Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

[crankyoldman]

Since I like tapping into the talentness that is my f-list and since I seem to have acquired some new people (hi people!) I figured a meme was in order.

After becoming annoyed today and generally feeling craptastic, I figured, why not try something crazy and different. And Sev agreed with this. (NOT STEALING FROM YOU NAY I PROMISE!)

THE BREAKUP MEME

Comment with a snippet, which contains a breakup of some kind. I care not how, I care not who, I just want to see some anti-pairing action here. Be creative. Bonus points if it does not contain them running to someone else for comfort. I want to see FAIL here.

If you're not feeling creative, post a request. Anyone can answer a request.

I just want stuff to read and stuff to write that is short because my brain hurts.

Ok, go.

~Cendri

Edit: Extra bonus points if you can draw cartoons.

Triple Edit of Doom: I woke up this morning to ten emails, and I have gmail which collapses conversations.

I love EVERYONE today, and will try to make comments to everyone.

Comments

In which I answer my own meme because I can (FF7:AC)

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

[mind you, this is mostly parody]

"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Looking at me!"

It was official that the Lifestream sucked. Not only was she missing the ability to have any sort of physicality outside of acts of a god, but she was stuck with Zack.

Who was distinctly less cute and charming the longer she spend her afterlife with him.

"I wasn't looking at you."

"Yes you were!"

He seemed to bring out the more childish aspects in her. He was clingy. He thought he was hilarious. He had that stupid perfect toothed grin and that stupid golden boy attitude.

'Til death do us part' suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

And of course, he had to pick that moment to try and tell her another of his stupid jokes.

"Hey, what do you get when you cross a chocobo with a--"

"THAT'S IT! YOU GO TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LIFESTREAM!"

Breaking up was so much harder when you were dead.

Re: In which I answer my own meme because I can (FF7:AC)

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

Is it sad those are reasons I enjoy the relationship.

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

They’d never had need of words so when it happened there hadn’t been much of an outburst of emotions; in fact, no one seemed to notice at all. Of course, she had there’d been a distance building then she’d seen it and well… it was really a lovely day, perfect for flying.

They were all there, his little hero friends, there to cheer him on as he final refurbished their favorite transport. None of them were particularly close, she wasn’t sure if she was relived or feeling far bitterer than she’d imagined.

Those two hadn’t gotten to the celebration, yet. She’d known him long enough that he’d want to consummate his new arrangements on his new toy. That’s how they’d done it for the old one.

The children were getting rather impatient for things to begin so she decided to humor them, a bit.

No one quite knew how to reach when all that was left of the…whatever he was going to call was less than smoldering scrap. Se shown her the basics once and she’d learned a lot about rocket fuel over the years so it was properly impressive. The little Wutain have even given an impressed little whistle.

Their relationship had been mostly nonverbal so she was certain he’d likely gotten the point.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Hee, I know who THEY are... sneaky with the no names.

Vineld (these'll be harded to end on a positive note!)

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

"Valentine, get your hand off my stick."

Vincent just grunted and withdrew further into his shell, staring out the window as the dull Midgar streets passed them by. Times like these Veld really hated sharing a car with the kid.

Usually Valentine would call bullshit and say something cocky, or ride his ass all day long until he broke down. But not today. Today he was unusually quiet, the impenetrable wall for which Veld himself had gotten to be rather well-known.

Not one word, but he was still antagonizing, still in his space and trying to set him off. But that was nothing new. Valentine was always all up in his space.

But he couldn't help this pang of fear welling inside of him that this time, things were going to be different. That if it came down to it, one day Vincent might just up and leave him high and dry. That, if it were his ass not five hours from now, Valentine might just give him what he deserved.

It hurt, more than he'd like to admit. Especially since it was that very freedom that he had just tried to hand him.

He wished he could let himself take it back.

Re: Vineld (these'll be harded to end on a positive note!)

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

I kind of died at the first line a little. XD Off my stick indeed.

