#i have a whole hero au and everything but I haven’t got around to posting anything yet

[truelyaccuracy]

Here’s hero au Tenko/Tomura (hero name Shourai) and OG Dabi for new years bc i’ve been thinking of them and how doomed they are ✌️

#bnha #mha #tomura shigaraki #hero au shigaraki #dabi #shigadabi #shourbi #shourai #first art of 2024 #i have a whole hero au and everything but I haven’t got around to posting anything yet #theres a hero dabi too but i wanted to draw shourai with oh dabi #bc again #ive been thinking of that au in particular #theres not much hero tomura and villain dabi #more of the reverse #hero dabi and villain tomura #so here i am 😔 #my art

[swaps55]

ooh I'm gonna need that moonlit walk one stat <3

WIP Tag meme

So, Sam and Kaidan's moonlit walk-and talk where Sam talks about his dad was the first part of Your Mess Is Mine to exist, and it was written eons before the rest of the story. And when I wrote it, I doodled this first kiss AU, because...well, I wanted to, lol, but when the rest of the story got written, I thought Let the Walls Cave In was stronger, so this one got stuck in a drawer.

I liked it enough, though, that I held onto it.

~

Shepard taps the branch with his fingers. “He wanted to take me to Earth. Show me where humanity came from. I wasn’t interested. Couldn’t understand why he wanted to look back when everything was out there.” He gestures up at the sky. “So we never went. There was so much he wanted to teach me, and I blew him off because he worked a desk job while my mom flew a starship, and what could I possibly learn from him?”

The bitterness in his voice cuts like a knife. He scrubs the back of his hand across the corner of his eye.

“I always saw him as an anchor. I wanted to be like my mother, not like him. My mother was the hero, the person everyone looked up to and respected. Including me. Took me too long to realize that respect and love were two very different things.”

“She’s your mother. It’s not something you should have had to learn from her.”

He shakes his head. “She’s not my mother. She’s a superior officer. Always has been, and nothing I do will ever change it. It took losing my father to figure that out. I was so stupid.”

“No, you weren’t,” Kaidan insists. “You were a kid.”

Shepard huffs. “I thought so much of her, and so little of him. Until Anderson gave me a copy of his service record after he disappeared. I’d never even thought to look at it before. Do you know what I found?”

Kaidan shakes his head, heart aching.

“He was N1. He and Anderson did ICT together. His proficiency scores were better than Anderson’s. He had an invitation to go back to the Villa for N2.”

“Why didn’t he take it?”

“Because of me,” Shepard says, voice breaking. “He gave up spec ops and requested a posting on Arcturus to raise me. I took that from him.”

“Doesn’t sound to me like you took anything. He chose you.”

And your mother didn’t.

“And look how I repaid him.”

Kaidan takes a step closer. Their biotic fields mingle with a hum. “I’m willing to bet he didn’t see it as a debt.”

“I guess I’ll never know, will I?”

And you’ve spent over ten years trying to repay it anyway, haven’t you? To Shepard, everything comes down to what pieces of himself he can carve off for others. How, why, can’t he see himself as anything other than a transaction?

Shepard turns away to head back towards the path, but Kaidan reaches out and grabs for his hand. Later, he’ll think about how seamlessly their fingers lace, like they’ve done it their whole lives instead of for the first time. But now, there’s no time to think. He pulls Shepard to him, hooks his other hand around Shepard’s neck and kisses him.

It’s easy. Effortless. Just like breathing. Not something he has to think about, control, figure out. His lips on Shepard’s just is, soft and warm and full of hope, like some crucial missing part of him has just snapped into place.

When they part, Shepard blinks, an almost curious look in his eyes. Curious, but not surprised, not dismayed, even though Kaidan’s heart is beating so loud Shepard has to hear it. Kaidan doesn’t let go of his hand and still cups the back of his neck, and Shepard doesn’t pull away.

“I wish you could see yourself the way I see you,” Kaidan murmurs.

Shepard searches his face some more, like he’s looking at Kaidan for the first time, before reaching up with the hand not clasped in Kaidan’s to stroke his cheek, curiosity melting into wonder.

“What do you see?” he asks, voice soft.

The answer falls out of his mouth before his brain has time to think about it. “Infinity.”

Shepard’s thumb strokes his jaw, and then nothing else matters because Shepard kisses him back.

#swaps replies #cronusamporaofficial #mememe #meme replies #snippet

[lord-of-christmas-lights]

I swear I have normal Narnia headcanons. However, none of them are featured in this post.

So! If you've been following my series of posts about my Inhuman Narnia AU and the couple of oneshots I posted on ao3 under ASkyOfKai, you've probably noticed that in this little universe I've created, Narnia is sort of...sentient. And I've just realized that I've only actually gone into depth about this on Discord with my friends who are probably very tired of hearing about it. So I'm making y'all suffer through it instead. Welcome to Inhuman Narnia 101, please take your seats because this is going to take a while.

Warning for religious themes, theological discussion, and some dark fantasy/inhuman/body horror concepts that involve blood and physical changes.

BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING: Please keep in mind that an AU is meant to be an alternate universe that may not follow canon information. If anything in this post contradicts canon on the creation of Narnia (it undoubtedly will), pay it no mind, this is an AU. It doesn't have to follow canon.

First off, a little explanation of the Inhuman Narnia AU in general. Basically I came up with this AU after seeing some other people on tumblr post about the Pevensies being not quite human after their time in Narnia. Just eerie, cryptid, a bit of dark fantasy kinda stuff. And I was like, "I'm in love, sign me up, I have ideas." I did not sit down and develop this all at once. The worldbuilding I've done for it has come slowly over the past few weeks through posts, fanfics, and discord rambles. The idea of Narnia being a sentient earth deity of sorts is a recent one and there is already so much to it. (Also I call her Narnia because it's convenient, she has other names but I haven't bothered to like, actually make any up so Narnia is what she's called.)

The most important thing to note starting off is that Narnia is not supposed to be a replacement for Aslan, nor is she necessarily "the hero to his villain". Aslan and I have an interesting relationship, as he is literally God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit/etc and I no longer really identify as Christian. While there are times that Aslan definitely takes a more antagonistic route in my writings, I don't actually see him as a bad guy, nor as a good guy. As God, he literally removed from our concepts of good and evil (in my opinion). The same goes for Narnia being an earth deity. I am a Christian-raised pagan, and I definitely subscribe to the idea that gods and deities are not subject to humanity and our rules. Narnia is not a good goddess, she is not a bad goddess, she simply is a goddess. Plain and simple. The dichotomy that exists between Narnia and Aslan in my writing is generally that of opposing deities, but this isn't a hard and fast rule. There were and still are times when they're friends, working towards the same goals. There are times when Narnia's power is stronger than Aslan's and times when Aslan's power is stronger than hers. There is no simple 1:1 comparison between them.

So, getting into motivations and why Narnia as a deity even exists. Essentially, I asked the question, "How do the Pevensies become inhuman?" and voila earth deity Narnia was born. Now, the basic in-universe mythology I've worked out is that Narnia and Aslan are two deities from separate dimensions that came together to create a new world, the world of Narnia. Aslan is the one who oversees things, he's the one who comes up with the ideas, and he's a little less attached to the world as a whole because he's a Creator, not an earth deity. Narnia is, however, and she literally makes up the world, she sort of runs the entire thing on a physical level, and she is much more attached to it. So she's always kinda taken on this role of making the things in her world the way she wants them. For the most part, she and Aslan designed everything together and they're both happy with it blah blah blah. Well, Aslan then decides to bring a few humans from this other world he's created to Narnia. And she affects them a bit (I've got headcanons about Digory and Polly that I haven't posted anywhere yet but I might soon), but it isn't until Aslan brings the Pevensies over that she really gets to experiment. See, there are other deities in the world that kinda rule over the various lands on a surface level (patron gods for Telmar, the Archenlands, etc, they just have less power than Narnia and Aslan) so she has a little less power over the people in those places, but the country of Narnia is both her land and her so when the Pevensies become the Kings and Queens and live there for 15 years, she's very connected to them. And it's through this connection that she starts to affect them. Honestly, I'm not sure if Narnia even knows what she's doing when she starts stripping away their humanity. I think it's that she can feel they're not from her world and she doesn't like that. She wants them to be a part of her, she wants them to belong in her world just the same as everyone else. (Side note—I know Telmar and some other lands in canon are based on people finding portals and coming through and I'd like to say that she does affect them a bit, takes away a bit of their humanity, but it's not to the same extent as the Kings and Queens of her lands).

"So Kai," you might say, "You keep empathizing that she is literally the land and the land is her. What the hell do you mean by that?" Well, essentially, she is...the...land. Basically if you've read Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus, there's this idea that Gaia and Tartarus are both physically their domains and able to take on a smaller, human shaped physical form because they're gods and not restricted by human ideas of only having one body. Narnia is the same. Her physical form is both the entire world and whatever smaller shape she might appear in to people. However, we have to acknowledge that their world is differently structurally from ours. There's magic, there's talking animals, and in my Inhuman AU, there is a literal Heart of Narnia at the center. Like a physical, beating, human-shaped heart. Except it's a lot bigger than a regular human heart. Also it's golden. And many many many miles underground. So anyways this is where she's centered. It's basically where her soul is. Probably under Cair Paravel because I just came up with that idea and I love it. And radiating out from it are veins of magic and blood, and these stretch all across the world. Now here is where we get into blood magic and some of those fun terrifying concepts I've come up with.

Narnia has her own blood, of course, but also whenever one of her Kings or Queens bleeds in battle, she kinda pulls it down through the earth into her own heart and veins. It doesn't really do anything to her or them in particular, it's just a fun side effect of them having a patron pagan god. Yes this includes Caspian after he becomes King. Also Peter's blood turns golden because he's the High King, and then later Caspian's does too because I just really like imagery of Ben Barnes bleeding gold. (Side note—when Peter returns to England, his blood goes back to red, but it does remain a brighter red than blood generally is).

Diverting for half a second here. Now, in both my regular Narnia writings and my Inhuman AU, Lucy is very very connected to magic. In my regular Narnia fanfic, she studies with the druids, who are sort of like BBC Merlin's druids. They're just like, chill dudes who run around in camps doing magic and making prophecies and shit. However, in the Inhuman AU, they are a lot darker. One of my favorite ideas with the Inhuman druids and Lucy is that they are so connected to Narnia's magic and her Heart that their hands become stained with blood. Is it their blood, is it Narnia's blood, is it someone else's blood? Idk, don't ask questions. But yea, their hands are permanently stained reddish-brown to almost black. In my regular Narnia stuff, I still like the idea of Lucy's hands being stained and go with just earth magic, dirt stuff for the reason why. But yea no, in the Inhuman AU her hands are stained with blood because of blood magic.

So getting a bit more into how Narnia affects the Pevensies now because I love talking about this lol. She doesn't consciously chose how to change them, though she does call them her creations. Generally the way her magic affects them is by connecting them to to the land in some way and bringing out certain traits they have. So for Peter it's his eyes flickering between regular blue and the amber of a lion's, feathers appearing on his back that grow into wings, having a strength greater than that of a giant's. His blood is golden and on clear nights, the Aurora Borealis in the sky is reflected across his skin. For Susan, her skin glints like glass in the sun and she can briefly glimpse the future. Her wounds are sewn shut with golden rays of light, her eyes are cracked but clear, and she seems to glow faintly in the night, a bit of the sun's radiance shining through her. Edmund has a bit of a star's power lodged in his throat, and can manipulate words, uses them to influence people and their actions. His skin is frostbitten in places, a side effect of ruling the Woods where the White Witch once held so much power, and in some spots his bones shine under the ice that spreads across his skin. Lucy has the stained skin from her stronger connection to magic, and when she speaks words from the Old Language (the one Aslan and Narnia used to shape the world itself), her voice echoes and rasps. Her teeth are too sharp, her smile too wide, and when she disappears underwater, she can stay for hours without surfacing. I want to get into Eustace and Caspian now too but this post is already extremely long and I've still got a bit to cover, so we're just sticking with the Pevensies for now. So yea, Narnia doesn't pick what she does to the Pevensies, she just connects herself to them and through that connection, they change. The magic that she is made of, that Narnia the world operates on, that's what changes them. However, as I stated already, she does call them her creations and feels extremely responsible for them.

Wrapping back around up to the beginning, this is the biggest source of conflict between her and Aslan as of the canon timeline. I like to believe that the lamppost incident was an accident, that Aslan didn't actually mean to send them back at the end of LWW and it was pure coincidence, wrong place wrong time stuff. That being said, it did happen and Narnia really didn't like it happening. The Pevensies did return to their (mostly) human selves in this AU in England, so when they came back in Prince Caspian, she felt disconnected from them again. She reacted to this by digging into them even harder on a spiritual level and essentially speedran them back to being inhuman throughout the timeline of PC, which generally takes place over a few months in my mind. I don't remember how long it was in the book, it's been quite a while since I read them, but it's only like a week in the movie and like eff that, overthrowing a kingdom takes a bit longer in my opinion. Now there are a few divergences here. 1. They all stay at the end of PC and yea that's it, they go back to being Kings and Queens and it's like a second Golden Age but with Caspian there as well. 2. Susan and Peter stay, Lucy and Edmund go back and it's a repeat of the human/inhumanity cycle for them + Eustace in VOTDT and then they stay. 3. Everything happens exactly as it does in canon and it's a constant cycle of humanity/inhumanity with the character's various trips and finally ends at The Last Battle. I like all versions and I tend to leave things a little open to the reader on what exactly happens, or I would if I could actually finish some of my drafts and post them. As you can imagine, Narnia likes 1 the best and 3 the least. She really wants her Kings and Queens to stay and rule her lands and like be awesome and stuff. However, Aslan prefers 3 the best and 1 the least. So again, neither of them is really good nor evil, they just have differing opinions on how the world should be run and what the Pevensie's fates should be. I do tend to side with Narnia, I really like exploring these concepts of inhumanity, but I also really like the concept of a cycle. That's very common in mythology.

So anyways, that's a bit of an overview on earth deity Narnia and her role in my Inhuman AU. If you made it this far, congratulations, and I give you explicit permission to use any of my ideas in your own writing/fanart/whatever, as long as you tag either my tumblr or my ao3 (lord-of-christmas-lights and ASkyOfKai) because I need more Narnia+Inhumanity content in my life. Thanks for reading all this and I'll probably be back very soon with elaboration on Eustace and Caspian's inhumanity!

- Kai

#inhuman/dark fantasy narnia #the chronicles of narnia #peter pevensie #susan pevensie #edmund pevensie #lucy pevensie #aslan #digory kirke #eustace scrubb #caspian x #narnia headcanons #rambles of a hyperfixating kai

[glassartpeasants]

Like Father, Like Son

Overhaul x F!Reader

Warnings: Angst, unhealthy/toxic relationships, child abuse, mentions of needles

A/N: This is a post based on a head cannon made by @yandereacademia which you can see here. I promise I will continue the DDLC AU but I needed to get this angst outta my system because I’ve been really stressed lately lol. Also the original storyline is kinda bumped up to fit the story

~~~

The only reason you were with the sociopath called Overhaul is because of a stupid mistake you made about 5 months ago. If you could go back in time you would’ve never drank that much until you were blackout drunk. You had somehow managed to sleep with the germophobic man after you both crossed paths when you both were blackout drunk. Which leaded where you are now. In the Shie Hassakai base, pregnant with his child. 

Once you showed him the test he demanded- no, MADE you quit your old job ad live in the base with him. Not in his room of course.Who knows what germs you could be carrying! You don’t get special treatment even if you are the mother of his child. And If we’re being honest, he doesn’t really see it as his child. More like an heir. How else would the Shie Hassakai live on? 

He doesn’t even see you that often. He sends either Chrono or Mimic to look after you. Sometimes Setsuno. You liked Setsuno since he actually treated you like a human rather than a burden. Chrono was a bit better than mimic. Mimic was just a plain ass. 

Your entire pregnancy was all about check ups. Healthy food, did I mention checkups? It was almost every Tuesday and Friday that he made you come into a little doctors room and inspect you and give you ultrasounds. You felt more like an incubator rather than a mother, but you digress. Once you got the news that the child was a boy you bet your ass Overhaul was way more worried about you than he originally was.

You wanted to run really. You saw what horrible things Overhaul had done. You didn’t want your child to end up like Eri or to turn into a shit human being like Overhaul. You wanted your child to grow up compassionate and kind, not a stone cold murderer with no remorse for human life.

Maybe once your child is born you can teach him those things in secret...

~~~

2 years after the child is born

You were right, Overhaul wanted nothing to do with the baby until it was old enough to be taught the ways of the yakuza. He wasn’t even impressed when the baby started talking and walking! You wanted to yell, scream, argue, and just hurt the man in general. A child needs support, not a unimpressed look everytime they do an accomplishment. 

You always supported your son. Showing him how proud you were whenever he handed you a drawing of him and you. Overhaul barely even saw the kid which affected him to the point where the kid didn’t even draw him in pictures.

You were happy that your baby didn’t see/look up to Overhaul as a fatherly figure. Man didn’t deserve to be called one or be one. You were worried if Overhaul would use your son as a experiment like he was using Eri.  

Speaking of Eri, you finally convinced Overhaul to let you see her and comfort her after he used her for the bullets. She was such a sweetie and especially loved how you would sing her to sleep whenever she has a bad day. You didn’t get to see her a lot, but you did what you could when you did. If only you could make Overhaul see what he was doing to everyone around him...

~~~

Your son just turned 8

Everyday your son looked more and more liked his father. Not to mention he inherited Overhaul’s quirk It wouldn’t have bothered you that much if it weren’t for the fact that he started looking up to his father. Whenever your so was getting put to bed by you, he would always tell you about how much he wanted to be the next leader. He would tell you how he watched Overhaul to paperwork, sat next to him in meetings and such. The finally straw for you was when he told you that Overhaul let him use his quirk on a living breathing human being. To say you were furious was an understatement. All you saw was red. 

You smiled at the boy before pressing a kiss to his head and walking out his door while whispering goodnight before your started your expedition to give Overhaul a piece of your mind. You’ve stayed quiet for to long. You couldn’t just let him expose your child to such violence at such a young age! All you saw was red as you walked to his office door. Giving it a harsh knock you were allowed entry.

Upon entering you notice that you are the only one there with him. Just the two of you. You were afraid yes, but your anger out did it.

“Did you seriously let our son use his quirk on someone at such a young age?! He’s only 8! He doesn’t need to be exposed so early!” You yelled at him with your hands on your hips. You knew if you pointed at him you could say goodbye to that finger.

“He’s going to be the next leader. It’s only natural to start him off early. And I don’t remember giving you a say in the matter.” His voice cold and stoic but a hint of annoyance caught your ears.

“8 is way to early! Please Overhaul, Just give me 2-3 more years without him experiencing what you do.” You begged him. Tears threatened to spill from your eyes. You only wanted what was best for your son. Your heart stopped when you heard Overhaul get up from his desk and his footsteps come near your now slightly shaking form.

“Bold of you to assume I would let him miss out on very needed skills to become the next leader. We both know that if it weren’t for him, you would have been dead the second i found out I slept with you. That boy is the only thing that kept you alive. So, from now on, I expect you to never come to my face. Talking about him needing to be kind and compassionate, is not the way of the yakuza. One more incident like this, than I’ll make him kill you myself.” Your eyes widened as you looked at the man in front of you. You can feel your blood run cold in your veins as it circulates through your body. Tears streaked down your face as you felt so defeated. Your entire body felt like you’ve been crushed by a car. 

You turned around and walked out the door and into your room. Locking the door your jumped onto your bed, grabbing the pillow before screaming into it. Your tears stained the pillow case as your body shook. You felt so hopeless and so helpless. Where was a hero when you truly needed one?

~~~

The next day

You were just finished changing before your son barged into your room. You were about to say good morning to him before he started screaming at you. Shocked you told him to calm down, but in the corner of your eye you saw the purple feathers that you have learned to fear walk by.

“What are you saying? Please calm down!” You say as you try to soothe your screaming child.

“How dare you try and take me away from dad! Dad told me everything!” Your son flailed his arms up and down while stomping on the ground. His screams soon turned incoherent.

“Baby! I would never-”

“Liar! Dad told me that you wanted to leave him! He said that you thought he didn’t deserve a son!” You didn’t say that what was he on?! You only wanted to protect him! You loved your son to the point you would die for him! What had Overhaul said to him!

“Please sweetie calm down-”

“No! I never want to talk to you again!” Your son ran out the door before slamming it shut. Your heart felt shattered as you heard Overhauls voice on the other side, ’calming’ your distressed son. You felt your world crumbling around you as your son was the only thing that kept you happiness in these dark times. Him and Eri. Oh Eri, if he grows up that means...

You felt vomit rise in your throat at the thought of your own son hurting such a sweet, innocent, little girl. You fall to your knees as tears spill down your cheeks. You couldn’t just run away from the Shie Hassakai ever. The base is fully guarded, and has high max security cameras. Not to mention the probability of them finding you and your son right away. If you even tried, you would probably get you and your son hurt. Maybe even little Eri. 

Your whole body felt numb. You just wished it was a horrible nightmare.

~~~

5 months later

As the weeks pass by, you felt your hurt break more and more everyday. Your son had kept his word when he said he ever wanted to talk to you again. You haven’t heard your baby's voice since that day. Hell, now you barely even see him! You see Eri more than your actual son now. ANd seeing Eri was not that often.

You felt hopeless. You wanted nothing more to do than crawl in a hole and die. Every night was spent crying over your son and how your life and gone so down hill so quickly. You didn’t even feel like moving. You just sat in the corner of the room since it felt like the only warm spot in the entire room. This little corner felt like some sort of sanctuary in this horrible place you call home. 

~~~

Your son just turned 13

Day whatever of the last time your son talked to you. And day whatever since you’ve left your room. You had no reason anymore. Overhaul officially banished you from ever seeing Eri again. Your world was crushed once more. At this point you felt like your whole existence was useless. 

Your days grew darker by the minute as your mental health seemed to be slipping through your fingers. You only ever moved when you needed to go to the bathroom or to drag the food plate that was brought to you by some employee of Overhaul. You barely ate anything anyways so you really saw no point in doing anything anymore. 

It only hurt more knowing that today was his birthday. You had asked the employee that brought you food if he had a party or just something to celebrate. You felt the last of your hope crushed once you heard his answer.

