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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Sour Grapes, Chapter 3/?

Fandom: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn

Pairings: Shinon/Gatrie

Summary: Shinon runs away from all his problems, but, as problems tend to do, they all come back to find him.

This one is very Shinon-centric, so if you were hoping for more Gatrie...I apologize, BUT this is getting me one step closer to the end, which I promise has plenty of Gatrie!

(Also I meant to post this in time for @telliusweek2017, but as usual, I’m a little late. Whoops.)

Also read on AO3

Shinon wakes up the next morning, hair tangled, breath stale, and head pounding.

And more importantly, he wakes up in an alleyway, alone.

It’s been a long time since he’s been able to consistently drink enough to forget what happens while he’s drunk, so the previous night bursts behind his eyes in full technicolor.

“Shit.” Shinon curses as he flings an arm over his eyes, trying to pretend for just five more minutes that things are ok.

He only makes it two minutes before getting restless, so he mentally squares his shoulder and pushes himself up.

“Well, this has got to be a new record for rock bottom.” He mumbles to himself, as he sets off, with no idea where he’s going.

Looking for work as a pair of guildless mercenaries is hard enough, but it’s nothing compared to looking for work as a single guildless mercenary who just happens to have no money, no possessions, and a terrible tendency to alienate the people around him.

Still, after dragging himself from tavern to tavern and loitering in the hopes of getting a lead on a job, he finally finds someone who needs hands quickly, and doesn’t look twice at the fact that Shinon is a mess. The pay is terrible, and the bow they give him is worthless compared to what he’s used to, but it gives him something to do.

It turns out that he’s basically getting paid to get involved in a turf war between two groups of small-time bandits. It’s exactly the kind of job he would have passed over when traveling with Gatrie, because it’s messy and dangerous and not all that moral, but one of Shinon’s strengths and weaknesses is his lax moral standards. Morals don’t pay for a room and a pint of ale, but roughing it with bandits pays for at least a bed, and they give him disgusting home-brewed mead for free after it becomes clear that he’s the most talented of the bunch.

They run the other group of bandits off fairly quickly, but the fact that Shinon is a tier above the rest of the bandits ensures that he gets another job. And another, and another, and eventually he’s able to jump from bandits to slightly more professional mercenary groups. Their morals are just as loose as bandits, but they dress better and their booze is much more palatable.

The jobs start getting better paid too, and Shinon is able to buy a bow that’s at least slightly better. More importantly, he’s able to buy strong enough alcohol to distract him from his occasional pangs of loneliness, to banish his visions: of Gatrie, mostly, but also of Greil, of Rhys and Titania, even of little Rolf.

But those visions are useless, and he chases them away with alcohol while also chasing away anyone who might have thought to befriend him.

Eventually his jobs shift from acting as extra manpower for bandit turf wars to things that seem a little bigger, more well-funded, and more politically motivated. Shinon’s policy is that as long as he’s getting paid, he doesn’t ask questions, but he can’t help but wonder idly what exactly is happening to Tellius.

The strangest is when he gets hired by a crew that is half Daein soldiers and half Ravens. It’s something that he would have never guessed he’d see, Daein and Kilvas working together, especially since the average citizen of Daein tended to hate laguz as much as Shinon did, or more.

Still, who he was working with and why fell under the “Don’t ask questions as long as you get paid” category, even if it involved laguz. At the very least they were birds, and Shinon felt a little bit of comfort knowing that if it came down to him against the ravens, the odds were in his favor as long as he could get the first shot off.

Or at least that’s what he thought before seeing them in action. Sure, if he got the first shot off, he could take most of them down, but if they got to him first, he was toast. In a one-on-one battle, the odds would be about even, depending on who was faster. Unfortunately, of all the laguz, the birds were some of the fastest.

If Gatrie were still here, there’d be no question of who would win.

The thought pops uninvited into his head, and he tries to shoo it away with a twinge of annoyance. It was frustrating enough already that he missed the big oaf, and he didn’t need to be reminded that from a purely strategic standpoint, it was better to have Gatrie around than not.

Luckily, the battle started, and as soon as the first enemy moved into range, Shinon shifted into the altered headspace that he only found during a battle, with all other irrelevant thoughts-of laguz, of feelings, of Gatie-drifting easily away.

Was it ironic to feel most at peace in the middle of war? Probably, but that was just another irrelevant thought that didn’t last long, quickly subsumed by the rhythmic sequence of aim, pull, fire, reload, aim...

Right in the midst of reloading his bow, Shinon’s focus became momentarily and violently shaken when he saw a familiar looking figure coming into view, a little behind the stumbling soldier who he had just clipped with his arrow.

Just like Ike, charging into battle first, with no thought of how fucked his little band would be if he was cut down.

The thought, and the accompanying spike of disdain were so automatic that it took Shinon’s mind a second to pause and catch on.

Wait, Ike?

Goddess damnit.

It made sense, in a karmic way. He’d abandoned Ike’s mercenaries, and run away from Gatrie, and now at least one of the people he’d left was coming back to get him.

It made sense logically too. If the continent was really getting embroiled in a proper war, Ike was just stupid and noble enough to get himself at the center of it.

Practically speaking, nothing changed. Ike was there, but he was on the other side, and well, this is what he’d always idly imagined would happen anyway, wasn’t it? One of them would end up dying, maybe by the other’s hand.

As satisfying as it would be to be the one to put an arrow in the kid, Shinon valued self-preservation over self-satisfaction, and fighting Ike would probably be more skewed in Ike’s favor than Shinon would like to deal with, especially with his concentration already shot to hell.

So when Ike headed away from him, still oblivious to Shinon’s presence on the battlefield, Shinon breathed a sigh of relief

It didn’t last long though, because behind Ike came the rest of the motley crew; almost everyone he recognized, and some people he didn’t. It figured that Ike would keep picking up strays along the way.

But among the unfamiliar faces, Shinon picked out a flash of familiar armor.

Gatrie.

Gatrie wasn’t supposed to be with them. He’d left the group when Shinon had, following him without question, but now here he was, and the sight struck Shinon dumb, unable to move.

