#who knows maybe in 200 years some kid will do a presentation at school about the early days of the internet and find this post | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

daredevil-1910 · 2 years

Text

First Day of School

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yori woke up late, as usual, so he was running to his first day of the semester like an absolute dumbass. Still working on the buttons on his shirt, his tie wrapped around his wrist and his belt was still not fully on.

“For once in your life could you maybe be early for something.” By the time he reaches the school, he finishes buttoning his shirt and putting on his belt, he walks in tying the tie around his neck. He wasn’t looking forward, instead he was trying to focus on the tie, but he also forgot his glasses

The few people that were in the hall, stopped to look at the guy, it wasn’t every day you see a guys this big. Yori was six feet and seven inches tall and compared to a lot of people his age he was decently built. Of course, he spent his entire life training with his father, who was… on second thought we’ll get to that later.

Since Yori wasn’t paying attention, he ran into a rather small girl who was also rushing to get to class.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry let me help you with… you are the girl from last night, Ochako right.”

“Oh my god Yori, Hi, you didn’t say you were in UA.”

“Yeah, I’m the Hero course, how about you?

“ME TOO!!” Ochako stands back up her books back in her arms.

“Those look heavy, let me help you with that.” Yori quickly tied back his hair and picks up the books in Ochako’s arms.

“So where is your HCHQ?” Yori asked

“What?”

“Hero course Headquarters.”

“Oh, it classroom H-200”

“Ok, that’s this way, come on I’ll take you there” Yori starts walking towards the classroom, and like every tall person he forgets not every has the same length in stride as he does, so the poor girl was almost running behind him.

“Ok so here is the classroom, don’t get In too much trouble.” Yori plans on leaving but he sees the scared look in her face and how she is clutching at her phone like her life depended on it.

“You know what, let me see your phone for a second.” Yori extends his hand as Ochako hesitantly gives him her phone.

“Here, now you have my phone number.” He quickly takes a picture with the phone and hands it back to her.

“Now you can call me when ever you need help or if you want to hang out or something.” Yori smiles at her tying his hair into a bun.

“Ok, thank you.” She smiles but her cheeks turn pink really quickly.

“All right gorgeous, I’ll see you later, in fact my classroom is the one right in front of yours.” He points at the classroom across the hall and walks towards it.

Ochako quickly scurried into her classroom quietly as you do when its your first day and you don’t know anyone. On the other hand, Yori walked into his classroom and was immediately bombarded with nonsense.

“Come on Yori, it’s the first day and you are already flirting with the freshmen, poor girl was so flustered she couldn’t even breath correctly.” Mina ashido, Yori’s ex-girlfriend, dated him all through senior year high school and half of their freshman year. They used to be best friends, but you know how it is with relationships.

“I was only trying to be helpful.” Yori tried defending himself

“To yourself, or the poor freshman that couldn’t breathe.” Hanta Cero, one of Yori’s roommates, he thinks he’s funny sometimes.

“Guy’s leave him alone, he was only trying to give little Yori some action.” Delta Mori, Yori’s childhood best friend. They’ve been together for first day kindergarten when some kids were bothering Delta and Yori Got into his first fight, with said kids.

“Settle down you bunch of hooligans. It’s the first day and I have to stare at your faces all year long, so lets make this a little bit more bearable, now I personally do not like this but hey, what can you do, I’m going to call on each one of you so you can present yourself, so the new kids know who you are.”

The first fifteen minutes of class went by, each student got up and presented themselves, there was only about three new kids, this guy named Tenya Iida, or something like that, Tetsu Tetsu Tetsu Tetsu( I know real creative, and another kid I didn’t bother to know remember their name, he was really small though.

“You in the back looking like you had two hours of sleep, what’s your name.�� The professor called on Yori

Yori stood up and looked around, smirked a little while doing so.

“My name is Yori Toshinori, I prefer to keep my fathers is a pro hero, but he prefers to keep his identity a secret, I work at an auto shop outside of town and like a lot of you I am 19 years old.”

“ok, thank you, you can sit down.”

Yori sat back down and laid his head down for the next 30 minutes before he has to leave to his first class.

“Hey what do you have for your first class?” Delta pokes Yori’s shoulder.

“I think I have PT” Yori answers.

“At 9 in the morning, you are crazy.”

“well, I only have two classes today, and about four hours in between so I think ill be fine, plus it’s a small class” Yori lays his head back on his arms and waits in silence.

40 minutes later Yori is outside in one of the many training grounds the college has.

The way this classes work, in hero training, combat training and Physical Training, students are grouped based on their physical ability rather than their years, they each take a test after their first year in school and they will be accommodated in the according class.

Yori made it into the advanced class. Which meant he was with mostly Juniors and Seniors.

He stretches his muscles and can’t help but shudder at the cold air surrounding him.

“What’s wrong man, are you cold?” A blonde guy asked him.

“A little, I’m also kind of nervous, you all look amazing.” Yori looks around, stretching his arm

“Well don’t sell yourself short man, I’ve seen people your age looking half your size and still do impressive things, and if you got into this class on your second year you have to be really good yourself.”

“Thanks, Yori Toshinori” Yori extends his arm to shake his hand.

“Mirio Togata” the other Boy shakes Yori’s Hand.

“Alright Heroes, its time to sweat, lets get this down I want 15 laps around the school. Come one double time people.” A rather excited professor cheered them on, a little too excited.

Mirio and Yori ran together, talking to each other about school and other things when a Girl and a Boy joined them.

“Hey Mirio, who’s the new guy?” the blue haired girl asked in a very curious tone.

“Hey Nejire, this is Yori Toshinori, he is a sophomore, Yori this is Nejire and that guy on the other side is Tamaki, say hi Tamaki.” The guy on Mirio side waves faintly.

“Your eyes are amazing; do they always look like they are glowing?” Yori gets taken back by the question and he looks at Mirio

“oh, don’t worry, She isn’t hitting on you, she just like asking questions.”

“Oh well, uh, I don’t know I haven’t really noticed.” Yori says nervously

“And your hair is so long and pretty.” This time Yori chuckles, since he takes a lot of pride with his hair.

“Thank you” Yori smiles

The rest of the 2-and-a-half-hour class consisted of a workout that made a few of the students puke, and then the professor said this was a light workout and that tomorrow would be the first real day of class.

“Ok people hit the showers.” Yori runs to the locker rooms.

“hey guys, race you to the locker room, no quirks” Mirio suggests, the other two groaned but Yori agreed.

“Ok, ready one…two…three!”

The two sprint off towards the locker room, keep in mind the locker rooms are pretty far away from the training grounds they were in. most of the race the pair are tied but Yori started getting tired when they were nearing the locker room.

“No man, come on keep pushing.” Mirio slows down a bit to be at the same speed as Yori.

The two take off again and end up tying at the locker room but Yori is very well aware that Mirio Just dint go at full speed.

After a quick shower in the locker room Yori put his uniform back on, he didn’t have a class anytime soon, so he began looking for a place to relax maybe take a nap somewhere.

He waves goodbye to Mirio Nejire and Tamaki and heads off to the common grounds, there was some pretty big trees there and he wanted to lay down under one.

There he finds Ochako under a tree reading a book.

“Hey there, you got some free time too?” Yori asked which startled the girl

“MM, Yeah, I have about two hours before my next class, you look tired” she commented.

“Yeah, just got out of PT.” Yori says sitting down next to her.

“oh, I got that class next, is it really hard?” She asks

“Not really you just feel really tired right after.” Yori closes his eyes and crosses his arms around his chest.

Ochako went back to reading and Yori sat there in silence not wanting to disturb her.

“Hey, you look really uncomfortable, here” she gives him a neck pillow that was conveniently In her bag.

“Thank you, you just saved me a whole lot of pain.” He smiles and places the pillow around his neck.

At some point Yori fell asleep because when he woke up his head was on Ochako’s leg, and she was putting her things away getting ready to leave.

“I’m so sorry.” Yori begins to apologize

“Oh, don’t worry, it happens, besides, it was even kind of nice.” Yori smiles.

“Want me to take you to your next class?”

“Actually, my professor just sent an email saying he wasn’t going to make it, I was thinking of heading home.” Ochako grabbed the books that didn’t fit in her bag and stood up.

“Awesome, you are so lucky.” They both chuckle.

“Well, I’ll get going, I gotta get my bike from the locker room”

“Oh, you sure you don’t want a ride, my next class isn’t for a while I got time.” Yori stood up.

“Oh no, I couldn’t I don’t want to be a bother.”

“It’s no bother I promise, let me take you home.” Yori smiled.

“ok then, thank you” she miles shyly.

“Ok, ill pull the car out you go get your bike,”

Yori Runs to the parking lot and brings the car our from a sixth floor, by the time he gets down Ochako is waiting for him by the exit, he opens the door for her an gets to work on the bike removing the front tire so he can fit it in the trunk.

Once he finishes, he gets back in the car and takes off.

“So, how was your first day?” Yori asked.

“It was fun, everyone here is so nice, oh my apartment building is just next to the city mall, you know it?”

“yeah, the sweet sunrise building, I’ve made a few deliveries there.” Yori answers.

“that’s the one, ill only be staying there for a while, at least until the dorms are ready.”

“oh, they are ready, the college just waits until the second week of the year to open them again, unless you stay there for the summer you have to wait.”

“well, that’s good to know.”

“Yeah, did you get assigned your room yet.”

“Yeah, it’s on, a-4-25” Ochako says reading from her phone.

“No way, you are literally on the floor below mine.”

“that’s awesome.” She says excited.

“You know they are planning to do a building party next weekend, are you planning on going, its nothing too big, its more of a quiet drink and hangout than a party.

“sound fun, I think I can make it.”

“great, oh here’s your building, you know if you need a ride for the rest of the week, I have no problem taking you, your building is along the way to my house so.” Yori shrugs.

“Oh, idk, ill keep it mind to, thanks again Yori.”

Yori watched as the girl ran into her building, waving goodbye one last time before walking in.

“You are literally on the floor below me, dumbass, you sound like a stalker” Yori mocked himself before heading back to school, he had another class after all.

Once he got to school, when he went to pick up his bag, he noticed Ochako left her bike in the trunk.

Yori raced back to Ochako’s apartment and asked around to find where her apartment was. Eventually he found it.

He knocked on the door, he tried not to bang it but maybe he hit it a little harder than usual.

Ochako answered the door, already in some comfy clothes.

“Oh my, I had totally forgotten about it, thank you so much, how did you find my apartment.”

“A nice old lady downstairs, she smiled and said that it was about time, and that she was starting to get worried, I was confused because your bike was only gone for 20 minutes max.”

“Oh yeah, that must have been Mrs. Tamura.” She chuckled awkwardly and blushed. Yori was really confused.

“So Ill be on my way op” a bolt from the bike fell and both kneeled down to get it when they came back up the were inches away, their noses almost touching. They locked eyes, Yori stared into her deep brown eyes and Ochako felt lost in his.

#fanfic #my oc #mha #mha oc #mha fanfiction #bnha ochaco uraraka #bnha kirishima #mina ashido #mr aizawa #present mic #eraserhead #vlad king #yori toshinori #olympus calling #my fic #my wriitng

1 note · View note

bbhyeoliskooks · 3 years

Note

I lovveeee your work!!! I have read like everything lol! You’re a great writer, can I request a slow dancing scenario??? Thank you have a great day❤️❤️

˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩ 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ✩•̩̩͙* ˚

➶ TXT’s Reaction to Slow Dancing with You

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

Genre: literally 200 cups of fluff and maybe a pinch of angst if you squint

Warnings: Unedited, long cheesy stuff but other than that, none !

Song: Domino

(Ahhhh ><, thank you so much ~! This is so sweet of you to say and I hope you have a great day too 🥺💞 i’m so sorry that it took so long but I worked really hard on this one ++ got super carried away so you’d like it ! And since you didn’t request a member, I just decided to do all five in scenario format so you can have all princes hehe~~ anyway, i hope you like this ! ps i rlly popped off on soobin i swear 🗿🗿)

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

˚⁺‧. Yeonjun: ˚⁺‧.

Yeonjun was the sweetest boyfriend one could ever ask for.

You wouldn’t have believed it back then that the boy you met at a store as a soon to be fellow classmate would be your boyfriend in the future, the one who gave you surprise kisses out of nowhere just because he wanted to.

Well ever since you were children, you’d been best friends thanks to your parents chatting it up a storm whenever there was a party or if they met up randomly in the food aisles of Walmart. It was so boring that you would just rather choose to run away into the toy section to find some amusing things like slime or mud perfume, for example. You always hated waiting for them to finish talking about school and children by yourself as you searched for something fun to play with, and when you saw a boy your age with wide, sparkling eyes gazing at you as if you were a nice toy- that was the start of the roller coaster you could call of being Choi Yeonjun’s best friend.

Two years later after that incident, you could vividly remember the way he asked you to be his wife in the future with a cherry ring pop in hand. It was during recess and most of the other children never bothered with him during that time even if he was one of the popular kids. He was always talking about you, talking about how cool you were even if the two of you found some dirt and cherries from the tree to make mud potions with. Adorable five year old Yeonjun took your tiny hand into his and asked you to marry him due to the times you experienced together like running away from the teacher because she looked like a scary green monster or getting yelled at home together since you wandered off by yourselves. Now you couldn’t lie- the only reason you said yes was to eat it later when you got home. But years later, both of you never took it seriously, you had just assumed it was something silly children did in order to act like grownups. Because of this, you could say you truly grew up together and it was so fond to see how the two of you were in fate stuck together, hip by hip.

High school was so much fun with him, and college was just the same. Besides studying, Yeonjun always made all of your moments in school happy no matter how sad you were. He’d walk and pick you up generously, even waiting after every single chore you volunteered to do for the teacher plus the clubs you attended to. That didn’t mean he kept whining about how much stuff you had to do. The complaining he had when you dragged him along to the library was quite the endearing bunch though, but you wouldn’t be able to give up any second you had of him. He was always right there, right beside your side where you always wanted him to stay.

And as inevitable as it was, there were countless people whom you loved and lost, but every single time Yeonjun would thankfully be there for you, handing you tissues when you were a mess in bed, spiraling out of control thanks to what love did. Likewise it was the same for you and whenever Yeonjun had a problem with his significant other- plus they eventually broke off- you would always care for him and give him the love that they failed to give. You both figured that life would be fine together as long as you had each other... and maybe that was the push that finally brought you together.

Every single date and argument you had with him only pressed you closer and there was never a dull moment when the two of you were together. You were deeply and irrevocably in love with him and you knew down in your heart that he clearly felt the same way. Choi Yeonjun, although he wore you out whenever he asked for mint ice cream at 1am on a weekday, was the best boyfriend one could ever ask for.

There was no doubt about it; who wouldn’t give up their entire life just to marry him? Maybe you would ask him or maybe he asked you but knowing him, he would definitely surprise you with the big news whenever you were ready.

You opened the door after shopping by yourself for a few gifts for Yeonjun- after all, it was your four year anniversary. The front door creaked when you did so, and you winced at the sound which gave your presence away. Great, now the surprise was ruined... however, Yeonjun standing there with a grin on his face was more than good enough- perfect enough that you were left breathless in awe.

He was dressed up, adorned in a black suit that immediately reminded you of the time he first took you out on a date for a fancy dinner. It was perfect. A spotless black tie and everything, you knew he really did his best with the outfit so you would like it. His messy hair was the complete opposite of his tidied up suit, but you weren’t complaining. He still looked as dashing as ever and it made your heart stop in place when he shot you one of those sweet grins, filling up your entire chest with pure love.

You hastily dropped the gifts on the counter, frowning at the difference between the two of you. In a rush to get the presents after a long day of work, you were in your uniform- something that definitely didn’t suit your liking at all. Your anniversary celebration was supposed to be perfect, but here you were ruining it all with your tardiness and clothing.

In response, Yeonjun’s eyes fell upon the many wrapped up gifts you had taken upon yourself to amaze him with, and you thought he was going to open them due to curiosity. Instead he just took your hand and pulled you to the living room where there was more space, his hand shuffling comfortably to wrap against your waist.

“Let’s open them later, right now I just want to dance with the love of my life.”

The living room showed how much effort he put into the celebration. You admired the scenery, wondering how long it took for him to do it. With lit, rose scented candles, red petals of the same gorgeous flower sprinkled on the carpet, a soft instrumental of the song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” playing delicately through his speaker, you came to adore the boy in front of you so much more. His words said a lot about loving you already, but when you looked at his actions, it sized up to merely nothing.

“Jjunie, I look like a mess. Won’t you allow me to prepare first before we dance? You put all of this effort for me and I don’t even look good for it,” you muttered quietly, too quiet that you were sure he didn’t hear it. Oh but he did, and he was left feeling a bit somber about your confidence. In that moment he wished he was able to see how much he loved you regardless of your appearance.

In doing so he pulled you closer, letting you lean comfortably on his shoulder as the two of you swayed gently back and forth. You melted into his embrace, holding him just as much as he did. The chuckle from his chest almost sounding mocking, and he in turn slowly shook his head for the answer. You sighed, knowing how stubborn he was about things like this but at least you gave a try.

Now Yeonjun was pulling you flush against his chest but still rocking you back and forth with him to the rhythm of the song. You hid your face into any part of him you were able to find, feeling embarrassed that he could still make you feel like a teenager in love. Every day was like this with him trying to make you turn into a burning tomato, but gosh did it still get all the heat explode in your face.

His breath hitched against your ear, practically nipping on it delicately as if you were the most fragile thing on Earth. You shuddered when his voice conjured up a whisper.

“And what makes you think that? To me, you’re the most beautiful person ever and I wouldn’t think any less of it. You’re perfect to me- I’m in love with the prettiest baby there could ever be and I’m glad to call them mine.”

You bit your lip at his words, knowing fully well that it was genuine.

“I know you tell me this every second with me, but how can I be so sure? Growing up with you was such a blessing and I’m happy as well to be able to receive it, but I’m sure you would fall for someone better.”

“Please, Y/N,” he muttered with sparkles in his eyes, “I only see you. I only want you. And I need only you in order to smile like I do every moment we’re together. I wouldn’t ever be able to get on with life without you, can’t you see? I’m nothing without you and you’re the only person who’s made me this happy.

“Everyday I’m more than grateful to be able to be with you and I know I don’t deserve such a beautiful person like you, inside and out. I still remember chasing you around the playground one Friday and pulling on your pigtails to the point where you cried. I never told you this but I swore to myself that I wouldn’t make someone I loved like you cry ever again like that. How silly was I to not know that the love of my life was in front of me at that moment?”

Saying this he leveled to the ground, bending down on one knee as you gasped in shock. What was he doing?

“I don’t ever want to lose you- I wouldn’t be able to afford it if I ever did. I just want to be with the one and only person who completes me. The one and only person who I can count on whenever I’m sick with the flu. The one and only person who takes me out to mint ice cream at 1am. The one and only person I could really call mine. The one and only person who I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

His hand shuffled in his pocket before pulling a tiny box out and he opened it, showing a tiny sparkling, ring with a resplendent diamond on the top. Not a ring pop, but a real one. You covered your mouth with your shaking hands, feeling a tear fall against your cheek. His eyes were glistening just like the first time you met him and your eyes were the same as his, tearing up because of his sincere words that were nothing less of the truth.

“So to the person whom I love more than anyone I’ll ever be able to and my true first love... will you marry me?”

He waited for your answer but you just jumped up and pressed your lips against his, showing how much you needed him in a passionate kiss.

“Y-yes,” you gasped with all your breath, “I’ll marry you, Yeonjun.”

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

˚⁺‧. Soobin: ˚⁺‧.

Soobin was absolutely intolerable.

If teasing you in class in front of everyone even if it was something he viewed as lighthearted, calling you weird in front of a person that you really liked and proceeded to tell the embarrassing stories of when you were both in freshman year, and even picking you up- quite literally- when you were getting a bit too close with another person, then that was it.

You were so tired of the tricks he was pulling, laughing when you talked back with a frustrated tone or pushing him on the chest whenever it got too much. No matter how many times you told him to screw off after a bad or good day alike, he wouldn’t listen. He must’ve been deaf or something, that’s for sure- because the amount of times you caught him staring at you was just exhausting.

And you could imagine it- almost every day at school was like this, and you certainly had enough. When will he ever learn to leave you alone? Just a day, you prayed with all your soul throughout the years of high school. Just a day. Please...? However, a life without Soobin was too much of wishful thinking and you knew it entirely deep down. But jeez, was it enough for you to go one day of class without him bothering you incessantly?

As you slid your outfit on for prom, you thought of the first time you met him.

It was a lie to say he was the most grotesque, disgusting person you’d ever laid eyes on. It was totally a lie. So much of a lie that God wouldn’t allow you into heaven for saying something so wrong.

Yes, you had to admit it: Choi Soobin, your one and only enemy was just the cutest.

Well at first... you thought he was adorable. Puffy, mochi cheeks that reminded you much of like a bunny’s munching on soft bread at the table in front of yours, you swore you could say back then that he was the one you were waiting for all your life in your teenage mind that is. He always shot you a kind smile that only radiated warmth and maybe if you weren’t too shy to say something, then the two of you could’ve been great friends or possibly something more. But as always you stayed next to your friends, wanting hopelessly that he would be the first person to make the move. That saying by itself was too much though. If he wasn’t such a jerk, then you were sure you would’ve already fallen in love with him by now.

Events like this piled on you every week and you found yourself staring at him every lunch as he did the same. The eye contact felt like electricity whenever it happened. You were entirely entranced by the boy before you, gazing wishfully that you two would actually get to know each other. You were dying to know what secrets lied under those doe eyes and fresh handsome face, not even able to eat your lunch from how concentrated you were of him. Plus he wasn’t intimidating in the sense many people think, it’s just that you were afraid he was going to judge you when you obviously liked him that much. Every now and then you would catch yourself staring at him during the classes you had with him, and that already said a lot.

Now here comes the worst part. The absolute worst part that wrecked your very important first impression of yourself to him.

The story goes like this. You weren’t watching your step after finishing your lunch tray, thoughtlessly bringing it towards the garbage can right across the corner. And with that you weren’t looking who was in front of you, trying to throw his trash away in the opposite trash can on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, with him coming right at you and with you looking towards the ceiling at the ball somehow lodged under the pipes, you crashed into him food and all flying everywhere... and at the boy you tried so hard to talk to.

Okay, so maybe you deserved all of this torment.

Soobin’s cheeks were so red when the tray made a clamorous sound of a clunk and all of the people in the room slowly realizing, started to laugh at the scene in the middle of the room. The glare he sent you gave you shivers down your back as you kept profusely apologizing, trying to wipe away the food on his uniform shirt to no avail. It was like hell to you, and you had never felt so embarrassed in front of a boy your whole entire life.

Soobin just furrowed his eyebrows at your shaky apologies, bending down to hand you your tray. Like a fool, your heart was pounding in your chest when he pushed the tray into your arms as you murmured yet another sorry. The napkins were useless. Obviously he wasn’t able to take it but out of all the chaos, you could hear him whisper something of “meet me in front of the school gate after school” into your ears.

And you being the worst person you were after spilling rice all over him just had to do it out of guiltiness. For sure you didn’t know what you were getting into as soon as he opened his mouth, giving you a list of chores just for the fun of it. Getting a can of coke for him at the very top school floor because the vending machine there was somehow better than the other ones, buying him a new shirt even when he was just kidding about it, letting him do your hair for a day to go to school in was all you needed to do on the list, but the torment kept coming. He never let you live it down and at this point you were

What you weren’t expecting however, was for Soobin to be right there at the dance floor, searching around for someone who wasn’t there. Your heart skipped a beat when you saw him in his raven suit, looking as handsome as ever with his entrancing smirk and grinning eyes. You hushed it down, beating your chest down with a hand when you abruptly heard a familiar voice tug at your ears.

“Ah, Y/N! Thank gosh you look terrible today. I guess I have no choice to be your date today,

Who else could it be?

“Oh, it’s you,” you deadpanned, rolling your eyes when that endearing chuckle rolled by. What were you expecting? It wasn’t as if he was going to stop making fun of you just because this was supposed to be one of the memorable nights in your entire life. You begged to differ though. Awkward and stiff, you hoped that you didn’t stick out like a sore toe in all this fun. Many other students looked like they were having the time of their life, but they were a bit... sweaty and stinky? Mostly the boys but you weren’t paying much attention when Soobin was right in front of you.

“And me- being your date?!” You asked incredulously, looking as if he had committed a crime. “Why me when you literally have the attention of people all over the whole school?”

When you said this his cheeks turned red before he swatted the tint away. Looks like you had an effect on him. You were sure you hit a nerve because he was stuttering now, unable to look in your eyes as if avoiding them would do the trick. You wondered what he was thinking of before his eyes flashed with an unreadable mischievousness.

“Hey, don’t you think we should dance? This opportunity comes only once in our life. And you don’t know what may happen,” he suggested, tugging gently on your hand. You hadn’t even realized he grabbed it but just the feeling of it made your ears turn hot. Anymore of this and you would faint by the end of the night.

