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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Restrospective) Finale!: Lena In Season 3! (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the FINAL part of my look at the life and times of Lena Sabrewing. It’s been a long and satsifying journey through the character’s rich arc and some of Ducktales 2017′s best episodes. Lena started as a tourtured but complacient teen willing to do bloody awful evil things if it meant her freedom, who through the power of love and friendship realized what she was doing wrong, that she loved Webby and turned on Magica... and after a brief stint of this going horribly wrong a magica simply just bodyjacked her, she sacrificed herself for Webby he story seemingly done. Of course it wasn’t, Disney woudln’t let them kill a teenager... fully grown lion men horrifcally decaying indiana jones style yeah, of course it’s disney, but killing a teen is where they draw the line. Point is Lena was merley trapped in the shadow realm with a bunch of those guys Yugi beat and with the help of everyone’s faviorte stoic hummingbird, freed Lena. Lena found new family in Violet.. but also found dying is easy but living is harder and had to wrestle with both her fears of turning out like Magica and Magica herself who naturally was gaslighting her to try and get the last scraps of her power back. We also took a detour or two to see where she came from: looking at both Minima De Spell and her rivalry with a 34 year pretending to be a small child, and Magica’s Shadow whose like Lena except almost nothing like Lena. We also took a look at her one comic apperance which was never released here for some reason and was incredibly disapointing.

So yeah i’ts been one long, fun ride filled with gay subtext, launchpad’s spider sense, giant legs, movie refrences from warriors to jaws to nightmare on elm street 3: the dream warriors, toddlers who look and probably are 34, launchpad apparently huffing enough paint to damage his brain as that’s the only way to explain the terror of the terrafirmains subplot and gay subtext. I’ve enjoyed every step of the way so before I take the last one of those steps, i’d like to thank all of ya for reading this. I’ve gained at least 10 if not more followers off this series alone and I appricate all of you. I’d also like to thank Kev for directly comissioning this, keeping me in work and in x-men comics since 2020.

As you can probably guess by the title.. this one’s a bit different. This is a combination of two things: The first is that i already reviewed “The Phantom and the Sorceress” when I was reviewing each episode of Season 3 as it came out. My thoughts have not changed at all so I felt redoing that review would be redudant and a waste of Kev’s money. The same goes for Split Sword, which has the extra issue of being a three story episode with only one of the parts starring the focus of this retrospective. The second is while she shows up about the same amount as season 2, her apperances in season 3 outside of her Christmas Cameo are all more substaial outside of her two starring roles. Both COTHJSW and The Last Adventure shed some more light on our faviorite shadow and feel like natural evolutions of her character so it felt wrong to just flat out ignore them.

So rather than do a full review of the episodes i’m just going to go into Lena’s apperances for Season 3. This way I can cover Phantom again without fully repeating myself, and fully track the last steps Lena takes as the series closes out in a fresh and hopefully enjoyable way. So join me under the cut for one last step into the shadows as we finish bringing Lena into the light.

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!

Challenge was one of the very first Ducktales I ever talked about on here, alongside Quack Pack, so it’s quite a trip returning to it a year later, even if i’ts just my memories of it. It’s also an excellent episode, with a great and engaging main plot and a “it’s just kind of there” subplot.

It’s also one of the only three episodes to focus on Violet, and one of only two that focuses just on her and not on Lena in any way. It is a shame: While I love Lena as a character, I wouldn’t of just spent several weeks talking about her if I wasn’t getting paid for this retrospective or not, Violet is equally intriguing and so i’ll be taking a second out to talk about her as I really HAVEN’T gone into her character this retrospective and given how important she is to Lena and to all of us, most Lena fans like Violet just as much and vice versa. I’ll still be talking about Lena in this episode, obviously, but I feel her sister from two misters deserves some time in the spotlight too as the show only gave her three episodes, and one was more focused on Webby and Lena by design and the other we’ll get to.

Violet is an excellent character. She speaks well and with little emotion but that’s just how she is and she’s never called out for it or insulted, something I like. Likewise she dosen’t judge others, never really batting an eye at the rest of the groups own quirks and at most being freaked out by leg huey a bit. She’s just a kind, curious, intellgent young lady.

And this episode shows that off: We get to see her in the spotlight of her own, every bit the Woodchuck Huey is and more, but still supporting and encouring him, seeing their contest as a friendly one and putting no stakes into it as she’s failed before, she can fail again. What matters is she get back up and keep going. Her “razzing” is also just downright adorable, and nicely shows off her and Lena’s new dynamic: they’ve gone from friends to siblings, something really not shown off last time and something that wason’t confirmed on screen till now but it just works naturally, the cool and collected but chaotic underneath that lena just plays perfectly off the uttelry calm and deadpan violet. It’s a natural, perfect dynamic that they clearly had mapped out from the beggining and simply had to build up to that.

Her genuine shock at Huey’s betryal... hurts the heart, as she genuinely thinks it’s her fault and not just my boy having a panic attack and doing something questionable. But it also shows her character.. when givne the same opprunity and no guilt for it, he struck first.. she dosen’t. She saves him because it’s the right thing to do and shows Huey she really is the bettter woodchuck.. but htere’s no shame in it. It’s okay to fail, what matters is you keep trying. And as a result despite giving Huey the opporunity to win with her.. he turns it down. She gets a deserved win, celebrating with her family and just wearing the most adorable smile. She also just has.. buckets of chemistry with Huey. I mean it was apparent to me with the whole Library Scene in Nightmare but god damn do they ramp it up with this one. They just contrast each other perfectly here, the handshake is adorable and he clings to her.. while also being hilarious “I naturlaly defer to authority!”. I will take this ship to my grave, and fully support it... that being said if you ship Huey/Boyd or all three togehter, go for it man. I do the latter sometimes. Your good. You didn’t need me to tell that but sometimes shipping discorse can get downright ugly so rather than make it a war between two ships, I just wanted to offer an olive branch for once you know? Same with Weblena. I obviously adore that ship but if you have a non-boys ship with her, tha’ts cool too. Ship what you want to.. i’m just doing me through this retrospective.

Now back to Lena. Her apperance in this episode is really heartwarming and really nice after all the shit she’s been through. This is the first episode she’s in where NOTHING bad happens to her. No really, every apperance, even her two cameos had her suffer in some way. She spent the entire first season grappling with Magica, and her season 2 apperances trapped in a shadow dimension and nearly loosing her girlfriend to her own jealously, horrifically stalked by her abuser using her own self doubt against her, attacked by a literal tempest in a tea pot and captured by aliens. The girl has not gone one friggin onscreen break since the series started and probably not many off it either.

Here? She just gets to cheer her little sister, proudly celebrating both her and her new dads. She gets to teach her sister to trash talk, even if that ends up backfiring a bit but she meant well. And she gets to celebrate with her family when her little sister wins. It’s all small stuff.. but it’s all things she’s NEVER had. A sibling to be proud of and support. Dads to sit with and go places with. A family to celebrate things with. This is all pretty normal stuff, but not something everyone gets to have and something Lena NEVER had even remotely. But now she’ll ALWAYS have that. A supportive loving family to give her a place to belong, and to support in turn. After a nightmarish 14-15 years of existance, she’s FINALLY allowed to just be happy without having to fight a giant monster first.

She’s finally made it, she’s hoped and she’s waited, for the first time in her life she dosen’t feel alone. Her hearts started to heal, to know this is real, this is how it feels.. to have a home. Yes I haven’t given up on that song. And if you think this is the last time i’m going to quote a song you clearly didn’t read the review I did of the next episode.

The Phantom and the Sorceress:

Season 3′s primary focus outside of the FOWL plot was tying up loose ends. Pretty much every major recurring episode outside of Fethry got an episode tying up their character arc and of course Lena was no exception.

You’d think with Magica no longer a threat to her and having fully accepted she’s a good person now, and having found a place to belong that Lena was done. But while she accepted her past, that she’s not magica, and that she deserves to be happy.. she never accepted Magic as part of her despite being made of it and that’s what this episode ties up as well as the mystery of the blue aura that surronded her magic at times.

The episode starts with Lena’s amulet, which she has back now which is the only part of this episode I don’t like as they don’t really explain why she’d take it back from Violet. But her magic keeps goofing up and making Sleepovers dangerous, and gets Scrooge grousing about how magic is bad.. only to naturally backpedal when an angry Webby points out Lena is magic. He does amend things and genuinely apologize for it, having not meant her at all and not even thinking of her as part of his hatred of the stuff. It also shows why Lena likely didn’t take him up on his offer.. with her self loathing still going she probably thought he was just pitting her and would always resent her.. when really he just geninely did not care despite his overwhelming hate of magic. It worked out granted, she found a better fit for her family wise.

But Lena hates it too.. and while she hasn’t fully brought it up before it makes perfect sense: We saw how she viewed it as dangerous and not worth the risk to bring her back in Friendship Hates Magic and Magic has brought her nothing but pain, nearly killing her on several occasions, allowing magica to fuck with her head or directly control her and general putting the one person she cares about more than anyone in harms way. She hates what she is.. because it’s brought her nothing but pain and misery. She has ever reason to resent it..

Yet this episode is about forcing her to accept it.... to realize that Magic is part of who she is, and that it’s not inherently good or bad, it’s all about the intent of who uses it. Her last two uses of it were not made with any malice and in fact using it to pull her friends into her dreams allowed her to break free of Magica.

And it’s perfectly done by giving her a new enemy, something I REALLY wish tehy’d done with Fenton at some point, but get why it took this long with Lena: The Phantom Blot. The Phantom Blot, like many characters in this series is HEAVILY redone: he keeps the iconic look and threat level but instead of being an operatic supervillian, he’s an anti-villian with a link to magic he never really had before. He works with FOWL sure but it’s likely because unlike the rest of FOWL he actually agrees with Bradford’s goal for a less chaotic world and his desire to wipe out magic is perfectly in line with that.

He’s also given a backstory that perfectly parallels him with Lena: Both were created by Magica in a way and horribly abused by her: Lena mentally and phsycially, and Blot by having to suffer under her rule after he took over her family and then barely survivie as she wiped out his villiage, his family and his normal life swearing vengance on her. LIke Lena magica didn’t care about him or see him as a threat, figuring like most people who swore eteneral vengance on her he’d get swatted down like a gnat once and never return. INstead he returned again and again and again for decades, learning each time getting stronger and wiping out more magic along the way. He went from what was probably a good normal person to a vengeful vigliante dedicated to wiping out magic good or bad because he can’t concieve that it isn’t ALL bad. He’s easily what Lena could’ve become if , ironically enough she hadn’t encountered him, seeing the end result of hating something just for what it is as it tried to murder her. That hating and resenting Magic would just lead her to become as hollow and vengful as the blot, having a good cause to start.. but slowly loosing yourself to hate and anger. Letting the person who ruined your life still control it simply by focusing all your energy on hating them and people like them.

It also gives us an interesting and painful teamup as with the boys and Scrogoe stuck in another dimension, there’s only one person they can turn to deal with Magic: Magica herself, whose resulted to depression eating pizza and the most she can do as a threat is eat the garlic Violet was wearing in case of vampires (”There now your susceptible to vampires!” is easily the best joke of the episode, from how Magica eats the garlic in one bite to her manical laugh to Violet just being annoyed rather than terrified or anything). Magica only agrees because they have a common enemy and if he sucks up her magic amulet, that’s the end of any magic she has left.

It’s also here we learn the reason for the blue and purple color coding: Duckworld magic is indeed color coded.. but rather than be based ont he emotions used or anything.. it’s based on the user. The purple is Magica, and as we later learn Poe’s, magic, and thus Lena borrowing it via the amulet. The Blue is HER magic. Tapping into her emotions and her own inante power. It’s a nice twist I didn’t see coming but makes absolute sense in hindsight: Every time she’s triggered it.. it’s been when she’s been using her own emotions and been doing thigns for her own good, and not for anyone elses. It also explains why the Magica powers aren’t working for her or stable: their not HERS to control and thus are fighting her.

So she trains to use her own using the time honorted traditions of montages and having your sibling shoot things at you out of a magical amulet. She grows in her talent and power and herself, even if she learns from the person she hates more and comes to accept magic.. in time to fight the Blot who misguidedly thinks harming her will show Magica the pain he felt.. even though as we learn later that ship already sailed and we already knew she cares nothing for Lena.

But as he drains her amulet... she focuses on what she cares about... and if we didn’t already ahvea MOUNTAIN of subtext for webby and lena her “frienddship” montage has maybe one or two shots of her sister.. and about 80 of webby. Seriously they.. they weren’t even hiding it at this poitn outside of the finale, which we’ll get to.

And so she takes hold of her magic, no longer need the amulet to channel it and taking on her super mode! Which was highly contreversal at the time. BUt I get why. As a transformation, ala dragon ball, and a superhero type costume it works, giving her a power and grandeur not seen before and showing she’s using all of it, giving weight to when it only shows up in the finale when she needs it most and likely would’ve given it weight any other time it showed up. But it wasn’t clear if this was her permenant look now and Frank’s response to it was to say he wanted to dress everyone up in that outfit , at the same size Lena has it, including launchpad wearing it like a cape. Which while hilarious and it was, was also blatant trolling as her return in Split Sword showed it wasn’t her default form, and they could relax. But as a form showing the apex of her power, character development and confidence, it works and has all the drama i’d expect from a form like this, reflecting the blot’s power back onto him and overloading the gauntlet and facing down Magica easily.

It’s the perfect way to cap things off... Lena finally acccepts herslef as she is fully: she’s not evil and neither is magic.. magic is a part of her and her power is not something to hate.. but to embrace. To use to protect the world from people LIKE Magica who would misue their power to harm others or the blot who belivie her power is inherently evil. This is a lena freed from the chains of self hatred, fully accepted. It turns her story into a wonderful, beautiful story of escaping abuse and accepting yourself as who you are, that no matter what you are or where you come from, you are beautiful, you are good and you can do good. And as she flies off with her sister and girlfriend, she’s finally, fully, truly at peace with who she was who she is now and flies into the future.. and to free her girlfirends dad from another dimension. Nothing is holding her back now, no one can push her around, she’s who she wants to be, she’s the master of her, and the thoughts enough to lift her off of the ground. She and Webby are independent together and they are flying. And yes i’m linking the song again.

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But even with her character Arc Wrapped she still could support others in their own growth. Case in point:

The Split Sword of Swanstantine!

This was the vingette episode, with a pair of the kids, one from Team Magic the other from the Duck Boys, going after a piece. And while Violet’s segment is neat it dosent’ really expand on her enough for me to go into it like I did with Challenge, so i’ll only be covering the cold open and Lena and Huey’s segment. Given these two are some of my faviorites, Lena hasn’t really gotten to have any meaningful interactoins with anyone besides Webby, Violet and Magica (And scrooge but for like.. two minutes), and this bit is really creative and intresting I loved it. It also has Steelbeak so I got a nice Jason Mantzokus fix on top of that despite him barely getting to speak in this one.. and really all season. Season 3 REALLY wasted Steelbeak, only using him three times and just ignoring the whole idea of him growing more compitent with time. Maybe Frank’s saving that for darkwing duck if he gets to do that I dunno. At least Invincible and Close Enough are using the man properly so I got that.

THe setup to the episode as a whole is comedic gold: Scrooge has taken the kids to Monocrow to find the split sword, one of the missing mysteries before FOWl.. only to then realizze in one of the best jokes of the season, after HOURS of plane travel probably that Violet and Lena had also come along having slept over and thus spending the episode in their sleep clothes. As Violet puts it in LIebe’s best delivery of the series “You said eveyrone get on the plane so we got on the plane”. So, fricking relatable. Scrooge’s awkard “Do you.. like history?” is also great, David is a treasure, as if he’s just now realizing he really dosen’t know Webby’s closest friend and girlfriend and is scrambling for some common ground so he can stop talking. 1/2′s good enough and we’re off.

Lena and Huey’s plot, the final one of the three, likewise has a simple setup: Huey finds the sword piece.. and also Steelbeak, whose ready to punch him some children. Lena freezes time as she can do that but can’t delay the inveitble, just give them time to plan.

And this is a nice showcase for Huey and a nice chance for Lena to be snarky as Huey wants to try anything and everything he can do that dosen’t involve fighting as he hates it and Lena endulges him as he gets tossed around, playing on her phone while he tries dumb scheme after dumb scheme from prtending to be his dad, to his inner child, to construction to offering him a snack, to “what sword piece” while hodling the sword blade twice his side behind his back.

Lena eventually calls him on it: He can’t keep avoiding this and there’s some reason he dosen’t want to fight. The reason turns out to be he bruce bannered himself and thus has a split personality for all his agression and primal rage, the duke of making a mess, Huey’s version fo the McDuck family anger he’s buried away and is ashamed of, hating his more impuslive emotions due to his desire for control.

As for how Lena impacts this.. it’s her own acceptance of the part of her she hated, her magic, that gives her the clarity to help Huey, helping him realize like her this shit isn’t healthy and to make peace with the Duke instead of fighting him and locking him away. The result is a perfect combo: a huey with all the power and strength of a mcduck, but the nuance and tactics Huey normally has to beat Steelbeak easily. Lena is impressed, a friendship is forged and we see how far sh’es come: from hating herself.. to helping others stop doing it before it gets worse.

How Santa Stole Christmas!

All we really learn here is that she and Violet share a room and a king sized bed.. but we got that cheek smooch and I had to mention that so there you go.

The Last Adventure!:

Like most of the main cast Lena gets a decent note to go out on, if a bit wobbly. The wobblyiness comes from two sources. The first is just a nitpick of mine; We don’t get to see the climax of her fight with the Blot alongside Manny. No really. The Blot got two spotlight episodes, his own sidekick/wife/amy sedaris, and was built up as one of FOWL’s biggest threats.. and his defeat isn’t even shown on screen for some damn reason. I feel they just ran out of time but given how important Lena and Manny were series wide and how awesome the keith david reveal was, it’s a cop out

Speaking of Cop Outs we can’t talk about this episode without talknig about the elephant in the room: Lena saying Webby “already has two sisters”, seemingly shooting down any posiblity of Weblena. I do not see it that way but do feel the two could’ve phrased it better and we could’ve gotten SOME Weblena by the end instead of none to offset this. I feel Lena’s motivations, esecpailly given the context were purely to try and placate Webby to keep her from investigating the twins further and endangering herself, not realizing how badly this wouldn’t work as Lena’s never cared about where she comes from and her past is all pain and abuse before Webby, while Webby had this gnawing at her her whole life. I do think the last episode was the WORST POSSIBLE place to put this, as it comes off as queerbaiting evne though I don’t think that was the intent. So yeah this line sucks and was poorly conveyed.

Everything else though is thankfully excellent: Her raging frekaout at June feels warranted, as June is literally trying to cut Webby out of her life and was purposffully trying to galight webby as we find out. Her and Violet’s reason for going is also just pure awesome, pure heartwarming and pure badass, both angrily and simply proclaming when stating why their going on the final attack no fowl “It’s Webby”. Webby helped Lena become a better person and lnvoes her more than anyone else and vice versa and Webby gave Violet Friends, a sister and a life of her own. Nothings going to stop them and Scrogoe wisely backed down on that one before they strangled him.

Her final scene is the best though: Not only do she and Violet give May and June friendship braclets but despite the earlier hostlitlity... Lena helps them with not a second though. She now understands them, gets that their like her: a being made by an evil dickhead who saw them as a tool to use and not a person and was willing to kill them the moment they were no longer useful. She too was once lost, sad and felt alone..but Webby pulled her out of that and now she’s going to be there for these two, these alterante versions of the love of her life, to give them the same support and encourages them they’ll find their home. And sure enough my boy comes by not a second later to adopt both of them. In an instnat they’ve gone from alone with only webby like Lena was.. to having a family of their own and loyal friends to stay by their sid.e

And so Lena ends the series charing off into the wild blue with her sister and her newfound friends, the future all ahead of her, the past finally put to bed, and herself finally at peace, in love with Webby.. and with herself at long last.

This retrospective was a wonderful time. I throughly enjoyed going through Lena’s history and being more and more impressed how much I’d missed and how it was even BETTER the second time around. This arc is Ducktales at it’s best and Lena is the finest thing they acomplished. This is easily Kimiko Glenn’s best role and really let her show off her range. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of this wonderful lesbian shadow, but as it stands with peace, love and self worth found, it’s still a good place to leave her. If she ever returns i’ll of course pick this up again, and free of charge but for now I enjoyed the ride and throughly enjoyed this retrospective. T

Thank you all so much for reading. If you liked this retrospective, please stick around. My next comissioned story arc is covering the various crossovers Lilo and Stitch did, but after that in three weeks return here for Season 2. All three arcs, All done intermidtley. Buckle up.

Until then follow for more, and join my patreon. My next stretch goal is monthly reviews of darkwing duck and reviews of the super ducktales mini series, and after finsihing this post i’m going to throw in some extra non-duck ones! 25 is being changed up from covering Tailspin every month, to covering a Danny Phantom episode every month, and the beloved special ultimate enemy. So check that out. I may throw in some more on both 20 and 25 so stay posted. And just for joining at the 2 dollar tier you get acess to my discord server and get to pick one of the shorts for my varoius shortstaculars I do. Next one up is goofy’s birthday with Donalds in june so join now!

ANd if you just have one speciifc episode I haven’t covered you’d like me to, those are 5 bucks a pop on commission and available via my ask box, direct messages on here or discord at technicolormuk#6550 and until the next rainbow i’ts been a pleasure

#ducktales #weblena #lena sabrewing #webby vanderquck #violet sabrewing #shadow into light #the phantom and the sorceress #the split sword of swantatantine #challenge of the junior senior woodchucks #scrooge mcduck #huey duck #may duck #june duck #manny the headless manhorse

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itsthenovelteafactor · 3 years

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Vanya and the Phantom

I asked and y’all answered (special thanks to @schizoidwire and @the-aro-ace-arrow-ace and all the people who responded to my earlier post for encouraging me!), so it is time for how The Phantom of the Opera song introduction can be read as a look into Vanya’s self-narrative and also foreshadows future events in a really subtle and interesting way.

I’m channeling my inner Elliot and going into full conspiracy mode. This is gonna be a long one, y’all.

Part One: In Which I Expose Myself as a Former Theater Kid

So, for those who aren’t familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, it was originally a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux back in 1909. In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber rewrote it as a musical. For purposes of my analysis here, I am just going to be discussing the musical because 1) the score used in the opening scene is from it and 2) I’ve never read the book. (If anyone out there has read the book and wants to weigh in, please do!)

It’s a very aesthetic show, and draws on a lot of gothic themes and imagery. The plot follows an opera house, and specifically a young chorus girl named Christine Daaé. I’m not going to explain the whole show plot in detail because wikipedia exists, but I will do a quick overview here and point out some things as they relate to things I’ll be discussing later. Also there will be a test after and it will NOT be multiple choice.

The show begins when the opera house is sold to new owners who 1) just want to make money and 2) do not respect the opera house’s resident ghost (who isn’t really a ghost, but we’ll get to that later.) When the Phantom makes his presence known, and freaks out the resident prima donna singer (who will be relevant later) Carlotta, who says she won’t sing under these conditions. It is then that Christine appears. She’s quiet and humble and has always lived in the background, but is incredibly talented. The woman who runs the chorus (also owner of the opera house’s resident braincell) suggests Christine sing the part. She does, and is amazing. Everyone is blown away, and she’s catapulted into instant fame and success.

We later learn that Christine has been studying under the Phantom, who appears to her in mirrors. She calls him the Angel of Music, and thinks that he was sent to teach her by her recently deceased father. He isn’t. He’s actually pretty malicious, and is obsessed with Christine, wants to control her voice, and doesn’t like her dating anyone. Which is a bit awkward when her childhood friend shows up and promptly falls in love with her.

Anyways, Carlotta is jealous of the attention Christine has been getting and threatens to leave prompting the new owners to cut Christine from the program. The Phantom doesn’t like it at all, sends a bunch of letters, things escalate, people are murdered, and the whole first act ends with the chandelier falling from the ceiling and crashing onto the stage (which is done with really cool effects, oftentimes beginning the show hanging over the audience. It’s a BIG MOMENT and one of the most iconic ones from the show. This will also be relevant later.)

Act two takes place a few months later, wherein no one has seen the Phantom. Shock of all shocks, though, he’s not dead. He’s been writing an opera and he wants Christine to star in it. More stuff happens, you learn the backstory of the Phantom (which is pretty sad, ngl, but in no way makes him less of a creep) and the story ends with the Phantom kidnapping Christine and giving her an ultimatum: stay with him forever, or he kills Raoul (aka childhood friend/romantic interest guy). She agrees to stay with him and he’s so moved by her compassion that he lets them both go and disappears forever.

Part Two: Casting the Characters

That’s interesting, Rosie (note sarcasm) but you said this was about The Umbrella Academy? I did, in fact. So, we meet Vanya when she’s playing a medley of songs from The Phantom of the Opera. Since it’s primarily the melodies and not one of the orchestral pieces from her performance later (I don’t think), we can assume she’s just playing it for herself (which is nice! good on you, Vanya).

Maybe she’s never seen the play and just likes the score, but for purposes here, let’s assume she’s familiar with it.

You can tell a lot about a person by the stories they connect with (for example, I like TUA because I like fun sibling dynamics, found family, music, and being sad). And I think that it makes sense that The Phantom of the Opera would be a story that resonates with Vanya. The overlooked chorus girl finds power in music, and, after years in the background, is finally given a chance to show how special she is.

So, yeah. I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that Vanya sees herself as Christine. There are some discrepancies, sure, but this is Vanya’s self-narrative, which we learn pretty much immediately is unreliable. (Love her, but it’s true.) And if Vanya is Christine, then we can try and tap into her perspective to look at some other characters.

Anyways remember Carlotta (the prima donna opera singer who always got the spotlight and tried to destroy everything good that happened to Christine because she felt threatened that someone might be as good/better than her whose entire personality and role in the story I just summarized, rendering my plot recap useless)? Carlotta is how Vanya views Allison. (Kind of all her siblings, but her relationship with Allison is the most important here.)

Think about the scene in the cabin?

“You couldn’t risk me threatening your place in the house! You couldn’t handle the fact that Dad might find me special!” - Vanya, having a mental breakdown.

This always struck me as an interesting accusation to throw, since prior to this moment, I don’t think there was any indication that Allison had ever felt threatened by Vanya. She excluded her, sure, and wasn’t super friendly at times, but the idea that Allison has been pulling strings to keep Vanya out of her spotlight is new. But that is exactly the role Carlotta plays in Phantom.

Fun fact! At one point in the musical, the Phantom enchants Carlotta so that she loses her voice right before coming on stage.

Part Three: The Phantom of the Opera is there

So based on everything I’ve said so far, the most straightforward reading is then, that Leonard Peabody/Harold Jenkins (who for purposes here I’ll call Leonard) is the stand in for the Phantom, which works... really well. Both in helping to understand Vanya and also because it foreshadows the twist of season one in a really cool way.

So, the Phantom appears to Christine first not as an enemy, but as a friend and teacher, who encourages her to be more confident in her abilities. He trains her to develop her singing ability. While the teacher-student dynamic is actually inverted initially with Vanya and Leonard, from the get go, he is showering her with compliments, encouraging her to be confident in her abilities, and, at least on the surface, supporting her in a way she hasn’t been supported before (he’s a trash human but an expert manipulator).

But, in the play, the Phantom is also very possessive over Christine and her power (er, I mean voice). He also is perfectly willing to kill and/or hurt people who he views as standing in the way of Christine and her success (see the aforementioned Carlotta incident). Which is exactly what Leonard does to Vanya. He kills the first chair violinist to help her get it, and orchestrates a whole master plan to get her to reveal her powers on his terms.

Even the part where he starts “training” her to use her powers kind of resembles the second act of the play. The Phantom wrote a play for Christine and she’s going to star in it, whether she wants to or not.

