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edenfallingWell, it's Friday, not Thursday, but it's still before the weekend, so I made my ultimate deadline, if not the penultimate one. *sigh* I really must get better about writing to schedule.
Anyway, this is chapter 6 of "Lemonade." Once again, I fail at having them reach water or have sex. The problem, I think, is that my outline basically had one line saying "They reach water the next day," except the characters then started talking and I have trouble cutting off their conversations. And fight scenes keep happening. Go figure.
ETA: Edited 8/27/06 to clarify Duo's motives, insert Xander's name, and make Sasuke's broken English more comprehensible. Thank you to everyone who commented!
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Lemonade
---------------------------------------------
Part VI: in which some things are clarified and others are muddied
Faith wasn't sure what had happened overnight, but Duo and Sasuke weren't speaking to each other. That could be trouble.
She also had sand in her pants, which was more immediately annoying. Besides that, a day of hard fighting and walking had left her smelling kind of rank; her hair was tangled, greasy, and full of demon poison gunk; and her shirt was doing that crusty thing around the armpits. If they didn't reach water today, she wasn't going to claim responsibility for her actions.
Breakfast was more centipede -- Sasuke grilled one steak in narrow strips, like imitation bacon. "I wonder if this is kosher?" Faith mused, thinking about Willow. She hoped someone in Cleveland called the witch soon.
"Beats me," Duo said, "but insects are like shellfish -- did you know that shrimp and cockroaches have almost the same nutritional value? -- and shellfish aren't kosher, so... probably not. Why? You Jewish?"
"Nah. Mom was Catholic; I'm nothing in particular. I know there's something up there in my world -- complete set of bastards, too, according to Ang-- to a guy I know -- but they've never done me any favors, and I'd have to be pretty screwed before I'd ask them to bail me out."
In addition to which, she'd never quite bought B's story about going to heaven after she'd, essentially, committed suicide. Which was a mortal sin. Yeah, so it was suicide to save the world, but even Jesus let somebody else kill him, and he had ten times more get-out-of-jail free cards than anyone else. Besides, any place where they let you bask in perfect happiness and think all the people you left behind were okay -- when they fucking well were not okay, the way Dawn and Willow and Xander talked about that summer -- didn't square with Faith's definition of paradise.
Duo smiled wryly as he rose to his feet. "I spent a couple years at a church orphanage," he said. "Father and Sister Helen worked like hell to convert me, and if I hadn't--" He cut himself off, and then waved a hand like he was dismissing an argument. "If things had gone a bit differently, I might've ended up as a priest instead of a pilot. As it is, I kind of lost faith in any God who let places like L2 exist. But whatever. Lapsed Catholics of the multiverse, unite!"
"You make it sound like we should have a secret handshake," Faith said, brushing greasy crumbs off her fingers.
"We should -- all self-respecting Catholic cabals have one! And if we don't reach water soon, I'll probably invent one from sheer boredom. Hell, we can convert Sasuke, de-convert him, and let him join the club too." Duo clasped his hands behind his neck and grinned at Faith.
"Then we'd better reach water, for the sake of your sanity if nothing else." Faith stood, dusted her pants, and then caught Sasuke's eyes. "Ready?"
"Yes," Sasuke said, slinging Duo's jacket -- and its load of lightly seared centipede -- over his shoulder. "Go now?"
"I'm always ready, chica," Duo said, as if Faith had asked him instead of Sasuke. "Lead on, and let's pray for water. And sanity, I guess, though I've always found sanity highly overrated."
"I like sanity. Sanity is of the good," Faith said firmly. "One question, though: if we don't believe in God, who the hell are we praying to?" She started walking toward the brush-covered hills, trusting that Duo and Sasuke would follow.
---------------------------------------------
There was nothing quite like walking beside a guy who was doing his level best to pretend you weren't there and had, in fact, never been born... with the implication that if you did have the temerity to exist, let alone be in his presence, he hated you and would love to string you up by your small intestines.
Well, to be honest -- and Duo was scrupulously honest -- any number of people could hate that way, even down to the 'can't actually touch you' factor. What gave the experience the final, irresistible tinge was if the guy was technically on your side and knew, in the back of his mind, that he really didn't have half as much justification to be angry as he'd first thought, but was too damn proud to admit that he might have been wrong.
Duo bounced on his toes and basked in the nostalgia.
