SASO Referees (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
referees) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sportsanime2017-06-25 06:52 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2017-06-25 06:52 pm
Entry tags:
Bonus Round 3: FSTs
Please read this whole post before commenting to ensure that your team gets the most points possible.
RULES
- Submit prompts in the form of a short playlist (1-6 songs) and a ship from any of our nominated fandoms. Submit only the track listing and a link to where they can be listened to; the idea is for others to interpret what you present. You may also link to lyrics if you would like.
- Your prompt MUST include some kind of relationship. Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Lilia & Sara). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Lilia/Sara). Please don't say "Any pairing," either.
- Create content based on the playlists of others! Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work.
- Fills may be in any form you choose (except for another FST of course) as long as they are inspired by/fit the mood of the soundtrack they are filling for.
- Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.
- Here is a prompt/fill index for your convenience.
FORMAT
Bonus round shenanigans all happen in the comments below. Brand-new works only, please.Required Work Minimums:
- 400 words (prose)
- 400px by 400px (art)
- 14 lines (poetry)
Format your comment in one of the following ways:
| If PROMPTING: | If FILLING: | If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant: |
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
| FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING]
| FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING]
|
Posts not using this format will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, regardless of what they contain. They, like all comments in this community, are subject to the code of conduct.
If you see anyone breaking the code of conduct (e.g., causing drama, being rude) anywhere (not just DW), please contact the mods immediately.
SCORING
These numbers apply to your team as a whole, not each individual teammate. Make as many prompts/fills as you want!For prompts: 5 points each (maximum of 50 prompt points per team per round)
For fills:First 4 fills by any member of your team: 20 points each
Fills 5-10: 15 points each
Fills 11-20: 5 points each
Fills 21-50: 2 points each
Fills 51+: 1 point each
All scored content must be created new for this round.
Etc.
If you're hunting through the prompts looking for what to fill, a good trick is to view top-level comments only (see the line of links below this post).Have a question? Check The FAQ first. If you still need help, feel free to contact the mods. Happy fanworking!
FILL: TEAM PRINCE OF TENNIS, G
Fandom: Dansui!
Major tags: none
Other tags: excessive pining, Taira Mitsuki
Word count: 2184
(waves hand) SWIM BOYS....
***
Three years after the fact, they’re back at the same school.
When Mitsuki passes on the information that there’s another swimmer besides them that received a scholarship, Reo half expects it to be Shuuhei. His friend has improved his backstroke so much, as Mitsuki often likes to inform him about, that he wouldn’t be surprised if he got scouted when he took first in the 100 meter backstroke at their last Interhigh.
“No, silly. Sakaki is going somewhere else. It sucks.” There’s a pout on Mitsuki’s face and it brings a slight smile to Reo’s face.
“When are you finally going to ask him out on a date, huh? And I don’t mean another race to see who’s the fastest because I think that you both are old enough to realize it’s not just the tension of rivalry between the two of you.” Reo opens another textbook, trying to prepare for end of the year exams.
“Ah, but that would suck out all the fun, Reo!! And Sakaki blushes so cutely…” Mitsuki giggles to himself and it makes Reo wonder about his friend. Sure, all swimmers tend to be a little odd, swimming thousands of laps back and forth every day in the same pool did that to you, but Taira Mitsuki was special in his own right.
“Oh, back to my point! Since you guessed wrong about our new mystery teammate, I guess I’ll just tell you.”
Reo looks up from his book just in time to see the curling smirk on Mitsuki’s face.
“It’s Shinozuka Daiki.”
--
Reo has been through a lot in his life. Swimming blocks, heartbreak, school stress, he’s been through it all and survived mostly unscathed. He’s made his peace with Shuuhei and Daiki about what happened in middle school and while it’s not the close friendship that they had before, it’s something. They meet up every now and then and practice together. He looks forward to the emails he gets from Shuuhei once or twice a week. And Daiki...well.
The door stands in front of him, Shinozuka Daiki mocking him on the side name plate.
They are friends. He’s hung out with Shuuhei and Daiki a few times over the past year or so, more often than not together with their teams after a joint practice, but still together. He’s had multiple conversations with Daiki about the current drama they are obsessed with or the newest breakthrough in tech suit technology or whatever popped to mind when they were together.
