'Cause the Fic Gods hate you.

ThumbleMiya

2009-11-06T18:03:43Z

For blood_opal. A belated 'happy birthday!' because I love you and you are so good to me. I'm sorry it's not better than it is--I'm just unhappy with everything I write lately and it was either post this or trash it.

ThumbleMiya

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there were two young men who lived together in a little cottage at the edge of the big forest at the edge of their small town. Their names were Sho and Satoshi and they were the very best of friends. They were also very polite and very cute; so much so that the women in town—teenaged girls and their mothers and their grandmothers too—would bring them delicious food every day just for the pleasure of watching them eat. It was a charmed life, both of them very happy every day and yet…

There was something lacking.

"A baby," Sho said over breakfast one morning. "Just one would be enough."

Satoshi didn't look up from his scrambled eggs. "You could knock up the neighbors," he suggested.

Sho looked absolutely scandalized. "I could not!" he gasped in affront.

"Or I could," an unperturbed Satoshi offered.

"You'll not," Sho told him firmly. "It's rude to get somebody pregnant with no intention to marry them and much more worse to do so with every intention of giving the baby to me."

"If you shan't and I shan't then you shall have to make a wish at the enchanted wishing well," said Satoshi. "You can go today since I'm going to go fishing."

"I'll pack us both a lunch," promised Sho.

Satoshi smiled gamely. "I'm sure it will be delicious."

The forest was big and deep and dark and only the most daring entered it. Sho stood at the edge for a very long time before drawing in a deep breath and plunging in. Though the day was sunny and bright it was impossible to see the sunlight through the tall, thick trees. The forest was not silent. In the spaces between there was the constant rustling hush of unseen animals and insects. Sho was frankly terrified.

"Do it for the baby," he kept repeating to himself as he picked his way carefully along the leaf-strewn forest floor, stepping cautiously over and around the raised roots of some of the foreboding trees. "Do it for your baby."

After an unknowably long stretch of time, Sho saw a glimmer of sunlight through the trees and he found a small, bright clearing at the center of which was the magic wishing well.

Sho clutched his gold piece hard in both hands, lifting it to his forehead. "Just one," he said into the quiet of the clearing. "Just one tiny person that I can love forever and ever."

His coin made a pleasant splash-tink when he tossed it in the well.

"I don't think it worked," Sho sighed several many months later.

"It takes time to make a baby," Ohno reassured him absently.

Sho sighed again and went back to making their breakfast. He picked up an egg and rapped it soundly against the edge of the bowl of pancake mix.

"Ouch!" said the egg. A second later out tumbled a small, naked little man who landed with a splash-plink in the bowl of batter. "Ick," said the little man.

"My wish," Sho realized with dawning glee.

"I can't eat him," Ohno said with dawning realization.

"A little help here?" said the tiny man.

"Oh!"

Sho and Ohno named the new addition to their family 'ThumbleMiya'. It was supposed to be 'ThimbleMiya' since he was not much bigger than a thimble but Ohno couldn't spell for beans and Sho both thought it was a cute mistake and was also helpless against Ohno being cute in general.

"How did you get into the egg?" he asked ThumbleMiya as he helped him take a bath in an eggcup.

ThumbleMiya gave him a look that said 'do you really want to know'.

Sho decided that he really rather didn't. "Well, first things first; you can't very well go around naked," Sho said as he handed ThumbleMiya the edge of a dishtowel so that he might dry his hair.

"I very well can so," said ThumbleMiya, peeking up from under the dishcloth.

"You most certainly can NOT," said Sho.

"Don't fight him on the clothing thing," advised Ohno.

And so the tailor was called that very day.

The tailor was a smart, whip-like man named Jun. Jun wore a purple sash that said 'Seven with One Smile'. There were rhinestones and sparkly-spangles all over it and ThumbleMiya was so astonished at this person that he didn't even make a snide remark.

"Seven what?" he wanted to know.

"Never you mind," said Jun, snapping out an edge of cloth with a flourish. The cloth was very fine indeed, soft and satiny with a fine sheen to it. It was also pink and embroidered with more pink and some pink glittered flowers. "It's a gorgeous color," said Jun.

"Gay," opined ThumbleMiya.

Jun rolled his eyes, eloquent in silent expression. "It's a gorgeous color and works with you skin tones. Now," he said, brandishing his tape measure "let me get your measurements."

"You're going to need a bigger tape measure for my inseams," said ThumbleMiya.

"You wish," Jun said as he set to work.

"SO gay," said ThumbleMiya sometime later.

"Keep it up," warned Jun, "and I'll make you a fuzzy, yellow muppet suit. Don't think I won't; I've the cloth for it at my workshop."

ThumbleMiya shut his mouth with an audible snap and Sho put down his camera and went to fetch a pencil so that he might make notes for himself.

(As it happens, when ThumbleMiya's wardrobe arrived from Jun's shop there was a fuzzy, yellow suit amongst the items. It was marked as pajamas and ThumbleMiya wore them because Sho thought it was adorable.

"He looks like a fuzzy, yellow chick!" said Sho in rapture.

"He looks pissed off," observed Ohno astutely.

"I'm only wearing these for you and if you take even a single photograph of me in this getup I will lay waste to your camera with every instrument and by every last mean at my disposal," ThumbleMiya informed them.)

Time went by, as time so often does, and soon Sho could hardly remember a time before ThumbleMiya had come to them. Satoshi sometimes spoke longingly of a time when he didn't have to worry about tiny hands pinching his bottom but Sho knew him well enough to know that he didn't truly mind for they both adored their tiny ThumbleMiya and his itty-bitty clothes and his weensy small shoes and his teeny little toiletries and even the way he bitched about every large thing in the house in his teensy voice.

"I do believe it's time," mused ThumbleMiya one day as he lounged in his eggcup bathtub.

"You are getting as wrinkled as a prune," Sho agreed, picking up ThumbleMiya's towel.

ThumbleMiya accepted the towel and secured it around his hips. "Not that time," he said as he grabbed Sho's thumb to be helped from his bath. "Time for me to go out into the world and find what waits for me."

Sho nearly dropped ThumbleMiya as he fell back in shock. His bottom found the top of his chair purely by chance and he sat heavily. "Go out…?" he said dizzily. "You mean you want Satoshi and me to take you to town?" he asked hopefully after a moment. "It has been a while. We could stop by Jun's and get you some new pants!"

ThumbleMiya sighed heavily and climbed to Sho's shoulder. "Listen, Sho, you and Satoshi are the best but I sort of mean it's time for me to go out on my OWN. I'm not your baby, you know."

"But you're my ThumbleMiya," protested Sho. "You're so much better than a baby. You can play checkers and chess and use the cheese wheel as a stage when you sing."

"And that's all great," ThumbleMiya reassured him. "But I'm still not a pet."

"Think of him as a freeloader," suggested Satoshi who had been listening to the entire exchange, "one who needs to get a job and pay his fair share of the rent."

"Job," Sho gasped, one hand hovering protectively over ThumbleMiya.

"RENT?" gasped ThumbleMiya.

"Sho can pack you a lunch," Satoshi said, handing ThumbleMiya a pair of trousers.

"Sho can pack ptomaide, you mean," muttered a very betrayed ThumbleMiya.

"I'm worried about him," Sho said. "He's all alone out there in the big, big world. And it's even bigger for ThumbleMiya!"

"It's been an hour," said Satoshi. "He's probably still in the front yard."

"He was at your gate actually," boomed a new voice.

Sho and the ceiling both shrieked as the roof was peeled away from the top of the house and a rather large face loomed in the opening. "Satoshi, duck and cover!" Sho said, tugging on Satoshi's hand.

Gamely, Satoshi crawled under the table. "Hello," he offered to the newcomer. "You've not squashed ThumbleMiya, have you? Only we'd be terribly bereaved if you have."

The large face broke into a smile that could have put the sun to shame, had he not been blocking the sun. "I haven't! I've been super careful! Right, ThumbleMiya?"

"Hullo," called ThumbleMiya, waving from the shirt pocket of the giant who was holding up their roof. "This is Aiba and I'm going to keep him."

"You can't keep a giant!" Sho protested.

"Have you found a job, then?" Satoshi wanted to know. "Because you can't keep Aiba if you haven't found a job, you know."

"Ah, but ThumbleMiya," said Aiba the giant, "I'm going to be living with Jun-chan, you know. Once I find that person he was talking about. Which reminds me," and Aiba looked back down to where Sho and Satoshi were making their way out from under their breakfast table. "Jun-chan said that somebody here was the exact same size as my brain. I've always wondered just how big my brain really is—which of you is it?"

ThumbleMiya slapped a hand over his face and then peeped out between his fingers. "This is why I'm going to be the brains of our loan-sharking business," ThumbleMiya told him. Then, "Let's just say it's Sho-chan, all right?"

"All right!" agreed Aiba.

"Loan-sharking?" said Sho.

"Sounds profitable," said Ohno.

"Oh, it will be," said ThumbleMiya, rubbing his hands together gleefully. "It will be."

And it was.

