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getdeatjgrops · 4 years

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internet boy.

shigaraki x reader one-shot

Summary: You are on a popular video chat website late at night. After many disconnects, you come across a dusty-blue haired boy. You wait for him to say “show your tits” to skip him, but strangely enough he didn’t say anything. To this, you become intrigued, and stay to chat with him.

Warnings: swearing, slight yandere tendencies.

Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x Reader

Word Count: 4680

You yawn. You check the time on the corner of your laptops’ screen. 2 AM. Why weren’t you sleeping? Well, you were on Omegle for almost two hours, and you didn’t realize how fast the time flew by. You were bored and couldn’t sleep, so you chose to talk to strangers online who were also up late at night. Maybe you were the strange one.

You haven’t gone on Omegle for a long time, so you forgot about all the dick showing and the dudes asking to either show your tits or your ass. If you didn’t comply they’d call you a bitch and disconnect. Sometimes if you got lucky, you connected with someone sweet and you’d chat a bit until they needed to go. At least there were still some people who just wanted to talk.

You sighed as you disconnected from another penis on your screen.

If I see another dick one more time, I’m getting off.

You tapped your fingers on your laptop, waiting for someone to connect.

And someone did. It was an odd looking guy. He had shaggy light blue hair and deep, red eyes that you could hardly see. He had a tightened black hoodie, so you couldn’t see his full face; only his eyes and nose. He was leaning against a white wall behind him, and his camera only showed his torso and up. The only light was from his own screen, illuminating his face.

You furrowed a brow. He didn’t say anything, so you started typing.

You: hey

You notice his eyes move to the chat, and down to his keyboard. He started typing, and you heard the sound of the keyboard clicking. So he did have a microphone.

Stranger: what’s your name

You: (Y/N). what’s urs?

At this point, you expected him to ask something vulgar, so you hovered your mouse over the “Really?” button to disconnect if he did. But shockingly enough, didn’t.

Stranger: uh. you can call me Tom.

You smiled a bit. You found the name “Tom” funny considering the fact that maybe he was using a fake name, and to add onto your suspicion he added an “uh” in the beginning.

You: cool. i hear that u have a mic. do u wanna talk? i’m too tired to type lol

You: or do u have to be quiet because of your parents loll

You watch him read the chat, and hear a “tch” noise come out of his mouth before he aggressively starts typing.

Stranger: i can talk. but you aren’t talking, so i’m not talking. wouldn’t it be weird if i was the only one talking? weirdo.

You huff and roll your eyes. “The whole point of me asking if you want to talk is so we could talk instead of texting each other. Watch who you call a weirdo, weirdo.” You retorted. He furrowed his brows and rolled his eyes back.

“Whatever. Anyways, what time is it for you?” He asked. You noticed his voice was slightly gravelly. You squint your eyes. “Aren’t you a curious one. With the blunt questions and everything. It’s 2 at night here. You?” You smile slightly. “It’s 2 am here too. Why are you up so late?” He plays with the strings attached to his hoodie.

You sigh. “Dunno. I’m tired but can’t sleep. Why are you up so late?” You ask back. He makes his hand through his hair and hoodie and scratches his neck. “Well, I’ve been thinking about stuff, so I can’t sleep either.” You hum in response, and there’s a minute of silence between you two.

“Well, what’s on your mind then?” You ask, trying to break the awkward tension.

He grumbles. “It’s nothing. Just have a few people that I don’t like on my mind. No, hate. Deeply hate. They are terrible.” He growls, and continues scratching his neck. You frown and look at him. “Hey, don’t worry about them okay? Don’t let bullies effect you and how you feel. They’re dumb.” You comforted. You felt a bit weird comforting a person you just met online about bullies, but you really did feel sympathy for him. He probably has a hard time with them.

He looks away and nods slowly. “Yeah.. bullies..” He stops scratching his neck and puts his hand down. He looks back at the camera. “Do you have anything we can talk on?”

You giggle. “We’re talking on something already, idiot.” To that, he just looks at the screen with an annoyed look. “I’m just playing. Here’s my instagram. Or, if you prefer-“

“Instagram is fine.” He cuts you off, seconds after pulling out his phone and searching up the username you put in the chat. You pressed your lips together, and pull out your phone yourself.

tomxrxow.s has requested to follow you!

“So, Tom.. your name is an abbreviation of Tomorrow?” You ask, quietly chuckling as you accept the follow request. “Uh, sure.” He mumbled. You requested to follow him back, and in an instant he accepted. You notice he has no posts and the only people he follows is a few pro heroes and you. He only has about 20 followers too. You found it slightly uncomfortable, considering that you had a few posts of you and a couple hundred followers. You look back at the screen and see him holding his phone up and moving it to look at you.

“Hm, you’re kind of weird looking right now compared to your posts.” He shows one of your posts of you in a restaurant. You looked pretty in that photo, until you realized that he insulted you. You gasped and furrowed your brows. “Hey!” You pouted. He smirked and put his phone down. “I’m just ‘playing.’” He says, quoting you from earlier. You squint your eyes and scoff, but silently smile to yourself. You like this guy.

“Well, you got my instagram, so we could chat more. I’m feeling kind of tired, so I’ll text you tomorrow morning okay?” You smile. He sighs through his nose. “Alright, good night.” He puts up a backwards peace sign. “Don’t let the villains bite.” You roll your eyes, and to that, you disconnect and shut your laptop.

