Hello all! So here is a short little one-shot due to a small competition that me and my friend are having. I've told her I'm not too great at writing fluff and so, she dared me to write a fluffy one-shot and she would too. My sister chose which characters we would use fanfics for, which are Anastasia and Tangled. One will be angst, the other fluffy. I got Anastasia fluffy, and Tangled angst, and my friend vice-versa. If she posts her stuff on fanfiction, I'll update my author's note and let ya'll know!
Also! If you're wondering about my Fullmetal fanfic, don't worry! I've not forgotten it... I just needed a little fluffy in my life. I'm getting back to that with hopefully an update by the end of this week. :D Yay!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANASTASIA! and there was caps lock for extra emphasis. xD
Now... On to the story! Enjoy
The campfire crackled under the dark of night, its embers casually floating with the rising smoke. Three people huddled around its warmth, paying rapid attention to the portly man, whose belly would rumble in succession to his laugh.
"...And they say that if you go to the far corner of the palace corridor in the east wing, you can still hear the cat, clawing at the walls, as if it is still trying to break free." Vlad, the portly man, spoke ominously, daring the atmosphere to change its creepy aura. The two others, Anya (otherwise known as Anastasia) and Dimitri, listened with rapt attention. At the end of the story, Dimitri shivered, daring a glance at the surrounding forest which engulfed them. Anya, however, blinked, unimpressed, much to the surprised of the two others. Pooka, the adorable grey pup of unknown breed, whined at her feet as if he, too, were spooked by the ghost story.
All was silent for a few moments before Dimitri cleared his throat and Vlad swiftly blew into his hands, hoping to help the fire warm them up.
"That was a very… interesting story, Vlad." Dimitri sniffed, itching under his nose.
"Yes, it was quite entertaining. I don't suppose it's going to be one of the questions I'm asked when I speak with the Queen, is it?" Anya asked, casually. Dimitri studied her face, looking for signs of fear etched within.
"Well, no. Not that I am aware." Vlad made himself more comfortable on the makeshift wooden bench, "it's just a bit of fun, I dare say."
"I must say, dear sir, that that was quite the entertaining story." Anya reported, using what she would call her "aristocrat" voice.
"Don't tell me you weren't at least a little creeped out." Dimitri said, unbelieving. Anya shrugged.
"Nah, I don't get scared easily. Isn't that right, Pooka?" Anya reached to scratch the pup behind his ears, earning a small wiggle of his tail. Dimitri watched, half astounded, half enraptured by the small smile which played across her lips. If he didn't know any better, Dimitri would say he never would have thought to see such a smile cross the woman's features. They'd been so caught up in teaching her the ways of being a Duchess, they'd almost forgotten what it meant to take a break.
"Wait, hold on, you're telling me that you don't get scared?"
"Well, yeah. Kids from the orphanage always tried to get a good scare out of me. Since it happened so often, I became an expert at not being scared. They were always disappointed in the end."
Leaning against his knees, Dimitri raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "So, you're saying that there would be no way I could get you jump from fright?"
"Basically, yes." Anya shrugged, staring up at the starry sky. Feeling mischievous, Dimitri slyly slid next to her, their shoulders touching, ignoring the universal bubble that said "do not invade my space!"
Narrowing her eyes, Anya leaned as far away as she could without falling over, wondering just what the con-artist was dying to pull.
"I bet I could scare you." Came his confident reply. Anya snorted.
"As if,"
"Alright Princess. I bet I can scare you within one week." His ever present grin grew wide, eyes sparkling with delight. Anya contemplated his proposition.
"What do you get if you win?" She asked, feeling almost amused herself. Dimitri's smile dropped for just a moment, thinking.
"Well," His hand reached up to twirl then place a lock of her hair behind her ear, "if I win, you have to call me 'your majesty' for one week." His whispered breath tickled her ear, a sensation Anya demanded her heart take no consideration of.
""Fine," she supplied grudgingly, "but if you can't actually scare me, you must serve me my meals for the entire week." They stared into each other's eyes, forgetting the third person sitting across from them. At Vlad's clearing of his throat, Dimitri and Anya immediately glanced away, their cheeks rosy from more than just the chill of the night.
"You've got yourself a deal." Dimitri held his hand out, waiting for Anya to grasp it. It wasn't until later that night that Anya realized what she'd just gotten herself into.
Long after the fire had gone out and they had all snuggled into their blankets under the blazing starstruck sky, Anya awoke to a twig snapping nearby. Her eyes popped open, disoriented, before realizing where she was and just whom that noise could possibly be from.
