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tourettesdog · 1 year

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Still Deeper

Based on the prompt “How deep is the Ghost Zone?” for Phic Phight!

For @aggressivelyclueless Word count: 3,055 AO3 Link

Danny often wondered how deep the Ghost Zone ran. When he let himself drift over the islands, watching the lap of ectoplasm tug at the purpled stones like the endless waves of a moonless ocean. When he drifted closer, feeling that pull that ached to tug him into the depths.

Settling down on one of the islands, Danny let his spectral tail dip where the ectoplasm grew heavy. It sent a shiver down his spine, not unlike a cold splash of water, freshly thawed in the spring.

He couldn’t help but compare it to the sea. Green and ghastly as it was, the similarities felt hauntingly close when great behemoths rose from the depths, too many eyes skirting what Danny could only call the surface, before sinking back down to the depths.

He tried to venture there once.

Shutting his eyes, Danny recalled that hapless voyage with a shudder. He’d tied a Fenton fishing line around his waist and trusted Sam and Tucker with the other end. They’d advised against it, knuckles whitening with fear for his safety as they held that thin thread with everything they had.

Danny offered a smile and a salute as he took the plunge.

Diving was easy. The ectoplasm did not fight him, rather welcoming him as he struck through the wash of green. That first layer was not too dissimilar to the surface itself, and by the time Danny glanced upwards he would not have been able to see the difference at all were it not for the sharpened bases of the islands striking downward.

He struck downward too, his tail flickering as he went.

If the surface of the Zone was air, this layer was a fog. It clung to Danny’s skin like mist, cold and hazy with the scent of petrichor heavy in his nostrils.

Blob ghosts trilled in the distance, their sounds echoing on and on in the open expanse. They darted towards Danny, a flock of bright green and brighter red eyes. He welcomed them with a pulse of his core and their trills redoubled with glee.

“Is everything okay?” Sam asked through the Fenton Phones, her tone as tense as the line around his waist.

“Everything’s fine, Sam,” Danny reassured as he held his hand out, letting one of the blob ghosts roll over his fingers. “There’s just some blob ghosts here.”

She wanted him to resurface, but Danny had more to see.

The blob ghosts stuck with him for a time, corkscrewing around his tail and settling in his hair like fat drops of rain. Danny hummed with their trills, finding a chorus of song answering his own.

The mist of the expanse began to densen, coalescing in a blanket of jade fog. It coiled around Danny as he met it, the chill it left on his skin buzzing.

The blob ghosts quieted as he swept his tail through the fog. They tentatively drifted to meet it, their own tails skirting just above the layer. Curiosity and unease mixed, pinging from their little forms with each warbling trill and chirp.

Tentatively, Danny sank his hand beneath the layer of fog, feeling that electric buzz shudder through his ectoplasm.

It wasn’t unpleasant. Strange and new, but no less unpleasant than the crackle of a distant storm.

With one last glance at the blob ghosts, sure they would not follow him down, Danny sank deeper into the abyss.

The cold sparks that danced across Danny’s face electrified his core, filling him with energy and nerve. The jade of the fog had faded into a strange sort of blue, not unlike the open atmosphere of the world the Zone paralleled.

Large, cloud-like structures rose up from the new depths, cyclical spirals that drifted slowly, as if caught in a current. Danny could spot rocks drifting along with them, some as vibrantly purple as the ones at the surface and others as jet-black as obsidian. He moved in an arc to meet one of the stones, finding it tumbled and rounded like the pebbles of a river.

A loud trill startled Danny from his thoughts. He spun around to find a large blob ghost winding towards him, a long tail flowing behind it. Its ectoplasm was as teal as Jazz’s eyes and its face pointed like the tapered snout of a sturgeon. It met Danny with beady magenta eyes, his own glow reflected in those bright orbs as it drifted around him. Its tail ghosted across his arms, curiosity brimming from its ectoplasm in one long, drawn-out trill that whistled and crackled at the end.

Danny returned it in kind with a chirp from his core, watching the ectoplasm ripple across the ghost’s back as it made one last spin around him.

Just as soon as it came, it was gone, tail flicking lazily as it threaded through the stones circling one of those cloud-like spires.

Danny wondered just how deep the spires went. He followed their spiral, finding more oddities amidst the collection of stones. There were odd items gathered in the current: old watches, faded photographs, and glistening jewelry. Trinkets lost to time— though how literally, Danny couldn’t say. He regarded a locket with an inscription so worn that he couldn’t read more than the letter ‘A’. It took everything in him not to reach out and touch it and see if something lay inside.

Something as innate as the hum of his core told him that he shouldn’t disturb their rest.

Rest… it was a funny word for a lump of old bronze and a rusted chain.

“Where are you?” came Tucker’s voice in his ear, the words oddly distant and ringed with static.

“I’m not sure,” Danny answered, still following the curve of the spire, giving distance to the items pulled towards it. “It almost looks like the sky here. It’s nice, honestly.”

Tucker hummed, his anxiety evident. “Just don’t go too far. There’s still plenty of line, but you need to turn back at the first sign of danger.”

Danny nodded, though they couldn’t see. “I know, Tuck. I’ll be careful,” he said.

The buzz hummed alongside his core as he dove still deeper.

The spires did not end, in a sense. They merely faded, drifting apart into a layer of rich white fog that mixed in swirls and rivulets with bright streaks of goldenrod. The static lingered most prominently there, as cold as the Far Frozen and as lively as a sparking wire. Danny hesitated before he met this fog, worried for a moment that the sparks would be more electrical and biting than the familiar caress of active ectoplasm. He brushed the tip of his tail through the swirls, watching as it melted outwards from the contact in jagged ripples.

His core pulsed with energy, a cold hum resonating with the fractals of ice that lingered in his own ectoplasm.

He readily dove through it, laughing as ice bloomed over his hands and in his hair, trailing off of him in powders of snow.

The channels of white fog faded altogether into that goldenrod yellow. It was denser than the green and blue had been, yet no less alive— in a way only ectoplasm could be. Danny tensed as he saw shadows in the distance, moving through the last fading reaches of the spires. It took him a moment to recognize them as ghosts, though he supposed he ought not be surprised.

They were like no ghosts that Danny had ever seen. More fish and mollusk than blob, with arching fins and tangling whiskers. They drifted in schools, watching him with too many eyes above too many teeth. Each was as different from the next, some more vapor and smoke than anything, and others as dense and sharp as horn.

They ignored Danny for the most part, continuing on their course, though some darted away as soon as their eyes met.

One approached, six eyes green and gleaming in the golden haze. Danny knew fear, his hand tensing on the line as it drew close. It was as large as he was, an awful thing that was more shark in the front and nautilus in the back, with a mouth that stretched from its snout to the horn of the shell.

It kept some distance and Danny let go of some of his fear, regarding the ghost with a tilt of his head that it copied— as much as it could with the stiffened, inorganic rigidity of something that may have never existed outside of this place.

Three of the eyes blinked and two long tendrils stretched out, brushing close to Danny’s face as the ghost let out a staccato of unearthly clicks.

The same curiosity as the blob ghost from the layer above, enough to mirror Danny’s own. He tried to return it in kind, finding a trickle of something neighboring on amusement when his core garbled the odd notes.

The creature went on its way, leaving a channel of rippling goldenrod in its wake. Sparks danced along its ectoplasm as it went and Danny watched as the green of the ghost's eyes faded into the mire around him.

More of those strange ghosts followed Danny, perhaps emboldened by the first. They ranged in size, some no larger than dimes and others enough to rival small whales. A ghost swam below Danny, all tentacles and eyes, like a jellyfish without its crown. Small fish-like ones flitted around his head, all teeth and sharp edges.

He kept his guard about him, ready to make good on his word and flee at the first sign of danger, but… found none amidst the odd assortment of ghosts. They almost danced, in a way, following currents he couldn’t feel in patterns he couldn’t see. Many of them dove downwards, fading to golden shadows in his periphery.

Danny followed one of them, tracing the trail it left in its wake, watching the flicker of its smoke-like tails as they wound and undulated with the ghost’s movement.

The goldenrod darkened into a rich sunset orange. The trail tunneled, the path wavering like sand pulled by the tide. Sparks crackled along Danny’s back, the space smelling of ozone and, strangely, of stone. The mute scent of a cavernous cave far below the soil, all rock and dripping water.

The ghost before him took a sharp dive downwards, the smoke of its tails stretching to faint wisps that tickled Danny’s nose. He scrunched up his eyelids, shaking the vapor from his face. His movement felt slow and stuttered, the air as dense as the mud-choked waters of a swamp.

When he opened his eyes again, Danny had to blink to make sure he was seeing things correctly. The rich sunset ombre of orange had gone, and in its place the sky bled red.

A red so absolute that it pressed on Danny’s eyes, warping the colors around him. It stained his gloves the same color, as rich and bloody as a weeping wound. The static had lessened from the lively buzz to something much more languid and rhythmic. The slow beats of a resting heart. The offbeat thumps of a timpani drum. The rumble of faroff thunder without so much as a spark of lightning to see.

Shadows hung in Danny’s periphery, blacker than the night. They formed strange structures not unlike tangled tree branches, only too geometric and sharp-edged to ever be something so organic. The ghost he had followed swam on, its blue ectoplasm now a rich purple in the red light. It coasted along, uncaring of the shift in pressure.

Danny tried to follow it, but paused when that energy squeezed at his core, pulsing like the heartbeat of something far too vast and far too old. It had pinpricks racing along his arms and to his chest, freezing his torso in a way that had nothing to do with the chill surrounding him and everything to do with the frantic, nervous humming of his core.

He shouldn’t be here. Wherever here was, it did not know the living. It hardly knew the dead, too uncaring of Danny’s fear in its vast wake.

Sounds echoed around him, the cracks of shattering glass and grinding stone joining the monotonous tune that squeezed at his chest. The air smelled strongly of iron, only worsening the awful likeness to fresh blood.

