#Tochiro fic

[talesofzero]

Soldiers of Fate - Ch. 6

Leijiverse Crossover; Chapter 6 - Hollow Men

I got a couple comments asking me to continue this fic, and I was like “Sure.” So for those of you who don’t remember this one, it’s the one with all the Harlocks trying to kill each other. Good times.

~3k words

“A” had gotten the better end of this deal.

I wasn’t sure why I agreed to search the jungle rather than the forest. I’d started in the forest, wandered around the place for ages. I’d seen more footprints than people, but I’d gotten to know the layout somewhat.

I knew nothing of the jungle except that it was far too quiet. Jungles were supposed to be a cacophony of animals and insects. The only sound in this fake world were the rustle of branches in the wind and the slosh of my boots after it started to rain. Few drops reached through the thick layer of leaves overhead, but that didn’t stop the ground from becoming thick with mud. Every step threatened to rip my boots off my feet.

I wondered if “B” was faring any better. We’d split off from each other as soon as we reached the jungle area. Even in the dense trees, he slipped away like a ghost. As soon as he was out of site, he was out of earshot as well. But there was no way he could keep up a trick like that with all the damn mud.

A thunderstorm would have been more helpful than just a downpour. Lightning would have provided some sight. Between the overcast skies and the overcast canopy, I couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead. The trees were all shadows that I used for stability as I bumbled along through the endless black void that was the rest of my surroundings. 

Not too far into my search, I thought the storm may have picked up, as I heard a clap of thunder roll in from the distance. But I never saw any lightning.

When one of the gems shattered apart in a clear, ringing note a minute later, my stomach turned over in my gut. As I squinted at the wristband in the low light to find one of the crescent-branded gems gone, another one cracked and fell away. “Damn,” I whispered as I turned my wrist over to find the second star gem broken like the first. I didn’t even know which group was gone. I had to hope their world wasn’t already destroyed. Maybe there was still a chance we could bring them back.

Before I could continue on, that damning sound pierced my ears again. Pointless as it was, I checked to see one of the gems marked with an X gone. I needed to hurry.

About the time I started to wonder how I was supposed to know when the sun rose or set, a familiar voice chimed in. “Wow, maybe white pants weren’t the best choice, huh?”

My steps ground to a halt, allowing the mud to steadily digest more of my feet as I turned to see Tochiro sitting on some low-hanging vines like a hammock. He wasn’t my Tochiro, but in the dark, I couldn’t spot a single difference.

“Yes,” I answered, knowing my pants were ruined. “But I don’t usually wander around in the wilderness for hours on end, and I didn’t really plan on this expedition, so the pants tend to work out fine.”

The brim of his hat bounced with his nodding. “So where are you headed?”

“I was looking for others.”

“You aiming to win?” He didn’t look too concerned with the idea. His staff lay across his lap, and I was certain I could have drawn faster than he could pull the hidden blade - another thing he had in common with my Tochiro.

“No, I want to have everyone regroup,” I said. “I’m working with some of the other men who look like me.”

He cracked a smile. “Well, they are you.”

“Not exactly,” I said with a shrug. “We’re all different in some way. I haven’t lost my right eye for one thing.”

His smile widened to a grin. “Yet.”

Judging by all the older versions of me, losing my eye was part of some odd destiny in my life, but then again, we were all on different paths. I couldn’t help but feel my chest burn with rebellion at the idea that I could break some part of my destiny and keep my eye. Still, the eyepatch did look cool.

“Regardless, would you be willing to come with me?” I asked. “I’m going to search for a while longer, and then we’ll return to the lake in the forest area with everyone we’ve found.”

Tochiro looked down at the mud, frowning. “I’d prefer not to die drowning in mud,” he said.

I couldn’t blame him for that. Yanking my boots free once again, I walked over to him. “I’ll carry you,” I said.

“Oof, my pride,” he said with a laugh.

I knelt in front of him to offer him my back. This wasn’t the first time I’d had to carry him. At least, I’d carried my Tochiro. The cowboy version of me may have done the same. “I’ll let you down once it dries,” I said. “Come on. I need an extra pair of eyes.”

“I won’t be much help there, but alright.” He climbed onto my back with a quiet grumble of, “Don’t tell Harlock about this, alright? Not you, the other Harlock. I mean- Franklin.”

“Franklin?” I asked as I righted myself. “That’s my middle name.”

“Oh? Franklin’s his first name. Weird demon thing did say y’all were different people though.” The brim of his hat would have kept the rain off my head if not for the holes. As things were, the brim tapped against the top of my head with each step.

“We’re certainly from different times,” I said, “but it’s probably best not to get into that. I don’t want to confuse you.”

“Please,” he snorted. “I’m so confused already. Not much you could do to make it worse. Ya’know we’re kind of vulnerable like this. If one of us gets shot, we both do.”

“I’m hoping to avoid conflict,” I said as I ducked away from some low-hanging brambles. “It’s for the best if I look less threatening.”

“Unless someone wants to pick us off.”

“I’m hoping everyone can be reasoned with.”

He said nothing in response. I had a feeling he was thinking about all the shattered gems around his wrist just as I was. Maybe those who were killing were just doing it out of fear like A said. Maybe they could be talked down.

But I would use my saber if necessary. I would not let myself die at their hands.

“Do you hear that?” Tochiro asked as the rain began to let up. “I think I hear someone.”

I halted my steps and inclined my head to hear better. Somewhere ahead of us, someone was yelling. They were too far and too faint to make out, but where there was yelling, there may have been a flight.

Tochiro yelped as I broke into a run, admittedly difficult while carrying him. To keep the wind or branches from ripping away his hat, he pulled the brim down and held it. The trees and mud made navigation difficult. I struggled not to lose my footing as everything tried to rip it out from under me.

As we neared the source of the noise, I was able to make out some of what was being said.

“I’m telling you, I didn’t kill anyone!”

“You wouldn’t run if you weren’t guilty!”

“I ran because that guy was trying to kill me! You won’t gain anything from this!”

“Put your gun down!”

“Not unless you do!”

Tochiro whined like a nervous dog. “I think it’s the kids,” he said.

I wasn’t sure if I needed to yell. It could startle them out of their standoff, but it could just as easily startle them into firing. But with their voices trilling, I could sense the tension would end with a snap at any moment. My body responded for me.

“Wait!” I screamed.

Too late.

The first blast was the distinct sound of a cosmo dragoon, a flurry of power that sucked the wind from the air. Another shot responded from a standard blaster. One of the gems burst with a gentle chime.

“No!” Tochiro cried as my heart seemed to rip from my chest. I was so close. So damn close.

I couldn’t chance anything, so I dropped Tochiro to pull my saber. “Hang on!” he yelled at my back as I rushed ahead to a clearing.

They were both there, one on his knees with his hand across his face. “No, no, no,” he whispered to himself endlessly. A shot had eaten through his right shoulder. 

Across from him lay the other boy. Frays of his hair had fallen across his still face, but I knew him. Blond - he was A’s kid. He’d taken a direct hit through the chest, but he must have seen his death coming. He’d fallen with his hand clutched over the wound.

Tochiro appeared behind me, whispering, “Damn, poor kid.”

The other one didn’t seem to be a threat, so i walked over to the kid’s body. He had the cosmo dragoon, fallen at his side. He’d fired first, damn stupid kid. I closed his unseeing eyes and wiped the mud from his cheek. Poor kid had mud up past his knees. Must have been a struggle for him to get through the jungle.

Looking back at the other guy, I found him staring at me, his eyes hollow. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to… I tried to…”

He looked close to my age. If I remembered right, he’d been the one with the tall version of me. I couldn’t find much sympathy in myself for him.

“We’re all grouping back up at the lake,” I said. He didn’t flinch as I stood and strode toward him. As much as I wanted to leave then and get away from the body, the wound in his shoulder needed attention. Oddly, there had clearly been another blast that hit a tree not far from the guy. I’d definitely only heard two shots.

Taking my saber, I cut the tail from my jacket. “We’ll wrap your shoulder and then go,” I said before biting the corner of the fabric and slicing off what had become soaked in mud. I tossed that aside.

The guy kept rambling. “He thought I killed those people back at the forest, but I didn’t kill anyone. I…”

He must have wanted something from me, some comfort perhaps. I had none for him. “Tell me what happened,” I said as I ripped the fabric to pieces for his shoulder. The blood had soaked down his arm, helped along by the rain. He wouldn’t die, but the damage looked ugly. The arm hung limp at his side.

“I-I was in the forest,” he began, his eye locked on the ground, likely to avoid looking at the boy. “There was a blast, an explosion. It sounded bad, so I went to check. The blast site was horrible. The trees were all warped. There were a couple kids there, but only one of them had any scratches. God, he looked terrible. His back was all ripped up, but I think he was shot in the head. There may have been a shot through his temple. I don’t know. I tried not to look. The other one was shot in the stomach. I checked to see if he was still alive, but he was gone.

“There was another guy- one of you. God, I thought he was dead. He was covered in blood. He had a hole in his gut. Both him and the second kid had guns near them. I don’t know who shot who. I don’t know…”

He heaved a sigh as I knelt beside him to wrap his shoulder. I should have urged him to continue or stayed quiet. Tochiro ambled over to sit beside him, opposite me. I don’t know who it was for, but there was pity in Tochiro’s eyes.

“Who were they?” I asked against my better judgement.

The man winced as though I’d slapped him. “The other Harlock was the one in blue. The boy I checked on had a reddish-brown jacket and dirty blond hair.” I could remember the other version of me, but the boy was difficult to recall. “The other boy… He had a green vest and reddish hair.”

He sucked in a breath as I pulled the bandage tight enough to cut off blood flow. As soon as I realized what I’d done, I gave some slack.

Nazca had been killed. Nazca had died in pain. Someone had hurt him.

“I-I’m sorry,” the man attempted. “Was he-?”

“Continue,” I spat. It didn’t matter if he was lying. It didn’t matter if he’d been the one to kill Nazca. It didn’t matter because we had to stick together. We couldn’t be part of the game. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter.

The guy swallowed his nerves before returning to his story, his voice shaking more than before. “The other Harlock was still alive somehow, just barely. He had something over his eyes, so he couldn’t see… Actually, his face looked pretty scratched up. The explosion may have hurt his eyes. I’m not sure, but he heard me, I guess. Called me over.”

The guy took a deep, shuddering breath. “He asked me to finish him off. He must have been in a lot of pain, and his wounds would have killed him sooner or later. He was in such bad shape. There was no saving him, so I did as he asked. Shot him point blank in the head. If I’d thought there was any other way, I wouldn’t have, but...” He shook the thought away, his eyes clenched shut.

“Then I heard someone yelling. Called me a bastard. Started shooting at me. It was another Harlock, I think. He must have thought I’d killed them. I was able to dodge most of his shots because of the trees, but he got me in the shoulder.”

That explained the extra shot to the tree nearby. The kid hadn’t been the one to hit him.

“I was able to get away, made it all the way here, but then that kid ran across me. He was suspicious because of all the deaths.” He nodded toward the wristband on his limp arm. “Pulled his gun on me. I tried to explain, but that made him more suspicious. He was really freaked. Mentioned something about finding a corpse already.” His left hand returned to cover his face. “Things got so heated. I didn’t want to shoot him. I shouldn’t have… God, he was so young. I’ve never killed a kid. I would never...”

I finished tying off the bandages and released the tension that had been building in my jaw. “There’s still a chance we can bring everyone back,” I said to myself as much as him. He didn’t complain when I grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet. “Come on. It’s probably about time to go back.”

“If we’re going back to the forest and that other Harlock sees me, he might try to kill me again,” he said.

“I’ll try to reason with him.”

“Maybe I should be the one to do that,” Tochiro piped in. “And you don’t have to drag the guy back, Harlock.” I hadn’t realized I’d maintained my crushing grip on his arm. I let my hand relax and fall back to my side. Reaching up, Tochiro patted the man’s uninjured arm. “Hey, you never said your name.”

“I’m Yama.”

Tochiro offered a shadow of his usual smile. “Nice to meet you, Yama. My name’s Tochiro Oyama. That’s Harlock, but not Franklin Harlock.”

Confusion broke through Yama’s daze. “Yes, I know Harlock,” he said. “Have either of you seen my captain? He’s tall and has gold armor plating.”

I had a hard time believing Yama was a pirate. He was too weak, too uncontrolled. I never would have let him be part of my crew, but then again, I’d let Nazca join. That kid was always a short circuit away from a blown fuse. Uncontrollable, but certainly not weak. I had to fight back the rage swelling up inside me at the idea that someone hurt and killed a member of my crew. It was a captain’s job to protect his crew, and Nazca was far too young to die.

“I haven’t seen him,” I said as I tried to fight back the anger curling my hand into a fist.

Tochiro shook his head. “Haven’t really seen anyone. Too hard to see around here. The forest sounds nicer, especially if there’s a lake. I’d like to get some of this mud off my feet, and we ought to clean your wound. Also, are either of you hungry? I’m not, haven’t been this whole time. It’s so weird because I was starving back home.”

He went on like that, trying to diffuse the situation. As we headed back toward the forest, I caught one last glance of the dead boy. He shouldn’t have taken that shot, but he was just a kid, a scared kid. He had no place here. Nazca was the same, not the type for bloodshed, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise. If I won, I could get him back.

No, I couldn’t think like that. It was what that thing wanted from us. There was still a chance we could best it. If it sent us all back, Nazca would be there. Surely…

But if it came down to war, I would not go out easily. I would fight to survive.

If I was honest with myself, I couldn’t fault Yama for shooting back when shot at. I would have done the same.

Living: 10 Dead: 6

[aube-in-arcadia]

J’ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que le prologue de ma nouvelle fic “Les sirènes d’Yblane” vient d’être publié !  Vous pouvez le retrouver sur Wattpad, mais aussi sur AO3 et sur ffnet.

“Sur la planète Yblane, un jeune lieutenant impulsif et tête brûlée s’allie à un ingénieur astronaval et un pélican pour sauver son capitaine d’une embuscade tendue par les autochtones.”

Je refuse de me justifier pour le pélican.

[zacekova]

Of Bees and First Impressions

Summary: Tochiro was standing in the doorway, his hands pressed together as if in prayer and expression appropriately grave, eyes closed in a display of sorrow. “And so lies the great Captain Harlock, brought down long before his time by a lowly bee. May he rest in peace.” Harlock threw a pillow at him.

Pairing: Harlock/Yama|Logan  Characters: Harlock, Tochiro, Yama|Logan 

@ruledeargremlinchild, since you were wondering what fic that line came from, even though I’m pretty sure you’re not in this fandom even if you’ve seen the movie... 

(His feet are stuck to the sidewalk, frozen in place with the force of the universe pressing down on him. Fate has brought him here - some fortune beyond his wildest dreams has aligned the stars to make this moment happen, to create the magnificent creature he sees through the glass. Eyes like the ichor of the gods, rich and gold and flecked with sprigs of summer green, and a smile as dazzling as the sun on the sea. He is ruined before he remembers to breathe again.)

Harlock looked up when he heard the door open.

Tochiro was standing in the doorway, his hands pressed together as if in prayer and expression appropriately grave, eyes closed in a display of sorrow. “And so lies the great Captain Harlock, brought down long before his time by a lowly bee. May he rest in peace.”

Harlock threw a pillow at him.

Tochiro managed to catch it and clutched it to his chest like a string of pearls, scoffing with all the prideful airs of a refined lady of pedigree. “Rude! And after I’ve come all this way to you in your time of need. I thought we were friends.”

