I Feel Like My Writing Has Been On A Steady Decline Lately, So Pls Enjoy This Offering From A Writing

This is my first time participating in flash fiction friday but I had a lot of fun, thanks so much for the prompt! @flashfictionfridayofficial

Content Warning: suggestive content

Title: Slip | WC: 591

The moon is bright when Margaret's hand draws me into wakefulness.

Her cold fingertips press against my arm like piano keys- tap, tap, tapping a scale that brings goosebumps to the surface and bores her the second my skin grows used to the touch.

She smiles, a finger raised to her lips, and I remember that Margaret has the prettiest teeth I've ever seen. Pearly and straight and not at all afraid to bear down until I bruise. The memory blooms before my eyes as I watch her sway around the room, picking up her hairbrush, then a headband. The echo of her perfect press of lips will linger in the days to come like a love letter and ache in all the ways that I do when she's not around.

"It's late," I murmur, sparing a glance towards my alarm clock.

Margaret continues to dance like I hadn't said a thing and I continue to watch her, content to swallow down the sentiment.

What did late matter when Margaret was drawing closer with those eyes, leaning down to pluck the observation from behind my teeth like sweet oranges in the summertime? What was the hour compared to the way Margaret crept out of the room with my breath still caught in her lungs?

The floor creaks under my weight when I slip from the bed- a clumsy cat to Margaret's graceful creeping- and I follow her humming out of the bedroom.

Here, the moon peers in like a voyeur and bathes Margaret, elbow to hip, in her soft and hazy glow. Margaret's slip is practically sheer. Pathetically mesmerizing.

My pajamas are threadbare, but they cling to her echoing touch in all the right ways and I can't help but take a few steps forward, hand outstretched and hesitating half an inch before her hip.

"Marg," I say, then I stop. Swallow. "Margaret," I try again.

"That's my name," she whispers back.

My fingers catch in the hole against my own hip, instead.

Don't wear it out, I think. But I don't think a name like Margaret could ever be worn out when it's used for a girl like her.

"Margaret," I croon slowly.

She rolls her eyes with another, secretive, almost-smile, eyes glinting in the low light. I'm close enough to see the way the moon colors her eyelashes silver.

She waltzes into the kitchen and I get the feeling I'm supposed to wait, so I do. I pick up humming the tune Margaret had begun, drifting toward the window to play with the curtain hem, unable to put together a picture based on the sounds she's leaving behind.

I imagine the curtain is Margaret's slip, instead. They're almost the same color.

"Is this what you wanted, Beth?" Margaret calls out, voice cutting through the empty space between us like she's right beside me.

I drift forward toward the kitchen, smiling, still rubbing the sleep from my eye, and the expression wobbles like a figure skater on the ice- spinning, spinning, spinning.

The eggs are on the floor. The ones that she bought.

Margaret's coat is gone from the rack.

"I really tried, you know?"

Yolks spill slowly out of their fragile shells, bathed in a refrigerator halo, trembling under the weight of the front door- closed, firmly.

Unlocked.

Margaret's key is still hanging by the door.

Spinning...spinning...spinning...

Something wobbles, something burns, and I'm crouched down beside the eggs, my father's voice in my head and Margaret's perfume on my skin, already fading.

Don't wear it out, I think again.

all grown up

Hello! 👋 💌

BI-FOCAL!!!!! man where to begin? you're such a sweet person and your work always makes me smile when i see it on my dash. your writing has a really cozy, warm feel to it, like a really nice hug, and istg i re-read your fics over and over again because of how nice it is. you're also hilarious. your mha tweet series has had me in stitches multiple times atp!! im so happy we're mutuals <3333

sometimes I look back on my past writing and think it’s the worst thing ever written but occasionally there will be a killer line hidden in there that saves me from the depths of despair

like, yeah I wouldn’t write it that away again if given the chance but that one line?? etch it in stone, my guy

sponsored by this line from a merthur s1 ep03 re-write I wrote ages ago (you can find it here if you’d like)

“All he could see was Merlin walking peacefully from the room, his stupid neckerchief flowerless and hanging from his throat like a poor man’s noose.

When his father adjourned the council, Arthur was still trying to figure out where in the folds of that tattered fabric a part of himself was hidden because he had ceased to be whole the second his manservant disappeared around the corner.”

