, becoming a stronger person, and overcoming her guilt. Outside of the occasional discussions about Shiho, how strong she is, and Ann discussing how she needs to become strong for her, one of the main things you do in the confidant is help Ann use various methods to be a better model (because she comes to the conclusion that she wants to be serious about modeling, her hobby, since Shiho is trying so hard to get back to her normal life). I have played Persona 5 vanilla twice, and Royal twice, and every time I have completed Ann’s confidant. That being said, it’s kind of sad that I could do it four times and barely remember the “becoming a stronger person” and “overcoming her guilt” part of it (outside of Ann saying Shiho is strong, and Ann asking us to insult her to make her stronger). She does have a very good conclusion with Shiho, and it’s is really sweet to see them hug on the roof and everything, but other than that the main outcome of the confidant is that Ann is going to really try for her modeling career and needs to change her habits because of this. Some of those habits she changes is by eating less junk food, exercising, etc.

Here’s where the issue comes in. You go through this whole confidant and have Ann come to that conclusion, and then throughout multiple scenes (and the rest of the story) Ann adheres to none of it. It’s the most whiplash I’ve ever experienced when one day Ann says she’s going to cut the sweets, and then the next something happens in game and she’s just chowing down on all of the food. To be clear, I do not care if Ann is eating a lot of a little in the grand scheme of things. Like I said, this is just an example that illustrates the total tonal dissonance present from the social link to the main story.

The whole reason this occurs is because, like I said earlier, the confidant has to be meaningful but not necessary to the plot. This is a major problem when pretty much the whole reason for her character growth, the plot with Shiho, is in the confidant. No matter if you do the confidant or not, in the story the characters will always act as if the confidant plot has not happened at all...because they physically cannot write it into the main story as it is optional. The reason this worked with Akihiko was because he had his main growth outside of the social link, and the social link tied into his growth, and the reason this doesn’t work for the P5 cast is because their growth is set up in the opposite way. Instead of tying their main growth in the story to the confidant, the story acts as a stepping stone for their main growth in story of the confidant.

I predict some people might read what I just said and counter with the point “You cant just expect their whole personalities to change,” and they would be right, if that was what I was explaining. It’s not. Obviously base personality traits are always going to be present, but the reason for having character growth is for the characters to grow. Futaba can always be more shy and timid around others, but if you go through her whole confidant where she learns to be more independent and then later on have her go somewhere and completely shut down? That is not growth. Her change can manifest in her being shy about going somewhere new, but adapting to it a lot quicker than she did before the confidant was completed. But, like I said, because of how the confidants are set up this is just not possible.

It took this long to get here, but we finally arrive at how the second point ties in. The second point is that, because of this issue with tying in integral growth with the social link, the characters end up being very one-note in the story (if you take out the inclusion of the social link). In my opinion, P3 doesn’t really suffer from this (although there still are bland characters in that game. Sometimes the writing is just not that exciting. Sorry Fuuka, you’re better in the spinoffs), P4 suffers from it a little (Teddie talking about girls 90% of the time, Yukiko laughing at everything, Meat Chie, etc.), and P5 has the most rampant cases of this.

This doesn’t mean that the characters are not well written, it just means that the game is going to be way more enjoyable if you are able to max everyone’s social link in comparison to only maxing a few. Putting aside the gameplay benefits, I usually love my NG+ runs more than my first run because it allows me to see all of the characters so much more.

I know that all of the characters could be shoved into stereotypical boxes if we had to, but we basically don’t need to for P5. If you do not do any confidants with party members in P5, tell me how many times Ryuji shows his remorseful and caring side for the trouble he has caused the track team in the main story. Oh wait, you can’t! He’s pushed around as the proverbial butt-monkey for almost the entire game, and at least Junpei and Yosuke got some deeper interaction with the story when they were in this role. If you only experience Ryuji from the main plot, you’d probably want to throttle him with how many times he ogles at Ann, argues with Morgana, tries to pick up girls, and shouts about being a Phantom Thief and wanting fame.

I will admit, they do have some deep moments here and there, when the main story calls for it, but other than that (again, without doing the social link) the PT’s kind of have as much characterization as a piece of cardboard. This is a big problem, especially when the cast is full of great characters! I played P5 4 times, and it still isn’t my favorite cast. There are some really good characters in there, but they just could not compare to the P3 cast for me (even though P3 was filled with a lot of highs and a lot of lows). Yukari was kind of a bitch and I didn’t like her for a long time, but at least I felt something! Poor Haru is just shoved off into a corner and characterized as the “team mom but would kill you, sad her father died, also has a crush on you” for the whole game unless you do her confidant.

Jury is still out on the P4 cast, because I see a little bit of what P3 had going on and what P5 does in them. Every time Yosuke is talking about something serious or profound I get really excited, only for it to be followed up with some dumb (usually homophobic) joke. I like the extra interactions the P4 cast has in comparison to P5, but even in those situations it feels like each member is kind of cast into their stereotypical role (Teddie want pussy, Yukiko laugh, Chie meat, etc.). I imagine once I do finish P4G and get to do my NG+ I will like the cast a lot more, but only because I will be able to do all of their social links.

Despite all of this, whether a character from the game has great growth or not, you can always count on Atlus to flanderize each character into their one “defining” (aka memed) trait to hell and back in any spinoff.

Sorry, don’t mind me crying in the corner with how Akihiko was massacred from a deep character into a protein junkie.

#long post #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona series #p3 #p3p #p4 #p5 #shush just shut the hell up about protein for five goddamn minutes #please god he only mentioned it once in p3 #maybe twice who knows #AND IT WAS COMPLETELY BY CHANCE TO SEE IT #Atlus why do you massacre your great characters #it's not funny anymore #I want d e p t h

[xiverni]

Redemption and “Consequences”

A lot of talk has been had recently as of chapter 284 of both Endeavor and Bakugo’s “redemptions”, and how they seem to be leading up to some grand consequences for their actions, a final karmic retribution of sorts. People often talk about how these two characters have never had to “pay” for their actions, and that they have never had to face any real consequences. 

Of course, this notion is flawed from the surface all the way to the foundation. Not only have these two characters suffered quite a lot throughout their stay in the story, but the very notion that characters have to “face retribution” in order to become redeemed is an odd, troubling, and frankly reactionary idea that should be discarded as childish nonsense. 

To begin with the idea that Bakugo and Endeavor have not suffered due to the consequences of their actions, even a cursory glance at the story can immediately dispel these arguments. Bakugo, due to his abrasive nature and inferiority complex, spent much of the series losing over and over again. From the initial school training arc to the school festival, Bakugo’s flaws have resulted in him failing at his goals, whether they are beating Deku or fighting Todoroki at his full strength. His anger issues and “villainous” outward appearance even led to a terrorist organization kidnapping him, leading to a situation in which Bakugo spent a good length of time wracked in guilt and trauma over his actions, which he believed contributed to All Might’s fall. This all culminates in his failure in the Provisional License Exams, in which Bakugo’s failings again prevent him from reaching his ambitions. 

It is after his second confrontation with Deku that Bakugo’s development starts picking up real speed, with the next arc that centers around him showing that Bakugo is learning that looking down on those weaker than you will only lead to worse outcomes for yourself. Additionally, it is from here that we begin seeing Bakugo both act more cooperatively with his teammates and (occasionally) prioritize saving people over winning. This is shown when he acts as a cooperative unit with his teammates in the Joint Training Arc, and he is seen saving civilians in the Meta Liberation Arc and the Endeavor Internship Arc. 

When it comes to Endeavor, he is a character that is definitely a lot more contentious than Bakugo, for a number of reasons. For one, Bakugo is an “attractive” character to many of those who read this story, thus he is able to get a lot of leeway as compared to other characters. Additionally, he is a literal child, thus he is treated with a lighter moral weight by the “fandom”. The idea that being under the age of 18 somehow makes you less morally responsible for your actions than anyone arbitrary older than that age has always rubbed me the wrong way. Yes, younger people have a less complete and mature perception of the world, thus it is generally fairer to treat them lighter. However, there are countless adults who suffer from the same immaturity problems and developmental issues as young people do. That said, this is a bit of a tangent already.