Harlock shook his head, hoping the hair falling over his face was hiding his smile. “Yeah, yeah. Did you get my text?”

Tochiro reached into his jacket and pulled out a Brown’s bag with flourish. “As requested, only the finest of gas station food for you.” He tossed it over, brow furrowing when Harlock caught it and started opening the packaging with glee. “I still don’t get how someone who grew up like you did can like those things. Even I think they’re disgusting.”

Harlock bit back a grin and turned his nose up, chewing through a mouth full of deep fried, greasy, delicious mushrooms and swallowed with as much dignity as he could muster. “I’ll have you know I have highly refined taste.”

Tochiro’s expression went flat. “Right. Okay. Say I believe you, how do you explain that?” he said, gesturing at the stained bag in Harlock’s oily fingers.  

He grinned. “Palate cleanser.”

Tochiro laughed, shaking his head and sitting down on the mattress by Harlock’s knees. “Alright, whatever. Weirdo.”

Harlock smiled, the remaining tension in his nerves finally settling under the familiar cadence of teasing banter and Tochiro’s comforting presence; he always made Harlock feel better.

Tochiro smiled back and rotated to lean his spine against the foot of the bedframe. “So you wanna tell me how you ended up in here?”

Tochiro also made him hate his life. “Uhh.”

(There’s dirt on the young man’s hands, caked under his fingernails; it should be gross but he can’t find it in himself to care when those same fingers are also so slender and graceful, dexterous and delicate as they sort through the stacks of papers on the desk and hand him a colorful pamphlet. “Hi! Welcome to Gaia Botanical Gardens! Would you like to join our next tour group or would you rather explore the grounds on your own?”

He glances at the schedule up on the wall, then at the analog clock beneath it - the twelve-thirty tour is to be lead by “Logan.” He turns back to the employee with eyes like melted caramel and scans for his name tag. A smug smile graces his lips when he finds it. “A tour would be lovely.”)

The door opened before Harlock could make up an excuse explain anything, revealing a tall, young man with shaggy hair carrying a tray, various snacks and drinks scattered across it. “The cafeteria didn’t have any ice cream left but there was some pudding,” the guy was saying. “I don’t know what kind you like so I just grabbed one of- Oh. Hi.” He had finally caught sight of Tochiro sitting on the bed with his leg wedged in next to Harlock’s and eyebrows raised in curiosity; his eyes flicked between the two of them, expression neutral.

Harlock jumped at the chance to change the topic. “Logan, this is my friend Tochiro. Tochiro, this is Logan. He was kind enough to drive me to the hospital.”

(Oh god, you’re swelling. You’re really swelling. You need to go to the hospital. Shit. Shit, where’s my keys?”

Harlock gestures vaguely toward the kid’s back pocket. He’d seen the outline of what was probably a ring full of keys (and, yes, he had been staring, could anyone really blame him? Those jeans were tight ).

His larynx is going to start constricting any second now. He’s going to start dying and the last thing he’s going to see through his rapidly-swelling eyes is Logan’s flushed cheeks and frantic pocket-patting.

Totally worth it.)

Tochiro smiled nice and easy because he’d always been the better of the two of them at socializing and thrusted his hand out. “Hey, nice to meet you. Thanks for taking care of this guy for me,” he said, nodding in Harlock’s direction.

Logan smiled politely and shook Tochiro’s hand. “It was no trouble. My shift was over anyway and he didn’t have anyone to go with him.”

(You came here alone, right?”

Harlock nods, his cheeking knocking against Logan’s head where it’s wedged under Harlock’s shoulder, supporting his woozy self as they trudge as quickly as his wobbly legs can take them out the side door and through the parking lot.

“Anyone I should call for you?”

He’s panting, lungs working in overtime to get oxygen through his narrowed bronchials, but he manages to squeeze out, “It can wait till we get there,” his voice rasping and labored.

Logan nods and calls out to a pretty girl watering some flowers by the wall. “Nami! Clock me out, will you?”

She looks up, eyes widening. “Uh sure. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later!”)

Tochiro’s eyes pinched in curiosity. “Your shift?”

Uh oh.

Logan’s brow furrowed and he glanced over at Harlock where he was subtly trying to gesture for him to stop, abort, change the subject. Something. Anything . But Logan didn’t seem to notice and barreled on. “Uh, yeah, at the botanical garden? That’s where he got stung.”

Shit.

Tochiro’s head began to turn - Harlock could hear the creaking of his spine as it rotated, slowly, painfully; creepy and terrifying like a body possessed by demons -  and his eyes blazed with murderous, unholy fury. The monster had been unleashed. “You went to a botanical garden?” he asked, low and quiet. Dangerous.

Harlock resisted the powerful urge to flinch, but only just. “Umm… there were extenuating circumstances-”

(“A friend gave me a cactus once because he said, and I quote, ‘even you can’t kill this.’ It was dead in a month.”

Logan laughs, light and free like birds in the springtime, like the tinkling of a rocky stream, like angels singing from within the heavenly gates. Harlock must have been a saint in another life to be able to see this.)

“You dumbass!” Tochiro shouted. “What were you thinking?”

Nothing appropriate, but he wasn’t about to say anything.

(His work polo stretches taut over his arms as he lifts the massive flower pot and carries it out of the middle of the aisle. He has a tan line around his biceps, rich brown meeting soft pearl, and Harlock is weak.)

Logan’s eyes were wide, darting back and forth between them.

Harlock sighed. He had accepted this inevitability when he had knowingly walked through Gaia’s gate, trailing after his own personal Achilles. But no way was he admitting that to Tochiro. “I suppose I wasn’t,” he said.

Tochiro deflated a bit, as Harlock had planned, shoulders slumping. “Yeah, no shit.”

Logan’s eyes narrowed. “Wait. So you knew you were allergic to bees?”

Damnit. Harlock sent a silent prayer to the heavens for mercy; no one here had any in their hearts for him. But he couldn’t lie, not to Logan. “I… was aware, yes.”

Logan’s eyes widened in panic. “You idiot, you could have died!”

Harlock grinned, raking his gaze up and down Logan’s frame. “Well. The view was to die for.”

Logan flushed up to the tips of his ears, mouth gaping. “I- You-”

Tochiro’s nose wrinkled. “You’re not talking about the flowers anymore, are you?”

He wasn’t talking about the flowers.

“Yep, I’m out,” Tochiro said, raising his hands in the air and heading toward the door. “You two lovebirds are on your own.” He paused in the doorway and turned to give Harlock a thumbs up behind Logan’s back before disappearing.

Logan’s jaw was still unhinged, looking at Harlock in blatant surprise, and Harlock smiled.

(“Well it looks like you’re going to get your own private tour!” he says, still smiling with all the brilliance of a newborn star. “If you don’t like crowds, you definitely picked a good time to come in.”

He cannot think, can hardly breathe, but somehow words come out of his mouth in coherent form. “I’m just on my lunch break.” His heart is racing, beating against the cage of his ribs so hard he’s surprised Logan hasn’t commented on it.

“Must be a long lunch break,” he says.

Harlock hums and doesn’t say that he’s definitely going to be late clocking back in. “And what better way to spend it?” he does say, eyeing Logan appreciatively.

But Logan’s gaze is on a bed of gerber daisies and he doesn’t seem to hear the suggestion in Harlock’s tone, already moving to explain how the aqueducts carry water to the whole garden.)

“I suppose I was a little too subtle with my… interest in you?” Harlock asked, hoping he wasn’t going to have to spend the night comforting himself from a rejection on top of recovering from a severe allergic reaction. He might need more mushrooms.

Logan’s jaw slammed shut and his eyes darted away. “I- Yes. You were.”

Harlock nodded and leaned forward, getting himself in Logan’s line of sight again. “Is that a problem? My being interested in you?” he asked, heart hammering in his chest. “Because I am. Very interested.”

Logan’s gaze roved over his face, expression going soft, relieved. “No,” he breathed. “No it’s not.”

Harlock’s heart skipped in his chest, the rhythm picking back up twice as fast as before. “Can I take you out for dinner?”

Logan nodded. “Yes. Yes, please .”

Harlock smiled. “Let’s get out of here.”

[mad-madam-m]

Trope Bingo Masterpost

With less than two weeks to spare, I hit a blackout on my Trope Bingo card! Twenty-five fics in ten different fandoms, totaling 61,807 words, holy shit.

The fandom breakdown ended up like so:

Tiger & Bunny - 6 Castlevania (Netflix) - 5 Gargoyles - 4 Teen Wolf - 3 Good Omens - 2 Voltron: Legendary Defender - 1 Leverage - 1 Star Wars - 1 Mary Stayed Out All Night - 1 Captain Harlock - 1 I can honestly say I did not expect Castlevania and Gargoyles to have the #2 and #3 positions under Tiger & Bunny, but hey, it's been a weird year.

But WOO! I DID IT!!

You can find all 25 Trope Bingo fics listed under the cut!

Title: The Shops on Morning Street Prompt: Rivals to Lovers Fandom: Castlevania (Netflix) Character/Pair: Trevor/Alucard Words: 6934 Rating: T Summary: Trevor Belmont, former monster hunter and current florist, is tasked with looking into the proprietor of the new tattoo parlor across the street, much to his annoyance. What he finds is Adrian Ţepeş, current half-vampire, current tattoo artist, and a whole lot more than Trevor bargained for. Title: An Avian Aggravation Prompt: Soulbonding/Soulmates Fandom: Castlevania (Netflix) Character/Pair: Trevor/Alucard Words: 3864 Rating: T Summary: Trevor didn't know magic, not really. But he'd heard enough stories to guess where this was going. "Sypha, did you summon a goose that's going to guide Alucard to his one true love?" Alucard choked. "You what?" "No!" Sypha flipped between two pages in the book and hesitated. "Well...maybe?" "What?!" Alucard repeated. Title: Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be Prompt: Fake Relationship Fandom: Gargoyles Character/Pair: Elisa & Xanatos Words: 5372 Rating: T Summary: "We've received intelligence that Latimer is going to be making a deal at an exclusive event this Saturday. We'll have people stationed around the event, but we need to get someone on the inside to track when the deal is going down." Chavez pointed at her. "That's where you come in." Finally, they were doing something to take this bastard down. Elisa grinned. "Going undercover?" "In a manner of speaking." Chavez gestured to the door. "You'll be posing as the girlfriend of our informant." Elisa turned. "Who's—" David Xanatos walked through the door. *** Or: Elisa has to fake date her nemesis, and learns that they may have a little more in common than she'd like. Title: Mind's Eye Prompt: Telepathy/Mind Meld Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 705 Rating: T Summary: Kaede copies the ability to read minds and immediately has Many Regrets when she reads Barnaby's. Title: Ill Met by Moonlight Prompt: Handcuffed/Bound Together Fandom: Gargoyles Character/Pair: Elisa & Owen Words: 5154 Rating: T Summary: For Elisa, waking up tied up to one of her least favorite people on the planet is just the cherry on top of an already crappy night. Title: Gonna Make This Place Your Home Prompt: Quarantine Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 5738 Rating: T Summary: A rescue goes slightly sideways and Barnaby and Kotetsu must be quarantined for two weeks as a precaution. Barnaby’s the one who suggests that they be quarantined together. Being locked inside with Kotetsu for two weeks will end up being either the best or worst decision he’s ever made. Title: If You Get Lost You Can Always Be Found Prompt: Fix-It Fic Fandom: Castlevania (Netflix) Character/Pair: Trevor/Alucard Words: 3217 Rating: T Summary: "Trevor?" Alucard took half a step forward; he may have been hallucinating. "What the hell are you doing here? You look terrible." "Oh, thank fuck," Trevor said, and collapsed. *** Trevor returns to the castle alone and injured. Alucard takes care of him. Title: Coming Home Prompt: Reunion Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 767 Rating: T Summary: Kotetsu comes home after several days away, and Barnaby welcomes him. Title: With Broken Words I've Tried to Say Prompt: Epistolary Fandom: Castlevania (Netflix) Character/Pair: Trevor/Alucard Words: 3700 Rating: T Summary: In which Alucard sends a letter to Sypha, but ends up corresponding with Trevor instead. Title: Something Like Friends Prompt: Rare Pairs Fandom: Teen Wolf Character/Pair: Allison/Erica Words: 2460 Rating: T Summary: Allison is sick. Erica is taking care of her. Erica is really, really not examining her reasons for doing so. Title: Truth or Dare Prompt: Truth or Dare Fandom: Teen Wolf Character/Pair: Boyd/Erica Words: 707 Rating: T Summary: She smiled very slowly at him. "Truth or dare?" Boyd wasn't sure which would be worse. "Truth." He really didn't want to think about what Erica would dare him to do. Title: Locked In Prompt: Locked In Fandom: Good Omens Character/Pair: Aziraphale/Crowley Words: 2484 Rating: M Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley have picked this weekend to be locked in...in every sense of the word. Title: New Rings Prompt: In Vino Veritas/Drunk Fic Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 831 Rating: G Summary: "You have a wedding ring," Bunny informs him in a tone used only by toddlers and drunk people. Kotetsu nods. "I do." "It's a new one. It's not the same one you had before." "Hey, don't tell me you already forgot how I got it." Kotetsu wiggles his ring finger. "I didn't think you had that much to drink." Title: A Woman in Need Prompt: Huddle for Warmth Fandom: Teen Wolf Character/Pair: Sheriff/Melissa Words: 467 Rating: T Summary: The heater's gone out in their cabin. In Colorado. In the winter. At least Melissa has someone willing to help keep her warm. Title: Are We or Aren't We? Prompt: Everyone Thinks We're a Couple Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Character/Pair: Keith/Shiro Words: 1338 Rating: T Summary: Everybody seems to think Keith and Shiro are dating. The problem is, they're not. Or are they? Title: Gentles, Do Not Reprehend Prompt: Chosen Family Fandom: Gargoyles Character/Pair: Alex Xanatos, David Xanatos, Fox Xanatos, Owen Burnett Words: 1208 Rating: G Summary: A kid at school makes fun of Lexington. Fortunately, Alex is more than capable of taking care of it. Unfortunately, his parents find out how he did. Title: A Parental Predicament Prompt: Meet the Parents/Family Fandom: Castlevania (Netflix) Character/Pair: Dracula/Lisa, Trevor/Alucard Words: 3627 Rating: T Summary: Adrian is bringing home his boyfriend to meet his parents. There's just one tiny problem: his boyfriend is a descendant of a notorious monster-hunting family, and his father is Dracula. It goes about as well as you would expect. Title: Let Me Love You Prompt: Wing Fic Fandom: Good Omens Character/Pair: Aziraphale/Crowley Words: 948 Rating: G Summary: Crowley sighed. "Something wrong with your wings?" "Oh, nothing's wrong with them, exactly, it's just," Aziraphale made a face, "trying to get them back in order." "You're never going to get it flapping like that." Crowley shot one last warning glare at the rosebushes and got to his feet. "Here, I'll do it." Title: How You Say "I Love You" Prompt: Food and Cooking Fandom: Leverage Character/Pair: Parker/Eliot/Hardison Words: 967 Rating: T Summary: Parker groaned. "Let's just go to bed." Hardison turned them toward the bedroom. "Don't have to tell me twice." Eliot really, really wanted to follow, but he ducked out from under Hardison's arm. "I'll meet you in there. Got to do something in the kitchen first." Title: Undercover Prompt: Undercover Missions Fandom: Star Wars Character/Pair: Finn/Poe Words: 948 Rating: T Summary: "We don't have another way out!" Poe walked around the front of the desk. They had no time and all he had was a very bad idea. "I'm going to kiss you." Finn's eyes doubled in size. "You're going to—" Title: Love, Bunny Prompt: Language/Translation Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 1877 Rating: G Summary: Barnaby gets a mysterious cake on Valentine's Day, and goes about finding the best way to respond. Title: Two Bedrooms or Three Prompt: Curtain Fic Fandom: Mary Stayed Out All Night Character/Pair: Mary/Mu Gyul/Jung In Words: 613 Rating: G Summary: Mary, Mu Gyul, and Jung In are ready to look for a new apartment together, but Mu Gyul has a request that throws a wrench into their plans. Title: Coming Out Prompt: Coming Out (Of The Closet) Fandom: Tiger & Bunny Character/Pair: Barnaby/Kotetsu Words: 2335 Rating: T Summary: Kotetsu's decided it's time to call Kaede and tell her about him and Barnaby. Title: The Shipping Ship Prompt: Matchmaker Fandom: Captain Harlock Character/Pair: Harlock/Yama Words: 2487 Rating: T Summary: Tochiro has been waiting for Harlock to find someone for a hundred years. ONE. HUNDRED. YEARS. And now the perfect person has waltzed onto the Arcadia and Harlock is going to do...nothing. Absolutely nothing about it. That's fine. Tochiro might be a ship now, but by God, he can still wingman with the best of them. Title: New Friends and Stranger Companies Prompt: Trust and Vows Fandom: Gargoyles Character/Pair: Elisa & Xanatos Words: 3059 Rating: T Summary: Elisa hung up her jacket, tossed her badge and keys on the table, and had just taken her gun safe out of the drawer when she registered that someone was sitting on her couch. She drew her gun. "Put your hands up and stand up slowly." The man chuckled, and damn it, Elisa knew that laugh. "Took you a little longer than I thought it would, detective. You really must be tired from your adventures." *** In which a cop and an ex-convict form a tentative truce over being way too damn tired to deal with anything anymore.

