#I would have put haruhi first but this is how they listed them...

[see-the-fandom-imagines]

What's in it for me?

Pairing: Kyouya Ootori x Reader Author: see-the-fandom-imagines   Warnings: None, really Author’s Note: Sorry this took again forever, I will upload the next 4 chapters in the next days :) Thanks for reading <3 Tag List: @radical-bunny, @redsakura101​, @ellouisa17​

Link to Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46325452/chapters/116633701

It was the last weekend of your break and you had decided to spend the day at Haruhi’s today to cook a little and hang out just the two of you before you both had to go back to school. You knew that you’d be seeing each other in the host club, but it was nice not having to put up a front every now and then and to spend some time together, just the two of you.

Chatting happily, Haruhi and you had just gotten out of the convenience store to buy a few items, some tea and snacks, when suddenly a huge commotion right in front of her apartment complex caught your attention.

“Hm? What do you think is going on there?”, Haruhi asked, and you shrugged.

“No idea. Let’s go check it…”, you began, but your voice got caught in your throat as you spotted the Rolls Royce in front of her building and heard the voices of the passers-by. “What is this? Who’re these rich people?”

“Oh no”, Haruhi and you sighed in unison, looking at each other exasperatedly. You knew what would be coming.

“How dare they just show up unannounced?”, Haruhi already complained and dropped her grocery store bags, letting her head hang low.

“Are you really surprised, though?”, you asked back, watching the six boys get out of the car. When they got out of the car, you couldn’t help but notice how stylish they were dressed for a visit like this, and you sheepishly looked down at yourself. You had just thrown on the first best thing you had found in your wardrobe as it was not only Sunday, but also Haruhi had seen you in every state possible, so you really didn’t care anymore how you looked when you went over to her place. You suddenly felt very self-conscious.

This feeling didn’t get better when you heard what Kyouya was saying.

“No, this is what’s called a ‘commoners´apartment complex’. Haruhi’s place is probably just one of the rooms among these.”

He wasn’t wrong, that was exactly what it was, but you couldn’t help but wonder what that meant for how their houses must look like. You knew they weren’t even looking at your flat, but let’s face it, yours wasn’t a lot bigger than Haruhi’s and technically she lived in the better neighbourhood.

You looked at Haruhi, while Tamaki began yelling at Kyouya.

“We could just make a run for it, Haru, what do you think?”

She held up your groceries. “These will spoil, though, if we do not refrigerate them.”

“True that. Alright”, you agreed, accepting your fate. Maybe it could be fun to have them over. It was not like you didn’t like seeing them. Just maybe not today, when you really had wanted to talk to Haruhi about what happened on Okinawa. The entire weekend had left you emotionally agitated and you really needed to vent, eat lots of junk food and then argue with Haruhi, who saw everything always way too rational, about everything once again.

Your self-pity got interrupted by Tamaki who was now loudly proclaiming why they were here. “This is just a nonchalant visit, because we happened to be passing by, and it’s not to research Fujioka’s standard of living.” You could feel Haruhi become more annoyed with every single word he uttered. “The words shabby, cramped and run-down are absolutely forbidden.” Every word made you flinch a little in secondhand embarrassment.

“Yes, sir!”, the other’s complied, and you suddenly felt a gaze on you. When you looked up, you noticed that Kyouya was glancing over at you. He had noticed the both of you, but obviously preferred to stay quiet. Typical. Thinking about your phone call, you awkwardly nodded in his direction to greet him, and cursed yourself in the same second for how absolutely stupid that must have looked. You saw a smirk form on his face and quickly you averted your gaze, before you could turn bright red, looking back at Tamaki, who had still not noticed the both of you approaching.

“Under no circumstances are you to say or do anything that would make them want us to leave.”

“Well, it’s too late for that!”, Haruhi exclaimed, now highly annoyed, snapping you out of your thoughts about Kyouya. “Go away, right now!”

You awkwardly lifted your hand from behind of her to greet everybody. Haruhi’s brows were twitching and you realized she was slightly embarrassed, too. Although probably more of the spoiled rich kids treating her like a commoner in front of all of her neighbours. And yet, all they had to say to this was “That pink dress is so cute!” You hid your own outfit behind your grocery bag. Not everybody could look as cute as her all the time. Haruhi did not appreciate this comment, though and instead told them to shut up and get the hell out of here.

“Haruhi’s so mad, she actually cursed at us! This is your fault”, Tamaki immediately began to blame the twins, who did not seem to be realizing that they were part of the problem.

All of a sudden a middle aged woman approached Haruhi. “Excuse me, Haruhi, but is everything alright?”

“Oh, Hi Ms. Landlady”, you and Haruhi greeted her. You had seen her a few times before when you were around.

“Those young men are driving such fancy foreign cars, they’re not yakuza are they?”

You laughed embarrassedly. “No, they’re not …”

She seemed genuinely worried. “Do you want me to call the police for you?”

“Well actually”, you started to think but were interrupted by Tamaki grabbing the Landlady’s hand in his usual flirty manner. “Pleased to meet you madam. My name’s Suoh, I’m one of Haruhi’s friends.”

“Really?” She blushed. “My goodness, well aren’t you just adorable.”

That was one way to put it. Haruhi stepped back next you.

“And he’s got her.”

You nodded. “I can’t believe this keeps working.”

<p>After a lot of back and forth you had allowed all six hosts inside Haruhi’s small flat and they were now sitting and standing around the living room, looking and commenting on everything.

You listened to them bicker and sighed, helping Haruhi prepare the tea. This was really not how you had expected your Sunday to go and based on her expression neither had she. “Sorry about this, (y/n), let’s talk later, alright?”

You nodded, for some reason, slightly blushing, just in case Kyouya was actually smart enough to know that this was about him. “(Y/n), is this book yours?” You turned around looking at the devil you were speaking of, disassembling the bookshelf one title at a time and accidentally dropping an entire scroll to the floor. You had expected everyone else to make a mess, but him. “Yes. But would you please not touch everything?”

You took a deep breath to calm yourself down and turned around. Haruhi had brought the tea to the table and you noticed in awe that Honey had unpacked a generous selection of amazing looking cakes. Your gaze froze on them, they reminded you of the first cake he had given you on your first day and you remembered how delicious that had been. The glee must have been visible on your face, because the older host gently nudged the packaging closer to you.

“Haru-chan and (y/n)-chan can choose first!”, he exclaimed happily and the two of you looked at each other, equally excited about the treat you were about to get.

“Are you sure?”, Haruhi asked, and you stepped closer to get a better look, waiting for the answer. “Sure, we’re used to eating that stuff.” You didn’t even mind Hikaru’s comment, today you were not going to allow them to spoil your mood.

“Well then …”, Haruhi began thinking for second, “the strawberry one.”

“And you?”, Mori asked looking up at you from where he was sitting.

“Hm… if it’s alright, I think I’ll take the chocolate one then!” He smiled and nodded.

“I am going to get plates”, you said and moved over to the kitchen cupboard to get out eight plates and forks, distributing them. Honey carefully placed the cake onto them.

When you turned around again you realized that Kyouya had decided to sit between Honey and Mori and for a split second you wondered if he had done that on purpose. But your suspicions were short-lived, for the prospect of the cake in front of you let you forget everything else.

The oldest host smiled at you and patted the space next to him and you grinned back, positioning yourself between them.

Although you didn’t like to admit it, it was a bit crowded in here with eight people and when you sat down you felt your thigh touch Kyouya’s knee. Yet, he didn’t seem like he was going to move in any way. You took a deep breath, trying to ignore the touch of his leg against yours and everything related to that and instead took a bite of your cake. It was heaven. Happily you smiled and didn’t notice, that Kyouya was watching you from the corner of his eye, also very aware of the touch of your legs, but a small smile forming on his face nonetheless as he saw you this genuinely happy about something as small as cake. He didn't get to see such genuine joy often.

You just sat around for a while, eating the cake and talking, doing your best to focus on anything but the host next to you, when suddenly someone became peckish.

"After eating that cake, I am a bit hungry", Honey proclaimed and you raised an eyebrow. After the cake? But then again, it was Honey so you were not too surprised. You just wanted to suggest that this must mean they had to leave, when Tamaki and the twins replied, not realizing anything wrong with their utterances. You really liked them, but in moments like this you really wondered how any of them would survive on their own.

"Oh yeah, it's way past lunchtime", Hikaru confirmed.

“Is lunch ready?”, all three then asked in unison.

You took a deep breath. "You guys are another kind of spoiled."

"Yes, could you please stop living in your own world?", Haruhi added, but before anything could escalate again, you felt Kyouya shift next to you.

“Now, we’re the ones who dropped in on you without a warning, so we’ll pay.”

Surprised you looked up at him, as he was getting out his wallet. “Why not order some of your favourite sushi, or something?”, he suggested.

He looked down at you, waiting for a reply. “No, it’s fine, really”, you said, definitely not wanting to owe Kyouya anything, and Haruhi seemed to have read your mind. “Yes, really. I’m scared of what would happen if I let you treat me.”

“Yeah”, you agreed, but immediately kept thinking. Were you really scared? Part of you wanted to see what actually would happen to you. What he would ask of you and if… Quickly you looked back at the table. Enough.

Kyouya however did not react to your declination. Instead, he pulled out a golden credit card. “Not to worry. This comes out of sales of your photos we auctioned off.”

“Of course it did”, you sighed.

“Then isn’t this actually on me?”, Haruhi added.

“All right”, she proclaimed. “I have a friend who runs a nice sushi shop nearby. So I’ll give them a call. They’ll have some high-quality stuff.”

Tamaki handed her a note and Haruhi was reading it out loud, before throwing it out. "Even if the Sushi pack says 'premium' on it, you can't call it high quality. Be very careful." Haruhi didn't even turn around and just crumpled the paper up into a ball, trying to stay calm. “I know that.”

While Tamaki was having another existential crisis, Haruhi took the telephone, yet, could not even fully type in the number as Honey appeared in front of you, smiling brightly.

“I’d like to have something made by (y/n) and Haru-chan. Breakfast last time was just so delicious.” You smiled at him and somehow you couldn't even be mad. It was really kind of him to say that.

You all agreed that Haruhi and you would cook something and after a lot of back and forth you mentally braced yourself for a supermarket shopping trip with 6 hyped up hosts.

“I’ll wait outside”, you proclaimed, anxious to get out of the crowded space. You made your way down the stairs first, waiting a few steps away from the stairs to get some fresh air and some calm before you would have to deal with the rich kids in another confined space. You leant against the wall, eyes closed, when suddenly you felt a presence next to you.

“How have you been, (y/n)?”, he asked and surprised you looked up at him. You had not really expected him to so suddenly appear. And even less had you expected him to actually directly ask you how you were doing. And as if he had read your thoughts he added. “I don’t want you to have any remaining injuries that can be traced back to our private property.” Ah, now it made sense. You shook your head and couldn't hold back a small giggle. In return he raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. The way you’re asking if I am alright, I guess.” Kyouya chose to leave this unanswered, and you looked back up at him. By now you had him figured out for the most part, you noticed. You shook your head. “I’m fine”, you said. “I am not going to sue you. This time.”

“Will be looking forward to the next lawsuit then.”

You scoffed. “Just you wait. Give me a couple more years to save the money for the lawyer and you’re going to be done for.”

A comfortably silence engulfed you for a second, when Kyouya spoke up again.

“Actually”, he said, leaning next to you against the wall, while still facing you. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Hm?” He wanted to talk? About what?

“It’s about …”, he started but he didn’t get much further, for you heard screaming and a huge bang from Haruhi’s apartment.

“Tamaki”, you said in unison, before making your way back up the stairs to see what was going on.

When you entered the apartment together you did not only see Tamaki on the floor, though, but you realized that you had been so focussed on yourself and Kyouya that you hadn't even noticed Ranka coming home. You assessed the situation, Tamaki on the floor, twins grinning next to him and before you could say anything you were engulfed in a tight hug that obstructed your breathing a little more than would have been comfortable. “Aaaah, (y/n), you’re here, too, it’s been quite a while! I missed my second daughter so much!"

“I missed you, too… Ranka-san”, you managed to get out inbetween breaths, until she finally let go of you. You stumbled a few metres back, and bumped right into Mori, who thankfully stabilized you again.

"It has been way too long since you came to visit! Now come, come let's all sit together and have a little catch up!" When she said this, her gaze was darting between you and Kyouya, followed by a gaze like a dagger in the direction of Tamaki, who let out a gurgling noise, but you all complied.

Again crouched around the table you smiled at her. "So you're the host club, I keep hearing about!" You raised an eyebrow, and looked at Haruhi who just shrugged. 'Keep hearing' sounded like a bit too much information for whatever Haruhi would tell her father, so this was surprising to hear. The mystery was quickly solved though, when Ranka turned to Kyouya and the coin dropped. Of course, if he had been contacting your aunt, of course he had been contacting Ranka as well. You looked at him raising an eyebrow and whereas he did notice your judging glare, he kept his pokerface as usual. While you tried to pry the information out of his motionless features, Ranka continued without missing a beat. "You really are a fine set of boys, I don't know which one of you I want. Right, Haruhi? (Y/n)?" Tamaki was still sulking in a corner, while the rest of the hosts smiled at the compliments her father was giving them. "Oh, you can just call me Ranka-san. Ranka is the professional name I use at the drag bar I am working at!"

"Professional name?", Honey asked, "like a stage name?"

"That's right, Mitsukuni-kun."

"How do you know my name?"

At this point you were glaring daggers at Kyouya, while Ranka was listing the names of all the boys, but he still didn't move a muscle.

"Haruhi told you about us?", one of the twins finally asked, you were too focussed on trying to make Kyouya's face fall to pay attention to which one was speaking.

Finally Ranka admitted it. "No, Kyouya-kun tells me everything over the phone." He did not just act innocent, all of a sudden a smile spread over his face, as he pressed his hands against Ranka's. "You really are beautiful, Ranka-san." The man knew no shame. Everybody was freaking out, and Tamaki grabbed Kyouya, obviously feeling as betrayed about this as you.

"Did you know, (y/n)?", Kaoru asked, apparently realising that you were not as shocked by that as everybody else.

"He called my aunt, too", you mumbled, a little embarrassed that you didn't connect the dots and told Haruhi, too. For some reason it somehow bothered you that he had called Ranka about Haruhi as well, although you knew it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Of course you weren't special to him, after all it was just his professionality with these things. You began chewing on your lip and looking at the table top, scratching away a little dirt that had been left from the cake earlier.

You were lost so deep in your own thoughts, ignoring the usual commotion Ranka made, that only Haruhi grabbing your hand and pulling you up with her brought you back to reality.

"Where are you going?", Ranka cried out and you looked at Haruhi just as confused.

"The supermarket." She opened the door and you followed, grateful to be out of the house and away from the hosts for a while. You threw a last glance into the round and noticed Kyouya staring intently at you. He had noticed your shift in behaviour. Quickly you gulped, putting on your shoes to leave the house.

"We are going shopping, by ourselves. We'll be right back, so everyone, please behave yourselves." And with these words you left the flat, ignoring Hikaru yelling after you.

You were grateful that Haruhi had suggested you two should go to the supermarket together. Once outside you took a deep breath, glad about the calm for a second. You knew your pang of jealousy had been stupid, but it felt good being away from the situation nonetheless. Ranka made all that mess, she could deal with the boys for a while. And something told you she didn't mind either.

The walk to the market was comfortable, although you barely spoke about anything in particular. It was a very short walk after all and you mostly listened to Haruhi complaining about the nuisance Tamaki was being. You nodded, thinking about whether or not you should talk about what you wanted to talk about, but decided against it. There wasn't enough time and Haruhi had other worries. So instead you just said, "Thanks for taking me with you."

She smiled her usual sweet smile. "Of course. I felt like you needed a breath of air, too." You nodded, suddenly feeling very at ease again. Sometimes you forgot how well Haruhi knew you. "Come on, let's buy what we need. I will get the veggies and you can get whatever else you like."

You maybe had been at the supermarket for 5 minutes, when you began to spot familiar faces around. Of course. Smiling to yourself you remembered Ranka following you and Haruhi to places ever since. Haruhi never seemed to notice her and you never pointed it out, for some reason. You liked to leave Ranka to believe she was protecting her daughter well and now that she found her perfect replica in Tamaki, you had known it was just a question of time until he would show up here, too. And although you had prefered some calmness, somehow the way they all tried to hide, while simultaneously being overwhelmed by this very normal supermarket made you smile a little. Your gaze followed Honey who was pushed in a shopping cart through the store by more, when you suddenly spotted Kyouya looking at something with actual interest. For a second you hesitated about whether or not you wanted to talk to him, but then you saw him pack several glasses of spicy korean radishes in his cart and you sighed. These rich people.

Kyouya had to admit that he had never spent this much time in a commoner’s supermarket before. The chefs were taking care of meals and groceries, so usually he did not have to worry about food. If he wanted something, someone would bring it to him. Nonetheless, was this a rather interesting experience. He tried to remember some prices, to compare them to the market value later, when something caught his eye. Carefully he picked up one of the glasses and read the inscription. Spicy Radishes, Korean, harvested in Jeju Area. A memory flashed before his eyes, he remembered that he had eaten them a few times before. A korean housekeeper had brought them in a few times when he was a child and she would let him have some, whenever he got a little hungry. He smiled at this memory he had suppressed for so long, briefly wondering how she was doing today, but he quickly shook off such sentimental thoughts. Still his eyes darted back to the pile. Surprised he notice how cheap they were and after thinking for a short moment, he grabbed a few to place them in his cart as well. This all barely cost anything and he couldn’t help but be surprised by it. He took another one, when suddenly a well-known voice interrupted him.

“You like these?”, (y/n) asked, appearing behind him and picking up one glass out of his basket to give it a better look. Surprised about her sudden appearance, Kyouya hesitated for a second, before simply nodding. He noticed her gaze wandering over to the price tag, and she shook her head.

“Don’t get them all now”, you lectured him, placing the glass back into the shelf.

