Original Post Date: August 30, 2009
My god, I post, like, weekly. Dude, what? I've tried to get myself to do that for years, but now that I'm just kind of dumping my fic off on the internet like so many badly-baked cakes on unsuspecting classmates, it just became a regular thing. Fuck. Wow. >.>
*Cracks knuckles* So. We'll start this week with some Shiki/Eri, and move onto Neku as a managaka artist.
Ready, steady, GO!
Warnings: Lesbians! Oh noez! (Spoilers for Shiki Week. Does anyone look for fic before finishing at least Week 1, anyway?)
Pairings: Shiki/Eri
Rating: PG? It could probably pass for G, actually.
Notes: Shiki's re-introduction to the RG? She heads straight for Eri.
Eri is confused when, after three solid weeks of not seeing Shiki (and when did that happen, she wonders, where did I find three weeks to waste away from Shiki?), she opens her mouth to apologize for that thing she said (three weeks, why didn't I just run over to Shiki's and apologize?), and instead gets a lap full of Shiki, and soft lips smothering her words before they have a chance to form.
Shiki is pressed flush against Eri from breasts to waists and she's kissing Eri like Eri's her third crush (he was the first one who liked her back, Eri remembers, because she had comforted Shiki after the first two), while her hands are locked on Eri's fashionable D+B vest like she'll never let go, and then suddenly, she does.
Shiki is crying, her iron grip loosened, and her face falling to Eri's shoulder, where she brokenly sobs. Eri awkwardly lifts her arms to fit around Shiki's slim hips (she'd always hated them, always complimented Eri on her hips, but Eri is kind of jealous, because at least regular pants fit Shiki's curves. Reason number one to be a designer? She can make her own clothes.), while she waits for Shiki to cry herself out.
"It's okay," Eri whispers into Shiki's ear. She runs a hand through Shiki's hair, marveling at how soft it feels, and feels her sobs begin to slow, punctuated by the occasional hiccup.
"I'm sorry," Shiki gasps. "I'm sorry, god, I just got you back, and I'm going to mess everything up, I'm so sorry, Eri!" She pulls away and tries to stand up.
Eri holds onto Shiki's wrist, though, and pulls her back down into a hug. It's slightly suggestive with the way Shiki is straddling her thighs, but she's willing to let it slide because it's Shiki.
"It's okay," Eri tells her. "I'm not going anywhere." Eri slowly kisses her forehead, her nose, each cheek, and her lips. "I'm right here, Shiki."
And in the back of Eri's mind somewhere is a part of her that wonders when she started liking girls. The rest of her counters this by asking when she has ever liked anyone as much as she likes Shiki.
Warnings: Crack. Look, someone else wondered about this, right? It's like the trendy-pin thing.
Pairings: Gen.
Rating: G. No one, just walk away.
Notes: So, the Shibuya trend rule? The mechanics of that still baffle me.
Back in the RG, Shiki quizzes Eri on all the trends she missed during the weeks she was unable to watch them herself.
She finds out that stuffed animals were in for about a week or so, replaced by really tricked-out phones as the cooler accessories the next week, and skateboards following that. Eri dutifully reports that over-sized headphones have stayed in-style the whole time Shiki has been away, and are in danger of being the Next Big Thing if they keep it up much longer.
She can't for the life of her figure out why Shiki is laughing so hard.
Warnings: Does this look familiar? (Spoilers for a certain char? Um, but not very clear.)
Pairings: Joshua/Neku
Rating: PG, language.
Notes: This is an expansion of that drabble from last week, CAT Power? Yeah. I thought I had written more than just those few sentences, and it turns out I totally had. This is honestly a much-improved version, but if anyone doesn't feel like repeating the theme and skips it, I totally understand. >.>
Neku waves enthusiastically, flailing and jumping and overall, acting like a total idiot when Joshua finally shows up for the weekly Hachiko meet.
"Happy to see me?" Joshua teases, smirking in the same infuriating fashion that Neku remembers all-too-well from their week together.
