#flashfics

[duhhtheyellowrose]

Byakuya x Reader of an ideal vacation and rare time Byakuya gets to unwind

((note: i KNOW who sent this ask and i know that this esoteric bullshit caters specifically to him and his philosopher's soul. all the flash fics will NOT be like this i PROMISE)) ((oh also: gender neutral reader. tw: really tryhard fauxtellectual philosophy)

“You’re different when you’re out here.”

Togami hums. His back is to you, and he’s sprawled out on the couch. “You say that every time, darling.”

“I know.” You look at him, arm limp, dangling just barely off the floor. It’s uncharacteristic. That’s the best word you have to describe it. You wonder if anyone else has seen him like this. “It’s true, though, isn’t it? That’s why you’re out here.”

He huffs. “So what if it is?”

“So… is this the real you, then?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” He moves to rest his chin on his hand, the same hand that was dangling just a moment ago. “Part of me, at least.”

“It’s all part of you. Wether you like it or not… right?”

He turns to look at you, lazily. “That’s far and beyond what a secretary should be asking a superior, no?”

“And yet, you’re not stopping me.”

Togami hums one more time. “And so what if I’m not?”

“So… there’s no what without a why.” 

“You don’t need to sound so esoteric. If you’ve got something to tell me, just say it to me.”

You could go on forever. About the things you’ve got to tell him, that is. About how his shoulders slump when he’s on vacation, but only to here. Only now, in a small cottage, a pastiche of a commoner’s life. An idealized, manicured view on it. 

You want to tell him that, when you had first been hired, you thought of him as no different than the rest of them. You want to tell him that, over time, you’ve noticed things that made you think of him as a type of man most don’t know him as. You’re not sure which would make him more upset, is the thing. Your dismissal. Your observations. Neither constitute a safe choice. 

And you like your job. It’s the only job you think you’d be able to keep longterm and be happy in.

So you tell him neither of those things. Instead, you smile.

“I’ve got to tell you… that you’re not subtle at all. You bring me along with you to these vacations, just in case you need a secretary.” Alone to these vacations, an isolated mimicry of a common man’s life. The downside is, you can’t just rent a normal family’s apartment. Simply by the virtue of these services and who they cater to, no one would ever do that. Most people of your class would be fine with this, but I can tell you’re not. You ask me about my apartment; do you even know how often you do it? How is it doing, have I cleaned it up yet, how’s the plant you gave me and can I send pictures? It’s odd. It was always odd, but then I realized why you’d been doing it. But I can’t tell you any of this, how unprofessional would that be? And I’m not certain enough to take the risk. So… I’ll only tell you part of the truth.

“I can tell… you just want me to have a vacation too, don’t you?” You smile, wide but not too wide. Maybe a little too wide, but maybe the inauthenticity is the point. “You don’t want me to do any work for you at all! You just say that so you can bring me on a vacation and pay me for it!” 

Togami means to scoff, but it comes out more as a sputter. “It— and so what if I am?!” 

You laugh.  “Is that all you can say?!”

He laughs too, for a little too long to be real. “Well… it’s the only answer they accept.”

[mamichigo]

Kaveh, upon being told that Alhaitham and Cyno were now a couple, laughed in their faces while praising Cyno for improving his comedy skills. Later, he drank a whole bottle of wine and cried that "Alhaitham was always bullying him for no reason."

Dehya's reaction was much less dramatic, but considerably more insulting. She looked between the two of them, raised an eyebrow and stared at Alhaitham.

"He can do much better than you."

(It was pretty clear who she meant.)

For a moment, it felt as if Candace believed them. She clapped them on the back and smiled sweetly; her happiness was palpable, as well as sincere.

"I'm glad you two get along well enough that you can joke around like this now! You've come a long way," she said.

Somehow, neither of them had the heart to correct her.

Tighnari, to his credit, listened to them for a whole five minutes. He even looked like he was trying his hardest to comprehend his friend's words. When they all went quiet, he looked to the side, eyelid twitching. He seemed to be recalling a past episode with some degree of annoyance.

Finally, he said, "I don't know who put you up to this, but it's not like either of you. We'll discuss this later." And promptly left to tend to his work.

Collei, on the other hand...

"I don't think this is working," Alhaitham finally admitted defeat one evening.

Cyno, comfortably sitting on his lap and tucked under Alhaitham's chin, hummed his agreement.

"Should I kiss you in front of everyone? That might convince them," Alhaitham suggested.

"No, it would backfire."

"How come?"

"It's not like either of us to do something like that in public, and I'm sure it'll somehow come back to bite you in particular." Cyno tipped his head back to look at Alhaitham. "Probably think you're harassing me."

"Hm. Fair point."

