#took all my willpower not to blow up at this gathering I swear.

[kornyo]

rlly pissing me fucking off that people don't really care to learn your name if it meant an ounce of effort to learn it. fucking hell. my name is not staca it's not shtasa it's not Stasi nor is it stada. it's not stafa (+?????? that's a. new one.). IT'S STASHA. STAAAAAAASHA. Š?!!!!!!!! SASHA BUT WITH A T. WHY CAN NO ONE FUCKING BOTHER TO LEARN IT WHEN I'VE BEEN WORKING HERE FOR 3 FULL MONTHS NOWWWWWW

#nevermind they can't even spell it anglicised despite my name being plastered in every work list like. good fucking god #took all my willpower not to blow up at this gathering I swear. #hate this shit ass country and I hate my name and I hate every fucking second of my life having to explain how to say it #whatever.

[todoscript]

SEQUEL TO  “don’t forget it”

SYNOPSIS: One week after accidentally blowing you off on your date, Bakugou Katsuki seeks your forgiveness.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x fem!reader

genre: fluff, very little angst

word count: 5.4k+

warnings: none really accept maybe a character sustaining an injury

author’s note: hellooooo this is a very very very late part 2 of my don’t forget it drabble that many people asked for! i hope this lived up to your expectations and was worth the wait!

Since the events that led you to leave Bakugou’s room in a fit of bitterness after attempting to penetrate that thick head of his, he hadn’t been able to speak to you for a week.

It goes without saying he did his best to chase you down the hallway from his room and toward the elevator the moment he realized his faults. But at the stink eye you shot him through the minimizing slit of the elevator doors sliding into place, he knew he had no right to reconcile with you after pulling a stunt like that. Nor did he think you’d want to spare him any more words to begin with. It was clear you were done arguing with him.

“C’mon man, it’s probably best to let her cool down before you try to make up with her,” was the advice Kirishima offered when Bakugou returned to his room, disgruntled as he heavily fell back into his seat next to the desk. He did the bare minimum to acknowledge his friend’s words with a grunt before resuming tutoring the redhead, his method of teaching suddenly harsher than how it began thanks to his soured mood. He lapsed the day away by pounding Kirishima with problems upon problems against that hard noggin of his, both literally and figuratively.

At the very least, Kirishima earned himself a passing grade on their exam as a result of his hard work and their rigorous tutoring sessions. But what followed Bakugou’s and your relationship was still undetermined.

Days later and you were relentless in giving him the cold shoulder.

Bakugou was met with nothing but empty glances and blatant disinterest whenever he crossed your path. It felt like the wall you slotted between him grew another layer at each encounter, your defenses so impenetrable, it could give Kirishima’s quirk a run for its money. He couldn’t so much as utter a word in your direction without you effectively dodging every possible interaction in favor of joining another conversation nearby.

At first, Bakugou shrugged it off, calling your “childish attitude” unwarranted for something he thought was incredibly trivial. In his eyes, it was just an ordinary date at some run-of-the-mill restaurant he just happened to suggest to you because he took a liking to their spicy food. Not like it was some fancy dinner reservation serving caviar on dry toast beside a pretty, city night skyline. To him, it was nothing special.

However, as the week continued to roll by, it became clear to him how much he hurt you due to his selfishness. In a hangout with the Bakusquad, he learned that you apparently told Mina, along with the rest of the girls, everything during one of your girls’ nights. Which included the events prior to your heated argument in Bakugou’s dorm. And Mina, being just as peeved as you were at how Bakugou stood you up that day, had to let the blond know of the damage he’d done.

.

.

“I swear, Bakugou Katsuki, I know you can be an asshole sometimes—”

“Make that all the time,” Sero quietly adds in the middle of Mina’s rant while he lounges backward on Kaminari’s bed. If it wasn’t for his current dilemma, Bakugou would have elbowed him in the back of the head.

“—but this is crossing the line!” she finishes. Her arms are thrown exaggeratedly over her chest. The amber surrounded by the black scleras of her eyes points a beady look at the ash-blond crisscrossed on the floor between Kirishima and Kaminari.

“Poor girl sat there for hours waiting for you, only to find out she got blown off because you couldn’t even properly check your reminders!” She paces back and forth in the room, feet excessively stepping across the floor as she’s engulfed by the emotions she feels for her friend. “What’s worse? She comes back and finds out you’ve been doing your own thing with Kirishima the whole time!”

“Hey! It’s not like we were playing around! We were actually having a very serious study grind, thank you very much,” the redhead immediately clarifies. Though his explanation doesn’t alleviate Bakugou’s case in the slightest, who pounds his palms against the surface of the table they’ve gathered around.

“Look. I fucking get it, Ashido. I screwed up, okay?! Now what the fuck do you want me to do about it?!” he exclaims, anger overpowering his voice, but it does little to deter Mina.

“Fix it, obviously!” she quips back with equal fierceness, leaning in eye level with Bakugou.

“And how do you propose I do that, Raccoon Eyes? Hah?” Repositioning his elbow to rest on the table, he leans his cheek against his hand. “Y/n won’t even let me within five fucking feet in front of her and you still expect me ‘fix this’?”

Despite the situation weighing heavily on his shoulders, no immediate answer is bestowed upon him. That is, except the obnoxiously loud crinkle of a chip bag popping open next to Bakugou that cleaves into the scene like a record scratch. As if unable to read the mood in his own room, Kaminari fishes a chip to throw in his mouth, stirring the awkward silence into tension.

“Wow, Bakugou. I know you’re bad with girls and all, but you really messed up this time,” he remarks. His voice is slightly muffled as he munches his chips, continuing to wrinkle the bag for more. It incites a vein to swell on Bakugou’s forehead. He amasses all the willpower within him not to blast the bag of chips to ash, and the boy alongside it.

“If you dunce faces are just gonna sit here and throw salt in my wound then I’m outta here.”

“No, wait!” Kirishima catches Bakugou’s wrist before he fully lifts himself off the floor. “Come on, Bakugou, I’m sure we can think of something! We just need to put our heads together! Right, guys?” he assures. Finding it hard to deny his friend’s hardened conviction, Bakugou gives Kirishima the benefit of the doubt, albeit with slumped shoulders and a tentative raise of his brow as he slowly sits back down.

“Right! Everyone, let’s get some brainstorming done!” Mina yells encouragingly.

The atmosphere of Kaminari’s room is consumed by moderately thoughtful silence for the next ensuing minutes. A few hums pass, followed by an exchange of contemplative looks as four of the five rack their heads together to uncover a solution. The one in need of help only hunches in his seat, waiting with mild disinterest.

“Oh hey, don’t we have hero training with All Might tomorrow?” Sero is the first to comment, scooting to the edge of the blond’s bed.

“Yeah. So?”

“He said we were going to work on group exercises this time around. You know, teamwork and stuff,” he explains further.

At that, Mina snaps her fingers, the work of a brilliant idea flickering in her head. “Sero, that’s it! Tomorrow, during training, we’ll just form a group together with Y/n! After all, she’ll have to talk to Bakugou if you two are on the same team!” She claps her hands in front of her, her enthusiasm rippling through her body and shown energetically with each raise of her voice. “Then, while the rest of us ‘split up’ to cover more ground, that will be your chance to make everything better with Y/n! It’s genius!”

“You missed one fucking crucial detail, Pinky,” Bakugou gruffs. “That will only work if Y/n doesn’t join another group. The moment she sees I’m on yours, she’s not even going to hesitate making a u-turn.”

“Worry not~ I’ll just text all the girls except Y/n about the plan later and ask them to help sort everyone out!” She solves the problem with relative ease—quick as a click of her phone lighting up and finger sliding open to her messages.

“Uh, another thing though.” Kirishima raises his hand to spare his concern. “All Might says we’ll be splitting into groups of five at most, but there’s already five of us here.”

There’s a brief moment of deadpanning until Mina speaks casually. “Oh, that’s right. Kaminari. Take one for the team and make sure to join another group, ‘kay?” She settles without batting a lash.

Kaminari almost chokes on a mouthful of chips. “H-Huh?! What?! Why me?!!” he sputters.

“Because you’ve been eating chips this entire time and haven’t contributed to anything.”

“Hey, I offered the room, didn’t I?!” He tries justifying but is inevitably rejected by Mina’s wagging finger.

“Ah-ah, no complaints! Besides, it’s only one day of training. If we want this dilemma between Bakugou and Y/n fixed then we all have to play our part, got it?” Mina finalizes with a firm point of her finger nearly grazing the tip of the blond’s nose as he leans back to avoid it, eyebrows scrunched in discontent at the role he’s been reduced to.

“Alllllright!” Kirishima springs from his seat with outstretched arms and tightened fists. “Operation: Get Y/n to Forgive Explosion Boy is underway!”

“Dude, that’s a terrible name!” Sero laughs but rises from the bed to join the redhead’s cheer alongside Mina, the group already in high spirits.

Despite rolling his eyes at their swell of confidence, Bakugou does not object to the state of things. As crazy as it sounds, one could almost decipher the cusp of a grin pulling the seams of his lips as a possible sign he’s actually all for this extravagant little plan. Quite a first for Bakugou, but then again, there’s not much else he can do in this situation except rely on his pack of chumps.

Meanwhile, Kaminari grumbles something beneath the salty grit between his teeth.

“Alright, can you all get out of my room now?”

.

.

The scowl etched on your face carries a strong air of disdain that dampens the mood around your teammates considerably. Well, no one should be surprised. With Bakugou standing across from you, staring into the void of your expression, it’s to be expected that you wouldn’t be happy with this outcome.

No, “unhappy” doesn’t quite do your circumstance justice. You are beyond livid.

You feel your eyebrow twitch as you try quivering your lips to form a tinge of a smile. Unfortunately, all that quickly falls apart when you suddenly recall the disaster of last week, triggered by an accidental glance at Bakugou’s mug.

Trying to simmer down, you release a mental sigh amidst the turmoil boiling inside you.

Okay, maybe you’re over-exaggerating. Maybe you’re still just a bit too bitter for your own good and letting your emotions get to you. But in a class of twenty or some students, how did you end up in a group with the one person you were actively trying to avoid?

The moment All Might gave everyone the go-ahead to form their teams for today’s training exercise, you swiftly made a beeline toward two particular star students. Midoriya and Todoroki.

It was simple really. Your experiences throughout the school year told you Bakugou planned on staying away from his rivals when it came to teamwork, regardless of whether you’re there or not. He’s a competitive ass whose goal is to beat anyone he deems a threat in his climb to be the number one hero. It’s only logical you partner with people he adamantly dislikes to evade him.

Yet it seems fate has other plans for you today. By the time you found yourself pacing over to the two students you had in mind, they’d already gone and picked their own group members, forming teams before you could even ask.

Your nose wrinkles like you’ve taken a whiff of something rancid. Or, to be more specific, something fishy. Hooking an arm around Mina’s elbow, you drag the pink-haired girl off to a corner somewhere while tilting your head back at the three other boys.

“Ex. Cuse. Us.” Your words sound as stiff as cardboard. It comes out in practically a hiss when your eyes cross Bakugou. Once you’re positive you’re out of earshot, you whip your head at Mina.

“Mina, what the hell? When you dragged me over here to form a group with you you didn’t tell me he’d be there,” you groan. Childish and petty as you may sound, you just couldn’t fathom the idea of confronting the boy so soon.

Mina holds her hands out, ready to rationalize the whole ordeal. “C’mon Y/n, this is actually an advantage for us! With us four plus you on our team, we’re sure to knock the rest of the other guys out during training today! I mean we showed pretty good teamwork together at the sports festival, didn’t we?”

Steadying your gaze, you hold a finger below your chin as you slowly buy into the explanation. The reasoning is there. It’s hard to argue against a case like that, fully aware that being on the same team as explosion boy will easily snag good results for you and your party. ‘Cause as much of an arrogant jerk as he is, you have to admit Bakugou Katsuki knows his way around hero action like the back of his grenade gauntlets.

“Besides it’s not like you could avoid him for the entire school year. I mean, you two are in the same class. It was only a matter of time before you had to—”

“I know, Mina,” you interject, not wanting the rest of her sentence about the inevitable fall to your ear. “I just… Agh, you know what I mean!” You ruffle your hands through your hair in confliction, unsure how to piece your thoughts together.

Tilting your head over Mina’s shoulder, you sneak a glimpse at Bakugou, watching him as he’s cast to the side with the others. He’s fending himself from Kirishima and Sero’s combined jokes, that usual look on his face sending glares at the two and yelling something you could almost pick up on if you honed your ears a bit more. Surprisingly, when his eyes meet yours for a split second, he stands there looking nonchalant again. Both of you immediately avert your gazes.

Mina pats your shoulder, bringing you back to the conversation at hand. “I know, I know, but after this, I’m sure you can go back to ignoring his ass. After all, it’s just one training exercise, right?” she says. As her words deliver some relief to your ill-timed situation, you give in with a sigh.

Unbeknownst to you, turning your back to Mina and striding toward the rest of your teammates again, you miss the small glint in her yellow eyes, along with the subtle gestures she aims at the three boys, waving her pointed thumbs over your head secretively.

“So I take it you’re on the team with us, Y/n?” Sero asks when the two of you return. You nod in reply and the boy flashes his pearly whites in a wide grin that Kirishima mirrors. He nudges Bakugou at his sides which you subtly catch in the far corner of your eye.

You raise a brow suspiciously at their fidgeting, wondering why having you on their team warrants such enthusiasm, but you’re thankful for their energy at least. Someone has to lift the atmosphere for this not to be a complete drag and Bakugou surely isn’t going to be the mood maker of the group.

The blond scoffs. “Yeah, well, if you dumbasses are going to form a team with me, you’ll follow under my leadership, got it?”

The three readily agree. Though you roll your eyes, you don’t challenge his position, considering no one else is that much up to the task as he is. You’ll simply have to deal with the fact that you’re forced to tread through the day under his leadership. So with no objections, the five of you walk back to the class, gathering around the entrance of today’s battlefield.

Jumping into the activity, All Might goes about explaining today’s lesson to the four sets of teams—consisting of a group exercise to heighten teamwork. The name of the game? Capture the flag.

In short, each team will be split off into different sections of the labyrinth where their assigned flag is stationed. The objective is to not only protect your flag from being stolen but also try and steal an opposing team’s flag from their base and escort it safely to your home field. Nice and simple.

Not long after All Might’s explanation, the gate to the training grounds opens and you all scatter off into your teams, navigating through the twists of the maze to locate your flags. Once your group situated themselves onto your home base, you assemble in a huddle to devise a strategy before the game starts.

“So what’s the plan?” Kirishima asks, eyes darting around his teammates until they rest on Bakugou—the team leader. The ash-blond crosses his arms, a confident sneer plastered on his face as he’s already thought of his plan of action the moment All Might announced the mission.

“Easy. I’m going straight to the front-lines to swipe one of those dumbasses’ flags. You lot are gonna stay here and guard ours until I come back.” He delivers the strategy in a matter-of-fact tone that you quickly don’t take a liking to. Your fist curls in irritation.

“What kind of a plan is that?” you question audaciously, your voice louder than you intended. “So you’re just going to do all the work while we sit around and wait for you?”

Bakugou grits his teeth, leaning further into the huddle to direct his senseless logic. “Look, it’s the fastest and most surefire way to snag our victory without sacrificing anyone,” he says. Playing over his words again, he finds it surprising he even chooses to offer his reasoning. Because if it were anyone other than you he was arguing with, he’s certain he’d leave it at that.

Knowing the current tension between you was a result of his misjudgment, it feels only right for Bakugou to make an effort in communication. He ignores the antsy expressions belonging to the others who signal from behind you to follow along with their original plan.

You don’t seem to catch the hint, nor do you buy into his ridiculous strategy. “Oh, so you’re that confident you won’t get taken out by the other team then?” you quip. As a result, Bakugou’s brows tighten at your noncompliance.

“I know how to take care of myself. You of all people should realize by now that no other nerd in this whole damn class can outmatch me.”

“And what about an ambush? How do you know they simply won’t anticipate your strategy and see you coming?” You fire another counterargument and the boy purses his lips, beginning to find this quarrel spiraling into a headache rather than a step in the direction of reconciliation.

While Sero and Kirishima stand there, shifting their heads back and forth throughout the fiery exchange, Mina speedily reacts. The gears of that cunning mind of hers click into place again.

“You know what, Y/n’s right. Why don’t you two go together then?” she proposes boldly. Her suggestion catches you by complete surprise. You veer in her direction with an incredulous look blown in your eyes.

Before you can open your mouth to protest, the two boys standing beside her immediately back her up.

“Hm, Mina has a point. The chances of you falling into a trap wouldn’t be much if you two work together,” Sero remarks.

Kirishima follows, “Yeah, you guys can watch each other’s backs while going to collect the flag! It’s safer to go in a pair than by yourselves I’d say.”

The three seem adamant about the idea, sharing equally content expressions, and with all that said, you find it hard to dig yourself out of this situation. In a way, you practically volunteered yourself after questioning Bakugou’s plan and doubting his abilities. The group only feels it’s right you come along as his support since you clearly must be worried about his well-being.

Pushing your objections down your throat, you reluctantly agree to tag along with the blond. What you find exceptionally shocking is how Bakugou doesn’t oppose these new conditions. Given his hard-headed temperament, you thought he would’ve scoffed and turned his back at being paired without notice, but no such things were happening here.

...Odd.

“Tch, whatever. Let’s get going then,” is all he gives, starting in the direction into the urban area of the training course.

You trail behind him. “Coming, Boom-Boy…” you mutter the last bit but don’t suppress the urge to let your words be known. Bakugou turns his head and gives you a look akin to an uptight six-year-old you just offended at your local playground. You shrug in response, a corner of your lip pinched upward. He doesn’t pick a fight over the nickname, but his eyebrows remain fiercely slanted, and coupled with his heavy steps and the excessive swinging of his gauntlet-clad arms, it tells you of his emotional constipation plain as day.

.

.

The journey toward the other teams’ flags is cloaked in strained silence and the physical gap between you two does not encourage any of you to speak up. At this point, both of your levels of annoyance for each other have mellowed out. Now it just feels... awkward—strange. You don’t see his expression, nor does he see yours. It feels like you’re being left in the dark, having only the back of Bakugou’s head to stare at the entirety of the way, and though you supposedly have his back, Bakugou feels precarious in this state as he trudges along at the front, not daring to turn his head to cross your eyes.

The ambiance is reminiscent of the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Where Bakugou walks through the depths of the underworld, seeking you out in hopes you’d join his side once again. If he turns around now and spills his thoughts to you too soon, he fears that your forgiveness would be whisked away, thoroughly beyond his reach, and replaced with your promises of retribution.

That was the eloquent version of the situation anyway. To put it bluntly, Bakugou was just impatient as hell to say something to you. The silence suffocates him to the point where the words are nearly about to be squeezed out of his throat, but he bites his lip to snuff out the urges.

The more he keeps them in, the more fidgety he becomes, hands itchy and mouth trembling with grit between his teeth. The idea of not letting his voice be heard was something Bakugou detested. Mainly because it was already such a challenge to even keep his mouth shut, given his fiery attitude and lack of patience.

Man, what the hell am I hesitating for? he asks himself, that outspoken side of him spurring him on.

Ah, screw the uncertainty, he thinks. If he doesn’t say anything now, then he won’t get to say anything ever.

Bakugou stops in his tracks, turning his head. Here goes nothing,

“Hey, Y/n, I–”

“Katsuki–”

Words collide into each other, jumbled and incoherent, which take you two by surprise as you meet each other’s furrowed gazes. It’s quiet as you both piece your way through this, eyes trained like you haven’t seen each other in months when the reality is that a week of bitterness has somehow made you act like strangers. The bewildered look crossing his features is foreign to you; you’ve never quite seen Bakugou as taken aback as he is now.

