christmas ★ drabbles
Wishing a happy 2011 to all my friends and readers! I’ve written 50 drabbles spanning over 12 different fandoms, 41 of which are requests and 9 of which I wrote at my own discretion. I want to say thank you very much to everyone who has read and enjoyed my works, I am far from becoming the writer I aim to be, but your presence in my life is very meaningful. I hope everyone receives this message (:
2011 will be a very busy year for me, I won't be writing as much anymore. But I hope everyone enjoys these drabbles for all they can be worth.
Fandoms in Part 1: Hitman Reborn, Kingdom Hearts, Harry Potter, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Disney, D.Gray-man, Durarara!!
How to Search through fandoms: Ctrl + F, type in the fandom (KHR, KH, HP, Bridge, Disney, DGM, DRRR)
How to Search for your request: Ctrl + F, type in your username
1. da chao da nao
gokudera/uni, gamma/aria, uri, for gauchecaesium
AU, romance, humour
She shakes her head and looks up to the man with wide eyes. Their blueness is the reason why Gokudera puts in so much effort in securing the famiglia’s safety – if only to protect the innocence nestled in her gaze. “Mother and father, they are busy currently,” the girl whispers in a little voice. She takes a handful of her beautiful white cape and squeezes it with anxiety. At that moment, a tomcat with electric fur sidles up from the staircase and purrs near her boots in comfort.
“I have an important message to deliver to the Boss and the consiglierie,” Gokudera clears his throat, he softly pries her hands from his wrist and proceeds back to the doors.
“N-no!” Uni loses her composure, “they’re k-k-ki –” she can’t bring herself to finish.
“Ki – what?” the young man echoes. He stomps back to her side with impatience, swearing when the cat claws mercilessly at his polished leather shoes. “Uri! No, stop that!”
“K-Kissing!” Uni blurts out, louder than what was required. Her face heats, just as Gokudera pets Uri absently with his hand. When he hears the word, he gives her a look of calm incredulity. He snorts with something that comes between confidence and arrogance, and Uni has to frown at the skeptic. “You don’t believe me?” she asks, as Gokudera avoids a scratch from the cat curling at her feet.
He is already back at the door when he replies. “I’m sure the Boss will know how to separate business from intimacy, you think far too much,” Gokudera informs her, comic disbelief tied to the edge of his words.
When he opens the door, he finds his boss balancing against her desk, her right-hand man blocking her face – one hand in her hair, the other around his revolver. The grey-haired spectator feels his cheeks turn bright red.
Gokudera sputters, choking on air. The next second, he has already grabbed onto Uni and Uri and the three make a desperate run for it.
2. The Unfair Game
gokudera/kyoko, for jusrecht
romance
He doesn’t regard her as anything more than the lawnhead’s kin, the Tenth’s love interest – not until the first time she greets him good morning. It startles him, the awkward acknowledgment. It throws him off kilter for a split second too long. He fumbles with a grunt that the baseball idiot helps her decipher this as “a very splendid morning to you too!”
It isn’t supposed to mean anything to him – Gokudera offers the same greeting to the Tenth every day, albeit with eleven times the dedication. But something in his stomach twists because he can’t just ignore what she did. He can do that with the stupid woman and with Sister, just not her. It’s annoying – makes him want to blow stuff up just to mirror what’s going on in his mind.
***
It’s a bad day of training; Lal Mirch is more cruel than usual. He receives scathes and bruises that only serve as reminders of what an incompetent right-hand man he is. He denies company with the boys and limps back to his room. He meets her at an intersection of hallways, heaving the laundry basket with her scrawny arms. Her first reaction is to gasp, and he thinks she might ask him ‘what happened’ and he will have to weave shallow lies pertaining to sumo-wrestling.
Good, because the feeling’s mutual.
***
Late at night when all the documents are filed and agreements signed in a pact, his mind betrays him. It thinks about this female, strong and sturdy, walking into his messy office and placing a cup of hot tea on his desk. She’s quiet, doesn’t talk: helps him to set his pens in order and tucks a blanket over him as he lies hunched and asleep on his desk, wishes him ‘good night’.In the morning when he wakes, the tea is cold, the woman is missing.
It was only a dream.
3. One Crossroad
tsuna+enma, for karudoll
friendship, drama
It will be easy, he realises.
The Vongola heir does not scare him – it is a discovery that pleases Enma. Tsunayoshi Sawada is merely a clumsy boy who is exact in his age and height (and eyes that breed fear). He is quiet and meek and looks nothing like how the descendant of a vicious mafia syndicate should. (It’s all an ignorant ploy, a clever façade that is not clever enough, Adelheid chants religiously.)
Enma cannot help but feel alike to the treacherous boy, too alike. He does not let this get to his head though. He uses this against the Vongola – he can predict when the boy will flinch with unease and when he feels like running away (because he experiences the same emotions, his body copies Tsuna in a mock). He speaks whatever words he can manage, wins the naïve favour of the boy who gets beaten-up with a regularity that he can relate to. When he is alone at night, curled in the safest corner of his room, he thinks about how he manipulates the Vongola heir, how powerful it feels (and what friendship unbound by familial bonds might be, if this was not an act).
