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edenfallingI feel as though I have lost the knack for writing stories that go anywhere. I have these plot points I want to hit in several WIPs -- scenes I've been looking forward to for a long time, in some cases -- and they keep receding into the distance. It's like Xeno's Paradox -- I can never reach point B because there's always half the distance left to travel.
Also, Sasuke is being intractable. Which is IC, true, but does not make my life any easier.
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Lemonade
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Part X: in which a sticking point is reached
Faith tried to pay attention to Sasuke's glare and stream of unintelligible curses, but it was nearly impossible to keep her face straight. (Especially with Duo alternating between leers and laughing his head off.) The kid was too damn sexy for his own good -- the way his wet shirt clung to his chest was absolute proof -- and with sopping bangs plastered over his forehead, dripping trails of water down his cheeks, he was too damn cute for his own good as well.
She wanted to jump him and put his mouth to better use. She bet she could make Sasuke stop scowling for at least an hour straight, given half a chance.
Finally, Duo stopped laughing long enough to sweep a sheet of water at Sasuke -- Sasuke didn't even bother ducking, just held up his hands in a weird gesture and the water split around him -- not even the backsplash hit him.
Faith whistled. "Now that's cool. Instant barbecue, whatever, but force fields? Those are useful."
"He says it's a variant of two other techniques," Duo translated after a minute. "And get this -- one of them is walking on water. This I have got to see. I mean, seriously, he'll be like Ninja Jesus!"
Looking distinctly unamused, Sasuke laid one hand flat on the lake, and then proceeded to lever himself up onto the face of the water, like he was climbing up onto a table -- first the other hand, then a foot, and then both feet -- and stood upright, balancing easily against the tiny ripples. He waved one hand, irritably, as if to say, "There -- are you happy now?"
After a long moment of sheer what-the-fuck-I-can't-believe-my-eyes, Faith found a grin and careless slouch. "I can't wait for Willow to see this," she said. "She'll flip. Then she'll have a field day going into the implications on Christian theology and start trying to convert everyone to being Jewish, until she remembers she's all Earth Mother pagan now."
"Your witch sounds more and more interesting every time I learn something about her," Duo said, as he slashed his hand through the water under Sasuke's feet. "Me, I'm just glad Father and Sister Helen never saw this." Duo was covering, but he sounded a little strained.
"Magic freaks most people out at first," Faith said. "Don't worry."
"Who's worrying?"
Sasuke folded his arms, looking distinctly irritated. "We go house now." He aimed an easily-dodged kick at Duo's head, and then started walking along the surface of the water, toward the valley bend and the left shore of the lake.
"We might as well follow," Faith said, starting to dress -- it felt nasty putting dirty clothes on right after she'd finally gotten clean, but there was always time for another bath and a bit of laundry once they checked out this house. "You want to dry off, or should I carry your stuff while you swim?"
"Drying off takes too much time, and there's no reason to make Sasuke pissier than he already is," Duo decided. "I'll take my chances with the Creature From the Black Lagoon... and if you break my guns, I'll come up with very inventive revenge."
Mr. Voodoo's mutilated, headless corpse flashed in Faith's mind for a second before she slammed the door on that image. "You sure you wanna go there? 'Cause I have to warn you, too much invention gets in the way of venting. And I thought you wanted some quality venting time." She pulled her shirt down over her head, and then stretched to make sure it sat properly.
She glanced up and caught Duo's eyes lingering on her breasts before he snapped his attention back to her face. Faith smiled.
Oh yeah. The second they finished checking out this house, she was jumping Duo. And if Sasuke thought that was unprofessional, he could go jump in the lake.
---------------------------------------------
Sister Helen would've shaken her head and told him not to make the lady carry all his stuff as well as hers, but Duo had never been all that big on chivalry to start with, and Hilde had broken him of any lingering tendencies pretty damn quick once they really got to know each other. It was a convenient pose, nothing more, and right now convenience said that Faith was stronger than he was, he wanted to keep an eye on Sasuke, and getting out of the water would be a little embarrassing, so...
"Race you there!" he called over his shoulder, and dove into a front crawl, slicing through the water.
Duo was a colony brat by birth and preference, but the two things he'd almost move to earth for were real skies and open water. You couldn't waste water in space, couldn't contaminate what you might be drinking tomorrow, so he'd grown up doing without altogether, except for water fountains and the fake rainstorms that washed down the streets and houses every couple weeks. At the church, Sister Helen had introduced him to sponge baths and quick immersions of his hair into the sink; he'd fought her, but secretly he loved the feel of water. G and the Sweepers could afford actual showers -- five minutes max, but still, showers! You could drown in them with a bit of ingenuity.
