#saw all the height jokes online. as if the one time he mentioned it he wasn’t responding to someone asking if he got taller by saying | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yourtoradorasextendedwarranty · 1 year

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Ok so this is going to get a lot of hate but let me make my point. This meme is based on the below images:

So one of these was posted on March 11th, about a VTuber making a flat joke with a pretty sus model. VTuber Characters which are based off anime and do not look like real life people. This tweet has, at the time the picture was taken, 67.6K likes.

The second of these was posted on March 13th, about a real life grooming and SA ring targeting children on twitter, using code words to get groomed kids to put their ages in their bios without it being obvious what the age is to outsiders. Several people have investigated these tags and brought them to light. The tweet at the time this picture was taken, 7.1K likes.

Now first and foremost let me say this. I personally don’t give a flying F*CK if you like loli or shota. Nor do I care about any attraction you have to any fictional characters at all. They are not real. They will never be real. And even if they WERE and they were over the age of 18 and could consent, I STILL would not give a damn. Now with that said, I’m a victim of real world SA. It happened when I was around 6. And it really f*cked with me a lot and it’s the only reason I remember it at all. DO NOT come to me trying to equate fictional characters to real world people. They are fundamentally not the same. They are not even in the same universe.

Fact of the matter is, Loli and Shota are not always “Kids”. Often, they are in fact just petit people of varying ages. However, it’s also worth noting that a lot of the perceived “lolicons” in Japan, more or less where the term got popularized from, do not even sexualize the characters they like. It’s not to say it doesn’t happen at all because it does. However, it’s not the majority of the time. It’s more of a weird, “Must protect and be a big brother at all cost because CUTE”. Which culturally, Japanese people tend to love cute things. It’s why there is a mascot for pretty much everything in the country. What’s more it’s no surprise when you consider that the culture is very puritan in nature, and do not do well with acts of affection. Not to mention the fact that their culture almost shuns it. As such, they internalize the need for that in what ever ways they can. Is it always healthy? Not even remotely. But the reason this is relevant is because I saw a lot of backlash against the person sharing the story about the “Baby Blue” story. The person being called out as a “Lolicon” and “Shotacon”. Now, this person is probably not Japanese. But the above concept still exists. Today we live in a culture where we are ALL online almost all the time. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, Instagram, SecondLife, RP.ME, etc etc. We do not connect with other people the way we used to. Person to person interaction has been grinding down to nothing. And, to top it off, people are not dating at the same rates they used to.

The reason all of that is important is because fiction fills that gap. Often for a lot of different people. I’m not going to judge them, unless I hear them saying something like, “Oh I like the fact this character is a kid. It really gets me going”. That would likely send me into a blind rage on the spot. However, if they just pointed at a character and said, “Hey this character is cute and I like them”, even if it was a younger looking character, I’d probably just go, “......Ok”, and be done with it.

My issues start when real world kids are involved. Like in this below photo.

If you were to just read the context, you would be like, “EGAD! HOW DARE THIS PREDATOR DATE A YOUNGER GIRL!”. Except as it happens, both parties in question were only a few months apart. And what’s more the judgement was that he was really old, based on his height. (Wonder where I’ve seen that equivalent before? *Glances at antis*) And even more than that, he got doxed, and the school got contacted attempting to get him expelled. People tried to legit ruin this kids life. And do you know why? It’s because we have watered down what the term pedophile is. More over, when people look at the dictionary definition of it, it doesn’t paint a complete picture either. Pedophiles tend to be people whom WHILE YES tend to like kids that are with prepubescent bodies, the larger reason they “like” and target kids is because of their innocence and purity. Pedophiles, often victims of sexual violence themselves as kids, tend to target kids because of trauma stemming from their own childhoods. That trauma is often extreme levels of abuse, or themselves having been SA’ed. As such, it caused their maturity to stunt causing it’s own bundle of issues. However, this in and of itself is not meant to defend them. It’s meant to point to the fact that many of these people belong in mental institutes. Now, with that said, there are other pedophiles that are not mentally sick in the same way. No they come from backgrounds with no abuse, and often consider their attraction to be a kink. What’s more they are the ones pushing the hardest for the “acceptance” of pedophiles.

The last of this group however aren’t pedophiles in the traditional sense. They don’t care about the age of the person involved at all. Often they just want to get their rocks off. Those people are opportunists. Often adults into their later years who will look for anyone they find attractive, actively targeting younger people not because they like them sexually, but because they find them to be easy targets. But since people on THIS platform have issues saying “ok all of these things are bad but some of these are more bad” I won’t get into it deeper than that.

The above understandings come from around 12 Years of studying psychology under friends and acquaintances that are professionals in the field. Now all of this comes together with a few things.

Trying to ruin a kids life because he is tall and dating another kid in school is disgusting. Even IF the age gap WAS in fact 18 and 14 fact of the matter is that doesn’t make him a pedophile. More over with several other factors like when did they start dating? Did he only date her BECAUSE she was that age or did they just mesh? Was she the one that asked him out? Etc. This not also covering the fact that we DON”T teach young adults to be adults anymore. You can’t just go to a kid that’s 18 and has only had investment in maybe sports, his gf, and his friends, and then say, “Hey once you turn 18 you need to end all your relationships because otherwise you are a pedo/predator”. That’s not even how that works. Shit when I was in school it WAS NOT uncommon for freshman to date seniors. Not at all. And age of those grades was never universal as it depended on when you started school, and if you got held back, or skipped grades. Moreover, the concept of “predators” to most teens tends to be, “Oh they are people that kidnap you and do bad stuff to you”. They internalize this, and then think that if someone is not that thing exactly, they are not a predator. More over calling kids and young adults predators is a dangerous precedent to set. Why? Because it leads to kids like the one above, getting doxed, threatened with being expelled, showcased all over social media, and harassed nonstop.

Which brings me full circle. I don’t like when people compare fictional characters to real world kids. They are not the same. They are not even in the same realm of “same”. They are fundamentally different entirely. And even if you argue to me that “One represents the other” why is it that a lot of the time they ONLY like that style of art and those characters? Why don’t they dabble in more realistic looking fiction? “Oh well you don’t know that they don’t!”. No. I do not. However their likes and replies on almost every social media is often public and visible to go through. And when people dig and dig through them it tends to say within the realm of quite nonrealistic. Aside from the fact that even if they “Like” loli and shota often that’s not the only thing in their likes by a long shot. Which honestly furthers my point. Words have meanings for a reason. Understanding those meanings and understanding the types of people associated with those words is very important. If a person were to consume underage fictional content (of that kind), I probably would not associate with them at all. If it were hyper realistic, and I found out about it, I would report it to the law because THEN it is actually illegal. But if they are just like, “Hehehe Rebecca from Edge Runners go burrrr” I won’t give two shits.

Stop putting real the real world, and fantasy on the same levels. They are not. And if you tell me that, “OH well consuming the fictional version will lead to consuming the real thing”, how about you point me to a study of real world examples. Talk to me about how my playing the fictional game of Call of Duty is going to make me go out into a desert with my tactical gear, grenades, and run and gun a bunch of people I’ve never met. And yeah it is the same concept. Same with certain types of kink “Play”. There is a fundamental difference between “PLAY” in those regards and real version of those things. MURDER role play is a thing. And I can promise you 99% of those people DO NOT want to be stabbed to death. It’s pretend for a reason. It’s fiction.

If you want to steer clear of people that like loli and shota characters, be my guest. But when real world instances of harm are brought to light, and you DON”T point to it, and others who scream about people liking loli and shota don’t bring light to it. I’m going to assume you are either complacent with real world kids being harmed, and that you only scream about lolis and shotas to cover your own predatory thoughts and behaviors, or that you are quite literally just screaming about it all for clout and could care less about kids being harmed. You don’t have to agree with me on any of this. But the facts are what they are.

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tossawary · 3 years

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I need to know more about “SVSSS - Baby Brother Liu Qingge” bc I love tiny and very deadly baby LQG

I have a 3k-ish Shang Qinghua POV that was supposed to be the introduction to this fic concept! So... ah... baby Liu Qingge does not appear in this, but you can see the setup for how an 8yo-ish Liu Qingge was supposed to be introduced. My hope is that this will someday become a "Shang Qinghua and Shen Jiu go on a mission with Baby Brother Liu Qingge" one shot.

-cut-

Shang Qinghua didn't really have the words to describe what it was like having Proud Immortal Demon Way's characters finally come into his second life.

He didn't have the words to describe a lot of his transmigration experience, honestly! His words had described a lot of this world already, haha, hadn't they? Sometimes a person just had to put up with it and keep going.

And then excuse himself later to go scream into a pillow! Many times!

At first, life was just him in a body that didn't fit and strange memories that slipped between his fingers like sand. His memories of a past life had settled eventually, the System finally came fully online, and his relationship with his second family was fully fucked forever. That was fine, though! That was fine! With some unsolicited prodding from his System, he left to go seek his fortune soon enough and he never had to talk to his character's birth parents or siblings again.

But Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had never said much of anything about Shang Qinghua’s family or home village, besides saying that the man had dreamed of more than his mediocre origins, so everything had been unfamiliar and original and real. Getting to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, which he had described in great detail, was a real headfuck. There were no words for the experience of recognizing things that he’d written in another life.

He saw the glistening rainbow bridge and the intimidating sect entrance and the majestic meeting hall on Qiong Ding, and he nearly screamed. He definitely squawked. His vision got really fuzzy for a minute there and he had to sit down on the ground before he fell over. What the fuck?! What the fuck?! He’d made a world! The System had really made a world out of his web-novel! He was really stuck in Proud Immortal Demon Way!

There were upsides and downsides to joining Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Downsides included: the hard training, the harder workload, the dangerous missions, the disrespect towards An Ding Peak, and being surrounded by arrogant and foolish teenagers looking to look down on someone. It was really something else to look some of them in the eye and think, "Bro, I don’t know your name, but you kind of owe your existence to me. Could you stop being such a fucking asshole about leaving your chores for me to do?! Respect your father!"

Upsides included: actually becoming a cultivator (pretty cool, even though the work of cultivation sucked more often than not), better living accommodations and food, and actually getting to see some of the cooler places, plants, monsters, and magic that were a part of his world. Sure, carting a monster corpse brought in by Bai Zhan Peak to Xi Jiao Peak for butchering was smelly and heavy and altogether miserable, but seeing an impossible animal was still kind of incredible. If this unwilling Shang Qinghua could stop being pushed around and stepped on long enough to appreciate the upsides, he’d really appreciate it!

It was interesting and infuriating to log the differences between what he’d imagined, what he’d written, and what the System had created. What sort of author described every single object in every single room? Who had time for that? Who wanted to read that? The System had filled in all the living details of An Ding Peak - the Leisure Houses, the training grounds, the storehouses, the warehouses, the kitchens, the lesson halls, the leisure gardens, the farming fields, the livestock fields, the stables, the cart lot, the water supply, the sewage systems, and so on - so that people could actually live here. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky as an author had done many things worthy of complaint and criticism, but wasting his readers’ time with sewage systems was not one of them!

The System had also filled in all the little details and decorations - the paintings on the walls of sect history, the detailing on the rooftops supposedly offering protections from dream demons, the chipped and faded paint of old storehouses that disciples would be tasked with replacing, the statues in the fields to scare off scavengers, the carvings on the doors meant to reduce resentful energy, the childish etchings of bored students the surface of the lesson hall desks, the old bench where the An Ding Peak Lord liked to sit and eat flatcakes - so that it really seemed like people had built this place and maintained it and added to it for generations.

Shang Qinghua had his quibbles here and there. Sometimes the System had made choices that he objected to! He would have done it differently if it had asked him, the author, to contribute. He really felt as though the System should have asked him to clarify the plot holes and the gaps in detail, instead of choosing precedence randomly or building off random implications taken way too literally.

Sometimes he found out that the System had built things out of throwaway lines that Shang Qinghua himself had completely forgotten about. It turned out that Ku Xing Peak made a lot of purification tools and containment vessels because Airplane had offhandedly mentioned that this was their specialty, and now Shang Qinghua had to cart around delicate ceramics to be sold to city merchants or other cultivation sects. He never would have dared to write that if he’d known that it would one day in another life be his job to do things like take inventory and chase down signatures for successful deliveries.

Places, items, and creatures were one thing, but logging the differences between the people he met and the characters he’d created was something else. At first it was okay, because he was surrounded by nameless An Ding Peak nobodies - his fellow disciples, their teachers, the hardworking managers and merchants, even the peak lord - none of them had ever mattered in Proud Immortal Demon Way. If Airplane had been the one to name any of them, he didn’t recognize the names or remember them.

Then he met Yue Qingyuan.

Wow, it was a worse headfuck than first arriving at Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, when Shang Qinghua finally realized that this was the young version of one of his actual characters. It took him a minute. As a lowly outer disciple, Shang Qinghua hadn’t received “Qinghua” as a name yet (his name was Houhua, not that anyone ever used it) and the future Yue Qingyuan was still called Yue Qi.

Shang Qinghua was fourteen at the time. Yue Qingyuan must have been around the same age, so he didn’t strike the tall and handsome figure of the sect leader Airplane had described. The boy was broad, but actually a little short. He had freckles. He had acne.

But he also had a warm smile that seemed to go all the way to his eyes when he offered to give Shang Qinghua directions to the right office on Qiong Ding. He had a steady hand when he helped Shang Qinghua up, after the An Ding disciple had suddenly tripped over nothing upon being introduced. Yue Qingyuan - Yue Qi - walked him to the right office and did his best to make small talk, friendly and kind even though Shang Qinghua was having difficulty stringing more than a few words together in his shock.

Even then, it was obvious that the boy was developing the calm surety and the social charm that would make him a greatly admired sect leader someday! It was all Shang Qinghua could do not to blurt out: “Holy shit, you’re REAL?!” Which would be closely followed by: “Hey, is Shen Qingqiu really real too?!” And then maybe closely followed by: “FUCK!!!”

As the years went by, Shang Qinghua met more of Proud Immortal Demon Way’s characters, and it was weird every time. None of them were exactly like he was expecting. He kept expecting… well… he kept expecting them to look like the fanart, like flawless character models, more or less. Instead, he kept getting… people.

Wei Qingwei, head disciple of the sword-focused Wan Jian Peak, was also shorter than he was expecting, kind of stout, with a wide face and a wider smile. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had apparently had the man crack a few jokes upon his rare appearances in the web-novel, usually during tense situations, as he was reminded by the System upon thinking to himself: “Why is this guy LIKE THIS?!” So, because of just a few lines, the real Wei Qingwei had a relentless sense of humor and loved telling jokes.

Upon their first meeting, when Shang Qinghua was fifteen and had been sent over to help renovate some Wan Jian dormitories, fifteen-year-old Wei Qingwei had pretended to fumble a sword and, using a packet of dye and a sleight of hand, made it look like he’d accidentally cut off his own hand at the wrist. Of course Shang Qinghua had screamed and panicked! Anyone would panic! But Wei Qingwei had laughed at him and said, “Got you! Shang-Shidi, the sword wasn’t even unsheathed!” Asshole!

Qi Qingqi, the head disciple of Xian Shu Peak, was much taller than he was expecting. Apparently Airplane had once described a group of some of the peak lords by saying something like: “Each one of them was like a giant to young Luo Binghe.” That group had included Qi Qingqi. The System apparently had taken that to mean that Qi Qingqi was of a height with the likes of Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu. Shang Qinghua discovered this adaptational choice when he was almost sixteen, when this giraffe-like girl came to An Ding Peak to complain about an order someone along the pipeline had dropped completely, and he accidentally found himself (still waiting on a really good growth spurt) eye-level with Qi Qingqi’s chest.

Airplane had apparently once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that Qian Cao Peak Lord Mu Qingfang appeared a little older than his colleagues, by which he’d probably meant that the man was just tired or something, but this head disciple Mu Qingfang appeared to have ten years on all the other head disciples. Which was good! Shang Qinghua approved of their future head healer not being a teenager and having more training!

On the bad side of things, Airplane had also once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that the Zui Xian Peak Lord Zhang Qingyan liked his drink too much. This was the peak specializing in alcohol, so it had seemed to make sense! It was supposed to be funny, if anything! Well, at sixteen, Shang Qinghua found out that the System had focused too much on the “too much” part of that statement and now the head disciple of Zui Xian Peak was pretty clearly a budding alcoholic. (Sometimes a cultivator’s constitution and ability to “cure” themselves just… made a person drink more. A lot more.) Which was… not good.

At seventeen, Shang Qinghua met Mobei-Jun.

He didn’t know where to get started with Mobei-Jun.

Somehow he’d… forgotten that Mobei-Jun had been originally based on Airplane’s idea of “the perfect man” and not the super pretty, muscular but slim-waisted protagonist type? The real Mobei-Jun was… tall… and big… and thick. Mobei-Jun’s intimidating features were… more striking than pretty. The first time Shang Qinghua had come back to his Leisure House and found this spoiled brat of an ice demon napping shirtless on his bed, and gotten an eyeful of all that heavy muscle and chest hair, he’d nearly knocked himself out on the doorframe trying to turn away before he had a heart attack.

Mobei-Jun really was going to be the death of him, holy shit.

Especially because this ice demon really was a spoiled brat! Airplane had described this character as being arrogant and apathetic, so now Shang Qinghua had to deal with a Mobei-Jun who took long baths and then carelessly dripped water all over the floor and all over fresh sheets! Who ate all of Shang Qinghua’s cooking and ungratefully only demanded more food, sprawled over furniture not really fit for someone of his size, and then watched Shang Qinghua like a fat tiger! Ahhh, this demon really was lucky he was handsome!

Mobei-Jun was also kind of violent, and mean, which was… well, it sucked.

Back to the sect that Shang Qinghua was now actively betraying, however, as far as he could see, there was still one future peak lord missing.

It wasn’t Shen Qingqiu, who Shang Qinghua had thought would be the last one to show up. Shen Qingqiu had shown up and had been advancing through the ranks of Qing Jing Peak before Shang Qinghua had even met Mobei-Jun, which meant that Yue Qingyuan had finally stopped looking like someone had torn out his soul. (Shang Qinghua had been forced to grit his teeth every time that someone mentioned how privileged that Yue Qingyuan was to have been granted that year of secluded cultivation in the Lingxi Caves at such a young age.)

No, of all the peak lords, it was Liu Qingge who Shang Qinghua had yet to meet.

After meeting Mobei-Jun and becoming an inner disciple, the System had given Shang Qinghua three years to make it to head disciple, probably because the deadline for a new generation of peak lords to ascend was fast approaching. He was working hard to achieve that! Not only did he have to sabotage the current favorite, but he had to make sure all his own training, missions, work, and research were as close to flawless as he could get it! All while keeping an intruding ice demon happy! He wasn’t totally sure that he was going to make it at this rate, even though he’d been here for years.

So it was a little concerning that Liu Qingge hadn't shown up yet. There was so much left to do. A world-state that had yet to be established. Liu Qingge had work to do here!

Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu still had to develop a hatred for each other as disciples that would extend to everyone believing that Shen Qingqiu had murdered Liu Qingge as peak lords, after all. Granted, all Liu Qingge really had to do was beat everyone else on Bai Zhan Peak up to obtain the position, and it wasn’t exactly hard to get Shen Qingqiu to develop a lifelong grudge, but the guy was still cutting it pretty close.

It was possible that Liu Qingge was already on Bai Zhan Peak and making good progress, but that he was just so solitary and focused on searching out the next big battle that Shang Qinghua had just never had the opportunity to meet him. Shang Qinghua did his best to avoid Bai Zhan Peak most of the time, honestly! He was curious about where Liu Qingge was, about what the man looked like, but he didn’t let himself sweat at not seeing the future war god, when he already had so many things to sweat about. The System had taken care of bringing in everyone else, so Shang Qinghua was sure that Liu Qingge would follow sooner or later.

Shang Qinghua’s first sign that something was wrong was that, on the day that Liu Qingge finally announced his existence by beating up everyone on Bai Zhan Peak, everyone was saying things like, “I can’t believe some kid managed to topple all of Bai Zhan like that!”

He… may or may not have ignored this sign.

To be fair to this poor writer-turned-disciple, though, he’d been up all night finishing some paperwork catastrophe the An Ding Peak Lord had thrown at him to fix, as some kind of “test” of his logistics skills. Upon hearing the latest gossip, Shang Qinghua thought, “Oh, finally?” And then his overtired brain collapsed from the effort of thinking two words together in a sentence, and all he could manage from there was to feel the intense need to go to bed at a maximum, static-y volume. No words. No more thinky thoughts. Just the need for speedy sleep.

He stumbled through the rest of his day and then passed out for 18 hours straight. In hindsight, this would have been the time when the gossip was at its hottest. He missed all of it.

When he woke up, everyone was still dealing with the aftermath of what had happened on Bai Zhan Peak, but the conversation had shifted more towards replacing Qian Cao Peak’s depleted supplies and the repairs to Bai Zhan’s training grounds. Liu Qingge was the name on everyone’s lips, still, but everyone knew the basic information now. Now, everyone was just exclaiming over and over again how unbelievably young (and pretty) he was to have bested every other disciple on the sect battle-focused peak. This didn't seem too strange.

The System probably would have based the War God's appearance on his sister, Liu Mingyan, a strong contender for the most beautiful woman in all of Proud Immortal Demon Way. Liu Qingge apparently being a very pretty boy fell neatly into line with all the other character design surprises that Shang Qinghua had gotten smacked with so far.

If Airplane had known that he'd be transmigrating into his novel, maybe there would have been even more handsome men! And everyone would have lived happily ever after and nothing bad would have happened ever, probably, but also there might be more sexy guys too.

TBC

#timetomakeanewwish #tossawary updates #tossawary svsss #shang qinghua #unrealistically young prodigy liu qingge au #ask tossawary

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felix21im · 3 years

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"Ice Cold", a Leon Kennedy x Reader fanfiction

As an Art and Design student all you want to do is just knuckle down and finish that one goddamn piece you've been working on for months. Too bad your time is constantly stolen by your Waiter job with minimal pay, but hey, at least the tips are good if you unbutton your shirt that one more time.

Masterlist

Chapter 7: The Journey

The next morning arrived as you packed the last things you thought you needed. Leon didn't actually tell you how long you would be away for, but you made sure to bring enough stuff if it was for say a week and besides you could always buy stuff while you were out there. It was the first time you ever left the country and you were really excited to go on a “vacation” with Leon, even though you knew this wasn't really one.

You didn't bother eating anything since it was still very early, the sun barely even shining yet, but it was also due to the nerves of flying. Now you were waiting for Leon to come pick you up. You couldn't even stand still while waiting so you went through and checked that you locked all of the doors, checking if everything was ready and the house to be left alone. Just as you went for another round the doorbell finally rang. Almost running your suitcase over, you went to open it. Before you stood Leon, looking just as tired as you but greeting you with a smile nevertheless. “Everything ready to go?” he asked, looking inside your home and pointing at the luggage.

