animal style
this kind of prompt is like catnip to a native cali girl. i am allllllll about the in-n-out ;D written for sm_monthly.
Title: Animal Style
Theme: Fourteen
Genre: Drama
Version: Anime/Manga
Rating: PG-13
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Animal Style
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“Oh, and can you put your special-spread-thing-whatever on it? Not hers, just mine.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Are you sure? It’s really good. There used to be this place I’d go to, and they had this secret burger that you could get ‘animal style’…um, I don’t know why it was called that, but the sauce was amazing. I mean, this is kind of a hole in the wall, but I’ll bet it’s just as great. Divey places are usually the best, you know?”
Usagi shook her head rapidly, looking a touch dazed by Minako’s nearly rapturous soliloquy. “Nooo…it’s okay, I don’t like when it gets all soggy.”
“Suit yourself. But after a whole day’s training…I think I could go for two. Excuse me? Yeah, you. Deep fry guy. Hey!”
They sat, and almost immediately, Usagi’s fingertips grazed her fries. “Go for it, I knew you would,” Minako said around a mouthful of lettuce, teasing plain in her voice, and pushed over a miniature cup of ketchup. Both starving after hours of practice, they let uncharacteristic silence reign, but for straws squelching in ice and cheesy paper unwrapping. By the time Minako had finished half of her burger, Usagi had gone through two, not to mention all the fries and two sodas. Watching her size up “their” vanilla milkshake, Minako’s mouth quirked.
“You worked hard today. It’s all yours.”
Usagi’s palm left its imprint on her frozen drink, condensation beading around it as she quickly stood up. “Ugh, all that soda makes me want to pee. Sorry, too much info,” she giggled. “I’ll be right back!”
A second after the bathroom door closed behind her, Minako sprang from her seat and made her way over, focusing on the circular blue sign, the white skirt within. She put her ear to the lock, ignoring the odd looks other patrons cast, and her hand’s weight on the greasy doorknob was practiced, just a hair too light to alert Usagi inside.
She chewed her lip hard enough to break skin when she heard it again.
It wasn’t that Minako didn’t understand. That was just how teenagers were, after all. That was what they did. Agonized in front of full-length mirrors, thought they were too good, that they were never good enough, ate and threw it all back up again. Tried to claw their way toward beauty, scratching their insides out first. Usagi wasn’t the first girl to wreck herself and rebuild in the shape of her idol, as hard as it was to watch. But what could Minako say to her, really? Usagi had so much to live up to. Her mother - the revered queen - had always been the most beautiful woman in the world.
As Usagi continued to retch, the noise allowed Minako to sag a bit against the door without being detected.
Oh, she understood a little, that cycle of guilt and release from it. Minako still remembered. Once - an age ago - she’d thought to command. Not as Senshi, but sovereign. Who was this warbling, pale-haired baby with neither aptitude nor diligence? Venus was so much more. A skilled diplomat, a brilliant tactician. Once, she’d indulged in sordid fantasies of ascension, only to summon her every power defending the princess she came to love like - like her own better reflection.
It had shamed Venus deeply to begrudge her, and worse, to take distorted pleasure in that weakness. But she had found forgiveness in guarding her princess more fiercely, more fanatically than any other could, and in absolving her blood toward that end.
With a slight twist of her wrist, the doorknob soundlessly broke, and she slipped into the bathroom. Minako exhaled fitfully, a familiar hurt in her chest at seeing the girl kneeling over the toilet, saliva moistening her lips as she coughed and panted. Usagi hung low over her watery mess, as though she hoped the smell might induce more sickness. Minako crossed the linoleum tile quickly, grabbing a paper towel as she did, and pressed it to Usagi’s open mouth. Cool fingers smoothed candyfloss hair from the damp forehead, and irises like spilled wine locked on hers.
“I just - I think there was something weird in my burger,” Usagi explained weakly, taking the paper towel from her.
Minako briefly marveled at the capacity of genetics to improve and remake; Usagi’s mother could never lie properly to her chiefest Senshi, but this one had been doing it since before they stopped calling her Chibiusa, or even Small Lady. It was her father’s iron control she saw in Usagi’s eyes, his quiet stalking of perfection. And it was that same perfection Minako saw there too, her mother’s gift of grace. Her love of good food and equal ardor for video games, her gentle mouth and stubborn chin.
Yes, Minako understood how to first hate her perfection, then love it too dearly. Hadn't she done the same?
Guilt and release from it, shame and forgiveness. To binge and then purge. But even the Senshi of Beauty didn’t know how to convince a girl on the brink of something more, that she was as beautiful as her mother - because -
“Mine tasted a little funny too, baby,” she murmurs, lifting Usagi from the toilet. The girl rests her pink head on Minako’s collarbone, shaking. “Don’t tell your mama I worked you all day and tried to kill you with a moldy burger.”
