#i literally just woke up and im already sick with excitement | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

unlimitedhorsepower · 2 years

Text

been rotating t&b2 cour2 in my mind like a 5D object...

i wanted to write more comprehensive post to air some of my grievances, and of course finally releasing my exclusive statement on my special beast ryan goldsmith.

however when i started to write this i realized i have a shitton of thoughts and could rewrite the entire cour if i really thought about it, so i actually mention most characters in this self-indulgent essay of mine and you can just skim through if you were interested in my thoughts.

i talk a lot of yuri here even if i went into this thinking that ive already talked about him enough, because he fascinates me...

anyhow, here they are, my more comprehensive thoughts under the cut because theyre not spoiler free:

this is unbearably long: ive bolded some key sentences that build up to something if youd like to skim it instead of reading it. i also suggest you using Ctrl+F to find mentions of characters you care about because ive literally mentioned every single character in this in some way and it genuinely is incredibly long and convoluted.

i talk about some characters way more because i wrote those parts earlier and felt more full of energy. i also talk a lot about ryan. perhaps even more than he deserves! but he is my favourite character, youve been warned. i didnt even mean to make him seem so important because hes not, lmfao.

ill say, it can definitely be a bit confusing if its not being read it order but like, meh... i guess it was also more important for me to get my thoughts out so that i can have other thoughts again.

this entire thing got away from me and at many points devolved to me not only ragging on t&b2 but extensively discussing my alternatives which couldve imo built the entire thing into something more worthwhile...

ive added like three screencaps to make it a little more exciting to scroll through, and if i have energy left im gonna add more images to make it less like a huge wall of text, which it is. but right now i just wanna post it because i genuinely spent 10 hours straight writing this and then woke up today and spent another 10 hours writing it.

i think this is my therapy over yuris arc, because that genuinely made me sick. maybe im unreasonable and just pissed off about that specifically, but who knows. not me!

so, to begin... t&b2 cour2.

hmm.

i initially called it “good” and said i enjoyed it besides yuris arc, but that feeling was born from the sheer emotional turmoil yuris death gave me. in comparison, everything else in the cour was fine- great, even!

there can be missteps and flaws that diminish your enjoyment but that are easy enough to fix in your mind, and then theres a misstep of the sort of a character dying after the narrative spends a lot of time giving me what i can only describe as trauma porn.

i already wrote about that here, so ill skip some of the things related to yuri (i just cant get over it... i keep circling back to him throughout this document because hes such a central figure to what we got and what i thought we would get).

cour2 had such a solid basic understanding of characters, but there was just way too much going on at the same time and way too many loose plot threads. cour2 was like building a house of cards on top of a solid brick foundation and expecting it to hold water.

cour1 isnt perfect, but it was pretty good in introducing us to new concepts, new characters (three new heroes to our ensemble cast, one returning talent from the rising who needs less establishing, and the new villains, and more) and the new plot threads, but i also feel that misogyny unfortunately played a great role in who got arcs and what sort of arcs.

season1 isnt perfect either, of course, but one could imagine a sequel follows up tonally with its predecessor and also improves upon it, especially because this has been explicitly suggested by the creators (like improving on nathans portrayal, for example!).

cour2 majorly failed to follow up on the promises of cour1 and the overall promises of what t&b is like in tone and content. there were too many plot threads and too many characters. i wouldve entirely cut out aurora and large parts of yuris/lunatics “arc”. the latter i wouldve tied into LL audun and a greater plotline of mr.legend and heroism.

speaking of mr.legend, yuris hallucinations of him were excessive and felt extremely cheap. i know i said i wouldnt focus on yuri, but i feel like i have to... mr.legends force ghost saying anything will never amount to any healing or retributive action from the man himself, but i felt like i was supposed to feel it was “good” he knew those things.

i felt that the narrative was telling me that indeed, yuri had loved his father once, and he had positive qualities, but i already knew that. i also never doubted that both of his parents had once loved him- its just that those things dont take away from how poorly they treated yuri in the end.

im willing to extend some sympathy to yuris mother, but to mr.legend, never. in one of the mangas mr.legend in the past asks young maverick to wipe his memories of him ever having powers (even though the memories will return to him in due time since thats a major thing to change) so that he can be free of the guilt he feels.

even without that, i already knew that the real mr.legend most likely felt some sense of guilt over his actions, not just the mr.legend force ghost/yuris hallucination.

i know: i simply dont care! he may have been put into a shitty situation and suffered, but it was his choice to hurt others. it was him who used his status to fix fights and beat his wife and child. he was in a position of power, and he took advantage of it to make himself feel better.

side note, alcoholism keeps being equated to evil by it being explicitly referenced with mr.legend and gregory sunshine even if by itself its a taxing addiction and addicts are people who are suffering, not caricaturish evildoers. antonios drinking habits have been equally worrisome sometimes -if you look at his schedule in KOW the rising, he is very much using alcohol to drown his sorrows- and this briefly comes up in cour1.

in cour2, its played up for jokes: antonio took ivan drinking and ivan drank way too much and did funny things while he was drunk (more on this later). antonios just different actually, because hes fundamentally good.

it was shown to us that mr.legend was very active in the match fixing himself... i think it wouldve been more fitting to show child yuri spying on his fathers discussion with maverick trying to suggest it to test the waters of seeing how easy it would be to manipulate mr.legend into it, perhaps about to offer him coffee to signify hes about to change memories if he needs to, and mr.legend jumping on the offer instead of declining it and shattering yuris high opinion of his father.

maverick not being included just reminds me how yuri is somehow a secret child nobody knows about. we remain in the dark on how yuri ended up taking care of his own mother and what he did to attain the position of a judge.

we still dont know the details of who covered up mr.legends death and why and how. it wouldve only made sense it was maverick, but how the hell did he then not know that yuri must be the one with the powerful NEXT power?.. how did he in general not recognize yuri once he became a judge? was he not distrustful?

more importantly, why did he not try to manipulate yuri? wouldnt it have been a huge boon for him to find a vulnerable child who is mr.legends son no less, and to raise him into a tool like he eventually raised barnaby?

i could see that yuris mother olga (i think its officially translated as origa, but its definitely olga) actually protected him back then. after all, he was the only remaining family she had left, even if she too grew to resent yuri at some point for some reason (and somewhat understandable, given how she was portrayed in s1 accepting mr.legends treatment: she had submitted to her fate and become traumatized).

however, olga has calmed down from her potrayal of throwing plates at yuri in s1 and the change happened without explanation but an acknowledgment from the caregiver, and she is never given any depth as to why she could blame yuri so deeply and fervently in some of her more lucid (?) moments.

in cour2, she becomes just a vessel for inflicting more trauma on yuri, and its her only purpose: shes not her own character. shes a woman, specifically a mother, and thats all we need to know about her.

i know that my tinfoil hat theory of gregory sunshine being yuris biological father is implausible at this point after all that talk about hero blood in yuris veins, but it wouldve genuinely given olga much more depth to give her a reason (not a justification) on why shes been so aggressive towards yuri and blames him specifically, if yuri had been an illegitimate child or somesuch. but i wrote about that already in the linked post and its replies.

back to parental figures, i think laras mother zamira was a great character in cour1. shes not a morally good character, no, but i think her portrayal was strong? it was very clear to me that shes treating lara as an extension of herself instead of her own person. she controls her and her life, and she reprimands lara for having thoughts and feelings beyond her control.

it is her who has set lara on this path to heroism, and it is for her benefit. lara is a vessel for her to life through, and this could be easily contrasted with yuri and his burden about being mr.legends son.

however, in cour2 the entire premise is undermined when zamira is proven to “actually care” about lara. if i dont remember wrong, paolin even says that “she reminds her of her own mother”, which i was meant to understand in a positive way. this is presented in tandem with mr.legend(s ghost) somehow “really caring about yuri” in that odd scene they had together.

its also proven that zamira wasnt an unreliable narrator about her prior tennis partner pamela, because we see pamela easily blame NEXT for existing in the news as proof that she is cruel. i get the sense were supposed to think zamira was just sad and trying her best to raise lara and make sure nobody takes advantage of her like she was taken advantage of.

i frankly dont care! she had, undoubtedly, treated lara the way she treats her in cour1 for laras entire life: shes 14. it leaves a lasting mark she can never take back. “im sorry” doesnt even begin to fix it.

i wrote about yuri adopting lara here, so i wont delve into some very specific AU, but it wouldve felt much more reasonable and realistic for lara to be freed from her mother, not even necessarily in the way my pipeline dream describes, in a way that couldve emphasized yuri and his good qualities.

t&b has never been free of misogyny and other issues, but i feel like this cour really brought a lot of those issues to the surface instead of improving on them... instead of a nuanced portrayal of a fractured mother-daughter relationship, we were given something that just felt like underlining the fact that zamira is a mother, of course she cares about lara in more ways than for her own benefit.

zamira is a mother like olga, and thats what we “needed” to know about them in addition to knowing that they experienced trauma that just made them forget about their motherhood for a moment, but we learn that olga cared too, she even made those cookies. their mother-son relationship is similarly glossed over.

lara -like yuri- is done a great disservice in the process of redeeming abusive parents. shes a kid who killed a villain on accident in self-defense in cour1, and it felt significant. cour2 doesnt bring this up as a plot point in any way.

i was imagining her getting a much bigger arc that couldve overall easily tied into revealing mr.legend as a horrible parent instead of being its own distinctly separate arc.

speaking of mr.legend being exposed, it was ridiculous that yuri revealed mr.legends awfulness to kotetsu and barnaby and it fell fully flat due to kotetsus and barnabys reactions, or rather due to their lack of reactions, which was strange for them both.

its realistic enough to have yuri do something like that, even if it was sudden: it feels like he was under a lot of duress and clearly seeking help in any way he could, justifying it to himself in some “logical” reasoning for it because i dont think he would consciously realize he needs and wants someone to believe him.

before i get into that and how i think they shouldve reacted with far more compassion, i want to say that to me its clear that kotetsus career in heroism has led him to neglect kaede, especially in the past when kaede didnt know that her father was a hero. this is brought up a bit in cour1, and for example is prominent in the beginnings additional scene where kaede begs for her father to show up at the ice rink just this once.

the series shows their father-daughter relationship mostly from kotetsus side, so that we know hes trying his best and really wants to be involved in kaedes life but hes genuinely busy, but if you think about it from kaedes perspective, kotetsu hasnt always been a good father to her and kotetsus business doesnt take away from his failings.

misogyny plays a role in this portrayal, and that i cant blame kotetsu for as a fictional character, but the fact that some of his actions are played for jokes and the fact that he continues doing them bother me, like pretending hes doing yoga like kaede suggested and instead of actually doing it. i wish he was more honest with her, even about those little things!

narratively in the rising, again, kaede is forced to adopt a tomoe-like role in encouraging her own father to continue his hero work, which isnt cute to me at all. its extremely emotionally taxing to have to be more responsible than your own parent and give them advice.. in cour2 she is again protecting her father from the truth that his mother is bedridden (nothing, afaik, comes out of that by the way?).

why is kaede protecting kotetsu, and why does she feel the need to do that? shes a child! she should be able to depend on his father, not feel like she has to protect him just because hes a hero.

those things frustrate me about kotetsu and the narrative around him and kaede, because i think this moment especially couldve used to do something about this dynamic and parenting. however, every parenting-related thing in cour2 was atrocious.

kotetsu has flaws and i think he has done wrong despite trying his best (sometimes your best isnt enough!), but he isnt cruel and genuinely does care about kaede, and he cares about others even if theyre not his family (he is a busybody, after all). he is a single father and a widower whose late wife pushed him into hero work, and his old mother supports him greatly, as does his brother.

despite family being so important to kotetsu, he ends up not reacting much to yuris admission that mr.legend beat his wife and child. doesnt that seem like something he wouldve focused on? good-hearted as he is, wouldnt he have been utterly shocked to hear that someone who “saved” him couldve been so thoroughly rotten?

it shouldve shocked him more than match-fixing and clinging to the identity of a hero: imagining himself becoming a cruel parent (and a husband).

i think he shouldve admitted that his own hero career has caused him to neglect kaede, and that he didnt even properly realize until as of late how much it had affected her- that he has flaws too and cant claim to be special or that mr.legend was an outlier, and that he cant imagine how hard it mustve been for yuri to go through that.

it wouldve been far more compassionate of him, and he really has a lot of compassion for others! i refuse to watch that scene again right now so maybe i remember some part wrong, but still: in my opinion he was a dick to yuri, and very defensive about himself. he didnt try to console him, it felt like he wanted to set himself apart as a better person than mr.legend.

i dont understand why he didnt at least try to find yuri after hes stormed off and hes realized that he said stuff yuri probably didnt want to hear? thats a thing kotetsu does all the time: he meddles. he gets things wrong, sure, but he meddles, and pulls people aside to have a chat with them and to try to help (like he later on does with barnaby).

kotetsu believes in heroism and his ideals of heroes, and its also very personal and family-related to him, so for him to be more shocked by mr.legend clinging to his hero image than the abuse part explicitly was a weird narrative choice to inflict more pain on yuri. i dont think yuri felt understood at all.

i think kotetsu wouldve been able to discern the most important part of this: that mr.legend was a bad father and husband, and he shouldve extended compassion to yuri (even if yuri didnt ask for any). thats what he did with barnaby in s1 as well!

just like kotetsus nonreaction to what really mattered in what yuri told the two of them, barnaby didnt have much to say which made the entire scene feel more callous.

its a deliberate choice, and its as odd as kotetsus reaction.

barnaby saw his parents dead in front of his eyes and was taken in by maverick and regarded him as a parental figure he could depend on up until the moment it was explicitly revealed to him that maverick had killed his parents and used him like a tool.

i could understand kotetsu initially being defensive (hearing someone he was “saved” by being thoroughly awful is not easy!) if barnaby had chimed in and snapped kotetsu out of it, which wouldve also played into the idea that people need others to support them and also to “steer them on the right path” so that kotetsu manages to focus on the most important but also the most painful part even if it also hurts him to think about, including admitting to his own failures as a father.

i think barnaby shouldve immediately been sympathetic towards yuri, and it couldve also signified how far he has come from his first appearance in s1 where he explicitly had closed himself off from others, and perhaps even realized that yuri is acting like he once did and is deeply lonely.

his sudden admittance to being mr.legends son is an urgent cry for help!

canonically, the moment started and ended and neither kotetsu or barnaby cared enough to say anything nice or follow after him. i think it was out-of-character, and they were forced to act like that to make sure yuris downwards spiral would continue. it was cruel.

the plot often felt explicitly manufactured towards a certain endpoint instead of feeling natural and in-character, going so far the narrative took explicit steps to prevent certain things from happening.

the “prevention of things” was especially obvious with ryan.

this is going to be long because not only is he my favourite character, but ever since his introduction in the rising he has occupied a specific niche that couldve played into the theme of questioning who really is a hero and why, and what makes a hero.

because karina forms blue golden with ryan, i dont think i can discuss ryans lack of any real arc without bringing her up, especially because karina and ryan have both been positioned as being more of “main characters” than the rest of the supporting hero ensemble, which is why i especially expected more out of them.

karina has been central ever since the pilot of t&b, in which she is featured: she has a lot of connections to kotetsu including her childish crush, and out of all heroes, it is her who kaede calls when she wants to plan something, and ryan was introduced as a main character in the rising and embodies traits from both kotetsu and barnaby, including visually.

to begin with, ryans themes from the rising arent contradicted by cour1 setting him up as having very personal beef with gregory sunshine, the most prominent antagonist because the heroes never properly meet rosicky and LL audun is a last-minute addition (who wouldve deserved more screen time, more on him later).

in cour1, we come to know that gregory caused ryan collapse a building on himself and nobody helped him, his fellow heroes laughing at him before they leave him bleeding underneath rubble. in cour2, we see more of it and that he didnt only get buried underneath large amounts of rubble, but that he majorly injured (or worse) a large amount of civilians as well.

again, im not sure because im not going to rewatch, but i understood it was supposed to be the same instance as the one where his fellow heroes laugh at him, unless its just a nightmare he has that civilians were injured as well.

regardless, he was personally affected by gregory, and he wants gregory to not to run free, and its a fact that hes actually very emotional and acts impulsively under duress, like trying to leave sternbild the moment he thought karina was going to ditch him as a buddy (because he, like yuri, is actually lonely and wants people to understand him but gives up way too quickly).

he also breaks the door into gregorys apartment without a second thought (this is breaking&entering!), and later on we see him yelling and gesturing at blue goldens manager in a quick background scene about their new contracts.

however, his reaction to mattia allegedly ratting them out to gregory is “slightly miffed” at best, even if gregory was so close to being caught by him. it feels unbelievable to me, especially because i think his loud and genuine emotions are his strength but also his potential flaw.

i think he shouldve acted way more unreasonably emotional about it, instead of only bringing up how anyone can betray you at any time. to take a detour to karina for a bit, it was also ridiculous that karina had nothing significant to say to that.

she has difficulties speaking up sometimes, but karina shouldve been allowed to feel personally slighted by ryan after all the buddy hero arcs being about trusting each other.

it seems that she can only be given arcs that revolve around men and not, for example, her feelings about herself and being able to take pride in being a very hard-working hero, idol, and now a friend too, especially when the new manga shows her reoccurring troubles in trying to balance different aspects of her life like studying and being a hero.

it wouldve stung to hear ryan say that like he was brushing her off: did ryan learn nothing, and was he just saying all that stuff earlier to put her at ease instead of being genuine? it also ties into ryans issue of always being genuine but his eccentric personality making him seem fake/suspicious, like in the rising.

his personality felt utterly stagnant in cour2 with smug quips, however, and he was just positioned as “morally good” instead of the narrative allowing him to reasonably continue his arc and meaning for the narrative by going after gregory as a hero even when its against the law.

some of the themes of ryans character pair off with yuris and any arc he couldve been given with gregory wouldve been perfect to compliment an arc with yuri/lunatic, the truth about mr.legend, how LL audun couldve tied into that.

yuri is positioned as a vigilante, even a villain, but hes shown to save kotetsu on-screen, and he follows his code of justice very strictly. we know his reasons to act the way he does, and he is sympathetic. ryan, on the other hand, is positioned as a hero, but he can be kind of a prick and his idea of justice is remarkably lax in some ways. we can make a good guess why he acts like that, and like yuri, he is sympathetic.

they both are characters kotetsu and barnaby know well, and theyre both more severe than the titular protagonists. kotetsu has bent the rules on occasion to act according to his idea of heroism, but in my opinion ryan is set up as someone who would explicitly break rules for his idea of heroism (or lack thereof).

ryan is a good person and very much a hero, but he isnt the flawed but idealistic hero full of passion like wild tiger, or the humble and pure-hearted storybook hero like sky high, hes the egotistical heracles clad in the golden pelt of the slain nemean lion who knows just how good he is (and thats all he has going on for him, that ego of his).

its obvious that he can be a bit selfish: in the rising he uses his gravity dome to not only to save the building, but he traps all the other heroes in it, including pulling sky high from the air. from the movie commentary track ive gotten the idea that he did it on purpose since he can control the height of the dome he creates.

he also stretches out his dome later, so it begs the question if it was ever necessary to get any of the other heroes trapped in it to begin with.

he does save that building and the civilians within and causes no significant harm because he really is good at being a hero and hes not evil, but the narrative shows that he doesnt treat heroism like the heroes of sternbild do: he lacks the same sense of honorable justice our sternbild heroes have.

being a hero is first and foremost his career, which is why he brings up that “the money is good”, and because hes positioned as an experienced hero, he mustve started out as a child, given that he is younger than barnaby (even if in my opinion is not so much younger than he is).

the rising is strongly themed around justice day and the myth, and its also about him seeing the heroes of sternbild care about each other and their bonds with each other, instead of them all regarding each other as competition like hes used to people treating him, given how unbothered he is by figuring out barnaby didnt only distrust him but outright suspected him of being a villain.

due to seeing the bonds of the heroes of sternbild, he starts to “carry a heart of justice” as per the myth. barnaby suspected that he is a villain and the goddess of the story even if he ended up being more like the people cast aside by the goddess for their selfishness.

in the end he makes a choice: he can stay and keep the central bond between kotetsu and barnaby broken, or he can leave and mend the bond his hiring caused and bring the two of them back together as a duo. in the last shot, the winged lion of apollon media faces away from the camera like the way ryan leaves, while the justice tower smiles.

justice was enacted and she approves of it, and funnily ryan never thought that he could be a part of these bonds which is why he wholly leaves sternbild. in his KOW the rising schedule he meets up with a lot of people but theyre all just acquantaices, and he talks with his iguana. he moves around a lot, its in his title of the “wandering gravity prince”.

he lacks bonds like yuri lacks them, but by giving him a buddy partner in t&b2, he becomes more of a part of sternbild heroes, but its not just going to change who he has grown into overnight.

its intentional that ryan has wings on his hero suit like the ones the goddess is portrayed with, and the rest of his imagery plays into the this theming of the goddess/the sun while echoing kotetsus “tiger”.

lions are associated with the sun, even the zodiac sign leo is ruled by the sun. royals and gods have been linked to the sun in many places, so his old hero suit and title play into it. gold, similarly, echoes this sentiment.

in the opening, ryan “sun” is composed of the streets of the city and missing its center where the sponsor is displayed, but knowing the legend, its where the city was caved in, and it uses the same colours as the illustrated parts of the legend of justice day (in which the sun is displayed similarly, and yes, if you disagree on it looking like the sun, you could be right, perhaps that part is a coincidence.)

yuri is shown in the opening of the rising as well, his slide after ryans and his red moon the central piece of his background and juxtaposed with ryans hollow sun.

and i want to be clear, ryans background changes into a sky full of stars before yuris slide is displayed, which also makes sense for ryan because the heroes of sternbild are portrayed as stars more than once (and its funny for ryan to be the sun because the sun is just a star, its just closer to earth. hes not special, hes just loud about it).

its also significant to me that all heroes are portrayed with slides with a side-view of buildings in the background whenever applicable, even keith who can literally fly: it is ryan who has a momentary birds-eye view.

its the opposite of yuris, in which the lines around his red moon are buildings as if someone was looking upwards from the ground and also somewhat echoes the parts, including colour-wise, where the people are trapped in the cave by the goddess.

lunatic features prominently in the rising once yuri figures whats going on, and kotetsu gets to talk to him about how hes trying to save virgil/andrew from the burden of having killed and whatnot. the entire movie is themed around a holiday called justice day and showing mercy and who deserves mercy and why?

i genuinely thought that ryan being brought back indicates that tiger&bunny continues to question what being a hero really means, by giving the titular protagonists and the narrative someone to contrast with lunatic while ensuring kotetsu and barnaby can stay on the side of “good”/heroes for the sake of them being the main characters.

it wouldve been a purpose fulfilled for ryan to go against the law and becoming a vigilante because of how badly he wants to catch gregory: he has a huge personal reason to do so.

instead of the narrative following the logical conclusion of ryan going rogue due to how badly he wants to see gregory out of the streets, we get a scene specifically to explain why ryan cant follow through with the logical next step of his arc?

what a waste of everyones time, and i get the sense that the writers understand how strongly ryan feels about it (the foundation is there!) because it required both the company owner and manager to hang karinas fate over his head to ensure he doesnt just go on his merry way.

(i dont, by the way, understand that scene, and i cant bear to look at t&b2 scenes again... if you can explain it to me, then please do lol. like i specifically dont understand why ryan doing anything would cause harm to karinas privacy.)

not only wouldve it been meaningful for the entire narrative and ryan, this couldve so easily been used to give karina a satisfying arc that also shows that she is just as capable and deserving of an arc as the guy heroes of the cast, especially as the most prominent woman hero. now, instead, she ends up being a plot device to make ryan feel one way or another.

even if blue goldens buddy arc included ryan realizing that he doesnt need to protect karina, it was immediately undermined by “protecting karina” being his only reason to not go rogue to find gregory?

instead of letting ryan go rogue and giving karina agency in going after him by his own choice, we get that. what was the point?

one buddy pair explicitly going against the (unjust!) law couldve served to put lunatic in a different light and interrogate the hero system as a whole, and it wouldve make sense for it to be blue golden due to their proximity to the titular main characters.

realistically i imagine ryan would have enough respect for karina to tell her beforehand what hes about to do, but unaccustomed to working together with people, he would imply that hes going alone and karina puts her foot down about it: shes not going to stop him, but shes not letting him go alone, because shes going with him.

it is her decision, and it gives her agency and an active role.

they cant have a character essentially say “yeah misogyny and gender roles and that shit is kinda fucked up” and then follow it up with Absolutely Nothing and also give karina an another arc about her crush on a man.

karinas potential as a character is squandered time and time again. in s1 its incredibly easy to miss that shes almost always the 2nd on the hero leaderboard because more attention is paid to her funny moments like her “cutie escape” and general fanservice which is awful by the way, considering that for the most part of it she is a child.

its also realistic for the idol industry, and at times the show comes close to making some sort of commentary out of it but it never quite manages, in no small part because karina is never allowed to really shine.

either way, shelving the heroes couldve been more impactful for muddying the waters about the hero industry. the cartoonishly evil interference from the cops only serves to promote the view that the heroes are acting Morally Good because theyre being hindered by not the hero system and the law but the individually selfish police chief and ouroboros interference, and serves to imply lunatic is definitely Morally Bad for acting outside of the law.

it is eventually agnes who “gets everyone to break the law, together!”, and it undermines any reasonable narrative meaning for the entire thing and makes it feel like our heroes couldnt be heroes for a bit for the sake of a meaningless and boring shock twist included for some shock value because nothing really comes out of it.

having blue golden go rogue and the police going after them wouldve forced their hands into actually fighting against non-heroes and the law, not just being on the run while they try to find gregory. ryan and karina could cause significant infrastructure damage very easily to make sure the police dont catch up, and it wouldve been easy to summarise it as collapsed roads frozen over.

while i wouldve in this hypothetical scenario loved an extensive focus on this because ryan is my favourite, i think the whole “going rogue” part couldve been conveyed without taking up an absurd amount of screentime, and couldve easily been condensed for time by having the other heroes watching a news segment about it which wouldnt have felt an out-of-place gimmick given that heroTV exists as a central thing and the fact that this has happened more than once in t&b...

kotetsu and barnaby, and the rest of the heroes could be watching a live feed, and surprised to spot ryan and karina on the run because its unlike they wouldve announced thi. our hero ensemble, especially the protagonist pair, would know that theyre not evil and that they definitely havent turned against the people of sternbild, no matter that theyve now been labeled dangerous NEXT vigilantes.

they couldve been compared to lunatic, which is a very overt way to make the hero ensemble question lunatics status as a vigilante both loved, hated and feared by the general public.

it would be ridiculously easy to play up ryans “evilness” by including a reporter from that introductory press event in the rising where he just randomly used his power on all people in the room to introduce himself (why did he do that. hes so quirky and random.), and then another shot from the rising where he traps all heroes in the gravity dome and thats feels like proof enough? they couldve also recycled the animation.

the narrative couldve made a statement on positioning medias reaction to the beloved idol blue rose on the run as “ryans bad influence” instead of granting her agency, and maybe some of the heroes couldve thought that as well, leaving it to someone else (most likely kotetsu because he is our main character!) to remark that karinas not the type of person to let ryan talk her into this sort of thing and that she mustve instead agreed with him.

having ryan on the hunt for gregory feels natural, but it couldve also been meaningful for karina.

another established thing about gregory is that hes a fucking creep. and karina has dealt with creeps her entire life due to being objectified idol. in cour1, we see that guy trying to hug karina “just this once!”, and it wasnt made into as much of a big deal as it shouldve been because we focused on ryans feelings instead.

that wouldve been fine if it was brought up again, and its utterly wild to me that it feels like they perfectly paved the way for karina to have some sort of arc with gregory herself with ryan bringing up “hug the gregory”, but then the show entirely bailed on it? why the hug theme, then?

it couldve been plot-relevant for karina and the narrative to question what being a hero means for her when her career in heroism has notably led her achievements being belittled in favor of “cutie escape" -moments and even now the media thinks shes out here because of “ryans influence” and not her own choice.

frustrated karina affirming the media somehow that shes doing this for her sense of justice, not because of ryan when some civilian fan of hers tries to save her, the poor little girl, from this vigilante escapade: what wouldve yuri thought of that?

to give karina cool moments wouldve been more impactful and couldve been plot-relevant instead of the disjointed ~girlboss moments~ of rosicky telling gregory to stop being a creep which equated to so little when rosicky is also killed by gregory.

capturing gregory couldve meant something, not been a footnote, and by showing us that fight with blue golden and gregory, they couldve showed us what they half-heartedly tried to show with the quick LL audun fight scene, with karina being the one who ends up protecting ryan after he was knocked out first?

ryan doesnt even need to have his skull caved in like that, all they wouldve had to do is to give ryan a reason to use his power and not be able to let go by having to continue holding something down with his gravity, calling back to barnaby accidentally letting him get knocked unconscious because he wanted to save schneider, except karina actually saves him.

in the process of capturing/pursuing gregory, karina wouldve had a reason to give us some sort of opinion on what she thinks about creeps without it being shoehorned in and how she has to tolerate them because theres so many loopholes in the law but finally, gregory is the one she can fight back against and its because now other people agree that hes evil!

also i genuinely think ryan wouldve loved to not only capture him but to beat the shit out of gregory because he really is different than our heroes from sternbild (and i think he wouldve been justified to do so too, lol).

to exemplify the themes of bonds, karina couldve stopped him but remarked that she feels like gregory wouldve deserved it, and she couldve vocally acknowledged shes having doubts on whether lunatic is so wrong or not, because has anyone or the hero industry itself ever really protected karina from creeps? no!

lunatic is actually making some sort of point when he kills a guy who is a serial killer of women? a bit drastic but hey. it works. that guy cant kill anyone ever again.

it would mean so much for karina to acknowledge that there indeed is something wrong with the hero industry as it exists now and heroes and heroism isnt just “morally good” by default, which also begs the question whether vigilantes etc are ontologically evil by default.

and personally, i dont think ryan would disagree with her? he is well-traveled and has seen so much more than just sternbild: im sure he has met corrupt heroes and heroes who arent even nice or “good”. im sure some places have very fucked up hero systems?..