But they are also rivals. Since that first time that Reo touched Daiki out, they’ve traded wins like a flip of a coin. Reo wins, then Daiki wins. Daiki wins again and then Reo wins three in a row. There’s something electric in the water every time they race that pushes Reo to his limits and beyond. He feels the need to go faster, to push more, just a few more meters, just one more stroke.
Swimming against Daiki always leaves Reo’s heart racing faster afterwards than any other event he swims and he knows it’s not from the physical aspects of racing. Sometimes, it hurts. Sometimes, when Daiki wins, he feels so full, like Daiki is finally where he should be, at the level he should have always been, in the lane next to Reo and now, being at the same school, on the same team
The door stays there, solid and unmoving. Sighing, Reo turns away and decides to try again later.
--
This goes on for a week straight. Reo stands in front of Daiki’s dorm room every night, hand raised, but eventually giving up. They don’t live on the same floor, but Mitsuki does and Reo ends up in his room more often than not and dozes off to the drone of his friend’s voice talking about backstroke techniques over the phone with Shuuhei. It’s only first year orientation, so they haven’t had any swim practices yet, meaning there was no reason that they had to see each other just yet.
He’s seen glimpses of him in the hallway and there’s no way that with Mitsuki sticking to Daiki like glue that Daiki doesn’t know he’s here. But Daiki doesn’t contact him and Reo still can’t knock on his door.
It’s stupid, they’re friends, but Reo can’t process the fact that they are finally back on the same side, that they can cheer for their teammate, for Mitsuki, together and maybe even swim in a relay together and simply the word together makes his throat close up and his mouth go dry.
The pool’s open, so just like high school, Reo goes back to his old habit of swimming out his problems. The university pool is so much nicer than Ryuuhou. The water is clear and cool, easily sliding over his body with each stroke. He’s never had a problem with the water, never had to fight against it. His battles always were with others. With himself.
By the time he stops and actually looks up at the clock, it’s two hours later and the pool is empty besides him for once. The lifeguard yawns on the stand and feeling guilty, he hops out, muttering a quick “thanks” before collecting his equipment and water bottle.
When he stands up again, tugging his bag shut while also stretching his neck, there’s Daiki. He’s staring out at the pool, arm crossed above his head in a stretch. He’s gained more muscle, Reo realizes, not having seen him in his suit for a while and he grips his water bottle. Daiki’s always been strong, always been taller, but Reo has less to pull, less to drag, and that’s where they balance each other out.
“Hey.” Daiki says, dropping the stretch to wave.
“Hey.”
“You finished?”
“Yeah.”
Daiki nods and turns back to the pool. His dive, even from the deck, is as nice as ever and his freestyle has gotten a lot better. He swims straight down the center, head down, arms stretching and pulling him forward and Reo feels a bit of jealousy. The Kawasaki effect is clear and he’s tempted to call up Ichitora senpai or even Nishina senpai and asks for some tips of his own.
Reo stops that thought and cringes because here he is, already measuring himself up next to Daiki, already looking for ways to beat him, to be better, when he should be stopping Daiki and talking to him about swimming...and other things. Instead, he turns away from where Daiki is in the pool and uses his tuition money well by standing under the hot shower for longer than he should. He debates waiting in the locker room, but the silence is too much and considering that Daiki only said all of three words to him before getting in the pool, Reo doesn’t even know if he wants to talk.
He leaves for his dorm room and completely misses the questioning “Reo?” echoing through the locker rooms just after the door shuts behind him.
-
A few days go by and Reo avoids the pool. He ends up haunting Mitsuki’s room more often than not until he’s kicked out for interrupting his call time with Shuuhei again.
“Go make friends.” Mitsuki says, throwing Reo’s bag at him. “Or talk to Daiki. You are friends, right? Maybe you should take your own advice and ask him on a date because there’s obviously more than just rival-based tension between you”
With that, Mitsuki shuts the door in his friend’s face. Reo sighs, not even having a and heads back to his own room. There’s an email from Shuuhei waiting for him to reply to but since he asked about Reo and Daiki were doing, he’s been putting it off.
He debates the odds of asking Shuuhei about Daiki, admitting to the awkwardness and if he would have any tips for Reo about approaching Daiki. Or if he could possibly share anything and everything about Daiki. He wishes, for a moment as he walks up the steps, that there still wasn’t a gap between them. They might have gotten over everything, apologized and talked things out, but there are still so many things that have changed between them and Reo isn’t sure how to act. Mitsuki often tells him he stresses out too much and needs to stop living in his head and act on things, but that is so much easier to say than do.
