[Fanfiction] - Assorted Fandoms/Characters/Pairings - Drabbles
This is what happens when I put my iPod on shuffle and start writing. One drabble per song. I repeated the song twice, and that was my time limit for each drabble.
Title: Collected (Insane, Morally Depraved and Somewhat Twisted) Drabbles
Fandom: Godchild, Crown, Torchwood, Vampire Knight, Code Geass, Saiyuki, Cantarella, Howl's Moving Castle.
Word Count: 2800
Beta: kashibanohikari
Genre: Romance, Angst, Tragedy, Crack, Fluff, Humour.
Characters/Pairing: Jake/Ren (Crown), Ruka/Kaname, Ruka/Kain, Kaname/Zero (Vampire Knight), Gojyo/Sanzo (Saiyuki), Cesare/Chiaro (Cantarella), Howl/Sophie (Howl's Moving Castle) with Jizabel/Cassian (Godchild) and CC/Lelouch (Code Geass) which can be as shippy as you want it to be, or merely friendship/platonic love.
Rating: R
Warnings: Angst, non-explicit sex, fluff, character death, heinous abuse of canon, unforgivable liberties taken with backstories, yaoi, het. Spoilers for volume 8 of Godchild and the latter volumes of Cantarella.
Author's Notes: I blame my iPod's shuffle function. It was all its fault.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were.
Summary: I don't think I can really give an over-arching summary...bite sized pieces of fandom fun? Best served with accompanying tea, scones, blackberry jam and cream. View at own risk.
* Please comment. Comments make me happy.
* Please feel free to join/watch this community if you like what you see!
Hose You Off
Word Count: 394
Fandom: Crown by You Higuri
Characters/Pairing: Jake/Ren
‘Stop it!’
Ren flinched, arching his back and glaring over his shoulder. Jake smirked at him, obviously amused.
‘Ticklish?’
He made the next stroke of the paintbrush deliberately slow, dragging it tauntingly down Ren’s spine. Ren shivered, reaching back to snatch futilely at Jake’s wrist. Jake pulled away, flicking the grasping fingers with the tip of the brush, droplets of paint splattering up Ren’s bare arms. He brushed irritably at the spots, creating slick lines of jungle green over his pale skin.
‘No,’ Ren lied.
The venturesome paintbrush slid down to his waist, then curved around to flick across his hipbones. His breathing stuttered, matching the staccato of his heartbeat. The paintbrush kept him from stepping forward, Jake’s body ensuring he was trapped from behind. The brush followed the waistband of his pants, gliding across his toned stomach, and he fought to keep himself from squirming.
The paintbrush, presumably unsatisfied with his reaction, dipped into his belly button.
‘Ah!’
There was an exhalation of what Ren suspected was amusement from behind him. Jake’s breath was hot against the back of his neck.
‘Jake…’ He stuttered to a halt as slick fingers traced designs down his back. ‘What are you doing?’
There was certainly, utterly, undeniably no trace whatsoever of a quaver in his voice.
‘Stopping it from tickling,’ Jake informed him matter-o-factly, dragging his paint-wet hands up Ren’s sides. His fingers were warm beneath the cool of the paint, and his touch was firm. A fingernail brushed against Ren’s bare ribs, tracing the arches of bone and the valleys between them.
‘Not…very effectively.’
This wasn’t entirely true. While it no longer tickled, per se, it was still somewhat distracting.
‘Turn around.’
He turned and found himself staring into dark eyes lit with a mischievous spark of amusement. Jake, too, was stripped to the waist, his pants slung dangerously low on his angular hips, his bare skin awaiting the kiss of camouflage paint. The paintbrush was nestled against his hip, tucked securely into his belt.
‘What?’
Jake ran a finger down his torso, his touch tormentingly light.
‘I was just thinking…’
‘Yes?’
The finger was joined by its brethren and Jake’s hand slid up to press against his heart.
‘I’ll have to survive this battle. Do you know why?’
He leant forward, his lips brushing against Ren’s earlobe. Ren swallowed hard.
‘Why?’ he asked huskily.
He felt Jake’s lips curve into a smile.
‘Because if I don’t, someone else is going to get to hose you off.’
