#arianna writes

[natemacktruck]

masterlist

hi all! this is reposted writing from my main blog @cale-makar, I moved everything onto this blog for organizational purposes

at the end of the list you’ll find some info about my current works in progress

Tyson Jost

snow - your car doesn’t start and Tyson, your neighbor, gives you a ride (540 words) part two - A winter power outage brings an invite into your neighbor, Tyson’s, bed (1.7k)

Nathan MacKinnon

buzzer beater - (1.8k)

Cale Makar

all I need | part two - you fall for Cale Makar, but keeping it hidden from your brother, Ryan Graves, is harder than it looks (5.7k)

Current WIPs

free skate - in your journey to becoming the world's best female figure skater, you meet Alex Newhook, the kind, slightly silly hockey player for the Colorado Avalanche (moodboard 1 2)

[the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl]

Flufftober Day 14- Slow Dancing

“I’ve never seen you look this happy,” Shoto’s mother said softly as they swayed together on the dance floor, the song they’d chosen for their mother-son dance ringing in Shoto’s ears.

“I’ve never been this happy,” he agreed. “Our family is finally together without Endeavor’s shadow hanging over us, and I’m finally married to the love of my life. This is the happiest day of my life.”

“Good,” his mother replied, tears threatening in her voice. “Happiness is all I’ve ever wanted for you.” Neither of them spoke again after that, and when the song and their dance came to an end, Shoto’s mother stood up on tiptoe to kiss him on the forehead, then moved to his side, out of his line of sight.

“He’s waiting for you,” she murmured in his ear, turning him to face toward the chairs set up around the edge of the dance floor. There sat Izuku and Inko, side by side, having finished their own mother-son dance not long before. Both wore identical expressions, with beaming smiles and shining eyes. As Shoto and his mother approached, they stood, and when they finally met each other at the edge of the dance floor, Inko pulled Shoto into a rib-crushing hug, with a surprising amount of force considering she only came up to his shoulder. 

“Welcome to the family,” she whispered.

“Thank you,” Shoto replied, “but I hope you know that I’ve considered myself part of your family for a long time now.”

“Of course,” Inko said tearfully. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Shoto smiled down at her, heart swelling with love for the woman he was thrilled to now call his mother-in-law. 

“Mom,” Izuku cut in. “Could I steal my husband for a little bit? I believe we’re owed our first dance.” 

“Oh, yes, of course,” Inko replied with a wet sounding laugh. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget myself in my old age.”

“It’s okay, Mom,” Izuku said, leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek before reaching over to take Shoto’s hand in his. 

“Are you ready?” he asked softly, emerald eyes locking with heterochromatic ones.

“You know I’d follow you anywhere, and into anything,” Shoto replied. “For better or for worse.”

“Till death do us part,” Izuku answered, leading him out onto the dance floor. They began to move together as the music started, tracing slow circles across the floor while keeping to a waltz step, as Izuku had insisted that anything more complex would inevitably cause him to trip over his own feet. Shoto didn’t care. The complexity or lack thereof of the dance didn’t matter, only who he was doing it with, and he couldn’t have asked for a better partner, in this dance or in life.

With the hand that was held in Izuku’s, Shoto twirled him, and as he reeled him back in, he saw that his eyes were shining with tears and his cheeks were wet with them.

“Why the tears, my love?” he murmured, cupping Izuku’s face between his hand and brushing his tears away with the pads of his thumbs.

“Tears of joy, I promise you,” Izuku replied with a wet laugh, like his mother’s earlier. “This is the happiest day of my life.” 

“Mine too,” Shoto agreed. 

“Midoriya,” Izuku muttered, apparently to himself. “Shoto Midoriya.” He laughed. “I still can’t quite believe it.” At that, Shoto couldn’t not kiss him, and they finished their dance swaying together while mid lip-lock.