With ThumbleMiya as the brains and Aiba as the well-intentioned muscle they turned a tidy profit in a short amount of time. Enough to pay for half of the new roof that the cottage needed—Sho had tried to protest that ThumbleMiya didn't need to pay for it at all, so glad was Sho to have him home again and Satoshi had tried to make him pay for the whole thing seeing as how Aiba was ThumbleMiya's giant to begin with.

There was even enough leftover that ThumbleMiya offered to buy new suits for both Satoshi and Sho. They rung up Jun at once to have him come and make their suits for them.

"Did you know there's a baby on your doorstep?" asked Jun, holding several swaths of fabric and a pink-blanket-wrapped bundle.

"Really?" asked Sho.

"Oh, it's been nine months, hasn't it," said Satoshi.

"Get rid of it," said ThumbleMiya. "Babies cry and eat and poop."

"That's cold," said Jun.

"Jun-chan!" said Aiba, "Jun-chan let's keep it."

"Okay," said Satoshi.

"Not okay," said Sho.

"That's a good idea," said ThumbleMiya.

"That's the dumbest idea ever," said Jun, who was still holding the baby and cradling her rather close to his heart.

"We can name it 'Mao'," said Aiba.

"No."

And they all--Satoshi and Sho and ThumbleMiya, Jun and Aiba and Mao and eventually little Shunkerbell (whose story is as long as this one but can be summed up by saying 'Shunkerbell was a fairy ThumbleMiya met before he moved into the egg and who also frequented Jun's tailoring shop'), too--lived happily ever after.

Kamen Rider Kabuto ficlet

2009-11-04T23:05:00Z

I just really feel like I can't write at all lately. Which is bad because I have je_holiday to do. ACK. ONE MONTH. So, again, I gave myself five minutes and told myself to just write whatever the hell I could.

WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH.

Shine on
Shine on this life that's burning out

Kageyama is dying. His one and only partner, his little brother, his sad and broken and perfect Kageyama, his. Yaguruma Sou brushes the hair back from Kageyama's face, out of the way of his eyes and his scar. "Partner," he says and he sounds bored and disaffected. "Looks like you found the light we can reach for together."

And Kageyama smiles at him and holds his wrist. "If you still believe in love, I'll be waiting for you." There is something beautiful and sweet in that smile, something light and not dark.

"Don't be a liar," he says, shaking his hand off and pushing with tender roughness at the hair that insists on falling in eyes that are changing, changing, changing. He cups Kageyama's face. "I'll come and get you again."

One last smile and then he snaps Kageyama's neck before the change can take him away.

Repost

2009-11-04T04:50:38Z

Firstly:Happy anniversary, Arashi!
Thank you for all that you've given me--joy and hope and courage and friends. Thank you for pulling me and my family closer together as we sing along (badly! in bad Japanese!) with you. Thank you for loving me even though we'll never meet. More than anything my wish for all of you this year is your happiness--no matter how sunburnt or girl-kissed that might be. Be happy, Arashi! I love you!

I am SO that fan.

Moving on: This was my entry for HallowShoneen as well as a fic for tangiblewhimsy.

The Fairy Queen

Sho knelt on the golden floor of the fairy palace's throne room and wondered why he had been summoned before the King. The young prince had barely finished breakfast when the junior apprentices had rushed him, fetching him before he'd managed even one step in the direction of his lessons. Now, head bent in respectful submission, he could feel the king's eyes on him like a heavy weight. He bowed a little more.

"Sakurai," Johnny said with solemnity, "the official announcement will be at this evening's ball but I wanted to give you warning. You are no longer a junior apprentice to the throne."

The words made his breath catch with a painful hitch and his first instinct was to whip his head up and stare and plead. Instead he kept still. "If that is His Majesty's will," he said. His voice didn't even tremble, a feat he was proud of until Johnny laughed.

"You are being made Crown Prince, Sakurai Sho," said the king. "You will become the king of the fairies once your training is complete."

Sho caught his breath again and nearly choked on it. "Sire," he said and he didn't even care that his voice cracked on the word.

Johnny laughed kindly. "Robes have already been prepared for you for tonight's announcement. You're dismissed from your lessons today. Oh, and Sho? One more thing…"

"…and then he told me that I have to find a bride. I have to get married," Sho said. He got no reply but he didn't expect one. It wasn't like ladybugs could talk, after all. He continued to rub polish on the shell of the large ladybug and despair. "I don't even know any girls! What do I do, Spot?"

Spot didn't answer but continued to chew placidly on her aphids and mites.

Sho sighed. "As good a sounding board as you are, Spot, I think we're going to have to talk to the guys." He put away the polishing rag and when to get his saddle.

Truthfully, Sho did not need a saddle. He was rather too big to ride a ladybug, with his knees up by his ears as he sat. As a child he had begged and begged for a ladybug but his parents had always told him 'no'. When he'd been made a junior apprentice to the throne it had been his one request from King Johnny. Spot had become a confidant as well as a mount and he saw no reason to feel ridiculous riding her. So what if everybody else had a dragonfly? Sho had love.

Which reminded him of his current dilemma once again.

"Damn it," he sighed as he mounted his steed.

Sho had lived a bit of a sheltered life in the fairy court but that sheltered life had also given him his four greatest friends: Jun, Aiba, Nino, and Ohno. He never would have meet any of them without being a member of the court because the others were not fairies. They were members of the greater woodland court.

And as it happened, the first of his friends that Sho found was Nino. Nino was a rarity—a crossbreed between a woodland nymph and a hairy troll, the result of a love spell gone awry. He was small and delicate with the fox-like face of a nymph and he had an untidy mop of black hair that never behaved itself. Which was fitting since Nino never behaved himself either—the troll-born mischievousness, no doubt. "Nino!" Sho gasped Spot landed.

Nino looked up from shuffling petals in his hands. "Sho!" he mock-gasped in return.

"I'm in trouble!"

Nino put his petals in his pocket. "It's all right," he said, putting both hands on Sho's shoulders before sliding them down to hold his hands, "We'll get married today and tell everybody that the baby was born early."

"What?" said Sho. Then, "It's not that! C'mon, I need all of you guys to help me!" He twisted his wrist to take Nino's hand in his own. "It's seriously serious!" he said, dragging his friend over to his waiting ladybug.

The next friend Sho set off to find was Ohno, the gnome. Like all gnomes, Ohno was short and stocky with big, dark eyes. Like all gnomes, Ohno was picking mushrooms though he was munching idly as he worked. "Ohno," said Sho, landing Spot on top of a large toadstool. "Ohno, I'm in serious trouble."

Ohno gazed up at him looking sleepy and slouchy. "Just marry Nino and pretend the baby came early," Ohno said, stuffing another mushroom in his mouth.

"That's what I told him," Nino called from his perch on Spot's back.

"Not that," Sho huffed.

"It's too early for trouble," Ohno said with a little pout.

Sho ignored it easily. "Come on; let's find the others."

Nino groped Ohno's ass instead of saying 'good morning'.

"Hi, Nino," said Ohno.

"I have a problem," Sho reminded them.

It was more cramped on Spot's back with both Nino and Ohno on board but Sho was in dire need of good counsel. That naturally led him to think of Jun, the elf. "Jun!" said Sho when they found him on the path to the pond. He landed Spot and scrambled off her back. "Jun!"

Jun and Sho were of a height, as elves and fairies often were. But where Sho had wings Jun had none and where Jun's ears were pointed Sho's were round. Jun's dark hair was also longer and had no need to part around a pair of antennae. "Yo," said Jun as Sho drew up beside him. "Hello, Satoshi," he said as Ohno ambled over. "Hi, Nino," he said as Nino draped himself over Sho's shoulders.

"I'm in trouble," Sho told Jun.

"I told him to marry Nino and say that baby came early," Ohno added helpfully.

"So did I," chimed in Nino.

"Oh god," said Jun hopelessly.

"It's not that," Sho protested. "It's serious trouble!"

"Then," said Jun, "let's go to Masaki's pond first and you can fill us in all at once."

"I love you best," said Sho with all of his heart.

Masaki's pond was small and shallow and had a fair covering of pond lilies and duckweed. It also had a thriving community of water sprites, tiny beings formed out of water and magic. They tended to skate on the surface of the pond when not swimming in its depths. By luck, Aiba was out skating.

"Sho!" Aiba called, waving wildly.

"Put some pants on!" Sho called back.

"Oops!" giggled Aiba.

Sho landed Spot and tethered her to a buttercup. "I've got a serious problem!"

"Can't you just marry Nino and pretend that baby is super early?" Aiba asked.

"It's NOT that kind of trouble!"

"Can't you just marry Nino?" Aiba asked at the end of Sho's story.

"What?" spluttered Sho.

"I'm out of here," said Nino, getting up and wandering back over to Spot, patting her nose.

"Seriously," said Ohno. "Can't you just marry Nino? King Johnny didn't say it had to be a girl, right?"

"But that—!" said Sho, flailing wildly.

"I agree with them," said Jun. "Just marry Nino."

"But—"

"Sho-chan," Aiba said, cupping Sho's face. His hands were wet but held the warmth of the summer sun that glittered on the water. "Sho-chan, just ask him." And he was so solemn and sincere that Sho could only nod in response.