From the moment All Might retires, Endeavor has already begun suffering for his actions. He has finally reached the position of number one hero... In the worst way possible : by default. The public is at best ambivalent about his position, and his tenure as the head hero has overseen a sharp rise in crime and disorder in society. What’s worse, as soon as Endeavor finally realizes the horrible things he’s done to his family, it becomes apparent that it’s far too little too late, as Natsuo literally can’t bear being in the same room as Endeavor and Shoto is consistently coldly professional to him. Fuyumi and Rei, the two that are more receptive to Endeavor, are a) doing it out a sense of longing for a “true family” and not particularly out of a sentimental attachment for Endeavor as a person or father, and b) in the case of Rei, not even wanting to see Endeavor. Can you imagine the impact of finally growing and learning from your horrific past mistakes, only to find out that these mistakes will never be able to be moved on from? Can you imagine resolving your pride and selfish desires, choosing to leave behind the family you want to rebuild, all so that they can live comfortably and in peace? Endeavor has almost constantly been suffering since the day All Might retired, and even though it absolutely cannot be said that he doesn’t deserve his suffering, it is in fact still suffering that is being dealt to him.

There is also another argument that centers around legal repercussions for actions committed by these characters, which is something that I both concede has not occurred and simultaneously state is literally of no narrative significance. If these were in fact real people in the real world, there would be a compelling argument that Endeavor deserves to serve time in prison for his abusive behavior. However, appropriate legal punishments are not equivalent to self improvement by the method of narrative punishments. How the fuck would a jail sentence improve Endeavor’s moral character any more than it already has improved? For those who are actually making the claim that these characters should have in universe been given legal repercussions for their actions (as well as those who, hilariously, use Endeavor’s lack of legal consequences as proof that the heroes are bad), Endeavor’s actions are literally unknown to the general public. Additionally, bullying among students is pretty standard in Japan, while it is certainly not a good thing. Furthermore, I really don’t see the point in arguing about “physical violence” in terms of characters in a superhero story throwing around explosions like nothing (I am talking about Bakugo’s more abrasive nature, not Endeavor’s actual physical violence against his children, the latter of which is meant narratively to hold actual weight). People in this universe are obviously a lot more durable than people in our universe. Accept that this is a fictional story with unrealistic aspects, and that in order to critically examine it, you need to accept its basic premises at face value without assuming things using the outside world. 

Now to move to my actual argument, I see so many people obsessed with the idea of “bad” characters having to go through some sort of “trial” or “punishment” in order to become redeemed - as if that’s the way people work. While this may come as a surprise to some, bad people are in fact capable of becoming better human beings without experiencing any sort of karmic retribution. In fact, I would say that the resolve to become better, even without some outside force pushing upon you, is a far harder and meaningful journey than one in which you’re simply pummeled and punished into waving a white flag. It reminds me of the trope “defeat means friendship”, in which the protagonists defeat (typically physically) an enemy, thus converting that enemy into an ally or friend of sorts. 

Think about it like this: would you be more willing to forgive someone who committed a terrible crime, served no time in prison for it, but nonetheless learned from their mistakes and genuinely became a better person.... or someone who committed a terrible crime, served decades in prison, and then came out none the wiser to their own actions?

What makes this situation even funnier is that many of the people demanding karmic retribution for these characters’ actions would, in real life, be advocating for justice reforms that lean towards “rehabilitation” rather than “retribution”. In fact, it has pretty much been proven that rehabilitation is almost universally more effective at actually changing the mindsets of people as opposed to retribution. 

In conclusion, the characters people say haven’t been given consequences have been given consequences, and the prison system should be reformed. Tune in next time for more wacky and unexpected topics like societal collapse and the technological decline of human civilization in BNHA. 

#bnha #bnha spoilers #enji todoroki #endeavor #bakugo katsuki #narrative exploration #meta #mha #mha spoilers #bnha 284

[theninjamouse]

Ocean on Fire Phantom of the Opera AU Master List (To be added to as I see fit)

Strap in, this is gonna get long. Big thanks to @thaylepo for indulging me and sending many brilliant ideas. 

This is a basic rundown and ideas that would happen at some point in the story. Obviously some things could change or be added but I’ve just got to get this down before I go nuts

Shore and Grillby were childhood friends.

Shore is the child of a wealthy business man, taught from childhood that the arts are to be treasured and appreciated

However, while she may learn instruments and dance and music, she is to take over the family business, not run away to star in the opera like she wants

Grillby's father (he has parents in this au) was a famous violinist who often was called by Shore's father to perform for parties. He wound up teaching Shore fundamentals of music

Little Grillby was a shy flame. Always trailed along behind his father, clutching his tailcoats

Shore saw the tiny elemental and decided instantly: I'm going to be his BEST FRIEND

Queue stuttering, hesitant Grillby being dragged around the manor, getting into all sorts of trouble and adventures. He's a lot more hardy than Shore is, so he rather often found himself acting as a sort of guard dog. He was utterly distraught when Shore fell and broke her arm. Shore teased him about crying because she couldn’t stand to see him so upset

They also learn music together from Grillby's father. First time Shore hears Grillby sing, she grabs his face and screams with delight until the poor little guy is fully bright blue with blushing

Then Grillby's father dies. A family friend takes Grillby away to one of the opera houses to work. Grillby and Shore are 13 and 10 at this point and have spent the last 6 years together. Shore makes Grillby promise to keep singing, to keep the spark of his father alive through music. He promises

They both wait until they are out of sight of the other to cry

Grillby cries every night for the first 3 months in the opera house. As a monster, he is bullied by many of the other students. He mourns his father's passing and he misses Shore to a near unbearable level. The only comfort he has is when he sings quietly to himself in those few moments when he is alone doing his chores

Then he hears a voice, a soft and gentle voice that asks him why such a bright flame weeps. He runs away in fear and hides in his bed

But the voice asks him again and again. 'Why does such a bright flame weep?' Slowly, over the course of a year, Grillby tells the voice his story

The voice says he is the Phantom of the opera house. Grillby thinks he sounds rather young to be a Phantom

The Phantom replies that Grillby is rather young to have such a lovely voice. He offers to teach Grillby. The fire monster agrees upon hearing the Phantom's beautiful and haunting voice

After all, he did promise

15 years pass. Shore has taken over her family business and is finally able to offer herself as a patron to an opera house that has shown remarkable growth over the years, becoming well known in the arts circles

Partially thanks to the star of the show, a humanoid robot named Mettaton. Most of the monsters we know work the show behind the scenes, so having a monster in the lead is a new leap in gaining treatment that is more fair for monster kind as performers

But Mettaton is also a diva. The day Shore arrives with new managers, he throws his tantrum and quits after a rather suspicious accident.

Shore only has eyes for the fire elemental standing frozen with the rest of the crew. She suggests letting him take the lead role. Promising that she knows he can sing.

Grillby is so quiet most assumed he couldn't even talk so naturally protests break out and Shore maybe uses her power as a patron to insist. 'He promised me,' is all she says, looking right at him

So he sings and everyone is stunned at the strength and grace of his voice. The managers instantly whisk him away to prepare for the show

After the show, Shore goes to his new dressing room and they fall into each other's arms. They speak of times past, of the loneliness of being apart. But when Shore says that she wants to take him out to celebrate, he hesitates. The Phantom will not be happy if he leaves, he knows this

But he agrees and she leaves to let him change

Enter in The Phantom. Showing himself for the first time, a figure in black wearing a simple white mask over his face. White hands punched through the palms. Grillby is enchanted, dazed and follows The Phantom into the tunnels under the opera house

*Music of the Night noises*

Grillby has a bit of a Crisis because he genuinely cares about Phantom and they became very close friends as much as teacher and student but this is kind of odd?? A little frightening?

Phantom sees this, backpedals real hard but hides it and sends Grillby back upstairs before falling into bed and screaming into his pillow

When Shore finds Grillby vaguely wandering back into the theater, she goes, uh??? What happened?? Were you kidnapped? I kind of stayed up all night looking for you??

Grillby, still a little in shock because what the heck just happened "Kind of?"

Now that won't STAND

Shore starts digging to find out everything she can about this opera ghost, keeping a close eye on Grillby. There is no gaslighting here folks like in versions of the story that to this day drive me crazy

As Shore digs, accidents start happening. Loose floorboards, unlatched equipment, a falling sandbag or two. Shore catches on pretty quickly what’s happening when she catches just a flash of shadow more than once right before or after these little ‘incidents’ 

Finally plants herself down in the middle of the stage and calls for the Phantom to show his face. It takes a while then she sees a shadow just barely move. He’s up in the rafters, crouched like some kind of bat

“What is your freaking deal?” 

“Why are you trying to take what’s mine?” 

“Yours? He belongs to himself you dingbat”

That makes him laugh for reasons Shore doesn’t get

Conversation happens, a lot of dodging questions, shifting blame. Phantom is oddly charming. For being an attempted murdering/kidnapping jerk

“Are you the one who keeps trying to kill me? The sandbag dropped on my head, the broken trapdoor, the spiders in my hat??”

