30Kisses Theme Ficlets
Robin/Raven
By Kysra
Theme #28 (Wada Calcium CD3): Word
Robin is not the master of crosswords but that doesn't stop him from butting into her space and hobby for the fifth time in as many days. It happens when she is bent and puzzled over the four letter boxes of 10 Across - 'associated with calcium.'"
"Wada." He says without inflection or pause. She hadn't even noticed she had muttered the clue aloud.
A long suffering look clouds her features, but she asks the question anyway, "What?"
"Wada; W-A-D-A, as in Michihito Wada."
Staring at him is easier than giving in to the temptation of executing a strategic barb or a question born of honest curiosity, so she watches him with an inscrutable expression before turning back to her crossword. From anyone else it would simply be a lack of extended interest. From her it is a succinct dismissal.
Robin always did have a problem following orders, especially silent ones.
It is not long before she has forgotten his presence, and unconsciously, her lips shape the next clue as her pencil hovers over a line of three blank squares denoted by the number 20.
"Asp." His voice catches her off-guard and the potted plant in the corner explodes in a cloud of soil, leaf fragments, and clay pieces.
Her glare, when it reaches him across the room, promises death and pain – not necessarily in that order. "Stop doing that."
The grin is at its cheeky best, and she suddenly knows he has planned this entire encounter down to the very crossword puzzle she had found facing up so innocently upon the sofa. "Stop watching you or stop answering?"
"Stop playing with me." She doesn't know what's gotten into him, but this strangely hyper-attentive Robin is far beyond her range of experience; and it makes her nervous.
The grin softens, and her body uncoils. The wolf is once again just another sheep. "Keep up the crossword, Raven."
His attention turns to a video game and the rest of the hour is spent in companionable silence subtly kissed as it is by the game's musical noise. There are three more words she has yet to guess at, her knowledge of English vocabulary not quite enough to finish the puzzle; but she decides to come back to it after fetching a cup of tea for herself and a glass of soda for Robin.
She is gone no more than five minutes, and when she returns the three words have been filled in. They are spelled in his distinctive style, two words written – as hers are – in blue ink, the third in red and obviously incorrect as there are letters he has scratched out to fashion his answer with her own name. And when her eyes meet the clue which her name has responded to, she loses all breath and feels as if the world has shifted when the ramifications come clear.
Five letters, 4 Down – Fr.; my love.
Notes: It must be quite OBVIOUS from this little ficlet that I - personally - SUCK at crosswords. And yes, I'm aware that the French phrase for "my love" is mon amour. But that would have left too many letters (or too few if I had decided to have Robin write her given and sur names). There was a similar problem with having the clue be "lover" (which would have defeated the purpose as it already HAS five letters). In French, it would be amoureux. Another answer could have been paramour, but still too many or too few letters ;-; I was about to just give up when I threw up my hands and went, "It's gonna be like this, damn it!" And so it is.