Bonus Round 6: Remixes

[referees]

The goal is in sight, participants! Let's finish strong by drawing upon the thousands of fanworks you've created this summer and putting them in new lights.

SASO 2017 is over, but this round is perpetually open to new fills (no new prompts).

Please read this whole post before commenting to ensure that your team gets the most points possible.

RULES

• Choose a fanwork created by other participants in a previous main or bonus round of SASO 2017 and create a new piece based on it. You could create a fanart of another work, an FST inspired by a piece’s style, a podfic of someone else's work, retell another person’s fanfic from another point of view, create a new fanfic inspired by a great piece of art... go wild! Sequels do count as remixes, with limits: "And then the same thing happened again" is not ok, but "And then some totally new thing happened" is fine, and please don't create only sequels.
• You cannot remix your teammates' works. You cannot remix your own works. You can remix fills that were created to your own prompts.
• You can remix a remix, but if we see any remix chains we'll be upset, so do this with moderation and restraint.
• You must have permission from the original creator. There's a blanket permissions post here (feel free to add yourself to it!), or you can leave a comment on their original post asking for permission.
• You must include the dreamwidth link to the original work in your post.
• Since all fills are based on previous works, there will be no prompts for this round. Simply post your fill as a comment in response to this post.
• Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.

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)
• 8 tracks (fanmixes)

There is no max work cap.

Format your comment in one of the following ways:

If FILLING:

If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant:

FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING] Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team you belong to. Any way you format it is fine. Replace RATING with the rating of your fill (G - E) Copy/paste/fill out the following form into your comment box. Delete the guidance text that's in parentheses. (Please delete all text in parentheses as you go. LEAVE THE HEADER HTML ALONE or the bonus round scoring program can't parse your comment. Don't forget a comment subject!) <strong>Ship:</strong> <strong>Fandom:</strong> <strong>Major Tags:</strong> (https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/1609.html, when applicable; otherwise write "None".) <strong>Other Tags:</strong> (anything else that you feel requires tagging; can include jokey tumblr-style tags here; may also pull from the "Additional Tags" list from the URL above, if applicable; otherwise, write "None" here.) <strong>Original Work:</strong> <a href="url">link</a> (place the DW link here) <strong>Word Count:</strong> (if applicable; otherwise write "None") (Place any author/artist's notes BEFORE the asterisks. Leave the asterisks alone or you may not get points!) *** (Place your fill here. You can use HTML. FOR NSFW FILLS, please cross-link these fills and use clear tags. Refer to the body of the post above for more information. To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" alt="DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE"/>. Thumbnails only, please; more info @ http://referees.dreamwidth.org/5647.html#images ) NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and tag them clearly. saso_afterhours is open to all NSFW fills. Written/text fills can be hosted on AO3 or saso_afterhours ONLY. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere; you may include a small safe-for-work thumbnail of the fill in your comment.

FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING] Replace RATING with the rating of your fill (G - E) Copy/paste/fill out the following form into your comment box. Delete the guidance text that's in parentheses. (Please delete all text in parentheses as you go. LEAVE THE HEADER HTML ALONE or the bonus round scoring program can't parse your comment. Don't forget a comment subject!) <strong>Ship:</strong> <strong>Fandom:</strong> <strong>Major Tags:</strong> (https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/1609.html, when applicable; otherwise write "None".) <strong>Other Tags:</strong> (anything else that you feel requires tagging; can include jokey tumblr-style tags here; may also pull from the "Additional Tags" list from the URL above, if applicable; otherwise, write "None" here.) <strong>Original Work:</strong> <a href="url">link</a>(place the DW link here) <strong>Word Count:</strong> (if applicable; otherwise write "None") (Place any author/artist's notes BEFORE the asterisks. Leave the asterisks alone or you may not get points!) *** (Place your fill here. You can use HTML. FOR NSFW FILLS, please cross-link these fills and use clear tags. Refer to the body of the post above for more information. To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" alt="DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE"/>. Thumbnails only, please; more info @ http://referees.dreamwidth.org/5647.html#images ) NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and tag them clearly. saso_afterhours is open to all NSFW fills. Written/text fills can be hosted on AO3 or saso_afterhours ONLY. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere; you may include a small safe-for-work thumbnail of the fill in your comment.

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!

Comments

FILL: TEAM KAGEYAMA TOBIO/OIKAWA TOORU, G

[kiyala]

Ship: Aomine Daiki/Himuro Tatsuya
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: None
Other Tags: None
Original Work: link by wino
Word Count: 408

***

Daiki is actively trying for him, and it's the cutest thing Tatsuya has ever seen.

There's no need for Tatsuya to be shy about this; he knows that Daiki has a crush on him, that Daiki wants him, and yeah, perhaps he's encouraged it along with a lingering look here, a well-timed bend there, but it doesn't really change the fact that in the end, Daiki has it so bad that he's actually trying to be a better person.

He wonders if this is all it would have taken back in high school, too. Perhaps it would have given Yosen an edge over Touou, however small, if Daiki's mind would go blank whenever Tatsuya bent to pick up a ball, the way it does when they're at practice together in their university's basketball club.

"Are you paying attention, Daiki?" Tatsuya asks, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Daiki breathes, then shakes himself, blinking and forcing himself to look up, meeting Tatsuya's eyes. "Yes."

