Ficcishness of sorts
Apr. 19th, 2004 02:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaDumping all in an entry so I can take a look at it tomorrow and see what needs fixing.
***
"Salvador," Yumiko said, dancing her slender manicured fingers over the bookshelf. "Brazil, Brazil, Salvador... There we are. See?"
Yuuta took the photo album she held out and frowned down on the opened page. "I don't remember that." But there he was, maybe four? Five? In shorts and sailor middy - sailor middy! - barefoot and brandishing a toy trowel, sand caked up to his knees, scowling back at the camera lens. More white sand in the background, the edge of a towel, a colourful blur that might have been beach umbrellas in the middle distance. It could have been a beach in Japan, or anywhere on earth.
"Well, you weren't even in school yet." Yumiko leant over the back of the loveseat; Yuuta could feel the ends of her hair brush against his shoulder. "Shuusuke remembers, though, he mentioned it the other time... oh, look at that. I hated that swimsuit."
Yuuta had turned the page: Yumiko in a white one-piece, kneeling on a colourful beach towel. He blinked, suddenly jarred by familiarity: Yumiko had not started to grow her hair out until she left the track team, her last year of high school. In the photograph it was chin-length and mussed, falling over her cheeks in sun-kissed strands. She must have been fifteen, if this was taken when he wasn't in school yet - the same age as Shuusuke now, though he knew better than to point it out.
She was smiling up at the camera.
Something tightened in Yuuta's stomach, and he turned that page over. And there: Yumiko again, smiling still, but with her arms slung around her two younger brothers to pull them close for the picture.
Yuuta stared. It was strange to see Shuusuke so small. In his memories Shuusuke was always – not physically bigger, never by much if at all, but he took up more space than warranted. He was always haring off after some passing idea, and at best Yuuta could barely keep up with him. Even worse was when he concocted schemes that for some reason Yuuta had to put into effect.
***
***
Most human relationships sum up neatly in one hoary cliché or another, and Niou and Yagyuu are no exception. Casual and even intimate onlookers see it as an obvious case of attraction between polarities: less within the purview of logic than that of electromagnetics. Yagyuu may even agree.
Niou thinks of it as like calling to like. It never ceases to amaze him that others so consistently confuse courtesy with kindness.
An example: people make certain requests without expectation of refusal. Perfunctory turns of phrase: oi, Niou, pass me my towel, will you? Niou-kun, may I borrow your English dictionary for a second? A certain percentage of the time Niou says no to these questions. "No, of course not." Straight face, direct and guileless gaze. By simplicity ye shall know the true classic. The side advantage of pulling someone's leg this way is that it divides the flock of humanity to one's right hand and left, as long as Niou can manage not to crack up for about two seconds. The goats only blink once before they catch on, and say "haha" with exaggerated sarcasm born of embarrassment - though it doesn't keep them from blinking again the next time Niou does it. The sheep don't catch on unless Niou cracks up. The cud rises, the eyes glaze over with self-conscious dismay, they start to wonder what they did wrong, what false assumption they made, what inadvertent faux pas. Unless of course it's kindling rage and they're wondering what the fuck Niou's problem is and if he's trying to start something. Fleeced, either way.
Niou's been acquainted with Yagyuu for all of ninety minutes before he trots this one out on him. Yagyuu doesn't blink. He was already reaching for the dictionary on Niou's desk, and no hitch occurs in the motion of his hand and arm. Niou watches, rapt, as he takes up the dictionary and flips to the appropriate page. One finger glides down to the definition; Yagyuu murmurs something under his breath, makes a notation in his textbook, closes the dictionary and hands it back.
"I apologise for the presumption, then," he says.
The temptation exists to explicate this story with a flourish, call it love at first sight, just to make the hypothetical audience grin and Yagyuu twitch. But even hiding in plain view implies that there's something to hide, and Niou doesn't care whether he amuses or antagonises other people as long as he stays honest with himself. That's his baseline.
If you can't be honest with yourself, you may as well block your ears and stake your tongue and apply to be one of the deaf-mutes that make up the overwhelming majority of the population. Niou doesn't want any part of it.
***
What I'm really hacking is something GetBackers-ish. But that I'll post only when it's done, because I look at it too much anyhow. ^^;
***
"Salvador," Yumiko said, dancing her slender manicured fingers over the bookshelf. "Brazil, Brazil, Salvador... There we are. See?"
Yuuta took the photo album she held out and frowned down on the opened page. "I don't remember that." But there he was, maybe four? Five? In shorts and sailor middy - sailor middy! - barefoot and brandishing a toy trowel, sand caked up to his knees, scowling back at the camera lens. More white sand in the background, the edge of a towel, a colourful blur that might have been beach umbrellas in the middle distance. It could have been a beach in Japan, or anywhere on earth.
"Well, you weren't even in school yet." Yumiko leant over the back of the loveseat; Yuuta could feel the ends of her hair brush against his shoulder. "Shuusuke remembers, though, he mentioned it the other time... oh, look at that. I hated that swimsuit."
Yuuta had turned the page: Yumiko in a white one-piece, kneeling on a colourful beach towel. He blinked, suddenly jarred by familiarity: Yumiko had not started to grow her hair out until she left the track team, her last year of high school. In the photograph it was chin-length and mussed, falling over her cheeks in sun-kissed strands. She must have been fifteen, if this was taken when he wasn't in school yet - the same age as Shuusuke now, though he knew better than to point it out.
She was smiling up at the camera.
