#protective team

caretaker and whumpee live together. they've known eachother for a while and caretaker knows about everything the whumpee's been through before they met.

they also work at the same company. when caretaker gets a text from supervisor, they head right to their office but before they can get to the door, they spot a person standing next to a water cooler by the office. it was whumper.

caretaker's heart skips a beat, but they try to not show it. they've only encountered the whumper about two times before, but they'd recognise that face anywhere. why are they here?

caretaker wonders if the whumper recognises them as well, the answer being clear as day the moment whumper gives them a patronising, smug smile they can only see for a second before they enter the office.

"caretaker! good to see you," their supervisor greets them with a smile, along with a few coworkers who were in the office as well.

"good to see you too," caretaker tries to reciprocate the warm greeting, but can't hide the way their throat suddenly goes dry. they swallow before continuing, "listen, who's that person outside your office?"

supervisor looks at them a bit confused, but answers anyway as they take a sip of their coffee: "their name is whumper, I just hired them. why?"

"is whumpee here?" caretaker shoots the next question immediately as they visibly grow worried.

"they just left, actually. looked like they were in a hurry, too."

"god damn- did they talk to eachother?"

"I don't-? caretaker, what is this?" supervisor puts their coffee mug down as they and the rest of the crew eye caretaker.

"supervisor, did they or did they not talk to each other," caretaker urges. if this wasn't a professional setting, they'd probably grab supervisor by the shoulders at this point.

"um, i think i saw them exchange a few words?" a coworker chimed in.

"fuck," caretaker uttered, "god fucking damn it. listen, we need to put a pin in this, i need to go find whumpee, like, right now. i probably shouldn't talk about it but i just know that they're not having a good time." they explain briefly as they gather their things.

"we'll help," supervisor put a hand on caretaker's back. "you know them best. where do you suggest we look?"

Something happens where the only way to get Lance to wake up/heal Lance is for someone who romantically loves him to preform whatever ceremony or something. He got sprayed by some sort of flower like the dummy (affectionate) he is.

All the paladins are in a panic, and Keith is internally debating it himself, but deep down he knows the answer and is just delaying the inevitable. So while they’re all panicking, Keith takes whatever he has to take to do the ritual thing (a kiss?), and all the paladins just stare at him as it works.

What they don’t know is that the only way for the spell or whatever to wear off is for the person being kissed/whatever to return the feelings.

So now all the paladins know about Keith’s pining (except Lance, because if Lance knew then Keith wouldn’t be pining) and it’s a bit awkward at first, but it’s all fine. The thing is, everyone thinks Lance doesn’t reciprocate Keith’s feelings, when in reality, he’s just really good at hiding his crush unless people know, then it’s obvious (one of my favorite tropes.)

One day, they go back to that planet and the aliens accidentally reveal the real reason Lance was saved, because they assumed they had gotten together by now, and Lance goes “but who…” until his eyes land on Keith, hopeful.

But Keith doesn’t know it’s hopeful, so he panics when he thinks Lance had figured it out. So, he runs, and that’s basically all the confirmation Lance needs before he tries to run after him and scream Keith’s name.

He’s stopped by Shiro, who says to give Keith time, and Hunk and Pidge stand there too, Hunk looking a bit guilty and Pidge being like a steel wall.

Lance is so confused, until Pidge says something like, “give him time, he doesn’t need a rejection right now.”

Lance literally stares at all of them and goes “what?!” He breaks out of Shiro’s grip and starts sprinting, and when the team calls out he goes “how could I not love him?!”

More Keith POV now, he’s running through the forest of an alien planet, part of the area that’s not charted so his map is useless, until he falls. After he tripped, he hears the sound of footsteps, and tries to get back up, but Lance come through the forest faster than Keith could run, and basically tackles him.

There’s a dramatic love confession with a lot of screaming and tears, and they both just stop to stare at each other for a bit, the only sound surrounding them the quiet calls of an animal native to the planet.

That’s the quintessence of what happens at the Tower after Loki’s left.

At first, Tony doesn’t really pay attention to his teammates odd behavior. They’re always odd -- not just confusing in the way people generally are but also plain weird and it’s a good thing the public has no idea how peculiar Bruce is about his tea and how the table is set and how Steve swears when he’s losing at Mario Kart and how Clint is just a general disaster in the mornings -- but lately they’ve been a different kind of odd.

For example, just the other day Tony’s been blindly stumbling towards the coffee machine when Steve just stormed into the room like was being hunted down by seven evil clones [don’t ask] and proceeded to sweep Tony off his feet and carry him to the kitchen.