"So you'll repeat what I was just telling you?"

"Uhh." Daiki blinks, and Tatsuya can see the flush on his dark skin. "I…"

"I'm kidding," Tatsuya answers. "I wasn't telling you anything."

"Dick," Daiki says, with feeling. There's a look in his eyes, like they want to wander again and he's trying really hard not to give into the temptation. "How did Murasakibara deal with you, anyway?"

"I bribed him," Tatsuya replies easily, and takes a step closer to Daiki, right into his personal space. He smiles, slow and sly. "I'm good at figuring out what people want, you know. I'm pretty good at giving it to them."

It's fun, watching Daiki's brain short circuit. Almost as fun as making it short-circuit, but he figures that there's still some drills that the coach wants them to go through before they finish for the morning. Tatsuya isn't going to break Daiki any more. Yet.

"Come, Daiki," he murmurs, walking to where the rest of their teammates are huddling in front of their coach, who is flipping through pages on his clipboard with a light frown. His huddles are always a little too long for Tatsuya's liking, a little too boring. Even he can't feign polite interest the entire way through. He knows that Daiki is going to be even worse.

Daiki follows at his heels, and Tatsuya suspects that he doesn't even realise that he's doing it.

This is going to be a lot of fun.

Re: FILL: TEAM KAGEYAMA TOBIO/OIKAWA TOORU, G

[wino]

LFKJFLK IT'S JUST LIKE HIMURO TO THINK OF USING SOMEONE'S CRUSH AGAINST THEM DURING BASKETBALL. BOY PERHAPS THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS AT HAND, HERE

There's a look in his eyes, like they want to wander again and he's trying really hard not to give into the temptation. i love your descriptions of aomine in love, like... resisting it but also being unable to cave. tsun motherfucker

Daiki follows at his heels, and Tatsuya suspects that he doesn't even realise that he's doing it. PUPPY

FILL: TEAM PRINCE OF TENNIS, T

[fickle]

Ship: Asahi/Nishinoya
Fandom: Haikyuu
Major Tags: tags omitted
Other Tags: tags omitted
Original Work: here by foxrocksthesesocksss
Word Count:

SUCH a cute fill that I had to make a graphic edit for it. ♥

***

FILL: TEAM Kominato Ryousuke/Kuramochi Youichi, T

[hyalinee]

Ship: Oikawa Tooru/Yahaba Shigeru
Fandom: Haikyuu!!
Major Tags: none
Other Tags: none
Original Work: link by nautilics
Word Count: 498

USES MANDY AS AN EXCUSE TO WRITE MOSTLY SELF INDULGENT OIHABAS but thank u for filling it in the first place <3

***

“You should be proud, you know.” Oikawa says later, when it’s just them closing up the gym, Iwaizumi having gone ahead after Oikawa told him to leave. He passes the keys to Yahaba, who catches them mostly out of reflex. He doesn’t feel very proud, as they walk through the mostly deserted school to the staff room. Mostly tired and resigned and woefully, woefully underprepared and unqualified for captaining their volleyball team.

Oikawa waits while he goes to return the key, and they stop at the konbini on the way to the station. Yahaba fusses with his bottle of tea while Oikawa chatters on, munching on his milk bread, almost carefree. He wonders how is it Oikawa seems to take greatness and responsibility so easily on his shoulders, wearing it seemingly effortlessly. He’s aware that there’s a lot of hard work put in behind that appearance of effortlessness, but even so.

“You’re quiet today, Yahaba-chan.” Oikawa remarks, now folding the wrapper of his milk bread into tiny squares.

“I’m just not sure I can do this.” he mumbles, staring at his shoes.

“Why, Yahaba-chan! Are you telling me all my hard work training you has gone to waste?” Oikawa’s face is scandalized, but he sobers up when Yahaba looks at him somewhat reproachfully. He sighs and unfolds the wrapper, smoothing it out and refolding it again, the sound of plastic crinkling while they both try to figure out the right words to say.

“You don’t have to be me, you realize that?” Oikawa finally says, still fiddling with the plastic wrapper. Yahaba casts a sideways glance at him, but Oikawa’s looking at the clouds, at the sky, seeing something that Yahaba doesn’t.

“But-” Yahaba starts to protest, but Oikawa hushes him.

“You’re not supposed to be me. Just you. Whoever you are, whatever you are, as long as you give your best.” Oikawa finally looks at him, and Yahaba swallows. He doesn’t know what to make of Oikawa’s expression, intent and careful, like there’s more he wants to say. “You’re a lot more than you give yourself credit for, Yahaba-chan.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.” Yahaba mumbles under his breath, then Oikawa’s hand is on his chest, right above his heart, hovering.

“it doesn’t have to feel like it.” Oikawa is too close and intent and serious, staring at Yahaba and Yahaba doesn’t know how to look away/ “You just have to believe in it.” Then he moves away, putting distance between them again. He doesn’t look away, until Yahaba feels something like conviction take hold inside him, sprouting quietly beside belief and faith.

“Yeah.” he says softly. “Yeah, okay.” It doesn’t have to be now, it just needs to be there for when he needs it. Oikawa is solid and dependable next to him, like he’s always been, something to aspire to, but Oikawa’s also sitting next to him here, telling him it’s okay not to fly so high, reach so far.