“Oh my God, I’m not responsible for every little thing that goes wrong in this place. It’s an old building, accidents do happen. 

“The sandbag was me though.”

Grillby materializes just to smack him in the head for that

And so it goes, Grillby and Shore trying to reconnect, Grillby trying to maintain a level of friendship (and maybe more?) with Phantom and Phantom attempting various levels of accidents to get Shore to leave the theater

Until one day he finds Shore on the stage. She’s singing to an empty theater. She’s not...good exactly but...rather unpracticed. He’s startled enough that he stops his evil giggling and untwisting of the hidden trapdoor in the stage to listen. 

He comes up silently, creeping on the edges just out of sight. When he speaks, Shore shrieks and nearly falls off the stage anyway. Her blushing does a weird thing to his Soul. Like a sort of flip flopping squeeze. 

“Well, if you’re going to think yourself worthy of my Flame, you’d better have a voice to match. Let me hear you sing again.”  

Many ‘threat’ filled lessons later-

“Hmm. Maybe there’s hope for you after all” 

“Maybe there’s more to you than a creepy stalker personality.” 

Past the Point of No Return scene happens at some point. I don’t make the rules

Also Phantom and Shore have a sword fight that maybe starts out as anger fueled but rather quickly changes to a pent up Feelings kind of deal

Grillby’s concern is quick to fade and he watches the two idiots dance around each other, wondering why exactly they don’t see how much they actually do like each other. 

It’s also at this moment he realizes fully that he loves them both

“Well shoot, I love these two morons and they love each other but won’t admit it. This is going to be very ‘fun’ to sort out”

Eventually, Shore asks for Phantom’s name. 

“My name...died with the person I was long ago.” 

“Maybe it’s time you reclaim it.” 

His name is Wing Dings Gaster and for countless years he was held by the Void. He doesn’t fully remember how he escaped, nor what he looked like before. All he knows is that his face is broken with terrible cracks and skeletal in only the vaguest sense with a body that ebbs and flows with darkness. When he first stumbled back into the light after the darkness of the Void, people screamed and ran from him. Or worse, they chased him, calling him an omen of death. So he retreated down below the theater and resigned himself to always be a watcher and made a mask to cover his face. 

He was alone for years until he heard young Grillby crying in a corner and sat as close as he dared. It took a while for him to gain the courage to speak to the elemental

Given the fluid nature of his body, it’s easy for him to change his voice to sing. It’s the only part of himself that he can see as holding any worth. 

Grillby was his only source of socialization and he’s terrified of losing him, which makes Phantom a tad bit clingy with some pretty severe separation anxiety 

Phantom is a sad, sad boy who needs a lot of hugs and therapy

Shore is kind to him despite it all (and despite the irritation at the ‘death threats’) 

Phantom finally admits that she was never in any actual danger because he might be a messed up guy but he’s not a murderer. He might have even nudged her out of the way with blue magic a few times to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

Eventually Phantom realizes he no longer wants her to leave. He wants to stand with her and Grillby. He wants to be a better monster but he doesn’t know how to do that so kind of retreats into his lair 

Grillby and Shore have to track him down. And queue the heart to heart, the great Crying Session, the Unmasking or whatever you wanna call it

And they all live an OT3 happy ending, the end

#OoF phantom au #grillby #gaster #gaster/grillby/reader #undertale #WHOOO finally got this all down #listen in this house #love triangles mean that all three are in love with each other! #and it's wonderful! #OoF extra

[alexiessan]

Never alone - Chapter One - Soulmate AU

AO3

Here - Next

Master List

@bigpicklebananatree

A year or so ago, Lila made the promise to Marinette that she would take all her friends away from her. The bluenette has scoffed at the idea, strongly believing that her friends knew better and would never turn her back on her.

And yet, for a few months, Marinette was afraid that Lila was succeeding in doing so.

With all her grand stories of travels and knowing a lot of celebrities and with Marinette not hiding her distaste of the girl, the then fourteen-year-old girl could feel a rift between herself and her classmates. It was subtle, but it was enough to feel it in the atmosphere.

Alya had tried a number of times to get Marinette to talk to Lila, to get her to know her better and even befriend her, but the reporter’s best friend refused to be in the Italian’s company outside of the classroom.

Eventually, one day, fed up with the fashion designer, Alya decided to confront Marinette about it after class.

“Okay girl, I don’t understand. What is happening with you? You’re not acting like yourself. You’re usually welcoming to new people, why aren’t you with Lila? You were with me and Adrien when we were first transferred in the class, and you know from what I told you that it’s hard to make friends when you’re the new kid. So, tell me, what is happening?”

Marinette took a deep breath before looking at Alya directly in the eyes.

“What’s happening, Alya, is exactly what I told you when Lila came back to school. Lila is a liar, and I refuse to let my friends be deceived by some girl who can’t be honest.”

“Again with the lying? Where is your proof?!” Alya sighed. “I don’t recognize you anymore Marinette. You’re just being mean.”

“Where is my proof? Where is my proof?! Alya, you’re supposed to be a reporter but you didn’t check any of the stories that Lila told you before posting it on your blog. Don’t you see what it could do to your credibility?!”

Marinette was getting frustrated. Shouldn’t Alya at least try to understand where Marinette was coming from? Weren’t they supposed to be best friends?

“It won’t do anything to my credibility since it’s the truth! God, Marinette, you don’t have to be so jealous. What if Lila has a more amazing life than us?”

“I’m not jealous, Alya, damn it!”

It made Alya pause. Marinette rarely cursed. The journalist shook her head, sighing.

“Look, I don’t know why you’re so jealous of Lila, but it needs to stop. You’re not the girl I befriended anymore. Until you come to your senses, maybe it’s best for us to distance ourselves from each other.”

Marinette glared at her, not willing to back down and admit her wrongs.

“Yeah, maybe we should.”

Alya’s eyes widened and watched as Marinette gathered her things and prepared to leave. She grabbed her friend’s arm before she could take a step.

“Okay, okay. No. I didn’t actually mean it. I’m sorry I’ve been so stubborn about it. I’ll listen to you, just, please. I don’t want to lose you, Marinette.”

Marinette’s eyes softened and she gave the ladyblogger a smile.

“Alright, let’s go at my place. It’s better to have this conversation in private.”

In the privacy of her room, and with Alya finally willing to listen, Marinette told her every of Lila’s lies. She even made an internet search with the reporter by her side to show her that Jagged never had a cat, that he had Fang ever since before any of them was born. She showed her that Ali never did any charity work for pollution but for ill children. She told her how she threatened her in the bathroom when Marinette made it clear that she didn’t believe anything that the Italian said. She also told her that Adrien knew about it and not once did he do anything to out Lila. That even though he told the designer that he had her back, he just stood there and watched as Lila lied tried to tarnish the class president’s reputation.

She also told Alya how hurt she was that she didn’t want to believe her best friend. How she chose to believe a girl she barely knew over her best friend.

At the end of her speech, Alya was horrified. With tears in her eyes, she pulled the blue-eyed girl in a crushing hug.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so, so, so sorry, girl. I swear I’ll do better now. I’ll be a better friend. I’ll check my sources from now on. I’ll listen to you before jumping to conclusions. Please, give me a second chance.”

“Of course I’ll give you a second chance, Alya! I’m so happy that you finally listened to me.”

“I know, Mari. I know. And I’m sorry.”

It was very silent after that, though the air was lighter than it was before.

“About Adrien… I think you should try talking to him. I don’t think he realized that the way he handled the issue was the wrong way to do it. He probably needs you to open his eyes.”

“You’re right, I should.”

With a smirk, Alya wiggled her eyebrows. “Maybe you could even try to confess your crush?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I do not have a crush on Adrien?!”

Alya laughed. She knew that Marinette didn’t have any romantic feelings for the model, but it was a running joke for a while now. She honestly couldn’t remember how this joke started but it stayed.

After her heart to heart with Alya, Marinette felt lighter. The reporter said that after she had talked with the Agreste boy, she would discretely talk to their other classmates about Lila. Knowing her classmates, no one would be mean to Lila or even ignoring her. They were even a very high chance they would remain friends with the newest student, but at least they would know to take Lila’s stories with a grain of salt.

With Lila always watching all her moves and always clutching Adrien’s arm, it took a few weeks before the baker’s daughter managed to find him alone. She actually had to corner him before one of his fencing class.

“Adrien, I need to talk to you for a moment.”

“Sure Marinette! Mr. D’Argencourt will be a bit late so I have time. What did you want to talk about?”

Taking a deep breath, the teenage girl looked everywhere but at the blond.

