#Galaxy Railways fic

[sataara]

Fanfic Recs! pt. 1

Hello hello! For yall that don't know me, I'm Billy or Sataara, either is fine, and I read a lot of submas fics so I decided to make a list of some recommendations that I have! A few things about me is that I can't deal with unhappy endings, heavy angst and/or any pairings where both brothers are with someone else (also no bl/nkship), so if you're looking for any of these types of fics, I'm sorry but you won't find it here :/

That aside, I'll make more than one post since this was getting kind of long, this first one are just multi-chapter fics! Most of these are either reunion fics or Ingo living after getting back from Hisui, with some exceptions! Gonna leave the actual description under the link with small personal notes on my opinion about them!

edit: added a few more!

Combūrere by Anonymous

Emmet doesn’t appreciate hearing his brother is dead. But if it takes everyone treating him like glass to let him fistfight a god, so be it. He’s an over-pressured steam boiler, waiting to explode. He’s already set up all the pieces, lined all his matchsticks one by one. The only thing left to do is set himself ablaze. In which Emmet becomes a vengeful spirit, reunites with Ingo, travels to an alternate universe, and fights a god. Just. Not in that order.

Words: 140,000 Chapters: 28/28

This fic got me hooked from start to finish, I was up until 5am at one point because I just couldn't put it down. Reunion with a lot of bumps in the road that only make the story more interesting and flashbacks that only add context making the fic more robust.

Last Train Home by StellarCoachman

Ingo arrived in Hisui far too early, settling in and making a life for himself there. Akari, his daughter, grows up alongside him and Lady Sneasler in the Highlands, developing a strong bond with Pokemon that serves her well when she decides to join the Galaxy Team Survey Corp. There, she meets an odd boy named Rei and takes part in the events that shape the history of the region itself. An unexpected encounter leaves her lost in an unfamiliar world. Meanwhile, Emmet has long since grown to accept his brother's presumed death, but still struggles on occasion. When he gets proof that his brother may actually be alive, he rushes off to see for himself, but he's not prepared for what he finds instead.

Words: 90,307 Chapters: 12/12

One of the many fics I'll share from this author, love their works very much and I really enjoy their different takes on their reunion! As a warning, though, this one can be very sad and it made me cry a few times too </3

Legends, ponderances, and then some. by An_Ephemeral_Walk

Of all the lands, all the regions, all the timelines, it was Unova that was chosen. It was Unova that was the first to lose someone to a mythical being outside the domain of Truth and Ideals. It was Unova that fell victim to the being already tormenting both the Sinnoh of now, and the Hisui of then. While it wouldn't be Truth or Ideals that would ultimately lead Giratina to regretting going along with Volo, it would learn the taste of regret and defeat all the same in many flavors. Stealing the partner of a fiery ghost is a lesson not learned yet, but it will be. Oh, it will be.

Words: 85,049 Chapters: 10/10

This one is a very interesting and enjoyable read, a lot of introspection, different hcs for how the characters met, just, really nice all around.

Elevated Railways by FluentInFangirl12

I'm a sucker for wingfics and I'm surprised that in all my submas fics, I haven't written one yet. This was inspired by @manchasma's wing au on tumble dot com and this specific post by @fang-tasmal (https://fang-tasmal.tumblr.com/post/682901862855426048/wing-au-time-i-like-the-traditional-wings-on-back) but im changing the lore and stuff a bit.

Words: 71,987 Chapters: 28/28

Wingfic! This one has a lot of uncle Ingo content, it's a really fun read and nice exploration of the setting with the "but what if wings?" trope added to that <3 Also, another author that has a bunch of fics I enjoy!

Ingo in Wonderland by PerpetuallySleepy

Falling for the second time, Ingo finds himself in a strange land… a strange wonderland. Well, it appears that there’s quite an adventure ahead of him. A weird and wacky one! All aboard!

Words: 71,058 Chapters: 30/30

This one I actually avoided for sometime thinking it wouldn't be something I enjoyed, but oh, I'm so glad I gave it a chance! What a fascinating and fun story! Its heart wrenching and different, I loved it all the way through!

Give Not In To Sorrow by Hare_Brained_Scheme

Something strange is going on in Hisui. There are reports of a man in white roaming the wildlands while leading a pack of Pokemon . Some say they're a mix of Pokemon, some claim they're a pack of zoroarks. Some swear that the man is none other than the amnesiac warden of the Pearl Clan. One thing is certain. Those who meet the man in white all report the same thing: He is looking for his brother. And he will not rest until he finds him.

Words: 70,551 Chapters: 12/12

This one I can not recommend enough, beautifully crafted story, completely gut wrenching, I've read it twice not counting the times I reread my favorite parts and cried a lot, mind the tags but do read it if you haven't already.

We Are Derailing by william_pkmn

Lucas is sent on a mission to investigate a sacred site to the Diamond clan. As added backup, he takes Ingo with and inadvertently unlocks his memories, deepening the mystery they have to solve together.

Words: 49,451 Chapters: 10/10

Another really interesting one! Following Ingo and Lucas as they look for clues about Ingo's past, the promise that things will work out by the end, the road to get there, it's worth the read!

A Rather Dramatic Displacement by NanixErka

Arceus grants the wish of the two heroes displaced in time However, perhaps they should have consulted Dialga with the time portion of this 10 years isn't too far off for humans, right? the scowling 5 year old didn't think so.

Words: 44,258 Chapters: 12/12

Really fun fic with Ingo and Akari being de aged and sent to the wrong time! Tons of shenanigans and also cute moments with dad Ingo <3

Autistic Elopement (if it sucks, hit the bricks) by Alienea, Juan_Pujol_Garcia

Stuck in the past? Textures suck? Tastes bad? Horribly understimulated? Just walk out! Hit the bricks! Leave through a portal with a kid you met a few months ago! What could go wrong?

Words: 42,008 Chapters: 6/6

Loooooove this one! Ingo relearning and slowly remembering his present time, while Emmet has to deal with everything that comes with Ingo being back but with no memories.

to the rift that tore us apart (and brought us together again) by Gibberish_Sorcerer

A distortion appears at a certain Unovan subway station, taking away Ingo to a different land. Emmet sees everything firsthand. (Emmet goes through a rift to Hisui, keeps his memories, and just sorta hangs out with Ingo. Also the entire plot of PLA happens with the twins going along for the ride.)

Words: 31,911 Chapters: 15/15

This one is really good! Such an interesting idea to explore with Emmet also in Hisui and now everyone has to deal with the fact that there's two of them kjdbsjakbvkjb

I Came Back For You by Elithesia_Autem_Danguarde

Upon experiencing a mysterious connection to another time and space, Warden Ingo regains his memories and makes the choice to return home to Unova where he belongs. However, he has to deal with not only his own emotions about being in Hisui for over a year, but how his absence impacted those that loved him. Settling back home isn't easy, but there are always people who stand behind him, particularly his precious little brother who missed him so dearly.

Words: 30,295 Chapters: 5/5

The care and love in this fic is so heartwarming but also a bit sad at times, I really enjoyed the concept and how the different conflicts were worked through!

A Change in Conductors by CuzReasons

Warden Ingo wakes up in a place he doesn't recognize. Subway Boss Ingo wakes up in a place he's only read about. Neither are where they should be.

Words: 23,654 Chapters: 9/9

This author is currently my favorite and I love their concepts and how they work through their stories and ideas, I recommend looking through their entire pokemon tag if you're looking for reunions and sibling antics! But talking about this fic in specific, the concept uses a common trope but the way it's used is fresh and so intriguing! I kept reading each chapter as soon as I got the notification, I cried happy tears reading it.

I am not there, I do not sleep. by digitalpen

How does it feel to be a dead man walking? The Pearl Clan found the body of a man in the icelands. His lips were blue and he had no pulse. When no one else in Hisui could identify him, his body was given to a blessed pokemon in lieu of a funeral. And yet, his spirit is seen walking about days later. Ingo haunts the highlands as a ghost. He has no home, no family, no memories, no life. What comes next?

Words: 20,249 Chapters: 5/5

This one messed me up and made me happy all over again, mind the tags and don't forget the promised happy ending!

The Warden, The Girl, & The Fox by Elithesia_Autem_Danguarde

While freely roaming Hisui, Akari stumbles upon a mysterious man in the Alabaster Icelands with a familiar face. As the two begin to form a friendship, Akari begins to realize there might be much more to this new man's presence than what it initially seems, as well as being the key to unlocking the lost memories of her friend, Warden Ingo.

Words: 68,621 Chapters: 15/15

Another one by Elithesia! I do love this one and their reunion is bittersweet at first but so comforting as it goes! The focus on this one is way more on Akari, but the brothers are the main point of the story!

Let It Simmer by EVTrainingUniversity

Having returned to the future, Ingo finds himself stumped on just who he was before Hisui as his memories still haven't returned. As such, until he can find his way back to his home station he must spend some time in the modern-day Sinnoh. Left sitting around for the most part while the investigators do their work, he decides to put a gift given to him by his friends in the past to good use by making a food recipe blog of traditional Hisuian dishes. It's by complete happenstance that Emmet stumbles upon his blog, having taken on cooking as a hobby during Ingo's absence.

Words: 6,538 Chapters: 4/4

This one is very special to me, food as a love language, as a healing tool, as a bonding experience, it's everything to me

Fear Not the Descent by ImpossibleJedi4

Some coping mechanisms formed in wake of a tragedy are healthy, some are unhealthy, and some are a mixture of the two. Emmet finds peace when he travels far below the surface of the earth, but then, at long last, someone finds him in return.

Words: 2,316 Chapters: 2/2

Very short one but it's so touching... Please do mind the tags if any of those concepts might make you uncomfortable, better safe than sorry

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise - Ch. 2

AU; Chapter 2 - The Case of Black

Half this fic is just everyone giving Harlock a bad time.

~3200 words 

Clients who requested full lineups were always trouble. I gave a list of each boy’s specialty, and most clients were happy to pick based on that. Some requested to see one or two in person before deciding, but then there were these bastards.

All the boys picked spots around the couches, some more relaxed than others, as the client eyed them like a row of produce at the grocery store. I stood by behind him, enough to the side that I could watch his face with my good eye.

Clients who requested full lineups were trouble because they thought they could have whatever they wanted. The list of each boy’s specialty also came with each boy’s boundaries. Almost every time Daiba had been called to throw a client out, he’d been one to ask for a lineup.

I had no evidence against this one. His record was fairly clean, and he could certainly afford any of the boys with the bank account I’d seen, though the way his brows pinched when he glanced at Manabu made it apparent he had some limits.

Manabu must have noticed the look, must have learned to recognize it, because his shoulders slumped. I’d also learned to hide my relief as he was passed over yet again.

Susumu sat leaned against his brother’s side. The two were whispering about something that had Mamoru smiling. They didn’t seem too interested in the client, but at least they didn’t look as bored and unimpressed as Zero. He stared the client down as though daring him to have the gall to pick anyone. Not good for business, but I wasn’t going to get onto him.

With Shep looking sleepy from his early-morning clients, Richard was the only one bothering to smile at the client. But, well, that was Richard.

Naturally, the client picked him, and his expression lit up with the gleam in his eyes. It was for the best, as the boundaries listed for Richard were…near-nonexistent.

My brother would do anything for money.

The rest of the boys dispersed with sighs and yawns, most meandering to the dining room to harass Tadas- Monono for lunch. I did, however, find myself with a tail as I headed upstairs. “Hey, Uncle Phantom?” Manabu called as he rushed to keep up with me. I had a feeling I knew what this was about.

“Yes, Manabu?”

“Do you know if Dad’s coming today? I think he has the day off.”

I sucked in air to keep from sighing. “I believe he is.”

A sideways glance showed Manabu’s expression weighted by weariness, so I reached up and ruffled his already-messy hair. “You won’t have to talk to him,” I said. “I can sick Daiba on him if need-be.”

“I don’t want him dead,” Manabu said, fighting back a smile. “But if you can get him to leave me alone, I’d appreciate it.”

“I’m not a miracle worker, but I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you today.” Even that much was easier said than done. I could see Manabu breathe easier at the prospect, though. He murmured a quiet thanks before darting back down the stairs toward lunch.

Leaving one trouble behind, I found a new one as I entered my office. Tadashi, who’d stolen the name from Monono and left me eternally mixed up, was climbing my shelves in an effort to dust everything. Thankfully the shelves were nailed to the wall, or everything would have come tumbling down on top of him.

For whatever reason, he was still wearing that maid uniform. I wasn’t sure why I’d bothered to get him new clothes. He’d seemed confused when I’d handed them to him. “Are these my uniform?” he’d asked.

“You don’t have a uniform,” I’d said. “You can wear whatever you like.”

Later I’d seen Daiba wearing the clothes, Tadashi still in his uniform. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected.

“I can get you a step-stool if you need one,” I called as Tadashi managed to reach the top shelf where I kept my old saber.

“I’ve got it,” he said.

“Very well. Do you need any other cleaning supplies ordered?”

“Oh yeah.” He batted at the saber with the feather duster. “Like everything.”

Honestly, that may have been a fair assessment. I could only recall buying a few cleaning tools in all the years, after Zero complained over the state of things. As I sat down to order “everything,” said-complainer popped through the door. Whatever scolding I was about to receive halted as he noticed Tadashi clinging to the shelf.

“Goodness, we’ll get you a step-stool,” Zero said as he rushed over and grabbed the boy under the arms to pry him away from the shelf.

“I’ve got it!” Tadashi insisted with a huff.

“Sure you do,” Zero said. “Now go get lunch. You’re on break.”

Tadashi looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded; then he was off like a flash. “I’ve never seen anyone quite so oblivious to a tactic to get him to leave,” I said.

