Dee || 22

-they got together in their first year after Kageyama’s second crowning

-this happened in the most Kagehina way possible, where they were walking home together and Kageyama just says ‘I think I want to date you, dumbass’

-Hinata says ‘think I wanna date you too, asshole’ and that’s it, they’re dating now

-sure, the conversation following the confession is a bit more emotionaly charged and Kageyama thanks Hinata for the support, but there’s no more mention to the nature of their relationship

-they continue on in their relationship up to their third year

-no one notices

-this is because nothing changed. Sure, they are physicaly close, but they basicaly fell asleep on each others’ shoulders before this, it’s not like them holding hands is weird

-they don’t really enjoy kissing, because it’s just weird to do so

-until they find out about the horizontal tango in their third year

-this kinda expands their horizons, but they still dislike kissing in public without any followup, because they’re very competetive in everything, including bedroom activities

-Yamaguchi, Yachi and Tsukishima kinda think something is going on, but they’re never sure and it’s driving them insane

-anyone can ask ‘Hinata, is Kageyama your partner?’ And the answer will be ‘yes’ but the answer has been yes for three years now goddamit and surely the two of them couldn’t have been together for THAT long, right????

-their touches border platonic and romantic, but they never really cared about the distinctions, so who even KNOWS

-they spend a shitton of time together, but that’s NORMAL, stil

-chaos in the gc. Their senpais get in on this and it’s a whole bet going on

-Brazil time. Why should they ‘take a break’? Nah, they’re fine, long distance is no problem for either of them as long as they get to talk to each other weekly

-Oh sure, they miss the physical aspects of their relationship, but the way they feel about each other hasn’t changed at all and they both know Hinata is doing this for the both of them

-that being said, when Hinata gets back from Brazil, Kageyama is the one to go pick him up and then doesn’t show up at practice for two days straight because they keep each other ‘occupied’

-they both also cry when they meet at the airport. The only lucky thing is that this was at two in the morning on a Tuesday and Hinata was nowhere near as popular as after his MSBY debut, otherwise Kageyama would’ve probably been followed by at least three journalists and their ‘Welcome home’ kiss would’ve ended up plastered on every single sports magazíne cover the next morning

-as soon as they settle into their new routine, the ‘when will they get together/are they together yet’ game starts on a bigger scale, now including their V-League teammates

-Kageyama comes to practice bruised up? The bruises look natural and could be from a number of other activities he regularly does

-Hinata has scratches on his arms? It’s a well known fact that he’s very fond of cats and has been seen petting a stray one just the day before

-both of them drop out of practice on the same day and are seen together? Turns out Hinata’s sister came to visit and she just LOVES Tobio, really, how could you deny the Hinata smile™️ anything?

-they call each other by their first names? Oh, they’ve known each other for AGES

-they share an apartment sometimes? Tokyo is EXPENSIVE and Tobio lives so close to the Adlers gym, why waste an opportunity to play volleyball together?

-funny thing is that they’re not even the ones comming up with the excuses, it’s just the two sides of the bet arguing over the possibility of their win

-and along comes Japan national team

-they win their first gold together

-and kiss on the olympic court

-afterwards, both of them look so giddy and shocked that EVERYONE assumes they must’ve just gotten together. And really, that has always been the more popular assumption, because the two of them can be DENSE

-read a really funny fic where Kageyama was doing a press conference and he was asked who his favourite spiker he ever played with was and instead of saying someone from his current team, he just said Hinata (they do this constantly)

-so it’s not that big of a surprise. Money is payed out to the assumed winners, there’s a general sense of great ease and everyone congratulates the two of them

-they seem confused about the congratulations, but then again, it has been a very emotional day for the both of them

-well, there’s an afterparty for the national team

-Kageyama and Hinata sit next to each other on one of the couches and the team is huddled around them and everyone is just having a good time

-and then Hinata turns to Kageyama and says ‘Hey, let’s just get married after the games end’

-the party grows quiet

-Kageyama’s response? ‘Oh, sure, works with me’

-you could hear a pin drop

-and the two of them just try to continue on with the conversation that the question interupted

-then Bokuto, bless his heart, and Ushijima, no social awareness extraordinare, congratulate them on their engagement, to which Kagehina smile and thank them and then try to pull them into the conversation

-Atsumu is the one to speak up next

-‘um. Shouyo-kun, I don’t want to be mean or anything. But uh. Don’t you think it would be better to wait with the engagement a bit? I mean, I know you two have known each other for years and all, but then again, you just got together. Wouldn’t it be better to think this through a bit more?’