“The only thing he got was a official Shie Hassakai mask.”

~~~

Your son turned 15

You body was weak. You had refused to eat anything seeing no point in it anymore. You were always tired. Only getting up to go to the bathroom then sitting back in the corner that once gave you sanctuary. 

You heard footsteps on the outside of your door as the familiar voice of Overhaul was on the other side. Another voice rang in your ears and it hit you like a train once you realized who’s it was. It was your sons. His voice was so much deeper than the little boy’s you had once heard. It only deepened your sadness. You blinked but didn’t even turn your eyes once you heard the door opening. 

“We can test the serum out on her first. She’s too weak to fight back.”

“I didn’t know my mother had a quirk.” You couldn’t even make your eyes turn to look at them. You didn’t want to see the monster your son had become. Your heart couldn’t take anymore heartbreak, You felt like you would crumble into nothing.

You felt a light get shine into your eyes. You didn’t even blink during it. Once the light was gone you got a clear look at your once loving son. A mask covered his face just like his fathers did. He looked you in the eyes and you did the same. You wanted to cry but held it down. 

A latex hand grabbed your arm before you felt the needle being poked into it. You didn’t even flinch or wince. Almost as if you were a lifeless doll. A hand moved up and down your face as if to see if you were even alive or ‘there’.

“She isn’t responding to anything. She didn’t even wince. She’s breathing but she looks like she’s sick.” All that was one ear and out the other. Finally you felt the needle leave your arm as a sigh escaped Overhaul’s lips. 

“Well wait for about an hour or two and see the effects. For now, we have to do more tests on Eri. Lets go.” So...he was apart of the team experimenting on Eri. You felt like throwing up. How could the boy who you raised to be kind and compassionate turn into such a disgusting monster.

The sound of their footsteps leaving the room hit your ears. From the corner of your eye you say your son about to leave before you spoke up,

“You are not my son.” You saw him stop in his tracks as he turned to look at you. His eyes a bit wide but said nothing.

“I never want to hear you call me your mother ever again. Your a monster undeserving of one. I can’t believe I gave birth to someone like you. I never want ot see your face again.” In your monotone words they’re were spikes laced in venom. You couldn’t even look your own son in the eyes. As they we’re the same as his monster of a father. 

“Get out of my room and never come back.” You heard him close the door slowly as you let out a breath once you finally saw him gone. You can barely stand to see the monster your child had become. But, you didn’t see nor hear the way his breathing became ragged. Or how his eyes felt like spilling tears. Or how his body slowly shook at your words. 

‘It shouldn’t hurt. This shouldn’t hurt me. Why does it hurt so bad? Please stop it. Her words shouldn’t affect me. Why does it hurt?’

#overhaul x reader #bnha overhaul #mha #bnha #overhaul #chisaki kai #shie hassaikai #kai chisaki #kai chisaki x reader #mha angst #bnha angst #kai #angst #yakuza

[bobohu4eva]

Pink Lace - Chapter 4

Characters: Baekhyun x Reader

Genre: College AU, stripper AU, fluff, smut, slow burn

Summary: Baekhyun, a philosophy professor with mysterious wealth, got himself completely fucked over a girl who can’t let him into her life.

Word count: 4k

Warnings: sex work, mentions of sexual assault, adult themes/situations, eventual smut

Tag list: @smolbeanmika @leave-me-in-the-summertime @totallynerdstuff @bbhmystar @nana-banana @kimyhappy @thegreatandi @geniusloey @deligxt @baekswifey @bbhyun506 @lovebuginlove @bellamendoza @baekyeonoreo

Masterlist

When you woke up your head was pounding. Reluctantly, you dragged yourself out of bed anyway.

“Hey Mia” you spoke as you knocked on her door “I need a favor.” 

She opened the door just enough for you to see her tired form, bedhead and all looking back at you. 

“It’s 9am on a Sunday what the hell y/n.” She opened the door the rest of the way and rubbed her eyes. “What is it?” 

You felt bad waking her up, but you needed to tell her what had happened. And you needed your car back, which was still parked at the club. 

“I’ll explain more on the way, but Baekhyun drove me home from work last night and I need you to take me to my car.” 

You saw your roommates eyes widen “He drove you home? Are you insane?” 

“Just let me explain everything, I promise it’s not as crazy as it sounds.” 

“Okay, let me get dressed though.” She looked at you skeptically, closing the door and meeting you in the living room soon after to get going.

“So he drove you home.” She stated simply, keeping her eyes on the road as she made her way through the streets towards your work. 

“I know it sounds bad but he saved my ass last night. I was so nervous about him possibly showing up that I let some assholes get me blackout drunk. When he showed up he took me into a room to sleep it off and drove me home.” 

“You got wasted at work? You know how dangerous that is.” She reprimanded you. 

“I know, I know. And I usually don’t, but these guys seemed nice and I was so nervous that I just kept taking the shots they bought me. The assholes had me in a VIP room for a while too, from what Baekhyun told me. I can’t remember any of it though, thank god. All I remember is laughing and having a good time and then waking up with my head on his lap.” 

“Baekhyun’s lap? How do you know he didn’t just make it all up to seem like some sort of hero?” 

“Yeah.. He usually always gets there early, like 7 or 8, and when I woke up it was past midnight. He told me I was asleep for a few hours.” 

“So he just sat and watched you sleep that whole time... that’s not weird at all.” 

“I told you it’s not like that! If it wasn’t for him I would’ve been all on my own last night. I don’t even wanna think about all the fucked up shit that could’ve happened to me in there if he hadn’t taken me somewhere safe to sleep it off.” 

Mia stayed quiet. She knew you were right, Baekhyun had actually helped you. 

“I can’t explain it but it’s different with him, he’s not like the other guys there at all.” 

“Y/n, do you like him?” 

Her question caught you off guard. You didn’t know what to say. Did you like Baekhyun? 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean do you like him as more than just a customer.” 

“Well...” There was a pause, and you knew she could tell what was going on in your head. 

As you were trying to form your thoughts, Mia was already pulling into the parking lot of your work. She parked next to you, but before unlocking the doors she looked over at you. 

“You know you can tell me anything. I’m not gonna judge you if you have a crush on your professor, even if I think it’s a really bad idea. You’re my best friend.” 

“I don’t know what I feel. He’s always so sweet to me that it’s hard not to like him, even though I know I shouldn’t. I know I’m pushing these feelings down but they’re getting harder and harder to ignore.” 

She gave you a sympathetic look and you heard her car doors unlock. “Let’s get home, it’s too early to be thinking about this now anyway.” 

You got out and entered your own car, starting it and making your way back towards your shared home. When you got back you started making breakfast for the both of you, as both a thank you and I’m sorry for waking her up so early on a weekend. 

The two of you were in the middle of destroying some cinnamon rolls when she caught you off guard again. “Do you have a picture of Baekhyun? This whole time I’ve been  imagining him as a smelly neckbeard. He’s cuter than that, right?” She asked you, and you couldn’t help but crack up. 

“Yes” you laughed “he’s cute, really cute actually. Definitely the most attractive professor I’ve had in a while. Let me see if I can find something.” 

“Ooooo yes I wanna see.”

You logged into your universities website and started searching around, seeing if there were any photos of him there. To your dismay you couldn’t find anything on there, so your next guess was facebook. You typed in his full name, and what popped up was not what you had been expecting. 

There were several posts, all fairly old, and all pictures of him with his arm around a beautiful girl. His ex. 

Mia saw the change in your face and immediately snatched your phone out of your hand to see for herself. 

“What the fuck y/n...” She said as she stared at the phone, eyes wide. “THIS is him? This man right here.” She turned the phone around, pointing at him. 

“...Yeah. And I think that’s his ex in the picture too.” 

“Fuck the ex y/n this man is fucking beautiful... no wonder you like him. I would too. I’m sure half the girls in your class would love to hop on that.” 

You took your phone back, looking intently at the image on the screen. 

“She’s pretty.” 

“Who? His ex? Of course she is, look at him!” You just kept staring at the picture of the two of them together, feeling how it made your stomach twist up in discomfort. “Damn you do like him if you’re that stressed over one picture with his ex.” 

You knew she was just teasing, but she was still right. 

“Shut up, I just haven’t seen her before. I knew about her but seeing a picture of them together feels different.” 

“Y/n you have the fattest crush on this guy come on just admit it.” 

“It’s not a crush! I just think he’s an interesting person, and he’s attractive, and he likes me, soo..” 

“So what? Are you gonna try to fuck your professor?” 

“MIA” You shouted, and grabbed a pillow to hit her with. 

“Come on if I had a professor that hot I would too! And you already know he’s into you too.” She said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, prompting you to roll your eyes. 

“He’s my professor, that’s the problem.” You sighed. “And my customer. Starting anything with him is a bad idea.” 

“It’s definitely a bad idea, but it could be really fun.” 

“An hour ago you thought I was crazy for letting him drive me home and now you’re telling me I should sleep with my professor just cause he’s hot?!” 

“Well I didn’t know what he looked like then! You should’ve at least told me he was cute.” 

“You’re so shallow!” 

“I’m not shallow! Y/n you need some spice in your life, maybe he could be good for you. And he’s rich.” Her eyes suddenly went wide, before asking you, “What car does he drive?” 

“An Audi... we still don’t know if he is though! He’s still just a professor, remember?” 

“You should try to find out how he has all this money, what if he’s secretly a mafia boss or something.” 

You only rolled your eyes. Sweet, shy little Baekhyun, a mafia boss? It was laughable. He was way too nice. 

“If he is rich, I don’t know how. Maybe he’s just a trust fund baby or something.” 

“Yeah maybe, but you’re gonna find out! Did he pay you last night?” 

That thought hadn’t even crossed your mind, you assumed your money bag was empty when you got home since you hadn’t given any dances but you hadn’t looked inside of it either. “I don’t know... let me check.” 

You got up and went to your room, returning with the bag. You sat back down in the living room with Mia and dramatically unzipped it, before holding it upside down and shaking it. Both you and Mia gasped at what fell out. Hundred after hundred fell until your living room couch was decorated with hundred dollar notes. 

“What the fuck...” You heard Mia whisper, obviously just as shocked as you. 

You gathered the money and counted the bills. Over two thousand dollars had been in that bag. You looked at your friend in disbelief. “He must’ve paid me for every hour I was asleep...” 

“Holy shit” 

“I have to give it back, this is too much.” You started shoving the money back into the bag, but Mia grabbed your wrist, stopping you. 

“Are you crazy? He gave you the money for a reason! You’re basically set for the rest of the semester now.” She was looking you in the eyes intently now, not letting you ignore her. 

“No, you don’t understand. I didn’t even give him a dance or anything I was literally just asleep and then cried a lot, he shouldn’t have paid me at all.” You said, shaking your head in disbelief.

“It’s your money and I can’t tell you what to do with it but I’d keep it if I were you. You’ll probably just hurt his feelings trying to give it back.” 

“I don’t care. I’m giving it back. Especially if he is just a professor I don’t want him spending any more money on me.” 

“It’s up to you...” She looked skeptical. You knew she wanted you to keep the money so she could reap some of the benefits as well, although she would’ve never admitted to it. Deep down you just couldn’t help but worry that Baekhyun couldn’t afford to give you that much. You had to at least try to give it back. 

The rest of Sunday went by in a blur of netflix movies and youtube videos. Sundays were your lazy days, a sacred tradition you were dedicated to keep. You knew however that when Monday rolled around, you were going to have to try to give Baekhyun his money back. You weren’t sure what that would look like, but for now the plan was to just corner him after class and tell him he needed it more than you did. Hopefully, he would accept it and that would be the end of it. 

~

Class on Monday was even more confusing than the previous days. You felt like you understood less with each passing class period, not more. The concepts he talked about only got more and more abstract, to the point where you had little clue what was going on at all. 

You were anxious about class ending as well, since you were going to have to face him to try to return his money. 

Eventually the lecture ended, and today you had to wait for several other students to talk to him first before he could get to you. They all had questions about their essays, the essay you had yet to even start. 

You knew Baekhyun saw you waiting and purposefully made you go last, although this time you were grateful. 

“Do you need help with you essay too?” He asked once he was done talking to the last student. You shook your head. 

You glanced towards the door, making sure the last student was out of the room before before pulling out the stack of cash that had been in your bag Sunday morning. “I can’t accept this.” You said, placing it on his desk. 

Baekhyun looked surprised, however he still wasn’t going to make this easy for you. 

“Why not?” He asked simply, looking genuinely confused. 

“I have plenty of money already, from you. I didn’t even give you a dance or anything and I know you don’t make THAT much as a professor and I just-”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me y/n. Just keep it. I promise I’ll be just fine without it.” 

“No. You need it more than I do, I already have enough to keep me going for a while and this was too much, I didn’t even do anything to deserve it.” 

“Y/n. Please. Just take it.” The look on his face was tired. You could tell he was telling the truth, he wanted you to have it, but that didn’t stop you from feeling guilty, and you weren’t taking no for an answer. 

“You’re a college professor, not some hotshot CEO, I know you don’t have this kind of money Baekhyun. I’m not keeping it.” You said, crossing your arms. 

Baekhyun just sighed, scratching the back of his head. He looked annoyed, but also somehow.. sad? 

“I told you there’s a lot you don’t know about me. And I’m not taking it back.” He said staring down at the wad of cash. Obviously he wasn’t taking no for an answer either.

“Baekhyun pleaaase” You looked at him again, giving him your best puppy eyes but he wasn’t having it. His face remained stoic, the only visible emotion was a twinge of what looked like sadness. 

“Y/n...” He sighed again. “I’m going to my office now. You can come with me, or you can take your money and go home.” He said sternly.

You pouted, but picked the money back up, shoved it back in your pocket, and followed him anyway. Eventually he unlocked the door to what you assumed to be his office and he held the door for you to walk in. He sat down at his desk, and you sat across from him on the other side. As you looked around, you couldn’t help but smile at how Baekhyun the office was. The space was very cozy, filled with little trinkets and lots of books, all of which you were sure would make absolutely no sense to you. Everything felt so much like him. He had pictures of him and his friends sprinkled throughout as well, and the room even smelled like his comforting scent. 

You took the wad of cash back out of your pocket and placed it on his desk. He didn’t acknowledge it. 

Once both of you were sitting down, an awkward silence filled the air. Baekhyun was sitting right across from you, but instead of the usual intense eye contact you’d grown accustomed to, he was staring solemnly down at his desk. 

He was the first one to break the silence. 

“My parents died in a freak accident last December.” He said it without looking up at you, eyes still fixated on his desk. “A semi hit them going 20 over. They both died on impact.” 

Your stomach lurched. “Baekhyun wh-”

“Between the two of them they had quite a bit of money. I inherited it. I could quit this job if I wanted to. I have more than I even know what to do with, so just keep the money, please.” 

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know...” Your voice was barely loud enough for Baekhyun to hear. Finally he looked up and you met his eyes. 

“There’s no way you could’ve. I understand why you probably thought what you did but I definitely don’t need it, so keep it.” 

“But-”

“If anything” he interrupted “I feel bad I couldn’t give you more. We were up there longer than what I paid you for but that’s all the cash I had on me and I didn’t wanna have to leave you alone to go to the ATM.” 

“Baekhyun, I...”

“You can go now, sorry if that was uncomfortable but I wanted to tell you before you insisted on giving the money back.” He said, scooting the cash back towards your end of the desk. His expression was once again blank, making it impossible for you to try to figure out what was going on in his head. 

“It’s okay. I’m sorry about your parents.” 

Although he had told you you could leave, you found yourself planted in the chair and against your better judgement, you stayed. Maybe it was the cozy feel of the room, or the comforting smell of old books and vanilla, but you didn’t want to leave yet. 

“Were you really close with them?”

He smiled at your question, and because you were still sitting in front of him, even though you didn’t have to be. 

“Yeah, they were amazing parents. They always supported the things I was passionate about. Lots of parents would get mad at their kid for studying something as useless as philosophy but they always had my back.” He sighed solemnly, the sadness making it’s way onto his face. “You never really learn to appreciate things until they’re taken from you. I should’ve visited them more often, told them I loved them more. Everything I have now is because of them.”

“I’m sure they were really proud of you.” 

“Yeah, luckily I was able to make the best out of my degree. Most people who study philosophy aren’t as lucky and end up doing something totally unrelated. I at least get to teach people about something I’m passionate about.”

“Is that why you keep working here even if you don’t need the money?” 

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “ And I know my parents wouldn’t want me to quit just because of the money. It would also get awfully boring to just sit around at home all day and not work anyway. I like having somewhere to go and feel productive.” He paused for a second, eyes meeting yours again. “And if I wasn’t here I wouldn’t get to see you.” His face turned up into a smile with his last sentence. 

At first his words made you think he was just trying to find an excuse to hit on you, but his face told a different story. His smile was so gentle and welcoming, it didn’t feel like any kind of sexual advance, just his raw emotions. Emotions that he was willing to show you without any filter. Baekhyun had always been so open with his feelings with you, it made you feel even worse for how hesitant you were about your own.

You couldn’t help the pink tint growing on your cheeks at his statement. 

“You’re blushing.” He said, now grinning. 

“Shut up.” You tried to hide your face, but with him sitting directly across from you, staring intently there was nothing you could hide.

“You’re lucky I like you enough to let you talk to me like that, any other student would be in trouble.” 

“So you admit I get special treatment?” You asked, leaning back in the chair and crossing your arms, one eyebrow raised at him. 

Before answering, Baekhyun leaned towards you, resting an elbow on the desk, halving the distance between the two of you. “Sweetheart, I’ve never even spoken to a student outside of campus. Special treatment is an understatement.” 

Your face turned an even deeper shade of red at his use of the pet name, which didn’t go unnoticed by him. 

“Y/n, do you have a boyfriend?” He asked you as casually as one would ask about the weather. Your eyes widened, not at all expecting him to ask such a thing. 

For a moment you just stared at him in disbelief, hoping he’d say something else but his expression remained the same. Eventually you shook your head, but before he could ask you anything more you had your own question for him. 

“What happened with your ex?” 

Immediately his face fell into a deep frown. You’d caught him off guard again, and this time he didn’t quite know what to say. 

“Well...” He said, still pausing to think. “After I got the inheritance from my parents things just changed. All we did was fight about money. She didn’t even seem to care that my parents were dead. She just wanted access to the money. Eventually she realized I wasn’t going to give it to her and she left me.” 

“I’m so sorry, that’s awful.” 

“But that’s how I got to meet you.” He smiled, taking one of your hands in his. “I’m glad she left me when she did, and Chanyeol talked me into going to the club that night.” 

“Baekhyun...” You felt yourself getting scared again. The things he was telling you and the way he held your hand was beginning to feel too intimate, to a point where you were becoming anxious. You felt an unfamiliar sensation blooming in the pit of your stomach. 

“I remember when he pitched the idea to me, I called him a dumbass.” He laughed. “I really didn’t wanna go but he dragged me in there.” 

“Well I’m glad he did too.” You responded shyly, before you could think twice about your own words.  

Now it was Baekhyun's turn to blush. He was already shocked enough that you were willingly staying in his office, hearing you say something that flirty to him sent his mind into chaos. 

“Y/n...” He grabbed both of your hands now, looking into your eyes with that familiar intensity. “Do you.. like me? Not as a customer or a professor, but as a man?” 

He had been wanting to ask you since Saturday night, but couldn’t find the courage. He knew how terrible of an idea it was to be having this conversation with one of his students, but when it came to you all rational thought seemed to fly out the window. He had stayed up all night torturing himself with the thought. He needed to know. 

But you could only stare back wordlessly. Not because you didn’t want to tell him no, but because you couldn’t deny to yourself that you did like him. You just couldn’t get the words out. It was one thing to feel something deep inside your heart. It was another to be able to say it out loud.

Baekhyun quickly noticed your discomfort and withdrew his hands. “You don’t have to answer that, sorry. But you know how I feel about you. I just need to know. Whatever your answer is, whenever you’re ready to tell me, I’ll accept it. If you want me to leave you be, just tell me and we can act like we never knew each other before last Monday.” 

But you didn’t want that, not at all. Your feelings for him had only grown and you couldn’t see yourself ever going back to only seeing him as your professor. It was too late for that now that you knew what his arms felt like wrapped around you. 

“I know I don’t want that.” You said so quietly, it was almost inaudible. But Baekhyun still heard you.

His eyes widened in surprise, but his smile found its way back into his face as well. “I really hoped you wouldn’t choose that. But whatever you do decide, will be fine by me.” 

“Okay.” You spoke, as you got up out of your chair. “I should go. Thank you for explaining everything.” 

“Don’t forget this” he said, holding the wad of cash. You sighed, and took it from him, shoving it back in your pocket “and thank you for listening.” 

Baekhyun waved you goodbye as you exited his office, shooting you another gorgeous smile that you couldn’t help but return. As you walked back home you felt that same unfamiliar feeling still blooming in your stomach. You tried to ignore it, but it was unmistakable. This is what people were talking about, the feeling of butterflies in your stomach when you talked to someone you liked. You’d felt it before with past flings and crushes, but never as much as now. 

And the more you let yourself think about it, the clearer it became to you. You were becoming just as fucked for him as he was for you. 

Next Chapter

#baekhyun #exo #baekhyun fluff #baekhyun smut #baekhyun fanfic #exo fanfic #exo fluff #exo smut

[sineala]

A Few Thoughts About Hurt/Comfort

I have been asked this month to make a post about hurt/comfort in Avengers comics. And I love h/c -- I actually have a massive number of WIPs right now that are h/c -- so I am very happy to talk about it! Anyway, this is not really all that planned out and this mostly turned into an excursus on Tony Stark's pain. I'm sure you're all surprised.

Like pretty much everyone else, I'm sure, I have found that everything lately has been... pretty tough. And the coping mechanism that really got me through last year and this year was reading and writing a lot of h/c, on the theory that, however lousy a day I'm having, I can absolutely make sure that Tony Stark has a worse one. And then I can make sure he gets hugs. Wish fulfillment? Why, yes. (Once at Hallmark I was trying to find a "get well soon" card, forgot what it was called, and described it to my wife as "a hurt/comfort card.") I think Marvel Comics -- the Avengers side, in particular -- is an interesting canon for h/c for a lot of reasons. Though, honestly, if you asked me to recommend you, a hurt/comfort fan, a new fandom, I would probably just hand you some Starsky & Hutch DVDs. Go watch "The Fix" and get back to me later. If you like that, there's way more where that came from. But there's still lots to love in Marvel! Superhero comics are really a goldmine as far as the hurt side of h/c. Because superheroes, and you probably have noticed this, get hurt a lot. They get hurt repeatedly, in fantastical ways that are probably impossible in real life both physically and emotionally (at least, I don't think anyone's invented mind control yet), and even the heroes without superhuman healing powers tend to get physically hurt a whole lot worse than actual people can take. Currently in Iron Man comics, Tony has a broken back and is dealing with this by locking himself into the armor as a backboard and injecting himself with massive doses of painkillers. He's busy! He's got stuff to do! He doesn't have time to lie around and heal! So, basically, if you name a kind of pain that you would like to see happen to a character, it's probably happened to superheroes. Multiple times. The downside, though, is that comics do not really deliver that well when it comes to the comfort part of h/c. They could. It's not inherent to the medium that they don't. But because of the serial nature of comics and also the fact the primary audience is dudes who want to read about people in spandex punching each other, a lot of the time they don't really feel the need to provide closure and write about people dealing with any of the hurt. (Raise your hand if you're still annoyed with the end of Hickman's Avengers run.) But at the same time, I think that's a quality that makes Avengers ripe for h/c fanfic. Because, generally speaking, fandom likes to provide the things that canon doesn't, and fandom is more than happy to provide the comfort. If you enjoy canonical h/c in comics, I think you really can't go wrong with Iron Man. One of the big innovations of modern Marvel Comics was the concept that heroes would also suffer from relatable human problems, and in practice what this means is that a lot of heroes start with a fully-loaded angst-ridden backstory and origin story, ripe for h/c. So Tony starts out by incurring a heart injury that he fully expects is going to kill him, which he responds to by vowing he won't get close to anyone so they won't be sad when he dies, and throughout the early Silver Age is constantly on the brink of death as his heart nearly gives out on him practically every issue. And then even after his heart gets (mostly) better, there are various plots involving his armor being detrimental to his health and him choosing to fight on anyway. It's hard for me to think of another superhero hitting that particular variety of h/c in exactly the same way. Sure, superheroes risk their lives constantly, because this is how superhero comics work, but Tony is the only one I can think of who is this constantly this badly off, physically. Like, think of all the other heroes who have had a continual solo presence as fan favorites across Marvel history -- Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine, maybe even Deadpool. You know what those guys all have? Healing factors! For the most part, they are not running around continually on the verge of death, and while there are certainly memorable arcs involving several of them being severely injured and/or dead, you really have to work at it. It's not their constant state of affairs, whereas Tony is the kind of superhero who shows up to a fight already bleeding out under his armor. Yeah, I know Extremis gave him a healing factor. But he didn't have it very long, and also he did some extremely dangerous things while he did have it; I'm pretty sure I've never seen Wolverine saying that he'll just solve a problem by cutting off his own foot. So, anyway, yeah, there are a bunch of good arcs involving h/c for Tony. If you're looking for physical injury, he has a whole bunch of heart problems over the years, gets several new hearts, then ruins his brain, et cetera. That level of hurt is basically the background pain of Tony's life; every so often, his heart will get damaged or he'll have to live in the armor or the armor will be killing him, et cetera. If you're looking for more unusual trauma, I am, as always, going to rec Manhunt, a relatively obscure arc in late v3 (IM v3 #65-69) in which Tony has an extremely bad week. His tech is stolen and used to bomb a building. Then he gets shot in the chest. Then while he's at the hospital a nurse tries and fails to poison him, and she then tries to beat him to death. Then he checks himself out of the hospital and a helicopter shoots missiles at him. Then he becomes a fugitive from justice. And then, oh, yeah, he has to fight the Mandarin. It is... a lot. (Volume 3 of Iron Man is pretty good as far as h/c possibilities. You've got a lot of physical pain, Carol's drinking arc, the Sentient Armor, both DreamVision arcs, and Manhunt. Manhunt is finally supposed to be out in trade this month, by the way.) There are of course the drinking arcs, which probably count as their own type of hurt. But if you haven't read the second drinking arc (IM #160-200), please do. Marvel likes to up the stakes on events (Fear Itself, Secret Empire) by making Tony drink, and it does work, I think. I feel like I've spoken at length about Tony's drinking elsewhere so I don't really want to rehash it all here. And then there's the emotional pain. Angst and drama is something that happens to a whole bunch of characters, yes, especially in comics, but somehow Tony seems to end up with possibly more than his fair share of it. Fandom likes to make a lot of Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, so much so that you might think, if you didn't know canon, that this was just fandom running with a throwaway mention of Tony's terrible childhood and making it worse. But, no, canon really does go there with a reasonable amount of frequency. Howard's actual first appearance is in a flashback where he's ordering teenage Tony to break up with his girlfriend because she's the daughter of one of Howard's business rivals. And then we get into the verbal abuse, and the physical abuse, and the time Howard made Tony take his first drink, and the part where Howard was a demon in hell who Tony fought while he insulted him. And more! Currently, in canon, Howard is alive again and is in league with Mephisto for the express purpose of ruining Tony's life. Also when Tony was a baby, Howard tried to trade him to Dracula. I think you can make an argument that fandom is actually showing restraint when compared to canon. Tony also has a whole lot of Terrible Exes whose presence and/or former presence in Tony's life can be used for a lot of hurt. If you've read any amount of fanfic, you probably know that the exes who get the most play in fandom are Sunset Bain and Tiberius Stone -- not that Tony and Ty were ever canonically a couple, of course, but fandom is definitely enamored of this idea. Ty and Sunset both have relatively similar interactions with Tony in canon, in that they are both liars and emotional abusers, heavy on the gaslighting, with the purpose of becoming more successful than Tony. They both also attempt to murder Tony, although this is after he figures out they're evil, at least. (Yes, I know, this is not how either of them usually appear in AUs.) Tony also has a bunch of exes who also have just straight-up tried to murder or otherwise hurt him, sometimes while they are dating, and sometimes before Tony dates them: Whitney Frost, Indries Moomji, Kathy Dare, and Maya Hansen come to mind. There are probably more I'm not thinking of! But, yes, if you want to write about a guy in a series of terrible relationships, please consider Iron Man comics. If mind control is one of your favorite flavors of hurt, Tony's pretty good for that too. We all know about The Crossing. I suppose when I say "mind control" I mostly mean "armor control" because there are an awful lot of plots where someone else makes Tony's armor do whatever they want it to do and Tony is along for the ride -- Demon in a Bottle, Sentient Armor, and Execute Program are the first things that come to mind. There is also a fairly obscure What If that is What If Iron Man Lost The Armor Wars in which Justin Hammer apparently really wants Tony in a mind control collar to take off all his clothes and lounge around in his underwear. No, really. I think a lot of pain for Tony often revolves around his issues with control, generally -- his alcoholism comes into play here again. The entire aftermath of Civil War is also notable for its propensity to hurt Tony over and over and over. Is he stoically soldiering on through his grief after Steve dies? Hell, no! He cries, like, six separate times. He 100% blames himself for Steve's death. It's great. Everybody loves The Confession and the funeral in Fallen Son, but one of my personal favorites is Avengers/Invaders, in which Tony is confronted with a time-traveling Steve from WWII and in order not to screw up the timeline, he can't tell Steve he knows him. He is clearly not coping well. He shuts himself in a room with a giant wall of pictures of Steve! Also there's a part where he has to try to convince Steve he can trust him and he ends up having to tie Steve to a chair to talk to him, and Steve looks at him and asks, "Who did you kill to get where you are?" and I feel like that is probably one of the worst moments in Tony's life. No wonder he gave himself amnesia. So now we might want to ask, okay, but why is hurting Tony in fanfiction so much fun? I mean, I can tell you why I think it's fun. I can't speak for anyone else. One reason is that he is very emotional and very affected by everything he does. Sometimes you will see people complaining that the heroes of m/m fanfic cry too much and this is not realistic. This is not a problem if you're writing Tony! He can cry as much as you want and it's perfectly in character. I don't think it would be as fun to hurt him if he didn't express so much of his pain. But he does. He also feels guilty, and for me that's a very satisfying character element. If he were well-adjusted and didn't blame himself for so many things, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as watching him blame himself for everyone whose death he thinks he is responsible for, whether or not he is. And then he just keeps going, and it's, y'know, nice to watch him be resilient, too. So, I guess, I think hurting him is interesting because it's easy to hurt him, his weak points are pretty obvious, and he reacts a lot. Steve doesn't hurt quite as much as Tony does, in canon. It's certainly possible to hurt him -- I mean, they did actually kill him after Civil War, after all -- but I don't think the canonical patterns of hurting him are as numerous. Obviously deseruming Steve is a fairly popular go-to in terms of physical hurt; he's been deserumed at least three times that I know of. I think's easy to see the appeal there of taking a character who is fairly physically resilient and making him... much less so. Certainly Marvel seems to see the appeal. But other than that I don't think he has any other really common way to get physically injured. Unlike Tony, whose origin story is basically "oh no, I've acquired a disability," Steve's origin story is "I drank a serum that cured all my disabilities." Which, I mean, great wish fulfillment but there's not really as much there to poke at. Pretty much all of Steve's pain is emotional, but, unlike Tony, his pain isn't often specifically in response to someone directly, purposefully hurting him. Hickman's Avengers run is a big exception, yes. His pain seems to come up most often as a kind of situational angst. He feels like a man out of time. He feels out of touch with the modern era, with people his own age. He feels guilt because he feels responsible for Bucky's death. He feels like he can't trust the government and therefore he can't be Captain America. He worries that he doesn't know how to have a normal life. And, yes, these are deep and important worries but it's different than, like, Indries Moomji dumping Tony with the intent to make him sad enough to start drinking. Very few of Steve's villains want to personally ruin Steve's entire life the way Tony's villains do; mostly they just want to do things like bring back the Nazis. In terms of Steve's potential for h/c, I think Steve is harder to hurt than Tony is. Physically, he is definitely harder to hurt. You can deserum him, sure, but unless you want everything you write to be a deseruming fic you're probably not going to want to do that more than a couple of times. And if you want to hurt him physically while he has the serum, you have to hurt him hard. Usually past the point where a regular human would ever survive it. He's also harder to break, emotionally, than Tony is -- which means it's very satisfying when you can get him to break, but this is a guy who's only cried twice (that I remember) in canon. So if you want to get him to cry, you really, really have to wreck him, and he doesn't have as many obvious weak spots. He also doesn't generally sit around blaming himself for things that aren't his fault, and the whole "stewing in guilt" genre of plots for him basically came down to "he was sad that he thought Bucky's death was his fault," and that's really the biggest regret he seems to have, and also Bucky's not dead anymore. The Steve/Tony relationship itself, I would think, is also appealing to h/c fans because canon provides a lot of ways for them to hurt each other. Some people only ship pairings who would never, y'know, take turns beating each other half to death in major event comics. (And for a lot of Marvel Comics history, that was also Steve & Tony, so if you want them to be BFFs who have never fought, you can just set your fic earlier.) They have definitely hurt each other both physically and emotionally, so if you're looking for something easy and satisfying as a h/c fan, you can just read or write something where they... make up. What about Marvel characters other than Steve and Tony? Surely some of them are angsty, yes? Well, yes, but also it depends on the particular flavor of angst that you like. If you like the way Tony hurts, you may very well enjoy Doctor Strange comics, because they have a very similar attitude towards life -- they are both former alcoholics whose origin stories involve physical disabilities, who routinely make tactical decisions that negatively affect their continued existence and/or happiness a whole lot. It's very much an "I must suffer alone in the dark and no one will ever know what I am doing to save the world but it's the right thing to do" sort of vibe. Like, you can read comics where Strange is lying in hell with two broken legs, hallucinating that Clea has finally come to save him. Strange's biggest fear, akin to Tony's control issues, is basically that one day he's going to be an asshole again, so he's out there trying as hard as he can to do good. Also, if you like tentacles, he has all of them. I mean that. Carol also occasionally hits similar angst spots, and her drinking arc is great. A lot of people like Natasha, too; I have read zero Black Widow comics but I get the impression many people enjoy her brand of angst. The mutant metaphor is a little different in terms of overall vibe, but some people really like it as a source of angst -- the whole "protecting a world who hates and fears them" thing. It may not work for you, but if you like your hurt to include things like systemic oppression, go pick up some X-Men comics. Start with something like God Loves Man Kills. I feel like I liked this sort of thing a lot more as a teenager but that I kind of aged out of liking the mutants quite so much. It's also worth mentioning that not everything that hits the spot in one universe will be the same in the others, and I'm mentioning this because I feel like I have to say something about MCU Bucky. MCU fandom seems to get a lot of mileage out of Bucky's guilt about being the Winter Soldier, everything he was forced to do, et cetera. I have definitely read my share of those fics, and FATWS sure went right for that angst too. But as far as I can tell, he doesn't hit the same way at all in 616. And I like him a lot in 616; I'm always pleased when he shows up on a team. (He was so good in Strikeforce. Everyone was so good in Strikeforce.) But the thing is, 616 Bucky is, basically, phenomenally well-adjusted, given everything he's gone through, and I'm including the time he wrestled a bear in a gulag. He gets over having been the Winter Soldier, and now he's just, y'know, a guy with a cool arm who likes to bring guns to every fight to horrify his teammates, and he snarks at Clint. If you're looking for that angst, that is really not him these days. He's all better. So pretty much all that is canon. So what do we do in fandom for h/c? Well, as far as I can tell, a decent amount of it is canon-based or very canon-close -- there are a whole lot of stories exploring the angst of Civil War or Hickman's Avengers run. Tony's drinking comes up a fair amount, and if one of Tony's Evil Exes comes back to haunt him, it's pretty much only Tiberius Stone. I don't think I've read a lot of fic with Steve getting deserumed; it doesn't seem as popular in fandom as in canon. When Steve gets hurt, he tends to just get physically whumped pretty hard, and there's a fair amount of that for Tony too, but of course Steve can take more. There's also a thriving, uh, subgenre of pain involving Hydra Steve doing terrible things to Tony, presumably the terrible things he would have wanted to do to Tony in canon if Tony had had a flesh body. There's the usual kinds of h/c setups that appear in basically every fandom as well -- sickfic, whump, dub-con/non-con. You get the idea. But since fandom in general likes to take specific inspiration from canon, there's a lot of fic where the hurt tends to resemble things that happen more in canon. Like, I feel like comics fic probably has more tentacle fic and more mind control than canons that don't come pre-stocked with those. Probably everybody has a whole lot of "tied up by bad guys," though. And then, of course, fandom brings the comfort that canon does not. This is true in pretty much every fandom -- I mean, you aren't going to find a lot of actual canons where Character A saves Character B from mortal peril and then there's gay sex -- but, like I was saying, comics don't provide a lot of closure before it's onto the next thing. Usually with a different creative team, who has no interest in wrapping up anything from the last team. Steve and Tony talked about the incursions exactly once after Secret Wars and nobody mentioned the part where Steve spent several months trying to hunt Tony down and kill him. Tony is never going to remember the events of Civil War. Hydra Steve died ignominiously in a fire and no one has ever talked about him again. Honestly, if you're looking for a way to get some comfort in your fanfic, picking an event, any event, and just having the characters talk about it will be way more than any of them get in canon. I feel like honestly that can often be a pretty satisfying to read. And even though comics canon physically hurts characters pretty often and pretty badly, they also often skip right past the recovery. Maybe you'll get one page of a character in a hospital bed at the end of the story arc. Maybe you won't. Demon in a Bottle has one splash page of Tony going through alcohol withdrawal and then he's all better. I think Manhunt skips to Tony getting out of the hospital at the end. That's just not a story that they want to tell very often. The second drinking arc is notable in that it devotes almost as many issues to Tony's recovery as it does to getting him to rock-bottom. Similarly, Steve is done with his Nomad angst way way faster than you probably think he is (though The Captain does go in for a fair number of issues). So one of the things we often want to do in fandom is focus on all the bits that canon skips over, both in the "why did no one ever mention this story arc ever again" way and the "wow, so how long are they in the hospital after that" way. That's really all I can think of about h/c! I'm off to write some more of it!

#posts i actually wrote

[mystical-flute]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (SFWeek Day 6)

Actors AU or Social Media AU

AO3 || FFN

@mysteryandnonstopfun

“No, Baelfire!”

“It’s okay, Leia… all magic comes with a price, right? I’m happy paying this price if it means - ” he winced in pain as the magic drained more of his strength. “If it means you and Henry will be safe.”

She sniffed, a tear landing on his cheek. “But - but Henry doesn’t even remember you. He never got to see you again!”

“I have faith you’ll break his curse…”

“Bae…” came the broken voice of a father.

“Papa,” despite him dying, he had never felt more relieved to see his father. His sacrifice worked. Papa was safe.

Rumplestiltskin sank to his knees, taking his son’s hand. “Oh my boy. No, I’ll - I’ll stop this. I’ll make sure it takes me instead of you.”

“Papa, you can’t! It’s too late. It’s already begun. You have to let me go. Please.”

“Baelfire…”

Baelfire turned his gaze back to Leia. “Go… find your happiness… without me.”

A final breath escaped him, although his eyes remained open, glassy and empty, as they stared off into the bright light above him.

“CUT!”

Director Killian Jones’ voice sliced through the somber scene, chatter beginning to buzz as assistants, producers and camera operators continued the work that had been stalled while the cameras rolled.

Neal Cassidy blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the studio lighting, and sat up, off his co-star, Emma Swan’s, legs. “That was the first time I’ve ever died in a movie before. Gotta say, I don’t recommend staring directly into the spotlight above your head.”

Arthur Gold, ‘Rumplestiltskin’, stood and stretched out his. “You two are good,” he remarked. “Really just thought you two were just pretty faces, but you two got real acting chops,” his voice dropped lower as Victoria Belfrey, one of the most cutthroat producers in Hollywood, strolled by, “ - especially if you haven’t been scared off by her, yet.”

“Ah, she’s not so bad,” Emma said with a shrug. “You just have to know how to butter her up.”

“Yeah, I mean, sooner or later, it’s going to be our generation that’s the big time producers,” Neal added.

Arthur blinked slowly, then smirked. “That’s the spirit. That will get you both far in this town.”

He ambled away in the direction of catering, and the mood shifted immediately when the two stars were left alone.

“You got snot on me when you cried.”

“Your breath stinks like garlic.”

Oh, Neal couldn’t stand to be near Emma Swan. But Regina Mills’ Misthaven had broken record after record for books and social media posts, so it only made sense that, when the inevitable movie adaptation was announced, Neal Cassidy and Emma Swan, both riding high from their own worldwide successes, would play the two star-crossed, tragic lovers - Baelfire the Spinner and Princess Leia.

He glared. “Yeah? What time did you get to your trailer last night? Two? Because before Elsa worked her magic on you, you looked like - ”

“That is enough out of you two!” Killian snapped, a clipboard tucked under his arm as he approached the sound stage. “I’d heard you two were trouble to work with, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

“Well maybe if - ”

“I don’t care. Neither of you are scheduled to film tomorrow, so I’ve set up a bit of a… bonding exercise for you. Don’t worry, your agents gave the okay.”

Neal and Emma shot Killian incredulous looks. “You did this behind our backs?” “What the hell, man?” They protested at the same time.

“Oh, look at that. It seems to be working already,” Killian smirked, handing them sheets of paper. “Meet there at nine o’clock sharp. Spend the day together. Get to know each other - without trying to rip the other’s throat out.”

Neal thought he might have more luck jumping into a zoo exhibit, but he really didn’t want to lose his reputation or everything he had worked for.

So the next morning, he was slumped in the back seat of a car, Emma doing the same on the other side. The ride had been quiet, neither of them much in the mood to talk.

Maybe if they learned to just ignore each other, that would be enough for Killian? Hell, it was already working.

His brow raised as they turned off the main highway, heading into the woods.

“Okay, I know Killian’s annoyed with us, but is he really going to murder us in the woods?” Emma whispered.

“Please, if they did that, Misthaven would tank, and that wouldn’t be fair to Regina Mills,” he replied, although the thought had crossed his mind as well.

“I didn’t think you cared about anyone but yourself.”

“I guess I’m just full of surprises.”

Finally, the driver stopped outside a cabin. “Alright you two. I’ll be back at three, Mr. Jones’ orders. Have fun and don’t do anything that might require an ambulance.”

“It’s like they don’t trust us or something,” Neal said, watching the driver pull away.

Emma didn’t laugh as she glanced at the cabin. “This is a joke, right? God, it’s like being back on Dad’s farm.”

“You grew up on a farm?”

“You gonna mock me for that?”

Neal held up his hands in a gesture of surrender as she unlocked the cabin door and stepped inside. “I was doing nothing of the sort. You just don’t strike me as the “farm girl” type with all the leather you wear.”

“I shed that image. I was never a fan of small towns or - or farms. They’re nice to visit, but I’m a city girl through and through,” she said, frowning as she looked around. “No TV?”

“Jones did say this was a bonding exercise. They probably figured we’d spend all day watching TV or going online and ignoring each other.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me.”

“Well, they ended that dream before you could fall asleep,” Neal said, flopping down on a couch. “Why don’t we talk more about that little farm thing you grew up on?”

“It’s a farm in Maine. Dad raises sheep, cows and chickens and has crops. Really not all that interesting to talk about, other than I hated getting up at the ass-crack of dawn to collect eggs. That was more my brother’s speed.”

Neal raised a brow. “Maine, huh? You don’t hear a lot about people from Maine.”

“Suppose not. Where was it you were from, again?”

“New Orleans.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? No offense, but you don’t sound like it.”

Neal chewed the inside of his cheek, before sighing. “My manager didn’t think it’d get me far if I kept the accent,” he said, slipping into his normal voice. “I really don’t think I’d have gotten Misthaven if I sound like this, do you?”

Emma shrugged. “I think the accent sounds fine, but I guess I can see what you mean. Still shouldn’t mean you couldn’t use it in other work or in interviews. Your manager must be a shark.”

“Cora Miller. And trust me when I say she wasn’t happy when she found out about this little adventure.”

“Ah, that explains it.” A pause. “Did you read Misthaven? The book, I mean.”

“I did. I think it’s bullshit that Baelfire dies.”

“You’re just saying that because that means you have to die and miss out on the last half of the movie.”

“No, no! I’m serious! Baelfire fights so hard to reunite his family and revive his father, and he knows the ins and out of magic, and he still pays the ultimate price? When others who did so much worse get to survive? Even if he and Princess Leia don’t get together, he deserved to be with Henry, at least,” Neal replied, frowning.

Emma tilted her head. “I guess that makes sense. And Baelfire returning a hero after being out of Princess Leia’s life for so long would have made for a great redemption story. Maybe Regina Mills will figure out a way to bring him back in the sequel.”

“Wait, she’s writing a sequel?”

“Yeah, it’s supposed to come out in a couple years. I didn’t know you were such a big reader.”

“You kiddin’? English was my favorite subject in school. I got a whole wall in my house dedicated to books.”

Emma sat back in her chair, clearly surprised. “Huh. It was mine too.”

Neal crossed his legs. “I guess we got more in common than we thought. What do you say we start over?”

Emma smiled. “Sure. I’d like that.”

#sfweek2021 #swanfire #emma swan #neal cassidy #ouat #once upon a time

[lawgrain]

This is a reckless, bad idea. And I know someone will love it... Like I can’t describe quite why I don’t think I should post this now and should wait till the story is done but at the same time, f*ck it I love the chaos.

This is from a doc called “kill me spite doc of doom” and it is three chapters of scrapped material starting at a different version of 26. The only editing done is matching bold and italics. It’s basically an au of spiteful, enjoy!

Chapter 26: Fucking Kirishima

Kaminari was not having a good time and he hadn’t been for a while. And he would love to blame that fact on Bakugou, he really would. But that wouldn’t be the truth. Or at least not all of it.

Fucking Kirishima.

Everything had felt wrong for a while. Kaminari knew it all stemmed from Bakugou but it was really Kirishima that got to Kaminari. His whole friend group had been… off since the thing about Bakugou. Everything was shifted. Like they couldn’t really enjoy being around each other without remembering the “Baku” part of the squad. It hit Kirishima the worst.

He could tell his friend felt bad most of the time about the whole Bakugou thing. Kaminari did too. They all felt like they had accidentally made Midoriya feel like Bakugou was right to do that in middle school. Midoriya would never say that though. Kaminari almost felt sick when he listened to Midoriya defend Bakugou. Like Midoriya didn’t know what was done to him was wrong.

And had he helped that mentality?

That question just kept circling around his head. Over and over again. Did Kaminari make Midoriya think what Bakugou did was okay? It wasn’t okay. Kaminari didn’t know Bakugou had done that and it wasn’t okay.

So Kaminari made it obvious that he was against Bakugou; that he didn’t think it was okay. Sometimes he was worried that he took things a bit too far. But then, someone would’ve told him if he did right? They would’ve let him know for sure. It wasn’t as if he was doing things that his classmates weren’t. And besides, the Baku-squad messed with Bakugou far worse when they were friends.

The only thing that made him seriously doubt himself was Kirishima. Kirishima was constantly drowning in guilt and Kaminari didn’t know how to help him. He didn’t even understand why he felt so guilty. Sure Kaminari understood feeling guilty about Midoriya— they all felt guilty about that. But it was so much more than that. Kirishima seemed guilty no matter what he did. Whether it be defending Midoriya or not joining in when the rest of the class talked bad about Bakugou, Kirishima was in a constant state of distress. And it only kept getting worse.

They had already had small conversations where Kaminari had to reassure Kirishima that they weren’t doing anything wrong by defending Midoriya. But anytime Bakugou came up it was like they were having the same conversation over and over.

“I don’t know dude. I just feel wrong about all of this,” Kirishima stated on one such occasion.

Kaminari understood. Parts felt off. Part of what he did felt off too. But at the same time...

“Look man, I get where you're coming from but just listen to Bakugou sometimes. All you’ve tried to do is to stick up for Midoriya. You haven’t insulted him, you haven’t hurt him, or done anything wrong. And he still treats Midoriya like crap.” Kaminari wouldn’t let Kirishima act guilty over having done nothing wrong. “Are you supposed to feel bad about not wanting to be around someone who acts like a dick?”

“I know but it still feels wrong. So what if he’s not besties with Midoriya? Is it really okay for us to constantly be at him for that?”

“He doesn’t even care, Kirishima! He doesn’t care that he did all that shit. He doesn’t care that it was wrong. And he- he doesn’t care about us!” Kaminari broke off.

It was true. Bakugou didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything they were saying to him. He just threw back their words with even more venom. They didn’t want him to be who he was in middle school. They didn’t want him to be someone they wouldn’t want to be around. But ever since they found out about it, Bakugou had turned mean. He never tried to explain what had happened to them. And Kaminari… he had thought it would be different. As for Kirishima?

He was holding on to someone who didn’t exist anymore.

After that, Kirishima grew more quiet around Kaminari. He didn’t bring up Bakugou anymore and he didn’t come to Kaminari for much of anything else anymore either. Kaminari couldn’t help but feel guilty at that. He hadn’t said anything he thought to be untrue, but he felt like he may have lost another friend all the same.

And that was the way it was; a fractured friend group with no real direction anymore. It was as if they’d all lost a fighting spirit and yet still had to put on the front of one. Kirishima stayed in a sort of mild gloom state until something broke. Something had happened one day and Kirishima looked devastated, shattered.

Kaminari had no idea what happened to Kirishima on Parents Day but it had messed Kirishima up. In fact, Kirishima wasn’t the only one looking perturbed that day. That was supposed to be a good day and as far as Kaminari knew, it was. And yet, Tokoyami and Shoji looked pale and almost sickly and Kirishima looked shaken to his core. He tried asking Kirishima about it later on.

He… felt worse after the talk.

“We messed up. I knew we were messing up but everybody was so sure and I- You said- We screwed up man.”

Kaminari could hardly follow along with Kirishima’s frantic rambles. He had no idea where this was all coming from.

“Slow down man,” Kaminari interrupted. The red head was pacing his room in an aura of anxiety. “What happened?”

“I can’t- I’m not- We screwed up okay? With Bakugou.” Kirishima put his head in his hands, defeated.

“We didn-”

“We did,” he interrupted softly. “We messed up. We all messed up.”

He said it with a finality that Kaminari just couldn’t argue.

Did they go too far?

He thought someone would’ve known if they’d gone too far. Someone would’ve realized. They would’ve stopped them.

But hadn’t Kirishima just said they’d messed up? He had to be wrong. He had to be wrong. They hadn’t done anything. Not really. Maybe they annoyed Bakugou, maybe they were a bit meaner, but they hadn’t done anything. They weren’t cruel. They were just- They were just trying to-

Bakugou didn’t care. They weren’t trying to do anything wrong, they just didn’t get how he could not care. And maybe that made them a bit spiteful in their actions but were they wrong?

Kaminari didn’t know but he was seriously doubting things now. It didn’t help that Bakugou seemed resolutely quiet the next day. And Kirishima kept giving him these looks. Like he’d give anything to be able to talk to Bakugou again. And whatever had happened to Kirishima, Shoji and Tokoyami, also seemed to spread to the teachers. Most of them looked like they didn’t want to look at Bakugou and Aizawa was acting plain weird. The only one who seemed to resemble normal was Present Mic who maintained that they shouldn’t mess with each other far before Parents Day.  

Everything just started piling up. He thought back to his classes and was any of it really fair? Even classes themselves seemed like they were against Bakugou. Ectoplasm was doing some sort of weird assignment thing and Midnight was, well she was Midnight. He didn’t know about the other teachers but could Kirishima be right? Things really did seem off at times but those were Pro Heroes he was thinking of. It wouldn’t make sense for them to treat a student like that.

And then there was Hatsume.

Fucking Kirishima and Hatsume.

He hadn’t exactly seen that one coming. He hadn’t really known that she was Bakugou’s friend. Though he hadn’t really been surprised at the fact that he was friends at some point with the pink haired girl. Not because he thought Bakugou would get along with someone like Hatsume— though he really wouldn’t expect that— but he had thought they stopped being friends.

The thing was, the class did take notice of the eccentric goggled inventor when she started coming by the dorms for no apparent reason. They figured that the only reason for her to be there was their excommunicated classmate. As such, whenever she entered the building, she was heavily regarded with apprehension. Eventually she stopped passing by. Now Kaminari wondered if they just started hanging out somewhere else…

Regardless, the conversation with Hatsume was anything but pleasant. Not just because he got kicked out but also because it brought back Kirishima’s words to mind. Had they messed up? Kaminari thought that Bakugou didn’t care, that he had no regrets or feelings towards the class anymore but...

I’m more focussed on the people who are shitty in high school.

She really was ruthless.

But Kaminari hated the implications of that statement. That meant that Bakugou did care. That meant they were hurting him. That meant Bakugou had to have turned to Hatsume for help. And that the class was the reason he needed help…

And even as the small part of him held on to the idea that Bakugou hadn’t changed, it was rapidly getting refuted all at once. First by Kirishima and now by Hatsume. And it felt so wrong.

He didn’t know what to do if they were wrong though. And how were they supposed to know for sure? It wasn’t like Bakugou had apologized for anything to Midoriya. It wasn’t like Bakugou was innocent. It wasn’t like the things he had done in the past had suddenly disappeared, no matter how far in the past they were. And weren’t those same nasty attributes from the past still there? Didn’t Bakugou still hate Midoriya? Wasn’t he still the same?

Was he still the same...

Hatsume had seemed so confident with her answer to that question. From her, it seemed simple; he’s not.

Why was she so sure of that? Why was Kirishima coming to the same conclusion? He couldn’t have gotten something so wrong could he have? And was Bakugou the same person as he was back then?

He thought about it. He only technically knew what Midoriya had said but Bakugou didn’t deny any of it. But Bakugou also didn’t add anything to it. He thought that meant Bakugou stood by those actions but maybe that wasn’t quite it. Maybe he didn’t stand by them. They never really asked. They didn’t think to ask because Bakugou never gave them a reason to.

But Hatsume must have asked.

And Kirishima must have found out something else.

Kaminari wasn’t an idiot. No matter what they said, he wasn’t an idiot. There had to have been something that made Kirishima change his mind. That made him stop doubting. And whatever that was, Shoji and Tokoyami had been there too. But Kirishima would not tell Kaminari and neither would the other two when he asked..

The curiosity was killing Kaminari.

He needed to know if he really had messed up. He needed to know if Kirishima was right and none of them would say anything when he asked. And if they didn’t say anything, there was only one other person he could ask…

Bakugou.

If that wasn’t a shit deal, Kaminari didn’t know what was. Bakugou had no reason to want to tell Kaminari anything. At the same time, Bakugou was the only person left to ask and despite it all, he thinks Bakugou might even tell him what happened. No, Bakugou wouldn’t have any reason to tell Kaminari anything, but he has a talent of telling things as it was.

So, he was gonna do it. He was going to ask the guy who he had maybe or maybe not harassed unrightfully if it was unrightful and what happened on parents day.

What could possibly go wrong?

He had to do it though. He decided that he’d ask during lunch, one of the few places Bakugou regularly frequented. He thought he could do it. And just when he gathered the courage to do so, it was immediately dashed.

Bakugou wasn’t sitting alone.

No, instead he was sitting with two people decidedly not part of 1-A.

What-

What the everlasting hell was happening?

Chapter 27: The Spotlight

Shinsou didn’t like to involve himself with other people. Maybe that was callous of him, but people tended to come with drama and, most of the time, he’d rather just not. That didn’t mean that class 1-A didn’t make Bakugou into a spectacle that even Shinsou had to notice.

He, like everyone else at U.A., decided to ignore the class. He wasn’t about to step into some drama shit show and, to be fair, none of it was any of his business. So what if Bakugou sat alone? Shinsou did too most days. And possibly there were other things going on with the class and Bakugou. Shinsou didn’t know and he didn’t want to know.

And Shinsou did a fantastic job at avoiding the problem. There was never a reason for him to talk to Bakugou just as there was never a reason before. It wasn’t as if they were friends and Shinsou felt no guilt at keeping things that way. However, despite his efforts, Shinsou did pick up on an insult or two being thrown Bakugou’s way. And if there was one thing that Shinsou understood, it was being called a villain.

And that insult fucking sucked.

It was something he never wanted to be called again. So he avoided Bakugou’s spotlight. And he didn’t feel guilty about it. He and Bakugou weren’t even friends so he didn’t see how his getting involved would do anything. Despite that though, it’d be a lie to say that insult didn’t draw Shinsou in. He understood what Bakugou must be feeling but even as the insult drew his empathy towards the combustible boy, it also made him that much more determined to stay away.

And that’s exactly what he did until he couldn’t anymore.

For the record, he blamed that on Aizawa. Perhaps Shinsou shouldn’t have been snooping around his mentor's office but it wasn’t the first time he had done so and it wouldn’t be the last. It was however, the first time he found something. That something being a shitload of paperwork with Bakugou’s name on it. And as luck would have it, a bubblegum pink capture weapon snatched it out of sight before he could read more.

“You’re not allowed to read confidential files in my office.” Aizawa’s tone sounded bored, but Shinsou knew better than to believe what his demeanor projected. The teacher’s default was bored and tired.

“Did Bakugou do something?” Shinsou asked, ignoring the man.

Aizawa sighed, “Shinsou.”

“What? Is he getting expelled? He couldn’t have managed to do something that bad.” And as far as he was concerned, Bakugou really wouldn’t have done something that bad. The guy was a lot of bark but smart enough to know the limits.

“He’s not being expelled, but I can’t talk about other students to you and you know that.” Aizawa said with more finality.

Shisou knew that but he also knew that Aizawa had been stressed lately. And that was an impressive feat that someone could make an already tired ragged man look worse. That’s also why Shinsou pressed a little bit further. He was worried about his teacher.

“Well then is Bakugou transferring out of U.A.? Because that’s a hell of a lot of paperwork for just one student.” He looked at Aizawa challengingly, hoping to provoke him into an answer.

“Leave this alone.” The teacher’s voice left no room for a response.

The two stared at each other for a tense moment, Shinsou hoping he still might add more to his statement. It was probably for the best that they both broke their attention when some random noise from who knows where broke the stare off.

“Fine, stay stressed out old man.” Shinsou spoke up, sounding like a petulant teen. He didn’t care though, not when his mentor wasn’t telling him what was wrong.

Aizawa looked unimpressed. “I mean it kid,” he reaffirmed himself. “Leave this alone. Bakugou didn’t do anything wrong and I don’t want you treating him like he did.”

It took Shinsou a moment to process what Aizawa’s words meant. It was almost like he was telling Shinsou to be nice to Bakugou. Oh shit. That’s when it clicked for Shinsou. Which in turn, only made things much more complicated. Bakugou hadn’t done something wrong, something was wrong with Bakugou and Aizawa was worried.

Shit.  

That was almost a worst case scenario for Shinsou. Before he could just not get involved. He could pretend Bakugou was fine. That he didn’t care, even when Shinsou knew he had to. He just… He was terrified of Bakugou’s spotlight. But if there was actually something wrong with Bakugou, something that had his mentor so visibly upset, Shinsou couldn’t ignore his problems anymore. That’s not what someone trying to get in the Hero Program would do at least.

All of the sudden Shinsou started to doubt his desire to get into the Hero Program. Not really, but he’d admit, he felt like he was about to enter a snake pit the moment he decided to talk to Bakugou.

“I wasn’t going to do anything.” Shinsou defended himself. And it was true. He wasn’t about to enter whatever it was that class was up to. Now though, he was pretty sure Aizawa wouldn’t mind if Bakugou had someone to talk to outside that class.

Aizawa analyzed him for a second before responding. “Good. Was there a reason you stopped by?”

Shinsou smirked, “I just came by to compliment the new weapon’s color.”

The glare Shinsou got in return was a thousand percent worth it. He had no idea who had managed to do that to Aizawa’s capture weapons but…

“Bright pink is really your color, sir.” Shinsou tacked on as a final compliment towards the garment.

“Get out.”

Shinsou left snickering, fully aware that the man would have threatened detention if he were someone else.

That didn’t mean Shinsou didn’t have a lot to think about after that. He… he knew what he had to do technically. That didn’t make the idea of approaching Bakugou any less intimidating. It was almost gross how he wasn’t even intimidated by bakugou himself but rather just the attention that came with him. One thing was for sure, he was not approaching him in the cafeteria.

Call Shinsou a coward but he did not want any first encounters to happen in that hellscape. Not after watching Uraraka practically leap over the tables to kill him. Really, if he were a better person, he might’ve felt the need to try and talk to Bakugou before. But he wasn’t a better person and he didn’t see a point in feeling guilty about that. He didn’t owe Bakugou anything. Long story short, the cafeteria was not a safe space. But Shinsou didn’t know what was a place they could talk. To his surprise, he wasn’t the one who had to answer that question.

“You see it too?” A voice sounded next to Shinsou.

He had been standing towards the side of the cafeteria, staring at Bakugou’s currently empty table. He was contemplating on where exactly Bakugou could be disappearing to on the days he didn’t show up to lunch. And apparently this stranger took it upon himself to comment on Shinsou’s contemplation.

“See what?” Shinsou humored the boy but kept his eyes trained on the empty table.

“That there’s something wrong with that class.” He gestured towards 1-A before continuing, “And maybe it shouldn’t be happening.”

Shinsou felt his defenses rise. He didn’t know where this guy was going with this conversation. As such, he gave a vague answer.

“What of it? It’s not our problem.”

“Hmm,” the stranger sounded airy. “Maybe not, but I have an idea where he might be when he’s not here. I was thinking of heading there if you want to come with”

At this Shinsou’s full attention snapped towards the other boy, analyzing him. He vaguely recognized him as someone from 1-B but couldn’t place a name. Rather than furthering the conversation, Shinsou just shrugged and the other took the hint to start leading the way.

Shinsou grew suspicious when they started going into the Development Studio. Luckily before he could call out the student on it, he led them to a workshop that occupied his target. He just didn’t get why he was eating jalapenos like chips while watching a pink haired girl torch some kind of electronic. He was vaguely worried though. Upon their entrance the girl stopped the flamethrower and looked towards the newcomers.

She quirked her head to the side. “Did you two need something?”

He didn’t really know how to answer that but luckily, he didn’t need to as his current companion seemed ready to talk.

“Hatsume Mei! I heard you rejected taking any 1-A projects and can I just say, what a marvelous decision!”

Suddenly, Shinsou was able to place where he knew the boy from. He was the 1-A hating fanatic that Shinsou had very purposefully blocked out of his memory. He sighed at this realization and instead of trying to socialize, he just got out his phone and sat at a bench near Bakugou and started to scroll through his phone. He figured that the other blond would garner enough attention so that he wouldn’t have to do much.

“Sadly I don’t approve of their actions towards my friend,” the girl, Hatsume, replied tightly. It was like she was vetting the boy. He still couldn’t remember his name yet.

“Ah yes, Bakugou! He’s the reason we’re here,” he trampled on brightly before turning his attention to the aforementioned teen. “I knew 1-A could reach some lows but I didn’t know they’d reach the absolute bottom. And when I heard why they were treating you like that, well I guess it isn’t that surprising your class has their noses too stuck up in the air to have some sense.”

Bakugou and Hatsume shot each other alarmed glances, seeming to have a silent conversation between themselves. Whatever they communicated to each other, it was decided that Hatsume would take the lead.

“Heard why? What did the class say about Bakugou?” She asked. And yeah, Shinsou wanted to know that too.

“Oh, just that he’s a bully or something.” He replied, completely brushing off the importance of what his answer could imply for Bakugou. “I didn’t pay it much mind when I realized it was stupid. Only 1-A could be so delusional as to think Bakugou would be a bully without reason.”

The other three occupants looked at each other in varying states of confusion. He couldn't tell what the others were thinking but they were all startled with how the blonde was speaking. He was right. Shinsou couldn’t see Bakugou doing things just for the hell of it but the stranger was being entirely too blasé about it.

“What the fuck are you on about Copycat?” Bakugou voiced their confusion.

‘Copycat’ rolled his eyes. “You’re an asshole but you're an asshole to everyone equally. And that’s more than I can say about the rest of your class.” He paused to shrug, “Anyway, I figured that meant what they said was pretty bullshit. You aren’t treating them any different than what they earn.”

“And if I did fuck up? What then? You still all gung-ho if he didn’t earn it?” Bakugou challenged, staring the other boy down with a sharp gaze.

Both Shinsou and Hatsume made no movement, both staring at the blonde stranger to respond. The problem was, Shinsou didn’t think that was okay. He didn’t like what Bakugou had just said and was again questioning why he had come here in the first place. Yet apparently ‘Copycat’ was about to dash this worry as quickly as it was created.

“Hmmm. You must underestimate me. Luckily for you, I can recognize the answer is within the question unlike some of your lesser classmates.” A serious glint overtook ‘Copycat’s’ eyes as he met Bakugou’s sharp eyes. “If that were truly the case, then it sounds like you already hate yourself enough for it.”

Shit. That… Well, that actually sounded accurate now that Shinsou thought about how Bakugou phrased things. And Bakugou?

Bakugou looked pissed.

“Listen here you pompous prick-” Bakugou started angrily before Hatsume interrupted him with a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder. He looked to the pink haired girl, just for her to grin brightly.

“I approve of him,” she beamed.

Bakugou scoffed, “Fuck off. You can’t just go around choosing who you do and don’t want around me.”

“You say that, but I haven’t been wrong so far. Besides, he’s kind of right,” she teased lightly, ignoring the snarl still on Bakugou’s face. Then she turned her eyes to Shinsou. “What about you? What are you doing here.”

Again, Shinsou didn’t quite know how to answer that. He couldn’t exactly say that Aizawa made him worried about Bakugou. That he was worried that Bakugou was going through some of the exact same shit that he had been through before and his chat with Aizawa kicked his ass in gear.

Instead he just shrugged, “I didn’t know he was crazy and I followed him.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. And somehow the others all just accepted that as if it were a viable explanation.

“Fine whatever. If you don’t need anything then get the fuck out,” Bakugou grumbled before something else occurred to him. “Wait, how the fuck did you know I’d be here?”

Good question. Shinsou went back to scrolling through his phone. Let the ‘Copycat’ boy deal with this.

“I saw Kaminari leave here the other day looking like a dejected puppy. I caught him muttering something about you and I tried my luck today.”

Wait-

“You brought me here on a whim?” Shinsou was offended by that. Hatsume interrupted any reply he might’ve gotten with a giggle.

“I approve of both of them.”

“That’s not how that fucking works, you she-demon,” Bakugou said in exasperation.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m letting them stay.”

And that was their lunch. If Shinsou were honest, it was one of the most entertaining lunch periods he had had in a long time. Not that he’d ever admit that though. He doubted an outsider would be able to tell either because he spent most of the time with his face fixed in a blank mask as he scrolled through his phone. That didn’t mean he wasn’t listening in on the two chatterboxes Hatsume, and, as he eventually learned, Monoma talked about random shit. It also didn’t mean that he wasn’t enjoying Bakugou’s occasional snarky comments towards the two. And maybe Shinsou threw in a few comments of his own to stir up chaos before going back to his phone as if he had done nothing at all.

Shinsou hadn’t actually expected to enjoy his time. Somehow he expected everything around Bakugou to be doom and gloom considering how everything else seemed to be going for him. But then, Shinsou didn’t consider that he might have a friend outside of 1-A.

Briefly Shinsou wondered if that meant he didn’t have to engage with the others. If he could go back to the situation not being his business. He actually thought it’d be okay if he did but now he wasn’t certain if he wanted to. He knew Bakugou wasn’t whatever the class was making him out to be, but seeing it up close was different. Seeing Bakugou away from the class reminded him just how wrong the class was to be treating Bakugou the way they were. Bakugou wasn’t nearly as tense and defensive when he was away from them and it only served as a reminder to Shinsou how similar he was to Bakugou. And with that, he knew he wasn’t just going back to how it was before.

So the next day, Monoma and Shinsou both sat at Bakugou’s table. They were met with only minimal protest from Bakugou but both were there to stay. And Shinsou knew it’d happen but he could feel it. He could feel the stares from all around the cafeteria and could’ve sworn that Kaminari even dropped his lunch.

With this one decision, Shinsou was back in the spotlight.

So be it.

Chapter 28

Bakugou had a feeling that he was cursed to always be surrounded by idiots. Obviously it started with the pink menace and now extended to the copycat shithead.

Bakugou asked Hatsume why she was suddenly so welcoming to others hanging out in the workshop. He wasn’t really satisfied with the response.

“I’ve never not been okay with it. No one besides you wants to be here and they’re not really part of everything like the rest of your class.” She shrugged as if it were that simple. It wasn’t and they both knew it.

“And the moment that changes? We both don’t know them or why they all of the sudden want to talk to us.” Bakugou stated it as a truth because that’s exactly what it was. It was all odd.

“You’re so grumpy, Kat.” Hatsume pouted and Bakugou rolled his eyes at her play on words. “It is strange. I guess I just want to give them a chance before we’re the ones making ourselves alone instead of others.”

Bakugou sighed. He couldn’t blame her for that. But that didn’t make the two’s sudden appearance any less suspicious. It made Bakugou feel a little better that the moody purple boy and the quirk thief didn’t seem to actually know each other.

“Fine, I guess it doesn’t matter if we humour the dumbasses,” Bakugou grumbled and Hatsume beamed.

He said that but he hadn’t really expected to have to do it. The next day at lunch both boys sat at the table with Bakugou and Bakugou was annoyed. And yet they wouldn’t leave. Bakugou himself had said that he wasn’t stopping anyone from sitting at the table but it was a little different to actually have that happen. That’s essentially how Shinsou and Monoma became new fixtures in Bakugou’s life: they were pests who wouldn’t leave him alone.

Despite his initial reaction, he eventually became used to the two. The Copycat bitch got along a little too well with Hatsume when the four were together, but Dead Eyes seemed to balance the idiot out. That by no means stopped the overdramatic boy from creating over the top narratives of which Hatsume loved. Bakugou suspected she liked the dramatics so much because they could easily get on Bakugou’s nerves. Both of them were brats.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you fair maiden,” Monoma started one day. A mischievous glint immediately entered Hatsume’s eyes. “Why have you been trapped in this tower during lunch instead of gracing us with your presence? I know the handsome beastly dragon over there didn’t exile you.”

Bakugou grinned as Hatsume’s face fell. It was true, he wasn’t stopping Hatsume from doing anything, just like he wasn’t stopping the other two from sitting with him. That being said, he knew exactly why she didn’t sit with him at lunch.

“Yeah, princess,” Bakugou teased. “Why don’t you sit with me at lunch?”

Hatsume pouted. “Shut up, you already know.”

The two other occupants of the room looked at Bakugou curiously and Bakugou had no issue with filling them in.

“Dreadlocks got herself banned from the cafeteria. They’ll let her buy food and stuff but she’s not allowed to stay in there for too long.”

“Wh- How?” Monoma voiced the question and even Shinsou looked up from his phone to hear the answer.

“I may have blown up the kitchen once.” Hatsume still had a pout on her face. And oh no, Bakugou was not letting that go. Not after the amount of dramatics she and Monoma put him through.

“That’s not the reason you’re not allowed back and you know it.” Bakugou smirked.

“Fine. So mean!” She made a face at Bakugou. “The second time I ended up breaking into the cafeteria, and an experiment may have gone a tiny bit wrong. And I may have given half the staff food poisoning when the school did a catering thing for them that weekend.”

There was a long pause before Dry Eyes interrupted it.

“Did that include Aizawa?”

Hatsume smirked. “It did.”

Shinsou nodded, “Good.”

And with that, he went back to his phone. Maybe he wasn’t so bad.

Monoma was that bad. He hated the cocky copycat fucker. Half the time the bastard opened his mouth it was to insult him. The other half, the blonde took to trying to relentlessly badmouth the rest of Bakugou’s class. It wasn’t that Bakugou disagreed but he didn’t understand the idiot at all. He didn’t really understand Shinsou either but Bakugou could get on board with his humor. Especially when it was directed at Monoma.

As it was, Bakugou decided to just let it go.

The other shoe finally dropped when Bakugou and Shinsou were walking to the library after class one day. Bakugou needed a book for an assignment from Cementoss and Eyebags Boy had picked up a weird habit of tagging along with Bakugou to random places.