He eases up, follows Tsuna through classes in school and on the way home. They talk with few words, Tsuna mostly laughing in that anxious way of his and struggling to find something to say. His room is very plain, he has a bed and a cluttered desk and posters taped lopsided on the wall – Enma envies this, hates this normalcy that has been stolen from his own Family. But when Tsuna talks to him in that understanding tone, he floods Enma’s head with ideas about running away, about escapism and places that could be so much more beautiful than this. The jealously ebbs, a wave of something else overcomes him. Something like agreement, like… comfort.
Enma doesn’t reply, but this silence is different from the ones before.
He hopes that no one notices, but he starts resigning to company with the Vongola. He can tell that Shitopi likes the idea of Hayato Gokudera, and how Adelheid is impressed with the caliber of the Nanimori Disciplinary Committee. He thinks that Large tolerates the cow-baby to the point of enjoyment, and looks on as Julie mumbles incoherently to himself. It is then, that the Shimon boss pauses.
And he realizes he has made a friend without even trying. Enma does not think of what comes after that – only thinks about homework, and how he will have to ask to borrow Tsuna’s tomorrow morning. It will probably be scribbled from page to page with wrong answers and faux explanations – but somehow, Enma doesn’t really mind.
4. Mind my Rabbit Heart
Tsuna/Kyoko
romance
There are moments where he can’t help but say ‘why’. Kyoko is someone who thrives best in peace, she is not a girl who can look at blood and bruises straight in the eye. She doesn’t belong anywhere near him – not with the explosions that frequent his house and the vengeful misfits that invade his schedule, not with the baby hitman breathing down his neck.
But she comes anyway, with worried eyes and soft fingers, it is maddening.
“I’m not worth risking your safety,” he whispers to her when they walk home together after their class. He’s pretty sure Gokudera is somewhere nearby, Yamamoto keeping him at bay with ample prudence.
Kyoko only smiles at him, with her perfect teeth and transparent eyes.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Tsuna-kun,” she tells him, reaching out to take his hand in her own.
His face drowns in red, and he thinks that, perhaps, Kyoko’s resolve is stronger than it seems.
5. Tequila Sunrise
Gokudera/Shitt.P
general
He speaks in a language of devotion and perpetual vehemence, smells of viciously tempting gunpowder, that she cannot help but notice him. In class, when she’s not busy tuning the radio reception and conversing with meandering brain waves, she observes him behind almost-authentic x-ray glasses.
When the specimen called Hayato Gokudera whips his spectacles out and uses them to focus in on her, she stares back, but does not make any sudden movements to avoid scaring him. She catches the interest in his eyes, and she can only imagine what it would be like to have a friend like Hayato Gokudera. It will be a special occasion, one where she will have to wear her bubble wrap dress to herald.
So she waits for him to develop the intelligence to call her by name.
6. The Out-Fighter
Ryohei/Hana
romance
It’s different from how those shoujo comics depict it, that much she can say with confidence.
He’s got the makings of a typical shounen hero – frighteningly strong and dumb, always working hard to achieve this particular goal, surrounded by a myriad of friends, an upbeat personality – the works. And her? She’s cynical, selectively quiet, and if she could be half as attractive as Kyoko, she’d be contented for the rest of her life. She’s nothing like a shounen heroine, and even further from the main lead in the bestselling shoujo.
It isn’t flattering to know this.
But then he comes along, just when the books say he should – when she is in a daze of emotions and a pit devoid of self-esteem – and asks her ‘what’s the matter’. The mangas advise her to tell him ‘nothing’ because, well, that’s how to get the guy after eighty chapters.
Hana doesn’t listen though – like hell she can wait eighty chapters.
She grabs his shoulders and does that love confession scene-thing.
7. Impressionism
Sora/Naminé, for karudoll
angst
[My KH headcanon is very unflexible, I keep on imagining Roxas and Naminé being stuck in the world of Sora and Namine’s subconscious, and only being able to look through their Somebody’s eyes. Their world is quiet and they are the only two living there. And they aren’t entirely conscious when they are apart, so time is a relative thing. Something like that.]
When Roxas leans towards her and asks for a peek, Naminé starts and shakes her head – and when the boy insists, reaching his hand out, she rips the paper and tosses it into the sea.
She starts to laugh and tells him it was rather ugly, and that she’ll try again, this time with no mistake. Roxas pretends to agree.
***
Sometimes, when the sunlight hits the islands at the right angle, and Kairi squints – she sees wads of bleached white floating in the sea. She pulls Sora’s sleeve and asks “What are those?”
“Dunno’. Probably just trash, nothing special.”