Shinon had known what being a mercenary was about, and had embraced it. With the exception of a few of the younger members, he had considered the possibility that he would have to fight against every one of his comrades, and had found that if it came down to it, he would have very little trouble choosing his life over any of theirs.

Except Gatrie. No matter how hard he had though, he had never truly considered that he and Gatrie might someday be on opposite sides. It was simply inconceivable, as much of a violation of the way the world worked as a river flowing upstream.

Luckily, Gatrie didn’t appear to see Shinon, and for the first time, Shinon thanked the goddess for the fact that Gatrie’s armor severely limited his peripheral vision.

Unluckily, as he was standing there gaping, the little cluster of healers and archers at the back seem to have noticed him, and before he knew it two broke away from the group and made a beeline straight for him. A redhaired man in priest’s robes-Rhys, Shinon deduced-tried to call them back. The girl, who was almost certainly Mist, hesitated for a moment before eventually returning when Shinon raised his bow in her direction, but the boy ignored his calls and continued heading towards Shinon.

Shinon didn’t need to wait until he came closer to know that it had to be Rolf.

“Shinon?” The boy called out in disbelief, completely oblivious to the fact that yelling on a battlefield when you’ve just broken away from the main body of your allies is an incredibly stupid thing to do.

“Rolf...” Shinon began, a lecture automatically forming in his head.

“Shinon!” Rolf yelled, cutting him off as he reached Shinon. “It really is you!”

The lecture died behind Shinon’s lips at the genuine happiness in Rolf’s voice.

“Look at you. You’ve grown so much.” Shinon found himself saying, noting that Rolf had grown a few inches in the months that he’d left. “You actually look like an archer.”

“Really?” Rolf says, as bashful and delighted as he always was at receiving a compliment from Shinon.

“ You always did have what it takes.” Shinon tells him. “It's just like I told you--you train the right way, and you'll surpass both your brothers.”

Not that your brothers set a particularly high bar. He add silently.

“I had a good teacher.” Rolf says, still beaming.

“Yeah, you did.” Shinon says, unable to suppress a little smile. He never planned on teaching anyone, but Rolf had a raw talent that deserved to be nurtured, and more importantly, an enthusiasm that wore even Shinon down eventually.

“You haven’t told anyone else about that, have you?” Shinon adds. Just because Rolf’s childish joy turned him into a little bit of a sap didn’t mean he was ok with anyone else knowing about it.

“Nope. Never said a word.” Rolf shakes his head, earnestly. “I keep my promises.”

“Good man.”

Rolf laughs, caught off-guard at being addressed as a man, before his delight changes to worry. “Um...Shinon?”

“What?”

“Are you...” Rolf hesitates. “With the enemy?”

Shinon answers quickly, because it’s the only way he can get it out without revealing any of the pesky emotions he feels poking at him. “Yep.”

Rolf’s face falls, a complete contrast to his delight at first seeing Shinon, and Shinon sees his lip start to tremble.

“Stop that.” Shinon tells him. “I told you that things like this happen.” Did you forget?”

“But...it’s not...” Rolf is full-on blubbering on the battlefield now, and Shinon is torn between annoyance and discomfort. “It’s...not...fair...”

If he keeps carrying on like this, the kid’s going to get both of them killed, so Shinon hardens his voice to the one that makes the nice girls that Gatrie likes glare at him.

“Ready your bow. It's time for the pupil to face his master.”

Rolf looks at him, uncomprehending.

“I mean it kid.” Shinon raises his bow for emphasis, but doesn’t truly draw it yet. “You better fight me or get out of here, and you have about ten seconds to choose.”

Rolf looks at Shinon, then looks at his own bow, and finally heads back towards the army. He glances back at Shinon every few seconds as if expecting to be shot in the back, but he doesn’t need to worry. Rolf may very well die today, but Shinon would rather not be the one to deal the blow.

The battle is a hard one for both sides, and although most of Ike’s company must know that he’s here by now, for the most part he’s shooting at people he doesn’t know.

But then eventually, Ike comes into view.

Shinon gets off two arrows before Ike gets close enough to counterattack, but he’s been off the whole battle, and neither of them are lethal blows. Although, Shinon notes with vindictive pleasure, they force Ike to start favoring his left leg.

Shinon’s played this battle out in his head dozens of times, and he knows that in close quarters Ike always wins. Ike’s probably going to win this time, if it’s a fair fight.

“Look, it’s little Ike!” Shinon calls, taunting. The only way he’s going to win is by throwing Ike off his game, and the two arrows helped, but it can’t hurt to try to shake him mentally too.

The best method would be to put an arrow or two in Soren, but unfortunately, for once Soren is not trailing behind Ike like a shadow.

“I always knew it would come to this, Ike.” Shinon says as Ike comes into range, drawing another arrow as he speaks.

“Shinon...” Ike says, and Shinon sees that despite everything, Ike would like to forgive him, and the fact fills him with anger.

“Watch yourself!” He snaps, and fires, this time hitting Ike in the arm.

The pain snaps Ike out of whatever sappy fantasy he had of convincing Shinon to join Ike’s little fanclub mercenary band, and he charges.

Shinon does his best, but he’s not good in close quarters, and it’s over embarrassingly quickly as Ike, who at the very least is bleeding from several arrow wounds, lands a solid blow on Shinon’s left side that brings him to the ground.

“Curses...” Shinon grits out, instinctively clutching at the wound.

“Don’t move.” Ike is standing over him, but he doesn’t deliver the final blow. “You’ll tear the wound wide open.”

“What...” Shinon grunts. “Are you planning? Do it now. Finish me.”

Ike says nothing, just looks at him in...contemplation? Pity? Disgust?

“Ha,” Shinon barks out a laugh, which sends a wave of pain through his side. “Idiot...”

Shinon isn’t sure what happens after that, because he starts to drift in and out of consciousness, and in his half-conscious state, he registers that Ike is no longer there.

His thoughts are drifting in and out of coherence as well, half-formed thoughts meshing with wordless pain and slivers of emotions he couldn’t identify if he tried.

...stupid...stupid way to live...stupider way to die...

...fuckup. just like...

...hope Rolf...didn’t...

...at least...wasn’t...Gatrie...