On his left, Sasuke's irritation ratcheted up another notch; Duo could feel the kid seething and tamping it down.
He probably should've been nicer when Sasuke called him on throwing the games, but he didn't care if he'd bruised the kid's shinobi honor or some shit like that. Anyone with half a brain could've figured out why he'd lost. He didn't give a damn which watch he stood; Faith and Sasuke did. So he let them pick their preferred watches, let them have control of at least one factor in this crazy mess.
He wasn't going to apologize.
Duo stretched his arms in front of himself, grabbed his left hand in his right, and slowly rotated his arms up over his head and down again until his hands hovered over the small of his back. Then he let go, rejoined his hands, and did it in reverse. It hurt more going from back to front -- felt like it pulled his elbows inside-out -- but it was good to keep in practice.
"That is seriously disgusting," Faith commented, dropping back to his right side and waving Sasuke forward to take point. "Shoulders aren't supposed to do that."
Duo windmilled his arms to shake out the kinks. "I'm just special that way. And it's damn handy when people tie my hands behind my back and think that makes a difference from tying them in front. It doesn't always work -- if the cuffs are too tight or too bulky, it's no go -- but it's a nice card to have up my sleeve."
Faith laughed. "Yeah, I get that. Just because you don't lie doesn't mean you can't be sneaky as fuck-all, right?"
"Bingo!" Duo sang, aiming his fingers at her like a mock gun.
Blindingly obvious, really, but it never ceased to amaze him how many people didn't realize that honest didn't necessarily mean trustworthy, and certainly didn't mean straightforward or simple. Even the other pilots, who knew firsthand how ruthless he could be -- knew he was a stealth expert and occasional assassin, among his other talents -- didn't always remember. Talk fast, smile a lot, laugh maniacally, and goof off when opportunity knocked, and it was nothing short of dumbfounding how quickly people assumed you were all surface and no depth.
"Speaking of sneaky..." Faith frowned. "Last night, you threw those games. Why? You could've just let us choose, no tricks. So why the charade?"
Duo blinked. Both of them caught him? Man, that was pathetic. Sasuke at least had his freaky voodoo eyes -- mal de ojo, his gut whispered -- but either Faith knew con games up close and personal, or he'd gotten so rusty it was beyond embarrassing.
And, now that she mentioned it, why had he offered a game instead of a plain choice? That had nothing to do with letting the others have some control. That was...
"Damn." Duo shook his head at himself. "You know, I've spent five years throwing games and my friends never noticed -- or never cared -- but you guys caught me in less than a day. Either I'm slipping, or they need their eyes checked."
"Not an explanation," Faith noted.
"I know." He hesitated half a second, and then gave the nicer reason, the one that didn't make him look like a closet control freak. "I just got in the habit, you know? I'm the joker, the guy who keeps things fun, doesn't take anything seriously. I've been doing that for years. I guess I've gotten careless when I'm not snowing enemies." Duo shook his head again. "Sloppy. I'll have to watch that -- if I slip in a real job, it's curtains."
"Gotcha," Faith said. They walked in silence for a few minutes, following Sasuke past rock outcroppings, a dry arroyo, and a patch of plants that looked like an unholy cross between an aloe plant and a porcupine -- a ring of fleshy leaves, armed with barbed needles, thrust upward like swords around a spray of blood-red flowers. Duo wondered if they could suck water from the leaves in a pinch. Probably not; he'd lay even odds it was poisonous.
Faith cleared her throat, reeling in his attention. "You know, I know a guy a bit like you," she said. "Xander's not much of a fighter, but he keeps everyone else feeling good -- keeps things five by five, you know? And he got so used to thinking he didn't matter -- thought he always had to be the joker, couldn't admit to having dreams or a dark side -- that he completely fucked up his life. It took an apocalypse and a psycho gouging out his eye to get him back on track."
"There a point to this story?"
Faith shrugged. "Not really. Just... there's more than one way to lie, and lying to yourself is a fast track to all kinds of badness."
"Can't argue with that, chica," Duo said. It was nice to have someone care, even if she was missing the point.
Total honesty: he played games because he wanted control. Playing the joker had two purposes -- laughter in death's face to show that he'd never give up, and a way to slip under people's radar so he could make things work out his way. Yeah, he liked control, and he liked not looking like he was in control even more. War and gangs and the streets taught their lessons well: you hold tight to what you can, 'cause there ain't much you can hold, and you never show all your cards. It wasn't pretty, but it had kept him alive.
