Ironman7 - Final Week!
Oct. 7th, 2007 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laneroseWow. It's... very pleasant, to think that I made it seven weeks, producing a fic for five of every seven days. This last week was Author's Choice. I decided that meant that I could reuse whatever fandom I liked, so I've finished the challenge with 10K+ words in 27 or so fandoms. O_o That's kinda cool. I think I'm going to miss this challenge. Not enough to sign up for it again, mind you, but miss it all the same.
Anyway! I have here Princess Tutu, Final Fantasy XII, Hunter x Hunter, Kingdom Hearts II, and Mai-HiME ficlets. Tutu has angsty undertones but is happy. FFXII is comedy. HxH is fluffy. KHII and Mai-HiME are both AU - - KHII is AU with an up-spin, Mai-HiME is AU with a down-spin. At least, that's how their moods classify themselves in my heads, though both are a little angsty. The KHII one is actually an idea I've been meaning to work on for just this side of forever, and have never gotten around to. There may be more of it later, since I like the verse. The HxH one isn't as fully-fleshed as I wanted it to be - a friend had asked me to go see a staging of a play I editted for her, so I didn't have as much time to devote to it as I should have in the first place... and then I forgot until 20 of midnight that I was dog-sitting for my aunt, so I didn't have time to edit much on the back end either. It's actually kinda just this side of flat-out bad. XD The Tutu one, on the other hand, may be my favourite. The FFXII one is good for a laugh, though, and the Mai-HiME one plays out what-if that I'm fond of. Possible elaboration on it, later, but I don't think so. ^.^;;;
And now, fic!
Asleep in a Memory, Dreaming
A Princess Tutu, Ahiru/Fakir Ficlet
"You said you read me like a book, but the pages all are torn and frayed."
Fakir thought he was dreaming when she came through the door. She poked her head around the door first, and her too bright red hair reflected the early morning light, swept up in a neat bun just as it had been when he first saw her over seventy years ago. He sat up, blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes. She didn't disappear, but opened the door all the way and stepped into the room.
"Fakir," she said. She smiled at him. He didn't understand. She could not have been there – not when some thirty years ago he had laid to rest a golden duck that danced ballet and answered to her name. Not when he had visited her grave each day, to give her a flower or tell her a story. Not after all this time. He drew his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his hands.
"Fakir," she said again, more insistently. Her soft, warm hands grabbed at one of his, pulled it away from him.
"Fakir."
He looked up. She was beautiful. She had always been beautiful. Not quite like this, though. She had been a duck who should have been a princess. Now - - Now she was a queen, who might have been a swan. She stood tall beside his bed, a white silk gown draped gracefully over her delicate frame. She kissed his hand gently before letting it go. His wrinkled and withered hand, against her young and silken lips. He swallowed hard.
Her hands came together before her heart, and his half-blind eyes welled up with tears. She stepped back, and circled her hands together before offering one of them to him. He stared up at her.
He put his hand, his scarred hand, in hers, and rose to his feet. It was no longer scarred, though, as he looked at it. The wrinkles and spots that time had created vanished as if they had never been. Fakir felt lighter than he had been, maybe ever, as he stepped towards her.
"I missed you, Fakir," she whispered. His hearing, though – he marveled that the sound was as clear as if she had yelled it at the top of the lungs, for the whole world to hear. He flushed, and turned his back on her.
"Don't say embarrassing things."
"Fakir!" She slammed one of her tiny ineffectual fists against his back, and might have tried again with the other if he hadn't turned to catch it, laughing. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. Her fingers relaxed, and laced together with his. She smiled at him.
"Fak-"
He kissed her before she could finish.
Stowaway
A Final Fantasy XII Ficlet
"I'm impressed – don't like you, but I'm impressed."
"What in the blazes are you doing here?" the sky pirate asked as he dragged the little urchin out from his hiding place in the Strahl's cargo hold.
"Hey! Let me go, all right?" The scruffy blond twisted in his grasp. Balthier held on tightly.
"Out with it. How did you sneak on board?" Balthier ran an evaluating eye over the kid. Not older than fourteen, and dressed like a Dalmascan. But what would a Dalmascan be doing in Archades? Unless he'd snuck aboard when they had stopped for that diamond in Rabanastre…
The boy crossed his arms and glared sullenly at him. Balthier shrugged.
"Right then. Out you go." Balthier strode purposefully over to the hatch, dragging the struggling urchin with him.
"Aww, c'mon, won't you at least let me – Ah!" The blond bounced a little on the pavement, but he rolled with it, and sat up, rubbing his head. The boy sighed. "I just wanted to be a sky pirate."
"What's your name again?" Balthier asked, hands on his hips. The boy looked up at him with a hopeful smile.
"Vaan."
