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ichigopanhpff · 4 years

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BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 24

Read Ch. 23 | Masterlist

Hope everyone had a good holiday season and a great New Year! The next few chapters will be posted sporadically. I need to concentrate on finding a new job the next few months.

As fun as it is to write “Blink!”, I’ve been finding the lack of motivation to post since it’s not getting much reads. This was to be expected considering it’s not a reader insert and it takes place in S4.

The grandiose ball room was brightly lit with a crystal chandelier at the center, with decorative sconces symmetrically placed on every wall that wasn’t a full on window with breathtaking views of the Tokyo nightscape. Waiters dressed in white jackets and black vests served glasses of champagne, cocktail and hors d'oeuvres to the self-important adults chatting away incessantly with some top tier heroes and other ambassadors. A live 3-piece jazz band could be heard playing to give the party some ambiance. Ren spotted her mom talking with Aizawa and two other unknown faces.

“I guess I should go say hi,” Ren sighed. “Let’s meet back at this spot in an hour, then we dip. I really want that ramen.”

“It’s a plan.” Seri gave her a thumbs up and all the luck, watching her friend walk off.

“Kubo-senpai...” Todoroki softly called. “About what we were talking about before...”

She looked up at the red and white haired boy, her gaze falling more on the cautious side.

“While it’s true I need to sort out how I feel about Ren-senpai, please know I intend to be honest and the last thing I want to do is hurt her in any way. And… I really do care about her. It’s not much, but that’s the most reassurance I can give you at this time.”

Seri softened her expression at Todoroki and sighed, closing her eyes in understanding. “You two really are alike. She’s doing the same with you.”

“Is… she?”

Seri watched Ren’s side profile in the group of adults, looking attentive to their conversation. “So, does she know your story?”

“The timing was never there,” Todoroki said. “But I get the feeling she knows some parts already based on what I could tell her.”

“It should come from you, not from her assumptions.”

“Seri. There you are,” a man’s deep voice called, making her let out a soft, tired breath from her lips.

“The shackles are here in the form of my father,” the owl-faced girl lamented. “See you in an hour, Todoroki-kun.”

And then there was one.

Casually walking around, he grabbed an hors d'oeuvre from a moving platter and took a small bite, immediately grimacing at the sudden taste of freezer burn. Quickly finding a napkin, he vacated the vile item from his mouth onto it and balled it up in his fist. He now understood why both his upperclassmen were looking forward to ramen. Looking around the room, he recognized a few heroes, even though they weren’t in costume.

Was this what being a pro hero is?

Rubbing elbows with powerful people who do nothing but desk work and mindless chatter?

No wonder his father didn’t like coming to these events.

Having other important government people and heroes approach him in the span of half an hour, he politely excused himself and made his way out to the restroom to center himself.

He is representing Endeavor, the number one hero of Japan, after all; he’ll have to be at these events again when he’s older. As annoyed as he was to be here, at least he’s able to get some form of experience from this. Plus, the company helped.

After a series of extremely mind-numbing adult conversations about the current state of government policies on heroes and such, Ren was able to recuse herself to get some air. The moment the door gently slammed shut, she walked a few steps and let out a huge breath while taking off her draped blazer and slid down the wall.

Were she to do this for another second, she’d literally suffocate. She was mentally reminding herself she’s doing this for the ramen

And it was damn well worth it.

“Senpai?”

She looked up to see Todoroki.

“Are you okay?”

“Just taking a breather.” She patted the carpeted floor to get him to sit next to her, to which he did. “How are you doing?”

“The food is horrible and these shoes pinch my toes,” the bi-colored haired boy groaned out.

“Tell me about it.” She lifted her right foot up to show her 3-inch pumps.

The two chuckled listlessly and sighed, letting the serene silence sit. The two closed their eyes.

“Ren-senpai?” “Hm?”

“If you’re not too tired tonight, do you have some time… to talk?”

Ren slowly opened her eyes to turn her head to Todoroki, who still has his closed.

“Um… sure.”

A short beat soon after, he slowly stood back up and patted his backside off from any possible dirt from the carpet.

“I guess we should head back in.”

“Do we have to?” she whined and slowly made moves to stand. The duo-quirk wielding boy held his hand out for her to grab for support, to which she accepted.

“Unfortunately, yes. They’ll notice we’re missing.”

Standing back up with a short grunt and feeling the pressure on the balls of her feet, she dusted herself off before thanking him. As they turned to go back in, a deep voice called out to Ren.

“Shit...” she mumbled out and furrowed her brows with drooped shoulders before turning to meet three tall and sharply dressed boys who looked older than her.

“You know them?”

“That’s… one way of putting it.”

“Thought that fine ass was you, Takahiro,” the boy with messy black hair and glasses arrogantly belted out and looked her up and down with lecherous desire. “Damn, you filled out nicely.”

“And hello to you too, Edogawa,” the pink haired girl greeted in a terse, monotone voice.

Behind him stood two more boys; one was tall and boxy with his brown hair done up in a pompadour, the other a slender build with his blue hair in a swooping quiff. They were all wearing expensively tailored black suits with their own accessories. “Goto, Hattori. You two look well.”

Hate is often a very strong word she would never use other than on Chisaki Kai; but she hated these three boys with a passion.

Edogawa Ken. Goto Daiki. Hattori Kyosuke. The sons of three high-ranking embassy officials. Having been childhood friends, they were thick as thieves by the time they could walk, talk and quirk. Some would say they were the male counterparts of her, Seri and Tomoe; only difference was they were extremely rich assholes.

Todoroki was quick to catch on as to who they were: The Preppy Posse.

“Heard you got into U.A., Takahiro,” Hattori remarked with a snobbish tone. “Tryin’ to be a hero with that weak ass quirk of yours?”

“She’s already one,” Todoroki stepped in to defend her honor. “She has her provisional license.”

“Oh, my apologies then, Miss Taka-hero,” the blue-haired boy mocked with a bow and chuckled at his own pun.

“Wow, they really give that shit out to anyone nowadays,” Goto sneered and crossed his arms. “The pro heroes must be desperate since All-Might retired, huh.”

Ren quickly gripped Todoroki’s forearm as he tried to lunge at them. He quickly turned to look at her lightly shaking her head, reminding him to not engage.

“You… Two-tone boy.” Edogawa took three steps toward him, analyzing his face. He put his hand up to cover up his right side and focused on his left only.

“Holy shit,” he chuckled out in disbelief and took two steps back. “You’re Endeavor’s kid.”

“And if I am?” His voice was deep and rough through gritted teeth. The gentle hetero-chromatic eyes Ren was used to seeing were now intensely harsh and cold, glaring at the ring leader.

“Bro, no disrespect.” The black-haired boy held his hands up in neutral. “Just an honor to meet the son of the number one hero, is all. No need for the fire, my dude.”

He held his hand out to shake as a friendly gesture, only to come up empty from the dual-quirk wielding boy.

“If you have no more business with us,” Ren quickly stepped in to diffuse the situation, keeping up with the curt act. “We really should be getting back to the party.”

As she spun and grabbed Todoroki by his wrist to make their escape, Akahiro immediately stretched his arm and grabbed her waist, yanking her away from the bi-colored haired boy. She forgot his quirk was Nobi Nobi* and inwardly cursed at herself for it.

This was going to be troublesome.

“Ah-ah,” the messy jet-black haired boy tutted with a menacing grin on his thin lips. “Actually, we have business with you. Personal. Business.”

He leaned in close enough to Ren to shy away to gain what little personal space she could get, catching a whiff of her sweet perfume.

“Ooh hoo, you even smell nice,” he growled out and flashed a toothy grin at her.

He hungrily licked his lips as his free hand stretched around and caressed her backside, forcing her closer to his body and felt something halfway hard press against her thigh. Todoroki was seething with rage.

“Let go of her!” he growled out and summoned ice in his right palm.

“Todoroki, stop,” Ren commanded. “Just stay calm.”

She made solid eye contact with him, mentally projecting him to trust her.

“Yeah, Todoroki. You should listen to her,” the boy jeered with venomous elation. “We’re in the Embassy building at the heart of Tokyo. You let your quirk loose here, your hero career will end faster than you can apologize. Not even your dear ol’ dad can help you out.”

Clicking his tongue in anger, his logical side kicking in to assess the situation, released the ice in his hand.

“What a good boy you are,” Edogawa commended in a vindictive manner before turning back to Ren, leering at her through half-lidded hungry eyes. His gaze then went further down and leered at her breasts, imagining all the things he was going to do with them.

He tilted her chin up at him and spoke softly in his deep voice. “Now, if you don’t want your mom to get in trouble with, say, having your asylum status revoked, you’ll be a good little kitten and come with us.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” she arrogantly stated with a matching smirk.

“Oh?” His interest was peaked. “And what makes you so sure?”

She leaned in and whispered, “Because I know about ‘Remedy.’”

The boy’s grin immediately dropped to a scowl. The hand wrapped around her back slipped to the front and roughly slammed her onto a nearby wall by her neck, knocking the wind out of her lungs and grunted.

“Senpai!” Todoroki exclaimed. As he made moves toward her, Goto and Hattori stood in between.

“Not so fast, lover boy,” Hattori tutted.

“You fucking bitch,” he growled out with dark, angry eyes. “How the fuck you find out ‘bout that?”

“Oh, I have my sources,” she laughed wryly through strained breath. Her rebellious hazel-green eyes didn’t leave his and saw panic flicker in his irises for a second. “You’ll let me go right now if you don’t want it leaked by accident at, say, an important event where mommy and daddy are at tonight.”

Growling with dissatisfaction at the fact this nobody damaged his pride, Edogawa crudely released his grip.

“We’re leaving,” the boy hastily barked. “They’re a waste of our time.”

Edogawa stomped off angrily, with Goto and Hattori following not too far behind. Todoroki immediately ran up and held onto her for support as she placed a hand on her chest and gasped out loud, lightly wretch coughing.

“That was reckless,” he scolded. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” she wheezed out and rubbed her neck. “Guys like that… You gotta use your brain rather than your quirk to beat ‘em.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I know something that’ll get him into a lot of trouble. Call it insurance.”

