Ask Box Three Sentence Fic, 1/? (2016-10-23)

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(1 – anonymous – Shikako/Sasuke, jounin, realization of feelings)

Night has fallen, their mission completed, camp set up against a rounded cliff-face that can only very generously be considered a cave.

Sasuke has made a fire, but it’s the line of his arm against hers that makes her feel warm; solid and steady and supportive.

“I love you.”

—

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(2 – anonymous – Shikako & Kakashi, those left behind)

They left; she can still feel them slipping away, like water through her fingers, futilely trying to hold on.

She’s taken up a more nocturnal lifestyle–as if the light of day will make her loss seem worse–and their old training ground looks almost serene in the moonlight.

It’s the crackle of lightning, dangerous and familiar, that signals Kakashi’s arrival and there is comfort in knowing that someone else has been left behind, too.

—

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(3 – anonymous – Shikako/Kankurou, Chuunin Exams)

They are laughter and sarcasm and well meaning lies, shrugs and second-born children and casual competition.

He is a puppeteer for true–an enthusiastic prodigy of a dying art–but she is a Nara, shadow jutsu and shogi.

He thinks he is fighting for a father already dead; she knows what the real stakes are.

—

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(4 – @xxriverspirit – Shikako/Gaara, reincarnated modern!AU)

By the time she is walking and talking again, she has already mourned and moved on.

Or so she thinks.

But every time she spots–red hair, green eyes, dark tattoos on pale skin–it takes her a while to remember how to breathe.

—

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(5 – anonymous – Shikako/Neji, high school!AU)

There is a girl looking for TenTen that he doesn’t know–a second year, from the color of her tie, one year below him. At first he’s concerned it’s just a convoluted excuse to talk to him, but she’s really just here to drop of a notebook.

“Ah,” the girl says, eye catching on the advanced mathematics on his desk behind TenTen’s, “You might want to use a different formula for problem nine,” she continues, easily, and then turns and leaves.

~

A/N: I’ll post them up five at a time, I guess? This is fun! 😀

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damianmcgintleman:

heatherings:

can we please stop making the only LGBT+ narrative we see “i always knew?”

like, i didn’t always know i liked girls too. i wasn’t having crushes on them or kissing them on the playground when i was five years old like you see on tv or read in books. i didn’t know for sure that i’m bi until literally this year (i’m 17 as of writing this). a former friend of mine is a trans girl. she didn’t always know. she didn’t realize she was trans until she was nearly eighteen years old. some people don’t realize it until they’re twenty, or forty, or sixty.

some people do always know. good for them! but can we please please please make it known that you don’t have to have always known for your identity to be valid? it makes it so difficult for people who are figuring themselves out later in life, because it feeds into this idea of “why didn’t i know it before? is this even real? if i haven’t known i’ve felt this way all along, how do i know i feel it now?” and that’s only making worse what’s already such a difficult time in life

give me eighty year old women who are just figuring out they’re lesbians. give me middle aged accountants who realize they’re actually trans. give me a guy who doesn’t know until he’s twenty-eight that he’s actually into dudes. god just please give us some other narrative, so we can be reassured that even if it took us a while to get there, our identity is no less valid than that of a person who’s known they’re LGBT+ since elementary school. stop telling LGBT+ people that that’s the only way they’re really LGBT+

what’s really sad is that people feel like it’s too late in their life to know if they’re LGBTQ, like there’s some sort of time limit on understanding your identity. and it’s heartbreaking. i knew i was gay when i was 8. my 31 year old cousin just discovered she’s bisexual because she finally explored her sexuality. i know trans girls who didn’t know they were trans until their 30s.

there is no right time to discover that you belong in our community. finding out your sexuality or gender later in life than others is not a bad thing, it’s not a wrong thing. please never feel like that somehow invalidates your belonging in the community, because it doesn’t.

and isn’t there a term like, compulsive heterosexuality or something, IIIRC? where some people, especially LBQ cis women, essentially convince themselves they’re heterosexual because that’s what’s expected to be the “normal”, and they just essentially brush aside any potential feelings they have for other genders? like, they’re pretty much just conditioned by society and/or their upbringing to not question themselves and to be dismissive over any romantic or sexual feelings towards ppl who don’t identify as men?

i could be completely wrong about the term or its definition, but i know there’s something out there like that. so what i’m trying to say is, you don’t have to place blame on yourself for finding out you’re LGBTQ later in life. even if that term doesn’t apply to you, there’s still NO reason to feel blame or shame. some people just discover themselves earlier than others, and some people discover themselves later than others, and it’s okay!! there’s no right or wrong time!!

we HAVE to welcome later-in-life LGBTQ people with open arms and make sure they are as welcomed in the community as people like myself who found out very early.