In no time, Soobin led you to the dance floor where everyone else was dancing. The music changed little by little and it was finally the time that every couple was waiting for. Grant that you weren’t a couple, but maybe one time you’ll let it slide. He must’ve planned this- to ask you by now; the smirk said everything. You rolled your eyes and just admired the several colors of light reflecting off the disco ball, letting an ardent smile engrave your face. That is, until he spoke up,

“Oh wow, I can’t believe you said yes. I thought you’d slap me because I asked,” he teased, bringing you along the rhythm of his feet.

You scoffed at him, glaring down at the floor and at his polished shoes.

“Well, I should’ve. But I’m not that mean of a person and I wouldn’t want to embarrass you again.”

His hand slowly slid down to your waist almost as if he was teasing you while you just rocked awkwardly, feeling the breath in your lungs deplete little by little from how suddenly gentle he was. You were so caught off guard, almost paralyzed in your spot from how casual he did this, like he had done it every single day of his life.

“Listen, I know you hate me and all, but don’t be so stiff. You know I won’t hurt you,” he whispered gently, taking you into his arms. Your heart clenched at the forbidden feeling called ‘oh my gosh you’re turning into the naive freshman who didn’t at first know Soobin’s colors,’ but your burning throat didn’t allow yourself to say anything. He’d just make fun of you if you opened your mouth to say something.

Instead you swayed along with him, listening to the sweet music the person in charge put on. The voice sounded familiar, sweet and melodic, drifting through the room of many people who stopped to look at the person responsible. You, however, was completely blind to this, only focusing on the fact that you were dancing with your sworn enemy.

Soobin’s hands danced to your waist and you shuddered, biting your lips when he suddenly spoke up.

“Isn’t it a nice song?”

Was he kidding? The more you listened to it, the more you fell in love with it. It sounded soft, so sincere that you were left wanting more. But you couldn’t put your finger on who was singing, although it sounded so damn familiar.

You just nodded, looking at his chest more so than his face. You were too shy to look at him straight in the eyes, those eyes that seemed to smolder you every time you made eye contact with him. It reminded of you before the time you spilled that cursed rice on him, but you didn’t want to think about those memories anymore. It’d only remind you of how perfect everything could’ve turned out and that you wouldn’t have to deal with a boy like him.

Somehow Soobin pulled you even closer, letting his hand linger on your cheek where it stayed. He treated you with the utmost carefulness, cupping your cheek softly like you were the most fragile thing. You melted into it instantly, admiring his warmness and how he could act this way so as to not ruin your night.

“Believe it or not, I wrote this song for you... I asked the DJ to put it on today. It’s funny to me that you can’t even hear your own name in the song. I thought my own voice would sound familiar to you, you silly goose,” he choked out, letting a smile adorn his face when the realization caught onto you.

Wait...

That voice...

Was Soobin?!

And he wrote it for you?!

You instantly connected the dots together, looking at him straight in the eyes now. He was kidding. He had to be. But this...? You weren’t able to comprehend that it was written for you due to the fact you thought he hated you. He hated you, right? With everything he was doing, it was so obvious! You ruined his image in the beginning of the year and if you were put into his shoes, you would’ve hated yourself too. But... but why did the song have to be so loving with cheesy lyrics and the most important to mention, your name!

All this tugging and pulling on your heart- you couldn’t take it! You couldn’t take the signals he kept sending you and then pushing away like you were nothing!

You stopped immediately, making him pause as well.

“Why are you acting like this? Do you genuinely enjoy seeing me frustrated like this? If you do, then it’s not funny. You’re just the worst,” You cried desperately, tearing up as the taste of frustration lingered on your tongue. Explaining yourself when you were mad at him was the worst-- especially when you couldn’t help sobbing along at how upset you were when he said unbelievable, sweet words.

You were about to start on your feet, away from Soobin- away from someone you tried so damn hard to hate after everything he’d done to you, pushing yourself away from his embrace when he grabbed your arm.

Looking at him you could see how genuine he was under those sparkling, doe eyes gazing at you intently with a somber frown. It had seemed like he acknowledged that fact already, but it only made matters worse.

“Y/N, I just... look, it’s so hard for me to say but I... I really, really like you, alright? I’m so in love with you and everything you do for the time I get to see you whether that be in class or at lunch. The way you look, the way you act, the way you carry yourself when things get hard... gosh, don’t you know what you’ve done to my heart? Why did you have to steal it so quickly when we made eye contact for the first time?”

He started leaning in now, but you were standing too still at the confession. It was stupid, but the tears in your eyes were preventing you from saying anything. He must’ve been kidding- he had to be! He had to be lying... he just had to, right? But the heartfelt words being spilled from his lips proved that he was more in love with you than anyone else and he was showing it right now.

And at the most vital moment- just before touching your lips with his- he stopped. Robbed you of whatever was going to happen. Took away what freshman and present you wanted most. He was just close enough that you could feel his breath fan across your lips, almost mocking you of how close you were going to get him.

“Is this okay?” He breathed impatiently, almost glazing his lips against yours to the point where you were considering making the move yourself.

“Yes, yes it is, stupid. And gosh you have to know how whipped I am for you too,” you shakily blurted out, letting him know how much you really liked him as well. Your hands almost covered your big fat mouth from saying much more, but what was done was unfortunately done.

That was it. He knew it now. The whole truth you were dying to let him know. You finally said it and the prolonged silence between the two of you made you want to take back your words, but the way Soobin reacted the moment you said that-

it was enough for him to crash his lips against yours.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

˚⁺‧. Beomgyu: ˚⁺‧.

“My dearest Y/N, what are you doing out here? Please come back with me to the castle; it isn’t safe to be here, you know that.”

Wait... when did he show up here?

And d-dearest? You had to be hearing things!

Immediately you stopped hiding your sullen face in your gloved hands, slowly looking up to see the boy you were thinking of the entire time. In all of his dashing presence, you couldn’t help but notice there was a deep frown on his face. It was almost as if he was disappointed in you leaving, and the remorseful tone in his words made it crystal clear. But it didn’t make any sense at all... how could he be in the secret garden you always came to whenever things got rough? He wouldn’t have known anything about it, not unless he followed you here.

You instantly got up from where you were sitting on the white angel bench, struggling to speak loudly enough for him to hear.

“P-Prince Beomgyu...? Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be there trying to find someone good enough for your betrothed? I thought you didn’t see me... leave...”

Ardently the prince suddenly smiled when you said this, shaking his head in amusement while you scrambled to find words that would fill the empty, comfortable atmosphere. He seemed to be teasing you with his adorable grin, eyes filling with luminous sparkles as the eye contact he kept making with you wouldn’t come to an end. It reminded you of the stars you always wanted to see from up close, the beautiful ones you had studied a few months before with the old books the queen had received years ago when she too was a princess. Yet, you hated how nervous he obviously made you and eventually looked away from his enamoured gaze that held nothing but love.

“I was looking for you, and I guess I looked right. Mind telling me why you’re here now, prince/ss?”

His soft voice warmed your ears all the more, its velvet low timbre echoing through the moonlight as he took a few steps towards you. He reached out his hand easily, waiting for you to take it but you just weren’t able to, not with what happened back there. The look on your face must’ve been priceless when you sensed he was coming closer and you instinctively took a few steps back, unfortunately tripping onto one of the rose bush vines and falling backwards.

Preparing to fall to your ultimate demise, you shut your eyes tightly- not caring if you died right then and there. It wouldn’t matter much anyway, right? What a pretty way to die, right there in front of whom you wanted to call your beloved.

“Hey, be careful!”

In a split second, you felt someone’s arms wrap around your torso, their hands holding tightly around your waist so you wouldn’t fall. It felt way too familiar to you and you opened your eyes, gasping once you saw who saved you.

Filling your ears again was the warm, tender voice of Prince Beomgyu who stared right down at you with concern in his expression. You looked up to him with wide eyes, wondering when he was going to level you to the ground as expected. However, it seemed like he wasn’t going to do just that yet; you could see the mischievousness in the smug smirk he was wearing. Then to keep you secure, he brought you closer towards him but didn’t dare to let go of his comfortable position over your waist.

“You just proved my point,” he murmured, “Why did you come out here when you know it isn’t safe here in the first place, dear?”

The moonlight glistened across his face, showing radiantly his beauty as the heart caged in your chest performed several flips. It was always like this whenever you saw him... wherever, really, at the balls or whenever his family made a trip to Amaryllis Kingdom. Before shuffling away from him on your own accord your eyes flickered to his lips, exhausted to see how much you were entranced by him.

“Why did I come out here? And you’re calling me, your dear?! With all due respect, will you stop acting like you do not know?”

You scoffed tiredly at his words, dusting yourself off as you pushed him away from you. The pent up frustration was clear in your voice and you almost felt guilty for him, if not for what he did back there. What was he expecting to say when you were angry solely at his actions? An okay? An agreement to go to the castle again when he was more interested in what your best friend had to say?

He shot an incredulous look at you, furrowing his eyebrows until they knit sourly together. “What are you saying? I’m flabbergasted here! Tell me what’s been going on so I can make it better!”

You shook your head back and forth rapidly, pursing your lips as he inched towards you through little steps.

“If you wanted to make it better, then you shouldn’t have avoided me like I was the plague! It’s been such a long time seeing you after the last ball, and I- I miss you terribly... I just don’t understand why you had to leave me to seek out my friend.” Your voice became as quiet as a mouse squeaking when you neared towards the end of your words, holding back at yelling at him when it really wasn’t his fault for finding someone better for his betrothed anyway. It didn’t mean it hurt any less still, knowing that you were so close to the chance of loving someone so sweet and caring like him.

Beomgyu reached out to you tenderly and this time you took it silently without complaint, watching as he pressed a few kisses on the top of your hand. How could someone cause you to feel so many things in a minute, making your anger vanish the second he let those words fly out of his lips?

“That wasn’t what I meant to do, prince/ss...”

In a crumbling motion, the rest of your resentment dissipated and dripped into the puddle right beside you. It slowly became into a sadness that even his smile wouldn’t be able to heal, showing you how you should’ve never messed with the entanglements and matters of love. It only indicated how much you were doomed to accept the fact that he would never be yours.

“Enlighten me, please,” you begged now, ignoring how his blossom lips trembled upon hearing your despondent request.

Instead he just took your hand into one of his, squeezing tightly so that you would listen. His lace sleeve brushed up against your arm as he went to cup your cheek, making you shudder along with the breeze that flew by the two of you. The warmness of his hand made you lean against it, sighing in relief at how long the desire to at least touch him was finally satisfied.

“That never was my intention, Y/N. I apologize for making you feel like that, I truly am a fool not to notice. I was talking to your friend to know the things you wanted in an ideal prince. I thought I wouldn’t ever be good enough for you so that took way longer than expected... And I guess I’ve missed you for so long too that I was a bit nervous to face you, but I know that isn’t an excuse either. I’m so sorry for my actions tonight. I’ll make it up to you once we get back to the ballroom.” His thumb rubbed softly against your cheekbone as the desperation in his eyes caught onto you, letting you know how much sincerity there was in both his words and lips.

And yet, you couldn’t help but smile. He was always so caring like this, despite making everything out of humor, and maybe that’s why you fell in love with him.

“You should’ve asked me first, Gyu.” He cringed at the way you seemingly forget to mention his title before you continued again. “You know that you’re more than good enough for me. You’re simply... perfect.” You let the word fall off your lip and the prince again shot you another charming grin that had your heart pitter-pattering in your chest.

“I know that now,” he teased, pulling you closer to his arms in an embrace. You wallowed in it for a few seconds, hugging him back as well. He laughed at this, letting his chin drop comfortably on the top of your head.

“Now come on, didn’t I say I was going to make it up to you? Let’s head back to the castle now, my love.” He started to lead you out of your secret garden and into the royal pathway, much to your despise.

You weren’t sure what happened... It seemed like the happiness you just experienced crashed on your shoulders in waves, and you screamed unfortunately right in his ear.

“No!”

You dug your heels into the dirt, forbidding him to go any farther than what he was hoping. He quickly turned back to you after wincing from the abrupt pain, checking up on you worriedly after your outburst.

“I don’t want to go back there,” you whispered, looking into his eyes this time. It felt like electricity to you- to know that he was right there listening to you, listening to your worries in order to let you know that he cared.

“Why?” He let his hand trail down to tuck a fallen hair strand behind your ear, and you felt all the more guilty for bothering him like this. It was enough for yelling at him needlessly earlier when it wasn’t what he meant to do, but now this? You caught sight of the mud on your ankles, knowing that the king and queen wouldn’t be too happy about it.

“Because... I hate it there. I know we’re royalty- you’re a prince and I’m a prince/ss, but I don’t want any other people looking at you. They don’t know who you’re going to choose as your betrothed yet- it just makes me anticipate whoever you’re going to pick!”

The expression on Prince Beomgyu’s face was absolutely endearing as he ruffled the top of your head, finding entertainment at your embarrassment. You cringed at how your crown almost fell off, trying to slide it back on as Beomgyu did it for you.

“You’re so cute,” he chuckled, making all the heat in your face become prominent. This effect he had on you was always surprising, and you were sure he knew that from the confession you just made. You internally groaned at yourself. Why should you be shocked when he never misses the chance to say stuff like this?

“Then... how about we slow dance here instead? After all, I’m sure you can hear the blasting music from here,” he suggested, lifting a curious eyebrow for your response.

True to his words, you could hear most of the strings from the castle below to your secret garden. You weren’t that far from the castle and both of you wanted to give it a chance, so why hold back now? You let him take not only your hand into the melody of “Clair de Lune,” but also your heart.

He just smiled nervously at you, allowing you to wrap your arms behind his neck. A rush of nostalgia passed through you, reminding you of the time when you first danced together last year at the ballroom. All too familiar, his hands slid towards your waist and you giggled at the tickling sensation, wallowing at how close he was- enough to press a kiss to his button nose. It was easy to follow his swaying movements back and forth, but you were cautious this time not to trip into the thorny rose bushes.

Beomgyu carefully twirled you beside him, admiring the way your attire followed you along as well.

“Wait, you do know one thing, right?”

You tilted to your head to the side. What he was taking about- you weren’t sure at all. But you let him continue, feeling his arms bring you closer to his chest.

“You do know that... I love you. So much and entirely so. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Prince/ss Y/N. I want to treat you well and make that beautiful smile of yours become a main part of our life together. I want to have children of our own with you and watch them grow up into princes and princesses or whatever they choose to be themselves. I want to love you for the rest of our life and announce you mine.”

He stopped dancing this time, leaning towards you with hooded eyes. You allow him to, choosing to shut your eyes as well.

“Now tell me,” he whispered, laying a chaste soft kiss to your lips breathlessly, “will you be my queen when the time comes?”

You only nodded back, melting into the kiss as you took him into an affectionate embrace.

“Yes, of course, my prince.”

Finally... at last, you found your Prince Charming.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

˚⁺‧. Taehyun: ˚⁺‧.

Needless to say, you were in love with Kang Taehyun.

You were so in love with the way he made extra time for you in his schedule even if he was busy studying. You were so in love with how he would pick you up despite your protests because apparently he felt unsafe when you weren’t with him. You were so in love with the way he took care of you whenever things got rough and comforted you through the little things like mood swings and disappointment when the waitress forgot to bring out your favorite cake. You were so in love with how he never rushed you into the relationship, promising to wait for you until you were ready. You were so in love with how caring he was towards you; every single day you spent with him made you feel as if you were on top of the world.

Even curled up in his arms now, you could feel the love you had for him swell in your chest as you looked at the mesmerizing him. He was holding you so gently, so sweetly, letting sweet words fall from his lips in order to make you smile. It obviously worked because you were nothing more than a giggling mess, watching him like a fool to get you to smile. Honestly, he wasn’t that much for public affection, but when it was the only two of you... you were allowed to say that he was clingy and wanted to hold on tight so that you’d never leave.

The white blanket from beneath you fluttered a little in the breeze and you shivered from how chilly it was. You should’ve brought a coat earlier like Taehyun had said, but it was the summer so it couldn’t have been that cold! You wrapped yourself in your arms, trying to get up if not for the deathly hug of Taehyun. Instead it only encouraged him to hold tighter onto you all the more, squeezing your arms tight in his embrace.

“I told you to wear at least something warmer, Y/N. Now you’re clearly shivering and I don’t want to give up my coat just for you,” he teased and that caused you to hit him playfully on the arm.

“I didn’t ask for a coat! I love the weather when it’s like this... especially when I’m with you,” you shut your eyes and stuck your tongue at him. The boy just pretended to gag and that made you laugh at his silly reaction.

The birds chirping from up above caught your attention, and you noticed how freely they seemed to be flapping their wings. As corny as it is, maybe one day you’d feel like flying with Taehyun. You weren’t sure how you were going to do it, but you want to make him the happiest he’s ever been in his whole entire life. Hmm... a nice moment of quiet would be good enough for you to think of a solution to that problem.

Although the silence was nice after that moment, you wanted to do something fun. It’s true that you were already happy since you had the day to spend with him, but this could be the cherry on top before you had to go home. Earlier you went shopping for what he liked and paid for it while he wasn’t looking, despite all of his complaints and tired that definitely hurt your ears. Then the two of you went for ice cream and you teased him about mint flavor before deciding to get the cone. It gave you an idea to have a picnic date with him, minus the food since you already ate lunch together. But it was more than perfect to be with him, really!

“Taehyun,” you whined, “I’m bored! Don’t you think we should do anything better for your birthday?

“But it’s pretty,” he pouted, “I thought you liked doing weird stuff like this, you weirdo.”

Rolling your eyes, you picked at the blanket beneath you, kneading it between your fingers as you thought of what to do. “I do, but there has to be a much nicer thing to make your smile wider, you weirdo.”

He let out a huff of amusement, nodding his head along to your idea. “Then what do you think will do that?”

You snickered at his mocking words, swatting his arm away from you so you could get up. He let a grunt of refusal as he let go before you took his hand into yours. He got up soon after with a pearly smile you wouldn’t ever be able to erase from mind. Something like that every day would certainly boost your serotonin if you had to look at it 24/7.

“Hmm... how about we dance?” You shyly suggested, watching his face morph into a sincere smile. It was cheesy, you knew that, but you were hoping Taehyun would at least say yes considering it was his birthday and you wanted him to have fun instead of just looking out into the blue horizon. Not that you were complaining about that though.

“Dance?” He couldn’t help but laugh teasingly at your request, like you had spoken in a language he couldn’t understand. “I know you’re cheesy and all, but dance?! That’s way too-” he gasped when you took him by the hand and started to tug him into a round of slow dancing.

Thankfully you had already set on some light music going on earlier when you had arrived, and it played loud enough so only the two of you could hear it. The one that you heard currently- was it “Sakura Kiss” but the strings version? You recognized it as you watched Taehyun pretend to cringe when you wrapped your arms around him.

“You’re really weird, I have no clue why I even agreed to do this in the first place.” He stepped towards the back and you were careful not to step on his feet accidentally. Although, that would be pretty funny- not that you’re admitting it!

You just giggled at his words, and he slid his hands to your waist. It felt like sparks to you, pure electricity coursing through your veins the moment he pulled you closer to him. Actually, he was debating whether or not he should start to tickle you, but it would just ruin the moment. Little did you know that he actually wanted to go along with it, guiding you through the music so that you wouldn’t be too stiff when dancing with him.

“But you’re in love with this weirdo, huh?” He wouldn’t answer this one, you were sure. He’d say something about how corny it was and how you could’ve said anything else but that.

Instead he let one hand come away from your waist before slipping into one of yours.

“Yes, I absolutely am.”

Not only was Taehyun’s wish of being happy on that day came true, but he also got to experience really flying with you even when it wasn’t possible.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

˚⁺‧. Kai: ˚⁺‧.

“What are you up to on a late night?”

Well, that’s what you were going to ask your best friend Kai until he so rudely crashed into your house at 1am through the kitchen window despite all of your whines not to do that since he could hurt himself and even worse- break the window itself. You shouldn’t have been surprised at this point when he peeked his head through the door of your room, but how could you not be when there wasn’t any racket downstairs as a sign he was making his grand appearance? And don’t get started on how the door just randomly creaked loudly, giving you a major heart attack that a thief entered your house!

All of your grumbling and rambling about how he should just go home and rest in his very comfy bed that you somehow accidentally slept in before wasn’t enough for him to leave and he decided to join you in your journey of rewatching Cinderella. You were pleased to have a partner who could make you laugh along the whole experience, but you weren’t sure what he was doing up so late. As it was mentioned above the time just reached 1am and once you were done with this movie, it’d probably be closer to three. Not to mention that it wasn’t safe to come out of his house during the night even if he lived a few houses away.

“Kai, what are you doing here?! Don’t you know how unsafe it is to just randomly pop in to my house at what gosh knows in the morning?” You threw one of the pillows you were laying on towards him, purposely knowing that it was his favorite whenever he came by. Obviously you weren’t going to say you cuddled it to sleep when you missed the boy who didn’t get the chances to visit you, and hopefully he wouldn’t notice how worn down it already was after a few months of use.

Kai just jumped into bed beside you, reaching out a hand to ruffle your hair.

“Ooh, looks like someone is worried for me~ don’t worry, I brought my favorite plushy to protect me just in case,” he winked at you but you ignored it, focusing on getting the movie on the TV screen instead.

“At least tell me a good reason. I might forgive you this once but it doesn’t mean I condone your actions.” Every time you said this, you forgave him when you really shouldn’t have. It only encouraged him to come all the more, and you knew that through and through. But still! He should really know how worried you get whenever he spontaneously plans his visits to see you!

Kai just sighed, and you could imagine the disappointed pout on his face. Stealing another glance at him, you weren’t shocked to find out he was doing the exact same thing like you expected. After all, you knew Kai for a really long time not to notice these adorable little habits about him.

“I’m just bored. And Tobin really wanted to see you this time!” He proudly showed the bunny plushy in front of you, and it made you smile a little bit before quickly wiping the effect off.

“Okay, fine,” you groaned, beckoning him to come cuddle up against you like he always did, “you can stay as long as you like but next time if you aren’t careful, I’m saying no.”

He gladly took the offer, clearly staying in agreement to your words as he snuggled beside you to wait for the movie to finally initiate.

“Ah, thank you, Y/N! I knew I could count on you to be up this late!”

Not even ten minutes passed by since he supposedly broke in like you called it, and heavy rain started to crash down onto the roof. It was nice for moods like this and the white noise of raindrops always managed to calm you down as well, but you were worried for when Kai wanted to go home. How would he get to his house without being soaked? It’d definitely create a wet mess. Well that is... unless he wanted to- no, you shouldn’t get ideas like this, assuming he’s uncomfortable with it!

But there really was no loss in trying, right? You braced yourself for the hard rejection you knew that was coming.

“You know,” you bashfully offered, throwing him another fluffy pillow from across the bed so he could get more cozy, “you don’t have to walk out in the rain like that once the movie is done. It’s raining cats and dogs out there. You can always just stay... with me.” You absolutely hated how your voice shriveled up to the end, showing how embarrassed you were to even ask him in the first place.

He caught it easily, holding it tight to his chest soon after. “You’re acting like I wasn’t going to do that. Why not spend a night with my favorite person in the whole world? Let’s have a sleepover, Y/N~!”

Didn’t he know what he was doing?! And oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you couldn’t believe it- he actually said yes! But of course, with a few pitter-patter comments here and there.

What were you thinking? You felt all the hot blood rush to your face and you hid it with another pillow close by. Hoping he would’t hear anything, you just muttered how embarrassed you were to yourself but boy oh boy, he caught it all and grinned in endearment at how cute you were. You wouldn’t be able to see that smile on his face anyway, unfortunately not with the pillow you hid yourself with.

...

You had been so tangled in the story that you didn’t realize Kai was more focused on you compared to the movie. He would look up to the screen sometimes, however he couldn’t help but look back at you more than the film for some reason. It didn’t mean you didn’t check up on him from time to time to make sure he was feeling completely comfortable. You knew fully well that he was staring at you but you decided to ignore it. At first you thought he was just spacing out, but it was way too coincidental to be true.

The scene finally got to the part where Cinderella was dancing with Prince Charming, glass slippers and all. As a kid you were always fond of this moment because one day you wanted someone in your life like that. Whoever it may be, as long as they love you for who you really are then you’d be happy to call them your significant other. And yet, every single time you would always be faced with Kai in your mind whenever you dreamed of this.

“What are you staring at me for?”

“Oh, nothing,” he taunted with a mocking voice before taking your hand into his. Then without a warning, he tugged you up from beside him, pulling you in front of the screen. You laughed at how sudden it was, and cautioned at him a little bit.

“Kai! Gosh, at least give me a warning before you pull me up,” you whisper-shouted, being careful enough not to create too much noise. Luckily the rain was able to replace the sound of both of you getting up from the creaky bed, serving as another distraction for your parents not to know your best friend was in the room.

As you watched him in confusion, he made no sound grabbing your hands so they’d wrap just below his neck. You asked him what he was doing quietly a few times when he simply shut you down like that, his hands naturally trailing down to your waist as if he was planning something.