(One could even make the argument of the parallels between Christine believing the Phantom was sent by her father to teach her and Leonard showing up because of his revenge scheme against Vanya’s father, but I honestly don’t have much support for that.)

Part Three: Two Conflicting Narratives

So, as you might’ve noticed, I sort of have two different threads of analysis going on right now. 1) The Phantom of the Opera parallel is part of Vanya’s self-narrative and in it she mischaracterizes Allison, making her more suspicious of her motivations and 2) Leonard Peabody is clearly the Phantom and doesn’t bother being subtle about it. I hope that I’ve been convincing (or at least intriguing) for you to get to this point, because here is where they come together.

Vanya has this parallel going, but she doesn’t see Leonard as the Phantom. In the beginning at least, he’s her Raoul. If I had to guess, I’d say Reginald Hargreeves is the Phantom in Vanya’s self-narrative (says he’ll train her but wants to manipulate her and keep her locked away for himself, strict teacher who doesn’t really care about her well being, wearing a mask to appear more normal/human... she wouldn’t exactly be wrong). Leonard, on the other hand, is Vanya’s supporter. He validates her, and believes in her, and taker her side when Carlotta and the opera house owners (er, the rest of the Hargreeves children) gang up on her and conspire to keep her out.

This is all building to, of course, the final confrontation. The Phantom says Christine has to pick one or the other. When Allison comes to talk to Vanya, Vanya feels as if she’s been given an ultimatum and lashes out.

And that’s where everything (including this parallel) starts to crumble.

(I honestly don’t know a lot about the other characters and how they fit in. I suppose we could have Five = Raoul if we ignore romance plot and focus on the childhood friend that hasn’t been seen in a while angle? And maybe also Pogo = Madame Giry. Vanya doesn’t really have any friends to be Meg.)

Part Four: It’s All About the Moon

So that is kind of the gist of The Phantom of the Opera as a window into Vanya’s self-narrative theory, but there are a couple of other loosely related ideas I thought I might as well bring up since this thing is already ridiculously long.

Remember how I mentioned the chandelier is like, THE scene from The Phantom of the Opera back in part one, and said it’d be relevant later? Bringing that back now, because I’m going to pull a Luther and connect everything to the moon.

So, to get the obvious out of the way, the moon exploding and the chandelier coming crashing to the stage are similar because something falls, breaks into a bunch of pieces, destroys a bunch of stuff, and creates a powerful and memorable image to close off before an act/season break (the next installment of which begins with a time jump).

Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that The Phantom of the Opera is told out of order. The opening scene shows a grown up Raoul at an auction for the items left behind after the opera house closes, and it switches to the past as the remains of the chandelier rise upwards to the ceiling, Phantom’s theme swelling (it’s a really cool moment, tbh). Following the prologue of The Umbrella Academy, we switch to the present with two images: Vanya alone on the stage, and then Luther alone on the moon. Which has a kind of symmetry that might mean nothing, but is still kind of cool.

(Also the item that Raoul buys from the auction is a music box with a monkey crashing symbols on top of it. Which might mean nothing.)

Part Five: How is she STILL talking about this? (AKA Conclusion)

To be honest, this is more a very tangled “things I noticed and thought were interesting” discussion than a formal essay with any clear thesis. While there is a chance that this was all coincidental and I’ve gone full Pepe Sylvia, the music selection in The Umbrella Academy is one of the things that they seem to be really deliberate about.

I would love to chat with anyone about this theory, so feel free to reach out in the notes or message me! My inbox is always open. Much love, and thank you for reading, if you got this far! ❤️

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waywardwrestlewritingwaif · 3 years

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The Call of the Wild Woman

Just some fluff featuring the green-haired goddess of NXT.

Pairing: Shotzi Blackheart x OFC

Word count: 2,412

Content advisory: brief sexual references, language

The first time I met Shotzi, I instantly liked her. We shook hands and she gave me this smile that made me feel like I was having a great day, even though there hadn’t been anything exceptional about it to that point. I was a little overwhelmed with all the people I was meeting, trying to get a sense of their look, their personality, their character, but I knew from our introduction that I was going to remember her for years, even if I never saw her again.

Of course, Shotzi’s a memorable person. Tall, tattooed, pierced and sporting that incredible acid green hair, it would be hard not to remember her. But I felt like I’d remember her vivacious eyes and confident smile just as much as the things that made her stand out from a mile away. My whole first day getting led around the performance center, I found my eyes drawn back to her whenever she appeared.

I had just been moved to NXT to take over as their chief makeup artist. I’d been working on Raw for close to a year when the position opened up and I’d been so excited and nervous about whether I’d get the job that I felt as if I’d barely slept for two months. My boyfriend and I actually broke up while I was waiting to hear back and I hardly noticed. We’d been struggling since his work had moved him out of state, and things had just sort of ended like a wave washing over a sandcastle. I wasn’t bitter but I was lonely. And that, along with my desire to show that I could run a team in high pressure situations, meant that I threw myself headlong into the new job. I tried to keep some time to see friends but work seemed more rewarding.

By the time I’d been there a few months, my circle of friends was largely made up of coworkers. There were always birthdays or barbecues or other things going on, and it was fun to be able to dish about work without having to explain a lot of background detail. I was enjoying myself. But, yeah, I was definitely lonely.

I dropped a couple of hints here and there that I wouldn’t mind being fixed up with any single male friends and a couple of the women made suggestions. A couple of the men did too. But none of it went anywhere. I was too busy and too awkward to make a first move and if any of the suggested bachelors ever thought to check me out on social media, it never resulted in a phone call.

Shotzi was always one of my favorite models. I loved transforming her from the natural beauty she was to the wild child who appeared on tv every week. And while we’d talk about work, she also had the greatest gifts as a storyteller, and the crazy stories to complement her skills. She’d been raised around bikers and conservative immigrants at the same time. She’d worked as a late night host for a horror movie tv broadcast before she became a wrestler. It was like she’d been born to perform and had found a way to do so while still being herself.

I found myself sitting at home, always alone, watching the silly and shocking horror movies she’d recommend to me, or tracking down music by bands she’d mention or whose shirts she’d wear. When she’d worked on tv, she’d developed a loyal following of teenage boys and girls who used to do everything from message her begging her to go out with them to sending her love letters and poetry to showing up outside the station in the hopes of meeting her. It sounded both creepy and sad but I sympathized a little with her starry-eyed fans. She was a kind of dazzling whirlwind of a person and, indeed, I was dazzled by her.

One day, I’d showed up at work after a particularly inauspicious Tinder date. The guy had picked me up for what was supposed to be coffee and a walk but had insisted that we stop by his friend’s place so he could get some pot. The three of us shared a joint and I assumed we were about to leave when another joint appeared. Being a lightweight, I declined but the two of them proceeded to smoke it themselves. Then the friend’s roommate came home from band practice. She pulled out her bong and that was getting passed around while she played us the hour-long piece of meandering prog that they’d created that day. All three of them seemed really entranced by what they could hear in the music, which I was pretty certain they were imagining.

About an hour later, my date and his friend started playing video games. I quietly tried to suggest that we leave and at least grab that coffee because I was clinging to the hope that maybe the guy, who was way cuter than I’d counted on, might have some redeeming qualities. He assured me we could leave in a minute. He and his friend were completely absorbed in their game, while the roommate randomly started telling me about how her mother had given birth to her at a Grateful Dead concert in the eighties, after following the band on tour for years. She didn’t seem to care much if I responded and would focus entirely on her phone every minute she wasn’t speaking.

Eventually, the roommate had begun to complain loudly that she was hungry and the guys agreed that we should order pizza. I handed over some money and advised them that I was a vegetarian, only to be surprised by a pizza that arrived looking like it had been fished out of a trash can, topped with pepperoni and cheese. I knew the place they’d ordered from and some quick math in my head made it clear that I had paid for basically all the pizza. They assured me that I could just pull the pepperoni off.

I was about to leave but my date insisted that we could head out in a few minutes to find me something I might actually want to eat. He was cute enough that I‘d agreed to stay just a little longer. A few more guys showed up to buy pot. Then friends of the roommate‘s had shown up with beer and put the stereo on so loud I thought the ceiling might cave in. I ended up leaving at eleven without even saying goodbye. When I got home, I realized that I‘d lost my house keys and had to ask a neighbor to help me break into my apartment.

I told this story to my coworkers to a chorus of loud “nos'' and peals of laughter. Others shared some bad date stories but this one did seem pretty dire. Everyone commiserated and it did make me feel better, like the night hadn’t been a total washout because I had a good story to tell and, as a couple of the girls pointed out, dates I had in the future were likely to seem pretty good in comparison.

“You should have taken some of the pot!” Shotzi exclaimed to a round of agreement.

“I wish I’d thought of that.”

It was a few days later that I was prepping Shotzi’s makeup and I noticed that she was a bit quieter than usual. She wasn’t unfriendly but there was something off.

“You ok?” I asked quietly, sweeping my brush out to give her the perfect cat’s eye flip.

“Yeah, I’m great.”

She didn’t sound great, or at least not in the enthusiastic way she usually did. I felt my neck getting tense as I tried to lead the conversation for the first time, knowing I wasn’t nearly as good at it as she was. I didn’t want to push her to tell me what was on her mind and at the same time, I felt like my forced smalltalk was probably grating on her nerves. I wanted to be entertaining but I lacked the stories and the flair.

Finally, when I announced that I was finished, she stood up just a few inches from me. I expected her to tell me to wish her luck, which I always did, but she didn’t move, her bright eyes focused on mine.

“Do you want to go out some time this weekend?” She asked.

“Like, hang out? Sure.”

She shook her head. “No. Do you want to go on a date with me?”

I sucked in a sharp breath, not knowing quite what to say. I fell back on the default. “Um, I don’t actually date women.”

“Oh.” She looked sad for the first time and a little surprised. “I’m sorry, I read some singles wrong. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

“Not at all. I mean, it’s no big deal. I just… you’re gorgeous. I’m just not…”

“It’s fine,” she insisted, extending a hand as if to pat my arm but withdrawing it before she did. “Please, forget I ever said anything.”

Of course, I couldn’t forget that. In fact, I couldn’t even get it out of my head. I’d always dated men. I’d known women who were bisexual and lesbian but none of them had ever expressed an interest in me and I hadn’t found myself attracted to them. But Shotzi was attractive. She was stunning. And the more I thought about that first reaction I’d had to her, the more it seemed similar to the way I’d reacted to men I’d been involved with in the past. I just hadn’t noticed the similarity because she was a woman and I wasn’t into women.

But maybe I was into one woman.

She stayed friendly with me, although she didn’t linger as long in the makeup chair regaling me with tales of her rock ‘n’ roll childhood or films that had made her who she was. I hadn’t even realized that she had been lingering before. I just thought we’d been having great conversations. We had been having great conversations. Had I been sending the wrong signals?

I knew that I had marveled at how beautiful and unique she was. I’d gushed, really. But I’d been so floored by her that I felt like I had to let off some steam in the form of compliments or I’d never be able to focus on anything else. That didn’t change after the “asking me out” incident. The fact that I couldn’t release any of my thoughts made it harder to think about anything. I’d see her and I’d spend ten minutes feeling like kind of an idiot, then half an hour thinking about her chatoyant eyes, about the perfect heart shape of her face, or her full lips.

It was a few weeks later that I caught myself staring at her from the safety of the shadows while she prepared to go out for a match. I’d often stared at her body and I figured that it was because she had the kind of body that every woman wanted to have: perfect curves, toned limbs, smooth skin… Looking at her in that moment, though, I wasn’t so sure about my motives. Was I wishing that I had those taut thighs or was I wishing that I knew what it felt like to drag my lips along them, to feel her shudder at the sensation of my breath on her sensitive flesh?

Her match was thrilling, as her matches almost always were. She was whipping around the place looking completely out of control, although we all knew she wasn’t. The more danger she put herself in, the more she seemed to glow with internal electricity. It was no wonder that the company was already treating her like a star. You’d have to be dead not to get drawn in by her. But it occurred to me as I watched her that I was more drawn in than others.

When I saw her come backstage, I retreated to my makeup room and counted down what felt like enough time to allow her to unwind, shower and change before I made my way over to the locker room.

“Hi there,” I greeted her, a little shyly.

She glanced up and gave me a big smile while she patted her hair dry.

“Hey you.”

“So, if the offer is still open, I’d like to say yes.”

She arched her elegant brows and gave me a coy smile. “Now what offer would that be?”

“If you still want to, then, yes, I would like to go on a date with you.”

“Interesting,” she drawled. “What brought about this change of heart?”

“You did.”

She bats her eyes and points theatrically at her chest. “Moi?”

I couldn’t help but smile. The light in her eyes told me she was happy but she still wanted to make me work for it a little. Fair enough.

“Ever since I met you, I’ve found all these things- movies, music, all sorts of stuff- that I just never thought of checking out because I either didn’t know about them or because I just never thought I’d be into them. And the more I think about it, the more I think that I might have made a lot of decisions about what I like just because it was what I saw everyone else doing.”

“Well that’s cool, but I’m not a movie or a book.”

“No. You’re this incredibly cool, funny, exciting, sexy person who I love being around and who has me thinking about all sorts of things I hadn’t considered.”

“Ok. How would you feel about a midnight picnic at an old shack I found near the river?” She grinned.

“Will you hold my hand if I get scared?”

“I promise.”

I gave a little laugh and stepped closer to her, cupping her cheek in one of my hands and marvelling at how perfectly it fit there. Unable to resist the temptation, I leaned in and pressed my lips softly against hers. And immediately, a delightful shiver ran through every part of my body.

When we separated, she gave me an almost coquettish smile and laced her arm through mine, steering us out of the locker.

“You know,” I mused, “you don’t seem really surprised by this.”

“I’m not,” she responded with a wink. “I knew you’d come around.”

#shotzi blackheart imagine #shotzi blackheart fanfic #nxt imagine #nxt fanfiction #wrestling fanfiction #wrestling imagine #wayward wrestle writing

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darkpoisonouslove · 3 years

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Winx Club Season 5 Thoughts Part 2

Part 1 is here.

5x14:

- I thought there was a musical performance coming up but nope. I can do with cleaning up a beach instead. I like it. And they’re sorting the trash as they pick it up? That’s actually super thoughtful. They have their moments.

- Icy and Tritannus are disgusting. And not because they’re cute and I hate cute like Stormy does. It’s because they’re cringy.

- So is Tritannus just gonna have Daphne floating around after him until the end of the season?

- Sooooo... there’s a throne that can give you ultimate power over the whole dimension and it’s just chilling there in the middle of the Infinite Ocean? That seems incredibly illogical and stupid to me. Who has access to the Infinite Ocean again? I know Sirenix got cursed but that was about 20 years ago. What was going on before that? Surely, Daphne couldn’t have been the only Sirenix fairy. And what if one of the fairies with Sirenix decided to just sit on the throne and take the power? This is just... an incredibly stupid and undeveloped concept even by Winx’ standards.

- Again, I have no idea why Daphne warned him at all. Just let the curse make everyone’s jobs easier and get rid of him. (I thought only the Trix had Sirenix, though, because he doesn’t look different after he got it and him being drained by the throne seems to support the idea that his powers are all coming from the pollution he consumes.) Also, how very convenient for him that there is a singular cell right there next to the Emperor’s Throne. ‘Cause any part of this makes any sense.

- Okay, they just vanished matter again. And yeah, we’ve established there is no logic to that but maybe it would have been a better idea to have all that trash recycled? So that it could have been used again? That would have been more eco friendly as it saves resources.

- Aww, poor Stella! Yes, the dress of carrots was definitely too impractical to be worn on a daily basis and also a potential hazard if it draws animals to you but I still feel bad for her. At least she was trying to do something good. And if she adapts her strategy a little and uses some magic she could really succeed in her mission and make clothing more ecological. I have a feeling that they are only writing her making horrible designs on purpose to give the appearance of some arc for her character. We all know season 1-3 Stella would have done so much better with her designs.

- Okay, Brandon did not handle that talk at all but I appreciate the fact that he was honest at the very least instead of just saying what Stella wants to hear from him. It was certainly hard for both of them but that is how relationships should be - honest.

- Yes, they just rationalized that all the garbage might draw in Tritannus but the moment they see a purple tornado it doesn’t click that that is Stormy. Because purple tornadoes are totally natural on Earth.

- The Trix look even worse in the 2D style while Winx look somewhat better than they do in 3D.

- Seriously, tell me how Winx are gonna defeat that tornado. Stormy could probably tear apart the whole planet with the power she’s packing here. And Tritannus, Icy and Darcy haven’t even lifted a finger yet.

- Yeah, it took all six of Winx to handle only Stormy’s powers so the evil group will just leave. It’s not like they appear stronger and probably have chances to win this.

- Love how everyone’s observation skills are going through a meltdown.

- Tritannus is ruthless and I have to say that I love that. I’m sick of the villains just leaving Winx alone without doing all the damage they possibly could just because the plot needs it to be so. Even here he could have made the mutants attack them and he didn’t but at least he used them as leverage so it’s better.

- Layla’s reaction was a little over the top in the Infinite Ocean but I am glad that they are showing her to be so upset about her relatives even though it’s extended family. We don’t see enough familial relationships on Winx.

- Please, tell me Tritannus will get the power of the Throne. Otherwise, they shoved all the nonsense surrounding it in here for nothing. And that will be a bigger challenge for Winx.

5x15:

- Love how in season 3 every Winx girl had a different swimming technique but now they are all swimming in the same way.

- Where is this problem coming out of all of a sudden? Stella had no issue firing at Tritannus in the previous episode. They’re just doing it to manufacture drama because otherwise, she would have the power to save her father from the beginning of the episode and they wouldn’t have an episode.

- They gave Layla a sword. Good. Best decision they’ve made all season.

- Love that Darcy and Stormy are thinking about what their role is here.

- Who thought the selkies could protect anything? They can’t even protect themselves.

- I love that they showed a couple of worlds but we only really saw the effect of the eclipse on Andros and Solaria.

- Radius has never been that much of an asshole (not that we’ve seen that much of him). He seems totally out of character here and I hate to admit that there is some logic to him being ruled by pride since he is legit standing in for the sun. I love the fact that both Stella and Luna were super worried about him, though, and instantly came to help.

- Omg, their hair changing colors is so not necessary or relevant rn. Wish they would just leave it alone.

- Layla roasting Tritannus that he’s letting Icy do all his fighting was absolute peak! I’m here for it!

- Okay, so there was literally no reason why Stella’s light didn’t work at the beginning of the episode but did at the end and it only made her seem more self-centered if anything because she only really put her will into fighting once she was directly affected. Not @ the way this season is not pulling off the emotional arcs at all.

- Wow, okay. Icy sacrificing herself for Tritannus was just... unexpected. Winx weren’t prepared either. I am glad that at least he had the decency to be mad that she’s hurt and appreciate what she did for him.

- Aww, Luna is absolutely precious and I love her already!

- Couldn’t have Bloom used her fire to the same effect that Stella used her light? And Layla could have totally used her morphix to cover them and make sure they won’t be hit. They didn’t just have to stand there and be useless.

5x16:

- Why did I hear Layla say pillow instead of pillar? I think I might need to go to bed (it’s like 5am).

- Nature kick? Nature KICK???????? They gave Flora an attack that’s inherently violent? What the hell were they thinking? That has never been her style so why start now?

- “I’d do anything for you, Tritannus.” Yes, including abandoning your sisters. Nice one, Icy!

- I knew it that the two mutants Layla freed would be Nereus and Tressa. No way can we have any adults here.

- It’s interesting that convergence didn’t work. There’s an intriguing implication in that somewhere but it’s too late to unpack it now.... Okay, now that I am awake (and have watched the rest of the episodes), let’s see what I get out of this. The Pillar needed light which is something tangible and physical unlike the other two Pillars so the convergence didn’t work because Stella is the only one whose powers are about light. I like the implication here and they could have done something interesting with it, not to mention implement some rules when it comes to convergence at the very least.

- Stella just singlehandedly powered all the suns in the Magic Dimension. That is the most powerful thing we have seen anyone do on this show. I love her so much!

- Aww, I feel so bad for Stella! I am crying over here. And seriously, why is Radius being so prickly here? He wasn’t like that in season 3. Stella was even ready to let them ignore her if it would mean that they could also ignore the budding argument. This is hurting her so much and it’s hurting me as well!

- Aww, Kiko really wanted to cheer Stella up so badly! He’s adorable.

- Was Erendor the one suggesting that they unite their powers? Wow, I am just shocked. Also, kinda amused that Faragonda managed to make them all shut up even though they are all more “important” than she is.

- So why is Diaspro on Eraklyon? She was supposed to be banished. But no, we need more stupid drama. I see that Erendor at least is back to his prickliness. And yes, I totally have to agree with Samara that he just made an awful mistake. Giving Diaspro the authority to speak in his name is a rash and reckless decision in general. After she mind controlled Sky? Absolute madness,

- Wizgiz looks so weird without his hat.

- What is so hard to figure out about the “fight fire with fire” expression? But they did a pretty good job regardless.

- Of course, there is Diaspro drama even when she and Sky don’t have any kind of personal relations anymore. But still, I don’t think Bloom should be so affected by it because she was told it was for his royal duties. (and since the meeting is held on Domino, she could totally be there as well) It is frustrating but it’s still better than what has happened with Diaspro before.

5x17:

- Omg, Daphne is pushing herself to her limits in the name of saving everyone. Meanwhile, what does she get in return? Tortured by both Stormy and Tritannus, vaguely ignored by her sister and the show won’t even let her parents show concern for her (not that they can save her now that she is in the Infinite Ocean but they could have tried in 5x13).

- Why is Kiko sleeping so far off the ground? That is dangerous. He could roll off the pillow in his sleep and fall... Or Bloom could send him flying through the room when she tosses in her sleep. Poor bunny.

- Eye of Inspiration? Wow, okay.

- Weren’t there four pillars? Why only three seals? And Pillar of Control and Pillar of Balance? What the hell? Light is at least tangible. But control and balance? What the hell?

- I can’t believe that Icy would turn on Darcy and Stormy because of a guy. This is so stupid and I hate it.

- When are the selkies going to learn that they are useless and the best idea would be to hide and go look for someone who actually stands a chance against Tritannus?

- The moon thing was some serious level of bullshit. Like, I get that it looks all fairytale-y and magic-y and shit but when you look at it from a logical point of view, it’s just a fucking mess. You’re telling me that just looking down at the well releases some magic? What the hell? Even if you take their Sirenix into account, this is still weird. (The room made of water was cool, though). Oh, and a map of the Infinite Ocean. How convenient. Because Alfea has all the answers.

- Wow, Mike and Vanessa are actually gonna clean that whole trash island up? I am in awe of their determination.

- Okay, so where the hell are the fairies of Earth? It would make sense for them to take action against Tritannus. He is hurting the planet directly and is also a major threat that needs to be dealt with. They should have been involved now that their kingdom was reinstated.

- Well, Stella is still feisty even when she’s sleep deprived. Also, I see they have no problem using their Sirenix powers now. I am so sick of them using convergence, though. Wish they’d do something more creative.

- I honestly wish Tritannus will get rid of the selkies permanently because they are that annoying.

- Seriously? Tritannus knows that they can follow him in the Infinite Ocean but he just... thought they wouldn’t find him? He should know better by now. And Layla was weird too because they know where he will be going. They can find him. Also, another convergence? Come. On!

5x18:

- What took Tritannus so long to show up? He was right there with the Trix. I do like the critique on Icy’s long hair that this was. Like, girl is aesthetic as hell but long hair could def be very dangerous.

- I am actually on Icy and Tritannus’ side here because the selkies are boring me to tears.

- Here’s an idea for you - instead of Daphne sacrificing every last bit of strength and vitality she has, maybe the Winx could figure something out on their own for a change.

- Ugh, the ugly dresses again. Classic, my ass. Ungodly hideous suits it better.

- Really not @ the way Marion’s throne is smaller than Oritel’s. Like, Erendor and Samara’s thrones were the same size but you’re telling me that Marion and Oritel’s are different implying that he has more power? Yeah, no. Fuck that idea. I like the third throne, though. What a shame Daphne isn’t there to fill her rightful place.

- I am so sick of the Diaspro drama that they are shoving in this even now.

- Oh, look! Roy is also there. How else are we gonna know that he is a Big DealTM? You know? Obviously someone that Layla should date.

- See, Marion is even the one leading this whole assembly. Though, my guess is that that would be because the union is her idea and Oritel agreed (probably a little begrudgingly). Of course, everyone else has to be a royal and prideful idiot about this. (I guess it was Theredor in 5x16 that suggested that they unite and not Erendor which would definitely make more sense). But yes, Winx are facing the consequences of what happens when everyone has a vote and you need consensus. Nothing gets fucking done. For once it actually looks plausible that Winx are more effective than any of the adults because they make up their minds quickly. Usually to a common stupid idea but they are certainly doing better than all the royals at this assembly.

- If the dragon is totally untamed, how is Codatorta riding it? This does not make sense to me. And I thought they would be learning strategy.

- Not @ the way Radius was being condescending to Stella. But I like the fact that she got through to him. She is gonna be a precious queen!

- I have to side with Diaspro because Bloom and Sky literally thought it to be a good idea to just leave the assembly and go deal with their teenage romance bullshit. Fucking responsible adults you are. Oh, yeah, sure. When she’s actually needed, she can’t leave all of a sudden and she’ll let the others do everything.

- Well, Winx are recklessly courageous, I will give them that. I hate how instantly they need their lessons, though. They learn something and it comes in handy the same day. What if something had happened, and they hadn’t had the lesson? They would be toast. Honestly, the levels of convenience because they don’t trust the audience to remember what happened in the episodes before that is just insane. It would have been better to have a couple of episodes between learning a skill and having to use it.

- Oh, wow! They noticed the pollution? I can’t believe it! Finally! This episode is actually treating me better. If they’d let the selkies become snacks and let Bloom take some responsibility, it would have been good. Now it isn’t half bad.

- This makes zero sense because Erendor and Oritel aka Eraklyon and Domino did have an alliance against the Ancestral Witches. And considering Erendor feeling guilty for betraying that alliance, it would make sense for him to join this one to fix his mistake back then or at least not repeat it. Only possible explanation for his behavior that I can think of is that Eraklyon is actually in a crisis and their defenses are in pretty bad shape so he doesn’t want the others to know that. But that still leaves them defenseless against a potential attack. This is stupid. I mean, his pride is obviously an explanation in and of itself but it is also the definition of stupid.

5x19:

- Why is Erendor so dense? If they defend the Pillars, Tritannus will be easier to beat without the power he will get if he destroys the Pillars. It is a simple deduction.

- Aww! This scene with Riven and Musa is so adorable! He was actually enjoying the music so much and Musa opened up about her mother. That was actually precious.

- Wow, they really tried hard to tie the balance thing to the sea and to music.

- Oh, man! Please, tell me Riven didn’t just run away like that because he got uncomfortable with emotions... Oh, wait! I get it now. He is planning a surprise for her and needs the help of this other girl, I believe it is the same one whose guitar playing skills he was admiring when Musa got all jealous for no fucking reason whatsoever. And they are making stupid drama again.

- Oh, come on! I have to stand Bloom and Sky stupid drama as well on top of the other one?!?!?! I hate this. Also, when will Bloom understand that she can’t be the center of Sky’s universe. She may not care about her royal duties but he was at least raised with some sense of responsibility towards his title. And what does Bloom do? Use her title to rub Diaspro’s nose in her victory on the Sky matter and then she just starts weeping over Sky wanting to talk to his father instead of dealing with the more important shit!

- You’d think that those Pillars would be better protected considering how fucking important they are. Also, aren’t the writers tired of making innocent mermaids on Andros suffer?

- They’re actually making a plan? And it’s a decent one? I can’t believe it!

- At least Tritannus goes back for Icy every time. Not that that’s gonna last but if she’s gonna ditch Darcy and Stormy, it’d better be worth it at least a little.

- Loved Bloom’s magical punch but the slow mo of Layla’s kick really does it a big disservice.

