Timestamp ficlets (not worksafe)
These were an awful lot of fun. They often went in directions I didn't expect, but that's probably what made them so much fun. :D
I'm not patient enough to put an individual warning on each of these. Do know that they are not worksafe -- for smut, language, tentacles, genderswitch, and, uh, I think that's it? XD
elvaron - 10 (actually more like 15-20, unless they have no stamina at all which is possible given the circumstances) minutes before The Earth Squeals and Shudders to a Halt (FFVII, Rufus/Tseng)
When Rufus puts a hand on Tseng's shoulder, it takes Tseng a moment to remember that it isn't because he needs to. The hand isn't there because Rufus needs to catch his balance, because Rufus' balance is fine, because he's fine, which happened far too fast for Tseng to really process.
Rufus' hand slides up toward the back of Tseng's neck, under his ponytail, and Tseng says "Sir," very softly.
"We've been messing around one way or another for years, Tseng," Rufus says. His eyes are bright, bright as the sky over a glacier. Years, Tseng thinks, and he remembers a spoiled child, a bratty vice president, an arrogant president -- but he knew Rufus well enough across all those years to have the honor of seeing what lay beneath, and what lay beneath was what remained after the disease stripped away much of the facade. "And then we stopped."
"You were indisposed," Tseng says. "I -- "
"And now I'm not ‘indisposed.’" The euphemism for ‘dying’ sounds less bitter on Rufus’ lips now that he’s not. When Tseng hesitates, Rufus says, "Is that no?" His voice is so calm, so cool, that Tseng knows that even another of the Turks would probably miss the way his eyelashes flick, his breath catches.
"It's not 'no,'" he says, and Rufus is on him as soon as the words are out of his mouth. His lips are soft as they have always been.
When they're done, Rufus's hand was curls tight in his hair, and he says, "I want you to fuck me, Tseng." Again, the almost-indecipherable hesitance, and Tseng traps Rufus' face between his hands.
"Where?" He means 'my place or yours?' but Rufus cocks his head toward one of the abandoned buildings.
"I don't want to wait," he says, and Tseng closes his eyes, not quite believing that he's about to do this, but... doing it anyway. "And stairwells have their advantages."
"Oh?"
"You'll see."
***
regicidaldwarf - Five minutes later in Eye for an Eye. (KH2/DDS, Argilla/Xigbar)
"So," she says. "You going to show me your guns?"
Xigbar leans back, his eye bright and wicked. "Is that, 'I want to see your guns' or is it 'I want to see your guns'?"
"Which do you want it to be?" Argilla's eyes narrow and she licks her lips, just a little.
Xigbar reaches for her by way of answer. He kisses hard, direct, uncomplicated. It drives all the air out of her, surely as if she's been kicked in the chest. When he stops, he says, "I don't have a heart. That's a warning."
"My memories are all screwed up," she counters. "And sometimes I eat people -- and not usually in the good way."
Xigbar's scars pull his smile crooked. "Then we're even," he says, and reaches for the zipper of her dress.
***
ponderosa121 Two weeks after With A View (FFVII, Reno/Rufus)
Reno's waiting, as expected -- and being annoying about it, as expected. He's seated across from Rufus' desk, but he has his shoes on the edge of the desk.
He wants to be snarled at so he can make a show of nonchalance, so Rufus doesn't oblige him. He just knocks his feet off with a sharp sideways blow as he passes, on the way to his own chair. Reno's feet hit the floor loud, and he leans forward, props his elbows on his knees, and asks, "Whatcha need, boss?"
He puts a world of innuendo in those words, even though he and Rufus both know perfectly well that what Rufus needs is his capacity for strategic violence, not his capacity for sex. That's the thing about Reno -- he's very good at his job. People outside the company rarely see that, but even Elena, who of the Turks is the most frustrated with his lack of discipline (perhaps because she, of all of them, is most like him), knows perfectly well that the reason they keep Reno on is that he's talented. More than that, he's skilled -- raw talent is only marginally better than nothing at all, but genuine skill is priceless.
Rufus drops the folder on the desk, and Reno's air of insolence starts to fade off as he reaches for it, eagerly. He likes his job; that's the other thing.