Zero went over to close the door behind him. “I’ve never met anyone so eager to eat,” he said. “But I guess he is a teenage boy.”

“I know you’re still upset about it, but you’re not-”

“I know he needed the help. I know.” Heaving a sigh, he walked over and took a seat on my desk. He never would have admitted it, but he sat on my bad side or turned his back when he was upset. He never liked to give too much away. “What happens if Wataru finds out?” he asked.

“He may have the kid’s wanted poster already, but I think I can talk him down. That crime has too many inconsistencies.”

“Maybe, but he’s still going to be furious you hired another underaged boy. Might actually kill you this time.”

I smiled, resting my chin in my palm. “You didn’t, and you said you would.”

He turned enough for me to see his glare. “I considered it.”

“Come on, you’ve been begging for a maid for ages.”

“I have not! I’ve been trying to get all of you to clean for ages!”

He was a saint for attempting such a feat, but I’d ruined things with how much I spoiled the boys. “Well, now you don’t have to worry about it,” I said, hoping he’d be willing to drop the subject. “Anyway, I need you to help me make sure Wataru doesn’t bother Manabu when he comes.”

He saw through my ploy. “Don’t change the subject! And good God, Harlock, you’re asking a lot.”

“Just seduce him or something. You can do it.”

The unamused glare he sent piercing through me suggested otherwise. “That man is so oblivious he wouldn’t realize someone was hitting on him if they started stripping in front of him.”

“Do you know that from experience or-”

It wasn’t that I didn’t know what was coming. I just wasn’t fast enough to avoid it. His hand caught be around the back of the head, dragging down to slam my forehead into my keyboard. I couldn’t say it wasn’t fair, really.

“Get back to work,” he snapped. “And no more full lineups. I don’t trust those assholes.”

He left me to my throbbing head, as per usual. Monono came in later with a tray of smoked fish and rice. Since I was already buying a truckload of cleaning supplies, I asked him if he needed anything while I was at it.

“You could get some more plates and glasses. The new guy broke a lot when I let him help me do dishes. I don’t know how he did it. He just kept breaking them.” Bewildered, he shook his head. “I told him I would handle the dishes from now on.”

Tadashi worked hard, so hard that he was covered in dust and dryer lint by the end of each day. When he mopped, he somehow soaked his socks up to the knee. He was certainly one of my more reliable workers.

But he seemed to break everything. He’d shattered the vacuum on his first day, though Richard had managed to fix it into an odd Frankenstein’s monster of plastic, glue, and tape. Tadashi had gone on to knock a hole in a wall, snap off part of the stair banister, and break one of his own fingers. Daiba patched it up for him so quickly he didn’t have time to cry.

I wasn’t sure how he managed any of that, but at least the place got clean. He also had helped me weed out a few bad clients who had asked after him upon seeing him in the foyer. Daiba was quick to dispose of them.

Daiba was also quick to follow Wataru into my office after my brother slammed my door open. “What is that small girl in a dress doing downstairs?” Wataru demanded.

Before I could answer, Daiba jumped between us. “That’s my brother,” he hissed. He’d certainly invested himself in the role. “I’m looking after him.”

Realizing his mistake took some of the fire out of Wataru. “Sorry,” he said, blinking rapidly. “But that boy is clearly underage. You can’t have him-”

“He’s safer here,” Daiba said, his voice laced with venom. “I won’t let you take him.”

Wataru knew better than to fight Daiba on anything. We all knew better. Wataru put his hands up in surrender, though as he looked down at the boy, his eyes narrowed. “You don’t have a brother,” he said.

“I do now,” Daiba returned without hesitation. “Let this go.”

Wataru’s shoulders were tense with the urge to argue, but he relaxed with a slow exhale. Stepping past Daiba, he strode up to me. “The SDF sent me an update on criminals that may be in the area. There were more than usual this round, so keep your head up.”

He pulled a drive from his coat pocket and set it in front of me. This was our usual routine. He gave me confidential information, and I gave him anyone I came across on those wanted posters. “Not all my clients are criminals,” I said as I snapped the drive into my computer.

Wataru crossed his arms. “Oh, I know. You have a few rich bastards sprinkled in the mix.”

“A few bored SDF passersby too,” I murmured.

He stared down his nose at me as I flipped through the latest batch. I could usually tell based on looks alone if someone had a chance of stopping by - the ones with cockiness in their eyes. Standard petty-crime types tried to keep their heads low. Arcadia was flashy for a reason. The cocky ones always seemed lured-in by the shine.

As I neared the end of the list, my gaze caught the wanted poster I’d already seen. I kept myself from lingering on it - the photo of a smiling young boy, clearly pulled from some family album and slapped on the poster.

The name was different and his hair was longer, but it was clearly my new maid. Wataru didn’t seem to have noticed yet. I flicked my eye back up toward him. “Anything else?” I asked.

“I want you to release Manabu from his contract,” he said like a man who’d repeated the same thing dozens of times.

“No,” I returned the same way. “It’s a contract. That’s not how they work.”

Naturally, he switched to his scolding dad voice like that had ever worked with me. “Phantom.”

“Wataru,” I mocked. “If you’re done, go enjoy your day off. You know you’re not supposed to work during those.”

He crossed his arms. “I came to visit my son. Giving you the drive just happened to coincide.”

“Manabu’s busy,” I said, as though my nephew ever had a moment’s work since signing his contract. “You should come on his off-day.”

For a split second, Wataru believed my lie. Horror and rage flashed through his eyes. My death would have been quick had he not come to his senses. “I’m going to see him,” he huffed.

“No you’re not. No one sees my boys without permission.”

“He’s my boy.”

“No one owns him!” Daiba roared, startling both of us.

Daiba would fight us both if I didn’t find a way to ease the situation, not that I would mind fighting my brother myself.

“Not today, Wataru,” I said. “Leave him be for now.”

I waited for his rebuttal, but his shoulders dropped the same way his son’s had. “So he said he didn’t want to see me. Very well.”

“Any of the other boys would be happy for your company.”

He didn’t have the energy to be mad at my usual joke. “Don’t do anything stupid, Phantom,” he said with a sigh as he left. Ever untrusting, Daiba followed him out.

The silence of the room held me for a minute before I stood and left as well. Manabu’s room was empty. Instead, I found him in Zero’s violently yellow one. Sitting on Zero’s bed, Manabu sipped tea out of his usual blue mug.

“Your father left, so you can come out of hiding,” I said.

Rather than looking relieved, his brows pinched, and he stared into his mug. “Was he mad?”

“A bit. He’s always a bit mad.” Usually at me. 

Manabu’s hands tightened around the ceramic. “We always argue when he comes over. I just didn’t want to argue again.”

At his desk chair, Zero sipped something probably-alcoholic from his own mug. “He’s just worried about you.”

“I know but-!” He huffed, his shoulders scrunched up by his ears. “It’s really annoying! I can’t get laid!”

Zero and I both tried to block him out as he continued, glancing around the room as though it could protect us.

“Clients are like ‘oh, aren’t you that one guy’s son? I heard he’d kill anyone who went near you.’ Like, how does he make something like that known? Why does everyone know we’re related? We don’t look that much alike.”

They did.

“I started this job to get fucked by guys! And I haven’t been fucked by one guy! This sucks! I’m horny!”

At some point, Zero had put his face in his hands. He clearly hadn’t had enough to drink, and neither had I. The other boys talked about far more explicit things. I could deal with that, but I’d known Manabu since he was a baby.

“Uncle,” he whined. “You can get me a client, right?”

We’d already had this conversation too many times, and I rubbed my fingers across my forehead as I repeated my usual line. “We’ll get you one.” 

“Would I be more appealing if I weren’t a virgin?”

Zero whispered a scream as I threw up my hands. “I’m throwing in the towel on this conversation. Your contract says you stay a virgin ‘til- so just- I’m going to go drink.”

“Boo,” Manabu called as I skittered toward the door. “Uncle Phantom, get me a guy to sleep with, or I’ll keep telling you these things!”

“I’ll sleep with him!” I heard Mamoru yell from his room next-door to Zero’s.

“No!” I snapped at both of them, caught between the rooms. “Both of you be quiet! There are minors present!”

“Captain, it’s a brothel,” Mamoru yelled back.

“But it’s my brothel! I make the rules!”

Manabu appeared in the door-frame, leaning against it with the same unamused look in his eyes that his father got. “Do I still count as a virgin if it’s just like handjobs?”

Unable to look at him, I pointed down the hall. “No. Now go to your room. You’re in timeout.”

“Time out? You’re not my dad.”

“I’m your boss!”

“Timeout,” Zero said. Glancing up, I saw him pushing Manabu toward his room. “Off you go.”

“So is it a brothel or a daycare?” Mamoru asked as he peered out of his room. “We’ve got all the usual daycare trappings: brightly colored rooms, timeout, actual children.”

“You’re in timeout too,” I said, pushing against his head to shove him back inside.

I was far, far too sober to deal with them.

Monono found me sitting on the kitchen countertop holding a bottle of wine. He had me move my legs so he could get into the cabinets. “I need some of that for cooking, so don’t drink it all,” he said.

“Why did I hire my nephew?” I whispered.

“I dunno. It was pretty weird,” he said, examining a wok.

“His father is going to kill me.”

“Probably- Dick, put a shirt on!”

I looked up to find my other brother poking around in the fridge. He didn’t have pants on either, just his boxers, though he’d clearly showered judging by the wet hair sticking to his cheeks. “Dick, put a shirt on,” I said.

“Yeah-yeah. I’m hungry.” He pulled out an apple and took a bite. “I don’t know why you’re all stressed about hiring family,” he said between chews. “Hired me.”

“Don’t remind me.” I had actually been drunk at the time, but he’d begged me for the job just like Manabu had.

“That guy was alright,” he said. “Hope he comes back. Easy money. Did you get the new wanted list today?”

“Mm-hm,” I said through another swig of wine.

“Anyone interesting?”

“No.”

“Anyone hot?”

“Absolutely not.”

Why was all of my family like this?

Daiba walked in, looking annoyed as usual. “Hey, Captain- Dick, where the fuck are your clothes?”

“On the floor,” Dick said.

For once, Daiba reined in his urge to scream at Dick, turning back toward me. “A client showed up without warning. Should I kick his ass?”

“Not yet. If he’s new I’ll have to talk to him and do a background check.” Not that I was in the best state to do that, but I’d been worse. “Put some clothes on, Dick,” I said as I hopped down from the counter. “You can’t go around looking like that when we have clients.”

He cocked a brow and gestured at his bare torso. “But isn’t this what they’re here for?”

Clients were usually only interested in what was below the belt, but this was the last conversation I wanted to have with my brother, so I muttered another “Put some clothes on,” and headed for the foyer.

Clients came in a set few breeds I’d come to know over time. This guy was one of the rare exceptions. He sat on the longer lounge couch, wearing an easygoing smile that reached eyes the color of a fresh bruise. Susumu sat nearby, clearly charmed by whatever he was saying, or at least acting the part to earn his favor. He may have been from the same race as Shep or a related one, as his skin was about the same shade of blue, his hair blond like a wheat field. He may have been military judging from the gray uniform.

But even the occasional SDF member or soldier we got never saw fit to sit and talk with the boys. Tolerable clients saw the boys as workers, though viewing them like tools was more common. Only a handful ever treated them like people.

Manabu and Mamoru must have still been in timeout, but Zero and Shep were seated nearby as well. Shep wore his usual smile, while Zero couldn’t hide his curiosity.

“I admit, I didn’t know what to expect coming in,” the man was saying. “I heard good things, and the decor is certainly nice. The company is not bad either,  though it’s quieter than I was expecting.”

“We don’t have many clients scheduled on Mondays,” I said.

His piercing eyes shot toward me, bright with interest. “I suppose I came at the right time then. Are you the man in charge?”

“I am. You may call me Harlock.”

“Desslar,” he said with that winning smile.

Shep’s eyes widened. Zero’s jaw dropped. I shook my head. Surely not… “Abelt Desslar?”

“The Galman king?” Susumu asked.

With a soft laugh, he scratched at his cheek with a gloved hand. “Ah, it seems I’ve been found out, though ‘king’ is such a human term. I’d prefer to avoid any formalities while I’m here if that’s alright.”

“Well aren’t we moving up in the world?” Zero muttered. “Entertaining royalty along with our criminals.”

This may have been one of the “stupid” things my older brother warned me not to do, but then again, who paid better than royalty?

[officialao3fandomlastforever]

Huge thank you to @xhikarixyamix for this amazing RWBY art piece based on my fic “Carry the Light”!

I’m literally in tears right now, it’s so beautiful. 

Everyone, go check her art out! 

[general-kalani]

Ship bingo Yuki and Bruce from The Galaxy Railways

// A H now this is difficult because I haven't watched it in a while lmfao I am so sorry. I'll do it anyway but it won't be the best because I don't remember the two that well wjkadkja //

// I'll probably redo this one when I rewatch the show again I am so sorry this is lackluster ;-; //

[ihaveatheoryonthat]

This is based on this prompt from @dragonofthedepths. Fun fact: part of it was, in fact, written in a hospital. Not the greatest way to check your fic for accuracy, let me tell you.

---

Dawn had played a lot of video games with Barry in her youth. Games with magical fairy-inspired guides or mysterious waifs that teased a player with breadcrumbs of information as the plot progressed. Games in which the tutorial held your hand a little too much, or whose advice was obtuse to the point of uselessness.

She’d never expected to find herself smack dab in the middle of one such setting, aided by a ghost who couldn’t have clashed with the landscape any more if he’d tried-- but that was perfectly fine, since nobody else could see him.