~Cendri

Tidus/Yuna

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

They'd been sitting at the dinning room table. It was morning, and she'd been out late. It hadn't been anything bad. Yuna wasn't the sort to cheat. She was always honest and upfront because Tidus wasn't a BAD person really. He was just horribly, horribly boring.

And she hated blitzball.

Yes he was nice, stable, and had his good points, everyone did. But god she'd spent so many years chasing the IDEA of him. Only to have him come back and be so painfully out of sync with her.

"I don't know that this is working out." She said from over her part of the paper.

"What?" he was reading the comics.

"Tidus, I don't think that you and I should see each other anymore."

And that was it. He thought about it, an index finger poking Charlie Brown in the head. "I suppose you're right."

If you couldn't get worked up over it, then the relationship was long since over.

Re: Tidus/Yuna

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's interesting. Not dramatic or hateful just "huh, this is reality".

I kind of like that.

~Cendri

[irish-ais.livejournal.com]

"I can't come down this weekend."

Rinoa cradled the phone between her shoulder and her cheek and flattened her palm against the page of the Timber Maniacs issue in her lap. "Okay."

"Sorry."

She shrugged, and then remembered that he couldn't see her. "It's alright. I'll try to come up and visit. Or whenever you get your next leave."

"Rin--"

"Yeah?" She fiddled with the corner of the page, nails leaving little crescent marks in the glossy surface.

"I might not have leave time for a while." There was an inflection in there that she didn't miss. "You don't have to come up here."

The page in her hand tore slightly.

"What do you mean?"

There was a pause. "I mean, I've got the SeeD exam coming up, you've got the Forest Owls--Look. I'm sorry, Rin. I've got to go."

There was a soft click.

"Seifer?"

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Oh NICE. <3

I KNEW YOU WOULD PULL OUT THE STUFF THAT TUGS AT MY HEART!

~Cendri

request

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

Hojo/Jenova

Ifalna/Gast (I can't help myself)

Re: request (god, this pinged me)

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

[I'm making Drak do the Hojo/Jenova, so naturally, I pick up the other]

"It's cold outside, don't go out there."

That was how he begged, in that slightly nursemaid tone of his. She'd really liked it, once upon a time when all she wanted was someone to pay attention. Someone to show what they felt. Bren was really good at expressing what he felt.

And she realized she was starting to lose the ability to, as her belly grew.

Ifalna was going to walk out into the ice and snow. She'd decided. If the Planet hated her for it, then they would die. But there was a child involved and it was about time she tested her faith.

"I can't. I can't anymore, Professor."

It had nothing to do with anyone but herself. She knew that.

FF7: Cloud/Tifa

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

It's dark and silent in the room as she lays there, watching his chest rise and fall in his sleep. She thinks that maybe if she lies perfectly still, she can separate herself from the simple action. As if sharing breath was something romantic, something sacred.

People... they didn't understand.

There was so much talk about the two of them. Cid had asked her if she'd started dating again. Barret kept asking where Cloud was, like maybe if he said it enough then she would get the point that he wasn't there. But when he was...

Most people could never understand why she didn't mind it—or for those who couldn't be convinced, why she didn't show it. But she'd already invested so much, it would be foolish and disheartening to quit now. Besides, all this talk of what a woman deserved and how she should be treated—were those people really happy, or any more empowered?

Who had the right to decide what she deserved? And if she did deserve it, who got to decide that she would get it?

Why did anyone deserve to be happy? Did they earn it? Were they born into the right, the godsdamned privilege?

She thought that was rather presumptuous.

Vincent would tell her that the best way to judge whether or not something was worth the wait was by starting first with the longest time-line imaginable. Unwittingly—or perhaps not—he had also posed an unspoken question.

What if he never does come around?

She realized then that by that time, it wouldn't matter much anymore.

It was why she could let him go.

Re: FF7: Cloud/Tifa

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

This is the best pairing of an icon with a fic ever. EVER.

