#using the fact that she had a purple shirt one time as an excuse to give her purple accents | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

peachsayshi · 2 years

Text

Chapter 22 - Halloween (I)

Summary: Satoru tells you the truth.

A/N: (18+ / minors and ageless blogs dni) So, clearly I update fics by taking forever to write them and then posting a bunch at one time. This was initially supposed to be one chapter but it was getting to long so I split it into two. There are only eight chapters left to this story which is so crazy to me! Thank you so much everyone for the support xo I hope you guys enjoy this update!

(Three Years Ago - Halloween)

Satoru is running late.

Two and half hours late to be exact.

He promised you that he would go all out with a costume for Rina’s party, but now finds himself expecting a long, drawn out lecture because he failed to keep his word.

He really did have every intention on surprising you tonight, but didn’t have the time to make it back to his apartment and change into his vampire attire as planned.

He spent all month searching for the right pieces of clothing to match his outfit. He found a fitted black shirt with pants to accent the intricately embroidered vest that he splurged way too much money on. He wanted to dramatically model the extravagant cape with the silky red fabric underneath, and flash a toothy grin to show off his set of fake fangs. He even reached out to Utahime in the hopes that she would help with his hair and make up, and she agreed only after he mercilessly teased her into submission.

He was supposed to slick back his silver locks, powder his face whiter than the natural color that he was blessed with, and shade the bags underneath his eyes with a deep purple to make him look as lifeless as possible. Instead, he combed through his hair with his fingers, feeling the strands flop over his face as he replaced his blindfold with his sunglasses.

A part of himself wanted to impress you with the look he worked hard on putting together, but the other half just wanted you to be happy since you practically begged him not to flake out on tonight’s occasion when you called yesterday.

“Rina and I are pairing our costumes, but nobody likes to dress up anymore. I don’t want us to be the only ones putting in all the effort…”

“It’s Halloween, of course people will dress up!” Satoru answered back nonchalantly. “You don’t have to keep asking me. I told you I would, right?”

You sighed, “Yeah, you’re right. I just can’t expect everyone else to do the same. This is my favorite time of the year but it’s so childish to even ask people to participate in this stuff…”

“Who the hell told you that?” Satoru scoffed with disbelief, his fingers gripping around his phone hearing the hurt in your tone.

“It was just something Haru mentioned when I asked him what he planned on wearing. I guess he’s right, who cares about silly costume parties anyway…”

Satoru knew that you were just repeating Haru’s pitiful comments which only made him huff with disappointment. He tried not to dwell on the fact that you’ve been acting odd recently, but his gut told him that it had something to do with the sudden tension surrounding your relationship.

He wondered if your boyfriend finally found the courage to confess to his infidelity after he asked Satoru not to let his secret slip.

Considering how much you adored Haru, Satoru wouldn’t be surprised if you had forgiven him on the spot.

However, if Haru had actually admitted to cheating on you, and you had decided to forgive him as Satoru theorized...then why did it suddenly seem like you’ve been thrown off balance?

He tried to pry into the subject but you have been maintaining a barrier on discussing anything serious surrounding your personal life. This tied in with your sudden short tempers, and your friend found himself walking around egg shells in the hopes that you wouldn’t pick a petty argument with him over the tiniest things.

You always apologized afterward, blaming your annoyance on your lack of sleep or that there’s been a lot on your mind recently.

Excuses, excuses, excuses…

Satoru knew what the answer to the problem was but your friend just couldn’t bring himself to confront you about what was really going on.

He wasn’t hiding from the truth because he was loyal about keeping any promises to your boyfriend, but he found himself trapped in a situation that he didn’t particularly enjoy.

If Haru did tell you the truth, then Satoru would not be able to handle any of your lame reasons about why you agreed to take him back.

Your friend cared about you in a way that was beyond his own comprehension, and understood that this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

He didn’t want to have to break the dam and unveil all of his true feelings about Haru, while risking your friendship as a result.

On the other hand, if it turned out that Haru was still lying to you then Satoru would have no other choice but to tell you the truth.

He had plenty of opportunities to do so before, but whenever your face lit up at the mention of Haru’s name it became reason enough for him to bury the secret deeper inside.

He wasn’t going to take away your happiness, and refused to be the reason behind your heartbreak.

By the time the sorcerer approached Rina’s front door his stomach had already twisted itself into more knots than he could count.

From behind the frame he could hear the low thump of the bass bursting through the speakers, the sound of happy drunks singing along to the music playing, and the muffled conversations coming through the melodic tunes.

He pressed his forehead against the door and exhaled before finding the courage to ball his hand into a fist and knock.

The door swung open and Rina stood before him in a fiery costume. She was wearing a short crimson wig, decorated with a pair of devil horns that matched her fitted full length dress while holding a toy trident in one hand.

A teasing glint twinkled in her eyes when she met Gojo’s gaze.

“No costume, no entry” she joked with a quirked brow, as she dramatically pointed at his casual clothes with her trident.

Satoru pouted, tilting his head slightly as he looked down at her, “can’t you tell that I am an international super model?”

Rina scoffed, “that’s what you’re going with?”

Satoru lowered his shades, before delivering a smoldering squint to show off his best pose.

“Satoru Gojo! The face that makes millions!” he boomed in a dramatic voice, mimicing the tone of advertisers before finishing his statement off with a wink. “Is that convincing enough?”

Rina held back a smile before stepping aside. “Not to me but I’m pretty sure everyone else will believe it.”

Satoru passed through the threshold, his tall frame obvious among the sea of strangers as he towered over every single person in the room.

Rina cocked her head to the right, “she’s inside dancing with my sister.”

Satoru ignored the way his heart thumped, his eyes quickly scanning the room until his gaze laid upon you and he parted his lips in surprise.

You were wearing a glittered white dress, the thick straps were snug around your shoulders and the semi-sweetheart plunge revealed a subtle hint of cleavage. His eyes lowered, taking in how the fabric wrapped around waist until it flared out to reveal your legs underneath. Fluffy white wings fluttered as you danced, and you were barely able to stand straight holding onto your partner as you tried to keep your balance on your high wedged heels.

When you finally looked over to Satoru, he felt his cheeks heat up instantly as your tinted lips spread into a warm smile.

He cleared his throat, lifting his hand to salute a wave while trying to brush off the rush of emotions that ran through him.

You whispered something into the girl’s ear, then carefully stumbled your way over towards him.

“Satoruuuu!”

“Hey, you-ugh!...”

Satoru groaned, stepping one foot back as he tried to catch the weight of your body in his arms when you fell into his chest for a hug.

“You caaame!” you replied with enthusiasm, before pushing him away and furrowing your brows as you took a moment to judge his outfit.

“You didn’t dress up?” you questioned with sad doe eyes, which only made the warmth spread from his cheeks down to his neck.

“Work ran late,” he confessed with an apologetic smile, “but I really did have a costume planned-”

You scoffed as you let out a short laugh, waving your arm in his face to brush off his words.

“Ohhh, it doesn’t matter.” you slurred, ”you’re here and we are going to have sooo much fun, right?”

The smile falls on Satoru’s face, his lips forming into a straight line and his fingers hold both your elbows as he steadies you in place.

“How much did you have to drink?” he asks in a low voice.

“Don’t be a bore…” you grumble, lifting your index finger to poke his chest.

Satoru arched one eyebrow in response, unamused by your pathetic jab at his concern over you.

Upon seeing the disapproval on his face you sigh before reaching for the collar of his jacket, and gently squeeze your grip around the fabric.

“Relax! I’m fine! I promise!” you reassured with another grin.

“She’s more than fine,” Rina interrupts, and Satoru notices your best friend loop her arm around your waist to hug you from behind. “...now you can either join us in our dance or strike a few poses on your own!”

Satoru releases you from his grip and you giggle before tumbling backwards to follow Rina’s footsteps. Within minutes you were back to shaking your hips and running your fingers through your hair, singing along to every song without a single care in the world

Satoru made his way over to the kitchen, where he rummaged through the fridge to pull out a bottle of sparkling water. He tried to ignore the mild annoyance he felt by having his concern overlooked.

Regardless of what others believe, he knew you better than anybody else which is why he could see right through you.

***

Satoru stood in the corner of the room pretending like he was invested in the conversation with one of Rina’s old high school friends. She went on about her current experiences working as a flight attendant, going into great detail about all the different places that she traveled to. He could tell that she was trying really hard to impress him but he was busy getting distracted whenever he shifted his attention to you.

Your arms were around Rina’s neck, the two of you swaying while murmuring a secret conversation in between your dance. The sorcerer's back stiffened when you brought your drink to your lips, taking another sip as you finally finished off the beverage.

Satoru merely let a few “uh-huh’s” slip to keep the conversation rolling, but the minute he watched you head towards the kitchen is when he found an excuse to cut the topic short and follow your footsteps.

You were reaching for the bottle when you felt slender fingers circle over your hand.

“How about we have some water instead?” Satoru questioned kindly, lowering your wrist down before you could even fill up your cup.

You spun on your heel, your senses gravely lagging as he easily managed to remove the empty cup from your grasp and replace it with a water bottle instead.

“Fine,” you nodded in defeat before twisting the cap open, “...but only if it’ll make you stop starin’ at me all night.”

“I’m not staring,” he denied.

You scoff, rocking slightly from side to side as you chug down the water.

Satoru winced at your discomfort watching you swallow the beverage.

“You definitely are staring...” you groan with disgust, scrunching up your face as you tried to shake off the queasy sensation that suddenly washed over you.

“Well, it’s not every day you decide to drown yourself in alcohol.”

“Its a paarty, Satoruuuu...” you tease again, before leaning back against the counter and folding your arms across your chest. “I’m supposed to be having fun.”

Your friend merely hums.

“Well then, how about we sit somewhere and catch yourselves before our next round?”

“Our next round? You plan on drinking with me tonight, International Supermodel?”

“That’s Mr. International Supermodel to you, and absolutely not.”

You shrug your shoulders as you try to move past him but you were quickly blocked by the length of his torso.

“Just for a little bit, please?” he playfully coaxes, “All of this is kind of stimulating for me and I didn’t even get a proper hello from you…”

“Satoru…”

“What if I promise you a dance afterwards?”

That made your eyes light up immediately and you reached your hand forward to extend one of your digits in his direction.

“One whole dance to whatever song I choose. Pinky promise?”

Satoru chuckles to himself, watching you struggle to hook your finger around his.

“Promise.”

His hand finds the small of your back and he quietly guides you away from the stuffy crowd as he makes his way towards Rina’s bedroom.

He could see the many eyes studying you both closely, but tried not dwell on how suspicious this might appear to them.

A heavy silence took over when Satoru shut the door behind him. He watched you saunter towards the bed, plopping your entire body weight onto the mattress before releasing a sigh as you welcomed the quiet with open arms. Your hands reached down to your ankles, and you fumbled with the straps before kicking off your killer heels.

“Maybe this is a good idea,” you slur, “m’feet are killing me...”

“Well, you’ve been dancing like nobody’s watching you…”

“Except there was somebody watching me. A six foot tall creep with white hair, tryna to pose as a model when he promised me that he’d wear a costume tonight...”

Satoru smirked before falling onto the mattress as he found his seat right next to you.

“I’m just making sure that my friend doesn’t fall flat on her face.”

You purse your lips at him, but upon reading the sincerity in his expression, you merely bump your shoulder against his in jest.

“I guess an injury would kill all the effort I put into my make up...”

“And what a waste that would be...” he replied with enthusiasm, subconsciously grazing you back as he presses his body into yours. He arches his neck down, moving his lips closer to your ear and dropping the tone of his voice unintentionally before speaking.

“You look great by the way.”

“Think so?”

“Absolutely...” he answers back, releasing the tension from his body and allowing the conversation to flow with a familiar ease, “As a matter of fact, I think this costume suits you. You should wear it more often! Maybe, next time when you accompany me on one of my shopping trips...”

“Wings n’ all?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way...”

“I’m sure the sales representatives at all those luxury brands you like would have a field day seeing me next to you...”

“What can I say, we’d make a pretty team...”

You give him another genuine smile and Satoru can’t help but mirror you now that he’s broken whatever facade you were showcasing outside of this room.

“Did you really put together a costume or are you toying with my emotions?” you wondered while angling your body to face him and then lifting your legs up on the bed to sit in a crossed legged position.

“I'm offended that you would question me! I would put Dracula to shame from how good I would have looked tonight,” Satoru replied, reaching both hands behind him as he leaned onto the weight of his arms. “I guess it’s best that I didn’t wear it. I wouldn’t want to outshine anybody...”

The corner of your lips lifted when he gave you a playful wink but you didn’t know that he was forcefully trying to keep his gaze away from the hem of your dress riding higher up your thighs.

“Are you sayin’ that you would’ve looked better than me tonight?”

Satoru ponders the question, using this opportunity to succumb to his flirtatious state as he quickly glances over your feathery wings.

“I wouldn’t stand a chance against you, angel.”

You drew in a sharp inhale, your chest rising and falling quickly as he caught you by surprise with his statement. He knew his comment must have flustered you but he didn’t really care. You looked unbearably cute tonight, and deserved the compliment.

“I-I don’t think the odds would totally be in my favor…” you breathed softly while trying to regain your composure. “Not with the way half the of the room has been lookin’ at you tonight.”

Curiosity prompted Gojo to lift his brow, “And how would you know?”

“I always pay attention to how people look at you.”

“Why?”

You shrugged your shoulders, “I mean, s’kind of hard not to notice when you look the way you do...”

“Oh, right, because I’m a six foot tall creep with white hair…

You roll your eyes, “you know that’s not the reason why...”

“Yeah, but it’s what you said! People must think I’m a freak or something…”

“That’s not what I meant though!” you argued back defensively, unamused by the cocky expression on Satoru’s face.

“Indulge me just this once and elaborate then...” he begged.

“I’m sure you have plenty of girls who tell you exactly what you wanna hear,” you replied and Satoru tried really hard not to analyze the strange way you phrased that sentence.

He tucked out his bottom lip and lowered his shades so you can see those blue eyes sparkle against the dim light.

“Is that what you really think of me?” he sulked.

“Yes.” you teased.

Satoru dramatically gasped, one hand reaching to clutch his shirt directly over where his heart is while the other covered his mouth.

“How...dare you...” he exclaimed, before launching his body forward and dropping his forehead onto your shoulder. “...you can’t just go around breaking people’s hearts like that!”

You giggled, “Satoru...”

“What have I done to deserve such cruelty?! Does my loyalty, my friendship, mean so little to you?!”

You pat him lightly on the back, but it only made him burrow his forehead into you even further.

“How will I recover from this insult?! How will I cope?! Don’t you know that I’m an international supermodel?! Don’t you know that my good looks is all I have to offer?!”

“Satoru, shhh!” you squeaked as his voice started to boom louder the more he got into the dramatization do his distress.

He was pretending to sob, and you couldn’t stop the rumble of laughter from escaping you because his hair was making you feel ticklish, and his warm breath was causing goosebumps to raise across your skin.

“How can you shame me for the things that make me who I am?! Oh, I’m so huuuurt....”

“Fine, Fine!” you yielded, reaching both hands to grab his shoulders as you pushed him off you. “I didn’t mean it! You’re the most handsome man that I’ve ever laid my eyes on. There, now can we cut the theatrics, please?”

Satoru’s face dropped to his usual expression, his tone shifting with ease as he balled one hand into a fist and placed it underneath his chin.

“The most handsome? Really?” he calmly egged on while pretending like nothing happened.

You dug your nails into his shoulders before letting another loose comment slip from your intoxicated lips.

“Yes, really. You’re so handsome, it actually infuriates me.”

Satoru’s mouth spread into a full grin and your eyes took in the sight of his pearly whites.

“I'm never going to let you live this down. You know that right?”

You furrowed your brows together and huffed, one hand sliding across his tee as you grabbed onto his collar.

“The likelihood that I’ll remember this tomorrow s’very slim...”

“Oh, I’ll be sure to remind you, do you worry about that...”

“You can’t!”

Satoru’s eyes widened and you were equally surprised from how stern you were with your reply.

You tightened your grip around his collar, swallowing hard before looking at him with pleading eyes.

“You can’t...” you murmured, “whatever is said tonight stays between us, it’s our secret...”

The sorcerer parted his lips caught somewhere between confusion and curiosity. He knew he was only joking, but the look of panic in your eyes was speaking volumes to him.

“It’s just a compliment...” he replied nonchalantly, “it’s not a big deal...”

“Just promise me, m’kay?” you begged, your free hand lifting up as you extended your pinky finger once more. “Please?”

Satoru searched for an answer in your eyes but was met with only more mystery. He swallowed the lump in his throat, trying hard to ignore just how much closer you were to his body now.

He hooked his pinky finger around yours and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Nothing you say leaves this room, I promise.”

***

“What’s going on with you?”

Satoru was still holding your finger, your faces merely inches apart as he kept you grounded amidst the spinning bedroom.

The pent up frustration of the last two weeks began to crawl up your throat, with all your internal thoughts ready to pour out of you as you finally found an opening to ease all the worries that’s been stressing your mind. You didn’t even realize that your eyes were welling up, that Satoru’s caring gaze was enough to strike you the hardest while you were your most vulnerable.

You blinked back the tears, shaking your head as you murmured “nothing,” but your voice cracked which only made him disregard your lie.

“You know you can talk to me, right?”

You nodded your head.

Satoru loosened his finger, his gaze falling as he watched you curl into your self when you folded your arms across your chest protectively.

“Things with Haru...have been weird...”

“Weird?”

“He’s been acting strange, and I-I...” you sought out your friend, his attentiveness making you comfortable enough to let out a groan of frustration. “...I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Satoru’s expression remained the same, but you didn’t know that in the back of his mind he was starting to panic.

“He’s always working now, and every time I bring it up he tells me that he’s tryna to build for our future...” you vented. “I just-I feel like I’m a crazy person for wanting to spend time with him. I plan out dates which he forgets or cancels last minute, and whenever he’s home he barely wants to talk. He keeps tellin’ me that he’s "too tired”...I can’t help but feel...distant...”

