[✐ fanfic challenge] ygo_rare_pair: help my indecision
Below are three very short oneshots (almost drabbles, really) I’ve sort of slapdashedly written for the ygo_rare_pair contest this month for pairings starting with the letter “G”. I don’t know which to enter, though. Thoughts? (Since they’re all done, I’ll post all of them - I just don’t think I’m allowed/would want to post three fics at a time in a contest.)
I’ll post them all later to ff.net, too. Right now I don’t have access to anywhere I can save them in a document for uploading.
GEMINISHIPPING
(yami no bakura/thief king bakura)
“It’s your own fault, you fool,” the spirit said almost sadly as he watched the thief’s fingers crumble slowly to dust. “Your fault, and the fate that dictated this would happen again.”
The thief, crying in terror, couldn’t hear him. The spirit hovered above his hunched form, arms crossed, master of the game yet forced to sacrifice a pawn. It’d been expected, of course. He’d needed his thief up to this point and now the plan required his involvement no longer. Still, the thief had failed, destined or not. He required punishing.
All this the spirit knew, yet he’d been dogging this thief’s steps since discovering him the key figure on his side of the field, fascinated and more than a little bit proud. So this might be who he had been, years ago....? He still couldn’t be sure, couldn’t know for certain if any of himself had ever belonged to this arrogant, wild, defiant man who’d dared stride into a throne room and declare himself a king. He thought he saw a little of himself in the tilt of the thief’s head, every now and then; in the sly smirk that crept across his face, insanity slicing his expression in two; in the way he laughed in the face of adversity and knew himself strong enough for the task. But the thief wasn’t laughing now.
The spirit wasn’t, either.
“Was it my family who died too?” he asked, wondering whether it mattered - the answer to that question, at least, was “no” - and the thief gave no alternate reply. “Is my revenge yours, or do I just destroy because destruction is what I am?”
The thief was too busy watching his stomach dissolve, so the spirit shrugged, swept in low. Just another sacrifice, and he’d know everything soon enough. Once the god, the god he knew himself to be, returned, there’d be no more of this ridiculous softness over identity. They’d had a good run, this thief and he. But they couldn’t fight fate.
“And yet, what is this whole game but me trying just that?” the spirit murmured, now face-to-face with the screaming thief. “I’ve inherited a piece of your soul after all, it seems.”
Smirking wryly, the spirit leaned in to brush his mouth against the man’s he once had been - and who had once been his.
But by then the thief’s lips had turned to sand, as well.
GLITTERSHIPPING
(mazaki anzu/kisara)
“No way,” Anzu said, round-eyed, as the girl beside her gracefully spun and stepped, eyes glued to the unfamiliar screen and the glowing colors swirling within. Behind her, Anzu could hear catcalls and jeers, could hear her own side of the display plonking her missed steps - “stop oglin’ and dance, missy!” - somebody yelled...
Anzu’s face set. Oh, it was on. She didn’t volunteer to show the girl around the modern world only to be one-upped at what she did best!
Shoulders back, she turned, ignored the pale Egyptian girl beside her. The best competitions were the ones you played against yourself, and Mazaki Anzu needed to bring out her best game today. Anzu launched herself back into the game with a determined pose, eyes glued to the screen, feet springing across the colored pad as decisively as Kisara’s brushed it lightly. So this girl thought she could just waltz into Anzu’s life and show her up at a dancing game on her first time playing? Well, she had another thought coming, because only one person had ever beaten Yuugi Mutou in any game in years and that was this young lady here, on this very machine -- (“My legs are too short, Anzu-chan!”) --
--she was just checking up on the opposition, Anzu told herself, as she peered back over at Kisara, breaking her vow to compete against just herself. Nothing more. But she couldn’t help but notice the other girl already had a dancer’s legs, toned from running, slender and strong.
The observation cost her the match.
GENTLESHIPPING
(valon/kawai shizuka)
“Please tell me this ain’t just because I remind you of your brother,” says Valon as he pulls up outside Shizuka’s apartment. She giggles and shakes her head, tugging the motorcycle helmet off her head and handing it back to its owner.
“It helps,” she admits with a cheeky little smile. “But you’re yourself, Valon-kun. That’s what’s most important. You’re not afraid of being exactly who you are.”
The warm sincerity strikes Valon by surprise; he colors, then catches himself and grins twice as widely. “Well, I usually go for prouder women,” he admits with equal cheek. “But you ain’t so bad the way you are, either.”
Shizuka giggles again, and is about to reply, but the apartment door opens and her brother comes rushing out, fist at the ready for clubbing Valon a good one in the face. Expecting it, Valon blocks, swings in almost casually for a counterstrike to the stomach. Jounouchi chokes.
