rating: t+ (canon-typical violence, verbal assault from strangers)
word count:3,027
one-sentence synopsis: your relationship with adrian was a secret, until a few guys make you uncomfortable on the beach and adrian immediately responds to defend you in the most obvious way possible.
author’s note: i’m so sorry the gay pirate show has consumed me. i offer you this fic as penance
You can feelhow tense every muscle in your body is, and yet you still can’t get yourself to relax.
You’re the one who offered to go and get drinks from the stand down the beach for everybody, but you’re regretting making that offer now. The men behind you in line have been making comments the entire time— the entire time— about you. They’re not being subtle, either, which— you know they’re not tryingto be subtle. They wantyou to give them your attention, and you’re trying not to, but you’re getting closer and closer to snapping the more and more lecherous their comments become.
The line is just— stupid fucking long. It’s dumb,and you should’ve accepted Adrian’s offer to come over with you, but you didn’t want to bother him. He’d actually been tossing a football back and forth with Chris, just like— enjoying a casual bonding moment. You weren’t going to disrupt it.
Now, you kind of wish you had. He could have had another bonding moment later; you’d prefer his protection now. Not that— Not that you need it, but— Maybe you do. Or maybe you want it. It’s— That’s okay,you remind yourself; to want affection and protection from the person you love. Sometimes, you forget how okay that is, but— It is okay, to want that.
You glance towards Adrian now, trying to mentally ignore the comments being made as you continue to wait in line. You’ve been repeating the list of drinks you have to get for everyone in your head— going through Adrian’s order, Leota’s, Emilia’s, John’s, Chris’s, your own, and looping back again, anything to keep your thoughts occupied— but it’s not doing the trick anymore.
When you catch sight of Adrian down the beach, he’s still tossing the football to Chris, but his attention is focused towards you. He’s got his prescription sunglasses on, so you can’t see his eyes behind the bright red shine of them, but you can tell. His head is tilted towards you, fixed in your direction. You’ve had to read his body language often enough as Vigilante to know that much.
You can also tell that he looks tense, too. Which— He hadn’t looked tense when you first left. He’d been really happy, actually, loose-limbed and sun-shining and smiling. He had high-fived you, then caught your hand, fingers curling around yours, never losing his grin. You could tell he’d wanted to kiss you, and not just because you wanted so badly to kiss him, too; you just recognized the look on your face. But— You’re trying not to let the rest of the team know, just yet, even if you’re pretty sure Emilia might’ve already guessed, but—
But that’s not the point. The point is, Adrian had been happy, and, looking at him now, he seems pretty much the opposite. The broad stretch of his bare shoulders is no longer relaxed, but has grown tense, like your own shoulders are; his brow is furrowed behind his sunglasses.
canon Kenma is a straight up beastand to be honest the fandom doesn’t acknowledge this enough. His entire team has been shown times and times again to be terrifiedof his strategic and manipulative skills; they all have tons of respect for him, enough so to basically treat him like an evil mastermind (lmao) but at the same time like an equal. Like, sometimes I feel as though since he’s relatively petite (as compared to his team mates) and shy and has some degree of social anxiety, people like to strip him of his agency on a constant basis, pretending like he isn’t assertive at all. And, no offense, but that’s the grossest misuderstanding of his character I’ve ever seen tbh.
Like, he’s the Brain of his team. Canonically so. Kuroo might have given him the title, but it’s Kenma’s skillsthat made him worthy of that position to this day. Nobody would have humoured Kuroo’s bullshit if it wasn’t paired up with facts. Kenma IS dependable. He doesn’t like socializing, true. He doesn’t like putting in the effort when he doesn’t want to do what he’s supposed to, also true. But none of that applies to volleyball. None of that ever applied to teamwork. To friendship.
Kenma’s never shied away from his duty as a pillar of the team. It’s a leadership position he’s never wanted, but he’s never downright refusedit. Think about that, next time you write him as an antisocial, passive coward who needs protection, and the help of a people-person to do the dirty work for him.
He befriended Hinata without anyone pushing him to, because he wantedto, and has kept that friendship alive to this day. Think of that, when you write him as a social recluse who lives in the comfort of his established habits and never wants to break free of his bubble.
He literally got in variousfist fights with Tora in their first year. Think of that when you write him as a wimp who avoids conflict at all costs.
He singlehandedly planned all the strategies that made his team win so far, exploiting his enemies’ weaknessess until he brokethem. Think of that when you write him as someone who relies on other people for dear life, as though he couldn’t hold his own in the real world, as though he constantly needs external input to solve problems while he stands back and watch.
Kenma is savage as fuck. He knows everyone’s weakness and he uses them to his advantage. You should fear him, not find him cute :’D
quincy morris, the absolute king, gets solidly rejected by a woman, finds out she also rejected one of his friends, then finds out she got engaged to his otherfriendafter rejecting him, and immediately writes to the friend she is now engaged to in order to set up what i can only imagine will be the greatest bisexual foursome east of the mississippi
