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Done~!
You know, when I said I'd finish these even if it took me until April, I didn't expect it to actually take me until April.
So, here we go! The final four Yule drabbles.
(Drabble three only tangentially meets the prompt, go figure. For drabble four, the actual request went "I like things!" and I had to drag a better prompt out of her.
Because you should know these things, clearly.)
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raisedbymoogles, "something fluffy"
-
It's a narrative law that the hero always gets a happy ending.
Zax doesn't know that he was the hero, per se - nobody's a secondary character in their own story, but he died breathing blood on a cliffside while Cloud had gone on to save the world. Maybe that was what it all led up to. His training, his ideals, his life: maybe it was all so that he would be the person who could drag Cloud out of hell. Maybe his reason for existence was to get Cloud where he needed to be.
He can think of worse purposes for a life. At least he'd had a good one. Mostly.
But if Cloud's the hero, then his happy ending's been a long time coming, much longer than the poor kid deserves, and that's just not fair. The girl he loves cleans the bar, while Cloud lingers in the doorway, tensed to move but paralyzed with fear.
It's not fair.
Then again, nobody ever said you couldn't help a little...
Cloud's hand reaches and stops, just short of Tifa's shoulder - hangs there as Cloud is torn by doubts, by second-guessing, what-if's -
Go for it, Zax whispers in his ear.
And Tifa turns, smiling, at Cloud's touch.
You silly boy, someone else whispers. You just won't rest, will you?
Her arms wrap around him from behind, and Zax clasps a rough, gloved hand over hers. Just lending a helping hand, sweetheart.
If we baby him forever he'll mean it next time he calls me 'Mother,' Aerith says, her voice full of laughter. He saved the Planet, Zax, he's a big boy now.
He laughs, and turns in her arms, draping one around her shoulders as she starts to lead him away; the world dissolves into mist and light around them, and Zax feels the warm currents of the earth's blood flow around them again. She stands up on tiptoes to kiss him, and he holds her close, lost in light and life.
And he thinks: well...
Maybe he was a hero after all.
Forabyssus_abyssum, Seifer/Zell, pre-FF8, giving gifts
-
So it's really not his fault, this whole Secret Saints event was organized by a well-meaning instructor and it's - okay, so it's not strictly mandatory, either, but nobody else backed down so obviously he couldn't, right? And maybe he coulda swapped with someone, he didn't really want to get Almasy, but again, nobody else was switching, so he'd just had to suck it up and buy Almasy a stupid present.
The fact that it's a necklace means nothing, he just thought it looked cool - no, he really did - and it's not a girly necklace anyway, and it'd look-- well, it'd look pretty cool on anyone, it'd look cool on him, he just bought it for Almasy. Because he had to.
He seems to like it well enough when he opens it up, anyway; puts it right on, grinning that big dickhead grin, and. Zell's not watching watching, just sort of checking out the reaction to his present. He's totally not the only one in here doing that, so it's cool. Just... checking it out a little bit longer, before he turns his attention to his own gift.
Yeah.
Liberated from the obnoxious holiday paper, the box proves to contain... gloves. Good, heavy fighting gloves, tough leather and metal knuckles and they're so much better than the old worn-out pair he's been using, he puts them on straight away, flexing his fists in them. Oh, yeah. This is it. Whoever gave him these is totally his hero.
Who did give him these?
(The reveal is issued later that day. Seifer and Zell don't look each other in the eye for the rest of the week.)
Formerodi, something about Merodi
-
Honestly, there were plenty of reasons why he ought to have just disposed with her and been on his way. Tonberries did not socialize, they did not tether themselves, and they did not follow scatter-brained humans around like puppies. By rights, he ought to have killed her when they met. She was in his territory, after all, with her great noisy bird, and he could not stand for that.
He'd still kill her, of course. Someday. Eventually. When she stopped being useful, which was to say, when she stopped feeding him.
Until then, no other beast would have the honor.
Forflidgetjerome, Byuu/Sendak
-
Sendak was a dirty, dirty old man.
He had to protest a measure of innocence, still - eighteen years and he'd never seen it coming. He'd watched Byuu grow, from toddler to child to lanky, awkward teen and never, never had he seen this coming.
Just, one day, he'd looked up from feeding Icedrake as Salmando swept down on his fiery wings, and his eyes for some reason had caught as Byuu hopped to the ground - and the boy he'd taught looked up to the sky again, gold hair shining and sweat glistening on his face, and - and -
Sendak was a filthy old man.
But the thing was done, and Sendak could hate himself for it if he liked, but it would not change the fact that Byuu, the boy who had clung to Sendak's robes and wheedled candy from him as payment for good behavior, sat on his lap for stories and spent a life around him in perfect innocence, was now Byuu, the beautiful young man that Sendak's old heart stuttered at the sight of.
It was a particularly cruel trick of fate, but he resolved firmly to live with it, and never breathe a word. Byuu had quite enough else to deal with, he certainly didn't need to hear that the foolish old summoner fancied him. The Byuu that would come over, drape a sword-strong arm around hunched, aged shoulders and press lips to a whiskered cheek - that Byuu lay firmly in the realm of fantasy, and Sendak could accept that he would ever and always stay there.
So, here we go! The final four Yule drabbles.
(Drabble three only tangentially meets the prompt, go figure. For drabble four, the actual request went "I like things!" and I had to drag a better prompt out of her.
Because you should know these things, clearly.)
For
raisedbymoogles, "something fluffy"-
It's a narrative law that the hero always gets a happy ending.