“I told Alya about Lila’s lies, and she finally believed me.”

“What? But Marinette, I thought-”

The bluenette raised her hand, interrupting him.

“I know. And that’s actually what I wanted to talk about. I know you wanted to take the high road and all, but I don’t think it’s the right way to handle the situation.” When Adrien opened his mouth to talk, she interrupted him once again. “Please, just, listen to what I have to say.”

The teenage boy closed his mouth and nodded, willing to listen.

“I know that the way you wanted to handle Lila is how you’re used to handling things with the media. And it may work in this situation, but not with Lila. We need to tell our friends that Lila is lying to them, or it could have great consequences. Alya’s credibility would have suffered a lot if she kept posting interviews of Lila lying about her friendship with Ladybug on the Ladyblog.”

She saw Adrien pale at this. He didn’t realize it.

“Nino told me that he would give Lila a demo of one of his movies to give to one of her producer friend instead of entering a contest. I had to send his application myself because we both know that Nino would have never heard back from this supposed producer. Do you understand now why it’s important that we tell them about Lila?”

Paler than she’s ever seen him, Adrien nodded. Good. He was starting to understand that his high road was wrong. Now, on the tougher issue.

“Adrien, tell me… Are we friends?”

The fencer almost jumped at this question. “Wha- Of course, we’re friends! Why would you think we’re not?”

“Then, why did you put Lila’s feelings above mine, your friend? Why didn’t you say anything when she was subtly insulting me and belittling me at every occasion? I know that friendship outside of Chloe’s is new for you. I know that your father doesn’t want you to make a scene, or he would take school away from you, but, Adrien. I wasn’t asking you to make a scene. I was just asking you to actually have my back, just like you said you would. If you were too afraid to stand up to Lila, you could have just asked me if I were ok after class, offer your comfort, you know.  Just showing me that you were here and not ignoring me like you’ve been doing every time Lila was bullying me.”

“Is that bullying?”

Marinette gave him a sad smile.

“Yes, Adrien. That’s bullying. Even if she wasn’t saying those things to my face, she was saying them loud enough for me to hear. But, yes, it is bullying. And you standing by, not doing anything, you were enabling it.”

For a moment, the fashion designer thought that the model was going to cry.

“I’m so sorry Marinette.”

“it’s okay. I was just hurt that you would put her above me. Now, I know you’re not doing that. I forgive you. But, you know, Lila’s harassing you too.”

Adrien looked confused at that.

“Adrien, touching you the way she does, without your consent, it’s harassment. You even asked her to stop it, and she didn’t listen.”

The blond gave her a sad smile. “Even if it’s harassment, I can’t really do anything about it. My father would tell me it’s not a big deal and to suck it up.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

He shrugged. “I’m used to it by now.” He took Marinette’s hand in his, giving it a little squeeze. “But, Mari, I promise you, from now on, I’ll be there for you. I’m sorry I wasn’t before. I still can’t allow myself to call her out because my father would hear about it and pull me out of school, but I promise to be there for you.”

“Thank you. It means a lot to me.”

She swears that the hug the green-eyed boy gave her almost broke her ribs.

After that, Alya told all their classmates about all the lies Lila told. It was decided after a big meeting with everyone that Rose, the kindest of them all, would talk to Lila about all her lies. The short blonde told the tan girl that she didn’t have to lie to them to make friends with them. That the class forgave her and they would still be her friend if she wanted them.

Unfortunately, Lila didn’t stop lying, but the class still was friends with her. They knew when she was lying and just stopped listening when she was recounting all her grand stories, but apart from that, the class liked her company.

Alya didn’t force Marinette to befriend Lila anymore. Even with the whole class knowing about the lies, the reporter knew that there was too much bad blood between the two girls for them to be friends. At least, the bluenette was civil.

A week or so after her conversation with Adrien, Ladybug was approached by Chat Noir for another heart to heart.

Ladybug was waiting on top of the Arc de Triomphe, where Chat Noir asked her to meet him. It wasn’t a patrol night for either of them and there wasn’t any akuma that night. She couldn’t help but wonder what Chat wanted. She just hoped it wasn’t another declaration of love or him trying to convince her they were made for each other.

“My Lady!”

Chat appeared in front of her, and the bug superhero gasped. The cat-themed hero looked miserable.

“Chat, what’s wrong?!”

Chat bit his lower lip. “I need to apologize, LB. No, please, don’t interrupt me,” he said when Ladybug tried to say something. “Recently, I’ve done some research on harassment because I’ve been told that I was being harassed by a girl, and I wanted to be sure that it was actually harassment. So I looked up what was considered harassment. And I have to apologize because I’ve been harassing you, Ladybug. Even though you told me that you didn’t love me the same way I love you, even though you told me no countless times, I never listened and kept trying to get you to go on a date with me. And for that, I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, Chat.”

Chat Noir smiled. “I promise I’ll do better. I love you, Ladybug. That’s the last time I’m saying it. I won’t flirt during battles anymore. I will take my job more seriously. I’m still convinced that you and I are soulmates and our bond will appear once we reveal our identities, but I will shut up about it and be patient. I swear I’ll be a better partner.”

Soulmates. She had told Chat Noir a number of times that they weren’t soulmates. That if they were, their bond would have manifested upon meeting each other back when they got their miraculous.

Everyone had a soulmate, and each bond was different. Some had the name of their soulmate tattooed on their skin, like Mylène and Ivan. Some had the first or last sentence their soulmate would tell them. Some, like Alya, would have every injury of their soulmate. Some, like Nino, would lose their things, and their soulmate would find it and vice versa.

Nino and Alya were not soulmates, but they still were one of the cutest couples that Marinette had ever met.

There were hundreds of different kind of soulmate bond. Marinette didn’t have anything physical. No tattoo, no bruises that weren’t hers, no doodles on her arms that she didn’t draw, she never found something that wasn’t hers.

Which meant that her soulbond would appear the moment she met her soulmate.

With a smile, she wondered what kind of bond she would share with the person that was meant for her.

For now, though, a year later, at almost fifteen and in her first year of high school, she was again elected as the class president with her best friend as her deputy.

Miss Bustier was still their headteacher and the class was the exact same as it had been for two years now.

And now, a month into the new school year, she had to brainstorm with Alya about their end of the year trip.

And what a trip it would be.

#ml x dc #miraculous x dc #maribat #daminette #maridami #damian x marinette

[coffeecomicsgalore]

A Little Rain, A Big Love Story

Ao3

This is my submission for the @luckycharmzine! I hope you enjoy the Ladynoir Identity Reveal Scene.

------

Ladybug looked across the dark Parisian skyline, allowing the cool breeze to sweep over her. It was still fairly warm out, the heat of the summer day seeping into the night. The cool breeze felt welcomed against her exposed skin.  

Chat Noir sat beside her as they relaxed on their favorite beam on the Eiffel Tower. As usual, it was an easy night of patrolling. There was nothing besides a stray cat stuck in a tree and two young boys arguing over a pack of trading cards. They didn’t have to stress over an akuma or deal with police-solving issues. So, when they have nights like this – quiet, peaceful, and relaxing – it made their conversations quite comforting. 

While they couldn’t talk much about their civilian lives and risk revealing too much, they did enjoy giving each other a glimpse of themselves. It would only be little things, like favorite colors, snacks, or subjects. Things that were common enough that neither could guess easily, yet they still relished in those little tidbits of information. 

Trusting yourself in your partner without knowledge of who they were underneath the mask was a risk, but Ladybug would risk her life for him on any occasion. 

If he would let her, that is. 

“You know.” Chat started, continuing to look towards the skyline as he spoke. “You would really like my friends. We are so close. I don’t know what I would do without them.” He ended with a satisfied hum as his lips quirked into a small smile. 

Ladybug looked over to her partner and grinned. He looked so at peace tonight. It was a pleasant change to their last conversation where he seemed distressed and distracted. She missed it when her kitty didn’t ooze silliness out of his suit. 

“I know what you mean.” She looked back out to the skyline as he turned to look at her. “Do you remember that boy I had that major crush on?” 

“You mean the one that never gave you the time of day?” 

She scoffed and pushed his shoulder teasingly. “Chat!” 

He chuckled. “Alright, alright. Go ahead.” 

Ladybug side-eyed him for a moment. When she felt like he wasn’t going to continue teasing, she proceeded. “Well, over the last two years, especially after me trying to get over said crush on him, we grew closer. I consider him to be one of my best friends. Like so close that he is a close tie to my best girlfriend. But I won’t tell her that. I enjoy my life too much to succumb to imminent death.” They both laughed. “But anyways, he said something today and it reminded me of you. I think you two could be close friends.” 