Rufus doesn't have to say anything. Reno flips and scans, teasing out the pertinent information. "Assassination," he says.
"Penthouse?"
"Nah. Too obvious, too well guarded. I'll whack him at the gym. He won't even see it coming."
"Good."
Reno gets to his feet, but Rufus stays him with a gesture. "You won't find him at the gym at this hour of afternoon, I think," he says mildly.
Reno's grin shows just the tip of his tongue. "You got something for me to do while I wait, boss?"
"You know I don't respect half measures," Rufus says, and catches his breath when Reno jumps the desk, a motion-blur of red and blue. Thirty seconds later, Reno's on his knees, and Rufus is bracing himself against the desk for balance as his cock slides smooth down Reno's throat. No half measures, indeed.
***
ladycrysiana - A few more minutes with Even and Lena from The Widening Gyre. (KH2, Vexen)
Fean was less than four feet tall and weighed maybe fifty pounds, so it was amazing how effectively she could tow Even along. His hoped that he wouldn't run into any of the other apprentices (it was embarrassing to be so much at the mercy of his own six-year-old child), but said hopes were dashed when he met Elaeus and Dilan in the hall. Dilan appeared to be repressing a smile. Elaeus, by contrast, nodded gravely in greeting and said, "You should introduce her to the princess. I expect she would like the company."
"Four and six are farther apart than you'd think," Even said, but then, by way of concession to Elaeus' rare speech, he added, "I'll think about it."
Fean slipped free of his hand at that point and bolted down the stairs and out onto the postern. Lena and Even followed at a more sedate pace.
"The princess?" Lena asked.
"A girl that Master Ansem has adopted. She apparently encompasses, or embodies, or is an avatar of -- we're not sure -- an unusual metaphysical phenomenon."
Lena's mouth quirked up. "Oh, does she? And how old is this metaphysical phenomenon?"
"Four. She's here with her grandmother."
"Just one four-year-old girl, her grandmother, and a castle full of scientists?" Lena laughed. "No wonder Elaeus thinks she's bored."
"She has all manner of books and toys -- "
" -- and tomorrow I'll bring Fean by to see her. Four and six is a big age difference, but it's better than four and -- how old is the youngest?"
"Ienzo? Around twenty, I think."
"There you are, then."
***
abby_sarajane - A couple of weeks after Lacuna (FFVII, Reeve, Vincent)
Getting words out of Vincent wasn't so much an uphill struggle as it was a Sisyphean task. Reeve thought he was making progress, but every so often he'd hit a topic and the boulder of Vincent's silence would come loose and run him over, splat.
The best thing to do at those times was to just start talking himself. (The Cait Sith element in his personality pointed out that this also decreased the uncomfortable sense that he was interviewing Vincent, perhaps for a feature in Gentleman's Angst and Woe Quarterly.)
It was the question about his family that made Vincent clam up, so Reeve said, "My parents have both passed on, but my sister's doing fine."
"You have a sister?" Vincent asked, from the shadows between headband and collar.
"Yeah. Younger than me." He winced a little. "I took advantage of my position to make sure she got out of Midgar as soon as things started going bad. She's got a nice export business in Wutai now. Married a local boy."
Vincent said nothing for a long time. Then: "What's her name?"
"Mira. You should meet her sometime."
Vincent grunted, then lifted his chin so that Reeve could see, briefly, his whole face. "Perhaps I will."
***
voodoobob - Two weeks after Unusual Talent (KH2, SoRiKai)
The completely unfair thing is that Kairi has discovered that tickling just the right spot on Riku's back makes the tentacles appear. He can disappear them again, of course, but once they're out and Kairi has a grip on one and Sora on another, he... kind of... doesn't want to.
The problem is that Sora wants to figure out how to make them appear, too. He doesn't quite have Kairi's patience or delicacy of touch, though; Sora uses his keyblade like it's a baseball bat. So Riku lies on his stomach, gazing into the middle distance, while Sora rubs and scratches his back. It would be a pretty good deal, except it's clear that Sora's dying of frustration. "Here?" he asks Kairi.
"A little to the left," she says. "And lightly. Just the tips of your fingers -- not your nails."
Sora rubs. Nothing happens. (At least, nothing with the tentacles.)
