sportsanime | Bonus Round 5: Myth & Lore

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Bonus Round 5: Myth & Lore

Summer's a time for swapping stories around the campfire. With that in mind, this round draws inspiration from the stories humanity have told each other over the centuries.

This round is CLOSED as of 7PM on August 4 EDT. Late fills may be posted, but they will not receive points.

RULES

This round does not have prompts. Instead, we ask you to draw inspiration from the wide pool of mythology, fantasy, folklore, and fable. An urban fantasy or supernatural AU? A re-imagining of your favorite folk tale? Characters swapping ghost stories or playing D&D? As long as your fill in some way incorporates the fantastical and/or supernatural, it's welcome here.
Your fill still has to be about a ship from one of our nominated fandoms. What ships you create work for is up to you, though.
To submit your fill, simply leave it as a comment as a reply to this post.
Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.

FORMAT

Bonus round shenanigans all happen in the comments below. Brand-new works only, please.

Required Work Minimums:

400 words (prose)
400px by 400px (art)
14 lines (poetry)

There is no max work cap.

Remember, this is a NO-PROMPT round. Format your fill comment in one of the following ways:

If FILLING:

If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant:

FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING]

Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team you belong to
- Write it exactly as it appears on the team roster (without brackets) or your team will not receive points
Replace RATING with the rating of your fill (G - E)
Place applicable major content tags and word count before your fill (when applicable)
If no major content tags are applicable, make sure to state this-- even if including other additional tags
NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and use clear tags in your comment. Written/text fills should be hosted at AO3 ONLY as a new, unchaptered work. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere. You may include a small safe-for-work preview of the fill in your comment.
To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" alt="DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE"/>
Visual example

FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING]

Replace RATING with the rating of your fill, G - E, as explained in the rules
Place applicable major content tags and word count before the fill, where applicable
If no major content tags are applicable, make sure to state this-- even if including other additional tags
NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and use clear tags in your comment. Written/text fills should be hosted at AO3 ONLY as a new, unchaptered work. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere. You may include a small safe-for-work preview of your work in your comment.
To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" />
Visual example

Posts not using this format will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, regardless of what they contain. They, like all comments in this community, are subject to the code of conduct.

SCORING

These numbers apply to your team as a whole, not each individual teammate. Make as many fills as you want!

For fills:

First 3 fills by any member of your team: 20 points each
Fills 4-10: 10 points each
Fills 11-20: 5 points each
Fills 21+: 2 points each

All scored content must be created new for this round.

Etc.

If you're hunting through the prompts looking for what to fill, a good trick is to view top-level comments only.

Have a question? Check The FAQ first. If you still need help, feel free to contact the mods. Happy fanworking!

Threaded | Flat

no major content warnings
Inui & Echizen

I picked 2004 because that's when fire red and leaf green came out

no major content warnings
Tatara & Chinatsu

gaju: oh yeah, that thing.
hyoudou: they say really good dancers can feel it sometimes. like you have four legs.

Yamazaki Sousuke/Pyusuke; Free!
interspecies relationship, transformation; based on the frog prince, kind of
word count: 1089

It all starts with a dream.

He's at his family home for the weekend, sleeping in his own bed, enjoying the comfort of it, when the dream startles him awake with how strange and vivid it is.

It leaves him disoriented for a moment, blinking up at his ceiling as he remembers where he is, and then remembers the dream. He shuts his eyes, and he can still see it clearly; the can recall the handsome stranger standing incredibly close to him, gorgeous and dark-skinned, with messy black hair and a golden crown perched on top of it, embellished with elegant decorations including, most prominently, golden prongs that stick up like—

Like antlers, he thinks to himself, sitting up in bed. Like a stag.

Turning to his windowsill, he looks at the small bottle he took from Momotarou, with the stag beetle inside. He reaches over, picking it up and looking at the mandible, marvelling at just how much it looks like the decorative parts of the crown from his dream.

"Weird," he mutters to himself, holding the bottle a little closer. The beetle inside stands against the glass, as if it's looking right back at him. "Pyunsuke, huh?"

Instead of taking the bottle out and releasing the beetle into the wild, he ends up keeping it. At first, he just thinks about keeping it at home, but when he's packing to return to Samezuka, he picks the bottle up without thought, carefully tucking it into his bag.

Momotarou is more than happy to help Sousuke set up a proper terrarium for Pyunsuke. He bombards Sousuke with information, giving him far too much at once. Sousuke ends up having to sit down and read about it online for any of it to actually sink in. He learns about how to feed stag beetles, how to keep them clean and healthy, and how to make sure their habitat is comfortable for them.

He's surprised at just how easy it is to take care of Pyunsuke, and Sousuke finds himself slowly getting attached. Rin thinks it's hilarious, but he doesn't seem to mind at all when Sousuke develops a habit of taking Pyunsuke out of his tank to let him wander around.

The dream from before returns, after a while, and this time it doesn't leave. Sousuke dreams of the same man several nights in a row, but it's not entirely unpleasant. There's a sense of familiarity to them that lingers even once Sousuke wakes, but he doesn't really know where to start figuring out what it could possibly mean, so he doesn't try.

On one particular afternoon, while Rin is out, Sousuke is sitting at his desk, letting Pyunsuke crawl across his fingers as he does his homework.

"What are you doing?" he asks with a small smile, as he feels Pyunsuke's legs tickling across his arm, climbing it. He stops writing, so he can just sit there are watch as the beetle climbs all the way up onto his shoulder, bumping its mandible against Sousuke's chin.

"Well, hey to you too," he replies, picking Pyunsuke up and bringing him closer, to eye level.

He moves without thought, leaning forward and brushing a gentle kiss over Pyunsuke's mandibles, and the very next moment, there's a loud crash.

Sousuke is sent sprawling onto the floor, and he's too busy trying to make sure not to land on his bad shoulder that he doesn't notice the man suddenly in his room. Not until said man falls on top of him.

"What the hell, get off me," Sousuke mutters, struggling against the weight on top of him before he looks up.

The moment that he does, he immediately stops struggling.

He knows the face looking back at him. He knows that dark skin, the black curls, the golden crown.

"Pyun…suke…?"

"That's my name, isn't it?" the man smiles. "You saved me. I knew that you would."

"You were a beetle," Sousuke says, and then a horrible thought occurs to him. "This isn't a true love thing, is it?"

Pyunsuke gives him a quizzical look, and Sousuke breathes a sigh of relief. He doesn't know how he'd even get his head around the fact that he's in true love with a beetle. Or a guy who used to be a beetle.

It's difficult enough getting his head around the fact that he's attracted to said man, and that every passing moment that he's still pinned underneath Pyunsuke, he's beginning to realise that he doesn't mind it at all.

"Your reward for saving me," Pyunsuke murmurs, and leans towards Sousuke.

He knows exactly what's coming, and Sousuke decides not to bother fighting it. He lifts his head up off the floor, meeting Pyunsuke's mouth with his own. They kiss deeply, and Sousuke winds his arms around Pyunsuke's shoulders, holding him close, until they're both breathless.

"I think," Pyunsuke murmurs, kissing along Sousuke's jaw, "I need to keep you."

"Huh," Sousuke says dazedly, chasing Pyunsuke's lips with his own because the moment they stop making out, he's going to have to deal with the rest of this situation, and he isn't quite ready for that yet.

"I could take you with me," Pyunsuke says. "Reclaim my place as the beetle king. I could have you by my side. Be my king-consort, Sousuke."

"Huh?"

Before Pyunsuke can speak, they hear the doorknob turning. Sousuke's stomach drops out.

"Quick. Before Rin comes in. Hide."

Rin opens the door to find Sousuke on his back, with Pyunsuke in beetle form, crawling across his chest.

"Were you just talking to your beetle while I was gone?" Rin asks, carefully stepping around Sousuke. "You must really like him a lot, huh?"

Sousuke laughs nervously. "Um. Yeah. I guess you could say that."

Pyunsuke nips Sousuke's finger gently—affectionately, Sousuke thinks, and he doesn't even know how he knows, but he does, and it makes his face go red.

"Are you feeling okay?" Rin asks with concern.

Sousuke doesn't even know where to begin. "Yeah. Everything's just fine. Absolutely fine."

"Convincing," Rin hums. "I'm going to go find Ai and Momo and see if they want ice cream. You should join us when you're done playing with your beetle."

With that, Rin leaves the room again. Sousuke is half afraid that Pyunsuke will change forms again, but he doesn't. Instead, he just crawls further up Sousuke's chest, bumping mandibles to chin in yet another affectionate gesture.

Sousuke strokes his finger over Pyunsuke's body, and wonders when, exactly, he lost control of his life.

Tsukasa/Rindou Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
1237 words, animal death, T

Tsukasa knows it'll be a bothersome mission the moment King Senzaemon assigns him to look for General Kobayashi. As the White Knight, Tsukasa is privy to information on Toutsuki Royalty, but even he has heard little of the missing General and his family.

"Kobayashi is strong and untouchable" is all King Senzaemon says before launching into another unhelpful, nostalgic spew.

After a long trek to visit the smug Alquimista, Tsukasa learns the subject of his quest is flighty and was last seen in a town four days away from the castle. It seems less like magic and more like common intel, but Tsukasa still pays the hefty price for a glance at the Alquimista's crystal ball.

On the first day of his travels, Tsukasa meets a potion seller at an inn who has heard of Kobayashi. "What is he like?" Tsukasa asks after spending an unnecessary amount of coins to procure Miyoko juice made from the freshest pomegranate fruit.

"Loud," Miyoko says with a tilt of her head, and Tsukasa feels his headache growing.

On the third day, Tsukasa replenishes his supplies at an armoury. The blacksmith is a short woman of few words. "You're looking for Kobayashi?"

"Yes," Tsukasa says and tries to keep the building irritation out of his voice. "What is Kobayashi like?"

Mizuhara simply shrugs while repairing the rig for Tsukasa's horse. "Meddlesome."

This is why Tsukasa is appropriately unenthusiastic when he arrives at his destination to find a village in the woods. He ties his horse to a tree and follows the single path weaving around the settlement, stepping through tall grass that leaves dark stains on his armor. Tsukasa knows it's magic to track unwanted visitors, and he's not surprised when the villagers regard him with uncooperative alarm.

Wearily, Tsukasa finds an area by the river to rest. He finishes his cheese and sheds his armor under the warm spring sun. Tsukasa lies down on the grass and thinks about how the King will respond to the disappointing news. Strip, probably.

"Hello!" A cheerful voice says, and Tsukasa opens his eyes to find a woman peering over him. She's kneeling on the grass, her dark red tresses pooling onto his tunic in waves.

Tsukasa stares back. "Hi."

"Who are you?" The woman asks, mischief dancing in her gold eyes.

Tsukasa considers his options: The White Knight, Envoy of the King, Tired Messenger. He deflates under her gaze and says, "My name is Tsukasa Eishi." He's surprised when the woman trusts out a hand in response. Tsukasa shakes her hand wearily and finds her palms surprisingly warm. When he looks up, he finds the woman staring at him, her face now unreadable.

"I'm Rindou. Nice to meet you!" Rindou flattens the skirt part of her wrinkled dress and stands up, pulling Tsukasa along with her. She picks up wrapped loaves of bread near her and turns back towards the village. "You can't stay here. Red Dragonflies appear in the afternoons, and you know they prefer to suck men's blood."

Tsukasa doesn't know that. Still, he gathers his belongings quietly and follows Rindou as she parts tall grass with a wave of her hand. "I'm looking for someone," Tsukasa says.

All he gets in response is a thoughtful hum as Rindou pops a piece of bread into her mouth. "Want some?" She doesn't wait for Tsukasa's reply before breaking off a large piece and throwing it at him.

On their way back to Rindou's home, they pick up flowers from a girl who wraps the stems tightly in brown paper. Rindou circles around Tsukasa as if gauging his reaction, asking him random questions about his sword and hair.

Tsukasa is surprised when they arrive in front of the cabin to find his horse roaming in a patch of grass by Rindou's garden.

"I moved him here," Rindou says with a small grin. She dumps her items into Tsukasa's arms while searching for her keys, and Tsukasa notices that her fingers are pale and uncalloused, even more so than the Princess's.

Once inside, Rindou prepares tea while Tsukasa examines trinkets lining Rindou's walls. The cabin is spacious, but there are no traces of anyone else having lived here. "I'm searching for General Kobayashi," Tsukasa says when Rindou serves him tea and cookies.

Rindou tilts her head at him. "How is your search going?"

"Unfruitful as expected." Tsukasa looks down at his saucer.

"Why are you searching for this person?"

Tsukasa considers lying, but it seems troublesome. "I was told that our families have history, and as the heir of my bloodline, I am the only one who can work alongside him." The idea of bonded bloodlines still seems unrealistic to Tsukasa, but there must be a reason the second seat in the Royal Council has been left empty and uncontested for so long. Tsukasa's father always said prophecy protected their family, even though not a single drop of magic ran through Tsukasa's veins.

Rindou nods and waves her cookie in the air. "You don't seem excited at the prospect."

Tsukasa looks towards the window, where a potted plant is hanging from the ceiling on invisible twine. The truth is that the kingdom is on the precipice of a great split. With the Princess too young to assume her position, the council has been split at a stalemate. They need Kobayashi to cast the vote reserved for the second seat, and the King has hopes that it will be in their favor.

"Perhaps my intel was wrong," Tsukasa says at last, feeling another wave of anxiety clawing at him. "I should stop imposing upon you and continue my search. Thank you for your hospitality." He's not surprised, really, to look down and find that Rindou has already stolen his cookie. It's not until Rindou escorts Tsukasa outside that something occurs to him. "Why do Red Dragonflies prefer men's blood if there are no men in this village?"