Quistis/Squall

[lassarina]

She saw it the moment she arrived for the Deling City mission. The cues were subtle, but to someone trained in behavioural science and psychology--someone who had made an extensive study of this subject--they were unmistakeable. He looked at Rinoa twice as often as anyone else. he placed his body in such a way as to be between her and whatever threats might come at her. If she was sitting next to him, he sat less like a rigidly posed doll neatly aligned in its invisible box, and more like a human being.

She pretended to be having a problem with her contacts so Zell wouldn't ask why her eyes were red.

It was even harder to say goodbye when you were the only one who knew you were saying it.

(p.s. 1: May I friend? We seem to circle around each other in fandom a lot.)

(p.s. 2: you people really need to stop with the awesome memes while I'm trying to write for Kinkfest, by which I mean, please don't stop.)

Re: Quistis/Squall

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Eeeee.

(1: SURE! I make a lot of lists and say a lot of nothing though, fair warning)

(2: And I really am sorry. XD I got annoyed today and wanted to take out my rage. IT SHOULD HELP MAYBE.)

~Cendri

Squall/Rinoa

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

It had been long in coming. The dashingly handsome general and the beautiful princess turned enchantress. The Sorceress and her Knight were young, brave and full of the power to make the world move beneath them. She was poised to be empress, he her brilliant tactician.

And then the empress realized that wealth, power, and success were things she'd had all her life. She was missing the same thing she missed as a child.

"You never talk to me…"

"I'm busy Rin. I don't have time."

"Make time."

"Rin… not now."

She stomped her foot and the air crackled about her, she was still the sorceress after all. "No. You will-"

He silenced her with a glance. "A tantrum isn't going to work this time, Rinoa."

"A WHAT?"

"I. Said. I do not have time for your tantrums."

There was a long pause where the room seemed to vibrate. No anger could be silent with Rinoa, even before she became the core of magics. "MY TEMPER TANTRUMS? What the HELL do I look like?!"

"A. Spoiled. Brat." Squall snapped, words punctuated by a tap of his finger on her map. "Look, pick what you want already, I'm busy with the first thing you demanded, You HIGHNESS."

"I want out."

He simply pointed. She knew where the door was.

Re: Squall/Rinoa

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Ouch Squall, way to be a jackass. XD

~Cendri

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

“It’s your boss isn’t it?”

The office was a poetic place to end this, a lovely stark contrast to their beginning. A drunken tryst, Shera would have preferred he’d done it in bed.

“He isn’t fond of your kind.”

She smirked at that. So it wasn’t poetry he was playing at Se was going for appearances.

“You should hear what mine says about his kind?”

That couldn’t have been it. There were too many secrets between them and their mentors for one more to break things. They’d gotten around them too many times…oh now she understood.

“That’s not it.” The finality in his eyes shouldn’t have matter. Still she was going to end it this way, even if she wasn’t certain why.

Her figures toyed with his hair one last time.

“I prefer blonds.”

She tightened her grip, “you prefer girls.”

The coldness in his eyes didn’t change it. Wasn’t she the cold one because she had someone else?

Because it was entirely affectionate to skirt chase the boss’s daughters while spending your evenings with your lover.

“Go back to your pilot?”

Shera didn’t bother to slap him because she wouldn’t give him that.

It was all so pathetic, really.

There wasn’t a pilot waiting at home for her and Se… what did he even have?

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Eeee. The very fact you HAVE Shera/Tseng is enough but the whole awkward conversation stuff WIN ALL.

Ya, win all.

~Cendri

Cid/Edea

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that she knew too much and it wasn't that he'd learned too little. It wasn't that the walkway had overgrown by the sea or that the world had changed.

He looked at her and she looked at him and it wasn't that they had forgotten either. It certainly wasn't that one of them was without sin, and it wasn't that the other couldn't look beyond being a sinner.

"They were our children..." She said at length

"They had to become warriors, Edea." His was a voice of quiet affirmation.

And this is what it was. "No. They were our children."

"They were not children anymore." It was more like they could not recall being children anymore. Not a one of them was going to outgrow those scars, they weren't ever going to be fixable. He'd broken them.