"Riku," Sora says. "What am I doing wrong?"
"Not a thing," Riku says, eliciting a sigh from Sora and a laugh from Kairi.
"Here," she says, "like this." Her fingers sketch over his spine and down to -- there, and the tentacles uncoil from whatever dark pocket-space they inhabit most of the time and wind out around the three of them.
"Oh, I see," Sora says for about the fifth time. "Put them back and let me try again!"
Riku rolls over, letting the tentacles spread out and tug them down. "Not yet," he says.
***
elanor_pam - 10 minutes before Silly. (FFVII, Cloud, Marlene, Tifa)
Cloud made a very good behemoth -- lots of pawing the ground, baring teeth, curling his fingers to look like claws. His voice was all wrong for roaring, though. "Roar," he said, and charged.
Marlene squealed in feigned terror and leapt up onto the couch. She swung her makeshift sword. "Foul beast, I will slay you! Gotcha now!" (Her models for 'dramatic dialogue' varied widely, with sometimes interesting results.) In her enthusiasm, she actually cracked the yardstick over Cloud's head, eliciting a most un-behemoth-like 'ow!'
Marlene immediately dropped the yardstick and covered her mouth contritely. "Did I hurt you?"
"You can't hurt a behemoth that easily," Tifa interjected. "He's just trying to get you to drop your sword."
She smiled when Marlene curled her hands up into fists, bending her knees and shifting her weight in an imitation of Tifa's own fighting posture. "S'okay, I don't need it," she said.
***
liltigre - A week after Time For A Change (FFVII, Reeve/Vincent)
"You're sure you want to -- ?"
"No offense, Vincent, but stop and listen to that question and let me know if it sounds as dumb to you as it does to me."
Vincent flushed and pushed back the sheet. Being a woman was nothing much; he could be two or three worse things before breakfast, given sufficient motivation. But being a woman with Reeve watching him was something else again. "I don't know what to..." he began, and trailed off.
Reeve caught his wrist, gently -- giving him a chance to pull away if he wanted, but he declined to take that opportunity -- and led his hand down to the strange, slick, definitely-not-there-this-morning folds between his legs. "Just touch," he said, letting go of Vincent's wrist. "You'll figure it out."
Vincent's fingers slid over warm wet flesh. Sensitive, tense and almost aching, but not quite what he was going to need. "And you just want to watch?" he asked.
"For now." Reeve repositioned himself and Vincent instantly knew it was for a better view. "I know you're curious as to how it feels."
Vincent was about to protest that he probably wasn't going to figure out how 'it' felt anyway, because this body was horribly obscure compared to his own, and then he found the spot and instead said something more along the lines of 'ahhh, oh god.'
"That's it," Reeve said, his breath coming short, although not as short as Vincent's.
***
lassarina - The Earth Squeals and Shudders to a Halt, six months later (FFVII, Elena/Rufus/Tseng)
Elena wakes with her neck stiff and her arm falling asleep, which are occupational hazards of trying to sleep with two people, even in a bed as big as Rufus'. She tugs her arm gently out from under Tseng's head and does her best to crawl over Rufus without waking him up too. The whole process is made more difficult by the fact that she's sore, although to be fair Tseng's probably going to be more sore, when he wakes up.
She watches the sunrise, because she always has. (It was a shock, that first morning, to discover that she gets up before Tseng. He's always punctual, but he doesn't get up a minute before he needs to in order to be completely prepared and punctual. It's an efficiency thing; Rufus gets up a little earlier but is much the same. She, on the other hand, gets up early and then lingers too long in the shower or with her coffee.) From Rufus' balcony she can see both the spill of sunlight over the ruin of Midgar, and the slow dawn waking of Edge.
She hears the balcony's doors open, and then a moment later feels the warmth of a hand on her shoulder, through the shirt she put on to preserve a semblance of modesty. "Come back to bed," Rufus says, close in her ear.
"Didn't mean to wake you," she says.
"Mmm," he says. "Perhaps you should make it up to me."
She's already getting up, but she protests anyway, for the sake of appearance: "We'll wake Tseng."
"All the better."
"He's going to be irritable," she says. "And sore, I shouldn't have to remind you."