-…

-Hinata and Kageyama look at each other

-wide eyes, they mouth Atsumu’s sentence back to each other

-then Hinata bursts out into laughter and burries his face in Kageyama’s shirt

-Kageyama snorts and gets redder than the Japan jersey

-everyone else is confused as fuck, that is until Hinata manages to get his breath back

-‘We’ve- uh, hah, we have been together since the first year of highschool, ‘Tsumu- Tobio- To- Tobio. Fuck- we never fucking told anyone’s have we?’ more laughter

-this time it’s Kageyama who loses it and hides his face in Hinata’s shoulder

-‘No, no we did not-‘

-que everyone else losing their shit

-that night causes more chaos in the V-League comunity than anything else in the past decade in the least

-next morning, after a LOT of phonecalls, a post appears on all of Ninja Shouyo’s social media accounts, with only a ‘We’re here’ and a photo of Kagehina, with their olympic jerseys on and showing off their gold medals

I’m an above average Tecna and Tecna-adjacent character enjoyer on most days, but sometimes I just get irrationally angry about what the franchise did to her (or to everyone, really, but SPECIFICALLY to her). 1) Digit is a great Pixie. I love her, I collect her merch, she’s beautiful. An angel, really, but does she balance out Tecna like the other Pixies do with their Winx? Not in the slightest. If anything, they make each other worse.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Winx Club Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Amaryl/Tecna (Winx Club) Characters: Amaryl (Winx Club), Tecna (Winx Club), Background & Cameo Characters, Palladium (Winx Club), Stella (Winx Club) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Stargazing, Alfea (Winx Club), Realm of Magix (Winx Club), Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Magic, Post-Season/Series 02, but unspecified when Exactly, Made For Each Other, first fic for this pair, Why do I always end up at this point, she was in tech - her girl was a star, Can I make it any more obvious? Summary:

Tecna is startled out of her contemplation by an I have only been in your head for ten seconds and I have already felt ten types of things I didn’t know were going on in there. She giggles, refocussing on the task at hand: keeping watch. I love you, she thinks. I know, Amaryl responds smugly.

It's common sense here, except for USians, so I'll analyze it a bit more for the dominant demographic here. In a globalized setting, the most dominant culture affects the others and sets the trends. The way our language works, how we think, our levels of politeness and intimacy, and our levels of respect. (flash news, they are going down 😂)

I don't want to imply that there is nothing good in the US. There are plenty of positives in the country. It's just that for the rest of the cultures online it's a constant daily fight to not forget our roots, with the degree US media and brands have permeated our lives. In Greece at least we watch more US American media than Greek media nowadays, and many of our shows are rip-offs of USian ones, with little adaptation to Greek reality and culture.

And to demonstrate the amount of this exposure, a 22-year-old Greek asked me the other day "if something happens we call 911, right?" This might have literally cost them their life, in a dangerous situation! Because all the movies and songs they consumed (not an unusual thing for the Greek youth) were what they knew. And I found a similar comment in this comment thread.

It's about American media drowning out native language media all over the world, and workplaces requiring the English language in your repertoire more and more. It's about proper translations and foreign language dubbing of films disappearing because "everyone speaks/should speak English anyway." All of this is leading to the deterioration of native speaker groups of languages worldwide.

In my country, Dutch language courses can't find enough people who want to study the language, while English language courses are overflowing with people who want to study the language. There is even widespread distaste for the Dutch language for being crude or sounding rough or what have you. That's our native language!!! That is our culture in its purest form!!! That is knowledge we inherit from our parents as they did from theirs!!! That is how we learned fairytales and folk stories and myths!!! That is the language that shapes our communication and our way of thinking!!! To hate your native language is to hate yourself at the deepest level.

