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the-firebender-girl · 4 years

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Thick As Thieves (Zuko x Reader)

-> In which Azula got her redemption arc and gets to be the cool aunt.

Zuko has been equally dreading and anticipating this day for months. The day his sister will finally be released from the asylum on a nearby island. She was continuously monitored and deemed stable now, safe enough to roam free again and insert herself back to society. His last encounter with her a few years back wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience so he doesn’t know what to expect now, will it go awry again? or has she really turned a new leaf? guess he’ll find out sooner than later.

His worries extend far beyond his own discomfort of facing his deranged and misguided sister because he also has others to worry about, he’s got his own family now. A wife, a daughter, and a son. His wife had briefly met Azula when she tagged along with him at one of his visits but he can’t say the same for the younglings. Izumi and Isao, the new beloved princess and prince of the Fire Nation, his pride and joy.

Being a father suprisingly comes natural to him despite his dreadful childhood and having no father figure to look up to. He learnt a lot from watching Hakoda though, he owed that man a lot. Especially now that the closest thing that he has to a father is gone. Uncle Iroh decided that he had done all he could in the material world and chose to ascend to the Spirit World, leaving his mortal body behind and letting his soul make a new home there.

It was a decision that Zuko supports wholeheartedly, but still sometimes he wishes that Iroh is still around to guide him with his wisdom. Now he has this world of ruling and fatherhood that he has to navigate on his own, hoping that he won’t mess it up.

“Love, are you ready?” Y/N’s gentle voice broken his train of thoughts, pulling him back into the real world.

“Yeah... just thinking about... things” He replied lamely, reaching out for her hand which she gives. He always love playing around with her fingers, the contact brings him comfort.

“Don’t get lost in your head too much, okay?” She said, giving him a tender smile.

He stares back at the love of his life appreciatively and gives her a sure nod.

“I just... I don’t know how to feel, it’s like i’m scared of expecting anything if it’ll just put myself up for a disappointment. You know how much of a wildcard she is” Zuko said timidly, looking small and more vulnerable than he has been for years.

“I know Zuko, this must be soo confusing for you, i’m scared too but we’re in this together right? I’ll be with you every step of the way” Y/N assure him, trying to subdue his worries as much as she could. Rubbing comforting touches at his shoulder.

“Spirits, Y/N. What did I ever do to deserve you?” He leaned his head back a bit so that he can nuzzle it into her stomach.

She hums, “I don’t know, you must be a hero or something with what a great catch I am” She grins teasingly, easing up the tension.

She considers it as a triumph when her husband lets out a scoff of disbelief, “Woman you are unbelieveable” Shaking his head at her.

“Part of the charm, love”

To that he can’t help but burst out laughing.

Oh the married life.

———————————————————————

Azula stood on her own two feet, no longer bounded by straitjacket nor in a wheelchair. She stood as a free woman now. She wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘free and changed woman’ because some things just scarred too deep too remove but the therapies she undergo definitely did some good. So was the time she spent away from the capital and from the expectations she used to bear.

Now she stands face to face with Zuko, all out in his Fire Lord regalia. It suits him, not that she would admit that out loud, her pride is still very much intact after all.

“Should I bow to you now?” Her voice sends a cold chill running through Zuko, despite being locked away it seems that his sister managed to keep the bite in her.

“According to formalities you should, but no” He replied, feigning indifferent.

“Whatever you say, Fire Lord Zuzu”

Zuko’s composure cracks at the sound of his childhood nickname combined with what is now his title, one of his eyes twitching in annoyance. From his peripheral vision, he saw Y/N raising one of her hands in front of her mouth to hide her growing smile and a laugh that threatens to escape.

Even the guards who are standing by and thus being a part of this reunion seems to have trouble doing their part after witnessing this exchange. The sound of giggling little voices reaches his ears, at this he softens and put his hands on Izumi and Isao’s shoulder.

“Now who might these be?” Azula said as she redirects her line of vision to the source of noise, raising both of her eyebrows expectantly.

“This is my children, Izumi my eldest....” Zuko said while patting her head lovingly then he moves to do the same to his son, “And Isao, her younger brother”

Azula’s eyes roamed over them, taking in every features as if sizing them up, then she stops when she reaches their faces. Molten gold meets its exact pair, a courtesy of the royal family (superior) gene pool if she say so herself. That eye color might as well be their trademark after all.

“Well hello there little ones, i’m Aunty Azula” She said as she carefully took a step closer towards them. The guards almost block her away but Zuko raised his hand to signal them to be at ease and let her pass.

Izumi shrinks back, scared but at awe at the same time at her aunt’s cat-like movement. It’s soo smooth she looks like she is gliding across the floor and now she’s in front of them in no time. She may be 7 but she’s old enough to understand things, things that she heard people say in a whispers about her aunt whom she never met before. And that is enough to make her reluctant.

Izumi looked to her right at her little brother but Isao doesn’t show the slightest hint of being unfazed. In fact he looks intrigued.

There was a small awkward silence moment before a huge grin bloomed on Isao’s face, making his puffy cheeks even more prominent.

“Hey there aunty! i’m sooo pumped to meet you” He said innocently, excitement oozing from his very being.

Azula is caught off guard by such a welcoming reaction, this is not something that she expected at all. She never even realized her inadequacy in dealing with children until she’s finally forced to face one. What’s the first thing that she should even do? feed them flaming fire flakes? use them as target practice? Agni, Zuzu better not do anything stupid like leaving her with any of them.

Y/N watched as her sister in law seems to be frozen in place, looking at her son as if he’s an alien being. Who knew that the great Azula will one day be stupefied at a mere interaction with a 4 years old child? well the more you know.

“Sooo... lunch, anyone?” Y/N said, a pathetic attempt to break the ice.

Azula just walked past them without a second glance. Making her way inside the palace that she once called home, with Isao tailing behind. Small feet attempting to catch up to her long strides. Zuko and Y/N shared a glance at each other, to which he just shrugs and they too follow after her.

———————————————————————

A week has passed since she came back and Azula is adjusting pretty nicely, well people still cower at the sight of her and most of them stay as far as they can but not that she mind that.

Well everyone except this little bugger called Isao aka his brother’s second spawn. He loves following her around and looking at her with those annoying big round eyes, think that would work on her too huh? too bad she hates children. He really doesn’t know what’s good for him.

Tonight they’re having a family dinner. To formally celebrate her coming back or whatever. At least the food is good. The mouth-watering scent of smoked sea slug, roast duck, komodo sausages, extra spicy fire noodles, and fruit tart filled the air. It’s starting to look more and more like a feast instead of a nice and quiet family dinner. Trust her brother to always make a spectacle out of everything.

Azula was minding her own business, scooping bits of this and that into her plate when the empty chair beside her got dragged back by a pair of small hands. Isao’s round face greeted her as she watches his sorry attempt at climbing the chair. Grumbling, she picks him up and put him securely on top of it before he hits his head on the side of the table or something.

“Thanks Aunty Azula!” He said, giving her his signature wide grin.

“Ughh whatever kiddo”

Azula turns her attention towards the head of the table where Zuko and Y/N are currently sitting, haven’t yet realized that their son has disappeared from his designated chair.

Azula clears her throat, that successfully got their attention.

“Zuko, Y/N would you mind giving some help over here? it’s trying to bond again” A hint of awkwardness creeps into her voice, face scrunching, she’s even shifting left and right in her seat.

Y/N rolls her eyes, “It’s got a name, Azula and he’s your nephew so play nice”

“B-but....” Before she could voice her protest, the couple has already turned their attention away.

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, Isao’s curious stares burning into her.

Once she opens her eyes again, the boy is already stuffing his mouth full of sausages.

“I guess i’m stuck with you then” She said defeatedly as she watches him happily munching his food down.

———————————————————————

“You know you look exactly like your father when he was little” Azula said to the boy whom she’s babysitting, it pains her to even think about this. What were Zuko and Y/N even thinking when they decided that leaving their son to her care for the day is the best idea. Does she look like she’ll make a good nanny? Spirits, the audacity.

This carbon copy of Zuko is currently sitting beside the pond, with two little feets dangling in the water, creating small ripples here and there. The turtle ducks happily swam around him, waiting for him to throw in another good measure of breadcrumbs.

“Yeah I know that! Grandfather Iroh used to say that a lot” He said to which Azula scoffed and tsked under her breath, “Grandfather Iroh”

“Of course of course....” She said while lazily drawing patterns on the grass, “Good ‘ol Grandfather Iroh”

Isao stops his feeding session and crawled to where Azula is sitting.

“Do you know that my name means ‘honor’ or ‘meritorious’ ? How cool is that huh!? father picked that out himself” He said, wide eyed. Visibly bouncing in his seat while giving her this piece of information.

Azula lets out an incredulous chuckle as she shakes her head, “Of course Zuzu would choose something like that as a name, your father was obsessed with his honor” Drawling out the word obsessed to make her point clear.

“But I think it suits you, little one. So there’s that” She said giving him a shrug. That earned her a smile and Isao makes an exaggerated air fist pump, clearly pleased.

Azula reached out for the picnic basket that Y/N has earlier prepared for them, taking out the wrapped mochi and some tea. She then gives it to Isao, right on time as she hears his stomach rumble.

“Hungry are we? the mochi looks delicious but too bad the tea is already cold”

“Not to worry about that Aunty Azula! I got a little trick I can show you”

Imagine her surprise when fire sparks out of his fingertips, dancing on the bottom of the teapot, warming it quickly to a nice temperature.

“What?!?! how did you do that?” She said still pretty much in shock, watching as the fire slowly dies down.

“I once watched Grandfather Iroh do it, I haven’t figured out how then but now I can do it on command”

This boy really has no idea that he just executed a firebending trick perfectly didn’t he? warming up tea is a complicated form of art, it has to be done perfectly for the leaves and spices to fully release its essence. Such a raw talent in someone so young.

Come to think of it, even if he knows, he wouldn’t have thought about it too much nor dwell on it. If Azula got it right, Zuko’s eldest is a non-bender so Isao most likely or not has no experience in watching a firebending training.

“Kiddo, you can firebend? is there any other tricks that you can do?” Azula asked in an encouraging tone, this attitude is unusual coming from her but even she can’t deny that she has developed a soft spot for her nephew.

“I can create little fire here and there or warm myself up if I needed to but that’s all” Isao replied, looking her straight in the eye.

Azula hums as the gears in her brain is starting to turn, “Would you like me to teach you some things?”

Isao jumps up and down in excitement, this is all soo exciting! he is actually bonding with his aunt.

What an interesting turn of event indeed.

———————————————————————

They are in the middle of a rather pleasant dinner that night when Azula decided to break the news to her brother and sister in law.

“Do any of you know that your son is a firebender?”

The reaction that she earned is priceless, Zuko starts choking on his food whereas Y/N’s jaw dropped open, mouth forming a perfect O-shape.

“He hasn’t shown any sign of firebending abilities, we thought he’s a non-bender like his sister” Y/N answers for her husband because Zuko is still trying to clear up his air pipe.

“Firecracker, why don’t you show the trick that I taught you earlier?” Azula said to Isao, beckoning him with her fingers.

He excitedly nodded and turns to face his parents. He took a deep breath and concentrate, sparks of fire lights up from his fingertips. Slowly he guides the fire into forming a small circle in front of him, the circle then starts to take shape into a dragon, a fire dragon.

Y/N gasps as the shape becomes more and more prominent, flying across the dining hall but never too hot to burn anything. It’s an incredible thing to watch, she is indeed a proud mother. Even Izumi is enjoying the show, her eyes following the dragon’s every movement. Zuko is at loss for words, he can’t believe that his 4 years old son not only can firebend, but he’s damn good at it too. Azula may have discovered his potentials, but of course it’s up to him to mastered it.

Isao can only holds the form for 5 minutes before the fire burns out, after all he’s still young and has a lot more to learn, but that display is enough to make everyone clap their hands.

“Firecracker, you are marvelous! told you they’ll love it” Azula said as she moved one of her hands to tussle his hair teasingly.

Both Zuko and Y/N rushed from their seats to engulf Isao in a hug, Y/N peppering little kisses all over his face, meanwhile Zuko looks as if he’s high on cactus juice.

“Father, mother...stop....I can’t breathe” Little Isao complaints as he attempts to break free.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Y/N said as she bends her knees so that she can be at head level with her son.

“I want to do it right, mother. That’s why I learned some new tricks first before I showed it to you. I don’t want to accidently burn something” Isao replied.

“And you will do it right, son. I’ll make sure of it” Zuko said as he gaze at his son fondly.

“Yeah! you’ll be a great firebender, brother” Izumi joins in and smiles encouragingly.

Azula can’t help the small smile that tugs at her lips. This is a scene that she and the palace walls never got to witness before, a loving and supportive family. Zuko has done it right.

———————————————————————

That night as Azula makes her way down the corridor of the Royal Wing and passes by Isao’s slightly ajar bedroom door, she can’t help but sneak a peek.

The little boy is being tucked to bed by his mother, Y/N who sensed the presence of someone else turns her head around and gives her a small smile.

“Would you like to wish him goodnight, Azula?” Y/N asks her, inviting her in with a nod.

Azula nodded back and let herself in, meanwhile Y/N stands up and gives Isao a kiss to his forehead, “Sleep well my little prince” Azula can hear her whispers the word softly.

After that Y/N walks out of the room. Azula took a few steps closer to the bed and sit at the edge. Hands rubbing comforting circles at his blanket-covered feet.

“You know you’re literally a mini Zuko but I like you much much better than him, firecracker” Azula said in a teasing tone.

“I’m glad you think so Aunty Azula because I like you too! people said you’re scary but I don’t see it, I think you’re a nice person”

Isao’s words got Azula holding back a choked sob, her eyes starting to get watery. No one had ever told her that she’s a nice person. People just see her as this monster, even her own mother.

Coming back here was a hard thing for her to do, she never had a home anyway or anyone to come back to. That does not comes as a surprise to her of course, her family is as dysfunctional as they come anyway. But this little firecracker proved her wrong. Maybe she too deserves to belong somewhere after all she’s been through.