You simply nodded and went to grab a backpack and another bag. “Would you mind taking the suitcase? I don't think I can hold any more stuff.” You lifted your arms showing Leon all the things you held. Leon gave you a smile and nodded and went to grab the big suitcase which stood behind you.

The two of you then went out of the apartment and you made sure to have everything you needed before locking the final door behind you. After that Leon showed you the way to the already waiting car. Next to it stood two tall men dressed in all black suits and wearing sunglasses. “Don’t worry about them, they look scarier than they are.” Leon winked at you as you continued your way. When you arrived at the big car one of the men went to grab the stuff you were carrying and put it in the car before opening the backdoor for you. You thanked him quietly as you sat down and he closed the door again. You saw Leon talking to the men before he joined you in the backseats as well. The two men then also went into the car, both sitting in front of you and Leon, one of them driving the car. “Try to get some sleep before we arrive at the airport, Buttercup. The time zone change will be hard to get used to, anyway. So try sleeping now or on the flight, alright?” You nodded and went closer to Leon to rest your head on his shoulder. He took your hand in his and you soon felt sleep take over your mind and body.

You felt a light shaking in your body before you slowly opened your eyes. By now the sun was shining and the bright light made you close your eyes again. “Hey, sleepyhead. We gotta get out, try your best to not fall asleep again otherwise you’ll be in the wrong timezone.” You heard Leon chuckle and you opened your eyes again, looking at him tired. You stretched and yawned before fixing your hair and getting ready to go. Leon already left the car and opened the door for you, making sure you wouldn't fall asleep again.

You groaned as you left the car and looked around, the area not looking like an airport at all. You looked at Leon questiongly. “I thought we were driving to an airport, Leon. Where are we? I mean, I have never been to one but this wasn't what I expected.” You motioned your hand to the area you were surrounded by. It looked like you were in the middle of nowhere, the car parking in an open area with no trees, buildings or any life in sight. All you could see was green grass and maybe some rocks. Leon scratched the back of his head. “Yea, I guess there was a change of plans. We can't fly with a normal plane. So now we have to wait for.. let's say a colleague to pick us up with a helicopter and then they’ll be taking us to a different airport. But don’t worry, Buttercup, this stuff sometimes happens. It's no big deal.”

You let out a huff and crossed your arms before your chest. “Alright, whatever you say Leon. As long as we get to Italy somehow I’m not worried.” Leon gave you a light smile before kissing your forehead.

To pass the time you pulled your phone out of your backpocket, scrolling through social media to see the latest trends online. Only a few minutes passed before you began hearing the sound of a helicopter closing in. You looked up towards the sky and you soon saw one coming from the horizon, eventually it slowly began descending down to the four of you. Leon lightly pulled you back a little bit, to make sure you wouldn't fly. Once the helicopter landed and the propellers came to a stop you were able to get in. Leon helped you get up and into it and you sat down. Afterwards Leon joined you, he gave you a pair of pilot headphones and closed the big door on his side. The two suited men also joined you, leaving their car alone in the middle of nowhere. Shortly after you all sat down in the helicopter its engine started again and you rose up to the sky. You gasped due to the sudden sensation and went to hold Leon's hand, surprised by the height you found yourself in. Leon had to laugh at your reaction but soon took you into his arms to calm you down. He wanted to say something but he thought that maybe the two bodyguards wouldn't want to hear such a dirty joke. Leon then mentioned that you should close your eyes to help with the nerves, which you then did. You still don't feel too awake so closing your eyes again, even if just for a short time, sounded like a good idea to you.

It felt like only a few minutes passed but it must have been a few hours, actually. You woke up again after feeling the helicopter landing on the ground again, shaking you awake. You slowly opened your eyes again, looking around. Leon and the others were already ready to leave, whilst you had to fully wake up first. You yawned and stretched before laying your headphones onto your seat after standing up. You then carefully jumped out of the helicopter and looked around. Leon and the men talked and also looked around in the place that finally looked like a real airport although it was still kind of small compared to what you have seen on TV. The sun was shining bright by now, heating up the area and the tarmac that you were standing on. Leon reached a hand out to you. "Come here, Buttercup. Our flight should arrive any minute now. Then we can finally get to Italy. You still wanna do this?"

"Of course I do! I can't wait any longer!" You answered Leon and looked at him excited. He gave you a smile and you put your hand in his. The two of you then walked towards the landing area, the helicopter starting again and soon leaving the place. The men followed you and Leon, both of them carrying your luggage. You didn't have to wait too long out in the sun before a small private plane arrived and stopped on the landing area. The door opened and small stairs invited you inside. Leon let you go in first, following you shortly after. The inside of the plane was very luxurious, but small. Enough for all of you but that's about it. There were two tiny tables next to the windows with some comfortable chairs in front of them. You took a seat and waited for Leon to sit down opposite of you. After he and the other men sat down the door closed again and the plane was ready for take off. "It's gonna be quite the long flight. If you wanna eat or drink anything just let me know. We got enough stuff in here." Leon winked at you and motioned to the back where the storage must be. You nodded as an answer but didn't feel like eating anything yet. You looked out of the window as the plane slowly started moving and soon rose up into the air. It was way more comfortable here than in the helicopter so you weren't as scared as before. You grabbed your backpack and got your phone, earphones and a book out of it. It wasn't much but at least you could pass some time reading or listening to music now.

After reading a few chapters of your book you decided to take a break from it. You looked at Leon who was sitting on the other side of the table, now also asleep. You smiled at him knowing he barely gets any sleep. You decided to lay your book to the side and got out your phone. You put on your earphones and scrolled through your music. Starting a random playlist you looked out the window and enjoyed the view. It was still sunny, only a few clouds in sight. After a few minutes you felt your eyes getting heavier again and soon you fell asleep once more that day.

You opened your eyes and your entire body shivered. “Leon..?” You mumbled as you sat up, you didn’t recognise where you were. Trees and brick walls were all you could see. As you hoisted yourself to your feet you felt a pain sweep through your head.

You stumbled through the grass in an attempt to figure out where you were, the last thing you remember was being on the plane with Leon.

You flinched at every sound you heard, that could be the sound of a bird or the leaves crunching under your feet.

You began to hear the sounds of an engine as you walked and you slowly made your way towards it. You peered your head around the wall and you saw a woman, she had frizzy hair and she was wearing what looked like hiking gear. She must have sensed you as she turned her head towards you. “Oh!” She waved her hand at you, signaling for you to join her. “You must be new around here, I’ve never seen you before.” She said.

You crouched down beside her at the engine. “I- uh. Where are we?”

“Oh, you’re REALLY new around here?” She chuckled, ignoring your question.

“Please, where are we?” You asked again.

“You’re… I'm not exactly sure where we are.” She replied. “But no one likes it here that’s for sure.” As she talked she was continually tampering with the engine, making it rev and spark. “Just make sure you ru-“ she was interrupted by the sound of another woman screaming. “Listen, I don’t have the answers to your questions.” She jumped onto her feet and began to walk away. “Make sure you run. Or you won’t make it out of here alive.”

You were confused on what she meant but by the time you caught up to where she ran she was gone. Unknowing on what to do you just continued with what that woman was previously doing, fiddling with the engine. You played with the wires to create sparks between them. As you did so the lights at the top of the engine began to flicker and the pumps began to speed up, eventually resulting in the engine starting up, resulting in the lights constantly staying lit.

Just as the lights began to light up you felt uneasy, your heart began to pound even though you weren't doing anything to cause it to. You looked around not seeing anything out of the ordinary, but you could hear someone running. Their footsteps got louder and louder, along with your own heartbeat. Unsure about what to do, you just started running without looking back again. It felt like your heart was about to explode as you collisioned with another person. You looked up in shock, recognizing the other person. “Leon! Oh my god, where are we? What is going on?” You asked him, completely out of breath. You looked him up and down, realizing he looked way yonger and was wearing a police uniform.

He just grabbed your arm and started running in another direction. “We don't have time to talk right now. Just go and hide somewhere safe, please.” He let go off your arm and went on running. You stood there, still confused and looked around. Your heartbeat was normal by now but you still felt weird with the whole situation. You slowly started walking around again and at some point you heard a loud bang and saw another of those generators glowing just ahead of you. You walked towards it, hoping to find Leon or the girl from earlier. But the closer you got the faster your heart was racing again. You saw someone running towards you, about your size and wearing a dark jacket. It was too late when you realized they were holding a knife in their hand and you went to turn. You were too slow and felt the knife hit your back. You let out a pained scream before continuing to run. Just when you thought you outrun them, they walked straight into you, sending you to the ground with another painful slash.

You tried crawling away but soon felt the person's grip around you, picking you up with a groan. You started wiggling and hitting them to free yourself from their grip but you failed. The next thing you felt was immense pain in your shoulder and your loud scream filled the area. You looked to your shoulder, seeing rotting metal protruding out of you. The pain was horrible as you tried to get yourself off, without success. You saw something growing around you but thankfully you couldn’t find out what it was because Leon came to pick you from the hook with ease. You groaned as you hit the ground and thanked him. “Didn’t I tell you to hide? This place is dangerous.”

You rubbed your shoulder as you looked at him. “Well, you could have told me what I was supposed to hide from, maybe then I would have! So please tell me what's going on here.”

Leon let out a sigh as he scanned the area and got out some bandages. “We don't really know what this is, but we do know that we have to repair those generators to get out. The person who hurt you is called Legion, they look really similar to us normal people so try to make sure the person you see is not holding a knife. And if they do have a knife: run as fast as you can unless you wanna end up on a hook again. If you get caught two more times you’re.. Well, dead. So try to finish the last two generators with us and get out of here.” While Leon explained the situation he also finished up your wound and you felt better instantly. “Follow me, there is a generator right around here. If we work together it will be done faster.” Leon started walking in one direction and you followed him, making sure the area was safe. The two of you then sat down at one of the generators and started working on it. Until it was finished nothing happened. You two didn't talk and just concentrated on doing your work. But just as the headlights started shining you two felt your heartbeats speeding up again. Leon looked around and then over to you. He motioned to you to go away before he too went into the dark again. Your breath was heavy and you still felt like someone was watching you even though your heartbeat normalized again. You walked around the dark area and looked for any other survivors or a generator to work on. But even after a few minutes you didn't find what you were looking for. Instead your heartbeat began fastening again as you walked by a small cabin. You went inside and looked around. There was no one in sight but your fast heartbeat still frightened you. You could soon hear footsteps outside the building and decided to hide. Thankfully you stood close to a bunch of red lockers, so you went into one quietly. You looked through the small space to make sure nobody came here to hurt you. But it was just your luck that the person who earlier stabbed you now stood in the middle of the shack and looked around. There were two other lockers, so you hoped they would not check the one you were in. The person started moving again, walking past every locker. You held your breath as they walked past yours, hoping they couldn't sense you. But they still stopped in front of it and the next thing you saw were the doors opening and the Legion grabbing you, again. You let out a surprised scream, trying to get away somehow. But there was no chance and so you found yourself on a hook again. You screamed as it pierced through your skin and looked around, hoping someone would come and rescue you. This time it was different though. The things that were forming the first time on the hook were now fully alive and trying to kill you. You used all your strength to keep it away from your body, moaning in pain and exhaustment. Just as you thought you couldn't continue to struggle anymore you felt someone picking you up from the hook. It was a different woman than the one in the beginning. She was wearing a suit and had dark hair. You thanked her as you thought about where you have seen her before. Then it hit you. “Jane? Jane Romero!”

You looked at her in surprise as she gave you a light smile. “Yep, that's me. Sorry I can't give you an autograph right now. We kinda have to get out of here and all.” You were shocked about how calm she was with the situation but followed her lead. There was no time for her to patch your wounds since you once again felt the presence of the Legion. “Go and run! I will distract them, you hear me?” Jane almost pushed you in the other direction and you started running. Your shoulder was still hurting and you couldn't hide your groans of pain. You went looking for Leon or anyone really to help you match the hole in your shoulder and get out of there. The more time passed the more panic filled your entire body. It seemed you were running in circles and no one was there with you anymore. You stopped running at some point and needed a minute to catch your breath. It felt like the whole world was spinning around you and you were brought back to reality too late. A knife found its way into your side, making you gasp. You almost fell over your own feet as you tried gaining some distance, but it was too late. Just a few meters later the knife hit you again, sending you to the ground. You remembered Leon's words about dying on the hook and panicked. You screamed for help but no one came to your rescue this time. But they couldn't have done anything to help, anyway. It was different this time. The Legion didn't come to pick you up and for a second you thought they would let you live. You tried crawling away as you suddenly felt movement behind you again. The Legion barely missed your head as they went for another stab.You turned around to guard yourself, which only ended up in your arm getting pierced. After attempting to push them away you tried to run but tripped and fell to the ground once more. You felt a deep stab in your leg as you were being pulled back to them. You turned around and screamed in agony as they stabbed you one more time, right in the chest. The last thing you felt was the knife gutting you from the chest to stomach and you gave into the darkness surrounding you, freeing you from the immense pain you were in.

You woke up, heavily breathing and covered in sweat. You looked around and pinched yourself to make sure you were actually awake this time. Realizing you were, you let out a relieved sigh. Leon was also awake by now, looking at you confused and raising an eyebrow. "Are you good? You look like you have seen a ghost." You let out a huff.

"Yea, I guess you could say that. I just had the weirdest nightmare…" You rubbed your forehead and looked outside again and then back to Leon. "What time is it? Or well, where are we now and when do we arrive?"

Leon checked his phone. "We're already flying over Italy right now. If everything continues to go so smoothly we should be at the airport in only a few minutes, maybe thirty. So you better get all your stuff and get ready for landing." Leon looked at the table. Your book and phone were laying on it, next to a plate and two glasses. Apparently Leon got hungry when you were asleep. You grabbed one of the glasses and took a big sip, exhausted from the long day and weird dream you just had. After that you put your book and earphones back into your backpack and relaxed the last few minutes in the plane.

Soon after an announcement filled the small area, reminding you to put on your seatbelts and get ready for landing. Just shortly after the announcement you felt the plane hit the ground and then slowing down to get ready to stop. After it came to a complete hold the door opened again and the stairs were ready to be used. You grabbed your stuff and got up with Leon to leave the plane. Outside stood a black car already awaiting you four. The men once again got your luggage and placed it in the car. You opened the back door and sat down, placing your backpack between your legs on the floor of the car. You let out a small sigh and then closed the door. Leon soon joined you and sat down next to you. Just shortly after the motor of the car started and you found yourselves on a highway. Even though it was just now getting dark outside you weren't tired, probably because you slept most of the day anyway. You leaned against the car window and looked outside. You always dreamt about leaving your hometown and seeing the world and Italy was always one of your biggest wishes to visit. So now that you were really here you almost couldn't believe it.

You passed multiple other cars and the scenery seemed to change every few minutes. It was either old looking towns, luxurious houses or fields filled with trees and animals. A smile rested on your face while you were mesmerized by the view. You didn't even realize that Leon was looking at you, smiling as well, until he spoke your name. You were brought back to reality and looked at him confused. “Huh? Did you say anything?” Leon let out a small laugh, shaking his head. “I just wanted to let you know that we will arrive shortly. I hope you like the hotel we got, but it seems you would be fine with anything here.” You two had to laugh about that, but Leon was right: you really liked everything here already and you were quite excited about seeing your hotel and the town.

Just moments later the car stopped in front of a building. As you left the car you let out a gasp. The building you stood before was huge and looked really extravagant and modern, but still had a touch of the typical old italian vibes. You felt an arm resting around your shoulders and looked up. “You like what you see?” Leon asked you.

For a second you were actually speechless. “I mean.. Yea! Definitely! But Leon, you could have told me it would be so luxurious.” You looked down at yourself and then at Leon. “I’m looking like some homeless person you just picked up on your way here while you´re wearing a fancy suit again.”

Leon let out a small laugh and patted your head. “You would be quite a pretty homeless person, Buttercup. I'm glad I picked you up then.” Leon winked at you before continuing to talk. “No, but really. Don’t you worry about that. At least you are wearing something comfortable. There will be more than enough moments where you have to wear something fancy again, alright? No one here will care anyway, they all have their own business to worry about.” You smiled at Leon and then nodded. It was good to be here with him and it was good to know that he supported you when feeling unsure. You grabbed his hand and soon walked into the hotel together. His bodyguards already checked in and showed you the way into your room before going into their own as well. The hallways were long and lots of decorations were on the walls. It felt like forever until you finally reached your room. Leon unlocked the door with his card and you two went inside. The room was just as big as everything else there. A big bed stood at the side next to a huge window, letting you look at the city. There was another door, probably leading to the bathroom. In the main room stood a table with four chairs, a TV with a comfortable looking sofa and more than enough other random things. You threw your backpack onto the sofa and fell into the bed backwards, now looking at the ceiling. Since the walls were so high up you almost didn't see the artwork that was carved into the ceiling. You felt the bed shifting and turned your head to the side. Leon sat down next to you and watched you. “I know you already slept a lot today but you should try to sleep now as well. It can be hard to adjust to the new time here but try your best. I have one free day tomorrow so we can look around the town and have breakfast outside this hotel if you want to.” You sat up and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea. I can't wait to see a bit of the city.” You stretched before standing up and going to your luggage. You searched for something to wear for the night and picked out an outfit for the next day, too. After that you went inside the bathroom and freshened yourself up a bit. You then headed back into bed and waited for Leon to join you.

You kept your eyes staring up at the ceiling as you attempted to go to sleep, Leon must have known that you were struggling. “You alright, Buttercup?” He asked you faintly, trying not to be loud when he was right next to you. You turned your head towards him, you didn't realise how close he was until your noses almost touched.

“I-” You struggled to find the right words. “I’m sad.” You admitted to him, earning a look of confusion from him. “I mean I'm happy for sure! But I'm sad that we’re only going to get a day together then I'm on my own for a while.”

He sighed as he sat up slightly, leaning on his arm as his body was turned towards you. His toned, muscular body, the hair that travels from the waistband of his sweatpants and then up his abs towards his chest. “Buttercup!” He waved his hand in front of your face, snapping you out of your trance. He laughed as he realised what you were staring at. “I’ll be gone for three days, Buttercup. Maybe five max…” He admitted. “Then afterwards this hot bod will be all yours.”

You let out a small laugh as you shook your head and punched him lightly. “I'm just kinda worried about you, I think. I mean, I knew what you were gonna do now, but it's different when I’m so close and yet won't be able to see or do anything with you.” You let out a small sigh as you looked into Leon's eyes.

“Don´t worry so much about me, Buttercup. Try and enjoy your time here, maybe you will even find some new friends, huh? Promise me you won't worry?”

“Promise..”

Leon seemed satisfied with that answer because he didn't say anything else about it. Instead you felt him shifting around and you chuckled at him as he climbed on top of you, kissing your face as he chuckled too, his stubble tickling you, causing you to laugh even more. He kissed you one more time before rolling to his side again. He held your hand as you saw how he closed his eyes. “Try sleeping now, alright? I don't want you to be tired when we have something planned for tomorrow.” You nodded in agreement and closed your eyes. Even though you weren't completely okay with the situation Leon was right: you should be fit for the day you have together tomorrow and try not to worry too much.

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Taglist: @trinswhimsys @dixanadu @oppsie--channie

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marvelandtea · 3 years

Text

Reckless

Part 2

Summary: It’s been 4 years since The Winter Soldier broke into your house and assaulted you, what happens when you then see Bucky Barnes at a masquerade ball hosted by Tony Stark?

Warnings: mentions of rape, ummm not really anything else?

Pairing: winter soldier x reader, bucky barnes x reader (platonic? maybe, we’ll see what happens)

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4 years had passed. Recovery was slow, you were so shaken up by what had happened. Tony had provided a great deal of help, referring you to one of the best therapists and even installing a version of J.A.R.V.I.S in your own home, making it secure. You had given Tony a description of the man, a description of his height, build, hair and eyes. You had left one thing out. The man had a metal arm.

Something in your gut told you not to tell him. You were scared that, if you told him, it would backfire on you and lead you to a bigger mess than the one you were in. You couldn’t cope with that again.

You had decided to stay off social media in case he could track you down from there. Posting pictures of yourself online was really putting you out there for trouble.

However, there was some good news coming your way. Tony, for a celebration of his and Pepper’s engagement, had decided to host a masquerade ball. The full thing, with ball gowns, masks and dances. You hardly knew anything of his work life now, but he had told you that there were some new members of the Avengers that he wanted you to meet.

As the ball came ever closer, preparations became more hurried and more last minute. Tony paid for a dressmaker to make a dress for you, so that it fitted you perfectly and flattered you.

You had chosen a deep red, scarlet colour ball gown with an off-the-shoulder necklace. It had a full skirt that swished around your feet as you walked, and on your feet you wore black shoes with block heels. You knew that there was no way you’d be able to dance in stilettos, and to save yourself embarrassment you chose a thicker heel. Your mask was the same colour as your dress, with an intricate swirling design that came around your eyes and up your forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You made your way through the crowd, with a champagne flute held in your right hand. You found Tony right in the middle of the room, amidst all the crowds and the busy bustle of masked people. He was talking to a man with short brown hair, wearing the same kind of suit you had seen so many others wear. His mask was black, and covered the top half of his face.

Tony waved you over once he saw you, beckoning you closer.

‘Y/n! Come and join us. I’d like you to meet Mr Barnes, he’s one of the newest additions to the Avengers.’

‘Hi,’ you smiled at the man switching your glass over to your left hand and extending your right: ‘I’m Y/n Y/l/n. Pleased to meet you.’

‘I’m James,’ he said taking your hand and shaking it. ‘But you can call me Bucky.’

After a half hour conversation, you exchanged goodbyes and you were going to make your way over to the food counter on the other side of the hall when your shoes caught on the long hem of your dress. As you lurched forward, you reached out to grab on to Bucky’s left arm for stability. As he helped you up, you realised his left arm was surprisingly hard. Too hard, in fact. You squeezed it a few more times, then looked up to him in confusion. He noticed your questioning eyes because he said:

‘Oh, and one other thing? I actually have a metal arm.’ He joked, a smile spreading across his face. He pulled of his glove from that hand and held his hand up to your face.

A metal arm. Could it be? The one you remembered was silver, but this one was black with hints of gold. Surely it had to be a coincidence.

‘It used to be silver’, he remarked, inspecting it. ‘But then I got it switched. I like this one more, honestly. Brings out my eyes more.’ He winked at you.

All other noise was blocked out of your ears as you stared at him. It used to be silver. It had to be. How could such a gentleman be capable of such a horrific thing? Your eyes travelled slowly up his body, meeting his gaze. Those blue-grey eyes. It was him.

Tony had just come over again, trying to drag you away to meet some more people. You felt your heartbeat begin to quicken and you felt light headed. As the room swayed, the floor came rushing up to meet you and all went black.

Tony and Bucky stared in shock at your unconscious body laying on the floor.

‘Y/n? Y/n!’ Tony checked your heartbeat and without thinking, ripped your mask off, throwing it aside.

Bucky stared at your face. His ears produced a sharp ringing sound. He had been getting nightmares recently about a young woman whom he had assaulted as his time as the winter soldier. He saw her face in his dreams, screaming and begging for mercy.