"Ah! You noticed?" Rindou grins like she had, indeed, expected him to notice. A gust of wind blows a shower of crepe myrtles into the air, but Tsukasa is painfully aware that not a single flower petal lands on Rindou.

Untouchable, the king had said.

“Please answer my question.”

Rindou taps a finger to her chin. "The truth would trouble you."

"Most things trouble me," Tsukasa replies honestly.

"Well," Rindou says as she snaps her fingers. On command, a bird flies down to land on her palms. It makes distressed calling sounds, as if pulled down by some invisible force. Immediately upon landing, it bursts into flames, and Tsukasa watches in fascination at the ball of contained fire in Rindou's hands. Eventually, Rindou ends the fire and gives Tsukasa a strange smile. "When I touch things, they tend to burn. Men, especially."

Tsukasa looks down at his own hand, where he'd touched hers not long ago. He thinks about what it means to be born into coupling seats in the council, to be bonded from birth. Rindou had probably known that he was coming to find her.

"A storm is coming to Toutsuki," Rindou says, apropos of nothing. She takes Tsukasa's hand again and squeezes, and Tsukasa feels his normal state of apathy lit by something bubbling and raw.

"Yes," Tsukasa agrees quietly.

Rindou smirks at him like a cat who has caught a satisfying prey. "Perhaps I will come with you and ride the waves."

416 words
character death (dead character?), graphic descriptions of violence (drowning)

Bokuto’s breath is cold on Akaashi’s face, like a gust of winter’s wind, but his touches are soft enough to light a furnace inside him. Their noses are pressed against each other’s, lips hovering so close together that they can almost touch. Bokuto grins, cupping Akaashi’s cheek with a wet, clammy hand. Most people would think it is strange. Akaashi decides he isn’t “most people” after all.

Bokuto smiles, and it is like sunlight has filled the room, infiltrating each and every corner with cheerful, radiant, warmth. Akaashi feels his heart skip a beat, and he closes his eyes. He swallows the lump in his throat, inching closer to Bokuto to press his lips against his.

Kissing a ghost, he soon finds, is enough to leave him breathless.

Bokuto’s corporeal form wraps around him, enveloping him in a misty blanket. Akaashi feels like the wind is being sucked from his lungs and his breath is being tugged from his throat; he lets out an involuntary gagging sound, but he cannot bring himself to tear away. Instead, Akaashi finds himself deepening the kiss, cupping the back of Bokuto’s neck with his hand, toying with cold silvers of hair and slight ethers of skin.

He tastes cold, but not unpleasant. It is like a fresh drink of water after going for so long parched. Akaashi moans softly as Bokuto laces his hands into his hair, tracing Bokuto’s bottom lip with his tongue. This is dangerous, he knows. He will soon run out of air, his system will soon collapse. Already he can feel his knees weakening and a sense of darkness cloying around him, a pain wrenching in his chest—another gagging sound escapes from the back of his throat, and Akaashi pulls away. His eyes widen as he lifts his hand to his lips. Bokuto’s brow crosses with concern.

“Are you okay—“ he begins, stumbling backwards with panic. Akaashi is too busy savouring the feeling of air and the coming to his senses to answer properly, but he manages to nod. Somehow, the feeling of asphyxiation just simulates how he’s felt about this entire affair. He’d practically drowned in Bokuto’s kiss, just as he’s slowly drowning in this love. Akaashi squeezes his eyes shut again, taking a long, deep breath. Life, breath slowly flows through his veins once more. He finally brings himself to smile back.

“I want this more than air,” he mutters, wrapping his arms around Bokuto once again and crushing their lips together.

Nakiri Alice/Kurokiba Ryou, Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
507 Words, shapeshifting, G

Alice is already gathering her scrolls when Erina asks for a moment of privacy. "What would you like to talk about, dearest cousin?" Alice says after the last of the councilmen have left the meeting hall.

Princess Erina does not roll her eyes, but she does her best to look unimpressed. "There is a rumor floating around Court that the Duchess is conspiring against me with a demon. I've heard it described as a monster of the night."

Alice pouts in response. "How rude. You know I would do no such thing."

"You are too careless. Be careful with who you trust," Erina says with finality before leaving.

Alice just hums, gathers the rest of her things, and heads for the carriage that will take her back to the estate. Upon her return, she has tea with her mother and meets again with the Master of Arms to finalize her submission for the annual fencing competition. Alice handpicks the vegetables to be used for dinner and enjoys a small but well-crafted meal. By the time she has bathed and settled into bed, the moon is already high in the sky. She almost doesn't notice when the door to her suite is cracked open, and the sound of paws on her wooden floor is followed by the familiar dip in her bed as a large black dog settles himself near her feet.

"You must stop sneaking in like this." Alice hums while touching the dog's soft, black coat. "People are beginning to talk."

The dog raises an ear lazily at her.

"Won't you come to bed like a normal person?" Alice asks, smiling as she watches light fill the room. When Ryou resumes his human form, she takes a moment to appreciate the sharp lines of his body. It's a shame, really, that he's usually clad in that black tunic in public. Eventually, Alice sighs and throws a towel at him. "Go take a bath. The water should still be warm." She falls back against her pillow when Ryou obeys without a word.

Alice is almost asleep when Ryou comes back to bed, clean and smelling of her soap. His chest is warm where it touches her back, and Alice makes a small, content noise when he drapes a hand across her waist. "I signed you up for the tournament," she says softly.

"Why?" Ryou asks, the beginning of a growl forming in his chest.

"I want to show the Kingdom that you're more than just a stray," Alice says.

"You want to show me off," Ryou replies, and Alice can't exactly deny that. "The tournament is pointless. You know I'm stronger than anyone training under the Master of Arms."

Alice presses her nose against his arm. "I hear there are some interesting people participating this year, perhaps even someone of your caliber."

Ryou takes a moment to digest this information. They both know that he’s been waiting a long time for a worthy rival. "I won't fail you."

"I know you won't," Alice say, and means it.

Imaizumi Shunsuke / Naruko Shoukichi, Yowapeda
tags: cisswap (first years), minor violence; Onoda/Midousuji if you squint
880 words, Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU

Naruko’s hair is like a heart fire in the bright noon sun as they toss her into the sky.

Her yellow and red pompoms held proudly aloft are a victory signal as they celebrate another cheerleading win for Team Sohoku at regionals; the noise from the crowd surrounds her like the best welcome home, and Naruko feels like she can’t smile for them any brighter, a grin that’s all teeth lighting up her face as she readies for her signature dismount.

They always love how flashy it is. They love her, and Naruko feels like she truly is standing on top of the world, held up by the warm steady hands of her beloved friends and teammates, and she lets herself whoop with joy as Onoda and Kaburagi vault her off their hands into a complicated series of aerial twists.

“Hm,” Kinjou says, as he watches the cheerleading squad perform from the second floor library window. His hands pause over the open pages of the notebook where he was jotting down observations; they’ve been adding up in a very particular way, and he knows the answer long before he looks at them. “She’s so young. They’re always so young. Will she be ready for what’s ahead of her.”

Tadokoro looks up from where he is sitting with Makishima as they sort long knifes and a variety of wooden stakes into three duffel bags emblazoned with the school crest. The cheery yellow and red Sohoku colours seem incongruous with their dangerous contents, but something about them suits Tadokoro’s confident grin. “I’ll personally make sure she’s ready. We all will.”

--

“Of course Onoda-chan is off to The Akiba again,” Naruko cackles as she walks briskly home alone. They had parted ways at the fork leading up to the main road; Onoda had seen that tall gangly cheerleader from a rival school and had almost tripped running up to her, and Naruko had laughed herself sick watching the resulting bright explosion of enthusiasm (Onoda) and reluctant, dragging interest (the rival) go head to head. But they both had matching anime charms dangling from their sports bags, and when Onoda had bowed deep to Naruko for leaving her there, Naruko had just waved off her best friend with a hearty "Remember to use protection!" as if the two girls weren't just going to the local arcade to knock each other out of the top spot rankings.

The sun has long since set, and the weekend lies ahead, open and full of alcohol- and dancing-laced possibilities, and Naruko is head in the clouds thinking about the pretty girls that always seem to hang out at The Akiba when movement shifts the shadows to her left, close to the mouth of the alleyway she had just passed; hands dart out and grab at her, and she barely has time to keep her quick feet under her before she’s pulled into the dark.

“Don’t think so, you shithead,” Naruko yells as she jabs a pointy elbow into the person’s soft gut, or maybe that was their groin going by the particular pained wheezing she’s rewarded with, why is everybody so goddamn tall anyway, and the hands holding her go slack and start trying to slap her off with a muffled, “Stop that, I’m just trying to help you--”

They’re both slapping at each other when a heavy thump lands a figure directly where Naruko was just a moment ago, and something hisses in the dark and lunges at them both.

“Shit!” Naruko yells as she roundhouse kicks the attacking figure in the long glinting teeth; all she can see is a mouth wide open and teeth like knives and Naruko knows she doesn’t want any of that, no thank you. The attacking figure is a grimace of fury and looms over her, but Naruko is all sharp reflexes and she feels such strength in her bones in this moment, she thinks the world has changed somewhere in the last two minutes.

“Holy shit!” Naruko yells again as the person previously holding her pulls something out of the inside of their jacket and stabs it into the attacking figure. “Holy shit, you just killed a dude!”

“Can you just pay attention for one minute,” that person says, and that person turns out to be a very tall pretty girl with wayward black hair that sticks out in flyaways. She’s holding a wooden stake in one hand and is gently rubbing one breast with the other. Oh, that’s what I jabbed, Naruko thinks, and she can’t help but cringe a little bit in sympathetic pain, and she can’t help but flush a little bit in remembering how soft it had been.

The pretty girl almost looks bored as the attacking figure crumbles to dust at their feet, but something about the crease of her eyes looks nervous, like she’s waiting for the reprimand, the other shoe to fall, and Naruko fells fierce in that moment, puts a warm hand against the pretty girl’s arm in comfort.

“What the fuck was that,” Naruko asks.

When the pretty girl smiles at her, her eyeteeth grow long and white in the light of the rising moon, and Naruko can only stare wide-eyed. “That was a vampire, and I’m here to help you.”

Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, haikyuu!!

kono bangumi wa goran no suponsaa no teikyou de okurishimasu:

tales of zestiria au

no tags!
662 words.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa grips his shoulders tight and spins him face-to-face. “Stay back—you can’t purify hellions.”

Iwaizumi looks like he wants to punch him in the face. He grits his teeth and clenches his fist; Oikawa mentally prepares himself for the punch or kick or even snowball that will come flying his way.

“I’m not here for you to protect me,” Iwaizumi snarls instead, “I’m not here to be a liability.”

“You’re not,” Oikawa growls, his heart pounding in his chest, “you’re—why can’t you just—ugh,” he sighs, “just stay away.”

Iwaizumi stares at him, eyes cool as the element he controls.

“Alright, if that’s what you want,” he says, turns around, and walks away.

Oikawa feels his heart being squeezed painfully, the prickles of panic swelling up inside of him. It’s not that, he wants to say but his tongue is heavy in his mouth, it’s just that Iwaizumi is too important to lose. He’s not a handicap; that would be an insult to what he is to Oikawa.

Iwaizumi is important, he firmly reminds himself, Iwaizumi doesn’t deserve to be brought into danger because of Oikawa’s own impulsive decisions and selfish wish fulfillment. He’s always there, a constant presence at his side. Except now he isn’t.

The mere thought of that brings Oikawa to his knees as he clutches his chest.

Iwaizumi turns around at the sound and his eyes are wide. He instinctively walks over then jerks back, as if he’s been burned, his eyes flashing with hurt. Oikawa’s chest twists when he realizes that he’s the reason for it, the reason for why there’s a schism in a relationship that’s always been there, as old as they are, and he gasps openly.

“At ease, Shepherd,” Kiyoko murmurs—the Lady of the Lake, she warned him about the consequences—and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. Yui watches, nervous, unable to see what’s going on.

Iwaizumi stays with them, a few steps back, and Oikawa’s so used to holding hands as they explore ruins that the lack of warmth is as telling as ever. He looks down at his hand, then back at Iwaizumi, and Iwaizumi raises both of his eyebrows as if to say, well, this is what you asked for, isn’t it?

They find another Divine Artifact and Oikawa dismisses it—Iwaizumi isn’t becoming a Sub-Lord, there is no need for it.

Yui fights off the poisonous snakes that crawl around her, dangerously close enough to burn her skin with their acidic saliva. Kiyoko worries her bottom lip between her teeth—the snakes are strong against her flames of purification and Oikawa suggests that they just run when Iwaizumi sprints to Kiyoko with the bow in his grip.

“Make me your sublord,” he demands and Oikawa gasps, a “no,” already on his tongue.

Kiyoko recites, Iwaizumi stumbles when she skips the most important part with a quiet, “and so on,” and then she shouts at Iwaizumi to tell Oikawa his true name.

“He already knows it,” Iwaizumi grumbles.

“Sure do, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa cheers.

“Oh my,” Kiyoko murmurs.

They armatize for the first time and Oikawa feels every single emotion surge through him, like a tidal wave that is Iwaizumi, harsh but with a sense of safety, like it doesn’t matter how far you get swept out, Iwaizumi will be there to pull him back to shore with a scolding and a well-placed kick. It fills him with a sense of this is right, of this is their bond, of their power comes from their feelings and if that’s not the cheesiest thing that Oikawa’s ever thought of, he’d be lying.

He hears them scoff; it’s weird to think of the two of them as one but Iwaizumi is everywhere and it feels more natural than when he armatizes with Kiyoko, a display drawing from raw power instead of the bond between them.