“But they’re so cheap. It is really quite peculiar. Furthermore, I am not sure if I will be back in such a store and the offer is too good, not to …” He got interrupted by her laughter for the second time today. Usually he would be quite annoyed, but for some reason he really enjoyed her laugh. Well, he knew it was because of his silly crush, but he still took a mental note of that.

“They’re not even on sale”, she interrupted, smiling up at him. Her smile was really beautiful. How her eyes closed ever so slightly and her eyebrows moved slightly downwards. He suddenly had to fight the urge to touch her face. “You’re rich after all, hm?” The smile seemed to falter a little, but only for a split second. Kyouya still noticed it. Yet, she was back to her old self before he could say anything. “You can buy some now, but I’ll get some for you once they are on sale!”

He looked down at her, not sure what to say, but he nodded, nonetheless.

“Come on. Let’s see what else we can get for lunch!”

His gaze followed her as she vanished behind one of the store shelves, before his look fell back on the glass he held in his hand, carefully placing it back, while smiling to himself. “Not on sale, huh…” He looked at the radishes one last time, before following her, curious what else this commoner’s supermarket had in store.

#kyouya ootori x reader #ohshc kyoya #ootori kyoya #ootori kyouya #kyouya ootori #kyouya #ohshc x reader #ohshc fanfic #ouran x reader #ouran high school host club

[harley-michaels-main]

It's been awhile since I did a tier list but I've been into shojo anime and manga recently so I'm gonna rank my top five.

#5: Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi Fujioka is recruited to join the host club after she breaks a vase!

Ouran is probably one of the best known shojo animes there is. It's funny, light hearted, adorable, and probably is one of the first reverse harem anime to gain a large fan base. And for being made in the early 2000's, the animation still holds up today.

However, the characters do not. There are a lot of things about this show that just did not age well. While I recommend this series I also recommend taking it with a grain of salt. This was made when certain things were socially acceptable that simply are not today.

That is the only reason I would have it at number 5. Other wise, the cast is great. The plot is hilarious. The pacing is well done. Overall, it's a hilarious and feel good show for when you simply don't want to think about what you're watching.

#4 Kamisama Hajimenmashita

After being kicked out of her apartment due to her father's gambling habits, Nanami Momozono must find her place in this world. But becoming an Earth God? How the hell is she supposed to do that?!

This is the first shojo I watched knowing that it was a shojo. I immediately fell in love with the characters and their dynamics. There's complicated back stories as well for those to like to drive a bit more into characters.

Sadly, the anime was rushed to a finish and a lot of the manga was never adapted. While the anime is still great, the ending just feels wrong without having the full story. The manga is completed and I highly recommend reading it. Yet because of the cancelation, I have to put it at number 4.

#3: Yona Of The Dawn

On her 16th birthday, the sole princess of Kouka, Yona, goes to ask her father to reconsider her marriage proposal to the love of her life. Her love had other plans with her father that night.

This is arguably one of the best shojos out there. With an amazing ploy and some of the best characters ever written, your heart is sure to be captured by this.

There is only one season of this however and it sadly looks like there won't be more any time soon.

The reason for this getting third place isn't because of the anime but actually because I just like the other two more. I love the fantasy setting, but I tend to like it more in shounen than shojo.

#2: My Love Story With Yamada-Kun at level 999

After being cheated on and dumped by her boyfriend over a girl he met in a game, Akane Kinoshita sets out to get revenge! By going to an irl game event and make him realize what he's missing out on! If only her luck with shoes was better.

This is a very new shojo with the first season just wrapping up a couple weeks ago. However, the manga has been going strong since 2019 and I have loved every minute of it. Thus has some of the best characters I have ever seen and it just continues to get better. It's also the type of shojo where we get to see the couple progress their relationship as a couple which is amazing.

I will say there are some... spicier bits in the manga so beware of that if it's not your thing. (Nothing explicit is shown)

However we get to see progression from te side characters as well which is also amazing. I love every moment of this and it had me squealing and kicking my feet like a little girl.

#1: Horimiya

The queen bee and the loner realize that maybe they can be their true selves around each other.

This is my all time favorite. I read the manga, watch the og anime, watched the remake, and the missing pieces. I love this story so much.

It portrays realistic relationships and shows that both of the main characters have faults that they work through in their relationship. Not just that, but the side characters get a lot of development as well that makes you rooting for them.

This whole story is so wholesome and it's the perfect thing to unwind to.

#my love story with yamada kun at lv999 #loving yamada at lv999 #horimiya #yona of the dawn #yona of the red dawn #ouran high school host club #ouran host club #ouran #ouran hshc #ohshc #kamisama kiss #kamisama hajimemashita #anime #shojo #shojo manga #shojo anime #romance #romance manga #romance anime

[sasaranurude]

Coly, the company behind Mahoyaku and Stand My Heroes, have announced a new game. Some friends and I realized that despite looking somewhat generic at first glance, it's got a handful of intriguing things going on with it! So here's a quick kind of long introduction to/my thoughts on Break My Case!

First: the website! The music on the site is really good! Go listen while you read this post!! There are 12 people listed as composers in the credits page, and it seems most every VA involved has at least a bit of experience with singing or music projects. The tone is a bit dark for a rhythm game (though I'm not ruling that out entirely), but otherwise it seems like there's gonna be a music focus. Cool! As far as other staff goes--the main scenario writer is also the writer of Stand My Heroes, and the character designer is Utako Yukihiro, who also did some work for B-Project.

The story concerns a cafe with a myriad of eccentric employees that runs an after-hours service where they solve problems. The exact nature of all this is left pretty vague.

And the draw for a game like this: The characters! Interestingly, they're divided into different departments at the cafe. What exactly those departments do isn't clear yet. As for the characters themselves--the more we looked at them, the more we liked them, lol. Quick summaries about what intrigued us about each guy. Note that these are not translations, none of us are fluent in Japanese (we all know just enough to get by with the google+jisho combo lol), and this should all be taken with a grain of salt.

The Main Office, consisting of Ai Kosaka, Yuzuru Kise, and Roka Suoh. (Names are listed in western given-family order because that's what the site uses for romanized names.) Roka is the one who owns the cafe, is the oldest character in the bunch at 36, and is that fun "mysterious guy with unknown backstory and an endless amount of weird acquaintances, who acts incompetent but might actually be hypercompetent" type of trope.

On account of the whole acting-incompetent thing, Ai and Yuzuru run the actual cafe business. And normally I won't be including fullbody character art in this post but I have to make an exception just this once.

Anyways.

Tumblr won't let me put four images in a row. Come on man. I wanna maintain the BMC's site style. Why are you mean to me. Anyways. The Simulation Department, consisting of Kou Ayato, Mao Ukyo, Akehoshi Hinomiya, and Yuragi Kanno. "Simulation" is its English name given on the site, but the Japanese given would probably read more like "relationship department".

Kou is a footloose playboy and Mao is a serious intellectual type, but apparently Kou will ask Mao to pretend to be his girlfriend so that he can avoid trouble with women. That's gay. I love that. (Mao is a guy [as far as we know], he just likes makeup--he's not the only one in that cast who does, either!) We all want Mao's outfit.

Akehoshi was a sleeper hit in the group chat, because his bio has a sentence about how he's the most normal-looking-yet-dangerous employee at the cafe, and also explicitly describes him as being like a dog, and naturally we all went crazy for the silly puppy as soon as we realized that he was in fact a silly puppy. Yuragi, on the other hand, likes cats. Such a classic for his character design trope, lmao.

The Administrative Department, consisting of Taiga Tsukimoto, Haruhi Ichikawa, and Sei Okiya. Taiga looks cool but if you look at his fullbody he's wearing awful sweatpants and apparently he cries while watching anime. I love this for him. Haruhi is a streamer because that's like an obligatory character trope now I guess. Sei was very popular in the group chat for being the single most suspicious character in the cast. What's his problem.

The Watchdog Department (or enforcement department, if you translate the jpn) consists of Shizuka Fushimi, Takeru Mikado, Soyogu Shinkai, and Shinobu Aizawa.

My friend described Shizuka as a "wet looking glasshole" and yeah. ok. unfortunately he does look like that. But it's ok he's allowed because his bio says he prefers quiet, orderly places with plants and no people and keeps to himself in common spaces but his own room is a complete mess. AKA he's an autism king. So I like him.

Takeru was obviously a hit because look at them. Takeru and Mao talk about makeup together, apparently. CUTE! Shinobu is the most fashionable guy in the cast and his bio says he has a few screws loose, which is amazing. Good for him. I have nothing to say about Soyogu I think I forgot he existed until I was putting this post together and I only looked at these all guys a few hours ago

The Negotiation Department, with Kiho Arima, Kyoya Shido, and Riku Tateshina. I described this group as "grandma, grandpa, and Columbo" and then the group chat couldn't call any of them anything else. And I do mean grandma. Because. ok. another fullbody. Because oh my god we have to look at Kiho.

GIRL. WHAT. IS. THAT. YOU'RE WEARING A CARPET. YOU'RE WEARING A COUCH. kiho is apparently a fortune teller and my friend acted as if this excused the outfit but i DONT agree i don't think anything excuses this. WHAT IS THAAAAAT

Kyoya is an artist and Riku is a psychologist so honestly this is a really fun bunch of jobs going on in this department. Riku is described as someone who falls in love easily, and he's most interested in Ai (from the Main Office, the very first guy in this post). We couldn't tell if the implication there is that he's in love with Ai, or if he falls in love with random people and yet his true attention always drifts back to Ai. Both of these options are gay.

The ST (special tasks) Department, with Yomose Onda, Yu Nina, Kamiya, and Urara Manami.

Yu had his life saved by Tomose and has now dedicated himself to him, to the point of being ready to die for him. YOU GOTTA LOVE THAT. INCREDIBLE TROPE. UNBEATABLE. GAY AS HELL. All we know from Tomose's side is that he's "fond" of Yu. That's fine I'm sure you can learn to love him. Or learn to hate him. Whatever's more entertaining.

Kamiya has no memory, hence the singular name. I'm sure whatever's going on there is weird and interesting. Urara is the youngest character, at 20. THAT'S RIGHT. THE YOUNGEST CHARACTER IS 20. THERE ARE ZERO TEENAGERS! THE AVERAGE CHARACTER AGE IS AROUND 26. THIS SHOULDN'T BE AS NOTABLE AS IT IS BUT THAT'S GACHA GAMES FOR YOU. Anyways I like Urara because I think he looks like an angry kitty.

Anyways, that's the gist of what we know about BMC--or BreMai, if you wanna go for something closer to the jpn abbreviation--right now. More info might drop at/around Animate Girls Fest, since they seem to be giving out game beta codes there. I don't know if I'm completely sold on it just yet--coly did just have a detective-themed gacha game fail a few months ago with &0. But we're not even completely sure it is a gacha yet, or what kind of gameplay it might have otherwise, so... there's a bit of hope. Maybe it'll be a weird cool dark rhythm game! Who knows!!!

#suchobabbles #break my case #joseimuke

[zhongster]

Love everything you've written so far sm!! I noticed Kyoya from ohshc in the list of char you like 👁👁 do you think you could give us your burping/stuffing headcanons for him??

Oh absolutely I do dear anon, I’ve been a Kyoya stan for many years now so I’ve had a lot of time to think about it hehe

THIS IS KINK CONTENT, DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT

Okay so this one is basically canon but he absolutely HATES burping in front of other people

So much so that the only two people that have heard him burp (besides when he was a baby) are Tamaki and Fuyumi and that’s only because they’re the two people that are closest to him (and possibly haruhi)

Fuyumi is honestly just because she’s always hanging out in his room

Like where else is he gonna burp y’know

He’s gotten pretty comfortable with Fuyumi actually

If they’re hanging out in his room and he feels like he needs to burp he’ll just release the burp into his fist, mutter a “s’cuse me”, and continue with what he was doing

And Fuyumi usually responds by either chuckling and rating his burp or by yelling “GROSS KYO!”

If she responds with the latter he usually just flips her off without even looking up from what he was doing

If he’s feeling particularly cheeky that day he might even let out another burp (open mouthed this time) after flipping her off

To which she’ll usually laugh and throw a pillow or something at him

He lets his true personality out around her more often than not

As for Tamaki, Kyoya absolutely did not mean to burp in front of him the first time it happened

About a year into their friendship (so when they were high school first years) they were sat in the music room working on preparations for the host club and they decided to order some tea

But they accidentally got their cups switched

Except Kyoya is lactose intolerant and Tamaki is not

So Tamaki’s tea messed Kyoya’s stomach up real bad

It bloated up with gas within minutes of him ingesting the first bit of milk

Kyoya figured out what was going on pretty early and he desperately tried to hold the gas in but Tamaki is Tamaki. He eventually clapped Kyoya on the back good natured-ly without realizing what was about to happen

Suffice to say Kyoya proceeded to let out a belch that could put a 6’6 drunken competitive eater to shame

Tamaki was FLABBERGASTED

He just stood there in shock for a good 30 seconds

Kyoya was absolutely mortified of course

He immediately launched into a tirade of “please excuse me”, “I have no idea what came over me”, etc.

After Tamaki gets over his shock he’d burst into laughter and start complementing Kyoya on how “legendary” he thought that was

I don’t think Kyoya would get super comfortable burping in front of Tamaki after just that but eventually he’d grow more comfortable than before

Not the the point he’s at with Fuyumi but if he had to burp in front of Tamaki he’d probably just stifle it as best as he could, excuse himself, and then move on

He really wouldn’t mind too much if it was just the two of them

Lol honestly i like to think that if they were hanging out outside of school without any other witnesses around he’d just let them fly

Sometimes Tamaki is genuinely worried for his friend

Some of the burps that explode out of Kyoya’s throat sound genuinely painful

Usually they aren’t though so Tamaki’ll be like “umm you okay kyoya??’ And Kyoya’s like “yeah??? Scuse me??”

Tamaki definitely told the rest of the host club that kyoya could easily beat them all in a burping contest but none of them believe him

I don’t think he’s a particularly gassy person

Like he doesn’t burp terribly often

But when he does get bloated it’s intense

Once the first burp escapes he usually can’t stop burping until it’s all out of his system

As i touched on earlier he’s lactose intolerant so he absolutely avoids dairy at all costs

Bc god forbid he burps in front of other people

He’d never recover

Also his tummy doesn’t handle fast food well

Rich boy problems

When he eats fast food he gets the super long, rolling belches

It’s the grease

So after Kyoya got home after “Kyoya’s reluctant day out” poor kid locked himself in his room for the rest of the night so he could let all the burps out of his system in peace

I don’t think he’s particularly into stuffing but he does have a considerably large appetite

That’s actually canon if you look at the pile of crab legs

The camera pans over to him for about a second right after Tamaki yells at Haruhi

His pile of crab legs was just as large (if not larger) than hers

In conclusion: Kyoya can pack away a lotta food lol

I also like to think he was letting out a quiet burp into his napkin during that pic hehe

#burping #eructophilia #belching #ouran high school host club #ohshc #kyoya ootori

[threecheersforinking]

Anime I “Dropped”

Hello! I know I tend to keep this blog positive, but lately I have felt like I wanted to go into why I stopped watching/keeping up with certain shows, without being hateful or too harsh about it. To be honest, I don’t like using the term ‘dropped’ when it comes to anime. I literally don’t even use my ‘dropped’ section on MAL because I like to believe there’s always a chance I’ll come back to a show. But I did want to explain why these shows didn’t really capture my interest and are definitely ‘on hold’ for me right now.

Kill La Kill

I know how much people love Kill la Kill and I agree that the animation is absolutely incredible, but I really could not look past the fanservice on this one. I understand that it’s ‘intentional’, but regardless it was just really distracting to me and made it harder for me to enjoy what I was looking at. Also, maybe the story just wasn’t my type of thing, but I did feel pretty uninterested in the main plot even if I disregarded the fanservice stuff I don’t like. I haven’t completely thrown this one in the garbage yet, but I have watched the first few episodes 3 separate times and really struggled to get past them, so we’ll see.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I know this one isn’t super popular with the newer crowd of anime watchers, but trust me that Haruhi Suzumiya was a huge name in the category of early 2000s anime. I originally started watching Haruhi because I heard about how great the movie is, and I felt like it would be better to watch the show first to give myself some context. However this show has super weird chronology because one set of episodes were released in 2006 and another in 2009, but in the timeline of the show some of the 2009 episodes take place in between the 2006 ones, so there were a ton of confusing watch lists that were very off putting. And don’t even get me started on Endless Eight (if you don’t know what this is, google it). I really had to throw in the towel after that arc, and it’s taken me a while to get back into it. Both OPs are absolute bangers though.

My Hero Academia

I was actually pretty into My Hero around 2018ish when there was a ton of hype and a lot of episodes coming out, but unfortunately I’ve really just lost interest in it with the recent seasons. I don’t even have anything specific to say, I just felt like the story wasn’t going in a direction I really cared about, and I found myself with less and less of a desire to watch the new episodes. It felt like a lot of the more recent arcs were being needlessly dragged out, and taking way too many episodes to get to the point. I still really love certain scenes/arcs from prior seasons (I consider the tournament fight between Deku and Todoroki one of my favorite fight scenes of all time) but as a casual fan to begin with I really just have no interest in the overarching story anymore.

I was going to make this post longer but I felt like I wrote way too much already so I’m gonna stop there lol. As another reminder, I am not trying to be hateful at all, if you like any of these shows it doesn’t mean they’re bad it just means I specifically didn’t vibe with them. And hey, I might give them another shot sometime in the future. Thanks again for reading!

-threecheersforinking

#anime #dropped anime #anime blog #anime review blog #anime reviews #kill la kill #haruhi suzumiya #the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #my hero academia #anime review #anime recommendation #anime recs #anime rec list

[eialyne]

Hello again! Your Secret Santa is back.

Sorry that I’m late, it’s been a busy week.