And then, on earth, he'd seen the ocean.
Even on a tight schedule, even facing off against Heero that first time and scrambling to keep their Gundams from blowing sky high, a good third of his mind had been staring around speechless in awe.
After that, he'd made a point of taking swimming lessons at every school that offered them. G had tried to teach him in an immersion tank, but while that had kept him from drowning a couple times early on, it just wasn't the same. The water was trapped, tame, nothing like the ocean.
This lake wasn't like the ocean either, not really, but Duo figured the whole hell dimension aspect more than compensated. Besides, fresh water didn't sting the eyes anything near as much as salt.
He glanced up, tracking Sasuke's black figure against the paler smudge of the shore. Maybe a hundred meters past the bend, the kid stopped and sat down -- probably back on dry land again, though at this point Duo wouldn't put it past Sasuke to sit on water just to freak people out. Duo angled right for the kid, and dropped his feet to walk once he got within shouting distance of the shore.
The safe-house was partially hidden in a grove of those rust-colored fake willows, but the angles were square and clearly constructed rather than natural. What little Duo could see from the water looked sound. "Nice place, Sasuke-kun," he called as he slogged through the shallows, wringing out his hair.
Sasuke shrugged. "It's the only place, unless we want to build our own shelter or sleep in the open. That might be safer -- this building is probably the first place any natives will check if they come to this valley -- but I'd prefer not to waste time building something when we may leave this world tomorrow, and walls will keep any firelight from immediately giving away our presence."
"Sounds reasonable," Duo said. "Faith's bringing my gear -- you want me to wait here for her while you go soothe your paranoia by setting traps and other secret ninja stuff?"
"I'm not paranoid. I'm realistic," Sasuke said with a glare. Duo gauged it -- compared to earlier on this little trip into Wonderland, it wasn't half as strong. The kid was wearing down. Good.
"It's not paranoia if they're really after you?" he suggested, and then waved his own words off. "Whatever. I'll sleep better with a security perimeter, and I trust you to do it right. See you in a bit, Sasuke."
He clapped his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and let it linger just a second before giving the kid a gentle shove toward the trees.
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The trees were all wrong, but they were still trees, more familiar than the rest of this world. Sasuke knew how to deal with trees -- he hadn't grown up in a village called 'hidden leaf' for nothing.
He tugged a tripwire, checking its tautness, and wished people were half as comprehensible as trees. He'd never managed to figure out his own parents, let alone his broth-- let alone that man. His old team made even less sense, if that was possible, and while Orochimaru was fairly straightforward in going after what he wanted, his actual desires were nonsensical. Immortality was an illusion; pain and death were the only constants. Someday Orochimaru would run up against that immutable fact, hard and messily.
Sasuke vaguely regretted that he wouldn't be alive to watch.
Duo and Faith fell right in with the rest of humanity, making no sense. Right now, for instance, they were sitting on the shore; Duo was watching Faith whittle a rough comb from a fallen branch, using one of his matte-black knives. Making a comb was understandable -- they both had long hair -- but the way they were sitting so close together, their thighs touching, and the husky tone in Duo's voice as he talked...
This was a mission -- an unexpected mission, true, but it was not the time for hearts and flowers! Especially not out in the open when they weren't paying attention to their surroundings.
Faith finished the comb and handed it to Duo. He spun it around his hand, and then reached over to gather a handful of Faith's hair. Their eyes caught for a long moment; Faith's mouth twitched into a grin, and Duo drew a breath to speak.
"If you're going to have sex, do it inside," Sasuke said as he dropped down from a tree.
Faith jerked around, knife raised reflexively; Duo collapsed in a fit of laughter. Faith prodded him with a toe. "You ---- explain?" Duo just laughed harder. Faith shrugged, plucked the comb from his lax hand, and started untangling her hair.
Sasuke watched Duo laughing, and wondered why he'd interrupted instead of just taking watch and making them do more work later. He couldn't afford cloudy motives; he needed a clear mind, controlled and focused.
After a few minutes, Duo's laughter began to subside. "Oh, I take it back, I take it all back -- you do have a sense of humor," he wheezed. "Good boy! Have a biscuit!"