“Senpai… I’m glad you’re on our side,” he blurted out. “You’d be a pain to deal with as a villain.”

“I almost get choked out and that’s what you say?”

Ren could only chuckle as Todoroki huffed a sigh of relief from his lips and slowly drew her into a one armed hug. Her limbs stiffened up at his touch, stunned by his action.

“I couldn’t do anything to help...” he spoke into her shoulder, feeling his hot breath cascade down her arm. “I’m sorry...”

“But you did.” Ren relaxed and reached her right hand up to pet the back of his head, consoling him. “You trusted me.”

Before they could continue with their conversation, they were interrupted with someone clearing their throat. The two turned to see Seri staring intently at them with her yellow and black owl-like eyes with her hands on her hips. She was clearly unamused.

“This isn’t a love hotel, you know,” she flatly pointed out. Realizing how close they were to each other, Todoroki suddenly released her and looked away shyly, remembering their talk earlier. The owl-faced girl then noticed the now formed bruise on her right forearm and red marks around her neck.

“I-I’m gonna use the toilet real quick,” the pink haired girl muttered and sped walked into the bathroom.

“Todoroki...” Seri spoke in a growing dark voice. “What did you do?”

He inwardly panicked as her eyes started glowing and felt his body going numb.

“It’s not what you think,” he calmly explained. “The posse approached us.”

The girl immediately stopped and asked him to explain while Ren was fixing herself up to look presentable again.

“Those bastards...” she angrily hissed out as their friend emerged from the lavatory. “Ren, let’s go fuck ‘em up.”

“We don’t need to,” she calmly replied and went to pick her blazer up off of the floor to dust it off before draping it back on her shoulders. “I got collateral on one of them.”

“What kind?”

“I think I heard her say something called ‘Remedy’?” Todoroki spoke up.

Her eyes grew went wide when Ren’s train of thought quickly hit Seri.

“I hope you took extra precautions, you idiot,” her snow owl friend scolded.

“Of course I did,” Ren defensively huffed out as a matter of factly. “Who do you take me for?”

“I’m sorry.” The red and white haired boy interjected in confusion. “What are you two talking about?”

“Ren-Ren used the Dark Net to obtain her information,” Seri revealed and crossed her arms. The boy quickly glanced over at his upperclassman in shock. “Talk about high risk.”

“It was a calculated risk and it paid off,” she briskly corrected. “Would you rather have me end up being their plaything and calling ‘em ‘master’? I sure as hell don’t.”

“So what is ‘Remedy’ exactly?” Todoroki asked. “And why was Edogawa so scared by it?”

“Our lovely stretchy worm has been secretly investing in overseas quirk-boosters and playing the black market,” Ren explained in a hushed voice. “And here’s the kicker: the money’s partially from his inheritance to which he laundered through ill-gotten gains in other drugs and firearms. I’d say the only smart thing he did was doing it through an alias, but little did he realize the money trail he poorly covered up.”

“So why can’t we report him now and have him arrested?”

“Diplomatic immunity. That’s why,” Seri bitterly spat out and crossed her arms. “We need substantial physical evidence to catch him.”

“Gotta love government loopholes,” Ren irritably lamented and sighed. “You’ll learn quickly not everything’s black and white in their eyes, Todo-kun. As much as heroes think they’re in the right in dealing with villains and doing a service to law-abiding citizens, there are situations that call for dirtier tactics to justify the means. I’m sure Uncle All-Might and even your dad’s got stories to tell you about.”

“And this is the stuff school tries to shelter us from to prevent cynicism from spreading in the budding hero community,” the owl-girl mentioned. “It was inevitable for us due to our upbringing.”

“So why tell me about this?” the bi-coloured haired boy finally asked.

“Because you’re capable,” they both said in unison.

“You’re the type who calmly analyzes a situation in order to decide the best course of action,” Ren praised. “Like you did before with the posse.”

“And you’re well aware of your status so you don’t act brashly,” Seri added.

“You speak too highly of me.”

“You have two of your senpais acknowledging your intelligence, Todoroki-kun,” the snow owl girl firmly stated with a small smile. “Now’s not the time to be humble.”

“Anyway, we should head back in,” Ren finalized. “I’m sure our respective parents would’ve noticed we’re gone by now.”

“Hurray,” Seri unceremoniously cheered and rolled her eyes.

The boy stood by himself for a moment to collect himself from their words of encouragement, watching the two girls walk back to the ballroom entrance. Ren stopped in her steps and turned back to him.

“You coming?”

Rejoining the group, the three re-entered the ballroom without fanfare.

“Ren! There you are,” her mom called and walked up to her daughter, noticing the marks on her neck. “What happened there?”

“Huh? Oh! I think I may be allergic to the perfume I’m wearing,” she quickly fibbed. “Couldn’t stop scratching.”

“Be sure to get that checked out tomorrow okay?”

“’Course mom.”

“Seri,” Ren’s mom warmly greeted and drew the girl into a hug. “You doing well in U.A.?”

“Of course, Aunt Victoria,” the owl girl responded with a small smile after releasing. “Who else will keep Ren-Ren out of trouble?”

“I’m actually offended you see me as a problem child,” Ren feigned betrayal by splaying her right hand over her chest and fluttered her eyelashes.

“Oh and who may you be?” Victoria turned to Todoroki and asked. “I didn’t see you on the video call last time.”

“I’m Todoroki Shouto, ma’am,” he politely introduced himself with a light bow. “I’m here in representation of my father Endeavor tonight as he’s still recovering from his injuries. Very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Takahiro.”

“No need to be so formal, Shouto-kun,” Ren’s mom disregarded with a wave of her hand. “Victoria’s just fine.”

“T-Then I will greet you as you wish.”

“How is your father by the way? The injuries he sustained looked pretty serious,” she asked with genuine care in her tone. “I do hope he’s not pushing himself too hard.”

“Thank you for your kind words, but my father will be fine,” he reassured in an almost robotic manner. “He’s gone through worse scrapes.”

“While that’s true, I still do worry about all the pros out there...” The elder Takahiro trailed off and looked at her daughter. “You all put your lives on the line everyday and anything can happen that’ll turn a minor situation into a major one.”

“It’s an occupational hazard, mom,” Ren stated and rolled her eyes. “We’ve talked about this before.”

“I know but I still worry,” Victoria firmly stated and drew her kid by her waist to hug her.

All her daughter could do is sigh, knowing anything she’d say wouldn’t quell her doubts. As conversations continued, Ren noticed something amiss from her peripheral. Hattori came in stumbling about like he drank too much whisky; he was sweating profusely and tugged at his tie to get air, his eyes bloodshot. She quickly scanned the room and the other two were no where to be found. To prevent making a scene, Ren excused herself and stealthily approached him from the side.

“Hattori,” she called softly to catch his attention. “You okay there?”

All he could hear was gagging and she looked down to see his form hunched over and foaming at the mouth. She pulled his collar down to see a reddened puncture wound at his jugular and pulled him up to support his heavy frame.

“What did you take?” she whispered. “Get it together, man.”

“I-It’s a-a-all your fa-fault, Taka...hiro,” he stuttered out and slowly turned to meet her shocked expression. His eyes started gradually glowed red and charged up.

Oh shit.

She pushed him away in time as his eyes shot out lasers that hit the hangar loop of the chandelier. The decorative centerpiece snapped and made its way down, drawing party goers to run for cover as it crashed down with scattered crystals flying across the marble floor.

“This… is your doing, Takahiro!” Hattori huffed out and stared at her with glowing red eyes and shot at her again, not caring about the patrons around. The moment she dodged, Todoroki quickly created an ice wall in between the startled guests to absorb the laser attack. The slender boy roughly gripped his now messy blue hair and screamed, peeking the tip of his now blackened tongue.

She tapped her bangles to transform into T-clubs on instinct.

Seri immediately jumped to her left side and asked, “Hattori, is he...”

“He’s boosted,” she huffed out, watching the boy’s form wreath in pain and clawed at his chest.

“Leave this to us,” Aizawa came up from behind them and prepared his Capture Device. “Help with the evacuations.”

“He’s after me,” Ren stated. “I should take respon–”

“That doesn’t mean you ignore your other duties as a hero,” the ebony haired man firmly lectured and walked past her to shield the three U.A. students. “We’re the pros here, not you.”

Before the pink haired girl could even move, Hattori charged at full speed toward her, only to be intercepted by one of Fourth Kind’s brutish strength from two of his four arms.

“You’re not goin’ anywhere, young’un,” the four-armed hero gruffly spoke and rebounded his body back.

“Be careful of his quirk,” Ren warned. “His ability is to absorb attacks and recoil it in the form of kinetic energy through his eyes.”

“You kids and your troublesome quirks,” Aizawa blurted out and clicked his tongue. “Thanks for the intel. Now go.”

Ren knew they could handle it and gritted her teeth. Both Seri’s and Todoroki’s voices brought her back as they ran to assist Gang Orca and Kamui Woods with clearing the building before it went on lockdown. Within the maelstrom of panicked party goers, Ren found the back of her mom’s head.

She was safe.

One less thing to worry about.

Moments later, they were all out in the main driveway of the embassy building, all looking up in hopes of seeing what’s going on. Ren could only wait with baited breath and scanned the growing crowd for two certain boys.

“Ren,” Seri called with a hushed voice by her side. “Goto. Four o’clock.”

God bless Seri’s owl quirk. The pink haired girl gingerly moved backwards to not attract attention and immediately teleported behind the person of interest. He let out a light gasp upon feeling her locking his left wrist.

“Move and I snap it,” Ren spoke in the shell of his ear in a low voice. “You will answer my questions in the form of head nods. We clear?”

Goto swallowed thickly and nodded, with beads of perspiration rolling down his temple.

“Is there a booster in Hattori’s system?”

Goto nodded once.

“Did he inject it in himself?”

The stocky boy shook his head furiously.

“Is Edogawa still here?”

He hesitated to answer and saw his shoulders visibly shake.

“Is Edogawa responsible for this?”

The brown haired boy bit his lower lip and clenched his free hand into a fist, fighting crocodile tears. They were both his friends. He couldn’t possibly out them! A sudden thought crossed her mind: Could Hattori be involved with Remedy and this was a fallout situation?