With a horrifying realisation, he put the pieces together. Your reaction when your found out about his metal arm. Your expression change as you stared at his eyes. It was you.

You, Tony Stark’s niece.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

last chapter

#dark!winter soldier #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #dark!bucky x reader #tony stark #masquerade #reckless

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dimensionwriter · 4 years

Text

100 Days

Part 2

Part One

M! Alien x GN! Reader

Warning: Innuendos, mention of torture

Word Count: 2519

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Remember to LIKE, COMMENT, and REBLOG, please. I love to see the comments on my stories.

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The air was so cold and dry in the room. The room was dead silent except for the low pitch buzz emanating from the computer. This room seemed unwelcoming to any person who dared to enter; However, you barely noticed as you stared at your creature in the giant container.

His form was still leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. Two black arms wrapped around his thin grey torso. The second and third set was just lightly floating in the liquid as he continued to sleep. A giant smooth tail that laid on top of his first set of arms, allowing his head to lay against it. His grey skin was a lot more muted while slumbering, it seems. A glance over would allow you to think that everything was the same as you left it.

However, there was something new. On his neck were these tiny slits that were moving with his chest. It was unknown to you that the creature contained gills. It was theorized that the creature breathed through the tiny slits sitting below his eyes. Maybe it had to do with something about him being a shift shaper. Was the creature changing his respiratory system while sleeping?

Walking over to the computer, you open the coding program. You couldn’t help how quickly you put in the stop coding for the sleeping medicine. It has been two days since you last saw him due to the weekend and you were just itching to learn more about this fascinating creature.

You fixed your lab coat and walked to the front of the container. Gosh, it felt so nice to do it. You are so used to seeing him floating in the container unconscious that now that you get a chance to interact with him, it was thrilling.

His tail slowly slid off his arms as he shifted in his sleep. He seems to be snuggling into the glass. So he enjoys sleeping. How does his species do their sleeping arrangement? Is it more of a hibernation or daily occurrence?

“...” He let a small grumble as his eyes fluttered open. You were expecting to see a pair of pitch black eyes, but instead they looked quite humanish. In fact, they looked really familiar. Wait a minute.

“Morning, Shark,” you spoke slowly. He looked at you groggily before turning his head around. You could see the confusion on his face. You’ve heard from coworkers that this sometimes happens. “How do you feel, Shark?”

“I had this dream where this beautiful angel was in front of me,” he grumbled as he stretched his arms out in every direction. It was kind of unique the way he had to contort his body in order for his six arms to get that stretch. “And I open my eyes and they’re still there.”

“You dreamed about me so much that you decided to wear my eyes,” you teased. It was odd seeing an alien with such human eyes. So far, most of the aliens usually have odd shaped eyes or none at all. But you guess with Shark, you can’t put him under the category for normal aliens.

“I-what!” His top arm went to his face and rubbed his eyes harshly. Guess he didn’t even notice that he didn’t have his normal eyes. You should document that and see if that’s a constant when he wakes up. “When I said I wanted you on my body, I didn’t mean this.”

Your movement towards the computer stopped as you processed what he said. Did he mean- that’s more of a human phrase- can he even? Your brain is becoming overwhelmed as you unpacked the single sentence. How does he even know that type of language?

“Sorry, sweetheart. Didn’t mean to fluster you like that, even though you look so cute. I’ll tone it down for you,” he explained. He swam up to the top of the tank where he folded his top arms on top of it. A giant smirk was on his face revealing that he most likely didn’t regret his comment.

“You seem to have quite the understatement on the human’s culture.” He manages to talk in perfect English while also using phrases that only people integrated in the culture could understand. Has he been hiding within the humans for a while?

His tail swishing slowly in the liquid made him appear relaxed in his environment. That’s a good sign for most specimens to have. If his behavior continues on this path, he might be able to leave the container and you can gain more data on him that doesn’t involve verbal communication.

“I got it by abducting a human and strapping them to a lab table to eat their brains. I learn the different waves of human’s vocals by their screams of pain. Quite the range, I may say,” he spoke with a glint in his eye.

Cold sweat dripped down your back as you froze in front of the computer. This is the first time you have felt fear in a while. Just the thought that a few feet away from you is a killer and the only thing stopping you is a glass container that he has proven many times to be able to lift himself over, is enough to make your stomach lurch.

You won’t lie and say it’s uncommon to contain an alien that has kidnapped humans or killed them in the search of science. But, they never understood what they did was wrong. However, Experiment 337 has shown signs of understanding human’s speech, therefore he should have an understanding of the human moral. Does he just not care?

“Sweetheart, you look so adorable when you scrunch your face up from overthinking. But to calm your nerves, I was joking,” he sang out. He released his hold on the top of the container and floated down. His grayish blue muscular legs began to lightly move causing him to swim a little. He contains mobility in liquid, noted.

“You got nothing to worry about. The only person I want to strap down and have screaming is you.” His black eyes looked at you through the liquid and gave a swift wink. Heat started crawling up your neck to your face.

“Didn't moments ago you said you would ‘tone it down’?” You asked, turning to the computer to appear busy. There’s pros and cons to having an alien that can speak english and have them understand some phrases. Although, you didn’t think being flirted with or having a dirty mind would be one.

“Oh that was tone downed. What I wanted to say was I would love to have you lying underneath me with your legs spread as I-” You cut him out with a loud screech. He jumped before laughing at you.

“Okay, my apologies for complaining. I don’t mind sticking to the previous level,” you squeaked out, rubbing your cheeks to get them to calm down. Do you even put this down in the notes? How would you word that your alien has a libido?

You pulled up the notes on the computer and stared at it for a while. Then just typed it “Understands the human language, Appears to be in search of mate.” That’s the best you can do at the moment.

“I’ll give you a break. I know so much about the humans because you have all of it in the open. Stacks and stacks of books on languages, anatomy, how you interact, ways of thinking,history, etc. Then there’s also this system humans have called ‘The Internet’ where I can interact with humans in multiple ways without having to show my face. It was great practice,” he explained, rolling his top left wrist. His bottom set of arms were pushing against the base of the container to bounce through the water.

You were quick to write down what he was saying and highlight how he used the internet to communicate with humans. You never heard of an alien using Earth’s own resources to learn more about it. How many are out there that are using these resources at this very moment? How many people online are actually humans?

“So, have you just been studying just human?” You asked, turning toward him. He flipped himself around to sit on the base of the container. His legs folded on top of each other and surprisingly the muscles seem to fit together to allow for a smooth surface.

“Nah, not really. The animals on this planet are pretty cool,” he grumbled. His top right arm went to his chin slightly as if he was thinking for a moment. “Yeah, my favorite animal is the… the um… I forgot what you call it. Just look.”

Suddenly, a giant black smoke cloud exploded from Shark’s skin, covering all the liquid in the water. You couldn’t see a thing inside. The now black liquid only showed your worried and terrified expressions. Who knows what this specimen has in store?

“Tadaaa,” he yelled, somewhere in the black liquid. You moved around the container as you tried to see what he was and where he was. The blackness seems to be dissipating the longer you stared at it. However, even that wasn’t enough to see him.

“I can’t see you, Shark.” You were trying to call out to him, but he didn’t seem to be appearing. The liquid at this point was a murky grey that allowed you to see through with it. But the container was empty. Did he escape?

Oh gosh, what’s the protocol for an escaped experiment? You need to press the alarm button. No, you need to lock down the room so he can’t leave. Which one goes first?

“Human, babbbbeeeee,” a tiny voice called out to you. You looked around the container for anything. Grey, grey, grey, orange, grey, grey… wait.

In the upper corner, there was a tiny fish with shimmering orange and yellow scales all over. Tiny black eyes stared sideways at you. The fish seem happy to have your eyes on it because it started swimming around in circles.

“Shark? You can shrink to 1/50 of your height and 1/400 of your weight. How? That-that breaks all laws of physics,” you rambled in disbelief. He has too much mass for it all to just condense into a goldfish. He would collapse into himself due to the density.

“Once again. Yeah, and you can’t,” his now squeaky voice teased from inside of the water. You were quick to press your face to the glass of the container. Shark swam over until he was right in front of your face. “It’s not that hard.”

“I have the coolest experiment in this place,” you whispered. His body wasn’t showing any signs of distress or struggle with swimming. The gills on the side of his neck showed that he was still breathing just fine, telling you that he could transform his lungs to fit his changed body.

“And I have the hottest scientist in the entire universe who I am going to make mines.” It felt so weird to be flirted with by a tiny goldfish that you couldn’t even take his comment seriously. You wouldn’t mind all his flirty statements if it was delivered by a cute little goldfish.

“Let me document this. And I got to check your vitals,” You mumbled to yourself. The vital cords were still attached to him, but seem to have shrunk to accommodate his new form.

You pulled up the vitals recorded to see everything had changed. The oxygen level had dropped significantly and so had his heart rate. His body temperature was so much lower that anyone reading this would think he temporarily died.

“Shark, you amazed me,” you mumbled, scrolling through the documentation. Now you need to go back to the previous day to see if his reading has changed when he shifted into you. From the looks of things, he understands the organ system of the organism that he shifts into.

“But I haven’t even taken you to dinner yet and you already tell me how good I am.” You turned back to the container to see he had transformed back into his usual self. His giant six palms were pressed against the glass closest to you as he stared at the computer screen.

“Just take the compliment,” you teased. You flipped to your notes and began to type in everything that has happened. Shark swam a little closer and squinted his beady black eyes. Guess he was reading what you were writing.

“Appears to be in search of a mate?” He read out with a tone of confusion. Once again, you were in a state of cold sweat as you realized what he read. It just happened, but you were so in science bliss of him breaking physics that you forgot about his earlier statement.

“Just an assumption...based on the way you speak,” you stuttered, avoiding his look. A deep laugh escaped out of him. His grey body swam up again, so he was peeking out the top of the container.

“Sweetie, did you not hear me earlier? I’m going to make you mine. You are my mate. Okay, darling,” he purred, sending a swift wink. There’s that warmth crawling up your neck. How do you respond to this in a formal way?

A buzz in your ear alerted you for an incoming call. You pressed the ear piece with your shoulder to answer it. “Hey, it’s lunch time. Meet in the section Sub 4B in 20 minutes.”

“Everytime you get on that ear piece, you leave. I might just take it away from you, so you will never leave me.” You let out a laugh as you pressed the ear piece again to end the call. Even though you are a scientist that works with experiments, that doesn’t mean all your time is with them. It happens outside, where data is collected and talked about.

“I’m sorry. But you’ll go to sleep again, so you won’t even notice time has passed.” You slide the reading off the screen of the computer and pull up the medicine supplier. The code for the sleeping medicine was quickly placed in.

A huge frown came onto Shark’s face as he watched the blue liquid coming from the computer and towards him. He instinctively swam to the bottom and sat down. His back was placed against the side glass with his tail wrapped around him. The top and bottom set of arms were crossed over his knees while the middle set just floated down.

“See you later, Shark,” you whispered. His calm even breathing was the only response you got back. Leaning towards the glass, you gave it a little kiss. It was something dumb you did when he was unconscious and had to leave him.

You discarded your lab jacket in the waste bin and grabbed your things. As you exited, you gave one last glance at Shark’s sleeping form with a happy smile. You were so grateful to have him here at work.

“97 days left.”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Here it is. You guys asked for it and I provided it. I’m actually starting to really love writing Shark’s character. It’s different from the usual soft boy that I write. I like it. Anyway, remember to leave a LIKE and a COMMENT. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

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writingoneshots · 3 years

Note

Hi how are you? Just saw your answer. I just wanted to ask if you could write a fic where Killer falls for Kid's lil sister and he is afraid of telling her. But she likes Killer too and he is all cute with her while the crew makes fun of them and one day they end up locked alone, they confess and Kids finds them kissing or something. Thank you for the attention and sorry for the bothering or if anything of the request does not follow the rules or offends you.

Killer's confession

Hey! I am sorry for the late reply. I forced myself to take a break because a lot has happened in my family but I finally feel ready to get back into the social (online) life :)

You are my first request for my 'I am back' moment haha. Hope you're happy with the little story. Have a nice day :) !

- Killer x reader (Kid's sister) - 2,028 words - romance, cute moment, tiny bit of nsfw but nothing too tragic

Since Kid made the decision to let you, his sister, join the crew, you have been nothing but trouble. Not only did you need all those extra girly things but you also got a lot of attention from his male crew. He never bothered about men surrounding or even flirting with you but since you were spending a lot of time together, it disgusted him to see his crew aggressively trying to get you into bed. You never really paid any attention to these men and it was extra funny to annoy your big brother with these things. Especially since you were the only woman on this ship, you had tons of things to add to make him angry. But one thing bothered you the most. Not really one thing, but this one person. This guy. His best mate. Killer. While every crew member tried his best to make you do some unspeakable things with them, Killer didn't even try to show his feelings. Every once in a while, he would offer you your favorite cocktail or bring you some jewelry, which he stole from another ship. Sometimes he would even try to force a conversation late at night, just to be able to talk to you. But then there were times, when he avoided you for almost a week or even dare to ignore you on purpose, even though you were directly speaking to him. You realized that these moments often appeared whenever the crew would mention how awfully disgusting you two behaved while flirting. "Stop trying to be so cute." "It's fucking cringe, man." "I get diabetes watching you two!" - "You don't even know how to spell diabetes." - "But I know that you could die because of too much sugar and sugar is sweet... right?" Usually, it would end up in a fight, where almost everyone who made a stupid comment would get beaten up by Killer. Sometimes even by your brother. You tried to ignore them because you were never able to just beat someone up. You either kill them or don't fight at all. After a glorious win against a new pirate crew, the Kid pirates were all celebrating in a pub. Drinking, eating, singing, and even dancing were mandatory in every pirate's party but with the Kid pirates you have to include a few fights, threats and topless women dancing on the tables or on men's laps. Kid was already drunk and probably didn't even know on which planet he was on. A woman kept squeezing her breasts onto his face and Kid didn't bother at all. He stood up with that woman in his arms and went straight into a room above the pub. You shook your head at that sight and finished your drink to try to delete this last memory of your brother and breasts. You glanced over to Killer, who was surrounded by two women in their underwear. They were dancing seductively and singing a song you've never heard of. Feeling your sight resting on him, Killer turned his head into your direction. Even though you couldn't see his eyes, or even his face, you knew that he was looking at you. Your heartbeat fastened at the thought of him staring at you and you immediately turned your head away, trying to calm yourself down. But it was harder than expected. It's been way too long since you've wanted someone's attention. When you've met Killer, you were fascinated by his existence and wanted nothing more but his near. Especially now.

"Are you alright?", a very familiar voice appeared behind you. It was him. You were just able to nod and wouldn't even dare to try to speak now. "I erm-", Killer paused and stepped closer to you, "I wanted to go back to the ship now.. Kid told me that you'd prefer to stay in a room here. I'd prefer to bring you there.. just to make sure you'll arrive safely." "I can defend myself and you know that.", you frowned at that request and turned back to him. His offer surprised you but you knew that he didn't mean to offend you. But his sudden change of interest confused you. "You're right but I'd prefer to see it with my own eyes. I mean.. that you're safe in your room." Killer cleared his throat and took a step back to make room for you so you could follow him. You raised an eyebrow at him and thought about his offer. After you gave it a few thoughts, you nodded softly and stood up, following him upstairs. None of you spoke up or made a single noise on your way to your room. You hated it. "Killer, do you hate me?" He suddenly froze. You turned to him, surprised by his reaction. "Wait.. did- did I-", Killer shook his head. He didn't expect you to feel as if he'd hate you. "No, I don't hate you. I could never.. It's actually the complete opposite." "So.. you like me?" Killer nodded and was still not moving. "How much?", you teased him a little and tried to hide a smile. You could clearly see how his ears got a slight blush of red and tilted your head a little. "Where is your room, (Y/N)?", he stepped closer and looked around, as if he'd try to actually look for the room. But he took his arm around you and pulled you closer to him, letting you lean onto his torso. "It's at the end of the corridor.", you whispered and smiled at this soft gesture. You missed the smell of his minty-woodish mixture and enjoyed the few seconds of him actually trying to have physical contact after a way too long time. "Alright.", Killer commented and leaned forward to pick you up with both his arms. Not trying to hurry, Killer carried you to the room and took his time to get there. He loved carrying you around and generally preferred to be the one caring for you whenever possible. When he finally made it to the door, you leaned a bit to the side to be able to open it with a single swipe. Killer slowly went in and carried you to the bed. He let you down carefully and again, took his time. "Thank you, Killer.", you whispered for only him to hear and watched him standing up again. With a soft pat on your head, he turned to leave.

"Wait, you're actually leaving?", you looked at him surprised again. You were here, alone, in a bed, and he didn't care. "What else am I supposed to do? You are safe in your room and it's late at night.", he turned to you when he reached the doorway and was thinking of turning the lights on but he preferred to see you in the light of the moon. "I don't know.. we could talk? Or.. you could just sleep here?", you looked up at him, hoping he'd take the offer. Killer had already considered it but he wasn't sure if you'd like it. Without having to think about it twice, he came back to you and closed the door behind him. "Alright. I will stay, if you don't mind.", he took off his boots and shirt and laid down into the bed. You couldn't help but stare at his figure. The moonlight was shining into the right spots of the room, revealing his muscles and all the scars covering them. "Are you done staring?", he joked a little and patted the place right next to him. You took off your heels and bra in one move and sighed relieved after feeling your chest relaxing now. "Are you going to sleep with that mask on?", you looked short at him and crawled backwards into bed until you were on the same height as Killer. A few seconds have passed and Killer wasn't sure why he was hesitating. You've already seen him without the mask, which is why he shouldn't be bothered to take it off. But he feared to ruin the moment with the look of his face. You felt how anxious he suddenly became and smiled a bit, "Don't worry about it." You leaned slowly forward and gave him a kiss on his bare chest before turning around and cuddling onto him. "I won't look. Promise! But you shouldn't sleep with it. Let your face rest from the pressure." Killer couldn't believe it. The amount of respect and comfort you were offering, stunned him. This time, he didn't have to think about it again. Killer took off his mask and placed it right beside him onto the nightstand. He then took an arm around your waist and pulled you closer to him. "Could you do me a favor though?", you sighed and closed your eyes. When he leaned his chin onto your shoulder, you felt how he nodded softly. "Could you please massage my breasts? They feel really sore after that fight.. I really need a new bra." Two soft pushes of his chest onto your back let you know that he had to giggle but as usual, he was hiding his laugh. Killer didn't need to hear this offer a second time and slid under your shirt to reach for the first breast. When he softly began to massage it, he leaned his head onto his free hand and looked down at you. The sight of you relaxing and the thought of him being able to ease your pain, made him happier than he could have ever imagined. Even though this was the first time that he has ever touched you like that, Killer didn't mind that it was for your own pleasure as it made him feel better as well. When Killer switched to your other breast and had to focus on himself to not wake up his partner in his pants, a loud knock on the door appeared. Killer froze immediately and grabbed the mask behind him, to cover his face. But he did not let go of you or your breast yet. "Oj! Killer! Do you have any condoms?!", Kid opened the door after no one answered, turned the lights on and froze at the sight of you two in bed. Killer had already moved his arm away to not let anyone see what he was doing and threw a blanket on top of you as nobody but him should see you like this. Killer took a deep breath to not beat up Kid at how rude he was and nodded. He cleared his throat before he grabbed something in his trousers and handed two condoms to Kid. Kid narrowed his eyes when he grabbed them and looked at you and Killer carefully. He then ripped off one condom and threw it back at Killer. "I don't want to become an uncle yet." You rolled your eyes at that comment and threw a small pillow into his direction, "Get out!" Kid went to the door and looked back at you two, stopping for a few seconds. He clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. "Move!", you threw a knife at him and he

immediately slipped out of the door and crashed the door close. The knife hit the perfect spot, where Kid's head would have been. "Next time, throw it earlier.", Killer giggled and took off his mask again. "How did he even know that I was in here?" "He always expects it.", you assured him and leaned forward, grabbing the condom Kid left. Killer raised an eyebrow and watched you lay back down to not look at him again. He couldn't help but smile a bit as he leaned back to you and kissed your shoulder softly. "There are a lot of positions, where I don't have to face you.", you smiled a bit and pulled his arm around you, to signal Killer to massage you again. "Good thing that I only showed him these two condoms. I have a whole package in my other pocket.", Killer smirked and began massaging your breast with one hand, while the other pulled down your pants.

#request #killer #killer x reader #killer one piece #eustass kid #one piece #one piece x y/n #one piece x reader #massacre soldier #one shot #openrequests #open requests #one piece request #reader x killer #eustass #eustass kid one piece #killer eustass

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duelistkingdom · 3 years

Text

you’d come back to me

chapter eight: suggestion

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Summary: Seto Kaiba has been presumed dead for four years after the events of Dark Side of Dimensions. His return causes both unresolved feelings of grief to be brought to the surface and the past to be dragged right back up. In hopes of helping Seto move on and reintegrate back into society at large, Mokuba asks Yugi to work on Spherium II with Seto. Never one to leave a friend hanging, Yugi agrees. Over the course of the project, Seto and Yugi both come to terms with their mutual grief and grow towards a better understanding of each other.

Rating: T

Ships: Yugi Mutou/Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba/Rebecca Hopkins, Katusya Jonouchi/Mai Kujaku

Warnings: aged up characters, grief, references to suicide

consider supporting me on kofi / battle city tiers & above get first access to chapters!

On the first day of development, Seto immediately began to question all of Yugi’s choices in design. “This could be far more effective if we do this instead,” Seto said as he spread out a new code that would take far longer than the allotted time to implement. “I don’t know why you’re doing it that way.”

“We only have a year to get a working prototype to show investors, Kaiba,” Yugi said for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. He was certain that it was, at most, the fifth time. “I’ve already told you it would be unfair on the team to do it that way so we’re doing it the easier way.”

“If you want it to be effective, you should do things right the first time,” Seto snapped and Yugi glared up at him. Once again, Yugi was annoyed that he stopped an inch short of six feet tall. It was hard to be intimidating when Seto was still ever so slightly taller than him and had to wear some sort of heeled boot on top of it. “We should do things this way.”

“Kaiba, believe it or not, the team is not made of robots and we have new rules in place where we’re not allowed to stay in the building past 11 pm,” Yugi said, back straightening out to his fullest height. His eye line still barely met Seto’s nose. “It would be impossible to do things the way you outlined, so we’re keeping things the way I designed.”

“I used to stay at work all night,” Seto countered, not seeming to realize what a very bad argument that was. In fact, Yugi couldn’t help but smirk in response because as far as he was concerned, Seto made his point for him. This seemed to bother Seto, however. “Stop smirking at me. I stayed at work all night and it was fine!”

“Kaiba, you do realize that might just be the worst argument anyone’s ever made right,” Yugi asked as he raised a brow at Seto, enjoying the flush that appeared right across Seto’s cheeks. He couldn’t believe he was ever intimidated by Seto. Seto was basically putty in his hands. “If you did something, that’s proof enough that it does not work. We’re keeping it the way it is. Thank you for your input, now get back to work.”

