Chapter Text
🧭
Well, here we are.
The end.
If you've lasted this long, then thank you. I don't have words to describe how much I appreciate your comments, your votes, your determined love for Taruka and their little world. Because the only person that loves them more than you do... is me. TwT
I originally came up with the idea of Haru when I first saw Tamaki being shipped with Mirio, and thought he needed another introvert to be shipped with instead... someone who would amplify all of his best qualities and not smother them. (Don't get me wrong, I love when opposites attract, and MiriTama is cute. But it's not my fave lol)
Plus, I really wanted to write a main character who suffered from chronic migraines (like I do); I admit, Haru's migraines took a bit of a back seat to the plot, but they still are an important part of who she is as a chronically ill character.
Above all, I wanted to show that Haru was a strong character without being a hero. She uses her mind and her hands and her moxie to solve problems, all without a heroic quirk; she sets her sights on her dream and never gives up; she kicks names and takes ass. AND I'M SO PROUD OF MY BBY OKAY
🧭
Fun Facts about MAPS:
🧭 The original symbol for scene breaks (now a compass) was the map symbol for a lighthouse (which was supposed to be foreshadowing for the finale), but I realized that it didn't show up on Wattpad/mobile and I had to find something else (I also tried a tiny map emoji and a few others, but the compass was simple and recognizable and went with the theme). D:
🧭 Haru is also partially inspired by my sister (a fibers major) and a very long tumblr post about how the original computer memory chips (RAM) were made from knitted magnets and created by old ladies hired by NASA specifically for knitting these complicated chips. I imagined a character that embodied both of these characteristics (knitting and tech) and Haru burst forth! (Bonus fun fact: the word "technology" comes from the Greek "techne", which is rooted from "teks" which is proto-Indo-European meaning "to weave"; it's also the root we get "textiles" and "texture" from.)
🧭 Haru's name means "spring", but Haruka means "far off"; I thought that Haru fits better with her personality and her birthday, but Haruka fits better meaning-wise with her quirk and her last name. Hado can mean "wave" or "wavelength" + "motion/change" (depending on the characters used to write it) and that partially inspired her quirk.
🧭 Dr. Zero's original powers were going to be temperature-based (as in absolute zero) but I didn't have the mental capacity to figure that out and do a lot of research lol; I was writing those scenes while finishing my master's degree and I was like NAH
🧭 The photo above (in the chapter header) was also a huge inspiration for the end of MAPS, especially when I didn't know what to do after the first arc. Haru loves Tamaki to the point of invention, and sure, yeah, that invention was a bomb, but hey... beggars can't be choosers, amiright?
🧭 I was also inspired by the sun/moon symbolism with Tamaki and Haru. Obviously, Tamaki is Suneater, and there's a lot that goes into that, but I delved into the idea that each of them was their own sun and saw each other as the moon (a light in the dark that disappears (or gets kidnapped) sometimes lol); this continues in the way that the moon reflects the light of the sun, much in the same way that Haru and Tamaki bring out the best qualities of each other and lift each other up. We see some of this symbolism in Tamaki's best man speech in Epilogue 1, specifically, because I wanted to make it clear despite hinting at it a few times in the story. c:
🧭 Chapter 41 (Haru's Birthday) was originally titled A Picnic, but I changed it to A Storm because I didn't think picnics were exciting enough lol
🧭 In that same vein, Epilogue 1 was originally titled A Wedding, but I changed it to A Vow to encompass both the vows made by NejiMiri and the vows made by Taruka lol (also can you tell that I love their ship names because I DO hehe puns)
🧭 Tamaki's theme song for MAPS is: 1990 by La Bouquet (and a close second is Everything is Alright by Motion City Soundtrack)
🧭 Haru's theme song for MAPS is: Star Maps by Aly & AJ
🧭
Bonus Scene from Chapter 32 - A Valentine
They both stalled, questions lingering in their stares. "I guess you probably can't handle three flights of stairs right now, huh," Tamaki surmised, running a hand over the back of his neck.
"That's what I was thinking," Haru shrugged. "Plus, I haven't tried out my new elevator since I fixed it up!"
"Me either."
Haru gaped at Tamaki. "You didn't ride it the whole time I was gone?"
He shook his head.
"Not even once?"
More head shaking.
"...Did you even notice it was fixed?"
Tamaki scoffed at Haru, guiding her toward her fancy elevator. "Of course I did. And the landlady would not stop trying to talk to me about it when I stopped at home," he grumbled.
"So she likes it?" Haru grinned, scrunching up her nose and basking in the secondhand compliment.
The two of them filed into the elevator, and Tamaki hit the button for their floor. "She may like it," he muttered, avoiding Haru's wide eyes as he glanced at the wall, the ceiling, the tiled floor, "But I can neither confirm nor deny."