they couldve made both ryans and karinas arcs mean something by having them face off against gregory (ive been talking of capturing, but they wouldnt even had to been successful and instead gotten captured by the police themselves or been forced to retreat), and it feels so obvious to me?

both members of blue golden wouldve gained something out of it, the overall plotline wouldve gained something out of it, and the setup of the plot wouldve benefited?

the viewer would also know that gregory deserves anything coming for him regardless of the media/public opinion because he is a freak, and the heroes too could explicitly acknowledge that maybe theyve been too harsh on lunatic by not trying to understand him like how blue golden is now misrepresented by the media without any grace? is lunatic just a killer, or... he does keep talking about that justice, after all.

both ryan and karina have interacted plenty with our protagonist pair, so it wouldve served well to draw kotetsus and barnabys attention to it. continuing to question lunatics “evilness” feels so central!

some of the children already said in the cour1 in that that law class of yuris that they thought lunatic was really protecting them and kotetsu was there to hear it, and then nothing came out of that? are you fucking kidding me? he was just like nope, wrong! its evil, end of story.

its like they were given the perfect foundation to do something interesting and valuable, and they didnt end up do any of that just to punish yuri for daring to exist in the way they forced him to exist since t&b is who made yuri the person who he is... but anyways.

yuri is prominently featured in cour2 for all of the wrong reasons, but his prominence couldve been interesting instead: he couldve been standing there looking over the heroes reacting to two of their friends gone rogue and given a cryptic statement on how it seems theyre no different than lunatic in the eyes of the public now that theyre pursuing their own brand of justice...

and everyone couldve been like alright director petrov:)! but also genuinely considered this while yuri is just there, observing the discussion and wondering how their bonds with the two new vigilantes makes it harder for them to be so sure who is a villain to be stopped and who is not.

unrelated to things i think explicitly realistic or in line of t&bs spirit, if i could choose i wouldve also had ryan and lunatic interact.

i think it wouldve been in-character for lunatic to show up to question what ryans going to do with gregory once he finds the man, with ryan answering genuinely but flippantly while karina is bewildered ryan is just trying to have a casual conversation with an fire arrow dramatically pointed at him.

lunatic questions his end goal, like are you gonna kill that guy maybe, and ryans like i dunno, i didnt think that far. now that you mention it maybe i should lol? and karinas like im sorry what is wrong with you?

we couldve gotten the yuri petrov comedy hes hard to rope into by having ryan act like he usually does with lunatic? you try to be dramatic and brooding when some guy is arguing with his emotional support buddy hero girl? ryans only prior interaction with lunatic is in the rising and saying that he looks creepy: he didnt care about a vigilante showing up because he knew the mecha flying over sternbild was the thing he should stop.

its funny because ryans notable trait is “treating everyone equally”, i dont see why he wouldve acted differently with lunatic, and to imagine karina interacting with lunatic because he showed up and ryan isnt having a normal reaction to it by being concerned. but why would ryan be concerned?.. hes good at insight and im sure he knows lunatics justice is very serious to him, and ryan knows hes not a killer so why would he be concerned right now?

but yes, the barebones idea of using ryan especially as a vessel to force the hero ensemble to reconsider vigilantism and lunatic couldve in my opinion been done without the two of them ever interacting directly, because its about what they stand for in the narrative.

what we needed to see was kotetsu (and barnaby) forming some sort of opinion on this, since we mostly see the hero side through kotetsus eyes: he is the main character, after all. all the narrative had to do was let ryan to go do what he clearly wants to.

my description of this all is very elaborate and keeps the entire thing somehow separate from the other heroes, but i think the idea or something akin to my elaborate view couldve been conveyed in a fairly conservative amount of scenes, because the cour only has limited time!

theres also a huge potential for the other characters to join in on the vigilante shenanigans like what ended up happening in the end in canon with all of them “going rogue”, and ryan and karinas involvement couldve been greater than other heroes but still far more smaller once kotetsu and barnaby get their ball rolling over the matter...

t&b2 has a lot of characters, and i think they couldve made it work, but the scenes wouldve had to been carefully picked without wasting scenes on counteracting things they had already set up?..

i dont feel like i can answer the question of “what narrative purpose did it serve to make sure ryan doesnt try to capture gregory on his own?” without pivoting back to “it had to be like this so that yuri would suffer and die and our heroes would stay morally Good unlike lunatic!”.

like, i LOVE ryan, hes my favourite character! and many of the scenes he was in i couldve lived without, because they didnt really add anything of worth to the overall narrative or plotline save for reminding us that he exists.

the entire thing where blue golden separates from the other heroes to go try to find gregory in the jail itself was similarly needlessly drawn out and condensed all the same?..

i understand it as necessary somehow (for the current plotline) to introduce LL audun, but because ryan and karina dont really have anything to do with the guy, it feels wasteful.

the pacing felt awkward to me overall. i was actually bored in some of the first episodes of the cour! and after that, everything starts happening so fast: the LL audun situation is especially sped through.

in cour1, heroes got progressively taken out until only “the essentials” in completing the arc were left, which was a great idea for the sake of stretching the limited screentime available.

it also had real in-world impact, unlike blue golden getting up a while later even if gregory flaunted that “it was so easy for LL audun to kill heroes”. it served so little purpose and was a waste of everyones time for a cheap “shock” because since it happened off-screen, i easily guessed they wouldnt kill a character off like that.

in cour2, we start knocking out heroes very late to the episodes and its not even semi-permanent. it wouldve been way more sensible to have some of the cast get knocked out somewhat early to let the remaining heroes to shine! they couldve even made to go berserk by gregory, so that we couldve then knocked HIM out and then gotten most of the heroes back for a grand finale of sorts, probably facing off LL audun and accompanied by lunatic.

even in the canon scenario, subaru couldve charged in (his whole thing is that hes hot-headed and a bit stupid even if his heart is in the right place!) and thomas couldve shown up earlier, eliminating many scenes that had little worth and focused on efficiently introducing LL audun.

they couldve had that fight with him and thomas couldve swiftly explained key details about him for exposition and made it natural because we already knew hes a fan. i also think their arcs werent so bad i suppose, but them fighting together was the conclusion to the mr.thomas buddy arc, so getting knocked out for a few episodes because theyre still rookie heroes and a bit silly wouldve made sense...

especially when they already were in the last fight in cour1!

it wouldnt have been a disservice to their arcs and wouldve given others more time to shine, and it wouldve been interesting to have other heroes react that the rookie team is presumed dead? they wouldve been fighting even harder against LL audun!

which leads me to say that the one good thing about cour2 for me was LL auduns character, but his potential wasnt realized. he was so prominent as imagery in cour1, with the twins and thomas both idolizing him.

we also know that mr.legend was a corrupt hero and there probably were others? instead of auroras introduction (it was such a gimmick), and gregory getting so much screentime for being creepy, it wouldve been far more interesting to focus on the fact LL auduns time active in vigilantism overlapped with mr.legends time as a hero.

i keep coming back to this, but LL audun couldve been the perfect setup for mr.legends crimes becoming public? it wouldve added intrique to the viewer too by have mr.thomas presumed dead and LL audun fighting the remaining heroes.

that wouldve made it harder to believe mr.legend really sucked so much by the general public and many heroes! kotetsu and barnaby wouldve felt inclined to share some part of what they learned from yuri earlier?

i feel like this wouldve been such an interesting way to make kotetsu and barnaby realize even more things about mr.legend, the hero system itself, medias part in who gets to be a hero and whos not, and lunatic... in a deeper way than the canon, half-hearted attempt at sympathetizing we got, because i just think its not in-character to have them react like that!

in-show its mentioned that LL audun “started to think hes a true hero around his tenth year in prison” but it felt like pure ouroboros/maverick interference to me (even if the current narrative mightve meant it for real).

wouldnt it have made more sense that LL audun was actually a "true hero” fighting against the establishment of the hero system itself, not because he hates heroes, but because he had figured out it was already rotten to the core becasue of maverick?

his simple nature was refreshing (in the same way i really liked fugan and mugan because they were villains but also funny about it) and kept the scenes with him light-hearted, a quality ive always been fond of in tiger&bunny. i do like intense scenes, but i think tiger&bunny should also be a little bit funny and not hard to watch.

he couldve lost his grip on reality a little bit since he spent decades in solitary confinement and focused very hard on his idea of heroism, or maverick couldve even fucked with his thoughts and made him into a ticking time bomb of wanting to destroy so many random people if he ever got out?

how the hell did maverick, mr.legend and the heroes of that time, realistically defeat LL audun back then? its not explained (again i could misremember) and its not important to the canon as-is, but imagine if the canon had focused on idk, being nicer to yuri and on the angle of mr.legends crimes and what if maverick, with mr.legend in tow, had promised to destroy sternbild if LL audun doesnt let them have their way?

it wouldve been, i feel, very easy to let us catch on that maverick was manufacturing LL auduns crimes and spread them on the media for the benefit of mr.legend and heroTV, and that LL audun couldnt stop maverick because he had been honorable about it, like a “true hero”?

hundred power is extremely versatile since it heightens all senses and weve seen that it can even boost recovery, and he can activate it almost continuously: what was it that stopped him from cracking mr.legends skull like an egg once the man himself had fully lost his power, given the canon itself features mr.legend worried about having to face someone he cant realistically win against?

LL audun outright refusing to kill mr.legend and/or maverick feels like the logical conclusion to the question of why he could be defeated. it would also give kotetsu something to think about, to realize this on the screen as our main character!

mr.legend was the hero who saved kotetsu, and then he learns from yuri that mr.legend was actually an awful person, and then, as i suggest, he sees a buddy hero pair go rogue- and then they all have to go rogue?

and to bring all of that to a satisfying conclusion, he faces off against LL audun, with the man questioning gregorys claims about who the real villains are because theyve all protected each other.

some further exposition later he could learn that mr.legend wouldnt have been able to be so awful if LL audun had just killed him when he had the chance, and that maverick couldnt have manipulated barnaby and been evil overall if LL audun hadnt taken up my suggested deal from maverick to voluntarily get imprisoned to protect sternbild and had gone the lunatic route instead?

kotetsu has always been so against killing people, and i dont think hes wrong to think so (well yes i think he is wrong. i think its morally okay to kill evil people! albeit not without emotional consequences for the person taking up that burden like lunatic. but i think its important for kotetsu to disagree with killing) and he wouldnt have had to abandon that principle of his, but this troubling reveal couldve given the narrative way more depth?..

and when kotetsu talks of the goal in the rising being saving virgil/andrew from himself: couldnt he have recognized the emotional toll lunatics actions take on him, and the emotional toll LL audun has taken due to his inaction?

like a real bit of some gray morality that actually has a purpose!

thinking about it makes me want to break something- i feel like everything was so perfectly set up for something like this, and not even this scenario but the concept of sympathizing with yuri further and helping him heal!

it couldve happened without revealing that lunatic is yuri and letting yuri continue in his position as the director of the heroes after the season has concluded (i wouldve enjoyed this personally so that i can imagine him out there), because i feel that revealing mr.legends crimes wouldve changed yuris position so significantly, and for the better!

kotetsu, as the main chracter, wouldnt have had to reveal judge petrov is mr.legends son either, maybe just lunatic for example! imagine yuri seeing people condemn his father? that wouldve been incredibly cathartic? that people agree that whoever mr.legends family was, they mustve suffered, truly and deeply?

yuri couldve gotten a scene like what kotetsu got at the end of the rising, with heroTV broadcasting random people having various positive opinions on him instead as he stands somewhere, contemplating taking off his mask and killing himself for his sins and his justice and whatnot while kotetsu and barnaby arent able to calm him down?

we couldve had a dramatic scene like that, and one of the manga chapters features that scene where yuri revealed his face to the terminally ill woman who had wanted to know who the man behind the mask is: he couldve even revealed himself to kotetsu and barnaby at least since theyre the main characters and still retained his anonymity by using his fire to shield himself from heroTV.

and on the broadcasted heroTV screen people from across sternbild could thank him for what hes done: could yuri, at that point, deny himself the possibility of being forgiven in some way?

it couldve also given us the hilarious dynamic of kotetsu and barnaby at least (and just for me, as a treat, ideally most if not all heroes) knowing that yuri is lunatic but they have a pact to keep his secret.

lunatic half-bleeds to death before jumping off but he doesnt set himself on fire and we dont see him fully fall but it serves as a momentary death fakeout.

then theres an ending scene of judge petrov opening the door to the hero lounge to give a briefing (returning us to the start of the season with yuri briefing everyone about buddy heroes) and he looks incredibly beat up.

agnes asks what the hell happened to him and he says he “got caught by one of the rampaging NEXT” or something else not unbelievable but ridiculous with a straight face, and none of the heroes contradict him.

like, wouldnt it be on-brand for kotetsu to try to joke about it while barnaby tried to shush him and causing someone like keith to quip that he doesnt really get it, isnt it a secret? and agnes could just scoff because whatever are the heroes talking about now...

my dream scenario is everyone laughing about this with yuri who is also laughing a little in confusion because now he has those bonds he hasnt had before? ngl i dont care i just want to see him happy lmfao<3

anyways see how ive lost the plot of this opinions document? bible-length and ive rambled about various topics, jeez. i also said i wouldnt talk about yuri so much but he just feels like such a central character and i like it- i just wish theyd been gentle with him instead of whatever we got. and yes, im about to talk about yuri again...

its unfortunate that with such a big cast, again, only the titular protagonists are often given scenes to interact with plot-relevant matters personally and with any depth...

of course, kotetsu and barnaby should remain at the centre of it all since theyre the protagonists, but cour2 especially included us seeing tidbits from the perspective of so many random characters, it begs the question why add so many bits from characters when i think its pretty clear the fans are interested in tiger&bunny for the ensemble cast too and want to see more of them?..

sorry to fervent mario the announcer fans or something i suppose, but if cour2 had used its time more wisely, we couldve gotten great moments from various heroes in the same time we didnt get anything done?

wasnt a single writer aware that the fandom adores the titular protagonists but theres also large fandom pockets for the other hero characters AND yuri? didnt anyone think that s2 and its buddy hero premise couldve more effectively been used to give us more lore and funny moments also for the supporting cast?

this makes me, for example, think of the scenes where everyone is deliberating X rampages and gregory things.

youre telling me that weve got all of these characters in a room and youre capable of making them act in-character while interacting with each other, but you chose the most boring ways to do it in pursuit of some sort of unneeded seriousness?

those scenes by themselves couldve been majorly improved by playing into what ive seen as the strength of tiger&bunny, with the way every hero has a distinct personality easy to play up for light-hearted moments without making it unnatural or forced?..

for example, they could be trying to talk of something serious when ryan, kotetsu and subaru get into a nonsensical argument because theyre all so loud and kotetsu and ryan actually get along well, so they couldve argued on purpose to ease the mood, while subaru got really serious about the argument because hes 17 and goofy?

barnaby, karina and thomas are all collectively sighing because of course their buddy partners are acting like this, and this goes on while keith is trying to get a word out on something actually valuable he thought of but hes too polite to interrupt the conversation, so nathan has to raise her voice and be like “boys can we please calm down keith wants to say something<3 you have 30 seconds before i get mad!″

and kotetsu, ryan and subaru are forced to apologetically sit on the floor or something, just to let keith convey an actually good point he came up just now while listening to them argue. expositional scenes dont have to be boring and lifeless?

of course its sweet to have them work together, but giving them light-hearted moments wouldnt have diminished that. theres just so much potential with the cast we have, and while they had a great foundation, the real potential was never really reached.

the way they neglect the strength of their ensemble cast repeats with who interacts with lunatic/yuri. and i know- kotetsu and barnaby are our main characters here, but sometimes i feel like hes in protagonist jail, because there are so many great interactions to pursue with him that could actually add something to the narrative!

nathan was kind of accidentally framed by him in s1, but we dont really get any follow-up on that. and for me, one of yuris greatest moments is in the manga when he saves keith (civilian) from dying while keith is trying to save the two criminals from dying himself, and keith is never none the wiser about it.

but thats more of a self-indulgence than a realistic critique, i imagine. however, from this i can get to talking about the heroes i didnt yet mention, because i can see so many ways to tie the supporting cast into the narrative and not just include scenes for “fanservice”.

the peripheral material has done this and more, why not include some of it in the show?

this is all mostly just a lot of musing on how underutilized everyone was, and how a lot of it felt disjointed and a bit wasteful of the time they had to convey the entire story.

ill start with keith: it was disappointing how he only smiled through the entire cour2, especially when you think about LL audun, who pretty much shares his “simple” worldview on heroism. we didnt even see him fight LL audun at all if my memory serves me right.

he didnt have any reaction to when the heroes get shelved, and keith arguably has pretty much no other life than being a hero, but he never has any sort of thoughts about the matter.

closest we get is firesky reminiscensing on the moments they had respectively gotten their hero suits, and keith remains one of the heroes whose backstory we know absolutely nothing about. i actually thought keith would drop some backstory lore there, but he didnt.

i feel that cour1 did a fantastic job on telling us what sort of guy he is in the episode nathan complains about him to kotetsu and barnaby: he is insecure despite all of his fame and how “perfect” he is without trying by nature, and he still he tries to act even more perfect to make sure other people would like him.

cour2 didnt really give us anything? i was genuinely expecting keith to break down at some point and that he was trying really hard to act unbothered to not make anyone else lose heart, especially after kotetsu remarked in cour1 that its keith and nathan who are really doing most of the advising around here and not himself and barnaby, the real senior buddy hero pair.

it wouldve not only given us a continuation of things from cour1 and given keith some sort of arc for the 2nd cour, but it couldve given us a character-driven moment used to show us why its kotetsu who is the protagonist even if we all know keith is such a picture-perfect hero.

ive always thought that kotetsu is more approachable than keith on purpose: hes a very normal person with normal concerns that are easy for many to relate to, and that is his charm and his strength, and he doesnt particularly stand out or excel, hes in the hero business purely out of his conviction and doing his best.

wild tiger isnt the most popular hero, but he has dedicated fans, okay! hes goofy and easy-going and meddlesome, and hes trying to make the world better, whereas keith could never be the protagonist in the same way kotetsu is because hes just too good, like how nathan found his projected perfection unnerving.

to let kotetsu participate in reassuring keith (since hes the protagonist and a busybody!) besides nathan as his buddy partner couldve served as a plot point to strengthen the idea that kotetsus various flaws are a part of what makes him great, and it couldve been used in tandem to again, interrogate the narrative about what heroism is, who can be a hero, and so on and so forth.

and with regards to my earlier thoughts about LL audun, keith represents the same type of ideal LL audun at least thinks himself to be, and the sort of ideal LL audun couldve embodied if they let me write t&b2, lol.

there couldve been some sort of plot-relevant parallel there that lets kotetsu actually figure out that LL audun is genuinely thinking hes doing the right thing and gregory was taking advantage of him- something to let kotetsu take the initiative in making LL audun question whether he actually is fighting against villains or not, because LL audun randomly questioning it himself was a bit too convenient.

it couldve been a time for kotetsu to shine with what he does best, trying to talk his brand of sense into the people hes fighting against, like how he always has a lot to say when hes facing off lunatic, or how in season1 his entire plan for making people remember who he is includes him showing up in his old hero suit and talking to them.

isnt that part of kotetsus charm as a protagonist?.. and LL audun wouldve been perfect for a discussion, because his personality wouldve lended itself to a very campy “two heroes having a dramatic discussion during a fight”.

i suppose i also personally dont need or want kotetsu be really good at fighting with the most powerful NEXT power, because thats not what makes him a fun protagonist. him goofing off and slipping on a banana peel on his way to an arrest makes him fun, and him talking the socks off of his opponents is just part of his way of being a hero.

kotetsu is into the whole “superhero flair”: heroes need to have secret identities, and heroes need to be a bit campy with thematic outfits and have dramatic discussions while they fight, and thats the spirit of tiger&bunny, isnt it? isnt that what were here for?

i at least never watched tiger&bunny for a yuri petrov suffering arc, when tiger&bunny has had an uplifting message throughout even if it tackles more adult issues due to the adult protagonists?

either way, to return to keith, i just feel like hes overdue for having that sort of very human moment to his character, because his nuance has largely been confined to manga and peripheral materials... it wouldve been nice to see him get a big moment on-screen.

even in cour1, the episode with firesky is largely shown to us from nathans perspective. having keith break down wouldve also been a great way to show how serious the shelving of heroes is and making the situation feel tense because keith especially is always so happy.

it couldve been a tipping point of sorts, where everyone starts to lose heart whether theyll manage to figure out the X rampage issue or not, because despite the boring seriousness of those scenes, i at least never felt a real sense of urgency or huge concern about them not being able to be heroes?

keith confessing that he is having a very hard time with the circumstances and making everyone visibly falter wouldve actually left an impact, and couldve let kotetsu shine as a protagonist by him trying to pick up the pieces.

it couldve also have bit of a callback to that scene where in the beginning movie hes called everyone together and claimed that the heroes and barnaby want to meet each other and everyone gets upset and leaves, one by one, but i guess it couldve been more that everyone leaves buddy pair by buddy pair since the season makes a big deal of pairing them up with them buddy pairs whenever possible.

it wouldve made me sad but not in an utterly desperate way because i know that the heroes will pull through and save the day, it wouldve been a good sort of sad.

this couldve also given nathan more of a spot to shine, because shes keiths buddy hero partner! she wouldve been there for him, but i also dont want to suggest any sort of reduction of nathan to a mammy stereotype-adjacent spot where her main function in the narrative is to take care of others, but more on nathan later.

the scene where nathan offers to hire keith as a secretary especially perplexed me and was left in the forefront of my mind. it was funny and cute, but thinking of keith losing his hero status and not immediately looking into civilian ways to help like finding volunteer organizations to sign himself up for them is so unbelievable to me, sorry...

and because i think cour2 shouldve used their episodes and screentime wisely, any such things with keith couldve been, again, tied to the bigger themes of heroism and such, right on the nose in fact! i dont think its far-fetched to have a moment of hopelessness by having keith break down and then reveal later on that hes signed himself up to ten different volunteer organizations when prompted by kotetsu.

one remark and everyone figures keith is so sad too, but hes still trying so hard to help?

keith is in many ways the best of them, and even if he was so crestfallen and suffering, hes juggling ten volunteer jobs at once even as people have complicated feelings about NEXTs due to the X riots and whatever. hes trying so hard to get people to like him and hes troubled by having NEXT powers and possibly putting people in danger if he lost control somehow (like, is he bad by showing up as keith goodman without admitting first thing he has NEXT powers, and also maybe without admitting hes sky high, as if it was a crime).

it was actually so odd how none of the heroes were ever really concerned about losing control?.. especially the heroes with powers that have the capacity to be really destructive?

and to return to keith, in my opinion he wouldve also suffered with the very human desire to be a hero again: its a huge part of his identity and it occupies almost all of his time! i think he would feel guilty that even if hes helping still in his own way by volunteering, he would specifically want to be reinstated as a hero.

it would feel selfish to him, that he has such a private desire. hes also extremely introspective and he canonically spends a lot of time thinking. he couldve delivered a very neat and conscise but very human monologue on the topic and it wouldve given the other heroes a great character-driven moment to share a bit more about how they feel about the situation?

to have our hero ensemble shelved from hero work and dedicate no scene for them to talk about how they feel about it specifically is such a waste, when it couldve showcased their personas and furthered the plotline by having them remember why theyre heroes in the first place and/or why they want to continue being heroes, etc...

what bothered me with firesky was that they also felt oddly separate from the rest of the cast at times during cour2 and the trailer made their role seem far bigger than it ended up being.

they had a bunch of nice scenes together that very funny and showcased their personalities, but i was very disappointing how those scenes kind of failed to tie into the main plotline so that they were just... there. even though theyve been a part of the main cast since the start:/

they didnt even get a major fighting scene with a big bad because LL audun knocked them out off-screen.

nathan suffers from many of the things keith suffered... she also didnt really have any significant role and well, it wasnt too bad i suppose, it was just oddly disjointed.

the heroes met up at helios energy, i think, but they couldve done so much more with nathans position as the CEO of helios energy.

it has always been a footnote in the show, even if the new manga shows us that nathan is aware of various changes in the hero system before anyone else by getting to participate in the discussions about those changes as her own boss! which is also weird ethically, but i guess its not taken so seriously.

it could have been easy to make nathan more prominent because of her CEO status. what if wed gotten to see the mayor talk to a wider board of people that included the owners of the hero companies etc and nathan was allowed to be there, hearing the talk about shelving heroes and being like wow! that certainly is a suggestion, but!..

this couldve also been used to emphasize that as his buddy partner nathan knows how important keiths job is to him? she couldve even alluded to how some heroes have really dedicated their entire lives to hero work and this is no joking matter!

instead of us getting scenes of the mayor and the assistant or somesuch, we couldve literally had a character there and given her a moment to shine while keeping it plot-relevant?.. she couldve given kotetsu and barnaby some insider knowledge on how to talk with the mayor, too?

i think her being a CEO and a hero is interesting because i dont think “CEO” is a very heroic civilian job, but i dont know if id want the series to ever delve into it overmuch because i dont know how it would be respectful to nathan who has suffered from being reduced to a homophobic/transmisogynistic stereotype before...

not like nathan is the only rich hero either, its just very different to gain income from only from hero work versus being a CEO. the peripheral material sometimes comments something about it like a gag strip making nathan say she wishes the heroes wouldnt go on a strike due to her being one of the shareholders.

what this does remind me of is that i dont think t&b2 really had any significant commentary on how money makes things go around? in s1, it felt kind of prominent. kotetsus old hero company literally went bankrupt and antonio suffers from his unpopularity driving down his sponsors profits.

its why the heroes have to also keep up appearances- its not enough to just be a hero, you have to work to be popular as well. in s1 kotetsu & barnaby cant go to a crime scene because theyre doing an interview and other popularity stuff so their hero alerts were cancelled for the duration.

we get the whole “ouroboros controls everything, actually!..” and a vague allusion to affecting The Economy, but thats it?

anyway, disregarding all of that, i feel like they couldve used nathans CEO status for something. what if she had put her career and status on the line to use her connections and money to reacquire the hero suits of those whose companies had really put them under lock and key...

i also think back to momentarily developing some sort of mega optimism brain rot and thinking that karina couldve had some sort of gay crush plotline with the girl who was trying to pretend shes rampaging and how incredibly sweet it wouldve if the noted LGBT icon of our lineup, nathan, gender-haver extraordinaire, had been able to support karina with that... like yeah ryan wouldve been there for her but... hes ryan. lol

overall, i thought the buddy pairs were fun, but man, i want to see the hero ensemble interact with everyone and not just one assigned "important” character per hero. it also made a lot of scenes a bit disjointed with how buddy pairs were a bit separated, in my opinion... it worked better when it was just kotetsu and barnaby, because theyre the main characters! of course theyll have more plotlines than the others.

one thing i already found a bit strange at the start of cour1 is that nathan didnt talk with antonio almost at all, and we know the new director is a huge antonio fan (which is actually funny to me, and you can see the antonio love shining through).

but.... in prior content nathan has also been regularly paired up with antonio, and i dont mean in a shipping sense (even if that has happened as well but it has only really been to make gags on nathan being creepy because of her poor portrayal before), just that theyve specifically been portrayed as friends before.

so it feels like nathan got sidelined purposefully while making antonio have that entire thing about agnes seep from mainly peripheral content into the main show... (i have a huge brain and am a gay antonio truther, btw.)

it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth that someone who has some say over the happenings in the show (?) and loves antonio hasnt acknowledged their friendship in any way... and nathans portrayal prior has been unfortunate, so it wouldve meant something to see nathan get to be friends with antonio with the gross sterotypes removed?

its not enough to say things have changed and you want to improve on nathans portrayal: i want to fucking see it!

while their dynamic is funny, the above has made me worry that nathan and keith were paired as a buddy pair because the writers didnt have anything better to do with them and keith is “naive enough” to hang out with nathan without them having to address anything about nathan properly, and cour2 really didnt ease my fear about it.

like one thing nathan has done explicitly in various material is to behave in a specifically “boy crazy” way which i as a lesbian dont really care about, but i think it wouldve meant something to let nathan act in that way without making it weirdly creepy and uncomfortable, and instead let nathan be a whole person of her own.

i am a serial friendzoner of everyone except characters who havent interacted in canon (lmfao) but the purposes of respectfully portraying nathan and proving that the horrible stereotuping is over, i think there couldve been real narrative worth in her being canonically romantically interested in keith and have that relationship develop, to show that nathan is so much more than those creepy stereotypical actions forced on her characterization before.

it wouldnt have to be keith in the case they didnt want to introduce any romance between the hero ensemble, but any romance plotline for nathan couldve been used to show they really did want to improve on nathans portrayal like nathan would deserve.

it couldve easily been used for a scene in which nathan properly brings up their identity because sure, its been discussed some more in peripheral material and the rising improves on what she was given before, but still retains multiple harmful elements... and it just makes me mad to imply youre going to improve on stuff like this and then not do anything with nathan.

as far as i know, her civilian outfit in the rising seems to be inspired by a japanese comedians gag character called “hard gay”, whose ensemble includes a leather bodysuit, and hard gay isnt exactly a respectful portrayal.

i also love to read tiger&bunny opinions online through google translate, from people who would understand nathans identity/possible tropes better than i do by the virtue of being LGBT+ and japanese.

one of the things ive seen raised is that nathans declaration of self-love in the rising is more compassionate than their prior portrayal, but that it unfortunately is somewhat of a trope in itself given the wording of it, which i think further explains how i think nathan wouldve deserved a bigger role?

theres also the recurring issue of misogyny, because nathan specifically says (dirctly copied from netflix translation): “they say a man is made of courage, and a woman is made of love. so what does that mean for people that are gay? we are invincible!”

men being courageous and women being loving is a cliche, which they included as a narrative choice and is not nathans fault... and t&b2 really didnt improve on the baked-in misogyny, which ive already talked about...

and ill be honest, i dont know how nathan romance shenanigans couldve tied into the main plotline lmfao, but they couldve called back to s1 and keith asking the girls for romantic advice, except now it wouldve been keith with the younger girls in tow trying to advise nathan, which wouldve been funny.

it wouldnt even had to have been a fuck you to people who like firesky romantically, because nathans plans couldve fallen through (by for example having the guy have been an antagonistic force in some way, perhaps interested in getting close to a hero after theyve been shelved just for the gossip, like an evil reporter, to make a point about media) and they couldve included a buddy hero scene afterwards where nathan remarks how keith would not do that.

