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edenfallingI dithered for several weeks over whether to write the sex scene, but eventually decided not to. For one thing, it would take too much narrative space. For another, it takes me way too long to write sex scenes; the logistics are a pain and they always trigger my "*blush* I can't believe I'm writing this! *delay*" reaction. For a third, while the fact that Faith and Duo have sex is important, the actual details of that sex are largely irrevelant. So I did a fade to black and wrote pre-sex and post-sex conversations instead.
Sasuke continues to be pissy, and Duo is not helping matters. (He thinks he's being helpful. He has a weird definition of helpful, in that case; that's all I have to say.) However, I think I have finally figured out how to pull off a threesome in this situation, and it's much more IC than my initial vague thoughts. And I may actually write that sex scene in more detail, because Sasuke's frame of mind will be important.
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Lemonade
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Part XI: in which further complications arise
Duo's fingers on her hip were going a long way toward killing rational thought, but Faith could stomp on her impulses with a fucking jackboot when she needed to. She grabbed his hand and took a step back, kicking the door halfway shut as she turned.
"Second thoughts?" Duo asked.
"God no! Just clearing a few things, setting some ground rules." Ground rules were very important. 'Don't strangle the person you're fucking' was a good one, for example. "I don't think birth control matters much -- getting Chosen makes it hard to get pregnant, probably 'cause kids get in the way of fighting, and I just got off my period -- but I need to know if you're clean."
"All this water isn't enough evidence?" Duo said, holding up a handful of dripping hair in demonstration. Then he grinned. "I get it. I go for a full-on checkup four times a year -- you would not believe the bio crap some people use in their security systems when they can vent it straight out black -- and I tested clean and healthy five weeks ago. I haven't done anything stupid since then, until Mr. Portal interrupted me yesterday."
Faith waved that off. "That wasn't voluntary; it doesn't count. I'm clean too, in case you wondered."
"I figured -- you wouldn't have asked otherwise," Duo said. His skin was pale in the dim interior of the little cabin, like he didn't get out into natural sun very often. Well, he lived in a space colony -- that figured, right? Faith traced old knife and burn and bullet scars with her eyes, imagining what they'd feel like under her hands. One of them twisted down under his boxers; she wondered where it ended.
Duo moved toward the rough blanket in the corner, dropping his gear behind him. "That takes care of clearing things. What're your ground rules?"
"I just have three," Faith said, reaching down to untie her boots. "One, no injuries. Two, I don't know you well enough to get kinky, so we won't. Three, we can both call it off any time, all the way through. You have enough control for that?" She looked up through a curtain of hair, challenging.
"Chica, I'm a pilot, a thief, and an assassin -- if I couldn't do control I'd be dead so many times over it'd probably set a world record." Duo finished spreading out the blanket and sat down, twirling the makeshift comb between his fingers. "You may strain it, though," he added with a wink.
Faith watched him separate his hair into three strands -- his hands were deft and quick, never wasting a motion -- and then remembered she was supposed to be taking off her clothes. She wanted Duo's hands on her. Striptease? Nah, no point in going full-on seduction, especially not when Duo was treating this so straightforward. Faith stripped down to nothing but panties (a hint of seduction was cool, and it added to the atmosphere when she let men peel those off) and slipped over to sit behind Duo, leaning up to breathe against his ear. "You ready? 'Cause I am about to explode from waiting."
Duo twitched, and then tied off his braid. "That's my line -- you have the wrong anatomy for exploding." He turned half around, enough to run his fingers along the curve of her jaw -- Faith shivered -- he leaned forward -- and he kissed her, hot and raw and nothing but wanting, daring her to meet him halfway.
He wanted to push the edge? He wanted hot and crazy, wanted to howl at the moon, wanted to scream that they were alive in the middle of hell? She was right there with him.
Faith raked her hand down Duo's side and tipped them over onto the blanket.
---------------------------------------------
"I think," Duo said some time later, placing each word slowly and clearly into the air, "that if you ever come to my world, I'll have to introduce you to Wufei. You'd make his head explode."
"Is that a compliment?" Faith asked, her voice vibrating against his chest. Her breath ghosted over his ribs, calling back vivid sense-memory of teeth and tongue.