The ghost was nearly gone now, aiming towards one of the blackened structures with slow, languid flicks of its tails. Danny could just make out its eyes, too many luminous dots that raced along every inch of its form.

Just as it began to round the corner, the air seemed to shift. The space behind the structure rippled, a wall of red colliding with the ghost, opening into a vast, cavernous maw of blade-sharp teeth.

It swallowed the ghost whole, the rich purple ectoplasm disappearing into the void-dark belly of the beast.

Danny’s core could have shattered with how strongly it hummed, fear coursing through every inch of his being. He remained stockstill, hoping that the thing with too many teeth wouldn’t turn its attention on him.

Static crackled in his ears, the garble of voices unable to make it through the wall of interference.

A thousand eyes, each darker than shadow, turned to meet him.

The line tugged and Danny didn’t fight it. He welcomed the reminder of safety up above and turned sharply, throwing everything he had into rocketing upwards through the warped tunnels above.

The static rippled in his ears, a small nuisance compared to the heavy thunder of crashing glaciers and rumbling earth that chased behind. It brought its own static, too piercing and high for Danny to make sense of anything more than a cruel, twisted pitch that met his ears so sharply he was sure they bled.

Danny didn’t stop, his chest heaving with breaths he didn’t need as he shot through the electric buzz of goldenrod, this time finding no safety in its energetic embrace.

He could feel the creature behind him still. Its thrum of energy, the acidic bite of its breath. He didn’t dare spare a glance backwards, least of all when he felt something sharp rake along his tail, the world darkening as the thing that shadowed him drew too close.

Danny put everything he had into soaring upwards. Every last ounce of energy, every prayer. He ignored the fish-like ghosts as they peeled away, their cores sparking with a horrendous fear as Danny brought the thing that lurked in the bloody depths into their peaceful layer of gold.

Danny could have cried when he saw the goldenrod mix with white. Could have kissed the odd trinkets that danced around the spires, if disturbing their rest meant escaping the gnash of too many teeth.

Its presence lingered behind Danny far too long, his core stuttering with each rhythmic pulse of ancient, resonant ectoplasm. It knew no emotion he could recognize. Nothing he could understand past the desire to tear and bite and end.

Danny didn’t stop when the last deep thrums of the ghost’s core faded, sinking back to the depths far below. He kept going, tears pricking the corners of his eyes when he spotted the sharp stones of the islands overhead.

Danny shot out of the ectoplasmic sea and breathed like a man starved of air. His chest heaved, his arms shook. He landed on the nearest island, crumpling into a quivering heap.

He sobbed.

Danny hardly remembered when Sam and Tucker found him. They had been several islands away when he resurfaced, he was told.

They had almost gone down for him, they had said.

That memory lingered much more strongly— the fear tied to it as he looked at his friends with tear-stricken eyes and made them promise to never venture where he had gone.

Danny rolled on his side as he remembered the fear that had gripped at his core. How close he had come to finding himself in the belly of a beast, utterly lost to anything resembling home.

His hand ghosted along his hip, right over where the ghost’s teeth had scraped him, digging deep channels into his body that bled through layer upon layer of gauze.

More layers than he has dove.

The scars remained, just as much as that fear, and yet… as Danny flicked his tail through the dense waves of ectoplasm, part of him longed to delve still deeper.

~*~

A fish-like ghost, more shark and nautilus than any one thing, knew the red depths well. It often sank through the goldenrod tunnels to linger in the forests of blackened branches. It was quicker than most, able to dart away from the behemoths that stalked the open stretches and hummed discordant songs that spelled a death it didn’t know.

The black branches shot downwards into the familiar dusky stretches of its first home. Here the branches merged into colossal trunks that stretched too high and too low. It would hug the trunks, sinking deeper until the red faded into a cold silver rich with fragments of stone and drifting globules of ectoplasm.

The trunks branched out again if the ghost went deep enough. They formed massive roots, digging into shattered plains amidst glowing fronds, each clinging to the other. Small ghosts congregated on these expanses, finding shelter in the vast network of roots, and sustenance in what fell from the stretches above.

The behemoths, ancient as they were, did not always last. When they fell they would drift through the haze and into the silver, their weakened forms snagging on the roots and laying within the fronds. The last hums of their cores, if they still pulsed, rang like a dinner bell throughout the hallowed roots. The ghosts that lingered there would congregate, a symphony of cores welcoming a feast for the Ancients— perhaps even of them, if they could ever be so lucky to have one fall.

The plains were not endless, broken by great cracks that wove over the blackest black.

It didn’t know what lay below, only that it went still deeper.

#danny phantom #phanfic #fanfic #aggressivelyclueless #the ghost zone #eldritch ghosts #ghosts #the ghost zone is like the ocean #deep water tw #jic #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #dogfics

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presentlydean · 2 months

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online communities are so strange because people slip away so easily. you can be on here for years, folding people you've never met into the fabric of your daily life, and then they disappear, leaving only ghost posts scattered across tumblr behind. or their blog stays dormant, for weeks, months, years, until you're only still following them because you remember that they love sunflowers or they were kind to you when they didn't have to be or the last thing they posted was sad and raw and you still worry about them sometimes.

and sometimes they come back when you least expect it, years later, even, and there's this sudden rush of relief like there you are, there you are, even though you barely knew each other.

there's a strange kind of love to it. i don't know you and i want to hold your hand across miles and time zones and oceans. i can still see the imprint of you in this community you left. you don't think anyone will notice or care when you're gone, but we notice and we care and we wish you well.

i hope you're all okay out there. i hope the sun is shining on your face and you are breathing deeply. i miss you.

#tumblr #not spn #junespeaks

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sameteeth · 3 months

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anyways i havent settled on a suitable understanding of ghosts within the dp universe which is REALLY hindering my writing about it

#ghosts sort of require mind body dualism .... which i dont love.#sort of thinking of the ghost zone as a metaphysical realm layered over the physical one #it sort of functions as an ocean w currents and stuff and a reverse ecto snow type thing that ghosts feed on like marine snow #then ghosts can also hunt for stuff on the physical side of things which gives them motivation to come and cause havoc #but theres also a ghost ectosystem that sustains deeper populations/more esoteric ghosts #also i lovethe idea of dead languages being spoken in the ghost zone lol #but ghosts come from the living - either as real physical things or dead ideas etc but from there they can change #so u can get werewolves and dragons etc - concrete ideas can warp ghosts and ghosts can warp themselves provide they have the energy to #idk im still trying to iron stuff out #fanon dp stuff is fun but i have Thoughts #phantom tag #canis speaks

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simplyreveries · 5 months

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hihiii!!! if you haven’t done this already can you do housewardens and a s/o who’s based off of their movies princesses? :3

saw this request and fell in LOVE yes yes

riddle rosehearts

riddle always seems to notice how oh so curious you were- though he feels it would be inevitable when you're in a completely new world. you're always asking and inquiring him and others within the dorm and school wondering all about the great seven, nrc, twisted wonderland itself! to which riddle is quite proud of and content with sharing you about, he has an abundance of knowledge and is more than willing to share.

before your relationship when you first started to get to know him and his headstrong and strict ways — you had definitely surprised him when you stubbornly got upset with him and told him off (especially after the fact he was mean to you for being magicless…). he was taken aback as you had normally been quiet and even polite towards others.

always seems to be curious whenever you're off and seemingly zoned at— you tend to daydream a lot. whenever he tries to study with you, you usually huff and be distracted as you continue. he’ll shake his head and try to tell you that this is important, riddle will continuously make failed attempts at reminding you to do better when he gets distracted himself when he finds himself staring at you off in your own world.

he does enjoy how intelligent and observant you are. you always seem to give him good ideas when he’s troubled with something as dorm leader— and having dorm leader duties. he occasionally will come to you for advice when it comes to celebrations or unbirthday parties and such— he believes you have quite the creative mind as well.

leona kingscholar

when he had originally met you, he was instinctually nicer to you only for the fact he respects you all the more with your more headstrong but sensible self. leona will groan annoyed with you, but he would do basically anything if you asked him to—despite with how lighthearted you seem about something he just knows just how persistent and stubborn you can be. he honestly loves it that you're perfectly okay with challenging him and teasing him, he likes a bit of banter anyways from you.

he doesn't say it but loves it whenever you try to be playful and affectionate with him. he thinks it's cute how bold you are when it comes to kissing him or hugging him. he’ll have some stupid smirk on his face and tell you you’ve got some guts doing that to him all the time and every single time you have some retort for him.

you tend to push him (force him with a look) to be more active with his own dorm leader duties… not skipping classes to sleep… not putting effort into stuff he isn't interested in despite being in fact really talented. he’ll ask you if you'll only reward him with your affection if he does, it's what he thinks he deserves.

azul ashengrotto

you're always so eager and excited learning about twisted wonderland — he finds it so amusing as you're constantly pestering and asking him what things mean or what something was. what's funny though is that he’s still learning a lot still about life on land too. he is flattered that you seem just as curious about life in the ocean for him, though there are… more difficult memories he has dealt with there in his childhood, he still will share to you whatever you want to know.

azul only finds your curiosity of this whole world to be rather cute. as you're always trying to do things for keepsake, taking many pictures with your ghost camera anytime and anywhere or collect souvenirs and trinkets of places. he seemed confused as to why you had some plants in your room at ramshackle and you only laughed and said you found them interesting...! also, he would totally feel a twinge of pride and ego boost when you compliment his coin collection and seem amazed by it.

okay never mind what he tried to trick you for in chapter 3 but he clearly, he can see how gullible you can be and often seems stressed when he sees how sometimes other students try to take advantage of that. he swiftly approaches by your side and manages to have the poor student a nervous wreck around him for the reputation he holds for what he can do with those twins.

he is swooning anytime he hears you singing and humming to yourself, especially whenever you're doing shifts and working around the mostro lounge. you'll find him in his tired and more clingy moments of him asking you to simply just hum a melody he likes when he's lying next to you, he could simply listen to your voice all day.