“Goto, you need to tell me now,” Ren’s growled out. Her patience was running very thin. “The longer you hesitate, the more danger Hattori’s life will be in; he can die.”

The boy finally conceded and choked out, “After we left you, Ken… checked something on his phone. He was pissed about something he read and popped some kinda pills before getting into it with Kyo,” Goto whimpered. “Said something about being snitched on.”

“So he thought Hattori betrayed him.”

“Kyo didn’t know what he was talking about and next thing we knew, Ken...” He stifled his words and softly dry sobbed. “I’ve never seen him this angry before. The drugs he’s been taking’s been making him more paranoid than usual.”

“Do you know the booster dosage that’s in Hattori’s system?”

Goto furiously shook his head no.

“L-Look,” he stammered out. “I-I’m sorry for all the shit we said about you, but please...” The boy desperately pleaded. “Save Kyo. Because I can’t. Not with my quirk.”

Goto Daiki’s quirk is Machina, where he can communicate with and fix anything machine-based. As much as he hated it, it’s been proven useful in becoming the go-to I.T. person in his circle of friends and family, albeit annoying and tiresome. However, he can only activate this only if there’s something wrong with its functions and can’t hack.

Releasing his wrist, Ren said nothing more and zipped away from him to regroup with Seri and Todoroki. She didn’t like the boy, but you can’t fake that kind of desolation.

“Did you get anything out of Goto?” Seri hurriedly asked.

“Hattori and Edogawa had a fallout. Stabbed a booster in him, so we’re on borrowed time,” Ren summarized.

The penthouse windows immediately shattered, raining glass down below. Todoroki summoned a giant iceberg to shield the people from being hurt as they ran further away from the entrance. They saw a small dot jump out with the debris; it was Hattori.

“How are you at using your flames, Todo-kun?” Ren quickly asked.

“Not good enough to propel us mid-air to catch him.”

“But you can get into air?” Seri chimed in.

“Halfway.”

“Good enough. Let’s go.”

“Seri! You will stay here,” a booming voice rang out. The three turned to see a tall, portly man glowering down at them. It was her father.

“I don’t care what you think of my choices, father, but there’s a life that needs saving right now,” the owl-faced girl angrily snapped. “I need to be a hero.”

“Where you need to be right now is safe and away from harm,” he firmly demanded.

“Mr. Kubo, with all due respect, I need Seri,” Ren cut in. “Time’s of the essence and she’s essential to our plan.”

“Ren, let’s go,” Seri dismissed her father’s request and sped walked away to Todoroki’s side. “He’s too stubborn to understand.”

Her pink-haired friend stood stationary for a beat, facing her friend’s dad.

“Ren?” she called.

“She’s not as weak or fragile as you think she is, Mr. Kubo,” she softly spoke within an earshot, firmly meeting the man’s aged brown eyes with determination. “Watch her.”

Seri’s heart swelled with pride and purpose hearing her best friend’s praise. Rejoining the group, they made their way to the curved frozen structure the two-tone hair colored by created before. The two grabbed onto Ren’s shoulders and teleported them halfway up the ice.

The grayish white-haired girl closed her eyes and took a breath, spreading her arms out as they transformed into white spotted owl wings; her hands morphed into sharp, black talons. Reopening her yellow tinted eyes, they were focused and ready to go.

“That never gets boring to watch,” Ren gushed with a smirk. “Let’s go, Hedwig.”

“The name’s Athena, zippy,” she blurted out and flapped her wings a few times to prepare for take off. “So what’s the plan here?”

“Todo-kun’ll use his ice to restrain his movements and eyes while I try to knock him out cold. Your job’s to bring him down safely,” Ren briefed and tapped her bangles to transform them into T-clubs again.

“How will you get down?” she asked with concern.

“I’ll figure something out. He’ll be with me.”

Seri took a running start and flew up at an incredible speed, causing blow back from her wings. Ren shivered slightly only to feel something warm immediately envelop her.

“Your lag will get bad if you’re too cold right?” Todoroki held his flame engulfed left hand out to her. Ren hastily rubbed her hands and hovered over it.

“I’m good now, thanks.”

“Hold on tight,” he instructed as he turned his hand back. She gripped onto his torso, with his right arm snaked around hers. “I can’t do it like Bakugou or my old man, but I’m gonna try.”

Torquing his fire to near maximum output, Ren and Todoroki blasted up into the air at an awkward angle and neared Seri’s flying form. As planned, he cut his fire as Ren zipped across the sky like a zig-zagging shooting star to get close to Hattori’s falling figure. The dual-quirk user immediately gripped his shirt and encased his body in ice and let out a white breath from his lips. Ren released her grip and struck the laser eye boy at the base of his neck, knocking him unconscious. Seri then swooped on by and caught him with her back with a soft grunt before making her way down to the ground.

The spectators screamed as they watched Ren and Todoroki free fall at an alarming speed. The two strained to grab each other’s hands before succeeding seconds later. Unable to see where she could teleport them to safety due to the blistering cold G-force winds blinding her, the dual-haired colored boy angled his right hand down and conjured ice from his palms, creating a makeshift bumpy slide. They roughly landed on the slippery surface and descended at an alarming velocity. The boy then created an ice cushion at the bottom and grabbed Ren to shield her with his body from the collision. They hit the ice wall with a thud and knocked the wind out of his lungs.

The two heavily panted and felt their hearts pound out of their chest from the adrenaline; their hair a disheveled mess from the wind and fall.

“You okay?” Ren finally spoke between breaths.

“Yes...” Todoroki swallowed hard and gulped up air, releasing a large white breath from his lips. Parts of his arms and face had remnants of ice lingering. “You should plan better next time.”

“Noted.”

They gingerly got off of the ice and back up on their feet to make their way to Seri, who was with an unconscious Hattori by her side. Todoroki walked up to him and shielded his eyes with ice in case he woke up and went berserk again. Moments later, Aizawa and Fourth Kind emerged from the crowd to take care of the rest with the now arrived authorities. Goto could be seen with his parents and talking to detectives. Todoroki melted the ice he used to restrain Hattori before he was slapped with a pair of cuffs and goggles on the gurney before tending to the other structures he made. Edogawa was still no where to be found.

“Ren!” her mom cried and ran at her to tightly embrace her daughter. “Are you hurt anywhere?!”

She released and looked at her mom with a small smile of reassurance. “I’m fine. Todo-kun used his ice to cushion our fall.”

“Never scare me like that again, you hear me?!” Tears were flowing freely from her aged green eyes and drew her back into a tight hug before making her way to the bi-coloured haired boy.

“Todoroki-kun, thank you.” She firmly gripped both his hands into hers. “You were brilliant.”

He shyly looked down with a matching blush and softly smiled.

“It was Ren-senpai who came up with the plan–”

“But you saved her,” Victoria added. “Knowing my daughter, I’m sure she didn’t think that far ahead.”

“Wow, you guys are just on it with the insults tonight,” Ren blurted out with exasperation and crossed her arms.

Their celebration was short lived and sensed something launching in their general direction. Ren immediately tackled her mom to the ground to shield her. Todoroki ducked below and was on high alert. The police and other pro heroes jumped out and aimed their weapons at the hidden assailant.

“You… You fucking told them didn’t you?!” a hoarse voice shouted from the shadows and out emerged a disheveled looking Edogawa. His hair was a mess and his once neatly tied tie disappeared. The boy obsessively clawed at his own throat and smiled manically.

“You bitch, you did this...” he muttered out and dryly laughed to himself. “You’ve ruined me!”

“Stand down, Edogawa,” Aizawa told him and prepared his device in his hands. “You’re surrounded by cops and heroes. There’s no where for you to run.”

“Oh, that’s where you got things wrong, hero,” he tittered out in frenzy.

The boy took out a vile of black substance from his jacket pocket and aimed to stab it into his neck. Ren teleported over just in time to hold his wrist back by force and twisted it far enough for him to loose his grip on the booster. Aizawa timed her moments perfectly and used his quirk to disable the boy from using his.

“Whatever’s happened, it’s not worth your life.” Ren tightened her grip on his wrist, her eyes focused only on his bloodshot ones. “Not like this.”

Edogawa could do nothing but whimper and collapse on his knees, completely breaking down. As the authorities closed in on him, she held out a hand to stop them in their steps. This wasn’t what he needed right now. She released her grip on his wrist and knelt down beside him. Fourth Kind slowly approached her and placed one of his hands on her shoulder, allowing him to take over.

“He’s… fragile right now,” she softly spoke to the four-armed man. “Take care of him.”

“Friend of yours?”

“Not particularly,” she flatly blurted and took a few steps away. “But he still deserves some kind of sympathy.”

Slowly making her way back to her mom and friends, Ren suddenly got hit with an overwhelming sense of vertigo and staggered. Unable to control her motor functions, she fell into Seri’s feathery arms, who rushed in on time to catch her. Victoria and Todoroki followed not too far behind.

“Ren!” The owl girl gripped her friend tightly. “Did he do something to you?!”

“Think I… “She swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, letting out a light, shaky breath. “I overused… my quirk...”

“My God, woman. You’re more trouble than you’re worth.” Seri let out a sigh of relief and gently set her arm around her shoulders for support.

“But did I die?” she lightly scoffed.

“Part of me thinks you’re only alive for the ramen.”

“Damn right.”

#bnha fanfiction #mha fanfiction #bnha oc #mha oc #todoroki shouto #bnha todoroki #eraserhead #bnha aizawa #mha aizawa #fourth kind #bnha fourth kind #mha fourth kind

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crazyfreckledginger · 5 years

Text

The Girl’s Pack ~ Chapter 26: The Talk

[Princess][Archer][Wolf][Wally][Jason and Roy][Dick]

A/N: Sorry this took so long!

“You asked for me Kai?” (Y/N) stepped outside, onto the balcony. The wolf was there, standing and gazing on the view which was engulfed in darkness.

“Yes, we have some important issues to discuss. I wouldn’t have wanted you to know now because of everything but due to these circumstances, we don’t really have a choice.”

“What’s going on Kai?” The girl frowned, sitting beside him. He looked away momentarily, feeling his tail twitch in uneasiness.