“Ready?” Iwaizumi asks and Oikawa doesn’t have to respond because they already know.

Hayama Akira/ Shiomi Jun; Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
G, no tags, 419 words

Akira is eight when he meets the Witch of Spices. To him, she appears like an angel in the midst of a storm that he is hopelessly lost in. With unbridled determination, Jun takes Akira under her wings and teaches him everything she knows about spices. She shows him charms to keep basil plants alive past peak seasons and methods of grinding herbs into medicine. In turn, Akira devours the contents of her spellbooks when he's not serving as her errand boy.

Everywhere they travel, people call Jun a witch because of her obscure area of wisdom and her inability to age. Yet, Akira knows that Jun is nothing but human. He learns everything he can from her about medicine and magic, and his hunger for knowledge grows into something more.

"I'm going back to Toutsuki," Jun tells him the year he turns fourteen. Her smile is sad but knowing, an expression she often adopts when sacrificing small animals. "You're welcome to come with me or stay here. I've spoken to the apothecary in the next town, and he's happy to take you on as an apprentice. Don't feel obligated to stay with me just be-"

"I want to go with you," Akira says with resolve. He knows that there's nothing left for a traditional pharmacist to teach him. "I want to see the world that you come from."

Jun agrees happily as if she had actually entertained the idea of Akira parting from her. Still, they spend a long time preparing for the journey back to Toutsuki. On their last night in town, Jun takes Hayama star gazing by the lake. "There's something I haven't told you."

"What is it?" Akira asks.

"You're more talented than any chemist I've met," Jun says softly while plucking at a blade of grass. "Your ability to detect scents is a gift, and once we return to a kingdom dominated by magic, people may try to abuse it."

This, Jun had already known. It seems so ironic that to preserve Jun's misguided notion of protecting Akira, Akira had to shield the truth from her instead. "I won't change," Hayama promises her. "I only live for you, Jun."

Jun just laughs. "Don't be silly, Hayama-kun! There's a whole world out there waiting for you."

Akira doesn't correct her because he knows she still sees him as a child, and he's waiting for the day he can show her otherwise. Until then, Akira is willing to follow Jun to Toutsuki and across the world.

note: this is a loosely-based UN-GO AU where, long story short, a guy makes a deal with a shapeshifting demon who inhabits the body of his dead crush; he becomes an amateur sleuth, the demon helps him solve mysteries in return for souls freed by despair&truth. I just took liberties with the part where they initially form a partnership, so feel free to check the actual series out! Also, the demon switches between genders quite a bit in canon so I decided to set Oikawa as ambiguous here since I shoehorned him as *welp* the dead crush.

Kageyama Tobio/Oikawa Tooru, Haikyuu!
tags: demonic posession, implied major character death, aborted major character death, ambiguous gender
589 words

Seconds before what he surmises is supposed to be his death, playful eyes and windswept brown hair swims into his vision, and Kageyama blearily wonders if it’s not too early to be seeing ghosts, when he isn’t one just yet.

“Tobio-chan!” A familiar voice croons, making things a hundred times worse. “Leaving so soon?”

He feels a cold tap to his forehead that tugs him back from the brink of eternal unconsciousness; there really is no rest for the wicked. Despite a bit of struggle, he manages to sit up, forcing himself to look directly at whatever incarnation has decided to have its bit of fun with him now.

And instantly regrets it when Oikawa— or rather, something parading as Oikawa— greets him with laughter so loud, so derisive, Kageyama feels as if it’s trying to stab his eardrums.

“It’s good to see you, Tobio-chan!” ‘Oikawa’ lilts, batting their eyelashes, pinkish lips pulling into a smile that bares their teeth in a manner that’s feral yet sweet. “How does it feel like to be alive again?”

(Kageyama wants to vomit at how perfectly they impersonate Oikawa.)

Tiredly, he croaks out, “Why are you trying pose as Oikawa-san?”

“A little slow on the uptake now, aren’t you?” Their eyes glint, voice growing harsh as they mock him, “This is your very own dear crush’s body, after all.”

Icy realisation crawls all the way up Kageyama’s spine when the truth becomes clear: the person standing before him is every bit real, it’s just that the soul that’s currently residing within the body isn’t.

He’s in the company of a living corpse, true and true.

“What’s your name?”

“Oikawa Tooru!”

“Your real name, please.”

“Ah,” ‘Oikawa’ breathes, coyly bringing a hand up to conceal their smirk upon hearing Kageyama’s order. “How truly forward of you.”

Their body language speaks fun and games, but the look in their eyes say watch where you’re treading. Violet smoke— forming from previously thin air— begins to puff and curl, surrounding the two of them in in a purple haze that’s accompanied by the cloying aroma of burnt incense.

They lean down, crooking a finger under Kageyama’s chin to lift his face up towards them. “I suppose I can be known as Inga,” a tongue darts out to wet their lips, “but it’d be more appropriate to call me Tooru now. Isn’t that right, To - bi - o - chan?”

Kageyama blinks, slowly. Swallows. Decides to play daredevil although he’s presumably in the presence of one. “Strike a deal with me.”

They come nearer, mouth ever so close to Kageyama’s dry, dry lips. “Why should I?”

(He goes in for the plunge.)

“I’ll do anything as long as you stop possessing other bodies like this.”

The smoke grows thicker. It gets harder to breathe. ‘Oikawa’ still smiles at him.

Softly, they speak: “Feed me the souls released from the deepest, darkest confines of a burdened heart; let me taste their despair and listen to the screams of their regret. Do that, and we shall have an arrangement.”

“How must I go about it?”

“It’s easy!” They giggle. “Just make me ask someone a question. They’ll be forced to tell the truth, whether they like it or not, and in return, I’ll get their soul’s authentic essence!”

Right before too many white stars fall into Kageyama’s vision, ‘Oikawa’ kisses him on the cheek, and he passes out to a friendly reminder of so, remember to make every question count, Tobio-chan!, then, all is black.

(All is sealed.)

Kominato Haruichi/Maezono Kenta, Daiya no ace
tags: descriptions of drowning (no death tho)
wordcount: 5517
mermaid au

There’s a mermaid on the deck.

That’s what Kenta assumes it must be, anyway—it looks pretty close to the way the other fishermen always describe them, lying in the wreckage of the net Kenta had cut it out of, except that this one is beautiful. In the stories, they always have sweet, lovely voices, meant to lure sailors and fishermen to their deaths. It’s only once it’s too late, once you’re in the water and can't escape them anymore, that you realize that mermaids—sirens—are hideous creatures, fanged and fish-eyed with green-and-black scaled bodies, interested only in consuming the flesh of those foolish enough to heed their call.

This one seems to be pretty much the exact opposite of that—it has the upper body of a slender but well-built young man, lithe and strong, and at its hips, where the creases of its thighs would be if it were human, a layer of tiny, thin scales begin. Following the line of its body, the scales grow in size, forming a long, powerful tail covered in shimmering, iridescent pink scales and terminating in a fin that looks both frilly and quite strong, considering the way it’s slapping the deck.

link to ao3

Imaizumi Shunsuke / Naruko Shoukichi, Yowapeda
tags: not really bestiality?? lol
830 words, shapeshifter & young feudal lord AU

“It has been the duty of your family for centuries “ they had told him.

Imaizumi doesn't really understand why something like this is so important. He doesn't think that hunting some poor winter starved creature through the bare mountain woods is very dutiful at all; he doesn't think risking the life of his loyal retainers over the treacherous rocky paths for a myth speaks of a wise young lord. To be honest, Imaizumi just wants to be left alone far from the chatter and gossip of the small court that he inherited from his mother, and to mind the minute details of the harvest and the merchants and the tea trading that he enjoys, in the stead of the performance art that is expected of him when they dress him in the full layers of blue and gold that speak of his birth.

At least it’s quiet now, Imaizumi thinks, separated from Sugimoto and Teshima and Aoyagi out here in the mountains with the grey skies framed by the tall spiraling branches of the bare winter trees, and the snow is starting to fall, soft white flakes thick on his dark lashes. The steady pile-up of snow around him makes everything feel so hushed here, deep in the woods, like it’s pulling at him with hands that speak of peace, like it wants him to lie down in the gentle drift of it and let Imaizumi finally sleep in a place where no sound can reach him.

Imaizumi jolts awake where he has leaned against the thick, rough trunk of a cedar growing crooked over the narrow path, and realises the mountain is far more dangerous than he anticipated.

“You’ll die here if you continue that way.”

Imaizumi draws his bow in one quick breath, a wisp of it curling in the cold air, and he aims up into the branches above him, where the voice seems to be coming from; everything is white, snow thick and snow blind and the sun is setting behind the sharp cruel angle of the peak he thought he was chasing after and Imaizumi suddenly doesn’t know where he wants to be anymore. “Show yourself.” His voice sounds less sure than he would like it to be.

“Sure, little lord hotshot.”

A red tiger jumps down from up in the cedar branches to a rocky outcrop near the path, and shakes snow from its bright fur all over Imaizumi’s head. It’s no bigger than a large housecat. “Kakaka,” the little tiger laughs at him as Imaizumi sputters with the snow flying in his mouth, and the cold finally wakes him fully.

“Don’t do that,” Imaizumi frowns as he lowers his bow. He doesn’t relax the string; he’s not stupid.

“Pretty sure you’re the one who wandered into my mountain with a drawn weapon, little lord hotshot.”

“‘Little’... speak for yourself,” Imaizumi huffs in return. “When they said there was a tiger of legend that lived here, I thought it would at least be a little bigger.”

“I was being nice,” the tiger says, before the shadow of snow and dusk and the uneasy feeling that always hangs like mist in the mountain rises up, and knocks him over, and suddenly there is a much more giant tiger resting gently on his chest. Its paws are now as easily as big as Imaizumi’s head and the weight of them pressing down over his lungs sticks the air in his mouth, make his breathe rattle with adrenaline and heat.

“Oh,” Imaizumi breathes. He feels claws scratching playfully at the armour covering his ribs, and it feels like the sharpness of them could rip it like paper.

“Cool, huh,” the tiger says, breathing warm over Imaizumi’ s face. It seems to be grinning, and Imaizumi thinks, That’s a lot of teeth, right before the tiger’s belly rumbles with drawn out winter hunger.

“Oh,” Imaizumi breathes, and he can feel the sweat running cold down his spine at the messiness that’s about to happen to him.

“Holy shit, I’m not going to eat you,” the tiger says, easing up on its haunches. It licks a paw with a large pink rough tongue and rubs at the red fur on its head; it spikes it up instead of laying it flat, and it’s kinda cute. Imaizumi resists the urge to pet it down, to see how soft it is. “But I won’t say no if you have some lunch to spare.”

Imaizumi is surprised when the tiger wraps itself in shadows to turn into a boy about his age with little red tiger ears and a little red tiger tail, but probably not as pleasantly surprised as the tiger boy when Imaizumi unwraps the array of rice balls Tadokoro-san had carefully packed into his bag that morning.

“That was really good! How about I come visit you next time,” the tiger boy says, and Imaizumi thinks maybe having a little noise in his life wouldn’t be so bad afterall.

Edited 2016-07-25 20:18 (UTC)

Megumi/Miyoko & Kuga Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
Tag for animal death, T, 656 words. Eternal Sonata!AU?

Perhaps it's by fate that Megumi meets Miyoko in the town plaza, where Megumi is fruitlessly trying to sell floral powder. Business has been dwindling ever since the Kingdom approved of the mass production of mineral powder. Even Megumi is starting to doubt herself when Miyoko appears and buys out her remaining supply.

"Do you make these by hand?" Miyoko asks as she opens a package and swabs some with her finger. Under the moonlight, the floral powder shines a faint, translucent pink color.

Megumi nods as she hands Miyoko her change. "Yes. My family has always done so. I harvest the flowers in the spring. Each batch takes three weeks to dry and formulate."

"How tedious," Miyoko says. "The production cycle of mineral powder is much faster, and the reduced manpower allows them to be sold at a much lower price."

Megumi looks down at her feet and sighs. Everything Miyoko said is true. "I heard that the Alquamist is consulting on the production of mineral powder. There's no way a family business like mine can rival his." She stops when her brain catches up with her mouth. "Ah! I'm sorry for rambling."

The look Miyoko shoots her is indescribable. After a moment, Miyoko asks, "Will you come with me? I want to show you something."

Megumi knows that she should not follow strangers home, but there's something about Miyoko that makes Megumi feel at ease. Still, Megumi follows silently when she's brought to a small house at the edge of town. Inside, they're greeted by a short boy with blonde bangs. "Yo!"

"I brought back the samples, Kuga." Miyoko lifts the basket of floral powder.

"And a friend, I see." Kuga raises an eyebrow from where he's hunched over the table. "Do you trust this girl?"

Miyoko seems to consider this. "I trust her as much as I trust you."

"Touche," Kuga laughs and kicks his chair back. He gestures for Megumi to come over as he administers what appears to be mineral powder to a mouse.

Megumi has never used mineral powder, but even she can tell the dosage is too high for such a small animal. She's even more confounded when the mouse begins to struggle moments later. Megumi backs into Miyoko's side just as the smoke begins to rise from the mouse's ears, and she watches in horror when its flesh turns dark and begins to erode.

That's when a jolt of controlled thunder sets the dying animal aflame. It ceases to struggle after a beat. With a wave of her wrist, Miyoko sends a gust of wind that blows the remnants into the rubbish bin by the table.

"You understand now, don't you?" Kuga asks.

Megumi finds her voice. "Mineral powder is turning animals into monsters?" She looks up when Miyoko sets a reassuring hand on the small of her back.