kalim al asim

kalim loves your adventurous spirit, he will always be happy to bring you along on some carpet ride whenever you seem saddened because he knows all the sites of the desert at night can be so pretty. sometimes you two may get yourselves into little mishaps and trouble around school and campus but he’s never fazed by it, he loves it actually. he also tells you many times though, that he plans on bring you to his homelands so you can meet his family but also to show you around and go through the streets!

as you're someone who's really confrontational and no-nonsense kind of person— whenever you're dealing with some troublesome student, he's surprised but quickly turns to a happy support when you tell someone off. you’ll have kalim be like “yeah you tell them!!” right beside you just watching it unfold alskdjfjs. the first time he saw even a glimpse of that fiery attitude you hold inside was during the events of chapter 4 and you got into Jamil’s face got trying to manipulate you with his magic and sending you to the ends of the desert…! wow he was surprised but wow was he in love.

much alike you kalim as undoubtedly lived a sheltered life with his family during his youth in- he wants to explore and try new things with you all the time. he's practically dragging you out the door every day.

vil schoenheit

he didn't completely understand as to why you're always so chipper and happy. even before you two got into a relationship when he was staying at ramshackle with the others for the vdc training and saw the conditions of the place- yet you were so content with your situation. he’d find you doing your own thing getting work and cleaning down to keep yourself busy or go about helping the others as their “unofficial official manager”. you seemed to find the positives and happiness for anything that happened to you.

vil did grow fond of your voice and wanted to hear it more— he even wondered as to why you didn't try out for it yourself, as he believed you were blossoming with potential. he usually would catch you doing quite often and even helping the others prepare for the contest like epel, sing. he couldn't help but only grow intrigued with you as he heard you using your voice commonly.

your softness around him and others really brings out his more loving side— he can't help but almost feel more protective of you as well. he tries to remind and advise you to be more careful around the students here… he happens to be quite worried of your kindness being used to the advantage of troublesome students here. nevertheless, he’ll softly smile, carefully fix your uniform and tell you “tsk… don't you worry, dear.” if anything of that sorts even attempts to happen.

idia shroud

you're the straightforward and blunt one in contrast to his quiet and unconfrontational self. it's the perfect combination you guys are literally the epitome of “he asked for no pickles” BYE. any interaction idia had with you at first had him flustered and stumbling for his words— not only that but he was completely enthralled by you as well. double hit. idia had even believed that you were someone that was really out of his league and had no idea on how to even begin approaching someone such as yourself.

though you two are a like, you two aren't only in a relationship but you guys are literally each other's best friends as well. you are, whether you admit it or not, seem to be a bit lonely like him. its fine though because you get an extra friend when you start dating him, ortho!! duh… he will immediately accept you as his new sibling the minute he sees idia actually being genuinely giddy and happy around you.

despite how difficult he felt to even attempt to pursue someone like you… being someone like him. he only felt more of a sense of persistence and even infatuation when you tend to be abrasive and untrusting to others (i need to unlock their backstory hihihi) it made him feel too stubborn to give up the idea. not like he could've gotten you out his head anyways.

malleus draconia

malleus has the biggest soft spot for you and its incredibly obvious. he always tells you himself, he’d chuckle and tell you that you remind him of the princess in the tale that cursed into years of slumber. he finds your daydream-y disposition so endearing and usually instead of saying anything about it he silently watches you with a loving gaze of adornment.

he does have a protective streak over you, he can’t help but feel that way. he always seems to be worried about you in some way. he doesn't really talk about his concerns unless its lilia asking him what the troubled expression is for. he sometimes grows fearful of a human such as yourself from another world and being too gentle and kind to the others around you. i mean, just look at how sweet and accepting of himself when you first met him. you had no idea who he really was— a prince and the 5th strongest magic user in the world. yet, he couldn't help but feel like that personality is what made him fall for you even more.

he sometimes thinks you are like silver, as you sometimes have your own moments of tiredness and exhaustion fall on you. he finds it endearing and will make sure he is someone you're able to lean on when seemingly tired. he’ll gentle put his hand on the side of your head and guide it to lay against him.

#twst #disney twst #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #disney twisted wonderland #twst wonderland #twst headcanons #twst imagines #twisted wonderland #not proof read #riddle x reader #leona x reader #azul x reader #kalim x reader #vil x reader #idia x reader #malleus x reader #dorm leaders x reader

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not-my-final-account · 4 months

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Danny is Gotham

“Are we safe now ghost boy?” Paulina asked

“Yes we’re fine,” I would usually be nicer but I had a whole evening planned before some ghost threw Paulina into the ghost zone for No Apparent Reason! Besides, something had been tugging at my core all day, I just couldn’t place it and it was getting annoying!

“We have to-” I cringed over in pain and it felt as though my core hada been shoved under tones of pressure.

I gasped for breath

“-ost boy! Ghost boy!” Paulina asked, getting incresingly worried. I grunted “Ghost boy are you okay?!” she asked

“Fright knight, gaurd Paulina.” I grunted, and then I flew off.

I flew towards my city, my haunt. My knight. My bird. I didn’t really understand what was going on but something was wrong, horribly wrong, with my bird, he was asking for help and I was going to answer.

I summoned a portal and flew through into some place, but where I was didn’t matter. I was looking at some pennywise rip off hurting MY BIRD!!! and I saw green.

I carried my bird out and held him in my arms, using my ectoplasm to heal him. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m going to bring you to your dad, you’re going to be alright.” I reassured

“Dad?” my bird asked weakly

“Your dad.” I reassured

“W-who are?” my bird tried to asked

“I’m Gotham.” I said “I owe you a great debt little bird.” I said “Healing my city, I’m so proud of you.” I cooed

“I- I didn’t fail you?” he asked hopefully

“You could never fail me, or your dad.” I told my bird.

I was stressing, I pulled my cowl on and off, Batman couldn’t help, Batman never helped and now Jason was gone! Jason was gone. Jason Was Gone. JASON WAS GONE. JASON WA- the door opened.

I spun around to see the silhouette of Gotham hovering in the air

“Gotham, Joker he-” I froze as Gotham stepped into the light. He was carrying Jason and dripping in blood- not either of their blood either.

“If you’ll excuse me, there’s a clown I have unfinished buisness with.” Gotham said, so calmly.

Gotham seemed calm, and yet the city raged. The earth shook in barely supressed rage, the sky thundered in booming claps like a clock ticking, the ocean roared in fury and unyielding anger, the wind shrieked and howled in grief. Gotham was angry.

“D-dad?” Jason sat up and I nearly sobbed in relief “Dad, Gotham saved me.” Jason said, he looked at the blood on the floor “Dad what happened to Gotham?!” Jason asked worriedly

“Gotham is fine. I’m more worried about what he’s going to do.” I said

“He’s going to kill Joker.” Jason stated, then he tilted his head “You’re not going to try stop him.”

“I don’t think anyone can stop Gotham.” I said honestly.

#danny is gotham au #notmyfinalaccount writes #dp x dc #dpxdc #dc x dp #dcxdp

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strawberrysainz · 5 months

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supercut of us. max verstappen

“ you weren’t expecting him to join the holiday. so when he does . . . you’re not sure how to refrain yourself from both slapping him in the face or pulling him into bed with you. ”

max verstappen x fem!reader

a mini enemies to lovers “blurb” (it’s 1.5k words lol) for my max lovers.

a warning — slightly mature scene, profanity, alcohol consumption

3:36 P.M.

“My heart is pounding,” you admit, and your hand that absentmindedly clutches your moving chest allows you to let out a deep breath.

George chuckles. You’re both waiting for his girlfriend to come back from the bar with your cocktails - you for a drink, him so he can leave you two alone.

The bird that’s just made a grab at your bowl of snacks squawks from a metre away and you stare at it menacingly. Carmen comes back clutching two strawberry daiquiris, and George takes that as his cue to leave, hurriedly. You furrow your eyebrows. “What’s the man got to do at -” you check your watch -“three forty two pm on holiday?”

Carmen shrugs. “He had to get to the airport to pick people up, last I heard.”

You nod knowingly and lean back on the sun lounger, taking a sip of your drink.

Carmen starts to talk about drama from work, and you peer at her through your sunglasses as the warmth of the sun and the comfort of previous tipsiness starts making you drift off.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

4:56 P.M.

Around an hour later you’re rudely awoken by multiple cheeky voices; you can identify George’s loud voice through the squinting of your eyes through the sunlight, but there’s one voice that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s raspy - in a smooth way - but the short cackle that follows it allows you to realise that it's someone you definitely don’t want on holiday with you.

Pure annoyance makes you open your eyes. Carmen is nowhere to be seen; four men stand above you. You sit up, yawning, and hope that you’re not red with sunburn. (Looking down for a split second, you’re not.) Then you look up with some kind of synthetic smile and your blood boils as you look Max straight in the eyes.

“Hi boys,” you say, smiling, and get up to give everyone a hug; Lando spins you around and runs across the sand, and as you scream he throws you into the ocean.

Now you need a drink, for real.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

LATER. 11:37 P.M.

Head heavy in your hand on the counter, you’re woozy, blanketed by too many cocktails, and Lily and Carmen sit across from you stealing blocks of chocolate from a bar Alex bought.

Max strolls in and you grimace.

The anger hasn’t dissipated- being in a serene setting hasn’t changed what happened- and you toss him the drink he nods to; he turns straight back around and leaves.

“What’s the beef with you two, anyway?” Lily says curiously, and Carmen laughs. “It’s so dumb.”

“When we were sixteen-” you interrupt yourself to cough- “he dated two of my friends and caused us all to break up our group. Then he asked me out for a date, we went out, then he ghosted me. I was left with no friends. Then we met again two years later and we had a screaming fight outside a club, which ended up in a Dutch gossip mag. I was so embarrassed.”

Lily scrunches her nose. Carmen has zoned out, but she laughs to herself.

You look at her with the hint of a smile, tilting your head.

She nudges Lily. “They have to share a room tonight.” She whispers, and she throws her head back laughing and you stare at her incredulously. “Sorry?”