“Sit,” He instructed, nodded to a spot beside him. She did as she was told, plopping down and crossing her legs. Her shoulders faced the scenery as well, not understanding what he could possibly ask for.

“What’s wrong Kai?” She voiced her worry, turning to him and attempting to read this.

“We wanted to keep this a secret for as long as possible and this timing could not be any less inappropriate but now more than ever, you need to be informed.”

“Kai, you’re worrying me,” (Y/N) gulped.

“I’m sorry little one,” He nodded, “let me explain, you are the princess of Arvaysia and since the King has… left us, you will need to become the new heir of the kingdom.”

“What? I’m going to become Queen??” The (H/C) haired girl gasped.

“Unfortunately yes, and quickly, we know you haven’t completed your training but we need to return to the kingdom as soon as possible, if the kingdom stays without an heir for too long, then the ancestral spirit will take over the kingdom.”

“But I thought the ancestral spirits were good.”

“Some of them are faster and more powerful than others, they still have a conscious mind, we have no idea what they might do with this amount of power.”

“So we might all die a horrible death?”

“More like we might succumb to darkness,”

“Oh, that’s… not good,” The girl sighed, “I don’t want to be queen though, I’m too young, there is so much I want to learn about ‘humans’ and I want to travel everywhere with my friends, I just, I can’t-”

“I know little one, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you now, as much as I dislike it, you have grown fond of the people here, as they have with you and I know it would break your heart to stay in Arvaysia forever, ruling over us,” The girl released a sigh in relief, she was thankful he understood her view, “but what is happening has to be done, I’m sorry but you are the only one fit to be queen, Tamaska nominated you as the next ruler, there is nothing that can be done,” His expression lowered as he stared at the ground. The girl’s shoulders hunched over and her face faltered as well.

“I’m sorry,” He muttered.

“It’s not your fault,” she groaned softly in frustration, “I just don’t want my life set out already, I have so much to discover and well, I don’t feel like my place in the kingdom will stand well among the people.”

“What makes you think that?” Kai frowned, moving his attention from the lake to her.

“Well, they trusted me with Tamaska because they had always put their faith in him and were never left disappointed, but now that he’s gone, I, I don’t think they will trust me, after all, he sacrificed himself for me.” She whispered sadly, staring at her lap. She heard the Alpha take a deep breath beside her and stare back at the landscape.

“A good leader would not care of his reputation from the start, they would prove their worth from the start and listen to the voice of their people. They would learn from their mistakes and would not submit to greed.”

The girl watched him explain everything, she didn’t realise how wise he had become over the years, the moments she cherished with him as they grew up, when he was just a little pup that was first discovering a ball which made her giggle uncontrollably, or when he was there for her to comfort her when she was sad -- and then when he could pass looking like a dog and walked by her side in their childhood town and she nearly got attacked and he bit the stranger before he could reach her.

And now here he was, giving her advice about how the kingdom should be run like he was her advisor when he knew Arvaysia better than anyone and was such a terrific leader. She understood that he was trying to help her and give her insight of the potential strategies that she should apply -- but the only thing this did was make her overwhelmed and increasingly convinced that he should be King. For what reason he wasn’t the one getting coronated, she really didn’t know?

If only Ayaka was here to fend him off a little bit, she knew when Kai would… go on.

“But you get the general idea, right (Y/N)?” A small graceful smile appeared on his face as he turned to her. Her heart jumped. Kai looked proud of her, and what she had accomplished.

The only thing she felt was guilt, nothing else. It was wrong for her to do this, he was the ideal King, but fate had her become it, something that nearly everyone didn’t want.

It was fate however, and nothing can change that.

“I have to go keep an eye on the pack, will you be okay with the humans?” He asked, standing up and staring down at her.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be fine,” she smiled softly. He nodded, humming in content before turning around and walking back into the Mount. The girl released a breath as he disappeared i the numerous corridors.

She uncrossed her legs and pulled her knees against her chest, placing her chin on one of them and sighing deeply.

“Everything alright?” A voice asked.

“Mmh,” She hummed, recognising one of the gingers immediately.

“Are you sure?” He chuckled softly, flipping down beside her and leaning on his palms, most of his weight being on his muscular arms.

“I’m just sad, confused, depressed, all the bad emotions at once,” Her eyelids fell over her eyes and she huffed, burying her face in between her legs. “I know the feeling,” He nodded, scoffing to himself.

“How did you deal with it?” Her head turned to him in desperation. Roy stared back at the lake before lifting his hand.

“Come,” He nodded, she shifted closer before he leaned back, his back laying against the cement. Her head fell on his shoulder as he pulled her into his side.

“Well,”

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eyedelater · 7 years

Text

post about the rest of the ajin anime (seasons 1 and 2)

(nothing special, just a liveblog post)

ajin episode 6

i see that the animation budget saved by doing CGI was instead spent on the fluttery shifty effects of the black ghosts

so satou's ghost is also anvil-headed

right, nagai doesn't have much empathy... hmm... hmm... that doesn't excuse his being an asshole at times

tosaki sure is eager to jump to conclusions as to why satou didn't bring out his ghost

ohh, ghost-to-ghost head collisions can bump some memories back and forth, interesting, i forgot about that...

huh, what is eriko calling kei "onii-chan" for at a time like this? she called him "nii-san" to his face and i think in front of everyone who talked to her about him, right? was that her way of expressing worry about him...?

episode 7

tosaki's gotta get that dekai kane

right, of course he's motivated by comatose fiance. doesn't excuse any of the shit he's done

episode 8

nakano kou. do we seriously have a kei, a kai, and a kou? sounds like a bit of a natural OT3 tbh

episode 9

there we go, nagai kei finally being an indisputable asshole

oh, right, big pharma makes an appearance as an antagonist

sokabe has a very silly face.

i already forgot what IBM stands for and can only come up with IBM he company or ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) without the C

right, ogura's distinguishing feature was not only smoking cigarettes, but being unreasonably dedicated to his brand of smokes in particular. so dumb

episode 10

ogura says a black ghost can only be used once or twice a day, but didn't nagai kei whip em out one after another like it was no thing? is that his special protagonist power that makes him differentiated enough to be the protagonist?

kei's ghost learned how to fell a tree from minecraft

do they really have huge screens up in cities complete with booming audio? the screens are nothing new, but the audio seems unusual to me

episode 11

oh, tosaki finally learned satou's name. from satou's video.

yamanaka-san bought him an oPhone8

"life and money are synonymous" sounds like your typical CEO

omfg satou rode the sinking tower and had a great time

sokabe is still calling satou "hat guy." get with the picture

episode 12

this just in: does satou sometimes substitute a "sh" sound in for an "s" sound?

episode 13

kei demonstrates his shittiness by holding a knife to yamanaka-san's neck after getting sniped. what a dick. oh wait he made it work. well whatever

tosaki says nagai kei is not a fool and as such he probably already scouted out the area, but tosaki immediately also says nagai kei has probably exhausted his black ghost uses for the day, something a fool would do because only a fool doesn't know their own limits and try to use them tactically in such a situation

time for season 2 i guess, episode 2-1

this OP isn't bad i guess

these subs having sokabe say "it's normal for a subordinate to greet his senpai." listen, if you use "senpai," you gotta also use "kohai," and if you use "subordinate," you also gotta use "superior" you can't just pick and choose which words you want to translate

this ending song is horrible

ep 2-2

sakurai emerging from the airplane toilet clearly zipping up his fly out of frame and seeing satou and his eyebrows just turn on a fulcrum and then turn backward like they're pinball flippers

ep 2-3

ah. i was musing over what must be the most popular ship for ajin, thinking maybe kei/kai or kei/kou or tosaki/ogura, but i've had a bit of a realization, and if i know the hearts of the BL community at all, their favorite ship is probably some sinful shit like tosaki/kei. i’ll find out soon enough whether i’m right (haven’t looked at any ajin pixiv tags yet)

ep 2-4

kotobuki, eh. seems like a charming character. oh, this bandanna delinquent is pulling the ol' pee-and-chat

kaito, everyone's favorite punching bag

for the record, i know i've read beyond this point in the manga, but i don't remember shit except that i left off around a chapter where we see shimomura's history.

kotobuki has a small head, maybe he just squeezed through some bars to escape

ah, i just realized the other anime this kinda reminds me of: zankyou no terror. it's got the police/government and the american government trying to intervene aspect to it.

carly meyers doesn't have any kind of american accent... i was kinda hoping she would

neither does doug here. i guess they didn't have voice actors who would have some fun doing a bad accent... or maybe they didn't see it as appropriate

holy FUCK, kaito executed a flying dropkick even though he wasn't on higher ground or anything, what the fuck

kotobuki asks kai what nagai kei is like and i earnestly half-expected him to reply "he's scum" like everyone else does

oh, so kotobuki's got a winged kuro-chan. lucky...

i forgot to write about this in the episode where it was said, but that iowan ajin whose ghost was driving a tractor is such a perfect image i can't stop thinking about it

ep 2-5

so i guess satou's catchphrase is "sssshate" (bc he kinda does a "sha" instead of a "sa") (meaning "now, then.")

the first OP wasn't skippable but i find myself needing to skip this one

there's lots of "pulling up live television broadcasts via a non-television device" in this anime

kou calling shimomura "izumi-san" pls

i like how whoever is nearest the whiteboard is the one to cross the latest victim off the target list

ok, if tosaki is about to be fired (which, hasn't he been for a while now?), that made me think, why is he concerned about his job when he's doing this conspiring with ogura and nagai etc hidden from his superiors? is he concerned about stopping satou, or is he still only concerned about money for his fiancee...? is he getting hella paid for this even though he's less involved in the torture (the real moneymaking activity) than before?

i don't like this dynamic btwn american guy and carly meyers where he keeps correcting her gruffly and she keeps backing off and looking afraid/ashamed.

they had nakano put on a satou hat to be satou ;w;

did shimomura just plug a flash drive into her phone? what kind of compatibility we got in this time period?

how long do neck-stab sedatives take to kick in in real life?

