Save Me (Damned Universe, Zenyuki)

“There-” panting, drawing in heavy breaths of air so damp she feels as though she might drown, Shirayuki points to the crumbling skyline on the horizon, “-see?”

Squinting and wiping sweat from her brow, Yuzuri casually slings her gun over her shoulder and nods, “Yeah, I see. What’re you thinking? Another day? Two?”

“One, if we’re lucky.”

Fishing her waterskin from her pack, she fights off a grimace when a less than desirable amount of liquid sloshes around inside, and takes a sip. It does nothing to quench her thirst. It hardly wets her lips, but she can’t afford to be greedy. Not now.

Not when Wistal is so close.

Another sip, a sigh and she readjusts her bag just in time to hear a symphony of screams, guttural groans and clicking rising in the distance. Yuzuri curses under her breath, readies the gun and looks to her, fear pulling her brows tight.

Heart in her throat, Shirayuki withdraws her blade, gripping the handle until her knuckles ache, and forces a grim smile. “Two if we run into trouble.”

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The Lyrias Center, ch2 - obiyuki

heh, what? 10 months later and this thing has finally risen from the ashes for day seven (fire) of @answeek, woo! standard warnings for abuse and torture and human researching apply to this weird ass au lol

The trick of it had always been in paying attention to subtleties.

Obi could convince himself that Lyrias wasn’t so bad when he thought of it as they marketed it — science and tests and assistance in control, in understanding. He could think no outright physical abuse even as they shocked him and drowned him and tried to bury him alive, all to see where his limits were and how tight his control and his ability to keep it. Because it didn’t have to count if there was a reason behind it, if it was condoned, sanctioned, granted funding by the highest authority.

He could say it isn’t so bad because Obi had been through worse. Because there were rules and regulations, limits that even the most ambitious of the researchers were forced to follow. Because Obi knew the exact time and location of each scheduled session, and because his tormentors sometimes stopped him in the hall to ask how he was doing, genuine with concern.

So there was a subtle difference. There was, and it was enough for Obi to hold himself together, thinking: This is acceptable. What they do to me is okay. I will get through this because I am meant to get through this. It is for my own good, for their good, for everyone’s good…

Subtle, but important, because otherwise Obi couldn’t have survived, wouldn’t have held through it. He would have broken, and then he would have broken their spines and their skulls and Zen’s trust and his own determination, and gotten the fuck out of there.

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Fire

A/N: just a warm feeling

The fur rimming Shirayuki’s hood tickles her nose as she breathes in and she has to hold her breath as the sneeze threatens to erupt into the comfortable silence. She can’t lift an arm to pinch her nose considering both are weighed down by the heavy blankets they’re tangled in and wriggling around to find the edge would doubtless lead to someone waking up.

The sneeze slowly subsides and she settles back into the warmth that is their current huddle. Zen’s snowy hair is nestled against her shoulder and she stifles a laugh at the memory of how hard it was to spot him among the pale drifts outside, it had given him a rather unfair advantage early on in their game.

Obi curls in, back pressed against both her and Zen’s legs and facing towards the fire and the entrance. Seeing his feet poke out of one end, she shifts the heavy blanket until he’s tucked into their circle of limbs once more. The room smells like hickory and the mulled wine at the bottom of their cups and Shirayuki doesn’t feel like sleeping for another hour. After all their fun, it gives her a chance to soak the day in.

It had been Zen’s idea, naturally, to sneak out for a day of exploring the woods stretching out for miles behind the castle. The snow crackling under her feet until she sank almost to her knees, she had to give up any pretense of finding things for the pharmacy. Zen pulled at the branches within reach, tracing the swirls of frozen leaves and icy bark with gloved fingers. Their hushed awe hadn’t lasted long once Obi dropped a handful of snow on Zen’s shoulders as he passed overhead among the boughs. From then, it was a blur of cold surprises and flashes of laughter. She can’t even really remember how they found their way back, legs heavy and plowing through the drifts until they reached the castle gate.

Kiki had told them all had noses as red as her hair and given them two bottles of wine before leaving, though Shirayuki saw the smile she tried to hide. She isn’t sure why they had ended up staying in Zen’s rooms, even after they’d begun to nod off but it was so much more comfortable here where she feels Zen’s breath against her cheek and Obi’s eternal shifting.

Burrowing deeper into the cocoon between the three of them, her thoughts wind down in spirals.

Disgraces (Day 7, Fire)

Mihaya isn’t afraid of anything.

He wants his title back so badly he can taste it, but it’s not fear that drives him, but cold ambition. His father squandered his birthright, and he’ll win it back.

