Vanitas hunched forward, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. It was too fucking cold for this, but where else was he supposed to go? This was the park he often slept in, though he generally took to the equipment for some shelter from the elements. But the structure itself was frigid to the touch, and while he knew that he could warm it over time, his body was fragile. He didn’t have a lot of heat to share.
Maybe he should just go home... He didn’t want to, but at least he’d have blankets. Maybe if he just blockaded the door, his granddad wouldn’t bother him for a time. He grunted at the thought, clearly displeased that it was even an option. He straightened, letting his back press to the bench as he tried to decide, or at least mentally prepare to go home. Probably for the best, since it seemed he wasn’t alone in this park anymore...
Summary: Inspired by @schizophrenichangedman‘s Ventus, in which Sabrina gets a Christmas visitor, and the duo share a silent night together.
Rating: K+
Word Count: 2,853 words
If you like this story please reblog!
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It was usually a lie that Sabrina couldn't feel any emotion than pure pessimism. At the moment, her mouth was pursed into a thin line to keep herself from shouting against her adoptive father. His words had stopped making sense a good three minutes ago. She didn't even know why he was still talking to her- the only words she needed to hear was 'I will not be home for Christmas.' The addendum of 'I might need to give you a rain check on New Years too.' was also unneeded, and possibly just as frustrating.
To his credit, he really did try not to have the whole holiday week booked with anyone but family. This was only the second year that he wasn't able to smooth over whomever he needed to be home. But it still hurt. He might as well had reached through the phone and pulled her heart out of her chest.
“Please Sabrina, I know you're mad, and I did everything that I could. I swear on my life.”
“I'm not mad.” she told him. A bold faced lie, but she was a good actor. “If anything, that just means we get to go on an even bigger vacation later, right?”
“Didn't we plan on going back to Paris?”
Even if he couldn't see it, Sabrina shook her head. “Ireland.” she corrected him. “I want to spend the night in one of those historical castles again.”
“You just want to wear a cape and dramatically swish it whenever you go down a flight of stairs.”
“Hell yeah.” she agreed with a soft snort. “Don't forget the dramatic entrances into the ballroom accompanied with slow, romantic waltz music.”
Hearing his laugh was a small comfort. She would have liked it more if he was sitting next to her. After awhile, her father let out a soft sigh.
“I love you, my little princess.” he told her in a gentle tone. There was a small indication of weariness in his voice. Sabrina had to close her eyes in a vain attempt to hold back the waterworks. She hated crying.
“Love you too, you old coot.” she mused back. For a moment, her voice broke- revealing just how much she was trying to hold back. But she didn't give her old man time to comment on it; she hung up the call as quickly as she could. The next moment after, she smacked her head against the cool kitchen counter. Her arms tangled around her head as she let out a low moan of annoyance. She should have known he wasn't going to come around tonight; if he was, he would have been home by now.
She probably would have just given up right then and there had her phone not buzzed. The teen took one look at whoever had messaged her and immediately grimaced. Letting out a grunt, Sabrina took a few steps away from the counter and looked up toward the cabinets. Intuition told her that whatever camera set up to spy on her in the kitchen was placed on top of the fridge. She'd almost assume it was the fridge itself if they had sprung for one of those 'smart' appliances. Thankfully, her father didn't see much use in it. The Alexa, on the other hand, was absolutely bugged for sound input when it was plugged in. That bit had been confirmed to her some months back.
Turning her attention back to her phone, Sabrina flicked through her messages to answer her most persistent pester.
Mister Jekyll: Looks like you're home alone for the holiday, little girl.
Lady Aesthetics: Tell me something I don't know. Fuck off.
Lady Aesthetics: Wait. Why are you awake? There's no way you're pissed because I got ditched.
Mister Jekyll: I thought you wanted me to tell you something you didn't know.
Mister Jekyll: But don't flatter yourself. Space cadet saw something that wasn't meant for him, and you can imagine the results.
Lady Aesthetics: I refuse to believe that it had to do with me.
Mister Jekyll: Fine. Believe what you want. Either way, I've got a surprise for you. You're going to get a visitor around 11 if I leave enough breadcrumbs. You might even get two gifts too. The one is red wrapping paper should not be opened around him though.