[ajora]

Fandom/Beta AU nonsense mostly.

Things I want to do:

Moby Dick with Skinny as Ahab is gnawing on my head lately (y’all already know who her white whale is, probably. “Jaspers don’t give up. Jaspers keep going, until we get what we want.”, and boy does Skinny want vengeance after the Malachite thing in Beta AU)

I really should have given her a harpoon instead of a macuahuitl as her summoned weapon. Oh well. A macuahuitl fits her vengeful, vicious side better (it’s a vicious and versatile weapon in a skilled hand), but a harpoon would have fit the Ahab theme she apparently wants going.

tbh I don’t even know how or when she ends up manifesting her weapon the first time, because she’s usually so laid back that it’s just not an issue.

I don’t even know if I'm going to do jaspearl in this fic at all. It’s just something that slipped in as a fragment of an idea and just. Stayed a fragment. If it happens at all, it’ll be well after Steven’s birth because Jasper respects the grieving process and 14 years is still an awfully short time in the lives of beings thousands of years old. 

Carnelian as the Tochiro? I see her shipped with Skinny all the time and when I do I can’t get past seeing them as Harlock and Tochiro and I’m so sorry, Leijiverse was one of my Ur fandoms (I saw My Youth in Arcadia... I think when I was 13 or something and look the original anime/manga were all about fighting for freedom when the entire universe is against you and that’s my jam), so it’s extra weird to me. So now she either has to be entirely separate from Twig or else I end up wanting to have her tinker and chug sake and keep a pet named Bird-san. And if I do that, she has to have a Cosmo Dragoon as her summoned weapon. I’ve already given her the cloak and hat as a concession to my ridiculous id. 

I can’t ship Harlock x Tochiro 2.0. Nope. Who is gonna be Carnelian’s Emeraldas if I do? Scouter isn’t cool enough to be Emeraldas. No one is. And then if I have an Emeraldas, I’ll need a Maetel. It’s really best if I don’t go down this rabbit hole any more than I already have.

I really wish I could get back into rosepearl, but I just. can’t. get. past. the. PD. actual romanticized slavery thing. I’m sorry. I’m a disappointment and have failed the fandom probably.

Things I have to do instead:

Work. I got a call yesterday as I was leaving the office and, essentially, that’s yet another thing I have to fix

Deadlines at work

Hound that one person who is ignoring me about a deadline

So much work

So much work

[queenofbraces]

WIP Meme (Super long post)

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

Okay, so since @the-ghost-of-keith-kogane tagged me for the WIP meme (First of all: how dare u call me out like this D:< ) let me tell you about all my 2 dozen WIPs. (Almst none of which have any real writing *sob*)

VOLTRON

-Initial Exposure: Keith gets exposed to some funky Druid magic and gets turned into a shapeshifter of the body horror kind. Klance, maaaaybe Klunk depending on my mood. Angsty but also a happy ending planned

-Real!Shiro AU. Pretty much another story dealing with the fact that the Shiro we're seeing isn't the real Shiro. Gotta fix it so it’s not just another rehash. Kinda whumpy. Shatt probably. Angsty

-Steven Universe Crossover: What it says on the tin. A wormhole leads the Castle and its crew to the Steven Universe world. They all chat and relax. Silly and without much plot. Just wanted to see the two half-alien boys with a sword and a lion meet.

HARLOCK/ COSMO WARRIOR ZERO/ GUN FRONTIER

-Eyes of the Arcadia: Harlock gets badly injured  and Tochiro/The Arcadia takes over his body until Harlock can be healed. Tochiro gets to interact with the crew properly for the first time in years.

-Eldritch Abomination Harlock: CWZ. Short Zero/Harlock story where Harlock wants to date Zero and decides to give Zero a quick peek of what he looks like.

-Too Many Harlocks: Started out as a semi-serious idea, but I like the OOC/cracky direction it's headed in instead. An accident with the nearly-complete Arcadia sends CWZ!Zero and CWZ!Harlock to the Gun Frontier where they meet that universe's Harlock and Tochiro, as well as Shinunora. Then they go to the Endless Odyssey universe slightly post-series. CWZ!Harlock hates everyone and pretty much complains the whole time. (Let the man just shoot his other selves, please.) Having a lot of fun imagining this one. Not really familiar enough with any other Harlock series to include them, and those I am vaguely familiar with aren't distinctive enough to include

BLACK JACK

-Two-toned Demon: Magic AU where Black Jack is thought to be some demon or other monster. Not sure yet if it's more Medieval or Modern fantasy. KuroKei. Started because Pinoko would pretty much be a homunculus of some kind and it kind of spiraled off from there. Still also have to work up a full magic system. Will include some of Black Jack's family.

-Autistic!KuroKei fics: What it says on the tin. I was in need of autistic interpretations of these two so I'm working on some. Pretty self-indulgent and yeah, their being autistic is the main point of the stories but sometimes you just want that. (Message me and I will talk for hours about this topic no joke)

-From One Surgeon to Another: Crossover with Franken Fran. Black Jack and Pinoko run into one of Fran's creatures she made for a client. Pinoko's fine but Black Jack is injured badly enough to require emergency treatment. Fran includes some free "upgrades" and Black Jack must deal with the emotional consequences of them. Maaaaybe KuroKei, dunno yet.

-Story where Yabu, Okamoto, and Kei decide to catch up with Black Jack. Okamoto brings Konomi (because apparently I ship them now???). Yabu got clean, got married, and has two kids. Okamoto and Konomi are engaged. Kei is still single and Okamoto tries to set him up with Black Jack in part because Okamoto knew Kei in school and knows how much he still likes Black Jack. It works. Kind of a 'California Café' type of fic but eh. Can't all be exciting. :P (though in one version Black Jack gets shot because 'Black Jack gets injured' is a favorite trope of Tezuka's and quite frankly mine too)

-Story where Black Jack is unknowingly sent to treat Kei's mother. Kei comes after his father finally sends for him (Kei's parents didn't want to worry him) and finds out Black Jack is treating his mother. Black Jack and Kei reveal their relationship, much to the surprise and delight of Kei’s parents. Kei's mother is cured. Black Jack and Kei get engaged. Possible sequel where Black Jack saves Shoren's newborn, and the two start to reconcile. (This would be a fix-it of sorts of BJ21.)

DOCTOR WHO

-Eldritch Abomination Doctor/Doctor Nyarlathotep stories: I have a bunch of different ideas for this, so I'm not sure which direction it's going currently. Definitely includes one where Jenny is half-meatsuit/lower plane being, half Eldritch Abomination.

-The adventures of Spoonie!Doctor and Spoonie!Clara. Fairly self-indulgent fic where the Doctor has arthritis and Clara has fibromyalgia. Pretty much for getting out my frustrations and feelings about being Chronically Ill.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

-Dead Sonic!AU. Sonic Forces AU where Sonic dies at Eggmkan's hands and effectively becomes a Phantom Ruby- and Chaos Emerald-powered ghost. One version involves him being aware he's dead but he keeps it a secret until Infinite is defeated and he destoys his Phantom Ruby shard. The second version involves Sonic finding out he's dead much later. Overall angsty and sad.

-Mephiles!Infinite AU. Sonic Forces AU where Mephiles has broken away from one universe where Iblis was destroyed, and into the Forces universe, where he wasn't. Infinite the Jackal is actually Finn, a normal Jackal and head of the Jackal Squad, a band of mercenaries. Finn is friends with Gadget. Mephiles takes on Shadow's form and fights Infinite, later taking on Finn's form and bonding with the Phantom Ruby to become Infinite. Possible Infidget once I figure out their relationship better lol.

-Sonic Unleashed/Sonic X crossover. Sonic attempts a Chaos Control at night using a drained Chaos Emerald. He ends up in the Sonic X universe amd tries to get home. Ultimately silly and light-hearted. Seriously tempted to place this a tad before the Shadow Saga. SU!Sonic takes one look at the TV where footage of Shadow is being shown, and says, "Hey guys, I'm gonna be back in a bit. Gonna save Sonic some jail time and the rest of you like 2 weeks of time and effort." And then he just solves the entire damn thing by talking to Shadow lol.

-Silent Chronos: Started life as a Sonic '06/Silent Hill crossover, hece the working title which hasn't chaged in like...10 years. Pretty much, when Shadow and Silver go to the past and encounter Mephiles and Iblis' birth, Mephiles' power alters and corrupts the Soleannan labratory. Most everyone is turned into monster, with the exclusion of Shadow and Silver. The monsters started out largely symbolic,  but all need to be redesigned something awful. Still haven't figured out much of the plot which is why it's been on the backburner for forever.

ORIGINAL WORKS

-Farron Base: If John Campbell's 'The Thing' were nice. A group of scientists go to explore an abandoned military base and research how the flora and fauna have settled in. They find the base in remarkable condition, with a huge variety of mutated, monstrous creatures. Most are fairly friendly and some are even intelligent. The base's protectors are Nigel and Jay-Myalia (names changed later), who are intelligent, benevolent shapeshifters of the body horror kind. Again, see John Campbell's 'The Thing'. Features actual scientists (!), none of whom are cishet, and one of whom is explicitly autistic. Still not much of a plot yet :///

-Shalkrei: This started back in middle school, so at least 14 years ago, as a Sonic AU. It was my SpIn for a while, and it got huge and complex. Currently doing some pruning. It involved 'demons', magic, ancient civilizations, and furries. Also had at least one parallel universe with different species and rules.

Holy shit this got long, sorry

Tagging @Elumish, @chocolatcoffees, @Sonic-the-tumblog,  and anybody else who wants to do it since I don’t follow that many writers

[kalira]

Yama and Harlock standing together, someone demands and/or requests to speak to the captain, they both ask "What?" at the same time. Your thoughts on this? This seems like a funny situation that could be worked into all manner of Harlock fics. :D I wish you the very best of luck on your writing!

Ahahahaha yes fabulous. XD

I got a mental image pretty much instantly upon reading this request, and it was hilarious. Please enjoy this bit of silliness featuring a matched pair of Captains, the Arcadia having Opinions, a lecture on Real Pirates™, Tochiro feeling very strongly about being a Real Pirate Ship, and the proper way to deal with problem crew.

Who’s the Captain?

T; 2.4kHarlock/Yama (ish; implied?)

Someone has a bone to pick with the Captain of the Arcadia - if he can figure out who that is, anyway.

Here on AO3!

Request a story?

[misadventures-phan-can]

Alone

“....Red?” Silence, not a sound to be heard even for those of sensitive hearing. So deep within the Arcadia was he that not even the usual groans and murmurs of machinery reached. It was dark, shadow’s crowding the edges of the hall where faint lighting could not reach. His ears went back. It was dead silent and dark… but not cold. Which, while helping to fight back the oppressive atmosphere around him, did little to soothe his nerves. What was Phantom thinking? Disappearing down here after their little… well he wouldn’t call it a fight, but maybe a spat? Yes. Their little spat. “Red!?” His own voice, garbled as it was in this form, echoed back to him eerily. You know she’s hasn’t been down here right? 

Canis jumped, still not used to the ship’s resident consciousness addressing him. “But she came this way!” No, she took a right about 150 meters back. Really, for a mutt I’d expect a better tracking aptitude. I bet you couldn’t find a steak if it were tied to a stick in front of you… The resident ghost snickered. “You’re lying! I can smell her.” I wouldn’t be surprised, she does come down here from time to time, and I’ve been told I mess with the senses somewhat… considering you’re constantly in me. Canis scrunched up his muzzle in disgust. “Ewwwww. Gross man.”

A haunting, barely-there, whisper-in-the-wind laugh echoed throughout the ship. Then, the pressure near the base of his neck- the one that showed up whenever the Arcadia’s consciousness was concentrated in a place nearby- disappeared. He was once again alone in the warm, dark bowels of the ship.

He huffed in frustration, shook out the remaining hibbie-jibbies and started forward once more. “Red?? Tommy!?” An hour passed, and still no sign of his companion in crime. He was fairly certain he had looked everywhere this floor could offer, even the darker storage rooms, artillery rooms, long since deserted rooms that just gave off a sense of wrong like no other. Canis was so done with this shit. His nerves were shot as it was, being surrounded 24/7 by people he wasn’t sure he could trust yet, his instincts going crazy whenever Tochiro so much as swept by. Harlock. ‘Nough said. And of course now, Phantom- his only companion, so far, even if she didn’t seem to share his opinion- with her new disappearing acts. This was the third time in as many days. But…. this was the only time he got himself lost, so far. He was fairly certain he had passed by here before, but he couldn’t smell his own scent anywhere. Tochiro had said he messed with the senses… hadn’t he?

“Phantom?!” It wasn’t his fault he sounded a bit panicked. Nope, just the echoing walls. His tail had lowered steadily over time, now it was tucked between his legs, and his ears were firmly pinned back. Taking a deep breath, the mutt turned around and tried to retrace his steps. A few minutes later, and he ended up in a completely different room, one he hadn’t found before.

“Well shit.” He growled, thought it sounded like more of a whine. Somehow, while he was looking for Tall, red-headed and angry, he had stumbled upon the massive forechamber and machinery for one of the Arcadia’s deadliest weapons. It was pitch black in the Blade’s chamber, various little technical lights danced along the cavernous room’s walls, but they didn’t do jack against the dark. Canis was lucky nobody was attacking, and that the blade was rarely used even then.

“....Phantom… you in here?” He called again, against all hope. Nobody was in here, or had been in here, for years. The air was so stale it almost hurt. He was alone, far from the rest of the crew, from the lived in part of the ship. Alone in the dark, at the very tip of the Arcadia. “....Fuckkk.”

