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kienava · 1 year

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So someone asked me to make a post about Blake’s development so far in order to discuss the question of where Blake’s character can progress at this point in RWBY given that her arc with Adam wrapped up in V6 and she didn’t really carry a plot line in V7-8. I do media and story things for a living, but I’m also an intimate partner abuse survivor - needless to say, Blake’s story is important to me. Hopefully my perspective helps answer concerns about Blake’s story being “over,” because I think it’s very much the opposite.

(Continued below the cut because this turned into an entire essay.)

I want to preface this by saying I understand why it might be difficult to picture what Blake’s story looks like going forward. I largely credit this to the relative dearth of compassionate, healing-oriented narratives about abuse survivors in media. A lot of what we see is either revenge fantasies or stories about facing the abuser and arriving at a point of ultimate catharsis. In some sense, this is a broader fault in the standards of western storytelling, which is oriented around that singular, climactic catharsis, but that’s another essay. In truth, a mostly linear progression towards a pivotal point of recovery isn’t how healing from abuse works. It’s a messy process, and life is rarely as linear as in fiction. I think RWBY incorporates that nonlinearity into Blake’s arc very well.

Speaking of Blake’s arc, let’s look at that.

When we first meet her in volume 1, she’s introduced as an aloof, independent loner who’s very resistant to getting closer to people. Most of her classmates perceive her as mysterious and alluring at best, callous and cold at worst. Once we start to understand more of her history, it’s easier to see her attitude as the defense mechanism it is. She wants to keep people at arm’s length because she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her – but she also believes that she will harm people she gets close to just because of who she is. That whole Beauty and the Beast dichotomy, you know? Adam told her that she ruins things. It doesn’t help that he groomed her into a terrorist organization and thus her surrounding community has also labeled her a threat. She’s got a few overlapping layers of distorted thinking to work through when it comes to her image of herself and others. The way she perceives people is, at first, overwhelmingly informed by her traumatic experiences with Adam and the White Fang.

It’s pretty strongly implied that Blake bent the rules in the forest and intentionally selected Yang as her partner. When we first see Blake dashing around in the shadows, Yang is taking down a Grimm while sassing it to death. Blake talks later about how Adam’s charisma drew her to him initially, so it’s no surprise that when she was choosing her next partner, she gravitated to the same superficial qualities. During the first White Fang arc, after her self-destructive spiral, Blake starts to genuinely trust her teammates for the first time. That trust is tested when Yang fights Mercury. In this moment, Blake is confronted with the possibility that a pattern might be repeating itself: what if she was drawn to Yang for reasons beyond the superficial? What if Yang doesn’t just share Adam’s positive qualities, but his negative ones, too? The impulsiveness, the violence, the abuse – but Blake stops herself. She chooses to trust that Yang isn’t Adam, and she says as much. She’s accepting that Adam is in her past and electing to move forward. How perfectly, neatly linear.

Then the end of volume 3 happens.

For an abuse survivor, the idea that an abuser you’ve gotten away from might come crashing back into your life is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. This is exactly what happens when Adam shows up, and Blake’s worst fears come true. He makes a point of hurting someone she cares about simply because he can to prove that he still has power over her. Blake runs because she thinks the only way she can protect the people she cares about is to be away from them. That paradoxical duality of (1) fearing harm will be done to her by others and (2) doing harm to others herself rears its head.

One specific question I was asked is why Blake talks about Yang so little in volumes 4 and 5. If Blake isn’t talking about the people she left behind, is she even thinking about them? I say, well of course she is. It’s coloring her entire attitude.

When Blake returns to Menagerie, she’s back in the place where she met her abuser. She’s at her parents’ house, a place that has been a symbol of everything she left behind when she ran away the first time. Now she’s run from another home. Menagerie is riddled with traumatic memories for her, both interpersonally and on a structural, systemic level. Everywhere she goes could be a place where Adam said something awful to her, made her obey him in some way, asserted control. She also has to confront him in person again, too.

With Adam around, of course she’s not going to risk mentioning Yang. He got one inkling that Blake cared about someone else and cut their fucking arm off. The one time Blake mentions Yang by name, her voice cracks so obviously it’s like she’s forcing herself to get the word out. Through both of these volumes, Blake has other external goals, but she’s still trying to protect someone she cares about. At this point, she’s constantly struggling with two motivations: hope and fear. She wants to make the world a better place, but she’s terrified of what she’ll have to confront in order to do it because of what she’s already lost. Her choice to reunite with her team and fight shows that ultimately hope wins out.

In Volume 6, Blake and Yang facing Adam is essentially the B plot of the whole volume. He appears in flashes before the major confrontation at the end, but the damage he’s done to both of them is intrinsically tied into Blake and Yang’s relationship throughout.

The end of this volume offers the climactic moment of confronting and overcoming the abuser. Afterwards, Blake collapses and cries. Catharsis! Yay! We’re done now, right? This may be why, to some people, defeating Adam is the obvious “end” of Blake’s character arc. Again, I’d argue that this perception comes from how abuse is often depicted in media, but there’s also a very intense pressure in the real world for survivors not to speak out and share their stories. Even people who are abuse survivors might not publicly claim that label for a multitude of reasons. Namely, it fucking hurts to think about it, and also sometimes people are real weird about it. I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to carry that weight around all the time. We can see some inklings of Blake dealing with this challenge over the course of the show, though they’re subtle. Early on, she explicitly avoids talking about Adam until she absolutely has to, and even when she does start to unpack what he did, she often talks about it with visible shame (averting her eyes, etc). Unfortunately, shame is a very common sentiment for abuse survivors to carry, and addressing it is a major part of Blake’s journey as she starts to heal in volume 6.

Another point of interest posed was to look at Blake’s role in volumes 7 and 8. There’s an argument that she doesn’t really do anything or that her role is as a somewhat generic support figure within the group. I wholeheartedly disagree.

While Blake doesn’t carry a plotline herself during the Atlas arc, she and Yang embody polarized attitudes towards the global conflict the group is facing, and that contrast serves the larger narrative very well. Because she was raised by activists in a context where she was constantly thinking about civil rights, Blake wants to address the broader ideological conflict at play. Yang, whose childhood consisted of raising her younger sister, wants to help people in a practical, immediate way. Blake is an abstract, big-picture thinker, and Yang is more focused on what’s right in front of her. This isn’t a dig at either of them; it’s just a difference in prioritites. At first, Yang worries that these differing priorities will be a source of tension between them, but when she and Blake talk things through they’re able to understand each other without judgment. Blake is learning to reconnect with the idealist she used to be in her early youth, someone who fought for a cause purely because she wanted to make the world a better place. She’s able to embrace that side of herself around Yang even though they have different priorities, and they’re still able to support each other’s goals.