- Why did he throw his trident? That was idiotic. Layla going up in his face so that he could grab it back was also idiotic as hell so I guess they are equally stupid to balance each other out. Could have just blasted him with the trident and get it over with but noooooo. They have to make dumb choices.

- O. M. G! Darcy and Stormy got the whales? That was... so fucking AWESOME!!!! I was worried that them disappearing would actually fuck them over because Tritannus would get mad at them but they actually come back with the whales? Epic. Also, this makes me think that they are at least partially responsible for the chaos going on because Musa said it is the whales that keep the balance and Darcy just hypnotized them. I am so proud of my girl! *happy sob* Her powers really are just so badass in this season.

5x20:

- Seriously? This episode is titled “The Problems of Love” because of all the Sky and Bloom bullshit that will be in it (possibly Riven and Musa and even Tritannus and Icy as well)? Because THAT is the most important thing going on now.

- Okay, so Icy isn’t impressed by what Stormy and Darcy did for her? Girl, you need to wake the fuck up. I do love the energy of Darcy and Stormy just being evil sisters together and fucking shit up, though.

- So why did the rest of Winx not go to the Pillar while Musa was dealing with the whales? Also, didn’t they try the convergence on the Pillar of Light? It didn’t work. Why do they think it will work now? Oh, it actually did. Of course. Because balance. THE SYMBOLISM IS STRONG.

- Really not a fan of the way they have chopped the episodes in favor of suspense instead of in favor of every episode having a completed mini arc.

- Okay, so Musa is mature enough to know that bringing her mother back from the dead will mess with the natural flow of things but she can’t trust Riven just a tad bit more.

- So did Stella and Brandon make up? Last time we saw anything about them Stella said she hated them which she obviously didn’t mean but still. That was just left hanging there.

- Can they all leave Tecna alone? She and Timmy are happy with the way things are. If it works for them, then that’s the only thing that matters. And Musa projecting her relationship drama onto Tecna was just the worst. Glad at least Tecna trusts Timmy implicitly.

- Okay, so did Diaspro think this through? Of course, she didn’t. Once Sky learns what she’s done, she will probably get in trouble. I say probably because Erendor is kinda on her side here so it’s not all that certain. But in any case, she will make Sky resent her more. So still not a good idea.

- Bloom doesn’t have patience to wait for a minute. She knows Sky is busy and has a lot of things to do. She could just calm down a little and not expect him to respond to her every summons.

- Oh, my god! She really thinks that she is more important than a royal meeting. You are fucking yourself over and I wouldn’t give a damn if your stupid relationship drama wasn’t 50% of this godforsaken show.

- Sky should turn his phone off and Bloom should just get some fucking perspective. I know she’s used to being the center of the world but she needs to get her priorities straight as well. She should be looking for Daphne instead of being a fucking idiot over there. They know about the Emperor’s Throne. And if they have a map of the Infinite Ocean, they should know where it is. Just go there and confront Tritannus instead of waiting for him to keep stealing seals! How hard can it be? But of course, you need to have your head in the game, not in your bullshit relationship.

- My god, even ethereal beings like the guardians of Sirenix were dragged into this shit. At least that gave effect. And Bloom admitted she is the problem. I can’t believe it! Actual character development. Of course, I don’t expect it to stick until the next episode so it won’t matter but still.

- Umm... the wind should be carrying the pollen away from the flowers. It can’t carry pollen to them if the pollen comes from them. The wind can only carry it away. That is basically the idea of pollen. To get carried away.

- Omg, I am so tired of Stella’s interest in fashion fucking everything up. They’re making her incompetent and ignorant of everything else on purpose. Also, why can’t they fly? That was just out of nowhere.

5x21:

- They each have a special Sirenix spell? Was that concept introduced before or did it just show up now? I don’t think they’d said anything about that, though it would have been nice in the episode where Stella was having issues but later found the way to fix the Pillar of Light.

- I just wish they would leave Tecna and Timmy alone. Besides, they don’t have to go on a “real” and “romantic” date in order to be face to face. They can just chill on the couch and talk about what THEY want.

- Did Helia just tell Timmy to “man up”? You know what would be “manning up”? Getting over your egoistical impulses to meddle in everyone’s lives because you think you know best. At least Riven is being honest.

- What happened to just being yourself? Tecna and Timmy are already into each other for who they are. They don’t need all of this not so good dating advice.

- Wow, Daphne is going for desperate measures here but she is making sense at the very least.

- I am getting second hand embarrassment over Tecna and Timmy’s date. Poor guys. They just need to be themselves.

- Well, they succeeded with the destruction of the seal. I would love to see Tritannus’ reaction as well.

- Aww, at least Tecna and Timmy got to have a good end to their disastrous date.

5x22:

- I am so sick of Tritannus and Icy always repeating that they’ll be the emperor and empress once the Throne is complete. We get it, okay? No need to say it over and over again. I have a feeling they’re only doing that because they don’t actually have anything else to talk about.

- Omg, I thought this shit with Crystal and Helia was over. How much longer? Why is this even happening? I am so exasperated rn. At least Crystal is not like Diaspro. Even though the show tried to strongly suggest the similarity between them.

- Can they stop jumping to conclusions? Like, Flora legit saw Helia interact with Crystal for three seconds and it wasn’t him that threw himself at her. Flora is always trying to be polite so she should think that it’s possible that Helia is doing the same. Also, love how her insecurity stems from doubts in herself but that will never be resolved ever because no one gets proper arcs anymore.

- How is the king’s decision rational? It’s bullshit.

- Why the hell would droids function better in cold weather. How does that make sense?

- It would have been more interesting if Tritannus had destroyed the whole Pillar and they had to rebuild it from scratch. That might have needed more than convergence to fix and would have been a better challenge.

- Really? They have to fight the droids? That is the most predictable, most boring scenario that they could have come up with. Also, why isn’t there secondary defense against the droids? Like, just in case. No technology is infallible.

- I am confused. Is Tecna the princess of Zenith or not? Why does the king know her specifically if she’s not? Is it because she’s the guardian fairy of the planet? That could have been so much more interesting to see than any of this. A political discussion between him and the fairy that guards the whole planet. More worldbuilding.

- At least he changed his mind. I was hoping that would be the result of the mess with the droids.

- Aww, Tecna wished for Zenithians to feel empathy and connection! That is so precious. She has grown so much. Actually, this season hasn’t treated Tecna half bad. There were some golden opportunities that were missed but I actually like most of what they did do.

- Seriously? Sky sent a request for Bloom and she was still bitching about it? Honestly, that invitation for a diplomatic meeting could have been a cute thing where they get to both solve the issue with Eraklyon not wanting to join the alliance and their relationship drama. But no.

- I love Darcy and Stormy as a dynamic duo even if it pains me that Icy is treating them like that. But there is always place for her once she gets her mind back because she’s currently lost it.

5x23:

- I thought Politea was gonna be the plot of the third movie. But they’re bringing her in now? I am not sure I like this.

- Tritannus getting beaten down is a sight for sore eyes.

- Okay, I love this cute Bloom and Stella moment. Even if I am still not a fan of how they are giving Stella trouble with her designs because we all know that she is super good at what she does.

- Orrrrr... they could just use their Believix transformations and the Tracix wings to see the past. Though, those did seem to work only for the current location you’re at. And no past transformation is ever brought back.

- Why does Politea look like a brunette Bloom? Can they stop trying to make more of her? One is more than enough. Also, if Politea is a nymph as well, why does she look so plain compared to Daphne? We get it that Bloom and her whole family (and her whole planet) are all oh so special but this is ridiculous.

- Why the fuck did Politea refuse to help? If the Witches stole the power of the Infinite Ocean, she couldn’t get it for herself. Also, this is a blatant contradiction to everything we’ve been shown in the previous seasons. The witches grabbed Daphne and cursed her right after she opened the portal that sent Bloom to Earth, not in some battle for the Infinite Ocean.

- Didn’t Daphne say that Politea’s Sirenix turned evil because she turned evil? What the hell? And why would she turn into a monster when Daphne lost her body?????? I hate this.

- Oh, so Bloom’s going it alone now? Nice way to say she doesn’t think her friends can handle it because they aren’t as powerful as her. Wasn’t it exactly the fact that Politea refused to help Daphne that allegedly fucked them both over? Bloom should know better.

- Really? Icy didn’t dodge that? There’s a shitton of space in that underwater cave. She could have escaped in any direction. But no, she has to be dumb and get kicked. Lemme guess, Bloom went alone so that it could be a one on one against Icy and the writers could pretend there was any tension because that obviously wouldn’t have been the case if the rest of Winx were also there.

- So Politea just disappeared because that makes sense. Not like she’s a separate human being that was not formed by her Sirenix powers. And Darcy and Stormy are completely fine even though they absorbed an allegedly cursed Sirenix. And no one bothered finishing off Bloom just to make sure she would actually get finished off. How very convenient.

- Both Radius and Luna were at the assembly at Domino. Now they’re acting like 3-year-olds. I hate this so much. I can see why Stella is so done with their fighting. But I am so proud of her for talking to them and actually telling them how their behavior makes her feel. That was pretty mature of her. If only they could take her example and do the same and actually talk instead of just snapping at each other.

- Oh, and the teachers are at the fashion show as well? That’s cool.

- It’s actually cool that Stella didn’t wish her parents to get back together. She could have but that wouldn’t have been right since they don’t want that. Her wish is still a little questionable because their understanding of each other is not entirely their doing but, on the other hand, she wished that they would just listen to each other. Not necessarily agree. So I think it is actually okay.

- Awwww! It’s so cute from the rest of Winx to model Stella’s clothes!

- Lmaooo, Wizgiz is killing me in this episode. It’s cute how excited he is, though.

- I am so proud of Stella for what she said to (and about) Brandon. Now THAT was really mature of her. I loved it!

- Omg, Riven wrote a whole song for Musa! I knew that he would have a really cool surprise for her. Honestly, she doesn’t appreciate him as much as she should (when he’s not a jerk and he hasn’t been this season).

- But why is Roy with the Specialists? He’s not a part of their team. Please, stop acting like he has any place in this friend group. He’s an outsider and he’s never made any meaningful connections with any of them.

5x24:

- Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Dolphins are so precious!

- So Erendor did join the alliance at last? Not that they can agree on much still but at least they took the first step. Not @ the way the show keeps implying that Earth is the only planet that has pollution. And why did Flora decide to be dramatic before speaking?

- Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! The dolphins! Someone needs to stop him! He’s gonna destroy the precious dolphins!

- They actually made a joint decision? And Erendor fired Diaspro? Wow. WOW! I stan this episode. I just hope it won’t disappoint by the end. Oh, and here’s a prediction - Flora will earn her Sirenix wish this ep. Or Layla. But I think it will be Flora. (Bloom’s obv gonna be last.)

- Uggggh... Did a giant praying mantis just appear behind Stella and Layla? Why? Please no. (But that only makes me lean more in favor of Flora being the one to earn her wish this ep.)

- Oh, there’s more of them. I feel like all the “kick” spells of Sirenix were made specifically for the purpose of this episode.

- These shields couldn’t be any smaller. Sirenix spells are kinda lame, not gonna lie. Harmonix was much better in that regard (and more aesthetic even if impractical).

- Oh, yes. Don’t hurt the enormous bugs. The spell that is supposed to restore damaged environments will erase them out of existence instead. How is that better and why is Flora okay with it if she didn’t want the animals hurt?

- Is there anyone else in that task force besides the Specialists and the droids? You’re telling me that those are the only resources that the Magic Dimension can spare on the fight with what is currently the biggest threat to their existence? This is ridiculous.

- Luna can control the second sun of Solaria? I love that. I love her!

- So... Roy wasn’t even in danger. That’s so lame. I could have been on board with Layla saving him. And it would have been a nice parallel to their first meeting. Also, we have never seen them interact in order to care about any potential feelings between them. This is not how you make a relationship.

- Of course, Flora wouldn’t wish anything that tells us something new about her character. At this point nature and caring about it is the only personality trait she has (oh, and her doubts about her relationship with Helia). We can’t have anything else about her. Here’s something she could have wished for - that her sister can only ever die of natural death which could a) bring up the fact that she has a sister again and b) imply that she is still not over the fact that Miele almost died on her watch.

5x25:

- Omg, where is this sudden uncertainty about Helia coming from? Even though Crystal is not trying to take him from her. I wish this had been better set up at the very least. It could have been a great arc but we can’t have that, of course.

- Alfea has to be at least three times as big to host all the facilities we’ve seen it have in this season alone. I mean, come on!

- So now the mirror is a magical shoe designer? At least Stella’s wish to be with her parents was cute. But you’re telling me that all Layla wants right now is to dance with Roy? I call bullshit on that. She had zero time to recover from losing Nabu and I am so mad over this new “romance” being shoved at her out of the blue.

- Flora and Helia aren’t even gonna talk about this? Because the magical mirror solved the problem by showing what’s in her heart? I should have known this was going to happen.

- And why did Icy offer Layla instead of any of the other Winx? Because Layla has to be the strongest considering the nature of her powers aka she will be the hardest to capture. Though, it makes sense that the strongest will be the best fit to activate the Throne.

- So how did Nereus and Tressa go into the Infinite Ocean? Tritannus couldn’t before he stole Daphne’s Sirenix powers. So how did they manage without Sirenix?

- Why is Stella the one asking how to get rid of the mutants without hurting them when she was the one who managed to do exactly that in a previous episode? But, of course, they have forgotten all about previous episodes. Continuity? Don’t know her.

- How is the Breath of the Ocean summoning all the selkies? It was supposed to restore damaged environments. Now it suddenly has more functions because, of course, it does. It would be too much to want of them to figure out something else.

- Yes, I can see how they aren’t hurting the mutants. Not like knocking them out and possibly giving them concussions is hurting them. How could you think that?

- Oh, so Flora also has a “nature punch”? Are you kidding me?

- I see. They gave them all “punches” to compliment the “kicks” they already had. How very creative.

- You’d think that a prince would have been taught basic battle strategy and wouldn’t just turn his back on the enemy. But... obvious plot device to make Layla blow up and defeat Tritannus is obvious.

- Wow, they had to threaten Layla with losing someone else she cares about so that she couldn’t bring Nabu back to life and they could keep going with their stupid new romantic interest bullshit.

- AND Tritannus stole her power? Can Layla catch a break here? Also, why aren’t the rest of Winx following Bloom to go help Layla as well?

5x26:

- Wait, wait, wait! Are you telling me that the selkies knew where the Throne was this whole time?!?!?!?! AND they didn’t lead Winx there even though it was obvious that was where Tritannus was? Because “we’re almost there” implies that Bloom’s selkie knows the way to the Throne. So why, pray tell, are they only going there now and didn’t use that to fight him before?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! You know, when he still didn’t have everything he needed to activate the Throne?

- Did Tritannus get possessed by the power or something? This change in attitude is completely weird and really pissing me off because they could have actually done something decent with Icy and Tritannus’ relationship and the way it ended but they did not put a single thought in it. Anyway, I am glad Icy is back to her senses.

- Well, Musa looked like she was aiming at Roy which I wouldn’t mind all that much if it hadn’t been the middle of an important battle for which they needed him. But her magic waves didn’t affect him even though he was directly in their way so whatever.

- Now the whole palace is submerged. RIP to all the servants in there that didn’t have a tower to hide in and the Winx to save them.

- I actually love the idea of Winx interacting with the parents of the other Winx. It’s cute.

- Okay, but why is destroying the trident gonna render him powerless? He literally grew in size when he received the power of the Throne which means that it has to be in his body so taking away the trident shouldn’t work. Smh.

- Man, what a lame way to get rid of all the villains and their minions. Very anti climatic. And they didn’t even need the rest of Winx there. So what was this bullshit that they needed Sirenix to defeat him when that barely played any part in his downfall? If anything, it was what let him get the power to activate the Throne. (We all know they could have fixed the pillars even with Harmonix.)

- The gate of Oblivion? Hey, why did no one toss Valtor in there? Or the Trix for that matter?

- So Bloom didn’t actually wish to get Daphne back but to remove the Sirenix curse? Not that there’s much difference since the curse only ever seemed to have worked on Daphne (and Politea that just vanished in thin air).

- I’ll take Daphne’s comment about Bloom being the best little sister in the whole universe as her being emotional over the fact that she was brought back to life. It took Bloom so long to figure out that there was something wrong with her and then even longer to save her. In fact, she didn’t even look as concerned with Daphne’s situation as she was with her own romantic drama so I am not buying that she is so good at being a little sister. Besides, we all know that Miele is the best little sister.

- Aww, I really love that shot of Bloom and her whole family group hugging. And I especially love the fact that Mike and Vanessa are also there!

Oh, I have to write some sort of conclusion now? I was pretty clear on my feelings about this season so I don’t think there’s much to say. Only a few final words to the season itself - I dub thee The Season of Missed Opportunities. Also, love how Musa didn’t even get to use her Sirenix wish. Guess she didn’t please fate enough... even though she was mature enough to know that wishing her dead mother back was not the way she should use her wish. I call bullshit on that (and yes, this is my closing statement).

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evilrubberducke · 4 years

Text

IzuMina week Day 1- To Save an Emerald

Yeah, I’m a day late on this one. I blame the pandemic. On the plus side, this means you’re getting a double update from me today.

This is based on the day 1 prompt “Protection”

On a side note, I now have an actual EvilMuffinLord blog here on Tumblr. If you follow me for Mina content, you might want to switch your follow over to there. I’ll keep posting Mina stuff on this blog for the rest of IzuMina week, but after that I’ll switch over to the new one, and leave this for other fandoms/personal blogging.

Read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23298604

Or on FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13530836/1/IzuMina-Week-2020

Mina stood in the center of her dorm room, decked out in her pajamas with her phone in hand, contemplating making the worst decision of her life. The number was already punched in, staring back at her from the screen as if to taunt her into going through with it. All she had to do was make the call.

She honestly couldn’t believe the circumstances that had brought her to this point. They were so outlandish that if she had read them in a book, she would have dismissed it immediately for being too unrealistic.

Just a few short months ago she had rocked up to UA, flushed with victory from completing the entrance exam. She’d done an absolutely awesome job, placing just high enough to land her in class 1A. The experience had been absolutely hellish, and she had spent the week afterward hoping against hope that her performance had been enough to sneak by.

Being able to parade her acceptance letter around had been entirely worth it though. No one could believe what an excellent job she had done in getting in, and she’d been insufferable in her victory for nearly a week afterwards. Her father and brother had deserved it too, the doubters.

Then her first actual day at UA had arrived, and hit Mina like a ton of bricks. It was an experience unlike any she had been through before. She had looked up photos and videos of the school beforehand, but it was so much different to actually stand on its grounds and look up at the towering main building. Sure, she’d seen it during the entrance exam, but she’d been far too preoccupied at the time to really take in the spectacle. Now she had the time to really be wowed, and she was taking full advantage.

The grounds were absolutely immaculate, the shrubbery perfectly trimmed and not a trace of trash to be seen anywhere. That was probably a side benefit of UA having a budget the size of a small prefecture. They could throw around money for a bit of spectacle.

That same spectacle had led to her meeting Izuku just before class had begun. She’d been in the midst of checking out a collage of famous UA alumni battling equally notorious villains, searching for anyone she knew, when he had crashed into her and sent them both sprawling.

Izuku had, predictably, apologized profusely for his mistake and offered to do anything to make it up to her. Mina had tried to brush it off as a simple mistake, but he had been so insistent that she had eventually agreed to let him buy her a drink. If he hadn’t been so awkward and oblivious about the whole affair, she might have thought he had engineered the whole encounter in order to hit on her.

To her surprise, she’d actually enjoyed talking to him while they sipped on their drinks. Once he had gotten over his initial awkwardness, he’d proven to be incredibly enthusiastic about getting into UA and training to be a hero. Mina had been delighted to learn that he was in the same class as her, giving her a head start on getting to know the students she’d be training with. He’d practically keeled over when she had offered to be his friend and exchange numbers, which had actually made her giggle a little bit. He reminded her of a puppy, so eager to please that he was tripping over himself as he did so.

The rest of the day hadn’t gone quite so well. Aizawa was exactly the kind of hardass that Mina hated, lording his power over the class for shits and giggles. She’d placed high enough that she didn’t have to worry about getting eliminated, but watching him berate the lower scoring students had really ground her gears.

Especially when it came to Izuku. It was obvious to everyone that he was trying his best, but Aizawa seemed to have latched onto him in particular as a target. It was hard for Mina to keep up a smile as she watched him spiral lower and lower throughout the day.

Thankfully, he’d managed to stick it out in the end, and Aizawa had proved himself to be a hypocritical ass, calling himself a hero while lying and berating his students. Mina had to admit, seeing Izuku standing there with a broken finger while he smiled at Aizawa, flushed with victory had been awesome. She’d even cheered a bit, though not so loudly that she stood out from the crowd.

That moment of happiness for the boy, and the subsequent relief that he was staying in the class had stayed with her for the rest of the day, refusing to leave her alone. It was unlike her to get so attached so quickly to a person. Sure, she’d had friends in the past, and she had her family, but those relationships hadn’t felt quite like this. Maybe it was because Midoriya was so open and honest that she couldn’t imagine him having an ulterior motive in the slightest, and that made it all the easier to connect.

She’d made a few more friends in their class after that, commiserating with the rest of the girls over having to deal with Mineta’s perverse actions and cracking jokes with Kaminari, but none of them had come as easily as the first.

And then the day of the USJ incident had come, and Mina had been tested. She couldn’t hear what had been said in the main plaza, but she had been able to watch as Izuku came close to death at the hands of the Nomu, only to be saved at the last moment by All Might. As she watched the blond hero smash his way through the miscellaneous villains in an instant, Mina had noticed something. Before All Might’s arrival, she had taken a single step forward, towards the plaza. That had shocked her on a level she couldn’t even begin to describe. Her urge to protect the precious green boy had been so overwhelming that she had been willing to confront the League over it.

She couldn’t reconcile it. She’d never been like this before. She’d met plenty of sweet, friendly people over the years, and none of them had made her feel so fiercely protective, so possessive.

Try as she might to quiet them, Mina’s feelings had only grown stronger as time had gone on. She’d rooted for him in the sports festival, actually biting her nails during his battle with Todoroki, and when he had been injured during the attack on Hosu, she had rushed to his hospital room to check on him.

It had earned her some funny looks, but being able to see that he was safe had been an incredible weight off of her chest. Sure, he was laid up in a hospital bed, covered with bandages, but injuries could always be fixed. His life, on the other hand, couldn’t be repaired.

It was then, staring at Izuku in his hospital bed, costume torn to shreds and stained with blood, that Mina knew this went beyond a simple friendship, or even just protective instincts. She cared for him, in a way that she hadn’t realized she was capable of. And she was going to protect him, no matter what it took.

She’d pitched it as a mutual exchange. He would help her study for the end of term exams, and in exchange she would help him expand his fighting style with some more varied moves. A friendly exchange. He leapt at the chance to be a better hero, and to get to know her better.

She’d been so caught up in celebrating the success of her own clever idea that she completely missed the blush that dusted his cheeks as he said the last part.

The two months before their final exams flew by faster than she would have thought possible. But then maybe that was because she had something to look forward to after school now, instead of just lessons and training. She had someone she cared about, someone she trusted, someone she could talk to about all the things she had never dared speak, not even to herself.

She’d told him about feeling helpless and frustrated about the world around her, the way the bullies always seemed to win no matter if their victims stood up for themselves or not. She told him about trying to stand up to the bullies herself, only to be punished by the teachers for being a disruption. She even told him about her desire to change things, to make a better system where no child would have to suffer for being born weak.

Maybe she had wanted to share all of that, to let the poison she had been carrying for so long out, or maybe she just wanted to ease her sense of guilt for Izuku’s injuries.

In exchange, he had told her about his childhood, about being one of the children crushed by the system. About watching his tormentor be praised for his skill and strength while Izuku was relegated to the class laughing stock. He told her about being labeled as Quirkless, since his Quirk had taken so long to come in.

Mina noticed that he still slipped up sometimes and called himself Quirkless when he wasn’t paying close attention to his words, a fact that ripped at her heart. She couldn’t imagine being labeled like that for so long, or how he still had the strength to stand up after it all, to keep going, to keep having faith in the heroes who by all rights had failed him.

She knew he didn’t tell her everything, but she couldn’t really blame him either. After all, she had her own secrets, though they were getting harder to keep by the day.

She hadn’t bothered to hide her cheers during the final exams. Why should she? The entire class knew that they were friends at this point, though Hagakure liked to tease Mina about how much time she spent with Izuku. She didn’t think her cheers actually did anything, considering the viewing room was at least a mile from the testing site, but it still felt right to her. And in the end, Izuku had come out victorious, despite Bakugou doing his best to bring them both down.

And then Mina didn’t have any more time. Summer break was upon them, and their forthcoming training camp as well. She wasn’t supposed to go along, she was supposed to remain at UA taking makeup exams with the rest of the ‘dunce squad’. But Aizawa had pulled another of his ‘logical ruses’ and taken them all by surprise.

For Mina, however, it was more than a surprise. It was a source of worry that gnawed at her throughout the next day and into the weekend as their class prepared for the trip with a visit to the shopping mall. A visit that turned into an incident when Tomura turned up to threaten Izuku.

Mina had been paralyzed when she saw the hooded figure standing next to Izuku, hand around her friend’s (could she even still call him a friend?) throat. Her instincts had warred with her logical mind, fighting for dominance.

And yet again, her heart had won out. She had taken a single step towards ruin before she had even realized what she was doing. There hadn’t been an opportunity for a second step, though, before Tomura had walked away, leaving Izuku shaken but unharmed.

She had thought long and hard about what that step had meant that night. What it meant for her, what it meant for Izuku, for her class, for her teachers, for her family, for her future. And she had come to one, inescapable conclusion.

She wanted to stay at UA, to grow stronger along with the people who had become her friends. She wanted to make the world a better place, not by tearing down the system but by exemplifying what a hero should be. She wanted to stand in the light with everyone she cared about.

And she wanted to be able to tell Izuku about the feelings that she could no longer deny.

So Mina lifted her phone to her ear, and pressed the button that would forever change her world.

“This is Principal Nedzu,” a crisp voice answered after only a single ring, “To what do I owe the pleasure of this late night call, Miss Ashido?”

She looked to the photo that sat on her desk, slightly askew in its frame from when she had taken it out to stare at it earlier that evening. She and Izuku were smiling broadly, arms around each other’s shoulders as they celebrated Izuku perfecting his Full Cowling for battle. It was a reminder of how far they had come, and how far they still had left to go.

The League was a threat to him for as long as they existed, and Mina could no longer accept that. She had to take a stand, and do what she knew was right. For her classmates, for herself, and for Izuku.

“Because my birth name was Ashido. But for years, my name has been Mina Shiguraki, and I am a spy for the League of Villains.”

#izumina #midoriya izuku #mina ashido #izumina week 2020 #day one #protection #dekumina #minadeku

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just-jordie-things · 5 years

Text

Menace - Peter Parker

word count: 7939 warnings: swearing, attempted assault summary: (y/n) develops a bit of a crush on Spider-Man, and Peter Parker develops a bit of a crush on (y/n) (a/n): can we pretend mysterio didn’t drop peter parker’s name in FFH? ok cool thanks

Breaking News: Not-So-Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?

Spider-Man vs… New York City?

The Next Tony Stark - He’s Not The Hero You Think

SPIDER-MENACE

(y/n) threw the papers down on the table angrily.

“This is bullshit!”

“(y/n)! Language at the table, please?” Her mother sighed, a bit disappointed but not surprised. “What’s wrong now dear?”

“These papers, they’ve got it all wrong!” She exclaimed, earning a very tired, and very confused look from her mother. “They’re saying that-that Spider-Man’s a bad guy, that he does more bad than good in this city and it’s just bullsh- crap. It’s crap, sorry”

“If you hate it so much, why don’t you become a reporter? Hm?”

(y/n) glared playfully at her mother.