"Vaan. Right then." Balthier crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the blond. "Let me tell you something, Vaan. To have got this far without my noticing means you've got the makings of a fine sky pirate."
The boy got to his feet, eyes wide. "Then you'll –"
"But I don't take apprentices." Balthier slammed the hatch shut behind him, locking it in place. As the Strahl lifted free from the ground, he looked down, and sure enough, there the boy stood. Honestly, a stowaway! Fran would laugh at him for days when she found out.
Balthier sighed. The life of a pirate was never easy.
Semi-Useful Surprises
A Hunter x Hunter Ficlet
"Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean it's there."
"AH!" Gon jumped to his feet, spinning around quickly and bracing himself for a fight. Then he blinked. "What?"
"Something wrong, Gon?" Killua asked. He looked up at his friend, who settled into a less threatening posture. Gon put a hand on the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Not really. Just thought I felt something on the back of my neck." The dark-haired boy shrugged.
"What was it li-IKE!" Killua jumped up, shivering. His nen immediately gathered around him. "Never mind, Gon, I think I know. Like someone putting a cold hand against the back of your neck?"
"Mm, yeah." Gon nodded. "But I can't figure out where it came from."
They stood together on the edge of the pier, and scrutinized their surroundings with gyo. A minute passed, then two. Still nothing. The boys looked at each other and, with a shrug, sat down to resume fishing.
~
"Leorio!" Kurapika had glanced up immediately when he felt his companion's nen spike. He glared at the physician as he watched first Gon and then Killua jump to their feet, their leaps timed to the two brief spikes. Leorio held up his hands placatingly.
"You wouldn't want me to leave them with those nasty sunburns, would you?" Leorio smirked. "It's for their own good."
Kurapika sighed, and returned to his book.
Faded Pictures
A Kingdom Hearts II Ficlet
"Only cowards stay, while traitors run."
"This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q & A, no matter what he did to your memories. You're coming with me, conscious or not." The red-haired man extended his hands, and red and silver rings with spikes appeared in his hands. This would be really strange, Roxas thought, if a key-shaped sword didn't show up when I do that. The man – Axel, he had called himself, started to wave the weapons.
"You don't have to threaten me! Just tell me what's going on!" Roxas threw the keyblade aside in exasperation. "None of this makes any sense!"
"Number 13. Roxas. The Keyblade's chosen one." Axel smirked. "And my best friend. We've been searching for you ever since he kid-"
A strange sound cut Axel off. Roxas turned, and another man had appeared inside the Struggle arena. Red bandages covered his head. Roxas blinked.
"So it was you," Axel said. He threw both of his weapons at the defenseless man. They vanished back into thin air before they even reached their target. The newcomer glared at Axel, then turned to Roxas.
"Roxas! This man speaks nonsense." Whoever he was, he said it like he really wanted Roxas to believe it was the truth. The blond had never made a habit of trusting people who appeared from thin air, though – Axel, at least, had walked up to him.
"Don't let him deceive you!" Axel shouted. Roxas turned to him. Deep green eyes pleaded with him.
"Roxas!" called the man in red.
"Roxas!" the red-head shouted. "Come with me!"
The blond looked back and forth between them. His memories… Haynor, and Pence, and Olette – they were real, but there they were, frozen outside the ring like everyone else in town, while these two moved and spoke with him. Could they be…? If his memories had been tampered with – And wouldn't that explain how something like a picture, or the word picture, could be - ?
Axel stretched out hand to him. Roxas took a quick breath, and grabbed it.
Around them, Twilight Town faded into Darkness.
Caught
A Mai-HiME, Tate/Mai Ficlet
"I see your outstretched hand through the closing door, but it's a far better thing I do than I have ever done before."
Later, Tate would never be sure what half-formed impulse caused him to move closer to her even as she said such horrible things. That Mikoto killed her brother. That she killed Mikoto, and Alyssa. That she never wanted to see him, ever again. She said it coldly. Her eyes looked away from his. Her eyes were too bright, too too bright.
"I've said it before, but this will be the last time." She edged away from him. "Goodbye."
And then she was falling.
"MAI!" He grabbed her hand, pulling her back, pulling her to him. Together they fell back onto the bridge, her head against his chest. His heart beat wildly as his right arm wrapped around her, trapping her to him.
"NO! No, let me go! LET ME GO!" Her free hand beat against his chest. She writhed and twisted in his grasp. Tate released her wrist so that he could hold her against him tighter still. "You don't understand! Let me go! Please, Tate, please just let me go! Let me –"
"I can't do that." He whispered in her ear. "Not before I tell you. Not for you to do something like that."
"Please, Tate." The glassiness in her eyes gave way to tears, her breath fast and shuddering as her voice fell to a whisper and she stopped struggling. "Please."
"I can't," he said, and before he could even think not to, the words were out of his mouth. "I love you."