He dipped down to deposit a kiss to Cyno's cheek, then his nose, and finally his mouth. He lingered there sweetly, until a sudden crash behind them forced them away from each other.

"AH--!"

They caught the tail end of incoherent apologies, as well as a glimpse of green hair running out of the room.

...Collei walked in on them kissing.

"Well, that solves that problem," Cyno mumbled.

[fierypen37]

500 Followers?

Wow. 500 followers?? Thank you so much, guys! Let’s celebrate with GOT flash fics! Send a pairing and a prompt and I’ll get to writing! 

[trashpandaorigins]

Terrible Twig

@grootiez requested a fic about Groot going through the terrible twos! 

----

“Groot!” Peter snapped his fingers in a futile attempt to get the tiny plant’s attention. Baby Groot, spared the human a glance but continued sticking his little vines into Peter’s soup and splashed the purple liquid around.

“Just take the bowl away!” Gamora suggested, sheathing her blade and sitting down beside Peter in the Milano’s cramped dining area.

“What, no! I’m still eating it!” The human protested. Groot squealed and aptly dunked his entire face into the lukewarm stew for a moment before looking up and grinning. Gamora rolled her eyes and snatched the bowl away, letting out an exasperated sigh. Green vines attempted to grab the food back but Groot’s little viens could not grow so rapidly as of yet. Seeing his defeat the flora colossus crumpled his face and let out a shriek to shatter glass. “Cease that insidious crying!” Drax demanded, covering his ears as he stormed through.

“Groot!” Peter tried again, watching as the little monster climbed down from the table and stalked over to doorway, pelting Drax’s boots with his small wooden fists. As per usual the Destroyer walked briskly passed him. “Groot! You can’t have soup if you’re going to just play with it!” Groot turned to Peter, sticking his tongue out and ran over to a small metal box that had been lying on the disheveled carpet for weeks. Gamora swooped in, snatching it away and examined it gingerly. “Rocket,” she spat. “I thought we told him not to leave his weapons lying around after that Tractian detonator incident.” Peter stopped trying to corale Groot for a moment and looked up,

“Oh you mean that time Groot almost blew us all up? Where is Rocket anyway? He should be dealing with this,” Peter gestured to Groot who continued to scream and knocked over a low-lying rack of Xandarian spices.

“Groot!” Peter stepped over to the little tree, “Listen, dude. What were we even talking about?” He waited for a break in the tree’s tantrum. “You can’t just stab people’s hats off their heads! Especially when those people hire us to do a job for them!”

“I am Groot!!!” Groot squalled, hurling a spice can at Peter’s head. Gamora huffed, hands on her hips.

“How long is he going to be like this?” Drax grumbled something in agreement. Peter shouted over Groot’s escalating screaming.

“Well, they don’t call it terrible twos for nothing! Where is Daddy Trash Panda?! This is his problem! He..” The words were stolen out of Peter’s mouth as a vine swatted him across the cheek. Groot wailed angrily, small fists pounding against the human’s shins. “That’s it!” Said human fumed, he picked Groot up, careful to dodge the kicking legs and spindly vines. “You are going in time out! It’s bad enough you almost got us all killed. We told you Ugrats wear hats before we even did the job!” Evidently Groot did not think that made much of a difference. He fought and cried and hit all the way down to the cargo storage.

“I am Groot!”

“No! This is a time out! You stay here until I come get you!” Groot pouted, Peter could almost laugh at himself. There was no way the little flora colossus was going to obey.

“Ey!” Came the familiar husky, irritated growl. Rocket rounded the corner goggles over his eyes and tools at his belt. “What’re you doing?” Groot grinned though his wet tears,

“I am Groot!” He sobbed, pointing at Peter. Rocket removed his glasses, glaring at Peter.

“You hit him?!” Rocket snarled, baring his teeth.

“Yes! Wait! No! He hit me!” Peter looked at the self-satisfied flora colossus, to the raccoonoid and back at Groot. Groot shoot his head,

“I…I am Groot!” He sniffled pathetically. Rocket pulled off his gloves, gently picking Groot up and placing him on his shoulder.

“Rocket he hit me!” Peter reasoned. “He almost got us all killed with that Ugrat boss and then he stuck his face in my soup, destroyed the kitchen and beat on me and Drax! It’s not even noon yet!” Rocket shrugged,

“He doesn’t like hats.”

“That’s not the point! How long is he going to act like this? You let him get away with everything!” A protective paw went around Groot, “I do not!”

“How long is he going to be like this Roc?” Peter inquired, a touch of desperatism to his voice. Rocket glanced at his best friend, a flicker of sorrow in his gaze that made Peter feel as though he got kicked in the gut.

“….I don’t know…” Rocket managed, swallowing hard. He placed a now calm Groot down on the floor.

“It’s…” Peter tried to recover, “it’s fine. He’s just going through the terrible twos.”

