#and since i love rasa this is also for her 💖

[unioncolours]

I would love to know the answers to 6, 48, and 50 on that post you reblogged 😊

Also, Happy New Year again ❤️

Thank you so much Barb for writing me <3

Number 48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

The last fic I read a chapter of was ch7 of SpicedGold's When All Is Said And Done, and obviously I will recommend it 💖

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about!

I choose to modify question 23: What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

To that I will say I would like to get more self-confident with the wlw-fics and write more of those. My own opinion of my fics rolls between deep pride and love and then embarrassment and shame. At times I feel ashamed for breaking up amazing canon couples for it, at times I feel ashamed for showing that part of me at all. I want to work on those concepts more!

And finally 6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

Well, dear Barb, I actually wrote an entire scene of no one cries for unknown soldiers after the fic was published, which I haven't ever edited in.

To read the missing scene which gives some facts about that universe, click read more ❤⬇

“That metaphor was born when I discussed politics with Yashamaru,” Rasa said. “In fact, he was the one who told it to me, right after H*itler became the chancellor. But it seems like the poison broke him down at last.” He put the olive in his mouth and chewed slowly, jaw working intensely. “And now there won’t be a body to bury. If I would travel there, I would not be coming back, I’m sure. Soviet would take me.”

They both stared at the candle they had lit. One single candle burning for Yashamaru. One single candle burning for the millions of people lost since the madness begun. Now all the suffering would be paid back.

“I understand,” Temari finally said and silently gave Yashamaru a goodbye inside her head. 

It was no lie she had thought about what life she would have had if her family had never moved. If she even would have survived the war. Maybe she would have been conscripted to the Volksturm when the war imploded on itself, maybe she would have worked in a factory to get materials and weapons out to the army, maybe she’d be a teacher for the H*itlerjugend.

And hopefully, she would have been blissfully unaware of the ugly truth.

But, with a general father, she knew she would probably not have been unaware. She would maybe have known. It felt at least like a relief now to know that she hadn’t personally known of the genocides. It was as if she wanted to keep her hands clean from that guilt, even with the blood of her one hundred and fifteen confirmed kills.

“Why… why did you move away?” she asked. “Why did we leave Berlin?”

Rasa looked at her, clearly a bit surprised at the question. He stared down at the candle before clearing his throat. Secrets didn’t matter anymore. 

“When the Great War was raging over the continent, on western fronts, on eastern fronts, in trenches and for the first time in the air, my father was assigned a very different task,” Rasa said. “Do you know why Finland never became a communist state?”

Temari knew. That was common, but oh so painful, knowledge for the natives. She hadn’t ever been part of disagreements that were remnants from the civil war, and had only shrugged her shoulders. All of her friends had been either Whites or immigrants after all.

“Because the Whites defeated the Reds and bolsheviks in the civil war,” she said. 

“And do you know why the Whites won? Because they asked Germany for aid,” Rasa said. “My father was one of the generals who accepted the task. He took me with him.”

Temari stared at her father’s face, deeply concentrated to be able to hear everything he said. She wrinkled her forehead.

“Took you with him?”

“As a messenger boy and to help him make up plans,” Rasa said and Temari’s face was confused enough that he on his own accord raised his voice. “I was a messenger boy.”

Temari realised that her grandfather had done the exact same trick as Rasa himself did. Rasa’s father had sent his older son to the western front to die against France, and taken the younger boy with him to save him and to protect the family name. Rasa had sent Kankuro to the eastern front and sent Gaara to safety.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

“We spent five months in Helsinki in 1918,” Rasa explained. “I didn’t understand a word of what anyone was saying, but their schemes and way of coming across reminded me of our own people a bit. I followed my father everywhere and after the summer we returned home. As a thank you from the winning White side, my father got an account at a Finnish bank and he stored some of his savings there, in Finnish marks. And when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, I understood the importance of having money outside our own German bank. You were arriving that summer, right into a political situation when…” 

He looked up, face dark.

“When Germany was punished for a world war the first time,” he finished. “Debted, ruined, humiliated and poor. I had no intention of moving away. I wanted to see my country flourish. I wanted to help rebuild. But money is money, and the economy was struggling. My father’s money in the Finnish bank was tempting, and when both you and Kankuro were small, we originally moved with the idea for me to work on the Finnish side to receive a salary in Finnish marks, to start saving and insure our future. The German mark was barely worth anything.”

