"I could kill you in a heartbeat."
Akaza bites back a smile, turning to you with a blank expression, as if he was annoyed. "Threatening me again?"
You let out a cat-like grin, and he raises his eyebrows, knowing something ridiculous is about to come out of your mouth. "They are thinking about making me a Hashira, ya know. I would be afraid if I were you, Akaza."
You close your eyes, satisfied with your cocky words, and rest your head on his crossed knee. You kick one leg over the other and hum to yourself, waiting for his next words. The mischievous smile hasn't fallen from your face and he's staring at it, his own matching grin pulling at his lips. Your antics always do amuse him, whether he likes it or not.
"What a strange thing for them to do, all considering you haven't touched a Nichirin sword in your puny lifetime." He places the tip of his finger on your jaw, the sharp, red nail slightly digging into your skin. A small reminder that he is a demon, and you are not. Probably another ridiculous act of physical dominance that you couldn't be bothered by.
You aren't phased by his strange actions anymore. The way he kisses you and purposely bites your lip to show off his fangs, the way his grip on your wrist sometimes is just a little too hard, or when he truly does get upset and shows you just a glimpse of what his opponents see that sends a shiver down your spine. He is trying to scare you, probably away from him.
You love him too much to go anywhere, even if he is afraid of himself. What is best is to ignore it, he seems to relax whenever you don't react to it. Act normal. You hold onto the finger with your own and continue to poke fun at him. "Way to ruin the mood. Mentioning how much older you are than me, you pervert."
"Deflecting now, are we?" He says, now tapping on your cheek. He seems to relax again and instead indulges your words.
You sigh dramatically. "I guess it can't be helped. I am in love with a pervert. And a demon non the less."
He scoffs at you, but he's smiling. You can hear it in the tone of his voice. "You are of age, stop whining. Besides, don't act like you didn't cling to me first. Maybe I'm the one getting taken advantage of. "
You gasp at him, and he barks a small laugh. He exposes his fangs, and his eyes hold a light in them. He is always pouting, it's nice to see him smile every once in a while.
"Sorry you know I have a thing for men who have blue-striped di—"
A hand covers your mouth in an instant and he shakes his head, as if disappointed. "And you think I'm the pervert."
You lick the palm of his hand and he pulls away with a disgusted groan. His snide comment makes you laugh, and play into it. "You know I can't help it with you."
He peers at you with amusement, but his mouth remains in a hard line. "You're gross."
"You love it."
He blinks at you and stares for a long second as if he was assessing your face. The corners of his mouth creep upward, and he lets out a breathless sigh. "Yeah. Guess so."
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Day 5: Hair/Truama. A future snippet from my Ageswap au fic, Black Sweatshirt.
—
Blue eyes widen, and Teru takes in a deep breath….
Before flinging his hand forward, covering Reigen in a triple reinforced barrier. Right as the yellow wraps around the middle schooler, the energy in front of them shivers, black hair wild as it explodes, shattering the windows behind him. Teru throws his arms up in front of his face, hissing in pain as glass shards slice his arms, his legs, his torso, his hair. His skin burns as tiny cuts scrape across his scalp.
Suddenly the energy freezes in midair, shards shimmering in the light from the now gaping hole at the front of the building. Then, like the start of rain, glass starts to fall to the floor, large and small pieces scattering around them. Time hangs like a clock unable to hit the next hour and Teru slowly lowers his arms, bits of his brightly colored button-down drifting from his elbows to the floor. Blood trickles down from his forearms and a gash from his temple blurs his vision red. Teru opens his mouth to speak but instead stumbles backwards as air breaks out of his lungs. He reaches up, his hand shaking as it runs along jagged cuts of hair.
A gasp in front of him and Teru’s eyes dart up, meeting horrified deeper reds.
—
You can read the first few chapters here! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50688223/chapters/128046583
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(Please enjoy this ridiculously self-indulgent little Double Life drabble that involves a very specific headcanon I have for Tango that I wrote about in Been Here Before)
***
They’re picking up the burned mess Scar left of the ranch, hauling away blackened timber and shoveling out the coals. Maybe, Jimmy thinks, they can restart. It wouldn’t be so hard, and besides, they’d managed to save some of the animals, so that was all well and good.
Tango swears, and Jimmy looks up to see him standing across the half-destroyed building, shaking his hand. A log crusted with charcoal is at his feet, and Jimmy immediately guesses what happened.
“Still had embers on it?” he asks.
“Yeah.” Tango sighs. “You’d think I’d learn to be more careful now.”
Jimmy nods. Even with his gloves, his own hands are spotted with burns from before he’d learned to roll each log, carefully checking every surface for glowing coals and embers and wisps of smoke.
Tango though. Tango was made of fire, being a blazeborn. Jimmy had half-expected him to not be bothered as they'd rushed around trying to douse the fire. But he'd been overwhelmed by the flames, just like Jimmy had been.
