#mini-fic

I was looking through my drafts and found a little mini-fic I wrote and never published. I think I was too shy to publish romance back then. Enjoy! Deets: In this concept, exceptionally powerful humans can make pacts with other humans. Warnings: - Romantic as FUCK -----

Terra Cotta-Arc: Oh, that? That's a depiction of evolution.

Ruby: Eva-what-what?

Terra: Evolution. It's a scientific theory that all life was originally a different species, before it changed into its present form over a period of tens of millions of years. Humans, for example, used to a type of ape.

Weiss: Well, that would explain... (Glances at Nora, who is picking bugs out of Jaune's hair) some things.

Blake: And where do faunus stand in this glorious science?

Terra: (Very awkwardly) We-ell, the most common theory is that faunus and humans have the same source, but the future-faunus were exposed to elements that caused them to develop their animalistic traits. No offense.

Blake: (coolly) None taken.

Yang: So it's all theories, huh? Nothing proven?

Terra: I admit, it's hard to prove. But I think it's more rational than to believe some sentient being put everything in motion.

Team RWBY: (Has traumatic flashbacks to "The Lost Fable")

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thinking about assan diving into the blight after davrin. does he know his dad is dead? is assan following him into death, or is assan diving in to save him?

what if he succeeded?

assan, still a young griffon, isn't very strong yet but somehow finds enough strength to carry his dad out of that chasm, armor and all, talons digging into davrin's shoulders from the effort but a little more blood doesn't matter when all he needs to do is get his dad to someone who can do something about the gaping holes in davrin's chest, and so assan will. whatever it takes.

and none in the veilguard are healers, but taash has cauterised enough of their own wounds to know exactly how much fire davrin needs to not bleed out, and doesn't know how much fire they'll need to distract elgar'nan while the others take over but is sure willing to find out. whatever it takes.

when they're done, neve, who's found enough 'dead' bodies to know they're only really dead if they stay so after being warmed up, steps in with her ice immediately after taash is done, and chills davrin down enough for his breath to slow but not stop, and that will have to be enough for now. whatever it takes.

alternatively bellara, who always has a trinket or five up her sleeve, uses one to conjure a time anomaly centered around davrin—his heart is still but the rest of his body is dormant as well and thus won't miss the lack of circulation, and bellara's willing to hold the spell as long as is needed until healing comes. whatever it takes.

later, when ghilan'nain lies dead and rook has disappeared, harding's the first to stuff elfroot into davrin's wounds because while he may be in a magic-induced coma, she's not about to risk him waking up in pain, especially not during all the jostling while the team makes their hasty escape through the wilderness before elgar'nan turns the island to glass. in another life it could have been her, so in this life she's going to get them all through this. whatever it takes.

emmrich, back at the lighthouse, consulting every kind spirit he can find and tearing through each book in his library until he finds the spell needed, for every mourn watcher knows that no one should pass before their time, and if davrin's held on this long then emmrich won't be the one to argue. a healer he may not be, but death is his domain, and he'll push it back as long as he can. whatever it takes.

and the difference between poison and medicine often comes down to dosage, as lucanis was taught from a young age, which is why he's the one to clean davrin's wounds from any infection that might come in the way of emmrich's clumsy bouts of healing. another bringer of death turns preserver of life, because they may have had their differences but family is family. whatever it takes.

but something's missing, isn't it? somewhere far away, davrin hears assan's squawks and his companions' voices as though through muddy waters, but it's not enough. it's not enough, not until a familiar hand caresses his cheek and a soft voice whispers in his ear about everything that their future together holds if he'll just come back to them

whatever it takes, rook had said. davrin thought that meant death and he'd been ready—he's been ready ever since he took his vows and drank tainted blood.

for @luminarai

Nonna Luciana

By sealie

There was a rapid rat-tatt-tatt of a knock in a rhythm that made Nicolò sit up straight and look over the back of the sofa at the front door of their tiny, studio flat.

“Habibi?” Yusuf rolled onto his side. He had been lying on the floor, tongue caught between his teeth, sketching.

It couldn’t be. Nicolò set his book aside. As his heart hammered against his ribs, he rose slowly to his feet.