I didn’t know until three years ago that in high school I had a huge, obvious crush on a girl. My best friend had to tell me, when we were already in our second year of college, about something that had happened over two years before.

I honestly didn’t know.

In college I knew that, hey, maybe I’m not straight. I didn’t know this in high school because in high school I didn’t have the vocabulary for asexual and demiromantic and nonbinary. And even if I did, I still don’t think I would have been able to tell, wouldn’t have been able to form enough of an idea of what I wanted or didn’t want to say… yeah, I’m not this I’m that.

I had a huge, obvious crush on a girl. She played cello and was super smart and artistic and had beautiful hair and the cutest smile and I basically fell over myself to be able to do group projects with her or hang out with her or just be near her. I’d ask if I could braid her hair, I’d try to sit next to her whenever possible, and during assignments with even the slightest bit of connection to her I’d ask for her help never mind that we didn’t have very many classes together.

I didn’t realize this was me crushing on someone. I thought those fleeting appreciations of cute guys were crushes–those one or two week things where I’d blush whenever we met eyes, or I’d admire the line of his jaw and the length of his fingers. I’d never act on it because I didn’t want to act on it, I was content sitting and watching from afar, like a statue in a museum, look but don’t touch.

But with this girl? God, I wanted. Not anything sexual (because, well, ace) but I’d even go so far as to wonder how she’d cuddle. How holding her hand might feel. If kissing wouldn’t seem so weird if it were with her.

I didn’t know.

And the problem is, by the time my best friend pointed it out to me–she didn’t know she had to point it out to me, is the thing. She thought I knew. I was sitting there across the table, talking about, hey, I don’t think I’m straight and she’d snort and say, yeah I figured in junior year of high school, and I just stopped and stared and her–I no longer liked this girl. We had gone to separate colleges and it had been years since I thought about her, let alone spoke to her or saw her. It had faded into something I’ll look at a little fond and a little sheepish–my first real crush!–and it’s not like I was heartbroken…

But I didn’t know.

And I wonder… if I had known, then, would things be different? Would I even have been brave enough to come out, if I had known? Would I have risked our friendship (knowing how conservative my high school was/is) and her reputation to act on that knowledge?

I don’t know.

The people who graduate from my high school, they’re not all straight. But there’s no GSA or LGBTQ club, no way to gather us together and teach us and protect us and show us, hey, there’s more out there for us. So many people don’t come out until after high school–even the ones who did “always know”–because it’s not safe and… that’s fine. It’s not their job to come out and become martyrs–it’s the job of the school to make the option safe–but it’s still…

I didn’t know, and a part of me wonders if that’s for the best.

D’awww, Sakako and Boruto bonding! This is the start of a beautiful relationship! I have to admit I was looking for a little more angst, maybe the /reveal/ of Sakako’s eye abilities (you said before she doesn’t like to tell people right??) Also the opportunity to see everyone’s reactions to SuddenlyFriends!Boruto and Sakako. Good job! Hope to see more soon, it was lovely!

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Yeah, I was looking for a little more angst, too :/ But Sakako only wants to do baby steps when it comes to friendships and Boruto is more used to people pursuing him than the other way around so…

Diamonds and Spades isn’t so much the start of a friendship as it is Sakako realizing that friendship without the pressure of their parents’ epic bonds is a possibility. Like, realizing she doesn’t have to instantly click with him and vow to die/kill for him, she can just hang out with him every so often and slowly build up their friendship that way.

I’ll probably do another installment of next gen Team Seven bonding so that it’s more feels-y. This one was more like practice to figure out how that would even work, or foundation work.

But thanks, anon! I’ve been in a bit of a rut, if you can’t tell, so I’m glad someone liked it.

Walking Around (Diamonds and Spades), (2016-10-21)

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About four hours into their first C-rank mission, Team Seven gets attacked and separated.

This is not entirely unexpected: Team Sevens are traditionally cursed with missions that go awry in the most bizarre manner possible.

What is unexpected is that it’s, somehow, all Konohamaru-sensei’s fault.

—

Teamwork is slow going–they’re not so much a team as they are a group of random peers shoved together and told to do their best.

Konohamaru-sensei doesn’t understand; after all, his genin team was made of his childhood friends and tutor.

Sakako is unused to cooperating with people who aren’t already dead, Boruto is unused to cooperating with people in general, and Mitsuki is just unused to people, period.

—

Sakako wakes up, sans weapons and shoes, on a cold cement ground three feet from an impatiently fuming Boruto, also sans shoes–sans jacket, too, which is odd.