Neku grins. "Nah, Shiki's coming up behind you."
Joshua reaches out with his extra sense--it's weaker in the RG, but he can still hear Shiki's Song in the crowd behind him, far enough that Neku probably can't actually see her. "I'm wounded, Neku," Joshua tells him, playing along by clutching at his chest. "Wounded."
Neku smirks, then darts forward to plant a kiss on the corner of Joshua's mouth. "Yeah, I missed you, too, asshole," he grumbles.
"Oh?" Joshua says, smirking again, because it makes him look like he knows what's going on. "And what was that for, Neku, dear?"
Neku shrugs, then pauses for a moment to wave at Shiki for real. "It's this thing I've been working on lately, actually. My motto?" he offers. Joshua raises an eyebrow. "I'm trying to enjoy every moment with all I've got, and I've kind of wanted to do that since Day 7 of our Game." The last part comes out in a mumble, and Joshua doesn't miss the fact that Neku is suddenly finding the ground terribly exciting to look at.
"You aren't deterred by our little showdown?" Joshua asks.
Neku waves it off. "Well, bleeding out on concrete again really sucked, but it has been a while, and I saw Sota and Nao walking down the street, they're doing great, by the way, so I am kinda working toward maybe not hating you for everything as much."
"Mm, I'm glad," Joshua tells him, taking a spot next to Neku as Shiki approaches.
Warnings: Post-game, so Spoilers?
Pairings: Gen?
Rating: PG, language.
Notes: So, I decided to do a fic where everyone doesn't remember (it seems the more likely course for Joshua to take, after all), but Neku's a persistent asshole, so he does.
Barely a month after the Game ends, no one but Neku remembers anything. It surprises Mr. H, but Neku is just glad that he still has someone to talk to. He trusts Joshua enough, but he makes for terrible conversation, and Neku still hasn't seen him since the Game ended, anyway.
Neku sits down at a table in the corner of the Wildkat Café on the morning of Day 30 of his shiny new life (it isn't that he's been counting, exactly, but it is surprisingly difficult to forget the day he came back from the dead), and orders an over-priced coffee.
He has a sketchpad under one arm, and two pencils in his pockets. He trusts the quiet, smooth atmosphere of the café to do the rest.
Neku starts with a quick sketch of two people. They are Players, he decides. Their lives begin to fold out in his mind as he fills in the lines, making them individuals.
The girl is strong, confident, and athletic. He's got her decked out in the best Wild Boar gear for fighting Noise before he realizes what he's really doing. Neku erases her hair, shortening it to a more practical length. He writes "Tsubame" under her outline.
The other Player is a boy, quick and smart. Snarky, Neku thinks. He gives the kid a bit of Dragon Couture and a watch from Pegaso.
Neku has the first few pages roughly outlined before he leaves at closing time.
He makes a habit of coming to the café and working on what is quickly working its way up to being a proper manga, on days he's not hanging out with Beat and Rhyme or Shiki and sometime Eri. Their memories are re-written to trivialize their three weeks in Hell, and it makes Neku's stomach roil every time one of them mentions an event that happened at "that summer camp thing," where they apparently all met and became best friends.
Of course, being around Mr. H so much, it was inevitable that Neku would run into Joshua eventually.
Neku wants to kill him, wants to hold on and cry, wants to tell him he's a fucking asshole for disappearing for so long, but Neku could have visited. Instead, Neku nods and waves politely, and returns to sketching out Day 3 of Tsubame and Yuki's adventures in the Game.
Joshua talks with Mr. H in low tones about something. Neku doesn't even try to listen. When they finish, Joshua comes to sit beside Neku, watching the speech and details form on the page.
"No one else remembers, anyway," Neku says, feeling that he has to explain himself.
"You're not supposed to," Joshua admits.
