#tempestflames

"If you were an opening act for another upcoming artist, should you strive to outperform them? Or perhaps I should say, would you?"

Bold, red lips were pursed and eyebrows raised in shock. His question struck her with a subtle pain, a pluck at the strings of her heart. A melody that resulted in her scoffing loudly; Ahri crossed her arms slowly.

❝ Opening or solo, I want all eyes on me. I am not getting paid enough for this, Sasuke. I have to get my fans somehow, you know. ❞ she murmured, twirling a strand of gold around her perfectly polished fingers.

Ahri adored competition, in fact it was the very burning desire she held. She wanted to be at the top, to be craved. An icon to copy, a figure to cry for, a persona to captivate the millions of gazes.

A bright blue bubble formed from her lips and popped loudly. The sweet and refreshing taste of mint flooding her mouth, bringing back the life in her eyes as they twinkled mischievously.

DARKER THRILLING PROMPTS. / @tempestflames

It's surprisingly easy, making mistakes. It's also very human, and so, against the impulses he would normally be more than happy to follow, Izuku decides to not rub it into the hero's face.

"I don't think I can do that," he laughs, a sincere note of pain resonating throughout his words once he takes too much air in at once and his ribs remind him of their existence. Maybe that's why he decided to play along — he made a mistake today too, and now, with his mask gone and dirt and scratches on his face and hands, he looks just like another civilian who found himself at the wrong place in the wrong time.

At least he can still stand, that's always a plus.

  it’s strange. Izuku’s brain is puzzled, his head feeling fuzzy like when he’s sick, and he doesn’t know why. his surroundings weren’t familiar when he was paying attention, but something else had long caught his eye.

  Izuku’s been staring for a good minute or two now, wide green eyes unblinkingly staring down the blond in his sights. something about him is familiar, like a relative he hasn’t seen in a while or something like that, but no matter how he looks the blond up and down, he can’t quite place it, because the only grown up he knows with blond hair isn’t a boy. he knows he should be focusing on whatever unfamiliar place he’s in because this isn’t home and it isn’t his nursery school, but it’s just bugging him so much. puffing his cheeks out, Izuku decides to finally look up at the face. spiky blond hair, red eyes, that’s just like —

honestly, he should probably kill giran for not providing him with the goldmine that was shinsou. a brainwashing quirk? bakugou was the easy target but shigaraki had underestimated just how deep the hero indoctrination had gotten him. this purple-haired eraserhead-mini-me was absolutely perfect.

it's a shame he didn't think of it sooner, honestly.

after the war, he's much weaker than before. all for one's vestige was thankfully been and gone, and the quirk remnants inside of him were there but hardly as effective. decay was as good as anything, but rivet stab, air cannon .. all the fun stuff a bare minimum.

" you know, i'm curious. why did you want to become a hero so badly in a society that villanizes quirks like yours? "

@tempestflames / nonverbal meme prompts.

it didn't take her long to catch on to sasuke's social awkwardness, despite seeing little snippets of it before they began travelling together. so when they passed a small village on their journeys it was no surprise that he didn't seem too interested in venturing in, he wanted to stay on the path he had set for himself. normally that would be the end of it, and mitsuri should have questioned him when he instead urged her to go ahead in and purchase whatever it was she wanted to stop for. after making sure it was truly alright with him, she wandered off, planning on buying some snacks for the road and some souvenirs.

and she was quick. she was buzzing around, happy to tell whoever would listen that her 'husband' was waiting for her, so she was no longer than fifteen minutes before trotting back to where she left sasuke, only to see him gone. immediately she began to panic, thinking that maybe he had left her there and run off. he never did seem too keen on her proposal. but even so, it didn't sit right with her, so she rushed into the forest, hoping to catch up with him if he did decide to ditch her. however, after a minute or so of stumbling around in a panic, she almost trips over a leg as she rushes past a tree, half turning and looking over to see none other than sasuke.

there he sat, perched against the root of the tree, almost drenched in blood.

her heart hammers in her chest for a moment before her knees give out and she falls by his side, quickly moving to check for wounds. ❝ sasuke-kun, are you alright!? how badly are you injured!? ❞ her fingers brush over his clothing, checking for entry rips and tears but she finds none, so she checks over his bare flesh, hands dipping past his shirt to check his chest; but she finds none. after a minute or so of frantically checking him over mitsuri cannot find a single wound. there is no cut, scratch, slash or bruise on him. her thoughts run wild as she sits back on her heels, sage green hues flickering from the exhausted-looking man before her and over towards a small trail of blood. following it with her eyes, mitsuri can vaguely see a hand sticking out from a bush with a kunai laying limp in its fingers.

Relief should be flooding his entire body, but it was not. Izuku willed himself to smile and accept gladness as his response, but he could not.

The truth was, the tension in his shoulders was still there, and his bright emerald eyes held a dark edge that wasn't there before and shouldn't be there now.

He had shuffled closer to Katsuki before he even realized that he moved, and found himself clutching the other's arms. "That's twice now," Izuku said quietly, but definitely not calmly. "Twice now that you nearly died."

Izuku would not be able to take a third time but did not know what it would take to prevent a third time. Should he try to go on missions with Katsuki? Maybe he could send his childhood friend some videos on the importance of being cautious while on duty? No, neither of those would work. If only Kacchan didn't have to put himself in danger.

If only Kacchan wasn't a hero-

That was a dangerous thought, and a selfish one as well.

It was late. Half past 2 AM late. The moon sat at a good angle reflecting blue-toned light through the half-open blinds of Hokage tower. Soft radiant white illuminated Sasuke’s face with thin glowing strips, keeping enough of him shrouded in the dark, but plenty of negative space to bold his distracting ringlet eye. 

The night would have been perfect and Sasuke would have had the tranquil ambience to finish his assignments in peace, but instead found himself imposing his figure over Naruto’s chaotic pile of a desk. His shadow blanketed the blond into absolute darkness while the raven-haired man shined with a white halo around his outline.

“If you don’t take care of yourself, then who will?” he chided his Hokage.