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

2:16 A.M.

“Max, I don’t fucking care, I’m sleeping on this stupid thing.” You kick the hard wooden bench at the foot of the bed. (It looks like a terrible place to sleep).

“Can you fucking get over yourself?” He says, rolling his eyes, and you’re drunk and upset and trying not to cry because he makes you so angry. “Just sleep in the fucking bed.”

You stand there in the room with your arms crossed, breeze softly blowing. He huffs and stalks off to the bathroom.

You get dressed for bed, in a big t-shirt because it’s hot and humid. Max walks out of the bathroom as you’re sliding on the shirt and you know he’s gotten a glimpse of your stomach and your underwear because his gaze changes from something frustrated to something you witnessed at the age of seventeen, across a dinner table as his hands move over your thigh.

He seems to be moving without knowing; suddenly he’s in front of you, eyes wild with desire you haven’t ever known, and it’s a test of patience, standing there under the twilight; the curtains blow.

You stand there with trepidation rattling your body and turn around, getting into bed like a stubborn little child.

He closes his eyes, opens the door and leaves.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

9:23 A.M.

The morning air greets you as you walk outside; Lando’s made mimosas on the wooden table next to the swimming pool, and you take a champagne glass gratefully. You wave to Lily and Alex who sit with their feet in the pool, and sip, the sun bathing you in light.

Lando comes to sit next to you by the pool loungers and you raise your glass as a thank you to him. “I heard you two had a little spat last night,” he says carefully, and you snort. “He instigated it and left.”

He laughs. “He went past my room to sleep on the couch. His footsteps were so fuckin’ heavy, I couldn’t even sleep for a good twenty minutes.”

You laugh.

George yells from inside that he’s made breakfast and everyone gets up with a yawn. Lando grabs a spare bottle of champagne and you all walk inside.

There’s some nearly burnt pancakes, heavenly smelling bacon, some sausage, and fried eggs. You all praise him heavily (Alex wraps his arm around his waist and pretends to kiss him) and Max walks in. He doesn’t acknowledge you and instead greets everyone else. You roll your eyes.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

13:43 P.M.

You’re a bit tipsy already, enough so that you can chat to Max amicably beside the pool as George and Alex play some mix of water polo and volleyball.

Your empty glass seems to shout at you from your side, so you pick it up and make your way back to the house.

As you enter the kitchen you hear someone stepping behind you. It’s Max - you know it from the soft thud of his foot against the wooden floor. Your eyelids flutter shut with some emotion you don’t know yet when he comes to stand next to you. You watch him out of your periphery, his hands, the soft, flowing movement of his body. His resting face, squinting with concentration to pour drinks. You bite back some words and carry on pouring.

As you turn around to go back, you two face each other, and your breath hitches when his eyes slowly move to meet yours, clutching your glass like it’s your protector. His gaze is… tender. In the kind of way that blurs out everything else.

The only thing that comes to mind is kissing him, so you move to go, and he sets down a glass to grab your arm. You clear your throat, and Christine McVie’s voice croons in the background when you look back. His eyelashes brush his cheek every time he blinks, and you study his face, forgetting all that came before.

Lando and Alex call, and you both leave. The feelings are left there, back in the house, when you go.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

12:34 A.M.

Stumbling back from the restaurant, everyone bids eachother a good night after a quick drink of a glass of water each. You find your room and start getting undressed in the middle of the room, carelessly, and when you hear Max come in you get a fright and clutch your chest. He lets out a little laugh as he gets his things and moves to the bathroom.

Two minutes later, when he walks back inside, you’re bending over to see your face in the mirror to take off your makeup and you can sense the energy inside the room has changed. He’s in a shirt and those gingham pants that look divine on any man, and he stands still for a moment before moving over to the window. You bend back up and you’re met by his gaze again, frozen in place. Your lips part momentarily and he steps forward, and you’re reminded of how much you hate his stupid face when his lips meet yours. His hands wrap around your waist, one dipping beneath your shirt to rest on your stomach, and you’re kissing him, hard, desperately, messily; in a way that you don’t realise how much you wanted to until now.

He moves slowly to the bed, large hands grasping your waist softly, sending shivers up your spine. His hips press against yours as you fall on the bed, gasping with pleasure as his hands meet your neck.

❤️‍🔥🍓💋🍹

TWO MONTHS LATER. 11:56 AM.

In the garage, you’re busy chatting to some mechanics when he comes up to you, and his hands slide around your waist from behind. You twist your torso to smile up at him as he presses a kiss to your cheek, and to your delight he pushes you towards his driver’s room, shooting you a knowing grin as he looks away, holding up five fingers and then a thumbs up. You bite back a broad smile as you walk away.

i hope you enjoyed. heart, comment, reblog pls 🫶🤙 love u love u love u

#f1 imagine #f1 x reader #f1 #f1 x you #f1 fanfic #f1 one shot #f1 fic #max verstappen one shot #max verstappen x reader #max verstappen fic #max verstappen x you #max verstappen #max verstappen drabble #max verstappen imagine #max verstappen smut #max verstappen fanfic

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captain-mj · 14 days

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Mermay

My friend Rose asked me for one of these a while ago! I went in a slightly different direction but if you see this, i hope you like it! It's just a vague drabble I was feeling

Ghost has spent a good portion of his life recently alone. His family was gone and at some point, he stopped bothering to try to get close to people.

At this moment, he was just barely drifting above the twilight zone of the water. Lately, it has become harder and harder to bother going all the way up to get air. Right not, he could tell he had another fifteen or so minutes of air before he’d need to come back up.

He glanced up and saw the ship. With a sigh, he started swimming faster, trying to go in the opposite direction of where they were headed.

A pulse ran through the water. He paused and glanced back. He listened closely as the water settled.

Merpeople only sent that when they needed someone to pay attention. Basically a sonar sound. He didn’t want to move just yet. Just… just in case.

He knew he should move. Sitting here put him in danger.

Right as he gave up and went to keep swimming, he heard a scream. So loud it hurt.

Ghost should keep moving. He should keep moving. No reason to go back.

Ghost was turned back around and racing back to the boat.

“Help!! Please!” The voice was gruff and desperate sounding.

The body attached to it was…

Ghost almost stuttered in his movement.

They had large fins along their arms and legs that glittered like the shiny stones along the ocean floor. When he twisted, Ghost became aware of the blood where someone had a hook through one of those beautiful fins.

They made eye contact with Ghost. “Please?”

Ghost barely hesitated before slamming himself into the boat. He could hear people yelling, but more importantly, he could see the hook yanking itself through the rest of Soap's fin. It released him, but left a nasty wound that spilled far too much blood in the water.

Ghost reared back and hit the boat again, hearing it crack. He dug his fingers into one of the breaks in the wood and yanked so the water would flood in.

The pretty fish from earlier managed to grab his tail as they started to sink down and Ghost relented his assault on the boat to make sure they didn't slip down into the depths. He rose up for a moment to take a deep breath of air and then sank back down.

"My name is Johnny." Pretty fish said, smiling despite the odd way they held themselves.

"Simon. Do you think you can swim?"

Johnny moved around slightly and winced. "No. I don't think so. If you wouldn't mind dropping me off near the reef, i can take care of myself." He did not look like he could at all. Although the blood was quick to stop as the flesh of his fins was very thin, the long gash meant he wouldn't be able to propel water very effectively.

Simon hummed. "You're coming to my cave." He picked him up like a bride and started to swim down.

"Wait, isn't that a little soon?? We just met! Does your family live there?"

Simon didn't answer.

#call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #simon ghost riley #johnny soap mactavish #call of duty modern warfare ii #cod mw2 #ghostsoap #cod #soapghost #ghoap

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satoshy12 · 8 months

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Aquababy Ghost Fenton

After being killed with suffocates by Black Manta, Aquababy Arthur Jr. landed in the Ghost Zone. The small ghost infant is discovered by Dani, who is very determined to seek justice for him. And after asking Skulker, who embark on a mission to avenge the infant's brutal death by eliminating Black Manta once and for all. Someone who does infanticide is always pretty hated by the whole Ghost zone and all the Ghosts; to kill him would earn Skulker much respect in the zone. Even Pariah Dark would destroy Black Manta out of disgust.

Dani promised that she would get Danny too busy with other things to go in his way and make the death brutal.

Deep in the ocean Skulker attacked while Black Manta was deep in the sea in a fight with Aquaman; he just cut the rebreather of Black Manta. So the sea did the job, as Manta died from the water pressure. He didn't even become a ghost, just a ghost larva. That Skulker killed it the moment it came into existence, so David Hyde was fully gone and could never return, but it was a nice snack for him.

Amity Park Dani was before Danny showed her new brother to him, Jazz, and the Fentons. It was easier than she thought, as she now has Arthur Fenton in the family. And the Fenton Parents loved the baby boy, as they build a new water room for him to sleep and life as Water baby. Jazz was talking in baby speech with him. Danny looked at his clone, but then accepted the new family member, Dani was happy she was able to distract Danny long enough that he didn't notice Skulker was gone to kill someone.

5 years Later Arthur Fenton pic was online, together with his Pre-school class for Halloween. Adorable Dressed up as Aquaman, looking just like his father but young with silver blonde hair.

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kimerawrt · 7 months

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DP x DC: Reincarnation

(this idea keeps bothering me so I'm launching it into the void of tumblr)

Danny is the ghost king, has been for a hundred or so years, and had been working non stop to fix the mess pariah dark made. He did but he keeps working almost like an obsession (its not thankfully)

Cause working with no pause is not healthy even if one is dead, CW and other ancients decide to give their king a forced reincarnation vacation. Their king gets a rest of his duties by living a human life while they manage the zone, cause a human life is nothing to ghosts that have existed for millennia, they can wait for their king to return.

The high king of the ghost zone is born again with a new name. His name is Bruce Wayne.