"Not just animals," Miyoko says. "With the right dose, it can turn even humans into monsters. You're the floral powder expert in town. Tell me, is this a regular phenomenon for your product too?"

"Of course not!" Megumi insists, then immediately drops her voice.

"You said the Alquamist is behind the manufacturing and distribution of mineral powder," Miyoko continues while Kuga skitters around the work area, opening and moving large bins through magic. It dawns on Megumi that Kuga is packing up, perhaps erasing all evidence of their experimentation now that Megumi has seen the result. "I'm willing to bet that he knows about this side effect."

"We're going on an adventure!" Kuga calls from where he is manhandling a shaking box. "It's not for the faint of heart!"

Megumi's gaze travels between Kuga's grin and Miyoko's thoughtful expression. She too, has been wondering what she would do once the sale of floral powder completely ceases. Miyoko and Kuga's plan seems much more productive and hers. Against her better judgement, Megumi squares her shoulders and says "I'm coming too."

Tanaka/Nishinoya; Haikyuu
witch/kiki's delivery service au
no tags
word count: 848

"Hey, are you the new witch here?"

Nishinoya jumps, turning to see the bald-headed boy who called out to him. "Uh, yeah, I hope so! I just got here the other night, but they haven't kicked me out yet so it's looking good!"

"Nice!" the other boy shouts, pointing his thumb to his own chest. "The name's Tanaka Ryuusuke, and I'm training in the village a few kilometers east of here. I heard about your grand entrance."

"Augh, it's already traveled that far already?!"

"Dude, it's not every day that a witch flies into a flag, barrel rolls out of it, and lands on his feet shouting a special name like it's a magical spell!" Ryuu laughs.

"Hey, you gotta make the best of a situation, right?!" Noya puffs up, but it doesn't last - seems like Ryuu's already seen through him. "Nishinoya Yuu, by the way."

"Nice to meet yah for real, Nishinoya."

"You can just call me Noya, you know."

"Oh thank the stars."

Noya laughs this time, "So Ryuu, you wanna come in? You came all the way over, don't wanna leave you with nothin' to say."

Ryuu seems to jump at hearing his given name used so easily, but it doesn't phase him enough to say anything, or to stop smiling. "Sure! I figured since you just got started on your year training, you could use some tips from another witch!"

"I thought the point was to do it all on your own without any help from other witches?" Noya asks as he leads Ryuu inside. His place is small, just a back room to a cafe that's been closed for a few years now. But it has furniture and a little kitchen, a spot for his cat Chikara, which is everything he needs to get started. He pulls out a chair and puts on a kettle. "Coffee by the way?"

"Eh, that's a soft rule. Everyone would get bored if you didn't have anyone to talk magic to, you know?" Ryuu takes a seat, making a little symbol in the air to blow away some dust Noya hadn't cleaned up yet. "I can't help you like, set up shop, but we can talk spells. And yeah, coffee sounds great."

"One coffee, comin' right up!"

"Noya, I'm dead serious. this is the best cup of coffee I've ever had."

His grin is about to split his face - it's always nice to get compliments, but this is the third time Ryuu's said something about the coffee since he got here, interrupting their other talk of the local farm market and the rumor of the witch who lives in the abandoned looking castle in an island a half day's flight south. Noya thinks he might damn near start glowing if the guy keeps talking like that.

"You're just tryin' to flatter me so I'll have you over more often!"

"I mean, yes, but no, I told you I'm dead serious!" Ryuu huffs, putting the mug down. "What kinda beans are these, they're not like some super rare thing right?"

"Nah, the beans aren't what make it special." Noya's grin goes sly, leaning over with his elbow on the rickety table. "It's the way you make 'em."

Ryuu squints for half a second before his eyes blow wide open. "Oh my god, you make enchanted coffee."

"Not just coffee." he waggles his eyebrows, for effect and hopefully to make Ryuu praise him more. "But you know, it was a lot more fun than spendin' all my time making potions, and I thought it'd be perfect around here, you know?"

"That's genius!" Ryuu leaps to his feet, grin wide. "Holy cow Noya that's incredible, you're gonna do great once you get this place open!"

"Um, actually... I know witches aren't supposed to help each other too much, but if you don't mind lendin' me a hand cleaning up...?"

Ryuu crosses his arms, humming, "Tomorrow I can, but actually, I think I gotta get goin'..."

"What, really?!"

"Yeah man, I told you. I do star readin' and deliveries, and that stuff doesn't just do itself at night!"

"It's only been-- oh wow, it's been a few hours, hasn't it?"

Ryuu laughs, and Noya finds it contagious. "Yeah, I didn't really notice either until you started tryin' to rope me in to stick around even longer."

"Well, as long as you're comin' back tomorrow, I'm good."

"Yeah," Ryuu smiles, and it's not one of his wide grins, but a new one, something softer on the corners and much more sincere, doing a weird thing to Noya's heart. "Tomorrow morning, what do you say? 9?"

"Perfect."

He leads Ryuu out, spending a little bit too long lingering outside his front door as he watches Ryuu fly away. It's exciting to make a new friend so fast like that - he's always been good with people, but in a whole new city it's a different game.

Noya sighs as he steps back inside, feeling like the luckiest witch around when he hears Chikara meow from the windowsill, ears flicking.

"Oh shut up."

Imaizumi Shunsuke & Naruko Shoukichi & Onoda Sakamichi, Yowapeda
no tags
703 words, Persona AU

Onoda's Persona is Kinich Kakmo, and I really wanted Naruko to have Gdon and Imaizumi to have Durga, so shhhh pretend Durga has ice instead of zio magic.

--

“We’re gonna do it,” Naruko says. “We’re gonna find him.”

His voice is bright and strong, but when Onoda reaches out to return the encouraging fistbump, he can feel Naruko’s fingers tremble slightly against his. This was a bad place; this was a place they could lose Imaizumi, and the very thought of it strikes cold fear into their gut as much as it moves their feet forward through the terrible haze that covers the ground.

It’s been raining, it’s been raining for weeks, and ever since Imaizumi disappeared after breaking down on the mountain road, face buried in his too pale hands and refusing to look at them, Naruko and Onoda have been coming here to search for him. They both feel so small in this place, with its concrete walls rising high to block out the slash of a torn red sky, with its narrow path that stretches up toward a concrete peak, cliffs falling cruel and jagged on either side of them. Small animal corpses litter the road; shadows with long dark limbs try to drag them over the precipice, and there is nothing to light the way but the mysterious sunlight off the wings of the golden bird that Onoda summons to guide them.

“I couldn’t do a thing… I just let it happen… I’m not good enough for this, I’m not good enough for them, I might as well just give up now...”

Imaizumi’s voice echoes brokenly around them and it’s worse than any of the monsters they encounter here; it’s even worse when it comes out of that demon’s mouth, and Onoda has to hold Naruko back when all he wants to do is rip the pretty face off the Shadow Imaizumi that stands between them and their friend.

“Remember what happened before,” Onoda pleads. “That’s… I think that’s Imaizumi-kun, too.”

“The hotshot I know isn’t that weak,” Naruko yells back as something like glass breaks in the space of his mind, and fire flares from Naruko to light up the haze in the dark.

I was created to help my master defeat the darkness, a voice like the thunder of brass bells and the chime of glass says in Naruko’s head. You will ride astride me and honour me with this battle, and honour me by protecting those you love.

“Fuck yeah,” Naruko says, with gritted teeth, with a smile that shows the sharpness of his teeth, and when Onoda looks over at him, his face is filled with wonder at the demon tiger that rises from the flames that spread like a halo over Naruko’s head, at the imprint of his mind, and Onoda understands.

“You don’t know me at all,” Shadow Imaizumi roars, and its face starts to melt into air and shadow strings, and it grows into a long-legged monstrous form made of puzzle pieces that slot haphazardly into itself, or seems to, until they realise that it’s a distorted harlequin pattern of black and blue, and tears track down its face in mimicry.

“Not if you keep running away, hotshot!” Naruko screams as the halo of fire circles around them to hold back the ice that rains from Shadow Imaizumi; a prickle of cold gathers in the air and hangs there, and Naruko knows that even like this, something in this terrible mirror image of Imaizumi is holding back. “Do you want to be the jerk who stays here all alone, or do you want to come back with me and Onoda like you promised you would!”

Naruko feels the touch of Onoda at the back of his mind, and he can see the grim set of his mouth; they reach toward each other, and together their strength is fire and light and Shadow Imaizumi screams as it burns away the darkness, and Imaizumi screams where he finally crumples to the ground, but it’s only him, and his eyes are no longer demon yellow, and when Naruko and Onoda run to him, he smiles weakly at them.

A goddess hangs in the air above Imaizumi’s head, and in one of her many slim hands is a lotus flower, and in another one there is a sword, and in another there is peace.

Edited 2016-07-25 23:43 (UTC)

no tags

Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou-- Vampire AU

540 words

“Wait--- So you’re telling me you’re a vampire?” Kuroo’s mouth, wide open in his confusion, looks ready to catch a freight train as he repeats his question for the third, at least, time in as many minutes.

This time Kenma shrugs, nodding hadn’t worked, nor had saying ”That’s what I said.” so surely being even more vague ought to do it.

“I can’t believe this.” Kuroo says, and this, too, is a repeated sentiment. He runs his hands through his hair, not caring the outcome of the style, but Kenma can see where the whole thing goes a little sideways.

“You should have known a year ago….” Kenma replies, and begins walking. There was a purpose to telling him now, there was a tour in order, but Kuroo had more trouble grasping the initial concept than expected. “I meant to tell you, I forgot.”

It’s a sign of how dumbfounded Kuroo truly is that he follows instead of responding. It’s just after sunset and Kenma feels truly at ease for the first time since morning. The sun doesn’t really hurt, but the uncomfortable tingling, something akin to the feeling you get when you’re certain you’re getting a sunburn, is bothersome after a few hours. The tour isn’t much really, he just means to show Kuroo where he spends his nights. He doesn’t have to sleep, and he finds himself awake unless he’s staying over at Kuroo’s or exceptionally hungry.

“Down here.” He says. He walks down the steps to the subway platform. Kuroo still follows, but heads towards the ticketing area until Kenma grabs the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “Not that way.” Kenma takes Kuroo through a maintenance entrance, a door that he shouldn’t have keys to, and down a hall into another series of tunnels.

“You know where you’re going, right?” It’s the first time Kuroo has spoken in almost ten minutes of walking and Kenma only shrugs in reply. He doesn’t look back to assure himself that Kuroo was following. If he didn’t trust him to keep up he wouldn’t have brought him here, and besides, if he tries he can hear his heartbeat. “Who am I talking to, of course you know where you’re going. You’re the vampire… You are a vampire… My best friend is a vampire…” His voice fades out and Kenma almost laughs at Kuroo’s attempts to convince himself.

Kenma opens another door, this one with more visible locks, though the door itself is unlocked, and holds it open for Kuroo to enter. “We’re here.” Kenma says.

The room, or more of a chamber due to the high stone ceilings with rounded corners, is not much different than Kenma’s bedroom at home, if you’re counting video games, blankets and takeout boxes as decor. The underlying structure may be older, almost as old as Tokyo itself, but the furnishings are no different than the Kenma that Kuroo has known the last few years.

When Kuroo laughs, loud and long, until he’s out of breath and gasping for more, Kenma thinks he finally gets it. Kenma takes a deep breath in relief, relishing the feel of needless oxygen in his shriveled lungs. Kuroo gets it now, nothing has to change.

matsuoka rin & nanase haruka, free!
formatting: lapslock and cormac mccarthy-style lack of punctuation
tags: canon-compliant character death, drowning, bloodletting, ningyo lore, the matsuoka family curse
1,800 words exactly

blood for blood

rin’s sat at the shore for as long as he can remember, little hands fisting in the sand. sometimes with the high giggles of his sister; sometimes with the warm palm of his mother resting gently at his shoulder; sometimes, like now, alone, chilled with the breeze from the mountain.

there is a soft sour tang in the wind today. it festers in his sternum, dances to unsettle the nerves along his collarbones, which tingle phantom dangers down his arms. wisps of adrenaline keep his eyes sharp and breathing conscious. something is changing, like before. his shoulder blades move up and out with each inhale, exhale, inhale. keep watch, matsuoka, keep watch.

he’s young, but not too young to know the water. his mother told them both when their father disappeared in the waves, in the storm --- it’s happened to each generation of children: someone is claimed to the sea. she doesn’t quite name it a curse, too practical for superstition, but too aware of the coincidence and the risk to not make frequent visits to the shrine by the tachibanas to pay the respect she feels necessary to give. the honest custom has bled into brother and sister, both. they are the only generation left without a murder.

both have argued about who will be taken, about how no one will be taken. rin intends to win this fight. his little sister will live. he’s told the ocean every time he visits. they will both live if he has a say in fate, but if not --- he’s pricked a finger with a pin from his mother’s small sewing kit and dropped his family blood in the water. surely that counts for something. like training an animal to like a certain food slowly, to respond to a scent. he drops a little more and a little more. he leaves offerings himself, walks up the shrine steps with makoto.

makoto’s feelings on the subject run predictable; rin is, of course, not allowed to die, but he has ran and ren, and makoto knows what it would feel like to imagine his own carelessness permitting some force take one or the other or both. he’d never let that happen. makoto would leave twice as many offerings as rin. makoto knows.

the wind whips rin’s hair more fiercely than before. he feels compelled to stand. can only hesitate for a moment before it pulls him forward. something is changing, like before.

but, there --- in the waves there’s --- a boy?

hey! rin calls oy! what --- hey!