Granted, that’s happened before. But usually because Clint dares Steve to carry something. And usually that something isn’t Tony.

Then there’s the whole being Watched™ by Natasha and Clint thing. It’s cool when one of them does it -- they’re spies, they can’t help it -- but when they team up and you look up or turn around just to find them there, in the room with you, motionless and staring at you with blank eyes and you’ve no idea how long they’ve been there?

That’s a sure way to give a man a heart attack.

[That was a joke. Mostly. It still got the assassin twins banned from the Tower for three days though and that’s unusual as well.]

Tony wishes that’s where the list of incidents ended, but really, he isn’t even half-way through Monday morning yet.

The madness continues from there and whatever is wrong with his teammates, it doesn’t wear off.

Some of the incidents can be explained by the Avengers being their normal, traumatized-but-totally-buried-under-bad-coping-mechanisms-and-mountains-of-denial, broken-edged selves.

Like that time Tony and the microwave had a small disagreement and Thor massacred the poor thing with his magic hammer [and that won’t ever not sound wrong]. Or the one where Bruce bodily threw himself between Tony and the bunsen burner.

Others though?

Having Natasha give his poor employees the So You’re About To Have Regular Contact With Tony Stark And I Will Remember Your Face And Name Shovel Talk whilst cleaning her nails with a butcher knife is new, but sort of amusing in an oddly heartwarming way, but also unprecedented. [He’s definitely gonna pay them extra high hazard bonis that year].

Having Clint optimize his security schematics is helpful, but less so when Clint doesn’t think to clue any of them in on some of his more-- offensive defensive measures. [There’s only so many times you can accidentally almost get a cleaner killed by your well-meaning AI before the company will stop sending any more people.]

Having Thor’s magic hammer smite his coffee machine because Tony burned his tongue on his first coffee?

This has to stop. Right. The. Fuck. Now. 

[It turns out there is something more terrifying than Loki. It’s his boyfriend.]

*

| Extra |

Natasha tried to mess with the Iron Man armor exactly once. And never again.

“Told you,” Clint points out smugly when she stumbles out of the elevator, pale and sweaty, shooting the thin air behind her a look of untold horror.

Malcolm never really knew what family should be like. Even before he had found out what his father was and their family had fallen apart, the Whitlys weren’t the poster family. They had too much money, they were too formal, too stiff. Neither of his parents believed in smothering, at least not when they were children. More prone to expecting them to be independent rather than holding their hand every step of the way. It a lot of ways they were too hands-off. They expected too much independence.

That is why Malcolm was utterly baffled by the fact that his new family seemed to think him incapable of surviving without them.

Gil was obsessed with feeding him. Every time Malcolm turned around, there was Gil with something more to eat. Every single time. Sandwiches for lunch, invitations to dinner, bring pastries to work for “the whole group” but really meaning Malcolm in particular.

As if that wasn’t bad enough there was also Dani with her refusal to leave him alone ever. She took him home every night. She picked him up for work every day. If he so much as stepped out of the office to go buy a cup of coffee she would go with him. Usually with an excuse about wanting another one to or about him getting the wrong one if he got it for her.

It was JT that was the biggest surprise though. Malcolm had always figured that it was at most a grudging respect for him. As it turns out, JT expressed affection through grumpiness and teasing. Once Malcolm had figured that out the rest of if sort of made sense. Sort of. He still wasn’t sure about JT’s sudden insistence on trying to help him find a treatment for his night terrors. As much as he liked the doting, (he did like the doting) he wasn’t so sure that burning sage would help.

Although the melatonin had helped him sleep more soundly and made the dreams much less intense. He did have to give him that. However, the TENS unit had been a horrible idea.

All of this added to the fact that Malcolm thought he was being treated like a child or an adorable puppy that had wandered into the precinct, and now they were all taking care of it. Which is why he had decided he was going to have a talk with them about the over-protective behavior.

He lured them into their meeting room with coffee and pastries and then closed the blinds. Gil had given him an odd look but allowed him to do so. JT had been focused on the pastries and Dani had been focused on the coffee. Which made it the perfect time to launch into his speech.

“I love you all to bits. Seriously, you’re my family and I adore you, but you’re making me nuts. I can’t go to the bathroom without one of you walking me there. I have eaten more food with you guys than all of the rest of my life combined. JT, I love that you are trying to help with the night terrors, and I appreciate it, I really do, but half of these things are pure hokum. Seriously, guys, I love you to pieces, but I can’t deal with this anymore.”

There was silence as they all looked at him. it was broken by JT speaking his own piece.