Azula gives him a smile and a kiss to his head, “Sleep well, firecracker” to which she got a “Goodnight Aunty Azula” back as a reply.

As Azula steps out of the room and closes the door slowly, she turns around and came straight in contact with Zuko, nearly tumbling to the floor.

“Why you..” Azula started before Zuko puts a finger in front of his mouth in a shushing motion, reminding her not to wake up Isao.

Zuko made a motion for her to follow him and she did, they walk side by side along the hallway.

“He’s really fond of you, you know” He said, staring straight forward.

“Agni knows why, but despite him being your son he is actually.... tolerable” Azula said curtly.

“You know you should learn to express yourself better, sister. Some emotions won’t hurt you”

“Are you just gonna lecture me or is there a point to this conversation?”

“Fine, fine” Zuko said as he rolls his eyes in a childish manner, “Will you be Isao’s firebending teacher?”

Azula stopped on spot, “Did I just misheard you or do you actually trust me enough to train your son?”

“Hey, you’re a great firebender! no one can deny that. I can’t think of anyone better to be his master, your moral compass might be crooked but that’s what me and Y/N are here for, right” At this he earned an elbow shoved to his chest.

“You don’t have to be so abusive you know” He mutters.

Azula gives him a grin, satisfied that she caused him a slight pain.

“I’ll teach him, not because you asked me to, but because I genuinely wants him to be even greater. He’s got potentials, Zuko” Azula said, more serious than Zuko has ever heard her.

“Yeah I know that, he’s a great kid”

Azula and Zuko look at each other, sharing a silent understanding, and gave each other a nod.

Zuko reaches a hand out for her to shake, “Truce?”

With no hesitation, she reaches out her own hand and take it, “Truce.”

They both then part ways but before Azula turns around the corner, Zuko speak up again.

“Hey, Azula?”

She turns around and raised one of her eyebrow, silently asking him what.

“I’m glad you’re here.... welcome home” Zuko said, giving her a small smile before he turns around and walk to his chamber.

Azula stood in that same spot even after Zuko’s silhouette has disappeared. Contemplating to herself, before letting out a sigh and a smile that is actually meant for her brother despite him not being able to see it.

“I’m glad that i’m here too, brother.”

———————————————————————

A/N : I’m a sucker for Azula’s redemption arc so I can’t resist myself from writing this one. What do you think about it? would like to hear more from all of you darlings ♥️

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fieryanmitsu · 3 years

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Intertwined Roots | ch. 10 - “colours” | A3! AU

Ahhh!! It’s been a loooong time since I updated Intertwined Roots, but I’m happy to be back!!

Now that things have died down with my fanzine projects, and work has calmed down (for now…), I’m really hoping to get back to writing regularly!!

Anyway, I’ve had the idea for this chapter in my head for a long time now so I’m excited to finally get this out! Hope you’ll enjoy!!

Tag List: @godlyazami @astryia

((I know it’s hard to track new posts on Tumblr, so if anyone wants to be on my tag list for this fic for updates, just let me know!! If you don’t want to be on the tag list anymore, just let me know as well! No pressure! 🙂))

“Intertwined Roots” is an A3! alternate universe series where Izumi, Itaru, Tsumugi and Tasuku grow up as childhood friends.

For the summary, background and notes about the “Intertwined Roots” universe, along with more chapters, please refer to the “Intertwined Roots” Masterpost.

Masterpost for my other fanfiction: here

AO3: Link in my Blog Menu!

INTERTWINED ROOTS – ch. 10

“colours” | summer | Tsumugi (age 7), Tasuku (age 6), Itaru (age 6) & Izumi (age 6)

“Hey, hey, what are we playing today?” Itaru asked. The four of them were currently gathered in Tasuku’s backyard.

“Since we’re all here, let’s play Robotranger!” Tasuku replied.

Itaru’s eyes lit up immediately. Both he and Tasuku were huge Robotranger fans. Tsumugi and Izumi didn’t watch as religiously as the other two, but had no objections.

“So, what colours are we gonna be?” Itaru prodded.

“I’m gonna be Black!” Tasuku exclaimed. “It’s the coolest colour.”

“Ummm, I guess I’ll be Blue?” Tsumugi replied after some thought.

“Taru, do you wanna be Red, Green or Yellow?” Tasuku asked, listing the remaining colours he could think of.

“I don’t wanna be the leader, so I’ll be Yellow,” Itaru answered.

“Oooh, then I’ll be—” Izumi started to say excitedly but was interrupted by Tasuku.

“Then, Zumi can be Pink.”

“WHAT?!” Izumi exclaimed indignantly, her cheeks flushing. “NO! I wanna be Red!”

Tasuku looked at her like she’d grown a second head.

“You’re a girl, so you’re Pink.”

“No way—that’s stupid! Red’s my favourite colour! I wanna be Red!!” Izumi huffed.

“Red’s the leader! You’re not a leader!” Tasuku retorted with a snort, crossing his arms.

“Nuh-uh! I am SO a leader!” she yelled back, glaring at the taller boy, her chin jutted out stubbornly. “Right, Taru?!”

“Yeah,” Itaru responded without hesitation. It was questionable if he actually meant what he said, but Izumi either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“SEE?!”

“Stop agreeing with her all the time!” Tasuku snapped. Itaru just shrugged in response. He had an older sister—he knew where to pick his battles.

“C’mon, Tachan, why does it matter? No one else is Red, anyway,” Tsumugi said, trying to mediate. “Let’s just play.”

“Ugh, fine, whatever.”

“YAAAAY!”

“So, what’re we gonna do?” Tsumugi asked now that they’d settled their colour assignment.

“Hmmm, we’re about to meet up ‘cause we just got a signal on our bracelets that there’s danger!” Tasuku responded, shoving his arm out and tapping a spot on his wrist, pretending that there was a special bracelet there. “See, it’s flashing.”

The others nodded and fell into their roles.

“HEY! Black, you’re late!” Izumi immediately exclaimed.

“What?! I’m not late!” Tasuku retorted angrily.

“Yes, you are! You’re five seconds late! So, that means you’re late!”

“That’s not late at all! What about Yellow?! He’s behind me, so isn’t he late, too?!” Tasuku demanded, pointing at Itaru, who was several steps behind him.

“Actually, I’m not Yellow, anymore,” Itaru said suddenly.

“Huh? What do you mean you’re not Yellow?” Tsumugi asked, confused.

“I’m actually… Gold, now,” Itaru said in a low voice, trying to sound mysterious.

“What? But there’s no Gold Ranger,” Tasuku responded, completely breaking out of character at Itaru’s response.

“But Gold is a way cooler colour, don’tcha think?” Itaru replied. “I was thinking that I turn into the Gold Ranger ‘cause I was beaten by the enemy and then I trained super hard and gained new powers. So now I’m Gold ‘cause I leveled up.”

“What?! When did you get beaten by the enemy? We just started playing!” Izumi asked, trying to keep up with the sudden change in plot.

“Earlier, before we met up! It happened already!”

“Oooh! Oooh! If Taru’s Gold now, then can I be Silver?!” Tsumugi asked excitedly. Itaru’s new storyline sounded so neat, he wanted to join in, too. The sandy-haired boy turned towards Tsumugi and grinned in response.

“Yeah! Tsumu, you took a hit trying to protect me from the Evil Overlord!”

“It woulda been like—” Tsumugi jumped in front of Itaru, crossing his arms in an ‘X’ in front of his face. “YELLOOOOOOW!! I WON’T LET YOU DIEEEEE!”

“NOOOOOO! BLUE! IT’S TOO STRONG!!” Itaru cried out, gripping Tsumugi’s shoulders and shaking him. “IT’S GONNA… GET… US!!!”

Suddenly, the two yelled out in mock pain and promptly fell backwards onto the ground with a ‘thud’.

“Go… on… without us… Red… Black…” Itaru groaned feebly.

“Guuuuh,” Tsumugi moaned, sticking his tongue out and pretending to be dead(?).

Before Tasuku or Izumi could even respond, Itaru pushed himself upright and hauled Tsumugi up.

“And then, you two think we’re dead, but me and Blue actually go train in the mountains and perfect a super secret technique and then we become…” Itaru strikes a pose. “GOLD!”

“And… SILVER!” Tsumugi yells, joining in with his own pose.

“Wait! You guys have an adventure without us?!” Izumi exclaimed with a pout. “That’s not fair! I want a cool level-up!”

“Yeah, you guys can’t just make up something like that!” Tasuku agreed, putting his hands on his hips.

Suddenly, the back door slid open, and Fuyuki popped his upper body out. He was holding a plate of watermelon slices.

“Hey, you guys want some watermelon?”

Four pairs of eyes focused in on Fuyuki, startled by his abrupt entrance. Then, despite having been arguing with each other mere moments ago, they moved in sync and assembled into a staggered line, facing the back door. They each struck a pose and yelled out.

“How dare you steal the sacred watermelon!”

“You won’t get away with this!”

“Prepare yourself, Evil Overlord!”

“The Robotrangers are here to defeat you!!”

((I commissioned some artwork for this chapter of the fic, you can check it out HERE!))

Yes, this is definitely the start of chuuni Itaru and Tsumugi, haha. The funniest part about this is that… this wasn’t meant to happen. I was just meaning to write them arguing about their colour assignments, and it was just supposed to end with Fuyuki telling them not to argue. But, Itaru and Tsumugi took on a mind of their own and here we are.

Anyway, the inspiration for this chapter with the kiddos playing at being Power Rangers/Super Sentai was definitely inspired by both Tasuku’s Mankai Ranger card (did anyone catch the reference I made, haha?) and my own memories of playing Power Rangers when I was a kid. I had an absolute blast writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoyed it as well!

Thanks for reading!! Feel free to leave a comment and reblogs are always appreciated!

-Anmitsu

#a3!#a3! game #a3! act! addict! actors!#a3! act addict actors #act addict actors #act! addict! actors!#A3 #tsumugi tsukioka #itaru chigasaki #tasuku takato #izumi tachibana #a3! intertwined roots #anmitsu writes

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emilycollins00 · 4 years

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if it's not much of a bother, can i ask for a scenario where izumi has a little sister (reader) and she visits the mankai company one day because she misses her? how would the actors (you can pick who!) react knowing that all the acting genes went to the little sister and how do they find out about it? uwu thank you very much~ ღ

So sorry for the delay! It was really nice to come up with the idea so thank you very much for the prompt sweetie! 💕

Hope you like it

Mankai watching Izumi’s sister! reader acting for the first time

It was Thursday morning and being weekday, everyone was running in and out around the dorm; students were in school, adults were on their jobs and you were about to ring the doorbell for the fifth time, when a man in a green suit with patches came out followed by a talking bird.

“Stupid Matsukawa, stupid, stuuupid!”

You wondered if that was the norm around there.

“Will you shut it!” the man with old clothes scolded the animal as he turned to concentrate on the call. He bowed repeatedly to an invisible person “I’m so sorry sir!, I must have taken it to the opposite place…ugh?! Y-you need it that early?! I-I’m outside now, so I’ll run to-!

Unsure, you tried to catch his attention, seeing he might be gone before you could talk “Uh…” He turned, breathing so heavily that you jumped a bit “Hi, sorry I’m Izumi’s-”

The man didn’t even let you finish, “Director! She has gone to help a fellow theatre so you can wait inside! I need to solve some matters but Kamekichi will show you the way” he pointed to the bird flying over you two. At this point, you were barely following what was going on “Now, if you’ll excuse me!”

Before you could even respond, the manager of Mankai had already sprint to try and fix whatever accident had happened. You scratched your neck.

“Come inside, visitor, it’s too hot outside!” he yelled, “I’m going to get a sunburn!”

You pulled out your phone as you eyed the talking bird. Hadn’t expected your surprise visit to turn out like that. You were thinking about actually calling Izumi but...

You lifted your head “Okay little bird, guess I’ll enter. You’re right that it’s too hot to wait here anyway”

“My name’s Kamekichi, you dumbo!”

The bird turned and you followed him inside the big dorm. Excusing yourself before taking your shoes off, you waited for a response that didn’t come. For being such a big place filled with people, as Izumi always said, it sure was empty.

You roamed around the area, not sure if to stay in the lounge or investigate a bit as you waited. It was spacious and something smelled great over what you guessed was the kitchen “Curry…?”

A happy smile reached your face when you saw it was indeed curry. You had missed Izumi’s cooking so much now that she lived here. But you heard her so happy about the theatre that instead of asking her again to try and make time to go home, you took the first train in the morning to go to Veludo.

Gaining more confidence, you decided to look around some more, finding in no time the big courtyard.

“Everyone lives around the garden!” placing himself on your shoulder, Kamekichi had taken the guide role seriously. The bird had been talking non-stop, pointing with his beak different places and random objects you two found on the way.

…There was an insanely big amount of triangle objects laying around, now that you noticed.

“Mmm?” reaching one of the benches, you found what seemed to be a script. Not surprising, taking into account there was always supposed to be a few plays in motion.

You hesitated, but in the end, you couldn’t help but want to take a short look. You had read such great comments about Mankai, it had been a pity you lived so far to make it between your classes and works “Oh… this is pretty interesting?” flipping the pages, you found yourself needing to know more about how that play would turn out. The characters' dialogues were really good and, at some point, unconsciously, you found yourself reciting the lines out loud, enthusiastically.

So enthusiastically, that you had effectively caught the attention of the few dormant that hadn’t noticed a new person from inside their rooms.

..................................

“Thank god we are finally here!” Izumi left the bags on the entrance as Tsumugi held the door so Tasuku could bring some boxes inside “Matsukawa-san…?” she hummed as she opened again her phone.

“Something wrong?” Tsumugi walked next to her as they both headed towards the living room.

Izumi frowned, her fingers moving around the screen “Yeah, looks like he mistook another… Uh, guys? What are you…? Banri-kun, what are you doing here?!”

The autumn leader rolled his eyes while Citron greeted them with a whisper and Azuma smiled. All three of them were looking at the courtyard in silence.