“And be corrupt with the rest of them?” She sneered.

“Alright, easy there tiger. Drop the papers, get up and get ready for school”

And (y/n) did follow the instruction, but she didn’t forget about the lies in the news. ___

Peter was stopped on his walk to school, his eyes catching the newspaper stand just a block away from it.

He groaned internally as he flipped through the incredibly exaggerated article about how Spider-Man is ruining Queens, and that he should “give up his day job”. Peter of course knew that this shouldn’t change anything for him, that he should remain doing his patrols and keeping the city safe, even if they didn’t appreciate his help.

But seeing this headlines every day was starting to get him down on himself. There had been some destruction, and some innocent people had gotten hurt, but he was trying his best to do what he can to protect them.

There’s always going to be haters, Peter told himself, something Happy had told him a year ago. As long as you don’t give in to them, they can’t bring you down.

Happy wasn’t great with advice. Unless it involved using lines from Christina Aguilera songs. ___

“Dude, have you been on the Snapchat News page lately?” Ned said as soon as he saw Peter that morning.

“Good morning to you too” Peter mumbled back, too busy with putting his things away in his locker.

“Everyone hates Spider-Man now!” Ned exclaimed, and Peter whirled around, shushing him harshly. Last thing he needed was for everyone who hated Spider-Man to know the identity under the mask and hate him too. “It’s crazy, ever since Mysterio- Beck- posted that fake video about you executing the drone attack, people have been going nuts about how terrible Spider-Man is!” Ned said quieter.

Peter shut is locker and hit his head against it.

“I hate my life” He grumbled.

Ned pulled him back by his shoulder and they walked together to their first period class.

“Not everyone hates Spider-Man, it’s just a hot topic right now, you know?” Ned said quickly, feeling bad for crushing Peter’s spirits. “I don’t, May doesn’t-”

“That doesn’t count, you’re my family, you have to say that,” Peter whined. “I just… wish people looked at the whole story, yaknow? I’m trying my best”

Ned smiled and nodded, knowing fully well that Peter puts his all into being Spider-Man.

“And now even the Post, the freaking Post is trashing on him-”

“(y/n), babe,” Michelle cut her friend off from her seemingly endless rant. “I love you, most of the time. This is not one of those times”

(y/n) rolled her eyes but chuckled, going back to eating her lunch. Okay, so maybe she got a bit carried away with her anger towards the recent headlines regarding Spider-Man.

“If I have to hear one more word about you thirsting over Spider-Man, I’m gonna lose it” MJ went on.

“Okay okay, I get it,” (y/n) laughed. “But I’m not thirsting, I’m just… upset for him. He’s a hero, you know? He deserves the same amount of respect and understanding as anyone else-”

“You’re doing it again” MJ monotoned, and gave her a bored glare.

MJ happened to know that Peter Parker, who was sitting at a table away from them, was the man under the mask. She felt for Peter because of the heat he was under with the press, but the way she saw it was that he knew the truth. And as long as he knows he’s a good guy, then who cares what the papers say?

“Sorry,” (y/n) said sheepishly.

“Babe,” MJ sighed, she only used that nickname ironically. “You know some people right now are really against Spider-Man? Just cause the papers told them that they should be?”

“That’s not true!” A guy at a table behind them spoke up, having heard MJ’s statement. MJ rolled her eyes, but (y/n) furrowed her brows and waited for him to continue. “He really is a bad guy! All these ‘problems’ he tries to solve, just causes more problems!”

(y/n) narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

“Actually… no” She stated, but the guy started talking again anyways.

“You know he initiated that attack at the senior trip to Europe?” He went on. “And all that construction they’re doing downtown? Why do you think that is?” He asked aggressively. “Because of all the destruction that he’s caused, the useless fighting-”

“Okay, stop,” (y/n) spoke up now, unable to listen to the crap he was spilling. “Do you realize that if he wasn’t out there ‘uselessly fighting’ as you so stupidly put it, that the crime in Queens would increase by tenfold? Hm?” She raised her brows almost threateningly as she stared down the boy.

MJ chuckled and went back to her food, enjoying the entertainment her friend was providing her. She has definitely taught her how to debate.

“And I have this theory that Mysterio was actually the one behind-”

“You just think he’s cute,” The boy rolled his eyes and waved a dismissive hand, as though telling her she could stop trying to argue with him. “You don’t give a shit about Spider-Man”

With that, he turned around in his seat and gave up talking to her.

(y/n) gaped, staring at MJ with wide eyes, silently screaming about how ridiculous that was.

“I swear to fucking-”

She didn’t even finish her curse before abruptly standing up from her seat, and shoving it in under the table. The slam was loud and echoed across the cafeteria, gaining more attention.

“(y/n)?” Michelle said under her breath, watching as (y/n) grabbed a fistful of mashed potatoes with her bare hands, along with a carton of milk. “Woah hey what the hell are you-”

But (y/n) had already stormed over to the other table, where the boy she’d just argued with was now snickering with his friends.

“Hey!” She shouted.

More heads turned to see what was going on.

And just as he looked over to her, he was met with a hand to the face as she smashed the potatoes against him.

“Fuck you, you ignorant prick!” She hollered.

An echo of ohs surrounded the cafeteria, everyone now watching the scene unfold.

MJ laughed and clapped her hands.

“What the hell is wrong with you!?” The boy stood up from his chair, wiping the food off his face as he grimaced at her.

(y/n) opened her carton of milk, and promptly dumped it on his head.

She never got the chance to say anything before the cafeteria monitors dragged her off to the principal’s office. But she didn’t have anything else to say.

Even though she was forced to the office, MJ clapped and cheered the whole time she was escorted out of the cafeteria. ___

“You know he initiated that attack at the senior trip to Europe?”

Brian Miller’s voice was a pest in Peter’s head.

“Great, now really everyone’s talking about it” He grumbled, stabbing at his food angrily.

“Come on, Brian’s a dick, don’t listen to him” Ned said reassuringly. He was right, Brian ‘Miller Light’ was known for being a Grade A Tool™ . And Peter knew that he shouldn’t get upset over what someone like Brian thinks.

“Do you realize that if he wasn’t out there ‘uselessly fighting’ as you so stupidly put it, that the crime in Queens would increase by tenfold? Hm?”

He did however, perk up at that.

Literally, Peter sat up in his seat and swiveled his head around to see (y/n) (y/l/n), one of MJ’s friends, standing up against lame-ass-Brian.

A smile pulled on his face as he listened to her fight for Spider-Man.

“Hey, hey,” Ned blindly motioned his arm towards Ned to get him to listen to what was going on as well. “Did you hear that?”

Ned looked over to watch the argument, and chuckled when Brian called her out for having a crush on him.

“Did you hear that?” Ned shot back at Peter. “You’ve got a real admirer- holy shit is she-?”

“Did she just pick up-?”

“Ohmygod Peter she’s gonna start a freakin- food fight-!”

The boys could barely finish their thoughts, eyes trained on the scene as (y/n) stormed over to Brian, shouting right in his face, and then hitting him full force with the potatoes.

“Holy shit!” Peter shouted, hands flying to his head in surprise.

Sure, he knew people still believe in Spider-Man, but not that much.

“Dude the monitor’s coming over, she’s so getting detention for that!” Ned was excitedly shaking Peter by his shoulder, which only got rougher when they watched (y/n) dump milk over Brian’s head. “Dude!”

Ned and Peter weren’t the only ones watching her outburst, practically the whole cafeteria was fixated on seeing what was going to happen next.

But nothing did happen.

She dropped the milk, and shortly after was grabbed by the arms and taken out of the cafeteria, likely to go straight to the principal’s office.

As soon as she was gone, the room was buzzing excitedly about the spectacle.

“I can’t believe… I can’t believe that just happened,” Peter said, turning to sit in his seat normally, facing Ned, a shocked expression on his face. “She just did all that… for me”

“I know right! Wow, she’s so crazy, that was so cool” Ned gushed, shaking his head and grinning wildly.

“But like… why would she go through all the trouble for me? She doesn’t even know who I- who Spider-Man is” Peter continued rambling confusedly.

“Hey, losers,” MJ set her tray down next to Peter and invited herself to finish her lunch with them. “You guys talking about (y/n)?”

“Yeah. Peter’s losing it” Ned replied, making MJ chuckle.

“I’m not losing it… I just… didn’t know she cared so much about Spider-Man” He shrugged lamely.

“Seriously?” MJ groaned. “She spent all day complaining about the papers, in fact, she’s spent the last few months complaining about it. She’s like your biggest advocate”

“Really?” Peter asked quietly, eyes wide.

“Oh yeah,” MJ answered. “Really, she loves him”

“Really?” He repeated.

“Well she wouldn’t go getting a detention over anyone” MJ rolled her eyes, so beyond done with this conversation.

But now Peter was running on overdrive, and all he could think about was how (y/n) had gotten a detention for him.

He purposefully lagged in the halls so that he was late to his next class, winding himself a detention after school. ___

While she didn’t want an after school detention, (y/n) did not regret any of her actions.

But maybe she did a little bit when she walked into the classroom that detention was held in.

Luckily she recognized a familiar mess of brown curls, and sat down next to him.

“What did Peter Parker do to get himself a detention?” She grinned over at him, and he (all too excitedly) turned to her.

“I-I was late to Spanish,” He told her sheepishly, and (y/n) giggled a little bit, nodding her head in understanding. “We can’t all be as badass as you, I guess”

She laughed louder at that, earning a glare from the detention monitor.

“Quiet”

(y/n) and Peter shared an awkward smile, and then she pulled a book out of her backpack to keep her occupied for the rest of the hour.

But Peter didn’t want her to not talk to him the rest of the hour, he’d landed himself a detention just so that he could talk to her for Christ’s sake.

So he did the next best thing to talking.

He wrote a note, folded it up, and flicked it over to (y/n’s) desk.

She looked over to him and quirked a brow, but unfolded it.

I’m really bored

(y/n) stifled a giggle and pulled out a pen, writing back to him.

It’s literally been a minute

And that’s how it started.

The two spent an entire hour passing notes back and forth. They talked about everything, class, friends, gossip, but most importantly, Spider-Man.

(y/n) had written half a page worth of why she thinks the press is the real bad guy, and how much it bothered her that they were tearing down Spider-Man. MJ had been right, she was Spider-Man’s biggest advocate.

By the end of the detention, they’d swapped phone numbers and Snapchats.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” He’d asked nervously when they walked out of the school.

“It’s only four o’clock Peter, I don’t think I’ll be mugged between now and three blocks away,” (y/n) said with a big smile, enjoying the pink blush that dusted his cheeks. “But thank you though”

“Y-yeah, yeah. So I’ll… see you later then” He waved awkwardly and she nodded.

“See ya Peter!” She called, walking in the opposite direction to her own place.

And the more she walked, the more she thought of him. She’d always known Peter, he was one of MJ’s friends so they had a mutual connection, but they’d never been around each other like that before. She didn’t know he was so…

adorable. ___

Peter was doing a late night patrol a few days later. There wasn’t much going on, but you can never be too safe. Besides, he enjoyed the breeze has he swung alley through alley. The later he got, the less he expected to see.

However, he didn’t expect to see (y/n) herself, wandering down the sidewalk with her backpack on and a plastic bag in her hands.

“Karen, what time is it?” Peter called out to the AI.

“12:06, Peter” Karen responded instantaneously.

“What the hell is she doing out so late?”

And before he could think it through, he swung down to the street, and tapped her on the shoulder.

He really should’ve thought it through, because she screamed and spun around, about to punch him in the face when she saw who it was.

“Oh my god, Spider-Man” She breathed out in surprise, eyes blown wide and she almost had a panic attack right there.

“Yeah, uh, it’s me,” He did jazz hands.

Stupid stupid stupid why did I do that?

“What’re you doing out so late?” He asked, and (y/n) held up her grocery bag.

“Late night snack run?” She said weakly, a nervous look on her face. “I’m kind of binging a show right now and uh… ran out of goods”

Spider-Man laughed, and she found herself relieved at the simple reaction.

“Alright, that’s fair. Not as sketchy as it looked”

“As it looked?” She repeated, “What, are you following me?”

“N-no!” He stammered out quickly. “Of course not I-I just saw you walking by yourself in the middle of the night, and I try my best but that doesn’t mean Queens is the safest place in the world” She laughed at his rambling and nodded.

“Okay, seems fair,” She said amusingly. “Not as sketchy as you sounded” She teased him by mocking him.

“Can I walk you home?” He asked, and she didn’t answer right away, a strange feeling of deja vu coming over her, before he spoke again. “It’d make me feel better if you let me”

(y/n) nodded, a soft smile tugging on her lips as they began to walk together.

“You think I would’ve gotten mugged?” She asked.

“I don’t know what answer you want to hear, so let’s just say you definitely won’t now” Spider-Man answered.

“Not being mugged tonight sounds good to me,” (y/n) said. “Hey, can I ask you something? I want to win an argument against my friend, and also be able to brag that Spider-Man walked me home… do you think that I would be jumped at say… four o’clock?”

Peter was smiling so hard under his mask, his cheeks hurt a little.

“Well, that depends where you’re walking,” He explained, and went on to label all the streets he had the most trouble with. None of which were the ones she passed on her way home. “Is that good enough to brag to your… friend?”

“Honestly, this whole night is good enough,” (y/n) said almost bashfully. “That’s my complex right there” She pointed just up the street to where she lived.

“Good, I can proudly say I got the damsel home safe” Spider-Man said, and they both laughed a bit.

“A damsel huh? I was walking home from 7-Eleven” She argued, and stopped at the steps to her apartment complex.

“Who knows what could’ve happened if I wasn’t there to escort you?”

“Mhm,” She hummed, awkwardly standing at the entrance, and not wanting to go inside just yet. “Hey, uh, before you swing off I should tell you… uh... I just wanted to say that I think what the press has been really harsh,” She said sweetly. “I know that kind of thing probably doesn’t bother you, but it shouldn’t, cause, yaknow, you’re a hero and all that”

She was mentally kicking herself for getting so flustered.

Spider-Man nodded in response, having a hard time finding the right words.

“Thank you, (y/n), that really means a lot,” He told her. “It was nice meeting you, but try not to wander around Queens so late, alright? That’s how accidents happen!”

And suddenly he was swinging off, and out of sight.

Leaving (y/n) to wonder how he knew her name if she’d never told him.

When she finally made it back to her room, she put her binging on pause to make a very important call.

“MJ, I have to tell you the craziest thing” ___

“Peter Parker, you’re the biggest idiot to ever live,” MJ smacked Peter as soon as she saw him the next day in class. He rubbed the back of his head while she went on. “(y/n) told me all about her cute little encounter with Spider-Man”

“She did?” He asked hopefully, an adorable smile on his face.

“She sure did. Especially the part where he knew her name” She stated, and suddenly Peter’s heart wasn’t fluttering, but was dropping to his stomach.

“She did?” He asked again, much less happy.

“Uh huh. Hope you can figure that shit out Parker, before she puts two and two together and realized how Spider-Man knows her name”

Peter nodded rapidly, and began to come up with a plan. ___

MJ agreed to convince (y/n) to join Peter and Ned at lunch that day, and (y/n) had happily agreed.

That was about as much of a plan as he came up with.

“Trying for another detention today?” MJ asked when (y/n) had sat with them. (y/n) rolled her eyes but smiled playfully at her friend.

“No,” She answered. “I’m minding my business from now on” She shrugged.

“Detention was that bad?” Ned asked.

“No, Peter was there, so at least I wasn’t stuck there alone,” She smiled sweetly at the boy, who ducked his head to hide his blush. “But it’s not like I want to go back either”

“Mhm I’m sure your new boyfriend Spider-Man wouldn’t appreciate you being such a rebel” MJ teased. (y/n) scoffed out a laugh, but there was no hiding her blush.

“Boyfriend?” Ned repeated, kicking Peter under the table. But (y/n) shook her head dismissively.

“She’s just messing around,” She mumbled, embarrassed. “She’s been doing it all morning”

“Well, when Spider-Man himself walks you home in the middle of the night…” MJ trails off.

Ned already knew the whole story, because Peter had called him at one in the morning to excitedly ramble about how he got to take (y/n) home. But, he played along anyways.

“He what? Why didn’t you tell us right away!” Ned said excitedly, urging her to tell the whole story. (y/n) was smiling adorably and blushing, twirling her fork around her food as she shyly but happily told him about it.

Peter could feel his face getting hot as she was gushing about how kind and funny and awkward Spider-Man was. Her cheeks were pink and her smile didn’t leave her lips the whole time she spoke. It was really cute, actually.

“Sounds like Spider-Man has a crush on you, babe,” MJ said, raising her eyebrows towards (y/n), who immediately began to fluster at the statement. “He walks you home, knows your name”

The girl sent a wink and a smirk in Peter’s direction that luckily went unnoticed by (y/n).

“Yeah, that was so strange,” (y/n) commented, her focus shifting to the one off part about her night. “I could’ve sworn that I hadn’t told him my name, but who knows, I was so frazzled by actually meeting Spider-Man himself, maybe it just slipped my mind” She shrugged, and took a drink of her juice.

“Or maybe Spider-Man often escorts young women on the streets late at night, and he knows them all by name” MJ suggested with a mischievous smile. Peter scowled at her, but (y/n) shrugged again.

“I dunno, maybe…” She thought about it, but shook her head. “But he didn’t seem like that. He was… different”

“I’m not like other Avengers” Ned teased, earning a laugh from the group.

“Really though,” (y/n) giggled. “He was normal, like it could be anyone under the mask, you know?”

She looked to Peter with an excited sparkle in her eye, and he couldn’t help but nod along in agreement. He was glad that she’d sat at his table today so he could hear last night’s events in her point of view.

“And oh my god, I almost forgot,” (y/n) grinned and leaned over the table slightly towards Peter. “Spider-Man told me the streets I walk to get home don’t have that much crime happen on them, and I don’t need to be walked home from school”

He knew this, of course, he’d been the one who’d told her. But he played along anyways.

The blush was authentic, however.

“W-well okay then s-sorry for trying to do the respectful thing” He teased, and she laughed with him, squeezing his arm playfully before going back into conversation with MJ. ___

Coincidentally that night, Peter saw (y/n) sitting on the fire escape while he was doing his nightly patrol.

He eagerly swung over to her, feeling giddy when she bit her lip to keep from grinning at him when he landed on the railing.

“Stalking me now, Spidey?” She asked, but he wasn’t fooled by the bold and flirtatious words, able to see the blush on her cheeks.

“Maybe I am,” He said, and she smiled at him from where she sat with her back leaning against the rails. “Is that alright?”

“Yeah,” She giggled and nodded at him. “That’s alright”

It was quiet for a moment as she pulled her knees to her chest to preserve some warmth.

“So, are you… working right now?” She asked, and he shook his head, sitting across from her and leaning against the opposite rails.

“Nope, just wrapped it up,” He told her. “I was gonna head home but I saw you sitting out here so… I thought I’d stop by”

“That’s cute,” She smiled at him, and suddenly the suit felt very hot. “My friends now have an ongoing theory that you escort a lot of… damsels…”

“You told your friends about me?” He asked coyly, but (y/n) just chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“Of course I did, you’re Spider-Man? I had something to brag about?” She reminded him, and he waved a dismissive hand.

“Sure, sure, I’m sure that’s it,” He said. “You’re sure you don’t just think I’m cute?”

And there it was again, that feeling, like a lightbulb going off in her mind.

“You just think he’s cute, you don’t give a shit about Spider-Man” Brian Miller’s words replayed in her mind, and she froze up for a moment as she looked at the masked hero across from her curiously.

“Hm,” She hummed, tilting her head to the side as though it would help her identify why this feeling hit her like a tidal wave. Did he see her cafeteria meltdown? Does the man under the mask go to Midtown?

Does she know Spider-Man?

… does Spider-Man know her?

“What?” He asked, drawing her from her wild running mind. “What was that judgemental hum for?”

“Judgemental?” She questioned. “It wasn’t judgemental”

“Sure sounded judgemental” He mumbled, kicking one leg out and propping the other knee up.

“There’s just something… it’s dumb” She bashfully shook her head and looked away, deciding against telling him about the gut feeling she’d gotten twice now.

“What is it?” He asked her, but she shook her head again, too embarrassed by it. “Oh come on, tell me,” He put his hands together pleadingly. “Who else am I gonna tell, huh?”

She looked at him skeptically, still unsure if she should tell him.

But she knew deep down she was going to give in anyways.

“There’s something very familiar about you” She admitted softly.

Peter thought he was having a stroke.

“You did meet me last night” He told her, only half joking. She shrugged, looking away for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts.

“More than that,” She finally spoke again. “Like I… like I know you”

“You do know me” He answered, and she giggled at his awkwardness.

“Calm down Spidey, I don’t know your secret identity. Don’t get your onesie in a twist” She teased him, and he hit his head back against the rails of the fire escape with a defeated sign.

“It’s not a onesie,” He groaned, making her laugh. “The mask is seperate” He added in a quieter voice, and she only laughed more.

“I’d like you if I met you” She told him boldly.

“Y-you would?”

“Mhm,” She nodded, pulling her legs closer to her chest and propping her chin on top of her arms. “Absolutely” She said in a quieter voice.

She could tell he was smiling under his mask.

“I’m not so sure…”

“Why not?”

“I’m….” Spider-Man trailed off. Peter, if you tell this girl that you’re a loser, then I’ll hate you forever, he thought to himself. “I’m not like this in real life, like at all”

“What do you mean?” She asked. “You’re not nerdy and anxious all the time for no reason?”

Okay, so maybe I am like this in real life.

“Fair point, because yeah,” He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. “But still I’m not like… I don’t know let’s just say we wouldn’t run in the same crowds”

“What crowd do you think I run in, Spider-Man?” (y/n) asked, curious to see what he thought of her.

“Cool edgy kids” He answered pretty much right away, and she laughed, knowing he’d gotten MJ spot again.

“I wouldn’t say cool” She said quietly, eyes downcast shyly.

“Really? But you’re the coolest” He argued, and she giggled like a little girl, a hand covering her mouth to stop the ridiculous sound.

“Cut it out” She said quietly, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering around the more he spoke.

“Oh come on, there’s no way you aren’t like… the most popular person. You’re that girl, like from the movies” He went on, and (y/n) covered her face with both hands, cheeks rosy and the giggles came back.

Peter loved this reaction.

“You’re adorable” He told her, only making it worse.

“Okay okay, enough about me,” She ran her hands through her hair, and tried to collect herself. “What crowd do you run with then?”

“I… I don’t know what you’d call it” He said sheepishly.

“Try,” She shrugged. “I’m just curious to know more about you, Spider-Man”

“Okay then I’d say I run with the… outcast nerd crowd” He answered honestly, but (y/n) scrunched up her nose and shook her head in disbelief.

“Not with those muscles you don’t” She pointed out matter-of-factly. Spider-Man genuinely laughed at that.

It was quiet between them for a few moments, before (y/n) sighed, and stood up to stretch.

“It’s late,” She said softly, sadly. “I should get to bed” “Yeah, I should be going” The masked hero agreed, and stood up as well.

She gave him a gentle wave before sliding open her window to crawl back into her room. But before he could leave, she leaned back out of it.

“Spider-Man?” She called.

“Yeah?”

“Am I… am I going to see you again?” She asked hopefully.

He was grinning as he leapt up onto the rail, going into a crouching position as he looked back at her.

“Maybe if you’re out here again, around this time…” He trailed off suggestively, and (y/n) grinned at him, nodding in agreement.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” She mused, fingers tapping against her windowsill with excitement for tomorrow night. “Goodnight”

“Goodnight, (y/n)” He said softly, waving slightly as she shut her window, before he left her fire escape.

Fuck, he thought, I really like this girl. ___

(y/n) took a long drink of her coffee before setting it on a shelf in her locker to collect her books for the day. After the night she’d had, she wasn’t able to get much sleep, her giddiness to see Spider-Man again tonight kept her mind buzzing and toes wiggling seemingly all night long.

A few rows down, the familiar sound of a hand hitting the wall of lockers hard echoed. She glanced over briefly to see MJ interrogating Peter.

Zipping up her bag and grabbing her styrofoam cup of coffee, she headed down to meet up with her friends, and see what was going on.

“Morning guys,” She greeted, barely able to get the words out without yawning. “What’s all the commotion about?”

“N-nothing, no commotion” Peter told her in his usual awkward way of speaking. She smiled gently at him before turning to MJ.

“Why’re you pickin’ on Peter, MJ?” She asked with a sign, knowing that she was teasing him about something.

MJ turned to Peter with raised brows for a moment, then promptly looked at (y/n) with a shit eating grin.

“Parker told me if I did the Calc homework, he’d do the AP Chem homework and we could trade,” She lied effortlessly. “And now, he’s not pulling through with his end of the deal”

(y/n’s) eyes flickered over to Peter, as though asking if this was true, and the boy shakily nodded.

“You can just have mine,” (y/n) said with a shrug, handing her coffee to Peter as she took her backpack off to pull out her AP Chem binder. “Here,” She handed the homework to MJ, and put her bag back on, taking her coffee back from Peter with a sweet smile. “Problem solved?”

“Yep, thanks babe” MJ said before turning around and leaving the two in the hall.

“You alright?” (y/n) asked Peter, a concerned crease between her brows. “I’ve never known Peter Parker to forget to do homework”

“Y-yeah,” He stammered out. “I’m good, it just slipped my mind, must’ve been too busy last night or something”

“Oh? Hit a lot of crazy parties?” (y/n) teased, smiling playfully at him. He chuckled, shaking his head and gripping the straps of his backpack tightly.

“Sure, let’s go with that”

She giggled before jerking a thumb over her shoulder.

“I should get going…” She said hesitantly.

Although she found herself just wanting to be around him some more, just to talk for a few more minutes.

He nodded, and she turned to head off to class.

“Oh, hey, (y/n/n)?”

She looked over her shoulder as he called out her nickname, one that usually only MJ used, when she wasn’t calling her babe.

“Uh… thanks, f-for covering for me” He said nervously.

She grinned and nodded at him.

“Yeah, no problem, Pete” She replied, and then left for class. ___

“I know, I know,” Peter threw his hands up defensively as MJ sat across from him at the lunch table. “I’m a dumbass”

Last night, Peter started a groupchat with both Ned and MJ, so he could tell them both all about his time with (y/n). Ned cheered him on and encouraged him to go see her again tonight, while MJ tended to-

She smacked his arm.

She tended to do that.

“You really are,” She grumbled in agreement, looking over her shoulder to see (y/n) had just walked into the cafeteria. “(y/n/n’s) coming in, but we’re talking about this later Peter, because you’re about to mess up a whole lot of shit with how reckless you’re acting”

Peter nodded, fiddling with his hands. He knew she was right, he knew that there were only two ways that this would end.

One, he falls more and more for (y/n), and continues to see her as Spider-Man, which only puts her in jeopardy of bad guys tracking her down and god-knows-what happens, winding up hurting the both of them.

Or two, she finds out that the Spider-Man that she has heart eyes for, is boring old Peter Parker, and she never wants anything to do with him again, which also gets them both hurt.

He couldn’t think of a long term solution that worked out.

“Oh look, it’s the spider’s advocate!” Brian Miller laughed and pointed at (y/n) passed his table. She flipped him off and kept walking, but apparently Brian wanted more attention than that. “Always so classy (y/n). What, nothing to throw at me today? Or have you decided to grow up?”

“Go fuck yourself, Miller Lite” She bit back at him, poison laced in her words.

Peter, Ned, and MJ were all watching as Brian and his friends teased her as she passed their table, but thankfully she kept walking, knowing better than to escalate the situation.

“I’d rather you do it” Brian said, getting up from his seat and reaching out towards her, snatching her wrist so she’d stop walking away, and face him. The other boys at his table oohed and ahhed like a bunch of idiots.

“Oh shit,” Ned coughed, and moved his head to the side to see (y/n) and Brian better. “Peter are you- Peter?”