carly meyers's kuro-chan has a gem-shaped head

why don't all ajins just keep a knife or something on them to cut their own throat whenever they get hurt

ep 2-6

tainaka yoko. yup, this is about where i left off in the manga, i believe

whoa there, tosaki just got tased right in the nib nob. that's dirty, american doug

i can't say i feel bad for tosaki getting tortured.

ep 2-7

shut your ungrateful mouth, tosaki, shimomura was LITERALLY just doing her job, which you TOLD HER WAS HER JOB: PROTECTING YOU

how in the fuck did satou get away with playing dead when the other side KNOWS it's ajins they're fighting

why isn't ogura, a native english speaker, the one writing an email to the defense department

ep 2-8

this new OP is ok

ep 2-10

(i spent all of 2-9 doing origami instead of typing)

tosaki don't relapse on your smoking habit :( that's not gonna do anyone any good.

ep 2-11

kai busts in with his signature move and saves the day and he's started calling kotobuki "senpai"

so kei's signature line to kai is "i really have to pee"

kai's like "you're wrong. he (kei) isn't an idiot." that's right, he's actually trash, ask anyone

i can't emphasize enough how bad this ending theme is

ep 2-12

well okuyama-kun has been kind of lovable so far, so if he and others decide to join tosaki's side, that would probably be good

isn't burying someone alive the worst way to try to contain them? because you can't see them directly. they could escape without you noticing

ep 2-13

no kabedonning shimomura >:(

wait wait is tanaka also wearing a satou hat? oh, it's just a baseball cap.

fuck off tanaka don't impale shimomura in the same way twice

oh, one of nagai's new ghost army said the thing that nagai said at the scene where he first saw a ghost :0 about the sick puppy. i like all these ghosts spouting quotes

oh, he cut off satou's head. well, that's the first head we've seen cut off. is he facing the right direction to meet his new self? he closed his eyes too soon for us to find out :\

helicopters are raining in bullets from above like in ghost in the shell (1995) (unless i’m completely misremembering. there were other things that were raining bullets in various directions in that scene so i’m not sure)

so now satou's in custody for the first time.

so satou had an exposition dream

honestly i’m no longer sure where i even left off when i read the manga x years ago, i feel like i may have dropped it because i didn’t care for the boring military shit going on for quite a while, but i feel like i even distantly remember satou being beheaded in the manga...? but anyway i’m gonna (re?)read the whole manga now i guess. overall manga verdict: it had a distant, clammy feel to it, but not bad; the voice for nagai’s ghost was real good; they did a good job with the cgi animation, but it definitely lacks something compared to the art in the manga; the only good OP was the first one; and yeah idk my feeling toward this anime is pretty neutral.

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canardroublard · 7 years

Text

Poco a poco

Fandom: Rogue One (featuring characters from the OT)

Pairings: Jyn/Cassian, background Chirrut/Baze and Han/Leia

Two-shot, first chapter: 8000 words. Second chapter is written and will be posted early next week.

ao3

University/Classical music AU. No wait, classical music isn’t that scary, come back! No knowledge of classical music is required to read, I promise. Slow burn UST, humour, and other good stuff are contained within.

Poco a poco (It.). By degrees; lit. little by little; as in, Rall. poco a poco.

The Student's Pronouncing Musical Dictionary, by Leon Aubry

Jyn, in her defense, is not exactly late for class.

She's just not very early. Music theory doesn't technically start for another (damn it she keeps forgetting to switch her watch to this new time zone which means it's off by...) three minutes. Three minutes to get to Theory 2100. Or at least to get to the room where she thinks Theory 2100 is being held. The Yavin School of Performing Arts had seemed much easier to navigate when she'd been on the new students tour yesterday. Also, who designed this school with so many bloody stairs? She's just rounding the corner to tackle the next set, feeling only slightly embarrassed by how much she's panting after the past three flights, when she bodily slams into someone and isn't that exactly what her day needed right now. For fuck's sake.

"Sorry, I'm late for theory," She says, hoisting herself off of the dark-haired man who is now crumpled against the wall, groaning slightly. She notices the case in his arms. "Oh shit, your violin -"

"Viola, actually," He says with the sigh of someone who knows he should give up trying to correct people on this issue but keeps on doing so out of pure bloody-mindedness. Grabbing her proffered hand to pull himself back up (wow, he's pretty tall), he continues. "It's fine. Theory 2100?"

"Yeah."

"You're going the wrong way. It's down a floor," He seems to take her in for the first time, frowning down at her slightly. "I'm going there now, you can follow me." She's only a teeny tiny bit distracted by the way his hair flops over his forehead when he turns away to start down the stairs.

"So, what are you?" He asks.

"Piano," Jyn says, falling into step beside him. The man's head bobs, nodding to himself as if she's just confirmed a hunch.

"No instrument with you, and most vocalists aren't so," He makes a circling gesture with the hand not holding his viola case, searching for a word. "Scrawny."

"Um, thanks?" Scrawny? Fortunately she's spared the pressure of further response when he pushes open a door and gestures brusquely for her to go in first. The small lecture hall is mostly full, with about thirty students sprawled in their seats, pulling tiredly at their Starbucks cups. 9 AM classes are hell. Jyn slides into the nearest available seat at the back, but her new acquaintance begins walking down to the front of the room.

"Ah, Mr. Andor," Says the professor in a tone of such condescension that Jyn can already definitively state that she does not like him. "Glad you could finally join us."

"Sorry Professor Draven," the man, whose name is apparently Mr. Andor, says. "Professor Îmwe wanted to discuss my repertoire for this year before classes started, and I had to help-" He stops then and turns, blinking, back to where Jyn has tried to settle in as inconspicuously as possible, staring up at her as if he's finally realized that he was too busy calling her scrawny to actually get her name (or give his, for that matter) like a polite human being. Before she can put him out of his misery, Draven interrupts.

"You have decided to grace us with your presence after all, Jyn Erso," The man scoffs. She wants to punch him in the dick. "I wasn't sure whether to trust the rumours." Before she can let loose a few choice words which would certainly have gotten her expelled on her very first day here, Draven's face wrinkles into a bulldoggish scowl.

"Both of you, take a syllabus. Don't be late again." He turns back to the board. "As I was just explaining to the students who showed up on time, this class will be focusing on musical analysis."

Goddammit.

Finding Bodhi in the canteen after class is such a relief that Jyn nearly cries. He gives her a bright (Bodhi is always so bright) smile and waves her over.

"Everyone keeps whispering and staring at me," She says, "I half expect someone to yell 'Pay five p. to see Jyn Erso, former child prodigy!' like I'm a circus freak."

Bodhi's face sinks. "Yeah, I know. Sorry. I didn't tell anyone, but one of the professors must have let it slip last week."

"Probably Draven. He's odious," She says and Bodhi has the nerve to snort at her.

"I thought you might not like him," He replies, gesturing around the dank, concrete room with his fork. "Most people don't."

"We're spending the entire semester just doing analysis! I hate analysis," Bodhi actually smiles at her outrage. She liked him so much better when they were young and he was scared of her because she was the daughter of Galen Erso, world famous violinist.

"Draven's tough. But he knows his stuff and he wants everyone to succeed," Chewing thoughtfully, he adds, "Even if he doesn't show it."

Bodhi's ability to see the good in everyone is positively infuriating sometimes. He is also patient, to his credit, and lets her launch into a long rant, nodding and making appropriate noises of sympathy. She loves this about him. When she begins to run out of steam he prods her to eat. "You'll need to keep your strength up. You've got your private lesson after this, right?"

"Yes, assuming I don't get lost trying to get to this one too."

Bodhi's assurances that Professor Malbus is much more understanding are a small comfort. "He's okay, you'll be fine. How'd you find theory?"

"Some violist. Andor. I bumped into him on the way to class." She doesn't need to tell Bodhi the details of how literal the bumping was.

"Oh, so you've met Cassian?"

"Yep. He called me scrawny. Nice guy."

Bodhi just shakes his head. Her phone chirps.

Incoming call from JYN DON'T ANSWER THIS

She thumbs the decline call button while Bodhi continues.

"He is nice, Jyn. And you are scrawny."

She may not know anyone at Bodhi's start of semester party, but there's lots of beer and when you really think about it, beer can be a pretty good friend so it's really almost the same thing as actually knowing people. And yeah, so maybe she's lurking in the corner like a total loser, but at least she's managed to be the only woman in the room who's successfully avoided being hit on by God's Gift to Music, Han Solo. Why are all the trumpet players she knows such overconfident tossers?

The tiny flat is packed with music students celebrating the fact that classes inexplicably began on a Friday this year. She scans the room to see if Bodhi is free enough that she can go harass him in lieu of meeting new people. Bodhi, who is just sickeningly nice sometimes, well, all the time, has instead taken pity on the blond guy who was in her tour group with his twin sister. Luke something? All she remembers is that he's an oboist and his sister plays horn, and Jyn remembers the latter fact only because the woman's twisty side-bun hairdo looks like she has two French horns (minus the bells) stuck onto her head. It's nice when people make things easy to remember.

"You are the Jyn Erso," Says a voice unnervingly close to her ear. She jumps slightly and glances around to discover a towering blond man who is staring owlishly at her. Why does she always attract the weirdos at parties?

"You are the reason Cassian was late for Theory 2100."

Apparently she's meant to say something now? "Yeah. I mean, he was late anyways," She corrects, feeling suddenly defensive. This guy just keeps staring at her like she's some exotic species of insect that he might want to pin to a board and study if he were motivated enough to do so, but he can't be bothered so he's about to squash her instead out of vaguely malicious indifference and what the fuck is with the male students of this school? God.

"No, he was not," He says primly. Good lord, she's not even going to make it through her first day here without starting a fight. Bodhi won't be surprised. "Cassian is a conscientious student. If you had not assaulted him and then solicited his assistance, he would not have been late."

Jyn wonders if she could jump high enough from a standstill to just start throttling him now or if she'd have to ask him to crouch down first.

"Hey, listen, you knob, he said-"

"Kay, where have you been?" A hand parts the wall of people boxing in her corner and of course it's Cassian because the universe hates her and will not let her alone long enough to get properly soused while sulking in a corner like the well-adjusted adult that she is.