because its true, keith would not do that, and it wouldve given people something fun to elaborate on?..

instead of remarkable improvements for nathans character besides the passive “no more creepy things”, we also get that scene at the end of the skyfire episode where subarus quip comes across as somehow homophobic to me, and i genuinely dont know what im supposed to feel about it. if youre wiser, then please enlighten me.

at this point i realized that talking about each character individually might kill me, because i have so many opinions, and maybe i should focus on buddy hero pairs a little better since thats how they were given to us in s2.

i also probably have more opinions on keith and nathan than the rest because keith is one of my favourite characters and i do really like nathan too, im just frequently haunted by the narratives past crimes against nathan and the currently occurring crimes as well, lol.

talking of subaru, his buddy partner thomas, and his sister ruby, why didnt they do something with thomas and the fact that nathan has been mentioned to have a little sister she cares a lot about? that couldve tied into the plotline?

i was very surprised ruby had no particular role and felt very separate from the rest of the narrative, and how nobody except subaru seemed to notice thomas wasnt present?

subaru begrudgingly (because hes 17 and wants to be independent) asking nathan or the firesky duo for advice because kotetsu saw he was acting weird and pulled him aside to talk about it and directed him to nathan on the subject matter couldve been a fun addition.

it couldve again showed that kotetsus strength is more than just some imaginary scenario where hes the smartest and strongest with all of the answers, because its not true. kotetsu couldve put himself down about it like oh bunny, i couldnt do anything, see! its those two giving advice again!

but barnaby wouldve correctly assessed that its only because of kotetsu subaru is doing this, and without kotetsu meddling, nathan or keith wouldnt have noticed to help subaru either.

mr. thomas overall had an alright arc. ruby was introduced, but much wasnt done with her. i sincerely thought she wouldve been adopted by ouroboros after everything that happened in cour1 and the mentions of orphans.

this drives me up the wall, because yet again, they had an obvious route to question heroism and villainy, and who is a victim of their circumstances and what acts exactly are evil.

kotetsu and barnaby wouldve had a lot of sympathy for ruby just because of their own backstories and personalities, and nobody else wouldve been unsympathetic either?

ruby is reduced to “little sister who loves and supports thomas”, and thats all: she barely has any real agency, even if it was her who sought thomas out. her personality is “gentle and understanding”. she continues the theme of being a woman in the show being reduced to narrative vessels to make the guys of the show do or feel something...

i also talked about them a bit earlier, so i dont have much else to say.

but one huge unresolved plot thread is their entire company? why did they even introduce the owner and manager of jungle when they werent relevant? and why did they seemingly sabotage subaru in cour1 by having his PDA not go off when heroes were called?

i thought it was significant? i thought jungle was sabotaging him?.. nothing came out of that?!

origami rock kinda won... they had a lot of good scenes. antonio was clearly beloved by the narrative. ive also spent two days writing this post so im kinda sick of writing it and this is one of the last parts im bothering to comment about so itll be kinda short, but...

like i mentioned earlier, alcoholism was kind of painted as something evil people do and antonios drinking problem was kind of bypassed entirely, when i feel like its a major thing for him? in the KOW the rising schedule, he really goes hard in on drowning his sadness and loneliness in alcohol.

it was also made into a joke moreso, with antonio and ivan apparently having gone drinking together?.. i feel like a more healthy direction for antonio wouldve been them focusing on things ivan wants to do... like, ivan went out drinking? seriously?

i guess that does feel like a major step for him in the sense that hes less shy and far less mortified by knowing he did silly thinks while drunk which is good for him to be less self-conscious... but its also like... i dont know, just weird me out that antonio would introduce ivan to that part of his life, which i felt was just his loneliness coping mechanism.

last but not least, kid cat... they really got the short end of the stick. they even lived in a dorm together and nothing ever really came out of that? it felt like a waste. i already talked about them a little bit.

paolin didnt really get a separate arc but she did really shine in cour1 at least, and maybe its just me but the whole situation around laras mom and kid cat being shoved into it soured their entire thing for me, especially the part of paolin comparing laras mom to her own mom, again... oof. that shit hurted.

i disliked that paolin was pushed into somehow vaguely motherly/caretaker-esque role with lara with her even looking up those damn parenting books and her fun energetic and somewhat goofy personality wasnt so well preserved. i wish a girl character was allowed to be goofy while still having serious and cool moments: they could do this with subaru but not paolin.

i already talked about karina earlier, but again, even if its actually incharacter and natural for karina to be be “the responsible one” in her dynamic with ryan which i do enjoy, i cant help but notice the narrative forcing all girl characters into that sort of role... i would include nathan (haver of gender) in this, because i feel like being goofy on the occasion is very central to her as well, but hmm.

its not even that i dislike karinas and nathans dynamic with their buddy hero partners, its just unfortunate that all girlies had to do similar things, because i cant ignore it... t&b2 really goofed with that.

it disappoints me personally that even if i dont understand how it wouldve made any sense wrt the narrative, i wish paolin had allowed to show her gender non-comformity somehow?.. i probably had my hopes up after hearing about them essentially saying they want to add a bit of representation into t&b2.

but i suppose that mainly meant ruby mentioning she has two dads and the girl with an ex-girlfriend.

all of the girlies got sidelined, which ive already talked about...

i feel like karina got the most major arc which does make sense because shes more of a main character than the rest, but it was also taken a little bit too seriously in my opinion, i wish the characters clearly treated it as karina being a teen who has a crush on some old guy because teens do that.

it was also kind of like a waste for me... i didnt need so many scenes about it personally. shouldve made karina do things for herself.

i have to admit that for a moment i genuinely thought that karina talking to that fake rampaging girl about her unrequited love for an ex-gf was going to awaken some feelings in karina, lmfao.

another thing about mr.legend i didnt manage to fit anywhere is that we still dont know his name? hes just mr.legend, even yuri doesnt say his name. it makes sense, but narratively, this ensures that mr.legend remains the stuff of myths. it feels like this is what they wanted, but it sucks!

to give him a name behind the hero gimmick wouldve brought him down from his status to that of a normal human. ive always been certain that petrov is yuris mothers maiden name as well, so dropping mr.legends name wouldnt have immediately implicated “yuri petrov” of anything.

nobody even knows he had a family! it feels like maverick scrubbed all of that clean, just in case.

as for mattia, i think his character has worth but is used wastefully: not only is he the one to develop the drug that drives much of the plotline, he gives us more insight to the worldbuilding of t&b and normal peoples opinions on NEXT powers. he doesnt hate the NEXT, but if he could choose, he would have NEXT powers himself.

this sets him apart from other similar characters like ben or saito, who are both normal people at the periphery of the heroes without NEXT powers who have been portrayed heroically in the past, since he explicitly wishes he could attain a sliver of the heroism he sees barnaby have, and he thinks he needs a NEXT power to be able to do so.

this couldve been, yet again, used to reinforce the theme that heroism is so much more than just having a powerful NEXT power. mattia couldve also been used more intelligently, and while connecting him to barnaby is nice to give him a new friend, some of his functions couldve been covered by kotetsu or some other members of the hero ensemble.

it couldve worked better if, for example, the hero ensemble had more strongly reacted to suspecting mattia to have ratted them out. i already said that i think ryan wouldve been more than annoyed about it, but the moment couldve been used to showcase various characters and their reactions to it!

i think the moment couldve been drawn out instead of being immediately resolved, maybe even included something about how mattia needs to prove himself to not to be a spy for ouroboros, not because i think its reasonable, but it couldve meant something to have our heroes be utterly wrong about someone!

i come back to this again and again, but it couldve been used as a point that the heroes arent necessarily right just because theyre heroes, and that mattia couldve worked with saito and proven himself to act more “heroically” (alongside saito!) than how the heroes treated him.

and, unfortunately, the narrative itself undermines mattia because of auroras existence.

she introduces a huge plot hole for me. mattia has worked hard to try to develop a NEXT drug, and has actually gotten results, its just that he hasnt gotten the specific result he wanted: why doesnt he just mail that drugs composition to aurora and have her complete it, since her unclear NEXT power seems to have no limits and gives her a vast intellect without even trying?

in fact, when theres any sort of problem, why dont we ask aurora about it? if shes so important, why havent we ever heard of her before? her inclusion didnt feel natural at all.

i really hated aurora, because her character felt so cheap and gimmicky in every possible way. sure, she was foreshadowed in cour1, but since she obviously didnt exist in s1, it felt incredibly stupid that there conveniently is one single person ouroboros has to assassinate to ruin all relations between people who have NEXT powers and those who dont...

her power makes no sense: if shes so fucking smart and has been Thinking of ways to better the world for literally decades, then why capitalism all over the world?

i do think its realistic to expect she cant force the world to become an utopia, but the way shes introduced and dealt with doesnt really give me a well-nuanced view of her. she looks to the side and saves some lizard species form extinction with an idea.

i think her character couldve been interesting if they had used the whole season to set her up and i guess made the themes of the season somehow align with her and “not being able to fix the world alone no matter how smart you are etc” and included her as the brain and LL audun as the brawns and how neither of them could ever fix the world alone according to their opinions, and only in their bonds can our heroes find the most of their strengths, including connections with other people like how kotetsu could chat with a child in s1 to ease him down from his rampage at the ice rink etc.

buuuut i feel like that couldve been the plotline for some other season altogether. now that we know LL audun, he could get him back later and see how hes doing, etc... in the case he was given more nuance or something and not just sent back to jail, i mean.

theres also the moment where aurora opened her eyes and i guess i was supposed to feel it was significant but i genuinely didnt care. like okay. yeah i noticed that. no i dont care that the day was saved and “she felt comfortable closing her eyes again”.

was that purposeful?.. the implication that shes closing her eyes from the world?.. and she only opened them when she realized she personally was in danger?..

that was so wild to me, i still dont know what the purpose behind that was, but that certainly was how the overall arc felt about yuri. eyes closed, who cares if some guy suffers for no reason.

rosicky was interesting to me, and it was a waste she got shot before she could have any sort of discussion?.. she just felt like a cheap trick to get yuris body fucked up. it couldve been an interesting moment overall, but, well...

not like were going to get anything about yuri reacting to how all of that went down? so it was just... weird.

and then rosicky died and gregory "won” their little squabble, and i wish gregory had fucking exploded because lunatics been making some points and i fucking hate him...

also just to return to the ouroboros ties of the season, they made ouroboros so all-powerful it was stupid and lost a lot of meaning to me. like alright, they can do anything, why are we even fighting, and why is rosicky alone in charge of this operation... makes no fucking sense, its such a forced situation.

the ending of cour2 was... well, it existed. i mean, i dont personally mind kotetsu retiring for good overmuch i suppose, but i think with everything that happened (especially in the way i think things should have happened) he couldve just continued as proof that even people without NEXT powers can be superheroes...

and also as a some sort of proof that it was mr.legends refusal to change any part of his hero image that really did him in: kotetsu could cling to his heroism while accepting hes just a guy without powers and not make it such an issue.

and i suppose if he retires, i wouldve loved to see him take some sort of director-like role instead: i dont think he would be able to let hero stuff go completely, but him being a senior you ask for advice would still give him a lot of things to do.

right now its also a bit of my fear, if they have any thoughts of continuing tiger&bunny in any way ever and yuri had to die so that kotetsu could take over the spot he ended up occupying as a director...:( genuinely makes me make a sad face in real life.

by the point we got to the end they had already fucked up the entire premise and any message they wouldve hoped to send and if they had some sort of uplifting message after yuris death, i failed to understand it. but it felt like a giant fuck you to the fans of the show called “tiger&bunny” to get that last bit of tiger&bunny pair disbanding because of reasons.

i mean, theyre not even remotely my favourite characters and i dont think about them overmuch, but leaving it more open-ended wouldve been so much more fun for so many fans? they really fucked up the shows undercurrent of interrogating who can be a hero and why in the first place, but like...

yeah that shit sucked ass sorry. i dont even have anything to add. people who showed up to see more kotetsu and barnaby content getting that half-hearted discussion about where theyre gonna go from here and then showing their plaque in the “true heroes” hall...

i feel like it undercuts kotetsus character so much, because hes always been the “underdog”, and hes pulled through everything that came before this. they explicitly mention that hes been working really hard to supplement his waning power, and then leave it at that: if i was supposed to understand from that part that kotetsu isnt really retiring or anything, it didnt really come across due to the other circumstances.

and again, i dont even really care about kotetsu! its just that he really exemplifies the tone of the show as a fact, and i like to think i have a modicum of media literacy. and by undermining the uplifting message of the show, they directly undermined him, and by undermining him, they further muddied the spirit of t&b.

i feel like an ending i wouldve killed for is one that couldve included that sort of tour of a museum, but it wouldve showed mr.legend paraphernalia being moved away from “true heroes” and also included our protags being inducted in there if they so wished, but leaving it more open ended... and definitely proving that mr.legend was not worthy of being thought of as a hero.

it was weird that the second league isnt brought up at all during the entire season from what i can remember? i dont even have anything significant to say about it, but i think second league heroes are and have been important, just by existing, to the narrative asking the viewer who really is a true hero and who insnt and what it all means.

they just didnt care, just like they didnt care about that question and yuri. again, they fully ignored anything they had set up before, and kept introducing new characters when old side characters couldve been brought back.

i have some thoughts on the police chief being a younger version of the police chief from double decker... im unsure if the implication is that double decker is more than a spiritual sequel and its not just cameo, or if its something more.

mattia did off-handedly mention that hes developing now trying to develop a drug that takes NEXT powers away if i read and understood it right, which would, i guess, make a canonical disappearance of NEXT powers possible.

i have actually never seen double decker myself, but i understand it references tiger&bunny while being separate and clearly “in the future” from it, and as far as i understand, it doesnt have people with superpowers.

i personally think that imagining double deckers world as a canonical sequel to the world of tiger&bunny sucks, but i dunno what the real implication there is.

i also want to talk about the art direction of t&b2 since im airing out my opinions and complaints, so why not: the art direction kinda sucks. everyone has been smoothed and thinned down and the essence of t&bs charming style has been lost in some ways.

you can really see the jump between older art and the newer art with ryan, for example... ill talk about ryan now because this is my post and i love this guy.

he is downright ugly in some parts of the rising, and i love calling him ugly, but in a serious way, yes, i think hes explicitly supposed to be handsome (because what else does he have going on for him even except being loud and looking good lol).

hes just a different kind of attractive than barnaby who is pretty, and theres various scenes in the rising where you can see that barnaby has more of a button nose while ryan has a sharp, short nose, unlike yuri for example, who just has a large nose overall (and its his charm point!).

ryans most notable quality is that his eyes are drawn to look hooded and deep-set with straight eyebrows that make his strong brow even more prominent, and he usually has a very distinct wrinkle across his forehead.

and what does he look like in t&b2? certainly nothing like that.

i know that the rising has a much larger budget for the designs than the episodic show, and either way they wouldve had to simplify ryans design to translate it into the episodic format. and we all know the goofy parts of season1 they fixed in the bluray release...

that never was a huge problem, and i wouldnt mind it. yes, i guess ryan couldve been changed for marketing, but he looked like that through-out the entire movie and was hugely popular regardless and BECAUSE of how he looks. but its not just ryan, its that the art direction changed drastically, and it made all the characters look so much more generic and samey.

just after the scene i screencapped above, you can see barnaby and ryan from further away with less detail for a scene that passes by quicker, and you can see that less care was used to make them look good but they still were kept distinctive and different. (and sorry to barnaby, i caught him in in the middle of a movement, so he looks extra goofy.)

t&b2 doesnt even have a lot of scenes that i can remember that really let the chracters emote and make goofy faces: kotetsu has always been hugely expressive! i want to see him make a funny face! kotetsu is also the main character, and part of his thing is being an Old Man (even if he isnt even that old for real, but thats beside the point).

he has wrinkles around his eyes in that shot even if its not hugely detailed, and in contrast i feel he was very smooth in t&b2. the art direction felt as aimless as the bullshit plotline, and equally as uncaring towards established characters!

everyone was drawn very samey. another example to me is the scene in cour1 where thomas inspects keiths pectorals is just sad, because hes been thinned down like everyone else. what was there to inspect? absolutely nothing.

this screencap from s1 has more to inspect than the scene where keith is supposed to be noticeably buff. by the way, this entire scene with the girlies and keith has more personality and goofiness than most of cour2.

and heres a screencap of keith from that episode, where his face shape and features are distinct.

ts been a decade and i know that anime production has gone through changes in this time and netflix-style mass drop of episodes may be harder on people in general, but comparing my s2 screencap below to the screencap above just makes me miss the old style because im scared to but s2 keith next to the one above... his eyebrows were so sadly thin and so were his face and body.

you know, lunatic doesnt even have a distinctly large nose, and his eyes arent even particularly sunken and he doesnt have many wrinkles around his eyes like i think is charming for him, because everyone is just smoothed down... and the above screencap isnt even a good example of it, but the charming thickening of lines at some parts is entirely missing in t&b2 from what i can remember? i feel like the linework used to be stronger and more interesting overall.

anyhow, yes, t&b was also fixed up for the bluray release but i feel like the atrocious-looking parts are kind of funny to look back on. i wonder if theyll be editing s2 visually? (and please revise the entire storyline for yuri too, thanks.)

speaking of s1, where did this entire sentiment disappear to? into the ether?

also, i cant help but be plagued by thoughts because the episode i got those keith screencaps from, kotetsu & barnaby are interviewed by kids who are taking the reporting very seriously, and their reaction to kotetsu saying the person he looks up to is mr.legend is lukewarm at best.

then barnaby talks of his parents and robotics, and they light up, which is funny because barnaby is way more popular, but it also narratively, in my opinion, shows that especially the new generation of sternbild thinks mr.legend isnt that impressive and would be more willing to accept that despite the myths around him, he was a man who severely sucked.

theyre ready for new heroes to commemorate, ones that really deserve it, and they (even in cour1!) dont see lunatic as a villain but an antihero who protects them.

oh well.

thanks for reading, even if you didnt read all of it and just read interesting parts or skimmed through it! i guess writing this was like free therapy for me because i need to deal with how deeply yuris cour2 canon arc affected me lmfao.

i dont think ive ever been so blindsided and taken aback by the total surprise i felt at the direction his arc took and that definitely factored into how deeply it fucked me up because if i couldve anticipated that yuri could for example die, i wouldve been a lot more normal about it.

but out of all things, i cant believe that tiger&bunny would do that to me, and make me see all of that pain... genuinely fucked up not going to lie. fugan and mugan and their father being shot to death is one thing because its shocking of course, but yuri has been in the show since the start.

yuri has existed in the minds of people for over a decade, now, so it feels so unexpected they would so callously kill him off, it feels entirely uncharacteristic, and i feel like its not something that anyone couldve expected, and maybe it wouldve been less shocking if season2 had come out like, say, an another year after the rising...

but still, i dont understand how we make the jump from yuris portrayal and the overall themes of the rising into t&b2 and his role in cour2. its wild, i dont know how to get over it.

breathing through gritted teeth how i published a few fanfics with yuri in a huge hurry before cour2 dropped because i wanted to have them started in case some major yuri details drop and ill feel compelled the rewrite the yuri parts of them but huh... well.... cry laugh

i love imagining scenarios with my favourite characters, but i tend to include yuri in the core ensemble cast of heroes: trying to imagine any post-canon shenanigans feels so hard right now like watching a VHS reel that ran to the end and has to be rewound, and actually makes me incredibly sad.

theres that new audiodrama coming out with ryan featured in it and i cant even be excited because i just get sick, like physically... i guess imagining myself casually engaging with tiger&bunny content makes me feel like im spitting on yuris nonexistent grave. woe is me. fuck you tiger&bunny2 cour2. TL;DR - my opinions, this entire post condensed somehow:

the whole arc for yuri felt like a giant fuck you not only to him and all of the fans too, and same with the ending kinda

ryan was brought back for a fun cameo only because he never became plot-relevant really so what was the point lol? screentime waste

plot points set up in cour1 and further before were ignored and scenes were specifically used to counteract them?!

big misogyny moment for all woman characters of the show

hero ensemble overall was underutilized

new characters/excessive focus on side characters like the fucking mayor and the police chief in cour2 felt gimmicky and unnecessary and generally didnt add much worth. i dont care show me my funny heroes instead

they tried to do too many things and lost sight of why t&b has been so great and why the idea of a more self-conscious t&b is so exciting: of course the show has had a lot of flaws, like nathans initial portrayal, and to imagine a show that has the same spirit but improves on those flaws is amazing. its just not even remotely what we got</3

never expected a flawless show but there are flaws that you can headcanon away and there are flaws that undermine the entire theme of the show this far. i dont know how to make s2 any better after seeing cour2 without totally ignoring any of it happened

cour1 wasnt even bad. it was solid. shit just hit the fan in cour2

the art direction was a huge downgrade, but maybe it was just budget constraints, so i dont know how harsh i want to be about it.

leave a comment if you want, lo, i love to talk, its relaxing. i also mightve mixed shit up so dont embarrass me too much if you notice any overt mixups since i really did marathon the cour once and i dont know how i can bear to look at it again. i also have some confusion over some parts of the story which i detailed above in my manifesto so if you wanna educate me, please do, lmfao...peace out...

#tiger and bunny #tiger and bunny spoilers #meta #t&b2 #t&b

43 notes · View notes

levmada · 2 years

Text

in good faith of keeping u guys updated on my tattoos...

i moved recently + my old shop closed SO i went to a new one and i was too nervous of being judged to book my levi tattoo this time + partly bc of covid i havent gotten a tattoo in a year so i decided to go with one(s) i already had planned

heres the results!!

tw// some healed scars and a little blood

i decided to get 2 pieces done on my wrists

this lamb?? a breeze. i love it very much

THE CROW!!???? idk if u see (/s) but my skin here is VERY angry and prior to these tattoos i have never bled while getting one (the lamb bled too, but just a little).

as a whole i severely underestimated the toll these would take and completely disregarded proper prep (eating before, sleeping well, bringing WATER) and even tho my artist gave me a couple smoke breaks, by the end of the crow i was more or less going into shock, aka cold sweats, dizziness, ears ringing

it wasnt my artists fault and he was super nice!! someone else bought me orange juice and water and waited till i was ready to keep going. im normally v v good abt the pain, but Man.

what was bad on my artist was he waited until the day of to finish my designs. the shop itself played this old loud grunge music - which i enjoyed a lot but became overwhelming after a couple hours with the pain.

afterwards: i went home, passed the fuck out and woke up feeling achy with a fever. i literally took an at home covid test but little did i know that i had tattoo fever (never had that before either).

ur body/mind WILL treat the tattoo process as trauma and treat it as an injury. i am still (~a week later) a little sore lol. the toll it takes will sometimes make u sick for a day or two, which i was. after more sleep and some fever reducers i was all better and i fucking loved my new art.

then i took off the bandages. in the past my artist had always used a kind of saran wrap, but these were proper breathable adhesive bandages. i didnt take them off properly also my artist didnt tell me so as a result ive been dealing with peeling off this VERY sticky residue b/n regular cleanings and lotion to deal with the itching while they heal

heres a pic i took today:

I LOVE THEM I LOVE THEM SM !!! theyve healed rly well, even the raven which i was most worried abt. it's still a process but im happy and im planning to schedule my aot tattoo soon. im thinking a lil birthday gift to myself will be my levi tattoo in late july :3 eee im so excited

anyway if u've read this far then THANKS ik im rambling lol

#tattoos #should i make a tattoo tag? maybe #tattoed

12 notes · View notes

consistent-self-destruction · 2 years

Text

i am so !!! happy !!! right now !!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i almost never post on this silly little digital diary when im happy, most of my posts are vent posts LMFAO.

ahh but seriously i'm in such a good mood sigh. for like the past week and a half i've been in a mental / physical yucky space. i had a major asthma attack for the first time in 3 years and it made me a little leftover sick and super congested so i just felt icky for days but it's finally mostly cleared up so i feel so much stronger and less sad weak-bodied, head throbbing, loser lungs vibe yas. then i finally got my covid vax ( only god knows why it took my parents SO FUCKING LONG ). and my arm was hurting like a bitch yesterday but it's feeling a lot better today - like i don't feel any pain. i woke up early today and took a nice cleansing shower and did skincare and just taking care of my body felt so refreshing and i feel so light ( but not light headed, a grounded kind of light. like sturdy but gentle walking feet and free-spirited aura and posture <3 ). i made breakfast because it's been a while and it's become a form of self care for me and i ate outside and enjoyed the sun yayayay. i need to go outside more often, it's healing. and the house is clean and tidy so clean space clear mind !! all that's left is my room which i intend to get to literally !! right !! now !! well once im done with this LMAO.

other things making me happy: just little interactions with people. sometimes interacting with people makes me so happy - whether it's friends or mutuals or people i'm getting to know. it's such a simple pleasure. this girl i've always wanted to be friends with from school added me on snap and i told her that i always thought her and her friends were so cool and she said "omg i love you" and it was just so sweet. and my friend kym is making me a playlist !! she's an angel ugh. and last !!! got in touch with one of my roommates for college !! hehehe so exciting.

i have a lot of worries and stressors but with such a positive start to the day, they've been pushed to the back of my mind for now, which is nice :) it's gonna be a good day, it already has been hehe. now to clean my room and make it even better yas

- 7.31.22 | 12:58 PM -

0 notes

fanficmemes · 3 years

Note

Mordecai and rugby have a gay experience with Drake an josh

That's the title

This is the fic:

Its was a normal dick sucking night for Mordecai and Rigby. They were sucking each others dicks, while also thinking about new ways to suck dicks. Unfortunately, the two had gotten sick of sucking eachothers dicks.

“ Hey Mordecai! I love sucking dick and all, but can we try doing other things with our dicks? ” Rigby asked, with a dick next to his face.

“ I don't know bro… I only know how to suck dick, and not much else. ” Mordecai admitted, with a dick next to his face.

Mordecai then went back to sucking Rigby's dick, but this dick sucking didnt make Rigby happy.

“ NOOO!!! If the only thing you want to do is suck my dick, then I think we should start seeing new dick buddies! ”

Rigby was then about to walk out of the house to find a new dick buddy, but then when he opened the door, he saw two very famous guys.

“ Holy crap! You two are Drake and Josh from the famous Nickelodeon tv show Drake and Josh! ” Rigby said, while holding his dick in excitement.

“ That's right Rigby! We are here because we can tell that you and your dick buddy are suffering from dick withdrawal syndrome, so we are here to help! ” Drake explained.

Drake and Josh walked into the house, and stood in front of Mordecai. Mordecai was about to say something, but then looked down and noticed the large dicks on Drake and Josh.

“ Dang! I wanna put my lips on those dicks! ” Mordecai said, while grabbing his own dick.

“ Sorry Mordecai, but you gotta learn how to use a dick in different ways! ” Josh explained, as he and Drake grabbed Mordecai, and held him down.

“ Ahhh! What are you doing!? ” Mordecai yelled.

“You gotta learn how to take three dicks in the ass! Rigby, get over here!” Drake said.

Rigby then ran over, with his dick in hand.

“ Oh ya! I have wanted to put my dick in his ass for years! ” Rigby said.

Before they put their dicks in Mordecai, Josh did a dick roll call.

“ Drakes dick, check! My dick, check! Rigby's dick, check! Mordecai's dick, check! Alright, we are ready to go! ”

The three of them then stuck their dicks into Mordecai's ass at the exact same time. While they were fucking Mordecai with their dicks, Josh was jerking Mordecai's dick off.

They continued to use their dicks to fuck Mordecai for a few moments, until they started to get annoyed with Mordecai's screams. They tried to rub his dick more, but nothing would stop the screaming. But then Josh had an idea.

“ You two keep shoving your dicks into his ass, i'll be right back! ” Josh said, as he ran off.

Josh ran to the bathroom, turned the lights off, and preformed a ritual.

“ ...Dick...Dick...Dick… ” Josh mutered.

At first, nothing happened. But then… He saw a figure appear in the reflection. Just as he was trying to figure out who the figure was, the figure spoke.

“ Hello! Im Dick Cheney! Why have you called me? ”

Josh was very surprised that the ritual actually worked, but he was also of course happy to see that Dick Cheney was now here.

“ I need your help Dick Cheney! My friends and I are sticking our dicks in this guys asshole, but he won't stay quiet! We tried jerking his dick, rubbing his dick, and nothing is working! You gotta help us Dick Cheney! ” Josh pleaded.

Dick Cheney thought about it for a moment. After making up his dick, I mean mind, dick Cheney pulled his dick out, and got ready to be a very good dick buddy.

“ Now show me where your dick buddies are! I have a dick to take care of! ” Dick said, while holding his dick.

The two dick buddies then walked back to their dick buddies, and saw that Mordecai was still screaming. Dick Cheney was already annoyed by this, so Dick pulled his dick out, and got ready to make things quiet.

“Hi Mordecai, i'm Dick Cheney and i'm gonna shove my dick down your throat so that you will stop annoying your dick buddies! ”

Dick Cheney then shoved his dick down Mordecai's throat. Mordecai tried to scream, but Dick Cheneys dick was shoved so deep in his mouth, that Dick Cheneys dick was in Mordecai's lung. The dick buddies were quite happy with Dick Cheney's work.

“ Nice job Dick! Your dick sure did the trick! ” Rigby complimented.

“ Ya Dick! Your dick is quite amazing! You are a true dick buddy! ” Josh added.

The dick buddies then continued to fuck Mordecai. However, after some time, the dick buddies decided that they needed some more dick.

“Hey dick buddies, let me call up some more dick!” Drake said.

Drake then pulled out his dick phone, and called the gay dick loving cousins of the KKK… The GayGayGay.

“ Hey dick lovers! I know you guys want some dick, so us dick buddies decided that it would be best to invite you fellow dick lovers here! And just so you dick lovers know, we have 1 dick, 2 dick, 3 dick, 4 dick, and 5 dick. We have five guys worth of dick here! So be sure to give us dick buddies a visit! ” Drake said to the GayGayGay.

After five minutes of doing dick stuff, the GayGayGay finally arrived.

“ Hello dick buddies! We are the GayGayGay, and we are ready to do some dick stuff! ” A GayGayGay member said, while pulling out his dick.

