Bleed Out (Nao x Reika)

original

“Nao!”

The scream tore through the air, piercing and heart-wrenching. Or rather, more accurately, as blood tore through flesh and inspired desperation. The thought caused a morbid, amused chuckle to escape through her dry lips, and she leaned against the wall of the school building and slid down to the ground, legs finally giving out.

“Nao! No!”

No, she wanted to say in return. I should be saying no. Don’t scream for me. It’s not that bad. But her lungs were tired, her mind was fading, and words could not escape from her throat.

“No. No. No. No–”

A trembling form disturbed the dirt between her legs, and the sound reached her ears and her eyes weakly fluttered open. She took in wide blue eyes, panicked, pained, wild with fear, and only managed to summon energy from some deep unknown abyss inside herself once she saw the tears.

Her jaw fell open, and she croaked, “It’s okay.” Dragging her arm up from her side, she laid a bloody hand on Reika’s cheek and gently brushed a few blue locks back behind delicate ears. “It’s okay. Shh.”

“It’s not,” Reika sobbed. She clutched Nao’s green vest, so familiar and so alien, alien because she had never seen it stained with red. Raw emotion pulsing through her veins, pupils shrunk so deeply in fear, she cried, “How can anything be okay when you’re hurt like this?”

“Everything is okay as long as you’re safe, Reika,” Nao smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. She wanted to put on a brave face, but god, her wounds hurt like hell and the blood was beginning to cake in her hair and down her forehead. Playing the martyr was supposed to be the epitome of being a hero, but it really, really sucked when it came right down to it.

“But how can I be okay when you’re not?” Reika whimpered. Warm wetness seeped through the green vest and dirtied her hands and sleeves, and the weight of finality set in her stomach. Too much blood had been lost. No one was around. There was no time. “How will I ever be able to be okay?” she whispered, and she stared deeply into Nao’s rapidly fading gaze.

“As long as you’re alive,” Nao wheezed out, her eyes open but nearly seeing nothing now, “you can learn to be okay. As long as you’re alive, fight. The others... should...”

“I understand.” Her forehead brushed against green bangs, and her eyes narrowed. “I understand, but I don’t think I can ever be okay without you.”

Her thumb caressed the skin under Reika’s eyes, and she spent the next few moments committing Reika’s beautiful visage, stricken as it was, to her mind. When she went out, she wanted to go out with love instead of pain. And so she asked, “Can you promise me one thing, then?”

Nodding, Reika fought to keep her lips from shaking.

“At least try for your chance at happiness,” Nao gasped out. “Just try.”

Their gazes locked, but Nao could not see anymore. Heart breaking, she let her tears fall, comforted that Nao couldn’t see her lose to her pain. With no strength left, she said, “I promise.”

Her hand fell to the ground with a quiet, final thud and stilled.

So...

Instead of my scheduled oneshot today as part of the ACP project, I wrote just a general oneshot for Ymir and Krista from Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan).

You can read it here.

Thank you!

Future Gazer (Mikoto x Kuroko)

original

Technology was amazing, Mikoto decided. Amazing and wondrous. Nevermind the fact that her status as electromaster of the city was given to her through technology. Nevermind the fact that many of her problems and such were caused by technology. Nevermind the fact that technology had nearly killed her and all her precious friends so many times.

Because, she thought warmly, because in the end technology had helped her create the tiny bundle of life that lay in Kuroko’s arms, squirming and opening and closing her mouth in silent phrases punctuated by soft breathing.

“She’s so... so...” Mikoto whispered, struggling for words. The familiar desire to articulate the squirming of excitement in her chest resurfaced through the mature facade she had learned to keep on. So unbearable was her desire that Kuroko looked up from the baby in her arms and gave Mikoto a knowing look.

“You can go ahead and say what you want to say, Mikoto,” she giggled. Mikoto shuddered at the way Kuroko said her name, unaccustomed still to the intimate form of address they shared with one another, and decided, to hell with it. She could revert to her middle-school self once more, if only for a few moments.

“She’s so cute!” she squealed. “She’s so adorable and beautiful and I can’t believe she’s ours...” Her voice trailed off into reverential silence, and she regarded the sight of her beloved and their child in the warm morning sunlight.