"I'm not a dog," Sasuke said, folding his arms and glaring. And he hadn't meant that as a joke!
"True, and the world is a better place for it," Duo said, his voice still shaky with amusement. "After all, I'm not much into bestiality. Humans, on the other hand, I like just fine. Want to come inside with us, Sasuke?"
Sasuke blinked. He... Duo could not have just said what Sasuke thought he'd said. Not that blatantly. Yes, he and Faith teased, but they had each other if they wanted to go that route. Why bring Sasuke into the mess, when he'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with them-- with their idiocy?
"I'll take the extended pause as a 'no,'" Duo said with a careless shrug. "Too bad -- your loss. I hope you're not too bored while Faith and I are busy." He rose gracefully to his feet and tapped Faith on the shoulder. "Sasuke says no," he told her in English. "---- you and me, chica. I want to see how ---- you can be."
"---- your ---- dreams," Faith said. "You sure, Sasuke? I think you would have fun." She held out a hand in bizarre invitation.
Sasuke shook his head, but somehow the insult got lost on the way from his mind to his tongue, and he stayed silent.
He kicked off his sandals and waded into the lake, so he couldn't see them vanish into the trees.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter X
Back to part IX
Continue to part XI
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 real life news, my coworker AO has to go to the hospital for an MRI tomorrow -- the doctors think she might have a tumor near her brain. *lights a candle for her* She has had such a terrible year all around. Her restaurant got repossessed, she had to declare bankruptcy (and had numerous red tape foul-ups in the process), her husband is bedridden with multiple sclerosis, the local nursing agency dumped her husband as a client without giving proper notice, her mother had a minor heart attack, she developed skin problems severe enough to require medication, she works 60 hours a week at two jobs barely above NY state minimum wage in order to make ends meet and pay old bills...
I rarely feel unhappy with my life for tangible reasons. After all, there isn't all that much I need beyond what I have. Yeah, it'd be nice to have more money and maybe a house instead of an apartment (with a washer and dryer inside! death to laundromats!), but those are luxuries.
Basically, I am damn lucky, and I know it.
*lights another candle for AO, and one for DB (another coworker, whose mother died a couple weeks ago)*
Also, Sasuke is being intractable. Which is IC, true, but does not make my life any easier.
---------------------------------------------
Lemonade
---------------------------------------------
Part X: in which a sticking point is reached
Faith tried to pay attention to Sasuke's glare and stream of unintelligible curses, but it was nearly impossible to keep her face straight. (Especially with Duo alternating between leers and laughing his head off.) The kid was too damn sexy for his own good -- the way his wet shirt clung to his chest was absolute proof -- and with sopping bangs plastered over his forehead, dripping trails of water down his cheeks, he was too damn cute for his own good as well.
She wanted to jump him and put his mouth to better use. She bet she could make Sasuke stop scowling for at least an hour straight, given half a chance.
Finally, Duo stopped laughing long enough to sweep a sheet of water at Sasuke -- Sasuke didn't even bother ducking, just held up his hands in a weird gesture and the water split around him -- not even the backsplash hit him.
Faith whistled. "Now that's cool. Instant barbecue, whatever, but force fields? Those are useful."
"He says it's a variant of two other techniques," Duo translated after a minute. "And get this -- one of them is walking on water. This I have got to see. I mean, seriously, he'll be like Ninja Jesus!"
Looking distinctly unamused, Sasuke laid one hand flat on the lake, and then proceeded to lever himself up onto the face of the water, like he was climbing up onto a table -- first the other hand, then a foot, and then both feet -- and stood upright, balancing easily against the tiny ripples. He waved one hand, irritably, as if to say, "There -- are you happy now?"
After a long moment of sheer what-the-fuck-I-can't-believe-my-eyes, Faith found a grin and careless slouch. "I can't wait for Willow to see this," she said. "She'll flip. Then she'll have a field day going into the implications on Christian theology and start trying to convert everyone to being Jewish, until she remembers she's all Earth Mother pagan now."
"Your witch sounds more and more interesting every time I learn something about her," Duo said, as he slashed his hand through the water under Sasuke's feet. "Me, I'm just glad Father and Sister Helen never saw this." Duo was covering, but he sounded a little strained.
"Magic freaks most people out at first," Faith said. "Don't worry."
"Who's worrying?"
Sasuke folded his arms, looking distinctly irritated. "We go house now." He aimed an easily-dodged kick at Duo's head, and then started walking along the surface of the water, toward the valley bend and the left shore of the lake.