You were wounded, and you bit your bottom lip as you looked down at your legs instead of Satoru’s eyes as if you were ashamed to admit the truth.

“I feel like I’m a thorn at his side. He’s been picking on everything I do...everything I say...” you confessed, “We...we got into an argument before the party. I don’t even think he’s coming tonight...”

“What happened?”

You sighed, “I answered his phone while he was in the shower. Some woman called him from work...when I told him about it, he got upset with me. He said I had no right answering his work calls...”

Satoru’s jaw twitched, but you were too distracted to notice.

“I told him it was an honest mistake, that I wouldn’t do it again but he shut me out after that...didn’t say a single word and left. I’ve been trying to message him, but he’s not answering me...”

“That fucking ass-...”

“No...s’my fault, ‘toru. He gets so anxious about this job, I shouldn’t have-”

“Stop,” your friend sternly interjected. “don’t make excuses for him. You don’t have to do that. Not with me at least...”

“I’m...I’m not...” you replied defensively. “I just-I’m tryna to make sense of it. I need to fix whatever’s wrong...”

“But why do you need to fix it?” Satoru countered. “He’s the one who should apologize to you...”

“I’m not being patient or understanding,” you explained, and your words were only making your friend’s blood boil.

“Just the fact that we are friends tells me that you’re patient and understanding,” Satoru declared. “You’re not telling me anything that justifies his behavior...”

“I dunno,” you mumbled as you covered your face with both your hands. “I just...don’t want this to escalate to a point of no return.”

“Would that really be so bad?”

You dropped your hands, lifting your eyes up to meet his as you were astonished by his bold question.

“People change,” Satoru explained with an even temper, “...and sometimes we hang onto just a version of who they are...”

“No, no...” you shook your head in denial, “No, that’s not what this is. We are just hitting a rough patch. I just need to see this through...”

Satoru pinched his lids together, your name leaving him in both disappointment and anguish.

“Look, there’s something you need to know...”

“Satoru, I can’t lose him.”

The white haired sorcerer looked at you in disbelief because your voice cracked not out of distress but fear.

“Haru...he fits into my life perfectly. My parents love him, my friends love him, and he’s...everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve ever asked for…”

“So, you’re fighting for some perfect little dream at the expense of your own happiness?”

“I don’t want all these years to go to waste. If I lose him, then...then I’ll have to start all over again...”

“Do you really believe that he’s the only man capable of loving you?”

“S’not like there’s anybody else...”

“And if there was?”

An uncomfortable silence lingered between you both as Satoru’s question hung in the air. Neither of you had anything to say, but you were both staring intently at each other, while trying to read through the other person’s thoughts.

Your friend wasn't quite sure if he could find a reason behind his question, and instead exhaled as he nervously scratched the back of his head and leaving you to speak first.

“I...I think I need to lie down,” you murmured, “I’m feeling dizzy.”

Satoru felt the mattress dip underneath him as you crawled over to lay your head down on one of Rina’s pillows. You curled your arm underneath it, while you placed your other hand flat on top. You nuzzled into yourself, your eyes growing heavier as you started to blink them shut.

“I don’t want you to settle because it’s comfortable. I’m just trying to look out for you, that’s all...”

Your friend could hear you breathing softly but you gave him no response. Satoru reached for the straps of your wings but hesitated as he retracted his hands back. He didn’t want to disturb you and instead proceeded to stand up as he adjusted the covers to ensure you you were comfortably tucked in.

“Don’t go…” you mumbled, bringing your hand out to hold onto his wrist as you held him. “Please stay…”

When you finally drifted off to sleep, he exited the bedroom feeling exasperated.

There was an unfamiliar weight that burdened him as he considered your words - authentic words that you would have never allowed yourself to blurt out under regular circumstances.

The thought made him incredibly sad.

He couldn’t comprehend why you felt this urgency to sell him your fairy tale, and upon realizing that there were cracks that were fragmenting your relationship with Haru, the guilt was starting eat him up from the inside out.

If you were already having your doubts then there was no way for the truth to backfire.

Satoru still had a chance to make things right with you.

He concluded that you deserved the truth, already planning out the speech in his mind with every intention on seeing you tomorrow to revisit this delicate conversation.

He didn't have any reason to linger at the party any longer, and ignored the inquisitive stares from the people around him as her emerged onto the scene. The Flapper Girl approached him once more, hoping to get a second chance at him but he rejected her advances with the excuse of having to leave urgently.

He found Rina and thanked her for the invite, before saying a quick goodbye and informing her of your sudden disappearance.

He left the party with a swiftness while trying to comprehend this unfamiliar tightness in his chest, and gulped down a breath of the crisp autumn air as he stepped out onto the street.

***

(present)

“Haru is a chameleon,” Satoru explained, “He’s the kind of person who shows you exactly what you he wants you to see, without ever giving himself away in the process...”

You absorbed his words but your body was growing numb. You were still trying to wrap your mind around him confronting Haru in the elevator, while recalling the conversation you both exchanged the night of the Halloween party but it merely played back like a hazy dream in your mind.

“...I ran into Haru right after I left, and things got heated. I just-I couldn’t stand him lying to you anymore. Unfortunately, what I didn’t anticipate was for him to spread fowl lies to anyone who would listen...”

Satoru sighed, his fingers closing over your hands as he held you carefully before continuing to speak.

“Haru needed to save face and I was his scapegoat. He told Rina that we...that I...took advantage of the situation. He said that I was trying to manipulate you into breaking up with him, that it wasn’t the first time I tried to wedge myself between your relationship...everyone saw us go into that room together…it made for a very convincing story…”

“The argument?” you whispered, your voice trembling as you tried to piece together the puzzle of stories.

“I couldn’t figure out why Rina resented me so much after you ended things. She made it perfectly clear that she didn’t want me crossing that line with you, and I...I agreed that I would keep my hands to myself. That was until you showed up at my place with your proposal...”

Satoru felt you inch your hands further away, trying to slip out of his grasp and it hurt him to have to ease his grip.

“Rina had a close friendship with Haru. I don’t blame her for believing him so easily. She agreed that she shouldn’t have been so naive regarding his story, but then again...I don’t come off as the easiest guy to trust either...”

“Except...” you interrupted, your voice wavering when you sniffled and the sound made the sorcerer’s heart race as the blood rushed to his cheeks. “except I trusted you, Satoru.”

Your touch left his and you shook your head in disbelief.

“What...what happened after you left the party? What happened when you ran into Haru?”

Satoru’s face hardened, and he ran his thumbs across the pads of his other fingers as he adjusted to the vacancy without you holding him.

“Haru showed me his true colors,” he declared in a gravelly calm voice, “...only this time I had a reason to intervene...”

***

NEXT: CHAPTER 23 - HALLOWEEN (II) - this is still a world where jujutsu sorcerers exist right? - just a hint for what's to come ;)

TAG: @haikyutiehoe @damn-geto @pensivespecter @ekaterinatepes @jelly-jellx @lollipopd @shuxjodie @heavenlyres @alreadyblondenow @nanamikentcs @artemisthestar @velvetlight333 @sluttoru @smoothy-ve @bloombb @mrsmorgenstern @smoothy-ve @bisexualwomanofcolour

#gojo x reader #Gojo Satoru x reader #Gojo Satoru x you #gojo x you #Gojo Satoru fan fiction #gojo fan fiction #jujutsu kaisen fan fiction #gojo x female reader #Gojo Satoru x female reader

98 notes · View notes

charmixpower · 2 years

Text

🎶 Muse hairstyles explained 🎶

Musa's Enchantix bewitched me, it entranced me, it seduced me with it's gorgeous hair. I have given into my deepest of impulses and now her hair is ever so slightly blueish purple. It's barely noticeable, nobody touch me, I have absolutely no regrets. I love it so much she's so pretty. As for a like, cohesive style. Musa's hair is only down at fancy events, as she very heavily seems like someone who doesn't like having their hair down. That's about it. Idk if there is a theme to these, they're all things that she'd super wear, they're usually twin hairstyles, and thats it. Though I find it really interesting that Musa's fashion is usually heavily on the more masculine tomboy and comfortable side, but her hair is always ultra feminine and styled. I think it's such a good cute bit of characterization. She's a girlie your honor

Anyways on to the individual styles

Short hair: My beloved short hair pigtails Musa. I love her. Drawing her short pigtails was always super hard before I just stopped trying to make them stick up like the way she does in the show XD. Also this is the type of shirt Musa wore in the second chapter of my Rivusa fic, and I got really attached to it. It's so cute!!! And it matches her vibes! Love

Long hair: I've made it clear that I'm not a super huge fan of Musa's long hair but honestly, it's not her long hair's fault. It's the fact that everyone else has long hair mixed with the fact that s4 on use this as an excuse to competely erase all of Musa's tomboy fashion traits. Like?? I'm sorry, I didn't know my favorite character was "snarky Stella lite who likes darker colors". Anyways, eventually I came upon the way to fix this, which was to give her a fuckin undercut!!! Hell yeah!!!! It's both super feminine like her original pigtails but with a alt twist that protects her from her distinct personal style from being erased. I love her undercut so much!! I picked a undercut specifically because it looks the most feminine and Musa tends to be super femme in her hair and I didn't wanna tamper with that, and she of she puts her hair down she can cover it up for a more classic look that she's sometimes fond of. It stikes a good balance between both of her styles me thinks. Bonus my redesign of her s3 outfit. I feel bad saying this bc I don't like it all that much. Like the weird not sleeves and the sweater dress with pants...not my thing. Idm it all that much, but it both looks like a really warm outfit, but also like she'd be cold at the same time? I just gave her an oversized button up shirt dress. It's still pretty alt, esp with those colors, and fashionable! I really like it. Also, yes, she also got more piercings when she went to get her hair lengthed. She deserves them <3

Loopies: Tbh, while s5 will own a small piece of my heart and soul for fixing the myriad of crimes s4 committed against Musa, I never understood why they used the bun hairstyle instead the twin hairstyle they had right there for her pajamas?? It would of been in much better keeping with Musa's original style??? Anyways I've swapped those, so not this is older Musa's classic hairstyles. Her twin hair look slowly gets more and more mature looking :)) with a bonus jersey shirt she stole from Riven

Baby Musa: pre season one Musa!!! She's in her skater girl era, with her ultra short low pigtails so they don't get in the way of all the helmets she wore. I imagine as soon as she started living by herself she chopped off her hair as teenagers tend to do, she didn't wanna try ultra short hair in front of her dad and worry him lol, and then shes slowly letting it grow back to see what length she likes the most. Idk if she cut it this short or if it was shorter originally. This experiment ends up telling her that she likes all hair lengths on herself lol. She's rocking big shirt big pants fashion in this pic btw, for the vibes. Originally all of these drawings of music only had a lobe piercing, and something about the way I was drawing her was driving me mad. Eventually I realized I needed to show her getting more piercings as she got older lol. Seriously I was agonizing before I put more piercings on the other Musa's and suddenly everything clicked

Summer look: I love her classic s5 hair sm ok? I had to include it somewhere. Her hair is still up and it's still feminine, but with the overwhelming amount of feminine from her outfit the bun not being too feminine works in it's flavor as Musa's original style hasn't been thrown in the trash SEASON 4. I turned it into a summer look, with that one red crop top form her stock art. She looks so ready for summer fun, gosh I love her. She has my second favorite pair of earrings I put on her here, which is a shame bc you can't see them xd, curse her bang—BACK!! BACK S4 SIDE SWEPT MUSA BANGS!!! BACK YOU FOUL BEAST

Cozy Musa: Yeah this is her hair from the second movie. As much as I dislike so much about it from the non senseical plot, lack of continuity, writing, voice acting, Skloom getting engaged for the second time, and really everything but the satisfaction of Erendor becoming a full villain, the gowns the girls wear, and the super Trix, uh. I really like Musa's hair. It's unique and funky, and it's something she'd totally do. The outfit wasn't all that bad, I'd even say it was better than her s4 camping outfit, until you notice that she's wearing socks OVER her shoes and I remember that the designers are either geniuses or the the enemy and I should never trust them too much. Anyways I decided to pair this hair with a more casual look bc it's a bit too showy for hiking, but still chill and causal enough for going out in a chill way. Like a super chill date, or shopping day. Something to spice up a otherwise boring outfit. And ya know I had to include a cropped hoodie somewhere!

School dance: Musa puts her hair down, once. Part one, short hair version. I imagine Musa usually very much dislikes having her hair down, but I'd willing to tolorate it for the sake of a really cute outfit, and I think this outfit is deserving of the occasion from short hair Musa era. Bonus a metal earring that I'm just now realizing looks like a sword earring. Love to see it

Eraklyon ball: Musa puts her hair down, twice. Part two, the famous version. Gosh I love this outfit so much, like her s2 dress will forever and always be my favorite, but this one is so elegant. I had a lot of fun with her hair piece, and fucking around with her bangs instead of just making them side swept again. Unlike Stella, I don't think Musa would ever go without bangs lol. This is my favorite earring btw. It's so cute and classy. V fun, this one has my favorite bangs swell

Gala attendee: Musa puts her hair down, trice. Part three, not really. This is based off of those high low dresses I saw from s6 that I only remember because they gave Musa a hat!!! >u< one of the few things s4 got right, yess Musa loves hats!!! Give her a hat!! So I included the orange and purple colors with the top design in principal bc it was the only dress that gave her a hat. This time I gave her the smaller pigtails with her hair down, and asymmetric slide swept bangs. Tbh those images of later seasons Musa with this hairstyle in the ugliest way possible (her pigtails are so much shorter than the rest of her hair that she must of specifically cut them and I hate it, I hate it so much) kinda made me dislike this hairstyle, but I still had to include it bc despite the crimes it's still a quintessential Musa look. She is still a cutie and I love her

#Winx club #winx musa #winx fanart #winx headcanons #winx redesign #rus doodles #rus chatters

40 notes · View notes

tabithwaslost · 1 year

Text

Klavquill Rollerskating, requested by @snowkit-and-blackquill AKA my online brother-

So, the guys were both in Klavier's home because he has a fear of being alone. Perhaps it could be related to his trauma as a child, no one knows.

Klavier was wearing one of Simon's t-shirts and they are wayyyy to big for him because the ex-inmate is taller than him. The t-shirt had "My Chemical Romance" written on it due to the fact that Aura made her little brother listen to that band despite the fact that he was too young to listen to them.

"Herr Samurai?"

"What is it, Gavin-Dono?"

asked the samurai in reply to the rockstar.

"Do you remember that time when we went... uhh..."

The blond had forgotten the word. He paused for a solid 10 seconds as the samurai was waiting for a reply and then he uttered:

"Shoe driving?"

"What.?"

questioned the taller guy.

"We were 17 and 20! Don't you remember?"

"Remember what? Explain the event because you seem to have forgotten the word for it."

and then there was a silence that lasted for about 3 seconds before the shorter guy said:

"We were 17 and 20, and we had those shoes that had the circle car things that made the car move...

"Continue..."

And then Klavier explained:

...it went something like this:

"Simon?"

asked the 17 year old prosecutor.

"Yeah? What is it?"

was the reply that he got from the 20 year old law student. Both have no stress, no work, and definitely no trauma. Or at least that's what we think.

They were at the space center, in Simon's own room there. It was turned into a laboratory after UR-1. They were sitting on his bed, chatting.

"There is something I want to do to you."

said the 17 year old prosecutor.

"E-excuse m-me? Klavier, that's-"

before the older guy could finish, Klavier continued:

"Ja! Can we go roller skating?"

then the 29 y/o Simon Blackquill asked:

"When you said 'shoe driving' did you mean roller skating?"

Klavier who was explaining the story answered:

"Ja! That's the word! Now, shall I continue?"

"Do so."

The 26 y/o prosecutor continued explaining the story:

And then:

"But where are we gonna go roller skating?"

"Oh! There's this skating... Was was it called again?"

The German forgot the word.

"You seem to be talking about a skatepark, right?"

"Ja! That's the word!"

"You always forget words, don't you?"

"That doesn't matter! I got us some rollerblades!"

The blond had a bag that he brought with him. He took out 2 pairs of rollerblades from them. His has the letter "G" on it and was dark purple and black, meanwhile Simon's had the letter "B" on it and was black and white.

"Auf geht's!"

[Let's go!]

said the German.

They went there at approximately. Simon had to beg Aura for permission because he was still her baby brother and she was worried about what might happen to him, he could break a bone or something bad might happen but then Klavier reassured her that everything was gonna be alright. As they were leaving the space center, they had a small conversation

"You actually convinced Aura to let me go! I- even I couldn't pull it off."

said the young samurai.

"Frau Blackquill said that as long as I'm with you and I don't leave you, then we can stay here until 10 P.M."

explained the young rockstar.

"Yeah, but if anything bad happens to me, she will be going for your head."

Klavier gulped in fear because he knows how overprotective Aura is of Simon. When Simon first introduced Klavier to Aura, she made him fill 15 papers and sign on a paper that says that he will never cheat on or betray Simon and if he does, then Aura will bring out her shotgun.

"Your sister cares about you a lot."

"I know. She would kill for me."

They reached the park and then they started skating.

29 year old Simon Blackquill asked:

"Shall I finish the rest of the story?"

"Ja! Of course!"

Alright...

Then, we went there and a lot happened.

The 17 year old blond tripped and was falling backwards, suddenly a hand caught him. and was caught by the short curly black haired guy.

"K-Klavier!! Are you okay?!"

He had never seen the blond with a face THIS red.

"I... was ist gerade passiert..?"

[I... what just happened?]

"I- uh- Klavier I'm sorry! Are you okay?!"

the black haired guy's face also went slightly red.

"I-"

"Aura won't kill you don't worry. But Mr. Gavin will surely kill me!"

They left the park and the blonde was still red faced.

They went back to the space center and told Ms. Blackquill what happened. She laughed so hard.

"A-Aura! Why are you laughing?"

"Nothing nothing, it's just that this little boy always seemed to flirt with you but went red faced and hella embarrassed over nothing."