What a strange guy.

You lay down and close your eyes, and soon enough you drift to sleep.

—

You stir your cereal, waiting for Tom to finish typing.

You and him have gotten close the past 3 weeks. He was quite nice to talk to. He talked about his problems, and you talk about yours. I think it’s safe to say that you guys were great friends, and were there for each other. Not in real life, but through each other’s screen. And you were okay with that.

txmxrxow.s: i haven’t got much sleep last night.

You: ahh well you should go to sleep earlier today!

You smile to yourself. You and Tom stood up late at night talking. Sometimes you guys would call, sometimes you guys chose to just text. In the beginning of your friendship with him, you guys first went from talking for an hour, to a few hours, to the whole night. You found him interesting. The way he talked, what he talked about.. he was just nice to talk to.

txmxrxow.s: but i want to talk to youu :’(

Your heart fluttered as you read his text message. You smile goofily.

You: and i want to talk to you too! but if you don’t go to sleep early then you might just fall asleep while we’re talking, and i’ll get worried that you’re not responding. how about this, we can talk all day today and you can go to sleep tonight so we could talk tomorrow. deal?

You sigh happily. You haven’t had someone to talk to this much in a long time. The world is in a middle of a pandemic; it’s not like you can go out and hang out with your friends when everyone is in quarantine. You walk to your living room with the bowl of cereal in your hand and put it on the coffee table. You sit down on your couch, and turn on the TV. You put a spoonful of cereal in your mouth and lean back to watch what the news is for today.

“Breaking news. The League of Villains attacked the city unexpectedly last night! Heroes came late due to the fact that it was at 4 am. But thankfully, we can never not trust our strong heroes! They were close to defeat, but they struck back with all their might, leaving the villains running away! Thank you for your service Pro-Heroes, for keeping us and the city safe!”

The T.V showed footage from a helicopter above of the villains running away into a dark alley. They all disappear as they enter a purple portal one of the villains created. The camera then showed the pro heroes panting in exhaustion, walking away from the scene like it was nothing. You couldn’t blame them, it was late at night- they were tired. They weren’t willing to have an interview this late.

txmxrxow.s: Did you see the news? Smh. Pro heroes this, pro heroes that. It’s getting tiring.

You take another bite of cereal and pick up your phone to reply.

You: Yeah, but at least they keep us safe. And on that note, im glad you’re safe, but I mean we were literally up at that time just texting each other lmaooo

txmxrxow.s: haha, yeah :)

You pick up the remote control and switch the channel to something else. You were getting tired of hearing about villains and heroes all the time too.

You: anyways, i’m bored. wanna call?

txmxrxow.s: sure

You: i mean like, video call? we haven’t video called since omegle lolol

txmxrxow.s: hmm.. nah.

You frown. Didn’t he just say sure a few seconds ago?

txmxrxow.s: but i miss your cute little face. so, get on discord.

You blush and furrow your brows. Who does this guy think he is?! You huff, and pull out your laptop and open discord. Seconds after, you receive a call from Tom and accept it.

“Hello. Guess you couldn’t resist my cute ass face.” You teased. He chuckles in response, and turned on his camera. Again, he’s wearing a black tightened hoodie, so you could only see his eyes and nose, along with his messy light blue hair. “I really couldn’t.” He responded flatly. You blush and roll your eyes. “Shut up.” You grin.

You and him talked about random things. You would occasionally take a bite of your cereal, and he would snap a photo before you eat the spoonful of Froot Loops. “Hey!! Delete that!” You pleaded, covering your mouth full of milk and cereal with your hand. He laughed in response, showing his phones’ screen to the camera, which was the photo of you about to put the spoon in your mouth. You swallowed the food in your mouth and crossed your arms. “Not funny! I’m turning off my camera.” You huffed, and turned off the camera.

“Nooo! Come back!” He pleaded, exaggerating the “No.” You laughed, and turned on your camera just as fast as you turned it off. Needless to say, you enjoyed talking to Tom.

—

You and Tom were on call for the past five hours. You didn’t get bored of his company, and although your laptop was heating up, you wanted to stay.

“Hm.. say,” He started. You hummed back. “What’s up?” You didn’t lift your eyes from your phone. You were scrolling through your instagram feed and occasionally were sending Tom funny cat photos and videos.

“Do you want to meet up?” Your heart skipped a beat. You looked at your laptops’ screen with wide eyes. “Now?” You ask. He shrugged, twirling his hoodie string between his finger. “Sure. Or, if you want we could meet up later this week. Or later tonight, so there isn’t much people, especially with the whole virus thing going on.” You nod.

Should you go today? Later tonight? I mean, he seems pretty real to you. And you really liked talking to him. You liked him in general.

“I um, have to talk to you about something too.” He said, slightly choking on his words. Your heart rushes. You look at the time on your phone. 3 pm. Wow, time flew by fast.

“Sure. Let’s meet up at 10 pm.” You smile. He sighed in relief. “Okay, cool. I’m.. excited to see you.” He blushed. Your heart continued pounding against your chest and you tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “I’m excited too.” You guys sat in silence, scrolling through your phones. You gulped, feeling uncomfortable.