“Why? Does he have amazing puns like moi?” He joked, bringing his hand to his chest as he mentioned himself.  

“Actually, yeah. I didn’t even know he could joke like that. But you would appreciate his puns. Sometimes I think he could probably out-pun you.” 

“Out pun the pun master? Never.” 

“I know of one other person that could probably out pun you, chaton. But I can’t mention who.”  

“I guess I will have to battle your friend in a pun duel then. I need to keep this knight and shining leather fighting by your side, puns and all.” 

Ladybug shook her head. “I have enough room in my heart for all three of my pun masters. No dueling required. I promise.” 

They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before Chat noticed that her face softened, but her eyes meant she was a distance away. 

“You okay, bugaboo?” He inquired, just enough softness in his voice to allow her to talk her feelings through, but also enough to show her he wouldn’t pry. 

She sighed, but decided to tell him. “Even though he’s my best friend, a part of me will always love him. Do you know how difficult it is to force yourself to move on considering he’s constantly in my life? Of all the people that have come into my life, no one has caught my eye or my heart like he has.” Ladybug turned to him. Chat could see the sadness in her face. “Actually. There has been one other person, but it’s just not possible. At least not right now.” 

Chat eyed her with a mix of fondness and sadness. Seeing her feel like this broke his heart, and he knew exactly how she felt.  

“I know what you mean.” He looked back towards the sky, the last two years crossing his mind. The relationships he had made and lost were pressing against his heart and he ached from the pain. “Letting go of the one you love, especially when they’ve made a significant impact in your life, is hard. But love has never been easy. No matter how much you try to move on, it still lingers.” 

Ladybug turned to Chat and took his hand, squeezing the love she had for him through her fingers. “I love you, Chat, more than you can begin to know. But you have to understand, you were never meant to be second best. You deserve someone who will love you with their whole heart.” She looked down and laughed bitterly. “And unless luck is truly on my side, maybe the boy I love is really you beneath the mask. Once Hawkmoth is defeated, I want to know who you are. You will always have a place in my life and my heart no matter how this chapter of our lives end.” 

They gazed into each other’s eyes as her words etched themselves into the spot in his heart reserved for her. Chat was the first to break the gaze, looking back out into the Parisian skyline as a comfortable silence mingled between them. When Chat finally swallowed the strangling pain in his throat, he confessed. 

“You know. I’ll always love you, bugaboo. A part of me always had. It always will. I’ve tried to move on and date other people, but no one besides this one girl, my best friend, has ever caught my eye.” 

Ladybug looked at him and smiled even as a twinge of jealousy ran through her body. She shrugged it off and placed her head on his shoulder. Their fingers laced together as they enjoyed the small embrace. If she couldn’t love him in the way they both wished she could, she could at least love him like this. “That girl is lucky to have your heart.” 

They sat there in another comfortable silence before Chat scrunched his face and let out a breathy chuckle. 

“What’s so funny?” She asked, lifting her head up from his shoulder to look at him. 

“Well, it has something to do with that girl. You know, I don’t think anyone knows this, so I think I’m in the clear to say it.” Ladybug scrunched her nose, but then decided it would probably be fine. She gave him a nod to continue. “She became my first self-initiated friend when I started school. There was a huge misunderstanding. I almost lost her friendship before building one.” 

“That seems extreme. What happened?” 

“On my first day, she thought that I was trying to target her. She had always been bullied by one of my longtime friends, so she assumed I was the same way. Believe it or not, I’m socially awkward. I didn’t know any of the dos and don’ts of making friends.”  

Ladybug could see his face visibly soften. 

“It was raining and we were the only two standing outside as I was leaving to go home. I don’t know why, but something just compelled me to talk to her, to tell her that I didn’t have any friends, that everything was still so new to me. I almost left but then turned around. I told her I was sorry that I made her believe that I played a cruel prank on her. I told her that I only had one friend before that day and at the time, I didn’t want to lose that friendship either.” 

Chat continued to look out at the skyline, but Ladybug had caught on to something interesting about his story. It was one that was strangely similar to her own story. One that no one else would know of. 

“Once I apologized, I gave her the umbrella I had. I mean, my car was right there so it didn’t bother me to get a little wet. But I just didn’t want her to get soaked going home and I didn’t know how long the rain was going to be around for. I didn’t know where she lived and I didn’t realize that she lived so close to the school, but I couldn’t just let her get soaked.” 

He let out a lovesick sigh and let out a chuckle before looking down at his claw to examine his ring. “Honestly, I think that was the first moment that I started to fall for her. I just didn’t realize it because I was so infatuated with you.”  

Ladybug looked to him with such softness. Tears were welling up in her eyes and a blush donned her cheeks. Chat looked up at her and started to worry, afraid that he said something he shouldn’t. 

“That moment is a moment too beautiful to forget.” She said, wiping the tears that started to fall in front of her mask. “She is lucky to have such a caring person in her life, chaton.” 

Chat finally smiled. “Yeah, she’s so caring that I’m afraid to lose her. She’s shy around me sometimes. I’m afraid that she’ll reject me if I ask her out.” 

“I think you should ask anyways. I bet she’ll say yes.” 

He thought for a moment before asking her. “What about you?” 

“I guess since you told me about your bestie, I should tell you about mine.” She snickered. “Every time I tried to confess to him, something went wrong. Like this scarf I made him, or the valentine I tried to send him, or the doctor’s note I gave him instead of a love confession, the video love confession that got deleted. Oh, and the beret... it just never worked out before.” She shrugged. 

Guess it doesn’t matter now because she could finally confess without having to do it first.  

“You see. I fell in love with this boy who I thought was a bully. I thought he put gum on my chair and was a prissy rich kid because he was best friends with the girl who hated my guts. But then he apologized and handed me his umbrella in the rain. That simple act of kindness and his laughter after I accidentally pressed the close button on the handle filled my soul with so much love, that I couldn’t let it go.” 

Ladybug turned to Chat to see that he was wide eyed and jaw slacked. 

“No wonder why I couldn’t let it go.” She smiled with so much love in her eyes that she could not contain the giggle that bubbled up within her. “I guess I was lucky after all.” 

“Marinette?” He said so quietly, afraid that the conversation would crack and leave them in a different world. 

“Hi Adrien.” She replied back softly. 

Chat cupped her cheek with his claw and rubbed his thumb against the line between her mask and her skin. “It’s really you. I fell in love with you twice.” 

“And I never stopped loving you. My love only grew.” 

He leaned in and nuzzled his nose against hers. She sighed at the contact, her eyes pleading. He leaned in and kissed her lips, slow and soft but full of love and want. When they pulled back, they looked at each other as rain started to fall around them, the clasp of thunder bringing them back to that very first moment that sealed their fate. 

“My lady. I love you.” 

“I love you too, my chaton.” 

#luckycharmzine #ladynoir #identity reveal #rain #umbrella scene #love confessions #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #ml

[iaintyourbro]

We know that the lifestream and highwind scene are the most important part of the game for Cloti. Just wanted to ask, what are your expectations? Like, do you think they’re gonna change it or add something new (if you think so, what are those things)? Those parts are highly anticipated, especially the lifestream scene (i think that’s like every fan’s favorite, well except for those antis haha) ☺️

OKAY! This is the type of question I like! Hello there, anon!

Let’s start with the Lifestream

So, this is probably one of the most popular - if not the most popular - scenes in the game. It is the major twist on the main character, and I don’t think anybody thought it was going to be what it ended up being. 

The devs have also said that it is their favorite part of the game. It’s a powerful scene. My favorite part honestly is when the Shinra grunt stabs Sephiroth.. and then Tifa comes to this realization that Cloud WAS there, and he takes his helmet off and the main theme plays. I still get chills after seeing it 50 times, I’m getting chills typing this up - it’s a VERY powerful scene. 

Then we get the next scene where Cloud moves Tifa to safety, Sephiroth comes out all pissy because he got stabbed by a kid, and Cloud gets a little brave (with some encouragement from Zack) and goes after him. He’s stabbed. Through sheer rage and will power, he overtakes Sephiroth and kills him. 

So what do I think they’re gonna do here... This is my headcanon and my opinion. Maybe in 15 years when this finally comes out I’ll come back and check off where I was right and where I was wrong. All in good fun.

Prior to the whole earthquake, I think the part where they find Cloud and Tifa says she’s going to stay with him will be even more emotional. I think they’re going to build on this scene a bit and I think you’re going to see more cuts to what’s happening in Mideel while the rest of your party is out and about collecting Huge Materia (if they do that, but that’s another post). 