he runs on the sand, trips on a shallow dune and catches himself to meet the boy in the surf. he’s cold to the touch. rin knows these waters; if he’s cold now, he’ll be chilled deep in his bones. the boy is weak-legged, lithe and bird-boned; there are fish scales stuck to his arms and rin can tell that he has very few moments to gather information before he passes out from what looks like the most acute exhaustion rin’s seen in his life.

hey, he says, already stooping to gather the kid’s arm over his shoulder, his arm around the kid’s waist, hey where did you come from? when did you go out to sea? are there others we need to save?

the boy laughs, a breath of air huffed as his knees buckle under. there’re others and they will not come. s’just me.

rin’s heart aches for this boy. how cruel of a wreck to leave just one survivor, one person burdened with such memories alone. he falls to the sand in front of him. where did you come from? who should I find?

the boy looks up into rin’s eyes, pointedly, blue upon blue upon blue, and rin watches the light leave them as he falls, and that’s the end of questions. he found rin and that’s the most he could do. rin scoops him up into his arms and runs.

his mother hasn’t moved from the doorframe. gou hovers around her, floats between her and rin and the bedside where the boy is sleeping, warming under blankets and small bowls of thin miso soup in his belly.

his legs, she says, words of horror, of awe.

rin looks up at her and feels fear begin to curl in his breastbone. he’s never heard his mother speak like this. he couldn’t walk, he says, perhaps a question.

they’re new, his mother says. that’s why he couldn’t use them, they’re new.

gou bites her lips and then looks at rin, looks at their mother. and the scales on his arm? she asks.

they’re old, his mother says. they won’t come off.

rin thinks of every drop of blood he sent down to the waves, thinks of what the boy had said --- there’re others and they will not come --- and can’t take his eyes off of the bed.

under the blankets, he sleeps.

rin reads about them, one night. ningyo washed on the shore are bad omens. to eat one brings a long, long life. to see one on the beach means storms, means war.

his mother and gou are talking with the boy. they tell him about the market, about school, about the seasons above water. rin walks past their room to his own, to look at his father's picture by his bed.

rin climbs the stone steps by makoto's house after everyone sleeps. he weeps at the foot of the shrine. please not my sister, he says to the gods. please, please, take me.

he sees the boy with a knife one evening held to his palm over the miso bowl.

for a small moment, his mind thinks yes and now this will end. but the next moment he's scared for himself and who thinking that would make him become, what kind of a person would wish that for anyone. rin cannot bear it.

no! rin says, and rushes in, don’t.

the boy looks up, blue on blue on blue.

no! rin says again, and feels tears fill his eyes. please, don’t hurt yourself.

but this is for you, the boy says.

please don’t, rin says, again, tears spilling on his cheeks.

the boy lowers his knife. but i had all of yours, he says. now you need mine.

rin hiccups. gou isn’t home, his mother isn’t home. she’ll be back soon, with gou and vegetables and rice. rin stands perched between the doorway and the bed and feels very sick on the inside. you have my blood?

the boy lowers the knife. he looks at rin very steadily. you dropped it in the sea. it came down like frozen crystals, and i kept every drop.

rin scrubs at his eyes and breathes deep. mom says you are a ningyo.

not anymore, the boy says, and looks down and away, to his feet at the end of the bed.

it's bad luck for you wash up from the sea.

i didn't wash up, he says. i beached myself.

rin stays very quiet, save for when his breath skips a tight sob in his chest. the boy sets his hands in his lap.

i saw your father die, he says. i saw his lips change color and his skin soak with salt. i helped bring his body down so the sea could have him and the sea was satisfied.

no, rin says.

it is my duty, the boy continues. i am part of a family that watches your family. we have been with the matsuokas for every generation. every generation we take one of you to the sea.

no, rin says, and his tears come faster.

it is supposed to be my turn. my father took your father, and his father took his father and i am to take you. the boy looks up at rin and says, but i won’t.

rin cannot speak. he hears the truth in the boy’s words. the sea had heard him, the waters understood. they wouldn’t take gou. it would be him.

i won’t take you, he says again. i watched your father die. i gathered every drop of your blood. i heard you beg to leave your family alone, or at least to spare your sister. i know you. i cannot take your body to the sea.

rin collapses to his knees. the boy watches him cry from his spot on the bed. he watches rin cry until there is nothing left in rin’s body but emptiness. rin feels hollow and spent. he rests his forehead on the edge of the bed.

the boy touches his hair, just once. matsuoka, he says.

rin, rin says. please just rin.

rin, the boy says, softer. rin, i took your blood to the sea. the sea said no, that it would need more. i left your blood in the sea and i spoke to the earth.

rin looks up now at the boy, looks into blue on blue on blue. the boy looks back. oh, rin whispers. the earth is jealous; rin knows what this means.

you need my blood, now, the boy says. i left yours in the ocean, one drop for every scale i lost. now you need mine, one drop for every tear.

but oh! i’ve cried so much, he says.

the boy smiles, ever so faintly, just a little with his eyes. rin understands. he stands up slowly and shuts the door.

will they be crystals, too? he asks as the boy picks up the knife.

no, the boy says, they will be warm and wet, and burn a little as you drink. but you will not drown and this will be over. the earth will keep you and your sister. and me.

are you sure? rin asks.

yes, he says.

the boy hisses as the blade slices his palm. rin watches blood drip hot into the bowl, steaming like miso, thicker than broth. it fills the little bowl right to its lip. the boy picks it up and hands it to rin.

rin holds it cupped between his palms. it smells like metal and salt and the breeze at the docks. should we say something? he asks, half-joking.

the boy seems serious. he thinks for a long moment. the bowl stays hot in rin’s young hands.

matsuoka, he says, and rin knows he is speaking not just to rin, but to every child in their family, born and unborn. he presses a finger under rin’s hands to bring the cup up to his mouth. drink. live. be free.

Edited (forgot the header) 2016-07-30 20:13 (UTC)

Tanaka/Noya, Haikyuu
minor decapitation; weird consent (everyone is consenting, there's no sex, but it's weird). Word Count: 3212

King Daichi’s court was celebrating the solstice when the Rider crashed through the window. Everyone in the hall stared in shock at the man and his horse, each blood red in color. The Rider dismounted with a laugh and strode to the main table.

“So this is the famous King Daichi’s court, eh?” he sneered, making terrible faces at everyone. “You don’t look so tough.” A number of the knights tensed, ready to stand and defend their honor, when King Daichi raised a hand to stop them.

“What is your business here?” he asked. He appeared calm, but his men knew that he was just as tense as they were, ready to fight at a moment’s notice should it be required. The Rider shrugged.

“Well, I thought I’d come and fight one of you, but it doesn’t really seem worth it. Why don’t we play a game instead?” Daichi raised an eyebrow in question. “One of you takes this axe,” and the Rider grabbed the battle axe strapped to his back, swinging it forward in one easy motion, “and gets one strike to hit me; anywhere you want. Then, a year from now, I get to do the same thing.” He spread hiss arms. “Who’s up for it?” There was silence. “What about you, big guy?” the Rider said, shoving his face at Asahi, who blanched. Daichi was just about to accept the offer when a voice rang out.

“I’ll do it!” It was Nishinoya, Daichi’s most skilled knight. He leaped over the table to stand in front of the Rider. They grinned at each other.

“Here,” the Rider passed over his axe and dropped to one knee. Nishinoya hefted the axe thoughtfully and, quick as anything, struck the Rider’s head from his shoulders in a single blow.

The Rider’s body started clapping.

“That was amazing!” the head laughed from its position on the floor. Its body turned and picked it up to hold the head under one arm. “What’s your name?”

“Nishinoya Yuu,” said the knight, dumbfounded. “Noya.”

“Noya! Meet me in a year’s time at the Red Shrine,” said the Rider. His body swung up on to the horse with one hand, and they were gone before anyone could speak.

As his comrades cheered him and slapped his back, Noya could only stand there and wonder what would happen when he showed up at the Red Shrine.
--
The months flew by, and the Rider was never far from Noya’s mind. He asked every traveler he met whether they had heard of the Red Shrine and where it was located, and after nine months he had a rough idea of where to go.

On his journey he had several minor adventures of no particular importance. Noya had, in his service to Daichi, become accustomed to grand adventures. Besides, all his deeds before his anticipation at meeting the Rider once more.

With under a week before the deadline, Noya came to a great house by a forest. Hoping that the owner would be able to give him directions, he went to the front door and knocked. After a minute, the door swung open to reveal a tall, handsome man with a shaved head.

“Yes?”

“Good afternoon,” Noya greeted, striving for formality. “I am Nishinoya Yuu, of King Daichi’s court. I am seeking the Red Shrine. Do you know where I could find it?”

“Oh,” said the man. “It’s really close. Only several miles down the road.”

“Thank you,” Noya bowed, and turned to leave.

“What is your business there, if I can ask?” Noya turned back.

“I have an appointment,” he said, and related the whole tale to the man, complete with dramatic gestures and sound effects that had the other laughing.

“So you have several days yet,” the man said. “Why don’t you stay here until then?” Just then, a lady appeared behind him.

“Ryuu, are you inviting guests into our house without asking?” she called, and ducked under his arm to see Noya. The man—Ryuu—sputtered and she laughed fondly, looking up at him. “I’m just kidding.” She turned to Noya. “I am Tanaka Saeko, lady of the house.” Noya kissed the hand she offered him.

“Tanaka Ryuunosuke,” the man offered. “Saeko, this is Nishinoya Yuu, all the way from King Daichi’s court. He has an appointment at the Red Shrine in several days, so I said he could stay here with us until then.”

“Well then,” Saeko replied. Her eyes were sharp as she looked at Noya. “I suppose I can accommodate that. Well met, Nishinoya.”

“Please,” he said, smiling at Saeko in the way he had been told was charming, “call me Noya. And I thank you and your husband for letting me stay.”

There was a moment of silence as both his hosts looked surprised. Then Saeko burst into loud laughter while Ryuu made a series of choking sounds. Noya stood, uncertain.

“Oh, Yuu,” Saeko finally said, ignoring his offered nickname and instead referring to him familiarly by his first name. “You are welcome to stay with us, but let’s get one thing clear—Ryuu and I are not married.”

“We’re siblings,” Ryuu said, looking vaguely ill. Noya wondered if he had ever been so uncomfortable. Now that he looked closely, it was obvious that the two were related—they shared the same sharp, handsome bone structure and intriguing eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he offered. Ryuu clapped him on the shoulder.

“Don’t mind,” he said, seeming to have recovered from the idea of marriage to his sister. “You couldn’t have known. But let’s never mention it again. And let’s have a drink.” Noya followed him eagerly into a comfortable sitting room. Ryuu poured the three of them drinks, and asked Noya about his travels.
--
It was amazing, Noya reflected, how quickly friendships could form. Only several hours after meeting the Tanakas, he felt as if he had known them his whole life. He dropped any air of formality and traded increasingly rude jokes with Ryuu, until Saeko put them both to shame with her single contribution. She was lovely, and witty, but it was Ryuu who Noya found himself drawn to that evening. He was interested in the man’s opinion on matters, and that interest appeared to be returned. It was a feeling of camaraderie that Noya had felt with the other knights at times, but never so quickly.

Saeko left them, yawning and muttering about bed. Ryuu and Noya stayed up a bit longer before the exhaustion of the day caught up with Noya.

“Guess I should show you to your room,” Ryuu said, offering Noya a hand up. Noya followed him up the stairs. Inside the room Ryuu showed him was Noya’s pack, which he had completely forgotten about. Noya was about to enter when Ryuu stopped him. “Hey, do you want to make a deal?” His eyes shone.

“What kind of deal?” Noya asked, mindful of the fact that a deal was what had got him into this situation in the first place.

“Just something fun,” Ryuu answered. “I’m going hunting tomorrow. Anything I get while I’m out, I’ll give to you; anything you get here, you give to me.” Noya thought it over quickly. It seemed easy enough, and as this was Ryuu’s house, anything he got would probably belong to Ryuu anyway.

“Deal,” he said. They smiled at each other.

“All right! Good night then,” said Ryuu, turning and walking down the hall.

“Night,” Noya echoed.
--
Noya had always been an early riser, but even so, Ryuu had already left. After making his way downstairs, Noya realized he had no idea where anything was. Remembering his horse, Noya exited the house and looked for the stables. He found them, and his horse, off to the side, and after apologizing to Thunder for forgetting him the previous day, Noya spotted a rack of wooden training weapons off to the side.

He figured he might as well exercise while the air was still cool, and performed his usual stretches and solo training routine. As he wound down, he became aware of Saeko’s presence by the stables.

“Very nice,” she called over. He ducked his head. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

Noya was suddenly aware of how hungry he was.

“No,” he admitted. Saeko tsked and rolled her eyes.

“Just like Ryuu to leave without giving his guest a tour. Follow me, then.”

Breakfast was hearty and warm, and Noya felt much better after it. When they finished, Saeko took him on a tour of the grounds, pointing out not only useful rooms and ways, but the places she and Ryuu had played as children. She was an engaging hostess, and Noya felt his eyes drift to the side to watch her on several occasions. He kept being surprised at the fact that she was shorter than him—she seemed so full of life he felt she must be taller.

They wound up on a bench under a large oak, resting in peaceful silence.

“I’m glad you came,” Saeko said, turning to look at Noya.

“Me too,” he replied.

She kissed him. She kissed him and he kissed her back, because she was warm and beautiful and he wanted to. It was good, but after a few moments he found himself pulling back.

“What?” she asked. He scratched his head.

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “It just seems weird, kissing my hostess.” She laughed a little and pinched his cheek.