All 10 of the GayGayGay members then went up to Mordecai, and shoved all of their dicks into Mordecai's ass. Unfortunately, the level of dick was way too much for Mordecai's ass, so Mordecai was literally torn in half.

“ Oh no! My dick buddy is dead! ” Rigby cried.

Rigby then grabbed his dick, and started to cry. But then Josh calmed him down.

“ Don't worry Rigby, we can use the power of dick to perform a dick ritual that can bring back out dick buddy! ”

Everyone then made a circle around their dead dick buddy, grabbed another dick buddies dick, and performed the dick ritual.

“ Dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick, give us the dick now! Dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick dick, we want the dick now! ” The dick buddies chanted.

Then suddenly, a bunch of white dick magic shot out of every dick buddies dick. The dick magic hit Mordecai's dick, and brought him back to life. When Mordecai woke up, he grabbed his dick, and tried to run out of the house while screaming.

“ Ohhhh no you dont dick buddy! ” Drake yelled.

Drake then grabbed his dick, and used it to dick lasso Mordecai. After he pulled him back, Josh grew his own dick to the size of a baseball bat, and then used his giant dick to brake Mordecai's legs.

“ AHHHHHHHHHH!!! Why are you doing this to me! ” Mordecai asked, while crying and struggling to escape Drakes dick.

“ Because… You are our dick buddy! And you will suck dick, ass fuck dick, lick dick, rub dick, dick dick, and more! ” Josh replied.

Mordecai was then dick fucked by everyone in the room. Eventually, the pizza delivery dick boy, the pool dick boy, and even Gay Greg got involved. Mordecai spent the next two weeks getting dick fucked, until he was finally rescued by Uncle Grandpa, Shadow the Hedgehog, David Chappell, and Colonel Noodle.

Mordecai was taken to the hospital, and then was put into the witness protection program. Mordecai fell into a deep depression, and committed suicide by choking on his own dick.

6.5/10 I deadass only held it hostage bc I thought it was funny 💀

#asks #cursed asks #I posted the wrong ask 💀#rip soup #my bad my bad

39 notes · View notes

ndoandou · 3 years

Note

Hi!! I saw your requests were open, so uh could I request an Ikevamp headcanon for Arthur, Theo, Vincent and Isaac reacting an MC who is super energetic. Like, as in she could literally dance around the mansion without having a care in the world? ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Yeah lol pls feel free to take your time with this request and have a nice day!! ༼ つ ◕◡◕ ༽つ

This is cute 😳😳

This ended up being wayyy longer than i thought it would be. Arthur's part went deeper than i thought it would be-

This is probably one of my longest headcanon/scenario, i hope you enjoy 😌

Lets say for context, MC is sweeping through the hall while humming, and as time went by her humming becomes louder. Eventually she straights up start singing while twirling and dancing around

Arthur

The first encounter with this trait of MC kind of surprised him. He wasn't expecting young lady to be this active and bright

Gets along very well with her actually

He doesn't mind her energetic personality, but sometimes in gets in the way when he is working on his stories.

He doesn't see her as "annoying" like what most people woukd describe her

He just thinks that she has so many things in her mind (in a good way) that she expresses them all at once //my mans pulling off a doctor doyle 😳

Arthur was in his room, trying to concentrate on his writing when he heard MC singing loudly outside

"I dare say, she is one active lady." Arthur said to himself as he exhaled.

Arthur got up and openned his bedroom door, revealing MC who was singing and dancing around with the broom

MC noticed arthur who was leaning on the door frame with a defeated expression

"Good afternoon to you arthur!" MC greeted him cheerfully, which then she went back to singing and dancing around

"Good afternoon to you too, dear" arthur said which MC probably didn't hear

Once he tried flirting with her but it all flew over her head

This one time MC and arthur was left alone and he tried to make a move on her

Arthur leaned over to MC's ear and whispered

MC seemed unbothered and let him lean over to her

"Seems like we're left alone, love.. would you like to have some fun?" Arthur whispered suggestively

MC was an innocent and very bright girl but she wasn't stupid

"Hm? No. Oh! Arthur can i ask you something?" MC asked unbothered by arthurs invitation

This took him by surprise

"Oh..ehm, go ahead poppet."

"Am i annoying?"

Arthur was blown away by her question.

"Annoying? No, no. That's not it, love. Why do you ask?" Arthur asked her curiously. He wasn't expecting this question from her.

"Ahahaha..! It's nothing important, its just when i lay down at night, i start realizing the unpleasant looks i get from some people whenever im doing something or saying something. I tell myself not to be annoying but i lose control of myself the next day." MC said cheerfully as if what she felt wasn't anything serious at all

Arthur felt really bad after hearing that. He realized that she was being misundertood badly.

He realized that behind that cheerfull personality, she had such deep thoughts

He wasn't expecting her to reveal her most vulnerable side to him out of everyone

He realized that the time he looked defeated arounded MC must have been in her memories

"Oh..oh dear me. I didn't know you felt that way, and im sorry if im one of those people who made you feel that way." Arthur said, with a sympathetic look on his face.

Arthur realized that MC never wanted to cause discomfort to anyone with how she is.

"Hmm i probably sounded REAL silly with what im saying, you can pretend that i never said anything, honestly!" MC said casually as she got up from her chair

"Wait! Hang on a second, poppet. Sit back down" arthur said as he gestured her to sit down, which she did

"I dont think you are annoying. You are just misunderstood, love. It seems to me that you have many going on in your mind that you express them all at once, like a big ball of energy." Arthur explained to her

MC's eyes widen

She found his explanation rather accurate

"Oh..you..you think so?" MC said taken back by the way arthur described her

"Yes, yes. I have an idea for you, poppet. If you want to learn how to express yourself better, how about you try writing all the things in your mind- in any form you want." Arthur suggested

MC's face lit up

"That sounds very fun!" MC exclaimed

"In fact, i want to do it now!" MC said as she jolted off her seat hurrying over to the door

"Oh, and thankyou very much arthur. You are the first person to understand how i feel" MC said smiling genuinely as she headed out

Arthur felt his heart skip a beat.

Without realizing, his cheeks were tinted pink

"By jove! What is this feeling?" Arthur said to himself

Surprisingly, MC was seen in the library writing away in peace most of the time, when she isn't doing her chores

If arthur was working on his own work, MC would sit next to him and start writing aswell

She would write poems

Everyone was worried if MC had fell sick because it was very unusual for her to be this quiet, but arthur just explained that she found herself a new hobby.

Mc would show arthur what she had written, and arthur woukd be blown away everytime.

Everyone got curious with what MC was writing, and when they read her poems, their brains just melted away

Even when vincent brought one of her poems to shakespeare, he became shookspeare

Everyone actually encouraged her to publish her works to the public

MC was excited with that idea, but she said she would give it a thought

Occasionally MC would be the ball of energy she was, but she settled down more

Vincent

He would find it extremely adorable!

Just combine MC and Vincent together would make them the angels of all angels

For context, vincent would be entering the mansions gate after visiting shakespeare

He noticed a dancing figure in the hallway through the window

As he entered the mansion, he could already hear MC's singing voice from the second floor

He goes upstairs and there was MC singing and dancing around with the broom

"Hello MC! You seem very energetic as always" vincent greeted with a smile

He would ask MC if she was singing a song from her time period

He would even ask her to teach him how to sing the song

Vincent isn't an energetic person, but MC's personality rubbed onto him

He would only be energetic around her as she is basically the catalyst xD

Vincent would end up dancing around with her, spinning around through the hallway, laughing and singing

The night after goofing around with MC, she was stuck in his head

He got up from his bed and went over to his art supplies.

He had the strong urge to paint her

The way she danced, sung, and laughed created a crystal clear image in his head

After spending the whole night painting, he was knocked out asleep from morning to afternoon

MC was sent by sebastian to wake him up

She recieved no answer when she knocked, which then she invited herself in

When she came in she saw a beautifully done painting of her

Feeling her heart skip a beat

For once she felt really shy instead of her energetic self

"V-vincent, its afternoon" MC shook his shoulder gently

Stirring up, vincent woke up

"Oh..good afternoon MC. Thats strange, usually you would yell at everyone to wake them up."

Being fully awake, he noticed that her cheeks were tinted red

"Whats wrong MC? You seem rather flushed" vincent asked softly

"The painting.. it's beautiful." MC said, smiling shyly

Realizing his painting was exposed in his room, he blushed into a deep shade of red.

He wasn't mentally ready for anyone ESPECIALLY her to see it

It went silent for a moment and they both avoided eye contact

Not being able to take any more of the awkward air, MC went back into character

She started giggling

"W-what are you embarrased for vincent?" MC said surpressing a laugh

"You tell me MC." Vincent said with a chuckle finally melting away from the awkward situation

Eventually they were both laughing full of joy, even everyone was wondering what was going on in vincent's room

Long story short, they are the inseperable ball of joy 😌

Theodorus

He finds it SO iritating but he can't bring himself to hate her

Despite being so annoying she still had that angelic aura that reminded him of vincent

He already finds the mansion's residents irritating (except vincent ofc) and they arent even as energetic as MC

Wont admit that he adores her at the same time

"HONDJE! For the last time, shut up!" Theodorus shouted, his head poking out of his bedroom door

He was trying to have his afternoon nap after a long day of wheeling and dealing some art.

"Dancing and singing is good for the mind and body! Would you like to join theo?" MC said ignoring his harsh tone

Looking at her with annoyance painted on his face, he glared at her then slammed his bedroom door shut

"Guess he doesn't.." MC said to herself, continuing to sing and dance around

A few hours after that theo payed vincent a visit in his room

He wanted to ask him for advice on how to deal with how loud and energetic MC is

He would have asked arthur but he would most likely give him advice on how to get into her pants

"Come in, what's bothering you?" Vincent invited him, noticing the conflicted look his brother had

Theo sighed folding his arms

"Broer, how do i get hondje to shut up? I keep yelling at her but she never stops" Theo asked, irritation clear in his voice

"Don't call her that! She's a very sweet person" Vincent scolded

"S-sorry broer.." theo appologized looking like a sad puppy

Vincent gestured theo to take a seat next to him

"Well, i understand where you are coming from. She is very energetic indeed." Vincent said

"So..how do i stop her from driving me crazy?" Theo asked

"You say you would yell at her to be quiet right? How about.. you try talking to her VERY nicely" vincent said, emphasizing the word "very"

Theo looked at his brother, confused

"Broer.. are you sure?" Theo asked

"Yes! She is someone you have to speak kindly to for her to listen. Trust your big brother!" Vincent said cheerfully

Vincent ended up teaching theo how to speak to MC the rest of the night

As expected, the next day MC was singing loudly once again

Theo was going to go shout at her but he remembered what his brother said

He gulped and exited his bedroom approaching her

MC who was singing and dancing stopped in her tracks when she noticed a figure standing behind her

She turned around greeted with theo who had a stiff expression

"Good day to you theo! How can i help you?" MC asked cheerfully

"I.. uh hond- i mean MC. C-could you please lower your voice p..please? I am- i'm trying to rest. I would v-very much appreciate y-your coopera..tion." Theo said stuttering allover the place while fidgetting

He wasn't used to being nice to people

It went silent for a bit

"Oh my! How strange, you aren't yelling at me! My appology theo, i didn't know i put you in such distress!" MC said with a guilty expression

Theo was blown away by her response as it just sounded way out of character, making him feel guilty

"O-oh! Don't worry, i appologize for always yelling at you." Theo said flailling his hands all over the place.

MC looked at him and started laughing softly

"O-oi! What are you laughing at hondje!" Theo exclaimed, his face red with embbarasment

Secretly, he felt refreshed after hearing MC laugh again

"Ahaha! My appologies, you just looked and sounded very adorable! It's..ahaha.. very unlike you theo!" MC said, laughing

Theo's brain stopped working, i mean did MC rly just call him adorable

"Whatever! Im going back to my room!" theo stomped away, face still red

"Alright, alright! Have a nice rest! MC said still giggling

Theo slammed his door shut and slumped down against the door

"Maybe.. hondje isn't that bad at all..." theo said to himself

ISAAC

Poor boy will have a mental breakdance

ESPECIALLY when hes reading or doing some cool kid stuff //p h y s i c s

Atleast she doesn't tag along with arthur and dazai...

He knows that she is a kind soul, just has too much energy >:(

He doesnt hate her of course! He just wish she would tone it down :(

Isaac was in the library reading a book when MC started humming while she sweeped the floor

The humming slowly became a string of "lalala" and soon enough she was singing

"Goodness me, MC! This isn't the first time you have distracted my concentration.." isaac said as he burried his face into the book he was reading

Considering how soft isaac's voice was generally, MC did not hear him.

Having enough of it, He shut his book close aggresively and proceeded to walk out the door, slamming the door

The sound of the door slamming alerted MC causing her to jump slightly

"That was really loud..where did isaac go?" MC asked to herself

That was when she heard the door open, revealing leonardo

"Hello leonardo! By any chance, did you come across isaac? He suddenly left and i dont know why..." MC said

Leonardo lit up a cigarrilo and spoke

"Ah yeah, by the looks of it.. you might have upsetted him by accident, cara mia. I saw him stomping through the hallway with a sour look on his face" leonardo said calmly, inhaling his cigarrilo

"W-wait what? I..upsetted him?" MC asked in disbelieve

Leonardo noticed the unsettled look on her face

"Calm down cara mia, here take a seat" leonardo said as he gestured her to take a seat in front of him

MC sat down with a conflicted look on her face

"Heres the thing cara mia- you are a very bright soul and isaac..he is a quiet kid. He finds loud noises distressing especially when he is focussing on something. In this case.. i assume you were singing loudly around him?"

This realization hit MC like a truck

"Oh no! I never meant to make him feel uncomfortable.." MC said sadly

"I need to make it up to him...but how?" Mc continued

Leonardo leaned back to his chair

"Well, as you know, isaac has a monstrous appetite. It will be his meal time in a bit. Maybe you could bring his meal to him and talk things out with him

MC's once gloomy face lit back up

"Thats a great idea! Thankyou very much leonardo!" MC said as she stood up, hurrying out of the library

When MC arrived in the kitchen, he was greeted by sebastian who was plating up some food and rouge.

"Good afternoon sebastian! Is that for isaac?" MC asked

"Indeed, why?" Sebastian asked curiously

"I will take it up to him, since i also have something to discuss with him" MC reasoned

Sebastian stared at her for a bit

"Very well." He said

As soon as sebastian finished plating things up, MC took the tray and headed to isaac's room

She took a deep breath and knocked his door

"Come in." He said calmly

MC went in and placed the tray next to him

Isaac looked up which then his face twisted into discomfort

"Oh..thankyou" he said simply

"Im sorry.." MC said sadly

Isaac's expression showed confussion

"Huh? Why are you apologizing?" He questioned

"You left earlier, because i was bothering you right?" MC questioned back

Isaacs heart melted a bit. He felt like he did something mean considering how he saddened someone who he thought would be the last person in the world to be sad

"Oh! Oh..that.." isaac exclaimed not knowing how to respond to her question

"I really am sorry. I have always been a loud and active person that sometimes i forget about the people around me. I just fall deep into my own world once i do something..." MC explained

Somehow isaac could relate to her words. He knows how it feels to be so engulfed in what you are doing that you just forget about everything else

Maybe her peronality is like his deep interest with physics..

"Dont worry about it... i kind of understand what you mean..im sorry for storming out like that" isaac said, guilt in his voice

It went awkwardly silent for a bit

"Oh! I have an idea! What if... you shout out "gravity" whenever im being too loud around you? Im 100% sure that will alert me!" MC suggested cheerfully

"P-pardon?" Isaac asked unsure if he heard her right

"I guess that was an awfull idea..." MC said as her expression dropped once again

Isaac felt really bad when he saw her sad expression

"N-no! I.. i will think about it.." isaac mumbled, which MC heard

"Really?! Thats great!" MC exclaimed

"So...are we on good terms now?" MC continued

"I suppose you could say so.." isaac said shyly

"Good, good! I will head out now, give me a shout if you need anything" MC said as she left the room

Since then MC and isaac had formed some sort of frienship. Leonardo was glad to see that isaac was finally speaking up, guess its thanks to MC that a tiny portion of her personality slightly rubbed onto him

The day came when MC was being too loud

This time, isaac was playing chess with arthur as dazai watched them

Just like always MC started singing loudly

Isaac took a sharp inhale

"GRAVITYYY" isaac shouted on top of his lung scaring arthur and dazai at the point they probably ascended to a different dimension

"Oh! Sorry isaac!" MC said

"Bloody hell, isaac! I know you came up with the concept of gravity, but what the on earth was that for?!" Arthur said with a hand on his chest that was beating fast

" i think i pooped myself" dazai said as he hurried out of the room holding his butt with his hands.

Isaac stayed quiet, not answering his question

"Back to the game please" isaac said calmly

Arthur just sighed still wondering what all of that was

#ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp arthur #ikevamp vincent #ikevamp theo #ikevamp isaac #ikevamp headcanon #ikevamp headcanons

134 notes · View notes

7wanderingpaws · 3 years

Text

Captain Bucheon 01

(gif is not mine)

Pairing: Baekhyun x reader (Lee Nari)

Genre: policeman AU; enemies to lovers AU

Warnings: langauge

A/N: First chapter! Yay! Super excited! Also, the feedback I got for the prologue - THANK YOU SO MUCH. Im super excited and happy and grateful. Hope you will enjoy this one! ^^

story masterlist masterlist

: prologue

>>>First<<<

Loud screeching was what woke you up. Thundering of footsteps down the corridor made you groan and turn in bed because for god's sake, it was Saturday morning and they just had to be loud at 10am!

Your roommate, lying in the bed just four feet next to yours, stirred awake too, though considering her eyes were fully open, she must have been up for a while now. “I’m glad it’s them waking you up and not me.”

You sighed and managed to smile but you were tired. Life in dormitories sucked, but yours even more so since you were assigned probably the worst dorms in the campus. Having to share bathroom and shower rooms made you leave your comfort zone. But finding toilets in the terrible state you did just purely horrified you. Why weren’t some girls flushing the toilets?!

“You know very well I won’t kill you if you wake me up, Yuyeon-ah,” you mumbled, your voice hoarse. Having Yuyeon as your roommate was the only positive aspect of the dorm life. Some would argue it’s the most important one but you were selfish and you wished you had a private bathroom like the other, more advanced, dorms had. There wasn’t even a kitchen where you could cook your ramyeon deliciously!

“Doubtful,” muttered Yuyeon, amused, and she moved to sit up and start her morning routine while you decided to lie around for just a little bit longer.

Working tirelessly many evenings made you tired and the exhaustion always caught up with you during weekends, where, frankly, you didn't have work. Also, it being the beginning of your second semester, the tension and stress were on but you decided you wouldn't let it affect you too much. You have had enough stress in your entire life and you swore you would become your usual cheerful self.

And you had been, indeed, working on it. But that meant getting over, and hopefully, forgetting everything that happened almost one year ago. Your brother was still in prison and your family, terribly disappointed and in pure shock at what had become of your brother (plus your underage drinking fiasco), you all decided it would be better for you to move to the dorms for the time being. Another story was forgetting about the person who was behind the entire turn-over of your life.

Byun Baekhyun.

You never saw him after that one time he came to your high school. In that moment, you were numb, paralyzed and it hurt to see him. He dared to act like he cared. But over the time, you grew hate towards him. A hate that was weirdly combined with some emotions you really didn't want to pay too much attention to, because they were all based on a fake relationship. A relationship, that was something so beautiful, just for it to end up becoming a complete nightmare. A trauma. A terrible trust issue that you might never be able to get rid of.

It was safe to say that you, Lee Nari, would rather spit at Byun Baekhyun than ever start a conversation with him let alone acknowledge his presence were you to meet him. Not that you were expecting to meet him. After all, you had been incredibly careful - especially around Oh Sehun - in avoiding him by never-ever-ever-ever even coming as much as close to the street where the main Bucheon Police Station was located (but too bad for you; it was literally in downtown Bucheon) and even if you had to cross it, you whined and had to be dragged by your wrist (by Yuyeon). On the good side, there was never a chance for you to cross his apartment building as he lived in a different neighborhood. So that was, thankfully, out of the possible trouble inducing locations’s list.

But still, you couldn't help feeling anxious about spotting him somewhere. The first few months, you might have been looking around with too much hope, wanting to see his real self instead of the ogling at the few photos you had together stored in your phone. Just one glance of his eyes, nose, lips was what you wanted; it was maddening.

Then the flashes of that day came back, ruining every sweet memory, every sweet touch of his engraved into your skin, every stroke of his lips - it all vanished, instead morphing into his stern, burning gaze of which you were on the receiving side. The way he blamed you, the way he wanted to arrest you, and then the way he wouldn't let even your own mother hit you yet he gave you the harshest of punches… The moment of you overhearing his conversation with his tall colleague (you already forgot his name) until your entire world crashed on you. He lied. He never liked you. He never wanted a real relationship with you. He used you to get to you. Byun Baekhyun wanted to arrest you and then he arrested your brother and smashed your heart into tiny pieces. How could you ever recover?

“What, you're not getting up?” shrieked Yuyeon when she came back from the bathrooms, towel hanging around her neck. “The results of the votes are today so you better get up and prepare. You're the school's star, missy,” she grumbled and went over to her table, continuing her complex skin-care routine.

Right.

The way to get over Byun Baekhyun was to live and you could do that thanks to your friends.

Pfft, you had places to be. Forget about Byun Baekhyun.

Because of your communications major, you somehow ended up in the university’s student council. You were representing your school year but it was still unclear how the hell you managed to win over more than half of your classmates when all you ever did was hide or be with Yuyeon.

You entered Bucheon University with pretty damaged self-esteem, your cheerful self still recovering from the scandal. However, despite always doing something mischievous with Yuyeon neither of you had a huge circle of friends. It was only natural that the two of you did everything together. Even now, it was mostly you and her, plus Sehun and some other friends. Unfortunately to you, many males voted because of the nature of your chest. The quiet girl with huuuge boobs, they were saying with hushed voices.

“Don’t pay attention to them, it’s you winning at the end of the day,” advised Yuyeon at the time.

So when the both of you waltzed into the seminar room with a round table in the middle and took seats (Yuyeon was there for your moral support), you could only glare at one senior who was sitting opposite you, his eyebrows wiggling as he shamelessly drunk in your chest which was, as per usual, hidden under an L-sized hoodie. It seemed you could never escape.

When the president of the student council, Chul, appeared you all stood up and bowed to him respectfully even though he was a student just like you. He was the oldest though.

To your surprise, he walked straight over to your chair, throwing a charming smile at Yuyeon, who let out a quiet scoff in return, before leaning down to whisper in your ear, not forgetting to touch your shoulder gently: “May I have a chat with you? It’s rather private.”

When he leaned away, you blinked twice but nodded and followed him outside for a moment. You could hear whispers erupting after you left though you paid no attention to them.

“What is it, Chul?” you asked, crossing your arms over your chest. Chul was one of the very few who never got distracted by it and you were thankful. He helped you a lot in your first semester, like finding you a job and teaching you how to drive a scooter so that you could easily do the deliveries while introducing you to some other interesting people on the campus.

“So about the spring festival - I have two things,” he started, his gaze set on your eyes, always making sure he reciprocated the eye contact. “First, you are taking part in the relay running for our team with representatives. Second, you have been requested as the MC-“

Before he could finish, you sighed holding out your hand to stop him, feeling the nerves kick in, not even paying attention to the first news. “Those votes aren’t even valid. They are all mocking me, Chul. Besides, I don’t wanna do it.”

Chul let you finish, patiently nodding. “Well, hence me stealing you from the meeting.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been requested,” he repeated, emphasizing the last word, “by our main star.”

“I thought we haven’t heard back from the agencies yet?” you asked. You’d written countless emails to various agencies, asking for special famous idols of theirs. To your utter distaste, it also included Siamsa but you couldn’t tell anyone you knew what an annoying, fake bitch she was.

He shrugged. “Well, we heard back from a couple. Siamsa agreed to be the main star of the festival under one condition,” he murmured, lowering his voice. He pointed his index finger at you. “If you’ll do the MCing for her.”

That left you speechless. That delusional woman wanted what now?! “I don’t want to, Chul,” you shook your head, frowning.

It made you wonder why you were getting nervous in the first place. Was it because of her status and having to stand in front of your entire school or was it because of the connection you both shared and that was Byun Baekhyun? Just the idea of having to face her and having to be reminded that she dated your ex made you weirdly sick in your stomach.

He sighed, scratching his neck. “I’m sorry, Nari, but I’m afraid I’m gonna want you to accept it. She is the hottest idol out there and everyone wants her the most. Imagine the attention our university - and especially us, the school council, could bring in. Don’t let us down,” he added gently, though you could sense authority in his voice. Chul was always fair, you had to admit. He never asked you to do anything that made you uncomfortable, never asked you the reason for your reluctance in the past but now he insisted and it showed in his intense gaze.

“I’ll help you with the preparations,” he added, smiling encouragingly. “You’re much more outspoken and talented than you give yourself credit for, so I’m sure you’ll be a star just like Siamsa.”

Well, he really didn’t have to say that last sentence. If there was someone you wanted to be like, it was your good old self. Of course you had more talent, after all you were the big-mouthed one.

Chul patiently waited, seeing that you were mulling over the options. When you looked up at him, you slowly nodded while hating yourself. “Fine. I’ll do it. But-” you stopped him from smiling widely, “what happened with the original voting? Who won?”

“Obviously, you.”

You shook your head quickly. “But I mean who is the actual winner?”

“Not important,” he muttered, brushing past you. “Let's head back inside. Not everyone has the time to sit around waiting on a Saturday.”

Once the meeting was over, you couldn't wait to spill the news to Yuyeon but needed to wait until lunch time, when you would meet Oh Sehun. You had sent him a text earlier asking if he was still grabbing lunch with you and Yuyeon (secretly you were writing these messages for obvious reasons - you couldn't risk he would be with Baekhyun). Since he had agreed, you and Yuyeon were speed-walking to the cafeteria, both of you hungry.

Once sat down and joined by the tall friend, you looked around varily just to make sure he really came alone.

Sehun sighed, tired with your dramatics. “I'm alone, Nari,” he rolled his eyes as he was mixing his tuna bibimbap. “And now spill. The both of you have been acting like rabbits on energy drinks.”

Shooting him a frown, you still rambled away for ten minutes, telling them what had happened. Yuyeon knew about Siamsa and your past experience with her and Sehun also knew the vital triangle connection of Siamsa, Baekhyun and you. He still seemed shocked and even uncomfortable when he heard your entire story.

“What made her request you?” he asked after he swallowed a big chunk of food. “I mean - does she even know your name? Your university?”

“And you literally met her a year ago,” added fervently Yuyeon, deep frown wrinkling her forehead.

Just like your friends, you also had many questions but no answers. Mulling over various possibilities, Sehun finally spoke up: “Should I ask Baek-”

“No.” Your answer was abrupt, but cold, empty and harsh to which Sehun winced the slightest bit. Even hearing his name made your heart race fast and hence the sudden cold behavior. Sehun knew you as a cheerful, kind girl so seeing you being affected by his friend to this extent made him quite perplexed but nothing he wasn’t used to by now. It was his fault; he should have known better than to bring him up.

Yuyeon shot you an unsure look but this time, you ignored it, focusing on shoving around the rice in the steel bowl with the spoon.

“You should have declined,” tried Yuyeon.

“I did decline,” you answered eagerly. “I feel like that bitch might have something up her sleeve. If she does, I should be ready.”

Sehun was flicking his gaze between you and Yuyeon, thinking over your words. Surely, things you didn't know about could hardly hurt you, right?

After lunch, Sehun bid his goodbyes to you.

“Where are you off to?” you pouted, looking up at him with puppy eyes. “It’s Saturday, let’s do something fun!”

“I’m going to the running tracks today with my friend,” answered Sehun and ruffled your hair in amusement to which you pulled back and away from his sneaky hand. “Maybe later, hm? I bet you’re gonna do something with the student council anyway.”

“You and your running, aish!” grumbled Yuyeon. “Go, go, we don’t need you anyway.”

“Don’t get into trouble!” Shouted Sehun as he turned to walk towards the gymnasium and the track field. He waved one more time before he had his broad back on you.

You scoffed and grabbed Yuyeon’s hand, yanking her towards the dorms. “Well, making trouble has been more challenging since we are old enough to do trouble,” you exclaimed, jumping a few times to make Yuyeon walk faster. She whined and tried to pull away but your grip tightened and you snickered. “But that doesn’t mean we still can’t go and have fun tonight!”

“Let’s do one more round.”

“Hyung,” groaned Sehun tiredly, feeling the sweat dripping down the sides of his face. “Enough.”

“One more.” Byun Baekhyun shook his head once before he took off for another round. “Losers will keep losing!” he shouted with a cheeky, handsome smile, running backwards for a bit to check on Sehun and when he saw the tall male run after him in challenge, he snickered and turned back, dashing off into a sprint.

It’d been like this for almost a year. Baekhyun was always a gym buddy with Sehun but in the past eleven months, Sehun became a small, indirect punching back. Whether it was because he suddenly became a mutual friend with a certain someone or whether it was a punishment for being there that night with her, he didn’t know. He didn’t want to know.

One thing he surely did know was that running helped him ease his mind and relax, maybe make him feel a little bit more numb like he so wished to be.

Getting rid of any intruding thoughts of Lee Nari was difficult. He felt sorry for her, the victim of his job. Fooling around with a young girl was not his plan but he knew he did it for the better good. He tried to persuade himself that he did it for the better good while pushing back the need to search for her and make sure she was doing alright.

As he was nearing the finish line, Sehun caught up with him and they both jogged towards their bags nearby the tracks to freshen up. Sehun was heaving like a parched horse which made Baekhyun chuckle as he reached for two bottles, throwing one to his friend.

“Cheers,” exhaled Sehun harshly and quickly opened the bottle, gulping down the needed liquid.

Baekhyun hummed in reply and waited for his heartbeat to calm down before he would have a sip. “How’s everything?” he decided to ask. “The new semester just started.”

Sehun swallowed and closed the bottle. “It’s just the first week. You know the drill - introductions and boring stuff.”

“Nothing interesting happened then?” Baekhyun was very subtle in hints. Sehun was, thankfully, quick-witted.