Later, they sat at the sweetheart table, recieving well wishes and congratulations. There were quite a lot of those, as it turned out, from quite a lot of people- All Might, Aizawa and Present Mic, Ururaka, Shinso, and the Bakugos, even Katsuki, who, despite his glowering and grumbling, clearly held true, friendly affection for Izuku and was happy for him, congratulating him by growling, “You two idiots deserve each other,”

Last came Fuyumi and Natsuo, Fuyumi pushing her husband Tensei in his wheelchair while his brother followed in their wake.

“Welcome to the family,” Fuyumi murmured to Izuku, echoing Inko’s sentiment to Shoto from before, letting go of Tensei’s wheelchair to pull Izuku into a hug.

“It’s great to have you,” Natsuo said when they pulled apart, clapping Izuku on the shoulder. Tenya, ever their stiff and formal class rep, despite the fact that they’d all graduated years ago, touched his fists together and bowed to Izuku, saying, “It’s an honor to have you as a brother-in-law.” Izuku beamed at all of them, eyes shining.

“Thank you all so much,” he said. Shoto leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek, overcome with joy himself.

“How did I manage to get married before you, Natsu?” he teased, fixing his gaze on his brother. “Didn’t you start dating your girlfriend when I was in high school?”

“Give me a break, you had a head start!” Natsuo exclaimed, playacting at being offended. “You’ve known Izuku for longer than I’ve known my girfriend.”

“I absolutely have not,” Shoto countered. “You two were dating at the beginning of my first year, I’m almost certain.”

“We’ll get here soon, I promise,” Natsuo said with a conspiritorial smile that made Izuku gasp aloud and Fuyumi squeal and immeditately begin pestering Natsuo for details.

After that, the group dispersed, leaving the newlyweds to spend time alone with each other, which they did happily, the crowd and rest of the world falling away until it was just them two. But every time a slow song played, they got up to dance, swaying together in gentle circles, and the night was filled with love and laughter and a joy too great to express.

[madame-airlock]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

My new story is up! As I said in the notes, special thanks to @eelise187 for the help with all my doubts and to @ila9182 for the support and advice ❤️❤️❤️

[things-from-my-journal]

A scene from the Olicity fantasy AU that won't leave me alone:

Oliver's shoulders rose, slightly, almost imperceptibly. Almost. Felicity laid a hand on his arm, gesture of comfort. Moira's gaze honed in on the movement.

"Miss Smoak," she said, a steely edge to her voice. "I ordered you to bring my son back to me, not to fall in love with him." Moira's words cut into Felicity like daggers. She knew. How could she possibly have known? She resisted the urge to back away from her. She may not have been a mage, but she could turn words into weapons as effectively as Felicity could.

"Felicity," Oliver murmured, saying her name in that way that could make it mean any one of a hundred things, depending on the situation. This time it meant "It's okay. I'm here", and that alone was enough to give her resolve. Moira Queen arched an eyebrow at her son.

"The feeling is mutual, I see," she said, and for the second time in as many minutes Felicity had to wonder how she gleaned so much from so little. After a pause, she added, "How could you stoop so low? How could you allow yourself to fall in love with a mage? Have you forgotten that it was magic that took your father from us?" Felicity had heard about the circumstances of Robert Queen's death-a stray word, a sunken ship- but she had not thought that Moira's prejudice would run so deep as this. Oliver's hands curled into fists at his sides, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to throw up a shield to protect him from the anger so unfairly thrown at him. She could not. She had not the words to cast it, and even so, there was no magic in Moira's speech. She couldn't build a defense against a threat that wasn't there.

[the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl]

Flufftober Day 28- Soothing Baths

Winter’s chill nipped at Shoto as he headed home for the night. Just because he wasn’t bothered by the cold didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of it. Nor did it mean that he wasn’t aware of the ways it might affect other people, especially those close to him. Namely, in this case, his husband. The joints in his arms and hands were permanently damaged from how many times he had broken every bone in them using a quirk that, at the time, had been too powerful for his body to handle, and Shoto knew from long experience that the cold made them stiff and painful. He allowed himself a moment to feel bitter that someone he cared so much for was suffering from what many people would consider an old person’s ailment before he was thirty, but there was nothing to be done for it now but try to help ease Izuku’s pain however he could.