Author: Simon was described as a gentleman and as a weird-ish boy before UR-1, so I tried to write him like that. That's why he seemed so different from his 28-29 year old self.

#ace attorney #klavier gavin #simon blackquill #klavquill #aura blackquill #Kristoph Gavin

11 notes · View notes

invisibleraven · 2 years

Note

sharing clothes, we're just that comfortable with each other + the Julie ship of your choice because deep down who doesn't want to steal Julie's smiley face sweater.

The thing about having a large group of co-dependent friends is that everyone's clothes soon become communal property. Case in point is Alex's pink hoodie that spends more time on his friends than him. Though Willie gets priority, claiming boyfriend rights.

Julie can't argue with that, given she practically lives in Reggie's flannel or Luke's purple shirt. However, as much as she likes stealing the guy's clothes, it's rare that they try and take hers.

It starts with Willie borrowing her multi coloured sweater that fits him even more like a crop top than it does her, given their size difference. But she admits that he pulls it off, and they make plans to go thrifting to find more stuff that will fit them both.

Then when Julie is weeding through her cold weather clothing, Luke finds her cat ear beanie and claims it for himself. "Why do you even own this? You hate hats!" Luke asks, admiring himself in her mirror.

Julie shrugs, then a slight melancholy paints her features. "It's from when we used to go on double family vacations with the Wilsons. Skiing at Vail and the life. Back when mom was still healthy enough to go and Carrie and I were on speaking terms."

Luke gathered her into a hug at that, his strong arms surrounding her, like his biceps could block her from her painful memories. And even if they couldn't, Julie appreciated that Luke always was there to comfort her. She snuggled further in, inhaling his scent; fabric softener, cheap aftershave, and graphite from his constant lyric scribbling. The scent that clung to his shirt whenever she borrowed it, always feeling like a hug when he couldn't be there to give her one.

"You can keep the hat," Julie murmured into his chest. "It looks cute on you."

Luke scoffed at that. "Excuse you, I always look cute!" But he grinned his thanks, and the cat became a regular part of his wardrobe.

Reggie was the one who asked before borrowing her clothes, trading flannels, her fuzzy socks, and then floated wanting to try a skirt.

Well they all lost their collective brains at that, because Reggie looked good in her skirt. So much so that Julie promptly went out and bought him several of his own, but hers was the one that he wore most often. Always looking giddy when he twirled in it, loving how flowy it was, though he lamented the lack of pockets.

"Yeah, women's fashion sucks for pockets," Julie lamented. "That's why Flynn makes so many of her own clothes."

"Do you think she could make me a skirt with pockets?" Reggie asked.

"Only if she makes me one too," Julie replied. Flynn did in fact, make them both skirts with pockets, and then one for Willie when he shyly asked. Luke and Alex both demurred, but Flynn told them the option was always there if they changed their minds.

Out of all the guys though, Alex was the one who never wore Julie's stuff. He claimed it was because they were so different in size and he didn't want to stretch her stuff. But Alex had always respected Julie's boundaries, so she told him she didn't mind, given Willie and Luke frequently stole her shirts and they were about the same size as him. It was half the reason that she bought everything oversized nowadays.

However, one day Julie was furiously looking for her favourite yellow sweatshirt. The one with the smiley face on the front, a perfect sad day item for when she just wanted to wallow. Bad brain days were the worst honestly. She knew neither of her boyfriends had it, given they were at Luke's house to clean out the garage for some extra cash. Willie was home sick with the flu, and Julie would have gladly loaned it to him, but he refused to spread his germs to her stuff. Plus he confessed to having Alex's hoodie, so that would suffice.

That left the garage.

There she found her sweatshirt.. on Alex who was slumped on the couch, dried tear tracks on his face, sleeping uneasily. His phone was out on the table, a slip of paper on it with his mom's number on it. Julie suddenly understood, Alex had been trying for ages to contact his mom now that she had left his dad, hoping she would finally accept him. From the scene before her, Julie guessed it hadn't gone well.

She was pulling the quilt out to drape over him when Alex's eyes blinked open. "Julie? Oh crap, I am so sorry, I am totally stretching out your sweater!" He scrambled to pull it off, but Julie laid a hand on his, a gentle smile on her face.

"Lex, it's okay. I told you that you could borrow it whenever. You wanna talk about it?" She gestured to the table where the paper still lay.

"Definitely not. Not yet anyways."

"That's fine. Do you wanna come in and make some cookies and watch sad movies with me instead?" Julie offered.

"That sounds great," Alex admitted. "Are you sure you don't want your sweater back?"

"Nah, you can keep it for now. It seems like you need it more," Julie replied, then spotting a familiar piece of clothing, grabbed Reggie's jacket, slipping on the worn black leather. "This will do me just fine."

Later, Luke and Reggie came back, finding Alex asleep, his head pillowed on Julie's lap, her fingers playing with his hair tenderly. They saw that he was in Julie's sweater, and carefully crawled in around the pair, making a cuddle pile, the three of them sharing cookies as the movie played on, eventually falling into an easy slumber together, Alex awoke smiling as his friends kept him safe and loved in their embrace, even in sleep.

#filled prompts #ficlet #alex & julie #jatp qpr kind of #julie and the phantoms

16 notes · View notes

remoony-lupin · 1 year

Text

chapter 1 - the boy in the bookshop

(this is on my ao3 - the fic is called 'the moonage daydream to his lady stardust')

remus lupin woke up to a cold and bright january morning. he’d always had a thing for blue skies, waking up when there was a patch of light shining through his cotton curtains, with the feeling that the day was going to be a good one. he didn’t know it yet, but this day was going to be better - well, at least the best he could hope for. remus got out of bed, searching for the socks he’d discarded on the floor the previous night, and slipped them on as he walked towards the windows. he opened the curtains and let a bright stream of light enter the room, showering it in pretty little patterns and rainbows. the sky was all blues and pinks and purples and fluffs of clouds streaked across the sky, as though someone had drawn them with a paintbrush.

the apartment had only been his for 3 months, but it already felt like home. on coming to london, he’d bought various things from home like his record collection, his plants (stuart, kiki, and jeff), an inexplicable amount of mugs and a couple of books that he’d accumulated over the years. however, remus had always been looking to grow his collection. books were a safe space for him; a world where he could be anyone and anything, live in the biggest castles, the prettiest cottages, watch someone else grow and go through the phases he was going through. classics allowed him to feel a sense of solidarity and connection with those from the past, fantasy let him be the most confident, strongest, beautiful person and poetry let him see that he wasn’t alone - the fact that he could read and hold someone’s experiences and hopes and fears in his very own hands made him feel, well, it made him feel-

“boo!” a hand grabbed him by his shoulder.

“fuck me.” he whispered.

he turned round to face his flatmate lily.

“i was calling out for you, y’know.”

“shit. sorry. didn’t hear you.” he said, pulling her into a hug.

“daydreaming again?”

“you know me too well,” he grinned. “anyway, what did you want?”

“well, i was wondering if you had anything to say to me.”

remus mind buzzed. fuck, he thought, what have i forgotten this time? he’d remembered to lock the door when he came home from work, he’d put out the bins, cleaned the kitchen, made lily’s cake-

“fuck! happy birthday.”

“there we go.” she laughed.

“i’m so sorry. i was just thinking about… well, you know. and only just got up.”

“excuse me,” she mocked. “do you mean to say that you don’t spend every waking moment thinking about me?”

remus laughed. “of course i do, lilyflower, of course. how could i not? just look at you, with your ravishing looks, and pretty ginger hair, and intellect. and your obsession with loving people that are way below you.”

“you flatter me, remus. always the charmer.” she giggled.

remus’ stomach growled.

“ooo, someone’s hungry.” she said. “and don’t worry about breakfast. i took the liberty of cooking for both of us on my special day. i knew you’d be tired.” she smiled, hugging him.

after a breakfast of pancakes coated in too much nutella than remus would like to admit, he showered, brushed his hair (only to mess it up again), threw on a band t-shirt, jumper, jeans, patterned socks and docs, said goodbye to lily and left for the day.

thanks to his brain and stupid boss making him work an extra shift at the concert venue, remus had forgotten to buy lily’s present. he’d always been a last-minute kind of person, but he was really pushing it this time. remus has known lily since he was 14 when they bumped into each other on accident, whilst reading a book. hers had been pride and prejudice and his had been maurice. they’d been heading to the same english class and soon became the best of friends. they sat by one another every lesson, recommended books and music, and had been remus’ only friend forever. when he was 16, and felt ready enough, he came out to her as bisexual. and then, once lily was ready, so did she. for a while, people had thought they were a couple and, in fairness, remus had thought about it once or twice, but they were better as friends. platonic love was just perfect.

remus stopped outside the bookshop. it was his favourite and he always found the cheapest books with the best stories and sweetest covers. it was a run-down kind of place, vintage, one could call it, and had a comforting and warm air to it - which remus liked.

he stepped inside and the bell rang.

a boy looked up from the counter, one he hadn’t seen before. tattoos snaked up his arms. his ears were covered in small rings, studs and loops, particularly round his helix. a leather jacket sat on the chair behind him and remus assumed it was his. he had beautiful shiny blacked hair that was tied up in a messy bun with a pencil through it at the back of his head. remus’ eyes moved down towards his hands, which were adorned in silver rings. and his eyes seemed to glow with a kind of dark but soft energy.

fuck. me. he thought.

“can i help you?” the boy asked.

“errm, no. i think. yeah. i’m fine. all good. just, yeah, just looking.” he stuttered, his face burning up.

“alright, cool. well, let me know if you need anything.” grinned the boy, revealing a ring at the top of his teeth.

“gay. i mean, okay…”

oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. what the fuck was that? remus was sure the boy could see him blushing, not even in a cute way. just bright fucking red.

anyway, he could not let a cute boy - the hottest man he had ever seen in his life stop him now. he was on a mission and would not leave the shop until he was done.

he looked around the shop, thinking about lily. she was usually a classics type, liked old romances - but not the kind where the woman takes a passive role. the sort where she fought against her society, against the men and the time, and, although you knew she’d end up with a man, it was the journey she liked. now all remus had to do was find it.

he went over to the classics section and scanned the shelf. boring, gay, women, boring, too long, read already, gay, boring, sexist, genuinely awful and gay. clearly, the classics shelf had a lot to offer. remus ran a hand through his hair; this was going to be harder than her thought.

“are you sure you don’t need help?” asked the boy at the counter.

“ha, might take you up on that offer.” remus smiled.

“the strain of choosing a book, i feel you.” he said, walking over to remus.

“yeah, i know. i can never choose one. always end up spending hours in here, going over the pages.”

“well, what kind of thing are you looking for?”

“it’s a present for a friend. i kind of forgot it was today ‘cus i was gonna come yesterday but i had to work late because my boss is a dick and then i spilled curry on myself at 3am and cried and went to bed instead.”

fuck, he always did this, always overshared to the most random people at the most awkward times, great coping mechanism, right?

“sounds rough.” he said, giving remus a sympathetic smile. “almost as bad as mine.”

“oh?”

“yeah. i woke up late, missed the bus, which made me late for class, got shouted at by the teacher, forgot my homework, got shouted at again, cried in front of the class, stormed out, lost my keys, had to sleep at my mate’s house, listened to him and his girlfriend the whole night, watched eyeliner tutorials until 6am, got up for work, cried again, and i think that’s about it.”

“shit. slightly worse than mine,” he nudged. “but at least you didn’t spill curry on yourself.”

“no point crying over spilled curry.” the boy shrugged.

“too late for that.” remus laughed.

the boy laughed too.

remus smiled.

“anyway, you said you were looking for a book for your friend?”

“Yeah.”

“what kind of stuff do they like?”

“usually classics, with a female, feminist protagonist, something with enemies to lovers or friends to lovers, and where men don’t dominate the whole scene.”

“pretty specific,” the boy laughed under his breath. “but, i think i might have something.”

remus watched his eyes as he laced a finger across the shelf. they seemed golden in the light. and it was cute. really, really cute.

“ah-ha.” he said, pulling one out.

“little women.”

“little women indeed. have you read it?”

“yeah, a while back though, i think.”

“well, if your friend likes what i think they do, then she should really like this. it’s pretty beautiful and the story’s good and it’s very female-lead. yeah. should work.” he smiled.

“okay, cool. well, i’ll take it. how much?” he said, pulling his card out and walking over to the counter.

“usually 12 pounds. but i’ll do it for seven. because you look desperate. and cute.”

what? what the actual fuck? cute. this man. this fucking man had just called him cute. remus could have cried right there and then.

“haha, cool.” he said, trying to play it off.

he swiped his card on the machine.

“do you want me to wrap it for you? i can even put a bow on it, if you want.”

“yeah, sure. she’d like that. i’m shit at wrapping presents anyway.”

the boy picked up a roll of brown paper from behind him and cut a piece to fit the book, wrapping the paper around it and sealing it with tape.

“ooo, which ribbon?” he asked, showing remus blue, red and green rolls.

“the green.”

“good choice. my personal favourite.”

remus watched as the boy’s fingers looped the perfect bow of forest green. he went to take the book.

“oh, wait. hang on.” he reached up and pulled out the pencil that was holding his hair up. it all came tumbling down in a swath of shiny black and the boy shook it out of his face.

as if this man could not get any more pretty, remus thought.

the boy doodled a little smiley face and kiss on the paper.

“courtesy of yours truly.” he bowed.

“fabulous.” remus chuckled.

“have a good day cutie.” the boy waved as remus started to leave the shop.

“you too.” remus sighed.

and left the shop feeling a whole lot happier than he had done this morning. this boy had called him cute. this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy had called him cute. and remus held on to that until the next time he saw him.

2 notes · View notes

griefpersevering · 1 year

Text

the ripples they cause

Read on AO3 🕷 Playlist 🕷 Buy me a cup of tea ☕

Chapter Twenty-Two: Drive It Like You Stole It

Notes:

Hello everyone!! Three things about this chapter - it's longer than the other ones (by a lot), it's the reason why I've added the graphic depictions of violence warning, and it's from Kate's POV! You can find more information and detailed warnings in the chapter notes :D

Sneak peek:

Kate and Yelena arrive to the VIGILante late.

In her defense, Lucky's more to blame than Kate. Unfortunately, Yelena refuses to accept the excuse of 'my dog threw up on my bed because I fed him a spicy pizza by accident'.

The fact Kate cleaned all that up in fifteen minutes is a miracle.

Times Square is always busy, especially at night, but the crowd that has gathered there tonight is huge. The screens illuminate the hundreds of people in a haze of neon colours, and Kate catches sight of a few famous faces among them.

Several vigilantes have gathered at the top of the red steps, watching over the civilians who are there to support them. Parked at the bottom of the stairs is a carpenter's table, which has a large poster advertising badges dangling from the front.

"So many people care about this Spider-Man," Yelena says, surveying the area.

"He seemed nice when we met him," Kate replies. "But it's not just about him — it's about all of us."

Both of them are wearing their superhero outfits, but neither brought their weapons. (Or, at least, Yelena said she didn't. She probably lied.) The police are loitering around the edges of the gathering, waiting to swoop in and arrest anyone who risks getting too rowdy.

"Do you think anyone will recognise us?" Kate asks.

Yelena raises an eyebrow. "I doubt it."

"I want to see if they have a badge for us," she insists, grabbing Yelena's wrist and tugging her through the crowd. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"We're supposed to be here all night. There's no need to rush."

The table is manned by a very stressed out teenage boy. He runs a hand through his slicked back hair as his previous customer walks away with their goodies, but a woman steps up to buy a badge before Kate reaches him.

The woman shakes her head, her short curly hair bouncing with the movement. "I can't believe I'm doing this. Do you have any Punisher pins?"

"Yep," the boy says. "They're all five dollars."

"That's steep."

He rolls his eyes. "All the proceeds go to charity," he says, in a rehearsed tone that suggests this isn't the first time he's had this conversation.

"Fine." She pulls out her wallet and hands the money over, and he passes a badge with a skull on it back to her.

"Madani, I didn't know you cared," a man says, strolling up to her. Kate does a double take when she recognises him, but the two disappear into the crowd before she can approach them.

"Was that the Punisher?" she asks, stunned.

"There's a ton of vigilantes here. Even Pepper Potts showed up," the kid behind the stall says, pointing to a group of three standing across the square. She isn't here alone; her daughter is holding onto the hem of her coat, and the man accused of stealing the Stark Technology is by her side.

"I told you we wouldn't be the only superheroes here, Kate Bishop," Yelena says.

"Oh my God!" the guy says. "I thought I recognised you guys! You're the new Hawkeye and Black Widow, aren't you? I'm Flash, it's so cool to meet you guys."

"Always nice to meet a fan," Kate says, elbowing Yelena. "Do you have any badges of us, by any chance?"

He points to two pots of buttons next to each other. "We have these generic Hawkeye and Black Widow ones."

Kate picks up one with a purple bow and arrow on. "We'll take one of each."

"You're paying for both," Yelena says.

"I always do," Kate sighs, handing Flash the money.

She attaches her own badge to her shirt before leaning over to pin Yelena's to her lapel. Yelena stares down at it for a moment, an unreadable look on her face, before running her thumb over the red hourglass.

"This is cheap plastic," she complains, but there's no venom in her tone.

Continue reading on AO3!