“You first,” you grant before Bakugou could mix up your words again. Even being given permission, the blond still isn’t sure what to say, his thoughts lost on him the moment his voice clashed with yours. He takes a deep breath, calming his senses and steadying his mind for what he wants to convey.

“Look, Y/n, I don’t know how to put this as nicely as I can,” he begins, tone consistent yet wary, assessing your expression, “but I know I fucked up and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you there all by yourself. I shouldn’t… have blown you off like that and forgotten about you.” He delivers this bluntly—honestly—as open as a boy of his nature can muster with arms spread out, willingly exposing him to his faults and your reprisals.

Looking at you, he finds your eyes are cast to the floor, assuming to be reflecting on his words carefully. After some deliberation, you come across the vermillion in his eyes.

“Frankly, I haven’t entirely forgiven you just yet. But I will say that despite how I’ve been acting, I’m not as mad at you as you think,” is what you give, and Bakugou would be lying to himself if he didn’t achieve relief at your statement. He mentally releases a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding throughout the exchange. However, you aren’t done yet.

“I just want you to understand what moments like those mean to me. It’s during that time where I can share my feelings and learn more about you—understand who you are,” you say. Bakugou latches onto every word. “And it goes both ways, you know. It’s hard to want to stay in a relationship with someone who doesn’t make an effort to make time for you.” It’s obvious you aim that comment at him as Bakugou’s eyes soften slightly hearing it. His calloused, glove-clad hands wrap into his palms. Man, he really was a jerk.

“Still… I know you’re making an effort to be sincere and that you’re genuinely sorry for what happened, especially considering how the others seem to have set this whole conversation up, right?” Bakugou winces over the Bakusquad’s ploy coming to light and makes a note not to follow along next time unless those dummies can scrape up a more elaborate plan.

Despite that, he presses on, “So, what does this mean?” A smile settles on the curve of your lips, sensing his impatience as his voice hastens you along.

“Well…” you begin, speech drawn out in anticipation as you step toward him to where Bakugou follows your movements. That is until he catches a few shadowy figures shifting around atop the small building behind you. Before you can open your mouth to continue, his instincts flare to life.

“Hey, look out!” he exclaims, already acting on his warnings by lunging forward to push you out of the way. Your breaths draw back into your lungs, your body thrust abruptly into the opposite direction. Landing on your butt, you wince at both the shock and the pain, but your whines desist when you witness Bakugou taking a force to the head as a result of coming to your aid.

“Katsuki!” you yell, immediately getting off the ground to rush to his side, but he can’t find it in himself to respond. Afflicted with a substantial blow to the crown of his head, his whole being throbs and his vision spins.

Fuck, is Y/n, okay? is the first thing on his mind, ignoring the liquid trickling down his forehead. His question is answered upon turning his head to meet your anxious expression—your eyes wide and lips quivering as they move to say words he can’t exactly make out beneath the pounding sensations consuming his mind. As he feels a set of arms wrap around him, he tries discerning his surroundings to form a reply, but can only capture bits and pieces.

“—tsuki! ...old… n!”

“...god—! I’m so dead!”

A sputter of words tangling together is the last he hears before his vision fades to black.

.

.

The next time Bakugou awakes, his eyes slowly sever open to come face-to-face with a blurry white ceiling. The lights assault his vision as his senses take time to adjust, unraveling the environment to realize he’s laying on a bed—a hospital bed to be precise.

He attempts lifting himself but is met with retaliation in the form of his pulsating head which he immediately flinches at. His hand goes to rub his scalp to soothe the ache and he finds bandages wrapped tightly around him. “What the hell happened?” The last he remembers is traversing the urban area with you for the capture the flag mission before finally confronting the subject that had been plaguing your minds for a week now. After that, he caught sight of some object descending toward you and before he had even realized it, his feet had moved on their own. Next thing he knows, he’s waking up in the nurse’s office with a headache from hell.

Wait, what about you? Were you okay? Surely, he had to have pushed you out of the way in time, right?

His head moves quicker than it should’ve, revealing the other hospital bed in the room to be unoccupied, vacant. He sighs and his relief is further bolstered by the door to the nurse’s room opening to unveil you unharmed with only your heavy look of concern troubling him.

“Katsuki, oh thank god, you’re okay!” you say, quickly pacing over to his side with a glass of water in hand. You leave it at his bedside, sitting before him. Gauging your appearance up and down, Bakugou tries making out even the smallest details.

“You aren’t hurt?”

You’re appalled he would ask this despite clearly being the one patched up in a hospital bed right now, and likely sporting some serious head trauma.

“Of course I am, you’re the one that lunged forward to protect me,” you tell him. Bakugou looks down at his lap, figuring that was what happened, but hearing it from you comforted him more than he thought. However, his comfort is wretched from him by the intense pressure persisting in his skull. Seeing him in pain, you urge him to lay down and rest.

“How the hell did I end up here anyway?”

You fidget with your fingers, hesitating on answering. At that, the blond lifts a brow, suspicious.

“Mineta… accidentally dropped a rock on your head.”

“...You gotta be joking, right?”

Bakugou leers hard, finding the reason he was out of commission to be a damn pebble hitting his head a detriment to his pride. And because of Mineta of all fucking people. Still, if he hadn’t acted as quickly as he did, you would’ve been the one to meet his fate instead, and he weighed this outcome to better than the former.

Then you explain how the teachers had temporarily intervened to bring his unconscious body to the nurse’s, where the old lady went about tending to his injury. Said she did her job and all he needed was to rest and let her quirk take fuller effect within that time.

“So did we win the game?” He switches the topic to today’s mission of capture the flag that was cut short on his end.

You shake your head, but at least grant him the benefit of knowing Mineta’s team ended up placing last. At that, his eyelids shut and he crosses his arms behind his bandaged head. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t my intention to win anyway.”

You give him a look. “...Liar.”

Bakugou cracks an eye open at you. “Hah? What do you mean I’m a fucking liar?”

“I know you, Katsuki. I dated you, after all. And the Katsuki that I dated is an arrogant, competitive jerk who thinks of being the best above all else.” Bakugou scrunches his nose, wondering what you’re implying through your... overly frank descriptions. “Still… he’s sweet and caring at times… and reliable when he needs to be,” you continue, tone softening that draws Bakugou in, “And the kind of guy I want to give a second chance to.”

Absorbing your words, Bakugou blinks. “S-Seriously?” He doesn’t mean to stutter, but the offer catches him off-guard. He replays what you just said. That’s what he heard, right? A second chance?

You giggle at how uncharacteristically astonished he sounds. “Yes, seriously.”

“Does that mean you forgive me for what happened last week?”

You hum between pursed lips in playful contemplation. “Well, maybe you can redeem yourself by going on another date with me then?”

Hearing your proposal, a wide grin arcs his lips, edging into a smirk.

“That’s it? Well, I can definitely fucking do that,” he states, confidence rejuvenating his body at the new, hopeful chance before him.

“Oh, just one more thing though,” you suddenly add.

“What?”

“We are not going to that Chinese Restaurant again.”

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugo x reader #bakugou katuski x reader #bakugo katsuki x reader #katsuki x reader #bnha imagine #mha imagine #bakugou fic #bakugo fic #bnha fic

[miss-smutty]

Brothers - Chapter 11

Unforgiven

Summary- You're hit with the bombshell of Chris coming home after a month away and after he left you questioning everything, completely heartbroken. How were you meant to confront him after so long?

Word count- 2K

Pairing- Chris Hems x reader

Warnings- Swearing, a smidgen of violence

18+ only!

Posted: 3rd August 2021

Taglist:- @everything-is-awesomesauce @nicolemt23 @innerpaperexpertcloud @pandaxnienke @chickensarentcheap @jjpogueprincess @longlostinanotherworld @mostly-marvel-musings @darklydeliciousdesires

Brothers Masterlist <<<

You haven't felt like this about anyone for a very long time and Chris has just made your fear of rejection all too real. You couldn't help the way you felt about him though, still feel about him. You love him and he'd told you he loved you, you'd felt it when he'd said it, you'd seen the look in his eye. So why were you even questioning it? 

In the morning you finally felt the courage to check your phone - Liam had stayed with you all night until you'd calmed down enough to go to bed when the sun had rised and you were no longer taunted by your demons in the dark.

There's multiple text messages and missed calls filling up the screen of your phone. 

I'm sorry I had to leave like that, are you ok? Xx

Read the first one. Your eyes scanned over the rest, mostly saying the same thing.

Y/N please answer. Let me explain myself. I didn't have time to speak to Liam about it all right then and I didn't want to leave on a bombshell.

His excuses made you feel sick to your stomach. You could understand why he did it but there were much better ways for him to go about it that wouldn't have left you feeling heartbroken.

You sighed heavily, putting your phone back onto your bedside table a little bit too forcibly and sinking back into your feather pillows. If you gave in to your impulses you would've text him back straight away but knowing deep down that would be the wrong thing to do, you restrained yourself. It took willpower but you just about managed, he'd made you feel like shit there was no way you were going to forgive him so easily.

*********

As the weeks passed by it became more and more difficult to ignore Chris, he wasn't giving up without a fight which admittedly made you feel a little bit better. You'd ignored him for so long it had become a habit and the fact he wasn't giving in told you he definitely did care about you but he'd made a major mistake and you were going to make him pay.

"Have you spoke to Chris yet?" Liam asked you over lunch. 

"Nope." A sly smile played on your lips, you were kind of enjoying making Chris sweat but you'd never admit it.

"Maybe you should, he's been blowing my phone up trying to get in contact with you. You do know he's coming home this week?"

"What? You stopped with your fork in front of your lips, eyes wide. "No I did not know that, has it been a month already?"

"Uh-huh, and its gonna be massively fucking awkward for me if you two are still arguing." 

"We're not arguing..." You brush your hair behind your ear, sitting up straight in your chair. " We're not even speaking." 

The thought of Chris coming home fills you with dread and excitement all at the same time. You're so excited to see his face and yet dreading the thought of having to deal with your problems.

"When will he be home?" You ask, trying to be casual.

"I don't know, he just said this week. I haven't exactly been speaking to him myself, I'm still pissed off with him."

"And you didn't think to ask what day?.and why are you pissed off? He didn't do anything to you." Your voice was a little too high, it always was when you panicked. Chris could come home at any minute and you weren't mentally prepared for it.

"No, but don't you think him hurting you effects me? You've had a face like a slapped ass for a month for a start and if you want to know so badly why don't you call him?" Liam raised his eyebrows at you, unamused at the whole messenger thing he had going on.

"Pfft, I can't." You push your bowl of food away, suddenly not very hungry anymore. "It's been so long I wouldn't even know what to say." 

"Your drama is honestly making me go grey." Liam runs his hand through his hair, looking at you with raised eyebrows.

"I think you'd look pretty good as a silver fox." You tease.

"I would but still, please sort it out." He gives you the glare. "Anyway, I'm going to have a little get together tonight. You up for it?" 

"A get together or a party?" 

"Well you know how it usually goes, it starts off as a get together but usually turns in to a party." 

"Exactly, well I'm off out with the girls so we'll be there later." 

You finished up your meals, Liam refusing for you to pay as usual, he was such a gentleman, you really wish his brother was a little bit more like him in that way. 

*********

You help Liam greet his guests, smiling and mingling as you go. The ratio of women to men doesn't suprise you one bit, Liam was newly single after all but you roll your eyes anyway after leading yet another group of girls through to the living room.

You watched Liam greeting the girls with the most genuine smile on his face than you'd seen in a while, he was happy, finally and it brought you great pleasure.

Your heart stops beating when you hear Chris's distinctive Australian accent carry above the noise in the room, you can feel his eyes burning into your back as you turn around to find him. Your tummy fluttering when your eyes meet, unable to hide how much you've actually missed him from your face. He smiles sheepishly at you making your tummy somersault, excusing himself politely from the group of girls that had circled around him and making his way over to you, when Liam steps in his way, blocking his path.

"I don't want to make a scene here but you've got some serious explaining to do." Liam says sternly.

"I know... I... I wasn't honest with you before I left." 

"That's putting it lightly. Y/N told me everything." You watched the exchange between the brothers, your nerves going into overdrive. You could hear Liam's friend talking to you but you weren't focusing on him, his words just a distant noise, your attention solely on the brothers. Brothers who looked like they were about to fight. Because of you.

"What are you, her bodyguard? If there's anyone I need to answer to it's Y/N, are you gunna let me past?" You watched as Chris' jaw tensed, the muscles in his neck becoming more prominent and you knew things were getting heated.

"If you're gunna treat her like shit Chris then yeah I am, the manly thing to do was come clean. It was a pussy move and you know it." People were starting to watch and your cheeks were burning but you were routed to the spot. Unable to move all you could do was stare blankly.

"Are you calling me a pussy?"

"Yeah, I'm calling you a fucking pussy." Liam shoved Chris square in his chest, he barely moved but his jaw clenched together, the tendons in his neck straining with rage.

Why, why, why were you stood watching this and not doing something about it? Your two favourite people in the whole world were about to fight each other and you're stood watching like it's a fucking soap opera.

You could see Chris thinking, debating about what he should do. Should he give his brother a free pass - he did deserve it, or should he fight back - he'd already called him a pussy he didn't want people actually believing it. 

He decided to let it go, moving past him to get to you when Liam shoved him again, this time he wasn't expecting it and almost fell over, recovered himself and then went for Liam. Your mouth hung open, your legs started moving before you registered what was happening.

"Stop! Please stop!" You screamed, Liam's friends coming to the rescue and holding them both back. Tears in your eyes at the thought of them fighting each other

You looked up at Liam's friend holding Chris back. "It's ok, I've got him." You took Chris by the hand, leading him away from Liam, weaving through the crowd that had gathered, pissed off that they'd caused such a scene in public but you needed to get them away from each other so they could both calm down.

Chris walked into your room and you closed the door behind him, resting your head against it for a minute.

"What the fuck was that?" You question, turning around to face him.

"Don't ask me, what exactly did you say to Liam while I was gone?" 

"Are you really trying to blame me? I told him the truth Chris, like you should've done." He hung his head in shame. His elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands.

"Yeah I know but let me explain."

"I haven't got time for it now." You start shuffling through your wardrobe. "I need to get ready." You say with your back to him.

"Ready for what?"

"I'm going out with the girls." You turn around slowly, looking at him, taking him all in. You've missed him so much, why does he have to be so damn attractive.

Then he gives you that sexy smile and your knees almost cave but you remind yourself of the things he said, willing yourself to stay angry with him.

"Do you have to go? I've only just got back." You start going through your wardrobe, if you had your back to him you could distract yourself from the heavy sexual tension between you. The need to run up to him and wrap you legs around him, telling him all was forgiven while you kissed every inch of his damn fine body. 

"Yeah I'm going. You don't get to treat me like that and then just come back and act like nothings happened." 

"Y/N can you please stop being so stupid, this is ridiculous." He said sitting down on the end of your bed with his head in his hands.

"I'm being stupid? Are you for real?" You take off your clothes until you're left in just your underwear, turning around to look at him with your hands on your hips.

"Ok sorry that was the wrong thing to say, I've been trying to speak to you every day for a month. Did you not miss me?" He looks up, his eyes widening when he sees you in your underwear.

"You're always saying the wrong thing aren't you?" Now can you leave, I need to get ready and I want to do it in peace." You point to the door, your hand falling limply by your side when you watch Chris licking his lips, his eyes focusing everywhere but your face.

"Do you have to go? I think I can find a way of making you forgive me." 

"You can't just fuck your way outta this one Chris, I'm not a toy for you to do as you please with." 

"You're so hot when you're angry... I'm really trying not to fuck you senseless right now." He bites on his fist watching your anger falter.

"We're just friends aren't we?" You say rather bitterly

"We're not just friends and you fucking know it, friends don't do this shit -" he says as he moves in front of you, his hands wrapping around you and resting on your plump cheeks. "I told you I loved you and I fucking meant it. Can we please forget what I said? I didn't think about it until after I'd said it and I tried to call you straight away to apologize."

"Do what?" You reply trying to keep your calm as his hands electrify your body.

He cups your ass and lifts you into his arms, you instinctively wrap your legs around his hard torso. He lays you back onto the bed and kisses you deep, his tongue desperately finding yours as he thrusts his bulge into your tingling pussy. Your body betrays you as you let out a low moan, you feel him groan from deep inside as his prehistoric nature takes over.

"That." he says breathlessly.

"I'm still going out tonight but I'll be back later." You say between him kissing down your neck, savouring every last inch of your taste. "You can think about how you can make it up to me while I'm gone and before that you better go grovel to Liam, I think he's even more pissed off than me."

"Oh baby, you're not even going to know your own name by the time I'm finished with you never mind anything else." 

"This doesn't mean you're forgiven, this means I'm giving you a chance." 

#smut #chris hemsworth #chris hemsworth fanfic #chris hemsworth smut #chris hemsworth x reader #chris hemsworth x you #brothers #chris hems x you #liam hemsworth

[multmilk]

summary: just tae as a college student and plant mom on the side. also slow burn & sexy times :)

genre: smut & fluff !!

warnings: um dirty talk? bit of curse words? smut lol 

au/prompt: college!au, bestfriendtolovers!au

word count: 2818

not proofread, sorry!! wrote this in one seating hehehehe 

 i think Taehyung would be the kind of guy who’d wanna purse arts and/or fashion but he’d go for something a little more prAcTIcaL

introducing, Kim Taehyung of Daegu, 24, major in business

 he’d want his own business someday, just not quite sure what it’d be

 anyways, even being a sophomore at college, he’d have girls and boys feigning over him because he’s just famous for a lot things

 one of which is his looks

 another being the cute barista at your local café

and the one who sings at bars every weekend

he’s just very popular and everyone adored him

but he isn’t the f boy type of popular, though many people did want to sleep with him, he just politely declines them

not saying he doesn’t get action though noPE he’d have sex occasionally when his schedule allows him to

fast forward to monday, a day where college students doze off and attend class 6 hours late 

Taehyung was always punctual and early but today’s an exception

he fell asleep doing equations and maths on his table and well his classes start at 9 am but he woke up around noon

 Taehyung doesn’t even bother to change clothes nor brush his teeth, he just zoops out of his apartment and rushes toward campus

 he’s still sleep deprived from all the work load and late night shifts but his adrenaline’s too much that he reaches the campus in 10 minutes when it usually takes him a good 20 minutes

he just keeps on running and just as he was about to approach the door to 34A (where mr. jung teaches philosophy,, his minor) the door completely smacks him in the face

 he clutches his nose that was hit and was about to curse the person who accidentally hit him but when he sees who hit him

 his brain just goes @/$;2($:&sk;L3

 LIKE WOW???

hair blowing in the wind, light focusing on her figure, flowy dress lightly being blown by the wind and worry etched into her features

 “oh my gosh, i’m so so sorry !!” even her voice sounds like an angel

Taehyung says “it’s fine” then acts all cool and stuff and she smiles at him

AND WHEN HE WAS ABOUT TO ASK FOR HER NAME SHE JUST WOOSHES AND he’s left there looking at her disappearing figure

aaaand that’s where you come in thought that the angel-like girl was you? haH

you see taehyung still clutching his nose and staring off to space so you smack his back and he yelps in pain

“Y/N!!!!”

