Three Drabbles
Remember me? I'm the newbie. I promised intro-fic so here goes. *ducks rotten tomatoes* Be nice?
Rating: R, overall. Just because. I used the word 'sex'. That's evil. *nods*
Warnings: None, really.
Beta: My two betas have been MIA for the past month. I’m starting to think they don’t love me anymore. From my fingers to your eyes.
Summary: Three bits of everyday life. In a way. Cloud. Aeris. Zack. And a boy.
A/N: This is the 'hello, I’m new, don’t kill me, I brought drabbles' post. I hope they do this insanely wonderful ‘verse justice.
+
Good Enough
+
Immortality.
Not exactly something a noble boy on a cold mountain side dreams of in his spare time. But it happened. Arrow through the chest, pain, confusion, and so much green. And white. And black. Pulling in different directions, calling his name, claiming him as theirs.
Neither of the three won. Neither ever does. That’s how he pulls it off time and time again. It’s not that he’s special or powerful or anything else that would justify living forever. He does not defy death. Death defies him.
It rejects him. It doesn’t want him. Like his family didn’t want him, like his mother didn’t want him, despite all the love she had for him. A crippled love, filled of memories of who he wasn’t. His father. Who didn’t want him either. No-one ever wanted Cloud while he was alive and then even death rejected him.
He’s not even good enough to die. Sometimes, that thought still sneaks in, even two thousand years later. He has raised empires and ground them into dust, slaughtered thousands and saved more. He has done almost everything there is to do in the world and still death won’t take him.
He got used to it, over the years, sure. The feeling of air rushing back into his lungs, wounds closing, blood flowing back where it belongs. Of living. He relies on it, in a way. Jumping into the way of bullets, catching sword strokes meant for others, wrapping himself around someone so they may live as he freezes or burns.
He uses the endless rejection he receives to do good. To protect what is precious to him and the moments coming back to the boys’ worried faces and Zack’s angryrelieved lectures are some of the best he’s ever had.
Still, whenever he catches someone else’s death, when the lights dim and the sounds turn tinny, a small part of him hopes that this is it. Hopes that he’s finally good enough.
He never is.
+
+
Breathe
+
Breathe, she tells herself as she bangs on the door yet again, just breathe, girl. It doesn’t really work. She’s run here all the way from Sector Six and the uncharacteristic panic churning in her gut doesn’t help any.
She’s known this day would come. It had to. Tseng can only do so much when faced with direct orders. But, Planet, she hoped for a little more time to prepare, some warning at least. More than seven Turks suddenly standing in front of her, Tseng’s apologetic face not even among them.
They have orders to bring her in. Dissect her. Like a bug. She is no bug. She is Cetra and she’ll be damned to the Demons’ Hell before she lays down and just dies like they want her to.
Just because she’s different, just because she scares them, that doesn’t give them the right to do this to her. But hate is not part of a Planet’s Child’s make-up. Neither is bloodshed. So she grabbed her emergency bag and ran, her legs carrying her here without her mind’s consent.
Part of her screams that the boys do not need her to bring them more trouble but her hands refuse to obey her as they beg for attention against the backdoor and then, before she can think of anything else to do, the door opens just a crack.
A second’s silence and then it swings open, revealing Cloud in nothing but sleep pants and tousled hair. He takes one look at her bag, her face and the darkness behind her shoulder before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. The door closes, locking out the night and then he pulls her close, holding her hands still for her until she can do it herself again, breathing into her hair, willing her to calm down.
It works. She can see why Zack always seems to calm down when he so much as talks about the immortal. It’s almost like….
“There’s Cetra in you.”
Talk about making inappropriate comments to your savior, she thinks and then giggles. Her mental voice sounds like Zack. And somehow, that’s scarily comforting.
He stiffens for a second, pushes her away from his warm solid chest. Then he winks at her, only a bit forced and requests, “Don’t tell, alright?”
She nods.
“Good. Then let’s find you a bed for the night. We can talk tomorrow.”
She tries to protest, tries to say that it’s alright, he doesn’t have to help her, she can leave when they’re gone, she doesn’t want to be a burden. But he just looks at her with those impossibly blue eyes and asks, “You know that Zack loves you, right?”
She answers that yes, she does. What else can she say when she can feel his love all around her every time he’s near? Cloud smiles.