God, why is everything so much more awkward now?! It’s fine. You’ll meet each other, and talk. It’ll be your first time seeing each other in real life, and it’ll be fine.

You turn to your laptop screen. “Well, my laptop is heating up really badly, so I’m gonna go. We can still text if you want.” You put your index finger on the trackpad, hovering it over the hang up button. “Alright, see you soon.” He puts his phone down and waves. You smile and make a silly face before hanging up. You needed to get ready, even though it was only 3 pm.

— *Time skip to 10 pm*

You didn’t want to appear to extra and flashy on the first time meeting, so you went with an oversized (F/C) sweatshirt and jeans. You let your hair down, and put on mascara. Your heart was beating loudly. You were excited, but nervous. What did he want to talk about? You had an idea, but you dismissed it.

You heard a notification go off and checked your phone.

txmxrxow.s: let’s meet over here.

After he sent that text, he sent a photo of a building that you passed by occasionally.

You: okay. see you soon! ^^

You smile to yourself. You breathe in and out to calm yourself. You turn off the lights and put your phone in your pocket. You grab a mask and put in on your face, and put on latex gloves. You shut the door behind you and start walking towards the direction of the building. You decided to listen to music to calm yourself.

What a weird coincidence that you met a person on Omegle that lived in the same country as you. Matter of fact, in the same city as you. You couldn’t believe it. And you fell in love with him? Truly strange. But, you don’t hate it. You smile happily. You realize that you shouldn’t be nervous. You guys have been talking for three weeks. He was comfortable with you, and you were comfortable with him. You guys were friends.

You hummed to the song that was currently on, and you noticed that you were close to the place you guys were meeting up at. You just had to cross this street and you’ll be there. You patted your hands on your jeans, realizing how sweaty they got from you being anxious. The street sign turned to a walking figure, and you slowly crossed.

You took out the earphones in your ears, and put them in your jean pocket. You squeeze your hands into fists as you see a figure a few yards away from you wearing a black hoodie. He was facing the other way, but you noticed that they were on their phone. You decided to walked up to them. This was Tom, it had to be. You looked at the building next to the figure. Yep, it is Tom.

You walk until you’re a few feet away from him.

“T-Tom?” You let out, almost as silent as a squeak. Their head looks up, and they slowly turn around. Your eyes made eye contact with their deep, red eyes. Their shaggy light blue hair was sticking out of their hoodie, and they had the strings tied together like you’ve seen on video call.

You smiled in joy, and went to wrap your arms around him. You pressed your face on their chest. He slightly stepped back, not expecting you to do that. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around you, careful not to touch you with all five of his fingers on each hand.

“(Y/N), you came.” He smiled, sighing. He didn’t want this moment to end; and neither did you. You moved your head up to look up at him. He was looking back down at you. “Are you always in these clothes? You have the same exact outfit from when we called on Omegle and video called today.” You teased, furrowing your brows. He grunted in response, and rolled his eyes.

“Haha, so funny. No, I don’t. But, I wanted to meet you because I wanted to talk to you about something.” You unwrapped your arms from him and slightly stepped back. You put your arms behind you and tapped the floor with the tip of your shoe. “What did you want to talk about?” You had a faint blush on your cheeks. He rubbed the top of head awkwardly and looked to the side.

“Well.. I know it’s only been three weeks but..” He started, taking a deep breath. You felt your heart beating loudly against your chest. You rubbed your lips together. You fidgeted with your hands. This is it.

“I feel like I’m the most comfortable with you. You let me talk about my problems and you help me with them. I calm down when you’re talking to me. After ending our calls at night, I wouldn’t be able to get you out of my mind.”

You felt your blush grow redder, and your breathing gradually increased. He’s doing it. He’s doing it.

“You’re.. simply to say.. the best thing that has happened to me. Nobody has acted this way to me besides you. Life makes sense when I’m talking to you.” He blushes, and grabs your shoulders. His pinkys don’t touch you. You widened your eyes at this, not expecting him to do that suddenly. You look at his eyes in a daze, feeling your heart almost explode out of your chest.

“(Y/N).. I..” He swallows, his throat dry.

“I love you.”

He finishes it at that, and there’s a silence. You blink, feeling fireworks explode in your stomach. You slowly smile. You raise your arm and move your hand through his hair and hoodie to his cheek. “Tom.. I love you too.” You felt your legs shake. Honestly, you never felt this way about anyone. So why do you feel this way with someone you met online? You didn’t know, but you didn’t feel bad.

He moves one of his hands towards his hoodie strings, and pulls them so they untie. His hoodie loosens, and you finally see his lips. They were chapped, colorless. Scarred. But you smiled. He moved towards you and placed his lips on yours. You close your eyes slowly. Carefully, he moves his hand down to your back, and pulls you closer. You felt yourself going crazy. You moved your free hand and placed it on his shoulder gently. Both of you deepened the kiss, feeling the passion between each other.

After a few seconds, you guys moved away from each other. You breathed silently while you stared at each others eyes. He smiled at you, but then his smile slowly went away. He sighed, and looked down.

“(Y/N), There’s something else I need to tell you.”

You look at him confused, but you still smile. “Yes, Tom? You could tell me anything.”

He lets go of your body and squeezes your hands in his hands. They were cold. “Will.. will you look at me differently? Will you still love me?”