The sight of Daiki knocking on his door, hair wet and dressed like he just came from practicing, is pretty much the last thing he’s expecting to see.
“Reo?” Two knocks. “Reo, please open up.” Three more knocks.
“Um.” Reo takes a few steps closer. “Daiki. I’m right here.”
Daiki pauses mid-knock. He looks at Reo, then at the door, then back at Reo and it’s hard not the laugh at the slight confusion on Daiki’s face despite everything. It brings Reo back to the days that Shuuhei and Reo would tease Daiki sometimes with riddles, just to see the wrinkle in his forehead. Shuuhei called it cute and Reo never disagreed.
When he finishes laughing, Daiki’s now leaning against his door, arms crossed and smiling at him. “It’s nice to see you laughing so freely again. And at me, for that matter.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Reo takes a deep breath, fully calming down. “I didn’t mean it. You just surprised me.”
“I’m sure.”
Daiki’s looking at him a little expectantly and Reo knows that it’s now or never. So he acts.
“Did you want to come in? You were knocking on my door, so-”
“I wanted to talk with you, if that’s okay.” Daiki says, moving away from the door. “You didn’t wait the other night at the pool and Taira said that you’ve been standing outside my door for over a week, I figured that I would just come to you when you wouldn’t meet me halfway.”
Oh. He might have to kill Taira. And maybe set him up with Shuuhei officially. “Oh, well. Yeah, come on in.”
-
They talk for a while and then order food and then talk some more. But it’s good.
Reo feels so much lighter just to get out his feelings about how happy he is that they’ve finally reached this point together. They’re sitting on the floor, leaning against each other, and now that they’ve gotten so much out, Reo can’t seem to stop talking.
“It’s not a knock on Shuu, but the dream I had for Ryuuhou was to always be swimming with you. We’re both butterfliers and used to push each other in practice and until I was crushed by a different senpai, it was hard chasing your ghost. I didn’t know how fast you were anymore and then we never crossed paths our first year and that-” He stops and picks at a napkin. “At some point, it wasn’t about swimming but more about you. I was hurt. And I wanted you to know that.”
“I’m sorry.” Daiki’s hand is warm on his knee and Reo avoids eye contact because this is how Daiki has always been.
He’s always been supportive, even more so than Shuuhei, and he remembers that night that Daiki had dragged Shuuhei to track him down. He remembers Daiki approaching after that first race, to shake hands and congratulate, or the time that he invited Reo after a joint practice and introduced him to the rest of the Higashi team or even that training weekend they did last Christmas with Mitsuki and Shuuhei. Daiki has done nothing but reach out for him after apologizing and Reo has still been the one stepping back.
“No, I’m sorry for still being stuck on this. After everything you’ve done to reach out to me, I’m...really happy that we’re going to be on a team again. I think that this is a great chance for both of us as swimmers.” And while that’s all true, it’s not quite right.
He’d said it before, this isn’t about swimming. The pool has no room for awkwardness when it’s just you, the water, and the clock. This is about them. This is about Reo and Daiki.
“Also.” Reo finally looks over at him. “A good chance for us, Daiki. Outside of the pool.”
Daiki’s hand gently squeezes his knee. “You know, I didn’t realize that I still had a chance until I was cornered by a certain someone about my relationship with Shuu. I’ve been waiting for you because I broke your heart once and I don’t ever want to do it again.”
“Don’t leave.” Reo covers Daiki’s hand with his own. “Just...don’t leave.”
Daiki laces their fingers together. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
It’s nice. Daiki’s hand is warm and it’s easy to let his head drop on on Daiki’s shoulder. Reo could easily fall asleep like this, but Daiki speaks up again.
“So, about Taira and Shuu…”
Reo laughs, pressing his smile into Daiki’s neck. “I know right. Pass me my phone? We have our own meddling to do.”
Re: FILL: TEAM PRINCE OF TENNIS, G
I was laughing so hard through most of this. Mitsuki is A MENACE. Also, the Kawasaki Effect is great. I'm glad the Mitsuki/Shuuhei scheming worked out in the end, and now I want to see what Daiki and Reo come up with to get back at them.
(I also had the passing thought somewhere in here that Mitsuki reminds me a lot of Eiji in some ways, and those two would probably be complete menaces together if anyone ever let them meet)