Bulletproof
Word Count: 214
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Characters/Pairing: Kaname/Zero
Inspired by Bulletproof by Kerli.
He shivers, trapped by the intensity of Zero’s gaze. Amethyst eyes, perfect as gems, but crackling with a fire and passion no jewel could ever capture. Zero’s fingers run down his cheek, his touch achingly tender. He closes his eyes, choking back a thousand words he knows he cannot say.
They perch in the back of his mouth, waiting for the moment to spill forth.
He is naked, Zero’s fingers mapping out every inch of his body, Zero’s lips still stained with his blood. The moonlight threads its fingers through the hunter’s hair, turning it to liquid silver which falls in gentle ripples around his face. Zero is smiling softly.
Kaname tips his head back, unable to watch. Tears glisten in the corners of his eyes as Zero catches his wrist, pressing feather-light kisses to where the blood runs hot and close to the surface.
He’s always been unbreakable. So why is it he feels so fragile in Zero’s arms? Untouchable. He’s always been untouchable. But Zero slides warm fingers beneath the crystalline perfection of his armour and cups Kaname’s heart between his palms.
‘Z-zero!’
His voice catches.
‘Kaname?’ Kaname feels Zero breathe the words against the warm skin of his stomach.
‘Nothing.’
There is nothing he can say.
Be careful what you do, because I’m not bulletproof.
---
Shut Up
Word Count: 152
Fandom: Saiyuki
Characters/Pairing: Gojyo/Sanzo
Inspired by Shut Me Up by Mindless Self Indulgence
‘Shut up!’
Gojyo’s reply (undoubtedly something obscene) is lost as Sanzo’s lips cut him off. He stumbles backwards, his hip colliding hard with the window sill as Sanzo’s long fingers twine almost painfully in his hair. Their kiss is a bruising blend of tongues and teeth, along with the lingering taste of cigarettes and alcohol.
Gojyo’s hand snags the front of Sanzo’s shirt, wrapping in the silken fabric and wrenching him closer. The other hand slides against the naked skin of Sanzo’s back, in something that is somehow too violent to be a caress. Sanzo groans into Gojyo’s mouth as Gojyo digs fingernails into his waist.
More bruises, sweetly painful on his pale skin. Sanzo will never admit how much he like the bruises.
Sanzo practically tears off Gojyo’s shirt, sending at least one button skittering across the floor. Gojyo laughs as they break apart, his lips enticingly swollen.
‘Eager, aren’t you?’
‘Shut up.’
---
Bad Influence
Word Count: 206
Fandom: Code Geass
Characters/Pairing: CC & Lelouch (shippy if you want it to be)
Inspired by Bad Influence by P!nk.
‘Will you turn that down?’
CC ignores him. The song she’s listening too is clearly audible, crackling from the headphones she has jammed haphazardly behind her pigtails. Her eyes are shut, a smile teasing her lips, her hair sprayed across the bed around her head.
She’s had the same song on repeat for over an hour.
‘CC!’
He opens one eye, raising an eyebrow quizzically.
‘Sorry, I can’t hear you, the music’s too loud.’
The eye closes again. Her foot taps out the beat of the song on the end of the bed. He can tell it’s some obnoxious pop song, though he can hear only the bones of the melody. The distorted sound is worming its way into his skull, distracting him.
‘CC!’
She sits up elegantly, twirling a strand of hair around one finger.
‘What?’ she asks, pouting a little.
‘What is that?’
She grins, tipping her head back and singing.
‘…I’ll have another one, it’s early. Three olives shake it up, I like it dirty…’
There’s a wicked glint in her eyes.
‘Turn it down. I can’t focus.’
Her tongue darts out to wet her lips and she smiles.
‘A good excuse to be a bad influence on you…’ she sings.
Lelouch glares.
---
Beautiful
Word Count: 287
Fandom: Howl’s Moving Castle
Characters/Pairing: Howl/Sophie
Inspired by Swanheart by Nightwish.
He’s not sure she knows how beautiful she is.