夜班 🌃

do not repost, reblog only

twitter | ig | commissions | prints | ko-fi  

happy bkdk day! 😁 (8/9)

For you're writing requests:

I had an idea months ago of adult bakudeku being very domestic and in love in the middle of summer just absolutely dying of heat in their shared livingroom but refusing to be apart because WAHHH BAKUGO WORKS SO MUCH IZUKU BARELY GETS TIME ALONE WITH HIM LIKE THIS HE REFUSES TO LET GO and then Ochako and Todoroki show up with smoothies and popsicle and everything is so cool now

Can use in any way you want if you want to at all. I just think they're neat.

Author's note: Hi! First of all thanks so much for the prompt!! It was definitely a cute one to write and I hope you enjoy what I came up with :) Second, brief warning for Bakugou's swearing

Katsuki released a long sigh, sweat pooling uncomfortably on his brow and the place where his back met the hardwood floor of his living room. The fan he and Deku had bought on clearance at the beginning of the summer sent a pathetic wave of hot air towards his body, barely strong enough to be noticeable. Deku’s warm breath near his ear was much louder and much more obnoxious. 

Katsuki rolled his eyes at the ceiling. His sweat was explosive for christ sake.  

“Deku, I swear to god-”

“No don’t do that,” Izuku interrupted, rolling slightly off of Katsuki’s chest, then compensating for the loss of physical contact with a leg thrown over Katsuki’s stomach. 

Katsuki angled his head down to frown at Deku- who was too busy trying to subtly tuck himself against Katsuki’s side to pay Katsuki’s expression much mind. 

There was a suspiciously forehead-shaped sweat stain just over his heart. Right where Deku had face planted the second he’d returned from his latest overtime shift an hour ago. 

It was a testament to how little they’d been able to see each other these past few weeks that Katsuki didn’t even complain at first. Sidekicks were worked to the bone for little pay and he and Deku had gone in on rent together knowing this. They’d confessed to each other one unsuspecting day in their third year of high school knowing this. Knowing that it wouldn’t be easy. 

They snuck handholds and short, firm, meaningful kisses behind the backs of their superiors whenever they crossed paths and they knew, now, how horrible it was to actually experience being apart. 

Somehow always on opposite shifts, Deku would traipse into the bathroom with his bedhead and bleary eyes, one hand on Katsuki’s arm or back or face at all times while Katsuki washed off the grime of the night-shift and Deku got ready for the morning and then Katsuki wouldn’t see him again until he was on the way out the door for his own shift. 

It was complete and utter bullshit, in Katsuki's opinion. But it was fine. 

Or, it would be fine, once they get enough experience to finally start their own agency together and got a little more control over their schedules. Or hell, any control over their schedules. 

It would be worth it when Katsuki got to kick ass with Deku on the streets and then come home with him, too. No more of this passing ships in the night bullshit. 

“You’re thinking something sweet,” Deku murmured, poking at the soft center of Katsuki’s cheek and then drawing a gentle line down the bridge of his nose. 

“No ‘m not,” Katsuki said. “Sweaty ass.”

Deku pinched Katsuki’s nose closed, then laughed when Katsuki elbowed him in mild retaliation. 

“You are too,” Deku insisted. “You’re making that face.” Katsuki scowled. “What face?”

Deku tapped the space between Katsuki’s eyebrows and Katsuki stared at the blue-green veins now taking up most of his field of vision.   

“The one where you don’t have any frown lines here. And your eyes go all soft. And the corners of your mouth start to do this wobbly thing that-”

“Alright, alright,” Katsuki complained, swatting Deku’s hand away from his face and its apparently numerous tells. “I get the point already shithead, now quit touching my sweat. It’s a fucking fire hazard.”

Deku shoved himself more insistently into Katsuki’s side, nose squishing flat where it was pressed against the top of Katsuki’s ribcage. 

“Not unless you detonate.”

Like this, Deku’s voice had a muffled, slightly nasally quality and Katsuki felt the corners of his lips wobble with the want to smile. It was sickening, really, the way Katsuki melted for Deku even while they were slowly being burned to a crisp in their shitty apartment.

“And who says I won’t?” Katsuki challenged. 

He couldn’t even tell how much of the sweat on his body was his own, right now, and he wouldn’t trade a second if it for the world.  

“Our insurance bills,” Deku replied dryly. 

Katsuki scoffed, dragging his knuckles gently across the divots in Deku’s spine.

“Those fuckers,” he said, licking a line across his teeth. “One of these days I’m gonna fucking kill ‘em.” 

Deku muffled a snicker in Katsuki’s tank top. “Kill…our insurance bills?”

Katsuki flicked Deku’s ear. “You heard me. I fucking hate those guys.”

“I’d help you hide their papery bodies, Kacchan.”