“We will have the university festival in May,” he replied with the slightest of smirks on his face. “Siamsa is confirmed to perform.”

Baekhyun wasn’t looking at Sehun and even the information he just heard wasn’t worthy enough to make him pay attention. “Cool. She is an artist after all.” He noticed some girls approaching the track and he felt a small tinge of dissatisfaction. He really liked when the track was only his.

“One of my friends will be the MC. Actually, guess what! Siamsa made a special request. Funny, right? In what universe does a singer of her caliber ask for a mere first year student?”

Baekhyun snapped his head to Sehun. “Why?”

Sehun shrugged. “We don’t know why she wanted her out of everyone... though-“ Sehun pulled a thinking face. “It might have something to do with you.”

Baekhyun sighed, already feeling tired. “I don’t like that one bit. Siamsa is sneaky.”

Sehun nodded. “She didn’t want to do it but her senior kind of ordered her. So I guess she doesn’t have another choice.”

“What kind of senior is that if he makes her do stuff against her will?” huffed Baekhyun, his hands on his hips. “Isn’t he supposed to be there to support her?”

“Well, yeah. He did a lot for her so she feels like she has to do it.” Sehun decided to not share any more than that despite sensing Baekhyun’s questioning stare. He knew Baekhyun wanted to know what that “a lot” meant.

When Baekhyun knew he wouldn’t be getting more out of Sehun, he sighed and tapped his shoulder. “Thanks for telling me.” He moved to grab his bag from the floor when Sehun stopped him.

“Hyung.”

Baekhyun raised his eyebrows in question, waiting.

Sehun opened his mouth but then ended up closing it. Baekhyun was a tough nut to crack. It was obvious he was always interested in Nari’s well-being but him pretending not to do so was frustrating.

“I think-“ he re-started, remembering Nari’s emotionless face when he mentioned Baekhyun earlier that day. He opened his mouth to talk but Baekhyun was faster:

“I think it is better to leave everything up to her, Sehun. She is a smart young woman. If anyone can do well, it is Lee Nari. After all, she is finally able to do everything she was pretending to be doing.”

Sehun snorted a laugh, mockingly rolling his eyes. “And since when did you become so-ugh, respectful about that? Nari is stubborn and doesn't know anything about life.”

“It is none of my concern, Sehun,” replied quietly Baekhyun, looking somewhere off in the distance. “But I know she is stronger than you give her credit for.”

“She might hate you and she might not be over what happened between you two-”

“I locked up her brother,” gritted Baekhyun, “and before that, I wanted to lock her up. What makes you think there is any way for both of us to function normally even if we do meet?”

Sehun sighed. It was difficult to communicate with the both of them. Yes, they were both hurt but goddamn it. Anyone could know they cared for each other.

Baekhyun sensed Sehun's dilemma and so he stepped to the taller male and gave him a curt smile. “Don't push it, Sehun. She will be fine.”

Sweat was gradually collecting around your hairline until it turned into one huge tear drop travelling down the side of your face. The text message was as clear as the night sky.

Unknown number

drop it at the 1047 unit

top floor

“It's impossible,” you muttered, feeling yourself becoming nervous. You were standing in front of 1047 and it was definitely not the top floor. It was the first floor, just like the first number indicated.

Gnawing at your bottom lip, you raked your head about possible connections you could contact when you couldn't deliver the boxes as you were supposed to. There was never a responsible person, only an unknown number sending you messages with the quest and a requirement to always be careful (you supposed the carefulness was concerning the boxes). You would receive a confirmation message when the box was in safe hands. That was it. No unnecessary contracts; just you and the job at hand.

You tried calling Chul, you senior. After all, he was the one who fetched you the job but even he wasn't available at that moment.

When you were just about to lose your mind, your phone rang making you almost drop the box. Thank god for your reflexes. “H-hello? Chul?”

“Hey, what's up?” he chirped.

You told him quickly your problem but you weren't expecting his light voice to become more serious. “You can't find the place? Are you sure you are in the right building- shit, the time is almost up. I'll be there right now:”

Heaving out a breath, you checked your wrist watch. The box was supposed to be delivered within fifteen minutes. How would Chul make it in time for you, you weren't sure but you soon found out when you heard his rushing steps, his phone's screen lit up with the exact information you were provided with.

“Hey,” he breathed, taking in your worried gaze as you gave him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry for the fuss.”

He shook his head once, muttering a single “no need” before he took the box out of your arms and put it down in front of the door. Grabbing your hand he started pulling you downstairs. “We gotta get out of here.”

“Huh?” you looked back at the box helplessly, before you couldn't look anymore, instead watching out for your step on the stairs. “Wait - Chul, I need to fulfill the task.”

He shushed you and before you knew it, you were outside in the chilly air. Dragging you a few more metres, he heard an approaching car's engine and he was fast to push you into a small alley that was barely lit by any street lamps.

“Chul-” you started, frowning. You didn't like him manhandling you like that.

“Do you trust me?” he whispered as he made you press your back against the wall.

“Yeah,” you breathed, eager to hear any information he could provide you with to explain what the hell was going on.

To your utter horror, a police car drove by, but you weren't terrified about why the police car was there. You were terrified about a certain someone sitting in that car and you possibly having to face that certain someone. Just the thought of having to see his shocked or disappointed face yet again made you inwardly whimper.

When the car was far enough, Chul turned to you. “You are doing a great job, you really are. But you mustn't, by any means, get caught by the police while doing deliveries. Got it?”

Feeling your heart thumping loudly from the adrenaline, you nodded. “What about the box then?”

Chul cursed when he looked at his phone. “Three minutes left. Go in and check the box. If it's still there, take it to the top floor as per request. Sometimes they give misleading information to you in case your phone gets stolen. Next time, make sure to double-check all the information they give you, okay?”

You were nodding eagerly and already started walking back to the small apartment building.

“I have to go but write to me if the mission is successful. Now go, quickly,” he said and without waiting, took off into the opposite direction.

Due to the stress, you didn't even stop to think about the weirdness of the situation. Rushing back in, you went to the first floor where you left the box. You were rendered motionless when the box was no longer there.

Someone took it.

Feeling fear creeping into your system, you took out your phone to call Chul just when you received a confirmation message.

Unknown number

the box has been successfully delivered

#exowritersnet #baekhyun #policeman au #baekhyun fanfiction #baekhyun angst #baekhyun fic #baekhyun scenario #kpop au #kpop fanfiction #exo fanfiction #superm fanfiction #CB #mywritings

81 notes · View notes

pokeexehasstoppedworking · 3 years

Text

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch3 Meeting The Champion

After giving Gloria's mother your good bye's you exited after Gloria and paused. Eyes widening at the sight of beautiful spacious meadows and all kinds of plants including what looked like the beginnings of a forest over towards the very far right.

"Y/N! C'mon!!" You blinked and looked down. Gloria was waiting right next to Hop, she waved to you as you looked down at them and you nodded back in under standing.

As you took a few steps from the home, you turned your head to look around the front of it. A cottage like in a cliche fairytale greeted you as well as leaved vines hanging all over from the roof hanging down from it. The front of the house consisted of potted plants and flower bushes, a wheel barrel with a few gardening tools inside, and a small space of fertile brown dirt surrounded by a ring of stones filled with more plants. A little farther away was a stone fence leading down the dirt path you began walking down to the two teenagers, you passed a small grass type pokemon who babbled something in it's own language at you happily. You thought if memory served right it was a Budew?? But you didn't pay much attention to it before walking the steps down towards the two kids, noticing some more sheep pokemon near the two of them. One of them the kids were watching one of the sheep pokemon continously roll and bump into a wooden fenced gate over and over again.

Hop blinked from the sheep pokemon for a moment and looked over at Gloria as you reached the bottom step and chuckled. "Hahaha! Have a look at you, Gloria! That old bag looks like it could pull you over! At least we know that it should hold anything Lee might bring, even if it's as big as a snorlax!"

"Hey! I happen to look great in this! It matches my hair perfectly!," she huffed back and Hop continued to chuckle before blinking and turning his head towards you, "Oh hey, Ms. Y/n! Glory said you were gonna be traveling with her since you two were heading the same way."

You nodded. "Yeah I guess so. But you can just call me Y/n."

"Alright! Cool!" He turned his head along with you and Gloria when a loud thump from your right caught your all's attention. It turned out it was the second sheep pokemon thing. It rolled like a ball and had rammed itself into the wooden fence that lead off towards the forest you woke up in. "A Wooloo..." Wooloo? Was that what they- OH!! Now you remember! You had to really start wracking your brain if you wanted to get past this. "But what's it doing here?" He watched as the Wooloo rolled hard into the fence again. "Hey! You silly wooloo! I see what you're up to! Don't go using Tackle on that fencing!" The pokemon turned to him and gave off a loud baa in protest at Hop. "Now you listen! No going past that fence! No!" He scolding wagging a finger at the pokemon like a parent scolding a child. " Everyone knows there are scary Pokemon living in the Slumbering Weald! " He looked at you for a second. "Well almost everyone."

"Meeeh?" The wooloo protested again but didn't try to tackle the fence again.

Hop nodded and turned back to Gloria and you. "Now that that's been taken care of...How about it, Gloria? Let's race! Bet I can make it to my house first, what with you lugging that big old bag!"

"I don't think that's a good idea. Y/n could get lost and she's never bee- HEY WAIT!!" She reached out just as Hop chuckled, turned, and ran off down the dirt path with his wooloo pal right behind him. "HEY!! THAT'S CHEATING AND YOU KNOW IT!!" She sighed shaking her head and turning to you. "Sorry 'bout that. He must really be excited to see Lee again." She smiled and pointed. "C'mon! I'll show you the way to his house. Knowing Leon, he's going to be late again seeing as it wouldn't be the first time he forgot where his own house was too."

"It's alright. I can get why he's excited,'' you assured her.

"Oh, do you have a brother too?" She started walking and you followed.

"Nah. Only child actually. It must be fun having a brother like you and Hop tho."

She shrugged. "Somtimes. When Victor and I were babies everyone kept mixing the Postick twins up until Ma eventually stopped making us wear matching outfits."

You hummed and decided to take in the town's scenery as you followed her, rubber gumboots making squeaking noises. If you remembered right, meeting Leon for the first time in the game is also where the player (or in this case Gloria) got their starter pokemon for the game. Maybe it would be the same for here too. You looked around at your surroundings as you two stepped over a bridge and creek. There was a small herd of wooloo in the distance, as well as a windmill, a couple farms, a few houses, and a silo. A few butterfly looking pokemon fluttered in the air near the wooloo herd but their name escaped you in the moment. It was just really pretty to look at..although your mind wondered elsewhere. Back home. What was your mother thinking right now? Did she think you ran away? What if she was worried sick right now and reported you missing? A guilty feeling eased into your gut. You never wanted to make her worry. But now-

"Hey, Y/n. Are you ok there?" You blinked and turned to Gloria who cocked a brow as you both walked. Passing a middle aged man with dark brown hair, maybe one of the NPCs? "You were kinda staring off there for a minute."

"Hm? OH! Uh..N-No Im fine. Just thinking about something. Ahehe."

Gloria still stared at you but shrugged and continued walking to a brick house not very fair away from her's actually with a small comcrete rectangle with a pokeball painted into it, and like gloria's had some potted plants around it too.

"Hey, Gloria!" Both of you looked over to a small boy sitting on the brink fence who waved friendly at you. "Hop was looking for you, you know! But no need to go to the next town to find him when he lives right next door, right?"

"YEAH! Lucky me!," she called back before gesturing to you. "C'mon! You're going to like Hop and Leon's mom! She's like my mom but with a more stubborn attitude."

You didn't say anything but followed her and wondered how this would go. You two continued to go down the road and you noticed Hop was waiting rather impatiently by the white door.

"Hey! I thought we were trying to hurry!"

"Well I told you to wait up! Y/n could've gotten lost!" She retorted back.

Hop through his arms out. "I literally live across the creek from you-....You know what? Let's just go inside and see if Lee showed up in the five minutes I was gone!" He grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open. "Oh. You can come in too if you'd like Y/n. A friend of a friend is my pal too!

You smiled. "Thanks!"

"Or got lost in the ten minutes you were out," Gloria mumbled but Hop didn't hear as he went in and you both followed.

You stepped into a small room similar to Gloria's home, with a pink wall in front of the door, more gum boots, vase of umbrellas and a stairway leading away to a second floor. Hop went to the left and you two of course followed after him into what else, a kitchen. But this one was a lot more bigger you thought than Gloria's. This kitchen had biege-tan wallpaper, green cabinets, and more space to add a whole table and a couple chairs too. Oh wow! Way bigger than your kitchen back home that's for sure. In there was a woman. Her purple hair just above her neck, wearing a yellow shirt with jeans and green house shoes, and atm she was shopping what looked like carrots, lettace, and other veggies. But she paused and turned her head when she heard footsteps come in. Her golden eyes and skin tone matching Hop to a T.

"Mum!? Is he here!?," Hop asked excitedly.

The woman stopped chopping the carrot in her hand and fully turned to you all. "There you are at last, Hop! Oh, and you've brought Gloria along. Hello, Dear." She greeted and smiled as soon as she noticed the brown haired gal. But her eyes blinked at you. "Oh. And who's this?"

"Hi, Mrs. L!," Gloria greeted happily and loudly before jabbing a thumb at you behind her. "This is Y/n! She's going to be my traveling partner when my journey starts! Isn't it cool! Maybe Ill even get a rival before I even leave town too!"

"Is that so?" She smiled at you. "Well hello to you too young lady-"

"Yeah, yeah! But where's Lee!?," Hop interrupted impatiently tilting his head at one of the green cabinets, "Have you got him crammed in a cupboard?"

"Hop!" The lady said in that mother tone. The one that made all kids freeze when they heard their name be called in THAT tone. And that's exactly what Hop did as he paused and his mother placed one hand onto her hip with a frown. "Now don't you be so rude like that especially in front of guests. He's still not here yet! For the hundredth time...Honestly, Hop, you must learn some patience!" Hop mumbled an apology and his mother sighed. "He's probably only just arrived in Wedgehurst."

"Wedgehurst?" You asked.

"The station just down the road," Mrs. L answered you.

"Then that's where I'm going!," Hop exclaimed pointing out the window towards the outside, "You know Lee is hopeless with directions. I'll make sure he doesn't get lost on the way!"

"Oh, will you?" Mrs. L asked amused...before humming in thought. "Yes, that probably is for the best..."

You jumped with Hop suddenly turned to you with an excited smile. "You've got to come with me, Y/n! You've still never met my big bro, right?...Wait. Have you met him?" You shook your head no as an answer. Because technically you didn't. Only in a video game. "Oh good! You can't miss out on your chance to meet the undefeated Champion!" He then turned to Gloria. "I'll wait for you on the route!" Before running off again.

"HOP! WAIT!'', Gloria whined but the door was already slamming behind Hop's form and she groaned. "UUUUHHHHH!!! Leon is bad with direction just as bad as Hop is with patience!!"

The chuckles and head shake of Mrs. L is what directed you both back to her. "Go on with Hop to pick up Leon, won't you, Gloria? I know you're the reliable sort. I'll have everything ready for a barbecue in the garden by the time you're all back!"

Gloria sighed. "Sure, Mrs. L. You can count on me." She waved you to follow her as she turned and trudged towards the door. "C'mon Y/n. We ca-"....She paused mid step and her eyes went wide. ".....BARBECUE!? AH MAN!! I FORGOT ABOUT THAT!?"

You blinked. "Forgot what?"

She groaned and continued walking. "Today's not the actual day we're leaving on our journey." She peeked at eye at you. "It's the day we're getting our new pokemon partners from someone. The journey part is a few days later."

"OH! Well that's alright,'' you assured her. Honestly not a bust to you either if it meant you'd get to see some more pokemon too. "Im sure it'll be fun!"

Gloria seemed to be a bit mopey at her remembering her new predicament, but still went ahead with you out. She pointed back down the road where you came and you nodded following her back up the road, before turning right and seeing Hop waiting for you two just a few yards way, as you two approuched he smiled wider.

"Let's get a move on!," he shouted excitedly, "Only remember, Gloria..Wild pokemon come out of nowhere if you walk through patches of tall grass! I've got my Wooloo with me, so I'm ready for battles against wild pokemon, of course! But not you, Glory. So we'll steer clear of tall grass as we go."

"Gee. I never knew that," Gloria rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I was just giving you the same advice Lee gave me...Oh wait." He looked at you. "Do you have any pokemon on you Y/n?" Gloria turned to you too at the question.

"Uh....Well...I n-never even owned an actual pokemon before," you answered reaching a hand up to rub the back of your neck.

"WHAT?! How could you not ever own a pokemon before?"

"Eh...I was busy traveling?" You gave a shrug with the excuse as Hop shook his head.

....Hop shook his head. ''Well anyways, we better get to the station before Lee gets lost trying to find his way home. The last thing we need is him somehow ending on top of Old Lady Harriet's barn again."

"Yeah. I'll never know how he ended up there," Gloria replied.

"Well....Let's go meet Lee at the station!" He turned and pointed down the road, waving his other hand in a 'follow me' motion. "It's dead ahead from here!" He then turned and began jogging down the road.

"HEY! You really need to learn to be more patient! C'mon Y/n!," Gloria yelled before running after him.

You blinked, but with the old back pack over your shoulder, you jogged after the kids. Running down the hill and past a sign reading 'Route 1' and towards what looked like a train station the closer yougot...and the closer you got the more you blinked. It looked like....people were there. A small gathering that became more apparent the closer you got following the two teens. The rest of the town could also be seen the closer you got. Soon you were running over a stone bridge right behind the crowd of people and came to a stop, heaving for breath right beside the two teens. ...Oh right. This must've been the scene in the game where Leon and the player first ever meets! ...But this crowd was definately much BIGGER than the one you remember from the game. You blinked and looked around the murmuring people. There must've been thirty maybe forty people here of all kinds of ages waiting for Leon. And you weren't the only one to try and look over the crowd. Both Hop and Gloria were hopping and leaning this way and that to try and peek around the crowd blocking all the way around the train station.

"DO YOU SEE HIM?!", Hop asked Gloria in the middle of her holding her hat to her head and jumping up to peer over the crowd.

"NU UH!! The place is too packed!!"

You blinked and had to stand on your tip toes just to try and glimpse the doors to the station yourself. But you caught just a glimpse of the big doors open and two figures coming out-

"ITS HIM!!," Gloria shouted and you jumped at her suddenly next you you.....sitting on top of Hop's shoulders as he grunted to keep them both upright as he held her up. But gasped excitedly at her announcement. "AND HIS CHARIZARD TOO!!"

"REALLY- AH!!"

Both kids toppled over and you hurried over to them to make sure the two were alright. In the meantime the crowd began to cheer louder than ever!! You were just helping Gloria up as she was rubbing her head when the deep man's voice sounded off.

"Hello, hello, Wedgehurst!!,'' the man's voice called out making Hop instantly get up with a gasp scrambling to his feet, "Your Champion, Leon, is back!!"

"LEON!!" Hop scrambled to the crowd as you helped Gloria to her feet. Desperately jumping and waving his hands around to get his attention past the crowd. "LEON!! HERE!! OVER HERE!!"

"I promise I'll keep doing my best to deliver the greatest battles for you all to watch!!," the man's voice shouted off again happily.

"Are you ok?," you asked Gloria looking her over as she nodded and dusted herself off.

"Yeah. Won't be the first time we tried that trick!" She looked behind her and quickly scooped up her hat laying on the ground next to her and plopped it back upon her hand as the crowd began shouting cheers of praise drowning out Hop's voice in the back.

"It's our unbeatable champion!" "Leon, you and charizard are the best!" "WE LOVE YOU LEON!!" "SIGN MY BOOK!!" "THAT'S THE MAN MY DAUGHTER WENT TO SCHOOL WITH!!" "LEON!! MR. LEON!! PLEASE LET ME GET A PHOTO OF YOU IN YOUR VICTORY POSE!!" "LEON!! LEON!! LEON!!" "WE'RE ON IT!! We've all been working on our battle skills just like you've taught us, Lee!!" "But that charizard of yours is to strong for the likes of us to take on!"

"LE-ON!!," Hop desperately called out trying to see past two very tall men, unfortunately being drowned out still.

The poor champion hadn't even noticed the figure of his younger brother through the crowd as he smiled and tried to answer the crowd as best as he could. "Well thank you for that! I hope you all carry on training up your pokemon and never shy from battle!....Oh! Of course Ill sign it for you little buddy!...Then come challenge me for the Champion title!...Too true Charizard is blazingly strong. But other pokemon can be strong as well! That's why I want the strongest of challengers to fill the Gym Challenge and come battle me! My wish is for Galar's Trainers to work together to become the strongest in all the world!" You also thought you heard a dragon call from his charizard to, but you couldn't be sure with this massive crowd. "....OH! Yes! Of course! I'd love to have a picture with your daughter!"

"Im never going to get Leon to notice me!'' Hop had taken a few steps back from the crowd and looked upset to see no openings in the crowd. "At this rate, Leon won't get away until it's nighttime!"

"Maybe you could stand on my shoulders?," Gloria offered.

You stood there for a moment taking in Hop's pleaing face and the crowd. ...Well you didn't want these two trying to stand on one another and falling over again. You'd feel bad if they got hurt while around you even if you weren't they're babysitter...but maybe there was another way. The idea hit you in an instant and you smiled. "Hey Hop!" He looked towards you and you signaled for him to come over to you. "Come here so I can lift you up! He might be able to see you better if someone taller helped you." Actually you weren't sure if you were physically strong enough to hold up a teenager, but it was probably a safer way than two kids climbing on top of each other like a jenga game.

But Hop's face lit back up. "GREAT IDEA!!"

He then came over to you and turned around as you grabbed him under the arms when he faced the crowd. "Ok, ready?" You asked and he nodded yes. "Ok. Hang on cuz I haven't tried this before."......Yeah. This plan wasn't as easy as you thought it would be. It was like trying to lift a hundred pound stone with your flimsy noodle arms as you grunted and somehow by some miracle managed to lift the boy and pull him up to shoulder level with one of the tallest people in the back. Certainly still not tall enough to be noticed- The wieght all of a suddenly became lighter when Hop lifted higher, and you briefly caught a glance why when Gloria had placed her hands under one of Hop's feet and pushed him up higher with both of your combined strength. Enough for the smiling boy to be hoisted a head or two above the back crowd. "Please hurry up and work!" You hissed arms shaking. You weren't sure how long you two could hold him up.

"LEE!!" Hop shouted at the top of his lungs and waved his arms around just as Leon turned back forward.

He blinked for a moment surprised to see his little brother so high up, before he smiled widely. "Hop!" He called back and made his way towards his little brother. Charizard in tow.

"HE'S COMING!!"

Whelp that was enough to get you two to start lowering him down and when he was safely put back onto solid ground you both groaned. Gloria shaking out her hands and you leaning back to stretch out your sore arms. Well....at least it worked. Hop was practically (excuse the pun) hopping in excitement as the crowd slowly parted and before them walked forth the champion of galar! He was-....Honestly he was a lot more goofy looking than you remembered. Maybe it was the giant grin? Or the bad sense of direction?? Or the laugh he gave when his baby brother hugged him and he hugged back. Which you did smile at.

"Lean!" Hop shouted into the hug. "I missed you!"

"So, my number one fan in all the world has come out of his way to pick me up!" They soon pulled away from each other with Hop absolutely beaming up at his older brother. "Look at you, Hop!" He hummed eyeing him a moment. "I reckon you've grown....exactly an inch and a quarter last time I saw you!"

"Bingo! That's the sort of sharp eye that's kept you undefeated for so long, eh, Leon?"

"Hm. Well it's funny because for a moment I could've sworn you got a growth spurt and grown taller than me," he teased back and Hop shook his head turning to you and Gloria.

"Nah. They helped me out in getting your attention."

Leon turned to the two of you and Gloria smiled widely when his smile landed on her with another hum. "And these bright eyes over here...I've got it! You must be Gloria! Am I right?" He asked in the same teasing voice which made Gloria playfully roll her eyes. "I've heard LOADS about you from my little brother."

You blinked. That's right. In the game Gloria (or Victor) never met the Champion before Hop had them help retrieve him from the train station-

"Oh knock it off, Lee! You know it's me." Her response from him was him ruffling her hat and hair playfully.

"Oh y'know I was just teasing! It's good to see you too, Glory! How's your Mom and Victor doing?"

Gloria giggled before shaking her head at the ruffling and reaching up to fix her hat. "Fine. Pretty sure Mum's helping with the barbecue dinner and Victor started his journey earlier this year."

"Wow. He did? I must've missed a lot since being back."

Wait. What the-...Oh that right! Gloria did mention a few times she knew Leon since she was smaller. So not only were Victor and Gloria twin siblings here, but they both definately know Leon personally too. That's two differences between the game and this world so far...other than the larger crowd too, but you made a mental note just in case they came up later.

"There you go again." You blinked at Gloria again as she rolled her eyes. "You were staring off at nothing again, Y/n."

"Oh..Uh sorry. Just thinking about something....Again." Gloria rose a brow but you looked up past her when Leon stepped beside her.

" Oh. So you're the other one that helped Hop, yes?" He asked in a friendly tone and smile.

Before you could speak tho, Gloria chimed in proudly. "YEP! That's right! Not only did Y/n help but she agreed to be my traveling buddy for my upcoming journey!"

"Is that so? Good for you Glor! But I don't think we've properly been introduced." With a swish of his cape Leon proudly pointed at himself and smiled confidently. "I'm the Galar Region's Greatest ever Pokemon Champion!...And a massive charizard fan, too! People call me the Unbeatable Leon!"

You couldn't help the chuckle and smile you gave and he smiled wider. Did he always say things so playfully or funny like this in the game? This was definately a goofy older brother type.

"Come on, Lee! And you two, Gloria! Y/n! Bet I can beat the both of you back home!"

"You're on! And this time I can finally catch up with you!"

Hop smirked with a challenge. "Oh yeah!" Gloria opened her mouth- Hope turned and bolted back up the dirt road. "LAST ONES THERE IS A SMELLY SKUNTANK!!"

"NO FAIR!! YOU NEVER SAID GO!!" Gloria shouted running right after him.

Leon laughed out loud watching the kids run off and shake his head. "That Hop...Always wanting to be the best, isn't he? With a proper rival of his own, I bet he'd push himself to become something truly speacial..."

"Oh he will. I know he is-..." You froze up as he turned to you. OH CRAP! How could you be a dummy and forget you already knew what would happen!? Quickly thinking you held up your hands and sputtered out, "B-Because he has such a great role model! H-H-He r-r-really looks up to you y'know! You're a really kind person and good brother!" He blinked seeming surprised and you again froze up. Oh CARP! Was that too much!? Did you come off as a wierdo or something!?

"Thank you!".....You blinked staring at his smile and made a 'Huh' sound and he chuckled again. "I said thank you. That's honestly really nice of you to say so. I always try to be the best person and role model I can be for Hop and others like him. It's just one of the many duties as the best Galar Champion."

"Uh...Your w-welcome."

He smiled and turned back to the watching crowd with another cape swish. "Well, everyone! I bid you farewell for today! But don't you fret..." In a sudden blur he struck a pose with his arm pointed towards the sky and the crowd cheered loudly for it! Giving the same hand signal back. "I'll always be around to make sure everyone in Galar can have a Champion time!" You couldn't help but smile as he did so. Yep. At least this Lean was pretty spot on from the vaugue memories you have of when you played the game. He turned back to you with a smile. "Hey. Since the kids already ran ahead why don't you race me there? It'll be fun!"

Well....Why not? You were stuck in a video game and meeting the greatest rival between Gloria and the game's ending, and you heading home. One race just back up the road wouldn't hurt right? So you agreed and off you two ran back off towards Hop's house........AAAAAnd it turned out if you thought you were out of shape by lifting Hop up for a few seconds, you were sitting on the ground a lil ways from Leon who patted your wheezing form making sure you were alright. Eventually taking a seat in one of the green lawn chairs while Lean excused himself to speak to the children after you confirmed to him you were alright after your short run. His Charizard standing a lil ways from him. Whatever it was Lean was offering it was exciting the two teens in front of him.

"Come on, Lee!," Hop whined, "You promised us a present! So out with it!" ...OH! That's right. This was the part in the game where Hop and the player got their first- "You brought Gloria and me pokemon. You did, didn't you? I know you must have!"

Gloria snapped between the two brothers gobsmacked. "Wait...LEAN!? Is giving us our first pokemon!? We're getting our first pokemon from THE Champion!? NO WAY!! You've got to be kidding me!"

"Glory, where did you THINK we'd get them?"

She shrugged. "I mean-...Ma gave Victor the wild wooloo she caught. Y'know. The one that kept getting into her garden to eat it, so she caught it and gave it to Vick before he left-

Both children looked up when Lean cleared his voice to get their attention. "Right then." He smiled brightly placing his hand on his hips. "The greatest gift from the greatest Champion. It's show time, everyone! Take a good look you two!" In a fluid motion Lean pulled three normal pokeballs out of nowhere and tossed them towards the battlefield area beside the three. Here you go. You leaned forward to watch in anticipation as three absolutely ADORABLE pokemon popped out. A green plant monkey looking pokemon, One that looked like a rabbit with a band aid over his nose, and what you could only think of as a blue chameleon newt looking one. "Meet your new potential partners! The Grass-Type Pokemon Grookey! The Fire-Type pokemon Scorbunny! And the Water-Type Pokemon Sobble! I made sure to reveive the best of the bunch for you three!!....Well-" Lean scratched the back of his neck. "I had assumed Victor would be here too, but hey. More variety right?"

You along with the other three watched as the three happy pokemon chittered and ran around. Grookey climbing the tree and then scampering over to a fruit on the branch, chittering excitedly and began tapping it with the stick from it's head. The Sobble diving into the pool nearby. And Scorbunny running around the field leaving flame footsteps in it's wake. And you smiled at their little antics...until it went kinda wrong. The sobble spat a small spurt of water that accidentally his the poor scorbunny and you watched as the poor fire type pokemon jumped in shock from the sudden shower and ended up colliding into the branch the Grookey was on before falling to the ground by the pool. Luckily Grookey didn't fall but the fruit it was insterested in did. It fell with a splash into the small pool startling the sobble into leaping out of the water. The poor thing gave off a couple cries until it's two counterparts scampered over and comforted their pal in their own pokemon language.

