More one-sentence fics.
I lost my memory stick months ago, so some of the fics I had been working on are on hold. Luckily, I happened to find an old CD with back-ups of some of my older stories on it, so I come bearing a little gift: some one-sentence fics once more. Sorry, I know it's not much, but it's better than nothing, at least.
One sentence fics, take II
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, I'm just borrowing.
Date Finished: Most of these were finished in 2007, some right now.
Pairing: Yuan/Botta.
Genre: Romance mainly. Smatterings of angst and humor here and there.
Rating: PG.
Contains: Slash, like that's going to surprise anyone.
Warnings: Spoilers, character death.
Author's Notes: This isn't a full set like the ones I posted way back. I have written 50 one-sentence fics for each of the theme sets provided by 1sentence, but none of the sets is good enough to be posted in its entirety, so you get a mix from all the sets. (Of course, there are a bunch of terrible sentences mixed in here, too.) The abbreviations are: A = Alpha, B = Beta, D = Delta and E = Epsilon, which correspond to the name of the theme set at the community. The number after the letter is the prompt number. Oh, and just in case... each sentence stands on its own and is not (necessarily) linked to any other story in this collection or in general.
A17 - Tears
Tears weren't prohibited, but neither of the leaders had time to be crying even when they lost someone important and dear to them; Yuan convinced himself he had no time to waste on tears even after Botta was gone.
A19 - Wind
The wind on the top of the Fooji Mountains tore at Yuan's long hair, whipping stray strands about, giving Botta a strange wish to braid his superior's hair to stop the breeze from blowing it around in such a way.
A26 - Forever
For most people, "forever" was a figurative phrase - Yuan was, sadly, one of those to whom it was a harsh reality to see forever and be unable to affect the lives and, more importantly, lifespans of others as much as he would have liked.
A32 - Confusion
For someone who was otherwise so knowledgeable, Yuan sure often seemed to be confused about something so trivial as the everyday needs of his troops, for which Botta had more than once had to cover.
A33 - Fear
Once upon a time, Botta had had a mild fear of heights - nowadays it wasn't quite so mild, and he blamed Yuan's reckless behavior for it.
A39 - Smile
Yuan didn't smile much and Botta didn't show any emotions in general - when they happened to smile genuinely at each other for the first time, it was pure coincidence, but it was all right - after all, it was their secret.
A40 - Innocence
They were no poster boys for the boy scouts - there was nothing innocent in either of them, be it related to their military work or what was happening inside the walls of their bedrooms.
A48 - Waves
Yuan stood ankle-deep in the water in Altamira and stared out towards the horizon, breathing in rhythm with the waves, trying to fight off the nausea caused by the knowledge that this ocean water was now mixed with that of Sylvarant's… that of the ocean which had become his friend's grave.
B01 - Walking
No one seemed to believe it when Botta said he had seen Yuan walking on water; of course, he always failed to mention the seraph had been using his wings to not sink into the cold depths of the ocean.
B04 - Wonder
There were many wonders in the world, and Yuan was the source of several things Botta had been wondering about lately.
B05 - Worry
Yuan wasn't one to show his feelings, but he couldn't deny he sometimes worried when Botta went off on yet another crazy mission.
B06 - Whimsy
Yuan was a whimsy person and could change his mind in an instant, which made it difficult to deal with him, but Botta was so used to it he hardly paid any attention to it.
B13 - Bias
When Yuan had said he sometimes felt like Botta was the only Renegade who had half a brain on him, the younger half-elf had brushed the comment off by saying that Yuan was biased and that he wasn't giving the others a chance to prove themselves.
B14 - Burning
If there had been a flame of hatred and resentment towards Yggdrasill in Yuan's heart before, the intensity of that flame had become scorching after what happened at Rodyle's ranch.
B15 - Breathing
Not all Renegades knew Yuan was an angel; even Botta had been disturbed when he had first discovered that Yuan wasn't, in fact, breathing at all.