Katsuki bit down a laugh. Flicked his eyes down to Deku’s growing smile. Watched the shape of it for a while once he realized Deku’s eyes were serenely closed.  

“Obviously,” he said, brushing a stray curl off of Deku’s forehead.  

“Obviously,” Deku agreed, tightening his grip. Quieter, he said, “I missed you.”

With a drawn out groan, Katsuki pushed Deku onto his back and rolled on top of him, twining their legs together and plastering his own sweaty forehead onto Deku’s collarbones- which were jumping from Deku’s laughter and not entirely comfortable. Still, Katsuki didn’t move. 

“Stop making me feel things, asshat.”  

Deku pressed a kiss to the top of Katsuki’s head, still laughing. “Oh no,” he said, exaggerating the syllables. “The great and mighty Kacchan brought low by affection. How terrible.”

Katsuki reared his head up enough to nip at Deku’s cheek, a flush rising on his face. 

“Jerk.”

Deku cupped Katsuki’s cheeks and pressed an even gentler kiss to his nose. “Love you Kacchan,” he murmured. 

Katsuki swallowed and allowed his reddened face to be held in Deku’s large and clammy hands. God, he'd missed this.

“I lo-”

“Delivery!” Ochako sang out, slightly muffled from behind the front door of their apartment, followed by three loud knocks. 

Katsuki let his forehead fall unceremoniously onto Deku’s chest, where his grumbled complaints were muffled.

Deku pet soothingly through Katsuki’s hair. Then tried to be subtle about the way he wiped his hand on the rug a few feet to their right a moment later. 

“The knocking was just for show,” Ochako announced, voice much clearer as she pushed into their front door with the jangle of keys and the rustle of plastic bags Katsuki couldn’t be bothered to get up and investigate.

He kind of hoped it was another fan though, since she was already here. 

“Hello. Sorry for the intrusion,” Todoroki called out next. 

He kind of hoped Deku would put him out of his misery, actually. 

Deku patted Katsuki’s back in silent apology and Katsuki understood that he would not be throwing his friends out on their asses like they deserved. 

“Guys, we gave you that spare key for emergencies,” Deku reminded them from his spot on the floor, still trapped beneath Katsuki and his unwillingness to socialize with trespassers. 

“Ochako said this counted.” 

Katsuki could practically hear Todoroki’s apathetic shrug. 

“Right, but…” Deku started, slowly sitting upright and maneuvering Katsuki’s legs and arms around himself with absolutely no help from Katsuki. “Um, what’s the emergency?”

Katsuki tried not to feel too pleased when Deku lifted them both from the ground with ease, his hands locked securely underneath Katsuki’s thighs. Sidekick shifts were hell but damn if they weren’t also paying off. 

The rustling of plastic bags briefly paused. “You’re joking,” Ochako said. 

Deku settled them into one of the two barstools beside their kitchen counter and Katsuki kept his eyes and mouth stubbornly shut, even if he could tell by the slight decrease in temperature that Todoroki was sitting on the other one. 

“Uh, no?” Deku replied uncertainly, arms circling Katsuki’s torso like a beloved teddy bear. “Guys, is there actually something-?”

“Surprise!” Ochako shouted, dropping the seriousness from her tone and likely shoving something towards Deku’s face that Katsuki couldn’t be bothered to look at. “We came to save you from your badly insulated apartment!”

Then there was a loud pop and the vague sensation of something falling into Katsuki’s hair. 

“...was that a fucking confetti popper?” he muttered in Deku’s ear. 

Katsuki felt Deku nod against his temple. Fucker was probably smiling, too.  

“What the fuck,” Katsuki said. 

“Aw, that’s so nice of you!” Deku said, ignoring Katsuki’s confusion. 

Annoyed, Katsuki opened his eyes and used the edge of the counter to spin their chair around. “Oi, what-?”

Todoroki shoved two plastic cups towards Katsuki’s face, both of them varying shades of pink. Katsuki stared. The one on the left had a single piece of blue confetti stuck to the lid. 

“We brought smoothies,” Todoroki explained. 

“And popsicles!” Ochako added. 

Katsuki shifted his eyes to where she did, in fact, have a row of colorful popsicles lined up on the counter. 

Slowly, Katsuki accepted the smoothies. 

“Bribe successful,” Ochako whisper-cheered to Todoroki. 

Katsuki clicked his tongue, and took a sip of the smoothie with the confetti. “I fucking heard that Pink Cheeks.” Then he cringed slightly at the taste of tropical fruits and handed it to Deku. “This one’s definitely yours.”