Not beautiful in the way so many girls are, all rosy, pouting lips and fussy golden hair. Not willow-slender and exotic with porcelain skin and marble eyes. Not dark and warm with ebony curls and eyes deep enough to drown in. Not buxom and sensual, not the provocatively modest coquette. Not the fractious red-head with fire in her heart to match the crimson of her hair. Not a portrait of elegant perfection, all languid gestures and rich laughter.
Not beautiful like that.
She’s beautiful like the sun, like the first flowers of spring. When she smiles, she shines. She glows, not with the icy perfection of the far off stars, but with the warm loveliness of a fire crackling merrily in the hearth. When she dips her head and blushes, she is as lovely as a doe in her first season, a little awkward, more than a little shy, but sweet as honey and delicate as spun sugar.
When she blushes and ducks her head, torn between embarrassment and joy, he can’t help but catch her chin in his fingers and tilt her head towards his. She smiles then, half abashed, half eager. She kisses him without pretence, without artifice. Kisses him a little clumsily at first, but so sweetly it stills his fledgling heart in his chest.
‘You’re beautiful.’
She always shakes her head, always looks away, but he catches her hands.
‘Look at me, Sophie.’
‘Howl…’
His name has never sounded as beautiful as it does when she says it.
‘You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.’
She rolls her eyes, but he can see she is smiling.
‘I love you.’
‘I love you too.’
---
Cold
Word Count: 280
Fandom: Godchild
Characters/Pairing: Jizabel & Cassian (as shippy as you want it to be)
Inspired by...I actually can't remeber, goddamnit. I think it was Cold by Emilie Autumn
He’s cold. He’s been cold his whole life, but this is worse. This cuts to the bone. There are chips of ice in his blood, sliding through his veins and sinking deep into his heart. The world should be fading, but instead it’s getting sharper. Stark and white like bone, like pain, like iron, like the glassy shards of a child’s innocence. Every breath he drags in twists his body, every gasping moment of existence tears him open a little further.
He can feel the bullet nestled in his wound, feel the blood spilling out all over his white jacket. He’s always liked the crimson of blood on white fabric. He’s always liked the feel of blood on his fingers, warm and wet.
The world buckles. The crucifix around his neck is tightening, choking him, a ring of razor wire cutting off his breath and digging the thorns of his failures deep into his skin. He wishes he could let it go. Give it away. Wrap it up in shiny paper and tie it with a bloody bow. He’s dying, but his soul can’t slip free with while the iron of his sins is wrapped like shackles around his ankles.
His human heart skips a beat. It’s nearly time.
His blood is hot, burning against his skin as he lays open his throat.
Someone whispers his name. There are arms cradling him close, and the icy knives are gone from his heart. His lips part and he would speak, but his tongue is tied in a celtic knot and he can’t force the words past the blood. He can’t see anymore, but he doesn’t need too.
He isn’t cold anymore.
---
Drums
Word Count: 194
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairing: Captain Jack Harkness
Inspired by Call It A Ritual by Wolf Parade
He can hear the rhythm of the drums in his head.
It never stops. It’s an ceaseless beat, ringing between his ears. Thud. Sound of boots, ringing on cobbles. Thud. Promise of violence, promise of blood. Thud. Blood on his face, blood in his mouth, blood mingling with saliva, blood under his fingernails.
It’s almost jaunty. Jangles like the brass on a green soldier’s uniform. Gleams like freshly-polished boots.
Boots he’ll drag later off dead feet to replace the strips of leather wrapped around his blistered, bleeding skin.
The girls laugh and flirt, the children shriek and play, the mother’s and father’s look on with shuttered eyes. Mothers and fathers know. They always know, even as they pin on proud smiles. Thump him on the back, kiss him on the cheek, good boy, off to war, do us proud, do us all proud, die in the muck and the filth where nobody cares or knows you name. Your sweetheart’s waiting, waiting for the news of your death so she can take up with another. Where’s your handsome smile now? Frozen on dead lips.
Oh, the glory of war.
And the beat of the drums.
---
Kiss
Word Count: 318
Fandom: Cantarella
Characters/Pairing: Cesare/Chiaro, Chiaro/Lucrezia
Inspired by Truce by The Dresden Dolls
The taste of Chiaro still lingers on Cesare’s lips.
It was only a moment. One hasty kiss. The barest press of lips on lips. A few fleeting of seconds as Chiaro froze in shock. A breath, that was all, before the hands that had been his solace for so long shoved him away.