( ´ ▽ ` )

I’m a big fan of “The Scarlet (insert all episode titles of that arc here)” because you get to see how insanely smart Conan is AND Akai finally officially comes back. So the “Jet-Black Mystery Train” is also high on my list because of the big Subaru hints.

“Clash of Red and Black” is a fantastic arc, first time I watched it I was so stressed! I didn’t trust anything I saw.

That arc also has one of the best openings in my opinion! Which leads to the question:

Do you have a top 10 (or 5) opening list?

And of course I needed to read the survey details! (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

Was super fun to get someone that loves Akai! Would you believe me if I said I have a tattoo of him? (And one of Conan)

I’m also currently in the process of making your gift! So if you have any last minute new requests/ideas or prompts this is your chance!!

Have a nice day!!! _(┐「ε:)_

You are speaking my language, Secret Santa, as I hold the firm opinion that Conan has some of the best openings out there in the anime music world. Admitidly the series has a bit of a leg up just due to how many there are to choose from, but a number of those are regulars in my spotify playlists. So, in no particular order (as actual favorite can very depending on my mood):

Growing of my Heart - An utter classic

Ai wa Kurayami no Naka de - Because yes, this opening is fantastic because the song and animation just work so well together! It's also one of the very few things in life that make me excited to drive which is a....really bizzare side effect of listening to it in my car.

Revive - Is a JAM (even if there's this background noise in it that grates on my ears, so unfortunately I don't listen to it nearly as much as I would like T_T)

Truth - Two Mix is great and it's a shame we didn't get more openings from them, even without the added meta hilarity of Conan singing his own theme song.

Koi wa Thrill, Shock, Suspense - The Detective Conan anime doing iconic dance sequences in their openings before Haruhi and Lucky Star's went viral (also on SO MANY burned mix CDs back in high school).

Puzzle - Ok yes this is a movie opening but I love it ">>

Kaze no Lalala - Such a chill song and half the time I forget it's even an opening rather than a closing

Nazo - Specificaly the La PomPon cover though, because even though the OG Nazo isn't a top fave of mine, I do love a good callback and this one was very well done

Answer - Gotta love a good ominous opening, especialy when still admist the "What exactly is your deal???" character plots

Sekai wa Anata no Iro ni Naru - I wouldn't say is one of my favorite music-wise, but I just really enjoy how just about every main character gets a fun action scene.

Also honorable mention to that amazing jazz peice we got as an opening in the first episode of Magic Kaito specials (the randomly appearing ones before the proper series came out). I was always bummed we never got more of that and they went with more generic openings when they decided to do more of them.

I would absolutely love to see this tattoo of yours, if it's something you don't mind sharing, once you're able to reveal yourself! I'm not a tattoo person (I barely tolorate needles at the doctors office ">>) but Akai definately makes up the vast majority of my aquired Conan merch.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! I'm so terrible at prompts (for myself at least; the gift I'm doing for my own giftee came with such a sudden spark of inspiration I was almost physicaly reeling when it hit) so I put my faith entirely in you!

#dcmksecretsanta

[landofanimes]

Ouran High School Host Club Musical

Taking on the stages on January 15-23 (Tokyo) and 29-30 (Osaka), 2022

Junya Komatsu as Tamaki Suoh Masamichi Satonaka as Kyoya Ootori Kaname Futaba as Kaoru Hitachiin Yū Futaba as Hikaru Hitachiin Eito Konishi as Mitsukuni Haninozuka Shō Katō as Takashi Morinozuka

Yuka Yamauchi as Haruhi Fujioka

Shoichiro Oomi as Umehito Nekozawa Mizuki Saito as Renge Hо̄shakuji Yūsuke Kashiwagi as Takeshi Kuze Kohei Norizuki as Ryōji (Ranka) Fujioka

[ Update: Norizuki had to withdraw so Ranka will be played by Shinji Rachi instead! ]

Ensemble: Buri Naito, Yurika Noguchi, Nami Hirasawa, Aya Fujichika, Yū Maekawa, Kohei Masuyama, Ren Mitsunaga, and Akiyoshi Rogawa.

<< FYI, the official website names Tamaki as the lead role. >>

#ouran high school host club #ouran musical #ohshc #haruhi fujioka #tamaki suoh #ohshc musical #ouran #host club #ouran musical cast #kyoya ootori #hikaru hitachiin #kaoru hitachiin #mitsukuni haninozuka #takashi morinozuka #umehito nekozawa #ranka fujioka #yuka yamauchi #renge houshakuji #takeshi kuze #I would have put haruhi first but this is how they listed them... #which like??? :/ #don't get me wrong I love the boys but

[falling-pages]

heyy!! first off i hope you’re having a lovely day/night and are taking care of yourself :) i noticed your requests were open buuut i don’t exactly know how your requests work or your rules for requests and such so if any of this sounds unappealing to you then feel free to disregard it!!

i was wondering if you could do (headcanons or drabbles, whichever is more comfortable for you) for the hosts and how they would react if an s/o had an encounter with a toxic ex??

sorry if it’s troublesome but you’re one of the few people i’ve seen on here who write for ohshc and i recently had a run in with one of my, not so pleasant ex’s, and i’m still a bit shaken up by it. and once again no pressure or anything and if this doesn’t sound like something you’d want to do or isn’t something you take then feel free to ignore this :)

ty for your time love <3

Hi anon! Your request was so polite and lovely, it really made my morning :) my requests work just like this! Unless I post a prompt list or something, feel free to just slide in and send me a prompt! I have a stash of my own I’m working on but I always want to hear from you all and I’m always looking for ideas!

Thanks for sending this in! I really like this idea; it really showcases each of the hosts’ personalities. I’m sorry you had a bad run-in with your ex. I hope you take the time you need to find peace and comfort away from them, and I want you to remember that you are worthy of all the pure love in the world. I’m recovering from a toxic relationship too, so my messages are open if you need someone to talk to 💖

I listened to “You should be sad” by Halsey while listening to this.

Hosts running into your toxic ex:

Tamaki: 

1. Tamaki’s greatest wish in life is to have a family. A whole, complete, loving, annoying family. He made that happen at Ouran, and he wants to make it happen with you, too. When he loves, he loves with all his soul.

2. So he doesn’t understand why partners cheat. It literally astounds him. You’re in a relationship with this beautiful person you love, and you’re going to throw it all away?

3. So when he sees your ex and remembers all the things you told him they did to you, it takes everything in him not to go up to them and just tell them off.

4. You’re out shopping when you see them, and you silently duck behind Tamaki’s tall frame.

5. He instantly perks up and asks you to point out who it is, keeping you hidden behind him. 

6. When you show him, he pulls you to his chest and wraps his arms around you, burying your face in his shirt so you can’t see them.

7. Petting your hair and whispering sweet assurances in your ear.

8. “You’re with me now. You don’t have to be afraid.”

9. “They don’t deserve you. They never did.”

10. “You make me so happy. I would never dream of hurting you.”

11. “I’ll never leave you.”

12. You stay cuddled in his chest until your ex passes, with Tamaki sending them a death glare until they’re out of sight.

13. Tamaki buys you anything you want to help you forget about it.

Kyoya:

1. RIP to the person that hurt you, because he will ensure their demise

2. When you first tell him about your ex, he will do a little background research on them and learn their habits to make sure whenever you go out that you don’t run in to them

3. However, one day you do happen to run into them

4. Kyoya curses himself for not doing more research

5. You try to act like everything is normal, but he notices

6. The only thing keeping him from sicing his bodyguards on them is the tight grip you have on his hand

7. You go off to the bathroom to catch your breath and clear your head

8. He goes right up to them and threatens them within an inch of their life

9. “Listen here you bastard. I know everything about you. I know your SSN. I know where you live and what you like to do. If you ever, ever hurt them or go near them again, I will not hesitate to make your life a living hell.”

10. He scares them off

11. And when you come out of the bathroom and see they’re gone, you know he did something

12. “What did you do?”

13. “Don’t worry, I took care of them.”

Haruhi:

1. She will also give them a piece of her mind

2. She’s not one to take insults lying down

3. She yelled at Yoshio Ootori, after all

4. And those men in ep. 8

5. She won’t embarrass you or make a scene

6. But if they happen to walk too close to you

7. She might stick out her foot

8. They might “trip”

9. And end up with a broken nose

10. Oh whoops how could that have happened

11. But she will lovingly rub your back to help you calm down

12. And will make you your favorite food for dinner that night

Hikaru:

1. That boy is a little ball of anger anyways

2. So Heaven help if you ex sees you two together

3. The night you told him everything about your ex, he held you until you fell asleep

4. And silently promised you and himself that he would make them pay for hurting you

5. Hikaru has two modes

6. FIGHT

7. And

8. JEALOUS

9. You have to l i t e r a l l y hold him back when you see them in public

10. He will go buck wild on their ass

11. If your ex is male, he will tear him to pieces

12. He will knock them on their sorry ass and punch them until they regret the day they were born

13. Lights out mf

14. He is so furious that this person hurt you--you, the one he loves more than anyone in the entire world--that he will not stop fighting until the guy is bleeding from every orifice

15. You’re embarrassed at first

16. But you kinda like the lengths he went to to protect your honor

17. If your ex is a girl

18. He was raised to never hit a woman

19. So he will just glare at her so hard she’s sure to be seeing stars

20. And wrap his arms around you and give you a kiss to make it obvious that you are his

21. Once they’re gone, he keeps you wrapped in his arms to give you a steady anchor

22. With whispered promises of “I will always be here”

23. And kisses pressed into your hair

Kaoru:

1. Kaoru doesn’t get enough mischievous credit

2. Remember the refreshing battle? He can pull a few tricks even without Hikaru around

3. Sure, he’s more quiet and reserved than his brother

4. But if your ex even dares to show their face when he’s around

5. Then he will make it obvious who you are currently dating

6. As soon as your ex sees you he will pull you into a makeout session

7. Doesn’t matter where you are

8. School

9. Mall

10. Hitachiin fundraiser event

11. He doesn’t care

12. Sloppy, sloppy makeout session

13. He will kiss you so hard that you forget your ex is even around

14. If you’re comfortable with it, his hands will wander, just to prove the point

15. While he enjoys kissing you because you’re you, he also wants to show your ex how much you upgraded

16. Because now you’re dating a person who is protective of you and loves you with his whole heart

17. And isn’t afraid to show it

18. And who wants nothing but your love in return

Mitsukuni:

1. Dead. 

2. Plain and simple.

3. Dead.

4. Mitsukuni will see that this person makes you sad

5. And they’ll probably end up in a dungeon somewhere

6. Never seen or heard from again

7. And then he’ll just pop back up with you

8. “Where did you go?”

9. “Bakery!”

10. *slyly washes his hands of the remains*

11. Buys your silence with ice cream

Takashi:

1. Ya know that meme??? The “haha, I’m in danger” meme?

2. Yeah, that’s your ex when Takashi gets his hands on them

3. He knows you wouldn’t want much attention brought to it

4. But he feels the way your hand tenses when you see them

5. He sees the way you freeze when they walk by

6. He knows just how awful they were to you

7. And so that night when you get home, he sits down with you and untangles every knotted string connecting your heart with that person

8. He listens to you talk, holds you when you cry, and helps you figure out the healthiest way to cope with what that relationship did to you

9. He runs his fingers through your hair as you snuggle against his chest, feeling warm and safe and loved and cared for

10. You fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat

11. He is extra nice to you the next day

12. He knows you’re still healing

13. He’s just glad you’ve allowed him there for the ride

14. He does research to find the best ways to help you heal

15. Buys books and watches TedTalks and attends online forums

16. He brings up therapy as gently as he can

17. And points to his research saying it might help

18. And he’ll go with you if you want

19. Or he will support you from afar if you want to go alone

20. All that matters is that he’s there beside you for the journey

21. He will never let that person near you ever again

22. And if they ever show up

23. His fists will make them regret the day they ever hurt you

You inspired me to write a whole one-shot with some of the hosts! I’ll put that out soon. Thanks for the suggestion, anon :) <3

#ouran high school host club #tamaki suoh #kyoya ootori #haruhi fujioka #hikaru hitachiin #kaoru hitachiin #Mitsukuni Haninozuka #takashi morinozuka #host x reader #host x reader headcanon #tamaki x reader #kyoya x reader #haruhi x reader #hikaru x reader #kaoru x reader #honey x reader #mitsukuni x reader #takashi x reader #host headcanon

[ellgrimm]

Sweets (OHSHC bakery AU)

He lightly dusted the rectangle of dough with fine, white flour and ran it through the sheeter one last time. Mori peeled the slightly bouncy dough off the machine bed and placed it on a tray lined with a piece of plastic film. Wrapping the film snuggly around the croissant dough, he smoothed out the indents impressed by his fingertips. He scooped the tray off the maple wood table and spun around gracefully, with habitual movement, to slip it into the fridge along with the other identical trays of dough.

With that done, he slid out of the floury work apron and traded it for a fresh one he kept tidy for sales at the front register. He washed his hands and checked for any errant streaks of flour on his face. Satisfied, Mori walked out from the fairly austere kitchen and into the world of rich woods and shining glass cases that was the customer-service side of the French patisserie shop and cafe.

Haruhi was in the middle of preparing a cup of drip coffee for a patron. Another customer just arrived at the pastry counter and stood politely, waiting to place his order. “Why don’t you see to our guest, Mori?” she asked cheerfully, as she held a gooseneck kettle and slowly circled hot water over the fresh coffee grounds, keeping an eye on the weight of water being poured. A rich, gold-black coffee dripped out the bottom of the cone filter into a ribbed glass pitcher.

Mori turned to face the pastry case and reflexively picked up a set of tongs. He performed a test click: *click*. Then he looked out over the top of the case and said in a deep and calm voice a phrase he had said at least 500 times before: “Good afternoon, what would you like today?”

But there wasn’t anyone there?

He scanned left and right.

Then he directed his gaze down and his heart skipped. A pair of enormous, caramel eyes were looking up at him from underneath a glorious mop of flaxen hair. The boy spoke, blushing a bit, in a voice that rang out clear and light, “Good afternoon! I would like one tartelettes aux fraises, please.” His French was pretty good, or at least it sounded good, Mori thought. “For here,” the boy added.

“Of course,” Mori replied, as he carefully lifted the mini tart off the ceramic tray. A glazed strawberry, sliced and fanned out over piped pastry cream, sat like a glistening red jewel. He placed it on a round plate and brought it over to the register counter. “Anything else today?” Mori asked.

“Can I… get a caffe mocha?” the charming and petite lad said reluctantly after reading through the coffee menu.

Mori caught the hesitation. “Yes, sir. How many shots of espresso?” he asked attentively.

The caramel eyes wibbled a little, damply, and he burst out suddenly “um? No shots? Please?”

Mori was relieved. Now he understood what the problem was: the menu did not list “hot chocolate.” He made a mental note that he should suggest a menu update to the manager. Making cute boys cry was already not his preference; and this boy in particular deserved the world, he immediately and definitively decided.

Mori nodded and completed the cash part of the transaction. “I will bring your strawberry mini tart and no-shots ‘caffe mocha’ to you in a minute, sir. There is a table with a nice view by that window, if you like.” He gestured to a small, round table that offered a glimpse across the street of a park with a duck pond. A coveted sight in urban Tokyo.

The boy smiled and practically floated over to the promised seat. He caught sight of a mama with her raft of ducklings zooming past and gasped with delight. Mori had to work incredibly hard to suppress a grin. It was everything he had hoped for.

Haruhi noticed. She noticed a lot of things, to be clear. Here, she was shocked and intrigued that Mori had said the longest continuous string of words than she had heard at any point over the past two years since he had started working here.

To be honest, she had been surprised when Kyoya had hired him on, considering how much talking is often involved in customer service. Kyoya, in an uncommonly forthcoming reveal into the inner workings of his mind, succinctly told Haruhi once that “diversity is a strength.”And that meant, in stark contrast to longtime coworker Tamaki’s effervescent and somewhat scattered personality, a staunchly grounded giant who is almost religious in keeping up on the daily labors of a bakery is certainly an asset.

Haruhi grabbed a silver dessert spoon and placed it and a napkin on the wooden serving tray, next to the strawberry mini tart. She winked at Mori as he finished making what was honestly a hot chocolate. He grunted softly, as if to say “hush, you.”

---

He came in every day that week. And every day he tried a different sweet pastry. As far as Mori could tell, he loved them all equally.

And Kyoya saw no objection to adding Hot Chocolate to the official cafe menu. “It’s not seasonally appropriate, but there has been an anti-caffiene health trend picking up lately,” he said decisively.

On the last day of his work week, Mori once again watched the boy leave the shop for the day. This time, the boy, busy looking at his phone, bumped into a trio of well-built, strong young men. He started to apologize for running into them, and Mori panicked a little, instinctively leaping over the counter and dashing past the other customers sitting at their tables. A blur of hyperactivity in an otherwise amazingly calm and inviting space.

And then Mori stopped, his heart beating hard.

“Haninozuka-sensei! We are so very sorry for getting in your way!” the trio barked, stiffly and respectfully bowing. Honey smiled kindly and waved them off.

“Oh, no, it was my fault entirely! I must have been busy with my own thoughts,” Haninozuka offered brightly. And after a quick exchange of pleasantries, he turned and walked up the street.

The trio lingered and talked amongst themselves. Mori tried not to listen, sort of. But he desperately needed to know more about this Haninozuka person. Their… sensei?

“Sensei was so...” Said the first one.

“I know! He’s been such a goddamn hardass at the dojo lately. I wasn’t expecting it.” The second offered.

“I was ready for him to beat us up right here on the sidewalk.” The third expressed, now relieved.

Mori was dumbfounded. This bubbly slip of a lad who giggled at baby ducks and was afraid to ask for a coffee without coffee... was apparently also a brutal martial arts teacher? He couldn’t possibly... and the name was familiar, but he couldn’t finish the thought.