To that end, he made sure to turn up the thermostat in their shared apartment as soon as he arrived home. That done, he went into the kitchen and switched on  the kettle, preparing a mug of soothing chamomile tea, which he knew Izuku liked to drink to wind down at the end of a long day, as the kettle’s heating element got to work. Lastly, he plugged in the heated blanket that Izuku kept folded on top of the couch so that it would be ready and warm for him when he came home. Then he settled in to wait, holding the freshly brewed mug of tea between his hands, occasionally applying bursts of heat to it from his left hand to keep it at the perfect temperature.

A few hours later, Shoto heard the scrape of a key in the lock on the front door, and then it swung inward and Izuku stepped through it. He moved gingerly, wincing and grimacing as various aches and pains made themselves known, flexing his right hand down by his side, held slightly behind his body as if to hide how much it was bothering him. With anyone else, it might have worked, but Shoto knew him too well, and his focus immediately honed in on the gesture.

“Here,” he said, getting up from the couch to intercept Izuku at the door. “Sit.” He sat him down on the couch and tucked the heated blanket up around his shoulders. Thrusting the mug of tea into his hands, he added, “Drink this while I go and run you a hot bath.” Izuku accepted the mug wordlessly, wrapping his hands around it and letting out a sigh when the heat from it seeped into his aching joints. He didn’t speak, but his eyes said, Thank you.

You’re welcome, Shoto’s answering smile replied, and then he went to run the bath he had promised. He ran the water hot enough to steam, and added epsom salts to ease the ache from Izuku’s sore and tired muscles. By the time the bath was ready and Shoto went to fetch Izuku, he had finished his tea and was dozing under his blanket.

“C’mon,” Shoto said, pulling him gently to his feet, letting the blanket fall in a heap on the couch. “Your bath is ready.” Izuku nodded and let Shoto lead him down the hall to the bathroom. Once there, he undressed and got into the bath, letting out a contented sigh as he sank slowly down into the hot water.

“Make sure you stay in there until the water’s cold,” Shoto told him. “I’m sure you’ll need lots of time to soak all your aches out.” Izuku nodded and rested his head against the wall behind the tub, his eyes drifting closed. Shoto turned and made to leave the bathroom, intending to let his husband enjoy his bath in private.

“Oh, and Izuku?” he asked as a thought occured to him, pausing in the doorway and turning back toward him.

“Yeah?” Izuku asked. “I understand why you feel like you have to hide when you’re hurting from the people around you, but you know you don’t have to hide with me, right?” Shoto asked. “I understand, and I’m here for you, okay?” Izuku nodded, and Shoto, satisfied for the moment, finally left him to his bath. 

[the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl]

Flufftober Day 6- Fireman’s Carry

Izuku’s eyes flicked open. At first, he couldn’t tell what had woken him up, but then a chill in the air made him shiver, and he realized that the room was silent, without the gentle rhythm of Shoto’s breathing as he slept. He rolled over to face the side of the bed that he usually slept on and sure enough, it was empty. Izuku had gone to bed hours ago, leaving Shoto to his case files with a promise that he’d come to bed himself shortly, but clearly he had not done so. Izuku sighed and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, his arm stretched out toward Shoto’s side of the bed.

Turning his head to the side to glance at the clock on the nightstand, he was unable to suppress a worried frown when he saw that it was 4 AM. At this point, if Shoto wasn’t made to come to bed he was likely to stay up all night, and be sluggish and tired at work that day, which was a dangerous thing for a hero out on patrol. Izuku still remembered the times during their school days when he was the one who got so wrapped up in his work that he forgot to sleep or eat or otherwise take care of himself, and even though it was a fairly common experience by now, it still sometimes felt strange to have the roles reversed. 