Lucrezia, Lucrezia, do you know what you have taken from me?
Those hands had healed his wounds. Had been tacky with the stick crimson of his blood. Had held the hilt of the sword with his name carved on its blade. Had brushed against his skin in a thousand thoughtless caresses. Had gentled him when he woke covered in sweat and suffocating on his own soundless screams. Had brushed away his tears.
Now those hands had thrust him away.
Why? Why? Am I so worthless? Do I mean so little that you can toss me away like an old whore? Where are your promises now?
He’d plucked out his beating heart and pinned it to his sleeve. He’d stripped away every heavy vestment, every piece of gold gilding, torn away the gauze of pretence clinging to his skin, slipped out of the silk of his deceptions. He’s bared himself to the bone, let the words he couldn’t say play on his lips as he’d kissed Chiaro.
And Chiaro had flicked them aside.
Still, Cesare hardly blames him. Why sully your hands with the filthy, ghastly truth of a blackened soul when sweetness and life yields so willingly to your advances? Why kiss rotting lips when cherry-red ones part in love?
Why settle for him, when she can offer so much more.
He downs the glass of wine. He can’t taste it anymore.
Chiaro, Chiaro. It would have been kinder if you’d stuck your sword through my stomach, all those years ago.
He can’t taste anything anymore. Anything other than the bliss that was Chiaro’s lips.
--
Beauty
Word Count: 297
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Characters/Pairing: Ruka/Kaname, Ruka/Kain
Inspired by Pearls of Light by Within Temptation.
She drags her fingers through the water. Ripples spring from her fingers, skittering out over the pool. She is alone again, alone with the wind and the soft autumn sky. The leaves are turning to burnished gold and burnt honey, drifting from the trees to alight gently on the steps to the fountain. The faint, sickly sweet smell of rot drifts from the piles of them already on the ground.
Even the most beautiful things surrender to the hands of corruption eventually.
Her reflection swims before her eyes, billowing and contorting in the water. It is a truer mirror than the one in her room, encased in whorls and arches of silver. This one shows her soul.
A tear slides from one of her eyes, shattering her shifting reflection into a thousand pieces. She tosses her head, her cornflower-yellow hair catching the tired sunlight and shimmering. She wonders if he’d think she was beautiful, if he saw her now.
No. He’d never thought of her as beautiful. Not now, not when he drank her blood and she fluttered like a butterfly in his arms, ever-willing to give him her wings.
She slips into the water without thinking. It’s foolish, because she’ll have to concoct some circumlocutions explanation for her soaking clothes. But for once, she want to so something merely because she wants it.
The water is cold, and her heavy dress drags at her ankles. She lets it pull her under, drifting in an aquiline sea of serenity. Her hair floats around her face. She lets her eyes slide shut It’s so quiet. So perfect.
She’s not sure how long she floats. But she hears Kain’s voice calling before she sees his hand, plunging through the water towards her. She hesitates.
Then she takes his hand.
--
Dancer
Word Count: 224
Fandom: Code Geass
Characters/Pairing: CC
Inspired by Dancer by Xandria
She tiptoes along the wall, teetering a little, arms outstretched like wings. Her hair is loose for once, falling in waves of emerald around her bare shoulders. She tries a step, balancing on her tiptoes, feet bare despite the cold. She steps, hops, pivots. She dances alone in the snow, lips kissed blue by cold, a smile on her face.
Tears dry beneath her eyes like diamonds.
She breathes in, inhaling the soul of the world. The scent of winter is strong, tingling on her tongue. The trees around her are bare, stripped of their autumn finery. They stand stark against the purity of the snow.
She takes another step, a girl in a jewellery box twirling to the song of the full moon.
Time stretches before her, unravelling like a spool of thread. It slips beneath her feet and she has to dance to stay upright, flinging herself into the arms of the faceless, nameless emptiness of Fate. He twirls her over a floor chequered black and white.
Destiny unfolds like an origami flower, a flat sheet folded and folded again into the dimensions of her world.
She slips, stumbles, falls. The snow catches her, chilling her to the bone.
