[Fic] We Looked Like Giants, Fubuki/Hishigi, PG
Title: We Looked Like Giants
Author: xskadi
Pairing: Fubuki/Hishigi(/Hitoki)
Rating: PG
Summary: She is dead. They are alive. They are trying very, very hard to stay that way.
Notes: The idea for this fic has been bouncing around in my head for ages, but tnarcheska's fic, Damaged People influenced it liek wo. Except where it didn't. (Because Fubuki and Hishigi had to have been stupid, horny teenagers at some point.)
I.
You are a man of science.
You have explanations for everything-you can tell why streams don't run uphill, where mountains come from, why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. You know how clouds are made, the names of every bone in the body, and formulas that won't be written for hundreds of years the West.
You know that it isn't physically possible for the blood making its way to your extremities to suddenly lose its way and pool in your head.
But there isn't a law to explain why it feels like it when Fubuki kisses you.
II.
When Hishigi loved someone, he loved them in his own, quiet way. He wasn't one for grand declarations of love; he wouldn't proclaim his feelings from the tops of the mountains-he was more practical than that. Doing such a thing would just cause an avalanche.
Hishigi loved both Fubuki and Hitoki, but he did it quietly.
For Hitoki, he once slaved for months and months to come up with a hybrid of her two favourite flowers-cosmos and roses. The result was a stunted bush that produced hideous, sweet-smelling flowers. Hitoki threw her arms around him and kissed him on both cheeks when he presented it to her. She was the kind of person who could see beauty in anything, even in a mutant plant. Muramasa smiled one of his smiles where he was making a joke in his head, and Fubuki cocked an eyebrow at his wife's open display of affection for someone-who-was-not-him, but Hishigi caught him watering the plant one night while Hitoki slept.
For Fubuki, Hishigi would read.
This was a small thing (he sometimes felt like he was cheating), but it was also a big thing. Fubuki was so busy, and it meant a lot to him that he could sit somewhere quiet with someone quiet and do quiet things-like reading.
He loved both of them.
III.
You are grieving as much as he is, if not more, but you're better at bottling your feelings up. However, when you're done grieving, you're going to wish that you'd taken up Shihoudou on her challenge to make the perfect hangover remedy. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll lock yourself in your lab for days, going over your notes and trying to figure out what the fuck you did wrong, agonising over whether you should have a different course of treatment, remembering the thinness of Hitoki's wrists in her last days and the sad smile that said, I know I'm going to die-I can taste my last breath, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Muramasa took Tokito away to explain in simple terms what happened to her mother. If you listen hard enough, you can almost hear her wailing, but you'll worry about her later.
For now, you'll simply watch over Fubuki as he kneels before where the pile of dust is now his beloved wife. He's been there for the better part of the day, and you're starting to worry.
He's starting to turn around.
IV.
"This is the world," Hishigi said, spreading a map on the table before Tokito. This required quite a bit of manoeuvring, as she was comfortably-for her-situated on his lap.
The little girl frowned. "That's not right. How can the world be on a piece of paper?"
He laughed. "It's like a picture of the world. Everything in the world is drawn on here."
"Oh! So where are we?"
Hishigi pointed to Japan on the map. "There."
She frowned and shook her head. "No, I mean, where are we?"
V.
"Do you remember, Hishigi?" he asks, looking and sounding desperate. "The time when we were young, when you and Hitoki and I… and you had to knock both of us out because we were getting too enthusiastic? When Muramasa found the three of us all curled up together, he almost killed us for compromising his precious sister's virtue, even though we were all fully clothed…"
VI.
This was an uncomfortable situation.
Both Fubuki and Hishigi had moved in to kiss Hitoki on the cheek at the same time, but she pulled away. Naturally, both of them expected that she would stay still for them, so they both closed their eyes.
The result was that their lips met in a painful mash of teeth and foreheads.
Yes, it was very uncomfortable.
It wasn't that they were both courting her, because Hishigi was married to his work and his work alone (but maybe he thought of green-gold hair while he was writing up lab reports and of a certain someone's kind, gentle smile as he took notes on his teacher's lecture), and Muramasa, with a suggestive wink, had already granted Fubuki permission to marry Hitoki. It was uncomfortable because Hitoki started giggling like the teenager she was, grabbed both of them by the arm and dragged them into her house, say that her brother was out discussing swords or something like that with Julian, "and maybe Fubuki-kun and Hishigi-kun could kiss a little more?"
"All right," Fubuki said, and shot Hishigi a look that said, Let's indulge her, just this once. Hishigi, knowing that it would be impossible for either of them to deny Hitoki anything, went along with it.
Fortunately, it got decidedly less uncomfortable when she decided to join in.
VII.
You know that it isn't physically possible for the blood making its way to your extremities to suddenly lose its way and pool in your head when Fubuki kisses you, but it certainly feels like it has.
As forcefully as you dare, you pull away, put your hands firmly on his shoulders, and look straight into Fubuki's eyes. "I don't recall any such acts of intimacy," you say, "sir." The formality comes out coppery and sour on your tongue, but you continue, "And if I were inclined to engage in such acts, I would not do them right here."
Fubuki looks ashamed of himself and turns away from you. "Your objections are duly noted, Hishigi; you are dismissed." He's throwing your stiffness right back at you, and there's something comforting in his severity. It's far, far better than seeing him on the edge of breaking under the strain of… everything.