To his great surprise, Seto shuffled off without another word. Perhaps working with Seto would be a lot easier than expected.

“Mokie,” Rebecca called as she burst right into Mokuba’s office, her badge pinned to the pocket of her pink and blue jacket. Mokuba looked up from his work, a surprised look on his face. While Rebecca did, indeed, frequently visit, she normally at least called ahead. Though he couldn’t say he was complaining as he noted she’d paired the jacket with a pink skirt that showcased her legs. “Whatcha planning for my birthday?”

Mokuba wished he could say he was surprised that Rebecca would think that this was an appropriate reason to visit him at work but he really wasn’t. At least it wasn’t as bad as when she dropped by to ask him about fabrics for the apartment’s couch. She’d been convinced it was dire and refused to admit it could have waited until he got home. “I thought you said you wanted the details of your birthday to be a surprise,” Mokuba remarked as he took a look at the calendar. There were only three days left until Rebecca’s birthday on December 28th. “You also said Christmas gifts do not count towards your birthday gifts.”

“Hanukkah gifts do not count to the overall total either,” Rebecca said seriously, eyeing Mokuba suspiciously. “You should make sure everyone knows that. It might start on the 25th but that doesn’t mean they can cheap out on my gifts.”

“Of course, Rebecca,” Mokuba said, almost amused. He had to admire Rebecca's tenacity. It was part of her charm, after all. He made a mental note to remind Yugi about Rebecca’s gift demands as his hands rested on her hips. “I wouldn't dream of letting you get cheaped out on your gifts, my love.”

Rebecca was instantly mollified by the pet name, a soft smile appearing on her face as she leaned in to press a quick kiss to Mokuba’s cheek. “Good,” she said softly, hopping off the desk and winking at him. “I’ll see you at home, darling!”

Mokuba grinned as he looked over her backside as she walked out the office. As much as he was certain that was another thing that could’ve waited until he got home, he did feel a little more relaxed about going back into working on this project. In fact, he actually didn’t want to get back to work at all.

Yugi checked his watch, keeping a close eye on the time. Jonouchi’s Duel was at six pm and he needed to be at the stadium an hour before the Duel. The tournament that Jonouchi was dueling in had been excited to have snagged Jonouchi for their roster. He took his dueling rather seriously, always working to improve his deck. Yugi had passively mentioned how Jonouchi’s deck had improved to user saggithedarkclown that he’d started to regularly chat with online, who expressed a little bit of doubt that Jonouchi might be able to secure victory. Yugi had a small bet with the user riding on Jonouchi’s victory now.

As expected, the stadium was already a madhouse when Yugi got there. Everyone was chattering with excitement as Yugi was directed to enter through the back. He wound up driving under the stadium and directed to the valet. A security guard met with Yugi, handing him a badge that secured access backstage and made a joke about how it was a formality. Yugi grinned, joking back about how rules are rules. It would be impossible for him to ignore that people knew who he was at this point. “Where’s Jonouchi?”

“He’s getting ready,” the guard said as he led Yugi towards his dressing room. Yugi noted that the halls of the stadium were cold and impersonal until they turned down the hall that led to his usual room. Posters from past exhibition matches and promotions for other events decorated the walls. The few things that weren’t Duel Monsters related stuck out the most. “You’ll see him when the Duel starts. Sorry about that, Mr. Mutou.”

As much as he’d like to wish Jonouchi luck before the Duel, he wasn’t about to break the rules for it. Jonouchi would know that Yugi was rooting for him, after all. He thanked the guard as he ducked into his dressing room. Yugi changed into his professional Dueling attire, noting it over in the mirror. He was still embarrassed by how much it still looked like his old school uniform. He’d been wanting to replace it for the longest time but his manager had insisted this was what people wanted to see. Yugi had a hard time believing that. The backstage of a stadium was the same lineal space it always was. If it were not for the clock on the wall or the watch on his wrist, Yugi could’ve easily lost track of time. “Mr. Mutou,” came the voice of one of the security guards from outside his dressing room. “You’re on.”

His boots clicked on the concrete floor of the hallway with the sounds of the crowd getting louder as he approached the pitch. Before he went out, a stage hand pinned a microphone to his tank top and pressed the battery pack into his back pocket within seconds. She gave him a thumbs up before ducking out of sight as quickly as possible and he stepped onto the platform, staring upwards at the opening that would lift him up into the center of the pitch.

No matter how many times he did this, it always felt strange. The roar from the audience was deafening and the lights in his face prevented him from getting a good look at the audience. Still, he grinned, spreading his arms out as if he wasn’t uncomfortable. “Welcome to the Duel we’ve all been waiting for,” Yugi announced, stepping off the platform onto the field and spinning around as if he could see beyond the first row of the audience. He grinned when he saw Mokuba, Honda, Bakura, Mai, and Otogi in the front row. “Katsuya Jonouchi is going to face off against Ryota Kajiki! A rematch, as it were, for those of you who remember Jonouchi’s time in Battle City!”

The crowd went into a frenzy as Ryota entered the pitch and waved up towards the crowd. Yugi grinned at Ryota. Yugi was glad that the first Duel that Jonouchi had in this tournament was against this Duelist. Ryota was as honorable as ever and always proved to be a real challenge. “I Duel with the raw power of the ocean behind me,” Ryota called, holding up his Duel Disk in a theatrical manner. “Not many have managed to withstand the powerful monsters that hide in the sea!”

“Ryota’s a three time champion, with his most recent victory being in Nagasaki, where he took the top prize. He’s known for his signature Umi based strategies,” Yugi announced. “He seeks to challenge Jonouchi for the Domino City title today! And now, here he comes - Katsuya Jonouchi!”

If the crowd had been frenzied for Ryota, they were absolutely feral when Jonouchi entered the pitch and tossed his bangs out of his eyes with a glean in his eyes. “Been a while, Kajiki,” Jonouchi called out with a grin on his face and activated his Duel Disk. “I’ll warn ya now: I’m not gonna cower away from a challenge! Let’s have a fun Duel!”

“Most of you remember Katsuya’s rise from underdog to third place at Battle City to four time champion,” Yugi called out as he gestured over to his friend with a grin across his features. The crowd roared, and Yugi laughed. “Katsuya, like Ryota, is seeking to proceed forward in the Domino City regional championships in hopes of going to nationals! With his fierce Red Eyes Black Dragon and warriors by his side, he’ll be a tough one to beat!”

“Remember, fair play, fair Duel,” Yugi said as he pulled out the coin, tossing it up in the air. “Heads, Katsuya goes first, tails, Ryota goes first.” He caught it in the air as the drone flew around him, catching the fact that the coin toss came up tails. “Ryota will start! Each player will start with 8000 life points with no draw on the first turn. If a player fails to make a move within five minutes on their turn, they will automatically lose. Duel, start!”

Yugi took a step back, watching the Duel with a sense of pride taking over. Jonouchi really had managed to come a long way since his first Duel. In fact, Jonouchi had managed to get his trusty Red Eyes on the field by turn two. By turn four, Red Eyes Slash Dragon was on the field and equipped with Axe of Despair and Gearfried. “And that’s not all, Kajiki,” Jonouchi said, sounding proud of himself. “I’m tributing from my hand another Red Eyes Black Dragon to bring out Red-Eyes Alternative Black Dragon! And I’ll be setting three cards before heading into my battle phase!”

From there, Yugi saw how that one turn had decided the entire Duel. Ryota never recovered from Jonouchi destroying Umi on the fifth turn with Heavy Storm nor the fact that he’d used that move to set Red-Eyes Fang with Chain. Ryota’s life points hit zero by turn ten - a hard earned victory on Jonouchi’s part. “Katsuya Jonouchi is the winner,” Yugi declared, stepping forward to congratulate Jonouchi on his win.

“You know you didn’t have to fly in for Rebecca’s birthday,” Yugi said as he picked up Anzu at the airport. The unspoken statement was that despite the fact he said she didn’t have to, Rebecca would have been disappointed to not have Anzu at her party. And well, Yugi would have missed having Anzu around too. “Aren’t you busy with rehearsals?”

“I wanted to come,” Anzu said as she tossed her bag in the backseat of Yugi’s car and climbed into the front seat with a bright smile. There might have been a time when that smile might have done strange things to Yugi’s heart. However, now, it was just the smile of a friend who had been there by his side since he was a child. “Thanks for letting me crash on your couch, by the way.”

“Hey, no problem. You know my couch is open for you whenever you want to come home,” Yugi said. “I miss you when you aren’t here.”

“Is Kaiba really driving you that crazy?”

“He’s the worst project partner to ever exist,” Yugi said, more out of impulse than anything else. Last night, Seto had wanted to stay late and Yugi had to put his foot down. While Yugi didn’t mention he had to be up early to pick Anzu up, he did remind Seto that most of the team would like to get home to their families. Seto, naturally, had insisted that working late was good for a person. “He doesn’t seem to get that he’s not the only one working on this project. I asked Mokuba about it and apparently it was the same when he was making the Duel Disk system.”

“Kaiba’s always been intense,” Anzu said thoughtfully. “I suppose you shouldn’t be too surprised that he’s intense with work.”

“I suppose,” Yugi said with a sigh, shaking his head slightly. He couldn’t help but think about all the times Kaiba had blown off the team building nights. At every turn, Kaiba wanted to undermine Yugi’s leadership. Now that was the part that pissed Yugi off the most. “Just wish he’d get that this is supposed to be a team effort. He seemed shocked that it wasn’t just him and I working on the project.”

Anzu pursed her lips, tilting her head slightly. “Did Mokuba mention if Kaiba’s ever worked with a team before? This might be the first time he’s actually worked with a team.”

Yugi gave her a lopsided grin. There was a good chance she was right. He’d never really known Kaiba to be much of a team player. Not only that, it was obvious that Kaiba was smart enough to create the projects he had on his own. “Are you suggesting that I simply aggressively apply friendship to my problems with Kaiba?”

“It’s worked before,” Anzu teased with a light shrug. “Besides… you and I both know teamwork is best with people you’re friends with. Oh! Maybe you should try inviting him to hang out after work one on one! That would help establish a rapport.”

“It might help since he’s blown off every single group night,” Yugi admitted. Plus he could see if Kaiba had changed at all in the past four years. Sure, Kaiba hadn’t physically aged but maybe something was different. Maybe Kaiba was not the Kaiba from his memories. “I think that also it’d help Kaiba to relax around me. He’s always so tense.”

“In that case, it might be good for the two of you to hang out without work involved,” Anzu said brightly. “Might help him relax and help him realize that the team nights don’t have to be so scary. You’ve always been good at helping stressed out people relax.”

Yugi laughed, shaking his head. “Anzu, I think that it would take a miracle to make Kaiba relax.”

Just then, his phone pinged and Yugi glanced towards his phone. Normally he’d pull over to see if it was another message from saggithedarkclown but with Anzu in the car… “Did you want me to check who messaged you,” Anzu asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Yugi admitted with a light blush across his cheeks. “I’d actually like that.”

Anzu picked up his phone, checking it before giggling. “It’s from someone called Saggi The Dark Clown,” she remarked, raising a brow at him. “Interesting username. I thought Jou had that sniped.”

“Jou claims he sold it and I’m inclined to believe him cause this guy types a little formally compared to Jou,” Yugi said with a shrug. “So whoever Saggi is -”

“You call him Saggi,” Anzu asked, interrupting with a laugh before waving her hand with a teasing smile. “Sorry, I’m being rude. Tell me more.”

“Thanks for being mature about this,” Yugi said, the blush on his face darkening. He wished he wasn’t prone to blushing. Anzu was sure to pick up on that. “Anyway. Saggi was posting about being out of the game for four years and wanted to get back into the swing of things and wanted to know more about the meta. I’ve just… been helping him. That’s all.”

“Oh is that all,” she teased, a twinkle in her eyes. “Why Yugi! Have you finally started to crush on someone new? This is fantastic news!”

“Oh no,” Yugi groaned. “Don’t tell the rest of the gang.”

“Jou would be so happy to hear that you’re starting to move,” Anzu protested. “And you know that Ryou and Honda would also be happy for you too. You’ve been stuck in this state for so long, Yugi. They’d want to hear you’re doing better.”

Yugi sighed. “Let me tell them on my own,” he said softly, knowing Anzu was right. They’d absolutely be happy to hear that he was no longer stuck on Atem. It’d been a long time since Yugi had allowed himself to fall for anyone. He’d been terrified to fall and risk losing them again. It was terrifying still, actually. “It’s still just someone I’m talking to online about Duel Monsters, anyway. It’s not really a crush.”

Anzu laughed. “It would be like you to fall for someone over a game,” she teased. “I’m happy for you, though. I hope this works for you.”

Seto didn’t understand why he had to wear a tuxedo specifically for Rebecca’s birthday party. In fact, he also wasn’t sure why Mokuba insisted that Seto buy a grand total of ten gifts for Rebecca. He was fairly certain Rebecca was Jewish. He didn’t understand why he had to buy her a Christmas gift to begin with, nor did he understand why his Hannakuh gift couldn’t count towards her birthday gift. He messed with the Kaiba Corp branded cufflinks on his suit jacket, wondering why anyone would want so much attention on them during their birthday. He also didn’t know what was wrong with having the birthday in the apartment. No, Mokuba had rented out a ballroom for Rebecca’s birthday.

In fact, everything about this seemed over the top. He was certain that more than Mokuba and Rebecca’s usual friend group was going to show up considering the amount of food at the banquet table and the ostentatiously large cake. A DJ had been hired and he was setting up his equipment while Mokuba seemed to be dealing with the staff. From what Seto could tell, it seemed like the staff and Mokuba had a rapport going on. Mokuba laughed at something one of the employees said and Seto was stunned to realize that it seemed like Mokuba was a natural leader. A pang in his chest as he realized that yet again, he never got to see Mokuba develop this skill in his absence. Mokuba had pulled his long hair back into a ponytail and the long hair was the only thing Seto recognized in his brother. His brother had taken to wearing suits of varying colors. Today, it was a baby blue suit with a pink tie and a pale lavender vest.

Seto hadn’t seen Rebecca yet. In fact, he was certain the only reason Mokuba insisted that Seto help set up the party was to talk to him about how things were going with Yugi on Spherium II. He wouldn’t be sure how to answer that question. In many ways, it was going poorly. Yugi insisted on ending the work day early, losing valuable hours because Yugi wanted to go home early. It seemed like Yugi didn’t really care about getting this project done as quickly as possible. He hadn’t even begun to form what he would tell Mokuba when Mokuba had strode over to where he was standing. “You know I didn’t expect you to stand around and do nothing,” Mokuba remarked casually. “I hope you aren’t doing this to Yugi at work.”

“I’m not,” Seto said defensively. “I just don’t get the point of having a birthday party at all. People get older every year. No point in celebrating it.”

“Some people like their birthdays,” Mokuba said with a shrug. “Rebecca happens to like celebrating her birthday. And well, might as well indulge her since it doesn’t harm anything. Plus twenty-one’s a big deal for Americans.”

“I suppose,” Seto said, remembering Rebecca’s threat to break his legs if he ruined her birthday the way he ruined his own birthday. He didn’t think he’d ruined anything but he’d prefer not to test Rebecca. “You seem to really care about her.”

“Yeah,” Mokuba said softly. “She’s smart and driven and keeps me down to Earth. I wish you two would get along.”

Seto noted the look on Mokuba’s face in an attempt to better understand the meaning behind those words. It seemed it really did bother Mokuba that he and Rebecca did not get along. How peculiar. He wouldn’t think Rebecca and his relationship wouldn’t have an impact on Rebecca and Mokuba’s relationship or his and Mokuba’s relationship but it seemed it did. “Alright,” Seto said, just as soft. He didn’t want Mokuba to be upset. He’d already done enough damage in that regard. Seto was certain he’d have to spend the rest of his life making up for his past mistakes to Mokuba at this rate. “I’ll try to be nice today. Shame that can’t count as my gift to her.”

“Rebecca’s touchy with gifts,” Mokuba said, seriously. “She’s used to her gifts being lumped together and her birthday being treated as another holiday stressor. I don’t want her to think she’s just a stress point.” He paused before grinning as if he’d come up with a brilliant idea. “Maybe you two should hang out more. Get to know each other. I really think you’d like her if you just got to know her.”

Seto gave a soft “tch” before relanting. “Fine,” Seto said as he thought about all the times he’d been alone with Rebecca. Every time, it felt like he was with a caged lioness who was on the hunt for her young. “I’ll try to find more time to spend with her.”

Seto was surprised when the doors opened and who should walk in but Ryou wearing an odd tweed suit. “Hi, Mokuba,” Ryou said, holding up a large gift. “I hope Rebecca likes this. I saw it and thought that she might also think of her grandfather when looking at this.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll love it,” Mokuba said with a laugh. “Especially if it came from your shop. I swear, your shop shows up on the bank statement at least three times a month.”

“The tricky part is finding something she hasn’t bought already,” Ryou said with a rather soft smile as he went to place it with the rest of the gifts. Seto had noted that the table already had at least ten gifts on it. “Can’t complain too much. Keeps business steady.”

Seto didn’t know that Rebecca liked occult stuff. He shouldn’t have been surprised considering how many of Mokuba’s friends were enraptured by the occult. For whatever reason, they just seemed to attract occult nonsense. A thought scratched at his head, reminding him that he had forced his way to the afterlife to see a dead man. He supposed he didn’t have much of a leg to stand on in that regard anymore. He’d accepted that magic, for whatever reason, was real. Who was he to stand here and pretend otherwise? It still made his skin crawl knowing there were things that he could not properly explain despite coming to this conclusion.

This line of thought plagued him as other guests began to pour in. As expected, he didn’t recognize all of them. He had to suspect some of them were either duelists or students from Rebecca’s school. In fact, some of them seemed on the older side compared to Rebecca - easily in their late twenties or early thirties. Then again… Rebecca was a PhD candidate. He had to imagine that chances to talk to people her age in that kind of program were few and far between. That was something they could connect on, Seto considered.

Much like Rebecca, Seto never really had many chances to connect to people his age. He was, after all, the CEO of a major corporation by the age of fifteen. All the people he’d interacted with at that time were twenty plus years older than him. Perhaps that was why he’d reacted the way he had to Yugi and his friends. He didn’t know how to interact with people his age. He froze as he remembered that Yugi and his friends weren’t exactly his age anymore. He was completely disconnected from them now.

He was so caught in his thoughts that he never expected the wind to be knocked out of him like this when Yugi finally arrived with none other than Anzu on his arm. He didn’t know why he was so surprised. Hadn’t he already pinged them as dating? He couldn’t help but note they were matching. Anzu had a chiffon dress in yellow on and Yugi himself was wearing a gold vest with a black tie underneath his suit. Yugi seemed to be laughing at something she said and his cheeks were slightly tinged pink. Why did this scene bother Seto?

It took him a few moments to pinpoint the emotion. Was this jealousy? Was he jealous of Anzu? Did he want to be with Yugi? He took more note of Anzu than he ever had. He knew she’d been cast as Black Magician Girl in some musical on Broadway. He doubted it was actually Broadway but he hadn’t bothered to double check at the time. If he had to guess, he supposed she was traditionally beautiful. The kind of face he might see in a museum while other girls remarked upon how much they looked like that.

He was staring just a little too long. “Mokie said I have to try to make an effort to get to know you,” came a voice and it took Seto a minute to ping it as Rebecca. He’d been so focused on Anzu and Yugi that he’d forgotten the rest of the world existed. How embarrassing. “Hello? Earth to Seto?”

Seto turned towards Rebecca and instantly noted that Rebecca had ditched her glasses for the day. He suspected that Mokuba had a hand in the dress she wore as it looked just a tad out of budget for a university student. “Sorry,” Seto said, not really sorry at all. “I was just thinking. Er… Mokuba said I have to be nice to you today. Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Good,” Rebecca said and for once, she didn’t look close to murdering him. In fact… she seemed almost a little relaxed. He was guessing that the party must have something to do with that. “Thanks… so… uh. I actually…” She seemed a little bit lost. What could she possibly have to say that would leave her looking this confused? He’d never known Rebecca to mince her words. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I was harsh on you for the past few months. It’s just… when you disappeared… you weren’t there, but I was. Mokie was heartbroken and I know that you probably didn’t mean to cause that now. I was just scared that you’d hurt Mokie again and that wasn’t fair of me. So… start over?”

Seto was taken aback. Her hostility had been because she cared about Mokuba. He could respect that, actually. If everything she’d done towards him was out of concern for Mokuba, Seto had a newfound admiration for Rebecca. “If that was your reason, then I suppose I can’t fault you for it,” Seto admitted. It seemed both Yugi and Rebecca had similar reasons to be angry with him and it all came back to Mokuba. He didn’t know if he could ever forgive himself for hurting Mokuba. “And I would rather you keep holding me accountable for that. It’s better I don’t try to brush it aside.”

Rebecca eyed him critically. “I don’t want to keep harping on it,” she said slowly, tilting her head. Seto had noted long ago that Rebecca had to crane her neck upward when it came both to Mokuba and him. Today, she didn’t need to and could almost meet his eyes. He could only assume this meant she was wearing heels underneath her dress. “The past is the past. Nothing any of us can do can change it. All we can do is try to be our best every day. Right, Seto?”

There was something fierce in her voice. It seemed like this statement was very important. And Seto wanted to agree with her. It seemed full of promise if he could just let go of the past and stride to the future. “Of course,” Seto said softly. Was it not him who said that they could break free of the prison of reality? That the future was theirs to shape as they saw fit? It all required him to put the past squarely in the past, however. Could he do that? Let go of all his grief and rage? He wanted to. He’d never wanted anything more in his entire life. “In that case, Rebecca. Let’s just move forward. I’d like to get to know my brother’s girlfriend properly.”

It seemed he passed. Rebecca smiled brightly as she grabbed his hand. “You’ve got so much to learn,” she said as she pulled him towards the dance floor. “Let’s take it one step at a time, okay?”

#myfanfic #fic: you'd come back to me #rivalshipping fanfiction #dm rivalshipping #dm rivalshipping fanfiction

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vilevampire · 3 years

Text

“Falling Apart” (One Shot)

Thank you @reesiereads for helping me beta read/edit this. Ily <3 Rating: Teen and up audiences Trigger Warnings: Self-harm, cutting, gender dysphoria, transphobia, deadnaming Pairing: Louie Duck x B.O.Y.D Summary: Boyd uncovers Louie's most well-kept secrets. 2.110 words Ao3 Link

Louie stared at himself in the mirror.

He was the same height as his brothers.

He had the same face as them.

They shared the same eyes.

The same feathers.

The same bill.

He moved his attention over to his hair.

It was short now, but it hadn't always been.

He reminisced about the time he got his first haircut years ago. He vividly remembered the rush of adrenaline that came over him one night. But most of all, he remembered that feeling. That disturbing, nauseating feeling of wrongness.

The same feeling he always had whenever he looked at himself in the mirror.