"No arguments? That's good," Faith said, with a slow, barbed smile. "Now go explain yourself to Sasuke. You owe him that."
Maybe he did. Looked like he'd be apologizing after all. Ah well. Pride goeth before a fall.
---------------------------------------------
"Faith thinks I owe you an explanation," Duo announced, falling in beside Sasuke.
Sasuke ignored him.
"Yeah, that was my opinion too," Duo said. "But I believe in chivalry -- when convenient, anyway -- and she was fingering her knife kind of suggestively, so... here I am. First, yes, I was manipulating you. Sorry. Second, no, it wasn't meant as an insult. I didn't expect you to see it -- I'm not used to people with freaky demon eyes. Third, get over yourself. Why do you care how I asked you to choose your watch?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Sasuke snapped, and then cursed himself for acknowledging Duo's presence.
"And yet I have to explain myself to you?" Duo pouted. "Unfair, Sasuke-kun! I call foul."
"Shut up."
"Better men than you have tried and failed to make me. Give up, Sasuke-kun. Let's be friends -- I won't call you a hypocrite and you won't yell at me for doing something I bet you'd do if that stick wasn't jammed so tight up your ass." Duo slapped Sasuke on the back, dangerously low.
Sasuke whirled, kunai drawn and ready. Duo just slid aside, raised his hands, and grinned that insufferable grin. "Look, I'll take point. You go back and talk to Faith for a while. She's mad at me, and you need practice with English anyway. Shoo, shoo!" Duo made little pushing motions with his hands.
"You're an idiot," Sasuke told him.
"You're not the first to think that," Duo said amiably. "Most of the others are dead." He smiled.
Sasuke scowled and decided that if Duo wanted to be the scout, there was no pressing reason not to let him. He'd proved himself an effective lookout, and Sasuke didn't estimate their chances of stumbling across surface water very high for the next several hours.
He was fairly sure there was water in the area, though -- just not right here. The ground was rising slowly, and a few minutes before he had seen a runoff gully, which he took as a favorable sign: this area did sometimes get enough rain to have runoff, and what water didn't evaporate might well sink underground. The increase in thorny brush and the occasional barbed succulents proved there was water underground, and high enough to be accessible to moderately determined plants. If this place followed the patterns of the northern Wind Country border it resembled, then with a bit of luck, they'd find a spring or a pool before evening.
Sasuke dropped back to Faith's side. She raised an eyebrow and spread her hands in silent question. "Duo is idiot," he told her. "You help speak good."
"Will you help me speak better," she corrected. "---- question, not ---- order."
Sasuke had the distinct impression that one of the words he didn't recognize was a curse. He didn't particularly care. To paraphrase Duo, better women than Faith had tried and failed to change his attitude.
He was not thinking about Sakura. He refused to.
"I not ask," he said. "Not question. We fight, we need speak good -- speak better. You not help, you stupid. Duo... no Duo, fight, dead, not help speak..." He trailed off, frustrated at his inability to express himself in this awkward language. English had no subtleties of address -- there was only one word for 'I' and one for 'you,' without regard to gender or politeness. More frustratingly, he couldn't quite pronounce some of the sounds, and he had no idea how to connect words in ways that made sense. Without Duo, it would be nearly impossible for Sasuke to work with Faith. That was unacceptable.
"I am not stupid," Faith said, slowly and clearly. "Ask ---- help, you little ----."
Sasuke met her eyes impassively.
Faith muttered something quick and unintelligible, and glared at Duo, who was whistling loudly and off-key as he walked. Then she sighed, drew her knife, and pointed at it. "Knife," she said.
"Knife," Sasuke repeated. He didn't have the pronunciation right. He couldn't manage the funny, half-voiced vowel Faith used when she chopped off words halfway through their final syllables -- he was close enough to be intelligible, but he could hear the difference between how Faith and Duo spoke, and his imitations. The gap rankled.
Faith grinned. "Easy words," she said. "We start ---- easy words. You know, eat, drink, man, woman, sex, kill-- down!"
Sasuke shot forward, tackling Faith to the ground. The shadow-edged shimmer of chakra sliced through the air a hand's width above them.