Lady Aesthetics: Are you finally gifting me those his-hers guns we talked about the other day? I'm flattered.
Mister Jekyll: Let's just say, you'll be absolutely vibrating the moment you touch it.
Lady Aesthetics: Comforting.
Mister Jekyll: Oh, most definitely.
Mister Jekyll: Above all, you'll have twelve whole hours of not being monitored by me or my comrades.
Lady Aesthetics: So I AM about to be murdered? Not a very poetic date to go out on. I expected more from you.
Mister Jekyll: Unfortunately for you, I've grown attached. I'll have a special punishment for you later. For now, get ready for your visitor.
Raising a rather skeptic eyebrow, Sabrina once more looked up at where she suspected the hidden camera was. Stupid illegal GoPros and their ability to be smaller than a pinkie nail. Shrugging, the teen started to make her way to her room- she apparently was going to have a guest. How fun.
. . .
Sure enough, just a few minutes after 11 PM, the doorbell rang. Not quite sure which version of the blonde haired, blue eyed pester she'd be experiencing tonight, Sabrina opened the door without a look of interest. That quickly changed when her eyes drifted from his face to his hair.
“Oh. My. God.”
Ventus gave her a confused tilt of his head before absently reached for his hair. Half of it had been tied a bright red, and the other side a festive green. When he tilted his head in a certain direction, sparkles in his hair glistened in the porch light. It didn't stop there- Ven was even wearing a tacky Christmas sweater that detailed a large present made of several layers of knit. It look incredibly top heavy, really, and Sabrina had no sense of envy toward him. In his hands were two presents; one was wrapped in green paper and not much bigger than a ring box, the other was a bit longer than that and wrapped in red paper.
“What's that look for?” he questioned, noticing her weird expression as she continued to stare at his hair. A smile then drew on his lips as he then mused, “You scared of a little tinsel?”
“Hardly.” came the undignified huff. “I just suddenly remembered that you got away with that while we were at school. There's no way that your hair complies with the 'only natural hair dye colors' rule in the student handbook.”
“It's natural when you're Christmascore.” he spat back with a little razz of his tongue.
Rolling her eyes, the young woman told him, “Just get inside.” before moving a little out of the way for him to actually enter.
Ventus didn't need to be told twice, practically skipping inside her house before noticing something. Or rather, the lack of something.
“You guys didn't decorate.” he pouted.
“Not true.” Sabrina objected. “We have a tree.”
“Where?!”
“By the staircase,” she informed him before leading him toward the kitchen.
Ven bounced with every step he took. The grin on his face was just bursting with joy in seeing what the tree at Sabrina's house looked like. It had been placed near the L-shaped stairway, well lit with some sparse decorations here and there. He wasn't much of a minimalist, but he supposed it would do. As he set the presents he was holding under the tree, something about it just seemed… off. Ven took a closer look at it; taking a branch between his finger tips and even daring to take a bite out of the ends.
“It's not even a real tree.” he moaned; his pouting starting anew. He then looked to her with an almost puppy-like disappointment. “You know, for someone who came to school in a white limo on her first day of school, you sure do know how to skimp out on the holiday decorations.”
“Well, I'm sorry that I was invited to three different soirees since break started. Two of which occurred outside of this state, so I was away for a good week.”
“But you're rich.” Ven continued to pout. “Shouldn't you have maids and butlers catering to your every whim at every moment of the day? Maybe even set up a Christmas light show spectacular outside your window? What's the point?”
“Don't you dare diss Miss Astra.” Sabrina snapped at him. “She comes by every Wednesday to clean while I'm at school. We gave her three weeks off for the holiday.”
“You can't be that lonely.”
Sabrina's face hardened into something so dark that Ven almost got a shiver up his spine. Looking him dead in the eye, she outstretched her arms to gesture at the entirety of the house.
“Does anything about this house make you think I could be that lonely?” she questioned. Her voice was just as spine chilling, and deeply bitter.