(more under the cut)

Bruce is a happy child, and a very smart one. He understand machines in some strange way and is incredible good with physics (specially astrophysics). His parents are aware of how smart he is and encourage him to learn more things, Bruce learns a lot of how to manage a business from his dad and his mom teaches his about lots of things but mostly on how to think logically and deduct the truth

For some strange reason animals seem to like him, specially cats, dogs, crows and bats. When Bruce falls into the well he is scared by the bats but calms down enough to know the bats are also scared

Bruce is a happy child, until his parents are murdered in front of him.

Bruce feels like something in him breaks at that. his emotions are so painful that its almost physical. Alfred is the only one he has left and he becomes very protective of his butler

Bruce grows up with grief in his heart. He graduates high school with the biggest honors and goes to college. He tries engineering and leaves it. He tries medicine and leaves it too. He cant move past his parents murder and he cant unseen how his beloved city seems to get worse and worse.

Bruce decides to do something to fix all of that. He now has a mission. He drops out of college, makes a well thought plan and leaves to train leaving a letter behind to Alfred cause he knows if he sees the butler he wouldnt be able to leave. He needs the training.

For a year, Bruce looks for the best experts in a lot of fighting styles, offensive and defensive, things happen and he stars training with the League of Assassins. Bruce is good and learns fast but there is something in there that makes him extremely wary and make him work very hard to not get hurt

The Lazarus Pit

Those glowing green boiling waters gave him a bad feeling. Sometimes Bruce could swear the were whispering at him, calling to him to let them give him something he ought to have. Bruce was smart and knew that would be nothing good and he didnt ask the others if they too could hear the weird waters. He was sure Ra's would kill him for it. The guy was obsessed with the thing.

Unfortunately for him, in the final test to be an assassin, Bruce got hurt enough to need to be put in the waters to not die. Ra's saw potential in him and he was not going to lose someone that good in fighting.

In the waters, Bruce was being healed but something else was going on. The Lazarus Pit was made of a mix of ectoplasm, purified waters from long lost oceans and death magic. That combination made the waters heal all organic organisms in exchange for something, for sentient beings was their sanity and for non sentients was their will

Its a good thing that the ectoplasm in it recognized their king soul and the death magic was not able to take, but it could give as well.

That day Bruce Wayne remembered his last life and knew what awaited him after he died. That night, Bruce escapes from the League and returns to Gotham.

Once home, Bruce pass some time with Alfred telling little things about his travels. Alfred gives him a look that told Bruce that the butler knew he was not telling him everything. It doesnt takes long for Bruce to tell Alfred everything, the hidden parts of his travels, the League and his memories from a previous life. He could never hide things from Alfred for long.

Alfred believes him and declares that Bruce is his guard no matter what he had been or done. Bruce is happy to have Alfred with him.

Bruce had not forgotten his mission to fix Gotham and after searching for a place to train and build things he finds the Cave under his house. For some reason it feels nostalgic, as if one could build a portal to the realm of the dead in there. Of course Bruce has no plan of doing that.

While building his gadgets to fight crime in Gotham, Bruce also builds something he saw the Fentons do before the portal. It was a machine to gather ectoplasm in a passive way. He had a suspicion that the city was not only contaminated by smog but there was also something supernatural in it.

When the first drops of glowing green ectoplasm filled the vial he had left under the machine Bruce knew he was right. As it only took some days to gather it, it was clear that there was an unusual high concentration of ecto in the city. It would be too easy to open a portal in here.

Bruce then used the gathered ecto to power up his supercomputer and many more tools. He was also working on making a car powered up with it. Of course he was not going to let the bright glowing green be seen in whatever he is making.

Alfred had a slight suspicion that besides being the ghost king, his guard might be also a mad scientist

Bruce might have also kinda tamed the colony of bats living in the cave. Making sure all of them were healthy and vaccinated was a nightmare he was not willing to repeat.

Because of working with ectoplasm, Batman always gives an uncanny feeling to the criminals and makes most of them give up in fear. Batman becomes a cryptid very soon, though the police still tries to arrest him, Bruce gets a odd nostalgic feeling at being chased with guns shooting at him

it only takes a year after Batman is out fighting crime for a ghost to show up. Luckily that ghost is just Cujo. Now Bruce has a very good guard dog to protect his house and Alfred

Thanks to Cujo Bruce discovers the city has an spirit and its kinda cursed. Its too bad he had no knowledge of what kind of magic is affecting the city. And because his current human body is not magical he can do little to help. Having Cujo chase away maligns shades seems to help some.

When the rogues appear they remind Bruce of the ghosts he fought when he was a half ghost. Though, he knows they are alive and can change for the better unlike the dead that are stuck and need something too drastic to change. Although Arkham is so corrupt that Bruce has to fight another type of fight to fix that, one that unfortunately he cant punch away

When Bruce sees how the child in the circus is left alone after witnessing his parents death, or course he would want to help. He didnt expect that Robin would join him in his night job

Then another child tries to steal his wheels and ends up adopting him, he also didnt expect the new Robin and by know he would seen the pattern

When Jason is killed by the Joker, Bruce is devastated and seeks vengeance. Batman cant kill, thats a rule he imposed to his vigilante persona. But he didnt need to be Batman to get revenge and the teachings of the League of Assassins come in handy. He knew that if he killed the Joker his soul would belong to him and he would get a better revenge when he becomes the ghost king once more.

An unknown assassin kills the Joker

Twice

There is something strange in Gotham. Something that makes the Joker come back to life a little bit more unhinged every time. Something that made Jason Todd crawl out of his grave some months after burying him

Time passes, Bruce gets more children and gets in more fights. Then Jason comes back to Gotham filled with the Pit madness. But when he tries to confront Batman, the Pit calms down in the presence of its king.

Jason is happy to not having to fight the Pit all the time, he still becomes the crime lord/anti-hero Red Hood, though his relationship with his dad is not bad after they had a talk, mostly of Bruce killing the Joker more than once already (they probably go to kill the Joker again as a bonding activity or something)

-There would be other shenanigans in between all this like:

+the kids discovering you can bring food back to like with ectoplasm and making a mess in the kitchen, everyone but Jason gets a life ban from Alfred domain

+the other heroes of the League thinking Batman has a meta power to make him appear intimidating, tho it wouldnt explain where he gets the strange technology or why some could swear a green see through puppy follows the dark night even in the watchtower

+Batman and Deadman make a strange friendship in the eyes of the other, Deadman knows the bat has the soul of his king but as he is not king now its fine to be casual, the ghost adores Cujo and pets it all the time

#danny phantom #dp x dc #fic i will prob not write #danny is batman #danny is bruce wayne #reincarnation #he gets his memories back causing canon to differ #batman is detective and mad scientist #dp au

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chaoswarfare · 1 year

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swimming with the fishes! ;))

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dc x dp #artwork #actually proud of this #based on the ‘ghost zone is like the ocean’ prompt #i can’t find the prompt but i finally finished this #it took a whole week #lmao #digital arwork #digital art #fish #blob ghost fish #blob ghosts #ghost are fish lol #backgrounds are hard #backgrounds are the bane of my existence #happiness #tumblr nuked the quality lmao

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ofoceansandtombsanew · 6 months

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the summer moon was born from the waves to be loved (gojo x reader) pt 2

or, you got pregnant and the ghost of university days past finds out five years later.

tags: 18+, afab!reader (she/her), baby daddy gojou au pt 2: electric boogaloo

AO3 || pt 1

TAGLIST: (bold couldn't be tagged) @cafedanslanuit @ainescribe @chiyoso @wishing--butterfly @hash-slinging-slasher-trash @sweet-evie @korrynn-nadine @strawberrycrash @juzestellium @theabbies @evalynanne @mghostsworld @syynnaaah @cupidezlyia @princessrow12 @lindascosmos @hydraafk @moosey

o. buoy

If Satoru was forced to use some sort of ocean-related terminology to describe you, he’d say you’re a buoy.

You were the marine biology major. (What was the difference between that and oceanography? Satoru had no idea. You explained it to him at least twice though). Because of that, Satoru heard his fair share of marine terminology from you.

Buoys were those floating things at sea, the ones from Finding Nemo that had all the seagulls on it. You said they were guiding posts, gave heads up for reefs or they could be warnings for hazardous zones.

To Satoru, you were like an anchorless buoy that ー no matter how far he sailed ー he could never reach.

i. halocline

You’ve never felt permanent; not to Satoru.

You sooner felt like one of those quickly formed friendships you thought would last forever only for it to dwindle out as fast as it started. Then that person was just a forgotten name in your contacts list until you’re scrolling down and going ‘Who the hell is this? Delete’ without a second thought.

It was strange.

An oxymoron of the highest degree.

How did someone who was such a constant in his life from the moment you set foot in it simultaneously feel as impermanent as foam on the waves? One minute you were there, the next you weren’t. Satoru wasn’t sure when the fear of you disappearing entirely crept in.

When those looks started appearing on your face.

All he knew was that it started long before he started sleeping with you and it started long before you left.

One moment you’re hanging out ー undoubtedly doing something stupid. Singing the wrong lyrics to a song on the radio, putting Suguru’s hair in pigtails, watching María la del Barrio with Utahime who took one Spanish class and made telenovelas her entire personality for a month ー then you’d grow quiet and this far away look would be in your eyes. Satoru never knew where you went in those moments, but it wasn’t there.

So he’d do something to anchor you back to land. It didn’t have to be much.

A poke to the cheek,

a tickle to your side,

calling out to you,

sometimes he’d even play with your fingers.

It didn’t matter what he did as long as you’d blink and grin and go “what’s up?” and everything would feel right in the world.

It never would feel right long enough though; the look always came back and the feeling would persist.

When you sang songs in the car.

(“I can do it fast or slow, it really doesn't matter, though. 'Cause I'm a pro, what you say? You wanna take me toe to toe? Uh no, dude, I think so,” you’d rap Kel’s verse flawlessly like you’d rehearsed it for hours. “My style is phat and Immature’s got my back on this funky trackー” you pointed at Satoru enthusiastically.