It was counter to everything she’d learned from the media form when her quest ended-- with Volo and Giratina both defeated at the crest of the Spear Pillar-- and nothing happened on that front. Usually there was some kind of goodbye at the conflict’s end, whether tearful or long awaited, but no; Dawn continued to live her life in Hisui, dutifully filling out her Pokedex as Galaxy Team’s most haunted surveyor.

Not that she wanted the Conductor to leave her! He’d been the single biggest factor making her stay bearable-- someone to commiserate to in matters she couldn’t discuss openly, who’d stuck with her when Jubilife had wiped their hands of her, the only one who actually knew her name. It just… it didn’t resolve anything. They were no closer to understanding why she and the Nobles could see him when others couldn’t. They didn’t have any idea why he was in Hisui when everything about him screamed that he was from somewhere-- and likely, somewhen-- else entirely. They didn’t even have the first inkling who he was or what his name might have been. The most they could work from was a stringent adherence to the concept of ‘safety first’ and the railway jargon he couldn’t help but pepper into every other sentence.

Hence her name for him. He’d acted as her guide through Hisui, he talked like a rail enthusiast, he was the Conductor.

Or Ducky, if she was feeling… well, ducky.

And even now-- even with the Pokedex complete and Arceus defeated-- the status quo had not changed. Sure, she was back in her time of origin, but she wasn’t home; she was in a foreign land again, still visibly a fish out of water as she listened to the guiding words of a man nobody else could see.

At least back then she’d had a baseline as to the native Pokemon, but not here.

Fortunately, the Conductor was inexplicably knowledgeable whenever she asked after a Pokemon or started down a dead end. It had made sense in Hisui-- he’d spent two years as an invisible observer prior to her arrival, so of course he could offer helpful insights-- but didn’t add up in Unova. It seemed to indicate that he’d been here at some point, but, of course, he couldn’t confirm or deny.

They would get to the bottom of it, Dawn decided. Just as soon as they made it somewhere with a Pokemon Center.

Unfortunately, they’d landed in front of a remote shrine, and the only town they’d passed through thus far boasted limited services within what was clearly some manner of battle facility. While she didn’t doubt she could compete, fighting her way up a giant tree was not on Dawn’s agenda for the time being; the Conductor seemed oddly interested, though, which marked it as a site to revisit at a later point in time.

It could wait until she made it somewhere she could call home, though.

Eventually, after a bridge, a close call on a rocky cliff face, and being steered away from a forest, they made it to a city.

And not just a city-- a massive city! It was so far removed from anything in Hisui that it wasn’t even funny. Dawn didn’t even know if anywhere back in modern-day Sinnoh was of a similar scale. Maybe-- maybe-- it was roughly comparable to Veilstone, with its department store, or the bustling port of Sunyshore, but even compared to the most lively Sinnoan cities, this place still felt enormous.

It was overwhelming, and, even though he tried to help, the Conductor’s innate sense of direction led them not to the Pokemon Center Dawn had been hoping for, but some kind of public transport. She shouldn’t have been surprised; ever since they’d gotten here, he’d been able to drift through the landscape with a vague sense of recollection, but any specific requests were too far out of his ephemeral knowledge base.

And, so, she’d made a mistake. As she’d often done when studying-- or fleeing from-- Pokemon, she’d asked him to scout ahead, to see if he’d be able to find their end destination without the limits imposed by the physical world. Dawn hadn’t counted on just how much busier the city was, how much harder it might be to pick a person out of the omnipresent crowds or how damningly easy it would be to drift along them, unaware of what she was doing. Before she knew it, she wasn’t outside the row of shops they’d diverged before, but nestled among patrons of a fairground.

She didn’t know how she’d gotten here. She didn’t know how to get back.

She tried once, in vain, to call for her friend, but it was immediately swallowed by the din of modern life.

For the first time since that emphatic promise that she wouldn’t be alone in Hisui, Dawn wanted to cry.

---

The Conductor didn’t know much, but he knew proper procedure if one was lost in an unfamiliar environment. It hadn’t done him much good when he’d awoken in Hisui, absent everything that made a human human, but better late than never, he supposed.

He’d been unable to locate a Pokemon Center within a reasonable amount of time, and returned to where he’d split from Dawn to find her gone. Though he hated phasing through other people, he hadn’t had much of a choice as he sifted through the crowd, trying to work out where she might have been shunted to the side. When night began to fall and he hadn’t had any luck, he was forced to conclude that the strategy wouldn’t lead to any meaningful result; while common sense dictated that one was more likely to regroup where they’d lost their companion, he dearly hoped that Dawn would have better sense than to return here after dark.

So he’d done the next best thing: he gone back to seeking out a Pokemon Center. It was the one landmark they’d been looking for since arriving here, and what Dawn had specifically asked him to find for her. If it was so important, surely she’d look for it on her own.

If he could find it, there was a good chance he’d be able to locate her, as well.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t entirely sure what a Pokemon Center was. There was a lingering sense of asylum that he couldn’t explain, but he didn’t know what purpose it served, beyond being a place Dawn could theoretically contact her family. He’d been told he would know it by the red roof, and while the darkness didn’t make navigating by color alone ideal, the streets here were brighter than even Jubilife Village’s after sunset. While he hadn’t found success before, given enough time, he could do this.

He could and he did. But there was still no sign of Dawn.

After some observation, he concluded that a Pokemon Center was a place to rest and heal. With a further hour’s study, his understanding grew to include the fact that people-- specifically people who traveled with Pokemon-- could find shelter here for the night. It was entirely possible that Dawn really was here, and the late hour had forced her to find a place to sleep.

While there was nothing stopping him from searching to see if that was true, he absolutely could not, under any circumstance, trespass on another’s space uninvited.

And so he waited in the facility’s main body, watching the trickle of people who sought assistance in the deepest hour of night-- watching as it opened into a stream of bodies departing for the day. He stayed stationed there, where he could pick out every face as they exited the temporary lodging, until morning had well and truly passed.

With a sinking heart, he realized his companion might not have made it here.

He didn’t know what to do.

---

The last several days had been incredibly hectic for Emmet, in spite of the fact that he’d spent exactly half of one shift at Gear Station.

It could largely be chalked up to the fact that, midway through said shift, an anomaly had been reported along the green line. Isadore and Ramses had been sent out to survey the area, but only made it a handful of minutes before hastily calling in, reporting that Emmet needed to get over there, asap.

That was when fear had first clenched his heart, and it had yet to relinquish its grasp.

Because, when he’d arrived onsite, he’d found exactly what he’d afraid of: his brother was laying, limp and unresponsive, along the tunnel floor. In the moment, it hadn’t mattered that he looked none the worse for wear-- only that he was still and silent.

With the gentle rise and fall of Ingo’s chest, however, hope managed to slip through anxiety’s hold on Emmet.

That had been days prior. There had been no change in the time since, no indication that his twin would wake, and with doubt constricting his every move, Emmet was beginning to resent the space that tiny bit of hope occupied. He’d had days to pose every question imaginable, from the practical to the grandiose-- what was going on, why couldn’t his brother wake up, why would the universe return him only to keep them apart?

So when that same universe forwarded a message from the local precinct-- non-emergency, but concerning the outdated missing persons case-- Emmet had had enough of asking questions that might never see an answer. He tasked Haxorus with guard-dragon duty and marched down to meet the responding officer and her witness in the waiting room.

The girl was vaguely familiar-- in a way that neither he or Ingo would likely work out until they pooled their information-- but it seemed the same couldn’t be said for him. Her eyes widened the instant she realized who she was looking at and a hand gravitated toward her mouth. Officer Jenny didn’t touch as she steered her away, to an aside room, and Emmet had to grant her points for that, at least.

Dawn’s story was this: she’d been stranded in Unova with only a friend at her side. They’d been lost for days-- “kind of”-- and, upon reaching Nimbasa City, had gotten separated. The kicker was that, once she’d found safe harbor at the station and was asked to describe her missing companion, she’d described Ingo. Perfectly. She hadn’t used his name-- hadn’t even known his name-- but every detail she included matched.

Only that wasn’t possible. If she’d been in Unova for longer than a week, maybe, but for the first time in years, Emmet knew exactly where his brother was. He couldn’t have been wandering around with Dawn when he was out cold in a hospital bed. And how could they have been lost if it was Ingo with her? The two of them worked in regional transportation, for the dragons’ sake; the idea that he could’ve gotten lost so close to home was laughable.

When he voiced this skepticism, Dawn went quiet. Understandable-- he’d all but kneecapped her story-- but, instead of insisting, she took up the burden of asking questions. Why was he here, in a hospital? How long had his brother been here? And for what? Did they know why Ingo wouldn’t wake up?

He kept his smile in place, but was keenly aware of the edge to it. Emmet might have excused himself shortly thereafter, if Officer Jenny hadn’t stepped away to answer a call at the same moment.

“He’s not there.” Dawn said bluntly, as soon as the door shut. “That’s why-- it’s just his body. The rest of him was helping me.”

Emmet raised a single, doubtful brow.

Frustrated, she set a hand on either side of her bandana and briskly ruffled her hair, “That’s kind of what I thought when we met, you know? That he was a ghost. I guess I was kinda right.”

“A ghost.” Emmet echoed, and while there was still a dubious hint to the twist of his lips, his mind kicked into overdrive.

Dawn didn’t seem to catch onto the fact. “It didn’t explain a ton, but that was the only way some stuff made any sense. Ghost Pokemon can disappear and float through stuff, so-- uh?”

She stopped abruptly, waylaid by the pokeball Emmet set on the tabletop between them.

“This is Chandelure.” He said without preface, “She is Ingo’s partner Pokemon. She is also a ghost. I believe she may be able to test your theory.”

“Chandelure,” Dawn echoed, testing the syllables, wondering, “I think he remembered her. A little.”

There was a beat of silence. Dawn winced at her gaffe.

“Explain.”

Looking firmly off to the side, Dawn’s hands found one another, tangling together nervously, “That’s the other thing that made sense if he was a ghost. He didn’t really… know anything about himself? I didn’t even get his name until Officer Jenny showed me the missing person flier. The only things that ever came back were someone he battled next to and a fire type Pokemon. I thought it was just… part of being dead or something.”

“He is not dead,” Emmet snapped for the umpteenth time, more out of habit than because she needed to be told.

���Yeah,” She said, immediately, but with an unexpected softness to her voice, “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

---

He hadn’t meant to become so thoroughly misplaced. Truthfully, he hadn’t.

It was just… there was a Pokemon.

That didn’t explain it satisfactorily; there were Pokemon everywhere, of all shapes and sizes, but not like this. Some rang a distant bell, but this one-- this one was so achingly familiar. The wrought iron limbs and perfect globe of its body, the flickering purple flame at its core-- he’d suffered a vague recollection of it, once, but the experience had been difficult to weather.

Parts seemed… different, but not necessarily wrong, and the Conductor had found himself trailing after it without quite meaning to. Like all others, the Pokemon didn’t acknowledge his presence-- however, its flame grew subtly brighter as they lingered together, and with time, more appeared. Not lanterns, like the first Pokemon, but smaller, waxy white bodies that shared the same gentle glow.

The Conductor had no recollection of these Pokemon, but he was certain one of their ilk had been important to him. Precious, even.

Slowly, the midday sun waned, and with it the afternoon he’d wasted. He knew he should depart immediately-- he still had to locate Dawn-- but at the same time, he didn’t know how to turn away from something that resonated so strongly with his missing memory.

Before he knew it, dusk had begun to fall.

It was hard to notice beyond the haze that settled over his mind.

---

The instant she began to manifest, Chandelure was off like a shot. Without a word of command or clarification, she phased through the wall and, when the humans-- tragically solid-- didn’t immediately follow, cried from somewhere out in the waiting room.

For his part, Emmet had already leapt up and was reaching for the door, but Dawn spent a moment maneuvering around the side room’s furniture.

The ghost barely waited for them to catch up, swiveling impatiently in the air until she’d deemed them ‘close enough’ and resumed her mad dash through the city. It was only by virtue of having lived in Nimbasa for so long that Emmet had even the slightest edge on navigation, and, frankly, he was a little surprised that Dawn was managing to keep up so well.

Even when properly lit, the side streets could be treacherous past nightfall, but Chandelure kept them safe twice over: her light illuminating any hidden faults in the walkways, and her single minded determination scaring any potential encounters away before they could challenge, question or mug either of the humans charging after her.

Chandelure only began to slow as they reached the edges of the park beyond Gear Station. She started to twirl in the air again and, for a moment, it seemed that it might have been a signal that they’d arrived, but as she drew higher into the air, it became apparent that she was taking a moment to reorient herself, to pinpoint her station now that they’d crossed the bulk of the distance. Then she froze, shrieked in outrage, and took off again, toward a cluster of slightly-distant, twinkling lights.

Litwick, Emmet realized as the shapes grew beyond their pastel flames, led by a single Lampent. Quite suddenly, he understood Chandelure’s umbrage.

While the folktales were greatly exaggerated, they were built upon a kernel of truth: feral Litwick led people astray in order to feed upon their energy, wasting time weaving convoluted circles while their prey wasted away. And the Lampent… well, perhaps its presence shouldn’t have been a surprise, given the circumstance. They were, after all, renowned for haunting cities in search of fuel.

The younger Pokemon scattered with Chandelure’s furious arrival, but the secondary form was slightly more stubborn; it crackled back, indignant, refusing to bow to its fully evolved kin.

And between them was the object of their animosity.

Even more ethereal than the ghost Pokemon, he knelt on the ground, shoulders slumped from exhaustion as he raised his head to look from one to the other. Neither of the lanterns acknowledged the motion, fixated on one another as they were, their hissing raising from a simmer into the boiling keen of a kettle.