8. Surrealism
Roxas/Naminé, for heylalaa
drama
***
“You’re real,” Roxas wished, raising a hand to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. Her hair was soft to the touch, and she smelled like lavenders, the kind that grew only in the greenhouse, under captive scrutiny. Naminé rested her head in his hand, and kept her mouth sealed with a weak grin. And she looked quite faint and surreal against the lull of the ocean waves.Roxas told himself that it was because she was so damn pretty.
***
“And we’re real.” He clenched his hands, before drawing her into a tight hug, clamping his hands over the cold peaks of her shoulders. He heard her sigh into his ear, felt her hands slide down the back of his jacket, and he thought he was happy the way they were just then, on the beach of a hometown that was his (but really wasn’t), with the girl he loved (but– nevermind).And he pretended not to notice when her hair dyed itself pink and a zipper flashed on her dress.
9. Cubism
Roxas/Naminé/Axel, for fugthimble
friendship, angst
“Perfect?” Roxas repeated, Naminé didn’t like the way the syllables rolled off his tongue. “So… this is perfection?” he hummed to himself, eyes lingering on the shoreline and the dirty seashells clinging to sand. The girl did not know what to answer, her knowledge of the world was confined to the white-washed walls of Castle Oblivion – to a man with a thick lotus blade and ensnaring eyes, a woman with a chiseled face and poisonous tongue, a friend with fiery hair and subtle kindness.
“I miss Axel.” Naminé scratched the paper with her fingernail.
“Me to– no, we promised to see each other again, at the clock tower. I know we will, one day.” Roxas tucked his knees under his chin and pinned his gaze to the maple sunset.
Namine knew nothing about clock towers and what life they would have from now on. When she stared at Roxas long enough, she could watch his hair blend into a shade of brunette, and his frown fold back into a smile – she could see Sora talking to her – well, Kairi – and she tried not to speak of it.
Roxas probably saw the same thing too.
***
She used her red crayon today.
***
The beach stayed at a standstill. No matter how many days passed, the waves lapped to the same length and the sun set at the same time. She became acutely aware of the fact that she and Roxas had only ever met on the beach. Memories outside of that, they were all hazy – a girl’s room covered with seashells and pink dresses, perhaps.And while everything remained unchanged, Roxas became different with every passing day (week? month?). The light in his eyes faded, and he became increasingly captivated by the sunset. He told her once, that the rays reminded him of flames – consuming and overlooking – of the view from a clock tower. Naminé was worried. She already had a dead friend, she didn’t want a dead love interest.
But since when did she get what she wanted?
***
“Perfect, huh?” Roxas’ voice cracked. “Just watching the world pass through someone else’s eyes,” he mumbled, lying against the blanket of the sand. It looked like it was about to rain. But they wouldn’t get wet, Naminé thought, they always found shelter – or at least, Sora and Kairi did.“I wish summer would come soon.”
“Me too.”
But the seasons didn’t change. They never would.
10. Narcissism
Xigbar+Xemnas, for scenotaphs
general
When he wakes up, his eye throbs and his mind is a haze of emotions (hatred and disappointment, carefree mischief and everlasting scars). It is clouded with snobby, blue-haired girls and boys that breed annoyance. His head clogs up with scenes and movies excerpted from a life he doesn’t remember enduring. When he rises from the cold marble floor, a familiar man looms over him. The dark shade of his skin contrasts against the snowiest hair, and the haunting glare of those magma eyes retrieve memories that don’t belong to him.
It is then, that he realizes he is alive.
“How did I die?” He gives the coated man a once over.
“You forget?” is the reply – icy and testing, prickling the tissue lining his empty socket.
The voice strikes a chord in his hollow chest, homes towards a flashback of crimson blades keening as they sliced through flesh and bone. The sensation is overwhelming, and he as a sudden urge to throw up – the oddest thing is that his heart is quiet, despite what should be shock, desperation, confusion. He clamps a hand over his chest pocket, and discovers that there is no dull heartbeat, his pulse has vanished.
“You are Xigbar now. Follow me.”
He looks up, considering the man’s words for a moment before getting up onto his feet. He is already wearing a matching black coat. He throws the hood over his head, and joins the man's side – there is nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, no one else he’d rather see burn down in the insanity his own delirious fantasies.
11. Realism
Riku+Kairi
friendship, humour
[because we know they are never going to be together canonically ;; but they could still be friends… right?]
So this is a story about a young man and the girl of his dreams – a hero of the Keyblade and Princess of Heart, drafting promises and linking hands on the beach of childhood ambitions. They’ve been in love for as long as they’ve had the capacity to feel ‘love’, it isn’t hard to see. It’s a sappy story, one that might make tears jerk or cause warm sighs to permeate the air.
And where does he fit into all of this?
Ah yes, the ‘best friend’ role.
It’s not like Riku actually cares that he didn’t get the girl – he can’t picture Kairi cuddling up to him and shoving fruit into his face. And while it would be fairly easy to win her affection, he supposes he can’t put Sora through that, not after all he’s done for the world(s). It’s not like Riku feels lonely when they are together and his prudence tells him not to intrude. He has to be contented with what he’s got – it’s definitely a big improvement from the Door of Darkness and King Mickey’s constant squeaky voice.