“TAEHYUNG !!!” you mimick but then you quickly apologize seeing that he was in a bad mood

you fix his hair and ask what happened

you two walk to the cafeteria as he tells you everything that happened

including the oh-so-beautiful girl that accidentally hit his face

“i wanna date her. she’s made my heart race so much. that’s very rare,”

you look at him like ????? like bro you’ve just met her and you’re IN L OV E

 what about me? you think. i’ve been with you all these years and you never even consider looking at me like that.

but you don’t say that. of course you don’t. that’s just too selfish.

so you hype him up and tell him you’d ask around for the girl’s name and Taehyung hopefully finds her to get her number

fast forward and you and Taehyung goes home. you two have no work today, just some lectures to catch up to

you set up the microwave to heat the fried chicken you bought home and Taehyung attend to his plants 

yes he is a plant mom™️ like he sings and hums classical tunes while he waters the plants and letting out little praises and encouragements 

he’s just overall a proud mom of his plants tbh

anyways you and Taehyung work on your school stuff until you felt your body growing tired and found yourself laying down on his lap

the view like this is ✨majestic✨his hair was loose and he had a headband to keep the bangs off of his face

his jaw was locked in concentration as he tries to make the numbers MAKE SENSE

 not to mention how your face is just millimeters away from his crotch akskakd

but you’re wholesome so you ignore the pool of arousal that’s in between your legs

“let’s go to sleep Taeee,” you whine but he pays you no mind

so you opt for straddling his lap so that he’d pay attention to you and it worked

“leave me alone please? you could sleep and i’ll wake you up later,” then he smiles at you

gaaaah his smile just aldksofkeoyn he’s soooo friggin’ warm and cuddly and when he smiles he just takes your heart then and there

but you stay perched on his lap and opt to nuzzle your head on the crook of his neck and mumble about sleeping there

he just chuckles and shifts a little bit to feel more comfortable

that night, Taehyung holds you dearly while he finishes his work. if you were awake, you’d probably see the slightest hint of adoration in his eyes whenever he’d stop working and look at you.

of course he loved you, way more than platonic. about half the population falls in love with their best friend anyways right?

but he wasn’t going to confess. he knew you deserve someone better

see, Taehyung, he sees himself as this messy and too emotionally damaged to even fucking function. much less start a relationship with you.

sure you were damaged like him, maybe even more, but he just can’t risk of hurting you and breaking you into pieces. you’ve already lost so much, he doesn’t want to add to that. so he opts for kissing you on the lips, just lightly. light enough so that it doesn’t stir you awake or anything of the like. he lays you down in his bed and bids you goodnight.

you and him started being friends back in the first year of college, you were both 4th year college students now. anyways, you used to visit the coffee shop he works at almost everyday. he’s seen you stress over your finals, seen you hang out with your friends there, also seen you cry when you boyfriend left you. 

you’ve always ordered something simple, choosing a black coffee instead of something creamy and milky.

until one day you decide to say, “surprise me,” to Taehyung and he just stares at you confused. then you tell him to give you something different, something he’d recommend to you.

alas Taehyung’s mocha latte was born !1!1!

 it was something simple and common as well but it held special meaning to him.

And so you started ordering his mocha latte while you stayed and studied at the coffee shop, eventually forming a friendship with Taehyung.

Anyway back to the present times

come Friday night and you were surprised to find out that Taehyung was going out on a date.

with Seo Soojin

the girl who hit him accidentally on the face

you were surprised with a lot things. first, knowing Taehyung was going out on a date. he wasn’t the type to date and settle down. I mean, of course he’d eventually settle down with a girl but not now. not while he’s in college.

Second, Soojin was actually pretty. In a goddess level, she might just be your girl crush lololol

And lastly, you thought that you had a chance with your gorgeous best friend. You knew he pecked you on the lips while he thought you were sleeping. You were sleeping at one point but you woke up when he lifted you up to place you on the bed. It took all of your willpower to not kiss him back but you were afraid of ruining things, despite the obvious actions he’s made.

But after days of convincing from your other friends, you decided to ask him out.

Yes, girls ask boys out now. it’s the twenty-fucking-first century after all

BUT THE UNIVERSE HAD OTHER PLANS

NOOO fate had to watch your best friend dress up in a nice tux and slick his hair back as he waited for Soojin to text him her address. You had to act all supportive while deep down you knew that him going out with Soojin was hurting you a lot more than you liked.

Now Taehyung,,,,,, he was more than surprised to feel his heart flutter at the appearance of Soojin. She really is pretty but he couldn’t help but think that you would look a lot better.

Their date surprisingly went well but he hoped that he just spent the night with you instead.

He came home to you watering his plants for him and he felt his heart flutter at the sight.

There you were, wearing his grey hoodie and god knows what else underneath

You had your earphones on while you tended to his cacti and various other plants 

If he were a murderer you’d be dead, no doubt bout that

So, he hugs you from behind and rest his chin on your shoulder

You ask him about his date, ignoring the pang in your heart when he talks about how good it was

Instead of breaking your heart over the details in their date, you focus on his warm voice that almost made you sleepy tbh

Taehyung didn’t know why he narrated their date with so much enthusiasm. Maybe he wanted to get out a reaction out of you

But you stayed calm and interested with what he was saying, not showing any signs of jealousy or hurt

He goes to take a shower and he was expecting to have a movie night with you but surprised to see that you’ve gone to bed and so he does to 

You two don’t sleep well that night

SATURDAAAAAAY and Saturdays mean parties

Meaning, Taehyung and you getting shit faced and the two of you could barely make it back to your apartment alive

But it was no doubt your favorite part of the week

You got dressed up wearing something seductive yet still conservative on the side paired with the comfiest pair of heels you have

When Taehyung saw you all dolled up, he was like :000 DAYUMMMM

But he felt a little overprotective when he thinks about the people who’ll look at your body and all that so he gives you his jacket

Though you tell him it’s too hot and that you could handle yourself if ever something happens

You’re already in the party and Taehyung swears to himself that he’ll keep an eye on you and that if something bad ever happens to you he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself 

He sees you out of your comfort zone, dancing around people and gathering attention from lots of people

You’re happy with the attention so you keep on partying

Taehyung was about to go to the bathroom, thinking that you’d be fine since you were just dancing, but then he sees a man talk to you

The man was fucking tall, very smug, very untrustworthy

His lips were too close on your ear and you seem very very uncomfortable

So Taehyung rushes to your side, grips your waist and says,

“Back off. She’s mine.” WITH THAT LOW AND SEXY VOICE OF HIS ASKJJDSK IM LOSING IT

But the guy had the aUDACITY to ignore Taehyung and continues “so, will you spend the night with me sweetcheeks?”

TAEHYUNG GROWLS AT PUSHES THE GUY WITH SO MUCH FORCE

You had to grip his arm and ask him to stop and not make a scene with the smallest voice you have

And just as you two were about to leave, the guy shouts “lucky you, you’ve got a fine piece of ass right there,” and that’s all it takes for Taehyung to throw his fist at the guy

Everyone stopped dancing and focused on the scene unravelling in front of them

Pulling Taehyung back you tell him “that’s enough,” and drag him out of the house

The whole walk home was quiet and the tension was thick

“It’s because of that damn outfit,” he says once you’ve entered your shared apartment

You scoff and bend down to take you heels off and say “It’s not my fault men can’t control their dicks,”

Taehyung looks at you with this animalistic glint in his eye and stalks toward you

“You should’ve been more careful, babygirl,”

His lips attack your neck

You couldn’t move because you were shocked and aroused all at the same time

He sucks at the sweet spot on your neck and it just turned you into a moaning mess

You tug his hair, moan his name 

“Jump,” he commands and so you do

He kisses your lip and you kiss him back with more force

Tongues fighting for dominance, teeth clashing, little spills of moans and grunts here and there

“When I saw you in that article you call clothes,” he chuckles “all I could think about was ripping it off of you right there and then,” he kisses your collarbones

“It isn’t the first time too. All the nights you spend snuggled up to me wearing my shirt with no bra on and I could feel your breasts pushed up against me,” he unzips your clothing and lets it fall to floor

·“God fucking dammit Taehyung. Fuck me already,” you say and he looks up at you

A smirk on his lips and eyebrows raised in challenge

He grips your hip and you wrap your legs around him as he carries you to your bedroom

You were slightly expecting him to be just a tad bit gentle but clearly he was in a bad mood so he throws you into the bed and removes both of your clothes quickly

 “Suck,” he tells you and moans when your lips wrap around his digit

He brings his fingers to pump his cock a bit and pushes into your cunt without warning 

The force got you screeching and clawing at his back

“Fuck, harder,” you mewl and he obliges

He fucks you at an animalistic speed and his eyes bore into yours as he thrusts deeper into you 

It doesn’t take long for you to reach your climax and Taehyung’s thumb rubs your clit until you were coming

And he’s coming to and as much as you want him to finish inside of you, you knew that that wasn’t safe so he pulls out and cums on your tummy

He helps you scoot over and lays beside you

“I’m in love with you and this is probably the worst timing ever but I just want to say that I loved you for a long time and even if you don’t like me back, I’ll keep on loving you and-“ he rambles

But you cut him off with a sweet and slow kiss

“I’m in love with you too, Tae. Have been for a long time,” and you look at him 

The moonlight from the window doing wonders to his face

His lips turn into a small smile and kisses you again

And again

And again

“Do you know why I made you a mocha latte on that day?” he quietly speaks as he tangles your bodies together

“Ooooh that’s a question I’ve been dying to ask for a long time. Tell me. tell me,” you pipe

He breathes before saying, “you know how you alternate ordering an americano on bad and normal days and plain milk on warm and good days?” You nod 

“Well, a mocha latte is a combination of both with just with added chocolate flavouring and sugar,”

“That’s how you made me feel,” he says and you look at him with question marks in your eyes

He laughs, “Before you, my life was just plain and dull. Kind of like an americano,”

“But then you started visiting the café shop more and everyday it brought me a whole new feeling,”

“Every time you’re sitting at alone, whether it be studying or just reading, it made me feel a lot of things. happiness, curiousity, the whole butterflies in my stomach thing,”

“So think of the sugar and chocolate to be my growing feelings for you and yeah,” he laughs again and this time you laugh with him 

“I love you, even though you’re so damn cheesy!”

“I love you too, Y/N. I love you,” and you both smile and hold each other

“I think I’m going to have a coffee shop as my business once I graduate,” he says and you nod

And you two live life happy and healthy 😊) (safe to say the universe’s on your side now)

 SO SORRY IF THAT WAS TOOOOO LONG AND NGL I FEEL BAD FOR SOOJIN AND THIS SEEMS SO RUSHED AKJDS ANW HOPE Y’ALL LIKED IT :>

#kim taehyung au #kim taehyung x reader #kim taehyung headcannon #kim taehyung fluff #taehyung smut #taehyung au #taehyung x reader #taehyung fluff #bts au

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 98

I hope everyone is ready for Warlord Bowl!

Warnings in this chapter for violence and blood. Also food, although I think my entire story needs to be flagged with that one.

If you like this chapter, @baelpenrose was a huge help with the fight scenes, which I - quite frankly - stink at writing.  If you don’t like this chapter, well -  I stink at writing fight scenes.

Despite my best efforts - and multiple denials to Charly’s requests for concession stands - the gym area was packed shoulder-to-shoulder for the duel between Jokul and Arthur. People I had never seen populated the stands, while I was surrounded by my family. Conor sat to my left, with Maverick behind me and Tyche to my right.

Cronch, cronch. “Charly,” I sighed. “What did I tell you about the popcorn?” Daggers shot to my right, if I managed my sister’s glared correctly.

Apparently not. “No concession stand for the duel,” Charly recited just before she stuffed another handful of popcorn into her mouth.

“And where did that come from?”

“My quarters.” Cronch.

“Swear you aren’t selling it?”

“Naw e’en…” Swallow. “The recipe. This is my personal popcorn, thankyewverymuch.”

“Then why is it blue?” I asked, not completely assured she wasn’t running a black market popcorn ring.

Which made me sound entirely paranoid, but still. This was Charly.

“I wanted it to be blue,” she shrugged, holding a handful up to me.

I glared at the snack, wary. “Does it taste blue?”

Her response was a shrug. “Not really? It tastes like kettle corn. The food consoles are still trying to figure out popcorn, I think, and I wanted kettle corn, so I made a whirly pop on my own.”

Warily, I took a few kernels and gathered my courage to test them.  After swallowing, I frowned. “That’s… actually really good kettle corn....”

“Of course it is. I made it. Like I said,  I don’t think the food consoles understand ‘popcorn’ just yet.” Cronch, cronch. “Wasn’t risking it.”

“And you wanted it blue why…?”

She shrugged again. “Personal popcorn, why not?” With that, she tossed a few kernels of blue fluff in the air and caught them neatly in her mouth.

With a similar shrug, I snagged another handful. “So why are all these people here?”

To her credit, Charly scowled at me. “Warlord Bowl 2044? Do you really think anyone is going to miss out on this?”

“It was supposed to be secret,” I tried in vain, remembering Arthur’s point about that.

Almost as if she could read my mind, Charly snorted. “Eyeah. Hokay. Your personal warlord bestie issued a challenge in front of close to a hundred people and you really thought it would be kept a secret…”

“Not my personal warlord,” I tried, not even believing my own objection.

To my relief, a welcome voice popped up to my side. “She’s worked in call centers, she knows secrets don’t exist in closed systems,” Tyche interjected. “Oo! Popcorn?”

“Bad kettle corn,”  I warned. 

“Not blue-flavored, so I’m okay,” she clarified as she reached for a handful. “And anyway, this is less than I expected.”

“Do tell.”

“Well, there isn’t a stream to the entire ship.”

“Tyche!” I scolded for such an idea.

“Look, Miss-I-love-UFC-Fights-more-than-the-dudes-hitting-on-me, don’t act like this isn’t right up your alley,” Tyche pointed out with an arched eyebrow and a slurp through a straw

Hanging my head, I muttered. “Not my fault if they couldn’t appreciate B.J. Penn.” If I groaned, no one else heard it.

Tyche smacked my shoulder roughly. “Then you should love this fight. Judo versus… whatever the fuck Jokul says he is.”

“Unarmed grappling,” I supplied unnecessarily. Because who the fuck knew what that meant.

I was spared any further conversation by the arrival of our combatants.  Zach Khan appeared to be having the time of his life, hamming it up as the announcer. I had no clue where he got the microphone, and honestly just wondering if I should wonder about that gave me a headache. When he was announced, Jokul managed to earn both cheers and groans as he whipped off his robe and threw it to the side, leaving him standing shirtless like some over-dramatic anime villain.  His only concession to practicality, it seemed, since he left his hair braided in a queue down his back, practically begging for someone to use it as a handle in a fight.

Arthur managed to resist any similar shenanigans.  Instead, he just nodded when he was announced, flexing hands that were either taped or wearing gloves - I couldn’t tell at this distance. From what I could tell, he was wearing what he was picked up in: dark t-shirt, black jeans, and sturdy boots.  His glasses were nowhere to be seen, which made sense with a target as big as Jokul. Where his opponent was prowling around, seeming to be itching for the chance to fight, Arthur was standing eerily still.

And he looked deadly serious about this. I was starting to be grateful I made him promise not to kill the guy.

Finally, Zach seemed to run out of steam and announced the start of the match. Both of them were unarmed, thankfully, but that didn’t stop Jokul from charging headfirst at Arthur the moment he was allowed.  He made it about three steps before Arthur calmly sidestepped and simultaneously reached for an elbow and shoulder while planting one boot against his knee.  A quick full-body twist on Arthur’s part sent the larger man tumbling ass over teakettle.

Jokul managed to glare from his place on the floor, panting in either anger or adrenaline, while Arthur tilted his head like he was trying to figure out what he was looking at. “Can I just point out that, as one of the Ten Thousand, you are perhaps Darwin’s greatest failure along with being living proof that Miys is a terrible judge of character?”

I groaned and dropped my face to both hands while everyone around me snickered. “You got your fight, dork,” I muttered, knowing that Arthur couldn’t hear me and wouldn’t have listened even if he could. “Stop antagonizing him…..?”

A full-throated roar snapped my head up just in time to see Jokul launch himself from his place on the floor, only to end up right back there when Arthur threw him again.  And again.  Jokul repeatedly charged at his opponent, despite it getting him nowhere. It was a bit ridiculous, and it seemed Arthur agreed. After the third time throwing Jokul, he followed behind at a light jog and, as Jokul sat up, aimed a kick squarely at his jaw.  Before I could close my eyes to avoid the slightly-excessive violence, my jaw hit the floor when Arthur landed on his ass with one foot clenched between Jokul’s hands and shoved at an awkward angle. 

“That son of a bitch….” Tyche muttered beside me, while Charly just growled. Maverick and Conor were gripping my knee and shoulder hard enough that I just knew it would bruise.  

To my horror, it only got worse as Jokul wrapped his own legs around Arthur’s thigh and started trying to break the leg at the knee.  Before he could get enough leverage, Arthur managed to kick with his free leg hard enough to break the hold, but wasn’t quite able to get up fast enough to avoid Jokul pinning him to the floor.  Blows started raining down, with Arthur barely able to get his arms in place to protect his face.

I didn’t even realize I was biting my lip until I tasted blood. Threats against Jokul’s life were flowing from Charly’s lips like a prayer, and I was starting to wonder if I had enough hands to hold Tyche, Conor, and Maverick back from jumping in the improvised ring. But still, I couldn’t look away. I wouldn’t let myself look away, blaming myself for what I was watching.

It was Jokul’s turn to taunt, although they came out in staccato grunts instead of his usual crowing as he never let up his attack. “Better - fight - than - that - toothy - whore - but - you - aren’t - stopping - me - either. That - lying - bitch - is off - the Council - and - the rest - of you - will know - what a - real - leader - is.”

As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, Arthur lunged forward, taking a blow directly to the mouth but reaching for Jokul’s shoulder.  The attached arm spasmed and went limp, forcing Jokul to reach with the other one to try to pry Arthur off.  Instead, Arthur grabbed that hand and peeled the fingers back towards the wrist, twisting out from under Jokul as he stiffened in pain. As he got to his feet, Arthur twisted harder and further, with Jokul clenching his teeth to avoid screaming.

I lost all dignity at that point, surging to my feet and shouting. “Come on, Arthur!!!”  My sentiment was echoed by Charly screaming like a demon and incoherent cheers from Conor and Maverick.

Arthur showed no evidence of hearing us, his face full of the closest thing to rage I had seen on his face. There was no sign that he even realized his lip was split and blood dripped from his mouth.  Rather than the burning fury I was used to seeing on other people, he seemed possessed by this cold stillness that chilled me to the core - and it wasn’t even directed at me. 

In what looked like a Hail Mary, Jokul snapped his free hand around to grab Arthur’s ankle.  The attempt was in vain, because right as we could hear the wrist in Arthur’s hands snap, his foot slammed down on the other hand with a sickening crunch.  It took every ounce of willpower in me to keep from revisiting my evening meal when I saw blood trickle from beneath my friend’s boot.

When Jokul’s screams paused so he could take a breath, Arthur issued his ultimatum. “I can keep this up as long as you want to try, but I’m going to suggest you find a brain cell worth listening to and concede.  Nod if you understand me.”

Slowly, in small increments, Jokul bowed his head before raising it to look Arthur in the eye.

“Say you concede. Because if you don’t stop now, we are going to find out just how much damage Hujylsogox technology can repair.  And remember - that so-called lying bitch on the Council has already put it to the test a few times.”

Silence roared through the gymnasium as it felt like everyone present held their breath. One, two, three panting breaths later, Jokul’s mouth moved and his head nodded.

The next thing we knew, Arthur threw his opponent’s broken limb to the ground and stepped away. “Take him to a medbay.”

Charly’s cacophony of animalistic glee threatened to shake the Ark apart, while every bone in my body seemed to abandon me at once. Conor caught me with a speed born of much practice, while Maverick started to steer Charly in a path behind my sister so we could leave. I couldn’t even remember actually leaving the gym, too dazed from relief and the loss of adrenaline I hadn’t even realized flooded my system.  Charly’s blow-by-blow recap of the fight - in case any of us hadn’t been present for the event, apparently - turned into white noise as I fought the sudden urge to sleep.