B22 - Quirks
Yuan wasn't the only one with quirks around the base, but Botta was subtle about his; Yuan derived endless, good-humored amusement from discovering the more personal side of his second-in-command.
B26 - Jump
Yuan knew it was time to lay off the Renegades' access to alcohol after one decidedly drunken officer had come to him at a celebration to ask whether Botta had yet "jumped his bones", as he so eloquently said.
B27 - Jester
It was a ridiculous idea passed out by the Renegades' very own jester, a man with a tongue even more acerbic than Yuan's, and it was a given that no one would have taken it seriously if the subjects, the very leaders of the organization, hadn't practically pleaded guilty with their behavior.
B29 - Jewel
Yuan's Cruxis Crystal was a relic of ages long past; when it had occurred to Botta that the soul trapped within that crystal had to be several millennia old and he had asked Yuan about it, the angel had become withdrawn and said that some things were better not thought about.
B39 - Share
In retrospect, Botta thought he should have expected something like it, but he hadn't really thought that Yuan would hog all the covers to himself when they were sharing a bed, even if he was asleep.
B44 - Near
It was common knowledge among the Renegades that Yuan didn't allow anyone to get too near; it wasn't all that surprising that word got out like wildfire when someone actually spotted Botta leaning over his superior's shoulder to point out something on a file Yuan was holding, much to the leaders' chagrin.
B47 - Valiant
Yuan had long ago deemed Botta one of the most valiant people he had come across in the several millennia he had lived, but sometimes he couldn't help wondering if the man had a suicidal streak for all the crazy stunts he pulled off from time to time.
D01 - Air
As the rapidly increasing water consumed the last pockets of air and the last semblance of hope of rescue was lost, the only thing Botta found himself regretting was that he wouldn't be able to tell Yuan of their success personally.
D05 - Coffee
Botta preferred coffee to tea; when Yuan had one early morning asked him why, he had - disheveled and still half-asleep - hardly been able to convey the thought that, well, Yuan wasn't the one who was seriously in need of a caffeine boost in the mornings … especially after such taxing nights.
D07 - Despair
Yuan had long fought the desire to give in to despair, but after what had happened at the Remote Island Human Ranch, he found it even harder to believe in future; he didn't understand the reasoning of his second-in-command that had led to such a tragedy.
D13 - Fall
They were trying to be discreet, but it didn't exactly help that they always seemed to cause something or other to fall over when things really got interesting.
D16 - Flying
Most children and even some adults longed to be able to fly once in their lives; Yuan didn't understand the appeal because to him it was nothing special - he was amused to note that even among the Renegades Botta was one of the few who shared his lack of enthusiasm for soaring the skies.
D26 - Lost
On the ground, Yuan had no sense of direction at all, so when he grudgingly admitted that they were lost while they were trekking through the forests surrounding Lake Umacy, Botta couldn't exactly say he was surprised.
D29 - Old
When Yuan had first asked Botta how old he thought he was, he had said that the answer he had been given - five hundred years - made him feel old; Botta had given him a decisively strange look after he had admitted he was much closer to being five thousand years old.
D36 - Secret
Yuan wasn't the only one with secrets in the base; Botta had one he had decided to keep to himself - it wouldn't have brought about anything good if he were to confess the feelings of attraction he had developed for his superior.
D44 - Taboo
It was very rare Yuan would talk about Martel more than in passing and it was a taboo topic, even among the two of them - for a good reason.
D45 - Ugly
There were times when Yuan wanted to keep his distance; Botta could appreciate his feelings when he caught sight of the fresh, ugly marks crisscrossing over Yuan's back once after the seraph had come back from Cruxis.
D49 - Winter
Botta rather liked the cold climate of the Flanoir region to Yuan's endless astonishment; it reminded him of the winters of his old hometown.
D50 - Wood
It was a good thing the desks of the highest-ranking Renegades were made of sturdy wood... otherwise, they would have collapsed a long time ago.
