Welcome to a ficlet/drabble project I just recently started to reward all my loyal fans and random reviewers for their kind words and patience. This will continue until I run out of themes, which are exclusively provided by you, the readers. One review gets you one theme made, if you'd like to suggest more than one feel free, I'll pick my favorite. The quality of the review directly corresponds to the quality of the returning ficlet. I'd prefer one or two word themes if you can. Thank you in advance for reading and maybe reviewing.
As of 4/20/2012 I am at or near my current limit of prompts, so those of you who are new are allowed to submit one prompt, but beyond that I'm afraid you'll have to wait until I catch up. Thank you, everyone.
Rating: T
Theme provided by: FicletMistress
001: Threshold
Seifer breathed deeply in order to gather his thoughts enough to keep his head about him. This was probably going to be one of the hardest conversations he'd ever had in his life, and that was if it went well. Pushing the door open, he waited a moment in the threshold, watching his boyfriend pet their dog while he worked on an essay. Sighing, he entered the room, clutching a letter and a small card in his hand.
"Hay, I need to talk to you."
The other man turned to him in alarm before getting up, knowing just by the tone of his voice that something serious was happening. Dark eyes glanced down at the letter and his mouth turned down gravely before he looked back up at his partner questioningly. They both knew when the government reinstituted the draft that one of them could get stuck fighting a war against the Heartless but they had hoped they could actually be lucky for once in their lives.
"When do you ship out?" Hayner asked finally, voice hard.
"Three weeks. Apparently I tested out of being a grunt and was automatically promoted to Captain. I'm probably not going to get to come back home for two years minimum, unless we actually win before then," he added with an air of disbelief, knowing damn well this wasn't the kind of war that was won in half a decade.
"I guess we'll just have to make the best of the time we have then, won't we?" He replied with a small, sad smile before pulling his lover in for a kiss.
It had been a full month since he'd been flown out to Hollow Bastion and he'd already lost three of his squadron to the front lines. They were set up in a small grouping of houses away from the Castle proper, one of the few places that was safe from constant assault by the Heartless thanks to the efforts of the keyblade wielder Sora. As a Captain he had his own room, though it might as well have been a jail cell for how small and sparse it was. Seifer had only received one letter from his boyfriend since he'd gotten here and was growing increasingly worried about the lack of return mail from the message he'd sent out two and a half weeks ago.
A knock at his door pulled him out of his thoughts and he answered it, finding his second in command, Namine. She hadn't been drafted, instead she joined of her own accord to protect their world against the menace of the shadowy creatures. Though she was small and seemingly timid around others, on the battlefield she was easily the bravest person out there. He wasn't sure what her reasons for joining up as a combat operative had been, but he liked her. Sometimes they talked about Hayner during the long nights when the Captain couldn't sleep.
"Is everything alright, Nam?"
"I was just coming to inform you that we'll be receiving five new recruits tomorrow. You don't have to greet them in person right away, they won't be combat-ready for a few days, but I thought you should know in case you wanted to get a head start on terrifying them."
He gave her a small smile before replying, "I think I'll give them a break their first night. If I scare them too bad while the transport is still on base they might try to run off."
"Such a thoughtful captain, Seifer," she joked in return before wishing him a good night and leaving.
He avoided pulling up a list of the new recruits to try and keep his mind off the idea of five more lives to be responsible for. If he did he'd be up all night thinking about the people that had already died under his command and the idea that the fate of everyone back home depended in part upon him. As it was he fell asleep at his desk not long after and woke up with the sound of the transport arriving. Blinking wearily he stood and stretched before making his way to his bed and laying down for another few hours. Their squad was one of the least formal since they were on the front lines, far away from the micro-managing strategists who thought they could tell him when exactly he could go to sleep, wake up, eat, and piss. His subordinates didn't really give a shit if their captain got some extra sleep, especially if it meant he'd be well-rested enough to not die the next skirmish.
A couple hours later he was roused by a knock at his door, brows furrowing at the intrusion in his rest. For a moment he considered actually get up and answering the door to see what Namine wanted as she was the only one who bothered him when he was in his room, but then he decided against it. The injury he'd gotten in one of his first battles may have healed over, but the scar on his back still hurt deeply as if it was a fresh wound in the mornings and he preferred to just sleep through the pain.
"Go away Nam, I'm sleeping."
To his surprise, instead of a joking comment about his sleeping habits said through the wood, the door was pushed open, never having been locked since he got here. Irritated at the intrusion despite his implied order, he rolled over and sat up, fully ready to bark something at the blond girl.
"Still just as lazy in the mornings as always, Seif. Sorry, Captain Almasy," his boyfriend said with a secretive smile.
"What the hell, Hay? How did you get here?" He asked incredulously; the only reason he knew he wasn't dreaming was because of the dull throbbing in his back.
He was leaning on the threshold of the door easily, relaxed despite the full uniform he had on. Assuming the right to enter, he walked in before explaining and shut the door behind him.
"I joined your unit. It took a while to convince them to let me, that's the only reason I didn't get here sooner. You didn't honestly think I'd let you do this alone, did you?"
He smiled and got out of bed to meet his partner, kissing him like he'd wanted to for every one of the thirty-one days he'd been living in this little slice of hell. It was probably completely inappropriate to be dating one of his subordinates, but if his superiors didn't care enough to prevent Hayner from being assigned to him, then obviously the non-fraternization guidelines had been thrown out the window somewhere between here and when they were written and he was all too happy for it.
"Love you Seifer."
"Love you too, Hayner. Are you expected anywhere any time soon?" He asked abruptly.
"No, why?" The younger man returned curiously, brown eyes searching him for an explanation.
"Because as far as I'm concerned it's been way too fucking long since I got to hold you, and I am still tired as hell."
With that he shoved his lover onto the bed and tugged him out of his uniform expertly before being pulled onto the hard mattress himself. Pulling the tan blond into his arms he kissed Hayner on the forehead and let the feeling of a twin heartbeat against his chest lull him back into a much more peaceful sleep. He still had a war to win and lives to protect, but at least now he knew he wouldn't have to do it alone.