"Quite the contrary," Rufus says, his hand sliding around her waist under the shirt. "He'll thank us. I guarantee."
I'm not patient enough to put an individual warning on each of these. Do know that they are not worksafe -- for smut, language, tentacles, genderswitch, and, uh, I think that's it? XD
elvaron - 10 (actually more like 15-20, unless they have no stamina at all which is possible given the circumstances) minutes before The Earth Squeals and Shudders to a Halt (FFVII, Rufus/Tseng)
When Rufus puts a hand on Tseng's shoulder, it takes Tseng a moment to remember that it isn't because he needs to. The hand isn't there because Rufus needs to catch his balance, because Rufus' balance is fine, because he's fine, which happened far too fast for Tseng to really process.
Rufus' hand slides up toward the back of Tseng's neck, under his ponytail, and Tseng says "Sir," very softly.
"We've been messing around one way or another for years, Tseng," Rufus says. His eyes are bright, bright as the sky over a glacier. Years, Tseng thinks, and he remembers a spoiled child, a bratty vice president, an arrogant president -- but he knew Rufus well enough across all those years to have the honor of seeing what lay beneath, and what lay beneath was what remained after the disease stripped away much of the facade. "And then we stopped."
"You were indisposed," Tseng says. "I -- "
"And now I'm not ‘indisposed.’" The euphemism for ‘dying’ sounds less bitter on Rufus’ lips now that he’s not. When Tseng hesitates, Rufus says, "Is that no?" His voice is so calm, so cool, that Tseng knows that even another of the Turks would probably miss the way his eyelashes flick, his breath catches.
"It's not 'no,'" he says, and Rufus is on him as soon as the words are out of his mouth. His lips are soft as they have always been.
When they're done, Rufus's hand was curls tight in his hair, and he says, "I want you to fuck me, Tseng." Again, the almost-indecipherable hesitance, and Tseng traps Rufus' face between his hands.
"Where?" He means 'my place or yours?' but Rufus cocks his head toward one of the abandoned buildings.
"I don't want to wait," he says, and Tseng closes his eyes, not quite believing that he's about to do this, but... doing it anyway. "And stairwells have their advantages."
"Oh?"
"You'll see."
***
regicidaldwarf - Five minutes later in Eye for an Eye. (KH2/DDS, Argilla/Xigbar)
"So," she says. "You going to show me your guns?"
Xigbar leans back, his eye bright and wicked. "Is that, 'I want to see your guns' or is it 'I want to see your guns'?"
"Which do you want it to be?" Argilla's eyes narrow and she licks her lips, just a little.
Xigbar reaches for her by way of answer. He kisses hard, direct, uncomplicated. It drives all the air out of her, surely as if she's been kicked in the chest. When he stops, he says, "I don't have a heart. That's a warning."
"My memories are all screwed up," she counters. "And sometimes I eat people -- and not usually in the good way."
Xigbar's scars pull his smile crooked. "Then we're even," he says, and reaches for the zipper of her dress.
***
ponderosa121 Two weeks after With A View (FFVII, Reno/Rufus)
Reno's waiting, as expected -- and being annoying about it, as expected. He's seated across from Rufus' desk, but he has his shoes on the edge of the desk.
He wants to be snarled at so he can make a show of nonchalance, so Rufus doesn't oblige him. He just knocks his feet off with a sharp sideways blow as he passes, on the way to his own chair. Reno's feet hit the floor loud, and he leans forward, props his elbows on his knees, and asks, "Whatcha need, boss?"
He puts a world of innuendo in those words, even though he and Rufus both know perfectly well that what Rufus needs is his capacity for strategic violence, not his capacity for sex. That's the thing about Reno -- he's very good at his job. People outside the company rarely see that, but even Elena, who of the Turks is the most frustrated with his lack of discipline (perhaps because she, of all of them, is most like him), knows perfectly well that the reason they keep Reno on is that he's talented. More than that, he's skilled -- raw talent is only marginally better than nothing at all, but genuine skill is priceless.
Rufus drops the folder on the desk, and Reno's air of insolence starts to fade off as he reaches for it, eagerly. He likes his job; that's the other thing.
Rufus doesn't have to say anything. Reno flips and scans, teasing out the pertinent information. "Assassination," he says.