When he was done with the finishing dances of preparing the both of you, he noticed you were distracted in Cinderella and the prince dancing and leaned your attention towards him again by grasping your cheek in his right hand.

“Come on,” he shot you another charming grin that sent your heart into a mayhem, “let’s slow dance.”

You gulped instinctively, nodding your head slowly.

“O-oh, sure...”

You couldn’t allow yourself to say no. How could you say no when your heart was screaming yes and with him so close to you than he’d ever been? You weren’t the best at slow dancing when you had to cooperate with a partner, but he made it quite easy for you. Although, it wasn’t a big surprise when he could do anything he put his mind to. Kai was simply an excellent musician- he got the hang of the beat so you just followed his lead, letting him sway gently to the sweet song.

The moment was magnificently magical, enough so that you wanted it to last forever. Eye contact was a bit much for you- especially when you were starting to have forbidden feelings for a friend who most likely doesn’t reciprocate the same ones- but somehow, you found the strength to keep looking at him without quivering up into a nervous ball. As the song played, you memorized every detail of his face as you could, counting his eyelashes to sketching how perfect his nose was in your mind. You were so lucky to have him in your life... you really couldn’t imagine a day without knowing he was there for you.

The rest of the song finished, but you knew he didn’t want to let go just yet. No other words were spoken but with his eyes that followed yours, you were able to tell how much you meant to him. More than a friend or just a friend? You weren’t sure at all, but you knew one thing. With the way he gazed at you- and perhaps you were deluding yourself when you thought this- it was clear to see that his stare was fill of enamor and love towards you and you only. He could’ve been watching the rain fall from outside and race against the windows, yet it seemed like he never wanted to look away either.

Your heart swelled in joy with this, but... at the same time...

When were you ever going to tell him these growing feelings? When were you going to let him know before you inevitably fell in love even deeper? How were you going to do it with all these insecurities of whether he likes you back or not weighing down? There were too many questions for you to really take. In all of this thinking while beside him- you couldn’t be for sure, however you weren’t going to rush yourself because there was still an eternity to spend with him right by your side like he promised.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

Posted: 4/8/21- 2:15am

(OKAY SO LIKE IK I WROTE 9k WORDS FOR THIS SO?? IM SO SORRY IF YOU GOT BORED 😭😭 I ACCIDENTALLY USED ALL THE BIG BRAIN WRITING FOR THIS REQUEST OMG 🧍🧍 also peep me posting this at 2am when i said i was supposed to sleep at 11pm)

Tags:

#txt fluff #txt angst #txt imagines #txt scenarios #txt reactions #txt oneshot #*｡『 keah’s requests !』｡*

88 notes · View notes

ashintheairlikesnow · 3 years

Text

Christmas Specials: Fishcake

CW: Some hint of dehumanization and references to Bahram’s depression/past breakdown at the end, some brief emeto references, but really this is just fluff. Oh, also brief unintentional ableism that Miah calls out.

---

BAHRAM’S NOTES

December 24th, 20XX 11:15 pm Mer in Residence: 71 Days

Miah showed up tonight with a Christmas present for me, and now I feel like a giant dick for not having anything to give her.

Christmas just isn’t a thing in my family. I mean, I have cousins who go overboard with it, kind of a fitting in thing, but my family never did. Baba does some kind of fast, but for Maman it’s just another day and for me it’s always meant mostly a day where I played video games all day because I didn’t have to be at school or work.

Oh, I need to call Baba and Maman tomorrow, note to self. She always gets worried about me right around the end of the year, what with how they figured out I was quitting school and everything.

I guess getting a phone call from a hospital leaves a bloody impression.

Anyway, Miah comes in with this big shopping bag in her hand, waving at me all bright and sunny and cheerful. She set the bag down long enough to berate me for - she assumed - having not taken my medicine on time.

For the record, she was right, but I didn’t tell her that.

Nearly drowning in saltwater made my lungs apparently terribly angry with me, so for the next eight days I’m on a run of antibiotics to handle a lovely case of bacterial pneumonia. Would’ve been far handier to get pneumonia right away, but instead I ended up in Urgent Care yesterday, paying 200 dollars and waiting two hours to see a doctor for less than ten minutes.

Dr. L says she’ll reimburse me the cost, but still.

Miah asked me how I was feeling, I said I felt fine, really, and then of course I had an awful coughing fit just to prove myself a wonderful liar. The coughing’s the worst part - every time I really get going, it’s like being underwater all over again. I can feel my lungs fighting to inflate, to take the air in, and I can hear how hard I’m working to get enough air to stop coughing at all. Miah can’t hear it, but she can see it all right, and she looked worried.

I signed, “I’m fine, it’ll stop, the doctor says it will,” and she frowned at me, but let it go, I guess. While she had her face turned away to greet the mer, I opened the pill bottle and dry-swallowed the meds really fast. Sometimes there are benefits to Miah not being able to hear things.

The mer - Kima, I can call him by his name in these notes, the ones only I see - was already at the side of the tank, watching us. He’s perked up a bit lately, since I started giving him live fish on the days Dr. L isn’t around and Miah brought him all these enrichment things. We’re doing what we can, but I know it’s still not enough.

Enough would be figuring out where his bloody family is and getting him back to them, but I just… I can’t even begin to explain, even to myself, the logistical nightmare of hauling a six-foot-long mer back to the ocean and finding someone who would take him back up north where his family likely is in the middle of bloody fucking December.

It’s the right thing to do, yeah.

But it’d just be too hard to pull off, not without losing… my whole taped-together life, yeah? Plus I’m still dealing with trying to figure out who exactly is my real employer at this point - who’s paying Dr. L - and what they want from the mer’s… thing he can do.

Miah glanced over at him and signed, “Don’t worry, I have something for you, too,” and Kima just looked back at her, head cocked to the side. She looked over at me and signed, “It’s a fish-cake.”

I have to admit, it took me a second to even begin to respond. My hands just… hung in mid-air, before finally I asked, “A what?”

“A fishcake. It’s like a fruitcake, but so much worse.” She leaned down to dig around in the big bag and pulled out a box, pausing to add, “I had to wrap it and box it or the car would have smelled horrible for days,” before she picked up and laid the box on my desk, opened it, took out something wrapped in layers of plastic, and unwrapped that, painstakingly slowly.

I glanced over at the mer, who watched with total fascination. Maybe he’d caught the sign for fish, he’s incredibly food-motivated. Which makes sense, of course, probably with his pod he’d spend a lot of his day eating and hunting for more, but

Bahram. Focus.

She was right - as soon as the plastic came off, I could smell it.

“How can you handle that? Isn’t your sense of smell… really good?” Ah, yes, I am always so proud of myself when I forget a sign for a word I want to say and have to sort of cobble together the spirit of it with other signs.

She looked at me with this sort of dry are you kidding me expression, then signed, “I’m deaf, B, not a superhero,” in a way that made me feel about ten inches tall.

“Sorry. That’s an awful smell, though.”

And it was. I like fish as much as the next man, but this was foul. She grinned at me and picked up the tupperware the fishcake was in using towels to protect her hands from picking the smell up too, I guess, and went over to the ladder up to the platform. Her back was already to me, so I couldn’t ask her the question I had, or tell her not to do that one-handed. Instead, I just sort of… got up and hovered uselessly while she climbed up without looking back, and then followed her up there.

The platform makes me… nervous, now. I stay closer to the ladder, farther from the water. I hope the mer, that Kima doesn’t think I don’t want to be close to him or something.

Miah took the lid off the tupperware and waited. Soon enough the mer popped up near us, interested in what we were doing on the platform.

I watched those nasal slits open wide when he smelled the fish. And I watched how his eyes went big and shiny with excitement. Whatever Miah had put in the foul thing, he wanted it.

She dumped it into the water - I didn’t see much, other than a sort of loaf-shape and a sense of texture I never want to think about again - and Kima tore into it. It was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen, and I have actually watched Kima eat raw fish that was living seconds before. I had to look away - and so did Miah, but she was laughing. She can’t hear herself, only feel the vibration in her own throat. Her laughs kind of sound almost honking, choked-off, just totally un-self-conscious noises she’s barely aware of.

I should tell her that I like the way she laughs.

Oh, I absolutely should not do that.

Maybe I should, though.

She grinned at me, still laughing, and signed, “This is disgusting!”

“It is,” I signed back, “And it’s your fault, don’t forget that!”

She was still laughing when Kima looked back up at us, fish bits smeared around his mouth, and she signed, “Merry Christmas, K-I-M-A,” to him. He stared back, signed yes, and then dove back under the water, present utterly devoured, leaving only gross little particles I will probably have to hose off the sides of the tank on cleaning day when the filters can’t quite pick them up.

Miah looked at me, and I just thought, you know, she’s really pretty even under the sun lamps, and nobody is pretty in that light. Then she signed, after this moment of stillness, “I bought you a present, too.”

“Me?” I pointed back at myself, blinking, surprised. “I don’t do Christmas, M, I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “I know. But I still bought a present. Can I show you?”

“Um, sure.” I get nauseous when I’m nervous. For a second, climbing back down the ladder, I thought I’d just get sick all over myself. I was badly designed, my defense mechanism is just to vomit on myself to scare predators away, clearly my body thinks pretty women are dangerous and I have to embarrass myself until they stop looking at me.

Finally, though, we were back at my desk. The smell… lingered. I’ve since burned the candle Miah got me, and the sulfur from the matches and the scent of the candle itself have largely done away with it, but when we got back, it was still powerful.

She didn’t pull anything out of the bag, instead she just took a small card out of her back pocket and handed it to me.

I looked down at it. “Alborz?” I realized I’d spoken out loud, looking down, and looked back up quickly so I could repeat it in sign, so she could see. “A-L-B-O-R-Z? A gift card to a restaurant?”

She nodded, quickly, signing so fast I was having trouble keeping up. I guess… was she nervous, too? “It’s food like you grew up with, yes?”

“Yeah, more or less. I mean nothing is better than my mother’s food. But why-”

She reached out and grabbed my arm with one hand to stop me, leaned in so close that the smell of this super subtle perfume she wears was stronger, for a second, than the smell of fish. “B,” She signed, with heavy, slow emphasis, “Think about why I bought you this.”

I just looked at her. I didn’t get it at all, and told her so.

I’m so bloody dense.

She sighed, throwing her hands up in the air with an eye-roll and a smile, and then signed, “When are you taking me there?”

She had to repeat the signs three times before I realized she was asking me on a date.

So anyway, I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink tonight, and also I think I celebrate Christmas now.

Date-mas.

That was an awful joke. I’m leaving it there just to properly shame myself if I ever reread this.

---

@astrobly @burtlederp @finder-of-rings @slaintetowhump @moose-teeth @misspelledwitch @whumpfigure @whumptywhumpdump @boxboysandotherwhump @whumpywhumpwhump @yet-another-heathen @fanmanga1357-blog @justabitofwhump

#mer whump #christmas specials #signs of the sea #depression tw #breakdown mention tw #emeto references #mer whumpee #fluff #angst and fluff #all comfort no hurt #referenced drowning #bahram anvari #miah kirsse

88 notes · View notes

writerofthecourt · 4 years

Text

ikanaide

pairing: shirabu kenjirou x reader

summary: when you receive an enrollment offer from the art school of your dreams, you are left with the tough decision of choosing between love and your future

warning: slight time skip spoilers

a/n: for the lovely anon who requested this. thank you for your patience! this was the second request from my 200 followers event. also, if it wasn’t obvious from the context, this takes place during shirabu’s third year at shiratorizawa

“Guys!” you shouted in bubbly excitement as you approached the lunch table seating the three males.

“Hello, [Y/N]-san!” Goshiki happily greeted as he attempted to match your level of enthusiasm while Kawanishi simply settled for a casual wave of his hand.

Sending them both a charming smile, you promptly sat next to Shirabu, who continued to silently eat his lunch without so much as a glance towards your direction. Although your boyfriend made no overt signs of acknowledging your presence, you could tell by the minuscule smile on his face that he was happy to have you there.

“You guys will never believe what just happened!” you exclaimed as you rifled through your bag and proudly presented an unassuming envelope. “Read it!”

Shrugging his shoulders, Kawanishi was the first one to move, plucking the envelope from your awaiting hand to read the letter inside.

“It’s in English,” Kawanishi remarked with a curious raise of his eyebrow. This immediately caught Shirabu’s attention, as he now looked away from his food to focus on Kawanishi instead.

“Read who it’s from,” you explained with excitement.

Following your instructions, Kawanishi’s eyes quickly glided across the paper before they shot back up to stare at you in complete shock and amazement. “You got in?!”

You giggled in response. “Yeah! I got accepted this morning!”

“Wow, congrats,” Kawanishi responded as he handed back the letter and its accompanying envelope with a smirk. “Try not to forget about us once you head off to your fancy art school, yeah?”

“Wait,” Goshiki interrupted, trying to piece together the exchange between you and Kawanishi. “‘Fancy art school?’ Does that mean you got accepted into the university that you wanted to go to, [Y/N]-san? The one that’s overseas?”

Nodding your head in confirmation, Goshiki couldn’t help but gaze at you in awe before he quickly offered his own words of congratulations. Before you knew it, the conversation soon transformed into a discussion about your plans for university and the future in general.

“Does that mean you’ll be leaving Japan?” Goshiki asked in excitement.

“I haven’t decided yet,” you answered truthfully. “I was so sure that I was going to get rejected, so I didn’t make any plans beyond just applying.”

“You should go, [Y/N]-san!” Goshiki encouraged with a happy grin. “You’re so talented! It’d be a waste not to accept their offer.”

“For once, I agree with Goshiki,” Kawanishi chimed in. “You should go. It’s a great opportunity.”

“Yeah, but the logistics,” you reminded them woefully, leaning your head to rest against Shirabu’s shoulder. “Plus, my English isn’t the best.”

“Your English is fine,” Kawanishi brushed off. “You’ll get better.”

As you, Kawanishi, and Goshiki continued to converse about the pros and cons concerning your potential enrollment, none of you noticed the nauseated look on Shirabu’s face as he subtly pushed away his food tray, no longer having the appetite to continue his lunch.

“It’s so cold!” you exclaimed, trying to shield yourself from the chilly February air.

“I told you to put on more layers this morning,” Shirabu snapped as he unwound his red scarf to securely wrap it around your neck. Once he was sure that you were warm, he laced your fingers together before placing both hands into his coat pocket and leading you towards the bus stop.

“Thank you, Kenjirou.”

Although it was completely routine at this point, you still couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty for making your boyfriend leave the warmth and comfort of his dorm room every day after school to walk you to your bus stop.

“Stop it,” Shirabu sighed in annoyance, almost as if he could hear your thoughts. “It’s not a big deal, okay? I do this because I want to, not because I have to.”

Stifling a giggle, you brought the soft material of the scarf up higher to your nose, trying your best to hide the smile that was threatening to take over your face. Despite his frosty disposition, you knew that your boyfriend cared a lot more than he was willing to let on.

“Only a few more months until graduation,” you mused, taking in the beautiful sight of cascading snowflakes from all around you.

Your boyfriend hummed in acknowledgement as the short conversation soon fell into a comfortable lull. After a few more seconds, Shirabu finally spoke up. “Are you going to accept your enrollment offer? The one that you were talking about at lunch today.”

“I’m not sure,” you mumbled. “I got accepted into a local university too, but going to school overseas? That just seems like an opportunity that I shouldn’t ignore.”

“Then what’s holding you back?” Shirabu scoffed. “The choice is obvious.”

“Well,” you casted a discreet glance towards the male beside you before lowering your voice into a soft murmur, “if I do go, there’d be some very important things that I’d have to leave behind, and I don’t want that.”

“What could possibly be more important than your future?” Shirabu challenged. “Stop being dumb and just accept the offer.”

“Can we stop talking about this?” you asked with a slight frown, no longer have the energy or willingness to continue on with the conversation. You were slowly becoming weary of this topic and everyone’s constant worrying about your future and what was supposedly good for you.

Shirabu only copied your expression before answering you with a monotone response. “Fine.”

As the two of you neared the bus stop, the hostile tension that surrounded both you and Shirabu was uncomfortable and nerve-wracking. You hated it, but you also knew that it was kind of your fault.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” you said as you spotted the approaching bus from down the street.

“Yeah,” Shirabu agreed, letting go of your hand and not meeting your eyes as he spoke.

When the bus finally arrived at your stop, you were about to turn around and wave goodbye to Shirabu, only to stop yourself once you saw that he was already making his way back towards the dorms. You tried not to appear upset as you proceeded to board the bus and scan your card.

No matter what you did, you couldn’t get rid of the uneasy feeling that followed you for the rest of the way home.

“Did something happen between you and Shirabu?” Kawanishi casually asked as he waited for you to purchase your drink from one of the school’s various vending machines.

“What do you mean?” you replied calmly, trying to pretend as if his question didn’t bother you in the slightest.

“Well,” Kawanishi began. “For the whole afternoon, you looked like you were on the verge of crying.”

“Okay, now you’re just exaggerating,” you remarked as you landed a light punch on the former volleyball player’s arm.

“Maybe,” Kawanishi chuckled. “But the two of you didn’t sit next to each other at lunch today, and you guys seem rather distant.”

Taken aback by his superb observation skills, you decided that there was no point in trying to hide the truth from Kawanishi.

“We got into a small fight,” you sighed. “You know how stubborn Kenjirou is. We’ll be fine…”

“Well, if you say so,” Kawanishi conceded, though it was evident from his eyes that he was still a little concerned.

“We’ll be fine,” you repeated, more so trying to convince yourself than your friend.

Yet with each passing day, the distance between you and Shirabu grew farther and farther. Despite your best efforts, conversations were now strained and awkward, and lunch periods were spent with Shirabu constantly avoiding your eyes. It was almost as if the two of you were nothing more than strangers, and this notion absolutely terrified you.

“What’s been up with you lately?” you asked Shirabu one day after school, finally fed up with his behaviour. “You’ve been ignoring me and acting really standoffish.”

Gripping the handle of your school bag, you ignored the sharp, stabbing pain in your heart as Shirabu continued to impassively stare at you.

“Kenjirou, just talk to me,” you pleaded. “I want us to go back to the way we used to be…”

After what felt like an eternity, Shirabu finally responded. “I think we should break up.”

You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion, not fully comprehending his words. “What are you talking-”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Shirabu snapped harshly. “I said we should break up.”

“W-where is this coming from?” you asked in confusion, genuinely hurt and surprised by his demand.

“I’ve been thinking…about university and the future. Even if you do stay in Japan, what then?” Shirabu inquired with a scowl on his face. “We’re not going to the same school, and even if we did, when will we have time for each other? I’ll be too busy studying for med school, and you’ll have your own life and schedule. It’s all bound to fail, so why even bother trying?”

Registering his words, you paused for a moment, trying to fully process Shirabu’s explanation and reasoning.

“Are you kidding me?” you scoffed with a humourless laugh. “Are you serious right now? Do you really have such little faith in our relationship that you’re not even willing to take a chance and make it work?!”

“…I’m not sure if you’re worth risking my future over.”

That was the final nail in the coffin.

“Fine,” you conceded, forcing yourself not to cry. “I know I can’t change your mind after you’ve decided something. You’ve always been stubborn like that.”

Peering into his eyes, you attempted to find some sort of indication that this was just a cruel, twisted joke or something, but all you found was the harsh frigidness that Shirabu Kenjirou was famed for. You thought it was a shame that such beautiful eyes could hold so much disdain and coldness.

“I didn’t want to accept my overseas enrollment offer because I was scared,” you confessed, wanting to at least explain yourself one last time to the male in front of you. “I didn’t want to leave you. I was willing to give up my future because I wanted to stay with you. Ironic, isn’t it? Maybe breaking up was the right decision…I-I guess this is goodbye.”

As you hesitantly turned around and began to walk away, you didn’t notice how the cold, practised facade slowly slipped away from Shirabu’s face, revealing the completely heartbroken expression that he wore underneath. It took everything for him to not break down at that moment.

“I already knew why,” Shirabu murmured with a wry smile. “Now you have nothing holding you back.”

The journey home was nothing more than a blur to you. Rushing upstairs, you threw yourself onto your bed and let out a heart-wrenching sob into your pillow. It took a couple more minutes before the tears finally stopped, and you were left with nothing more than a stuffy nose and broken heart.

As you lifelessly lay in bed, your eyes landed on the envelope that was inconspicuously resting on top of your desk, the very same one that had unintentionally caused you all of this heartache. The more you stared at it, the more it dawned on you. What was holding you back now? The primary reason for your reluctance was no longer a concern, so maybe…

Picking up on the faint sound of a new email notification, you blindly searched around for your phone before quickly giving up.

You didn’t have the energy to deal with any of this right now.

Weeks passed by, and although the pain didn’t lessen, you were definitely getting better. It was difficult at first, especially for your two mutual friends who tried not to pick a side.

Before you knew it, graduation day had soon arrived. You were happy to be moving on with your life, but you also couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness as you stared at the diploma in your hand. You were going to miss Shiratorizawa, along with the memories that you had created there, both good and bad. Time truly was fleeting…

“[Y/N]-san!” Goshiki wailed as he wrapped his arms around your unsuspecting form and pulled you into a tight hug. “I-I’m going to miss you!”

“G-Goshiki, I can’t breathe,” you managed to say.

Realizing his mistake, Goshiki mumbled a quick apology before releasing you from his hold. Kawanishi, who had witnessed the whole exchange, bit back a chuckle and only shook his head in amusement.

“I’m going to miss you too, Goshiki,” you reassured as you ruffled the volleyball player’s inky black hair. “It’s a shame that I won’t get to see my favourite ace play in person anymore, but just know that I’ll always be cheering you on, okay?”

“[Y-Y/N]-san…”

“All right, no more tears,” Kawanishi interjected, delivering a light chop to the back of Goshiki’s head before he turned to address you. “So, you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” you chuckled. “What about you, Kawanishi?”

“All packed up and ready to move to Tokyo,” Kawanishi answered with a confident smile.

“That’s good,” you replied before your expression turned hesitant. “Um, what about him?”

“Well, you know how he is. Shirabu’s been ready since his acceptance letter came in from Todai,” Kawanishi told you with a good-natured roll of his eyes. “Don’t worry about him, [L/N]. Just enjoy your life overseas. Meet some new people or something.”

“About that,” you mumbled. “I never actually accepted their offer.”

“…You didn’t?” Kawanishi asked in bewilderment, with Goshiki also seeming equally perplexed and confused.

“A few days after I got that letter, I was emailed an apprenticeship job offer from an art studio in Tokyo,” you informed the two males with a happy grin on your face. “It’s a lot more practical than moving overseas, and I’ll be getting hands-on experience from people in the industry. I guess I forgot to tell you guys because I was too busy studying for exams.”

“Well, that’s great, [Y/N]-san!” Goshiki cheered as he offered you a congratulatory smile. Meanwhile, a totally shocked Kawanishi continued to stare at you before he slowly realized the severity of the situation.

“Oh shit,” Kawanishi whispered. “This is bad, real bad…”

“Kawanishi?” you questioned, noticing his odd behaviour.

“[L/N], listen,” Kawanishi said as he grabbed onto your shoulders and pinned you down with the most serious look you had ever seen him wear. “He’s going to hate me for this, but the reason Shirabu broke up with you is because…”

As you listened to Kawanishi’s explanation, you honestly couldn’t believe what you were hearing. You had never felt so angry before in your entire life! You had a few choice words to say once you found him, but most importantly, you were going to make sure to get back your absolutely idiotic boyfriend.

You weren’t an athlete, and you had never been made more painfully aware of this fact than right now as you ran across Shiratorizawa’s expansive campus.

“I think we last saw Shirabu near the art department. Good luck, [L/N]!”

Running up the stairs and rounding the corridor that led to the art department, you felt your lungs burn and your knees buckle with every step you took. Sliding the door of the main art room open, your breath hitched as you spotted a familiar figure.

Shirabu quickly turned around, dragging his eyes away from the beautiful ocean landscape painting that was proudly decorating the art room’s wall. You immediately recognized that particular painting. After all, you were the one that painted it. Taking a deep breath, you steeled yourself for the conversation that was about to take place.

“What are you doing here?” Shirabu interrogated, trying to hide the note of surprise in his voice.

“Oh, cut the act,” you snapped as you harshly shut the door behind you and marched into the art room to stand in front of him. “Kawanishi told me everything.”

“He did?! That traitor-”

“Who do you think you are?” you interrupted as you sent Shirabu your meanest glare. “Some kind of shoujo male lead? You can’t play with my emotions like that just because you wanted to do what was ‘best’ for me!”

Shirabu remained silent, choosing instead to stare at the wall in disinterest. He could act all suave and cool if he wanted to, but you were still nowhere near done with your onslaught.

“Did you ever stop to consider how your ‘genius’ plan would make me feel?” you questioned as you felt the tears and emotions from that day resurface once again. “I felt so worthless because you made it clear that I wasn’t worth ‘risking’ your future over. Way to make somebody feel loved, Kenjirou.”