Shinon comes completely back to consciousness some time later, surprised to see Rhys and Ike standing over him rather than...whatever might happen to good-for-nothing snipers who get themselves killed in battle.

“Shinon.” Ike starts.

“Ha!” Shinon cuts him off, still half-delirious. “I can't believe that the one who defeats me is little lord Ikie. Looks like I've lost my edge. I'm ready, boy. Go on. Finish what you started.”

Rhys looks at Ike, who nods, signalling that Rhys can leave, taking what looks like a mend staff and an empty vulnerary with him.

Ike turns back to Shinon. “Come back to the company.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You've never liked me. As far back as I can remember, you have never liked me.” Ike says, and it’s not a question, just a fact.

"That’s right.” Shinon confirms, because he’s already almost dead, so there’s no harm in digging his own grave when he’s already lying in it. “Still don’t.”

“You called me a weakling.” Ike continues. “Said I was nothing without the help of my father. That's what you said, right? That's why you hated me.”

Honestly, at this point Shinon doesn’t even remember why he started to hate Ike, but the fact that Ike seems to want his approval even now isn’t helping his case. Gatrie and Rolf aside, Shinon finds earnest people distasteful.

“Sounds like me.” Shinon hedges, because it’s a lot easier to say than I was half-way in love with your father and I resented you for having his love and living when he died and not being the failure that I wanted you to be. “Don't you get it?” Ike says, looking at Shinon like he’s stupid. “I just beat you. So your reasons don't hold water anymore, do they?”

Shinon’s reasons never really held water, but Ike doesn’t need to know that.

“Pah! It's enough you beat me, now you gotta talk me to death?”

Ike sighs. “I'll say it once more. Come back to the company. I acknowledge your abilities. As commander, I want you with us.”

Honestly, it’s starting to look like a tempting prospect, especially considering the other choice is bleeding to death on the battlefield.

Well, maybe not quite bleeding to death, because it seems like Rhys might have healed the worst of his wounds. But still, it would involve laying around with corpses and then starting again from scratch as a lone mercenary, and the Greil Mercenaries (or had they officially become the Ike Mercenaries by this point?) had tents and food and probably booze, and even though most of them surely hated his guts, at least Gatrie and Rolf would probably forgive him. Eventually.

“Let's have another go around.” Shinon says, wincing as he pushes himself to his feet. “I win, and I'm commander. Agreed?”

Ike looks at him, incredulous.

“Agreed?” Shinon repeats. Of course he’s going to lose, and he wouldn’t even want to be commander if there were a chance of it. But he’ll be damned if he admits that he’s crawling back to the Ike Fan Club Mercenaries with his tail between his legs, so he’s got to put up at least a token fight.

Finally Ike gets with the program, nodding. “I win, and you fall in line. Agreed?”

Shinon nods. He has no intention of docilely ‘falling in line,’ but at the very least he won’t storm off or try to kill Ike again, and that’s pretty much what Ike wants anyway.

“Don’t worry.” Shinon says, cocky to the last. “I’ll make it quick.”

Shinon does make it quick, landing few token arrows on Ike’s armor and then going down immediately as soon as Ike’s sword makes contact with his armor. Sure, Shinon hates losing, but he hates flesh wounds even more.

“I yield.” Shinon holds his hands up, and Ike takes one of them, pulling him to his feet.

“Welcome back.” Ike says, and he seems to mean it.

“Yeah yeah.” Shinon says. “Now, where can I find the booze?”

Coming back to the Greil Mercenaries (turns out they hadn’t changed the name to Ike’s Massive Fucking Fanclub. Yet.) was not the most pleasant experience Shinon had ever had. But that was to be expected, especially considering he’d basically stormed out in a hissy fit and taken their best knight with him.

Actually, it was refreshing how little had changed. He still didn’t like most of the people there, and they still didn’t like him. Just like it was supposed to be.

Some people expressed happiness at his return, and some of them, like Titania and Rhys, actually meant it. Rolf started crying again and despite his best efforts, Shinon couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. Being a dick to adults was one thing, but the kid was another.

“Hey,” Shinon told him, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder. “I’m back now kid, quit crying.”

Rolf just sniffled harder and, to Shinon’s surprise, hugged him.

“Hey now, Rolf.” Shinon said, unsure what exactly was happening but uncomfortable with it nonetheless. “Hey, it’s ok.”

When nothing appeared to be working, Shinon leaned down and hissed in Rolf’s ear. “Quite crying and let go of me and I’ll make you a new bow.”

Immediately, Rolf jumped off of him and smiled. “Thank you Uncle Shinon!”

“Yeah yeah, now scram. You don’t want to be hanging around bad influences like me.”

Rolf headed back towards his brothers’ tent, still smiling.

“And don’t call me Uncle!” Shinon called after him.

Some people were not quite as happy to see him again, like Boyd, who pulled a face as soon as he saw Shinon walk into camp. Or Soren, who seemed personally offended that Ike had let Shinon back into the fold.

“Thought you got rid of me, did you?” Shinon taunted after being glared at by Soren. Soren glaring was not a rare occurrence, but neither was Shinon being needlessly rude, and picking at Soren was a habit that had been suppressed for far too long.

"I had hoped so.” Soren responded, icily. “But I suppose Ike knows best.”

“Ike knows best.” Shinon mimicked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Shinon had expected the reunion with Gatrie but be the hardest given the circumstances of their parting. He had even steeled himself to try to attempt an apology, although he probably wouldn’t be able to actually explain what exactly he was apologizing for.

As it turned out, he hadn’t needed to worry, because as soon as he sees Shinon, Gatrie pulls him into a tight hug.

“You’re back.” Gatrie says, sounding like he still can’t dare to believe it. “Thank the goddess.”

“You’re not mad?” Shinon asks, confused.

“I was mad.” Gatrie says. “I was furious, and sad, and then mad again. But I got over that while you were gone. Now I’m just glad that you’re back.”

Gatrie held Shinon at arms length, looking him up and down as if to make sure that he was all in one piece, eyes catching on the bandages covering the wounds Ike had inflicted on him during the last battle. Shinon, suddenly uncomfortable under the scrutiny, batted Gatrie’s hands away.