Mai inhaled sharply, and held still in his embrace for a moment.
Then she was crying again, crying as though the world had ended, and maybe it had because Tate just didn't know any more, and Mikoto and Takumi were dead and hundreds of things were wrong –
But she lay in his arms, weeping, and slowly…
Slowly, she hugged him back.
Anyway! I have here Princess Tutu, Final Fantasy XII, Hunter x Hunter, Kingdom Hearts II, and Mai-HiME ficlets. Tutu has angsty undertones but is happy. FFXII is comedy. HxH is fluffy. KHII and Mai-HiME are both AU - - KHII is AU with an up-spin, Mai-HiME is AU with a down-spin. At least, that's how their moods classify themselves in my heads, though both are a little angsty. The KHII one is actually an idea I've been meaning to work on for just this side of forever, and have never gotten around to. There may be more of it later, since I like the verse. The HxH one isn't as fully-fleshed as I wanted it to be - a friend had asked me to go see a staging of a play I editted for her, so I didn't have as much time to devote to it as I should have in the first place... and then I forgot until 20 of midnight that I was dog-sitting for my aunt, so I didn't have time to edit much on the back end either. It's actually kinda just this side of flat-out bad. XD The Tutu one, on the other hand, may be my favourite. The FFXII one is good for a laugh, though, and the Mai-HiME one plays out what-if that I'm fond of. Possible elaboration on it, later, but I don't think so. ^.^;;;
And now, fic!
A Princess Tutu, Ahiru/Fakir Ficlet
"You said you read me like a book, but the pages all are torn and frayed."
Fakir thought he was dreaming when she came through the door. She poked her head around the door first, and her too bright red hair reflected the early morning light, swept up in a neat bun just as it had been when he first saw her over seventy years ago. He sat up, blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes. She didn't disappear, but opened the door all the way and stepped into the room.
"Fakir," she said. She smiled at him. He didn't understand. She could not have been there – not when some thirty years ago he had laid to rest a golden duck that danced ballet and answered to her name. Not when he had visited her grave each day, to give her a flower or tell her a story. Not after all this time. He drew his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his hands.
"Fakir," she said again, more insistently. Her soft, warm hands grabbed at one of his, pulled it away from him.
"Fakir."
He looked up. She was beautiful. She had always been beautiful. Not quite like this, though. She had been a duck who should have been a princess. Now - - Now she was a queen, who might have been a swan. She stood tall beside his bed, a white silk gown draped gracefully over her delicate frame. She kissed his hand gently before letting it go. His wrinkled and withered hand, against her young and silken lips. He swallowed hard.
Her hands came together before her heart, and his half-blind eyes welled up with tears. She stepped back, and circled her hands together before offering one of them to him. He stared up at her.
He put his hand, his scarred hand, in hers, and rose to his feet. It was no longer scarred, though, as he looked at it. The wrinkles and spots that time had created vanished as if they had never been. Fakir felt lighter than he had been, maybe ever, as he stepped towards her.
"I missed you, Fakir," she whispered. His hearing, though – he marveled that the sound was as clear as if she had yelled it at the top of the lungs, for the whole world to hear. He flushed, and turned his back on her.
"Don't say embarrassing things."
"Fakir!" She slammed one of her tiny ineffectual fists against his back, and might have tried again with the other if he hadn't turned to catch it, laughing. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. Her fingers relaxed, and laced together with his. She smiled at him.
"Fak-"
He kissed her before she could finish.
A Final Fantasy XII Ficlet
"I'm impressed – don't like you, but I'm impressed."
"What in the blazes are you doing here?" the sky pirate asked as he dragged the little urchin out from his hiding place in the Strahl's cargo hold.
"Hey! Let me go, all right?" The scruffy blond twisted in his grasp. Balthier held on tightly.
"Out with it. How did you sneak on board?" Balthier ran an evaluating eye over the kid. Not older than fourteen, and dressed like a Dalmascan. But what would a Dalmascan be doing in Archades? Unless he'd snuck aboard when they had stopped for that diamond in Rabanastre…
The boy crossed his arms and glared sullenly at him. Balthier shrugged.
"Right then. Out you go." Balthier strode purposefully over to the hatch, dragging the struggling urchin with him.
"Aww, c'mon, won't you at least let me – Ah!" The blond bounced a little on the pavement, but he rolled with it, and sat up, rubbing his head. The boy sighed. "I just wanted to be a sky pirate."
"What's your name again?" Balthier asked, hands on his hips. The boy looked up at him with a hopeful smile.
"Vaan."
"Vaan. Right then." Balthier crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the blond. "Let me tell you something, Vaan. To have got this far without my noticing means you've got the makings of a fine sky pirate."