As you leave the room you realise that it's not the formality you taste.
It's blood.
Author: xskadi
Pairing: Fubuki/Hishigi(/Hitoki)
Rating: PG
Summary: She is dead. They are alive. They are trying very, very hard to stay that way.
Notes: The idea for this fic has been bouncing around in my head for ages, but tnarcheska's fic, Damaged People influenced it liek wo. Except where it didn't. (Because Fubuki and Hishigi had to have been stupid, horny teenagers at some point.)
I.
You are a man of science.
You have explanations for everything-you can tell why streams don't run uphill, where mountains come from, why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. You know how clouds are made, the names of every bone in the body, and formulas that won't be written for hundreds of years the West.
You know that it isn't physically possible for the blood making its way to your extremities to suddenly lose its way and pool in your head.
But there isn't a law to explain why it feels like it when Fubuki kisses you.
II.
When Hishigi loved someone, he loved them in his own, quiet way. He wasn't one for grand declarations of love; he wouldn't proclaim his feelings from the tops of the mountains-he was more practical than that. Doing such a thing would just cause an avalanche.
Hishigi loved both Fubuki and Hitoki, but he did it quietly.
For Hitoki, he once slaved for months and months to come up with a hybrid of her two favourite flowers-cosmos and roses. The result was a stunted bush that produced hideous, sweet-smelling flowers. Hitoki threw her arms around him and kissed him on both cheeks when he presented it to her. She was the kind of person who could see beauty in anything, even in a mutant plant. Muramasa smiled one of his smiles where he was making a joke in his head, and Fubuki cocked an eyebrow at his wife's open display of affection for someone-who-was-not-him, but Hishigi caught him watering the plant one night while Hitoki slept.
For Fubuki, Hishigi would read.
This was a small thing (he sometimes felt like he was cheating), but it was also a big thing. Fubuki was so busy, and it meant a lot to him that he could sit somewhere quiet with someone quiet and do quiet things-like reading.
He loved both of them.
III.
You are grieving as much as he is, if not more, but you're better at bottling your feelings up. However, when you're done grieving, you're going to wish that you'd taken up Shihoudou on her challenge to make the perfect hangover remedy. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll lock yourself in your lab for days, going over your notes and trying to figure out what the fuck you did wrong, agonising over whether you should have a different course of treatment, remembering the thinness of Hitoki's wrists in her last days and the sad smile that said, I know I'm going to die-I can taste my last breath, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Muramasa took Tokito away to explain in simple terms what happened to her mother. If you listen hard enough, you can almost hear her wailing, but you'll worry about her later.
For now, you'll simply watch over Fubuki as he kneels before where the pile of dust is now his beloved wife. He's been there for the better part of the day, and you're starting to worry.
He's starting to turn around.
IV.
"This is the world," Hishigi said, spreading a map on the table before Tokito. This required quite a bit of manoeuvring, as she was comfortably-for her-situated on his lap.
The little girl frowned. "That's not right. How can the world be on a piece of paper?"
He laughed. "It's like a picture of the world. Everything in the world is drawn on here."
"Oh! So where are we?"
Hishigi pointed to Japan on the map. "There."
She frowned and shook her head. "No, I mean, where are we?"
V.
"Do you remember, Hishigi?" he asks, looking and sounding desperate. "The time when we were young, when you and Hitoki and I… and you had to knock both of us out because we were getting too enthusiastic? When Muramasa found the three of us all curled up together, he almost killed us for compromising his precious sister's virtue, even though we were all fully clothed…"
VI.
This was an uncomfortable situation.
Both Fubuki and Hishigi had moved in to kiss Hitoki on the cheek at the same time, but she pulled away. Naturally, both of them expected that she would stay still for them, so they both closed their eyes.
The result was that their lips met in a painful mash of teeth and foreheads.
Yes, it was very uncomfortable.
It wasn't that they were both courting her, because Hishigi was married to his work and his work alone (but maybe he thought of green-gold hair while he was writing up lab reports and of a certain someone's kind, gentle smile as he took notes on his teacher's lecture), and Muramasa, with a suggestive wink, had already granted Fubuki permission to marry Hitoki. It was uncomfortable because Hitoki started giggling like the teenager she was, grabbed both of them by the arm and dragged them into her house, say that her brother was out discussing swords or something like that with Julian, "and maybe Fubuki-kun and Hishigi-kun could kiss a little more?"
"All right," Fubuki said, and shot Hishigi a look that said, Let's indulge her, just this once. Hishigi, knowing that it would be impossible for either of them to deny Hitoki anything, went along with it.
Fortunately, it got decidedly less uncomfortable when she decided to join in.
VII.
You know that it isn't physically possible for the blood making its way to your extremities to suddenly lose its way and pool in your head when Fubuki kisses you, but it certainly feels like it has.
As forcefully as you dare, you pull away, put your hands firmly on his shoulders, and look straight into Fubuki's eyes. "I don't recall any such acts of intimacy," you say, "sir." The formality comes out coppery and sour on your tongue, but you continue, "And if I were inclined to engage in such acts, I would not do them right here."
Fubuki looks ashamed of himself and turns away from you. "Your objections are duly noted, Hishigi; you are dismissed." He's throwing your stiffness right back at you, and there's something comforting in his severity. It's far, far better than seeing him on the edge of breaking under the strain of… everything.
As you leave the room you realise that it's not the formality you taste.
It's blood.