It was worse than any crime he could have committed in her absence. "You were supposed to protect them."

"I couldn't protect you and them, Edea."

She nodded and turned from their home and the old house. "You made the wrong choice, Cid."

Hours passed while Cid stood on the overgrown walkway and watched the tide. "Maybe I did." And it was a mistake he would have to live with, because time was something even Edea could not take back any longer.

Re: Cid/Edea

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. MAKE ME CRY WHY DON'T YOU!

*sniffs* My only vaguely OTPish thing in FF8...

~Cendri

Squall/Xu/Fujin [because it is hilarous]

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Xu wasn't stupid. She's figured out right away that they were vying for her attention. Fujin was deceptively smarter, but Squall was prettier.

She had to admit that much, at least.

But they were both driving her insane in the bad way. Xu had never wanted to let relationships get in the way of her work. After the incident with the roses and the near explosion in her office, she'd had enough of both of the crazies.

"Squall? I appreciated all the fun we had with the dancing and the taking over small countries, but I just need some space."

He shrugged. Playing it cool, obviously.

Now for Fujin. "You're surprisingly well spoken and better at..." she whispered the rest. Squall glared.

"But really, I just can't handle your psychotic possessiveness." It felt good to get it out.

She walked off, but not without catching how they handled it.

"...Way to go, crazy."

"PRETTYBOY."

"Whatever."

Re: Squall/Xu/Fujin [because it is hilarous]

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

Squall's not talking until she left and then saying 'whatever' made me giggle like a school-girl.

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

I have a request!

Veld/Ifalna.

I'll see if I can do more than one

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

She was perfect and that was the problem. It wasn't the niggling idea that she could do better, because he knew that Ifalana only wanted what she got.

Maybe that was the problem. Life had been kind to her, despite her missing things and in the face of the fate she loved so dearly. She was compliant about the one thing Veld could not be, the lives of loved ones.

Even when he'd come to rescue her from the evil wizard, so to speak. When he transported her and her child to safety, she never even thanked him. And she never asked him to go back to see what had become of her husband.

"Gast...you left him?" He hadn't liked the man at all, but to leave him without a fight?

"And you left Vincent." She hadn't meant it as an attack.

And that made it all the worse. Veld only yelled with one person who was gone because of a mixture of foolishness that Veld had given up blaming anyone for. But when he didn't yell, when things got horribly calm, was when he was done. "Never bring him up like that again."

She opened her mouth, and he knew what she would say, her pretty hand and her soft voice and her goddamn stupid fate. "I told you he was gone..."

Veld refused to believe her. "Just shut up about it, Ifalana. I can't take it back, but I can say I'm sorry. And I will." Even if it was to a corpse.

She nodded, coughing. The tests had been far too much for her.

He handed her the train tickets, his hands still red from SOLDIERs' blood.

"You could stay with me?" She asked, adjusting the baby.

"Not anymore, Iffy." Veld responded. "I'm going to fix things I've done wrong."

"We weren't a mistake, Verdot."

Veld's hand closed around the cigarette case he'd kept for no reason in his pockets. "I wasn't honest with either of you. Not really a mistake, but I hadn't wanted to..." what to say, keep her? Not really, no. He had wanted one time, perhaps, but what he'd lost wasn't worth even one night with her.

Thankfully, he didn't need to explain. "I understand, Verdot."

"Goodbye, Iffy."

Sephiroth/Hair stylist

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

It was a one night stand. At least that's what he kept saying. The wicked smile and the way she just left him feeling so clean, so fresh and nearly glistening. Like she'd given him a new soul.

So one night turned to every month... then every few weeks.

He'd been stupid to not think that Mookie wouldn't have noticed.

"I KNOW you've been somewhere else, Sephiroth!"

And that tone is what he'd been hoping to avoid. "You just don't do it for me anymore, Mookie. You always said I was so difficult to tame and that's just not true. You didn't have what I needed."

A bottle of conditioner flew at his face. "OH PROVE IT?!"