Mori swam in his thoughts for a minute, completely adrift in the dissonance, before Tamaki finally caught his attention and brought him back to earth. “Mori-senpai!” he practically sang, “you left this winsome young lady before giving back her change~”

Mori’s eyes flashed and he looked back, embarrassed. “Very sorry, miss.”

“Um, well, I don’t mind!” she chirped. And she honestly hadn’t minded. He had been athletic and lithe --like an action hero-- when he vaulted himself over the counter, and it had made her think spicy thoughts she would never say aloud. Not something she had expected to experience during her trip to the nicest pastry shop in the ward, but it was a surprise she would treasure for years.

---

It was an agonizing week before Haninozuka came back into the patisserie.

Mori spent every shift that week dutifully doing his work, to the best of his ability. But his ability had degraded because a solid half of his brain was fixated on this mystery. Cute? Cruel? Sweets? Sensei? It consumed him, and he was beginning to hate himself for it. It had been much easier to do this job before he had someone he so looked forward to being around.

Then Mori caught himself. Sure, the work was easier before, when he had been habitually focused entirely on the tasks. Separating eggs. Measuring flour. Shaping butter into thick slabs. Pouring coffee and picking croissants out of the case. Even washing dishes. It had become a somewhat mindless rhythm.

But Haninozuka had made him want to come to work. It made the work feel more purposeful, somehow. It was like Mori had a specific audience in mind when he wiped tables. An audience he wanted to feel safe and comfortable and happy in his domain.

But what if Haninozuka was a bad person? Those three guys had been so sure that this was an unusual side to him. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for their comments to color his idea of this boy. But he also was afraid it would be foolish to not heed their words. Surely they knew their sensei better than Mori could possibly have gotten to in a handful of hours over a few days?

But eventually, he did come back.

This time, he was escorted by the trio from before, as well as a new face. The fourth person, who had similar facial features to Haninozuka, but was a bit taller than him, also had a permanent scowl topped with a grown out bowl cut and glasses, and he was nervously eyeing Haninozuka, watching to see what he would order.

Mori was ready to push the register icon for in the hot chocolate part of the order, and jumped ahead to asking “What pastry would you like today, sir?”

Haninozuka, looking resolute, jaw clenched and without the usual gleam in his warm eyes, stated plainly “I’ll take a plain croissant and black coffee today. Thank you.” The bowl cut kid visibly relaxed a little.

Mori felt the pain in his unusually flat voice, but only nodded. “Excellent choice. Is this together or separate?”

Once he finished taking the group order, they paid and left to go sit down at a pair of tables outside on the sidewalk, well away from the previously frequented pond-viewing seat.

Mori turned to the task at hand. He brought out a set of wooden half-trays, one for each order, and selected pastries for each guest while Haruhi got to work on the drinks. Mori used the tongs to pick up the plain croissant and paused. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. It felt so wrong.

He put it back and selected a hazelnut and chocolate ganache filled croissant instead. It looked nearly identical on the outside, especially if you weren’t paying close attention. Only a small seam with chocolate peeking through could be noticed, and even then, that was on the bottom side of the pastry.

He then turned to Haruhi and said, without room for question, “make the black coffee a hot chocolate. And put all the drinks in to-go cups.”

Haruhi smiled, and used a marker to write “black” on the paper cup that would be destined to not, in fact, have any coffee in it whatsoever. She was already thinking similarly, but had been waiting for Mori to declare it officially.

Haruhi helped Mori carry the trays of drinks and pastries out to the sidewalk tables. He carefully placed the correct one in front of Haninozuka and gave a half smile. Haninozuka barely noticed, staring dead ahead, bracing himself for what would be an absolute trial of bitter drink and plain food. She distributed napkins and utensils appropriately. They both chimed “Thank you, please enjoy,” and turned to head back inside.

“Why don’t you wipe down table 3?” prompted Haruhi, who magically produced a clean damp rag and offered it to Mori. Table 3 was inside the shop, but aside from the large pane of clear glass, was right next to the sidewalk tables. The audio was barely muffled. Mori took the cloth and singlemindedly started wiping at a table that was cerftifiably already clean.

Haninozuka tremulously started with the pastry. He nibbled cautiously at one corner. He sighed.

Mori cursed silently. “You have to take a bigger bite to get to the filling!” he thought.

Haninozuka couldn’t bring himself to try a sip of black coffee yet. He went back to the croissant. This time a luscious double whammy of chocolate and hazelnut hit his tongue. His eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything.

Haninozuka Yasuchika, his brother, was taking a bite of his own pastry and found the kouign-amann satisfactorily salty as well as only lightly sweet. He grabbed his latte and brought it to his lips, then paused. He couldn’t help himself. Squinting suspiciously through his glasses, which light glinted off of even though they were all fully sitting in the shade, he prodded verbally “what about your black coffee, Mitsukuni-san?”

Mori kept pushing the cleaning rag over a now polished strip of an already spotless table and watched intently. “Mitsukuni” he thought to himself. “A nice name. And… I feel like I know it?”

Mitsukuni tried to not lament the inevitable ruination of his surprisingly edible, nay delicious, croissant. He reached for his cup and brought it closer. Holding his breath, so as not to overpower his sense of taste, he sipped delicately. Yasuchika grinned.

“Why it is perfectly tasty, brother! As usual, I mean.” Mitsukuni smiled, practically florid.

Yasuchika was caught between doubt and relief. His alien brother had so obviously hated giving up sweet things this past month. How could anyone go from entire cakes to once piece of (albeit very nice) plain bread? And from the most syrupy, whipped cream-bedecked drinks to black coffee? It was an unprecendented transformation. But on the other hand, Yasuchika felt accomplished. He had singlehandedly pressured his older brother to reform his ways. It was for the best, obviously. What sort of dojo is led by someone who would do anything for a chocolate bar? The lack of self control was shameful.

The other three guys were completely oblivious to the intimate details of sugary drama. They had simply thought it would be a good idea to bring their sensei to the only place they had seen him happy in recent memory, as part of a quiet campaign to improve the captain’s mood. Practice had gotten shockingly intense this past week, and, if they were to survive next week they needed their sensei to ease off a touch. Not that they could EVER say so to his face.

Mori checked that Mitsukuni was happily enjoying his hot chocolate and pastry, and that Yasuchika remained none the wiser. Satisfied, he decided the table’s newly worn hole was deep enough and turned back to his work behind the service counter. Haruhi winked and said nothing.

---

It was almost another week before Mitsukuni came back to the patisserie. Mori had been more patient this time. He felt firmly confident that Mitsukuni would find his way back when he was ready.

And his patience was rewarded, in a way.

Mitsukuni staggered in, after dark and only twenty minutes before closing. His eyes were bleary and his countenance groggy and listless. Mitsukuni, usually so sprightly and upright, dragged his bookbag on the ground and pulled up to the duck-watching table. Mori wasn’t sure what to do. Hand the man a hot chocolate as usual? Or… ask how he was doing???

Mori decided to walk over and offer some direct, compassionate human interaction. “Good evening,” he said, simply.

Mitsukuni looked up, with dark circles under his eyes.

He slammed his hand on the table, which startled Mori for but a moment, and said “I wanna shot!”

“...” said Mori.

“Of chocolate syrup, I mean. Like, a couple pumps in an espresso glass.”

Mori left and came back in an inhumanly fast turnaround with exactly that, and offered the teeny glass full of viscous sugary syrup to Mitsukuni, who promptly sucked it down and smacked the glass upside down on the table. “Another!” he garbled.

Mori didn’t remember grabbing the entire syrup bottle, but it was in his hand already. He decided not to think too hard about that and just left the entire thing on the table and walked away, back to cleaning up behind the counter for the night.

Well after the shop closed, with most of the lights off, save for the one over the register, Mori was done closing with one exception. Mitsukuni was finishing the last of the chocolate syrup. He had perked up considerably, and was now waving his arms animatedly, talking fast about his troubles.

“And Chika-chan comes up to me, and says, you know what he says?” Mori did not know. “He says that real men don’t like sweet things! He tells me I won’t be able to get any respect from my men if I keep eating midnight cakes and carrying candies in my pockets!”

Mori assumed Chika-chan must be the grumpy boy in glasses from the other day. He couldn’t say he liked him, particularly. Or, to be more precise, he didn’t like anyone who dared tell Mitsukuni that his respectability was dependent on having “appropriate” and “masculine” interests.

Mitsukuni blurted out a final exclamation of “Chika doesn’t have the balls to talk shit about Usa-chan, though!” and he… passed out.

Mori didn’t know who this Usa-chan was, but he did know that the shop was closed and that Mitsukuni needed to go home. But where was home?

He decided to try something. He looked up the name “Mitsukuni” along with the words “Bunkyo ward” and “dojo.” The search results were conveniently helpful, offering a website that encouraged serious karate students to sign up under the tutelage of Haninozuka Mitskuni.

“Oh. He is really that Haninozuka,” Mori thought to himself. Ages ago, there had been a falling out between their families. Once a close bond through fealty and eventually marriage and bloodline between the Haninozuka and the Morinozuka families, had been broken a couple generations back. The stories we still told, the wounds still fresh. Mori hadn’t even thought about them as “real” since they had become more of a background radiation to his life than a pressing influence. Until today, that is.

He grabbed the leather book bag and slung it over his shoulder, and then picked Mitsukuni up gingerly. Mitsukuni remained unconscious, a few smears of chocolate around his mouth. A legendary sugar crash.

Mori locked up the shop, without even having to put the boy down. He walked towards the Haninozuka family dojo, which was close by.

The lights were on. It was fairly quiet on the grounds. Only once voice was shouting from inside the dojo training hall as they practiced the forms.

Mori called out. “Excuse me. I have your sensei.”

A surprised face poked out. It was Yasuchika. “My… sensei? Oh, you mean my brother, Mitsukuni.” He looked suspiciously at Mori. “Who are you? What did you do to him?”

“I work at the French pastry shop up the street. I didn’t do anything, he was just very very tired.”

Mori purposefully “forgot” to mention his name. And he didn’t want to stick around to find out what Yasuchika really thought of him, especially with their families at odds.

Instead, he gently deposited Mitsukuni’s slumbering form on a training mat and put the book bag down next to him. Mori looked into his calm, round face and committed it to memory. Then he issued a quick departing bow and turned away, leaving the compound. He didn’t look back with his eyes, but a small part of him looked forward with his heart, in a complicated way.

He couldn’t shake that, despite it all, he still wanted to see this Haninozuka back at his patisserie and cafe. He walked home, tired.

#ouran high school host club #mori #hani #hunny #mitsukuni haninozuka #ouran #fanfic #bakery au #cafe #coffee #french #pastry #croissant #sfw #yasuchika #takashi morinozuka #haruhi fujioka #tamaki suoh #kyoya ootori #no hitachiin twins i am so sorryyyyyyy

[ootori-sibs]

Shadow boy

Day six of @ohshc-week : childhood friends/lovers or first/last kiss

Mrs Ootori was known for her love of fashion, every time there was an event, she wore a new, custom made dress. It just so happened that there was a huge event soon, with people all over the world, the who's who of the global medical industry- and top scientists too. Her only duty was to hang off of her husband's arm and look pretty, but she always made it her mission to show him up. Because of this, she'd enlisted the help of Yuzuha Hitachiin to make her a stunning new gown.

Yuzuha knew her well, having made previous gowns for her- they weren't friends persay, Mrs Ootori was too stuck up for that, but Yuzuha liked to bring her son's with her whenever she came. Mrs Ootori had many sons, one of which was only a year older than her boys.

The twin sought out the shadow boy out, they did this every time, they wanted to know more about him- he was a mystery. Today they'd found their way into the library, not being able to read yet, they ignored the books in exchange for searching for their favourite mystery. They found him in the fiction section, fitting for such a mystery.

The shadow boy never liked the light much, he preferred the darkness and shade. His hair was as dark as the woman their mother helped, but his eyes weren't brown like hers, they were a shimmering silver- the twins had almost thought he was monochrome when they first found him. The boy smiled when he noticed them, standing and approaching them, stopping on the border of the shadows.

The twins smiled back, they were holding hands, but let go to run forward towards their friend, "shadow boy! Hello!" He'd never told them his name, he'd never actually spoken to him either, he was silent in his friendship. He didn't let them touch him either, so they gave him an air-hug.

He showed them a ladder, and led them up on top of the bookshelves, it was dark up here, and the twins and their shadow friend had to crawl, he wanted to show them something- he always wanted to show them something.

He led the twins through a vent, it was a large one, big enough for all of them… they were only three, and their shadow friend was four… it didn't take that big of a vent to hold them all. When they got out of the vent, they were in an office, make-up on one side table, paperwork on another. The desk was a vanity, the computer was new and shiny.

The twins looked around, their eyes already adjusted to the darkness, but Kaoru had brought a torch, making sure to avoid getting the shadow boy with it. They couldn't read, but by the images and make-up, the twins understood that this was Mrs Ootori's office. They wondered why the shadow boy would bring them here, what purpose did they have here?

But the shadow boy grabbed a stool, dragging it over to a wall, reaching up and going to grab a book. He brought it down to show them, placing it on the floor. Kaoru carefully trained his torch on it, it was a book; a big, leather bound, storybook. Hikaru was the one who opened the book, "woah… this is awesome!"

Kaoru nodded, noticing how the shadow boy smiled, "yeah! Amazing! Do you want us to read the voices? Our maids do that for us." The boy's eyes lit up, and the twins both saw his hands ball up happily, he nodded at them, almost silently gasping- the loudest sound they'd heard from him.

The twins once again, couldn't read- it seemed the shadow boy hadn't realised yet. His surprised expression when the twins made up their own dialogue based on the images, making it much funnier then the stories actually were- at least in their opinion; they'd given the villain a horrible voice, made the princess sound like an old man, and their worst offence of all; they gave the prince charming the squeakiest voice they could muster.

This upset the shadow boy.

He'd stood up, turning and hammering on the door until a maid unlocked it for him, the maid asked him how he got in there, since the door was locked. This surprised the twins- other people could see their shadow friend? This was news to them, they didn't think he could be seen. But he didn't seem to see her, running past, completely ignoring the light he was so usually avoidant of.

The twins gave chase, they'd never see their shadow friend so upset- they've seen him cry, sure, but never run straight into the light, he hated the light. So they ran, calling out for their shadow friend to stop, trying to ask what's wrong. After a few seconds, and corridors, later, the twins realise that their friend is headed towards the room where their mother and Mrs Ootori were- and Mrs Ootori was famed for her temper, so they were scared what would happen.

He burst into the room, clearly more terrified than sad by how bright the room was, running to the side of Mrs Ootori and clinging to her, sobbing into her gown. The twins entered soon after, pausing at this sight. All eyes were now on them; their mother looked alarmed, and Mrs Ootori looked furious. "What did you do to my baby?"

She had asked them a simple question, commanding and demeaning- but the twins weren't listening, they didn't care about her dumb status. "That's not your baby, that's our shadow friend!" They huffed in unison, Hikaru hopping up to turn the light off as Kaoru switched the torch on.

Both adults were surprised by both the words and the actions of the twins, Mrs Ootori was even more angered by this. She stomped forward, knocking the shadow boy to the floor- who quickly got up and hid under a table, hands over his head. Mrs Ootori, she must have been around six foot, she towered over the boys, glaring, "how dare you! My son is no one's shadow!" The twins were shaking now, having never been yelled at like this by an adult before, the woman continued; "have you been bullying him?? Why is he crying?"

"Leave my sons alone!" Their mother snapped at her, "they haven't done anything to deserve getting screamed at, they're kids for heaven's sake!" The twins mother was an angel, she stood up to the demon woman, standing and glaring.

The demon scoffed, "oh no wonder they're such brats if you never yell at them! I yell at my sons all the time and they all turn out perfectly." The twins both bristle at the idea of this monster yelling at their poor sweet shadow friend, this demon was terrifying.

They'd blocked that day out of their memory.

Losing their first friend, being yelled at for the first time, their mother had gotten so frustrated she'd punched her mannequin… they didn't want to remember it; so they didn't.

Years later, they had friends, real friends- nothing like the ghost of that old mansion. They had Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai, who sat in the corner making tea and coffee. They had Haruhi, who was watching everything with a tired but lovable expression. They had Tamaki… who was being an idiot, he was floundering around, crying about something or other Haruhi had said.

"My darling daughter hates me! Oh woe is I!"

The twins snickered at that, rolling their eyes. Tamaki must have noticed that, because he gasped, looking at them, "how dare you mock my misery! What's so funny about a daughter hating her father?"

Hikaru raised an eyebrow at that, "oh come on boss…" he and Kaoru shared a glance, before looking back at Tamaki, putting on the fake whining voice used to mock stupid people; "ooh~ my darling daughter hates me! Oh woe- oh woe is I~!"

There was a scoff from behind them, from a table not far back, Kyoya was rolling his eyes, "what is it with you two and giving princes squeaky voices?" He had chuckled to himself, but the question had made the twins freeze… Kyoya was right, they did use that voice for all princes, and had since they were little. But there was no way for Kyoya to know that, only the twins' family had heard them read stories, family and- oh. Oh.

"Wh!" The twins span around at lightning speed, looking at Kyoya with wide eyes, "You were the shadow boy??"

This got the other hosts' attention fast, though Kyoya just raised an eyebrow, "you weren't aware? I did wonder why you started out just as distant to me as you were with Tamaki," he chuckled lightly, actually smiling slightly, "I know you were four but please; a year older than you, we were always at my house, your mother did the gowns for mine- what other conclusion could you have come to?"

The twins… felt a little stupid at that, but Hikaru admitted to their belief, "we honestly thought you were a ghost, hence the whole 'shadow boy' thing…"

"A ghost?" Kyoya seemed to find the whole thing amusing, and the twins noticed how the light reflected off of his her black hair, how the light made his eyes shine behind his glasses… why had he used to hate it so? "I suppose your little nickname fits now, what with people referring to me as the 'shadow king', seems I've gotten a promotion." He had paused, and the twins glanced around to see the confusion in the other hosts' faces, but they didn't matter right now, not in the face of their shadow friend. "Why did you believe me to be a spirit?"