That was the first time he had recognized that feeling, and it was the reason he decided to cut his hair on a whim. It brought him some temporary relief, but…

He shook the memories away, looking at the other parts of his body and shuddering.

It was wrong.

Nothing was missing, per se.

Everything was in its proper place.

All of his limbs were still intact.

His five senses were all still working, too.

And, yet, something was wrong.

Deeply, irrevocably wrong.

A recurrent, nauseating feeling of despair engulfed him.

He closed his eyes forcefully and grasped the knife in his pocket. The familiar handle was the only thing helping him maintain his connection with reality. He opened his eyes again, staring over at himself one last time.

This time, he couldn't stop the tears from flowing out.

—————

A big family dinner; they had those fairly often.

Sometimes Uncle Scrooge would be too busy, or Uncle Donald would be working overtime, but they still tried their best to reserve some time off for spending quality time with their family. And with Christmas right around the corner, the mood was bright and merry. Even Louie was feeling pretty good, all things considered.

He enjoyed the time spent with his family, the holiday cheer and (best of all) the presents that came along with it.

Plus, he got to stuff himself with food.

It was the first time in a while that he actually looked forward to something.

This time, Huey had invited his friend Boyd over for dinner.

Louie had been friends with Boyd for a couple of weeks now, and in all honesty, he was crushing hard on him. Boyd was sweet, caring, and adorable. Somehow, he could always tell whenever Louie was feeling down and helped him cheer up. He laughed at all of his jokes, broke into the most beautiful smiles, knew about all kinds of amazing things; and gave the best hugs. Plus, he was a super cool technologically advanced android.

It was no wonder Louie fell for him in a matter of days.

Despite being Huey's best friend, Boyd got along just as well with the rest of his siblings. Right now, they were discussing the possibility of spending Christmas together this year.

"I would love to," Boyd admitted. "But I really want to spend the holidays with mom and dad this year."

Louie shuddered at the mention of the Drakes.

"Understandable." Huey nodded. "Let's see, maybe you can come over again after the holidays?" Huey shot a questioning glance at Della and Donald, who looked over at Scrooge, who was currently busy reading the newspaper.

"Hm? Yeah, yeah whatever." He gestured vaguely, most of his attention still on the paper.

The kids all cheered.

"Wait, can I invite Lena and Violet too?" Webby spoke up abruptly. "We can make it into a sleepover! I'm sure Lucy would appreciate having more girls to hang out with as well, right Lu?"

Louie bit down painfully on his tongue. None of the people at the table noticed his pain, however. The only thing they saw was Louie offering them a sweet smile. "Yeah, sure."

Once again, they turned to Uncle Scrooge in search of approval… with no response. It seemed he wasn't listening, so Donald pulled the newspaper out of his hands. "This is the first time in weeks we're getting to spend time together with the whole family and you keep looking at that newspaper! Can't you at least talk to them a bit?" Donald hissed.

He was a family man through and through.

Scrooge huffed, a sour expression on his face. "That's because ye haven't seen what's on it! The sheer amount of baloney they can fit in a page is insanity!"

Donald raised an eyebrow, straightening up the paper to read what was on it.

"...Transgender activism?"

Louie's heart stopped. His fork slipped out of his hands and onto the plate. He stuck his hands inside his pockets. Nobody noticed this though, for they all had their eyes set on Scrooge now. Even Della stopped devouring her food to look around the table for the first time.

"Yeah, whatever ye wanna call it." Scrooge rolled his eyes. "It's just a bunch ah crybabies, that's what they are."

Louie closed his eyes forcefully, trying not to freak out.

"Back in the day, we didn't have any of that garbage." Another scoff. Another stab of pain in Louie's heart. "I mean, love whoever you wanna love and be whatever you wanna be, but this is just too much—"

Louie pushed back from the table.

Eyes all around turned on him at that moment.

He didn't care.

All he wanted was to run away.

"Sorry, I'm… on that time of the month." He lied through his teeth. That was his go-to excuse for when he needed some time alone.

It always worked.

Without saying anything else, he stormed out of the dining room without looking back. Had he only stayed for a minute longer and listened to the conversation, he would have heard his friends and family scolding Scrooge over his ignorance.

But he didn't.

Instead, he ran up the stairs and locked himself in the bathroom.

—————

Louie made a cut.

It was swift but precise, yet not at all deadly. His breathing turned haggard from the pain. His body ached, begging him to stop. Instead, he simply made another one, drawing patterns on his skin.

He never learned any kind of self-defense techniques, but he was still as skilled as a butcher with his knife. His whole mind focused on the sharp pain that seared around his arms and wrists in bloody lines.

It put him at ease.

Suddenly, quick steps resounded down the hallway.

Louie immediately covered his arms back under his sleeves. Sweating bullets, he tried to hide away the knife inside his pockets as well, but the door burst open before he had the chance to.

Boyd's android eyes easily caught a glimpse of the blade Louie was trying to hide. He stared down at Louie, completely horrified.

"Lucy, you—"

"Go ahead and judge me!" Louie cut him off before he could finish speaking. "I don’t care what you think of me."

That was a lie. It was a lie and he knew it.

He cared far too much about what Boyd would think now that he knew about one of his secrets.

But he couldn't afford to show it.

Louie closed his eyes forcefully, afraid of seeing the expression on Boyd's face.

He already knew what he would find anyway.

Shame.

Disappointment.

Disgust.

A familiar, nauseating feeling of fear ran through Louie's entire being. He tried to stop his body from shaking but found that he wasn't able to. At first, only silence reigned. Louie had no idea what Boyd was doing or if he was even still in the room.

Suddenly, he felt something cold touch him.

Boyd had pulled him into a hug.

"I’m so sorry." He sounded devastated. "I’m sorry I couldn't notice your pain sooner."

Boyd's metallic arms wrapped around him felt much more comfortable than he thought it would.

Louie tried to hold back his tears and failed.

Slowly, what were only supposed to be quiet sobs, increasingly grew into louder and louder crying that reverberated throughout the whole room.

"I—"

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to explain yourself or justify your actions. And you don't have to tell me what you're going through if you don't want to." The more Boyd spoke those gentle words to him, the more Louie could feel his heart rate peacefully go down. "I love you, you're my friend, and I'm here for you whenever you need me."

Just when Louie's weeping had started to diminish, another wave of tears burst from his eyes and onto Boyd's shoulders. He couldn't bring himself to say anything, so he simply hugged Boyd back and let the warm tears flow down his face.

Eventually, Louie pushed him away. He rubbed his face, trying to get rid of any signs of tears. That would be impossible since his eyes were red and puffy from the crying, but he did the best he could anyway.

"Um, Lucy? Can I ask you something?"

Louie nodded.

"Why are the bandages out of the cabinet? And why does your breathing sound… constricted?"

Louie's heart stopped.

He forgot about the bandages.

"I… injured myself." it was the best lie he could come up with on the spot.

Boyd might have actually believed that if it weren't for the fact that he was a highly sophisticated robot with more than enough capacity to determine whether somebody was injured or not.

He carefully scanned the room. There were no traces of blood anywhere, nor did Louie seem to be in pain; maybe only mild discomfort. Since he couldn't see any bandages wrapped around Louie's cuts on his arms either, he guessed that they must have been concealed by the hoodie.

Boyd's eyes widened as he connected the dots.

"Hey, by any chance are you… binding your chest?"

Louie's heart dropped to his stomach.

He couldn't answer, but that was enough confirmation for Boyd.

"That's… not good." Boyd started saying, and Louie steeled himself for rejection.

But it didn't go the way he expected it to.

"If you bind unsafely, you could severely damage your ribcage. You should only use professional binders that you can order online."

Louie stared at him in shock.

"...Or are you not actually binding? Did I get that wrong?"

Louie almost caught himself nodding to that subconsciously before he could stop himself.

He was used to lying.

He had been doing it his entire life.

He was good at it, too.

But…

He looked up and down at Boyd, who was still waiting for his answer.

"Hey, can you keep a secret?"

He decided to trust him.

A part of himself was panicking inside of his mind. It was scary, new, terrifying. He hated going through situations where he couldn't safely predict the results. But another part of himself knew this was probably the right thing to do. This part of himself was tired of hiding, tired of lies and tricks.

Goddammit, he just wanted to be accepted for who he was.

Why was it so difficult?

Boyd nodded at him. "Of course. I won't tell anybody."

Louie fiddled with his knife, building up his courage to speak up. "I'm trans," He hesitated. "and I prefer… I prefer to go by Louie, actually."

He did it.

He said those words out loud for the first time.

He told somebody about his true identity.

"That's… amazing, Louie. I'm so proud of you." Boyd offered his sweetest smile. "Have you told your family yet?"

Louie shook his head. "You're the first one I'm telling."

"Really? I'm glad you felt like you could trust me." Boyd blushed a little. He really did seem happy about it. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

For some reason, Louie felt like he was telling the truth.

Louie couldn’t remember when the last time he felt this comfortable around somebody else was. Most of all, he was just glad to be able to get that off his chest.

"Actually, can I ask you something as well?" Louie brought up suddenly. He had been curious about something for a while now.

"Of course Louie, you can ask me anything."

Louie felt euphoric, not only at the mention of his preferred name, but also at Boyd's display of trust.

"...How did you know?"

Boyd blinked innocently. "How did I know what?"

"How did you know I was… cutting?" The last word came out as barely a whisper.

"Oh! Easy. Robot super-hearing." Boyd grinned impishly as he answered.

...Louie made a mental note to never underestimate Boyd again.

In the future, he would have to come out to the rest of his family.

That wouldn't happen today though.

He made progress. For now, this was enough.

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noonaficcorner · 4 years

Text

Rose-Colored Boy | Part Four

Paring: Mark Tuan | Reader

Genre/Rating: Friends to Lovers | Fluff, Smut (later on), Slight Angst

Warning: Language

Summary: Working as a Nurse, Y/N's favorite pastime is getting lost in her favorite online game with her online gamer squad. After 2 years of online banter, Y/N finally gets the chance to get closer to and meet her online friend, Mark Tuan. With many things in common and the same twisted sense of humor, one thing still remains a mystery: Mark's career that causes him to constantly travel out of the country. Still, Y/N decides to take a chance on what could be more than just friendship and meets Mark for the first time. (New Summary thanks to a friend)

NOTES: Quick update!! I was really inspired and cranked this chapter out quick. I’m already working on the next but not sure when it will be up. I’m busy at the end of this month. So fingers crossed I get the next out in August.

Part One // Part Two // Part Three // Part Four

Everything you owned was crap. It was either scrubs or jeans and a t-shirt. It wasn’t like you didn’t have nice outfits. However, when you looked at all of it thrown across your bed in panic, you couldn’t seem to find anything decent. All of it felt dull and lackluster for what was about to happen. As you picked up what you deemed the cutest pair of jeans you owned, a black skinny pant with nicely placed rips, you started to realize why Mark kept his secret for as long as he did. Knowing who he was to the outside world made you start to question yourself even more. It made you wonder if you were enough to even just be in his presence. People pay thousands of dollars to just give him a hi-five and here you were, cursing him out for 2 years over the internet for free. If only they knew…

Holding up shirt after shirt to your chest, each one making you even more disgusted than the last. There had to be something that didn’t scream ‘try hard’ or ‘disgusting creature’. Snatching literally the last shirt out of your closet which happened to be a high-low blue striped button down, you threw it on over the black cami you already had on. It was almost time for you to leave the house without being late and if you started this whole process over again, you wouldn’t even go.

While you looked in the mirror finalizing the touches on your make-up, you realized that this isn’t some sort of date. Why were you putting so much effort to receive an apology? Blinking those wayward thoughts away before you went down another hole, you grabbed your purse and rushed out of your freshly messy apartment.

You had only been to Mark’s place once, but the muscle memory was there because you had played the scenes over in your mind for almost a week. It felt like you were standing in front of the intimidating high-rise in no time. Your body was moving through mind fog as you punched in his code and waited to be buzzed up. Even the elevator ride felt like an out of body experience. It wasn’t until the door was opening and you looked up and saw Mark that your soul snapped back into you and you could focus.

“I hope it wasn’t a hard trip.” He said as the door widened and you crossed the threshold. It had only been six days since you last saw him, but the purple in his hair was almost gone and his dark roots were starting to show. Realizing that the hair choice probably wasn’t his, but was for his latest album, made your lips turn down slightly. He picked up on that and thought it was a non-verbal answer to his statement.

“I could have gotten you a taxi if the train was too crowded…” He trailed off.

“No, no. The ride was fine. I was noticing that your hair is a little different from last time.” You mumbled as you both hovered around each other. You could feel a slight pain start to form between your shoulder blades from all the tension in the room. Both of you locked eyes and it felt like you had entered a staring contest, and neither one of you were losers. It wasn’t until his hand reached out and took your wrist and led you to the living room and onto the couch, that you regained your senses.

“I’m sorry. I’m so freaking sorry.” His words came out rushed and pained. Your lips parted to respond but Mark held a hand up to stop you.

“Let me get this out first. I didn’t mean to keep it from you. Honestly, I thought that the moment I opened that door and you saw me, you were going to freak out cause you recognized me. When you didn’t, my plan went to shit and I fell into the comfort of just us hanging out. Believe me when I say I had every intention of telling you about my career. I just didn’t know how to come out and say I’m an idol singer.”

“Rapper.” You interjected. Mark’s head tilted slightly and confusion dipped his brows.

“You said idol singer. From what I looked up, you’re not really a singer. You’re the main rapper and lead dancer of the group. It also said you’re the visual which makes sense cause…” You waved your hands in front of your face to indicate your point that he’s gorgeous.

Mark’s laugh filled the room and it was exactly like those compilation videos you found of his laugh. A slight smile tugged at your lips as the atmosphere in the room started to lighten up. You were still mad and will probably be for a while but the big mad feeling was almost completely gone.

“So you did research? I bet the internet had some crazy things to say. Sin, I’m sorry that I wasn’t the one to tell you everything from the beginning. When you’re in the business I’m in, it’s hard making friends who aren’t also in the life or after you for something else. I was selfish because I really liked what we have or… had. I got addicted to the ease of just being myself with you.” He went on. His eyes dropped down as he talked about your relationship in the past tense. The wall that you unconsciously started to build since your last visit shook. Maybe it was the earnestness in his tone or the way he used your online nickname, but at that moment you kind of just wanted to hug him. Instead you did the only thing you could do in this situation.

“Now that you said that, are you gonna show me some of your backflips? They looked really impressive on youtube.” You smirked as his head shot up and looked at you in surprise. The smirk turned into a full smile and the tension started to melt away when his toothy grin appeared.

“I can even teach you some moves but I don’t know your flexibility level.” Mark joked and that’s how the rest of the afternoon went. He started to talk about how he joined the company and his trainee period. I knew it was hard on young kids but hearing it first hand made you want to throw on a cape and save them all from the heartache. When he calmed down your anger, Mark talked about the traveling he did all over the world with the group. He talked about how they were more than just bandmates and more like brothers. Even mentioning some stories you found through your ‘research’, but hearing them from him made them ten times funnier.

“Remind me to never get you upset where you can throw a laptop at me.” You joked. The sun had gone down outside and now you both were sitting on the floor, take-out containers covered the table. Hours had passed and you only realized how many when you tried to hide a yawn and Mark check the time on his phone.

“Time flew by. I guess you have to get going soon?” His eyes were like tea cups as they looked over to you. The last thing you wanted was to have this good time end but you had worked a full shift yesterday and had to be on in the morning as well. It didn’t help that you left your apartment in such a mess, it looks like it was probably burglarized.

“Yeah… I’m sure your roommates want to come home too. What did you tell them that made them give you the place to yourself?” You asked as you started to clean up the mess created. Piling the dishes into one, Mark took them from you and moved them toward the door.

“Most of them had schedules, so the house was gonna be empty anyway. Though I did have to promise Yugyeom and Bambam that I would treat them to meat soon. Are you going to take a taxi? It’s pretty late.” Between his worrying, you both cleaned up rather quickly. In no time, you looked around and the space was back to normal and Mark was standing with his hands pulling at his hoodie sleeves. You noticed that he did that when he felt unsure about something or wanted to word vomit.

“I’ll take one just because you insist. But what is it, sweater paws?” Reaching forward and tugging on the hood strings, you asked him. It was clear why he had so many fans. The half smile he gave was a weapon of ovary destruction and shouldn’t be used all willy nilly. How rude…

“I’m glad you came over. I’m also glad we’re talking again. And now that you know everything , I have a work thing tomorrow. It isn’t long though. Just need to go film a spread for a magazine. I’ll be back by next weekend. Promise.” Mark picked up your bag and played with the strap of it before closing the distance and looping it over your head, adjusting it. The height difference between the two of you wasn’t gigantic, but it was enough that had your neck tilting back a bit.

“It’s okay. Remember, I’m used to Ghosty McGhostington. You don’t have to worry too much.” Before you could even stop yourself, your thumb reached out and smoothed the little wrinkle between his brows. The level of skin-ship you were exhibiting wasn’t the norm for you. But the way he didn’t recoil from your touch allowed you the brief moment of insanity and for you to place your hand casually on your strap without looking like a crazy person. You thought you saw a hint of a smile on his lips, but it was so faint, you’re sure you imagined it.

“I’m calling you a car, and before you say something, don’t. And text me when you get home, okay?” You wanted to argue that you were independent and didn’t need him to do that, but a part of you thought it was sweet. In all honesty, when it was just you and him talking and playing around like you’ve done for so long virtually, the idea of him being a celebrity was a foreign concept. He was just Mark to you.

Once he was finished punching in some numbers on his phone and you came out of your own head, he walked you to the door. That smile you thought was just a shadow was now plastered on his face and it had the chain reaction of making you smile in return. Your hands squeezed harder on your bag strap because every fiber of your being was telling you to just reach out and hug this dorky guy smiling at you. But instead you held your hand out for a hi-five like the loser you were becoming.

“Thanks for inviting me over and I'm glad we cleared things up. Uh, hit me up if you get some free time. Or not, it's whatever.” Shrugging off the awkwardness, Mark connected with your hand with a look of confusion and before he could say anything, you darted from his apartment. It was becoming a habit of yours to flee every time you were there. Your flight or fight response was out of whack because with anything else in your life you were all about fighting. However, wherever Mark was concerned, you flew out of there like a bat out of hell.

By the time you were walking through your door, you were so distracted by thoughts from your day that you forgot that you left your place in a state of utter disgust. The vibrating of your phone made you forget all about the clothes covering almost every inch of available surface because of course it was Mr. Tuan himself in your inbox.

Mark: U made it?

Sin: You* and yeah, just walked in.

Mark: Ha ha ha. Are you tired?

Sin: Depends, why do you ask?

Mark: Wanna get online for like an hour? I’m a bit wired and we haven’t properly played in a while. Miss it…

Sin: Don’t you have a flight to catch in the morning?

Mark: Yeah but I can sleep on the plane. Are you scared I’m gonna kick your ass? ;-)

Sin: Signing on right now so get the lube because I’m about to tear you a new one.

And just like that, Mark brought you back to a comfortable mindset. The root in which your friendship grew from.

Finally, it was Friday, but you were antsy as hell. The clock was ticking down to the end of your shift, but it felt as if it was moving as slow as if you were sinking in a mudflat. Bora and Ahin, another first year resident, were finishing up your shifts so the three of you could do your weekly Karaoke night. But it wasn’t only the promise of a night of chicken, beer and bad singing that had you anxious. Mark was coming back from his trip tomorrow and it had you on pins and needles.

The two of you had been texting while he was away. You were sure it was more than he should actually be doing during a work trip, but now that there weren’t any omitted truths between you, he would tell you about everything that was happening, within reason. When you asked for pictures, he couldn’t give you any official ones, but he did snap a few selfies of his face filled with pretty eyeshadows and lip tints. He really did clean up well.

As you were changing out of your scrubs, your phone pinged and like a pavlov response, your hand reached and opened your texts with Olympian speed.

Mark: What are you doing Sunday?

Sin: Washing my hair, shaving my back, catching up on sleep. Lol why?

Mark: Sexy. I need a favor from you.

Sin: If it involves money, we might need to reevaluate our friendship.

Mark: No money involved, but I would like it if you said yes.

Sin: Okay you’re being cryptic. Are you sick?

Mark: No. But will you say yes before I ask?

Sin: Sure, what is it?

After asking that, the little dots jumped across the screen as he typed his response. You stood there in your jeans and scrub top, staring at your phone like a crazy person. What did he have to ask that was so important? Bora and Ahin walked into the locker room and started to change themselves while you waited.

“What’s going on? Your face is all scrunched up?” Ahin asked as she hung up her lab coat. Just as you were about to tell her, Mark’s bubble appeared…

Mark: Will you go on a date with me? Not as a friend, but as a woman. A date date.

Your heart dropped into your stomach with a clatter. When you heard your name being yelled by Bora, you looked down and realized that it wasn’t just your heart that dropped, but also your phone on the floor. Quickly dropping down and picking it up, you looked at the words over; Woman. Date. You sucked in all the oxygen you could manage and sighed.

“Well shit…”

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random-mha-thoughts · 4 years

Text

Smile (Shinsou x Reader)

Pairing: Shinsou x Reader

For anon (request)

Genre: Slight angst to fluff

Summary: Shinsou has a crush on someone in 1-B and works up the courage to ask them on a date.

Tags: @wwwwyamd @yuki-osaki @liviitehe @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog @bunnythepipsqueak

Word count: 1,680

a/n: Ah, I missed writing for my tired purple boy. I just miss him in general, when I was searching for fanarts to post, I really was like “Damn I really miss Shinsou.” How many of you agree?

So this is a request that some of you have seen already, but I don’t quite want to spoil anything for anyone who’s new, so I’ll post it at the end. I'm glad I was able to extend this longer than I was planning, because I really only had just the one scene from the request in mind vividly and the rest I wrote as I went along.

I have 3 more requests, but I'm gonna take a break from them so I can write some of my own original ideas before starting those up again, so look forward to that! Enjoy this one!

(Also gender neutral pronouns they/them coming through!)

Buy me a coffee?

Shinsou first saw his crush at the beginning of the first semester. He was taken by their quirk, a pretty flashy light quirk. From what he overheard while they were telling their 1-B friend - he was totally not stalking, Shinsou doesn't stalk people - they can control the color of the light to do different things.

"Red light is a heat laser, green light heals, yellow warms things, blue cools things," they explained, the proudest smile on their face. "I'd say it's pretty versatile. And the more saturated the colors are, the more powerful they work!"

Shinsou was already intrigued by their quirk, but seeing their face light up was like icing on an already delicious cake. The sparkle in their hazel eyes, adorably smaller form that's the right right height for him to kiss their head, a smile he already decided he wanted to protect. If only he could go over there and ask them to tell him more about their quirk, but he was afraid that his intimidating figure would scare them away. Discouraged, he walked back to his own class to mope. Crushes and him never worked out in the past anyway; once they found out about his quirk, they would either run for the hills or try to abuse him.