“Tough shit. You’re my little brother and I get to try and help you any way that I want to and can. So, what if half of them are hokum? The other half isn’t. Some of them haven’t helped, but some of them have. A hundred failed ideas are worth just one that helps you. Just one that makes your life better or easier. I’m not stopping and you can’t make me.”

Malcolm stared at him for a moment, perplexed. He hadn’t thought this scenario out. He’d figured that once he had said his part that they would all back off. He hadn’t counted on them not backing down. Gil shot JT a look and then started to talk himself.

“I think what JT means is that we love you, Malcolm. We want to look after you and protect you.”

“Yeah, because that is what family does for each other,” Dani said. “They’re overprotective and they drive you up the wall with it. But that means that they’re there for you when you need it the most. When the psycho has beaten you up or a killer has locked you in a dark closet. That’s what family is.”

“And I know that you don’t really understand family Malcolm. You don’t get why we feel we need to do these things for you when you can get by without them. So, we are going to do our level best to show you why we need to do them. Why we can’t sleep without them. Because we can’t Malcolm. So yes, Dani is going to go with you everywhere to keep crazy people from killing you. JT is going to try every possible cure for night terrors every known to mankind until he finds something that works. And I am going to put so much food inside of you that you may explode. And kiddo, there is nothing you can do to stop us.”

Malcolm looked back at them, tears filling his eyes. He reached up to brush them away and Gil opened his arms. Malcolm pushed himself into the warmth and hid his face. Allowing even more tears to leak out of his eyes. Dani smiled at the sight of them and took out her phone snapping a couple of pictures.

JT shot her a look. “Send me a few copies of those too. My mom’s been dying to have a picture of Malcolm since I brought him home. Not sure that there could be a better one to give her.”

IIIIIIIIII’M BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Hi dear!

I’m sorry if I made you wait so much, but I’m finally here! Thank you for your kind words! Writing a good KuroYachi has been more tricky than what I expected (maybe it’s because I haven’t written in a month and I’m a bit rusty) but I hope this small drabble will make you smile at least :3

Have a wonderful day

KuroYachi, Karasuno Team, Kenma Kozume, Implied BokuAka, DaiSuga and KageHina

Fluffy, Protective Team, Attempt at Confession

Worth It

“Kuro…”

“Shut up, bo.”

“But-”

“I’m pitiful enough without your commentary!”

His friend sighed, shrugging, and took another sip from the water bottle.

Kuroo was seated beside him, with the back against the wall and the hands running through the messy hair. His face was scrunched in annoyance and exasperation.

“I’m just trying to say it’s absurd you haven’t asked her out yet.” Bokuto couldn’t stop himself.

“Booooo!” Kuroo moaned, hiding the face against the knees, “I tried, I tried alright?”

“You’ve been crushing on her since the last training camp!” His friend frowned, “And you haven’t asked her on a single date, you have to do something instead of pitying yourself!”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!” The raven glared at him, but the other smirked proudly.

“I have a boyfriend, and he’s the prettiest setter ever!” he gloated with a dreamy expression.

Kuroo scoffed.

“You have a boyfriend because Akaashi took pity on you and confessed after you had moped around for weeks, thinking he would have rejected you.”

“Still!”

“I feel like decking you.”

“Cooooome on! I bet you can do it, you just have to muster up the courage! You’re a captain, an amazing middle-blocker, a smart student, and even good-looking when you shut up! She won’t say no!” Bo patted his shoulder, “And if she rejects you, I’ll let you crash at my place, crying while eating ice-cream as we watch your favorite Disney movie!”

Kuroo elbowed him, with his cheeks flushed, but barely hid a grin. Bokuto was serious and honest, he really wanted to cheer him up, but…

“The problem is not the courage. Or her rejecting me-”

“You sound awfully confident for someone who was cr-”

“Okay, it is, but not the major one now. I believe she likes me, or at least she doesn’t fear me anymore. The problem is that I can’t even approach her!”

“Uh?” Bokuto tilted his head, blinking owlishly.

“Her parents. And big brothers. And protective best friends,” Kuroo sighed. He slouched as he dejectedly let his coal eyes wander towards the other side of the gym.

“You mean the Karasuno Team?”

“Someone must have told them I wanted to ask her out, and now they’re constantly on alert. I’ve barely talked to her this week,” the raven explained, lips curved in a grimace.

“Bro, no one told them, there was no need: you blushed, stumbled around her, offered to help her with the chores as manager, followed her around all the time…you did everything to approach her and find a way not to intimidate her. It’s plain as day you like Yachi. Even the coaches know.”