“You’re cute, Yuu.” She rose from the bench and led him back to the house. Neither of them mentioned the kiss.
--
Ryuu came back from hunting a few hours before dinner with a brace of rabbits dangling from his belt. He hugged his sister and Noya hello before presenting Noya with the rabbits.

“Here you go,” he grinned. “Today’s bounty is yours! I’ll claim mine later.” And he wandered off to bathe before Noya could come up with a reply.

That evening was much like the previous one, except Noya found he could not meet Saeko’s eye. Instead, he tried to focus his attention on Ryuu. It wasn’t as hard as he would have thought; Ryuu was warm and funny and had a wide variety of facial expressions.

As with the previous night, Saeko left them earlier, and Noya and Ryuu talked until neither of them could finish a sentence without yawning.

“Well, I guess it’s that time,” Ryuu said. Noya followed him up the stairs to his room. Ryuu leaned against the doorway. “So, what did you get today?”

“Saeko gave me a tour of the grounds,” Noya said. Ryuu made a face.

“I think we can skip that. I already know my way around. Anything else?” Noya was about to shake his head when he remembered.

Before he could think about it any further, he raised himself up onto his toes and pulled Ryuu’s head down to kiss him. He tried to recreate his kiss with Saeko as faithfully as possible, down to his pulling away just as things were getting interesting.

“Wow.” Ryuu looked dazed. He smiled; a silly thing compared to his usual smiles. “So. Same deal tomorrow?”

“Uh,” replied Noya, eloquently. He looked up at Ryuu. He felt shaky and warm. “Yeah, all right.”

“Great!” Ryuu turned and waved as he made his way to bed.

“Great,” Noya echoed.
--
The next day, when Saeko leaned in to kiss Noya again, he didn’t pull away. If asked, he wouldn’t be able to say whether he was kissing her to put Ryuu out of his mind or because he knew that later tonight he would be kissing Ryuu like this. He focused on Saeko’s softness, how she tilted her head up for him. It was good, it really was. But it didn’t leave him breathless.

After several minutes, Saeko pulled away.

“I wonder what Ryuu will bring home today?” she asked lightly. Noya nearly choked. Did she know about the deal? No, she couldn’t. Still, he shouldn’t give in to temptation again. It was only mixing him up.
--
This time, Ryuu came home with a wild boar slung over his shoulders. He dropped it at Noya’s feet.

“For you!” he exclaimed. “You would not believe the trouble I had bringing her down.” And he launched into the story, in which he was nearly gored on several occasions, and survived only by his wits and strength and steel. As he finished he looked around. “Where’s Saeko?”

“I don’t know,” Noya replied quickly. Ryuu shrugged.

“She’ll turn up for dinner. Gives us more time to spend together, right?” He smoothed a hand over his head and smiled. Noya felt his face heat up.

“Yep.”
–
Unlike the previous two evenings, Noya found he couldn't relax. He felt twitchy and nervous and he couldn't stop staring at Ryuu's handsome face. It didn't take long for Ryuu to notice that Noya wasn't paying much attention.

“Hey, you ok?” he asked. Noya jumped.

“Oh, yeah. I think...I think I'm just tired,” he said. Ryuu looked surprised.

“Already? You should have said something.”

Ryuu halted outside Noya's door.

“So,” he coughed. “Did you get anything today?”

Noya thought for a moment about lying and saying no. It would be so easy; there was no way for Ryuu to know if he was telling the truth. But then Ryuu bit his lip and Noya pulled him down and kissed him again.

He felt still for the first time that evening. Ryuu's hands were warm on his waist and the kissing was really, really good. Unlike the previous night, Noya didn't keep track of every detail to make sure he gave Ryuu exactly what was given to him. He just leaned into Ryuu and let himself feel.

Ryuu slid his hands down and Noya remembered himself. He pulled back.

“That's, uh, that's what I got,” he said, and dashed into his room, shutting the door behind him.
-

Kenma Kozume & Lev Haiba, Haikyuu!!
magic, demon summoning
1068 words
So there was a prompt about Lev in the first bonus round I never got around to filling that said "remember when the demon summoning went completely awry?"

"Uh….guys?" Lev's voice drifted up from the basement. "I think maybe…you should come down…"

"No," Kenma said, hunching his shoulders but not looking up from the potion he was stirring.

"Nekomata said he was your partner for the week~," Kuroo sing-songed. "He said you had to watch out for him."

"NO," Kenma repeated, stirring a little faster.

"Guys!" Lev's voice continued, plaintive. "Aw, come on!"

"It's your own fault for leaving him alone during a summoning," Kuroo said. The steady thump of Kuroo re-shelving books had stopped, and when Kenma did look up just long enough to check, Kuroo was watching him, grinning. "You aren't a little bit curious? Seems like he summoned something, finally. All the lights even flickered."

"I didn't notice," Kenma lied, sniffing. "You're so curious, you can—"

"Not it!" Kuroo chanted, flattening his nose with a finger.

"That's not a thing!" Kenma snapped.

"GUYS!" Lev's voice interrupted, definitely panicked this time.

"Tell me you didn't let him craft the binding circle himself," Kuroo said. Kenma groaned in aggravation as he slid off the stool. As an afterthought, he flicked his fingers at the spoon, enchanting it to keep stirring on its own so he wouldn't be up half the night trying to fix an evenly mixed batch of Perception. Yaku would never let him hear the end of that.

After stomping down a dozen circular stone steps, Kenma found Lev literally wringing his hands, plus an orange blur ricocheting off the walls. The only reason he wasn't knocking bottles and jars over left and right was because everything was already on the floor. Also on the floor was Lev's "binding" circle, the salt all black as if it'd been scorched.

"What the actual fuck, Lev?" Kenma demanded. "I left you down here for twenty minutes—"

"I'M SORRY," Lev wailed. "I was out of crushed willow so I just used half as much ground dittany, those are basically the same, right?"

"Only about sixteen times as powerful!" Kenma yelled. "Please tell me you at least infused it with something inert first?"

"I, um," Lev fiddled with a fold of his robe, "just kind of…sprinkled it on…"

"LEV," Kenma bellowed, making Lev wail again. "You were supposed to summon a minor fire spirit! What the fuck is that?!" Kenma flung an accusing hand to point at the pinball of orange.

It screeched to halt just in front of Kenma's finger and sniffed it. Sniffed it.

"Hi!" it said. It was some kind of minor demon, probably, short, bright orange hair sticking out in all directions and golden eyes to match, plus horns that looked half-grown at best and a pair of wings that Kenma couldn't imagine lifting a bumblebee. "You smell good!"

"Lev, it's sniffing me," Kenma said, voice even and quiet and furious.

"Don't eat Kenma!" Lev hollered, waving his hands in a shooing motion, which wouldn't have been effective against demons even if he weren't hiding behind Kenma. Kenma snapped at him to quit flailing his hands, which was probably part of how Lev had gotten into this mess.

The demon just laughed. "I don't wanna eat him! He looks fun! Everything here looks fun!" It looked all around, at the chaos of the lab, which, by the way, Nekomata was going to blame all on Kenma, Kenma just knew it. "Hell kinda sucks because nobody ever wants to play. Captain's all like 'Your torturing sucks, Hinata! Practice harder!' I'm Hinata, by the way. Who're you guys?"

"I'm Lev!" Lev piped up, making Kenma slap a hand to his forehead. "That's Kenma! He's supposed to be training me!"

"DON'T TELL DEMONS YOUR NAME, YOU IDIOT!" Kenma elbowed Lev hard, making him wheeze. "Did you even go to basic summoning class?!"

"It's my first time!" Lev protested.

"Wow, and you got a whole demon?" Hinata asked, still looking around in interest. The way his gaze was darting here and there was giving Kenma a headache. "You must be pretty great at it!"

"All right, that's it, I'm done," Kenam said, pushing up the sleeves of his robe. "You are in gigantic trouble, look at this mess! And you are going right back where you—"

"Nonononono!" Hinata protested, scrambling backwards and tripping over his own tail, landing on his rear. "Aw, don't send me back yet! You guys seem so fun! Is it cause I made this mess, look, I'll fix it!"

Hinata hopped up to his feet and clapped his hands one, two, three. Kenma's jaw dropped as all the bottles and jars flew back to their shelves, shards of glass melting back into whole containers, powders and tinctures all in their rightful order.

"Wow, he even got the labels in alphabetical order!" Lev marveled, peering at the nearest shelf.

"They weren't labeled before…" Kenma said weakly.

"Oh man, can we keep him just a little?" Lev asked, eyes bright with excitement. "Maybe he can fix your cauldrons I melted yesterday!"

"My what?!" Kenma demanded. Hinata was laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach, still shouting about how great they were.

An hour later, Kenma was back upstairs, pouring out his perfectly stirred thank you very much Perception into half-slug bottles and completely ignoring the ruckus that was going on in the basement. If at some point it stopped sounding like fun and more like screaming or flaying, Kenma might go check on Lev. Maybe.

"Is that thing still down there?" Kuroo asked, sticking his head in the room. "What even was it? Shouldn't you get rid of it before Nekomata finds out?"

"It's a Hinata," Kenma answered calmly, smugly pleased at Kuroo's confused expression. "And I think we might keep him. Just for a bit. He's…something."

"Oh ho ho," Kuroo grinned, leaning over Kenma. Excited shouting echoed up the stairs. "Going soft, are we? Lev summon a sex demon or something? Go on, you can tell me."

"The only person who ever makes a sex demon appear is you," Kenma retorted. "And he doesn't come through a portal from hell, he takes a bullet train from Miyagi."

Kenma flushed carnation red as soon as the words were out of his mouth, because he hadn't meant to say that, and Kuroo hooted with laughter and told him that's what he got for sampling his own potions.

Iwaizumi Hajime / Oikawa Tooru, Haikyuu
no tags
graphics&etc fill

When Iwaizumi steps into the little green shop nestled high up in the mountain, there’s something about the prickly bergamot and mint scented air that feels so familiar. He’s followed a long trail of unusual hybrids and regional strains to get here, and he’s not sure why he’s so wary of this hedge witch and his small smile and the way the rosemary leaves seem to follow him; or the way he pretends, very badly, not to eye Iwaizumi as he peers curiously through the shelves of dried herbs and teas.

“Can I help you?” Iwaizumi says gruffly after the longest five minute of being stared at in his life. It's getting late and he will need to trek down the mountain in the dusk.

“Oh, you already are,” the hedge witch winks at him from behind the counter.

Iwaizumi hates the way he flushes pink at the tip of his ears; manages to growl out, “Aren't you supposed to be the one asking me that.”

“I already know what you want.” Something flashes in the hedge witch’s eyes, cunning and quick, like sunlight mirrored across a cold lake, or a last sunset right before it dips below the tower. “You've lost something, haven't you. How clumsy of you.”

Iwaizumi ignores the teasing lilt of the voice and looks the hedge witch right in the eye instead, and he wonders if magic this green has always tasted the way this air tastes on his tongue.

“I have a tea for that,” the hedge witch finally says. “And it will fix that ache inside your chest, but it only works if you drink it here with me.”

tags: body horror (decapitation)
Kinjou Shingo/Makishima Yusuke, yowapeda

stitches came out again :\

Edited (fixed a mistake) 2016-07-26 05:58 (UTC)

Tags: Death allusions, suicide/suicide ideation, violence, arm trauma, murder
Word count: 2500
Manami Sangaku/Onoda Sakamichi, essentially kara no kyoukai influenced, ghosts & alternate dead selves.

Onoda chased and Manami chose.

They didn't feel the impact, falling through concrete and fire alone.

---

"I stopped by the convenience store."

The light changed in Manami's apartment, when Onoda would visit. Blank white walls looked sunny under lamp-light. The moon hung further away in its soft blue. His jacket, hung next to theirs, and bags - some plastic. Others cloth. Weighed down in cartoonish charms and badges.

"Ooo," they answered.

Minuscule holes in a store bag, wrinkled and old. Even before how carefully he held the box inside. Manami could see through it.

"What did you buy?" They smiled. He did too. They didn't know why he lied. Making it mutual was a point of acceptance. "You can't eat out all the time, Sakamichi. That's no fun."

"It's not that!" he said, airy and overwhelming. Manami kept their hands firmly on their lap. "I thought I'd bring a treat to celebrate."

"What?" they asked - more genuine than they realized.

Chestnut candies. Soft breads. Agonizingly high quality, gently marked with strokes and signature. Toudou had something to do with this. Onoda wasn't the type to buy gourmet. He wouldn't have known the difference.

"It's been a year since you got out of the hospital." Walls shrunk in, burning their skin. He didn't look at them - couldn't, maybe. Just as well. They couldn't blink. Their stare hardly touched him. "I just thought ... it might be nice. Since I never got to celebrate with you then."

It felt like so much less time.

It felt like only yesterday that they had died.

---

"Have you seen Glasses?"

Manami glanced from their broken fingers, to Toudou, prim and unreadable before them. They looked back down and threaded metal back through a loose slot.

"No," they said. "Was Sakamichi late? That's unusual."

"So you haven't looked outside the office."

A joint came loose. Porcelain cracked between their nails.

"Hm?"

"Whenever you're done," Toudou said. "I do believe there's a job you'll be interested in tonight."

Onoda laid asleep on a couch. Wrapped up in a thousand more things than he should have ever touched. Manami could see the threads - the lines, so easy to cut, that he always managed to tie back together. They didn't know how.

"He seems to have made another friend," Toudou said. Filing through paperwork and runes they couldn't read. "If you'll handle this, I'll even fix your hand for you! No need to thank me ahead of time, though I'm sure you'd love to."

Manami laid down their arm before Toudou had a chance to finish speaking.

"Could you give it a little more flexibility this time? It keeps cracking down through the wrist joint."