“You intended to return,” Temari stated.

“We did,” Rasa said. “But then your mother died.”

Both of them fell in silence, not wanting to touch that topic, preferably not ever.

“Yashamaru wanted her buried in Berlin,” Rasa said. “And maybe she would have wanted to be buried in her homeland. I understand that. But the idea to ship her embalmed corpse in some… cargo ship… I didn’t want to, couldn’t stand the idea. Yashamaru was furious at me when she was laid to rest here. It was a wonder he even showed up at the funeral.”

“I only remember that I was freezing so much during the funeral,” Temari said. “It was a cold February.”

“And so, I chose to renew our permits of residencies when our first ones were about to expire,” Rasa just replied. “It felt like betrayal to leave her here, while we would move home, leaving her grave to turn into a jungle of weeds. I had already a good job here and Gaara’s situation complicated everything.”

He didn’t continue after that.

[ccatskies]

rariflash | the perfect gift

for beth (@milkymanoban ) and rasa (@smallcrystals ). have this, munchkins! 💜

★━━━━━━━━

"Ooh, ooh! What do you think of this, darling?" The young woman beamed, slightly jumping up in delight, with her petite body resisting the urge to dance on her tip toes as she held up the figurine of two attached bunnies - one coloured pale yellow and the other as warm as caramel.

The two figures were glued together, as if they shared an exceptional bond, their feelings intertwined with the warmth of love. Their heads were coated with pretty divine dandelion flowers - the very first thing the fashionista caught the sight of. The figurine warmed her heart, as if it was one of the most heart warming things she could ever look at.

And, it was definitely better than all the other gifts her and her buddy had to skim through today.

She frowned slightly as the boy ignores her call, puffing her cheeks in exasperation as she puts down the adorable statuette. Without further hesitation, she carefully walked up to his back, without a single sound resonating from her heels. Hiding a small mischievous smile, the British sweetheart smacked her palms down on the taller boy's shoulder, earning a flinch and a cute gah! from him.

"Hey!" He whined as he whipped his head around, clutching onto another item that the girl didn't notice at first glance.

He only pouted, narrowing his eyes adorably as if he were mad but that didn't do the trick, "Raaares, that scared me."

"Of course, it did, love," she giggled, ruffling the front line of his soft blue hair. She gave a small pat on his cheek, as an indication of asking for forgiveness from the younger boy, prior to caressing his shoulder in an attempt to ease the pain the abrupt smack might've inflicted.

"I was calling for you, Flashie - for the fifteenth time since we arrived in this shop and you barely heard me," Rarity apprised, a lighthearted laugh escaping her system and flowing into his ears like a soothing melody.

"Oh, heh. . ." he trailed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "sorry."

But then, realization hit him, immediately having him scrunch up his nose and cross his arms over his chest, "wait, don't call me that. It's a reserved nickname."

"Oh, right." Rarity laughed again. It was always fun, having this kid around her. Not a single day passed without her deliberately wanting to keep him in her pocket, away from all the harm the treacherous world could offer. She felt like such a mother around him, that it was quite uncanny.

"I just found out the perfect gift for Discord!" She grinned, tugging onto the sleeve of his jacket and pointing to the figurine she discovered from the depths of the stock.

Flash's cornflower eyes widened like a lit bulb, as he burst into a hearty laugh, eyes folding into a tight eye smile, "Discord and bunnies? Interesting."

"Hey, he'd love it!" She retaliated, activating a playful punch on his shoulder. "Look at the colours. What do you see?"

"What do I see?" He repeated, putting a hand on his chin, and resting one elbow on the back of his spare hand, "I see two cute animals stuck together. What else?"

"Uh-hm!" She shook her head, and nudged his shoulder, "not just that! See something else?"

"Uh. . . that they're dusty?"

"Noooo! May I add that I might consider disowning you if you take this long, you little baby." Rarity asserted, as she added in a sing-song voice, "the colours, Flash! The colours!"

"I swear to God, woman, you're worse than Math," he tittered with a new-found anxiety, prior to giving it another try, "It's umm, yellow and brownish? - caramel, yeah, that. And?"

