Supernova
by Plastic Roses

#01 – Comfort

They all sleep in the same bed – not because they can't afford a bigger room, but because it's nice knowing that Jeff's legs are sprawled over Pu's and Paula's arms are wrapped around Ness's chest: it feel safe.

#02 – Kiss

It's awkward and a little gross and Ness tastes too much like hamburgers, but when they break away from their first kiss, Paula leans back in to kiss him anyways.

#03 – Soft

The first time Tony ever held Jeff's hand, Jeff couldn't stop marveling at the feel of it – he had no idea that other humans were so soft.

#04 – Pain

Every time Ness blacks out all he can feel is pain and swirls and happiness and how much he misses his mother.

#05 – Potatoes

They all eat dinner together at Saturn Valley, once it's over, and even though the meal's made up of cheese-covered peanut bars and over-cooked potatoes, it's still the best thing any of them have ever tasted.

#06 – Rain

The moment that Jeff mentions the Sky Runner won't work as well in the rain is the moment the first drop hits the window and the three come crashing down into Summers.

#07 – Chocolate

It's obvious to all the boys that Paula likes Ness when, on Valentine's Day, she gives Jeff and Pu small store-bought chocolates and Ness a giant homemade one – all the boys except Ness himself, that is.

#08 – Happiness

The best thing is waking up with bolts in the sheets and Dalaamese tea on the stove and the sizzle of bacon cooking in a frying pan and a baseball game on TV.

#09 – Telephone

Ness can't quite remember what his father looks like.

#10 – Ears

It's about when Ness finds himself admiring the shape of Paula's ears that he realizes he's absolutely, hopelessly in love with her.

#11 – Name

To his credit, Jeff is the only one who doesn't laugh when he hears Pu's name for the first time.

#12 – Sensual

Psychic powers are the taste of steak on his tongue and the melody of his favorite song in his mind; it's insubstantial and yet concrete, invisible and bright, everything and nothing.

#13 – Death

For Paula, the hardest part of being psychic is seeing all the different paths: the one way things could go right, and the billions of ways they could go wrong.

#14 – Sex

Paula always, always gets first dibs on the shower.

#15 – Touch

The lights go out and Paula reaches out – her hand brushes against Ness's – and then without warning tentacles reach out and grab her and pull her away and she's never felt so alone.

#16 – Weakness

Ness is bleeding bad and Jeff is unconscious and Pu isn't moving and Paula's never wanted to be able to heal more in her life.

#17 – Tears

They all cry when the final battle is over – none of them can help it - they're all just so glad it's over.

#18 – Speed

He grabs Jeff's hand and then Ness is off running as fast as he can through the desert and then – they're gone.

#19 – Wind

Even with his arms and legs and ears ripped off and eyes missing, Pu can still feel the wind blow lightly against his face – until even that, too, is gone.

#20 – Freedom

It's funny, Jeff thinks as he turns away from his boarding school and towards the unknown, how much bigger it all looks from this side of the fence.

#21 – Life

Ness looks at Pokey – this boy who he grew up with, who he shared so much of his life with – and can't feel even a shred of affection for him.

#22 – Jealousy

Paula stomps out of the theatre, leaving Ness behind as she rants to Jeff and Pu, "I cannot believe that- that- that- that woman kissed him!"

#23 – Hands

Ness has never wished more that his robot hands had nerve sensors: Pu's arm is gone and Paula doesn't have any more legs and he doesn't even know where Jeff is and all he wants to do is hold their hands and go home.

#24 – Taste

Pu poked at his piece of pizza gingerly and spoke, "And this is – common food in Eagleland?"

#25 – Devotion

Tracy is nine when she holds Picky's hand for the first time, and Tracy is nineteen when Giygas destroys Onett, and even as the world crashes around her and her mother is killed and her brother dies fighting and her father doesn't even come home, she sits and hides and holds Picky's hand.

#26 – Forever

'Forever' has never been proven, all things end, there is no perpetual motion machine – and yet when Ness tells Jeff that the four will be friends forever, Jeff can't help but believe him.

