Certain Songs: A 50 Songs Challenge
First of all: I admit 100% that I stole the idea for this collection from the lovely and talented GypsyxSilent's "If the Beat's Still Strong." But she took her idea for that collection from another theme collection I did, so I'm not particularly ashamed of myself.
So, in case you're unfamiliar with "If the Beat's Still Strong" (and I can't stress enough that it's full of cool ideas and you should go read it), the way this works is that I put my iPod on shuffle, wrote down the first 50 songs that popped up, and will write ficlets based on each song. Aside from all the ficlets only featuring TMM characters, there's no set POV, genre, rating, set of pairings, or anything, and the themes should not be assumed to take place in the same world as each other even when they're not AU—and yeah, some of them are going to be AU.
Also, like Gypsy, I'm pretty much using this collection as a placeholder to get myself back in the habit of writing, so it will update unpredictably and probably very slowly—not that that matters so much, because again, there's no overarching plot happening here. I'll be posting sets of five ficlets whenever I have five ficlets ready.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters who appear in the following ficlets, nor do I own any of the inspiring songs.
01. "No Children" – The Mountain Goats
"I heard you and Ryou broke up," Ichigo said cautiously, not really sure what was the best way to approach the subject this time. Minto shrugged.
"Of course we did. He's a bastard. I mean, you know he's a bastard, right?"
Ichigo bit her lip and nodded. She wouldn't have described Ryou like that, even if she used that kind of language, but she'd seen enough breakups (mostly Minto's breakups, now that she thought about it) to know that sometimes people just needed to vent and didn't actually want you to try and be sensible. She hoped that if she ever broke up with Masaya—not that she wanted to break up—that she wouldn't be quite so... weird about it.
"I can't imagine how we ever thought it would work out between us," Minto continued with a wave of her perfectly-manicured hand. She was more elegant now than she had been at thirteen, and Ichigo was glad to be in a stable relationship if someone who looked like Minto couldn't hold down a boyfriend. "We're too much alike, I think. It was like spending all my time with another me, and can you imagine how annoying that could get?"
"Gosh, I wouldn't have any idea how annoying hanging out with you could be," Ichigo teased. Minto laughed and slugged the shorter girl companionably in the shoulder.
"Fine, then," she corrected herself. "It was like spending all my time with a much less charming version of myself—and don't you say anything!" she added, seeing Ichigo open her mouth to sass back. "I hate that bastard."
"So you're done with him for good now?" Ichigo asked hopefully. At twenty, she felt way too old to still be dealing with her friends' romantic drama.
"Well..."
"Minto!" Ichigo exclaimed. Yep, that had definitely been too much to hope for. She sighed. "So, when are you seeing him again?"
"Friday."
02. "Dentist" – Steve Martin
Pai heard the crash and winced. As the ship's physician it was his job to patch up the other two even if (and this was an educated guess on his part) they hurt themselves being idiots. And, indeed, when he dared to look outside, he saw Taruto and Kishu lying in the hallway in a tangle of limbs, grinning like maniacs.
"What happened?" Pai asked with a sigh. They just smiled stupidly back at him, clearly too pleased with themselves to admit to whatever they had been doing. "Fine, I don't want to know." In a flash, he grabbed a syringe—full of experimental plant growth formula, not that he was about to tell them that—off a table in his lab and waved it at them. "I'll fix you up. Who's first?"
They left him alone after that.
03. "Wig in a Box" – John Cameron Mitchell
Keiichiro hummed to himself as he wiped the counter down. He loved running a busy business, and the Mews were all lovely girls, but it was nice to have a bit of peace and quiet at the end of the day. Honestly, there were days when he wouldn't mind too much if this was his whole job, if he didn't have to worry about saving the world.
"Sheesh, it's dark in here," Ryou said as he climbed up the stairs. "I have cat genes, and I can barely see find my way around!" Keiichiro smiled, blinking back the bright spots when Ryou flicked on the kitchen light.
"Maybe you should spend more time in the kitchen, then," he teased. "You'd get used to it."
"Hell no!" Ryou replied eloquently. Keiichiro tsked.
"I clearly raised you wrong."
Ryou came over to him and took the sponge out of his hand. "Forget about cleaning. I've got an emergency downstairs that I could really use your help with."
Keiichiro nodded and put the sponge back in the sink. Wishful thinking aside, he was fine with throwing himself back into world-saving mode. He would be whatever Ryou needed him to be, even if that meant that the counters stayed messy.
04. "T.O.Y (Team of the Year)" - Adam Warrock
Berri Shirayuki gratefully took the cup of hot tea from Ringo Akai's outstretched hand. Ringo flopped down on the bench beside her and eyed her white ice skates suspiciously.
"That looks scary," the younger girl said, biting her lip. "Are you sure I can't just wear my boots?"
"Aw, you'll be fine," Berri replied with a smile, breathing in the warmth of the tea. "Besides, you're part penguin, aren't you? This should come naturally!"
"Penguins don't have foot-knives," Ringo pointed out sensibly. Berri bent down and grabbed the pair of small red skates she'd rented for Ringo. "Oh! They're actually pretty cute when they're little like that!"
"Hey, are you calling my feet big?" Berri asked, laughing. Ringo's eyes went wide, and she clamped her mitten-clad hands over her mouth. "Relax," Berri added gently. "I was kidding. I know you didn't mean it like that. But they are pretty cute skates, aren't they? Put your feet up on the bench and I'll help you get them on."
Once Ringo's skates were on, Berri stood up, the blades of her own skates sinking a little into the snow, and offered the younger girl a hand. Ringo looked down doubtfully, wondering how she would be able to stand up on those little blades, but she let Berri pull her to her feet. Walking on her skates in the snow was weird, but it wasn't actually difficult, certainly not as difficult as she had imagined it was going to be.
So she was pretty confident when they came to the edge of the rink. Berri stepped onto the ice first. Ringo followed and immediately fell down on her butt.
"Are you okay?" Berri asked, gliding over to where Ringo sat.
"Fine," she replied, rubbing her sore rear end. "Ice is hard."
"Well, yes," Berri said as she helped Ringo up. The younger girl was still shaky on her feet, but Berri was a good enough skater that she could support Ringo without both of them falling over. Together, they slowly made their way around the oval of ice, Ringo occasionally letting out gasps of excitement or fear.
"Berri?" she asked after a bit of skating.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for taking me skating. I wish the others could be here."
"Me too, but I don't mind too much. I like just hanging out with you. And besides, us new Mews gotta stick together!"
Sticking a little too close to the older girl, Ringo tripped again and pulled Berri down into a laughing heap.
05. "Wolf Like Me" – TV on the Radio
"Good, good! Sexy! Feral! I love it!"
Zakuro tried to focus on posing as the flashbulbs went off in her eyes. She was used to this, more or less—she'd never done high fashion before, true, but she was used to being on camera—but the lights were affecting her more than usual.
It was a good thing this was an "edgy" shoot instead of one where she was supposed to look soft and beautiful. Ordinarily, she was good at soft and beautiful, but right now, feral was about as much as she could manage. She itched all over, and she had to suppress the urges to gnaw at her hands and use a foot to scratch behind her ears.
"Growl for me!" the photographer called in his heavily-accented Japanese. Zakuro did as she was told, baring teeth that she could feel growing longer than human incisors. Hopefully, everyone would think it was really good makeup. "Great!"
As she contorted her body for the camera, she could feel her knees trying to turn backwards, but the photographer kept shouting encouragement and praise, so maybe she was just imagining the feeling that all her pores were about to burst into fur. She kept up what was apparently very good work and tried not to think about how much everyone around her smelled like meat.