"I have been getting to know" (Oh, that's what this is?) "Jyn Erso, the women whom you spent at least thirty percent of our lunch break talking about."

Cassian actually flushes at that. She can see it start at his cheeks and disappear into the neck of his t-shirt and she cannot contain the grin that overtakes her while he tries to verbally dodge that particularly interesting pronouncement.

"I wasn't - it wasn't that much!" He clears his throat slightly. "Kay, Threepio wants to talk to you about tone clusters. He's thinking of using them in his next piece, the one he's writing for his recital." And thank God, that actually works, sending Kay off grousing about how he is about to save Threepio from making a horrible mistake. "Sorry about him," Cassian says. "He means well. He's John Kay, by the way. Everyone just calls him Kay though."

"He's studying composition?"

"Yes."

"Well, that explains," She uses her free hand to indicate broadly the direction in which Kay had just left, "Everything. Does no-one around here remember how to introduce themselves?" She grumbles and is rewarded when Cassian ducks his head awkwardly.

"Han seems to have it figured out,"' He says, gesturing over to where the lanky man is indeed making the acquaintance of yet another pretty girl. She can't tell for certain from across the room but it looks like what's-her-name, Horn Buns. Luke's sister. Cassian interrupts her thoughts before she can make a definitive identification. "Should we try again?" and he's gazing down at her with kind brown eyes that peek out from under his fringe of hair (it looks so soft) and pulling her hand into his gentle, warm grasp and oh shit she is in trouble.

"Cassian Andor." He looks positively miraculous when he grins at her.

Shit shit shit.

The thing Jyn likes most about Professor Malbus, Baze, as he insists she call him, is that he is one of the few professors she's had who is able to look past what a complete disaster her life is at the moment and just focus on music. He's not one for small talk, doesn't scold her too much for being late, and has also had absolutely zero comment on her semi-famous upbringing. They just talk music and that is something she can do for days.

"The left hand in measure twenty-eight sounds much better this week," He says, squinting at her score slightly from his amusingly homey armchair. The entire office looks like it was designed by an extremely aged man who was mostly concerned with being warm enough; big armchair, throw blankets, a space heater tucked under his tiny desk. It's delightful. "You need to get a better edition of the score, I don't know how you read this. It's Chopin, you know well enough to get the Paderewski."

She winces. He's got her there.

"Sorry, Baze. The Paderewski edition is quite expensive and when I bought this book..." She's not poor per se, but admitting that she couldn't scrape up enough money to buy anything better than the cheapest edition of Chopin's nocturnes still feels vaguely like she's failed at something. And no way in hell would she have crawled back to Saw or her father to ask for the money. He cuts off her excuses with a raised hand.

"It's fine." He absently nudges his round glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You can obviously read all of the notes well enough, everything sounds correct. Mind the dynamics in measure forty-five, though." His notes about her right hand fingering during the same measure are interrupted by a few knocks at the door, which is opened after Baze grunts something that sounds like "hmm?" The puckish face of the string professor, Chirrut Îmwe, pokes around the door frame.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"If I said yes, would you go away?" Baze asks with a huff.

"No, but I would feel bad about staying," Chirrut says, stepping into the room with a grin. "Hello Jyn," He greets her. She's not entirely sure what his vision is like, but after a couple weeks of Chirrut roaming the halls with his white cane, yet identifying her before she speaks, her best guess is that he has at least some functional sight. "Have you found an ensemble partner yet?"

"I'm doing the Britten cello sonata with Bodhi." She says, kicking herself as soon as she finishes the sentence because Chirrut is Bodhi's teacher for God's sake, he knows that already. "Um, but haven't found anyone for the second ensemble, no." Which is something she should probably fix. She'd been talking about teaming up with Leia but then the horn player ended up doing orchestra and also forming what Jyn understands to be an incredibly argumentative quartet with Han, Luke, and Chewie. So Leia was not an option anymore.

Chirrut smiles in Baze's direction, then, and Jyn's teacher lets out a little grunt. "Chirrut, stop pestering my students. The department does give you a budget for accompanists." It's rather sweet of Baze to stick up for her considering that her teacher had been prodding her to hurry up and find a second ensemble for at least the past week.

"Aren't they called 'collaborative pianists' now?" Chirrut says wryly. "Why hire someone when Jyn needs the ensemble credit as much as Cassian does?"

"Cassian?" She says. Oh, hell no. She's been doing a great job of avoiding Cassian and his annoyingly perfect face and the way he makes her stomach feel all fluttery whenever he smiles. Her history with personal relationships in general has been nothing short of a train wreck and romance has been no better; she cannot deal with whatever that is right now. She is barely holding her life together as it is. Conveniently enough it turns out that theory is the only class they have together this semester and with Cassian spending all of his free time with Kay it's been easy to carry on pretending that he doesn't really exist. Suits her fine.

"He's still looking for someone to do Brahms' second viola sonata," Chirrut says after a brief pause. "The piano part would suit you, Jyn." Baze is now looking at her appraisingly over the top of his glasses.

"It would be a good fit to round out your rep. Unless you have an alternate suggestion?"

Bugger. Well, looks like she's going to be dealing with whatever that is a lot more from now on.

Cassian, it would seem, is no more enthusiastic about their arrangement than she was. She's not sure whether to feel relieved or offended by that. He more or less throws the piano score at her while rushing out of theory class, not even making eye contact, and texts her a perfunctory "7 pm thurs?" to arrange a practice time. Well, fine.

She wanders down to the practice rooms at 6:45, actually early for once in her life. It's mostly thanks to Bodhi's constant nagging today, but Jyn will still happily take the credit. Leia is practicing her Mozart horn concerto in the first closet-like room on her right, fighting with a fiddly scale passage. Walking a few doors further she can hear an oboist, possibly Luke, working on some piece she can't identify. Jyn turns the hall corner and smiles when she sees that practice room sixteen, the only one with a grand piano, is unoccupied. Clearly it's her lucky day. The magnificent old Bösendorfer sits in the dark room, hunkering awkwardly in the tiny space which offers room for little else apart from the monster piano, a dented music stand into which someone has scratched the word 'butts', and a plastic chair. The piano's humidifier unit winks coyly at her from where it snuggles against the underside of the keyboard, green light confirming that the instrument is being kept happy. Jyn mentally greets the piano with a hello, old girl as she sits on the wooden bench.

Her phone chirps when she turns it back on, intending to see if Baze has emailed her about her rep for the next recital.

1 missed call from JYN DON'T ANSWER THIS

1 new voicemail

Not such a lucky day after all. Bollocks. She dismisses the notifications and deletes the voicemail before stuffing her phone back into her bag and turning back to the keyboard.

Do not think about him. Her heart is racing, readying her for a fight that she is definitely not having tonight. As she's always done, she turns to music to calm her anger.

Midway through Jyn's first set of warmup scales, Cassian bustles into the room, throwing his coat onto the chair and looking nearly as disheveled as Jyn normally feels. There are dark circles beneath his eyes and he appears even less shaven than usual. Jyn chooses to helpfully point this out to him.

"You look like shit." Okay, possibly not the best way to deal with him at the moment. No-one has ever accused Jyn of being good with people.

Cassian rolls his eyes at her and retrieves the score from his bag with what appears to be far more force than should be required. "Have you practiced at all, or are you too busy getting lost?"

That clearly does not merit a response. Learning the finer details of whatever stick has lodged itself up Cassian's behind is something she has neither the patience nor interpersonal skills to pursue. She'd almost thought that doing this piece with Cassian might not be so bad after all, but if he's going to spend the entire semester being a miserable sod she will regret this. He sighs then, flicking his gaze briefly in her direction before turning back to his viola case, tightening the bow strings with a few precise swivels of his wrist.

"Sorry," He mumbles. "It's been a long day." God, Jyn has had days like that. She can forgive him being a bit snippy with her now.

Hell, she's had years like that.

"Need an A?" She offers.

He nods before tucking his viola under his chin and beginning for the comforting ritual of tuning. After the standard twisting of knobs and frowning, he finishes by checking his work with three quick bow strokes that cause the viola's strings to harmonize in perfect pairs. Meeting her gaze, he stands, statuesque, bow-arm held slightly aloft, patiently awaiting her count in.

"One, two, three, four."

It's probably a good thing that the first line of the piano part is relatively simple because she barely prevents herself from stopping and gaping at Cassian when he starts playing. She's accompanied people before; played with not merely good but exceptionally talented musicians whom she knew through Saw; actual professionals who had made it past the ever-tightening gauntlet of critique to become some of the rare few on the planet who could be full-time performers because people would pay good money to hear them play. So the experience of sharing good music with people is nothing new. And yet...

Cassian is extraordinary. The first high note of the piece rings from his viola, delicate, bell-like, for a moment before he dips softly to the note below, then above, then does a little turn back downwards. He leans sumptuously into the next lingering note, making it warble with a rich vibrato, then deftly slips down again to coax the low D through a breathless sigh. The effect of his playing sparks through her like electricity.

She'd known he was handsome ever since their re-acquaintance at Bodhi's party, but this?

She dares to peek up at him. His eyes are half-hooded, lips pursed, caught in the thrall of the music. Her eyes are drawn to the slender fingers of his left hand, fluttering back and forth in a rapid vibrato against the finger board, balanced firmly between his thumb and the tip of his pinkie.

This is a whole different level of attraction. Her stomach swoops as he gracefully steps back up by broken octaves. In her distraction she completely botches the simple B-Flat seventh chord that had presented no problems when she was practicing this piece on her own. Crap. She fixes her gaze on the score in front of her, manages to correctly land the next set of chords, get the next couple measures out. The piece builds to a natural pause and she slows ever so slightly in anticipation, giving it the faintest hint of rubato, and to her amazement Cassian matches her tempo change perfectly, drawing out the melody with tender sensuality.

She is screwed.

Knowing that the first genuinely tricky bit of the piece is rapidly approaching for her, and messing up this solo would be nothing short of completely embarrassing, she tries her best to let Cassian's playing fade into the background and focus on her own part. She even manages to do a decent job on the sweet little left hand melody that comes next. The piece swells in crescendo to a loud forte which she punctuates with a quick staccato hit, then she launches into the short, punchy piano solo, trying to lend it as much vigour as she can muster while still hitting all of the difficult octave spans correctly. Apart from misplaying one of the big chords it goes well and she does her best to imbue the burst of piano with plenty of fire. Cassian rejoins the action with a bright, high note as she steps both of her hands towards each other with the quick set of broken chords.