Duo shrugged, shifting his left arm up from the ground to rest on Faith's back; her skin was smooth under the slight tackiness of cooling sweat, remarkably unscarred for a close-quarters fighter. "Generally not, but since we're talking about Wufei, hell yes. He needs his head exploded now and then, just to keep him seeing the world instead of some weird-ass idealistic stage show."
"He thinks the world's a morality play and he's the tormented hero? I know the type." Faith sounded sour, but not angry underneath the way he might have expected at those words. Interesting. Maybe it was just afterglow papering over something nasty, but she'd sounded serious about wanting to do the right thing -- so what bugged her about morality plays?
No way to know. Different worlds, different enemies, different allies, different rules. They'd shared a few stories, but he didn't know anything like enough to judge.
"I mean, I know good and evil exist," Faith continued, "and there are lines you don't cross, shit like that -- and I totally get wanting to make up for doing evil in the past -- but the world doesn't revolve around any single person. The world isn't out to fuck over any single person. The world doesn't give a flying fuck about individuals. That's why we have to care, because nothing else is going to bother."
Okay, so there was a way to know. And he definitely had to introduce Faith to Chang. Duo tucked his right arm behind his head so he could look down at her without killing his neck; she was lying tight against him, on her side, one arm draped over his stomach and the other cradling her head on his chest. He couldn't see her face, just her dark hair. He wondered if she was smiling.
She wore sexuality like a weapon, but he didn't think this had been calculated. He hoped not, for both their sakes.
"Your hair's a mess," Duo told her, moving his left hand to run his fingers through the tangles.
"So fix it."
"I lost the comb; I'd have to get up to find it."
Faith sighed. "You're not going to let me sleep, are you."
"Not in the middle of the afternoon," Duo said, amused, "and definitely not when we still have to clean up -- ourselves and the building -- as well as find Sasuke to divide tonight's watches and talk about what we're going to eat when the centipede runs out."
"Pessimist," Faith said, but she twisted around so her weight didn't press on him so much.
Falling asleep sounded damn tempting -- who'd object to an afternoon siesta with a beautiful woman? -- but you couldn't always get what you wanted. Duo sighed, allowing himself one last moment to savor the lack of tension, and then slipped back into the skin of his training. A catalogue of scratches and mildly sore muscles rushed to his attention; he tucked them away with a smile. He ran down the checklist of stuff he ought to be doing in unfamiliar territory among uncertain allies, wrote off most of the items as pointless, stupid, or already in process -- just because he didn't let paranoia rule him didn't mean he wasn't listening to it -- and reached the inevitable conclusion that he needed to check on Sasuke.
The ninja was a loose cannon if Duo had ever seen one, and while his worst flashpoint trigger seemed related to friends or partners, there was really no telling what might touch off an explosion. Sasuke also didn't seem to get loyalty and human rights on a gut level. He probably wouldn't betray Duo and Faith -- they had two of the Sarguls' portal stones, and were better fighters than the demons, so his best chance of getting home lay with them -- but still. Better careful than dead.
Besides, Duo liked Sasuke. There was a spark of something under all that attitude, paranoia, and detachment, something he wanted to drag into the light of day. It was the same thing that he'd seen in Heero back at the start of Meteor, that wouldn't let him leave Chang alone, that had made him want to pry Relena out of her ivory tower idealism, that kept him exchanging email with Dorothy Catalonia, of all unlikely souls. He didn't like giving up on people -- yeah, sometimes life seemed easier without attachments, without people dragging you down, but sooner or later you needed human contact, needed someone to lift you up. People weren't meant to be alone.
Duo sat up, stretching his arms over his head and twisting to work the kinks out of his back. The comb lay a few feet to his right, shoved against the wall; he leaned over and grabbed it. "Sit up," he said to Faith, "and I'll comb your hair. Then let's go find Sasuke."
---------------------------------------------
There was only so long he could stay in the lake under the pretext of bathing. Sasuke managed to extend his swim by looking for signs of fish or other aquatic creatures -- he found a few schools of minnows, and several clusters of unhatched eggs tethered to clumps of weed, their species undeterminable -- but eventually he returned to shore and busied himself gathering firewood for the night.
He was sharpening his collection of Sargul knives, using an improvised whetstone from the rocky beach, when Duo walked out of the small house. The man wasn't trying to hide his approach, but he wasn't being blatant about making noise either; he seemed to assume Sasuke would hear. That was oddly respectful.
It was also a useful reminder that he was dangerous, no matter how frivolous he acted.