He didn’t even try to hide that whine. He was indeed starting to lose it. He tried going back the way he came again, but walked straight into a wall instead. Where was the door? Why couldn’t he see it? “Tochiro?! I need help now buddy…. please.” He dissolved into a whining mess after that, when his calls went unanswered. No ghosts, no Harlocks. He changed direction and looped forward, only to hit another wall. He changed direction again, and repeated himself to the same results, over and over. He didn’t know how long he was at it, but at some point he had stopped and curled into a ball, shoulder sore and probably bleeding. He couldn’t tell, even if the coppery tang of blood wafted lazily in the air. Then, a miracle. “Mutt? That you?” Canis jerked up. “Phantom!?” “....That is my name.” The girl didn’t know what hit her, only that she found herself on the floor with a writhing mass of  mutt atop of her. “Red! OhmygawdRedIfollowyouagainjustdontleavemehere in the dark.” Canis alternated between slobbering all over her face and pushing his face into her shoulder. In his frenzy, he forgot all about Phil’s lessons of proper human behavior, what was accepted. He was just happy. So happy to not be alone anymore. Phantom signed, but she couldn’t find it in her to be annoyed. She let him do it for a moment, before rolling her shoulders and shoving him off. “Ok Mutt, that’s enou- Hey!” Canis stole one last slobbery lick. “Enough. Come on Mutt.” She turned, hand ghosting over his head in a smol affectionate move, before she started walking toward the exit. She had a flashlight in hand, he noticed now. He looked behind him, realising he had been hurling himself in the opposite direction all along. “You weren’t back for dinner so I asked Harlock if he had seen you. He zoned for a moment then told me to go check the core levels. What the hell have you been doing?” “Looking for you, Red.” “Me? That’s stupid. You’re stupid.” “Love you too.” Phantom was oddly quiet, before she cleared her throat. “Anyway, food’s getting cold Mutt, hurry up!” Canis didn’t care if, by the time they made it to the mess, his food was luke-warm at best. He didn’t care that his shoulder needed some looking after from the Doc (ok, well, maybe he did, just a little. It still hurt after all). He was happy. He wasn’t alone.

*~*~* Don’t forget your mission my darling~ *~*~* First ever post for MoP&D! Woot! Featuring OCs Phantom “Red” from Heavy Melder and Canis the shape-shifter from Linus.  We, that is to say a team of two co-authoring this and the fanfiction it plays companion too, have never posted fanfics on tumblr before. You could call this an experiment. We’ll be writing random bits and bobs to go with the main fic, as well as the fic itself. We might also post some fanart, some drawings, little drabbles... Honestly this blog is going to be a dumping ground for everything in our canon. If your curious, the main fic is called Chasing Phantoms. It’s in the middle of some pretty big rewrites, but the earliest (and cringiest) version is up both on wattpad and on fanfiction.net . Oh, and did I forget to mention this is all under the name of the amazing, small but brilliant Captain Harlock Fandom??  Hehe. Till next time!

[talesofzero]

Study Lag

College AU; Harlock + Tochiro 14/16 - Cooking Together/Napping

I got two requests for these boys, so I decided to combine them into one longer story instead of two real short ones, and I think it’s cuter this way. For @blastedheadhk and @armonia-grafica. 

~1k words

“You know, I just thought of something.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have to take exams if I’m dead.”

Well, that was some impeccable logic if I’d ever heard it, but he probably could have convinced me of anything at this point. I’d read the same page seven times without any of the words reaching my brain. I’d survived on nothing but coffee for the past two days, and my stomach felt like it was filled with acid. When I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure Tochiro was still breathing, I found him face-down in his textbook – one of the thick ones, probably made a good pillow.

“Maybe next time don’t take eight classes,” I said.

He wheezed some sort of response.

“When’s the last time you ate?” I asked. Not that I had any room to talk, but he was worse at keeping himself alive than I was. Keeping him fed would be enough of an excuse to take a break so I could eat too.

“I’unno,” he answered. That was good enough for me.

Standing, I stretched the knots from my back and strode over to him. He howled a weak “no,” as I dragged him out of his chair.

“Ramen?” I asked as I hauled him over to our meager food cabinet.

“I’ve eaten so much ramen I think my blood is broth.”

“Macaroni and cheese?”

“Gross.”

“Tomato soup?”

“Why do you hate me?”

“Well, what do you want?”

His brows pinched behind those thick glasses of his. “…Pancakes,” he decided.

I let out a puff of air, trying to remember if we had all the required ingredients for pancakes. “What does our instant mix call for?”

“Just water.”

“Modern technology is a blessing.”

“Don’t have any syrup or butter though.”

“Damn.”

“Got jelly.”

“Fuck it, it’ll work.”

Contrary to dorm policies, I pulled out our hot plate from the back of our cabinet of precariously-stacked dishes. The only outlet close enough to a surface for the cord to reach was by the bathroom sink. I cared so little at this point, I could have eaten off the floor.

Tochiro set to work measuring out the powdery mix and water. I was a little worried he might fall asleep in the batter once he started stirring. A yawn caught him every few seconds, which made me yawn too.

“Stop it,” I demanded.

“I can’t help it. I see you yawning, and then I have to yawn.”

“Don’t blame this on me,” I said through another yawn.

“I can’t wait to sleep for five years after exams are over.”

“What does it even feel like to sleep?”

The trouble with us making pancakes, which I didn’t recall until after we’d poured the first one out into the pan, was that we didn’t own a spatula. Well, we used to own a spatula, but it was plastic and melted into a pan we’d left it sitting on.

This was why we usually ate cup ramen.

“So how are we going to flip it?” Tochiro asked as we watched the bubbles begin to form.

“You’re the engineer here.”

He did that frown that twisted all his features. It was a sure sign that he was really thinking on the issue, but given the state of our brains, I don’t know why I expected a revelation.

“What if we did the whole…?” He mimicked putting his hand around the pan’s handle and flicking up. “You’re pretty dexterous and stuff.”

“But you’ve taken all the physics classes.”

We spent a few moments staring at each other, waiting for someone to brave flipping the pancake. In the end, Tochiro grabbed for it. “Well I’m not going to let it burn.”

“Should I pray?” I asked.

“Please, like you’re religious. We’d get smited or something.”

“A good excuse to miss exams.”

“I don’t think my professors would accept it.”

With his tongue poking out on one side, he took a deep breath, and gave it a shot.

The pancake did not move.

I snapped my fingers as the realization hit. “Oh, I didn’t put any oil in the pan.”

“Harlock, why?” he sighed.

“Listen, we’ll just flip it with a fork or something.”

I would have used one of the covers from my hardcover books, but they were all rentals, so that was out. Our pancakes all turned out with odd, lumpy shapes because we never could get the fork trick to work right. Eating them with strawberry jelly wasn’t half bad though. We sat on the lower bunk, my bed, and took turns pulling from the huge stack of ugly pancakes we’d made using all the mix left in the box.

“I forgot how much I love food,” Tochiro said before shoving another half a pancake in his mouth.

“It’s almost like we need it to survive or something,” I said.

“Whoa, slow down there. They’ll kick you out of school for being too smart.”

I squinted as I considered the idea. “That makes no sense.”

“Look, I’m trying to be funny. I’m too tired to make sense.”

Another good point. Couldn’t argue with him there.

Another trouble with us making pancakes was that the carbs knocked out what little grasp we had left on being awake. Tochiro fell asleep first, his head knocked against my arm. I should have woken him up. There was so much studying to be done. All those tests and papers.

…But fuck that, I decided.

Letting my head rest back against the wall, I closed my eyes. If I moved to go get my textbook, Tochiro would wake up, and he really needed to get some rest.

Yeah, I’d stay put for him.

[talesofzero]

Carpe Noctem - Ch. 27

AU; Chapter 27 - Fiat Iustitia Et Pereat Mundus

More or less the final main chapter. Melodrama abounds.

~2700 words

Wataru and I always joked about who would win in a fight, and we’d had our spats. But this was different. This wasn’t for punishment, not him losing patience with me, not some harmless bout.

His hands shot toward my chest anytime he came within range. He wanted to tear my heart out. He wanted me dead. Well, it wasn’t really him.

My only thought was to stall. His reach was longer than mine, and if I made one wrong move, I was as good as dead. If it had been some other vampire aiming to kill me, I would have had little trouble moving in close and ending his life first. But this was my brother. I could only hope for an opening to knock him out.

In the cramped quarters between homes, I leapt back from him over and over, always fearing my back landing against a wall. He closed each gap I made in an instant, one hand outstretched to grab or kill me.

I had to buy more time. Useless as he was, Father wouldn’t abandon us. He would show up eventually to help.

Any moment now…

If that bastard did abandon us again, I would come back from the grave just to kick his ass.

Despite his empty eyes, Wataru wasn’t as mindless as he appeared. I was wrong to think I was leading him, as I saw the walls in my peripherals narrowing into a corner. He’d herded me right where he wanted me.  

With my options limited, I tried to dart past him. Immediately, I realized my mistake. His hand caught my throat and slammed me into the wall. The wooden structure crackled at my back.

“Wataru,” I hissed, catching his eye. The familiar song of hypnosis tinted my voice. “Stop.”

His eye flashed red for an instant, just long enough for me to know he was fighting, just long enough for his fingertips to pause against my chest. It gave me enough time to grab his arm and snap the bone clean in two.

Though he didn’t make a sound, his grip on my throat eased. Shoving myself from the wall, I placed myself in his guard. “Wake up!” I roared, grabbing his head in one hand and smashing it down onto the dirt ground. The crack of his skull rang up into my shoulder. As I knelt there panting, he remained still. Blood pooled out in a dark stain around his head.

I may have overdone it, but his heartbeat remained strong in echo to mine. Leaning in close, I breathed a sigh, “My apologies, brother. But please stay down.”

Regaining my feet, I looked back to the wolves. Nazca stood over Shep’s fallen form. The poor boy’s tail was tucked between his legs, though it was clear he was trying to look menacing in case of trouble. Gido, as always, had vanished from sight. I had to hope Father had tailed him.

“Nazca,” I called. The wolf’s ears perked up. “Try to drag these two to safety, somewhere out of the sun’s reach. If Wataru wakes, he shouldn’t hurt you, but stay out of his way just in case.”

He gave a nod. I had no choice but to trust him based solely on that. The sky was beginning to lighten.

I could still feel Gido and Father’s hearts, both racing now. They weren’t too far. I dashed down the nearest alley as half the sky stained the deep blue of the ocean. If the Sun caught me, so be it, as long as it caught Gido as well.

I came upon him in the middle of a crossroads, covered in nicks and gashes from the rapier clutched in Father’s hand. It hung limp in Father’s grasp, fallen to his side. His breath rattled like Zero’s had after that damn arrow hit him. The gash in Father’s shoulder, Gido’s cutlass, and the smell of wolfsbane in the air told the rest of the story.

As I rushed in between them, Gido stepped back. It seemed I’d arrived just in time, or something had stopped Gido from delivering a fatal blow.

“Sorry,” Father murmured at my back. “Let my guard down.”

“It’s alright, Vati,” I said. “Find a safe spot. Rest.”

His slowing heart raced a few beats. He always was easy to please. As his dragging footsteps grew distant, I stared Gido down.

“Enough running,” I said once again.

He said nothing, his lips pulled into a frown.

“Let’s end this.” I took a step forward, and he staggered back. It seemed all that talk was for nothing once he truly had to face me.

“Is Wataru alright?” he asked.

My blood boiled for a moment. He’d been the one to put Wataru in danger in the first place, but my confusion overwhelmed my anger. “What?” was all I could manage.

“You smell like his blood. Is he alright?”

“He’s fine,” I growled.

He swallowed. Then nodded. When he spoke, his voice wavered. “The house with the flowers in the window, back the way you came – go there when this is over.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “My god, it’s finally over.”

I took another step toward him, my hand reaching out on its own. And again, he stepped back away from me. His cutlass, stained with Father’s blood, clattered to the ground.

“Go back there, Phantom. Promise me you’ll go back.” More tears followed, bleeding out from under the mask.

This time, I didn’t give him the chance. In two quick steps, I stood close enough to rip the mask away. His eyes were puffy and red with exhaustion, yet they were the same brilliant blue as the sky overhead. “Richard,” I breathed. My hand came to rest against his cheek, and he leaned into my touch with a pained smile.

“Promise me, big brother.”

“I-I promise.” I couldn’t recall what I was promising. I only knew he was here now, my little brother. There was ground beneath my feet once more.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t stay.”

No, I had him back now. He couldn’t leave again. I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let anything hurt him ever again. I would protect him. I would-

“Let it end,” he said.

My heart burst again, a cavernous, bloody hole in my chest.

“But you’re back,” I said, dazed. “It’s you. I know it’s you.”

“He’ll come back. He always does once the sun sets. Phantom. Please.”

“I can’t,” I choked. “I can’t kill you. I can’t lose you again.” I clutched his face in my hands, tears pouring from my eye. “I can’t hurt you again. I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Pushing up to his toes, he placed a kiss to my forehead and shushed me as though I were the younger one. “You don’t have to kill me. It’s alright. I should never have asked you to. But let it end.”

He placed his hand to my chest and shoved be back hard enough for my back to hit the wall. Again, he took a few steps back, out of the shadow of the house shielding us and into the sun’s burning rays.

“Richard,” I gasped, stumbling forward to grasp at him. Even with my glove, the moment my hand found sunlight, the sting made me jolt back. I couldn’t imagine my brother’s pain as he fell to his knees, steam rising from his skin.

“It’s okay-it’s okay,” he lied. He forced his eyes up to mine, a bright, brilliant smile easing onto his face. “I know Gido always wanted to make you hurt, so it’s cruel of me to give him what he wants like this, but I’m happy you’re here with me. I didn’t want to be alone.”

His breaths became ragged gasps for air, and I started toward him again. I wanted to pull him to safety, but if I couldn’t have that, I wanted to hold him close while he burned.

“No, Phantom, you have to live,” he said as a crack appeared in his cheek. “I’m not mad at you. I wouldn’t have traded those years with you and Daiba for anything. I want you to be happy like that again, with him. So live for them. And for me.”

His cheek began to crumble away, graying into ash and falling like snow. It infected his eye until he mirrored me. As I tried to find something to say other than an apology, he turned toward the sound of uneven footsteps. A young boy with rattling breaths hobbled toward us, his hair a mess of auburn. Blood dripped from his chin with his every lurching step.

“Sammy,” Richard called, and the boy’s red-hued eyes lit up. He collapsed into Richard’s awaiting arms as they too crumbled into dust. “I’ve got you,” Richard cooed as though speaking to a pet, as I felt sure he was.

“I’m sorry,” I said, this time to the boy. I doubted he heard me. His eyes fell shut as he rested his head in Richard’s lap, his breaths softened into nothing as Richard ran his vanishing fingers through the boy’s hair.

“It’s alright,” Richard said, a soft, contented smile on his face as he watched the boy. “It’s so warm. I’ve missed the sun.”

Finally, his body could no longer sustain him, and he fell away completely into dust. The boy lay alone with a pile of clothes. Unable to bring myself to leave him, I reached into the light and snatched him out of it.

It felt wrong to hold him, but nothing felt right anymore. Ducking into the still-shadowed alleys, I returned to the square where I’d left Wataru and the wolves. No signs of them remained. With the sun bearing down on me, I was left with no other choice but to hide away in the home with the flowers in the window. I had to return there anyway. I couldn’t deny my brother his last request.