The Lampent flared brighter in challenge, and what might have been the dimmest flicker of recognition was burnt away from the form below.

That would not stand.

“Chandelure,” Emmet called, and she immediately shifted her arms, anticipating his orders.

If the Lampent wouldn’t depart on its own, they would simply have to make it leave. Disruptive passengers and sore losers could only hope to find themselves ejected from the platform with merciless efficiency-- so if her Shadow Ball landed just a heartbeat before the directions could feasibly reach her, if the attack seemed ever so slightly more vicious than usual, what could be said, other than that she was verrry good at her job?

Lampent-- conscious only because Chandelure wanted it gone-- fled as soon as it regained its bearings.

In the crisis’s wake, neither trainer or Pokemon seemed quite sure how to proceed-- so it was Dawn, more accustomed to dealing with this phenomena, who stepped up.

Or, rather, ran up and fell gracelessly to her own knees.

“Conductor?” She asked, waving a hand in front of the spectral image of his twin, “Ducky?”

“Ingo.” Emmet said, more firmly, and the man in question blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision.

Following Dawn’s lead, he knelt down so they were on the same level. Chandelure looked between them-- the two of them, oddly, Emmet and Dawn-- and gave a low, uncertain whistle as she lowered her hovering height.

Though they were mere feet apart, her searching eyes couldn’t seem to land on her trainer.

As he looked back to the apparition before him, Emmet found himself on the cusp of reaching out and had to fight the instinct, clasping his hands together to still them-- but the motion, small though it was, seemed enough to draw Ingo’s attention. With a bleary, barely-there focus, his eyes fixed, first, on the folded hands, and then on their owner’s face.

“Emmet?” He managed, so faint that even a whisper might overtake it.

Heart pounding, all but strangled by the last-ditch effort of fear digging in its nails, Emmet beamed at him.

Woozy but determined, Ingo veered closer. One fist uselessly braced against the ground, he leaned into his twin’s space and reached up, hesitating only when the reality of the situation seemed to dawn on him.

There was a small, almost disappointed, “Ah,” and Emmet decided to hell with it, unlacing his hands to meet the gesture, intangible though its terminal was.

Chandelure let out a muted chime, looking from Emmet to where his hand lingered in the air, and then the same distance opposite him. Her eyes were still unable to hone in on her human, but she was trying. She was trying so hard.

They would fix this, so she could finally see him again. So Emmet could finally hold him again. So he could finally live again.

---

Haxorus’s tail gave several restrained wags as they returned to the hospital room. Gentle though the thumps were, Emmet still grimaced on behalf of whomever happened to occupy the space below them and hurried over to her, ruffling her snout and praising her for keeping watch.

He wasn’t sure how, given that his brother didn’t currently match up with the physical plane, but he was keenly aware of Ingo hovering by his shoulder, curiously looking her up and down. It was difficult to fault him for honing in on the six foot tall dragon but, at the same time, the thought that he didn’t notice his own body laying half a room away was… amusing, to a point.

It was less amusing to consider where the inattentiveness might have stemmed from-- the pack of ghosts siphoning off his life force, or whatever had reduced him to this state in the first place.

Emmet recalled Haxorus and turned to where their attention was needed, only to come to an abrupt halt when the motion put him nose to nose with Ingo, who startled and moved back.

“Can I help you?” He asked, entertained, to an answer of averted eyes and sheepish, “Not used to anyone else seeing me...”

That would certainly be a track they’d need to clear, in time. For now, however, their task was making it a possibility in the first place.

Where Ingo had failed to spot the room’s focal point, Dawn had not; she idled at the foot of the bed awkwardly, nibbling on her bottom lip. Every so often, she’d tear her eyes away to glance at the both of them, as if reminding herself that this was legitimate. Emmet offered a level smile and stepped nearer, assuming his usual vigil. Automatically, he took the hand laying atop the blanket, exactly where he’d let it rest before.

Almost apprehensive, Ingo drew nearer, inspection of his own body cut short by frequent looks in Emmet’s direction.

Finally, he said, “We’re twins?”

There was a beat of silence.

“Are you just realizing this?”

He opened his mouth to little effect, and snapped it shut in favor of pointing-- to Emmet with one hand and his own still form with the other.

“Yes,” Emmet said, voice deliberately flat to mask his amusement, “I have been made well aware.”

“Give him a break,” Dawn said, and in spite of her words, she was clearly trying to tamp down on a grin of her own, “Ghosts can’t use mirrors.”

Ingo ducked his head, embarrassed and-- perhaps simply to give himself an out-- reached for the hand in Emmet’s grasp. He vanished instantly; for just a heartbeat, Emmet’s anxiety gained ground again, but then there was a sputtering cough and the limp hand instinctively began to curl.

“I had forgotten about breathing.” Ingo wheezed, just in time for Chandelure to complicate the matter by knocking the breath out of him.

“That is concerning.” Emmet said, and then proceeded to do nothing as she kept him pinned, secure in the knowledge that her cheer meant nothing was actually wrong.

Chandelure, spectral angel that she was, spent only a few moments there, then looked up at Emmet with big eyes-- globs of luminous lantern oil slowly arcing away with her movement-- and inched herself to the side, out of her trainer’s one-armed hug. The free hand made to follow her, until its owner followed the ghost’s line of sight.

When, instead, it diverted toward him, Emmet seized it and wasted no time pulling his twin upright, into the gentlest hug he could muster. It was hard to maintain. The rapidly loosening bindings around his heart had to go somewhere, and his arms desperately wanted to pick up the slack, to hold on and never let go-- but stubbornly, carefully, he did his best to match the infinitely more welcome pressure around his own chest. It was… faint, and he didn’t entirely succeed at reining in his enthusiasm, but it was also perfect.

A weight rested against his shoulder and he immediately turned into it, pressed a kiss to the short grey hair. Whispered a near-frantic, “Thank the gods.”

There was a soft snort against his neck, echoed by an audible scoff somewhere else in the room. It didn’t escape his notice, but he just didn’t care enough to pursue the point right now. He had much more important matters to attend to.

Three things happened in rapid succession, at that point: the limbs tangling around him went slack, there was a brief, startled, “Oops,” and, before Emmet had the wherewithal to do more than tilt his head up, he caught a glimpse of Ingo-- firmly back outside of his body-- leaning into place again.

Situated as they were, it was impossible to read his expression, but the embarrassment was clear in his tone as he rasped, “I will… endeavor to prevent that from happening again.”

Internally batting away fear’s second swipe, Emmet patted his brother’s back. “A project for another day. I will be right here to assist.”

A beat of silence, and then a heavy exhale. It could have been from reacclimating to physicality, but something in the back of Emmet’s mind told him it wasn’t; it was a veritable sigh of relief. He wondered if he’d done the same, before, when he’d finally had his twin back in his arms. He wondered if he’d been just as obvious to Ingo.

Emmet only let go when Chandelure began to get impatient-- which meant it had been substantially longer than even his time-table-oriented mind had caught-- and his brother reluctantly leaned back, only mollified when she clambered into his lap. One hand cradling her globe, he looked up to the foot of the bed and quirked what could be called a smile.

“Hi, Ingo!” Dawn chirped, moisture still gathered shamelessly in her eyes, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Hello, Dawn,” He echoed, tired, but voice warm, content. Though he didn’t look, he subconsciously gave Emmet’s hand a squeeze, “It’s nice to finally be met.”

[yugirl-with-dragons]

If I may jump on the space/sci-fi AU train, might I suggest something like Star Blazers 2199 or Galaxy Railways (which I know for a fact nobody has watched because it’s literally trains in space but HEAR ME OUT)

For one; the uniforms are 🔥🔥🔥

For two: the main cast in both are relatively small so you can easily fit the 5D’s crew in those roles

For three: I maaaaaay have already written some stuff for these that I’m keeping to myself because I can’t write entire fics sorry 😭

Anyway, there you go. Buona giornata. 😂

Yeahhh I’ve never seen that movie BUT sounds like a cool idea (I googled some pictures!), anything that gives me enough material to play around with the 5ds cast is worth a try, thank you!!

Hahahhaha you were so ready!! x°° (Buona giornata a te!)

[adamsvanrhijn]

Hello there! I have been happily working through your incredible wtmy,tbws fic like a duck enthusiastically eating a bowl of peas, and was wondering if I may request a director’s commentary on the "never cared to 'til a minute ago. Always been a delicate bloke." conversation OR whatever scene from that fic that you most enjoyed writing? Thank you!

thank you! i am loving that simile very much.................. a duck enthusiastically eating a bowl of peas. amazing.

under cut because the fic itself is Adult Content haha

& also because this is Absurdly long... doing this meme for other people is really hammering in for me how much i rely on single line dialogue & short paragraphs lol. i’d love to work on that, but, womp womp, it hasn’t really been happening.

there is ... a lot going on in this scene lol. i feel very galaxy brain while writing this fic and it’s very pretentious, but i’m just gonna poke at the relevant bits around that quote instead of quoting The Whole Thing. this is from chapter 5 of when to my soul, the body would say ! 

context -- they’ve had morning sex in front of a mirror, then they went for breakfast at the place they’re staying, where richard is using a persona for Safety Reasons, & now they’re just hanging out and richard has been checking thomas out for the last 5-15 minutes without him noticing... until he comments on thomas smoking, and then thomas...

...lets his eyes wander, himself. 

Richard, fully dressed save for his shoes, is turned from the bureau, arm slung over the top of the chair. He did his hair this morning, because Evelyn Price would not have gotten up to anything in the night that could possibly alter the work of a week's worth of Brilliantine, and Thomas sort of hates it.

Not how it looks.

What it means. Or represents, rather. That they've got people other than each other upon whom they need to make good impressions, be they in service or just in the world at large.

right, so, this is like, the Ground Work Thoughts for thomas here as far as this particular interaction is concerned, because this is Very Much about perception / Being Perceived, and before the conversation even happens he’s paying richard a lot of attention, almost to the point of scrutiny. and richard is put together in a way that is very much not for thomas’s sake, it’s for they-left-the-room’s sake, and so he’s noticing that and that’s his frame of mind as they move on.

side note! hair styling oil & pomades really were worn for multiple days in a row. amazing. i could never. there should really be more in this fic about richard’s hair being all floraly <3 <3 <3 but there isn’t. womp womp. that would have been a Factor in this bit huh lol.

"You ever try it?" asks Thomas. Meaning smoking.

"No," he says. He tilts his head thoughtfully. "Never cared to 'til a minute ago. Always been a delicate bloke."

Thomas coughs impolitely.

"I don't see the harm in saying it, Thomas."

The feeling he can't describe leaves him, and a different one forms, in his gut instead of his lungs, an uncomfortable and unwelcome weight. Knotted.

aaaaand boom. thomas Did Not Sign Up For This. 

richard’s being 100% honest, just speaking casually, but thomas’s reaction is enough to get him on the defensive & he’s not an idiot so he knows why, but this is also not something he has lately put a lot of thought into. he’s Accepted It About Himself (we’ll get into this). thomas meanwhile is not ready to approach the subject of Delicacy for anybody he cares about, because to him it’s not a good description, it’s not something he aspires to be or wants to come across as, but he has many times in his life come across as it anyway. he’s Not Like That. 

so the word alone sticks in the wheels of his rolly suitcase emotional baggage, even though it’s richard using it on himself.

"Well, you clearly haven't got a problem with playing at being normal," Thomas says pointedly. Tough not to be pointed when he feels like this, because he's no stranger to it, is he. "If I didn't know better I'd be asking after your wife and baby like the rest of this place."

Lucky those people were leaving after breakfast; Thomas wouldn't be able to take two full days of it.

He hasn't asked about the photographs in the wallet yet, either, and he's not sure if he will.

normal being heterosexual, in this instance, which is contemporary vocabulary.

and richard is very good at playing straight when he’s not fearing for thomas’s life, so. it’s true! it’s a legitimate opinion. but it’s also a pretty significant logical leap that richard is about to pick up on, because that makes him uncomfortable, given thomas is basically saying.... you seem straight, what are you talking about, which isn’t going to make him feel excellent about the sense of identity he’s settled into. 

the rest of this is an Achievement Thomas Is Yet To Unlock so i won’t say much other than that this is not a significant addition to richard as the reader might know him from ywntmha, but, a lot of the big emotional work & development in that fic happens in 1929, with this meeting as the impetus... so it is very significant for thomas, at this point. we’re still in january and they still have a ways to go both in the next 24 hours and in the rest of the year.

Richard raises his eyebrows. "And what's that got to do with it?"

He shrugs.

It should be obvious. It would be obvious, to anyone who bothered to think about it for more than half a second.

that’s not a good faith question; richard’s goading him into actually saying the underlying thought. on one level thomas knows that, which is why he doesn’t say that part out loud and only thinks it.

"It's pretending, is all it is," Richard continues, a little too gentle.

"Don't call yourself what they call you," Thomas returns, a little too sharp.

and since goading doesn’t work, new tactic on richard’s part here, and though thomas can tell it’s intentional it does work on him, so.

writing this was interesting for several reasons but one of the big ones is, and anybody who’s been following me since Before da will probably know this, i like... have very little patience for discussion about personal identity, especially when it comes to reclamation ? i am way more interested both on a personal and academic level (bc i can’t lie about that lmfao, hashtag english major) in community + external ideas imposed on people.  

and this might seem like a very 2010s conversation for them to be having, but... this period of time was really the Dawn of queer/lgbt identity Concepts: words were being coined, communities were coming together in new ways, in continental europe & the us especially there was a lot of rapid development and transition here owing to various roaring 20s factors, and i think richard given his situation would have been exposed to that, for one, but also just, it’s gonna be in both their environments because it was getting to be a thing from the victorian era w/ the medicalisation of homosexuality and things are only expanding. 