“Brother, not again,” Shizuka sighs, wondering where her brother is getting all this transportation fare - or the time to keep checking up on her. Just once, she’d like a date to end a little bit differently.
I’ll post them all later to ff.net, too. Right now I don’t have access to anywhere I can save them in a document for uploading.
GEMINISHIPPING
(yami no bakura/thief king bakura)
“It’s your own fault, you fool,” the spirit said almost sadly as he watched the thief’s fingers crumble slowly to dust. “Your fault, and the fate that dictated this would happen again.”
The thief, crying in terror, couldn’t hear him. The spirit hovered above his hunched form, arms crossed, master of the game yet forced to sacrifice a pawn. It’d been expected, of course. He’d needed his thief up to this point and now the plan required his involvement no longer. Still, the thief had failed, destined or not. He required punishing.
All this the spirit knew, yet he’d been dogging this thief’s steps since discovering him the key figure on his side of the field, fascinated and more than a little bit proud. So this might be who he had been, years ago....? He still couldn’t be sure, couldn’t know for certain if any of himself had ever belonged to this arrogant, wild, defiant man who’d dared stride into a throne room and declare himself a king. He thought he saw a little of himself in the tilt of the thief’s head, every now and then; in the sly smirk that crept across his face, insanity slicing his expression in two; in the way he laughed in the face of adversity and knew himself strong enough for the task. But the thief wasn’t laughing now.
The spirit wasn’t, either.
“Was it my family who died too?” he asked, wondering whether it mattered - the answer to that question, at least, was “no” - and the thief gave no alternate reply. “Is my revenge yours, or do I just destroy because destruction is what I am?”
The thief was too busy watching his stomach dissolve, so the spirit shrugged, swept in low. Just another sacrifice, and he’d know everything soon enough. Once the god, the god he knew himself to be, returned, there’d be no more of this ridiculous softness over identity. They’d had a good run, this thief and he. But they couldn’t fight fate.
“And yet, what is this whole game but me trying just that?” the spirit murmured, now face-to-face with the screaming thief. “I’ve inherited a piece of your soul after all, it seems.”
Smirking wryly, the spirit leaned in to brush his mouth against the man’s he once had been - and who had once been his.
But by then the thief’s lips had turned to sand, as well.
GLITTERSHIPPING
(mazaki anzu/kisara)
“No way,” Anzu said, round-eyed, as the girl beside her gracefully spun and stepped, eyes glued to the unfamiliar screen and the glowing colors swirling within. Behind her, Anzu could hear catcalls and jeers, could hear her own side of the display plonking her missed steps - “stop oglin’ and dance, missy!” - somebody yelled...
Anzu’s face set. Oh, it was on. She didn’t volunteer to show the girl around the modern world only to be one-upped at what she did best!
Shoulders back, she turned, ignored the pale Egyptian girl beside her. The best competitions were the ones you played against yourself, and Mazaki Anzu needed to bring out her best game today. Anzu launched herself back into the game with a determined pose, eyes glued to the screen, feet springing across the colored pad as decisively as Kisara’s brushed it lightly. So this girl thought she could just waltz into Anzu’s life and show her up at a dancing game on her first time playing? Well, she had another thought coming, because only one person had ever beaten Yuugi Mutou in any game in years and that was this young lady here, on this very machine -- (“My legs are too short, Anzu-chan!”) --
--she was just checking up on the opposition, Anzu told herself, as she peered back over at Kisara, breaking her vow to compete against just herself. Nothing more. But she couldn’t help but notice the other girl already had a dancer’s legs, toned from running, slender and strong.
The observation cost her the match.
GENTLESHIPPING
(valon/kawai shizuka)
“Please tell me this ain’t just because I remind you of your brother,” says Valon as he pulls up outside Shizuka’s apartment. She giggles and shakes her head, tugging the motorcycle helmet off her head and handing it back to its owner.
“It helps,” she admits with a cheeky little smile. “But you’re yourself, Valon-kun. That’s what’s most important. You’re not afraid of being exactly who you are.”
The warm sincerity strikes Valon by surprise; he colors, then catches himself and grins twice as widely. “Well, I usually go for prouder women,” he admits with equal cheek. “But you ain’t so bad the way you are, either.”
Shizuka giggles again, and is about to reply, but the apartment door opens and her brother comes rushing out, fist at the ready for clubbing Valon a good one in the face. Expecting it, Valon blocks, swings in almost casually for a counterstrike to the stomach. Jounouchi chokes.
“Brother, not again,” Shizuka sighs, wondering where her brother is getting all this transportation fare - or the time to keep checking up on her. Just once, she’d like a date to end a little bit differently.