"Nino?" Sho coughed nervously, "Nino, will you marry me?"

Nino looked at him, his eyes calculating. "Why?" he asked.

Sho blinked. "The guys thought you would?" he offered.

"Then no," said Nino and he stomped off in a huff.

"You asked him wrong," Ohno said, chewing on the edge of a float grass seed.

"Totally wrong," sighed Aiba.

Jun sighed and nodded.

"But you said to ask!" Sho protested vehemently.

"Ask again," said Jun. "And do better this time."

Sho found Nino sitting under the clover, shuffling his petals again. "Nino," he said, "I'm really sorry I asked you to marry me like that. I really don't know any girls and I really need some help."

Nino's shoulders hunched up around his ears. "Did you ever think that maybe there was somebody that I liked?" he asked. He threw his petals down and stalked off, his whole posture defensive.

"…somebody?" said Sho.

"He likes somebody," Sho reported to the other three. He threw himself down to sit on the bank of the pond, uncaring of the dirt, feeling hurt in a way he couldn't ever remember feeling before. He felt torn up inside, like somebody had scooped out his heart. "Nino has somebody that he likes."

"…" said the other three.

"Oh," Ohno said after a minute. "Sho-chan doesn't know."

"You knew?" Sho demanded.

"The whole kingdom knows," Jun said, rolling his eyes. "He's pretty obvious about it.

"Who?" Sho wanted to know. He wanted to find that person and kick them solidly in the shin for some reason. "Who does he like? When did it start?"

Aiba giggled. "He's liked that person since the day he met you," he said but he would say no more and nor would the others no matter how much Sho tried to command the answer out of them.

Sho spent the day flying and was tired, a little sore, a lot miserable, and no closer to an answer than he had been in the morning. He was worrying about being late to the ball as he landed Spot in her stall in the stables and he nearly missed Nino completely.

He was so tired and Nino was in his formal robes and there was an announcement/engagement ball to attend after the fastest (and probably coldest) bath in the forest. "Who do you like?" he asked wearily.

Nino slapped a hand over his face and then peeked out between his fingers. "Do you honestly not know?" he asked.

"Nobody will tell me," Sho sighed as he climbed off Spot's back "And I don't like it."

"You," said Nino.

"Me what?" Sho asked, signaling to the stable-fairy to take care of Spot.

Nino's hands dropped to his sides. "I like you."

"…me?" Sho asked, automatically taking Nino's hand in his own.

Nino didn't look at him but nodded anyhow. And then he disentangled their hands. "That's why I won't marry you. You can marry Mao-chan. She likes you well enough."

Sho thought of Mao. She was a lovely fairy, smart and loyal and he worked with her closely in the library at the palace. He also had zero interest in her.

He took Nino's hand in his own again. "I want to marry Nino," he declared.

Nino looked at him.

And smiled.

"Want to pretend the baby came early?" Nino asked on a laugh.

And they did.

Another five minute fic

2009-10-30T18:23:27Z

I just really can't write at all lately. ;__; I actually just wanted to let you all know that there is still time to write for shoneenclub's contest--several hours, as a matter of fact!
HALLOWSHONEEN

Now, for a fic I wrote in five minutes based on an old prompt from 31_days.

Not Even Roses

Mimura has thousands of flowers at his disposal every single day. He's allowed to be picky about which ones he uses and he can discard them all if he needs. He can give them all to Yamada Tarou if that's what he wants to do.

But Tarou prefers to pick the wildflowers and weed-flowers that grow in the space between the buildings and the sidewalks. "Ah, pretty! Yellow flowers always look so happy, don't you think, Mimura-kun?"

The yellow flower in question is not one that Mimura knows the name of—that's how much of not a flower it really is. "Mm," he humors Tarou anyhow.

Tarou beams at him and Mimura suddenly has the urge to pick weeds with petals for him. "Pretty," Tarou says and Mimura blinks and sees Tarou touching the edge of white-and-purple flowers that have taken root under the shelter of a hedge. Mimura reaches out to pick them—to offer them to Tarou for his bouquet, to simply offer them to Tarou—but Tarou stops him. "No. Not these."

"Why?" he asks, honestly curious about what he's done wrong now. He and Tarou fit together surprisingly well but that doesn't mean that their lives mesh even the slightest bit. Mimura is used to it but he still sometimes wants to live flawlessly in Tarou's life. It's the one place where he dislikes feeling like an outsider. "Why not?" he asks again.

"They're violets," Tarou says and his hand drifts away from the petals. "My dad picks them for her. When he lived at home he used to make her bracelets and necklaces out of them. If I pick them, they'll make her cry and that's no good."

Mimura thinks of Tarou's mother and his father and his six little brothers and sisters. He thinks of his own grandfather and of the voices of flowers. "Okay." He picks the next dandelion that they see. The best and most honest thing that he can say about it is that it is yellow.

Tarou's mother positively sparkles when she sees the flowers. "How beautiful!"

"Mimura-kun helped!" Tarou sparkles back at her.

And somehow, with all the flowers in the world at his disposal, Mimura doesn't even wish they were roses.

Pimptacular!

2009-10-29T17:43:58Z

A quick reminder that shoneenclub's contest ends tonight. Details of said contest can be found here:
HALLOWSHONEEN

Moar fic plz.

(PS. Once you write fic, go over to flange5's journal. She has been making awesome posts.)

Just a quick fic

2009-10-23T16:14:29Z

Working full time takes it toll on fic writing (and so many other things)so I haven't been around much. I miss being around and I miss writing. So I sat down and did a five minute fic just to do something.

Before the fic, however, comes another family Arashi moment!

My husband just got a new cellphone at work. He was showing it off in the car when our daughter, Faith, (who was sitting right behind me as I drove) called him. His ringtone? 5x10. That's right. My husband made himself an Arashi ringtone and he used 5x10. I was overwhelmed with love.

Me: *speechless*

Him: *defensively* What?

Me: My heart.

And now a five minute fic.

Falling

Aiba knew he should stop running; the video's director had definitely called the cut already. He should stop running but it was such a perfect day for it. The sun was shining and warm and the leaves were falling in orange-red-gold flashes and the wind was a cool, eddying rush that whispered 'follow me, run, run, run'. Beside all of that, however, was the fact that he was busy chasing Nino.

Nino darted through the staff. "Help me!" he shrieked.

The staff parted helpfully for Aiba, all of them laughing out loud.

With a last burst of speed Aiba snagged Nino around the waist, lifting him off his feet. Nino's whole body arched and twisted but Aiba had known Nino for so long that he knew Nino was not trying to get away. Nino was squirming in pleasure at being held by somebody he loved completely. "I caught Nino!" Aiba called, laughing and laughing as Nino twisted around to face him. Nino's hands squished his cheeks, making the words smush up.

"Idiot," said Nino and his voice was as warm as his hands.

Finally: HALLOWSHONEEN

Quick pimp and a fic

2009-10-12T19:09:55Z

HALLOWSHONEEN

If Nino ends up at Thumbelina it is all Erin's fault. (He'd be so tiny! And cute! And Sho would be so smitten! Because omg! Tiny!Nino! Pocket-sized!Nino! O.M.G.!) Which is to say that I might or might not be writing for this contest. I DO have less than two months to do my je_holiday fic. *cue flailing*

Now for a fic I wrote in an hour! My creativity feels so weak and my desire to write, too, seems very far away. So I wrote just to write something before I have to go to work.

Re-open

They're empty and just closing up after lunch, to take a break and then to set up for their dinner hours, when the door opens.

"Sorry we're clo—right this way," Taisuke says.

"Taisuke," Koichi sighs, looking up. He can see why his brother let this last customer in; she's very pretty, with long dark hair framing a heart-shaped face dominated by big, dark eyes. Koichi is going to let her stay—and probably put her meal on the house—because of the way she looks: simultaneously hard worn thin with sorrow, yet soft and light with acceptance, relief. Koichi has seen that look before. It's his own.

Koichi turns to get a plate. "The only thing we've got warm is the hayashi rice," he says apologetically. "But it's free," he adds, setting it in front of her. She smiles just a little and Koichi can't help but think of Kashihabara and himself and the betrayal and how he lives each day and isn't 'the bereaved' anymore. He hands her the spoon.

She takes it and gasps suddenly her eyes going glassy and mirror-like. Koichi can see everything he felt in them, can see only himself in her eyes for a moment. Then she gasps again and Koichi is gone from her eyes and she's only who she is again. Then she goes ashen white and faints.

Taisuke freaks out.

Koichi fishes her out of her hayashi rice and tells Taisuke to find Shizuna. He's a little freaked out, too, but one of them has to be rational.

And really? It's the perfect time for Hagimura and Nakanishi to come in. A situation like this is always improved by the presence of law enforcement. "Taisuke, get them some hayashi rice," he instructs, still holding the unconscious girl's face out of her plate.

Shiori wakes up warm, surrounded by softness. A soft bed and sweet, soft blankets. When she turns her head there is a man sitting beside the bed with warm, soft, far-away eyes.