"We might as well follow," Faith said, starting to dress -- it felt nasty putting dirty clothes on right after she'd finally gotten clean, but there was always time for another bath and a bit of laundry once they checked out this house. "You want to dry off, or should I carry your stuff while you swim?"
"Drying off takes too much time, and there's no reason to make Sasuke pissier than he already is," Duo decided. "I'll take my chances with the Creature From the Black Lagoon... and if you break my guns, I'll come up with very inventive revenge."
Mr. Voodoo's mutilated, headless corpse flashed in Faith's mind for a second before she slammed the door on that image. "You sure you wanna go there? 'Cause I have to warn you, too much invention gets in the way of venting. And I thought you wanted some quality venting time." She pulled her shirt down over her head, and then stretched to make sure it sat properly.
She glanced up and caught Duo's eyes lingering on her breasts before he snapped his attention back to her face. Faith smiled.
Oh yeah. The second they finished checking out this house, she was jumping Duo. And if Sasuke thought that was unprofessional, he could go jump in the lake.
---------------------------------------------
Sister Helen would've shaken her head and told him not to make the lady carry all his stuff as well as hers, but Duo had never been all that big on chivalry to start with, and Hilde had broken him of any lingering tendencies pretty damn quick once they really got to know each other. It was a convenient pose, nothing more, and right now convenience said that Faith was stronger than he was, he wanted to keep an eye on Sasuke, and getting out of the water would be a little embarrassing, so...
"Race you there!" he called over his shoulder, and dove into a front crawl, slicing through the water.
Duo was a colony brat by birth and preference, but the two things he'd almost move to earth for were real skies and open water. You couldn't waste water in space, couldn't contaminate what you might be drinking tomorrow, so he'd grown up doing without altogether, except for water fountains and the fake rainstorms that washed down the streets and houses every couple weeks. At the church, Sister Helen had introduced him to sponge baths and quick immersions of his hair into the sink; he'd fought her, but secretly he loved the feel of water. G and the Sweepers could afford actual showers -- five minutes max, but still, showers! You could drown in them with a bit of ingenuity.
And then, on earth, he'd seen the ocean.
Even on a tight schedule, even facing off against Heero that first time and scrambling to keep their Gundams from blowing sky high, a good third of his mind had been staring around speechless in awe.
After that, he'd made a point of taking swimming lessons at every school that offered them. G had tried to teach him in an immersion tank, but while that had kept him from drowning a couple times early on, it just wasn't the same. The water was trapped, tame, nothing like the ocean.
This lake wasn't like the ocean either, not really, but Duo figured the whole hell dimension aspect more than compensated. Besides, fresh water didn't sting the eyes anything near as much as salt.
He glanced up, tracking Sasuke's black figure against the paler smudge of the shore. Maybe a hundred meters past the bend, the kid stopped and sat down -- probably back on dry land again, though at this point Duo wouldn't put it past Sasuke to sit on water just to freak people out. Duo angled right for the kid, and dropped his feet to walk once he got within shouting distance of the shore.
The safe-house was partially hidden in a grove of those rust-colored fake willows, but the angles were square and clearly constructed rather than natural. What little Duo could see from the water looked sound. "Nice place, Sasuke-kun," he called as he slogged through the shallows, wringing out his hair.
Sasuke shrugged. "It's the only place, unless we want to build our own shelter or sleep in the open. That might be safer -- this building is probably the first place any natives will check if they come to this valley -- but I'd prefer not to waste time building something when we may leave this world tomorrow, and walls will keep any firelight from immediately giving away our presence."
"Sounds reasonable," Duo said. "Faith's bringing my gear -- you want me to wait here for her while you go soothe your paranoia by setting traps and other secret ninja stuff?"
"I'm not paranoid. I'm realistic," Sasuke said with a glare. Duo gauged it -- compared to earlier on this little trip into Wonderland, it wasn't half as strong. The kid was wearing down. Good.
"It's not paranoia if they're really after you?" he suggested, and then waved his own words off. "Whatever. I'll sleep better with a security perimeter, and I trust you to do it right. See you in a bit, Sasuke."
He clapped his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and let it linger just a second before giving the kid a gentle shove toward the trees.
---------------------------------------------
The trees were all wrong, but they were still trees, more familiar than the rest of this world. Sasuke knew how to deal with trees -- he hadn't grown up in a village called 'hidden leaf' for nothing.