Peter had already gotten up from his seat and walked right over to the two, forcing Brian’s hand off of (y/n’s) arm and shoving himself in front of her.

Ned and MJ shared a shocked look, before looking back at the two.

“Sit back down, Brian” Peter said.

“Or what Parker, are you gonna hit me?” Brian stepped closer to him, but Peter put a strong hand on his shoulder, and forced him down into his seat.

Brian was taken aback with the immense ease Peter Parker had just used to put him back in his seat. His wide eyes went from his hand, up to his face.

“If you get up from this seat, then I’ll hit you” He said seriously.

Brian didn’t say anything, just swallowed thickly and nodded his head, avoiding the weird looks from his friends.

Peter turned back to (y/n), hand on the small of her back as he walked her over to their table. She seemed just as lost as Brian had, looking from Peter, to Brian who actually looked scared, and back to Peter again.

“W-what was that?” She asked him in a hushed voice. He looked down at her, and then straightforward.

“He was being a dick” He answered.

(y/n) gaped like a fish out of water, shutting her mouth after realizing she had no idea what to say to him. There was nothing to say.

“Thank you” She whispered instead, almost shyly. Peter nodded at her.

Nobody talked about it for the rest of the lunch period, much to (y/n’s) relief. However, she kept finding herself staring at Peter, until he’d catch her and she’d look away, only to look back again a few moments later.

She didn’t realize it, but the lightbulb feeling of deja vu went off again. ___

That night, Peter stalled on his trip to (y/n’s) after he finished patrol.

Realistically, he should end this now before it can really get out of hand. Lying wasn’t one of his strong suits, especially when it came to people he cared about. And the last thing he wanted to do was hurt (y/n).

But he really liked her, and he really wanted to see her. And she liked Spider-Man, not Peter Parker, so this was his only chance to be with her.

About a block away from her complex, he stopped, and crouched on the roof of an insurance firm.

Pulling his mask off, he took a deep breath, and tried to gather his thoughts.

“Why did I get myself into this why would I torture myself like this?” He mumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair before looking down at his mask.

He messed with the material all the while thinking of his situation with (y/n). Just as he was about to pull his mask on and swing over to her place, to tell her that he can’t come by and see her anymore, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

Something was wrong.

On instinct, he looked down to the ground, seeing a girl walking along the sidewalk, rather quickly. And the bulky figure of a man following close behind her.

Peter pulled his mask over his head, alerting the AI to zoom in.

“It’s (y/n) (y/l/n), Peter” Karen told him.

He couldn’t believe it.

But sure enough, it was her. She looked nervous, and hurried. She knew that she was being followed.

“Who is that following her?” He asked, turning to focus on the man stalking after (y/n).

“Brian Miller, age seventeen”

(y/n) looked over her shoulder, seeing the man still following her, and she picked up her pace even more, breaking into a light jog. This only upset him, and he ran after her. Unfortunately, he was faster, and easily caught her, and shoved her against what felt like a brick wall, she wasn’t sure, she hit her head too hard to really determine what it was.

“You embarrassed me today”

“What the hell do you want, Brian?” She tried to sound tough, but the words came out in a scared whimper.

“I want an apology, a proper one” He pressed his arm against her throat, and she coughed uncomfortably, both of her hands trying to push his wrist off of her so she could breath.

“What’s the matter with you?” She asked in a strangled voice.

“Yoink!” Before she could blink, Brian was practically flung off of her, backwards into the opposite wall of the alley he’d dragged her into. (y/n) collapsed to her knees, hand coming to her neck shakily as she tried to catch her breath. “I was just about to ask the same question!”

For half a second, she thought it was Peter, but she glanced up to see Spider-Man, who now had Brian webbed by his hands against the opposite wall.

“Brian Miller, what are we going to do with you?” The hero tsked, before webbing his legs to the wall as well. “Do I alert the police, or let you rot here for a couple days and see how long it takes them to find you?”

Brian jerked his head forward as though to spit on Spider-Man, but the hero was too quick, and webbed his mouth as well.

“Much better” He brushed his hands together as though he’d done his work, and walked over to (y/n), helping her to her feet.

“Thanks” She mumbled out.

“Here, hold on tight, alright?”

He took her arms, and wrapped them around his neck, before securely holding her around her waist, and then swinging off out of the alley. (y/n) yelped, not enjoying the feeling of flying at all, instead opting to press her face in the junction between Spider-Man’s neck and shoulder, until she felt him land on solid ground again.

Peter had taken her a few streets away, just to be more private and away from Brian. He brought them into a more secluded alleyway, and kept his hands on her waist until he was sure that she wasn’t going to collapse again.

“I’m sorry, I got there as soon as I could-” He began to apologize, but (y/n) shook her head, prompting him to stop.

“It’s alright, I’m alright now,” She assured him. “Thanks to you” There was a shy smile on her lips.

“Did you know that guy?” He asked lamely, since he already knew the answer.

(y/n) nodded shakily, biting her lip before opening her mouth to find the right thing to say, but she just exhaled deeply.

“Yeah…” She trailed off, hanging her head like she was ashamed of it. “I might’ve picked a fight with him once and he… he uh…”

“It’s alright,” Spider-Man shook his head. “It’s okay you don’t- someone’s coming”

Before she could comprehend what to do about that, he’d taken her by the waist, pulled her against him, and shot a web up to latch onto a fire escape staircase, keeping them out of the headlights of the passing car.

When it had passed, he slowly let them back down, setting her on her feet and hanging upside down in front of her.

“I really hate that” (y/n) told him with a forced laugh.

“Hate what?”

“The whole… swinging thing”

He chuckled, and for a long moment, she just looked at him.

“I should probably thank you properly, huh?” She asked softly, before stepping closer to him.

“Y-you already thanked me” He stammered, but she smiled that adorable smile, finger gently brushing over his face, before sliding to his neck to find the hem of his mask. He had told her it was separated from the rest of the suit.

“You did save my life though…” She murmured, stepping even closer as she slowly pulled the material up his neck, revealing his chin, and lips. She respectfully stopped at his nose. Her eyes flickered from his lips down to the eyes of the suit, and then leaned in to close the distance between them.

Her lips were soft, even softer than Peter could’ve imagined they felt like. And she tasted sweet like bubblegum. If he wasn’t hanging upside down right now, he’d wrap her up and pull her closer to him.

When her fingers grazed the skin of his cheek, he didn’t think anything of it besides how comforting the warmth of her skin felt against his.

(y/n’s) heart was doing somersaults, in complete disbelief that she was kissing Spider-Man right now.

But she couldn’t help herself.

Her fingers brushed over his cheek, and the world seemed to go in slow motion as she pulled the rest of his mask off without disconnecting their kiss.

Once it was off, she opened her eyes, to see Peter Parker, still hanging there with his eyes closed, his mask being off not yet processing in his mind.

It was clear when it did though, his eyes opened fast and they were wide and scared, and he lost his grip and fell from where he hung.

“Peter?” (y/n) murmured out, brows furrowing as she watched him scramble back up to his feet. She looked down to the mask she held in her small hands, and then back up at Peter Parker, with his messy hair and pink swollen lips.

It made sense now. The odd feelings she would get when he was around. She had known him. And he knew her too.

“I-I can explain,” He spoke quickly, afraid that she was about to storm off and never speak to him. “Please let me explain, (y/n)”

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t run away either, so he went on anyways.

“Look I- I didn’t mean for this to happen, I’m sure you’re hurt and I wasn’t trying to deceive you it all just kinda happened,” His hands were flying around as he rambled on. “-and I know you probably hate me for lying to you but I just- I really like you (y/n), but you liked Spider-Man not Peter so I just thought that maybe I’d just continue to see you as Spider-Man and oh my god this sounds so awful right now-”

(y/n) stepped forward, taking his hand, and tentatively placing his mask in it. Peter squeezed the material hard in his fist, knowing this was the part where she walked away.

But she didn’t. She just looked at him, admired him. And then reached up to fix the mess of curls on his head, brushing a few strands away from his forehead. Finally, she looked him in the eyes, dropping her hand.

“I liked Peter Parker first,” She told him faintly. “Spider-Man was cool and all… but he’s overrated, don’t you think?” She was still whispering as she teased, a smile tugging on her lips. “I think Peter Parker is way cooler than him”

He stared at her in astonishment, absolutely blown away by what was happening right now.

“You do?” He asked, and she nodded, her eyes crinkling from the smile on her face.

“Yeah, I do,” She murmured back, eyes glancing back down to his lips, and then his eyes. “I especially like the part where I get to see his face” She told him with a small giggle, and he laughed as he stepped forward, taking her face in his gloved hands. (y/n) clasped her own hands around his wrists, leaning her cheek into the gentle touch.

“Could I… Can I kiss you again?” He asked, already leaning in close enough that her nose bumped into his as she nodded.

Peter leaned down, sealing their lips again, and feeling her smile against him. He gave her one more small peck before pulling away.

“Can I take you home?” He asked quietly, and she nodded again.

“Only if we can walk, I never want to swing up there like that again” She stated, making Peter chuckle and nod his head.

“Alright, deal”

He walked her all the way home, pulling his mask on almost all the way as he dropped her off at the door, so that she could still kiss him one more time before saying goodnight.

“Go terrorize the streets some more, menace” She teased him when they parted, and she pulled his mask down to cover him up again.

“Very funny,” He monotoned, making her giggle. “Goodnight, (y/n)”

“G’night, Peter,” She hummed back, and smiled as he squeezed her hand, before disappearing up into the air. “Go get ‘em tiger”

___

taglist: @writings-and-stuff @rofromtheashes @tomshufflepuff @steve-avengers-rogers @vibhati123 @dark-night-sky-99 @hollandhours @drakonwild @imofficiallyobsessed

xoxo ~ jordie

#spider-man #spider-man x reader #spider-man imagine #spider-man scenario #spider-man fanfiction #Peter Parker #Peter Parker x reader #Peter Parker imagine #Peter Parker scenario #Peter Parker fanfiction #tom holland #tom holland x reader

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prorevenge · 5 years

Text

Go ahead and undermine my credentials and hard work. I'll just make sure people know who you really are.

Backstory

I'm 25(M) and I work in the IT department for my company. Our IT department branches out into 6 smaller departments (Technical Support, Programming, Web Development, Computer System Analysis, IT Security, and Network Engineering). Each of these has their own boss and the boss of these all answer directly to the Director of the IT department. A couple weeks ago, I was called into the Director's office when I came into work. She’s an incredible person and mentor.

She told me that she had some good news and bad news. The bad news was that she was offered another job at a much larger company as the IT director at one of their branches in Chicago, so she’d be leaving in a couple of months. The good news was that the position for IT director at our company was open, and given my performance and reputation around the office, my immediate boss (the head of Computer System Analysis) had put my name in for consideration for the job! Each of the six department bosses in IT had to put one name in for consideration, so I have at least five other people who are competing for this job, plus any potential outside hires (It’s four now, but I’ll get to that). After our little chat, I weighed the pros and cons of the job if I get it and I decided to just go for it! I might have a pretty good shot at getting the job, since I'd consider myself a fairly likable person, a hard worker, and fairly good at my job. But there are others who are also very good candidates and I'd still be okay if I didn't get the job. It’s an honor to just be considered.

Now let me tell you about the target of my revenge. For the sake of this story, let's call this guy "Gabe". As the head of Technical Support, Gabe had the power to recommend anyone in his department for the position, but he picked himself. Now I already knew him and what he's like because a year ago I also worked in Tech Support for a short time. I was originally hired to be in the Computer System Analysis department, but I volunteered to help out in Tech Support since we were a bit short-staffed at the time. Gabe is an obnoxious, self-absorbed, arrogant, and uptight dick who doesn't listen to anyone who he feels is "beneath him". He's either in his late 30s or early 40s, but either way he has at least 10 years on me. He's a little on the chubby side, receding hairline, and a neck-beard. All he needs to achieve his final form is a fedora. Back when I worked for him, he gave me a lot of crap for so many little things. From not filling out repair tickets right to completing a repair slightly out of order, he always had something to complain about. But other than that, he seemed fine to me. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have done what I did or gone as far as I did. But then this happened:

I was just doing my work and minding my own business, as one does. I stood up to go refill my water bottle at the water fountain and guess who follows me? If you said Gabe, then congratulations. You get a cookie. Gabe walks up to me while I'm filling up my bottle and starts a conversation.

Gabe: Hey OP, what's goin' on? How are you?

Immediately I knew somebody was wrong. He's never this friendly. But I had no easy way out of this, so I rolled with it.

Me: Hey Gabe. I'm good. How're yo-

Gabe: So I heard that (Head of CSA's name) put your name in for the Director's job.

Me: Yeah! I'm really excited to interview! It's an honor to even be considered.

Gabe just laughs and puts on his normal expression of smug and gassy

Gabe: Listen to me. If you think they're gonna pick you, a lazy new kid who can't even write a fucking repair ticket correctly, over me, a team manager who's had 15 years with this company, then you're out of your goddamn mind.

I was shocked. I couldn’t believe those are actual words that a coworker, much less a coworker with a higher position, said to my face.

Me: What the hell? Why would you say that? I did nothing but good work for you last year and you know it.

Gabe: It was mediocre at best! When I become the IT director, I’m gonna crack the whip. Why anyone would think someone like you is a worthy candidate for one of the highest positions in the company is beyond me. So I’ll make sure my new department heads have better judgement than (Head of CSA’s name)

He walked away smugly and I just stood there, both shocked and honestly quite hurt. The only part he got right was that I was relatively new, being there for two years. But I also realized in that moment that I couldn’t let this kind of person be the Director. But, again, I’m just a kid to them, so what can I do?

Planning The Revenge

That same day, I went down to the building's cafeteria to take my lunch break with my girlfriend (she works in the Marketing Department). I told her about the promotion and what happened with Gabe. She made me feel better by talking me down and that was super nice. But what happened next was even better. A few of my friends from IT walked by to congratulate me as well and they sat down. A couple of them are from Tech Support and the rest are from the other departments. My girlfriend welcomed them to sit down with us and we made it a little party. We talked and then I told them about what happened with Gabe. The ones in Tech Support all groaned and, surprisingly, so did the rest of them. I was intrigued and I asked them to elaborate, and all of them have their own Gabe horror story.

Turns out that his usual condescending remarks aren't the worst of it. They had stories about him ripping into an intern for not getting his coffee order right, one story about him making transphobic remarks about an HR rep (really sweet guy. Makes incredible babka.), one of them has a couple of recordings of sexist and rape-y comments towards the female department heads in IT, and he's even come to work intoxicated on multiple occasions. Although that last part wasn't really news to me, since he reeked of alcohol frequently.

Now at this point, you’re probably asking the same question my girlfriend asked: “Why don’t you tell somebody?” Well I’ll tell ya. Our communication policy is kinda shit in IT. Rather than report a dispute or an issue immediately to HR or the Director, we have to give it to our immediate superior, which in this case would be Gabe for a lot of them. You really think Gabe’s gonna rat himself out to the Director? As much as I love my boss and think she’s going a wonderful job, that’s the one policy that she has that I don’t agree with.

At this point, we had all kinda bonded over our mutual hatred for Gabe. We had all agreed that Gabe would be an absolutely terrible boss and we needed to stop him. We were the Avengers and this was our Endgame (which is funny since Endgame would come out the next day). Just then, my genius girlfriend said something that I couldn't believe I didn't figure out sooner. She said "Y'know, this time next week, you're going to be face to face with the CEO, an HR rep, and your Director for the interview. That's your opening. You can air out all of his dirty laundry right there." The rest of our faces lit up, realizing this too and we were ecstatic. This was our chance and we weren't going to waste it. Gabe is a terrible human being and would be an even worse Director. He had to go. But I'd need proof first. So that's what I got.

Revenge Time

Along with rewriting my resumé and brushing up on my interview skills, I spent the next week being something of an investigative journalist. I asked my previously mentioned coworker to email me those recordings he had of Gabe’s rape-y comments (which by the way were absolutely sickening to listen to. I think the worst one was “I’d love to raw her over the trash can like the dirty whore she is.”), as well as spending time interviewing members of the Tech Support team as well as some of the other department heads. Almost everyone had some form of bad experience with him, ranging from unprofessional to downright abusive behavior. The head of WebDev even said that she was always uncomfortable whenever they were alone in a room together. By the time I was done, I had 3 voice recordings of Gabe, 4 pages of quotes from people around the office, and the stories I had originally heard at lunch that day when we began planning. I really wanted to prove his whole day-drinking thing, but I was afraid that going that far might cost me my job. But what I wanted to do was sneak into his office, open his drawers, and hopefully find empty liquor bottles or something to that effect. But what I had would just have to suffice.

Then the day came. We were in the Endgame now. I showed up to the work the day of interviews in my finest suit, my resumé, and literal pages of evidence to make my case. I walked into the office and saw my competition along with a bunch of other people who I didn’t recognize. Those were the outside hires. I was getting pretty nervous, especially when I saw the interview committee in the conference room through its glass walls. The CEO, my Director, and an HR Rep. I took a few deep breaths, checked when my turn was, and then I sat down to do my work, just waiting to make my move. A few of my coworkers came by my desk to wish me good luck, and that made me feel a lot better about it.

I waited and waited for my turn and then saw Gabe walking up to me from the conference room, so that means his interview must’ve just finished. I pulled out my phone and went to voice memos and began recording, just in case I got anything more out of him, and oh boy you bet I did.

Me: What’s up, Gabe? How was your interview?

Gabe: Great. Obviously. The job is as good as mine. You might as well not even try.

Me: I’m still gonna try my best, man. Who knows? I might even get it.

Gabe: Yeah keep dreaming.

He starts to get up in my face and I can smell his lunch on his breath. Too many onions. He then starts hissing at me.

Gabe: You’re absolute trash, kid. They’re not gonna pick a kid with two years of experience with an undergrad degree over me. I’ve been at this company for far too long and got my undergrad degree and my masters from Princeton! Don’t think for a second that you have the upper hand. You’re nothing to me!

I held my breath while he ranted and then he walked away to talk to another one of my coworkers who had their interview already. Coworkers around me just looked at me both shocked and confused once he walked away. I grabbed my phone, stopped the recording, and played it back. That was it. That was the final piece. I waited for a couple more interviews to finish, until they finally called me in. I grabbed my bag and my phone and walked into the conference room. As I walked, I could feel the eyes of some coworkers on me. They knew my plan, and I think they were counting on me to pull this off. Once inside, we all shook hands and exchanged formalities before sitting down and letting the interview begin. Not all of it is relative to the story, so let me just skip to the end.

CEO: Given the amount of internships you've done and how much time you've put into the company, you may have a good chance. However, we've just interviewed people with almost triple your experience. How do you stand out from the rest.

Me: Well, if I become the new Director, I already have some ideas for policies I'd like to put into place.

Director: Oh really? Would you care to give us an example?

Me: Don't get me wrong. I believe that you have done an amazing job as Director of this department, but there are some things that I think can be improved upon. For instance, our policy when it comes to HR.

HR Rep: Could you elaborate on that, please?

Me: Certainly. In the IT department, when we have any disputes or grievances to settle, we need to report them to our direct superior. Not the Director, but to the lower department heads. My goal is to streamline communication, so workers can report issues directly to the Director or go straight to HR.

Director: Alright, but can you tell us why the current policy is an issue?

I started smiling. This was it. This was my opening.

Me: Funny you should ask. Recently, I heard stories from a bunch of my coworkers about our head of Tech Support, Gabe. He's been very rude to his staff and to others on multiple occasions. In fact, I think "unprofessional" is a bit of an understatement from the stories I've been hearing.

Right then, I reached into my bag and pulled out the long list of stories and quotes I had gathered from the past week and handed them to the CEO.

Me: I care about my coworkers, so I did some digging. I really feel like this is something that you need to see.

I watched as the search committee read the quotes and stories. I watch their expressions turn to shock and disgust, which I totally get. I felt the same way when I heard all of this.

HR Rep: This is a... conflict of interest. From what I know, Gabe is also your competition for this position. How do we know that these stories aren't fabricated so that you could get an advantage? Because offenses like these could result in immediate termination. I hope you have a way to prove these very serious accusations.

Me: I had a feeling you'd say that. You are free to interview any of the people I quoted, but I can just save you some time and show you this.

I pulled out my phone and opened up the email that my coworker had sent me and all four of us listened to this neck-beard's disgusting and upsetting quotes. But I wasn't done there. I also pulled up the most recent one. The conversation between me and him. My Director just looked down at her desk and then they looked at each other. I was the one to break the silence.

Me: I'm sorry you had to hear all of this.

CEO: Could you please email those recordings to me? I would like to address this immediately.

Me: Of course. You are free to keep those papers too.

I forwarded the email to him along with my recording.

Director: Thank you for this information, OP. We'll let you know our decision when the time comes.

Me: Of course. Thank you for your time.

I shook everyone's hand again and that's when the HR Rep spoke up.

HR Rep: Can you please ask Gabe to come back? I would like to address this immediately as well.

I'm ecstatic at this point

Me: I would be happy to.

I leave the room and notice my friends in Tech Support just staring at me. My girlfriend was also sitting at my desk, since we planned on going out for lunch after my interview. I didn't want to give anything away, so I kept a straight face and walked past them and towards Gabe's office. I walked in and sighed.

Me: The interview committee wants to see you again.

Gabe just looked up from his computer and just gave me a cocky smirk, as if to say "I told you so." He got up and pushed past me towards the door. I followed behind him towards the conference room and we parted ways when he went in and I walked towards my desk. I wanted to see exactly what happened. I watched what unfolded through the glass walls. I saw Gabe's face turn white and his expression turn from smug to terrified. He turned his head to me and I had this shit-eating grin on my face. I just waved and then left my office with my girlfriend to have a nice lunch.

The Aftermath

I was feeling pretty good about the whole day. I got my revenge, did fairly well in a job interview, and had amazing chicken parm for lunch that day. I felt so good, that I decided to take the rest of the day off. I went to the zoo, saw a really cute koala bear. The next day, I came to work dressed down since interviews were over, and then patiently waited for the committee to make their decision. When I walked into the lobby of the building, my two friends from Tech Support ran over and trapped me in a bear hug.

Me: Well this is new. What's this for?

Friend 1: You did it!

Me: I GOT THE JOB?!

Friend 1: No! We wouldn't know even if you did. We're talking about Gabe!

Me: I stopped him from getting the job?

Friend 2: Oh you did a lot more than that. But you'll just have to see for yourself.

Both of them drag me to the elevator to go up to the IT floor. When we get there, they dragged me through the main office and over towards Gabe's. When we got in, all I found was an empty room with a desk in the middle of it. My jaw dropped. Apparently I collected so much evidence for Gabe's misbehavior, not only did I eliminate him from gunning for the Director's job, but he was also fired from the company and potentially blacklisted since everything I submitted for evidence against him was put on his permanent file. I'm not sure if he was blacklisted or not since I'm not entirely sure how that works, but he's definitely gone for good. I asked them about the details of what happened after I left. They told me that Gabe was so mad (probably at me), that his face was bright red. After he left the conference room, he spent the rest of the day packing up and drinking in his office, so I guess my day-drinker theory held up. He left in shame, and we won't see him again.

I was so excited. Gabe was gone and it felt like the office was a brighter place. People were so excited that a few people outside the Tech Support department brought in a bunch of desserts, from cheesecake to brownies. They were delicious, but I think what them taste better was that I did something to cause this rush of joy. I think the best part of this whole thing is that only a couple of people know that I had something to do with this. The rest of them? Totally clueless. I'm not the protector that IT wants, but I'm the protector that IT needs. Now enough humble-bragging. It's starting to make me feel like a douche.

In hindsight, I don't know what would've been more satisfying. Doing what I did or getting the job fair and square and firing Gabe. But if there's one thing I learned in life, you will do things that you are proud of that you will enjoy and you will do things that you're not so proud of but will really enjoy. This doesn't apply. I am both very proud of this and I really REALLY enjoyed this. This might come back later to bite me in ass, but for right now I think I'll enjoy it. But now the Director has to pick a new head of Tech Support. Either that or she'll give that job up to the next Director. It's been almost a few days since the interviews and we're still waiting on the results. Even if I don't end up getting the job, I still gained something from this. I have a better bond with my coworkers and got rid of the asshole in my office. If enough people like this story, I'll update you on if I got the job or not.

Moral of the story: Don't shoot an unfamiliar gun. You don't know how strong the kickback's gonna be.

TL;DR: I was considered for a job promotion but was demeaned by a superior who was also up for the job. I found out bad things about him and presented them during my interview and got him fired and possibly blacklisted from getting another job.

(source) story by (/u/KyuubiBlade)

#prorevenge #by /u/KyuubiBlade #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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a-secondhand-sorrow · 5 years

Text

Chapter 5: improve all of your strong points, and hide things that you lack

*gordon ramasay voice* finally, some good fucking Alana Beck

that’s right; we’ve got an Alana-centric chapter coming up... right now. after this, she’ll be a more recurring character (like the musical)

chapter title from ‘Alyssa Greene’ from the prom

prologue | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

***

When you’re Alana Beck, nothing is enough.

Take any AP class that will have you. Pick up every extracurricular that seems vaguely prestigious. Babysit any neighbor’s kids that might need it. Do any extra credit you can pick up. Volunteer any free hours you have left hour. Keep moving, keep going, stay occupied, anything to stop yourself from slowing down and being stuck inside of your own head.

(Anything.)

And that’s the status quo, from fourteen on; because if you’re constantly busy, you can’t think about the empty lunch tables you conquer at the lunch hour, or your grandmother’s clammy, skin-stretched-over-bone hand grasping yours imploringly, or the pit sinking into the depths of your stomach as your best friend mouths freak at you and your heart aches and you’re broken, wrong, something is wrong with you.

(In for four, hold for seven, out for eight)

So Alana takes any distraction that she can, because the panic attacks and nail-breaking-skin stress are preferable to the alternative, to allowing herself to fade completely into the background. To disappear.

***

And then, senior year, Alana gets the email.

Connor Murphy. Connor Murphy, the kid who kicked her ass in four square every day in first grade, who checked on her in eighth grade after she had sped-walked through the halls to get to the nurse when her lungs had begun closing with panic, who had delighted in calling Huck Finn anything but, who had smiled appreciatively at her rambles when they were lab partners even when he was dead to all else, that Connor Murphy had killed himself.

And her world shrinks just a little, narrows just that much. Because even though she’d never admit it to anyone, much less herself, any hint of human interaction was sacred to her. Connor’s half-smiles were more than Alana was ever granted from most, his brief moments of kindness shining out like a lighthouse, a beacon of hope. He was unpredictable, but in a lot of other ways he was steady. She knew he’d be there when she turned around.

She didn’t even know why she cared. It wasn’t like she knew him all that well; he was, at most, an acquaintance. A close acquaintance. Logically, she knew that the reason she was upset was because it was tragedy close to home. Someone she knew was dead, so of course she’d have trouble processing that.

(just like you had trouble processing before?)

Maybe the real reason it shook her so hard was because if Connor Murphy could kill himself, anything could happen.

Maybe she could—

(In for four, hold for seven, out for eight, and then your mind is clear, you have purpose, you are the Alana Beck everyone expects you to be.)

—do something, to commiserate Connor’s life. He was only an acquaintance, but she knows that his family must be hurting. Or other students, like her, could be upset about what happened. She didn’t know Connor, but she knew what grief could do to a person.

So she put on a brave face. She comforted a crying Dana P., tweeted out messages of support, gave a firm chastisement to anyone who trash-talked Connor. She hugged Zoe Murphy when she got back to school, even when all Zoe did was give her a weird look. She searched, every day, for something to do. Something more than carrying on with her everyday life.

Salvation arrived in the form of Jared Kleinman.

“Hey, Alana!” She just managed to turn her head as Jared trotted up to her, plastering a smile on her face.

“Hi, Jared! What’s—” she’s cut off by Jared opening his coat-a down coat in the middle of September, what the fuck- “what are those?”

