Drabbles

By spheeris1

Pairings: Multiple…

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[Exacting]

exacting roses from the body...
Each sword that came from her body gave off heavenly light and showered the room with a petals fragrance, turned the floor into a bath of red--like her life on display, bleeding out in velvet dress and roses--each one cutting out of her flesh, piercing her chest like rocks jutting up from the sea...
rose...rock...roses...rocks...
Even through my tears, I wanted her tormented beauty to remain: living and breathing and glorious, like a flower wilting in the unforgiving sun.

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[Stolen]

where did you come from and who gave you your painful eyes?
She was born in the desert, from a goddess--the stench of life mingling with the grains of sand--her first breath, the air of dirt, rocks and liquid fire.
And her father kissed her on the forehead, placing a red jewel, a tiny dot, a mark to bear through all of time on her forehead--he placed it with the tip of his tongue.
And so she was alive.
why do you suffer so and what is behind your fearful heart?
So the story goes, living in a temple of marble and clouds, that she wandered away one day, lost forever to a storm, swirling tan taking her away from her homeland--her mother cried to her death, her father rode his horse into the wastelands--all because their princess was gone.
how did you come to be here?
Out of their grief, they created a son. And sent him to search for her, but bitterness became his cloak and once he found the princess, her fate was sealed...just like before...
He kissed her forehead, but did not stop there.
And the princess believed him when he said that her mother and father did not love her, did not need her, did not want her.
that is how witches are born...

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[Burning Down the House]

Dearest Kozue,
I am living in Paris now. And I cannot sleep well...I think I became addicted to those milkshakes, to the sugar and now...now I stay up because I miss the sugar.
Or maybe not that at all, maybe something else all together.
Yes. Sometimes, I miss sharing a room with you.
Listening to you slip off your uniform or back-talk me or sneer at me...I can hear that sneer, you know. Your disdain makes more noise than any drunk Parisian jazz band.
And I write some songs now, too....Maybe you'll hear some of them, if you come over--if you get this letter.
Perhaps you'll just throw it away like you did with the ones from our parents. They write me now. The letters come here, rose-scented from Father. I don't read them--I am like you now, I think.
I think I like to be reckless now, just a little wild like you now. Do you find this funny? I bet you do. I can just see your impish and devilish grin.
Anyway, my coffee is getting cold and the sun is setting..I can't see to write more. I have no electricity.
Paris is pretty this way. You should see it some time.
Yours,
M.

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[City of Lights]

'How long have you been here?' She asked, sipping her coffee and letting an old man sketch her face. She had no reason to hide anymore. The old man said she smelled like a rose-garden. She just smiled at him.
'Five years.' He told her, jotting down notes on his composition paper with a sliver of charcoal--the brittleness of it appealed to him greatly.
'You must like it.' She responded, dropping gold and silver coins into the old man's hand. He gave her the picture, all wine-soaked shading--orange merging with green with blue with pink--she liked it, but not enough to keep it.
'I do. You should think about staying here.' He suggested, scribbling B-flats and marking out times. He could hear the shouts above in French, his ears trying to catch some words he understood.
'Do you ever want to go back?' Juri asks, reaching over and gently pushing Miki's music down to the table. Miki smiles a little.
'Yes and no. It is the 'no' I listen to.'
Juri smiles back, returning to her coffee.
Maybe she would stay here...at least for a little while...

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[Untitled]

unimaginable connections---
When Shiori saw her walking, it made her skin burn--as if someone was holding matches to her body, as if Shiori was flying toward the sun with wings of wax--Juri is the sun.
And Shiori is nothing more than coal on the ground, buried under shoes and soil.
Shiori cannot grow underground, so she festers like a wound and spreads her kissable disease, from her lips to someone else's lips from their lips to someone's ear from their ear to Juri's ear....Shiori has connections like that, when she uses them to hurt someone...
unseen, shining edges...
Juri has seen her eyes, so wide and beautiful, open like a window and colorful like a plum...only to see them become hard and cold, shuttered off like a safe and sharp like unfinished stone...no one tumbles those jewels, though Juri wants to, wants to take the need in those eyes and polish it back to youthful perfection.
Juri can feel Shiori's fingers though they have never even touched, her nails like knives and cutting off more and more pieces of Juri's heart, unseen to the naked eye...unseen but oh so real...

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[Games of War]

All his moves were planned, from the beginning and to the end, all the evidence was shredded and all the witnesses bought, slept with--any means necessary, all is fair in love and war...
The heat of his phone in his pocket, ringing all day and all night--rockets going off
The stares around the campus, eyes undressing him--bullets grazing the skin
His body is a chessboard, pawn to E4--mouth to torso--
and he will forgo all the foreplay, who needs it? The engine is always revving up and racing down the highway of dreams for him...and he is not blinded by love or friendship or family, not like the rest--a general under pressure
Akio says he is hoping for him to win this little war of the roses, this battle for eternity--and Touga is willing to forsake more than honor to get there...in the end...he is willing to sell it all down the river--soldier under fire

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[Catastrophes In Waiting]