Furthermore, on a purely interpersonal level in V7-8, Blake has interactions with other characters that speak specifically to the healing journey she’s been on. Yes, these are significantly quieter moments than a fight to the death on a bridge over a waterfall, but that doesn’t mean they should be written off. Quiet and peace are part of healing, and that doesn’t have to undermine the story’s integrity. Dramatic tension is still possible amidst this, as we saw in Blake’s talks with Yang where they discuss their team’s split strategic approaches. When Blake talks to Nora about the importance of not losing yourself in someone else, that’s her speaking from experience. She’s lost herself in a relationship before, and she knows how hard it is to come back from that, but she survived. She healed. The asserted importance of self-compassion in relationships has a unique gravity coming from Blake. She has a strongly developed ability to balance interpersonal empathy with community- and global-level stakes, which we’re already seeing glimmers of at the beginning of V9 as she steps up to come up with a plan on the island.

In summary, Blake’s arc isn’t just about that final showdown with Adam. She faces her abuser, runs away, faces him again, and again, finally evicts him from her life for good - and after that, her story continues.

She goes on to find ways to heal from her past. That process involves renewing compassion for her loved ones, her community, and the world as a whole; learning how to love without fear; and reconnecting with who she was before she was forced to become aloof and detached to protect herself. Although the circumstances of abuse convinced her that she was a coward, she is, and has always been, an incredibly brave character. She’s finally recognizing that at the current point in the story. Ultimately, I think this is the thing connects her to Yang and the rest of team RWBY so strongly: they’re brave enough to love and have hope even when forces of adversity tell them they shouldn’t dare to. Blake is a courageous idealist with a heart full of compassion, and ultimately not even Adam could destroy that about her.

My serious answer to the question of where Blake’s character will go now is that I think she’ll be a sort of de facto leader on the island as Ruby spirals into existential depression. Hopefully that arc resolves in a way that’s consistent with the show’s overall message about hope winning out, and past this volume Blake will still carry that optimistic but grounded revolutionary spirit and continue to be a center of compassion and hope.

My catharsis-oriented answer is this: aside from being trapped on a magical fairy tale island, Blake is free for the first time in a very long time, and she can go wherever the fuck she wants.

#it's time for KIE'S OPINION #blake belladonna #rwby v9 #rwby spoilers #cw: abuse #tw: abuse mention #i have a lot of thoughts about blake. if you couldn't tell.#i went full english lit minor #anyway if anyone starts clowning on this post i will not hesitate to block your ass

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lukneetoonz · 4 years

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Ghost of You Part III

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Summary: You were the greatest thing in Katsuki’s life…. now you’re gone.

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader

Warnings: Angst, graphic descriptions, mentions of death, cursing, hospital stuff mentioned(?), also kirishima crying 🥺

Word Count: 1,881

A/N: I am not a clown, I’m the whole circus. I really thought about making a long long chapter but it just didn’t feel right? Anyways, I’m so sorry for the long wait and thank you for sticking around, it means a lot. Here’s to 200 followers!!

NO ARTWORK POSTED IS MY OWN AND IS FOUND ON PINTEREST

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The world around you was black, but you could hear everything- feel everything. Muffled sounds of sirens, people crying, the echoes of commanding bellows, all of it surrounded you… suffocated you. Even if you wanted to open your eyes, you couldn’t. It was like your whole body was a thousand pounds, and you had no strength to even lift a finger. Was this how you die? Alone and scared?

Katsuki couldn’t breathe. If he hadn’t- only if he could of- fuck. Snapping out of his thoughts, he ran to you and picked your limp body up like it was nothing, making sure you were pressed against his chest. “Please… please please please don’t give up. You deserved better, you still deserve better. Please don’t die Y/N…. please baby I love you- I would rather have you alive and hating me then dead…” The ash blonde hero’s voice was weak and shaky, tears welling in his eyes.

Why was it when you were dying, that you could hear Katsuki’s words, but you couldn’t say your own? Not even your final ones. Even after everything, you hated that you loved him so much. Hearing his voice was so soothing to you, when he picked you up it was like the pain numbed slightly… Bakugou Katsuki always did say he would come to your rescue for the rest of his life, and he was a man that kept his word. You wished you could tell him- tell him that you loved him too, but you couldn’t.

The feeling of your body growing heavier made you panic as you began thinking of how Katsuki will think you died hating him, but that’s not the truth. You just hated that you loved him- especially after what he did. You hated yourself for letting him make you feel this way. You hated a lot of things, but you didn’t hate him. Honestly, you don’t think you had it in you to ever hate him. Trying to divert your bad thoughts, you started thinking of the last time Katsuki held you- the last time he kissed you. Would that be the last time either of those things happened, and you didn’t cherish it more…

As red eyes stared at you, running towards an ambulance he started rambling, placing you on the stretcher. Looking on, He saw the paramedics run to your side, putting a mask on your face and an IV in your hand, how could he not have saved you…. Bakugou looked around to find kirishima talking to the police, a grim look on the red haired man's face as he explained in detail what had happened. Suddenly anger started rising in Katsuki, crackles heard as he looked like he could kill the next person to get into his way, unfortunately the anger was directed at his friend.

*•*

As Kirishima saw the chaos, he knew he needed to tell Bakugou what he knew, no matter the consequences. Running up, Kirishima blocked a hit from a villain and looked at Bakugou with a guilt ridden face, “Ground Zero! She works here- 5th floor… she wasn’t off today. Go!” The explosive hero felt his heart stop beating when he heard his friends' words. You were here. Not only that, but you were still inside the half destroyed building with villains.

He couldn’t even tell his feet were moving, the ground soon not under his feet as he used his quirk to fly up to the fifth floor. What Katsuki saw- he will always remember; a scream ripped through him when his eyes followed your falling body. Breaking the glass, he tackled the villain who hurt you and dealt way more damage than necessary, half her face unrecognisable. A hand came and pulled Bakugou off the villain, Kaminari had came to help and he knew he needed to stop his friend before doing something he truly regretted.

“Bakugou! Stop-! I’ll handle the clean up, just go make sure Y/N is okay.” Red eyes burned into the electric hero before huffing, and jogging towards your body. As he saw your limp body, black veins spreading under your skin, he felt as if his heart was ripped straight out of his chest. Bakugou didn’t hesitate to first make sure you still had a pulse, and then when he was reassured that you’re alive, he picked you up and started running, a determined yet worried look on his face.

This was his fault. If he hadn’t been a complete douche, you wouldn’t have even been working there in the first place. Katsuki knew he wouldn’t be able to silence his thoughts, because as soon as they started, he couldn’t hear anything else. If you died, it would be on him. Your death would have been because of him. There was nothing in this world that he regretted more than allowing cami into your bed, but now that regret had a whole new meaning.

*•*

Arriving at the hospital, you were carried out and rushed inside, yelling and orders being tossed around. Still, you were paralyzed, the venom first attacked your motor skills, but now- it was attacking your organs. You could feel your heart slowing down, lungs taking shorter breaths, and your brain tuning everything out. Oh how badly did you want to scream out and tell them what you were feeling, tell them the way the venom was affecting you, but you couldn’t.

A giant poke was delivered to your arm, a warm, but stinging sensation traveling up your arm. Slowly you started falling asleep, one voice very distinct called out right before everything went blank. “Don’t you fucking die Y/N! I need you!!” Bakugou…. he came. A small smile graced your lips, a sign of you having control of the small feature, but before you could test out your other body functions, your whole mind went numb and the world around you went mute.