They’re still high schoolers, after all.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[wino]

Ship: iwaizumi/himuro
Fandom: kuroko no basuke, haikyuu
Major Tags: character death, violence/gore, bodily fluids (blood)
Other Tags: disasters (war), angst
Original Work: link by intricacies
Word Count: 459

***

Tatsuya wishes there existed a better word for endings, but right now, all he has is the memory leading up to it.

-

Battlefields never made for good mornings, but Tatsuya's long since lowered his standards for those since this whole war started. It used to be as long as we aren't sent to fight, then as long as we aren't on the front lines. When even that seemed far too much too ask, it turned into as long as Hajime is unharmed, and when Hajime took a spear to the side, just under his ribs and narrowly missing his heart, Tatsuya was left with one desperate and angry prayer:

As long as Hajime is alive.

So whenever he opens his eyes to a barely-risen sun and sees Hajime's sleeping face in front of him, he considers it a victory.

Today is one of those days, and he says his thanks to the gods as he leans over and presses his mouth to Hajime's once, because once is enough to wake him.

"Idiot," says Hajime as his eyes flutter open, brows knitted together. Tatsuya lays a kiss upon them, too, with a silent laugh. Hajime pushes his face away with a rough palm, grumbling.

"Alright, alright. I'm up."

If Tatsuya had known it would be his last morning, maybe he would have coaxed Hajime back to sleep, or kissed him again for good measure.

But he doesn't know, so when Hajime makes his way out of their tent, all he does is follow behind.

-

Battlefields never made for proper goodbyes, either, but here they are, making do with what they have. The way Tatsuya sees it, this is the only path things could have taken, because of how it all unfolded.

Perhaps if the archer had been a little less skilled, or had chosen a less favorable moment to draw his bow, things would have been different. Perhaps if the wind had blown harder, or if the clouds had bled rain, the arrow would not have flown as swift, as true. Perhaps if someone else stood in Hajime's place, Tatsuya would not have been so reckless or unwise.

But the stars aligned for this moment, and not Hajime's demands that he stay, nor Tatsuya's desire to listen to him, can win out against constellations.

"Idiot," whispers Hajime through gritted teeth, his tears mixing salt in the blood of Tatsuya's mouth. "Why did you—?"

"You know why," says Tatsuya, eyes unfocused, now. A shame; he would've liked to look at that face longer.

Tatsuya wishes there existed a better word for endings, but right now, the only thing he has left to say is Hajime: a risen sun, a stolen kiss, a promise to begin again.

FILL: Team Aoyagi Hajime/Teshima Junta, G

[miyukitty]

Ship: iwaizumi hajime / oikawa tooru
Fandom: Haikyuu
Major Tags: None
Other Tags: FHQ art, mind the tags in the original fill though, this one's for all the FEH players out there, 5-star gacha hell rip my wallet
Original Work: BR2 fill by dynamite
Word Count: None

Free-to-use templates downloaded from here!

totally self indulgent but i'm... a little proud of this /// would spend many an orb to try and summon on this FHQ banner

***

Click for full-views~

Re: FILL: Team Aoyagi Hajime/Teshima Junta, G

[wino]

omg these are so cute gfgjk

FILL: TEAM Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, T

[marks]

Ship: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Fandom: Haikyuu!!
Major Tags: Mentions of sexual content
Other Tags: mistaken beliefs about socks
Original Work: Yamaguchi finds Akiteru's old magazines by pugglemuggle
Word Count: 691

Two fills about Akiteru's dirty magazines and not even a kiss between them. Akiteru must be so disappointed.

***

Tsukishima remembered the day that Akiteru shoved the stack of magazines into his hands with a bright grin and a wink and a condescending this is what older brothers are for! He remembered grumbling that everyone uses the internet for that now, even though he hadn’t used the internet for that yet, too embarrassed to search for the things that really interested him.

He remembered the way he sat on his rug and spread the magazines on the floor and looked at the covers. He remembered the shiny pictures and how the girls winked up at him and how even though there wasn’t even anything too scandalous on the outsides, it still embarrassed him beyond belief and frustrated him that all looking did was make him less curious about looking. He remembered the way he scowled and gathered the stack up again and shoved them under Akiteru’s old bed.

Then he forgot about them until Yamaguchi stayed over.

The walls between his room and Akiteru’s were thin, something that Tsukishima loved when he was younger. Sometimes he’d tell his brother something late at night and his brother would answer right away, and it made it seem like they had a secret world of just the two of them. He’d nearly forgotten that, too, until he heard Yamaguchi let out a soft, distressed yelp and then go eerily, totally silent.

It could have been anything, really, maybe he’d stubbed his toe or remembered the English test they had next week. But all Tsukishima could think about was Yamaguchi and those stupid porn magazines of Akiteru’s. What Yamaguchi might look like when he was looking at the girls smiling up at him. What he might do if he climbed into bed and flipped through the pages. How he’d react if he knew that the walls separating him from Tsukishima were as thin as they were, what sounds he might bite back, which ones he’d let Tsukishima hear.

He knew what it meant, that he was thinking about Yamaguchi like this.

And he hated it because he hated whenever he got his hopes up for anything, especially impossible things. So for tonight, like so many other nights, he shoved the thoughts away to the back of his mind so he could deal with it on another night. He needed to sleep.