Sephiroth stalked forward, held up a fist full of perfectly white hair. "DO YOU SEE ANY SPLIT ENDS?!"

And there was the truth in Mookie's face. He deflated then. "I... no, I do not."

And Sephiroth let go of his own locks. "Then I think that says it all."

Re: Sephiroth/Hair stylist

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

Oh MAN. No Supercuts for Sephiroth. Nuh-uh. By appointment only. XD

[(Anonymous)]

... Mukki and Bubbie. XD

I will draw something silly for you in return.

Also, Cait Sith/Moogle

[yukie1013.livejournal.com]

^Me, forgetting like a dork that I wasn't logged in. XD

Vincent's Heartbreak

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

The staring contest wouldn't be won. "Look, I'll always remember the fun times we had, alright? We've just... shit. We've been together since I was fifteen, man. I haven't had.. I needed to go out and do other things."

There was a pause, as if Vincent was honestly trying to say something nicely.


"You don't do it for me anymore and... well... you're just too small." It didn't come out nicely at all.

"Is 60 gil enough?" The pawn shop owner was afraid to get into deep conversation with a man he'd just watched break up with a handgun.

Vincent nodded and accepted the gil. He had a rocket launcher to go home to.

Re: Vincent's Heartbreak

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

The size comment had my face hurting. I did have to take a break. XD

Look at Turk Vincent! He's so sad!

I even gave it a title ...

[tijuana-pirate.livejournal.com]

Oh the blood and the treasure
And the losing it all,
The time that we wasted
And the place where we fall,
Will we wake in the morning and know what it was for?
Up in our bedroom, after the war?

- The beginning after the end, Stars

In our bedroom, after the war

For as long as Tifa could remember, she’d been fighting for something. She’d been pushy as a child and had always been arguing with her parents. Just five more minutes, papa. Mama, I don’t wanna play the piano!

As a teenager, she’d been fighting to be noticeable in a town where everyone already had their own roles. Tifa didn’t want to be a wallflower; she wanted to be extraordinary.

When she learnt to use her hands for more than just piano keys, she’d just wanted to fight.

The day that Cloud had shown up on her doorstep in Sector Seven, Tifa had realized that what she really wanted was to fight for him – for the ghost of a boy that she’d seen in his eyes.

They’d fought – beautifully, viciously. When Cloud had stopped withdrawing into himself, when he’d finally learnt who he really was and what that meant, they’d fought like some people bought groceries. Their lives had made them into violent people and the violence came out in strange ways. A kiss that lingered too long or a note that didn’t get scribbled down properly. Cooperation could be a kind of sparring match too. They had to fight to live together properly.

They fought in their silences. Sometimes they were fighting for each other and sometimes they were fighting against each other. The opponent didn’t matter because after spending so many years looking for something to fight for, they just didn’t know how to sit down and be at peace.

It had been a Wednesday, Tifa remembered distinctly. It had been a Wednesday and close to ten am in the middle of September. The sun had been gloriously warm, probably one of the last warm days before Edge’s long, awkwardly cold winter months started. Cloud had been cooking them a late breakfast and he’d looked over at her to smile in a strange, self-mocking kind of way.

We don’t really work that well together, huh Teef?

He’d said it like he’d known it for ages. Sometimes you needed to fight to reach a realization as well.

Tifa had laughed and shaken her head.

No Cloud, we probably don’t.

Then what are we fighting for?

In her new apartment, far from bars and orphanages and the bits of her past that she’d never quite gotten over, Tifa knew that it was probably the most mature thing that Cloud had ever told her.

-------

Title blantantly stolen from the title track of the new Stars cd. Because they are awesome <.< >.>

-T. pirate

Re: I even gave it a title ...

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

I love so many people today. SRSLY. I love so much today. I'm like a hippie of breakups.

GOD I love this. Its so... them, really. They were together out of friendship because they grew up in the same town. They weren't really... anything deeper that wasn't a product of his imagination. GOD I love you

[angelari.livejournal.com]

He hadn't expected the pistol shot to be so loud. The Turk hit the floor and Hojo stood there, panting, waiting to see if anyone would come and investigate the noise.