At some point, I remembered hearing Tyche and Arthur’s voices arguing, which confused me because they both seemed insistent that I needed a medbay.  Why do I need a medbay? Arthur’s the one who got punched in the mouth… “Arthur needs stitches,” I mumbled.

“Sophia! Can you hear me?”

“Tyche, you are screaming. Of course I can hear you,” I retorted. “Why do I need to go to the medbay?”

“You… “ Arthur growled before being cut off by my sister.

“You passed out, Soph,” she explained in an aggrieved tone. “We didn’t know what happened. I said you just fainted from stress, Arthur was worried you were in shock somehow…”

“I said you needed to eat,” Maverick pointed out.

“Ding ding,” I joked half-heartedly. “I haven’t eaten recently.”

I could feel Conor tense up around me. “How recently have you eaten?”

“Evening meal?” I said sheepishly.  When I felt him take a deep breath, I answered the inevitable follow up question as sheepishly as I could manage. “Evening meal yesterday?”

Thump! “OW! Goddammit Conor,” I grumbled, rubbing my backside where it hit the deck. “You fucking dropped me…”

“You told me, if I caught you eating less than once every ten hours, you weren’t allowed cuddles until you had eaten two full meals.”

Tyche’s eyebrows flew as close to her hairline as possible. “Seriously, Sophia?”

“I forgot to eat for five days,” I admitted. “And…. Yeah. I passed out.  I’m trying to take care of myself, right? Although that didn’t mean you had to drop me.” I tried to scowl at him, but my eyes really couldn’t make it beyond his waist at that angle.

When I turned to get some help off the floor, Arthur was glaring - at me. “Eat.”

“Stitches,” I responded.  From this position, I could see at least one tooth was either broken or gone entirely. “And dental. That can’t feel good.”

He tried to scowl, but the flinch betrayed him. “Fine, you have a point. I’ll hit a medbay, everyone else find some food… Sophia, no cooking. You have - let’s see, it took Miys something like an hour and a half to fix a machete blow and an arrow in the chest, so I’ll be around ten minutes behind you. Fifteen, tops.”

My turn to make a face, apparently. “Not fair. I was chopped in half - it took three days to fix that!”

“I didn’t need organs cloned,” he replied airily, waving as he turned toward the closest medbay.  After three steps, he stopped, did an about face, and walked back past us and on ahead. When I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, he held up one finger. “Not a word. He’s in that one, so I’ll find another.”

<< Prev  Masterlist  Next >>

#the miys #earth is space australia #humans are weird #aliens #apocalypse #post apocalypse #science fiction #found family #tw blood #tw violence #hfy #humans are space orcs

[5-seconds-of-bucky]

All The Kisses

A/N: I really like this one. 

Summary: All the types of kisses you share with Shawn throughout your relationship 

Word Count: 2.2k+

Warnings: Some swearing and brief mentions of an anxiety attack. Very, very fluffy. 

The First Kiss 

You were just sitting next to each other on the ground and doing homework. Music was playing softly from your laptop and not much was said as you both worked on your Chemistry labs. 

“Can you check this equation for me?” Shawn asked, pushing his notebook towards you. He smiled when you looked up from your notebook with big eyes, having not heard what he asked. 

“What?” You brushed a loose strand from your ponytail back. He swore you had never looked cuter. 

“Equation. Check,” he chuckled. 

“Oh, sure.” You scanned over the numbers, erasing a two he had placed in front of Hydrogen, “Hydrogen has a subscript of two when it’s alone, so you don’t need the two in front.”

“Thanks.” His smile was soft and you swore you could have kissed him right then. 

Last First Kiss started playing and you sang along quietly, when Shawn asked you, “Y/N, have you had your first kiss yet?” 

“Shawn, you’re my best friend. Trust me, you’d be the first to know if I did.” You weren’t really fazed by the question, but Shawn seemed somewhat shocked by your answer. 

“Have you been on a date?” 

“Nope.” You rolled your eyes and let out a playful sigh. “Oh, I am such a poor, lonely soul.” You placed your hand to your heart and made a dramatic frown. Shawn laughed. 

“I could be your last first kiss, “ he stated with a glint in his eyes.

“Stop plagiarizing One Direction. Write your own songs.” 

“I have!”

“Exactly! Use them!” You both laughed. Shawn watched you as your face returned to a more restful expression. The hair that fell in front of your face did little to block the small smile still resting on your face. “What are you staring at?”

“Just how beautiful you are.” You blushed profusely. Your best friend who you happened to have a decent sized crush on just called you cute? No way. 

“What are you talking about?” You tried to brush off the comment, but every thought of it made you blush even more. 

“You’re so pretty. I have no idea how you haven’t had your first kiss or even been on a date, but I’m gonna change that.” Before you could respond, his lips were on yours. It was short and sweet, but it left you breathless. 

Shawn started at your shocked expression, worried he had done something wrong. “I’m so sorry, I should have asked-” He was cut off by you cupping his cheeks and pulling him in again. He smiled. Nothing could beat this moment. 

Top of the Head Kisses

“I don’t know how I failed it,” You exclaimed through tears. You were leaning against your car, a hand covering your tearstained face. “I worked so hard.” 

“I know baby. I know,” Shawn said softly as he pulled you into his chest. His right hand went around your waist while his left held your head to his chest. He had seen you study for a whole week. You had gone to the teacher every day after school, having to cancel some of your plans with him. It didn’t make sense that you had spent all this time trying and failed anyways. 

“I hate history,” You mumbled, wrapping your arms around him and pressing you head further into his chest, as if it would keep you safe from the tortuous grade. 

“It’s alright babe. It’s just one grade. It won’t kill you.” “It dropped my grade four points.” 

“It’s all going to work out. We can figure out where you went wrong so you can prepare for the next one, alright?” 

“Okay.” 

You stayed there for a few more minutes, enjoying the company of your boyfriend. He placed his head on top of yours and you smiled. 

“You’re the best boyfriend ever. You know that right?” 

“Yeah.” His smile reached the side of his face when he heard you laugh. “You’re the best girlfriend.” He put his lips on the top of your head, staying there for a second before kissing it. “I love you.” 

“Love you too.” 

~

“Y/N, can you come over here?” Shawn asked from the doorway that lead outside. You were at your parents house and there was a campfire set up outside, waiting for everyone to gather around. 

“Yeah, just let us finish this round,” you said dismissively. You and your brothers were playing Mario Carts and you were about to win when you got hit by someone’s power up. “Who did that?” 

Both of your brothers laughed and you sent a glare in their direction. “You’ve got to be kidding me! How did you win that one?” one of them asked. 

“Skills, baby.”

“One more round.”

“You’re on.”

“Y/N,” Shawn chuckled from the doorway, walking towards your place on the couch.

“What, babe?”

“There’s a fire outside. Come on, let’s go.” The hand he had stuck in his pocket fumbled with the case he had been carrying around for a while. “I have something important to ask.” 

“You can just ask me here.” Your eyes never left the screen in front of you as you talked to him. 

“You have to come outside.” 

“It’s gonna have to wait then.” 

Shawn shook his head. It was going to take a lot to get you outside. “You’re crazy,” was all he mumbled before leaving a kiss on the top of your head. You leaned slightly into him and he wrapped an arm around you. “Love you babe.” He pressed another kiss to your head and walked outside, looking at the perfect proposal scene in front of him. 

Wedding Kisses

He couldn’t take his eyes off of you. From the moment you walked down the aisle to the moment he was told he could kiss the bride, Shawn’s eyes were on you. 

“You may kiss the bride,” Shawn didn’t wait a second, wrapping his arms around you and dipping you before crashing his lips on yours. You were both in fits of giggles afterwards, you telling him that you thought you were going to fall over with how clumsy he was. 

“I would never drop you, my dear,” was the only response he had. It seemed like he couldn’t get enough of you all night either, kissing you every chance he got. 

It took all his willpower not to kiss you during your first dance. It was all he wanted to do, yet he realized that he had all the time in the world to do it. With your head on his shoulder and his head resting on top of yours, he was able to sneak in a few to your temple. He could feel you smile on his shoulder every time he did, and nothing had ever given him a better feeling. 

All too soon, the night was over, but he kept kissing you everywhere he could reach. 

“I’m never going to get tired of this,” he mumbled as you swayed together in your apartment. You were holding each other close, swaying to the music playing from your phone. 

“Me either.” 

Last First Kiss came on, and you both burst into a fit of giggles. 

“Can you believe this is where it started?” you asked, lifting your face from his chest to get a full look at his face. “Six whole years ago.” 

“You were so cute back then.” His head fell back in laughter when you swatted his arm with a fake frown. 

“I was. Too bad I’m so beautiful now.” 

“All the better, my dear. Everything about you is magnificent.” He dipped you and leaned down to kiss you again, smiling as he realized this is how he got to spend the rest of his life. 

Forehead Kisses

“Alright, three, two, one!” He shouted from three rows back. You were at one of the areas Shawn was performing in that night. You thought it would be cool if you jumped off the stage and struck a pose in the air. The stage wasn’t too far off the ground. What could go wrong? 

You jumped as high as you could, sticking both your arms in the air and making a silly face. Everything was fine until you landed. Your feet gave out from under you and you landed hard on your left knee. “Fuck!” 

“Babe,” Shawn ran towards you kneeling down next to you and trying to get you to sit back. “Are you okay? What hurts?” 

“My knee.” You voice came out strained and you hugged it close to your chest. “Holy shit.” 

“It’s alright babe, I’ve got ya.” He carefully picked you up bridal style and carried you backstage to get you checked out. He sat down and laid you across his lap, allowing you back to rest on the armrest of the couch. 

Your face was still contorted in pain, grimacing more when you knee was being inspected. 

“It’s gonna be alright, babe,” Shawn whispered, pressing his lips to your forehead and letting them linger for a second. You curled up closer to him, signifying that you wanted to stay like that. He smiled in adoration and put his lips back to your forehead, staying like that until you were able to stand up and get back to his dressing room. 

~

“Breath with me, baby,” you whispered as you held him close. You took deep breaths, trying to get him to sync with you. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” Soon enough, his breathing became more regulated and you were able to pull back slightly to get a better look at his face. 

He was a mess. His anxiety had been through the roof the past few weeks and tonight was his breaking point. Luckily, you had been there when he needed you and you were able to calm him down. 

“You’re okay,” You said softly, running your fingers through his hair and pushing you lips to his hairline. You left a few pecks there before pulling him down to lay on your chest. 

“You are so strong,” your lips were still pressed to his forehead, “and I am so proud of you.” 

Belly Kisses

“Shawn, he’s kicking!” you shouted from the bedroom, placing your hands on your stomach as you felt the flutters. 

Shawn all but ran to the room, dropping to his knees and placing his hands on your belly to feel. “Oh my gosh. He’s kicking.” His smile reached his ears as he looked up at you. “That’s our kid.”

“That’s our kid,” you confirmed, placing your hands on top of his. 

“I love our little bub. I love you,” He stated simply, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on you belly, taking in the moment. After a few seconds he picked his head up and started blowing raspberries on your belly, causing you to shake with laughter. 

“Shawn!” He was mesmerized by the sight. His beautiful wife, pregnant with their child, laughing like he had just told the funniest joke in the world. He placed a quick kiss to your belly before standing up and cupping your cheeks, kissing you like the night of your wedding. 

Temple Kisses

“Shh, Jack. It’s okay, mommy’s got you.” You said as you rocked your two week old son in his room. It was one in the morning and you were beyond exhausted, but Shawn needed to rest. He had a long day of interviews coming up that day and you didn’t want him to be tired. Of course, Jack had other plans. 

His cries seemed to be intensifying by the minute, leaving you to hope that he wouldn’t disturb Shawn. You felt like you had tried everything. You had fed and changed him. You even went as far to change his pyjamas, hoping that maybe he just didn’t like the material. Nothing seemed to be working. Sometimes, you knew, he just needed his dad. You were hoping that wasn’t the case tonight. 

Your hopes were crushed when you heard soft footsteps coming down the hallway and the door opening slowly. 

“Sorry. I was trying to let you sleep but he won’t stop crying and I don’t know why.” You were close to tears and Shawn could tell that you were frustrated. 

“No, no, it’s okay. Let me try.” He took the wailing baby from your arms and started bouncing to soothe him. It took a few minutes for it to stop, but Jack eventually started to calm down, falling asleep on Shawn’s shoulder. “There we go.” Shawn carefully placed his son back in his crib and turned to look at you. “He just need his daddy tonight.” 

You were almost asleep standing up and Shawn smiled to himself. His perfect little family all in one room. You jumped slightly when you felt his arms wrap around you. 

“You’re such an amazing mom. I hope you know that,” he mumbled into your shoulder. 

“You’re an even better dad.” You turned your head to kiss him on the temple, sliding your head down afterwards to rest on his shoulder. 

He pulled his head up to kiss your temple in return before saying, “I am so lucky to have you two.” You looked up and smiled tiredly, allowing him to see the dark circles under your eyes from multiple nights of interrupted sleep. “Let’s get you to bed, pretty mama. You need some sleep.”

#Shawn Mendes #Shawn Mendes fic #Shawn Mendes fanficiton #Shawn Mendes imagine #Shawn Mendes one shot #Shawn Mendes writing #Dad!Shawn #husband!shawn #boyfriend!Shawn #soft!shawn #Shawn Mendes x reader #Shawn Mendes x Y/N #Y/N #Shawn Mendes fluff #Anna writes

[katsukis-sad-angel]

Aren’t We in a Relationship?

KATSUKI ANGST WEEOOO WEEOOOOO

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

Word Count: 1.7K

Summary: Katsuki doesn’t prioritize you first and you first and you sorta throw a tantrum

Contains: swearing, angst, consumption of alcohol

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

You sat at a table for two in a very expensive restaurant, staring out of the huge glass window waiting for your boyfriend.

Katsuki was a busy man.

As a budding pro hero, he had a lot on his plate, especially after starting up his own hero agency less than a month ago.

He never seemed to be around and it felt like you and your relationship were being pushed to the very bottom of his daily list.

This wasn’t the first date he had flaked out on and you feared it wouldn’t be the last either.

For the past 3 weeks, every evening you’d planned had ended up you eating alone in a restaurant or just going home because you felt like crying.

But this time, he'd promised.

-

“Don’t worry babe. I’ll be there. I promise.” He had said while clicking away at his Mac.

-

But here you were, sitting alone.

Since you had been absolutely positive he would come, you had gone out of your way to make yourself look irresistibly gorgeous, even to your critical eye.

A smoky eye shadow and black liner made your (e/c) orbs twinkle and the matte color of your lipstick made your lips look extra plush and kissable.

The tight black dress your friends had helped you choose hugged your curves and chest showing off your form, so Katsuki wouldn't be able to keep his hands off of you.

All of this trouble and what was your payment?

A lonely table and stares from other customers, especially the men.

The young waiter slowly approached you once again.

“Ma’am? I’m afraid your date isn’t coming, which is a shame. It’s none of my business, but someone as beautiful as you deserves better. This isn’t the first time he hasn’t come if I’m not mistaken…” He said softly, clutching his pad of paper.

“He… promised…” You whispered, clenching your fists and continuing to peer out the window, hoping for some sign of that stupid black Mercedes he drove.

Not even the distant hum of a motor.

You sighed, trying not to cry.

With shaking hands, you reached for a wine menu and ordered the most expensive bottle on the list.

It was going on your boyfriend’s credit card so what did you care?

The wine came and you took a few sips.

Gross.

You glanced outside again.

No Mercedes-Benz with an angry buff pomeranian lad sitting in the driver seat.

Sighing, you ordered the bill, paid the fee and a nicely sized tip, and left.

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

Soon you entered your apartment.

The chill of its emptiness seemed to sink into your very bones as you pulled off your fur jacket and hung it up.

You trudged to the bathroom and looked at yourself in the mirror.

Besides the bloodshot eyes, you still looked good.

Katsuki hadn't been there to tell you though.

You bit your lip to keep it from trembling and washed the evening off, removing your dress and slipping into soft, cotton pajamas.

After brushing your teeth, you wrapped your shivering body in a fluffy purple robe and went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

There he stood.

In his dumb costume, taking off his dumb mask, kicking off his dumb boots, and removing his dumb knee plates.

He seemed to feel your furious stare and turned to look.

“I can’t believe you,” You hissed in a choked whisper, “You promised you would come! But no! Of course not! Your fucking girlfriend isn’t as important as paperwork I guess.”

You felt like bursting into tears again, but you held them back with all of your willpower.

“You’re never home. You’re always out being someone else’s hero, you never text me, and you've already gone when I wake up! I wouldn’t call this a relationship, would you Katsuki?”

You tried to keep up the act but Katsuki could see you were tearing at the seams and you were about to burst into tears.

“Look, baby, I’m sorry. I couldn’t make it this ti-”

“There’s always some excuse!” You shrieked, stabbing one of your fingers to his chest, “And I’m not your ‘baby’ Katsuki. Plus what you call apologizing, is so fucking fake. If you managed to ‘make it’ to at least one of my plans, or actually cared that I exist, then I’d believe your apology. But this time… this time was different. You promised me you’d come. So, now I can’t even trust you. If you want to break up, now’s the time to do it.”

Katsuki tried to wrap you in a hug but you viciously slapped his hands away.

“The hell was that for?”

“Don’t touch me! In case your minuscule mind didn’t notice, we’re fighting.”

“No, you’re going ballistic because I didn’t go to dinner with your sorry ass.”

“You’re such a bitch. You’ll never be the number one hero.” You snorted, crossing your arms and turning your head, “I’d be better off with Deku or Kirishima.”

“You fucking slut, how many guys have fucked you while I was gone?”

“I guess you’ll never know, will you? If you were around, you’d be able to search the apartment and find out!”

“Why are you acting like this? Why the fuck are you being such an ass?”

His form, which was at least a foot taller than yours, towered over you, crimson orbs boiling with rage.

You looked up at him, holding the robe close about you and shaking, afraid you had cut a nerve.

Your fighting spirit was gone and in its place was sadness and fear.

He looked so angry.

His pale face was twisted up into such an enraged glare, it gave you chills.

You bit your lip.

Then you ran into the bedroom you shared, locked the door, and fell onto the bed with tears rolling down your cheeks.

And there you stayed.

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

Bakugou POV

He blinked.

What the fuck had just happened?

He had walked in from work, tired and hungry, then, suddenly his precious girlfriend started screaming at him.

Why?

He picked up his phone and saw the calendar reminder on the small screen.

Date with (y/n)! Don’t be late! (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

-

Cute.

Hold on...

Shit.

That was today?

-

He knew he hadn’t been the best boyfriend lately and now he had just witnessed his poor girl’s pent up anger flood out of her and now she was probably crying her eyes out in his bed, hugging his pillow and doubting her life choices.

When you’d said that thing about number one hero stuff and Deku and Shitty Hair, something just… exploded inside of him.

He felt bad.

He could hear your angry and dismal sobs through the door.

Sighing, he went to the door and knocked.

“Go away.” You sniffed, aggressively blowing your nose.

“Let me in babe.” He replied softly, pressing his cheek to the wood.

“I told *SNIFF* you not to call me that anymore.” You whimpered snatching up another kleenex.

He heard you heave a sigh, trying to calm down, but your breathing was uneven and you were obviously having trouble doing so.

“It’s my room too.”

“Not tonight it’s not. Go find someone better than me and sleep with them. You shouldn’t have a problem finding one. With your good looks, any girl will have you.”

Katsuki ‘tched’ and walked away.

You really didn’t trust him anymore.

Fine.

He’d make you come to him.