The next morning, he walked Yamaguchi home after breakfast. Yamaguchi seemed jumpy – jumpier than usual, that was, looking at Tsukishima more and laughing nervously, even during silences, but other than that, things seemed like they’d settled back to normal. But when he got back home, he found himself walking right by his own room and into Akiteru’s to look under his bed. The magazines were all there, at least as far as Tsukishima knew, though he thought they were pushed back more than he could remember.

But next to them, scrunched up in the corner, was Yamaguchi’s sock. Tsukishima went through a whole host of emotions from surprise to embarrassment to a flush of arousal that led to even more embarrassment. He waited for disgust with Yamaguchi to follow because he knew what that sock was for, but it never happened, and that only made him disgusted with himself. Things would be so much easier if Tsukishima was Akiteru’s normal brother who liked pictures of naked girls and only wanted to high-five his best friend.

He climbed back to his feet again and went back to his room. His phone rang immediately. “Tsukki!” Yamaguchi said, as soon as he answered. “What are you doing tonight?”

Tsukishima smiled, despite himself. “Yamaguchi, I just left your house.”

“I know. But there’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight and a full moon, too. Come stargazing with me.”

He didn’t think that most guys spent their Saturday nights stargazing together. He thought it sounded like a date, really. He tried not to read into it, pushing away the hope that Yamaguchi was thinking about him for the same reasons he liked thinking about Yamaguchi. But maybe this was the sort of thing he didn’t have to figure out right now. He had time.

“Okay,” Tsukishima said.

Re: FILL: TEAM Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, T

[pugglemuggle]

ahhhh this is great!! oh my gosh, i love how you took the pining in the original and turned it into mutual pining because mutual pining is the best!! ahh and the sock, lmfao tsukki.... i love how that detail came back with a new meaning in this!

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Akashi/Midorima
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by yrindor
Word Count: 471

***

Winter

Everything ends. That’s an absolute, a true one; Akashi’s absolutes are not always true. He ends; he breaks; he re-forms again, the him that was and the him that is switching places, castling on a chess board, king and rook. It’s like holding his breath under the water until he passes out and waking up with his head above the ice, thinking wildly of nothing and everything. The game, the loss, the teammates who should not be speaking to him (the way Mibuchi and Hayama look at him; he accepts it as he deserves it). In the evening his thoughts are clearer, and Midorima rises to their surface, graceful the way he moves on the court, that shooting motion, that wingspan, that voice, that - person who by all accounts should not want to talk to Akashi. But he does; Akashi knows this, clear and absolute like a note on the violin after a rest that waited just a little too long.

Fall

Rakuzan is strong. Shutoku is a legendary king, but Rakuzan is the Emperor of Creation; it’s only natural that they should win. With every battle comes a victory and this is no different. It is no different to see the despair in Midorima’s eyes, the ways in which he has changed, the things he would not have said when they had recognized each other differently. The burden and the brunt is on Akashi, his changes the most visible and blatant, but that doesn’t make Midorima’s any less real.

Summer

Sometimes Midorima looks at Akashi as if he knows, as if he sees the waters rising inside of Akashi, the tension in wires across his mind. Midorima ought to, seeing as he watches Akashi so closely; he pays the most obvious attention in the most obvious of ways (flattering, but they can’t; it’s better for both of them this way). And it’s not as if Midorima could do anything, if he caught Akashi in a kiss that would undo the things that are trying to claw their way through Akashi and rip him open from the inside out.

Spring

Midorima is a match. Not in terms of skill; he’s still so very rough, still underdeveloped physically, his fine motor skills are there but have yet to explode; his smart shots and dutiful arpeggios, exacting moves of tiles on the shogi board—it all has yet to be the something that it will come. Akashi’s good at finding potential, but Midorima hadn’t needed to be found, even if he doesn’t know any of this himself yet. He almost tells Midorima that he looks forward to what he’ll someday become, but that’s too inappropriate to say to one’s peer. He’ll just leave it unsaid and watch Midorima unfold, the long movements of his orchestral piece, the way the instrument of him falls into tune.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Akashi/Midorima
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 410

***

There is no way to get him out, none that Midorima knows, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try. Midorima hasn’t devoted his life to classical music, the study of fourths and fifths and hemiolas and syncopations, learning the same piece backwards and forwards and still searching for perfection, knowing the time he plays it best he’ll never be able to replicate quite the same way again, learning to conduct, sharp motions of a baton and intuition of where the musicians are and who he needs to coax out and who must be told to fall back, don’t drown out the other sections—he has not learned all of that just to not use it, to turn the forest against itself, the sheets of paper and the sharpness of Akashi’s violin, tuned so the strings are close to breaking, to pull him out to safety.

Not safety, there is nothing safe about the marriage of piano and violin, strings scraped and bowed versus the strings struck by the hammers so far away from the fingers that control them. But there is safety in familiarity, in the way they used to work, the way they would listen, the way Akashi no longer really listens to anything but himself. The way he tries t o pull Midorima forward and back, control the tempo when it should be the other way around. When Akashi should be able to rest on Midorima’s foundation to make the strings vibrate through the air, create the mood.

