five miscellaneous drabbles

[misura]

Title: Like Seeks Like
Author: misura
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing/characters: Abarai Renji and Kurosaki Ichigo
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Lunatics

They are the both of them a little mad, a little bit less than sane - with Ichigo, it's the drive to be the best paired with the inescapable knowledge that yes, the world and all the people he's ever cared about are going to need him to save them, and he's not going to be able to do that by staying at the level he's on now - with Renji, it's knowing he will never be the best, the strongest, the most popular guy in the Soul Society and not giving a damn (except for the part where he cares so much it hurts).

Any of their meetings is as likely to end with a fight to the near death as with a quick fuck in whatever reasonably secluded place they can find on short notice - as they themselves, their relationship does not always seem as rational or sound of mind as it might be.


Title: Smokers Need not Apply
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender / Supernatural
Pairing/characters: Sokka (A:tLA) and Dean Winchester (Supernatural)
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Fires, forest or otherwise

They stared at one another for a moment, the smoking remains of the fire demon still smouldering a few feet away, until Dean figured that okay, he knew what the guy looked like now - time to say something funny and smart that would establish him as someone totally cool and badass.

"Dean Winchester." His voice came out all hoarse.

The other guy blinked and smiled, then pointed at himself and said: "Sokka," which was kind of dorky, except that Dean had just seen the guy take on a fire demon all by himself, so clearly, second impressions were not to be relied on.

"So, hey." Dean cleared his throat. "That was a pretty neat trick with the boomerang."

"Thanks." Sokka (and what kind of name was that, anyway?) looked sort of embarrassed, as if he wasn't used to being complimented.

"Got kind of hot there, huh?" Dean said. "You thirsty? 'cause I figured that if you were, maybe we could go grab a drink somewhere. If you want to." Sokka looked like he might say 'no', so Dean figured he might as well go all out: "I've got a car. Impala."

Sokka's mouth formed an O. "Uh, sure. A drink sounds good." He fake-coughed a little.

Dean figured that maybe dorky guys could be pretty badass, too, sometimes.


Title: The Bigger Picture
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing/characters: Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Lunatics

Maes still talked about his family neigh-incessantly - it had annoyed Roy at first, because it seemed out of place in the here and now; Maes was cheating after all, cheating on that lovely wife of his he professed to love so much, and while it wasn't as if Roy was judging him (that would hardly be in his own best interests, after all, considering), he still wished Maes would keep his mouth shut about them.

Roy was human, after all; on some level, he was capable of feeling guilt over taking what he needed from a man he still thought of as a friend first and a lover second.

("I want you to get to know them, Roy," Maes said. "I tell them about you, you know. About us.")

("Why?" Roy asked, bewildered.)

("Because I love you almost as much as I love them," Maes replied serenely. "You're the one who needs me more right now, though. They understand that.")


Title: Closer
Fandom: Suikoden III
Pairing/characters: Chris and Nash
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Fires, forest or otherwise

In addition to his many other talents, Nash also turned out to be able to turn a shapeless heap of kindle into a nicely burning campfire in almost the same amount of time it took Chris to take care of their horses.

"Isn't the Ice Maiden afraid she will melt if she sits too close to the fire?" The smile that reached his eyes took the sting out of the question - he was merely teasing her. He seemed to enjoy doing that.

"The Ice Maiden is afraid she might freeze to death if she doesn't get warm soon," she said.

He chuckled. "I know of an excellent way to get warm quite quickly, if you'd be willing to cross over to my side of the fire."

She smiled at him, unbuttoning the top button of her shirt in spite of the cold. "I am quite comfortable where I am, thank you. However," she paused, asking herself one last time if she really wanted to do this, here and now and with this man, "you're certainly free to come over to my side of the fire."


Title: A Fever You Can't Shake
Fandom: Weiss Kreuz
Pairing/characters: Hidaka Ken and Fujimiya Aya (Ran)
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Prompt/challenge you're answering: Lunatics

Even though the nightmares, the memories haunt him every single night, Ken knows he will never be able to stop killing. It doesn't matter that it's not what he wants. It won't matter when it's no longer what Kritiker wants of him. It's part of him, now and forever.

The only thing he can do - must do - is to make sure he only ever kills those who deserve it, the bad guys. That, he hopes, will be enough to keep him sane, to keep him alive until the day he dies.

(He knows it isn't - not anymore, and maybe it never was all along. There's something else he needs, someone else, fighting the same fight, standing by his side, watching his back ... waking him when the nightmares get too bad and he can't wake up on his own.)

(Ken just wonders, sometimes, if Aya doesn't need someone like that, too.)