---

Flowers laid in a mess on the bed.

Not their bed.

Manami wasn't sure whose anymore.

Eyes open and burning with a sparkling void, faces of doctors filled with lines to cut, Manami wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Far off, they could still feel a sleepless goodbye.

Hair clung to their shoulders. No one let them have scissors after the pillow.

---

What drew Onoda to such places, Manami didn't know.

For someone so alive, they found him lingering around death far more often than necessary. But they'd learned it was useless to run from such things, and accepted it, walking past quiet monuments and memories. No matter who he had met, they respected that much. Onoda didn't seem bothered that the only shadow left of Manami was them. He smiled when they wore their old jacket.

Flowers had frozen solid. They whistled at the gates to the apartment complex - mold and concrete and ice mixing together as a powerful shield.

"You've done quite a nice job!" they called out. Manami walked through halls and frames. Stairs led to more stairs, climbing till teeth cut along their grin. "I really appreciate your hard work!"

Open air greeted them with wind - enough to blink away, turning to face knives driven into the wall.

"Oh?" they said.

Dolls rose up.

"...Oh," they sighed. "You were doing so well before."

More came. Blades could slice through skin and hair, but it wasn't terrible, if they could avoid slicing up the jacket. Onoda would wake up once they were done here. It was unlikely they'd have time to sew it up before he insisted upon seeing them.

Floor came up like spines and they jumped to the banister, giddily balancing from heel to toe. "That's more interesting! I love what you've done with the place. I wish I could -"

Metal screeched to interrupt and throw them off. Manami reached out - and remembered their arm, sitting on Toudou's desk, feeling it twitch through what little magical connection remained. They should have counted steps, they thought, blinking at the long flight down.

---

"Th-thank you for helping me."

Manami wasn't reserved. They simply knew what they had to be.

Sangaku, though -

"It's alright! There's no need to thank me." A wide grin. Coming out in open air, taking twice the air for every breath, unfamiliar with starch and iodine. "So, did you take my advice?"

"What? Oh! Yes, I mean, I-"

"We should go out somewhere!"

So overwhelming that it was impossible to say no.

Manami observed from a distance, someone else's hand holding onto Onoda's. The two of them seemed a good match - Sakamichi. Sangaku. They liked that.

Though Sangaku feigned concern and know-how, surviving and health, it was Manami who handled putting that into action. So it felt strange when Onoda insisted on the jacket -

"You always wait for me in the cold like that," he said. "I don't want you to get sick."

Sangaku had said - "I won't get sick!" Sangaku had laughed.

Manami was grateful for that much.

No matter how much jealousy twisted up like knives.

---

Glass fell like light, glistening through closed lids. Manami couldn't sleep forever.

Shaking loose someone else's memories.

"Are you alright?"

A train thrummed beneath. Maybe if they cut off that leg - Manami brushed away the thought. It wasn't theirs to remove. They'd deal with it. Even if it meant trains over bikes.

"Yeah," they murmured. "Sakamichi."

"That's good ..."

He yawned. Their hand twitched and they kept their eyes closed. It would be easier if they didn't have to see those lines. Manami wasn't as good with him as Sangaku had been. They weren't so good at conversation.

"Will you wake up soon?" they asked.

"Maybe," he mumbled. It was tension, tightening on the ghost of an arm, that told them he was holding on. "It seems really lonely ... but it promised it would just be for a bit."

Nails like knives, they could cut it apart in an instant, if they let go. Manami forced themself to breathe. Reminded themself it was a dream.

"Some people don't keep their promises." The words were acid on their tongue.

Glasses cut through their jacket. Warmth, that far away, through ice and leather and death.

"But you try," he said.

---

They woke up.

Ghosts screamed in their ears. The cold wasn't new. Hospitals were always that way. Down the halls, through victims and unlocked doors, coming closer every day.

Every line demanding something from them, tightening around their skin.

"So here you were."

Their gaze swiveled.

A pristine face. A boundary risen around someone with a headband so gaudy - they broke into hoarse giggling.

"It appears your family has been hiding your presence here for quite some time." A voice to brush off their shaking, a hand to wave away any concept or ridicule or danger. "Though such a thing would never be a problem for one such as I."

"Mhm," they said - more unused to their voice than they realized. "Did you know it's after visiting hours?"

"Now, now, investigations do have the right to trump such silly rules sometimes. Especially when my client's troubles happen to be endangering a hospital!"

A client.

Manami - couldn't have ever met them. Laying in a hospital bed, with growing hair and ghosts to live in.

"My name is Toudou Jinpachi. One Onoda Sakamichi has been quite concerned about your whereabouts. Thankfully, it was in my best interests to search for the heir of such a deadly family."

---

Manami woke up.

"It's fortunate you left your arm with me."

Manami - tried to move their head. There was a body of some sort there. Attached to them. All that moved were distant fingers, scratching along a desk.

"It would have been completely shattered in the fall," Toudou said, never crouching, never proffering a hand. Manami preferred that. "You do realize how rare the enchantments for those are, correct?"

They managed a hum.

"If I have to build one from scratch, I'll be taking one of your eyes."

A slight nod, that time. They would have preferred that. Less lines - and they never quite enjoyed having another person's blood mixing alongside theirs, thin as it was.

"I presume you have not handled your ghost?"

A shake, now. Needles were stabbing up into their feet. The complex was so much smaller now. Whoever she was, it was an impressive show, even if some aspects were a little less than inspired.

"Hmph." Toudou spun in moonlight. "It isn't here any longer. I doubt you'll have much longer. It has been another two days."

That made Manami's blood run cold.

"But perhaps you have a better idea of where it remains, now?"

Familiar ice.

"Yeah," they said. "It'll be finished tonight."

---

"This apparition appears to be attracted to you." Toudou stared through documents, and notes, their vague recollections and messy hand-writing. Their fingers still didn't move well. "The scent of death is strong in this room. It believes it is returning home. That's common within hospitals, but not to this extent."

Sickeningly familiar.

Manami said, "I thought so."

"Hm?"

"That happened before," they said. Not to them. That wasn't them. Whoever it was, they weren't there anymore. "Someone else handled it for me."

"I see," Toudou muttered.

They'd been asleep for 20 months.

It was a little funny. If Sangaku was there, they'd have laughed.

Manami, for who they were - and weren't - huffed an attempt.

"It will have to be you," Toudou concluded.

They stared straight ahead. The lines made a little more sense now.

"Yeah," they said. "I was planning on it."

---

Getting into hospitals after-hours was more difficult than Toudou had made it seem, over a year ago. Manami was not so inconspicuous, armed with a knife to a single limb. But they knew well what a perfect place to sleep a hospital made.

So they kept their eyes open, and broke into a neighboring office building.

It was easier to keep track of people like that. The mind was a greater window when someone was that desperate to see more of the world. Embracing that made an old ache come back, settling heavy in their ribs.

But they could feel the bruise of Onoda's glasses.

There were left-overs and foods to make.

There was something to look forward to, so Manami kept forward, and used what they had.

"He'd prefer to stay like this."

Manami hummed. "I couldn't really say."

"It's better. Better than living around such death. Around such murderers."

They laughed. "That's true!"

"Then why do you insist on pushing me?"

They stopped, door to the roof, and pushed it open. Winds cut through to frame them, and Manami stared straight at the hospital - through curtains, one window, to a sleeping form.

"Because I don't care," Manami said.

"You don't care for his safety?" A voice echoing. "I could simply let him sleep forever. Just like those he insisted on investigating."

"Of course I care!" It was only a slight spark of insult, but more than they normally felt. Manami smiled at the feeling. "But I'm just too selfish otherwise."

---

Sangaku let the two of them be free.

Manami was enough of a person, when they'd share blood and blades like the breeze. Family, absolutes, and the nature they could never circumvent. It was alright.

As long as he didn't see.

"Manami?"

Sangaku smiled, even when he could see. Scarlet trickled down through stones, ruby river to Onoda's feet. His face - confused and beautiful and the most dangerous thing in the world.

Anyone who saw had to die.

The one who ran -

It took Manami years to admit it was them.

---

Toudou gave them a knife.

But they didn't need that for much.

"Hospitals aren't really for our kind, don't you think?" they asked, waving fingers and hair. The breeze burned and Sangaku would have loved it.

The apparition didn't speak, a fog of darkness, hiding its lines deep within.

"Well," Manami said. "Whenever you're ready!" Fingers winding up through their hair. Raking the knife through, uneven strands falling against their ears. The wind carried away what it could, and their hands fell empty.

It charged.

Their fingers didn't just break.

Their left hand warped in on itself, as they pushed back, skin crawling up and away, muscle splitting and - they grinned. Bone could cut. Anything could cut. Manami twined its threads around their splintering bone, and pulled.

Darkness ripped itself to nothing. Manami fell to the ground. It was hard to breathe.

But they were alive.

Letting their eyes close -

---

They wouldn't run again.

Manami could recognize the ghosts. They had the same faces as the dead attached to those flowers - the newspapers Onoda had been gathering for weeks. They could see so much, but never acted soon enough.

But maybe he'd forgive them.

Or maybe that was why he liked them.

Manami couldn't tell.

It was one line to cut to nothing. Their fixed arm cracking again. And ghosts fleeing as though they remembered who they were.

"Taking everything from others," a quiet hiss on the horizon. "What right do you have?"

"Was it yours to begin with?"

It didn't answer that.

Manami pulled out their phone. There was already a text.

Sorry about sleeping so long! Buzzing in their hand in the next moment. I hope those treats haven't gone bad since ...

we ll have them tonight ^^

They turned it off.

Its words didn't bother them too much. Manami knew they weren't taking much from anyone at all.

---

"I was so scared."

Laying on Manami's floor, stretched out to avoid the heat. They didn't bother to mention how cold they were.

"Of what?" they asked. Of me, they thought.

"That you'd die."

"I did," they thought aloud.

He stared at that. They couldn't move. Frozen in unfamiliar fear. He reached out. Across the floor, till his knuckles brushed their cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

He couldn't have believed them.

"It's okay," they said.

Sometimes, when they put on his glasses as a joke, it felt like some of the lines around died away. Looking through those lenses - it meant his eyes were always clear. Terrifying and safe to meet.

Onoda didn't ask why they stepped in front of the car. Maybe he could figure it out. As much as they could.

"I started working for Toudou to pay off that debt, haha ..."

He'd gotten better at investigating, after all. If not any better at lying.

Sangaku would have liked this. Manami closed their eyes to his warmth. Maybe it was enough that they'd given the chance to run.

"I'm glad you're still here," Onoda said.

They mumbled. "I am too."

Edited 2016-07-27 04:09 (UTC)

Furuya Satoru/Miyuki Kazuya, Daiya no A
sexual content (non-explicit), love potion (but with a twist)
words: 891

Kazuya turns the bottle over in his hand, his stomach churning with indecision. He reads the ingredients list but there’s things he doesn’t recognize. This could be dangerous; that and the moral implications keep his hand from twisting the cap off the small bottle. He regrets picking it up at all now, it was an unusually impulsive moment as he walked passed two girls being lectured by a teacher, palming the confiscated good in question left on the desk on his way out of the room.

The bottle is bright pink with little purple hearts and kiss marks around it, Love Potion written in curvy letters. Place one drop into your intended love’s food or drink and make sure they look at you after for best results, it says. It doesn’t say what more than one drop will do, or even what one will do, or how long it will last and Kazuya is very curious. Curious enough to try it out on his “intended love” though? Not quite…

If there was some sort of side effect he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt, being the cause of pain to both a pitcher and someone he has feelings for is a risk he’s not willing to take. And then there’s the moral aspect of his conundrum…Love Potions aren’t exactly the best way to enter a relationship…

He’s running out of time to decide, looking at the clock. There will be more chances but he’s driving himself mad with indecision. He should either use it or pour it out before he loses his mind over this.

He opens one of the water bottles next to him on the floor, his heart pounding, and adds a drop from the pink bottle before tucking the bottle into his pocket. He closes the water bottle, shaking it up and examining it for signs of change when there’s a knock on his door.

“Come in,” he clears his throat, trying to grin normally as the door opens.

“Excuse the intrusion,” Furuya intones neutrally, slipping his shoes off but hovering near the door. “What did you want to see me about Miyuki-senpai?”

“Ah, it’s just been a while since I got a good look at your nails,” Kazuya lies. “Are you taking good care of them?”

“Yes, senpai,” Furuya says, his chest puffing out slightly.

“Good, good,” Kazuya says, his brain still floundering. “Come here and let me look anyway.” He gestures to the floor across from him and Furuya sits obediently.

“Do you want something to drink first? Hydration is important,” he shakes the water at him, smiling and Furuya takes it with thanks.

They both drink, Kazuya draining a quarter of his water with his eyes closed. He sits there a moment, trying to see if he feels any different but he doesn’t.

“Miyuki-senpai?” Furuya asks. “Are you alright?”

Kazuya nods, opening his eyes slowly and focusing on Furuya. Warmth immediately blooms in his stomach, an amplified reaction of his usual feeling around his crush. He knows he’s been staring too long now but he can’t seem to look away from Furuya’s face, which he usually feels but with much better self-control. He forces his eyes closed again, trying to get his bearings. He can deal with this, if this is all it is.

“Miyuki-senpai,” Furuya repeats, his tone worried and his voice closer.
Kazuya can smell him more acutely so he inhales through his mouth, turning into a gasp when he feels Furuya’s hand touch his forehead. His eyes fly open, his world a sudden haze of blue eyes at Furuya’s proximity.

“Do you feel sick, senpai? You look like you might have a fever.”

Kazuya watches his lips form the words, tugged downward at the corners, need growing inside of him.

“I feel…hot,” he says, licking his lips.

