Mini-ficlet prompt meme: help Liz reach tax day without snapping

[edenfalling]

Okay, I am trying to sit down and restart work on my FTH fic, but I seem to have temporarily misplaced my knack for stringing words together in a coherent narrative.

So here I am, breaking my resolution about not doing mini-ficlet prompt memes. *headdesk*

This one really is for mini-ficlets, though! I may run long, of course, but I want these to be finger exercises rather than major projects.

You know the basic drill by now, yes? Pick a square from my Genprompt Bingo card, add one to three characters plus a scenario, and I will write you a ficlet of at least 3 sentences and/or 100 words.

Here is my Genprompt Bingo card. For those who prefer lists to graphics, the open squares are: Light-Hearted, Holiday Cottages, WILD CARD, Suicide, Another Year Older: Birthdays, The Age of Reason, Steadfast, and Takeout.

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Obligatory small print:

1. I reserve the right to veto any fandoms I don't know well enough to write, and ask you to please try again.

2. Crossover prompts are fine! On the vanishingly unlikely chance anyone wants to read a snippet from any of my original worlds and stories, that kind of prompt is also fine.

3. In the Genprompt Bingo challenge, WILD CARD means to grab any prompt from the complete Round 12 prompt list. I reserve the right to veto any such wild card substitutions and ask you to please try again.

4. Genprompt Bingo fills do not have to be gen! (The 'gen' refers to the squares, which do not automatically presuppose shipping.) Just be aware that I'm not great at romance, so if you request shipfic, it will come out fairly low-key and may end up as ambiguous gen anyway.

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Fill List:

1. Kitchen Science: lighthearted, jane and dirk making the most mathematically perfect cake. Written 4/13/18 for longroadstonowhere (175 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

2. Than It Is To Receive: BIRFDAY, Naruto …actually that’s probably a scenario in itself XD. Written 4/13/18 for alexseanchai (425 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

3. All Work and No Play: Holiday Cottages, Naruto (i was thinking of the summer camp au but another setting would be fine also). Written 4/13/18 for silverblade219 (425 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

4. Grandmother Dragon: I would like the prompt "The Age of Reason" with Telemain having to explain something complicated to Kazul. (I reversed this, because reasons. *evil grin*) Written 4/22/18 for wistfulmemory (575 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

5. Equivalent Exchange: Can I have a snippet of "Utiliarian Virtue," please? Pick a prompt and wing it! Written 5/1/18 for cherokee1 (650 words) [Contains discussion of atrocities and war crimes]

Comments

[silverblade219]

Holiday Cottages, Naruto (i was think of the summer camp au but another setting would be fine also)

All Work and No Play

[edenfalling]

"You know what we need?" Sakura said two nights before election day, lack of sleep scattering her thoughts like a bad day of target practice. "We need a vacation. A whole week in a cute little holiday cottage with a flower garden, on the shore of a lake, by the edge of a forest, with no reporters whatsoever. Maybe one intern, though. I really like having interns. It's so useful having people who jump to obey my every whim."

"You are the empress of all you survey," Naruto agreed, sounding disgustingly awake. Sakura flapped a hand at Sasuke, who obligingly thwacked his own hand into Naruto's shoulder where the two of them lounged on their collective bed. Sakura rubbed her eyes and resumed staring at Ino and Sai's latest poll analysis, hoping the words and numbers would miraculously resolve into coherent information.

"I hate statistics," she muttered. "Passionately. Well, not really. I don't have the energy for passion anymore. So I guess it's more like a brick wall of implacable dislike instead of a bonfire of rage. Or something." She ran her words back through her brain, and lowered her face until her forehead mashed into her keyboard. "Fuck. That analogy made more sense in my head."

"Yeah, you need a vacation," Naruto said. "Hey, come to bed. The numbers will still be there in the morning, and in the meantime I can give you a neck massage so your head doesn't declare rebellion overnight."

"What he said," Sasuke agreed, his voice thick and muddled with sleep. "Even the stupid cottage. We can rent the most tasteless, fluffy, flowered monstrosity in the country, just to make sure nobody will ever connect it to us."

"It won't work. The interns will know," Sakura said into her keyboard.

"Your interns are faithful to their great and terrible empress, and will keep their mouths shut," Sasuke said. He rolled onto his back and aimed a tiny, sleep-mellow smile in her direction. "It's late. You need to be sharp tomorrow. Kill the light and come to bed."

Sakura gave her screen one last glance, grimaced at the string of gibberish now gracing the end of Ino's report, and shut the laptop with a decisive push. "Fine. But you owe me so much nude sunbathing and skinny-dipping. Also hiking. And a fresh bouquet of flowers every morning for the whole week." She stripped off her tank top and sweatpants as she spoke, dropping the clothes haphazardly on the floor.

"As you wish," Naruto said, and pulled her down for a kiss.

Re: All Work and No Play

[silverblade219]

Thanks! This is really cute

Re: All Work and No Play

[edenfalling]

:D