E01 - Motion
The wheels had been set in motion, but no one had expected to see so many of their own people crushed under them, much less that someone of such high standing among the Renegades would willingly jump in the fray to face certain death.
E04 - Last
This was it, Botta mused wearily as he tried to decode the mix of elven, angelic and common languages on the papers, this was the last time he would take written orders from Yuan before he had seen them to make sure he could actually understand half of them.
E08 - Thousand
Thousands of years' worth of suffering were bound to make one jaded; Botta realized this and accepted that he could never hope to completely mend Yuan's soul, but he was determined to try and ease his pain while he could.
E13 - Change
Yuan would claim he hadn't changed in centuries, but Botta knew that wasn't true - he had witnessed the gradual change in him first-hand.
E14 - Command
While they were on duty, the chain of command was crystal clear - off-duty each would have to earn the right to be on top.
E23 - Child
When Yuan had asked Botta whether it bothered him that he could never have a wife and children of his own, he had said he was glad to give both of those up for all the other families he could save from peril by working as a Renegade.
E24 - Now
They had learned to live in the moment a long time ago; it was a necessity in their line of work.
E25 - Shadow
There were some absurd legends about Yuan floating around the base; the one that stuck in Botta's mind most was the claim that Yuan had no shadow, and he felt somewhat stupid and distinctly relieved to realize it wasn't true.
E26 - Goodbye
Many close calls, many last-minute escapes… they had grown tired of saying goodbye every time they took on a mission, but it didn't ease Yuan's mind when he knew there had been no goodbye this final time.
E27 - Hide
Playing hide-and-seek didn't exactly seem like the sort of thing grown men would do, but sometimes Yuan deliberately seemed to try and find a place within either base where no one but Botta could think of to find him.
E40 - History
It was a strange and horrifying thing to learn about history from someone who had first-hand experience of the events described; even more so when the events concerned the end of the Kharlan War and the death of a loved one who later would become a worshipped entity.
E43 - God
She was no goddess, not the way the Church depicted her, but it was easy to understand why even Yuan would sometimes act like she was.
One sentence fics, take II
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, I'm just borrowing.
Date Finished: Most of these were finished in 2007, some right now.
Pairing: Yuan/Botta.
Genre: Romance mainly. Smatterings of angst and humor here and there.
Rating: PG.
Contains: Slash, like that's going to surprise anyone.
Warnings: Spoilers, character death.
Author's Notes: This isn't a full set like the ones I posted way back. I have written 50 one-sentence fics for each of the theme sets provided by 1sentence, but none of the sets is good enough to be posted in its entirety, so you get a mix from all the sets. (Of course, there are a bunch of terrible sentences mixed in here, too.) The abbreviations are: A = Alpha, B = Beta, D = Delta and E = Epsilon, which correspond to the name of the theme set at the community. The number after the letter is the prompt number. Oh, and just in case... each sentence stands on its own and is not (necessarily) linked to any other story in this collection or in general.
A17 - Tears
Tears weren't prohibited, but neither of the leaders had time to be crying even when they lost someone important and dear to them; Yuan convinced himself he had no time to waste on tears even after Botta was gone.
A19 - Wind
The wind on the top of the Fooji Mountains tore at Yuan's long hair, whipping stray strands about, giving Botta a strange wish to braid his superior's hair to stop the breeze from blowing it around in such a way.
A26 - Forever
For most people, "forever" was a figurative phrase - Yuan was, sadly, one of those to whom it was a harsh reality to see forever and be unable to affect the lives and, more importantly, lifespans of others as much as he would have liked.
A32 - Confusion
For someone who was otherwise so knowledgeable, Yuan sure often seemed to be confused about something so trivial as the everyday needs of his troops, for which Botta had more than once had to cover.
A33 - Fear
Once upon a time, Botta had had a mild fear of heights - nowadays it wasn't quite so mild, and he blamed Yuan's reckless behavior for it.