“Tch,” he clicks his tongue, turns away, “Took you long enough,” he adds.

Annoyance or worry or both, she doesn’t know him well enough to guess, but when she sits up, cloth shifts and falls, black and red pooling into her lap–and that gives her some hint.

—

For all that Sakako has grown up on stories about her parents and Naruto-oji and their version of Team Seven–more like family than coworkers, that’s for sure–she doesn’t know Boruto outside the context of the Academy.

Just because their parents were friends, doesn’t mean they will be, and for years she was content to let their paths be separate.

Clearly, that is not what fate has in mind.

—

As Boruto hastily shrugs on his jacket, he gives her a rundown of the situation, which isn’t much: a solid cement room, no window, and a metal door that opens from the outside only.

Seal-enforced.

This is no storage room.

—

Mitsuki is easier to deal with, even if she doesn’t particularly like him. He’s a bit of a fanboy of her parents, and while she loves them, she doesn’t want to talk about them all the time like Mitsuki seems to.

Between her and Boruto is the weight of legends and an awkward lack of relationship to support it.

—

“Can’t you break it?” Boruto asks, tone grating and sneering–it’s taken her a while to realize that he isn’t actually trying to start a fight, that’s just what his voice sounds like.

Sakako examines the door, the complex scrawl of only half a seal–it only opens when the corresponding key half is nearby–shakes her head, they won’t be leaving through the door.

The walls, though, are a different story.

—

Sakako has geniuses on all sides of her family, can recognize it even when its hidden behind sleepy, lazy eyes and slouching shoulders. She can see it in Boruto, underneath his anger and bluster, that gleam of a genius trying not to give it away.

She knows if he’d just stop focusing on his dad and start believing in himself, he’d be an even better shinobi… and probably much happier.

—

“I know some Earth jutsu,” she tells him, hands pressed to the cement walls, “But not enough to completely tunnel through… If I had my pouch–ink or a kunai or even a senbon–”

“What do you need?” Boruto asks, stepping up beside her, yet again sounding more antagonizing than he actually means.

She bites back her irritation–he’s actually trying to help, after all–and traces a finger over the wall, “If I had something to write or carve, I think I can make an array essentially seal up a portion of the stone and make a tunnel that way.”

—

Some things they inherit from their parents; genetics and habits, nature and nurture combined.

Other things they get despite their parentage.

Maybe that’s how her friendship with Boruto needs to begin.

—

“Hey,” Boruto says, pulling off his weird necklace, and holding the pendant between his fingers, “Would this work?” With a flare in chakra, the metal begins to glow, a sharpened tip coming into existence.

“Thought of it myself,” he smirks, which she normally finds annoying but which she’s grateful for now, “Just tell me what we need to do to get out of here.”

—

It only takes a couple of minutes to carve out a modified storage seal–more vanishing than storing at this point–and another few minutes to follow the sounds of shouting and find their sensei and remaining teammate, fighting the guards of the casino they were assigned to investigate.

It takes even less time for them to join in the fray–even without their shoes or weapons, though Boruto finds those stashed away and tosses her her things.

Maybe when they get back to Konoha, she’ll teach him some fuinjutsu.

~

A/N: Some three sentence fic to fill this anon’s prompt–I originally started this as a next gen Team Seven fic, but it kept focussing more on Sakako and Boruto so…

It was harder to wrangle than I thought it would be, and I’m unsure if I got the feels across… and some of those sections are only “three sentences” if you’re being very generous. 😛

Hopefully next time will be better.

Red Stars and Cold Iron (2016-10-20)

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“Slash and burn,” your brother says, hand resting heavily on your shoulder. Even through your stab proof vest, you can feel the weight of each finger. “It’s what Mother would do,” he continues, a final squeeze of his hand–nearly painful for a moment–before he steps away completely.

It’s your choice, now: destroy these fledgling relationships you have, abandon your new allies-comrades-friends, follow your brother just like you used to follow your mother.

Or don’t.

It’s not really your choice, though, is it? Family isn’t a choice.

—

For an ex enforcement officer, Louie isn’t such a bad guy. Mother used to tell you to steer clear of such people–neutrality is what keeps them in the business, keeps them safe–even a former enforcement officer has unwanted ties that might trap you.

But Louie is… not necessarily honest, because lies are practically a currency of their own, but moral. As if integrity were something besides a burden.

He’s good to have beside you in a fight, has experience that you can learn from, and seems to be fond of you despite your standoffish ways.

Both of you have naturally crooked pinkies and hazel eyes.