Tears rolled down Bakugou's face as he watched the medical team wheel you off, he felt helpless. For the first time in his life, Mr Pro Hero didn’t know what to do or how to help. How could he not know how to help you, the love of his life? If he couldn’t help you, how was he going to help anyone else? If you left him, Bakugou Katsuki didn’t know if he’d be able to survive. Rubbing his wet face, vermillion eyes looked around, before settling on chairs he can sit in, so he did. Even if the chairs were uncomfortable, the hero planned on staying there until he got news about you.

Uraraka came running in, a panicked face as she looked around, wanting to know where her friend was. As soon as she saw bakugou’s exhausted and miserable looking figure, she couldn’t help her own tears break through and stream down her rosy cheeks. “What happened?” The shakey female voice pulled Katsuki out of his thoughts as his eyes met uraraka’s. Motioning for her to sit down, he looked away with a sniffle, “Villain attack… a-and she was attacked by one with a spider mutation quirk.”

Uraraka knew that there was always going to be civilians that got hurt during a villain attack, but never did she think you would be one of them. Sure, there were casualties during the bigger attacks, but- that’s normally because they are in the danger zone of the fight, not deliberately attacked. “H-wh- she's gonna be fine… right?” As innocent as the question was, it made Katsuki angry. It made him angry because he didn’t know the answer to that, and he always knows the answer to everything. “Bakugou…” the soft whisper accompanied by eyes filled with sadness and pity, made the ash blonde want to explode, So he did.

“I don’t fucking know!! Okay?! Stop asking me things that I don’t know the answer to! I don’t know how she’s gonna survive this, It was like looking at a corpse already. You’re her emergency contact- so why don’t you go and ask the nurses and stop asking me!” Even if he was yelling, he wasn’t angry, he was worried. The strain in his voice gave him away, and if you looked closely you could see he was tearing up.

“She’s gonna be okay Bakugou…. you know how strong she is, there's no way she would just leave us without saying goodbye.” Uraraka’s voice was shy but full of determination. Before the conversation could continue, a doctor came out, his words muted to Bakugou, vision going blurry while he heard uraraka’s cries, as she hugged the doctor.

*•*

5 days. 120 hours. Yet, Bakugou didn’t care, nor did he care how uncomfortable the hospital chair was. He stayed by your bedside, even if you were unresponsive. Your friends came by, not only to check on you but to also check on Bakugou, they were worried for both their friends. One was in a coma, and the other started to look like a living corpse. Katsuki didn’t eat, didn't sleep, and barely drank anything, it was like he’d given up.

“Bakugou… she wouldn’t like that you’re doing this to yourself.” A hand was placed on the ash blondes shoulder, Kirishima frowning behind him. “Fuck off… you don’t know what she wants. None of us do. She’s basically fucking dead!” Standing up suddenly, Bakugou panted, lips twitching into a frown. Forcing himself to look away from you, he walked towards the door. “I-I need to get some air. Stay or leave, I don’t care.”

Walking out the door, he slammed it behind him, leaving the red haired man in your room, eyes filled with sadness. Kirishima took a seat next to you, patting your arm he sighed, “He didn’t mean it…. he’s just a mess because he loves you- and because he blames himself. I thought he was bad when you broke up, but this- Y/N you would scream at him for not taking care of himself. Please wake up, if not for yourself, please do it for Bakugou. I don’t think he would live if you die.”

As the red haired hero rested his head on your bed, your heart rate spiked, making an alarm go off on your floor, nurses and doctors rushing in suddenly. Kirishima was pushed out of the room, a panicked look on his face as he tried calling Bakugou, only to be sent to voicemail. Kiri didn’t even realize he was crying until the tears fell onto his lips, making him taste the salty liquid. You were his friend, and he knew that losing you meant losing Bakugou too, and he couldn’t bare losing two friends at once.

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Taglist; @katsukiswhore @leeeah-loooser @do-not-talk-to-me-i-am-awkward @desia2 @katsukiwonu @xxlushika @lov4kbg @aj-1154 @six-piece-chicken-mcnobody @nekee-lilac02

#mha fanfiction #mha imagines #ely here #bakugou x reader #bakugouimaginedarlingely #bakugou smut #bakugou imagine #bakugou fluff #katsuki imagine #katsuki x y/n #bnha katsuki x reader #bakugou katsuki #katsuki bakugo imagine #mha bakugou

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peachyydesires · 4 years

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I love this blog so much!! Can you do a Keiji x criminal reader? So basically the reader is a wanted criminal, but don’t do anything too drastic that’d hurt somebody but one day Keiji finds the reader and arrests them, but a few years later when their prison sentence is up Keiji actually confessed his feelings to them :0

Danger (Keiji x Reader)

pairing: police-officer! keiji x criminal reader (see anon request above)

word count: 4,770

genre: fluff, slight angst

warnings: gun use/mention, suggested violence (no gore or murder however)

a/n: omg anon i am SO sorry that this took so long to finish!! with my vacation, breaks, and event i never got the chance to post this but it never left my mind. i did go... a bit overboard this time with the word count but i hope you enjoy this nonetheless and once again im so sorry for the wait!! im also trying out a new style so excuse how bad quality the header is eweweww

“This is the worst idea in the world.” You sighed, drumming your fingers on your thigh anxiously as you looked out the window towards the grocery store you were about to rob. The gun in your belt felt like a 5-pound weight, even though it was merely a handgun.

“Pfft, don’t be such a wimp. Nobody’s gonna catch us; the police have been lacking lately anyways.” The leader of your little group, Lukas, scoffed, and you could see his eyes roll in the front view mirror as he shook his head.

The second one in the trio, Evelyn, turned around in the passenger’s seat to look at you with a goofy smirk on her face, “Come on, just live a little. You know what we say, right?”

You looked down at your lap, fidgeting with your hair as you mumbled, “Steal from the rich, give to the poor...Even though this is a measly grocery store.”

“You have to start somewhere.” Lukas shrugged and unbuckled himself from the driver’s seat, reaching down and pulling out three unique masks, each with their own coverage and designs. He distributed each of them, a frown tugging at your lips as you studied yours.

Really? One of those cliche kitsune masks? I didn’t know these actually existed… You thought as you absentmindedly pulled the strap back and put the mask over your face. You knew it wouldn’t be able to do much if it fell off, but some security to your identity put a little peace in your mind.

The only problem was that you were already a wanted criminal.

While you weren’t exactly well-known thieves, your group had definitely sparked some attention in the community. After years of shoplifting from major stores around the city, your earnings from previous heists were beginning to pile up as your warrant only got heavier by the day.

Luckily, you were the weaker, lesser-known chain of the group; you didn’t steal very many high-priced objects, and your warrant wasn’t as large as the other infamous, modern-day Bonnie and Clyde duo that made up the rest of the crew.

Yet you had never even attempted a robbery this intense before. All of your ‘heists’ were really just plain old shoplifting, and this would be the first time you’d be demanding to empty a cash register.