The teenager eyed him incredulously, crossing her hand over her chest and tilting her head to the side, "whose favourite colours are they?"

"Fluttershy likes yellow and Discord likes red but also brown as well - oh." He face palmed, "so, this is why you were saying he'd love it."

A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, as he delved his hands into his pockets, "because it's literally the bunny version of himself next to his potential crush. Smart, Noona."

She laughed at the sudden use of honorific; he only did it when he wanted to emphasize things around. She, technically, didn't know much Korean as Flash did. Yes, she understood normal stuff but when random words were thrown here and there out of context, she'd black out. It was even more ironic that Flash had to sit around, lecturing her on grammatical errors and how she accidentally mispronounced a word once that. . . ahem. . . distorted the entire meaning. She was older than him, but somehow he tended to act like more of the older sibling, which was quite amusing.

"Though it's really. . . ironic how we're buying him two baby bunny figurines when the guy dreams about chaos, has a black room with skulls imprinted on the walls, has a door mat with the picture of a cat that says go home and snaps it's middle finger andddd has huge grandpa energy, despite being a guy who randomly cracks puns about destruction - have you heard him talk?"

Rarity chuckled, taking the volume of her entire lower lip under her teeth, as she interpolated, "when it comes to his potential crush, darling, he would definitely let it slide."

"Rightttt," Flash added, "who doesn't love Fluttershy?"

"I designed her a shirt once, with the words MUST PROTECT in caps," Rarity laughed at the memory, "she found it odd, but the others did anything but disagree."

"By the way, you must be so tired, right? We've been looking for the utopian birthday gift for a while now," Rarity turned to face him entirely, observing the fatigue and weariness evident on his visage, and the way he simply pulled off a smiley face despite being harrowed by her shopping trips.

"C'mon, I'm fine!" He grinned, busting out his pearly whites, followed by a reassuring wink.

Rarity frowned, rolling her eyes playfully, "I'm not going to lie that we've been raiding these shops for a while now. We bought a few handy things, but it took time."

"Phew, thought you wouldn't admit it," he disclosed with a thick grin, prior to shutting his mouth back as he earned the look, "sorry."

"Though, we did buy a lot of gifts for one birthday - two shirts, a freaking BodyFriend, a whole ass Monsta X album - this figurine is next," he eyed the figurine followed by the mountain of bags, neatly placed at one corner of the shop, "besides that, you bought a lot of decoration items for the surprise birthday party as well. Grandpa's turning twenty, we need to do something, I guess."

"That exactly justifies why you're so tired, kiddo," her hand again reached out to the top of his head to ruffle his hair, "you basically ran around with me, and I didn't even have to tell you to handle the bags, and help me with making last minute decisions."

"Although you're sometimes a real brat, I'm grateful you know when to be one," she brought her fist close to her lips to fake a cough, "Rainbow, on the other hand, is an affirmative pain in the arse. That girl keeps getting lost like Pinkie, starts complaining mid-way, somehow manages to lose one bag or more around somewhere in the big stalls or acts like a baby. Bringing Dash with me to shopping is like asking for death."

"I swear if I took a shot each time I lost Dash around in these big markets and had to make announcements like when mothers do when they lose their toddlers, I'd be diagnosed with Alcohol Poisoning," Rarity sighed out loud, reminiscing all those times she had to babysit Dash and Pinkie, but mostly Rainbow because bringing Pinkie with her for shopping was eminently equivalent to begging for a Tsunami.

Everyone admits it, whereas you'd find the Argentine girl confused as fuck.

"Really?" Flash laughed, leaning back on the shelf behind him as he proceeded, "how do you do the announcements?"

"How do you think I do it?" Rarity tilted her head, cocking an eye brow at the younger boy.

He only shrugged, pouting his lips adorably in the process, "I don't know, you tell me."

Rarity cleared her throat, prior to flipping the curls on her neck behind her nape, tilting her head to her right, as she brought her fists up to her glossy lips, pretending to be holding a mic that connected to the central sound system, "ahem, Rainbow Dash? Yeah you fucking disappointment? Get your stinking ass right here - "

"WHOA," Flash burst out in a fit of laughter, pulling down Rare Bear's hand as he struggled to breathe properly, "you swear during announcements?"