“Maybe you should lie down, senpai,” Furuya stands. Kazuya reaches his arms out for more contact and Furuya reaches down, he must think Kazuya needs help standing but once he’s up Kazuya wraps his arms around Furuya, nuzzling his face against his chest and breathing him in. He smells so good Kazuya can’t get enough.

“Ah…senpai?” He can feel Furuya’s heartbeat against his chest going wild as he wraps his arms tentatively around Kazuya, patting him on the back awkwardly. “If you don’t feel well I can take care of you. I’ll get you anything you need.”

“Furuya,” Kazuya breaths helplessly against his chest, clinging tighter. “All I need is you.”

“…What?”

Kazuya pushes him toward the bed, Furuya not really resisting as he falls over onto it, allowing Kazuya to scramble on top of him.

“I need you,” Kazuya babbles, taking Furuya’s hands and putting them on his waist. “I need you to touch me, Furuya.”

“Miyu –” Kazuya cuts him off with a kiss, pressing himself closer, sliding his ass over Furuya’s crotch. He puts his hand on Furuya’s chest, feeling his heartbeat as their lips move together experimentally. The grip on his waist tightening but he doesn’t push Kazuya away.

“I like you so much, Furuya,” Kazuya says against his lips. “Please, let me show you.”

“I like you too Miyuki-senpai,” Furuya says, lips wet and begging to be kissed more and Kazuya smiles against them. All he needed to make his dream come true was a little liquid courage.

Kuramochi Youichi/Miyuki Kazuya, Daiya no Ace
tags: death mention cuz one of thems a ghost, ghost au
words:2070
i actually dont know the ghost rules in this au but hey

All households had pests. Some pests were worse than others. Kuramochi’s encountered cockroaches and rats in his time, the occasional fruit fly infestation, and spiders (God, he hated spiders). Those were all pretty average. He knew a guy who had raccoons eating his trash, another guy with a moth problem—hell, one of his friends found a fucking viper in his house. Pests were fucking weird.

But out of all of these household pests, Kuramochi just had to get a ghost.
Kuramochi swore he wasn’t crazy. How else would he explain how everything in his house would move places when he turned for a second or that weird laughter he’d hear whenever he tripped over an object that suspiciously was in his room before. It wasn’t like the ghost did anything particularly harmful. He just liked moving stuff and messing with Kuramochi’s cat, so at the very least, Kuramochi knew he wasn’t malicious. However, other than that Kuramochi has never seen the ghost other than this weird wisp of fog he’d see out of the corner of his eye.

Honestly, the only thing he knew about this ghost was that it was an asshole.

“Maybe it’s a poltergeist?” Ryousuke suggested calmly as he sat at Kuramochi’s dining table, sipping slowly on his tea. He was the only one who believed Kuramochi when Kuramochi told him that his apartment was haunted. Kuramochi liked to think that it was because Ryousuke trusted him, but honestly it was probably because Ryousuke was always kind of weird. When Kuramochi invited Ryousuke over for the first time since discovering he was haunted, Ryousuke paused at the doorway, looked around the living room with a curious expression and then said, “Oh, yeah. You’re definitely haunted.”

“Aren’t poltergeists malicious only?” Kuramochi asked.

Ryousuke shrugged. “I thought they just liked playing pranks on people.”

“What kind of asshole ghost just finds pleasure in pranking people?’ Kuramochi grumbled leaning against the kitchen counter. As if on cue, the cabinet behind Kuramochi swung open and decked him in the head. Kuramochi hissed in his pain, doubling over and clutching his head.

“I don’t know. I can kind of see the appeal,” Ryousuke said with a laugh.

“Ryo-san,” Kuramochi grumbled. “You’re supposed to be helping.”

“If it annoys you so much, why don’t you just try contacting it?” Ryousuke suggested. “You know, tarot cards? Ouija boards?”

The mere thought of actually trying to contact his ghost sent a cold shiver down Kuramochi’s spine. It wasn’t that Kuramochi was a coward by any means or anything. He was a past delinquent after all, and got into more fights with people much bigger and stronger than him in his youth than he can count. But who knew what this ghost even looked like. Kuramochi couldn’t see it. He couldn’t touch it. You can’t punch a ghost.

“Out of the question,” Kuramochi said.

Ryousuke shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, Kuramochi. You obviously can’t kick out your ghost. Maybe you should just move.”

“I can’t move. It took me forever to find this shitty apartment—I have a job!” Kuramochi argued.

“You sure do,” Ryousuke said, taking a long sip of his tea.

Kuramochi sat on the kitchen floor, staring up at the ceiling, hard in thought. This ghost was really starting to piss him off and Ryousuke was right—he didn’t really have many options. Kuramochi let out a world-weary sigh, closing his eyes. “God dammit,” he swore under his breath.

The cupboard swung open and an almost-empty box of tea toppled over the edge, hitting Kuramochi square in the nose.

--

Kuramochi was sure there was supposed to be some sort ritualistic etiquette to all this supernatural shit. It was kind of like when you can only do the Bloody Mary thing at 3AM in a bathroom with no one else around. So when he bought a ouija board, he figured it’d be a good idea to wait until night time. He even had mood candles and everything. It would be fine. It was just some weird asshole ghost.

Although, now that Kuramochi was all set up, he was starting to have second thoughts.
Again. He wasn’t scared. Just to make that clear.

He was just… apprehensive. Yeah, that’s the world.

Kuramochi was never one to turn back once he started something. Besides, his curiosity was growing stronger than his fea—apprehension—by the second.
Kuramochi took a deep breath, placing his hands on the board. As if on cue, the candles seemed to flicker simultaneously and the temperature of the room began to drop to chilling levels. Kuramochi was shivering as his spoke, his voice shaky no matter how hard he tried to keep it stable.

“Ghost in my apartment,” Kuramochi began, feeling a little silly with his eyes closed. “Are you with me right now?”

Suddenly, Kuramochi felt his hands run cold and heavy as something overlapped them and pulled his hand slowly across the board. Kuramochi only held his eyes shut for longer, not wanting to risk seeing something extremely terrifying. His hands suddenly stopped moving and the cold weight on top of them was lifted. Kuramochi pried one eye open cautiously, and then the other, before looking down at the board.

No.

Kuramochi’s anxious expression dropped to a deadpan as he stared at the board for another moment. “Wow, you’re just an asshole sorta ghost aren’t you?”

“Haha, yeah a little.”

Kuramochi yelped, practically leaping to the left away from the voice that suddenly appeared right by his ear. His eyes grew wide as he saw what looked like a young man floating a few feet off the ground, clutching his stomach and besides himself with laughter as he watched Kuramochi topple onto his ass.

“Oh, man, if I knew you were going to look that ridiculous when you got scared, I would have done this so much earlier,” the ghost said as it started to calm down, his grin wide and cocky.

Honestly, if Kuramochi didn’t know this guy was a ghost, he probably would have mistaken him for a living human being. He didn’t look that much older than Kuramochi’s age, with his shaggy brown hair and eyes that seemed to shine with mischevious delight. Other than the fact that he was slightly translucent whenever the candlelight flickered and the whole floating thing, he looked like a total normal guy.

Yeah… Just a normal, admittedly kind of attractive—

Uh, scratch that last thought.

“Uh,” Kuramochi finally said, unsure of what else to say.

“Hi,” the ghost said with a cheeky grin and a tiny wave. “What? Am I more handsome than you imagined?”

Yeah.

“Wh—n-no!” Kuramochi spluttered. “Are you dead?”

The ghost frowned, plopping itself on the ground with its legs crossed so he was sitting in front of Kuramochi. He leaned an elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm in that kind of “cool-guy slouch” that handsome guys did.

“You know, most people start with an introduction before getting to the personal stuff,” the ghost said with a smirk. He was quiet for a long moment before Kuramochi realized that the ghost was waiting for him.

“Oh, uh,” Kuramochi stammered, as if obedient to the ghost’s will. “I’m Kur—“

“Kuramochi Youichi—professional baseball player, perpetually single, swings both ways literally and metaphorically,” the ghost smirked. “I know who you are.”

Kuramochi frowned. God, this ghost was really starting to piss him off. At least he wasn’t scared anymore, though. “Alright, fine,” Kuramochi said. “Creepy, but whatever. Who are you?”

“Miyuki Kazuya,” he answered. “Resident ghost of apartment 42. It’s nice to finally meet you—or, I guess it’s you who’s meeting me for the first time.”
Kuramochi squinted at Miyuki for a long time, watching the way his skin glowed, wondering if it were a trick of the light.

“It’s rude to glare at people, you know,” Miyuki said with an amused quirk of his eyebrow. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you that?”

“I’m not glaring,” Kuramochi said. “I’m just… You’re not... Ryo-san isn’t messing with me is he? Like this isn’t him getting back at me for stealing his juice box last week?”

“’Fraid not, Kuramochi. I understand your concern, though. Your psychic friend gives me the chills—and I’m a ghost.”

Psychic friend? Dammit, Kuramochi knew there was something weird about Ryousuke. Kuramochi pushed that thought out of his head for another time.

“Okay,” Kuramochi began cautiously. Although Miyuki seemed benign enough, he was kind of scared of what ghost powers he might be hiding. “Now that we’ve got introductions out of the way… Listen, don’t take this the wrong way or anything bu—“

“I’m not moving out,” Miyuki said, his cocky expression dropping almost immediately.

Kuramochi furrowed his brows. “Look—“

Miyuki held up his hand and Kuramochi’s mouth slammed shut on command. “Sorry, let me rephrase that—I can’t move out unless you do, too. See, I kind of have ownership over you now.”

Kuramochi stared at Miyuki as the ghost’s words rolled around in his head, not connecting very clearly. “What?”

“Yeah, I know this is kind of awkward, since we just met and all,” Miyuki said. “But you have an extraordinary amount of magical power, y’know?”

“I don’t,” Kuramochi said.

“Well, you do—why do you think that psychic hangs around you so much? Anyway, you just moved in and, well, lucky for you, I decided to nab you right before any other spirit could feed off your energy,” Miyuki answered with a wide grin, as if this was perfectly logical. “Honestly, you should be thankful—can you imagine if some malicious spirit claimed you and misfortune followed you wherever you went?”

“Then what the hell have you been doing—knocking over my stuff and shit?” Kuramochi growled.

“Having a good time,” Miyuki said. Kuramochi made a swipe for him and the ghost just ducked with a laugh. “No, but seriously, I need you for a little plan I have and, in exchange, I’ll stop pranking you and protect you from other spirits. How does that sound?”

“I didn’t sign up to be used by a ghost!” Kuramochi argued stubbornly. “Hell no!”
The wide smirk on Miyuki’s face suddenly pressed into thin lips and his mischevious eyes suddenly became cold. The candles all seemed to dim at once and a cold wind swept through the apartment. All of the fear that Kuramochi felt suddenly came back all at once.

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Miyuki said, his voice losing its jovial tone. “Kuramochi, you honestly don’t have that much of a choice. I’m kind of desperate here and I need you. Haven’t you ever been desperate before?”
Kuramochi couldn’t bring himself to answer as he just stared at Miyuki with wide eyes, all words lost in his throat.

Miyuki’s wide grin returned and the room grew warm again.

“Listen, you just want me to stop messing with your stuff, right? If you let me hang around, then I’ll stop throwing your stuff around and messing with your cat. Sound like a fair deal?”

Kuramochi tore his eyes away from Miyuki, regaining his breath and weighing the pros and cons. If Miyuki kept his promise, then he supposed living with Miyuki wasn’t a bad idea. Besides, now Kuramochi had a lot more questions than he had answers and he had a feeling he’d only get that fixed if he let Miyuki stick around. For now.

Kuramochi let out a relenting sigh. “Fine. No playing with my shit.”

“Promise.”

“Or messing with my cat,” Kuramochi added.

Miyuki made an X-motion over his chest. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Alright,” Kuramochi said. “It’s a deal.”

Miyuki’s grin grew wide and that mischevious sparkle returned to his eye. “A sound choice,” he said. “Y’know, Kuramochi, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful roommateship.”

Kuramochi scrunched up his nose. “Those words sound fake coming from you,” he said.

“For someone who has a pretty face, it’s a waste that you’re such an asshole.”

The words had spilled out of Kuramochi’s mouth before he could stop himself and he could feel his cheeks growing warm as Miyuki’s grin grew even wider, stretching from ear to ear as he leaned forward with keen interest. Kuramochi looked away, hoping that Miyuki couldn’t make out his red cheeks in the dim lighting.

“What was that about my face?”

“Shut up.”

Nanase Haruka/Yamazaki Sousuke, Free

no tags

Bride of the water god AU, and guess who the water god is lmao

Threaded | Flat

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FILL: Team Kanzaki Miki/Tachibana Aya, G

FILL: Team Kanzaki Miki/Tachibana Aya, G

FILL: Team Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru, T

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, T

FILL: Team Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, T

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun, T

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM IWAIZUMI HAJIME/OIKAWA TOORU, T

Fill: Team Furuya Satoru/Miyuki Kazuya, T

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, T

FILL: Team Azumane Asahi/Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, G

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM MIYUKI KAZUYA/MIYUKI KAZUYA, Rated G

FILL: Team Chihayafuru, T

FILL: Team Grandstand, T 1/2

FILL: Team Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei, G?

FILL: TEAM IMAIZUMI SHUNSUKE/NARUKO SHOUKICHI, G

FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, T

Fill: Team Grandstand, T

Fill: Team Furuya Satoru/Miyuki Kazuya, T

FILL: Team Kominato Ryousuke/Kuramochi Youichi, T

FILL: Team Furuya Satoru/Sawamura Eijun, G