"Penthouse?"
"Nah. Too obvious, too well guarded. I'll whack him at the gym. He won't even see it coming."
"Good."
Reno gets to his feet, but Rufus stays him with a gesture. "You won't find him at the gym at this hour of afternoon, I think," he says mildly.
Reno's grin shows just the tip of his tongue. "You got something for me to do while I wait, boss?"
"You know I don't respect half measures," Rufus says, and catches his breath when Reno jumps the desk, a motion-blur of red and blue. Thirty seconds later, Reno's on his knees, and Rufus is bracing himself against the desk for balance as his cock slides smooth down Reno's throat. No half measures, indeed.
***
ladycrysiana - A few more minutes with Even and Lena from The Widening Gyre. (KH2, Vexen)
Fean was less than four feet tall and weighed maybe fifty pounds, so it was amazing how effectively she could tow Even along. His hoped that he wouldn't run into any of the other apprentices (it was embarrassing to be so much at the mercy of his own six-year-old child), but said hopes were dashed when he met Elaeus and Dilan in the hall. Dilan appeared to be repressing a smile. Elaeus, by contrast, nodded gravely in greeting and said, "You should introduce her to the princess. I expect she would like the company."
"Four and six are farther apart than you'd think," Even said, but then, by way of concession to Elaeus' rare speech, he added, "I'll think about it."
Fean slipped free of his hand at that point and bolted down the stairs and out onto the postern. Lena and Even followed at a more sedate pace.
"The princess?" Lena asked.
"A girl that Master Ansem has adopted. She apparently encompasses, or embodies, or is an avatar of -- we're not sure -- an unusual metaphysical phenomenon."
Lena's mouth quirked up. "Oh, does she? And how old is this metaphysical phenomenon?"
"Four. She's here with her grandmother."
"Just one four-year-old girl, her grandmother, and a castle full of scientists?" Lena laughed. "No wonder Elaeus thinks she's bored."
"She has all manner of books and toys -- "
" -- and tomorrow I'll bring Fean by to see her. Four and six is a big age difference, but it's better than four and -- how old is the youngest?"
"Ienzo? Around twenty, I think."
"There you are, then."
***
abby_sarajane - A couple of weeks after Lacuna (FFVII, Reeve, Vincent)
Getting words out of Vincent wasn't so much an uphill struggle as it was a Sisyphean task. Reeve thought he was making progress, but every so often he'd hit a topic and the boulder of Vincent's silence would come loose and run him over, splat.
The best thing to do at those times was to just start talking himself. (The Cait Sith element in his personality pointed out that this also decreased the uncomfortable sense that he was interviewing Vincent, perhaps for a feature in Gentleman's Angst and Woe Quarterly.)
It was the question about his family that made Vincent clam up, so Reeve said, "My parents have both passed on, but my sister's doing fine."
"You have a sister?" Vincent asked, from the shadows between headband and collar.
"Yeah. Younger than me." He winced a little. "I took advantage of my position to make sure she got out of Midgar as soon as things started going bad. She's got a nice export business in Wutai now. Married a local boy."
Vincent said nothing for a long time. Then: "What's her name?"
"Mira. You should meet her sometime."
Vincent grunted, then lifted his chin so that Reeve could see, briefly, his whole face. "Perhaps I will."
***
voodoobob - Two weeks after Unusual Talent (KH2, SoRiKai)
The completely unfair thing is that Kairi has discovered that tickling just the right spot on Riku's back makes the tentacles appear. He can disappear them again, of course, but once they're out and Kairi has a grip on one and Sora on another, he... kind of... doesn't want to.
The problem is that Sora wants to figure out how to make them appear, too. He doesn't quite have Kairi's patience or delicacy of touch, though; Sora uses his keyblade like it's a baseball bat. So Riku lies on his stomach, gazing into the middle distance, while Sora rubs and scratches his back. It would be a pretty good deal, except it's clear that Sora's dying of frustration. "Here?" he asks Kairi.
"A little to the left," she says. "And lightly. Just the tips of your fingers -- not your nails."
Sora rubs. Nothing happens. (At least, nothing with the tentacles.)
"Riku," Sora says. "What am I doing wrong?"