“My crocs,” Jared replied, earning a death glare. He cleared his throat before continuing. “They’re remembrance buttons. For Connor Murphy? Like the bracelets Sabrina Patel was selling.”

As Alana looked closer at the lining of Jared’s coat, she could, in fact, see Connor’s tiny, shiny face staring back at her. Something about it unsettled Alana, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on what. “Did you get the Murphy’s permission?”

Jared shifted a little, but seemed largely unconcerned. “Well-no. I tried to sell Zoe one, but she just told me to fuck off.”

“Jared!”

“What?” All Jared got was another glare. He at least had the class to look sheepish. “Okay, it might have been a little insensitive, but-”

“Try extremely.”

“-Evan didn’t seem too upset by it, so I figure it’s okay.”

“Evan...” Alana searched for a moment, trying to think of an Evan who would be relevant to their conversation. The only Evan she could think of would be Evan Hansen, who beyond speaking to for a little in the hallways, she didn’t really know. “Evan Hansen? Why, is he related to them?”

There was an out of place expression on Jared’s face, one that seemed almost regretful for bringing him up. “No, he and Connor were-they were best friends, apparently.”

This shocked Alana. As far as she knew, Connor Murphy didn’t have any friends.

(Just like her.)

“I though you two were best friends?” She threw out, not fully paying attention to the words. She missed Jared reaction, but his tone had grown slightly quicker.

“What? No, no, we’re just family friends-well real friends, but, you know.”

Alana looked back up at him. His expression was unreadable again. “Okay,” she said, kissing herself away from her locker. “See you later, then.” And in a moment, the smile had slipped back onto her face with the same forced cheery tone. “I hope you have a great day.”

She was frowning again as soon as her back was turned.

***

So Alana had another purpose: find Evan Hansen, and talk to him. It might not be much better than hugging Zoe Murphy or tweeting plastic-feeling condolences, but it’s something.

(Anything.)

This proved easier than she might have expected. First thing the next morning, she managed to corner him in the hallway.

With that same false-cheery voice and plastered smile, she said “Hi, Evan! How are you? How is everything?”

Evan looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. He blinked rapidly one or two times, before responding. “Um. Fine? Thanks.”

She doesn’t give him much time to process before she proceeds (in for four, hold for seven, out for eight, and then your mind is clear, you have purpose, you are the Alana Beck everyone expects you to be) forcing the same inflections as before. “Oh my God, Jared told me about you and Connor, how you guys were so close, and you were, like, best friends.”

Evan visibly deflated at the mention of Connor. “Oh...he did?”

Alana nods. “Everyone is talking about how brave you’ve been this week.”

A few people had overheard her and Jared’s conversation; and while it wasn’t strictly true that everyone had been talking about it, there was a fair amount of chatter, given the short time block.

He fidgets with the straps of his backpack; Alana couldn’t remember him doing that before. “They are?”

Alana forged on. “I mean, anybody else in your position would be falling apart. Dana P. was crying so hard at lunch the other day, she pulled a muscle in her face. She had to go to the hospital.”

Evan gave her a funny look. “Isn’t Dana P. new this year? She didn’t even know Connor.”

Feeling a grimace come to her face, Alana responded, “That’s why she was crying. Because now she’ll never get the chance.” Or at least, that’s what Dana had told her between sobs as Alana waited with her for her parents to arrive. “Connor is really bringing the school together, it’s pretty incredible. People I’ve never talked to before, they want to talk to me now, because they know how much Connor meant to me.” Here, Alana paused for a moment. It was only after she said it that she realizes this may seem insensitive to Evan, who was really friends with Connor. (you always do this why can’t you just stop talking) “I actually started a blog about him, a sort of memorial page...”

“Were you friends, too?” Evan looked a little surprised, yet still overall wary.

“Acquaintances. But close acquaintances.”

Evan nodded, as though that made sense. Knowing Connor-or not knowing Connor, rather-it could have. “Oh.”

The conversation was not going where Alana had hoped it would. She picked up Evan’s hand and squeezed it, hoping that it came across as a friendly, comforting gesture. “If you need anything, just DM me. Or let me know. Whatever’s best for you.”

Evan nodded again, looking slightly more uncomfortable. “Thanks.”

With that, Alana let go of his hand and turned, throwing a little wave over her shoulder.

Maybe her opportunity would come later.

***

And it did.

Alana awoke to a Facebook message, her phone buzzing harshly in the half light of the morning. She reached for it groggily, the light blinding her.

It was from Evan.

could we talk about something?

I have an idea. I don’t know if it’s good, or if it’ll work, but...

it might help people like Connor

#alana beck #evan hansen #jared kleinman #dear evan hansen #deh #my fanfic #when the sweet words and fevers all leave us right here in the cold #my works #connor murphy #deh fanfic #deh fic #my fic #my fanfiction #dear evan hansen fanfiction #dear evan hansen fanfic

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bitternessbitesback · 5 years

Text

Birds Of A Feather

AO3 FFN

Summary: It was funny, really, someone like her dating someone like him. She was a bright and preppy whilst he was a cynical pessimist. People always say opposites attract, so who are they to disagree?

Pairing: Sasori/Sakura

The two are like night and day, dark and light, yin and yang. One would think neither Sasori nor Sakura would ever be able to put aside their differences long enough to even think about dating, and yet here they were. Sitting in the mall food court doing just that. Sasori's friendly can recall just how many times the red haired man has lamented on and on about how he despises shopping despite the fact he went constantly with the pink haired medic. Never once complaining when his girlfriend drags them into the fifteenth store to try on a multitude of items only to either walk out with nothing or just a couple things. It was a well known fact that while Sasori acted patient, he was not a patient man. His friends honestly had no clue how the man could put up with the lively and talkative woman until they saw how soft his eyes seemed to get whenever she was around. Somehow, in spite of his introverted nature, the man always spent as much time as possible with the extroverted pinkette.

Much like Sasori's friends, Sakura's friends also didn't quite understand how the two were dating. Ino could list five different times off the top of her head when the medic would burst into their shared apartment, annoyed at something a kid in her art class had done, only to find out that it was Sasori all along years later. Although the blonde was grateful to no longer have her messy best friend living with her, Ino couldn't help but worry about the other woman. Sasori was mean, cold, calculating, and incredibly cunning. The blue eyes woman is also convinced his morals are all out of wack regardless of Sakura constantly saying otherwise. Ino could tell, despite her preconceived notions of the man, that he made the green eyed girl much happier than the blonde had ever seen.

So in spite of some people's curious gazes, the two continued to enjoy themselves, laughing as they munched on mediocre mall food. Though Sakura would never admit it out loud, she too couldn't believe how the both of them have been together so long. Most men she dated got intimidated by her thriving career, fiery temper, and the fact that 9 times out of ten she was stronger than them. Sasori never once gave off that vibe and always told her how proud he was that she reached a new fitness goal or got a promotion at work. Those aren't the only reason's though for the unwelcome thoughts lingering in the back of her mind.

Sakura was very messy, something Sasori absolutely couldn't stand, and they used to get into loads of arguments when they first moved in together. Since then she's actually gotten better about not just leaving her clothes lying around and actually doing the dishes once in a while. It's actually a little funny how he pretends to be annoyed when she puts her laundry in with his and he tells her to knock it off but does it anyway.

Whenever she thinks about how little they have in common, she just laughs because there is so much that they do have in common, but sometimes she thinks they really are like yin and yang. For example, Sasori is such an art snob sometimes and even though she took an art class for college, she just doesn't get what he gets into arguments with Deidara for. After all, art is art, right? Wrong apparently as Sakura found out once as they both started spouting nonsense at her when she was trying to calm them down. Another example is how she is literally the definition of a prep/jock, and he is the embodiment of an angsty emo (eyeliner and all that Sakura (not so)secretly thinks is hot). And although he is taller than her, she can hold her liquor better, which you would never know since she gets into shenanigans more often due to two certain blonde friends of hers.

Despite their differences though, they really do have somethings in common. They can both cook. for instance, even if his food always tastes better. They're both interested in medicine, albeit different sides of medicine. They both get jealous easily even though they trust each other 100%. She likes working out and he likes watching her work out, definitely not because she gets all sweaty and her hair is messed up, no way no how. Sasori loves it when she walks around their house wearing his shirts as does she. Both of them also really enjoy cuddling with Sakura as the big spoon holding Sasori while she plays with her hair. He loves drawing her and she loves that he thinks she's worthy of being drawn.

Honestly there are as many differences as there are similarities between them, but the one that really brings them together is the fact that they're both only children. They understand what it's like to grow up wanting for siblings and finding them in your obnoxious blond friends instead. Sure they could focus on the differences that shouldn't make their relationship work like so many others, but why would they? Yeah, they could break up right now, or even tomorrow because of them, but if they only focused on the negatives that's exactly what would happen. After all, regardless of whether or not their relationship lasts, Sakura is going to continue to mooch off of her boyfriend for his heavenly back massages.

"You about finished with your smoothie?" Sasori questioned, breaking the girl from her thoughts.

She took an extra large sip from her banana smoothie, a slurping sound coming from the straw letting them both know it was empty, while she raised one eyebrow up at him in response.

"Wow, Haruno, could've said 'no'." He teased in a sarcastic tone, "You don't have to be so dramatic."

"Oh as if I'm the dramatic one in this relationship," A scoff followed the end of her sentence as the pinkette stood up to throw their trash away.

"Nobody would be surprised." He retorted, grabbing her bags and following her lead.

"Just cause you've got them all fooled Red."

"Psh, whatever, you're the one who has everybody wrapped around her little finger."

"Oh are you jealous?"

"Hah! Of you? Never."

"I can see right through you sweetie, you're so jealous that Konan loves me more than you even though you've been friends longer."

"As if Haruno, I can't hold that against Konan or you for that matter since everyone who even comes within a five mile radius of you is immediately struck by cupid's bow."

The woman merely scoffs and shakes her head at the absurd notion, a light blush dusting her cheeks. Sasori knew just the right thing to say to make her feel like a schoolgirl again. Giving her a light, happy feeling in her chest as her heart beat a little too fast for her liking. The man in question simply places his arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to him as they continue walking past stores and out to the parking lot.

"We done for the day?" Sasori inquired.

"Yeah," Sakura replied thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure we've got the prefect gifts for everybody as well as some cute outfits for me, of course."

"Of course." He joked back, looking down at her with nothing short of adoration in his eyes.

Sasori was not an overly affectionate man and he certainly did not like PDA. In general he was not even considered a loving man, in fact Sakura was the first real girlfriend he'd ever had. Of course he's dated girls before and slept around, but none of them ever made him feel anything. That was naturally before Sakura came running head first into his life, literally. She came barreling through the door of his art class on the first day of school and fell over herself trying to slow down so as not to run into him, but ultimately failing as they collided and their collective stuff fell to the ground with them. He was naturally annoyed with her, so he told her off, shocked when she decided to tell him off back. From then on he was intrigued by the energetic pink haired girl who's name he failed to catch.

Growing up in a small town, Sasori was used to all the woman being polite and meek, and obviously Sakura was anything but. She is wild and loud and snorts when she laughs too hard. Sakura Haruno is a spitfire and if the red haired man was being honest with himself, he quite enjoyed teasing her and watching as her cheeks turned red from anger, although he wasn't sure why. After all, he'd never felt anything for anybody before, so why on earth would him having feelings for her even make the 'top 20 reasons why he could do this list' in his head? He actually told his grandmother about the strange woman in his class during winter break and could not for the life of him realize why the old lady was suddenly on the floor laughing her pants off at him.

"How did I raise such an oblivious child?" She asked him once she finally stopped chortling, "How is it you are so observant when it comes to other people, yet so obtuse when it comes to yourself and your own emotions?"

"What on earth are you talking about old lady?" He was getting tired of this.

"Honestly kid," She wiped a tear from her eye and chuckled in disbelief, "I never thought I'd see the day you'd actually get a crush on someone."

"I don't have a crush on her. She's annoying and obnoxious and her sense of justice is overpowering!"

"Whatever you say dear." His Grandma Chiyo was starting to walk away.

"She can't even draw!" Laughs could be heard from the kitchen as he called after her, " She didn't even know what oil paints were until last week!"

Of course his grandmother was right, but Sasori wouldn't let the woman know that, despite the fact that the man introduced the two most important women in his life just after three short months of dating. Now here they are, going on six years, and he had never been happier in his entire life. At first Sasori was afraid of how much he cared about Sakura in the beginning and actually started to push the poor woman away. Could you blame him though? Here this seemingly perfect woman comes into his life, pulling his walls down brick by brick, and you expect him to not freak out? Especially one who wears her heart on her sleeve and seems to be everything he's not. However she was much smarter than she let on and refused to let Sasori shut her out. She actually came knocking on his door after the third day of silence and demanded to be let in. That was their first real fight and their combined tempers made it explosive. Somehow Sakura managed to calm down, which calmed him down, and they were able to have an actual progressive conversation as opposed to a screaming match, trying to force their beliefs on one another.

They've been going strong ever since and Sakura has proved over and over that his insecurities about their relationship are unfounded as she will always prove just how willing she is to work on their relationship together. She eases his anxieties and vise versa. Who cares if he's a morning person and she's not, or if he enjoys quiet nights in while she wants to go out? Though are trivial things that don't matter when one looks at the big picture. Sasori can feel the familiar weight in his right inside pocket, the small box bringing a comforting feeling to the otherwise apprehensive man.

"When are you going to get hitched?" His grandmother's voice rang in the back of his head as the memory of her words played over and over in his mind. She always asked that whenever they would visit, always making sure to pull the man aside.

Sasori always shrugged off the question, acting nonchalant about it. To be fair the ring has been sitting in his pocket for a little over two years now, but he never managed to find the right time. Sakura was constantly busy with her career and finishing off her last year of school, not to mention how she always had her friend dates every Thursday. Honestly the man took what he got when it came to what little free time the pinkette had, he was selfish like that. Was it wrong to want her all to himself though? He didn't think so, and Sakura didn't seem to mind either.

He coveted the nights when she was able to get off early and he could actually make her dinner, or their lunches together in his studio. He enjoyed being able to draw her sleeping form as the sun began to peek above the horizon and creating a halo effect on the woman. As an artist, his girlfriend was quite possibly the most exquisite thing he'd ever had the honor of bestowing his eyes upon, especially when she was resting as the tension left her shoulders and pink strands fell around and on her face.

Who cares if she makes him go hiking with her when he just wants to read a book? Her excuse is that she wants a workout buddy, but he knows she already has one. That just means she wants to spend time with him, and who is he to object? Really, everybody knows Sakura's the boss in their relationship anyway and he couldn't tell her no if he tried. Yeah he'll pretend to make a show of it whenever she asks him to go on a new trail with her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't already have his shoes on before the words even left her mouth. Plus, if she makes him go hiking then that means he gets to drag her to every boring art show he has to go to and show her off. The other people are superficial at those events anyway and somehow his girlfriend is the master of small talk, and he really thinks she's an angel at least fifty times a day.

The red haired man probably couldn't have fallen harder for anybody else if he tried. Sasori was looking forward to having her yell at him for using all the hot water cause his showers took too long again, or how they can simultaneously sit in comfortable silence for hours on end and talk non-stop. Their conversations are enlightening and she forces him to look at things from a new perspective, her optimism rubbing off on him. Sakura Haruno is a storm and he is looking forward to each new day alongside her.

"What do you think of Akasuna no Sakura?" Sasori asked to woman beside him as they finally made it to their car, the sun beginning to set.

The question seemed to catch her off guard for a second as she simply looked at him before replying, "That's okay, but what about Sasori Haruno?"

He shrugged and they got in the car and he started it, looking at his girlfriend from the corner of his eye.

"I don't mind it." The red haired man told her casually.

"Oh really now?" She inquired.

"Yeah." The radio played quietly as he waited for Sakura's reply.

"Did you just propose to me?"

"I suppose I did."

This caused a laugh to rip through the woman's throat as Sasori looked at her quizzically, trying to pay attention to the cars driving around them, a slight annoyance flowing through him. Was the thought of marrying him really that funny? He was about to tell her off but then she started speaking.

"About time."

"What? What does that mean?"

"You know what it means Red."

"How long have you been waiting for me to propose?"

"How long have you had that ring in your pocket?"

They were almost home now, but that made Sasori do a double take. She knew? "You knew?"

"Of course I did, you started acting a little weird when I wore your jackets and always insisted on checking the pockets first."

They pull into their garage, park, and he just looks at her for a minute. Really looks at her. Takes in her short pink hair that's no longer a chin length and to her shoulders, her emerald eyes that always had a mischievous twinkle in them, her straight nose that was just a little crooked from being broken although you couldn't tell unless she told you. She gives him her sweet smile that he knows never reached her eyes in the beginning of their rocky friendship, but is delighted at the fact that it almost always does now. Sakura was a firecracker and now she'd be his firecracker forever.

Slowly he takes the ring box out of his pocket and her eyes follow the movement. Sasori opens it and takes her hand in his as she waits for him to speak those life changing words, both still in the car as one of them holds her breath. Meanwhile he takes a deep breath to steel his nerves, all the words he wanted to say, all the things she means to him, have suddenly vanished from his brain. It doesn't matter though, he can always tell her in his vows and every single day for the rest of his life if she wanted him to.

"Will you, Sakura Haruno, do me the pleasure and honor of becoming my wife?"

"Of course," She replies with a sigh, letting him put the ring on her finger before pulling him into a kiss.

#fanfiction #my writing #sasosaku #sasori #sasori of the red sand #chiyo #sakura haruno #naruto #same age au #real world au #bitternessbitesback #please read and give me feedback #thank you!!!#i love you all!!!#sorry to mobile users!#i put the read more two paragraphs in #whoops

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sebfiction · 6 years

Text

Hey Doc!

(Hey guys just a little an! First of all thanks for 1k! I really never thought this would get any followers, so that’s cool, lol. AND two chapters in a row! You know your girls hardcore procrastinating, whoops. Anyways, enjoy!)

Chapter 10

You got your beers from Ali the bartender and gave Arik’s his before excusing yourself from your conversation.

“I have an ass to kick” you signed, before dramatically walking off. Sebastian was already standing by the pool table, a cue stick already in his hand. You tried not to stare at him as you walked to get your own cue stick. He was leaning slightly against the table, one arm flexed and the other stretched out chalking the end of his cue stick. He looked incredible.

“You ready?” He asked. You nodded and took the first shot. You sunk two balls.

“Guess I’m doing solid balls then” you commented. After that, the game was pretty even. And though both of you kept making up more and more ridiculous trash talk about the other, it felt so easy to be with him. After a few minutes, Anthony walked over to watch. And then Chris and Amanda joined, looking very friendly in your opinion. In the end, you lost by one ball. You sighed in bitter defeat as Sebastian whooped and cheered. Trying to be a graceful loser you offered Sebastian to buy him a beer, which he accepted with minimal gloating. As you returned to the group, who were now watching Chris and Anthony play, with the victory beer in hand, you noticed Amanda wasn’t by the pool table anymore.

“Did you see where Amanda went?” You asked Sebastian as you handed him his beer.

“Oh I’m pretty sure she went to the bathroom” he replied. “And thanks for the game. Probably the most fun I’ve had playing pool” he said, right as you were about to walk off.

“Thanks” you replied, a little stunned by the sweet comment. Then you excused yourself to look for Amanda. You really wanted to talk to her about, well, everything, and you needed some privacy away from the guys. As you were getting closer to the bathroom you started hearing voices.

“Come on, don’t hold out on me now” a man's voice spoke. Your guts started filling with a bad feeling, and you picked up your pace. When you rounded the corner you saw Amanda pressed up against the wall, a stranger leaning against the wall, trapping her.

“Amanda!” You exclaimed, getting their attention. Amanda’s face lit up in relief. “I’ve been looking for you, I need to talk to you” you continued, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her away without starting a scene. But this creep of a guy was not gonna leave you alone.

“Hey wait a minute, we were in the middle of something!” He exclaimed, grabbing Amanda’s other hand. You froze and slowly turned around, stepping closer to him.

“Listen, dude, she’s not interested, so you need to take a hint and leave us alone,” you said in a serious tone. The man looked you up and down for a moment.

“Whatever you dyke, she’s not that hot anyway” he scoffed. You stopped in your tracks.

“Why don’t you go ahead, Amanda. I’ll be right there” you muttered through gritted teeth. Amanda slowly walked away as you stepped closer to the guy. You took a deep breath.

“Apologize” you demanded. The guy looked at you in disbelief.

“No” he just answered.

“No I don’t leave until you either give me a really good fucking explanation for what was happening, or you apologize” you demanded again. You felt your pulse rising as the guy scoffed at you again.

“We were just flirting ok, it really wasn’t a big deal” he tried.

“No that shit was not flirting, that was harassment. And then you used a slur towards me, and offend my friend. So that explanation does not cut it buddy” you said, anger rising in your throat.

“Listen, I don’t have to answer to this shit. So what I offended you? You’re a raging bitch, and your friend is a tease” he yelled and tried to push past you. And before you had the sense to stop yourself you had punched him in the face. And as he was about to start yelling at you again, you grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down so you were face to face.

“Let me make one thing fucking clear buddy, you need to learn how to act because harassment is never ok under any circumstances, and trust me if you do that shit again I will know, my fucking raging bitch sense will start to tingle, and I will take a nutcracker to your balls” you calmly whispered right in his ear. And then you walked away in a storm of fury. Before you had time to cool down you realized Sebastian was standing right in front of you, with a shocked look on his face.

“Sebastian I... can explain?” You tried, as your heart dropped.

“No Amanda explained enough. I just thought you might be in trouble. But clearly, you’re fine on your own” he said, chuckling a little. You smiled in relief. And then the guy blowing past you in a rage reminded you of the situation.

“How about we get you a beer and an ice pack” Sebastian chuckled and placed a hand on your shoulder as you both walked away. As you returned Anthony started clapping.

“I just saw that dude basically grab his guys and run outta here, now I don’t know what the fuck you did but I know I hope I never experience it” he joked. You smiled and bowed jokingly.

“Excellent point Mackie, but please excuse us as Dr. Kickass deals with the consequences of punching someone in the face,” Sebastian said, sparing you the embarrassment of the attention. You walked with him behind the bar and quickly explained what happened to Ali, who got you a bag of ice and then left to tend to the bar.

“You don’t have to help me you know, as a doctor I am more than competent enough to hold a pack of ice to my hand,” you told him as you get up on the counter.

“I know,” he replied, leaning against the counter next to you. “But you kept me company a whole night when I acted like a moron and got hurt, so I’m returning the favor”. The way you were sitting made you the same height. You resorted to staring at your hand to avoid making eye contact.

“Besides, I actually like spending time with you” he continued suddenly. Your head snapped up, and you were face to face with Sebastian. “Maybe we could hang out one day, just you and me” he proposed, as his mouth twitched nervously.

“I’d like that” you smiled. For a second you became acutely aware of the fact that your faces were very close. It was silent between the two of you for a moment, and then Ali returned and shushed you out again. Though he was nice, he hated having people behind the bar. You joined the crew members still sitting by your table, which included Arik and Sebastian’s makeup girl, Sarah. After that, the night went on as usual. You talked, drank, played games, and drank some more. Quite some time passed until you realized you felt quite tired and you wanted to go home. As you stood up to go grab your coat, something in the corner of your eye caught your attention. It was Sebastian, obviously quite drunk, sitting by the bar with a glass of water. You sighed at the sight of this big man sitting alone, looking a bit like a child. And then you walked over to him.

“How’s it going there, supersoldier” you joked and watched as he seemingly awakened from dosing off with a snap.

“Ooh not so good, doc. I should’ve listened to you about the drinking and the pills and that” he slurred.

“How about we share an Uber home, huh?” You proposed. You smiled at the sight of this soft giant, with rosy cheeks, droopy eyes, and messy hair. He just nodded, waited at the bar while you got your jackets, and said bye to everyone. You had to support him under the arm as you made your way outside, to wait for an Uber. Though your hand ached and you really wanted to sleep, leaning against the building with Sebastian wrapped around your shoulder like that you couldn’t help but imagine what would happen if you started dating. And he’s the one who said he wanted to hang out with you more. ‘Wait did he try to ask me out? He meant just as friends right?” You suddenly thought. As you got into your Uber you noticed Sebastian grabbing your hand, and then putting his head on your shoulder in the backseat.

‘He’s way too drunk for this to mean anything” you tried to convince yourself, but couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it was to be this close to him.

You eventually managed to get him up the stairs and back to his room. As you sat next to him on the bed trying to catch your breath for a second he suddenly spoke, sounding a lot soberer now.

“How did you get like this?” He asked.

“What do you mean?” You replied, thoroughly confused by the question.

“I mean how did you get so nice? You’ve had a pretty rough couple of years it seems, but you’re still so... caring. And funny, and smart, and just so incredibly kind”.

He’d barely finished the sentence before you had kissed him. You didn’t really plan to, but his lips looked so soft, and his eyes kept darting down to your mouth and all of a sudden your lips were on his and oh my it felt so right. It took him a second to react, and you instantly thought ‘oh no he’s not into this’, but then his hand was cupping your face and his lips were moving against yours and oh my it felt like nothing had before. Soft, sloppy, needy and exactly right. After a short while, you broke apart, coming up for air. Sebastian’s hand lingered in your face.

“I’ve hoped you’d do something like that since a week after I met you” he muttered, his eyes glinting in the darkness.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for just as long” you confessed until a horrible thought dawned on you.

‘He’s still my patient’. Sebastian must’ve seen your expression change, cause suddenly his eyes filled with worry and he asked: “is something wrong?”. You pulled away a bit further.

“You’re my patient Sebastian. So I should never have done that” you muttered.

“So what? You want to pretend this never happened? Go back to being doctor and patient, and then go our separate ways” he muttered, his voice sounding hurt.

“It’s what a good doctor would do” you muttered back.

“Can’t you be a bad doctor then? Just this once?” He answered, sounding nearly pleading. His hand found yours in your lap. And even though it went against every logical thought in your head, once more you leaned forward and placed your lips on his. His hands were quicker this time, one in your hair the other in the small of your back. Your hands made their way up to his neck, and you let your fingers run through his hair. You felt his spine shiver slightly at the sensation, making you chuckle. He broke you apart now but kept you close.

“Stay the night. We can figure out what to do with this in the morning” he muttered, and you couldn’t respond to you just nodded slightly. Sebastian connected your lips again, slowly this time, before leaning you down till you were laying down on the bed, as he hovered over you. He positioned himself in between your legs, and you discovered how tiny you were compared to him. He used his arms to hold up his weight, to avoid crushing you, as your lips slowly moved against each other. Though you felt like you could have spent an eternity like this, just enjoying the feeling of his lips against yours he eventually pulled away again.

“I’ll get you a t-shirt you can sleep in,” he told you and kissed your cheek before he got up. You leaned on your elbows, a bit confused by the sudden change of pace. Sebastian grabbed a shirt for you and then walked into the bathroom. He returned with a toothbrush in his mouth and laughed at the confused expression on your face.

“Though I’d love to take this further, I want to do this right. And I think we should take it slow for now” he explained.

“That’s... very thoughtful of you” you replied. After Sebastian finished brushing his teeth, you grabbed his t-shirt and got in after him. You grabbed one of the hotel-toothbrushes and quickly brushed your teeth, tried to wash away as much makeup you could by using just water and changed into Sebastian’s shirt. It nearly reached your knees. Sebastian laughed as you exited the bathroom. You gave him a jokingly serious look.

“You know what, I think it looks better on me than on you!” He proclaimed.

“Oh of course you do” he answered, and leaned in for another kiss. You put your finger on his lips.

“No no, you can’t laugh at me and expect to get kisses for it. Say I look better in this shirt than you” you demanded jokingly. He raised his eyebrows at you.

“You would look better than me in any of my clothes,” he said dramatically. You pecked him on the lips and dashed out of his reach.

“That’s all I get? That’s not fair, it was an amazing compliment” he exclaimed, faking offense.