"delicate” is a euphemism, not a slur, but it has hella connotations & they are both fully aware of them.

"Rather it be me saying it than them."

Blasé like it doesn't mean a thing at all.

You should know better, he wants to say, you should know better than anyone.

"Don't see how you can feel that way when it's not true to begin with."

thomas’s Only Gay Friend Is My Boyfriend is showing here lol, this is shining light on a gap in what he knows about richard & what he Thinks he knows about richard, so there’s a dissonance. and he sees richard as Masculine on a conscious or subconscious level, and he’s in a These Are Antonyms place re “delicate”. some black & white thinking going on here.

& i feel like the other part is probably fairly explanatory but, richard gets a sense of control and self-assurance by using a word for himself that might not be kind coming out of other people’s mouths and Being Okay With That.

"Thomas…"

They lock eyes.

A tense moment passes.

It is Richard who breaks first. He turns back to the desk with a small sigh.

"This has very little to do with you," he says carefully.

richard, knowing thomas as he does, is able to tell that he’s taking this personally, because he Is, so that’s that there, but again this is something he’s already settled in himself and so there’s also an element of having to justify again this thing he’s already figured out, which he isn’t exactly fond of.

anyway i said i’d get into this -- there’s a lot of interesting like, Societal / Subcultural / Etc politics with regards to being a male servant in this day and age and Gender In General, and valets especially -- throughout the time period leading up to this but ESPECIALLY in the 1920s when there are fewer men in service than there ever have been and more and more kinds of, say, manufacturing jobs as the automobile industry picks up & labour saving devices start having more complicated parts, and probably yknow most of the boys he went to school with are in that or mining or railways, so he’d have thought about it earlier on in his life probably. or Has rather. ftr his brother was in the carriage works i don’t think that ever comes up but there’s a lot there lol. there’s some family stuff in but level in time that we’ll get to........... someday. ANYWAY. 

the point is.

valeting is an effeminate job.

like, point blank. i’m seeing that idea both in sources specifically about servants & just general of-the-era stuff about great houses. when you’re talking about gay men in service a lot of them are valets, and some of that lines up w stereotypes & common lifestyle habits of gay men in general -- looking after hair shoes and clothing, obvs, attention to detail in physical appearance (note that men who Get Valeted also care about details, but they are not the ones who actually have to think and decide about it; whereas their wives are probably giving their ladies’ maids more directions as to hair styles and dresses etc etc because they’re expected to care about that part of the process in a way that men weren’t), exposure to social mores in a variety of different contexts, being well-connected within both the communities that help him get work done: tailoring, hairdressing, shoemakers, drapers, etc and in General, having softer skills like sewing and whatnot. and you’re unmarried and looking after the presentation of another man so there’s some like, desexualisation stuff there.

and thomas and richard would both know this very, very well. they’d have encountered the idea both as men in service and as gay men and especially as gay men in service.  

this richard has been working at buckingham palace for more than twenty years at this point, minus his war backstory which....... is complex and i haven’t gotten into it very much anywhere but he was getting cosy with some higher ups and having To Do about presentation there too and like, was in the service corps which was non-combat supply lines ....... and apprenticing valeting / actually (non-principally) valeting the Literal King Of England for nine.

he has had a LOT of time to get over his shit.

he not only likes his job* but he’s also very good at his job, literal 2nd highest valet position in frankly The World, which is fucking wild, and that combined with his Childhood of like, being second best to his older brother who was like, a perfect human being so far as he could ever tell and that included being very traditionally like, athletic and Leaderly and having-a-sweetheart-in-your-youth-you-then-marry when he was more interested in, you know, story telling and Arts N Crafts (i’m being tongue in cheek) and just generally not ... especially into the Boys Will Be Boys stuff............................

he’s fine with it! he is Fine with being called delicate, it’s helped him get over a lot of his issues just to decide oh, this actually fits my personality and the trajectory my life has followed, so i’m going to just accept that and move on ! etc. 

but thomas is not anywhere near there for himeslf and therefore he isn’t for other people, too, because one of thomas’s Problems is that he hates seeing other people comfortable and happy when he isn’t... and that even applies to richard, because love does not make us perfect. 

*he wants to leave service and he’s tired of the constant scrutiny of working where he does for whom he does, but he does like his actual duties in a lot of ways.

well here’s a novel. i hope this satisfies you!!! <3 <3 <3

[houseswolo]

Day 2 - 'Tis The Season To Be Thirsting

"You make me fly!"

Let's meet some more Thristies!

Athena

(Tumblr: @lilia-ula | Ao3: Lilia_Ula)

What got you into Star Wars?

ROTJ made a huge impression on me as a child. I fell hard for the Ewoks and had a soft spot for Salacious Crumb, the little wannabe Gremlin Jabba kept as a pet. So, I fell in love with the original trilogy backward, starting with VI and ending up with A New Hope. 😂

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

Most definitely the subtext within their interactions in TFA. JJ and crew made sure I'd notice the hotness therein. *bless 'em*

Why do you write / make art?

To bring scenes I'll never see on the big screen to life. I'm shameless, a complete gratuitous writer.

The Object of your Thirst…

With my penchant for villainous crushes, Kylo Ren will ever wear the crown.

Which Adam look do you like the best?

TFA Kylo, aka the Grim Reaper I wish would kill me softly, closely followed by Dark Space Prince™ in TLJ. His coloring and features are made for black, and it flusters me endlessly that he humors my fetish by wearing TONS of it off screen.💦

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

I'm so gonna sound like a creepy dude when I say this, but ah well. His eyes slay me. He is a master of portraying intensity and emotion, and it is best focused in his gorgeous eyes.

Favorite Star Wars Movie

The Last Jedi

What do you like to write / draw / paint the most?

E-rated erotica with feeling behind each thrust

Your TRoS Prediction

Oh, c'mon, I'm a red-blooded Reylo. They gonna tango.

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

Your destination is a dark, foreboding castle bordered by steep mountains to the North. You ride through flowering orchards an elegant state of decay, the fragrance of blossoms beguiling your senses while the imposing sight of the stronghold fills you with growing dread.

If you were a candy bar, what would your name be?

Drama Creme

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating? 

It takes me time and quiet to submerge, and those commodities are in short supply IRL. Hence, the molasses-in-January pace of my output.😭

Are you a dom or sub? 

I switch but am happiest as a sub.

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

There have been more glamorous places, but I'll spring for weird: on a lit-up bench in the middle of City Hall in Honolulu. 2 am. *okaybye*

What's your kink?

Wait, What? Like, as in only one? *dies laughing*

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

Means "Red Lily" in Hawaiian, an ode to my daughter's middle name, my roots and the color red, which tends to dominate the field in my subject matter.

Do you like it rough or soft? 

B O T H

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

This Way Lies Ruin

———

Cecelia

(Tumblr: @queenoferebor | Twitter: @queenoferebor12 | Ao3: Cecilia1204)

What got you into Star Wars?

I am an OT girl. I fell in love with a galaxy far far away as a kid and especially Han Solo, who was my first love. Forty-two years later and I'm still here, even more involved now that fandom is a thing and meeting my soul-sisters from all over the world. I loved the adventure, the romance and the whole concept of good and evil and redemption that SW gave me. I dragged my kids to the movies and I know I'll still be watching them until the day I have to sit right in front of the screen, with the sound at full blast, just to watch my babes in my old age.

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

After TFA, I was pretty angry at Kylo, won't lie. Then I read Reylo stuff on Tumblr and before TLJ came out I tried my first Reylo fic and boom, I was hooked. It's basically my fave trope: redeemed bad/misunderstood guy that sees the light when he meets the love of his life. I mean, I'm a Sansan and Dramione, Beauty & the Beast shipper, so it fitted the bill, really.

The Object of your Thirst…

Originally, and for many, many, many years, it was Han Solo. That man could have made me burn up on Hoth. Then along came his son, Ben/Kylo, and while I didn't see it at first, now, hooley dooley but I thirst for him now. I would not not say no to a threesome with both father and son! Just saying 😏

Which Adam look do you like the best?

I'm a complete hoe for shorter hair, so Paterson, Phillip Altman and now Daniel Jones get my hormones racing. I would not say no to a jonesing on his desk on that basement. No, siree!

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

All of him! Like, what's not to like? Narrowing it down is hard because I would lick that man from head to toe but it was his eyes and hair that got my attention. I could drown in those eyes and I've always had a hair kink, and his is perfection. Then there's his shoulders, arse, hands, mouth.....

Favorite Star Wars Movie

Was Return of the Jedi and then TLJ. If we get the Reylo pay off in TRoS, that could become my new fave

Your TRoS Prediction

Ben and Rey will declare their love and bone like bunnies in the Millenium Falcon. A girl can hope

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

Probably a stairwell. Near a railway line. Not nearly as sexy as it sounds, lol

What's your kink?

Hair. I love hair. And HEAs. If it doesn't have a happy ending, I'm not reading or watching, sorry. I don't want to be sad.

Use three words to describe yourself.

Happy, optimistic, loyal

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

I'm a mad LOTR and Hobbit fan, so that's where Queen of Erebor came from. The 1204 is my birthday

Do you like it rough or soft? 

Soft. I like romance but every now and then...

Favorite toy

My Satisfyer (clit stimulator) is currently my go to.

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Han Sol. I really am a Hoe-lo for Solo!

———

Meet the other Thristies!

Thirst Order Advent Calendar Day:

1

cc: @tazwren @deadlikemoi @drnucleus @ashtyntaytertot @lostinqueue-ffa @my-jedi-life @shestoolazytologin @kaybohls @nite0wl29 @cosmo-gonika @wilsonthinks66 @roguesinside @areylofan @3todream3 @koderenn @queenoferebor @thereylowritingden @housedadam @house-crylo @houseplaidam

[werejusttouchingeachother]

Cosmic Railway

An angel who fell to the Earth once told a curious human that the sky is a vast expanse with no start or end. Planets, suns, moons, infinite galaxies, multiple dimensions and alternate universes all found home in this abyss.

And when night fell on Earth, a human would occasionally board the cosmic railway and roam the galaxy in their restless wanderlust. The moonlight that watches over all of us helps guide them to me too. When the morning star rose, they would return home with vague memories, leaving a trail of stardust in their wake--shattered shards that flicker across the night sky for eternity. 

Gathering this stardust in my palms, I shall open them now for only your eyes to peer into. Be warned as to not piece them together for they are broken fragments and broken, they shall remain, only the stars will know the secret to their home. 

Now as I watch you amidst these stars, I cannot help but wonder:

Would you leave your realm tonight and peer through this cosmic railway with me? Under this twinkling sky, in the mists of time, would you meet me?

Been Through (1) (2)

Lost 

Stargazers

A/N: This is a series of drabbles/fics that I have written based on actual dreams (stories using first person, ‘I’) and daydreams (stories using second person, ‘you’) that I have had of both EXO and NCT. It’s mostly a fantasy genre for now but I’ll add more as I get more ideas. Anything I write in this series can be found under the tags ‘Cosmic Railway’ and ‘DreamsAndDaydreams’. 

Please show Cosmic Railway your love and support!🤗💕 Feel free to drop in my inbox any ideas/requests/questions regarding Cosmic Railway 💕

[raakxhyr]

RoyalChaos||Just a Kiss on Your Lips

[I’ve had this scene in my head all day]

[enjoy this really short scene]

[also I haven’t actually written a fic since I’d been busy this entire year so if any of you don’t mind letting me know how you felt about it, please do tell :) ]

Chilled sighed as he leaned against the armrest separating himself and Ze in the coach of the train they were in. Most of the seats were empty around them, the only sound coming through to his ears from the chug of the metal wheels on metal railways. The horn would sound now and then.

He wasn’t sure why his heart was pounding loudly in his ears as he stared at the Canadian beside him. Ze was completely lost in some trance staring out the window while buildings raced by and melted into forests, and his chest would slowly rise. 

Chilled would notice these things - and then some. He stared, and he kept staring, and he would catch every living, breathing detail about the man - his best friend - that sat right next to him, so close to touch, to hold, to kiss and yet he was so far out of reach. 

He could see the wrinkles in his eyes, see the way his younger days of acne seemed to never be over with all that hair always covering it up. He would notice the way Ze’s jacket hugged his body, and yet loose the fabric was worn. He found each fold and crease, he found the little bits of lint and dust and hair, he found the frenzied curls of hair that bobbed over the valley of his hood. 

He caught the way Ze’s throat would bob when he swallowed, he found the beauty spots in his neck that lured him in like fish bait. He noticed the way Ze’s lips would twitch into a smile or a frown, sometimes they would part as he whispered to himself, swimming in his distant thoughts. He looked enviously on at the beard, something he’d never be able to obtain, as far as the “creepy man moustache” would take him. He followed the curls behind his ear and around the shape of his face, watching them bounce over his forehead and tangle back into a forest of brown. 

He watched Ze’s eyebrows knit together in thought, raise in conclusion, only to drop back in continuous hyptheses. Still, they were fine, slender, just like his fingers - long and soft and fragile in Chilled’s own where they could slip together; they sat against his cheek so Ze could rest against the window and ponder. His bright red nose would always be of amusement and teasing love.

Then there were his eyes. By God, Chilled loved his eyes. They were the brightest green and the warmest gray. He would catch the sliver of blue that splashed around and he could swim in them all day. They were like galaxies, and Chilled was lost among the stars, not that Ze wasn’t already the light that led him through his days and nights. Ze’s eyes were the prettiest, most beautiful sight he could hold onto.

And as the tunnel approached, Chilled found himself even more restless than before. 

“Ze- Steven,” he barked out, hand slamming the armrest back before his fingers curled tight around Ze’s shirt, jerking him forward and shoving him back against the window just as everything around them went black. 