Taken back by this, you didn’t know what to say. “Of.. Of course I will still love you. We’ve come this far, why would I stop loving you?” You ran your hand across his arm, trying to reassure him. He sighed, and suddenly looked up at you in all serious.

“My name is Shigaraki Tomura.” He spoke. “I’m.. the leader of the League of Villains.”

Your eyes went wide. Your whole body froze. You slightly squeezed your hand on his arm.

Leader of the villain league? Him? How? You couldn’t believe it. The same person you talked to about problems you believed to be normal; were just problems of a villain?

He noticed your fear, and his eyes went wide. He grabbed your shoulders, looking at you in panic. “You still love me right? You won’t leave me, will you? You know I love you right? I would never do anything bad to you.” He tried reassuring you, shaking you slightly.

You couldn’t help but be startled by him now. The same person you called insults and teased, could’ve easily lost control and killed you? Right now, you in the grip of his hands; if he lands his pinkies on you, you’re done for.

Do you still love him? You thought to yourself. Just the other night, he went out and attacked the city with his league of villains. That was the same night you guys were texting. You believed that he was at home, in his bed, just texting you. You couldn’t believe this.

“Tom... ura...” You choked. You realized that Tom wasn’t a fake name. It wasn’t an abbreviation of tomorrow. You gulped. Were you in his hands of delusion all along? Since the beginning?

Shigaraki gritted his teeth. “Please... (Y/N).. I’ll- I’ll change for you! I promise! Please.. me meeting you is possibly the most life changing thing that has happened to me. For the better! I love you so much! I would die for you!! I would disband the League of Villains for you! If- If you want, I’ll just kill them instead! The world could be in peace! (Y/N)-“

“Tom. Err.. Tomura. Listen.. this is a lot to take in right now. So please, just calm down. I don’t know your intentions, and I just can’t believe that... you’re a villain.” You let out, frowning. You looked down at the concrete below your feet, debating with yourself. What do you say next? Now knowing his true identity, you felt that if you say something wrong, you’re done for.

You squeezed his hands. Suddenly, you wrapped your arms around him, squeezing his hoodie between you hands. “Just please... change for me. Stop..” You blinked back your tears.

“Stop killing people.”

You heard his breath hitch, and he slowly wrapped his arms around you. “(Y/N).. I love you.” You closed your eyes. This is real life. The guy you met online, someone you felt was a normal person, turned out to be a villain.

You felt him move your hair away and moved it over your shoulder with his fingers. You looked up at him. He had an indescribable facial expression.

“(Y/N), I’m sorry. Just know I love you. But this is for our safety.” You furrow your brows in confusion, until you felt a sharp sting on the side of your neck. You widened your eyes. “Tomura..” You felt drowzy. An injection. You looked at him one final time, reading pain on his face. “I love you.” He said once again, but his voice was muffled. You felt darkness consume your vision, and fell onto your knees.

—

Leather. Your wrists were binded together with leather. You slowly opened your eyes, blinking to adjust to the light.

You slowly realized that your chest and your feet were binded against the chair you were sitting on as well. Your mind felt fuzzy, and you felt sick. Where am I?

“Aww, look guys! Shigarakis little girlfriend is starting to wake up!” You hear a girls voice. What is going on? You look up slowly. You see many figures. There were men, and distinctly one girl. You blinked a few more times to adjust your vision, and you looked to the back of the room. You felt your memories slowly start to come back as your eyes landed on Tomura. You widened your eyes, and felt tears run down your face. Tomura had his villain costume on, the hand on his face making it harder to see what his face looks like.

He got up and walked towards you. Fear pulsing through you, you kicked and pushed- trying to get out of the chair. Your quirk wasn’t much help, so you felt hopeless. Trying to fight back was your only option right now. Tomura bent over and put his hands on your shoulders. You rapidly shook your head. “Don’t touch me! Get off me!! You lied to me, you lied to me!! You never loved me!! You lied.. you want to kill me!” You screamed hysterically. More tears ran down your face. You weeped, noticing that Tomura hasn’t done anything yet. His pinkies were up like last time, and he didn’t harm you yet.

You sniffled. “Why.. why are you doing this?” You whimpered. He took one hand off your shoulder and carefully took off the plastic hand that was on his face. He was unreadable. Is he regretting what he is doing? Is he angry at you? Or does he simply not care at all and is just waiting for you to stop fighting so he could kill you already? He stands up straight and turns to the other villains. “Leave. We need privacy.” He demanded. They nodded, and with that, the villains walked out and left. Where? You don’t know. He turned back to you and put his hands back on your shoulders. You gulped in fear, feeling your breathing quicken.

“Wh-What do you want, Tomura.” You choked, sniffling. He frowned, and sighed. “(Y/N), I’m doing this for your safety and mine. If I just let you go after telling you who I am, you could’ve easily told the police about your connection with me, and they could use that to their advantage to track me down and arrest me. And we can’t have that, can we?” He stood up straight and walked to the wall to the right.

“And for your safety, if someone saw us talking, they would take the chance of kidnapping you themselves. They would try to get info from you and use you to their advantage.” He turns to look at you. You were still silently crying. You bit your bottom lip in anxiousness, until you heard footsteps from him walking towards you. You widened your eyes and quickly shut them, afraid of what is going to happen next.