"Done already?" Sasuke asked, not looking up from his work. Stone scraped against steel in a steady rhythm, comforting.
"I think you're overestimating our stamina, Sasuke-kun," Duo said, sitting beside him on the saw-toothed grass. "Of course, if you'd decided to join in, we could've taken all afternoon..."
"And been left with no firewood and no plans at sunset," Sasuke finished, testing the edge of a knife against his forearm. It sliced a shallow line with barely any pressure -- a slow drop of blood welled out, quickly smeared away -- he nodded in satisfaction. The knife joined its fellows in a row to his right.
"I mourn the lost opportunities, but you make a convincing argument." Duo stretched, arching his back like a cat preparing for a nap or a stalk, and then poked Sasuke's knee with one finger; Sasuke shifted his leg away. "Thanks for gathering the wood. Faith's fixing her hair -- she kicked me out after I got experimental with topknots -- but she'll be out in a minute. We need to plan watches, food rations, stuff like that. She's sure her witch will find us within a week, but that's a long time to be hungry and jumping at shadows, you catch my drift? We need to do battle with more giant bugs, find miraculous fruit trees, reel in demonic fish, call down unleavened bread from--"
"There are no sizeable fish in the lake," Sasuke said, losing patience with Duo's roundabout speech. He drew another of the Sarguls' knives from the ground and ran the whetstone along its edge. "However, if this desert follows normal patterns, we may find snakes or rodents hiding under rocks at midday."
"Rodents. Lovely. I get so far out of the slums I wind up in a different dimension and I'm still eating goddamned rats." Duo bared his teeth in an exaggerated snarl. "The universe has a fucked up sense of humor, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke wasn't sure what response Duo was expecting. Fortunately, dry grass crunched behind them, and Duo's grimace evaporated into a smile. "Hey, Faith! No fish in the lake, ---- to Sasuke. He says we ---- find ---- and ---- rocks ----."
Faith said something of which Sasuke caught no meaningful words, and lay down with her head in Duo's lap. "You're still ---- to take a ----?" Duo asked, running his fingers through her loose hair. She smiled.
Sasuke prodded Duo's side with his toes, reminding him to translate. "So demanding, Sasuke-kun!" Duo said, pressing his free hand to his heart. "I told her what you told me about finding snakes and rats underneath the rocks at noon. She says that sounds like her karma. Now she's trying to take a nap, because I wouldn't let us fall asleep inside."
Duo was right; Faith was a strong fighter, but she was not a professional. Sasuke turned his attention back to the knife, tuning out the others' conversation.
Something slapped his foot, and he kicked out in reflexive counterattack before realizing it was only Faith trying to get his attention. "Wake up, Sasuke," she said. "Listen."
"I listen when you make not crazy stupid," he snapped, fists clenching around the whetstone and knife hilt. "Strange place, strange enemy, small food, big time, small time, not know. Not good! Not time when stupid, when no look--" He gave up on English. "We have to find food, secure the area, and make worst-case scenario plans. It's not the time to fuck each other's brains out!"
Faith twisted until she was on her stomach, facing Sasuke instead of looking at him upside down. "I have no ---- what you said, but ----! You are alive. I was ---- think you were a ----."
"A machine shaped like a man," Duo translated, laughing bubbling through his voice. "Come to think of it, machines can be programmed to act like they have personalities, but there's one thing I've never seen a machine do. You up for that, Sasuke-kun?"
The world bled scarlet. The knife hilt snapped in his hand.
With great care and precision, Sasuke set the now-useless blade on the ground in front of him. "I am tired of listening to you insult me, Maxwell-san. Your jokes are not funny, and if you don't stop, I may be forced to do something not in either of our best interests." He stood, gathered his handful of sharpened knives, and turned toward the ridge around the valley. "I'm going hunting. Don't follow me."
"Sasuke--" Duo started, but a low murmur from Faith cut him off. "Fine. We'll talk later."
Talk was pointless. It was clear that Faith and Duo had paired together, in more ways than one. That was fine. They didn't all need to get along or spend much time together to survive, and Sasuke didn't need their company.