But sometimes, not often, Riku kind of hopes that Kairi would speak to him more: They can’t be considered best friends if Sora is the only one who is close to either of them, that’s bending the Rules. And he’s supposed to be the aloof and composed ‘best friend’, so it’s not his place to take the initiative ahead of her (the bubbly, strong-minded female) – it’s in the Rules too.
***
When it does happen, Riku is nowhere near prepared.
It’s odd for Sora to be late, but he is – so the aloof best friend and the bubbly love interest wait in uncomfortable silence next to the palm trees. She continues swaying on the spot, a tiny smile plastered on her face – how can she be so happy after all the shit that’s happened to the three of them? He’ll never understand, as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other.
“Riku? Why don’t we ever talk?” Kairi turns to him five minutes into Sora’s absence. Riku is taken unawares, he thinks for a second before he replies.
“We never have anything to talk about.”
“Well… that’s because it’s hard talking to you,” the girl produces an embarrassed smile when she admits.
“I know I’m not as friendly or as optimistic as Sora,” Riku sighs, “but if you ever need anything from me, I’ll be there.” His fingers pluck the tips of his hair as he replays the sentence in his head, wondering if he is being too sentimental – he does mean it though, there is something about her eyes and her smile that he wants to protect.
“Same here,” Kairi nods with a surprising amount of dedication. She steps closer and gestures for him to lend her his ear.
“Sora isn’t that reliable all the time,” she whispers.
Riku actually laughs, and he comes to understand why Kairi and he are best friends.
12. Marylebone Station
Harry+Hermione, for snoaz
hurt/comfort, romance (slight)
She misses the scent of ink and owl feathers, the sound of quills scratching against grainy parchment. She can’t quite recall the thrill of knowing the answer to everything. There are only questions now – only the snow and wind battering their jackets. It’s strangely weakening, not being able to extract the knowledge she needs from the bank of her mind.
Hermione tightens her hold on Harry’s gloved hand. He leads them onwards, through the winter night and through the piling doubts. She steps closer to him and finds her only solace knowing he’s still there.
13. It Would Be Like This
James/Lily, for akumugan
AU, family, romance
“All the more reason I have to be worried,” the woman replies as the man places his arm around her.
“I can’t say I disagree – but he’s your son too,” James explains, “he’ll have my dashing charisma, and your resourceful snark.”
14. Tea Party, Miss Marley?
Harry+Draco, for karudoll
humour, boys being boys (this should be classified as a genre)
[Ron is actually smart is this one, is it OOC? herp derp]
Harry finds it on his plate during dinner, and can’t quite remember taking it from the serving bowl. It’s apparently the last one at their table, but he’s too stuffed to even consider eating it. Neville, on the other hand, is rather pleased to know that. He reaches timidly for the drumstick and takes a thankful bite.
An explosion rocks the table.
***
“We need to get back at him!” Ron insists. Hermione crosses her arms and gives the redhead a look that spells ‘you boys are so immature I don’t even’. But Harry nods his head at Ron’s statement, because more than anything, he’d like to see Draco put in his place for once.“Harry! Honestly, I can’t believe that you would agree to play a prank.” The girl sitting in between them is floored.
“It’s not a prank, Hermione,” Ron sighs with exasperation, “it’s revenge.”
“Yes, yes, and that’s why this is perfectly reasonable.” She waves a dismissive hand. “I spend so much time around you two; I sometimes forget that you’re really just hopeless boys.” Hermione gathers her books and bag and stomps off to the library.
***
Harry thinks over Hermione’s disapproval during Potions class. He supposes she has a valid point, but doesn’t say anything when Ron drops a newt’s eye into Draco’s cauldron just as he flirts shamelessly with Pansy.While slicing a clump of Belladonna and weighing out the water in his glass phial, Ron whispers to Harry behind the thick fumes pouring out from the concoction in front of him. They share a controlled chuckle at the thought of a bubbling brew splattering onto the blond boy’s face. It is then, that Draco marches over with his cauldron in his hands, plants it onto their bench, and lifts Ron’s one from the burner.
“Nice try Weasley,” the Slytherin hisses before scurrying to the back of the class.
“Ron, we’ve got to do something about this,” Harry starts to say, wondering why Ron hadn’t reacted to Draco’s crafty actions.
“Now, now, Harry. We didn’t get our O.W.L.S for nothing,” the redhead smiles. “The newt’s eye I put into his cauldron was harmless, actually.”
“On the other hand, last week Hermione taught me about the effects Goosegrass, and I added some to my experiment, the one Draco took without asking.” Ron looks quite proud at this point.
Harry only catches on when he hears Draco’s high-pitched scream.