Shirabu flinched as the guilt and shame began to burn away at his icy, impassive mask. “I never wanted to make you feel that way…”

“Yeah, well, you did,” you retorted, brushing away the excess tears that ran down your face. “And in the end, your stupid plan didn’t even work.”

“What do you mean?” Shirabu inquired with a confused frown.

“I accepted an apprenticeship offer in Tokyo. I’m not going anywhere,” you proclaimed with a tearful smile.

Before you could even react, you were pulled into a familiar and loving embrace. Your eyes widened in astonishment as you soon heard the sounds of sniffling and felt the occasional teardrops landing on top of your head.

“Kenjirou?” you asked quietly.

“Going to school overseas, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Shirabu managed to choke out.

“Maybe,” you replied.

“You’re an idiot for not going,” Shirabu continued.

“Perhaps,” you mused, placing a soft kiss against the side of his neck before wrapping your arms around his waist.

“But you’re my idiot,” he tightened his hold around your form, “I’m never letting you go ever again.”

You only smiled in response. “I know.”

Closing your eyes in pure joy, you found happiness in the calm, steady rhythm of Shirabu’s beating heart, along with his gentle words of affirmation.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Here in his arms, you felt at home.

fun fact: the only reason why kawanishi knew the truth was because he had confronted shirabu about the break up after seeing how truly heartbroken you were. however, shirabu made kawanishi promise not to tell you anything

#shirabu kenjirou x reader #shirabu x reader #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu reader insert #haikyuu x reader #shirabu kenjirou #kawanishi taichi #goshiki tsutomu #renns200followersevent

137 notes · View notes

gunshou · 3 years

Text

This is probably a bad idea, but...

So @luna-rainbow has been posting quite a bit about the portrayal of racism in TFATWS and how it's difficult for non-Americans to understand why Sam didn't want the shield and why he didn't just explain his thinking to Bucky. I replied that I wanted to try and tackle that question, so here we go.

BIG DISCLAIMER: I am a white, middle-aged, cis woman living in the northeastern USA, so I am really in no way the proper spokesperson for this topic. I'm not going to put forth my views as truth, but instead try to explain why I think Sam was so ambivalent and why Bucky just didn't get it (and probably still doesn't even if the writers gave him a small epiphany in the penultimate episode).

Everyone knows that the US was built on the bleeding backs of Black slaves. There is no rational way to dispute this disgusting fact, but the white people who have been in power in this country since forever have done such a good job of normalizing and minimizing the ramifications of that fact that many Americans just go through their lives and never, ever, consider it. Schools teach history, but it's often sanitized and presented in a very "Oops, our bad, sorry y'all" manner that makes young students feel like it was Very Very Long Ago and Over Now. I'm a high school teacher (of literature, not history, but they're intertwined) in a school where I know my colleagues in the Hx Dept are teaching racism as a living, breathing, hideously present concept, and I still have kids tell me every day that "America isn't like that now" as if examples of racial bias and systemic oppression aren't all around them.

In my mostly white district, the few Black kids don't speak up in these discussions, and lord, I do not blame them one bit. For one, they are tired. Tired of being oppressed, tired of talking about it, tired of trying to make other people see their lives and their struggles. Second, no one wants to be the Poster Child and have to bear the ignorance and intrusive interest of their peers. I imagine Sam feels similarly, and that's why he just never gets into it with Bucky. Sam is an optimistic and positive-thinking guy, and probably wants to talk about a million other topics before he wants to educate a 106-year-old white dude about the Black American Experience, and that's his damn right, good for him.

Said 106-year-old, by the way, has literally no concept of what being Black in America means. Luna-rainbow likened him to an immigrant in his own country, and there's some merit to that, especially considering the bulk of his conditioning as the Winter Soldier was at the hands of our Cold War enemies who were invested in making Bucky see America as an enemy. But mostly, the problem is that Bucky was asleep or absent from normal life during one of the most racially tumultuous times of our history. Now, the man lived in NYC, one of the most diverse cities in the USA, and seems relatively chill for having grown up in Ye Olden Times. But he likely hasn't studied the Civil Rights Movement, and how the Whites In Charge panic-reacted to the idea of other people having basic human rights with a coordinated and systemic effort to stop that shit in its tracks while appearing to bow to the social zeitgeist. Jim Crow, Confederate statutes, voter oppression, gerrymandering, redlining -- all the things that the United States Government did (and still does) to keep those BIPOC in their proper place and whites in power -- are often big news to modern people, so of course Bucky wouldn't get it.

He wouldn't intrinsically understand that The Shield represents a government that did its GD best to keep Black people poor, ignorant, and powerless while at the same time pretending to advance them and congratulating itself on how well it tied justice into knots and r*ped that blindfolded bitch holding the scales. He wouldn't know that Sam struggles with how to best embody his hope for the country he loves while also acknowledging that his country doesn't really love him all that much. How conflicted he must be as a veteran who fights for freedom while knowing he's not free to be treated with the dignity and respect everyone deserves. That Shield is government property, Sam is told many times, and to take it up means being the face and mouthpiece of a government that does not look, act, or experience life the way he does. A government that doesn't want him to gain power and will do basically anything to keep him down while all the while denying that they're doing any such thing. Captain America may visibly punch out Nazis, but is he punching out Karens? Or racist cops? Or racist teachers? "A complicated legacy," indeed.

So yeah, there's no way Bucky could know why Sam refused the shield and Bucky took it personally, as a rejection of Steve Rogers himself. And maybe to explain that would have forced Bucky to confront that while he is still Steve's Best Sidekick(TM), Steve abandoned him to this crazy future of alien invasions and divisive politics and tiger selfies and Bucky really just cannot deal. So he just gets pissy about it.

And Sam, for his part, was not going to unpack 70 years of American history and racism because that shit is tiring, especially when he's literally living in it right the f now. So he gets rightfully pissy about Bucky's inability to let it go.

And TFATWS writers go traipsing into the sunset congratulating themselves on the buddy cop story they pounded out that has all the buzzwords and the right tone for our post(?)-BLM times without ever once delving as deep into the story as the topic deserves. And people are confused and disappointed and don't really know why. But the truth is that 200+ years of history and oppression are not easily condensed into a 6-hour superhero TV show, and maybe the writers should have given some damn thought to how much they could realistically convey with sophistication and sensitivity instead of trying to have it all. Because we deserved better, not just as fans, but as critical viewers. (On the other hand, hooray for some people having these discussions instead of just saying BuT it'S JuST FiCTioN LiGhTen UP. Because it is never "just fiction," it is a reflection of our lives and has weight as such.)

Thanks for coming to my long-winded TED Talk, please don't send me hate mail. I'm already having a panic attack at having posted this.

#fandom dissertation #marvel meta #tfatws #I'm shaking with nerves at having posted this #at least I'm not high this time #so maybe it's coherent #idk idk

8 notes · View notes

cantgetoutofmyheda · 4 years

Note

Omg can you write a one shot where Lexa is paid by her college peers to write love letters to their gfs/ppl they want to date. So Finn asks her to write for Clarke and it becomes a constant. Until one day clarke goes up to her and says I know its you

OKAY. So this has been sitting in my asks for like a year. There will be a few (but short-ish) parts to this. And before anyone asks, this is not based off of “The Half of It” ... but here ya go.

---

Letters

PART 1

It was Polis Record’s fault. Lexa’s atrocious week was definitely Polis Record’s fault. Had Titus not been a complete asshat of a manager and dicked the schedule around, Lexa certainly wouldn’t be having this predicament. Had Lexa’s hours not have been cut back, she wouldn’t be where she was. Had Lexa not known that her next paycheck would be half of what it normally was, she wouldn’t be writing a fake love letter to the devastatingly beautiful girl in her Astronomy class. Had Finn Collins not offered her cash to do so, she wouldn’t be writing this letter on his behalf, even though she was the one that’s had an earth-shattering crush on the recipient ever since their Freshmen orientation, four long years ago.

Let’s rewind.

“Titus, are you kidding me?” Lexa huffed at the bald-headed man who was scurrying around the break room like a headless chicken. “You did what?”

“Lexa, listen,” he tried to calm her down. “The schedule will be back to normal before you know it. I had to hire her. There wasn’t another way around it.”

She was mad. No. More than mad, “There was. But you just didn’t have the balls to tell your mistress’ best friend that you already had a full roster of people on your fucking schedule.”

“Can you keep it down!” He hissed. “This is temporary. I’m sorry. I couldn’t dock my cousin, okay? The schedule will even itself back out. You’ll be back to selling these shitty, scratched up vinyls in no time. Ride it out for two weeks, it won’t kill you.”

What he didn’t realize was that two weeks of half-pay because of shitty scheduling could actually kill her. He just didn’t realize that. There was the pressure of doing well in school, that was one thing. But there was also the pressure of doing well enough to keep her GPA high enough to keep her partial scholarship. And then the pressure of her shitty part-time job at the local record store to help make early payments to her student loans so she wouldn’t have to worry about crippling herself into debt once she figured out what to do with a fucking degree in Geology.

“Two weeks,” she warned him as she started to storm out. “This better be fixed in two weeks, Titus.”

Spoiler alert: Two weeks had come and gone, and Lexa was still screwed off of her work schedule.

“C’mon,” Finn pleaded at Lexa’s side. He had managed to weasel his way into the vestibule of Lexa’s apartment building. “I took that writing class with you last year. I know you’re good. I just need one letter. Typed. That’s it.”

She was already on the verge of a massive outburst after her conversation with Titus. The dickwad that he was, managed to screw her hours up for another week, even though he promised he wouldn’t, “This is not a good time, Finn. Seriously.”

“$200.” He stood tall in front of her. “$200 in cash right now, and all you need to do is type up a page of words that will have her vaguely interested in the person who wrote it, and that’s it. $200 right now. If you do this, then I’ll never bother you for anything again.” He scratched the back of his neck, “Listen, I just need a good way in. I can take the rest from there, okay?”

$200 was enough to cover a good portion of what she would be missing out on for the week. $200 was enough to get by. $200 was enough to get her mind to start churning.

“$300 and it’s a deal,” she tried to match his height. She straightened her back and broadened her shoulders as far as she could.

He laughed at the request, “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

“You’re the one that needs me,” she reminded me.

He let out a huff and pulled another Benjamin out of his leather wallet and clumped it with the other two. “Fine,” he shook his head as he handed her the wad of cash.

Lexa nodded as she took the money. She buried the pang of guilt she felt into her pocket, alongside the earnings she just made and was ready to make way up the two flights of stairs when she felt Finn grab her arm.

“Hey,” he called out. “Wait a sec. I started a letter already, but didn’t get very far. You can just go off of this,” he handed her a folded piece of paper.

She opened it and read it aloud, “Have you ever felt like you couldn’t breathe? Like the weight of everything you’ve been carrying has amounted to this one moment in your life? Like there’s this burden placed so heavy on your chest that has left your lungs struggling for any ounce of air?”

Finn nodded as the words poured out of Lexa’s mouth. He was more than proud of what he thought was eloquently poetic. Lexa’s look of confusion went missed by him as he crossed his arms over his chest, “Pretty good, right?”

“Finn,” she deadpanned. “It sounds like you just described having the fucking Spanish Flu. I’m not using this. You sound like a serial killer.”

“What?” he yelped. “It’s poetic!”

“It’s a terrifying beginning to what’s supposed to be a love letter,” she deadpanned again. She shook her head as she finally made her way to the flight of stairs, “Give me a few days, I’ll come up with what we need.”

He rolled his eyes, “Fine. But you better make it good.”

She made it good. She made it really fucking good.

Clarke ran her fingertips over the paper as she scanned the words again. She had no idea who had left it for her—she walked into the lecture hall a few minutes early, as she normally did, and saw an envelope pinned to the corkboard with “Clarke” scribbled on it. She looked around, wanted to see if anyone in particular was looking in her direction. It was the usual suspects that always got to class a little bit early. Monty, the one who was always quiet in class but loudest at the neighborhood bar during happy hour. Echo, the girl who always sat in the back row and snoozed as soon as the professor opened her mouth. Finn, the boy who always found a way to have an uncalled for argument with the professor. Lexa, the one who was always in the front row and tended to herself.

Not a single one of them was paying her a piece of mind, so she let her eyes scan the letter one last time before the room filled up.

Clarke,

I was sitting on the lawn behind the library catching up on reading for a class last week. I was skimming through Voltaire’s words:

“Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.”

This particular passage struck a chord with me, and it was mostly because when I looked up after reading it, I immediately saw you consoling who I’d assume to be a friend of yours. I’m not sure what had happened, but she looked like she was crying and you showed up with a blanket to sit on, a bowl of fresh fruit, and sat with her and listened intently while she spoke. It was life imitating art, right before my eyes.

Voltaire’s writing is mostly straight and to the point. It isn’t hard to decipher the messages he often tries to relay, but it was most certainly a breath of fresh air to finish that passage to find a parallel to present day. Your actions on that lawn helped me see things a little clearer.

I suppose I just wanted to thank you for that. SO, thank you for being the catalyst for making something in my brain click.

Before I close this letter off, I do have a question for you. And if you feel so inclined to indulge and answer it, you can drop it back into the envelope where you found this one and pin it back to the board.

Has anything happened to you recently that struck a chord? Something that stood out to you, but you haven’t had a chance to dive deeper into it? I’d like to know.

Enjoy your week, Clarke.

Upon tucking the printed note under her laptop, she took another look around the hall, which was now practically full. She moved her computer to the side and pulled a notepad out of her bag. The professor had started her lecture, but Clarke’s mind wandered from the images pulled up on the projector from the Spritzer space telescope as her pen started to move across the page.

Hello,

I believe you’re at an unfair advantage here. You know my name. You know what I look like. Yet I have absolutely no idea who you are. So if you write back to this, I’m hoping you’ll share some insight on the person behind the pen (or keyboard, in your instance).

I’m happy that the interaction you saw helped bring better insight into what you were working on. Coincidentally, the friend that I was with when you saw me is also reading a Voltaire piece for an assignment. I wonder if you’re in the same class?

She’s taking “Romance Studies” as an elective. I tried to convince her that there was no point harping on what was considered to be “romantic” through archaic literary pieces that are now long gone, and replaced with mediocre-at-best Netflix series about teenage love.

It always seemed that with the way things were going in our lifetime… that all “romance” really was, was when two people swiped right on Tinder.

With that said… I guess I can honestly say that your letter is what struck a chord with me. Especially after freshly coming out of that conversation with my friend.

I don’t want to be presumptuous. But it seems that this gesture of yours, whether it was meant to be platonic, or if it was meant to imply a sense of something more, is making me realize that maybe—just maybe—the practice of sharing words on a page isn’t so archaic after all.

-Clarke

She was happy with the end result of what was hurriedly committed to the page. Clarke quickly tore it from her notebook and tucked the loose piece of paper back into the envelope. She scanned her fellow students to see if anyone was watching her. She slunk further into her seat and wondered if the recipient was there, sitting in that very room. Unfortunately for her, the lecture that was being given on the Nebular Theory kept the attention of every other person in the hall, so she quickly reached for her computer to start typing notes on the theory’s premise of how every planet in the system was formed.

A tedious hour later, her fellow classmates started packing up and rushed towards the exit door. Clarke took her time shutting her computer down and tucking things away into her bag. She was suddenly aware that the person who wrote to her—the person she now wrote to—could be in the room watching her to see if she had a written response back.

She waited a few more minutes, and finally deemed it safe when the last few people in the room seemed to be chatting with one another or finishing up straightening their notes from the lecture. With a big exhale, she pinned the envelope back onto the board and made a swift exit.

Lexa felt a tap to her shoulder, which caused her to look up, “What do you want?”

“I think it worked. She put the envelope back!” the excitement in Finn’s face didn’t go unnoticed.

“Okay,” Lexa lowered her head to finish writing out her notes from the class. “Job’s done.”

“I’m gonna go get it so we can read it and figure out what to do next,” he giddily let out before darting out of Lexa’s peripheral.

She let out a sigh of distaste when he came back half a minute later and pulled a chair close to where she was sitting. “Finn, you said one letter. I did it. This is on you now. And if you don’t mind, I need to finish up here,” she raised her hand, showing she was still trying to get some of her notes done.

“Fine, suit yourself,” he propped his feet onto the table in front of them while he silently read Clarke’s reply. “Hmm, Voltaire?”

The author’s name caught Lexa’s attention. She suddenly looked up to where he was sitting, “What about him?”

“I don’t know. Clarke said something about him. That’s the bad dude from Harry Potter, right?” Finn brought his attention back to the letter. “What did our letter even say? You never even showed me.”

He handed Lexa the notebook page with loopy and wide writing on it. The edges were jagged, as if Clarke did the whole thing in haste.

“What do you want me to do with that?” Lexa eyed the piece of paper.

“Read it and let me know if you think she likes me,” Finn shrugged. “But also, why didn’t you put my number or something on it?”

“Because it’ll probably take more than one letter for her to even be open to the idea of you,” Lexa chided in her reply. She let her eyes quickly scan the girlish handwriting and folded the paper back up. “She’s definitely intrigued.”

Finn finally set his feet on the floor as he leaned forward and rubbed his hands together, “Okay, great! So what do we do now?”

“We,” Lexa pointed her pen between the two of them. “Do nothing. You can write another letter and see if she wants anything to do with you, Finn.”

“C’mon,” he nudged her shoulder. “I’ll pay ya for another one. Another $300. But we need an exit plan for when we move this from letters to texting or something.”

“Her reply literally just said that we’ve opened the idea to her that letters are romantic,” Lexa shook her head. “Your take on that was to immediately turn this to a texting conversation?”

He grabbed the letter from Lexa, “What? Where’d she said that? It doesn’t say that, Lexa.” He scratched his head.

Lexa let out a defeated sigh, “Finn. She literally said something like, ‘maybe the practice of sharing words on a page isn’t so archaic’ or something. Did we not just read the same piece of paper?”

“See, Lexa,” he smiled as he patted her shoulder. “This is why I need you. Just one or two more. Same price per letter. I just need a little more help and then I’ll be outta your hair. Promise.”

She took her palm to her forehead and rubbed her thumb into her temple. One more wouldn’t hurt. Mostly because the $300 definitely wouldn’t hurt.

“Fine,” she finally let out. “One more. Give me her letter back. I’ll have our reply ready for this same class next week.”

“Excellent,” he grinned as he handed the piece of paper over to her. “You’re a lifesaver, Lexa.”

She felt anything but that. But at least it meant she’d be able to get by for the next week or two, while Titus still screwed around with her hours at the record store.

#clexa #clexa au #clexa modern au #clexa prompt #prompt #my fic

131 notes · View notes

lils-writes-stuff · 4 years

Text

Spinning Wheels

Spencer Reid x reader

Best Years Season 2 part three | part two | part one | season one

summary: a local case hits a nerve with the reader

warning: normal criminal minds things, angst, description of shooting, yk fun stuff

A/N: based on season 8 episode 8; *chanting* angry reader, angry reader!

“Penelope,” Y/N sang as she entered the woman’s bat cave. She carried a coffee in each hand, one for her and one for Penelope. “I bring you a present.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet!” Penelope gushed as she grabbed the coffee from her hand. She pulled the lid off to look inside the cup. “This is my favorite, oh my gosh, you know I-”

She looked up at Y/N to see her sheepish smile. She only brought Penelope her favorite, kind of expensive coffee, when she wanted something.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I want!”

“I know that it’s big enough for you to bring me my favorite,” Penelope set the cup down and began typing on her computer.

“Garcia, I’m desperate,” Y/N admitted. She sat on the small open area on Penelope’s desk. “I can’t get anything out of JJ on what Spencer’s been doing up here at seven when we don’t have to be here ‘till nine. So I was hoping you can work some of your Garcia Magic and...”

Penelope stopped her typing, she knew exactly what Spencer had been doing.

Y/N noticed how Penelope stopped typing. “Oh my god, you know!”

“No, I don’t,” she lied. “Okay, well I know kind of what he’s doing, but I can’t tell you.”

Y/N knew she could get somewhere with Penelope, she was terrible at keeping secrets.

“Penelope,” Y/N drug out the name in a pleading tone.

“Uh-ah, my lips are sealed.” She ran her finger across her lips as if she was zipping them.

Y/N gave her a pout and some puppy dog eyes, but Penelope turned away and stuck her nose up in the air. She was determined to not break and ruin Spencer’s plan.

Y/N sighed, if Penelope was going to be this persistent, then she wouldn’t get it all out of her.

“Fine, then can I admit something to you?”

Penelope turned to her, hearing her serious and almost shy tone.

“Of course.”

“I, um, I bought him a ring,” Y/N confessed, wringing her hands together like she normally did when she was nervous.

Penelope gasped and a gigantic smile formed on her face. “You did!?”

“Yeah, I did, here-” she reached for her purse she set on the desk behind them- “I bought it about a week ago.”

She pulled out the grey box and revealed the simple gold band on the inside.

Penelope, extremely excited, grabbed the box with shaking hands. “Oh my gosh, Y/N!”

“Is it weird? I know it’s not normal for a girl to propose-”

“It’s not weird at all, I think it’s a great idea,” Penelope interrupted to clear her doubt. “If he doesn’t do it-”

She stopped and cut herself off, almost revealing the secret she had been trying so hard to keep.

“If he doesn’t accept it, then he’s a total loser,” Penelope stammered as she tried to correct her words.

Y/N laughed at her phrasing, and Penelope laughed too, glad she didn’t think anything of her almost slip up.

“I also got, um, I got our initials engraved on the inside,” Y/N pointed to the small initials on the inside of the band.

“Y/N…” Penelope sighed and took the ring out of her fingers to look at it. “You are so amazing, Spencer will love it.”

Y/N sighed in relief, she needed to hear that. The two kept talking and Penelope was trying to give her some ideas of when to ask him.

“Does anyone else know?” Penelope asked, handing the ring back to Y/N.

“Just my mom and London,” Y/N answered. “London actually helped me pick out the ring, we-”

She stopped herself when her eyes caught the TV.

“Penelope,” Y/N hit the woman’s shoulder to get her to turn around.

“What?”

They both stared at the TV in horror. The headline read “High School Bus Is Taken Hostage”. One cue, Penelope began to get alerts and texts signaling that they have a case.

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

“What we have is a school bus abduction which accrued at approximately 1 P.M. this afternoon. What we know is there twenty-four students on board, along with the driver and a monitor,” Y/N said to the small group of detectives that sat in front of her, JJ, and Spencer.

“The GPS appears to have been disabled, the last known ping was a little over two hours ago,” Spencer added.

“Highway patrol has traced the route it was last traveling but has found no signs of any accidents,” Y/N continued on their knowledge of the situation. “We also have helicopters and ground units in the D.C. area working local search and rescue. Which means we’re likely dealing with more than one unsub.”

“We’ve attempted to contact everyone on board, but so far all calls have gone unanswered,” Spencer said.

“But we can confirm that the students dropped off at the first two stops have been accounted for,” JJ added, shedding some hope on the gloomy situation.

“The average school bus holds approximately eighty gallons of diesel fuel, making it possible for them to travel up to 550 miles on a single tank,” Spencer explained, his hands moving as he spoke each word.

“Which is why we believe they’re still within a 200-mile radius,” Y/N closed as she nodded to the detectives.

“The SUVs are outside and we’ll set up our command post at central high,” Hotch said as he rushed past and to the elevators.

Spencer, Y/N, and JJ all glanced at each other, giving a look all the same. Silently saying, ‘This is gonna be a long day’.

They quickly made it down to the front of the building and into the SUVs.

On the drive to the high school, the sirens were on as they tried to make it there as fast as possible.

“Okay, thanks,” Penelope hung up her phone. “Local P.D. says they just found a backpack full of the kids’ cell phones half a mile from the second bus stop.”

“Disarming the GPS, disposing of cell phones, makes it feel less random and more premeditated,” Y/N said as she looked back at Penelope from her seat upfront.

“There were seven other buses from different schools on their route. Why target this particular bus?” Spencer said as he tried to dive into the minds of the unsub.

“Maybe a group of kids got together to pull this off?” Y/N posed.

“Waited for their friends to get off at an earlier stop, then made their move,” Spencer said as he dove more into Y/N’s theory.

“Okay, I’m checking school disciplinary records to see if I can find any recent suspensions.” Penelope pulled out her tablet and began searching.

“It could be about a specific target and the other kids just got in the way,” Hotch added his own thoughts in.

Y/N pulled her phone out of her pocket as it rang. “Hey, Blake you’re on speaker.”

“Uh, I’ve been looking over the personnel files of the bus driver, Roy Webster, something isn’t adding up,” Blake said over the phone.

“What did you find?” Spencer’s voice spoke up from his backseat spot behind Y/N.

“Over the past three years, Webster had several altercations with students, but was never formally reprimanded,” Blake answered.

“It sounds like the school hasn’t told us the whole story,” Rossi’s voice was heard over the phone.

“We know how disrespectful some teenagers can be, maybe he snapped,” Derek’s voice was heard next as he posed his thoughts.

“It could be payback for years of abuse,” JJ’s voice said next.