I think finding Cloud may be a bit more difficult. 

I kinda hope they keep the really goofy doctor for the humor add - it’ll probably be needed for this scene. He’s like Doc Odine from FF8. Extremely quirky. The nurse will have more moments, I think. She had some good lines in the OG.

Okay, so during the earthquake, I think you’ll see something similar, but they’ll almost make it out. You’re going to think they aren’t going to fall in, but they do anyway. 

I’m not sure if they’ll do a wheelchair this time - he’ll probably be in a bed, making the escape even more stressful since she’ll need to get him moved to a wheelchair or something. 

When they fall in, she’s going to hold on to him for dear life in the physical plane, and you’ll her slowly move on to the mental/spiritual plane. 

You’ll hear whatever she was hearing in OG. Since there’s voice acting now, you’ll probably be able to make out some of the voices. You may hear Jessie and Wedge, Tifa’s father, random people she knows. You’ll hear voices telling her bad things and scaring her.

Then, it’ll stop, and I think she’s going to see/feel/hear Aerith here. They’re building the friendship up. I’m thinking that Aerith’s death is going to impact Tifa much worse than any other character in Remake. So this will be comforting for Tifa to see/feel/hear Aerith. They’ll have a moment. 

Then they’re going to go to Cloud’s subconscious. This will be very Kingdom Heart-esq because Nomura. This is his time to shine. It was very whimsical in OG, imagine how cool it’ll look in Remake.

I think each “area” will be expanded on. You’ll still have the same main point expanded on.

The Promise scene will have more dialogue and clarification. Tifa will still call Cloud cute, you may see where Cloud may haven’t remembered everything exactly. Some folks think this is where the shooting star will be reintroduced.

Tifa’s house: I think they’ll do the most with this. The English version was so badly translated that it made Tifa look like a jerk to some people and they won’t let it go. They’ll make sure it’s clear here that she didn’t bully Cloud. They’ll probably talk about Tifa’s friends a bit more since you’ll see and hear them. You may see some flashbacks of Cloud getting in to fights with the kids, getting in trouble by other village adults, etc.You may see other moments of their childhood peppered in.

I think they will have his mom pop in at some points as flashes. It seems based on a previous post and discussion, Cloud may remember his father, so we may get to see Papa Strife. 

I think you’ll be able to explore Nibelheim during this. It’ll be “dream” Nibelheim, based on Cloud’s subconscious. It’ll change as Cloud regains more of his memories and become more accurate.

I think you’ll have fights during this - some kind of shadows. For all I know, they’ll pull a Legend of Zelda and have you fight “Dark Cloud” at some point before merging. 

The second timeline with Zack surviving the Last Stand will probably impact this. If they don’t merge the timelines at this point, then I think that will have some sort of play in this - either the timelines will need to merge, and Cloud will have to “become one” or the “fix” will be reversed prior to Aerith’s death and the timelines will realign naturally. 

The Nibelheim reactor scene will follow closer to what happened in Crisis Core, but keep the “Mom... Tifa.... my home....” line from OG. I think they may build on this and make it more emotional. 

AFTER Cloud remembers Zack and after he’s “whole” again, Zack will probably pop in too, and so will Aerith. I think if they’re going to change anything and create an “alternate ending” it would be what happened in AC. So, here’s where Zack and Aerith will give him a bit of a pep-talk. 

The reunion with Cloud and Tifa will be more emotional and definitely awkward on Cloud’s end. Anybody who was hanging around at this point will disappear. Most likely you’ll get a hug from Tifa. I’m not sure if she’ll call him a “stupid jerk” since it wouldn’t fit her Remake character very well.

They’ll hold hands going back up. They’ll wash up on shore. Now, here’s where I don’t know what way they’ll go. There was apparently supposed to be a scene where Tifa had to give Cloud CPR (think Junon) because he’s not breathing when they come back up. This would definitely add drama...

I think they’ll wash up and wake up before the rest of the party finds them. Then they’ll have the rest of the party show up. 

The scene where he talks to everybody will be expanded on. I don’t think Tifa is going to say “You sure are messed up Cloud.” I think it’ll be a more caring line to fit better with how they’ve characterized Tifa in the Remake so far.

Overall, I think the party will be more supportive and you’ll have more dialogue here. Shit, you may even get a Barret hug. 

I think Barret will be very flighty like he was in OG, but have more faith in Cloud during the whole thing. 

Cid will still be a dick. 

Time for the Highwind Scene

Well, due to the nature of this scene, I think that’s why it’s so anticipated. However, this is a T rated game... (unfortunately)... so expectations will probably be on FFX Lake Macalania level. This is really going to be dependent on how extreme or not extreme the ratings board in Japan and the US are at the time. I don’t think, unlike in the past, they cut chunks of game out if one doesn’t approve it. They probably consult with the major countries where they expect a large amount of sales. It was easier to change dialogue and character reactions back in the day. Not so much anymore.

So let’s get to it...

Cloud’s speech telling the party they should go tie up any lose ends will be expanded on. I’m going to be honest, I think anytime you solely had Aerith mentioned at this point in the game, you’ll also have Zack mentioned... I think Zack will have a much bigger part in Remake than he did in OG, and Cloud and crew will see him and Aerith as a team at this point. I could be totally off on this, but I would like to see more Zack and show that both Aerith and Zack were important to Cloud in a big way. I say this because she’s mentioned here in an odd way (”To release her memory”, which I believe the Japanese text is different... as always with OG). I do not think this diminishes Aerith’s importance at all. I think it shows that she DOES have support within the Lifestream, and they’re just touching on that.

The crew will file out and say bye. You’ll be left with Cloud and Tifa... I think you’re going to have more while in the Highwind. They’ll build it up and make the tension unbearable between the two. Remember, at this point, Tifa has already found out all that’s in Cloud’s subconscious... so... they’re going to be awkward up to this point anyway... 

Then they’ll go outside. The conversation will have more to it, but will still follow a similar flow. You’ll still have Tifa’s line.

There won’t be a high and low affection scene. You’re going to get one scene here, and it’s whatever the devs feel is the correct scene. My guess is the high affection (like 99% sure here), since it’s the one that’s referenced the most and makes the most sense after The Lifestream. People will also riot if we don’t get “Words aren’t the only way to tell someone how you’re feeling...”

So it’s not gonna fade to black after that. I think part of the goal of Remake is to make things crystal clear with parts of the story that were being heavily argued about... this being one of them.

Cloud is going to bravely approach her - him closing the distance like she did in Part 1. 

You’ll get some cuteness. You’ll get a song. You’ll most likely get a kiss. Then it’s going to pan up, fade to black, and may show quick scenes of the rest of the party seeing their loved ones...

I think they’ll hang out there for a while - seeing the stars and all. 

At this point, Barret, Cid, and Red come back... but Cloud and Tifa don’t know. I think they’ll see the kissing/cuddling action... and then they’re gonna see them head inside....

I’m not sure if they’ll show immediate reactions here - but they have to react at some point, it’s hilarious in the OG, and I think they can make it even more extreme after some of the lines that were used during Wall Market...

So here’s where I’m really unsure of how they’re going to go. I know some folks think they did and some folks think they didn’t. I don’t think it takes away from the scene either way - so this is one of the rare times I’ll say it’s up to player interpretation.. My opinion is... it might be the end of the world, so my guess is, they were gonna find away to get down. 

In the OG, it’s implied that something happened UNDER the Highwind. My favorite video about this is Maximillian Dood talking about getting bruises on the rocks. 

I don’t think they’re going to stay Under the Highwind. I think they’ll go inside. 

So the question is... will there be a Chocobo Stable scene, like what was proposed in the OG? Will there be cabins on the Highwind? I think when we get the Highwind, whether or not it has cabins will be a hint. 

I would find it really funny if they have them go ham in the Chocobo stables. If they do the Chocobo Stables, the Chocobo in the stables will always say “....” when you go in there with Cloud or Tifa.

I’m not sure if they’ll do that or something a bit more... romantic? If they do, you may get a bare shoulders under a sheet scene. THIS IS HEAVILY DEPENDENT on the ratings boards. They were able to do it in Xenogears in 1998, and some of the stuff they approve vs what they get their panties in a bunch over seems to change with the generations. 

Whether or not you see anything, they’re going to confirm it through jokes. Your party IS going to comment. They ARE going to know something happened, and each one will have a hilarious comment. Tifa is going to be really embarrassed... like in OG, but Cloud will actually try to comfort her this time.

Overall, this scene will be much harder to twist if you actually play it and listen to the dialogue... 