She is dancing in the wind, always dancing in the wind, every moment of her life.
Dancing to the music of her heart.
/madness
Thoughts?
Title: Collected (Insane, Morally Depraved and Somewhat Twisted) Drabbles
Fandom: Godchild, Crown, Torchwood, Vampire Knight, Code Geass, Saiyuki, Cantarella, Howl's Moving Castle.
Word Count: 2800
Beta: kashibanohikari
Genre: Romance, Angst, Tragedy, Crack, Fluff, Humour.
Characters/Pairing: Jake/Ren (Crown), Ruka/Kaname, Ruka/Kain, Kaname/Zero (Vampire Knight), Gojyo/Sanzo (Saiyuki), Cesare/Chiaro (Cantarella), Howl/Sophie (Howl's Moving Castle) with Jizabel/Cassian (Godchild) and CC/Lelouch (Code Geass) which can be as shippy as you want it to be, or merely friendship/platonic love.
Rating: R
Warnings: Angst, non-explicit sex, fluff, character death, heinous abuse of canon, unforgivable liberties taken with backstories, yaoi, het. Spoilers for volume 8 of Godchild and the latter volumes of Cantarella.
Author's Notes: I blame my iPod's shuffle function. It was all its fault.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were.
Summary: I don't think I can really give an over-arching summary...bite sized pieces of fandom fun? Best served with accompanying tea, scones, blackberry jam and cream. View at own risk.
* Please comment. Comments make me happy.
* Please feel free to join/watch this community if you like what you see!
Hose You Off
Word Count: 394
Fandom: Crown by You Higuri
Characters/Pairing: Jake/Ren
‘Stop it!’
Ren flinched, arching his back and glaring over his shoulder. Jake smirked at him, obviously amused.
‘Ticklish?’
He made the next stroke of the paintbrush deliberately slow, dragging it tauntingly down Ren’s spine. Ren shivered, reaching back to snatch futilely at Jake’s wrist. Jake pulled away, flicking the grasping fingers with the tip of the brush, droplets of paint splattering up Ren’s bare arms. He brushed irritably at the spots, creating slick lines of jungle green over his pale skin.
‘No,’ Ren lied.
The venturesome paintbrush slid down to his waist, then curved around to flick across his hipbones. His breathing stuttered, matching the staccato of his heartbeat. The paintbrush kept him from stepping forward, Jake’s body ensuring he was trapped from behind. The brush followed the waistband of his pants, gliding across his toned stomach, and he fought to keep himself from squirming.
The paintbrush, presumably unsatisfied with his reaction, dipped into his belly button.
‘Ah!’
There was an exhalation of what Ren suspected was amusement from behind him. Jake’s breath was hot against the back of his neck.
‘Jake…’ He stuttered to a halt as slick fingers traced designs down his back. ‘What are you doing?’
There was certainly, utterly, undeniably no trace whatsoever of a quaver in his voice.
‘Stopping it from tickling,’ Jake informed him matter-o-factly, dragging his paint-wet hands up Ren’s sides. His fingers were warm beneath the cool of the paint, and his touch was firm. A fingernail brushed against Ren’s bare ribs, tracing the arches of bone and the valleys between them.
‘Not…very effectively.’
This wasn’t entirely true. While it no longer tickled, per se, it was still somewhat distracting.
‘Turn around.’
He turned and found himself staring into dark eyes lit with a mischievous spark of amusement. Jake, too, was stripped to the waist, his pants slung dangerously low on his angular hips, his bare skin awaiting the kiss of camouflage paint. The paintbrush was nestled against his hip, tucked securely into his belt.
‘What?’
Jake ran a finger down his torso, his touch tormentingly light.
‘I was just thinking…’
‘Yes?’
The finger was joined by its brethren and Jake’s hand slid up to press against his heart.
‘I’ll have to survive this battle. Do you know why?’
He leant forward, his lips brushing against Ren’s earlobe. Ren swallowed hard.
‘Why?’ he asked huskily.
He felt Jake’s lips curve into a smile.
‘Because if I don’t, someone else is going to get to hose you off.’
Bulletproof
Word Count: 214
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Characters/Pairing: Kaname/Zero
Inspired by Bulletproof by Kerli.