Gatrie, seemingly unflappable as always, just laughed giddily and pulled him into another embrace.

“Just...don’t do it again.” Gatrie says quietly, the vibrations of his voice seeming to echo in Shinon’s chest. “If you disappear again, I will be mad. And I won’t get over it.”

“I won’t.” Shinon accidentally promises, overwhelmed by the fact that he’s suddenly surrounded by Gatrie’s scent, and by the realization that the smell he always associated with the Greil Mercenaries, with the closest thing to family and home he’s ever had, was actually the smell of Gatrie.

Well, when he was with the Greil Mercenaries, Gatrie was almost always by his side, so it was reasonable that he would get the smell of home and the smell of Gatrie a little mixed up sometimes.

Or perhaps they weren’t two different things at all. But that was a thought Shinon was definitely not ready to examine yet.

Just like that, things returned to normal, or as normal as things could be with the fact that they had in fact kissed hanging in the air between them, conspicuously ignored by both parties involved.

But it was fine, really. Sure, there was a war going, and Shinon was on, if not the right side, at least on the side that was comfortable and familiar, with Gatrie beside him again. For now, it was enough.

It was enough, because it had to be. Shinon did not deserve even this much, and he did not dare ask for more, even in the privacy of his own head, because people like Shinon rarely get what they deserve, and even more rarely get what they want. So it was enough.

#fire emblem #tellius #Fire Emblem Path of Radiance #Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn #fe9 #fe10 #fire emblem fic #my fic #fic #shinon #gatrie #shinon/gatrie #sour grapes

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Redemption (Sephiran/Zelgius)

Title: Redemption

Author: legault/pinksnowboots (fic blog)

Warnings: Mentions of violence, canonical character death, Radiant Dawn spoilers

Words: 2658

Summary: “If I join you, will I be redeemed?”

“That I cannot say, but at the very least, you will not be alone. And neither will I.”

Written for Day 1 of @telliusweek2017 for the prompts Begnion and truth/lies.

Also on AO3

“When the time comes for you to leave, will you come to me, perhaps?”

“My lord?”

“We share a…similar condition. I see something familiar within you. I can…understand your pain and isolation.”

This was the first of many half-truths that Sephiran would tell Zelgius throughout the years.

Keep reading

#fire emblem #tellius #fe9 #fe10 #path of radiance #radiant dawn #fanfic #my fic #sephiran #lehran #zelgius #sephiran/zelgius

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Galdrar (FE Rarepair Week Day 1: Blessed/Curse, Tibarn/Reyson)

Title: Galdrar

Author: legault/pinksnowboots (fic blog)

Warnings: Mentions of violence, non-explicit sexual content

Words: 3306

Summary: Most beorc and laguz are under the incorrect impression that because herons are beings of order, and beautiful to boot, they cannot harbor darkness inside of them. Tibarn used to labor under that same misapprehension, but that was before he met Reyson.

AKA a more serious take on the infamous “ I had to tie him [Reyson] down to a bed to keep him there” line.

Written for Day 1 of @ferarepair-week2k17 for the prompts blessed/curse. Thanks so much to the mods for holding this event and to everyone contributing to it, I’m incredibly pumped about participating!

Also read on AO3!

Most beorc and laguz are under the incorrect impression that because herons are beings of order, and beautiful to boot, they cannot harbor darkness inside of them. Tibarn used to labor under that same misapprehension, but that was before he met Reyson.

Reyson is so beautiful that sometimes it hurts to look at him, but even that pain is only the merest shadow of what Reyson can truly do.

Keep reading

#telliusweek2017 #tellius #reyson #Tibarn

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Perfect (Rarepair Week Day 3, Azama/Subaki, Curious)

Title: Perfect

Author: legault/pinksnowboots (fic blog)

Warnings: Brief mentions of blood, vague kink-related content, intentional self-injury (but not in the way that self-harm typically implies), generally unhealthy relationship, non-explicit mentions of sex

Words: 4,665

Summary: Every time Azama catches so much as a glimpse of Subaki, his fingers itch with the desire to take him apart, piece by camellia-scented piece.

An incredibly late contribution for Day 3 of @ferarepair-week2k17-I’m very glad to see that y’all are going to keep reblogging for a week or so because I still am trying to finish out all 7 days but I’m several days behind…whoops.

AO3 Link

Whenever people ask Azama why he decided to become a monk and devote his life to healing others, he tells them it’s because people say the most fascinating things when they think they’re about to die. Most people think it’s a dark joke and laugh uncomfortably, not realizing til much later that he’s entirely serious.

繼續閱讀

#whoops i never crossposted this to my fic blog so here it is #fire emblem #fe fates #fire emblem fates #azama/subaki

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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ETA: additions to this post (and fic recs!) are in this tag!

YOU KNOW WHAT THE BEST THING EVER IS? IT’S SOULMATE AUS LIKE GOD DAMN I HAVE SEEN SO MANY ON FFN/LJ/AO3/TUMBLR OVER THE YEARS LIKE:

the one where you only see color once you meet your soulmate(s) (so you don’t know them until you see them), and it goes away when they die

the one where you don’t know your soulmate(s) until you touch them

the one where you don'y know your soulmate(s) until you hear them speak, or hear them speak a certain word; your name, for example

the one where you get the name of the person in their handwriting on your body somewhere at a certain age

the one where the first thing they say to you appears instead

the one where you get each others’ fingerprints

the one where you get matching marks/symbols/tattoos

the one where your marks or words that change depending on what’s going on with your soulmate(s)

the one with the clock that counts down the time until you meet your soulmate(s) (multiple clock for multiple soulmates? one click until you meet them both? unexpected third soulmate showing up after the clocks drop?)