“You want fries with that?” Satoru would point back with way too much passion for a line that went way too hard for what he was actually saying. “Coo coo ca-choo whatcha gonna do?”

Shoko would roll her eyes but she’d still be smiling when Suguru softly brought in the chorus with rhythmic bumps of his head, “watch me do my thing, I like to do my thing, watch me do my thing, everybody sayー”

Your head continued to bump along but you stopped singing along and looked out the window. Satoru remembered he threw his arm around your shoulders loudly belting the rest of the lyrics until you laughed and joined back in.)

When you indulged Utahime’s telenovela personality change.

(“[First], quit zoning out. I’m bored.”

“Hey, unlike you, I’m actually paying attention.”

“Oh yeah, then what’s been going on?”

“Soraya Montenegro is gasping in Spanish right now.”

“Can you both shut u- OH MY GODー”

“IS NO ONE GONNA STOP THIS BITCH?”)

And at parties.

(Satoru always knew you were about to leave when you made that face. Things could start perfectly at the beginning of the night. You’d finally skulk out of your cave like you were Gollum from Lord of the Rings and wave him over. The next moment? You were in deep thought while your friends made joke after joke, rip after rip.

“Sorry gang, but my lips don’t touch anything but Don Equis and Asahi,” you’d say with an air of regality not suited for a party of college students. “Maybe Corona if there’s nothing else. I’m not drinking... whatever this is. So I’m gonna head out, there’s a 24 hour liquor store around here somewhere.”

“You coming back?” Satoru didn’t know why he asked, he already knew what your answer would be.

“Nah, I think I’m done for the night. I’ll catch you guys later though.”

“I’ll walk you back to your place then.”)

He doesn’t know why he looked at your lips that night at the park.

You were friends, he liked being your friend. That’s all there was to it. It had always annoyed him up until that point when Suguru and Shoko joked the two of you were more like a couple than anything else. That he chased after you like a lovesick puppy, the pathetic but funny kind. He wasn’t sure why it annoyed him so much.

Maybe it was because it felt like it reduced everything about his friendship with you into that shit take that the opposite sex couldn’t just be friends.

Maybe it was something else entirely. He doesn't know.

You weren’t permanent.

Not while you sat beside him in a park at who knows when in the morning and not even when you reassured him his life would work out the way he wanted and you touched him like he was something precious to you.

“Be careful I don’t disappear for months, spirited away by the sea folk on my Children of the Sea shit. I’ll come back to shore occasionally, mysterious as the sea itself.” You already were as mysterious as the sea itself.

“Even if you got spirited away, I’d just go and bring you right back.” Satoru meant it. Even if, more than anything, it felt more like he was making that promise to reassure himself. It didn’t matter how far off to the sea you went as long as Satoru could bring you back to the shore. “You’ve doomed yourself.” More specifically you said that to him. Maybe he should have taken it more of a warning than a light-hearted nudge.

“You said it first, remember?” You did. He remembered it as clear as day. He’d stumbled onto an unstable boat and you were a buoy far off in the distance.

“There’s no ditching me now, not even at sea.” So stay. That’s all Satoru needed you to do.

The sprinklers that decided to join in on the moment must have been a sign that he was in the middle of a prophecy that was going to be fulfilled whether he wanted it to or not. That’s why he kissed you first in the doorway of your bathroom when you just came to ask if he wanted tea.

Buoys are supposed to have anchors, right?

Maybe he could be yours.

When Satoru woke up the day after the first time you slept together, he woke up alone.

It wasn't until he reached out an arm lazily to your side of the bed and he patted the mattress several times that he realized no one was there. The bed had long since gone cold so you had to have been gone for a while. Yes, you called five minutes later from McDonald’s cheerily going “Yooo, Satoru, I’m at Mickey D’s, what do you want?” Still it cemented your impermanence and that was only the first of many times he woke up by himself.

You could be out the house or in; Satoru preferred when you were in. Sometimes you’d be in the kitchen humming some unknown tune, other times you’d be watching TV on the couch. Either way, he could drape himself over you with a tired ‘morning’ and hold you close.

(“What are you wa- is that the new episode of Love is Blind?”

“Um… I only just started it two minutes ago?”

“[First], what the hell!? While I was asleep?!”)

From then on when Satoru saw those far away looks, he’d kiss you since it was on the table now. Satoru put everything into those kisses and you’d kiss him back just as hard.

Don’t go anywhere. He’d thread one hand into your hair and the other would pull your waist closer to his. Satoru didn’t want or need anything else. Stay.

You kissed him like you would.

It’s crazy how easily you could just slip away from everything like a ghost that hadn’t been there at all. It was shockingly apparent that impromptu trip you took to the beach in the middle of the semester.

Everyone had been together in awe of the bioluminescent dots in the sea and it donned on him you hadn’t said anything in a while. You were gone.

He’d painted his panic in his usual bravadoー nonchalant and grinning, claiming he was gonna go bother you for a bit.

It was a relief when he found you.

It was dreadful when he found you.

Satoru couldn’t see your face clearly but he could tell your look was intent on the sea and how it shined with the glow of a billion bright lights. If there was a ghost ship calling you out to the depths, Satoru knew you’d leave in a heartbeat.

You slowly became more noticeably distant from your group of mutual friends after that trip. It didn’t start immediately, you’d acted the same as usual at first. You still sang songs in the car, Utahime had grown out of her novela phase in favor of all of you losing your shit at the editing of Indian serial dramas and in between those moments Satoru found himself in your bed again.

It was around that time you started kissing his forehead; when the kisses started, that’s when you started drifting away from his orbit. You said it was homework, your profs telepathically communicating to increase your workload.

You alright?

What kind of sadists are your professors if you’re this busy?

Just let me know if you need me to come over some kind of distraction. Sorry for coming over earlier unannounced, I shouldn’t have assumed. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.

“Do you think she thinks I’m being clingy?” Satoru mumbled as he stared at your text that you were fine just dying from homework. You definitely thought he’s being clingy. He’d always been a bit clingy with his friends. He was probably more overbearing than usual though.

“Yes,” Kenjaku replied without missing a beat. “You’re gonna get dumped if you keep this up.”

God what does Suguru see in this guy? He’s like a fucking parasite. “I wasn’t asking you,” Satoru glared. “And she isn’t my girlfriend.”

Suguru snorted, running his hands through his boyfriend’s hair, “play nice both of you,” he said lightly and Satoru rolled his eyes. “But if [First] is saying she’s fine, then just trust that she’s fine. She’ll come back around when her workload decreases.”

Satoru glared with a pout, “you’re worried too, don’t act like it’s just me.”

“I never said it was, it’s just that between the two of us I’m handling it better. I sent her a surprise uber eats delivery yesterday.” Asshole, that was a brilliant idea. Satoru wished he thought of it first. Instead he asked Shoko to check on you; maybe you’d be more receptive if it wasn’t him bothering you for the tenth text in a row.

Shoko went to check on you. Apparently you were fine and Satoru was worrying for nothing. She even said that you would come and hang out with them soon. Some people might say it’s a bit petty to celebrate the failures of others. In another universe, Satoru might even agree with them. But in this universe, Satoru was a hater first and foremost. So if he and his friends wanted to go out to eat to celebrate the fact Zenin Naoya was bitching about a failing grade on an essay, he and his friends were going to go out and eat to celebrate Zenin Naoya failing his essay.

Apparently, you were all haters.

It was also just nice seeing you again. If Satoru was more poetic, he’d probably add a bunch of other things to that statement. It was just nice to have you back.

“Karma is probably gonna come back to clap us in the ass for celebrating someone getting a bad grade,” you snickered.

“Sounds like a problem for future us,” Suguru grinned with a twinkle in his eyes.

“We go to school with the Japanese version of Ben Shapiro,” Satoru choked on his strawberry smoothie when Shoko said that. “I think we’re covered on karma.”

“Y’all are terrible people,” Satoru clicked his tongue, shaking his head in disbelief and shame.

“Hey, good neighbor, this dinner was your idea,” you nudged him with a dry tone and a smile.

Satoru nudged back with a grin of his own.

Dinner was fun, lots of drinks and jokes. It was a non-alcoholic beverage sort of night. Shoko said it was because they’d clearly been drinking too much if Satoru of all people had gotten better with holding his liquor. Her point was fair but rude nonetheless yet when Satoru turned to whine for you to come to his defense, the distant glaze was over your eyes and your smile was smaller than it had been the last time he looked at it.

“[First],” your motion to close your apartment door stopped and you hummed with a raised eyebrow. Satoru felt more dread than usual that night. Something about the air had been different. The face you made felt different than it normally did. It was always distant, you were always far away, but tonight was the worst it had ever been. “We’re good, right?”

You look at him like he grew an extra four eyes. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

Satoru couldn’t meet your eyes as he shrugged wordlessly. You’d probably say he was being ridiculous and clingy if he mentioned anything but he couldn’t find anything else to say to make himself seem unbothered either.

You rolled your eyes with a grin before stretching your arms out wide. “You’re being overdramatic, you big baby. Come here, big guy,” Satoru pulled you in close, burying his nose in the corner of his neck. Despite welcoming your embrace, it did nothing to soothe Satoru’s anxieties.

“I’ll see you later, yeah?” Satoru asked without pulling away from you completely.

The way you smiled at him was warm but it still somehow felt unreadable. Satoru knew all of your smiles. Your happy ones,

the sad ones,

the one you made when Sora finally got into Smash.

The ones you made when you were mad that he was successfully charming his way out of you being mad at him.

Satoru didn’t know this one.

Despite that fact, Satoru let you cup his face in your hands and he let you stand on the tip of your toes to place a kiss on his forehead. “See you, Satoru."

ii. undertow

Sleep didn’t come to Satoru after he laid in bed.

His head was too full as he kept running back through what you told him after he took you home.

You didn’t say you’d see him later.

You’re just being overdramatic, Satoru forced his eyes to close. You’re always overdramatic. It’s my best trait 30% of the time.