“Are we really sure we should move into armed robbery so fast?” You asked with an unsure expression on your face as your hand trailed down towards the pistol.

The pair groaned in sync, giving each other an annoyed look before Evelyn turned around with her mask on. It was rather creepy; her’s was just a simple, white mask with a wide, eerie smile printed onto it, one that seemed to stare deep into your soul as she slightly tilted her head at you, “Really? Of course, we’re sure! We’ve been planning this for months now, and we’ve been shoplifting for nearly 3 years. We have to step up our game eventually, or we’ll never be taken seriously!”

You slightly squirmed in your seat, knowing the malice that was probably hiding behind Evelyn’s mask. You had never really wanted to get into the whole crime business anyway, but it was hard to reject their offer to join them at the time when you were nearly living on the streets.

“We’re only wasting time by sitting here discussing,” Lukas cut in, impatiently turning around in his seat to look at the two of you. He had on a clown mask, one with a sinister grin that was permanently etched into the plastic of the mask, “We need to go now before the patrol officers go out.”

Evelyn nodded in agreement, quickly unbuckling herself from her seat and taking her gun out from her purse. Lukas drew his own as well, and you followed behind as you unclipped the handgun from your belt loop.

Without a second thought, the pair had gotten out of the car and were already in the trunk grabbing the empty bags along with extra magazines just in case things got messy. They had never pulled anything off like this either, and the thought of using all of the bullets Lukas had brung brought a sick, gut-wrenching feeling to your head as you got out of the car as well.

After handing you your bag, the three of you effortlessly crossed the parking lot and just as you neared the grocery store, a few civilians inside the building looked up and spotted the three of you. But they had no time to react as Lukas kicked the entrance door open and yelled, “This is a robbery! Put your hands above your heads and get flat on the ground, now!”

There were a few yells and shouts as a few people tried to scramble at first, running towards the other exit but Evelyn had made sure to go around the other way to block the doors from the civilians as she threateningly aimed her gun at whoever came close enough.

Once everyone was down on the ground, you strode over towards the cashiers. With your gun held up, you yelled in a gruff voice, “Who’s the manager? I’m going to need all the cash in this place, and fast!” One good thing about you tagging along was your ability to mimic others so easily; you could be intimidating if you really wanted too, which usually came in handy every now and then.

However, guilt began to claw at the back of your mind as the elderly manager stood up and motioned over to the nearest register. He didn’t look even remotely scared; he had more of a calm look as if this exact same situation had happened to him before.

You stayed silent as you followed him, taking a moment to grab the empty bag over your shoulder and open it as wide as you could. The man began taking large handfuls of money out of the machine, tossing them into the bag. His old, wrinkly hands were slightly shaking as you held the gun up to his head.

Evelyn soon joined you as she went to the next cashier, forcing the stationed worker to unlock the register and empty it into her own bag. You were beginning to get suspicious as the minutes seemed to drag by endlessly with no commotion.

It was all going too smoothly, which is when you knew something was wrong.

Lukas soon came running into the store, his gun carelessly spinning in his hand as he hissed, “Cops!”

Panic began to course through you as you quickly withdrew the gun from the manager’s head and pulled the strings on the bag until it was securely closed. You weren’t sure how you were supposed to hold both a ginormous money bag and a gun steady at the same time, but there was no time for questions as the rest of the group began running towards the back exit.

However, you didn’t get very far as a deep, rough voice shouted, “Stop! Put your hands up and drop your guns.”

You spun around quickly on your toes and aimed the gun without hesitation at the muscular blonde officer that was chasing the three of you, your finger already on the trigger as you prepared to shoot. Yet your mistake was very simple as you locked eyes with him, and you felt your heart stop immediately.

He was just any other human being, but that was the problem. He looked afraid- he knew you could easily destroy his life with one pull of the trigger. You had never shot anyone or anything in your lifetime and hadn’t even dreamed of doing so. You couldn’t bring yourself to take away another human life; sure, you could steal without a moment’s hesitation, but murder?

It was out of the question.

The guilt rapidly overcame you as your dominant hand began to shake. The money bag seemed heavier as if the weight of the world was on your shoulders somehow. Your mouth formed silent, unspoken words as you couldn’t get your body to even move as you kept eye contact with the man.

He seemed stunned too, confusion beginning to ebb onto his face as he had no clue why you hadn’t shot him already. Lukas and Evelyn seemed just as confused as they stood behind you, their eyebrows furrowed in frustration as you held them up.

“Just SHOOT him already!” Lukas yelled angrily, yet you just couldn’t respond. You were stuck in a sticky situation; you wanted to run, but your body refused to cooperate with your mind as you stared aimlessly at the officer. Lukas didn’t know whether or not to leave you, although Evelyn didn’t seem to hesitate with the decision.

Your bag was quickly ripped from your hands as she snatched it from you and broke out into a sprint, urging Lukas to go along with her. While they usually lived by the saying ‘leave no man behind’ they couldn’t afford to get arrested now.

As the realization hit you that you were being ditched, your body shut down as you fell to your knees. Unsuspecting tears began to form in your eyes as you began to question why you were so ready to shoot another human being. The gun fell out of your hands as you let go of your grip on it, your blood turning ice-cold as your mouth was left agape.

Your mask was soon ripped off of your face as the same blonde police officer came over, tilting your chin up so you would look at him again. Your lips formed the silent words of an apology, but no sound came out as your soul burned with shame.

The rest of the night went by in a blur as you were handcuffed and escorted out of the grocery store. Dozens of reporters were crowded around the building, cameras flashing in your face as they tried to get you to speak up. But your voice was completely lost as the world went numb and blurry around you.

You were completely unfocused as you were shoved into the back of a police car. The dull sound of sirens echoed hauntingly in your ears as you stared out the window, barely even noticing the sound of the highway as the car started cruising away towards the police station.

You hadn’t seemed to notice either that the man driving the police car was actually the one you had almost shot; his name was Keiji Shinogi, and while he wasn’t too high ranking in the force, he was definitely up there. He was used to dealing with cases such as yours, but you were…

Different.

You were the first robber he had seen to actually hesitate on their actions. Whether it was because you were young or not, your sense of good had overwhelmed you back in the store.

He knew you could’ve taken his life right then and there. Yet somehow, he was still oddly intrigued by you. He could tell just from how Lukas and Evelyn had reacted that you actually had a good heart; you were just thrown into the wrong group of people, and he managed to figure that out pretty quickly.

The image of the fear on the officer’s face seemed to be permanently ingrained in your head. You couldn’t think about anything else; not how you were about to go to jail for the first time in your life, not the driver, and not even Lukas and Evelyn could distract you from the image.

Slowly, as your vision became blurry, pure regret began to ebb onto your face as silent tears formed in your eyes, which didn’t go unnoticed by Keiji. Your throat began to swell up into a sort of strangled sob, and you were about to let out a wail when you were cut off,

“Hey. It’s okay, you know. You didn’t hurt me. I’m still alive, you did no harm.”