The door was open, and the darkened staircase was an inviting reprieve from the blinding sunlight. As I carried the boy down, I felt the echoing drum of heartbeats. My family must have found the safe house as well, allowing me to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t until I reached the bottom of the steps that I noticed the two forms huddled in the corner of an open cell. They were much too small to be my family, yet their hearts beat as mine. Gido must have turned others, then.

That explained why Richard wanted me to come back, to take care of Gido’s newbloods, the poor things.

Settling the boy’s body on the floor, I crept toward the cowering forms. With no idea how they might react to me, I had to be prepared for a fight.

“Are you awake?” I called, my voice raw and hardly recognizable as my own. “Excuse me, I mean no harm.”

One of their heads popped up from being buried against the other, and a growl began. Just as the thought of a feral rang in my mind, it tackled me to the ground. Brown eyes hung over my own, tips of blond hair prickling my cheeks. He reared back to slash at me.

“Daiba,” I said as though the name were foreign to me. His hand froze in the air. “Daiba… Tadashi Daiba…” I couldn’t find anything else to say but his name, over and over. Perhaps that would make it real.

“It’s me, Daiba. Harlock. Captain.”

Of course, he didn’t understand. If anything, he found my scent familiar. His eyes remained fogged, his lips drawn into a snarl. I moved slowly so as not to startle him, bringing my hand up to my mouth to tear open my palm with my fangs.

He perked up at that, leaning down to latch onto my hand without hesitation. He gnawed on me like a dog chewing a bone, just like he always had. Daiba. This was Daiba.

He gave a yelp as I sat up and threw my arm around him. Despite his hissing and struggling, I buried my face in his hair. The smell of him brought back a torrent of memories, of the way he’d sneak into my bed or lounge in my lap like a lazy cat.

“My little Daiba,” I hummed as I found myself crying again. This made him still. His growls warbled into purrs. I must have held him for hours, until he fell asleep once more.

I would have been content to remain like that all day, having someone to hold onto once more. But my head snapped up as I suddenly recalled the other one. His heartbeat tipped me off, a frantic trill. He must have woken and noticed me because he’d pressed himself into the corner, clutching his head for protection.

Daiba gave a grumble as I set him down. It seemed he truly hadn’t changed from the clingy newblood I remembered. “Hang on,” I said. “I’ll be just a moment.”

As I eased closer to the other one, his trembling increased to violent tremors. Definitely another feral. “It’s alright,” I called regardless. “I won’t harm you.” Flexing my hand broke open the wound again, and I held it out to the boy.

But he turned and slammed his back further into the corner, terrified of my outstretched hand.

He looked so certain I would hurt him.

Yama.

My Yama.

I fell to my knees in front of him as he tried to fuse himself with the stone at his back. “Yama,” I breathed. “Yama, it’s me.”

But when I reached for him, he screamed, bringing his hands up between us for protection. It was like a knife to the chest. Daiba appeared then, pressing himself to Yama’s side and purring like a roll of thunder. Perhaps Yama imagined him like Mii-kun, as he clung to Daiba in a frightened daze.

As much as I longed to hold them both and to ease Yama’s fears, my exhaustion was catching up to me. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d slept properly, and crying had left me drained. “Ah, liebling,” I sighed only to realize my English had failed me. A quick shake of my head cleared the blur from my vision for a moment. “Please be here when I wake,” I said as I settled myself to the ground beside them.

I must not have looked threatening that way to Yama because Daiba’s purring infected him. It made for a nice symphony to help ease me into sleep. By some miracle, I had no nightmares.

And by some greater miracle, I found them both snuggled into my grasp when I next opened my eye. Some sound had woken me, but I let my eye fall shut again. The mumbled voices I heard were familiar enough to give me no cause for alarm.

I heard yelling soon after, enough that I could only pretend to still sleep. And pretend I did. Daiba was growling about something, but Yama remained close enough that I could smell flowers with each breath.

“Harlock!” Tochiro snapped, loud enough to break through to me. “Wake up!”

“No,” I said.

“We’ll have to carry him back,” Emeraldas said.

“What about Daiba?”

“Zero can get him.”

“He’s going to rip Zero’s throat out.”

“I doubt Zero will mind.”

“He won’t! And that’s the problem.”

“Quit talking about me like I’m not here,” Zero snapped.

A smile tugged at my lips. I felt far too heavy to move. Even speaking felt impossible, but I managed some slurred attempt at communication. “S’everyone alright?”

“I guess?” Tochiro said. “Léopard and the others are helping get your dad, Wataru, and the wolves back to the ships. What, uh, happened to Gido?”

“Gone.”

“Oh… well then we’d better, um-”

“Promethium called a meeting,” Zero said over him.

My eye snapped open. “What?”

“It seems she found out the Lords were congregating here without her, and she didn’t care for it. She’s on her way. Léopard is shaking in his boots.”

That would be Hell to deal with. With everything else going on, I didn’t need that too. “Can I… just sleep now?” I sighed.

Zero laughed. “Go ahead. Rest. We’ll take care of you for now.”

As my eye fell shut once more, I saw Daiba gnawing on his hand. Of course, I could leave things to him and the others. Neither Tochiro nor Zero had ever let me down. All would be well.

At least until Promethium arrived.

[aube-in-arcadia]

Je reconnais que ma fic n’avance pas, mais je progresse tout de même.

Les sirènes d’Yblane - Tochiro (17 avril 2020)

[talesofzero]

Dec. Drabble 2 - Promises

Here’s one for @winewhiskeynbeer with tiny Phantom and his useless dad on Christmas. I also included my headcanons of stressed big brother Wataru and tiny roommate Tochiro. And look, I was going to make it cute and kind of sappy, and then it went full sap and never came back. 

Dad didn’t break promises.

Not usually.

Not when he could help it.

Well, he broke them all the time, but he always had a reason for it, and he always made up for it as soon as possible. So he would be home any minute.

Any minute now.

Tochiro went inside after an hour of sitting on the steps, grumbling about the cold and how he was tired. “I don’t think they’re coming,” he said. “Might as well go to bed. Maybe they’ll get here tomorrow.”

My eyebrows pinched, and I pressed my chin harder into the itchy palms of my gloves. “They’ll be here.” I waited to see a streak of silvery-green light across the sky, to hear the distant roar of the Deathshadow’s engines, or to spot shadows on the dark horizon, moving my way with smooth, lazy steps.

Even in my heaviest coat, I could feel the cold. My fingers were aching like I’d gotten old all the sudden, and my lips were so dry they felt ready to split at any moment. I wasn’t shivering yet, though. The cold was nothing. A man could handle it.

The door behind me opened after the usual rattle of it getting stuck. “Phantom,” Wataru called from the doorway, his voice all scratchy. “Come inside. Dad will knock when he gets here, and you can see him then. It’s cold.”

Tilting my head back, I saw my brother bundled in a blanket. He breathed through his mouth, his nose all puffy and red. He looked like he would fall asleep right there on his feet. Tochiro and I had been heating up canned soup for him for days, so it was really us taking care of him, not the other way around.

“It’s not that cold,” I said. “You just think it is.”

He sighed and sniffled. “I don’t think he’ll come tonight, kid.”

My lips pressed to a pout. I hated when he called me that, treating me like a child.

“He probably got caught up somewhere. He’ll come in when he can.”

“But he promised tonight,” I said, rolling over onto all fours. “It’s Christmas!”

Something that looked like pain filled Wataru’s eyes as he looked away from me.

“He came home last Christmas,” I insisted, hopping to my feet. Standing two steps under him, I barely reached his knees.

“He did…last Christmas, but that was…”

That was the only time, yeah, but he’d said this year too. “He’ll come!”

He would. He promised. That was why we hadn’t celebrated yet. Wataru had dragged himself out of bed to make a nice Christmas dinner, but we had to put all of it in the fridge to reheat once Dad and Dr. Oyama made it. We hadn’t opened any of the presents, all wrapped in crinkled paper. We would keep all of it in place until Dad got here. I would make sure of it. Because he was coming.

Wataru flipped the blanket off himself to wrap around my shoulders instead. “It’s going to get cold tonight,” he said, still frowning with that weird look in his eyes. “Come inside if you start to fall asleep. Not good to fall asleep out here.”

I nodded, and he heaved another sigh. “Almost midnight,” he said.

“He’ll be here.”

He said nothing, just went back inside. I sat back down on the steps, huddled in the still-warm blanket. For a while, I watched my breath puff out in little mists, ‘til my nose got too cold, and I buried it in the blanket too. Far off to the east, fog blanketed the city. The moon looked like a spotlight through it. The government would never catch him in weather like this. He could make it home. He would. Maybe he’d bring us gifts. Maybe he’d let us go on the ship for once. It was probably warm on the ship.

I let my eyelids fall shut for a moment, just a moment. I had to keep watch for when he came in, but the wind was starting to sting, so I closed my eyes.

I could only guess I hadn’t opened them. I almost woke once, at the sound of the door rattling. I was halfway warm then, pressed to Wataru’s chest as he carried me back in like I was his tiny toddler brother again. I wanted to tell him off for it, but falling back into sleep against him sounded better. My mind couldn’t even tell me why I was mad at him.

Then I woke to yelling, somewhere through a wall. It must have been on the TV. So loud. I needed to tell them to turn it down so I could sleep. Even covered in blankets, I was too cold, so I dragged them all with me. As I found my feet, my head spun. My steps wobbled as I made my way to the door. I couldn’t breathe through my nose, so I dried my lips out more with each wheeze.

When I opened the door, the yelling got louder, then stopped altogether. I found a full living room, everyone in it staring at me like I’d caught a bunch of burglars or something. Dad was there, looking pale. His hair was a mess. Wataru still looked worse, like an actual walking corpse, but he also looked pissed. Dad’s eye was wide with fear. Dr. Oyama looked annoyed, and Tochiro seemed confused.

My sniffle broke what I guessed was a tense silence. “S’loud,” I said. “Couldn’t sleep. We having Christmas now?”

They all seemed to stumble a bit, glancing around between each other. “Sure!” Wataru said when no one else would speak. He still sounded pissed. “We’ll have Christmas now! We’ll have a good Christmas and be a good family, and we’ll eat dinner and have presents!”

“You sound awfully convincing,” Dr. Oyama muttered sarcastically.

“Isn’t it kind of early for dinner?” Tochiro asked.

Wataru shushed them and stormed toward the kitchen. Tochiro scuttled after him to help, and I heard the microwave beeping furiously. “They’re going to blow something up, I just know it,” Dr. Oyama sighed. As he turned toward the kitchen as well, he put his hand to my dad’s back and shoved him toward me.

Dad took a stumbling step forward but stopped after that.

“Everything okay?” I asked. He usually looked all smug and sure of himself. I hadn’t seen him so wide-eyed and anxious since Mom died.

“Y-yeah, son.” He tried to crack a smile, but it didn’t work. “You feeling okay?”

I wasn’t, but I didn’t want him to know that, even if all the blankets gave it away. “M’fine.”

He frowned before taking three quick steps toward me. Dropping to his knees, he wrapped his arms around me and crushed me to him. “You’re okay,” he breathed into my shoulder. “You’re okay.” He seemed to be talking to himself.

My dad didn’t hug me. It was strange. But I wriggled my arms free enough to hug him back. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said.

But he started shaking, like he was the cold one even though he felt so warm. “Your lips were so blue. You looked so pale. You weren’t moving. I thought…”

I couldn’t make much sense of him, so I patted his back and wondered how long this hug would go on. “I’m fine,” I repeated.

“I know. I know you are but… Please don’t wait up on me. Never again. Promise me, Phantom.”

I tried to take a step back, but he held me in place. “But you promised you’d be here, and you are-“

“But one day I won’t be,” he said. “One day will be my last, and I don’t want you waiting for me if I’ll never come back.”

“But you promised,” I hissed, tears blurring my eyes. I would not cry. I wouldn’t. Men didn’t cry over stupid things like this.

“I know-I know. But no more promises after this. This is the last one. I’ll always try to come back. I always will, but in case I don’t, promise me you won’t wait.”

“I promise,” I whispered. The words tasted bitter, and my stomach felt sour. It was the first time I understood Wataru’s anger toward our father.

Christmas was strange, varying from awkward but relaxed to so tense that I thought my brother would go to blows with my dad. I sat bundled up most of the time, drinking hot cider that burned my already-aching throat. It made me feel even dizzier, but it warmed me up and made it easier to laugh until Wataru took the mug away and dragged my dad off by his ear. I fell to a giggling fit over it.

It was a strange Christmas, but it was still Christmas, even a day late. Despite my chill, the house was warmer than usual. Dad got me a saber that Wataru was quick to snatch away. Tochiro got- Actually, I wasn’t sure what it was, but he looked excited, and his dad looked proud. Had an awful lot of wires sticking out of it.

Wataru’s gift from Dad was money, which he accepted with a polite thanks. In return, he handed Dad a letter that had already been opened and had Wataru’s name on the front. Things got quiet as Dad looked over it. His smile faded until it was gone.

“I see,” he said as he folded the letter back into the envelope. “The SDF, that’s… I hear Destiny is nice.”

“I tried to contact you to tell you sooner.”

Dad nodded. “Sorry.” His eye found me for a moment before darting back to Wataru. “We’ll figure something out.”

I didn’t know what any of it meant. No one told me anything. Dad hugged us both goodbye when he left much too soon. Wataru accepted it with his arms stiff at his sides, but I hugged Dad back because it was too rare of a gesture from him not to.

It was the last time we were all together, that final moment where Dad ruffled our hair and told us to take care. Wataru left a couple months later much the same way.

It was a strange Christmas, but I could only look back on the dried-out reheated food, spiked cider, and snapped arguments between everyone with adoration.

Even if he would never agree with me saying as much, Dad kept his promise, one last time, the last one he ever made me.

I never really kept mine, Tochiro and I always holding off Christmas just one day in case someone was running a little late.

[talesofzero]

Harlock Week Day 7

Day 7 - Favorite Pet

“There are only two pets really,” someone says, but ohohoho that’s where you’re wrong.

My boss keeps making me stay late, and I hate him, so this is late, and I’m about to have to go back to work, but here. 

“And here I thought you didn’t want a pet,” Tochiro said, grinning.

“He’s not mine,” I muttered as I skimmed our navigation route.

“He’s sleeping on your bed.”

I breathed a sigh through my nose. I’d been trying to ignore that fact. “I’ve gotten onto him for it plenty of times, but he never listens. Always hops right back up. Maybe I should invest in a spray bottle.”

Tochiro barked a laugh. “He does hate baths.”

I tried not to think too hard about that with him passed out at the foot of my bed, his breaths loud enough to count as snores. I should have checked for fleas the moment we let him board.

“This is your fault,” I said as I tapped out an adjustment to the route. There were too damn many machine men for even the roundabout ways to be safe. We would have to get into some sort of skirmish. “You’re the one who said we should let him board.”

“But you said he could stay.”

“What was I supposed to do? He wouldn’t stop whining.”

“Shut up. You know you like him.”

I huffed a laugh. “Not when he’s making a mess of the ship, but I guess you do that too sometimes, and I still like you.”

“Hey!”

I couldn’t be bothered to hide my grin. “Well if you don’t mind him so much, take him back to your room. He can sleep by your feet – keep ‘em warm.”

I looked up to find Tochiro’s brow puzzled. “Does he really just stay there?”

“Until I kick him off. Then he starts howling, and I never get any sleep.”

“Does he know he has his own bed?”