A39 - Smile
Yuan didn't smile much and Botta didn't show any emotions in general - when they happened to smile genuinely at each other for the first time, it was pure coincidence, but it was all right - after all, it was their secret.
A40 - Innocence
They were no poster boys for the boy scouts - there was nothing innocent in either of them, be it related to their military work or what was happening inside the walls of their bedrooms.
A48 - Waves
Yuan stood ankle-deep in the water in Altamira and stared out towards the horizon, breathing in rhythm with the waves, trying to fight off the nausea caused by the knowledge that this ocean water was now mixed with that of Sylvarant's… that of the ocean which had become his friend's grave.
B01 - Walking
No one seemed to believe it when Botta said he had seen Yuan walking on water; of course, he always failed to mention the seraph had been using his wings to not sink into the cold depths of the ocean.
B04 - Wonder
There were many wonders in the world, and Yuan was the source of several things Botta had been wondering about lately.
B05 - Worry
Yuan wasn't one to show his feelings, but he couldn't deny he sometimes worried when Botta went off on yet another crazy mission.
B06 - Whimsy
Yuan was a whimsy person and could change his mind in an instant, which made it difficult to deal with him, but Botta was so used to it he hardly paid any attention to it.
B13 - Bias
When Yuan had said he sometimes felt like Botta was the only Renegade who had half a brain on him, the younger half-elf had brushed the comment off by saying that Yuan was biased and that he wasn't giving the others a chance to prove themselves.
B14 - Burning
If there had been a flame of hatred and resentment towards Yggdrasill in Yuan's heart before, the intensity of that flame had become scorching after what happened at Rodyle's ranch.
B15 - Breathing
Not all Renegades knew Yuan was an angel; even Botta had been disturbed when he had first discovered that Yuan wasn't, in fact, breathing at all.
B22 - Quirks
Yuan wasn't the only one with quirks around the base, but Botta was subtle about his; Yuan derived endless, good-humored amusement from discovering the more personal side of his second-in-command.
B26 - Jump
Yuan knew it was time to lay off the Renegades' access to alcohol after one decidedly drunken officer had come to him at a celebration to ask whether Botta had yet "jumped his bones", as he so eloquently said.
B27 - Jester
It was a ridiculous idea passed out by the Renegades' very own jester, a man with a tongue even more acerbic than Yuan's, and it was a given that no one would have taken it seriously if the subjects, the very leaders of the organization, hadn't practically pleaded guilty with their behavior.
B29 - Jewel
Yuan's Cruxis Crystal was a relic of ages long past; when it had occurred to Botta that the soul trapped within that crystal had to be several millennia old and he had asked Yuan about it, the angel had become withdrawn and said that some things were better not thought about.
B39 - Share
In retrospect, Botta thought he should have expected something like it, but he hadn't really thought that Yuan would hog all the covers to himself when they were sharing a bed, even if he was asleep.
B44 - Near
It was common knowledge among the Renegades that Yuan didn't allow anyone to get too near; it wasn't all that surprising that word got out like wildfire when someone actually spotted Botta leaning over his superior's shoulder to point out something on a file Yuan was holding, much to the leaders' chagrin.
B47 - Valiant
Yuan had long ago deemed Botta one of the most valiant people he had come across in the several millennia he had lived, but sometimes he couldn't help wondering if the man had a suicidal streak for all the crazy stunts he pulled off from time to time.
D01 - Air
As the rapidly increasing water consumed the last pockets of air and the last semblance of hope of rescue was lost, the only thing Botta found himself regretting was that he wouldn't be able to tell Yuan of their success personally.
D05 - Coffee
Botta preferred coffee to tea; when Yuan had one early morning asked him why, he had - disheveled and still half-asleep - hardly been able to convey the thought that, well, Yuan wasn't the one who was seriously in need of a caffeine boost in the mornings … especially after such taxing nights.