“We were enjoying the performance. Cute, right?” Azuma pointed at you, moving around in the garden “She has been reading out loud the script someone from the summer troupe must have left. I have to say, I’m impressed”

“Yeah, don’t know who she is but she sure has some freakin’ skills man”

Izumi’s eyes opened wide when she heard your voice. No way that was you. When...?

“Yes, she is very amazing! No matter how much noise Banri or me made when we left the rooms, she did not get distracted!”

It was true. You were so immersed in the script that you had barely paid attention to what surrounded you. That’s how good you thought the script was. You were just about to turn when something grabbed you, making you scream.

“Y/N!”

“I-Izumi?”

“Why are you here? Wait, I’m confused, did we arrange anything? Sorry not being here! I’m usually around the dorm but a fellow theatre asked us to help carry some props and they usually help us so much that-“

You smiled. Your sister was one hell of a bouncing ball since you had memory “We didn’t decide anything! I just really missed you so I decided to drop by”

Izumi gasped and tightened the hug, saying over and over how happy she was to finally see you again and how much she had missed you too. You laughed, squeezing her too and enjoying her warmth and familiar smell.

“Were you here long?”

“For a bit. I think it was the manager who let me in and, uh, the bird showed me around?”

She nodded, understanding the confusion in your voice “Yes, they are… anyway” releasing you, she looked at you up and down “You look great! I’m so happy you are here. Come, let me present you some of the actors. Others are working and the youngest in high school… well, at least all were supposed too” she glared at Banri.

The crowd that had awaited watching the sibling exchange approached you, still shocked by finding out you two were related.

“So you are director’s sister?”

“Pleased to meet you, Y/N-san”

“It is so happy to meet you, yes! Let us hear stories from young times later!“

“Yo, little director, not bad”

You now understood why Izumi said they had a vast variety of personalities within the dorm “Nice to meet you!”

“These are Citron, Azuma-san, Banri-kun and… Tsumugi, where’s Tasuku?”

“Was she the one acting?” a man the age of Izumi, pretty well built, had appeared from inside, eyeing you with an intense look in his eyes “I could hear from the entrance. Good voice projection”

“This is Y/N, my sister”

“That delivery was indeed really beautiful” the young man with light blue hair smiled at you and you couldn’t help but blush at the compliment “I’m assuming it’s not your first time”

“Fufu we did have fun seeing your acting”

“After deciding you were not a spy, of course!”

…You wanted to hide embarrassed. Just how many people had been watching you? “I’m so sorry! I took this script and read it out loud” you held the script and gave it to Izumi.

Banri whistled, hands inside his pocket “You gave it a good read too. So that’s where all the actin’ from Yukio-san went to, uh”

“We will have a talk later about you being here on a school day, Banri-kun… I wouldn’t be speaking so cheekily”

Tsumugi laughed nervously at the exchange, turning again to you “Do you act, perhaps?”

You considered it “I’m doing theatre but it’s a small club. It’s a hobby rather than the passion Izumi and our father had”

“Don’t say that, you guys are great! You really need to rethink about doing theatre, I could help you with…”

Every one of the actors could already picture just how many times you two must have had that same conversation, judging by your face. Tasuku decided to interfere.

“You know, I wasn’t able to watch you, care if we do an improv here?”

“Ah, as expected of one of our biggest acting addicts”

“I too want to perform the improv!”

Azuma looked at you, smiling softly when he noticed you fidgeting. Before you could reject anything though, Izumi answered for you “That’s such a great idea!”

Guess you didn’t have a choice.

…………………………………….

“We’re back!”

“I can smell curry even from here…”

“Masumi-kun, stop! I’m sure director will be there even if you…!”

“F in the chat, I’m so tired, Tenten…!”

“Why are you looking at me like I should do something about it?!”

“You guys tell me, I still need to get to my part-time job as soon as we finish lunch…”

The summer and spring members entered the dorm chatting with each other, as always, when Sakuya stopped and headed to the garden, hearing the noise “Why is everyone outside?”

The rest followed. There you stood facing Tasuku with a Citron hiding behind in the middle of the courtyard. The others were sitting on the benches listening to you three.

You kicked the floor “What do you mean we can’t go?!” you pointed to yourself and Citron “You promised us!”

“I’m not repeating myself. Work piled up”

“But…!”

The green-haired designer of Mankai raised his eyebrows “Who’s that?”

“Are they doing a skit?”

“Looks like it”

Tenma crossed his arms, watching your movements… you were actually pretty good.

“...Is it me or she looks like director?”

…………………….

“That wasn’t half bad” Tasuku smiled when you all finished.

“I too did enjoy it in the performance of us siblings against a strict father!”

“You are even better than I remembered, Y/N!” you couldn’t help but chuckle when you saw your sister’s happy face. Opening your mouth to call her out, applause followed behind you.

“That was so amazing!!”

When did all those people come from?! You turned to see more actors watching you from the lounge. You glanced at your sister and she smiled “I guess we could take a break and have lunch together, you all deserve it!”

You nodded, entering inside to introduce yourself to the rest of them. You couldn’t wait to see what else was to find out about Mankai.

EXTRA:

“So you two are sister...?”

“Yup!”

“Never would have guessed it, acting-wise”

“Same! Your acting skills were EPIC! Do you have instablam?”

“Sister-in-law... need to get her blessing- muhpm!”

“Masumi, don’t!” both Sakuma and Tsuzuru shut him up covering his mouth before you heard anything. You narrowed your eyes, letting it be.

“....anyway, I saw there’s curry? I’m so excited!” you mentioned as you all entered inside.

Izumi gasped beaming as she grabbed your arm “Oh, you just wait to try it, Y/N! I found these spices the other day that…!

You two chatted heatedly about new recipes you both had created as the actors looked at each other with entertained expressions. Maybe you two didn’t share acting genes… but it looked like the curry obsession really ran in your family’s blood.

___________________________________________________________

Have a wonderful day! 💕

Edit: If interested, here is a kind of sequel to this Sister! reader with the autumn troupe

#A3! Actor Training Game #a3 act #a3! act! addict! actors!#a3!#a3 #reader insert #izumi tachibana #tasuku #citron #banri settsu #sakuya sakuma #kazunari miyoshi #a3 kazunari #a3 tsuzuru #azuma yukishiro #a3 azuma #sister! reader #a3 izumi #a3! tenma

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radishaur · 4 years

Note

can i request some zuko angst? just whatever you want really, you're amazing!

I hope this satisfies your need for angst! I was struck with inspiration at like 2 AM so I apologize if this doesn’t make any sense. I never edit anything and I don’t intent to start so early in the morning lol.

•••

Unrequited (Zuko x Reader)

Warnings: Implied NSFW (like minimally)

Genre: Angst

Part: 1/1

Summary: See request

•••

When you’re younger, people feed you lies. Most of them all small and harmless. They’re to keep you safe and healthy. Don’t go swimming alone or the Unagi will eat you. If you don’t eat your vegetables, the spirts will be angry with you. Don’t talk to strangers or you might get cursed. All tiny fibs to convince you of things you otherwise wouldn’t comply to.

What you don’t find out until later on in life is that they also tell you bigger lies. The biggest of all being about love.

They tell you countless stories about love. Forbidden lovers, princes and princesses, happy old couples, etc. The main similarity is that they all end in a happily ever after. They both fall in love and life is great.

My mother used to tell me I would grow up and find a man to have my own love story with. I think that was the biggest lie of all.

When Fire Lord Zuko turned 25, the council instructed him that he needed to find a bride. Him and Mai were no longer together by then, so the duty somehow became mine. I protested, but my mother and father didn’t listen. They practically sold me off to him like a piece of furniture. That was essentially what I would be after all.

I found myself slowly falling for Zuko as time progressed. Each passing day, my crush began to grow. By the time we were officially married I was helplessly in love with him.

Zuko had always been kind to me. We had become close friends in the time leading up to our ceremony. It never seemed to bother him that he wasn’t marrying for love; it was just what he had to do for his country. But that was the problem you see.

I knew he was still in love with Mai.

I had often caught him reading letters that the two had written each other or staring at photos of the two of them. He would bring her up during our conversation and I could just see by the look in his eyes when he talked about her that he was hopelessly head over heels for her. It was enough to rip my heart out.

We slept in the same bed, but we stayed confined to our own sides. We hung out occasionally and went on some outings to please the public, but it never crossed into the romantic area.

Two years into our marriage, I found out I was pregnant. The advisors has been pressuring us for a child and we knew we had to deliver. It was awkward and empty and heartbreaking, but we did it. Only once. I cried in the bathroom when it was over.

Having to be with someone who didn’t love you back was hard enough, but it was even harder when you were desperately in love with them.

Our child was born a healthy and happy girl. We named her Izumi. It was a beautiful name, but I knew why she was named that. It was a tribute to a moment he had shared with Mai. It was like she haunted every instance of our relationship.

Izumi quickly became the sole focus of my life. I spent every waking moment with her and vowed to myself never to lie to her. I wasn’t going to fill her head with white lies and bullshit. I was going to raise her right without the lies. And most importantly I would make sure she could marry for love.

Today was the day I was going to have the discussion with Zuko. I was going to make him promise me this one thing.

I put Izumi to sleep before knocking quietly on the door to our shared room. It was a formality that, although not necessary, we both indulged in. I entered when I heard him respond.

I walked in and saw him pouring over the desk in our room, focusing on whatever documents had arrived for him that day. He smiled at me briefly before returning back to his work.

I sighed and walked over to the desk hesitantly, my nerves beginning to kick in. I waited for him to look up at me. When he finally did, I fidgeted with my dress before speaking.

“I was hoping I could talk with you about something,” I said, finally meeting his gaze.

He set his pen down and turned to face me. He gave me his undivided attention and it made my heart break a little more. It was one of the things I also loved about him and it only made things more painful.

“Of course,” he said, motioning for me to sit in the chair nearby.

I brought it closer and sat down nervously. I took a deep breath, thinking of the best way to start the conversation.

“It’s about Izumi,” I began.

“Is she alright? Did something happen?” he asked worriedly.

He loved that girl more than life itself. It was just another thing that made me hopelessly adore him. I shook my head.

“No, she’s ok. It’s just...I want to talk about her future,” I said hesitantly.

“Her future?” he asked in confusion, tilting his head slightly.

“I know I don’t need to explain how much we both love her. She’s both of our entire world’s,” I began, causing him to smile as he thought about her, “So I know that we both want her to be happy in life. More than anything else.”

“Without a doubt. There’s nothing more I want for her,” he replied without hesitation.

I smiled softly at his undying affection for her. I took another deep breath before meeting his eyes.

“I want her to marry for love, not responsibility. No arrangements for politics or any other stupid reason,” I said finally.

Zuko looked a little surprised but it didn’t take him long to respond.

“Isn’t it a little early to be thinking of marriage? She’s only a year old,” he brought up.

“I know that. But I want to raise her with the knowledge that she has the freedom to choose. I don’t to lie to her,” I responded quickly.

Zuko frowned slightly, clearly not understanding the last part of my point.

“I don’t want to raise her telling her she’s free to choose and then force her into a marriage she doesn’t want when she comes of age. And I don’t want to raise her with the knowledge that she’s going to be married off against her will either. I want her to marry someone because she loves them,” I explained, a sad smile on my face before adding, “And because he loves her back.”

Zuko’s face softened into one of partial understanding. He was well aware of the feelings I had towards my parents about them forcing me to marry him at first. I had expressed to him my frustrations and he had understood completely.

But, he also didn’t understand that the second half of my statement was referring to him. He had no idea I was in love with him and I intended to keep it that way.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want anything less for my little angel,” he assured me.

“Can you promise me?” I asked seriously.

“I promise,” he replied.

I smiled, satisfied with his answer. I got up from my chair and he returned to his work. I went into our shared bathroom to take a relaxing bubble bath before bed. By the time I got out, the moon was shining high in the sky. The room was illuminated now by a few candles and I saw Zuko still working away at his desk.

I was already in my pajamas, so I simply got into bed. I had just gotten myself situated when I heard Zuko move. I turned to look at him and found him already looking at me.

“Uh, Y/N,” he said hesitantly.

I propped myself up and gave him my full attention, encouraging him to continue. He turned to face me in his seat with a perplexed look on his face.

“Why did you decided to bring that up?” he asked.

I hesitated. I looked off to the side while trying desperately to think of something to say. I mean, to his credit it was pretty random. Izumi was only 1 years old and it was definitely too early to be thinking about marriage for her. I bit my lip.

“I don’t know,” I lied, turning back to face him.

“I know you well enough to know you’re lying. Come on, we’re friends. You know you can tell me anything,” he pried.

Friends.

The word was like a knife to the chest. I sighed before falling into the bed on my back. I tried my best to think of anything to say in response to him that wasn’t the truth, but there was nothing. I resigned myself to just coming out and saying it.

“Because I know what it feels like to marry someone who doesn’t love you back,” I whispered.

The room had never been so quiet. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. I smiled sadly, still refusing to look at him.

“You...,” he began, but his voice trailed off quickly.

“Yeah.”

The discussion ended there and I simply turned on my side to go to sleep. I fought back my tears as I heard him turn back to his work. It took a long time after that night for things to go back to normal. Zuko avoided me just as much as I avoided him. After a few painful months, we finally returned back to some kind of normalcy.

Watching Izumi marry the love of her life was both a blessing and a curse. I was unbelievably happy that I was watching my daughter live the life I had always wanted. But another, admittedly smaller, part of me was deeply saddened.

Maybe love wasn’t a lie for everyone. Happily ever afters do exist. Just not for me.