***
Harry doesn’t know why he has to be the hero of everything, but Ron appreciates it all the same. He doesn’t particularly mind being the scapegoat though, if only to spend more time with a polka-dotted Malfoy in Detention.
The teacher casts a spell over the classroom that makes everyone involuntarily mute.
The two boys take their match to the blackboard – scratching and scribbling ‘I will not be a liability’ furiously until Snape himself slams open the door and chases them out of the room.
15. Humbug
Harry+Snape, for cherinbo
humour
However, Harry’s eyes came to rest on the little grey stocking tacked under the windowsill.
“Mind your own business, Potter.” Snape warned, not bothering to look up from the papers he was marking.
“My apologies, Sir. I just don’t see the point of putting that up there, when all you’ll get is– ” the boy’s common sense held his tongue in check.
“What, Potter? What will I get?” the professor challenged, clawing thick black ‘x’s all over the homework.
“Nothing. I said nothing,” Harry coughed.
16. Traintracks to Mercury
Kou/Nino, for anon
romance
[It’s the simple things in life that should mean the most.]
“This is terrible!” The man frowned at his laptop, squirming on the riverbank rock he used as a stool.
“What happened, Ric?” Nino rushed over, her hair bouncing with momentum, brow furrowed and eyes concerned. She crouched beside him, peering at the graphs and figures that covered the screen. Ric was momentarily distracted by her closeness, her hands on his shoulders and wait – was she leaning on his back?
“T-the stocks, m-my company made some losses,” he explained, trying his utmost to not quite think about her weight on his back.
“Oh? What are stocks?” the girl asked him with her unique brand of curiosity.
“I don’t think I could explain it so easily to you, Nino. Maybe I’ll talk about it in class next time,” Ric compromised with kind patience, though the speed his fingers tapped on the keyboard begged to differ.
“Is anyone hurt? Sick?” the girl questioned.
“No, of course not. Stocks don’t affect humans that way.”
“Sad or depressed or unhappy?” Nino continued.
“Well, I am – but we’ll probably be able to cover our losses,” Recruit rambled, just as Nino touched his hand. The man froze in place at the contact.
“If no one is hurt, and everyone can still be happy, it can’t be terrible, can it?” Nino deduced out loud. “After all, what’s most important is health and happiness,” she rationalized, her eyes meandering along the river. She was earnest with her words, honest and innocent in that other-worldly way of hers.
Nino was too unfamiliar with the reality above the bridge, Ric thought – why, much more things bore importance too, apart from health and happiness. Like fame and fortune, and stocks… and suddenly, the man felt rather silly for thinking the way he did. He turned to regard Nino fully, as she inched over to the riverside and stuck a gentle hand into the water. She played with the fishes that nibbled at her fingers, smiling to herself and tucking her hair behind an ear, it was a moving scene in all its simplicity. It was the kind that made him consider – for only a moment – that the people here were more sane and down-to-earth than they seemed.
Ric closed his laptop and set it down on the grass.
“You’re… right.”
He stepped over to join her side, and dipped his hand into the river as well.
17. The Most Wonderful Day of the Year
Snow White+ the seven dwarfs, for snoaz
general, friendship/family
If Snow White is to be compared to anything (which is hard to do, for she is an entity of her own, a flower bloomed from a solitary pearl seed), she would be an angel. The dwarfs imagine the kind that sleep on a bed of clouds and use rain dew to wash their faces – the sort that cherubs flank and have animals crooning in their wake. Snow White would not look out of place amongst them. In fact, she’d be the most radiant of them all.
The young lady exceeds their expectations, cleans their cottage with magical skill, kisses them each on the heads with lips that match heaven more than earth. She leaves little to be desired, an angel nestled in the humble house of seven gruff men. Come the season when the snowflakes descend from the sky and the forest is blanketed in pure white, when all the pretty plants wilt, she lives on.
They take special care when gathering firewood, double-checking that there is more than enough to warm her through the winter. She thanks them profusely, laughs and bakes them their favourite apple pie – the kind with a wide smile carved on the top and blueberries sprinkled on the inside.
On the eve of Christmas, their seven stockings are filled with lumps of coal – well-meaning presents from one another, because mining dwarfs can never have too much coal, after all – and the lone pink stocking, a foot-size bigger than the rest, is flooded with diamonds and rubies. Snow White gives them their presents early because the night is cold and even the unending fuel to the fire will not be enough to keep them warm.
They each snuggle up to their personal scarf (Grumpy doesn’t snuggle, he sort of clutches onto it in the most emotional way he can summon) and crowd around her chair to keep her warm as well. She teaches them Christmas songs she’s learnt from the village girls over the castle wall – the dwarfs had no idea any song existed outside of their mining march – and they fall asleep a short time after Sleepy first does.
