bakerstreet | No matter what they say

No matter what they say

wormed their way into your heart meme

You have to look out for them. There's no other option, really.

No matter whether you're gruff, as sweet as can be, an asshole, morally bankrupt, the straightest arrow, kind, socially awkward, or just a normal person, you never expected for someone to come into your life and take up residence in your heart so quickly and so completely. You could be denying their impact, even still, but you can't explain away your desire to protect them. See, they may not be smaller than you - though they could possibly be - and they may not be younger, yet you have to look out for them. They just need it, their own strength or weakness be damned.

And, on some level, you need to do it, because it seems like each other are the only ones you've got.

Life-or-death post-apocalyptic world, dangerous adventure, or even something like making sure they know how to navigate everyday life, you just don't want them hurt. They could be a pain in the ass, but they're your pain in the ass and you'll

...they're looking out for you, too? Now, don't get too crazy...

♡ This meme is for people who have someone important in their lives, whether it be a peer, someone younger, or even someone younger, that they feel responsible for. The inspiration for it is all those badass action dudes who get a child companion who tears down their walls, but there are so many options and different ways to take it!
♡ There's also a romantic option because why not?
♡ Reply with your character, canon, their information and where they'd fit in the meme. You may also want to pick which angle, romantic or platonic, you'd prefer if you have a strong preference, as well as any age restrictions for certain options and scenes.
♡ Reply to others. Have fun, be creative, make up AUs, what have you.

PROMPTS

PLATONIC: Family is who you choose, and that's what you view them as...begrudgingly or not.
ROMANTIC: It began as protection, but feelings caused it to be something more.

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[ ota and either way! worm your way into her spiky heart or have her worm her way! open to platonic or romantic ]

( i'll admit that i'm (mostly) clueless about illyana and her friendship with strange, but would she want to worm her way into this strange's heart anyway??? )

( they are great and hilarious sometimes.

it definitely could work a bit like Chavez potentially? )

( he was getting a bit antsy. she said she'd be at the sanctum at noon. it was now almost half-past.

in the foyer, he takes a few steps to the left, then turns his heels for a few steps back. a few steps to the right, then a turn on his heels for a few steps back. this could be called pacing, but he's not quite there yet. if she doesn't show up in twenty minutes, maybe he'll begin approaching that. to be honest, though, if she's not here in twenty minutes, he'll track her down.

it's funny. this time last year, they were strangers. enemies, even. he didn't know her, and although she knew one of his variants, she didn't know him. tempers flared, and his side fought her side. thankfully, the matter was cleared up before any real damage was done, and everyone got along with each other afterwards. more or less.

but that was last year. an entire lifetime ago. now they're friends. now —

now, he was getting a little antsy. he's been pacing for a few minutes without a sign of illyana. he was getting a little antsy, and when he gets a little antsy, he gets a little snippy, as can be seen when one of the sorcerer students sticks his head out from behind a door and stephen glares at him.

(once, scott referred to the sorcerer students as "wizterns", and stephen almost sent him to a black hole.)

his piercing eyes are enough to get the student to cower back behind the door in fear, but stephen calls out to him, ) She's not here yet. Obviously.

( Variants are always so terribly fickle. Illyana is all too familiar with that with the whole having grown up in a hell dimension with twisted versions of what would later become her closest allies. Hell (heh), even the Strange that she went to visit for help once long ago could technically be considered a variant in a weird way. Time travel mucks all that up sometimes.

Either way, she's all too familiar with how things can go from weird to disaster real fast. Dealing with variants really is basically like dealing with Limbo itself.

A place that also goes from weird to disaster really fast. Like today. Every day really, but today went to disaster uniquely fast with a quarrel between demon factions. Which was not cool considering she had a meeting with her new variant Strange friend that she really didn't actually want to be late for. It's not that she really cares too much about punctuality, but more that she cares about keeping her word. Somewhere along the way it's become something of a big deal to her to be seen as trustworthy. Even if deep down she knows nobody really should trust her too much.

And now she would be. All because she had to handle their demon tantrums.

It took her far longer than she wants to think to get it all settled. At least she can teleport to places. Which means all in all she's not that late. Her stepping disc opens up to drop her off in front of him with a brief puff of sulfur around. There's also a few speckles of blood on her yellow and gold bodysuit.

And on her face. ]

Sorry. Had to settle a brewing coup attempt.