---------------------------------------------
End of Part VI
Back to part V
Continue to part VII
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
---------------------------------------------
Give me constructive criticism and I will love you forever! The more specific you are, the more I will love you. :-)
Anyway, this is chapter 6 of "Lemonade." Once again, I fail at having them reach water or have sex. The problem, I think, is that my outline basically had one line saying "They reach water the next day," except the characters then started talking and I have trouble cutting off their conversations. And fight scenes keep happening. Go figure.
ETA: Edited 8/27/06 to clarify Duo's motives, insert Xander's name, and make Sasuke's broken English more comprehensible. Thank you to everyone who commented!
---------------------------------------------
Lemonade
---------------------------------------------
Part VI: in which some things are clarified and others are muddied
Faith wasn't sure what had happened overnight, but Duo and Sasuke weren't speaking to each other. That could be trouble.
She also had sand in her pants, which was more immediately annoying. Besides that, a day of hard fighting and walking had left her smelling kind of rank; her hair was tangled, greasy, and full of demon poison gunk; and her shirt was doing that crusty thing around the armpits. If they didn't reach water today, she wasn't going to claim responsibility for her actions.
Breakfast was more centipede -- Sasuke grilled one steak in narrow strips, like imitation bacon. "I wonder if this is kosher?" Faith mused, thinking about Willow. She hoped someone in Cleveland called the witch soon.
"Beats me," Duo said, "but insects are like shellfish -- did you know that shrimp and cockroaches have almost the same nutritional value? -- and shellfish aren't kosher, so... probably not. Why? You Jewish?"
"Nah. Mom was Catholic; I'm nothing in particular. I know there's something up there in my world -- complete set of bastards, too, according to Ang-- to a guy I know -- but they've never done me any favors, and I'd have to be pretty screwed before I'd ask them to bail me out."
In addition to which, she'd never quite bought B's story about going to heaven after she'd, essentially, committed suicide. Which was a mortal sin. Yeah, so it was suicide to save the world, but even Jesus let somebody else kill him, and he had ten times more get-out-of-jail free cards than anyone else. Besides, any place where they let you bask in perfect happiness and think all the people you left behind were okay -- when they fucking well were not okay, the way Dawn and Willow and Xander talked about that summer -- didn't square with Faith's definition of paradise.
Duo smiled wryly as he rose to his feet. "I spent a couple years at a church orphanage," he said. "Father and Sister Helen worked like hell to convert me, and if I hadn't--" He cut himself off, and then waved a hand like he was dismissing an argument. "If things had gone a bit differently, I might've ended up as a priest instead of a pilot. As it is, I kind of lost faith in any God who let places like L2 exist. But whatever. Lapsed Catholics of the multiverse, unite!"
"You make it sound like we should have a secret handshake," Faith said, brushing greasy crumbs off her fingers.
"We should -- all self-respecting Catholic cabals have one! And if we don't reach water soon, I'll probably invent one from sheer boredom. Hell, we can convert Sasuke, de-convert him, and let him join the club too." Duo clasped his hands behind his neck and grinned at Faith.
"Then we'd better reach water, for the sake of your sanity if nothing else." Faith stood, dusted her pants, and then caught Sasuke's eyes. "Ready?"
"Yes," Sasuke said, slinging Duo's jacket -- and its load of lightly seared centipede -- over his shoulder. "Go now?"
"I'm always ready, chica," Duo said, as if Faith had asked him instead of Sasuke. "Lead on, and let's pray for water. And sanity, I guess, though I've always found sanity highly overrated."
"I like sanity. Sanity is of the good," Faith said firmly. "One question, though: if we don't believe in God, who the hell are we praying to?" She started walking toward the brush-covered hills, trusting that Duo and Sasuke would follow.
---------------------------------------------
There was nothing quite like walking beside a guy who was doing his level best to pretend you weren't there and had, in fact, never been born... with the implication that if you did have the temerity to exist, let alone be in his presence, he hated you and would love to string you up by your small intestines.
Well, to be honest -- and Duo was scrupulously honest -- any number of people could hate that way, even down to the 'can't actually touch you' factor. What gave the experience the final, irresistible tinge was if the guy was technically on your side and knew, in the back of his mind, that he really didn't have half as much justification to be angry as he'd first thought, but was too damn proud to admit that he might have been wrong.
Duo bounced on his toes and basked in the nostalgia.
On his left, Sasuke's irritation ratcheted up another notch; Duo could feel the kid seething and tamping it down.