Neku feels the world stop turning. He drops his pencil. "You're not--"
"Let's just say I forgot," Joshua replies, cutting Neku off soon enough to maintain a certain level of plausible deniability about the contents of the rest of the sentence.
Neku breathes. He hadn't realized that he had begun to hold his breath. "So, I can kind of see the appeal of the Game," he says after a moment, picking his pencil up again, and attacking a blank corner of the page.
"The thrill of life-or-death against this?" He gestures in the general direction of the rest of the café with his free hand. "There's no contest." Then, for Mr. H's benefit, he adds, "No offense to the café, of course."
Mr. H shrugs and brings Neku another coffee. They are all free after the first three, ever since Neku's continued presence began to attract the occasional customer or two.
"I can also feel the appeal of the mundane life," Neku continues, so Joshua doesn't get any funny ideas about guns and his head. Again.
Joshua sighs. "And I thought I had made some real progress with you."
Neku rolls his eyes, but he can feel the urge to smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Have you considered joining us at Hachiko?" he says after a moment. His hand darts to the other side of the page to fill in some shading around a Noise attacking Yuki.
"What would be the point?" Joshua watches Neku's fingers flit across the page. The side of his hand was picking up a bit of a silver sheen from the graphite on the page.
Neku shrugs. "What else do you do with your life? Composing can't take all of your time. Having friends won't kill you, I mean, look at me."
Joshua smirks. "As I recall--"
"Okay, it got me Erased. Once. And whose fault was that?"
Joshua openly laughs at that. "Bitter, are we, Neku?" he replies, sarcasm positively dripping from his voice.
Neku opens his mouth to protest angrily, then he stops and takes a deep breath. "Bullets hurt," he says instead.
Joshua watches him sketch for a few more moments. Then, he stands to leave. On his way out, he says, "I suppose I could try to see the appeal of the mundane life." It's as good as a promise that he will be at Hachiko on Monday. Neku smiles to himself, and can't stop even when his pencil breaks and he has to go home because he can't find the other one.
(A/N: And, of course, Joshua has the other pencil, and will give it to Neku next time Neku enters the UG. It's an accessory with +1337 to every stat. Obviously. Silly Neku, running around with that in the RG where there are no Noise to fight.)
Warnings: Spoilers for week two, on the way to Pork City.
Pairings: Sota/Nao
Rating: G
Notes: Tattoo parlor 'verse. The whole retaining memories thing? That only applies to Neku&co. Sota and Nao are not a part of that.
The bell chimed. A customer, Neku thought. He peeked around the thin partition separating the back and the front of the store to find Sota waiting by the counter, looking threatening. It was Beat and Rhyme's day off, so Neku would have to handle everything himself.
"Oh, hey. Small world," Neku said, by way of greeting.
Sota raised an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"
Neku shrugged. "Dunno. I thought you looked familiar, but I could be wrong. So, what do you need?"
"I want my girlfriend's name on my bicep," Sota replied. "Her birthday is today, and I wanted something special."
Neku hesitated. "I don't usually do names," Sota's face seemed to convey that this was not the first time he had heard that, "but come on," Neku finished.He waved Sota to the back room.
"Not gonna try and stop me?" Sota challenged, grinning. "I got turned away at the last shop."
Neku shrugged again, smiling. "Yeah, well, that's how it goes. I can see it in your eyes. Nao, right?"
Sota nodded. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Like this, but better."
Neku unfolded it, finding a half-drawn dove Noise. "Huh," he said. He had seen it flutter away from Sota as he was Erased by the Taboo Noise. Sota had become a new kind of corehog, and followed. Neku flipped through his sketchbook until he found the page where he had drawn Sota's and Nao's Noise forms from memory.
"Somethin' like this?" Neku offered, holding up the page.
"Yeah!" Sota exclaimed. "Like that."
"Okay, and then 'Nao...'" Neku sketched Nao's name into the wing, breaking lines here and there until one wing was made of slightly-distorted letters. "This work?"
"Yeah, definitely! Thanks, man," Sota told him sincerely.