“What about the woman who was on the bus?” Spencer asked.

“That would be Carol Roberts, a retired teacher, assigned to monitor Webster’s bus six months ago,” Kevin Lynch’s voice said.

“What’s that about?” Rossi questioned.

“I took a bus all through high school, we never had a monitor,” Kevin said as he didn’t know the formal answer to the question.

“Makes you wonder who she was there to keep an eye on-- the kids or Webster?” Derek posed.

-----------

Y/N had sat through many family interviews before, comforting them after a loved one had been murdered or taken. She had done it plenty of times to know what words to use, how to act depending on the family, she was trained for it.

This though was a whole new level.

Her chest felt heavy as she listened to the mother explain how her son was a good kid and how it was just him and her. She didn’t know why this one particular interview was taking so much out of her. It felt emotionally draining to watch this mother cry over her young son named Billy. Maybe it was because she could relate to it.

After her older brother died and her father left, it was just her and her mom. She was around his age too when it happened.

Walking out of the classroom she had the interview in, she stalked into the closest bathroom she could find. Her hands pressed against the ceramic sink as she leaned on it to keep herself up. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the white surface tightly. She could feel her pulse course through her hands as it picked up. This was not the time to be emotional, so she didn’t let this moment last too long.

She took a couple of deep breaths, looked at herself in the mirror, and walked out of the bathroom.

She had gotten past her brother dying, sure she missed him every day, but her grief had passed. When she thought about him it was wistful and happy, so she didn’t know why this was bothering her.

She tugged at the bottom of her maroon blazer, making sure it was straight after she opened the door of the bathroom. She took two steps out into the hallway, and glanced to the left and then to her right looking to see if anyone saw her walk out. After assessing she was alone, she let out another sigh and walked down the hall to the performance room.

“Y/N,” Derek called as he jogged down the hallway.

“What’s up, Morgan?” She asked as she turned to the man coming down the hall.

“We’ve got an address.”

The SUVs and squad cars turned up the dust as they parked in front of an old barn. The team hopped out of their respected cars, pulling out their guns as S.W.A.T. unloaded in front of them.

The team stood in anticipation as Hotch nodded for the captain to open the door. As the doors swung open, the S.W.A.T. team entered and walked around the school bus that was parked on the inside.

“Bus is all clear!” Derek yelled from the inside of the bus after checking it.

Y/N followed Spencer as the two walked around the rest of the barn to check it, making sure it was clear and there was nothing else there. When they finished, they walked outside and met Blake who had just checked a shed.

The three holstered their guns as they walked over to the head detective on the case who nodded for them.

“Barn was registered to a Violet Burgin, she died a few months back. It's been abandoned ever since.” the Detective said as he approached them.

“Making this a perfect transfer point,” Y/N said as she glanced back at the barn.

Blake was about to say something, but she was stopped when the sound of the bloodhounds barking was heard.

“They found something,” Spencer said and took out his gun. The four of them along with some others in the immediate area ran towards the dogs.

They approached a wooden door that was latched closed. The Detective placed his hand on the latch, waiting for the S.W.A.T. team member to give him his cue. When he nodded, the Detective pulled the latch and pushed the door open quickly.

“Please don’t hurt us,” a young girl said as they were met with the light from the outside.

“It’s okay you guys are safe now,” Spencer said as he began to undo the bindings on their wrists.

Y/N looked up and began counting the kids in the room as quickly as she could, but of course, Spencer beat her to it.

“There’s only fourteen here, we need to find the other ten,” Spencer looked back at Blake and Y/N who were still standing in the door.

Y/N gripped her gun tighter. She let out an agitated sigh and walked away from the room.

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

The students ran to their parents as the doors to the cafeteria opened. Y/N sauntered in behind them, watching as the parents hugged their kids, grateful they were okay.

JJ walked up next to her and sighed as they watched the families.

“Where’s Billy?” The brown hair woman who Y/N had interviewed earlier asked walking up to her. Another student, who’s name was Sean, dad walked up behind her.

Y/N’s mouth opened and closed, for the first time in a long time, she couldn’t phrase the words to tell them that their kids were still missing.

“There’s still a number of students unaccounted for,” JJ answered for Y/N, noticing that she was struggling.

When Billy’s mom gasped, Y/N’s eyes widened and quickly added, “But we’re still looking.”

Sean’s dad walked away but Billy’s mom stayed. “Oh, my god,” she muttered.

Y/N’s lips formed a tight line and she placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder to comfort her.

Once the woman had calmed down, Y/N started to make a beeline for that same bathroom she was in before. On her way there, Spencer stopped her, noticing her disheveled state.

“Hey,” he whispered as he stepped in front of her.

She sighed, she didn’t want him to stop her, she didn’t want anyone to stop her.

When she tried to push past him and continue to the bathroom, Spencer put his hand gently on her arm.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing,” her voice cracked.

“No, it’s not,” he said.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “I was over this, I was over my brother, I thought I was over it.”

“Your brother?” Spencer gave her a confused look. Of course, he knew about her brother, how when he was seventeen he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. How her dad walked out because of the medical bills, how her mom picked up two jobs to help pay for medical bills. How even Y/N, when she was legally allowed to work, picked up a job to help.

“One of the victims, Billy,” she let out a shaky breath. “It’s just him and his mom, and he’s about the age I was when I lost my brother, and it just hit a nerve, I guess.”

Spencer reached to give her a hug, but she pulled away.

“No, I don’t- no,” she held her hands out as if she was putting up a boundary. “I just need a second to be irritated, just give me one second to be angry at the son’s of a bitch’s who decided it was a good idea to take a bunch of teenagers.”

So Spencer did, he watched as she paced side to side in the locker filled hallway. One hand on her forehead and the other on her hip, muttering curse under her breath.

This is the most irritated Spencer had ever seen her in a case, she was so calm and collected usually. Sure, every now and then she got a little emotional, but so did everyone. This though, this wasn't a sad emotion, she was angry. Furious even.

Spencer jumped as the sound of Y/N’s boot hitting an empty trash can echoed through the hall. She stopped pacing, standing in the middle of the hallway now, her face laying on her palms.

“Okay, I’ll take that hug now.” She walked over to Spencer and wrapped her arms around his waist.

His arms wrapped around her shoulder, his cheeks pressed against the top of her head. He turned his lips to kiss the top of her head softly, keeping them there until they pulled apart from their hug.

Another reason she loved Spencer so much, he knew when to give her a second to breathe. Sure he was always there for her when she needed him, and vice versa, but sometimes she just needed to deal with her emotions on her own. And Spencer understood and respected that.

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

“Dividing them into groups-- you think that was to maintain control?” JJ asked as they stared at the pictures of the still missing students on the board.

“Mm, could be, but how do you explain the shock collars?” Blake asked as she remembered the collars that one of the students told her about.

“Torture,” Y/N said in a monotone voice. She stirred the coffee in her cup with a straw aimlessly, still upset about not being to find all the kids.

“Still, there doesn’t seem to be any method to how or why they were chosen,” Spencer added the thing they still hadn’t figured out.

“Okay, so far we have two white males, early twenties, and wore gas masks of all things,” JJ recapped on their findings.

“Abducting a bus, a form of transportation, gas masks, shock collars, dividing people into teams…” Rossi trailed off as he walked up to the board.

“Sounds like ‘Gods of Combat’,” Y/N muttered as she listened to what Rossi was listing, the thought just coming out of her mouth like it was nothing.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Rossi pointed at Y/N.

“Wait, Rossi-” Y/N pushed herself off the desk she was leaning on- “We’re not seriously considering-”

“That this is a video game to them? Yes, I think it is.”

Everyone in the room looked at each other, all of them knowing it made sense and it was probably the most probable with what was going on.

-----------

“These guys are replicating a video game?” Derek asked as he, Rossi, and Blake entered the room.

“In the game, you take over a form of public transportation; subway, train, bus. That’s how you get your players,” Rossi explained.

“Wait a minute,” Blake stopped Rossi. “You’ve played this game before?”

“Well, I may have once or twice,” Rossi admitted. ��But so has Y/N.”

When Rossi pointed an accusing finger at her, she raised her eyebrows in shock. “Rossi, I only played it because the kids I babysat made me, what’s your excuse?”

Everyone shook their heads as they laughed.

“If I remember correctly though, the game consists of five players.” Y/N walked up to a whiteboard and pulled out a marker. “Captain, lieutenant, a pair of soldiers, and the pawn.”

She wrote each of the positions on the board.

“Maybe the unsubs picked them based on their personality type,” JJ said as she looked at the pictures of the students.

“Well, Sage and Trent-” Derek pointed to the two pictures- “are both athletic. So they probably would have been considered lieutenants.”

“Wendy would most likely have been considered the pawn,” Rossi added.

“They preselected these kids.” Y/N crossed her arms as she turned back to face those behind her.

“Probably got details about their lives from social media sites. Most teens don’t use privacy settings, anyone can gain access,” JJ said.

“They planned their attacks and struck the bus when it was the most vulnerable,” Blake nodded.

“That explains why the unsubs only needed ten of these kids and left the rest behind,” Derek added.

“So how do the collars fit into all this?” JJ asked, looking between Y/N and Rossi.

“They’re used to keep your player from straying from their mission,” Rossi replied.

“The object of the game is to destroy as many of your opponents as possible,” Y/N added on to the game.

“The one with the highest body count wins,” Rossi continued.

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

“So these guys just got together and decided to pull this thing off?” The Detective asked as Spencer, Y/N, and he walked down the hall back to the performance room.

“You know, something this elaborate, it’s likely they’ve known each other for years, actually,” Spencer clarified.

As the three continued to walk, Penelope appeared behind them as she walked out of the computer lab with her laptop.

“Hey, I just got off the phone with the people who produce ‘Gods of Combat’--”

“Lovely people I assume,” Y/N joked, trying to keep some light heart in the air. It was mostly for herself though, so she wouldn’t think too much about being upset.

“Uh-huh, it turns out they have six million players worldwide, 40,000 of which are D.C. residents,” Penelope continued.

“Garcia, if they’re capable of this type of violence in real life, do you think we’d see some sort of evidence of it in their gaming history?” Spencer asked, stammering as he tried to find the right terminology.

“What type of evidence?” The Detective asked.

“He’s talking about the universal online gaming code of conduct,” Y/N answered.

“Yeah, prevents stuff like harassing, threatening other players, cyber-bullying, that kind of thing,” Penelope gave some more elaboration on the subject.

“How’s that supposed to help us find these kids?” The detective asked confused as to why it was relevant.

“Instead of looking for people who play the game, we need to look for people who were kicked out,” Hotch answered.

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

Y/N sipped on her fourth coffee of the night. She sat criss-cross applesauce on the table next to Spencer as they waited for Penelope to come up with some findings from the new info Kevin narrowed it down to.

“Okay, a month ago two players were kicked out at the same time for hacking into hell mod,” Penelope said as she continued to type on her computer to find more. “Previous to that, they both logged thousands of hours playing the game, dating back to early 2000.”

“You got any names, Garcia?” Derek asked, back still faced to the three sitting at or on the table.

“No, just online handles, but--” she stopped herself as a ping on her computer sounded- “You know what’s weird? They were both playing from the same IP address.”

“So they live together.” Y/N peered at Penelope’s screen.

“They’re roommates, maybe?” Spencer posed, walking to stand beside Penelope as she typed.

“Or siblings,” Derek argued.

“Oh that’s not good,” Y/N muttered into her cup as she took another sip.

“It doesn’t make sense,” JJ said after those in the room caught her up to speed with their findings. “If they are siblings, how do you explain the gaps in time when they weren’t logged in at the same location?”

“Yeah, it looks like it happened several times a year, sometimes from different states,” Penelope agreed as she looked at the time logs.

“Maybe their parents got divorced.” Spencer looked up to JJ and Y/N who were currently standing next to each other.

“Maybe the parent got divorced,” Penelope repeated and began typing again. The new thought gave her a fire that had burned out after the confusion formed. “Leave it to the genius to come up with the obvious, here we go.”

As her ramble ended, two pictures popped up on the screen.

“Joshua and Matthew Moore. They both went to central high, their parents worked two jobs each to make ends meet, led to a messy divorce. Joshua went to live with his dad in Arizona, Matthew stayed with his mom in D.C.”

“That’s how they knew when to strike,” Y/N pointed her finger. “Probably rode the same bus route.”

“Long hours, different schedules, they were latchkey kids,” Derek added. “Video games became their babysitters.”

“As they got older, they got more competitive and it became more about bragging rights,” Spencer continued the deep dive of the unsubs stressor.

“This game became the core of their sibling rivalry,” JJ continued.

“But it wasn’t just a game,” Y/N corrected. “ ‘Gods of Combat’ was their one constant connection to each other.”

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

“Picked up a ping on the E.L.F.,” Kevin said as he entered the room. “It’s emanating from somewhere in this 25-mile radius, west of Bolivar.”

Kevin circled the area of the map he set down.

“What fits?” Blake asked as she looked down at the map.

“Well, there’s a few old factories and a couple of bunkers from the ‘70s,” Kevin replied.

“What’s this?” Y/N pointed to a building on the map.

“The old paper mill,” Kevin answered.

“You know, given the size and location, that could be the perfect spot.” Spencer used the pencil in his hand to tap the spot on the map as he spoke.

They all looked up at Kevin.

“I’m gonna pull the schematics,” Kevin exited the room to do so.

Soon after Kevin did that, Penelope was able to get in contact with one of the kids, Billy, by hacking the feed. They compared the rooms they could see on Billy’s camera and established it was the paper mill.

Then they were on their way there.

The team walked into the paper mill, mixed in between different members of S.W.A.T..

Y/N crept down the hall with Derek, each of them turning to check a different opening as they saw one. When they heard pounding footsteps, they jerked towards the sound.

“FBI, drop your weapon,” Y/N commanded the person she couldn’t quite make out in the dark, all she could see was the gun.

“I’m Agent Morgan, this is Agent Y/L/N,” Derek said as he tried to calm the boy. “We’re the good guys, now drop the weapon.”

“How do I know this isn't part of the game?” The boy whimpered.

“Kid, you gotta trust me,” Derek said, trying to make the boy back his guard down.

“Are you Billy?” Y/N asked calmly.

At his name, the boy turned to look at her, his gun lowering slightly.

“Yes.”

“Billy, you gotta trust us, you talked to our friend Penelope, remember?” Y/N spoke in a soothing tone.

“Come on, now, I know you’re scared, but don’t do anything stupid,” Derek spoke in a not so soothing tone.

Billy hesitated, still afraid this was a part of the game, but then bent his knees and put the gun on the ground. Y/N sighed in relief and was about to walk towards him, but out of the corner of her eye she saw movement.

Joshua Moore appeared, a large gun held to his side.

“Drop your weapon!” Derek yelled.

When he realized he was cornered, his finger went for the trigger.

In an almost slow motion moment, Y/N aimed her gun and shot before he could do the same thing. The bullet went right through his chest, and the blood began to spread on his white shirt.

Joshua dropped to his knees, then fell to the ground as he let out a breath of pain.

Derek rushed over to check Joshua, but Y/N’s only concern was for the teenage boy whose mom had told her about.

“Hey, Billy, it’s alright.” She grabbed his arm and led him out of the room, not allowing him to look at Joshua’s now dead body. “Your mom has been worried sick about you.”

“You-you saw my mom?” He stuttered as a smile of joy and relief washed over his face.

“Yeah,” and as they walked into the cool night air, his mom called his name.

He broke away from Y/N’s grasp and ran to his mom to give her a hug. And even though the circumstances wouldn’t normally allow it, Y/N smiled. She smiled as she got to watch the boy hug his mom, holding her like his life depended on it.

“I’m sorry, Trent,” a girl behind Y/N whimpered as a body bag rolled past.

For a moment, Y/N forgot where she was and what she had been doing, because she was thinking about the last time she got to hang out with her mom and brother together. The memory used to be painful, but now she looked back on it happily. The last time she saw her older brother smile a real smile. One that didn’t show pain from chemo, one that didn’t show he was dying, one that showed how happy he was to be with them.

-----------

Y/N closed the report from the case on her desk softly, laying her hand on top of it. She let her cheeks bubble out as she filled them with air, then let it out slowly from her lips. The office was quiet, everyone else gone. The team was still there though, finishing up some reports and the political side of the job.

“We saved them,” Spencer reminded her as he walked over, his tall figure towering her sitting one.

“Yeah, I know, it’s not that,” she confessed, but didn’t look up at him, knowing he could read her eyes like the back of his hand. Or the back of anything really, seeing as he had an eidetic memory.

“What is it then?” He asked, leaning against her desk.

“For a split second today, I forgot I was at the scene of a crime,” she finally met his eyes. “I saw Billy reunite with his mom and I forgot where I was...because he reminded me of him.”

“Your brother?”

Y/N nodded.

“Oh, sweets, it’s okay to miss him you know? He was your older brother, and it was a terrible thing that he got sick--”

“Spencer, I know that, I know all that,” she cut him off, her voice soft and not cutting. “It’s just, I don’t know…”

She rubbed her bicep with her hand and averted her gaze. She turned in her swivel chair to the family photos on her desk. In a line three photos sat; one of her and her mom at her college graduation, one of her and the team at a dinner Rossi hosted, and one of her and Spencer, from JJ’s wedding. These photos all showed people who were so important in her life, people she loved...people who were there.

“You feel guilty for not going to visit him,” Spencer said, catching onto her guilt as she stared at the photos.

“I think so,” she murmured looking up at him.

He smiled at her sadly. Reaching down, he grabbed her hand, pulling her out of her seat. “How about we go home, order some food, then tomorrow, you can talk to Hotch about going home to visit your mom?”

“I think I like that idea,” she quivered, a stray tear falling down her face. Man, was she grateful for this man.

She picked up her bag from beside her desk, lacing her fingers with his and walked out of the office with him.

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added!!):

@throughparisallthroughrome @word-scribbless @nintendumbfuck @confused-and-really-hungry @andiebeaword @itsarayofsunshine @baby-i-am-fireproof @abitofeverythinggg @nanocoool @marceline-is-my-spirit-animal @fancyfaucet @im-a-raging-gay @atletino @mo-whore @peterparkersdestiny @bandsandjill @mbowles23-blog @sarcasm-n-insomnia @citrussirus @nerual222 @april-14-blog @reidloversisforever @heavenlyholland @justawildmarebae @sana-li @thesailbells @l0ve-0f-my-life @spencer101reid @spencersdolore @delicateprunecashpony @sader12345678 @dashlilymark @mysticalmagicmoon @onebigfangirlworld @saturn-mp4 @hurricanejjareau @thatweirdo466 @angryknightstatesmantrash @nograciass @danandphilfan6 @la-vie-en-amour1 @squirrellover1967 @reidswords @skyirates @spideyspencer @harrypressman @justine-en @absolutelynotsophie @dr-reid-ismyspiritanimal @mailikestruecrimetoomuch @dadchi-oya @marley1773 @lashtonandmalumsbaby

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid smut #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #Criminal Minds #criminal minds meme #criminal minds imagine #criminal mids fic #derek morgan #derek morgan imagine #Aaron Hotch Hotchner #aaron hotchner #Penelope Garcia #emily prentiss

302 notes · View notes

hieludoboi · 4 years

Text

A List of Things I’d Like to do With You (Pt 4/9)

A/n- hahahahahah this got deleted but I had it saved on my grammarly and prowritingaid accounts so we’re gucci. Just gotta proofread now

A/n- this is just me indulging my Bokuroo fantasies tbh

Links- Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Summary- Cute little carnival/amusement park date

Pairing- Daichi/Fem!Reader

Word Count- 6,000+

Trigger Warnings- Sick reader, terminal illness, vomit, blood, pretty sad, crying

________________________________________________________________

Daichi’s mother sighed as she sat on the park bench, a watchful eye over her three-year-old son. Daichi was running as best as he could through the sand, finding joy in kicking it up as he ran. The park was empty, filled only by Daichi’s occasional giggles and the creaking of the swings gently swaying in the evening breeze.

Daichi wasn’t always the most social of children, being too shy and scared to play with the other children, and his mother desperately hoped that bringing him to the park would help him open up. It was rare that Daichi would want to play with the other children, preferring to observe them instead. But then she had shown up to the park.

A younger woman with a chubby little girl who couldn’t stop laughing or smiling. From the moment she had wobbled into the park, it seemed to grow brighter. Daichi was instantly drawn to her, his eyes following her all over the park while she ran around with different groups of children.

Though, Mrs. Sawamura had to admit that the little girl had quite the character. It seemed like an eternity before Daichi stopped staring and finally walked towards her. The little girl was running around with a group of kids, giggling and laughing while they played tag. Daichi’s mother watched her son, smiling as he slowly started walking towards her, a shy smile on his face.

And then he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide as she ran blindly towards him, head turned to the side to look at her mother with a wide smile. In two seconds they had knocked into each other, falling into a heap of limbs onto the sand. The little girl cried, face scrunched up while one hand covered the bruise on her shin. Mrs. Sawamura ran towards the children, looking up in time to see an apologetic and sweet-faced woman rushing towards the children.

Before either of them could get to the children, Daichi had leaned forward, his forehead bumping against the girls with a soft ‘knock’. Both women stood in shock behind their children, watching as they looked up and giggled, wide grins and closed-eyed smiles as they bumped heads again. In the amount of time it took them to realize what had happened, Daichi had stood, helping up the little girl before she pulled him off to her group of friends.

“Oh. Well, that went better than I thought.” Mrs. Sawamura giggled at the stunned look on the woman’s face.

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

“All together, we have...... around 580 yen.” Daichi sighed, leaning back on his palms. It was cool outside, the spring breeze wafting between the trees and grass while Daichi and Y/n sat on Y/n’s porch. The convenience store wasn’t too far away, and their parents wouldn’t be home for another hour or so. As two fourteen-year-olds, they didn’t have too many options. It was either wait and starve or walk to the convenience store down the street and bicker over what they would share.

“That’s enough for some onigiri and drinks!” Y/n determined, placing her fist in her hand, a grin on her face. Daichi groaned, shaking his head. He was not in the mood for onigiri.

“It’s enough for some meat buns and drinks.” Daichi corrected a satisfied smile on his face. Daichi could practically feel Y/n’s entire face scrunch from beside him.

“Onigiri.” Y/n grumbled, glaring at the side of Daichi’s face. Daichi scowled, turning to look at Y/n, a dark look on his face. Y/n’s eyes widened, her body trembling. Daichi’s ‘serious’ face was scary, but she would not waver.

“Why don’t we just do one meat bun and one onigiri, problem solved,” Daichi suggested. Y/n groaned, dragging her palms down her face.

“We discussed this already! Onigiri is like 100 yen each, which leaves 280 yen for drinks and maybe chips! Meat buns are 200 each, that leaves only 180 for drinks and snacks! Onigiri are cheaper and yummier!“ Y/n argued, huffing when Daichi rolled his eyes.

“You two are ridiculous. Just get one meat bun, one onigiri, and you’ll have enough for drinks.” Y/n and Daichi looked up, momentarily breaking their staring contest to see Suga shaking his head above them.

“Suga, one onigiri will not be enough to pull me through the day!” Y/n explained, an exasperated look on her face. Daichi nodded, agreeing with her for once that day.

“Yeah, one meat bun will not be enough!” Daichi echoed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I think you’ll survive. Besides, your guys’ parents will be home soon to make dinner.” Suga reasoned. Y/n hummed, deep in thought. Daichi narrowed his eyes, seeming to contemplate Suga’s words.

“You may have a point.” Y/n mumbled. Suga smiled, reaching down to help Daichi and Y/n up from the porch.

“Let’s go then, yeah? My friend’s grandma runs the convenience store down the street and said they’re having a special on onigiri, so let’s go!” Suga whined. Y/n giggled, standing up and sticking her tongue out at Daichi.

“Told you Onigiri are more cost-efficient!”

“Those were not your exact words!” Daichi grumbled, standing up to trail behind Suga and Y/n.

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

It was one of those rare Saturday afternoons that Ukai had given them off. With nationals inching closer and closer, their free time seemed to be growing thinner. Practices took up most, if not all of his time. Yet still, he made time to go visit her. With the winter fast approaching, and the snow threatening to fall, Daichi found himself bringing her fresh flowers as often as he could.

Walking into the cemetery no longer had the effect it once did. The smell of chrysanthemums still stung his nose, but his rage was becoming less and less. He had taken Suga’s and Asahi’s advice, keeping her alive through his memories. It was a nice sentiment, and maybe it wasn’t how he wanted to spend his life with her, but it was much better than acting as if nothing had happened. Yet still, he was running out of things to talk about with her, the only things left being her list and her death. And while Daichi was happy to laugh and talk about their air balloon ride and their night under the stars, he was still not ready to remember how she died in his arms, face scrunched in agony, eyes glassed over as she realized her death was inching nearer. He didn’t want to think about the way she screamed, squeezing his hand purple while she begged the doctors to make it stop. Daichi sighed, pinching his temples and shaking his head. Not yet. He still had good things to talk about.