“Tango—“ he starts hesitantly. “Not to sound like I’m blaming you, but—“
Tango gives him a tired look. “Spit it out, buddy.”
Why couldn’t you stop it? But that sounds too accusing. “Why did you burn?” Jimmy says, wincing as the words leave his mouth. He knows it’s the best thing to do, to talk this over, not let his questions sit and fester into resentment. But he doesn’t want to push Tango. Doesn’t want to seem like he’s blaming him.
When Tango looks puzzled, Jimmy clarifies, “I just figured fire wouldn’t bother you. Cause…y’know. The blazeborn stuff. Couldn’t you have stopped the fire before…” His voice trails off, and he gestures around them.
“Oh.” Tango sighs, and his shoulders slump.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jimmy says immediately, regret flooding him. “I didn’t mean—gosh, sounds like I’m blaming you, I didn’t mean—“
“What? No, no, it’s not that.” Tango waves the apology away. “I’m not upset or anything. It—it makes sense that you’d ask, right? ‘Course it does. Anyone would. It’s just…weird to talk about.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Nah, I want to, it’s just kinda funny… I’m not really a softie, y’know? Emotions and all that kind of stuff. That’s Impulse and Skizz and all. Not me. I’m not an emotions type of guy.” Tango grins at him. “But I trust you, Jimmy. Hundred percent. So I know you won’t freak out about this.”
Jimm grins back, even as he feels a nervous jitter in his chest. It’s good to know that Tango trusts him.
“I just found out before Double Life started, which is honestly the weirdest thing about it all,” Tango continues. “There wasn’t time to tell anyone else. Zed’s the only other one who knows.“
Jimmy didn’t know much about Zed, other than what Grian and had told. The quietest and shyest of the hermits, Zed never ventured far beyond his comfort zone and so would never even consider doing something like the Life games.
“I’m not a blazeborn. It’s redstone.”
“Redstone?” Jimmy stares at him. “How—“ He frowns and scans Tango again. The hair that flared with flame. The golden freckles that sometimes seemed to glimmer in the sun. The red eyes.
Jimmy thought of Joel and his time as a blazeborn, the only other blazeborn he’d known. He’d looked a lot different. At the time Jimmy hadn’t thought of it, but now… “So you’re made of redstone?”
“There’s redstone in my blood.” Tango rubbed his forearm, and for the first time Jimmy noticed the grid pattern of scars, faintly paler than Tango’s skin color, cutting neat lines through the freckles of his arm. “I—I’m not from a normal world. When I was a kid, there were experiments done on me…and…” His voice trails off, and Tango shrugs.
He’s staring off into the distance, somewhere over Jimmy’s shoulder, with a glaze to his eyes that tells Jimmy he’s seeing something else.
Something past.
“And?” He prompts gently, his voice soft. He can feel an unexpected heat in his chest, and it takes a moment for Jimmy to realize it’s anger. He’s never angry.
But Tango had been a kid. And Jimmy understood that. He hadn’t been much more than a kid himself during Evo.
Cool. So we both have screwed up pasts. That's just...great, that is.
Tango blinks abruptly and brings his gaze to Jimmy’s face. “Sorry. I, uh…” He scratches the back of his neck, looking down at the ground. “Bad memories. Seems like I’ve been finding a lot of them buried in my past lately.” He shrugs again. “Anyway. That’s why I couldn’t stop the fire. I burn just as easily as anyone else, although it’s an easy mistake to make. Heck, I made it myself for years.”
“And you haven’t told anyone else?”
Tango shakes his head. “Zed was there. But Skizz, Impulse…I haven’t told anyone. I haven’t even told Xisuma yet. I dunno, it just… I have to let it sit with me for a bit. Let it settle, y’know.”
Jimmy nods. He thinks of an ocean, and a Queen, and a cod head, and he nods again. He knows. “Big reveals gotta settle sometimes before we’re ready to talk about them.”
Tango leans back against the fire-marked fence. “Yeah. Anywayyy…” He shifts his weight back and forth as if feeling awkward.
“Thanks for tellin’ me.”
“Yeah.” Tango’s still not looking at him.
Jimmy doesn’t stop to think. He walks across the clearing and wraps his arms around Tango, pulling him close in a hug. Tango tenses up for a brief second before he hugs Jimmy back.
“I mean it. Thanks for trustin’ me with this,” Jimmy says. “‘specially since you’re still figuring out how to tell everyone else. I ain’t gonna betray that trust, Tango. I hope you know that.”
“Course I know it, ya big dummy,” Tango says, grinning. “Now can we stop with the mushy mushy stuff and get back to work?”
Jimmy let go of him, grinning back. “So can I come visit Hermitcraft someday and see you do redstone work?”
“Absolutely! We’ll get ya whitelisted. I’ll show you around, mebbe teach you a thing or two about redstone.” Tango elbowed him. “You can go back to Empires and impress everyone with your newfound knowledge.”
They got back to work, the silence comfortable once again, no longer feeling strained.
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