Having decided on a course of action, Izuku climbed out of bed, went to his desk in the corner of the room, and retrieved his hoodie from where it was thrown over the back of his desk chair. Yanking it on to ward off the chill in the air, he padded down the hall to the kitchen, where he’d left Shoto when he’d gone to bed. He was still seated at the kitchen table, his files spread across its surface. A coffee cup sat by his left hand, the liquid inside long since gone cold, if the lack of steam rising from it was anything to judge by. He had his chin resting in his other hand, and as Izuku entered the kitchen, he saw his head nod forward until he jerked it back upright suddenly and shook himself awake. He was clearly fading fast, and him falling asleep at the kitchen table was only slightly preferable to him not sleeping at all. Having seen what he’d just seen, it was even more imperative to Izuku now that he get Shoto to bed.

“Sho,” he whispered, coming up behind him and slinging an arm across his shoulders. “Come to bed. It’s 4 AM.”

“I can’t,” Shoto mumbled in reply, craning his head back to greet Izuku with a kiss. “I’m so close to a breakthrough. I can’t stop now.”

“But the bed gets cold without you in it,” Izuku whined, playing up his distress perhaps slightly more than was necessary, but he would much rather coax Shoto to bed willingly then have to take him there by force. Deciding to try appealing to logic as well, he added, “Besides, you’re already falling asleep as it is.”

“No I’m not,” Shoto insisted stubbornly, though it was less than convincing when Izuku could see his eyelids drooping as he spoke.

“Yes you are,” he argued. “Please just come to bed. I don’t want you to be tired when you’re out in the field later. I’ll worry about you too much to get any of my own work done if I know you’re out there in potentially life threatening situations when you’re not at your best.” Shoto considered that for a moment, his resolve seeming to weaken, but then he just shook his head again.

“I’m so close,” he whispered insistently. Izuku sighed.

“Alright then,” he said. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.” Without giving Shoto the chance to try and figure out what he meant by that, he pulled his chair back away from the table and stepped in between him and it, blocking his escape. Reaching toward him, he wrapped his arms around him and lifted him into the air, slinging him across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, knocking his chair over in the process. Then he turned and headed back down the hall to their bedroom with Shoto mumbling half-hearted protests and making weak attempts to escape from his grasp.

“Do I even weigh anything to you?” he muttured, finally ceasing his escape attempts and laying his head against Izuku’s back.

“You know that you don’t, Sho,” he replied with a fond smile. “Don’t you remember all those times I carried you away from a battlefield when you were injured?” Shoto’s only response to that was a muffled grunt, and by the time they reached the bedroom, he was asleep. Izuku laid him gently down on his side of the bed and pulled the covers over him. After returning his hoodie to its place on the back of his desk chair, he came around to the other side of the bed and climbed in to lay beside his boyfriend. Once he’d gotten himself settled he reached out to wrap his arms around Shoto once more, pulling him close to him, and was slowly lulled back to sleep by the warmth from his left side and the gentle, steady rhythm of his breathing as he slept peacefully beside him, the absence of which having been what had woken him up in the first place.

[the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl]

Flufftober Day 12- Sleepy Kiss

Shoto was sitting at Izuku’s desk, working on homework to pass the time while the person in question slept off his bought of illness, when he suddenly sat up in bed with a gasp.

“Careful,” Shoto murmured, getting up from his seat to gently lay Izuku back down and brush sweat soaked curls back from his forehead. “Your fever only just broke.” The confusion clouding Izuku’s gaze cleared at the sound of Shoto’s voice, and he locked eyes with him, a smile spreading slow and sweet as mollasses across his face.