So those are my crazy thoughts. Maybe I should write a Fanfiction or two. 

#cloti #cloud x tifa #ff7 remake future parts #ff7r thoughts #the lifestream #under the highwind #ff7r #ff7 spoilers #final fantasy vii spoilers #final fantasy vii remake part 50 #it'd better not take 15 years #i don't want to be too old #my kids will be out of highschool #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #squareenix make me happy plz

[lov3nerdstuff]

Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 1.5}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student (however no underage romance), blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 3.8k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

______________________________

Previously:

While Snape moved back to his chair and his desk, Robin remained standing in the middle of the room. "Thank you, professor… For the Wiggenweld potion, and the spells. And especially for believing me when no one else would."

"I'm the head of this house, Miss Mitchell. That means it is my responsibility to look after you, whether you are guilty or not, which in this instance wasn't for Professor Morgan to decide."

"Will you be talking to him about this?"

"Would you like me to?" Again, an honest question. The difference was visible in his eyes more than in his tone even, and for a short moment Robin wondered what else she might find in there if she paid attention to it from now on.

"Not really." She sighed at last, then gave him a crooked smile. "I believe fighting him by his own means would only end at my disadvantage yet again. I want to be better than that."

And for once, Robin got an actual smirk in return, a real one that wasn't mocking or sarcastic. Only humored, and a little bit proud if she squinted enough. It was a beyond relieving sight, one she made sure to remember.

===============

That was when a loud knocking on the door disrupted the comfortable silence of the office, of the dungeons as a whole, and his face went back to cold annoyance in an instant as he jumped back to his feet and answered the door a second later, while Robin went to collect the borrowed book she had placed on the desk earlier. Before she could pick it up however, her thoughts were drawn elsewhere.

"Severus, I've just heard from Minerva that… that you have…" The voice on the other side of the door was unmistakable, and Robin almost wanted to roll her eyes in return. Of course he would make an appearance now… what kind of pain in the ass would Professor Morgan be if he didn't show up at all the wrong times indeed?

"That you've taken the liberty to interfere in an issue of mine." Professor Morgan finally finished, but Robin still had no sight of him as Snape was strategically blocking the doorway. Maybe she should be glad for that. Silently, she moved back from the desk and further into the shadows.

"Interfere?" Snape's voice was back to that mocking and passive aggressive tone it sometimes took on during class, when students had gotten themselves into unusually big trouble. "And why would that be the case?"

"Well, uh, I would have liked to deal with the… the audacious intrusion of my office myself, for once." He stated in a feignedly confident manner, and Robin's jaw dropped. He actually had the audacity to pretend that none of this had happened and that McGonagall's version of the story was true?! Thank goodness Robin had had physical proof for Professor Snape to believe the punishment part of the story without a doubt.

"I know of no intrusion, Damion, and I can assure you I wouldn't dare to interfere in any of your affairs." The sarcasm was so strong in this statement that Robin had to bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from giggling. Obviously the rumors didn't stay within the student body only.

"What did you do with Miss Mitchell then, after Minerva brought her down to this… charming place?"

"It isn't of your concern." The mock was gone, but the bite so strong that Robin shuddered. Even from back here, she could faintly see the muscles in Snape's jaw clenching for a moment, and the hand he had wrapped about the edge of the door was white as a sheet from his grip on it. Obviously he was as done with Professor Morgan's attitude as Robin herself was, and the sight pleased her immensely.

"Not of my… Well, but Severus, I was clearly in the right here, and-…" Morgan didn't get to finish, as with a start both men disappeared from the door and into the hallway. Bloody hell… her potions professor obviously wasn't only as quiet as a snake but also as fast as one. Robin continued to hear muffled voices, and inched closer to the door while staying on the safe side, hidden away behind the heavy wood and long shadows.

"Your right does not include the judging nor the torture of MY student." Snape's hissed words were so dangerously low that Robin had to press her ear to the gap where the door met the wall in order to hear them at all. "You had no right to lock her into that room nor to approach her with your accusations in the first place."

"You-... You know?" Morgan's whine sounded small and scared, and Robin revelled in the sound more than she should.

"Yes, I know what you did Damion. And you would be well advised to make sure it never happens again. Otherwise, I'm certain the headmaster would be curious to hear about the incident."

"Are you threatening me, Severus?"

"Obviously."

"It's… I- I… Miss Mitchell, she…" Morgan sounded irritated, if by fear or something else Robin couldn't tell. But it sent a shiver through her body just to imagine what exactly was happening in the hallway and out of her sight.

"Yes?" Snape asked in a drawled manner, and Robin could almost imagine his eyebrow lifting with the question.

"You don't believe her, do you?"

"Every word."

"I didn't take you for the kind of man who would be fooled by a little girl." Morgan definitely laughed now, but without humor.

"Curious… I took you for exactly that kind of man." Snape's cold reply was followed by a pause that was filled with only the silence of the dungeons.

At last Morgan spoke up again, now sounding a lot less torn than before, and also a lot less mocking. Robin wondered what had changed. "I apologize for skipping over your line in command. I should have… consulted you about the issue before I approached the girl. But she cleaned the room, didn't she? Her detention is served and all is well, so where exactly is your issue?"

"My issue is that you let harm come to my student while she was supposed to be under your however illegitimate supervision!" Snape replied in yet another of his growls that broke over the ones addressed like lightning but struck deep like thunder.

"I swear, Severus, I didn't… It was just…" The whine was back in Morgan's voice, and Robin came to realize that even when she had still been only pretending to be braver than she was around Snape in the beginning of the year, she had never been quite as pathetic as her defense against the dark arts teacher was acting right now. The thought made her feel proud of herself.

"You didn't what?"

"I didn't know anyone could be stupid enough to get themselves hurt in an empty classroom!" Morgan finally pressed out, and Robin's feeling of confidence was replaced by a sudden anger that made her blood boil, right until she heard another startled yelp from the hallway.

"You-... Wh-…" Morgan croaked out, but it barely made for more than noise of pure discomfort. The whimpers continued on for three more seconds, then a loud thud put an end to it and Morgan took in a sharp breath at last.

"I apologise, Damion… Following your logic, I didn't know anyone could be stupid enough to get themselves hurt in an empty hallway." Snape stated as indifferently as ever, and Robin's jaw dropped in astonishment, but she didn't allow herself to be too impressed just yet. There was still a conversation to eavesdrop on.

"If… If the headmaster hears about this, he will…" Morgan huffed in exasperation, obviously still out of breath after whatever it was exactly that had happened out there. It couldn't have been of the pleasant kind.

"I can hardly believe that he would put more weight on a conversation between colleagues than on your wilful negligence of your duties as a professor."

"Very well then." Morgan said in an almost pouting tone, followed by more rustling of fabrics. "He won't have to hear about either of it, will he?"

"That is not for me to decide."

"Oh come on now! You cannot seriously want that child to decide over your future!"

"As it appears, about yours as well."

Morgan scoffed. "You bloody better make sure she makes the right decision." Then, after a short moment, he added, "You won't lose a word about this conversation though, will you, Severus? I can hardly imagine you wanting her to know either."

"Obviously." Snape replied in mocking lightness and innocence, and Robin had to bite her lip to keep from snorting yet again. Obviously the possibility to keep it from her had long passed.

"In that case, I believe we are done here." Professor Morgan sighed almost happily, and two seconds later Professor Snape came walking back into the office, slamming the door shut without another word, only to spot Robin standing right behind it.

"Not. A. Word." He gave her a pointed look, but his admittedly poorly hidden not-even-smirk told a different story.

While he made his way back to his desk, Robin followed to the middle of the room, then stopped and simply observed him. The not-smirk was gone, and the frown had returned to his face as he obviously avoided her eyes now.

"I won't tell." Robin said suddenly, so quickly that he had no chance to interrupt her. But her words at least made him look at her once more. "Not the headmaster, and not anyone else. I promise that."

"Miss Mitchell, the-..." Snape started ever neutrally, but Robin cut in for once.

"No. Sorry, I really don't mean to interrupt you or cut you off like that, but please let me say this…" She searched his eyes for a moment, biting down her arising nervousness for a greater good. He needed to hear this. She needed to say this. But only once he motioned for her to continue, Robin spoke on. "I know this whole… situation probably didn't really go as you intended. I know that we both made an enemy today. But I really meant what I said earlier, I don't want to play this bloody game by his rules anymore, and I don't want to play games at all. I'm not going to give him any more reason to hate me, and I certainly won't give him any reason to hate you, professor. I don't want him to get you into trouble over this nonsense. After everything you did for me, you just deserve better than that."