Deflating a little and averting his eyes, Ven let out a small, “Touche.” But he quickly shook his head. He came here in a mission, didn't he? Never would have thought that giving Sabi a little Christmas cheer would be so difficult. Maybe it was time to divert the conversation a bit. Something to eat, maybe. He had skipped dinner tonight out of spite and he was just starting to feel a tiny bit peckish.
“Just one question,” he then tried to ask her, “No candy canes?”
“I've got candy cigarettes.” She offered, her tone still dark, as she went over to one of the kitchen counters. She opened up a drawer and pulled out what certainly looked like a box of cigarettes. As walked back over, she fiddled with the top. She pulled out a white stick from the box then offered the rest to Ven. “100 percent sugar, tastes like chalk, and almost just as smooth as 'em too. You'd never know the difference.”
Ven's eyes widened as he reached over to take a candy cigarette from the box. He immediately stuck the stick of sugar in his mouth and chewed on it a little. It really was like eating chalk- but the candy cigar had a bit more resistance to it when he bit down though. You could almost crack a tooth if you wanted to.
“Well,” he then decided, unsure if he wanted to keep the candy cigarette in his mouth or hold it between his fingers, “Since it's too late to really do some Christmas binging, how 'bout you open up my present? I think you'll like it. Meant to give it to you at school, but I… I got a little side tracked.”
“Sounds like the biggest understatement of the year.” Sabrina snorted. Regardless, sticking her candy cigar in her mouth as well, she went over to the tree and picked up the green gift wrapped present. She then picked up another present from the pile, one that she had personally wrapped herself.
“I have a present for you too.” she told him. “Here, catch.”
Ven let out a surprised yelp as she tossed the large square gift his way. He was just barely able to catch it with both hands. As eager as he now was to open it, he patiently waited for Sabrina to come back over. He took her cue as she sat down by the tree, backs against the wall that bordered the living room and kitchen.
“On the count of three.” he playfully told her. “One… two...”
Neither of them waited for him to say three before tearing into the presents.
Sabrina was not surprised to know that Ven's gift was in a ring box. She just didn't expect to open that up to find a gold plated necklace inside. The charm at the end was of a rather simple looking crown. But still, it looked nice. Giving a moment's worth of thought, Sabrina started to take the necklace out of the ring box. Ven next to her was rather disappointed with what his present was.
“It's a book.” he said in a flat voice. Sabrina made a small sound of inquisition as she looked over at him for a moment.
“A portfolio, actually.” she told him as she put the necklace on. “Open it up and skip the first few pages. The foreword gets kinda winded.”
Still bummed at what appeared to be a bum gift, Ven did as he was told. The foreword did look winded -lasting about five pages front and back- before Ven saw something that nearly made his jaw drop. In the book were full color photographs of natural forests and creeks. The print of the photographs were so pristine that Ven felt like he could just jump in.
“I love it.” he said in a near whisper. “It looks so… familiar.” He looked over at Sabrina before giving a little hum. Sabrina was looking over the necklace as it hung around her neck, falling just in the middle of her breast. Between the lighting of the tree illuminating a bit of her hair, and just her near blank face, something about this moment didn't feel real. And when things didn't feel real, Ven just had to make sure that they were. Ergo, it should not have been a surprise that he placed his head on her shoulder.
Sabrina partially came out of her line of thought to glare at him. She tried to make a half hearted attempt at shaking him off as she told him, “Get your tinsel head off of me.”
“Nope.” he replied with a smirk.
“I'll lay on you if you don't move.”
“I dare ya.”
That was when Sabrina gave one very precise shove, almost knocking Ven completely off to the side if he didn't bob back over. As he sat up straight again, Sabrina had placed her head on his shoulder.
“Checkmate.” she mused. Ven laughed a bit as he moved his head a little to catch a whiff of her hair. Lilac. She always smelled like lilacs. Or lavender. Sometimes both. Too bad she didn't let him indulge in whatever shampoo scent she bathed with for long. She sat back up and stared absently at the ceiling.
“How are you getting home tonight?” she asked him with an almost genuine curiosity. “I doubt any of them actually brought you over, and I sure as hell am not driving you back in the dark.”