Deku smiled, seemingly unbothered about being turned away from the conversation. “Thanks Kacchan.”

“Bribe successful,” Todoroki agreed, offering her a fist bump. 

“Fuck you both,” Katsuki said, narrowing his eyes over Deku’s shoulder while he drank from the strawberry banana smoothie that, on second glance, he could see had a sticker of a grenade on the far side. “I’m not so fucking easily swayed.”

Laughing, Deku squeezed Katsuki tighter with one hand and used the other to press his cold smoothie against the back of Katsuki’s neck. “Right.”

Katsuki hummed a pleased sound. Still, he said, “You’re damn right. Bastard. I'm un-bribe-able.”

Then Deku spun the chair back around to make cheerful small talk with their friends and Katsuki decided, just this once, that he wouldn’t confiscate their spare key. Not when Deku’s hand was scratching so gently up and down his side and Todoroki occasionally sent a spray of ice flurries over their heads. Even Ochako amused herself by balancing popsicles on Katsuki’s shoulders.  

And it wasn’t often that he and Deku got to spend their days like this. 

Katsuki tapped Deku three times on the hip. 

I love you, it meant.

Week four:

22- fic- Short For Grenade

-slowly chugging my way through this one despite not having a clear plot. decided to make Katsuki take Nade chew toy shopping and then Izuku wormed his way in lol

23- fic- dabihawks companion piece to probably not (<-ao3 link)

-im changing a few details to have touya older when he's disowned by his dad (not presumed dead) since its a no quirk au. im kind of playing fast and loose with canon but i like the style of prose im using for this mini-series (though i have no idea if some of the sentences ive written are grammatically legal)

24- nada- family concerns and gift wrapping took precedence today but I did imagine that I was writing a whole sapphic book in verse while I took a much needed anti-headache nap, so that’s almost writing

25- fic x2- “probably not” companion piece & short for grenade

-just a line on the first one, the next section is still pretty up in the air as far as specifics, and a short continuation of the pet store scene in short for grenade :)

26- :( - meant to do some editing for short for grenade in the evening and then all of a sudden it was 1:30am and i was on my, like, 20th sonic fanfic soo no writing happened

27- fic and original- short for grenade & writing prompt

-rounded out that pet store scene for sfg (but this whole writing without a plot means im gonna need more intense editing than usual)

-looked around for a prompt to help me get over a little writers block and i was pleasantly surprised by the outcome! despite not having anything but the second line of the story in mind (the first line being the prompt) it actually flowed really easily and an actual setting/plot started to take shape around the dialogue. im happy with how the scene turned out

28- fic- companion piece to probably not

-got the intro to my next scene down. im excited to work on the dialogue between dabi and hawks as soon as im feeling up to it (curse you cold and flu season)

29- fic- companion piece

-i think the league dynamic in my no-quirk au is starting to come along nicely. also read through a lot of my old stuff, did some minor editing. proud to announce that i do actually like my writing (usually) and will prob be finishing up a few abandoned pieces to post on ao3 now that I’ve re-discovered they exist. short for grenade is on my to do list but prob won’t be up until Jan or Feb depending on what I decide to do with it, plot-wise

30- ficx2- let it sink in & short for grenade

-some touch ups to let it sink in bc i felt the beginning was really weak compared to the middle, + sharing a few lines of it on my page

-completed a writing sprint for sfg that went way better than expected. i might do a few more to get more of the content down before going back and fleshing out all the character development parts that got sort of glanced over. plan is to have this finished by the end of Jan!! 🤞very excited to share it

31- fic- short for grenade

-added a small section of banter between Katsuki and his mother because I love them, lol

I want to write at least a little bit every day in December so I’ve decided to keep a log and post it here to keep myself accountable! I’ll list whether it’s a fic or original, what it’s about, and a few of my thoughts about each project. posted weekly, I think :)

"this lasting pain"

Lost for words | bi_focal

Tags: Bakugou & Izuku, post-war, introspection, friendship/love, fluff (could be read as gen or slash)

Summary: Where Bakugou feels guilty about their childhood, Izuku doesn't know what to say, and they find that they don't need many words to communicate, after all.

Izuku lets his gaze drop to Kacchan’s fists, instead, and finds them clenched so tight he’s surely leaving half-moon impressions on his palms. There’s no smoke leaking out between his bone-white knuckles but, then again, Kacchan has always had impeccable control of his quirk. And they had always communicated better with their hands, hadn’t they?

1,690 words

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56130106

(i'm pretty proud of this one, guys)