He actually looked quite surprised by her words for a second, but then his frown only deepened and his features hardened. "Don't."

"Huh?" Robin's confidence washed away like chalk in the pouring rain upon his grim tone.

"Don't speak to me like we are equal." He hissed at her in a sudden hostility that took her breath away. "Don't pretend to be so pathetically grown up, don't believe you know even a single thing about me, and most importantly, don't ever believe that I need pity from someone like you."

He glowered at her with a strange yet unreadable look in his eyes, and Robin suddenly felt dangerously close to crying once more. What had she done wrong?! What had she said to upset him? She had only meant to express her gratitude, to prove to him that his efforts and advice hadn't been wasted on her…. Why did he act like this now? Robin didn't understand. She didn't understand at all.

This entire night was just too much. She'd been done with the day before Morgan had approached her already, then again after the cleaning rush, once more when McGonagall had refused to believe her. This mess of emotions and reactions she didn't understand now was just the final straw to her complete and utter misery. Tears spilled down her cheeks before she could bring herself to stop them, and she knew that whatever it was that was happening right now, she had to get away at once.

"Thank you for your help tonight. I'm sorry to have bothered you." She heard herself say in the numbest tone she had ever been able to make herself use. "Goodnight, professor." With that she simply turned on her heels and left the office without waiting for a reply, without waiting to be told she could go. To hell with it, he could still give her detention tomorrow if he fancied it. Right now she only wanted to find a dark and desolate spot where she could cry her eyes out, and then to finally fall into bed.

… … …

Two hours. That's how long Robin got to sleep before the other girls in her room started getting ready for breakfast. She'd never gotten along particularly well with them, and thus it didn't come as a surprise that they made absolutely no effort to be quiet and let her sleep. Instead, it seemed rather like they made an effort to be as noisy as they possibly could be, which in return made it impossible for Robin to go back to sleep. Thus she tried to ignore her headache and tired eyes, and went ahead to start with her day as best as she could.

Once in the great hall, she luckily spotted her study group at the Ravenclaws' table soon enough and thus she was able to at least sit with someone who didn't despise her. For a while Robin simply listened to the other girls talking while she munched on her toast in tiny bits, however soon enough the conversation was stirred into her direction.

"You look awful, have you been studying all night again?" Marleen asked with a slight scolding tone, and Robin just sighed for a moment as she dropped her toast onto her plate.

"Something like that…" She murmured in return, and went to swirl her juice around her cup instead.

"What is it that you've been reading lately?"

"Oh, just… a book about mandrake."

"Mandrake? Isn't that only covered in second year herbology? Or was it in first year? I can't remember..." Jessica asked with a frown at Robin, then looked at Marleen who only shrugged. "Honestly Robin, where do you get those odd books all the time? They hardly sound like school books, leave alone books anyone would actually want to read!"

"I enjoy them…" Robin simply returned, with no intention of telling them that she was borrowing the books from Professor Snape. She had long before discovered that her study group didn't like the potions professor, and since she didn't share that sentiment at all, not even after his hurtful words from last night, she generally refused to bring him up in conversations. This way she at least wouldn't feel the need to defend him in front of other people, which would only lead to both his embarrassment and her own.

"Aaaaanyway…" Jessica tried to fill the awkward pause in conversation, "Have you guys noticed how Professor Morgan hasn't even shown up yet?"

"He never shows up for Saturday breakfast, Jess, you know that as well as I do, and..." Marleen's voice suddenly trailed off as she stared at something behind Robin's back, and Jessica's eyes followed soon after with the same odd expression in them. Robin didn't care enough to waste energy on turning around only to see someone snorting out their milk through their nose or letting their plate float, and thus she simply continued picking up the tiny crumbs that had fallen off her plate and putting them back into their place in silence. Maybe she should just leave and go to the library… or for a nice long walk down to-

"Miss Mitchell." Professor Snape's deep voice sounded from right behind her, and Robin felt both dread and relief at once. Holding her breath, she turned around to see him standing in the middle of the aisle between the tables, looking down at her as stoically as ever. Before anyone could question what he might possibly want from her, she rose to her feet to take the two necessary steps to stand in front of him.

"Professor…" She greeted him quietly, politely, but without the usual smile. For the briefest moment, she saw that inexplicable expression flash through his gaze again, the muscles in his jaw clenching, then his eyes flicked over to the Ravenclaws for a broken second and back to Robin.

"You forgot this in my office last night." He simply said, in calm neutrality instead of indifferent neutrality for once, and handed his book on mandrake to her with a look that said more than his words did.

"Thank you, sir." Robin replied quietly, and a small smile fell onto her lips at last as she realized that this might just as well be his way of not-really apologizing. It was his book after all, he had no reason to return it to her unless he cared enough to realize that she would appreciate the gesture.

"How is your… reminder of yesterday's detention?" He asked so quietly that hopefully only Robin would hear, instead of all twelve students who were currently listening in on their conversation. Seeing the feared potions professor actually talking to a student outside of class, while not yelling at them for once, must have been a surprise to most of them.

"My… oh!" Robin breathed, and a crimson heat rose to her cheeks upon the realization that she had entirely forgotten about her hands from the point on when Morgan had shown up last night. As subtly as she could, she shifted her hands around the book so that Snape got a clear view of them as she did as well. "All good as it should be."

"Very well then." He mused and looked past Robin towards the head table for a moment, then turned back to her with an odd frown and his voice even more quiet than before. "I would greatly appreciate if you could refrain from reading at breakfast today."

"Of course, sir."

Professor Snape gave her another silent look for a few seconds, then turned around on the spot and headed back towards the grand doors with his black robes flying behind him at each one of his quick strides. Wherever he passed by the tables, the students fell silent in respectfulness or intimidation, and quite a few of them turned their heads to stare at Robin who only then realized that she was still standing in the middle of the aisle. Quickly but without a haste she sat back down in her spot, placed the book in her lap, and picked up her discarded toast from her plate as if nothing had happened. Maybe one day she would get an actual apology from him for the hurtful things he had said… if she had understood his behaviors correctly and he was somewhat sorry for what he had said, that is. For today however, this had already been more than she could've hoped for. She hadn't expected him to lend her books at all anymore, leave alone actually find her to return the one she had started.

"So… are we just going to pretend that this didn't just happen right there?" Jessica finally asked with a small laugh, and the conversation started back up from there. Robin didn't comment on any of it, nor did she tell them what had been said between her and Professor Snape. She had promised it to him, and Robin always kept her promises.

… … …

As soon as it was socially acceptable to excuse herself from breakfast, Robin went to take a walk down to the black lake. She had discovered the shore, just where the forest met the edge of the water, to be an oddly calming little place, and since nobody ever seemed to come here, it had become her refuge for those times when even the dungeons were too crowded. It still was the middle of March, cold wind and dark clouds and all, but Robin had always enjoyed the gloom more than the sun anyway.

With a content but tired sigh she sat down in her usual spot, a large log from where she could overlook the lake, and opened her book at last. That was when a small piece of parchment came tumbling out of the pages and onto her lap. A frown creased her forehead, and her heart skipped a beat at the familiar spidery cursive.

Miss Mitchell.

You did a very foolish thing in promising your silence on the events of last night, however you need to know that it does not go unappreciated. You were right about one thing: both of us did make an enemy. However you should also remember that he made two in return. I don't have to tell you that having me as an enemy is not advisable, but I am led to believe that the same can be said about you. Still, if the events of last night lead to any disadvantage for you, now or at any point in the future, I expect you to find me immediately. Continue to be better, Miss Mitchell.

Professor Snape

Robin read the note twice, then smiled to herself for a moment as she looked out over the lake. This was as good an apology as anyone could probably get from the potions professor, and Robin was led to believe that not many people had ever actually received one in the first place. More and more with every encounter and every class, she was getting the impression that the cold and indifferent Professor Snape wasn't all that indifferent in the first place. That he actually cared more than he would ever admit to anyone. That there was way more to him than he let on, and all those inexplicable expressions and hidden smirks were only the peak of the iceberg. And while Robin didn't know any of that for sure, only had a vague idea at this point, she most definitely knew that she wouldn't tell anyone about her observations. But she would pay attention, and try to find out more about his many hidden expressions. She had six more years to figure him out after all, and she was sure that eventually she would.

Foremost, she also had six more years of studying potions, and she was absolutely determined to learn and improve. It was slowly turning from a favorite school subject into a real passion of hers, and a book on mandrake was merely the start to that.

With another smile and every intention to keep it for a long time to come, Robin tugged the note away into the deepest pocket of her robes, and finally opened her book on the page she had left off on the night before.

______________________________

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