However, he still longed to be with them. He found himself naturally searching through a crowd to find them. Each time, they would have the most brilliant smile on their face as they chatted with their friends. It always put a smile on Shinsou's face that they were happy being in the company of good friends. More and more, he found himself craving them to smile at something he said, to pat their head to greet them, just to hold them in his arms for a warm hug. It became less of a want and more of a need, but he held himself back for his heart's sake.

After the Sports Festival came and went, Shinsou had a change of heart. He's not a villain, he will only appear that way if he comes off like that. He won't let his quirk define him, and he'll make a much more pleasant impression so they wouldn't think of him as dark. He took the opportunity to work on himself as a person, gain more confidence in himself so he can put his best foot forward. He's won't let himself lack in any department, he'll only show the best parts of himself and present himself to them in a new-and-improved form.

After training with Aizawa for a while - not to mention bulking up quite a bit to improve his chances - Shinsou decides on the right time to face them. The purple haired boy practically shakes with anticipation the entire day. During his last class, he rehearses the words he's wanted to say since he first saw them.

"You're such a bright, shining person. To me, you stand out among everyone else. I'd like to get to know you better, would you mind going out with me?"

He second guesses every word and intonation, convinced that even the slightest error would throw the entire mood off and send the whole thing crashing down. He won't let that happen.

The final bell rings and Shinsou's practically the first person to jump from him seat, throw his belongings haphazardly into his bag, and rush out the door of the school building. Stationing himself at a nearby bench, he waits for them to come out, tapping his foot impatiently while still trying to look casual shoving his hands in his pockets.

Scanning the crowd of exiting students like a human radar, he searches for that smile he adores. His heart practically beats out of his chest when he locks onto them, homing in on them without paying any mind to the surrounding students. He collects himself and breathes, keeping in step behind them. They're talking to a friend of their's, going on about hero training and homework. He could listen to them talk indefinitely if he wanted, but then he wouldn't have the chance to confess his feelings.

Just you practiced big guy, go on. Do it for that precious smile. Shinsou gathers his wits and approaches just a bit closer. Do I say "hey?'" "Hi?" "Yo?" Damn it, just do what's natural! Calm down! He bites the bullet. "Hey." He's proud that it sounds casual enough.

The apple of his eye turns around curiously, their smile just faltering slightly from their conversation with their friend.

Take it away big guy. "Hey, I noticed you around. I think you're-"

It's then he notices. The way their eyes widen, the smile drops completely from their face, their skin turns pale, and Shinsou isn't sure why. He's sure he didn't say anything wrong, he's barely said anything. "Is-"

They let out a yelp and hide behind their friend, squeezing their eyes shut and quivering. Beyond bewilderment, Shinsou's chest hurts as his world darkens. The one person he wanted to smile at him and lighten his life plunged him into despairing blackness. All his fear of people hating him for his quirk and being frightened of him resurfaced. He feels naked, vulnerable, and ashamed all at once standing there frozen.

"You have to forgive them, it's not your fault." The friend offers a sympathetic smile.

"Did I do something wrong?" The entire ego he's spent the last few months popped in two seconds flat.

"No, it's not you, trust me." The girl pats the frightened soul behind her on the had to comfort them. "You see, they have a deathly fear of purple."

It almost sounds like some twisted joke, a prank the universe was playing on him for some unknown reason. "Oh. I see." That's all Shinsou manages to say in response. At least he's doing his best not to show how heartbroken he is.

"Sorry about that," the girl flashes another sheepish smile in half-comfort while his crush drags her away by the arm to escape what anyone from the outside would think is a monster.

And the monster is him.

Shinsou is way past disgruntled once he gets home. He doesn't know what to do now, what can he do now. Giving up would be the easiest thing to do, especially with how dejected he feels. The thing that hurts him the most is his sunshine who he never saw without their smile didn't smile when they were around him, all because of something else about him that he can't change.

He swiftly sits up from his laying position as an idea strikes him. Or can he?

Two weeks later, Shinsou shows up to school so people barely recognize him. He'd bought one of those hair coloring conditioners in black and washed his hair with it last night, and the brown colored contacts arrived shortly after he placed his order online. Shinsou isn't the type of guy to give up that easily, and for someone he really wants to get to know, he'll make it work. If he can temporarily change his appearance just to get to know them first, maybe he can be the one to help them get over their fear little by little.

Shinsou brushes away all the comments about his drastic appearance change; he's doing it for them and that's all that matters. He decides this time to just approach them at lunchtime, no dramatic openers or well-timed moments; a friendly conversation is just as good an introduction as he can get now.

He approaches them while throwing away their lunch alone, tapping their shoulder. "Hey." He holds his breath when they turn around again, eyes scanning his figure for recognition. "You don't know me, I'm in 1-C, we haven't spoken before."

A friendly grin spreads on their face. "Oh, it's good to meet you!"

The boy inwardly cheers in victory. "I'm Shinsou, your name is?"

"(Y/n)."

He rubs the back of his neck. He wants to be honest, but doesn't know how they'll take it. "I tried to talk to you a few weeks ago, but you were startled and ran off before I could say anything."

Their hazel eyes widen slightly before guilt morphs into their features. "Oh, you're that guy. I'm really sorry I did that to you, I must've made you feel awful." They groan, a sound Shinsou admittedly finds cute, red color rushing to their cheeks, "And you even changed your hair color and everything, I'm really sorry!"

"Hey, it's okay." Shinsou offers empathetically, "You shouldn't feel bad about things that you have no control over." He knows that feeling all too well. "I put the effort in because I want to get to know you better, it's not something you should feel bad about. I think you're cool, from what I've seen. We should hang out."

The boy can tell how taken back but grateful they are, a deep rooted appreciation shines from their eyes and more color saturating their cheeks. "I'm not that special, but I think you're a cool guy for doing this for me."

Shinsou's heart can't help but feel captured once again by their vulnerability. "It's what's on the inside that matters, I guess. Can I join you for the rest of lunch?"

And finally, he's rewarded with what he's wanted to see: His bright light shows him a beaming, toothy grin that crinkles up their eyes and puffs out their cheeks; it's a smile that's directed straight at him. As his heart thumps wildly in his chest, the boy thinks he can die happily in this very moment. "Of course! Let's go sit."

It takes him a moment and a cough to clear his throat before he's back on Earth, nodding and following them back to their table. As they walk next to him, he steals a few glances down, hoping that nothing else goes wrong. Even if they do, he knows he'll have to find a way to work around them. With that battery-charging smile, he knows he can figure out the solution to any problem.

So the full request from Anon was: “Hey you could take ALL the time at this but it wouldn't be sad if Shinsou's crush, the reader, is porphyrophobic. That means the reader is scared of the color purple. Have a good day!"

I hope I did it justice, it was originally gonna be just full angst, but it would only be drabble length, so I took it a step further. I hope it made you guys feel all warm inside :3

#Shinsou x reader #shinsou angst #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #shinsou hitoshi #angst to fluff #gender neutral reader #request #shinsou imagine #shinsou scenario #mha shinsou #bnha shinsou #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfiction

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thewritewolf · 4 years

Text

In Due Time Chapter 21: Fireworks

Marinette and Adrien get ready for Alya’s New Year’s Party

@marichatmay

Enjoy!

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Read on Ao3

“Hey, listen up, everybody!” Plagg yelled as he entered the room in front of Adrien. “The kid is going to a party! And no,” the kwami quickly added as a few others tried to ask questions all at once, “it’s not one that rotten ol’ Gabe is making him go to!”

Adrien entered the living room to cheers and applause from all the kwamis under his care. The only thing stopping him from rolling his eyes were his own nerves. Soon, many of them were zooming and swirling around him as he walked through the room, checking and double checking his attire.

“What’s the matter, bucko?” Stompp said, a frown gracing her face. “I’d thought you’d be chompin’ at the bit to go wild outside your papa’s watch.”

“I am, but…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “The only one I’ve actually hung out with in person has been Marinette. And most of the time, that wasn’t Adrien exactly.”

“Kid, it’s just a mask. I don’t see what the big deal is. Plus,” Plagg said with a teasing grin, “I know you’re looking forward to seeing Tikki’s kid today. Hm…?”

Adrien gently pushed Plagg aside when he leaned close into his face, but Adrien refused to meet his eye. The cat kwami snickered as he floated away. Adrien might like Marinette, but he had no idea if she felt the same way or if he could even afford the luxury of having a girlfriend right now. Necessity had forced romance out of his life a long time ago.

“Besides Marinette,” Adrien said, trying to get back on topic, “I don’t know anyone there. I’m meeting all these people for the first time!” He put a comb through his hair for the third time that night. “What if I just end up lurking next to the food table and being a downer to the rest of them?”

“I’m confused,” Mullo said, scrunching up their nose. “Haven’t you been talking with them using the aether for a while?”

“The device he usssesss is called the internet, Mullo,” Sass corrected gently. “Not the aether.”

“Still. Does the Guardian not already know these other humans?”

“I mean… yes, I suppose,” Adrien conceded. “But-”

“Not buts, kid,” Plagg said definitively. “You’re going to go out there and have a great time instead of slacking here with these guys. Do you understand me?”

“Oooh, the time for another year has already come?” Orikko clucked happily, dancing in midair. “I’m so happy to hear I haven’t missed it!”

“Don’t worry, Orikko, I set an alarm to let you know when midnight hits,” Adrien said as he scratched beside the rooster kwami’s beak.

“Speaking of not worrying, that same thing but to you, kid.” Plagg was tugging at his sleeve. “C’mon, let’s go. Sass has got it handled here.”

Adrien glanced at the snake kwami, who nodded. “Pleassse enjoy yourssself, Massster.”

“Trust yourself!” Mullo said, floating up to Adrien’s face height. “I am sure they will love you just as much as we do!”

“See?” Plagg motioned a paw toward Mullo. “Now come on, I don’t want you to sit here until you give yourself cold feet. And I’m not about to let you pass up the opportunity to hang out with people born in the same geological era as you!”

“You’re right.” Adrien took a deep breath and let himself get a little excited. “Come on, Plagg, let’s go.”

“‘Course I’m right,” Plagg muttered as he flew into Adrien’s coat pocket. “When am I ever not right?”

The sun had already set by the time Adrien had gotten into his car, but there was still plenty of time before the main event of the night. It was a long drive to the part of Paris where Alya lived, long enough to let Adrien think about how time had changed him. Eight years ago he would’ve jumped at the chance to go to a party and make friends.

But having one thing after another ripped out from underneath him had changed his perspective. Being stopped from going to public school. The many parties thrown by coworkers his father had prevented him from seeing. Not to mention all the stuff he’d been forced to bail on because of an akuma attack. Isolation thanks to his family and his duties had done well to keep him from having friends.

But tonight… maybe tonight would be different. The old embers of optimism burned bright inside him, despite what the years had done to extinguish them.

He found a place to park his car and walked up to the apartment. His hands were stuffed into his pockets to ward off the chill and he was still lost in his thoughts by the time he arrived at the front door. His hand touched the door knob at the same time as someone else.

Startled, he looked to see who he had bumped into only to get lost in big, blue eyes.

--------------

“Marinette, I promise you look fine,” Tikki said patiently as her chosen ran a brush through her hair nervously. Tikki smirked. “I’m sure Adrien will love what you’re wearing.”

Marinette fumbled her brush, dropping it. “Don’t just say that!”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not getting dressed up just for him!”

“Oh?” Tikki said innocently. Far too innocently. “Are you expecting Chat Noir to make an appearance too?”

A blush spread across Marinette’s face as she groaned. “Don’t even joke about that. I don’t know what I’d do if both Adrien and Chat Noir were both at the party.”

“I wouldn’t be too worried about that if I were you,” Tikki said with a knowing smile. She floated off of the desk where she was sitting and toward Marinette. “You know, this might be a good chance to spend some quality time with Adrien, if that’s what you want.”

“To be honest? I don’t know what exactly I want.” Marinette sighed and sat down, smoothing her skirt as she did so. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt this way about someone, so to have it happen with two people almost at the same time…”

“Did you not have any crushes growing up? I’ve heard that’s pretty common for young humans.”

“I mean, some I guess. Definitely nothing that I’ve acted on. And before you ask, yes I have dated. But never anything serious.”

“But you want something serious with one of them?”

“Yes? Maybe? I don’t know,” Marinette said, burying her face in her hands and groaning. “I don’t like to rush into things, but… I haven’t felt a connection like this before.” She waved her hands around. “And now I’ve got two of them!”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out! I’ve had a lot of chosen, but never one as clever as you.” Tikki landed on Marinette’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell me about your friend’s party? To help get your mind off it.”

“Well…” Marinette said, calming down now that she was switching tracks in her mind. She grabbed her purse, which Tikki rushed into. “Alya got a taste for throwing parties back in university, so they’ve gotten pretty big sometimes. Like the Halloween one where I met Chat - she was selling tickets to that through the Cat Chat.”

Marinette left her apartment, closing the door behind her. She didn’t live that far from Alya’s place, one of many reasons she lived here in the first place. A few minutes of walking and she’d be there.

Tikki frowned. “Are there going to be a lot of people at this one too?”

“No, no,” Marinette said, waving her hand dismissively. “The New Year’s party is usually pretty small. There are usually about ten of us, mostly her and Nino’s friends. It’s nice.”

“So what do you do there?”

Marinette shrugged. “Same thing most people do at parties, I guess. Play games, drink, dance, talk. Although New Year’s is a little special because her apartment has a great view of the fireworks show the city does.”

“Wow! That does sound fun!”

“Right? Anyway, I’m also pretty nervous because Adrien said he’d try to make it. Nino and Alya have been dying to meet him, but…”

“But?”

“Well, they tend to worry too much about me. Which makes me worried that they’ll scare him away by trying to get us together.” She entered the building through the backway, a little shortcut she’d learned over the past couple years.

“Hm…” Tikki hummed, a ghost of a smile at her lips. “That’s definitely a dilemma. Be a shame if they got the two of you to really hit it off with each other.”

“Tikki,” Marinette whined as the door to Alya’s apartment came into view.

“I’m just teasing, Marinette. But still, it wouldn’t be too bad, right?”

Before Marinette could respond, her hand touched the doorknob at the same time someone else’s did. She jumped and was about to apologize when she looked up into bright green eyes.

Both of them stood staring at each other for much longer than Marinette would care to admit. This was the first time they’d seen one another since when they had first met at the fashion show, even if they’d talked plenty of times online.

Eventually, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Hey-”

Naturally he was cut off when the door flew open, Alya standing on the other side. Now, Marinette had known her friend long enough to notice the tell-tale signs of being tipsy and right now Alya checked off all those boxes. Clearly either Marinette and Adrien were the last ones to arrive, or Alya had gotten a head start on the night’s festivities.

That likely contributed to how Alya grabbed them both by the arms and practically dragged them inside, although Marinette wouldn’t put it past her to do that even stone cold sober.

“Come on you two, stop standing outside the door like a couple of weirdos,” she said, laughing. She turned her head toward another part of the apartment and raised her voice. “Hey, babe! Your buddy is here! Come on and meet him!”

Nino poked his head from around the corner, where Marinette knew their living room and therefore game consoles were, and saw his face split into a grin when he spotted Adrien.

“DUDE!” He rushed forward and gently punched Adrien’s arm. “I can’t believe I finally get to meet you! Come on, let me show ya around my crib. It might not be what you’re used to, but me casa es tu casa!”

Nino chuckled and threw an arm around a confused Adrien’s shoulders. Adrien glanced back at her and gave her a slightly worried smile and a wave before he disappeared.

“So,” Alya said, dragging Marinette’s attention back to her. She was looking awfully focused despite the handful of drinks Marinette knew she must have already had. “Let’s talk about you and blondie, hm?

Marinette groaned. It was going to be a long party.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrienette #Marichat #Plagg #Tikki #Sass #Mullo #Stompp #Orikko #Alya Cesaire #Nino Lahiffe #Aged Up AU #MarichatMay2020 #my writing #ml fanfiction #In Due Time

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batskulldrag · 4 years

Text

Phoenix by Fallout Boy

A human Au where Patton and Logan adopt Patton’s estranged nephew.

trigger warnings for abuse, PTSD and anxiety

included are mentioned brotherly creatwins, sympathetic deceit and no OC. any other character is either another youtuber, one of Thomas’s friends or a character from 2017′s Dream Daddy.

Word count is obscene, I'll post weekly chapters

Chapter one: The Things We Lost in The Fire by Bastille

Patton brooded into the house and scanning the living room only to find it empty, made a beeline for his and Logan’s bedroom. Fate had one nice thing in store for him because Logan was there silently grading papers at his desk. Before giving his husband a chance to comment on his sudden appearance Patton dropped his head onto Logan’s shoulder. Logan automatically reached up a hand to stroke Patton’s ash blond hair.

“Bad day I assume?” Logan asked as soothingly as he could muster.

Rather than answer Patton sank to the ground and flopped his head down on Logan’s lap.

“That bad?” Logan continued to pet his hair.

“Have you seen the news?” Patton mumbled, his voice blocked with hands and defeat.

“No, I haven’t.” Logan was hesitant and let on concern. “What happened?”

“My nasty, no account bully of a brother is back in town and trying to run for local office.” Patton snorted. “And he’s lying about our family.”

Logan’s eyes narrowed, unimaginative as he was, he saw a flood of potential falsehoods that could earn anyone a landslide of pity votes.

“What does that beast have to say for himself?”

Patton let out a sound that was almost a sob.

“You don’t have to tell me, I’m sure I could look it up.” Logan sighed, still stroking Patton’s head. “And more importantly, I’m sure we can debunk whatever he has to say.”

“The implications will still be there, even if they’re wrong. And people might say that we’re the ones who are lying.” Patton slid more of his body onto Lagan’s lap.

“I know.”

“He’s saying that our mom was a homophobe, and that she made him …” Patton tilted his head away and coughed. “Sleep with a girl to ‘cure him’ or something. That’s not fair. He was the homophobe.”

“That’s his explanation for his son?”

“And his campaign on how much he cares about other sexualities.” Patton rolled his eyes.

“Patton, why don’t you go ahead and post our senior prom pictures on Sharebook?” Logan said gently, but with a sinister smile that his companion couldn’t see.

“I don’t follow.” Patton met Logan’s eyes.

“Your mother was the one who took most of those pictures. Payton isn’t that much older than you; how does he intend to explain that change in opinion?”

“Logan you’re a genius!” Patton threw his arms around him.

“I know.” The other smiled.

# # #

Logan remembered prom night vividly, more vividly than graduation in fact. All it took to remember every detail was just a brief look over Patton’s shoulder at their first picture to bring it all back. Patton’s braces that he had haphazardly tried to paint blue by eating nontoxic paint, granting him blue teeth and colorless braces. It didn’t faze him though. He was still beaming with his entire being. A nerd in a tan suite with stained teeth. No one could touch him.

And of course, Logan himself, who hadn’t changed much appearance wise since high school. Smiling reluctantly as Patton stretched an arm around his shoulder as they both stood in front of the open door.

“Logan, sweetheart you look so stiff try to relax.” Patton’s mother teased.

“Maybe I should move my arm.” Patton said quickly as he pulled his arm away.

“Yeah Pat.” Roman chimed in from behind them. “Leave room for Jesus.”

Roman was one to talk, he all but had his date sitting in his lap on the ride over. They both turned to see him strutting up the driveway. At the time his hair was dyed red, which made it look like his head was on fire. Did that shake him? No. He proudly wore red hair, a white tuxedo and a matching rose in his buttonhole. Elton John would have called it overkill.

“You forgot this calculator watch.” Roman announced holding out a corsage of forget-me-nots and baby’s breath.

“Oh, Logan you got me flowers!” Patton squeaked, clasping his hands together and pressing them to his chin.

“Logan, is your dad single?” Patton’s mom interjected again.

Logan felt himself blush and looked out the door for an escape.

“No, he’s still married to my mom. Sorry.” He responded flatly, hoping they would just think he didn’t get the joke.

“Oh, a little baby person!” Roman suddenly exclaimed as he darted inside, heading directly for the pram in the middle of the living room.

“Careful not to wake him up.” Patton called to him.

“Why’s he out here?” Roman whispered, looking up from the baby.

“He was a little fussy, so I brought him down here where it was cooler.” Ms. Foster explained.

“I thought Payton was here taking care of Virgil.” Logan added. “After all he is his father.”

“Payt’s up in his room studying for his LSATs, besides Virgil’s only a few months old. He doesn’t have it in him to be troublesome yet.” She leaned over the pram and cooed. “Unlike his daddy who cut five teeth at once and his uncle who bit everything.”

Both Roman and Logan laughed at this while Patton just stood there quietly.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Patton mumbled.

“Yes, it was, that crib we’re using, you chewed one of the legs off. And I swear Payton started sprinting before he could even walk. So, I had to be on constant look out for him, lest I step on and kill my own baby.”

“We should go.” Patton pointed towards the door in an effort to escape.

“Wait, Logan, you need to put the corsage on Patton.” Roman pointed at the pair of them.

“Why?” Logan asked blankly.

“Tradition.” Roman stood tall and crossed his arms.

“Fine.” Logan tilted his head back and sighed.

Patton’s mother got a picture of the moment. The rest of the evening was horrible. The car that they all shared broke down and they had to walk to the gym. They showed up an hour late and covered in sweat and grease. Then a few morons threw punch on both of them during the slow dance. The lights constantly flickered as if they were going to go off, giving him a migraine. And finally, two people backed him into a corner and tormented him until he had an episode. Which everyone thought was hilarious, so they laughed while ‘the retard’, as he was known, threw a tantrum in the corner.

That was when Patton showed how amazing he really was. He wielded guilt like a weapon and tore everyone down to below sea level. He threatened to tell peoples parents, he swore to treat them exactly the way they had treated Logan. He labeled each and every one of them a sociopath and declared that he would see to it that they all went to hell. After Patton’s rant and Logan’s episode Patton just took him outside and they spent the rest of the night there.

That had been the moment when Logan fell in love with that boy. Covered in sweat and punch and coming off the heels of a tantrum he fell in love with Patton. And he knew Patton loved him, come what may. Graduation didn’t hold a candle to that.

# # #

“Are you somewhere fun?” Patton’s voice cracked through the memory.

“Yes.” Logan looked back over to Patton. “I’m here.”

Patton beamed back at him and went back to his pictures. There were a handful of their graduation, several of Patton once he finally got his braces off. And many different pictures of Patton feeding Virgil smashed chocolate cake on his first birthday. Patton’s demeanor dropped and he sighed heavily. None of them had seen Virgil since he was a baby.

“I hope he’s ok.” Patton thought out loud.

“I’m sure he is.” Logan lied, taking Patton’s hand in his.

# # #

I’ll kill him. Payton thought viciously as yet another reporter asked him the same question.

“Mr. Foster, how do you explain the inconsistencies between your description of events and the pictures your brother posted online yesterday?”

“Patton must have come out after mother passed away.” Payton said smoothly. “And after seeing what she did to me, who can blame him?”

They seemed to accept that. Good. He scoffed under his breath; they were all too lazy to investigate anything, so they just took everything at face value.