"Can't help it sometimes," Rarity joined in on the laughter, "usually, I go for short details and just ask them to report her to the central office - or better, the police."

"I must be the angelic favorite child then," Flash winked at her, a bright smile followed with that gesture, to only earn an eye roll from the latter. He partly wanted to take that back, giving it second thoughts that it just might be Fluttershy instead, but boy, did he love to tease her.

"Oh, you wish," Rarity turned around to get the bunny figurine to the Cash Section as she snorted - a thing she didn't do quite often unless around her friends.

Flash caught up to the clicking of her heels on the marble floor, wrapping his big arm around her shoulder as he pulled her small frame into a warm side hug, "you know you love me - it's okay, everyone does."

"Do you hear yourself?" She laughed out, rolling her eyes once again, prior to muttering, "rascal."

He pouted once again, faking an offended look as he whined, "Noonaaaa, I heard that!" Someone just has to tell Flash Sentry that talking in a pout doesn't identify as a character trait, yet whenever he did that, no one seemed to complain.

"No, you didn't, you baby wastrel -"

"Okay, this is abuse." He complained, pining for a hug from the his best friend, as he stood in front of her, bending down a little to have her look into his eyes - the puppy dog eyes, "tell me, I'm a good kid."

She could only giggle at his adorable behavior, sticking her finger out to squish his fluffy cheeks, "fine, you're a good kid. Now, let me get this to the cashier - oh wait."

"Hmm?"

"What were you looking at when I was calling you earlier?"

"Oh, uh, it's nothing."

"Oh please, Flash, spare me the lie," she huffed, "what were you seeing?"

She despised it wherever anyone tried to fabricate a lie, especially around her. It's not like she couldn't give them what they desired. Rarity was always generous just like that.

Flash sighed, prior to shyly gesturing towards a key-chain. It was shaped as an axe, with leaf designs sticking out from the sides of the beautifully handcrafted item. Rarity didn't hesitate to pick it up and observe the intricate details that were imprinted on it.

"You wanted this, darling?"

"Haha. . . I kinda forgot to bring my wallet today," Flash mumbled, his cheeks growing red as he sheepishly rubbed his nape, "this is embarrassing."

"I'll buy it for you."

His eyes widened, as he put down the chain in protest, "what? No. Rares, it's okay."

"No, I'd love to buy this for you, dear," she objected, picking it up. Her lips curved into a pretty smile, which was nothing but genuine. She let her blue eyes run back up at her brotherly figure, booping his nose adorably, as she cleared her throat, "I know Timber would love it, Flashie. You can pay me back later."

That caught him off guard. If one thing was fascinating, it was Rare Bear's tingling sense that helped her identify what her friends wanted - they just couldn't keep secrets from her. And, of course, she had a special eye out for unraveling a very amusing topic.

Crushes.

His cheeks grew the shade of a wild crimson, as he struggled to put cohesive words past his lips. The only thing Rarity noticed was the twitching of his lips and how he instantly got shy, staring down at the ground, rubbing circles on the floor with the tip of his toe.

What a cutie.

"Hey, this is not what it looks like - "

"Definitely."

"We're good friends - "

"Of course."

"NOONA!"

"Hush, child. We can deal with this back at home," Rarity planted a finger on his lips, interrupting the chain of profanities that her friend might've thrown. She only smirked at the boy mischievously, as she handed the items to the cashier. The soft red blush hovering over his cheeks didn't help, especially not the wandering eyes.

"Tell me if he loves it," she leaned closer to his ear and whispered, "and how your first kiss went - "

"He's not gonna kiss me for a key-chain that looks like an axe," he rolled his eyes, nudging her slightly to put an end to the topic, with sweat trickling down the side of his forehead.

"You never know, munchkin."

"I hate you."

"Love you too, darling." She grinned, bringing his head down to her level as she hugged him from the side, messing up his already disheveled hair for the umpteenth time. He could only laugh at the action, and resist the urge to blush at her words from earlier. Simultaneously, the cashier also sneaked a glance at the pair, whilst hiding a small smile to herself.

Honestly, she was THE best Noona he's ever had.

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