You felt him cup your cheek softly with his hand. You flinched, realizing you lost all trust for him. “S-Stop..” You whisper. He frowns. He crossed his arms. “(Y/N). Look at me.” You didn’t comply, and still had your eyes closed. He furrowed his brows, frustrated. He banged his fist on the arm rest next to you, making you jump. “Look at me goddamnit!” He yelled. You looked at him with fear in your eyes. He widened his eyes slightly. He didn’t want to scare you. He just wanted you to understand. He softened his eyes and sighed in frustration. He pinched the bridge of his nose and continued looking at you.

“Look. I never lied to you. I still love you, (Y/N). Truly, I do. I meant everything I said in my, err, confession as you may call it. But things are too dangerous right now. I can’t change for you just yet. You understand that right?” You looked down in hopelessness. “I hope you can realize soon enough that what I’m doing is protecting you. Trust me, I won’t let the rest of the villains lay a single hand on you. I’ll treat you with good care.”

He held your chin up with his index finger, and you looked up at him in defeat. He smiled gently. “Alright princess?” --

My first fanfic in a while!! Hope you enjoyed! Hopefully there is more to come ;) this was requested by my amazing friend @crabziee-writez <3!

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disrepairhouse · 5 years

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Chapter 34 - Updating

When Metal Sonic told RK to test his new leg to ensure it was working properly, this wasn’t what he meant. He watched with equal parts ‘I told you so’ amusement and irritation while the large red echidna stood and tapped his foot impatiently, going through the endless sea of text messages and voicemails from the human woman down the street. RK hadn’t wanted to put it off too long after he got all the updates on the return home since they both knew full-well that she would show up at their door before long, likely with questions (if not demands), and RK needed to be prepared to deal with her. However, he hadn’t expected there to be quite so many.

They started out simple enough. A quick ‘just making sure this number works’ that turned into a frantic confirmation of Chaos’ awakening and eventually Itara’s return home with Metal and Ned. He heard in great detail about the state Itara was in when she returned home via said voicemail, he was grateful to Ned for taking her to a hospital so quickly. However, what should have been the end of the voicemails only continued into more concerned messages that questioned where he was at, if he was okay, why he was taking so long to return home, if he knew that Itara was home, that she’d tried to wait for him to ‘wake up’ at some point, and eventually devolved into repeated texts of the same ilk. Apparently, she got tired of talking -RK didn’t think that possible- and decided to test whether texts would work.

He was going to pretend he never saw those.

He couldn’t get out of her knowing he had a phone number to call him by, but at the very least he could pretend his ‘phone’ was basic enough that it didn’t receive texts.

Once he was finally done going through and deleting every message from Lynda, making a note to let her know he at least received them at a later point, he reached up to rub the side of his head. At least everyone was home safe and in one piece. Mostly. He dragged the news about Kipper and his disappearance out of Itara after he finished sharing files with Metal and was overall wholly unsurprised with the doll’s actions. He knew he hadn’t been sticking around just for the amusement, but the idea that the psychotic little doll was now out there running around with half of Itara’s powers would have been cause for concern if there weren’t much bigger concerns.

The news about Chaos was one thing.

The news about Gaia was another.

The idea that Solaris might follow suit was a universe of trouble all its own.

But there wasn’t much they could do about it in the meantime, either. For now, it was better to focus on their own recovery and worry about the Gods later, maybe even let someone else deal with it entirely. If no one managed to wrangle Chaos and Gaia back down, then he would worry, but for now he just wanted to check that his systems were running, that Metal didn’t run off to try and fight Sonic again, and Itara was as okay as she could be. In addition to Kipper, she also told him about the journal and her mixed feelings about it and that concerned him more than the physical injuries.

At the moment, she was resting in her room, listening to music in an attempt to keep herself distracted, but later he planned to have another talk with her. However, even his plans to discuss current issues with Metal were brought to a short stop as a knock came from the front door. Metal disregarded it, as he had been since the last conversation with Lynda, but RK knew better and headed for the door to answer it. He was hoping to have longer to prepare before his next conversation with the human woman, but no such luck, it seemed. Best to get it taken care of and done with, he supposed.

However, it wasn’t an eager strawberry blonde behind the door once RK opened it, as he had expected. Instead, the ever-irritated, and equally shocked, Susan stood on their doorstep, her stance impatient as she looked ready to leave if he hadn’t answered right that second. The two exchanged glances for a split second before the surprise fell away and Susan crossed her arms, “So you are home, after all. We were beginning to wonder.” Metal moved into view behind him, gaining a quick glance from the woman before she refocused on RK, “Lynda said she was having a hard time getting in touch with you.”

“I noticed. I only saw her messages a few moments ago, so I haven’t had the chance to get back to her just yet. I was… recovering, from an incident, but I’m getting caught back up now. What can I do for you, Susan?” He had planned explanations for Lynda, but he wanted to keep interactions with Susan minimal, especially now.

“Well, I’m glad to see you up and about again,” though neither RK nor Metal were fooled by the vague attempt at pleasantries, “I assume you’ve heard about what’s going on in Station Square and Spagonia?” RK gave a short nod. “And the announcement from Soleanna?”