"Tamaaa," Haru whined, tugging on his sleeve and batting her eyelashes at him, "Come onnn, just tell me! I worked so hard on this bad boy! At least tell me if she lowered our rent payments, huh?"
A chime sounded at the third floor, the doors gliding open without a single squeak or stutter. Tamaki helped Haru from the elevator and led her toward their apartment with a gentle hand on the small of her back. "Maybe a little," he admitted.
"Yes!" Haru fist pumped at their doorstep, doing a tiny happy dance in front of their apartment.
🧭
Alternate version of Chapter 42 - A Getaway
(I literally wrote this whole chapter, hated it, and rewrote it from scratch lol)
"Have a safe trip, Miss Hado."
On the dawn-lit tarmac, a smartly dressed stewardess beamed at Haru as she and Tamaki neared the steps up to the private plane that the Shields sent, holding out her hand to shake Haru's.
Something about the flight attendant's eyes froze Haru in her tracks.
Startling yellow, like chemicals, hazard signs, and poison.
But it was so early in the morning... Haru opened her mouth to answer.
Her hand moved on its own.
Tamaki, following closely behind, pressed his warm palm to Haru's lower back and murmured in her ear. "Come on."
A spidery shiver ran up Haru's neck, and she withdrew the hand that had instinctively been reaching out to take the stewardess's. "Sorry," she lied, "Germaphobe." But in reality, Tamaki's reassuring touch grounded Haru to reality as she tried to figure out why the woman's smile looked so familiar.
One of the two bodyguards assigned to their trip, Tetsuya, stood at the base of the steps to the plane. "Everything okay?" he said, glancing over Haru's shoulder toward the suspicious flight attendant. He crossed his arms over his expansive chest, furrowing his brow and crinkling his forehead in an obvious show of disapproval.
Tamaki clammed up, nervous about talking to the hulking man. Tetsuya could snap him in half if needed. And Tamaki didn't want him to need to.
"Everything's fine," Haru insisted with a half-hearted smile, "The flight attendant with yellow eyes was acting weird, tried to shake my hand. But nothing happened."
The other bodyguard, Jelly, popped his head out of the airplane door, his mouth full of something that dribbled down his chin. "Everyone almost ready?" he asked through his food, "S'All clear up here." Over a black bulletproof vest, he wore a touristy, neon Hawaiian shirt that assaulted the eyes on impact.
Tetsuya nodded, ushering Haru and Tamaki up the stairs. He filed up after them, dawn light highlighting his ruffled, coal-dark hair in orange and pink. Silently, he cast one more look over his shoulder at the small crowd of airline workers at the foot of the stairs.
And he found the yellow-eyed attendant already watching him.
At the crack of dawn, Haru and Tamaki settled into their plush seats beside one another on the private plane, and before long they were in the air, on their way to Haru's big interview and their first vacation together.
They held hands as the plane angled into the air. And Tamaki squeezed Haru's hand as they leveled off. She leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep despite the jangling of warning bells in her head.
Everything would be okay.
With Tamaki at her side, holding her hand...
Everything would be okay.
-
The customs process was effortless.
Haru, Tamaki, Tetsuya, and Jelly rode the conveyor belt through the mechanical scanner, allowing the automated security system to read their faces and check their passports. Tamaki leaned against Haru, resting his head on her shoulder while nearly dead on his feet, as he'd refused to sleep on the flight in an effort to make Haru feel more safe.
The yellow-eyed flight attendant lingered throughout the trip. Smiling from the shadows. Asking questions. Watching.
And it set him on edge.
"Doing alright, love?"
Haru's gentle hand smoothed Tamaki's hair out of his face, gliding over the curve of his pointed ear. He could feel her smiling, the warp of her cheek against his hair.
"Just tired," he yawned, reaching over in an attempt to romantically caress her face and instead clumsily bopping her on the nose, petting her eye, scratching her brow. Tamaki didn't even notice. "I'll be better after a nap... Or coffee... Or both."
Stifling a laugh at his exhaustion, Haru looped her arm in his. "I'll see what I can do."
They popped out of the checkpoint without any issues, and the group of flight attendants hopped into the customs scanner next. At the end, Melissa waited, tapping something into her phone. "Ah! Excellent," she smiled, stashing it in her pocket, "Now, Miss Hado—"
"Please, call me Haru."
"Haru," Melissa corrected, "Today is all about getting you and your friends acclimated to I-Island. Your hotel suite is right this way, and you are scheduled for a full day of rest and relaxation; no work activities planned. Any room service is on us, and you and Suneater here are scheduled for massages in the hotel spa in the afternoon."