Daichi took in a deep breath, relishing in the way the crisp December air stung his nostrils and chilled his chest. Lately, there had been no one to greet him at her grave, only flowers left by the other boys who would come on their free time, even some things from Bokuto and Kuroo who had been friends with her when her family moved to Tokyo for a few years before coming back, their friendship being rekindled at the training camp.

He had recently become friends with the owners of a small flower shop. They were quite the pair, the old lady being very brash and opinionated, keeping the old man laughing and on his toes. The old man was serious, her exact opposite. He seemed to keep her grounded, stable, and unwavering. In some ways, Daichi could see Y/n in the woman, and himself in the old man, and it made his heart ache. He wondered if they would have led a life like that. Old and wrinkled, yet still full of life, a little shop all their own crawling with grandchildren every Saturday, their children coming in every Monday to help carry heavy vases.

This time, Daichi held a bouquet of yellow tsubakis in his hand. He grunted, settling in the cold and stiff grass, placing the bouquet next to the purple bell flowers that he could only assume one of the boys had brought her.

“Sometimes I feel stupid for coming to talk to you. You’re dead, donezo as you would say... Sometimes I come and see Suga sitting here just talking the day away, telling you about everything and I feel stupid. I just- I don’t know why everyone’s okay with it and I’m not. You’re not suffering or anything anymore, but-” Daichi could feel his jaw clench, his eyes snapping shut to prevent any tears, but they fell. They spilled as if fleeing from a broken damn, dripping down his face onto his pants and shirt. He felt stupid.

It had been so long, and he thought he was getting over it. Just last week he had sat with Asahi and talked to him with a smile on his face. He attended practices and acted as a good captain should. He felt fine, so why was he crying? Why did things suddenly become hard? How come all his progress seemed to get washed away by tsunamis of sorrow?

“Kou, she doesn’t like bell flowers!”

“Tetsu- yes she does! Which one of us did she go to school with, hmm?”

“Ugh, you, but-”

“Exactly! I know her better than you do!”

Daichi looked up, his vision blurred by his tears, his body trembling and weak. Hurriedly, Daichi wiped at his eyes, hoping to wipe away any traces of his pain.

“Huh, Daichi? Are you okay?” Bokuto’s voice was soft, full of worry and sympathy. His eyes were rounded and soft, a small frown tugging at his lips. Daichi nodded, sniffing, and turning to look at the trees behind him. He was fine. It had been months, he had to be fine at this point.

Daichi could hear both captains huff before plopping down beside him, the bottom halves of their faces covered by scarves. Bokuto turned to look at him, his smile hidden behind his scarf but present in his warm eyes. Kuroo offered Daichi a smile, reaching over to place the purple bell flowers beside Daichi’s bouquet.

They sat there in silence for a moment, Bokuto twiddling his thumbs while Kuroo stared off into the distance, eyes focused on nothing in particular. Daichi could hear Bokuto fiddling beside him, humming while he played with his scarf. Who knew encounters outside of the court could be so awkward.

“Hey, uhm, not to be rude, but are you feeling okay?” Bokuto asked, his bottom lip caught between his teeth in worry. Daichi looked up in surprise, his eyes locking with Bokuto’s.

“Uh, yeah. I’m pretty okay, I guess. It’s just hard...” Daichi mumbled, his hand holding onto the back of his neck, cheeks dusted over with a soft blush.

“Well, at least two of us are doing okay. Bokuto seems to bawl his eyes out every other day just by thinking about her. You’d think they were soul mates with the way he cries.” Kuroo scoffed, leaning back on his palms, gazing at the clouds in the cold and gray sky.

“We weren’t! We were just good friends, and it hurts to lose someone you cared about! I may not have been as close to her as Daichi, but she was still my friend and I miss her. A lot, okay!? And at least I process my feelings instead of being a jerk like you!” Bokuto retorted, tears pooling in his eyes, his hand reaching up to pull down his scarf so he could yell at Kuroo. “Maybe if you had an Akaashi, you would know how to process your emotions in a healthy way!” Bokuto added, turning his entire body, his lips in a pout while he sniffled. Daichi’s eyes widened as he looked between both males. What happened?

Kuroo’s eyes seemed to soften, a soft sigh escaping his lips. Daichi chuckled when Kuroo gave him an apologetic smile before crawling towards Bokuto to sit next to him, his arms wrapping around Bokuto.

“Kou, I’m sorry, bro. I know it’s hard, and you’re doing a great job. I’m proud of you, bro, so forgive me?” Bokuto wrapped his arms around Kuroo, nodding his head before pulling away to wipe his tears away.

Daichi couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face and the laugh that left his lips. Their bickering reminded him of the way Y/n used to pick fights with him when she was bored. It made his chest fizzle with warmth, his cheeks feeling warm and pink with joy. He understood why she adored those two as much as she did.

“What’s so funny?” Bokuto huffed, his mitten clad hands still wiping at his eyes. Daichi shook his head, the grin still on his face.

“It just reminds me of the way Y/n and I used to argue.” Daichi chuckled, staring at the silver bracelet on his wrist with fondness.

“Tetsu! What if we’re soulmates!” Bokuto gasped, his hands gripping Kuroo’s shoulders, shaking him. Kuroo groaned, but couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.

“You’re my world, bro!” Kuroo declared, laughing at Bokuto’s antics. Daichi felt his smile drop a bit. They thought Y/n was his soulmate? Was she? Daichi stared at the flowers, deep in thought. Perhaps they were soulmates.

“Oh! That reminds me! Y/n promised to tell me about the carnival! But, you know...” Bokuto mumbled, his eyes focused on his crossed knees. Daichi looked up, his eyes seeming to twinkle a bit at the mention of the memory.

“Oh! Yeah, for sure, She got a spike to the face that day...” Daichi admitted, a bashful smile on his face.

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

Garbage. That’s the only way she could describe the way she felt. Her face clung onto a sickly pale and yellow undertone. The meat that used to reside on her bones had become a snack for the reaper that loomed above her head. Her eyes were like grainy and murky pearls resting in the deep and hollow pits of clamshells, and her cheekbones spiked through her skin like mountain peaks. Okay, so maybe she didn’t look that horrendous. In reality, she had shed maybe ten pounds? But she felt disgusting, her body wasting away into nothing. At her doctor’s appointments, she was told that she was surprisingly healthy, told she was fine, and maybe it was because they weren’t living with death that they didn’t see what she saw.

Yet, even with the constant threat of death, she found something to keep her happy. At the moment, it was her relationship with Daichi. As promised, they tried. It wasn’t all kissing and cuddles; it wasn’t just romantic, but Y/n liked it. She liked the warmth that spread across her body whenever Daichi held her hand. She lived for the way he gazed at her. She adored the massages to her scalp, the kisses to her knuckles as they laid in his bed. The study dates, each celebratory hug after each game that was won, the little bits of intimacy that suddenly were sprinkled all throughout their interactions. It was subtle, nothing to hoot and holler about, but it made her happy.

As per Daichi’s request, the events on her list were now planned, having a time and date. Though she lived for the spontaneous moments in life, she also liked knowing when things were happening. Even a person as chaotic as she could enjoy stability from time to time.

Y/n hummed to herself as she rolled in the five-gallon cooler filled with water. Kiyoko trailed behind her, checking things off of her clipboard and occasionally shooting Y/n a question or two.

“Y/n-San!” Y/n looked up in time to see Noya and Tanaka running at her, hands outstretched to try to catch the volleyball that Asahi had accidentally sent flying her way. She couldn’t move, her feet practically glued to the ground. Before she knew it she was stumbling and tripping over her feet, her body falling onto the hard gym floor. Y/n groaned, holding the side of her head, her vision out of focus and her temples throbbing. Everything was spinning, and the familiar burn at the base of her throat began to bubble. Before Daichi or anyone could react, Kiyoko quickly helped her up, rushing Y/n to the bathroom.

Y/n cried as she hunched over the toilet, Kiyoko rubbing her back to comfort her. It hurt, it hurt so bad, and all Y/n could do was sob and heave as the sick and blood flew from her lips. She hated that Kiyoko had to see it, hated that someone knew. No one was supposed to know.

“Y/n...” Y/n looked up at Kiyoko to see her hand covering her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. “W-we need to call an ambulance, or-or take you to the doctor-” Kiyoko stuttered, her hand shaking as she reached for her phone.

“No! N-” Y/n heaved, gagging and wincing as nothing came up. “Please, no. I’m okay. I-” Y/n shuttered as she wiped the blood from her lips, looking down at the back of her hand to stare at the blood. “Sit.�� Y/n patted the floor next to her. The bathroom floor was filthy, but she couldn’t find the strength she needed to stand. She still felt so light-headed, her vision going in and out of focus. Kiyoko nodded, sitting down beside Y/n, her hand still gripping her cell phone.

“Please. Don’t tell anyone, I- I don’t want anyone to get upset.” Y/n stuttered, wincing as she hiccuped, the taste of sick and metallic blood coating her mouth and tongue. Kiyoko stared at Y/n, her eyes soft and sad. Though her hand was still trembling, she reached out, gently taking Y/n’s hand into her own.

“I have terminal stomach cancer.” Y/n whispered, her hand gripping onto Kiyoko’s with a vice-like grip. It was the first time she had admitted to anybody that she was sick. It was the first time she had acknowledged she was sick. Y/n looked away, covering her mouth with her free hand to muffle the soft sobs that spilled from her lips. She was sick. Dying, she was dying and there was nothing that could cure or save her. No amount of treatment in the world could kill the cancer that was already spreading through her body, tearing it apart like a rabid and hungry animal. She was dying.

Y/n shook her head, her body trembling violently, the sobs spilling from her lips growing in volume. Oh god, she was sick. Kiyoko sniffled, pulling her into a hug on the filthy bathroom floor, holding her tightly against her body as she sobbed into her shoulder. Y/n was heaving, crying and practically screaming into Kiyoko’s shoulder, the hurt reverberating through her chest, filling the bathroom with a solemn haze. Soon, there was nothing left of her voice, her mouth meekly hanging open in a silent scream, her erratic breathing rocking her body to the core.

It’s not like Kiyoko hadn’t seen it. In fact, most of the other boys had probably seen it too. Her eyes, though still bright, were now dull. Her body seemed to be subtly wasting away, the fullness of her face subduing. She wasn’t gaunt; she wasn’t terrible, but anyone who knew her well enough could notice it.

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

Daichi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose while Asahi, Noya, and Suga bickered in the background. Noya had been teasing Asahi for the past fifteen minutes about how his spike knocked Y/n to the ground. Suga had kept telling Noya to leave Asahi, but Noya was relentless in his attacks, leaving poor Asahi sulking and damn near close to tears.

“Short stack! Leave Man Bun alone or you’ll be running laps!” Ukai screamed, his eyebrows furrowed with anger. Daichi laughed, shaking his head as Noya instantly stopped, practically trudging back to the court to work on his receives. While they were poking fun at Asahi, Daichi couldn’t help but wonder how Y/n was doing. She had taken a spike to the face, and was struggling to get up, her face going pale while she stumbled over her feet.

Speak of the devil, Daichi thought to himself, breathing a sigh of relief as Y/n walked back into the gym, Kiyoko right by her side. Daichi stared at her as she walked by, his eyes raking over every detail of her face. She seemed a bit dizzy, her eyes glassed over and her skin a little ashen, but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. He hummed to himself, his eyes focusing on the redness of her eyes and the swelling of her cheeks. Had she been crying? Daichi turned around, eyes meeting Ukai's, silently asking for permission. Ukai gave him a curt nod and Daichi silently thanked him before jogging towards Y/n who was sat next to Kiyoko on the stage.

"You okay?" Daichi asked, taking her hands in his, his thumbs brushing lightly over her knuckles. Y/n sniffled, leaning forward and letting herself be caught against Daichi's chest. Daichi grunted, chuckling as she buried her face into his chest.

"Did it hurt that much?" Daichi teased, bringing a hand up to gently massage the back of her head. Y/n huffed, pulling back to butt her head against Daichi's.

"Jerk. If you caught one of Asahi's spikes with your face you'd be crying too!" Y/n retorted, sharply turning her head so Daichi could only see her cheek.

"Wow. So that's how it is!" Daichi huffed, leaning forward to nudge his nose against her cheek. He laughed as Y/n gasped, eyes going wide with embarrassment. He loved seeing her get all flustered. She obviously wasn't doing too bad, but Daichi still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

"It is! Now hurry so we can go on another escapade! You take way too much time in the shower to be idling by!" Y/n said, pushing Daichi away from in between her legs so he could join the others.

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

"Okay, can you tell me where we're going?" Daichi asked, leaning slightly to the left to lean his head against Y/n's shoulder as she drove. Y/n huffed, shrugging his head off of her shoulder before pulling into a relatively empty parking lot. "Is this- are we at an amusement park?" Daichi stared at Y/n with disbelief. An amusement park?

"Yes, sir!" Y/n chirped happily, unbuckling her seatbelt to practically jump out of the car. Daichi sighed, dragging himself out of the car. It's not that didn't want to be there, but the smell of hotdogs and grease, fried foods, and the occasional pile of vomit were not the least bit appealing to him. But the smile on her face was all he needed to look at to go along with her plan.

She called them escapades, little adventures they took based on her bucket list. She always seemed to be teeming with glee whenever they completed one. Her eyes regained their usual glint, her smile was no longer restrained, and the color even began to seep back into her skin. It was the only reason Daichi let himself be dragged along.

"So... Games or rides?" Y/n questioned, taking his hand in hers as they walked into the park. Daichi hummed, looking around the park and contemplating his options.

"Games first. I wanna be corny and win you a huge stuffed animal." Daichi said, nodding his head with determination and placing his fist on his palm. Y/n laughed, shaking her head in amusement. She was relaxed, leaning into Daichi's side and playing with his hand as they looked for their first game.

"Bet you I can win you a stuffed animal before you can!" Y/n teased, pulling away from Daichi, a sly grin on her face. Daichi tutted, staring at her in surprise. Her competitive streak hadn't shown itself in a while.

"Oh? How much do you wanna bet?" Daichi questioned, leaning close to her face, a smirk on his face.

"If you lose, which you will, we go get onigiri!" Y/n grinned, leaning forward, almost closing the gap between them.

"Fine. If I win, which I definitely will, we go get meat buns." Daichi declared, closing the gap between them to capture her lips in a playful kiss. Y/n pulled away, casting her gaze off to the side while her fingers played with the bottom of her shirt. As flustered as she was, she would not lose!

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

It took a while before they finally settled on ring tossing. It took a lot of bickering and convincing, but there they were, glaring at each other as they practically ripped the rings out of the poor worker's hands.

"I'm gonna beat you, Sawamura." Y/n threatened, her gaze still locked onto Daichi's.

"That's rich coming from you, L/n." Daichi's voice was cold with a playful lilt, the same smirk still plastered onto his face. Y/n tutted, breaking the staring contest to instead focus on the game. Not because Daichi's smirk made her flustered, totally not because of that, not at all...

Daichi laughed, practically throwing his head back at the scowl that adorned Y/n's face. Y/n could feel her face scrunch, but she paid no attention to Daichi or his antics. She took a breath before throwing her first ring, groaning as it clung to the rim of the bottle before slipping off.

"What'd you say, L/n?" She could hear the stupid smirk in his voice. God, she wanted to punch him in his stupidly handsome face sometimes. Daichi gave her a smug look, tossing one of his rings and waiting for it to land. Only it didn't, not even close. It flew short, falling before it could reach it. Y/n could feel the laughter burst from her chest like water flowing from a broken dam.

"Dude! Oh my god! You should see the look on your face right now!" Y/n was cackling, doubling over and holding onto her sides, wheezing while tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. Daichi was hunched over, eyes locked on the fallen ring on the dirt floor. He? Missed? Daichi watched as Y/n stood back up, her cheeks glistening with tears of laughter. He had four rings left, he still had a good shot of getting all three bottles.

"Doesn't count," Daichi grumbled, scowling when Y/n continued to tease him.

"Daichi! Watch this!" Y/n called, easily tossing a ring onto the rim of the bottle. Daichi stood straight, eyes locked onto the rims. He was going to win. He wasn't the most pride obsessed person on the planet, but he'd be damned if their dinner wasn't some tasty, big, and juicy meat buns. Y/n straightened after leaning over to throw her third ring, visibly deflating when it missed. She had two more rings, and only two bottles left. Daichi still had a chance.

Daichi cleared his throat, standing tall when Y/n turned to look at him with confused eyes. He made sure to make a grand display, picking up the ring with exaggerated gesture and leaning over with his butt sticking out before daintily throwing the ring, watching with a smile as it spun around the rim before falling in place around the neck. Y/n groaned, turning away instead to focus on her bottles. She was a prideful person, and losing a bet she made did not sit well with her at all.

"And we have a winner!" Y/n looked up in surprise, mouth hanging open as Daichi smugly stood with his hands on his hips.

"Take your pick, Y/n." Daichi's smile was wide, spreading across his face and leaking into his eyes and the red tips of his ears. Though her pride had been badly bruised by the loss, she couldn't help but feel giddy as she pointed to the massive frog that sat atop the rest of the plushies. Daichi thanked the man running the stall as he gave him the frog, turning to place the stuffed frog in Y/n's open and waiting arms.

"Thank you." Y/n murmured, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to Daichi's cheek. She could feel the warmth rush into his face the moment she pulled away, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"It was nothing,” Daichi admitted, rubbing the back of his neck while he looked around the rest of the park.

"More games? Or do you wanna go on rides?" Y/n asked, her chin resting on the top of her frog plush. Daichi tapped his chin in thought. They had many options here. They could waste their money on more games and probably not win prizes because let's face it, these games are rigged. They could use their bracelets to their advantage and ride every ride they had to offer, which probably wasn't a good idea as both of them had really bad motion sickness. Or they could gorge on all the greasy and fried foods until they were stuffed sick.

Daichi loved food, adored it, but he knew he wouldn't be ab;e to enjoy the soggy grease smothered fried food on sticks without Ukai yelling at him. The games, though fun, would only cause an argument. For as much as he loved her, sometimes he just wanted to shove her into a pit. Daichi was a bit of a sore loser, and Y/n an even bigger one. Some rides weren't too bad, not all of them were roller coasters that would make them throw everything back up.

"What if we ride the carousel?" Daichi suggested, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side.

"We'd look like idiots." Y/n deadpanned, looking up at Daichi with a serious expression. Daichi rolled his eyes, sighing through his nose.

"Since when have you cared about looking like an idiot?" Daichi shot back. Y/n scoffed, turning her nose upwards.

"Excuse you, but I am a very dignified person!" Y/n retorted. She watched as Daichi laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners, his head tilting back. Did he really think of her that way? She knew he was joking, but she couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek with worry. Did he think she was an idiot?

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

Y/n laughed wholeheartedly as she hoisted herself onto the metal horse, watching as Daichi situated himself on the horse next to her, sitting straight and tall, mimicking some fake posh pose.

"Madam," Daichi said seriously, pretending to tip his 'hat'. Y/n stifled her laughter, trying her best to curtsy on the horse.

"Good sir," Y/n replied, the grin creeping back up onto her face.

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

Daichi hummed to himself happily as Y/n pulled him around the park, going from game to ride to food to game. She was buzzing with energy, pretty e/c eyes glimmering in the red, blue, green, and orange light of the park. At this point, they had gone on almost every ride, save for the rollercoasters. The only ride left was the Ferris wheel.

"C'mon!" Y/n tugged at Daichi's hand, pulling him closer to the giant and lit up wheel. They were some of the last people left at the park, and the lines for everything were now a lot shorter. In a matter of minutes, Daichi was sat next to Y/n, the giant frog on the ground next to the operator. Y/n looked up at Daichi, a grin on her face as she leaned into his side.

She felt happy, warm, and safe. She felt it all the time, bubbling in her chest and fluttering in her stomach like butterflies. But she was tired, drained, and depleted. It took everything in her to not fall asleep on Daichi; it took all her energy to smile and giggle. She felt joy; she felt as if she were basking in a clear pool of nostalgia and warmth, but the irritation seemed to find a way into the pool to taint it. She felt nice, so why did she want to scream? Why did she want to cry and curse the world and everyone in it?

You're so stupid, you're going to die, idiot, Y/n thought to herself, sinking further into Daichi's side, her gaze focused on the moon that began to rise. Was it really that late? The ride came to a halt, the carriage that Y/n and Daichi sat in stopping at the very top. Y/n looked over the side, gasping as she surveyed the park, eyes skimming over various stands and lights.

Pretty. It was one of the few ways Daichi could describe the sight. The various colors of lights that bathed the park in shades on blue, green, red, and orange shone like a soft glow off of Y/n's s/c skin, reflecting on her cheeks like little ponds of light. Her eyes were open and round, mouth slightly agape. Pretty.

Y/n turned to look at Daichi, a wonder-filled grin on her face. Daichi smiled, his eyes tender. He leaned forward, one hand cupping her face, his thumb gently stroking the skin beneath it. Y/n relaxed under the touch, leaning into it. They stayed like that for a moment, Daichi stroking her cheek while she sat relaxed and still with closed eyes. And then Daichi was leaning in, pressing a warm and slow kiss to her lips. Y/n could feel the fire prickle underneath her skin, crawling to the tips of her toes and fingers. She could feel a buzz prance on her face, she could hear her blood rushing and heart beating. Daichi's hand dropped to her neck, giving it the lightest squeeze, his palms feeling like silk draped against her neck.

Y/n pulled away, pupils blown and lips parted. She could feel Daichi's eyes studying her entire face, taking in every dip and angle, memorizing every beauty mark like they were constellations in the sky. Before she could steady her breathing, Daichi was dipping his head, pressing his lips to hers once again, gently nipping at her bottom lip before pulling away.

"Is this okay?" Daichi whispered, his eyes closed, lips closer to her jaw now than they were before. Y/n gulped, her gaze flitting down to Daichi before nodding. Daichi stayed still for a minute, relishing in the heat of her skin. Then before he could think, he was peppering kisses along her jaw, gently working his way down to her neck. Y/n gasped, body jolting when Daichi's lips brushed against her neck. Daichi chuckled, brushing the area with the tip of his nose, a smile sneaking onto his lips when he heard a giggle slip past Y/n's lips.

Tenderly, he pressed a kiss to her neck. Nothing more, nothing less. He stayed still, the silent question hanging in the air. May I? He could feel the way her breaths became just the slightest bit sporadic, he could feel every jolt, hear every gasp and giggle. Could he? And then Y/n was holding his hand, giving it a soft squeeze. Daichi pressed one more kiss to the area before giving it a swift nip, quickly pressing his lips to it to soothe the soft nip of pain. Y/n giggled at the sensation, her laughter quickly being drowned by soft gasps as Daichi began to bruise the skin with his lips and teeth. Daichi pulled back, pressing one final kiss to the patch of skin before lifting his head to give Y/n a soft smile.

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

Daichi had been scrolling through his phone, waiting for Y/n in the truck while she made a quick trip into the convenience store to pick up the meat buns they had bet on. She had insisted on going into the convenience store with her giant plushie, stating that it was because she was in love with it, and not because she wanted to show a friend of hers who just so worked there. It had been well over fifteen minutes before Y/n stepped into the car again, a sour look on her face and the bag with the meat buns in her hand. Daichi didn't even have to ask her what was wrong. As soon as she sat down she was going off about some lady in the store.

"She called me childish! Said I was probably irresponsible and then lectured me! Stupid lady, ruining my night." Y/n grumbled, giving Daichi his meat buns and leaving hers in the bag so she could drive. "You don't think I'm childish and irresponsible, right?" Y/n asked, her eyes focused on the road. Daichi stilled, his face shoved into the savory pork bun. He did not want to answer that. "Daichi?" As much as he loved her, even Daichi could admit she was a bit of a handful sometimes. She managed to get in trouble wherever she went, and there wasn't a day that went by where Daichi wasn't dragging her out of that mess. But Daichi adored it. Even if it meant getting in trouble with the neighbors and his parents. She was his constant reminder that life was meant to be lived.

"I think you can be all those things and more, but it's charming," Daichi responded truthfully, chuckling when Y/n perked up in her seat.

"Thanks, Dai," Y/n murmured, keeping her eyes on the road as to not make eye contact with Daichi.

"Meat bun?" Daichi offered, pulling one of the buns from the plastic bag, unwrapping it, and holding it to her lips.

"I prefer onigiri." Y/n teased, leaning forward to take a quick bite from the bun.

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

Bokuto leaned back on his palms, a soft smile on his face. Daichi sighed, his eyes focused on the hem of his coat. He wondered, what happened to her frog?

"It's comforting to know she was happy those last few months," Kuroo admitted, his hands on his knees. Daichi looked up to see Bokuto and Kuroo gazing out at the sky, eyes focusing on the different clouds that billowed across the cold, grey skies.

"It is, huh..." Daichi agreed, allowing himself to relax and smile. It was nice to think she had been happy. At least for a little bit.

#daichi #sawamura daichi #daichi sawamura #daichi x reader #daichi x y/n #sawamura daichi x reader #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu angst #haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu bokuto #haikyuu daichi

50 notes · View notes

being-worthy · 4 years

Text

Saturday Home Cinema: Mulan (2020) - A very honest review!