No one did, so he moved into phase two, with the needles. It was something he'd been wanting to try for some time; he just hadn't had an acceptable specimen.

"It's not you, it's me," he muttered, making the first injection.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Eeee!

Short and to the point. <3

I didn't think you would respond! I am glad!

~Cendri

Vincent/Tifa

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

Veld: "After all, I've been in this bar for over six years."

Then came the drunken pity sex.

(It's STILL fail. XD)

Re: Vincent/Tifa

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

Too cute.

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

When this day came it was supposed to be Tseng. That way she’d keep Zack in the first place because one day Tseng would leave her and she couldn’t be alone. Goofy, silly Zack wasn’t capable of much more than loving. She’d go running to him after it had happened and he take her in his arms and tell her he loved her, how he’d never leave her.

Except it wasn’t Tseng, who’d come into her home so late at night baring the fullest vanilla folder she’d ever seen in her life. Gaia, it had been leaking papers as he’d waked. Who knew such an old project would have contained so much information?

Then he would have had the nerve to tell her it was still ongoing. Tell her who it was exactly, the project was now focused on. As if she hadn’t known. All girls know if their mothers loved them.

It wasn’t Tseng who was looking at her now as if she was something to pity rather than love.

“There a few places I know…”

There had been one thing her parents had ever fought about. It was a quiet fighting without worlds or actions against each other. Neither of them had ever thought she’d known. She hadn’t just known she’d understood it as well.

Daddy wanted to send her and mommy away. That wouldn’t have been so bad. Mommy had been getting sick; maybe it would have made her feel better. Adventures were always fun, weren’t they. Hadn’t all her friends when of family trips?

Daddy wouldn’t be going, though.

“Get out.”

He didn’t say anything and his expression never even wavered. If he’d, at least, had the decency to been hurt maybe…maybe…

Their type wouldn’t because they know better, didn’t they.

She’d started shouting and throwing that Lifestream cursed paper work at him, except maybe she wasn’t even throwing it at him at all. There were times her mother had cried all night, Hojo used to tell her.

“Think about.” He didn’t beg his case or plead to her, because he didn’t have to. He was so right wasn’t he.

Then he was gone. She wasn’t sure when he’d left because it seemed like such a long time for her to final wind down. It hadn’t helped, because it still wanted to comfort her.

It curled around, told her how it never liked Zack, how it would take care of her, there was just one little thing.

They’d always leave them with that wouldn’t they? They couldn’t understand. Her mother hadn’t been serving the Planet she’d been running.

It was supposed to have been Tseng.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Oh I am glad I was in a bad mood and proposed this meme. Else I wouldn't get to see all your wonderful backstory pieces.

It's a whole lot of sad, really. <3

~Cendri

Warning: Bad writing and swears. And maybe a little angst.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__ariana__/]