Ven recoiled slightly at the idea. “Dunno,” he decided. There was a small pause before he added, “Fuck them.”
Sabrina looked over at him and raised a neatly manicured eyebrow.
“Your grandfather came home?”
“How did you know?” he asked, quite darkly. He refused to look at her- instead bringing his knees closer to his chest. He wasn't going to get mad about it -not yet-, but it was still a sore spot.
Sabrina offered up a callous shrug before admitting, “I guessed. Sorry your family's shittier than mine.”
“Do you think your old man could adopt me? You're home alone so often that if you went insane, no one would even notice.”
“Oh, he'll notice.” Sabrina mused, taking a new candy cigarette out of the box. “You think I'm good at reading people? Take three guesses on who I got it from.”
“Really?” he asked in a small wonder- his eyes hungrily looked at the candy cigarette box, but fully eating one proved to be his allotment for any food at the moment. Talking about family was not helping the growing nausea either.
“It's one thing to be born from money,” Sabrina agreed, giving the candy cigar a few licks before sticking it in her mouth. It didn't long for her to pull it back out with a small 'pop' before adding, “It's another to be barred from the family legacy and still try to make it big. I don't envy what the old man does- let alone the people he has to deal with. Stuff like not making it home for a major holiday rarely happens. He even told me once that he doesn't even accept vacation pay from it.”
“Do you believe him?”
For a long time, she didn't answer him. When she did answer, her voice was small but toneless.
“Do you know how good I can get at lying?”
“Yeah?”
“Take three guesses on who I got it from.”
“Oh...” was all the reply he could give. Slowly, Ven relaxed his legs against the carpet and once more brought his attention to the photography book.
“Hey Sabi?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe next year will be less shitty for both of us.”
For a moment, Sabrina didn't say a thing. Instead she carefully started to snake her arm around his and hugged it. In a voice that didn't entirely sound like her own, she mumbled back at him, “Yeah. Maybe.”
Vellichor: The strange wistfulness of used bookshops. (( Here, try that one for Aqua.
Hey! So this one turned out a little shorter than expected. Subility isn't exactly my strong point, but I hope you like it. Thanks for the ask!
There was something about this little shop on the corner of main street. The building was old and spoke of a much slower time, where people would stop and peruse the shelves of literature before seeing someone they recognized and taking an extra half an hour to catch up on past times. Inside this particular shop, things still ran that way. The lighting was dim and mostly everything was quiet, save for a few people who had decided to say hello to friends and acquaintances. She didn’t mind so much though; sometimes you could pick up on some interesting tidbits from their conversations.
She had only been sent here to pick up a book specifically for their library at home, but she couldn't help letting her fingers brush past several of the titles along one of the shelves. There were so many lifetimes of wisdom and history that these bound collections had seen. If only she could make a way for them to talk…
Well, perhaps it was better off that way. She was in the wrong section anyway.
"Can I help you?" A store worker approached her.
"No, I'm fine, thank you." She smiled. "just looking."
Aqua watched as the worker went back to her station before turning back to the book shelves. She was on the wrong side of the store to get what she needed, but it wasn't going anywhere. Eraqus had kept it on reserve, so all she had to do was go back to the customer service desk. There was nothing that said she couldn't take a *quick* peek at the books, whether before or after.
She had read several of these titles already, some covers still practically new while the other were worn and well loved. That was the fate of the books at a used book shop, perhaps. Their original owners no longer wanted them and so they were sent away to whomever would take them.
The newer-looking books were more likely to be picked out first, the ones with the covers still on them or with intact spines. The others were still perfectly readable, they contained the same stories, the same ideas; they just weren't as strong of contenders to look nice on someone's bookshelves. Or if they weren't strong, maybe they weren't seen as knowledgeable, or they had a long and questionable past in someone else's hands.
Each of them wanted a home, too.
To be loved.
Some of them had found themselves dumped here no matter how hard they internally cried.
Her head was starting to hurt now. Perhaps it was the particular scent that these places always seemed to carry. It was better not to linger. She had her own life to deal with, after all. She really shouldn't dawdle.