Stars would flash in the tunnels. Stars would flash and shine and soon they were out of the darkness.

But they wouldn’t notice the trees that would shimmer by and the sky that would blink above. They wouldn’t notice the birds that shot past or the powerlines that sailed close. 

They wouldn’t notice because they were caught in their own little world, as long as they had each other. 

And as Chilled grasped his fingers around Ze’s face and as Ze draped his arms around Chilled’s neck and over his back to pull him close, that would be their little world. And Ze’s head would thud against the glass window, his back pressed onto the wall while Chilled would lead the dance and hold him steady. Their lips would whisper secrets that neither of them knew, and that was okay as long as they had each other. 

Just a kiss to his lips brought him home.

Just a kiss to his lips made him falter.

Just a kiss to his lips made him whole. 

Just a kiss to his lips.

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise - Ch. 5

AU; Chapter 5 - The Case of Blue

Manabu has a bad time with relationships.

~4k words

Bulge was the first to show up.

Kicking his feet up on his desk, Uncle Phantom crossed his arms, and stared down Bulge the same way my dad stared down me. My dad and uncle were more alike than they would ever admit.

“You can’t be alone with one of my boys without paying,” Uncle said. “And you can’t be alone with Manabu in particular unless you’re buying him for the night. This brothel has a reputation to uphold, Schwanhelt.”

Bulge threw his hands up with a huff of frustration. “Great skies, I’m not going to do anything, Harlock. The captain just sent me to check on Manabu. How insane would I have to be to try anything like that?”

Uncle’s head tilted slightly. “But you’d be interested if my brother weren’t breathing down your neck?”

Bulge’s face flooded pink, and he was left fumbling for a response. His brows raised, Uncle’s eye flicked to me. They’d been bickering for several minutes while I sat in the lounge chair across the room, kicking my feet in silence. I wasn’t sure why Bulge needed to be alone with me to talk. Maybe he was suspicious of Uncle. It didn’t matter. If my dad had sent him, I knew what he was going to say.

“Regardless,” Uncle said, cutting off Bulge’s stuttering. “I’m advertising Manabu as a virgin, and that gives him quite the price tag. It doesn’t look good if he’s off alone with other men.”

I wasn’t sure how Uncle managed to say things like that so straight-faced to clients, or Bulge for that matter, when he became a red-faced, blubbering mess when he’d interviewed me for the job.

It had been an entertaining evening though.

“So what are your thoughts on...toys?” he’d asked, one hand covering half of his face to avoid looking at me.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never really used one. I’d be interested. Dick has a bunch, doesn’t he?”

Uncle made a noise like a suffering whale. “We’ll worry about that later then. What about...group sex?”

I kicked my feet, smiling all the while. I’d never seen Uncle so stressed. I shouldn’t have found it so entertaining. “Sounds fine,” I said.

His other hand came up to cover the rest of his face. “W-would you be open to...double p-penetration?”

I broke into a grin. “I think you have to be pretty open for that.”

His face hit the desk’s surface as I burst into laughter. He remained there for a while, unmoving, until he dragged himself up and left the room. Susumu and Mamoru strode in to take his place at the computer, and the questions resumed with a professional ease. Susumu did end up having to shoo Mamoru out after he kept offering to teach me anything I didn’t know.

I didn’t see Uncle again until the next morning. He didn’t look like he’d slept very well.

I guess it was kind of weird for him. He’d visited often when Mamoru and I were growing up, but I hadn’t seen him at all for five years. Last he’d seen me before I came looking for a job, I was fifteen. He probably still thought of me like that sometimes. Dad still thought of me like a little, doe-eyed kid. Always had. Always would.

I wasn’t sure how Bulge saw me. He’d known me since I was pretty young, and Dad had partnered me with him on any dangerous missions. Dad had always trusted Bulge to look after me, so that must have been why he was here now.

“It’s not like you need to go around advertising that I had a quick talk with Manabu,” he hissed.

I hadn’t actually seen Bulge since I left the SDF. In fact, I hadn’t seen much of him since my last mission. Kind of weird that Dad would send him, but I guess this was his way of getting around me not wanting to see him. At least he was respecting my wish to some extent.

“Just talk to me with him in here,” I called, tired of their arguing. “I know it’s been a while, but I’m under lock and key, so you’ve got to deal with Uncle Phantom for now.”

Uncle shrugged to show how little remorse he felt.

My word must have been enough because the argument ended there. As he turned to me,  Bulge’s shoulders drooped. Every time his eyes met mine, he’d glance away. My stomach started tying itself in knots. He hadn’t said a word to me since he arrived, and it was becoming apparent that he was only doing this out of respect for my dad. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to see me.

Still refusing to look at me, Bulge rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, your father just wanted me to check in on you. He wants you to know that you’re welcome to rejoin the SDF at any time.”

I was sure he’d watered down whatever lines Dad had given to him. “I’m under a contract,” I said. I’d had this conversation with Dad enough times. I didn’t need to have it with Bulge too. “But it’s nice to see you. I don’t get a lot of visitors, no clients or anything. You’re welcome to stop by anytime.”

Sure, having him as a visitor was fine, but I wouldn’t have minded having him as a client. Straight-laced as he was, it would never happen, but I’d always had a bit of a crush on Bulge. Anytime he came with Dad to visit when I was younger, I’d try to keep his attention the entire time.

But I had just as much of a chance to catch his eye now as I did back then. “I-I’ll do my best, Manabu,” he said. He was being so obvious about his discomfort with me that even Uncle was starting to look concerned. 

“Are you doing alright?” Bulge asked.

“I’m fine. How is everyone in the platoon doing?”

“Fair enough. Our missions have all gone well. Everyone’s fine. So,” He swallowed. “Are you doing alright with your… I mean, you seem to be handling yourself fine. I’m sorry. I guess this isn’t-”

“They’re fine, Bulge,” I said, tugging off my right glove to show him the prosthetic. I flexed the robotic joints a few times with ease. “I’ve gotten pretty used to it. Doesn’t bother me anymore.”

Looking down at my hand made him cringe, but he didn’t look away. “Sorry,” he murmured. I’m sorry. If I’d just…” He shook his head. “I need to get back in case we get called out. Take care, Manabu.”

He darted out the door without waiting for me to say goodbye in return. The sound of the door closing behind him seemed to rip all the strength from my body. My forehead dropped to my knees. “He’s all grossed out by me,” I groaned.

“I’m not sure what he is, but I don’t think that’s it,” Uncle said from somewhere nearby. His hand came to rest on my shoulder. “I think being cooped up with nothing to do is stressing you out a bit.”

“You should give me a client,” I muttered.

“I’m working on it. In the meantime, you’re welcome to invite over a friend or go out with the other boys on your off day. Didn’t you have that friend from the rehabilitation group you went to? You kept talking about him.”

I turned my head to the side so he could see my smile. “Yeah, I could probably see if he’s free to visit. He’d get a kick out of that. I just… I do miss my platoon, and I know they’re busy, and it’s weird to meet someone at a brothel, but it’s like they want nothing to do with me anymore.”

Uncle took a seat at my side and patted my back. “Do you regret leaving?”

“Do you regret leaving your ship?” I asked.

He didn’t flinch. “Sometimes.”

Sitting up, I fell once again to lean against his shoulder. “Yeah,” I said. “Me too. But I don’t want to go back.”

“But do you want to be here?” he asked. “As much as I support anything that pisses off your father, you shouldn’t work here unless you really want to.”

“I do want to. I mean, I do also want to piss him off, but mostly I just wanted to get away from him. I wanted him to stop treating me like a baby, but it didn’t really work. I also do want to get laid, so it’s not just rebellion if that helps.”

He broke into a laugh that made his shoulders bounce along with my head resting on them. “Well, you’ve got more of a reason than I did at your age, so I guess that’s something. Go run along and get in touch with your friend and drink some tea or whatever it is you do.”

“I mostly just lie around bored.” But I stood and went to send an invitation. Anyone else might have found it odd to get an invite to a brothel, but he wouldn’t think twice about it.

Bruce appeared second.

He walked through the front door, frowning at everything, but he plopped down on the main sofa across from me. “Hey, Yuuki, your dad sent me,” he said, sounding less thrilled than Bulge to be there. At least he would look at me.

“So is this going to be like a bi-weekly thing?” I asked. Destiny station wasn’t too far away by the right trains, and Sirius often worked out of the nearby station, but it was still an out-of-the-way trip.

He shrugged. “Figured I’d come see this place. I hear about it all the time. It sure has that rich snob aesthetic going for it.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of all a front though. It’s just flashy for the clients.”

Bruce’s brows rose, but I wasn’t sure if he was impressed or irritated. Though I’d never learned to read him, guessing he was angry was the safer bet. We were actually assigned as partners when I joined Sirius, but by the higher-ups and not Dad. 

Dad liked Bruce from what I could tell, all claps on the shoulder and compliments to his impressive aim. But when it came to Bruce being my partner, Dad clammed up. He was always telling Bruce to keep an eye on me or sticking me with Bulge instead. I couldn’t blame Bruce for the way his lips would twitch toward a snarl every time Dad talked down to him because of me. It always pissed me off too.

“So what’s with your angry dog?” Bruce asked, cocking a thumb over his shoulder toward Daiba. “He’s been glaring at me since I came in.”

“Yeah, he does that,” I said. “He’s our bodyguard.”

“Awfully small for that, isn’t he?”

Daiba’s eyes were like a rabid dog’s. “Should I throw him out, Manabu? I can do it.”

As much as Bruce was asking for it, I shooed Daiba away. “It’s alright. I can handle it.”

Bruce stared on in some mix of surprise and confusion as Daiba slinked off with an actual growl. “He is your dog,” Bruce said.

“Yeah, we love him. So how’s work?”

“Fun,” he drawled. “The captain’s been moody since he came back from here, so we’ve all been trying not to piss him off.”

I huffed and stomped my foot before I realized how childish I looked. “Sorry, but I’m not going to talk to him again until he calms down.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said with a shrug. “You can’t control your dad. The only person who I’ve ever seen talk him down from anything was Kanna.”

“Oh yeah, Mom can be scary. She can shut him up with just a look.” Truthfully, she could do that to me too.

Bruce stretched his arms up and dropped them to rest across the back of the couch. Most first-time clients or visitors were stiff like they’d been frozen through, but he showed no signs of discomfort. Though when I thought about it, maybe this wasn’t his first time at a brothel.

“There was a whole message I was supposed to deliver, but I forgot most of it,” he said. “The gist was that your dad wants you to quit working here. I’m sure you’ve heard this before.”

My chin dropped into my palm. “I have.”

It seemed that was the end of it because he took to glancing around the room again. “So are there complementary snacks or something?”

“Only for paying customers.”

He blinked and stared at me for a moment. I still couldn’t read his expression. “Is that a come-on?” he asked,

It was my turn for my face to burn. There was no way to play it off with my reddened cheeks giving me away, but dammit if I wasn’t going to try. “I-if you want it to be.”

He snorted. “Please, you dad gives me a hard enough time as things are. I like my head attached, thank you.”

I couldn’t keep eye contact, but I couldn’t give up so easily. Flirting was half my job. “But wouldn’t it be fun to get back at my dad for all those times he’s pissed you off?”

I was not good at my job.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him stand and walk up to me. “Getting back at someone by sleeping with their kid isn’t my style.” His fingers pressed up under my chin to tilt my face up toward his. Even as I drowned in the endless blue of his eyes, the fire in my face didn’t let up. His smirk had my heart hammering.  “Besides, you’re way above my pay grade.”

“Hey!” Daiba barked from whatever shadowy corner he’d crawled in to sulk. “No touching!”

Bruce jerked back and held his hands up in surrender. To keep myself from getting onto Daiba, I cut my teeth into my tongue.. He was right, after all. Bruce wasn’t allowed to get close if he didn’t pay first.  

“So is no one else available?” Bruce asked as he lowered his hands to shove them in his pockets.

“Everyone but Zero has a client,” I huffed. “And you wouldn’t be able to get with Zero.”

Bruce frowned. “Ouch.”

Coursing with disappointment, I fell over to lie along the couch. “Zero only accepts like one out of a hundred clients. Don’t feel bad. You should pick me instead. My dad doesn’t have to know.”

One of those rare, genuine smiles flashed across his face for an instant. My heart  missed a beat. “Sorry, Yuuki,” he said. “Your dad knows everything, and so does your brother.”

As though summoned by my wince at the idea of him, my brother showed up that Sunday.

“Manabu!” he greeted as he shoved past Daiba to get through the door. I was tackled in a hug while Daiba spat and growled. “You haven’t talked to me in ages!” Mamoru whined. “You don’t call or visit!”

The rest of the guys looked on from around the room as my breathing began to pick up. I focused on gasping for air to keep my vision from blurring. Uncle was nice enough to snap from the top of the stairs, “Hey, no touching!”

My brother’s mood changed like a flip of a switch. His eyes narrowed as he challenged our Uncle. “He’s my brother!”

Uncle was the wrong person to challenge to a glaring match. “I have enough brothers here to know better than to let them get handsy.”

With a scoff, Mamoru’s nose wrinkled in disgust, though his eyes darted away. “Your brother works here, Uncle Phantom.”

“And I don’t trust him either. Now hands off.”

Though he looked like he wanted to fight the floor he kept glaring at, Mamoru freed me from his death grip and the vice on my trilling heart let up.

“I have a friend coming over,” I said as I regained my breath. “You should have told me you were coming.”

“You’d have told me not to come,” he grumbled. “And what friend? You never invite me over.”

