The Peninsula

The Fiction and Poetry Archive of Liana Mir and scribblemyname

Paying Attention

May
21

Wanting Misaki like this was a discovery, unpleasant and unwelcome burning in his belly. It was easier when they were friends, then when they were enemies, easier than looking at Misaki’s cheerful face and realizing he wasn’t content to be friends again, even best friends.

“Saru! Pay attention!”

Saruhiko didn’t really need to pay that much attention to win the video game, but it would be helpful to think a little less about how distracting Misaki was and more on winning against him.

He didn’t. He leaned over, shoved the controller out of a startled Misaki’s hands, and kissed him.

Close Encounters of the Gander Kind

May
16

There’s an angry goose whose job it is to know these things. They say the reason so few people meet their soulmate is because the goose can only herd around one soul at a time in the direction of their mate and until the goslings grow up, the country just has too many people to get through before it’s your turn.

Every country has its own soul guide. Theirs is the angry goose. Yata always wondered but didn’t dare ask if someone else had the happy goose. Had he asked, his mother would have told him, they’re all angry, dear, they’re overworked.

He doesn’t really think anything of it when he’s skateboarding past a park and there are birds flying up startled from the ground, making small angry sounds at his disturbance. Not until a very loud angry honking doesn’t fly up. Instead it follows him, startling him back into careening right off the skateboard into the grass.

And there’s an angry goose in his face. It thrusts its beak at him as if it wants him to get moving.


Fushimi Saruhiko was prepared for many kinds of craziness to be a part of his workday, but the last thing he expected was a certain familiar redheaded skateboarder to come tearing through Scepter 4 chased by a honking, biting goose close on his heels. Misaki crashed into Saruhiko’s desk, and the goose stopped to glare at them both with one beady eye.

It gave one last smug honk and waddled away.

That Moment of Peace

May
15

A moment of peace, rain falling gently against the windows, the scent of fire and red aura mingling with mundane smells of an apartment shut up against the weather, stale scents of breakfast and cigarette smoke.

It’s rare and remarkable for highly ranked blue and red clansman to share that moment of peace together.

Seri lets her wary edge slowly fade before Izumo’s openness. He seems so close to his king, in ways she doesn’t have with the Captain. Friends.

She looks at him talking about friends and wonders a little to herself if this is what that feels like.

On Duty

May
15

Munakata hadn’t forgotten Mikoto or the position Mikoto had willingly placed him in, forcing him to play executioner with little regret. He didn’t doubt his Lieutenant, never for a moment, but Munakata found himself reluctant to force her to slay him the way he had Mikoto.

A backup plan, one she could hardly miss, a blatant admission of his own weakness, but Awashima Seri shared his particular weakness, the inability to walk away from their own duty.

This wasn’t her duty. He’d given it to another. Even so, he should have known, she would do what needed to be done.

Pain and the Promise

May
15

Mikoto could take a lot of punishment, harsh hands, hard surfaces under his body as Munakata slammed him into wall, street, even ground if he could manage it. Pain and the promise of it, rough and the bite of bright aura that wasn’t Mikoto’s.

He laughed, eyes alight with power and pleasure.

Munakata’s smug face was just right as he wrought actual pain and bruises on a nearly untouchable king. It didn’t feel like the rush of power or the nightmares and regrets that plagued him. It felt like something he didn’t have to think or worry about. Something real.

Start a Fire

May
09

He was lighting a cigarette when Seri asked curiously, “How precise are you with that?”

Izumo stopped, stared at her for a moment, then smiled. “How precise do you want me to be?”

She shot him a look he could read easily, Don’t get too cocky. But her expression turned speculative, finger running over the lighter cap. “Hot but not painful.”

Which meant getting very close but not touching her skin. He glanced appreciatively over her skin again as she stretched out on the bed.

“You sure?” he asked one more time.

“Get on with it,” she commanded.

“Yes, Seri.”

Thunderstorm

May
07

Thunder cracked and lightning lit up the entire inside of the bedroom. Anna shot up out of the covers, blinking at the brightness. She wasn’t scared. Not even a little bit. Nope.

She scrambled out of bed and crept down the hall, shivering at the continuing flashes and thunderclaps overhead. She reached the couch where Totsuka had crashed earlier, pulled back the blanket, and crawled underneath.

“Huh?” Totsuka stirred, blinking at Anna in sleepy surprise.

Thunder rumbled then snapped. Her grip on the blanket tightened.

“You’re not scared, are you?”

“No,” she said.

Totsuka smiled but tucked her in close.

No Reason at All

May
07

They had lived together before. Yata had seen Saruhiko clothed and unclothed, half asleep with his hair sticking up or neatly put together in formal wear. There was really no reason on the first night they were rooming together again that he should be gobsmacked by the sight of his best friend wandering out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel.

Saruhiko ran a hand through his hair absently, new scars and new muscle visible on his lean frame, and he looked good.

Saruhiko blinked at him. “Are you burning dinner?”

Yata swore and snatched it off the burner.

Mistletoe

May
03

She’d scrupulously avoided the mistletoe. Seri was pleased with the Captain as her King and liked him well enough when he chose to mingle during holiday parties, such as at Christmas, but not well enough to let him kiss her for spirit or tradition. The one subordinate who’d suggested she’d yet to try the mistletoe had visibly wilted under her unamused stare.

It was well after HOMRA’s party by the time she went over, everyone cleared out or asleep except Kusanagi.

“Here for your free drink?”

“No.” She paused under the mistletoe.

