Drabble meme, FF7, FF8, Utena, Jarhead, Original
While I'm finishing the new requests, these were all the old drabbles listed in the comments, some of them cleaned up a bit. They range from one sentence to short fics. Again, sorry for anyone who feels shortchanged. I suck at being consistent on these things.
For deviatesellen. Prompt: FF7. TsengxCloud, telling the other Turks. Because Reno will never learn who not to hit on.
Precautionary Measures
As leader of the Turks, Tseng was ever conscious of the proper bureaucratic needs of his department, and not only took the time to compose and disperse a memo to all Turks about his recent undertaking of a sexual relationship with one Cloud Strife, but also preemptively informed Reno of his sudden assignment for a six-month mission on the other side of the Planet.
***
For apelion_orion. Prompt: FF7. Cloud, Sephiroth and Zack. Something happy.
Unleash
He watched the two of them standing in the hallway. It was something Zack had recognized but not understood at first, only seeing it clear in the last few months by observing only when he was outside of the action. Because for all the passion he could unleash, Sephiroth was terribly awkward about casual touch. Zack thought that he did want it, wanted it badly even, but he always needed some small initiative before he permitted himself even something as simple as his ungloved hand resting on Cloud's neck, thumb slowly stroking his throat. Watching it made him feel sad inside, for reasons he couldn’t articulate.
So without warning he rounded the corner and tackled Sephiroth, snagging Cloud along the way, all three of them going down in something between a hug and a full-body collision, and Zack throwing in as much groin contact and hip pumping as he could.
"Oof," Cloud said. "Hi."
"What the hell was that for?" Sephiroth asked, looking like he often did after something Zack had done, as if he wasn't certain whether he wanted to smile or scowl. His arm fit into the space between Zack's lower ribs and waist; Cloud's head fit into the space right beneath Zack's chin and against his shoulder. It was horribly uncomfortable and he didn't want to get up, ever.
"Just because," Zack said, and grinned.
***
For 2metaldog. Prompt: FF8. Zell, a hot dog, questionable choice of lube and a not so securely locked broom closet.
Condimental
Despite several hysterical declarations that he’d never be able to eat again after accidentally witnessing Seifer and Squall in flagrante delicto in the library supply closet, Zell was soon seen back in line for the cafeteria’s hotdogs, although it was noted he gave the mayonnaise a wide berth.
***
For cornucopian. Prompt: FF7. Zack and Reno, wacky adventures.
Routine
Neither Sephiroth nor Tseng reacted strongly to the urgent memo detailing the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of every traffic cone in the entire Junon military base; both men took note and continued working in their respective offices, only deviating from their routine at the end of the day. Without prior arrangement, they met at the corner of a certain passage, nodded to each other without speaking, and walked further on towards a sound that eventually articulated into cheering voices and screeching tires. As they emerged from the entryway to the strip of private airfield, they both stopped in order not to be run over or otherwise struck by the two golf carts that were streaking past and winding their way through the elaborate obstacle course of orange cones.
Sephiroth did wonder vaguely out loud about whether Zack or Reno had scored the fastest run so far, but his curiosity was mostly academic, the majority of his attention on the blonde cadet in his underwear, tied to the finish pole.
***
For twigcollins. Prompt: Knights and Pawns. Mike, Cass and some sort of taxidermied animal.
Again
"Oh, Michael, again?”
“Mrpgh.”
“I told you this would happen," Cassiel said. "This is the third time you've done something like this."
"Mowmamigupposedtmo?" Michael said, chewed, swallowed, and tried again. "How was I supposed to know? No one told me! I mean, there was a lot of them when I got here and I didn't know it was the last breeding pair! And they do taste pretty good."
Cassiel grimaced. "Well, you'd better not eat this one, then." He toed the pile of feathers at his feet. "See if you can do something with it. Maybe Ariel would like it."
In later years, a somewhat mangled stuffed dodo bird was anonymously presented to a museum along with a monetary donation of considerable size, the only words in the check's memo field being "Sorry about this."
***
For alhazred. Prompts: Jarhead. Swoff/Fergus.