“Sho,” he mumbled dreamily. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Shoto frowned. That sounded dangerously like someone still in the grips of fever-induced delerium, but he supposed it was possible this behavior was simply due to exhaustion and there was no need to worry. Fighting off an illness could take a lot out of a person, and it certainly seemed to have taken a lot out of Izuku. “What do you remember?” he asked, trying to determine for sure whether he should be worried. “I wasn’t feeling well,” Izuku replied, still in a mumble, as if it took too much effort for him to speak at his regular volume. “But I couldn’t afford to let myself get behind, so I decided to suck it up and go to class anyway.” “You came down with the flu that’s been going around,” Shoto told him. “But instead of staying home and letting yourself rest and get better, you decided to force yourself through it, and you collapsed in the middle of Hero Basic Training. That was two days ago.” “Two days?!” Izuku exclaimed, trying to sit up again. This time, Shoto slung an arm across his back and helped him upright. “Ssshhh,” he whispered. “It’s alright. Iida and Ururaka copied down the notes and assignments from all the classes you missed for you so you won’t fall behind.” At that, Izuku relaxed, slumping against Shoto’s side as if he no longer had the energy to hold himself upright.

“What about you?” he asked. “Have you been here that whole time?” Shoto nodded. 

“I got permission from Aizawa to stay with you and take care of you until you were better,” he explained. He took a deep, shuddering breath at the memory and added, “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was scared I might lose you. I was even more scared that instead of helping you get better, I’d make you worse. I’ve never taken care of someone when they were sick before, and I’ve never had anyone to take care of me when I was sick.”

“No one?” Izuku asked, sounding concerned. “Not even-”

“Not even my sister,” Shoto interjected. “Fuyumi is... soft, like you are. Gentle. Caring. When I was younger, she tried to take care of me when I was sick or injured. But our father would have called it a weakness, my having to rely on someone else for anything. It would have angered him, and he would have taken that anger out on her. So I learned how to take care of myself instead of letting her do it. I’m sure it hurt her in the long run, but our father would have hurt her worse than that ever could. I did what I had to do to make sure she was safe.” Izuku leaned further into Shoto’s side, his head coming to rest in the hollow of his shoulder. 

“I’m so sorry, Shoto,” he whispered.

“Well, what can you do?” Shoto asked with a levity he did not truly feel, lifting the shoulder Izuku’s head wasn’t resting on in a half shrug. “It’s already been done. It’s in the past.”

“Still,” Izuku said, obviously not reassured. “You were a child. No child should ever have to go through that. Children should feel safe in their home, and cared for, not like they have to sacrifice their own well-being to ensure someone else’s.” Instead of answering, Shoto reached up to run his fingers gently through Izuku’s hair to soothe away the tears he’d heard threatening in his voice.

“I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t hurt at all anymore,” he said. “But at least it doesn’t hurt as much as it once did. I’ve finally moved on.”

“And I’m really proud of and happy for you for that,” Izuku replied. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to hurt Endeavor for everything he’s done to you.” His statement was punctuated by a yawn that took some of the bite from his words.

“You’re exhausted,” Shoto said. It wasn’t a question- Izuku’s state of exhaustion was apparent in his every word and action.

“I need a shower too,” Izuku replied. “I feel all sweaty and gross.” Shoto chuckled softly at that.

“Go shower then,” he said, gently shoving Izuku out of the bed and toward his bathroom. “And then you can get some sleep.”

“Will you still be here when I’m done?” Izuku asked, pausing in front of the bathroom door. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Shoto reassured him. “Now go.” Izuku nodded and, finally, disappeared into the bathroom.

By the time Shoto heard the water shut off, about an hour later, he’d gotten himself comfortable in the bed and was starting to fall asleep himself, two days worth of missed sleep from worry and stress finally catching up with him. His eyes drifted closed, and he didn’t open them even when he felt Izuku get into bed and settle in beside him.

“C’mere,” he mumbled, reaching blindly for him in the darkness behind his eyelids, finally cracking his eyes open so he could wrap his arms around him and pull him close. “I want to kiss you. I couldn’t for two days because you were sick. I want to make up for it now that you’re getting better.” His eyes drifted closed again, and he heard Izuku huff out a quiet laugh and felt his lips brush gently against his own. He returned the kiss lazily, his movements slow, feeling heavy with the sleep he was still trying to hold back. He kissed Izuku languidly, once, twice, then three times, before he finally let himself slip fully beneath the heavy blanket of sleep settling over him, tangled up with Izuku, feeling the warmth of his body beside him, a blissful smile on his face.