He stared, surprised, but didn’t keep her waiting.

Mutual Support

Apr
30

“Seri?” Kusanagi blinked in surprise at recognizing the person behind the largest pile of boxes from shopping he’d ever seen. “Would you like some help?”

She studied him warily around her pile, not a look he was unfamiliar with.

“You certainly helped me enough with Anna and the Slates,” he said quietly.

Man to woman, there was always tension between them, but Seri softened when he said that. Clansman to clansman, they’d always been able to communicate.

“Certainly. Thank you,” she said with the snap of authority in her voice she’d mastered long ago.

Then she buried him in boxes.

Beautiful

Apr
24

She was beautiful, truly beautiful, and he didn’t just think that because she was hot.

Kusanagi enjoyed watching Seri take charge of her clansmen with firm authority and easy competence. He admired her elegance and the way she’d sometimes soften her expression when she cared. He liked that they could talk comfortably about their mutual difficulties taking care of their clans.

“Always a pleasure, Seri.” He smiled when she found her way into his bar, ordered her horrible drink, sipped it slowly.

“Surely you jest,” she commented, eyebrow raised.

“Why wouldn’t I be pleased to serve such a beautiful woman?”

Can You Feel the Heat?

Apr
21

A/N: Thank you to the wonderful people who cheered me on and brainstormed and helped make this story a reality, geckoholic and mornelithefalconsbane. Massive amounts of support, kink consultation, and straight up bribery made this happen. Thank you both!


People in heat were picky, even pickier than when they weren’t, which always seemed ridiculous to Kusanagi because that’s when you generally needed to be significantly less picky if you were going to get any relief.

And that was the trouble right now. First heats weren’t quite like later ones, when you’d gotten used to the whole thing and could probably ride one out without a partner or take suppressants without destroying any kind of regular cycle you happened to have. First heats were when you were pickiest because nothing felt quite right and you hadn’t learned yet that it wasn’t always your partner, and when a heat could turn lethal if you didn’t get relief and weren’t in the kind of familiar surroundings and scents and people that meant you didn’t panic in blind instinct.

In short, the last thing Kusanagi knew how to actually deal with was Yata Misaki curled up in a feverish ball at the bottom of the stairs. (more…)

Multi-Faceted

Apr
20

“You’re not exactly what I expected,” she stated.

Kusanagi looked up with interest from mixing her martini.

Awashima Seri had been coming to HOMRA more often, even regularly. They’d discussed mostly clan affairs. Despite the destruction of the Slates, Scepter 4 had plenty of work policing the strains created before its destruction, and Homura remained useful as an organization rooted in the city streets and too familial to disband.

But occasionally, they talked about other things than clans.

“You’re quite responsible,” Seri told him.

He chuckled and gave her the drink. “Not frivolous?”

“Still frivolous.” She softened. “But also responsible.”

Body Heat

Apr
14

Saruhiko went to bed cold because Misaki turned the heat off at night, forgetting they were both there now to share the bill. He always woke up halfway through the night, practically sweltering under Misaki’s body heat because Misaki was an irrepressible cuddler who used his bedmate like a body pillow.

A few halfhearted elbow jabs never seemed to wake him and shoving him right off only resulted in a repeat occurrence before Saruhiko even managed to get back to sleep.

“You’re a horrible bedmate,” he complained in the morning.

Misaki scoffed, knowing he’d still choose to sleep with him.

This Was My First Love

Apr
14

A/N: Thank you so much to geckoholic for the beta read and helping me when I fretted over consent issues. Also, title from the song “Last to Know” by Three Days Grace.


The adrenaline rush of fighting Misaki was always the same, pleasure and violence dancing up Saruhiko’s spine as he threw knives and aura at his former friend and partner. But for once, Misaki clearly wasn’t all the way into it, distracted, reflexes slightly slower, barely keeping up with Saruhiko’s insults and jibes.

Misaki failed to fend off the last few knives, and Saruhiko managed to pin him down, away from the rest of Homura, and close as he was now, he suddenly knew exactly what was off, the scent overwhelming.

“You’re in heat,” he said, frowning, barely containing his surprise.

(more…)

Inside Our World

Apr
13

It was raining outside.

(more…)

Better than a King

Mar
31

There were a lot of people that said only kings could truly understand each other. Mikoto wondered if those people had ever met Totsuka Tatara.

He’d find himself staring at his own hands, feeling the weight of violence and power burning inside him, and then Tatara would appear with his soft, gentle smiles and his eyes that saw right through everything Mikoto never found it in him to say, finding the words Mikoto couldn’t, that made everything make sense.

Mikoto stared at Tatara in wonder sometimes, an almost incomprehensible person who understood Mikoto better than anyone else, even another king.

In Your Corner

Mar
27

Yata hesitated at the door.

Saruhiko looked pale and tired, passed out unconscious on a hospital bed, a blue-coated stranger in the corner of the room, and Yata just wanted the stranger gone, but even he knew, they were the person Saruhiko expected to be here and Yata wasn’t.

No matter.

He firmed up his resolve and strode into the room toward the most comfortable looking chair, ignoring the Blue’s startled expression. Yata yanked the chair over to Saruhiko’s bedside and sat down.

“Idiot.” He scowled at his friend.

But he stayed there and stayed there until Saruhiko woke up.

Cherry Boy

Mar
26

Saruhiko would probably never get tired of Misaki turning red and flustered (more…)

Every Single Part

Mar
23

Misaki actually had terrible aim. Not that Saruhiko was complaining. (more…)