He probably should've been nicer when Sasuke called him on throwing the games, but he didn't care if he'd bruised the kid's shinobi honor or some shit like that. Anyone with half a brain could've figured out why he'd lost. He didn't give a damn which watch he stood; Faith and Sasuke did. So he let them pick their preferred watches, let them have control of at least one factor in this crazy mess.
He wasn't going to apologize.
Duo stretched his arms in front of himself, grabbed his left hand in his right, and slowly rotated his arms up over his head and down again until his hands hovered over the small of his back. Then he let go, rejoined his hands, and did it in reverse. It hurt more going from back to front -- felt like it pulled his elbows inside-out -- but it was good to keep in practice.
"That is seriously disgusting," Faith commented, dropping back to his right side and waving Sasuke forward to take point. "Shoulders aren't supposed to do that."
Duo windmilled his arms to shake out the kinks. "I'm just special that way. And it's damn handy when people tie my hands behind my back and think that makes a difference from tying them in front. It doesn't always work -- if the cuffs are too tight or too bulky, it's no go -- but it's a nice card to have up my sleeve."
Faith laughed. "Yeah, I get that. Just because you don't lie doesn't mean you can't be sneaky as fuck-all, right?"
"Bingo!" Duo sang, aiming his fingers at her like a mock gun.
Blindingly obvious, really, but it never ceased to amaze him how many people didn't realize that honest didn't necessarily mean trustworthy, and certainly didn't mean straightforward or simple. Even the other pilots, who knew firsthand how ruthless he could be -- knew he was a stealth expert and occasional assassin, among his other talents -- didn't always remember. Talk fast, smile a lot, laugh maniacally, and goof off when opportunity knocked, and it was nothing short of dumbfounding how quickly people assumed you were all surface and no depth.
"Speaking of sneaky..." Faith frowned. "Last night, you threw those games. Why? You could've just let us choose, no tricks. So why the charade?"
Duo blinked. Both of them caught him? Man, that was pathetic. Sasuke at least had his freaky voodoo eyes -- mal de ojo, his gut whispered -- but either Faith knew con games up close and personal, or he'd gotten so rusty it was beyond embarrassing.
And, now that she mentioned it, why had he offered a game instead of a plain choice? That had nothing to do with letting the others have some control. That was...
"Damn." Duo shook his head at himself. "You know, I've spent five years throwing games and my friends never noticed -- or never cared -- but you guys caught me in less than a day. Either I'm slipping, or they need their eyes checked."
"Not an explanation," Faith noted.
"I know." He hesitated half a second, and then gave the nicer reason, the one that didn't make him look like a closet control freak. "I just got in the habit, you know? I'm the joker, the guy who keeps things fun, doesn't take anything seriously. I've been doing that for years. I guess I've gotten careless when I'm not snowing enemies." Duo shook his head again. "Sloppy. I'll have to watch that -- if I slip in a real job, it's curtains."
"Gotcha," Faith said. They walked in silence for a few minutes, following Sasuke past rock outcroppings, a dry arroyo, and a patch of plants that looked like an unholy cross between an aloe plant and a porcupine -- a ring of fleshy leaves, armed with barbed needles, thrust upward like swords around a spray of blood-red flowers. Duo wondered if they could suck water from the leaves in a pinch. Probably not; he'd lay even odds it was poisonous.
Faith cleared her throat, reeling in his attention. "You know, I know a guy a bit like you," she said. "Xander's not much of a fighter, but he keeps everyone else feeling good -- keeps things five by five, you know? And he got so used to thinking he didn't matter -- thought he always had to be the joker, couldn't admit to having dreams or a dark side -- that he completely fucked up his life. It took an apocalypse and a psycho gouging out his eye to get him back on track."
"There a point to this story?"
Faith shrugged. "Not really. Just... there's more than one way to lie, and lying to yourself is a fast track to all kinds of badness."
"Can't argue with that, chica," Duo said. It was nice to have someone care, even if she was missing the point.
Total honesty: he played games because he wanted control. Playing the joker had two purposes -- laughter in death's face to show that he'd never give up, and a way to slip under people's radar so he could make things work out his way. Yeah, he liked control, and he liked not looking like he was in control even more. War and gangs and the streets taught their lessons well: you hold tight to what you can, 'cause there ain't much you can hold, and you never show all your cards. It wasn't pretty, but it had kept him alive.