“You’d think not.” Giving up on our course, I flicked the projection off and stood to stretch the kinks from my back. “We might run into some trouble in the next few days, so I guess he has the right idea. Better get some sleep while we can.”

Tochiro mumbled something about how he was tired of trouble as I walked to my bed and tugged off my gloves. When I stood right in front of the little bed-stealer, I slapped my hands together so hard they stung from the clap. It worked like a charm, and he jolted up. “What?” he squawked, messing his hands across his face in an effort to wipe away sleep and the traces of drool. “Are we being attacked?” His brow furrowed as he looked up at my frown. “Did I break something?”

“I hope not,” I said. “But I would like my bed back.”

“Aw, your bed’s plenty big,” he grumbled, slumping back down against the blankets. “I’ll just take the corner.”

“What’s wrong with your bed?”

“It’s too hot in there. Your room’s cold.”

“Maybe he’s lonely,” Tochiro called. “Let him stay.”

“M’not lonely,” Nazca mumbled, already half asleep again. “I have plenty of friends.”

“Oh? And who’re they?” Tochiro asked.

“Hm, I got you two anyway.”

“Anyway?” I echoed. I supposed we were friends in an odd way. For all my picking on him, I did like the kid. He reminded me a lot of a younger Tochiro. But I wasn’t so sure he could think of many other friends. From the rare stories I heard him mumble when the men let him drink a bit too much, he’d lost most of the people close to him.

So what was one night of him sleeping at the foot of my bed? He did make for a good foot-warmer.

“Alright,” I said. “You can stay, but don’t make a habit of it.”

He looked like he might have already been asleep. I doubt he heard me.

[talesofzero]

Sear - Ch. 7 (+Epilogue)

CG-verse; Chapter 7 - Old Flame

Just guys being bros. 

~3400 words

The ship rumbled under my back as though growling. I kept my eye shut, hoping this was part of some dream I could slip back into, but another tremor rippled from my head to my toes. Through my eyelid, I saw a light flicker overhead. It seemed we’d found a fight, or one had found us.

With a slow, deep breath, I tested my body for injury. My head ached with each pulse of my heartbeat, and the old scars from being electrocuted twanged with sparks of pain. Beyond those minor complaints and my parched throat, I felt well enough.

The rickety stretcher prodding at my back assured me I sat in the infirmary, so I opened my eye to confirm it. Save for the groaning of the ship, the room was silent. The only machine hooked up to me was the IV drip feeding my arm. It had to be fluids because my head ached too much for painkillers.

“Oh, you’re awake,” someone said, half in a whisper.

Rolling my head to the side, I locked eyes with Daiba. He stood beside the medicine cabinets, still turned toward them as though he’d been looking at their contents. No burns marred him or his uniform. His eyes darted off for a moment before he shuffled toward me. “So um…” He breathed a huff. “You feeling okay?”

“I’m alright.” I didn’t sound like it, my voice raw and cracking. “Just need some water.”

He nodded. “I’d get you some, but I’d drop the glass. I can’t carry things for very long.”

The conversation should have been awkward, and judging by the way Daiba’s hands fidgeted, he felt awkward. But I didn’t. Maybe I was too tired to bother feeling uncomfortable around him.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll get it.”

“Are you sure you should be getting up?” he asked as I sat up. “I don’t know if you hurt yourself bad.”

I tested my bare feet against the floor before standing. My head beat like a bass drum for a moment, but I felt fine otherwise. “I’m alright, Daiba.” I tried to assure him with a smile, but his gaze fell to the floor.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I forgive you,” I answered without hesitation.

His head jerked up, and he looked at me as though I’d slapped him again. “What? Why?”

I shrugged before stepping around him and heading for the sink. “You seem like you feel bad about it, and I’d like to put it behind us. I’ve known people who’ve held grudges, and it’s hellish being on the receiving end. Besides, I honestly forgive you.”

I couldn’t be bothered to scavenge for a glass, so I turned on the faucet and stuck my face under it. The rush of water blocked out some of Daiba’s rebuttal, though I heard him say something about how he’d tried to kill me, and I should have been angry. Once I finished drinking and had thoroughly soaked my face, I looked back to the flustered boy.

“Why did you give up?” I asked. “You could have killed me back there.”

He flinched and took a step back. “I… I didn’t want to hurt the captain. He cared about you, so I-”

“He cares about you too, you know.”

He still wouldn’t look at me, only the floor. His eyes gleamed with fresh tears. “No,” he whispered. “I don’t matter anymore.”

“But you do, Daiba,” I sighed. “If you’d seen how upset he got when I mentioned your name, you’d know.”

He shook his head, his eyes clenched shut to hold back his tears. “Only because I’m supposed to be gone.”

“No, because he misses you. Because he hates himself for not being able to save you. You remember, right? Before you died, you heard the door open, didn’t you?”

“What?” he gasped, looking up to me in shock. “How do you know that?”

Before I could sort out a way to explain impossibilities to a ghost, the floor shook under me once more. My stumbling steps weren’t enough to catch me, but Daiba did, rushing forward to catch me around the middle. He felt too real to be a ghost. His small form was warm against mine, and he breathed a sigh as he righted me. “Sit down first,” he said.

I plopped back down on the bed’s edge, and he hopped up at my side. “Is the battle going alright?” I asked.

He waved my worries away. “It’s fine. The captain’s got it under control.”

“Who are we fighting?”

“I dunno. I’ve been in here watching you since it started. Didn’t think you should be left alone.”

For someone who’d felt abandoned, Daiba put a great deal of faith in Harlock. But it seemed he’d never blamed Harlock for that, not like Harlock blamed himself.

“Every time I try to sleep, I have a dream,” I began. “I’m you in it, looking through your eyes. Everyone’s yelling on the bridge during a battle. The ammunition storage gets hit-”

“And then the third cannon breaks,” he said, staring at the hands in his lap. “I know that dream. I see it when I close my eyes. When I’m angry, I can see it playing through my head, and I can feel everything again. It hurts.” His hands curled into fists. “The wounds all come back.”

“So they’re only there when you’re angry?”

A smile tugged at his lips despite the pain in his eyes. “I’m always angry. It wasn’t that bad until all the stuff that happened with you. I hoped they would never find anyone to take my room, but then you showed up, and it hurt, but I knew they needed you. And then there was all that stuff with Gaia and you being a traitor, and I don’t know. I was so angry. I didn’t know how they could let you stay when I’d been so loyal, and I…I had to die.” His tears fell against his hands with gentle tapping sounds.

I couldn’t imagine his pain. He’d become invisible to everyone he cared about, with only some cats and a long-dead man to keep him company. Wrapping my arm around him, I led his head to my shoulder. I wanted for him to feel comfort, to be held and assured that he was still cared for. Though I worried he might push me away, he stayed against me.

“I’m so sorry,” I sighed. “I saw them – the wounds. I wish I’d known what was going on. I would have been more careful.”

“You couldn’t have talked me out of anything. I just saw red all the time, and the pain made it worse. Tochiro said he couldn’t see the wounds, so I thought I was imagining it. I thought I was going crazy.”

I pressed my cheek against his hair. It was smooth and held the familiar smell of my room. He sniffled and breathed. I felt certain I’d find a heartbeat if I pressed my hand to his chest. He couldn’t have been dead.

“I wish I could have met you when you were alive.” My chest tightened as I said it. “Harlock and Kei miss you so much. I’m sure this ship was much livelier with you here to keep them on their toes. But it’s alright because you’re still here, and I can help you talk to them again. They won’t have to miss you anymore.”

“Why would you help me?”

I placed my hand over his, curling my fingers around it. He had such small hands, even in his gloves. All of him was small, so thin and fragile. No wonder he was so angry. He had to find some way to be intimidating.

I breathed a laugh. “I told you I’m not mad. I’m exhausted, but I just don’t feel mad. I don’t know why you seem to want for me to be. We’ll make things work, Daiba.”

It seemed the ship had quieted. At some point, my eyes fell shut, and I would have fallen asleep against him had he not spoken. “Did you have that dream when you were asleep just then?” he asked.

“No, I don’t usually have it if I get knocked out or drink heavily enough.”

He paused for a beat. “Is that why the captain kept carrying you back to your room at night after you’d hang out in his room?”

Again, a moment of silence caught us. “What?” I managed, raising my head. “No, I walked back myself.”

“No you didn’t,” he said without a moment’s hesitation. “He carried you on his back. You were wasted. You kept rambling into his shoulder. Sometimes you were crying. I was so jealous,” he huffed.

“Oh my God.” My hands found my face. “Oh my god, I hope no one saw.”

Daiba shrugged. “Miime probably.”

“Oh my god.”

Tochiro’s voice joined in. “What did you do now?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Daiba grumbled.

Peering between my fingers, I found Tochiro squinting in suspicion at Daiba. Moments later, the door swept open as Harlock strode in. “Yama, you’re up,” he greeted.

“Hard to sleep through explosions.”

The first genuine smile I’d seen from him in a while tugged at his lips. “You slept through the fight yesterday.”

I roughed a hand through my hair, wondering how long I could have been out. Maybe Daiba had been there the whole time, waiting for me to wake up. “Mr. Tochiro and Daiba are here,” I said.

“Both of them?” Of course, that didn’t help Harlock see them, and his eye swept over the room without settling on anything.

“Yeah, they’re here,” I said. Harlock attempted to follow my gaze toward where Tochiro stood. “Oh, um, sorry about lying to you, Mr. Tochiro.”

He folded his arms across his chest, shaking his head. “It was stupid. You’re lucky I felt the engine control room going haywire. I was trying to focus all my attentions on fixing it through the computers, so I apologize for not showing up. I didn’t want Daiba running off without fixing all the blocks he’d put up. There was only so much I could do with him jamming everything. But I was able to set off Harlock’s alarm. Flashed lights on in a trail toward your location.”

Harlock continued glancing around, probably trying to figure out if anyone was talking. I guessed he didn’t want to talk over his friend.

“Must have been a strange way to wake up, Captain,” I said to help him out.

He shook his head, running his hand back through his hair. “I think you’re trying harder now to kill me than back when you were an assassin.”

Tochiro snickered, so it looked like he wasn’t too upset about me lying to him.

“Yeah-yeah, sorry,” I said. Daiba was starting to pout, and I worried all this talk of the attempt on my life might make him run off again. “But it’s alright now. We’ve got things sorted out. Daiba, did you want to say anything to Harlock?”

His shoulders scrunched toward his ears, and his chin dropped. I doubted I’d ever seen someone blush such a bright shade of red. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “M’sorry.”

I couldn’t tell if he wanted me to relay that to Harlock, but Harlock stared at me, waiting for something from Daiba. Daiba wrapped his hands around my arm and dropped his forehead to my shoulder. “Tell him I’m gonna protect you now, okay? So he doesn’t have to worry.”

“Ah, okay.” My ears burned like Daiba’s skin, warm enough to feel through my shirt.

“What did he say?” Harlock prodded.

“Just- uh, you know, he’s missed you and stuff, and we’re getting along fine now.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be an undercover agent?” Tochiro asked. “You’re terrible at lying.”

Despite the confusion in his face, Harlock accepted my translation. “Well, that’s good. I’m glad we’ll be able to talk again.” He seemed like he expected more, watching me for any signs of further messages from the ghosts.

“He’s not mad at you, you know,” I said.

“Right, he wouldn’t be,” he said though a sigh. His smile looked pained. “Daiba, I’ve never met anyone with more faith in me. I never did anything to deserve your trust, but I’ve missed having it. I’ve missed you. And I know I’ve never been good at showing it, but I do care about you, Daiba. From the moment I found you, I knew I wanted to protect you. I’m sorry I failed you. I’m sorry if I ever made you think I’d forgotten you or that I’d tried to replace you.”

Though he didn’t let them fall, I could see the tears in Harlock’s eye. Daiba’s grip on my arm was crushing as his shoulders trembled. If he was crying, he hid it well.

“I could never replace you,” Harlock said. “You’re too important to me.”

A sob escaped Daiba as he gasped for air. He looked up with a blotchy, tear-stained face and sniffled like any watery-eyed child. “Don’t tell him I’m crying, okay. I’m not a baby. I’m a man.”

I had to chuckle at that. “Right-right, of course.”

Tochiro rolled his eyes. “Jeez, kid. There’s nothing wrong with crying. Harlock cries plenty. Don’t let him fool you.”

“What is it?” Harlock asked, his brow furrowed with worry as he examined the spot beside me.

I fought back a grin as Daiba stuck his tongue out at Tochiro. “They’re both children,” I said.

Daiba gasped in offense, but Harlock’s expression eased into a smile. “I’m glad that much hasn’t changed. I suppose we’ll need to go explain everything to Kei now before she comes to claim my life. My excuses haven’t held up well with anyone, and she’s very impatient.”

“She’s going to lecture me,” Daiba grumbled, ducking his head to hide behind my shoulder.

“Well, you deserve it,” Tochiro said.

“What are they saying?” Harlock asked when I didn’t respond once again. He was awfully impatient as well.

“They’re saying how they’re going to behave and come talk to Kei with us.” I looked to each of them, daring them to argue with me or each other.

Daiba gave in despite his mumbling. “Alright, fine. I do owe you an awful lot, so for now, I’ll do anything for you. Well, not anything.” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “But you can always ask.”

The offer was tempting, though I couldn’t think of anything I really needed from him. “We’ll see,” I said. “I’m sure there are some things I could use your help with.” 

For some reason, he smiled at that. I found seeing a smile on his face too nice to ask why. Perhaps, I thought, he was just happy to be part of the crew again, even if I had to be his captain now.

I was happy with that as well, happy to have him on my side. He made quite the enemy. And now I’d have some help getting my plants back in order.

Epilogue

The sky was bluer than forget-me-nots, clouds fluffy and pristine white. I tugged off my boots to feel the grass between my toes, sharp yet soft on the soles of my feet. Flowers covered the hillside around me and stretched off into the infinite landscape. I felt as though I sat in a painting.

The flowers and grass rustled in the breeze, carrying with it a somber, familiar song. I couldn’t find its source at first, but then Daiba was there, and he’d always been there, his head resting in my lap. He played an old harmonica, his eyes closed.

I ran my fingers through his hair and listened. I tried to recall where I was or how I’d gotten there, but my mind assured me that these questions didn’t matter. Even without the answers, I felt relaxed. It just seemed like the place I was supposed to be.

As the song finished with a low, echoing note, Daiba opened his eyes. He smiled with his eyes full of contentment. “Is it looking better?” he asked. “I’ve been looking at all your flower books, and I think I’m getting the hang of it?”

“What?” I asked, unable to make sense of him.

His smile widened. “The flowers look nice, don’t they?”

I looked out to see a variety of camellias, asters, orchids, and others – largely pinks and purples with splashes of white and red. “They would make for a nice bouquet,” I said. “Though I’m surprised to see all of them growing together so well. Some of them require different growing conditions.”

A sweetly fragrant red rose appeared under my nose. Daiba held its stem, free of any thorns. “You’re so picky,” he said.

I took the rose from him, feeling I was missing something. “Where are the thorns?”

He watched the clouds, still smiling. “You always ask that.”

Something clicked in my head. He was right. I’d said those exact words many times before, and he always responded the same way. Then I would ask another question, always the same.

“Is this a dream?”

“Always ask that too.” He hummed as he stretched his arms toward the sky. “Do you remember now?”

“Yes.” A smile settled on my face as I felt the velvet petals of the rose. “You built this one very well. You could have gotten away with letting me think it was real.” 

He’d started this as a means to make sure neither of us had a nightmare, creating a safe world we could stay in while I slept. I wasn’t certain how much concentration it required of him or really how he did it at all.