D07 - Despair
Yuan had long fought the desire to give in to despair, but after what had happened at the Remote Island Human Ranch, he found it even harder to believe in future; he didn't understand the reasoning of his second-in-command that had led to such a tragedy.
D13 - Fall
They were trying to be discreet, but it didn't exactly help that they always seemed to cause something or other to fall over when things really got interesting.
D16 - Flying
Most children and even some adults longed to be able to fly once in their lives; Yuan didn't understand the appeal because to him it was nothing special - he was amused to note that even among the Renegades Botta was one of the few who shared his lack of enthusiasm for soaring the skies.
D26 - Lost
On the ground, Yuan had no sense of direction at all, so when he grudgingly admitted that they were lost while they were trekking through the forests surrounding Lake Umacy, Botta couldn't exactly say he was surprised.
D29 - Old
When Yuan had first asked Botta how old he thought he was, he had said that the answer he had been given - five hundred years - made him feel old; Botta had given him a decisively strange look after he had admitted he was much closer to being five thousand years old.
D36 - Secret
Yuan wasn't the only one with secrets in the base; Botta had one he had decided to keep to himself - it wouldn't have brought about anything good if he were to confess the feelings of attraction he had developed for his superior.
D44 - Taboo
It was very rare Yuan would talk about Martel more than in passing and it was a taboo topic, even among the two of them - for a good reason.
D45 - Ugly
There were times when Yuan wanted to keep his distance; Botta could appreciate his feelings when he caught sight of the fresh, ugly marks crisscrossing over Yuan's back once after the seraph had come back from Cruxis.
D49 - Winter
Botta rather liked the cold climate of the Flanoir region to Yuan's endless astonishment; it reminded him of the winters of his old hometown.
D50 - Wood
It was a good thing the desks of the highest-ranking Renegades were made of sturdy wood... otherwise, they would have collapsed a long time ago.
E01 - Motion
The wheels had been set in motion, but no one had expected to see so many of their own people crushed under them, much less that someone of such high standing among the Renegades would willingly jump in the fray to face certain death.
E04 - Last
This was it, Botta mused wearily as he tried to decode the mix of elven, angelic and common languages on the papers, this was the last time he would take written orders from Yuan before he had seen them to make sure he could actually understand half of them.
E08 - Thousand
Thousands of years' worth of suffering were bound to make one jaded; Botta realized this and accepted that he could never hope to completely mend Yuan's soul, but he was determined to try and ease his pain while he could.
E13 - Change
Yuan would claim he hadn't changed in centuries, but Botta knew that wasn't true - he had witnessed the gradual change in him first-hand.
E14 - Command
While they were on duty, the chain of command was crystal clear - off-duty each would have to earn the right to be on top.
E23 - Child
When Yuan had asked Botta whether it bothered him that he could never have a wife and children of his own, he had said he was glad to give both of those up for all the other families he could save from peril by working as a Renegade.
E24 - Now
They had learned to live in the moment a long time ago; it was a necessity in their line of work.
E25 - Shadow
There were some absurd legends about Yuan floating around the base; the one that stuck in Botta's mind most was the claim that Yuan had no shadow, and he felt somewhat stupid and distinctly relieved to realize it wasn't true.
E26 - Goodbye
Many close calls, many last-minute escapes… they had grown tired of saying goodbye every time they took on a mission, but it didn't ease Yuan's mind when he knew there had been no goodbye this final time.
E27 - Hide
Playing hide-and-seek didn't exactly seem like the sort of thing grown men would do, but sometimes Yuan deliberately seemed to try and find a place within either base where no one but Botta could think of to find him.
E40 - History
It was a strange and horrifying thing to learn about history from someone who had first-hand experience of the events described; even more so when the events concerned the end of the Kharlan War and the death of a loved one who later would become a worshipped entity.
E43 - God
She was no goddess, not the way the Church depicted her, but it was easy to understand why even Yuan would sometimes act like she was.