You blinked, startled as you looked up. You hadn’t noticed at all that the cop driving the car was the one you had pointed a pistol at. Your mouth opened and closed wordlessly, not knowing how to respond as your brain tried to process his words as he went on, “You’re a good person. I know you didn’t want to shoot me, and that’s why you dropped your gun back in the store. You’re not a bad person.”

“B-But I almost murdered you!” You suddenly blurted out, your eyebrows raised as far as they could possibly go on your head. Your tears over spilled, creating thin lines down your cheeks as you were unable to wipe them.

The officer silently pulled the car over, turning the ignition off before turning around to face you. He shook his head, “Yes, but almost is a keyword. You weren’t going to shoot me, no matter what.”

“How d-do you know t-that?” You choked on the words, a lump forming in your throat as you looked away, unable to make eye contact with the man. He merely shook his head, a small smile forming on his face as he reached over and gently tilted your chin over so you would look at him.

“I just...Know. You’re nearly an open book... Here, let’s make a bet. If I can guess your situation correctly then you have to believe me when I say you’re not a bad person, okay?”

“And i-if you guess incorrectly?”

His small smile turned into a laid-back grin as he shrugged his large shoulders back and promised, “Then you don’t have to believe a word I say.”

You sniffled, the flow of tears on your face refusing to lighten up as you nodded slightly, “O-Okay. Go ahead.”

“Okay so… You were looking to make a quick buck at first but then you got involved with the wrong group of people. You got dragged into a life of crime, and it was too dangerous for you to somehow back out plus the loss of a somewhat steady income scared you. Which, therefore, is how you got put into the messy situation you were in earlier today.” He tilted his head slightly as he studied your face, the same easygoing grin still spread out on his face.

Your lips parted as you, once again, struggled to use your words. While other people would get impatient with you at this point, Keiji stayed where he was, studying you silently the entire time until you finally managed to mumble, “Well… Y-You’re not w-wrong. At all.”

“It’s the Officier Vision, I tell ya. Well, now that you’ll believe me, you’re not a bad person, you hear me? You did nothing wrong, you were just thrown into a bad circumstance,” He smiled warmly as he reached up with his thumbs and quickly wiped the tears off of your face as he teased, “And don’t cry, sweetheart. It doesn’t fit your scary robber look that well.”

You let out a snort, a weak smile spreading out on your face as you shook your head. It was the first time that night you had actually smiled, and somehow it was all because of the cop you had nearly murdered.

The rest of the ride was filled with comforting remarks and calm conversation as the officer talked to you. He managed to even get a few smiles and laughs out of you before he informed you about what would happen next. There would be a court case in the next week or so, but other than that you would be following the prison’s schedule.

Once you were there, it took a few hours before you were secure in a jail cell. You had no roommate, and the hallway was eerily silent. Everybody must be asleep already... You thought with a slight sigh as you slumped down with your back against the bars. Never in your life had you imagined you’d be locked away in a jail cell, rotting away your days with barely anything to do.

You sat there for what seemed like an hour, staring blankly at the wall as you thought about everything that had led up to this point. It wasn’t until you started hearing faint footsteps in the hallway that you finally snapped out of your trip down memory lane.

Peering over your shoulder, your eyes widened as you recognized the patrolling officer. This has to be a coincidence. First I almost shoot him in a grocery store and then I get arrested by him? Now, this?

You didn’t know what overcame you- was it your loneliness that convinced you to suddenly call out to him, or was it the need for affection that did? Either way, as soon as you realized that it was him you suddenly called out, “Officer!”

You watched as he visibly froze in his tracks as he recognized your voice; he spun around on his heels and locked eyes with you, at first cocking an eyebrow in confusion before his natural warm smile spread out on his face.

“Well, if it isn’t none other than my little gangster,” He hummed, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walked over to your cell. You felt your face flush as you lost your words for yet the third time that day.

“What’s up?” Curiosity soon replaced his easygoing expression as he looked down at you, “I know you didn’t call me over to ask if I could try and break you out of here, sooo…”

You mirrored his expression, raising your own eyebrow as you teasingly responded, “Or did I? What would you say if I did ask you to break me out of here? Would you propose that we go run off into the sunset while this prison explodes behind us?”

A blank expression washed over his face as his lips slightly parted, one finger raised in the air as he tried to come up with some sort of witty response to your seriousness but it was nearly impossible until you finally confirmed,

“I’m just kidding, officer. I just...Need some company, I guess. It gets lonely with no roommate and nobody else to talk to besides yourself, really,” You paused for a moment, your eyes darting to the floor as you hesitated before you continued, “I know it’s dumb but do you mind...staying here? Even just for a little bit?”

You stared at the floor, cringing as you waited for your obvious rejection. Stupid, stupid… Who do you think you are? Asking a cop to what, stay wi-

“Sure.”

“H-Huh?!” You sharply snapped your head up, looking up at Keiji in bewilderment.

He easily cracked another smile, a small chuckle escaping from his lips as he began scratching at the back of his neck lightly, “Why do you look so surprised? Of course, I’d stay here any day over work. You really think I’d turn talking to you down for what, aimlessly patrolling these lackluster halls for another 3 hours?”

You let out a snort, rolling your eyes silently as you didn’t have a good enough response. You hadn’t actually known what you were really expecting from him, but it certainly wasn’t a yes. “You know, I never got your name.”

The blonde officer crouched down, gently sitting down on the cold slate ground as he looked over at you, “Really? Do you realize how dangerous it is for a policeman to give out his name instead of an alias?” He paused, taking a moment to ‘think’ before he teasingly added with a wink, “Lucky for you, I like danger. A little too much. My name is Keiji Shinogi, but I’ll also let you call me Your Friendly Neighborhood Policeman too if you’d like.”

Before he could even finish his sentence your cheeks were soon dusted with a sweet light pink as his words sunk in. You frantically shook your head, trying to brush him off but it was nearly impossible with him sitting so close to you (somebody remove those damn bars already).

“W-Whatever.”

The hours flew by as you fell into an easygoing conversation with him. It just… flowed so smoothly. You easily transitioned through topics, taking turns telling each other stories without even realizing it.

“...Aand that’s the story of how I nearly got arrested by my own coworker.” Keiji snickered, a hand over his ribs as his chest began hurting from how hard he had been laughing. He hadn’t laughed like this in a long time, and it was good for him to finally forget about his duties for once.

The large smile on your face refused to go away as you finished laughing, clutching your stomach with both hands as you momentarily forgot all of your issues. “That sounds terrible!” You giggled.

Keiji let out a light, dragged-out sigh as he rested his head against the bars, the small grin on his face never going away as he stared at you through the bars. He was silent for a moment as he studied you, but soon his grin enlarged as he softly went on, “You remind me of my younger self, you know that?”

“Hmm?” You hummed, looking up at him and slightly jumping back once you realized how close he now was. If it weren’t for the bars, you weren’t exactly sure what else you would do with him sitting right there. “How so?”

“Well…” He started, locking eyes with you as he smiled, “You have a kind heart and some good intentions in mind, even if they don’t always work out. Look, can I tell you a secret?”

You cocked an eyebrow as you mirrored his expression, “Well, considering I have no one else to talk to in this prison other than you, I’d consider myself pretty trustworthy.”

