Eternal's Reading List

Shinichi snorted. “Gee, thanks.” He sat back and looked down at himself. “I guess I might have.” He hadn’t noticed. It had probably been a gradual change, the kind that would only be obvious when you hadn’t seen someone in eight and a half months. “I’ve been working more. Nothing better to do.”

Kaito made an unhappy humming sound, then grabbed Shinichi and rolled with him, flipping their positions. Their remaining clothes were banished somehow in the process. “I’ll give you something better to do,” he purred. “Tell me how you want it.”

“In me,” Shinichi answered instantly. “Want you in me.”

“...so tell him?” Conan made a face, as Kaito walked towards him. “What does this have to do with-” Kaito cut him off, dipping down, stealing Conan’s first kiss. The boy’s eyes widened at the action, frozen in place. When Kaito pulled away, the thief smirked down at him, obviously amused. “Wh-what was that!?”

“That… was me telling the one I love… that he’s really not as smart as he thinks he is,” Kaito snickered.

Gamora smiled, soft and happy. “Yeah. I’m lucky to have found them.”

“Hmmm,” Loki hummed, nodding slightly.

“What?” Gamora asked, setting the tea down. “What is it?”

Loki resisted the urge to bite his lip, and instead kept a smooth expression on his face. “It's nothing.” he managed.

“Loki, if you’re going to be here, you need to be honest.”

Loki eyed Gamora before sighing. “Guardians of the Galaxy?” he asked Gamora, “Sister, what has happened to you? Where is your dignity?”

Gamora had rolled her eyes and took a sip of her tea. “It's not a lie.”

“It’s baudy.”

“You’re baudy.”

“Excuse me?!”

Hakuba crinkled his nose, looking unbearably adorable. Kaito did it again, and Hakuba sneezed in his sleep before he let out a sleepy little groan.

Kaito looked up to find both Kudō and Aoko staring at him with identical flat expressions. "What?"

"Do you really have to?" Aoko asked.

"I'm bored!" Kaito whined.

"Only you could get bored in the middle of a hostage situation," Aoko said, shaking her head.

“I...am?”

“Mm, terribly. Completely mesmerizing...huh. And who is this strapping young fellow?” he asked with a smirk. He had found her pin ups of Adrien's latest photo shoot plastered on her walls. She darkened.

“N-no one. Just...I'm a fan of the designer.”

He laughed, in spite of everything. “Designer? This photo shoot doesn't feature a whole lot of clothing...what designer are you a fan of, exactly? The god that crafted those abs?”

“I rather liked it, seeing as how it is my name and all,” he smirked. He couldn’t help it, her embarrassment was just too cute.

“I am so pathetic. Why do I have to be so pathetic?” Her entire head was now buried underneath the pillow as if somehow the fluffy cushion could hide her from her compete mortification.

“Well to be fair I probably shouldn’t have been sneaking around after midnight kissing my sleeping girlfriend,” he added, trying to shoulder some of the blame for her current state.

“You aren’t helping,” she spat.

“Come on Mari, it’s not that bad you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I basically cheated on you, you should not be this calm.”

“I thought we covered the whole I am the same person,” Adrien stated flatly.

“That’s a technicality!”

(Ladybug really hates her partner's loved ones. Every last fucking one of them. Herself included specifically and by name.)

“Alya and I are superheroes, too.”

“You and Alya?” Adrien repeated, covering his face with the palm of his hand. How did he not see this coming?! Ladybug was going to kill him.

“She’s Rena Rouge. And I’m Carapace.”

Which made so much sense it wasn’t even funny. He was so close to losing it to hysterical laughter anyway.

Seriously, was everyone he knew a superhero? Who was next? His father?

"Say something." It's almost pleading, but not in a way where Felix will scoff. It's the pleading of someone who's been waiting, who's been trying with him, which, frankly, Felix has rarely experienced before.

"I…" he starts, then frowns, staring at his feet as the never ending walk continues. "You're not… wrong."

"That's it?"

"Fine. I love you. There."

Petra doesn't say anything for a moment, but Felix can feel the warmth radiating off her smile. "You are coming to Brigid with me?"

He can feel himself start to bristle, but Felix takes a deep breath, teeth grinding. "Fine."

"If we both survive, may I kiss you?"

"Okay. Survive then."

“Oh, be careful sir. That’s Jerry Springer, it gets addicting if you start watching it.”

“What is it?”

“A show where people confess to their significant others something extreme. Like if they’ve been cheating or if they were born a different gender. It’s really trashy TV.”

“It seems like it.” Gabriel stated, not taking his eyes off the screen.

—

Several hours later, and the doctor had not yet come out to speak with them.