#marvel #mcu #spider-man #peter parker #no way home #daredevil #matt murdock #frank castle #the punisher #bucky barnes #wade wilson #deadpool #yelena belova #kate bishop #hawkeye #lina lore #my writing #the ripples they cause #long post

2 notes · View notes

fishyartist · 2 years

Text

Ghost Getter :)

#valerie gray #danny phantom #dp fanart #my art #fan art #Trying to apply some stuff from the show’s style to my own #which for one of my first attempts at this I’m pretty happy with!#anyways #using the fact that she had a purple shirt one time as an excuse to give her purple accents #felt right plus hehe nonbinary flag :)#I’m currently working on a personal visdev project to make a quote pitch endquote for an imaginary reboot. thought it’d be a fun format #and also easier in a lot of ways then a comic since like #I can write out ideas and only illustrate enough to get the gist across #anyways I’ll save the rambling for when I finish that mess

293 notes · View notes

fic-dumpster · 2 years

Note

pls you absolutely know that the boys have threatened every group project partner that doe's brought around the house so they could literally just finish their assignment in peace. they def tried to make this mans finish the project on his own but doe got mad because she also wanted to pass on her own >:( so they let her but they're most definitely watching right outside the door with a plate of fruit so they have any excuse to interrupt

😂😂 I cant help but think of a creepy smiling Sanzu with chopped fruits on a plate behind the door and probably Rindou’s head pops from one side and the rest “casually” appear. Omg, yes 😂🤸🏻‍♂️💕!! But :c I don’t think they would let Doe have someone else in their shared room tho. So probably in a different place. An open place(?) omg hold on hold on! AHHHHHH I wanna write smth :c

Bonten’s “I’m just a civilian” starter pack

Bonten x Reader | DIHU

Warnings: slight violence, a bit of jealousy, stalking, nonsense, Humor, crackfic,

“I have the target visualized,” said a pink-haired man with a green cap and sunglasses on, “Koko, Do you copy?”

“The hell do you mean by do you copy? He's right there, dumbass,” whispered Kakucho, who sat next to Sanzu.

“Sanzu, don't say his name; what part of undercover you don't understand,” Rindou spoke through his earpiece.

“Both of you just did the same thing, shut up,” Ran intervened, “and why earpieces? We could have texted each other.”

“Quiet! I can hear everyone murmuring from here,” Kokonoi almost screamed in his earpiece.

All bonten members are currently sitting at different tables in a small cafeteria surrounding their target. Kakucho and Sanzu sat at a table near the establishment's entrance; Kokonoi and Takeomi occupied one near the back; Ran and Mochi were positioned north, next to the bathroom; and finally, Rindou and Mikey sitting on stools at the counter.

You’ve been focused on your task at hand that you didn't notice the men surrounding your table. But the two classmates that were working on the project with you did. They noticed how the suspicious individuals glanced in their direction very often, and all of them wore sunglasses and caps of the same brand, which was a dead giveaway that they were, in fact, together.

While you typed on your laptop, your two classmates began to get uncomfortable from the constant silent pressure around them, and above all, they worried about your safety. What if those men were kidnappers? Molesters?

“Y/N, hey,” one of your classmates murmured. You shot your head up, concerned due to his tone of voice. “I think it's better if we finish here for today, and we can walk you home.”

“Oh? What? No!” you almost jumped from your seat, “We still have so much to do! You said you both had the day off? Did something happen?” you doubted you would ever have so much time for a project ever again, knowing how your... somewhat boyfriends tend to behave. To be honest, you were surprised when they let you go alone.

“Kind of,” the other classmate responded, side glancing to the purple-haired individual that had slightly turned around on his stool.

Imitating the action of your classmate, you also looked around and noticed that the once empty cafeteria was now almost full. You saw how eight men casually diverted their faces from your direction. And by casually, you meant to say in an extremely obvious manner.

“They did not just-” you facepalmed yourself as a tired groan left your lips. As you looked again, you saw Ran and Rindou’s exuberant tattoos coming out from under their t-shirts. They weren't even trying to hide them. “You know what, I think you are right; we should continue some other day.”

Both males nodded and began tidying up their scattered stuff.

Meanwhile, the normal civilians...

“I think Y/N saw us,” spoke Sanzu through the earpiece.

“Oh? Really? I couldn't tell with how she turned around and inspected each and every one of us,” Takeomi responded, grumpy due to the lack of nicotine in his system.

Rindou wheezed at the exchange between the Aakashi brothers, almost making Mikey chock on his affogato—vanilla ice cream and espresso dripped from the smaller man’s chin. Just when Mikey was about to retaliate against the younger haitani, your scream startled everyone.

One of your classmates accidentally dropped his drink on you; luckily, it was almost empty, but some drops fell on your chest area. Amid the panic, your classmate took some napkins from the table and, without thinking, approached the affected zone.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed the wrist coming your way. Your eyes followed the source, and none other than Ran Haitani stood next to you, cursing under your breath; you suspected what kind of expression lay behind the sunglasses. You saw your classmate flinch, and Ran’s knuckles turned white from the pressure he applied to his grip.

“I suggest you reconsider where you’ll put those napkins on,” Kakucho’s voice came from behind you, and it wasn't long before you felt his chest on your back.

“I- I- ‘m so- so- s- rry! Sir!”

“Ran, please, let him go,” you sighed. The two other looming shadows didn't pass unnoticed by you. Of course, Rindou would drag Sanzu to the intimidation game.

It took you almost 20 minutes to convince them to let your classmates go. You had to pull Ran away, he had brought his batton and you panicked. It was hell. At one point, you stood in front of your classmates, attempting to defend them, and then, Sanzu freaked out, saying something about how they could peek at your butt. He fastly pulled you back. They were just being petty.

As soon as your group partners left, you hit their biceps with your palm. Not your best decision since after five hits, it stung your palm more than it hurt them.

“At least pretend I did some damage!” You exclaimed, and a chorus of fake howls and cries followed your words, “Wait, where is Koko and Mochi?” You looked around, and through the window, you saw the long-haired man handing wads of bills to your classmates while Mochi stood beside them. Was he... Where they... No... Oh, no.

“No, y/n, they’re doing business,” you were about to storm off when Kakucho held you from going after Kokonoi—arms wrapped around your figure.

Just then, you realized something as you saw Takeomi fix his cap, “What are you all wearing?” You even glanced at Mikey, who was ordering another dessert. He also wore the same sunglasses and cap but in a bluish color.

“Isn’t it obvious? Our civilian disguise,” as if they could pass as ordinary people when they were together, you scoffed at Rindou’s words.

“Yeah, we even bought hoodies, but we decided not to use them. It's hot today,” Sanzu added.

You didn't know if you should cry or laugh at the effort they put. “Who told you all that civilians dress like that?” you chuckled.

“I saw it in a movie,” Mikey appeared with a wobbly cheesecake in hand.

“You what?” Everyone, including you, asked, baffled by that revelation.

#omificstags #omi.dih #omi.answers #uwubby 1 #bonten x reader #tokyo revengers fluff #humor #tokyorev #akashi takeomi #sanzu haruchiyo #kakucho hitto #ran haitani #kokonoi hajime #rindou Haitani #sano mikey Manjiro #mochizuki kanji

650 notes · View notes

celestialrry · 3 years

Text

stood up

3.5k

hello everyone!!!! I've been awol for literally weeks because i had absolutely NO motivation to write but i finally finished this piece ˊᗜˋ so YAY. ALSOO thank you for following me, liking, and reblogging my pieces (it encourages me somuchsothankyouireallyappreciateit-- and remember reblogging really helps us writers :))) ) here’s a hug for all ur patience and feel free to send me asks or requests i love talking to you guys! ε(♡'-')з

summary: Harry keeps standing Y/N up. (request from @ballerinrry! thank u love)

warnings: cursing, mentions of alcohol and sex, angsty but with a happy ending cause for some reason i can never let them end on a bad note

Y/N was excited.

It had been a while since Harry had asked her to go on a date, it was always the other way around recently. She couldn’t blame him though, Y/N knew just how busy Harry always was, and it wasn’t like he was purposefully not asking her to go do things, he just had a lot on his plate.

That’s what she kept telling herself anyways.

It’s what she told herself when it had been 2 weeks since they had even eaten a meal together, and given the fact that just a few months ago Harry had come back to London for a while, that was rare. So, Y/N asked him to grab lunch on a Saturday while they were lying in bed together, and when he agreed, but failed to show up, leaving Y/N sitting at the cafe, her lips morphed into a frown and her eyes not focusing on the phone in front of her, she told herself he was simply booked up with meetings and studio time and such.

Thats what he told her when he got into bed that night to apologize for accidentally standing her up. She forgave him, of course, and suggested they could just get dinner the next week. He agreed, even walked around to his calander her to show her he was marking the date off in his calendar with a heart, her first initial, and 7:00 PM etched into the little box with red sharpie.

So, the week passed with quick kisses of good mornings and good nights, and while Harry was gone Y/N had on a black dress she had been excited to wear for a while now, with those little mini silver heels and a coat strung over her shoulders as she sat on her couch waiting for Harry to swing by to pick her up. She shot him a text that simply asked “You otw? xx”

He was not.

It took about 30 minutes of waiting on their couch to realize he was standing her up, again. And it took until the next morning for Harry to see her text (his phone had been on do not disturb while he was at the studio and he ended up spending the night at Sarah and Mitch’s after a few beers), and for the guilt to seep through his veins.

He apologized, again. And Y/N forgave him, again.

Only until it got to the point where Y/N no longer remembered the amount of times Harry had stood her up, for being at the studio, or sleeping after a meeting, or simply just not paying attention to his phone, she knew there was a problem.

Harry was fully aware of the problem too. He knew that this was no way to ever treat a partner, and if someone was doing this to him, he’d dump them— well, he’s never been one to end a relationship unless it was necessary, so that’s an exaggeration, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Which is why when he got home one day around 11 PM, gave her a kiss to the forehead after she sat up in their bed to give him a hug, and a soft “Can we talk?” escaped her lips, he knew he had to fix this. So he asked her if they could talk over dinner the next night, he just wanted to sleep but also wanted to fix things with his girl, asking her if she was free of course, before telling her he’s gonna make a reservation at that nice restaurant the two of them used to go to quite often, because “it’s been a while since I’ve taken my favorite girl out”.

A grin broke out on her face because he had asked her! And if Harry was planning it, there’s no way he’d cancel or stand her up.

So yeah, Y/N was excited.

She woke up that morning with a smile on her face, and something akin to a what she thinks a rainbow would feel like running through her veins. It had only been a few months since she’d last been on a date with her boyfriend of almost 2 years and a half in person, and she was going to make the most of it. Because after this date, things would change. They’d spend more time together again and it would be like this little bump (that neither had acknowledged) never happened.

Y/N did, well, everything to prepare. Took a long shower, shaved, put on that coconut lotion Harry likes— he tended to dig his face in her neck when he smelled it while holding her—, brushed her teeth more than 3 times, dug in her closet to find that one patterned soft purple dress she bought ages ago but never had a change to wear it, until now, put on those really cute heels Harry said he liked once (“Looks like something you’d wear on a runway pet, I love ‘em.”), and even styled her hair differently than normal.

He had told her he would swing by at 8 on the dot after the studio, and soon enough, it was 8, with no sign from the man who made the promise himself. Y/N thought maybe there was traffic, he was just running late, texted him a quick, “Can’t wait to see you!! xxx” and put her phone on the coffee table, waiting on their couch.

8 turned to 9, 9 turned to 10, 10 turned to 11, and soon it was midnight. Y/N doesn’t think she’d ever felt more empty than how she felt then, walking to their shared room of a year, slipping off her heels and tossing them towards the closet, as well as pulling her dress over herself and letting it fall to the floor behind her, grabbing that one t-shirt she always wears when she needs comfort (which just happened to an extra 2018 Live on Tour shirt Harry had laying around that she snatched just 3 months into them dating), and flopping into bed.

She couldn’t fall asleep, and instead spent her time curled up in their bedsheets, a steady flow of tears making their way down her blush covered cheeks.

。:°ஐ

Harry usually didn’t make mistakes.

Sure, he had his moments, grabbing the wrong coffee off the counter when his name was called at the cafe, forgetting to text Jeff that he actually couldn’t make it to a meeting that was scheduled in a few hours. Just little things, things that didn’t matter that much, and could always be fixed. He didn’t usually make mistakes that weren’t easy to fix. He just wasn’t that kind of guy.

Until, he was.

Harry loved Y/N. He loved having her around, loved spending time with her, loved loving on her, loved kissing her, loved touching her, loved the way she went about almost everything. He was so in love with her, that hurting her was out of the question. He never wanted to be the one to make her cry, make her bottom lip quiver before the tears rushed out like he’d seen many times before, due to movies, his songs (which as sadistic as it sounds was an ego builder to have someone so close to him so affected by the music he wrote), her school work, or even her friends that weren’t being so nice.

In fact, he was so in love with her, even being so afraid of commitment (it took him over a year of them dating to ask her to move in), all he wanted to do was blurt out those 4 dreaded words. “Will you marry me?” It was a bond for life, and he was terrified of that, but with Y/N all he wanted to do was spend the rest of his living days with her.

When Harry had come back from being in L.A. for so long and finally being in the same city as his girlfriend back at their home, all they did was spend time together. Every time he saw Y/N all he wanted to do was say those 4 words that he hadn’t even fully come to terms with himself. It was dangerous, and Harry’s self control when it came to Y/N was lacking, so he simply did was every normal person would do in his situation.

He stood her up.

Many more times than he could count, and of course he felt like the shittiest person in the world— shittiest boyfriend in the world—but at least now she can’t possibly be under the impression that he wanted to marry her, which is what he wanted. Or thought he wanted, until Sarah called him up one day after he had stood Y/N up for dinner the night before and told him off. Told Harry just how fucking terrible he made Y/N feel, how unwanted she thought she was, how she felt like they were loosing their relationship, and Harry didn’t know what to do with himself. (Of course Y/N had sobbed to Sarah about it over the phone while she was drunk off the wine she opened 40 minutes after Harry said he would be there, so she really didn’t even remember the conversation).

And later that day Harry had come home, heard her wavering voice asking if they could talk, and decided in his head he would tell her how he felt, how sorry he was, and how he wanted to be with her forever and love her forever if she allowed him. He had a few expectations for their dinner, that Y/N would probably tell him how he’s made her feel, and Harry would apologize, tell her why he did it, explain he thought it was no excuse, then tell her he plans on marrying her (obviously not proposing just yet, but finally bringing up the conversation they had never had even though they were in a serious committed relationship) and they’d go back home, have the most amazing sex ever, and forget about the whole thing.

What Harry didn’t expect was to get a call from Jeff around 5 asking him to come to the studio to fix few vocals, then end up nailing down 2 songs in one night, go to a bar with the band to celebrate, get drunk, then pass out at Mitch and Sarahs flat.

But that’s what happened, according to Mitch, who woke Harry up the very next morning.

“Good morning man, wakey wakey,” Mitch’s teasing tone echoed through Harry’s (what felt like full of vodka) brain as he groaned and squinted his eyes. “Why are you waking me up at this hour in the morning?” Harry asked drearily, sighing and simultaneously regretting last night as a whole because the last thing he wanted to do while hungover was be up before at least 9 AM.

“We’ve gotta go to meet with Jeff about tour in like a hour, H” Mitch stated .

At Mitch’s words Harry sat up on their couch, eyes wide in fear. “Wait mate, I thought tha’ meeting was on Wednesday.”

“It is Wednesday H, god how drunk did we let you get last night…” Mitch said, beginning to recount some of Harry’s antics the night before. Harry however, couldn’t hear a thing with the blood pumping through his ears. If today was Wednesday, that meant yesterday was Tuesday, and he went and got trashed at a bar with his friends Tuesday night when— when he was supposed to be on a date with Y/N, when he was supposed to confess his intentions, when he was supposed to apologize for standing her up over and over, yet instead he went and did it again.

Now this, this was a mistake.

“…H. H. Harry? Are you there?” Mitch’s voice came back into focus and Harry shook his head. “I- fuck, I was supposed to take Y/N out last night.” Harry said, his voice trembling.

‘I’m sure she’ll forgive you, it’s just one night.” Mitch tried to make Harry feel better. He knew Y/N was a very forgiving person, she would get over this in no time.

“No, she won’t. I-I’ve stood her up for the past month and a half, Mitch.”

At these words, Mitch stands straight up making pained eye contact with Sarah in the kitchen who was overhearing most of this conversation with her eyes wide. She had no idea it was this bad. “Month and a half? I thought it was just that one time a few weeks ago, Harry what the hell is wrong with you?” Harry simply shook his head and didn’t reply. He had absolutely no idea how to make it up to her. “I-fuck, I don’t know Mitch!” Harry raised his voice. “I need to see her and apologize, now.” Harry said, standing up and rushing over to the front door and slipping on his shoes.

“This meeting is mandatory Harry, as much as I want you to see her too, she’d probably still asleep, and I don’t think this can be solved in under an hour.” Mitch said calmly, already knowing Harry was close to walking out his door. Harry stayed silent for a moment, weighing the options. Either go apologize to his girlfriend, or prioritize himself over her again.

“We can do it another day, I’m sorry, but I have to go see her, tell Jeff I feel sick.” And he walked out without another word.

。:°ஐ

The morning after Harry stood Y/N up again was brutal.

She stayed up all night, replaying moments with Harry in her head, analyzing if he wanted to be there with her, wondering if maybe he felt like he had to stay with her out of pity. It was torture, and the pain seemed to turn into numbness as time went by, and eventually the sun came up, and she stayed in bed, her motivation lost.

A loud crash and “Fuck!” woke her up, swollen eyes fluttering open to the invasive noise. Y/N furrowed her brows, her mind connecting everything that happened yesterday and unfortunately reminding her of the unbearable pain she went through the night before. A groan escaped her lips as she sat up and flung her legs out of her bed sheets that had been flung off the bed in the middle of the night. She began grumbling to herself as she made her way downstairs, ready to tell Harry off for making so much noise.

Her mouth stopped moving, and instead remained in limbo as her eyes met Harry’s. His mouth opened to speak, but his words were caught in his throat as he saw the state she was in. It was when her mouth pressed into a line that he could begin talking. “Y/N, baby, please I know you don’t wanna see me or talk t’me right now but I’m so fuckin’ sorry, love. So so sorry, it was an accident, I went t’ the studio to fix a few things then got hung up on the songs and by the time we went to celebrate I completely lost track of time, and I was too drunk to drive home so I crashed at Mitch’s.”

Her mouth fell open at his words. Everything was happening too fast. Hearing that he stood her up to drink at a fucking bar to celebrate himself, then coming home and accidentally knocking over a glass in their kitchen (which she put together was the crash earlier after seeing the shards of broken glass on the floor) frustrated her to no end. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him any longer, and Harry had stopped talking after realizing what he just admitted to her. Without another glance, instead of looking at Y/N’s tear stained face, all he saw was her back, walking up the stairs to their room.