As he peered through his fingers above him, the sky faded to midnight. A brilliant canvas of stars took the place of the clouds. “Not as fun that way,” he said. “Besides, we’d repeat the same conversations. I swear I’ll get those flowers right one of these days.”

“You say we’d repeat the same conversations like it’s a bad thing.” I settled my back into the flowers, some of them tickling my ears and cheeks. “But how many times have we gone over the constellations?”

“Well, you don’t know them all yet.” Pushing himself up, he scooched over to lay his head on my chest instead. I waited for him to begin by pointing out his favorites. I didn’t know any of them because they were all specific to the planet he’d grown up on. I couldn’t imagine memorizing a night sky like he had, but he did say he didn’t understand how I could remember so much about plants.

“So Yama, is this like a date?” he asked.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. He was a bit too young for me to consider dating, but then again, he would always be too young. He would never age.

He would never have anyone he could date, and I doubted he ever had before.

“Yeah,” I breathed, “if you’d like for it to be.”

Despite the darkness, I saw his cheeks tinge with color. “I want it to be,” he said.

I tried to mind that, tried to be upset, but I only found myself upset I couldn’t do more for him. I wished he could have something more real than a field of flowers and a night sky built within a dream. But at least it felt real. When I threaded my fingers through his hair, it felt as real as when we were awake and I’d ruffle it when he pouted about something.

“It’s a nice date,” I said, still holding an impossible rose without any thorns. “Where would you like to have one next?”

“I dunno. Maybe I’ll make us a restaurant next time, or we could go underwater. We’d be able to breathe, you know.”

“Sounds nice. Pick whatever you’d like. Any place without constant fighting and explosions sounds good to me.”

His usual pout settled on his face. “Aww, I love the fighting and explosions.”

“Doesn’t really make for a good date.”

“I guess.”

“Well, if you do consider those part of a good date, we’ve been dating since we first met.”

He tilted his head back so he could look me in the eye as he pouted, but I grinned back at him. He would always be a child, but that was fine. I adored him regardless.  

[talesofzero]

Sear - Ch. 6

CG-verse; Chapter 6 - Ashes to Ashes

This is super late for various reasons, but w/e. Let’s go. No particular warnings.

~2500 words

Daiba must have known we wanted to talk to him because he vanished. All I saw of him was in the dreams, an assurance that he still existed somewhere on the ship. Mr. Oyama refused to leave me alone, only searching for the kid when I shared a space with Harlock. That was more often than I would have liked. Between the two of them and the dreams, I could feel myself losing my mind.

“He’s not going to come out if you’re constantly over my shoulder,” I muttered as I drummed my fingers along my desk.

Mr. Oyama didn’t seem to mind, peering at the new rows of bulbs I’d planted. He seemed just as eager as I was to see them grow into flowers again.

“He’ll lose his patience eventually, always does,” Mr. Oyama said. “And as long as someone’s with you when he pops in, he can’t cause too much harm.” Strolling through the cart, he went to examine another one with more seedlings. I wished I wasn’t starting to grow accustomed to seeing people phase through objects. At this rate I would forget normal people couldn’t walk through walls.

“I’d rather we just got this over with,” I said. “It would be quicker if we lured him out somehow.”

“Considering your track record, I’d bet on you getting injured again.”

My lips pressed together as I tried to go back to my work. Harlock had said the same thing to my proposal, and no one was worse at gambling than him. If even Mr. Oyama was making the same bets, I didn’t have good odds.

As though summoned by my thoughts, Harlock appeared with the swish of the door. I stood with a sigh before he could speak. “I know-I know. I’m coming.” When Harlock showed up, that meant I had to go to a meal, though I tended to lose track of which one.

“No need to take it out on me,” he said. “I’m just Masu’s lackey here. When you don’t show up for meals, she starts asking if you’re still alive.”

Despite his words, he didn’t appear irritated, guilty, or even amused when I turned toward him. He held his arms crossed, his expression even. Still, I could see the hints of exhaustion in his eye. I doubted he’d slept much.

“Do I at least get to drink tonight as a reward for eating?” I asked as I made my way around the shelves.

“I’d prefer you didn’t,” he answered, as he always did now.

“Oh sure, don’t need me drunk now that I’ve confessed everything.” I’d intended it as a joke, but my tone came out sharp and honest.

His gaze shot away from me for an instant. “I admit, I let you drink too much because I aimed to keep an eye on you and hoped I might find out what was troubling you. I didn’t want to pressure you into it talking, but… Nothing you said while drunk made much sense anyway, and it just seemed to be making you sick. I think you should take a break from drinking for a bit. Let your body mend.”

“He always was bad at this whole talking thing,” Mr. Oyama said with a laugh. “I’m sure that logic made sense in his head.”

I sighed as I walked past Harlock and out into the hall. “I told you I wasn’t trying to kill myself.”

“I know, but I wasn’t sure what to think, Yama. You wouldn’t talk to anyone.”

My steps halted, and I spun back on him. “You were asking other people? No wonder Kei knew about the ghosts. You were telling everyone!”

“Not everyone.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead, messing his bangs. “I only told Miime and Kei about the ghosts because they pried, and I asked a few others if they’d talked to you or knew anything. We were…not sure what was going on.”

“He means he was worried,” Mr. Oyama piped in.

“I’m fine!” I snapped. That was obviously a lie, but I had no patience for either of them anymore. Turning heel, I stormed toward the galley. “Let’s just go get lunch.”

“Dinner,” Harlock corrected to my back. “We already had lunch.”

I bottled the urge to yell and hit him, wishing he could just stop following me around. Mr. Oyama would leave for now, but he’d be back as soon as Harlock left.

Being around the rest of the crew was no better. I didn’t know what Harlock had said to keep them from asking questions, but I could see the curiosity written all over their faces. They didn’t know about the ghosts yet, as my suggestion to tell Kei about Daiba was met with hesitation.

“I’m not saying you can’t,” Harlock had said, his brow furrowed. “But you may want to wait until everything is settled.”

“She’s a sweet girl,” Mr. Oyama added. “Has good intentions, but that never quite worked out when she tried to talk the kid out of something. Always seemed to have the opposite effect. He doesn’t like when people tell him not to do something, if you haven’t noticed.”

If that were true, I wasn’t certain how we planned to talk Daiba out of killing me in the first place.

After dinner and dealing with Mr. Oyama a while longer in my greenhouse, I returned to my room for the night. He trailed behind me. “You could let me sleep on my own,” I sighed. “Aren’t we approaching enemy territory? You might want to keep an eye on that.”

“Is this about me seeing you change? Honestly, I’m not even looking.”

“No, I’d just prefer to be on my own for a bit. Just a little too introverted for all this attention.” In truth, it had more to do with him seeing me experience the nightmare. He said I went from twitching to thrashing, breathing so hard he worried each night that I was hyperventilating. I didn’t want for anyone to see me that vulnerable, that scared. So much of the crew already had, and the thought twisted my gut. To them, I either looked like a weak target to someone’s attacks or like I was losing my grip on reality and my will to live. Neither option was preferable.

I couldn’t take this Hell anymore – not their stares or the dreams. I needed to end it.

“I guess I can leave you be for one night,” Mr. Oyama said, though the words seemed to stick on his tongue. “Just take your pill and stay in your room until I come back, alright? And I can’t promise I won’t check in on you every now and then.” As I looked back to him, he crossed his arms with a huff. His hardened eyes challenged me to argue, but I felt certain I could make do with this.

“Thanks, Mr. Oyama,” I said with a nod.

With a tentative smile, he rubbed his hand on the back of his head. “Ah, jeez, kid. Tochiro is fine. No need to be formal with ghosts. Get some sleep.”

I didn’t lie to him, not exactly. I never promised to follow his orders, though I did get some sleep. Not much. I didn’t take the pill, so I woke after the explosion. Slapping my hand across my mouth, I silenced a scream before it could escape. I couldn’t draw any attention to myself for now. Couldn’t risk getting caught.

As much as I longed for a glass of water or a shower, I felt even the pipes might grab Tochiro’s attention. As my door slid open, I expected to find someone standing watch on the other side, but the hall stood as black and empty as it had ever been. I heaved a sigh from my chapped lips.

I padded down the hall on bare feet, toward the spot Daiba stood in before electrocuting me. Each breath seemed to tear through my raw throat. Even if I thought calling his name was a good idea, I doubted I could do more than whisper.

He wasn’t there, of course. I wasn’t sure why I thought he would be. If Tochiro couldn’t find him, I had little chance. My only hope was that he would come to me. Keeping my steps light, I headed toward the lift.

Beyond the hum of the ship, I heard nothing. I saw no one. We looked like a proper ghost ship, complete with ghosts hiding somewhere in the darkness.

From the lift, I headed down the main corridor. The ship’s humming song grew louder as I neared its heart. Just as I passed the lift to the bridge, I saw him – just a flash ahead of me. It was the green of his uniform and nothing else, the same as when I’d first started seeing him. Raising to my toes, I rushed after him.

But no matter how I ran, I only caught glimpses. The hall rushed by me, the same way it had every night. Darkness had replaced the fires, but even as I followed him, I knew where we were going. I’d followed this path too many times not to know. My feet led me there on their own.

I saw him slip through the door before it finished opening, and I followed. The energy reactor whirred with its work, the room as warm as a standard day on Mars. It was nothing unbearable. All was as it should be.

As I followed him to the control room, I slowed my steps and fought to catch my breath. Each gasp ripped at my lungs. Daiba showed no such signs of exhaustion as I stepped through the door to find him. That hatred burned in his lone eye, his wounds as fresh and grotesque as ever. The pipes whistled behind him.

“Daiba,” I sighed as I fought to keep my eye on his. “Please, I just want to talk to you.”

“I don’t want to talk to you!” he spat. “You don’t have anything to say that I want to hear.”

Oh, I knew he didn’t want to hear it, but he was going to.

“Look, I could help you if you’d let me-”

“Help!?” he roared. “What could you possibly do to help me? I’m dead!” He shook his head in a fury, one hand gripping his face as he clenched his eye shut. “There’s nothing you can do! There’s nothing anyone can do! The captain couldn’t help me. The captain didn’t…” His eye shot open as tears poured from it. “It hurts,” he gasped. “God, it always hurts. I just want it to stop. I just want to stop burning. It’s all your fault! If you just go away, it’ll stop!”

I took a retreating step, but my back hit the closed door. Of course I’d walked directly into a trap. That was really all it could have been from the beginning. Daiba would never have led me somewhere with any other intent. I’d known as much, but I wasn’t expecting something inescapable, not with Tochiro keeping an eye out for me. I hoped as much anyway.

Glancing down, I checked the keypad for tampering. No lights glared back this round. Somehow, he’d killed the power to it completely, meaning Tochiro wouldn’t be able to just flick it open.

The screaming pipes trilled on, louder by the second. I knew that sound too well. I heard it night after night. Daiba cringed against it, trembling as I slipped into the corner of the room. If I could just escape the blast, I had a chance.

But as the temperature spiked, my knees sank away from under me. The edges of my vision blurred with darkness, and I couldn’t seem to take a full breath. The air was too heavy. My mouth and throat were raw with the need for water.

I reached a hand out to Daiba, still unsure what I hoped for. “Daiba,” I called. My voice cracked under the strain.

If he heard me, he made no sign. The pipes’ song rose to an ear-splitting crescendo behind him. I guessed I wouldn’t be saved this time. Maybe I’d become a ghost like him. Then he’d be stuck with me. Seemed a bit counter-productive now that I thought about it. I would have told him if I’d had the breath.

There must have been a bang. There must have been, but I only felt the force of the blast, cracking the back of my skull into the wall. My ears rang with a high-pitched whine as I opened my eye to find Daiba clutching his hands over his ears. Fire swarmed around him. It was only a matter of time before it reached me. Only a matter of time before my weak gasps for air wouldn’t be enough. The darkness bled across my sight.

My hearing returned the instant something slammed into the door. Daiba’s head jerked up, hope flooding his expression.

Someone spat a curse from the other side of the door, sounded like the captain. A moment’s pause held the air before he spoke again. “Daiba! Daiba, you’re in there, right?” He sounded like he’d sprinted down here, quick gasps between his words.

“Captain!” Despite the tears in his eyes, Daiba’s expression lit up with a smile. As the fire licked at his skin, his wounds faded into nothing. Even the burns in his clothes vanished, until he was just a little kid in a pirate costume.

“Please, Daiba, open the door. Let Yama go. Please.”

The only true smile I’d ever seen from Daiba cracked and vanished. I’d expected more anger, yet tears poured from his eyes. He took a step back from the door. “Why him?” he whispered. “What about me?”

I needed to tell him everything, about how Kei sobbed and how Harlock tore himself apart. I wanted to apologize for everything that had happened to him, for not being able to tell him sooner.

“I can’t lose him too!” Harlock yelled. “Not after I lost you. Not after… I’m sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t save you. But please don’t take him too.”

It felt so easy to let my vision fade to nothing – effortless even. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest despite my slowing breaths. Just as I began to fade, I felt someone’s touch against my cheek. I forced my eye open to see him there, a young boy with the messiest blond hair. His huge brown eyes were filled with tears. He was just a child. A scared, lonely child.

With everything I had left, I reached my hand up to rest against his cheek in return. He leaned into my touch with a sigh. Tears clung to his lashes as he closed his eyes. “Don’t go to sleep,” he breathed.

He vanished, and before my hand could fall, the sprinklers overhead cranked on. The door opened with its usual swish, and Harlock stumbled inside. I couldn’t keep my eye open.

“Thank you, Daiba,” Harlock sighed from somewhere above me. I felt him put an arm around my shoulders, and then I felt nothing.

In the darkness, I waited for dreams that never came.

[talesofzero]

Sear - Ch. 5

CG-verse; Chapter 5 - Stoke the Fires

Who’s ready for some exposition?

~3800 words

As soon as I heard the lock snap open, I shoved my back into the door. The seal gave way with a hiss, and I found myself lying in the warmest room I’d ever felt. Well, I was certain the temperature of the kitchen hadn’t changed, but it was heaven to me.

“Goodness!” Masu squeaked at the sight of me. “What on Earth? Did someone lock you in?”

With my arms still tucked into my shirt, I rolled out of the range of cold air spilling from the freezer. “I’m fine,” I said as she stepped out of my way. I knew an explanation would do nothing to ease the concern and confusion on her face.

“I got a buzz to take some drinks out,” she said, “but when I got there, they said no one had asked for them.” She shook her head with a huff. The men must have gotten quite a lecture for that, though I was certain it wasn’t their faults.

“Probably just a prank,” I said, but the way she raised a brow and stared me down suggested my lies weren’t getting through.

“The amount of time you were in there couldn’t have been good for you. No one would be foolish enough to pull a joke like that. You could have lost some fingers. Honestly, you should get the doctor to check you over.”

“It’s fine, really. It’s fine,” I sighed. “It was probably an accident.” Even if it would convince everyone I wasn’t trying to kill myself, I didn’t need her telling the whole ship someone onboard wanted me dead. There were still men who held a grudge against me, and I didn’t want them becoming suspects.

“After all that’s happened to you lately, it’s hard to consider that an accident,” Masu said, frowning.

My arms and legs felt so stiff they might as well have been cast, and movement made them ache, but I dragged my way to my feet. All I wanted was a warm shower and to curl up in my pajamas under all my blankets. I didn’t have the energy for rumors or questions. I didn’t have the energy for ghosts either, though it appeared Mr. Oyama vanished as soon as the door opened.

