Dream Bright in the Stars

warnings: first period; father being overdramatic; awkward conversation; protective dad; discussions of menstruation; teenage embarrassment;

It was a hot and muggy day. Holland loosened his tie and undid a few buttons of his shirt while the car sat motionless in traffic. Healy lit yet another cigarette and went back to drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. They were supposed to make it to the other side of the city to question a witness, but at this rate they wouldn't get there until evening.

"Hey." Jackson's voice pulled Holland away from staring at the display window of a nearby watch shop. "Isn't that Holly? And your lady?" "No way," March muttered lazily, finally looking in the direction Healy was pointing. "Holly's at school right now, and she..." His eyes narrowed. "What the hell?"

Across the street, he spotted two familiar figures. He recognized your dress immediately, he still thought you looked absolutely breathtaking in it, and his daughter's blonde hair as the two of you disappeared into a building. He glanced up at the sign. "A pharmacy?" he murmured, frowning. "Why?" "Maybe Holly isn't feeling well," Healy suggested. "Nonsense. That kid has an immune system made of steel." "Maybe she's the one who's sick." "Then why's Holly with her?"

From where they were, they couldn't see what the two of you were doing inside. A moment later, the traffic finally started moving, and so did the car. Unfortunately, once Holland's imagination got going, there wasn't much Jackson could do to stop it. 

Dinner was almost ready when the front door slammed in a very familiar way. "Sweetheart?" Holland's voice echoed through the house. "In the kitchen," you called, reaching into the cabinet for a couple of plates. "How was your day?" As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, you knew something was wrong. He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, running a hand through his hair. "Did something happen?" you asked. "No." He shook his head too quickly. Then, almost immediately, "Yes. How was your day?"

"Good..." You frowned. "Holland?" "Is Holly sick?" "No." "Are you sick?" "No?" "No coughing? Runny nose? Stomachache?" "No. Holland, what is…" "Wait." He hurried out of the kitchen and disappeared into the bedroom. A moment later he came back carrying a small paper pharmacy bag. "What is this?" You blinked. "Seriously? I should've known something was bothering you." "What is it?" he insisted. "I saw you and Holly today. You're hiding something." "I..." You hesitated. Holland caught it instantly. He was a detective, after all.

"You've got a secret!" he declared dramatically, pointing an accusing finger at you. "I do not." "Are you..." He lowered his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "...pregnant?" "What?! No!" Confusion spread across his face. That didn't fit his theory at all. If neither of you was sick, and you weren't pregnant... then what on earth had you been doing there? You knew him too well. You could practically hear every gear in his brain spinning. You sighed.

"I was at the pharmacy with Holly, but it's nothing serious. I can't tell you because I promised..." Holland's eyes widened. "A secret," he muttered. You buried your face in your hands with a quiet groan. "Holland. Please." "Then tell me and let's get this over with." You rested a hand on the counter and took a deep breath. When you finally spoke, your voice was barely above a whisper. "Holly came to see me before school this morning. She asked me for a favor." You paused. "She... she got her first period. I wanted to take her shopping for pads and some painkillers. You know... girl stuff." "Holly?" Holland repeated. "My Holly?" "What about me?" The voice behind you startled both of you so badly that you jumped. "Jesus, Dad. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack."

Holland spun around so fast you almost expected him to trip over his own feet. You couldn't see his face, but you could see Holly's. Within seconds, her curious expression melted into absolute horror. "Dad?" "Holly, sweetheart..." Holland began, his voice suspiciously watery. "Are you okay?" "...Yesterday you still fit in the palm of my hand... and today..." Holly slowly turned toward you. "You told him?" "I'm sorry, but he…" "...I always knew this day would come," Holland interrupted dramatically. "The day you'd become..." "Please." Holly looked at you with desperate eyes. "Stop him."

You grabbed Holland by the sleeve, but it wasn't enough. Nothing could have stopped him now. "My little girl is becoming a young woman..." Silence. You honestly couldn't decide what was worse, your own embarrassment, Holly's horrified expression, or the misty-eyed look on Holland's face. Finally, Holly took half a step backward.

"I'm not speaking to you until I'm eighteen. Then I'm leaving the state. I'm changing my last name. And I never want to see you again." She pointed dramatically at him. "That was weird. And humiliating." Before Holland even had the chance to pull her into a hug, she bolted upstairs and slammed her bedroom door so hard the walls practically shook. "I love you, Holly!" March shouted after her.

You sank into one of the kitchen chairs. You didn't even want to imagine what Holly must've been thinking right then. Meanwhile, Holland still looked both dazed... and oddly proud. He leaned against the counter and looked at you. "She came to you? Really?" You nodded. "I think she expected you might... react a little strangely." You gave him a pointed look. "Turns out she wasn't wrong."