Your mother and brother didn’t.

—

The first time you meet Caleb, he’s still going by the moniker ‘Angel’ and part of SOPH Corp’s team of publicity officers. More celebrities than actual security guards, chosen more for looks and charisma than battle prowess and constantly followed by cameras.

He stole one of your first solo hunts–one that you’d spent months on tracking before finally confronting your target. You’d ended up on SOPH Corp territory, target apprehended and settled begrudgingly in the restraints; the bounty was so close you could nearly feel it.

And then ‘Angel’ swoops in, armed with a bright smile and complex legalese and those ever present camera drones, and you are swept off the premises without your target, months of work down the drain and a new blooming hatred.

You don’t mind Caleb so much, but you don’t tell him that–after all, it took an explosion, replacement of nearly sixty five percent of his body with cybernetics, and the complete erasure of his public identity to get him to this point.

—

Neutrality keeps us safe, Mother said. Your brother, before he struck out on his own, had always considered it more of a guideline than a hard rule. A suggestion, even.

When he struck out on his own, it didn’t take long for his name to be connected to a team. For him to create and lead said team, his name at the forefront of it proudly.

Mother would frown, but stay silent on the matter. She could only teach, not enforce, no matter that all of you share a name and anything he did would affect you both as well.

When it’s your turn to go solo, you try harder to stick to your mother’s stance as if to make up for your brother’s actions. Being unaligned ought to mean you’re free from entanglements, but instead you end up with multiple grudges against you and far less favors.

Just one, actually.

Athena isn’t human, or not a normal human–a synthetically grown person cloned for a company’s profits, then abandoned when costs got too high. Now she’s a mafia famiglia’s asset, more computer than criminal, and the closest thing you have to a friend.

Taking out that stalker was almost a pleasure, even without being paid.

~

A/N: I’d like to go fill more DoS prompts but it’s as if nothing wants to make any sense.

Blood and Water (the Loss and Life Remix), (2016-10-19)

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A/N: Based off @bluethursday’s Blood and Water which is a DCUxAvatar the Last Airbender remix… you should probably read that first?

~

The first time Tim met Ra’s, he thought it was a curious and fascinating happenstance.

He never made that mistake again.

—

Your mother was water–the ocean and the rain and every drop in between–flowing and swelling and inescapable. Your father was the air–free and flighty, head too much in the clouds to worry about the ground.

Combined they made you.

Yet people still wondered why you had ice in your veins.

—

Bruce remembers his first impression of Tim: a smart but shy boy, demurely following at Ra’s heels. Only a few years younger than himself, a fellow fire bender wanting to learn from the master.

He was wrong on nearly every count.

—

Water benders are master healers, air benders the experts in spiritual matters. Or, at least, that’s what nature intended.

But your mother pushed and your father reached, and in the intersection they found a secret.

It was meant to be a gift.

—

Dick’s first impression was similarly wrong, yet somehow in an entirely different way.

A victim of Ra’s that Bruce had rescued, traumatized and reeling and seeking sanctuary with the Fire Nation King.

After all, Tim was clearly from the destroyed Water Tribes, he might have been a bender if Ra’s hadn’t killed them all.

Dick was very nearly right, if things were altered and rearranged.

—

You turned seventeen-eighteen-nineteen and realized that you hadn’t changed at all. No new scars, but you never had many in the first place, no wrinkles or additional height.

Perfectly preserved.

An abomination, a monster.

—

Cass is the one to help Tim leave, sees the fear of staying in one place too long, the fear of a threat already vanquished.

She knows he is hiding something, but he knows she knows, and besides everyone has secrets, so she doesn’t confront him about it.

Cass’ father thought he could make her the Avatar–she understands inheriting sins of the parent.

—

There is a pool of water that no right minded water bender would touch. Not that any water bender has had the opportunity to do so in centuries, so well-guarded is the Pit.

But your parents didn’t need the original to mimic it’s effects–no, not mimic… master.

—

Jason never met Tim, not properly, only saw him from a distance.

Jason thought he was the Consort of the Fire Nation King–just a fancy term for whore.

He wasn’t right… not yet.

—

If things were different, you might have chosen death. If the collective leaders of the remaining bending nations hadn’t banded together to take Ra’s out, you would have died to get rid of him.

Anything to even try to make amends, all those villages obliterated as Ra’s hunted you down, blood on your hands.

But your mother was a scholar, your father a dreamer, and combined they made you.

Maybe one day someone will find you and ask to be taught.

—

Damian is still a child when he hears the name–more myth than reality. It’s for old tales and nostalgia, nothing relevant, until he needs a water bending teacher.

