Fic for a Pic- AU Fantasy
I'm holding out for another couple of entries I'm expecting, so keep sending those fics in!
Title: Smoke
Category: AU Fantasy
Rating: PG
Words: 844
Pic:
So, this flying thing. It was alright-surprisingly alright, really. Fly fast, fly low, and always stay to the sides. Easy. What Tuti couldn’t understand was the clothes. Or the lack thereof.
“You know, I may be comfortable with my body, but I think going around half-naked all day is a little too exhibitionist, even for me.”
Takashi flicked a look at him. “You secretly like it. Stop whining.”
“I am not!” Tuti exclaimed, completely horrified. “I am merely pointing out flaws in the design of our uniform. If it can be called one, it’s just a long piece of cloth! Isn’t that really suspicious? See, if we were actually wearing clothes, and if a human walked by, we can, oh, I don’t know, play dead I think that’s better than ‘fly as fast as you can’, Takashi. The human’d probably think we’re a-what do they call them?” Tuti frowned. “Barbie? Yeah, one of those. Completely unsuspicious.”
“We’re green, Tuti. We can’t pass for a Barbie. Anyway we’d be Ken. And it’s because we’re green that we don’t wear a top-it’s called camouflage. It’s a big word, but I think you’ll get it eventually.” Takashi continued tidying the papers. “Could you move a little? You’re sitting on, ah, ‘HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FOG?’ You know, I have absolutely no idea why people insist on keeping fogs as pets when they keep disappearing from under their noses. They’re always gone with the wind, and people even give them names!”
Tuti raised an eyebrow at him. “You’ve lost one before haven’t you? You were really attached too; named it something stupid like ‘Lala-chan’.”
“That’s your fog. Anyway, how did you know?”
“Why do you think I’m on the force? I’ve got elite powers of deduction. And Lala-chan’s my mother’s. I have no idea how she keeps it with her for such a long time-I never had a fog that lasted for more than a few days, they usually just… dissipate.” Tuti wiggled his fingers to illustrate his point. “It’s heartbreaking, but I live.”
Takashi snorted. “Get off the desk, we need to be in the chief’s office in five minutes.”
**
Ueshima-san looked at them, long, hard and calculating. “The city’s talking about something,” he said finally, “something called ‘Pixie dust’. Heard of it? No? Word is, it’s supposed to give you the high of a lifetime. Unforgettable, and extremely addictive. People call it P-D, or ‘smoke’. They’re so stoned they do anything. The crime rate has been rising rapidly, and the parents of these children, they can’t control them. On P-D, they get violent. They beat up their parents, they wreck their homes, and they create havoc.”
He let out a long sigh. “Havoc is the least thing we need now. I want you to find out who’s supplying P-D. It’s probably a human product-to be sure, we need a sample-so the hypothesis is that he or she must have connections. Possibly it could be a changeling, or a mixed. I know you’re new, but we’re short-staffed as it is. Keep your eyes and ears open, and good luck.”
Once outside, Tuti lit up a cigarette. Usually, drugs from the human world were too potent for them, the fairy folk, but strangely, in cigarettes, apparently since it was a blend of everything, everything cancelled everything out, so they pretty much got the same buzz as humans did, which Tuti was grateful for.
By his side, Takashi looked askance at him, but didn’t say anything, which Tuti was also grateful for. The case was troubling; the only drug syndicate that used products from the human world was Beast, and Tuti thought they’d cracked down on them a few years back. Their leaders were sitting tight in jail, and their members closely monitored. Tuti thought it couldn’t be them, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to ask a few questions. This was their first major case, and he didn’t want to screw it up.
He was about to ask Takashi if they could make a trip to the jailhouse, and then he realized that they are actually there. “I thought maybe we could ask the ex-members of Beast if they heard anything about a new drug syndicate dealing in human goods before they got locked up. And if they’ve heard anything, at all.” He waved a hand vaguely in the air.
Before Takashi, Tuti actually had another partner, Ichitaro-san. They were alright together, but Tuti always felt they were operating as two separate units, like they were working together, but not as one. To tell the truth, Tuti had felt a little glad when Ichitaro transferred to another branch.
Takashi was different, though. They’d hit it off right from the start. Tuti always felt supported; Takashi was everywhere, just a shoulder away, comfortingly, reassuringly there for him, but not overbearingly so. Takashi was funny, and he knew how to take a joke, which was exactly how Tuti liked his friends.
“That was what I was thinking,” Tuti told him, grin widening, “let’s go.”