"Oh that's easy!" Kaoru smiled, beginning to list of all the reason their shadow friend was different; "you always hid in dark spaces, never came out to play anywhere bright, we never saw you anywhere but the mansion, you were never there when we arrived, we always had to go searching for you, you always had something to show us, it was always a secret- plus you never once spoke to us dude, you didn't ever even introduce yourself the entire time."

Hikaru spoke up at that, looking thoughtful, "why did you never speak the whole time we knew you?"

Kyoya paused at that, "oh, well some people have- ...things, that they can't do properly, and sometimes those things are amplified by situations, but like a lot of things, they can be learnt from, and moved past," he stopped for a moment, before nodding to himself, "yes, I had quite a bit of trouble with speaking when I was younger, it's nothing to be ashamed of personally, but some people are ashamed of me nonetheless." Was that a joke..? That was a really sad joke, the twins didn't quite know how to take it.

They didn't have to respond though, as Honey hopped over towards them, "wow Kyo-chan! Do you have the same fear as Nekozawa-chan?"

Kyoya shook his head, "well I did when I was five, I grew out of it by the time I was around six or seven, I couldn't have been able to do all too well in school otherwise." He shrugs, going back to his book, "either way, you never answered my question about the voices, why do you insist on such dreadful voices for prince characters?"

The twins had to shrug at that, smiling, "we just think it's funny."

"Well I still don't, it's rather immature. But at least it isn't in a moment of vulnerability this time," and with that, the conversation was over, Kyoya clearly wasn't going to respond to further questioning, so everyone went back to how they were before.

But not Kaoru, Kaoru got closer to Kyoya's table, hands resting on it in fact, "out of curiosity, do you still have that book?"

Kyoya just nodded, "I've had it since I was a baby, it'd be a shame to throw it out now."

Kaoru nodded slowly, a mischievous smirk growing on his face, "and how would you feel if I read you the stories again, using proper voices this time?" He watched Kyoya pause, glancing up at him but clearly not wanting Kaoru to know he's looking, so Kaoru does something even more daring; he winks.

Kyoya chuckles lightly at that, "as long as we can have the lights off."

It was a funny feeling; Kyoya having been his first friend. The idea that this money grubbing mastermind was once his sweet shadow friend, the silent, always watching shadow king- he was once actually silent. He remembers first joining the club, looking at Kyoya and wondering why Tamaki hung out with such an asshole, before realising he and Hikaru were also assholes and that this must be, like, Tamaki's hobby or something. But about a month in Kaoru was wondering why Kyoya hung out with Tamaki, Kyoya was of a much higher calibre- and he knew it. Though it was clear he considered Tamaki to be superior, even though Tamaki's only real power was as club president- and family-wise too Kaoru supposed.

They were sitting in the dark now, Kaoru had a torch- it wasn't the same torch, that old thing was long gone- but it felt the same… yet somehow completely different. They were older now, they knew who they were a little more, Kyoya could speak now- he could audibly react to the things Kaoru was saying, he could laugh… Kaoru loved that laugh, he'd only ever heard Kyoya chuckle before, his laugh was wonderful; it was a full on villain laugh, but not a cackle, not anything malicious, just a genuine powerful laugh, the kind you'd see of a kid villain- but not the bratty kind. It was also different because Kaoru was here of his own accord, every time he'd visited the Ootori mansion before he'd been dragged there by someone else, this time he was he because he'd decided to be- and he was here without Hikaru.

Kaoru had just finished reading the third story in the book; Cinderella- but at some point, Kyoya had taken a pen, and changed all of Cinderella's pronouns to his own- he'd done that for every character that was his favourite in each story. The ending was always different if he wasn't the princess, his favourite always got a prince of their own- even when it wasn't the main prince. Kaoru found it amusing, if a little concerned, was it reflected of the chances he had with Kyoya? After all; they already had a prince character, and Kaoru wasn't charming at all.

He glanced to his side, Kyoya was completely relaxed, somehow having slid under the covers of the bed without Kaoru having noticed, he truly was a shadow wasn't he? "You're going to get cold like that, you should copy me." Oh, he wanted Kaoru to get into bed with him? Well Kaoru was never one to turn down an offer like that, especially if it was completely innocent- he loved a good cuddle.

Surprisingly enough, Kyoya had actually leaned into him halfway through the princess and the frog, mouthing the words along as Kaoru had said them, how sweet… But when Kaoru got to a line that read: 'but I'm only a small frog, who would ever kiss me?', he heard Kyoya mutter words verbally- but a little different to how it was written…

"...but I'm only a shadow, who would ever kiss me..?"

Kaoru paused, knowing he wasn't meant to hear that, but maybe he was meant to hear it… it sounded like fate. He did it without thinking; he tilted Kyoya's head up and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips, before muttering back, "you'll find your prince someday…"

He knew there was no chance of getting with Kyoya, it was safe to assume the shadow had his eyes on a prince already- Kaoru was nowhere near being a prince. But just one kiss, a stolen one at that- if that was all he got, he was happy with that, he didn't need anything special-

"...I don't think I even want a prince anymore…" Kyoya hadn't moved even an inch from the position Kaoru had put him in, but the moment Kaoru looked down at him, Kyoya got up onto his knees. He looked at Kaoru with something Kaoru had only ever seen in girls before, just before their hearts were shattered… "I want to be a shadow boy forever."

Oh. It was Kaoru's heart that felt something painful, but it was a good pain- like his heart had taken a sharp gasp of its own accord. He smiled softly, putting the book down- but not closing it, and turning his torch off, it was pitch black now. "You… are so much more than a shadow boy now, Kyoya- you're a shadow king, it's not some dumb title. It's your truth… and I love the truth."

It wasn't a love confession, Kaoru couldn't do those, and neither could Kyoya- they were simply both too closed off and quiet to express themselves without the aid of their respective extroverts assistance, though Kaoru realised Hikaru was definitely more of an ambivert at this point. It might not have been a confession of love, but it was a confession of something alright, and they kissed, more than just a quick stolen one- this kiss was real, this kiss was warm, and it tasted of coffee…

They broke the kiss after a while, sitting in pitch black as they sat in silence. Neither of them wanted to speak, so they didn't. Kaoru wanted to know the time, but he didn't want to check his phone, so he sat there, wondering. It was clearly dark, from the little he could see of the outside, from the windows downstairs, so he could be forgiven if he fell asleep here…

The book had been moved, and so had the torch, Kaoru hadn't even noticed. He now glanced down at Kyoya who was laying down, looking up at him, and the little light present reflected in his eyes- though Kaoru couldn't see much else of him at all. Instead of seeing, Kaoru felt, realising how Kyoya was allowing him to touch now, the shadow boy would have always been too scared to even high five, Kyoya let Kaoru rest a hand on his hip as he lay down- Kyoya had let Kaoru kiss him. Soon, they were laying down next to each other; facing each other, Kaoru noticed how Kyoya shuffled closer, bowing his head slightly but leaving it to Kaoru to close the gap, to cuddle him.

Kaoru was the smaller of the two, but Kyoya was the one resting his head near Kaoru's chest, though the shadow boy had always been soft- Kaoru couldn't blame him, or complain in the slightest. It was strange to be sleeping next to someone other than Hikaru, but it was nice- completely different though: with Hikaru they'd squabble over who had the most cover, over who got to sleep what side, they rarely cuddled- contrary to popular belief, plus they only really held hands when they could do it comfortably. But with Kyoya, Kaoru found himself making sure Kyoya had enough blanket, he found himself almost cradling the taller boy as if was prone to shatter at any moment, he even found himself humming one of the many disney songs he'd learnt the tube to through osmosis, he was fairly sure this was a love song- either way it was relaxing and sweet.

He remembered being shown this room, though there was a fortress here then, made of cardboard and plastic and paint, a safe haven that the shadow boy had loved to show to the twins, though he'd gotten visibly upset when Hikaru had tried to climb over the walls instead of using the door. Kaoru remembered this fondly, glancing down to realise that said shadow boy had fallen asleep in his arms. Kaoru then allowed himself to stop humming, yawning and nuzzling Kyoya's hair before settling his head down on the pillow, quickly drifting off to a funny thought that made him feel fuzzy inside:

It was a funny feeling; Kyoya having been his first friend and his first kiss.

#kyoya ootori #ouran high school host club #ohshcweek #hikaru and kaoru #hikaru hitachiin #kaoru hitachiin #kyokao

[eurydicees]

prompt: trapping the other with someone else under the mistletoe has become a highly competitive sport. but who wins if both get trapped together?

mistletoe lovers

summary: it was hikaru and kaoru’s idea. get points by putting other people under the mistletoe. it’s fun when it makes the girls who visit the host club happy, and it’s fun when kyoya gets to laugh it off, and then he’s the one under the mistletoe, and he’s going to kill hikaru and kaoru. 

pairings: tamaki suoh/kyoya ootori 

words: 2028

warnings: some swearing, joking threats 

Tamaki celebrates Christmas like it’s the last party he’ll ever get— growing up in France, it was one of the biggest holidays of his year. In Japan, it might be less important, but not to Tamaki. Before Tamaki, Kyoya hadn’t listened to nearly as much Christmas music as he does during Tamaki’s first Christmas with him. Normally, he just eats just KFC and goes to bed especially late. 

But, because it’s Tamaki and Kyoya would do anything Tamaki dreamed of, they celebrate Christmas the traditional way. They go all out for the host club— the trees, the lights, the music. They also do the mistletoe. Kyoya had been in favor of this, if only because it would increase the excitement levels for the girls during host club hours while they stood under the mistletoe and the boys wandered around carefully designated paths avoiding this, until it became a game. 

He probably should have expected this. 

Hikaru and Kaoru hadn’t done anything to create a dramatic event in the past two weeks or so, and Kyoya should have been more suspicious. He should have figured that they would do something spectacular for Christmas, something beyond the dance that they were throwing as part of the host club holiday event. But still, he hadn’t expected this. And he hadn’t expected them to get everyone else in the host club to do it. 

It was a game, a competition of sorts. In the changing room, Kaoru had dragged in a whiteboard with each of their names listed on it. Next to the names, he would put tally marks to count their points. They would compete for one week, with the final culmination coming on the last day of school before their winter break. 

The goal of the game: get as many people under the mistletoe as possible. Anyone was fair game— if you could get a host club member with someone else under the mistletoe, you got a point. The person with the most points at the end of the week gets to choose the theme for the next Host Club cosplay, including what everyone would get to wear. 

Kyoya protested only minimally. He really wants to put the Hitachiin twins in something awful, specifically as revenge for suggesting this awful game. Also, he never loses the change to make more money— and the girls who visited the Host Club were especially excited by the game. A kiss on the cheek from one of the hosts? That was their dream come true. 

It starts simple. A few pushes here and there. Kaoru nudging Honey just a few steps to the side, until he had to give a kiss to one of the girls who was hopefully waiting under the mistletoe. Haruhi waiting under the mistletoe until Tamaki comes over, then quickly shifting another girl under and squandering Tamaki’s hopes of kissing them. Mori stumbling into the pre-designated circle when Honey dropped Usa-chan next to a girl with blonde hair who turned bright red when Mori kissed her. 

Beyond the group’s competition, the girls make it their own personal task to get as many kisses of their own as possible. They “accidentally” end up waiting under the mistletoe when one of the hosts walks by. They run towards the mistletoe when one of the hosts unwittingly finds them there. 

But it gets worse as the week goes on. No, Hikaru insists after Kyoya was baited into a circle, it gets more fun as the week goes on. 

On Thursday, things shift. Tamaki gets just a little bit too into the game— and Kyoya should have expected that too— and pulls Kaoru into the circle under the mistletoe before quickly stepping away and pushing a girl into him. Kaoru kisses her on the cheek, and, because everything is a show during the Host Club hours, Hikaru pulls Kaoru closer to him. 

“Kaoru,” Hikaru whispers, eyes welling up with fake tears, “Please, stay out of the circle, I want you all to myself…” 

“Hikaru,” Kaoru protests, turning to the side as Hikaru caresses his face. 

Kyoya doesn’t know how they pull off their act without bursting out laughing. He’s known both of the twins for years, and as close as they are, there are lines that they won’t cross. A kiss on the cheek is not across those lines, Kyoya knows, and they’ve done it a hundred times before, but this time feels different. 

Not because of anything they do, but because they girls scream in a different way. Excited, overwhelmed, in love with the twins, yes— but there’s something else too. The two who are with Hikaru and Kaoru exchange glances and their heart eyes become something… else. Something that Kyoya can’t read, and that terrifies him. 

Later that day, towards the end of the club hours, Haruhi is shoved under the mistletoe. Kyoya only notes this because there’s no one else in the circle, and it doesn’t make sense for anyone to have pushed her there— and then one of the girls pushes Tamaki in after her. 

And oh, now there’s a new player in the game. Now, the girls have found themselves a game of their own; finding their favorite pairings in the group and putting them under the mistletoe instead of themselves. Renge— and Kyoya is so sure that this is her fault that he could kill her— only grins slyly.

Tamaki kisses Haruhi on the cheek, and they both turn bright red, and Renge does her little scream and calls for all the girls to come look at them. There’s some kind of pang of jealousy when Kyoya watches, some kind of anger mixed with sorrow, some kind of hopelessness. 

He knows he’s in love with Tamaki, and he’s pretty sure that everyone except for Tamaki knows as well, and he also knows that it’s never going to work out. He’s made his peace with the fact that Tamaki is in love with Haruhi. But still, jealousy climbs up to his heart. He turns away as Haruhi and Tamaki jump apart from each other. Kyoya’s only comfort is that the two of them refuse to look at each other the rest of the day. 

“Now,” Kyoya overhears Kaoru telling Hikaru, “it gets interesting.” 

“Our job just got some much easier,” Hikaru says, and Kyoya can hear the grin in his voice. 

Of course, of course, they’re up to something. They always are, and it never ends well. 

Right after classes end on Friday, the hosts find themselves in the changing room, looking at the whiteboard. It’s the last day of the game— Hikaru is in the lead with Kaoru right after him, and then three points below Kaoru is Honey. In order words, it’s pretty much what he expected to happen. Hikaru and Kaoru are easily the most devious of the group and willing to play without rules, while they all trust Honey too much, never guessing that he was tricking them. 

This, Kyoya thinks, was a terrible idea. The cosplay next week is going to be terrible. Tamaki is complaining, but the twins just shrug and grin. “Sorry boss, this is just how the game goes.” 

“Come on,” Kyoya says, already resigning himself to whatever nonsense the next week is going to bring, “we’re about to open the doors.” 

Tamaki mutters something under his breath, but he leads the rest of the club members out to the front doors, where they begin to welcome the guests into the room. During that day, the twins have gotten points for Mori, Haruhi, and Tamaki (twice). Kyoya’s only revenge is that he got Kaoru twice as well. 

By the time that the doors to Music Room 3 close, Kyoya is exhausted from spending so much energy avoiding the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. The week, Kyoya thinks gratefully, is over. He can go home and rest, and then when he comes back, he won’t have to worry about double checking every step. He can relax. 

Then all comfort flies out of the window, and Kyoya decides that he’d like revenge instead. He had put his notebook down for one minute. One minute. That was all it took for Hikaru to make it disappear. 

“I’m going to kill you,” Kyoya says flatly. “I’m actually going to kill you. Where did it go?” 

Hikaru shrugs. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Hikaru…” Kyoya says, voice low and dangerous, “tell me right now.” 

Kyoya starts stalking towards him, speeding up as Hikaru starts speed walking backwards. Hikaru starts jogging, waving his hands— “I didn’t take it!” 

He’s nearly got Hikaru cornered when he sees Tamaki, holding it. He’s running over to the two of them, waving it in his hands— “Kyoya! Found it!” 

Kyoya exhales in relief. He knew that it couldn’t have been lost, and if it had been, he would have kept every single person in the room searching for it for as long as it took, but he still worried. Tamaki reaches him, handing over the notebook. 

“Mistletoe!” Kaoru calls out, coming from the other side of the room. 

“What—” Kyoya looks at Hikaru, who grins. Then he looks upwards, where he sees a bundle of mistletoe hanging above his head. His stomach drops. 

Tamaki is looking up at the mistletoe, too, eyes wide. Then his gaze drops to Kyoya, his lips parting to protest or freak out, and Kyoya doesn’t know if he can handle that. He manages to cut in before Tamaki can say anything, but his voice is shaky as Tamaki turns bright red. “It’s Friday,” he manages to say, “the game is over.” 

Kaoru, who now stands by Tamaki's side, makes a big show of checking his watch. “Game ends at 5:00pm. It’s 4:45.” 

“I’m going to kill you,” Kyoya says, staring at Hikaru, who had led him here, who had clearly planned this. “I’m going to kill you.” 

Tamaki pouts when Kyoya turns back to him. “Am I not kissable enough for you?” 

“I—I— what? What? Tamaki—” Kyoya sputters, looking at Tamaki— “What?” 

Tamaki raises his eyebrows. “It’s just one kiss.” 

Kyoya stares. He’s been in love with Tamaki for two years now, and Tamaki is staring at him like Kyoya is the one who broke his heart by refusing to kiss him under the mistletoe for the sake of some ridiculous game. Kyoya opens his mouth to say something else, to protest more, but then Tamaki chuckles.

“Come on, Kyoya,” Tamaki says, and he puts on his stupid hosting face on, the one where he tilts his head just slightly, parting his lips and leaning forward just slightly. He smiles, leaning forward and putting a hand to Kyoya’s bicep, squeezing slightly. Tamaki inhales, his eyes going soft, and Kyoya is a weak man. 

He kisses Tamaki. 

Tamaki doesn’t kiss back, and then Kyoya panics. He pulls back, and he’s about ready to run, bolt the fuck out of there, humiliated— and then Tamaki puts his hands on either side of his face and pulls him back in and kisses him again. 