But then Akashi fires him, and Midorima is left to a newly-formed chamber ensemble, its leader on the double bass with steady hands and even keel, its members loud and uncouth and not like Akashi at all. Akashi is moving on to the things he calls better, except there’s no pianist in his quartet (or is it quintet, Midorima’s never quite sure). It doesn’t mean Akashi’s waiting for him, not consciously, but it means a chance. Something to capture, the way their hands had been linked, the callouses from the right spot on the violin strings like ghosts on Midorima’s palm in a dream, the reams of sheet music to go through, to find a way out. For both of them.

(A way out, and a way back in, to Akashi, his thoughts—to know which Akashi is the real one, the one who had been pushed, or the one with whom Midorima had fallen in love?)

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Nijimura/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 407

***

There is so much possibility, thick in the air like tea oversaturated with honey, that Shuuzou thinks for a second he might be paralyzed with it all. What to do first, to kiss Tatsuya one way or the other or to whisper in his ear how much he’s missed him, to get back to saying all the thoughts he’s sort of organized about how goddamn wonderful Tatsuya is—but the order isn’t perfect and they’ve got time, now. Time, so much to say and do, so much that Shuuzou doesn’t want to overwhelm Tatsuya, but time to let it unfold like a map in the shotgun seat of a car.

“Hey,” Shuuzou says, kissing Tatsuya’s nose, watching him scrunch up his face just a little.

He looks a little brighter, stands a little taller, as if he’d shed some of the dark weight hanging over him, but Shuuzou doesn’t want to talk about that directly right now, in part because Tatsuya doesn’t, either. He’s just gotten back; he’s fresh with the glow of someone fitting back into the spot saved for him, making it expand to his new dimensions, with all the energy in the air just from how happy Shuuzou is to see him again. And this time, instead of flinching away, holding SHuuzou at arms length in some way or other, Tatsuya falls into Shuuzou’s arms and fits himself there against Shuuzou’s chest. Shuuzou kisses his ear, his cheek, the side of his mouth, twines their fingers together like the strands of a rope.

“I missed you so much,” he says, and Tatsuya’s not ready to say it back but he hugs Shuuzou tighter and that alone speaks at a hundred decibels.

There are new road maps of moles on his shoulders, a triangle and a constellation, the northern sun in Akita, the fist he makes relaxed now, the way he lets Shuuzou take his time, the way he’s taking his own time relearning Shuuzou’s body, frowning at the differences until he reconciles them with what’s in his head, the history that’s still unfolding between them, the infinity map, the expanding universe of moments, touches, words.

It makes Shuuzou feel a little more secure now, everything he’d saved up coming up halfway, because there’s always so much more to draw from, bottomless rivers of how much Tatsuya is, how much he means. Yeah, Shuuzou’s got it really bad, but there’s no shame in admitting that.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Nijimura/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 476

***

There are so many new things about Shuu, things Tatsuya hadn’t been able to quite get over Skype or email or text, like how much taller he’s gotten, how broad his shoulders are, the different way they fit together (a way that Tatsuya wouldn’t have been able to accept before when it had seemed like everyone else was getting bigger and more fit for basketball than him, another complaint to add to his laundry list of frustrations, but now seems comforting and so right). There’s the way he touches Tatsuya now, more sure and fond, the new way Tatsuya touches him back. There’s the confidence with which he speaks English, the way he forms sentences without hesitation, the clarity in his sentences—helped, perhaps, by the volumes of poetry books, the dictionaries, all that lines the shelves on his desk, the way his vocabulary has blown up exponentially (his SAT verbal might be better than Tatsuya’s).

“Why the interest in poetry?” Tatsuya says.

Shuu smiles. “I wrote you some.”

Oh. Oh—Tatsuya leans in a little, feels Shuu’s pulse quickening in his thumb.

“Can I read it?”

“Um,” Shuu says. “It’s a lot. And not quite finished, but—yeah, yeah you can.”

There’s a pile of notebooks at the end of the desk; he pulls off the top one and hands it over; Tatsuya opens, not sure what he expects to see. The first page is inscribed with Shuu’s neat kanji, a few that Tatsuya hadn’t known the last time they’d seen each other but that he does now, still sunk into his mind from two years- worth of teachers shaking their heads at how hopeless he is for a fluent speaker, words about Tatsuya’s hands, the way Shuu feels when they touch him, and—Tatsuya flips through the notebook. It’s more of the same, some in English that comes off the page in patterns, more about the rhythm of the syllables and the way the words sound in Tatsuya’s head, alliteration and consonants repeated in the middle of the words, but still the same. Deep, intimate, a way that Tatsuya would say he’s not ready for but isn’t this the same as he’s been feeling about Shuu all along? The way he’d told himself not to, gut twisting on the bed with his laptop closed, fingers drumming on the top wishing he could be touching Shuu instead? Maybe the depths of Shuu’s feelings should be hitting him like a tidal wave, but all Tatsuya can think about is the thudding in his own heart, the way his body is telling him to be frightened off but is mind is telling him, hey, this feels pretty fucking good.

“This is so beautiful, Shuu,” Tatsuya whispers.