Aqua went up to the customer service desk and picked up her order. Her adopted father hadn't told her what the book was, he just wanted her to grab it. Terra wasn't always careful with books and Ventus would likely forget to come by. Aqua had to do it. All she knew was that there was something about this place, something crying out from inside of her, and she fought to suppress it. Another time, perhaps.
"I'll be back." She whispered to one of the rows of books as she headed out the door. "I promise."
(I was going to make this a separate drabble, but that little prompt fits pretty well, so I combined the two- for lack of a better term. I’m sorry if Jack is slightly OOC in any way.)
. . .
Sabrina knew she was fucked. She liked when Ventus was the prominent decision maker of that -admittedly super cute- face. What she did not like was that grin. That certain spark in his eyes which held a delight reserved for when something was going just the way he wanted. And with Jack, when things were going his way, someone was about to die.
“Boo, I'm the Boogie Man- the terrible, horrible Boogie Man. I come in the middle of the night to frighten bad little girls like you.”
Now he was singing, and not even being subtle about it. God damn it.
His smirk grew as he continued to sing, succeeding into pressing Sabrina against the wall. “Beware, better have a care- I'm going to follow you everywhere. I crawl through the ceilings and the walls and fall on bad little girls like you.”
She had to think of something quickly. Poker face could only work for so long when you knew his hands were making their way to your neck.
“I hope you're happy!” she suddenly burst out. “I hope you're happy now! I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever. I hope you think you're clever…!”
That… actually made him pause for a moment.
“Excuse me?” he said. Not in song, but an honest to goodness question. Had she really thrown him off for a moment? Well, shit. No, wait, there was still that flicker of dark amusement. She was amusing him. Her resistance was amusing him even further, but maybe she could use it to her advantage?
“I hope you're proud of how you would grovel in submission, to feed your own ambition...” she continued to sing, carefully placing a hand on his shoulder and trying to get some distance between her and the wall. Her belting-out-Broadway voice could use some work, honestly. “So though I can't imagine how… I hope you're happy, right… now...”
He smirked at her. Fuck. He was going to keep singing too. “I'll torture you and hunt you. I've got you where I want you- a victim of my dark and dirty plot!”
There was more distance between her and the wall now. Good. But she wasn't out of the clear. She should have chosen something else to sing. The lyrics of Defying Gravity were failing her at the moment.
“Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game.”
“At the slightest whim, I'll tear you limb from limb.” His hands were now holding her hips with an almost death grip. She was going to get bruises later; but that was honestly the least of her worries still. “In other words, I'll put you on the spot…!”
“Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep.” Just a bit closer… Both her hands were on his shoulders now. She just needed to get two or so steps closer… “It's time to trust my instincts. Close my eyes, and leap…!”
Jack opened his mouth to finish his song, but she never gave him the chance. Sabrina pressed her lips against his, using her leverage of her hands on his shoulders to keep him as close as possible. He wasn't exactly resisting at the moment, which was weird, but she wasn't going to question it. When she finally pulled away from him, she immediately looked into his eyes. A part of his murderous sparkle had diminished. Good. She was in the clear for now.
“You little bitch.” he spat at her. Yet, despite the hatred in his voice, he certainly didn't change their positions either. What a hypocritical coward.
She loved the shit out of him.
“Only around you.” she told him before forcing them into another kiss. This time, she made sure to lightly wrap her arms around his torso. Hugs destroyed him more than her kissing- and for now, that kept her alive.
Rückkehrunruhe: The feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness. (( Choose whoever you like.
(Gonna make you regret that, haha. For you see, there are some Undertale/Deltarune relationships I'm neglecting. So have some Asriel and OC action. Also making a bit of a stretch for the prompt itself, and then I kinda just let things flow off each other, so… yep!)
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If there was something Asriel had learned from being at college, it was that humans who didn't mind the presence of monsters were incredibly rare. Orenda Sera wasn't a student like he was. Instead, the petite human was one of the waitresses of a popular diner by the college. Asriel, an anthropomorphic goat monster, could have snapped her into two if he felt like it. Instead, he tried to make her a friend. Not that Orenda wanted to be friends with him at first. But Asriel had a secret trick up his sleeve; tabletop RPGs.
