This is War

~*O*~

"SON OF A BITCH!"

The laptop crashed to the ground in an angry fit. The other occupant of the room gasped in shock.

"Ruse, is everything okay?"

Jumping down from her swivel chair, Rusame roughly picked up her laptop, only to throw it to the ground again, successfully breaking it with an acidic pop. "Of course nothing is okay, Prue, since when has anything been okay?"

Mumbling inane profanities under her breath, the ship weakly tugged at her hair and kicked the stained, peeling wall angrily. PruCan rose from her spot on the bed and crouched low next to her friend, a hand raised in concern.

"Is—is it RoCho again, Ruse? Did he send you another panda on Farmtown?"

Taking a deep, calming breath, Rusame lowered her hands to her side. She shook her head, resting her forehead against the wall. PruCan placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "Was it USUK? Did she upload another doujinshi?"

Rusame weakly shook her head again.

"No, but that certainly wouldn't help," she mumbled sourly, gently shaking the hand off. "It's just—" The brief flicker of fury gone, a thick mesh of shame and guilt welded up in her stomach as she glanced at the destroyed laptop. Great, now how was she supposed to catch the next update of Psycho? "I'm sorry, Prue. I'm sure you have better things to do than watch me tirade."

PruCan smiled gently and took hold of Rusame's hand. "You're my friend, Ruse, and friends support each other. Besides, you know how much I love visiting your place!"

With an incredulous look, Rusame glanced over the expanse of her tiny apartment, the single, unmade bed, the empty bag of chips and soda that littered the floor, the cracked window that offered a lovely view of the downtown slums. She raised an eyebrow. PruCan smiled weakly.

"It's charming," she said simply. "Besides, you're always welcomed to my house any time—"

"Oh yes, because I want to spend all day getting snubbed and looked down at by all the non-canons, that'd be swell," Rusame spat bitterly. "How is Germancest doing by the way?"

PruCan visibly paled, sloppily changing the subject. "W—well, maybe if you dressed a little more—" she glanced subtly at the ripped jeans and the shirt that exclaimed DON'T BOTHER, I'M NOT DRUNK YET—"less you, maybe people wouldn't confuse you for a crack ship all the time."

Rusame sniffed impatiently, walking over to her destroyed laptop. "Even if I dressed like a princess, it still wouldn't get me out of here." She hesitated, biting her lip, before continuing, "You don't get it PruCan; I'm stuck here. While you go make buddy buddy with FrUK and all the other non-canons, I'm just sitting here, getting sicker and sicker by the day, waiting for the moment I don't exist anymore. Do you know what it's like? To not know if you're going to wake up the next morning because there's nobody else there for you." Hot, wet tears sprung from her eyes, rolling down her pale cheeks.

"R—Ruse, what is it—?"

"Another multi-chaptered left me," she whimpered brokenly, clutching the laptop to her chest. "She—she left me for Naruto, and I don't know how much more I can take before—. I'm dying, Prue, I can feel it, and it hurts—"

Biting her quivering lip, Rusame set the broken laptop down on her chipped desk. "I'm sick of it, Prue; I'm sick of just sitting here and reading mediocre porn while those damned OTP's are getting fatter and fatter at our expense."

"I know you are, sweetie, we all are," PruCan crooned gently, thumbing her friend's shoulder blade in comforting circles. "It's just the way the world works, though. It's in our nature. There's nothing you can do about it. Don't beat yourself up over what you can't change."

The room went silent, when suddenly Rusame's breath hitched. "...in our nature..."

Silent PruCan watched with wide eyes as Rusame reached down and open a drawer filled with pictures and pictures of various OTP's and ships. One had a head shot of RoCho with multiple holes pierced through his face, almost has if someone had thrown darts at it. A red inked TRAITOR was written across the forehead of a smirking USUK. The only picture that was unmarked was the childish face of Gerita.

Of course, nobody ever dared to slander a picture of Gerita.

"R—Ruse, what are you thinking?" said PruCan in a soft voice.

Rusame shuffled all of the pictures, growing visibly more excited. "You're right, Prue. It is in our nature." Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Rusame turned to her friend. "Prue, we—we can start a war.

"A war?" PruCan gasped in horror and realization sunk in. "You mean a shipping war? Ruse, are you crazy? Don't you remember what the Shipping Wars did to Avatar: The Last Airbender?" It still sprung nightmares to her subconscious to remember the ravaged wastelands of the old fandom.

"The tensions between all the OTP's has been getting thicker and thicker for months. You remember what happened at the last Summit, USUK and FrUK nearly killed each other; it was in the papers for ages. And that's not all—Germancest and PruAus haven't spoken to each other for years; PruGary would jump through hoops for a shot at AusGary… It's only a matter of time before something sparks," said Rusame, clutching the photographs in her small hands. "We have all of the materials, Prue; why shouldn't we be the ones to start it? If this works, it will fix everything."

"If it works? Ruse, you can't expect us to go against the semi-canons and win can you?"

"It won't be just us, though." Rusame pulled more papers from the drawer, maps and blueprrints. "FrUK would leap at the chance to knock USUK of her pedestal, and there are plenty of ships that would want to see Gerita—"

"Now you want to go against Gerita?" Heart constricting at the idea of Gerita's warm face contracting in pain, PruCan grabbed her friend's shoulder and whirled her around to face her. "You're scaring me, Ruse, stop this."

"Come on, Prue, you of all people should know why we should so this," said Rusame frantically. She paused for a moment, and then continued in a softer voice. "Aren't you tired of all those snobby ships looking down at you and saying 'it's never going to happen'? Don't you think that you should have a chance?"

"B—but," PruCan whispered, heartstrings tugged as the image of her livelihood flashed beneath her eyes. They're just so good together… "That's not what it's all about. It's not about becoming canon—"

"Then do it for me," Rusame grabbed her friend's hand, voice firm with conviction. "Do it for all the ships that never had a chance to become an OTP, all the ships that were snubbed and pitied because nobody cared what they have to say. Please," Rusame voice lowered to a broken whisper. "Please. I can't do this without you."

The seconds ticked by, Rusame clinging to PruCan's hand like a lift line, her whispered pleas bouncing around in the silent room. PruCan heaved a sudden sigh.

"Ruse—you're my best friend. If something were to happen to you…I don't know what I'd do." She took another deep breath, taking her free hand and placing gently over their tangled fingers. A new light of determination filled her eyes. "You're my friend. And friends support each other."

Struggling to maintain a serious expression, Rusame said with eyes far too bright, "Then let me say that on this day, you, Prudence Beilschmidt Williams, and I, Rosaline J. Braginsky, have formed an alliance."

~*O*~

Does anyone know how the new character slot thing works on FF here? Like, I have this story categorized under America, England, Russia, and Prussia, and if I just plug in America and England, I can find my story just fine. But if I plug in America and Russia, it doesn't show up. This is kind of important considering Rusame is the main character and I kinda want shippers of them to read it.

Yeah, that's right; I gave the OTP's legitimate names. It doesn't matter though; I'll always refer to them by their ship names. That was just for laughs.

PruCan and Rusame's alliance stems from the fact that out of all the multi-pairing stories I've read, Rusame and PruCan almost always appear alongside each other. FrUK is another one, but more on that later.

Next chapter, Rusame goes hunting for allies!

Leave a review my ducklings! This is all for funsies, after all~!

P.S.

(Psycho is a RusAme story written by the wonderfully talented Urchin of the Riding Stars. Read it, love it, make babies with it, because it is amazing.)