I just had to write this review because Mulan is one of my heroes and I’m a huge fan of the original Disney Mulan (1998). I saw the movie for the first time as a kid when I had trouble feeling integrated and was daily bullied at school. I re-watched it again and again and again until I was able to learn by heart the script and all the songs in German (and later on, even in English). I just saw so much of myself in Mulan (maybe except for the fact that I’m not as beautiful or witty as she is). I too always felt out of place and I couldn’t be my true self and I was never very ladylike either. I also looked up at her and saw her as a role model. Sometimes I thought that if I stared long enough at my reflection in the mirror, it’d show me my true self - and I’m still waiting to this day… Disney’s 1998 version of Mulan was and still is my favourite Disney movie.

> SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!! <

The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, especially at the end. Christina Aguilera was the right choice to sing Reflection and Loyal Brave True. The goosebumps her voice gives, I can’t even describe how extraordinary her voice is. In the end credits, you can listen to the English version of Reflection as well as the Chinese version (sadly sung by Liu Yifei ¬¬). It’s worth to watch the end credits and listen to the songs.

*My suggestion: Stop whatever you’re doing. Put on some headphones (even better if they’re noise-cancelling), close your eyes, play the song Reflection song (and Loyal Brave True if you feel like it) by Christina Aguilera, no distractions no interruptions, forget about everything and everyone, let the song flow through your ears, mind, heart, body, and soul, and you will feel like you’re Mulan, especially when the drumming gets louder, it’s epically epic! (Sorry for the redundancy but it IS a remarkable song!)

I welcome the idea of wanting to take a classic and do something new, something fresh with it but humanity could’ve gone without this movie and they shouldn’t ask for $35 to watch it on Disney+ and sometimes a classical doesn’t need to be redone. Additionally, I can’t entirely understand what’s going on these past years not only with Disney but Hollywood and all other big movie production companies. It’s either remake of this classic or a 2nd/3rd sequel of a movie that doesn’t actually require a sequel but it’s still done anyway. Why even bother wasting big amounts of money to create a disaster? You’re better of donating that money to charity (or to me lol). The main thing that Disney has been doing lately are remakes of many of our childhood movies Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, among others, and now Mulan. Some have a few good parts in them but they still can’t and never will compare to the original. Why is there no originality and innovation anymore? Have they run out of ideas? Furthermore, let’s be honest people will always compare the remake (either consciously or unconsciously) with the original because there are less than a dozen movies where the remake either was (almost) as good as the original much less better than the original. The movie Mulan (2020) had a massive budget and is the most expensive film made by a female director (Niki Caro), yet how they made it, the battle sequences and CGI effects, etc. they’re all crappy.

Budgets of all Mulan interpretations:

Mulan (1998) - $90 million > Directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. Made $304.3 million in the box office

Hua Mulan (2009) - $12 million > Directed by Jingle Ma. Sadly, made only $1.8 million in the box office. It deserved more love!

Mulan (2020) - $200 million(!!) > All that budget was a waste!

I’ve seen all three versions. The 1998 version is for everybody and it’s funny and you feel with the characters and the film. Let’s be honest, the granny is one of the best characters, most of us have or had a granny like that in our lives. The 2nd one is a 2-hour long movie, a more mature adaption which illustrates the ugly harsh truth about war and the loss and death it brings with it and that there’s nothing funny or cool about it. This one is not suitable for children. You feel with the characters and their sacrifices and they also develop along the movie. I can only recommend to watch this version if you haven’t. And the latest one is a disgrace.

I’m a bit confused as to what the message of the movie is. On one hand, it tells you shouldn’t hide your inner beauty, you shouldn’t hide who you are, you shouldn’t hide your abilities, you shouldn’t try to hide who you truly are in order to conform to what the world/society wants you to be or who you should be, let your true self shine and be yourself and don’t allow anyone to tell you that you’re inferior just because they think/say you are. This is something powerful and admirable but, on the other hand, at the same time, it tells you that you can only do that if you are the chosen one. Let me explain... In the beginning, we see Mulan as a little girl chasing a chicken up to the roofs of the houses at the village where she lives. Basically, she’s born as a one-woman army (almost deus ex machina) and doesn’t require any further training which is total and utter rubbish. She has all the skills because of her powerful chi (vital life force energy) but has to underplay them because it’s not very ladylike to behave like she wants to and she still underplays them when she trains with the soldiers so as to keep a low profile. Her being so powerful from the beginning makes me feel alienated from her and I can’t empathise with her. It’s also not very realistic, nobody is born with their abilities fully developed. For example, even Bruce Lee had to train hard to get where he got and he wasn’t the only one.

The original version shows us a regular girl, at times clumsy (which is a cliché but we still liked it) and when she’s confronted with new situations, she analyses them and finds a quick canny solution to them. She also has to train her body and mind to get to the peak of her potential and accomplish what nobody else could in her time, and here the character is done from the start of the movie and the only thing she has to do is choose not to hide her chi anymore. This tells us that you don’t have to work hard to achieve your dreams whereas in reality you actually do have to work your butt off!

I’m not a fan of the leading actress they chose for Mulan, aka Liu Yifei, not only because she’s a police brutality supporter according to her controversial tweets a while back - this already makes her unworthy to portray Mulan who is the complete opposite - but also because she didn’t do a good job at depicting this great role. Mulan is a role model for every girl and woman and it’s a massive contradiction if a woman who agrees to the atrocious police methods impersonates her role. What message do we send out to every girl out in the world? In her acting she’s this blank and hollow person through the movie and transmits no emotion whatsoever - not even when she cries. This also makes it difficult for me to identify myself with her. She’s this wooden plank, she is and stays a blank canvas through the whole movie with no growth in her character and it’s frustrating having to see this because the character of Mulan isn’t at all like this. Mulan experiences many emotions from the moment where she makes the decision to enlist so her father doesn’t have to or when she experiences the loss of her comrades or has to kill someone for the first time, etc. she suffers along her journey and all this changes her but you see nothing of it in Liu Yifei’s Mulan.

In the Disney version, there are some crucial moments that are missing in the new one. For instance, the most crucial one is the moment where Mulan decides to go to war. If you remember the animation one, she’s sitting in the rain by the dragon statue and at that moment makes a decision that could kill her or worse bring dishonour to herself and her entire family (including ancestors) which was far worse than death during that time! She gets up, marches to the altar of her ancestors, takes her father’s sword and cuts her hair (I know men had long hair back then too but still), puts on the armour and goes to war. All this while being accompanied by an epic song written by Jerry Goldsmith called Haircut. This is one of the most intense and dramatic moments in the movie and in all Disney movies! You can understand and feel the importance of this decision for the character and you feel the weight of it! In the 2020 one, she takes the sword and the next shot presents her already with the armour on - there’s zero dramatic impact here. That was a great missed opportunity!! By omitting important scenes and their dramatic impacts like this one that are essential to the story and to the characters, to their development and their journey throughout the story and you really need to rely on the original from 1998 to have this context.

The battle scenes are like many modern movies: lots of action, lots of moving (too fast-moving), a few amazing fighting moves and fights but not showed entirely. I at least expected some similar quality, like we’ve seen in films such as Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Tiger & Dragon (2020) to name a few. Sadly, these movies had better fight scenes quality than Mulan which were filmed in high frame rate but over-edited with action that is negatively frenetic and have artificial CGI effects (even the CGI effects in Independence Day were better - I’m watching the movie while writing this). We’re in the 21st century with great advances in technology and movies are given big budgets (particularly Hollywood films), yet despite all this, most movies end up with CGI effects from another era. How come this happens over and over? In this one, we see people running too fast, horses running too fast, and they’re all like a big mass of headless chickens and you don’t know exactly what is happening where. All this fast running, the constant cut and paste of scenes looks all too modern and doesn’t fit the current time period of the movie and it surely doesn’t transmit the way of fighting of that period.

Moreover, we get lots of flashback-lesson learning scenes throughout the movie. This is another fashion in movies lately, playing the film in the present time while at the same time jumping back and forth between flashbacks. It spends a good portion of the movie with these flashbacks. This is not a big issue and admirable per se but when these scenes are insignificant because they’re glossed over and transmitted without zilch emotion, then why even bother to include them in the first instance?

As a last comment, I like the fact that they hired Chinese actors and actresses for the movie (although I don’t know why it had to be in English, I’d have preferred it to be in Chinese, it’s not like we’re allergic to subtitles - unless they’re not done properly), some of them of renewed name, like Gong Li, Rosalind Chao (I loved her in The Joy Luck Club), Jet Li, Donnie Yen (legendary Ip Man), Jason Scott Lee (saw him in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), Tzi Ma but they won’t be able to save the movie even with a great cast like this one.

#disney mulan #disney mulan 2020 #mulan live action #saturday home cinema #boycott mulan #don't watch it #don't watch mulan #don't watch mulan 2020 #disney should be ashamed #honest review #a very honest review #film night #movie night

59 notes · View notes

harebrainedscheme · 3 years

Text

Soft Edges, Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Fethry in FOWL AU courtesy of Zara 2148

A03 Link

“That-” Hammerhead exclaimed while delivering a solid, jovial, slap across Steelbeak’s back, “was beautiful!”

Above, starlight gleamed through the smog-filled night sky, providing little light as Steelbeak and Hammerhead made their way through the dark, lampless, city streets. The air was cool and crisp against Steelbeak’s face, keeping his senses sharp, that or the adrenaline high he was still coming down from.

In the distance, the horn of a freight train blared. A dog barked behind a chain link fence. Police sirens-or maybe it was an ambulance- whined before disappearing into the night.

Good ol’ St. Canard. It was just as he remembered.

He hadn’t ventured to this part of the city since he started working under F.O.W.L.’s dollar. Part of their sales pitch was that they’d send him all over the world. That part had been true enough. Though, he guessed it was some kind of poetic justice that he’d end up back in the same seedy streets he had grown up on, back when he was just another street urchin. Only this time, he was walking over them in italian leather oxfords rather than a pair of dirty torn sneakers he snagged off a telephone wire.

The goat to his right, strutting an equally impressive pair of shoes, continued to slap Steelbeak’s back as they walked. Juxtaposed to the merry mood of his companion, Steelbeak felt himself grimace at the touch. He’d much rather trade fists than business cards with this goon but his mission, as Director Buzzard had clearly laid out, was to play nice.

Yesterday had been the weekly briefing meeting. All of F.O.W.L.’s agents, gathered around a long conference table as Director Buzzard droned on about mission status updates, assignments, and whichever phase of his million-step program to steal the world from under McDuck’s bill they were entering. Director Buzzard, Steelbeak had realized, was quite fond of slideshow presentations and the dull droning voice paired with the irregular clicking of the slideshow’s remote faded into white noise. Steelbeak could usually listen with half a mind while his mind wandered to other things.

If Heron’s bionic arm had a toothbrush function, did that mean it came with toothpaste too? Not much use having an emergency toothbrush on hand if you didn’t have the toothpaste to go with it. But did that mean she made her own toothpaste inside the arm? Or did Heron have to restock the supply with toothpaste cartridges?

He was trying to imagine Heron pulling off her arm and unscrewing a panel to fill a trapdoor with toothpaste when the buzzard barked his name, pulling his attention back to the speaker and the screen behind him.

“Steelbeak, you have a new assignment.” The image on the projector screen flicked to a mean looking goat.

“This is Hammerhead Hannigan, henchman to the notorious Taurus Bulba.”

“The crime boss?”

Bradford’s glare fell on Steelbeak at the interruption, but he answered all the same.

“Yes. As a former St. Canard resident, and… participant in some of the underground circuits, I assumed you would have some familiarity with the organized crime world of St. Canard.”

“So what’s the job, you want me to take out horns over there?”

“Just the opposite. Taurus Bulba single handedly constructed an entire crime empire within the underbelly of St. Canard while upholding the public image as the head of a prestigious lab. He maintains certain...resources we may benefit access from. But the man himself is cautious and selective in who he conducts his business dealings with. He rarely meets face to face with potential new partners, sending his underlings in his place. You are to meet with Hammerhead and describe the benefits and services F.O.W.L can offer Bulba. This will be the first of a long line of negotiations that, hopefully, will lead to a mutually beneficial partnership.

“Your job is to meet with his henchman, negotiate over cigars and a game of pool or whatever you St. Canadians enjoy, and establish a good-faith relationship. “

Bradford Buzzard paused to turn up the degrees on his already scathing glare. “That should be simple enough that even you can manage. If you don’t mess up this most basic task then maybe we’ll consider giving you greater responsibilities in future missions. Is that understood?”

Yeah, I can do that,” Steelbeak answered crossing his arms over his chest. Something still wasn’t sitting right.

“But why give this assignment over to me? And why send me in solo instead of partnered with Black Heron? You haven’t trusted me with anything more than babysitting duty since the lighthouse fiasco.”

“I’m staying off of this mission,” Heron answered for Bradford from her seat across from the conference table. “Taurus Bulba and I had a run in back in the 90’s. For the best interest of the mission, it’s best if my involvement is minute.”

“What did you do, offend him with your disco-era get up? Or had you still not realized the poodle skirt had gone out of style? Steelbeak expected Heron to lash out at that last remark, but it would have been worth it to get a jab in at her.

Fury crossed over Black Heron’s features, she opened her beak to respond but instead Bradford cut her off.

“Taurus Bulba is aware of Black Heron’s experimentation in human cybernetic enhancements. He is, shall we say, less than enthusiastic on the subject.”

“Why a murderous crime lord would pretend to have a moral compass when it comes to using man as experimental test subjects is beyond me.” Black Heron remarked, seemingly iffed that the biggest name in organized crime would find her work immoral.

Steelbeak wasn’t entirely sure what that meant or why Heron would be bothered, but he decided to tuck that information away for later. Maybe he could bring it up later in a taunt the next time she insulted him.

“Enough Black Heron! ” Bradford snapped, “Steelbeak,” he said, redirecting his glare towards him, “this is the most important partnership we’ve ever attempted. Do. Not. Mess. This. Up.” He spoke the last few words slowly as if taking extra care to make sure Steelbeak understood each and every one. Stelebeak felt heat rise under his collar.

“Do you understand?”

“In-dude-hillbilly.”

Bradford blinked.

“He means indubitably,” Heron muttered from across the table, fingers rubbing a circular motion over her eyelids.

Hammerhead continued to shower praises on Steelbeak as the two stole away from the bridge, back to the clubhouse where their night had begun.

“Brutal! Just brutal! The way you decked that guy-” Hammerhead mimed a punching motion as he spoke - “Pow! Right in the kisser!”

The night had started out tame enough. Steelbeak and Hammerhead met up at the designated clubhouse, far on the outskirts of the City near the docks, where underhand businesses dealings and shifty characters thrived.

They eyed each other up and down with equal wariness and suspicion, weighing their chances if the negotiations went south. Steelbeak was pretty sure he could take this guy in a fight, even with the horns. But there were plenty of places a weapon could be hiding in Hammerhead’s oversized suit jacket.

But each of them had been sent by their bosses to play nice and they both knew it. So glass of scotch in one hand, pool cue in the other, they began their conversation on their respective organizations, slipping in their intimidation games by swapping stories of jobs they’d done. A little torture here, a little assassination of local politicans there, extortion of a wealthy CEOs on the weekends. They found ways to get their point across.

Hammerhead had bragged about the kidnapping and mild battery of the child of an olympic coach, to guarantee a set match.

He had to feign a tight-beaked smile at that one. Steelbeak didn’t hit kids. He would kidnap them, steal from them, shove them out of his way, toss them across a room, participate in a series of fiendish events that may or may not directly or indirectly lead to their deaths, but he would not lay a closed fist on a kid.

Steelbeak had been recounting the broken fingers he had given a politician that had the indecency not to be crooked when he first noticed the eavesdropper. He may not be sciency smart like Black Heron but he could tell when a seemingly unassuming patron sitting at a lone table was invested in an outside conversation.

“I think I saw some teeth come out with that one!” Hammerhead chortled. Now, he was nothing but praises and smiles, slapping his back as they strolled the city streets, like they were best chums.

The man in a trench coat (cliche much) had asked for an entire bowl of peanuts yet never touched the snack. When Steelbeak or Hammerhead moved to the far side of the pool table while talking, the man’s neck, turned ever so slightly to follow their conversation. When Steelbeak suggested they move back to the bar to refill their drinks, the man chose that as the time to walk up to the bar counter to refill his untouched bowl of nuts.

Steelbeak may not have finished elementary school but his years of running in a juvenile street gang with kids who would mug an old lady with you in the morning, then steal the shoes off your feet while you slept- followed by a career of looking over his shoulder while in underground fighting ring, never knowing when you’d get suckerpunched outside of a fight- plus the time he spent in prison, half expecting a shiv in the abdomen whenever he turned a corner- had heightened his sensitivity to these kinds of things.

Call it paranoia but it had kept him alive.

“And the way you dangled him over the edge of the bridge till he squealed-”

After starting a fist fight that pushed both Steelbeak and the strange man out of the bar, he edged him towards the water, until delivering the final blow that brought the man to his knees. From there, Steelbeak held the man over the edge of the bridge, what would be a 200-foot drop- until he confessed he was an agent of SHUSH assigned to tail them.

“-Classic villainy! It was like watching an artist at work!”

Before he could get out any more of the guy, some purple weirdo showed up in a puff a smoke.The Terrible Flop Knight- or whatever he called himself- Steelbeak hadn’t really given the masked man a chance to finish his monologue. St. Canard was known for its eccentric villainy and when some purple weirdo in a cape and a mask cuts into your interrogation, you don’t assume he’s there for comic con.

“And the way you dropped the poor sap! You, my friend, are ruthless!”

Steelbeak hadn’t known if the Terrible Flop Knight would make the dive to save the SHUSH agent’s life. He was interfering with his interrogation so he was either on the SHUSH agent’s side, or another eccentric villain there to show Steelbeak up. It was a 50/50 shot but the masked weirdo dove for the agent as soon as he began to fall and Steelbeak and Hammerhead used the distraction to get away.

“Listen, guy, I like your style, and my boss, I know he’d like you too. You’ve got the goods kid! You’ve got that stone-cold, old-fashioned kind of villainy. An original! A real original kid!! Imma tell my boss what happened here tonight. I think you and uh, FOWL was it? We’ll be getting in touch again.”

The goat laughed out loud and shook Steelbeak by the shoulder as they walked, like they were lifelong drinking buddies.

Steelbeak really didn’t like this guy. He carried himself with the confidence of a goon who had gotten to where he was today by brutalizing everyone in his path, but would cower with his tail between his legs the second the boss was unhappy. He was more lapdog than henchman, a rabid, killer lapdog, that never once made a decision for himself.

“I think you could be a valuable friend,” he said the words through a smile like an oil slick on the bay, slippery and gleaming with something sinister. He knew that smile. It was the same smile Black Heron had given him when she found him in his tiny dank prison cell.

“Well, well, well” she said, eyes glinting in the dimly lit room, smile tugging across her sharp, potentially lethal beak, “what do we have here?”

He slapped Steelbeak on the back again before they parted ways, “Ruthless! Absolutely ruthless,” Hammerhead laughed to himself as he went.

Steelbeak was left alone in the darkness of the City with only the moon reflecting off the bay and far off city lights to guide him through the cracked and darkened streets. It was quieter now, he could hear the silver waves lapping against the docks.

He had done it. He had done the job and he had done it well, just like he always knew he would. He met with Bulba’s henchmen, impressed the goon, established the beginning of a “good faith relationship” or whatever the Buzzard had called it. Bulba’s guy had called him an original. He was finally, finally getting the recognition he deserved. If Director Buzzard was to be believed, this meant bigger responsibilities. No more chump work. No more being locked up on base as a glorified babysitter.

So why did he feel so hollow?

He should be basking in the appraisal, accepting each and every compliment, and singing his own praises wherever Hammerhead had left them out.

But instead, he walked the empty city streets, grim faced. He tried to imagine what would come next. Tomorrow morning he’d give Director Buzzards a briefing of what had happened tonight, tell him of his success, and the alliance. Even the sour faced buzzard who seemed to have a frown permanently pressed into his face should be pleased to hear that shouldn’t he? He’d be forced to recognize Steelbeak’s ability, offer him new, bigger, better responsibilities in their plot to steal the world. No more babysitting assets.

But even as he tried to fantasize what that might look like, he found his thoughts kept slipping back to the smile of a particular duck.

His cheeks burned at the thought. He shook his head, as if he could physically banish the thought with the motion. It was dumb. Super dumb. Who cares about the smile of the McDuck nephew? Certainly not him.

But even as he told himself this, the image materialized in his mind, Fethry’s smile, soft and warm like the sun rising over the icy bay.

The worst part was that he knew Fethery would be happy for him. He could picture Fethry’s reaction as clear as day. Knew how his eyes would light up, how he would beam at him. “A promotion? That’s great Steelbeak!”

But what would happen after, when he asked what he had done to earn the promotion? What kind of look of horror would cross over his face when Steelbeak told him he had thrown a man off a bridge after beating him to a bloody pulp? What would happen after he confessed, oh by the way Fethry, that the super top secret organization that had hired you as marine biologist? It's actually the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny that’s been plotting against your uncle and only hired you to hold you as a hostage. But still, I think I’m getting promoted, pretty great right?

Steelbeak shook his head again. He only then noticed the splatters of blood dotted across his knuckles. He scowled. Probably not his. He had done pretty well in the fight with the SHUSH agent. He rubbed a thumb over a knuckle but the blood had already dried into his feathers and didn’t so much as smudge.

He grumbled to himself and shoved his hands into his pockets and tried not to think of Fethry or his smile for the rest of the walk home.

#fethsteel #bangs pots and pans together #CRACK SHIPPERS!!!! COME AND GET YER FOOD #jesus christ im late to the party #BUT I DID IT!!!#I SAID I WOULD SHARE A FIC AND I DID!#i have to bite down really hard to keep myself from apologizing profusely for all the parts of this fic that i know aren't great #but im doing it!!!#tw implied child abuse #tw violence

11 notes · View notes

cora-the-dramatic · 3 years

Text

BNHA_WAXQUIRK_OC

[semi-coerent ramblings]

The Candle Wax Hero: Soybean(name under revision lmao)

Name: Hirose Kaoru(First name means fragrance)

Appearance:??

Parents:??

Quirk: Wax, can make wax constructs, like the wax-wax devil fruit. Is low-key about her powers, makes people think that she can make and most a shed or small house when she can totally make concrete-strong apartments out of wax. Keys, rapped fire sharp wax projecticles, wax armour, wax prison, etc. When she overuses her quirk her hair catches fire, she gets a fever, a headache, desidrated, and all around exhausted but unable to sleep.

Personality:??

Dream: To be an average gal pal hero, who absolutely does not know ANY weird shit at all, no sirr. (She wants to help people, but also wants to live happily, and boringly.)

-----000-----

-Has her own agency.

-Is not low-key, but not flashy either

-Very oblivious to people's admiration, but when she notices fells flattered and happy.

-doesn't check out other heroes or the rankings very often. Normally only watches the top 15, and *maybe* top50 heroes.

-When she is interviewed she goes on long ramblings about what she's doing to help the community, why it's important, why other heroes should do it, and how civilians can help. When confronted with any prejudice she completely derails the show, extolling about the difficulties of mutation-types, villainous quirks, weak quirks and the quirkless. The reporters that thought she was timid or just a pretty face are barreled over by her oblivious essay-reading talks, minimizing or completely eliminating the chance for gossip, publicity or drama. Because of it she becomes a meme and internet celebrity, as well as a small idol for the victimized and villainized people; also because she's completely hilarious, as well as posting her essays, articles, and funding online(only eventually noticing that they get money). Unfortunately she only goes there to use it as a public journal as well as an awareness platform.

-she absolutely does not notice when she gets to the top 200.

-She does not have a lot of official merc, but they're all practical and come for all body types and mutations, being all types of quirk-prof and coming quite cheap. It ends up being used as a cheap, durable, affordable clothing by all.

-She volunteers stuff, what most would do to public service punishment, chatting with people, discussing stuff, helping around the community. Playing with kids, volunteering in hospitals, picking up trash, cleaning trash heaps with her quirk(compresion), occasionally cleaning the streets and helping around in general, Making support beans and just helping around in general. Not being flashily like that.

-she influences others to do more too. To do more community service, to have their own honest vloggings and posts. To volunteer and help.

-she gets a minor rival(?) who tries to out-do her by doing all the community service, Kaoru instead thanks them, said she admires them and obliviously one-ups them by opening like, a school or something, idk

-Uses a mask? Maybe? Either that or she's always been recognized.

-helps out with underground stuff when she can

-Is publicly disappointed in both the commission and Endeavour.

-Publicly says she doesn't like all might, or rather, what he represents.

-loves boba tea.

-has a side job of selling candles. Bethey big and artistic, small and compact, they're all pretty.

-Secrets keep being dumped on her lap, she doesn't like this.

-She believes she's succeeding in being lowkey. She is ABSOLUTELY not.