Metaphors
Swoff sits in his hole and contemplates death, both his and other people’s.
Fergus is about two holes away. They’re at the point where they’re mostly okay with each other but they still could probably get in a fight if someone just says the wrong thing. But Troy’s been on both their asses about it, and so they mostly settle for grunting at each other. If one of them died tomorrow, the other one would probably get fucked up by it; guilt gets in everything, just like the fucking sand. Hell, probably it was the wrong thing to do to make up; probably, if one of them died, the other would be even more fucked up because they managed to reconcile. It’s easier not to give a fuck when you’re still pissed off.
Sometimes he wants to hit Fergus for joining up because Fergus reminds him of himself, a little bit. He’s too smart for this so that means he’s dumb, good old Marine logic, and he follows Swoff around like a fucking puppy sometimes. He’s lying in his hole the exact same way Swoff is, even if there really is only one way to lie in a hole.
Swoff glances over. He has the sudden strange impulse to go over and start kicking sand down into the hole; he wants to bury Fergus in sand, and he doesn’t know if that’s out of irritation or protectiveness or just pure fucking boredom. Fergus isn’t dumb; he could have gone to his fancy college, gotten laid and paid and not fucked over Swoff with his stupid goddamn Christmas fuckup.
Fucked by the green weenie, except not. Fucked by just a regular fucking weenie, goddamnit. Almost as obvious as a fucking gun in the mouth.
It’s kinda funny.
Troy comes and sits down next to him at the rim of his hole. “What the fuck are you grinning about?” he asks.
“Metaphors, motherfucker,” Swoff says, and pulls his hat down over his eyes.
***
For girlchild. Prompt: FF7/Utena. pre-game!Aeris/post-series!Anthy, Aeris's church-garden.
Corolla
There’s a girl sleeping in her garden outside. This is Midgar, so Aeris isn’t concerned by the color of the girl’s hair, only that she looks rumpled and tired and a little sad. She goes outside with a glass of lemonade, waits, and the girl accepts it gratefully when she wakes up. She doesn’t seem surprised at all to see Aeris, as though she is used to people watching her as she sleeps.
“Thank you,” she says, and by the time she’s finished drinking it, Aeris has gone back inside and come back out with a plate of sandwiches and her sewing kit.
“I like pink too,” Aeris confides as the girl eats a sandwich and Aeris puts small, neat stitches in the rip on the girl’s jacket. The thread color matches almost perfectly; it’s hard to tell there was ever a tear at all.
“It’s my favorite color,” the girl says, and smiles. She stretches out luxuriously in the flowers while Aeris sews; fed and watered, she is coming back to life just as surely as the blossoms do. “Your garden is beautiful. I used to have one.”
She comes inside for a bath and to borrow a comb, but waves off Aeris’s offer to braid the damp hair afterwards. “I like it down,” she says.
“I can’t stay,” she says.
“I’m looking for someone,” she says.
Aeris wishes the girl would spend the night, but she understands. “I’m waiting for someone,” she says in return.
The girl smiles, reaches out, and touches Aeris’s cheek briefly. Her fingers are cool and dry, like the fleeting brush of a leaf or a butterfly wing; Aeris half-expects to find pollen on her skin afterwards. “I hope that person comes,” she says.
When she leaves, Aeris puts her face to the damp towel before dropping it in the hamper; it smells faintly of flowers she’s never seen before, from places she’s never been, a scent she forever afterwards associates with hope.
***
For the_kelpsinator Prompt: FF7. Sephiroth/Zack, pre-Cloud. Not fluffy but not angsty.
Afterwards
He found Zack outside the medic's tent, lying face down with his head resting on his folded arms and a blanket loosely draped over him from the waist down. He didn’t appear to have pants on. When his shadow fell over Zack, the other man craned his head to the side and squinted up at him.
"I got shot in the ass," Zack announced without preamble. The tone of his voice indicated that he'd probably been making this proclamation, repeatedly, to anyone in the near vicinity for some time.
Sephiroth sat down on the grass, settling himself carefully. "Serves you right. You shouldn't have been running away."