Something tightened in Yuuta's stomach, and he turned that page over. And there: Yumiko again, smiling still, but with her arms slung around her two younger brothers to pull them close for the picture.
Yuuta stared. It was strange to see Shuusuke so small. In his memories Shuusuke was always – not physically bigger, never by much if at all, but he took up more space than warranted. He was always haring off after some passing idea, and at best Yuuta could barely keep up with him. Even worse was when he concocted schemes that for some reason Yuuta had to put into effect.
***
***
Most human relationships sum up neatly in one hoary cliché or another, and Niou and Yagyuu are no exception. Casual and even intimate onlookers see it as an obvious case of attraction between polarities: less within the purview of logic than that of electromagnetics. Yagyuu may even agree.
Niou thinks of it as like calling to like. It never ceases to amaze him that others so consistently confuse courtesy with kindness.
An example: people make certain requests without expectation of refusal. Perfunctory turns of phrase: oi, Niou, pass me my towel, will you? Niou-kun, may I borrow your English dictionary for a second? A certain percentage of the time Niou says no to these questions. "No, of course not." Straight face, direct and guileless gaze. By simplicity ye shall know the true classic. The side advantage of pulling someone's leg this way is that it divides the flock of humanity to one's right hand and left, as long as Niou can manage not to crack up for about two seconds. The goats only blink once before they catch on, and say "haha" with exaggerated sarcasm born of embarrassment - though it doesn't keep them from blinking again the next time Niou does it. The sheep don't catch on unless Niou cracks up. The cud rises, the eyes glaze over with self-conscious dismay, they start to wonder what they did wrong, what false assumption they made, what inadvertent faux pas. Unless of course it's kindling rage and they're wondering what the fuck Niou's problem is and if he's trying to start something. Fleeced, either way.
Niou's been acquainted with Yagyuu for all of ninety minutes before he trots this one out on him. Yagyuu doesn't blink. He was already reaching for the dictionary on Niou's desk, and no hitch occurs in the motion of his hand and arm. Niou watches, rapt, as he takes up the dictionary and flips to the appropriate page. One finger glides down to the definition; Yagyuu murmurs something under his breath, makes a notation in his textbook, closes the dictionary and hands it back.
"I apologise for the presumption, then," he says.
The temptation exists to explicate this story with a flourish, call it love at first sight, just to make the hypothetical audience grin and Yagyuu twitch. But even hiding in plain view implies that there's something to hide, and Niou doesn't care whether he amuses or antagonises other people as long as he stays honest with himself. That's his baseline.
If you can't be honest with yourself, you may as well block your ears and stake your tongue and apply to be one of the deaf-mutes that make up the overwhelming majority of the population. Niou doesn't want any part of it.
***
What I'm really hacking is something GetBackers-ish. But that I'll post only when it's done, because I look at it too much anyhow. ^^;
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 04:36 am (UTC)Niou. Yagyuu. Just -- so, so perfect, both of them, perfect interaction, the way Yagyuu registers for the first time on Niou's radar and registers with a bang. I adore your Yagyuu more than I adore FUJI, and that is verging on blasphemy.
(Although it kind of threw me at first, the people asking Niou for a favor, and more than once. Even the goats. Rikkaidai students are...rather amazingly slow, aren't they? XD)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 07:52 am (UTC)(Primo, as a trick it's pretty anodyne and thus forgettable; secundo, Niou doesn't mess with people's heads all of time, because then no one would talk to him and it would defeat the purpose; and tertio, multiple people have pulled this one on me multiple times and I never learn, so it really is possible to be that slow. XD;;; < --/is definitely a sheep/)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 10:01 pm (UTC)So, hm. Niou discovers that Yagyuu is, in fact, the CHAMPION of lying to himself, and he thinks, I should ignore this loser! Except Yagyuu is just so brilliant and intriguing even with all the unconscious self-deception that he can't pull himself away, and, in fact, the self-deception only makes Niou want to hang around him MORE so that he can PRY AWAY THE LIES and draw out from behind them the REAL Yagyuu, damp and shivering as if newly-emerged from a coccoon. And Yagyuu hates him for it, being dragged from his safe, comfortable hidey-hole that's actually kind of like the den of the Keebler Elves, but Niou is just so outrageous and persistent that the hate gradually melts away to be replaced by a form of exasperated LURRRVE, and he's all, FINE, I will be honest with myself, but this is all your fault so don't start crying when I MAKE YOU PAY.
Andthentheyhavesex. Counter sex! With a bit of bondage thrown in -- ties are so useful, aren't they? (The Rikkai uniform lends itself well to kinky afterschool activities; Seigaku is missing out.) AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER THE END, and Western PoT fandom will finally boast its on D1 smut, and all shall rejoice and bless thy name. <333
(P.S. Cathy says that lj won't let her comment on this post. o_o)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 11:13 pm (UTC)But then I go read Cathy's "Blind Man's Bluff" again, and I feel as if SOMETHING should be done. ^^; Even if I'm no good at writing in someone else's universe per se. But that kiss at the end pushes my big red button. ...And I don't know why she can't comment? Other than lj being its perverse self? ;_; I've publicised the post, that's gotta do it.
(KEEBLER ELVES)
Ties! Scarves! The Harry Potter fanartist's bag of tricks comes into play. XD
no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 10:49 am (UTC)The Yuuta fic needs beating into shape really really badly. The D1 fic is lucky if it has a shape into which to be beaten.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 05:38 am (UTC)yes. Die with many e's. So please?
no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 10:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-20 08:22 pm (UTC)