“Fuck,” He said to himself before following her up the pink stairs. “Y/N, love wait-please, I’m so sorry, I just need to talk to you, I need to explain myself, please.” He begged as she shut their bedroom door in his face, his voice turning into a desperate whine at the end.

。:°ஐ

It’s been 3 days since then, and she hasn’t spoken to him. He would leave in the mornings, kissing her forehead and mumbling an “I love you” and telling her exactly what time he’d be home, before leaving and coming back on time to find an empty plate in the sink and her lying in their bed, whether it be reading, scrolling on her phone, or typing on her laptop. He would apologize many times, reaching his hand out for hers and she would simply situate herself in their bed and lay down, back turned to him.

Harry just couldn’t take it anymore.

It was when she had finally let him kiss her forehead goodnight that he decided to take his chance. “Y/N.” He spoke softly, with no response or anything to indicate she heard him. “Baby, can we please talk- or I’ll talk and you listen, I just- I really need to say some things.”

She was still faced away from him when he leaned against their headboard and he decided to keep going.

“I- um. I’m sure you know how sorry I am, but I really am- sorry I mean. Not just for tonight but for every other time I’ve stood you up. I’m so sorry for not showing you how much you matter to me, and how much the things you do matter to me.”

It was then that she slowly sat up next to him and looked at him, eyes begging him to continue. He blushed at her intense eye-contact that he had barely gotten over the past few days and took a breath, opting to look at his hands fidgeting in his lap.

“We’ve been together for 2 and almost a half years, which is the longest relationship I’ve been in, and it’s no excuse to treat you this way, but I had just been thinking about how things progress even further than now,” He coughs. “Which is marriage, and when I finally came home, all I wanted to do was ask you to marry me- I don’t- m’not proposing right now, I just- I got really scared because wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone is crazy to me,

I’ve never thought that way about anyone else until you, I didn’t even really want to get married before you, and I started to distance myself before I ended up telling you this, but obviously that blew up in my face.” He chuckled a bit, locking eyes with her unreadable ones for a moment and lifting a hand to run through his hair. “What I’m trying to say, is that I love you, so so much, and I plan on marrying you— obviously if you want to too, of course— and I’m so sorry for trying to make you think that I didn’t care about you anymore or love you any less, because it’s the complete opposite of that.”

His eyes were watery now, as he started down at his interlocked fingers, and his eyes widened when her hand was gently placed over his own. “Harry,” Y/N began. “Look at me, please.”

His head lifted to see her facing him, her brows knitted and a small smile on her face. “I forgive you, okay? I could tell you were kind of scared of commitment when we first started dating, and I wish I could say your reason for standing me up is surprising but it’s not.” They both chuckled a bit at this. “I- I’m still upset at you, I need you to know that, because 2 months of thinking the love of your life is avoiding you doesn’t feel all too great, so you suck for that,” she said, planting a quick kiss to his cheek which quickly turned pink. “But Harry, even if you asked me to marry you a year ago I would have said yes. I love you, so much, and I plan on spending the rest of my life with you as well. I’m sorry for giving you the silent treatment, it was… unnecessary and immature. So, thank you for apologizing. I love you.” She confessed again.

“S’okay, I deserved it, and I love you too. Maybe even more. So um, we’re okay?” Harry asked, a hopeful smile on his face.

She nodded with a smile and pulled him into a much needed hug and pulled away only for him to bring her into an even more needed kiss. “If you ever try to pull that shit again, I’m breaking up with you.” She laughed and he tackled her into the sheets hiding his face in her neck.

“Duly noted, love. Duly noted.”

#harry styles one shot #harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff #Harry Styles #harry styles angst #im pretty proud of this one #if I do say so myself #harry styles fanfiction #its kinda short tho sorry

440 notes · View notes

drabbles-of-writing · 3 years

Text

Coming Home

AO3

third owl fight attack! This one’s prompt was “Hunter and Luz being siblings”, and I kinda ran with it

Summary: Saying that Hunter was worried for Luz would be an overstatement. He wasn't worried, he was just...vaguely curious. He knew that she'd take some time in the human realm, to be with her mother, but...well, it'd been almost two weeks, and nobody had heard a single thing from her. So, really, breaking and entering was an entirely reasonable reaction.

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

Now, Hunter knew, on some level, that Luz would be in the human realm for a while.

To be fair, he hadn’t had much time to think about it, what with everything going on. There was the Grimwalker revelation, which was also a kind-of clone revelation, and Luz offering an outstretched hand, and sitting on the ground in the human realm with the portal flickering and pulsing angrily, the dust settling as he held his uncles broken mask in his hands--

He’d been more than a little preoccupied, to say the least.

And Luz had gone through the portal the second it had all finally calmed, when there was nothing left to fight, with goodbyes he couldn’t remember. He wasn’t sure exactly when, everything had gone pretty numb by that point.

He just knew that after the first two days, when he was finally dragged out of his miserable wallowing in ditches by a very exasperated palisman and Owl Lady, Luz wasn’t there.

The others noticed her absence and the slight hole she left, he knew they did, but they never really commented on it. What with Bonesborough falling apart in a literal and metaphorical sense, everyone was kinda busy trying to patch all of it up. Like dealing with that one demon who kept talking about ancient magic, who was apparently the small rat demon's dad. And making sure Kikimora stopped escaping prison for five minutes. And dealing with the other Coven Heads. And apparently there was some people mad that the old wild witch ways were coming back--

Nobody really had the time to wonder about Luz off in the human realm, seeing her mother again.

And for the first week, he didn’t worry. He had an existential crisis and bothersome witches to avoid like the plague. His days were spent distracting himself by making everyone's lives miserable, since they kept insisting on holding him captive in the Owl House instead of letting him decompose in the woods for some reason. And honestly, Luz knew way too many people, because he’d stopped bothering to keep track of everyone by the fourth hour of being in that house.

After he realized trying to run for it or annoying everyone into kicking him out wouldn’t work, he mostly hid in the dark corners where nobody would see him for hours at a time. Used to be for days, but apparently the Owl Lady was just as nocturnal as him, and they’d run into each other early in the morning when trying to grab a snack.

He had Rascal for company, at least. Say what you will about the little guy, but he was as loyal as he was stubborn.

But, after the first week, Hunter was starting to really notice a severe lack of annoying humans running around.

Apparently, so was the others, because he was noticing a few of them beginning to get a little antsy. He would’ve brushed it off, but he could hear a distinct influx of mutterings that sounded like ‘Luz’ and ‘portal’ and ‘human realm’ from his hiding places, when they thought no one else was around.

It was almost halfway through the second week before he knew it, and that was far too long for Luz to be away without so much as a note.

And she was probably fine, he reasoned. But Luz being away without even a call was suspicious enough, two was downright concerning.

By then, Hunter was somewhat starting to recognize the faces that filtered in and out of the Owl House, and he began to plan.

Somehow, he managed to wait until he saw a girl with familiar purple hair step in through the doorway, speaking words he didn’t bother to listen to as she sat on the couch he was hiding under.

Rascal had, of course, chosen to perch himself on the head of a chair across the room, where barely anyone would care to notice him.

She was talking to some small illusionist he saw earlier (he may recognize faces, but names were a whole other matter. He’d never had to memorize names unless they were important to Belos, and if they weren’t, they were irrelevant. He should probably work on remembering their names), something about buildings and repairs or something, it wasn’t his problem. When the illusionist stepped away, off towards the kitchen to grab something, Hunter decided to poke his head out from underneath the couch.

“So what's the word on-- ow!” He yelped, jerking back under the couch when he got a foot kicked into his nose.

“Titan, don’t do that, you prick!” Amity snapped, inching a little further to the left as Hunter peeked out only one eye from under the couch this time, giving his best spiteful glare. “Why are you even down there?”

“Because nobody bothers me,” Hunter growled, holding his nose as he began to wiggle out. “Everyone’s so clingy in this house, it’s maddening.”

“Do you actually mean clingy, or are you referring to basic kindness?” Amity raised a brow, narrowing her eyes as he stood and brushed himself off from the dust bunnies that gathered under the couch.

“Irrelevant. Why hasn’t the human returned yet?” He demanded, leaning against the arm of the couch as Amity sat at the other end, giving a reasonable distance between them.

“Luz?” Amity blinked, clearly taken aback by the question.

“Yes, is there another, different human that you have to bring up every five minutes I should know about?” Hunter snapped, and got a curled lip and bared teeth from Amity in response.

“What, getting bored of the rest of us?” Amity snarked, crossing her arms.

“Don’t flatter yourself, barely any of you were entertaining to begin with.” Hunter huffed. “Now do you know why the human is avoiding us or not?”

“Avoiding?” Amity frowned. “Luz’s not avoiding us, she’s just visiting her mom.”

“With radio silence for almost two weeks,” Hunter said, doing his best to stamp down his impatience.

He really would have rathered asking the Owl Lady about this, but he’d learned from the last time he tried that she’d twist any conversation regarding Luz to be about him, so the next logical best bet would have to be her incessant, chattery, girlfriend. Titan, Luz had the weirdest tastes.

“She’s been away from her mom for four months.” Amity said, rolling her eyes like this was some concept he wasn't understanding. “She’s not gonna see her for a day and then come right back.”

“But still!” Hunter threw his hands in the air, ignoring Rascal’s minorly concerned chirp from across the room. “You think someone like Luz would go without contact for almost two weeks? She would’ve at least popped in to say hello, or go on some ramble about what’s going on in the human realm. She’d feel guilty about leaving you guys to repair everything on your own by the second hour.”

“It’s just...taking her a minute,” Amity said, and that was the first small crack in her resolve he saw. Had she not seen him at his lowest the first time they spoke, he would’ve been proud of the fact he could chip away at her far easier than she could at him. “Luz wouldn’t avoid anyone out of the blue, that��s not like her.”

And he knew she was right on that, as infuriating it was to admit it. Luz wouldn’t abandon people, she’d be more likely to keel over on the spot from spontaneously growing a bile sac. And perhaps a part of him was being a little over dramatic, but there was just this little twist in his chest that curled tighter when he considered going back to hiding in empty rooms and letting everything continue on, waiting to see if anything would change rather than making it change.

“Besides,” Amity continued. “As Luz’s girlfriend, I think that I would know if--”

“Oh Titan, just forget it.” Hunter groaned, tugging on his ears as he stepped away from the couch. “Whatever, you’re useless about this, anyway. If you don’t know when she’s coming back, and the Owl Lady doesn’t know, then nobody will.”

Amity stayed silent for a moment as Hunter stormed off towards the doorway that led to the staircase, Rascal flying off his perch to land on his shoulder with soft, almost melodic chirrups.

He contemplated if he could steal something from one of the spare rooms up there. Everyone was fluctuating between them the last few days, but they often left their stuff in there for him to take. It was fun watching them get so riled up about their missing junk.

“We,” Amity started, and Hunter paused in the doorway, one ear pricked. “We were planning on going into the human realm,” She admitted, voice quiet. “If we didn’t hear anything from Luz by the end of this week.”

Hunter turned around then, noting Amity had one hand bunched up on her leg, fisting the hem of her shirt and rubbing her fingers between it in a nervous tick. She avoided his gaze, and he saw, for just the briefest of moments, the uncertainty spilling off of her, possibly having been doing so for far longer than when he’d noticed the same signs from everyone else.

“Well,” He said, and she looked up at him then, and the vulnerability was gone in a snap, replaced by a curious, slightly accusatory, expression. It unnerved him how familiar it looked. “By all means, don’t go telling me about your super secret rescue missions, not like I’d want to join.” He muttered.

“Count it a blessing that I told you at all,” Amity hissed, ears flicking back. “Maybe if you promise to be nice, we’ll let you come along.” She taunted.

“Maybe if you people hadn’t kidnapped me, I wouldn’t be causing so many problems.” Hunter growled back through gritted teeth, breaking eye contact for only a moment when Rascal lightly bit and tugged on his ear, trying to urge him away.

“Like you need an excuse--”

“Uh, am-am I interrupting?”

The two turned their heads, realizing that the small illusionist, he’d figure out the kids name later, was standing in the living room again, a box of juice in his hands as his eyes flicked between them.

“No, Golden Boy was just leaving.” Amity waved him off, leaning back against the couch.

“You weren’t even clever with that one, Blight.” Hunter sneered, rolling his eyes as he turned to leave.

“Wittebane.”

“Call me that again and I’m ripping your teeth out.” Hunter threatened, pointing a finger at her as he backed out of the room.

“No name,” Amity amended, sticking her tongue out at him.

“You are on thin ice.”

That night, Hunter was opening the window in Luz’s old room.

His escape attempts had never really worked before, the weird tube demon in the front door took his job of keeping him contained very seriously. Everyone else just liked watching the show and tapping in when needed.

However, he also knew, from the mutterings that Luz had told him in those few snatches of time in the days that they had talked before everything went wrong (or right, depending on who you asked), that she’d snuck out through her window multiple times without the demon realizing. Apparently she had bribed him once or twice, and now he barely reacted to the sound of her window opening, sort of like a reflex.

He’d meant to use it for his next escape attempt, just to see if it’d work for him, to run for the hills if it worked, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He’d be damned if they left him out of nabbing Luz from the human realm.

So Hunter tugged his cloak tighter across his shoulders, despite it being torn in many places, he had yet to rid it completely, and slowly opened Luz’s window.

He waited, tense, Rascal just as silent from within his hood. When there wasn’t the sound of a piercing voice after a few seconds, he cautiously poked his head out.

Nothing.

Either the bird really had grown to have no reaction to Luz’s window opening, or he was just as tired as everyone else. Or off eating bugs, that was plausible.

He slowly edged out, only having a moment to peer down at the ground below until he swung out of the window, hands gripping the windowsill as he edged himself down.

He hung in the air for a moment before releasing the windowsill, dropping to the ground below in a crouch. The perks of the Emperor’s Coven were few and far between, but hey, living there had made him an expert at being quiet.

He darted around the Owl House, crouching so as to avoid being seen through the first-floor windows, because there was always someone awake, no matter the hour. The portal to the human realm had been moved not too far away, but far enough that it couldn’t be, you know, automatically seen by anyone approaching the building.

He spared one last glance towards the house before he booked it off towards the woods, already mentally cursing himself for wearing a white cloak in the middle of the night. Why did he think that was a good idea, why did he think that was a good idea--

He made it to the cover of trees, somehow, without anyone sounding the alarm. He ducked behind a tree, catching his breath for a moment as he waited for shouting to arise.

Upon realizing he was in the clear, he pumped a fist in the air with a soft “yes!” and got an encouraging whistle from Rascal, who he gave a quick scratch on the head to.

He then hurried a bit further into the trees, soon faced with branches, vines, and bushes all stretched out across the beginning of a slope before him.

He reached out, grabbing one of the vines and yanking it aside, revealing the structure of the portal to the human realm, its soft humming mostly muffled by everything covering it. He ran his hand down the exterior of it for a second before pushing more vines aside, allowing a small enough space for him to crawl through.

He’d been to the human realm before, technically. Belos’s wrath had only just begun to reach into the human realm before he had managed to be stopped, and Hunter had a few moments out there, feeling the grass and seeing the trees. They really were green, and he couldn’t help but see it all and know with certainty that there was no magic within any of it. Hollow. It was a feeling he was familiar with.

But this time was different, and he inhaled for a moment before giving Rascal what he hoped was his best determined look.

“Alright,” He said. “Let’s see what’s been keeping her.”

He spent about half an hour in the woods of the human realm until he managed to find Luz’s house.

She’d never really said where she lived, just that it was the closest house to the forest. Nothing about directions, so he spent his time wandering about trying to find a house that wasn’t falling apart.

Rascal gave up and eventually flew off at some point, returning about five minutes later, chittering loudly and pulling on his hood. Hunter knew better to argue, and had followed until he came across a house that actually looked lived in, as opposed to the one he’d appeared in.

“If you led me to a random person's house, I will throw you into the sea.” Hunter warned, only getting a cheery whistle in return as he walked around the house.

He eventually found a window on the first floor, and pushing on it, was delighted to find that it was unlocked. He opened it, hoisting himself inside as Rascal darted in.

He realized the window was right over a kitchen sink, and lightly stepped a foot onto the counter beside it. He slowly swung himself inside, not even bothering to shut the window behind him as he dropped to the floor. He might need that escape route later.

Rascal was off exploring without a second thought, so he allowed himself to stalk throughout the kitchen, eyes flickering over photos and magnets stuck to the fridge. He saw ones that looked like letters, colors, and even saw a photo of a woman and a young, crazy-looking child.

He peeked around corners as he darted through the house, cracking open doors before continuing through hallways. One of the doors he opened looked like a bedroom, but he saw something with a scaly tail poking out, so he let that room be. The human realm was bound to have its own oddities.

The other bedroom he saw did have a person sleeping in it, but she didn’t look like Luz, much too old, so he quietly shut that door again and tried a different one.

He opened the last one, at the end of the hallway, already preparing to snap back that Rascal had brought him to the wrong house, when he took in the bedroom.

He only needed to see it for half a second to see the immediate resemblance to the mess that was Luz’s room in the Owl House. He slipped inside, leaving the door open just a crack in case Rascal showed up.

He crouched, eyeing the posters along the walls, shelves full of random junk, books strewn across the room. The figure sleeping in the bed was practically twisted backwards, blankets already halfway on the floor. He approached it, slowly standing up as he loomed over them, searching their face.

“Oh thank the Titan,” Hunter breathed, stepping back as he pressed a hand to his chest. That was Luz, for sure.

She stirred, slightly, hand twitching as she mumbled incoherently in her sleep. At least she wasn’t actually kidnapped or something, he reasoned.

“Hey, human,” He said, a little louder, but enough that he hoped the others down the hallway wouldn’t hear, shoving at her shoulder. “Wakey wakey.”

Luz mumbled in her sleep again, one eye barely cracking open before she turned over and tried to bury further under her covers.

Hunter grabbed her leg poking out from the blankets and yanked her off.