'Without love there are no dreams.'
Utena heard this whispered one night, next to her ear in the hours for sleeping, and she awoke--looking to the side, seeing Anthy's bed empty.
But it has been empty before...though Utena doesn't really know how often it has happened...could be once or could be a million times...
'Without love...
This time it was louder, from the kitchen and Utena got up slowly, walking as if this was not her room and she should not be here...edging her way to the door and pushing it open. Anthy sat on the floor, knees tucked under and arms crossed tightly.
'Himemiya...?' Utena asked, but she received no answer, even as she knelt down and crawled closer, even as she touched Anthy's cold face--no reaction.
...there are no dreams...
Anthy said softly, letting her body crumble sideways and into Utena's quick-moving arms. And she held Anthy there, listened to the girl say that one line over and over and over...till Utena felt disoriented, dizzy and found herself kissing Anthy's mouth, muttering words of comfort and reassurance.
'You have love, my love and you'll have dreams to come true, because I love you and you'll be safe now, don't worry...don't get upset...I am here, I am here...' Utena couldn't stop, as if watching from a distance at her kissing Anthy, talking to Anthy and holding Anthy close....
'Utena-sama?' Anthy questioned and Utena bolted up, a stab of pain shooting up her back and into her neck. Why was she in the kitchen? Did she sleep here?
'Himemiya...' Utena mumbled quietly, letting the girl help her up and back to her room.
'Go to sleep, Utena-sama.' Anthy whispered, going to her own bed.
And Utena fell asleep, with Anthy wondering how Utena came to be sleeping in the kitchen and why she found herself waking up in Utena's bed?

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[A Pretty Passage]

Her steps felt uneven, with pavement missing in some places and dips in the road, the faded double yellow lines running off into nowhere.
And she walked. And her legs burned with the exercise, with the motions she is not used to--back and forth, strings stretching and muscles pumping--but she did not stop.
Her blood sang out, it rose up and colored her cheeks, it made her glow like a pink sunset over the sea.
She drank from cactus, nicking her fingers as she cut into the tender flesh of green and sucked out the hidden bounty of water--she watched rabbits run over the ground, she followed vultures as they circled carrion below--she was not living off the land, she *was* the land.
It pulsed around her, within her and it sustained her as days became months and months became years...but not really.....
...she woke up outside the gate and saw only darkness behind her, only darkness ahead. Was nothing different out here in the real world? Did she run and fight for nothing? Was her changing and growing-up for *nothing*?

And a rabbit runs past her, tiny feet kicking up dust and heading west.
As good a direction as any, Nanami decides and begins to run after the universe now open to her.

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[Six Ways To Leave You]

Kill him. Run from him. Hide from him. Disguise. Duel. Die.
Anthy has thought of them all, laying in silence on his couch and with her head pillowed in his lap, drifting in-between waking and dreaming--
But how do you kill that which only takes what is offered to them? How can you hate those who use you because you let them?
And Anthy marks off each one, none of them worthy enough to be tried...until the last one--the one she always comes back to, the one that she is destined for it seems.
To die. To let her life dissolve like sugar in water for his life to go on...
He brushes her hair back softly, like he truly cares...and maybe he does, deep down somewhere--past the need for eternity, there lies a brother buried and he loves his sister, he wants her to hold and to cherish and to love--That brother wants her to be saved one day.
But Anthy tells him that she cannot be saved, not now and not ever...and she curls her fingers into the material of Akio's shirt, tugging it open like she has done for years and years and he leans down to kiss her mouth, tasting of bitter acceptance...

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[Easier This Way]

Looking for a Prince is hard, traveling the world's surface and eyes becoming bleary--it takes a toll on you...
But this is easy, this is simple and understood--it makes sense the way snow in June makes sense...at least in Alaska...or somewhere...Anthy thinks these things, laying in her bed with pale legs wrapped around her and crescent moon indentions on her arm from Kozue's nails.
Kozue sleeps all day and kisses all night, Kozue doesn't pretend life is grand now, out here in reality--it is what it is....just life with more possibilities, like this one. At Ohtori, the two of them had a common bond and a speeding car...here, the two of them are adrift and searching, finding a bit of home in the heat of their mutual embrace...
Anthy presses herself flat to the bed and lets a waterfall pour over her from Kozue's skin--they decided to wait one more day to begin the long road to redemption...

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[The Over and Under of It]

When did her delicate fingers turn to fists, hard as cold iron and slamming down onto the surface, breaking the shell open?
Kanae went to therapy twice a week, coming out of fugue-like states mumbling and chattering about a room with no windows.
'Can you tell me more?' The therapist asked.
'Yes, but I don't want to talk about it.'
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Blonde like corn-silk, up against sickly skin and pale pink lipstick--kisses in moonlight and bitter fruit by day--who led you to the hanging tree?
'You have to want to explore these images...' Her therapist started in. Same as always...same words, same demands.
'I see a scarf. That's all. A scarf of silk, tied around my neck and it keeps getting tighter...is that what you want to hear me say?' Kanae feels frightened and angry.
'Is the scarf real?'
But Kanae does not answer that question.
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Gifts from a lover, husband to be and held so firmly to her chest, to feel her heart beat with a useless love and pathetic devotion...a fabric to last till the end of time...
Kanae let the scarf fall to the desk.
'All real. Told you so...it was all real...' Kanae hissed, then walked out, leaving the garment with this shrink who knew nothing of pain or lies or anything.
Kanae knew about those things, like she knew her name or her eye-color. Kanae knew so much more than she was given credit for--she lived with the Devil in his harem of the dead, nearly letting that show of elegance choke her into oblivion--then she woke up on the outside of it, under it, over it.
Kanae didn't need to pay money to realize that.

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END [for now…]