Reno had been laying in bed playing on his hand held game system, completely minding his own business. Work today was easy, he was about to beat the boss of the current level, and his aibou was down stairs doing some cute domestic things before coming to bed.
A few more moments passed and Reno grew bored of his game. He hit the off switch, flipped the top down and saw Rude standing at the foot of his bed, his arms crossed and his expression blank. Reno was probably the only one in the world who could tell just how pissed off he actually was.
He paused "... What's up, yo? You look angry? Issit bossman?"
Rude stared.
Reno stared back, his eyebrow raised. He set down the game entirely to prove to Rude that he had his undivided attention, and that's when he spotted a little pair of pink panties sitting on the foot of the bed. Inside, he panicked. His mind raced with all sorts of thoughts - 'How the hell did those get in to my laundry?', 'Oh god, what is he thinking?', 'I could have sworn I got rid of those!'.
Rude continued to stare. There were tears forming but his sunglasses disguised them well enough for now. He stood, waiting and inwardly pleading for an explanation - anything that would make this okay. Even if it was a lie, he just needed to be able to fool himself. The last thing he wanted was to give up the best thing that had ever happened to him.
"Uh..." Reno paused again. His mind was still too busy saying 'Shit shit shit shit shit!!' for any sort of explanation to present itself. "Well... see.... they're not mine! I swear!" There was a sense of urgency in his voice.
"I know they're not yours, Re-," his voice cracked, but he just cleared his throat and kept speaking. "Reno, that's the problem."
"Well... who's... do you think they are, yo?"
Rude stared again and Reno knew that meant he wasn't about to play a guessing game.
"They..." Reno thought. He had to choose carefully. He couldn't say he got them off some woman from a bar because that would make Rude feel like he was so worthless he could be traded in for any random person off the street. He also couldn't pick someone really close, like Elena, because that would destroy Rude's relationship with that person and likely reveal the lie.
"They're... Tifa's." That was the best middle ground Reno could come up with on such short notice.
Rude's eyes narrowed with disbelief.
"I'm so sorry, Aibou... I was jus' takin' a trip to 7th Heaven to see how things were over there and... one thing led to another. Please forgive me, aibou..." Reno begged and pleaded. He crawled out from under his blanket and over to Rude on his hands and knees. He looked up with the most pitiful expression and whined and whimpered in attempts to earn Rude's forgiveness. It took but a minute or two for Rude to finally speak.
"Not this time, Reno. This is it." He took another short look at the person he loved with all his being, then looked towards the door and left.
Reno took a minute, pondering what Rude could have meant. He couldn't accept the possibility that they'd just broken up - not at first. He went through every possible meaning but nothing else made sense. Crawling back up and under his blanket, he took a spare pillow in his arms. He hugged it tight and considered telling Rude the real truth - telling him that those panties were his and telling him all about everything Reno had been working so hard to hide for so many years. But he knew he couldn't - he was certain that not even losing Rude could give him the courage to say something like that to someone.
He pulled the pillow into himself as tight as he could, squeezing all the air out of it. He buried his face in the soft cotton and began to sob. His knees pulled up to his chest, his hands gripped so tightly the flesh went white and he cried until he could hardly breathe, until his head was pounding, and until there were no more tears to cry. Then, even all the pain couldn't keep him awake and he succumbed to sleep. As he drifted off, two simple thoughts crossed his mind, a weak reassurance. 'Maybe tomorrow everything will be alright,' he thought. 'Maybe tomorrow I won't have to wake up.'

Re: Warning: Bad writing and swears. And maybe a little angst.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

A little hard to read due to no real paragraph breaks and well, wibbliness, but not a bad idea.

[Seifer/Fujin]

[fanaticalone.livejournal.com]

[How about platonic breakups? Family estrangements, end of business relationships, stuff like that? (I like this idea - I've posted something similar as a challenge on several different sites, although hardly anyone ever answers it. XD)

Anyway....]


If Fujin regretted one thing, it was that she hadn't even been brave enough in the end to tell Seifer goodbye to his face. She'd always meant to; if anyone deserved to hear her words, no matter how difficult they were to say, it was him.

But he wasn't really the Seifer she'd first met anymore, was he? He wasn't that brash, honorable boy who'd turned to her with a huge grin and congratulated her for beating the crap out of the guy who'd made fun of her missing eye. Ever since he'd met that Sorceress... there was something in his mind, something that she didn't like. It was cold and uncaring, and it made him go into a shell and stay there for hours on end.

That made her feel worse; she wasn't just leaving someone that she'd thought she'd never want to leave. She was leaving someone who needed her. She'd lingered for months thinking about that, not wanting to abandon Seifer to fate and the angry world.

But he didn't even see her when he looked at her anymore. She didn't know what he saw - some reminder of an old life, maybe. It was the same with Raijin, which made her feel a little better; at least it meant that it wasn't her fault that the posse was falling apart.

Still... she wasn't sure she'd ever forgive herself for the way she'd left, her face cold and stoic as ever, walking away from the little rented shack with a worried Raijin beside her, her little note on the kitchen table the only explanation that she'd ever give.