He tugged a tripwire, checking its tautness, and wished people were half as comprehensible as trees. He'd never managed to figure out his own parents, let alone his broth-- let alone that man. His old team made even less sense, if that was possible, and while Orochimaru was fairly straightforward in going after what he wanted, his actual desires were nonsensical. Immortality was an illusion; pain and death were the only constants. Someday Orochimaru would run up against that immutable fact, hard and messily.
Sasuke vaguely regretted that he wouldn't be alive to watch.
Duo and Faith fell right in with the rest of humanity, making no sense. Right now, for instance, they were sitting on the shore; Duo was watching Faith whittle a rough comb from a fallen branch, using one of his matte-black knives. Making a comb was understandable -- they both had long hair -- but the way they were sitting so close together, their thighs touching, and the husky tone in Duo's voice as he talked...
This was a mission -- an unexpected mission, true, but it was not the time for hearts and flowers! Especially not out in the open when they weren't paying attention to their surroundings.
Faith finished the comb and handed it to Duo. He spun it around his hand, and then reached over to gather a handful of Faith's hair. Their eyes caught for a long moment; Faith's mouth twitched into a grin, and Duo drew a breath to speak.
"If you're going to have sex, do it inside," Sasuke said as he dropped down from a tree.
Faith jerked around, knife raised reflexively; Duo collapsed in a fit of laughter. Faith prodded him with a toe. "You ---- explain?" Duo just laughed harder. Faith shrugged, plucked the comb from his lax hand, and started untangling her hair.
Sasuke watched Duo laughing, and wondered why he'd interrupted instead of just taking watch and making them do more work later. He couldn't afford cloudy motives; he needed a clear mind, controlled and focused.
After a few minutes, Duo's laughter began to subside. "Oh, I take it back, I take it all back -- you do have a sense of humor," he wheezed. "Good boy! Have a biscuit!"
"I'm not a dog," Sasuke said, folding his arms and glaring. And he hadn't meant that as a joke!
"True, and the world is a better place for it," Duo said, his voice still shaky with amusement. "After all, I'm not much into bestiality. Humans, on the other hand, I like just fine. Want to come inside with us, Sasuke?"
Sasuke blinked. He... Duo could not have just said what Sasuke thought he'd said. Not that blatantly. Yes, he and Faith teased, but they had each other if they wanted to go that route. Why bring Sasuke into the mess, when he'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with them-- with their idiocy?
"I'll take the extended pause as a 'no,'" Duo said with a careless shrug. "Too bad -- your loss. I hope you're not too bored while Faith and I are busy." He rose gracefully to his feet and tapped Faith on the shoulder. "Sasuke says no," he told her in English. "---- you and me, chica. I want to see how ---- you can be."
"---- your ---- dreams," Faith said. "You sure, Sasuke? I think you would have fun." She held out a hand in bizarre invitation.
Sasuke shook his head, but somehow the insult got lost on the way from his mind to his tongue, and he stayed silent.
He kicked off his sandals and waded into the lake, so he couldn't see them vanish into the trees.
---------------------------------------------
End of Chapter X
Back to part IX
Continue to part XI
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 real life news, my coworker AO has to go to the hospital for an MRI tomorrow -- the doctors think she might have a tumor near her brain. *lights a candle for her* She has had such a terrible year all around. Her restaurant got repossessed, she had to declare bankruptcy (and had numerous red tape foul-ups in the process), her husband is bedridden with multiple sclerosis, the local nursing agency dumped her husband as a client without giving proper notice, her mother had a minor heart attack, she developed skin problems severe enough to require medication, she works 60 hours a week at two jobs barely above NY state minimum wage in order to make ends meet and pay old bills...
I rarely feel unhappy with my life for tangible reasons. After all, there isn't all that much I need beyond what I have. Yeah, it'd be nice to have more money and maybe a house instead of an apartment (with a washer and dryer inside! death to laundromats!), but those are luxuries.
Basically, I am damn lucky, and I know it.
*lights another candle for AO, and one for DB (another coworker, whose mother died a couple weeks ago)*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-04 10:57 pm (UTC)And fuckin' hell, your poor co-worker! Every time I start to think "God my life sucks" I remember just how much worse it could be. Damn.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-05 12:03 am (UTC)I WILL get a threesome out of this sooner or later, though. OR ELSE.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-05 12:06 am (UTC)