He shivers, trapped by the intensity of Zero’s gaze. Amethyst eyes, perfect as gems, but crackling with a fire and passion no jewel could ever capture. Zero’s fingers run down his cheek, his touch achingly tender. He closes his eyes, choking back a thousand words he knows he cannot say.
They perch in the back of his mouth, waiting for the moment to spill forth.
He is naked, Zero’s fingers mapping out every inch of his body, Zero’s lips still stained with his blood. The moonlight threads its fingers through the hunter’s hair, turning it to liquid silver which falls in gentle ripples around his face. Zero is smiling softly.
Kaname tips his head back, unable to watch. Tears glisten in the corners of his eyes as Zero catches his wrist, pressing feather-light kisses to where the blood runs hot and close to the surface.
He’s always been unbreakable. So why is it he feels so fragile in Zero’s arms? Untouchable. He’s always been untouchable. But Zero slides warm fingers beneath the crystalline perfection of his armour and cups Kaname’s heart between his palms.
‘Z-zero!’
His voice catches.
‘Kaname?’ Kaname feels Zero breathe the words against the warm skin of his stomach.
‘Nothing.’
There is nothing he can say.
Be careful what you do, because I’m not bulletproof.
---
Shut Up
Word Count: 152
Fandom: Saiyuki
Characters/Pairing: Gojyo/Sanzo
Inspired by Shut Me Up by Mindless Self Indulgence
‘Shut up!’
Gojyo’s reply (undoubtedly something obscene) is lost as Sanzo’s lips cut him off. He stumbles backwards, his hip colliding hard with the window sill as Sanzo’s long fingers twine almost painfully in his hair. Their kiss is a bruising blend of tongues and teeth, along with the lingering taste of cigarettes and alcohol.
Gojyo’s hand snags the front of Sanzo’s shirt, wrapping in the silken fabric and wrenching him closer. The other hand slides against the naked skin of Sanzo’s back, in something that is somehow too violent to be a caress. Sanzo groans into Gojyo’s mouth as Gojyo digs fingernails into his waist.
More bruises, sweetly painful on his pale skin. Sanzo will never admit how much he like the bruises.
Sanzo practically tears off Gojyo’s shirt, sending at least one button skittering across the floor. Gojyo laughs as they break apart, his lips enticingly swollen.
‘Eager, aren’t you?’
‘Shut up.’
---
Bad Influence
Word Count: 206
Fandom: Code Geass
Characters/Pairing: CC & Lelouch (shippy if you want it to be)
Inspired by Bad Influence by P!nk.
‘Will you turn that down?’
CC ignores him. The song she’s listening too is clearly audible, crackling from the headphones she has jammed haphazardly behind her pigtails. Her eyes are shut, a smile teasing her lips, her hair sprayed across the bed around her head.
She’s had the same song on repeat for over an hour.
‘CC!’
He opens one eye, raising an eyebrow quizzically.
‘Sorry, I can’t hear you, the music’s too loud.’
The eye closes again. Her foot taps out the beat of the song on the end of the bed. He can tell it’s some obnoxious pop song, though he can hear only the bones of the melody. The distorted sound is worming its way into his skull, distracting him.
‘CC!’
She sits up elegantly, twirling a strand of hair around one finger.
‘What?’ she asks, pouting a little.
‘What is that?’
She grins, tipping her head back and singing.
‘…I’ll have another one, it’s early. Three olives shake it up, I like it dirty…’
There’s a wicked glint in her eyes.
‘Turn it down. I can’t focus.’
Her tongue darts out to wet her lips and she smiles.
‘A good excuse to be a bad influence on you…’ she sings.
Lelouch glares.
---
Beautiful
Word Count: 287
Fandom: Howl’s Moving Castle
Characters/Pairing: Howl/Sophie
Inspired by Swanheart by Nightwish.
He’s not sure she knows how beautiful she is.
Not beautiful in the way so many girls are, all rosy, pouting lips and fussy golden hair. Not willow-slender and exotic with porcelain skin and marble eyes. Not dark and warm with ebony curls and eyes deep enough to drown in. Not buxom and sensual, not the provocatively modest coquette. Not the fractious red-head with fire in her heart to match the crimson of her hair. Not a portrait of elegant perfection, all languid gestures and rich laughter.