Luz’s yelp was cut off as he smothered the blankets over her, pausing as she fumbled around trying to get it off, ears pricked as he waited to see if anyone had heard.

“I’m awake, Vee, I’m awake--” Luz pulled the blanket off her head, her glare almost immediately replaced with shock.

“Hey,” Hunter grinned, flashing fangs. “Miss me?”

“Hunter?” Luz exclaimed, before immediately covering her mouth with her hands, eyes darting towards her door like she expected someone to be there.

“Oh don’t sound so surprised.” Hunter scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You oughta step up your game if you think you can escape me in another dimension.”

“What are you doing here?” Luz whisper-yelled, scrambling to her feet as she looked wildly around her room. “Did-did the others come?” She asked, giving him such a scared look he was a little put off by it.

“No? I mean, they will be, I just got ahead of the curve.” Hunter shrugged off her odd reactions. “Made sure I got to you before they did, didn’t feel like being left behind on the ‘let’s drag Luz back kicking and screaming’ plan.”

“Oh no, oh no,” Luz shook her head, one hand on her head as she began to pace. “Are-are the others looking for me?”

“Will be by the end of this week,” Hunter said, watching her curiously. “Why? This a bad time or something?”

“Yes! Yes, this is a terrible time!” Luz exclaimed, barely managing to keep her voice down as she whirled towards him.

“Did you get grounded?” Hunter narrowed his eyes. “Because if so, let me just say, I know about fifteen different ways to lessen the extent of the grounding, and twice as many ways to sneak out, this place isn’t even all that fortified--”

“No! Well, I mean, I kind of am,” Luz winced. “But that’s not--you can’t--you need to go.” Luz said, gesturing back towards the door. “You can’t be here.”

“Do you need a body disposed of? Because I also know a lot of ways to--”

“I’m touched, but no.” Luz gave him a withering look. “Don’t even wanna know why you know that. You have to leave.” She insisted, beginning to shove him towards the door.

“Aw, but I came all this way to see you,” Hunter whined in a dramatic tease, slowly leaning back, therefore putting more strain on Luz as she tried to push him out. “You don’t want to see me?”

“Believe me, I’m very happy to see you’re okay,” Luz assured through gritted teeth, offering the smallest of smiles. “And I’ll bother you later. But now is not the time.”

Rascal took that moment to poke in through the crack in the doorway, landing on a shelf and eyeing the two with what felt like judgement. Hunter promptly dropped all his weight on Luz, nearly crushing her.

“Damn,” He whistled when Luz’s knees refused to buckle. “You got some muscle hiding under those skinny bones?”

“That, and you weigh as much as a half-filled sack of lumpy potatoes.” Luz muttered, already pushing back up to her full height as she took Hunter with her.

“You’re impossible.” Hunter huffed, standing back up onto his feet and snickering as Luz stumbled with the lack of weight. “Seriously, what’s the hold up? Are you getting bored with us already?”

“No, first of all, I’d never do that.” Luz pointed a finger at him. “And I’m offended you thought I ever would be.”

“It’s a reasonable assumption.”

“It’s not. And second of all, I’m serious, you cannot be here.” Luz stressed, grabbing his shoulders, a movement that instinctively caused him to flinch, just the tiniest bit. “If my mom sees you here, she’s going to freak--”

“Luz?” A groggy voice called, and Luz stiffened so quickly with such terror crossing her face that Hunter tensed as well. “Creí haber escuchado algo, are you--?”

Hunter saw the door to Luz’s room open, and immediately threw an arm out in front of Luz, giving a quick whistle that Rascal had learned to recognize by now. In a flash, he was holding his staff in his other hand, Luz pushed behind him as he pointed his staff towards the figure in the doorway, ears pressed back and fangs bared in a low, warning growl.

The person froze, eyes going wide, one hand still clutching the door handle.

He recognized it as the older woman he saw in one of the bedrooms, hair still mussied from sleep, the glasses on her face smudged from someone having grabbed them clumsily. The sleep had vanished from her eyes the moment she saw him, a faintly glowing staff pointed only a foot away from her.

“Hunter, Hunter, no, stop!” Luz was quick to grab Hunter’s arm after barely a second of tense silence, shoving the staff down. “She’s my mom, she’s safe!”

Hunter paused at that. Granted, his experience with biological family (as biological as Belos could be) wasn’t the best, but he had heard a few stories, here and there, about Luz’s mom. And Luz would go into a Slitherbeast den for anyone who asked nicely, but hey, he still thought that if someone was willing to fight Emperor Belos for them, they had to be something special.

“Oh, sorry.” He said, all hostility evaporating as he drew his staff back, holding it at his side. “Reflexes.”

“Luz,” The woman said, slowly, and Hunter was so instantly reminded of when the adults dealing with him were trying so hard to not lose their shit that he halfway raised his arm to shield Luz again. “Por qué hay un chico extraño en tu habitación?”

“Puedo explicarlo!” Luz was quick to exclaim, clutching Hunter’s arm, and he looked blankly between them. He’d heard of other languages in the Isles before, often ones spoken by demons, but this was a new one on him.

“Oh estoy segura de que lo harás!” The woman snapped back, hands on her hips now, not bothering to keep her voice low.

“What’s she saying?” Hunter whispered to Luz, eyes still darting between the two. “Is this a ‘we’re about to start fighting’ situation or a ‘you’re grounded for life’ situation?”

“No te puedo creer.” Luz's mom grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Okay, so, uh,” Luz clasped her hands together. “I promise, mami, this is not what it looks like.”

“What does it look like?” Hunter blinked, giving Luz a concerned expression now. “It doesn't look like I’m a robber, right? Because this place has nothing near worth stealing.”

“Please stop talking,” Luz hissed out of the corner of her mouth, never taking her eyes off her mother. “Mami, this is, uh,” She faltered for a moment. “This is Hunter.”

Her mother cracked open an eye from where she was rubbing the bridge of her nose, sending such a seething glare that both kids shuttered.

“You know what,” Hunter said, letting Rascal transform out of a staff and back into his usual self, letting the bird land on his shoulder as he clapped his hands together. “I can see that you're busy, so I think I’ll just be--why is she staring at me like that?”

The woman was staring at him now, well, Rascal, eyes locked on the cardinal on his shoulder like it had suddenly grown five heads. He flicked an ear in confusion, turning to Luz to ask what her mom’s problem was, only to see Luz immediately face-palm.

“Estoy atascado con un idiota,” Luz mumbled under her breath, and Hunter could pretty easily guess what the last word had meant, and bristled at it.

“Hey--”

“Okay, so, Hunter,” Luz kept her hands pressed together, using them both to point towards him. “Thank you for the visit, really, but I think we’re done here.”

“We,” Luz’s mom finally managed to speak, and Luz cringed with a sheepish smile. “Are going to have a talk.” She growled, though it lacked any of the reverberating sounds an actual growl would have. He always wondered how humans ever got the last hit of their point across without growls or clicks or hisses. He realized now that tone had a lot to do with it.

“And that includes you, young man.” The woman added, turning her glare towards Hunter, and he wouldn’t be ashamed to admit he wilted a bit under it. She could’ve disintegrated Kikimora on the spot with a look like that.

“Yes, ma’am.” Hunter ducked his head, and ignored the quiet snickers from Luz that she quickly tried to smother.

The woman stepped to the side, allowing the two of them to shuffle out of the room. Luz went out first, giving Hunter an expression that was somehow both ‘sorry’ and ‘I told you so’ and boy did he want to punch it.

Hunter hurried out after her, one hand cupped over Rascal protectively, unable to fight back the urge to hide him from everyone and everything new, that he’d be broken in half the second anyone got close.

As he passed her, he knew she was staring at him with a far sharper gaze than she had Luz. He glanced out the corner of his eye, and she was staring at his ears, at Rascal, and just as he stepped into the hallway, her eyes narrowed in on the scar along the side of his face.

He’d had people stare at his scars before, it wasn’t new. Scars weren’t uncommon in the Boiling Isles, but ones as big and prominent as his were generally expected of witches far older than him, far more known for their battles and their victories.

He growled in the back of his throat, briefly twitching his lip to flash a fang. It was near-instinctive at this point, a quiet reminder of who he was, of who shadowed over him, and that it was impolite to stare, to mind your own business.

Luz’s mom jerked back at it, a far stronger reaction than the ones he was used to getting. He was used to a quick aversion of the eyes, hurrying to turn their heads the other way, a simple glance to elsewhere in the room. She stared at him with even more apprehension and worry than before, like she was confronted with a wild animal in her home.

His ears pressed down and he hurried off down the hallway, almost stepping on Luz’s heels from how close he walked behind her.

He noticed an eye peeking out of a room up ahead, and Luz gave a weak, almost teasing, salute to whoever was inside. He saw a flash of scales and what might've been a pitying look until they slipped out of view.

Luz stood off to the side as she exited the hallway, and Hunter stood next to her. He gave her a questioning look, one she nearly missed from how much she was staring at her feet. He nudged her shoulder, gaining her attention, and Luz gave a weak, nervous smile.

Alright, so he was definitely missing something here with his woman.

“Kitchen table,” Luz’s mom said, pointing, and the two obeyed. Hunter had no real reason to, he knew this. She was human, he could just leave, and she wouldn’t be able to stop him. But she was important to Luz, clearly, and he knew, tragically, that he’d feel guilty if he left Luz alone.

Luz sat in one of the chairs at the round table, and Hunter took the one next to her. Her mother eyed them for a moment before taking the one across from them.

“Can I just say, that I did not invite Hunter here--”

“Oh, so that’s how it's gonna be?” Hunter whirled his head to her. “Throwing me under the bus? Sorry I wanted to check in.”

“I am telling it as the truth.” Luz insisted, glaring at him. “Would you rather I tell her that I purposefully invited you here at,” She turned towards the wall, squinting at a clock hanging there. “Two twenty-three? Why did you come here so late?” She demanded.

“Technically, it’s early.” Hunter corrected.

“I’m actually going to punch your teeth out.”

Rascal cheeped from his shoulder, and Hunter nodded sagely like he had said something. Rascal could talk to him, of course, in words that only he could hear, but he often didn’t. And the best part was that he could never prove to anyone that Rascal wasn’t shit-talking them.

“Enough, both of you . ” Luz’s mother said firmly, hands placed on the table that had them both straightening to attention. “Luz,” She turned to her daughter, rubbing her temple with one hand as she gestured with the other towards Hunter. “Explain him, please.”

“Like, life story, or why he’s here, or what he is, or--”

“Just please tell me he’s not from where I think he’s from.”

“Oh,” Luz glanced between Hunter and her mother, gears turning in her head. “He’s...not?”

“Dios ayúdame,” Her mother groaned.

“You told me to say he wasn’t! Actually,” Luz frowned as she turned to Hunter. “Do you count as someone from the demon realm, biologically? I don’t know how that whole, er, Grimwalker thing worked, like are you a direct clone, or--”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, because I’ve been avoiding dealing with that whole situation for the past two weeks, and I’m not about to start now.” Hunter raised a hand to cut her off.

“You…” Luz narrowed her eyes at him. “You need a therapist, dude.”

“You’re the fifth person to say that in the last week.”

“Why,” Luz’s mother cut in again, silencing their conversation. “Is there a demon boy in my house?”

“I’m a witch,” Hunter corrected.

“Don’t you count as, like, half a--”

“What did I just say, Luz?”

“Right,” Luz snapped her mouth shut. “Uh, so, I’m assuming he broke in--”

Hunter groaned, gripping his head in his hands as he slouched over the table. Rascal chittered gently as he hopped off his shoulder and onto the table, nudging his arm.

“--but he wasn’t going to cause any trouble!” Luz added quickly, seeing her mothers expression continue to sour. “He just-he wanted to make sure I was alright.”

The woman eyed the two of them for a moment, and Hunter refused to look up and meet her gaze.

“Hunter, is it?” The woman said slowly, cautious, suspicious, but not accusatory.

“Yes, ma’am.” Hunter sighed, relenting to lift his head, messy hair hanging in his face.

“How old are you, exactly?”

“Mami…”

“Sixteen, ma’am.” He mumbled, resting his cheek in his hand.

“And…” She hesitated for a moment. “How old is that in witch years…?”

“...sixteen?” Hunter gave her a perplexed look.

“They age the same as us.” Luz assured, and her mother seemed to relax just a bit.

“Gracias a Dios por eso,” Her mother mumbled. “Alright, and how did you get in?”

“Window,” He tilted his head off towards the one in question, still open over the sink.

“Of course,” The woman muttered under her breath. “The one time I didn’t lock it. Okay, now what is that?” She gestured towards Rascal on his shoulder, and he raised his hand to let the palisman hop onto his hand.

“My palisman,” He said, settling the bird down on the table, but keeping him a far enough distance from Luz’s mom that she wouldn’t be able to grab him. “I call him Rascal. Which reminds me,” He nudged Luz’s shoulder. “Where do you keep those seeds you have for your palisman? She keeps screaming at everyone and the Owl Lady doesn’t know how to make her shut up.”

“Is she okay?” Luz straightened.

“Yeah, little jays fine, she’s just being a pain in the ass.” Hunter grimaced.

“Watch your language, young man.” Luz’s mom leveled a finger at him, and he eyed it for a moment. “Now what do you mean ‘Luz’s pailsman?’ What in the world is a palisman?”

“Oh, uh, nothing! Nothing important, really. Just, like, staff things.” Luz said quickly, and Hunter and Rascal shared a look. Luz loved her palisman, as bratty as she was. And he knew from experience that Luz didn’t think of palismans as ‘nothing important.’

He drew a hand around Rascal and scooted him a little closer towards himself.

“Okay, okay,” Luz’s mother inhaled a steadying breath, as though to keep her cool. “And you are breaking into my house, early in the morning, to see my daughter.”

“Really just to make sure she didn’t, like, get kidnapped on the way up here.” Hunter shrugged. “Everyone's worried about her, so I took one for the team, and all that.”

“Everyone?” Her mother frowned.

“Her...friends?” Hunter gave Luz a sideways look, and she avoided his gaze.

“Mija, you have friends in the demon realm?” Luz’s mom balked, with the tone of someone who didn’t quite believe it, who almost felt as though they were being tricked.

“I told you a bit about them…” Luz mumbled, shifting uncomfortably.

“You,” Her mother chuckled, shaking her head, the first sign of anything lighter than what they’d had so far. “You really can’t help but be friendly to everyone, huh?”

“It’s how she got stuck with me, it’s a real problem.” Hunter said, and got an elbow jabbed into him for his troubles, wheezing as he clutched his side.

“Well, you certainly are an...interesting acquaintance,” Her mother said slowly, eyeing him, and he barely resisted the urge to briefly flash sharpened teeth when her gaze lingered on the scar across his face again. “And you showed up, by breaking in...just to check in on Luz?”

“Yeah?” Hunter managed to cough out, cracking open an eye to give the woman a confused look compared to her suspicious, searching one. “Why else?”

“...alright.” She said, and her gaze went back to her daughter. “I wasn’t aware that there would be... situations where the demon realm followed you back.”

“Neither did I, really.” Luz was quick to assure, hands raised. “Hunter of all people being worried about me is the most confusing and touching thing that’s happened so far.”

“I was not worried.” Hunter whirled to her. “I only came here because everyone else was, and they were going to leave me out of the rescue party.”

“Rescue party?” Luz’s mother startled, and he should really learn her name.

��Aha, he doesn't mean that.” Luz waved her hands quickly.

“I do?” Hunter narrowed his eyes. “The others were planning on busting out of the portal to come find you by the end of this week. I didn’t want to be left out, so I broke in ahead of time.”

“There are demons coming here?” The woman exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

“Pretty sure the little rat dog is the only demon coming along.” Hunter corrected. “The others are witches.”

“You know his name is King.” Luz grumbled.

“Yeah, but it's way more fun to call him a rat.”

“Luz, cariño, are we going to have more witches breaking in?” Her mother stressed, stepping away from the table and already beginning to pace.

“Not-not when Hunter gets back to them!” Luz said, also standing. “He can tell them to hold off, that I’m fine, and all that.”

“And deal with them getting all pissy I broke out?” Hunter demanded, scooping Rascal up in his hands as he, too, stood. “Hell no, either they hear from me with you there, or I don’t tell them shit.”

“Watch it,” Luz’s mother warned him again, this time only giving a quick glare. “And Luz is not going back there.”

“Then you have two to twenty witches, plus one demon, knocking on your door.” Hunter shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”

“Luz, what did you get into while you were in the demon realm?” Her mother groaned, rubbing her temples.

“I mean, you didn’t ask a lot... ” Luz tried, hovering about two feet from her mom.

“You have two to twenty magical demon people ready to break into our home to make sure you’re okay,” Her mother said, turning towards her daughter. “You didn’t...you didn’t tell me you had friends there.”

“I feel like I just said this,” Hunter squinted. “I told you Luz has friends in the Boiling Isles, isn’t that expected? She makes friends with everyone.”

Luz rubbed her arm and looked down at the ground, and her mother’s mouth twitched downwards for a brief moment. He felt like he was missing something.

“Are all of your friends like him?” Her mother said after a moment, gesturing with a hand off towards Hunter.

“I resent what that implies,” Hunter huffed, ears pressed down as he tucked Rascal between his neck and cloak.

“I mean, personality wise? No, he’s the biggest brat of them all.” Luz assured, and Hunter visibly took offence. “Well, Matt was also a brat, but he’s a friend of a friend, and I think he’s calmer now.”

“They are annoying, though.” Hunter piped up, and prided on barely reacting under Luz’s seething glare.

“Well they can’t come here, your first friend has already caused enough trouble.” Her mother said firmly, and Hunter rolled his eyes at that.

“Please, breaking and entering is tame for me.” Hunter scoffed, and got an even more worried, and possibly judging, look from the woman.

“You're not helping.” Luz whispered, immediately turning back to her mother. “I’m sure we can figure this whole thing out. I can probably get Hunter to tell them to calm them down without me having to go back, Rascal can bully him into it, he likes me.”