After a few seconds, Zack laughed. Sephiroth smiled, and tilted his head back so he could feel the sun on his face.
It was a beautiful day.
***
For lainex. Prompt: Utena. Touga/Saionji, peas.
Finite
One of the most difficult things to get used to was the way that necessities didn’t just appear anymore. Food wasn’t automatically cooked and left on tables at the precise stroke of the clock; stained or torn clothing tossed into closets remained just that way; clocks had to be rewound. He had to buy toothpaste when the tube ran out.
The first time that happened to Touga, it had both amazed and terrified him. He had stood in the bathroom, holding the empty tube and trying to understand. Things went on but they were also finite, no longer looping into oblivion. When he looked into the mirror, he saw that he needed to cut his hair.
It would have been harder if Saionji wasn’t going through the exact same thing. The day before, he had found his friend in the garage, staring at his motorcycle.
“It won’t start,” Saionji said. The matter-of-fact tone he used covered the surprise in his voice like a thin veneer. “It needs to be refueled.”
Vehicles didn’t just drive on and on here. It was strange and it was frightening, but it was satisfying in a way he’d never felt before. Things ended, but they were his. He could make a choice to cut his hair or to buy a certain type of tea, and then it would happen as he chose.
Of course, he reflected, there were nights he missed the ease of things replaced and the simplicity of drifting through a life where nothing ever ended. But there was usually something to distract him from that. Right now, it was standing in the kitchen, wearing an apron and an expression that predicted death for the cooking pot of peas overflowing onto the stove, as well anything else in the near vicinity.
“Not a word,” Saionji said, scowling darkly.
“Goes with your hair,” Touga said, and then teasingly, “old friend.”
“You haven’t changed that much,” Saionji said with annoyance, but there was a smile somewhere in the corners of his mouth that bloomed slightly when he scooped up a handful of peas and smeared them across Touga’s chest, and then fully when Touga coaxed it out with his own mouth
“Yes,” he said against Saionji’s mouth, and reminded himself that he would have to wash his shirt tonight.
***
I usually prefer to group things by separate entries in fandom to make it easier for memory-purposes, but I didn't want to spam anyone's list. I'll sort it out later.
For deviatesellen. Prompt: FF7. TsengxCloud, telling the other Turks. Because Reno will never learn who not to hit on.
Precautionary Measures
As leader of the Turks, Tseng was ever conscious of the proper bureaucratic needs of his department, and not only took the time to compose and disperse a memo to all Turks about his recent undertaking of a sexual relationship with one Cloud Strife, but also preemptively informed Reno of his sudden assignment for a six-month mission on the other side of the Planet.
***
For apelion_orion. Prompt: FF7. Cloud, Sephiroth and Zack. Something happy.
Unleash
He watched the two of them standing in the hallway. It was something Zack had recognized but not understood at first, only seeing it clear in the last few months by observing only when he was outside of the action. Because for all the passion he could unleash, Sephiroth was terribly awkward about casual touch. Zack thought that he did want it, wanted it badly even, but he always needed some small initiative before he permitted himself even something as simple as his ungloved hand resting on Cloud's neck, thumb slowly stroking his throat. Watching it made him feel sad inside, for reasons he couldn’t articulate.
So without warning he rounded the corner and tackled Sephiroth, snagging Cloud along the way, all three of them going down in something between a hug and a full-body collision, and Zack throwing in as much groin contact and hip pumping as he could.
"Oof," Cloud said. "Hi."
"What the hell was that for?" Sephiroth asked, looking like he often did after something Zack had done, as if he wasn't certain whether he wanted to smile or scowl. His arm fit into the space between Zack's lower ribs and waist; Cloud's head fit into the space right beneath Zack's chin and against his shoulder. It was horribly uncomfortable and he didn't want to get up, ever.
"Just because," Zack said, and grinned.
***
For 2metaldog. Prompt: FF8. Zell, a hot dog, questionable choice of lube and a not so securely locked broom closet.
Condimental
Despite several hysterical declarations that he’d never be able to eat again after accidentally witnessing Seifer and Squall in flagrante delicto in the library supply closet, Zell was soon seen back in line for the cafeteria’s hotdogs, although it was noted he gave the mayonnaise a wide berth.
***
For cornucopian. Prompt: FF7. Zack and Reno, wacky adventures.
Routine
Neither Sephiroth nor Tseng reacted strongly to the urgent memo detailing the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of every traffic cone in the entire Junon military base; both men took note and continued working in their respective offices, only deviating from their routine at the end of the day. Without prior arrangement, they met at the corner of a certain passage, nodded to each other without speaking, and walked further on towards a sound that eventually articulated into cheering voices and screeching tires. As they emerged from the entryway to the strip of private airfield, they both stopped in order not to be run over or otherwise struck by the two golf carts that were streaking past and winding their way through the elaborate obstacle course of orange cones.
Sephiroth did wonder vaguely out loud about whether Zack or Reno had scored the fastest run so far, but his curiosity was mostly academic, the majority of his attention on the blonde cadet in his underwear, tied to the finish pole.
***
For twigcollins. Prompt: Knights and Pawns. Mike, Cass and some sort of taxidermied animal.
Again
"Oh, Michael, again?”
“Mrpgh.”
“I told you this would happen," Cassiel said. "This is the third time you've done something like this."
"Mowmamigupposedtmo?" Michael said, chewed, swallowed, and tried again. "How was I supposed to know? No one told me! I mean, there was a lot of them when I got here and I didn't know it was the last breeding pair! And they do taste pretty good."
Cassiel grimaced. "Well, you'd better not eat this one, then." He toed the pile of feathers at his feet. "See if you can do something with it. Maybe Ariel would like it."
In later years, a somewhat mangled stuffed dodo bird was anonymously presented to a museum along with a monetary donation of considerable size, the only words in the check's memo field being "Sorry about this."
***
For alhazred. Prompts: Jarhead. Swoff/Fergus.
Metaphors
Swoff sits in his hole and contemplates death, both his and other people’s.
Fergus is about two holes away. They’re at the point where they’re mostly okay with each other but they still could probably get in a fight if someone just says the wrong thing. But Troy’s been on both their asses about it, and so they mostly settle for grunting at each other. If one of them died tomorrow, the other one would probably get fucked up by it; guilt gets in everything, just like the fucking sand. Hell, probably it was the wrong thing to do to make up; probably, if one of them died, the other would be even more fucked up because they managed to reconcile. It’s easier not to give a fuck when you’re still pissed off.
Sometimes he wants to hit Fergus for joining up because Fergus reminds him of himself, a little bit. He’s too smart for this so that means he’s dumb, good old Marine logic, and he follows Swoff around like a fucking puppy sometimes. He’s lying in his hole the exact same way Swoff is, even if there really is only one way to lie in a hole.
Swoff glances over. He has the sudden strange impulse to go over and start kicking sand down into the hole; he wants to bury Fergus in sand, and he doesn’t know if that’s out of irritation or protectiveness or just pure fucking boredom. Fergus isn’t dumb; he could have gone to his fancy college, gotten laid and paid and not fucked over Swoff with his stupid goddamn Christmas fuckup.
Fucked by the green weenie, except not. Fucked by just a regular fucking weenie, goddamnit. Almost as obvious as a fucking gun in the mouth.
It’s kinda funny.
Troy comes and sits down next to him at the rim of his hole. “What the fuck are you grinning about?” he asks.
“Metaphors, motherfucker,” Swoff says, and pulls his hat down over his eyes.
***
For girlchild. Prompt: FF7/Utena. pre-game!Aeris/post-series!Anthy, Aeris's church-garden.
Corolla
There’s a girl sleeping in her garden outside. This is Midgar, so Aeris isn’t concerned by the color of the girl’s hair, only that she looks rumpled and tired and a little sad. She goes outside with a glass of lemonade, waits, and the girl accepts it gratefully when she wakes up. She doesn’t seem surprised at all to see Aeris, as though she is used to people watching her as she sleeps.
“Thank you,” she says, and by the time she’s finished drinking it, Aeris has gone back inside and come back out with a plate of sandwiches and her sewing kit.
“I like pink too,” Aeris confides as the girl eats a sandwich and Aeris puts small, neat stitches in the rip on the girl’s jacket. The thread color matches almost perfectly; it’s hard to tell there was ever a tear at all.
“It’s my favorite color,” the girl says, and smiles. She stretches out luxuriously in the flowers while Aeris sews; fed and watered, she is coming back to life just as surely as the blossoms do. “Your garden is beautiful. I used to have one.”
She comes inside for a bath and to borrow a comb, but waves off Aeris’s offer to braid the damp hair afterwards. “I like it down,” she says.
“I can’t stay,” she says.
“I’m looking for someone,” she says.
Aeris wishes the girl would spend the night, but she understands. “I’m waiting for someone,” she says in return.
The girl smiles, reaches out, and touches Aeris’s cheek briefly. Her fingers are cool and dry, like the fleeting brush of a leaf or a butterfly wing; Aeris half-expects to find pollen on her skin afterwards. “I hope that person comes,” she says.
When she leaves, Aeris puts her face to the damp towel before dropping it in the hamper; it smells faintly of flowers she’s never seen before, from places she’s never been, a scent she forever afterwards associates with hope.
***
For the_kelpsinator Prompt: FF7. Sephiroth/Zack, pre-Cloud. Not fluffy but not angsty.
Afterwards
He found Zack outside the medic's tent, lying face down with his head resting on his folded arms and a blanket loosely draped over him from the waist down. He didn’t appear to have pants on. When his shadow fell over Zack, the other man craned his head to the side and squinted up at him.
"I got shot in the ass," Zack announced without preamble. The tone of his voice indicated that he'd probably been making this proclamation, repeatedly, to anyone in the near vicinity for some time.
Sephiroth sat down on the grass, settling himself carefully. "Serves you right. You shouldn't have been running away."
After a few seconds, Zack laughed. Sephiroth smiled, and tilted his head back so he could feel the sun on his face.
It was a beautiful day.
***
For lainex. Prompt: Utena. Touga/Saionji, peas.
Finite
One of the most difficult things to get used to was the way that necessities didn’t just appear anymore. Food wasn’t automatically cooked and left on tables at the precise stroke of the clock; stained or torn clothing tossed into closets remained just that way; clocks had to be rewound. He had to buy toothpaste when the tube ran out.
The first time that happened to Touga, it had both amazed and terrified him. He had stood in the bathroom, holding the empty tube and trying to understand. Things went on but they were also finite, no longer looping into oblivion. When he looked into the mirror, he saw that he needed to cut his hair.
It would have been harder if Saionji wasn’t going through the exact same thing. The day before, he had found his friend in the garage, staring at his motorcycle.
“It won’t start,” Saionji said. The matter-of-fact tone he used covered the surprise in his voice like a thin veneer. “It needs to be refueled.”
Vehicles didn’t just drive on and on here. It was strange and it was frightening, but it was satisfying in a way he’d never felt before. Things ended, but they were his. He could make a choice to cut his hair or to buy a certain type of tea, and then it would happen as he chose.
Of course, he reflected, there were nights he missed the ease of things replaced and the simplicity of drifting through a life where nothing ever ended. But there was usually something to distract him from that. Right now, it was standing in the kitchen, wearing an apron and an expression that predicted death for the cooking pot of peas overflowing onto the stove, as well anything else in the near vicinity.
“Not a word,” Saionji said, scowling darkly.
“Goes with your hair,” Touga said, and then teasingly, “old friend.”
“You haven’t changed that much,” Saionji said with annoyance, but there was a smile somewhere in the corners of his mouth that bloomed slightly when he scooped up a handful of peas and smeared them across Touga’s chest, and then fully when Touga coaxed it out with his own mouth
“Yes,” he said against Saionji’s mouth, and reminded himself that he would have to wash his shirt tonight.
***
I usually prefer to group things by separate entries in fandom to make it easier for memory-purposes, but I didn't want to spam anyone's list. I'll sort it out later.