He moved to the thermostat on the wall and lowered the apartment temperature to 30 degrees. Then he gathered all of the blankets in the house and fell asleep on the couch.

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

Your POV

It was so cold.

A wave of cold air had woken you up in the middle of the night and now you were shivering so much you couldn’t fall back asleep.

Where were all the blankets?

In the closet outside the bedroom.

With your personal hot water bottle named Katsuki Bakugou that joined you every night at about 12 am, you never really needed too many blankets.

Well, now that he wasn’t here you were freezing your tits off.

-

Author: *from the distancE* it's colder than a witches tiT out there

-

You rolled out of bed and tiptoed into the living room to find Katsuki sprawled on the couch under mounds of blankets, snoring softly.

He looked warm.

You bit your lip.

You wanted to be warm too.

It looked like he’d taken all of the blankets.

But you were still mad at him.

You pivoted around and began walking back to bed.

A wave of chilly air rolled over your form.

That settled it.

Seconds later, you had burrowed into the warm mound and up against his chest.

Nice and warm.

“Thought you’d never come.” Came Katsuki’s low voice above you.

You had been caught.

Burying your face in his chest, you ‘hmphed’ and felt like crying again.

“It’s cold, stupid.”

“Is that right?” He grunted, turning over so his back was to you, “I didn’t notice.”

You pouted.

It was his fault for missing the date! Why were you the bad guy?

“Katsukiiii! I’m cooooold!” You whined, tugging at his shirt.

“What do you want me to do about it?” He muttered, crossing his arms.

Little did you know, but Katsuki was feeling chilly too.

He was being a stubborn shit though and didn’t want to admit that he was in the wrong.

He turned over to look at you again.

You lay on your back, hands slowly rubbing at your upper arms, a single tear dripping down your temple.

“Damn,” He whispered, “Alright, I’m sorry babe.”

A big warm hand was put on top of your head and it pulled you close so your body rested on top of his and your chin lay on his shoulder.

He hummed softly, rubbing your back, and kissing the back of your neck.

He sang to no particular tune, but it was sweet and alluring and soon you were calm.

Katsuki rubbed the back of your head, still humming softly, heating up his hands so you would cuddle closer.

“Don’t blame yourself.”

His voice was soft and low, so as not to startle you.

“I’ve been a bad boyfriend.”

He lay his warm hands on the small of your back.

“I’m sorry.”

You smiled.

All of your anger and misery had completely melted away.

“Go to sleep.” He whispered, adjusting the blankets around you.

HOT

NOT MY ART!!

#i seem to only write angst #wtf is my problem #my cat just bit me #ouch #bakugou #katsuki #bakugou katsuki #katsuki bakugou #angst #my hero academia #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #boku no hero academia #mha #bnha #my hero academia x reader #dontmesswiththenootnoot

[blerbdrops]

New Kid (Billy Hargrove X F!Reader)

Howdy folks, sorry I am late! I started school and I am also sorting out my work schedule. Here is part 4 of new kid, thank you for reading/liking/reblogging/following etc! I appreciate you all so so much.

Summary: You’re new in Hawkins, hailing from the big city on the east coast. As a city kid, you think you’ve been stuck here to suffer in a small town, but there’s a certain someone who shakes it all up. 

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of smoking cigarettes, underage drinking 

Taglist: @salemlysi​ @asheseiler

You sat at your mirror putting on your makeup and getting ready for tonight’s party. You swiped on a tube of red lipstick and pressed your lips together, spreading out the color. Tonight’s outfit consisted of a white cropped tank top with a slightly oversized black cardigan knotted in the front. You had on high waisted black pleather pants, and a black belt with a shiny silver belt buckle. You laced up your old red Doc Martens, they were well-worn and you wouldn’t be too upset if they got scuffed or dirty. Your hair was curled to the nines, sprayed in place so that nothing frizzed out. 

“Damn, I look good.” You said to yourself in your mirror. You threw on your denim jacket and pocketed your lipstick and your flask full of whiskey. Moments later, you heard loud beeps coming from outside.

“(y/n)! I think Steve is here to come get you!” Your dad shouts from downstairs. You come downstairs to find your dad is dressed up, with a suitcase at the door. 

“Uh. Dad? What’s with the suitcase?” 

“I have to go on a road trip, see Uncle Willy about some things.”

Your brows furrowed. “What kind of things?”

“Adult things, kiddo. I’ll be gone for the weekend. I’ll be back sometime on Monday.” He kisses your forehead and heads out for his car. You snag your keys and head out of the house, locking the door behind you. Nancy and Steve greet you right as you slide into the backseat of his BMW.

Nancy lets out a whistle, “You look fantastic (y/n)! Ready to have the best night ever?” She says to you enthusiastically.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s roll!”

--

You, Nancy and Steve enter the party house. You can feel the bass thumping in the house and your chest. The living room is full of teens with red plastic cups in their hands, dancing drunkenly and laughing. You navigate your way to the kitchen, where the rest of the booze was. 

“Hey! You’re that new girl! Come, come get a drink!” It was that kid in your chemistry class, the one that sat next to Billy.

“What’s your name again?” You shout over the music to ask him.

“Oh yeah, I’m Tommy!” He replies cheerfully. “Hey, come on, you look sober!” 

You laugh, “It’s because I am. Give me something to drink!” 

He hands you a beer, but before you can crack it open he stops you. “I bet you can’t shotgun that!” 

“What? Tommy, I could drink you under the table. Stop playin’.” You scoff. This gets the attention of the kids in the kitchen, with some of them ‘ooooh’-ing like owls. Just as this happens, you spot a mop of blond curls make its way to the kitchen where you and Tommy were. Billy eyed you up, taking a look at your outfit before turning his attention to Tommy. 

“What’s going on?” He asks Tommy. 

“Oh you know, (y/n) over here thinks she can ‘drink me under the table’, her words exact.” He laughs. 

Billy slaps five dollars down on the table. “My bets on her. Tommy, you’re a lightweight!”

You laugh out loud. “We’re placing bets now?” You pick up the five and examine it. “Who else is ready to see Tommy lose to the new girl, huh?” You were met with roars of excitement as teens were tossing cash on the table, your pile only slightly bigger than his. Billy watched you, taking a swig out of his can of beer.

“All bets are final, and winner takes all. Let the games begin!” Billy shouts, as you stab the side of your beer can, crack the lid and shotgun it. It empties fast, and you crush it underneath your boot. You continue on to your second one, choosing to chug it. The kids in the kitchen were cheering you on, hearing chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!” over the Bon Jovi song that was booming throughout the house. 

You had finished way too many beers, the beer cans underneath your feet. You were still upright, while Tommy had half a can left. People in the kitchen were chanting your name, but all you did was let out a loud belch. You were met with cheers and claps on your back. 

“You give up yet? Ready to throw down the white flag?” You guffawed at Tommy. 

“Alright, alright! You win. Fair and square.” He shoves his bet money into your pile and you throw your hands up, inciting more cheers from your crowd of “fans”. 

“That’s how you drink Hawkins! That’s how you fuckin’ do it!” You open your flask and take a large swig, feeling its warmth trickle down your throat, feeling some drip down your lips and neck. You close your flask and feel a hard stare on you. 

Billy walks over to you and leans up against the counter while you count up and pocket your cash. 

“That was pretty impressive, (y/n). Didn’t know you had that kind of fire in you.” He smirks. 

You turn to him, uncapping your flask and drinking more out of it. “I’m a woman of many mysteries, Billy.” You laugh, tucking your hair behind your ear. 

“And I’m really digging this outfit. Completely different from that goody-two-shoes getup you had on at school today.” 

You raised an eyebrow and smiled at him, posing. “Oh? You like what you see?” You do a spin, almost tumbling over. 

He laughs at you, helping regain your balance. “Careful. Don’t need you busting your ass because you wanna show off.”

A hearty laugh emits from your belly, then a burp. “Excuse me! Jesus christ.” Your head snapped to the dance floor. You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead or Alive played through the speakers.

“Are you alright (y/n)?” Billy asks, a bit concerned. 

“I’m fantastic! This is my favorite song like, ever! Come dance!” 

“(y/n) I can’t dan-” You yanked him by the wrist and dragged him to the dance floor, completely ignoring what he had to say.

You got on the dance floor, and started to bob your head to the synth in the song, getting ready to dance and shout your heart out. 

All I know is that to me

You look like you're lots of fun

Open up your lovin' arms

I want some, want some

You spun around, dancing near Billy and trying to get him to loosen up and enjoy the song. You then grabbed his hand and yanked him closer so you two could actually dance. He began to relax and laugh along at you dancing. He didn’t know what it was exactly, but something about seeing you smile and have fun made his heart flutter. 

I set my sights on you

(And no one else will do)

And I, I've got to have my way now, baby

All I know is that to me

You look like you're havin' fun

Open up your lovin' arms

Watch out, here I come

You sang the second verse and pre-chorus, looked at Billy and shot him a wink. He laughed, a slow smirk spreading across his face. 

You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round

Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round

You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round

Like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round

He grabbed you by your hand and spun you around like you were in a ballroom. He pulled you back into him, your back pressed against his chest. You were twirled out again, only this time you were dipped low, his face close to yours. It took all of your willpower to not kiss him right then and there. You came back up and danced for the rest of the night, laughing and taking the occasional sip from your flask. 

--

As the music died down, you had left the dance floor panting and sweaty, a dewy sheen spread across your face. You stumbled over to the kitchen and grabbed your jean jacket from the counter, making sure your keys were still there and they were. You put on your jacket and walk outside, only to see that Steve’s car was gone. 

“Goddamn Steve… and Nancy. Damn ‘em! Damn em to hell.” You spat, staring at the porch. “Now I have to walk and, and I don’t even know where I’m at. And its LATE! Goddamn it!” 

“Who are you talking to sweetheart?” Billy asked you. He was leaned against the banister, smoking a cigarette. 

“I’m talking to me, genius.” You slurred. “Now I’m talking to you. I wanna go home but I got ditched!” You sulked. You walked over next to the banister where Billy was and plucked the cigarette from his lips. You took a drag and exhaled, letting it escape through your nose and lips. Billy watched your lips wrap around the cigarette, wishing it was him. 

“Like what you see?” You shoot him a wink, blowing the smoke away from his face and stubbing out the cigarette. 

“Yeah. I kinda do.” He licks his lips, smirking. “Now, tell me (y/n), how exactly are you getting home?”

You sigh frustratedly, “I guess I’m just gonna walk and figure it out.” You took out your flask and opened it to drink, but there was no more whiskey left. You pouted. 

“You’re not walking. I’ll take you home.” Billy stands up and offers his hand to you. You slowly push yourself up and gather yourself. You take a look at Billy’s hand and high five it. He looks at you puzzled. 

“Fix your face! Is that not why your hand was out?” You asked, words slurring here and there. 

“No, smartass. Give me your hand so I can walk you to my car.” He states, the slightest pink flush spread across his face. Giggling, you take his hand into yours and you make your way to his car. He unlocks the passenger side door and opens it for you. You lower yourself in, his hand pressed gently on the small of your back keeping you steady. Billy closes your door and makes his way to the drivers side.

“Where to, gorgeous?” He turns towards you. 

“332 Oak Lane.” 

He nods, starting up his car. As the drive begins, you notice him slip a glance at you every now and then.

“Hey Hargrove, take a picture. It’ll last longer.” You chuckle at him.

He laughs back, “No picture could capture all that beauty you got.” 

Your eyebrows flew up, painting a shocked look on your face. “Oh! Smooth talker over here. Didn’t know you could flirt like that. Color me impressed!”

The ride was peacefully quiet, right up until he pulled up to your house. 

“Nice neighborhood.” He says, then continues, turning to look at you. “How will your folks feel about you coming in piss drunk after a successful night out?” 

You laugh at his sentiment, catching his gaze. “My dads gone for the weekend. Went outta state to see my uncle. I have the whole place to myself!” 

“You.. you’re real cute ya know. Real good lookin’.” You say to him with a dopey smile on your face.

He flushes the softest shade of pink, smiles for a second and licks his lips. “Ah stop it. You’re only saying that because you’re drunk.”

“I am not! It’s true. I might be a little tipsy but.. I am right, you know.” You smile at him. 

“Tipsy? You passed that stage after your third beer. (y/n), it’s time you head inside.” He pats your thigh. 

You playfully roll your eyes, smiling. You place your hand on top of his and give it a squeeze. “Okay, I guess so. Can you walk me in? My room is up some stairs.”

“And?”

“And I’m scared I’m gonna fall! Please?” 

He removes his hand from your thigh. “Alright, I’ll walk you in. Don’t go tellin’ anyone either. I have a reputation to keep.”

You let out a thunderous laugh. “Yeah, okay buddy.” He comes over to your side of the car and opens the door. You shakily get up, feeling the dizziness get to you. 

“Easy now. Here, I got you.” He puts your arm over his shoulder and scoops you up, carrying you bridal style to your front porch. 

“Oh wow. You’re so strong! I feel like a princess.” You giggle. 

“You are. And I work out.” He continues, “Where are your keys?” 

You pull out the key that unlocks your front door and pushed it in his hands. He unlocks your front door and uses his back to shut it. 

“Alright princess. Where to?” He asks, looking down at you. Your makeup is smudged, your hair frizzed out, your eyes glazed over, flushed pink from all the drinking you had done that night. Even in your disheveled state, he still thought you were gorgeous. 

“Up the stairs. You’ll know my room when you see it.” You mumble, the tiredness setting in. Billy walks up the stairs and to your room. He could tell it was your room because of the giant Bon Jovi poster stuck to your door. 

“Okay put me down.” You ask, and he lowers you down. You slap the light switch on, illuminating your room. Billy gazes around your room, looking at all the band posters hung up on your wall. You also had christmas lights strung around your room. You had a big bed to yourself, a vanity, a small dresser and a decent sized closet. He noticed one wall void of posters. Instead of posters, you had two guitars mounted on the wall instead. One acoustic, one electric. Underneath the guitars were some amps and other guitar tech. 

“You play guitar?” He asks, looking at the guitars, his back turned. You were changing out of your party clothes, leaving you in your tank top and black boyshort underwear. You took a nearby scrunchie and pulled your hair up into a ponytail. 

“Oh yeah. Back home I was in a band. Lead guitarist you know. I still got it. Maybe I’ll play for you one day.” You say to him. “I wasn’t blessed with good vocals, my dear, but these hands? God must have took extra time with ‘em.”

“You really are a woman of many mysteries, (y/n).” He turns back around to you, but you had slipped out of the room and into the bathroom next door. He walks out of your room and finds you hunched over the porcelain throne, emptying out your insides.

Billy kneels down next to you, feeling his large warm hand on your back. 

“I HATE throwing up!” You say, face still in the toilet. “Shit is so gross.”

He chuckles. “Maybe you shouldn’t have started that drinking contest with Tommy then.” 

You lift your head up, wiping your tears away and reaching to flush the toilet. “What was I supposed to do? Let him think he could get away with shit-talking me? Just let him test me?” You and Billy laugh on your bathroom floor. “I’ll have you know, Hargrove, I come from a line of strong drinkers.”

He laughs, “Yeah, and I’m next in line to be the King of England.” He stands up, and holds his hand out to you. He helps you up, and you turn to the sink to wash whats left of your makeup off. You’re both looking at each other in the mirror. 

“I look so gross right now.” You mutter, taking out your jar of Noxzema face wash. You ran the water until it was warm and bent down to the sinks level to wet your face.

“I’ve seen worse.” Billy says, looking down at your butt. You popped up from the sink and so did his eyes. You unscrewed your jar of face wash and began rubbing it in. Billy took a seat on top of the toilet, watching you. 

“You know, you didn’t have to stay.” You state to him.

“You kickin’ me out (y/n)?” 

“No. Just saying you didn’t have to stay. I appreciate it, though.” 

He hesitated with his response. Nobody’s ever appreciated me. Or said it out loud, at least, he thought. 

“Thanks.” 

“Mhm!” You rinse the soap off your face, pat it dry and moisturize with some face cream. You turn to Billy, smiling. 

“How do I look?” You say, posing. Some of your hair had stuck to your face while you were washing it, you were in a tank top and underwear. You thought you looked like a mess. 

“Like a million bucks, doll.” He chuckles, smiling at you. You turn away and brush your teeth. Here you are, in your home, with local bad boy turned softie Billy Hargrove in your house. You catch his eye, and he just doesn’t stop looking at you, lips slightly parted. 

You rinse and spit. “Hey, Hargrove. Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies.” 

That snaps him out of his gaze, and his mouth closes. You yawn and stretch, feeling fatigue and the slight pounding of a headache lingering in the back of your head. You shut your eyes and pinch the bridge of your nose. 

“It’s time for you to get some rest.” Billy looks up and says to you. You nod your head, and you walk over to your room. 

“Hey could you like.. turn around or something? I want to change tops.”

“Sure.” He turns his back to you and you grab a large sleepshirt out of your dresser drawer. You peel off the tank top and throw it across your room, allowing you to slip on your big shirt. “Okay, I’m done.”

“You look like a dork.” He says.

“Yeah? It takes one to know one. Dork.” You both chuckle. You crawl into bed and your head sinks into your pillow. You sigh happily. 

“Thanks for taking care of me.” 

“Not a problem doll.” He shuts off the light and begins to walk out. 

Before you fall asleep, you say one last thing to Billy. 

“Hey, Billy?”

“Yeah?” 

“You’re not as bad as they say you are, you know.” 

Billy becomes bashful at this statement. He’s lucky the lights are out or else she’d see just how red in the face he was. Those words would continue to ring throughout his head for the rest of the night. 

Before he had his chance to respond, you had already succumbed to the sweet embrace of slumber. Billy slowly approached your bed, lowered himself down and kissed your forehead. He watched the smallest smile form on your face before you turned over, enveloping yourself in your blankets.

He backed out of the room and went into the bathroom looking for medicine. He takes out two pills of Advil and places them on your nightstand, along with a handwritten note. He leaves your house, locking the door behind him. 

There was something about you that struck a chord within Billy somewhere. And it unnerved him to his core. 

---

A/N: AW YALL! I LOVE WRITING SOFT BILLY. thanks for reading! as always, i will keep writing as long as you keep reading. feedback is always appreciated. my requests are open for you all. come chat! see u in part 5 

#billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove #stranger things #stranger things fic #blerbdrops original content

[zhydoesart]

sometimes you have to lie to find the truth

Chapter 5: tension, harsh tones, and ruined memories

ships: past Anxceit, mostly-platonic Moceit

A/N: This one’s heavy, so read the warnings please, and stay safe kiddos. If I missed any warnings you think should be included, let me know.

WARNINGS: minor violence, mentions of past abuse, mentions of past domestic violence, mentions of blood, past abusive relationship, swearing

AO3

Damien felt the familiar tug in his chest that meant that someone had summoned him. He closed his eyes and followed the feeling.

Odd. He’d appeared in… Virgil’s room–he’d gathered from all the cobwebs and the purple; it had been a long time since he’d been here. Not Thomas’ living room? The other sides didn’t usually summon him. But where was…?

A voice spoke from behind him, and he tensed.

“Well, well, well, Deceit,” crowed Virgil, and Damien spun around, only to come face-to-face with the scowling emo.

“Virgil,” greeted Damien cautiously. Virgil still hadn’t forgiven him, and for good reason, so he’d have to be careful not to say anything that might set him off, so to speak. “Was there a reason you summoned me?”

Virgil glared coldly. “I hear you’ve been trying to get close to my boyfriends. Gonna turn them against me like you did everyone else?”

Oh. So that’s what this was about. “Virgil, I don’t have any ulterior motives this time,” tried Damien.

“No. No, you don’t get to call me that.” Virgil’s laugh edged on hysterical.