“Come on Bonita, rip out her whore weave.” Gabriel Agreste muttered to no one.

“He don’t deserve you girl. Save face and walk out.” Marinette muttered back.

“... What did you just say?!”

“We.” Hiei enunciates, looking at Yuusuke like he’s an idiot. “Have sex. A lot.”

The beeping of the machine reminds Yuusuke he needs to adjust the angle so the crane can drop. He does so, fidgeting. That is… well, it’s information. A lot of information. Now he has a ton of questions. When did it start? How did that even work? Who was on top? Where did they even find the privacy?

“Is that why you guys were always in your room at the Tournament?” Yuusuke asks weakly. Hiei snorts.

“Partly. I don’t like socializing, especially as part of a team.” The little demon reminds him. The crane lowers, grasps the prize, and carries it all the way over to the drop box. It lands on the plastic lip of the box, bouncing back into the pile of candy.

“You are awful at this.” Hiei observes.

He reached out and took a loose strand of hair and tucked it behind her ear, smiling gently at her. He still wouldn’t close the space between them, no matter how much she wanted and begged him to.

He met her eyes, “How do you want to do this?” he asked, not taking his eyes off her.

She stared at him, “What?”

He leaned down to be eye level with her and stared at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. “What do you want our first kiss to feel like?”

She was taken aback by the question, “Uh, I don’t know… it’s not our first kiss though—”

“My Lady?”

She looked up at him, “Y-Yes?”

He shook his head, smiling fondly at her. “You’re rambling again.”

She looked down, blushing, “Sorry.”

He chuckled, then reached out and lifted her chin up. “Why don’t… I just make it feel good?”

She swallowed, “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

"Remember your place-"

"Then you remember yours," Uranus hissed. "I don't care what you've been getting up to. Wine, women, a secret treehouse in the forest where you pretend to be lord of the forest sprites, I don't care. We all have a role in this thing, and yours is to stand at Serenity's side and damn well protect her! If anything happens to our queen, you'd better have died first, or I swear you'll die second."

There was so much fake pity in Loki’s voice. The kind that could be masked as something else, if one wasn’t able to see the way his lips twitched, or see the laughter in his gaze. Toni saw both of those, and it only made her grin all the more. “Or maybe my palate is refined enough to recognize greatness with even the simplest of things. I don’t propose to just anyone, you know.”

They were interrupted by JARVIS, who was a complete and total traitor, outing her entirely by saying “Of course you don’t, Ma’am. I’m sure it was someone else who proposed to Lt. Col. Rhodes when he made pancakes. Or to Dr. Banner when he made gumbo. Or to…”

“Enough outta you!” Toni cut in, affecting a look of utter betrayal on her face. Inside, she was laughing. Loki was chuckling, too. Turning back to him, Toni put one hand over her heart and widened her eyes in a pleading look. “Don’t listen to him. Those other cooks, they mean nothing to me. Your food is the only food I want.”

Loki gave another shake of his head. “The truth wills out. A truly fickle heart beats within your breast. How can I know you will not abandon me for better food one day?”

“Keep making things like this, and you’ll never have to fear,” Toni promised him.

“Mm?”

“The warm feeling. The one that makes the memories look--”

“Silver around the edges.” Kurama interrupts, eyes still closed. A smile curves his lips.

“Yes.” Hiei confirms. “What is that?”

“I’m sure you have an idea.”

Hiei thinks so too, but he doesn’t want to be wrong about it. Those memories have that particular warmth and color, different than thoughts about others. The fact Kurama knows what he’s talking about means his own thoughts about the fox -- the ones Hiei shared with Kurama -- must have shown up that way too.

It means that depth of feeling between them is something like…

“Why would I thank you?” Hiei hisses.

“Look, I know you think I’m beneath you since I’m human and take orders from a toddler, but I sure as hell can feel when someone’s hitching a ride on my brain.” Yuusuke mutters with a yawn.

Hiei stares at the Spirit Detective, shocked. He also seriously considers lifting the tray in his hands and hitting Yuusuke square in the face with it.

“You knew?”

“Eventually, yeah.”

There’s an ominous little growl from the warded Dragon; it senses the rage of its master. If Yuusuke knew that Hiei was watching, that meant he made things worse on purpose. That he tried to kiss Kurama on purpose, knowing that Hiei would see…

“You’re welcome.” Yuusuke grins.

"You know me," Kurama said as they stood to leave again. "Fail big or don't fail at all."

"I think we're gonna have to teach you how to fail little as an investment in the future."

"Nonsense. You'd get bored, I'd get lazy, and we'd never see Hiei again."