The boy got to his feet, eyes wide. "Then you'll –"
"But I don't take apprentices." Balthier slammed the hatch shut behind him, locking it in place. As the Strahl lifted free from the ground, he looked down, and sure enough, there the boy stood. Honestly, a stowaway! Fran would laugh at him for days when she found out.
Balthier sighed. The life of a pirate was never easy.
A Hunter x Hunter Ficlet
"Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean it's there."
"AH!" Gon jumped to his feet, spinning around quickly and bracing himself for a fight. Then he blinked. "What?"
"Something wrong, Gon?" Killua asked. He looked up at his friend, who settled into a less threatening posture. Gon put a hand on the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Not really. Just thought I felt something on the back of my neck." The dark-haired boy shrugged.
"What was it li-IKE!" Killua jumped up, shivering. His nen immediately gathered around him. "Never mind, Gon, I think I know. Like someone putting a cold hand against the back of your neck?"
"Mm, yeah." Gon nodded. "But I can't figure out where it came from."
They stood together on the edge of the pier, and scrutinized their surroundings with gyo. A minute passed, then two. Still nothing. The boys looked at each other and, with a shrug, sat down to resume fishing.
"Leorio!" Kurapika had glanced up immediately when he felt his companion's nen spike. He glared at the physician as he watched first Gon and then Killua jump to their feet, their leaps timed to the two brief spikes. Leorio held up his hands placatingly.
"You wouldn't want me to leave them with those nasty sunburns, would you?" Leorio smirked. "It's for their own good."
Kurapika sighed, and returned to his book.
A Kingdom Hearts II Ficlet
"Only cowards stay, while traitors run."
"This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q & A, no matter what he did to your memories. You're coming with me, conscious or not." The red-haired man extended his hands, and red and silver rings with spikes appeared in his hands. This would be really strange, Roxas thought, if a key-shaped sword didn't show up when I do that. The man – Axel, he had called himself, started to wave the weapons.
"You don't have to threaten me! Just tell me what's going on!" Roxas threw the keyblade aside in exasperation. "None of this makes any sense!"
"Number 13. Roxas. The Keyblade's chosen one." Axel smirked. "And my best friend. We've been searching for you ever since he kid-"
A strange sound cut Axel off. Roxas turned, and another man had appeared inside the Struggle arena. Red bandages covered his head. Roxas blinked.
"So it was you," Axel said. He threw both of his weapons at the defenseless man. They vanished back into thin air before they even reached their target. The newcomer glared at Axel, then turned to Roxas.
"Roxas! This man speaks nonsense." Whoever he was, he said it like he really wanted Roxas to believe it was the truth. The blond had never made a habit of trusting people who appeared from thin air, though – Axel, at least, had walked up to him.
"Don't let him deceive you!" Axel shouted. Roxas turned to him. Deep green eyes pleaded with him.
"Roxas!" called the man in red.
"Roxas!" the red-head shouted. "Come with me!"
The blond looked back and forth between them. His memories… Haynor, and Pence, and Olette – they were real, but there they were, frozen outside the ring like everyone else in town, while these two moved and spoke with him. Could they be…? If his memories had been tampered with – And wouldn't that explain how something like a picture, or the word picture, could be - ?
Axel stretched out hand to him. Roxas took a quick breath, and grabbed it.
Around them, Twilight Town faded into Darkness.
A Mai-HiME, Tate/Mai Ficlet
"I see your outstretched hand through the closing door, but it's a far better thing I do than I have ever done before."
Later, Tate would never be sure what half-formed impulse caused him to move closer to her even as she said such horrible things. That Mikoto killed her brother. That she killed Mikoto, and Alyssa. That she never wanted to see him, ever again. She said it coldly. Her eyes looked away from his. Her eyes were too bright, too too bright.
"I've said it before, but this will be the last time." She edged away from him. "Goodbye."
And then she was falling.
"MAI!" He grabbed her hand, pulling her back, pulling her to him. Together they fell back onto the bridge, her head against his chest. His heart beat wildly as his right arm wrapped around her, trapping her to him.
"NO! No, let me go! LET ME GO!" Her free hand beat against his chest. She writhed and twisted in his grasp. Tate released her wrist so that he could hold her against him tighter still. "You don't understand! Let me go! Please, Tate, please just let me go! Let me –"
"I can't do that." He whispered in her ear. "Not before I tell you. Not for you to do something like that."
"Please, Tate." The glassiness in her eyes gave way to tears, her breath fast and shuddering as her voice fell to a whisper and she stopped struggling. "Please."
"I can't," he said, and before he could even think not to, the words were out of his mouth. "I love you."
Mai inhaled sharply, and held still in his embrace for a moment.
Then she was crying again, crying as though the world had ended, and maybe it had because Tate just didn't know any more, and Mikoto and Takumi were dead and hundreds of things were wrong –
But she lay in his arms, weeping, and slowly…
Slowly, she hugged him back.
