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

Than It Is To Receive

[edenfalling]

"Hey, hey, Yukiko-neechan, when's your birthday?"

Yukiko looked up from her tempura and raised her eyebrows. "January 17. Why?"

Naruto made a disgruntled face. "That's forever away. And Sakura-chan's birthday isn't till March, and Shinnin's isn't till May. It was really cool getting presents for the first time last week, and I wanna make everybody else feel special like that! I wanna throw a party and buy presents and make a cake. But everybody I know has birthdays at stupid inconvenient times."

Yukiko's eyebrows climbed higher. "Parties are a lot of work and presents cost money to buy or time to make, but if that's what you want, we can figure something out. Like, oh... why not a friendship appreciation party for Shinnin and Sakura? Or a teacher appreciation party for Iruka? You could even throw a belated party for Kakashi -- I think his birthday was in September, but he's so secretive we could just pretend we thought his birthday was this week and he won't correct us because that would mean revealing personal information."

Naruto scrunched his nose in thought. "Um. It'd be funny to mess with Kakashi, but maybe kind of mean, too. And that's not what parties are for. Let's do the teacher party for Iruka. That way I don't have to keep it a secret from Shinnin and Sakura-chan. Maybe they can help out!"

"Maybe," Yukiko agreed, already planning strategies for roping the girls' respective parents into the planning loop. (Teacher appreciation should be an easy sell, even with Naruto in the mix. And sacrificing her kitchen to the kids' baking attempts should win another few points.) "You can ask them tomorrow."

"And if I practice now on Iruka, I can make sure your birthday party is the best ever!" Naruto added, waving his chopsticks for emphasis; one slipped through his fingers and flew across the table. "'Cause I remember you didn't have one last winter, and that's no good. Everybody deserves parties, and when I'm Hokage, I'm gonna make sure everybody gets them. So there."

"I've heard worse plans for spending our municipal tax levies," Yukiko said dryly, fishing the stray chopstick out of her windbreaker's hood. (Yuck. Oh well, she'd been planning to do laundry tonight anyway.)

"Well, yeah. Because my plans are awesome," Naruto said firmly. "Hey, hey, do you know what kind of cake Iruka likes? I wanna make sure we get everything perfect."

Yukiko leaned across the table and pressed the chopstick back into Naruto's hand. "You're a ninja, kid. Find out for yourself."

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[alexseanchai]

*bouncebounce*

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[edenfalling]

:D

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[wistfulmemory]

This was fantastic! Thanks for this wonderful glimpse into this AU. It always makes me happy to see these stories.

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[edenfalling]

Thanks! I like writing snippets in this AU -- they're like little promise notes to myself that I WILL get back to "Guardian" someday.

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[sheliak]

Naruto is awfully cute in this! And it's always nice to see more of this world.

Re: Than It Is To Receive

[edenfalling]

Thank you! :)