Because that was just how teenagers were, after all.
…
…
…
…
…
Title: Animal Style
Theme: Fourteen
Genre: Drama
Version: Anime/Manga
Rating: PG-13
...
Animal Style
…
…
…
…
…
“Oh, and can you put your special-spread-thing-whatever on it? Not hers, just mine.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Are you sure? It’s really good. There used to be this place I’d go to, and they had this secret burger that you could get ‘animal style’…um, I don’t know why it was called that, but the sauce was amazing. I mean, this is kind of a hole in the wall, but I’ll bet it’s just as great. Divey places are usually the best, you know?”
Usagi shook her head rapidly, looking a touch dazed by Minako’s nearly rapturous soliloquy. “Nooo…it’s okay, I don’t like when it gets all soggy.”
“Suit yourself. But after a whole day’s training…I think I could go for two. Excuse me? Yeah, you. Deep fry guy. Hey!”
They sat, and almost immediately, Usagi’s fingertips grazed her fries. “Go for it, I knew you would,” Minako said around a mouthful of lettuce, teasing plain in her voice, and pushed over a miniature cup of ketchup. Both starving after hours of practice, they let uncharacteristic silence reign, but for straws squelching in ice and cheesy paper unwrapping. By the time Minako had finished half of her burger, Usagi had gone through two, not to mention all the fries and two sodas. Watching her size up “their” vanilla milkshake, Minako’s mouth quirked.
“You worked hard today. It’s all yours.”
Usagi’s palm left its imprint on her frozen drink, condensation beading around it as she quickly stood up. “Ugh, all that soda makes me want to pee. Sorry, too much info,” she giggled. “I’ll be right back!”
A second after the bathroom door closed behind her, Minako sprang from her seat and made her way over, focusing on the circular blue sign, the white skirt within. She put her ear to the lock, ignoring the odd looks other patrons cast, and her hand’s weight on the greasy doorknob was practiced, just a hair too light to alert Usagi inside.
She chewed her lip hard enough to break skin when she heard it again.
It wasn’t that Minako didn’t understand. That was just how teenagers were, after all. That was what they did. Agonized in front of full-length mirrors, thought they were too good, that they were never good enough, ate and threw it all back up again. Tried to claw their way toward beauty, scratching their insides out first. Usagi wasn’t the first girl to wreck herself and rebuild in the shape of her idol, as hard as it was to watch. But what could Minako say to her, really? Usagi had so much to live up to. Her mother - the revered queen - had always been the most beautiful woman in the world.
As Usagi continued to retch, the noise allowed Minako to sag a bit against the door without being detected.
Oh, she understood a little, that cycle of guilt and release from it. Minako still remembered. Once - an age ago - she’d thought to command. Not as Senshi, but sovereign. Who was this warbling, pale-haired baby with neither aptitude nor diligence? Venus was so much more. A skilled diplomat, a brilliant tactician. Once, she’d indulged in sordid fantasies of ascension, only to summon her every power defending the princess she came to love like - like her own better reflection.
It had shamed Venus deeply to begrudge her, and worse, to take distorted pleasure in that weakness. But she had found forgiveness in guarding her princess more fiercely, more fanatically than any other could, and in absolving her blood toward that end.
With a slight twist of her wrist, the doorknob soundlessly broke, and she slipped into the bathroom. Minako exhaled fitfully, a familiar hurt in her chest at seeing the girl kneeling over the toilet, saliva moistening her lips as she coughed and panted. Usagi hung low over her watery mess, as though she hoped the smell might induce more sickness. Minako crossed the linoleum tile quickly, grabbing a paper towel as she did, and pressed it to Usagi’s open mouth. Cool fingers smoothed candyfloss hair from the damp forehead, and irises like spilled wine locked on hers.
“I just - I think there was something weird in my burger,” Usagi explained weakly, taking the paper towel from her.
Minako briefly marveled at the capacity of genetics to improve and remake; Usagi’s mother could never lie properly to her chiefest Senshi, but this one had been doing it since before they stopped calling her Chibiusa, or even Small Lady. It was her father’s iron control she saw in Usagi’s eyes, his quiet stalking of perfection. And it was that same perfection Minako saw there too, her mother’s gift of grace. Her love of good food and equal ardor for video games, her gentle mouth and stubborn chin.
Yes, Minako understood how to first hate her perfection, then love it too dearly. Hadn't she done the same?
Guilt and release from it, shame and forgiveness. To binge and then purge. But even the Senshi of Beauty didn’t know how to convince a girl on the brink of something more, that she was as beautiful as her mother - because -
“Mine tasted a little funny too, baby,” she murmurs, lifting Usagi from the toilet. The girl rests her pink head on Minako’s collarbone, shaking. “Don’t tell your mama I worked you all day and tried to kill you with a moldy burger.”
Because that was just how teenagers were, after all.
…
…
…
…
…