He's not so far away that he fails to stop her as she starts to sit up. "Ah, no, no! Nakanishi said to make you rest," he tells her.

The familiar name and concern behind the order make her comply and she lays back. "I'm sorry," she says quietly. She feels drained and full both and so, so tired.

The man smiles at her and it is sad. "Why are you sorry?" he asks. "According to Nakanishi it's my fault you're in this state anyway. I'm sorry."

She shake her head and is about to apologize for intruding when she realizes where she is. "This is your room?" Above the cute little restaurant, she remembers. The place he shares with his beloved sister and brother. The place that filled him with love and with sorrow. She remembers it all.

He seems to misunderstand. "Don't worry; my sister and Sagi dressed you." It's the first time she's noticed that she is not wearing her own clothes anymore but instead a long, pink nightgown. "We wanted you to be comfortable and they said you wouldn't want to sleep with food in your hair."

"Your sister and—?"

"Axel!"

He closes his eyes, pinching at the bridge of his nose.

"Hey, you mayu-nashi, let him be!" says another male voice.

"Let go of me you nuresenbei!"

The door bangs open and a pretty woman and a pretty young man tumble in to the room.

"Sagi," says the man she knows is named Koichi even without the introduction. "My brother's girlfriend."

His brother and the woman make nearly identical shrieks of outrage. "I'm not dating this eyebrow-less girl!" says Taisuke, pointing at Sagi.

"I'd never date this soggy cracker!" Sagi says, slapping Taisuke's hand aside.

"See," deadpans Koichi.

"You two!" say a third voice and a lovely woman—who Shiori knows is 'Shi'—come in to the room, grabbing both Sagi and Taisuke by the ear. "She's supposed to be resting! Tch. And we still have to clean up from dinner. You two are on dish-duty."

Again, nearly two identical sounds of outrage emerge from the pair as they're dragged from the room.

Shiori can't help giggling just a little.

"That's good," says Koichi. He's smiling; it's just a little crooked. "If you can laugh you can eat."

He is careful as he helps her out of the bed. She's a little shocked by how unsteady she is on her feet. "Sorry," she apologizes as she sways on the spot.

"You've been out all day," Koichi says, holding her steady with a firm grip on her elbow. "That retired detective said you'd probably be out for quite a while. He said it's hard on you when it's accidental. The restaurant is closed so don't worry about the pajamas. Shi eats breakfast in hers all the time."

Despite the firmness of his grip, there is a deep gentleness in Koichi. She leans in to his hold a little more as he leads her out into a familiar little hallway and down some familiar steps. "You're happy here," she says without meaning to.

"It's different but…I guess I am," he says. They pass the kitchen where three voices can be heard bickering inside. "If you break anything it's coming out of your share," Koichi calls. The bickering increases and he sighs but he's smiling in his eyes. He smiles with the rest of his face as he leads her to a table. There's a post that blocks the view of most of the room but it seems friendly and comforting and private instead of obstructed. "Wait here."

He comes back with two plates of truly heavenly-smelling hayashi rice. "Oh," she breathes as she realizes just how hungry she really is.

"A hundred years of cooking went in to this," Koichi tells her, setting the plate in front of her. Shiori is a little cautious as she takes the spoon.

He can see the slight hesitation as she takes the spoon but doesn't comment on it. Instead he watches as she samples a small bite. He takes pride in the way her eyes widen with delight. "It's all right?" he asks for form's sake.

"It's delicious," she tells him. "Just like always."

It's the first time she's ever eaten it, he doesn't say. Instead he asks. "What did you see?" He's not really asking what she saw when she touched his spoon earlier. He knows what she saw, or near enough. He takes a bite of his own rice and waits.

Shiori looks down at her plate and he wonders how he can feel so close to somebody he's just met and with whom he's never shared a proper introduction. But then she smiles again. "A light," she says. "in a dark tunnel."

And he knows.

"Isn't it funny," he says, "how bright it is?"

Last day of the meme

2009-10-07T16:32:17Z

Apparently when I say 'later tonight' I mean 'the next day, after I pass out for thirteen hours straight and then have to play catch-up with household chores'. But here! Have the rest of that meme!

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote

Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy Peach flavored pig-placenta! And other horrifying soft drinks from around the world! I love you, flange5.

Finally, an image that came to mind while listening to Jillian, the five-year-old, sing along with Arashi:

Ohno crawled on to the couch, clambering over Nino to reach his spot. "Kazu no mukou e," he said triumphantly.

Now, off to work with me. While I'm there, somebody please tell me that NaNoWriMo is a bad, bad idea.

Meme: day six

2009-10-06T16:04:27Z

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip

Day 6: a quote "Now, concentrate on this spoon and start chanting."

I ♥ starsystems. I say it practically every time I make one of the kids stir something.

Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

In other news: I have to go to work but expect some Roadtrippage some time tonight. Hopefully.

Meme, day five

2009-10-05T15:56:45Z

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site

Day 5: a youtube clip This clip is for Zel because CLAMP are bitches.

Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Five minute drabbles

2009-10-05T05:25:15Z

Three drabbles while I wait for the laundry to finish so I can fold it and go to bed. I love you, flist. ♥

Loveless

"So many breezes, but never enough," Soubi says and the butterfly in his painting lights onto a flower.

"You're weird," sighs Ritsuka from his folded-up huddle on the floor by the bed.

"If Ritsuka says so," Soubi allows.

"If you're tired, you should rest," Ritsuka says and he unfolds himself like the loveliest of flowers.

Soubi puts down his brush, puts his hand in Ritsuka's. "If Ritsuka says so."

Ritsuka makes an inelegant sound that is half resigned sigh, half amused snort. "C'mon," he says and leads the way to the bed.

They lay down together and it is enough.

HYD

Soujiroh looked thoughtfully into the bassinet at the sleeping newborn. "You know, this child is special" he said musingly. "The perfect blend of Makino and Tsukasa."

"Mmm," said Rui.

"You're right," said Akira.

"The thing about perfect blends, though," Soujiroh went on, "is that it depends on what you're blending. Tsukasa's temper…"

"…and Makino's right cross," Akira said.

"With Tsubaki as an aunt—"

"—and that witch for a grandmother…"

They looked at each other. "I am not babysitting once this baby can lift his arm," said Soujiroh.

"Me too," Akira agreed.

Rui laughed and picked the baby up.

Arashi

Nino is the first person to see Ohno's new apartment but that's because Nino is helping him apartment hunt.

"How come Nino got to help?" Aiba demands.

"Because he'd make sure it's cheap," Jun says.

"It's not in a bad neighborhood, right?" Sho asks.

Ohno and Nino both understand that this is something of a formality. "Of course not," says Nino.

"It's not too far from Jun's place," Ohno says happily. "And it's still close to home, too!"

"But most importantly," Nino says officiously, "is that there is room enough to have piggyback rides down the hallways."

Nobody even asks.

Meme: day four

2009-10-05T01:58:42Z

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic

Day 4: a site Rifftrax. They don't make movies--they make fun of them! This is the crew from MST3K--Mike Nelson, the head writer and host; Kevin Murphy, the voice of Tom Servo; and Bill Corbett, the (second) voice of Crow. They are hilarious. I love what they did with 'Batman: The Dark Knight' and 'Twilight'. ♥

Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Meme, day three

2009-10-03T23:47:09Z

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture

Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic If I tried to make a fanfic rec list it would be a disaster--nothing but mad flailings at the keyboard and heavy on my flist (because you're awesome!) so instead I'm going to recommend a book that I truly love. It's Only Companion: Japanese poems of Love and Longing. I love the traditional waka poetry. Love.

Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Meme day two

2009-10-02T17:07:14Z

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture Please click the cut.

Episode three. Out of twenty-four. AND the het is amazing. I can't pimp this show enough.

For those of you who wanted something better:

Nothing says 'love' like cake. I love you, flist. And non-flist. And lurkers. I think about you all while I'm at work. Thank you for being awesome.

Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Meme!

2009-10-01T18:26:54Z

And now for the meme that everybody else is doing! (AKA: The 'my flist is awesome' meme.)

For one week, recommend / share:
Day 1: a song I always feel like I'm on the low end of the 'has music to share' scale because, well, I'm old and I live in Wisconsin and I liked Arashi for the music before anything else. But I DO have things to share ~~and get you hooked on, oh yes~~! MU, MF The song called 'Iron Man' and is by Color Band. It's from the Black & White soundtrack. Here, have the main theme, too! MU, MF.

Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

If you need another format or there's a problem with the links let me know and I will fix it/re-up it when I get home from work. Also: Dear to F-list. I love you all. You make my life so much better.

HYD/MAOU crossover.

2009-09-30T01:28:20Z

I wrote a small HYD/Maou crossover in my head while I was mowing the lawn. Then I typed it up and if you click the cut you can put it in your brain!

To Loss

"We find in favor of the defense."

Tsukushi heard the words and for a moment felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. A moment later she felt a small wash of relief. Though she had lost, she felt that justice had been done and that mattered more to her than winning her case.

Much more.