"No problem," Neku replied.
---
Later, when Sota recounted the tale for Nao's benefit, he realized that he had never actually told Neku her name.
*Cracks knuckles* So. We'll start this week with some Shiki/Eri, and move onto Neku as a managaka artist.
Ready, steady, GO!
Warnings: Lesbians! Oh noez! (Spoilers for Shiki Week. Does anyone look for fic before finishing at least Week 1, anyway?)
Pairings: Shiki/Eri
Rating: PG? It could probably pass for G, actually.
Notes: Shiki's re-introduction to the RG? She heads straight for Eri.
Eri is confused when, after three solid weeks of not seeing Shiki (and when did that happen, she wonders, where did I find three weeks to waste away from Shiki?), she opens her mouth to apologize for that thing she said (three weeks, why didn't I just run over to Shiki's and apologize?), and instead gets a lap full of Shiki, and soft lips smothering her words before they have a chance to form.
Shiki is pressed flush against Eri from breasts to waists and she's kissing Eri like Eri's her third crush (he was the first one who liked her back, Eri remembers, because she had comforted Shiki after the first two), while her hands are locked on Eri's fashionable D+B vest like she'll never let go, and then suddenly, she does.
Shiki is crying, her iron grip loosened, and her face falling to Eri's shoulder, where she brokenly sobs. Eri awkwardly lifts her arms to fit around Shiki's slim hips (she'd always hated them, always complimented Eri on her hips, but Eri is kind of jealous, because at least regular pants fit Shiki's curves. Reason number one to be a designer? She can make her own clothes.), while she waits for Shiki to cry herself out.
"It's okay," Eri whispers into Shiki's ear. She runs a hand through Shiki's hair, marveling at how soft it feels, and feels her sobs begin to slow, punctuated by the occasional hiccup.
"I'm sorry," Shiki gasps. "I'm sorry, god, I just got you back, and I'm going to mess everything up, I'm so sorry, Eri!" She pulls away and tries to stand up.
Eri holds onto Shiki's wrist, though, and pulls her back down into a hug. It's slightly suggestive with the way Shiki is straddling her thighs, but she's willing to let it slide because it's Shiki.
"It's okay," Eri tells her. "I'm not going anywhere." Eri slowly kisses her forehead, her nose, each cheek, and her lips. "I'm right here, Shiki."
And in the back of Eri's mind somewhere is a part of her that wonders when she started liking girls. The rest of her counters this by asking when she has ever liked anyone as much as she likes Shiki.
Warnings: Crack. Look, someone else wondered about this, right? It's like the trendy-pin thing.
Pairings: Gen.
Rating: G. No one, just walk away.
Notes: So, the Shibuya trend rule? The mechanics of that still baffle me.
Back in the RG, Shiki quizzes Eri on all the trends she missed during the weeks she was unable to watch them herself.
She finds out that stuffed animals were in for about a week or so, replaced by really tricked-out phones as the cooler accessories the next week, and skateboards following that. Eri dutifully reports that over-sized headphones have stayed in-style the whole time Shiki has been away, and are in danger of being the Next Big Thing if they keep it up much longer.
She can't for the life of her figure out why Shiki is laughing so hard.
Warnings: Does this look familiar? (Spoilers for a certain char? Um, but not very clear.)
Pairings: Joshua/Neku
Rating: PG, language.
Notes: This is an expansion of that drabble from last week, CAT Power? Yeah. I thought I had written more than just those few sentences, and it turns out I totally had. This is honestly a much-improved version, but if anyone doesn't feel like repeating the theme and skips it, I totally understand. >.>
Neku waves enthusiastically, flailing and jumping and overall, acting like a total idiot when Joshua finally shows up for the weekly Hachiko meet.
"Happy to see me?" Joshua teases, smirking in the same infuriating fashion that Neku remembers all-too-well from their week together.
Neku grins. "Nah, Shiki's coming up behind you."