“But Mr. Foster,” A familiar voice that didn’t belong to a reporter chimed in. “An examination of these pictures also shows her at Patton’s high school graduation, which took place after prom. Is your mother a ghost?”

Payton looked across the crowd and saw the instigator. A man of moderate height and muscular build wearing a fedora with a press card in the band. To match that he also wore a brown three-piece suit and glasses of the same color. He didn’t even look like he was from this time era.

“You cannot prove that prom preceded graduation.” Payton argued, knowing that it was a horrible lie. “And you cannot prove that it is our mother in the picture with him.”

“Ok. But I can.” The time traveler challenged. “Other pictures of your mom would prove that she is indeed pictured in Patton’s graduation, with his boyfriend. And high school functions such as prom always proceed graduation. It’s senior prom, not post-graduation prom. Also! Patton has blue teeth in the prom pictures, but the blue has faded off in the graduation pictures.”

Many of the reporters murmured and turned to the stranger.

“Ok Roman,” Payton leaned against his podium. “Did someone put you up to this or are you on your own?”

“I’m on my own. And I stand alone in the halls of people who look things up. These are dark days indeed.”

“Pay no attention to that drama queen back there please.” Payton sneered. “He’s friends with my brother.”

“So now I have become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Roman said loudly, pressing one hand to his heart.

“Isn’t that from the bible?”

“Have you read the bible?”

A hushed murmur echoed through the crowd. When did this become a roast off?

“Roman, leave before I call security.”

“This is a public gathering; you can’t throw me out.”

Much to Roman’s dismay and his own delight he indeed could throw him out. But the damage had been done, everyone’s questions now reflected what Roman had pointed out. And worse still several of these dullards had now been bitten by the research bug. They may start thinking for themselves against all odds.

Speaking of things that thought without permission Virgil had beaten him home that afternoon. His gangly, yet somehow short form was slumped on the couch staring at his phone. His school uniform was in disarray around him. He had his blazer on his lap like a blanket, his tie hung over his shoulders and his shirt unbuttoned almost to his waste and he had added an old hoodie that was probably decomposing by now. Why didn’t the bastard just go ahead and get naked? What a slob.

And, if he were to be honest, he thought Virgil was ugly. Most teenagers are and his son reflected that. Virgil had scattered acne and freckles on a pasty white face that he had the decency to cover up with makeup, hollow eyes, violet in color making him look every bit the mutant he was, and black hair that he kept in a stupid fashion. Who the hell even had bangs anymore?

“Sit up straight, you look like a corpse.” Payton snapped at the figure.

“Dead bodies are cool.” Virgil retorted sitting up proper.

“Don’t test me you bastard, I’ve had a very hard day.” He pointed to the defiant brat. “And I will not be challenged by a teenager who still wets the bed.”

Virgil backed down but shot him one last glare.

“I haven’t done that in a month.” He mumbled.

“And I haven’t done that since I was four. You’re nine years late.”

Virgil slumped his shoulders and pulled his hood up to conceal the fact that his ears were turning red.

Good. You stay where you belong. Payton thought coldly.

“I told you to sit up straight.” He said tauntingly.

Virgil stood up and walked to the stairs.

“Why doesn’t daddy love me?” He mocked Virgil as he walked. “I wonder.”

Virgil stormed up the stairs and into his room. He would have punctuated this tantrum by slamming the door. But his room didn’t have one.

# # #

“Have you seen the news?” Roman yelled, bursting into the room and slamming the door open.

“Roman, how many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?” Logan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What’s up Roman?” Patton asked tilting his head to the side.

“They’re investigating your brother for mishandling campaign funds, and they found out that he left that law firm he worked for under suspicion of tampering with evidence. And something about hiding information or something.” Roman monologued.

“If he was a lawyer then he would be required to share any evidence he obtained with the opposing counsel, even if it hurt his own case. It was started after the Brady vs Maryland case, during which-”

“Logan, not now.” Patton squeezed his shoulder gently. “Is that all, Roman, is Virgil ok?”

“I – I don’t know. He’s just kinda in the background of all this.” Roman’s posture dropped. “What if we ruined his life!?”

“Oh gosh, if Payton gets sent to prison it’ll be all my fault!” Patton jumped off the couch in terror. “I’m a horrible brother! I’m a horrible uncle! I’m a horrible person! I ruined his life in three days!”

“We’re going straight to hell!” Roman pulled on his jacket as if he were trying to pull himself together.

“No, stop. Both of you.” Logan stood up to reason with them at eye level. “No one’s going to hell, or prison … well I can guarantee no one’s going to hell.”

“What have I done!?” Patton dropped to the floor and curled into a ball. “I’m a horrible person!”

“Patton. If your brother is guilty of what they accuse him of, then he only has himself to blame for being in trouble. All you did was innocently post a few things on Sharebook to set the record straight.”

“Roman,” He continued. “What you did was stupid, but I don’t think it caused anything but a few jokes around the water cooler.”

A loud gasp came from the floor that led the other two to believe that Patton was crying.

“I can’t do this. The guilt is killing me!”

“You didn’t do anything! Payton is in trouble with the law because he broke it. That has nothing to do with us!” Logan objected.

“But the pictures.” He looked up tearfully.

“Only served to prove that your mother was not a homophobe.”

“And Roman?”

“Is an idiot.”

“Hey!” Roman protested.

“But he also had nothing to do with this.”

“What about Virgil?” Roman asked softly from the doorway.

No one knew what to say.

# # #

It had been five days since Patton’s idiotic meddling on Sharebook, and the worst part was that Payton couldn’t figure out if it was intentional or not. His younger brother never could have thought of something like this. But he did have that drama queen, and that retard he married. One of them might have done this.

“Dad, can we talk?” Virgil interrupted him, typical.

“What could you possibly want?” He glared up from his work.

Virgil was still in his pajamas, wearing no makeup and looking like a member of the living dead. Before speaking he turned away and coughed violently.

“Are you sick again!?” Payton growled. “I swear if I let you lose in the wild, you’d be dead in an instant. I don’t know what’s keeping you alive; it’s certainly not a higher purpose. There, now we’ve talked. And I’m worse off for it. Now scram.”

“Is all the stuff on the news true?” Virgil rasped.

“I recall telling you to go away…”

“Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll just have to decide for myself.”

“Knowing you, you’ll side with the masses. Keeps people from having to think. You’d like that.”

“Why are you teeing off on me!? All I asked for was a yes or no answer.”

“That’s a lot of back bone for somebody who hasn’t shown me his final report card yet.” He didn’t even look up. “We had to do summer school last year and they still held you back. If either of those things happen this year… well no point in speculating over things that won’t happen.”

That was the thread he needed to pull evidently. Virgil retreated.

Before going to his room Virgil stumbled into the bathroom and threw up. His heart was beating its way out of his chest, the room was spinning.

Spinning

He fell to the floor, arms and legs both feeling like static.

No! not another one! He dizzily protested, forcing in several ragged breaths just have air.

Hell only knows how long he was laying on the bathroom floor before he calmed himself down. But he somehow managed and dragged himself back to his room. It wasn’t long before he passed out on his bed.

# # #

It’s now been nearly two weeks since everything started. Virgil hasn’t gotten over whatever he caught this time. But his dad hasn’t been home too much lately, so there was still solaced to be found. He lay in bed, sweating from fever and almost let himself dare to have hope. His dad may end up in prison before the summer was over. Maybe he could testify. He could tell if his dad was in prison, hell he’d scream it from the rooftops if his dad wasn’t around to provide consequences.

# # #

Payton set the smoke detector down on a table in the hallway and looked in Virgil’s room. Virgil was passed out in his bed, no doubt out of his mind on cold medicine and looking pale and tragic. He slid into the room and stood over him.

“Poor Virgil.” He scoffed, wiping his greasy hair off his sweat covered forehead. “I really tried to want you. Hell, I wanted to want you. It just didn’t work out that way.”

Virgil coughed lightly in his sleep and turned over uneasily. Everything that kid did was uneasy. Payton picked up the half full bottle of medicine on the nightstand and stared into it apathetically.

Virgil jolted bolt upright and coughed violently. Payton quietly watched him fight for air.

“Why are you in here?” Virgil panted, already trembling with fear.

“It’s alright.” Payton said softly, placing the back of his hand on Virgil’s forehead. “I’m just checking on you.”

“Why?” Virgil recoiled from his hand.

“You’re sick, aren’t you?” Payton cupped Virgil’s face in his hands. “I just wanted to make sure you were ok before I left.”

Virgil settled into his hands and stared up at him. Hope dotted itself in his unnatural eyes. He was helpless to resist temptation. Sucker.

“Alright. I have a meeting tonight.” Payton ran his hand through Virgil’s hair. “But tomorrow I’m taking you to the doctor.”

“Why?” Virgil jolted back. His eyes lit with terror.

“No, I’m taking you to get this sickness checked out.” Payton purred. “You know I’d never hurt you for no reason.”

“No?” He squeaked.

“Of course not. Have I ever hurt you when you haven’t done anything?”

“No?” Virgil’s breathing sped up.

“Of course not. Now drink your medicine and try to get some sleep.”

With quivering hands Virgil took the bottle from him and drank it obediently.

“There’s a good boy.” Payton smiled.

As a finishing move Payton tucked Virgil in before leaving. Virgil shivered the entire time. Payton couldn’t tell if he was excited to have the attention of if he was just that terrified. It didn’t really matter.

Either way, Payton had the little parasite right where he wanted him. And today that meant he was right here in bed, sound asleep. Dead to the world.

Payton stopped in his study and dropped the rug over the lamp’s newly frayed cord. He ‘accidentally’ left the lamp on before he left. As far as anyone would ask.

# # #

Roman was feeling high on life. He was on his way home from an excellent performance of The Lion King in which he, being one of the only people who could sing and dance and sit through the makeup process to audition, had played Mufasa one night and Scar the next. Both were amazing parts. Just think two on stage deaths, and a solo on villain nights. And who doesn’t love a villain?

To cap off this evening he had become quite close with the actor playing Timonen, who was especially charming. Yes, things were lovely. He nearly lost control of his motorcycle at the thought. As he steadied himself back, he checked the clock in the center, it was very nearly midnight.

“Well, I’m sure the love birds are done with their date night by now.” He said out loud, nearly drowned out by his engine.

Roman nodded to himself and looked for a driveway to turn around in. Preferably one where nobody was home to bother with his bike. He was a gentleman after all. Roman pulled into an empty driveway and made a U-turn back towards the road.

But something leaked into his helmet and stopped Roman in his tracks. It was the unmistakable smell of smoke. He dropped his bike and whipped around to see the house behind him glowing with flames and billowing thick black smoke. Without a second thought he tossed his helmet to the ground and called for help.

The house itself was a two-story building that was fairly isolated from neighbors. And there wasn’t another soul outside, so no one had seen the fire yet. While Roman was giving the address the windows in the bottom floor exploded, punctuated by the sound of sirens in the distance. It looked like everything would be ok… luckily, no one was home.

No! He was wrong! It’s not ok! The glow of the fire had illuminated the figure of someone on the second floor trying to break the window. The room they were in was already on fire. Not having time for caution, Roman bounded towards the house. He could hear the firefighters behind him yelling for him to stop as they pulled up, but he had already leapt onto the landing by the time the words sank in. He could jump surprisingly high; as a dancer he had the legs for it. He pulled himself up the gutter, wrapped his jacket over his fist and with one blow he shattered the window and the person jumped out, coughing up both lungs.

Both he and the sole survivor were blown back by a gust of hot wind. It was like Satan had roared at them. Obviously dizzy from inhaling so much smoke the survivor, who looked no more than twelve fell back when Satan roared and slid down the roof. Roman leapt for him and saw the kid grab hold of the same gutter, and lose his hold falling to the ground feet first. Roman jumped down after him and scoped him up gently, he was still breathing. But not very strongly. He ran the kid to the nearest ambulance.

# # #

‘F’ is for friends who do stuff together…

Patton groggily pulled his phone off the nightstand. Why was Roman calling at one in the morning?

“Ehlo?” He mumbled into the receiver.

“Hey friendo …” Roman’s voice was hesitant. “Can you come get me from the hospital? I know it’s late, but I’ve had a night.”

“Hold that thought kiddo.” Patton said calmly, before turning to Logan. “Logan! Roman is in the hospital! My friends are being punished for my sins!” He panicked.

“We’re married.” Logan mumbled, not even half awake.

“We’ll be right down to get you honey.” Patton faked a cool demeanor over the phone.

“I heard you yelling. And, I should point out that I’m not hurt.”

# # #

“Roman what happened?!” Patton rushed over to him.

“Well, there was a fire…” Roman began.

“At the theater!? Was anybody hurt?! Did Remus start the fire!? Is he back so soon!?”

Patton looked down and saw that Roman’s right hand in a cast.

“You are too hurt! Why did you lie to me!?”

Logan stepped up and pulled Patton back by the shoulder.

“Everything’s going to be ok Patton. If Roman was badly hurt, they wouldn’t let him leave just yet.” He said calmly. “Now let’s just let him tell the story.”

“Ok.” Patton mumbled, burying his face in Logan’s shoulder.

“Ok, on my way home I encountered a house on fire. So, I called the authorities. Then I saw that there was someone trapped upstairs. So, I jumped onto the landing and broke the window with my fist.” Roman explained slowly and without any of his normal flare.

“Why would you do that? You could have been killed?” Logan asked, flustered at Roman’s general lack of caution.

“There was someone in there! A little kid trapped in a fire! Wouldn’t you have?”

“If emergency services hadn’t yet arrived and there was no time to wait, I suppose I would. Had such services arrived?”

“…” Roman looked down. “Yes.”

“Are you ok?” Patton asked softly.

“Yes, it’s just a few cuts. And apparently, I punched the window wrong and broke my wrist. I don’t think I’ll be able to do the matinee tomorrow. I’ll call Robert to pick up my bike.”

“Is the kid?”

“They haven’t told me how he is. Apparently only family gets to know the details.” He rolled his eyes.

“Hippa laws.” Logan added. “Standard doctor/patient confidentiality to protect the privacy of the patient…”

“Don’t you start.” Roman pointed at him angrily. “All they told me was that he’d be fine.”

“Did the police take your statement?”

“Yeah. An unfortunate number of officers are familiar with me. And they almost exclusively know me as the guy with the crazy twin.”

“Speaking of brothers…” Patton interrupted almost as if he were in a trance.

The other two turned in unison to see what Patton was staring at so intently. And speak of the Devil there was Payton.

#logicality #platonic lamp #logan sanders #logan x patton #patton sanders #roman sanders #sympathiticdeciet #trans deceit #sanders sides #romanxemile #parental moxiety #parental analocical

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turquoisephoenix · 4 years

Text

What's A Little Galaxy-Wide Destruction Between Friends?

A Ratchet and Clank One-Shot

Five days after saving the galaxy from the Deplanetizer, Elaris is greeted by an old friend, who wishes to talk to her, vent a little, and give her life advice. Unfortunately for her, her old friend also happens to be a freshly transformed robot version of a dangerous criminal madman that everyone believed was dead. Elaris & Dr. Nefarious friendship Characters: Elaris, Dr. Nefarious, Lawrence, Qwark (mentioned) ————————————————-

Author's Notes: I saw the movie and immediately made the connection between Elaris and Nefarious, and by god, I was going to get this down. I realize this isn't the first "Nefarious talks to Elaris about her job" fic out there, but I kinda wanted to write a version where Nefarious and Elaris were friends before the whole evil thing kinda split them apart and, despite everything, they still have positive feelings about each other. It was a challenge writing Nefarious as a mixture of absolutely terrifying and also completely vulnerable and a bit in a fragile state. It's been a bad last couple of days for Nefarious. Also I was going to explain where Lawrence came from but it also came off as more "fitting" that he just *has* Lawrence.

-----------------------------------

"Yep, this sure is Umbris alright."

Elaris, technical support of the Galactic Rangers and one of the saviors of the galaxy a mere five days ago, was doing a menial patrol shift above the atmosphere of Umbris with no one to keep her company.

Despite not being in her expertise and despite this being a rather boring shift, Elaris had asked to be on Galactic Ranger patrol today. She got a few questions from her coworkers - after all, today was double XP weekend and a holiday event in League of Legendaries and they expected her to be holed up in her lab for days - but she won out in the end. She took the same spaceship she normally did, a beaten up little thing that could be best described as "dependable" and "cozy" and nothing more.

She didn't want to admit it out loud, but she was getting cabin fever from being in her in the lab, just a glorified broom closet, all day. She was kinda hoping that, by helping with the Deplanetizer and helping to save the galaxy, she would at least get a bit of a laboratory upgrade as a reward. Instead, with the media breathing down their necks and Qwark doing his big apology tour, her tiny comments of "can I please get a proper laboratory?" were written down as "things to do later" as they asked the new rookie Ratchet question after question of his upbringing and his mysterious past.

And she couldn't help but feel that she was going to be in that broom closet for quite a while now.

Sitting alone in a spaceship - with no sound to greet her but the steady hum of all the ship's computers - while keeping an eye on the airspace of a muddy, near uninhabited planet was at least brightening her mood a bit and allowing her to clear her head.

Anything to get her mind off the fact that the weapons technician before her died in the process.

That was the biggest bummer of the whole Deplanetizer ordeal in her eyes. At the end of the day, Dr. Nefarious was dead. He fell from a space station onto the surface of planet Umbris and that was that. Elaris was hoping that they'd be able to arrest him and that she'd get a chance to talk to him somehow, but instead they found a barely identifiable pile of flesh that had his DNA.

She couldn't help herself. She felt sad that he had to die like that.

Her other coworkers in the Galactic Rangers thought that she was being too idealistic about her old science partner and friend, that Dr. Nefarious was too far gone even before he tried to blow up the entire galaxy with a giant laser. But she wasn't asking for any miracles. She just wanted to ask him why.

And if he was thrown into a maximum security cell for the rest of his life after she asked him what was going on in his giant skull of his, that would be enough for her. They haven't spoken in two years and it'd be nice to hear his voice again, even if his voice could not be described as pleasing to the ear.

But now she couldn't, because he was nothing but a pile of squishy goo on planet Umbris.

Fitting to her mood, as she contemplated her now dead friend, the lights in her spaceship began to flicker ominously. "No, no, no, no-" she pleaded with the ship's computer before the lighting system went dead.

"Oh come on!" she shouted to the spaceship as she was enveloped in darkness. The universe sure knew how to tell sick jokes sometimes. Muttering about budget cuts, she got up from her seat and walked towards the back where she could probably whack the power supply with a wrench until it began working again.

She didn't get that far. She entered the hallway connecting the cockpit to the other small quarters of her spaceship while complaining about how she should've checked the fuses before she left headquarters when a shape with glowing eyes detached itself from the shadows, skittered over to her position, and then suddenly pressed her against the wall in the span of two seconds.

"Don't. Sound. The Alarm."

Elaris stood paralyzed, a cold metallic claw wrapped around her face. The main source of illumination in the dark hallway came from piercing red eyes set in black, empty eye sockets of the most terrifying robot she's ever seen. It was a bony creature with sharp metal claws and fearsome wings, looming over her even in its hunched over position, smelling of the same harsh cleaning chemicals used to remove blood stains off of metallic surfaces. Acid green lighting came from the creature's skull, transparent and revealing the many horrible devices whirring within.

Her immediate thought was that some horrible zombie robot had risen from the grave and came to wreak vengeance for his fallen crew as she stared at the skeletal features. Her mind racing, she wondered just what ancient pirate curse was roaming around this sector as the creature watched her squirm.

"Elaris, it's me." the horrific creature said in a electronic voice that sounded oddly familiar. The voice was high and gravelly and grating to her ears, but it unlocked memories of several years ago when her fellow Galactic Ranger Dr. Nefarious was yelling at Qwark from another room that yes, he was still working on the Combusters, Qwark, and that if he continued rushing him he was going to shove them right up his-

"Nefarious!?" Elaris shouted, which sounded like "Mmmarmemous?" through the hand placed on her mouth.

"I am going to let you go now, and when I do, I want you do not run away or to scream or anything like that! I just want to talk!" Dr. Nefarious continued. "Got it?"

She nodded, her brain immediately noting the cosmic irony in this situation. Gently, he removed his hand from her face and quietly backed up a step, watching her as she shrank against the wall. Immediately he cackled in the kind of laughter that sounded more anxious than joyful.

"Good! Good! You're not calling the Rangers or trying to pull a weapon on me! You're actually going to listen to me that's-" he quickly broke out in a giggle that sounded both nervous and utterly deranged. "You know honestly I didn't expect to get this far!"

As the panic melted away to be replaced with a more cautious fear, Elaris could examine him more closely. She worked with sentient and non-sentient robots on a daily basis - hell, one of her coworkers was one - but he looked...uncanny.

He was breathing for one, something even the most realistic robots never did. His movements were too lifelike, from the way he could set his jaw to the movements of his eyes. He was very twitchy, his parts fidgeting in a way that was normal with organic lifeforms but looked neurotic on robots. This was not a simple consciousness transfer into a robot double as a back-up in case his organic body was destroyed; this robot clearly worked from the same blueprint as his original body.

Or was his original body, just horrifically modified.

Mentally she placed her memory of Nefarious over this creature and could pick out places where things were missing. He was skinnier, his facial features gone as if forcefully removed. If Nefarious had built himself a robot double, he would've remembered his ears and nose. Something about this robot creature seemed...wrong.

'He didn't plan this,' Elaris thought. 'Something else did this to him.'

"What....happened to you with the Deplanetizer?" Elaris asked. 'I thought you were dead' remained unspoken but very much implied. She reached out to touch him and he flinched away from her hand with a tiny yelp, a very fresh and vivid memory of pain flashing through his databanks. She withdrew her hand and he exhaled - there he was doing more things that was really creepy for robots to do - and ran a hand up his glass dome of a head.

"I survived the fall from the space station to the planet's surface. Thankfully my prototype armor suit was able to keep me from not dying, falling from a great height like that, but I was badly injured, and I was swarmed by a bunch of repair droids. They're programmed to help with situations like a rescue but they were confused. They mistook my armor's energy frequencies as a part of me so they..." a tiny sob got caught in his throat from the memory as his shoulders sagged and he looked down at his hands. "-ha...thought I was a robot..."

He paused and looked up at her and a heavy silence fell between them. The very implications of what he said hung in the air. She said nothing but judging by his changed expression, which looked absolutely wounded, her face was betraying just how horrific she found this. Another not-quite-a-robot sigh.

"...I kept telling them to stop. I would black out at times, so I don't even remember how long I was being operated on. Even when my vocal cords weren't online yet, I was pleading for them to stop. They...left a big SQUISHY pile of my removed organs and skin and bone in a corner and still I was screaming at them to reverse it!"

Suddenly he slammed the palms of his hands into the wall and his voice turned into a harsh, metallic yell.

"AT ONE POINT THEY PULLED MY BRAIN OUT OF MY SKULL WHILE I WAS STILL CONSCIOUS!"