He worked best alone.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter XI
Back to part X
Continue to part XII
See the original crack pairings meme and the scene that attacked me and became the first section of part I
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
In other news, I wrote 550 words of "Secrets" chapter 12 this morning. Perhaps the light in the distance is, in fact, the end of the tunnel rather than another curse of procrastion as embodied by a metaphorical train? *hurries off to find Ginny's birthday, which seems to have been mislaid somewhere in the outline process*
Sasuke continues to be pissy, and Duo is not helping matters. (He thinks he's being helpful. He has a weird definition of helpful, in that case; that's all I have to say.) However, I think I have finally figured out how to pull off a threesome in this situation, and it's much more IC than my initial vague thoughts. And I may actually write that sex scene in more detail, because Sasuke's frame of mind will be important.
---------------------------------------------
Lemonade
---------------------------------------------
Part XI: in which further complications arise
Duo's fingers on her hip were going a long way toward killing rational thought, but Faith could stomp on her impulses with a fucking jackboot when she needed to. She grabbed his hand and took a step back, kicking the door halfway shut as she turned.
"Second thoughts?" Duo asked.
"God no! Just clearing a few things, setting some ground rules." Ground rules were very important. 'Don't strangle the person you're fucking' was a good one, for example. "I don't think birth control matters much -- getting Chosen makes it hard to get pregnant, probably 'cause kids get in the way of fighting, and I just got off my period -- but I need to know if you're clean."
"All this water isn't enough evidence?" Duo said, holding up a handful of dripping hair in demonstration. Then he grinned. "I get it. I go for a full-on checkup four times a year -- you would not believe the bio crap some people use in their security systems when they can vent it straight out black -- and I tested clean and healthy five weeks ago. I haven't done anything stupid since then, until Mr. Portal interrupted me yesterday."
Faith waved that off. "That wasn't voluntary; it doesn't count. I'm clean too, in case you wondered."
"I figured -- you wouldn't have asked otherwise," Duo said. His skin was pale in the dim interior of the little cabin, like he didn't get out into natural sun very often. Well, he lived in a space colony -- that figured, right? Faith traced old knife and burn and bullet scars with her eyes, imagining what they'd feel like under her hands. One of them twisted down under his boxers; she wondered where it ended.
Duo moved toward the rough blanket in the corner, dropping his gear behind him. "That takes care of clearing things. What're your ground rules?"
"I just have three," Faith said, reaching down to untie her boots. "One, no injuries. Two, I don't know you well enough to get kinky, so we won't. Three, we can both call it off any time, all the way through. You have enough control for that?" She looked up through a curtain of hair, challenging.
"Chica, I'm a pilot, a thief, and an assassin -- if I couldn't do control I'd be dead so many times over it'd probably set a world record." Duo finished spreading out the blanket and sat down, twirling the makeshift comb between his fingers. "You may strain it, though," he added with a wink.
Faith watched him separate his hair into three strands -- his hands were deft and quick, never wasting a motion -- and then remembered she was supposed to be taking off her clothes. She wanted Duo's hands on her. Striptease? Nah, no point in going full-on seduction, especially not when Duo was treating this so straightforward. Faith stripped down to nothing but panties (a hint of seduction was cool, and it added to the atmosphere when she let men peel those off) and slipped over to sit behind Duo, leaning up to breathe against his ear. "You ready? 'Cause I am about to explode from waiting."
Duo twitched, and then tied off his braid. "That's my line -- you have the wrong anatomy for exploding." He turned half around, enough to run his fingers along the curve of her jaw -- Faith shivered -- he leaned forward -- and he kissed her, hot and raw and nothing but wanting, daring her to meet him halfway.
He wanted to push the edge? He wanted hot and crazy, wanted to howl at the moon, wanted to scream that they were alive in the middle of hell? She was right there with him.
Faith raked her hand down Duo's side and tipped them over onto the blanket.
---------------------------------------------
"I think," Duo said some time later, placing each word slowly and clearly into the air, "that if you ever come to my world, I'll have to introduce you to Wufei. You'd make his head explode."
"Is that a compliment?" Faith asked, her voice vibrating against his chest. Her breath ghosted over his ribs, calling back vivid sense-memory of teeth and tongue.
Duo shrugged, shifting his left arm up from the ground to rest on Faith's back; her skin was smooth under the slight tackiness of cooling sweat, remarkably unscarred for a close-quarters fighter. "Generally not, but since we're talking about Wufei, hell yes. He needs his head exploded now and then, just to keep him seeing the world instead of some weird-ass idealistic stage show."