Joshua reaches out with his extra sense--it's weaker in the RG, but he can still hear Shiki's Song in the crowd behind him, far enough that Neku probably can't actually see her. "I'm wounded, Neku," Joshua tells him, playing along by clutching at his chest. "Wounded."
Neku smirks, then darts forward to plant a kiss on the corner of Joshua's mouth. "Yeah, I missed you, too, asshole," he grumbles.
"Oh?" Joshua says, smirking again, because it makes him look like he knows what's going on. "And what was that for, Neku, dear?"
Neku shrugs, then pauses for a moment to wave at Shiki for real. "It's this thing I've been working on lately, actually. My motto?" he offers. Joshua raises an eyebrow. "I'm trying to enjoy every moment with all I've got, and I've kind of wanted to do that since Day 7 of our Game." The last part comes out in a mumble, and Joshua doesn't miss the fact that Neku is suddenly finding the ground terribly exciting to look at.
"You aren't deterred by our little showdown?" Joshua asks.
Neku waves it off. "Well, bleeding out on concrete again really sucked, but it has been a while, and I saw Sota and Nao walking down the street, they're doing great, by the way, so I am kinda working toward maybe not hating you for everything as much."
"Mm, I'm glad," Joshua tells him, taking a spot next to Neku as Shiki approaches.
Warnings: Post-game, so Spoilers?
Pairings: Gen?
Rating: PG, language.
Notes: So, I decided to do a fic where everyone doesn't remember (it seems the more likely course for Joshua to take, after all), but Neku's a persistent asshole, so he does.
Barely a month after the Game ends, no one but Neku remembers anything. It surprises Mr. H, but Neku is just glad that he still has someone to talk to. He trusts Joshua enough, but he makes for terrible conversation, and Neku still hasn't seen him since the Game ended, anyway.
Neku sits down at a table in the corner of the Wildkat Café on the morning of Day 30 of his shiny new life (it isn't that he's been counting, exactly, but it is surprisingly difficult to forget the day he came back from the dead), and orders an over-priced coffee.
He has a sketchpad under one arm, and two pencils in his pockets. He trusts the quiet, smooth atmosphere of the café to do the rest.
Neku starts with a quick sketch of two people. They are Players, he decides. Their lives begin to fold out in his mind as he fills in the lines, making them individuals.
The girl is strong, confident, and athletic. He's got her decked out in the best Wild Boar gear for fighting Noise before he realizes what he's really doing. Neku erases her hair, shortening it to a more practical length. He writes "Tsubame" under her outline.
The other Player is a boy, quick and smart. Snarky, Neku thinks. He gives the kid a bit of Dragon Couture and a watch from Pegaso.
Neku has the first few pages roughly outlined before he leaves at closing time.
He makes a habit of coming to the café and working on what is quickly working its way up to being a proper manga, on days he's not hanging out with Beat and Rhyme or Shiki and sometime Eri. Their memories are re-written to trivialize their three weeks in Hell, and it makes Neku's stomach roil every time one of them mentions an event that happened at "that summer camp thing," where they apparently all met and became best friends.
Of course, being around Mr. H so much, it was inevitable that Neku would run into Joshua eventually.
Neku wants to kill him, wants to hold on and cry, wants to tell him he's a fucking asshole for disappearing for so long, but Neku could have visited. Instead, Neku nods and waves politely, and returns to sketching out Day 3 of Tsubame and Yuki's adventures in the Game.
Joshua talks with Mr. H in low tones about something. Neku doesn't even try to listen. When they finish, Joshua comes to sit beside Neku, watching the speech and details form on the page.
"No one else remembers, anyway," Neku says, feeling that he has to explain himself.
"You're not supposed to," Joshua admits.
Neku feels the world stop turning. He drops his pencil. "You're not--"
"Let's just say I forgot," Joshua replies, cutting Neku off soon enough to maintain a certain level of plausible deniability about the contents of the rest of the sentence.