[the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl]

Flufftober Day 13- Pillow Talk

“Shoto,” Izuku whispered. In the darkness of their bedroom at night, he could just barely make out the curve of his boyfriend’s shoulder, the curve of his hip, the white half of his hair glowing in the bar of moonlight slanting through the gap in the curtains. It took a moment, but eventually Shoto rolled over to face him.

“What is it?” he murmured.

“You tell me,” Izuku replied. He heard a rustle of sheets as Shoto shifted backwards slightly, likely out of surprise.

“You’ve been off since you got home today,” Izuku explained. He reached over and switched on the bedside lamp so that he could see Shoto, could actually look him in the eyes as he talked to him. The light from the lamp let him see that the shadows that had been lingering in Shoto’s eyes since he’d gotten home that evening were still there, and that despite the exhaustion in his posture, he looked no closer to sleep than Izuku himself was.

“Please, Shoto, just talk to me,” he whispered, voice pleading. “You know I won’t be able to sleep until I know what’s wrong and I’ve at least tried to fix it.” Shoto sighed, so deeply and heavily that his entire body moved, first up, then down, in time with it. 

“You can’t fix this, Izuku,” he said quietly.

“Even if that’s the case, I still want to know what’s wrong,” Izuku countered. “I want to be there for you, however I can.” Shoto was silent for a long time after that.

“I went to see Touya today,” he said at last. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry.”

“And because the Commission swore you to secrecy, no doubt,” Izuku replied. “Why do they still think that they can use the familial connection between the two of you to get Touya to divulge information about the League? They do remember that he tried to kill you, right? Multiple times?” He heard the anger in his voice and didn’t care. He still had nightmares about burning to ashes in Touya’s blue flames, of watching him immolate Shoto right before his eyes. As far as he was concerned, he had every right to be angry. He hated the Comission for continuing to put Shoto through unnecessary pain.

“I’m sure they remember, they just don’t care,” Shoto said, the bitterness in his voice matching the anger in Izuku’s. “All they care about is taking down the League, and damn the consequences to the people they use to accomplish that goal. Really, they’d have better luck using Natsuo if they think a familial connection is the thing that’ll get Touya to turn on the League.”

“But they won’t, because Natsuo isn’t a pro hero,” Izuku put in. “So they don’t have any control over him.” Shoto nodded.

“In any case, talking to Touya went about the way you’d expect,” he said.

“So not well,” Izuku replied. Shoto shook his head.

“The only thing he would say to me was that I should have never been born,” he whispered, voice turning shaky. “That my existence is a mistake. That our father destroyed our family trying to create me, his perfect little masterpiece, and if not for that, he could have been a good father and our family could have been happy and whole. And I... I don’t know that I believe he’s wrong.”

“Oh, Shoto,” Izuku murmured, feeling his heart break for him. He pulled him close, scooting upwards so he could rest his cheek on top of his head, as if he could somehow shelter him from his own pain.

“Of course he’s wrong,” he whispered, running his fingers through Shoto’s hair. “Of course he is.”

“If I’d never been born, my family would never have suffered the way it did,” Shoto mumbled in a broken voice.

“You don’t know that,” Izuku argued. “You can’t know that. And besides, if you’d never been born, I would still be the sad, lonely person I was before you and became a part of each other’s lives. If you had never been born, all the people you’ve helped, everyone you’ve saved, would not be here today. You’ve changed so many lives for the better, including mine. The suffering Endeavor inflicted on your mother and your siblings is not your fault, and you’re not responsible for it. Your existence is not a mistake. You deserve to be alive. Touya is wrong. I promise you, he’s wrong.” Shoto began crying, horrible, heartbroken sobs that shook his whole body, evidence of just how long he’d been holding his brother’s words inside his mind, letting them echo in his thoughts and poison his soul. Izuku could only cry with him, switch off the lamp, and hold him tightly in the darkness, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to soothe him and whispering sweet nothings and reassurances in his ear until at last his tears subsided and he quieted, and they both fell at last to sleep.