They work through the first few pages of the piece with a tolerable amount of mistakes for a first run-through until they hit a section with is tricky for both instruments and simultaneously self-destruct. She bursts out laughing when they both stop, giddy and thrumming with the pure joy of music.

"You're pretty good!" Cassian says warmly. She glances up at him. He's looking down at her, grinning, eyes sparkling, viola dangling in hand. God, he's gorgeous.

"Yeah, not bad yourself!" She says in the understatement of the century.

"Hi Jyn, it's me. Look, I know you don't want to talk, but please call Saw back at least? He's worried enough about you to actually call me, that should tell you just how concerned he is. I'm going to be in town for a concert, um, sometime in December. Doing some Handel and Telemann. You know me, I always go for baroque. Like 'broke'? Yeah, that was bad, your mother never laughed at that one either. Anyways, um, so I know this is a work trip, but I would have come sooner if I thought you wanted to see me. I would love to catch up while I'm there, even just a brunch. Please, Stardust. Oh, and say hi to Bodhi for me."

She knows it's a mistake every time she does it, but she seriously needs to stop listening to her father's messages. It just makes her angry. If he had wanted to be a part of her life, he should have made an effort back when it was just the two of them, before she ended up living with Saw by default because at least he was around more often than a couple nights a week. Maybe things could be better now that he's stopped spending all of his time holed up in some studio making weird post-tonal music with Krennic, but the years of sitting at the window waiting for someone who was not coming home still rankle.

"Everything okay?" Bodhi asks, glancing at her with a creased brow from where he sits on the other couch in the student lounge. He's been chewing his pencil again, despite trying to kick the habit for good this year. When Jyn stares pointedly at the mangled piece of stationery Bodhi spits it out guiltily and starts spinning it between his long fingers instead. "What do you think about Stockhausen's process music? For my history paper?"

"Yeah, that could work. The early choral stuff?" Bodhi hums in confirmation. Jyn looks down, away from him. "My dad says hi."

She's staring at her phone and doesn't see Bodhi's reaction to this, but she can just sense him still for a moment.

"Thanks," He pauses. "How is your dad?"

Apart from being a total bastard?

"He's fine. He's coming here for a concert. In December." Jyn manages to look back up at Bodhi now and that was a mistake. He's staring at her like she's an overfull balloon that could pop at any second. Damn. "It's okay, Bodhi," Christ, he needs to stop looking at her like that. "He wants to get brunch. That'll be fun, right? You're doing it again." Bodhi retracts the pencil from his lips with a frustrated growl, tapping it against his thigh. "I'm fine, I swear. If he actually shows up I'll just say I'm too busy with exams."

"Jyn..."

"Don't. Bodhi, please, just leave it."

Bodhi just shakes his head, turning back to his note pad with what she knows is disapproval. Her dad has always been Bodhi's idol, always left him a little awestruck, wishing she could see Galen the way he does. Or maybe that's not it. Bodhi has seen what her father's inconstant presence did to her, he knows that she was all but abandoned. Surely he's not forgotten that? Maybe Bodhi is just that nice and he is honestly able to forgive people for things. Forgiveness is not one of Jyn's strengths. Despite being almost pathetically self-deceptive, she knows this much about herself.

"How're things with Cassian?"

"What do you mean, things with Cassian?" She bristles. She does not have a thing with Cassian.

"The Brahms," Bodhi says as if she's particularly soft in the head today.

"Oh, that. It's fine. Good. We're working on the second movement." She very deliberately fails to mention how she nearly died this morning because Cassian leaned over her at the piano to point out that the decrescendo in measure 109 should start forte rather than mezzo forte and his hand was resting on her shoulder like that's a completely normal thing that they do and he smelled amazing. Bodhi doesn't need to know that, right? Why would he? It's not like she's been thinking about the warmth of his hand through her shirt, the faint puff of his breath over the back of her neck, the rumble of his voice right next to her ear. Was that a normal distance for...that sort of thing? It felt close. Like, really close. And he smiled at her when she looked up. So yeah, it's not like she's been replaying that moment in her head every thirty seconds for the past eight hours. And it's definitely not a thing that she's talking about with people. Other people. Or herself.

Fuck.

She's going to murder him. Tomorrow headlines will read "Bright young pianist kills absolute fucking shithead of a violist in the most justifiable homicide ever." Parades will be held in her honour. Future generations of school children will write reports detailing her heroism in defending Brahms' second viola sonata from being turned into a funeral dirge. Maybe she'll be given some kind of medal.

"It's andante, Jyn," Says the dead man, jabbing at her score with the tip of his bow. "Andante is slower!"

"Andante means 'walking pace' you wanker! And-"

"I know that! It's-"

"-besides, it's andante con moto! Con. Moto!"

"Andante is not a fast tempo! How can you possibly justify-"

"Con moto! Do I seriously need to explain this to you?"

"I know what it means! Spanish and Italian-"

"'With motion'! That's what it means, Cassian! Con moto! With motion!"

"That doesn't mean you need to play it like you're late for class again!" He shouts.

So. Dead.

"Okay, first off," She starts, standing up from the piano bench to stop him from towering over her. Or at least to make him tower over her less. Damn him for being so pointlessly tall. "Who the hell taught you anything about music? Because you need to track them down and get your money back. Secondly, it was only the one-"

"Jyn!" There's something in his tone now that makes her stop dead. He looks furious. She stares him down, unwilling to give a single inch.

"Jyn," And now he has gone from shouting to deadly, quietly serious. It's so much worse. She can see him shaking with anger. "Do not ever question my education again. Not all of us have had the privilege of growing up around people who actually gave a damn about music, let alone having a father who's one of the world's best musicians." He obviously has never met her father if he thinks she did much 'growing up around' him. "I worked hard to get here," He continues, "To get into this school. I work hard to stay here. I will not let you ruin this piece just because you think you're smarter than everyone else."

He's out of the room before she can even begin to formulate a response to that. She should really get at least a small medal for not chasing him out into the hallway.

"Hello, Jyn."

He just knows. She has no clue how he knows it's her from all the way down the hall, but he does and while she's used to it now, it occasionally still puzzles her.

"Hello Professor Îmwe," She says, walking up to him. "How was your weekend?"

"How many times must I ask you to call me Chirrut?" He says lightly. Her last school was significantly more strict and very British compared to Yavin. Calling professors by their first names just feels wrong. "It was good. I took Baze for a hike in the forest. Considering that he's not the blind one, he gets lost surprisingly easily," He continues with a chuckle. Clearly there's a story to be had if she felt familiar enough to ask for it. "And how was your weekend? Did Bodhi throw another one of his parties?"

"No, that's this weekend coming," She says. "It was okay. I finished up the analysis for Professor Draven."

"That Bach was in need of a good analyzing. I'm sure you set it straight."

"Yeah," She laughs. She's about to make her excuses and turn away when she reconsiders. "Prof- Chirrut?"

"Yes?"

"Have you spoken with Cassian recently? About the Brahms?"

Chirrut's milky eyes search her face for a moment. "I have." He says simply. He's going to make her work for this.

"Did he say anything to you about the tempo? For the third movement?"

Chirrut chuckles slightly. "Yes, Cassian had a lot to say about the tempo of the third movement. He was quite impassioned at our lesson this morning."

Shit.

"Right..." She says, trying to figure out how to ask Chirrut about the issue without being too obvious that she's not quite as sure about the tempo as she might have thought.

"Jyn, have you ever asked him why he's chose this piece? Why it's always been this particular sonata?" She shakes her head. "Well then, I must be off to teach. Have a good day!"

One thing that Jyn has discovered about music students is that the enthusiasm for childish games and pranks seems universal no matter where she is. That's the only possible explanation for how she's been roped into playing "sardines" with the group of people who is rapidly becoming Jyn's circle of friends: Bodhi, Cassian, Han, Leia, Luke, and Han's friend Chewie. Kay is technically part of the group but she's pretty sure the fun centres of his brain are broken, so it's no surprise that he opted out of their brilliant idea to dodge security and spend the entire night in the darkened music building. They'll be paying for the sleepless night tomorrow morning, but her morning class is theory with Draven so she doesn't care if she's loopy and tired because he hates her anyways.

"Okay," Han says, having elected himself the de facto leader of their posse, "I don't think I should have to explain this, but since there's a decent chance at least some of you were major band nerds with no social life in high school, here it is. The rules are simple. Jyn lost the coin toss with Luke, so she goes to hide somewhere. Professors' offices and the concert halls are off limits. We count to, what was it?"

"Two hundred," Leia supplies with a tone of voice that makes it clear she's not remotely surprised that Han forgot this.

"Yeah, what the rules committee decided on."

"I am not a committee!"

"Right, so," Han continues, "Count to two hundred, Jyn hides, we split up and try to find her. Once you find her, hide with her. Last person to find everyone loses. Any questions?"

Chewie says...something. Jyn still cannot figure out what sort of accent the enormous, hirsute man has, but it's thick and Han seems to be the only person who can reliably understand him.

"I don't know why it's called sardines, Chewie! Just play the damn game."

Roughly two hundred seconds later, Jyn has managed to shimmy past a few beat up music stands to the back of a storage room and wedge herself between a tall stack of plastic chairs and the corner. She's tucked in such a way that hopefully she won't be too visible from the doorway, especially with the hall lights dimmed for night. It's really not a particularly clever place to hide, but she panicked and lost track of time and thought that being caught standing in the hallway would probably look much more foolish than a mediocre hiding spot. Thank goodness she's not afraid of the dark.

Hiding is boring. In retrospect, as the single most impatient person in their group, volunteering for this job was almost certainly a mistake. It's been at least five minutes, five long minutes, before she hears footsteps tromping down the hall. Finally, some excitement. Doors are being opened on either side of the storage room. She presses against the wall, tucking as far behind the chair stack as possible. If she crams into the corner just so she's fairly certain she can't be seen from the doorway. She's torn between wanting to be found so she'll at least have some company and wanting to remain hidden so that she can lord her superior hiding skills over all of her friends. Once again her competitive side wins out. With a rattle the door opens, flooding the small space with light that is blinding now that her eyes have adjusted to the minuscule amount that sneaks under the door.