Dick thinks he is sending Damian to a hermit, one who is aged, if not outrightly old. Jason does little more than smirk, but Cass gives a supportive shoulder pat.

Bruce stays entirely silent on the matter.

—

You are a monster, but there is place in the world for monsters.

Better you than someone else.

(But don’t all monsters think that?)

How To Adult Properly (And Maybe Heal Some People While We’re At It), a series of Team Medic ficlets 4/? (2016-10-18)

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Sakura wakes to a thump somewhere in the vicinity of her feet, and the long, low groan of a hungover idiot.

It’s better than an alarm clock, really. Or, well, worse since she can’t just smash Youbirin in one hit to shut him up.

“Sakura,” Youbirin says, voice muffled by the blanket she’s kicked off in her sleep and the way he’s practically kissing the floor, “Sakura, ow. Sakura… how? Why, Sakura? Why this?” He asks, as betrayed as a muddled-minded moron like him can be.

She gives a groan of her own, pressing it into the pillow, before kicking in his direction. She’s not augmenting it–it’s too early for that shit–but she feels a connect and Youbirin curls away with another pained moan.

“Go away. I’m not on shift and it’s before noon, you’re breaking the rules.”

Youbirin crawls his way up the bed, falling obnoxiously on top of her. It’s far from sexual–only barely affectionate in nature, given that clearly he’s trying to smother the life out of her.

“Get off me,” she wheezes as her lungs deflate beneath his weight, “Go away,” she repeats.

“But Sakura, this is my room,” the big baby whines, and then completely ignores her by wrapping himself around her.

She grumbles, but lets him, because he’s warm and she’s far too lazy to pull the blanket back.

They quiet back down, breathes coming in deeper and slower, the two of them shifting into a more comfortable position–Youbirin less of a big spoon and more of a giant koala with Sakura as the small and brightly colored tree.

“Wake me up before noon again and you’re dead,” she murmurs, tucking a cold nose to the collar of his pajamas.

Obediently, he recites, “After noon, coffee, got it,” before the both of them drift back into sleep.

Of course, they’re both woken up less than thirty minutes later when Jiro lands on top of them, climbing through the window in yesterday’s rumpled clothing to escape his latest one night stand.

—

Shishou, spotting the three of them and their less than impressive states, laughs–loud and long and entirely unnecessary.

“Nngh,” Youbirin grunts, looks two seconds away from dropping to the ground and curling into a ball in defeat.

Jiro, in contrast, tries and fails to respond with a smile of his own. It wouldn’t have worked even without the awkward lean he’s adopted where Sakura propped him against the wall.

Apparently, last night’s conquest–while easily impressed by medic-nin–was less than impressed by Jiro’s less than graceful “this was fun, goodbye forever” spiel. And, apparently, a trainee in T&I.

Sakura would like to think she doesn’t look as awful as her genin teammates, but she certainly feels as miserable, and she knows for the sheer travesty of her outfit, she’s going to have to avoid Ino today.

Shizune-senpai looks unfairly embarrassed by them: as if she never had to deal with Shishou in worse condition, and during her reign as Hokage at that!

When Shishou finally stops laughing, wiping a tear away from her right eye, she turns around and gestures imperiously for them all to follow.

Even in their disastrous states, the three–four, actually, including Shizune-senpai–hop to attention immediately. They may be embarrassments as people, but there’s no way they’re anything less than the best when it comes to being medic-nin.

~

A/N: Lalala, went out again to a swanky restaurant where we got soooo much free stuff because my sister’s got connections! Also, more drinking (well, less than yesterday, but still more than my usual which is zero)

Missed Post (2016-10-17)

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I knew it, but I didn’t prepare for it, and that’s shame on me.

Went out drinking with my sisters and then demolished so much food afterwards I’m super surprised I’m awake and eloquent right now. Then again I’m also correcting so many typos before posting this so I’m a little worse off than I present myself here.

(Also, this is apparently my 900th post, so… whoops. Hopefully 1000th will be a little more impressive)

prompt(kinda): where Shikako’s mum stuffs her into a kimono with all the bells and whistles, while sasuke is looking on awe-struck and shika’s just in the bavkground giving him the suspiscious stink-eye

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… OOooooOOOH!! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH THIS! 😀

I’ll have to research some things, though. (Either that or make up some stuff–then again, this is fanfiction, is that not what I’m supposed to do?) And it wouldn’t be compatible with certain other ficlets of mine.

Excellent prompt, flamingosspace!

(I’m also a little bit drunk right now, so hopefully what I’m thinking will still look fantastic in the light of day)