“That’s a low blow, human!” Hunter hissed, a low, drawn-out sound that had the woman tensing and Luz only rolling her eyes. “I do so much for you, and this is the thanks I get?” He ignored Rascal’s gleeful chitters that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

“We’re even on that front and you know it.”

“Debatable,”

“This is serious, Luz.” Her mother said, and Luz’s mouth clicked shut. “Christ,” She sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d made friends in the demon realm?”

“You didn’t ask…?” Luz said slowly.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Hunter said, leaning against the island counter. “I drag Luz back, she hangs for a day or two to calm everyone down, and she comes right back to have quality family time, or whatever you guys call it, until you’re all finished.”

“Absolutely not,” Her mother said instantly. “Luz will not go anywhere near that portal.”

“It’s not gonna blow up, it’s stable.” Hunter raised a brow, not noticing Luz freezing up.

“Luz is not going back to that demon realm,” She insisted, and he was sure she would be growling if she could. “Listen, could you please just tell the other witches to stay back? I don’t want any trouble from that realm coming through here.”

“Ouch,” Hunter said dryly, twitching an ear as he crossed his arms. “Why’s this got you in a tizzy? I came here to bring back Luz anyway, why is this an issue?”

Luz and her mother met eyes for a brief second, and Hunter knew then he was missing something, because it felt like a conversation passed between their eyes and Luz ducked her head again, ashamed.

“Luz,” Her mother spoke in soft tones, though she was rubbing at her face. “You didn’t tell your friends--”

“I was going to--”

“Luz, honey, you can’t omit details from people--”

“I know, I swear I was just busy trying to see you--”

Hunter set Rascal down on the island counter and gestured towards him. The palisman fluffed his wings before proceeding to peck incessantly on the counter, making a loud clinking noise. It got both humans mingling words to come to a stop as they both turned towards him.

“Hi, sorry to interrupt, but I’m still here.” Hunter said, scratching his bird's head to get him to cease once he had their full attention. “What am I missing?” He asked, pointing between the two.

“I apologize Luz hadn’t informed you earlier,” Her mother started, and Luz gripped her arms and looked away from them both, shoulders hunched. “But she won’t be going back to the demon realm.”

He stared. He blinked once, twice. He could see Rascal staring too, just barely in his line of sight.

“Come again?”

“Luz had been trapped there for so long,” Her mother went on. “And-and she was surrounded by demons and rain that scalded skin and-and Vee told me of Emperor’s and experiments,”

Hunter flinched at that, ears pressing flat as he turned his head to the side.

“It’s clearly not a safe place,” She continued, and her eyes dropped to his notched ear. “And...there’s much to catch up on, to talk about.” She said, in a polite tone that told him not to press that particular matter. “Surely, you can explain this to them?”

Hunter stayed silent for a moment, aware of Luz peeking at him with guilt across her features. He didn’t meet it, he knew he’d get more riled up if he did.

“Yeah, so,” Hunter said calmly, clasping his hands together. “That’s not happening.”

“Excuse me?” Her mother reeled back a bit.

“Listen, Miss...what are your last names again?” He asked Luz, though he still didn’t let himself fully look at her.

“Noceda,” She said, sounding confused now.

“Ms. Noceda,” He continued. “I can speak from personal experience when I tell you that the Emperor and any experiments he had are far beyond gone,” He said, bitterness dripping from his words. “And I-- we have your daughter to thank for that.”

Her mother startled for a moment, opening her mouth to speak, but he plowed on.

“Half the things that made the Isles dangerous, including the very reason your daughter was late coming home, are either burnt to a crisp or in the ground.” He said, holding her gaze. “And I can tell you this, with one hundred percent sincerity, that if I go back and tell Luz’s friends that she won’t ever be coming back, you’ll have witches and demons in numbers nearing the thirties knocking on your front door.”

“Is that a threat?” The woman managed to get out first.

“With all due respect, Ms. Noceda, it’s a promise.”

“Thank you, Hunter.” Luz was suddenly at his side, seizing his arm in a grip that felt like he was losing circulation. “That’s enough,” She said, giving him a warning look. “I think she gets the message.”

“Luz, what in the world is he talking about?” Her mother asked, eyes back to her child.

“It-it’s a long story, but he’s right about the Emperor!” Luz added quickly. “He’s...he’s gone, and-and I don’t think he’s coming back.”

“He won’t.” Hunter said, and left it at that.

“Luz, cariño, I’m sure we could work something out with your friends.” Her mother assured. “I’m glad a man like Vee had described is gone, but I’m sure they would understand.”

“That her mom won’t let her come back?” Hunter scoffed, and Luz tugged forcefully on his arm.

“Hunter,” She hissed, and he looked at her then, and saw the fear practically radiating off her. He wondered if it was something she’d picked up from Amity or vice versa, to be brimming with emotions, but leaving them largely unnoticed until someone actually focused.

“Look, I…” Luz hesitated for a moment. “I promised that I’d stay with her…” She mumbled, and the last piece clicked in his mind.

Luz had promised she’d stay, to a likely terrified mother, and Luz was never one to skimp out on promises. She either kept them or agonized over trying. And it’d make sense why she wouldn’t want to tell anyone, she promised she’d leave forever, and no plans or compromises from the residents of the Owl House could sate a mother worried for her daughter.

Also made sense why she wanted him to leave. Her mom did not seem to like the place, and him being there had to be somewhat breaking the little ‘promise’ of interacting with someone from the demon realm at all.

“Oh,” He said, instead of all that, ears pricking slightly.

“I’m sorry to have it all sprung on you without warning,” He heard her mother saying, though he wasn’t looking at her much in that moment, but she sounded genuine. “But the demon realm doesn’t necessarily seem to be...the safest of places.”

“It’s not,” Hunter confirmed, slowly straightening to face the woman again. “But hey,” He shrugged, feeling Luz letting up her grip on his arm. “It’s home.”

Her eyes dropped to his scar again, just for a moment, and he didn’t bother to hide his eye roll this time.

“Trust me, I’m an outlier in how deadly the place actually is.” He muttered. “These,” He gestured broadly to his face, not quite feeling the satisfaction he assumed he’d feel when he saw her wince. “Were caused by something outside the Boiling Isles, something that never should have been there in the first place. He’s gone now.” He rumbled a growl. “We made sure of it.”

She looked apologetic, and he’d give her that. But she shook her head with a sigh all the same.

“I’m sorry, truly, but Luz and I agreed, it’s not safe. I’m glad she could make friends there, I really am,” She said, and he wondered what kind of friends Luz had had in the past, because she said the word ‘friends’ like it could have five different meanings. “But it’s not safe for her.”

“And?” Hunter threw a hand out in a broad gesture. “It was never completely safe, no place is. You gonna look me in the eyes and tell me Luz would never sneak back out? I’m giving her another week at best.”

“Hunter!”

“Look, I’m really just trying to wrap this whole complication up,” Hunter sighed unsympathetically, aware of Rascal chirping and head-butting his arm. “Unfortunately, I know you, and I know you’d rather wallow in a chasm for eternity than never go back to the Isles. And as entertaining as watching a whole drama unfold would be when your mom would eventually find out, I really don't want to deal with that headache.” He grumbled.

Luz looked to her mother then, and her mother looked back. Luz’s hand was still clutched in his sleeve, watching her mother worriedly as she met her confused gaze.

“Luz?” Her mother said slowly, and Luz fiddled with Hunter’s sleeve.

“Mami, I...look, I didn’t...my friends, they...I don’t…”

“Hi, sorry, can-can I butt-in?”

The three whirled around, Hunter automatically putting an arm in front of Luz and taking a step back at the sight.

A basilisk lay in the doorway to the kitchen, tail curled somewhere out of sight. It was a young one, about the size of Luz. That’d work, he’d taken on bigger before, not like he had any magic for a basilisk to steal--

“Vee,” Luz’s mother breathed. “What are you doing up?”

And of course she was someone they knew. Amazing, wonderful, he loved being out of the loop that there was a basilisk casually within the house, that wasn’t unnerving at all.

“You guys aren’t very quiet,” The basilisk--Vee--shrugged as she slithered in, and Hunter took another step back, his arm in front of Luz causing her to be pushed back as well. “Hey there, uh, new guy.” She offered a small, shy wave to Hunter, and he eyed her before hesitantly returning it.

“Vee, I think you should go back to bed, we were discussing--”

“I know, I heard.” Vee brushed off Luz’s mom. “I actually have an idea for, y’know, this predicament. No offence, but I can't really sleep with you guys arguing.” She said, the wringing of her clawed hands the only sign she was nervous, stopping only when she was between them, with Luz and Hunter on one side, Ms. Noceda on the other.

“Should I be worried about this?” Hunter whispered to Luz.

“Nah, she’s cool.” Luz whispered back.

“What if, and hear me out...we all sleep on this,” Vee said, palms pressed together. “We think it over during the night, and when it's actually light out, we talk about Luz wanting to go back to the Isles and the rules that would have to be put in place. And also nobody breaks in.” She tacked on quickly.

“So you do want to go back?” Luz’s mother turned to her, and he saw the hurt and shock in her eyes.

“I…” Luz looked like she had a ‘no,’ at the back of her throat, and he truly did believe she would’ve said all her mom wanted to say. But he nudged her side, and she looked up at him, and clearly he was doing something with his face, because the empty assurances died out.

“Y-yeah, I do.” She mumbled, looking back to her mom. “I...really, really want to see them again, back in their realm.”

And he avoided looking at Ms. Noceda’s face, because the shock and pain increased significantly.

“Well, I, for one,” He said, ducking around Luz. “Agree with the lizard's plan. Sleep on it, talk in the morning with Ms. Noceda, yadda yadda, all that fun stuff.”

“Camila is fine,” The woman murmured, sounding a little dazed.

“Lizard?” Vee hissed, tongue flickering out as she narrowed her eyes on him.

“Right, sorry, snake fits better.” Hunter said before he could stop himself.

“You have permission to beat him up.” Luz said casually, ignoring Hunter’s indignant shout of “traitor!”

“I, yes, yes,” Luz’s mother--Camila--sighed, stepping back and bracing herself against the kitchen counter. “Tonight has been...a hectic one. It’s far too late to be talking about things like this.”

“Does this mean I can go?” Hunter asked, pointing with his thumb behind him. “Preferably without alerting everyone that I snuck out?”

“I don’t know how you got past Hooty,” Luz sighed, tilting her head and beginning to walk towards the front door with a quick, affirming glance with her mother that both had barely managed to make, Hunter immediately following.

“I escaped through your window.” Hunter said simply, and he noted Camila looking up slightly at that, until Vee approached her, murmuring in soft words he knew better than to try and eavesdrop on.

“Of course you did,” Luz grumbled, opening the front door and practically shoving Hunter outside.

“Alright, alright, I get it, I’m leaving--”

Luz stepped out onto the front porch with him, leaving the front door open just a crack, enough so that she could be seen through it, and in turn could see Camila and Vee talking back by the kitchen.

“Am I going to get a personal lecture?” Hunter asked cautiously, crossing his arms as his ears flicked down. “Look, in my defense, you didn’t exactly explain a lot of things to me--”

Luz lunged, and he stepped back and raised his hands defensively. Instead of a mean left hook he was expecting, he got arms wrapped around his sides, squeezing the air out of him.

Hunter wheezed, and would’ve doubled over if Luz wasn’t in the way. She didn’t let up on her hug, and after a moment of trying to get his thoughts in order, he slowly drew his arms around Luz, chin tucked against her head pressed into his chest.

“I’m glad you're okay,” Luz muffled into his shirt, and Hunter may have clung on a little tighter, aware of Rascal watching this all from his shoulder.

“Feel like you said this already.” He managed to get out.

“I know, I just wanted you to know I meant it.”

And if Hunter tilted his head down to press his face into Luz’s hair then, she didn’t say anything.

“Good to see you still kickin’, too.” He mumbled.

“Miss me?” Luz teased, throwing his words back at him as she pulled her head back slightly, and Hunter quickly did the same to look down at her.

“Hardly,” He huffed, clearing his throat to hide how it cracked halfway through. “I just didn’t want everyone leaving me out of all the fun.”

“Uh huh,” Luz raised a brow. “So you just happened to drop by to make sure I was alright on the one night you actually managed to escape the Owl House without being caught?”

“...listen--”

Luz laughed, and Hunter sputtered over his words. He growled and pushed her back and off him, knowing his face was flushing as he turned away and crossed his arms. Luz’s laughter didn’t stop at that, and Rascal sounded like he was laughing, too.

His ears drooped down and he half-heartedly bared teeth, in what may have been an attempt to hide a smile.

“You’re such a massive pain, you know that?” He growled.

“I do,” Luz grinned, laughter calming down to giggles. “I learned from the best.”

“That, you did. That Owl Lady couldn’t be more overbearing if she tried.” Hunter muttered.

“She’s got a bit of an empty nest syndrome, you get used to it.” Luz lightly nudged his shoulder. “It’s her way of welcoming you to the family.”

And he didn’t even have the time to process that whole sentence, because Rascal was fluttering onto Luz’s shoulder, cheeping as Luz raised a hand to scratch at his head.

“Make sure they know not to worry too much, okay?” She continued, looking up at him. “I’ll try and sort this out.”

“Does that mean you’re coming back soon?” Hunter paused, tilting his head. And maybe there was a tone of hopefulness in his tone, maybe.

Luz hesitated for a moment, frowning slightly in thought. She looked back towards the front door, though he couldn’t see if Camila or Vee were anywhere near it, what with the angle being off and Luz blocking most of it. He wondered if they could hear their conversation.

“I think so,” She said, quieter this time as she turned back to him with a small smile. “I... hope so.”

“So do I, they’ll be insufferable without you.” Hunter teased. “Have fun thinking up how to explain to them your apparent promise.”

“Don’t remind me,” Luz groaned, throwing her head back. “Look, it was a panicked situation, and I didn’t want her any more scared than she--”

“Save it,” Hunter said, not unkindly, raising a hand to silence her. “I’ve made worse spur-of-the-moment decisions. Contrary to popular belief, I know you well enough that you’d never stay away for long. You have a habit of being a people-pleaser.”

Luz relaxed, and raised her hand to let Rascal hop onto it. She offered him back to Hunter, and he took the bird into his hands.

“Still, I’m sorry.” She said, wringing her hands together. “For all of this.”

“If all goes well, you’ll get to tell them that yourself.” He said, and attempted a smile.

“Hopefully,” Luz said, glancing back towards the door. “So, that means you’re willing to tell them what happened?” She asked, a pleading note to her voice.

“As in, I tell them that I broke out of the Owl House in the middle of the night, escaped to the human realm, found you when I knew they were going to do the same thing, and then came back to the demon realm without you, just to tell them you’ll probably be back soon, but I don’t know when?” Hunter said, ears lowering more and more as he spoke, raising a brow.

“...yes?” Luz tried, hands clasped behind her back as she looked up at him with wide, puppy-dog eyes.

“...I don’t know why I put up with you.” Hunter groaned, relenting as his shoulders slumped, letting Rascal fly up onto his shoulder.

“Because you care about me,” Luz teased in a singsong tone, her relief immediate.

“Unfortunately,” He muttered unthinkingly, before the words processed in his head. He tensed right after, eyes locked on the wall behind Luz.

She looked surprised for about half a second before she practically lit up, beaming excitedly at him.

“Anyway,” He said quickly, voice higher than normal, knowing he was flushed up to his ears. “I should be off before your mom gets even more pissed at me.” He said, sharply turning on his heel.

Rascal was most definitely laughing at him now, and he pulled up his hood before shoving the bird into it, silencing him. He leapt down the stairs leading up to the porch, instead of walking down them like a normal person.

“Well, in her defense, you did break in.” Luz reminded, though there was a certain giddiness to her tone as she watched him leave.

“Like you haven’t done it!” Hunter scoffed behind him, beginning to hurry back towards the forest, head ducked low.

“Yes, but we don’t need to tell her that!” Luz hissed, voice notably quieter as she fearfully glanced back.

“No promises!” He called back, a grin forming as he picked up the pace. “Call it compensation for throwing me to the wolves!”

“Wh--Hunter!” Luz squawked indignantly.

He turned on his heel for just a moment, giving Luz a mocking salute before ducking between the trees of the forest, cackling as Luz’s calls of “don’t you dare!” faded behind him.

“Alright, Rascal, prepare yourself.” He said, hearing his palisman chitter from within his hood, with a hint of annoyance to it. “We’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

155 notes · View notes

weasleylangs · 3 years

Text

secrets i have held in my heart - f.w

Pairing: Fred x Fem!Reader Summary: Everyone in the twins’ lives mix them up once in a while, except for Y/N. Fred is dying to know how. Warnings: Some angst with a happy ending, yes I wrote oblivious Fred again with miscommunication issues, what about it, some swearing, brief mention of the war but obviously this is a FredLives!AU :D, mentions of sex but nothing descriptive it’s like one line, - everyone is 18+ by the way! Word Count: 4k

A/N: For the anon who requested super secret mutual pining with some angst where the reader is the only person who can tell the twins apart! Thank you so much for requesting. This has also been cross-posted on AO3 (frederickweasleys) as per the anon’s request!

Also, I didn’t want to write about a 17 and 15 year old pining after each other, so I made everyone older and it’s postwar, however I was like 2000 words into the fic when I remembered George got his mf ear blasted off in DH so…. U do not see that it’s not canon in this fic thank you

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

The sun is blaring down on The Burrow and everyone is starting to wonder the likelihood of getting heatstroke. They’re in the south-west of England and the weather doesn’t usually get above the early 20s in the middle of August, however, mother nature has decided to wreak havoc and today is almost 30°.

Y/N is looking at the pages in her book but she’s not processing anything on the pages. She’s so appreciative of the relaxing life she and all her loved ones finally have. The war ended last year, and while Y/N isn’t family, Molly and Arthur are always insistent she’s welcomed at The Burrow for their Sunday roast dinners.