“Anxiety, I promise.” He looked Virgil in the eye, but the pure hatred was too much, and he had to look away.

“Oh, do you? Very funny. You’ve had your fun, now stop pretending. Stop lying.” Virgil took a step forwards toward Damien, who took a step back. He’d never known the anxious side to be so forceful, but perhaps that was because Virgil had been scared to death of him before, and now he had something to protect.

“I know you’ve just been using them. I mean, it takes some real willpower to lie to Patton, and some real guile to lie to Logan, but really, shame on you for using Roman twice. You got him to trust you again. He’s naive when it comes to love–easily mislead and easily heartbroken.” Virgil stabbed Damien’s chest with a finger. “Ya know what’s gonna happen, Deceit, if you hurt them? Huh? Any of them?”

Virgil started circling Damien like a shark that’s smelled blood circles its prey. “FYI, Logan’s actually surprisingly fragile, and though he’s intelligent, he’s an idiot sometimes who pretends like he doesn’t have feelings, so you ought to be careful around him too. They’ve always been Light Sides, so they think people can really change, but they don’t know you like I do.”

A wicked grin grew across his face. “Remember when you burned my sketchbook in front of me? That had at least a year’s worth of drawings in it.” Damien’s eyes widened– Virgil was a Light Side now, he wouldn’t–

Damien reeled back from the forceful blow Virgil delivered to his cheek. He clutched at his face, wincing as he touched the bruised area. A part of him was stunned, but all the same, a part of him knew he probably deserved it.

“Remember that time you told Pride and Envy that I talked to the Light Sides?” This time, a punch to the gut, and Damien felt all the air get knocked out of him. “They took everything out on me, treated me like shit for weeks! Not only did you punish me, but they hurt me too!

“What about when you threatened to kill Deimos if I told the Light Sides about you?” Deimos was Virgil’s pet spider, and the next punch caused Damien a bloody nose.

Eventually, the blows weakened, before stopping entirely.

“Why won’t you fight back?” huffed Virgil as he tried to catch his breath.

“Because I deserve it,” stated Damien simply. “What I did to you was not right, and there really shouldn’t be any way I can make up for it, but I hope that I can at least atone partially.” He was in severe pain, but he pushed through the pain-filled fog in his mind. Telling Virgil how he felt was much more important.

Virgil was shaking, purple hair falling over his face as his head pointed towards the floor. Damien worried he’d be punched again, but instead, Virgil slumped forward against his chest. The anxious side, who’d seemed so furious and so merciless just moments before, now seemed so weak as he broke down, clutching at Damien’s clothes as the last of his resolve shattered.

“How could you do that?” Damien strained to hear Virgil’s whispers. “I depended on you.” He took a deep yet shaky breath. “I loved you.”

Damien was helpless to do anything other than stare, speechless.

“I was so scared as a new Side, constantly, so when you told me I could trust you, that you’d help me, I was so relieved. I thought that I had somebody I could depend on. I thought I wouldn’t have to be alone.” Despite all of the punches Virgil had delivered just moments ago, nothing hurt more than the weight of those words. He’d been there once too. He hadn’t had anyone to turn to, anyone to help him get his bearings, and to hear that he could’ve been that person for Virgil, but instead, he’d thrown it away…

“I was scared of so much back then, but I never thought one of those things would be you. I don’t remember anymore when exactly I started being afraid of you.”

“I’m sorry, Anxiety.” And he was, Damien really was, but he had no idea how to express just how sorry he was. “I can’t say that enough, and I don’t know if I can make you understand just how much I regret the way I treated you. If I could go back… If I could change the past, I would. You’ve been so strong.” Shocked, he realized that Virgil was crying, and almost automatically, he carded his fingers through that soft purple hair–but then it occurred to Damien what he was doing, and he pulled his hand away.

“Don’t.” The muttered plea was almost too quiet for Damien’s ears to pick up on. “Don’t stop, please.” Hesitantly, Damien resumed where he’d left off.

This was… wrong, wasn’t it? Why should Damien have any right to touch Virgil, after what he’d done? …yet here they were, Damien running his (now ungloved) fingers through Virgil’s insanely soft hair. Virgil had told him it was okay, so surely…?

A quiet pop came from behind Damien, and he hurriedly shoved Virgil away and turned. The other Sides and Thomas had elected to join them, and with the state they were both in, Damien knew it meant trouble.

Patton’s eyes widened, and his hands leapt up to cover his mouth. Roman and Thomas both winced at Damien’s injuries, and Logan appeared mildly concerned, which was rather telling of how he felt, as he didn’t typically show emotion on his face.

“Kiddos, what happened?” cried Patton, dismayed at the sight before him.

Damien opened his mouth, ready to take full credit for whatever had just happened, but Virgil beat him to it, and he felt a flash of gratitude.

“Sorry, Pat,” sniffled Virgil, wiping at his nose and eyes. “It’s my fault, I summoned him here for… revenge?”

Roman was appalled. “Look, whatever he did to you in the past, was this truly necessary?” He’d gestured to the entirety of Damien’s body, and he had to admit that he probably looked a mess.

“Yeah, sorry, I dunno,” answered Virgil noncommittally.

“I think maybe it’s time we knew your past, don’t you?” asked Thomas, but it was more of a statement than a question.

Damien took a deep breath, ignoring the sharp pain in his side. “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to be honest for, but here goes nothing. I should preface this by saying that Virgil here’s an ex-Dark Side.” An audible gasp went up around the room. “At one point, we were in a relationship of a romantic nature, but it wasn’t a healthy one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it wasn’t my fault, but I was–am–a Dark Side, and as such, I’d never had a healthy relationship to use as an example. I was afraid that if I gave Virgil too much freedom, he’d leave and never come back, and in my fear, I became abusive. I messed with his head, I threatened, and sometimes, I carried out those threats.

“But, every time, I promised him that I was just looking out for him, that I had his best interests at heart, when in reality, I was simply selfish and wanted Virgil all to myself.” The room was deadly silent, save for Damien’s voice as he told their story.

“The first time he appeared in one of your videos, Thomas, I believe it served as a kind of escape. He first met the Light Sides and learned that they weren’t as bad as I’d led him to believe–and at first, he felt like an outcast, but gradually began to feel more accepted.

“The whole time, I never knew he was spending time with you Light Sides until after that cartoon video. I was outraged that he’d done something I told him not to, and he moved his room in the mindscape so I couldn’t find it–then he got the brilliant idea to duck out to see if anyone would miss him. At some point during that two-parter, Virgil crossed the bridge from Dark Side to Light.

“So I waited and planned and plotted for the right time to strike, so to speak, and I kidnapped Patton so I could take his place. (Sorry, by the way.) Virgil caught on almost right away, since he knows me, my habits, and how I work.

“While I was spying on you and when you treated me like Patton, I realized that the way I’d been with Virgil didn’t have to be the only way, and here was the perfect example of what I should’ve done.” Damien finished his long-winded story, but the pain was finally starting to catch up with him.

“Whoa,” was the prince’s response. He looked stunning stunned.

Logan’s expression, meanwhile, was ruminative. All he said was, “Hm.”

“Oh,” said Thomas, clearly having not expected that. “Well, are you… good now, at least? I mean, what’s your relationship?”

“We’re… friends now, I think,” replied Virgil, even going so far as a little smile his way, and although he could tell the smile was forced, it still made him feel a little bit better. “…Damien.” A shiver went down his spine; it had been years since he’d heard Virgil say that name, and he found he’d missed hearing it.

Thomas eyed Damien’s injuries. “If he’s hurt, what does that mean for me?”

“He should heal naturally and quickly over the next few days, as long as their conflict is emotionally resolved,” elucidated Logan.

“Still, kiddo, we should take care of that,” suggested Patton. “Why don’t you come with me, and Virgil, I’ll take care of those knuckles later, okay?”

Damien had teleported with Patton to his room. They’d taken care of his nose first, and the moral side was gentle as he used a warm, damp cloth to wipe away the blood.

“Not that I’m saying it was wrong, exactly, but why didn’t you fight back, or even resist?”

“I knew I didn’t deserve it, and it was my place to cause him any more pain.” It appeared that he’d reached his “honesty limit” for the day.

Patton paused, his blue eyes taken aback and a touch reproachful. “You could’ve, I dunno, at least left?” He chewed his lip.

“I’m not of the opinion that Virgil has the right to get back at me for what I did. I didn’t owe it to him to at least stand there.” Damien was more than a little distracted by the way Patton was biting his lip. It was a bad habit he shared with Patton, so he knew firsthand that it wasn’t good in the long run. “There was a way around it–it’s simple, Pat.”

The fatherly side didn’t react to the nickname, expression still a frown, and Damien had the sudden urge to take Patton in his arms, to kiss that frown right off his lips–

Where had that come from?

Luckily, if Patton saw his blush, he said nothing. “There, done.” He tried to smile, but it was half-hearted at best, and Damien’s chest ached for reasons other than physical pain. “Does it hurt anywhere else?”

Damien recalled the intense pain in his side. “No, it doesn’t hurt here.” He gestured at the offending place.

“I think you’re going to have to, uh, undress.” Patton was looking everywhere but at Damien as he spoke, and he was extremely grateful for that. The shorter side’s freckled face had turned a bright red.

Damien removed his capelet. He untucked his shirt, then fumbled with the buttons for a minute.

Patton gasped at the dark, purple bruise discoloring a large part of Damien’s side. “Virgil did this?”

Damien nodded solemnly. “He wasn’t fueled by rage.”

Patton reached out to gingerly press a fingertip to the injury, but pulled back sharply as Damien hissed air through his teeth.

“Tha- that looks pretty painful, kiddo, but I’m not sure there’s much we can do other than ice it and try not to put pressure on it.” Patton bustled over to the freezer to withdraw an ice pack, which he pushed into Damien’s hands. “Logan said you’d heal if the emotional conflict got resolved. Well, did it? Get resolved, I mean?” He gazed hopefully up at Damien, who was in the middle of buttoning his shirt.

“I don’t believe so.” He took a minute to formulate his answer so he knew it’d be true–a lie? true? Who knew anymore? If he said something that was true, it would come out as a lie anyway. “We don’t seem to be on regular speaking terms now.”

“That’s good, kiddo!” Patton beamed, happy that his friends had gotten past their differences and might finally be able to get along.

Later that night, when Damien returned to his room, he found a note that had been forcefully shoved under his door.

Damien could’ve sworn his heart had stopped–that is, if he had one, it would’ve stopped, but he’s a part of Thomas, so that’s silly.

-----

taglist:

@liberalautisticqueernerd831

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders side fic #thomas sanders #deceit sanders #ts deceit #tw deceit #sympathetic deceit #somewhat #virgil sanders #ts virgil #patton sanders #ts patton #roman sanders #ts roman #logan sanders #ts logan #past abuse #violence #blood #swearing #past anxceit #sometimes you have to lie chapter

[g0dblessthefandom]

Live! From New York: A Brittana Fanfiction Ch. 2

Listen... I know it’s been a minute, but I promise there won’t be as long a gap until the next update. I swear. Catch up on FF.net and AO3.

Santana had been to 30 Rockefeller Plaza three times in her life. The first was when she first got to New York, and she and some of her friend’s had stumbled across the crazy idea that they wanted to go ice skating during Christmas. Santana hadn’t really known how to ice skate, but she’d given it a try, and broken her wrist. The second time was three years later when her parents visited from California, and insisted on going for the tour of NBC studios. They were obsessed with Kathie Lee and Hoda on the morning show, and it didn’t matter how much Santana protested, they were going, so she tagged along. She’d resisted the siren song of network TV for as long as she could, but once the NBC page pointed out the wall of signed photos from former hosts of SNL, they had her. She spent nearly $300 in the gift shop on swag, and yes, Mercedes had laughed at her for her lack of willpower, but it’d had been well worth it. She’d considered for a moment wearing her SNL t-shirt, but after about thirty seconds of wandering around her apartment, she figured that maybe that was coming on too strong.

The host dinner on Tuesday night was a tradition. Santana didn’t need to be told that. It was her first chance to make a big impression on the cast, writers and some of the crew, many she’d only seen on TV, and it was pretty important. Rachel had given her a long list of places that would impress even the snobbiest of connoisseurs, and for once, Santana was glad to have a friend who’s insane dietary demands kept her on the cutting edge of the trendy eateries in New York. Rachel and Mercedes sat in her dressing room, Michelin Eating Guides open and surrounding them, both shouting out suggestions as best they could, but Santana had yet to hear one that just sounded right.

“Oooh, how about Le Papillion?”

“Rachel, I’m trying to blow them away, not put them to sleep. That restaurant looks like the kind of place you’d take your mistress so you could avoid running into your side chick.”

Rachel took the comment in stride, thumbing through a few more pages. “The Grange? It’s got this lovely hunter’s lodge motif. I don’t  find it personally enjoyable, but the cast might.”

Santana grunted noncommittally and hit a few mindless notes on the piano she kept in the corner.

“Okay, how about the new Japanese restaurant by that celebrity chef? I heard that they flip the sushi to your table from across the room!” Mercedes said excitedly waving a glossy magazine high above her head.

Santana hit a few more notes, and suddenly closed the piano with a sharp snap.

She pointed to Rachel and Mercedes in turn. “I don’t want gimmicks. I don’t want tricks. I just want a place that will dazzle and inspire them!”

She stomped over to the couch and sat down in a huff, crossing her arms.

“Um, so…” Mercedes said, setting her magazine down and sitting forward to pat Santana on the leg. “I’m going to ignore that little outburst because you’re my girl, and I love you, but if you snap at me like that again, I’m gonna yank out your weave, and sell it on Ebay.”

There was a lightness in her voice, but Santana knew that she wasn’t far from the truth, so she grimaced and nodded, rolling her eyes for effect.

“Fine, ‘Cedes, but something has got to be perfect. If I can’t find it, I will never make this right.”

There was a whine in her own voice that Santana didn’t like, but she couldn’t help it. This was a big deal. This was a first impression, and in a lot of ways, it could be the first step on her path of Saturday Night Live fame. She didn’t want to want it as much as she did, but she did. She cleared her throat in an attempt to wipe the desperation away.

“I don’t know why you’re all worked up about this anyway, Santana.” Rachel said behind the latest copy of Fine Eats magazine. “It’s just a performance. You do it every night of the week and twice on Sundays. This is old hat stuff.”

“Yeah, but if she screws up it’s not just to the crowd of one theater.” Mercedes broke in  from behind her own dining magazine. “It’s in front of hundreds of thousands. Or at least whatever is normal for a Saturday night, I dunno. Could be millions.”

Santana laid across the couched, nearly knocking the magazine out of Rachel’s hands.

Rachel raised it above her head with a sigh. “Even then, it’s not even prime time! I sang backup for Sia last year at New Year’s and there were probably more people in Times Square alone than-”

“What’s this?” Santana exclaimed, rolling off the couch, and grabbing a magazine from the stack on the floor near the couch.

“What’s what?” Mercedes and Rachel said, nearly in unison.

Santana pointed at photo in the magazine, tapping the magazine emphatically. “Blaine Anderson!”

Mercedes was by her side in an instant, and nearly grabbed the article from her hands. “No fricking way. Are you serious? Blaine Anderson? The guy from Newberry Park?!”

“It’s gotta be. I remember that dumbass cowlick from anywhere.”

“Perhaps you’d like to clue me in, ladies.” Rachel sighed, folding her magazine primly in her lap.

“Oh yeah, Berry, I forgot that it was only recently that you started stalking us.” Santana quipped.

“I know that you’re joking, Santana, but I think everyone in the company agreed that you’re ‘joke restraining order’ was beyond the pale.”

“He ran this food cart in Newberry park, in our old neighborhood in Queens. He had a bunch of Filipino food, and it was pretty much the most delicious thing we’d ever eaten in our whole lives. We basically went there every day for three years, and then one day he said he was shutting down, and was going to open a brick and mortar place. We told him we’d be first in line, and gave him our contact info, but we hadn’t heard anything since.”

“Maybe that was your favorite place to eat, Mercedes, but I like to think that I had a bit more class than some fly by night operation.”

“Oh, well, I guess all the times that you texted  me desperately at midnight asking me to bring you some adobo chicken on my way home from work were hallucinations.” Mercedes shot back.

Santana buried her nose behind the glossy print, and wouldn’t meet Mercedes’ eye. “Yeah, well, whatever. It turns out he made it big, and now his place is one of the up and comers in Manhattan.”

“Well, good for him! I’m so proud. We should definitely make a reservation.”

Rachel stooped behind Santana and took a look at the magazine herself. “Filipino-American chef Blaine Anderson opens up Hapa an American/Filipino fusion restaurant that mixes both of Anderson’s heritages into one amazing dining experience. Good luck with that reservation, ladies, it says here that they’re booked out for the next six months.”

“Maybe for a peon such as yourself.” Santana snatched the paper away, and tugged on the page, tearing it out. “But we were there at the beginning, and I’m sure there’s no way he can refuse one of his original supporters a seat.”

Mercedes did some quick math. “It’s not just one seat, San, you’re taking the whole cast of SNL, probably plus some of the writers. That’s like 20 people.”

“Sure, I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy, but you’re talking to Santana Lopez. Writer and star of the most sought after ticket on Broadway. I’ll offer him a few balcony seats to Billie! and he’ll be sold.”

“I’m not sure if it’s going to be that easy, Santana.”

“Well, luckily Rachel, no one asked you.”

“Santana, she’s right.” Mercedes said. “And, if you remember correctly, it’s not like you and Blaine Anderson had the most cozy relationship.”

Santana smiled slyly. “And that’s why I’m not going to ask him. I’m going to ask the co-star of the most sought after ticket on Broadway. The woman behind the throne. One of the most talented, kind, and not to mention beautiful women that I know.”

Mercedes opened her mouth to reply, but Rachel interrupted her.

“Why Santana, that was the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me!” She swooned.

Both Santana and Mercedes gave her a glare, but moved on with the conversation.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Lopez.”

“Aw, c’mon, ‘Cedes. You know how much this means to me. Having it at this place, this great, cosmopolitan establishment, on the rise, with amazing food… It’s a can’t miss! It would mean the world to me.”

“I don’t know, Santana…”

“And I would owe you one.”

A devious smile crept over Mercedes’ features, and Santana’s eyes grew wide. She was beginning to regret her decision, but Mercedes was already accepting, her hand out to accept Santana’s.

“Deal. I’ll get you and the cast into Blaine Anderson’s restaurant in a couple weeks, and you’ll officially owe me one.”

There was something about her tone that Santana didn’t like, but she was desperate. What she had said to Mercedes and Rachel was real. There was something in her that needed to make a good impression, and she wasn’t sure why, but she’d do anything to achieve her goal.

She swallowed audibly, but took Mercedes’ hand regardless. “Fine. Deal.”

Mercedes held her hand a bit tighter. “But you have to convince Emma to give up the tickets.”

Santana looked like she wanted to resist, but a thousand scenarios ran through her head and there wasn’t a single one where she figured she could refuse this request.

“Deal.” She said, defeated

Mercedes nodded with a satisfied smile, and finally released Santana’s hand. She stooped down and started gathering the magazines off the floor.

“Ooh, I can’t wait. I’m already thinking of what you can do.”

Santana bent over to help. “Yeah, whatever. You just focus on getting me in that restaurant and the rest will fall into place.”

Rachel had placed herself delicately back on the couch, and was fanning through a Vanity Fair.

“You do realize she’s probably just going to get you to watch the kids so she and the Mrs. can have a date night, right?”

Santana scoffed and watched Mercedes carefully. “Yeah, she knows that I would do that for free. I can already see that she’s got something more devious in mind. Deny it, Mercedes. I dare you.”