“That means you’re family. So stop keeping me from my sleep.”
Then he maneuvers her into his bedroom (“because Zack is buried under a pile of half-demon twins, sorry”), stuffs her into a t-shirt and sweatpants and tells her to sleep.
The last two thoughts before she succumbs to exhaustion are that a, she can see now how Cloud raised as wonderful a man as Zack and b, she feels kind of sorry for the Turks.
+
+
Fairy Tale
+
“Once upon a time there was a boy. He was a very smart boy and a happy boy. His father was a knight who taught him how to fight and ride and be a man. And his mother was a princess who taught him to read and write and be wise.
“So the boy lived in his father’s castle and nothing bad ever happened to him until one day, a beautiful princess came to the castle. She was fleeing from an evil wizard and begged the boy to protect her and save her life.
“The boy, who was smart and strong agreed to save her. He saddled his horse, grabbed his armor and sword and kissed his mother goodbye. Then he rode out to the plains to the East where the evil wizard was waiting and he challenged him to a fight.
“The wizard agreed and they fought viciously. There was a moment where the boy was sure that he would lose and die and never see his mother and father and the beautiful princess again. But then he remembered how much he loved them and grabbed his sword tighter and killed the evil wizard.
“He took the wizard’s staff, broke it over his knee and took the pieces home to prove that the beautiful princess was safe. She was so grateful that she ran toward the boy as she saw him coming home on his horse and kissed him.
“They married and had many children and the boy lived happily ever after.”
+
“That was the crappiest bedtime story I’ve ever heard, Spike.”
“You’re twenty-four years old. You shouldn’t need bedtime stories, Zack.”
“But I’m sick and you promised to tuck me in.”
“…. Good night.”
“Yeah, yeah, night.”
“…”
“Hey, Cloud?”
“What now, Zack?”
“I’m glad.”
“What for?”
“That I didn’t get a happily ever after with Mom and Dad and wife and kids.”
“Sleep, you monster.”
“No, seriously. If I had, I’d never have met you and the others. I’d rather be here than anywhere else. You know that, right?”
“…. I know. Good night.”
“Mhm. Night. Spike?”
“Yes?”
“Can I have more tea?”
+
Please don’t ask where the last one came from. My brain made me do it!
Ta!
Rating: R, overall. Just because. I used the word 'sex'. That's evil. *nods*
Warnings: None, really.
Beta: My two betas have been MIA for the past month. I’m starting to think they don’t love me anymore. From my fingers to your eyes.
Summary: Three bits of everyday life. In a way. Cloud. Aeris. Zack. And a boy.
A/N: This is the 'hello, I’m new, don’t kill me, I brought drabbles' post. I hope they do this insanely wonderful ‘verse justice.
+
Good Enough
+
Immortality.
Not exactly something a noble boy on a cold mountain side dreams of in his spare time. But it happened. Arrow through the chest, pain, confusion, and so much green. And white. And black. Pulling in different directions, calling his name, claiming him as theirs.
Neither of the three won. Neither ever does. That’s how he pulls it off time and time again. It’s not that he’s special or powerful or anything else that would justify living forever. He does not defy death. Death defies him.
It rejects him. It doesn’t want him. Like his family didn’t want him, like his mother didn’t want him, despite all the love she had for him. A crippled love, filled of memories of who he wasn’t. His father. Who didn’t want him either. No-one ever wanted Cloud while he was alive and then even death rejected him.
He’s not even good enough to die. Sometimes, that thought still sneaks in, even two thousand years later. He has raised empires and ground them into dust, slaughtered thousands and saved more. He has done almost everything there is to do in the world and still death won’t take him.
He got used to it, over the years, sure. The feeling of air rushing back into his lungs, wounds closing, blood flowing back where it belongs. Of living. He relies on it, in a way. Jumping into the way of bullets, catching sword strokes meant for others, wrapping himself around someone so they may live as he freezes or burns.
He uses the endless rejection he receives to do good. To protect what is precious to him and the moments coming back to the boys’ worried faces and Zack’s angryrelieved lectures are some of the best he’s ever had.
Still, whenever he catches someone else’s death, when the lights dim and the sounds turn tinny, a small part of him hopes that this is it. Hopes that he’s finally good enough.
He never is.