Pooka yawned, crawling further under the blanket Anya was using. She glanced around the darkness, trying to adjust her eyes to the shadows deep within the forest. Another crackle was heard, this time closer.
Hoping to dissuade the man from doing anything too drastic, Anya quietly called out, ""Give it up, Dimitri! I know that's you out there!" For the umpteenth time that night, Anya wondered why she had ever agreed to the ridiculous challenge. Especially right at that moment, as it interrupted her "beauty" sleep (at least, if anyone asked, that's exactly what she was doing. Naturally, as with every night for as long as Anya could remember, she'd lay awake for a long time, mind reeling with thoughts of what her 'would be' family was doing and if they missed her.)
As she had expected, Dimitri never answered. Which, Anya assumed, was his attempt at causing her to jump with fright. She snickered to herself. He'd have to do much better than twigs breaking in the forest if he was hoping for a 'good' reaction from her.
"Okay, I'm going back to sleep now! Hopefully the scary noises won't keep me awake!" She mocked, laying back down with a smirk. After a moment, Anya heard him quietly cursing as he tiptoed back to his makeshift bed. It took all she had not to laugh aloud at that.
Over the course of the next four days of their travel, Anya experienced what Dimitri had deemed "operation: Scare Anya", all the while Vlad would chortle from his various walking spots. Each day, Dimitri did his best to scare Anya, and each time left him sorely disappointed, choosing to nurse his wounds in silence. Honestly, Anya was slightly disappointed in his scare tactics. The children at the orphanage had a far better imagination and creativity than him. With a sigh, Anya kicked a pebble near a small stream. She'd left their tiny group, not only for a bathroom break, but also to breath some fresh air without the demands of royalty this and royalty that hanging in the air. Pooka followed her, splashing his feet in delight at the small stream, jumping back and forth from one side to the other.
It was as she was balancing on a small log that Anya suddenly had a brilliant idea. Her eyes glinted, and she couldn't help the small giggle that bubbled to the surface.
"Oh Pooka, it's going to be perfect!" She crouched, picking up the pup and holding him in front of her, "we're going to turn the tides on Dimitri. He's going to have the shock of a lifetime when he realizes that he's the one getting scared!"
Carefully, Anya set up her trap, feeling excitement at the prospects of what she would soon witness.
"First, and foremost," She listed to Pooka, "I'll call his name from the woods - because I'll be going to the bathroom or something like that. You know how it is, right Pooka?" Anya smiled, hunched down on her legs to make sure her adorable dog was listening. "Then, I'll hide away until he gets close enough to my hiding spot, and then I'll just pop out and scream 'Dasvidaniya!'" She tapped Pooka's nose, "what do you think about that?" Pooka simply barked once, wagging his tail, before skipping around her in an excited jog. Anya giggled, enjoying watching her dog yip with joy.
With a bounce to her own step, Anya smiled triumphantly, feeling elated. Now, she just had to figure out the right time to put her plan into action.
That same day, Anya scooped some soup into a bowl, humming to herself, taking no notice of the bemused glances of her travelling companions. Nothing could ruin her mood. Nothing at all. Until her very large, and very personal bubble was once again invaded by the man who seemed to daunt her daily.
"It's a chilly evening, wouldn't you say?" Dimitri causally commented, bumping her shoulder as he grabbed a second bowl of soup. "Lovely weather for such warm, heavenly soup." Anya's eyes narrowed as she watched the man next to her childishly twist his spoon in his mouth before allowing a small pop as he took it out, a smile of intrigue caressing his lips.
A frown upon her own, Anya turned towards him, "face it, you're never going to scare me. You might as well give up now." It would be nice if she could actually relax without wondering if he was going to pop out of nowhere.
"Nah, where's the fun in that?" He sauntered off with his bowl of warm soup, a twinkle in his eye as he sat, once again, next to Vlad.
"Youngin' these days," Vlad chuckled to himself from an unspoken joke, directing his humor towards Pooka, who had taken a spot near his feet, eyes seemingly growing larger in want for his own taste of the soup. Vlad shook his spoon at the pooch before taking another spoonful. Anya smiled and the evening passed like so, banter passing back and forth between the three.
The chilly night passed, with stars blazing the sky, and what would later be known as the Milky Way cascading a streaky glow across the starlight. Dimitri had woken to the morning dews and condensation, wiping his face to wake himself up. With his other two travelling companions still soundly asleep, he grinned mischievously as he realized it was a great opportunity to scare the lovely Anya, or as he preferred to call her, Anastasia.
Cautiously, after relieving himself, Dimitri crawled his way to where Anastasia was resting, feeling a giddiness within him that this could possibly the moment where she shouted in fright. That moment of satisfaction that his goal had been reached. Smiling, he lay down next to her, resting his head against his palm, the ground the resting spot for his elbow.