If he were afraid, would he be here at the castle gates, demanding to speak with the prince? No, that’s simple calculation. Great rewards come only to those who take great risks. Playing it safe has left him with nothing but sore hands and an empty stomach, and he’s done. He’s not cut out for hard work. It’s time for a gamble. He’s due for something to finally go his way.

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Wood

A/N: Inspired by @septhi-draw because of the fullmetal au

“Thanks, Shirayuki, I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me one. You have an entire tab,” Shirayuki corrected him, tightening a bolt while she poked through her toolbox. Zen winced and surreptitiously tried to move his fingertips to no avail.

“I can hear the squeaking in the shoulder gear, try that again and I’m making your next arm out of wood.” If she’d said it in an angry tone, it would have been less intimidating than the nonchalance with which she voiced the promise.

Zen forced himself to sit still, but his working fingers drummed on the table out of restless habit. Of all the times for his automail to get jammed, it had to be now at the most inopportune time.

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The Most Perverse Creature in the World, Chapter 4

The rail bites into your palm, your one lifeline to this world while you castigate yourself in the next. Your aim had been to be noticed, to make your own wake instead of being caught in the undertow of another, and you –

And you have certainly accomplished that. The king himself wants to hear your arguments.

It is only that you have made it about – about whores. Whores. Gods, what a pot you have put yourself in.

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Best Laid Plans, Chapter 4

The day is a rare one.

The sky is clear, so perfectly blue against the white walls of Lyrias that it hurts her eyes to look directly at it. It makes the air dry in a way that burns the lungs with every inhale, but the feel of sunlight on her skin even through her layers of wool is a blessing that warms her down to her bones.

Strange, then, that she would feel so heavy.

“I can’t believe you have to go already,” Shirayuki sighs, following the strong line of Kiki’s back as she works the straps of her saddle.

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Forgotten, Ch 6: Arrival (Wood)

Forgotten

The air is bitter and stale. Its taste sits heavily in the back of Obi’s throat. Dusty and forgotten in flavour.

It makes his eyes burn and chest grow tight.

For years, he’s spent time amongst these stacks. They’re as familiar to him as the freckles dotting Shirayuki’s nose.

And not once - not even when he’d first arrived in the snowy city - has the air felt quite so choking. So poisonous.  

At least, that’s what he’s trying to convince himself of; that it’s the stagnant library air causing his shortness of breath, aching heart and stinging eyes.

He never has been good at lying. Even to himself.

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Hopes and Dreams (Day 6 - Wood)

Queen Inko of Clarines is only twenty-six years old when she ascends to the throne. The buds on the cherry trees are just opening, the breezes through the castle windows as clear as spring water, but she has no attention to spare for them. Not yet, not now.

There isn’t a sound in the grand hall as she kneels, the rustling of her robes all she can hear, and her uncle’s hands shake as he holds out the crown. Even now something feels wrong, it’s not her place- He settles the crown on her head, as he did for her father before her, and tears run down the new lines on his cheeks into the ermine of his collar. Pride or sorrow, or both, she can’t tell and won’t ask. The last months have been hard on them all.

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Wilant - ANS Week Day 6 - WOOD

The door to the pharmacy slid shut behind Ryuu and Obi. Ryuu was off to inspect the hothouses and Obi to escort him then surely sneak off and explore the rest of the strange new palace. Shirayuki couldn’t help herself from smiling. They’d made it to Wilant, she thought giddily

Akane suddenly spoke from behind her, “I’ll not have anyone with dyed hair working in this pharmacy.” It took Shirayuki a moment to realize that she was talking about her.

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Water

A/N: Second part of the dragon au just because

Zen swallows as the dragon advances on him, his instincts screaming danger despite the veiled offer to help with his energy problem just seconds before. Ignoring him, the man leans over the sink and splashes his face with water.

“So… is it like a headache or something?” Zen’s curiosity is burning a hole inside him even with the precarious situation he’s faced with. No one’s ever reacted so badly to it, he’s always just been a kind of convenient power station for others and now here was someone who not only seemed to sense its intensity but also didn’t want any part of it.

“No, your massive spillage is not giving me a migraine. What you need to be concerned about is how to tone it down.” He wipes away the droplets clinging to his eyelashes and the tips of his hair without looking at Zen, fist clenched in the washcloth patterned in tiny happy cacti that hangs from Shirayuki’s oven door. In the light through the window, Zen notices a few scales peeking over the edge of his collar, their color close to burnished copper.

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Eclipse

Wood represents balance