the one where when you sleep you dream of whatever they’re experiencing from their point of view until you find them, or AFTER you find them

the one where you can straight up talk to them in dreams until/after you find them

the one where you form a telepathic/empathetic link until/after you find them

the one where you share extreme physical sensation until/after you find them; if one of you hurts the other one hurts, if one of you is getting lucky the other one gets a little hot and bothered

the one where the closer you are to them the more aware of them you become, and you find them playing a hot/cold game; for instance, colors get brighter and brighter the closer you are and fade into gray when they’re too far away

the one where once you turn a certain age/one night a year you swap bodies with them for one night and you have a limited amount of time to leave/collect clues to their identity

the one where being next to your soulmate(s) can heal you from things people don’t normally heal from

the one where only your soulmate(s) can kill you (maybe you can still be killed by age/disease, maybe not, maybe you become vulnerable only after you lose your soulmate(s))

the one where reincarnation is also a thing and meeting your soulmate(s) either unlocks or erases memories or your past lives until the next one

the one where in universes with magic meeting your soulmate(s) activates your powers/unlocks more powerful magic

SOULMATE AUS WITH COMPLICATIONS:

blind characters who can’t see if the world’s in color or black and white

characters like x-men’s rogue who literally can’t touch people; characters who have been through trauma who don’t want to touch people

hard of hearing characters like clint barton who can’t hear their soulmate speak without hearing aids/at all or on the flipside characters who can’t speak; maybe it still works in sign language, or maybe it doesn’t

people who can’t read/can’t read the language the words on their body are in

characters like bucky barnes who’ve lost hands and/or had their fingerprints removed

soulmate clocks that time out in the middle of the crowd; there’s an entire craigslist category for finding who else was there that day with a clock that timed out too

famous characters speaking to or performing for a crowd and suddenly their world is in color/their clock times out/etc and every member of the audience pretends to be this celebrity’s soulmate and a cinderella type situation ensues with the finding

soulmates playing the hot/cold game and they kEEP MISSING EACH OTHER

insomniacs who rarely sleep, much less at the same time/different time than their soulmates

soulmate ot3s/ot4s/otmores where you dream in varying people’s povs every time you sleep and get super confused

people who get sick or injured and frantically search for their soulmates so they can survive

people who need to be in medically induced comas and their soulmates have to stay away so they don’t accidentally wake them up

the one where soulbonding is actually a choice and someone chooses to bond with someone they may not know or like to save their lives and have to figure out if they can unbond or if they have to live with the situation (and of course learn to love one another either romantically or not)

new souls who don’t get memories of past lives because they don’t have one and panic

muggles/people without powers who of course CAN’T get them upgraded or unlocked

COMBINATION AUS:

the one where you one or both of you have to do all three (see your soulmate(s), touch your soulmate(s), hear your soulmate(s)), or all three have to happen at least once between the 2+ of you

or it’s completely random how you find your soulmate(s): one of you gets a name and the other gets a fingerprint, one of you has to hear your soulmate and one of you has to see them, etc; particularly useful if you happen to be blind or deaf

same for characters with other disabilities/who have “complications”: they get or find a different way of finding their soulmates, not better or worse, just different

THEN THERE’S SOULMATE AUS THAT DON’T HAVE TO CONFORM TO LIFELONG MONOGAMY:

the ones where you have more than one romantic soulmate at the same time or you get a new soulmate after the first dies

the ones where people have multiple soulmates of different types and it’s color coded; a red name/mark/etc for love, a blue one for friendship, etc; for the ones where you start seeing color you get a new one for each soulmate

the ones where some people have romantic soulmates and some don’t, and those that don’t are still perfectly happy anyway, maybe in a relationship anyway, maybe not

the ones where some people have multiple romantic soulmates who may or may not also be soulmates with each other

aromantic or asexual people who have soulmates who are not and they manage to work it out

romantic and sexual people who don’t have soulmates but find happiness anyway, either with someone like them or someone not like them

SOULMATE AUS THAT EXPLORE THE RAMIFICATIONS OF SOULMATES BEING A THING:

the ones where soulmates are for everyone and get legal aid to help stay together, like if their in-laws try to keep them apart/someone risks getting deported/someone gets drafted/whatever

the ones where soulmates are super super rare and TECHNICALLY get exempted from shitty things like “people of different races/the same sex/etc can’t get married/have relations/etc” but maybe still face a lot of prejudice and they fight to get those types of awful laws lifted for everyone

agencies that exist to help you find your soulmate(s) or figure out which soulmate thing you have but some of them are just shams, bonus points for this being in a verse where the thing is exceedingly rare to begin with

people pretending to be soulmates to take advantage of the laws, for good or ill; the couple who loves just as fiercely as a soulmates who will do anything to stay together, or the shitty people who try to claim they’re mated to people who’ve rejected them so they “have” to stay together

tabloid mags photoshopping matching soulmate marks or following big legal cases where someone tries to prove or disprove that they are soulmates with someone else

soulmates in universes where they’re a rarity or rare soulmate types like ot3s/ot4s/otmores in dodging government officials because they don’t want to become lab rats

people who don’t believe in soulmates until it happens to them, or people who believe hardcore and want to find theirs but they don’t necessarily have one, or don’t have a romantic one

little rituals that make finding your soulmate more likely, like shaking hands with people as often as possible even with the cashier ringing up your groceries, repeating each other’s names after you’re introduced, etc

just give me alllll the soulmate aus ok, give me people finding each other in spite of complications, give me all the delightful plot twists, give me detailed worlds where this changes the norms, give me it working out in the end whether romantically or not, bonded or not

feel free to reblog with sources! (or MORE AUS.) a little over half of these are things i’ve seen elsewhere over time and i cannot remember where they are all from

haha or if you’re into this sorta thing you could just take pity on me and reblog it anyway this took an embarrassingly long time to type up oh my god ;;;;;;;;;

#ref #fic ideas #i have a love/hate relationship with soulmate aus

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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I Spread My Roots Across Three Universes

Chapters: 1/1 Wordcount: 1,151 Fandom: Fire Emblem Fates Rating: Gen Warnings: None Relationships: Xanlow (Xander/Laslow) Characters: Xander, Laslow,

Summary: Laslow is pulled in many different directions.

Completely self-indulgent take on Laslow's decision on whether to stay in Nohr or return to the Awakening universe. Basic set-up is that somehow Laslow has told Xander the truth, and now that all the in-game events are over, he’s trying to figure out whether to stay or go.

Also read on AO3!

“If, after the war, I were to go somewhere. Somewhere far away… If you never saw me again… Would you be angry? Would you be able to forgive me for abandoning you?”