Holland ignored that entirely. "I would've panicked, but somehow..." He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "Maybe I should talk to her." He looked at you hopefully. "You know... about boys and girls?" "Oh, please don't." You couldn't help laughing. "She needs some time. And besides..." You searched for the right words. "Holly needs to recover from... whatever that was." "...Is she in pain?" You smiled softly at the question. "No. She's okay."

wrote this instead of any of the requests in my inbox lol. all of these Ken fics are set in a universe I’m calling my “y/n and the real boy”-verse (yes, including the secret sexy videos).

Ken x gn!reader. fluff. canon-typical silliness. written bc my friend Marie said Ken would want his last name to be “Beach”.

“What’s your last name?”

“Hm?” Ken glances up from where he’s lying belly-down on your bed, legs kicked up in the air as he leafs through a quiz in an old magazine.

Hetalia World ☆ Stars - Chapter 533 Original

✦ . dark!Ken x afab!reader fic - list of all chapters

header by the wonderful @eridianhearts

To accompany your reading;

The bad guy - dark!Ken playlist

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦. 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

✦ . Chapter One

✦ . Chapter Two

✦ . Chapter Three

✦ . Chapter Four

I mean, wasn't that time the creators of ATLA said that girls who preferred Zutara would suffer in their relationships a little... crazy? Doesn't that imply that Mai, his semi-official partner, is with a bad guy? Did Zuko's redemption arc mean nothing?

Which is bothersome cause it holds no regard for character arcs and development and the bigger picture within the story we're being told. It takes the traits he shows in those scenes at face value, like they are traits as natural and inherent to Zuko as firebending is, unchanging, and the only point of showing us this behavior is to show us that...he's an asshole? He's possessive? He's violent? Nothing further, nothing about his mental state and where he's at in his character development?

Cause to me it kinda seems like we've already been shown in previous episodes that he's in a constant state of mental turmoil while he's in the Fire Nation, he's separated from the only person who truly loved and cared about him and wanted him to be good and believed he could be good, and in a scene directly following one of his and Ma.i's shallow cringey emo flirting he directly tells Iroh that he has everything he always wanted but it's not at all like he thought it would be.

And this after his first scene with M.ai, that introduces their romantic relationship, is one where he tries to open up about his emotions and she's not very receptive and kinda waves it off before tongue-kissing him and walking away again.

To me it seems like M.ai has become Zuko's only source of affection while he's back in an abusive household and essentially a prisoner in his own home and separated from his usual source of comfort and love, which is of course Iroh. But Ma.i's comfort, her affection, is shallow. It is skin-deep. Zuko is in desperate need of someone he can be his true self with, vulnerable and passionate and scared and empathetic, but he doesn't have that in Ma.i. To be clear, M.ai could never be the support Zuko needed in this time because what he needed was a guardian, he needed a parent, he needed Iroh, and M.ai was one teenage girl whose character I can only summarize as "Fascist Ninja Daria". But he had no one, no one except for Ma.i, even if the affection she offered was shallow and mostly physical, it was all he had and he was going to cling to it like a life raft, conform to what she wanted, be her ideal boyfriend, mesh with her personality instead of being himself so that he wouldn't lose his only source of comfort.

Their weird emo flirting about hating the world together is cringe and weird because, among everything else about it, it is very out of character for Zuko. We've already learned by this point in the series that Zuko doesn't hate the world, he's actually a deeply empathetic person. He's not apathetic, either, he's driven and passionate and has a very strong sense of justice.

All of it gives off the impression that just like everything else about how he's living in the Fire Nation, with Ma.i he is trying to be someone he's not. He doesn't feel like he can be his true self with her, instead behaving how he thinks she wants him to be, and emulating her personality to a degree. And he's proven justified in being scared to be his true self with her, because throughout The Beach he tries to be sweet and make cute little gestures, and in typical Zuko fashion, his True Self is awkward and cringefail (and we love that about him, it's endearing), and M.ai reacts to his attempts at genuineness by sneering and being mean and calling it stupid.

So you get to the party scene where Zuko gets mad at another guy for hitting on M.ai and throws him into a wall. Not excusing that, I believe we're pretty clearly meant to see that and understand that something is going seriously wrong inside Zuko, that he's acting erratically, but not for no reason. Not because he's just Like That, as the Zutara antis who bring this up would like us to believe, but because he's in the middle of an emotional crisis, and it's causing him to lash out violently at a perceived threat to his only source of comfort being taken away.

Again, though I think Ma.i is mean and toxic and not good for him, even if she were a perfect girlfriend, this is not something that can healthily be put on the shoulders of a teenage girl, so I'm not saying Ma.i is a Big Mean Bitch for not being Zuko's perfect emotional crutch, because there's no world where she could be.

But either way, it doesn't change that this is not a valid reason to claim that he's just Like That in general, or that it's somehow a counter to the fact that A.ang is shown being possessive, entitled, and violating Katara's boundaries, which is never challenged by the narrative, and not framed as flawed behavior that serves a wider character arc in the same way that the scenes where Zuko shows possessive behavior over M.ai are.

Sorry for this being so long. Oops.