[Usually, he's the worm! Wanna have Illyana steal that seat for a bit while he's in a lousy mood?]

[ Most days she at least heard from Nero by now. Even if it's just a quick picture, there's always something from him. Not today though. Today even her text to him (just a picture of a bunch her leading a small army of demons against some anti-mutant task group, normal every day things) went unanswered. Which she totally didn't take offense to.

Maybe.

Or maybe she did. Of course she's not going to admit or acknowledge that she may have wondered if she did something. Who does that? Why would she even care? She wouldn't. Sorceress Supremes' of hell dimensions don't care about things like that. Definitely not. The only reason she's teleporting to him unexpectedly, with no warning at all, is because she's concerned. What if he's been hurt or something?

At least when she teleports in she's got a box of pizza. That should help right? ]

I brought you pizza even though you haven't answered your phone. [ Shouted out as she wanders around his garage. ] Also wanted to make sure you weren't like kidnapped by a cult or something. [ because it could happen!! ]

[He'd lost his temper. Had he not, he wouldn't have had to search five hundred or so acres of an expensive estate for where the psycho put his summoning circle. Sometimes, when the crazed guy with the fiendish tome went about their speech and started to bargain, Nero considered cutting the conversation short with a couple of bullets. He wouldn't make the cut as an Avenger once he really thought about it.

Standing in the husk of a burning mansion, Nero pulled out his phone to see a text from Illyana. A few, actually. The screen smoked and bubbled and exploded in his hand. Right. The place was still on fire.

Hours later, Nero woke up in the garage. On his feet. He was snapping a socket wrench into place on a bolt when he heard Illyana's voice, his head whirling one way. The wrench fell, disappearing into the jungle of the engine and he'd cursed under his breath. He'd leaned past the bumper to look her way, finding a smile that might probably pass a tiny bit of scrutiny. In his hand, he held up the cooled, melted blob that used to be his phone. Somehow, even when cracking a joke, there was an edge to it. He was tense.]

Hey. Sorry, it doesn't hold a charge anymore.

[ Her head tilts as she glances from the ruins of his phone to him and then back to the phone. Briefly her eyebrows furrow in an expression that can't decide if it should be confusion or concern. Concern seems to win out with how tense his vague attempt at a joke comes out.

That's unlike him. Usually he can always pull out some joke that cuts through tension like a knife. Instead it feels more like he's the tension that needs something to cut through it. ]

Jeez. [ She shifts so the pizza box rests against one hip and whistles. ] Guess that's one way to deal with too many spam messages.

[ The attempt at a joke comes complete with a half lopsided smile. A bit unnatural on her really but... she's trying. Doing her best. ]

How did you do that?

[She was looking at him funny. A wash of self-consciousness fell over him all at once and his eyes flitted about, going every which way but back to her. The phone made a crunching sound in his hand. Over Illyana's shoulder, he could see their reflections in one of the windows outside. It was dark out. He couldn't see her worry clearly--not as distracted as he was.

Opening his hand, he dropped the crushed chunks of his phone in a metal pan on his workbench. Distantly, he realized he hadn't said anything to her for several moments longer than he should have.]

Uh. You know. Work hazard. [Rolling his jaw, he'd taken in a quick breath and turned his eyes to the gutted engine beside him. He'd set his eyes on a hose and waved his hand over his head in a half-assed gesture towards the whole garage.

A little chunk of plastic fell in his hair from between his fingers which he quickly brushed away with a frustrated huff of air. He sounded even flatter then, not wanting to look her in the eye.]

Sorry. Place looks shit, I know. I've gotta clean it up.

Work hazard that completely melted your phone.

[ That tone of hers says 'sure whatever' plain as day. So does her look of exasperation that he thankfully can't get a clear look at. The fading light works to her advantage to hide her concern. ]

Need me to get you a replacement?

[ Phone that is. She doesn't mean to sound like she's offering him charity. Between what he sends back to the orphanage and other expenses she's never that clear on what his financial situation is.
Meanwhile she's pretty comfortable money wise.

She glances around at the state of the place and just shakes her head. ]

It's not that bad. You wanna stop what you're doing and have some pizza? I can help you clean up after

[A part of him understood what he was going through--that he was angry with himself and one screw-up that could have gotten a lot of people hurt. Even if he fixed it.

No matter what, it was his own problem. Illyana had nothing to do with it. In that way, he felt himself putting a distance between himself and her but she'd paid more attention to the real things he'd needed to address even before she even got there. He held a hand over his stomach, numbly puzzled. He hadn't thought about eating even once that whole time.]