“You make a good case, sugar. Now I have to tell you, huh?” Keiji chuckled as he shifted, repositioning himself so his side was pressing up against the bars now, “I’m just like you. I can’t shoot a gun. Can barely even hold one, for that matter.”

Your eyes widened as soon as you had processed his words, your jaw dropping a little as you furrowed your brows in shock. What? An officer that can’t shoot? How does that make sense...How does he keep his job?

He studied your face silently for a moment, his small smile nearly melancholic as he went on, “I’ll tell you one day how it happened. But that’s a story for another day...Anyways, I’m glad you didn’t shoot that gun. And not just because I’d be dead by now, no, but because I wouldn’t wish my trauma upon anybody else. It’s a major burden, like a constant thundercloud over your head. It’s...Scary, and sometimes you wish you could just forget it all. It’s painful, and it invades nearly your everyday life; your dreams, your subconscious, your thoughts, hell, even your mind isn’t safe...” He trailed off.

As your expression relaxed you watched his own face carefully as he let out a shaky breath. It looked like it had taken him a lot to say even just that, yet he still tried to keep his relaxed emotions at the front to make it seem like nothing was remotely wrong.

You slowly slipped your hand in between the bars, gently resting it on top of his nearest hand. He looked over at you, a mix of confusion and woe in his face that slowly began to ebb away as you took his hand in yours, no words really needing to be exchanged at that point as you comforted him in peaceful silence.

“I think we’ll be okay.”

✰ ~ ✰

The years in your sentence had seemingly flown by.

Prison had proven itself to not have been a major challenge for you; while the overall filth of it all was a bit overwhelming at first, you easily fell into a simple routine. As the months went by, you worked harder and harder to gain ‘good conduct time’ credit, and had managed to shorten your sentence by a year or two. You ended up ratting out Lukas and Evelyn with some reassurance from Keiji that they’d never see or contact you again, considering they would be in prison for much, much longer than you.

Meanwhile, you had only grown closer to the officer you had met on the fateful night of the grocery shop robbery. Between sneakily holding each other’s hands and hugging quickly when nobody was looking, you had managed to talk to each other nearly every night whenever he was on shift. You somehow never ran out of topics to talk about, and you found each other’s presence rather...comforting, of all things.

But now you were being released, now allowed back into society seemingly cleansed of your crimes. You were beyond ready to finally forget about your lowlife as a criminal and start fresh, even though it would be considerably harder with a criminal record.

You tapped your foot impatiently in the office, clutching your belongings that were stuffed into a bag tightly as you waited for a police officer to arrive and escort you out. You felt slightly anxious; while you had managed to say your final goodbyes to Keiji the night before, some part of you just wasn’t ready to move on from him.

It wasn’t until you felt a strong, comforting arm on your shoulder that you snapped out of your thoughts. You looked up and locked eyes with none other than Keiji, and you couldn’t help but widely smile as a warm feeling flooded your chest.

“Hi there, cutie. Almost looked like you didn’t want to leave for a moment earlier, what’s that all about?” He teased lightheartedly, taking his hand off your shoulder as he began walking towards one of the side entrances.

You followed alongside him, almost like a puppy dog as you smiled expectantly up at him, “Well, I thought my Friendly Neighborhood Policeman had ditched me. You can only imagine how hurt I was while thinking about that, right?”

He snorted, a grin emerging onto his face as he reached for the keys in his pockets and began unlocking the door, “Really? You think I’d ditch you, after all these years? How low do you think of me?”

You gently elbowed him in the side as you snickered, “Very, very low.”

He merely hummed in response, shaking his head as he opened the door and began heading for the next gate. It was a rather quiet walk after that; you were unsure how you were supposed to split from him once you left the prison, considering you never really wanted to leave his side.

You snuck a glance at him, quickly looking up at his expression before looking away. He seemed to be in some sort of deep thought- his eyebrows were furrowed and his smile had shrunk into more of a quizzical pout. It was a look you had never seen on him before, and while you would never admit it out loud it was pretty adorable.

“Something on your mind, Keiji?” You asked, tilting your head slightly to the side as you looked over at him after another few steps. He blinked, his expression breaking into something softer as he returned your look, “Actually...”

He suddenly took both of your hands and stopped, forcing you to turn around and nearly bump into his chest. The feeling of warmth in your cheeks was all too familiar as your words shriveled up inside of you, giving him the perfect opportunity to speak.

“Look, I know this sort of thing is risky, but I need to confess something to you,” He locked eyes with you, holding you in place to the point you just couldn’t look away no matter how flustered you got as he went on,

“I don’t know when it happened, whether it was the night at the grocery store or one night when we were just talking. I’ve fallen for you, and pretty hard. You’re just such an amazing person, whether you believe it or not. Even at your worst in that police car, I found you beautiful, and I’m not sure how this is going to end but..”

He took in a deep breath and your mouth fell open as you realized what he was going to ask, the obvious answer to his question already bubbling up deep in your chest as you had wanted to ask him yourself the same question for years.

“Would you go out with me, [y/n]?”

credits: reblogs + notes are appreciated!! cop hat clipart is f2u under the creative commons; glitch effect from https://photomosh.com/

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master-sass-blast · 5 years

Text

Tricks, Tricks, Tricks!

I hate doing intros when I’m tired bc it feels like it takes forever.

Summary: You and Wade set up a haunted house for the kids at Xavier’s --and prank Scott Summers, of course.

Pairings: Piotr Rasputin x Reader.

Rating: G. Just ignore the swear words. Pls.

Set before “Questions and Answers” but after “THIS IS HALLOWEEN.”

Taglist: @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @super-darkcloudstudent, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @nebulous-leo

It’s not every day that you and Wade stumble onto a legitimately, objectively good idea.

Granted, you guys have tons of great ideas. The fallback of nearly all of them, however, is that they usually involve some sort of destruction and-slash-or generally deviant behavior.

Which, in yours and Wade’s opinions, makes the entire shebang that much more fun, but dealing with the “post brilliant idea clean-up” and the temporary social fallout among your peers –depending on who you target and piss off—isn’t quite as fun.

However.

It’s Halloween season. And the teachers at Xavier’s tend to do some sort of Halloween-y thing for the students there because a lot of places that host seasonal events –surprise, surprise—won’t admit mutants.

Plus, Piotr loves Halloween, which means the two of you have a “non-deviant” spokesperson to advocate for your plan.

And, the cherry on top of it all, is that Scott has been an absolute asshat as of late, meaning that he needs to get the shit pranked out of him to whack his massive ego back down to a more manageable size.

You and Wade grin at each other as you look up various “how to make a haunted house” tutorials. This is gonna be awesome.

***

Convincing Piotr to back your idea is easy.

First, you convince him without Wade around. You’ve learned that Piotr doesn’t necessarily mind if you and Wade come up with ideas, but that Wade’s manner of “selling them” completely frustrates your darling boyfriend and puts him off even the most benign suggestions.

Second, you present the idea as something fun and seasonal for the students at Xavier’s; Piotr, essentially, is a massive mother hen that loves nothing more than making his “kids” happy, which means that he’s on board for just about anything that involves doing special stuff for the students.