18. crown fragments
disney princesses, for crazypackersfan
AU, general, drama
[I had a lot of fun writing this, and I actually came to realise that each princess does have a major fault. Forgive me if my interpretation clashes with yours, I just wanted to experiment a little with this drabble: Snow White is naïve, Jasmine is prideful, Belle is a know-it-all, Ariel is nosey, Aurora is still snoozing so she’s absent, and Cinderella is…]
Ariel wasn’t jealous of the four other girls currently standing the on stage – they were gentle and delicate in their own cultivated ways, with perfect hair and perfect smiles, but it wasn’t like she found herself being intimidated by their flawless figures. In fact, she was all the more determined to prove herself. She certainly did not have the advantage of a lifetime walking on legs, but she was the only one with rosy hair (that had to make her stand out amongst them, right?).
Snow White hummed and smiled when a blue bird landed on her finger. She proceeded to initiate a conversation with it, waving to the judges every now and again. She didn’t seem too interested or worried about the contest, far more carefree than one would expect – Ariel wondered if this was all a deliberate charm. She observed Snow White for a moment longer and decided that actually, the young lady was just born ditzy.
Cinderella was the quietest; she tucked her hands in front of her dress and offered meek smiles throughout the introductory segment. She didn’t make a big impression, not compared to the exotic Jasmine standing tall next to her. Her dark skin and bright eyes intimidated Ariel, and the underwater princess could not help but find her overbearing with her firm stare and distinct hand actions.
Belle was the well-mannered one with a curtain of copper hair and a golden dress, she did well until it came to the talent segment and she began reciting touching passages from a few of the books she’d loved. The problem was, she loved a little too many philosophical books – Snow White gaped with her mouth open backstage as the words poured from Belle’s lips. When she realized no one was listening, she swallowed her frustration and stormed offstage.
Jasmine’s answer to the question segment branched from ‘what would you like to improve in your kingdom’ to a speech about feminism, freedom, human rights, and a sudden call for democracy – needless to say, she galloped off topic, and they had to pry her away from the mike stand. The further they got into the competition, the more Ariel’s confidence grew – these girls weren’t all they seemed, despite their unblemished complexions and grace, their faults were massive and easily exploited under the spotlight.
Ariel promptly demonstrated this point by tripping on the skirt of her dress and landing flat on her face.
So Cinderella, the plainest one of them all, won the beauty contest in the end.
19. You’re a Mean One, Kanda Yuu
Kanda+Allen, Kanda/Lenalee, for cherinbo
general, humour
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” He yanks the door of her room wide open, not bothering to knock first. It is a bad strategy, and he comes to the conclusion only after she screams and the heel of a shoe collides with his chin.
***
After he survives having half of Lenalee’s room thrown at his face, and the girl shrugs a shirt on, he repeats his exclamation.
“I’m not doing this, it’s idiotic,” he informs her, placing the name into her palm.
“But that means Allen won’t be getting anything,” Lenalee frowns with distress.
“Do I look like I care?” Kanda poses, arching an eyebrow before striding to the cafeteria to salvage the leftovers and throw together a mediocre dinner.
***
“I wonder what Santa will get me?” Allen nudges Lavi during breakfast the next morning. Kanda pays more attention to his cereal.
“Something great, I bet!” the bookman encourages him, which is the last thing Kanda needs right now.
“You think so? I’ve never gotten a present before. Mana gave me hugs for Christmas, since we couldn’t afford anything more.” The Exorcist pokes his fork at his scrambled egg while Lavi holds down a sympathetic cry with much effort. Kanda concentrates on scooping the milk into his mouth and separating the cereal bits from the pieces of fruit in his bowl.
“I didn’t even know Santa Claus even existed until I came to the Black Order,” Allen reveals blankly. Lavi starts to open his mouth, probably to tell him that ‘no, Santa’s fake, we just use him as a reason to get people to buy us material gifts’ but stops himself. Kanda remains silent.
“Though it’ll be okay if I don’t get a present,” Allen continues, stuffing toast in his mouth, “I mean, I’m already used to it.”
Lavi excuses himself, but his eye is already red with tears when he is halfway to the door.
Kanda stares at Allen for the first time that morning. Allen scowls back with the same amount of hostility. No words are exchanged.
***
“Lenalee! Lenalee!” Allen shouts across the ballroom floor on Christmas Eve.
“Yes?”
“Look, there’s a present under the tree with my name on it!” the boy tries to fight the excitement, but he can hardly contain it.
Lenalee smiles. She locks eyes with Kanda, who is standing alone against the wall. The young man holds her gaze for a moment before he decides that the ceiling is more visually attractive.
Later that night, she throws a Santa hat over his head and a kiss on his cheek.
20. Masquerade
Lavi/Lenalee
drama
The Bookmen have drilled many teachings into him.
One is how to read the face of a liar.
It’s not the most promising ability, not when he knows Lenalee. When she is around, furnishing the room with her smiles and laughs, it really isn’t. She doesn’t lie all the time – but when eventually she does, it is always big and grotesque, like when she chimes “I’m alright” when she is miles away from the actual feeling. He spots her smile flinching and her pupil snapping to the left, her voice a notch too high – so many mistakes.