"All right!", Lean called to them, "Everyone line up!" The three little pokemon happily did as he asked and as soon as the three were lined up he turned back to his brother and Gloria gesturing to them. "Which will you choose?"

Gloria looked at them with glee and excitement in her eyes. You guessed Hop must've noticed her eagerness because he pointed at them. "Go on. You pick first. I've already got my Wooloo, after all." Said sheep pokemon baaed next to him.

Gloria gasped and turned to Hop wide eyed. "REALLY!? AW! Thanks, Hop! You're the best pal ever!" Hop chuckled with a small pink hue to his cheeks-...Huh. You didn't think that happened in the game. But Gloria and you were soon distracted by the teen's determined face. She scanned over the three excited pokemon smiling up at her carefully, like how you would when you would do homework. ....Eventually her brown eyes went back to the middle pokemon and pointed. "I chose you as my future partner and totally cool companion!!"

Leon smiled at the excited bunny-like pokemon's expression. "Ah! Scorbunny is Fire Type. It's filled to bursting with Fiery Passion! You're set on the Fire Type Pokemon Scorbunny?"

"You best your champion title I am, Lee! I can tell we're going to get along great!" The small pokemon did a number of excited hops bringing up flames from it's feet. "Can you do a fist bump buddy?" The small pokemon nodded and when Gloria offered a fist the Scorbunny bounced up and delivered a cute punch to her own. Aw!

Lean chuckled. "Well it's no surprise you chose the one riled up with confidence like yourself. Go get his pokeball there and we'll let Hop pick next."

Hop nodded. "So it'll be Scorbunny for you? Nice one! I'll go with...Hm." His gold eyes glanced between the two hopeful pokemon as they stared up at him as he studied them carefully....Eventually pointing to- "Grookey! You're mine!" And the small money pokemon chittered in pure glee. "I'm aiming to be the next Champion, so be ready! You and I'll be doing some serious training!" Hop's new Grookey made a chittering noise, chittering again when his Wooloo baaed at him again.

"I bet you will be, Hop," Lean spoke in a gentle voice and Hop blinked up towards him when Lean patted his back with a proud look, "That's why I brought these pokemon along for you and Gloria. So the two of you can battle and train and grow stronger together...to try to reach me!" Hop smiled at him, but the brothers were soon distracted when a sad noise reached their ears, which turned out to be Sobble crying most likely from being the only one not to be picked. A surprised look came over the champion but soon he smiled and pulled away from Hop to walk over to the crying pokemon. Sobble stopping his crying as soon as his shadow fell over him. "And you'll come with me!" Lean smiled down at the sad pokemon. "Charizard will show you the ropes! He's strict but real strong and real kind, too!" Lean's charizard made a grunt noise behind him and the poor sobble looked more scared of the giant dragon looking pokemon than happy.

"Hey, Lee." Lean hummed and turned to Hop as the young boy picked his Grookey's pokeball from the ground where his brother had thrown it, looking unsure between Sobble's expression and his brother. "That might not be the best idea, bro. Sobble's looking kinda...spooked at the idea."

Lean blinked. "Oh. You think so?"

"Yeah..." As if struck my lightning, the boy perked up at an idea, whipping around to you still watching silently from the table. "Hey! I got a great idea! Why don't you take 'em instead?"

.....You...blinked and it took a moment for you to realize what he was implying. And all you could do was point at yourself and ask, "Who? Me?"

Hop nodded. "Why not? You said you never had one right? This could be a great way for you to get to experience what it's like! And I'm sure sobble over here would really appreciate it." At the mention of what Hop said the small pokemon perked right up and chittered in question towards your direction.

You still stared...before holding up your hands. There was NO WAY you could have a real pokemon! One being you never had a REAL one, and secondly you doubted if you were ever suddenly sent back you'd be able to take this little guy with you. It'd cause more problems than solutions. "I-I don't think-"

"THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!!" You all jumped from Gloria loudly proclaiming and pointing at you. "If we're going to be traveling buddies it's better to have more back up just in case! Who knows? We could be attacked by robbers! Or what if someone tries to steal my Gym badges on my journey? Or what if you're attacked by another flock of Corvinight?? Or like get seriously hurt and I'm not around to save you!? If we're going to travel it's better to be safe than sorry! Why do you think Lean never leaves home without Charizard? He needs someone to bail him outta trouble whenever he gets lost."

"Ouch. That stings a little Glory."

Well.....when you put it like that? You really could use the extra spare muscle if you were going to be running around Galar while trying to remember how the game goes, it wouldn't hurt to have a pokemon just in case. And in either case you could just give the sobble to someone more suited or release it back into the wild when Gloria claimed the Champion title. That way when(and if-) you were sent back after she won, you wouldn't have to worry about the poor thing. So...should you accept??

"Well-...I- Uh-"

"That's not a problem is it, Lee?"

Lean hummed, glancing between Sobble's brighter expression and you for a moment before smiling. "Not at all. That sounds like a great idea considering if Y/n actually wants to take Sobble-....Wait. What was that part about her not ever owning a pokemon before?"

"SURE! I don't mind!," you interrupted before anyone could answer that question and you blinked when a small chittering caught your attention as a blue blur came scuttling towards you and you jumped when the thing launched intself clambering onto your leg and up tour body. It took you a moment to realize it was sobble and the pokemon didn't stop until it was flopped over your shoulder giving a smile to anyone watching. ......Well-......I guess you were stuck with a new pokemon now. At least until this whole thing was over with- You jumped when Gloria walked over without you noticing and placed what must've been Sobble's pokeball on the table in front of you. "....Oh. Thanks."

"All right, enough of all this Trainer nonsense for one night!," a familiar voice called out and you four looked up to two middle aged ladies coming around from the front of the house food in both their hands for the tables and the barbecue.

"MOM!!,'' both children greeted as both their mothers came out.

"Hey! Ma!," Lean greeted smiling before looking around a little more, "Where's Gran and Gramps?"

"Oh you know Dad. We can never get him away from his pragrams," Mrs. L rolled her eyes, "And Mom's cleaning your room for your stay."

"MOOOOMM!! Why didn't you remind me today wasn't actually my journey!?," Gloria whined Scorbunny in her arms, and her mother rose a brow.

"Considering this your first lesson. Always remember something important before going to run off. " Her mother shook her head before holding up the small saled bowl again. "Dinner's ready, Children. Bring along your pokemon, and let's all eat. Y/n you're more than welcome to joing us."

Your stomach rumbled catching the attention of your new sobble pal who chittered in question as you gave a sheepish smile. Golly. Had the entire day passed by already? Well you weren't going to pass on free food when it was so kindly offered and not when you were hungry. So you nodded your head in agreement and stayed seated as you watched the two ladies work. Gloria's mom had placed the large salad bowl she was carrying on the table you were sitting at and you recognized them as the Veggies Mrs. L was cutting earlier. In the meantime Mrs. L was heading right for the grill next to the table you were sitting at. Soon it was lit and the coals in it heated up a warm orangey-red color. You were watching as Hop and Lean's mother as she went back into the house with Gloria's and a moment later the two came back with plates, forks, and what looked like hot dogs of a few different colors and chopsticks. You watched silent other than a few chitters of the Sobble on your shoulder, as Gloria's mom set the table you were sitting at and Mrs. L squired the hot dogs onto the chopsticks and placed them on the grill to sizzle. OH! She was making shish kabobs. As you lazily watched them cook, the two teens were playing around with their new pokemon partners and Hop talking to Lean every few minutes or so. The sun in this world slowly lowered, and the lanturns on the shed's stone walls behind you lit up when the sun was lowered enough. It was a very peaceful scene.

"Ok, Kids!," Mrs. L called looking up from the shish kabobs she was every so often flipping on the grill but looked up as she called. "Food's ready! Come and eat!"

The two teens and pokemon cheered and came running over to the grill. Hop getting there first and grabbing two kabobs from his mother when she offered them to him. You watched as Hop smiled and ran over to Lean handing one over to him as he smiled at his younger brother. His charizard made a grunt sound as it sniffed over his shoulder and Lean began pulling off the food on the stick one by one and tossing it up, the dragon like pokemon snapping it's head in lightning fast reflexes- You jumped when Gloria ended up pulling a chair out next to you to your left and a moment later her mother sat across from you as Mrs. L sat the rest of the shish kabobs onto the table for you all to enjoy. The other people sitting down at the table and the small pokemon chittering around them, besides Hop's wooloo who baaed and Lean's charizard who grunted and made groans like a real dragon until they were all given bowls of brown kibble like food. Which you guessed must've been pokemon food. You lowered your shoulder and stretched out your arm to allow your new sobble pal to climb down it like a chameleon and jump to the ground after a bowl that was placed down for him along with the others- You looked up and blinked as someone sat next to you and you leaned back up. Staring face to face with none other than Lean the Galar Champion himself as he took seat next to you with a smike and Hop right next to him with Mrs.L sitting in front of them along with Gloria's mum next to Gloria. And passed out the food went. Good. You were starving-

"You're Y/n right?," Lean asked and you blinked back up at his smile. He chuckled and pointed a hand up. "I don't think we had the chance to talk since you all met me at the station. You helped my little brother stand a little taller-"

"And give Lee an ego boost," Gloria teased.

"Hey! C'mon Glory. She just gave me a compliment." He chuckled and looked back to you. "I also heard you agreed to be Glory here's traveling buddy. Are you two friends?"

You opened your mouth to speak but Gloria cut you off as she pointed her fork at you two. "Actually we just met this morning. She was camping in the Slumbering Weald and was chased out by a flock of wild Corvinight." She shoved the food into her mouth and you wanted to sink into your seat as Lean blinked in surprise before looking at you.

"You went camping in the Slumbering Weald? Even I wouldn't get lost there, and corvinight are big pokemon. How'd you manage to get into that mess?"

"Uh-..." Your mind raced with any possible reasonable answer to give other than 'you woke up in a video game in the middle of the night'-...WAIT!! What did you say before?? You attempted a nervous smile and spoke. "It's actually a f-funny story. You see I'm n-new to Galar! I've been uh-...T-T-Traveling around and I guess I didn't know what I'd be getting myself into." You smiled at Lean and said 'Please work. Please work. Please work.' over in your head. Luckily it seemed he bought it.

"Oh. Well at least you were able to get out of there alright by the looks of it. So...You're new to the Galar Region?" You nodded yes relieved he bought it. "I see. So where are you from?"

CRAP!! Everyone seemed to be politely watching you two now and you could feel yourself sweating. How were you supposed to answer that!? You couldn't say 'from the real world'! Quick!! What was some place in the pokemon world you remembered!? Your scared mind raced and the only one you could think of was- "Uh...I-I'm from the K-Kalos Region actually..B-But I've been..Traveling around for a l-long time so...y'know I've been here and t-there."

He blinked. "Kalos Region huh? Wow. That's a long ways from here, across the ocean even. You must really enjoy traveling."

You smiled. "YEP! It's the best!" Of course you never really thought of traveling around the world for real, but for now you'd just go along with this story.

Lean smiled at you. "I admire a free heart and spirit! So what brought you to the Galar Region? Was it just to see me?"

"She's here to see the Champion's Cup! And since she's going to be sticking around until everyone can finally battle you, I offered her to come along and BOOM! Instant traveling buddy," Gloria chimed in and you were grateful for her for making an excuse you could go on.

"Y-Yeah! That's right! It's not every day there's a big event like this! And who knows? I might just be eating with the next champion right now, or if you manage to stay champion that is."

"Oh. Well then you're in for a real treat! I have a feeling that this year is going to be full of excitement and powerful trainers like these two here," he gestured to the two teens who seemed to be proud-

"Lee." Lean froze as his mother pointed her own fork at him with a scowl. "I didn't slave away all day making your favorite lunch just so you would be too busy talking to eat it. Champion or not you're still my son in this house and what I say goes! Now hush and eat up!"

"Yes, Ma!"

You snickered as Lean immediately began eating and finally you got a break to begin eating yourself as your stomach rumbled and enjoy the delicious cooking courtesy of Mrs. L. But you absolutely made sure to tuck away your 'backstory' for now in case you needed to use it again for later. Time flew by as you all chit chatted and ate. The sky grew darker and soon all the plates were emptied out with a few of you all grabbing seconds. Soon it was time to go, and your stomach felt content. And soon good byes were had after Gloria's mother helped Mrs. L bring in her silverware and put out the grill's fire. And soon you found yourself at the front of Hop's home with all of the others saying goodbye. Your sobble having climbed back on top of your shoulder.

"Come meet me back here first thing tomorrow morning," Lean explained to Gloria. "Well run your first ever pokemon battle and Ill show you the ropes."

"YOU BET!!....Oh wait." Gloria turned back to you and blinked. "Hey, Y/n. Where are you going to sleep tonight?"

......Oh.....right. You hadn't even thought of that. "Uh...." You shrugged. "I guess I can camp outside??" You didn't like the sound of that but what other choice did you have??

Seeming to read the look on your face, Gloria's mother waved a hand. "No sweat. You can take our couch again until the kids' journies."

You looked to the older woman in surprise. "What? R-Really? Are you sure? I wouldn't want to intrude.

"Now I insist. You can stay until you're two's journey."

"....Well...If you say so."

Good byes were had as well as you thanking Mrs. L for dinner before leaving with Gloria and her mother. The scorbunny at Gloria's heels bouncing around happily and proud around his new master as Gloria went on to bragging on how she was totally going to beat Lean before Hop was going to. When you three arrived back to the cottege home, it was already pretty dark and already the lamps outside were lit. Once you were inside Gloria's Mum allowed you to use the restroom and change into the pjs you had arrived into this world with. You were so tired you barely noticed the poor Sobble scuttling around your feet chittering in concern about the munchlax sleeping away in the bed in the corner of Gloria's living room. You barely noticed as you bid the other two girls good night and flopped back on the soft couch before throwing the blanket over yourself. Luckily the quilt was left where you left it from the night before. As you laid down, the Sobble much like a cat, chittered and climbed on over towards you. Settling down in the space between your shoulder and the pillow curling into a warm ball. Not that you minded. For all you know you'd be back home tomorrow anyways and this would've been all a dream. Just your mother yelling at you for being late and missing collage....

As your eyes closed, you couldn't help but frown at the memory.

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #piers x reader #pokemon piers x reader #reader x piers #Piers #pokemon piers #reader

14 notes · View notes

bnhaficsforthesoul · 4 years

Note

yoo, okay this is a bit of an angsty request but i NEED this !! essentially, the reader loves midoriya (or anyone of your choosing, really) yet its unrequited ^^ maybe a popular ship or smth is real in ur writing, like tododeku and reader is all "oh heckles, midoriya doesn't love me" and just,, sad stuff ?? maybe even a hanahaki disease au if you'd like!!! i want it as a n g s t y as possible with no happy ending jksdhgjdsghjdsjgk thank you sm ily

Of course I had to take the chance to write a hanahaki au - idk if this is angsty enough - im bad at angst lol, but here ya go anon

No - this couldn’t be happening. You didn’t love him, you couldn’t. But - the bloody flower petal in your hand spoke otherwise. You felt the world spiraling around you, yet you were frozen.

Midoriya Izuku - your best friend who had stolen your heart and given his to another. Of course, there was no chance of Izuku returning your love, he was dating Shouto. You remember the excitement in his eyes when he first told you they were together - and the excitement you had reciprocated for your friend. If only you knew the suffering you would later go through because of him.

Of course, there is no knowing whether Izuku would have loved you if he wasn’t with Shouto - but it seemed the possibility was nonexistent at this point. So, you had 3 choices. You could muster up the money for surgery and lose all your feelings for Izuku, get lucky and make yourself fall out of love with him, or die. And right now, you desperately hoped you were lucky.

Quickly grabbing your phone off of its nightstand, you opened your messages, sighing softly at Izuku’s contact near the top of your messages, and found Momo. She’s vice class rep - so she’s probably the best person to ask to get your homework without getting scolded, and you texted her “I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to school tomorrow Momo, I’m feeling pretty sick. Could you tell me the homework so I don’t fall behind?”

It was late, so you didn’t expect a reply. But you didn’t need one - you weren’t going to school. If you weren’t around Izuku, maybe you would forget about your feelings for him and be cured. You were hoping, anyways.

You woke up the next day late in the afternoon - it’s not often you get to stay home from school - to a text from Momo, saying “Oh no! I hope you feel better, I’ll send you the notes and homework after school. Get some rest!” You smiled at her kindness and laid back on your bed. But then, you noticed the other messages in your notifications. A few on the groupchat, with little “get betters” - which you were expecting. This class treats itself like a family, people are gonna worry if you’re sick. There were also more personal messages from Eijirou, Tenya, and - Shouto and Izuku.

Shouto had also become a close friend of yours in the time you’ve known him, the two of you always being around Izuku allowed you to develop a bond yourself. So it was no surprise that he texted you, but all you felt was anger towards his “How are you feeling? Do you want me to bring you some soba? I’ll even warm it up for you.” There was a small twinge of guilt in your stomach, he obviously didn’t deserve your anger, but you couldn’t even spare him a response.

Then Izuku - how were you supposed to forget about your feelings when he was constantly so perfect? You found yourself smiling at his message, a “Good morning y/n! I hope you’re feeling better today! I’ll come by and check on you after I finish my homework :)” Sitting up, you went to respond - but you were interrupted by a sharp pain in your throat before you began coughing, and you covered your mouth with your hands only to feel the light touch of petals fall into them.

There were more than last night.

Tears welled up in your eyes as you stared at your hands once again. It hadn’t even been a full day, but already the flowers were growing rapidly. With shaky hands, you shook off the petals and returned your phone, quickly messaging “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. You don’t need to come by either, I don’t want you getting sick and I’ll probably be sleeping.”

The seriousness of your situation finally set in - last night you hadn’t seemed to fully grasp that if you didn’t do something to stop this, you would literally die. A few choked sobs escaped your lips, and you winced in pain.

You roughly fell back down onto the bed - frantically wondering what to do. Would Recovery Girl be able to cure you? Would the disease go away if you just forgot about Izuku? You grabbed your phone and started searching for answers. Articles upon articles on the disease, talking about what the misfortunate people who contract it can do to save themselves.

What you found was disappointing - there are no accounts of people being able to overcome the disease on their own, and always had to resort to surgery or death. You didn’t have the money for surgery, and you didn’t want to bring your friends into this and ask for help - but you didn’t want to die.

“What am I gonna do…” You threw your phone onto the bed and put your hands over your face, holding back your tears. As much as you simply wanted to avoid Izuku until you didn’t love him anymore, it was impossible. Sweet Izuku, who deems it his responsibility to be the most caring person on earth, would be devastated if you were to suddenly cut off ties with him. Besides, how could you when you were forced to see him everyday at school regardless. There was only so long you could feign being sick - you doubted the school wouldn’t do anything to help you.

The rest of the week was spent in the comfort of your own room - you had managed to convince your friends that you were too sick for school, and for anyone to visit. Researching options had been your top priority, mainly what the surgery entails, but everything you found made you less and less optimistic.

The surgery costs thousands of dollars, money that no average high school student would have - meaning unless you were to ask for help there would be no way to get the surgery in the first place. And even if you could, there were no certain results. With how rare Hanahaki is, there aren’t enough accounts of successful operations to rely on. Well - they all worked, those who got the surgery were alive. But some had results more drastic than others.

From the result you were hoping for - being you would simply lose feelings for Izuku and live on - to people who had completely forgotten about the person they loved all together. As much as you didn’t want to die, how would you live on without remembering Izuku? Your best friend. He’s been there for you through so much, the thought of living on without him was terrifying.

Yet, everyday you were reminded with the inevitable coming of your death. The itching in your lungs grew everyday, as did the amount of petals you were coughing out. It wouldn’t be long until your lungs were full of flowers - and you suffocated.

----

“Y/n! Are you feeling better?” Eijirou smiled brightly at you as you walked into the classroom, and you returned a soft smile before sitting in your desk. “I guess.” All you could do was be optimistic, at least in front of your friends. After a week of practically being MIA, you decided you wouldn’t worry them anymore. Besides, if you waited any longer, you’d probably wake up to Katsuki blowing down your door with 15 people behind him.

Everything was as normal, you talked with Denki and Mina as you waited for class to start, Katsu gave you a “look who finally decided to show up,” - which you knew meant he was glad you were okay - and you even managed to be happy when Izuku ran in and gave you a hug. Your smile strained when Shouto said hi to you however, both because you felt bad for having ignored his texts all week, and because you just didn’t want to be around him. At least not yet.

Aizawa soon walked into class, and everyone hurried to their seats so that class could start. It wasn’t anything special today - just some more basic hero instruction, and you were happy that you could take it easy as to hopefully not trigger your coughing. You’d be able to tell him about it after class - maybe he could find a way to let you stay out of school until you figured this out.

Still - class was especially long today. Having not been present for a few days seemingly made the period feel much longer than it truly was. And just as luck would have it, an itch began to grow in the back of your throat, and you panicked. You didn’t want anyone else knowing - you didn’t want that kind of attention on you. To be the poor soul of 1A who might die

You raised your hand, wanting to use the restroom as an excuse to get out of there.

“Yes, y/l/n?”

“Can I-”

Speaking apparently only made it worse, and before you could even finish your sentence you hunched over - beginning to cough up a multitude of flower petals. However, this time was a lot worse than the previous ones, your coughing not letting up until you were choking on petals - likely due to your forcing yourself not to cough for so long. Petals were overflowing from your hands as you attempted to cover your mouth, falling onto your desk and down to the ground.

Everyone’s attention had already been on you, and with the surprised expression on Aizawa’s face as he ran over to you - they all saw the dark red blood dripping out of your hands and the soft pink petals blanketing your desk. Your attempt at hiding your sickness had only pushed it forward, and now there was nothing you could do.

Aizawa rubbed your back until you calmed down, and you looked up from your hands to the horrified looks on your friends’ faces. Your face was covered in blood and tears - you looked a mess.

“Let’s get you to Recovery Girl, okay? Can you stand?”

You nodded, but Aizawa still made sure to hold onto your arm just in case. The room was silent as he led you out, all eyes stuck on you. As you looked back - you were met with the wide eyes of Izuku, and you quickly looked away.

Aizawa had left right after dropping you off at Recovery Girl’s, ruffling your hair a bit and giving you a soft smile in an attempt to cheer you up.

“Hanahaki disease… I don’t think I’ve ever seen this personally. I can’t promise I’ll be able to help you, but we can try.”

You sat on one of the beds as she walked around the room, grabbing a washcloth and wetting it before bringing it over to you.

“You probably want to wash all the blood off.”

As you slowly rubbed the washcloth over your mouth, Recovery Girl grabbed your hand and kissed it. Normally, you’d immediately feel better. But other than the scratchy feeling in your throat - nothing changed. You could still feel the slowly growing flowers filling your lungs, they hadn’t gone away.

“How do you feel?”

“The flowers are still there… I can feel them.”

Recovery Girl sighed, “What about your throat? I’m sure all that coughing must have hurt - does your throat feel better?”

Nodding slowly, you felt tears forming in your eyes. So she couldn’t heal you.

“I’m sorry sweetie, I’ve tried all I can. All I can do is heal the physical damage - but no matter what I do, the flowers will keep growing. And if they keep increasing their growth at this rate, soon that won’t even be enough.”

With all the luck you’ve been having lately, it wasn’t surprising that this was the outcome. But that didn’t mean you weren’t disappointed. Before you could let your emotions overcome you and start crying in front of her, you jumped off the bed and began making your way out.

“Oh - I understand… thanks anyways.”

With a forced smile to Recovery Girl - who’s worried expression only served to make you feel worse - you trudged out of her office and into the long hallway.

“Y/n! Wait up! What happened?”

Izuku chased you down the hall as you left Recovery Girl’s office, a hopeful smile on his face. Apparently he had made his way down there as soon as class ended, wanting to make sure that you were okay. That smile disappeared as he saw your face, contorted in distress as a few tears escaped your eyes. “She wasn’t able to help you, was she?”

He took your silence as a no, but still tried to be optimistic, “Well, there has to be something we can do!”

With all the pain you were in, you’d think that your main worry would be yourself. But no - that hopeless look on Izuku’s face was where your worry had settled. He obviously felt that it was his duty to help you, even if there was nothing he could do.

“There’s surgery, and there’s dying.”

Izuku’s eyes glossed over and he grabbed your wrist, pulling you close.

“You gotta get the surgery y/n! Please - I don’t want you to die.”

If only he knew what he was asking of you. Would he tell you to get the surgery even if he knew he was the one you loved? Would he let you risk forgetting about him - and all the memories you had formed together?

“I don’t have that kind of money, Izuku. And I’m not going to bother anyone with my problem.”

His frown deepened, and his eyes shot around the floor as if he was looking for an answer, “But - I’m sure everyone would help out-”

“No - Izuku. I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it, please. It’s not your problem, it’s mine. Let me figure this out on my own.”

With your words, his grip on your wrist loosened in shock, and you used that as an opportunity to pull your hand away.

“I’ll be fine Izuku, what ever happens, just let me figure it out.”

You left him standing there, worried and hurt as you ran back to your dorm room - just wanting to be alone to process the events of today.

----

A constant knocking at your door drew you awake. As soon as you arrived in your dorm, you found yourself especially drained of energy, and quickly fell asleep. You desperately wanted to just ignore the thumping, but whoever it was wasn’t going to let up, so you sighed and slowly sat up and made your way to the door.

“Shouto? What’s up?”

When you opened the door, you were surprised to see Shouto standing there. He asked if he could come in, and you reluctantly agreed. As soon as you closed the door, he started talking.

“Izuku told me about what happened. Are you really planning on doing this yourself?”

It was hard to read his expression. On one hand he looked worried, but the sharp look in his eyes proved his frustration.

“You’re really going to let yourself die - just so you don’t get anyone else involved?”

His sharp gaze made you feel almost ashamed, as if your decision was completely idiotic - although you supposed it was. But you couldn’t bring yourself to reply, you’ve already caused enough trouble as it is, you don’t want to make others fix your problem.

Shouto sighed and placed his hand on your shoulder, “I’m paying for your surgery. We’ll schedule it for this weekend, can you hold out for that long?”

Your eyes shot to his, the sharp look continuing to tell you he was serious. Even so, you gave him a light glare, crossing your arms as you replied, “What? No - you’re not! You heard it from Izuku, I’m not asking for anyone’s help.”

“Then you’ll die.”

That made you pause. It wasn’t like Shouto to be so blunt, at least not anymore, but he really was serious.

“I - … I don’t know… I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Y/n, let me do this. I know you don’t want my help, but I don’t want you to die. No one wants you to die, and you don’t want to die.”

He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so with a heavy sigh you nodded, “Fine… but - I’ll owe you something. Anything.”

Shouto chuckled lightly at that, and nodded, finally taking his hand off your shoulder as he spoke “Deal. Actually, I know what I want. Hanahaki happens when you love someone that doesn’t love you, right? So - who do you love? I’m just curious.”

Fuck. Of course he would ask that. You forced a smile, “Ah - I don’t wanna talk about that… Isn’t there something else you could ask, or that I could do for you? There’s gotta be something.”

“I don’t have anything else in mind, this is all I wanna know right now. Are you embarrassed by who it is? Or is it me?”

He laughed when he mentioned himself, but he was still looking at you expectantly. If Shouto was anything, apparently it was persistent.

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to get upset.”

“I promise.”

With a deep breath, you looked at the ground and muttered, “Izuku.”

Shouto’s face fell from a soft smile to a painfully neutral expression. The room was silent, except for your slight coughing - all the talking had edged you closer to another coughing fit, and you wanted him out before it happened.

“I’ll call the doctor tomorrow.” Shouto walked to the door and opened it, but paused before he could walk out, “And don’t worry about it y/n. It’s not your fault, I’m not mad.” At that, he fully left, closing the door behind him and leaving you alone once again. At least he understood.

----

The school had allowed you to take the rest of the week off under the suggestion of Aizawa and Recovery Girl, not wanting a repeat of last time. This time, however, you weren’t allowed to stay holed up in your room, as the class forced you out after school to spend time with them. It was times like this that you really appreciated your friends - they would help comfort you when you started coughing up more flowers, and made it their mission to cheer you up.

The weekend came soon, and Saturday morning you were met once again with Shouto knocking at your door.

“Ready?”

Bouncing on your heels, you tried to relax your panicky brain. You’d be fine. The operation would go by smoothly, and you’ll be fine. Nothing to worry about.

“Yup! Let’s go.”

The trip there was fairly quiet, you were too busy thinking about the possible outcomes of the operation - and of Izuku. It would hurt to lose these feelings for him, as much as you hated them. To suddenly not love someone anymore sounded terrible. But, you’d still be friends - and that was all that mattered.

It didn’t take too long to arrive at the hospital, only about a 30 minute train ride, and soon you were waiting in the doctor’s office to go back. It seemed it was a good day to get the surgery done too, as your breathing had gotten worse and worse by the day. You were nowhere near suffocating quite yet, but another week and you just might be.

“Y/l/n-san, you can come back now.”

You followed the nurse into the back room, Shouto following close behind you.

“So, you got Hanahaki disease, huh? That’s real unlucky, but at least there’s surgery. Now, you do understand that other than the removal of the flowers, we can’t be certain of the actual effect the surgery will have on you mentally.”

“I know, I’ve done a lot of research. Whatever happens, I’m ready.”

The nurse nodded, and smiled at you, “Alright - then just sit down right there and relax. I’ll be back in a minute, and we can get started.”

She left to grab the doctors, and you waited for them to return.

“Are you scared?”

“Just of the uncertainty. I know it’ll work, but I’ve read a bunch of articles on how the whole emotional process can go wrong.”

Shouto sat next to you on the bed, “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll go fine.”

It wasn’t too long until the doctors came back into the room, dressed and ready for surgery. Shouto was forced to leave the room, and he promised to be right there when you woke up. Once he was gone, the doctors finished their final preparations and the lead surgeon came to prepare you.

“I’m going to put you under now. Are you ready?”

You nodded shakily - both excited and scared to see what would come.

“Alright, just relax. It’ll be over before you know it.”

He put the mask on your face, and your eyes fluttered shut into a deep sleep.