Third, you’re his girlfriend and he thinks you’re cute, which means all you have to really do is bat your eyelashes at him and say please.

(And, granted, you’d had other tricks up your sleeve if he’d hesitated, but sometimes life just lets you knock one out of the park. It’s a great feeling.)

***

With Piotr’s seal of approval, you wind up selling the idea to the rest of the X-Men with no problem –and, since Jean’s out of town visiting family, she’s not here to rat you out to Scott, either.

Granted, Xavier still could, but you’re starting to think he’s less of a “lawful good” and more of a “neutral” or “chaotic good” type than he lets on. There’s been plenty of times he could’ve sold you or Wade out on any of your pranks, but he usually keeps his mouth shut.

Ah, well. Best not to question the freebies life sends your way.

Better yet, you and Wade already have a list of ideas and necessary supplies, thanks to your “haunted house research binge” that you two did earlier. Granted, Piotr outright naysays half of the suggestions due to them being too expensive, too destructive to the building, or too gross –Wade—but all in all it’s a success.

Hell yeah.

***

The official set up goes as such: on the designated “haunted house day,” you, Wade, and a few volunteers get to spend the morning and part of the afternoon setting up the haunted house in a sectioned off part of the mansion –except it’s for the elementary aged students, so it’s technically “Haunted House Lite,” but that’s fine. Then, at four in the afternoon, the elementary aged students will get to walk through, enjoy some G-rated spooks, and get little bags of candy at the end to enjoy.

Lovely. Wonderful. Wholesome.

And then the fun comes in.

Because, beknownst to Piotr only because he caught you and Wade conspiring with everyone else, you and Wade managed to get all the middle school and high school students in the room and fill them in on your idea to scare the everliving shit out of one Scott Summers.

And, because teenagers are basically little shits that run on caffeine and entropy, they’re all super down to watch Scott get pranked.

So, once the little students have had their seasonal fun and have been ushered off for dinner with everyone else, you and Wade and your volunteers have five paltry hours to beef up your haunted house with some higher grade spooks and also set up your prank for Scott.

Granted, it’s not a lot of time to work with, but the two of you have worked with less before.

***

The prank itself, compared to yours and Wade’s usual fare, is… unremarkable, actually.

“Go figure,” Wade grumbles under his breath while he wrestles with one of the several smoke machines he’d purchased for the prank. “Captain Vanilla-Save-For-the-Pole-Up-His-Ass doesn’t watch horror movies. Leave it to a fucking jumpscare. Fucking stupid. He’s literally the single most boring person to exist!”

“Hey, at least it makes it easy for us,” you reason as you work on dying a bunch of cheesecloth with a massive mixing bowl of tea. “Why go through the extra effort for a dill-hole like him?”

“Fair enough. Hey, I think I got this working!” Wade tries turning on the smoke machine, then pulls a scowl when it makes an alarming grinding noise, turns it back off with a disgusted huff, and turns in his chair to shout down the hall. “Nathan! Get your ass in here and talk to your cousin! This fucking thing won’t work!”

You snort and shake your head.

(Nathan does, in fact, get the smoke machine to work, but only because he bothers to read the instructions first.

Wade calls bullshit anyway.)

***

The day of is nothing short of busy.

The two of you –and your volunteers—set up shop in one of the unfinished wings meant to be proper classrooms. You’ve got the entryway, the flight of stairs going up to the second floor, the hallway, and a few of the rooms of the rooms to set up your little “house of horrors” in (along with the back stair case that leads back down to the main hallway on the first floor, but that’s only for an easy exit for everyone).

The main order of business is such: put up the most labor intensive props –curtains to black out the windows, a curtain to block off the first floor hallway from view, spiderwebs, anything hanging from the ceiling or the walls that isn’t going to be switched out—first so that the bulk of the work is done for the day, since you won’t have much time between the littler students and the older students (and, most importantly, Scott).

The smoke machines get put in next, along with any special lights –including some cool black lights you and Wade had gotten their hands on, which go next to a mirror at the end of the walkthrough so the students can see what their costumes look like under the effects of the lights.

After that is the rest of the props, which are all switch out stuff. The younger students get some relatively innocuous skeletons, some cartoonish looking zombies, a couple mummies, and a bunch of pumpkins, black cats, and otherwise tame Halloween fare. The older students get much gnarlier, gorier stuff, including a demonic clown statue that actually gives you the creeps.

You grin as Wade sings “Spooky Scary Skeletons” –the dubstep remix, no less—while the two of you fill up goody bags for the students. This is going to be great.

***

Piotr stops by after lunch with a bag of costumes –yours and his—and some extra supplies Wade had asked for.

You kiss his cheek as he hands off the bag of decorations to Wade. “Hey, babe. Had a good day?”

He nods. “Students are very excited to go through haunted house. Especially younger ones.”

“Well, here’s hoping we can give them some good, old-fashioned, spooky fun,” you say with a grin. “Ready to get changed and transform into creatures of the night?”

He does a scarily perfect Dracula laugh and winks at you. “But of course, moya lyubov’.”

Your costumes –for today and also for this year’s Halloween—are Dracula and the bride of Dracula. Piotr made nearly all of it, save for his shirt and slacks (and your two’s shoes, obviously), and between the costumes, the makeup, and some fake fangs, the two of you actually look the part.

(And Piotr sounds the part, what with his Russian accent and all. It’s almost like he was born for the role of Dracula.)

The two of you get to set up in one of the rooms with two doors, which also boasts a cauldron with a smoke machine in it, a bunch of fake spiderwebs, a couple of fake coffins, and some skeletons hanging on the walls. You get dressed, do each other’s make up, and then Piotr helps you put on your fangs before doing his own.

“So, tell me how to do a good Russian accent,” you say, lisping slightly around your fangs. “I gotta match what you’re selling.”

“I think you do just fine,” Piotr replies as he puts a glob of denture cream into one of his fangs and sticks it to his upper canine tooth. “Just try to avoid cheesy mobster accent, and you will do great.”

“Are we gonna do the whole ‘I want to suck your blood’ thing?” you ask. “I think we probably should.”

“If you want to.”

“Okay. I’m gonna practice, you tell me how I sound.” You clear your throat, get into your mental zone, then let out an accented, ominous, “I want to suck your blood!”

Piotr chuckles as he tests the fang’s hold on his tooth. “Very nice, myshka.”

You preen, then practice a few more times at varying pitches and speeds. Then, once you’re certain Piotr’s adjusted to your fooling around, you lean in and murmur, “I want to suck your dick.”

Piotr sputters, cheeks flushing –even under the pale make up you’d put on him—and looks around for anyone that might’ve overheard you. Once he’s certain that no one heard you –especially Wade—he exhales and shakes his head. “Later.”

You giggle and kiss his cheek.

***

Right at four, the elementary aged students are ushered into the haunted house.

You can hear them from the room where you and Piotr are set up, giggling and gasping as Ellie and Yukio –who had volunteered to walk the younger students through—escort them along.