“If you want more you have to earn it” you replied in a bratty tone. Sebastian started walking menacingly towards you. You crawled back on the bed until you hit the headboard.

“You’re trying to intimidate me with the winter soldier look, huh?” You continued joking. Sebastian got on the bed and crawled towards you. Still laughing, you tried to jump out of his reach again, but he was too quick this time. Suddenly he had you pinned against the mattress, straddling you, with both your wrists in one hand. Your pulse spiked so quickly you were worried he might feel it on your wrist. And then he slowly leaned down and kissed you, not aggressively but with a lot of tenderness, and care.

“I guess you do deserve that after all” you muttered when your lips parted again.

“We should sleep” he muttered back.

“We really should” you replied.

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebstanedit #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan x reader #hey doc fanfiction

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klaineanummel · 7 years

Text

kiss the (sous) chef

this is for @yruablackwarbler who wanted a fill for this prompt on @prompt-a-klainefic! Thank you so much for the prompt, darling, and I hope you enjoy :D

Read on AO3

The first time he hears the smoke detector go off in 4B he’s arguing with his brother over the phone. He doesn’t even remember what started this particular argument, but he knows it escalated quickly. He’s just in the middle or retorting to Cooper’s accusation of, “Well, what would you know, you were always Mom’s favorite,” when he hears the beeping.

“Oh, for god’s sake, Cooper,” he says, rolling his eyes. “If you’re going to cook while we fight, can you at least have the decency to do it well? I can hear your smoke detector going off from here.”

“What? I’m not cooking.”

Blaine frowns. He can definitely hear an alarm going off. “Hold on a second,” he says, heading to his front door and opening it, peaking out into the hallway.

It’s coming from the end of the hall. He leans out a little further, managing to hear a male voice shouting, “Turn it off, Rachel, oh my god!”

The beeping continues for a few moments, and then finally stops. Blaine sighs, turning back into his apartment.

“Everything okay over there, Squirt?”

Blaine knows he could take this as a peace offering, an end to their seemingly endless argument. He’s annoyed, though, and the smoke alarm beeps have given him a bit of a headache, so instead of telling Cooper he’s fine, he retorts, “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?!” and within seconds they’re back at it.

The second time it happens, Blaine is able to trace it to the source.

He’s had a long day at work, and has finally managed to sit down on the couch in his pyjamas, a glass of red wine in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, when he hears the beep of a smoke detector.

Blaine groans. He waits a few moments, and when it doesn’t stop, groans again and gets up.

This time he doesn’t just peak out of his apartment door. He walks out, socked feet padding uncomfortably against the linoleum floor of the hallway, and follows the sound.

“Turn it off!” he hears the same male voice as the first time say.

“I’m trying, it won’t stop!” comes a female voice. The beeping becomes louder the further down the hall he goes, at its absolute loudest when he arrives at 4B.

He vaguely knows the people who live in that apartment. He met the girl, Rachel Berry, on the day they moved in, and has seen her getting the mail a couple of times. As for her roommate, who he knows is named Kurt, he’s only seen the back of him entering the apartment from time to time.

Before he can even decide if he should knock on the door and ask them to please make the noise stop, the hallway is engulfed in silence.

“Oh, thank god,” the male voice – Kurt, he assumes – voices Blaine’s exact thoughts. Blaine stares at the door for a moment, then turns on his heel and walks away.

No point making a stink now.

He goes back to his apartment, falls back on the couch, picks up his wine, and finally turns on the TV. Now, now, he can truly relax.

The third time it happens it makes him slice his thumb. He’s cutting strawberries for his lunch tomorrow, and the shock of the noise makes the knife go right through the skin.

“Crap,” he mutters, hurrying to his sink to run his thumb under water.

By the time he has a Band-Aid on his thumb the smoke detector has stopped ringing. Blaine figures it’s already caused him enough of an ordeal today, and so decides to leave it be.

The fourth time he’s talking on the phone with Cooper again, though this time it’s a far more civil conversation.

“Son of a bitch,” he says, interrupting whatever Cooper was saying.

“Whoa!” Cooper replies. “Did you just cuss at me?”

“Oh, my god,” Blaine rubs at his temple. “The people in 4B have been setting off the smoke detector non-stop for the past few weeks. It’s driving me a little bit crazy.”

“The noise, or the fact that they obviously don’t know how to cook?”

Blaine’s face scrunches up as the noise continues. “Both.”

“Well, to be fair to them, not everyone can be a fancy chef.”

“I’m not a chef, I’m a sous-chef. Not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No, Cooper.”

The noise stops, and Blaine lets out a deep sigh of relief.

“I’m telling you, Cooper, I don’t know how much more I can take of this.”

“Well, hey, maybe you should give them cooking lessons?”

Blaine shakes his head, ready to move on with the conversation. “Yeah, maybe.”

He sees Rachel Berry the next day when he’s getting his mail, and it takes everything in him not to comment.

“Hey,” he says instead. “How’s everything going? Settling in okay?”

“Settling in wonderfully,” she replies. “This place is great, and everyone has been so friendly!” She shrugs. “Granted, the last place we lived was Bushwick, in a loft with no walls, so maybe our standards are a bit low.”

“Oh, wow. Bushwick. I applaud your temerity.”

“Why, thank you,” she says with a small curtsey. “Anyway, I have to go. Kurt’s cooking dinner tonight and he’s insisting on stuffed peppers, so I need to go get some meat substitute before he forces me to consume actual beef.”

Blaine’s eyebrow ticks a little at the mention of cooking. He should say something. Should he say something?

“That sounds delicious! I hope it’s good.”

She smiles at him, and he curses his neighbourly ways.

When the alarm goes off that night, however, he just can’t sit idly by.

“That’s it,” he mutters, grabbing his apron from the hook on the kitchen wall. He storms out of his apartment (pausing only briefly to lock his door), and marches over to 4B with as much purpose as a man holding a Kiss the (Sous) Chef apron can.

He stands in front of the door for a moment, taking a deep breath, then knocks.

The door opens within moments, the sound of the alarm getting louder as it does. Rachel is in the doorway, light grey smoke billowing from the right of her.

“Blaine!” she says, smiling. “Hi, what’s up?”

Behind her, a tall man is waving a towel in front of the alarm.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” Blaine says. “May I come in?” he asks.

Rachel frowns, clearly confused, but nods and steps aside. Blaine thanks her and steps past her.

“It’s this button here,” he says, barely glancing at the man. He knows it’s rude to get in someone else’s space without first introducing yourself, but he’s getting a cluster headache, and he’s just about had enough of this.

He presses the button and the noise stops. He hears Rachel let out a sigh of relief, then turns to the man.

Oh, shit.

The really, really, really hot man.

“God, seriously?” the man – Kurt – says, hands going to his hips. “Why the hell did the super tell us to wave a towel in front of it?”

“I told you there had to be an easier way,” Rachel says.

“Hey, sorry if we bothered you with the noise,” Kurt says. His eyes meet Blaine’s, and Blaine feels heat creep up his cheeks. “Thanks for showing us that, it’s going to save us a lot of-” he stops himself short, eyes going down to Blaine’s hands. “Is that an apron?”

“Um.” Blaine feels his blush deepen. Oh, god, what had he been thinking? “No?”

Kurt raises an eyebrow, then leans forward and snatches it from Blaine’s hand. He holds it out, a huge smile breaking out on his face when he sees the words.

“That’s the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Rachel says.

“Yeah, okay, look,” Blaine says, grabbing the apron back. “Maybe I was a little annoyed at the fact that you two clearly don’t know how to cook, so-”

“Hey, whoa, whoa,” Rachel interrupts. “What makes you think we don’t know how to cook?”

Blaine sighs. “I’ve heard your smoke detector go off like, four or five times in the past two weeks, okay? Clearly you are cooking challenged.” His blush grows as he glances at Kurt again. “But, um. I see now that was stupid and probably presumptuous, so I’ll just be on my way.”

“No, hey,” Kurt puts his hand on Blaine’s arm to stop him from leaving. “Are you actually a sous-chef?”

“Yeah,” Blaine says. “For Bennie’s, down the block.”

“Oh, I’ve been there!” Rachel says. “Jesse took me there on our third date! Your vegan ravioli is to die for!”

Kurt raises an eyebrow, then walks into the kitchen. “Okay, Mr. Sous-Chef,” he says, pulling two incredibly burnt (and terribly stuffed) peppers out of the oven. “Teach me how to cook.”

“Um, no, I’m really sorry about this.”

“No, I’m serious.” Kurt dumps the peppers in the trash. “You’re right, we are cooking challenged. We basically lived off take-out when we were in college, but I’ve been trying to make an effort to actually cook since we graduated,” he shrugs lightly. “You know, learning to be an adult and what not.”

“Of course,” Blaine rasps. God, this man is attractive.

“So. Can you teach me how to make a proper meat-substitute, cheese-substitute stuffed pepper?”

Blaine blushes, then glances at Rachel, who is smirking at the two of them.

“I mean. Yeah, yeah. I can do that.”

“Great,” Kurt replies. “Come on, put that adorable apron on and teach me everything you know.”

Rachel giggles at that and then heads to the living room, leaving the two men alone.

Kurt is still staring at him, eyebrow still raised, a smile firmly in place.

Blaine can’t help but smile back as he ties the apron around his waist, which only serves to make Kurt smile wider.

“Alright,” Blaine claps his hands together. “Let’s get started.”

They end up making two batches of stuffed peppers without the smoke alarm going off once, easy conversation flowing between them, alternating between cooking questions and instructions, and questions about their personal lives.

Kurt blushes a little when he asks Blaine is he’s seeing anyone, and Blaine blushes right back when he replies with a shy, “Nope. You?”

Turns out that Kurt isn’t either, and it makes Blaine’s heart beat a little faster.

He’s definitely developing a crush.

When they’re done, Kurt and Rachel insist that he stay and help them eat the peppers. Blaine has no desire to say no, so he sits down with them and eats his and Kurt’s creation, which Rachel loudly proclaims to be better than anything else Kurt has cooked before.

After dinner, however, Blaine starts to feel as though he’s overstayed his welcome a bit, and so informs them that he should probably go. Rachel pouts, then makes him promise to come back soon and help her learn to cook too. Blaine promises.

Before he goes, Kurt asks him to wait for a moment and then runs off to his room. He comes back soon enough with a piece of paper in his hand, which he hands to Blaine as he walks him to the door.

“What’s this?” Blaine asks.

“My phone number,” Kurt says, smirking. “So you can text me to schedule our next cooking lesson. Or, you know. Anything else.”

Blaine’s heart skips a beat in his chest, and he grins. “That, uh. That sounds good.”

“Great,” Kurt says.

He waves goodbye to Rachel and then steps out into the hallway, smiling down at the phone number in his hand as Kurt closes the door behind him.

“Oh, my god, Kurt Hummel, you flirty little minx! I can’t believe you gave him your number!”

Blaine chuckles as Rachel’s voice travels through the door clear as day.

“Shut up, Rachel,” Kurt says. Then, after a moment of silence. “You think he’ll call?”

“He’d be an idiot not to,” Rachel replies, and Blaine smiles, tucking the paper into his pocket as he heads back down the hall to his apartment.

As soon as he gets back to his apartment he finds his phone, left charging on the kitchen counter where he left it, and punches Kurt’s contact information in. Then, he moves to his messages, creating a new one and sending it to Kurt.

To: Kurt So. About that next cooking lesson. Or “anything else”?

About five seconds later, he can hear Rachel squealing all the way down the hall. He grins, heart racing in anticipation as the little dots indicating Kurt is writing him back show up on the screen.

Screw being neighbourly. He is so happy he stormed over to 4B.

#klaine #klaine fic #klaine au #klaineanummel fic #new fic #one shot #yruablackwarbler

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thelem0npie · 6 years

Text

America

Writing this was like 70% googling American terms, 10% progress and 20% caffeine...

"What even is a Hufflepuff..." Y/N wondered aloud, tugging at the uncomfortable yellow and black tie as she roamed the large, cold corridors of Hogwarts. She'd just left the Principal's office after being assigned her house and told where to go to find her classes.

Unfortunately, Y/N had never been good at following directions and soon enough found herself lost somewhere deep within the castle. She opened a door at the end of the hallway to find what seemed to be a tower of staircases.

"What the actual fuck is this school?" She stepped onto the staircase in front of her and started climbing when a strange rumbling sound stopped her in her tracks.

The rumbling continued as the staircase started to move?!

She screamed and ran back down to solid ground, crashing into the closed door at the bottom. Her bag slipped off her arm and fell to the ground, spilling open and spewing her new school supplies everywhere.

Loud laughter rang out from above and the girl looked up to see four boys sitting on the bannister of one of the moving staircases.

The four had obviously been watching her progress and found it to be the funniest damn thing in the world.

One of them, one with black hair and glasses, fell backwards off the railing amidst his laughter which only encouraged the others to laugh even harder. Blushing furiously, Y/N grabbed her things and backed out of the tower, slamming the door behind her, too embarrassed to face the group on her very first day.

While she tried failingly to clear the ink stains from her brand new school books the door opened and the four boys streamed in, led by the tallest one, sporting brown hair and an amused look. The second one to appear was the black haired boy who'd fallen off the railing, his face still slightly red from laughing as he rubbed the back of his head. The third to follow also had black hair but it was slightly longer and better kept than his friend's. The fourth and final boy trailed behind the others, eagerly expecting more entertainment and gazing at the boy with the glasses with a look that was half admiration and half awe.

It was clear that glasses boy was the leader as he stepped forward and the others subconsciously gathered around behind him, one of them resting an elbow on glasses boy's shoulder while the other two stood on either side. The other black haired boy, the one who was leaning against glasses boy, seemed curious about the strange girl as if she was a new toy. The tall one looked on warily, almost like he expected something to go wrong. The short boy stared at the scene playing out, drinking in every move his leader made. It was clear to Y/N that this interaction would play a big part in deciding how the rest of her time at Hogwarts would go.

"Hi, I'm James Potter." Glasses boy gave Y/N a dazzling grin and held out a hand for her to shake. "Haven’t seen you here before."

"Y/N Y/L/N." She responded, taking his warm hand and shaking once. "I'm a transfer from Ilvermorny."

"Crikey, it's a Yank." The other black-haired boy commented in surprise. "What's a Yank?" The smallest one whispered.

"She's an American." James answered without looking away from Y/N, an amused smirk playing on his lips as he took her in.

"An American who's lost. Can one of you please tell me how to get to..." She fumbled around in her bag before pulling out the now crumpled and blotted timetable. "Herbology?"

"Sure." The tallest boy stepped away from the group and offered a sweet smile that took her breath away. She'd never seen a boy who looked so... perfect. "Let's go before they decide to do something stupid." He teased and lead her away from the group (and the terrifying stairs tower). The remaining three boys whistled and called out after them. The tall boy beside her just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

When the others were out of sight and their calls faded away into silence the boy struck up a conversation as easily as if he were speaking to an old friend. "So, what brings you to England?"

Y/N, struggling to keep up with his long strides, barely heard him. "Sorry?"

He noticed her distress and slowed down to her pace before repeating himself.

"Oh, my grandpop bought the farm and left my folks his pizza chain here so dad decided to jump ship and we caught the first red eye over."

The boy frowned and looked at her. "I know that was all English but I have no idea what you just said... something about your grandfather buying a farm, sailing and getting red eye?”

Y/N took one look at his bewildered expression and laughed. "You're not even close. Pop died and mom and dad inherited everything so dad quit his job and we moved over here."

"Oh... sorry about your grandfather...”

She shrugged. "It's behind me. He was never more than a name on a card and a 50-pound note. 'Sides, thanks to him, dad made a killing on the pizza chain last month."

"Do all Americans speak so fast?"

"Do all Brits speak so slowly?" She countered, enjoying the short burst of laughter he let out at her response.

"No, just the boring ones sorry."

"I don't think you're boring."

"You'd be among the first." He chuckled. "Sorry about those idiots back there, James loves a chance to show off."

"I can handle a few slack-jawed kids like them." Y/N shrugged, rifling around in her bag to see what had managed to escape the inksplosion.

"Here, let me take a look at that." Remus reached over and slipped her bag off her shoulder with nimble fingers. He slipped his wand from his sleeve and pointed it at the bag. A few incantations later and it was clean and organized once again.

"You are a lifesaver! It's bad enough being the new kid but being the new kid with a completely trashed bag is a whole other shitshow." She took the bag from him and slung it back over her shoulder, taking care not to break her inkwell again. "I owe you one.”

The sweet smile he gave her was enough to turn her stomach into a mess of nerves. How unfair that she would have to have a crush on the first friend she'd made in this new school.

As they walked and the conversation went off topic Y/N found it more and more difficult to keep her eyes away from him.

She was entranced by the way he ran his hand through his hair every few minutes, almost as if he wasn't even aware of how good he looked doing it. Her eyes hungrily scoured his broad shoulders barely concealed under the thin fabric of his school shirt. She found herself gazing at the cute way his nose scrunched up and his eyes crinkled when he started laughing. And when he smiled down at her, a smile that lit up his eyes and sent her nerves into chaos, the grey and dreary English sky seemed brighter somehow.

They finally reach the greenhouses where he said the Herbology classes were usually held and she found herself not wanting him to leave. "Thanks.... I don't even know your name." She smiled sheepishly.

"My name's Remus. Remus Lupin. Good luck in your first class.”

With that, he turned and made his way back up to the enormous castle, completely unaware of Y/N watching his figure until he disappeared.

"Well fuck me.”

Morning classes passed by in a mix of whispered gossip and curious stares. By the time lunch rolled around Y/N had more than had enough of it. If she'd known British people were going to be so rude and obvious about their staring she'd probably have fought harder to stay at Ilvermorny.

After a gruelling hour of potions - in which she'd had a jar of bat blood spilt on her and then promptly been told off for using her wand to clean up the mess - Y/N followed the crowd to lunch, hanging back to avoid any more staring. Her first day at Hogwarts was proving to be even worse than anticipated and she was certainly dreading the idea of entering a massive hall filled with strangers only to embarrass herself once again.

"Hey, Y/N!" A familiar voice called out from behind. Y/N spun around to see Remus walking toward her with a breathtaking smile. She was suddenly aware of the fact that her hair was a mess from the earlier potions debacle and that she probably still smelled like bat blood but her relief at seeing a friendly face overruled her urge to run away and hide in the girl's bathrooms.

"Remus!" She breathed out in relief, stopping in her tracks and letting him catch up. "You're a sight for sore eyes!"

"Rough morning?"

"Hella rough." She sighed, letting him lead her to the great hall as she recounted her morning, stopping from time to time to explain her 'Yankee talk' as he put it.

They reach the hall and Y/N stared at the four long tables, crowded with students and food. Everyone seemed to know each other, she stuck out like a very sore and incredibly irritated thumb. "We eat in our houses," Remus explained and chuckled when he saw the horrified expression on her face. "But you can come sit with me until you make friends in your own house, if you'd like." He added quickly.

"Yes please." She whispered, not liking how people were already turning to stare at her. She heard the words bat blood floating around and felt her cheeks heat up, she knew how gossip and rumours spread in schools and didn't want to think about what people were already saying about her.

"Don't mind them," Remus said as he led her past the whispering people. "They'll get over it in a day or so." He stopped halfway down one of the tables and Y/N recognised James and the two other boys from earlier.

"I sure hope so." She muttered, sliding into the seat beside Remus and opposite one of his friends.

"Afternoon lads." Remus said, loading different sorts of meat onto his plate. "You remember Y/N, right?"

The three boys stared at Y/N and she stared back. "Can I help you?"

"People are looking..." The small, brown-haired boy whispered, eyes darting around as more and more people realised where the new girl was sitting.

"Let them stare, it's nothing you're not used to Wormtail." Remus chuckled.

"Wormtail? Is that your name?" Y/N asked, barely hiding her shock. "What kind of parents name their kid Wormtail and don't expect him to get pounded on daily."

James choked on his pumpkin juice as he tried not to laugh, which turned into a coughing fit that led to his face becoming a bright red. "Bloody Yanks." He spluttered, wiping away his tears.

"What?"

"That's Peter Pettigrew." Remus pointed at the mousy haired boy she'd mistaken for Wormtail. "You know James Potter." He indicated the red-faced boy with pumpkin juice dribbling down his chin. "And that's Sirius Black." The black haired boy opposite Y/N still hadn't stopped staring at her.

"Whatchu gawkin' at?" She challenged.

"I-what?" Sirius stutters, not quite understanding what she'd said.

"Why are you staring at me?" Y/N clarified with an eye roll.

"Hufflepuffs usually sit over there." Sirius pointed his thumb at a table where a few people in yellow ties like Y/N's were still staring at the strange new girl. "At the Hufflepuff table. This is the Gryffindor table, you can't sit with us."

Y/N blinked, completely unphased. "What are they gonna put me in the doghouse for sitting here? I mean come off it, forcing children to sit apart based on the colour of their tie? You know back in the States the No-Majes are rioting it out in the streets to end that kind of discrimination."

"I'm sorry?" James scrunched his face at the strange phrase. "Could you please speak English?"

"And what in Merlin's name is a No-Maj?" Sirius wondered.

"A No-Maj? A person without magic abilities?"

"You mean Muggles?" James said.

"What the hell is a Muggle? Sounds like some kind of gross disease."

"Muggles are what we call No-Majes." Remus clarified in a gentle voice.

"I like our word better."

"Your word is stupid." Peter snapped, clearly not liking the new addition to their group.

"Stand down Wormtail. She's cool." Sirius said, ruffling Peter's hair affectionately and shooting Y/N a wink.

"Pads, stop hitting on her." Remus snapped, making the other boys look at him in surprise.

"I wasn't-"

"Leave it." James interrupted his friend, eyes on Y/N. "Welcome to Hogwarts, America."

A month passed and Y/N was completely accepted into this strange group of boys. New gossip circulated nearly every week about this girl who'd somehow found her way into the Marauders' tight little circle.

People were constantly asking her which one of them she was dating, to which she'd always respond with the name of whichever one of the boys was closest which created a lot of confusion amongst the students of Hogwarts. One day a story would be going around about Y/N and James being caught snogging in a broom closet while next week people swore they saw Sirius and Y/N holding hands at breakfast! Only a few hours later a new tale would circulate about Y/N and Peter's 'hot date' in Madame Puddifoot's tea shop and who could forget the time Remus and Y/N had ditched a Quidditch match to hook up in the Hufflepuff common room? The rumours became a source of great amusement for the group, sometimes they'd even go out of their way to get caught in 'interesting' situations just to see what people would come up with next!

The only person not on board with all the hijinks and giggles was Remus, who never seemed to find the joke funny, always clamming up and resorting to silence and angry stares when someone brought it up. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed and the others tried confronting him about it but he'd just laugh it off and say it was nothing and his friends were none the wiser.

All except James that was, whose keen eyes never missed anything. He noticed all the longing glances, the badly hidden blushes, the awkward moments whenever they'd touch and his mind was reeling with ways to expose the truth.

One afternoon when the five of them were sitting underneath their usual tree out by the lake, he snapped. He'd been watching Y/N and Remus have their own little conversation as they often would when Remus had reached up to brush an eyelash from Y/N's cheek and her face had turned bright pink.

"Lads, we need to do something about this." James groaned.

Peter, who was sitting on his right watching in awe as James showed off with his golden Snitch, raised an eyebrow curiously. Sirius remained where he was, laying in the sunlight with his eyes closed and enjoying the warmth. Y/N and Remus looked up from where they sat off to the side, a little bit away from the others.

“About what?" Y/N asked.

"About you and Moony." He sighed, pocketing his Snitch.

Sirius opened one eye warily. "What's this?"

"Moony and America have the hots for each other!" James stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And they're both too cowardly to make a move, as their friends it is our duty to help them make said move."

"What the bloody hell are you on about!" Remus argued, cheeks burning. "Oh as if!" Y/N cried at the same time, blushing just as much as the boy beside her.

Sirius sat up, his full attention on James. "What makes you say that?"

"Only the fact that I've caught Y/N staring at him all the time and how Moony gets insanely jealous whenever you hit on her, it's pathetic."

"Who hired you to play matchmaker?" Sirius snickered, thoroughly enjoying the drama unfolding in front of him. "Besides, I think you need a bit more than protectiveness and random staring to convince me."

James winked at Sirius, ever the perfect sidekick, and turned his attention to Y/N, the weaker link. "America, would you care to tell the others what you told me last week?"

Y/N frowned, momentarily confused before she realised what he must be referring to. "You-I thought you were too shit-faced to remember anything!"

"I remember everything," James smirked. "Now please, repeat to the class what you said or shall I?"

Y/N glared at James threateningly. "I'm calling your bluff, Potter."

James grins and lurched to his feet, placing a hand on his forehead dramatically and putting on a falsetto voice and a horrible American accent. "Oh Prongs, I can't believe how perfect Remus is! They don't have guys like that back in the States! I'm so in love with him! Truly, madly, completely-"

"I DID NOT SAY THAT!" Y/N yelled and threw a pinecone at James' head which he dodged easily.

"And Moony, always watching America with those big green eyes." James snickered, plopping down next to Sirius and gazing at him lovingly in an imitation of Remus. "Oh Remus!" Sirius gasped, playing along while Peter fell into a fit of laughter. "I never did see a fella like you!" He sighed in a terrible imitation of an American accent. "Kiss me, Remus!"

"Oh Y/N!"

"ENOUGH!" Remus bellowed, glaring at the two boys. His face was completely red, his hands were clenched into tight fists and his eyes were fixed on James with a murderous look. "I have to go." He said, snatching his bag from the grass and storming off.

"Well, that didn't go as planned." James pouted.

"You complete and utter asshat!" Y/N snapped, pegging another pinecone at his head before running off after Remus

It didn't take long for her to find him, he'd only reached the other side of the Entrance Hall before she caught up. "Moony!" He stopped at the sound of her voice, watching as she caught her breath before speaking.

"I'm sorry for storming off, I just needed to get away before I punched Prongs in the face."

"It's fine, I nailed him with a pinecone instead."

Remus smiled for a moment before the happiness faded from his face, replaced by a look of concern and caution. "What he said back there..."

"Don't sweat it, I don't mind if people know we're into each other."

"Wha-" Remus spluttered.

"Well yeah, I mean, if we're gonna start dating they'll figure it out anyway." Y/N shrugged nonchalantly.

"But..."

"What?"

"I'm... You're so... amazing and I'm just... boring old me. You could do so much better."

"Oh please," Y/N smiled and stood up on her tiptoes to press a gentle kiss on his cheek. "You're perfect."

Masterlist

#moony #wormtail #padfoot #prongs #james #potter #harry #remus #lupin #sirius #black #peter #pettigrew #the #marauders #era #imagine #fic #fiction #fan #fanfic #fanfiction

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emperorhwangs · 7 years

Note

if you have to ship the minbooties with wanna one members (aside from minhyun) who would you ship with who and why?

AHHHHH I LOVE THESE THINGS HOHOHO *INTENSE KNUCKLE CRACKING*

this came out way too long so sorry your thumb is probably gonna be jacked as fuck

@hwangminyeo : I would probably ship Abby with Bae Jinyoung if it weren’t illegal ahahhahah because I see Abby as the glue who is capable of bringing everyone together. She was the one who reached out to me to invite me into the minbooties gc and I’m honestly so thankful because I’ve gotten to know 5 absolutely beautiful and entertaining mintrash that are able to make you feel so warm inside through just a few words over LINE that it’s unbelievable, and I’m so so thankful. She’s the type of person who is gentle, friendly, and patient enough to coax literally anyone out of their shell, and she always makes people feel included. She’s always feeding us well with Minhyun content bc she knows the Minbooties get hungry at all times of the day, so she’s really caring and sweet. I think that she’s exactly the type of person who would be able to coax Baejin out of the walls he puts up and then he’d feel so free and relaxed with her. He’s so different from his seemingly cold “deepdark” exterior and we all know he’s a sweetheart that I think would just coincide with Abby’s super relaxed and giving personality and they’d be so compatible and be able to have great times together. But if we’re going to stay with legal relationships, then I’d definitely ship Abby with Daniel. Abby takes on a lot by constantly feeding us and being selfless that she doesn’t take enough time for herself, so someone as loving/caring/lighthearted as Daniel would go perfectly with her to ease some of that stress. Daniel would undoubtedly put her needs before all else and probably has endless patience and would always be laughing at everything she does but also be super attractive at the same time like wtf. Not to mention he can be so damn RUDE and I bet abby has a secret kink for that hhoohohoho. Abby has amazing visuals that really compliment Daniel’s. While most of the Minbooties have either soft visuals or colder, elegant visuals, Abby’s visuals definitely give off a more “sexy” vibe? Sorry ABBY LOLOL PLS DONT CRINGE but Daniel is the same; he can look like a peach bunny and then BOOM he’s stroking his thigh and you’re pregnant.