"Oh..." She wasn't sure what else to say beyond that. Sorry? Ouch? She wasn't sure if a friendly assuring pat on the back would do it in this situation either since he seemed very adverse to touch right now.

"I needed to talk to someone - besides Lawrence -and well, I knew what your spaceship looked like, figured, oh hey, might as well talk to an old friend!"

And climb into the spaceship uninvited through an airlock and mess with the programming for the lights so that he could surprise her in the cloak of darkness without the risk of her shooting him first (because who can blame her?) but he didn't mention that.

"That's why I'm here. To vent a little and finally tell you stuff I've been meaning to tell you! You know, before my mind snaps and I become a mindless creature of destruction with my new robot body."

Elaris stared at him, trying to decipher if that last part was a joke or an actual worry of his. Nefarious always did have a dry sense of humor. It didn't help like his smile looked absolutely terrifying.

"Like...?"

Another deep robotic breath. Did he have lungs? Did the repair bots keep some of his organ systems intact?

"I want you to quit the Galactic Rangers." he said, pressing the tips of his fingers together.

"Wait, what." was her immediate reply. The gruesome metal skeleton of her former science partner was going to give her career advice?

"Hear me out! I've been meaning to have this conversation with you for a while now after I left but, wouldn't you know it, I was tied up with work." The word "work" was doing a lot of heavy lifting in this conversation. He said it real casually, like the prison escape and the faking of his own death in order to join up with a criminal and start blowing up planets was just another blip on his resume.

"Elaris, I know how they're treating you. They gave you my old office after all. You know, the one that's just a glorified converted broom closet!" She winced, his words cutting deep. "I know exactly how they behave and I know for a fact that they just treat you like a doormat and like an automatic weapon dispenser! They call you a Galactic Ranger but you're not a part of their little friend group! They see you as a nerd, a passive little thing they can push around! You're not one of them!"

"I'm a little confused..." she started, saying the understatement of the century. She didn't get this patrol shift to get a pep talk from an undead robot after all. "You come onto my spaceship, back from the dead, all the flesh torn from your bones, but...instead of asking me to join you, get the recognition you truly deserve and have all your dreams come true by storming the galaxy side by side, yadda yadda, you...just want me to hand them a pink slip and leave?"

"Elaris, despite what it looks like, I'm not trying to sound like a lunatic here." he said, dragging his hand across his face.

"I just want you to get a better job than the one you have now! I don't want you to continue to be abused by those people - by QWARK - until the bitterness inside of you grows and grows until you snap and become just. Like. Me!"

"And I'll be honest - I don't want what happened to me to happen to you! LOOK AT ME!" he said, gesturing at himself.

She was about to respond with a retort that she was positive she wasn't going to land on a planet full of repair droids while wearing highly experimental armor that confuses them and they turn her into a robot in an incredibly gruesome and long surgical procedure, but Nefarious could see she was thinking just that and held up a hand, silencing her.

"Please....just get a desk job or a job working at a computer repair store. Anything where you don't have to work with Captain Qwark. He's using you the way he did me! And trust me, he's never going to stop! He's never going to change! He'll abuse you and think nothing of it because no one cares about people like us!"

"But I won't end up like you!" Elaris shouted back, their faces so close that they were nearly touching.

Nefarious's voice suddenly dropped to a normal speaking volume.

"How can you be so sure?"

Silence fell. She opened her mouth and then closed it again, withering under his gaze as he folded his hands underneath his chin and examined her. The worst part about it was that he didn't look smug or mocking. He just looked tired.

"Why do you even care?" she asked, dodging the question.

"Because I like you, Elaris. All the other losers in the Galactic Rangers can go end up in a black hole for all I care but I don't want you getting hurt!"

Elaris had to admit, she was a little stunned hearing that come out of his mouth. 'Well, chalk that up as one positive trait for Dr. Nefarious, he actually has the capacity to care about other people while he's going about trying to blow up other planets.' she thought to herself as she tried to decipher his concern as genuine or just an insane whim.

"That's all?" Elaris asked.

"That's all." he replied. Elaris couldn't help but make a little snort of disbelief in response, causing the robot to instantly be defensive. "What?"

"Oh nothing. Just a little amused that you look like the specter of death and climb into my spaceship after returning from the dead, emerging like a horrendous butterfly out of a fleshy mound of rotting flesh, one of the most wanted criminals in the entire galaxy, but you came into my spaceship to admit you still have feelings for me."

She immediately regretted saying that for two reasons. The first reason was that she realized that she shouldn't be making fun of the madman who had just been turned into a robot. The second reason was that caused Dr. Nefarious to start ranting very loudly, and that made Elaris realize that one of the side-effects of being turned into a robot was the loss of the ability to have an indoor voice.

"Yes, YES, it sounds crazy!" he screamed. "I sound crazy right now! That's the problem with this new robot body! Instead of being emotionless, like what you'd expect when you're transformed into a robot, it's like the exact opposite happened! All of my emotions have been intensified a thousand degrees! This worry became a paranoia! My hatred is now burning with an intensity of a thousand angry suns! My bitterness is like raging venom in my heart!"

"You have a heart still?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!! See? SEE? I'm SHOUTING! I'm MONOLOGUING! I don't MEAN to shout but then it just comes out ALL LOUD AND INTENSE AND GOES ON FOREVER aaaaaand oh GOD I am losing my mind aren't I?" His last vestiges of sanity - tiny and rapidly going extinct, but still there and doing a valiant effort to keep him from being totally lost to reason - suddenly halted his rant in mid-sentence, causing him to drag his hands across his face. It's been a week for Dr. Nefarious, where being hit in the face with a wrench by a Lombax was the least of his worries.

"-please tell me I don't look like a complete nutcase right now."

Elaris sucked in air through her teeth and looked away from him in embarrassment. "Uh...do you want the truth or a little white lie?" she asked.

"I don't know! Give me whatever makes me feel better!"

"You don't look like complete nutcase."

Nefarious narrowed his eyes at her as she smiled innocently back and he looked ready to say something when suddenly a very crusty, digitized version of the pop song "Your Eyes Are Like Quazars" started playing.

"Hang on." He pulled out a cell phone out of his belt - flip phone model - and held it to the closest thing on his metallic skull that could be called "an ear". He shot her a "I'm sorry I know this looks rude but this could be important" look at her as a very dignified voice rang out from the other line.

"I do hate to bother you, sir, but you might want to wrap up whatever it is you're doing to that Galactic Ranger-"

"We're just TALKING, Lawrence!"

"-right. Anyhoo, there is another patrol ship heading your way and I'd hate for your current plans of lying low for a couple months to plot out your next scheme of horrible vengeance to be ruined because you wanted to talk to your old girlfriend."

"SHE'S NOT-ugh, fine. FINE, I'm GOING!" he said, and hung the phone up with an undignified clack of the flip phone closing in-between two metal claws.

"Just think about what I said, Elaris!" he yelled dramatically while pointing at her as he shoved his phone away in his back pocket. She wasn't going to question why he had pockets as a robot. There were a lot of things about this situation she was just not going to question.

"I wouldn't do this if I didn't have this fear that you're going to walk the same path that I did! Call it weakness or the last remaining thread of my former organic self! ...or craziness. I dunno. I'm kinda playing it by ear at this point." he said, twirling a finger in the air, as he started to move his way towards the airlock.

"Wait, before you go-"

She reached out and grabbed his hand, and when he turned to glare at her, eyes filling the hallway with a harsh red light, Elaris briefly wondered if she made a horrible mistake and that this was going to be the moment where he snaps and uses his cold metal claws to claim his first victim in a gruesome robotic rampage. But then his expression softened and he just looked grumpy, the killer robot expression fading away.

"I know you're planning something! Just promise me that your next mad scientist-"

"-Vengeful-" he corrected.

"-Vengeful scientist scheme doesn't involve the mass murder of millions of innocent people like last time. Do something, I don't know," she gestured in the empty air as she looked for the right word, "-nonlethal this time? I'm asking for the bare minimum from you. Please?"

"Why Elaris, I'm shocked." he said, placing his one free hand on his chest. "I'm surprised you didn't aim for something higher like 'quit being evil' or 'turn yourself in'. You could be saving the whole galaxy right now by stopping me!"

"You asked for something smaller, so I'm asking for something smaller. I'll keep what you said in mind. At the very least, I'm going to ask for an actual office rather than the broom closet the next time I come into work. I'll quit if they-" The 'they' meaning 'Qwark' in this case, "-start pushing me around again, I promise."

"If they push you around, push back. Push back until they bleed." he hissed.

There was something in that statement that reminded her of a day that happened at Galactic Rangers Headquarters two years ago. Dr. Nefarious - the Nefarious that still had flesh and skin - was busy stirring his coffee and talking to his trainee Elaris about the new episode of Annihilation Nation when Captain Qwark 'accidentally' bumped him while walking past, spilling it on his shirt. This caused Nefarious to throw down his coffee mug down on the ground and yell "It's a good thing we're on the same side or else you'd be DEAD, Qwark! DEAD!"

He quit several days later to start plotting an evil scheme that involved atomizing all of Aleero City.

"I will." she said with that comforting memory still hanging about in her brain. "Thanks for still looking out for me." And with those words, she let go of his arm and let the supervillain go.

He stood there, looking like he had something more to say, but then he decided to turn around and skitter into the shadows, disappearing from her sight. There was the sound of an airlock opening in the distance and then he was gone, disappearing like a bad nightmare.

Two minutes later, Elaris was able to get the lights working again in her little spaceship just as Cora radioed in and asked if everything was alright. Elaris cheerfully lied and said "sure, everything's fine, nothing's happened since you last checked in, lighting's a bit funky but otherwise nothing new!" and then she was alone again, still staring at Umbris.

As she sat back in the driver's seat and stared out at the endless sea of stars and planets stretching out in front of her, the rest of her patrol shift weighing down on her shoulders, she had to give voice to a lingering thought in her head.

"If this is just a really weird dream I'm going to be so mad."

------------

Back in the current makeshift lair of Dr. Nefarious (a repurposed garage situated on the surface of planet Umbris littered with the broken corpses of several dozen repair droids), the vengeful scientist-turned-robot was brooding dramatically in a chair as his butler Lawrence polished him. He sat there, hand propping up his skeletal chin, and sighed. Giving an old friend some helpful life advice never turned out the way you wanted it to.

"So how did it go, Sir?" Lawrence asked in a tone of voice that implied that he really couldn't care less.

"I asked her to quit the Galactic Rangers, and in return, she asked me to not kill anyone in my next evil scheme." he said nonchalantly as his butler sprayed him with cleanser and started wiping his glass dome of a head. "I think she's worried about me, Lawrence!"

He didn't say it out loud, but he was worried for Elaris too. Maybe he should've asked her to join him after all. He saw the news articles coming out involving the Deplanetizer incident. All the praise was aimed at Ratchet and Qwark with nothing mentioning Elaris. He was certain that she had a hand in moving the entire space station. At least if she was working by his side, two vengeful scientists, both outcasts from the Galactic Rangers, she'd get the recognition she'd truly deserve!

The irony of him plotting out her delightfully evil future after warning her not to become evil like him didn't even cross his mind.

"Did you tell her 'why don't fret, my dear, my next evil scheme merely involves turning all organic lifeforms into robots with a giant non-planet destroying laser'?"

Dr. Nefarious laughed maniacally.

"Of course not!" he yelled, springing from his chair and knocking Lawrence aside. He was practically strutting like a peacock, his feet crunching as he stepped on discarded robot parts, as he marched his way towards a wall, where a giant red button just waited for him to slam his fist into.

He cackled in glee as the room was suddenly illuminated with the hologram of a massive, planet-sized device, the latest of evil concoctions pulled from his brain, now converted into wires and chips by the cruel hand of fate.

He called it the Biobliterator.

"I want that part to be a surprise!"

---

END

#ratchet and clank #elaris #Dr Nefarious #Ratchet and Clank Movie #turquoisephoenix tells a story #Dr. Nefarious #Fanfic #Lawrence #this takes place in the reboot universe #Implied gore #some headcanoning going on here in regards to how Nefarious got turned into a robot

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mesmeret · 4 years

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Femlux: The Rise and Fall of E-Girl Hux

Inspired by a tweet from starsshine77 Fem!Kylo and Fem!Hux with catfishing, internet trolling, Diva Hux, and crybaby Kylo.

Still thinking of e-girl troll Hux. She has a vid of her wearing novelty vampire teeth and chewing on strawberries. She looks all innocent despite posing in her dark corner set up wearing a blood soaked dress. The caption says "i wuv vegans uwu save the earth!"

She composes these videos wanting to shock and confuse as many people as possible. She loves the high.

Kylo knew her in the K-8 private school they went to. Kylo had been in awe of the snooty older girl. When Kylo got her first laptop, she started following Hux's descent into trolling and performative arts. Hux would talk on her blog about how much she loved going to school wearing a normie flesh suit and then shedding it after school.

When Hux went to college for her MBA, she wasn't very active online. Kylo was dismayed but kept checking her blog. When Kylo is 19, Hux posts that she's starting a makeup and fashion channel. Kylo is startled to see that all of Hux's old internet presence is gone. Kylo was glad she saved all of the photos to a hard drive to prove that those years existed.

Kylo is Hux's first subscriber. She's so embarrassed thinking Hux is going to show up and confront her about it. But nothing happens.

Kylo works at a cafe while going to community college while Hux is making herself look like a living doll. The 24 yo doesn't say much about her life. Just off hand comments like:

"This mascara really stays on when you cry in the toilets at work."

"Sometimes you have to wear a mask around men."

"I hate the New York stench. So I use this perfume."

Kylo's pillows get two spurts of the perfume each week.

It's around this time Kylo realizes she's in love. She feels silly that she hadn't noticed it earlier, but she's always been slow.

Hux posts a video about once every two weeks. Kylo watches and studies each one voraciously. Hux slowly goes back to her cynical, dark self. Kylo missed it dearly while others find it disturbing.

Hux offers livestreams and Kylo rearranges her work schedule to attend with an alternate account. In Kylo's rush, she chose a very fit male torso as her profile pic.

The livestream is a shit show. Chat is accusing Hux of things while Hux slings insults at them. The service ends the stream and bans Hux.

Hux's next yt video does not mention the stream at all. She's chipper and cheeky as she does a clothes haul. Kylo is in awe. If she was in Hux's position, she'd have to be institutionalized for severe depression. Instead Hux is beaming at the camera saying the day's date and how much she loves this day. Kylo wonders why and goes down a rabbit hole to discover Mr. Hux passed away last year due to a heart attack.

Kylo uses her alt account and DMs Hux that she loves her smile. Kylo stares at the screen in shock that she sent the message. But she did.

Two hours later, Hux writes back with 'I give you something to smile about, fuckwad.'

Kylo types lightning fast before fully comprehending Hux's words, 'Oh yes please do.'

A couple minutes later, 'For real?'

Kylo bites her lip, 'Please.'

They fall into a weird pattern of Kylo complementing Hux and Hux replying in insults.

As Kylo turns 21, Hux becomes an overnight sensation on a viral platform. Kylo is wrapping up her accounting bachelors degree and nearly fails her midterms due to watching Hux's daily vids.

Their routine takes another turn when Hux starts sending Kylo photos of outfits. Hux would rarely wear the ones Kylo picked.

After a stressful day, Kylo is thrilled to see Hux wearing the checkered bra peaking out of a tight black body suit. 'Thank you. You made my day.'

Hux responds with a puke emoji and a very suggestive pic of the body suit unzipped. Her pale belly glowed. Kylo wrote back, 'My whole year is made. Beautiful. Thank you.'

Hux doesn't reply until next week.

Hux becomes a global phenomenon. Kylo is worried. She catches herself wanting to type 'are you okay?' But doesn't feel like it's her place.

Then the joke that got out of hand happens the next year.

Kylo's alternate account became a true catfish in order to be a top tier patron of Hux.

Kylo declines the video chat perks but wants the bathwater.

------

Hux's life sucks. She's never been happy. Never even had the chance to recognize it, really. She liked things but would get bored or hurt sooner than later.

It was weird that some girl from her hometown became her number one fan. Hux had no idea until a year into talking with Kylo in her DMs. She was stupidly catching feelings for this supposed guy who was nothing but supportive and kind to her. She wanted to know who he was, but he was very shy and declined to answer.

She had been partying after big sale with the sales team when she bumped into a guy that recognized her from the internet. He simpered at how amazingly scary she was. Intrigued, she got to know that he worked at a background company. She offered to use him if he gave her the info on this Kylo Ren guy.

It was nice to vent her frustrations of being catfished on the guy. Mitch was his name? She never saw him again since the morning after.

But she couldn't confront the weird goth girl from her hometown. Hux liked the compliments too much. They kept her going.

And as her corporate job found out her internet life along with the rest of the world, she needed Kylo desperately.

The suggestive photo was a shot in the dark. She had no idea if Kylo saw her as a gal pal or a /gal pal/. Hux returned to their hometown to see Kylo from a far after the Beautiful comment. Hux was stunned to see how tall Kylo is.

Kylo's social media only had two photos of herself. One of her at High school graduation and another of her tagged in her mom's second marriage. The former photo was her at a distance walking up to receive her diploma and the other was her sitting uncomfortably.

Hux couldn't enter the cafe. Kylo's snaggle tooth smile as two kids ordered something made Hux feel like the Grinch. She turned around and stomped back to her rental car feeling like an idiot.

It lessened when she got her first brand deal the next day. Money is one hell of an aphrodisiac.

Then the bathwater...

...and Kylo pouring it down her ample cleavage. The water shimmered down the sloping belly with the filter Kylo was using. It joined the rest of the frothy bathwater. Hux was bummed Kylo's mound was hidden below the surface.

'Now that's some bathwater I could drink for days.'

She smirked at Kylo's reply: 'I am so sorry for lying to you all this time. I didn't know it would ever get this far. Please don't hate me!'

'Sweetie, I just told you I'd drink your bathwater. I like you. You're sexy af.'

'Oh. Uh, thanks. You, too.'

'I knew who you were for a while.'

'Oh! Wow. Would you prefer if I was a guy?'

'No. Never.'

Hux frowned as twenty minutes went by, 'You good?'

'Yeah, I was crying. You're so special to me.'

Hux felt flushed instead of her usual reaction of 'Oh, get over it.' Kylo was genuine.

As Hux's businesses crumbled due to a volley of harassment and misconceptions, she knew she had a golden parachute. She cut her hair to a severe pixie cut after finalizing her business arrangements. She packed up her condo the next day and put it on the market the following day.

She rented a car on the fourth day and drove back to her hometown with her favorite clothes. Kylo was unaware of what she was up to and was sending sweet words of encouragement three times a day.

Hux pulls into Kylo's apartment complex feeling dead tired. But she wants this moment to be truly special. So she changes into an outfit that Kylo loved. Her strawberry school girl outfit, her orange tabby cat ears, and her pink faux fur coat. Her feet hurt too much for heels and she wants to enjoy Kylo's extra height. She grabs two of her suitcases and heads up to Kylo's apartment. Taking a deep breath, she knocks.

Kylo answers the door in a sports bra and pj pants. She stares at Hux dumbfounded before squeaking a hello. Hux sighs, "If you don't hug me in the next-"

Kylo pulls her into a hug and Hux hums appreciating their height difference. Kylo's chest feels just right against her own and Kylo's hands are so big!

"Wait a minute... why do you smell like my old perfume?"

Kylo blushes, "I, um... been following you for a while?"

Hux nods slowly before getting her voice back, "Well, now you won't need to follow me. I'm moving in."

Kylo pulls away trying to form words for a moment, "Really?!"

"Deadly," Hux gestures at her suitcases. "I've got four more in the car."

Kylo turns away but can't hide the sobs. Hux feels a wave of discomfort and has no idea what to do.

"I, uh, will get my things?"

Kylo looks over her shoulder, "Y-yeah, I'll go clean things up for you in the guest room."

Hux's stomach drops but Kylo hadn't rejected her completely.

When she has all six suitcases and two boxes of shoes in the living room, Kylo is crying silently while making pasta. "You can put your stuff in the room to the left. I'm making cheesy pasta for dinner. That works for you?"

Hux almost objected but remembered she doesn't have to maintain her skin anymore, "Sounds good."

She moves her clothes and sees the guest bed is a twin with Wonder Woman sheets. The primary colors are bold. Not at all Hux's aesthetic. But she wasn't going to complain. Instead she threw her pink coat over the coverlet. She went back to the kitchen area where Kylo was still crying.

"Allergies?" Hux asked.

"No. You're here and it's so amazing. Wow," Kylo sighs taking Hux in. Her nose and cheeks were exactly what Hux and all the other e-girls were trying to achieve. "You're here."

"For good. Had to liquidate everything. No more internet for me," Hux threw her hands up.

Kylo blinked, "Are you in danger? I, um, saw what those guys tried to do..."

Hux shook her head, "Nah, I'm gonna go by my real mother's surname and get used to people calling me Armie."

Kylo nods and pours pasta into the boiling water. Hux moves closer, "Like my hair?"

Kylo startles but nods, "Can I touch?"

Hux nods back and removes the cat ears. Kylo smiles shyly as she runs her hand through Hux's short hair. Hux mumbles, "Sorry you weren't able to feel it when it was long."

Kylo blushed, "It makes your cheek bones amazing."

Hux wants to blurt out 'Kiss them! Kiss me!' But Kylo is already awkwardly kissing her. Hux has to tilt her head up slightly and takes advantage of her balance slip to hold onto Kylo's broad hips. Kylo kisses her slowly, gently but commanding. Hux has to follow. There's no wiggle room like with everyone else. She started shifting her hips feeling arousal burn deep. Kylo pulls away with a satisfied sigh before stirring the pasta. Hux bit her lip. She wasn't going to scream. Her stomach was perking up after the long day of packing and driving.

Kylo wordlessly guided them to the couch with two heaping bowls of cheesy pasta. Kylo kissed her forehead before whispering, "Water okay?"

Hux nodded and watched Kylo's backside jiggle slightly with each step.

They kissed each other good night two hours later. Kylo tried to give Hux the wi-fi pw but Hux declined. She had gotten rid of her phone, iPad, and laptop. Kylo had squeezed her hand and told her things would get better.

Hux believed her. Especially when they ended up in Kylo's bed the next night. They hadn't done anything more than cuddling and kissing before falling asleep. The next day, Hux's new accounts were open with the money she was able to move from her past. She could've easily lived the rest of her life on the money. But Kylo's CPA study books caught her eye. She had a MBA with a focus on finances. When Kylo came home that day, Hux announced they were going to be accountants together. Her money could be put towards their business rent. Kylo cried for an hour before she could speak in clear sentences. Hux petted her hair while watching TV.

"That would be pretty fucking awesome, Hux," Kylo whispers.

Hux smiles, "I know."

Kylo sits up and wipes her face before kissing Hux, "Does mean you'll have to interact with people and be on the internet."

Hux shrugs, "Numbers are concise aside from human error."

Kylo's smile grows, "Fucking nerd."

Hux giggles, "Yes, fuck this nerd."

#kylux #femlux #kissing #e-girl aesthetic #soft #and then they were accountants

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