----

The doctor called Shouto in as soon as you woke up, wanting you to have a familiar face to help adjust while the anaesthesia worked its way out of your system.

“Everything seems to have gone great, the flowers are gone and they’ll live.”

Shouto thanked the doctor, and went into the room. You were still a bit dopey from the anesthesia however, so he let you be, wanting you to rest, and went to call Izuku.

“Shouto! How’d the surgery go? Is y/n okay?”

Shouto couldn’t help but chuckle at Izuku’s enthusiasm. Other than you, Izuku had been the most worried about the surgery - he wouldn’t be able to handle it if something went wrong and he lost you.

“Yes, they’re okay. They’re still waking up, but once the doctor says it’s okay for visitors to come I’ll text you.”

“Ah! I’m so glad! Okay, I’ll bring everyone with me!”

It was a while later when you fully woke up, finally aware of what was going on as you looked around the white room.

“Shouto? What time is it? Did the surgery go alright?”

“Around noon, and yes - you’re perfectly fine. Are you hungry? I can go grab you some food.”

You nodded, having not eaten all day, “Yes please. Oh, and could you grab me my phone? Momo said to call her after the surgery.”

Shouto went to grab your bag and began searching through it for your phone, but decided you’d want to know that your friends would be coming soon as well.

“I’m sure she’ll be coming over soon, Izuku said he’s gonna bring everyone to come visit in a bit”

He expected for you to be happy at the news, but instead your face contorted in confusion, and to Shouto’s horror - you asked, “Who’s Izuku?”

---

As everyone from 1A flooded into the room, you broke out into a bright smile. They all circled around the bed, spouting random comments about how happy they were that you were okay and that the surgery was a success. You excitedly listened to all of them, happy to hear that your friends cared about you so much.

“Y/n! I’m so glad you’re okay! I was so worried!”

Izuku, finally being able to push his way through everyone and up to you, had latched himself onto you, throwing his arms around your shoulders and pulling you into a tight hug. However, you began pushing him off of you, not wanting some stranger to be touching you so closely.

“Uh, I’m sorry, but who are you?”

Izuku’s eyes widened as you said this - and everyone else in the room turned quiet. Your confused expression as you eyed him carefully further emphasized your seriousness. Why didn’t you remember him?

“I’m… I’m Izuku. Don’t you remember me?”

You gave him an overly kind smile, and Izuku had a glimpse of hope as you seemed to have a revelation, but instead, “Oh! You’re the person Shouto was talking to earlier! Nice to meet you!”

You seemed to recognize everyone else in the room, as you happily turned to Denki who started telling you about something that happened at school to ease the tension.

Confused, Izuku shakily grabbed his boyfriend’s hand - who’s pained expression worried him more - and pulled him to the corner of the room.

“Shouto… what happened? I thought you said the surgery worked.”

He was quiet for a moment, trying to decide how to word the news in a way that Izuku would understand, “Well… It did. Y/n’s cured. But - Hanahaki is such a rare occurrence, doctors don’t know all the technicalities of it yet. They can’t assure results, and sometimes, the patient ends up forgetting about the person they loved all together rather than just losing their feelings.”

Suddenly, Izuku went numb. That would have to mean - that meant you loved him.

You loved him.

It was his fault you went through all that pain.

Flashes of you coughing up blood and petals in class flooded his brain - and the pain on your face as you looked at him - he caused that. And now, he couldn’t even apologize. You had no idea who he was.

“I’m sorry Izuku.”

He barely noticed as Shouto pulled him into his chest, and he cried softly. As he looked over Shouto’s shoulder, he saw you laughing happily with the others - a sight that should make him smile.

But all he felt was pain - even though you were right there, he had lost you.

#im ceo of writing bad angst lol #longest fic as of now #izuku midoriya #midoriya x reader #midoriya izuku #deku #deku imagine #deku midoriya #deku x reader #4240 words damn

176 notes · View notes

pbandjesse · 3 years

Text

Well today as terrifying. I am going to be 30 this year, Ive been writing this blog every day for 10 years. And today I got to witness ANOTHER terrorist event. Incredible. Ive been watching live broadcasts of the news for hours, I saw a woman get shot and killed. I saw rioters with fistfulls of zipties. I saw the cops running away, and letting these insane terrorists into The Capitol Building. Its been a wild day.

The day didnt start this wild. It started with me sleeping pretty well. Waking up a little easier. I got dressed and loved my outfit. I felt cute and good. Though I would lose energy pretty fast.

I had a nice breakfast. I made a fried egg, had some potatoes and toast, and a half of one of the mini avocados I got. It was good. I felt alright.

I was just tired though. Which was hard. I emailed Lana again, still no answer. Im not going to put in a bunch of work that they dont want. I am trying to not feel weird about it but it will be okay. Around 11 though I needed to lay down.

I watched videos for a little, and eventually fell asleep. I woke up around 1 and had an email that my skates had come! James went down to get them for me. I was really excited. And they are great. These are the second pair I bought. The cheaper ones. But they are lovely. I had a really good time today playing with them in the livingroom. I dont ant to try it outside until the knee pads I bought come. They were supposed to be here yesterday but seem to be stuck in new jersey.Ah well. Practicing inside for now. James said he enjoyed watching me and that I was already getting better. Felt good.

James headed to work and I went to go work in the studio. Thats when I saw that something was happening in DC.

I spent basically all afternoon watching live streams. Feeling stressed. Feeling sick. But I worked on art. I crocheted. I skated in circles. I made tiktoks. I bothered sweetP. I tried to stay sane.

As the curfew went into effect I watched a little longer. Just to see if anything popped off. Not surprising that the cops barely did anything. I saw videos of the cops inside the capitol literally running away. But I took a break.

I had dinner. I took a bath. I scrubbed my whole body with coffee grounds. And now Im watching the news again. Im watching the senators just, basically say how embarrassing this was. That the President, who told the rioters they were special and he loved them, needs to calm this down. But he wont. He loved this. He needs to be held accountable and I really hope that this shakes these Senators up and actually do something. They are supposed to be the checks and balances and they havent been. They are guilty in this as well.

Well see what happens tomorrow. But today felt like a dam breaking.

I hope you are all safe tonight. Dont be quiet about this. We have to hold together against a great evil. I love you all. Goodnight.

4 notes · View notes

taexual · 5 years

Text

HOLIC - 32 | jb x reader

pairing: Im Jaebum x Reader

genre: enemies to lovers au | roommate au

warnings: fluff

words: 4.3k

disclaimer: i do not own the gif, please let me know if it belongs to you, so i can give proper credit

prev / next

Needless to say, you’ve permanently moved to live on cloud nine ever since last night. Granted, you’d wasted some of your ecstatic mood by sleeping, even though you couldn’t quite remember how you and Jaebum had gotten home from the bar and then passed out in his bed – or, rather, halfway out of it. If you thought back, you could recall – in bits and pieces – how the two of you stuck by each other for the rest of the night and no one found that weird in the slightest. It was almost as if you two behaved exactly the way everyone had expected you to.

You’d tried to sneak away from the rest of Jaebum’s friends multiple times, but it turned out that more people had come to congratulate him than any of you had anticipated, and your very last memory from Mark’s bar included you and Jaebum surrounded by at least ten different people, five of which you’ve never even seen before.

You woke up smiling, however, even though the alarm clock rang almost immediately after you’d closed your eyes, even though your neck hurt from having slept with your head hanging out of the side of Jaebum’s bed, your eyes felt heavy after only getting a few hours of sleep, and your throat was dryer than any desert on the planet. You and Jaebum may not have gotten to share another private – well, as far as private went in a crowded bar – moment last night, but the one that you did get to share was more than enough for your heart that seemed to leap in joy each time you remembered his kiss. That was all that mattered, or so it seemed; your body was simply incapable of focusing on any physical discomfort you were feeling.

Jaebum wasn’t in bed with you but you could hear the water running in the kitchen. He had no business being up this early – he didn’t have to work until the afternoon, after all – but he was probably fighting his hangover. Getting up wasn’t something you particularly wanted, either, but seeing Jaebum was, so with a heavy grunt, you forced yourself to your feet.

Surprisingly, your head only felt slightly heavy and the room didn’t seem to spin in a way that was too fast for you to keep up. You didn’t feel drunk anymore but you didn’t feel too hungover, either – which was a first. It must have been the amount of adrenaline you’d experienced last night with Jaebum, including the sort-of-confirmation of what you and him now were; it had saved you from a very painful morning.

Quietly tip-toeing towards the door of his bedroom, you took a deep breath – your neglected lungs welcomed it and started to sting in complaint; clearly, you were too busy focusing on Jaebum last night and had not allowed yourself to breathe properly – and then walked out into the hallway.

Jaebum was in the kitchen, just like you’d expected. He was just finishing his glass of water when your eyes met. You saw him smile through the transparent liquid and felt your heart explode into a million pieces of blissful confetti that scattered around your stomach, taking the shape of butterflies.

“Hey,” he called out for you after having placed the glass back down, his smile now on full display for you to see and drool over – hopefully not literally.

“Hey,” you echoed and then noticed the box of medicine in his hand. You nodded your head towards it. “Headache?”

“Oh,” Jaebum looked down instinctively, putting the aspirin down on the counter. “Yeah. I’ve finished quite a few bottles last night and my head is throbbing. I couldn’t sleep. Do you need some?”

“No,” you replied, crossing the empty living room and giving him a teasing smirk. “I’m not a lightweight.”

Jaebum responded with a dry laugh. “I had a lot to drink while I was waiting for you to come. Really took you a while.”

“Well, I told you. A kid got loose with crayons. What could be more important than that?”

Jaebum walked around the counter when you reached it and, for a moment, the two of you stood there, barely a meter in between you, your cheerful expressions mirroring each other.

“I’d have thought I’d be more important than that,” he replied.

“That being my job, right?” you countered playfully. “Or are you saying that, since you’re one step away from becoming a worldwide star, you’re going to start paying for everything I need?”

He laughed at this, making you chuckle as well. The sounds merged together just like your heartbeats had last night.

“I’m glad that didn’t change about us,” Jaebum said, taking a step closer to you and removing the distance between you by leisurely wrapping his arms around your waist.

It was an unexpected gesture – although, you did wonder if he’d initiate any form of PDA now that he was no longer drunk – but your heart continued to shed itself into a thousand more pieces of pure excitement as your hands found their way around his neck.

“What changed, then?” you dared to ask.

“Well, for instance, now I can do this,” he spoke before supplying you with an example of pressing his lips to yours in a brief but soft kiss, “and then I don’t have to watch you question your entire existence, wondering what this means.”

You were almost offended. “I did not question—”

“It’s okay,” he cut you off with a smile. “I did, too.”

The sense of shame simmered down as soon as you saw him smile, but you still shook your head, leaning it against his shoulder as he exhaled deeply. The two of you were standing there, holding each other in your arms at six in the morning, both of your minds full of memories of last night as your seemingly never-changing apartment attempted to engulf you in the good old routine. By all means, this was a somewhat usual beginning of your day, and yet, at the same time, it felt as if your souls had entered a different realm where nothing was the same anymore, while your bodies remained right where they used to be.

Having breakfast together – even if you’ve already done it countless times before – felt different. Bantering over your bowls of cereal – like you’ve done each time you ate together – felt different, too. Even arguing about who was going to take the shower first – cue a whole bunch of suggestive comments from Jaebum – wasn’t the same, either. But it was a good sort of different. The sort of different that most people didn’t realize they were seeking. The sort of different that, once found—once felt—would never allow you to return back to what was once normal.

And, although this subtle change was frightening, you welcomed it with open arms because it was time. Because you were finally ready for it. You were so sick of the same old routine, painting every single day of your life in the same old black and white. You knew you’d never be satisfied if you had to return to the monochrome world because your soul – that seemed to have been sleeping for what felt like years – had awoken to introduce you to a whole new palette of colors. And, as you unconsciously realized, the most beautiful shade of all was sitting across from you in your shared kitchen.

“What are you thinking about?” Jaebum asked after he noticed your lips stretch into a smile.

“Hmm?” you shook your thoughts off to focus on his words. “Nothing.”

“Yeah?” he knew you weren’t being honest. “You were smiling.”

“I’m always smiling,” you retorted.

“No, you’re not. You’re not a morning person.”

You raised your head from your bowl of cereal and tried to shrug your shoulders in a nonchalant way. “Maybe I am now.”

Jaebum liked to hear this but he still couldn’t help but push you further, “what brought this change upon?”

The shameless flirting was nothing new to either of you and yet all that had happened last night seemed to change the meaning of this, too.

“Not sure,” you teased. “There might be this guy I’m into. He might have a very annoying ability to completely control my mood.”

“Powerful guy,” Jaebum was beaming. “Do I know him?”

“Probably,” you nodded. “He’s a musician. You must have heard his song on the radio the other night.”

“The other night, you say? Sorry,” he shook his head, playing along. “There are only a few things I remember from last night and none of them involve listening to the radio.”

“Oh, yeah?” you couldn’t resist the silly grin on your face now. “What things do you remember, then?”

“Not many but, funnily enough, you’re a part of all of them.”

“That is funny.”

“Hmm.”

Your mouths had stopped talking, allowing your gazes to convey the words instead as the two of you battled each other in an unexpected stare-off, your eyes full of fondness.

Just as Jaebum was standing up to do something – and your heart had leaped to your throat – you heard a scratching sound on the front door of the apartment. Confused, you both frowned and turned in the direction of your hallway.

“What was that?” you asked.

It was possible that you’ve simply imagined the noise – an auditory hallucination wasn’t something that would have surprised you, knowing how Jaebum managed to make the rest of the world disappear for you each time his eyes landed on yours – but then the doorbell rang. Someone was definitely at your door.

However, when a moment later, Jaebum moved to actually open it, there was no one there. No one, but a lonely gray envelope, laying on your doormat.

“This looks like a letter,” he called out to you, closing the door and bringing the envelope inside as you waited in the kitchen, the same confused expression on your face.

“A letter?” you raised your eyebrows. “They hand-deliver advertisements now?”

“It’s—I don’t think it’s an advertisement,” Jaebum said, his eyes widening as he read the writing on the envelope. “It’s addressed to you.”

He didn’t mention whom it was from but the look on his face alarmed you as you grabbed the letter from him and took a look at it yourself. It had your name on it indeed but that wasn’t what made your stomach clench. It was the outgoing address – it belonged to one of the out-of-town galleries that you’d had submitted your portfolio to.

“They sent me a letter,” you said pointlessly as it was obvious that Jaebum had already reached the same conclusion. “W-why would they send me a letter?”

“Maybe it’s kind of like college admissions?” he suggested.

“Don’t they send those through e-mail now, too?”

“I don’t know,” he waved his hand dismissively, then. “Open it.”

To say you were anxious would have been an understatement of massive proportions. Somehow, you managed to locate a butterknife and rip the sealing of the envelope off with shaky hands. Jaebum was this close to doing it for you before you managed to cut it open yourself but he stood back, knowing that this might have been a monumental moment in your life and it was best if you did everything yourself while he cheered you on from the sidelines just like you’d done for him before.

“There’s one sheet of paper inside,” you stated, lifting your scared eyes to look at him. “There’s no way they’re expressing their wish to work with me on that thin sheet of—”

“You won’t know unless you check,” Jaebum pointed out. “And, besides, I don’t think they’d go through this much trouble of sending a rejection letter.”

That was true. More often than not, when it came to jobs, internships, and exhibitions, the managers didn’t even bother with replying if they weren’t interested in you. It was always upsetting and disappointing not to hear back from them but you thought you’ve already gotten used to that. Now, however, you were sure the wave of disappointment was going to swallow you whole if the contents of the letter indeed proved to be unfavorable.

Taking a deep breath, you finally pulled the letter out of the envelope and, after another few more moments spared to calm yourself down as much as you could, you unfolded the sheet of paper and quickly scanned through the words.

They’ve misspelled your last name – that was the first thing you noticed. Or, perhaps, it was you who’d misspelled that in your hurry to get the portfolios out as quickly as possible.

But even in spite of that harrowing mistake written in bold letters at the top of the page, the following sentences clenched your heart. It was the words, “we would love to meet you,” however, that squeezed it so hard, you gasped.

“What?” Jaebum was by your side in a millisecond. “What does it say?”

He didn’t dare to read it over your shoulder and he didn’t have to because as soon as he finished the question, you were suddenly leaping into the air, your features decorated by an expression that could only be described as completely euphoric.

“They said they’d like to meet me,” you squealed out, the letter getting crunched up in your tight grip. “Shit, they said they’d like to meet me!”

“T-they—that’s good!” Jaebum followed your excited eyes with his as you re-read the letter. “Isn’t it? That’s a start!”

“It is,” you confirmed, already having seen this play out at your own gallery. If a photographer was personally invited to meet – and in a letter, no less! – then, chances were, unless he was an absolute scumbag, he was going to get his work exhibited there. “T-they want me to call them to arrange a meeting.”

“Well, do that!” he encouraged, nearly handing you his own phone. “Go! Do it right now!”

“I-I—yes,” you blinked, suddenly glad you had Jaebum in the room with you because his orders helped you get yourself together and pull away from the letter long enough to look around the kitchen for your phone. You picked it up once you found it on the island and then glanced back at the piece of paper in your hands. “Okay. I’ll do it. Am I shaking?”

“Yeah, a little,” Jaebum said, not resisting a smile. You looked painstakingly beautiful in that moment as you were gripping the edges of the letter—of your future—so tightly, he had a feeling the paper was going to rip. But the look in your eyes – the utter excitement, the hope, and the undeniable joy – was making him wish he’d been the photographer so he could have captured this moment and kept it in his heart forever. “Maybe take some time to breathe first, okay? Just a quick minute.”

“Right,” you nodded, inhaling sharply and then exhaling through your mouth. “Okay. Breathing.”

You were obviously having a hard time doing this mundane task so he extended his arms. “Come here.”

You were so far lost in the excitement and the anxiety of this that you merely glanced at him before allowing him to drown you in the smell of his cologne as he embraced you for the second time this morning.

“I’m proud of you,” he whispered, gently pressing his lips to your temple in a gesture so intimate, you thought your lungs were truly going to give up on you this time.

“I haven’t done anything yet,” you replied, your voice as shaky as your heart. “Maybe they won’t like me after they meet me.”

“That’s not possible,” Jaebum countered, his arms – wrapped tightly around you – the only thing stopping you from exploding. “They will love you. And if they won’t, then they’re getting their asses kicked.”

You chuckled softly against his chest, working hard on your breathing but still struggling. “Your damsel in distress plan, right? Am I it for this week, too?”

He laughed, surprised that you’d remembered the joke he’d made in his studio a few days ago.

“You’re it for every week,” he said, completely serious.

You shook your head against his shoulder. “You’re not helping me calm down at all.”

Jaebum was laughing again as he asked, “what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,” you replied and then, as an afterthought, added in a quiet voice, “just hold me.”

“Okay,” he whispered back, his own heart picking up speed at your request, as he pressed your body against his own harder, leaving no space for anxiety or worry between you. “I’m here.”

Fifteen minutes later, you’ve already accomplished quite a few tasks – you’ve managed to calm your breathing down, even if that had seemed impossible, and you’ve also found a way to leave Jaebum’s embrace and retreat to your room where you spent the next ten minutes, staring at the phone number on the letter before finally daring to dial it.

A pleasant female voice picked up, asking how could she be of assistance. Once you introduced yourself, she asked you to hold, and another minute later, her voice sounded even more pleasant. She made it seem like you were the most important person that had ever called and you wondered if she actually enjoyed this job – customer service was never easy and yet she made you feel genuinely welcome as she told you about how the owner of the gallery and the team of managers were excited to meet you -- or if that was very realistic acting.

“Oh, to be honest, I’d say it’s me who’s most excited,” you said with a soft chuckle. “I’m very grateful for your offer.”

“It’s our pleasure!” she replied. “Would you prefer for the meeting to take place on a work day, or would Saturday work better?”

You glanced back at the envelope. The address of the gallery didn’t seem familiar to you and, with a nervous pang in your chest, you realized that this could have been the gallery that wasn’t just out of town, but was actually across the whole country from you. You’d chosen it because they promised a helpful and welcoming environment for young artists – and so far they haven’t disappointed – but you didn’t really think this gallery was going to be the first one – and, maybe, the only one – who would contact you.

“Uh, Saturday would be ideal,” you said, knowing that you’d have less trouble if you didn’t have to skip work. Then, however, you realized that your car was still at the car service. “Oh, actually, if it’s not too much trouble, could it be next week? I’m—”

“Ah, I’m very sorry, we’re all booked for next week,” she cut you off, sounding still as sweet as ever. “There’s an exhibition by the graduating class of a university nearby. You’re welcome to attend it – the opening night is on Wednesday – but the only available Saturday is this week, I’m sorry. Does that work for you? Or should I look into—ah, well, there’s a spot three weeks from now.”

Three weeks from now was a long time away, you could feel it in the change of her voice. You didn’t think you could wait that long and it was likely that the gallery would change its mind in that time, too. Maybe someone else – someone more eager to meet them and get their exhibition there – would impress them before you even got a chance to see them.

“No, it’s fine,” you decided. “This Saturday will work great. I’ll find a way to come.”

“Very well,” the receptionist replied and you heard her click away at her computer. “Is noon, okay?”

“Yes,” you said. “Twelve o’clock. Works for me.”

Just as pleasantly as she’d spoken before, the receptionist explained how to find the gallery and you realized with horror that you’d have to spend at least a quarter of a day just driving there, not to mention the trip back.

You thanked her again and then, even before you hung up, collapsed on your bed with a loud groan. This was good – you had an interview about your exhibition. It was more than good – it seemed like you were walking step-by-step with Jaebum, both of you slowly approaching your dreams – and yet you couldn’t help but feel like something was bound to go wrong.

Aside from the gallery being a six-hour drive away from you, you were probably going to have to take a bus to get there – or you could beg the guys at the car service to give your car back to you faster but you decided to leave that as a plan B – which meant you’d have to either leave the night before and rent a room in a dingy motel – and hopefully not die there – or you’d have to leave early morning on Saturday.

All of that seemed worth it, you knew it. And yet, the sudden surge of worries overwhelmed you.

“Hey,” you heard a knock on your door and Jaebum poked his head inside. After noticing that you weren’t on the phone anymore, he dared to step into your room. “What did they say?”

You straightened up and sat down properly. “They want to see me on Saturday.”

“That’s great!” he exclaimed, his face breaking into a grin. He was about to cross the room to reach you but then he paused mid-step. “Wait—this Saturday?”

“Yeah,” you confirmed.

“That’s in two days,” Jaebum pointed out.

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” he considered this, finally reaching your bed and sitting down next to you. He was having a hard time reading your facial expression, which hadn’t happened that many times before. “That’s great, though, isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course,” you nodded, sighing. Maybe you were just ungrateful for the opportunity suddenly tossed your way – you were feeling far too burdened by the number of things you had to do in order to make this opportunity appear more realistic -- but you couldn’t help it. “Except I have a problem.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“This gallery, it—it’s six hours away from here,” you started, “my car’s at the service. I can’t pick it up until Monday. And now I have two days to find a way to get to the interview that my entire future depends on. But, you know, no pressur—”

“I can take you.”

You stopped, his interruption taking you off guard. “What?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged as he always did whenever he offered something that included him going out of his way for you. “I’m not doing anything, anyway.”

“Jaebum, it’s a six-hour drive in one direction,” you reminded him. “Six more hours to come ba—”

“I know how math works,” he deadpanned. “And you’re lucky, my weekend’s free. I’m all yours.”

You haven’t even considered asking him to do this but now that he’d volunteered his help, your heart was bursting with gratitude. “You’d really do this?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “A road-trip. Why not?”

“A road-trip,” you repeated, biting your lip. You appreciated his offer more than you were letting on but you were still doubtful. “It’s six hours, though. I could fly over there but it’s so last minute—”

“Okay, now you’re starting to make it seem like you don’t want me to take you there,” Jaebum said in a laid-back voice.

“No. No, not at all,” you shook your head. “I just don’t want to make you do something like this because t-this is big. This isn’t like you making my lunch so I wouldn’t starve at work - which I’m also very grateful for, by the way - this is... this is on a whole different level. But, honestly, I appreciate you offering so much I could kiss you.”

“Oh,” he straightened. “Well, that sounds interesting. Should we discuss forms of payment, then?”

You laughed in surprise. “I thought you were going to do this as a favor.”

“I was but then you mentioned kissing,” Jaebum replied, “and now I feel like I can’t pass up on an offer like that.”

Encouraged by the excited glint in his eyes, you leaned into him to press a gentle kiss to his lips before pulling away.

“Thank you,” you told him, your voice genuine.

Jaebum’s face, however, was skeptical. “That was the promised kiss?”

“Uh—”

“That’ll take you one and a half kilometers.”

Raising your eyebrows, you watched the challenging look on his face with surprise evident on yours. He was really going to milk this.

Sighing – purely for dramatic effect – you leaned back into him and kissed him again, harder this time, your lips lingering on his for a second longer. You felt him smile into the kiss as soon as you began to pull away.

“Not bad,” he commented. “Three more kilometers.”

You shook your head, laughing. “How long are we going to do this?”

“Ah, well, let’s see. Six hours, that’s about, what – five hundred or so kilometers?” he replied, an excited glint in his eye. “You’ve got four and a half down already.”

“That’s a long way to go,” you said, your heart speeding as it always did whenever he was close.

“Yeah, but we’ve got a lot of time,” he replied after glancing at the watch on his wrist.

“I have to get to work eventually,” you reminded him, watching his smile turn into a pout.

“I’m never a priority for you, am I?”

The needy tone in his voice made your smile widen before you pecked his lips one more time, earning a soft, “one more kilometer” from him.

“You have to work, too, Mr. Pop Star,” you said, standing up from your bed so you could actually finish getting ready now.

“Oh God,” Jaebum groaned, the nickname not sitting right. “Please don’t call me that again.”

You laughed, nodding. “Yeah, that’s fair. I made myself cringe with that one, too.”

You’ve taken one step in the direction of the door of your room – actually hoping to get ready on time – but Jaebum grabbed your wrist, stopping you and pulling you into him for one last kiss before he let you leave. The number of random kisses that had increased from two to over twenty was starting to make you dizzy, but you kissed him back nevertheless, understanding that you were probably going to be late for work, but not finding enough strength to stay away from him.

“See you later tonight?” Jaebum asked after you finally managed to pull away.

“Yeah,” you nodded, trying to catch your breath. “Always.”

chapter directory

#got7 #got7 fanfiction #im jaebum #got7 jb #got7 jaebum #got7 reactions #got7 imagines #got7 scenarios #got7 au #kpop #got7 x reader #got7 fluff #im jaebum fanfiction #jaebum fanfiction #jaebum fanfic #got7 fanfic #holic #roommate au #enemies to lovers au

444 notes · View notes

nastyboyluke · 5 years

Text

credit to hannaleetidd on ig for the line art

calum has been telling you for a while now that he wanted the two of you to have tattoos together. you were surprised when he first told you this but he insisted and said, “its not like im getting your name tattooed on my ass.” however, as much as the idea sounded cool, your anxieties pinned you back. while your boyfriend has gotten a collection of body art scattered across his body, your canvas was blank. you hated needles at the doctors so you were sure you were going to hate getting a tattoo. but today felt different. you dont know if it was the air, a spring of confidence or just the damn atmosphere of london, you came to the decision you wanted a tattoo now. and it was the first thing you told calum when he woke up, and when you did, he got just as excited. the two of you began to discuss designs or where the two of you wanted your tattoos. after much debate and looking at tattoos on instagram, you and calum had came to a conclusion. next was to find a tattoo parlor. calum did that of course, some how being able to get the two of you an appointment in a few hours. “ill hold your hand when you get your tattoo baby if you’re anxious, like always” he smiled, reaching to pull you closer to him before kissing your lips. you couldn’t help but blush at calums comment before kissing his nose. what felt like two seconds ago, the two of you were now at the tattoo parlor, calum’s soft hand entangled in yours as he signed in for the two of you in. when he was finished, the two of you took a seat, your eyes wandering over to someone getting a tattoo. their body was covered in link from head to to toe and so were all the artists. you looked over a calum giving him a worried look. in return, he squeezed your had before leaving a sweet kiss on your cheek. “it’ll be okay, it’s gonna be simple n’ easy. its literally just the quickest tattoo ever.” calum reassured. “i know, it’s just.. nerve racking.” you shyly smile before hearing your names be called. once everything was discussed on what you wanted, the artist sketched both stencils up and now it was time for placement. the two of you were going to get the tattoo on the inside part of your arm, yours on the left and his on the right.

you and calum were going to get a line art drawing of of two hands holding each other, one in black ink and the other in blue so the hands didn’t get confused. it was quite different than all of calum’s other tattoos but he wasn’t mad about it at all, he thought this art style was beautiful and would make this tattoo stand out even more. because calum already knew how a tattoo felt, he went first and you were able to watch. it didn’t look bad at all and calum was calm the entire time so maybe it wasn’t gonna be bad at all. when the tattoo was done, the maori boy smiled big at the now permanent art on his arm. “this is fucking sick. it’s gonna look so pretty on you baby, i already know.” finally, it was your turn. the artist placed the stencil on your body and now you were in the chair, calum held your opposite hand, kissing it every so often as the two of you waited for them to set up their station. once you heard the buzz of the machine turn on, your heart was racing out of your chest. “ready?” the artist asked with a smile. “mhm” you nervously smiled back before looking at calum for support. “don’t panic, just stay calm okay? look at me babe.” he said, pecking your lips as the tattoo artist began. as they started, you didn’t really feel anything which shocked you and made you giggle a little. “see its not bad at all.” calum chuckled. the session was quick like calums and then you were all done. the two of you went back to the mirror, looking at the matching art on your arms. “i love it, and i love you.” you looked up at calum, smiling huge at this big step the two of you took in your relationship. “i love you more.” calum smiled back, cheeks looking squishy as ever. once you were all wrapped up and ready to go, calum suggested to eat somewhere so after some walking, you found a pub. of course to celebrate the moment, you snapped a photo of calum and posted it on insta story, looking cute as ever. now that you finally got a tattoo, you were excited to potentially get even more in the future.