Shuu reaches for his hand; Tatsuya gives it first, and Shuu’s smile, brilliant and unsubdued, is better than poetry could describe.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Murasakibara/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 416

***

It would be easy to hate the person who made Tatsuya like this, except that’s a simplistic explanation made by adults who have forgotten everything. “Who told you that? Who made you like this?” Like it doesn’t always come down to you, in the end. Like it doesn’t come down to Tatsuya, the driver exhausting his fuel reserves, burning out to get to two hundred kilometers an hour, the ocean foam clinging to the sands of the beach, washed up on the shoreline. The struggle that he knows he cant win but he’s afraid to let go because isn’t it worse to fall further behind than to kill yourself trying?

It’s a mentality that Atsushi gets for a second before it disappeared, fish at a festival diving through his fingers before he can lift them from the water. It would be easy to hate Tatsuya for making himself do this, but Tatsuya hates himself so much (for making himself like this, for not being enough, for chasing that dream and falling behind) that it;s impossible. It’s not that Atsushi pities him; he certainly doesn’t envy that position but—why? Why does he keep going when he’ll never win? Is there some sort of security in this position that he hates but is at least familiar, the way of things? That’s not quite it, either, and Atsushi’s not going to exhaust himself trying to figure it out (not when it exhausts him just to watch Tatsuya wearing himself to the bone).

And it’s easier to touch him, to kiss him, to do it over and over again and make him accept that yes, he is difficult and self-centered and consumed by this single-minded pursuit, but that doesn’t make him unlovable. It doesn’t make him so easily crushed as sea foam, swallowed by the waves or stomped under flesh, disintegrating into the air. He’ll just let himself get spit back out, painted in a paler shade of green, the color on a crayon.

It would be easy to hate Tatsuya, but sometimes he makes it so hard, and maybe it’s hard for himself, a waste of energy but something he’s still determined to do out of some kind of stubbornness, the way he’s determined to make everyone else like the flat sticker facade he puts on, something far less likable than the ugly things that weigh him down, the things he tries to hide. Is it much of a consolation prize to win at that?

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Murasakibara/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 427

***

Looking at Atsushi is like looking through a cracked mirror, warped. A supersize version of himself, lacking a little inhibition (but then sometimes Tatsuya does what he wants; he comes from the opposite side but it’s the same one in the reflection, isn’t it). And Tatsuya’s on the cracked side; he’s the one without, the flaws and blemishes apparent if not totally visible across his skin. Atsushi hates losing, just like him, only he’s not as simple about it. He acts simple and Tatsuya eacts complicated, but with Tatsuya it just comes down to having to win, having to be the best, having this kind of measuring stick to hold himself against.

Atsushi hates to lose, but to him it doesn’t matter as much who’s powering the ship; he’ll depend on others and—Tatsuya wants to be the dependable one, the one the others give over their burdens to even though he’s got a ridiculously embarrassing level of difficulty carrying his own, but he needs to be that guy, the one they look to, the one they rely on, the one they think of as the top choice. Atsushi could be that; he is that without trying as much as he could and it’s maddening—Tatsuya doesn’t want Atsushi to beat him (not that Atsushi even considers him competition) but he wants Atsushi to try, and here’s Atsushi making shots and effortless blocks and rebounds and putting in half the effort and, fuck.

Tatsuya’s not supposed to like that. He’s supposed to hate and resent and he does, except he doesn’t; he wants it—he wants it for himself but it’s not so much as stealing from Atsushi; it’s that Atsushi’s so damn good even when he doesn’t want to be that Tatsuya’s body betrays him, finds itself admiring him. That height, that wingspan, those muscles (how many hours in the gym and Tatsuya can only get so far?). The curve of a smirk that breaks his placid face or the vague annoyed anger that settles over it (another warp in the glass, a bad reflection). It all attracts Tatsuya like iron filings to a magnet, arranged because physics says so, not because he has any say in the matter at all. As usual, things aren’t how he wants them to be. Some might say he’s unlucky, that he’s been dealt a bad hand by fate. This is too much to just be that; some part of Tatsuya’s probably asking for a trap like this, but that doesn’t mean he has to feel any better about it.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Murasakibara/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 413

***

Himuro is a little bit puzzling, in a lot of ways aggravating. His contradictions, the way he acts like Murasakibara’s minder, reining him in even though he’s always like a cloud about to burst with rain and lightning himself. Kind of a hypocrite, but Murasakibara’s known people worse than that. At least he’s a little bit less irritating about it than Kuroko is; at least he doesn’t completely misjudge Murasakibara and pretend they’re friends anyway. Besides, Himuro likes to see the patterns of destruction he makes; he likes to see Murasakibara crush their opponents.

Maybe because that's not what he wants for himself; it doesn’t fit in with the list of close to impossible miracle qualities that make up the idealized pedestal that Himuro claws at, sinks his teeth into the base and won’t let himself be dragged away. He can watch Murasakibara and enjoy it because for once, even though Himuro wants everything, everything, everything when it comes to basketball, this is something he doesn’t. Not in this exact way, and he can reap the benefits of Murasakibara’s destruction. Murasakibara's not interested in doing anyone else’s dirty work for them, but that’s not quite what this is. Himuro’s out there fighting a half-useless fight, but he’s also out there scoring points and taking care of the bulk of the offense. Maybe he’s only that capable because their opponents are stupid weak, because Murasakibara’s got a throttle on the defense (and, well, Liu and Okamura pull their weight even if Murasakibara’s carrying it). But it lets Murasakibara get away with putting in less effort, so really trying to quantify this is talking in circles. This is the kind of question he'd learned not to ask, why the hell Himuro’s so good only because he’s trying so hard to be great when it’s obvious he can’t, the kind of question that could discourage him and give more work to Murasakibara—but it would save Himuro some effort in the long run, so.