"Naruse-sensei," she bowed to the defense attorney. "Congratulations."

The attorney had a gentle smile. "My condolences," he told her.

She couldn't help smiling back at him. "Hey, do you want to have dinner with my family tonight?" she invited. She could see Tsukasa and their children at the back of courtroom, by the courtesy exit. She sent them a little wave.

Naruse looked startled. "Ah," he said. "I—"

"You're definitely coming," said a small voice. Tsukushi touched the top of her daughter's head as five year old Tsukino continued, "My mama invited you specially!"

Tsukushi didn't know why but somehow Narsue's smile seemed warmer and gentler as he looked at her daughter. "I don't want to intrude," he said softly.

Tsukino took his hand and tugged, her curls bouncing against her cheeks. "C'mon, mister! I'm gonna get super pissed if you don't come! And then my mama and my papa will get super pissed, too!"

"Unbelievable," Tsukushi smiled at the scene.

"I guess I'll intrude then," Naruse said, smiling even more.

Naruse was an excellent guest, Tsukushi discovered. Somehow he had flowers delivered before they arrived home, put up with being dragged around by an excited child, and was a flawless conversationalist—keeping to light topics until Tama-senpai had taken Tsukino out to have a bath and Tsukasa had brought out a bottle of wine.

"To justice," Naruse offered.

"To my first loss," Tsukushi responded.

"To lawyers," Tsukasa said, drinking his wine.

"Your first loss?" Naruse questioned in his gentle voice.

Tsukushi nodded. "But I'm not upset. I did my best and justice was done after all, right?"

Naruse dipped his head slightly. "So it seems."

"Doumyouji Holdings isn't going to be doing any more business with that company," Tsukasa announced.

"Pardon me," Naruse said softly, "but isn't that a bit rash?"

Tsukushi snorted quietly into her wine.

Tsukasa shrugged in that regal, dismissive way of his. "Any company who can treat their workers like that, and makes unnecessary trouble like this, is not a part of ours any longer. That's just the way it is."

Naruse looked at them both and somehow he seemed almost empty, like a hollowed, empty shell. Then he smiled again and it seemed even worse instead of better. "A family like yours is rare." He lifted his glass. "To your first loss; may it always be the biggest you ever suffer."

Black & White

2009-09-23T22:11:33Z

Black & White is going to have a sequel! In movie form! I'm only ten episodes in due to a lot of real life but Black & White is awesome. I am a lot in love with it and I know for a FACT that there will be sex in later episodes. I really wish I had more time in the day so that I could huff this like Dreamer.

So, to celebrate, have a drabble-ish thing.

Chen Zai Tian did not mean to get Wu Ying Xiong drunk and suck his cock. Well, he meant to get him drunk; the cock sucking thing is a surprise to both of them. Really. He'd meant to take the hero out and loosen him up. He'd wanted to bond with the man who was essentially his partner. He wanted to be trusted and told things and worked with.

With Ying Xiong's cock hot and slender in his mouth, tasting of darkness and sin, Zai Tian curled one hand helplessly around himself and wondered if this was the start or the end. He tightened his other hand around the base of Ying Xiong's cock and wondered why he cared so much.

First...Five? Maybe ten.

2009-09-18T16:13:38Z

It's my first day off in two weeks and I have a ton of stuff to write. So, instead, the first five (or possibly ten) people get a 100 word (round aboutly, that is) drabble. Leave me a name and/or pairing, and a prompt--words, pictures, songs, whatever.

1: Bones' FML life for lazulisong

2: Score one for the fangirl!Sho for blood_opal

3: Drunken Arashi Love Sho for inuhariko

4: Nino loves Sho for swan_song37

5: No YTM for flange5

6: Guitar Hero/Nino OTP for gimmick_game

7: Sakumoto crushes for tangiblewhimsy

8: A bit of Holic for akayalovesyaoi

9: Merlin and Arthur have a chat for starsystems

10: Yamapair love bubbles for font

Star Trek: Reboot fic

2009-09-09T17:47:09Z

I'm supposed to be doing the laundry before I get ready for work. But something in my med combo seems to be making me randomly twitchy. Like, a lot. So I tried to write to see if it would go away. And this happened.

Four Times Leonard McCoy Spends the Night with James T. Kirk
And the One Time He Watches Jim Sleep with Spock Instead

1: Bare-assed naked

"Alaska," Bones says for the ninth time in as many minutes.

"It's a good place for survival training; I hear it's a lot like space," Jim finally returns. "Cold, dark, and empty."

"You forgot 'full of diseases'," Bones says, shivering closer in the shared sleeping bag. "I guess that's what you're here for."

"When the rescuers come, I'm going to tell them that you killed yourself," Jim promises, rubbing warmth into him.

2: Stinking Drunk

"'It's just one drink' he says," Bones mutters furiously. "'What could it hurt' he says."

"Bones, they're bein' real un-friendly to me," Jim slurs, slumping against his captor's broad back.

"Gee, you think?" Bones shoots back, trying to touch as little of his captor as possible.

"I don't think I like it here, Bones," says Jim as they're dump unceremoniously into a cell.

"You don't like alien prison. Imagine that," Bones grumps. "That's too bad, Jim, seeing as to how it's all up to Spock to negotiate our bail and you just know that pointy eared bastard is cheap."

"I don't like it here, Bones; it makes me puke."

"What do you mean it makes you—oh, good god, man!"

"I don't feel so good."

Surveying his friend, Bones sighed. "Really. You don't say." He sighed again. "C'mon. Let's get you wiped down and settled in. I have the feeling it's going to be a long night."

3: Dead Drunk

"I don't know which was worse—calling the family or actually telling the family," Kirk says, swishing his drink in his glass before knocking it back.

Bones refills Kirk's glass and adds a bit more to his own. "I know," he sighs. "Believe me, I know."

"He was hardly older than Chekov," Kirk says, anger creeping into his hopeless tone. "He was barely more than a kid and I—" he gets to his feet abruptly.

"It happens, Jim." Bones stands and puts a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down to the chair and pushing his glass back into his hand. "It happens. More than it should. But you keep it down to less than it could."

"That's comforting. I don't know if that's supposed to be comforting of if it's just the alcohol," Jim says. "But I—that sort of works."

"Bit of both," says McCoy thinking whatever works.

4: The time it really hurt

"You have all ten fingers and all ten toes, all four limbs and your rock-hard head," McCoy told him. "So help you god if you do something to change that before I decided you're well enough for me to kill you myself."

"Your bedside manner is so comforting," Kirk groaned. "Do they teach you that in med school? Because if they don't, you could teach that class."

"Brave words from a man pumped full of most of the med-bay stock of painkillers," sniffed McCoy. "Now shut up and let me think of a way to word this so the Starfleet brass don't think you've got yourself a pretty little death wish."

5: Beneath the stars

Jim slumped to the side, snoring faintly.

"Good night, Cinderella," Bones muttered. "He does that," he explained kindly. "Out like a little light after a day of mountain climbing. Wakes up like a bear if you try and move him."

Spock stared down at the head on his shoulder with a look of affronted Vulcan dignity—namely it was a blank look with horror just behind the eyes. "I see."

Bones smiled. "S'more, Spock?"

Deadfic!

2009-09-08T19:41:43Z

Yay, deadfic! Today I am irritated so I am kicking this thing off my computer. I was going to write a whole, long fic where Ohno moved except...well, that's been done and been done brilliantly. It doesn't actually have the Ohmiya in it at all, either! orz Fic hurts me in my thinking place.

When Ohno turns twenty-nine, he moves to Niijima; it's a slender stretch of island not too far away from Tokyo. It's got a tiny airport and great surfing and glass-blowing artists everywhere. It's also got good fishing and day trips to Miyakejima, a volcanic little island further north that has even better fishing.

Arashi worries about him.

"It's not that I don't think he can take care of himself," Sho says, buckling himself into the teeny plane that will take them to the island. "I mean, he's home all the time for work and visiting his mom and it's really not that I think he can't take care of himself…"

"I don't think he can take care of himself," says Jun frankly.

Aiba looks over from where he's waving out the window at the staff on the runway. He smiles, ever the optimist. "He's probably all right. Maybe just a little bit homesick for Tokyo. And us."

"Chahan is the only thing he knows how to make," says Sho.

"Which is more than you know how to make," Jun mutters.

"And I still live with my mother!" Sho points out in a shrill, yet reasonable, tone.

Aiba waves at the staff one more time as the plane begins to roll. "I wonder if he's lonely."

Ohno is not waiting for them at the miniscule airport when they touch down. There's a little old lady who recognizes them as 'those sweet boys in dear Ohno-chan's pictures' and she kindly offers them a ride to Ohno's house.

It's a bumpy ride in the back of her husband's pick-up truck but it's very worth it when they hop out at Ohno's place and Ohno meets them holding a fishing pole, a tackle box, and string of fish.

"You totally forgot, didn't you?" Jun asks in fond exasperation.

Ohno looks surprised and delighted to see them. "Manager usually calls when I have some where to be. It's Tuesday already, huh?"