"He thinks the world's a morality play and he's the tormented hero? I know the type." Faith sounded sour, but not angry underneath the way he might have expected at those words. Interesting. Maybe it was just afterglow papering over something nasty, but she'd sounded serious about wanting to do the right thing -- so what bugged her about morality plays?
No way to know. Different worlds, different enemies, different allies, different rules. They'd shared a few stories, but he didn't know anything like enough to judge.
"I mean, I know good and evil exist," Faith continued, "and there are lines you don't cross, shit like that -- and I totally get wanting to make up for doing evil in the past -- but the world doesn't revolve around any single person. The world isn't out to fuck over any single person. The world doesn't give a flying fuck about individuals. That's why we have to care, because nothing else is going to bother."
Okay, so there was a way to know. And he definitely had to introduce Faith to Chang. Duo tucked his right arm behind his head so he could look down at her without killing his neck; she was lying tight against him, on her side, one arm draped over his stomach and the other cradling her head on his chest. He couldn't see her face, just her dark hair. He wondered if she was smiling.
She wore sexuality like a weapon, but he didn't think this had been calculated. He hoped not, for both their sakes.
"Your hair's a mess," Duo told her, moving his left hand to run his fingers through the tangles.
"So fix it."
"I lost the comb; I'd have to get up to find it."
Faith sighed. "You're not going to let me sleep, are you."
"Not in the middle of the afternoon," Duo said, amused, "and definitely not when we still have to clean up -- ourselves and the building -- as well as find Sasuke to divide tonight's watches and talk about what we're going to eat when the centipede runs out."
"Pessimist," Faith said, but she twisted around so her weight didn't press on him so much.
Falling asleep sounded damn tempting -- who'd object to an afternoon siesta with a beautiful woman? -- but you couldn't always get what you wanted. Duo sighed, allowing himself one last moment to savor the lack of tension, and then slipped back into the skin of his training. A catalogue of scratches and mildly sore muscles rushed to his attention; he tucked them away with a smile. He ran down the checklist of stuff he ought to be doing in unfamiliar territory among uncertain allies, wrote off most of the items as pointless, stupid, or already in process -- just because he didn't let paranoia rule him didn't mean he wasn't listening to it -- and reached the inevitable conclusion that he needed to check on Sasuke.
The ninja was a loose cannon if Duo had ever seen one, and while his worst flashpoint trigger seemed related to friends or partners, there was really no telling what might touch off an explosion. Sasuke also didn't seem to get loyalty and human rights on a gut level. He probably wouldn't betray Duo and Faith -- they had two of the Sarguls' portal stones, and were better fighters than the demons, so his best chance of getting home lay with them -- but still. Better careful than dead.
Besides, Duo liked Sasuke. There was a spark of something under all that attitude, paranoia, and detachment, something he wanted to drag into the light of day. It was the same thing that he'd seen in Heero back at the start of Meteor, that wouldn't let him leave Chang alone, that had made him want to pry Relena out of her ivory tower idealism, that kept him exchanging email with Dorothy Catalonia, of all unlikely souls. He didn't like giving up on people -- yeah, sometimes life seemed easier without attachments, without people dragging you down, but sooner or later you needed human contact, needed someone to lift you up. People weren't meant to be alone.
Duo sat up, stretching his arms over his head and twisting to work the kinks out of his back. The comb lay a few feet to his right, shoved against the wall; he leaned over and grabbed it. "Sit up," he said to Faith, "and I'll comb your hair. Then let's go find Sasuke."
---------------------------------------------
There was only so long he could stay in the lake under the pretext of bathing. Sasuke managed to extend his swim by looking for signs of fish or other aquatic creatures -- he found a few schools of minnows, and several clusters of unhatched eggs tethered to clumps of weed, their species undeterminable -- but eventually he returned to shore and busied himself gathering firewood for the night.
He was sharpening his collection of Sargul knives, using an improvised whetstone from the rocky beach, when Duo walked out of the small house. The man wasn't trying to hide his approach, but he wasn't being blatant about making noise either; he seemed to assume Sasuke would hear. That was oddly respectful.
It was also a useful reminder that he was dangerous, no matter how frivolous he acted.
"Done already?" Sasuke asked, not looking up from his work. Stone scraped against steel in a steady rhythm, comforting.
"I think you're overestimating our stamina, Sasuke-kun," Duo said, sitting beside him on the saw-toothed grass. "Of course, if you'd decided to join in, we could've taken all afternoon..."