“You don’t need to pretend,” he tells her in the middle of the night, when the corridors are at their darkest.
“I’m not,” she insists, clad in only a t-shirt and shorts.
He knows words won’t work – not the way she uses them – so he tugs her shoulders and cups her head to his chest. For her sake, he doesn’t notice when she cries quietly and clings to the edge of his shirt.
21. Coffee Housing
Izaya/Namie, for snoaz
romance
She doesn’t voice it though. Knowing Izaya as well as she did (unfortunately), it could all be a feint. The intense looks, the winks, the teasing smirks and the invitations to have lunch outside – these were mere instruments in his plan to lead her on and watch her topple. He’d then pat himself on the back and give a standing ovation, perhaps burn another pack of cards or step on a rook.
Namie will not give him that satisfaction.
***
They go people-viewing in the park, it is Izaya’s favourite past time (apart from dodging vending machines and driving people insane). He talks under his breath, tells her everyone’s name and background history. She doesn’t particularly care.
The garden bench is too small for them. No matter how much she edges to the side, Izaya just slides closer to her, bridging whatever space she creates between them. The fleece of his coat is scarcely brushing her hip.
Though Izaya doesn’t say, she knows that he likes making her flustered. She won’t give him that satisfaction either. She stops trying to inch away, and instead straightens her posture and sits upright. When her shoulder connects with his arm she doesn’t bat an eyelid, Izaya stops chatting himself up to look at her from the corner of his eyes with something that might be impress.
But it is probably him brewing up another scheme.
***
He grabs her elbow and parades them around the crystal-lit streets of Ikebukuro. They have dinner at a quaint café, and she holds onto his coat as he kicks down unattended snowmen. He looks positively enthralled when he spots a blond man in a bartender’s outfit across the road – she has to seize his collar to prevent him from pursuing idiocy.
No, she isn’t having fun.He walks her home.
“Na-mi-e –chan, look what we’re standing under,” Izaya sings joyously.
Namie stares up with a stern face, catching sight of the mistletoe dangling over her doorstep. She tries not to let the sheer alarm, the sheer panic that attacks her heart, reveal itself on her face (damn Izaya, damn him and his cunningness). But she is human too, despite all the controversial experiments she has conducted and the bodies she’s dissected – so her face heats.
She won’t give in to him – she will not let him have his way and claim his satisfaction.
She’ll make sure of it.
But the man is already bending down, closing his eyes and pursing his lips in a display of revolting confidence – the winter air is much warmer than it is supposed to be. And Namie can’t help but think, for a second, about what will satisfy her.
22. Pocket Pair
Izaya/Namie, for heylala
humour, romance
Izaya doesn’t bother to hide his delighted surprise when his assistant agrees to bake him a Christmas cake.
“You’re such a dear, Namie-chan,” he carols, revolving on his swivel chair.
“You threatened to cut my pay,” she reminds him with indifference.
“Now, now, you knew I was just kidding,” Izaya grins, the teasing kind that makes Namie want to slap him, he knows.
“You never kid.”
The woman flips her hair over her shoulder before moving into his kitchenette.
***
The pots and pans clank in the sink, and the sound of the mixer buzzing fills the entire apartment. When he tries to sneak a glance into her laboratory of cooking, she slams the door in his face. Izaya isn’t quite pleased, but he lugs himself back to his desk and continues telling Setton about fictitious alien abductions, and flirting with Bakyura.***
When the afternoon reaches its end and the city lights frame the window of his office, his assistant reemerges, carrying a plain white cake in her hands. Rings of whipped cream sit on the cake, with chopped strawberries decorating its rims and the smell of honey wafting through the air-conditioning. The man claps his hands as he gets up and meets her at the dinner table. Namie’s face is still stoic and unyielding, how interesting a woman she is.She tosses the fork and knife at him, and he catches the utensils with a calculative smile. He seats himself down and she pushes the cake towards him, it is then, that he sees that she’s written a love-message on the top of the cake with black icing: ‘Merry Christmas, bitch.’
Izaya chuckles, he takes her hand and kisses her knuckles, enjoying the stunned look that appears on her face.
“Na-mi-e–chan, I said to bake a cake for me, not for you.”
23. rudolph
Shinra/Celty, for Anon
romance
She is a greenhorn to the customs of Christmas. Live turkeys, electric lights and elaborately-wrapped boxes (that honestly look like useless rubbish) were not traditions she grew up with, not quite something she thinks she wants to celebrate again next year.
Shinra just wraps his arms around her waist and rests his forehead on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry Celty, this is a wonderful Christmas. Being able to spend it with you like this, I’m happy,” the man says against the onslaught of wind as her steed tears across the road. She wants to question him, once again, about how he can read her thoughts – but Shinra tells her, “before you go thinking I’m some kind of alien who can probe minds, I’m just telling you that I’m a normal human being.”
“It’s just because of the power of love, that I am able to feel your heart beat for me,” Shinra deduces. He yelps when her elbow jabs at his stomach.