Sho folds Ohno into a brief hug. "Your manager quit again," he says. "Your new one starts on Monday."

Aiba pokes interestedly at the fish. "Mercury levels," he says. He means to go on but both Jun and Sho go pale and look at Ohno like he's sickening for something. They both start asking him about his diet and well being. Aiba tosses his arm around Ohno's shoulders and turns them away from the other two. "Mercury levels," he starts again, letting Ohno lead him into the tiny house on the shore.

Ohno likes to be alone; they all know this and have known it for years. They appreciate the way he plays with them even when it's clear he'd rather be doing something else. But here, on his island, it seems to them that Ohno talks more than usual, sticks closer than he normally would. Ohno assures Sho, when he asks, that he's fine. He also reassures Jun when Sho sends Jun to talk to him about it.

Mostly they spend their 'weekend' with Ohno on the beach playing two-a-side volleyball (which brings back memories) and cooking in sand pits and surfing and having bonfires.

They also do a lot of fishing.

"But really," Ohno tells them all, "really the best fishing is off a boat."

Eventually they give in to his beseeching, hopeful face. It was only a matter of time, anyway.

From where they are on Ohno's catamaran they can't see any land at all. Just an endless expanse of blue in every direction—up, down, all around blue. Ohno looks simultaneously thrilled and at peace.

It is peaceful. Their life as idol stars is tense and hectic and noisy. Out here there is only the sound of their voices, the snap of the sails and the waves against the boat, punctuated randomly with the soft, singing zip of their fishing lines through the air.

Occasionally Jun hooks Aiba and sometimes Aiba hooks him back, but for the most part it's a quiet day of talking and fishing and it's a good way to end their stay.

Sho says as much once the shore is in sight, all of them reeling in their lines. "This is a good memory to take back with us. Or for Satoshi to keep here," he teases.

Ohno's eyes don't leave the ocean but something in them flickers. It looks a little bit like loneliness.

"Leader?" Aiba asks.

"Ah! I've got a bite!"

The moment is forgotten in the excitement of a catch.
The 'catch' is no longer than Ohno's index finger. It's bright yellow and has blushing cheeks. "Cute!" Ohno says, working the hook out of its mouth.

"Throw it back," Sho orders. "If you keep it you're going to deplete the population."

"You could cut him up for bait," Jun suggests helpfully.

"We could make tiny sashimi," Aiba puts in.

"We're not going to kill it," Sho says. "Satoshi, throw it back."

"We're sure as hell not going to eat it," Jun tells Aiba.

"Tiny sashimi!" Aiba insists.

Ohno opens the holding tank and slips the little fish into the water. It swims around for a moment and then pokes its head out of the water repeatedly. Ohno shuts the lid almost reluctantly.

Ohno drives them to the airport the next morning with the little yellow fish in a plastic bag on the front seat.

Sho and Jun share a meaningful looks over Ohno's shoulder as he hugs each of them goodbye.

"This isn't going to go well," Sho tells Jun as the plane climbs into the cloudy sky.

"I can't believe he made all of us sit in the back," says Aiba.

"I'm fine," Ohno tells them when they call. "Really. I got held up at the airport."

"He says he's fine," Sho reports. "He missed his plane."

"He's two hours late," Jun says, putting his magazine down and holding his hand out for the phone.

Aiba snatches it before Sho can put it in Jun's hand and puts it on speaker. "Are you lonely?"

"Nope," says Ohno. "I've got Nino."

"…what the hell is 'Nino'?" Jun asks.

"Nino is Nino," Ohno says. He sounds like he's laughing. "I'm bringing him with me. I've got to go, my flight is leaving."

"See you in an hour," Sho says absently, mouthing the word 'Nino' at Aiba and Jun again.

It turns out that 'Nino' is the tiny yellow fish, no longer than Ohno's index finger. He swims around, pink-cheeked, in a round, globe-etched fishbowl that is only about half full of water and has a bit of weedy looking sand on the bottom.

"What the hell?" Sho beats Jun to the asking.

"Nino, this is Arashi!" Ohno says to the fish in the bowl, crouched down next to the resting room coffee table. "They were on the boat with us; remember?"

The little fish bobs its head out of the water a few times. Ohno rewards it by sticking his hand in the water.

"Gross!" Jun says, wide-eyed as the fish nibbles along Ohno's hand. "You know what he does in that bowl?"

"Goes to America, mostly," Ohno says. The fish holds still while Ohno runs his fingers lightly along its back. "I think Los Angeles makes him mad, though. He keeps attaching himself to Japan when he comes back," he adds, removing his hand from the bowl and wiping it on his pants.

Sho takes Jun out of the room while Aiba goes to find wardrobe to let them know that Ohno's pants are wet and salty and smell like fish.

Moar random drabbles

2009-09-07T16:28:04Z

Here, have some drabbles. The last is a double.

Sho/Nino

Mouth kissing Ohno is never gay because he is Nino's soulmate.

Nino can kiss Ohno on stage because it will make them both laugh. He can kiss Ohno backstage because it is warm and affectionate and Ohno is Ohno and Nino is Nino and together they are Oh-chan and Kazu. It's not gay at all, ever, because Nino loves him.

Mouth kissing Sho is gay.

Nino kisses Sho and it makes his heart lump up in his throat, makes his knees knock, makes his palms sweat. It's gay all the time, every time, because Nino is in love with him

YamaPair

Sho is ready to burst out of his skin. Too much caffeine, not enough nicotine, and just the right amount of Nino and Aiba and Jun together in a bitchy, energetic horde. Sho is going to strangle the photographer if this doesn't end soon. The thought makes the burst-or-die feeling both better and worse.

"Sho-kun," says Ohno, one hand settling firmly warm on Sho's shoulder.

And there is still too much caffeine, not enough nicotine, and just the right amount of annoying, obnoxious bandmates but Ohno is a steady wall that Sho can lean against, hide behind, and rest. "Satoshi."

Aiba/Jun

"It's okay, Mattsun," Aiba whispers in the dark. "Sho-kun didn't mean to yell like that."

It is not all right. Jun knows that Sho meant to yell like that. He meant every spoiled, every stubborn, every bad-attitude, every disgraceful, every ashamed-of-you word.

"Nino is yelling at Sho to not take his finals out on you, you know," whispers Aiba.

Aiba and Nino mean it, too, and that's the worst part. Because Sho was right and they're wrong, and Jun is angry with words so he doesn't say any. Just rolls over and lets Aiba feel his back in the bed.

JunToshi

"Leader is like an old man," Nino teases Ohno, flopping across Jun's legs.

For once, Jun thinks about it. Thinks about Ohno as an actully old man—balding and tottering on stiff legs, his skin hanging in soft wrinkles around his mouth and eyes. He thinks of knowing Ohno for all the years and watching those wrinkles happen. How Ohno then will not look like Ohno now but will be him, still him and "Oh my god," says Jun.

"What?" Sho asks.

"Oh, god, I think I'd do Ohno as an old man." Jun is horror struck by the thought.

Ohmiya

Ohno swims lazily through the water, thinking about everything and nothing, looking at the pretty green and purple rocks. He watches his mysterious twin brother swim beside him for a while, all blue and happy and it must be his older twin—so much bigger and always watching over him—and he rounds the bend…

There is a flash of yellow as the red-suited diver bobs up and down. Pink cheeked, the yellow fish darts around the diver in a complicated pattern. "Nino!" Ohno bubbles happily.

"Hi again, Oh-chan," says Nino, swimming over.

Ohno loves Nino, but Nino loves to be confusing. "Hi, Nino!

"Did you see me swim The Diver? It's a record!"

"You were super fast!" Ohno burbles. "I'm going to swim around the bowl! Do you want to come?"

"Not this time," says Nino. "I'm going to try to beat my record again."

"Okay!" Ohno says. "I'll tell you all about it when I get back!"

Ohno swims off, thinking about his promise. He slows down so that he can better take things in—like the pretty green and purple rocks. Ohno slows down a little more, swimming lazily through the water, thinking about everything and nothing…

HELP. MY ATTENTION SPAN IS GONE.

YTM fic

2009-09-03T17:37:25Z

Written for sei_shoku's YTM Bi-weekly theme. Yay!

And then there was you

"Ah! From that night!" exclaims a voice that Mimura doesn't recognize.

Tarou must because he stops and turns to the guy who has called out. He's about their age, maybe older, with a round face and brownish hair, obviously a home dye job. Mimura watches Tarou's prodigious memory kick in; he suddenly smiles his blinding, girl-dropping smile. "Ah!" he says. "With the flyer!" Then he bows saying, "Thank you!"

Mimura can't help but snicker at the way the guy reacts as though he's just been shot, clutching his chest. He isn't ready for the way the guy looks at him and smiles sheepishly. Mimura isn't used to anybody looking at him once Tarou has smiled at them that way. He ducks his head in a quick bow.

"Mimura-kun," Tarou plucks at his sleeve. "This person gave me the flyer for the air guitar contest! Isn't that wonderful?"

"You won," says the guy excitedly. "You probably didn't see me, but I was helping with the stage setup."

"That's great!" Tarou says feelingly. "Yamada Tarou," he introduces himself with a bow.