...You didn't have to do that. [It wasn't exactly an argument but he didn't know if it felt right, having her do something nice for him when his thoughts were so murky and when he was in the middle of so much self-flagellation, as if it would help anything.] I'm... [He'd nearly said 'sorry' and stopped himself.]

Thanks. Lemme just-- [So, he'd turned and walked across the shop to find a chair and drag it over for her, cursing when it took him more than a second or two to find one that didn't look dirty.]

I know. I don't have to do anything. [ She tries to play up the huff she lets out. Tries to make it sound just the right amount of indignant and exhasperated. Because really if he knows anything about her at all it should be that Illyana Rasputin does not do anything she doesn't want to do. Not anymore.

She trots behind him, casting a few more glances at the just...state of the place. Though she at least has the decency to try to make those glances as subtle as she can. It's not so much that she's judging, just...trying to figure things out.

When he finally brings the chair over she offers up the box of pizza to him, proud and perhaps vaguely excited smile on her face. ]

Sam and Roberto swear this is the best pizza place and the best pizza they have. Real New York with every kind of meat you can image.

[ She glances at the chair, then at him, then back at the chair. ] Maybe you should sit down yourself.

[When Illyana started looking around--he'd thought more about the engine he'd disassembled while he was letting his work carry him away. It was going to take a whole other day to clean and put everything back the way it was. The place must have looked like shit and she hadn't said a word about it.

So, he'd been fairly surprised when she'd thrust out the pizza box to him. As if he didn't understand as if he'd been quite absorbed in his thoughts, he blinked quickly and moved a step back to the van, reaching into its innards to pull out the socket wrench he'd dropped. Nero, deep down, knew she was being nice. Very nice. Even then, he didn't know exactly how to look at her when he was so angry with himself.]

Thanks. I'd love to, but... [He put one corner of the van between them under that flimsy pretense. Given the pile he made, it was more than clear he wouldn't be able to do it all that night.] ...I made a big mess, and I've gotta clean it all up first.

I could clean it for you with a snap. Or being in some imps to do it while you eat. Maybe a few goblins.

[ Mix it up. Plus the imps might not be able to lift some of the heavier things around here too clean. At this point she knows she should ask what happened. Why he's being so distant and weird, but she's terrible at that.

Awkward at best. So she shifts again, casts her eyes around at this mess, then lands back at him. Her mouth opens then shuts. How to ask? What to say? Both questions that flit through her mind and result in her scrunching her eyebrows up in mild frustration. ]

You never turn down eating. What's going on?

[Suddenly, he'd become much more aware of her eyes. She could be terribly expressive with so few changes but the angle of her brows could tell him plenty--some days, anyway. When he glanced at her to check, she was almost waiting for him and it made him want to retreat again. He didn't, if only because he was thinking about it. Not wanting to flinch when she sounded so serious. Concerned.

As much as he liked Illyana, he was going to mess something up if she'd hung around.]

Nothing's up. [Quick. He wasn't good at lying. Already, he was glancing away, not wanting to hurt her feelings. It almost seemed better to just act like he was boring--like there was nothing wrong, even if she could have taken a single step forward and seen the Red Queen punched through one of the back walls of the shop behind the van. He'd put his foot through another spot not too far from it.] Just gotta clean up... I do this all the time, y'know?

[ Now her eyebrows just narrow at him as she catches that quickness to his words. A lie. Illyana may not have a perfect grasp of reading body language, but she knows lies when she sees and hears them. Particularly from people like Nero who just seem to outright suck at it. So, she musters up her stance and straightens up to look mildly intimidating. All 5'5" of her is doing a great job of being properly intimidating, right?

Probably not.

But she's doing her best and that's what matters! ]

You're lying. You don't usually lie to me. [ That's her. She's the one that usually lies and makes things difficult. Hides when things are wrong and all of that. She's not entirely sure if she likes having the tables turned and that's evident by how she drums her fingers on her hip. ]

You make huge messes like this all the time?

[There was a small part of him that liked to hear her say good things about him but it hadn't felt right in the moment. It only meant he was lying to her right then and there.

She was even taller when he hunched his shoulders and turned his eyes away from her. All those classic signs of a liar in action and he was giving up all their signals for free. He'd stopped himself short of backing into a pan on the floor only to realize she wasn't pushing much harder than she had at first. If she'd held her ground in his space, then he was falling back to one boot as if he'd wanted to sneak around to the other side of the shop.