“What’s that?” The raccoonoid demanded.

“It’s just a phase when kids are really terrible. He’ll grow out of it.” Rocket smirked, watching as Groot ran over to the wall and tore off the metal sheeting with his vines.

“When exactly will he grow out of it?” Sparks flew, followed by a dim in lighting.

“Groot!!!” Gamora yelled from somewhere above. Rocket chuckled, Peter smiled.

“I am Groot?”

“Yeah your probably in trouble,” Rocket translated, crossing over and picking him up once more. The little tree struggled but only for a moment, until he snuggled against Rocket’s chest, eyes getting heavy.

“Well looks like he’s finally sleepy, thank the stars.” Peter muttered, mentally calculating how much Groot damage he could fix within the two hours of nap-time before the baby flora came and undid it all again. He looked up, seeing Rocket barely swaying from side to side, patting Groot on the back and looking down at the little thing with a mixture of love and grief. Peter put his hand on the raccoonoids shoulder softly. To his surprise, Rocket didn’t shoot him.

“We’ll get through it Roc.” Rocket shrugged off the hand.

“Whatever Star-Jerk.” Without another word he walked off, Groot in his arms. Peter watched the two of them go,

“Whatever Daddy Trash Panda.”

[hurricanedancer]

Imperial!Jyn and undercover rebel!Cassian au

1) Jyn goes into security. She grew up not quite spoiled, but privileged; her father was high enough in the science command that she was respected but not so high that she was envied. As a child, she never noticed that her father never looked happy, going to work; that her mother held onto her necklace and whispered stories about the times before the Empire, of the Jedi and dissent. As she grows older, she notices, and it means she can’t help but see--see that there are people, outside of Corsucant, who don’t like the Empire. But that’s not a good thing to think, a safe thing, so she pushes it away, and signs up for security track at least partly as a rebellion. It’s good, though, she finds. She likes having something to fight. 

2) She notices him because he smiles at her. No one smiles at security; no one looks at them, really. She’s fine with that. She has her parents at home, and she’s always been a little apart from her peers, aware of the Empire in a way they aren’t. She doesn’t need anything more. But one day, one of the workers--some pencil pusher--smiles at her, and she, well. She notices. 

3) Cassian feels bad about it. He hates doing this--he hates the violence, but he hates this too, smiling at the girl like he likes her even though it’s just because he wants the access to her father. She’s an Imperial, and that makes it a little more justifiable--but that doesn’t change the way he feels, when she starts to open up to him. When they start to really talk, the first time she tells him about her father, the first time she mentions how he’s not happy. It’s his orders and it’s for the rebellion, so he’ll do it, but sometimes he wonders how much of him is dying every time he smiles at her. Every time she makes him like him. Every time he makes her like him.

4) One day, Jyn’s parents comes to visit her. Her father is part of a delegation, mainly, she suspects, to get an excuse to see her before she gets leave. It makes her roll her eyes but she loves it too, seeing them. Feeling their arms around her again. And if she happens to run into her one friend on the ship, to show them that he exists--well, maybe it’ll make them stop worrying. He smiles charmingly at her mother and shakes her father’s hand and starts to talk with them about--something sciency, and Jyn feels something flip in her stomach, at the sight. 

5) After, Jyn’s mother comes to her, very serious, and sits her down on the bed. “What do you know about your friend?” she asks, like she’s afraid to know. Jyn tells her--then Lyra tells her everything. About the plans they hatched, about the moments they almost left. About the Alliance Captain whose name is apparently Cassian Andor, who came to find them, to recruit them. Who apparently never cared for her at all. 

6) Jyn doesn’t talk to him the next day. Cassian’s not surprised. He didn’t expect her to. He expected the way it hurt, because he knows himself, and knows what he was growing to feel for her. But he had a job to do, and heartbreak is a small price to pay for the Alliance. And now she doesn’t talk to him, the next time she shoves a memory stick into his hands. Cassian takes it, and swallows away something shockingly like regret. 

7) They never find out, who betrays them. All Jyn knows is she’s doing her job, and then the next minute Cassian’s hand is around her wrist and he’s yanking her away, all semblance of the man he’d been pretending to be gone. “We have to go,” he says, sharp and hard. “Someone made us.” Jyn makes a noise that sounds like ‘my parents?’ and Cassian shakes his head. “Someone’s getting them from Corsucant,” he says, and keeps pulling her away. “we have to get out of here.” He pauses, then adds, “unless you’d like to stay with the Empire?” Jyn takes one look at him, who’d betrayed her but who’d smiled at her too, who did things for her she can’t imagine were part of the con, then at the cold metal of the Imperial battleship, at the people who’d never liked her, at the rules and darkness of it all. She goes with Cassian, into the wild unknown. 