Celty can’t focus on the road when he drones on in the mushy, poetic way of his. She lends more weight onto her trustworthy companion, who takes it with a neigh of the engine and ploughs on through the light snowfall that peppers Ikebukuro.
24. Hearts lining the Margin
Mikado/Anri
romance
They stay back after school to clean the classroom, the class representative and her assistant.
It is a quiet process, with a noticeable lack of words. She sweeps the floor with refined nonchalance, even when a cockroach scurries out of nowhere and over the toecap of her shoe. It’s not ideal when he screams out in alarm, and she maintains the sturdiest of composures.
But then, her exterior breaks for a moment – and she cracks smile and a little laugh, just for him to see.
And Mikado witnesses why the sides of his notebook are scrawled with wobbly, misshapen hearts.
25. Atlas
Shizuo/Celty
(b)romance
Shizuo practices compassion, far more than he lets on.
When he buys convenience store milk to drink, he sets the remainder out in a bowl for the alley cats. He helps an elderly woman cross the street at the same time every Tuesday and Thursday, if he isn’t caught up with work. And whatever projectile he flings at Izaya that doesn’t manage to make contact, he sets back into its original position when he’s calmed down enough. It can be anywhere from minutes to hours, but he does it in the end, it’s endearing, in that special way.
[You’re a kind person.] Celty types for him, as they sit on the playground swings.
The man gives her a hoarse laugh, taking off his sunglasses as he shows a disbelieving grin.
(Yet, he’s the one who’ll storm to her aid, whenever she needs him.)
★
part 2: (panty & stocking + persona 3 + soul eater + pokemon + pokespe + original fiction)
★ Due to the multitude of fandoms and drabbles, I don't think I will be crossing posting most of these drabbles. As such, if anyone is keen, they can use this banner to link their flists to this post, so that I can share my drabbles with more people. This is completely optional, of course!
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The first DGM one is so cute and derpy aaaaaah.
I don't watch DRRR!! but the drabbles are so cuuuute.
The comparisons and all are really great, too.
It's amazing, you chugged out so many drabbles in a matter of a few weeks - it must have been fun to do so for the others, and a form of practicing, too!
Beautiful titles.
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Gokudera/Kyoko: DDDDDDDDDDDD8
S-sorry, I do love the drabble, it's just baaaaaaaawwwww /crushes this pairing against her chest ;________;
Tsuna/Kyoko: And then, of course, the fluff descends xD This pairing is really too cute for its own good lol
Ryohei/Hana: Ahahaha I love how you include genres of manga in it xD AND GO HANA /O/
Harry/Hermione: OH MY GOD THIS PAIRING ;A;
Disnet princesses: lmao this is perfect. I've often wondered what might happen if they all existed in the same universe and here you are with this drabbe xDDD
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Anyway, thanks so much, I'm really happy you liked the drabbles (:
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Izaya/Namie: Namie thinks that they might be dating. Oh that sentence got me, and you handled their characters so wonderfully well; only Izaya would go human-spotting on a date. Ultimate love for this pairing!
Snow White: wonderful fluff just like I asked for. That last paragraph is ♥ with Grumpy clutching to his scarf and all them being cosy in the cottage, oh :)
Also: love for the Disney Princess one (quite funny and also pretty spot on; you can't help but watching Disney with different eyes now you've grown up, huh?), the other Izaya/Namie one was pure love (“Na-mi-e–chan, I said to bake a cake for me, not for you.” hahahah), Shinra/Celty was lovely and Mikado/Anri as well (And Mikado witnesses why the sides of his notebook are scrawled with wobbly, misshapen hearts. love that sentence, so sweet and so Mikado), and Shizuo and Celty sitting together at the swings is just such an adorable picture.
In short, I loved all drabbles that I knew the fandom of; and I'm sure I would have also loved the others if I had!
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I wanted to do a KidaAnri one too, but I didn't know how to pull it off haha. Anyway, Happy New Year!
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Harry/Snape:
I didn't realize that was a snitch you used in the banner until like, a few minutes ago? I thought it would look more like a Timcanpy o.OI love how you portrayed Harry's hatred for Snape; I could feel his resentment oozing out from that paragraph ^^ Aww... Poor Snape wants a gift too haha >.<Kanda/Linali: Omg, that was so cuuuute!! ^^ I am glad Kanda got a present for Allen in the end~
Dia/Plat: I love this one so much! Dia is such a sweet guy <3
Happy new year!
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Yeah, I know it doesn't look like a snitch, but I couldn't find any good HP art C;
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Oh, Snape. I thought the snitch was a real life Timcampi at first...
Thank you, thank you very, very much. The Tsuna/Kyoko and Gokudera/Kyoko and RYOHEI/HANA were lovely as well.
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You're very welcome.
I like the RyoheiHana one a lot too *A* not enough of this couple
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Thank you so, so much! :)
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Haha, I can't wait to see them then.