That one, RK hadn’t heard. He glanced back at Metal, who shrugged in response. It was the first he had heard about it, either. They turned back to Susan again and RK questioned, “what announcement?”

Susan studied them suspiciously, but explained, “I’m surprised you didn’t hear. The Royal Family made a statement the other day about the events and how they plan to respond to it. In addition to increasing more physical defenses, I guess they’re moving the Solaris Festival up a few weeks and adding an extra day of events. They’re hoping to ask for the Sun God’s protection from everything that’s going on.” She didn’t sound overly convinced of the usefulness of such measures and her normal bitterness never left her tone, but she kept at least those comments to herself. Instead, she added, “Which is the reason I’m here. There’s a meeting at my house for the neighborhood so we can discuss the situation and the festival. I suggest attending.”

“When will it be?”

“An hour or so. I didn’t have a number or anything for you so I wasn’t able to call ahead of time. You know which one is my house, correct?”

“Yes. I know.”

“Good. Then I’ll see you soon.”

She hardly waited for a response before she turned on her heel and strode back down the driveway. Metal and RK watched her for a minute but shut the door and turned to one another to debate the situation. “I forgot about the festival,” RK hummed, “I don’t think it’d be wise to skip the neighborhood meeting, but perhaps it’s best to keep Itara away from the festival.” The two bots glanced down the hall towards the open bedroom door, listening to the unusually loud music that echoed through the house for a moment before RK shook his head, “Even more so than usual, considering her current state.”

“She had to realize Mephiles was only out to use her eventually,” Metal scoffed, though hadn’t looked away from the hall just yet. “For someone so apparently smart, it sure took her an awful long time.”

“She knew all along. She was just playing ignorant. Willful ignorance at its worst, really.”

“Organics.”

There was a moment of silence before RK moved for the lab door, “in any case, I’m going to go look into that announcement and see what all was covered. Can you let Itara know about the meeting and ask if she’d rather stay here or come with me?”

“I suppose.” RK nodded and headed downstairs while Metal crossed the living room to look in on the tiny hedgehog. She was curled up in the middle of her bed, staring off with a music library of some description open on the laptop in front of her. It was unusual for her to be doing anything other than playing games or messing around on her phone, but he supposed both those items were broken and lost in Spagonia so perhaps this was her best next option. The list of songs on the open playlist was relatively short and, after looking their names up, he realized most were from video game soundtracks. One or two were background themes for the simulation game she played with the others, one was a level theme from one the games they had for the console in the living room, but a couple were boss themes for games they didn’t own, so far as he was aware.

The one she was listening to was one of those boss themes. It was intriguing to listen to for some reason and before Metal realized it, the song ended and he found himself ever so slightly disappointed. It switched to one of the background tracks for her simulation game and Itara gave no indication that she even registered the sudden, drastic, shift in tone and pace. Metal thought it important to inform her as perhaps she hadn’t noticed.

“Hey.” She jerked from the unexpectedly sharp tone and unnoticed appearance and stared over at him, wide-eyed. Before she could fully register his presence, he commanded, “turn that other one back on,” and with a slightly uncomfortable shift, “and turn it up.”

Itara stared for several seconds, but slowly nodded and reached over to switch the song back, turning the volume up a bit. Once she had done so, and finally zoned in enough to realize the strangeness of the request, she eyed him again with her usual alertness. “Wait, what?”

“There’s going to be a neighborhood meeting at that Susan woman’s house in an hour regarding what’s going on lately,” Metal informed her, distinctly ignoring the strange stare he was receiving, “RK wanted to know if you planned to go with him or if you’d rather stay here.” He debated whether or not he should mention the bit about the Solaris Festival but decided against it. If she went, she would find out then, and if she didn’t it wouldn’t concern them, anyway.

He watched curiously as a world of uncertainty spread across the little hedgehog’s face, watched as her gaze shifted down and away from him and her brows pulled together, as she fidgeted with the edge of her sleeve, before she finally sighed and dropped her head. “Y-Yeah… a-alright, I guess I… I’ll go,” she stammered, shifting uncomfortably as she reached over to pause her music, much to Metal’s dismay. The requested song hadn’t ended but he wasn’t going to say anything about it this time. Instead, he followed her down to the lab after she asked where RK was at and contemplated whether or not he should go with them. The idea of having to deal with Susan for even another second, in a house full of humans and their skewed view of current events sounded agonizing, but at the same time, he wanted to keep an eye on RK. The other bot was still experiencing glitches with the upgrades.

Once RK explained what he’d learned about the announcement and the ongoing state of the other two gods, the three prepared to deal with the meeting down the street. Both Metal and RK had to change clothes to keep their various robotic parts hidden and Itara had to change out of the pajamas she hadn’t changed out of since they arrived home. Unfortunately, RK’s usual outfit was beyond repair due to the battle and subsequent flood, leaving him with either the extra camo sweats he kept around for just in case or the outfit from New Year’s. Damn. He liked that jacket and he doubted he’d find boots like his old ones so easily again.