He looked from Illyana to the pile of parts with the bleak realization that he really would have to put it all back together. By himself.]

...I make a lot of them. More often than I'd like.

[ Illyana didn't always catch on to social or emotional things that quickly. Nero however was making it too obvious, a good thing for her, not so great for him probably. She did her best to narrow her eyes into a minor glare, something judgemental that would make it obvious she could see what he was doing. ]

You don't just mean physical messes, do you?

[ The place did look pretty crappy, but something told her he meant a mess bigger than just the garage here. She heaved a loud sigh, eyes still drilling into him. ]

So, what happened to put you in this mood?

[A part of him insisted that it wasn't important. It wasn't anything to bug her over--he should have just been more attentive and not acted like such a jackass.

His fingers wrapped around the bumper of the van, leaning against it in an effort to pretend he could see something of interest beneath the engine block. He'd been trying not to look her in the eyes.]

How could I not like messes? [The coy, upbeat way he'd, always started off jokes with turned back on him in an instant.] I make a shitload of 'em.

[He started at one bolt in particular. It was what he'd been looking for.]

Sorry, Illy. Just angry that I fucked some things up.

I think we both know that's not entirely true. [ For now she's not going to bring up that they both know people who made much bigger messes, ranging from his father to members of her own family (including just...herself). Instead she shuffles a little closer to him, trying to make it as subtle as she possibly can. ]

What'd you fuck up? Couldn't have been something that big. [ Because he's not one to mess things up. At least not in her eyes, but maybe that's her own bias showing through. The fact that she sees him as inherently good, someone who does his absolute best, especially when it comes to helping the people he cares about. How could someone like that really fuck something up too bad? ]

[He hadn't fallen back more but he hadn't come any closer. That spot beside the van's hood felt like enough of a barrier. It wasn't as if she couldn't see the giant guy with white hair beside a van with fading paint but she couldn't see all of him and it felt like it was enough.]

This asshole, he... I don't even know his fucking name but he was converting--changing his family into demons. The second I saw it, I punched a hole right through him.

[Nero hadn't noticed Illyana coming closer if only because he'd squeezed his eyes shut, not realizing he'd crushed the bumper beneath his fingers. One digit dug in harder and left a deeper impression--his trigger finger. The way he hissed his words out, he'd been replaying the moment in his head.]

[ There's no denying that Illyana isn't always the greatest with comfort, but here she at least tries. Her eyes stay on him as he crushes the bumper and sympathy flickers across her face. For a moment she's not entirely certain what to do, if she should move even closer or give him space.

Obviously she lands on moving closer and once he's close enough for her to reach out to, she does. Her hand goes to his shoulder in a way that's so much more gentle than one would expect from her of all people. ]

That doesn't sound like a mess, it just sounds like you were trying to save his family.

[ But she could understand why he of all people would feel guilt over killing someone out of anger like that. ]

[Gathering every mistake he thought he'd made that day into a ball, he'd shoved it in his chest and held onto for hours and hours. Illyana peeled away one layer just enough that he could hear her again over the list he'd been rattling through. He'd slowly begun to ease the twist of his fingers, not wholly relaxing but still clinging to his anger. Squeezing his eyes shut, he'd not realized how tense he was in the shoulders.]

I recognized the stuff he was using. The guy was using stuff from Agnus'--

['Agnus'. If there was ever a time for venom to wrap around a word coming from Nero, it was when he had to say that asshole's name out loud.]

Out of fifty, only five survived Agnus' bullshit. Wrote their numbers-- not their fucking names-- down like he was taking inventory at a warehouse and this guy just-- his wife, his kids-- that fucking asshole!

[ She squeezes her hand on his shoulder a little harder, trying to give him something even more solid to feel. It's so odd seeing him be that tense and just...angry. Can she even recall another time she's even seen him more than mildly annoyed? ]

Sounds like he didn't deserve mercy. Anger isn't always bad, Nero. What matters is what you do with that anger. People like them deserve facing your anger.

[ Really, what better way is there to unleash anger than on people who really deserve it? ]

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style_bringer - 2025-06-20 22:31 (UTC) - Expand

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magikally - 2025-06-21 09:27 (UTC) - Expand

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No matter what they say

illyana rasputina (magik) ⛧marvel comics

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