His kiss is warm and Kyoya feels his stomach flip over, because oh fuck, he’s kissing Tamaki. He pulls away, looking at Tamaki, ready to say something, though he’s not sure what— what is there to say? He could laugh it off, or say he’s a good kisser, or he could confess, because Kyoya really did the dumbest thing he could have possibly done, and that’s fall in love with Tamaki Suoh.  

Then Tamaki grins, cheeks pink, and he laughs. “You could have just kissed me on the cheek.” 

Kyoya’s eyes go wide and he thinks he’s going to pass out. “I—” 

“That’s okay,” Tamaki says, still smiling. He presses a kiss to Kyoya’s cheek, and sets Kyoya on fire. “Alright, I gotta go, I’m having dinner with my dad tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow!” 

Tamaki steps away, and jogs out of the music room, leaving Kyoya standing there, staring at the empty space where Tamaki had been. He glances to the side, where both Hikaru and Kaoru had disappeared. Kyoya is there alone, lips tingling. He’s going to kill the twins.

#my writing #ohshc #tamakyo #ohshc fanfiction #tamaki suoh #kyoya ootori #tamakyo fanfiction #ouran high school host club fanfic #tamakyo fanfic

[medea10]

My Review of Trigun

How did I get into this anime? Let’s just say this was one of those animes that used to air on Saturday nights back in the day that I would every now and then come across while waiting for either Full Metal Alchemist, InuYasha, or Cowboy Bebop to air. But I never did watch a full episode or know a damn thing about this anime. So I’m just jumping into this anime blindfolded. All I know is that this was Johnny Yong Bosch’s first anime role.

Who is Vash the Stampede?

A frequent question that comes up throughout the series! Rumor has it that he wears a long, red trench coat and sports a Mohawk hairstyle. Some say he’s a notorious lecher. Many recount him shooting up their villages to a pile of rubble just for the heck of it. He has quite the reputation as he has a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head and is often known as the “Humanoid Typhoon”.

In reality, Vash the Stampede is…a bit of a dingus. He just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and things kinda get out of hand. But that doesn’t stop two insurance agents (Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe) from following him around to confirm Vash’s identity and keep his actions to a minimum. At first, it’s hard to tell if he’s a stupid-genius or just flighty and gets lucky one too many times. But when shit goes down, don’t be surprised when you see this doofus get serious.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Okay, what sad company did this use to belong to, Geneon, Bandai, or ADV Films? Oh, Geneon! That means good voice actors from L.A. put in really shitty roles. On the contrary, this was a fairly decent English dub. And on a severely positive note, this was indeed Johnny Yong Bosch’s very first anime role (and a main role at that). This was like fresh off his time as a Power Ranger! And I gotta give props for giving this guy a chance at voice acting. This role was the launching point to what has been a very successful career for Bosch. As for the sub, let’s just say I’m happy any time I get to hear Hiromi Tsuru in something besides Dragon Ball. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Vash is played by Masaya Onosaka (known for Bill on Pokemon, Isaac on Baccano, Jadeite on Sailor Moon, Kero on Cardcaptor Sakura, Leeron on Gurren Lagann, France on Hetalia, and Spandam on One Piece)

*Meryl is played by Hiromi Tsuru (known for Bulma on DBZ, Ukyo on Ranma ½, Yubel on YGO GX, and Mika on Gravitation) [R.I.P.]

*Milly is played by Satsuki Yukino (known for Kagome on InuYasha, Mion/Shion on Higurashi, Tae on Gintama, Amakata on Free!, Hiiragi on Natsume Yuujinchou, Mutsumi on Love Hina, and Yoruichi on Bleach)

ENGLISH CAST: *Vash is played by Johnny Yong Bosch (known for Ichigo on Bleach, Lelouch on Code Geass, Makoto on Free!, Izaya on Durarara, Artemis on Sailor Moon redub, Koizumi on Haruhi Suzumiya, and Yukio on Blue Exorcist)

*Meryl is played by Dorothy Elias-Fahn (known for Kaoru on Rurouni Kenshin, Naru on Love Hina, Tomoe on Rozen Maiden, Hakuei on Magi, Houki on Fushigi Yugi, and Amane on Tenchi Muyo GXP)

*Milly is played by Lia Sargent (known for Dorothy on The Big O and Judy on Cowboy Bebop)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Milly! I don’t need a reason, it’s Milly!

SHIPPING: I didn’t really start thinking about shipping until more than halfway into this series. I thought there might be something between Vash and Meryl, but then again maybe not! Then I saw the backstory of Vash’s “younger days” and falling for the one woman who showed him compassion.

Yes, this is the same woman we consistently see in Vash’s flashbacks, Rem. Ooh boy, it’s one of those stories! So yeah, never mind my thinking with Vash x Meryl ever happening. I feel like Vash will mourn Rem’s death for a long time that I don’t think the whole thing with Meryl will ever work.

And as for Wolfwood x Milly…

FUUUUUUUCK! WHY DID YOU RUIN THIS CUTE COUPLE?!

MILLY WAS HEART-BROKEN!

…At least she got to have one night of passion with Wolfy-boy before the unthinkable happened.

THAT DARN CAT: If you watched this series, you might have noticed a little black cat spotted in nearly every episode. It’s there in the opening theme. It’s there in random places throughout the series. It’s there in the ending theme. What’s up with this cat? Well, there are a lot of theories surrounding this particular cat (or Kuroneko). Some say it’s really Rem inside that cat since you see it in literally every episode around Vash. Others say it’s because the creator of Trigun wanted to just mess with your minds with the kitty walking around in random places and towns. Seriously, it will always appear in every new town Vash and the gang comes across! As an avid cat enthusiast, I’m fine with whatever the result. Just as long as no harm comes to the little Kuroneko.

HALFWAY POINT: Halfway into the series we notice something more when it comes to Mr. Vash the Stampede. First of all, those horrifying scars all over his body! Second, that mysterious girl he often thinks about. I mean, we see flashes of her in the opening sequence. And third, the reason why he never kills. Vash has the ability of causing so much damage when pushed to a breaking point. One of the many reasons why he’s known as the “humanoid typhoon”! And that was perfectly shown when Vash chases the residents out of a town (so there would be no casualties), totally demolished the town during a fight, and made an indent on the moon!

But the story takes a sharp-left turn into WTF territory when we learn about WHAT exactly Vash is. Vash is a plant. Vash also has a brother named Knives. And while Vash has a mentality that all beings have a right to live, Knives has a “kill them all and let God sort them out” point of view. Now the existence of Vash and Knives came with a lot of controversy, especially in the ship that they were on. But that girl who Vash cares for, Rem cared for them regardless of what they were. Rem had high hopes for a peaceful world with coexistence. Too bad Knives had other motives and killed her.

ENDING TO TV SERIES: Vash has tried so hard to keep Milly, Meryl, and Wolfwood out of harm’s way. He knows there are some pretty bad people after him, including his polar-opposite brother, Knives. Vash hates death and wants to save as many people as humanly possible. He doesn’t want to see any more needless death. Probably from his flashbacks and losing Rem! Unfortunately, this doesn’t go so well.

I can see how iconic this death was now after witnessing it. Wolfwood, the priest who would hook up with Vash every now and then when they’re up against some ruffians, now finds himself in a crucial decision. He gets orders that he must eliminate Vash. And Wolfwood ends up dying instead in a very dramatic death scene. God-damn! And just that scene where Milly is sobbing freakin’ eats you up inside.

At least she had one night of passion before the unfortunate happened!

Vash hates the thought of having to kill anyone. But he might not have a choice if Knives is coming after him and even hires a powerful foe from a previous episode and the guy that killed Wolfwood to take you out. Once Vash met up with Knives, he winds up having some pretty sick flashbacks of Knives. But our homeboy was able to take out Knives, the desert area gets water, and…

I’m gonna have to read the fucking manga for more, right?

Tap dancing fuck!

BADLANDS RUMBLE: 12 years after the series ended, Japan decides to release a side-story in the form of a movie, bringing back our favorite characters like Vash, Wolfwood, Milly, and Meryl. And yes, reuniting the cast…in Japan.

By 2010, Geneon was as good as dead and FUNimation licensed Trigun. In short, they managed to get Johnny Young Bosch to reprise his role as Vash the Stampede. But everyone else was replaced. And surprisingly, the people they got to do Wolfwood and Milly were pretty freakin’ close to their original voices. Meryl’s voice, come on I know Luci Christian any-damn-where! Vash helps a young lady take out a big-bad guy (who turns out to be his father). And it has the feel of the original series where it’s set in a western town with lots of booze and shoot-em-ups! It’s an interesting side-story to the Trigun trilogy.

Trigun was a pretty good anime. I mean, not one of my favorites, but I can definitely see a lot of people sticking by this classic. Maybe you can chalk up my blah attitude to the fact that I’m not fond of westerns and I kinda took it out on Trigun. Or the fact that there was so much more that the anime could have covered before the end and the ending kinda felt off to me! Like I thought I was expecting more. But I suppose that’s what mangas are for. To be honest, the stories that really grabbed my attention were the back-stories with Vash and Knives and Wolfwood’s final episode.

*sniffles* At least Milly got one night of passion before he died!

If you would like to check out Trigun, all the episodes are available through FUNimation and Hulu (in both Japanese and English). And if you really like the anime, why not purchase the hard copies? Both the series and movie are available for home video.

Okay, that took me a while, but I’m glad to finish Trigun. What’s next on the FUNimation list?

EEHHHHHEEEHHHE

Fuck is that supposed to mean? What is that? Is that even in English?

YOU WILL BE HORRIBLY MUTILATED: The Isekai

Do you mean Re:Zero? That’s great…but that review’s not ready yet. And it probably won’t be until after April 2021! So let’s cast caution to the wind and pick another FUNimation licensed anime.

You’re watching Sarazanmai next. It’s best if you don’t ask questions.

Sarazanmai? The fuck does that even mean?!

OH. MY. GOD.

#trigun #vash the stampede #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #nicholas d wolfwood #knives millions #anime review

[musictrash0426]

Killing Stalking

 My name is Elizabeth Stevens, I’m 17 and it is one month until my senior year of highschool. Most of my friends are going crazy trying to plan out their futures. However, unlike my peers, I've known what I've wanted to be since I was 13. I want to be an artist, my parents fully support my decision which is nice. They have bought me plenty of professional quality supplies since my 14th birthday when they saw all the hard work I put into my art. I've even started selling prints of my work on Redbubble. I also have quite the following 

Overall I live in a pretty good neighbourhood. It has great people, including my best friend Kai who lives a few streets over. My family and I live in a pretty large house. It has three floors which is a little big if you ask me. There are only the three of us living here, me, mom and dad. But with that being said my parents gave me the entire basement on my 13th birthday. They also helped me set up every room down here the way I want. Not much has changed, even after being down here for four years..

When you come down the stairs you are greeted with my lounge area. Where  we have a couch, tv, game system, large bookshelf and some other things. Next we have my room where I have a fairly minimal look. I have a large bed, large dresser, a walk in closet, and my vanity where I do my makeup. The next room is probably my favourite; it's my art studio. Like I said my parents have supported me over the years so I have a lot of supplies. Honestly I couldn't be more grateful for them and everything they’ve given me. I have a full easel, desk, and a lot of supplies, markers, colour pencils, paint (water, acrylic, oils), alongside my new drawing tablet.

This morning when I got up, I went to my art room and started sketching. I've gotten into this habit as it helps me get into a creative mindset, along with getting into drawing for the day. Once I stop doodling I start to make a list of the things of supplies I had recently run out of. 

As I was about to leave, I asked my parents if they needed anything. My mom told me to get her a drink from Starbucks on my way home as she knows I’m planning on going there anyways. 

I get into my car and drive to the art store. Luckily this store is only 10 minutes from my house. I walk into the store and look for the supplies on my list. While going through the store, grabbing the things I needed, I decided I also wanted to try out a new paint while I was here. I got some winsor and newton acrylics in red, blue,yellow, sienna, black and white along with some mixing pallets. I also got a canvas as I want to make a large painting later. 

My mom texted me asking if I could pick up milk and eggs. So I ran into the supermarket and picked up the few things she wanted. I then went to starbucks, got both my parents, and myself a few drinks, and went home. 

I got out of my car balancing shopping bags on my arm,the drinks in my hand and I went inside. I put the milk and eggs in the fridge, gave my parents their drinks and made my way down to my art room to put my supplies away. I started brainstorming ideas of what I want to paint and I finally came up with a concept I liked. I open my sketchbook and I start to draw the rough copy of the picture before blowing it up on the canvas and painting it. While I am drawing out the picture I'm watching lavendertowne’s creepypastas series as it's one of my favourites on youtube. 

In my concentration, I lose track of time, and before I know it it’s 4:30 pm. My mom walks to my art room saying her and dad are going on a trip for the next week. So I get the house to myself, which is cool. I've been home alone before. “Elle, you can have Kai over to stay for the week if you want.” mom said. “Also I transferred some money into your account so you and Kai can just order some food if you guys get hungry.” 

“Thanks mom,” I say “ I love you.”

“Love you too sweetie.” 

I walk upstairs with mom as her and dad are about to leave. I hug them goodbye and tell them to have a safe trip. 

I decide to take mom up with her offer and invite Kai over for the week. Lately I haven't been wanting to be home alone. So I called him and he said he’d be over in 10 minutes. 

I grab a glass of water and wait, before I knew it there was a knock on my door and it was Kai. I give him a hug and he smiles. 

“It’s like we haven't seen each other in a while.” Kai teases me. We saw each other yesterday and I called him late last night because I just wanted to talk to someone. 

Kai has literally been my best friend since we were both in diapers. Our moms grew up together so it was bound to happen that we would too. He’s my biggest support system, he’s one of the only people who know how I got into art. I watched a lot of anime growing up, I still do, and the art style is what got me into wanting to be an artist. 

“Have you started a new piece yet?” Kai asked 

“Yeah I have! And I just finished the rough copy” I say.

“Can I watch you work on it?” 

“Of course you can silly,” I say with a grin. I show Kai the canvas to let him gauge what I’ve been working on. 

“It looks really good!” But his face saddens a little bit. “Are you doing alright?” I give him a confused look. “You tend to draw horror pieces when you're trying to get yourself into a better place.” 

Horror pieces are my favourite to draw. I don't have an explanation for it, but I've always liked them. Maybe it's because I loved horror shows growing up but who knows. I look back at all my works and Kai’s right. I tend to do these pictures more when I'm not the best headspace. 

“You really know me, at this point it's mostly subconscious” I laugh “I was also watching creepypasta videos so the idea could have come from that. Anyways, what do you think about it so far?” 

“I love it of course!” Kai says

I work on transferring it onto the canvas and after about 2 hours the pencil sketch is laid out. Once that's done we decide to go to the movies. We went and saw whatever Kai wanted to see. He picked some rom com which I wasn't mad at as I enjoy these types of movies. 

After the movie we went to a sushi place for dinner. I wasn't that hungry so I got the rest of mine to go. Then we went to the supermarket to get some candy and pop for tonight. We decided that we were going to stay up quite a bit of the night so I can work on my artwork and we can just talk about life and stuff. We pull into the parking lot and head inside. This store is open 24/7 so we have plenty of time to get our stuff, but still it is 11:30pm and something makes the air feel very eerie tonight. 

After walking around the store Kai and I look at eachother and we both feel like something is off because this uneasy feeling Kai and I hurry up and grab what we wanted. Kai and I decided to pick up Sour Patch Kids, gummy bears and some chips. We then went into the drink aisle where I picked out Dr. Pepper, and ginger ale. Kai picked out diet Pepsi and cream soda. We picked out the four flavours that we both love. We then decided to get a tub of cotton candy ice cream. As we were turning there was this lady who crashed her cart into ours as we were on our way to check out. I looked up and noticed that it was the same lady that had been in each aisle with us, which honestly didn’t make any sense as we just went to the isles we needed. 

We check out of the store and head back to the car. After putting everything in the trunk of the car, I look up and see the same woman still there. What the fuck?

“Hey Kai, can you take the cart back please?” He nods and I get into the car and lock it. 

I hear a knock that startles me and I look up. It was just Kai. I unlocked the door and he got in. “Wanna tell me why you had the door locked Elle?”

I look over and the woman gets into the car next to us oh great my horror brain made something out of nothing. She was also probably having a movie night with some of her friends.

“It’s nothing Kai, I think I’m just psyching myself out.”

“Okay.” With that we drove back to my place right in the nic of time too as it just started to rain. We shut off all the lights and lock the doors and windows upstairs. We head back down to my studio and I set up everything to begin painting.

I wanted something in the background while I was working so I put on Another. Kai and I have already watched it a few times but we didn’t want to start something new since I wouldn't be able to give it my full attention. Also it's a horror anime so it will put me in the mood for my painting.

I looked down at the outline I drew; it was a girl who had gone psychotic and had a knife in her hand. My plan is to add blood to her once the painting is completely dry, but first I start by painting the eyes. When they are finished they look very dead and already mentally gone inside. I take a break and lay my head on Kai’s shoulder.

“Tired?” he asks me.

“No, I just wanted a break.” We continue watching the anime after two more episodes. There was a bang of thunder and a flash of lightning, I looked out the small window and saw what looked to be a figure of a woman. I looked back to get a better look but she's gone. I must just be seeing things.

I brush it off then get back to my painting. About an hour later I finish painting the skin and I see another flash out of the corner of my eye. I think to myself how odd that is  because there was no thunder. I brushed it off as the volume of the show probably just covered the sound. I decided to be done with painting for the night, so we moved out into the lounge area and continued watching Another. There was another flash and in the window we saw her. The woman from the supermarket was in my window.We were going to call the cops then with another flash she's gone.

We decided we couldn't take anymore horror tonight so we put on Ouran Highschool Host Club a few hours later we were on the episode where a character named Tamaki was trying to figure out his friend Haruhi’s biggest fear. When we see a flash of lightning in the episode, it also flashes here, and we see her silhouette again and she vanishes with the lightning once more. 

Creeped out we went to my room and lay in bed, I cuddled into Kai because honestly I was shaking and needed comfort.