“…Yes. I would.”

Xander had never expected Laslow to stay with him forever, had been prepared to lose him someday.

“Oh? Truly?”

“It is not your company I require. Only that you continue to draw breath. I just want you to ensure you live. Whatever your true name or appearance.”

What he had not prepared for was losing Laslow, not to a happy life in another world, but to a lonely death of the fields of battle.

Keep reading

#fire emblem #fe heroes #laslow #inigo #xanlow #this outfit is literally perfect it is just what I imagined but better

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Galdrar (FE Rarepair Week Day 1: Blessed/Curse, Tibarn/Reyson)

Title: Galdrar

Author: legault/pinksnowboots (fic blog)

Warnings: Mentions of violence, non-explicit sexual content

Words: 3306

AKA a more serious take on the infamous “ I had to tie him [Reyson] down to a bed to keep him there” line.

Also read on AO3!

Reyson is so beautiful that sometimes it hurts to look at him, but even that pain is only the merest shadow of what Reyson can truly do.

Keep reading

#fire emblem #Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn #Fire Emblem Path of Radiance #path of radiance #radiant dawn #tellius #tibarn #reyson #my fic #forgot to crosspost this to my actual fic blog so anyway here it is

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Collateral Damage

Summary: Xander does not realize the depths of his feelings for Laslow until it is too late.

Fill for @dorkpatroller for the @xanlow-exchange for the prompt “I thought you were dead”

Also read on AO3!

“If, after the war, I were to go somewhere. Somewhere far away… If you never saw me again… Would you be angry? Would you be able to forgive me for abandoning you?”

“…Yes. I would.”

Xander had never expected Laslow to stay with him forever, had been prepared to lose him someday.

“Oh? Truly?”

“It is not your company I require. Only that you continue to draw breath. I just want you to ensure you live. Whatever your true name or appearance.”

What he had not prepared for was losing Laslow, not to a happy life in another world, but to a lonely death of the fields of battle.

Keep reading

#fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fe fates #fire emblem if #fe if #xanlas #xanlow #my fic #i posted it on my fe blog first bc it was part of an exchange #xander #laslow

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Soulmate au in which you have a sentence wrote on your body,but it’s not the first thing you say to each other! Its the sentence that made you realize you were in love w them

#damn I hate soulmate aus but this is vaguely interesting #ideas

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Cardinal Directions aka The Messy Poly Fates Soulmate AU (2/?)

Fandom: Fire Emblem Fates

Pairing: Laslow/Xander/Ryoma/Saizo

Warnings: Minor character death (of Xander’s past retainers, not any of the named characters), brief mention of incest (but again, not between any of the named characters)

Summary: Camilla love soulmate stories and hates happy endings. Xander hates soulmate stories and doesn’t believe in happy endings.

Also read at AO3

Xander and his siblings’ childhood is not what you would call idyllic. Their father is alternatively doting and distant and their mothers either dead or live in the concubine’s chambers in a distant wing of the castle, so Camilla takes on the motherly role at a young age. Every night, they gather on her bed and she reads them stories from the castle’s vast library. Listening to Camilla read with all his siblings (sans Corrin, who is confined to the Northern Fortress for reasons as unchangeable as they are inscrutable) is one of Xander’s favorite memories, and one of his only memories that approaches a normal childhood.

Xander hates soulmate stories, but Camilla loves them and she is the reader, so she gets to choose the books. But Camilla does not like happy endings so they grow up hearing about all the way soulmates can go wrong.

One of Camilla’s favorite stories is about an assassin who finds her soulmate while she is on an assignment. She realizes just as she is raising her arm to slit her target’s throat that she is about to kill her soulmate, but it is too late to stop the motion, and as her soulmate falls to the floor, her compass stops moving. It remains frozen for years, a reminder that every time she completes a job, she is killing someone else’s soulmate.

She retires early, for an assassin, and settles into a quiet life running a tea shop in the bad part of a town near the southern border of Nohr, between a liquor store and a brothel. She is not happy, but she has stopped wondering what her life would be like if her soulmate had lived.

One day, as she’s closing up shop, the hand on her compass begins to spin wildly, before pointing at her back door. It bursts open, and the last thing she sees is a hand holding a knife, and a wrist bearing a compass pointing straight at her.

“Isn’t it a beautiful story?” Camilla sighs rapturously.

“It’s grotesque.” Xander says with distaste. “There’s no need to romanticize violence with this soulmate nonsense.”

“I appreciate the irony in the story, at least.” Leo says, obviously trying to show off that he has learned a new word recently.

“I thought soulmates were supposed to make each other happy!” Elise whines. “You’re not supposed to hurt the people you love.”

“Sometimes violence and love are one and the same.” Camilla says.

Leo’s favorite story is about a man who despairs of ever finding his soulmate, because no matter where he goes, his compass always seems to be pointing behind him. Convinced that he is somehow a marvelous novelty, he studies soulmate lore, trying to determine whether his compass could somehow be defective in its movements. Eventually he resolves to set off on a journey to find his soulmate, only to find himself turning in circles as soon as he sets out.

Finally, he realizes that his compass was not pointing backwards at all, but rather at himself.

“Of course you like that story, you're just as vain as the man in it.” Xander teases.

“You don’t have the right to call anyone vain until you can go a day without your hair products.” Leo retorts.

“Maybe it would be best if you two were your own soulmates,” Camilla remarks. “Then no one else would have to be subjected to your nonsense.”

“Noooo, Xander and Leo have to have soulmates!” Elise declares. “Otherwise they’ll be lonely.”

“I don’t need a soulmate, Elise.” Xander says, ruffling her hair. “I’ll never be lonely as long as I have you all.”

Elise’s favorite story is one about two siblings, a brother and a sister, whose compasses point to each other; she likes it because she is too young to realize that incest is generally frowned upon and it is one of the only stories Camilla will read that has a happy ending. Camilla tolerates the happy ending because the story itself is subversive, and hearing it makes Leo squirm.

“Elise,” Leo says, voice tight. “You do know that siblings cannot get married, right?”

“Why not?” Elise asks. “If they love each other, what’s the problem?”