So what if Murasakibara cares a little too much? It’s obvious that Himuro does, too, the way he averts his gaze because there’s something in his eye Murasakibara might see, the way he tries to distract with a touch, with a kiss, a phrase deflecting (but Murasakibara’s an expert on defense; he knows it when he sees it). For now, that’s not worth pursuing, a hill in a thunderstorm it would be unwise to approach when he’s wearing all this armor.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Murasakibara/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 401

***

Just because you know doesn’t make it any easier. Just because he knows you know doesn’t make it any easier, either, because they still don’t do anything about it. It makes it a little easier when you don’t wake up every day choking on flowers, when your throat is clearer and you’re breathing hard, running suicides across the gym at the end of practice, and he’s broken half as much sweat on twice as much body as you.

He knows; you know. It doesn’t mean you’re together. It doesn’t make the flowers stop altogether.

There are so many reasons why you can’t, starting with the way you can’t make yourself do this, that this could be a mistake, that you don’t know how, that you’re not used to having what you want. That it’s better to let it pass you by than to make a leap for it, that you don’t know how to not fuck it up. That by doing nothing, you can’t fuck up what’s not there.

It doesn’t help that Atsushi seems content to make his body’s reaction stop, that the smaller paler flowers, less vivid in their emotion, have subsided, that he can breathe easy. Sometimes he looks at you, still, with lust and want and interest; you look back but neither of you moves toward it, because perhaps you are not the kind of people who make this work.

But it’s still lingering in you, wanting someone you can’t have, wanting someone who wants you and still—nothing, waking up in the middle of the night in pain, the flowers sticking to your throat, sharp petals and sharper thorns scraping the insides of your cheeks, filling your mouth until you can’t breathe and you're choking on the way they clog you, opaque like a thick cloth gag. Like you’re gagging on the feelings you never asked for, the feelings you can’t control, the way he wants you but not enough, the way he says things and doesn’t follow him up, the way you're way too much of a fucking coward to even give it a try. As if you need another physical limitation, but you take it anyway, because you’re a glutton for punishment. The more you swallow, the more flowers burst forth, the larger and brighter and sharper they become.

They spill down your front, and maybe, you think, one day they’ll swallow you up.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Murasakibara/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 446

***

Tatsuya’s forgotten how to dream, but it’s okay. It’s better for them not to be quite so symbiotic; it’s better for Atsushi to go elsewhere for his food. It would have happened sometime, the way it had started to feel when they were together at first, the feeling of being just a little unsatisfied. Like he was rubbing off on Tatsuya, or like he’d been chewing Tatsuya down to the source, a watermelon past the white and green to the peel like a fingernail. Not quickly enough for Tatsuya’s mind to grow back, because despite the bright and vivid landscapes of his dreams, the victories he’d chased and chased, he hadn’t been strong enough to keep them up every night.

Few people are, but all the others Atsushi’s consumed have been; there’s a line between unsatisfactory and resilient and somehow Tatsuya’s managed to straddle it. Perhaps the other morsels Atsushi’s come across have been depleted, but that seems hardly right or logical. Tatsuya’s just the wrong kind of rare, or maybe the right kind for Atsushi, the kind he can impart feelings, glimpses of what he gets, the kind for whom he wants to do that. Not so that one day new sprouts of imagination will spring from long-dead foliage, an accident of evolution, but because he’s okay with him and Tatsuya being like this. He’s okay with being the one who gives, every so often, with Tatsuya receiving. With Tatsuya realizing that he’s more than the tangible things he provides, the vivid dreams he’d once had—it had brought them together in the first place, but it hardly seems necessary now, the scar around the graft that binds the two of them together.

Atsushi travels dreamscapes alone now, gorging himself on vivid colors, strong feelings, wants and desires and strength of will until it sticks in his throat sour and rusty like iron, like blood. He feeds it back to Tatsuya, like a bird waiting in the nest with his wings clipped back, until the sheer force of it knocks him back, leaves him breathless like really good sex.

“Is that how mine used to be?”

“Sort of. Better,” says Atsushi, a kiss in between words, the truth even if it’s not what Tatsuya wants to hear.

He can still feel emotions around him when the person next to him is halfway to sleep, the grief washing like the steadiness of the ocean around Tatsuya, the way Atsushi wants to tell him hey, stop taking it so seriously; chill. He pulls Tatsuya closer instead, resting the weight of his arm on Tatsuya’s stomach, kissing him again, though it doesn't drag him back toward waking.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Aomine/Kise
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by fickle
Word Count: 404

***

KISE DENIES LOVE AFFAIR WITH RIKO!
CHILDHOOD ROMANCE REKINDLED!
KISE WON’T SAY HE’S IN LOVE
OLD FRIENDS AND LOVERS!
KISE-AIDA POWER COUPLE?
FROM THE SCHOOLYARD TO THE BIG STAGE

“Stop it, Dai-chan,” says Satsuki, forcibly closing his laptop before he can look at any more headlines or click on any more articles to read. “You know it’s just bullshit.”