"Not a thing," Riku says, eliciting a sigh from Sora and a laugh from Kairi.
"Here," she says, "like this." Her fingers sketch over his spine and down to -- there, and the tentacles uncoil from whatever dark pocket-space they inhabit most of the time and wind out around the three of them.
"Oh, I see," Sora says for about the fifth time. "Put them back and let me try again!"
Riku rolls over, letting the tentacles spread out and tug them down. "Not yet," he says.
***
elanor_pam - 10 minutes before Silly. (FFVII, Cloud, Marlene, Tifa)
Cloud made a very good behemoth -- lots of pawing the ground, baring teeth, curling his fingers to look like claws. His voice was all wrong for roaring, though. "Roar," he said, and charged.
Marlene squealed in feigned terror and leapt up onto the couch. She swung her makeshift sword. "Foul beast, I will slay you! Gotcha now!" (Her models for 'dramatic dialogue' varied widely, with sometimes interesting results.) In her enthusiasm, she actually cracked the yardstick over Cloud's head, eliciting a most un-behemoth-like 'ow!'
Marlene immediately dropped the yardstick and covered her mouth contritely. "Did I hurt you?"
"You can't hurt a behemoth that easily," Tifa interjected. "He's just trying to get you to drop your sword."
She smiled when Marlene curled her hands up into fists, bending her knees and shifting her weight in an imitation of Tifa's own fighting posture. "S'okay, I don't need it," she said.
***
liltigre - A week after Time For A Change (FFVII, Reeve/Vincent)
"You're sure you want to -- ?"
"No offense, Vincent, but stop and listen to that question and let me know if it sounds as dumb to you as it does to me."
Vincent flushed and pushed back the sheet. Being a woman was nothing much; he could be two or three worse things before breakfast, given sufficient motivation. But being a woman with Reeve watching him was something else again. "I don't know what to..." he began, and trailed off.
Reeve caught his wrist, gently -- giving him a chance to pull away if he wanted, but he declined to take that opportunity -- and led his hand down to the strange, slick, definitely-not-there-this-morning folds between his legs. "Just touch," he said, letting go of Vincent's wrist. "You'll figure it out."
Vincent's fingers slid over warm wet flesh. Sensitive, tense and almost aching, but not quite what he was going to need. "And you just want to watch?" he asked.
"For now." Reeve repositioned himself and Vincent instantly knew it was for a better view. "I know you're curious as to how it feels."
Vincent was about to protest that he probably wasn't going to figure out how 'it' felt anyway, because this body was horribly obscure compared to his own, and then he found the spot and instead said something more along the lines of 'ahhh, oh god.'
"That's it," Reeve said, his breath coming short, although not as short as Vincent's.
***
lassarina - The Earth Squeals and Shudders to a Halt, six months later (FFVII, Elena/Rufus/Tseng)
Elena wakes with her neck stiff and her arm falling asleep, which are occupational hazards of trying to sleep with two people, even in a bed as big as Rufus'. She tugs her arm gently out from under Tseng's head and does her best to crawl over Rufus without waking him up too. The whole process is made more difficult by the fact that she's sore, although to be fair Tseng's probably going to be more sore, when he wakes up.
She watches the sunrise, because she always has. (It was a shock, that first morning, to discover that she gets up before Tseng. He's always punctual, but he doesn't get up a minute before he needs to in order to be completely prepared and punctual. It's an efficiency thing; Rufus gets up a little earlier but is much the same. She, on the other hand, gets up early and then lingers too long in the shower or with her coffee.) From Rufus' balcony she can see both the spill of sunlight over the ruin of Midgar, and the slow dawn waking of Edge.
She hears the balcony's doors open, and then a moment later feels the warmth of a hand on her shoulder, through the shirt she put on to preserve a semblance of modesty. "Come back to bed," Rufus says, close in her ear.
"Didn't mean to wake you," she says.
"Mmm," he says. "Perhaps you should make it up to me."
She's already getting up, but she protests anyway, for the sake of appearance: "We'll wake Tseng."
"All the better."
"He's going to be irritable," she says. "And sore, I shouldn't have to remind you."
"Quite the contrary," Rufus says, his hand sliding around her waist under the shirt. "He'll thank us. I guarantee."