“It is just not done, Elise.” Xander says in a firm voice, trying to end the conversation before Leo explodes.

“What’s wrong with siblings being soulmates?” Camilla says. “No one said soulmates have to be romantic lovers. Remember the story about the soulmates who started the War of Ashes and killed each other in single combat?”

“Yes, that’s much healthier than incest, soulmates who kill each other.” Leo retorts.

Xander does not have a favorite soulmate story because he does not like soulmate stories, does not like the idea of soulmates in general. Some of the stories had promise, like the one about the boy who did not have a compass, or the one about the girl who was in love with someone who was not her soulmate, so she took a knife and dug her compass out of her arm. But then the boy turned out to be a late bloomer and the girl’s wound grew infected to the point where she had to cut off her entire hand, a fitting punishment for daring to defy the universe which had granted her a soulmate.

“Why don’t you like soulmates, big brother?” Elise asks him. “Don’t you like knowing that somewhere out there is someone who’s perfect for you?”

“I am the crown prince of Nohr, I don’t have time for soulmate nonsense.” Xander says. “Eventually I will marry a suitable woman and produce an heir, as is my duty. Soulmates have nothing to do with it.”

“Ignore him, Elise.” Camilla says. “He doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.”

“Romance is a luxury.” Xander retorts. “One that is not afforded to royalty like us.”

“That’s the great thing about soulmates!” Elise tells him, unshakably sunny. “Everyone gets one, even the prince of Nohr!” She giggles. “I wonder who daddy’s soulmate is?”

Leo scoffs. “Not any of our mothers.” He says, bitterly.

Xander does not like the idea of soulmates because it does not feel like a gift from the universe, as Elise claims, but rather yet another form of control. He already has no choice in what his future will look like, in where he goes or how he behaves. He does what he has to as the prince of Nohr, and that’s fine, but the universe trying to control who he falls in love with just feels like one step too far.

Especially since, knowing the situation he is in as someone whose marriage could be a political move, he will most likely not be able to marry his soulmate anyway.

When Xander turns 14, his father assigns two retainers to him. They are older than him, but loyal, kind, and talented fighters, and Xander is honored to have them. They also just happen to be each other’s soulmates.

Xander hates soulmates, but he loves his retainers, and the love and respect with which they treat each other almost makes him consider that this soulmate thing might not be all bad. It even seems to aid them on the battlefield, as they fight all the more fiercely for having their soulmate by their sides.

But then they die, one of them taking a sword to the chest in order to save Xander and the other taken down by an arrow as he sprinted over to his soulmate, barely too late to prevent the sword from piercing her breast. They fall together, compasses pointing at each other even in death, and Xander is left alone.

Xander is only 18 when his first retainers die, but he swears to himself that even if he does have soulmate, he will not seek them out, will not risk falling in love with someone only to see them die for him.

Of course, it’s not a given that his soulmate would die in battle, or die at all, but Xander is not willing to take the risk. None of the stories his family tells ever have happy endings.

#fire emblem #fire emblem fates #fe fates #nohr #xander #fire emblem if #fire emblem fic

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Smooth Me Down (Victuuri Week Day 3, Yuuri Prompt: Reassurance/Doubt)

Title: Smooth Me Down

Author: pinksnowboots (fic blog)/@yuroshka (main blog)

Warnings: Discussions of skin picking and anxiety, very brief mention of blood

Summary: Yuuri picks at his fingernails, picks at his loose skin, picks at every flaw, mental and physical, leaving his fingers a mess of hangnails and rough edges.

Victor is not afraid of his rough edges.

Written for Day 3 of @victuuri-week for the Yuuri prompt: Reassurance/Doubt.

Link to AO3

Keep reading

#reblogging this again bc tbh i'm a little bit proud of it #victor nikiforov #yuuri katsuki #yuri on ice #victuuri #yoi fanfic

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pinksnowboots · 8 years ago

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Smooth Me Down (Victuuri Week Day 3, Yuuri Prompt: Reassurance/Doubt)

Title: Smooth Me Down

Author: pinksnowboots (fic blog)/@yuroshka (main blog)

Warnings: Discussions of skin picking and anxiety, very brief mention of blood

Summary: Yuuri picks at his fingernails, picks at his loose skin, picks at every flaw, mental and physical, leaving his fingers a mess of hangnails and rough edges.

Victor is not afraid of his rough edges.

Written for Day 3 of @victuuri-week for the Yuuri prompt: Reassurance/Doubt.

Link to AO3

Yuuri picks at the skin just under the edges of his fingernails. It’s the one part of his body that is never smooth, no matter how much weight he gains, softening the rest of his hard edges. His fingertips are always rough, perhaps because his nails bite into the tender skin that they’re supposed to protect when he clenches his fists. And he clenches his fists often, the same way he grinds his teeth at night-unconsciously, too often, and much too hard, as if trying to grind out his insecurities, to gird himself against his anxieties.

It does not work, and Yuuri finds his self-deprecating thoughts breaking through his teeth whenever someone compliments him, leaving his jaw and his heart sore.

It is a good thing that the audience cannot see figure skaters’ hands up close because his are a mess, cuticles ragged and nails uneven lengths because every time one of them grows long he has to peel it off. He uses the nails of his thumb and index fingers and between those, he can easily get eight of the fingernails, all but the thumbnails, picked down flush to the soft skin underneath.

His habit leaves him with eight short and jagged and two unpleasantly long nails, and constant hangnails. The hangnails are painful, but they also give him something to pick at, something to do with his hand when he doesn’t know what to think of say; when he doesn’t have any he picks at his scabs, at the loose skin on the soles of his feet, or at the edges of his fingers until new hangnails appears.

Regardless of the state his body is in, he always picks at himself mentally, zeroing in on every flaw in his personality and performances. He has a lot of flaws, so it never gets old.

Everyone has to have a hobby, he figures.

Victor, whose nails are perfectly manicured and whose hands are perfectly smooth, despairs of his habits.

“Presentation is everything,” he lectures. “As a performer, you must pay as much attention to your appearance as you do to your skating.”