#zuko #prince zuko fanfic #prince zuko fanfiction #prince zuko fic #zuko imagine #zuko x reader #prince zuko #fire lord zuko #firelord zuko #fire lord zuko x reader #firelord zuko x reader

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aprettyweirgirl · 3 years

Note

hello!!:D i hope ur having a good day:) i’ve become addiction with modern gaang jr. so what type of clothing would they wear and what brands? cause izumi, lin, and su are smart rich kids and bumi and kya are the sporty kids(their scarlet good at math), and tenzins the somewhat good looking nerd also i feel like bumi and izumi are the type to wear socks with sandals. im sorry

anon, how dare you disrespect the queen like that? >:0

Izumi would use crocs with socks (thing she probably got from the disaster of a dad) but only at home cuz she doesn't have the courage to wear them in public and Bumi and Su would use sandals with socks

besides of the crocs with socks thing, i think Izumi would be a damn fashion icon, this girl has an stupid amount of clothes, all different and for all occasion, the same with shoes, but her favorites are tall boots (normally with high heals)

Bumi wears mostly sportswear and sneakers, he doesn't really cares about his casual clothes, bUT for formal events, this boy has always one of the bests outfits

Kya has this "look good = feel good" idea, when she didn't have to go out she wore sportswear because she found it incredibly comfortable, i see her wearing the freaking strawberry dress, but this girl can wear whatever she want and she looks good

pretty much like his sister Tenzin can wear anything and he looks very good, althoug he rather be mostly neutral, so her wears just jeans and a shirt but he also wears accessories that make the difference (this boi has a bunch of rings)

Lin is very simple, but she has her style, she likes second-hand clothes, she wears wide jeans, oversized t-shirts, big hoodies and she wears Converse, she doesn't have as much as clothes as the other Gaang kids but she has a collection of ✨suits✨ at least 8 different suits (not me projecting, again)

Su has a closet full of crop-tops, oversized plaid blouses and some mom jeans

we established already that the Beifong Sisters are pretty much into oversized clothes

#gaang kids #i literally answer anything

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drangues · 3 years

Text

Impervious

The Armed Detective Agency was in something of a chaotic frenzy.

This, in and of itself, was not anything new- Day in and out, if one listened hard enough, they could hear the infuriated screams of one Kunikida Doppo as he frantically chased after his coworkers in a futile attempt to get them to complete whatever paperwork they were avoiding that day. Hearing the terrified screams of the patients- Or perhaps, the victims- Of one Yosano Akiko’s medical practices also wasn’t too out of the norm, for the area.

What was out of the norm was the genuinely fearful air about the workers of the Agency- Every single one of them was rushed, in some way, and they all bore a frenzied energy that seemed to refuse the idea of sitting still.

And if one looked into the Agency’s office space, they’d find the reason why.

xxx—xxx—xxx

There was not a single member of the Armed Detective Agency that was having a good day, and it wasn’t even in the “we’ll laugh about this later!” way that Dazai Osamu liked to torment his coworkers with. To be fair, the man himself was hardly in the mood to be pulling pranks and making a mockery of everyone- And it was all for one simple reason.

Nakajima Atsushi had gone missing.

He wasn’t sick or calling out of work for some other reason, because Izumi Kyōka had seen him before she left their shared apartment, Kunikida had called to make certain that he wasn’t feeling ill and had forgotten to notify them, and Dazai had even broken into the apartment (without asking Kyōka) after all was said and done, just to double check.

He wasn’t lost in the depths of Yokohama, because Miyazawa Kenji and the Tanizaki siblings, Jun’ichirō and Naomi, had been combing through the city on foot to make sure he hadn’t gotten sucked into any trouble, and Tayama Katai has been looking through the security records in every available place, both legally and illegally, just to cover all their bases.

He wasn’t in the custody of the Port Mafia, which they admittedly only knew because at least three separate people would have sent a message to gloat about having captured the weretiger.

(Also, Dazai had not-so-secretly pulled some of his older strings and broken out a few threats of dismemberment, but that was neither here nor there.)

No one knew where the white-haired male had gone, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that someone outside of the usual suspects had interfered in their lives.

Now if only they knew who the hell this new subject was.

xxx—xxx—xxx

When he opened his eyes, it became clear to Atsushi that something had gone very wrong between Point A and Point B on his way to work.

Admittedly, the day had started off somewhat badly to begin with- Kyōka has dropped the breakfast crêpe he’d made her on her way out the door, so he’d promised to make her a new one while she went on ahead. Then, once he’d finished with it, he’d realized that he was late, and that he was certain to get an earful from Kunikida about it. So he’d stepped up the pace and started running for the Agency, and then-

And then-

And then what?

He… Remembers, somewhat vaguely, someone stopping him as he ran. They wanted something, he thinks. Then… Nothing. The last thing he remembered seeing was-

Ah, he thinks, somewhat dully, I dropped the crêpe.

It wasn’t actually that big of an issue, all things considered- Clearly, he’d been kidnapped- And yet, that’s what stuck out at him. That’s what he remembered.

How stupid.

You couldn’t have remembered something actually useful? Your captor’s face, perhaps? Your surroundings?

Useless, awful beast-

Atsushi breathed in. Breathed out. Not right now. He couldn’t handle hallucinations right now. He needed to think. Whoever took him had to want something, right? Something from the Agency?

But what, and why-

Creeeaaak.

The door opens, slowly and loudly, and for the first time, he realized that he was, in fact in an inclosed space- He just hadn’t thought to use his senses to confirm it. He isn’t wearing a blindfold, but the light is flickering and dull- Certainly dim enough to offset anyone else, if they’d been caught. The air is stale, too, an old kind of scent that makes him think of earth and dirt- Underground, then. Maybe.

How would you know? You can barely even function as a detective on a normal day, much less when you’ve been taken by someone.

Should’ve left you to die in a ditch.

Should’ve let you starve.

Should’ve left you rotting in the basement-

With a shaky sigh, Atsushi manages to ignore the words that have always haunted him, and the figure of a man standing just at the corners of his vision. Instead, he takes in his captor.

They’re taller- Taller than him, anyways- With messy, frantically rumpled brown hair and wild, dark brown eyes. He looks like he just rolled out of bed- Or like he’s been too worked up to take care of himself.

Atsushi catches a whiff of his scent and immediately decides its the latter.

He doesn’t… Register everything the man says- He’s still groggy from being unconscious, and there’s a distractingly sickening pit in his stomach that gets deeper the more this man talks.

Dangerous.

Run.

Stay away.

Run

Run.

Run!

And it’s only as the man tightens his restraints and lets out an unhinged laugh that Atsushi realizes, with a dullness that only comes from experience-

Oh.

There’s a nail above his foot, and a few more set aside.

His captor raises a hammer.

I’ve seen your kind before.

Atsushi doesn’t scream.

xxx—xxx—xxx

It takes them four days, some intense virtual searching from Katai, and the intervention of Edogawa Ranpo (Who had been away on a mission for the Agency for the first three days, and who they hadn’t been able to contact) for the Agency to realize when Atsushi was taken, who took him, and where he might be at the moment.

Most alarmingly, alongside this information, they discover what might be happening to the weretiger while they tried to find him.

Hanmura Ryō was a man with an extensive criminal history, and the connections to make sure he never really had to suffer for it. He was well know for kidnapping and torturing people- Usually, those people are between the ages of seventeen and twenty one, and they mostly had silver or white hair. This torture could apparently range from a single day to a month, and he’d initially killed his victims after becoming bored of them.

Then his connections had proven to be powerful enough to keep him from facing any real consequences, and he took to leaving his victims alive after he was done with them- A last sort of mockery on their inability to do anything to him.

Needless to say, this information only worked the Agency up even further.

After all, Atsushi, as far as they were aware, had never really had any experience with being tortured- Which wasn’t to say that they’d be alright if he did have experience with it, but it made them worried that it would break him irreparably.

(Of course, unknown to them- Or perhaps, ignored by them- Atsushi did, in fact, have experience in that field.

It wasn’t his fault they didn’t believe him.)

Luckily, it only took a few more minutes of digging from Katai (Minutes filled with some very colorful threats from Dazai, and a distinctly murderous feeling from Kyōka) to narrow down the kidnapper’s location- And, with any luck, it will be Atsushi’s location, as well.

It’s Dazai, Yosano, and Kunikida that end up getting in the car to go on their rescue mission.

(Kyōka had wanted to go, but Fukuzawa Yukichi had very firmly put his foot down, regardless of her past experiences, and told her that Atsushi would much rather have the first face he sees upon returning be that of his little sister.

She was now waiting very stubbornly by the door to be exactly that, but he’d take what he could get.)

They just hoped they wouldn’t be too late.

xxx—xxx—xxx

Atsushi doesn’t know how long it’s been, exactly, but he does know that he’s… Surprised? At how little this is all affecting him.

Oh, don’t misunderstand- He’s terrified out of his mind at being in a place that he never asked to be in, that’s so similar to a place he hated (Hates? Hated? Dazai and Jun’ichirō had made things so confusing…). He’s terrified that he can’t bring himself to use his Ability in such a place. He’s terrified that the Agency might not come for him- Because they can’t? Or worse, because they don’t want to.

But- While the nails going up and down his arms and his legs hurt- The torture itself isn’t getting to him. Oh, sure, the hot pokers that his captor had shoved in his gut hurt something awful, and getting his bones broken, only for them to heal, was an… Interesting experience, but.

But this wasn’t anything he hadn’t dealt with before. If anything, it was tame in comparison.

The man hasn’t even tried to sew his mouth shut, like one of the Sister had when he was a child. He isn’t being forced to do labor while injured. There’s blood- His blood- But he isn’t being forced to clean it up. Words on his own worthlessness as a human being aren’t being forced into his head, day in and day out.

Well, they are being forced there, but he isn’t sure if a hallucination counts- It isn’t anything new, after all.

It hurts- Everything the man does hurts. His body aches, and he knows that, without Byakko, he’d be irreparably broken, physically speaking.

But he’s used to this sort of thing. “This sort of thing” is one of his earliest memories.

His captor screams, frustration coating his voice as he kicks Atsushi’s chair down. The pokers twist in their wounds, making him wince, but he still doesn’t make much of a sound at the feeling.

Breath in, breath out.

The man shrieks again, foot coming down on his spine with an audible crack for what must be the fifth time.

Remember- What’s better than being alive?

xxx—xxx—xxx

It doesn’t take all that long for the trio to arrive at their location- A fairly normal house, all things considered, if somewhat rundown and a bit out of date. The key feature is, of course, the basement they’re almost entirely certain is holding Atsushi.

(Everyone hopes that’s where he is, at least. They’re pretty sure that Dazai will actually go on a killing spree if it isn’t- And they don’t think they’d stop him.)

The entire building is silent upon initial observation, though, and none of them are quite sure how to feel about that.

Is he okay?

Is he gagged?

Is he dead is he dead is he-

Yosano enters first, and Dazai would complain if he didn’t know it was to give her quick access to Atsushi if he had a fatal injury. (Also, she was generally a badass, but that’s another story, entirely.) The two men follow behind, all three quiet as they scan the first room for anything potentially alarming.

There isn’t much, really. Just some dull, ratty carpets, thrown over the floor in haste, and cracking wallpaper.

Also, there’s a padlocked door at the far end, and they could’ve sworn there was screaming of some sort.

It doesn’t take much more than that for them to break down the offending door, which was apparently soundproofed somehow, because the screaming, while still indistinct, became much louder without it. In fact, the screaming itself didn’t even stop at the noise of the door falling.

They take the stairs two at a time, with the exception of Dazai, who simply skips walking down entirely to throw himself at the bottom, hitting the floor in a neat roll as he gets back up.

All three of them get weapons out, turning to face the source of the noise.

None of them were quite expecting what they saw.

xxx—xxx—xxx

Atsushi doesn’t know what he did to make his captor so mad, but he’s kind of wishing he hadn’t done it, regardless.

The man will. Not. Stop. Screaming.

For someone with sensitive ears, like Atsushi, it’s hardly a pleasant experience, and he isn’t entirely certain what he’s yelling about in the first place- Wasn’t he the kidnapped one, here?

He shifted again, causing the plethora of nails, pokers, and stakes that his captor and pressed into his body to tug at him uncomfortably- Any bruises created from the beatings he’d been given had long since healed, much to the man’s ire, and he’d eventually chosen to keep going with the only things that left lasting marks.

(That they only left lasting marks because he wouldn’t remove them was ignored, apparently.)

His head fell back against the dirt floor he’d been laying on ever since the man had knocked over the chair that was holding him.

You deserve this.

Weak. Useless. Mindless.

It’s your own fault, couldn’t even hear him coming-

Monster monster monster monster-

He shut his eyes, trying to block out the voices hissing in his ears- But concentrating was a lot harder with the hunger twisting in his gut. His captor hardly felt the need to feed him, after all.

A foot lashed out, driving a trio of nails on his collarbone deeper into his body, and he choked at the sensation.

It still wasn’t a scream, though, and the man snarled, foot reeling back to repeat his actions-

Thu-thud thu-thud thu-thud-

THUMP.

If he’d been using them, Atsushi’s tiger ears would’ve twitched at the noises- As it stood, he simply raised his head, attempting to peer into the front of the room, where his captor typically used as his entrance and exit.

He blinked.

To be fair, he didn’t think the man was expecting the sight behind him, either, if the look on his face as he twisted around was any indication.

Behind him stood Dazai Osamu, Yosano Akiko, and Kunikida Doppo of the Armed Detective Agency.

And they did not look happy.

xxx—xxx—xxx

When they found their missing coworker, they’d expected blood- Lots of blood, to be honest. Broken bones, screaming, the whole nine yards- And they technically got that.

They just. Weren’t expecting the screaming to come from Hanmura.

Oh, Atsushi was clearly in pain, sure- His eyes were glassy, and his breathing was far to rapid for their comfort- But he wasn’t screaming or cowering, as they were afraid he’d be.

By all rights, he seemed almost… Used to this.

Had they still been too late? They’d moved as fast as they could-

Had he broken completely?

Was he just stronger than they thought-

God, they hoped he was stronger than they thought he would be-

It takes them only a moment to regain their bearings, and within seconds, Dazai has shot Hanmura in both kneecaps with pinpoint accuracy, with Kunikida moving in to fully restrain him a moment later. Yosano, meanwhile, had immediately moved to Atsushi’s side, carefully removing him from his restraints with some quickly applied bolt cutters and lock picks.