I couldn’t imagine why. “He’s my friend from rehabilitation. I know you’re just here because Dad told you to try to get me to quit and go back to the SDF, so you can go ahead and leave. Tell him I said no.”

Every time I tried to turn away, he stepped in front of me again. “What happened?” he demanded. “You used to follow me around like a duckling, used to say how we were going to get married. Why are you trying so hard to avoid me?”

My shoulders scrunched up by my ears, burning red with a blush. “I was a little kid! I’ve grown up since you joined the SPG! You can’t treat me the same as you did when I left just because we didn’t see each other much. I’m not ten anymore.”

“You don’t act much different,” he said. “Still get all rebellious when you don’t get your way. You don’t need to be here just to get back at Dad. This is crazy. Just come back with me. You don’t have to rejoin the SDF. Hell, you don’t have to see Dad. You can come live with me. I’ll take care of you.” His hands latched onto my shoulders, and he got that desperate look in his eyes, like a starving man. He’d been looking at me that way more and more every time I saw him. He was too damn protective. He’d always been that way.

That was Dad’s fault too.

“Take care of your brother,” he’d said to Mamoru after coming home to find me with a broken arm. I’d taken a tumble down one of the cliffs overlooking the mines, and my face was covered in scrapes. I’d never forget the way Dad’s eyes lit up with fear when he saw the ugly scabs across my cheek and chin.

“Keep an eye on him,” Dad said. “He’s a bit of a danger magnet.”

Mamoru took any command from Dad to heart, and so did I. “Stick with your brother, son,” he told me. “He’ll look after you.”

At first, I willingly trailed after him like an eager puppy. He’d extend a hand to me, and I’d take it to let him lead me wherever he wanted to go. I was content to let him carry me or to sleep next to him. The women in town thought it was adorable, cooed about how we were “little boyfriends.” I don’t think they realized we were related with how different we looked. It didn’t seem weird at the time, so we didn’t correct them.

But I grew out of that. 

Mamoru didn’t. 

I learned to sneak away on my own so he didn’t grab me and drag me off where we were supposed to go. I loved my brother, but until the day he left for the SPG, I was fighting to get out from under his shadow. Now, it seemed like he wanted to put me back in it.

Before I could wrench free of his grip, the other Mamoru - Kodai - ripped my brother’s hand off my shoulder. “Yuuki,” Kodai said with a dangerous sort of smile I’d never seen him wear. “Come here. Let me have a quick talk with you.”

“I have nothing to discuss with you,” Brother said. “Let go of me.”

“Well that’s too bad because I have so much to say to you. Come here.”

Despite Brother’s protests, no one said a word as Kodai dragged him off toward the laundry room. Uncle and Daiba pointedly looked away. Zero frowned at the book I doubted he was reading. Susumu was the only one looking at me. His eyes were sharp with the desire to say something. He stood and opened his mouth.

The sound of the giant front door slamming open stopped him. “Mana! I made it!” came the screech that could have only come from Ichiro. He stood in the open doorway with his hands on his hips and the smirk of a devil splayed across his face. His hair was fiery orange, his eyes redder than Susumu’s vest. I wasn’t sure if his eyes were naturally that color or if it was part of his augmentation. Actually, I didn’t know much about him, but he could cheer me up better than anyone. “How have you been!?” he demanded.

“Alright,” I answered with a laugh. “I think you almost gave everyone a heart attack.”

They all looked on with wide eyes as he kicked the door shut behind him. “Oh, hi!” He stuck up a hand in greeting. “I’m Ichiro Haya.”

They took turns muttering greetings along with their names. They needn’t have bothered. Ichiro couldn’t remember any name but his own. “Nice to meet you,” he said regardless. Without waiting for them to respond, he slid up to me, frays of his messy hair curling around his grin. “Wow, this place is nice, Mana. So you’re a whore? That’s neat.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t had any clients. I’m still touted as the virgin, but no one’s biting.”

He nodded as though deep in thought. “I could sleep with you if you want, but I’ve never done it either.”

I burst into a laugh, though he seemed dead serious. “That’s okay, Ichiro. I appreciate the offer, though.”

“Okay, but if there’s anyone you want to sleep with, let me know, and I’ll snag them for you.”

“That’s not really…” There was no point in arguing with him, so I gave up without a fight. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

I’d hated the rehabilitation, hated the prosthetics, hated the panic attacks that hit me anytime I felt closed in. But Ichiro was the ever-shining sun in my self-imposed night. While everyone else treated me like a fragile doll, he’d come up and slug me in the arm or demand I go with him to get lunch. It was easy to fall for him. I thought it was love for a while, but looking back, it was more like dependence.

Besides, I wasn’t sure Ichiro was the sort interested in romance. When my curiosity got the better of me and I asked him his preferences, he thought about it for a minute before shrugging. “I dunno,” he said. “I’ve never had sex, so I can’t write it off, but I don’t care much about it. I’ve never dated anyone either. I don’t really get it. Is it just like friendship but you hold hands or something? What’s the point?”

That pretty well threw my crush out the window.  

“So your arm and leg been treating you well?” he asked in the nonchalant manner Bulge couldn’t manage.

“Yeah, I hardly notice a difference anymore,” I lied. I had no room to complain to him. Most of his body was in-organic.

His voice lowered enough to hide our conversation from everyone nearby, though I was sure they were still listening. “Panic attacks still been hitting you?”

“Not so bad now,” I breathed more than said. “Mostly just nightmares.”

He nodded, though his brows were pinched. “I don’t know much about sex, but are you going to be okay if a guy pins you?”

“I don’t know.”

Harlock had asked the same thing. It was the first question out of his mouth during the interview, the only one he hadn’t stuttered on. I hoped I could handle it. My first client didn’t need to deal with me hyperventilating before they’d even gotten a scrap of clothing off.

But I couldn’t even sleep with blankets covering me. I’d dream I was back under all that weight, pain like razor wire cutting up my arm from the inside. I’d dream I was inhaling nothing but dirt and exhaling a steady stream of blood. My weak screams for help always woke me up.

I was desperate for contact after so long without it, but I was equally terrified of it. The moment I felt trapped, I went back to that last mission. I heard the screech of the beams collapsing and Bulge screaming my name.

Ichiro broke the rules by taking my hand in his. No one stopped him. “Don’t be hard on yourself,” he said. “I still have the nightmares and attacks too, but you’re strong, and it gets easier to handle.”

I wished my dad and brother would see it like that. I wished they would stop coddling me. All I needed was to hear that from them.

“You can do it, Mana,” Ichiro continued. “Don’t you worry. We’ll get you laid.”

Didn’t really need to hear that bit from them though.

[talesofzero]

Daiba/Yama #7, Bulge/Zero #12, Zero/Wataru(???!?!?!?!?!) #19

Modern AU; Already did the other two, but here’s Bulge/Zero for 12 - Love Bite. Featuring Harlock having a bad time. It’s all very silly.

Mildly inappropriate warning

~1600 words

I must have been cursed. After several unlucky roundsof Rock, Paper, Scissors, I was slapped with the designated driver position forthe night. As if things weren’t bad enough already, everyone got wasted. Unusuallywasted.

I had no proof that anything had been spiked, but Zerocould hold his alcohol better than anyone I knew, and he was laughing with hischeek against our table after just a few drinks. Even when Zero did get drunk,he was always all moody about it. Seeing him giggling like a little kid made mewonder if someone had slipped something in my water too.

Bulge, usually our designated driver, never drankmuch. Said he didn’t like to get drunk, but he was collapsed against Zero’s sidecackling about whatever stupid thing had riled the two of them up.

Everyone was having a good time, sure. I just didn’ttrust the place. After twenty minutes of coaxing, begging, bribing, anddragging, I got them all back to the car. At each apartment stop, I made surethey made it through their door alright after making them promise they’d neverhave me as a designated driver again. Not like they’d remember.

Bulge and Zero’s shared apartment was last, theclosest to mine and Tochiro’s and furthest from the bar I didn’t think I’d begoing back to. Their heads were knocked together in the backseat, lookingasleep except for the occasional murmur from one of them.

“Alright, come on,” I called back as I parked by theircars. “Let’s get you useless drunks inside.”

The car’s overhead light kicked on as I opened mydoor, and I found them squinting as I popped their door open for them. Theyboth wore pouts but complied when I grabbed them by the arm and dragged theminto the parking lot.

“Are you staying the night, Harlock?” Bulge asked in asweet, sleepy slur of a voice as though dripping with honey. He got all sappyand affectionate when drunk.

I expected Zero to object, but he was too busy tryingto find where he put his front door key in his million coat pockets.

“I’m not staying,” I said. “I’m just dropping you off.There’s only so much being around drunk people I can stand without being drunkmyself.”

“Sorry,” Bulge said like a kicked puppy. “Do you wantsome food or something? I’m real sorry. You were so helpful.”

I was starting to see why he didn’t like to get drunkoften. “It’s fine,” I said. “Let’s just get you both inside.”

Zero continued fumbling for his keys even as wereached the door, until I was tapping my foot and sighing. Before I could offerto just kick the door in, Bulge shoved his hand into one of the coat’s lowerpockets with a slurred, “Babe, you always put it in the same pocket.”

Zero looked as startled as I did, though he may havebeen more shocked by the awkward placement of Bulge’s grabby hand. I wasconcerned with Bulge calling him babe. Bulge didn’t call anyone babe, not hisoccasional dates, not any hapless baby animals, and especially not hisroommate.

I hoped neither of them would remember this in themorning because I was already hurting knowing that I would. It was all tooweird.

I snatched the keys from Bulge, knowing how long we’dbe there if I let them try to put the key in the lock. Once I had the dooropen, I turned on the lights for them and made sure there weren’t any strayshoes on the floor they could trip over. There weren’t, of course. Bulge andZero were both too neat for that. They both looked like something was crawling aroundon them when they visited my apartment. Bulge was too polite to comment, butZero always said, “Clean your goddamn house, Harlock.”

I tried to hang on the door and let them stumble pastme into the apartment, but Bulge pushed me farther in. “You should eatsomething,” he said. “Or get a drink. We have lots of things.”

If by “lots of things,” he meant water, then they suredid.

He seemed so anxious about it that I figured I wouldhave to take some crackers and a water bottle to make him happy. With a sigh, Iclosed the door behind me, muttering, “Fine-fine.”

Bulge’s eyes lit up as though it were his birthday,and I turned into their small kitchen area. I swear, I was in there for tenseconds tops. I thought I heard something like one of them stubbing their toeagainst the couch, but I sure as hell was not prepared to come back to themmaking out on the couch.

Something had definitely been slipped into my water.

For a minute, I could only stare, my whole body lockedup against me. It looked like Zero had shoved Bulge over the armrest, boththeir knees resting on it. Bulge had his arms locked around Zero’s back, hisfingers digging into that damn coat. Zero hands were latched on Bulge’ssquirming hips, and damn the two of them were going at it. Even when my bodystill wouldn’t move, my eyes flicked away on their own as my mind whirled.

I felt the need to stop them, but I would have muchpreferred just running out the door and leaving them to their devices. Ifsomething had been slipped into their drinks, this was not good. They wouldn’trealize what they were doing. Unless they did? Maybe they did this all the time.I didn’t know. They could have been fuck buddies. Neither of them were thetypes to go around advertising it.

But if that weren’t true, I had to pry them apartsomehow. And then what if they just climbed back on top of each other as soonas I left? Dammit, I was not staying here all night playing chastity belt.

I opened my mouth to say something. I hadn’t plannedout whatever it was, but when Zero’s hand shoved into Bulge’s pants, my voice justcame out as a yell.

Sure didn’t stop them. Bulge just moaned over me. Heactually moaned. Bulge. Oh my god. He was so loud and unrestrained, they weregoing to wake the damn neighbors.

When they broke away gasping for air, their faces allflushed – goddamn, I needed a drink – I finally kicked my legs into motion. Myhand outstretched, I was ready to put a stop to these useless, drunk,starting-to-get-me-grossly-turned-on idiots.

But Bulge did that for me. Sweet, stupid, Bulge.Something got ahold of him – probably Zero’s hand. He leaned up and bit downhard on the side of Zero’s neck. Zero yelped and rolled off of Bulge, hittingthe floor with a thunk.

“Oh thank god,” I said through a wheeze.

Zero had his hand on his neck, his brows furrowed ashe stared up at the ceiling.

“I’m sorry!” Bulge howled, held up on one arm as helooked to Zero in horror. “Did I bite too hard? I thought you liked biting! I’msorry!”

I blinked. Bulge hadn’t done that intentionally. “Idon’t know what I expected,” I muttered, rubbing a hand across my face.

When Zero pulled his hand back to look, his palm was coveredwith blood like a fresh coat of red paint. Bulge broke into a yell and a dozenscreamed apologies.

If the neighbors weren’talready awake, they sure as hell were up now.

I woke with a splitting headache which drowned out theache in my back. After a few minutes of trying to pull my eyes open, I was ableto squint enough to realize I’d slept on the couch. For some reason, Harlockwas curled up on the recliner across the room. The bottle of water on the floornear him entranced me too much to care, and I rolled off the couch to dragmyself toward it.

A quiet “oof,” reached my ears as my knee landed onsomething that wasn’t the floor. Looking down, I found Zero, his expressionscrewed up with pain and his hand against his head.

“Sorry,” I mumbled in a hoarse voice that must havebeen mine, and I pulled myself off of him.

“S’okay,” he answered, his eyelids heavy. As heyawned, I noticed a huge adhesive bandage slapped against his neck, the kindusually reserved for kids who scraped their knees. Our first aid kit sat openon the floor nearby.

“We must have done something stupid,” I said.

“Yes,” a voice hissed behind me.

I turned to find Harlock glaring from his seat, thoughhe didn’t look all that threatening with how he’d curled up. He reminded me ofa puffed-up cat.