Not beautiful like that.
She’s beautiful like the sun, like the first flowers of spring. When she smiles, she shines. She glows, not with the icy perfection of the far off stars, but with the warm loveliness of a fire crackling merrily in the hearth. When she dips her head and blushes, she is as lovely as a doe in her first season, a little awkward, more than a little shy, but sweet as honey and delicate as spun sugar.
When she blushes and ducks her head, torn between embarrassment and joy, he can’t help but catch her chin in his fingers and tilt her head towards his. She smiles then, half abashed, half eager. She kisses him without pretence, without artifice. Kisses him a little clumsily at first, but so sweetly it stills his fledgling heart in his chest.
‘You’re beautiful.’
She always shakes her head, always looks away, but he catches her hands.
‘Look at me, Sophie.’
‘Howl…’
His name has never sounded as beautiful as it does when she says it.
‘You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.’
She rolls her eyes, but he can see she is smiling.
‘I love you.’
‘I love you too.’
---
Cold
Word Count: 280
Fandom: Godchild
Characters/Pairing: Jizabel & Cassian (as shippy as you want it to be)
Inspired by...I actually can't remeber, goddamnit. I think it was Cold by Emilie Autumn
He’s cold. He’s been cold his whole life, but this is worse. This cuts to the bone. There are chips of ice in his blood, sliding through his veins and sinking deep into his heart. The world should be fading, but instead it’s getting sharper. Stark and white like bone, like pain, like iron, like the glassy shards of a child’s innocence. Every breath he drags in twists his body, every gasping moment of existence tears him open a little further.
He can feel the bullet nestled in his wound, feel the blood spilling out all over his white jacket. He’s always liked the crimson of blood on white fabric. He’s always liked the feel of blood on his fingers, warm and wet.
The world buckles. The crucifix around his neck is tightening, choking him, a ring of razor wire cutting off his breath and digging the thorns of his failures deep into his skin. He wishes he could let it go. Give it away. Wrap it up in shiny paper and tie it with a bloody bow. He’s dying, but his soul can’t slip free with while the iron of his sins is wrapped like shackles around his ankles.
His human heart skips a beat. It’s nearly time.
His blood is hot, burning against his skin as he lays open his throat.
Someone whispers his name. There are arms cradling him close, and the icy knives are gone from his heart. His lips part and he would speak, but his tongue is tied in a celtic knot and he can’t force the words past the blood. He can’t see anymore, but he doesn’t need too.
He isn’t cold anymore.
---
Drums
Word Count: 194
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairing: Captain Jack Harkness
Inspired by Call It A Ritual by Wolf Parade
He can hear the rhythm of the drums in his head.
It never stops. It’s an ceaseless beat, ringing between his ears. Thud. Sound of boots, ringing on cobbles. Thud. Promise of violence, promise of blood. Thud. Blood on his face, blood in his mouth, blood mingling with saliva, blood under his fingernails.
It’s almost jaunty. Jangles like the brass on a green soldier’s uniform. Gleams like freshly-polished boots.
Boots he’ll drag later off dead feet to replace the strips of leather wrapped around his blistered, bleeding skin.
The girls laugh and flirt, the children shriek and play, the mother’s and father’s look on with shuttered eyes. Mothers and fathers know. They always know, even as they pin on proud smiles. Thump him on the back, kiss him on the cheek, good boy, off to war, do us proud, do us all proud, die in the muck and the filth where nobody cares or knows you name. Your sweetheart’s waiting, waiting for the news of your death so she can take up with another. Where’s your handsome smile now? Frozen on dead lips.
Oh, the glory of war.
And the beat of the drums.
---
Kiss
Word Count: 318
Fandom: Cantarella
Characters/Pairing: Cesare/Chiaro, Chiaro/Lucrezia
Inspired by Truce by The Dresden Dolls
The taste of Chiaro still lingers on Cesare’s lips.
It was only a moment. One hasty kiss. The barest press of lips on lips. A few fleeting of seconds as Chiaro froze in shock. A breath, that was all, before the hands that had been his solace for so long shoved him away.
Lucrezia, Lucrezia, do you know what you have taken from me?