And yet it's so normalised. Droves of foreigners living in the Netherlands will never learn a word of Dutch, because "everyone speaks English anyway." We are the world's leaders in non-native understanding of English, but it comes at a cost. A grave cost we will continue to pay.

If you're looking to support your non-American friends in any way that is not performatively shouting "I hate being an American" into the void, first of all, unlearn that hatred of yourself and your culture. You are of no help self-flagellating, and there is a difference between holding your country accountable for its issues, and denying yourself your culture because your country is doing and has done bad things.

(I am not going to get into arguments about whether or not US American culture exists. It does, and if you think differently you are welcome to change your mind.)

Secondly, learn about other countries. Learn a bit of Chinese. Take an interest in the Italian political system. Ask your friends about their countries' folklore. Watch documentaries about art from Nigeria. Absorb information that is not fed to you by American media.

And thirdly, quit expecting your non-American friends to communicate in a way that appeals to you. The French and Dutch will always seem rude to you because our way of communicating is far more direct than the way you communicate. People from other cultures may seem vague to you because their way of communicating is far more indirect, and you're not used to that either. Quit being frustrated when you don't get what we mean exactly. Quit assuming we mean the absolute worst thing you could imagine just because you didn't get what we meant the first time. Ask us to explain if you need us to, and learn to accept that we are different from you.

And I am forever having to remind people what country they live in whenever politics come up. Its not uncommon for people to *only* know American politics and not even realise it. They have just learned thats "the way things are". And the same with law! Trying to tell their own solicitors to do things the "proper" (american) way! Brits walking around talking about their constitutional rights! First amendment! Its fucking ridiculous! People thinking "oh I know my rights" and woops now you're arrested because you can't actually talk to the police like that and your silence can actually be used against you.

I've seen multiple British poc be torn apart online for discussing their lived experiences, and even other British poc back up that harassment because they've been taught to think about things the American way, so the American racists attacking British poc must be right! Trying to discuss any non-american race politics (for the benefit of the fucking opressed) is always inevitably derailed because how dare we not fit the whole worlds experiences into the tiny boxes americans can relate too. Which in turn just destroys people's ability to educate and give people the vocabulary they need, which then deprives people of the understanding and connection they need to process and deal with their oppression.

Thankfully things have changed in the past few years but there was a time it was almost impossible to find (free) educational resources for BSL because well, why learn that when you can learn ASL?

Even when trying to engage with other languages and cultures, its ruined by American culture. My kid abandoned its language studies for years because it just could not deal with the demand of having to not only learn a new language but also learn American to use apps like duolingo. How discouraging for a young child to be told over and over that they are wrong for using the correct, very common but not American word.

And it just permeates everything. I lost my native dialect to classism and fought so hard to get it back. And yet I have to keep diluting it online so I can just talk about things else everything I post will be derailed by americans cooing over the silly little brit using weird words instead of like. Enaging with what I say in a meaningful way. Or I'll get threatened with doxxing by some bratty teenagers because I used a BRITISH colloquialism that coincidentally occurred in an American dialect and they just can't get their heads round the fact america doesn't own everything.

I had a friend from uni who had such a thick American accent I swore she was actually American. Turned out she came from a country town and just watched a lot of American TV. My parents would jump on me the minute I started to use the American word for things when I was a kid and now I will use the Australian word instead of the American word because fuck you, you can learn to understand my dialect now. I am so thankful Bluey exists and that Americans are learning Australian words, because seeing the articles and tweets of parents being upset their kids are talking like Australians make me perversely happy. Americanisation is a thing and it is vile and I fucking hate it.

I also spend a lot of time in (non-tumblr) role-playing spaces. You can just tell when a writer is American and hasn’t sought to learn about other cultures and think about how the culture of their character may affect word choices. When I can see a post/app/whatever that’s supposed to be from a character who would not use the same words refer to their mother as “mom” or use other American terms.... I want to scream.