~~~~

I did actually have a couple other approaches to 26 using this narrative. It’s a tad confusing to post them all but I am including this additional approach from Monoma’s pov too!

Chapter 26: An Ally

Monoma admittedly hated 1-A. He wasn’t ashamed of his dislike for the class despite how his own class wishes he was. The thing was, he didn’t hate him because of who they were. They seemed to be fine as people. No, he hated them because they didn’t have a care in the world of what their existence did to the rest of the school.

At every turn, all 1-B seemed to amount to was being less than 1-A. They were not quite enough, not as good, basically the off-brand 1-A. It was a constant berate of being told they weren’t good because someone else happened to be better. And that just wasn’t true. His class still had amazing students and every one of them had tried their hardest for their spots. But no one seemed to care about that.

And it wasn’t that Monoma thought that 1-B was actually better than 1-A. It was just that Monoma didn’t think that 1-A should be treated as if they were better than 1-B. Because why should they be treated better? Why should 1-A be treated as if they were so much more special than everybody else? Why couldn’t 1-A and 1-B just be equals for once? One class shouldn’t have to be demeaned at every corner just because they weren’t the top class. Sure 1-A technically did better than 1-B, but that didn’t mean that 1-B was any less.

So Monoma might take every chance to point this out.

Every. Single. Chance. He. Gets.

So what? No one else was going to do it. And none of them seemed to care in the least. Not a single student in 1-A ever acknowledged how they got special treatment from everyone. In fact, Monoma was pretty sure 1-A didn’t notice any of the other classes until the Sports Festival.

And wasn’t that a whole shit show and a half.

Monoma… he reluctantly understood why Bakugou was considered one of the best. He’d also admit that he shouldn’t have provoked the beast during the cavalry battle, though he’d never admit that out loud. But the Sports Festival ended so wrong. It was the first time Monoma saw that maybe 1-A didn’t get special treatment all the time.

No, actually they still got special treatment. That rule just happened to have one exception and it was named Bakugou Katsuki.

For that reason, Monoma was a little hesitant on how he felt about Bakugou. He liked what Bakugou had caused. He liked the fact that 1-A’s true colors came out from their treatment of him. It seemed like his words had finally been vindicated; 1-A was not the class of greats that they claimed to be. No one could call him crazy anymore because their treatment towards Bakugou proved he was right.

But it was so wrong.

Monoma wasn’t a huge fan of Bakugou. It wasn’t a huge mystery how Bakugou could be disliked. He disregarded everyone, was rude and arrogant. But then Bakugou did that to everyone didn’t he? He, in a weird way, treated everyone like equals. Everyone was an “extra” until they proved otherwise and once Monoma realized that, he respected it. Bakugou might act like he was better than 1-B, but he didn’t do that because they were 1-B. He did it because he was an asshole who believed that he was the best. In short, he was the only one who acted better because of their own reputation rather than a predestined class reputation.

But Bakugou also seemed to be always alone.

That was the other reason Monoma was hesitant about Bakugou. He hadn’t seen it at first but Bakugou was alone in his class. Class 1-A seemed embarrassed by his bold words and declarations that he’d win the Sports Festival and it showed. Surprisingly that had changed later. For some time, Bakugou had some friends and was no longer alone. Bakugou became more surrounded by people and Monoma figured he was probably right in his initial dislike of Bakugou.

Then the lunch incident happened.

For class 1-B, that was a bizarre day. They had come into the cafeteria with precisely one table being treated like a hazard area by all except for Bakugou. Part of Monoma was curious what caused everyone to leave that table. Part of him didn’t care. But soon, everyone realized that this was not a one-time occurrence.

Something was up about Bakugou.

The friends Bakugou had made no longer surrounded him. The oh-so-perfect class, began treating him like shit. And nobody knew what had happened to cause it all.

Inside classroom 1-B they began a run-on joke theorizing what had happened to have caused that. Naturally, the theories surrounded Bakugou and everyone enjoyed outdoing each other’s theories. Some were mean spirited, talking about their dislike of Bakugou. Other, more fun theories, were just silly. One notable idea was that everyone was avoiding Bakugou because Bakugou had been replaced by a space robot and the class feared him taking over. That theory was later overtaken by the theory that Bakugou was actually bigfoot and needed room to eat. Truthfully though, everyone knew that class 1-A now hated Bakugou. And class 1-B?

They did not need that drama.

That didn’t mean that Monoma wouldn’t take his chance to belittle 1-A for their behaviors. Oh no, he went heavy on his snide comments. He may not know everything happening in that class but that wouldn’t stop him from dropping a “Guess your class isn’t so mature is it?” or a customary “You know 1-B wouldn’t create a scene like this.”

And man, could 1-A make a scene. Bakugou’s table, and it was solely known as Bakugou’s table now as no one else would sit there, was a spectacle. So when Uraraka decided to go there and create MORE of a scene…. Well it was noted by all.

Monoma began to wonder how bad things really were in 1-A after that. If they were willing to make such a spectacle in public, then how in the world would they act in private? The more Monoma thought about it, the worse the implications became. Bakugou must have done something. But did that something really deserve that kind of reaction?

From what Monoma knew of Bakugou’s personality, he wasn’t the most enjoyable to be around. And as much as Monoma wanted that fact to be a reason to trash on 1-A, wasn’t Monoma the same? His class didn’t really like his personality much either. They just respected his willingness to stand up for the class as a whole, but when it got down to it, no one ever protested when Kendo smacked him to shut him up. And ouch 1-B, could just one of them pretend to not support that?

Regardless, Monoma understood what it meant to be disliked by the class. It wasn’t fun, but at least he was still respected for his good qualities. Bakugou, however, seemed to be completely at odds with the class. And that hit a bit close to Monoma. He could only wonder if 1-B would really never turn on him like that, despite his claims that they would never stoop to the things 1-A were. He kept up his confidence that they wouldn’t do something like that though. He had to.

Seeing that happen to Bakugou though? Normally, Monoma would immediately say that the arrogant 1-A boy deserved it. Normally, he’d jump on the hate Bakugou train and wave goodbye to the peasants as he passed them by. But instead he was reminded of why he hated 1-A all the more. They had their noses so far up in the air that they couldn’t smell their own shit. And there was no doubt that whatever was happening was shit. Anyone who listened to Uraraka during that one lunch period could have told you that. She literally just tried to force Bakugou to leave the cafeteria and then acted as if Bakugou was in the wrong. He didn’t care what Bakugou had done, that was just dumb.

Monoma knew some outside of class 1-A who thought Bakugou deserved anything coming towards him. That Bakugou was a terrible beast and anything done to him was karma. At some point this started to also sound stupid. Karma seems to have been made already. With that in mind, Monoma secretly cheered Bakugou on when he heard Bakugou call out his classmates to get off their high horses. In a weird way, it made Monoma feel as though he had an ally in his dislike of 1-A. Sure that ally came from the enemy, but he’d take it.

He didn’t exactly know how to approach Bakugou about this though. They weren’t really friends to begin with and he doubted Bakugou wanted anything to do with him because, yes, fine, okay, he gets it. He sometimes goes a little over the top with his vendetta against the entirety of 1-A which included Bakugou. He refused to feel bad about it but, he’d admit, that made it fairly hard to go about making friends from that class. He’d just have to take the opportunity if it ever showed up.

He didn’t expect that opportunity to arise from a trip to the Development Studio. Kaminari had just left that area looking… upset. Monoma couldn’t tell what exactly the emotions were that had littered themselves upon the boy’s face, but they weren’t happy ones. Monoma could only guess that it was something to do with the support classes and that in itself was unusual. Just like with everything else at the school, 1-A seemed to get the most attention from the Support Class. The inventors wanted the best to advertise their gear so naturally class 1-A was the more favorable class yet again. So the fact that Kaminari, who had a flashy quirk that could showcase tech fairly well, seemed unhappy with the service provided…. Monoma was curious.

He walked into the workshop area only to find a very puffed up Hatsume and an amused Bakugou. Perfect. Monoma took his chance to engage in a conversation.

“Oh, what’s this? Did you deny someone from precious 1-A or was the sad spark plug in the halls just my imagination?” Monoma eyed Bakugou while saying this. He was heavily testing the waters here. He had no idea what the situation actually was but that statement would surely open up the conversation.

“Hmm? Am I not allowed to deny people who I think acts less than heroic?” Hatsume responded in kind.

Monoma’s eyes lit up. Another ally! “You see it too! Such a pity that no one else in this school sees the truth of 1-A. 

Anddd that’s alll folks!!!! I know it kind of just cuts off, sorry ><! I’d been wanting to wait to post this because I didn’t want it to confuse anyone when I’m not going this direction. So why did I? I’ve mentioned these chapters to a few different people before when discussing ideas and theories, so on an so forth, and it just felt a little unfair to bring up something unposted w/o a better reason for it not being posted. Plus I genuinely do want to post it and I’m impatient as hell. Anyway, I hope y’all found some enjoyment here!

[hinatoria]

Can’t Let Go

A tiny erehisu oneshot based off that one smartpass au from this post and also inspired from their hand holding sessions :)

It’s been a long day of meetings with Hange, Levi, and the other military leaders about the new plans for Paradis and has fortunately ended earlier than expected. Eren aimlessly walks around town head filled with the dread that awaits their future. He finds himself by the orphanage and the farm and can’t remember if she’s scheduled to work there today. However, he soon spots the blonde tending to a cow that, if he recognizes it correctly, is the one she jokingly named after him. He makes his way towards her.

“...Historia?”

She’s startled and drops her brush she was using on ‘Eren the lazy cow’ and her eyes shoot up to his. As soon as she realizes it’s just him she immediately lights up into a big smile.

“Eren! Hey how are you? Haven’t seen you in a bit. How are the others?”

In contrast to her royal attire and updo bun, she’s in her casual dress and her hair is down. Eren is slightly taken aback. “When did her hair get this long?”

“I think they’re doing okay. Lots going on so I don’t see them as much either. How about you? Kids doing alright?”

“Ah I see. I’m better now. Most of the time I just get dragged around to boring meetings that I could care less about, so whenever I’m here I feel like I’m actually doing something worth while.” She stares fondly back at the orphanage.

He knows the feeling all too well. Meaningless meetings that will all be for naught due to the future he’s seen. That he will cause.

“And the kids are doing well! They’re always talking about you. You’re their little hero.” She laughs.

Eren scratches his head, visibly uncomfortable with the title.

“That’s- hmm I wouldn’t... I-I don’t know about that-”

Historia retracts and feels a bit guilty for having made him feel apprehensive to the statement.

“I guess it’s kind of my fault? They ask me about you and I can’t help but tell them how hard you’re working to protect the island. It’s not wrong though so.... sorry not sorry?” She hesitantly grins.

He understands she means well. It’s not her fault she doesn’t know what the future holds. He reassures her.

“Don’t worry about it.”, He looks around, “Looks like this place is really coming together.”

“Yeah! Glad you noticed! Everyone’s doing their part here. The kids don’t even complain about helping as much as they used too.” She giggles.

He can’t help but look at her and think to himself how far she’s come. She continues to surprise him and it’s such a relief to him that she’s getting to do what she wants and is happy with her choices.

“That’s great. You really are amazing.”

Historia’s cheeks glow red,

“O-oh... thanks...”

Eren notices and realizes he’s feeling a bit warm himself.

“I-I mean... you’ve done amazing... really...”

“Eren?”

Historia motions for him to sit with her by a tree. He sits next to her leaning against its trunk. It’s warm out and there’s a nice calm breeze.

“Yeah?”

“How are you?” She looks at him concerned.

“Hm?”

“You didn’t answer the first time I asked so....”

“Ah.... to be honest..... I don’t know.”

Historia sneaks another glance at him and he looks so tired. He’s looking ahead at something, lost in thought. His eyes are less eager and more sullen.. “Empty.” She thinks. Memories of her childhood come to mind and she sympathizes. “Please. Not him too.”

“Hm. Listen Eren. Whatever is going on in that big head of yours, just know this... your thoughts are safe with me. If it ever gets too much, I got your back. I’ll always be here.” She pauses for a second, “Even if you just need someone to annoy. I’ll happily entertain you in an argument if you want.” She slyly adds.

He lets out a small laugh at the thought of Historia willingly engaging him in a dumb debate. Would probably be about what her actual height is or something. However, he falls back to his gloom and thinks back to the cave incident, a moment in his life that simultaneously destroyed and saved him.

“....Do you remember that day in the cave? When we were about to die and you said, “Fuck everything then! Do you just wanna hold hands and die right here?”

“U-Uhh... I vaguely remember saying something like that... well I wasn’t serious obviously! Y-you jerk..” She side-eyes him while pouting, “....but what about it?”

“I think that’s the best way to describe how I’ve been feeling lately.”

“Eren?”

“Sorry.”

He didn’t mean to make the conversation turn dark, but whenever it comes to her he just can’t lie. There’s really no need to either because he knows she’ll see right through him anyway.

“Well then. Lets do just that... but minus the dying part. I’ve got kids to feed y’know?”

Historia warmly smiles and lends out her hand for Eren to take. He stares at her and notices she’s just as nervous as he is. However, there’s no feeling of reluctance and she’s fully urging him to take her hand. It’s small, callused and there’s a few small scars around her fingers. ‘She must really be working hard to get things done around here for the kids.’ he thinks. He remembers the last time he was here and the kids would constantly follow him around begging for him to tell them what it’s like beyond the walls. And in that moment it clicks for him. This place. These kids. This is why. Eren takes her hand and they intertwine their fingers. It’s awkward and they avoid eye contact, but he already feels better. They stay like that until they both eventually fall asleep.

*An hour later*

“Uh... your majesty?”

Both of them wake up, still holding hands.

“Ah and hello Mr. Yeager. Sorry to interrupt.”

The sky has turned orange and red with the sun setting behind them now. Historia addresses the man who seems to be a farmer working on the land. He’s standing awkwardly and seemingly hesitant to make full eye contact with them.

She’s rubbing her eyes with her available hand and sounds a bit groggy,

“James, how long has it been since you’ve worked here? I told you not to call me that. Historia is fine.”

“M-my apologies. It’s almost dinner time? Shall I have the kids start prepping the tables?”

“Oh is it already? Yes, please also have them wash up beforehand. We’ll be there in a moment.”

“Yes your majes- ah I mean... Historia. I’ll get going.”

He nods towards Eren. “Mr Yeager.”

He bows to both of them and they watch as he retreats back.

“That guy- tsk always acting so formal and weird.” Historia says under her breath shaking her head.

“He probably just has a crush on you.” Eren teases.

“Stop it!”

Eren chuckles at Historia’s annoyed face but she eventually lets up after giving him a playful nudge. Both suddenly realize they’ve still been holding hands the entire time. The farmer surely saw the whole thing.