#27 – Blood

There is nothing that sets off Ness quite like the sight of the other three's blood.

#28 – Sickness

Her savior is runny-nosed and flush-faced and bleeding from a cut on his arm, and definitely not what Paula thought of when she thought of the world's hero – and then he smiles at her and she changes her mind.

#29 – Melody

There are nights where Ness dreams of an ocarina and wakes up with a song on the tip of his tongue.

#30 – Star

Sometimes Ness wonders what would have happened if he'd slept through that night – if he'd never seen that falling star – but then he sees Pu's slight smile and hears Jeff tinkering and feels Paula's hand in his, and Ness knows he'd never give it up for the world.

#31 – Home

"Uh, hi Mom, it's me, Ness … I just wanted to tell you I love you, and I miss you, so … uh, yeah, I'll see you when I get back, bye."

#32 – Confusion

"I- What do you mean I'm not the third strongest mole?"

#33 – Fear

As Giygas surrounds him, Jeff screams.

#34 - Lightning/Thunder

Paula prays for two days straight without sleep, because she cannot let her friend Ness face Carpainter without any help – she cannot let him die.

#35 – Bonds

"I don't think we have to get married," Paula says abruptly at dinner one night, and even though Ness drops his fork to the floor and the plate almost follows it, she continues, "I mean, it's just saying the same things we've already been through: in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and all that- don't you think we're beyond that?"

#36 – Market

"Hey, Ness, there's a guy out there selling these giant rockets for only like a thousand dollars per so can I go get one or two or maybe ten?"

#37 – Technology

He screams in fear and pain and where is his other half, what is this, why are there needles in his eye and his brain and his arm and his heart and why will no one help him- "You're horrible," Paula gasps up at a grinning Porky as the vision leaves her, "Absolutely horrible."

#38 – Gift

"Did you just-" Jeff pauses to collect his thoughts as he glances over his shoulder at the guard, and says, "Did you just, um, bribe that guy?"

#39 – Smile

None of the other three can ever tell what Pu's thinking behind his permanent, small smile – until Ness trips and falls flat on his face trying to teleport, and Pu bursts out laughing, and they all know that Pu's human, just like them.

#40 – Innocence

"Hey me, you lost your cap."

#41 – Completion

Ness can barely fit all the pictures in his scrapbook, and it's kind of nice that way.

#42 – Clouds

Paula walks to the edge of Dalaam and runs her fingers through the clouds there, just because she can.

#43 – Sky

The Sky Runner is cold and metal, and none of the controls are labeled, and there aren't even any seats, and sometimes Jeff wonders if his father is even human.

#44 – Heaven

If Ness could have one wish granted, and one wish only, he would choose to live in Onett with Paula and Jeff and Pu forever.

#45 – Hell

Onett is dark but not quiet; Ness can hear the soft beeps and swooshes that signal Starmen and robots, and he's never hated Giygas more.

#46 – Sun

It's about the third time that Jeff passes out from sunstroke that Paula suggests that maybe wandering the desert at noon looking for a sesame seed isn't the best idea.

#47 – Moon

They find the white seed at sunset, just as the moon comes up, and even though they're all stumbling and Jeff looks like he's about to pass out again, they all can't help but smile.

#48 – Waves

The little submarine seems too big and too quiet with Pu gone.

#49 – Hair

Ness worries a bit about how Jeff and Paula are going to get along, and then he comes back into the hotel room in Threed after getting a pizza, and Paula's filling Jeff's hair with ribbons as Jeff sits calmly and quietly as he fiddles with a broken can, and then Ness doesn't worry anymore.

#50 – Supernova

Ness hears a crash, and he jumps out of bed to stare out his window; in the distance, he can see, very faintly, a glow from on top of the hill, almost as if a star had fallen from the sky (and for a moment he catches an image of three other figures, bright as the sun, but that thought's gone just as soon as it arrives).


Notes: So a few years ago I copied some prompts off LJ and forgot about them. I came across them about a week ago and thought 'why the hell not'. And thus, this.