“Alright, before we enter this room, we all need to practice our brave faces,” Yukio says outside the door furthest away from you and Piotr. “Because in this room are Dracula and his wife!”

There’s some gasps and “oohs” from the kids, along with a couple expected “Dracula isn’t real”s.

“Don’t get too close,” Ellie says warningly. “Or else they might try to suck your blood!”

You grin at Piotr as the kids gasp again –he grins back and winks at you—then put on your “game face” as Ellie opens the door so the kids can enter the room.

It’s hard to keep a straight face, though, in the presence of the elementary students. It’s easy to tell that they’re really enjoying the mini haunted house, what with how they’re bouncing and grinning, and that combined with their adorable costumes –skeletons, princesses, pirates, pumpkins, there’s even one of the kids dressed as Iron Man—makes the entire thing downright heart-melting.

The kids all gasp, giggle, and whisper amongst themselves as they approach you and Piotr, flocking together like a bunch of baby birds—

And then one of the kids in the back shouts, “That’s not Dracula! That’s Mr. Piotr!”

Ellie, Yukio, and you all snort, while Piotr just winks at the kid in question.

“What do we have here, my love?” you ask, slipping into your “vampire accent” as you make a show of looking over all the kids, which prompts another slew of gasps and giggles from them. “It seems someone has brought us a bunch of tiny treats to eat!”

Piotr “hmms” as he stands, looming over the students in his long, flowing black cloak. “So it does, moya Koroleva. I must say, I am feeling peckish. Perhaps we should have afternoon snack.”

“Oh no!” Yukio exclaims. “Do you guys think they should be able to do that?”

“No!” the group of students all shout at once (which, admittedly, is a little rough on the ears).

“Well, I think we can do whatever we want,” you retort, looking over at Piotr to make sure the two of you time everything properly. “And…”

“We want to suck your blood!” you and Piotr declare while simultaneously fake-lunging at the group of students.

The students shriek, then run out the other door at Ellie and Yukio’s encouragement.

You and Piotr “pursue” the students –which is less of an actual pursuit and more just angling yourselves in their direction—until the last of the kids “escape” into the hall, then stop and grin at each other.

“I think that went well,” you say –quietly, so as not to disrupt the students’ experience.

“I agree.” Piotr holds out his arm to you. “Shall we, moya Koroleva?”

You giggle and place your hand on his arm. “Absolutely, my love.”

The two of you head out the door at the far end of the room –the door the students had originally entered in—and into the hall. Fortunately, there are a couple curtains blocking the rest of the hall from view, meaning that there’s no risk of anyone seeing the two of you sneaking through the hallway and down the stairs to the main floor.

Piotr ducks into one of the storage closets by the staircase and pulls out a box with various goody-bags stashed in it. “These looks very nice, moya lyubov’.”

“Thank you. I tried to make sure everyone got one of everything –oh, wait a second.” You reach into the closet and pull out a bag you’d stashed separately from everyone else’s. “This one’s Timothy’s. I wanted to make sure it didn’t get mixed up and he get peanuts by accident.”

“Good thinking.” Piotr sets the main box of treats on a nearby table, then turns back to you and kisses the top of your head. “How are you feeling, dorogoy?”

“I’m feeling good; I’m really looking forward to the big prank tonight!” The corner of your mouth turns up when he makes a “hmmm” of disapproval. “I take it you’re not a fan?”

“I just… I am concerned about how you and Wade target Scott,” Piotr says diplomatically. “The two of you seem to ignore everyone else.”

“Well, there’s not really a need to prank everyone else,” you reason. “And it’s not like we prank Scott all the time, either.”

“I would just worry about team dynamics.”

“He already fucks that up by being an asshole, honey,” you argue, careful to keep your voice down so the kids don’t hear you swearing. “Scott’s a total dick! He’s objectively horrible to Wade; he’s also a jerk to Russell. Like, massively.”

Piotr sighs. “I… I do not think pranking helps the situation.”

“Look, sometimes when people refuse to listen to polite conversation, you have to smack them around a little to keep them from letting their asshole behavior ooze all over everyone.” You grin. “Wade and I are just the smacking team.”

Piotr glances towards the door where the back staircase opens onto the main floor; there’s sounds of little voices and footsteps, meaning the kids are almost done. “Just… be considerate. That is all I ask.”

“Already done, baby,” you reassure him. “It’s a super basic jumpscare prank. Nothing about him, nothing about being a mutant, all Halloween themed. I made sure Wade didn’t get too crazy or destructive this time around.”

Piotr relaxes a little at that and kisses your temple—

And then the door opens, and the group of students rush into the main hallway.

“I told you it was them!” one of the students shouts, prompting everyone else to laugh.

“It was,” you admit, foregoing the vampire accent. “Did you guys like the haunted house?”

“Yeah!” the group choruses at once.

You and Piotr both grin, then work on handing out bags of candy to the students –and make sure that Timothy gets his special bag, no allergy episodes today, no sir—

And it’s good. Life is good.

***

Once the younger students exit for dinner, everything switches to a mad scramble to flip the space for the second walkthrough.

Granted, it doesn’t sound like much, until you realize that it involves taking down basically all the props and putting new ones in.

It’s sweaty work, and by the time you’re done you have to reapply all your vampire make-up –because you and Piotr are still doing the vampire bit. And then—

And then.

Once the older teams exit the “vampire room,” you’ll sneak out the “entry” door and down the hall, then hover over the door everyone exits out into the main floor hall at the end of the walkthrough, and when they do, you’ll drop down next to Scott and scare the everliving shit out of him.

Simple. Stress-free. Borderline stupid.

It’s gonna be great.

***

The second walkthrough is just as much of a success as the first one. The older students aren’t as giggly or excitable as the younger group, but it’s still easy to tell they’re enjoying the haunted house –at least, if the occasional screams and comments about “how cool” everything looks is anything to go by.

Better yet is that Scott is jumping and gasping at, like, everything. He’s so easily scared that you won’t even have to try when you drop down next to him. He’s so easily scared that the prank almost isn’t fun.

Keyword being: almost.

You and Piotr do your vampire schtick again –which, unlike what you did for the elementary students, this round involves the two of you lunging out of dark corners and acting, objectively, much scarier—and when the older teens and Scott run out, you grin, give Piotr a kiss, then dart out the other door.

It takes basically zero time to get positioned over the door everyone exits out of. You tuck yourself up into the corner where the walls and ceiling meet, then resign yourself to being bored while the older students finish their haunted house walkthrough.

Scott, predictably, is the first one out of the door. He looks annoyed by the entire situation, and is trying to brush fake cobwebs off his shirt.

Perfect.

You wait until there are a couple of students in the hall as well –you can’t have the prank go unwitnessed—then count down from five before dropping down next to Scott while screaming “Trick or treat!” at the top of your lungs.

He jumps five feet into the air and shrieks like a teenage girl in a horror movie, and the students laugh.

Mission: accomplished.

#sass writes #piotr rasputin x reader #colossus x reader #note: the author is not a scott summers fan #it's fine if you are #i'm just #no #x men fanfiction #deadpool fanfiction

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