@hyuncakes/ @cafewoozi : I would ship Bonnie with Jihoon (you guys are probably so wtf while reading this but hear me out). When you search the word “pure” in the dictionary, Bonnie’s picture shows up. She is incredibly perceptive and picks up on the little things you say while texting her and she always replies with such sweet, wholehearted things. I literally cannot properly describe how nice Bonnie is; she’s the type of person that seems like she would give the best hugs in the entire world. She’ll reply to messages that you’ve sent a long time ago because she’s the type of person who will always make sure you are feeling loved and validated (which everyone always wants and I appreciate you so much for it). She’s really rational, mature, and down-to-earth and basically the type of person that you’d always want to be around with because just talking to her will brighten your day. If Bonnie were a feeling, she’d be the feeling of that warm pocket of sunlight that comes through the window and hits a certain part of the room and its the perfect light to nap under because its the perfect warmth and comfort omf does this even make any sense because ?? But she doesn’t seem to see what a catch she is and Park Jihoon seems like the type of person that would be sooooooo sweet and attentive and almost overly caring for his s/o, and he would give all the love and attention Bonnie deserves. Bonnie is, imo, the mom friend who stays reasonable and can be a really calming person if you start to rage too much; just her presence is very calming? If that makes any sense lololol. She’s definitely a secret nasty as well, though, and we’ve all seen that Jihoon can be RUDE AS HELL when he wants to, and I think he could adequately quench the thiRST if ;)))))))) ykwim :))))))))))) Jihoon and Bonnie would be a really dynamic couple full of cutesy dates and lots of skinship and you’d see them on the streets together with Bonnie wearing Jihoons’ sweatshirt or smth and you’d just get that feeling of “i WANT THAT”

@minhwangs ok sarah is so DAMN thiRSTY lol but me as well i am 2nd sinner and she’s lowkey crazy too so I think I would ship her with Ong. She’s got a really bright, active personality and overall is someone that I think is really fun to be around. Not to mention, I think she would look really nice with Ong as their visual are similar to me in a way. Sarah is actually my ideal visual (lol that sounds so creepy whOOP) but I really really think that girls that have a defined, angular, and sharp facial structure are soosososso beautiful like I reALLy REALLY like Sarah’s facial structure SO MUCH it’s UNHEALTHY. Her bone structure is the LITERAL VISUAL DEFINITION OF IDEAL FACIAL STRUCTURE imo and Ong also has prominent, defined facial features. Their babies would be literal visual gods straight out the womb. I think a relationship between Ong and Sarah would be lighthearted and carefree as both of them strike me as fun-loving people. They would have a lot of great, memorable times and double as best friends, not just a couple. Ong also definitely softens for girls and I don’t have any doubt that he’ll be very cutesy with his s/o, even if he’s annoying the other 70% of the time. He’d take really good care of Sarah and put her needs first whenever it truly mattered. Because both of them are such bright and energetic people, I think they’d be able to lift eachother’s spirits in dark times. Sarah tends to give a lot; I think she’s pretty selfless from what I can tell in the messaging patterns? She responds to every message and she’s also so considerate (i was spamming a gc with her about smtm and she didn’t want to trash everyone else’s feed so she suggested a pm, which I didn’t even consider). But she also forgets to take care of herself sometimes (go to sleep, sarah!) and I know Ong would make sure to care for her. As carefree and jovial as he may seem, Ong is highly intelligent. He’d be able to properly care for her in his own weird Ong way, maybe even without her realizing he’s always looking out for her. He’d probably guise it in a joke but he’d be really just making sure that she was in the absolute best condition possible. He’d probably playfully protest at everything that Sarah suggests but he’d undoubtedly go along with everything she suggests, just to make her happy.

@2hyeons I would ship Ying with Minyeoooo~~~ Firstly on a purely superficial level, both of them have similar visuals in that they are coldly attractive, like ice. It’s a weird way to describe her, but Ying’s appearance is very elegant and sophisticated; she gives off a particular aura that Minhyun’s resting visual also gives. She’s the quietest in the group chat but she always says the absolute sweetest things and you can feel her warmth, friendliness, and kindness through her messages. Her actual personality is a contrast against her ice queen visuals because she’s so warm-hearted, which I find to be extremely similar to Minhyun. When I first saw Minhyun on pd101 (the scene where he forgot the lyrics during his reevaluations) my exact thoughts were “wow, he’s gorgeous but probably a dick” (which was SO OFF). I also think that Ying has her SHIT TOGETHER, like she has her priorities in order and is very intelligent and probably works really hard, just like Minhyun. Nu’est members chose Minhyun as their smartest member. His work ethic is incredible. He isn’t naturally a dancer (if you couldn’t tel from the iconic minbooty dance), but he slaves away so he can pull off his parts flawlessly. In the older Nu’est videos, you can pick up on his quick-witted personality that I think would balance really really well with Ying. He’s softened as he’s matured and I think he would be sosososso compatible with Ying in that he would find her intelligence endlessly attractive, as well as her dedication and work ethic. Ying is also an explosion of personality when she tumbles in; she always offers us adamant support against hateful anons and also is the same level of absolute t r a s h for the minbooty like you will 100000% catch her bein thirsty as HELL. She’d be able to make Minhyun laugh a lot with her radiant personality and humor. He’s extremely caring and selfless, so he’d watch over Ying well. Ying doesn’t acknowledge that she’s an actual empress, and Minhyun would make sure to let her know every single day. I think Ying would appreaciate Minhyun’s love for skinship and his affection (look at how he treats Ren+Seonho+Baejin) and they’d have the absolute CUTEST couple moments.

@luminous-point OK so STORYTIME: when I first entered the minbooties gc and had no idea who anyone was or what they looked like, I assumed that Reni had used a female idol that I didn’t know as her profile pic. I legitimately 1000% thought that she was an idol based off of her picture and I slowly slowly came to the realization that the picture wasn’t of an idol and was actually indeed RENI herself. I was in absolute shock and for the first week or two that I was in the gc, every time I opened it and saw her little icon I would just think “she is seriously so pretty” and be genuinely in awe. Ok anyways. I would ship Reni with Ha Sungwoon~ I noticed Sungwoon right away the very first episode of PD101 when they did that little segment on the strong visuals of the season and they showed a literal .5 second clip of his face but i was absolutely HOOKED on him since then. He was my absolute favorite visual in the first episode, and then his evaluation performance absolutely blew me away. Talent and visual = Reni. Both Reni and Sungwoon have very strong visuals that I absolutely am in love with, and both are extremely hardworking and talented. Reni is seriously sosososososso important to the minbooties and I appreciate her so much, though I’ve never told her. She’s dually very mature/level-headed yet also etremely playful/fun/bright. She slaves away subbing Nu’est content to give happiness to the fandom and pours so much and time and effort into it just for other people’s enjoyment. Whenever she encounters an issue, she approaches it in a very calm, collected manner that I really respect, and I think that Sungwoon would find it incredibly attractive. Sungwoon is extremely hardworking and imo, underrated. His performance in “Downpour” was most memorable to me, and he was also the very first person to nail the entire “Never” choreography when everyone else could barely get through the first portion and they still voted him off the team smH so both of them don’t get their hardwork acknowledged nearly enough. Reni is also WILD AF (don’t deny it) and I think Sungwoon is definitely the type that’d like that have a really really good time so they’d have really amazing, unbeatably fun dates. Sungwoon is also the type to dote on and be really really loving towards his s/o, which I think would be great for Reni. Reni is super super big sister vibes~ I wanted to EAT my own arm because of college apps and she offered to help and take time out of her own day to read over my essays and gave such amazing advice, so I want someone who I know would treat their s/o like a literally precious jewel for Reni.

#jesus fcking christ #i'm sorry i took so long to answer this anon #i wrote a little more every day bc i've been really busy #but this was fun!!#answered

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missmichellebelle · 7 years

Note

23 + victuuri :)

pillow forts & princes

23. “Let’s make a pillow fort. It’ll be great.”

lol I’m problematic trash SORRY. Yuuri is 12, Vitya is 16.

victuuri. babysitter!au. [ ao3 ] 2.1k.

send me a number and I’ll write you a thing uwu

“Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice, Victor.” Hiroko Katsuki is a warm, friendly looking woman with a kind face and a cozy home, and Victor has no idea how she and his mother are friends. Not that he knows much about their friendship—the first time he’d spoken to Mrs. Katsuki for the first time was two hours ago, when his mother had handed him the phone and claimed she finally found him a part-time job.

“Of course, Mrs. Katsuki,” he says, hoping to allay any and all worries with his charming, parent-pleasing smile. It doesn’t work on his mama anymore, but other parents aren’t generally immune.

Mrs. Katsuki is no exception.

“We normally leave him with our neighbors,” she explains as she leads Victor further into the house. “But they’re at a dinner party across town.” She let’s out a small sigh, but then her easy smile is back in place.

“I’m happy to help, Mrs. Katsuki.” Because his mama had made it clear that he had to, and that he needed to start learning some responsibility and making some money of his own. If anything, he’s incredibly lucky that this opportunity fell into his lap. What’s easier than babysitting?

“Yuuri, sweetheart?” Mrs. Katsuki calls into the seemingly empty living room, and then sighs again, cradling her face as she turns back to Victor. “He’s very quiet,” she tells him, glancing into the living room almost worriedly. “And he has a hard time with new people, so it’s best to be patient with him.”

There’s a sudden outpouring of Japanese from somewhere in the house, which Mrs. Katsuki answers. She seems antsy, suddenly, and then bustles into the living room. She makes it about halfway to the couch before she realizes that Victor is simply watching her from the archway, and then gestures him to follow.

When she stops again, she’s putting her hand on a strangely shaped, blanket covered lump that Victor quite quickly realizes is the boy he’s supposed to be babysitting.

“Yuuri…” she hums softly, pulling the blanket down, and he fights her momentarily for his hiding place before she says something else in Japanese and he slumps, giving up. Victor wonders if this is how his friends feel when they’re over and him and his mama start talking back and forth in rapid fire Russian.

It’s surprisingly annoying.

Mrs. Katsuki continues to speak in low, affectionate tones, and Victor hears his name several times, and Yuuri’s name several times, but otherwise can’t really make heads or tales of what’s being said. Does Yuuri speak English? It’s going to be a really long night if he doesn’t.

Yuuri looks up at Victor suddenly, brown eyes large behind his glasses, and Victor lights up with a friendly smile that… Sends Yuuri quickly hiding again. Okay. Another tactic maybe?

“We should be back by 10,” Mrs. Katsuki says, standing up straight again. “Yuuri will go to bed when he’s tired, so don’t worry about it.” She chuckles quietly to herself, as if at some inside joke. “And there are bentos in the kitchen if you boys get hungry. Yuuri can show you where.” With that, she gives her son a kiss on his messy hair, pats Victor’s arm, and is off.

Victor stands there as he listens to the door close and lock, unsure exactly what to do next. He knows Yuuri is twelve—which, frankly, seems a little old for a babysitter, but at least Victor doesn’t have to worry about diapers—but isn’t quite sure what 12-year-old boys like to do. He wasn’t exactly the standard.

“Ah, Yuuri—” He starts, only to see that the boy has covered himself in a blanket again, and is breathing so carefully that it almost looks like he isn’t there. Mrs. Katsuki had said that he wasn’t good with new people, but Victor didn’t think it would be quite this… Extreme.

He taps his finger to his lips, walking around the couch, and sitting near where Yuuri’s feet must be. The sudden jostle of the cushions makes Yuuri jump slightly.

“This might seem silly, but… What’s a bento?”

There’s a small, surprised sounding laugh from beneath the blanket, and when Victor glances over, those eyes are watching him again.

“Is it some kind of fish?” Victor tries, when all Yuuri does is continue to stare at him, and this time he’s greeted with the appearance of a nose that scrunches up in amusement. He leans over and grabs what he believes is an ankle, drawing out a startled noise as he shakes it. “Is that a yes?”

Then there’s a mouth, lips pressed together as if holding in a laugh, and Yuuri shakes his head back and forth quickly.

“Not a fish…” Victor hums contemplatively, fingertip pressed to his bottom lip. “A dessert, maybe? A cake?” His eyes light up, and this time, this time, Yuuri snorts out a little laugh, and Victor feels a tug on his heart.

Dear lord, this little boy is adorable.

“It’s…” Yuuri finally says, and thank god, he speaks English. His eyebrows pinch together. “It’s like a lunchbox?” Yuuri tries, his voice quiet, each word carefully and thoughtfully selected.

“A lunchbox?” Victor tries to imagine it, but can only imagine those vintage tin boxes with the handle. He has a feeling that isn’t quite what Yuuri means, though.

When he looks back at him, Yuuri is staring at him quite openly, eyes round and curious, and Victor smiles.

“You’re very small for a 12-year-old,” Victor says, and watches as the boy pales and… Immediately dives back under his blanket. Oh. Perhaps that was a little untactful to say? “Yuuri,” he coos, shaking the boy by his ankle again. “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. It was just an observation.”

Yuuri mumbles something under the blanket, and Victor is highly certain it was in Japanese. He almost wants to start speaking in Russian, just to retaliate.

“Come, do something fun with me.” He wiggles his leg again. His mama has told him that he is persistent to a fault, and he always wears everyone down, in the end. Something fun, though… He should have explored more first. He doubts Yuuri will be very forthcoming with what kind of games they have, or even what he likes to do. Victor frowns thoughtfully, staring at the blanket keeping Yuuri from view when an idea hits him suddenly.

“Oh, Yuuri, I know!” He shakes Yuuri with much more enthusiasm, and manages to draw an annoyed sound from the lump. “Let’s make a pillow fort.” He leans slightly closer. “It’ll be great.”

Victor can’t even remember the last time he made a fort. His mama had not been a fan of them, but that really hadn’t stopped him. He’d once made one so grand and marvelous in his bedroom that he’d kept it up for an entire week.

“But I’ll need your help,” Victor continues, and is met with a mumbled noise that might be a why? “Well pillow forts are no fun on your own. Besides, I don’t know where to find any pillows.”

For a second, it seems like Yuuri isn’t interested. He makes no noise or movement, and Victor starts accepting that his entire evening will be sitting beside a breathing blanket who hopefully won’t mind if he watches TV.

But then Yuuri is slowly pulling the blanket down, eyes shining with interest, and gives a small smile and a very, very quiet, “Okay.”

Between Victor’s height and Yuuri’s apparently expert eye for pillow forts, they create a rather impressive structure. The Katsukis have an alarming amount of linens, and Yuuri has to make Victor promise up and down that they will refold everything and put it back where they found it. If Victor wasn’t 16, he would adopt this child.

When they’ve finished rearranging furniture and weighing down blankets with coffee table books, Victor encourages Yuuri to go inside and promises that he’ll be right behind him. When he crawls inside minutes later, the light is dimmed and colored purple and green through the blankets, and he’s carrying two wooden boxes and a piece of foil.

“You found the bento,” Yuuri says, sounding slightly surprised.

“Oh. Good.” Victor grins. “I wasn’t certain.” He sets them down, and then folds his knees as best he can in the small space. The entire area is cushioned in pillows, and it feels almost like some sort of lavish, royal sitting area.

“What’s that?” Yuuri crawls a little closer, and his cheeks are flushed from all the running around they’d done building the fort. Victor was actually a little surprised by how much effort they both put into it, having to go so far as to twist all his hair up into a bun halfway through the process.

“Well, I’d say we made a pillow castle more than a pillow fort.” Victor makes himself sound impressed, and is a little surprised by how genuine it feels. “And a castle needs a prince.”

“Like you?” Yuuri asks, voice slightly quieter, and Victor pauses where he’s twisting the piece of foil into a ring and stares at Yuuri in surprise.

“Oh, no,” Victor continues, smiling gently as he shapes the foil further. “I am but a humble servant.” He surveys his handy work, and then sets it very gently on Yuuri’s head. Yuuri blinks at him in shock, and Victor presses a palm to his shoulder and dips into a clumsy bow. “My prince.”

He expects a laugh, or maybe a shove, but what he gets in return is a very embarrassed Yuuri, curled into a ball and not looking at Victor at all, almost like…

Oh. Oh. How terribly, horrendously sweet. Victor wants to pull the small boy closer, ask him everything about what he’s feeling and thinking, but figures that might be a bit… Much, right not. Or even a bit out of place.

Maybe later, if Yuuri ever feels comfortable enough to come to him about it.

“What would you like to do, my prince?” Victor continues, keeping up the act, and Yuuri blushes even harder, pressing his face into his arms and shaking his head. But he does say something, although Victor doesn’t catch it. “What was that?” He leans closer, and Yuuri squeaks.

“W-we could read?” He suggests, and Victor is slightly surprised. On his mental list of things 12-year-old boys like to do, reading hadn’t even occurred to him.

“Of course. What would you like to read?”

They end up with The Princess Bride, switching off who reads the story of Westley and Buttercup out loud as they eat their bentos (which are delicious, and Victor wonders if Mrs. Katsuki will teach him how to make one).

At one point, Yuuri stops for a moment, hesitantly touching the crown still resting on his head, and says, “I’m too old to have a babysitter.”

It seems out of nowhere, and Victor has to swallow down a mouthful of rice before he can say anything. Yuuri beats him to it.

“My sister left for college last year,” Yuuri continues, voice still quiet, hesitant, and Victor is almost scared to breathe, like maybe the force of an exhale will break Yuuri’s sudden courage. “I… I’ve never been on my own, and my parents were…” He scrunches his nose. “Are worried.” He looks deflated, and embarrassed, but doesn’t rush to push his parents’ worries away.

“Well.” Victor is sure to keep his voice just as low and quiet as Yuuri’s own. “Maybe we could just be friends, then.”

Yuuri looks at him, seemingly still surprised by every other word out of Victor’s mouth.

It’s wonderfully endearing.

“Really?”

“Really.” If it makes Yuuri happier, Victor has no problem calling him a friend. Even if he is a friend that Victor will periodically be paid to hang out with. “If you would be friends with a lowly servant, of course.”

And, for the first time that night, despite whatever voices Victor had inflected while reading, or whatever exaggerated things he had done while building the fort, Yuuri laughs, all the way from his stomach, and Victor can’t help but think it’s a good look on the young boy.

He hasn’t even hit puberty yet, but Victor can almost assure that it’ll hit him like a freight train when it does.

“I would love to be your friend, Victor.”

When the Katsukis get home several hours later, they find both Yuuri and Victor asleep in the fort, Yuuri’s crown thrown aside and his cheek pillowed on Victor’s arm. Rather than wake them, Hiroko carefully covers them with blankets, cleans up the empty bentos, and calls Victor’s mother to let her know he’ll be staying over. After all, it would be a shame to wake them.

#victuuri #victuuriwriters #yoi #yuri on ice #lubellamy #asks in a box #words by michelle #victuuri*#ficlet: victuuri #fluff*#babysitter!au #i just #pillow forts #babysitters #it seemed like a good correlation okay

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serensama · 7 years

Text

To Date #6

EMO CUPCAKE IT’S GONNA BE OK! JUST BREATHE SAERAN… The date will be over soon O_O

*Also in my universe V is always around. Always. Because… it’s V.

Saeran:

- What do you mean he had to take MC out on a date?

- Weren’t they already a couple? Why did they need to go out and prove it to the world?

- HAS LITERALLY NEVER HAD A PARTNER BEFORE HOW WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW?

- He chose MC, she chose him = end of story

- End of story + ice cream = super happy ending?

- NO?

- NO

- Damn it.

- Gathering what little pride he had, he dragged himself to his brother’s room where he and Yoosung were raiding in LOLOL, Saeyoung laughing maniacally and Yoosung swearing like a drunken sailor

- “Yo! Baby brother what can I do for you? Wha-Yoosung! What the hell?! We’re on the same team!”

“It was friendly fire”

“You came up and decapitated me”

“… But I did it as nicely as possible”

- Saeran rolled his eyes and went to walk back out, not understanding why he thought it was a good idea to come to them for advice in the first place.

- Saeyoung quit the game much to the horror of Yoosung and the rest of his group to chase after his brother. Yoosung begrudgingly apologised to the guild saying something important had come up and that they’d be back later.

- “Forget it,” Saeran barked to a hovering Saeyoung, “-it’s not important! I just came in to see you guys.”

- Saeyoung knew he was lying because he refused to meet his eyes.

- Then Yoosung started in on “Come on let us help!” and between the two of them Saeran couldn’t get a word in edgewise before he screamed out “FINE! WHAT DO I DO FOR MY FIRST DATE WITH MC?”

- Yoosung and Saeyoung suddenly grew hearts within their eyes as they rubbed their cheeks together and clasped hands

“Oh my baby has grown up”

“Shut up”

“Hyung Saeran has become a man”

“…Like you’re one to talk”

“Do you know where babies come from?”

“Seriously?”

“I don’t.”

“That’s no surprise Yoosung”

“Wait… so, no one is going to tell me!?”

- Sitting down the boys try to tell Saeran how most girls like to go out to eat and perhaps watch a movie or a show… seeing as MC was from the same social circles as Jumin and V she probably enjoyed 5 star restaurants and operas… fancy things fit for a Princess… and she was his Princess right?

- Growling as he skimmed his hand over his face he allowed the boys to tell him where the best restaurants in town were, what he should wear and how he should act: i.e.… be everything that wasn’t him. He didn’t do polite conversation. He barely did conversation. Grunts. Grunts and psychotic laughter was kind of his thing.

- MC liked it anyways.

- He called her and asked her out which surprised her to no end, feeling like an idiot he ended up snarling, “Well didja wanna go or not?” which resulted in her chuckling and agreeing. Of course, she would love to go out with him!

- Borrowing one of his brother’s babies (“If there’s so much as one scratch or one suspect stain in her leather Saeran!!!”) he sped off to pick up MC.

- She was already waiting on the street looking ridiculously ravishing in a light pink dress that matched his hair… did she wear that to match him? That would be… really sweet actually

- Leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek and wiping off the lipstick that marked him (not that he minded) MC happily greeted her boyfriend

- It took a minute before she really saw the effort he went to. Hair quaffed to perfection (thanks to Zen rushing over to make sure he wasn’t going to attack MC during the date- who was then horrified to see the state of his hair as he was about to step out the door), his dark blue suit courtesy of Jumin who had one of his tailors bring something suitable for the date… not one buckle in sight, not one choker…

- It wasn’t that she didn’t like the new look, MC thought he looked incredibly dapper and handsome… but she always thought that about him no matter what he wore, still, she smiled and tried to ease his obvious discomfort by saying how amazing he looked.

- Some tension leaving his countenance Saeran drove off to get to the most exclusive restaurant that needed MONTHS to get a booking- though thanks to V they got one at the last minute (he provided the photography that graced their walls as décor, he always got a seat whenever he wanted).

- He may or may not have accidentally threatened the valet driver instead of tipping him… old habits die hard

- Offering his arm to MC who looked utterly shocked at his showing of manners he didn’t know whether to be offended or amused (definitely… amused, he wasn’t always the most courteous of people and often came off as brusque even to the woman he loved).

- Sitting down he looked around at the place. It was pretty- he guessed. The place looked nice, the staff looked nice, the food looked nice… god even the air smelt nice.

- He hated it.

- He was ridiculously uncomfortable there. People bowing and calling him “Sir”, people pulling out chairs for him like he was an idiot… people looking at him knowing that he didn’t belong in a place like this with a girl like MC. Like he was trash… he’d felt that way all his life he didn’t need to be reminded of it in a place where he was paying for everything.

- The waiter handed them the menu and Saeran opened up the menu and saw that it was all in French… because of course it was… and inwardly groaned.

- The waiter came back and started speaking with MC who gave her order succinctly and then realised that Saeran may have had no idea what he was looking at… with a hand over her mouth denoting her shame she asked if needed a few more minutes to choose…

- “We have the menu in Korean if that would assist you… Sir”

- Bitch. No, you didn’t.

- Squinting his cerulean eyes at the arrogant penguin order taker, Saeran proceeded to order his entire meal and the proper accompanying wine in fluent French. Saeyoung wasn’t the only Choi with a penchant for learning languages.

- Blushing before bowing, the waiter left the two to their own devices.

- MC could see that Saeran was putting on a front for her sake, (not that he had to she loved him for being him- not what he thought she wanted him to be)… she just didn’t want to waste all the effort he had obviously gone through for her sake.

- Their meal came along and it was the tiniest effing thing he had ever seen in his life. Like seriously. He was paying $100 for a piece of meat that was half the size of his palm. What the hell was wrong with rich people?

- As they were about to order dessert he overheard a couple to the far right of them making snooty comments about him and how far had MC fallen to be with someone like him- and oooooh god normally he’d let them have it, but it was their first date and everyone explicitly told him to be on his best behaviour and not embarrass MC by getting into any fights…

- “Who the hell do you think you are? Do you know him? Do you know what he means to me? Do you even know who I am apart from what my bank account says? You all disgust me!” MC spat her face contorted with rage.

- She was making a scene; the entire restaurant was paralysed and shocked.

- “Come on Saeran, let’s leave this shit hole, their steak was over cooked anyways and the clientele here leave much to be desired for.”

- His mouth was a little dry from drooling at how hot his girlfriend was when she defended him.

- Wiping his mouth with his napkin before folding it neatly on the table, he sat up and offered his arm to her again. As they turned to leave, just before they stepped off the dining floor, he flipped them all off from behind him and yelled out, “Later jackasses!”

- He finally tipped the valet driver, the only nice person in the restaurant.

- MC was silent throughout the car ride home, her anger palpable. Saeran was disappointed that it couldn’t be like the dates she was used to; he’d have to try harder next time… maybe if he dyed his hair back to its normal red he wouldn’t look like such a punk…

- About ¾ of the way home MC perked up and slapped at his arm for him to pull over.

- It was just a typical run of the mill 24-hour diner where they served the greasiest food perfect after a night on the town… or after an overpriced meal that left them starving.

- They ran into the diner and it was dive, the leather of the booths torn and patched up with duct tape, the floor tiles were streaked with sneaker marks and chipped and the décor so mismatched and hideous he didn’t know what their theme was.

- He loved it.

- Even if it was a shonky looking place it was clean and it was busy so it mustn’t be a terrible place to eat.

- Sliding (squeaking) along the last empty booth in the corner the regulars of the diner looked at MC as if she was the outsider but she didn’t seem to notice or care, her eyes only focused on Saeran. She was doing this for him, he might not know everything about dating or wines or suits but he knew MC- she was a good person and this was her way of salvaging their date.

- They laughed and poked fun at their disaster of an evening, mimicking the confounded expressions of the people as MC insulted them causing them to burst out in breathless laughter- the others in the diner smiling at the cute couple… they were so dressed up surely they came from a Prom or something?

- When Saeran’s order of a chocolate sundae came out along with MC’s giant order of fries, they both sat and ate in silence- Saeran not protesting whenever MC would dip her salty fries into his sweet dessert.

- Really… why did he even bother asking those idiots in the first place? He knew MC better than anyone… and they had already chosen each other… the first date was just an excuse for ice cream.

#mystic messenger #mysme #mysmes #mystic messenger head cannon #mystic messenger fanfic #saeran #unknown #saeran x mc #mc #date

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