Those hands had healed his wounds. Had been tacky with the stick crimson of his blood. Had held the hilt of the sword with his name carved on its blade. Had brushed against his skin in a thousand thoughtless caresses. Had gentled him when he woke covered in sweat and suffocating on his own soundless screams. Had brushed away his tears.
Now those hands had thrust him away.
Why? Why? Am I so worthless? Do I mean so little that you can toss me away like an old whore? Where are your promises now?
He’d plucked out his beating heart and pinned it to his sleeve. He’d stripped away every heavy vestment, every piece of gold gilding, torn away the gauze of pretence clinging to his skin, slipped out of the silk of his deceptions. He’s bared himself to the bone, let the words he couldn’t say play on his lips as he’d kissed Chiaro.
And Chiaro had flicked them aside.
Still, Cesare hardly blames him. Why sully your hands with the filthy, ghastly truth of a blackened soul when sweetness and life yields so willingly to your advances? Why kiss rotting lips when cherry-red ones part in love?
Why settle for him, when she can offer so much more.
He downs the glass of wine. He can’t taste it anymore.
Chiaro, Chiaro. It would have been kinder if you’d stuck your sword through my stomach, all those years ago.
He can’t taste anything anymore. Anything other than the bliss that was Chiaro’s lips.
--
Beauty
Word Count: 297
Fandom: Vampire Knight
Characters/Pairing: Ruka/Kaname, Ruka/Kain
Inspired by Pearls of Light by Within Temptation.
She drags her fingers through the water. Ripples spring from her fingers, skittering out over the pool. She is alone again, alone with the wind and the soft autumn sky. The leaves are turning to burnished gold and burnt honey, drifting from the trees to alight gently on the steps to the fountain. The faint, sickly sweet smell of rot drifts from the piles of them already on the ground.
Even the most beautiful things surrender to the hands of corruption eventually.
Her reflection swims before her eyes, billowing and contorting in the water. It is a truer mirror than the one in her room, encased in whorls and arches of silver. This one shows her soul.
A tear slides from one of her eyes, shattering her shifting reflection into a thousand pieces. She tosses her head, her cornflower-yellow hair catching the tired sunlight and shimmering. She wonders if he’d think she was beautiful, if he saw her now.
No. He’d never thought of her as beautiful. Not now, not when he drank her blood and she fluttered like a butterfly in his arms, ever-willing to give him her wings.
She slips into the water without thinking. It’s foolish, because she’ll have to concoct some circumlocutions explanation for her soaking clothes. But for once, she want to so something merely because she wants it.
The water is cold, and her heavy dress drags at her ankles. She lets it pull her under, drifting in an aquiline sea of serenity. Her hair floats around her face. She lets her eyes slide shut It’s so quiet. So perfect.
She’s not sure how long she floats. But she hears Kain’s voice calling before she sees his hand, plunging through the water towards her. She hesitates.
Then she takes his hand.
--
Dancer
Word Count: 224
Fandom: Code Geass
Characters/Pairing: CC
Inspired by Dancer by Xandria
She tiptoes along the wall, teetering a little, arms outstretched like wings. Her hair is loose for once, falling in waves of emerald around her bare shoulders. She tries a step, balancing on her tiptoes, feet bare despite the cold. She steps, hops, pivots. She dances alone in the snow, lips kissed blue by cold, a smile on her face.
Tears dry beneath her eyes like diamonds.
She breathes in, inhaling the soul of the world. The scent of winter is strong, tingling on her tongue. The trees around her are bare, stripped of their autumn finery. They stand stark against the purity of the snow.
She takes another step, a girl in a jewellery box twirling to the song of the full moon.
Time stretches before her, unravelling like a spool of thread. It slips beneath her feet and she has to dance to stay upright, flinging herself into the arms of the faceless, nameless emptiness of Fate. He twirls her over a floor chequered black and white.
Destiny unfolds like an origami flower, a flat sheet folded and folded again into the dimensions of her world.
She slips, stumbles, falls. The snow catches her, chilling her to the bone.
She is dancing in the wind, always dancing in the wind, every moment of her life.
Dancing to the music of her heart.
/madness
Thoughts?