"Saitou Hiroshi," the guy says, bowing back.

Mimura takes the flyer that Saitou Hiroshi hands him unthinkingly. It's about a transvestite club. "Ah." Mimura looks at the apparent cross-dresser in question. "Well, see you later," he says as he hands it back.

The guy seems to wilt a little. "Please take one?" he says, just a hint of pleading in his voice. "Part of my pay is how many I hand out that don't end up in the trash."

"You get paid to hand these out?" Tarou asks.

Mimura grabs the flyer and his friend and hustles them both down the street.

He meets Saitou Hiroshi again because Yamada Tarou is handing out flyers for a transvestite club, beaming away at everybody. "He's really great for business," a pretty girl in a kimono tells him.

Mimura has experience with boys who make pretty girls. "Hello," he says. He nabs Tarou by the arm. "What are you doing?" he asks.

Tarou holds up the flyers. "I'm handing these out. Do you want to help?"

"He's not dressing up," says Hiroshi.

"Taishou gets paid more if he's in the club," Tarou says, smiling at Hiroshi who staggers and then recovers. "And I get paid to hand these out. Okama bars sure are popular."

Hiroshi smiles a little shyly. But when he catches Mimura's gaze it brightens, then flicks to Tarou and back. "He's really great," he says.

"Hm," says Mimura. He takes the flyers that Tarou thrusts into his hands, handing them out absentmindedly. It might be that Saitou Hiroshi is interesting because Mimura has a feeling that his 'he's really great' was not a repeat about the 'for business' business.

The third time Mimura meets Hiroshi he doesn't remember his name because Tarou only calls him 'captain' and so do the rest of the Yamadas, apparently. "Taishou-an-chan!" the kids chorus.

'Taishou-an-chan' mock scowls. "Don't call me that!" he tells them all.

The kids laugh and take the bag of goodies he offers them.

Mimura shrugs internally. "Yo, Taishou," he says.

Hiroshi grins at him and shuffles over to sit beside him. Mimura would wonder why he doesn't mind so much but, really, he only needs to look as far as the genkan, and Tarou's widely smiling face, to understand.

Pretty soon having 'Taishou' hanging around is a regular thing. Ikegami takes to him, too, and they enjoy dragging Tarou and Mimura to karaoke when they get the chance. Mimura gets used to having Hiroshi there. Hiroshi laughs a lot and seems to have very little shame about doing so loudly and in public. Which is fitting, since he doesn't seem to have any shame about anything else he does, either.

He makes Tarou laugh until he hiccups and makes Ikegami blush scarlet and somehow he makes things just a little bit more fun even though Mimura can't prank him for anything.

"You laugh a lot more," Tarou says suddenly, in the midst of the three of them bowling.

Hiroshi is rolling the ball like a small child and his attention on the ball is absolute. Mimura hopes he's playing it up because there is no way his sides will survive if he isn't. But Tarou's comment… "Huh?"

"It's a sign of how far you've come," Tarou says and smiles at him so sweetly that Hiroshi, who has just turned around, stumbles and clutches his chest again.

Mimura smiles back at Tarou. "I guess it is."

"Mimura-kun…" says Tarou one day after classes. They're walking to meet Hiroshi by the club, like they usually do.

"Hm?" Tarou is hesitant and Mimura knows that a good way to prod Tarou forward is to be as vague as possible sometimes.

"Mimura-kun," Tarou says again. Then stops.

"You have my blessing," Mimura says gravely.

"Eh?" Tarou blinks at him, wide-eyed.

"To marry Ikegami," Mimura says as though this should be obvious.

"EH?" says Ikegami, blushing furiously.

"Mimura-kun!" Tarou laughs. "It's nothing weird like that!"

"Eh?" says Ikegami before noticing her turn and darting away from them. Mimura laughs as Tarou energetically waves goodbye to her.

"It's nothing weird," Tarou repeats, picking up the thread of their conversation. "I was just going to ask if Taishou could stay with you for a while."

Mimura wants to know how that is 'nothing weird' but it's Tarou so he's sure the answer is both charming and absurd. Instead he asks, "Why?"

Tarou looks troubled. "He treats us out all the time and brings treats over for my family. I thought maybe he was like you…" Mimura reigns in a snort and Tarou seems to realize it because he goes on, "Just nice like that, right? And with the money to spare for things like that. But the truth is: he's a lot more like me."

"But he works full time, right?" Mimura asks. "He should be able to afford to look after himself just fine."

"My house is paid for, though," Tarou explains. "We don't factor in rent. If we did, I'd have to work five or six jobs just to cover it!" Tarou smiles for a moment at the thought and Mimura can't help the fond look he feels stealing over his face. Tarou's smile fades. "Taishou has a roommate for now but he's leaving at the end of the month. He couldn't renew the contract on his own. I'd let him stay with us but it'd be for a couple of months at least. We…" Tarou trails off with a small sigh.

"All right," Mimura agrees, stepping in. Tarou shouldn't have to feel bad about not being able to take care of everybody. "But it's got to be a secret from my grandfather."

"Mimura-kun!"

It takes approximately half an hour for Hiroshi to unpack.

It takes roughly forty-five minutes for Mimura's grandfather to discover that they have a guest living in Takuya's wing of the house because Hiroshi gets lost on the way back from the bathroom.

"It's just for a little while?" his grandfather asks him.

Still kneeling respectfully Mimura simply bows a little lower in response. It's not like they don't have the room or the money and his grandfather believes very much in taking care of the ones you love. And, in this case, it's a favor to Tarou anyhow and his grandfather would probably kill a man for Tarou.

Tarou bows so low his forehead just about touches the floor. "Please!"

"It's not like I'm a whore," Hiroshi says cheerfully. "I just dress like one!"

Really, Mimura is just disappointed that Hiroshi isn't in drag at the time.

Later, standing in front of Mimura's arranging table, Hiroshi is smiling. "Your granddad has a good laugh for an old guy," he says.

Mimura shrugs, sitting forward with his elbows on his knees. "He's still going to want to see your flowers," he says.

Isogai wheels in the refrigerated cases that hold the day's flowers. There are eight in all and all of them are full. It's like a small, mobile florist shop. Mimura carefully covers a laugh when Hiroshi's jaw drops.

Tarou smiles beatifically at them both. "Just relax and do your best!" he says sincerely.

Mimura snickers and has to leave the room.

Hiroshi's arrangement is three bright yellow sunflowers set in a tall, clear vase. There is one bird of paradise, too, poking whimsically out between the three. Mimura's grandfather looks at it for a long time. And then…

"You've found good friends, Takuya," he tells him.

They're dismissed.

Hiroshi plays the guitar and dreams of being a singer. "Not really famous," he says, idly plucking notes as Mimura runs through the scales at the piano just to limber up. "Just enough to not have to live with you."

"Thank you," Mimura tells him.

Hiroshi gives him a smile. "It's nice here but…strange." He looks back down at the strings. "Quiet, I guess."

"You're allowed to go out. Or have guests."

"It's not that," Hiroshi says, frowning as he strums. He pulls his hand away and looks down at the pick. Then his face wrinkles and suddenly smiles. "I think your granddad likes me, though. He keeps asking for my flowers. You'd think he'd be sick of them by now."

"I would think you'd do something different after a week," Mimura tells him. Then, "And you still have a long way to go; Yamada has permission to marry me."

Hiroshi doesn't say anything.

Very soon it begins to feel natural and normal to have Hiroshi always at hand. Mimura arranges flowers to the week's top-ten pop chart songs played on lone guitar. He gets used to watching strange variety shows on television at night. He gets used to hearing Hiroshi laughing everywhere.

Sometimes it makes him miss Tarou dreadfully.

Tarou is, as always, a frequent visitor. Ikegami's visits increase, too. Mimura doesn't mind, exactly, but he can't help but feel it in some strange way.

"Jirou wants to get a job," Tarou says, slumping on the sofa.

"Let him," Mimura says at the same time Hiroshi exclaims, "Let him!"

"Why?" asks Ikegami.

Tarou wrinkles his nose. "He wants to help out," he says in despair. Then, more vigorously, "He should enjoy being a kid!"

Mimura meets Hiroshi's eyes, reading his gaze. He looks away and begins to gather a bundle of soft, pink tulips. Hiroshi takes the seat next to Tarou and flings an arm over his overburdened shoulders. "Listen, your brother isn't a kid, you know."

"He's growing up," Mimura adds, picking up a spread of ivy. He tucks it in behind the tulips. "In the end, isn't it his choice if he wants to help out his family? Including you?" He curls the ivy down into a soft loop.

Ikegami touches the petals of a rose, white and perfect under her fingers. "It's just a way of showing his love. I'm sure he knows that he can go to you for anything while he finds out how far he can go. I'm sure…because he learned it from you…" her fingers lift away from the rose and her cheeks go pink. Mimura watches her blush and smiles. She sees him and rubs her cheeks with her hands saying, "Ah! I've got to go and—yes, I forgot that I have—you see, I—" and she's gone.