In the morning Kai and I woke up to banging on the door. I checked the time and it was 8:30 am. We got up and checked no one was there, but there was an envelope that said Elizabeth Steevens and Kai Kalua I brought it inside.

“Ummmm Kai?”

“Yeah?”

I turn the envelope to show him. We were both scared and didn't know what to do. We opened it and there were at least 40 photos of us, starting from when we were coming out of the movie. There were photos of us at the sushi restaurant, the grocery store, and the worst ones of all the ones that were taken looking into my house. Ones of us in my art room, in the lounge, and ones of us asleep in my bed.

Panicked, I call the police and they tell us to come down to the station. Since neither of us knew the woman's name they said there was nothing they could really do for us except to have us tell them if something else happens. Some help they were, I thought.

Kai and I went back to my studio and I continued working on the piece. This time our show of choice was Miria Nikki. As I was painting the hair I saw another flash and considering what happened last night we decided to go to my parents office and check the security cameras and lo and behold she's there on the property.

“Kai whats that in her hand?”

“I don’t know,”

I looked closer and saw that it was a knife. We once again called the police and this time they came, but hearing a car must have scared her. They came inside and asked to watch the cameras with us. Only this time she was at the back door that's connected to the kitchen and of course I happened to leave it unlocked…

“Oh Elizabeth, Kai, come out come out wherever you are..” The woman sang out menacingly. Her voice rang through the house loudly causing me to look to one of the officers for advice

He nods for Kai and I walk out.

“There you two are,”

“Do we know you?” I ask, genuinely confused as to who this woman is.

“Yeah I don't know who you are either.” Kai said just as confused.

“I'm Chloe. I am in your art class.” She says.

We were both confused; we don’t remember having ever seen her before. Our art class had six people in it, us two, three other of our friends and some weird girl who doesn't talk to anybody.

“... you’re the weird girl in our class aren’t you?” Kai questions.

“What did you call me?” She asked with a defensive tone.

“What did you expect him to say, you literally refuse to talk to us. Then whenever the teacher praises my work, you get angry. Besides who goes around taking pictures of people in their own house! That is fucking creepy.” I say

“I get angry because you always get the spotlight! Give someone else a turn.”

“Elle gets the attention because she actually shows her artwork, you just sit in the back of the class and do nothing. If you want attention why ignore us when we try talking to you? What is your problem? And why do you have a knife?” You can tell Kai is starting to lose patience with the situation, as his questions get increasingly aggressive.

“So I can get rid of my competition,” she smiles sweetly.

“What competition? There is no competition Chloe” I ask 

“What competition? I have liked Kai forever!” Chloe says frustrated, slightly getting closer to the two of them with the knife.

Kai puts one hand out towards her, while using the other to pull me back with him a couple steps, creating distance between her and I before he speaks again.“I will never like you. Besides there is only one person I like, and hate to break it to sweetheart but it's not you.” This makes me curious who Kai was referring to.

“Then who is it then?” she asks angrily

That's when Kai kissed me. I kissed him back, albeit slightly flustered. This caused Chloe to become enraged, she came towards us with the knife and that's when the cops came out and told her to put the knife down. She complied and dropped the knife as she didn’t realize that the police were here. 

One of the two cops took her away as the other came and told us they were going to hold her and do a mental assessment on her. He also checked to see if Kai and I were okay. After we tell him we are he also leaves, leaving Kai and I alone to deal with this new revelation.

“Do you actually like me? Or were you just saying that to get her to stop…” anxious about the answer since I have liked Kai for a while, but didn't want to make things awkward with him.

“Elle I have liked you for a while but I didn't want to lose you.” Kai says as he pulls me closer to him.

I don't know how to respond, all my mind was telling me was ‘kiss him’. I pull him in by his shoulders to another kiss, quickly dispelling doubts either of us had. Kai placed his hands on my waist and melted into it. He pulls away and leans his forehead against mine, just holding me. For the first time in a few days I felt safe.

“Kai?” I ask in a quiet tone almost a whisper.

“Yeah sweetheart?” 

“Can you stay while my parents are gone?” I don’t feel safe enough to be home alone, and you wanted to stay in the comfort that he gave you.

“Of course I can angel.”

#anime #alone #creepy #artist #high school #home alone #horror #oneshot #senior #stalker

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

Anime Husbandos (in order from admitting them to myself)

I didn’t feel too confident about this list my first time around looking back on it I forgot about a lot of my fave boys and a more recent one that has stolen my heart. I wanted to do a more updated list talking about this because it is one of my favorite conversation topics. Admitting to myself that yes I had a type wasn’t easy for me. Especially when that type wasn’t easy for me to find in real life. I spent a lot of time lying to myself saying that I didn’t love them as much as I said that I did but in reality that was just a facade. I’ve become a lot more open and honest about the type of person that I’m interested in during quarantine. You’ll realize pretty quickly that it is still the goofball type but there are some changes from my original list that I made last year. With all that said and done let’s talk cuties!! 

The first official husbando that I remember having was when I was back in middle school. I was in the eighth grade and had just started watching Durarara. If you’ve kept up to date with my favorite characters from my favorite shows it should come as a surprise to nobody that my first husbando that I remember admitting to my best friend that I had a thing for was Masaomi Kida. He’s a goofball, of course. But there was so much more to him than just a joke and an adorable laugh. He was deeper than that and due to the pain and trauma that he went through with the Yellow Scarves he swore that he was going to live everyday to the fullest. I might not have finished this show all the way through with it’s second season and everything but I will always have a big soft spot for Masaomi Kida. I loved laughing with him, learning more about him and overtime I fell in love with him. 

We’re going to go in order from the first that I admitted to myself to the most recent one just to keep things fair for everybody else. And also I’m going to keep it one character per show and each character will have a gif for them (I’m already remembering the days of getting lost in Masaomi Kida’s eyes seriously somebody send help). The second main husbando that I admitted to myself happened when I was 13. It was the third anime that I ever watched even before Durarara but technically I admitted my love for Masaomi before this character.  Anybody who has talked to me for more than five minutes knows that above all else my favorite anime husbando of them all is Tamaki Suoh from Ouran HighSchool Host Club. This goofy French boy stole my heart from the first time that he ever flirted with Haruhi. Ever since then let’s face facts I’ve been a lost cause of fangirling trash. Nobody has ever made me laugh as hard as Tamaki Suoh. One has come close, so very close and he’ll be later on down the list but nobody has touched the number one spot. Tamaki is romantic, goofy, flirty, but at the same time he’s kind, lonely, a bit of a lost soul and beautiful. He made the club out to be his family because had none. That fact hit me hard when I was younger. I wanted to give this poor beautiful soul a hug. I also desperately wanted to find my own but I haven’t given up hope yet. I am going to find my Tamaki one of these days. I don’t care how long it takes me to find him. 

(One of my biggest anxieties for the future is HD Tamaki with better animated eyes and romantic notions. It will probably be the death of me you will never hear me post ever again.) 

I didn’t have another anime husbando for a really long time mostly because I stopped watching anime due to the bullying that started happening to me. There were characters that I loved like Edward Elric but he’s not one of my husbandos technically. No we’re here to talk about an action anime with superpowers that ruined my life. Fellas that have stuck around this long to hear me ramble let’s talk about Class President Tenya Iida. I love this baby so much it’s kind of ridiculous. I didn’t really at first it wasn’t until the second season when everything changed for me. When he got his arch during the Hero Killer that honestly made me weep so damn hard that’s when everything changed for me. I fell in love with his ability to put his friends above everything else in his life. He is so goofy but at the end of the day the thing that I loved the most about him is the fact that he puts his friends above all else. Once he learned that he had to protect his friends he got so much better at being a good friend. That’s what I loved the most about him!! He is friend shaped and I want to give him a big old hug. 

(I decided to pick a goofy gif for Iida because this as the first time I had ever laughed my ass off at something that he was doing.)

 Anybody that has ever heard me ramble their ear off about this show knows that my favorite male character that I would put myself up with is Kakeru Manabe vice president of the Student Council or in his opinion The School Defense Force. Kakeru is in the best way I can describe him is the same way his English voice actor Aaron Dismuke would, a rascal. He loves to mess with people and cause chaos because it’s more fun to him than the life that he used to live. He’s been through hell and come out more goofy and bubbly because of it. Kakeru embodies strength to me. Even though some might see him as annoying or inferior because of his loud nature I beg to differ. In my honest opinion Kakeru is one of the strongest male characters in the Fruits Basket canon. He is this source of light that just makes everything better just by being there. With his goofy nature, his sense of humor, his way of making people want to follow him and his levels of bringing out the best side of Yuki I fell so deeply in love with this character that he is the closest to rival my love for Tamaki. 

(I can’t wait to see blushing Kakeru just help me somebody lmao I think I’m way past asexual tactile garbage at this point. I just want to cuddle him.)

My last and newest husbando is one that I just finished last week. For those that are still with me let’s talk about Chrome from Dr Stone. This show has easily become my newest obsession. I almost instantly fell completely in love with this goofball “sorcerer” turned scientist. From his what I thought was adorable catchphrase that suited his character, to his overly excited nature whenever he got the opportunity to go and search for rocks and minerals for The Kingdom of Science. His devotion to Ruri was something that I was both jealous of and found incredibly sweet and charming (I’m realizing that everybody on this list aside from Iida has a canon love interest.)  Watching him grow and learn more about science in the modern world was one of my favorite things about my newest obsession. He was always willing to help out Senku no matter what the job meant for him. Even if that job was going into a toxic gas filled lake. He was willing to put his life on the line for everyone in the group in order to save the woman that he had loved since he was a little kid. That was the moment when I looked at Chrome and realized just how special he truly was. Not many would give their lives for a simple notion of love but knowing that his heart was truly that big it brought a tear to my eye. Chrome is incredibly sweet, goofy, intelligent, incredibly passionate about the things that he loves and always willing to lend a helping hand to his friends when he needs them. 

(I would give this baby so many bowls of ramen just to see his eyes light up when we hunting for minerals together!! He’s just way too cute and precious and I love him so much.) 

#Husbandos #Durarara #Ouran #my hero academia #fruits basket #dr stone #Masaomi Kida #tamaki suoh #tenya iida #kakeru manabe #chrome

[hapuriainen]

Hapuriainen's Animation & Comics & Games of 2020

It is again time for the annual compilation!

Manga:

Attack on Titan

I'm so sad this is so close to end... It's been my main thing for a few years now. Eren definitely didn't take the route I expected but I still find this consistent with his character and a bold and interesting move from the author.

(My notes say I also finished the jr high spin-off manga but it's not worth talking about)

Awards given: Best Side Girl (I still like Gabi, haters gonna hate), Best Boy (ditto Eren)

One Piece, My Hero Academia My interest in OP is still at an all-time low and I'm just waiting for the arc to end. There are so many characters and I have little idea what their deal is, Carrot hasn't been interesting in ages and currently Yamato is the only character I care for. Same for HeroAca; at least the excruciatingly long action scene is finally over.

Undead Unluck New Jump series! I think the main duo have a really good dynamic, but they're pretty much the only thing I care about and I'm very lost with what the plot is actually supposed to be about.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

I like detective stories so here's one from the Assassination Classroom creator! The detective stuff itself could get rather nonsensical and as the story progressed more and more fantasy elements were added, but the titular character was entertaining enough to keep me interested. The viewpoint character was refreshingly (for a Jump series) a girl and her dynamic with Neuro (an ordinary schoolgirl and an arrogant amoral troll demon) was great.

Awards given: Best non-romantic relationship (Neuro & Yako)

Spy x Family

Super fun and the characters are cute!  The main couple has such great chemistry and in general I enjoy following characters who are really competent at their job. Not surprised that this has become hugely popular.

Awards given: Best romance (it is rare to get me to ship anything but the main couple here is just so cute)

Delicious in Dungeon

This manga has amazing character design and the author clearly loves to play around with it, like by drawing each character as each other's races, or making clones of everyone but each clone is a little different so you can guess which is the real one with the characters, and there's so much thought put to the outfits too. And then there's of course all the worldbuilding around how an RPG dungeon and the creatures in it could work, but it's presented simply enough that the story is still easy to follow. I also like the upbeat atmosphere; maybe I could get a bit more emotionally involved if there was more drama, but I still really like this as it is.

Awards given: Best character designs

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Reread one of my favourite manga ever and it's still just as good. I love how the manga still has a positive vibe to it, under it there is the quiet melancholy of a world that is close to ending. And it's wonderful how uninterested the story is answering any of the worldbuilding questions it sets up.

Beastars

This was incredibly interesting in how it presented an animal society where the carnivore-herbivore differences couldn't be just explained away with "the differences don't really exist", and the story looks at this from so many different angles. Pairs really well with Zootopia for a completely different approach. Louis was a really interesting character with how he publicly managed to appear as if he was a good candidate to be the next ambassador for the peace between the animals but was actually very cold and broken inside, and I really liked his breakdown moment. The ending was pretty meh though.

Awards given: Best Side Boy (Louis)

Kannagi

This one has really cute character designs but apart from that it's a pretty generic harem story. Except for the twist that the main girl already had been involved with a boy which caused otaku to shred their manga or whatever. I believe I would have enjoyed this more if it finished back when it went to hiatus since at this point it didn't do much for me.

Witch Hat Atelier

The main girl is the kind of heroic, friendly, plucky goody-two-shoes protagonist I really don't like but apart from that this is a great manga. I love the art, and the way the magic works is really well set up but also easy to understand. Great outfits too!

Anime:

This year I learned that in order to clear stuff from your anime watch list you need to actually watch anime. So unexpectedly I think I watched a lot more different series than usual.

Attack on Titan

It was my plan to watch seasons 1-3 before jumping on board with the last one, and of course I dragged my feet for the entire year and had to marathon the whole thing in autumn. I still prefer the manga, but the anime does have great colours, soundtrack and voice acting and some of the action scenes were amazing. But I really hate what they did to Historia in season 3... The final season has been excellent so far and I can't wait for the big scene in the next episode.

Awards given: Best OP (all the Linked Horizon ones)

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi continues to be one of the best girls in the anime and manga industry ever with her confident and no-nonsense attitude, and Tamaki's oblivious and overflowing friendliness makes for a great counterpart to her. And the opening theme is so darn catchy.

Awards given: Best Girl (Haruhi)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Finally managed to watch this. I love the iconic character designs and all the chaotic energy. Kamina for best bro. I've never cared for mecha, the girls were nice but the writing around them sucked and the second half wasn't as strong as the first one, but still a good package overall.

Awards given: Best ED (don't care for the song that much but Simon looks somehow really cool in the second ending)

Haibane Renmei

Another one that had been on the watch list for years. A lovely quiet and contemplative show. Visuals were rather dull though but maybe it's better for a show like this that the characters didn't have bubblegum pink hair.

Digimon Adventure 2020

This started promising but has since lost steam. I really like how different the story is from the original Digimon Adventure, and compared to Precure it's super nice how not every episode has the exact same structure, and the cast has different roles and regularly gets split up instead of shoehorning everyone into every conflict. But on the other hand the characters feel way more samey and flat, and the original "kids want to return to their home from the Digital World" plot was a lot more personal than the current one about global crises and prophecy jargon. And some of the action scenes last way too long.

Awards given: Worst side boy (Agumon and his evolutions, it is of course expected that he'd get a lot of screen time but I'm so over how much he's constantly pushed in your face in the franchise)

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?

This wasn't afwul but still left me kind of cold. I think the character designs were a problem here, in general I'm used to brightly coloured anime characters but this was trying to be a very serious story about child soldiers who know they're going to die young. But when they were colour-coded and always wore the same clothes (and mostly had pretty generic animu girl personalities) they felt so artificial which made it harder to get into the drama. Nice OP song.

Yashahime

Inuyasha was my first show after really getting into anime so I was super hyped for any kind of new content. So far this has unfortunately been rather dull since I'm not particularly interested in either of Sesshoumaru's daughters, and the way the show treats the absence of the old cast is annoying. Just either show them or make it clear we're not supposed to care about them, now it's just annoying how their disappearance is treated as a mystery but the three heroines know barely anything about their heritage and don't even seem interested in learning either. But I'll watch this to the end for Moroha.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels, Twin Angel Break, Pretear, Happy Seven, Healin' Good Precure

Watched a lot of magical girl stuff this year too, these being shows that play the tropes straight. The Twin Angel seasons had different flaws but were otherwise watchable aside from the awful Twin Angel Break heroine. Pretear had surprisingly nice character writing and I feel I would really have liked this if I saw it at an earlier part of my anime hobby experience but now it doesn't feel so special any more. Healin' Good Precure has been rather dull.

I also watched a bunch of Precure movies, out of which only the Star Twinkle Precure one was actually good, and the Spring Carnival crossover movie was also good in an absurd way, while the rest ranged from awful to somewhat decent.

Awards given: Worst girl (Meguru - Twin Angel Break), Biggest WTF (Happy Seven suddenly going from monster of the week shenaningans to alien mass destruction weapons)

Concrete Revolutio, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Re:Creators

Also some anime where the magical girl was a side character. Concrete Revolutio was an unpleasant mess with nice visuals, Myriad Colors was a pretty boring otaku high school harem thing and the magical girl episode was also rather bland, and Re:Creators had a lot of potential with the "anime characters come to our world" setting but the result was somewhat uneven. Re:Creators had the best magical girl out of these three.

Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship, Worst side girl (Setsuna from Re:creators, with the main boy) not really an awful character on her own, but the writing around her was pretty bad, let's also give Worst Boy for the said main boy

Nausicaa

I watched the first half of the movie over a decade ago and didn't manage to finish until now. After seeing so many other Ghibli movies this didn't do much for me, but the animation and nature were still beautiful.

Western:

Most Popular Girls in School

The newer seasons didn't reach the heights of the earlier ones but there's still something entertaining about a very raunchy Barbie doll stop motion show. Also pairs well with the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse for a fun but more child friendly Barbie experience.