Re: [Seifer/Fujin]

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Dude, platonic breakups and estrangements? WIN.

And you hit on the fact I am secretly a Fujin fangirl. XD

THIS MAKES ME MORE SAD THAN ANYTHING, because I LOVE the little posse.

~Cendri

100% NSFW

[icca.livejournal.com]

"Asleep," she said aloud, looking at his body below her, naked and still. She said this because he looked asleep, even with his glassy-eyed stare that still gazed up at her lovingly -- she chose to believe it was lovingly at least, although the blood on her hands screamed different words than asleep. "You fell asleep while I was fucking you again."

It was a pretty good analogy, she thought. She had managed to get herself off twice before his penis became too flaccid to stimulate her, and now that all the warmth had left his body it was just like the passion that had left their relationship.

"This just isn't working out," she said to the body below her, though she pressed herself against him a few more times just in case. Then again she said, her voice taking on a mocking tone "This just isn't working out." That's what he had said. Turned out he was right.

She rolled off of him, pulling his arm -- surprisingly heavy -- over her shoulder so that she could cuddle next to him and nuzzle into his neck. It was a goodbye fuck, and a pretty damn good one. Usually they went differently, but she liked the feel of this one. He'd been the first man to break up with her rather than the other way around and in so doing, he rendered her impotent. But she had regained her lost power and then some.

Maybe being broken up with wasn't so bad. Except he did usually last longer when he was still breathing.

Re: 100% NSFW

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

I read it at work anyway. XD

OMG ICCA. I HADN'T REALIZED YOU COULD WRITE LIKE THIS AND I LIKE IT!

<3<3<3

Maaaan, I should do this EVERY time I have a Really Bad Day.

~Cendri

FF8 [Rinoa, Caraway]

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Giving her the necklace on her eleventh birthday was the last straw.

She was a wild child, she scrambled around town with urchins and came home with scraped knees. Rinoa had loved her mother because that's what little girls did, but Daddy wasn't acting like he used to.

When she looked in the mirror and almost saw her mother, she knew that it was enough. Rinoa didn't know why she was suddenly so frightened of her own father.

"Caraway."

It rubbed the wrong way against her throat, not calling him 'Daddy' like she used to. But she had to.

"What is it, sweetie?"

She almost shook as she drew a breath in. "You're a bad man."

Funny how taking her mother's name later was more a favor to him.

Re: FF8 [Rinoa, Caraway]

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

That's terrible.

Go easy, it's early (11AM, can you believe it?) Barret/Marlene

[darknitedestiny.livejournal.com]

Ever since the day she'd been saved from the fire by the skin of her teeth, she'd been Barret's little princess. He was hardly ever around to soil her with the blood on his hands, hardly ever around to have made such an impact on the way Tifa had raised her, but she'd loved him unconditionally.

Maybe his not being around had helped that, in a way.

It wasn't so bad, when she was little. When Barret was around, no one else could get near, and she didn't have to do anything she didn't want. Children liked to be spoiled, like to be doted upon. And she might have grown up that way, if Tifa hadn't taught her better.

Even if she ended up on the other side of the spectrum, like the mother she did know, it would probably be for the best.

It was embarrassing. She didn't have to work, because Papa brought home enough hard-earned money always, so if she wanted to be useful it would have to be in the bar. If she wanted to play for a team, it was usually because Papa had gotten her some kind of hand-out. Hell, even her teachers were afraid to give it to her straight, when she knew there was something she could be doing better.

Barret could be downright scary when he wanted to be, which was more often than not.

As was the day when he'd found her admissions papers. He ranted and raved—she'd have thought he would be proud, to see what she'd done all on her own after choosing the most challenging classes and braving the most unmovable professors. But he didn't say anything like that. He wanted her to stay.

Marlene left in the middle of the night.

Re: Go easy, it's early (11AM, can you believe it?) Barret/Marlene

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww. *sniffles*

And another reason I could never be a parent. XD

~Cendri