“Look, I don’t want to raise any suspicion or anything,” I said. “I’ll talk to the captain about it later, so let’s just keep this between us for now, alright?”

Her brows shot up as she looked me up and down. It was clear she thought I was an idiot. “Fine-fine. Off with you then. I’ll get someone else to finish inventory here, but you go see Zero.”

I nodded despite having no intentions to visit the doctor. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t injured or dying. Once I made it to the showers, I was certain that was the only remedy I needed, though even lukewarm water felt scorching against my iced skin. Once the warmth soaked in, I stood in scalding water until I thought I might overheat. My skin tinged with blotches of red, I padded back to my room, chilled clothes in my arms.

Nightmares be damned, I was ready to pass out for a good few days. As I pulled on a pair of boxers, feeling woozy from the heat, I suddenly found Mr. Oyama standing directly in front of me.

“Shit!” I yelled, nearly falling back in my rush to cover myself.

“Oh!” He broke out into a laugh like a wheezing hyena and slapped his hands over his eyes. “Sorry about that. I forget about things like changing and all that. I’m just stuck in what I died in.”

With a sigh, I threw on an oversized shirt and pants. “But you don’t look…dead,” I said.

He peered through his fingers to ensure I was covered before crossing his arms. His head cocked to the side. “I’m not sure how you want me to look here.”

“Well Daiba has so many wounds.” I flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.

“He does?”

“Yeah, all those burns - the ones he got when he died.”

Mr. Oyama sat down beside me, his hand on his chin as he became lost in thought. “Is that how you see him?” he asked at length, though he seemed more to question the air than me. Before I could answer, he shook his head. “Why don’t you tell me what you know, and I’ll do my best to clarify with what I know. At least-” He smiled, “-I’ll give you my best guess. Can’t say all of this makes much sense to me either.”

“So much for sleep,” I groaned. “Well, not like I’d get much rest anyway.”

I started with the dreams, something he admitted he didn’t understand. “Never heard of something like that happening in the last hundred years, but there’s a first time for everything. Maybe Daiba’s fixation on you or you having the same sleeping space had something to do with it? Dunno, kid. I’m more of a man of science, and ghosts aren’t my best subject. Dark matter has a mind of its own and kind of a cruel one at that.”

“His ‘fixation?’” I echoed. “He wants to kill me.”

“He doesn’t want to kill you,” Mr. Oyama sighed. “He thinks he wants to kill you.”

My brows pinched. “Is there a difference?”

“He says it’s because you’re a traitor, right?”

I nodded.

“That’s bullshit. I know that much.”

“Then why?” I snapped. That sure smile of his made me bubble with irritation. This was my life we were talking about. Just because he was already dead didn’t mean he could think of all this like a joke.

His smile faded as he considered his answer. He seemed reluctant to speak. “Because that kid is fueled by envy and nothing else. He’s a sad, scared little kid, and he had a sudden, painful death, and then you appear almost instantly and take his place. That kid has always been a mess of emotions, and you showing up didn’t help matters. I was able to rein him in for a while by saying it was for the best. Harlock needed the extra help with everything going on, but Daiba started learning what he could do as a ghost, and your little about-face gave him the perfect excuse to take everything out on you.”

I combed my fingers through my wet strands of hair, staring at the ceiling. Back in the freezer, Daiba did look like almost like a little kid throwing a tantrum. Just a kid – a ghost. I’d seen his death enough to know how he suffered, how he’d hung onto hope until his final moments that someone would come to save him.

“Why won’t he talk to you?” I asked, trying to recall their interaction in the freezer. “He seems like he avoids you, but…”

“But there’s no one else for him to talk to,” Mr. Oyama finished for me, answering my unspoken question.

My gut squirmed as I debated questioning the implications of that. I would have expected more ghosts, but it wasn’t as though I’d seen more.

“I guess I couldn’t say anything he wanted to hear, and acknowledging me forced him to accept that he was dead. He just goes to the cats for comfort, but usually when we cross paths, I see him watching and listening to the crew. He tends to stand there like he could still be part of what’s going on.” He cocked his head to the side. “I guess he can be in some ways, at least more than I can.”

“What?” I couldn’t make sense of that around the revelation that a ghost boy had been watching us all this time.

“Right, I guess I should explain. Ah, how should I break this down in a way you could make sense of it?” His head tilted back and forth, rolling his thoughts around. “Well, you know I’m the ship, right? At least, I’m the computer anyway.”

I could only stare up at him, my eyes wide.

“Well, I am. I can control basically all the ship’s functions on a whim. Think of it like breathing, I guess. You do that without thinking about it. That’s me with most of the functions – they just happen. If you want, you can stop breathing or slow it, and I can do that too. I can change things like the life support system if I wanted, not that I would. You can think of things like me turning the ship like you moving your limbs and whatnot. But for me, I see all the things happening on the ship all the time as feedback – rows of numbers, bursts of energy. It’s a bit hard to explain.”

He gestured to his form with a wave of his hand. “This is different. This lets me actually see what’s going on, but it splits my concentration, so I only use it when things are calm. Daiba is like this all the time. He isn’t really connected to the ship as far as I’m aware, but while I can only control functions of the ship, he can come into physical contact with things.”

An apologetic smile spread across his face. “That’s why you keep getting in these situations. I don’t always notice when Daiba is messing with something he shouldn’t. When a gas valve gets opened, or the temperature of an area drops below normal, that’s sort of just background noise for me. That’s why it took me so long to get you help. The wires I noticed right away, so I shut off the power to that area for a bit, but things like opening the door or fixing the temperature tend to be low on my priority list. Sorry about that.”

I shook my head. “You saved me, so I should really be thanking you. I didn’t realize that was what had happened.” But his apology reminded me why his voice sounded so familiar. “You were there, weren’t you?” I asked. “After I was electrocuted, you were there.”

His eyes widened behind those thick glasses. “Wow were you conscious for that? Poor kid.”

I nodded. “I couldn’t see or anything, but I could hear you, and you patted my head.” That felt a bit awkward to say out loud, but it was comforting at the time. Mr. Oyama must have felt awkward about it too because his face twisted with confusion.

“You could…feel that?” He reached toward my shoulder, but his hand slipped through. I felt nothing but a surreal discomfort of seeing his hand phased through me. “I can’t make contact with people like Daiba can, and even he can only do that for short periods of time. If you could feel that…” His brow furrowed, worry written clear across his face. “I think it’s about time you were honest with Harlock.”

That smile returned, still not as genuine as it had been before. I stared back at him, blinking and wondering if he’d lost his mind. “What?” I managed at length.

“You promised Masu you’d talk to him.”

“Later,” I said.

“It is later.”

“I didn’t say anything about the truth.”

“It was implied.”

I wished I could smack him, but instead I stood with a huff of breath. “Fine! But I’m not doing this sober!”

Mr. Oyama shrugged, that brilliant grin splayed across his face. It seemed strange to think that he and the captain had ever been friends, yet at the same time, I couldn’t imagine any two people in this world more suited for each other. They were both stubborn idiots.

The looks people gave me as I passed them in the halls suggested Masu ratted me out to everyone. I’d expected nothing less of her. If Harlock knew, I wasn’t concerned, and he gave no indication. He just watched me with his brows raised as I snatched the bottle of wine from his desk and chugged it.

“Oh my God,” I hissed when I came up for air. “This stuff is awful. I don’t know how you drink so much of it.”

I continued drinking until my stomach ached. Harlock frowned at me as I slammed the bottle down. I wasn’t drunk enough yet, but it would have to do. “God, I don’t know where to start,” I grumbled.

Mr. Oyama stood near Harlock’s chair, still grinning at me. “Let him down easy, kid. You’re liable to give the old man a heart attack.”

“He doesn’t need to be let down easy,” I spat. Harlock’s eye widened. “What about Daiba?”

“What?” Harlock and Mr. Oyama asked in unison.

I slammed my hands on the desk. “Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

The look in Harlock’s eye was a warning, the sort of glare he gave me when I made a poor tactical choice. When that happened, I knew to take a step back and rethink things, but I wouldn’t back down on this. I locked our eyes, waiting for my answer.

“Kid,” Mr. Oyama warned. “You really don’t know what you’re getting into here.”

I didn’t care. This had too much to do with me for him to just brush it off. It wasn’t until Harlock began to speak that I realized he wouldn’t know why it had anything to do with me.

“There was no reason for me to discuss him with you, and I don’t owe you any answers on the subject.”

“You put me in his room!” I yelled. My thoughts were a mess, and every word that left my mouth felt like the wrong one, but what could I say? I couldn’t even begin to explain the ghosts or the dreams. The alcohol might not have been the best decision. I’d hoped it would loosen my tongue, but it seemed to tie it more.

“What is this about, Yama?” His voice was as low as a growl.

I turned heel to pace back and forth in front of the desk. “You’re just making things difficult,” I said, throwing my hands up.

“Me?”

“Yes!”

“Kid,” Mr. Oyama sighed. “Just tell him I’m here.”

“What do you want me to say? ‘Oh by the way, your friend’s ghost is standing next to you being a smart-ass.’”

Mr. Oyama shrugged. “That works.”

Harlock stared at me, his brow furrowed in confusion. I stared back. My mouth hung open as I tried to find the right words. “There’s a ghost trying to kill me,” I said. “Also I can see Mr. Oyama’s ghost. He’s not trying to kill me though. And some cats. The cats are friendly too.”

Mr. Oyama snickered. “The alcohol’s getting to you, kid.”

I probably would have sounded drunk even if I’d been sober. There was no way to reasonably explain this. “Why can’t he see you?” I finally asked Mr. Oyama. “Doesn’t he talk to you?”

“More to the computer version of me. This me is listening, but I can only respond with flashing lights.” He laughed. “Here, tell him I’m not going to give him the notes again if he’s late for tactics.”

“So you’re seeing real ghosts then?” Harlock asked, his words slow as though trying to make sense of it. “Ghosts of members of my crew? And one of them is trying to kill you?”

I heaved a sigh. This couldn’t go well. “Mr. Oyama says he won’t give you the notes again if you’re late for…tactics?” I looked to him for confirmation, and he gave me a thumbs-up.

Harlock nodded, though he didn’t seem to comprehend. “He’s…he’s here? You can speak with him?” He glanced to where Mr. Oyama stood, but his eye focused on nothing.

“Yeah, he’s like this tall.” I brought my hand up to my chest. “Blue outfit. Big, smug grin on his face. Thickest glasses I’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve got a bullet wound on my shoulder from where he accidentally shot me once,” Mr. Oyama added.

“Apparently he also has a bullet wound in his shoulder too, but I’m not looking at him shirtless, so I’m going to take his word on it. How do you accidentally shoot someone?”

Harlock rubbed his hand over his mouth, paler than I’d ever seen him. “Why can’t I see him?” he asked in a whisper.

I looked to Tochiro for answers, but he shrugged. “I’d imagine it has something to do with Daiba because you saw him first.”

“It’s Daiba’s fault,” I translated to Harlock. My words were starting to slur.

“What?” Harlock asked, his voice weakening further.

Taking a deep breath, I told my fantastical story for the second time that day. As I told him about the dream, his eye fell to the desk’s surface and remained there. His hand covered his mouth, keeping his expression unreadable. I stuck to Daiba’s story – that he wanted me dead because I was a traitor. The only detail I left out was the wounds, unsure if Harlock needed to hear about something like that. I didn’t even like to think about them.

When I told him about the freezer, my vague recollection of Daiba’s words drew a sharp breath from him. “He said something about not knowing if it was better or worse,” I’d said. It was then I noticed his shoulders trembling.

“Did you care?” I asked.

“What?” His eye shot to mine, wild with emotions I so rarely saw from him.

“You replaced him with me so quickly, didn’t you? You’ve never spoken about him. Kei said the whole crew acts like he never existed, and I’d never heard a word about him until I saw his ghost.”

“Kid,” Mr. Oyama warned once again, his voice sharp and serious.

But I had to know the truth. “You said you would care if I died, so why didn’t you care about him?”

In a flash, Harlock was on his feet, his hands latched into my collar. Only the tips of my toes brushed the floor, and I was forced to grip his wrists to find stability. “Don’t you dare,” he hissed. “Don’t you ever say I didn’t care about him.”

“Harlock, put him down,” Mr. Oyama squeaked.

“You don’t know what I went through. You don’t understand.” He shook me hard enough to bruise my knees against the side of the desk. “You didn’t know him!”

“Why should I believe that?” I spat. “I’ve still never even heard you say his name.”

I thought he might smash my face into the desk as he grit his teeth and snarled. I’d never seen him so visibly angry. Had I been less drunk, less exhausted, I would have known to be terrified. But as things were, I wanted an explanation too much to fear him.

The wild fury in his eye broke with his yell. “I can’t!” His face dropped into his hands as his grip loosened. His voice, raw with grief, faded to a whisper. “I can’t say it after what I did to him.”

“No!” Tochiro snapped. “We’ve been over this. Tell him it’s not his fault.”

“What’s not?” I asked.

“I knew how dangerous the energy control room was,” Harlock said as he placed his palms to the desk to hold him upright. “I knew those pipes weren’t in good condition. But he didn’t know that. He didn’t know the proper way to handle them, and I let him go.”

“It was in the middle of a battle,” I said. “You had no way to predict what would happen.”

Harlock shook his head. “Even Kei knew better. She tried to get me to call him back. We felt the explosion happen, even with all the floors between us, but we didn’t know that was what it was. I still tried to tell Kei it was fine. The gauge was starting to drop. He had handled it on his own.” His shoulders shook along with his words. “Then I heard his voice through the communicator. The last words he spoke were begging for my help. I tried to go down there to save him- God, I tried, but by the time I pulled him out-”

He sucked in a breath. “My God, those wounds. He must have been in so much pain. But I cared, dammit. I cared. Don’t you ever say I didn’t. I know it was my fault, but he was so important. I couldn’t…I just couldn’t…”

“You didn’t want to think about him,” I said. It sounded more like an accusation than a realization, and perhaps it was. “So you never acknowledged him after he died, and the rest of the crew followed suit. You replaced him with me like it was nothing.”

“Replaced?” His head jerked up.

It was cruel to say, but I affirmed my choice with a nod. “That’s why he hates me. That’s why he wants me dead.”

But Harlock shook his head, tears rimming his eye. “You could never replace him, and no one could ever replace you. He was a hotheaded boy who always caused trouble, small and short-tempered.” A weak smile twitched on his lips. “But he was smart as anything. He could tell you everything about the stars, and I’ve never met anyone who loved them more than him. Even after he died, even after I killed him, I kept waiting to find him on the bridge in the middle of the night, sitting in my chair and watching the stars when he couldn’t sleep. I suppose when we found you, I finally accepted it. He was gone.”

“But he’s not,” I said.

“He is for me. I can’t see him. I can’t talk to him.”

“Don’t give me that,” I huffed. “If I can play telephone with you and Mr. Oyama over here-,” I cocked my thumb toward him, “we can make it work between you and Daiba. We need to. I don’t want to die.”

Harlock sank back into his chair with a sigh, his expression worn. “As crazy as all of this sounds, trying to kill you does sound like something he would do when upset. I’m not sure he’ll want to listen to me. He never really did, but I can try.”

“You have strange taste in crewmen,” I said.

Tochiro grinned as Harlock managed a soft smile. “I don’t believe anyone has ever accused me of having normal taste in anything. He was trouble, certainly, but so were you. In fact,” he sighed, “you’re both still trouble.”