Zax doesn't know that he was the hero, per se - nobody's a secondary character in their own story, but he died breathing blood on a cliffside while Cloud had gone on to save the world. Maybe that was what it all led up to. His training, his ideals, his life: maybe it was all so that he would be the person who could drag Cloud out of hell. Maybe his reason for existence was to get Cloud where he needed to be.
He can think of worse purposes for a life. At least he'd had a good one. Mostly.
But if Cloud's the hero, then his happy ending's been a long time coming, much longer than the poor kid deserves, and that's just not fair. The girl he loves cleans the bar, while Cloud lingers in the doorway, tensed to move but paralyzed with fear.
It's not fair.
Then again, nobody ever said you couldn't help a little...
Cloud's hand reaches and stops, just short of Tifa's shoulder - hangs there as Cloud is torn by doubts, by second-guessing, what-if's -
Go for it, Zax whispers in his ear.
And Tifa turns, smiling, at Cloud's touch.
You silly boy, someone else whispers. You just won't rest, will you?
Her arms wrap around him from behind, and Zax clasps a rough, gloved hand over hers. Just lending a helping hand, sweetheart.
If we baby him forever he'll mean it next time he calls me 'Mother,' Aerith says, her voice full of laughter. He saved the Planet, Zax, he's a big boy now.
He laughs, and turns in her arms, draping one around her shoulders as she starts to lead him away; the world dissolves into mist and light around them, and Zax feels the warm currents of the earth's blood flow around them again. She stands up on tiptoes to kiss him, and he holds her close, lost in light and life.
And he thinks: well...
Maybe he was a hero after all.
For
abyssus_abyssum, Seifer/Zell, pre-FF8, giving gifts-
So it's really not his fault, this whole Secret Saints event was organized by a well-meaning instructor and it's - okay, so it's not strictly mandatory, either, but nobody else backed down so obviously he couldn't, right? And maybe he coulda swapped with someone, he didn't really want to get Almasy, but again, nobody else was switching, so he'd just had to suck it up and buy Almasy a stupid present.
The fact that it's a necklace means nothing, he just thought it looked cool - no, he really did - and it's not a girly necklace anyway, and it'd look-- well, it'd look pretty cool on anyone, it'd look cool on him, he just bought it for Almasy. Because he had to.
He seems to like it well enough when he opens it up, anyway; puts it right on, grinning that big dickhead grin, and. Zell's not watching watching, just sort of checking out the reaction to his present. He's totally not the only one in here doing that, so it's cool. Just... checking it out a little bit longer, before he turns his attention to his own gift.
Yeah.
Liberated from the obnoxious holiday paper, the box proves to contain... gloves. Good, heavy fighting gloves, tough leather and metal knuckles and they're so much better than the old worn-out pair he's been using, he puts them on straight away, flexing his fists in them. Oh, yeah. This is it. Whoever gave him these is totally his hero.
Who did give him these?
(The reveal is issued later that day. Seifer and Zell don't look each other in the eye for the rest of the week.)
For
merodi, something about Merodi-
Honestly, there were plenty of reasons why he ought to have just disposed with her and been on his way. Tonberries did not socialize, they did not tether themselves, and they did not follow scatter-brained humans around like puppies. By rights, he ought to have killed her when they met. She was in his territory, after all, with her great noisy bird, and he could not stand for that.
He'd still kill her, of course. Someday. Eventually. When she stopped being useful, which was to say, when she stopped feeding him.
Until then, no other beast would have the honor.
For
flidgetjerome, Byuu/Sendak-
Sendak was a dirty, dirty old man.
He had to protest a measure of innocence, still - eighteen years and he'd never seen it coming. He'd watched Byuu grow, from toddler to child to lanky, awkward teen and never, never had he seen this coming.
Just, one day, he'd looked up from feeding Icedrake as Salmando swept down on his fiery wings, and his eyes for some reason had caught as Byuu hopped to the ground - and the boy he'd taught looked up to the sky again, gold hair shining and sweat glistening on his face, and - and -
Sendak was a filthy old man.
But the thing was done, and Sendak could hate himself for it if he liked, but it would not change the fact that Byuu, the boy who had clung to Sendak's robes and wheedled candy from him as payment for good behavior, sat on his lap for stories and spent a life around him in perfect innocence, was now Byuu, the beautiful young man that Sendak's old heart stuttered at the sight of.
It was a particularly cruel trick of fate, but he resolved firmly to live with it, and never breathe a word. Byuu had quite enough else to deal with, he certainly didn't need to hear that the foolish old summoner fancied him. The Byuu that would come over, drape a sword-strong arm around hunched, aged shoulders and press lips to a whiskered cheek - that Byuu lay firmly in the realm of fantasy, and Sendak could accept that he would ever and always stay there.
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LOVE.
YOU.
Even though it's your fault I'm into that pairing in the first place. Still, total love. Especially for the bits in the second paragraph.
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Thank you. :D Poor Sendak, he got blindsided by Byuu's sudden sexy.
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Well, actually boy sorta seemed one of them 'silent protagonist' types so it's more "Flidget liked to imagine that Sendak was trying to be all virtuous and Biyuu was busy sending out 'No, please! Mollest me! Wait, better idea! Let me mollest you!' signals".
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But totally worth the wait. *glomps!* ^_^
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I am glad it meets with approval~ *hugs*
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The FF8 one got a smirk out of me, for reasons I can't yet comprehend. And Merodi's one cracks me up. XDD
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The FF8 one was supposed to get smirks, so. XD And Merodi's was fun! Hoolay for the Tonberry.
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And I agree with the people above about the Zax/Aerith/Cloud/Tifa one. Like always it's really gorgeous. ^^
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:3 And thank you.