After that, it doesn’t take long at all for her to begin examining one of her newest coworkers- Senior only to Kyōka, really. With as much care as can be afforded, she begins checking the wounds around every intrusion to his body before removing them and allowing the tiger to do its work.

Better safe than sorry, she thinks. Super healing or no, if infection had set in-

She pushes the thought aside, only really intervening in the healing itself to remove any cauterized areas- The fucker had used heated pokers at some point, then.

How lovely.

(And maybe she would typically be more sadistic, but even she has her limits- And she won’t make things worse for Atsushi after he’d just spent four days being tortured.)

Luckily, it takes only five minutes for her to remove all of the nails and stakes and pokers that had been shoved in the silver-haired male’s body, and soon enough, she’s able to help him to his feet, though he’s a bit unsteady, and far, far too light.

(He probably hadn’t been fed at all, and she sees Dazai stomp a foot down on one of Hanmura’s now-broken kneecaps.

Good.)

Once he’s up, she steps aside and let’s Dazai hold Atsushi, instead- The man has been worried out of his mind, after all, and she can’t say she blames him.

True to expectations, Dazai immediately wraps an arm around Atsushi’s back to steady him again before pressing his face into his neck in a sort of half-hug, and after some rather impressive, nonverbal back-and-forth, he convinces him to at least get on his back so that he doesn’t have to walk too much.

(Healed or no, the man had still be starved. So what if he wanted to take care of him a little bit?)

A mutual look between all three rescuers tells them that they’ll talk about this later- About why Atsushi seemed so unaffected, and about how the hell to make sure that Hanmura stays down- But for now, they have more important things to focus on.

It was time to go home.

xxx—xxx—xxx

Author’s Note: Yes! It is I, Nyanon!!! Anyways, you mentioned wanting a fic of the “Atsushi being tortured” idea I sent you on anon- Hopefully this is good enough!

Also, if you’re wondering why Atsushi didn’t just turn into a tiger and eat Hanmura- It was sort of meant to be a “he’s been in this situation before, and just pliantly doing what they wanted was how he survived” sort of thing? Because Trauma. Hopefully that makes sense!

#fic #dazatsu fic #kinda??#bsd fic #bsd fanfic #nyanon #nyatsushi anon #submission #THIS IS AMAZING #I LOVE IT #FUCK #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #if yall wanna send small snippets here then-feel free to do so #I WOULDNT MIND #just pls dont make it angst with sad ending .#thats all i dont want

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jjuzoir · 4 years

Note

Could I get some first kiss headcanons with Summer troupe? They're my faves and I absolutely adore each of them!

Request:

A/N: i get you anon,, they’re so cute;; summer group filled with softies

——🌻——

Summer Troupe First Kiss HC!

Tenma:

- You two were hanging out at the park near the dorms!

- It was a sunny summer day, summer break had just started and the sun seemed brighter than ever in the clear blue sky.

- Tenma had bought you two some ice cream and now you laid on the soft, watered grass protected from the sun under a big tree.

- “Can’t believe you didn’t want vanilla, [Name]- you can’t go wrong with vanilla,” Tenma rolled his eyes at you while shoving a big scoop of ice cream into his mouth.

- “And I can't believe you chose vanilla when they had like, I don’t know, a thousand different flavors?!” You snorted, “Vanilla is for the basic bitches, Sumeragi.”

- “H-Hey! It might be basic but it tastes good.”

- “Oh, really? Then let me taste it,” you prop yourself up in one arm and look up at him.

- He smirked slightly before picking his plastic spoon- one fittingly orange- and scooping out a big chunk of vanilla before nodding along with your plans.

- “Fine but give me your spoon,” he rolls his eyes as he shoves another spoonful into his mouth but a small drip had fallen from the corner of his lips to his chin.

- Then, you attack; you go kiss him smack straight in the lips aiming at the melted sweet.

- You pull away before nodding in agreement; the vanilla ice cream really was as good as he said.

- The kiss tasted of cold, ice cream and sweet vanilla plus the hint of lip balm added a sweeter feeling of lemons to the mix.

- And that’s how you had your first kiss with Tenma, who in the end, turned so red everyone around you two though he had a heat stroke.

——🌻——

Yuki:

- You were helping him with the costumes for the newest Winter troupe costumes late at night.

- Sakyo and Izumi were making rounds at his room to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid but it was already 11PM on a Sunday night and you both had school early tomorrow so que whining from you and scolding from Yuki.

- “Can’t we put it on hold, Yuki? We’ve got school tomorrow, we can’t skip or-“

- “Stop complaining and sew those buttons,” Yuki rolled his eyes at you before redirecting his focus on the sewing machine in front of him.

- “B-But it’s so late! You have to be kidding me,” you rub your eyes tiredly, “W-What about that skin-shit you’re always complaining about?!”

- “We need to have these done by Tuesday, [Name], we can’t stop now.”

- “Yes we can, instead of working now and possibly screwing up why don’t we just finish it up in the morning!”

- “Because.”

- “You can’t just say because!”

- “Less complaining, more sewing.”

- You huff annoyed before continuing sewing the buttons on Hisoka’s blazer, fucking Yuki and his need to get things done fast!

- “What if,” you mutter under your breath, “I give you something in return for my sleep?”

- “Gah, stop-“ Yuki blinks slowly as your words settle in, “What could you possibly give me that would make me wanna stop now?”

- You stand up, leaving the materials- especially the needles- in place before skipping behind Yuki’s chair and hugging him from behind.

- “A hug-?!” He goes to mock your choice before being cut off by your lips giving him a quick peck.

- “No, a kiss!”

- “A KISS?!”

- Congratulations! You’ve managed to corrupt Yuki to the point of shortwiring, he’s now malfunctioning :(

- His lips were soft, he tasted of coffee- probably from the 3 cups he had drowned that evening….

- You felt him attempt to kiss you back but before anything could happen you pulled away smirking.

- He’s now red in the face, a red as bright as the fabric he was using as he tried not to squeal in shock.

- “So, can we please bring Muku in and go to sleep?”

- “... Fine but you tell anyone about it- Ack!”

- You shut him up with another kiss on the lips, but this time- you could feel him kiss you back properly.

——🌻——

Muku:

- It was during one of your anime marathons!

- One of just favorite series had finally gotten its long awaited anime adaptation, and through a rough month of no-spoilers you two had finally gotten together to binge watch it all.

- It was another romance anime, one of the millions that Muku had read throughout his short life- but you had to admit that even if it was kind of cheesy it still somehow made your heart race.

- By the end of the penultimate episode it was already 2 in the morning on a Friday night and sleep was crawling unforgivably into your brain.

- “Muku… how many episodes… left?”

- He yawned before looking at the list, “I think… one?”

- “Already?!” You gasp shocked before sitting up, okay- you can do it! 25 minutes, no ads- you could do it, right! Right?... Oh no… you’re falling asleep!

- You pinch yourself awake, come on!!! It was getting good!! The protagonists were finally kissing after being apart for years!!!

- Muku was your struggle against sleep and laughed to himself before covering his mouth in fear of hurting your feelings.

- Just then, he remembered a scene you two had previously watched… episode 17, where the boy kissed the girl awake after she had fallen asleep in the library… could he do so too?

- A pink rivaling that of his hair crept into his cheeks- what if you hated it though? What if he smelled bad? Or if he was a bad kisser??

- He was too caught up in his mental-torture session he didn’t realize you sneaking up on him and kissing his lips.

- He felt your lips touch his and his eyes opened wide, you had done it!! Did this mean you liked him- wait, did you like it?? He liked it but that doesn’t mean you did too-

- “A-Ah! [Name],” he shrieked as the blush deepened, he touched his lips- he could still feel yours in them.

- At least now he didn’t have to worry about messing up, “Thank you, hehe.”

——🌻——

Misumi:

- You were helping him on one of his triangle hunts when you two had your first kiss.

- He had insisted you two go to the park nearby since, and I quote, “Had heard the crows talk about triangular treasure!”

- So, 2 hours into the hunt and you were exhausted from attempting to keep up with Misumi and his treasure hunt.

- “Oh my… it’s too hot for this, Misumi,” you rest your body on the ground.

- “Nope! We’re not leaving until we find the Super Rare Ultra Triangle Treasure!”

- You sigh tiredly and close your eyes before waving the blue haired boy off , “Give me 5 minutes.”

- “Okay but I am not gonna share the treasure with you,” he jokes before practically disappearing from the air.

- You turn around in the soft grass, it felt so nice against your skin- you wondered if you could find some water or something cold.

- You opened your eyes only to find a small cart stationed near the edge of the park; a shaved ice cart!

- You practically jump in line and count your money, you’d order two and bribe Misumi into coming home by asking it to be triangle shaped!

- And by the time Misumi came to drag you back to the hunt you had two shaved ice cream in your boyfriend’s favorite shape!

- “You found the treasure!!”

- He jumps you with a hug and takes the cone into his hands and takes the biggest bite ever.

- “And what’s my reward, Misumi-kun?”

- “Reward… reward, what could [Name] want for finding the ultra rare super triangle?”

- You smile at his scrunched up face, he looked so cute concentrating like that you could help yourself from kissing him.

- He’s shocked at first, he quickly smiles into your lips before kissing you back.

- “I’m fine with that.”

- “Hahaha, me too~”

——🌻——

Kazunari:

- You two were shopping for supplies to help Kazu for his next assignment, some weird yarn or whatever art students needed, when you found a photobooth.

- “Yah, let’s get some dope pics!”

- “I’m not feeling too well, Kazunari,” you shyly deny him but he doesn’t listen- or maybe he just doesn’t care- because he’s soon shoving you into the seat before you can hear his reply.

- “It’s just for you and me, ain’t no one gonna see ‘em,” he smirked before inserting some coins, “Let’s see, how should we pose for the first one, eh?”

- “Maybe a heart? I-I don’t know, I’m not good with- Ah!”

- Before you can finish your thought when you hear the countdown starting, you quickly rest your arms next to Kazunari forming a big heart; an eye-smile follows and boom! First picture done!

- “Kay, next! Maybe some peace signs?”

- “Oh- uh, sure? It’s starting,” you quickly pose and you feel Kazunari’s arms circle your waist and boom!

- “Second pic’s done,” Kazunari smiles, “But I can't think of what to do for the last two- oh, it’s starting, any ideas-!!”

- You panic and simply kiss him on the lips, that’s a good picture… right?

- By the time you hear the camera click Kazu pulls away blushing a deep red, how the turned tables have oh.

- Before any of you two can think of another pose a photo is taken where your boyfriend’s blushing red and you’re smirking up at him in victory.

- “Guess I came up with the best picture idea, ha!”

#—🎀 a3!#a3!#a3 #act addict actors #a3 tenma #a3 yuki #a3 muku #a3 misumi #a3 kazunari #tenma x reader #yuki x reader #muku x reader #misumi x reader #kazunari x reader #summer troupe #( tagging? idk her )#—✒️ sora’s scripts #—📨 request #—💌 mysterious messenger!