[mamichigo]

This was exactly why Cyno never bothered sparring with Alhaitham, no matter how much he craved it sometimes. There was too much pent up frustration in there, thrumming energy that couldn't be resolved any other way. Cyno swallowed the blood in his mouth and knew Alhaitham hadn't held back on that last strike.

They stared at each for a moment. Then, Cyno kicked him squarely in the stomach and caught Alhaitham by the hair when he doubled over.

"You're playing with fire, Scribe," he warned darkly.

Alhaitham laughed. "I've been told I can be reckless."

As if to prove his point, Alhaitham stretched up, against the iron grip Cyno had on his hair—taut enough he felt a few strands snap off. His tongue darted out, pressed to the corner of Cyno's lips where a bit of coppery taste still lingered. Cyno breathed unsteadily before he threw Alhaitham down to the ground.

"You're not tired out yet. Get up and fight."

Alhaitham's responding smile was wicked, matching the almost mad glow in his eyes.

(It shouldn't shake Cyno to his core so violently, but it did all the same.)

[mamichigo]

"Kaveh, I need your help," Alhaitham announced. Ignoring his roommate's flinch and bewildered expression, he continued, "You're a self-proclaimed specialist, might as well prove the title is worth something. Also, if you don't close your mouth insects will fly into it."

That did the trick: Kaveh clamped his mouth shut, although he didn't stop blinking at Alhaitham like he was seeing double. After a moment, Kaveh narrowed his eyes.

"Who the hell are you? You can't be the Alhaitham I know."

Alhaitham rolled his eyes and considered leaving the room altogether. "Will you or will not help me?" He asked, teeth gritted.

"Of course, how could I refuse such a sincere request! I knew you'd come around to see my charms, eventually." Kaveh paused and tilted his head--a convincing impression of a stupid dog. "So, what am I helping you with?"

"Love."

"Love?"

"Love," Alhaitham said with finality. "Specifically, how to get rid of it."

It was another minute of silence--Alhaitham could practically see the gears turning inside Kaveh's head.

"You're in love," he declared hesitantly, as if waiting for Alhaitham to deny it. "You're in love. Right. Of course. Wait, who is the poor sod-- I mean, the lucky person?"

Alhaitham sighed. "Does it matter?"

"Yes! It would affect the whole thing! So, do tell, and don't spare me any of the sordid details."

"The General Mahamatra."

"...Like, the General Mahamatra of Sumeru Akademiya? Cyno? That guy?"

"Would you stop parroting everything I say? Not even I think your brain is that far gone, and it's irritating. Add something constructive to the conversation or don't speak at all."

"But yes, that guy." Quieter, Alhaitham added: "The way he thinks is fascinating, fighting him is exhilarating, whenever he speaks I can't focus on anything but him. It makes it difficult to read, as the thought of him disrupts my attention. Therefore, I would like to get rid of it."

Kaveh stared at him some more then fully burst into laughter. Any attempt to cut in was futile after that. It didn't even look like he was breathing anymore, if the wheezing sound Kaveh was making was any indication.

Alhaitham left the room to find himself headache medicine and a bottle of alcohol.

It was going to be a long night.

[mamichigo]

"Do you drink?" Cyno asked, wine bottle tilted at Alhaitham in invitation.

"On occasion, if I'm tempted."

"Well," he set the bottle down and leaned forward on his elbows, eyes trained on Alhaitham, "are you tempted, then?"

Their knees knocked together when Cyno moved. Alhaitham glanced down, briefly caught in the glimpse of bare skin.

When their eyes met again, Cyno raised an eyebrow. His entire demeanor was playful, relaxed. His lips shone with a drop of wine.

"Tempted" was too light a word.

"I'll drink," Alhaitham conceded, "so come closer."

Cyno shuffled from across the table to Alhaitham's side and handed him the bottle of wine like a prize. Alhaitham set it firmly back on the table and instead reached for Cyno. When their mouths met, it was just teeth at first. It hurt in just the right way.

Cyno tasted sweet, intoxicatingly so. The wine lingered on his tongue, an alcoholic tinge that made him dizzy. Alhaitham chased after that taste, tilting Cyno's head back and pushing him into the table. If he pressed hard enough, Cyno would surely bruise, he thought with satisfaction.

"I thought you wanted to drink," Cyno murmured.

Alhaitham paused to admire the flush high on his cheeks, the hypnotizing rise and fall of his chest. Then, he took ahold of the bottle again.

"Open up," he ordered.

Cyno obeyed without question. Alhaitham gripped his cheeks with a hand and tipped the bottle over his mouth with the other. He watched Cyno's throat bobble as he struggled to drink it all, the wine spilling down his jaw.

"Oh, I do want to drink," Alhaitham whispered darkly.