Fingernails danced across the door again, a cadence that he knew. How? Mamma and papà had told him to leave, to never return. Nearly two years…

“Habibi?” Yusuf rose to his knees as Nicolò raced around the couch, to get to that door, to not waste a minute, to not give himself a second to dismiss hope…

He yanked open the door, half scared that he would pull it off the hinges, half scared that this was a dream.

“Piccolo mio.” Nicolò’s tiny, little Grandmother beamed up at him.

“Nonna,” he breathed. “Nonna Luciana.”

“Nicolò.”

She was real. She was here. “How?” he asked.

“I have been saving,” she said proudly, all four foot eleven of her. “And I have been playing poker with my grandchildren.”

Nonna Luciana was a terrible poker player, and on the heels of that realisation he knew that his cousins had financed this trip.

“How did you get here?” It was a long, long flight for an eighty year old, who had never left Genoa, and probably had not had a passport until this trip.

“Gabriella is starting her studies at the University of Edinburgh this September.” Nonna Luciana rocked up on her toes. “I have come to help her…. How do you say it? Vet her apartments? This is not true as a fresh… fresher, she is in ‘halls’ for her first year. What your papà does not know, he does not know,” Nonna finished, proud at her fabrication.

“Gabriella is here?”

“And her twin brother, Dario, he is to study Medicine, like you.”

His favourite cousins—here in Scotland, and his Nonna? Nicolò could feel tears pricking at his eyes.

“Rouħi—” Yusuf slipped in beside him, and set a warm hand on the small of his back, “—are you going to keep your grandmother on the doorstep?”

“Oh!”

“Ah, and you must be Yusuf.” Nonna Luciana toddled into the flat as Nicolò stepped back. “My newest Grandson.”

I think one of my favorite things about dratchet is that drift is super religious and well at least how i see it, ratchet isn’t a firm believer.

which i believe lead to interesting conversations.

✧༺♥༻∞

Drift nods, a fond smile spreading across his face. “Every night, I ask Primus to keep you safe, to give you strength. And, selfishly, I ask him to let us have more days together.”

Ratchet was intrigued by his statement. He clutched his chest, feeling the warmth his lover gives him. “Maybe there’s something to it, Huh,” Ratchet murmured, looking away.

Drift chuckled, nudging him lightly. “Don’t worry. I’m not trying to convert you.”

Self-indulgent min-fic concerning Mandy + reuniting with her parents and siblings.

"A little closer, bunch up, bunch up!" Mandy followed orders from a stout man with thinning blonde hair without question. Though, she had to wonder where was that 'cool guy' her mother had fallen hard for. He had always been a bit corny and outdated. To hear Mom tell it though, he had been a bit of a wild man in their college years.

Could be a groupie's single-target infatuation talking, but his band never quite took off as he pictured. So, Mandy could only think it might have started as star-struck turned into genuine love and affection.

They had to love each other to have stuck it out this long, through him chasing various careers, nothing quite 'fitted'; and Mom decided to go back to school later on in life. Not to mention having twin boys spoke of something to how there was still a spark.

On either side of her, dark-haired teenagers nearly shoulder to her already. They are going to get so tall...lips tempted to twitch into a smug. All of her Dad's effort to convince Mandy to play sports and waiting for sons and not a one of them wanted to so much as touch a football, kick a goal or indulge in a round of hoops.

As they posed for pictures, Mandy couldn't help but let her eye wander to one brother than the other while their parents instructed Mandy, Sig and Max to turn their heads this way or that, sigh at one of them blinking mid-take and other things parents fuss over for portraits of their kids.

Max, she noticed, had an habit of tugging at his right earlobe. Right at a healed star-burst scar, from when his first ever girlfriend talked him into getting his ears pierced by her hand.

While the story of how he got it was embarrassing and invoked an exasperated "MOM, don't tell her that!". Max seemed proud of the mark, at least he parted his shoulder length hair to the side in order to show off that ear.

Remind me to introduce you to someone, if you guys are ever in California.

Did regret not asking Robert to come with her, but felt this reunion had to be about her, her parents and brothers. Introducing Robert Robertson in the same breath as stepping back into their lives might be too much.