“I am never, nevergoing to be a designated driver for you two again,” he said.

“What happened?” Zero asked as I padded over on allfours to the water bottle.

When I looked up at Harlock’s silence, I found himredder than Zero’s favorite sweater. He couldn’t look at either of us.

Oh.

I looked at Zero, who was trying to hide his smile ashe looked back to me.

“And you didn’t even join in?” Zero asked.

I wished he wouldn’t taunt Harlock like that. The poorguy looked close to a heart attack. “I’m leaving,” he said like the wind hadbeen knocked out of him.

“At least take some food or water before you go,” Icalled as he rushed to the door.

He just gave a shortscream and slammed it behind him.

[talesofzero]

essay prompt thing: my rare pair manabu and bulge in 19 with possible 10 please?

Five years later I return. 19 is formal dance and 10 is nose kiss hell yeah. This one is actually an obvious companion to the last one so nobody is dead-verse. 

~750 words

The first roadblock of marriage we ran into was thewedding itself. Manabu was as baffled at my description of the ceremony as Iwas at his.

“Haven’t you seen it in movies?” I’d asked. “Women inwhite gowns, men in suits. Feed each other cake and champagne and throw thebouquet and all that.”

“I’ve seen it,” he’d said at length. “But I thought itwas all kind of romanticized for the sake of the movie. People actually haveweddings like that? It’s supposed to be all quiet and staring.”

Neither of us felt too torn-up about the matter, moreconfused than anything. The main trouble was that we weren’t sure how the otherceremony worked. Manabu seemed to struggle envisioning himself in something soextravagant, even when I suggested we could tone things down. As for myself, Iwas a bit worried about making a mistake in the rigid, formal ceremony Manabudescribed.

The people of Tabito held a long-standing tradition ofweddings based on those from old-Earth Japan, along with the many other thingsthey’d carried over when settling the planet. In the end, with more of hisfamily attending than mine, we decided on the Tabito tradition. Plus, Mrs.Yuuki offered to make dinner for everyone, and I couldn’t turn down an offerlike that.

As we flipped through invitations, trying to find a nicecardstock that wasn’t too flashy, Manabu said, “But I want the dance. We canhave the dance, right?”

My look to him was as blank as the cards. “Whatdance?”

“You said your weddings had a dance.” His cheekstinged red. “Formal kimonos aren’t hard to move in, so we can dance together,and I can do that dance with my dad first, so he can give me to you like yousaid. I think it would be fun.”

I decided not to mention that it was usually fathershanding their daughters off during the ceremony. He must have gotten confused,but the idea made him so giddy that I could do nothing but call Mrs. Yuuki forhelp. Kanna, she corrected me “or Mom if you’d like.”

She seemed equally thrilled about the idea, sayingshe’d take care of it.

She kept her word. In a field, a short way from theceremony I’d stumbled through, was a wooden deck laid into the ground. Paperlanterns and small lights covered the area in a star-like glow. Manabu’s eyesseemed to reflect all of it. His cheeks must have ached from the smile he’dworn all day.

His first dance with his father was, well, adorablehonestly. I never thought I’d call Captain Yuuki cute, but he spent the wholetime flustered, his brows pinched and his eyes down on their feet as though hewas worried he would step on Manabu’s toes. I couldn’t hear them from where Isat, but Manabu seemed to be speaking gentle comforts or encouragements to hisfather, while the captain muttered something in reply.

When the song came to an end and I had to come up andoffer my hand, Wataru frowned at it, still distressed. It was just like whenI’d asked permission for Manabu’s hand in marriage. I might as well havepunched the captain with how dazed he became. Mrs. Yuuki had to talk him intoan uneasy ascension at the time, but now he pulled Manabu’s hand toward mine asthough moving through water.

He seemed to want to say something, his mouth openingand closing a few times. As our song began, he managed a quiet, “Take care notto step on his feet.”

I gave him a nod. “Of course, sir.”

Manabu’s brows shot up. “You didn’t call him captainfor once. You’re getting better.”

“It was a struggle.”

“I didn’t have any trouble switching over for you.”

“I know. It was a bit disconcerting.”

We’d practiced the dance so often that I needn’t havestared at his feet. Manabu had insisted on nightly practices, humming the songhe’d picked until I heard it in my sleep. A nice tune, though. Sleepy, almost.

As always, he giggled when we got to the twirl, and asalways he pressed up to the tips of his toes and kissed the tip of my nose whenI pulled him back in. My burning face only made him laugh harder.

My eyes narrowed with the message that he wasn’tsupposed to do that in front of everyone.

His gleaming eyes returned that he knew and didn’tcare.

But of course, I couldn’twin against that smile.

[talesofzero]

More Things Change

Zero/Wataru 19 – Formal Dancing for anon. I always write this pairing unrequited. Sweats. Welcome to my no one is dead verse.

~900 words

“Now I see where all the money they’re not paying me is going,” Yuuki said, eyeing the chandeliers. Even if the SDF were just renting the place, it must have cost a pretty penny.

“At least you get paid,” I said.

As his eyes wandered the room, I couldn’t keep mine off him. We’d both rented suits for the event, but his broad chest and shoulders made the formal wear fit him as though it were made for him. I was too lanky to look anything but awkward in comparison.

Then again, we fit into our Sirius uniforms in much the same way.

“You could always just join the platoon officially once your internship is up,” he said. As he looked back toward me, I glanced away in the most obvious manner possible. “You won’t be making much more than you are now though.”

I tossed him a smile as he chuckled at his own joke. The violins of the small orchestra rolled out the first chords of a simple number, signaling the event’s start. All the captains and lieutenants stood around or sat with a glass of something in their hands, while we rookies fumbled for something to do. The SDF held this little gala every year, and while not technically mandatory, I’d been told it was in my best interest not to skip.

At least I got to see Yuuki in a suit for my troubles.

“Well, Warrius, guess we’d better dance,” Yuuki sighed. He’d used my first name since the moment I’d introduced myself. As his only junior on the crew, I was the only one he could address so informally without reprimand, and no one else on the crew called me by it. I liked it, though. Only from him. Always felt nice when he said it.

“Who should we dance with?” I asked.

Without the color-coded uniforms, I couldn’t recognize half the people in the room. Spica was always easy to pick out, certainly, most of the girls dancing together as their captain stood watch at a nearby table.

Mizar was notable as well since they’d all picked out matching purple ties and dresses, likely on their captain’s orders. He seemed to be having a good time, even if the rest of them looked uncomfortable.

Our captain sat alone, downing glasses of champagne a little too quickly. He pulled a face after each one, clearly not in it for the taste. Not too far away, our lieutenant stood against a wall. I swore his eyes were fixed on us.

Belatedly, I noticed Yuuki hadn’t responded, and I turned to find him giving me that look – the one I’d gotten when I’d asked how to make the trains go without tracks and when I’d suggested we talk down a criminal.

“Warrius,” he said, “you’re smart as anything, but you’re awfully dense, you know?”

“Yeah.” I still wasn’t sure what the answer was supposed to be.

“We’d better dance,” he stressed and offered his hand. “That way we can say we’ve done it, and we don’t have to worry about anyone turning us down.”

My heart beat up into my throat, and I could feel my ears burning redder than my tie. “Oh,” I croaked. He didn’t mean anything by it. We just needed to keep the lieutenant and everyone else off our backs. But it still meant everything to me.

Surely he could tell that as I placed my trembling hand in his, but he just cracked one of those beautiful grins. “I’ll lead, alright?” he said. “I am your senior officer, after all.”

He still looked damn good in formal wear, all shoulders, even in the fancy kimonos his whole family was wearing. In my eyes, he was still that cocky young SDF officer, but the lines in his face revealed his age when he smiled or frowned. And boy, was he frowning now.

Not a scowl, exactly. No, Mamoru was the one scowling. Wataru looked more stressed than anything since he’d handed Manabu off to his new husband for their dance.

After trying to comfort her husband for a moment, Kanna gave up on him to go bother Harlock for a dance. Harlock had looked too startled to do anything but let her lead him to the dance floor. That look on his face alone had been worth the trip.

The free drinks were a nice bonus, but they muddled my brain a bit too much. Standing, I strode over to Wataru and offered him my hand with a half-bow. “Would you give me one for old time’s sake?” I asked. The world swayed a bit around me, but he was in focus as his pinched lips relaxed into a smile. Still gorgeous.

“You think this round we won’t step on each other’s feet the whole time?”

“Even if we do, there aren’t any officers to make fun of us.”

“Just my family.”

“And Harlock, I suppose,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him. He twirled a grinning Kanna as though he were afraid she might burn him.

“Harlock is part of my family,” Wataru said.

“Oh, right, I always forget.”

“I wish I could.”

I’d forgotten my hand was still raised toward him until he took it and stood. That old grin eased onto his face. “Care to lead this time, Captain?” he asked.

“I’d love to.”  

[talesofzero]

for the prompt: Manabu and Bulge with 1 and 21 together please?

GR-verse; Sweet kiss and Tending an injury. 

Blood warning

~900 words

“Does it help if I tell you it doesn’t hurt?” Manabuasked, even as he had to close his right eye yet again with all the bloodpouring into it.

He must have been lying for my benefit. There was noway that was true. If it were, then he needed better medical care immediately. “That’sgood, Manabu,” I said, though my grumbling was more apparent than I would haveliked.

“It’s fine,” he insisted. “It’s just a little cut.”

Head wounds were never just little cuts. They bledlike fountains. The glue from the medical kit wasn’t holding, and any bandagesI’d attempted to apply just soaked through. There was a reason I wasn’t thecrew’s medic.

“Gosh, Captain, relax. I’m not going to bleed todeath,” he said. I must have looked as stressed as I felt.

I stumbled over a reply, my mouth forming moreexasperated noises than anything. “Y-you’re not supposed to call me Captain,remember?” I managed. We were supposed to be on vacation. I wasn’t Captain orBulge on vacation, not to him.

That made him laugh, which effectively ruined myattempt to hold my latest patch job. If I’d been in uniform, this would havebeen much easier. I would have used the same trick Captain Yuuki always did,just tying my cravat around to ease blood flow. But if I’d been in uniform,Yuki would have been around to fix things so I didn’t make a mess of them. Shewas still nearby, but there were several floors between us, and consideringManabu’s current state of undress…

The hotel’s hand towels would have worked as acceptablebandages, but Manabu stopped me from using them, complaining he didn’t want toreplace them. That left us with tissues and the cheap first aid kit in theroom.

“You’re only supposed to be this accident prone onmissions,” I said as I used another wad of tissues to sop up the blood poolinginto his eye.

“Oh, come on. You should know better. You saw me as akid.”

That was true. The first time I’d ever seen him, hewas shorter than my hip and covered in adhesive bandages. Fat ones were slappedacross his knees and elbows. Smaller ones circled every finger, and theoccasional odd one appeared on his face or shins. Admittedly, I didn’t like tothink about that image of him too often. Remembering our age difference gave mea headache.

It didn’t bother him at all, though. “Remember thattime you burned yourself on a hot dish or something, and I was the one who putthe bandage on you?” He grinned, his eyes distant with the memory.

“You wouldn’t let anyone else do it,” I said. “Yourmother got onto you, but you didn’t care.”

Swiping the tissues away with one hand, I slappedanother taped gauze on with the other. Surely this one would hold.

I still wasn’t sure how this had happened. I’d justheard the crash from the bathroom. I’d gone to the door and asked if he wasalright. “Yeah,” he’d said. “Think I’m bleeding though.”

That statement had not prepared me for the sheervolume of blood pouring down his face when I opened the door. He sat on hisknees on the floor, a towel half-on him. Other than a slight frown and hiswinking eye, he seemed unfazed. Only the rubbing alcohol bothered him.

Everything bothered me. As soon as I had this cleanedup, he had to get dressed.

“I think I got it,” Isaid.

“Okay, good. Thanks,Schwan.” Without giving me a proper warning, he pressed his lips to mine. Hestayed there long enough for my face to betray me with a blush but left tooquickly for me to respond.

As I sat there dazed, hepopped up to his feet and padded out on his toes, loosely holding the towelaround his waist. “We don’t want to be late for dinner,” he called.

Right, dinner. At leasthe was still looking forward to it. I’d been aiming for a table for just thetwo of us. In fact, I’d been aiming for a vacation for just the two of us, butthe rest of Sirius found out. They always found out.

Difficult as it was, Ihad to keep my eyes off Manabu in his nice vest and slacks once we made it tothe fancy restaurant downstairs. I didn’t need the others giving me moretrouble than they already did.

“Whoa, what happened toyou?” Louise asked as she spotted the gauze peeking out from under Manabu’sbangs.

“Run into something?”Bruce teased.

With the sort of pure,oblivious smile only he could manage, Manabu answered, “oh, I fell in theshower. But no worries, Schwan helped me out.”

All eyes turned to me asI looked to the wine list. Everything was so expensive, but it was worth it ifit got me drunk enough to forget this.

“Helped you out huh?”

“How sweet.”

“Must have been quite afall.”

Next time I took Manabuon vacation, we were going somewhere they couldn’t find us.

[officialao3fandomlastforever]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 銀河鉄道物語 | Ginga Tetsudou Monogatari | The Galaxy Railways Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bruce J. Speed & David Young Characters: David Young, Bruce J. Speed, Yuuki Manabu, Louise Fort Drake, Schwanhelt Bulge, Kilian Black, Sexaroid Yuki Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Near Death Experiences, Canon-Typical Violence, Gun Violence, Music, Best Friends, Grief/Mourning, Moving On, Injury, Blood, Team as Family, Spoilers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

A mission gone wrong leads to David to meeting an old friend.