Mercedes laughed lightly, and placed her stack of magazines on the coffee table. The laugh took on an edge of the maniacal as she didn’t say a word, but just walked out of the room.

\

Leslie Jones and Artie Abrams both watched Brittany with a strange fascination. They talked, but didn’t bother directing any of their comments toward Brittany, who had been muttering to herself for the better part of an hour, and had been standing in the middle of her dressing room with a signed copy of the Billie! playbill for the better part of fifteen.

They watched her mutter for a few moments more and suddenly Leslie stood up from the couch.

“Girl, just leave it! Damn. I swear you’ve spent more time doing this than writing any sketch I have ever seen you in.”

Artie waved his hands in solidarity. “Les, she can’t hear you, girl. She’s in La La Land.”

“Well, she better get her ass out of La La Land, because we’re supposed to be writing something to take to pitch tomorrow, and I can’t even think with her running around like this!”

The weeks before Santana Lopez’s arrival had slowly whittled down to days, and now they were only a mere 72 hours away from her arrival at Studio 8H. While not everyone in the cast knew (or cared too much) about Brittany’s fascination with Santana Lopez, they had all found a bit of humor in her worsening condition. It was like watching someone very, very slowly sink into quicksand that they only notice after the fourth or fifth day.

“What do you think she’s going to do with it in the end?” Artie asked, with a kind of quiet wonder.

“I dunno. She’ll probably try and eat it or something.” Leslie cupped her hands around her mouth. “She’s not going to care if you have a totally normal thing in your dressing room, Britt. Honestly, she’s probably not even going to come in here.”

That last sentence was directed towards Artie, but Brittany’s eyes snapped to Leslie. “You don’t think so? I mean, I wasn’t thinking that it would be a part of a tour or anything, but I’d really hoped that she’d stop by. I could show her my table, and my computer and stuff.”

“Britt. Girl.” Leslie deadpanned. “Santana Lopez, is like on a whole other level right now. She’s won like a million awards, and was friends with President Obama. She’s on a whole other level of cool, my dude.”

Brittany tried not to let her face fall too much, but she couldn’t help but be disappointed. “Yeah, no, you’re right. What was I thinking?”

She placed the framed Playbill on her desk with a soft slap. Artie pushed his wheelchair closer, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Nah, Britt, it’s not like that. I’m sure she’ll come by.”

“Yeah, Brittany, she’s a star, but she seems like a really down to Earth person, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Leslie chimed in, quick to reassure her.

Brittany took a deep sigh, and dramatically slithered to the floor, her body in fluid motion, floating to the ground. Artie had to admit that he was always impressed with her control and grace. Even falling to the floor, she looked like a dancer.

One thing he did know from being her friend for just under a decade was how resilient she was. He leaned over and patted Brittany on the leg.

“It’s cool, Britt, don’t worry. How about we head over to Jane’s office, and see if we can’t make some comedy magic?”

Leslie and Brittany both looked up at him quizzickly.

“What?” He continued, puzzled. “I thought it would better than just saying, ‘Write some sketches.’”

“Yeah.” said Leslie, taking a large step over Brittany, and reaching out a hand. “You should probably stick to jokes, funny man. C’mon, Britt, let’s get out of here before we catch any of his bad jokes.”

Brittany took Leslie’s hand, but lingered a moment as she and Artie argued a bit as they moved down the hall. She would be the first to admit that she sometimes got caught up in her emotions, and maybe tended to exaggerate more often than not.

Maybe.

But, she was a performer, and she was a bit of a cut up, and it seemed sometimes that the only way that she could express herself was in a funny character, or voice or bit. She was like the world’s most outgoing introvert. But, at the end of the day, she really did want Santana Lopez to notice her. What came after that, she really had no idea. She stifled a heavy sigh that was escaping from her lips and took a right instead of the left, turning off into a less populated corner of 30 Rock.

It was nearly midnight, and the building was quiet, but that was par for the course. Most of the “late night” shows filmed at six in the afternoon, so around this time, it was usually only SNL writers left. They were still early in the week, so the crunch wasn’t on, but it wouldn’t hurt to hammer out a few sketch ideas before heading in for the night. Still, it was pretty early for the SNL folks, most didn’t get their motors really running until 10:30, and it seemed like a waste to stop working then.

Brittany snapped back into focus and looked around. Her feet had taken her almost all the way to her after-show-secret-hideout, but she frowned to herself. She hadn’t meant to come this way at all. How out of order did her brain have to be to bring her this way? She rocked quickly back and forth on the balls of her feet and thought for a moment. It was just a show, right? Just a show like any other? Then why was she so nervous? Why was she so worried? Why was she acting so weird? She frowned again to herself.

“A lot on your mind?”

The voice behind her nearly made her yelp, but she contained herself, and spun quickly to face it.

Sam Evans had been on the show for less than a year, but he was currently the resident heartthrob, and his abs brought a certain quality to the shirtless scenes, so Lorne was sure to make good use of them. Brittany wasn’t quite sure how she felt about him yet. He had to tendency to make sketches all about him, and was hired after his successful YouTube channel had several viral videos. He wasn’t a stand up comic, and hadn’t been to Second City, so he was a new beast entirely.

Brittany eyed him up and down. “Nothing to concern yourself with, Sam. Shouldn’t you be out vlogging or something?”

She kept her voice light, but there was a bite. She didn’t have anything against the guy, but it didn’t hurt to remind him who had seniority.

“Nah, I’m just working on some killer stuff for this week. Lorne couldn’t get enough of my stoner surfer guy on Update a few weeks ago, so I’m thinking of bringing that back.”

“Yeah, might want to watch out for that, don’t want it getting stale.”

A look of uncertainty crossed over Sam’s face before he spoke up again. “You don’t think it’s weird you’re wandering around on this side of the studio late at night? Not worried about ghosts?”

The last part of his statement came with the hint of a sneer, and Brittany had to keep herself from smiling. She and Artie had spent the better part of a month convincing Sam and Ego Nwadim (the two first years) that the studio was haunted. Ego had been humoring them (nothing wrong with a little hazing to promote team building), but it seemed to Brittany that Sam had actually believed her, and still refused to go in the third floor men’s bathroom alone.

“Whatever, Britt.” Sam said. The uncertainty had slipped away, and the cocky grin returned. “Hey, did you hear? Santana Lopez has sent out invitations for the Host Dinner. I just got mine a few minutes ago.”

He reached into his jacket, pulling out a gorgeous egg shell envelope. He waved it in front of Brittany and with a flash, she had snatched it out of his hands, and was pulling it open.

“Hey! That’s mine.”

She batted his hand away, and pulled the envelope open, removing a document that Brittany could only describe as ‘wedding Invitation fancy’.

“Holy hell. This is amazing.” She breathed, gazing down at the paper.

You Are Cordially Invited To Join Santana Lopez for the Inaugural Host’s Dinner

For Episode 848 of Saturday Night Live

Reservation at 6PM at Hapa

72nd and Columbus Ave.

Be there or be square!

Brittany clasped the note to her chest. “Oh my god.”

Sam’s eyes widened a little. “What’s wrong?”

Brittany sighed a little and smiled tightly. “She’s such a freaking dork!”

With that she raced down the hall, back towards the writer’s offices, doing a joyful leap every so often.

Sam watched her leave curiously. “But that was my invitation.”

#brittana #glee #santana lopez #brittany s. pierce #fanfiction #wlw #live! from new york brittana

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers Annual #7 + Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2

December, 1977

A joyous various winter type time period for you and yours!

Due to these issues issues coincidentally falling in December and also wanting to get back to the main book as soon as possible, I’m doubling up issues in this post. It’s a Yule-esque miracle, perhaps.

I wanted to get this out last Friday but I couldn’t make it in time before I had to visit my family for pre-Christmas.

Anyway, lets get into it.

The Avengers and Captain Marvel and some jerk named Adam Warlock team up to fight Thanos.

We’ve seen this before but the Avengers got kicked off the field so Drax and Captain Marvel got to hog all the Thanos to themselves. Maybe they’ll get their asses beat by him personally this time.

Dangit, maybe I should have saved this for when Infinity War came out? Eh. I can always cover Infinity Gauntlet. Its Avengers-adjacent.

Without further ado, let us commence without stealing someone’s catchphrase.

We start with Adam Warlock being moody and in space, the two prime facets of his character.

In brief, Adam Warlock was created by evil scientists to be the Perfect Man. He was then beaten near death by Thor and went back to his cocoon. Later, the High Evolutionary named him Warlock, gave him the Soul Gem, and sent him to Counter-Earth to become its champion where he gained the name Adam. Then he became involved in a predestination paradox with his evil future self the Magus and had to murder himself in the future to prevent his evil future self from existing. Thanos helped with this for his own nefarious purposes.

Warlock has been tracking Thanos, following the trail of destruction as it were. But he finds Gamora, Thanos’ most faithful servant.

Gamora is a lot different than in the movies. For one thing, she’s dying.

She discovered his secret plan of Stellar Genocide to wipe out all life and so he left her for dead.

Gamora: “He’s quite mad, you know.”

She says, master of understatement.

Gamora also reveals that the only person Thanos fears is... ADAM WARLOCK.

Warlock swears he’ll hunt down Thanos. But he won’t do it alone. bwoop. His forehead jewel eats Gamora’s soul. As it do.

He also scream exposits at no-one that he thought Thanos was a friend but Chaos and Order whispered to him while he slept that Thanos was a betrayer and also that Warlock is the Champion of Life, the natural foe to Thanos, Champion of Death.

Usually its worrying when voices tell you not to trust your friends but Warlock is kind of intense so I won’t tell him if you won’t.

Shouting into the void done, Warlock heads off to Earth. Which is a good segue for the Avengers portion of this Avengers Annual.

It is a dark and stormy night. Iron Man is brooding by the window. Scarlet Witch is trying to get Vision to go talk to him. And Beast has revised his policy on kissing and telling with Cap apparently into it.

Scarlet Witch finally convinces Vision to talk to Iron Man by basically saying they’re the same kind of stubborn stoic jerk who hides their emotions and Vision is like fine geez good logic.

Iron Man doesn’t really have an answer to give though. He just has a foreboding feeling.

Iron Man: “It’s just that ever since I arrived here tonight, I’ve had this unexplainable feeling of danger -- of forces at play about me. I don’t want to be here but I can’t bring myself to leave!”

Captain Marvel: “That’s because you are meant to be here this night, just as we are.”

CAPTAIN MARVEL (not those ones) AND MOONDRAGON!

Coming in through the window. And dripping on the carpet. Because fuck politeness, amirite?

It took all of my willpower to not edit this panel to have Tony say “Iron nipples... rigid! They sense danger!”

Because why would you choose that panel and pose to detail his chest dials?

I wonder how awkward it is for Iron Man and Moondragon to be in the same room. He was kind of an ass to her the majority of the short time she was on the team. And then she sabotaged his new roster by quitting and then convincing Thor and Hellcat to also quit.

Maybe that’s why it seems like they’re glaring at each other. Or perhaps Tony is just mad she’s taller than him.

Anyway, weird feelings are going around because Captain Marvel and Moondragon were also drawn to the mansion with a premonition that their powers would be needed.

This same premonition must have also drawn part-time Avenger Thor here.

‘No, I just wanted to hear stories about Beast’s love life. Now was this hair curling an euphemism or did grooming serve as foreplay in this encounter?’ Thor might have said.

Okay. Maybe I’m curious. Don’t judge me.

Anyway, the Avengers and guests ponder what kind of horror might be approaching that would need such an assemblage to stop.

A few hundred light-years away, a Playstation rendered TIE Fighter shoots a beam at a star and then the star kerplooies.

And a few hundred light-years back, Moondragon feels millions of voices cry out in terror and then were suddenly silenced.

I’m not being flippant. She basically Obi-wans.

Beast is being flippant. Doing card tricks and laughing off the idea of psychic screams and talking winds. This from the guy who was on a team with Professor X and Jean Grey. Won’t be laughing once Jean pulls the same shit on a different star, I tell you that.

He also won’t be laughing right now because Adam Warlock appears out of nowhere just to sass Beast.

I truly believe Adam Warlock’s true superpower is drama. He’s even got his own weird speech bubble quirk.

Anyway, he’s another person for this assemblage. But he also brings word of their common foe: THANOS.

Apparently it was supposed to be sort of a surprise? They haven’t said his name until now but if you’ve read any of the stuff Adam Warlock appeared in you’d recognize that Gamora worked for Thanos and the distinctive shape of Thanos’ ship, which is not actually a poorly rendered TIE Fighter. Its actually much bigger.

If you haven’t read any of the previous Adam Warlock stuff well then sucks to be you. He’s barely introduced here in this Avengers book.

But Thanos? Thanos gets a whole page of recap and introduction. By Adam Warlock. His best frenemy.

What’s weird is that apparently everyone is making faces like ‘yeah we know all this already’ and Warlock sees those faces but just keeps plunging on anyway.

So yeah we get through the stuff where he turned into a giant wireframe head in space and Captain Marvel chopped a Cosmic Cube to bits.

Now apparently Thanos is one of those villains who doesn’t think they could possibly lose but sets up some contingencies just in case. See also: Ultron.

Being ungodded left Thanos floating helplessly in space. And apparently he can breath in space. But then his not TIE-ship retrieved him and he began scheming anew.

But here’s the problem (from Thanos’ perspective): Death abandoned him for his failure. So he decided he needed a grand romantic gesture to win her back. Aka: where most of Thanos’ horrible atrocities start.

And on a scroll from a dead world, he found his answer. And the answer is what his answer always is. Gathering the six shiny things.

Yup.

This is the first time Thanos gathers the Soul Gems. Later to be called Infinity Gems once Thanos in a later story realizes he kind of underestimated them.

Actually the Infinity Gems got a bit of play before they were revealed to be Collect Them All Become God powerful. The Elders once tried to use them to kill Galactus because they were mad he was older than they were.

We get a brief montage of Thanos retrieving all the Gems. Stealing one from the Stranger, liberating another from a prison satellite, finding one in a cave, getting one as an epic drop from killing a monster named Xiambor, and finding one on the Moon because of course there’s one on the Moon.

The final one he was afraid to make a grab for because it was Adam Warlock’s Soul Gem and could steal Souls.

Instead, Thanos pretended to be his friend, worked together with him to defeat Warlock’s evil future self Magus because comics, and secretly siphoned off some energy from Warlock’s forehead bling without Warlock even knowing.

And then he transferred those energies and the energies of the other five Gems into a giant synthetic Gem. A truly, truly outrageous plan.

Truly a better telling of how he collected six things then the full miniseries that preceded Infinity Gauntlet and was just Thanos being smarter, stronger and more handsome than anyone else ever. I heard Thanos was shredded. I heard he had an eight pack. Etc.

When Gamora discovered that he planned on blowing up every star, she tried to backstab him but she was no match alas.

So most of this exposition Warlock learned by eating her soul with his forehead.

Meanwhile, hundreds of light years away, Pip the Troll arrives at Thanos’ Sanctuary ship to pay the “old gang” a visit. Nobody seems to be home so Pip loudly talks to himself, objectifying Gamora and insulting Thanos and basically digging himself into a hole.

I mean, in fairness, Thanos would have killed him either way. Now that he doesn’t need to pretend to be nice to Warlock, there’s no need to be civil to Pip either.

Lets just assume that something bad happens off-screen. Because we are changing scenes again.

So we have Thanos a) doing something crazy as a grand romantic gesture for Death and b) gathering several powerful gems. What’s next on our Thanos bingo game?

Invading Earth with a giant space armada? -checks- Yup.

And its such a giant space armada its twice the size of the giant Skrull armada from the Kree-Skrull War. These imaginary numbers are way bigger than those imaginary numbers!

(How does Thanos keep getting people to sign up with him if he inevitably leads them to their deaths and then laughs at them??)

The Avengers prepare to go fight an entire space armada by themselves again (seriously, start building space defenses, the Earth). And Adam Warlock just skips out without so much as a goodbye.

As the heroes prepare to go into battle we get some good character beats from each of them. And they each kind of lead into each other. Its good stuff.

Moondragon ponders how Thanos always shatters any peace she finds. Later on down the line, he even interrupts a date with her girlfriend. Thanos is the worst. Anyway, he also killed her family and caused her to be adopted by Mentor of Titan so really he’s always been screwing up her life.

Iron Man grapples with fear. He’s going to fight Thanos for a fourth time and wonders if he should have his head examined. Each time he’s fought Thanos he barely survived. And the last time the Avengers fought Thanos, they were only able to thwart his schemes. They didn’t even fight the man. Are the Avengers just heading for an unmarked grave among the stars?

(Maybe I should have saved this for Infinity War, geez)

Captain Marvel ponders how little they truly know about Thanos. And also he hugged Death and still lives. Whats the deal with that?

Thor is just thinking ‘man its about time I get to deck this Thanos fellow in the face.’

Vision wondering if decking Thanos will even win the day. Thanos is in effect a mutant demi-god. Because apparently the Titans of Titan are an evolved offshoot of the gods of Olympus. Which I guess makes Hercules and Thanos related? And also, wuh?

Captain America wishes they had more information about Thanos’ firepower and plans. But also suspects that Warlock knew more than he let on. Which will continue to be Cap’s frustration every time he ever works with Adam Warlock, who tends to use the superheroes of Marvel as disposable pawns in his inscrutable chess games.

Beast wonders who Adam Warlock even is. He was skeptical about this whole thing until he looked in Warlock’s eyes, the eyes of someone who has seen life, death, and infinity.

Scarlet Witch though is thinking that Adam Warlock is totally evil and that he and his Soul Gem could one day prove to be their foe.

And hey. She isn’t even wrong. Because Adam Warlock’s Evil side the Magus tries to take over the universe. And his ostensible Good side? She tries to KILL EVERYONE.

I sometimes think Adam Warlock only ever falls mostly on the side of good because of spite against people that side with evil.

And then the time for pondering ends. GIANT SPACE FLEET.

God. What a spread.

The Avengers really should start evolving their strategies against massive space invasions because the plan is still to send Thor and Iron Man out the airlock to dogfight spaceships individually while the Avengers’ shuttlecraft makes a run for Thanos’s H-shaped flagship.

A massive laser cannon aimed at space would be really helpful right now but some jerk time traveler never lets us have one.

Oh. And this is kind of a suicide mission. In that the Avengers looked at the odds and thought welp we’re boned. And decided to snatch victory from the jaws of numerical disadvantage anyway even in dying.

Wait, where the shit is Wonder Man? He usually has something to say about the Avengers grimly and dutifully marching off to their deaths. Usually of the ‘I wish that were me I me I don’t want to die but I do kind of want to retain dignity while I rush into death anyway.’

Anyway. Thor starts breaking space stuff FOR MIDGARD! FOR ASGARD! FOR LIFE! while Iron Man... has to be more indirect. Since repulsors are laser punches, he uses them to redirect the enemy’s ionic rays back into their allies.

Although if you think about it, hitting a spaceship going as fast as it is with a punch laser would probably punch a hole in the hull. No sense putting an extra step into it.

And technically with no sound in space, this would be more accurate:

Just Thor loudly screaming nothing as aliens asphyxiate.

Anyway.

With exactly two people running distraction (even though Captain Marvel can also fly through space I guess they need to keep some muscle to fight Thanos), the Avengers reach Sanctuary II.

Creating a kind of seal with the bomb bay doors somehow, Captain Marvel blasts a hole in the hull.

Beast: “I imagine a small army of aliens is waiting below to massacre us.”

Captain America: “So what are we waiting for, Avengers? LET’S GO!”

Nice.

Just wading hip deep into an army of alien malcontents. Now that’s cosmic.

If Avengers: Infinity War doesn’t have Vision fist a crocodile man, then the Marvel Cinematic Universe has failed.

Anyway, the Avengers do their Avenger things. Beast acrobats around and makes the wise-cracks.