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kaweeella · 3 years

Text

DAngAnronpA

Chapter 3- I Gave Up On Traditional Danganronpa Chaptering

Warnings for death and depictions of a dead body.

~~~

Izumi sits at the table. She isn’t keeping an exact count of how long it’s been, but she knows it’s been too long.

“So,” Banri says entering the room. “We got anyone missin’ us yet?”

“Save it.”

“Come on, Banny,” Kazunari enters as well, “It’ll be alright.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ve got no horse in this race. Even if that bitch was telling the truth I’m fine. I don’t got a lot of reasons to get out.”

“I’m sure there’s someone who cares about you, Banri.”

“Doesn’t matter. Life was boring. Every day was on repeat. Shit gets boring.”

“... Banri I don’t think this is the answer to your problem.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot you can do to make things fun!”

“Why are you even telling me this? Do you two want me to kill someone?”

“No, Banri, but you’re clearly depressed so we’re trying to help you.”

“Damn, that’s a first.”

“Banny…”

Before he can continue Banri gets up and leaves.

“You think he’ll be alright?” Izumi asks him.

“Hopefully.”

“Okay.” She’ll talk to him later.

One by one everyone gets up. Omi makes breakfast, Hisoka sleeps at the table, Azuma and Homare drink tea and talk. Tenma huffs.

“What’s wrong, Tenma?”

“Didja lose something in the halls?” Kazunari asks.

“No. How much longer do we have to wait? I’m trapped in this place full of strangers, and those stupid winding hallways. Why wouldn’t I be upset?”

“We can’t think like that. If we do we might make irrational decisions.”

“What, so I shouldn’t be upset?”

“No, you have every right to be upset but-”

“Yeah. Okay.” He gets up and leaves.

After breakfast, Izumi finds Banri in the library. Her little book stack is still there, though one of the books is missing, she presumes Banri’s reading it. She can’t quite see the book in his hands.

“Hey, Banri, wanna talk or-”

“No.”

“It’s just that you were-”

“I don’t want to hang out with you, leave me alone you old hag.” He says that as if it’s a line he’s tired of repeating.

Izumi tries to hide her anger. She fails, but she tries. “Alright. See you then.”

“Whatever.”

Izumi walks down the halls. She finds Kazunari and Yuki, but she doesn’t find Tenma. She’s concerned about him too so she wants to try and cheer him up.

“Well, I guess some things are better off left alone.” She mutters.

“Hey, Izumi.” She turns to see Itaru.

“Hello.” She smiles. “Would you like to hang out?”

“Sure.”

They talk in the room she met Sakyo Banri and Tasuku in. She can get a better look now, it has a round couch and a pinball machine.

“Oh hell yeah.” Itaru says under his breath before going to the machine.

“So you like pinball?”

“Yeah. It’s fun.”

Izumi hums. “I was never really good at it. I just liked pushing the buttons.”

Izumi watches him play, the dinging of the machine and the clicking of the buttons the only sounds filling the room for a while.

“Good job.”

“Thanks.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“So what other games do you play?”

“Not that many. Just some card games and other older games.”

“What else do you enjoy doing?”

He laughs nervously. “Well, I like friendly competition with others and group bonding activities. What do you like?”

“I like cooking.”

“That’s a pretty useful hobby. What do you cook?”

“Curry. You wanna try some?”

“Sure.”

Izumi excitedly grabs his arm and the head to the kitchen. Though they’re stopped in their tracks when they see Tenma on the floor.

“Oh, Tenma. I don’t think that’s…” Itaru puts his hand on her shoulder. He cautiously steps towards Tenma. “You don’t think…”

Itaru leans in to listen for breathing. He sits up and looks back to her, shaking his head. Before she’s aware she’s doing it she’s screaming, tears rolling down her face.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Muku and Yuki run from where they were in the hall before pausing.

“Oh my god…”

Suddenly the speaker turns on, Izumi can hear Banri cussing them out from another room.

“A body has been discovered. Please meet in the hallway and I will continue the explanation.”

Izumi covers Muku’s and Yuki’s eyes. They hear the library door open and Banri comes down the hall. He pauses when he sees them.

“Oh fuck…”

Slowly everyone arrives, all staring down at the former child star.

“Tenten…”

“Now that you’ve all gathered, let me explain the rules. You will be given time to investigate and look for clues. When time is up, you will be taken to the trial.”

“Trial?” She hears someone whisper.

“Then you will discuss the evidence and find the blackened. If you can’t, then the blackened goes free and everyone will be punished. If you do, only the blackened will be punished.”

“Hey asshole, what do you mean by that?!”

They don’t elaborate. They’re just left to figure things out themselves.

“So we have to… look over his body?” Sakuya says in tears.

“No, the adults will investigate, you kids can go wait in the lounge.”

“Oh yeah that’s a great idea.” Banri says. “Keep people out of the loop.”

“What are you implying?”

“Information is our greatest weapon right now, so we should all be a part of the investigation. Unless there’s something you don’t want everyone knowing.”

“Izumi couldn’t have done it. She was with me.”

“Christ, again?” Yuki asks.

“We were playing pinball.”

“Fine then, you’re right. But this is a lot to subject kids to.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure it’s gonna get a hell of a lot worse.”

“So how do we go about this?” Omi asks.

“We should have at least two people watching the body to keep people from tampering.”

“I can do it.” Juza says.

“Yeah, I will too.” Omi says.

Izumi nods and moves towards the body before they all hear something. A little robot rolls down the hallway and stops by them. It has little tablets.

“These are the files. They have the autopsy on them. You might wanna look at them.”

They each grab a tablet and read through it.

The victim is Tenma Sumeragi. He’s 16 years old and 178 centimeters. Cause of death was blunt force trauma. He was killed in the hallway.

Izumi lowers the tablet and looks at him. Only 16… she looks around him. She finds a large book, looking at it, it’s 1001 nights. She looks around at everyone. She sees Azuma and she can’t quite read the look on his face.

“Azuma,” She walks over to him. “Is there something on your mind?”

“Yeah… I asked Tenma to grab something for me earlier. I think it might be my fault he…”

“Did you kill him?”

“What?”

“Were you the one who bashed him over the head until he wasn’t breathing?”

“No…”

“Then it’s not your fault. No one could have seen it coming.”

“But I-”

“Izoom’s right, Azu. It’s not your fault. All we can do now is figure out who’s fault it really is.”

He nods. “Okay then.”

“So now we know why he was over here.” She walks over to Banri. “Banri what book were you reading?”

“Hmm?”

“In the library. You were reading a book, what was it?”

“I don’t know, I was hardly paying attention. It was some collection of weird stories.”

Izumi nods and looks back at the book on the floor. It’s red and blue with a golden lining around the cover with a pretty design.

“Is that it?”

“Were you in the library from when I first saw you there to when the announcement was made?”

“Yeah.”

She thinks. “Okay. That’s all.” She walks over to the library. In it, she finds her book stack, only missing 1001 nights. She looks around. There are books piled on the floor. Percy Jackson, Pillage, Classic Fantasy Stories, and some others. The cover on Pillage is a blue gradient with a moon in the background and a dragon in the foreground. The cover on the classic fantasy stories is black and blue with gold, and has a moon, city, and what looks like a dragon flying over them. The fantasy book has silver on the pages, sticking them together a little. Opening it up she can guess that he didn’t read that far, as after some point she has to get them unstuck herself.

“What’re you looking at?” Itaru asks in the doorway.

“Banri was reading in here so I wanted to look at what he was reading.”

“Right. We should get other alibis.”

The two of them look around. “Yuki, Muku, what were you two doing?”

“I found this supply room and I was looking at what was in there.” Yuki says.

“I came over about 30 minutes ago and started looking with Rurikawa.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“I saw you going by and I saw Kazunari looking around. Kazunari left before Muku showed up. Don’t know where he went.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“So you have any ideas?”

“No, we just need to collect more information.” She walks over to Juza and Omi. “What were you two doing?”

“Omi was baking…”

“And what were you doing?”

“...”

“He was helping.” Omi smiles.

“Alright, good to know. Thank you.”

They ask around a little longer. The kid and Hisoka were sleeping, Homare was writing, Kazunari was hanging out in Tsuzuru’s room, Azuma was in the dining room, it was mostly like that. A lot of people were just hanging out in their rooms.

“Hey Azuma,” She walks back over to him. “What did you ask Tenma to get?”

“There’s a storage room and the other day I found some tea there, and I thought it’d help ease his nerves.”

She nods and looks in the storage room. There are some different types of tea. Green, oolong, matcha, black, hibiscus, white, herbal. She also sees fabrics, parchment, weights, other stuff she can’t quite get a look at.

“What tea do you think he liked?”

“I don’t know.” She wishes she could have gotten to know him better.

Walking back, she notices something blocking the door to the women's restroom. A cardboard roll. She can see the crime scene from inside.

“Do you think this is where the culprit was hiding?” Itaru asks.

“Well I didn’t put it there, so probably.”

“Right.”

“Time is up, everyone. Please head to the end of the hall.”

Everyone cautiously walks to the designated area. Muku and Sakuya hold Izumi’s hands. They stand there for a second, not sure what’s supposed to happen, when the wall seems to open. Inside is what appears to be an elevator. They hesitate for a moment.

“Go on, get in.”

After a second, Banri steps on, and everyone follows suit. She waits in the back, the boy joining them.

“Izumi?” He says.

“Yes?”

“My name is Masumi Usui. I trust you.”

The four of them sit in the back, the elevator as it descends.

#a3!#a3! itaru #a3! yuki #a3! kazunari #a3! banri #a3! act! addict! actors!#act addict actors #act addict actors au #a3! fanfic

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epic-potato-crisp · 4 years

Text

Courtship [1/2] (AjinWeek2020/3)

Day 3: Favourite Ship/Romance/Lover

By: @ryokasmagic

Note: I have two OTPs in Ajin (Tosaki/Izumi and Kou/Kei) and I honestly can’t pick between them. Decided to go with KouKei for this one though. This has two parts, so far part 2 is supposed to be posted for Day 7. I hope you enjoy!

…..

“You’re amazing.”

And ever since that fateful day, the words haven’t left Kei’s mind.

At first, he thinks there is nothing redeemable about Nakano.

He is too loud and gets overly excited about everything, always barging into Kei’s private space. He seems earth shatteringly optimistic and ready to take on whatever obstacle the world is ready to present him with an energy that Kei can barely begin to comprehend.

In hindsight, this might have been what has fascinated him about Nakano so much to begin with.

They gradually begin spending more time together, but then, this is bound to happen, Kei thinks, when you’re stuck in one hideout with eight other people with little choice in the matter.

It has nothing to do with the fact that he actually enjoys Nakano’s company.

No, he certainly hasn’t stooped down to that level.

Of that he is certain.

…….

It starts innocently enough.

They’re sitting outside the hideout, taking a break after hours of training.

“What if we weren’t Ajin?” Nakano Kou asks.

“What?” Kei frowned, “That is the most stupid question I’ve heard in weeks.”

“No, think about it.” Kou gestures with his orange popsicle. “What if we were…you know, normal high schoolers.”

“We are normal.” Kei frowns. He is a perfectly respectable member of society, thank you very much. He may have an above average regenerational ability that might classify him as “immortal” in some instances, but he has no duty to disclose that to anyone.

He isn’t a dropout runaway that can barely memorize the kanji required to graduate.

“You know what I mean.” the other boy says, “Like…what if we weren’t on the run from the government?” His gestures got broader.

“That’s a rather pointless scenario. You might as well ask me what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten hit by that truck.” Kei rolls his eyes and moves his hazelnut-chocolate cone out of reach, away from potential Kou-induced hazards.

He catches Kou eyeing him from the side.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.” the redhead replies indignantly, giving him a light nudge that has Kei scowling, “Isn’t it fun to think of what-ifs?”

“No, it isn’t.” Kei replies, and then relents under the expectant stare. He takes a bite of his ice.

“Well, fine. Let’s say I wouldn’t have gotten hit by the truck.” He pauses, considering the possibility and comparing it with his schedule at the time. “I would have had to turn in a physics project that week. Write a biology exam the week after. Not to mention our assignment in history about the reformation of- “

“Dude, I mean like, fun things.” Kou says, exasperatedly, “Like, you know. The next party you got invited to- “

Kei is excellent at politely turning these invitations down-

“Or like, an outing to a karaoke place or an arcade after school?”

After-school is reserved for math-club-meetings and further study-

“Or like, you know, getting a girlfriend!”

“I never had one.” Kei replied bluntly.

“What?!”

Kou’s shocked enough that he drops his popsicle. It rolls a few feet away from them, out of the shade and into the scorching afternoon sun. He stares wistfully at its departure.

“Oh man, I was going to finish that.”

“Get a new one.”

“Noo, they’re rationed. In any way I don’t feel like walking anymore than I need to today.” He pouts, slumping against the cooling wall.

Kei sighs, before wordlessly offering him his chocolate cone.

“Really, dude?”

“Call me dude ever again and you’ll have bigger problems than this.”

“Thanks, man.” Kou says, which isn’t much better and gives him a genuine smile that Kei wishes wouldn’t make him so happy on the inside.

“Yeah, whatever.”

“So, coming back to the topic at hand- “

Kei suppresses a groan. He has been relying on the convenience of Kou’s short-term memory to prevent them from ever continuing the previous conversation.

“What about it?” he asks instead, reaching for the water bottle and taking a large sip.

“Like, really? Never?”

Kou looks a bit like a Golden Retriever whose owner has forgotten to take him on a walk.

“No.” Kei shrugs, “Is that so weird?” It’s a serious question.

He’s never considered that his social life could be boring, by others’ standards, being far too focused on becoming a diligent student that represented his family well.

“Ah, no, no, it’s cool.” Kou waves him off, words encouraging, “Not everyone has to have a girlfriend in High School.”

Kei doesn’t let him notice any of the relief he feels at those words.

“Some of us just aren’t dating our homework, ya know?” He breaks out into laughter.

“Die.”

“I can’t. I swear man, I’ve tried!” Kou throws up his hands in desperation, shaking his head and Kei turns away so that he can’t see the traitorous hint at a smile on his face.

“Would you ever want one, though?”

“What?” Kei arches an eyebrow.

“What do you think? “

A day full of peace and quiet, with no training or social interactions, preferably locked away in my room, Kei thinks, but he’s certain that’s not what Kou’s referring to.

“A girlfriend. Or, you know, a boyfriend.” Kou shrugs, and Kei feels the blood freeze in his veins.

His friend-by-default notices his incredulous expression.

“We’re in the 21st century, right? It’s not that weird.”

Kei doesn’t dignify that with an answer.

“You’re expected to marry someone of the opposite gender.” he says, remotely, “Unless you can avoid it.”

“In theory!” Kou has finished his ice cream and wipes his hands on the grass, “Like, maybe it’s not that you just haven’t found the right girl? Maybe you’re just- “

“Okay, enough.” Kei cuts across him. His heart thunders in his chest and thoughts of Kaito resurface in his mind, which is more than he can bear after hours of training exhausting him to the bone.

“Are you too much of a chicken to find out?” Kou’s grin is teasing, and competitive.

“Find out what?”

“If it’s perhaps not just girls you’re interested in?”

