The Peninsula

The Fiction and Poetry Archive of Liana Mir and scribblemyname

Actions Speak Louder

May
11

Gin proves herself strong. She’s quick, agile, and more driven by the need for vengeance and to no longer be helpless than by gratitude for Dazai’s choice to take them in.

It was the Port Mafia that killed their companions, and the Port Mafia that punished the killers and rewarded Gin and her brother. The Port Mafia values strength, values proficiency with knives and body and all goes well—until she hits puberty and her voice doesn’t change.

“Nobody listens to me,” she vents, frustrated, to Ryuunosuke as she washes blood from his shoulders where Dazai’s training has harmed him.

“Words mean nothing,” he says in a low rasp. “Actions are everything.”

Gin pauses, considers that, stops her brother from escaping, and finishes dressing his wounds.

She’s getting to be pretty and that’s a problem. She ties up her hair and forces it to be just the right amount of wild, the right amount of out her way. She covers her delicate features with a mask and stares keen-eyed into the mirror. She closes her mouth and makes her points with the tip of a knife instead.

They listen to her. She rises in the ranks. She takes command.

Bungou Stray Dogs, Daily Ficlet 2019, Double Drabble, Fanfic , , , 0 Comment

Days Are Cold

Feb
12

The days are cold. He shrugs on his jacket and steps out into the chill winter air, knives under his clothes, up close against his skin. They’re sharp but they keep him safe. He’s used to sharp edges.

There used to be warmth and heat burning beside him, welling up inside when he thought of violence. Now it feels cool and crystal clear, except where he reaches up to scratch at the itching scar on his chest. There used to be heat beside him, near him, throwing an arm over his shoulders because he used to walk with Misaki. It used to burn inside him because there was no cool blue aura to outweigh the flaming red.

Now, both simmer and lie below the wind-kissed cool of his skin, and he feels the sharp electric buzz that goes with electricity and technology and change. He fingers a knife with knowing fingers, feels the eerie light of jungle green welling up across his knuckles, through his palms. Anna had looked at him years ago and known he’d never stay red.

The days are cold. There is no Misaki beside him. The fire within is banked. It’s time to go to work.

Daily Ficlet 2019, Double Drabble, Fanfic, K , 0 Comment

Say My Name

Jan
23

He hadn’t meant to stay a cat long enough for this to happen. By the time Saruhiko had an opportunity to change back (after a harrowing long time trying to leave the group he’d been spying on inconspicuously; he hadn’t planned on being found and adopted), he’d almost forgotten how to human.

He was still curled up, catlike, when he heard a loud, very familiar voice, “What did you do to him?!”

He tried to say Misaki. What came out was a meow.

Misaki swore and settled in beside him, soothing hand on his back. “C’mon, let’s get you up.”

He didn’t know how to get up, his paws not working right, and Misaki wanted him on only two. He buried his face in Misaki’s neck and scratched the arm supporting him.

“Stop that,” Misaki said sharply, but he reached up and scratched just so, much gentler, on Saruhiko’s neck.

Saruhiko found himself melting with a loud exhale. Misaki knew just how to do it.

“Good,” Misaki said. He helped Saruhiko sit upright. “Now say my name.”

It took a minute, a few tries, but finally he got out a low, human rasp. “Misaki.”

Daily Ficlet 2019, Double Drabble, Fanfic, K , , , , , 0 Comment

In Practice

Jan
08

Saruhiko still had access to his money but found himself easily drawn into Misaki’s way of life and all the moneysaving tricks his mother had taught him. Sharing shower water was certainly no hardship. Turning off lights when they didn’t need them was only annoying when Misaki started nagging. Leaving the heat off at night sounded good in theory, since they both had a pile of blankets.

It was not good in practice.

Saruhiko didn’t realize he was cold until after he was shivering. He hunched his shoulders and gritted his teeth and plotted in the back of his mind how to tell Misaki they were never doing this again in a way that would actually forestall Misaki’s numerous good reasons why he knew better than Saruhiko how to save money. (He did, in fact.)

All that fled Saruhiko’s mind when a sleepy, tousled Misaki pulled himself onto the top bunk and burrowed into Saruhiko’s covers like that made any kind of sense. His arms wrapped around Saruhiko, his warm breath suddenly heating the back of Saruhiko’s neck, and suddenly Saruhiko couldn’t even feel the cold—just every single place their bodies touched.

He swallowed and permanently retired his objections.

Daily Ficlet 2019, Double Drabble, Fanfic, K , , , , , 0 Comment

Avatars

Mar
23

“You’re the god of what again?” the current avatar of the god of death asked.

“None of your business,” the much shorter redhead replied.

They were just teenagers and probably had no business being avatars, but gods never bothered much asking the mortals that channeled them.

“But we’re partners now, Chuuya!” Dazai persisted. “Surely it’s something to do with Death!” Be careful who you want to meet, Dazai thought. He just might keep you around.

Chuuya recoiled. “Passion,” he replied bluntly.

“Passion.” Dazai blinked. “Passion?”

Chuuya’s body language was tense, but he refused to elaborate.

What he was refusing to tell his new ‘partner’ was that he wasn’t the avatar of the god of passion. He was the god of passion—full of all the pleasure and violence that generally entailed. He was the avatar of another power though because it didn’t seem to care whether it channeled its way through a mortal or a young god who just happened to be wandering the earth when the last avatar of calamity died.

“What exactly are you passionate about?” Dazai asked, wide-eyed. “I’m looking for a beautiful woman to—”

Chuuya shoved him into a tree. “Not that kind of passion.”

Bungou Stray Dogs, Daily Drabble 2018, Double Drabble, Fanfic , , , , 0 Comment

Healing Moment

Feb
20

He knew it was a bad decision the moment he did it. It had been months since the last time Rhezere contemplated the knives in the drawer with more than clinical disinterest in slicing food. Now, the blood welled up over his fingers as he cradled his arm and stared down at it.

He felt nothing, then sudden overwhelming panic flooded into the spaces where his heart was numb.

He went without thinking, moving quickly into Kasuru’s office where he was meeting with the ship builder Nanere.

She stared.

Kasuru said nothing, just pulled Rhezere to the space beside him and took down the healing scanner, a steadying hand firm on Rhezere’s shoulder.

Nanere dropped her gaze back to the plans they’d been discussing. Kasuru patiently ran over the arm until the wound no longer gaped. The flesh still looked raw and blotchy, less severe but not fully healed.

Kasuru wrapped it in bandages, then tucked his fingers under Rhezere’s chin to draw his gaze up. “We’ll let it rest overnight then look at it again.”

Nothing could be healed in a moment.

Rhezere knew that. Something inside him eased at realizing he’d been willing to be healed at all.

Daily Drabble 2018, Double Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , , , 0 Comment