They walked into the heart of the city as they spoke, and Tamaki miraculously steered himself, despite seeming asleep. Autumn air blew dry leaves across the cobblestone streets, whispering and warm. Jelly and Tetsuya carried the bags, their eyes sweeping over the faces of every passerby.
Haru kept her voice low, in case Tamaki really was sleep walking. "Can I look around? See the labs?"
"Only a true nerd would ask to work on a day specifically designed to make them relax," Melissa laughed dryly. Someone shouted hello to them from across the way, coming out of a coffeehouse, and Melissa waved. "Today is for fun and refueling only, Haru. If I hear that you've done any kind of science or research o-or... learning of any kind, you won't get the job. Simple as that. You hear me?" She delivered the threat while smiling.
Pouting, Haru grumbled, "Fine."
"Good," Melissa said. "Now, get to it."
-
Hours later, Tamaki startled from his nap with Haru at his side, reading.
Their hands lay tangled between their bodies.
He dreamt of a moon-drunk city, slick with icy rain and teeming with blurry people. Face painted with streetlight green, streetlight yellow, streetlight red, Tamaki stood alone in the center of a busy intersection; cars zipped past, honking and sticking to the rain-soaked pavement; faceless, shapeless people careened around him, shouting meaningless words in languages he didn't understand. And above them all, on neon billboards, Haru's face flashed between the advertisements for perfume and sports cars with the word:
MISSING.
All Tamaki could remember once he woke... were the rain-heavy wings on his back. And the hot tears on his cheeks as he stared up at the sign.
Except the tears were still there when he woke.
"My love? I think you were having a nightmare," Haru said, leaned over his face, her thumbs rubbing soothing circles on his cheeks. "Are you okay?"
He sniffled, emotions choking and clawing at his throat. The dream faded from his memory, slipped from his fingers; he couldn't even remember why he was crying. "W-what are you reading?" Tamaki asked, blatantly changing the topic as he regained his composure.
Haru's concern softened into a smile, and she pressed a kiss to Tamaki's forehead. "The history of the automobile. Rather dry. Really, by waking up, you've saved me from another chapter about Michigan."
"Michigan?"
"Long story," she laughed. "Coffee? It might be a little cold, but I made you one with the espresso machine."
"Espresso machine?"
With a laugh and a helping hand, Haru pulled Tamaki up from the bed and showed him around their suite. Most of the fabrics and linens and surfaces were pale white or shades of tan, which easily matched the soft blue of the walls and gave the rooms a vaguely beachy vibe. All of the wicker furniture stood sturdy and pristine. The stock photos on the walls were of lighthouses.
Jelly and Tetsuya watched the news in the adjacent living room, munching on an enormous plate of nachos they'd ordered from room service.
"Morning, boss!" Jelly beamed, holding up a chip in greeting to Tamaki.
Tetsuya nodded in their direction, sipping from a steamy cup of coffee.
Sheepish and sleepy, Tamaki grimaced and tipped his head a little, scampering off after Haru, who had already headed into the kitchen. "All stainless steel appliances in here," she muttered, dragging admiring fingers across the front of the mini fridge, "Including the espresso machine! Look, babe!" She danced over to the counter and showed off the appliance like she was on a game show.
Her glee over something so minor filled Tamaki with warmth. He held tight to the coffee she'd made for him and sipped from it, surprised at how good it tasted. "Do you want an espresso machine for our place?" He asked out of sheer curiosity, stepping close and running an idle finger over her forearm.
"No, no, no. That would take all of the magic out of it," Haru laughed.
Tamaki raised a brow and sipped from his cup, the question clear in his face.
"If we can make lattes and americanos and whatever on our own, whenever we want... it makes it less special. I like only being able to get fancy coffee with you, when we go to our coffee shop. Or now, when we're on vacation," she explained.
"Special," he intoned.
She smiled. "Special."
They kissed in the kitchen, and for one brief second, Haru and Tamaki were worry free. Calm.
Relaxed.
But not for long.
🧭
Oh no... now it's goodbye for real.
I'm not gonna cry.
Lies. I'm lying. I'm crying. lol
MAPS is the longest story I've ever written.
My doc ended at 443 pages and 112,756 words...
Which makes MAPS longer than Hunger Games, The Hobbit,
or any of the first three Harry Potter books!
Congrats to you for reading this beast!
Shoutout to my bestie, MiniDeathGoddess for her endless support
and help on this (and all of my other stories).
If you liked this one, maybe go check out another one of my stories?
Let me know if you're there because of MAPS.
Again, thank you for your care and attention on my little fic.
You're amazing. You're mind-blowing. You're beautiful.
Go kick today's ass. I love you.
Go get 'em.
Kiwi