They immediately let go and can feel each other blushing like crazy.

Historia gets up and fidgets with her dress. “Um I mean, I’m sure he didn’t notice! He was probably too preoccupied with getting the kids ready.... right?”

Eren, still sitting against the tree with his eyes now closed, grins. “Nah he definitely noticed.”

“Eren!”

Eren laughs again and realizes he can’t remember the last time he’s laughed this much. He makes a mental note to make sure to visit the farm more frequently. Or rather, the Queen.

#erehisu #if it’s cringe I’m sorry #I just love them #lots of dialogue #farmer-kun makes an appearance >.>

[rainydaydream-gal18]

Steve Rogers x Reader: The Nutcracker (AU) Part 1

[Author’s Note:  Sooooo I started this story last year and never got around to finishing it, so I ended up taking the parts I’d written off tumblr.  This time, I finally wrote an end to this story and felt like it’d be a nice thing to post around the holidays.

It’s an Avengers fanfic, but it’s the story of the Nutcracker (more like the Barbie one where the reader is not a little girl lol)

Warning, these are long]

   With a sigh, you watched the clock tick from a spot on the floral-patterned couch as you fiddled with a pencil and blank sheet of paper and thought of something to draw.  Your younger brother busied himself playing with the action figures your grandparents got him as a Christmas Eve present.  He was so spoiled it drove you crazy.  It seemed he got everything he wanted at the drop of a hat.  Grandparents are supposed to spoil you a little, but it felt like everyone took part in spoiling him.  Meanwhile, you worked hard and tried to earn what you wanted on your own.

      Your grandfather entered the sitting room, pocket watch in hand.  “Your Aunt Lily has arrived,” he announced.  “Why don’t you kids help her with the bags?”

     He was so cute.  To him, the two of you would always be “kids.”  You immediately got off the couch to help, but paused.

    “_(brother’s name),” you called to your brother.  He glanced up from his action figures.  “Are you going to help?”

    He resumed moving the action figures around.  “I’ll be there in a minute.”  Translation in little brother language: Never.

   Sensing your irritation, your grandpa nodded.  “I appreciate you helping out, Gumdrop.  Thank you.”

    You couldn’t be upset anyway because Aunt Lily was here!  She was definitely the cool aunt that took you out shopping and encouraged you to be yourself.  You had actually formed a friendship as you grew more mature.  Only problem is, she was almost constantly trying to interest you with a guy.  Every Christmas it was the same thing; her gesturing to handsome strangers and giving you suggestive looks.  Still, she was very fun to be around.

    “____________!” she greeted as you emerged from the hallway into your grandparents’ kitchen where some of the relatives gathered to welcome her.  “There’s my favorite niece!  Merry Christmas.”

    “Merry Christmas!” You said with a laugh as she pulled you into a big hug.  After a long squeeze, Aunt Lily released you.  “How was the trip?”

    “It was good!  Long, but good.”

    “Awesome,” you nodded.  “Let me help you with your things.”

   “You’re such a sweetheart,” she grinned.  “There are a few goodies in the trunk of my car if you don’t mind grabbing them for me.  Thank you so much!”  You grinned back and headed to the front door to slide on your boots.  A part of you hated stepping out into the snowy afternoon.  The icy winds chilled you to the bone instantly, but seeing everything clad in sparkling white was worth it.  You folded your arms and hurried past the dozen cars belonging to other relatives until you reached Aunt Lily’s.  After retrieving the big Christmas bags and a suitcase, you locked the car and went inside.

   “I think that’s everything,” you stated, kicking the snow off your boots at the doormat.  Some snow may have gotten on your Captain America socks.  Ugh.

   “Thank you again!”  Aunt Lily took a few bags off your hands.  As you helped her put gifts under the tree, you both got caught up.  She told you about her most recent road trip, the hotel she stayed at and even the celebrity she ran into, while you listed in wonder.  In turn, you told her about college and all the latest friend group drama.  After everything was unpacked, Aunt Lily reached under the tree and picked out a wrapped gift.  “This,” she began, handing it to you, “is for you.  An early Christmas gift from me.”

   “Oh,” you smiled.  “Thank you!”  You in turn grabbed a particular gift from under the tree and handed it to her.  “This is for you!”

    She gave you a kiss on the cheek.  “You’re such a sweetie.”

    After unloading the remaining things from her car, you found a quiet place away from the family hustle and bustle to open your gift from her.  Your brother came running into the room.

   “Look what Aunt Lily got me!”  He held up a box of building blocks set.  The picture on the front of the box showed what the finished product would look like.  This one resembled superhero compound, complete with the heroes in figurine form.  “What did you get, ___________?” He asked as he climbed over into your personal space.  But of course, he couldn’t leave you in peace for five minutes.

   You rolled your eyes.  “I don’t know yet, bro, I haven’t had the chance to open it yet.”

   “Oh,” he shrugged.  “Well then, carry on.”

   With a few rips, you tore through the wrapping paper like you had when you were a kid just for fun.  As soon as you saw the red, white, and blue shield you gasped.  

   It was a Captain America themed nutcracker!  He was so adorable too!  His outfit was red-white, and blue, and sort of looked more like the usual princely garb a nutcracker would wear instead of his usual costume, but he held the shield in one hand.

   “Oh wow!  This is so neat!”  You exclaimed.  

   “I’m so glad you like it,” Aunt Lily said.  She had entered the room to watch your reaction.  It was no secret that you went crazy for this sort of thing.  You were a total geek when it came to Marvel movies as well as Marvel-related merch, and you were proud.

   “I wanna see!”  Your brother whined as he struggled to reach for it.

   “__(brother’s name)__,” Aunt Lily scolded.  “That is ____________’s.  I got you something of your own.  Why don’t you go put it together?”

   He immediately became preoccupied with his own project, and you mouthed the words “thank you” to your aunt.  A dazzling smile played on her lips in response.  She was the coolest.

   The whole family squeezed into your grandparents’ dining room for dinner. It was a lively meal with people chatting and catching up.  Some relatives lived far away and could only visit a few times a year, so this was kind of a big deal.  You were asked a million questions about college, your part-time job, and friends. You filled everyone in on the deets about classes and the part-time job you got working at the local bookstore.

   “We’re so proud of you,” Aunt Lily said, and you couldn’t help but grin back. That was always nice to hear.

   “This one is so smart.  Always has her nose in a book, whether it is for school or just because she enjoys reading,” your mother said.  You blushed at the attention.

   “That’s good,” your grandma said.  “Keep it up.  Keep learning.”

   A few conversations later, the family went to their rooms to get changed into pajamas for the evening.  There would be a Christmas movie or two in the living room shortly.  Since your brother was the youngest in the family, he got to pick the movie.  The two of you exchanged knowing looks, and he chose Polar Express.

   “Yesss!” you gave him a big hug.

   As much as the two of you could be annoyed with each other, he was still your brother.  Both of you sat next to each other in pajamas and shared a bowl of popcorn as your grandpa tried to figure out how to work the DVD player.  Technology had developed to the point where any movie could be accessed digitally in an instant, and he was still trying to understand how DVD players worked.  You felt bad, but you and your brother tried to hold back giggles.

   At the start of the movie, you were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  As it progressed though, you began to feel tired. Before you knew it, you were drifting off to sleep.

   - - - - 

   “I’m sorry, __________,” someone sobbed.  You were awake instantly, blinking your eyes open.  The living room was empty.  It was after midnight, and everyone must have gone to bed already. The TV was off, but a cozy fire warmed the room with a dim light from the fireplace.  You rubbed your eyes and focused on your brother who stood in front of you, crying.

   “What?  What’s wrong?” you asked with a sigh.

   “I...I didn’t mean to do it.  I just wanted to play…”

   Your eyes went from his teary eyes to what he held in his hand.  It was your Captain America nutcracker.  His arm had been twisted at an odd angle.  Your brother held the shield, which had broken off, in his other hand.  Your first instinct was to get angry.

   “What did you do?” you demanded.  “You shouldn’t have been playing with him in the first place. Aunt Lily gave him to me.  You got your own present!”            

   “I know, I’m sorry,” he cried.  “I didn’t mean to break him.”

   You sighed again.  It was apparent he really felt bad, and you knew he would never have broken something of yours on purpose.

   “It’s okay,” you said finally.  “Well, it’s not okay, but I forgive you.  Thank you for coming to me instead of trying to hide it.”

   Relief washed over his face that you weren’t going to freak out on him, but he still showed signs of guilt.  “I can get you a new one.”

   “No, no, that’s okay.  This one is special from Aunt Lily, and I’m not going to give up on him just because he had a little rough patch.”  You gently took the nutcracker from your brother.  “You don’t give up on people just because they’re broken.”  

   You focused your attention on the Captain America nutcracker in hand.  He still needed a little fixing.  Your brother went and fetched some glue from the miscellaneous drawer in the kitchen. You used a ribbon from the package Aunt Lily gave your earlier to make a sort of temporary sling to keep the nutcracker’s arm in place.  You looked into his painted blue eyes and smiled.  They seemed to sparkle now.  Perhaps they had always been this bright, and you just hadn’t noticed before.

   Your brother returned with the glue, and helped you reattached the shield. He did a good job.

   “There,” you said.  “He’s looking pretty good.”

   “Yeah, he is.”  Your brother agreed.  Then, he wiggled his eyebrows.  “Good enough to kiss?”

   You gave him a look.

   “What?  I heard you talking to your friend on the phone once.  I know you think Captain America is ‘hawt,’ so don’t even deny it.”

   You rolled your eyes and grabbed the nearest couch pillow to fling at his face. “Alright, you just ruined the brother-sister bonding moment.”

   He stuck his tongue out at you.

   “What are you, two years old?” You threw another couch pillow.  “Anyway, it’s late.  I’m going back to sleep.”  You gathered the pillows again and fluffed them up before lying back down on the couch.  “I think I’ll stay out here and enjoy the fire.”

   “Okay, I’m going to my room,” your brother said.  “Goodnight, thanks for not killing me.”

   “Goodnight,” you opened a sleepy eye to watch him leave the room.  Then, you chuckled.  “Oy, I’m tired…”

               - - - -

   Crash.  You were ripped from a cozy, deep slumber to the sound of glass shattering.  A loud bang sounded.  More glass shattered.  You would have blamed your grandparents’ cat if it weren’t for the fact that they haven’t had a cat in years.

   That’s when you really woke up.  Fear gripped you as the sounds came from behind the couch, near the Christmas tree. It had to be an intruder.  But what the hay were they doing near the tree? Stealing presents?  A part of you was scared to look.  Still, you slowly and quietly poked your head up just enough to peek over the back of the couch.

   What you saw amazed and horrified you.

   Your Captain America nutcracker was launching his shield at what looked like a miniature Chitauri.

   “What the actual heck?” you whispered.

   The Chitauri was decapitated, but another leapt out from behind the Christmas tree.  The nutcracker charged at him and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.   More jumped in, and he fought them off skillfully.  But he didn’t seem to notice another sneaking up behind him.

   You weren’t sure what came over you.  Whether this was a dream or not, you did not want to see Captain America get mauled by one of those creepy things.  You hurried around the couch.

   “Watch out!” you called out, and fortunately, you reached him in time. Without thinking, you stomped your foot. Ew.  There might be creepy chitauri gunk under your slipper now…

   Your nutcracker looked up at you, his painted blue eyes seemingly sparkled more now.

   “Thanks,” he said.

   “No problem…” You managed a smile and a shrug.  This was crazy.  It had to be a dream.

   He seemed to sense your unease.  “This must be strange for you,” he said as he resumed fighting oncoming enemies.  “I will explain soon.”

   “Sure,” you nodded, biting your lip as you noticed a particularly large group of chitauri crowding around your feet.  It was no trouble.  A few swift kicks sent them all flying.  

   “Hm, darling,” a strangely familiar voice spoke.  “This isn’t going to work…I cannot afford any flaws in my plan.”

   “Loki?” you said in disbelief.  “But it’s been years since the first Avengers came out…Why are you still the bad guy?”

   He emerged from behind the tree, a little shorter than your Captain America nutcracker, except he had used his illusion abilities to look like a mouse. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.  “However, I do know that you are getting in the way.  You’re too tall, I’d rather you be small…” He waved his scepter, and suddenly everything around you began to grow.  

   Or rather, it was you who was shrinking.  

   The chitauri that were coming at your feet so pitifully became more of a threat as you reached their eye level.  You squeaked as they crowded you, one grabbing your arm.  Just then, a few of them roared and began to back off.

   Your nutcracker came barreling into the mob, quickly wrapping a wooden arm around you and pulling you from the danger.

   “Y-you rescued me,” you gasped.  “Thank you!”

   “Of course,” he replied.  “But don’t thank me yet, _________.”  He released you, but kept holding your hand as he raced away.  “We’ve got to get out of here and back to the Kingdom.”

   “What?”

   “Yes, to find the Sugarplum Princess.  She’s the only one who can change you back and rescue us all from the Wannabe Mouse King.”

   “Oh, goodie.”  You clung to him as he leaped up onto a tree branch.  “And how do we find this Sugar Pear-“

      “Sugarplum Princess,” he corrected gently.  “And I’m not sure.”  The two of you became the climb up the tree.  You had done some tree-climbing as a kid, but this was something else.  

      You wondered why the heck the two of you were climbing the tree if you needed to get back to this “Kingdom.”  Your nutcracker remained at your side, ensuring you didn’t fall whenever your foot slipped on a branch.

   “We have to get to the star of the tree,” he said, as if reading your thoughts.  “It’s our way out.”

   Behind you, a few chitauri-minions began climbing too.  The Mouse King with Loki’s voice shouted commands and threats to them as you and the nutcracker managed to reach the top.

   The star looked so big and bright to you in this size.  Was it just you, or….was it glowing brighter?

   Nutcracker-Steve ushered you closer to the star.  He took your hand in his and touched it to the star.  With that, there was a flash of light, a sensation of falling, and suddenly you felt chilly.

   Opening your eyes, you saw a blanket of white stretching out miles and miles before you.  Snowy mountains stood strong and beautiful to the left of the scene, and a frozen lake far on the right.

   “W-where are we?  This does not look like my grandparents’ living room.”

   “This is the Kingdom,” Steve said.  “This is what I’m fighting to protect.  The Mouse King desperately wants to rule over this place and its people, but we can’t let that happen.  I’ve already wandered so far off track.”

   You had to admit it was beautiful here.  Everything was coated in sparkling light, resembling Narnia when the Pevensie children first arrived.  Only you got here through a tree star, not a wardrobe.  And it was still night here.

   “So, what do we do?” you asked, hugging yourself to try and retain some warmth. Steve’s painted eyes seemed to soften sympathetically.

   “I’m sorry about the cold.  Well, I’m sorry about all of this, actually.”

   “It’s fine. You can’t really help it.” Your breath rose up in a cloud through the air with each word.

   “I’ll tell you what,” he said, running a wooden hand down your arm in a pointless attempt to warm you.  “We’ll head to the nearest town for some warm clothes and supplies.  Then we need to find out where the Sugarplum Princess is.”

   “Sure, it seems I don’t have much choice.  I might freeze to death otherwise,” you mumbled.  Steve attached his shield to his back and began trekking through the snow.  You followed in his footsteps, hoping to avoid getting lots of snow in your slippers. Unfortunately, it was inevitable. Before long, snow had gotten into your slippers and melted around your feet, making them ice-cold.  The snow began to pick up, and it seemed to become a blizzard.

   “The Mouse King knows we’re here,” Steve shouted to you.  “He’s trying to make things more difficult.”

   “But of course he has ice powers,” you complained, teeth chattering.

   Not much longer after that, you saw a warm light in the distance.  It glowed faintly through the intense snowfall. The sight of it alone made you think of warm blankets and clothes, sitting comfortable and dry by a fireplace. Oh, you hoped they’d be welcoming.

   “Almost there, _________,” Steve told you.  “We’re almost there.  Hang in there.”

PART 2

#avengers #avengers reader insert #avengers fanfiction #steve rogers x reader #captain america x reader #avengers x reader #steve rogers #captain america #reader insert #captain america imagine #avengers imagine #steve rogers imagine

[feeling-uncomfy]

H e l l o

In light of the masterpiece that is Wandavison, my small brain made up a Shoutoko AU and I would now die for it :D

If you haven't watched it, I strongly recommend it, but it's okay, there's no major spoilers to the show here(I hope), cause fuck canon.

The only warning is Tokoyami absolutely destroying a bunch of heros like the anit-hero he is.

Hope you enjoy! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with both this and the Mafia AU, it should come out in the order I posted these, so Mafia AU first, then Wandavison AU

Anyways! Enjoy!

Tokoyami closed the door to his house with a sigh. Another day was over, another random shenanigan, another dramatic plotline, another day with his beloved complete. Not that it was hard to get through a day with him, the parts where they were apart felt like hours, and when they were together, everything just seemed to work.

It wasn't something that Tokoyami thought to be odd, he just found things were easier when Mezou was around him. No, he wasn't attached, he was just.. making sure nothing went wrong.

Speaking of, Tokoyami looked around the room for him, finding that he was alone. Panic hit him immediately and he sprinted to the living room.

"Mezou-?!" Tokoyami looked around the room and he could feel himself physically relaxing when he got an answer. "Upstairs, love, I'll be down in a minute." Tokoyami gave a quick response and sank onto the couch.

So far, this little place they learned to call home was going great. Mezou was happy, the neighbor's didn't ask questions, and no one was trying to kill them. It was everything the pair could've wanted. Mezou didn't need to hide his face as often, and Tokoyami thought he'd never seen him so happy.

Of course, there was the odd thing of needing to force someone to look away from Mezou, or have people remember the script, but it wasn't hurting people. The only thing that had broken so far was the radio, and there was a good reason for that.

Mezou had been cleaning the counter listening to music from the radio, perfectly normal, Tokoyami was set to walk in once a good song came on and they'd dance, that was, until the radio feed cut out. Mezou put down the dishes and walked over, naturally curious. Tokoyami hadn't been paying attention until he heard a voice that was not meant to be there.

"Shouji? Shouji, can you hear me?!" Mezou blinked, not knowing if he should answer, apparently he didn't need to. "I need you to listen, n̴̤̞̍̔͛o̶͇͋͆ṋ̴̍é̸͍͗̍ ̵͎̹̄̆̔ő̷̼̇f̷̨̟͇̈ ̶͍̥̰͝t̷̫̘̓́h̵̦̘̩͛͑̓í̸̪͂s̴͎̎̒͠ ̶̠̻̈́̀i̷̼̱͇͝ś̶̬̀̏ ̴͖̈́r̴̜̯͊è̵͙ä̷̪̬̇l̸͙͐̊́ ̷͕͔̔ You need to get Tokoyami to—"

The radio suddenly flew out the window, falling silent as it crashed into the bushes. Mezou jumped when Tokoyami calmly appeared beside him, looking out the window. Mezou looked between his boyfriend and the radio, wondering why it had sounded so... alien.

"Did you see that?" Tokoyami turned to him at the question. "See what, dear?" Mezou tilted his head, and pointed at the bushes. "The radio, didn't you see it fly out the window?" Tokoyami laughed softly and reached up to gently move a strand of hair behind Mezou's ear. "I didn't see anything, it must've just been a trick of the light,"

Tokoyami hated that he'd done it, but once he left, so did Mezou's memory of the radio. It was as simple as the last few times he'd done it, and yet the guilt never failed to make Tokoyami rethink everything. Yet, Tokoyami shook the thoughts away and left, waiting for his que as normal. Mezou shook himself out of his daydream and looked at the bushes, before shrugging and continuing what he was doing.

That was only two episodes ago, surely they wouldn't bother trying again? Tokoyami hoped they were smart enough anyways.

Apparently, he overestimated them. By a lot, it seemed.

Tokoyami jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the door, and he got up to answer it. He opened the door and immediately went to slam it shut again. Their homeroom teacher, Mr. Aziawa, stood at the door.

Tokoyami couldn't help the dry snort at his teacher's clothes, he fit in perfectly with his world, but he stood out like a sore thumb all at once. "Tokoyami, please listen to me," Aziawa was holding the door open.

Tokoyami glared. "You expect me to listen after the radio stunt?" Aziawa didn't let up, pushing against the door. "Tokoyami these are innocent people you've got in here, let them and Shouji go, please-"

At the mention of Mezou, Tokoyami's little restraint snapped, and Aziawa was sent flying backwards. "Get. Away. From. Us." Tokoyami snarled, fully prepared to murder his own teacher. Aziawa sat up, dazed, and stood up to meet Tokoyami's glare. "Tokoyami. People are being hurt. I know you miss him, but you can't—"

The rest of the sentence died with the door slamming shut, Tokoyami apparently having had enough of the conversation. Great. Aziawa sighed and called in the backup team, and reminded them only to engage when told to. And not a second before, or after.

Tokoyami glared at the people outside, wishing they would just leave them alone. He wasn't hurting anyone! Mr. Aziawa doesn't know what he's talking about, Tokoyami came to this conclusion as he prepared to shift the reality to suit tomorrow's script. Once he did that, he could deal with the problem outside and get some sleep with Mezou.

"Tokoyami! You have five seconds to stop this and hand Shouji's b̵̙͕̬̺̋͊ͅò̸̦̰̖̩̓̽̈́́̈̆d̴̙̖͛͆̌̀̇͛̂y̷̹͇̻͉̰͚̓͂͜͜—"

Tokoyami scoffed, flicking his wrist, making the voices distorted and hard to understand. Tokoyami hummed as he continued, not giving a damn about what they were doing out there. It was nothing Tokoyami couldn't fix.

"Fumikage...?" Now that made Tokoyami freeze. He stopped what he was doing to look up at the stairs. Mezou stood, looking half awake and concerned. Tokoyami cursed, he must've taken too long. It was fine, he could fix this too. Stupid Mr. Aziawa distracting him..

"Yes, Mezou? What's the matter?" Tokoyami kept a level head as he walked over, taking one of his hands and gently running circles into it. He noticed Mezou's head tilt towards him. Good, that was good. "I heard yelling, is everything okay..?" Tokoyami's heart broke a little at his quiet tone and the underlined fear behind his words.

The whole point was he'd never have to feel afraid again. Tokoyami suppressed a wave of anger at the strangers outside, no longer considering them hero's. If they were, they'd understand what he was trying to do. Tokoyami brought his attention back to Mezou, who had his eyes glued to the door.

Tokoyami shook his head. "It was nothing dear, just the neighbor's arguing..! You know how they get," Mezou nodded, but wasn't convinced. Tokoyami noticed and led him to the couch and sat him down, gently combing a hand through Mezou's hair. He mumbled words of reassurance while untangling the knots in his hair.

Mezou didn't notice from the affection that Tokoyami had a hand glowing a bright purple, settling around Mezou like a blanket, a sudden feeling of calm washing over him, making him relax and go slack in Tokoyami's hands. Tokoyami smiled softly and continued to gently brush through Mezou's hair while his magic worked the rest of him.

Mezou found himself completely relaxed and limp in minutes, his eyelids growing heavy. A bang at the door ruined their quiet moment, and startled Mezou so he was standing again. "Are you sure it's just the neighbor's? It doesn't sound like-" Mezou made his way over to the door, and Tokoyami forgave himself later for lunging across the room to grab the door handle.

"Mezou, dear, I'll get it, you wait by the couch, alright?" Tokoyami had always found Mezou's stubbornness to be endearing, but for the love of fuck, could he just once agree? Mezou stared at Tokoyami, then the door. "If it's our neighbor, why can't I see them?" Tokoyami blinked, and cursed himself. He'd been caught out in his own lie.

Tokoyami sighed softly, and leaned in, kissing Mezou slowly to buy himself some time. Which, thankfully, worked wonders. Mezou went a bright red and kissed back, successfully distracted. Tokoyami smiled into the kiss, and flicked his wrist towards the door.

Aziawa was preparing for a lot of things, but he wasn't prepared for his own student to walk out and start yelling at him. Kirishima never yelled, or was angry, in fact. Aziawa was at a loss of words, and even more so when Bakugo of all people started yelling back. It was getting heated, literally.

Aziawa had his team step back, watching both of them, eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was no way these two were arguing, not in a world where everything was apparently "perfect". Kirishima knocked on Tokoyami's door, looking mad. Aziawa couldn't help his surprise when Shouji answered.

Last time he'd seen him, H̴̨̗͈͇͚̃̋̈́̋̋͛̅ḛ̸̡̛̤̠̦̤̘̺͕͇̰͇͎̬̑̐́̈́͛̈́̚ͅ ̴̧̧̘̠̦̭̞̣̞͙̌͗͐͂̃̆w̴̩͓̫͓̐̀̈͐̈́̉̋̕ả̸̢̢͔̻̺̮̬̗͓̿̍̇̍̐̊͒͆̇̕͝͝ş̴̡̛̪̺̬̺̿͂̊̓͗̾́̐ ̵̨̢̢̛̣̻̭̳̯͎͎̬̄̎̈̇̋͌̀̎̎̉͗͛͂͒d̴͓̤͙̖̫̬͇͒͆̅͒͐̀̎̕͘e̸͚̯͛̎͛̇̆ǎ̸̧͎̪̝̬̺̯̈́̾̑̓͌͊͒͜d̵̜̤̈̌̈́̀̚̕͠͝

Aziawa gasped loudly and clutched his head. Wow, that hurt. Aziawa shook his head, hearing thoughts that weren't his own. Looking around wildly, Aziawa stupidly repeated the thought.

Shouji Mezou was d̴͓̤͙̖̫̬͇͒͆̅͒͐̀̎̕͘e̸͚̯͛̎͛̇̆ǎ̸̧͎̪̝̬̺̯̈́̾̑̓͌͊͒͜d̵̜̤̈̌̈́̀̚̕͠͝.

""̶͖̳͖̙̣̙̬͆̽̈͜͝S̷̛̯̤̪͆h̸̺̼̥̬̳͖̙̗̟̫̮̱͛͌̎͂̌̿͘͜u̶̢͍̞̱̫͇̳͕̠͐̌̀̊͂̀͂͂̍̀͝ṯ̵̦̟̣͚̖̘̙̞͂̂̾͗͌͝ ̵̱͖̦̦͔̭̙̮͉̳͕̄͠ư̷͕̲͇̰̖̼͉̰͈͇̬̳̻̯̌̽͑͝p̸͇͓͕̖̜̺̗̥̖͖̌͗͆̆͘͝.̵͍͙̻̲̫͈̹̪̅̀̿̋͂̓̀̒́̎̎"̵̡̧̛̰̪̙̯̬̜͙͚̪̭͈̹͋͑͋̆́̌͑̓̚͘͝͝ͅ"

Aziawa froze at the voice. That wasn't his, yet when he looked around, he was alone. Suddenly, the whole world seemed to turned back to the conversation Kirishima and Shouji were having, Aziawa becoming nothing more than a cameo.

It didn't make sense why Tokoyami would change that now. But the focus wasn't on A̷̢̮͔̟̰̩̪̿́́̿̾z̶̬͈̭̀i̵̮̋͂̈͗̅̓̌̚͝à̶͔w̷̛̫͕̯̭̫̹͎͆́̓͝͠͝ą̶̟̞͚̫̩͇̪̕͝͠ anymore.

"Shouji!" Kirishima's smile was forced and he went on a rant about how annoying Bakugo was being, his voice raising whether he meant it or not. Shouji couldn't help the flinch at Kirishima slamming his hands a little forcefully on the door.

Every time Mezou tried to jump in, Kirishima brought them onto a new topic. Mezou listened, patient as ever, until Bakugo suddenly made his way up the driveway. Kirishima and Bakugo stared at each other. Mezou wasn't surprised by the laughing track that followed in the background.

Kirishima and Bakugo started fighting, forgetting about Mezou, who was leaning on the door. Mezou looked over at the bushes, and froze when he saw something move. No one was paying attention, maybe he could take a look?

Mezou made his way over slowly, the yelling in the background sounding like static and distorted. He got to the bush and saw more movement. Very hesitantly, he moved a branch to the side. At first, he didn't see anything. Mezou looked closer and his wrist was grabbed, making him jump.

Someone was staring at him, their face half melted and looking like they're in agony. They pulled Mezou close, screaming at him, trying to tell him something. Mezou's breathing picked up, giving away his panic. They were yelling nonsense, until Mezou was right in their face, they're voice was as clear as day.

"Get out of this town."

Mezou blinked and he was back in the bedroom. Alone. He looked around to see that everything was how he left it. It was clean, and quiet. Too quiet. He jumped at the front door slamming shut. Curious, Mezou made his way downstairs and saw Fumikage standing alone in the living room.

H̶̨͊͊̊̍͌̈́̎͊̒͂̇̍̑̊͊́̓̓͛̃͐͋͘̕͘͝ą̵̮̫̥̺͈̺̘̰̫̜͉̘̼̑̂̃̀̉͠s̶̨̨͙͖̳̰̫̻͇̤̩̩͎̻̜̠̳̩̹̤̟̥͎̱̘͕͘͠ń̷̡̡̛̲͕͉̻̭̮̻̭̺͓̚'̴̝̻͈͉̘͓̞̩̬̲̰͇̠̉͊͛̑́̈́͆̀̔́̽̂̍͂̚͘ͅt̵̨̘̻̭̝̼͆̀̄̉̒͋͘͝͝ͅ ̷̨͙͕̖̪̱̺̥̖̟̩̦͎̬̤̳̉̄̃͜t̶̡̻͔̮̹̩͙̖̩͉͈̗̪̱̫̝̰͙͌̈̋́̌̓͐̀̒̌̆̐͌͘̕̚͜h̶̭̩̦͉̪͕̫̬͍̚ȋ̵̘̯̈̅͌̾͑͑́̍͊͋̆̀̇̾́̽̿͌̽͊͐̃̎̚ş̴̡̗͈͔̞̤̱̯͚̘͔̯̜̞̲̦͎̖͔̫̥̬̮̭͐̍̌͒͐̋͆̐̐̇̓́̋̀̑̓̽́ͅ ̴̡̢̫̪̼̱̦̫̉̀̓͘̚h̶̡̢̛͚̫̦̘̬̀̇͌̓̓̐̊̈́̿͗͝ą̶̢̡̜̞͙̱̝̘͓̝̟͚̘̭̱̱̯̫͎͓͈̖̳͊̈́̈̐͌̊͗̀̅͊͗͜͜͝͝p̵͎͚͐̆̉̍̉̄̇͒́̄̿̾̚͠͝ṗ̴̡̺̜̭̙̪͇̙̺͈͇̞̈́̇̈́̑͛̔̌́̄̽͌͂͐̈̐̓̈́͛͑̐̚͠ȩ̶̮͔̘̖͔͇̥̪̰̤͍͈͕̥͕̫͓̍́ñ̸̨̨̜̻̹̫̰̣͖̩̯̠̫̗͉͉̭̲̱́̄̈́̈́͆͂̉̑̌̾̉͘̚ė̵̡͓̩̳̮̘͓̦̦͈͕͇͚̼͕͂͑̌̔̄̈̊̿̈̀̋̄͑̉̚d̶̡̛͎̟͉̩͍̫͕̫͑̿̑̊̾̂́̍ ̵̳̭̲͉̲̟̙̩͔̜̙̰̼̈́͆͂͒̊͜͝b̸̛̬͓̰̮̪̰͎̮̫̭̣͔̤̤̯͔͌̀̀̌͑̑́̏͌̇͛̕̕̕̕̚͝͠e̶̮̲̻̮͑̾̏͗͗f̷̢̡̛̺̹̼̞̘̬͇̤͙̱͒̆̔͑́͂̍̿͂͗̾̓̇͐̏̕͘͝ǫ̷̨̢̼̦̻̦̫̠͔͓̩̫̺̱͕̥̹̩̾̈́̈́̓̀̽̋̀̽͊̈́̉͝ŗ̴̢̛̤͓̼͉̟̹͎̂̔̈̅̆̏̎̽́̔̂͊̋͛̿͂́͊͒́̚͘͠ͅe̷̘̮̭͔̱̲̼̣͗̉͐̊̅̃̂?̴͙̼̣̝̀̒̈͛͌̈́̈́́̉́̎͛̊̌͂

"Fumikage...?" Mezou's voice was quiet, wondering why there was a slam. Fumikage seemed to freeze for a second before looking up. "Yes, Mezou? What's the matter?" Fumikage made his way over and gently held his hand, an instantaneous calming feeling washing over him. "I heard yelling, is everything okay..?" Fumikage frowned at Mezou's tone, clearly having a problem with his fear.

Fumikage assured him it was the neighbor's arguing again, and Mezou found himself sitting on the couch, feeling fuzzy. Wasn't he just by the stairs? How did he-? All his anxieties disappeared when Fumikage ran a hand through his hair, that fuzzy feeling returning ten-fold.

Mezou felt his eyes closing, and didn't even register the door slamming again, all he heard was Fumikage whispering to him. "I think you should go to sleep, Mezou.." Tokoyami gently tilted Mezou's chin up so he could look at him and smiles slightly at Mezou's eyes drooping.

Mezou didn't think he could get a full sentence out, so he returned Fumikage's smile with a nod and leaned into the comfort. He didn't see the mist surrounding them both, didn't realise the calming effect it was having on him, and even if he did, he was put to sleep too quickly to be able to say much about it.

"...goodnight, Mezou." Fumikage placed a small kiss on his forehead before laying Mezou down, wrapping him up in a blanket and keeping the mist around him, making sure he stays asleep.

Then, Fumikage turned to glare at the door. Thankfully, this time it would be different. He walked outside, where Dark Shadow was having their fun with the trespassers. Aziawa was thrown onto the ground, feeling blood well up in his mouth. He sat up and glared at his student.

Tokoyami payed no mind to him, and continued changing the people and sending them on their way. No matter what, he wasn't going to listen. Aziawa searched for something to say. "What about Hawks? What about the rest of 1A? Tokoyami, Shouji and the other's can't stay here!"

Tokoyami turned his glare onto his teacher. "Shut up. You have no place here." Aziawa was picked up by Dark Shadow and was held tightly by the neck. Tokoyami stared at his teacher, honestly looking a little bored. "This isn't your world, you have no idea what you're dealing with. Leave, and never come back."

Aziawa blinked, and he was flying backwards towards the wall. Another blink, and he was back in the real world, hitting the ground harshly. Hawks ran up to help him stand. "What happened in there?! Did you see either of them?"