With a final check of information, as well as stories regarding what happened after the attack on the museum, RK lifted Itara up onto his shoulders where she quickly got comfortable, and the three headed down the street. The sun was still a couple hours from setting but was dipping below the tree line beside their house. Spring was in full swing so the days were getting longer and the snow was long gone, much to Itara’s relief, but there was still a decent bite to the evening air. RK noticed that the grass in their lawn, specifically, had grown a fair bit compared to the neighbors and wondered if he should take care of that sooner rather than later. The snow had only recently melted completely yet it seemed the rest of the neighborhood wasted no time in trimming and redecorating their lawns. What once was a clump of snow in Lynda’s yard had slowly melted and revealed a two-foot garden gnome statue, which she’d already surrounded in much smaller gnomes and fairies.

The walk down to Susan’s was silent amongst the three, each lost in their own thoughts, but once they reached the house in question – a two-story house that sat at the far end of the street on the opposite side, facing down the dead center – a significant amount of chatter and clamor built up past the white paneling. RK hesitated a short moment to prepare himself to deal with all the questions likely to be flung his way and continued up to the door, pressing in the small red button that served as a doorbell. The clamor inside hushed slightly at the sound, though it was brief, as the lock clicked and Lawrence, Susan’s husband, swung the door open.

“Ah, there you are. Come on in.” He wasn’t nearly as off-putting and scathing as Susan, but he wasn’t a friendly face, either. He hurried them in and before RK had even enough time to scan the packed room, the ever-prescient strawberry blonde shot over from the opposite side to greet them.

“RK! You’re back!” Lynda half-screeched, concern and relief written all over her unusually make-up light face. She reached for his hand, nearly stabbing herself on the elongated claws had RK not shifted them before she could, and continued, “I’ve been so worried! Sparky said you came back and were just resting but I hadn’t heard from you for so long I just didn’t know what to think! Thank Heavens you’re all okay!” She shifted her gaze up to Itara at this, honed in on the wrapped arm and frowned, “How are you holding up, Itara? What happened? Are you alright? Simon has been awful worried about you. He’s just in the other room with Camilla, you should go see them.”

Itara’s face dropped at the mention of Camilla, but kept her mental comment to herself as she glanced away from the human woman. Instead, she forced out a wary, “I’m… fine. I’ll be fine. But sure, I’ll… go say ‘hi’ to Simon… I guess.”

“That’s for the best, the adults have a lot to discuss,” Susan interjected, impatient as always.

Itara shot her a quick scowl while RK pulled her up off his shoulders and set her down. “Be careful of your arms, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will,” she sighed and gave another small wave to Lynda as she followed the directions towards the other ‘kids’. As much as she wanted to know what all they were talking about, she did at least want to see Simon. She had to tell him her handheld was lost, after all. Once she was down the hall and headed for what was apparently Camilla’s bedroom, taking in the extravagant details and decorations of the two-story house along the way, her ears perked once she heard the ‘adults’ begin whatever meeting they were having. She could still hear them just fine, heard Lynda pull RK and Metal over to the rest of the group and offer them all manner of drinks, then Susan berate her for derailing the conversation. Then they finally got into talk about what had happened.

Itara stopped listening at that point, both because she knew better than all of them what was actually going on and also because she reached her destination. Camilla’s room, even at a glance, was easily twice the size of her own bedroom and much, much nicer. Not that Itara cared, she liked smaller spaces, it was easier to reach things if they were closer together. But the excessive extravagance, from the clean white walls, to the lace bed covers and multiple pillows, to the silver accented furniture reminded Itara of another room she tried to avoid thinking about and froze her at the door for several minutes.

Camilla and Simon were sat in the center of the room, on a large, round rug, homework packets tossed carelessly beside them, deep in conversation about the same topic as the adults two rooms away. Though their conversation was far less serious in nature as Simon was rambling about fighting the beasts that were still running rampant while Camilla vaguely humored him. It wasn’t until Simon motioned widely with his arms and his eyes happened to follow one of them that he realized they had company.

“Itara! You’re back!”

The exclamation drew all three of them out of their thoughts and put their attention on Itara, who shuffled uncomfortable under the gaze. Camilla said nothing and made no movement towards her, but Simon bolted to his feet and ran over, moving to grab onto her much the same way Lynda had done to RK until he noticed her arm in the bright blue sling and stopped short. “Oh, jeez, are you okay?”

Itara shook her head, less as a response and more to focus in, as she explained, “I’m fine. I just… ran into trouble.”

“I’m so glad you’re back, though! When I heard you got separated from everyone on the trip, I was afraid something real bad happened and then Sceira came over and looked all upset, asking where you lived. What even happened? I heard those monsters AND Robotnik attacked the university!” As he battered her with concerns and questions, he pushed her over to the rug Camilla was still sitting on, which created an awkward moment where the two made eye contact before looking away again. “Tell us what happened!”

Once Simon took a moment to breathe again, Itara sighed and looked briefly between them. She and RK had discussed what they would tell people who asked about what happened, but for some reason she almost felt like telling Simon the truth. In this one instance, she was grateful for Camilla’s presence, because she knew she would never reveal so much to her. But the thought that Sceira had actually been upset about her going missing, and even went to the trouble of bring her stuff from the hotel back for her, continued to catch her off-guard. RK had explained how her suitcase got back home, but she still didn’t want to believe Sceira of all people could be worried about her.

“I…” She shook her head again and explained, “I just… when the monsters attacked, Sparky and I ended up separated from everyone and while Sparky tried to fight them off, I tried to find somewhere to hide. It was chaos-,” well, no, it was Robotnik, “I got caught up with some of Robotnik’s badniks and ended up further out from everyone.”