+
+
Breathe
+
Breathe, she tells herself as she bangs on the door yet again, just breathe, girl. It doesn’t really work. She’s run here all the way from Sector Six and the uncharacteristic panic churning in her gut doesn’t help any.
She’s known this day would come. It had to. Tseng can only do so much when faced with direct orders. But, Planet, she hoped for a little more time to prepare, some warning at least. More than seven Turks suddenly standing in front of her, Tseng’s apologetic face not even among them.
They have orders to bring her in. Dissect her. Like a bug. She is no bug. She is Cetra and she’ll be damned to the Demons’ Hell before she lays down and just dies like they want her to.
Just because she’s different, just because she scares them, that doesn’t give them the right to do this to her. But hate is not part of a Planet’s Child’s make-up. Neither is bloodshed. So she grabbed her emergency bag and ran, her legs carrying her here without her mind’s consent.
Part of her screams that the boys do not need her to bring them more trouble but her hands refuse to obey her as they beg for attention against the backdoor and then, before she can think of anything else to do, the door opens just a crack.
A second’s silence and then it swings open, revealing Cloud in nothing but sleep pants and tousled hair. He takes one look at her bag, her face and the darkness behind her shoulder before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. The door closes, locking out the night and then he pulls her close, holding her hands still for her until she can do it herself again, breathing into her hair, willing her to calm down.
It works. She can see why Zack always seems to calm down when he so much as talks about the immortal. It’s almost like….
“There’s Cetra in you.”
Talk about making inappropriate comments to your savior, she thinks and then giggles. Her mental voice sounds like Zack. And somehow, that’s scarily comforting.
He stiffens for a second, pushes her away from his warm solid chest. Then he winks at her, only a bit forced and requests, “Don’t tell, alright?”
She nods.
“Good. Then let’s find you a bed for the night. We can talk tomorrow.”
She tries to protest, tries to say that it’s alright, he doesn’t have to help her, she can leave when they’re gone, she doesn’t want to be a burden. But he just looks at her with those impossibly blue eyes and asks, “You know that Zack loves you, right?”
She answers that yes, she does. What else can she say when she can feel his love all around her every time he’s near? Cloud smiles.
“That means you’re family. So stop keeping me from my sleep.”
Then he maneuvers her into his bedroom (“because Zack is buried under a pile of half-demon twins, sorry”), stuffs her into a t-shirt and sweatpants and tells her to sleep.
The last two thoughts before she succumbs to exhaustion are that a, she can see now how Cloud raised as wonderful a man as Zack and b, she feels kind of sorry for the Turks.
+
+
Fairy Tale
+
“Once upon a time there was a boy. He was a very smart boy and a happy boy. His father was a knight who taught him how to fight and ride and be a man. And his mother was a princess who taught him to read and write and be wise.
“So the boy lived in his father’s castle and nothing bad ever happened to him until one day, a beautiful princess came to the castle. She was fleeing from an evil wizard and begged the boy to protect her and save her life.
“The boy, who was smart and strong agreed to save her. He saddled his horse, grabbed his armor and sword and kissed his mother goodbye. Then he rode out to the plains to the East where the evil wizard was waiting and he challenged him to a fight.
“The wizard agreed and they fought viciously. There was a moment where the boy was sure that he would lose and die and never see his mother and father and the beautiful princess again. But then he remembered how much he loved them and grabbed his sword tighter and killed the evil wizard.
“He took the wizard’s staff, broke it over his knee and took the pieces home to prove that the beautiful princess was safe. She was so grateful that she ran toward the boy as she saw him coming home on his horse and kissed him.
“They married and had many children and the boy lived happily ever after.”
+
“That was the crappiest bedtime story I’ve ever heard, Spike.”
“You’re twenty-four years old. You shouldn’t need bedtime stories, Zack.”
“But I’m sick and you promised to tuck me in.”
“…. Good night.”
“Yeah, yeah, night.”
“…”
“Hey, Cloud?”
“What now, Zack?”
“I’m glad.”
“What for?”
“That I didn’t get a happily ever after with Mom and Dad and wife and kids.”
“Sleep, you monster.”
“No, seriously. If I had, I’d never have met you and the others. I’d rather be here than anywhere else. You know that, right?”
“…. I know. Good night.”
“Mhm. Night. Spike?”
“Yes?”
“Can I have more tea?”
+
Please don’t ask where the last one came from. My brain made me do it!
Ta!