#5sos #calum hood #ashton irwin #luke hemmings #michael clifford #5 seconds of summer #5sos imagine #5sos writing #calum 5sos #calum x reader #calum blurb #calum hood blurb #calum hood imagine

153 notes · View notes

josephmozzerellaswife-blog · 5 years

Text

Expecting the Unexpected Part 4

IM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! I have been slammed with school and work so I’ve barely had time to write! Luckily I was sick for the past couple days and finally got to finish it. I hope you all LOVE it as much as i loved writing it for you all.

Warnings: fluff, angst, childhood illness, SMUT (at the end)

Word Count: 6500+

Summary: When Joe gets back from his recent business trip he notices something is up with your new little one. Can an urgent ER trip change your lives for good?

That night was even worse. Every couple hours Scarlet’s walling would jolt you both out of your sleep, her cries crushing your hearts with each beat. You turned to your phone for the time, 3:47 am.

“It’s my turn, I’ll go try to calm her down again.”

Joe was so strong through all of this and you never understood how. He had his breaking moments, but never let you feel like you were alone, his constant reminder that you all were going to get through this. Scarlet was going to win this battle.

He was persistent about you staying in bed. Not only did you watch Scarlet constantly during her treatment the day before but Joe knew that you weren’t eating because of your anxiety. His worries only grew as you continue to push aside your health for Scarlet. Of course he understands why you’re doing it, you can’t help, it but he just wants you to be healthy.

The last thing you remember was Joe crawling back into bed as he wrapped his arms around your waist, placing a light peck against your forehead.

“I love you Y/N. It’s crazy how much I love you, you know that?”

“What’s crazier is that I love you even more.” you whispered in a daze, your eyes quickly getting heavier by the minute.

“Not possible my love. You are my everything and more. The both of you.”

He kissed you passionately against your lips, his soft lips melting into yours, each time falling deeper and deeper into him. He was such a tease but you were both so tired that this was all you needed. Each other. Him holding you. Falling asleep in his arms.

The warm sunshine woke you from your well needed rest. The only thing missing was Joey but you figured he just went to check on Scarlet. A quick buzz of your phone drew your attention as the screen lit up.

“Joe Mazzello leaves Oscars in a hurry. What’s actually going on and is there another “hospital visit” in store?”

Normally you would be furious at the press but your worries were easily redirected to the bigger picture. Scarlet. You always knew that dating Joe would bring unnecessary attention to your life but you could care less about the media. Joe was your true love, your soulmate, he was everything to you and more. A little press wasn’t going to change that. Then came marriage and little Scarlet. Everything was falling into place and the media was there to share it the whole time. Even when the press angered you, Joe was there to remind you that nothing else mattered to him but you. Only you.

After browsing through the various press releases about your husband and his ‘dramatic’ exit, you finally brought yourself to stumble out of bed. Not so gracefully throwing on one of Joe’s hoodies, you made your way down the hall to Scarlet’s room only to find your adorable husband asleep while swaddling your precious little one. Their snores, although cute, bounced off the walls into an echo. You couldn’t help but laugh. Scarlet was a perfect mix of you both but she has the best of Joe’s personality. You threw on a fuzzy blanket over Joey’s legs and cracked the door open ever so slightly, trying to avoid waking your sleepy family.

You threw yourself into your husband’s spot on the couch and clicked on one of the movies Joe always kept in the dvd player, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It was always one of your favorites but Joe opened a new view of the movie to you. His experience with film making and acting always made movies so much more magical to you. Visiting on set, dress rehearsals, press tours, everything that went along with the movie was a new experience. You always tried your best to have these experiences with Joe. Undrafted was the first time you both got the chance to do it together as a married couple. He always took you with him for interviews, showings, even most of the filming days.

A familiar buzz took you from the memory as you glanced to the coffee table, it was Gwilym.

Morning Y/N, I tried to reach Joe but didn’t get an answer. We were all just wondering if you all would like to go out for some tea later, say about noon? We both know how much Joe loves a good afternoon tea, or literally anytime he can have it. It’s just a little something for us to show our support, plus it’s been a while and we’d love to catch up! Kisses to Scarlet for me! X

You were very quick to reply. Whenever you could hang out with the gang, you always took the invitation. Plus Joe could use some quality time with his friends and you really just wanted to take your mind off of things and talk with Lucy.

Of course Gwil! We’d love to. The Huntington Rose Garden Tea Room is our favorite in the area! Please tell me you’re bringing that lovely fiancé of yours, Lucy and I need another girl to talk with.

Yes she is! I take her everywhere after all. She’s dying to meet the little one! Hopefully she’s not feeling to bad. I am so so sorry about everything that’s happened. Just know that we are all here for you guys if you need anything!

Thank you Gwil that’s very kind of you all. See you at noon!

Time felt like it flew by. It was about 10am when you heard footsteps coming from around the corner.

“Good morning my love. Someone felt a little ill so I slept in the rocking chair last night.” he mumbled, rubbing circles into his eyes.

“I saw. All I have to say is how did I get so lucky to have a sexy, multi-talented husband who cares for his child and wife while dropping everything to be with them. You really are my knight in shinning armor Mazzello, you know that?”

His eyes couldn’t leave your face, your body. His gaze grew deeper into yours, falling in love with you more than he ever thought possible. He inched closer to you by the second, his lips soon locked to yours. Joe set the sleepy child into her portable crib he assembled the day before. He swiftly twirled you back into his arms, your lips interlocked again. You pushed him into the couch, quick to hover over him as your touch remained constant. His hands sliding down your back as you inched closer to each other.

“You drive me absolutely insane Y/N.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing as you.”

Your touch never left his body, the distance from each of you nonexistent. If it weren’t for the little one right across the room you knew for sure it would have been more than a steamy make out session.

“You’re such a tease Mazzello.”

“I am? Speak for yourself.”

You both fell into simultaneous giggles, your head leaning against his chest as he stroked your hair.

“I could do this everyday. Just you and me. On this couch. But a little more-“

“Watch it Joe. Baby in the room.”

His gaze grew deeper into yours as a smile creeped along his face.

“Well, you already know then don’t you.”

“I have an... idea I suppose.” you said, a wink shooting in your husband direction.

“God the things I could do to you.”

“Joey!”

“What. It’s true.”

“Ugggh, you tease.”

His playful smile soon fell to yours in a slow, passion filled kiss. It was true that Joe always felt like home. Even if it wasn’t New York, whenever you were with Joe you always felt safe. Nothing was ever gonna happen to his favorite girls after all.

“I almost forgot. Gwil texted earlier, invited us to afternoon tea with the whole gang.”

“Your joking.” he said, barely hiding the excitement in his eyes.

“Am not. Told him we’d bring the whole fam. After all, it’s been a while since we’ve taken Scarlet out and it could does us all some good to get out of this apartment.”

“I love you.”

“I love you to Joey.”

He placed a kiss against your forehead as he continued to rub your arm.

“I’m glad you’re here. With me. I don’t know what I would do if I never meet you all those years ago. Tom really did do his magic didn’t he.”

You giggled. Tom Hanks was originally the one who introduced the two of you. You weren’t an actress but he was a family friend and knew about your love for film. He insisted you come to set and even offered you a role as an extra for the end of the shoot.

“I couldn’t Tom. I’m not even an actress.”

“Come on Y/N I know you’d love it!”

As much as you wanted to say no a cute, fiery redhead walking this way had other ideas.

“Oh you have to take the part. A gorgeous girl like you can’t just be sitting on the sidelines. You’d be perfect!” he said, his eyes fighting to stay on yours.

“Y/N this is Joe Mazzello. He plays Eugene.”

Your face instantly flushed a deep shade of pink as you saw Tom’s smile grow from ear to ear out of the corner of your eye.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.”

“So what’s a gorgeous girl like you saying no to Tom Hanks?”

“Oh Tom is just a family friend. I’m no actress.”

“I beg to differ. With that personality you could do anything.”

“Anything?”

He smiled. You could tell that even though he came on strong, deep down he was really shy and judging by the group of men whispering from a far, this seemed to be a big step for him.

“Well I was wondering if uh- you wanted to uh-“ he stumbled over his words, the confidence he had quickly turning into his shy persona again.

“Get coffee sometime?” you giggled.

“Really? You want to go out with me?”

“I don’t see why not. You are very sweet.”

He blushed before your turned to give him your number. Little did you know, that the part Tom has planned for you was to dance with Joe’s character at the end of the final episode. Even though it was cut from the show, Tom had planned for you to meet Joe the whole time. When he spoke at your wedding along side Steven Spielberg, they mentioned how one day they were talking about the two of you and noticed how similar of a chemistry you both had. Ever since then you’ve been together and you both owe it all to those lovely men.

Joe noticed how you were day dreaming. He could only wonder what you could possibly be thinking about. He loved how that intelligent brain of yours worked. When he looked at you again he noticed you dozed off. Considering that you were laying on top of him, he just held you tight, never letting go. He always felt the need to let you know how much he loved you.

You were both soon woken up by the small cries of your ill child from across the room. It hurt you to see Scarlet in such discomfort. Even though she wasn’t throwing up anymore and most of the hard side-effects had worn off by now, you could still tell she wasn’t her best. You grabbed her medicine off the counter and swopped her up to breastfeed. It was only a few more hours before you left and you didn’t want her to be cranky considering it would be the first time you all hung out in a while. You quickly swaddled her before laying back next to Joe to feed her.

“You’re amazing. I honestly don’t know how you do it.” he smiled.

He always knew you would be a fantastic mother. He could tell just by the first time you both spoke about having children, the tone of passion and excitement in your voice.

Joe offered to finish cleaning up Scarlet so you could go and start to get ready. Bless that man. You decided to go with something simple and just throw on some jeans and a comfy sweater. You were just about to leave the bathroom when you looked in the mirror,

“Yikes. Looks like I didn’t get very much sleep last night after all.”

You quickly powdered your faces and threw on some sloppy concealer just to cover your under eyes before heading down the hall to Scarlet’s room.

“Joey honey go get ready, I can get her dressed.”

“I’d love to but you know this is my favorite part.”

You both laughed in unison. It was true, Joe was quite the fashionista when it came to baby clothes.

“Ok well I’m on baby duty when you’re done Mazzello. We are running late.”

“Yes ma’am.”

God he always knew just how to make you laugh.

You swooped the baby from his arms as you pointed to the bedroom door, obviously trying to hold in your giggles. You slowly rocked your little one as you sang one of her favorite songs, trying to get that cute little smile out of her.

I was born to love you

With every single beat of my heart

Yes I was born to take care of you

Every single day of my life

It didn’t take very long for her sweet, gentle eyes to light up across her face.

“How did mommy ever get so lucky to be blessed with you and daddy?”

Little did you know, Joe was standing in the doorway all jazzed up and snapping pictures of the two of you.

“Have you been there the whole time?”

“Most of it. We’re gonna be late but I could stand here and watch you all day.” he giggled, a tear running from his eye.

“Aww love, don’t cry.” tears were quickly forming in your eyes.

“You both are just so incredible. I don’t know who i’d be without you.”

He encased you in his arms, his chin resting on your head while one hand wrapped around your waist and the other on Scarlet’s head. You wish the moments like these could last forever. While you rushed out the door and got Scarlet all situated in her car seat, Joe made sure that everything you might need was in her diaper bag and quickly followed you.

It was about a 45 minute drive to the tea room and Scarlet slept for most of the car ride, although both Joe and your singing might have woken her up a few times. Thankfully she was in a great mood.

“I’m so glad we get to do this. I know how much you’ve wanted to do something like this since the diagnosis.”

“I’m just glad I get to do it with you. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to spend the rest of my life with.” the tears slowly began to fill your eyes.

“Aww baby don’t cry. I know it’s been tough but I will always be here every step of the way, through everything, not just this.”

“I love everything about you Joey. Even your snores no matter how many times I have to nudge you at night.” Your tears soon turned to laughter before you both got out of the car.

The paparazzi had been following your car for the past 15 minutes so you already knew what to expect. Joe had quickly unbuckled Scarlet and swaddled her in the blanket before he came around the car to grab your hand. Thankfully Ben had come outside to help escort you both past the outrageous amount of cameras.

“Seems like you three are quite the popular bunch.” Ben joked.

“To bad it’s just to find out about if we are doing our jobs as parents right.” you muttered.

Joe placed his hand against your low back, slowing rubbing up and down.

“Are you crazy? Obviously you both are the best parents. Everyone knows it, even the paps.” Gwil chimed in.

“Uggh it’s just frustrating. I know i’m not supposed to care what they think but this is mine and Joe’s child they are talking about.”

Joe could tell you were getting upset just by the way you were holding his hand.

“Why don’t we go find our table yeah?” Joe implied, looking to Ben.

Ben noticed what Joe was trying to do.

“Hey Y/N/N, you mind if I pull Joe aside really quick.” Ben asked.

“You don’t have to ask silly.” you smiled, taking the baby from Joe’s arms.

“Besides I think everyone is dying to see Scarlet anyway.”

As you walked away from the two handsome men, you were greeted by Rami, Lucy and Gwilym’s fiancé who you had met a couple times before.

“Oh my gosh Y/N has she grow already since the last time we saw her? It’s only been a few weeks!” Lucy exclaimed.

“I know she is growing like crazy lately. It makes mommy a little sad doesn’t it sweetie.” you say, as you direct your attention to your daughter who Gwil was now holding.

“She better stop growing, otherwise I won’t get to call her my little squirt anymore!” Rami laughed while Lucy nudged his arm playfully.

You noticed that Joe had been gone for a while now and it was starting to worry you. What could he possibly be planning? Was he ok? Your anxiety was starting to get the best of you after the encounter you had not long before.

“Excuse me for just a moment, I’m gonna go to the ladies room. Lu do you mind watching Scarlet for a minute?” you said as your worried expression was painted across your face.

“Sure love! Scarlet loves her auntie Lucy time huh little one?” she said as she let your little one hold her finger.

As you got up Gwil noticed a tear running down your cheek. He looked to his fiancé with a concerned look on his face,

“Love would you go check on her? I think she’s having a rough time with all of this.”

Gwil had told her about everything Joe had said the night before so she was somewhat caught up to speed.

“Of course, I can’t imagine any of this being easy for them.”

Just as she began to walk away Joe and Ben had entered the private room to join the rest of the group. Joe scanned the room for you after noticing Scarlet was with Lucy.

“Where’s Y/N?”

“Oh she just went to the restroom, she should be back in a second.” Lucy said, but something still seemed a little off to Joe considering the way you stayed close to him earlier.

“Joe-“ Gwil whispered, trying to get Joe’s attention.

He looked to Gwil instantly. Maybe he knew something?

“I noticed Y/N starting to get upset before she left so my fiancé went to check on her. Is everything all right?”

Joe hesitated. He didn’t know if he should tell him or not but Gwil was one of his best friends and Rami and Ben already knew.

“She’s been having a rough time. Her anxiety hasn’t been the best lately and it’s been hard for us with the whole diagnosis and all.” He looked to Scarlet, holding in whatever tears he had left.

“Joe I- I had no idea man. I’m sorry.” he could tell Gwil felt bad for asking, it was a touchy subject after all.

“No Gwil it’s ok. We appreciate everything all of you have done for us. It’s been hard and it’s not going to get any easier but with all of you supporting us it’s been very helpful. We can’t thank you guys enough.”

He smiled resting his hand on Gwil’s shoulder.

“I’m gonna go check on Y/N and see if she’s alright.”

Joe couldn’t get up from his seat any faster, his worries about you growing with every step.

You heard a knock on the door as you were crying into Gwilym’s fiancé’s shoulder.

“Who is it?” she said, trying to hand you more tissues.

“It’s Joe. Honey are you okay?”

You looked up from her shoulder.

“Baby please come in.” you managed to spit out between sobs.

He swiftly opened the door encasing you in his arms.

“Love oh no. Are you alright?”

“I’ll give you some privacy.” she said before leaving the room.

“Joe I thought I could do this. I really did. It’s just so much all at once and with the paparazzi and all eyes are on us right now. It’s just a lot. I don’t want to leave, I want to be here with our friends but I just needed a minute. I’m sorry i’m such a mess, you shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

“Y/N/N don’t you ever say something like that. Don’t apologize for something you can’t control love. I want to be here for you. I want YOU. You are the only thing I care about right now.”

His words comforted you along with his warm touch. You needed him so bad right now and you couldn’t understand why. It only took you a couple more minutes to calm down from your anxiety attack. Joe always knew how to help you through them. You pulled yourself together and Joe held your hand as he guided you both back to the table.

“Sorry for that. Just needed a moment.” you apologized.

“No need to apologize Y/N. We’re all here for you guys.” Ben explained.

It was obvious that everyone knew what was going on by now and an instant relief flew through your body. Everyone important to you both knew. Now the only thing left was the world but it’s definitely not the time for that. You smiled over to Gwil’s fiancé and mouthed a quick ‘thank you’ as she smiled.

“So how has everyone been? I know everyone has been quite busy lately.” you pointed out.

“Well 6 Underground has been a blast! We’re almost wrapped too! One production is finished you bet i’m gonna be at your house all the time to watch that little one of yours.” Ben winked to you, something seemed a little suspicious but you couldn’t quite put a finger on it yet.

“And I’ve just done a finally press tour for Top End Wedding! Movie weddings are fun and all but I can’t wait to experience the real thing soon.” Gwil smiled as he wrapped his arm around his fiancé.

“Rami and I have been doing a lot of traveling lately. See the world together. It’s been great fun.” Lucy turned to kiss Rami on the cheek.

“That’s fantastic! We’re glad you all are doing so well. We missed you guys like crazy.” you laughed.

“We missed you guys too. Especially last night.” Rami explained.

“Congratulations by the way Mr. Academy Award winner.” Joe nudged his shoulder.

“You could say that. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. Even you little squirt.” Rami smiled, looking to the small child resting in his girlfriends arms. He tickled the little girl until her giggles flooded the room causing everyone to laugh along.

You adored how much everyone loved Scarlet. There was never a doubt in your mind that they wouldn’t love her even if she was born right before BoRhap’s big premiere.

The rest of the afternoon was wonderful. Everyone chatted about what was going on in their lives and all the new upcoming projects. Scarlet was definitely getting all the attention no doubt. Everyone insisted on holding her and giving her all the cuddles in the world. It was way past her nap time so when she fell asleep in Ben’s arms he looked a little scared.

“Uhh Joe mate. What did I do?”

“Nothing Ben.” he said while everyone continued to laugh,

“She just fell asleep. It’s way past her first nap.”

Joe took her from Ben to relieve him of his baby duties while everyone else finished their tea and conversations.

It wasn’t long after that when everyone said their goodbyes and loved on your little one for the last time. Except for Ben. Something was definitely going on. Maybe this was what he pulled Joe aside for?

As the paparazzi scrambled to photograph everyone leaving, there was one in particular trying to catch shots of your little one before Ben got into the car.

“Hey buzz off mate. Don’t you know what boundaries are?” Ben threatened the man still shoving his camera towards your child’s face.

Joe was quick to step in, keeping you close behind him before helping you into the car after Ben had Scarlet situated.

“Babe what’s going on?” you questioned, puzzled by the blonde sitting directly behind you.

“I may have a little something up my sleeve planned for tonight.”

Your puzzled expression quickly grew into a smile. He always planned the best surprises.

“Oh is that so?” you teased, having an idea of what might happen tonight.

“What can I say. I’m full of surprises.”

“You don’t fool me one bit Mazzello.”

He smiled at you placing a kiss to your lips before getting into his side of the car.

On your way home, you noticed that Joe had missed the exit to go back to Ben’s hotel. You figured that was on purpose based upon the quiet giggles and smirks the two men had exchanged while passing it.

“What in the world are you two planning?”

“What are you talking about Y/N? I just asked Joe if he could drive me back to your apartment because I forgot some stuff there.” Ben explained, but something still seemed suspicious.

If Ben really had left something there, wouldn’t he have texted Joe about it before we left?

“If you say so.” you smirked.

This left the boys with a puzzled look on their faces. Did you already know what they had planned?

By the time you drove into the driveway, Scarlet was already asleep for her late nap so Ben had no problems switching her from the car seat to his arms. Joe helped you out of your side of the car and his hand quickly interlocked with yours as you both followed not to far behind Ben and the baby.

When everyone went inside, you noticed a suitcase had already been packed and was sitting by the front door. Trying to avoid anymore questions you simply just plopped down on the couch and flicked on one of your favorite tv programs.

“Babe I’m just gonna uh- grab something really quick i’ll be back.” Joe fumbled over his words as he looked to Ben.

He swiftly stammered down the hall and Ben day himself next to you on the couch.

“Any plans for tonight?” he said with an anxious tone to his voice.

“Nothing that I know of. Just another night in.”

Ben was quick to react to your words, a smile plastered across his face just as you said them.

You hadn’t even noticed Joe had come back into the room until you felt his warm touch slide across your arm.

“Love wanna come with me for a drive? I have to run and go pick something up.” he stuttered.

“Where to?”

“Oh it’s nothing just a few errands. Ben can watch the baby right?”

“Oh sure, I don’t see why not.”

You could clearly see right through Ben. He knew something you didn’t.

“Is love to go babe. After all your next project is coming up soon.”

Joe swiped the keys off the counter as you quickly went over to give Scarlet hugs.

“Momma will be back later ok sweetie. We love you.” you said as you kissed her forehead.

Just as you were walking out the door you noticed Joe grab the suitcase that was still sitting by the front door. He not so secretly threw it in the back of the car before helping you into your seat. He swiftly ran around the car and jumped into the driver’s side before handing you the aux cord.

“Anything you want love.” he offered.

“Anything?” you teased, hoping he might have an idea of the song you would pick.

You clicked on your favorite Elton John song The One and a smile lit up across Joe’s face. You always sing this to him when he is feeling down or upset about something because it perfectly describe what Joe is to you.

When stars collide like you and I

No shadows block the sun

You’re all I’ve ever needed

Baby you’re the one

The whole way to this “errand run” was filled with all your favorite artists and songs. The only thing that confused you was when Joe changed one of he songs that came on, Get Down, Make Love by Queen. He never said changes songs from your playlists ESPECIALLY Queen songs because he knows they are one of your favorites.

“Something wrong love?” you asked, your hand soon laying on his. You couldn’t take it anymore, What in the world was going on?

“Joe what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird since we left the tea room today.”

“Nothing. It’s uh- a surprise.”

Just as he said that, you pulled into the most fabulous hotel covered in golden, bright lights and fancy architecture.

“You didn’t.”

“I told you I had something up my sleeve.” he smirked, shooting a sly wink in your direction.

“So I’m guessing that’s what the suitcase is for?” you giggled.

“I may have called someone to pack us a bag.”

“And Ben? Is this why he pulled you aside earlier?”

“He asked if we wanted a day just for us so I called and made some reservations.”

“Well you did a damn good job of hiding it Mazzello. It’s almost like you’re an actor or something.”

You both flooded the car with laughter.

“Almost huh?”

You both got out of the car and Joe grabbed the suitcase out of the back before grabbing your waist to twirl you around.

“A night all to ourselves!” you screamed.

Don’t get me wrong you both love Scarlet with everything you have but it’s been so long since you’ve both had the night alone.

“After you my love.” Joe said, gesturing you inside as he held the door.

His hand never left your side the whole time, constantly keeping his touch to your body known.

“I have a reservation under Mazzello.”

The lady shot you a quick, jealous look before bringing her eyes back to Joe.

“Of course. Top floor.”

“Top floor! Joe I-“ you loudly tried to whisper to Joe.

“Hey. No ruining the surprise before we get up there.”

“What do you mean? I thought this was the surprise?”

“Oh like all I was gonna do was take you to a fancy hotel for the night. Someone has to make up for this morning.” he teased before placing a sweet kiss against your lips.

“What do you mean-“ Then it hit you.

“Oh so that’s what’s going on here. Let’s just say we’re gonna have a fun night then.” you teased right back.

When you walked into the gigantic room, or should you say suite, your mind was blown.

“Joe this is absolutely gorgeous! How did you even find this place?”

“Let’s just say a friend recommended it to me.”

“Ben?”

“Nooooooo.” he said trying not to laugh, but it was pretty obvious by then.

Then you noticed the bed. Boy was that gonna be some fun later. It was blanketed in hundreds of rose petals, all which were making the room smell incredible.

“You’ve really outdone yourself here Joe. You didn’t have to do all this for me.”

“I did. You’re my wife and I love every inch of you, you’ll find out just how much later.” he winked, god he drove you absolutely insane.

“Oh will I?”

He nodded before swooping you off your feet and pinning you against the bed.

“Why wait?”

He lifted you up before you grabbed his shirt and threw it off his body. His lips pressed against yours, slowly making their way down to your neck.

“You wouldn’t happen to need this would you?” he said pointing to your shirt.

Your face quick to say no as your hands continued to entangle in Joe’s fluffy red hair. His hands make their way down to your waist when you feel your pants become loose as Joe pulls them off.

“Little eager are we?”

“With all the teasing that happened today? Most definitely.” he said, your hot bodies resting against each other.

Your panties became so wet after that comment, that burning sensation you needed from your husband pounding you against the bed. You went to slide them off before Joe stopped you.

“No No. Those are for me.”

His hands soon met your waist again after trailing their way from your breasts, pulling off your filthy, wet garments. His hand brushing the inside of your thigh, the throbbing from your desperate clit increasing. You pulled him closer, his chest against yours.

“Give me your best Mazzello.”

“Don’t I always.” he smirked before whipping out his long length.

He gave it a few pumps before brushing it against your folds, pushing into your chamber. He covered your mouth to hide your loud moans, his soon to follow. He slowly pumped himself into you, easing you into your orgasm. Your nails digging deeper into Joe’s back.

“Babe your so tight around me.” Your moans now louder as he increased his speed, rocking the bed against the wall.

“Joe i’m so close.”

“Cum for me baby.”

His words sent you over the edge as you hit the peak of your high, his thrusts slowing to string you along through it. His lips meeting yours as he made his way down to your neck, sucking a purple mark into it. His hands had you pinned to the bed, his length still pumping into your slick folds. You roll over on top of him, guiding him into his orgasm. You loved the way you felt when his cum filled you up. Both of you breathing heavy as you come down from your highs. You throw yourself back down next to him on the bed.

“That was incredible.”

“Let’s never wait this long again.” he smiled.

“Round two?” you begged as your eyes met his.

“As much as I would love to fuck you all night, I had more planned for tonight.” You smiled as your hand brushed his cheek, your lips placing a kiss upon it.

“You’re absolutely perfect. You drive me insane and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” You slowly intertwined your legs with his, your head falling upon his chest as you hear the steady beat of his heart grow quick.

“I don’t know how I ever lived my life without you.” He placed a tender kiss against your scalp.

You pushed yourself off the bed and wandered over to the suitcase that barely made it through the door. Quickly rummaging through it, you found one of your favorite dresses to wear on date night. It was a short cocktail dress that flowed just above the knees and hung off your shoulders, the entire dress then blanketed in a thin lace. Not only was it your favorite, but Joe’s too.

“Such a fancy dress, what’s the occasion?

“You’ll find out.” he smirked before approaching you, twirling you into his arms, his hold on you ever so tight.

You shuffled to the bathroom to throw on your outfit with the strappy heels that were pack for you along with some subtle makeup. You weren’t one to go all out with your makeup but considering how the night was going so far, you wanted to make it special.

By the time you were done getting ready Joe had already changed into your favorite dress shirt of his with black slacks, your clutch in his hand ready for you to grab.

“After you my love.” he gestured towards the door.

You barely made it out the door before he smacked your ass and you giggled like a little school girl.

“Joseph!”

“What? You’re such a tease little lady! I can’t help myself.”

He ended up taking you to The Grove first so you could pick up a few books that Joe had noticed you had wanted over the past few weeks and then to one of your favorite clothing stores in LA.

“Joe this is too much. I don’t deserve all this.”

“Are you crazy! Not only are you the most incredible human being, but you are the most amazing mother and wife through all of these unfortunate events happening to us lately. I owe you the world love.” His words sent you to tears, your head falling against his chest.

“Joe I-“ he left you speechless, his hand gently rubbing your back as the other played with your hair. His lips fell to yours, falling deeper in love with him by the second.

Dinner was next on his agenda and he took you to the most gorgeous and lavish restaurant in town. You hadn’t even noticed that the paparazzi had been following the two of you around until Joe had to tell them off a couple of times while leaving the place.

Your night ended with a steamy shower session and throwing on some of Joe’s pjs before hoping into bed.

“Today was absolutely incredible babe. Thank you so much.” you pleaded, your head deep into one of the new books Joe had bought you earlier.

He plopped himself into the spot next to you, his arm quickly wrapped around you.

“You deserve it my love. You deserve it all.” He turned to place a kiss against your temple before you met him in the middle, your lips pressing against his, falling deeper by the minute. You could have fell asleep lying against him until your phone vibrated against the side table.

“Joe Mazzello and wife Y/N Mazzello seen without the little one. Are they abandoning their sick baby just for a fun night out on the town?”

A tear fell from you eyes as Joe sat up from his position on the bed.

“That’s it! We need to tell the world Y/N. I’m sick of everyone bashing us, bashing you, for something that they don’t even know about.”

“I agree. The world needs to know, but how are we supposed to tell them?” Your words calmed him as you both laid back into the heart shaped bed, your head resting against his chest. You could feel the pacing rise and fall of his chest.

“We are going to figure this out Joey. Everything will be ok.”

He looked to you before breaking down, tears slipping from his cheeks. He wasn’t crying from sadness though, it was almost a relief for him. The world needed to find out, and it was going to be soon.

Taglist:

@onehystericalqueeen @sevenseasofky @queens-n-roses @soberandfurious @toger-raylor @sincereleygmg @mrsmazzello @myfreakydeaky @readdyyfreddie @mr-stank-i-dont-feel-so-dank @misterbrianmay @heartsarecompatible @ixchel-9275 @benmeadowstaylor @slutfordeacy-mazello @winnielinleigh @everybodyplaythegame @radioxtaylor @deakyspuff @okiegirl24 @imagines-xxx @classypaintercolorcowboy @super-heros-are-my-life @brookecarney1 @florenceivy @rogersradio

Thank you all for being so patient!! I have school testing for the next month so I’ve been slammed. I hope you all enjoyed!❤️ Don't forget that my requests are ALWAYS open!!

191 notes · View notes