“Did you actually see Robotnik?”

A shudder ran down the hedgehog’s back as she thought about the response. She did far more than see him. “I… yeah.”

“Whoa. Is he really that scary? Like, I’ve heard a lot of stories about the guy, but I heard you mobians really have a history with him. Sonic fights him all the time, right? Is he the only one of you guys who do? Is he really that special?”

Once again, Simon bombarded her questions she only half wanted to answer but she sighed with slight amusement and annoyance. They really had no idea, did they? But she wasn’t going to explain the entire history of Sonic and Robotnik’s rivalry so, instead, she changed the subject and asked about the festival. “You guys heard about the festival changes, right?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s pretty crazy, I don’t remember them ever changing the date before and we’ve gone to the festival every year I can remember,” Simon responded as he reached up to rub his head, “hey, I just realized.” He looked at Itara again, “you’re new to our school, but are you new to the area? Have you ever been to the Solaris Festival? Do you know about Solaris?”

Itara almost scoffed. She wanted to be bitter in her response, but knew it would be suspicious and took a deep breath to calm herself before responding, “No, I’m not new to the area. I’m… very well acquainted with Solaris.”

“Oh, that’s right, you like history stuff, right? Did you do a lot of research on him or something.”

“…Something like that.” She shifted uncomfortably as she suddenly regretted bringing the festival up. She wanted more information on the subject, but she should have realized it would bring conversation to Solaris. She didn’t want to think about him right now. Luckily, Simon was a well of continuous topics today and shifted once more.

“But the fact that the festival is gonna be a day longer is kind of cool. Camilla and I were just talking about what we’re going to do for it. Our families usually meet up for it and we all watch the lighting of the torch together. My mom and I play a lot of the games they have set up, too. Camilla’s family usually sticks to the ritual stuff, though.”

Games?

Itara’s interest piqued again as she looked between them curiously. She’d never paid attention to the festival outside the lighting of the torch, since it was the part distinctly designed for Solaris. “What kind of… games?”

“Oh man, all kinds! I thought you weren’t new?” Simon questioned, an eyebrow rose.

“I’m not, I just… never paid attention to the rest. I guess I… also stuck to the… ritual stuff.” Camilla eyed her curiously, only for a brief moment, before she looked away again. She hadn’t said a word since Itara appeared and was going through a great bit of trouble to do so. On the one hand, Itara was curious as to why, but on the other hand she still didn’t much like Camilla so the longer she remained silent, the better.

Simon went quiet, as well, when she answered. She worried, for a moment, that she may have said something suspicious and he had caught onto her lie. There was still a lot of everyday situations she struggled with and while they had lessened a great deal since hanging around Simon, they still existed here and there. However, her brief moment of concern came to a close as Simon got excited again, smiled widely over at her and clapped his hands together.

“You should come with us this year!”

“What?”

“We should all meet up at the festival, the four of us! Sceira goes, too, we sometimes meet at the snack stalls. The four of us should meet up and Sceira and I can show you and Camilla the more fun side of the festival! We can eat snacks and play games and watch the performances or… listen to them, in Sceira’s case. There’s this big dance before the main performance where you can join the boat dancers and they’ll teach you parts of the dance, it’s fun! I heard there’s gonna be even more stands than any year before because of what’s happening, a lot of places that don’t normally take part are planning to, so there’ll be even more to do!”

Itara and Camilla exchanged brief glances at his suggestion before they returned their attention to him again, neither looking all that sure of it. In Camilla’s case, she wasn’t sure whether her parents would allow her to break away long enough to go do something fun with her friends. They were always strict about the festival events, with a full schedule including meet-ups with other members of the community. Itara, however, wasn’t sure she wanted to go to the festival in the first place. For the first time in her life she wanted to keep her distance from her father and going to an event specifically planned for him, calling for his help and his protection, sounded like a panic waiting to happen.

Then again, a night out with her… friends… sounded fun.

As much as she didn’t like Camilla, and Sceira was on thin ice, she did at least like Simon. Plus, maybe Tobi and the others from the game night would be there, too. Speaking of which. She turned a sharp eye on Simon, who crippled under her sudden gaze with a quiet what, and sat up straighter to accuse him, “You told Tobi about my gaming.”

Simon turned red in the face and gave a short, guilty laugh as he reached up to rub his head. “Whoops, you found out.” Her glare sharpened but Simon only laughed again as he straightened up, himself, “Ah, c’mon Itara, it’s not like it wasn’t obvious, anyway. How’d you find out, though?”

“I… he….” She glanced towards Camilla, one of the distinct names on the exceptionally short list of people that could not learn of their game night, even though it was long since over and a parent had broken it up that night, anyway. But she shook her head and explained, “I’ll tell you later. The point is, you traitor.”

“Sorry, sorry. But hey, more people to play with, right?”

She frowned as she remembered one of the reasons she agreed to come to the meeting, “…About that...” She wondered if RK would get her a new handheld. Not to mention all the games they had to rebuy now. She didn’t think they could get them all at once, even if they got used versions, but she at least wanted to get that first simulation game again. Not to mention she needed a new phone, too. What she didn’t know, however, was how pointless it would all be soon.

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