"Ah, Ikegami-san!" Tarou exclaims as she tears out of the room at the fastest polite speed possible.

Mimura picks up the rose and adds it to the tulips and ivy. He wraps a red ribbon around them. "Bring that to her," he instructs, holding them out to Tarou.

Hiroshi is watching him when he looks away from Tarou's back. He smiles, short and soft and sadly.

It's dark and cool in Mimura's bedroom. Hiroshi is a warm weight in his bed. "You can have me," Hiroshi whispers in the middle of the night. "We can have each other."

Mimura closes his eyes and pulls him closer. Even in the dark there is no way to mistake Hiroshi for Tarou. He's glad.

"You and Taishou are close," Tarou observes one afternoon. They're sitting on the grass, working on assignments between classes. It's one of the rare free periods that they share during the day and Mimura treasures this time. They are screened from the other students by a row of trees at the edge of a shallow valley. Mimura gets sick of being stared at and Tarou doesn't seem to care that they can't see the grounds thanks to the small rise of land around them.

"He lives down the hall," Mimura says, carrying a number. "It was inevitable."

"Are you dating?" Tarou asks.

Mimura considers it carefully. "Sort of," he decides at last, dropping his zeroes down. He looks up when Tarou doesn't say anything. There are a lot of things he could say but he says none of them.

Tarou leans over and kisses him softly at the edge of his mouth, looking serious and thoughtful.

Biting the inside of his lip Mimura returns the gesture.

"There's something I see every day!" Hiroshi says cheerfully tumbling down to sit beside Tarou. He's dressed like a high school girl, his skirt high on his thighs because Hiroshi hasn't the decency to sit like a girl. "Men kissing, I mean."

Tarou whips away from Mimura, looking guilty. Hiroshi unwraps a convenience store rice ball and shoves most of it in his mouth, looking unconcerned. When he holds it out, Mimura accepts, leaning over to eat from his hand, cupping his hand around Hiroshi's to hold it steady. Hiroshi offers it to Tarou, still chewing away like he hasn't a care in the world. Tarou puts both hands over Hiroshi's and kisses him on the cheek.

Hiroshi blushes hydrangea pink. "What's that for?" he asks, eating the rice ball that Tarou doesn't.

"I'm not really sure," Tarou says, blushing too.

Mimura gives up and laughs out loud.

Well fuck.

2009-08-31T03:22:59Z

Skyla's mom is dead. It's a long story but we don't know what killed her (there are going to be tests of some sort and that will take several weeks to several months) but I do know that Skyla was the very last person (aside from me and Ed) to find out.

I can handhold a kid through divorce and custody battles just fine--I've done both before. I can help a kid tell their parents that they cut themselves and I can give all of them the sex talk and tell them that I will help them with condoms/birth control if they let me know (leaving me a note is acceptable). But I've never had to do this before. I don't want to fail this kid.

I don't know what to do so I guess I'll just do my best.

Comments are off just because I don't know what to say to anybody about it and, having been in the position before, I know you guys don't really know what to say either.

No, no, the OTHER JE

2009-08-28T22:14:45Z

And by 'other' I mean 'Japanese Entertainer'.

Really I just wanted to post my eggs. But because I'd feel bad posting just that, have a ficlet and a drabble. Honestly? I don't know what the hell is wrong with me?

(After this, writing for sei_shoku. Why am I so fail? I meant to do it THAT WEEKEND. orz)

But! On to the fics!

Nino. And Misono. *smoooooch*

THAT'S RIGHT; I WENT THERE. But Sho went there first.

That Kind of Girl

Though Nino falls in love easily, he prefers to keep his love 'eyes only'. Talking to that person can destroy the beautiful, pure feelings that well up in his heart like little dreams. Talking will make it real and real doesn't work out very well. Nino knows this from experience.

Nino likes his loves to end when that anonymous other person moves out of sight. He likes the feeling of having his heart stolen away.

Misono steals his heart away when she smiles and thrusts her hand in the air to volunteer to catch at Falling Pipes first. It's always the little things that get to him. In that one insignificant movement Misono becomes the sun in the sky and Nino's heart takes wing to fly to her. When she says she won't give up any pipe and will catch her dreams, and then misses entirely, she captures his heart in her outstretched hands.

He tells Ohno about it when Misono climbs the platform for Pinball Runner. "I want her to win," he says softly.

Ohno, who falls in love with the same bakery girl every day for fifteen whole seconds while she opens the doors and lets the bread-smell out, laughs at him fondly. When they win, Ohno hugs him. "I'm sorry she lost," he says.

(Sometimes Nino falls in love with Ohno a little bit but Ohno almost never manages to ruin things so it's all right.)

Nino expects that to be the end of his love affair with Misono but it isn't. She comes back to him for Himitsu, paired with him in the eco game. And still, he expects it to be the end when he actually speaks to her. But she's smart and thrifty and a tiny bit of an air-head and she laughs and jumps up and down with him when they win their round. And then they win a prize. He loves her so much he can hardly stand it. He wants reality to hurry up and wreck things.

Reality, instead, brings her back to him on Shukudai-kun. She's dressed cutely but it's still normal clothes and makeup, none of that scary ageha stuff. She laughs and tells the audience to call her cute. She fights Sho for her debut picture and folds it in half. She calls them—and the audience—horrible. He vaguely registers the others talking about her weight but if she's fat, or ever was, he can't see it behind that blinding smile that lights up her eyes, curving her mouth up and touching at dimples in her cheeks. Nino gets caught staring at her picture. He thinks she's beautiful.

Sho knows him well and, when they discover that Misono shares Nino's view on cheating, he teases Nino about it by miming that ridiculous scenario. He is also, Nino knows, pushing him to do something about it.

Nino's heart races and his palms sweat when filming is done. He hasn't followed his heart, where love is concerned, for a long time. He's nervous. "Misono-chan," he calls after her, his voice tight in his throat.

Misono pauses in the door of the guest resting-room. "Hmm?" her voice slides up and down on the short syllable.

"Would you like to get dinner together?" he asks, trying to sound casual. It comes off beautifully to his own ears but then he wrecks it by continuing to talk. "Like a date. With me. A date."

Her mouth drops open in a perfect 'o' of surprise. "With Ninomiya?" she says and he nods. Her smile is radiant. "A date," she repeats, beaming sunnily. Her eyes narrow suddenly. "You're going to pay, right?" When he nods again, she nods too, bouncing with it. "We can go now, if you're free!"

He is so in love with her.

Sho. And Gackt. Daisukebe.

YEAH, I WENT HERE TOO. But you'll never convince me that Sho didn't go there first.

Honestly? Big Perverts.

Gackt has been around the block a few times. He has years on the kids in Arashi—in both age and in experience. He almost feels like a pervert watching the one pull his tee shirt up over his head and grin at him.

Almost.

Because Sakurai Sho, whose mouth looks like it was built for sin, leans against the pipe-choice console and smiles in a way that says Gackt can call him a big pervert if he wants to. Gackt looks at those plush lips, those dark eyes, and is pretty sure that he's going to do just that.

Happy birthday!

2009-08-25T04:26:34Z

Happy birthday, Erica!
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

As with the previous ficlet, I have no clue where this came from. Just know that I love you and that knowing you are out there, being you (and sometimes being Yamada Tarou--and where the HELL is your Mimura? She should be here by now!) makes me happy. Happy birthday!

Obon

It's the twenty-fourth of August and Aiba suddenly thinks 'oh! I've missed Obon' to himself. He says aloud a moment later, "Obon is over." In the back of the van, Ohno and Sho sleep, leaning against each other and holding each other up. Nino, just behind him, makes thumb-click noises and mutters, "Mom and sis did it at the end of July."

One seat ahead and one seat over, Jun turns to look at him. He is serious beneath his sunglasses. "Why do you care?" he asks.

Aiba looks back out his window. "I just remembered, that's all." When he doesn't hear Jun turn away again he smiles, seeing his face reflected in noon-lit glass. "Matsujun will come to visit and light lanterns for me, right?"

"That's morbid," Jun says. It is loud enough to make both Ohno and Sho stir.

Nino keeps clicking away but says, "I will graffiti up your name on the marker."

"It will say 'Aiba wasn't here'," Ohno puts in. He sounds tired, but awake.

"That's morbid," echoes Sho.

Aiba keeps smiling out the window. "It's okay if you forget and come late," he says to nobody in particular. He thinks it might be even better if they forget and come late. It will mean that they're busy and happy and living.

"Don't say that," asks Jun softly. "Don't talk about dying."

He wasn't, not at all, but Aiba understands Jun. "I won't," he says. Then. "Maybe we'll all die together in a horrible car accident."

"That's even worse!" Sho is aghast.

"We could die right now," observes Ohno. "Since we're all together."

"Oh my god," Jun says. He looks wild-eyed at the window.

Nino almost wrecks everything by nearly choking to death on his own spit as he laughs.

"It could be a plane crash," Aiba offers helpfully.

The world outside the window keeps going by and Aiba makes a mental note to himself to go visiting when he gets home again. He thinks his family will understand about his being so late. He is busy living and being so, so happy.

He laughs out loud.