No one else said anything that night, it was just him who felt like this, right? It was always just him. If everyone else felt like something was off all night, someone would have mentioned it by now. With that, Satoru forced his eyes closed for all of five minutes before he decided to send, at the very least, a dumb meme. Something that’d make you laugh when you saw it and would make you reply “I’m wheezing” or “that’s so us!”

A quick stroll through his photos was all it took to find something suitable. He can’t remember exactly what it was, only that it was stupid.

It was stupid and didn’t go through to your phone.

A disconnect and reconnect dance to his wifi later and it still didn’t go through.

Satoru’s feet was on the pavement before not even a heartbeat after he calmly made sure his apartment was locked.

He just had to be sure you were okay. It was just him being an overdramatic, big baby. Your phone died or something and that’s why nothing was going through. Or maybe this was like the time you put your phone in airplane mode to narrowly avoid sending Shoko the wrong meme and then forgot to switch it back off.

You don’t answer the door when he knocks and he goes back and forth between knocking and trying to reach you on your other socials.

Twitter? Blocked.

He can’t find you anywhere else.

Instagram.

LINE.

Discord.

It’s like you were never there, gone from all the group chats and servers you once shared.

Satoru stayed outside of your apartment for the better part of an hour before one of your neighbors opened her door tired and annoyed.

“Dude, do you know what time it is?” Your neighbor asked groggily. She’s a nice girl, the reason rent was low enough in the area you could afford an apartment on your own. Apparently she wrecked shit in the neighborhood on the low to keep the rent down. Even better was the fact she was the landlord’s daughter. Not all heroes wore capes.

“Sorry,” Satoru knew he must look like a maniac with his messy hair and wide eyes. “have you seen [First]? I’m having a hard time reaching her.”

The neighbor gave him a funny look, “she moved out tonight,” she told him like that was the fifth time she told him that her favorite color was orange. “I thought it was weird you didn’t help with moving her stuff out a few days ago. She gave me the key to give it to my dad tomorrow. Didn’t she tell you she was leaving?”

iii. la niña

Satoru didn’t know which was worse sometimesー the fact Shoko kept the fact he had a daughter a secret for five years or how he found out.

It wasn’t like Shoko approached him one gloomy night when memories of the most prominent ghost in his life began bubbling to the surface. She didn’t grimly say that she needed to tell him something and he should sit down for it. She didn’t start off with apologies, saying she felt she had no choice or that if things had gone different she would have told him.

None of that happened.

Satoru found out by accident.

Accident.

All because Shoko didn’t hear him approach her when she was on her phone scrolling through instagram. She was so focused on whatever she was looking at, she didn’t even notice how Satoru quietly snickered to himself and snuck behind her to give her spook. He was just about to say something, ready for swears and ‘you’re so annoying, what are you 12?!’s when he took an instinctual glance at her phone and he saw you.

Thoughts of scaring Shoko went out the window in a matter of milliseconds. He didn’t even feel his body move when he snatched her phone out of her hand.

“Heyー” Shoko started with an offended hiss but when she looked over her shoulder, she looked like she saw an impending storm and her jaw clamped shut.

Satoru took in the photo like it was the last thing he’d ever see. You were dressed in a blue t-shirt and cream colored shorts, some aquarium’s logo stitched into your clothes. You were holding a kid, hugging her tightly and kissing her cheek while the girl was caught mid-giggle. And when Satoru looked at the little girl in your arms, it was his eyes that looked back.

“I- she told me not to say anything,” Shoko murmured, brown eyes looking anywhere but at him. Then the secrets came rolling out one after the other.

“If I didn’t see this picture,” Satoru’s grip tightened on Shoko’s phone to ground himself to the present. “Were you still going to keep this a secret from me?”

Her answer was silence.

iv. el niño

“I have to be honest,” from the corner of your eye, you see Satoru chasing after Itsuki, Nanako and Mimiko. Suguru is watching next to you on the bench, your respective care bags for accidents and playground injuries at the ready between you. “I thought I’d be more surprised you’re a dad now. But it kinda just makes sense. You always had ‘single mom’ energy in school.”

Brown eyes flash with recognition, “you had a dream about me adopting kids once, right?”

“No, I had a dream where you were off a perk and calling people without powers ‘monkeys’,” you correct your old friend petulantly. As if he should have remembered after all these years without contact. “You just happened to adopt children in the process of all that.”

Suguru snorts, “my apologies for getting the details wrong. So you had a dream that I adopted kids once and that I was off a perk."

"Exactly, thank you."

A silence somewhere between comfortable and awkward settles over the two of you, save for the squeals of little girls and Satoru’s manic laughter as the evil sorcerer king.

Suguru looks nice.

He’s still rocking the man bun but he’s opted to let some of his hair hang loose and he’s a couple hundred pounds down a shitty, parasitic boyfriend. Suguru and Kenjaku broke up halfway through the semester after you transferred. “Before you ask, yes, we had dinner to celebrate,” Suguru told you when you saw him for the first time in years a few days ago.

You’ve had your fair share of private updates on the lives of your old friends you didn’t keep in contact with. Shoko kept you up to date on everything. A surprising number of your old friends had gone into the field of educationー Utahime, Suguru and Satoru. You wonder how Satoru’s parents reacted to that information. You have yet to ask; it seemed like too much of a mood killer when Satoru happily recounted stories about his students a few weeks ago.

When Itsuki almost trips you make to stand but Satoru catches her before you can blink.

“He’s pretty good with her,” Suguru says like he’s a mind reader. “There was this kid we used to babysit, Riko, when we were younger. He said he hated it but he’s always been pretty good with kids.”

You can believe it. There’s plenty of things you remember Satoru complaining about despite his inherent talents in them. It makes you want to cry sometimes seeing how good he is with Itsuki. Your daughter is smart enough to play neutral when he asks but you’re pretty sure your daughter has a favorite parent. Adorable little traitor, you laugh softly to yourself. You’d think five years would give someone an edge.

Five years.

“Are you… mad?” You look at your old friend from the corner of your eye.

Suguru takes his time answering, mulling over unknown thoughts in his head. Playful as you remember Suguru being, he’s always been introspective. He thinks before he acts, lets things slowly come to a boil before turning off the stovetop. “I was more worried than mad to start,” he finally speaks. “It’s not everyday an entire group of people gets ghosted. I’m a little mad you didn’t open up though.”

Your smile is small and your eyebrows knit apologetically.

“But at the end of the day, this is nothing compared to what went down between Satoru and me in high school. So I guess I can forgive you.” You never did get the story about Satoru and Suguru’s mysterious high school turning point. The itch to know all the details is minor compared to the way your shoulders relax when Suguru shoots you a familiar smile. I missed you too. “Just don’t do anymore disappearing acts.” Smooth as they come, Suguru raises a closed fist just above your care bags.

Smile a bit more grand, you bump the side of your fist to his. “I can happily vouch that it won’t be happening again.”

“Good. It’s nice to have you back.”

“It’s nice being back.”

v. sea state

“Did you get an undercut?”

“Yeah, a while ago,” Satoru grins. “I look nice, right?”

“Please accept the compliment normally so your arrogance doesn’t rub off on our daughter,” you shake your head but a good-natured grin is plastered on your face. “Itsuki, make sure Daddy behaves. You’re in charge as the honorary aquarist.”

Itsuki’s eyes fill with delight at the duty bestowed upon her. “I will,” she promises, chest puffed with as much pride as a five year old can produce. It’s a rare day off in the middle of the week for Satoru. Normally he’s confined to his school during these hours, but thanks to some school holiday you scheduled in advance for him to take Itsuki around your aquarium. It isn’t the first time Itsuki’s been, you’d taken her there before she could even walk. It might as well be her first visit though from how she’s beaming. “Daddy, you have to be good so Mommy doesn't get mad.”

“As you command, general,” Satoru salutes playfully, picking Itsuki up in his arms. “Now then, if you excuse us, this father-daughter duo is gonna enjoy the aquarium while you work.”

“Bup bup bup,” you tut before the man can take off. “At least let me get my goodbye kiss before you run off to have fun without me,” you peck Itsuki’s cheek once, twice before blowing a raspberry and she squeals. “Alright,” you place your hands on your hips. “You two go have fun. Tell Daddy all the names you gave the whale sharks, okay?”

You think that’s that until Itsuki innocently asks, “where’s Daddy’s kiss, Mommy?” You blink once. Maybe you misheard- “You’re supposed to give both of us goodbye kisses, aren’t you?” Apparently you haven’t.

“I think Daddy’s too old for goodbye kisses, Itsuki.”

Itsuki squints, unsatisfied with your answer, “but Grandma always kisses Granny and they’re ancient.”

Why do your parents have to have a long lasting and fulfilling love life?

You and Satoru share an awkward smile as you both wonder what either of you can do to get out of this situation. Kissing Satoru used to be as easy as breathing. He’s always been the more affectionate of the two of you and it rubbed off on you some time during your university days. But you’re not in university anymore and your relationship has most definitely changed since then.

Still with bated breath, you gesture for Satoru to bring his head low enough for you to kiss his forehead, “there. Now both of you go have fun.”

If you think you see Satoru’s expression dim, he’s all smiles the moment you blink. “Try not to be jealous when you see us feeding the stingrays, [First].” He’s gone before you can tease you’re the one of the employees that help with that.

Once a maelstrom, always a maelstrom.

You love your place of work, it always has a familiar noisy sort of peaceful bathed in the light of blue decorated in corals, pinks and purples. Aquariums have a special magic to them. You fell in love with the sea when you were young and never fell out. The magic somehow is renewed every time you clock in, even on the most trying days.

How can you not when you see the dozens of people that stop by with the same love?

How can you not when you see dozens of people that stop by and fall in love with it for the first time?

“Hi, Mommy!” You hear Itsuki call from a distance. You wonder how she can even see you when you look up and see she’s on Satoru’s shoulders. It’s so natural, the two of them together. She’s wearing his sunglasses, if you can really say that. They keep sliding off her face but she holds onto them resolutely and Satoru is smiling widely in front of the tank full of black tip reef sharks, whale sharks and dozens of other fish in between.