So she sits under a tree, the muggle fantasy novel in hand as Molly is busy prepping dinner and her friends all play quidditch. Hermione’s been refereeing them despite having no actual knowledge of the rules, and right now, she’s waving Harry’s copy of ‘Quidditch Through The Ages’ at one of the twins trying to prove a point, fully aware she’s going to get nowhere with him. He’s laughing at her and he raises the hand holding the beater’s bat as he threatens to (softly) hit her with it when he looks over her shoulder and spots his favourite girl perched under the tree with his mum’s homemade lemonade.

Before Y/N knows it, the bat’s been thrown in her direction, barely missing her and hitting the tree behind her, and when she looks up, she immediately recognises the twin as Fred. Fred and Y/N are almost two sides of the same coin and their friendship has always been considered unlikely. Fred loves mischief and pranks and he’s extremely exuberant where Y/N is a ‘stickler for the rules’ (Fred’s words, not hers) and she’d much rather spend her day reading than playing quidditch. But their friendship blossomed and eventually for Y/N her feelings evolved into more.

But Y/N is one of Ron’s best friends, and having a crush on her best friend’s older brother is weird, even if they are 19 and 21.

“Hi Freddie,” she says, dog-earing the page and closing her novel, accepting now that Fred’s in her presence, the book isn't getting read again until tonight, “no more quidditch?”

The ginger gives her a shit-eating grin and completely ignores her question, “Darling, I’m George.”

Y/N squints at him for a brief moment, second-guessing herself but the longer she looks at him the more she’s sure it’s Fred, not George in front of her. “No, you’re Fred. I’ve known you for how long? Just accept I can tell you apart.”

Fred mutters a ‘fuck’ under his breath as he sits down. He’s always loved that Y/N is the only person who can tell them apart, his own family struggling sometimes and especially when they’re apart. But no matter what, she somehow gets it right every single time and he’s dying to know how.

“You’re never going to tell me how you do it, are you?” He questions and she replies how she always does when he asks, blaming it on intuition and that she doesn’t know how she does it. As always, he doesn’t believe her. Y/N secretly does have a way of easily telling the twins apart, not rooted in intuition in the slightest but she doesn’t want to tell him.

The truth is, the way her heart races when Fred looks or speaks to her is her way of telling them apart. Fred always has a mischievous glint in his brown eyes and the way he looks at Y/N makes her feel like she’s the only girl in the world. George is sweet, loving and exceptionally kind- he was there as a source of comfort and calmness for Y/N when the trio disappeared during their 7th year to hunt Horcruxes, when she and her family went into hiding. She loves George like she would love a brother, like how she loves Ron and Harry, but the love Y/N has for Fred is different and the catalyst for her ability to tell them apart.

“I’m going to get you one day. One day George and I will swap and you’ll get it wrong and as a reward for finally tricking the oh so wonderful Miss Y/N Y/L/N, you’ll tell me how you tell us apart.”

It’s not even an hour later when Fred and George come down wearing each other’s clothing. Y/N’s well aware Fred prefers to wear warm and bright colours while George likes to wear the dark colours in their coordinated clothing, so seeing Fred walk down the stairs in George’s purple shirt and vice versa is funny, despite the fact they’re identical twins, Y/N thinks they look ridiculous and unfamiliar.

“George put the purple back on. You look weird in orange,” she says, as she goes back to help Molly with the vegetables for dinner and soon after she speaks, she hears someone angrily kick the table. She looks up from her potatoes she’s been peeling to see an entertained George and Fred who looks like he’s going to throw a child-size tantrum.

“How!” He exclaims again, pulling the shirt up over his head, shoving it in George’s hands and stomping back upstairs to change. Y/N is about to follow him, genuine concern for Fred in tow. She knows he’s most likely just being dramatic to cause a ruckus but there’s a small part of her that considers he might be serious.

“He’s fine, Y/N,” George states, changing his shirts and throwing Fred’s orange one over the back of the chair as he sits down, “I think he’s trying to rile you up into telling him how you do it.”

She laughs at this, knowing that while she might not have told him, the look in George’s eye hints that he’s picked up on her feelings for his twin brother. But before she can say anything, Ron comes bounding down the stairs and right into the kitchen, Harry in tow. They’re both looking for food and when Ron’s hand makes his way towards the ham, Y/N smacks him.

“Don’t spoil your dinner,” she scolds which causes Harry to laugh.

“But, mum,” Ron mockingly replies, “All the quidditch got me hungry!” He might be 19 but he’s sulking like a 10-year-old boy and Y/N thinks temper tantrums might run in the Weasley family.

When Molly isn’t looking, however, Y/N sneaks him a piece of ham and Ron jumps up quickly, smacking a kiss to her cheek, “You’re the best!” he whispers as he quickly shoves the piece of ham in his mouth to not be caught by his mother.

Soon enough, everyone’s crammed into the small kitchen and Molly waves them all out except Y/N, who she insists stays. She thinks it’s because she was already helping with the vegetables but when she’s about to ask for her next task, Molly has a rare mischievous glint in her eye.

“How do you tell my sons apart?” She enquires and Y/N groans. She hasn’t been asked how she tells the twins apart this often since she was at Hogwarts and before she can speak, Molly continues, “it’s just no one can besides us, and even then, sometimes I catch myself calling George, Fred sometimes.”

Y/N sighs. She loves Molly like her own mother, but she loves to meddle like every mother.

“I just know, I wish I had some excuse like a mother’s instinct, but I just know,” Y/N pauses and thinks how to word her next statement without spilling too much for potential eavesdroppers and Extendable Ears to hear, “They have different energies. I think I pick up on it easily.”

Y/N hopes that’s enough for Molly to drop the conversation at hand and while Molly hums in agreement, she reads between the lines. She’s known for a while that Y/N carries a flame for the oldest twin, after all the way Y/N looks at Fred is the same way she looks at Arthur, so she’s hoping for the day they both stop dancing around their feelings.

She already loves Y/N like a daughter, and she’d like it to be official one day.

After dinner, the girls are all holed up in Ginny’s room. She loves staying at The Burrow. Y/N never grew up with sisters and her friendship with Hermione and Ginny are the closest she gets to them. They usually gossip, who’s dating who, who’s already getting married, sometimes it gets juicy and someone’s pregnant.

When Ginny and Harry, and Hermione and Ron finally got together, they gushed for hours about how it finally happened and how excited they all were.

Tonight, unfortunately, the topic at hand is Y/N and Fred.

“When are you going to tell him?” Ginny enquires as she smooths out her face mask. Hermione’s braiding Y/N’s hair and when she doesn’t reply, Hermione grasps some hair and gives a hard tug. Y/N yelps and while Hermione mutters an apology, she doesn’t miss the wink she gives Ginny in the mirror.

“Tell Fred what exactly?”

“About your feelings for him,” Ginny replies like it’s the most obvious thing in the world that everyone should have known. Y/N starts to stutter, trying to find words to deny her feelings but these are her two best girl friends, her sisters and she can’t lie to them no matter how much she wants to.

“Okay fine, they exist but he’s never knowing,” she states, a matter of factly as if it’s something to be proud of, “and he’s never finding out. I’m looking at you, Ginevra.” Ginny inherited her love to meddle from her mother, and if Y/N is positive about anything it’s that Ginny is going to meddle to get her best friend and brother together.

“I’m pretty sure he likes you back,” Hermione says. She prides herself on being observant but even she didn’t notice Ron’s feelings for her until he quite literally put his lips on hers.

“I’m just his little siblings’ best friend, Hermione, I doubt it,” she says as she grabs the tiny elastics to secure her hair. “Besides, I think he has a thing with one of the girls from his year at school.”

“You’re choosing now of all days to get the wrong twin? George is dating Angelina. Fred hasn’t even been seen with a girl since he slept with one of Fleur’s cousins at the wedding.” Ginny says and something about this makes Y/N blush, almost happy that Fred’s been single for as long as she has, but the jealousy is in the back of her mind.

“... Shut up,” Y/N laughs as she grabs the nearest pillow and smacks Ginny over the head with it. This causes chaos in Ginny’s tiny bedroom and soon enough all three girls are defending themselves with pillows and jumping around the bedroom.

What none of the girls knew, however, was Fred standing outside of the bedroom, eavesdropping. He’s always been curious about what the girls talk about when the boys aren’t around and Fred reckons if he doesn’t have to hear about his little siblings’ sex life, it doesn’t hurt anybody.

Except it does, and he hurts himself. He arrived just in time for Ginny to question why Y/N doesn’t admit her feelings to someone. At first, Fred was hopeful, especially when the conversation steers in the direction of her liking one of the twins. After all, Bill’s married, Percy’s… Well, he’s Percy and Charlie isn’t in England enough for him to believe Y/N was able to develop feelings for him.

So that leaves himself and George from context clues. He’s always had a crush on her ever since they were in school, but he was always worried about coming off as creepy, pining after someone two years below him.

But then Y/N says ‘I think he has a thing with one of the girls from his year at school’ and he walks off before he even hears the rest of the conversation, hearing the apparent confirmation of Y/N’s feelings for George.

The summer is still sweltering hot when she decides to visit Diagon Alley three days later. She’s shopping for her nephew when she ends up in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Fred was unusually quiet when she said goodbye to him on Monday morning before she floo’d away to her job at the Ministry and she’s hoping to catch him at the shop during quiet hour.

When she walks in, she’s met with a bell ringing and the voice that calls out ‘Hi, how are you today!’ doesn’t make her heart race so she immediately knows she’s caught the wrong twin at the counter.

“Hey, Georgie!” She makes her way over to the counter. It’s a Wednesday morning, so the shop has a lull in customers and he’s doing what Y/N assumes is a stock take of whizbangs. He gives her a nice smile as she potters her way over to him. She stops in front of the love potions, smelling the familiar scent of cinnamon, fireworks and something that can only be described as happiness in the small bottles. She’s so entranced for a moment that she doesn’t even notice George make his way up next to her.

“You don’t need one of these, by the way,” He whispers as he winks, looking behind him and seeing Fred standing on top of the spiral staircase not looking the happiest.

“You’re the second person to tell me that this week,” she mutters, quickly putting the love potion vial down, “I don’t know what any of you mean.”

George chuckles at her obliviousness. It’s been obvious since they were teenagers about the feelings both Fred and Y/N harbour for each other but he can’t help but admit it’s just the tiniest bit funny. Like it’s a joke they’re all in on except the oblivious couple themselves.

“It’s because we’re more observant than you, darling,” George says, absent-mindedly fixing the display so it looks presentable. Y/N’s about to question him when someone clears their throat behind them- an elderly gentleman shopping for some grandkids when George excuses himself with the promise ‘this isn’t over’.

Fred watched the interaction from the staircase and while he didn’t hear anything, he feels like he’s gotten punched in the stomach. He knows he’s never directly told George about his feelings for Y/N, and George is dating Angelina anyway and he’d never betray her, but he can’t ignore the slight feeling of upset he feels when he sees them interact.

“I think Y/N likes you,” Fred says nonchalantly and George almost chokes on his tea. It takes him a moment to fix his breathing before he looks at Fred like he’s got three heads.

“No, she doesn’t?” George questions, like it’s the most obvious thing in the entire world and that upsets Fred slightly. He’s not upset at George, he never has and he never will be upset with George, but it seems like his comment was brushed off without any deeper consideration.

“No, I think she does,” Fred says, twiddling his quill between his fingers as he stares at the tax invoice in front of him. Wednesday night is budget night and Fred knows he’s not going to get any work done if his mind is stuck on Y/N and her feelings for George.

“No, mate, she doesn’t,” George huffs and Fred notices the eye roll George gives him. George only ever gives him eye rolls when he’s being oblivious. Like when Fred spent 20 minutes looking for his wand last week only to find it in his pocket.

Fred’s convinced George is just being oblivious, blinded by his new relationship with Angelina that he hasn’t noticed Y/N’s feelings for him. “Do you wonder how she can tell us apart?”

George huffs in annoyance as a reply and Fred pouts as he attempts to go back to his taxes. He’s reread the same line three times when George finally speaks.

“I think it’s got something to do with her feelings for us. She feels differently about one twin.” George is intentionally being coy, hoping to Godric that Fred caught the pointed stare and the emphasis but Fred wasn’t looking and the longer he dwells on what George has said the more he’s convinced he doesn’t have a chance with Y/N at all.

It’s the weekly Sunday roast again and Fred isn’t expecting to floo into The Burrow and be met almost face to face with Y/N. He’s planned on ignoring her today, purposely volunteering to do any work needed at the shop while George floo’s to The Burrow early in the afternoon.

It teeters on 5 pm when Fred finally arrives and he’s quickly engulfed in a hug by his mother with his father behind him telling him to stop working on Sundays as ‘Sundays are for family’. With a kiss to his mum’s forehead and a promise to his dad that he’ll force George into doing the Sunday work next week, who throws a piece of stale bread at Fred’s head while exclaiming ‘you offered!’ he quickly makes his way away from Y/N.

Molly’s quick to serve up dinner now Fred’s here, complaining he’s starving already. He quickly steals the seat next to Ron and pulls George down next to him- not wanting to allow Y/N to sit either side of him. Usually, she sits between Ron and Fred and when she turns the corner and the only available seat is the furthest from Fred, her heat sinks a little.

Dinner is pleasant, it always is at The Burrow. Hermione and Y/N talk about the ministry while Ginny tells stories of her Holyhead Harpies tryouts she had during the week. Y/N might let slip she works with the coach’s sister-in-law and overheard some high praise for a certain Miss. Weasley and Ginny’s eyes fill with tears when she hears this.

There’s a quick lull in conversation as Molly waves her wand and the now empty plates make their way into the kitchen, children following behind them ready to help wash up but Fred makes his way outside. He likes to watch the sunset, the sun slowly dipping behind the hills where he learnt how to play quidditch as a kid as the sun becomes shades of orange.

He’s sitting under the tree when Y/N follows him out. She’s shouting his name trying to find him. He slipped out without anyone noticing and that’s unusual for Fred so something is wrong. When she spots him, she starts jogging over and she can’t tell if he’s ignoring her or can’t hear her calling his name, so she tries something.

“George?”

Fred turns, a smirk subconsciously forming on his lips and Y/N finally feels seen by him in a week. “It took me calling you your brother’s name to get your attention?” She asks, kicking sticks out of the way before she takes a seat next to him.

“No, love. Just shocked you finally got us mixed up,” he replies, shoving her a little with his elbow. He knows she only did it to get his attention, but he’s Fred Weasley and he’s going to use this to his advantage. “I believe I told you when you get us mixed up, you’re legally required to tell me how you do it. I’m all ears.” He wiggles his eyebrows but deep down, he’s scared George’s assumption is right.

She rolls her eyes, but the love she has for this boy in her heart can’t be kept a secret anymore. This week she’s felt like he’s been ignoring her and while she and Fred are no means ‘best friends’, not like she is with the others, she’s felt a little piece of her universe missing knowing he’s been upset.

“You and George, I… I feel different about you to how I feel about George,” she starts and Fred’s breath hitches. He doesn’t know if he’s going to storm off or throw up so he just sits and stares at a rock. “George makes me feel comfortable. He’s always willing to talk to me about anything, feeds into the fact I can speak for hours on end about any topic if you let me,” she laughs and her nervousness is in her throat. She notices Fred isn’t looking at her and it’s making her want to run away.

“But you, you feel like home, Freddie. The way my heart races when I hear you speak or when you look at me. It’s the biggest indicator of how I tell you guys apart. George and you may be identical but the way you both make me feel is so different.” She’s whispering now and she’s realised Fred is looking at her so intently that the Earth might open up and swallow her whole.

“Like, home?”

She smiles softly and takes his big hand that’s been messing with rocks into her small ones. “Like I can tell you anything and you’ll never judge me. I could be having the worst day of my life and one joke from you can make me smile even if I’ve been crying for hours.” Her thumb starts to rub along the top of his hand and the way he shivers doesn’t miss her.

“I’m trying to say, in a round-about kind of way, that I’m in love with you, Freddie,” her voice is shaky but there’s no backing out now. “I’m in love with you and this past week where it’s felt like you’re mad at me has me so confused because I don’t know what I did.”

Fred feels incredibly guilty now, he was so caught up in his own feelings that he didn’t stop to think how his actions would affect Y/N. “I thought you liked George,” he whispers, and he feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. “I thought you liked George and not me and I didn’t want to be near you knowing that.”

She giggles and drops his hands to run her fingers through his hair. It’s still short but she thinks she can convince him to grow it out again. “Me? George? Not even for a second.”

“Why not?” The joking in Fred’s voice is there but so is the genuine curiosity.

“I don’t know. It’s just always been you, ever since I was 11 and you were bullying Ron into performing a spell to turn Scabbers yellow.” She laughs at the memory, watching scrawny Fred bully his small brother on the train platform.

Fred looks down at her, her hands now playing at the hair at the back of his neck and he feels goosebumps rise across his skin. He wants nothing more to lean down and press a kiss to her lips and when he realises he never actually admitted his feelings to Y/N back, he starts to lean down, hoping to convey everything he feels for her through a kiss.

She’s quick to catch on and she leans up so quickly they almost bump noses. It’s messy, like most first kisses are, especially in an awkward sitting down position but the love they have for each other is there and obvious. They pull away when they’re barely kissing anymore, just smiling and laughing into each other’s mouths.

“Does this mean we’re dating now?” Fred asks. It’s a dumb question, they both know it but when Y/N pretends to think he stands up and hauls her over his shoulders and starts swinging her around. The giggles that erupt from her make Fred’s heart swell and he’s about to put her down just to get down on one knee himself and propose right then and there.

“Yes, Freddie, if you want me to be your girlfriend then I’m yours.” Y/N replies and Fred smiles, he loves that. Not Y/N being his, he could never believe she’s an object, but she loves him and he loves her and now he understands why George was rolling his eyes at him.

“As long as you don’t get George and I mixed up in bed, I’m all yours.” He says it jokingly, but the smack he receives from Y/N is no joke and when he starts swinging her around again, he’ll forever make dumb jokes like this if he gets to hear her laugh like that for the rest of his days.

#fred weasley fanfiction #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley imagine #fred weasley one shot #fred weasley

893 notes · View notes