Aziawa sat up and stared at the barrier. "...I didn't teach him any of that-"

T̶̡̡̢̧̛̘̪͎̖͍̪̪̦̬͙̺̫̫͖̯̠̠̖̝̠͙̳͓̯͍̦̫͕͒͆͆̀̾͗̾͒͘͜͝͠h̴̡̧̗̩͕̬̞̼̞͎̥̥̄̍̅͂̀͂͐̑̾̓̚͘͘̚͝͝e̴̠̾̎͛͝ ̴̗̪͕̭͖̦͚̼̝̦̻̜̖͚̟̏̈́̿̀̀͆̆̎͑̈̊̓́̏͑̅͑̓͝͝͝o̶̥̩̠̦͎͙͇̩̮͋̈͛̿͂̃͐̑̚ͅų̷̧̢̢̛̛̘̞͔̦̤̞͚͉̹̻̝͖̙̘̫̗̣̗̰̫͙̥̺̰͇̮͚͔̞͊̂̆̏͛̈́̊̅̈́̔̔͑̈́̊̈͂͘̚̚̕͠͝͝ť̸̛̝̖̠͓̦̻̊̑̊̇͐͗͊͗͛̈̓̈́̏̄̔́̈́̾̇̈́͑̓̂̚͘͘͠͝͝ş̸̟̘̤̤̪̟͓̩͍̬̗̠̰͖̥͎̗͇̞̫̘͚̞̠̻͈͓͎̮͍̦͍̑̒͛í̷̧̡̪̥̳̖̗͉͚̙͓̗̫̺͍̪͙̥̖͈͇̞̦̜̺̣͚̪̳̮̠̈́͛̏̒̔͆̿͛̑͐͑̀̐̑̑̌͗͘̕̕̚ď̵̡̨̡̨̧̨̫̮̯̪̜̱̩͔̩̺̫̫̺̞̱̻̥̯͙̤̀͊̔ề̷̖̹͎̪̯̣̊ͅ ̵̡͕̰̥͚̳̫͈̤̥͈̭̖͕̟̗͙̦̬̟̯͒͋̋̀͐̒̏̾͐̇͜ͅḑ̷̢̡̨̲͎̬̺̲̰̥͔̤͈̪̯̗̮͇̻͙̯͙̱͓̦̠̜͇̝̱͉̌̀̈́͐͑̐̔̔̀̏o̵̡̲̮̺͑e̵̡̡̨̙̼̼̳͓͖̜̗̥̹͕̞̭̪̹̙͕̺̣̥͎͈͚̾͆͜ͅͅŝ̵̡̨̢̛̺͎͚̩̥͍̪̩͓̹̘̘̫͍̙̫̟̭̞͓̰̩̱̅̐̂͝ņ̶̨͖̦̰̮̮̳̫̼̹̦̲̲̲̭̭̮́̾̅̇̓͊̆̿͛̋̾̇͊̈́͋̎̏̚͝'̸̪̣͓͚͍̍̅͂͗̒̽̀̓͜ͅt̷̢̙̰̥̝̙̳̊̏̽̀̽̔͌̔̌͝ ̷̢̛̝̯̯̳̦̖̬͔͇͓̗͙̗̭̞̈́͒͆̎̆̔̒̋͑̐̒́͌̓̂̎̇̏͘͝m̶̱̬̙͇̱̆̇̏̂̐̊̀̋̒̽͌̕͝ą̸̲͕̗̪̭̲̻̳̺̘̰̯̲̳̺̲̩̠̫̓̾̓̾̈́̊͑̌͘ṫ̴̡̢̧̰̳̪̞̰͍̹̦̤̮̜̫̝̳͙̒̑͋̈́̉͛̈́̒̀̍̃͛̌̋͒͐̈́͒̕̕͜͜͜͠ͅţ̶̢̢̛̤̜̰̤̞͉̗̗͉̬̬̰͉̜̬̪͕͇̘̯̰͌̏͗͋̽̋͂̀̒͂̀̈̿̔̅̉͘͘͘͜͝͠͝ͅe̷̢̢̪̗̟̩̝͈̘̤̙̺̤͂͌̇̀̓̈́̏̿̈̈́͜ŗ̴̧̧̛̖͉͉̭̹̳̫̼͎̙̣͔̪̹̪̖̙̥̩̠͚̣͍͖̥̲̹̍̆̈́͊̈̒̎̓̍͘.̷̺̥͈̪̹̲̭͔̙͉͇̥̦̠̎̅̃͛̌͐̑̾̀̿͐̕͘͘͜͠ ̸̨̧̧̛̛̛̻̬̬̪̙̫̝̣͓̬̝͉̪̙͙̝̼̒͌̋̐̈́̇̓̄͛͊̓̑͗͊̊̓͒͒̌̐̑͂̀̑̌̀̅͛̕͘

Tokoyami closed the door with a sigh. Another day was over, another random shenanigan, another dramatic plotline, another day with his beloved complete. Not that it was hard to get through a day with him, the parts where they were apart felt like hours, and when they were together, everything just seemed to work.

He walked over to see Mezou still sound asleep, curled around a blanket. Tokoyami smiled softly and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes. The light of his life, was safe for another day, and that's all Tokoyami needed to call it a successful day.

"Dark Shadow," Tokoyami muttered, and the quirk came to attention, picking Mezou up carefully and keeping the blanket around him. Tokoyami nodded to the entity before leading them upstairs to their shared bedroom.

Tokoyami had Dark Shadow lay Mezou down while Tokoyami closed the blinds and with a click of his fingers the lights were off and he was in bed. Immediately, he was pulled into a hug by Mezou, a small kiss on his cheek and Mezou buried his face into Tokoyami's hair.

Tokoyami hugged back, kissing Mezou and gently running a hand through his hair. Mezou was quiet for a moment before letting put a small purr. "Love you, Fumikage." Tokoyami's heart shattered and rebuilt itself with just those words.

In no way at all did he deserve this, did he deserve Mezou. But he had him, and Tokoyami didn't plan on letting him go. "I love you too, darling, always." Mezou hummed in response, drifting back to sleep, blissfully unaware of his whole world being rewritten outside his window.

Tokoyami sighed and watched Mezou fall asleep again. It would be fine in the morning, this wouldn't have happened, and there would be no real memory of it..

Tokoyami held onto tighter as the bedroom changed to suit the time and settled down to sleep. "You never have to worry again, Mezou," Tokoyami closed his eyes and held the love of his life closer.

"I have e̶̲͎̎̎̔͒́̐̂͐̈͌͋̍̇̄́̓̔͗͂͗͐̋̑͊̀̇̑̿͊͝v̵͖͕̤̩͇̀̎̎̔̿̿̽̐͑̕͘͠͝͝��̢̧̢̡̧̖͔̯̦̼̞̣̹̯̝̩̻̫̜̭͔̮͍̠͔̥̖̖͈͓̬̦ͅͅe̴̞͎͚͓͈̣̹͎͎͂̓̊͊̒͒̍͊̽͐̒̍̾̄̅͘r̷̢̤̘̖̗̟͐́̈́̀̈́̋̐́̓͋͋́̀̋̆̇̏͒̑̕̕̕͜͝͝͝ͅy̸̧̨̢̖̜̫̠̣̲͈̼̩̦̗͇̱̙̥̼̪̘̳̥͚̖̗̙̳̻͎͓̻̗̲̱̘̬͈͎̻̼̳̤̿̓́͋̍̽̊̚͠t̵̢̜̘̱̖̞͖̹͇̹̞̀͑͑̈́̾͊̍̾̌̃͐́̆̽͝͝ͅh̴̡̨̧̧̛̛̛̛͉͙̝̱̲̗̬̩̤̘̺͉̯̿̀͌̌͗̄̈̈́͌̎̃̓͛͑̓̎̓̔̉̋̍̀͌̐̈́̐̐̆̈́̊͒̂̓̈́̅̕͘͜͝͝į̷̡̧̨̫̜̲̣̭͎̝̖̩̲̰͚̮̥̦̗̘̜̱̣̼͔̦̖͔͇͎̲̞͍͓̠̑̊̃̈̈́̊̾͂͐͘͘͝͠ͅn̸̝͖͈̏̇͜g̵̛͍̺̯͎͕̏͊͊͗͗̓͌͌̉͋ under control."

[The text sort of fucked up, but I don't know how to fix it soooo]

[I hope you enjoyed! I had a lot of fun with this, and I can't wait to write more]

#boku no hero academia #tokoyami #bnha shouji #can't wait to write more of this :D #shoutoko #aizawa shouta

[bangtan-dreamland]

A Fairy Tale’s End [Chapter 3]

Pairing: ot7 x reader; jjk x reader; myg x reader; jhs x reader

Word Count: 18,825

Rating: pg-15

Warning: reader is a little ball of stress and a rambling mess, war is discussed, very brief mentions of slavery, some mentions of discrimination, violence, kidnapping

Genre: some angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, e2l, fantasy!au, elf!seokjin, fae!yoongi, dragon!hoseok, wizard!namjoon, vampire!jimin, kitsune!taehyung, mermaid!jungkook

Summary:  You wanted, for once, to be someone important, someone needed- to be wanted and appreciated, to love and be loved. Well, you should be careful what you wish for.

AN: Here we are with the third chapter… they really do keep getting longer ashjkdasd I’m sorry ;;; I just end up writing and rewriting and adding so much ;-; also, if anyone has questions about the story please do tell me lol my friend said the whole series had so much confusing stuff XDDD

As always, thank you so so much to not only @mindays​ and @btsxdoll​ for reading this over and editing it, but also for @dee-ehn​ who made the banner!!! I’m so grateful, because if not for them I swear this chapter would never have been finished or posted T^T

(Also the banner is fucking gorgeous and if like me you end up staring at it hard sAME)

masterpost // previous chapter

Taglist: @btsxdoll​, @mspjm​, @barbikatherine​, @xxqueenwxtchxx​, @catsandstrawberries​, @bangtan-bestofme​, @bubbletae7​, @butaes​, @serious-addiction​

»»————-　♔　————-«« The morning after that felt, in a way, different.

Oh, at first glance, everything was the same. Nothing much had changed- you were still you, stuck in a world unfamiliar, given a quest that you still didn't think you could do.

But you could try. And... it wasn't as if you were alone. You had Jungkook, and you had Yoongi too, didn't you?

The thought brought a smile on your face- and for once, you began the day feeling... excited? You paused as you saw yourself in the mirror, sporting a shy, sort of half smile, one that eventually grew into a grin.

... Okay, so maybe not much had changed, but the things that did- well, it was very, very important to you.

You opened the door giddily, wondering where the others (Jungkook and Yoongi) were-

-and immediately let out a squeak as you met Seokjin's eyes, the man himself only raising an eyebrow at your reaction to his presence. 

“Um.”

You couldn’t help but stare, your thoughts whirring for something to say. Even in the early morning, Seokjin looked composed and regal as ever. Was being calm and collected something like his default persona?

You resisted the urge to turn tail and flee, the automatic reaction you had towards Seokjin who you really weren't on the best terms with ever since the beginning. Still, your words from yesterday filtered into your mind- and you steeled yourself, gently toeing the water. 

Try, you promised to try.

"Um- uh, good morning?" You winced at the lilted end to your sentence. "Good morning, Seokjin." There that was better.

Seokjin's lips quirked into a slight smile for a moment. "Good morning, Y/N. Have you packed your stuff yet?" He asked. 

Wait, what?

At your blank look, he sighed and elaborated. "We explored the rest of the ruins yesterday. Since we already got the clue we needed, the next plan of action should be to head off to Crossroads, isn't it?"

"Oh."  You grimaced at the obvious oversight, readying yourself for a scolding. "Um- sorry, I'll, uh, I'll go get ready now. I'll only take a few minutes," I hope, "um- are- that, is everyone else all ready to go...?"

He only shook his head, observing you for a moment. "You just woke up," he stated, rather than asked. You hesitantly nodded. "... The others should be waiting downstairs. We can spare some time, but don't take too long."

You internally sighed in relief. "I will- um, thanks. I'll- I'll go now."

The moment he was well out of your sight, you released the tight grip you had on your clothes, the nerves leaving your body. You robotically stepped back into your room, your movements stiff- and then you reached your bed. With that, you immediately dropped to your knees, covering your face with your hands as you held yourself in a fetal position.

You internally screamed. Why did I do that for fuck’s sake what the fuck even Y/N you dumbass we just made progress last night and now-

You cut your thoughts off and let yourself fall forward, groaning as your face met the somewhat soft mattress. Why am I like this...

To the side, when you opened your eyes the few items that you brought along stared back at you. For a few moments, you sulked, feeling the embarrassment of the previous situation wash over you- and then you rolled over for one last scream into the blanket before determinedly getting back up. There was no use regretting anymore over what happened- it was done and over and nothing would happen if you kept moping, right? So!

You nodded to yourself, turning back to your items and checking them over, packing it all neatly into your bag.

“I fucked up, but- then again, it doesn’t seem like he’s too bothered?” You grimaced as you talked to yourself. “... I hope he’s not secretly tallying me up or something. I don’t really want to go back to how it was before... I might just go crazy if I have to put up with that again.”

“Huh. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen then, you’re one of the few people I can tolerate being around after all.”

“Yoongi!” You cried out, the item you were holding falling from your hand in your surprise. You pursed your lips, trying not to pout- then shot a glare at Yoongi who stood by the doorway, who was looking at you with amusement. “Can you not do that, please?”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” he said, though you could see the edges of his lips turn into a smirk.

“Yeah, well-” you bit the inside of your cheek as you tried not to show how upset you actually were. “You know, a little bit of warning would have been appreciated,” you finally said, sighing, before his presence registered into your mind. You scrunched up your nose.

“Um… did you need something?”

“I initially came to wake you up, but I guess it’s unnecessary now,” he shrugged. 

“Oh,” you mumbled. “T-Thanks.”

WIth that, you turned to continue your task. For a few moments there was silence- then the space beside you dipped low, and you could catch hints of Yoongi’s hair at the edges of your vision.

“Don’t mind him,” Yoongi eventually said, his voice much closer than before. You huffed, realizing what he meant.

“... Yeah, well, how can I not? He practically radiates authority and disapproval. Not that, I mean, not that’s a bad thing, but-” You sighed, giving up on your task for the meantime as you turned to face him. “Just… Seokjin really makes me nervous. For a good reason too, I mean- he just wants the quest to go smoothly, and I haven’t exactly been a good, well, leader? But, um, yeah, back to my point, he makes me nervous just by being in the same room.”

Yoongi sat nearby on your bed- the feel of him close helping you calm down as you finished your word vomit. You scrunched up your nose. “... Actually, how are the two of you even friends? I-I mean, you’re calm and nice and he’s, well. He’s very… intense.”

Yoongi cracked a smile at your words before he became serious. “Seokjin… He isn’t usually so strict,” he admitted. “The only time I’ve seen him act like this was during the Great War.”

“The Great War?” You drew your knees up to your chest, laying your head on your knees as you stared at Yoongi, curious. “I… remember hearing the people talk about how you two fought together with the hero.”

It could have been just a trick of the light then, but for a moment, you swore you saw Yoongi freeze, the remains of something dark and empty passing as soon as it came. 

When he answered your question then, it was with a mild tone of voice.

“Yes. The Great War… it was a turbulent period of time. But before that, you know… Seokjin was actually known for being goofy and playful.” He chuckled at the shocked look on your face, before continuing. “This quest… it just means a lot to him. Elves were one of the first to fall under the loss of magic… It may seem like it, but he doesn’t hate you, if you’re thinking that. It’s just that he’s hard on you because he wants this to succeed.”

“...I guessed all that with how he’s been to me since we met,” you sighed, your voice quieter than before. “Although he really was a jerk at first, but, I mean, he does have a point, and we ended up talking it out for the better, so,” you shrugged wryly. “Well. Though hearing that, I guess- his initial reaction to me makes sense. I mean, it’s not like I’m not qualified to be on this quest in any way, right?”

“You were chosen for a reason, Y/N. You’ll see eventually,” Yoongi’s tone contained hints of amusement and you rolled your eyes discreetly.

“Fat chance of that happening,” you muttered as you looked over what was left.

Thud.

You frowned as the two of you heard heavy footsteps, ones that you immediately recognized to be Jungkook’s (the only one other than you who walked so noisily, then again he wasn’t used to using legs so…)

“Y/N?” 

You looked behind, where Jungkook hovered by the doorway.

“What’s up, Jungkook?”

“Everyone is downstairs, save for you and Yoongi, so I thought I could look for you and see if you needed help... Seokjin also asked me to check up on you while I was heading here,“ he admitted.

You winced, realizing you’d taken so much longer than you intended, what with your talk with Yoongi. “I’ll be down in a few minutes. You guys can go ahead.”

“Alright then. I’ll keep him distracted while you finish up,” Yoongi teased as he got up. You could barely hear his footsteps, light, before the noise faded away.

You turned back to pack the last of your items. 

It was hard, deciding which ones to take and which ones to leave. There only remained a small pile of items on the bed by now, including several freebies given to you by the townspeople- you had to admit, even if you didn’t believe in it, everyone else seemed to all but worship the ‘savior’.

One of the items included two small dream catchers- pretty little things that you had to wonder how it was made, considering its design and its size. You put one inside, deciding to bring it along (the craftsmanship was beautiful, after all), before frowning. Where had the other gone to...?

You were surprised when you looked to the side to see Jungkook fiddling with the other piece, curiosity and intrigue visible on his face.

His fingers held each piece gently as he examined it closely- and then you remembered his words from before.

“This is my first time going on land.”

You paused in your packing. “You can have that, if you want.”

Jungkook flushed as he looked up at you, eyes wide, an apologetic look forming before your words sank in. “Huh?”

You fiddled with the bag, cheeks reddening, eyes darting to the side, even as you repeated your words. “The trinket, I mean. You can have it. You keep looking at it, so…”

“Oh… really?” He slowly grinned, relaxing.

“You can think of it as a reminder of today,” you mumbled. “Or, I mean, like… um, something to cement our friendship?”

“... I think I would like that,” he hummed, instantly putting in his pocket. “I’ll keep it safe, I promise.”

Your lips quirked into a smile at the earnest look in his eyes. “Really? I’ll trust you then.”

“The three of you seem much closer now.”

You almost jumped at the new voice, warily looking back over your shoulder.

Jimin casually leaned against the doorway, a nonchalant smile on his face as always, his face unreadable except for the slight thrum of amusement in his eyes. You wondered when he’d gotten there- and how much he’d heard. Beside you, Jungkook tensed up- and you instinctively moved closer to him in the hopes of calming him down, a small detail that didn’t miss Jimin’s eyes. 

“Quite surprising, considering yesterday’s events,” he added. “You seem to have made up? Though I’m surprised you’re as relaxed with Yoongi as you are with him.” Near the end of the sentence, Jimin nodded his head at Jungkook, who remained quiet, lips pursed.

“... Yoongi helped me in talking to Jungkook,” you eventually said, your guard up as well. 

“So you mean to say, Yoongi’s wise counsel was a huge help, then.” Jimin’s smile widened. 

“Yoongi is dependable, isn’t he? Isn’t it a relief that he’s travelling with us? The saviour certainly seems to appreciate him. Not to mention how close she is now with Jungkook,” he remarked, eyes darting to the side for a moment. You glanced there for a moment- but Jungkook said everyone was downstairs already. You frowned at him in confusion- what was he getting at?

Just as you were thinking how to get out of the situation, Jungkook cut in.

“Was that all you wanted to say, Jimin?” His voice was blunt as his eyes narrowed at Jimin. “If so, we’d like to go back to packing up. We are, after all, leaving soon.”

Jimin chuckled. “No need to be so hostile, I was just making an observation.” He cocked his head- the smile remaining on his face before he started to close the door. “Well, I’ll be going downstairs then. We’ll be waiting for you two.”

As the door closed shut, you released a sigh of relief at his departure “Well, that was weird,” you joked, before smiling at Jungkook. “Thanks for the help back there.” He offered you a shy smile.

“It’s no problem. I’ll carry your bag for you- consider it as thanks for the gift.”

You chuckled. “You just want to show off.”

“Well, when you say it like that…”

»»————-　♔　————-««

The next two weeks of journey, contrary to your fears turned out to be, well, not that bad. 

To start with, your departure from the town of Rivermouth was met with tearful farewells from the villagers- who, although you were glad for their support you were equally glad to leave, unable to bear their ever present eyes. 

The second time the eight of you were on the road turned out to be leagues better than the first- for one, you’d come to a sort of mutual agreement with Seokjin. And while it didn’t mean that you and he were friends, or anything like that, he at least stopped criticizing you for your mistakes, though there were times you’d hear him sigh and you’d internally wince. 

You decided to meet him halfway too. It was a given that you were, truthfully speaking, the weakest link in the group. After all, you didn’t have the supernatural abilities the others were born with, nor did you have the training that they had. Hell, you didn’t think you could match up with any of the villagers even, considering what you were used to was so far away from what the people here were used to. 

But that didn’t mean you’d stay helpless and useless.

Resolved to make the most out of it, you began to soak up every relevant information you could grasp from him, or from Yoongi, or (reluctantly, admittedly) from Namjoon. Maybe you wouldn’t ever need to know how vampires fed, or how kitsune made deals, but it was better than doing nothing.

Speaking of vampires, the day you left the town, you’d been surprised then, for Jimin to talk to you as you set camp.

“Good evening, Lady Y/N,” he almost purred your name as he strolled up to you, an easy smile on his face as always. You stiffened, almost dropping what you were holding then- before reluctantly steeling yourself to actually talk with him instead of at.

“G-Good evening- I mean, hi, Jimin.” For a moment you remained in place, thinking of what to say, wondering why he’d even approached you in the first place, but-

“I sincerely apologize for what happened in the town,” Jimin surprised you by taking the initiative then. You gaped at him, before hastily replying.

“Oh, uh, I mean, it’s okay! I-I mean? That, um,” you stammered, searching for the right words to express what you wanted to say. “It’s… okay. It wasn’t just your fault, I mean, Jungkook himself admitted that he should’ve acted better… although, um, I mean, w-why are you telling me this instead of Jungkook…?”

“I tried,” he sighed, looking at you with remorseful eyes. “But I’m not sure my intention came across for what it was. Although, I don’t blame him, after all, I share a huge part in the reason why the commotion happened.”

You shook your head. “No, I’m sure he did understand! I-I mean, if you’re sincere then the feelings should come across? Or, I mean. S-Something like that.”

You fidgeted with your fingers. “Actually, I should be the one apol-”

“I assure you, there’s no need for that.” Jimin’s tone remained nonchalant as he cut you off, at the same time taking over the pile of firewood from your arms. “After all, I’m aware that as vampires we carry a reputation not so favorable.”

You floundered, even as you could’ve sighed in relief as the heavy weight left your arms.. “Um- still. I mean, I’ll…” try to understand you? “... be better?” Even you winced at your words. “After all, just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you’re actually bad, r-right?”

You could have sworn his eyes flashed for a moment then, but it was gone all too soon and you were left wondering if you had imagined it. “Of course,” he nodded, a relieved smile appearing on his face. “Thank you, Lady Y/N.”

… Honestly, you still didn’t understand him and you would have preferred for him to keep his space, hopefully distance, but at least- well, at least you made up? Sort of?

There was Taehyung too, who, while when you’d left you’d been on a one-sided cold war with, you’d finally made up.

“Taehyung!” You could have knocked yourself on the head for how loud your voice was, but then again, could you have been blamed? You didn’t want to prolong it any longer- as much as Taehyung acted like an ass the first round of your travels, hell even from the start, having him determinedly keep quiet as he was most certainly pissed off made you nervous as hell. It was so much more easier dealing with him when he was pranking you- you knew how to deal with that, at least, but people getting angry with you and confrontation… not really something you ever got used to dealing with.

“... Yes?” You didn’t let the guarded look on his face deter you, though it made you all the more nervous. 

“Um. Can I… can I tell you something f-for a moment? It’ll just be quick I promise!” The last sentence fell from your lips in a rushed manner, you didn’t want to- well, if you had your way you wouldn’t even be having this talk in person. Preferably over the phone. Or email. At least that way you could think over your words and hide if needed. But it wasn’t as if you had that option now, did you?

“... Alright, I’m listening.” You heaved a small sigh of relief at his words, and so did he, although his sigh was more a disinterested one. You reviewed your words over in your head for a moment- before you spoke it all out.

“I’m sorry for what happened at the store!” If you had looked up then, you would’ve seen him raise an eyebrow in surprise. You’d evidently caught him off-guard with your apology. “I didn’t mean to imply that I agreed with the man, that you were stealing in any way. I was focused on stopping the fight that I didn’t stop to think that maybe I should’ve let him have it for just accusing you without proof, not when it was so obvious that you didn’t at all! Please forgive me!”

There. Short, sweet, simple. You could feel your legs tremble as silence trailed after your small speech slash yell; a part of you just wanted it to be done and over with. Still, your gaze remained locked on the ground, and the silence was deafening- in all honesty, it was probably only around a few seconds or so, but it felt way, way longer than that- and you gave in to your fight or flight instinct.

“Um,” you started, legs already moving. “That was all I wanted to say thank you andgoodluckIneedtogohelpcookbye!”

You didn’t look back at him as you left, too embarrassed.

And, well, if you found a little bit of unknown help instead of pranks the next time around, well. You were only too happy to accept.

Moving on, Namjoon and Hoseok remained the same as ever. Hoseok was still distant, polite, quiet. You had trouble reading him, he was so closed off to everyone. But at the same time- for some reason, you wanted to actually see what was underneath. Hoseok had been more of a mystery than the others, what with his quiet and unassuming demeanor so far.

Well, actually on that- you tried talking to Hoseok too, on the way. If only to thank him at least for what happened before. But…

“Hoseok- um, can I-?”

You looked around in surprise as you saw no one, though you could’ve sworn you saw Hoseok headed this way earlier. So what…?

Oh well. You could try again, right…?

And another time-

“H-Hoseok! Um, please-!?”

You squeaked as you almost tripped over yourself, for some inexplicable reason and what even just happened; when you looked up again, the man in question was gone.

For some reason, whenever you tried to talk to him, something would go wrong and you had to abandon your plan. Still… you wanted to hold hope and continue anyway.

Namjoon- well. It would be a lie if you said anything big had happened with your relationship with him. Although there was that brief moment at the inn, it was mainly centered around the quest- it did nothing to solve the root of the reason why you felt uncomfortable around him. So, sad to say, you were stuck where you were with him from the start- trying to somehow avoid him at all times, without making it obvious.

You grimaced at your thought, though you couldn’t deny it. What was worse was that whenever you tried to muster up the courage to correct his view of you, he would say something that would remind you of his hero worship, and you’d lose your courage. It wasn’t as if the others corrected him too, really...

You shook your head. A lot had changed for the better, at least that you could be happy about.

The biggest change in fact that made you happy yet was the new, easy friendship you fell into with Yoongi and Jungkook.

Ever since your arrival, and the start of the quest- you’d found it hard to relax even a single moment. After all, you were stranded in another world- one where nothing made sense to you, from how magic seemed to be real, or how the people interacted with you. It made you miss your old life terribly. At least, then, you knew what to expect. It may have been dull, and boring- but you never had to deal with so much trouble. These days it seemed as if your heart would stop beating from how much it was overworking.

However, with both men, for once you felt some semblance of peace.

Yoongi, contrary to what you expected wasn’t closed off, nor was he stand-offish- rather, it was in his nature (you giggled at that) to be quiet and calm, something that was your saving grace. Wise, mature and yet at the same time a fucking troll with how he always seemed to have schaudenfraude for your clumsy ass while helping you.

“Ah!”

You almost yelled as you tripped over a root- the twigs and sticks you collected so far in your hands all falling to the forest floor.

You would have, too- if it was for the hand that caught you. Dark eyes met yours, before Yoongi raised an eyebrow. Somehow, even if he hadn’t said anything you could still almost hear what he was thinking.

“I’m- uh, just not that used to trekking in the forest,” you huffed. “You literally live in it. Don’t judge.”

“Whatever you say, Y/N,” he smothered a laugh.

Still, for all that Yoongi seemed to have a witty remark for almost everything, and a complaint for every time he had to go out of his way to help you, you noticed that he was always there to lend a hand, even when in doing so he had to go through so much more trouble than necessary.

“The rain is going to fall soon,” Yoongi commented. You yourself noticed the grey clouds in the sky- still, you continued your task anyway. “We should head back. It’s a hassle travelling when it’s raining, and this one is going to be a rainstorm, I can feel it.”

“Not until I find this herb,” you insisted, a stubborn frown on your face. For all that Namjoon had come prepared, his stock of medicinal herbs was running a little low- so you volunteered to replenish it while the others set up camp, Yoongi accompanying you for both safety and as a guide. You didn’t think much of it at first. It was just picking herbs after all, right?

Wrong.

An hour later still found you searching through the grass for chamomile, your brows furrowed. Still, not even Yoongi’s warning could make you stop- even if you got wet, you would just change your clothes or something.

So invested were you in your task that you didn’t notice your surroundings, nor the time. When you finished, you whirled around to excitedly tell Yoongi- only to gape in surprise.

Around you, rain was pouring down, hard- but not where you were. Just… Just around.

When you looked up, you saw trees clustered around you, close, shielding you from the rain. Huge, and in any other situation they would have been imposing, but as it was, because of the trees even the sound of rain was slightly muffled, creating a semblance of peace within the area you were in. 

On one of the branches, you saw Yoongi frowning at the sky- his hands gently swaying as the trees obeyed his whims. It wasn’t hard to realize what he was doing.

Even when the rain stopped and you two returned to the campsite, not a single part of you was wet from the rain.

Jungkook, compared to Yoongi, was cheerful while shy. After your talk at the pub, and at that night in the kitchen, it seemed that he trusted you enough to let down his guard- becoming more relaxed and open as he told you about his adventures back home. Often he’d needle you about what your daily life was like, though you found it hard to answer. After all, the daily life you knew was drastically different from the one people had in here.

That wasn’t all he asked about, though. Jungkook had the curiosity of a cat and the energy of a puppy. Once he started getting interested about a subject he could keep asking about it for hours- only to surprise you when he would, in some sort of challenge to himself, attempt to learn all about it, proudly showing off his efforts to you after (which most of the time was a success). Talented and eager to learn, indeed- you could now understand why, despite being young even for his race, he was sent on the quest. 

“Jungkook.” If your tone was laced with amusement, well. He’d just have to deal with it.

On the ground before you, remained the mangled remains of a pheasant, a gaping hole in its body from the spear that pierced it.

Jungkook remained silent, but the look on his face told you everything you needed to know.

“I‘m pretty sure I told you spears won’t work the same way here on land that it would under the sea, right?” You continued.

He pressed his lips, eventually forming a pout.

You smirked, for once feeling the urge to tease him playfully. “... Really… you’re used to having your way, aren't you?”

It was obvious that you caught Jungkook off guard with your sudden teasing, and he sighed (in a rather dramatic way that had you biting back laughter). 

“Perhaps just a little…" he said, and you wouldn’t have been able to stop yourself from laughing then at how flushed his cheeks suddenly were, if it weren't for the look in his eyes that said he’d retaliate for any teasing done. “I’ll get it right next time, though. I know I will,” he muttered.

You could barely stop yourself from shaking your head. When you spoke, exasperation laced your voice. “You don't have to be the best at everything, you know. Do you see everything as a competition?”

It was then that he huffed before facing you with a playful grin. "You say that as though it's my fault I'm gifted at whatever I do. And as to your second question... hmmm, I don't know- tell me, do I?”

You scrunched up your nose at him, rolling your eyes dramatically. “Yes, yes, really… what’s even there to compete about?”

He only shrugged. “Well… when you say it like that, I suppose it isn’t so much as a need to compete, rather than a want to learn. I may not get a chance like this after this all ends, after all.”

His gaze lowered- and the words you were about to say were stuck in your throat. 

You scrambled your mind for a safer subject, instead. “If you really want to learn how to hunt on land, I mean… you could ask Seokjin, couldn’t you?”

“... Huh?” He looked back up at you, surprised. You continued speaking, almost stammering over your words.

“I-I mean! As an elf, he has to know a lot about the forest, and, I mean, he’s always carrying that bow! And, um, yeah, he’s old-” you winced and immediately backtracked, “-wise! He’s very wise!”

You cleared your throat as silence fell upon the two of you, the familiar rush of red flooding your cheeks. “So. Um. Yeah. You know. An option. If you want one.”

You kept your gaze firmly on the ground, away from him, resisting the urge to groan.

But then you heard Jungkook put the pheasant in his bag, and in a tone far too nonchalant for what he was thinking, he asked you, "… Y/N, which do you prefer? Hare, or deer?”

You blinked back at him, the sudden question surprising you. “I… I guess- deer? Um, why?”

He smirked. “Oh, no reason at all, I assure you,” he cheerfully replied. 

You couldn’t help smiling as you remembered the smug, but mostly proud expression on his face a few days after, as he presented a dead buck to you. It’d taken him hours to be able to do it as well as he intended, even with (and this part still had you reeling because honestly how, what even?) Seokjin’s help. 

Even more than that, when he shed away the ‘I am the best and you should pay attention to me’ show, you had to admit that Jungkook had this youthful, innocent charm around him, different from the one Jimin or Taehyung had- being able to melt even the hardest and coldest of people.

“I thought you didn’t know archery?” You looked at him curiously. “I’m no expert but this doesn’t seem like something a beginner could’ve done.”

He beamed at you. “I asked Seokjin for help!”

You stared at him in surprise. “You what?”

“I asked Seokjin for help,” he repeated, giggling at the dumbfounded look on your face. “Seokjin is a tough teacher, but he’s very thorough. Much better than my mentors back home,” he added.

You glanced up- meeting Seokjin’s eyes as he raised an eyebrow at you, before deliberately ignoring your gaze when he saw you were just gaping at him. Your eye twitched- and then you looked back at Jungkook, staring at him for a moment before your gaze became mock serious.

“You, are seriously dangerous,” you proclaimed, resisting the urge to smush his cheeks when he scrunched up his nose at you. “Seriously. No one is safe from you.”

He only laughed then. 

That night, and the next few ones, you all had plenty of food- although by the end of it you had to discreetly plead Jungkook to stop hunting, lest the presence of wildlife become too thin in the forest.

In a much better atmosphere than before, the journey to your next destination happened in a blink of the eye, and soon enough you were at the city of Crossroads.

»»————-　♔　————-««

“So this is Crossroads...” you heard Jungkook say in awe. Two weeks of being on the road with him- two weeks of being in close quarters with him almost every second of the day and Jungkook being a naturally open person had you being able to read him better and better. Even as you looked at him now, you could see the way his eyes flitted from almost every part of the city to another, his attention everywhere as he tried to take everything in. It was undeniably adorable.

“Countless books mention that the city of Crossroads is the capital of history,” Namjoon commented behind you. You looked at him to see him reading a book- before he snapped it shut and smiled. “It will be difficult, but for now there are a few inns we can rest at nearby, before we start looking for Alexander’s journal.”

“Still,” you mumbled as you looked at the copy of the map in your hands. “The city is really big, huh… I hope we find it in time…”

“You know, as nocturnal races we could start the search by ourselves,” Jimin suddenly spoke up. “As you’re so worried. After all, it’d be best to have this done as soon as possible, right?”

“Liars. You only want to slip away and do whatever you like,” Jungkook immediately accused them, frowning, before he turned to you. “We should go to the inn first, right?”

You almost wilted under their combined gazes, from Taehyung and Jimin who seemed to find amusement in your reaction to Jungkook’s who seemed to be asking for your support. Your eyes darted to Yoongi who only looked back at you calmly in return, as if to say that he was waiting for your reply too- Namjoon, who looked as if he wanted to intervene but held himself back.

You couldn’t see Seokjin in the back- but you could catch a glimpse of his back- as he crowded around Hoseok, who seemed uncomfortable. No help from anyone, it seemed.

You fiddled with the strap of your bag as you tried to answer as calmly as you could. “Inn first. We’ve had a long trek getting here, so, um, we should probably get some rest first,” you said, before faltering. “I mean, as much as the quest is important, it shouldn’t affect it too much to rest for one night, right? And, um, the shops are closing, so... “

“Sounds good to me,” Yoongi nodded, smoothly continuing your words as he turned to Namjoon. “Where should we head to, then? How recent is that map of yours?”

Namjoon hesitated, before answering. “It should still be accurate, it was made just a few months ago.”

“Well then, let’s go?”

»»————-　♔　————-««

Upon arriving at the inn, it was easy to get rooms, just as Namjoon had said- there were as many libraries as there were inns in the city, and fortunately the one you chose, upon learning who you and your companions were, were offered free service all the way. You still didn’t quite trust nor believe it, but you wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth anymore.

Dinner then on had been a peaceful affair too, as both Seokjin and Hoseok stayed in their rooms the moment they were given them- basically locking themselves up inside. Yoongi too had opted to join them, citing that the crowds were too noisy and technically, he didn’t need human food to survive, so… 

Jimin and Taehyung parted away from your table the moment you entered the bar connected to the inn, for what, you weren’t quite sure. Still, it wasn’t exactly unexpected anyway.

Thus it was only the three of you- you, Jungkook, and Namjoon. Dinner was somewhat peaceful then- or, at least, as much as it was with Jungkook being his curious self. He didn’t ask much while eating, but afterwards he kept asking you about so many things he’d seen as you entered Crossroads, ones that you were, while tired, all too happy to indulge him with. 

Of course, in accordance to your luck someone spilt soup on you as the three of you got up to leave- the perpetrator, a drunk man who, after drinking some water and talking to, turned out to be quite decent. Still, dealing with your wet clothes was much easier and something you preferred rather than talking to the man who was half-intoxicated, you just decided to go on ahead to your room.

»»————-　♔　————-««

“Although I expected it to be big, I didn’t think it’d be this big.”

Currently, you and Namjoon sat in what seemed to be the lobby of the guild, La Salutem. Situated near the middle of the city, it stood proudly and was obviously a center of operations, what with how many people passed through the doors.

Seokjin’s first suggestion in searching for the journal was to visit the guild, saying that if there was any place other than the kingdom of Quies that held Alexander’s old stuff, then it would be in the very guild he founded. Thus found you hours later, sitting in the lobby with the two men. While Jungkook originally wanted to go with you, he’d been told to stay at the inn with the explanation that as Seokjin had to go, someone had to stay behind and mediate if something happened with the others, and Yoongi might need help. With that, Jungkook reluctantly agreed.

Seokjin had gone ahead to talk with the guildmaster. While initially you prepared yourself for another uncomfortable one-on-one talk with a member of the ‘All Hail the Savior Y/N’ club, both men had, thankfully enough, picked up on your unspoken feelings about it. Though you still had to come along to the guild just in case- Seokjin would talk to the guildmaster himself.