Neku breathes. He hadn't realized that he had begun to hold his breath. "So, I can kind of see the appeal of the Game," he says after a moment, picking his pencil up again, and attacking a blank corner of the page.
"The thrill of life-or-death against this?" He gestures in the general direction of the rest of the café with his free hand. "There's no contest." Then, for Mr. H's benefit, he adds, "No offense to the café, of course."
Mr. H shrugs and brings Neku another coffee. They are all free after the first three, ever since Neku's continued presence began to attract the occasional customer or two.
"I can also feel the appeal of the mundane life," Neku continues, so Joshua doesn't get any funny ideas about guns and his head. Again.
Joshua sighs. "And I thought I had made some real progress with you."
Neku rolls his eyes, but he can feel the urge to smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Have you considered joining us at Hachiko?" he says after a moment. His hand darts to the other side of the page to fill in some shading around a Noise attacking Yuki.
"What would be the point?" Joshua watches Neku's fingers flit across the page. The side of his hand was picking up a bit of a silver sheen from the graphite on the page.
Neku shrugs. "What else do you do with your life? Composing can't take all of your time. Having friends won't kill you, I mean, look at me."
Joshua smirks. "As I recall--"
"Okay, it got me Erased. Once. And whose fault was that?"
Joshua openly laughs at that. "Bitter, are we, Neku?" he replies, sarcasm positively dripping from his voice.
Neku opens his mouth to protest angrily, then he stops and takes a deep breath. "Bullets hurt," he says instead.
Joshua watches him sketch for a few more moments. Then, he stands to leave. On his way out, he says, "I suppose I could try to see the appeal of the mundane life." It's as good as a promise that he will be at Hachiko on Monday. Neku smiles to himself, and can't stop even when his pencil breaks and he has to go home because he can't find the other one.
(A/N: And, of course, Joshua has the other pencil, and will give it to Neku next time Neku enters the UG. It's an accessory with +1337 to every stat. Obviously. Silly Neku, running around with that in the RG where there are no Noise to fight.)
Warnings: Spoilers for week two, on the way to Pork City.
Pairings: Sota/Nao
Rating: G
Notes: Tattoo parlor 'verse. The whole retaining memories thing? That only applies to Neku&co. Sota and Nao are not a part of that.
The bell chimed. A customer, Neku thought. He peeked around the thin partition separating the back and the front of the store to find Sota waiting by the counter, looking threatening. It was Beat and Rhyme's day off, so Neku would have to handle everything himself.
"Oh, hey. Small world," Neku said, by way of greeting.
Sota raised an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"
Neku shrugged. "Dunno. I thought you looked familiar, but I could be wrong. So, what do you need?"
"I want my girlfriend's name on my bicep," Sota replied. "Her birthday is today, and I wanted something special."
Neku hesitated. "I don't usually do names," Sota's face seemed to convey that this was not the first time he had heard that, "but come on," Neku finished.He waved Sota to the back room.
"Not gonna try and stop me?" Sota challenged, grinning. "I got turned away at the last shop."
Neku shrugged again, smiling. "Yeah, well, that's how it goes. I can see it in your eyes. Nao, right?"
Sota nodded. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Like this, but better."
Neku unfolded it, finding a half-drawn dove Noise. "Huh," he said. He had seen it flutter away from Sota as he was Erased by the Taboo Noise. Sota had become a new kind of corehog, and followed. Neku flipped through his sketchbook until he found the page where he had drawn Sota's and Nao's Noise forms from memory.
"Somethin' like this?" Neku offered, holding up the page.
"Yeah!" Sota exclaimed. "Like that."
"Okay, and then 'Nao...'" Neku sketched Nao's name into the wing, breaking lines here and there until one wing was made of slightly-distorted letters. "This work?"
"Yeah, definitely! Thanks, man," Sota told him sincerely.
"No problem," Neku replied.
---
Later, when Sota recounted the tale for Nao's benefit, he realized that he had never actually told Neku her name.