"And been left with no firewood and no plans at sunset," Sasuke finished, testing the edge of a knife against his forearm. It sliced a shallow line with barely any pressure -- a slow drop of blood welled out, quickly smeared away -- he nodded in satisfaction. The knife joined its fellows in a row to his right.
"I mourn the lost opportunities, but you make a convincing argument." Duo stretched, arching his back like a cat preparing for a nap or a stalk, and then poked Sasuke's knee with one finger; Sasuke shifted his leg away. "Thanks for gathering the wood. Faith's fixing her hair -- she kicked me out after I got experimental with topknots -- but she'll be out in a minute. We need to plan watches, food rations, stuff like that. She's sure her witch will find us within a week, but that's a long time to be hungry and jumping at shadows, you catch my drift? We need to do battle with more giant bugs, find miraculous fruit trees, reel in demonic fish, call down unleavened bread from--"
"There are no sizeable fish in the lake," Sasuke said, losing patience with Duo's roundabout speech. He drew another of the Sarguls' knives from the ground and ran the whetstone along its edge. "However, if this desert follows normal patterns, we may find snakes or rodents hiding under rocks at midday."
"Rodents. Lovely. I get so far out of the slums I wind up in a different dimension and I'm still eating goddamned rats." Duo bared his teeth in an exaggerated snarl. "The universe has a fucked up sense of humor, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke wasn't sure what response Duo was expecting. Fortunately, dry grass crunched behind them, and Duo's grimace evaporated into a smile. "Hey, Faith! No fish in the lake, ---- to Sasuke. He says we ---- find ---- and ---- rocks ----."
Faith said something of which Sasuke caught no meaningful words, and lay down with her head in Duo's lap. "You're still ---- to take a ----?" Duo asked, running his fingers through her loose hair. She smiled.
Sasuke prodded Duo's side with his toes, reminding him to translate. "So demanding, Sasuke-kun!" Duo said, pressing his free hand to his heart. "I told her what you told me about finding snakes and rats underneath the rocks at noon. She says that sounds like her karma. Now she's trying to take a nap, because I wouldn't let us fall asleep inside."
Duo was right; Faith was a strong fighter, but she was not a professional. Sasuke turned his attention back to the knife, tuning out the others' conversation.
Something slapped his foot, and he kicked out in reflexive counterattack before realizing it was only Faith trying to get his attention. "Wake up, Sasuke," she said. "Listen."
"I listen when you make not crazy stupid," he snapped, fists clenching around the whetstone and knife hilt. "Strange place, strange enemy, small food, big time, small time, not know. Not good! Not time when stupid, when no look--" He gave up on English. "We have to find food, secure the area, and make worst-case scenario plans. It's not the time to fuck each other's brains out!"
Faith twisted until she was on her stomach, facing Sasuke instead of looking at him upside down. "I have no ---- what you said, but ----! You are alive. I was ---- think you were a ----."
"A machine shaped like a man," Duo translated, laughing bubbling through his voice. "Come to think of it, machines can be programmed to act like they have personalities, but there's one thing I've never seen a machine do. You up for that, Sasuke-kun?"
The world bled scarlet. The knife hilt snapped in his hand.
With great care and precision, Sasuke set the now-useless blade on the ground in front of him. "I am tired of listening to you insult me, Maxwell-san. Your jokes are not funny, and if you don't stop, I may be forced to do something not in either of our best interests." He stood, gathered his handful of sharpened knives, and turned toward the ridge around the valley. "I'm going hunting. Don't follow me."
"Sasuke--" Duo started, but a low murmur from Faith cut him off. "Fine. We'll talk later."
Talk was pointless. It was clear that Faith and Duo had paired together, in more ways than one. That was fine. They didn't all need to get along or spend much time together to survive, and Sasuke didn't need their company.
He worked best alone.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter XI
Back to part X
Continue to part XII
See the original crack pairings meme and the scene that attacked me and became the first section of part I
Read the final version on ff.net
---------------------------------------------
In other news, I wrote 550 words of "Secrets" chapter 12 this morning. Perhaps the light in the distance is, in fact, the end of the tunnel rather than another curse of procrastion as embodied by a metaphorical train? *hurries off to find Ginny's birthday, which seems to have been mislaid somewhere in the outline process*