You were still left with Namjoon- but, well. You were getting better at the whole ‘not looking like I’m freaking out over everything 24/7’ attitude, and it was getting easier to treat his more subtle (now) hero worship as nothing, so…

“Crossroads has a long history intertwined with not only the war, but the guild. This city holds one of the first guildhalls established, which must have been when it was but a small town- explaining how it remains in the very center of the city, as if Crossroads was built around it,” Namjoon explained, his words delving into a sort of rant near the end, though he soon stopped and grinned. “Though I admit, I find myself fascinated as well.”  

“‘La Salutem’, huh?” You mumbled as you looked around. “That means…”

“- ‘safety’,” Namjoon added. “‘Protection’, ‘health’, ‘security’. All things that La Salutem strives to embody, as a symbol of peace and prosperity for all that supported so many not only during, but after the war.”

“For all, huh…” 

Your eyes trailed over the banners that decorated the walls- and your conversation with Jungkook last night easily came to mind.

“Hey, Jungkook… um, can you… do you know what the war was about?”

“I don’t really know much about it,” Jungkook frowned as he nibbled on a piece of sushi. The inn you were staying at allowed you free reign of their facilities, and guess what- Jungkook actually knew how to make sushi, the food in question actually a specialty of his people. Was there anything he couldn’t do? “I was born after it ended, and even before that, mermaids stayed out of the entire war.”

“That’s okay,” you reassured him. “Just- um, tell me what you know, please? When I asked before in the kingdom, no one could answer me, so… and, well, um, I’m not sure if it’s something Yoongi would be okay with me asking.”

“Oh.” He scrunched up his nose, deep in thought, before answering. 

“No one knows how it started, if I remember correctly,” he started. “But... one day, they say dragons began to grow more greedy and blood thirsty. They started conquering towns and cities, even those from other species, looting and robbing them too, and then using the captured towns as their slaves, their own to use. It was… a pretty dark time. There were many more dragons then- enough that they had a capital too. Their power, the fact that no one expected them to suddenly attack others, and not to mention their numbers helped them. Each race kept to themselves then, and yet all the same it plunged everyone in distress, ready to bow down and acquiesce to the rule of the tyrants- but then there was a prophecy about the downfall of the dragons, and the arrival of a hero.”

“It was the only reason they still had hope. It was a good thing, too, as the dragons had taken over what had to be a fair amount of cities then- and a few kingdoms too, when he came. The Hero, Alexander. They say he arrived as the sky blazed bright. People didn’t believe him at first, when he declared that he was the chosen one, but…”

“Just when a city was about to be besieged by the dragons, he came up with a plan to defeat them. It was ingenious- and no one thought he’d succeed, because his plan seemed too ridiculous to work- but it did. And after that, he began to come up with other contributions to the war, the first and greatest of which was to unite the races to defeat the dragons.”

You released a shaky exhale at his words, at the story he was telling you. It was obvious to see the parallels between you and this ‘Hero’, and the way that the people treated you suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

“The humans and the mages were the greatest partners in the war, then- humans with their inventions and mages with their spells and enchantments. The elves, as much as they disdained getting involved with anything outside of their forests were persuaded to join, by the Hero of course- and so were the fae. I can remember my teacher telling me about Seokjin and Yoongi too, actually, how they fought in the war as well. Together they defeated the dragons and ushered in an era of peace.”

“... What about the other races, then?” You questioned. “What about the- yokai? The vampires? Surely they had to be involved in some way too.”

“That…” Jungkook paused, a furrow in his eyebrow as he tried to remember. “I think… I think I can recall people saying that yokai joined the war, but that most of them sided with the dragons. And as for vampires… They mostly acted as mercenaries in the war, fighting for whichever side offered them more money.”

It offered so much more insight to the way each race reacted to another than the book you read before could. Or, at least, that was how you saw it- piecing in what you could read between the lines as each race interacted with each other.

When the war ended, what exactly happened? To the victors went the spoils, after all. It was easy to imagine it now- the sins of the fathers being passed down to their children, the discrimination that followed those who lost, the whole race branded as evil, as wild, as dangerous. 

Humans and mages led the winning side, and so they were given the biggest credit, flourishing and thriving on the shares given to them as they took over what the losing side had. Lands, cities, treasures of all shapes and sizes taken not just as payment, but also as deterrent. 

For elves, the fae, both entered the war mostly just to protect themselves, and they succeeded- though, of course, the greater the risk taken, the greater the rewards reaped. They lost less than mages and humans, but in return they had little to show for after the war. They only kept autonomy over what they originally had- the lands and the forest that they lived in.

Mermaids- having stayed out of the war, the most neutral of all races as they refused to join in any way at all, remained almost completely clueless and out of touch with the developments that happened after the war then, as they isolated themselves.

Then the vampires, who, in a sense acted neutral- favoring no side but that of coins and money. The yokai who were divided, some joining humans, but most of them joining the other side… not to mention the dragons themselves.

You could easily see how the effects of the war lingered on from what happened then until now. You hadn’t seen even a hint of the last three races anywhere since you began your journey. While at first you chalked it up to each of the races not liking interaction with the others, now that you knew more about the war, it was easier to pick up on the general subtle hatred of the populace against the three.

It was obvious even now, inside the guild. You could hear certain words about vampires and yokai being spoken with disdain, apathy at best and hatred at worst, though more often than not disgust was in there too.

“I wonder if this is why they didn’t want to come with us…” You sighed, eyeing the recruitment posters, and the mission board- both of which further proved your suspicions. The recruitment posters, as long as they were, only held spiel about humans and mages, though a few minor lines were dedicated to elves and fae. And the mission board- you could see several job posters that called for a mediator between them and a ‘troublesome person’.

Well. Though. It wasn’t really much of a surprise, was it? Nothing was perfect- and even this, as much as the guild, as much as ‘La Salutem’ seemed to represent the harmony between races, well. You discreetly slid down into your seat with a sigh. 

Then you jerked back up at the sight of Seokjin coming down the stairs.

“It’s not in here,” he announced as he arrived to you both, a furrow in his eyebrows the only sign of his frustration. “We talked about it, but it seems that the item in question wasn’t given to the guild.”

“B-But there has to be a clue, he mentioned in the recording he wanted it to be known,” you muttered, deep in thought as well.

“It might be with one of the books he kept preserved then donated to the city’s libraries,” Seokjin didn’t quite sigh so much as the words left his mouth in a weary undertone and a light scowl. To the side, you noticed Namjoon closing his mouth, his face twisting before he looked away. Well, no surprise he’s not enthusiastic about it either. Who would?

You tried your best not to groan, you really did. “... The city? The whole city?”

He sighed, evidently dreading what was coming himself. “Yes. And… it seems we have no choice but to search manually.”

… Fucking hell damnit.

»»————-　♔　————-««

When you all returned to the inn, to your relief it didn’t take much before the boys were all assembled again, even as your nerves rolled in your stomach- a common thing that happened every time you held a meeting in regards to the quest.

“Alexander’s journals,” Namjoon spoke up first among you, his notes and a copy of the city’s map laid down on the floor in between all of you. “The guild already spoke to us that they don’t have the journal, but that it should still be here in the city… Although Crossroads is quite large, and there are many libraries around…”

“We should split up then to have an easier time searching,” Yoongi suggested as he looked at the map. “It’d be a more efficient way to cover ground, too.” 

His eyes flickered to you. “... How should we divide the teams, Y/N?”

You stiffened as everyone’s attention fell on you, except for Seokjin who seemed more content examining the notes.

“M-Me?” You stammered. Jimin’s lips curled into an amused smile.

“Well, yes. You are our leader, after all.”

You bit the inside of your cheek at that. Jimin’s words technically, were true, as much as you didn’t want to admit it. It didn’t quite help that Yoongi and Jungkook supported your ‘leadership’, as much as you first considered them trustworthy. 

Actually, on second thought, Jungkook was understandable. Yoongi was the insane one for still holding you to your alleged position when he knew how unfitted you were. Even if he thought you had potential.

You sighed as you looked over the men in the room one more time.

If you had to pair them up, then it would have to… Well, it would have to be by who got along with who, right? Although you definitely couldn’t put Jimin or Taehyung together- you weren’t sure they’d actually get anything done, no matter how Taehyung seemed to actually put in effort, and how Jimin apologized before. No, you had to break them up- but with who? You racked your brain for an answer- recollections of the many times Jungkook and Jimin almost got into a fight flitting in your mind, as well as the way Seokjin seemed to hold everyone at an arms’ length. Then again, so did everyone else to each other, now that you think about it. Jungkook was the exception- after the events in Rivermouth, he seemed to open up a bit more, becoming closer with both Yoongi and Seokjin. Still…

“Namjoon and Jungkook,” you slowly started. Namjoon’s shoulders slumped minisculely, and Jungkook looked disappointed for a moment- but then the next moment they seemed the same again, making you wonder if you had just been seeing things for a moment. Ah well.

“Seokjin and Taehyung,” you continued. Now your decision was met with raised eyebrows- mainly from both Jimin and Taehyung.

“Lastly, Yoongi and Jimin.”

Yoongi only held your gaze for a moment, as if to ask you if you were sure- then he looked away, catching Jimin’s eyes, who frowned, though it soon changed into a smile.

“I have every faith in our leader’s words,” he almost purred. “If she says we’re to do this together, then together we will do this task.”

You had to smother the laughter that built in you at the momentary twitch of the eyebrow you noticed from Yoongi, though he curtly nodded afterwards all the same.

“That said,” you added, “If anyone, um, if anyone has anything they want to say or add, about the teams, we’ll, um, we can discuss it.” You inwardly cheered yourself at how you managed to stop yourself from turning your sentence into a question.

A moment of silence fell in the room as each person looked at the others. Still, it seemed that they’d accepted your suggestions. You looked at Taehyung last, as you hadn’t heard anything from him as you mentioned the pairings, but he only looked nonchalant.

“You won’t hear a word from me,” Taehyung remarked, before a small smile alighted his lips. “Though I hope you don’t regret it,” he snickered. You scrunched up your nose at him before rolling your eyes.

“You’ll be with Hoseok, then.”

You looked at Seokjin, surprised at his sudden words- for a moment you’d forgotten about Hoseok, who remained quiet all throughout the meeting. Meeting Hoseok’s eyes, you flushed, embarrassed at how you were reminded of his presence only because of Seokjin.

“Um, yes. Those are the teams,” you cleared your throat.

Your eyes darted over to Yoongi- who, to your relief read the plea for help as it was and continued the meeting. “Now, as for which pairs will be covering which parts of the city…”

»»————-　♔　————-««

And that was that. Surprisingly enough, as much trouble as there had been deciding which ones would pair up with which to search the city, the rest of the meeting turned out well- Seokjin and Yoongi leading it, planning out what to do.

… Okay, you had to admit, there was a moment after the meeting, when you came down for your nightly talk sessions with Yoongi and Jungkook, that you found yourself faced with a sudden, unexpected little problem.

When you stepped into the kitchen, it was to the usual sight. Tea on the table (brewed by Yoongi, of course), snacks (also prepared by Yoongi, who knew he was such a housewife? You didn’t even think it possible, the image of gentle, domestic Yoongi cooking so far from what you first saw him as, but here you were), an amused Yoongi- you paused, why was he amused? Did something happen?

Then you looked at your other companion and had a double take.

Jungkook sat on the other side of the table from where Yoongi was, body hunched and head slightly turned away from you- and it didn’t take you more than two steps closer to see the frown that practically defined his current mood.

You warily stepped around him, choosing to gingerly take a seat beside Yoongi instead, confused. If you knew why Jungkook was sporting a scowl you might have made some attempt to talk to him, but as it was, you didn’t have a single clue why. If you talked to him now- you had a feeling you’d do more harm than good. Instead, you looked over at Yoongi, who looked a step away from snickering. You could see the smirk that lingered on his face, though he covered it behind the cup of tea he held.

‘What happened,’ you mouthed to him. He raised an eyebrow at you, as if to say ‘you don’t know?’. You narrowed your eyes at him, taking a quick look at Jungkook who seemed fully immersed into the glaring contest he was holding with his tea, before turning back to Yoongi.

‘Would I be asking if I did?’

“Neither of you are subtle at all,” Jungkook finally broke the silence in the kitchen with a grumble, gaze finally leaving his tea, but still, to your confusion, not to you. “I’ll have you know I’m neither blind nor deaf.”

“Well,” you started. “Um, you seemed a little, um, preoccupied?” You fidgeted with your hands, worry and concern bubbling over. “Jungkook, um- I mean, you don’t have to say anything, if you don’t want to, I mean, but just- are you okay?”

“... Don’t concern yourself over me,” he muttered. “This is nothing.”

You paused, feeling a trickle of apprehension flow through you. “But... um. You… seem like you’re in a bad mood.”

“... You said we’d tour around the next town we stopped at, he’s probably upset over that.” Yoongi generously offered, something close to laughter evident in his voice. As if on cue, Jungkook scoffed loudly.

“I’m not upset.”

“Oh.” 

You immediately had to hide the grin on your face with your hands, then, or even show a hint that you were feeling anything close to amusement, but eventually the amusement faded and you felt bad that he was, well, disappointed.

“I… I chose those teams for a reason,” you explained, hoping that it’d lessen his frustration. “I-I mean, if I had my way, I’d want to be with you, you know,” you admitted. “But, um, I made the decision based on who could work with each other best while, um, while taking the others into account. So… please, I mean, I’m sorry… I didn’t want to make you feel like I’d forgotten about it or something.”

You looked down, your hands fidgeting with each other, awaiting his response- 

- and to your surprise, Jungkook only deflated, the scowl turning into a pout. Glaring eyes became downcast,  fingers loosening from the tight grip they had on the cup. For a moment or two he seemed to be torn, before he released a long sigh.

When he spoke, it was still with the pout on his face and you had to physically stop yourself from cooing, finding him and his reaction way. Too. Adorable. “No, I understand. If it happened that you and I were on the same team I would be too tempted to do nothing but what I wanted. Which, admittedly, has nothing to do with the quest.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it though. I was looking forward to going around the city with you,” he mumbled, before pausing, a flush covering his face. “Both. You b-both.”

You ducked your head, feeling a wave of warmth wash over you at his words. Still, it was hard to keep the red out of your cheeks, the giddy smile on your face too wide. 

The shit-eating grin on Yoongi’s face was what made you finally compose yourself though, already dreading the teasing comments you’d certainly be hearing in the future.

“Really? But, I mean, it’s not like we’ll be separated the whole time,” you finally said, your voice light and giggly. “I’ll still see you in the evenings.”

“I know,” he- did Jungkook just roll his eyes at you? You had to stifle your laughter then. “I told you, this is nothing. I’ll get over it.”

With that said, he turned away, but not before you could spot the pout that, if possible, became bigger.. 

“... maybe we can have a few hours the day we leave to have a little walk around?” You suggested, smile faltering afterwards as you corrected yourself. “The three of us, of course. I’d, um, I’d love to do that with you guys.”

You heard Yoongi let out a small half-laughter at your words- you were so, so tempted to kick him then. As it was, you glared at him instead. 

Still, you could hear him snicker as he nodded his head, adding, “Of course, you could also take notes of places you really want to visit together along the way.”

“Yeah,” you mumbled- and this time it was you who had to avert their gaze as he looked back at you two. “So, I-I mean. Um- we can spare some time, m-maybe after the day’s search? And- well, I-I guess not,” you amended your words, wincing at your habit of speaking before you thought about it, descending into a rambling mess now, not noticing Jungkook’s brooding turning into something softer. “Well, I was going to say that we could walk around and take a look at s-some of the shops, but, I mean, on second thought if it’s night time they’re probably gonna be closed and we need to have energy so if we spend most of it wandering around we-”

A huff of laughter, and then- you stilled as fingers gently tucked a loose hair back, Jungkook’s focus on you then making your thoughts just stop.

“Um-” you choked out. “I-I-I-w-what?”

“I told you, I’d get over it. I’m not a child.”

“But if you insist, I wouldn’t be declining. Though…  you should wear the hairpin more often,” he finally said, a hint of smugness visible in his eyes. “If you’re only walking around, it wouldn’t be hard to keep it from falling, now would it?”

“I-” you stammered, “I m-mean, I, I guess so.”

He grinned. “Then, as a symbol of our friendship, and as a reminder of your words,” he grinned. “Tomorrow, before you head out with Hoseok, wear it- please,” he added at the end, though it didn’t erase the self-satisfied look on his face.

“Uh.”

All traces of whatever bad mood he’d been in before was absent then as he finally leaned back, and, with a hum, drained his cup dry of tea in a single swoop.

“Well, I hate to admit it, but I’m feeling quite tired,” he cheerfully announced. “I’m going to retire to my bed now- goodnight, Y/N, Yoongi.”

Even as he left, you could only gaze after him, mouth still slight open at his sudden actions.

What even…

It was only when Yoongi finally burst into loud chuckles that you were released out of your stupor.

“Pfft!”

“... Yoongi!” You cried out, red covering your whole face as you gave in and finally smacked him on the shoulder. “Stop laughing!”

“‘Stop laughing’, she says,” he cracked up even further. “Did any of you even notice at all- no, of course not,” he grinned, before it turned into a smirk. “But you know, if you’d seen-"

“I’m not listening,” you half-yelled half-shrieked, letting your head fall to the table as you covered your ears and shut your eyes. “La la la la la, I’m not listening!”

You stubbornly kept it up, determined to wait it out and spare yourself the teasing- although you couldn’t deny, that, well, a part of you was enjoying this. In some way. As much as you were embarrassed, in the moment, it felt like- well. It felt like the two of you were like closer friends, ones you’d see in so many places, teasing each other even if it made the other person angry beyond hell.

… although this wasn’t quite a normal friendship based on normal things.

And that was that.

Still, even with all the preparations, there was still a part of you that worried whether you would succeed in finding the elusive journal. The city was huge, after all, and a bustling port- it wasn’t hard to think that maybe the book had already been taken. Then again, Namjoon said he was certain, and considering his track record, you took him at his word.

So even as the fourth day rolled in, you decided to keep your spirits up.

In a way, you had to admit that there was something nice about going around the city with Hoseok. Make no mistake, the people at Crossroads, upon learning about your status treated you the same way the villagers at Rivermouth did- with reverence and awe. Wherever you went, you could feel eyes trailing after your every move- something that, while it used to unnerve you greatly, faded a little with every day that you had to endure it. At least, to the point where you could dismiss it as part of the background, somewhat. It helped that there were so many travellers and visitors in the city, who were there only for a short time and thus didn’t know who you were, ironically granting you more peace of mind in a crowd than there was without.

It was the first time since you arrived that you were able to talk to Hoseok one on one, too. That you were able to study him.

Hoseok was… an enigma, in a different way from the others. Sweet, polite and kind- but then you’d notice the moment someone got too close to him, he would back away and reject their touch, one particular time even flinching away when someone hugged him, mistaking him for someone else. It reminded you of the time you met him, though now you knew better.

Spending time with him was preferable compared to everyone but Yoongi and Jungkook.

“Y/N, do you- uh, do you mind if we try that today?”

You looked over his shoulder at the stall he was pointing at, noting the delicious smell of food that wafted from it. Another thing that helped you relax around him- you soon found out that Hoseok, much like Jungkook, held a very short history of interaction with humans. On your second day, after a few cautious suggestions from you, you both decided to satiate your curiosities and take your time examining each part of the city as you went from library to library- which included sampling each of the dishes and snacks you would pass by.

You wouldn’t admit it so easily out loud, but… Hoseok had a certain pull that you couldn’t help but get dragged into. At first, the atmosphere between the two of you was tense, all the way; he put nearly a few feet of distance at most, a foot at least between the two of you at all times, he remained quiet unless spoken to, and even then his words were short. It was almost as if you were with a ghost, but… 

“Hoseok!” You stood firm in your ground then, although the way your heart beat ever so fast, so nervously, easily gave you away. “Can you listen to me for a moment?”

“Uhm.” If the wide eyed stare wasn’t enough, the way he quickly averted his eyes gave away how close he was to bolting. At this point, even you could tell that he was avoiding you- in a weird, sort of way. Actually, it was probably easier for you to notice that he was avoiding you, because the subtle way he’d leave the area whenever you arrived, staying as quiet as possible unless spoken to, his words short and faint, well, you had firsthand experience with all of that.

“I just wanted to tell you something, please,” you lowered your voice, aiming for something soft and easy on the ears. To your endless relief then, he slowly, hesitantly, but all the same he nodded his head.

“Hoseok… do you, um,” you paused for a moment, trying to gather the courage. “It’s okay to, um, to talk to me? I mean-” you flushed. “I just, did I do anything to make you feel uncomfortable? We’re working together on this quest, and, just, um, I don’t want you to feel like you have to- um, like you have to keep so far away from me at all times.”

“I also… I mean, I also want to hear about what you think,” you mumbled out the last parts of your small speech, gaze trained on the ground as you nervously awaited his reply. Then you cringed. “No, sorry, um, you don’t have to if you don’t want to and I’m sorry for being pushy-”

“No!” Your head snapped up in surprise as you met his panicked eyes, and the two of you stared at each other, both shocked and nervous.

“Are you sure-”

“I should be-”

The two of you stopped again as you spoke at the same time, a deeper flush covering both of your cheeks. Though, you couldn’t help but giggle a little at the situation. Hoseok’s shoulders slumped forward, and you gave him a sympathetic smile.

“I...I’ll try,” you eventually heard him mumble. You grinned at him; Hoseok averted his gaze yet again, but you could still see the small tug at his lips.

“That’s all I ask for.”

True to his word, you had an easier time communicating with Hoseok then. What was a few feet of distance eventually reduced to walking side by side, and when you talked you didn’t seem like someone just talking to herself like a crazy person- well. You hoped you didn’t.

It always helped that Hoseok had a nice voice that you liked hearing.

“Sure,” you smiled. “I’ll just wait here, then.”

Currently the two of you had just about explored most parts of the city, at least the part assigned to the two of you. While you weren’t sure, you hoped at least that one pair would make progress in the search- but until then, you had to keep looking.

“Where do we go now, though…” You muttered to yourself as you examined the map in your hands.

“Miss Y/N?”

You glanced up at the voice. A familiar face greeted your eyes- your smile became a little strained as you recognized the person speaking to you. “Hello. You’re- uh, the one from the inn a few days ago, right? Abby?”

He chuckled at you. “‘Abby’... That’s really what they told you, huh? Then again, it is a nickname of mine… yes, I am. Glad to know I’m not that forgettable.”

“I don’t think I could forget someone who spilled soup on me... no offense meant, though,” you mumbled, cheeks reddening at the last part. He only laughed in response. 

“Yes, well, I can get wild when drunk… I apologize for that. Enough about me, though. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“We’re-” You paused, thinking over your words. “We’re staying here for a while. Crossroads is pretty famous. There’s a lot to see and visit.”

He seemed pleased at that, a grin appearing on his face. “It is, isn’t it? Not only is it a central focus of trade, it has a long history too,” he boasted. “It’s one of the best cities in the kingdom.”

You smiled a little more genuinely at the sparkle in his eyes as he talked about the city.

“Which places have you already visited? Wait- actually, where’s your guide? I want to ask him if there are spots you haven’t visited yet,” he suddenly said.

Guides? … You hadn’t seen any, and you didn’t think there would be any…

“We’re just- um, we’re just actually walking around by ourselves,” you admitted. “I mean, if we had a guide, we’d probably have to set like- a time limit for every place, right? I like to, um, take my time.”

“You like to immerse in the city?” You hesitantly nodded. “You’ll miss out on a lot if you go just by yourselves, though…”

“Oh, I know! Maybe I can help. Why don’t I be your guide?” He suggested, grinning at you. “I never did get to formally ask for your forgiveness, for the other night.”

You fell silent.. 

“Ah, sorry,” he said, seeing your face turn somewhat wary. “Too sudden?”

You flushed. “Oh no, just…”

While the quest wasn’t really a secret, the finer details of it was. You weren’t sure if it was okay to bring in a stranger’s help.

“I’m- um, I’m not sure right now... we kind of already have plans for today,” you cautiously answered. It was best to discuss this first with Yoongi and the others, right? “How about tomorrow?”

He frowned, disappointment evident on his face. “I guess… Though, I’m supposed to leave in two days for work….”

“Oh,” you mumbled.

“Tomorrow, right? Consider it, okay? I could be a big help,” he offered again. “I’m a native to this city, after all. Born and raised here.”

You perked up at his words- though still unsure. Yoongi’s words resounded in your mind- ‘Be wary of everyone, you aren’t familiar much with anything here and it’s easy to trick you.’

“... Are you- um, are you familiar with Alexander?” You eventually asked, deciding on a middle ground- 

“Alexander, the hero? Of course! I know more about him than anyone here,” he jovially grinned. You released a sigh of relief at that. It wasn’t like any of you had been making progress on your own so far, so…

“Um- If it’s alright, can you tell us about him, then? Just for a while.”

“Sure- oh wait, I’ll just finish up my purchase. Be back in a bit.” And with that he delved back into the crowd, though you could see his back enter a shop nearby.

You pocketed the map in your hands, sighing. That… while you were hopeful at the sign of help, you were still unsure- you also felt it could have gone better too.

The smell of noodles under your nose brought your focus back- you looked down, then to the side- meeting Hoseok’s worried gaze. You blinked- and then reacted.

“Uh- sorry, Hoseok,” you flushed. “How long have you been standing there?”

“I just arrived a few seconds ago,” he reassured you, before peering up at you with an odd look in his eyes. “That said… who were you talking to just now?”

“Oh,” you tensed up. “That- someone I bumped into at the pub when we first arrived. It- um, it turns out that he knows a lot about the city, including, um, Alexander, and we weren’t making progress, so…” You faltered.”I mean, he offered to help as an apology? And I thought, again, it’s not like we’ve made much progress so far- not that we haven’t just been walking around, and it’s not like I just took his offer, just talking for a bit- I mean, we’ve covered a lot of the city by now and I’m having fun too, although I know this isn’t really for fun but you know what I mean and oh god I’m so sorry I’m just rambling right now.”

You fell silent, feeling the urge to cover your face with your hands, your face red- though unable to do so as you were holding food. You didn’t dare look up- only giving Hoseok a tentative glance when he hesitantly patted you on the back.

“That’s good news then, right? I mean, if he has information about the man that we don’t, it should help us.”

“That- yeah.” You hardly dared to react too much in fear that he would pull his hands away. For all that he was a dragon and they were assumed to be monstrously strong, Hoseok was gentle as he comforted you. In fact, his touch was light on your back- barely even touching you.

The two of you stayed like that for a few moments, until you saw the man come back, a noticeable bulge in his bag that wasn’t there before. He raised an eyebrow at the two of you- Hoseok withdrew his hands, his face reddening as much as yours did.

“Companion of yours?” He asked as he drew near.

“Um- yeah.” You dithered introducing Hoseok him- should you? It would be impolite, right? But for some reason, you could tell that Hoseok was wary of him. Still, before you could speak up again, Hoseok coughed, nodding at the man, a small, polite smile on his face. 

“Please, just call me Hoseok.” 

»»————-　♔　————-««

“Abby?” Namjoon repeated your words later that night, a slight frown appearing on his face. You looked up at him, a touch nervous as your hands fidgeted with the food on your plate.

“Um- yeah. Remember, the guy I bumped into our first night here? Red hair, silver badge with angel wings on his chest? We met him again earlier, and he said he had information about Alexander…” You trailed off near the end as Namjoon’s eyebrows remained furrowed- and you wondered what he was thinking about. 

“Are you- um, I didn’t say anything about the quest, if that’s what you were worried about,” you offered. “I just told him we were travellers who got interested in Alexander and his journals, since he’s someone famous in this city.”

“Oh- no, I mean,” Namjoon hesitated. “It- it’s nothing.”

“... It is alright, isn’t it?” You looked up, meeting Yoongi’s eyes.

Dinner at Crossroads for the time consisted of only you, Namjoon, Seokjin, Yoongi and Jungkook- you all agreed that you had to meet up nightly to discuss the efforts of the search, if only to conserve efforts. Still, it didn’t take much for you to notice how uncomfortable Seokjin and Yoongi were with the rowdy crowds ever present in the pub.

Currently you retold to them your encounter with Abby. It seemed to be a bit of a saving grace, really, as no one had had any luck so far. 

Seokjin and Taehyung had stuck to the plan quite neatly- you were amused to confirm that even Taehyung bent under Seokjin’s cold gaze, although from what you could tell he remained playful all the way. They followed and checked every place assigned to them in an orderly manner. Seokjin admitted in a quiet voice that Taehyung charmed the librarians and shop owners into helping them, but that they had no progress. No one had even heard of a journal in Alexander’s name, nor had they seen any book that matched its description.

The less said about Jimin and Yoongi, the better. Yoongi and Seokjin were the only ones that could Jimin in check so far, you noticed, so you put Yoongi and him together- but, hearing about their experiences, you realized that in the same line of thinking you set Yoongi up to be his glorified babysitter.

Namjoon and Jungkook, lastly seemed to be like you and Hoseok- simultaneously touring around while checking the appointed locations to them. Jungkook seemed to take a shine to Namjoon too, excitedly asking him about anything that he didn’t understand. Namjoon in turn seemed to take his questions in stride as he answered them as best as he could. 

Honestly, a part of you felt more than happy seeing Jungkook branch out, gaining a friend… or something like that in Namjoon. Even in your nightly chats together, all he could speak about was the little things he’d learnt about, and what he wanted to share with you. Although you yourself couldn’t stand to be in Namjoon’s presence because of the- well. You were at least happy for him. Them.

Still, they didn’t have any information either.

“If you’re sure of what you saw, then it should be,” Yoongi spoke up. When you looked at him with confusion, he explained. “A badge with angel wings means they’re part of the Silver Vanguard.”

“Silver Vanguard?” 

“It refers to an elite unit in La Salutem.” This time, you were surprised to hear Seokjin’s voice. When you looked at him, though, he seemed to be focused on his food, even as he spoke. “They only allow warriors who have a long history of merits to join. And if the person that you met really is a part of it, then... he might be trustworthy,” he finally said. “Still, remain on guard.”

“Wow, Y/N, way to go!” Jungkook grinned. “That’s more progress than any of us have done so far.”

“So it’s alright then, right?” You asked once more. Yoongi nodded. Jungkook bumped your shoulder in support- and even Seokjin seemed to quietly give his approval.

None of you quite noticed the lingering frown on Namjoon’s face.

»»————-　♔　————-««

The sun, painted in red and orange currently made a brilliant backdrop from where you were. Your feet hurt- but at least you were sitting down at the moment. The three of you were now at the park near the Fiendfyre ruins, after a day of touring with Abbadon (you had to ask him his name, you couldn’t keep calling him Abby after all no matter how he didn’t seem to mind it) as he immersed both you and Hoseok in the city’s history.

“You know a lot about the war, and the guild,” Hoseok quietly commented once, after Abbadon went into a rant about how it affected the trade in the city. Abbadon perked up at his words.

“So you speak!” He joked, before assuming a serious expression. “To answer your question, I’m a survivor of the war. There was an attack- my family didn’t survive, but... I was saved by La Salutem. They raised me.”

“You were?” He asked, his taut shoulders relaxing by a fraction, something you noted with relief.

You weren’t quite blind to the tension that existed between the two. For some reason, both were a touch, well, wary, about the other person, although it was mostly Hoseok. Whenever Abbadon wasn’t looking, from your position in the back you could see Hoseok give the other man glances, and then frown, something that happened more often as the day continued. With Abbadon’s answer now, though, he seemed to let go of some of his suspicions.

“Yeah. Trained me, too. And I got offered a place in their divisions right after the war ended,” Abbadon grinned.

“You must have done a lot of missions then,” you murmured. “Looking at your badge,” you explained. Abbadon chuckled. 

“So you’re looking for his journal?” Abbadon asked, a curious look on his face. “Huh. I didn’t think that was even real.”

“Yeah, well…” You flushed. “He seems like a really interesting guy, so.”

“True, true,” he agreed, before sighing. “Sorry I wasn’t much help in the end.”

“Oh, please!” You waved your hand, not wanting him to feel bad. “It’s not like our research was anything serious- besides, um, what matters is that we had a lot of fun today, right?”

For a moment your gaze flitted over to Hoseok who had been approached by a few children. From where you were, you could see him try to politely reject the kids- the keyword being try. They didn’t exactly give him the chance to make good on his answer as they pulled him to play.

Not that Hoseok seemed to mind it too much anyway, considering the smile on his face.

“If you’re curious about Alexander and his relics, then you should visit the castle ruins,” Abbadon told the two of you. “It’s a hidden place, known only to the city residents- a well-kept secret of ours.”

“A secret?” You echoed. “Why?”

“Why not?” He countered, before grinning. “Well, the reason is that there are bad memories attached to the place, so few people ever come there. Not to mention it’s falling apart, too, so it’s dangerous. Those that do are mostly kids curious about the ‘forbidden area’.”

“Fiendfyre, the castle of the late kings, and Blackburn, where the dragon’s fortress used to be.”

“Ah yes, he seems to be having a lot of fun, isn’t he?” Abbadon chuckled. “Still, they should be careful though, the ruins here are-”

“No!”

You suddenly gasped- some of the children playing close to you two had wandered too close to the ruins, tagging and pushing each other, when one of them tripped on the wall- causing a part of it to collapse. It fell straight down, and you could feel your heart beat in a frenzy-

But then dust cleared and there stood Hoseok, an arm propping up the huge rock as he shielded the children under him.

You released a shaky sigh of breath.

“Oh god, that was close,” you muttered, your heart still beating fast, before you turned to your companion. “Did you-”

He was staring straight at Hoseok, with an unreadable look in his eyes.

“Abbadon?” You hesitantly asked. 

“... I knew it. He’s a dragon, isn’t he? And that face… the son of the late king?” He finally said after a long while, and while his sentence ended in a question, the tone of his voice was a statement. You froze, and then you were about to refute his claim-

“Oh, don’t worry,” Abbadon smiled at you. “I’m not the type to talk or gossip with other people.”

You remained quiet, your nerves still strung high. Abbadon chuckled uneasily, a sheepish smile appearing on his lips.

“I won’t! I swear on my badge,” he promised you, a lighthearted air around him now. “That said, you should be careful though. Dragons- people around here have a complicated view of them, you know? Especially considering his status.”

“... I do,” you hesitantly replied. “I’m just surprised you easily realized it.”

He chortled. “Yes, well, in my job it’s an imperative to assess our surroundings, to know if we encounter an enemy or a friend. I just had this feeling when we met and I saw him- the super strength just confirmed it. Still, it’s something special, isn’t it?”

Your gaze returned to Hoseok’s figure, the bright smile contrasting with the red flush on his face as the two children and their mother thanked him profusely. 

True, you’d only recently got to know him better- only recently had you been able to take a look past the first set of walls he’d built around him, but even with the little that you’d seen so far...

“...Yeah, it is,” you smiled warmly. “He’s someone special.”

“Looks like it’ll be a while before they’re done playing, though,” Abbadon commented, frowning a little. “We still have one more memorial of Alexander’s that might help you, if you wanna take a look.”

“Though it’s getting dark soon…”

You hesitated, your eyes darting between Hoseok, the loud laughter of the children, then the darkening sky…

… It was fine, right? Abbadon had proven to be trustworthy, so far. It was the last option you could have at the moment- and tomorrow he’d be gone, while you and the others would have to stay, until at least you could get another clue about what to do next.

“... Okay,” you agreed, smiling at him. “Lead the way, please”

“Gladly,” he smiled. “It’ll just take a minute, I promise.”

You waved to Hoseok- but he remained busy, and you wondered if he’d even see you, the children asking him to play with them- you hurried your footsteps when you noticed your guide almost disappearing from view.

“W-Wait up!” You called, running after him- Abbadon’s figure almost disappearing amongst the trees. You frowned as he consistently remained just on the edge of your sight. What…?

When you came to, you realized that you were in a small clearing. “... Abbadon? Hello?” Your heart beat fast in your chest- a premonition, but then-

Your vision went black.

»»————-　♔　————-««

You woke up to coldness, clasped tightly around your limbs- the chill bitingly spreading across your limbs. When your eyes opened, for a few moments you could only groan- your memories and thoughts too jumbled to make sense of. Still, as you slowly came to, you realized one thing-

You were bound and chained to a wall.