"No arguments? That's good," Faith said, with a slow, barbed smile. "Now go explain yourself to Sasuke. You owe him that."
Maybe he did. Looked like he'd be apologizing after all. Ah well. Pride goeth before a fall.
---------------------------------------------
"Faith thinks I owe you an explanation," Duo announced, falling in beside Sasuke.
Sasuke ignored him.
"Yeah, that was my opinion too," Duo said. "But I believe in chivalry -- when convenient, anyway -- and she was fingering her knife kind of suggestively, so... here I am. First, yes, I was manipulating you. Sorry. Second, no, it wasn't meant as an insult. I didn't expect you to see it -- I'm not used to people with freaky demon eyes. Third, get over yourself. Why do you care how I asked you to choose your watch?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Sasuke snapped, and then cursed himself for acknowledging Duo's presence.
"And yet I have to explain myself to you?" Duo pouted. "Unfair, Sasuke-kun! I call foul."
"Shut up."
"Better men than you have tried and failed to make me. Give up, Sasuke-kun. Let's be friends -- I won't call you a hypocrite and you won't yell at me for doing something I bet you'd do if that stick wasn't jammed so tight up your ass." Duo slapped Sasuke on the back, dangerously low.
Sasuke whirled, kunai drawn and ready. Duo just slid aside, raised his hands, and grinned that insufferable grin. "Look, I'll take point. You go back and talk to Faith for a while. She's mad at me, and you need practice with English anyway. Shoo, shoo!" Duo made little pushing motions with his hands.
"You're an idiot," Sasuke told him.
"You're not the first to think that," Duo said amiably. "Most of the others are dead." He smiled.
Sasuke scowled and decided that if Duo wanted to be the scout, there was no pressing reason not to let him. He'd proved himself an effective lookout, and Sasuke didn't estimate their chances of stumbling across surface water very high for the next several hours.
He was fairly sure there was water in the area, though -- just not right here. The ground was rising slowly, and a few minutes before he had seen a runoff gully, which he took as a favorable sign: this area did sometimes get enough rain to have runoff, and what water didn't evaporate might well sink underground. The increase in thorny brush and the occasional barbed succulents proved there was water underground, and high enough to be accessible to moderately determined plants. If this place followed the patterns of the northern Wind Country border it resembled, then with a bit of luck, they'd find a spring or a pool before evening.
Sasuke dropped back to Faith's side. She raised an eyebrow and spread her hands in silent question. "Duo is idiot," he told her. "You help speak good."
"Will you help me speak better," she corrected. "---- question, not ---- order."
Sasuke had the distinct impression that one of the words he didn't recognize was a curse. He didn't particularly care. To paraphrase Duo, better women than Faith had tried and failed to change his attitude.
He was not thinking about Sakura. He refused to.
"I not ask," he said. "Not question. We fight, we need speak good -- speak better. You not help, you stupid. Duo... no Duo, fight, dead, not help speak..." He trailed off, frustrated at his inability to express himself in this awkward language. English had no subtleties of address -- there was only one word for 'I' and one for 'you,' without regard to gender or politeness. More frustratingly, he couldn't quite pronounce some of the sounds, and he had no idea how to connect words in ways that made sense. Without Duo, it would be nearly impossible for Sasuke to work with Faith. That was unacceptable.
"I am not stupid," Faith said, slowly and clearly. "Ask ---- help, you little ----."
Sasuke met her eyes impassively.
Faith muttered something quick and unintelligible, and glared at Duo, who was whistling loudly and off-key as he walked. Then she sighed, drew her knife, and pointed at it. "Knife," she said.
"Knife," Sasuke repeated. He didn't have the pronunciation right. He couldn't manage the funny, half-voiced vowel Faith used when she chopped off words halfway through their final syllables -- he was close enough to be intelligible, but he could hear the difference between how Faith and Duo spoke, and his imitations. The gap rankled.
Faith grinned. "Easy words," she said. "We start ---- easy words. You know, eat, drink, man, woman, sex, kill-- down!"
Sasuke shot forward, tackling Faith to the ground. The shadow-edged shimmer of chakra sliced through the air a hand's width above them.
---------------------------------------------
End of Part VI
Back to part V
Continue to part VII
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
---------------------------------------------
Give me constructive criticism and I will love you forever! The more specific you are, the more I will love you. :-)