You don’t know how your heart can fill with even more affection than you thought possible but it does. “Hi, baby,” you wave back. “I love you!”

“I love you too!” I have to enjoy that before she gets old enough to start thinking she’s too cool to tell her mom I love you. You know Satoru should too when you see her lean over to plant her father an awkward kiss on his head. You can’t hear what she tells him but you can guess she must be saying she loves him. Even from his profile, you can tell Satoru is saying he loves her back from how adoringly he looks up at her.

You see Itsuki giggling and saying something else you can’t hear, looking down at her father in earnest.

Whatever it is she says, Satoru looks over at you with eyes that are wide and somehow reflect all of the blue from tank lights. Despite how it makes your heart twist, you give him another small wave. When he doesn’t wave back, you wonder what it is your daughter could have said that had him in such a stupor.

Whatever he says to Itsuki, his eyes stay on you while he says it.

vi. nearshore

“Do you still like the same brand of honey or no?” You call over your shoulder from the kitchen.

It’s unusually quiet in your apartment since Itsuki is at your parents’ house for the weekend. You only realized you’d forgotten to tell your co-parent when he showed up at your house with sweets in hand. “What Itsuki doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” you told him with a snicker when you invited him inside to eat them.

“Satoru?” You call out again.

No response.

You turn off the eye your kettle is on and look out into the living room. He’s right where you left him. “Hey,” you sit on the ottoman in front of him. He blinks in surprise when he sees your hand waving in front of face. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Satoru smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Let me rephrase that question,” you start anew. “What’s wrong? Come on now,” you grin crookedly. “You’ve always sucked at pretending to be okay in front of me.”

Satoru’s smile falters for a heartbeat, “yeah?”

“Yes, Mr. Bravado,” Satoru might have been an expert at fooling others, but you know him. He was the guy who never took notes but passed every test because he worked his ass off in the background. The type who’d act oblivious but you realize halfway through a meal that the reason he took you is because he noticed you’d been feeling down lately. It’s one of the things you love about him. “So come out with it, fess up.”

One, two, three seconds pass before Satoru finally cracks.

“I’m mad. More at myself than anything.” Before you can reply, Satoru opens his mouth again but it feels more like he's talking to himself. “I shouldn’t be upset anymore, right? We made up.” Satoru runs his fingers through his hair in frustration. “We made up,” he says again. “I shouldn’t still be mad about anything. Things have been going great.”

Satoru finally falls silent and he looks tired. You hate you’re the reason for it. “It’s okay to still be mad about Itsuki. I’m sorry,” you whisper. “I… I’d take it back if I could. I know that doesn’t mean anything after five years but I mean it. Even if I was scared I should have told you. I just- I don’t know, it had gotten into me. I was thinking how you couldn’t commitー”

“You thought I was non-committal?” Satoru raises an eyebrow and he looks hurt by your revelation.

“Satoru, you have never been in a relationship with anyone throughout the time I’ve known you,” you rub your finger and thumb together nervously. Five years later is as good as any time to have a conversation you should have had long ago. “You were scared when I asked what our relationship was, remember?”

“I didn’t know what the right answer was,” Satoru argues with his hands raised. “I thought you were tired of our friends always talking about us being a couple.”

“You were relieved when I said that-” you stammer over your words thoughts going much faster than your mouth could. You remember the tormented days of unrequited affection quite clearly. If there was someone who avoided romantic relationships like the plague, it was Satoru. He was a flirt, relished in the attention he received for his well-known good looks. Regardless, he’d never committed to anyone. “You said fucking someone else was a non-issue! For all I knew you were sleeping with someone else, it wasn’t like we were-”

“It was a non-issue if it meant you weren’t going to take off and start avoiding me!” Satoru snaps like you’ve grown a second head. Maybe you did judging by how he looks at you incredulously. Your mouth closes, unsure what to say next and Satoru looks away with a scoff. “It’s the other way around,” he mutters so soft you almost didn’t catch it. “you were the non-committal one.”

“Excuse me?” It’s your turn to look at Satoru like his body has magically sprung additional body parts. When he doesn’t immediately say anything, you double down. “Satoru, you don’t get to say that and then turn around and not elaborate on it.”

“You know, the first day we met, Suguru told me that I acted like the sun shined out of your ass,” Satoru says much to your confusion. But he went on, lost in his memories, “it might as well have, I thought you were so cool. I wanted you in my life so bad from pretty much the moment you said I doomed myself. I didn’t care what happened next in my life as long as you were there for it.

“But you left me,” Satoru croaks with a smile, crystal blue eyes dark and empty. “You left me.” The way he says it breaks your heart. “I’m so gone for you. I’ve always been gone for you. I just didn’t want to see it. Somehow I always knew you’d leave.” He laughs, cold and humorless and completely lost. “And you did.

“You could be right there with me and then suddenly be so far away. It always felt like you would just up and leave one day. You and Utahime always talked about intuition and trusting it. I guess mine was saying from early on ‘this girl is gonna break your heart one day, don’t fall in love with her.’”

“I knew it when you got those far away looks in your eyes. I knew it when I woke up that first morning alone. I knew it when you didn’t say you’d see me later. And just like that you were gone on that ghost ship. You left and didn’t even tell me you were going. Do you know how much that fucking hurt? I wait outside for hours and your neighbor’s the one who tells me you’re gone. I may have purposely lied to myself about how I felt but I never slept with anyone else. I didn’t want anyone else. I was the one who kept reaching out, you never reached back.

Itsuki’s the second tier on the cake and the rest of the frosting. You’ve been gone on that ghost ship for five years and when I finally catch up, I still feel like I’m drowning.”

“... I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I didn’t know.”

“I know. That’s almost the worst part. Guess I didn't wear my heart on my sleeve as much as you thought.”

“It was the week after our second year midterms,” you recall when you were six years younger and the biggest problem you had in life was a professor was out to get you. Midterms had finally passed and you were on a victorious emotional high after finishing your last exam. At least until some asshole who should have covered their mouth coughed and you were coughing by the end of the day. “I got a cold and just so I could breathe better when I slept, you let me lay on you on the couch the whole time even though you ended up getting sick afterwards.”

You’d felt so bad, coughing all the while but Satoru hadn’t let you budge an inch, proudly claiming ‘I don’t get sick, I’m built different so cough away.’ When he got sick days later, he said over coughs, ‘This has nothing to do with when you were sick. This is from Suguru.’ “That was when I realized that I’d been stupidly in love with you ever since I met you.”

Gojou Satoru has been called many things throughout your years of knowing him. But for you, the fall child has always been easy to love. He was made for it. “You were a pain in the ass but you were my pain in the ass. I never wanted it any other way.”

“Stop being mean to me,” Satoru leans forward to rest his head on your shoulder just as you wrap your arms around his back. “Don’t you know who you’re being mean to when you’re being an ass?”

You laugh weakly, “the guy I’m still gone for?” When you hear a sniffle in the corner of your neck, you tighten your grip.

"Don't go away this time," Satoru hugs back.

vii. ocean deep, seafoam soft

Satoru finds himself in your bed again for the first time in years.

“I confess my love to you and you try to kill me, I'm hurt.”

“Oh don’t be such a baby, I didn’t even know it was there,” you chuckle fondly after the two of you stumble into your bed after nearly tripping on a stray toy on your floor. Satoru loves that laugh. He loves how you look up at him with all the adoration in the world. “Remember that time we forgot that textbook was on your bed?”

“Please don’t remind me, my back hurts just remembering it,” Satoru whines but laughter escapes him despite his apparent trauma. It wasn’t one of your best moments during your shared years of sexual escapades in college. You pull him down kiss his lips tenderly and he practically moans, relishing the feeling. No more forehead kisses, he wants to tell you. You did that a lot before you left.

"I love you," Satoru whispers in awe at the words falling out of his own mouth. In awe at the fact you’re even there with him at that moment. “I love you.”

Your hands cup his face like he's something precious and you thumbs away the tears pooling in his eyes despite the ones in your own, "I love you too.”

Satoru’s had sex with you more times than he can count.

He memorized everything, refused to forget a single detail. It feels like the first time all over again.

The way one set of your fingernails dig into his back while he envelopes your other hand with one of his own. How your fingers intertwined tightly. How amazing you feel squeezing around him tightly. The speed of your pulse as he peppers your throat with kisses and soft nips. The ache between his legs as he rolls his hips into you gently yet persistently, chasing his high but wanting it to last long beyond the confines of this singular moment.

It’s not just this one moment anymore though. “[First],” Satoru squeezes your hand tighter. “[First].”

I love you.

Don’t leave me this time, Satoru gasps like a man starved for air before kissing you again desperately. Stay.

(When Satoru wakes up the next morning to you in his arms and playing with his hair at the base of his neck, he feels like could cry. He nestles into your chest with a tired grin, “morning.”)

viii. anchor

Gojou Itsuki, that’s the name staring back at him.

Satoru loves when it’s his birthday. Until Itsuki was born it was arguably the best day in the universe. The importance of birthdays tends to titter on the rope of priorities, but it’s the one day of the year when the people important to him would pop up to say ‘hi’. Even people from the past. An old teacher he used to drive crazy but always said he thought Satoru had a lot of potential.

His mom still sent him a birthday text even if most of their exchanges are dry the rest of the year.

Even his students will tip in to get him a card and some sort of celebratory gift on December 7th.

December 7th lost a bit of its shine when you exited from his life. With you and Itsuki both in it, it shines tenfold.

It’s just the light is too blinding when Satoru takes out his last present of a plain envelope and he sees Gojou Itsuki written in bold and clear text.

Gojou Itsuki

Father: Gojou Satoru

v. sea state private ver.

"Daddy, do you love Mommy too?"

"Yeah. Daddy loves Mommy."

#look she's writing #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #gojo x reader #gojou x reader #gojou satoru x reader #baby daddy gojou au

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