Frozen 2

I'm wondering if these really are the only Western piece of media I consumed this year? I certainly didn't go to movies after March. Anyway, like the previous film I had major problems with the plot and characters (I don't think Elsa's story was set up properly, Kristoff's sub-plot feels like an afterthought when he doesn't factor to Anna's sub-plot at all, Olaf is annoying, too much Lore) but ultimately I still had a good time. I like the costume design, the idea for Elsa's arc is fine, the songs are great and there were plenty of good scenes too, and the lullaby was beautiful. I'd say that like the original Frozen this was patched together from perfectly serviceable pieces that didn't quite work combined.

Awards given: Worst romance (not the pairing itself but the way Kristoff x Anna was written)

Games:

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Early this year I just decided not to open this app for the daily money-grubbing grind and haven't touched it since. I'm free!

Animal Crossing New Horizons

However the daily grind continues here! It's been way more enjoyable, primarily due to lacking the microtransactions/limited time item angle and also for being so much more customisable. And the nature is so pretty... But I've reached a point where even this has started to feel kind of stale.

Super Mario Odyssey

My first Mario game since Super Mario World so of course I'm blown away by everything. I like how colourful and welcoming the worlds were, Cappy was a surprisingly enjoyable sidekick/mascot and also the game was easy enough and had a simple linear plot so it was far easier to approach than Zelda BotW which is still on hold.

Plans for 2021

Actually play Zelda BotW

Maybe finally Evangelion?

Finally finish the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure tri

Various magical girl sequels and remakes

[ryqoshay]

Tri-Arame: Study All Day?

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~3k Rating: G Time Frame: Their first week of college Story Arc: Setsu’s Ceaseless Study Session Study All Day? Study All Night? A Nap a Day

----------

Author’s Note: Oh gods, I’m only a novel’s length into this fic and I’m already coming up with stuff that is going to force me to make retcons... because deities forbid I write my works in a normal, chronological order.

Also, apologies in advance to any Haruhi fans if this arc triggers any Endless Eight PTSD...

Also also, I bounce back and forth between focusing on Setsu and Ayu in this arc. I don’t think I’ve made the switch in the middle of any particular scene, but I do hope it’s obvious when the switches are made between scenes.

----------

Ayumu felt it coming but was unable to suppress the yawn from escaping.

“Excuse me.” She murmured, not wanting to disturb the other two girls at the table.

Yuu glanced over with a quick smile before returning her attention to her laptop. She probably hadn’t heard Ayumu through her headphones, but probably saw the movement out of the corner of her eye.

“Mm.” Was all of Setsuna’s response as she focused on her studies.

Ayumu tapped her phone screen to check the time and blinked when she realized how late it was. Well, she was certainly about to disturb them now. She closed her book and pushed herself out from under the kotatsu.

“Going to bed, Ayumu?” Yuu asked, sliding her headphones off one ear.

“Yeah.” Ayumu confirmed with a nod.

“Oh, sorry,” Setsuna looked up “give me a moment to clean up.”

“You can stay if you want, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu said with a smile.

“You sure?”

“Of course. You should study where you are must comfortable and where you are free of distractions.” A thought occurred to Ayumu. “Me sleeping nearby won’t disturb you, right?”

“I don’t think so.” Setsuna replied. “And I do like studying here…”

“All the more reason to stay. Just don’t stay up too late.”

“I won’t. Thank you, Ayumu-san. Good night.”

“Good night.” Ayumu said as she moved to her bed and climbed in.

“Sleep well, Ayumu.” Yuu added.

“Mm…”

“I’ll stay up with you for a little while longer, Setsuna-chan.” Yuu offered.

Setsuna replied with a smile before resuming her studies.

As Ayumu closed her eyes, her thoughts turned to recent events. Today had been the first day of classes for the three of them. She and Yuu were attending in-person classes while Setsuna was enrolled in an online university that more easily allowed her to divide her time between her new career as a professional idol and her studies.

The online courses were not based on the standard trimester system, rather a student progressed as fast or as slow as they desired, with a certain minimum pace expected. Once a student proved their competency in the material, they could move on to the next class. Ayumu was very happy Setsuna had found a way to please her parents by earning a degree without needing to only attend class part time and thus need extra time. However, she couldn’t help being concerned that the often overly ambitious girl would push herself too much.

In any case, Ayumu had said her piece for the night. She hoped Setsuna would heed her suggestion and turn in at a reasonable time.

----------

Ayumu stirred when there was movement on the mattress. She cracked open one eye to see Yuu sliding under the duvet beside her. Yuu murmured something unintelligible before releasing a content sigh and settling down.

Ayumu felt a smile tug at her lips as fond memories drifted through her mind. She and Yuu had many sleepovers throughout the years, usually at Ayumu’s apartment as Yuu’s couch was nowhere near as comfortable trying to fit them both, even as children. Though Yuu usually turned in at the same time as Ayumu, it was not completely uncommon for her to be engrossed in some activity, book, game or whatever, that she would stay up later. She would then crawl under the covers, collapse beside Ayumu, mumble something and be asleep in seconds.

The frequency of their sleepovers had dwindled a bit once they entered high school, due in no small part to Ayumu thinking of the practice as childish and that she should leave such things behind. Then when Yuu joined the music course, she started spending far too many nights writing songs for the idol club and the practice stopped altogether.

It ended up being Setsuna who revived their old routine by seeking places to watch anime away from home, even after her parents lifted their ban. She had come to prefer watching with friends and Ayumu and Yuu were happy to oblige. Many nights went a bit too long, so Ayumu would pull out futons for her guests, though Yuu always ended up in her bed anyway.

And now they were starting off their college careers with a sleepover. Or at least Yuu was…

Ayumu craned her neck up enough to see over Yuu’s head. She quickly spotted Setsuna, still sitting at the kotatsu, face lit by the artificial light of her laptop and eyes fervently scanning the screen.

“Remember not to stay up too late, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu called out softly.

“Mm…” Setsuna hummed and nodded, seeming to have barely registered the call through her focus.

Ayumu closed her eyes again and settled back down. Should she have set out a futon for Setsuna? Her room was the next one over, a scant few meters between their doors instead of kilometers that required a train ride. She would be fine. Probably.

----------

Ayumu opened her eyes to the sound her alarm and reached up to the shelf of her headboard to find her phone. Beside her, Yuu stirred, but otherwise did not wake. Ayumu smiled at the sight of her childhood friend and admired the scene for a moment before sitting up.

Movement from elsewhere in the room caught her eye. Setsuna was pushing herself up from where she had apparently slept, sprawled on the kotatsu.

“Good morning, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu greeted.

Setsuna yawned and stretched her arms up high before turning her attention to the nearby bed. “Good morning, Ayumu-san.” She said before opening her laptop, likely to resume studying.

“How late did you stay up?”

“I’m not honestly sure.” Setsuna admitted. “I… don’t remember closing my laptop or even falling asleep. Sorry for not going back to my room.”

“You’re fine.” Ayumu assured. “You’re always welcome. But I do have a futon and extra pillows you could use. Surly those would have been more comfortable than hunched over the table.”

“Hrm…”

“I just don’t want you to be sore for your practice later.”

Setsuna rubbed at her shoulder. “I guess I will have to do some extra stretches…”

Part of Ayumu wanted to offer a shoulder massage, but the other part was concerned about getting to class on time. As such, she remained quite as she climbed up over Yuu and out of bed.

“Anything in particular you want for breakfast, Setsuna-chan?”

“I’m sure whatever you make will be delicious.”

“Alright.” Ayumu nodded and made her way to the kitchenette.

Ayumu remembered from cooking classes that eggs were on the list of foods that were supposed to help with concentration and memory, perfect for all the studying the three had in store for the week. She mentally scanned through the other items, most of which were not easy to keep in the limited space of a couple cupboards, a counter and a tiny fridge. There were a few things, however…

“Coffee or tea?” Ayumu directed the question to her studying friend, trying to remember what she drank in the morning after their sleepovers.

“I’m fine with whatever you’re already making.”

“Well, I’m making both since I prefer tea and Yuu-chan likes coffee.”

“Coffee then, thank you.”

“Alright.”

Not long after the coffee began brewing, Ayu heard Yuu stir and start to finally wake up.

“Good morning, Ayumu, Setsuna-chan.” Yuu greeted before yawning.

The other two occupants returned similar greetings as she slid out of bed and started doing something on her laptop. Ayumu delivered steaming mugs of caffeine before finishing up the morning meal and bringing that to the table as well. Yuu and Ayumu chatted casually as they ate while Setsuna’s attention rarely left her screen. Finally, the three went to wash up, get changed and ready for the day.

“Well, I’m heading out.” Ayumu announced, heading toward the entryway to put on her shoes.

“I’ll come with you.” Yuu said, joining her.

“Are you sure? You’re classes don’t start until well after mine.”

“I know, but I’ve always gone to school with Ayumu.” Yuu grinned. “Why should college be any different just because our classes start at different times?”

Ayumu smiled as well as she realized she couldn’t refute that, not that she would have wanted to anyway.

“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu said to her other friend. “As I said last night, you should study wherever you’re most comfortable.”

Setsuna looked up from her work for a moment. “Thank you, Ayumu-san. I’ll be sure to lock up when I head to the studio later.”

“Have fun at practice!” Yuu called, stepping out the door.

“Will do.” Setsuna nodded.

“See you this evening.” Ayumu added.

“Mm.” Setsuna hummed a happy reply.

----------

“Welcome back, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu greeted as the raven-haired girl entered.

“I’m back.” She replied.

“Practice go well?” Yuu asked from the kitchenette area.

“Very much so.” Setsuna affirmed. “Something smells delicious.” She commented as she began to remove her shoes.

“I hope it tastes as good as it smells.” Yuu replied.

“I’m sure it will be good.” Setsuna made her way to her usual spot at the kotatsu.

“This is the first time Yuu-chan has made a meal on her own.” Ayumu pointed out.

“I stand by my statement.”

“I didn’t mean it as an insult.” Ayumu laughed lightly before leaning forward across the table and lowering her voice. “I’m just a little surprised that she took the initiative. Maybe she’s been inspired by your drive in your studies and wants to do more on her own as well?”

“Or she wants to thank you for all the cooking you’ve been doing since we moved in?” Setsuna postulated in return.

“Maybe.” Ayumu admitted “But Yuu-chan should know by now that I enjoy cooking for her. And you as well, Setsuna-chan. I like watching you two eat what I’ve made for you.”

“Then perhaps she wants to experience that as well. We both know how much Yuu-san loves seeing people enjoy the songs she writes. Maybe now she wants the same with cooking.”

“Or maybe all three.”

Setsuna chuckled. “Maybe all three.”

“All three what?” Yuu asked, approaching the table with a serving dish full of food. “Wha’cha talking about?”

“Mm, nothing.” Ayumu hummed. “We were just talking about Yuu-chan.”

“Me? What about me?”

“I’ll tell you later. Maybe.” Ayumu stuck out her tongue.

“Mohh…” Yuu pouted but didn’t press the issue.

For her part, Setsuna enjoyed the rare reversal of roles as Ayumu managed to get some teasing in on Yuu. She admired how comfortable the two were with each other and how they knew just what to say or do to get an adorable reaction out of the other. It was a bit enviable, to say the least. As close as she had become to them over the past couple years, she was nowhere near that level. That hadn’t stopped Yuu from learning how to tease her, however.

Once portions were plated up, Setsuna opened her laptop and began to study. The meal was indeed as good as it had smelled, so Ayumu and Setsuna were sure to point this out, much to Yuu’s delight. Then, the other two continued to chat and hangout while Setsuna studied, before eventually joining her with their own.

----------

“Are you going to take a bath tonight, Setsuna-chan?” Ayumu asked.

Setsuna looked up from her screen. Had it really gotten that late already? She realized both Ayumu and Yuu had already returned from their own bathes and she hadn’t even noticed their absence.

“Right, uhm, sorry.” Setsuna replied, getting up.

“It’s fine.” Ayumu sounded a bit confused about the apology as she plugged in her hairdryer and knelt behind Yuu. “I’ll dry your hair when you get back.”

Setsuna nodded her agreement and made a hasty trip to her room to gather her bathing supplies and her pajamas. Not only did she want to return to her studies quickly, but it had been a while since Ayumu last worked with her hair and months since she last dried it during a sleepover, so she was anxious for that as well.

Upon her return, Setsuna sat in front of her laptop and found where she had left off.

“You’re going to study while I do this?” Ayumu inquired, taking a position behind her.

“Uhm, I had planned to…” Setsuna admitted. “I’m sorry, I can…”

Ayumu laughed lightly. “It’s fine. I really admire your dedication, Setsuna-chan.”

“I want to prove to my parents that I can be an idol and still earn a degree.”

“I know.” Ayumu patted a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Just be sure not to overdo it, alright?” She said, turning on the dryer and threading her fingers into dark strands of hair.

Setsuna lost her place as her finger clipped the scroll wheel of her mouse. She had almost forgotten how wonderful this felt; the warm air, the gentle strokes…

“You alright, Setsuna-chan?”

“I’m fine, I’m just…” She let out a content sigh and her shoulders slumped as Ayumu made another pass.

Ayumu giggled.

Setsuna felt heat in her cheeks that had nothing to do with the air from the dryer. She steeled herself and put every effort toward concentrating on the screen.

Once Ayumu finished with Setsuna’s hair, she moved to her usual spot at the table so she could get in a bit of studying as well. Then after about an hour or so, she yawned, closed her book and pushed herself out from under the kotatsu.

“I’m going to turn in.” Ayumu said, making her way to her bed.

“Good night, Ayumu-san.” Setsuna replied.

“Sleep well.” Yuu added.

----------

Ayumu stirred when there was movement on the mattress. She cracked open one eye to see Yuu sliding under the duvet beside her. Yuu murmured something unintelligible before releasing a content sigh and settling down. Déjà vu.

Ayumu craned her neck up enough to see over Yuu’s head. She quickly spotted Setsuna, still sitting at the kotatsu, face lit by the artificial light of her laptop and eyes fervently scanning the screen.

“Remember not to stay up too late, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu called out softly.

“Mm…” Setsuna hummed and nodded, seeming to have barely registered the call through her focus.

Déjà vu again.

Well, at least tonight, Ayumu consoled herself with the fact that she had pulled out a futon for Setsuna to use. Granted, it was still folded up in the corner, but the study-o-holic girl should be able to handle moving the table to make room for it.

----------

Ayumu opened her eyes to the sound her alarm and reached up to the shelf of her headboard to find her phone. As her senses kicked in, she realized something felt off. She was the only one in her bed. Where was Yuu?

For that matter, where was Setsuna? Ayumu could see a still-folded futon in the corner and did not see the familiar sight of Setsuna also waking to the alarm. What happened last night?

All week, Yuu had stayed up to study and keep Setsuna company while Ayumu went to bed as she had the earliest classes. All week, Yuu had slid into Ayumu’s bed when she finally ran out of energy. And all week, despite a futon being available for her to lay out, Setsuna had exhausted herself to the point where she had simply collapsed across the kotatsu.

But now Ayumu was alone and a strange sensation of discomfort began to creep through her.

She sat up, moved to the edge of the bed, swung her leg down and…

“?!”

Ayumu jerked her knees up to barely avoid kicking Yuu in the head. To maintain her balance, she dropped her heels down onto the bedframe, making sure to keep her feet away from the other girl’s face.

Sprawled on her back, Yuu was sound asleep. With her legs under the kotatsu, it looked like she had simply collapsed backward after running herself out of energy.

And there was Setsuna as well, nuzzled into Yuu’s shoulder.

Cute.

By the gods were they cute like that.

But, oh… geez, here comes the jealousy… Ayumu found herself wanting Setsuna to snuggle against her like that. And for that matter, why hadn’t Yuu done so any of the times she had crawled in next to her all week?

Yuu and Setsuna had become quite close as of late. Perhaps that was why Setsuna wanted to sleep next to Yuu? But she and Setsuna had become close too, right?

And why hadn’t Setsuna awakened to the alarm like she had all week? Was she just that comfortable nuzzled into Yuu’s shoulder?

Geez…

Ayumu swallowed down those disquieting feelings and got up. As quietly as possible, she began to gather her things to head to the bathroom and wash up for the day.

“Eh?” a voice sounded from behind her followed but a thump. “Geh…”

Ayumu turned to see Setsuna frantically scrambling out from under the kotatsu before rubbing a hip and wincing.

“Are you alright, Setsuna-chan?” Ayumu asked, noting that several objects on the table had shifted position.

“A-Ayumu-san?” Setsuna was still panicked. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t remember. How did I? What… I’m sorry…”

“Mmhph…” Yuu stirred and slowly opened her eyes. “G’mornin’ Ayumu…” She slurred as her gaze fell on the redhead before offering a sleepy smile.

“Yuu-san, I’m sorry!” Setsuna redirected her apologies.

“Mm?” Yuu’s head lolled to the side. “Oh, hey, Setsuna-chan. Good morning.” Had she not heard the other girl’s apology? “Ow…” Yuu uttered as she banged her hands into the bed while trying to stretch. “Forgot where I fell asleep.” She chuckled at herself before sitting up and stretching properly.

Would she have not hit her hands against the headboard had she done that in bed? Ayumu pondered silently. Maybe she thought she was back in her own room on her couch?

“You two sleep alright?” Ayumu ventured.

“Pretty much.” Yuu confirmed. “Obviously stayed up too late, though… Oops. Probably going to have to take a nap this afternoon after class. But for now, coffee.” She started getting up. “You want some, Setsuna-chan?”

“Eh?” Setsuna startled out of her post panic stupor. “Oh, uhm, yes please.”

“I’ll make some tea for you as well, Ayumu.” Yuu offered with a grin. “I’ll have it ready by the time you get back.”

“Oh, alright.” Ayumu nodded. “Thanks, Yuu-chan.”

With that said, Ayumu headed for the door, wondering if Yuu had noticed anything different about her sleeping arrangement.

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Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic