Animorphs: Tobias / Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Gamma)
Fandom: Animorphs
Pairing: Tobias / Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Theme set: Gamma
Rating: PG
My very favorite aspect of this pairing is their friendship, and I strove to capture something of that here; also, this was way too fun, and now I want to do another - clearly, the one-sentence thing has gone to my head.
Since it's Animorphs and we're weird like this: SPOILERS! for, um, everything.
#01 - Ring
Back when he was young and, if not innocent, at least naïve, Tobias had dreamt of finding a magical ring that would fix all of his problems - allow him to escape his life and fly free - but now that he had it, now that he no longer had to deal with bullies at school and drunken uncles, the thing that mattered most to him was not all of the hardships he had left behind, but that he now had a friend, be he ever so alien.
#02 - Hero
From the beginning, Aximili and Tobias had shared a love of Elfangor - of his heroism and dedication to the war - and though the revelation that he was Tobias's father as well as Aximili's brother had changed much in their relationship, that bond would always remain.
#03 - Memory
When he closed his eyes and listened to the beat of his hearts and the swish of the wind through the trees, Aximili could recall the smell of the grasses of home, a scent he hoped his shorm would one day know.
#04 - Box
It was only a cube - the morphing cube, the blue box, the humans called it - but to hold it, to know that it was the last thing his brother had touched before his death, and that the power it gave had been the only thing that kept his human friends alive, meant the world to Aximili.
#05 - Run
Sometimes, when the moon was hidden in the shadow of Earth and the clouds covered the painfully distant stars and all of the memories and threats they held, Tobias would turn into Aximili and they would run together through the fields.
#06 - Hurricane
The humans have an expression - one which will be almost incomprehensible to Andalite readers - relating to the curious weather phenomenon called a hurricane; they speak of the "eye of the storm", a place surrounded by tearing winds and raging water yet of itself utterly silent and safe: this is Tobias.
#07 - Wings
Had Rachel not ran to embrace him, and had the boy not spread his arms to fly away, Aximili would not have recognized the human form of his shorm; having identified Tobias, however, Aximili wanted nothing more than to attack the one called Ellimist and rend head from body.
#08 - Cold
There are many places on Earth unsuitable to human or Andalite life but now, nestled together deep in the bear's fur as fleas, Tobias and Aximili have no complaints about being in one of the harshest.
#09 - Red
Red of feathers, red of blood, red of the dim lighting the Yeerks employ - Aximili cannot tell the difference as he runs to the crumpled bird, scooping the broken body off of the ground with his weak arms even as Hork-Bajir blades threaten to make a vecol - a cripple - out of him.
#10 - Drink
Aximili almost giggles as the bubbling drink enters his human mouth - the sugar seems to attack the very membranes of the oral cavity, allowing the sweet compound to directly flood his brain and leave him even more incapable than usual of resisting the human food Tobias offers to purchase for him.
#11 - Midnight
In the dark of night deep in the forest, the television turned off and the city asleep, Aximili watches Tobias shudder and fluff his wings in his sleep and wakes him with the first words that come to mind: < Tobias, I worry.>
#12 - Temptation
He asks Tobias why humans kiss, but Tobias will not answer; Aximili does not understand his friend's reluctance to share the secret of this apparent temptation.
#13 - View
Between the two of them, the bird with eyes evolved to notice the twitching of a single blade of grass in a wide field and the Andalite with his movable stalks and hair-trigger reflexes, they don't miss much, but this closeness, this sense of fitting together, has taken both by surprise.
#14 - Music
As he idly browsed Ax's collection of illegally begotten music, Marco sneered, "There you have it: Birdboy and the alien, united by a common disdain of any form of decent music."
#15 - Silk
< Mm, more like fleece - the nice kind that they use in leather jackets,> Tobias responded to his friend's statement about the "silky softness" of his blue fur; Aximili was surprised Tobias had considered the question at all, and tried not to think on the implication that his friend would like to wear a garment made of Andalite.
#16 - Cover
It took the better part of two days to plan and erect the dense covering of woven branches and leaves over the sheet of plastic Ax had found god-knows-where for his home in the woods; they worked in human morph, tight morphing suits replaced with jeans to protect against the forest, and when they at last collapsed on the couch Cassie had helped them haul out into the clearing, it was with a sense of accomplishment and pride.
#17 - Promise
< Good bye, Tobias; we shall meet again,> Aximili softly whispered to the deaf forest.
#18 - Dream
Neither could afford to dream, Aximili having betrayed his people rather than risk the lives of his friends and Tobias trapped in the body of an aging bird of prey, but sometimes, when the credits of I Love Lucy had scrolled off the screen and the Lifetime movie was a rerun, they would stay together, and pretend that there could be happiness.
#19 - Candle
When the news broadcasters spoke of the Animorphs, when the "inspirational channels" broadcast candlelight vigils at Rachel's grave, when Prince Jake appeared on the screen with haunted eyes and too-thin face, Aximili took care to delete his recording, to erase even the mention of the programs from his television schedule: there was not much he could do to ease his friend's grief but this, at least, he could manage.
#20 - Talent
< Cassie does indeed have the talent for morphing,> Ax allowed as he watched Tobias's feathers melt to thick blue fur, < but she is not you.>
#21 - Silence
The silent voices of the computers filled his head and the quick gestures of his well-trained officers his eyes, but what he longed for were the voices of his human companions, and for the laughter of the nephew he had left behind on Earth.
#22 - Journey
There were times aboard the Rachel when he dreamt of shoving Jake out of an airlock in revenge for what he had done to the real girl, when he wished it were indeed possible to cry oneself to death, but Tobias endured because of his father's words, and because he had hope of rescuing Aximili.
#23 - Fire
They sat beside the campfire in the valley of the Hork-Bajir, dispirited warriors unwilling to be alone in the darkness of the caves, yet also unwilling to look at one another, to speak of the atrocities that would be committed in the battle ahead.
#24 - Strength
He had been praised for his determination, his strength in withstanding the hardships of isolation from his people and his former life, but Aximili knew well that he would not have lasted in that foreign forest without the companionship of his friend, Tobias.
#25 - Mask
< Elfangor was my father,> Tobias said as he finally stared directly into Aximili's main eyes, his hawk form a perfect mask for the emotions that threatened to overwhelm his voice.
#26 - Ice
Tobias stifled a laugh as Aximili tapped quizzically at the ice that encrusted his pond, muttering to himself about how it was barely under one hundred "standard grad".
#27 - Fall
Though he at first had resisted
when Tobias so insisted
that he forego his favorite 'bun,
Ax now agreed - caramel was fun.
#28 - Forgotten
"Forgotten," Tobias began with a smirk, "or just never learned because you were too busy staring at the girls' tail-blades?"
#29 - Dance
Aximili really didn't understand why Marco was rolling around on the floor, nor why Rachel hugged her midsection as if in pain - all he had asked was if Tobias would like to dance with him after they partook of the excellent fruit punch.
#30 - Body
< And now he won't shut up: he woke me up to ask if I knew that the brain is protected by some kind of weird-ass cells that let alcohol in but not "other poisons", then he wanted to know why anyone would drink alcohol in the first place and wouldn't leave me alone until I promised him I'd buy him a bottle of wine some day - I knew we shouldn't have given him that book about human anatomy, birthday present or no.>
#31 - Sacred
Tobias gave me a look that meant I should "shut up" and muttered, "I'll explain it later - just please don't get my mom started about religion."
#32 - Farewells
I saw Tobias as he plummeted out of the sky, wings folded and tail carefully aligned, then again, moments later, as he rose back into the air, talons gripped 'round the stone handle of the urn: I never found out where he took her remains, nor why.
#33 - World
From the bridge of the Dome ship Elfangor, Aximili watched silently as they accelerated away from Earth, away from his friend Tobias - he excused himself when they passed into the whiteness of Z-space and returned to his assigned cabin to morph human, to cry for the loss of his shorm.
#34 - Formal
I couldn't help but laugh as I tried to get Ax and myself into our suits - Rachel had promised that everything would be the right sizes, but I'd be damned if either of us knew how to handle the carefully pressed material: I had already had to button up Ax's white shirt for him as he stood shrugging his shoulders and craning his neck around, and now that I had taken his jacket from its hanger, I realized that I still had to figure out how to knot the ties.
#35 - Fever
Nestled into the crevices of the Andalite's brain, Aftran was shocked to encounter the depth of emotion this almost-enemy felt, even in his fevered state - guilt warred with terror and nightmares, though Aximili was too far gone to consciously remember that all were sprung of his horror at possibility of having somehow injured the hawk.
#36 - Laugh
Though he did not fully understand the joke, Aximili was pleased by his shorm's laughter and joined in gamely.
#37 - Lies
Estrid didn't understand: even ignoring the dubious morality of murdering millions of humans to destroy the Yeerks, I could not consent to something that could endanger my friends and tear my shorm's life apart yet again.
#38 - Forever
Though Tobias did not doubt the veracity of the letter, he and Aximili would forever wonder how it came about that Elfangor, of all people, could have fathered a human son.
#39 - Overwhelmed
"If you try to eat something you've found on the ground one more time, I swear I'm going to call up the Andalites myself and have them take you home," Tobias hissed into my ear, but if the smile he was fighting to keep from his face weren't enough to negate the threatening tone, the companionable arm draped over my strong human shoulders certainly was.
#40 - Whisper
When one communicates with thought-speak, the concepts condensing into words deep within the other's mind, there is little need to whisper, yet for some thoughts - thoughts of friendship, of respect, of love - the impulse to do so remains.
#41 - Wait
As I run through the field, my stalk eyes ever on the swooping flight of the hawk, my hearts ache with anticipation for the sudden plummet that comes before his kill.
#42 - Talk
Marco has attempted to explain the human usage of the words "hot" and "cool" to me, but I do not understand - on television, one person may be either, both, or neither, but Marco has assured me that Tobias, while cool, is definitely not hot, and refuses to elaborate any further.
#43 - Search
< Ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred 'Earth seconds' and I'm going to find you, you big blue Andalite, if I have to fly over this whole forest to do it!>
#44 - Hope
As the menacing laughter faded, Aximili felt his hearts slowing, his breath becoming shallow, and he understood: he had been assimilated, and now could hope only to die.
#45 - Eclipse
"No, Ax, go home - I can't have you stay here," Tobias said, the veins in his eyes engorged by the salty tears that threatened to spill down his face; then, as he wrapped his strong human arms around my chest and pressed his face into my shoulder, he added, "I love you."
#46 - Gravity
< You cannot mean to tell me that humans have no ability whatsoever to manipulate gravity - how did you ever make it even to your moon?>
#47 - Highway
Aximili stared in horror at the fiery car wreck on the screen, but Tobias just laughed triumphantly and thumped him on the back, shouting, "See - I told you I have better reflexes than you!"
#48 - Unknown
Sometimes, when he looked at his brother, he imagined his son, and longed for them to meet.
#49 - Lock
< Well, this isn't too suspicious,> I muttered to myself as I landed atop the observatory as Ax and I once had, hoping to again slip past lock and security pad in morph to access one of the powerful computers and - even if just for a minute - talk to Ax again.
#50 - Breathe
Feeling my own breath quicken, I pounded Ax on the back, trying to dislodge from his throat the over-large chunk of cinnamon bun he had attempted to swallow while talking; when he finally coughed it up, he spent a full minute alternatively gagging and sipping water, then observed, in a hoarse voice, "That is a very poor design."
Pairing: Tobias / Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Theme set: Gamma
Rating: PG
My very favorite aspect of this pairing is their friendship, and I strove to capture something of that here; also, this was way too fun, and now I want to do another - clearly, the one-sentence thing has gone to my head.
Since it's Animorphs and we're weird like this: SPOILERS! for, um, everything.
#01 - Ring
Back when he was young and, if not innocent, at least naïve, Tobias had dreamt of finding a magical ring that would fix all of his problems - allow him to escape his life and fly free - but now that he had it, now that he no longer had to deal with bullies at school and drunken uncles, the thing that mattered most to him was not all of the hardships he had left behind, but that he now had a friend, be he ever so alien.
#02 - Hero
From the beginning, Aximili and Tobias had shared a love of Elfangor - of his heroism and dedication to the war - and though the revelation that he was Tobias's father as well as Aximili's brother had changed much in their relationship, that bond would always remain.
#03 - Memory
When he closed his eyes and listened to the beat of his hearts and the swish of the wind through the trees, Aximili could recall the smell of the grasses of home, a scent he hoped his shorm would one day know.
#04 - Box
It was only a cube - the morphing cube, the blue box, the humans called it - but to hold it, to know that it was the last thing his brother had touched before his death, and that the power it gave had been the only thing that kept his human friends alive, meant the world to Aximili.
#05 - Run
Sometimes, when the moon was hidden in the shadow of Earth and the clouds covered the painfully distant stars and all of the memories and threats they held, Tobias would turn into Aximili and they would run together through the fields.
#06 - Hurricane
The humans have an expression - one which will be almost incomprehensible to Andalite readers - relating to the curious weather phenomenon called a hurricane; they speak of the "eye of the storm", a place surrounded by tearing winds and raging water yet of itself utterly silent and safe: this is Tobias.
#07 - Wings
Had Rachel not ran to embrace him, and had the boy not spread his arms to fly away, Aximili would not have recognized the human form of his shorm; having identified Tobias, however, Aximili wanted nothing more than to attack the one called Ellimist and rend head from body.
#08 - Cold
There are many places on Earth unsuitable to human or Andalite life but now, nestled together deep in the bear's fur as fleas, Tobias and Aximili have no complaints about being in one of the harshest.
#09 - Red
Red of feathers, red of blood, red of the dim lighting the Yeerks employ - Aximili cannot tell the difference as he runs to the crumpled bird, scooping the broken body off of the ground with his weak arms even as Hork-Bajir blades threaten to make a vecol - a cripple - out of him.
#10 - Drink
Aximili almost giggles as the bubbling drink enters his human mouth - the sugar seems to attack the very membranes of the oral cavity, allowing the sweet compound to directly flood his brain and leave him even more incapable than usual of resisting the human food Tobias offers to purchase for him.
#11 - Midnight
In the dark of night deep in the forest, the television turned off and the city asleep, Aximili watches Tobias shudder and fluff his wings in his sleep and wakes him with the first words that come to mind: < Tobias, I worry.>
#12 - Temptation
He asks Tobias why humans kiss, but Tobias will not answer; Aximili does not understand his friend's reluctance to share the secret of this apparent temptation.
#13 - View
Between the two of them, the bird with eyes evolved to notice the twitching of a single blade of grass in a wide field and the Andalite with his movable stalks and hair-trigger reflexes, they don't miss much, but this closeness, this sense of fitting together, has taken both by surprise.
#14 - Music
As he idly browsed Ax's collection of illegally begotten music, Marco sneered, "There you have it: Birdboy and the alien, united by a common disdain of any form of decent music."
#15 - Silk
< Mm, more like fleece - the nice kind that they use in leather jackets,> Tobias responded to his friend's statement about the "silky softness" of his blue fur; Aximili was surprised Tobias had considered the question at all, and tried not to think on the implication that his friend would like to wear a garment made of Andalite.
#16 - Cover
It took the better part of two days to plan and erect the dense covering of woven branches and leaves over the sheet of plastic Ax had found god-knows-where for his home in the woods; they worked in human morph, tight morphing suits replaced with jeans to protect against the forest, and when they at last collapsed on the couch Cassie had helped them haul out into the clearing, it was with a sense of accomplishment and pride.
#17 - Promise
< Good bye, Tobias; we shall meet again,> Aximili softly whispered to the deaf forest.
#18 - Dream
Neither could afford to dream, Aximili having betrayed his people rather than risk the lives of his friends and Tobias trapped in the body of an aging bird of prey, but sometimes, when the credits of I Love Lucy had scrolled off the screen and the Lifetime movie was a rerun, they would stay together, and pretend that there could be happiness.
#19 - Candle
When the news broadcasters spoke of the Animorphs, when the "inspirational channels" broadcast candlelight vigils at Rachel's grave, when Prince Jake appeared on the screen with haunted eyes and too-thin face, Aximili took care to delete his recording, to erase even the mention of the programs from his television schedule: there was not much he could do to ease his friend's grief but this, at least, he could manage.
#20 - Talent
< Cassie does indeed have the talent for morphing,> Ax allowed as he watched Tobias's feathers melt to thick blue fur, < but she is not you.>
#21 - Silence
The silent voices of the computers filled his head and the quick gestures of his well-trained officers his eyes, but what he longed for were the voices of his human companions, and for the laughter of the nephew he had left behind on Earth.
#22 - Journey
There were times aboard the Rachel when he dreamt of shoving Jake out of an airlock in revenge for what he had done to the real girl, when he wished it were indeed possible to cry oneself to death, but Tobias endured because of his father's words, and because he had hope of rescuing Aximili.
#23 - Fire
They sat beside the campfire in the valley of the Hork-Bajir, dispirited warriors unwilling to be alone in the darkness of the caves, yet also unwilling to look at one another, to speak of the atrocities that would be committed in the battle ahead.
#24 - Strength
He had been praised for his determination, his strength in withstanding the hardships of isolation from his people and his former life, but Aximili knew well that he would not have lasted in that foreign forest without the companionship of his friend, Tobias.
#25 - Mask
< Elfangor was my father,> Tobias said as he finally stared directly into Aximili's main eyes, his hawk form a perfect mask for the emotions that threatened to overwhelm his voice.
#26 - Ice
Tobias stifled a laugh as Aximili tapped quizzically at the ice that encrusted his pond, muttering to himself about how it was barely under one hundred "standard grad".
#27 - Fall
Though he at first had resisted
when Tobias so insisted
that he forego his favorite 'bun,
Ax now agreed - caramel was fun.
#28 - Forgotten
"Forgotten," Tobias began with a smirk, "or just never learned because you were too busy staring at the girls' tail-blades?"
#29 - Dance
Aximili really didn't understand why Marco was rolling around on the floor, nor why Rachel hugged her midsection as if in pain - all he had asked was if Tobias would like to dance with him after they partook of the excellent fruit punch.
#30 - Body
< And now he won't shut up: he woke me up to ask if I knew that the brain is protected by some kind of weird-ass cells that let alcohol in but not "other poisons", then he wanted to know why anyone would drink alcohol in the first place and wouldn't leave me alone until I promised him I'd buy him a bottle of wine some day - I knew we shouldn't have given him that book about human anatomy, birthday present or no.>
#31 - Sacred
Tobias gave me a look that meant I should "shut up" and muttered, "I'll explain it later - just please don't get my mom started about religion."
#32 - Farewells
I saw Tobias as he plummeted out of the sky, wings folded and tail carefully aligned, then again, moments later, as he rose back into the air, talons gripped 'round the stone handle of the urn: I never found out where he took her remains, nor why.
#33 - World
From the bridge of the Dome ship Elfangor, Aximili watched silently as they accelerated away from Earth, away from his friend Tobias - he excused himself when they passed into the whiteness of Z-space and returned to his assigned cabin to morph human, to cry for the loss of his shorm.
#34 - Formal
I couldn't help but laugh as I tried to get Ax and myself into our suits - Rachel had promised that everything would be the right sizes, but I'd be damned if either of us knew how to handle the carefully pressed material: I had already had to button up Ax's white shirt for him as he stood shrugging his shoulders and craning his neck around, and now that I had taken his jacket from its hanger, I realized that I still had to figure out how to knot the ties.
#35 - Fever
Nestled into the crevices of the Andalite's brain, Aftran was shocked to encounter the depth of emotion this almost-enemy felt, even in his fevered state - guilt warred with terror and nightmares, though Aximili was too far gone to consciously remember that all were sprung of his horror at possibility of having somehow injured the hawk.
#36 - Laugh
Though he did not fully understand the joke, Aximili was pleased by his shorm's laughter and joined in gamely.
#37 - Lies
Estrid didn't understand: even ignoring the dubious morality of murdering millions of humans to destroy the Yeerks, I could not consent to something that could endanger my friends and tear my shorm's life apart yet again.
#38 - Forever
Though Tobias did not doubt the veracity of the letter, he and Aximili would forever wonder how it came about that Elfangor, of all people, could have fathered a human son.
#39 - Overwhelmed
"If you try to eat something you've found on the ground one more time, I swear I'm going to call up the Andalites myself and have them take you home," Tobias hissed into my ear, but if the smile he was fighting to keep from his face weren't enough to negate the threatening tone, the companionable arm draped over my strong human shoulders certainly was.
#40 - Whisper
When one communicates with thought-speak, the concepts condensing into words deep within the other's mind, there is little need to whisper, yet for some thoughts - thoughts of friendship, of respect, of love - the impulse to do so remains.
#41 - Wait
As I run through the field, my stalk eyes ever on the swooping flight of the hawk, my hearts ache with anticipation for the sudden plummet that comes before his kill.
#42 - Talk
Marco has attempted to explain the human usage of the words "hot" and "cool" to me, but I do not understand - on television, one person may be either, both, or neither, but Marco has assured me that Tobias, while cool, is definitely not hot, and refuses to elaborate any further.
#43 - Search
< Ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred 'Earth seconds' and I'm going to find you, you big blue Andalite, if I have to fly over this whole forest to do it!>
#44 - Hope
As the menacing laughter faded, Aximili felt his hearts slowing, his breath becoming shallow, and he understood: he had been assimilated, and now could hope only to die.
#45 - Eclipse
"No, Ax, go home - I can't have you stay here," Tobias said, the veins in his eyes engorged by the salty tears that threatened to spill down his face; then, as he wrapped his strong human arms around my chest and pressed his face into my shoulder, he added, "I love you."
#46 - Gravity
< You cannot mean to tell me that humans have no ability whatsoever to manipulate gravity - how did you ever make it even to your moon?>
#47 - Highway
Aximili stared in horror at the fiery car wreck on the screen, but Tobias just laughed triumphantly and thumped him on the back, shouting, "See - I told you I have better reflexes than you!"
#48 - Unknown
Sometimes, when he looked at his brother, he imagined his son, and longed for them to meet.
#49 - Lock
< Well, this isn't too suspicious,> I muttered to myself as I landed atop the observatory as Ax and I once had, hoping to again slip past lock and security pad in morph to access one of the powerful computers and - even if just for a minute - talk to Ax again.
#50 - Breathe
Feeling my own breath quicken, I pounded Ax on the back, trying to dislodge from his throat the over-large chunk of cinnamon bun he had attempted to swallow while talking; when he finally coughed it up, he spent a full minute alternatively gagging and sipping water, then observed, in a hoarse voice, "That is a very poor design."