Vision just stands still and lets someone shoot through him. As I get further and further into this liveblog I realize more and more how much Vision can just passively win battles and realize where Wonder Man got the idea from during his pacifism phase.

Scarlet Witch does a probability hex at a pig/bug/devil alien wearing no pants but wearing boots and a belt and bling to make his gun hand explode.

Moondragon smugly asserts that she needs no help. And she also reaches an armament control panel so she can turn the Sanctuary II’s guns against the rest of the fleet.

Also, there’s a giant cyborg space ape named QU’LAR THE MASSIVE.

He lasts for exactly two panels before Captain Marvel tells him to sit on it and possibly ruptures every one of Qu’lar’s organs.

Related to this, it strikes Captain Marvel that things have been a bit too... easy. It was too easy to get through the Sanctuary II’s hull. Too easy to reach it in the first place. And too easy to beat up Thanos’ forces.

If Thanos wanted to stop them, wouldn’t he be throwing worse at them?

He barges into the ship’s central section expecting the other shoe to drop.

Oh hey. Its empty. Well, except for Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll.

Adam Warlock: “His name was Pip, and he was my friend. Perhaps my only friend. He was joy and light to my darkness and damnation. He was unique among the heavens... and Thanos destroyed his mind and left him for me to find. First Gamora, now Pip. All about me those I love are falling. This cannot be allowed to go on. Nor, by my Gem, shall it!”

And Adam Warlock om nom noms Pip the Troll’s soul.

Alas, Pip. You were. Someone who existed. And who I have no strong feelings about at all. I guess Warlock’s Good side trying to kill everyone makes more sense if Pip was his idea of joy and light.

Anyway, by eating Pip’s soul, Warlock now knows what Thanos is really up to. Because Thanos did the villain thing and monologued his plans before destroying Pip’s brains. And Warlock absorbed that knowledge when he ate his soul.

So why did Thanos brag about his plans and then leave Pip’s husk for Warlock to find and learn from? Shrug. Thanos planting the seeds to his own destruction is ridiculously common even at this point. Its why he becomes a farmer later. He got so much experience with planting.

Anyway, Thanos is in an exact replica of his ship (Sanctuary III?) on the other side of the sun. The flagship and the fleet and all was just a distraction.

Of course, the fleet lured the Avengers out here in the first place. If he had just snuck up on the sun and destroyed it, he might have gotten away with it. More seed planting, perhaps.

But even as Warlock and Marvel approach the apparent real Sanctuary II, it fires its Starkiller at the Sun and starts suncrushing it.

The Sun goes red and purple and begins to flare. Eight minutes later, some astronomers are really going to freak.

But not if Captain Marvel has anything to say about it! He full-speed rams into the ion-laser projector that Thanos’ big synthetic Soul Gem was housed on.

I mean, maybe aim for the big gem next time, Marv?

Because Thanos is like oh darn I guess I’ll just replace the projector and get back to murdering stars?

Then Adam Warlock finally catches up and proclaims that he’s going to kill Thanos.

He gets one punch in before Thanos counterattacks and mortally wounds Warlock.

And since he’s dying anyway, Thanos asks if he’ll rely a message to Death.

Thanos: “Tell her I follow shortly behind you, bringing an offering of undreamed of magnitude... the stars!”

-Warlock plops to the ground, probably not going to deliver that message at all-

Thanos actually seems kind of disappointed on how smoothly this is going. He expected the Champion of Life to be more of a challenge.

THEN THOR AND IRON MAN BURST IN

Because its just one thing after another with heroes.

While Thor and Thanos exchange fisticuffs and... hammercuffs? Iron Man decides to attack the big shiny thing. Because he for one knows you attack the weak point for massive damage.

With the giant synthetic Soul Gem decided, Thanos’ plans and his chance to regain his love’s favor have been thwarted.

He teleports away, vowing that they’ve earned his enmity and will have few remaining minutes of life.

But I’m sure that everything is fine and will continue to be fine forever.

So now what?

Captain Marvel wakes up, probably with a horrible headache, after his face first tour of Thanos’ projector. And he sees Warlock talking to Warlock?

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Okay, so context. In the Adam Warlock comic, Adam Warlock traveled into the future to absorb his own soul to keep his future self from becoming his evil future self the Magus.

In-universe, this only happened months ago. And also right now.

But the months have felt like an eternity to Adam Warlock as everything he has ever loved or accomplished has fallen to ruin or died. His whole life has been a failure and he welcomes its end.

So Adam Warlock om nom noms his own soul.

And goes back to his present to live out the events that will lead him to getting his soul eaten by himself.

All the while having the soul of Adam Warlock inside and outside the soul gem.

COSMIC!

Having watched this all, Captain Marvel is mostly confused. As is anyone else who didn’t read the Adam Warlock series.

Even with Thanos’ plan to kersplode the sun thwarted, his forces still prove a threat so Thor, Marvel, and Iron Man decide to head back over to the fake Sanctuary II to help the other Avengers.

What to do with Adam Warlock’s body? Eh. Leave it. He’s at peace now. And he’ll peacefully rot in space. Probably like he always dreamed.

Or maybe give him a proper burial?

Throughout Marvel’s conversation with the two Avengers, a green-hued Warlock has been coming to terms with life after death.

Being absorbed into the Soul Gem means being reunited with everyone it has eaten. Gamora. Pip. Some other people probably from Adam Warlock’s own mag. And the realm within the Soul Gem is a land of peace where all can live as one and share a collective memory and heart.

A land where hearts are an open book, where understanding is bred, and the ego is muted. In the Soul Gem there can only be love.

Not bad for a piece of jewelry normally portrayed as evil and voracious.

So a happy ending for Adam Warlock. And a happy ending for the Sun. And a happy ending for the Avengers who decided that they’re not doing any corpse disposal. Happy ending for everyone except Thanos whose grand romantic gesture was thwarted and the idiots he always manages to inspire to follow him who are getting their teeth punched in by the Avengers.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

December, 1977

I’m not ashamed to say that one of my favorite comic book tropes is when someone hits someone with someone. But only if they’re using said person as a bludgeon. Throwing the person is the coward’s way out.

So last time: Just scroll up. Thanos was going to blow up the Sun but Iron Man blew up his bling and Adam Warlock achieved his fondest desire and died.

This time: Peter Parker’s plot senses are tingling.

He senses... that a crossover needs him.

His plot sense also recap the events of the Avengers Annual issue and-

is that an upside down cyclops? What the heck!

Uh, anyway. Yeah. Just a recap of the Avengers Annual. Which is mighty obliging. A less scrupulous writer would have dropped a brief text recap and made you buy the issue to find out what happened.

Anyway, Peter’s dream goes beyond just the events of Avengers Annual #7. He starts dreaming of THINGS NOT ON PANEL. Except now they’re on panel because he’s dreaming of them.

Also, I lied. Its not Peter’s plot sense that's tingling. Moondragon just beamed a recap into his dreams.

After Avengers Annual #7, Thanos teleported back over to the other Sanctuary II where the Avengers were still fighting his diverse crowd of alien jerks (why do villains always believe in diversity more than the heroes do?).

With some actual leadership, they go from being an ineffectual mob mostly existing to make the Avengers look cool to a fighting machine.

In five panels, the fight turns against the Avengers and they all lie defeated.

Well, except for the away team of Captain Marvel, Thor, and Iron Man.

They take an additional page to defeat.

Thanos goes right from organizing his mob in their defeat of the Avengers to an armament control console with no time for gloating in between (which you know is very hard for Thanos) and blasts Thor, Captain Marvel, and Iron Man while they’re flying back towards the fake Sanctuary II.

I was going to joke that its because this isn’t an Avengers book that the Avengers can be totally stomped in two pages. But that’s just their life, isn’t it? Even in their own book they aren’t free of getting taken out humiliatingly easy, are they?

Thanos then had all the unconscious heroes put in stasis beams. Y’know that thing where the heroes are all lined up in a row but unable to move but there aren’t any obvious restraints? Well this time it works by keeping the heroes a micro-second out of sync with reality.

Without the giant synthetic Soul Gem, Thanos can’t blow up every star. But with the Soul Gem on the dead deceased corpse of Adam Warlock, maybe he can still blow up a star. And conveniently, he happens to be near a pretty one called Sol.

Maybe just blowing up the one star in Marvel that matters will be enough to appease death.

And then Peter wakes up, the recap portion of this recap over.

He only wonders why Moondragon chose him to send this message to. He’s a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man not a powerhouse or cosmic dude.

And we cut to Master Order and Lord Chaos basically being to blame. Their game against Death goes poorly and they’re forced to put their reserves in play.

I.e. Spider-Man and Ben Grimm, the Thing.

Because Spider-Man realizes ‘hey wait I can’t webswing into space, I need to borrow a spaceship’

And he knows just who to borrow one from.

Cue a funny moment where Spider-Man startles the Thing while he’s engrossed in reading Salem’s Lot causing him to accidentally inhale his cigar.

Oh what shenanigans you get up to, Peter.

But he gets the Thing to stop complaining about Spider-Man disrespecting the security system by shouting at him to STFU. Ben realizes that maybe Spider-Man has troubles.

So he pours Peter some coffee and listens to his story. And immediately asks what Peter has been smoking. Old tennis shoes maybe?

Which is. Ben knows that real drugs exist, right?

But since Peter is serious about it Ben figures what the heck. There’s an experimental spaceship he was supposed to test-pilot when he got the chance and now’s as good a time as any.

Spider-Peter doesn’t really have... exact directions but the spaceship’s tracking systems will track down Thanos’ ship if its up there.

Spider-Man: “If? Still have your doubts, then?”

The Thing: “About your story? Perish forbid such a thought. How could anyone doubt the word of a man in blue and red leotards who crawls on walls?”

Police, I’d like to report a murder.

But despite Ben’s skepticism, they find Thanos’ giant H on the very next page.

The Thing: “Appears like I was wrong about you this time, Spidey. My apologies.”

Spider-Man: “What do you mean ‘this time’?”

The Fantastispacecraft gets caught in a tractor beam and dragged inside the giant H (for Hate?). Ben kicks the door of his spaceship out so he can immediately go out and start punching some space goons.

Thus making the ship nonviable for a return trip. Good thinking, Ben!

Spider-Man joins in the goon punching, although he admits that monster bashing isn’t his usual comfort zone. But if he fights the small fries which basically look like weird people then he should be good.

He’ll let the Thing fight the giant space serpent.

AND USE THE SPACE SNAKE TO HIT PEOPLE WITH. That’s what I’m talking about, Ben!

Meanwhile, Thanos watches this on a monitor. He must be wondering how many heroes he aggroed today. They just keep showing up.

So he has the gravity turned off in the chamber Spider-Man and Thing are in. That’ll show them.

And Thanos’ men, who I guess trained for just this sort of contingency, waste no time blasting Spider-Man and the Thing while they’re discombobulated.

Its a bit of a shame. I wanted to see if Spider-Man would try to use his webs. A much later comic than this made the point that without gravity, Spider-Man’s webbing would splurt out instead of thwip out in nice lines. I wanted to see if that would be used here, decades before the first time I saw it.

Meanwhile, Master Order and Lord Chaos continue to commentate on the crossover. Another round goes to Death with Spider-Man and the Thing temporarily out of play. Still, they both expected this.

Summoning Spider-Man and the Thing was a ploy to get Adam Warlock back on the field from the emerald hill zone.

Meanwhile, in the land of emerald skies (they look purple actually) and green hills, Adam Warlock exposits about recent events.

Yup. He sure died. And now he lives in the Soul Gem, a paradisaical world where he can forget about his worries and his strife. All within the Soul Gem are one and live in harmony for harming another would be harming oneself. Yup, afterlife in the Soul Gem is good and will remain good forever.

Elsewhere and while, Spider-Man and the Thing wake up at the foot of the hero display case and/or stasis beam.

Thanos didn’t get the chance to gloat earlier so he’s seizing the opportunity now.

His henchaliens are preparing stasis beams for Thing and Spider-Man but in the meanwhile, look at how awesome Thanos is. He collected the Avengers better than the Collector ever did. Suck it, old man.

Spider-Man decides to hear Thanos out, hoping that encouraging Thanos to ramble will give them time to plan. And Thanos knows he’s being played but what the hell, he loves to hear himself talk.

So he explains to the heroes that he’s having another stellar projector prepared which will use the Soul Gem’s power to cause the Sun to go nova (but not that one. Or that one. Marvel has a lot of Novas).

And then he explains that he’s doing this as a grand romantic gesture for Death. Recaps how he fell out of her favor by fucking up his plan to become god with the cosmic cube. But anyway, yeah, thats why the Sun and countless lives on Earth must die. So Death will be really impressed with him.

Ben Grimm doesn’t find that a good motivation so he punches Thanos in the dick.

Thanos just no-sells it and purple energy blasts the Thing unconscious.

Annnnnd Spider-Man realizes he’s out of his league so when Thanos asks him if he wants a turn, he just webswings away.

Thanos: “WHAT?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Spider-Man: “Leaving! This is the Avengers’ hassle.”

For some reason, Thanos takes exception to this and orders his alien mooks to bring back Spider-Man’s head.

Except now what? He doesn’t know how to fly spaceships so he can’t just steal the Thing’s ride (also its no longer air tight). He can’t stay here, he’ll just get killed. But he can’t go back to Earth because if Thanos blows up the Sun, Earth will get a whole lot less hospitable.

So if he’s dead either way, he might as well stay. And if he’s staying, he might as well do something. But he can’t fight Thanos directly. He’d sweep the floor with Spider-Man and probably any hero Spidey knows.

Except.... maybe Thor?

Okay, good plan. Good plan. Free Thor. Save the world. Have everything be good forever. Spidey is glad he talked himself out of that blind panic spiral.

Meanwhile, another Master Order and Lord Chaos intermission. They sure are glad that Spider-Man didn’t let his self-preservation overrule his strong heart.

So Spider-Man loops back around to where Thanos showed him his Avengers collection. And darn, Thanos is still there. And also he changed his mind. He’s not adding Spider-Man to his collection now. So there.

Spider-Man decides the thing to do is smash the stasis beam projector WITH HIS BODY.

So the Avengers wake up and immediately charge Thanos. While Spider-Man limply hangs half out of the machinery. Oh, and the Thing woke up by this point too.

That’s some quality Assembling! Good job, Spider-Man. Probably fracturing half of your bones was worth it.

Thanos summons his army of mooks and we get down to a real rumble.

Weird that apparently Adam Warlock will be needed to resolve this scenario. Thing and Thor seem to be thumping Thanos pretty effectively while the rest of the heroes keep the small fry off their backs.

And the other heroes are playing it very strategically. Captain Marvel is keeping an eye on the overall crowd composition so that one of the heroes can go and bust up any attempt to build up or consolidate a position.

Yeah, I’d say this is in the bag.

But just as Thor and Thing are still kicking Thanos’ ass and looking good doing it, Thanos eye beams Thing unconscious and puts Thor on the ropes.

Dangit.

Spider-Man regains consciousness, still stuck hip deep in some defunct machinery and realizes that he must Do Something. In fact, he feels as if everything depends on the decision he makes next.

In happy paradise green land, Adam Warlock is struck with a terrible migraine and realizes that the plot needs him for one last hurrah.

Spider-Man’s spider-sense spider-leads him to notice Adam Warlock’s Soul Gem, encased in a glass globe.

So obviously he should break that, right?

Yeah.

And with the Soul Gem freed from containment, Adam Warlock manifests as a naked fire man and proclaims himself the Ultimate Avenger.

(Was Adam Warlock ever in the Ultimate Universe? I can only think if he was, his re-imagining would have been endlessly disappointing.)

And Ultimate Avenger Adam Warlock (with kung fu action grip) could not rest while Thanos remains a threat to the universe.

And Ultimate Avenger Adam Warlock is so very, very tired and wants to rest. So Thanos will have to go.

So Ultimate Avenger Adam Warlock takes Thanos for granite because that’s just something Ultimate Avenger Adam Warlock can do.

Fuck you, I don’t have to explain anything. Its cosmic.

Which leaves just the cleanup.

Thanos’ army immediately surrenders.

Which is a good decision for them because they’re probably going to get released with no punishment aside from the hits they’ve already taken.

Spidey objects but Captain Marvel asks what he would suggest doing with them? Put them in Earth jail? That’s ridiculous, Spider-Man. You ludicrous radioactive Spider-Man.

I guess.......... space jail isn’t an option for some reason? They’re kind of accessories to the destruction of a star and conspiracy to commit another star murder.

When Jean Grey and/or the Phoenix did that it was a whole to-do but I guess its just okay this time because it didn’t personally inconvenience the Shi’ar?

Maybe Captain Marvel is just lazy and doesn’t want to do the considerable amount of paperwork it would take to arrest an army.

No Sam Vimes this Mar-Vell.

Perhaps realizing they were dicks before, the Avengers decide to actually have a funeral for Adam Warlock. They bury him on some random space rock.

And they leave his Soul Gem right on his grave for anyone to steal. WHICH HAPPENS AND CAUSES INFINITY GAUNTLET.

Geez, the Avengers. Geez.

Also according to his tombstone, Adam Warlock was only ten years old. He was a melancholic child.

Later, aboard the fake Sanctuary II which was apparently Sanctuary III all along and maybe you could have mentioned that earlier and prevented a lot of name confusion for me, personally.

Spider-Man mourns the loss of Adam Warlock. He didn’t know him that well but the universe feels much emptier without him.

And the Thing suggests they check to see if Sanctuary III had a coffee pot anywhere. SPACE COFFEE (do not drink in space).

And within the Soul Gem, Adam Warlock resigns himself to living in paradise free of any strife, problems or pain. Or darn. Well he’ll manage.

And the Thanos statue cries because Death doesn’t love him. And also petrification is often portrayed as a living death so he doesn’t even get to be with his crush.

Phew.

Two annuals back to back was a bad idea. And almost nobody is even going to read this today because I have almost nobody that even reads these on a non-holiday day and today is Christmas so people are probably going to be with families and singing to the Christmas raptor.

Well. Here it is anyway. The last stand of Adam Warlock.

And that’s the major thing to bring up.

This is Avengers Annual and Marvel Two-in-One Annual. A book about the Avengers and a book about the Thing and his amazing friends. But the story that spans these two issues is about Adam Warlock. The others are just along for the ride.

The giant cosmic space heads even say as much. Spider-Man is only here to get the real star of the show on stage. The Thing is only here because this is his team-up book (and because Spidey needs transportation).

Its kind of a tendency of Adam Warlock to make any story about him. Both in and out of universe. He’s kind of self-absorbed.

Whether you like these stories probably comes down to whether you like Adam Warlock. Because on this day the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the Thing took the backseat to the space messiah who hated to wear pants.

Other than that? Pretty good.

A good Thanos plan. An intentional downgrade from his plan to become god in terms of ambition. But possibly even worse because he planned to blow up every star just to get Death sempai-dono to notice him.

This is the end for Thanos for a while. He’s still a stone statue during the Death of Captain Marvel in 1982. Thanos doesn’t stop being stoned until 1990.

People that didn’t read Adam Warlock’s book probably don’t really get why Thanos was most scared of this golden brooder but I think turning into a naked fire man and turning Thanos to stone is context enough.

So happy and merry whatever. Next time I get back to the main book but we’re still going to have the Avengers storming a giant thing in space.

During this time in their lives, the Avengers just storm giant space things more often than typical.

#Avengers #Thanos #Iron Man #the Vision #Scarlet Witch #Thor #Captain America #Beast #Adam Warlock #Captain Marvel #Moondragon #the Thing #Spider Man #Marvel Two in One #Essential Avengers #Essential marvel liveblogging #I've already said plenty words #happy this time of the year