With characters that were more like better versions of themselves, Asriel and Orenda slowly started to open up to each other. Today's game was one of their better ones. Both of their faces hurt from how often they had laughed.
“There's nothing like a good RPG session to take you to a different place.” Asriel happily sighed as he laid back against the sofa. But then a small frown appeared on his face before turning to Orenda. “Just… what did we do this time? I know it was a good one, but it feels like I'm already forgetting it.”
At first, Orenda chuckled a little. It wasn't until she looked at Asriel's genuinely confused expression that she realized he wasn't completely messing with her.
“You honestly forgot all of it?” she wondered. “We literally just finished.”
The goat monster nervously scratched the back of his head, giving a sheepish chuckle. “School's been taking its toll on me, I guess.” he told her.
“Uh-huh.” Orenda smirked. Regardless, she flipped through the pages of her notebook. “You're just lucky that I decided to write down the good stuff this time.”
Asriel let out a small sigh of relief. He couldn't even recall if he had been the game master in this session- it had only been a two hour game, his memory was never this bad. Ever. When Orenda got to the start of their highlights, she started to read through them.
“Started out the same as usual- a blank space, some dandelion puffs to be tutorial bosses. Our characters then found they were the chosen ones in some prophecy, helped some folks out on the way, then had a pre-climax argument that broke our characters up, and then they got back together in time to save the day.”
“Our characters fought each other?” Asriel repeated. “That never happens.”
“It was kinda ugly.” Orenda agreed, refusing to look up at him for a moment. “We had a dice roll to see how many NPCs witnessed it.”
“And?”
Orenda only shook her head.
“Oh.” came Asriel's disappointed understanding.
“The make up was adorable though.” she then told him. “And then you made this joke.” She turned her notebook around and pushed it in his direction. “I'm not going to repeat it out loud because we laughed at it for a solid three minutes.”
Asriel took the notebook from her and read over the joke. He almost started laughing at it again. “How could I forget that?” he softly chortled, giving the notebook back to her. He then looked up at Orenda and cracked a wide smile. “I love hearing you laugh.”
“Yeah, well,” she said back, a dark blush appearing on her incredibly pale skin, “I was more wheezing at that point than laughing. It was a pretty immersive session.”
But that made her pause again. She looked up at Asriel with an intense stare- her crystal blue eyes bore into him as if they were trying to read his mind.
“Are you sure you forgot everything about that session?” she asked him once more.
He met her with a skeptic look back. “Yeah, I think so. Why? Anything else happen that you didn't write down?”
Orenda did not answer him. Instead, she quietly started to put her notebook away. As much as he wanted to, Asriel did not press any further on the subject. It did feel weird though; even weirder than him forgetting the entire session. Just what else could have happened between them?
@schizophrenichangedman Liked For A Christmas Starter!!
Runa walked over and held out a cup of hot chocolate to the blonde before taking a seat next to him on the couch with her own cup. The two had a bit of a study session and before they knew it snow had begun to pile up outside.
It looked like it was snowing a lot, already a few inches on the ground covering the concrete completely in a white blanket. Rather than have him walk himself home, Runa suggested that either her father, when he came back from work, or his come pick him up. Meanwhile, she decided to whip up some hot cocoa for the wait.
“Hope ya like it, I tried to get as close as to how my dad makes his.” Runa commented before taking a sip out of her cup.
The night had been a rough one. Generally, in the presence of someone else, Vanitas wouldn’t have been pleased. With such a shit night, he would have preferred to have been left alone, but for some reason, being cooped up in Ven’s room, curled in his bed kind of helped... Was it just because it was him? This kid that had looked at him and immediately stated that he was his soulmate? Or was it just that he felt horribly out of place, stranded, hated, and endangered? He didn’t know.
“You gonna be stickin’ around in here for a while?” He asked quietly, swallowing back the lump in his throat that formed at the thought of him leaving. Such a weak fucking emotion. Had he not learned to kill these things? No wonder he had been punished so much harshly tonight than usual... “Ain’t gotta stay if y’ don’t want to.”