“When would I find that out?” Kei answers, ignoring the inexplicable jump his heart takes all of a sudden, “We’re fugitives in a battle. We barely have time for this.” He gestures vaguely and checks his watch, “Speaking of, we should get back to training.”

“Come on, ten more minutes.”

“You said that half an hour ago.” Kei deadpans, “No ten more minutes. This second.”

“Is that what you want me to say when you refuse to get up in the morning and want me to cover for you?” Kou teases.

Unfairly, he has a point.

“Whatever.” Kei sighs, chalking it up to the heat that he doesn’t feel like debating Kou on this particular topic.

“I propose a challenge. No, a bet. If you chicken out, I’ll assume you’re too much of a coward after all. Ready?” Kou asks, pointing at him, brimming with self-confidence.

“And what makes you assume I care?”

There’s the Golden Retriever look again. “Oh, come on, Kei.”

Kei sighs. He’s a good person, he tells himself, a respectable member of society. He’s doing Nakano a favor by not subjecting him to alienation from the only one in his peer group and the devastating consequences that might have for his social development.

“Okay, tell me what it is.”

“We pretend to be boyfriends for a week!”

Kei stares at him, dumbstruck, but before he can get a word in edgewise, Nakano cuts him to the chase: “No, wait. I’m serious. Nothing, strange, like, ya know.” He blushes scarlet, clearing his throat and Kei thanks the Gods above that he doesn’t elaborate on the subject.

“Like hand-holding and that stuff. Maybe a date night where we watch movies.”

“That sounds dumb.” Kei replies before he can stop himself.

“Dumb, but not impossible?”

“We don’t even have time for a…” Kei pauses, wrestling with the unfamiliar word and its embarrassing implications, “date night where we watch movies. We have to train. Fight Sato, in case you forgot?”

“Consider it a team-building exercise!” Kou grins widely.

“I could think of a way more interesting exercise where my IBM gets to practice attacks on you.”

Kou laughs.

“Yeah, we have to train.” he admits, “You’re right. But seriously. Do you really…not want to try it out? Or does it just sound unusual to you?”

Kei bites his lip. He can’t believe that Kou goaded him into this conversation.

“If we were, theoretically- “he cuts in sharply, as Kou’s eyes widen in excitement, “To try that out. We would need to have some rules.”

“Sure, definitely.” Kou nods along.

“And it would not cross a week.”

“Nope, that’s the idea.”

“And if I didn’t like it, we could end it at any time.”

“Yeah.” Kou replies without skipping a beat, “Consider it, like…a social project.” He stretches out his hand. “You’re on board?”

Kei has to admit he’s not completely adverse to the idea. He’d pay money to see the expressions on the others’ faces when he told them about their plan.

And also, for some strange, unspeakable reason, having a movie night with Kou doesn’t seem like the worst of ideas.

Kei clears his throat.

“It’s a deal.” he says.

#ajinweek2020 #ajin #keikou #koukei #nagai kei #nakano kou

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mateasha · 3 years

Text

rendevous 18.6y

summary: chikage shows up at the front door of MANKAI after disappearing from the face of the Earth for 3 years. itaru is not happy. fandom: a3 pairing: chikage x itaru word count: 5516 tags: original characters for the sake of plot, friends to strangers to lovers, angst, fluff, flashbacks, mentions of death, bad attempts at action, bad attempts at comedy

chapter 1: realizations He should be happy for him. Chikage is okay. Chikage is alive, and didn’t… just go somewhere and do god knows what, (which, well, he already did, didn’t he.) but at least it isn’t anything bad, he’s safe and sound and maybe the troupe members will be overjoyed to hear how he’s been doing...

Out of respect, no one has ever taken their spots in their respective troupes.

He observes him even harder from the lounge area in the office, a good break, he thinks, as he grinds some gacha game with his husbando, a little tired from staring at the stupidly “gendered” pink UI with the characters flying across the screen.

He’s happy. He looks healthy— maybe skin even glowing brighter than ever.

And it’s good for him. It’s amazing to see how happy Chikage looked, “laughing” with his friends, almost heartwarming to see Chikage doing just fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s talented, strong, mentally adept, better than h—

He stops that train of thought immediately.

He was happy. So then Itaru should be happy. Even if he was that stupid, unromantic senpai that always was offstandish with just a bit unromantic caring for others when he felt like it.

At least, should be.

He watches as his coworkers walk around him, slinging their arms around each other in camaraderie, as one of them asks him out for drinks after picking up lunch. His smile is almost as wide as he remembers when he figured out Hisoka was alive. And innocent.

He watches Chikage and he doesn’t look back, walking into the elevator without him, because he works on this floor. It’s fine.

But it’s just so fucking funny, when all he wants is just another word, just a reason why he left without even asking Spring Troupe, or literally anyone else for help. He would even trade his life for Hisoka’s, even though he knows that wouldn’t make anyone happy. Well, maybe Chikage. He could go off into some sunset with him and run away from whatever responsibilities he wanted to not deal with. Like Itaru. Izumi. The others.

He wants to scream out so bad, just for him to come back, but he can’t, like that stupid horror novel that made him feel like shit and all existential for no reason. He feels like he can talk to him about everything, in a sense. Which would make sense, of course, if they were still close. Roommates. But he could only do that in a world where Hisoka is still alive.

—

Chikage knows he’s here.

Why?

Intuition.

Not really. He looks at him, but chooses not to “look”.

But when he sees his face, almost heartbroken, which is almost questionable. He wants to ignore him so bad. Just move on. Easier said than done, when every week you see him share out information with the company execs. A Chikage-senpai, no more.

He wants to move on so bad.

But everytime he goes to bed, he can’t stop thinking. He crosses another day off the calendar, it’s been three years, almost three and a half years.

He tears down his calendar. Who the fuck uses those anyways?

He tries to move on.

But of course, when you have something good, and it gets taken away, you want it back, right? You throw a tantrum like a little child at first, like a baby crying for their pacifier their mom took away from them. Then, you silence yourself, deny you ever wanted it in the first place. But you can’t stop wanting more, wanting it back. You yearn for it so hard that it hurts, almost twists your heart into a fucking pretzel, your stomach bubbling like the filter of the damn fish tank in your too-large-for-one-person office— thanks Boss, not complaining— but you can’t have it. You ignore it.

He knows he wouldn’t be able to deal with it again. It was all his fucking fault. He slams his hand on the desk again, before opening up his work computer.

His vision is hazy, like the only thing he can see is his hands, just a foot in front of him, trying to find his ground, but all that runs through his mind is, “it’s your fucking fault you idiot stupid you shouldve worked harder to protect everyone, cant even do that” it turns out harder than expected.

But it’s not his first time at the rodeo, of course. He picks up the stack of paperwork, straightening it all into a neat little tower of paper, before typing away with a nasty scowl on his face.

He can’t accept this.

—

It’s his anniversary.

Chikage is on “vacation”. If your definition of “vacation” is sitting in a fancy car in suburban Tokyo, near Veludo Way. He already regrets his decision. Closure, my ass, he thinks to himself as he drives his car.

He’d already picked up tickets to their show in a month. Itaru is the lead this time. He searched it up, but it seemed not to have anything that Spring Troupe would do. Minagi always changes it up.

Maybe visiting his grave today wasn’t the best idea, Chikage asks himself with a slight melancholy in his inside head voice which he wants to shut up— so he tells it to shut up with its own voice (which of course, would never work, because he’s telling himself to

shut up).

Chikage doesn’t know what to say. Do people speak out loud to their graves? No disrespect to them, but not for him.

In their head? He tries it, kneeling down a bit to the headstone, setting down a bag of marshmallows.

Hisoka. I don’t believe in God or reincarnation, or whatever religion. But I want to give the universe, no matter how little it cares, the benefit of the doubt. I hope you’re in nirvana, heaven, or reincarnated into some “cute” baby in whatever country, eating marshmallows. I never understood that. It’s not like I needed to. I guess. But wherever you are, I hope you’re up there. With August.

He shakes his head, like a dog shaking off water, except instead of water, it’s a somber liquid covering him, coating him in some syrupy hotness that feels like the embodiment of orange with speckles of blue.

He gets up and turns around to head back to his car.

“...Utsuki. It’s been quite a while.” He pulls up the cuffs of his outfit.

He’s not surprised to see him here. Arisugawa. He looks the same, the same haircut, the same outfit, same everything. He’s happy to see he’s been doing well.

“...I’m not surprised to see you here. You were his roommate, after all.”

“Yes, yes, indeed I was. Was is the word I want to put emphasis on.” It’s like he reminded himself of what happened. “Why? Why come back here after all this time?”

“I was just… reminded.” He straightens his back, as if it wasn’t straight in the first place, almost scoliosis levels of effort into “straightening” posture, as if to become more defensive.

“Are you going to interrogate me, at least? Inquire about the troupe? How well has it been faring?”

“... I don’t think I need to.” He’s reminded of the last time he went to watch a play. Around Christmas time— where he could take enough time off.

Minagi always does well. Sakuma is always just so passionate you can feel it through the character. Usui is always perfect, staring back at the Director in approval. Chigasaki… is…

He interrupts his own thoughts just to respond to Arisugawa, who’s been waiting for another word for 3 seconds at least. “I saw the play around Christmas. Well done. Very much so.”

“We are all aware Minagi-san always does an amazing job. Why, he is at the same level as me. But of course, I must come here and mourn every once in a while.” He walks past Chikage to look at Hisoka’s grave. “These marshmallows were his favorite brand, Chikage.”

“I know.”

A moment of silence ensues as Homare places a bouquet of anemone on the grave.

“Come back.”

“What?” Chikage is almost startled as he looks down at Homare, squatting at the grave.

“Come back.”

“You know I can’t.”

“You can, and you have always been able.”

“I can’t. Arisu. What am I meant to say to everyone? ‘Oh, I left for 3 years, haha big surprise now I’m back!’ They’re them. I’m me. They don’t need me.” Chikage laughs nervously. Nervously? He calms his nerves— at least tries to, conflicted on what to do, because it’s been a while since he’s been like this.

“It’s what Hisoka would have wanted. We all need breaks.” The mention of Hisoka alarms Chikage, and makes his voice venom tipped.

“Don’t even try to bring up that fucking sleepyhead.”

“My, your language. This place is sacred.” He doesn’t even seem phased by his biting tone or his venomous words, just continuing to talk to him as normal— at least normal to him. “But you must admit… he would want you to keep acting. He was very, practically fully aware that you enjoyed what you did immensely.”

“I don’t care. It was good to talk to you again. See you around.” He storms off before Homare calls out for him again.

“Just… take this.” He hands him a card, Chikage acquiescing halfheartedly, already thinking about throwing away that flimsy card. “Call the number if you ever yearn for us too much.”

Chikage doesn’t say anything back— at least doesn’t feel the need to.

—

“Itaru?” The rest of the Spring Troupe knocks at his door, mostly Sakuya’s voice piercing through the little symphony of voices piping up just in an effort to wake up Itaru. (If he’s asleep of course— sleeping now to save energy for ranking all night.) “We have pizza?” Masumi looks at the noticeable lack of pizza in their hands, which, knowing Itaru, would make him close that damn door again.

Tsuzuru knocks on the door again, Izumi coming by, looking at them with a puzzled look on her face. “...Can I ask what you guys are doing or is it private?”

“Itaru hasn’t come out of his room in like… a week.” Tsuzuru takes out his phone to check the phone date to see if he’s actually not come out of his room for a week. “Yeah. A week.”

“And why is that surprising? He’s probably ranking.” Izumi almost has a visible question mark hovering over her head, that would be drawn over her if they were in an anime. “Although he should be working on his role… he is the lead after all.”

“Yeah, but I know that he has no thanking to do for this week!” Citron looks almost frustrated, going to the door to bang on it before Sakuya holds him back, calming him down. “I wanna play with him…”

“Ranking.” Tsuzuru mumbles through the word, correcting him.

“Ranking!”

Izumi parts them into two to make her way to the door, knocking harder. “Chigasaki! Get out of the room before I break in!” No response. “...Itaru?” Izumi grabs a keychain from her pocket, with the master key. “I’m coming in.” She unlocks the door quickly, opening the door, being blasted with a rank scent— the scent of body odor (which isn’t surprising now that he’s alone) but when it’s festered and accumulated for a month. Which is terrible considering he’s only been in there for a week.

“...Yes?” Itaru sits up in his loft bed. “...Oh.” He gets down from the loft bed, his hair almost matted to his face, with oil stains and chip crumbs all over his t-shirt. “...Hi.”

“Itaru.”

“Director…?”

“Take a bath. Come back here. We are going to talk, because you haven’t let it get this bad in a while.”

“...Whatever you say.”

When Itaru takes a shower, he doesn’t feel refreshed— rather just a clean feeling taking him with the same unidentifiable emotion. Probably a mixture of disappointment, discontentment, and self-loathing; which isn’t a particularly new mixture but it’s almost defeating this time, for no damn reason. Well, he does know the reason, but he refuses to acknowledge the idea, even entertaining it. Calling in sick to work because he just didn’t feel like going isn’t going to last forever, especially when He is practically his boss. He doesn’t want to get fired of course. He did just lose another job, so getting fired now isn’t the best idea.

Itaru picks up his phone on his way out of the bath, and turns on his phone to check his waifus this time, at first checking out his Best Girl. Humans are complicated, he says to himself, as he taps though some loading messages and downloading messages. He thinks back to work before getting interrupted by Izumi, who’s staring at him from inside his dorm, picking up trash and stuffing them into her makeshift trash bag, which is really just a plastic bag from the convenience store. “Itaru, come in. It’s your dorm after all.” He walks in unwillingly, hit by the smell he produced himself. He even wonders how he can take it.

Izumi wants to talk, he knows that much, as he feels the type of anxiety coming on when he gets the message, “we need to talk”. He hasn’t gotten it that often, but he does definitely freeze up. He definitely isn’t that stupid to not get a hint. Maybe. Izumi starts speaking after a moment of silence.

“So… Can we talk about this? You’ve never let it get this bad… even you have standards.” She glares at the side of the room that’s basically caked in chip bags, surrounded by an anime summoning circle made of chip crumbs.

“Do I have to?”

“Listen… this can’t go on forever. Just… talk about it. My lips are sealed!” She “zips” her mouth shut and throws away the invisible key from her hands. Itaru knows she isn’t going to leave without an answer— which is just the type of person she is— determined for no good reason. He can’t understand why Izumi is still here, even “helping” him clean. Helping in quotation marks because Itaru’s splayed out on his couch, head hanging off an armrest.

He holds out his phone to tweet something on his streamer Twitter, like “sorry for not streaming i was sick” which is convincing, until he realizes Banri follows him. Fucking NEO. Whatever. He sends it anyway.