“A month has passed and yet you still have not lost your bubbling excitement,” Kuroko laughed lightly to herself. “But that is one aspect of many that I love about you, Onee-sama,” she jokingly continued. The jab at their past reawakened a can of memories she had stored away, and the electromaster swallowed nervously.

“I love everything about you too, Kuroko.” She looked directly at peach-colored eyes and recalled, with burning intensity, the many amount of years she had spent denying the endless love that had been thrown her way constantly and devotedly. But they were not ready then. Neither of them were. Herself too naive and innocent, Kuroko too obsessed and uncontrollable.

However, the child cooing and waving her small arms around in Kuroko’s arms caught her attention once more, and she struggled to tone down the wide smile that stretched from cheek to cheek on her face. Her hand reached out to touch the baby, but the baby swatted her finger and began to squirm even more intensely. Mikoto frowned in mock hurt.

“Now now, Mikoto, she’s just hungry and your finger is hardly an appropriate meal for our growing child,” Kuroko smirked. “Shall we head to the kitchen?”

Mikoto leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on Kuroko’s lips before pulling away and nodding her agreement.

Closer (Konoka x Setsuna)

original

“This is nice, isn’t it?”

“Hmm?” Setsuna responded absent-mindedly, blinking herself out of her stupor. She’d never relaxed to such an extent before, had never stopped and sat down in the grass to look at the blue, blue sky and the white airy clouds and let her guard down for an afternoon and... reveled in the feeling of peace and safety she felt. There had never been a day such as this one.

“I said, ‘This is nice.’ You look happy,” Konoka giggled, tilting her head back against Setsuna’s chest. A shy smile twitched at Setsuna’s lips as she looked down at Konoka’s beaming hazel eyes, a warm and powerful thrum of emotion spreading throughout her chest as she did so.

“That’s because I am,” Setsuna quietly responded. Shifting her hands in the grass, she leaned forward and dipped her head gently on top of Konoka’s, breathing in the scent of the girl’s shampoo. Familiar and comforting, her shoulders almost seemed to ache at the absence of tension in the wake of such utter bliss.

“That’s good,” Konoka hummed. Without really thinking, her hands reached behind her ear and grasped the red tie that adorned Setsuna’s uniform. Her fingers playfully teased the soft material before a sudden thought struck her brilliant mind, and then her lips curved dangerously upward. Setsuna, caught up in listening to the birds chirp and the wind slowly rustle through the grass and leaves of a nearby tree, was therefore completely unprepared for the sudden tug at her collar that sent her neck bending down to be level with Konoka’s mischievously shining eyes.

“Wha-”

“Shh,” Konoka breathed hotly. Her lips pressed gently against the strong curve of her protector’s jaw and trailed down to the tight muscle of neck, leaving Setsuna breathless and stunned. When she separated from the contact of skin, her mouth hung there, barely open to let out burning puffs of air that caressed Setsuna’s flesh and made her eyes flash dangerously with want.

“Konoka,” Setsuna choked out. “Konoka.”

“Yes?” Konoka huskily exhaled.

“You shouldn’t do that,” came the reply, but the reprimand was extremely half-hearted and weak. They both knew she really shouldn’t do things like that, but they were both so tired of holding back, being kept in check by rules they didn’t really care anymore for. The war was over. The world was changing, expanding, adapting, and thus their burdens were temporarily on hold, and with them, the invisible wall preventing affection had dissipated. If only for a little while, the wall was gone. Setsuna swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I think I can decide what I should and shouldn’t do for myself, Secchan,” Konoka countered, lips brushing against the twitching underside of Setsuna’s throat. She smiled when Setsuna swallowed thickly once more and struggled to control her breathing, if the convulsing in her chest and well-toned muscle was anything to go by. Feeling rather hot and bothered herself, Konoka pressed herself more thoroughly into Setsuna’s front, wanting, needing to feel the body writhe against her back or, even better, her front. But she didn’t dare turn around. That was too far. Far too far.

“Then do as you please, Konochan,” Setsuna sighed in mock defeat. Shaking her head, she grinned wryly into Konoka’s hair and closed her eyes. “Please.”