"Jyn?" It's Bodhi. He seriously expects her to just call out "I'm here!" like an idiot? Now she stays quiet out of pure spite. After a silence (don't breathe, don't breathe) the door creaks closed, leaving her in the dark again. Gloating to Bodhi about how he was the first person to find her and just walked right past is going to be absolutely delightful.

"Any luck?" Says a muffled voice through the door. Maybe Luke?

"Not yet."

They exchange a few more words too softly for her to hear. Then their steps retreat down the hall and she's truly alone.

Great, now she's bored again. This is the worst game ever. She slumps against the wall and drums her fingers against her thigh, playing along to a jingle from an insurance advert that she heard a few days ago and has gotten stuck in her head ever since. She manages to amuse herself for several minutes by analyzing the chord pattern of the song: I, vi, IV, V7. Laughably basic. Draven would be proud of her. This passes the time until another person walks slowly down the hall. Whoever this is searches more carefully than Bodhi and Luke. They're opening every door and pausing to actually enter and search the rooms. She may have company soon. The sounds grow steadily louder until they stop outside the storage room. She jams into the corner as the door opens. The door closes and someone steps softly towards her. From her spot in the back corner she can't see the door over the chair stack, can't figure out who's about to find her. In the dim light from the door crack a long shadow slips over the floor in front of her. As soon as her pursuer turns the corner past the chairs she will be caught.

Despite it being an easily deduced possibility, based on who she's playing this game with, the sight of Cassian emerging from around the chairs still takes her by surprise. Damn it. His brows raise in alarm upon seeing her and he just stares, looking as if he is genuinely considering just backing right out of the closet and losing on purpose rather than take one step closer to her. Honestly she would happily let him do that, but then she hears someone quickly striding down the hall and no way in hell will she let Cassian ruin her hiding spot by just standing there like a nitwit.

"Get over here!" She hisses. When that does absolutely nothing to rouse him she claws out and drags him over by the shirtfront, managing to get him at least somewhat hidden just as the door handle rattles. That seems to break through his indecision and he surges forward, backing her into the wall just as the door opens, presenting her with a great view of his throat and collar bones. She glances up, can tell that the top of his head is poking over the chairs so she reaches up and pushes him down with a hand on the nape of his neck. He obediently stoops until his nose is pressed against her temple, lips centimetres away from her face.

This may have been a mistake.

She's still got one hand trapped between them, fisted into his shirt, the other now resting on his neck. Their new searcher starts to wander into the room, bumping into a music stand which clangs noisily.

"Damn it!" Han. He knocks into another stand. Her hand unconsciously clenches at the noise, tightening around the fabric of Cassian's shirt. He inhales sharply against her.

"What are you doing in there?" Calls Leia from the hall.

"Having a tea party! What do you think?" Han says.

"Well, obviously you're not finding Jyn."

"Yeah, like I see you doing so much better, princess..."

"Don't call me that, you spit-valve-sucking, Pachelbel-loving scruffy asshole!" Leia spits.

"Scruffy? Scruffy?" Han's voice fades slightly as his footsteps retreat towards the doorway. God, Cassian smells great.

"Do I need to define it for you? Because I'd be- Hey, get back here! Where are you going?"

She can practically hear Han's eyes rolling. "Jyn's not in there, so I'm going to look in the practice rooms if that pleases your worship."

Leia's reply is lost to the closet door slamming. For a moment the only sounds are the pair's indistinct bickering and Cassian's breathing.

Her hand is still wedged between them. She can feel his stomach expand with each breath, the only motion from his seemingly frozen form. His arms are boxing her in, hands pressed against the wall on either side of her waist. When she slides her hand down, away from the nape of his neck, he seems to remember their position. He steps back, giving her enough room for her to slip out of the corner which suddenly feels roughly the size of a petri dish.

"Sorry," He says from behind her, "Sorry, I, um-"

"It's fine," She says, turning to face him. He appears to be intently studying his shoes.

"Cassian?" He hums for her to continue. "Why Brahms?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you chose that piece?"

He sighs. His shoes must be exceptionally fascinating.

"It was my mother's favourite," He mutters.

"Oh. I thought..."

"What?" He asks harshly as if he's just preparing to ward off an attack.

Jyn thinks back to her own mother. Lyra is mostly represented by a hazy, warm feeling, more than actual events or remembrances. Jyn thinks of how at age nine she found a box of cassettes in the attic while she was home alone yet again. 'Lyra' was written on it in her father's messy scrawl. She remembers what it was like to pop the first tape into her Walkman and start bawling when a kind voice that she thought she'd forgotten said, 'Okay, trying this again. Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, posthumous,' and then her mama was playing the saddest, sweetest piano piece that Jyn had ever heard. That was the day, sitting in that dusty, stifling attic, that Jyn had given up violin and focused on piano. Piano made her feel connected with someone in a way that following in her father's footsteps hadn't. It felt lovely.

"Your mother had good taste," Jyn says to him. Means it.

Cassian looks up, sagging as if all the fight was just pouring out of his muscles and bones. "Yeah, she did." His voice breaks slightly. "She loved Brahms."

"My mama loved Chopin," Jyn says. He smiles softly at her. The moment is suddenly too raw, too open. She turns away to stare at the far wall.

"Do you think they've just given up?" She laughs nervously, trying to feel less exposed.

"Hmm," He considers, "I bet Luke and Bodhi are still looking. Chewie probably got bored and went to the percussion room to practice. Leia and Han are chasing each other around arguing." Jyn snorts.

Footsteps sound down the hall. She freezes, staring at the closet door. Someone's opening other doors. Realizing she's completely exposed she tries to back into the corner as quietly as possible. The door handle clatters and she panics, taking a too large step backwards and losing her balance.

Cassian whispers her name in alarm, catches her by the hips, and hauls her back into the corner just as light floods the closet. In his haste Cassian has pulled her back sharply into his chest with presumably much more force than intended. They're pressed together, from tangled feet all the way up to her head which is cradled in the hollow of his throat.

"Duck!" She hisses. He shifts down from the knees instead, entire body sliding against her back, as their latest interloper enters the closet. Now Cassian's breath is whooshing past her ear and she honestly doesn't know if that's better or worse than before. Either way, she wants to live in this moment forever. Her stomach isn't swooping anymore, it's filling with molten heat which builds and builds every time his shallow exhales caress the sensitive skin behind her right ear. He swallows thickly. His hands let go of her hips and drop to dangle next to her thighs, leaving their bodies still glued together. Every inch of her feels engulfed in the heat that radiates from his form.

Just then her phone vibrates in her back pocket. Damn, she thought she'd turned it off. At least it's on silent. Cassian's hands jerk against the sides of her legs, which is the exact moment when she considers precisely where that sensation is hitting him now that's he's crouched at her level. Her face burns. Oh god, she tries to telepathically communicate to her caller, please just hang up.

There's a faint scrape as the searcher moves some of the music stands. Her phone buzzes again and Cassian's entire body spasms as if someone has just stuck an electrode into his spine. His hips twitch slightly like he's trying to dodge back, away from her, but he's jammed against the wall and has nowhere to go.

Soft steps walk closer.

Bzzt! Her phone goes off again before she can gather sufficient mental faculties to shift forward and relieve Cassian's obvious discomfort. But something miraculous happens when this vibration hits. Cassian's hips jerk forward and he lets out an honest-to-God groan right into her ear. Fuck. That sounded like a sex groan. She has no other words to describe the strangled noise he just made. Is it possible that's he's every bit as aroused as she feels right now? Her brain floods with images; turning them around until she's pressed against the wall and he's grabbing her by the hips again and rutting into her from behind and she's just moaning. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God. The explosion of want which surges between her legs at the thought forces an involuntary gasp from her. He freezes. He was still before but now he seems to have given up breathing entirely. If this carries on much longer that may be for the best. Him simply collapsing in a sweaty heap due to lack of oxygen flowing to his brain might be the most dignified way this could possibly end. She shoves down a hysterical giggle trying to claw its way up her throat at the thought that she is experiencing what is quite possibly the single most erotic moment of her entire life during a glorified game of hide and seek.

"Oh man, seriously? I can't believe I missed you!" Bodhi whispers bitterly when his head pops around the corner. "Hey Cassian."

Bodhi's greeting seems to snap Cassian out of his trance. He lets out a rattling breath and she all but jumps away from him.

"Uh, everything okay?" Bodhi asks in roughly the same tone of voice as the one he used that time during her high school years when he let himself into her house and found her with her hand down her pants, at which point she remembered that she'd invited him over to study before she'd gotten horny and bored, and Bodhi had said 'Should-should I go?' while gaping at the ceiling and flushing scarlet. Much like that spectacularly traumatizing incident, she also currently wishes that everyone else on the planet would just simultaneously drop dead so she didn't have to face another human being ever again. That would be fan-bloody-tastic.

"We're fine," Cassian says from behind her. He clears his throat. "Close the door."

"Right," Bodhi says.

Her phone vibrates again in her back pocket and she lets out a growl, yanking the blasted device out and blindly poking the screen until it goes still. Darkness envelops the space again. Bodhi swears quietly as he bangs into one of those damn music stands while picking his way back to their corner. Her entire body feels electric. She wants to run, scream, punch something. Fuck.

Giving her a pointed look, Bodhi slips past to sandwich between her and Cassian. Thank God. When she turns to join them Cassian looks every bit as agitated as she feels, antsy and rapidly bouncing his leg. He's also turned away, facing the wall. Very conspicuously.

The rest of the game goes quickly now that their group is too large to properly hide behind the chair stack. When Han and Leia finally spring them she more or less bolts out of the room with a strangled shout about not feeling well and doesn't stop running until she gets back to her flat.

#rebelcaptain #rebelcaptain fic #rebelcaptain au #rogue one #sw fanfic #rogue one fanfiction #jyn erso #cassian andor #fanfiction #fanfic #classical music #star wars

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