-She does not attend the annual gala for top 200. Everybody is surprised. She's invited by the top interviewers, and ends up rambling about how she kinda wishes she could have gone and its moments like these that she wishes she were a top 200. Everybody kinda stalls at that. And realizes that she is, in fact, not kidding. They make her look it up online and her face is meme-worthy.

-interviewer: why didn't you go to the gala

Her: i'm not a top200, but i wish

Interviewer: you are, in fact, a top200

Her:???what?????

-Is invited to do presentations at school

-is publicly suspicious of the commission.

-post{ uh, does anybody think Hawks is an overworked baby or is it just me??? #givethismanahug #getsomesleephawks #mycomissionsensesaretingling #newfannammeforhawks:babybird}

-post{congratulations again to endeavour for completely analihating a villain that had three broken ribs, a concussion, malnutrition and was having a flashback due to accidental misuse of quirk after being assaulted by a hero using exercise force for stealing groceries! Great job, buddy! #flamingtrash}

-post{...i'm halfway tempted to sue UA for this shit. @LordExplosionmurder if you want some lawyer contacts just hit me up. #whyisthisbabychainedup??? #unnecessary #unjust}

-private text{ Soybean: Hey! It's pro hero Soybean, I'm wondering if you're okay after the shit you went through at the festival? If i can help in any way or if you just want to chat, hit me up!}

-post{actual serious essay about why ua action was bad after info gathering. Hoping they change ways and policies, and that this never happens again.}

-post{everyone that thinks those 1-A kids need therapy say aye! #omg #therapy #lookatallthesetraumatisedbabies Comments: Soybean: AYE! *fixed*}

-post{ i never feel as gay as i do as when i see Miruku destroy villain ass #powerfull #beautiful #shelooksatmeandillDIE}

-agency growns.

------0000------

Story outline{ imma be following cliche movie shit that i hate. Imma use the flashbacksies}

Chp1: •Dramatic inner monologue on a roof. Is a hero, achieved all she wanted in life, has her own agency. Hears a sound and goes to fight villain, she accesses the situation, form a climax/tension->

•flashback/past, The day she knew she would become a hero.

•(?)interceding flashes of past and present of her determination to be a hero(beat the villains ass ayyy, ends with a flash of the future(?)

Chp2: •Description of her day, painfully detailed, as boring as possible, end in cheerful note about how she loves how boring it is, and how for her its not boring at all. Description includes how her agency works, how it interacts with nearby agencies, what the status is for the neighbourhoods in general, how the crime rate is, compares it to other crime rates for other villains and hero's areas. Talk about her small number of employees and how she found them, briefly. Talk about where she sleeps, if its in an apartment, if it's in the office, where both are located and about the neighbours. Talk about the neighbours, about their clothes and their voices and how she feels about them, all in that satisfied this-is-normal-and-i-love-it kind of way. Talk about if she has a pet, about her apartment, touch briefly about something that reminds her of hero school, continue describing her apartment and the things there. Move on to what she's gonna eat, from where, what fast food and groceries, about how she thinks about food and who or if she shares her meals with. Have her have an idea for the community in general and head to bed.

•Flashback that surrounds the item that made her remember something. It needs to be something that makes her bittersweet. Like how her school was full of assholes, and that her teacher didn't like her because she was either too quiet or too loud, how she poked at too many sore spots and was bullied for it. Talk about a grand event similar to the sports festival at UA, and how a teacher -just tease, maybe don't even properly name- encouraged her to be better, and made her actually put up a fight, despite considering herself a coward at the time, and ended up getting 3rd place. Finish with her hurt, in pain but staring her bullies and the people who defeated her(maybe someone with something similar to pain quirk) down(also bullies?).

Chp3: •Describe in painful detail about her day to day school life. Her first year or second. Describe the building, if its dorm system or home-to-school system, describe what she sees on her way there, and the people she talks to. Talk about her bullies and the victims, and the people who watch, talk about the other classes and someone she admires at school, who she wishes she would talk to if she only had the courage. Talk about the teachers, how they interact, talk about her favorite teacher and how he helps her so much and how he takes care of her.

#semi-coerent ramblings #bnha #boku no hero academia #Fanfic ideas #bnha oc

2 notes · View notes

fatbottombucky · 4 years

Text

What’s The Diagnostic? They’re Obliviously In Love |StevexBucky|

Summary:Avengers Assemble Hospital is a non-profit hospital. It's also a teaching hospital to Interns and Students. Some of the best minds work, teach, and learn at the hospital. Dr Rogers and Dr Barnes have been friends through thick and thin, both meeting in Med School- when Steve used to get into fights with more students than he'd ever admitted. They're both about to relive Steve's first marriage as his first-wife is back, she wants to try again and Steve thinks this is it for him; he's an almost 40yr old-man, who doesn't get out much. Whilst Steve is dealing with his past, James, is dealing with the Chairman of The Board, Mr Rumlow, who hates him. A personal vendetta is what Rumlow has, James can't figure out why. Rumlow also has a keen interest in Steve, as if Steve needs more attention- this angers Barnes more. Their co-workers have a bet going on. Their long time patients are trying to set them up. Rogers and Barnes are helpless and oblivious...They're also RoomMates.

±Inspired by House MD; House and Wilson's relationship/ Diagnostic job is used for Bucky±

Ratings: (+18) Explicit Content

Warnings: SLOW BURN!!!! Will be displayed here when appropriate

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Notes: Each chapter is titled as 'Episodes', to clarify, if three chapters are titled "Episode One" that means those three chapters exist within the same time frame (AKA those chapters happen over a singular day or span over a week).

Episode One- The Deduction of Steve Rogers

11:00 am Wreck Room

"Have you told him?" Steve looks up from the staff's coffee machine to see Natasha, she's leaning against the table with her arms crossed. She's still dressed in her scrubs, despite being in surgery for plus five hours she still looks immaculate and beautiful. "He's going to find out soon, ya know? He's the master at deducing, heck, that's his entire job. There's no problem or puzzle that he can't solve."

Steve sighed, stirring the milk into the coffee for a second longer than necessary. "He's got a case right now. I have about," Steve looks at the clock on the wall and back to Natasha, "three more hours to think of how to break the news." He gives a little sigh and shakes his head, "I don't know why he'd be mad, she messaged me and I haven't even replied back, yet."

"You know how he gets," She shrugs, red hair pulled into a tight bun that she is currently taking down. "He's going to be figuring out why you haven't replied, he'll go into some in-depth explanation that'll explain why you didn't tell him straight away either- leading all towards the fact you want to message her."

Steve shakes his head, rolling his blue eyes as he taps the spoon three times against the rim of his mug before taking a thoughtful sip of his drink.

"Don't need to tell him now," giving her a pointed look, "you've been hanging around his office too much, Romanoff."

Natasha shrugs one shoulder, "I've been looking out for his newest intern, Parker. Stark wanted to make sure that Barnes didn't fire him within the first week, despite the demeaning comments the kid seems to be holding himself well."

Steve nodded and hears his phone beep, he checks and sees it's his ex-wife, his first ex-wife. Peggy Carter, his first real and true love, she's the one that pushed him into this job and supported him through his last year at Med School. He, honestly, thought she was it for him. They'd have a couple of kids together, work their respected jobs and raise a beautiful, happy family and grow old. But that didn't happen. In fact, on their second wedding anniversary, he was given divorce papers- by her lawyer, Edwin Jarvis.

Didn't see it coming. Sure, they had arguments like normal couples. Steve was dedicated to his job, he has to be because he's the Oncologist. There are people that are relying on him to form a good treatment plan; something that'll give them more time or help them beat their cancer. He never neglected his husband duties, he never neglected her and he never got a definitive answer to their divorce. What he does know is that James Barnes, his best friend, resents the woman and practically got Steve back on his feet after the divorce was finalised.

"You still not gonna answer her?"

'We need to talk, Steven.' Is the latest text that was sent to his phone, maybe they do need to talk, it'll get him some closure but he can't face her right now.

"I'm too busy, right now." He sighed and slipped the phone back into his pant pocket, "I've got to go over the recent funding for my department, Fury wants all documented and flies perfect for the Chairman that's coming this week. Meaning," he sighed and slipped his eyes to Natasha as he walks to the door, "I've gotta somehow get Barnes to do his own reports... or do them myself. He's also gotta do his six hours of clinic duty, but I might be going for overkill."

Steve walks out of the room, mug still in hand and turning, almost spilling the contents of his mug over the small intern. Parker is pushing a stretcher with Wanda on the other side, to save the coffee he holds it up and out of their way.

"Sorry, Dr Rogers, heading to surgery!" Wanda yells over her shoulder, blood splattered over her clothes.

Steve is almost tempted to follow, clearly, the Diagnostics Teams case is more complicated than they thought and James hadn't solved it just yet.

Meaning Steve had a couple of hours to get his work done before James starts snooping into his life, as normal. He has a few hours to reflect and act normal as if nothing has happened and therefore meaning his friend won't realise anything has happened.

1:34 pm Cafeteria

A body slides up beside Steve, plopping a Red Bull and a bowl of fries, plus a packet of Doritos onto his tray. Steve doesn't have to look to know it's James, but he looks anyway to see the usual neutral face of his friend. Steely eyes are looking back at him, there's a slight ghost of a smirk on his lips because he knows that Steve will complain... but pay for his lunch anyway.

"I'm adding all these lunches up, by the way. Giving you the bill at Christmas." Is all Steve mutters to him, standing in line behind a few clinic nurses; that are chatting amongst themselves.

James rolls his eyes, "My guy needs a Craniotomy," Completely changing the subject altogether, "can you get Wilson to do it?" Steve furrows his eyebrows and looks at him, crossing his arms over his chest when he faces him, shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms and a couple of pens in his shirt pocket. "He always puts me around the ringer, he'll say yes without question if you ask."

"I'm not asking Sam, if you need that surgery then you ask." Voice stern as he turns back and pulls out his wallet, nodding at the cashier, "for both," he mutters before handing over the money. James picks up the tray as he grabs the change, both walking over to a table and sitting down. "Don't throw my salad at me," he reprimands as James chucks the salad bowl at him.

"Oh, you mean that rabbit food?" James counters, pulling a chocolate bar from his pocket and opening it, Steve frowns when looking at him unwrapping the sweet treat. "You're gonna go up and pay for this, aren't you?"

Steve gives him a disapproving look. "Did you steal that?"

"I didn't if you go and pay for it," he laughs loudly when Steve gets up and walks to the counter, handing her the correct change and explaining before walking back to their table. "You're such a good boy, Rogers. So, what's been going on?"

Steve rolls his eyes, out of the two Barnes was the guy who cut corners. He believed that separating emotions from their work makes you a better Doctor, he could be right, but Steve has the belief that being emotional and leading with your emotions creates an environment that makes you want to save every patient. They're opposite ends of the spectrum. Bucky likes the thrill of puzzle-solving, getting that diagnostic and Steve likes saving his patients anyway he can.

Steve stopped mid-bite of his salad, glancing at James who wasn't even looking at him, opening his can of energy drink.

"Well, Fury has ordered all of us to get our paperwork done and I have, so do you want me to do yours?" James looks up and raises his eyebrows, "the new chairman of the board, Barnes. I don't want him to have more reasons to hate you, your personality already puts people off." Barnes gives a mock hurt face but nods in agreement. "I'll take your reports home tonight and do it for you."

They're silent for a few minutes, both eating in respective silence. James gets a few alerts on his pager, not bothering to check it; standard for him. Steve mostly talks, randomly talking about the wrestling match that they're going to have to record this weekend; he's working the night shifts. Telling James the usual bet wager is on, they always put in 200$ each and each, and every time, Barnes somehow wins- yet, Steve pays for his lunches.

Once they've finished their food and put their trash away they walk to the elevators. Stepping in and pressing the button for their floor, fortunately, their offices are next to one another. Something that Rogers later found out that Barnes requested, he wanted Steve closeby, possibly to annoy him as he does on the daily. James is often found in Steve's office, hiding from potential cases.

Steve glances at his wristwatch, present from his first wife-he's sentimental. Bucky calls him hopeless, perhaps he is. Peggy had brought that for him, a birthday present, and he has said he would pawn it off and buy himself a new watch. He just never has the time to go and look at watches or spend that amount on a decent one- the one Peggy got was decent, at least, that's what she had told him.

"You never answered my question," Steve quirks an eyebrow and looks at James, "About what's been going. You avoided the question and told me about work, we haven't caught up in almost two days because of my latest case." He looks expectingly at Steve, "could be because nothing new has happened, but you always update me on something new you've watched on Netflix and I know you have started something new. Something has happened; you don't want to tell me and it's either because it's bad or you just don't want to tell me."

The elevator doors open and they both step out, Steve looks at James and sighs softly.

"For once, please, just leave this alone." James tilts his head, he's only a few inches shorter than Steve. "It's not even that interesting or worth your time, trust me."

James nods once, "You don't want me to know and it's also bad, interesting." He smiles before walking to his office, just as his team shows up.

5:00pm Barnes' Office

"James, give me your paperwork." He has his coat hanging off an arm and his briefcase in the other, shoulder holding the glass door open.

Parker, Maximoff, and Jones all look up at Steve from their table. The whiteboard behind them have the patients different symptoms down, Steve briefly looks before watching James' attempt to lift the large stacks of files and papers. He notices the stiffness displayed in the left shoulder, how it locks-up and he can't move it, so Steve steps up and grabs the files.

An injury from years ago, he got it looked at even had surgery on that shoulder... to no avail. The pain lingers on. A reminder of his past life, a life that Steve never brings up out of respect for his friend.

"Hows the first wife?"

Steve stops and looks up, James doesn't wear a readable expression and Steve's throat tightens, daring to glance at the others in the room. He couldn't wait to bring this up privately, of course, he couldn't because it's James Barnes: when he figures something out he needs an audience. They all just watch as Steve has an internal battle within himself.

"It could be Non-Hodjikns-lymphoma," Jones pipes up, coat hanging off the back of her chair, clearly trying to get the conversation back onto the patient. "We've been thinking it's all in the head, but it could be pushing down on the spine and creating the symptoms we've seen in the brain."

"So I'm right," Barnes continues and Steve places the paperwork into his briefcase.

Finally looking at him once he clicks it shut. "I haven't even replied to her. It's nothing. I told you to leave this alone, so leave it."

"I just can't figure out why you weren't going to tell me," James leans against the wall and shrugs his shoulders as Steve looks at him with disbelief. "I'm your best friend, in fact, I'm your only friend that knows Peggy Carter and what she did to you. Why didn't you come to me first?" Before Steve can get a word in, James is off again, "Could be many things; you want to message her and me knowing would make it difficult, you know I would remind you of how evil she is. Could be because you aren't going to message her but you feel guilty, you want to message her but you know she's evil. It's something deeper, though."

Steve just sighs tiredly, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Bucky," the nickname he hardly ever uses a work because professionalism is Steve's forte, "It's five text messages, all of which I have received today. This is one piece of thread that is frayed and small, not everything deserves to be a puzzle and my life, what I do, isn't something to be discussed at work. Leave it." The room is silent, James gives a curt nod.

"50$ on you texting her before lunch tomorrow," James calls out before his office door closes, Steve grumbles to himself with a shake of his head when pressing the elevator button heading to the parking lot.

- Please let me know what you think, I really appreciate feedback and want to know if this is something you’re interested in. Let me know if you want to be tagged too :) Rosalie-

Tagging: @starkerhowlter @atanoissapa @princessn-97 @oddone92 @rexburn12 @stevie-strawberry

#steve x bucky #stucky smut #stucky #steve rogers x bucky barnes #steve rogers x bucky barnes smut #stucky one shot #stucky oneshot #stucky imagine #bucky barnes x steve rogers #male x male #steve rogers fanfic #stevexbucky

34 notes · View notes

velianmagicalgirl · 3 years

Text

An Important Anniversary

So today’s Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you had a good one. So anyway, I’m going to write something I’ve kinda wanted to write about for a while now but never knew when to do it it or if I even should. I wondered if anyone would care or if it was selfish of me to want anyone to care. But I’m doing it because I know I want to and if I don’t I’ll be mad at myself for that too. So this is going to be a bit personal (and probably a bit long because I have a tendency to ramble) so if you don’t want to read it, feel free to skip but I would appreciate it if you did read it :)

So like I said, today is Christmas and I want to talk about something quite important to me that happened on this day last year. So last year I was in a pretty different place then than I am now (like most of us). I lived in Florida then, and now I live in South Carolina. I had just finished my first semester at my university and I was about to turn 21 (my birthday’s in January).

So anyway, it came time to open presents, and among other things, my parents got me a record player which I was super excited for (I planned to buy one myself so I was pretty happy I wouldn’t have to spend the money :p) and one of the records my parents had gotten me was *drumroll please* The Joshua Tree by U2! Now, this wasn’t a complete surprise to me (well it was a surprise that they got it for me, what a coincidence) but I had actually heard of this album and this band before...

This is the story of how the universe tried to get me to listen to U2 since I was freaking 12 and I’m so dense I kept ignoring all the *signs* until last freaking year.

Let’s time travel back to 2012 (sometimes I wish I could...) So I’ve done some thinking and this is the first time I can remember ever hearing anything about this band named after a Cold War era spy plane. Now I’m not exactly sure what year this was, it may have been 2011 but 2012 kept popping up in my head while I thought of it. So at this time I was 12-13 years old (depending what year it was) and I was in 6th grade. Yes hello, I am a child. So, really the whole memory is my mom talking to me, saying something along the lines of “That’s Bono! You know who Bono is right? Come on, everyone knows who Bono is! You know, the Irish guy?” and I remember being like “oh yeah!” pretending to remember just so she would leave me alone. Either I had a very vague memory of hearing that name before or I really had no idea who she was talking about and just wanted her to leave me alone. This whole thing would explain why, up until last year, whenever I thought of him, I thought of him in his 360 look. Even now, that’s like his “default look” to me haha. When I think about it, it feels like this was all in relation to American Idol which would make sense because I was in love with that show at the time and I had a huge crush on one of the contestants that year, a country singer named Scotty McCreery (I think he ended up winning too). I had a huuuuge crush on him, just ask my mom.

Anyway, that’s my first memory of them. I guess it doesn’t have to do with U2 as a whole but it’s about Bono so...

So fast forward about two years. I originally wasn’t going to include this but I just thought of it so in it goes. It’s 2014 now, I’m 15, just moved to Florida and I’m about to start high school. I also just missed out on getting a super cool new free album on my phone because my dumb dad (accidentally) broke my iPhone by dropping it in water. Thanks Dad. So in late August-early September (before September 9th obviously) I get a new phone but end up getting an Android. So I literally by just a few days miss out and getting that. Noooooooo.

So anyway back to our regularly scheduled program of what I was going to write about. So next year, it’s 2015 now, I’m 16 and about to do a bunch of Stupid Things™ that it seems everyone is required to do while they’re in high school *sigh*. But we’re not going to get into that (😅). This is another vague memory I have. I just remember having some sort of conversation with my mom about music. And somehow, I end up with the knowledge of The Joshua Tree by this band U2. I don’t really remember how specifically it happened, I just now it had something to do with her. I do have this specific memory of sitting in the computer lab during one of my classes and listening to the album. Except, for some reason, I only ever listened to the first three songs. Seriously. Why? I have no idea. What was wrong with me? And I liked them (especially the first one). I remember not liking the third one very much (hahaha... how that’s changed...) So I liked them, but for some reason they just didn’t catch on in my head (and I didn’t listen to the others... FOR SOME REASON *kicks self*).

So anyway, time goes on and I mostly forget about those three little songs. Until February-ish 2018. I’m now 19 and about to graduate high school in a few months (scary). Anyway, I pick up this book at the school library one day called The Memory of Things (by Gae Polisner, it’s actually one of my favorite books, if not the favorite. I really recommend it). So basically the main character Kyle is a pretty big U2 fan. That’s not really the plot or anything but that’s a big part of his character. There’s a part where he’s looking online at pictures of the recent Slane Castle concert during the Elevation Tour and he’s like “I wish I was there” (me too). There’s also a part where he gives one of his friends his PopMart shirt. There’s also a chapter called “Achtung Baby” (I was like “what the heck is an achtung”) where one of the things that happens is he talks about how he likes the song Mysterious Ways (can’t argue with you there buddy).

So a few months later, I find this movie called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” on Netflix (also a really good movie, highly recommend, I don’t know if it’s on Netflix right now though) and I’m one of those weird people who likes to watch trailers for movies they’ve already seen so I was watching one of the trailers and Streets started playing and I was like “hey I remember this song!” and got me to start listening to it again (not the other three that I’d listened to before, or the other ones FOR SOME REASON *sigh* Also, here is the trailer if you’re at all interested).

So fast-forwarding again to 2019. Last year. So like I said, I’m about to turn 21 and I open up one of my Christmas gifts to find that my parents got me a Joshua Tree record. I get excited because I’m like “Oh I remember this!” and I remembered I never actually listened to the whole thing before. So finally AFTER FIVE FREAKING YEARS, I finally listen to the whole thing. And I really liked it. A lot. Why didn’t I do that before?? Like five years ago?? *kicks self*. Honestly, looking back on this, it really seems like the universe was really trying to get me to listen to them like “listen to U2 listen to U2 listen to U2 damnit!” but apparently I’m about as dense as a boy being flirted to so I had to be basically whacked on the head with it before I got it.

So then a week or two later it’s now 2020 (it feels weird to think this was this year but it was) and my parents are driving me back to my dorm before the semester starts up. And we’re sitting at this light, I would tell you where it was except obviously you wouldn’t know. But there’s one light and then you take a left and maybe a hundred or 200 feet later there’s another light where you take a right and that takes you into the university campus. So we’re sitting at this light and this cool song comes on. I look to see who it is (the joys of satellite radio) and I see it’s Mysterious Ways and I’m like “oh cool, a U2 song!” and also “hey, it’s that song from that book!” As much as I try to, I can’t seem to remember if I’d actually heard that song before or if I just thought I did because of that book. But I definitely liked it in that moment. And I’m not kidding when I say this, but the song comes on and lasts the entire drive from that light to my dorm building parking lot. It ends right as we pull into a parking spot. Seriously. Was it meant to be? 😜 So after that, my parents help me bring my stuff back into my room and after they leave, I look up that song on Youtube and listen to it on repeat a few times while I’m unpacking my stuff.

So now it’s a few days later, it’s my birthday, I’m now 21 and my dad comes to visit me. He takes me out to dinner and then I ask him to take me to Barnes and Noble so I can get some books. While I’m there I realize they have a record section and I think “hey I have a record player now so why don’t I look?” and so of course I end up at the Us because who else would I be thinking of at this point. So I look and notice that there’s an Achtung Baby album there and I think “hey it’s that album from that book!” and “that Mysterious Ways song is on here isn’t it?” so I ask my dad to buy it for me and he does.

So I go back to my dorm and listen to it. And I guess like a lot of people did when it was actually released, I sat there thinking “what is this?” as the opening notes of Zoo Station played. Again, like everyone when it was actually released, (the same year my mom graduated high school interesting fact) I had been listening to Joshua Tree and had gotten used to that sound. So when I was first listening to it, I was worried that my new love affair with this band would be short lived (which was pretty dumb because they have a lot of albums but I wasn’t thinking of that at the time) but as it went on I liked One, So Cruel, and of course Mysterious Ways.

So I ended up buying more of their albums, like All That You Can’t Leave Behind. I was excited to hear that one because I remember reading about it in that book as “their newest album” because of when it takes place. (The book is actually pretty new btw, 2016, it just takes place in the past). And geez, I never realized until now just how much that book has influenced me, and it’s not even about U2, the main character just likes them a lot lmao. The main plot is completely unrelated. And funny story, but when Beautiful Day came on, I was like 🤯🤯🤯, basically my mind was blown because I remember hearing that song as a kid but I didn’t know it was by them lmao. Same thing with Desire. I remember my dad liked to listen to that in the car and sing along so when I was listening to Rattle and Hum and that came on I was like ????? how many more songs????

And in December-January, my step dad got a job promotion but it required him to move to South Carolina so in February they did and I flew up to visit them on Spring Break in early March and then the world ended :D :D :D

So yeah, that’s my story of how I ended up here. I’ve basically been holed up in my room for an entire year obsessing over guys that are way too old for me. Eh, oh well, what can I say? It’s not my fault that one guy I first heard of when I was 12 was (and is) so good looking. So yes, I’m a real big noob, only been here a year and I haven’t even seen them live because I couldn’t get my act together five years ago (or anytime between then and now) despite the universe’s best efforts to get me to. *sigh* sorry I’m so dense, universe. But I guess better late than never, better now than later, right?

Anyway, there’s more I want to say but this is already a freaking novel (sorry but I warned you!) Maybe I’ll write everything else in a separate post sometime, but for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this. And to quote Bono on that “A-Z of 2014″ post he made, if you somehow made it to the end of this, you must be on painkillers.

#sorry this was a freaking novel #I like rambling #and talking #I hope you like it #sorry if there's any typos #:)

8 notes · View notes