Victor buys him fingernail files and nail clippers, and Yuuri loses every single one, letting them fall into the crack between his bed and the wall or dropping them into Makkachin’s overflowing box of toys. Yuuri seems to be guileless but he must know that Victor cannot be mad at him when he’s so endearingly contrite.

Eventually Victor tries a different strategy, lending Yuuri his own nail file. It works, but only halfway; Yuuri does not lose it, but he also does not use it, and if Victor were less vain about his hair he would tear it out in frustration.

Even later, much much later, when they have transcended the boundaries of coach and skater, of idol and fan, of mere friendship, Victor maintains his fascination with Yuuri’s hands.

Once, when they are lying in bed together, Yuuri half asleep as Victor plays with his fingers, Victor remarks casually, “You know, I don’t remember your hands being so rough when we first met at the Gala.”

Yuuri is just tired enough to be totally honest without worrying about the consequences.

“That’s because Celestino had me get a manicure before the competition. He claimed it would help my presentation and maybe my confidence.”

“Did it?” Victor asks, curious.

“No.” Yuuri replies. “I felt so uncomfortable having nice nails, even if it was only clear paint. I spent so much time worrying that I was going to ruin them by accident that after my free skate, I broke a nail and ruined them on purpose, just to get it over with.”

Victor says nothing in response to that, just pulls Yuuri closer.

Yuuri rarely picks at himself enough that he bleeds, but it happens sometimes, when he’s picking at his nails unconsciously while thinking about something else, rather than picking at them intentionally in order to avoid thinking about anything.

It happens once when he’s sitting with Victor, listening to Victor’s critiques and suggestions about his routine and taking every word as a direct affirmation that every negative thing he’s said about himself is true. Yuuri fiddles with the hangnail on his left pinky, pulls the skin off the wrong way until the hangnail is gone, but in its place is a small drop of blood.

He clasps his hands together quickly and tries not to look at the blood, but Victor sees anyway. Without missing a beat in his sentence, Victor unwinds Yuuri’s hands from where they’re clasped nervously in his lap and takes them in his own, keeping them still and safe, unable to do any more damage.

“Victor, I’m sorry-” Yuuri tries to apologize because a tiny bit of his blood is on Victor’s hands and he cannot believe that he got blood on The Victor Nikiforov, even more than he cannot believe that The Victor Nikiforov is here coaching him.

“What are you apologizing for?” Victor cuts off any further apology.

“For...I...there’s blood on your hands.” Yuuri finally manages.

Victor looks at him in a way that Yuuri’s beginning to recognize, like he’s just been handed a new puzzle piece and he’s trying to figure out exactly where it fits.

“Oh, you don’t need to apologize for that.” Victor replies, voice far more breezy than his gaze. “Although it would make me feel better if you didn’t make yourself bleed on a regular basis.”

Yuuri nods, unwilling to promise anything verbally, unwilling to lie to Victor.

For whatever reason, it’s easier to listen to critiques and easier to take compliments when Victor’s holding his hand. The warmth of Victor’s hand on his own distracts him from the fact that he can’t keep fiddling with his nails, and the anxiety...well, it’s still there, but it’s about his palms getting sweaty and this not being regular behavior for a skater and a coach. At this point, novel sources of anxiety are a welcome break from the constant mantra of You’re not good enough that is always playing in his head.

If this were a movie, Yuuri would stop picking at himself for Victor, because Victor cares about him and doesn’t like to see Yuuri hurting himself. In a movie, Victor swooping into his life would cure his anxiety rather than simply confusing it so it goes away for a while, then sneaks up on him in new ways that he’s never experienced before and therefore can’t guard against.

Yuuri doesn’t stop picking at himself because Victor doesn’t like it; in fact, he does it more because it makes Victor worry and fuss over him and Yuuri has been taken care of so rarely in the past five years that he craves it, from Victor especially.

Victor takes Yuuri’s personal hand care routine into his own hands, literally. Every night he brings Yuuri into his room and trims and files his nails, pushes back his cuticles, clips off any hangnails, and rubs soft, expensive lotion into his skin.

It’s embarrassing for Yuuri to have his coach, idol, friend, and more focusing on him so intently, and he finds it hard not to fidget and squirm under Victor’s ministrations. It is almost surreal, the way that Victor treats his hands gently, almost reverently, and Yuuri wonders more than once how and why Victor came into his life, and how long he’s intending to stay.

Yuuri’s hands are in the best shape they have ever been; his skin is soft and his nails are even, but every day he still picks away at the skin around his nails, undoing all of Victor’s hard work. He feels bad, but it means that Victor has to keep doing it, so he can’t bring himself to stop.

Yuuri has so many feelings that swell in his chest whenever Victor takes his hands. He wants desperately to express them, but whenever he tries, all that he can manage is a soft, breathy, “Thank you.” Victor takes care of his hands like he’s maintaining a holy relic and his bathroom is a place of worship, and Yuuri does not want to defile it with loud voices or clumsy words that can’t come close to approximating what it is that he feels.

Victor squeezes his hands, admiring his work, and then suddenly pulls Yuuri into his arms. Yuuri can feel Victor’s breath on his neck and wonder’s if Victor can feel his suddenly-rapid heartbeat.

“You’re more than welcome.” Victor breathes into his ear, but does not let him go.

Yuuri swears that he hears a soft voice, Victor’s voice, adding, “For you, anything.” But he hears it in the same way that you hear an echo, or a whisper, or a voice in a dream, and he’s not sure at all that he didn’t just imagine it.

There is no word that Yuuri knows of to describe the area around his fingernails that he just cannot leave be. He could spend time describing the area, but then he would have to show people his damaged fingers and explain his little tics and well, it’s just not worth it.

There is no word for that, and there is no word for what Yuuri feels towards Victor-for the warmth that rises up in his chest when he remembers that Victor is not going to leave him anytime soon, for the rush of pride that he feels when he hears Victor praise him, for the way that Victor's touch helps him breathe just a little bit easier. There is no word, in Japanese or English, that accurately captures the full experience how he feels about Victor, what Victor means to him, so he decides to call it love.

#victuuriweek #victuuri #yuuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #Yuri on ice #yoi #fanfic #fic #yuri on ice fanfic #yuuri prompt #day 3

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