“Can you keep it down? I don’t know what emotion you’re gonna feel when I tell you whatever has gotten me so… down. But I know you’re gonna scream about it, which I don’t want to hear.” Itaru scrolls through his personal, looking at fanart of his main games staring at a couple to just appreciate the artistry. Talent.

“I told you. Lips are sealed!”

He adds a snarky tone to his voice. “Someone with their lips zipped together wouldn’t be able to talk.” Itaru smirks.

“Shut up, you know what I mean.”

“LOL. Do you seriously, most definitely, want to hear me out?”

“Yes. Obviously? I’m cleaning your room just to buy myself time so you don’t kick me out.”

“Good strat. Whatever.” He goes to the training section, sacrificing some of his cards in the name of evolving his best girl. “I got laid off, remember?”

“Yeah.”

“And I got a new job, remember?”

“Mmmhm.”

“So I got hired as an assistant to this high up exec, which is like… hell yeah. Level up from that old company.”

“Didn’t you just get hired? I don’t think being absent for a week is a good look for your Refreshing Handsome Man persona. Trademark.”

Itaru laughs.“I— Well… Yeah? But I just didn’t want to go because of a certain person.”

“Do we have to beat someone up?”

“No. But guess who it was.”

“... Was it someone from highschool?”

“It was Chikage-san.”

“...Chika—“ Izumi puts her own hand over her mouth to shut herself up because of the up and coming scream that is about to pierce the skies.

“You heard me right.”

“...Yeah, I definitely did.” Izumi almost has a solemn tone, a tacit agreement of how they should be feeling about this.

“I just… I don't think I’m ready to see him. Mentally preparing for what shitshow might go on. Seeing him drained all my LP in a split second. And this week is me recharging, and a little more. Like I need it to overflow this time, like when I claim daily login quests for them.”

“Makes sense. Well… nothing you can do about it, right?” Izumi sounds a bit defeated, tying up the trash she’s picked up in the convenience store plastic bag, taking out another one and cleaning up again. “Just… deal with it till you can find a new job. Or… you could bring him back here. I want to— need to talk to him.”

“Mmm. I don’t want to do it.” Itaru sounds even more defeated, like he was born with that stupid Archeops abiltity. 50% HP lost already, and he’s not ready to lose that other half. “But if it comes to that… Sure. I’ll try. Not very hard of course.”

“Yeah, yeah, Itaru. You keep doing that.” She picks up some more trash before Tsumugi looks through the door.

“Director-san?”

“Tsumugi?”

“Someone is at the door.”

“I’ll get it.” Tsumugi leaves quickly to his dorm. “Itaru. Finish cleaning. Get the broom and sweep that damn pile of chips. We can’t deal with another infestation. Sakyo is gonna get so mad at you and me, and we don’t want another wifi outage caused by him. Also… please remember the play. I know that we aren’t super close to opening night, but this one has to be one of our more intricate ones, okay? Study your role well.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ve been doing that in here too.” Itaru follows Izumi out of the room, heading to the lounge to grab the dustpan and broom lying in the corner of the kitchen. Itaru takes it, wondering how much money it would cost for Itaru to get a damn maid around here.

But he wouldn’t want anyone to see his room, of course, as he gets almost scared of someone walking in, and seeing his shelf of games, and his cute and sexy gamer setup. Not the right choice of words, but it’s cute and sexy to him. (He also doesn’t want anyone to wash his body pillow of his waifu, or see it, matter of fact. Plus, he’s worked to make it so comfortable he can sleep instantly with it.)

Itaru heads back to his dorm, the door still open, sweeping up the chips, and spraying some damn Febreeze in there. Hawaiian breeze, or some other tropical scent will do. He hears frantic footsteps from the lounge, Izumi holding onto the doorframe.

“Itaru!” She stands up straight. “Chikage… is here. At the dorms with us.”

“What?”

Chikage pops up behind her, with a small suitcase in hand. Less of popping up, but more of fully revealing himself behind her.

“Please don’t tell me he’s moving back in.”

—

Chikage is less than aware of the reasons he’s here, before regrouping himself and making some stupid mental list in his mind. Thanks, self-help/business book that his boss gave him. He leads up the events in his mind.

Chikage gets a call from the landlord of his apartment building.

The landlord tells him that the rooms are flooded because some guy on the upper floor took such a big shit that it flooded the entire apartment complex. How does one even do that?

He is distressed. He goes to book a hotel.

All the hotel rooms are booked again.

Chikage, understandably, gets angry. He drives back to pick up some non-wet stuff. He can sleep in a car for a night.

He starts it up, and it doesn’t start. His car is broken.

He kicks the tire in frustration, and the side metal plate just falls off. He sighs in the ultimate defeat.

He now has nowhere else to stay— hotels are all booked and reserved for the waves of plays about to be released. His hideout is not an option— he doesn’t have much of a bed in there, or actual facilities he needs. No wifi.

Chikage is reminded of the conversation he and Arisugawa had back at… there.

He comes back with a damn Uber.

He sits down at the couch, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose in more than frustration at what situation he’s gotten himself into, already regretting his decision.

Izumi runs back, opening the lounge door. “...Chikage-san!” She goes to the kitchen. “It’s… a pleasure to see you back here. It’s pretty late. Almost everyone has gone to sleep. Tea?”

“Sure. Lavender, thank you.” Chikage is fidgeting, which is super out of whatever character he plays, almost struggling to not have a tone when he says his next words. “I’d… hope no one else is awake.” He thinks back to Itaru, but forces the thought of him out. “How has it been?”

“Not the same without you and… yeah.” Izumi looks down at her own cup, the teabag soaking. “Why are you here anyways? You just… disappeared.”

Chikage swallows his pride for just a little bit longer. “My apartment is flooded. My stuff is fine but I can’t stay there for now. Every hotel is booked here. My car is broken because I’ve been forsaken. I can’t stay anywhere else. I need to stay here.”

“...Well… you’re always welcome here anyways. You’ll always be a part of us, even when you don’t think you are.” Izumi takes a sip of her now finished tea. “Well… I know this might be uncomfy but for now, our only open room is 103.” He gets flashbacks to the number, when he got assigned it the first time he came here. “I don’t want to put you in 205. Homare has been doing a lot of stuff in there ever since.” Izumi pauses. “...And I know how you might feel about it.”

“I see. Well… I’ll take what I can get, no?” He sighs. “Beggars can’t be choosers.” He takes a long sip of his lavender tea. Nothing has really changed, he observes, as he looks around slowly taking everything back in. The smell is even familiar, which might just be the smell of lavender tea, but he doesn’t really think so. But an air about it doesn’t have as much life as it used to— which he might attribute to the fact that it’s now 12:30 am, but he knows deep in his subconscious the real reason.

Izumi smiles wide. “Great. I’ll lead you there. Itaru is cleaning right now.”

—

Yes, it is awkward, Itaru confirms to himself— something he doesn’t even need to do when Chikage is literally just typing away at his computer, as Itaru fiddles with his phone up in the air, playing some new KniRoun thing. Great. Lancelot is idly whacking at some large dragon on his phone screen, while Chikage’s loud typing begins to fill up more and more of his headspace until Itaru finally gets over the air that’s as thick as butter. “Can you type… quieter? Please?”

Fuck. That is not how he meant to say it. “...sure.” Itaru is surprised, doing a little “Oh.” to himself. He expected more resistance, especially with his tone.

Chikage can almost feel Itaru’s eyes burn into the back of his skull, which would almost be fitting for him and those damn carnelian eyes. “If you want me to leave, I can leave. I understand you have to do that ranking thing, or whatever.”

“Don’t act like you care, Utsuki.” Itaru just keeps fumbling with his tone, always going a little too biting. Which he should probably stop, when he’s basically talking to his boss. Technically. Not really his boss, because he’s been appointed to Chikage. They’re supposed to be working together. But it’s not like Chikage has power in a setting that is now his. He’s in Itaru’s domain. “You never cared about my ranking in the first place.”

“Can we fucking not today? Be happy I’m even dealing with you.”

Itaru shuts up immediately. He isn’t going to do this today. Or ever. He turns on his side to try to ignore whatever that cabbage head is doing on his laptop. But he doesn’t. He looks at the laptop, already looking for hotels to stay at, and sending out emails, with some decryptor on the side. Itaru isn’t one for confrontation. He knows he’s less than welcome with Chikage’s presence— which he can’t understand.

But Itaru is already tired— be it from the event that just happened, or the fact that it’s 1 am. Which is baby hours for him. He goes to do some final things, use his stamina, the sorts, and lets his body drift away.

—

Itaru wakes up midday, as usual for a weekend, and for some reason, Chikage is still there, typing away. He climbs down from his loft bed, stretching a bit and going to turn his computer on.

It seems like a normal weekend to Itaru, except for the fact that he’s here now. For whatever reason.

“Have you been awake this entire time?”

“...What’s it matter to you?” Chikage doesn’t even look back or stutter in his typing.

“Nothing, I was just wondering. Jeez.” Itaru doesn’t even want to try to fight back with the man who could snap his neck in 0.5 seconds. He walks out into the atrium, heading to the kitchen to grab some food from Omi, who had probably covered some leftovers from breakfast in plastic wrap, and probably already getting lunch ready.

“Itaru. Good morning to you!” Omi speaks to Itaru from the counter, giving him a smile.

“Thanks.” He grabs the leftover breakfast for a nice brunch. Izumi comes through the door with some bags of groceries for the next week.

“Itaru! Let’s talk later, okay? Practice is soon. We don’t want you to be absent this time. As the lead, you have the most importance for the play, and we need you to—“

“I know. I’ve been studying this role, okay? I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it.”

“And that’s why we should talk.” Izumi looks serious again, the look she gave him last night when cleaning his dumpster room. “It’s nothing serious. Just sit down here.”

“I have things to attend to, Director.” Itaru looks smug, and walks towards the door, plate in hand.

“I swear it’ll be quick!”

“Can’t we just do it in my room? Omi is here, and if it’s so serious, we should talk about it in a private place.”

“You’re gonna be distracted if we do it in your room. Just follow me to mine.”

“Ugh…” He walks over to Izumi, and follows her to her room, pulling out a chair for Itaru and she sits on her bed. “So…?”

“So… guess what…” Izumi’s voice is light, like she’s trying to break something to him slowly but surely.

“Don’t tell me. Is he going to be staying for a while?”

“...Damn.”

“You have to be kidding me, Izumi. Like I can’t believe you would do this to me. Rooming me with my boss.” He puts his back over the chair he’s sitting in, like a standard damsel in distress, woe is him. “Woe is me! All I know is pain and suffering.”

“You might be an actor but that was not an opening night performance.” Izumi laughs. “It might be for a while so bear with me. It’ll be until at least closing night.”

“... At least closing night?” Itaru is confused. “Why does he even need to stay in here?”

“Well… His apartment is flooded. Some guy took a fat shit in the toilet on the upper floors and now his apartment is flooded with toilet water. Hotels are booked for a while, Godza n’ all the other performances. People do book hotel rooms months in advance here.”

“Well, that’s tough. Why not put him with Homa—“ He stops and realizes what he’s going to say. “Oh.”

“Right.”

“Well, can’t he drive? Like… to a place with hotels?”

“Well, his car is broken. Listen, even if he did get it fixed, it’s the least we can do for him. He tried his best, Itaru. Everyone… grieves differently and it’s not in our place to judge him, no? Even if it was self-destructive…”

“Yeah, by hurting us? That’s his grief? Why’d you even let him stay? He doesn’t act, he wouldn’t do shit around here. Do you think he’ll come back? After three and a half years, no goodbye, just a complete disappearance? I don’t see how you can forgive some old cabbage head like that. He’s not even part of MANK—“

“Itaru, can you shut the fuck up? Like, actually.” Itaru immediately shuts up in almost prey-like fear. ”You of all people should know what it felt like when he left, and after everything that went down.” Izumi is absolutely fuming, like steam is coming out of her ears, getting up and turning away and looking at the bookshelf. “Do you know what it feels like? I worked so hard for this— to build this up from when it was failing to a place where we can stay and lean on each other and you… you of all people should know what the hell that feels like.”

“Izumi, I—“ He gets up, reaching out for a bit.

“I’m not finished.” Izumi is tearing up and getting more red by the second, like she’s going to burst. “How do you think I feel about all this? Chikage is back. It’s overwhelming, Itaru. It reminded me of Hisoka, and what would MANKAI be if he was still here but he isn’t. He’s not back. He won’t ever, and when we find an old member like Chikage, I will always accept him back in, even if he’s not committed to the acting gig. It’s almost like we’re completing ourselves again.”

“I understand that, but—“ Itaru can barely get a word in.

“He’s staying there. I don’t want any backtalk from you, Itaru. Have a good evening.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Just go.” She sits back down, her back turned to Itaru as he walks out.

Itaru feels bad. I mean, who wouldn’t, but he didn’t expect Izumi to take it that hard. Itaru has every right to say that he doesn’t want him in his room, feeling no remorse for making Izumi almost cry from pure anger, walking slowly back to the room. Omi stares at him as he goes through the kitchen.

“...Food?”

“Nah. Not hungry, I want some chips.”

“Don’t overindulge. It’s almost dinner anyways.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks Omi.”

He walks out of the kitchen and back to his room, still thinking about Izumi. Izumi is angry. Izumi is more than angry at him and it was because of him— which has never happened before and he is distraught.

He walks back into the room and no one is there. Bless. Today his room feels a bit more lonely, even though there’s more stuff in it, looking to his left to see the duffel bag of clothes with his desk underneath the loft bed already set up with tons of electronics. What is he even doing? He takes a look at Chikage’s stuff before he comes back.

Another laptop? A walkie-talkie… and the thing that catches his eye the most is a picture of MANKAI, and behind that, a picture of Hisoka and Chikage. Itaru remembers taking this photo, looking closer at it. Okay, now he really feels bad, he thinks as he looks at the photo more and more.

If he missed us that much then why didn’t he come back?

The door opens and he shuffles as fast as he can to the couch, posing in one of the most awkward positions.

“...H-hey, Utsuki-senpai.”

“Hm.”

He quickly walks past, suspiciously looking at Itaru as if he was a cat that pushed something off a desk while their owner was gone. Itaru quickly skitters to his desk, starting up his computer. The room feels a bit more lively with both of them in it, even if they’re both just trying to ignore each other, something within the room metamorphosing, like something is changing. He shakes the thought out of his head quickly before he slumps into his chair to get into the Gamer Position (trademarked by Itaru himself) and getting his software up.

Itaru needs to stream today. Not really— he didn’t announce anything, but he has to feed his fans some sort of content. He gets ready to film something, anything. He picks a random game and starts filming a bit, Chikage in the room completely tuning Itaru out and vice versa.

Chikage slowly drifts off to sleep for once, but this time, it’s a deep sleep. chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / chapter 4 / chapter 5 / chapter 6

#a3 #a3!#a3! chikage #a3! itaru #a3! chikaita #ckit #chikage utsuki #itaru chigasaki #a3 fanfiction #a3! fanfic

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