As soon as the realization hit you, you instinctively jerked in horror and panic, the fear within you rising as the metal chains harshly kept you captive. You looked around again in panic- feeling the darkness seemingly close in on you, making you feel even more terrified-

“Y/N!”

You stilled, tears in your eyes. “... Hoseok?”

When you looked across you again, you finally made out the outline of Hoseok’s figure- and then you gasped.

If you thought your current situation was bad enough, Hoseok’s was way worse. Chains adorned almost every part of his body- from his feet, to his neck- even some sort of helmet cuff wrapped around his head. His hands and feet were similarly bound to his back, in a way that prevented him from moving at all, and you had no doubt that it was hard for him to even breathe, with how tight they were cuffed on him.

But it was the metal covering his face that was the worst of it.

“What…? Why are you chained up…?”

He smiled bitterly- or, at least you think he did. “To keep me from transforming. I think... “ For a moment he faltered, looking away, but then he continued. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I suspected it, but I wasn’t sure, and now you’re in danger.”

“‘All your fault’?” You repeated, confused and worried. “What do you- what does that mean?”

“It means that he’s aware of his sin.”

You fully flinched at the sudden voice that echoed through the walls of (what you were now sure to be) the dungeon. You glanced to the side, where the voice came from- freezing in surprise as the person revealed themselves.

“Abbadon?” You gaped, your mind scrambling to keep up. “You- why?”

The familiar figure of who you thought had been a friend and a guide- Abbadon looked at you with a slight smile on his face. “Hello, missy.”

“I-I thought- what’s going on,” you faltered. “Why are you doing this?”

“You don’t know?” He mused, coming closer to you. You flinched back when his hand drew close, a shiver running through you when he patted you on the head.

When you failed to answer, he let his hand fall away- staring at you.

“... You’re a part of La Salutem, aren’t you?” You eventually said. “This isn’t what the guild stands for, I’m sure.”

“Oh, you thought I was part of that stuffy old guild?” Abbadon giggled- your blood ran cold at the insinuations in his words. “Take a closer look, missy. These aren’t angel wings- these are dragon bones.”

“I- dragon bones?” You choked out. “What…”

“... You really are confusing, you know?” He eventually shook his head idly, intrigue on his face. “Maybe I should start with you first, cut you open, see how you can remain so deceptively naive.”

Hoseok suddenly growled- you stared at him in wide-eyed surprise, surprised to see this new side of him. “Let her go. She doesn’t know anything about it,” he snapped.

Abbadon only laughed. “Oh, I knew it! I knew there was something wrong- if she knew, she definitely wouldn’t be so lenient on you for even existing,” he chortled. You shivered at the tone of his voice- although you felt the beginnings of rage bubble up in you at his words.

“What do you mean by that?” 

“Lying before us in chains, is Prince Hoseok of the dragons,” he announced, a gleeful little smile on his face.

“I already knew who he was when I met him,” you frowned, still confused. He didn’t seem like he had a problem back then, so what…? “Not that any of it made me wary of him.”

“But you don’t know exactly why dragons are the vilest creatures, do you? There’s a reason they stay in their dirty little hovels,” Abbadon smiles, a nasty little thing that told you for some reason he believed he had information that would make you change your view. “Then again, it’s where they belong after all.”

“Really,” you narrowed your eyes at him. “And that reason’s what?”

“You’re evidently knowledgeable about the war. But nobody told you about the massacre, did they?”

“There was no massa-”

“Yes, there was. The massacre.” Abbadon’s voice was soft, yet deadly- a far away look in his eyes. “Near the war, the dragons were losing. As they should have been. After pillaging and conquering for so long, every rule of tyranny must come to an end. Good always triumphs evil, you see?”

“Mages and humans, together, on the battlefield, saving lives, not to mention elves and fae… I only watched memories of it, but, god, it must have been a sight to witness,” he sighed wistfully. “The rest of the other races stayed neutral or sold themselves out like whores- selfish cowards.”

“But it wasn’t enough, you know?” He eventually said, sighing as he walked over to Hoseok, looking down at him with sheer hatred in his eyes. He harshly struck him with the heel of his boot- smiling when Hoseok let out a muffled cry of pain. “Dragons are vile,” thwack! “selfish,” thwack! “greedy,” thwack! “filthy beasts.”

By the end of it Hoseok lied on the floor, unable to even speak as he curled in pain.

“Around their empire, the dragons had so many cities under them- a few of them composed from other races, but most of them human,” he said, still smiling, even as the resentment remained in his eyes. The look on his face kept you quiet- frozen in fear.

“Three days. Three days was all it would have taken to storm their dirty little hole,” he spat. “But the dragons, heartless as they were, loathed the thought of anyone taking away what they considered ‘theirs’.”

“So they burned down every city.”

Only the sound of breathing remained unnaturally loud- from who, you wondered. Was it you? It didn’t feel like it- you didn’t feel like you were breathing.

“The ruler of the dragons decided if they couldn’t have their empires then no one could have them,” Abbadon continued, every word smooth and hypnotizing even as he hissed them out. “Three days, and every city was burned. The amount of lives lost then- it was catastrophic. Not to mention how they must have felt. Three days, and dragons filled the sky, flames everywhere and bloodshed covering every area. Though they were all eventually eventually executed, it still doesn’t come close to repaying what they did.”

You didn’t notice Hoseok choke out a cry at his words, tears forming in his eyes. Abbadon only continued, eyes dull with pain and yet sharp with recollection at the same time.

“My family was one of those trapped, you know. I was only saved because I had to hunt animals then- I didn’t even find their remains, days after. All that remained was ashes all around.”

“The guild took me in, tried to give me a new life, but I said no. I only knew how to hunt animals- and even now, I still do my job. After all, don’t I have one in chains right now!?” He suddenly laughed, wild hatred present. “And to think! That I have the previous King’s son!”

“Why, I have the glory of putting an end to this evil bloodline,” he giggled. You wanted to throw up.

He turned around- you couldn’t quite keep yourself from biting your lip when he drew close.

“Knowing all that, doesn’t it make you regret ever standing up for it?” He sighed again.

“... So?” You eventually rasped out. “What does that have to do with Hoseok?”

He frowned. You continued, gritting your teeth.

“What does that have to do with him? So what if he’s that King’s son? That doesn’t mean that Hoseok is just like him!”

“Of course it does!” He spat at you, before calming down again. “No, no, I see now. You’ve spent too much time with it. It corrupted you. No matter, no matter… I’m not the type of person to kill someone innocent and manipulated by dragons to boot. I’ll let you go, on one condition,” he says, the smile remaining on his face. “I want you to kill it.”

“... What?” You stared at him in horrified disbelief. Still, he keeped smiling- manic, wild.

“If you won’t kill it, then I will. I’ll make sure to dispose of you after too,” he nonchalantly added, before visibly rethinking over his words. “Actually, nevermind. I think it’d be more fun to torture it.”

You felt bile rise up in your throat.

“If you’re really friends with this beast,” he hummed cheerfully, his tone becoming twisted as he gestured to Hoseok dramatically, “well, won’t you put it out of future misery then? I’ll even spare you, for finally coming to your senses.” He grinned. “Or- you could try to escape. But trust me, you’ll regret not accepting my deal.”

“Like hell I-!”

“Y/N,” Hoseok’s whimper was both a warning and a plea. You bit the inside of your cheek angrily- glaring instead at Abbadon who only gleefully smiled at your expression. 

When you saw his smile, you snapped.

“You sick bastard, I hope you rot in hell, because that’s where murderers like you belong!”

“Y/N!”

You trembled from the force of the blow- a bright, red mark showing on your cheek as Abbadon’s smile turned dark. Behind him, Hoseok’s growl was loud, fury present in the deep rumble on his voice.

“Cheeky little thing,” Abbadon sighed, swiftly moving away from you as you struggled in your chains to claw him up. “Really. Never would’ve thought you to be this rude too, when we met. No matter, I’m not that petty.”

Backing up, he aimed a blow at your stomach, and then at your head- you cried out in pain again, this time too weak to even fight back. Your sense dulled- you could barely make out anything. For a moment, all you could hear and feel was the thud of your heartbeat-

Moments later, when you felt a rush of clarity in your brain, you were shivering on the floor, weak, injured- but unshackled.

In front of you was a sharp knife.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Missy. If your dragon isn’t dead by then, you can watch me as I punish it.” Abbadon’s voice echoed through the hallway. “Or you could join me, if you finally see the light.”

Thud

Thud

Thud

For a few moments you could only lie there in pain, groans leaving you, your heartbeat the only thing your mind could hold onto.

It was- hard to think. Hard to- feel. Brief flashes of pain flared up in your body, and you felt as if you would throw up- 

But then your blurry eyes met Hoseok’s and the situation sunk in.

Why were you lying down? 

You had to- you had to get up. 

You had to get up- do something-

Your stomach hurt so much- and your head, god, your vision was still shaky, your hearing faint. Hoseok’s words barely registered in your brain. You didn’t even understand what he was saying. 

But, you slowly thought, your legs weren’t injured. Neither were your arms.

You took a deep breath- whimpering in pain as you slowly got to your knees- and then to your feet.

Across you, Hoseok remained silent, still. No, no, no… that was bad. That was bad, right? Hoseok couldn’t- he had to keep going.

You took a step forward, your steps shaky- but still you continued. Think. Think. You had to get him out the chains somehow- find a way to free him, so you could escape together.

You forced yourself to go forward, your legs trembling as you reached him.

From where you were, you could see Hoseok’s eyes flutter open weakly. Unfocused- before they fell on you. Good, that was good, he was still conscious, you two still had hope. Now back to your main problem.

“... elf.”

You stared at the chains, still thinking. How, how how how? How were you going to get it off him?

“Y/N,” Hoseok whispered your name. You examined the chains- thick, metal, it was solid and obviously wouldn’t easily melt or break. Okay. Okay, so you had to look for another way.

“Y/N!” Hoseok’s yell was more of a groan- one that immediately took a toll on him as he coughed and hacked after. You immediately flinched, tearing up, even as your hands hovering uselessly above him as you soothed circles on his back.

“Sorry! Sorry- I’ll get you out, don’t worry, just…” You trailed off, frustrated with yourself. Hoseok caught one of your hands as you grabbed one of the chains again.

“Y/N, just go without me. Save yourself.”

The chain in your hand fell to the ground.

“Don’t say that,” you said, your voice calm, even as your hands quivered. “That’s not a good joke.”

“I-It’s not a joke.” Hoseok raised a hand to wipe away the tears forming in your eyes- or, at least he wanted to. Instead the bite of the metal around his arms kept him grounded. “Between the two of us, you’re much more needed. You should escape while you have the chance.”

You dryly laughed, the tears forming faster now. 

“What if I don’t want to?” 

“Think about the quest, Y/N. Give up on me.”

“And I told you,” you seethed. “I won’t. So stop asking. Actually, shouldn’t we talk about what he said? Why didn’t you defend yourself?” You snapped, before deflating. “Is… is what he said before the reason why you wouldn’t let anyone get close to you in any way?”

The two of you lay there for a moment then- you, awaiting his response, even as you stubbornly continued your task to free him and Hoseok stubbornly avoided your gaze. It was only when you took his hands in your own, inspecting the chains around his wrists that you realized he was shaking.

"... I'm just scared," he finally whispered. "I didn’t want you to get close to me. I didn’t want to get your hopes up for nothing. Because it’s instinct for us to shift, I feel like if I show even a fucking hint of this curse, I'll be proving everyone right... that I'm a monster just like him. I could hurt you easily even when I don’t want to. I just..."

Tears formed in his eyes and for once, you could see the resignation in his eyes. You stopped. "If there’s anything I know, it’s that I’m not someone people want to be near. Even if I seem nice, that doesn’t change the fact that I could easily kill at the same time… when we met, you seemed so nice and I wanted to be friends with you, but… I became scared that eventually you’d realize what they know. That afterwards, you’d be afraid of me too."

"But that's it. I'm not afraid,” you frustratedly told him, as the tears fell from your eyes, feeling a plethora of emotions inside you at his words. "Why would I be?"

“You heard it from him. I’m a mons-”

“Stop letting other people's words define you!”

For a moment it felt hard to breathe- rage and sorrow mixing in you as your emotions pushed you over the edge.

“You won't give yourself a chance because you just accept what other people say about you, like they know who you are, but you know what? Even if we’ve only been together for three weeks, even if I only got to actually spend time with you for only three days, the Hoseok I’ve seen so far isn't anything like that!”

“You hate yourself because you believe that you deserve only the worst, but please. I believe in you. I believe in the Hoseok that's kind and gentle, the one that smiles just from being able to make someone happy, the one that cries so easily because they read something sad, wearing his heart on his fucking sleeve, never even being able to lie because he knows how lies can hurt. The one that's honorable, and will fight for what's right. Being a dragon doesn't mean you aren't any of these things, it just means you have powers that others don't have. Being his son doesn’t mean you’re a carbon copy of him either. What you do with those powers- that's what makes you who you are.”

For a moment, after your rant, you breathed in slowly, carefully, all of a sudden feeling as though there was not quite enough air in the room. Still, you continued- and as your hands clutched your clothes, you felt something in your pockets. When you brought the item out-

You grinned wildly, for the first time since you woke up.

The Key of Eden fit snugly in your hand. Looking down, complicated as it was you could see the little keyholes that connected each chain, each one soon becoming undone as you pressed the key inside. With each chain that fell apart, you began to breathe easier. It was only when the last three remained that you began to speak again, determination hardening your voice.

“Even if the whole world says you're evil, Hoseok, how can you expect me to believe them when the whole time we've been together you've only been so far away from it?”

Clang

“Thinking it’s no good even before you try, giving up and just accepting their words and treating it as if it’s the truth…!”

Clang

As the second to last chain was unlocked, you looked him in the eye- ignoring how he stiffened under your hold.

“For once I want you to see yourself as someone that deserves to be heard, instead of something irredeemable.”

You reached down to free the last chain-

“I see you didn’t take my advice.”

-and found yourself gasping as your arms were harshly locked together, your body turned around. Abbadon- his face containing pity for you, never before had you wanted to strangle someone so badly- used one hand to keep you from doing anything. 

You stilled when you saw the knife in his hand.

“While I wanted to give you a chance… It’s a pity,” he idly remarked. “I’ll make sure you have a nice view.”

You instinctively kicked behind you at his words- the sharp clang of the knife as it fell to the ground mixed with Abbadon’s pained yell, one that felt like music to your ears- a split second was all it took before you lunged for the knife and leapt away from him in turn.

When he got up, snarling, you were already on the other side of the room.

“Come now,” he said even as his teeth were gritted into the semblance of a smile. “Give me the knife.”

“I won’t let you hurt him,” your voice was firm- even if your throat rasped.

“But then who’ll stop me from hurting you?”

Your breath caught in your throat- you dived to the side, his hands almost catching the edges of your dress before you scrambled away, feeling behind you for anything- Hoseok’s alarmed yell as he tried to help you but found himself restrained.

And then you felt it. The click of a door. Your eyes widened in surprise- then you grinned triumphantly at him.

“I guess I found my answer,” you taunted him. To your surprise, he only laughed.

“Sure, missy! Take a look behind you, it’ll surely help you escape- from life, that is,” he mocked.

You took another step behind you as you looked back- then felt your knees get weak.

All this time, you hadn’t considered just where the two of you might be. After all, you were much more concerned with freeing yourselves. But now, as you looked over what had to be more than a hundred meters of drop, you wished you did, if only to contemplate how you would be escaping.

You were in Blackburn, the tower’s entrance behind you, lying several hundred feet above the ground- you could see miles and miles of the surrounding forest and mountains.

“I thought it would be fitting, to kill it in its own house. That said, you have two options,” Abbadon said, his voice calm again. “Either take a step into Death’s clutches, or embrace Life. What will it be?”

“My companions are looking for us. They’ll be here any moment. Even if you kill us, you’ll still be caught in the end.” Your mind raced with excuses, words, anything that you could use to threaten him- yet he only laughed.

“But you both will still be dead. It,” he jabbed a finger at Hoseok, who glared at him, “will be dead, and that’s all that matters to me. Besides, are you even sure they’ll be coming? This isn’t the easiest place to find, you know.”

“If I fall, Hoseok will save me. Or have you forgotten dragons can fly?”

“Will it? I don’t think it’s ever even shifted,” he scoffed. “Which is a good thing, really. I would’ve shot it straight if it did. But no, if not just the chains sapping away its magic, then the lack of unease he has with the chains should tell you he’s never even tried shifting. How else could it tolerate the chains? If it tried now- I'd give it 4 seconds before it shifts back.”

Abbadon slowly smiled again. “So, how will you be taking your chances now?”

It was obvious that Abbadon took Hoseok as nothing but an ant, not a threat, just something so worn down that he wouldn’t fight back, even if he was freed. With how much he seemed as if he’d given up earlier, the weak, sluggish movements, and the hatred he had for being who he was- you weren’t surprised, but still, you hated it all the same.

Your heart beat in your chest then- fast, hurried. Inside you, you could only feel fear, the situation being as it was-

-but then you met Hoseok’s eyes. 

For once, they weren’t swimming in self-martyrdom or pity- but rather, in determination. You could see the support in his eyes, the decision he’d made. Trust me, he seemed to tell you.

Whatever fear you had then- it dissolved. 

“Neither,” you spoke up, your gaze firm as you looked Hoseok in the eyes and smiled. Abbadon frowned, his eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not taking chances, because I know he’ll save me.” 

Saying so, you took a step off the edge- and let yourself fall.

Thud

Thud

Thud-

"-Hoseok!" You screamed as you descended. 

When you opened your eyes, instantly a burst of colors surrounded you, the grey walls of the tower being replaced by the vibrant scenery- the sky in itself being a mix of blue and white, with the vivid greenery of what had to be the forest-

The wind rushed around you, harsh, fierce, and you felt the urge to shut your eyes out of fear, but you kept them open, even if your sight blurred with tears. For a second, nothing- then-

You could faintly see the top of the tower collapse, dust and debris flying everywhere, and then a large mass of something diving after you. 

A wheeze escaped you as leathery wings wrapped themselves around you. Heat, warmth that felt addicting to feel after the chill of the dungeons enveloped you, and for a few moments all other senses dulled. Though this time, it wasn’t from any outside force, but rather from the weeping sense of relief of finally being safe, the adrenaline keeping you hyper aware even now that the danger was gone, the added drop in altitude making your heart beat fast, too fast for your liking-

And then a flash of light- and you were wrapped securely in his arms. In Hoseok's arms. You held  on to him tightly- and, even with your heartbeat pounding away at your ears you could finally feel the wind around you two settle down, and the gentle flap of what had to be his wings.

You shivered- Hoseok pulled you closer. Close and closer and you were close enough to smell the faint scent of smoke lingering on his clothes, and then- 

Your feet touched stable ground. Your legs still trembling from the recent, you almost stumbled forward when you let go of him, but Hoseok only held you in turn- firm, gentle, and so you remained safe.

For a few seconds, you could only greedily take in gulps of air, your form still shivering, disregarding everything else. Then- you disentangled yourself from Hoseok, even as your hold on each other’s hands remained.

"You… you saved me," was all you could say.  "I knew you would. Thank you for saving me."

Hoseok looked at you, an unreadable expression on his face."Y/N, I-"

"Y/N! Hoseok!”

You looked past Hoseok’s shoulder- the sound of footsteps becoming louder and louder, as you finally saw six familiar figures. The first to come near was, surprisingly enough, Seokjin- who smoothly pulled to a stop in front of you, shielding both you and Hoseok from Abbadon, who you just discovered was standing a distance aways from you two.

The next to arrive had been Namjoon- who looked at you with a worried look on his face, eyes darting from you to Abbadon. His eyes, when they met yours, widened and he looked away, face filled with something- and then Jungkook, who was obviously furious and also worried- Yoongi, who, while seemingly calm had a tight, neutral expression- and Jimin and Taehyung, lingering somewhere beyond your current view.

“Iron Butcher.” You’d never heard Seokjin’s voice so cold before, not even when directed at you- you trembled, for a moment, just hearing it- Hoseok’s hands squeezed yours in support. “Harming innocent people is against the law, as I’m sure you’d know.”

“Hah,” Abbadon scoffed. “That isn’t a person, that’s only a vicious beast. I’m merely upholding my job as a protector.”

“It has been years since the war,” Yoongi’s voice was without any emotion. “Hunting dragons and dragging in innocent civilians is a crime worthy of many years of jail, not to mention you went for the Prince and the Savior.”

“Your best option would be to surrender.”

“And if I don’t want to?” Abbadon giggled.

“We’ll fuck you up,” Jungkook snarled. “For daring to lay even a hand on them. On her.”

Your heart warmed at his words, even as you wanted to protest. For a moment, there was silence- and then-

“... Ahhh, fine. I know when I’m out of my league.” Abbadon’s voice was light, airy- he spoke as if you were only discussing a friendly match. You shivered at the familiar tone- now aware of the hidden darkness he could easily switch into. You burrowed your head in Hoseok’s chest- your grip on him tight, and while a part of you was afraid of his rejection- he only pulled you in closer, until all sounds were muffled.

You counted the sound of his heartbeats, trying to will your breathing to adapt to its rhythm. One, two, three, four…

You could hear someone’s words as they tried to soothe you, though you trembled not just from fear, but also exhaustion.

“... It’s okay now, Y/N...”

Yet again, you fell unconscious before you could hear the rest of his words.

#bangtanhq #bangtanscenery #bangtanfairygarden #ficswithluv #bts x reader #ot7 x reader #kim seokjin x reader #min yoongi x reader #jung hoseok x reader #kim namjoon x reader #park jimin x reader #kim taehyung x reader #jeon jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #bts fic #bts angst #bts fluff

[lightneverfades]

Frostiron AU (WandaVision) -  Episode 9

Here’s a few more of the WandaVision Frostiron AU I made! :)

Storyline: (Contains Spoilers)

< Story is set in an alternate universe set after Thanos is defeated >

Loki is alive, lives through the events of End Game but loses Tony in the fight when Tony sacrifices himself to use the Infinity Stones. Loki can’t cope with what’s happened and resurrects Tony from the dead and creates an alternate reality where they are in a sitcom, living as a happy couple... to shut out the real world.

Note: The fic is a continuation of this post here :D (Listening to this song while writing, it’s so good <3)

+

The walls around the Hex glowed ever so brightly in luminescent green, static energy fizzling in between its barrier. Dark clouds started to form as Loki chased after Agatha, who flew up effortlessly into the air with a laugh that echoed into the expanse, trails of black magic whirling around her.

“Give me everything you’ve got, trickster!”

Loki threw a ball of energy at Agatha, but the spell missed, hitting the other side of the wall behind her. It faded quickly back into the surface.

“Loki!” Tony cried out as he flew up to help. He attacked as well, shooting beams of energy in Agatha’s direction. One particularly nasty one hit Agatha and the witch hissed, her smile faltering. Her gaze shifted, her lips curling in annoyance and her eyes lit up in a darker shade of purple.

“Let the adults fight, mmm?”

Tony felt the blast of dark magic slam into him with full force. He thought he heard Loki’s shout of alarm, but his senses became somewhat numb as he fell, his suit shutting down temporarily as Friday blipped out with a “-Boss, I’m going to have to go into emergency shutd--!”

The ground came up to greet him, or rather vice versa, as Tony broke the concrete floor, creating a massive dent on the road. Pain shot through his whole body, begging for him to stop and quit moving altogether, but there was no way he was going to do that. This is our home! Tony thought furiously.

“Friday!” Tony called out, but his screen was absolutely pitch black.

With a groan of frustration, his helmet disappeared. Tony got up as quickly as he could, ignoring the terrible ache in his whole body and wincing at the cuts on his cheek and lips.

“Tony, are you okay?” Loki’s voice made Tony’s head turn and he saw the god flying over to him, his brows already furrowing as he caught sight of the blood.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little tumble that’s all, nothing I can’t-” Tony hissed as a particular area he’d hit trying to protect his back argued otherwise. Loki reached out his hand to cover the cut on Tony’s cheek and Tony felt warmth as the pain instantly faded away. As soon as the glow faded, Tony knew the god had fully healed him from top to bottom. What was more, the suit was coming back to life and he could feel the nanobots shifting around his body.

“Thanks babe,” Tony smirked and Loki’s lips curled upwards. 

“My pleasure,” Loki answered in kind, a tinge of an American accent slipping through from the many timelines he’d adopted from his stay at Westview.

"Have you forgotten we’re not done yet, lovebirds?” Agatha’s voice called out from above and both men looked up to see the witch hovering above them, staring down at them.

“Haven’t forgotten, darling,” Tony shot back as his suit rebooted back to full capacity.

“Good,” Agatha spoke and she directed her gaze at Loki. “Won’t you just stop dilly dallying? I’ve been ever so patient with you lot. Perhaps I need to make things more clear for you.” 

Tony hadn’t quite noticed earlier, but he now saw that the citizens of Westview were now completely frozen in their place, their actions having been paused mid-action. Their eyes were the only thing that blinked, their lips pulled up in a smile that Tony could tell were make believe and imprinted. A chill passed through him as he realized in spite of his love for Loki, his god was also the one imprisoning these people in this place. 

Dark curls of energy lit around each of the citizens of Westview and their eyes lit up for a moment, before consciousness of their own replaced it. Each of the men and women holding their accessories or smiling at their fellow neighbors mid-conversation stopped what they were doing, and looked around in confusion. And then Tony saw it, their eyes all veering towards them and he could see the insurmountable pain and agony in their faces.

“Loki, Loki... please... please just let us go!” They chorused, and converged around them. “Please... we have your nightmares, we feel your pain! Please! I want to go back... I need to see my family! PLEASE!”

Loki’s hardened expression didn’t quite falter as much as Tony’s did, which made the situation even worse. “Loki, they’re right, you got to stop this-” 

“Stop what?” Loki countered and there was an edge in his tone that only Tony knew what it meant. It was full of anger but underneath it all, he could hear the agony within it. He reached out his hand to touch Loki’s cheek, placing his other hand on Loki’s chest. “You’re torturing them. I know you don’t mean it... I know, cause you’re not that kind of man. Stop it.”

“Mmm, Loki, yes, why don’t you?” Agatha sneered from above, her malicious smile growing ever more sinister. “Don’t you want to be good? Aren’t you an Avenger? You made an oath during the Blip, didn’t you? Thou shalt not kill, blah, blah, blah! But you know in your heart of hearts that that’s not true! You want your Tony Stark to stay intact, don’t you? So give me your power and I’ll grant you this fantasy! I’ll be your villain in your superhero origin story, hah!”

Loki’s frown deepened, “I can’t...” 

“Why, Loki?” Tony urged, hearing the ever growing pleas and cries of anger and suffering from the people of Westview. He felt the pain as if it were his own, and he winced every time he heard the hatred in the voices of the men and women. And they deserved to be angry - he hadn’t been aware until recently, but they were prisoners, made to play a role that is not their own. 

“Because I’ll lose you,” Loki whispered, the god’s eyes catching Tony’s and it was filled with sorrow. Tony flinched, but it wasn’t because of the statement.

“Then you weren’t the man I thought you were,” Tony spoke and he stepped back. He felt the arms of the men and women; desperate, ordinary people who he had pledged to save their lives as an Avenger, pull at his arms, crying and screaming, clawing for his attention. He didn’t resist; he let them take him.

The look of hurt and realization dawned on Loki’s face.

“Tony!” Loki reached out, trying to get to Tony but the man gave him a glare.

“Don’t come near me, Loki. Not unless you intend to undo this and set them free.”

“I will, I will...” Loki said but his voice was hesitant.

“Then do it, trickster! Heroes don’t torture people!” Agatha’s voice called out with a cackle/ 

Loki looked at Tony one more time and with that his eyes burned up. A gust of wind flurried around them and a surge of energy blasted out of Loki and towards the sky, tearing the barrier in half for a moment, creating a crack in between. The enormity of the action caused the god to lean back further, arms outstretched and his cape whipped behind his back harshly. 

“GO! ALL OF YOU, NOW... LEAVE!”

Tony heard the screams of the people as the ground shuddered and the town, which had been sealed shut by emerald barriers, start to split. He gently pushed the woman that had clung to him in desperation and whispered, “Go! Run! Go back to your family! I’m sorry!”

They all did, crying out and running for their lives as the Hex started to withdraw within itself. 

And then Tony felt it, the first anomaly he had experienced before when he stepped out of the Hex. First it was the strength in his arms, then quickly his legs, as something stole away the life in his body. With a pained heave of breath, his knees crashed onto the broken concrete. He could hear his heart drumming away fast at first, but slowly losing its speed. With it, he felt what he knew was Loki’s magic seep back towards his owner. 

“Loki-” Tony managed and Loki was crying, his eyes panic-ridden. With a agonized cry, the energy forcing itself out of Loki faded. The Hex started to ebb back, the four corners reforming back.

Tony wheezed as the pressure in his lungs and the heaviness of his body lifted a little, but he was far from okay. His body felt like it had been burnt and when turned to look at his arm, it was darkened and crisp and he realized the familiar sight. It was the same blackened state he’d found himself in once he’d used the Infinity Stones to stop... yes, he’d stopped Thanos and his army. I died. And I saw Loki, there, just before... He tried to revive me...

Loki’s hollow and agony-filled scream that penetrated the battlefield had been Tony’s last memory of his death before everything blacked out.

And here he was again, in Loki’s arms, the god’s face staring down at Tony with tears brimming on his eyelashes and freely falling down on his battered cheeks.

“Now do you see what you’ll lose?” Agatha said and her words were like knives.

Luminescent green light enveloped Tony and the magic did its work, life energy from one powerful being surging back into another. The warmth of the magic reignited, furiously pushing back the deathly grip that had threatened to take Tony away forever earlier. Tony gasped as the magic sped his heartbeat back to its normal pace and the right side of his body, which had grown limp and numb started to heal rapidly. 

"Don’t leave me, Anthony... not yet,” Loki spoke and leaned in, pulling Tony upwards so that his left arm was supporting Tony.

“Leave you...? Not a chance, Reindeer games,” Tony managed to teased, his voice coming back to him now. He wiped away at Loki’s tears with the back of his armored hand. The chuckle he heard from the god warmed him. “We’ve got unfinished business with that bitch.” 

A grin started to form on Loki’s lips at these words, “Yes, the witch must burn.”

#frostiron #wandavision au #loki/tony #tony/loki #lol i didnt even expect my brain to produce a fic but now its all JUSTIFY THE DRAWINGS #hahah so yeah im putting a bit more story in them now #im tempted to draw some of these scenes but i dont have a lot of time lol to do that atm #so maybe later #wandavision au fic #my drawings

[yukheii]

— baby, you blow me away (m.l)

+ pairing :: mark lee + oc:reader

+ genre and warnings :: spiderman au, marvel/mcu au, it’s mostly fluff but there are some sad themes to it, mentioned of sadness/longing, implied mild depression, implied symptoms of ptsd (kind of, it’s vague, but i figured it’s best to disclose anyway), mark is trying his hardest pls appreciate him thanks for being the sweetest boy to ever exist

+ notes :: this one goes out to sarah aka foreverpark for being the biggest peter parker and mark lee enthusiast you’ll ever come across; also she keeps putting posts of tony on my dash so uh, mentions of him and pepper i’m not sure exactly what mesh of college au and mcu au this is but bear w me 

Mark hasn’t been able to sleep for three weeks.

First, he tries to convince himself that it’s not that bad. That every twenty year old male has a few vivid nightmares every now and again. That it’s perfectly fine to experience mild seizures, and severe insomnia, and that everything will pass if he drinks some green tea, takes a few Tylenol, and puts on a face mask.

Then, he sobers up a little; realizes that, yeah, what’s been going on is well past normal. But, he merely shifts his poor coping mechanisms instead of doing something about it—he makes himself believe that it’s worth it. That staying awake until his body is physically exhausted enough to force him into sleeping, having crystal clear flashbacks whilst waiting in line for coffee, and quaking at the slightest noise above two decibels is worth the hero work.

The therapist that Pepper has him go to does what he can to help, but it’s truthfully, not much. Granted, seeing immediate results is less than rare, but Mark isn’t feeling optimistic, either.

When he tells Mr. Therapist Man about you and that he hasn’t seen you in weeks, his eyebrows crease together, and he starts writing at an alarming pace against his notepad. Mark almost forgets that whatever he tells Mr. Therapist Man goes back to Pepper, and that maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned how in addition to his symptoms, he’s slipping on his schoolwork and his obligations as a boyfriend; but he knows that she’s too smart, and she would have cornered him about it sooner or later.

“Why haven’t you seen ______?” she questions, voice gentle but firm, as she hands him a cup of hot chocolate.

“I have seen her,” he clarifies, blowing lightly on the beverage, “But not, like, a lot? We talk a little when I see her on campus—oh, and I waved to her when I swung by her English class last Thursday—but, I haven’t been at school a whole lot, honestly. And—also, she’s busy! She has clubs and midterms and—”

“And, so do you, Mark,” Pepper interjects.

Mark opens his mouth to refute, but deflates almost instantly. Truthfully, he hadn’t so much as spared a single thought about his exams until a few seconds ago. He could kiss that A- in Classics goodbye.

“Yeah, but I’ve got… other stuff to do, too,” he says softly. Other things to do and other things to focus on.

The ginger watches him toy with this fingers, the wide-eyes in front her are filled with so much guilt and pleading and worry that she feels tears pricking at her own. She puts her cup down, and shifts her body closer to Mark’s, a gentle hand resting on his shoulder.

“You… you really have his spirit, you know that,” she asks, but it’s not a question. Her glassy eyes seem to look through Mark, not at him, as she continues, “He saw so much of himself in you, and it’s so easy to see why.”

“But, Mark,” she’s whispering now, on the verge of tears, “Don’t make his mistakes. Take care of yourself, please. Rest.”

And Mark starts crying first, a vice grip around his cup. “I won’t. I promise.”

In hindsight, Mark probably should have used his original suit, and not the metal one when he planned to make a swift, silent, entrance.

He smells like burnt rubber and exhaust fumes when he crawls in through your window and wraps his arms around your shoulders, chin resting atop your head.

“You’re late,” you mumble, eyes not sparing him a glance, still focused on the assignment open in front of you. You haven’t made any progress since last week, but neither you nor Mark comment on that.

“I know,” he replies, voice airy like he’s still trying to catch his breath; and you can feel his chin move with every syllable against the point of your head, “I’m sorry.”

You swivel your chair and face him properly for the first time in far too long. His mask is still on, red and blue and oversized black metal look back at you instead of the honeyed-brown you know and love.

But you don’t need to see his face to see what’s wrong—and Mark knows there’s no point in hiding it any longer. He lets you stand up and lets your arms fall to the back of his beck; feels just the ghost of a touch against a pressure-point on his neck before the mask and the rest of the suit recede into a watch on his left wrist.

He’s just as you feared—and then some. There’s a faint, purple bruise along the bridge of his nose and several, smaller scrapes along his chin, but what alarms you the most are his eyes.

They’re not wide with too much hope and love and ambition anymore; they’re quiet, dull. They’re not Mark’s eyes.

“Mark,” you barely get his name out, your head tilting to the side, words caught in your throat.

Mark swallows consciously, entire body trembling as your gentle hands press into his head. It’s a dull pain when your left hand cradles his neck and your right rests against his cheek, thumb pressing against his bottom lip.

“Oh, Mark,” you sob again, and he lets his eyes flutter shut. You pull his face towards yours, slow and careful, a ghost of a kiss pressed against the bulb of his nose.“

“I’m so sor—” he chokes, but you don’t let him finish his sentence; cutting off his words with a petal soft kiss to his bruised lips.

“Come to bed,” you say instead, both of your palms cradling his cheeks now before you kiss him again.

He wants to say no, that he can’t, that he hasn’t been able to for far too long now, but then you wipe away a fallen tear, and something in Mark makes him believe that this time, it’ll be different.

He only smiles, shallow, but genuine—it prompts you to peck him again. Your hands cascade down his face, neck, arms, until you’re holding both his hands. You raise his right to your mouth, interlocking your fingers and pressing a chaste kiss to his knuckles, “Come.”

He lets himself be pulled by your grip to your bed. You have a rule about non-pajamas touching your bedsheets, but you seem to the break them for him; simply allowing him to strip to his boxers and remain in his t-shirt before following you under the duvet.

Mark’s favorite way to cuddle is not to, really. He thinks he’s too awkward, lanky in all the wrong places to securely hold you against him. He prefers to sleep facing you. He likes the feel the small exhalations from your nose tickle his face. Often, he’ll extend a leg in your direction, and sandwich it between your own. Sometimes, he drapes an arm around your waist or vice versa, but usually, he likes to hold your hand instead. It’s nice for him that way, just knowing you’re there.