Then, he waited.
He waited so long, that he almost gave up his position; but then, Anastasia stirred, groaning and stretching as she woke up, and Dimitri continued to smile, the upturn of his lips turning more more mischievous as he waited for her to startle in surprise to how near he was. However, he was met with disappointment when her beautiful ocean blue eyes fluttered open and briefly glanced at him. Her eyes adjusted to his nearness, before rolling at the sight of him, too close for comfort (really, he enjoyed tormenting her bubble, didn't he?)
"What in the world?" Her voice scratched with disuse, "did you really think you'd be able to scare me first thing in the morning?" She smirked at his pout,
"You're not normal, you know that?" He booped her nose before sitting up, shaking out the dead from his arm. Anya simply grinned, delighting in her ability to thwart Dimitri's plans. They made breakfast with Dimitri sulking as he forked his eggs. Vlad chortled as he told some such story or another about some such relative of Anastasia's that ended up having a smoked face from the ashes of the fireplace. It was as humorous as he made it out to be and Anya couldn't help her own laughs while she enjoyed her own breakfast.
It was at this moment, when Anya got up to use the bathroom away in the woods, that she realized this would be the perfect moment for her to take her own shot at scaring her arrogant travelling companion.
Slowly, Anya walked back to their resting spot, listening to the musings of Vlad and Dimitri as the chortled about their lives and its adventures. Instantly, her plans changed. What a brilliant and hysterical moment it would be if she was able to scare both Dimitri and Vlad.
Creeping as close behind them as she possibly could, Anya reached out both hands, and, as she briefly shook a shoulder from each man, she screamed out,
"'Dasvidaniya!"
Immediately, Vlad jumped viciously, his plate of eggs he'd been enjoying flying up into the air, and promptly fell off the log with a loud "oomph!" as he did so. Dimitri, however, jumped viciously, but having no plate of eggs in hand, left him with the ability to grip the log before falling over. His shout was significantly quieter than Vlad's.
Anya burst into laughter at the sight of them, holding her stomach and wiping away tears from their corners. Vlad resituated himself onto the log, his cheeks a rosy red, while Dimitri simply watched her, scratching his nose, waiting patiently for the lady to cease her outburst.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Dimitri said calmly, trying to resist the red of his cheeks to flair. Anya, still laughing, pointed his way while she spoke.
"I…" she paused for laughter, "I got you!" She, still crouched over, wheezed as best she could. This was the greatest fun she had ever had.
"Got me?" Dimitri blinked, glancing at Vlad who was surreptitiously clinking his plate and fork about, standing to wash the dishware, doing his best to avoid how easily he had been scared. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He smirked, brushing off non-existent dust from his dark trousers. Surprised, Anya abruptly stopped her laughing, blinking in her own surprise over his should-not-be confidance.
"You're joking right?" She stood straight, a hand on her hip, "you were totally scared!"
"Me? Scared? Couldn't possibly be true. I never get scared." His smile twinkled with knowing, though his words said otherwise. Exasperated, Anya turned towards the flustered Vlad.
"Now, I know I scared you, Vlad. You fell right off your seat!" She waited for Vlad to say something, anything, but words never left his mouth. Vlad simply cleared his throat a few times, then wandered a little bit away, unwilling to admit that he'd gotten scared.
"Neither of you are willing to admit I scared you?" Anya asked, incredulous. To her, this was the most ridiculous thing any man could ever do. Unwilling to admit something not considered "manly".
Dimitri stretched, the sound something outrageous, "well, I've got at least two more days before our bargain ends. Enjoy it while you can, Princess." He stood up, doing several more stretches as he did so.
"I think not! I believe scaring you automatically means I win." Anya huffed, irritation flashing in her eyes. Now, more amused than ever, Dimitri's eyes glinted of her form, his smile growing bigger by the second.
"Don't worry, Princess. It'll happen when you least expect it." He tapped her nose, then patted Pooka's head, having just noticed the dog sitting excitedly on the log, before walking in the same direction as Vlad had gone.
Feeling just as exasperated, Anya sat down on the stump of a log in a huff, raking a hand through her ruffled hair. Slumping her form, she looked over at Pooka.
"Men!" She growled out, laying an elbow against her knees. How Dimitri thought he could scare her when he'd failed miserably thus far, she would never know.
And there you have it! xD Hope you enjoyed the cuteness. Hopefully I succeeded in making it fluffy...? xD
If you can... please Read & Review! I would seriously love it if ya'll did :D Makes my day!
Ja'ne!