But, tonight, Mark stops you as you lay on your side, body cocooned into its usual position. He presses your other shoulder blade back into the mattress until you’re flat on your back, and gingerly crawls into your hold.

It’s balming to him that you don’t think twice about wrapping your arms around his torso, pulling him in, kissing the top of his head. He sighs against your plush skin, allowing himself to be engulfed in a warmth too intense to punctuate.

He reaches an arm up, to rest his hand against your shoulder, but you catch it in your grasp. He thinks you’re going to hold his hand, but your grip remains around his wrist.

He turns his head, ready to question your motives, when he sees your single hand making work of removing his watch. Carefully, you slip the metal from his wrist, and store it away in a drawer on your beside table.

Mark wants to protest, but the way you kiss his palm and rewrap your arms around him fades his resolve. Suddenly the watch—the suit—is of little importance; feeling your skin against his is his only priority.

It’s only when you feel his breathing even out and his heartbeat regulate that you consider closing your own eyes. Not before pressing a final kiss to the crown of Mark’s head and squeezing him tight.

“Rest, my love.”

#nct scenarios #nct reactions #nct imagines #nct smut #nct fake texts #mark lee imagines #mark lee scenarios #mark lee smut #mark lee soft icons #nct blurbs #nct soft hours #exo smut #bts smut #taeyong scenarios #taeyong imagines #taeyong smut #spiderman au #nct college au #jaehyun smut #jaehyun imagines #bts fake texts #mark lee #superm #super m

[spnfanficpond]

April 2020 Angel Fish Awards

(New Angel Fish design by @slytherkins!!)

Every month all of you fantastic writers work your asses off to post some truly incredible stories. Our Angel Fish Awards are the way for all of us, as a community of writers and readers, to lift each other up and give praise to those who have captured our attention and deserve a few kind words.

The monthly Angel Fish Awards are peer-nominated, meaning ANYONE IN THE POND CAN NOMINATE ANY POND MEMBER’S FIC. While the Pond was founded to support the Guppies, everyone in this community deserves to be showered with love and feedback, and we hope that by opening this up as a Pond wide system, we’ll be able to share the love as far as it can go.

NOTE: WE’VE BEEN HAVING OCCASIONAL PROBLEMS WITH ASKS GOING MISSING. Please use the Submit button when submitting your nominations and make sure you’re signed into Tumblr or your URL won’t show. (If the form asks for your name and email address, then you’re not signed in.) If you like, you can also send a message to Michelle @mrswhozeewhatsis or Mana @manawhaat to check and make sure we got your submission.

**Also, due to the number of afas and multiple nominations, each person on this list will only be tagged once. Please be sure to read the entire post so you don’t miss multiple nominations/comments!**

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE APRIL’S ANGEL FISH AWARDS!

Nominated by @thoughtslikeaminefield

Slow (oneshot) by @sunlightdances

Intimacy is sooooo sexy xox

Nominated by @manawhaat

Ritual (oneshot) by @winchester-fantasies

This fic is grounded, subtle, realistic, and has an incredible energy between Dean and the reader! There’s so many little things that play into the bigger picture to make this really flow and work seamlessly as a whole!

Temporary Scars (series) by @thoughtslikeaminefield

Fucking hell. Dean x Donna x Benny is such a rare pair that it’s NOT something I knew I needed, but everything about this dynamic is fucking perfect. It’s a bit of an AU, but I still love the way each character was represented. What they all brought to the table and how they balanced each other out in exactly the ways they needed. There’s a dynamic here that I haven’t seen before, especially not with THESE characters, and they complement each other fucking GORGEOUSLY! 

Boyking fic (oneshot) by @whispersandwhiskerburn

This shit is fucking CRAFTY! There’s a lot of little things that carry through this and the way that ‘control’ is presented in each scene of this fic is very cool. 

Calm (series) by @winchesterswoonathon

Oof! This John series just totally fucks me up. It’s perfect in the way you swoon over him and yearn to see a side of him he so rarely shows others. Maggie definitely knows how to nail the pining for John angle! 

Dream Drabble (oneshot) by @theychosefamily

Sam’s comfort and sincerity in this kill me! It may have been inspired by a dream, but this tracks so well for each of them and could definitely be a scene plucked from the show! 

The Unexpected (oneshot) by @impalaimagining

Goddamn this is sexy as all hell! It’s intense and passionate and scary and dazzlingly wonderful! 

Nominated by @flamencodiva

Three’s A Crowd (series) by @1000roughdrafts

So I was browsing Kay’s Masterlist and came upon this very lovely Gem! I would love to see what happens next and I know Kay is extremely busy, but she is a talented writer and I wanted to put this lovely work out there. It is a wonderful concept and I can’t wait to see what happens!

Just Me & My Baby (oneshot) by @deanwinchesterswitch

A good way to rot your teeth with Dean fluff. This story pulls on your heartstrings and can be just what you need when you feel down.  

The Pact (series) by @coffee-obsessed-writer

This is an amazing AU Sam Fic! It is well written and traps you into the fantasy world from the very beginning. I can’t wait to see the roller coaster that is this story as it is beginning to unfold! 

Nominated by @deanwanddamons

The Sullivan Series (series) by @katehuntington​

I binge read this series and adore it. Zoe is such a badass and an awesome OFC.

It is so good it could easily be written as a series of SPN and I am really hoping it is continued as I can’t wait for the next series. Kate is such an awesome person, hugely supportive and a big influence on me as a writer. This series deserves so much more recognition.

Ride With Me (seires) by @katehuntington

This series is divine. I am so invested in this right now. The way Kate writes is a true inspiration to me and this AU is stunning. Her story telling and descriptions are totally immersive and I am so excited to see where she takes us on this journey.

He’s Not You (series) by @mummybear​

This series is awesome! It’s really building momentum and I’m loving where it’s going. Such a great idea for a story and can’t wait to see where Chelsea takes us!

The Man on the Side of the Road (series) by @supernatural-jackles​

This series was beautiful. I was so invested in this and so sad when it came it an end. It was very cathartic for me to read as I related to the reader so much.

Shatter Me (series) by  @winchest09​

This series is incredible. Such a superb concept and I love the way it has been written. The feeling of isolation and Dean’s desperation to save her had me engrossed all the way through. A must read.

D.W. (oneshot) by @kittenofdoomage​

I have recently ventured into dark fic and was recommended this.

Demon!Dean is just 🔥 and this fic is dark, sexy and very explicit. And holy shit I LOVED IT!

Nominated by @moosekateer13​

House of the Rising Sun (series) by @kittenofdoomage

What I really loved about it shows the love can change your whole perspective of the world when love is thrown into the mix.  

The Ones You Love (series) by @kittenofdoomage

It shows how far the Winchester's are willing go when it comes to their family.  

Cosa Nostra (series) by @kittenofdoomage

Loved how in the end love and their bond was stronger than an obstacles that were thrown in their way.

Paid In Full (series) by @kittenofdoomage

Loved it! It taught you look past what you see at first.   

Poor Little Rich Girl (series) by @winchesterprincessbride​

Love how it showed the money is isn't everything love is more important.  

Political Animals  (series) by @winchesterprincessbride

Loved the sometimes it showed the its better to break away from people who are trying to control your life.  

Bed of Roses (series) by @crispychrissy​

Loved how it to taught you to look past first impressions and that there is always more than meets the eye.

Nominated by @thegirlwhorunswithwinchesters​

Control and Release - 30 (series) by @thecleverdame​

I think I might’ve nominated this series before, when I wasn’t caught up yet, but I am now and I just have to recommend this chapter. The entire story is gold but this chapter in particular had me sucked right into the scene at the end. The intensity of the fight and the way they deal with everything that is going on; the emotions, the worlds outside of their little bubble of safety. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it for whoever hasn’t read this series yet. But, if you are one of those people, I highly recommend you change that ASAP.

The Secrets We Keep (series) by @princessmisery666​

Better late than never, right? At least that’s what I’m telling myself to ease the guilt I’m feeling for how long it took me to finally read this series like I said I would. I didn’t enjoy it any less, that’s for sure. And that was even before I got to the twist that made it even better. I loved the vulnerability between Sam and Erin, and the different kind of friendship she had with Dean.

Cabin Fever (long oneshot) by @slytherkins​

I’ve already attempted (and failed) to express my thoughts on this story to the author privately, so I won’t try again here, in risk of my heart shattering all over again. But what I definitely will say (and I will break into my upstairs neighbor’s apartment to scream it from their balcony if I have to) is this: STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING and go read this fic if you haven’t already. It’s a heavy read, yes. But it is more than worth it, I promise you.

Equanimous (oneshot) by @imagineteamfreewill​

I love the tension in this scene. The boys are so in character and I could picture the demons perfectly. And, of course, Cas storming in, being badass, and saving the day, that’s always a plus.

Non-existent (oneshot) by @waywardjoy​

I’m definitely a sucker for a good crack-fic. To be honest, when I read the summary I was already sold. That signature bickering between the boys never gets old, does it?

Nominated by @impalaimagining

Handy Man (oneshot) by @deanwanddamons

Physically speaking, on the list of things I love about Dean Winchester, this checks almost every single box. I love the little things you’re noticing about Dean as the reader - his freckles, the contrast between his skin and the black shirt he’s wearing, exactly which Zeppelin song he’s singing while he works. The teasing is a nice touch too, especially the line about the night before. Proud Dean is so cute, and it’s exactly how I would expect him to react to being the hero around the house.

Nominated by @impala-dreamer

Almost Paradise (oneshot) by @amanda-teaches​ 

Amanda always always writes the fluff so well, but this little bit of bittersweet longing is delicious. Also, she nails Dean EVERY TIME. One of those writers who just gets Dean’s voice down so perfectly. Very Very well done!

Enough Time (oneshot)  by @dissect-me​ 

I was just scrolling the pond list and found this wonderful Destiel fic. I mean… the emotions were intense and I was a mess by the end. Just lovely and so well done. I will be diving back through their masterlist for more Destiel!!

  Nominated by @kittenofdoomage

Life For Rent (series) by @winchest09

@katehuntington told me to go read this so I did and I do not regret it. An amazingly sexy (and at times, heartbreaking) series, not for the faint of heart. Totally waiting on edge for the next chapter.

Call Of The Ocean (series) by @flamencodiva and @anatheweirdo​

I’m fairly certain I’ve nominated this before but it’s so good, I’m gonna nominate it again. You will absolutely become invested in Thasman’s well-being.

Nominated by @fangirlxwritesx67​

Communion (oneshot) by @thoughtslikeaminefield

But Dean’s natural state is this – nesting, nuzzling, curled up and warm. He speaks softly and quietly. His voice isn’t always rough and hard. He sings. MY FEELS. This is beautiful and heart-wrenching all at once.

Sex with Dean is always really good. A lot of times it’s a rushed, life-affirming kind of thing. So when we have time, every touch is at once charged and grounded. And when we have time and are also able to imbibe? It’s metamorphic. All of this, just one perfect line after another. WOW

Just to be his in our own little bubble. And this, this is exactly how this story feels- so close and heavy and perfect Amazing work,.Like, really astounding.

Synesthesia (oneshot) by @there-must-be-a-lock​

Lou took this prompt and did something wildly creative! It’s so well done that the reader can see and feel and taste it.

Wild Thing (series) by @there-must-be-a-lock

I am in love with the Everything series so, so much. Lou has done a beautiful job of building a world with J2 x reader, so loving and creative and hot. This one is, for sure, a favorite! Incorporates one of my favorite quotes into a smoking hot fic. Good work!!

Dear Mr. Fantasy (oneshot) by @itmighthavebeenintentional​

But there’s one particular Other Dean, a favorite one his mind drifts to during rare peaceful moments. Daydreaming when he should be researching, drifting off when a particular song plays on the radio while he’s working on Baby, even washing his hands sometimes will pull him back to those dreams.

6 paragraphs in, and I knew Val was going to break my heart. This is a gorgeous gorgeous story! Creative premise, great characterization, and written so that you can see and taste and feel every moment.

I found myself wanting to both read faster, and slow down and savor it. And yes, it broke my heart, but so beautifully that I would let it happen over and over again.

Weight (oneshot) by @67midnightwriter​

This one is short and both painful and beautiful. So very heavy with experience and meaning. An excellent example of the ways that our favorite characters can help inspire us, lift us and encourage us to keep going

The Second Hand Unwinds (oneshot) by @mskathywriteswords​

Kathy is new-ish to the SPN family but not to either writing or fandom, and it is immediately apparent in her first piece of SPN fanfic. Her creative storyline, her grasp of the characters, and her way with words make it immediately apparent that you are reading the work of a master!

Salvation (oneshot) by @dontshootmespence​

This story feels like an episode of the show from earlier seasons, just the right balance of angst and monster fighting with tantalizing peeks of smut and feels. Excellent job!

There are no words that come close to explaining what she means to him. How she saves what soul he has left. These flashback scenes are both hot and tender. The voice the author  gives to Sam is spot on, achingly familiar. The contrast between the flashbacks and the action is painfully good.

What’s more frightening, a man like Dean, practiced in his violence out of necessity? Or a man like him, on the verge of losing everything and nothing left to lose? This is a well drawn distinction between the Winchester brothers, and such a good characterization of Sam! It’s easy to forget sometimes what a fearsome hunter he is, but this author reminds us with razor sharp clarity.

“You’re safe with me, Sam. You never have to hide from me.“ Such a beautiful relationship between Sam and this woman! It’s no wonder he’s fighting so hard to save her.

This story has an imaginative plot, fast paced action and some sweet hotness! Plus the author does such a good job with Sam, I’m in love with him all over again. I haven’t read this author much before but you’d better believe I won’t miss a story now!

Casual Affair (oneshot) by @fookinghelljensensthighs​

This Dean x Benny fic is short, smoking hot and painfully good. A must read!

Nominated by @mariekoukie6661​

The Force of Habit (series) by @littlegreenplasticsoldier​ 

I read that series at least 3 times now. I love this story, its witty and funny. This fic just makes me smile without trying! Even after reading 3 times, I still thoroughly enjoyed it like it was the first time.  

Satisfied (series) by @crashdevlin​

This is so good, the emotion that this series makes me feel is just out of this world!

Dangerous Signs (series) by @kittenofdoomage

Rhi always has brilliant idea!!! This is one of those and I just can’t get enough of her writing.

Control and Release (series) by @thecleverdame

What start as mostly just porn turned into such a great series with twist and turns!

Hunger (oneshot0 by @impala-dreamer

Oof… what to say about this? it’s Beka! It’s hot and sweaty and makes me want more! Like everything she writes!

Nominated by @myinconnelly1​

Couldn’t Resist (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

This is fun, funny, and sexy. Short sweet and to the point, while still getting you hot under the collar!!!

Dark Obsession (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

Where do I even start in this drabble! It's so fucking cute and funny! I was laughing out loud and could totally see TFW trying to play their parts here

Promise Me We’ll Be Alright (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

What a pain in the heart this fic was. It hurt so good!! I was ready to cry

Say My Name (oneshot) by @idabbleincrazy​

Smoking hot! While in general Baby-girl is a turn off for me, this fic is so far from it! funny at the start with some cracky dean who is caught in the middle, then getting some possessive Sam which is like my fav! 

I’ll See You on Your Birthday (oneshot) by @sorenmarie87​

SOOO MUCH FLUFF!!! Like seriously i needed a dentist after. Some cute ABO pregnancy right here!

Just A Number (oneshot) by @crispychrissy

Again Sexy and Funny (I have a type ok) This was a great use of Age Gap and it wasn't creepy and didn't need a little blue pill at all!

Happily Ever After (oneshot) by @dontshootmespence

HAPPILY EVER AFTER! It's all i need to say!!!! Read It!

Missing Person (oneshot) by @emilyshurley​

This fic is by my favoritest human in the world!!! It’s hilarious and silly but also almost canon. Plus I make a cameo as Garth’s friend!!! What’s not to love!!! 

Nominated by @lovetusk​

The Only Exception (series) by @ne-gans​ & @negans-lucille-tblr​  

While only the prequel so far, I’m too hyped for this beauty to NOT nominate it.

Survive (oneshot) by @kittenofdoomage 

I’m always here for some Alpha!Sam, but this one punched me right in the feels. How dare anyone keep him from his Omega.

He Wasn’t In Love With You (oneshot) by @sorenmarie87  

Dawn doesn't angst often, but sometimes she does and I love it.

Nominated by @there-must-be-a-lock

Noises (oneshot) by @67midnightwriter 

Just. HOT. Hot hot hot like burning. Dom!Cas playing Dean like a goddamn fiddle... what more can you ask for!?

Come For Me (oneshot) by @fangirlxwritesx67 

My favorite thing this author has published so far! There are a whole lot of emotions in this one, adrenaline and fear and relief and lust and tenderness, and you can feel the depth of everything going on between them and the chaos of the moment. Also, nailed the “oh shit where did this predatory hotass come from” feeling that I totally imagine would happen during a first time with Sammy.

Plus One (oneshot) by @thoughtslikeaminefield 

This is smutty and raunchy and HOT but it also manages to nail the sweet, loving side of Dean. Smut can so easily be one-dimensional, but this fic managed to be both filthy and tender in a way that feels 150% true to character.

Dear Mr. Fantasy (oneshot) by @itmighthavebeenintentional 

An absolutely stunning exploration of some parallel universe Deans. Gorgeously vivid language, such incredible character accuracy, borderline heartbreaking but in a way that isn’t hopeless; it makes you feel FULL. My favorite SPN fic I’ve read in a long time.

The Second Hand Unwinds (oneshot) by @mskathywriteswords 

Incredibly evocative, gorgeous wistful tone, and a couple little plot twists that hit you with all the right feels.

Nominated by @winchest09

All I Want (series) by @katehuntington

I love this, so much. I love the take on this particular episode and how in fact it brings back the reader instead of *spoiler*. It’s still ongoing and it’s already tugging on heartstrings and has made me cry so if you read this, grab your tissues!

Ride With Me (series) by @katehuntington

This series has my heart. Like this could be a published book that i would read cover to cover, over and over. The spine would be broken, pages glued in because i would have read it that much. How everything is described, how the world is painted, the characters, the setting…just everything. It’s a must read..A MUST READ.

I Just Called to Say I Love You (series) by @talesmaniac89​

This broke my heart. This was so beautifully written to the point i was sobbing behind my screen mumbling incoherent words to my husband before talking to a few other tumblr blogs about it. If you read this, have tissues handy. Dean was so in character and my heart will never be the same. Must read.

The Man In Apartment 43 (series) by @talesmaniac89

This series has me so intrigued! It’s written amazingly, has me gasping, has me seriously flinching at some of the creepy goings on and I cannot wait to see where this goes! It’s an ongoing series and I’m loving it!

Handy Man (oneshot) by @deanwanddamons

This lovely little drabble satisfies all my domestic dean needs. Covering his fine ass, arms and back. I mean…Come on! It’s just everything that you need in a bite size package. I absolutely loved it!

Nominated by @katehuntington

One For Tomorrow, One Just For Today (oneshot)  by @thoughtslikeaminefield

Sex with Dean is always amazing, but there’s nothing hotter than him singing a classic while he’s doing it. After reading this, that famous song by The Doors will never sound the same. Sit back, relax and listen to the music.

Handy Man (oneshot) by @deanwanddamons

Dean fixing a blocked drain under the kitchen sink in a black shirt and Levi’s jeans; what a sight that must be. The writer of this fic is able to describe the scene in great detail. Besides the obvious appreciation of the gorgeous man, it’s great to see him doing something normal and domesticated. It’s the life we all wish for him. A great little drabble for a Sunday morning with a cup of tea on the side.

You’re Home (oneshot) by @impala-dreamer

A drabble that’s absolutely worth mentioning, is this short story. Beka does Dean’s PTSD more justice in 682 words than the writers have ever done on the entire show. A beautiful piece of art. 

Imagine Dean debating asking you out (oneshot) by @luci-in-trenchcoats​

Dean has a crush on a girl, Sam is calling him out. When his little brother threatens to expose his secret, Dean tries to silence him, and it’s honestly the funniest read I’ve had this month. Writing comedy isn’t easy, but this was flawless.

I Just Called To Say I Love You (oneshot) @talesmaniac89

This one hurts bad, but in the most wonderful way. It’s exactly how Dean would go down, the characterisation beyond perfect. The descriptions, the dialogue, the details, the choices. It’s a Rembrandt painted with letters.

Side By Side (series) by @talesmaniac89

Another brilliant creation, based on the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. A song which surfaces a lot of emotions, much like this poetic and amazing piece of fanfiction. Words that come to mind are heart wrenching, tear jerking, and in a way comforting as well. A must read.

The Voices (oneshot) by @fictionalabyss​

Based on ‘I hear the voices when I’m dreaming. I can hear them sing’ from the Supernatural anthem Carry On My Wayward Son, comes this breathtakingly beautiful piece of fanfiction. Perfect lines, spot on dialogue and it couldn’t have been more true to the character. It’s painfully raw, sad, and tears will fall. It makes you feel for Dean in ways that are difficult to describe. The writer of this story is known for her talent with words, but she outdid herself here.

Nicotine (oneshot) by @talesmaniac89

This story is inspired by the song Nicotine by Chef’Special and was written for my 1K celebration. The lyrics to this song are surprisingly depressing, despite it being an upbeat song, and the writer has captured it better than I could have ever hoped for. If her writing was music, it would be a symphony played by an orchestra. Her way with words is melodic and moving. Goosebumps all over. 

 My Hero (oneshot) by @plaidstiel-wormstache​  

What I love most about this fanfic is the medical accuracy. I am no expert in any way, but after seeing countless medical dramas and having done plenty of research for characters and stories, I really appreciate it when knowledge about medicine practically drips from my screen. A lovely read. 

Thank you all for the awesome work and great feedback!

These are not actual awards! This system is set up so everyone in the pond has a chance to share the love and promote a fic/author that has grabbed your attention. The more people that participate, and the more everyone remembers to submit their own fics after posting, the better this will be :D

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN, KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK, AND AS ALWAYS, HAPPY WRITING!

#afa masterlist #afas #angel fish awards #spn fanfic #spn fic rec #fan fiction #fanfiction #fan fic #fanfic #spn fan fiction #spn fanfiction #spn fan fic #supernatural fan fiction #supernatural fan fic #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural fanfic #fic rec #supernatural fic rec

[profoundnet]

PROFOUND MEMBER MASTERPOST FOR SEPTEMBER 2020!

Featuring Destiel/Gen works by @friendofcarlotta, @nickelkeep, @castielslostwings, @haybibiboi, youfoundmykeys, @goldenraeofsun, @aishitara, @vaudelin, @one-more-offbeat-anthem, @shealynn88, Feathers7501, @sketching-fox, @mittensmorgul, @andimeantittosting, sapphirecobalt, shadowkat83, @maleyah-givemetomorrow, Endellion, ArielAquarial, @allmystars-i, @darcydelaney!

Join us on Discord!

Masterpost below the cut.

FriendofCarlotta - @friendofcarlotta - FriendofCarlotta

The Heroes’ Journey (E, 36k)

When you perform a spell to defeat God himself, there’s bound to be side effects — such as every version of Team Free Will getting zapped to an alternate universe. The former residents of the Endverse find themselves in an underground bunker full of the kinds of food they haven’t seen in years and clothes that magically fit them. As Dean adjusts to life in a world where Croatoan never got out of control, he faces some tough questions: Can he forgive Sam for saying yes to Lucifer? And is his relationship with Cas really beyond saving? The residents of the bunker, meanwhile, wake up as employees of HunterCorp, whose CEO is one John Winchester. Being around people Dean lost years ago is no picnic, and it’s changing the dynamic of his relationship with Cas in ways he never expected. But is the change meant to last, or will they fall back into old patterns when they return to their own universe?

Tags: Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Case Fic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, Slow Dancing, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean Winchester, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Recovery From Drug Addiction

Home (G, 2.2k)

This is the story of a car, and the boy who loves it so fiercely, it becomes a home. As the boy grows into a man, his car is the one constant in his life. Until, one day, he meets an angel, and "home" takes on a new meaning.

Tags: Canon Compliant, POV Impala, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Fluff, Kid Fic, Castiel and Dean Winchester Are Great Dads

~

nickelkeep - @nickelkeep - nickelkeep

Huckleberry, Cherry, or Lime (E, 5.7k)

Two men. Two Identical injuries. For Dean and Cas, is that where the similarities start or end?

Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Misunderstandings, Fluff and Smut and Humor, No Angst, Minor Injuries, Stitches, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort

Text Me in the Morning (T, 2.7k)

"Just blowing off steam?" Sam glared at Dean. "So, you haven't been honest with him, or you haven't been honest with yourself?" "Excuse me?" Dean set his mug on the table and crossed his arms, staring at Sam. "It means that you're in love with Cas, and won't admit it. Figures my brother is a coward."

Tags: Canon Compliant, Established Castiel/Dean, Secret Relationship, Long-Suffering Sam, Sam is a Little Shit, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean, Misunderstandings, Texting, Castiel and Dean Need to Use Their Words

~

castielslostwings - @castielslostwings - Castielslostwings

After the End (E, 27k)

In 2014, Dean Winchester led a raid on the asylum in Detroit where a Sam-wearing-Lucifer was waiting for him. Everyone knows what happened next: the Chitaquan soldiers who accompanied Dean died horribly at the hands of Lucifer’s minions while Lucifer murdered Dean in the garden below and warned the Dean from days past that no matter what he tried, he would always end up there. There were no survivors. Or were there? This story picks up where “The End” leaves off, from Castiel’s perspective from inside the asylum, a twist of fate, and conditional divine intervention no one saw coming. It details what happens after Lucifer dies, Dean lives, and the world doesn’t actually stop turning. A canon-compliant “fix-it” fic for the Endverse and a Dean and Cas who deserved better. Or: "The End" was not the End. This is the story of what came after.

Tags: Endverse fix-it, Happy endverse, temp MCD (dean's canon death in the rose garden), low-angst, canon-compliant (I swear, this is a happy fix-it), explicit sex, s15 tie-ins.

Wait For It (E, 44k)

With Chuck out of the picture and Jack stepping up as the New God, Team Free Will suddenly has to face the most difficult mission they've ever tackled: moving on. Change is tough, that's a given. What's not new? Dean's coping mechanisms being the absolute worst. Problem is, this time, his stubborn refusal to leave the past where it belongs lands him in hot water that's so deep, even Castiel may not be able to pull him out in time. An epic post-canon love story about a hunter who can't seem to look forward and an ex-angel who is done looking back.

Tags: Post-canon, Alternate ending to Season 15, illustrated, getting together, love confessions, hurt/comfort, kidnapped Dean, BAMF Castiel, explicit sex, very happy ending. Accompanied by art by @ladyrandombox.

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lovemuppet - @haybibiboi - lovemuppet

“How Do You Like Them Apples?”: A Co-Pearenting Fic. (T, 1.4k)

based on a prompt by Cryptomoon: "Neighboring long time orchard owners, Dean of Winchester Family Apples and Cas of Eden Farms have been bitter rivals their whole lives. Eden Farms grows pears and Dean thinks that's absolutely stupid because it's Eden, they should grow apples. But that's beside the point. They've hated each other since they could walk. Now they each have taken over their family's farms and do their best to civilly ignore one another. Until! Some trees on the edge of their properties spontaneously cross breed and they are forced to figure out what to do with these co-parented Pearapples. Applepears?"

Tags: Enemies to lovers, au where pears and apples are the same genus, affronts to god and science, jokes? about homicide.

“The Only Rest You’ll See For Hours” (G, 441 words)

Prompt by saltnhalo: 30 minute speed writing based on knightiesart sky doodles. (I used the two desert looking ones)

Tags: post series band aid, no one dies, everything's fine

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youfoundmykeys - reafre

grip (SFW)

“You’re the one who gripped me tight, and brought me back to light...” art by reafre date: 18-23 September, 2020 tools: pencil, watercolour, pearl watercolour on paper.  

Tags: video, hands, soft, anniversary

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goldenraeofsun - @goldenraeofsun - goldenraeofsun

Ridin’ the Quarantine Out (E, 8.5k)

“Like I said,” Dean says, chuckling, “no one’s ever died from blue balls. So you can't go out there and break quarantine to bang some rando.” Cas doesn’t find this funny in the slightest. “No human has died,” he clarifies. “What the hell are you talking about?” Dean narrows his eyes. “If you think some weird fact about guinea pigs is gonna sway-” “I’m an incubus,” Cas interrupts. “I will literally die if I don’t feed.”

Tags: They were quarantined, incubus!cas, virgin!cas, first time, top!cas, bottom!dean, dom sub undertones, mentions of COVID-19, mutual pining

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aishitara - @aishitara - aishitara

K-I-S-S-I-N-G (M, 3.9k)

Sam’s been breathing down his neck about every little thing lately. He eats too much bacon. Drinks too much beer. Drives too fast. Avoids Cas like his life depends on it. Dean huffs out a breath. Sam hasn’t actually called him on /that/ part, but if the conversation they’d had a few days ago about�� that time Castiel was dead was anything to go by, he was certain his brother was going to corner him any second now and point out how Dean had been doing such a good job of hiding from him and Cas. He wasn’t… he wasn’t hiding, okay? He just… happened to be anywhere at all in the bunker that Cas wasn’t. Not on purpose. Just. Because. Of reasons.

Tags: Fluff, a wee touch of the angst, Sam Ships It, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Sort Of, Feelings, Dean just doesn't want to talk about it ok

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vaudelin - @vaudelin - vaudelin

a world well done (M, 54k)

After five years of being overlooked for the job title of his dreams, Dean has grown accustomed to his fair share of disappointment. But the guy who got the position, a nepotistic hire named Castiel Novak, is really pushing the boundaries of his patience. Too bad the guy’s a dud, but the legacy project has survived worse. Castiel can be as antisocial as he wants and hide out in his office all he likes; Dean will just batten down the hatches and ensure his team weathers the storm coming their way.

Tags: AU - Modern Setting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Misunderstandings & Miscommunications, Slow Build

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one_more_offbeat_anthem - @one-more-offbeat-anthem - one_more_offbeat_anthem

Roll With It, Baby (T, 13k)

August 1987. Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pan-American Games are back again, and professional roller skaters Castiel Milton and Dean Winchester are supposed to be teammates--and friends. Over their six years on the US team, they’ve done their best to get along, but with Cas as a roller figure skater and Dean as a roller hockey player, they sometimes miss the mark. But something’s different this year, at their second Pan-American Games. Maybe it’s the sultry end-of-summer heat over the main stadium at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Maybe it’s the competition. Maybe it’s Rick Astley's recent hit single "Never Gonna Give You Up." Whatever it is, the next two weeks are going to change things…potentially forever.

Tags: 1980s, the mixtape, professional roller skating, friends to lovers, mutual pining, first kiss, mild homophobia

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shealynn88 - @shealynn88 - shealynn88

The Light Will Guide You Home (E, 4.6k)

Dean is visiting his long-distance friend for the first time. He knows what he wants, but does Cas feel the same? Dean laughs. “Cas, is that you? Can I…?” He reaches out for a hug, then draws back in embarrassment. The human-like form throws him off, but he knows it’s impolite to initiate physical contact with a Luminate, he’s studied the culture for over a decade.

Tags: consentacles, sci-fi AU, alien!Cas, human!Dean

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Feathers7501 - Feathers7501

Dreams of Blue (G, 1.1k)

Dean is leading his best life... or is he?

Tags: memory wipe

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sketching-fox - @sketching-fox

Along My Restless Palms (NSFW)

Comission done for Kat, the first of my bidders on @ficfacers 2020! Her request was to illustrate this specifc scene (where Dean dreams about Castiel in the Highlands - YES, they are wearing kilts) in the Fic Along My Restless Palms!

Tags: highlands, kilts

Caring for the wings (SFW)

Comission for Jennifer, one of winner bidders on @ficfacers 2020! Her request was the fluffiest thing ever: Chibi versions of Dean and Castiel, and Dean taking care of Cas´s wings, with the feathers all fluffy, like those little dogs after a bath and air drier on the Pet Shop.

Tags: chibi art, wings

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mittensmorgul - @mittensmorgul - MittenWraith

Happy Resurrection Day (T, 3.7k)

The world didn't end, and Dean and Cas finally get to choose each other. It only took twelve years and a little road trip back to where it all started.

Tags: post canon, road trips, getting together, first kiss, anniversary

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andimeantittosting - @andimeantittosting - andimeantittosting

A Gentleman’s Inheritance (M, 11k)

For the Supernatural Regency Bang. Castiel Shurley has always done his duty by his family. When his father dies, Castiel inherits not only the title of Viscount, but also deep debts. At his aristocratic mother's behest, he agrees to court Miss Celeste "Charlie" Middleton—a wealthy heiress, but the daughter of cits. Though they are not in love—and though he secretly has feelings for her cousin, the charming Dean Winchester—Castiel and Charlie soon agree to wed. But Castiel's life is upended by the arrival of his scandalous Aunt Amara, who reveals that he is not the son of Charles and Naomi, but illegitimate, taken from his unwed mother to serve as Charles’s heir. When she carries out her threat to reveal the truth to the world, Castiel loses his title, his home, and his place in the world. Feeling honour-bound to break off his engagement, he finds himself invited to stay instead, as a member of Dean and Charlie's unconventional household, and learns the meaning of freedom.

Tags: Alternate Universe - Regency, Disinherited Castiel, Forced Adoption

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sapphirecobalt - sapphirecobalt

The Bee Knocker Story (M, 7.2k)

Dean recalls the infamous bee knocker that started it all. Or, the one where Cas is upset and Dean goes to great lengths to cheer him up.

Tags: Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Domestic fluff, emotional hurt comfort, Artist Dean, gardens and gardening

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shadowkat83 - Shadowkat83

Sober (G, 605 words)

Dean leans against a tree trying to come to terms with what he is seeing and feeling. How did everything end up like this? Lyrics Sober by Bad Wolves

Tags: Endverse, Songfic, angst, implied relationships

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Maleyah (Katherine_Kat) - @maleyah-givemetomorrow - Maleyah

Hot Wings Cas (SFW)

Yoga teacher Castiel for my fic Hot Wings and Magic Hands

Tags: yoga teacher cas, idiots in love, wing tattoos

Take A Breath (SFW)

Time for a breath and a break. The ending they deserve with Sam, Gabe, Charlie and Jody in the background (if you squint)

Tags: the end of the road, married, breathe boys, cuddles

Aceriee-art’s DTIYS (SFW)

Art for Aceriee-art's DTIYS challenge

Tags: dtiys, aceriee-art, sassy Dean, blatant use of emojis

Thank You Cas Kisses (SFW)

Cas blowing kisses at the viewer, cause thank you

Tags: thank you, cas blows a kiss, tiny bee

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Endellion - Endellion

You Make Me Want to Stay (G, 1.5k)

A teenage Dean meets a boy named Castiel at one of the many high schools he goes to and this time when his dad says it's time to move on, he doesn't want to. 

Tags: implied/referenced homophobia, AU no hunting, AU highschool

Brutus (G, 216 words)

Sam and Cas and a dog. Dean can't resist Cas' puppy dog eyes.

Tags: fluffy, cute

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ArielAquarial - ArielAquarial

The Right Kind of Motivation (E, 2k)

Alone in the house for the first time in months, Dean is having trouble finding the motivation to clean. Castiel decides it’s time to bring out the big guns, and Dean is more than willing to play along. Can be read as a standalone.

Tags: Established Relationship, Domestic, Alternate Universe, Dick Pics, Masturbation

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allmystars - @allmystars-i - allmystars

Brownies and Blowjobs (E, 2.3k)

"It’s fucking 2020, I should be able to watch Netflix nude while making brownies without you getting preachy about it." Dean wants Castiel's attention, but he doesn't know how to ask for it, so he bakes brownies... completely naked.

Tags: Blowjobs, Handjobs, Friends With Benefits, Smut, Naked Baking, Porn Without Plot

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darcydelaney - @darcydelaney - DarcyDelaney

Bookworm (T, 2.1k)

Cas asks Dean to spend the day reading with him at a brewery. It's not Dean's ideal date at first, but it doesn't stop him from falling in love with Cas all over again.

Tags: Brewery, Date Night, Fluff

#dean winchester #castiel #destiel #deancas #spn #profound monthly masterpost #profoundnet #september masterpost #member art #member fic