Daiki rubs his forehead and exhales in a hiss, almost like one of those breathing exercises (speaking of bullshit) his trainers always tell him to do. So what if it is? Ryouta had stammered something out to the press; he and Riko were never even that close; Ryouta never talks to the paparazzi so if he had in regards to this there must be something there. Not that Daiki can blame Ryouta for that, for wanting someone like Riko, someone he can be with in the open, but who also has the drive and passion and talent that Ryouta says he likes the most about Daiki.

“It was bound to happen,” Daiki says.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” says Satsuki. “Call him.”

“I still got pride,” says Daiki, even though he kind of doesn’t, even though his fingers are itching to scrape across the front of his phone in the unlock sequence, dial Ryouta’s number without looking, practically beg for reassurance.

Satsuki sighs. “You’re lucky I love you two and I’m not going to let your stupidity get in the way. Again.”

(It would be awfully hard for Satsuki to stop everything that’s been in the way so far, but Daiki appreciates the sentiment anyway; he grunts a sort of thanks as she leaves the room, and closes Firefox when he reopens his laptop.)

Ryouta calls that afternoon, sounding weary and kind of miserable, and the worst part of Daiki feels a little bit vindicated that he’s not the only one who's upset. The better parts of him win out; they hate that shit and soon they’re both apologizing except not for the bigger things, that they’re too insecure to do this as it is, that they don’t want to come out but aren’t sure of each other in this darkness. That’s not going to change anytime soon, in any form, but Daiki doesn’t want to lose Ryouta. Even if it’s like this, stumbling over each other and over this, it’s better than not having each other, better than not loving each other at all.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Aomine/Kise
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by hyalinee
Word Count: 407

***

Ryouta wants more, and maybe that’s just being a little bit greedy. Or a lot greedy, but it’s not like he ever really isn’t that way. But that’s why he’s always reminding himself, reminding both of them, that they shouldn’t take it too far. That Daiki can love him all he wants but that doesn't mean they should stop being careful.

“Someone could see,” he says, pretending not to see the pain flashing raw across Daiki’s eyes, or perhaps raw’s not the right word because it’s like a searing brand that cooks his flesh.

Because Ryouta wants more; Ryouta wants everything; he wants to show Daiki off and get everyone to admit that yes he’s wonderful and amazing and the best damn basketball player in the world and look at how he plays, look at the kindness in his eyes that he hides behind a dumb jerk facade, the kindness that’s not weakness but is real, a strength, a way Ryouta isn’t himself. (He wants to keep Daiki to himself, though, too; he could defend him from anyone, no questions ask, but he doesn’t want to feel the jealousy making his blood run solid and congealed, doesn’t want to deal with the fallout and the negative attention—but that doesn’t mean he loves Daiki any less.) And he tells Daiki, how wonderful he his, how goddamn much he loves him, because he’s protected by the way Daiki only believes him halfway.

And the way Daiki kisses him, like he’s drowning in Ryouta’s deluge of words, like he’s drowning in the oceans of Ryouta, like he’s clinging to Ryouta until he becomes tangible, like he’s afraid if he lets go Ryouta will go away. It’s power, but it’s the same power Daiki has over Ryouta; he just can’t see it in his hands, and that’s all for the better to keep it like this. Because Ryouta wants more, but he’s not sure what he’d do if he had it; it’s easy to say you want something when you’re not going to get it anyway, harder when it falls in your hands and you know you’ve made your own bed.

But wherever it goes, he’ll lie in it with Daiki; for now they’re intertwined, stuck together with feelings that are stronger and messier than glue; for now it’s easier to just kiss him hard and desperate the way he wants, to go without explaining himself a little bit longer.

Re: FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hyalinee]

hi i just want you to know this smacked me right in the heart and the feelings because W O W just the flow of this and the word choice im just (:3/ it leaves me a bit breathless but the undercurrent of desperation there is just palpable and im B O I

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Aomine/Kise
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 419

***

It comes in the rhythm of a sea shanty, the love me love me in Ryouta’s body, calling out to him. At first Daiki thinks very little of it, Ryouta curling around him after sex and then flopping over just as quickly, as if he doesn’t know what to do when it’s obvious he’s the one with more experience and more of an idea of how to do things. It’s the way Ryouta has always begged for attention and love and care and always gotten it, been the light so blinding every insect flocks to it, the only light that illuminates for better or for worse. He is beautiful and he is the one who is adored and to whom everything is given. Why should this be any different than basketball, than the way he walks down the street and demands the attention of passers-by?

So Daiki gives him the attention, the love and care that Ryouta wants until he realizes that that’s not what Ryouta wants, that’s not what he means. He’s not doing this for fun, just to ignore the way they’d never make it work as an honest thing, making each other toast in the morning when they’re both too cheap to buy a toaster and they both burn it every time anyway. That’s what Ryouta wants; Ryouta wants everything, like some kind of being who can never be sated, like something that will sink its teeth in and bite through the bone if you give him the chance.

It’s hard to say, making vague gestures toward the subject, during sex of all times—but Ryouta forgives him in the moment, sort of. And he rolls of quick, without the lapse this time, when they’re done, cleaning the both of them off methodically, as if he’s not needy the way he most definitely is. Like he’s trying to hide something in plain sight. That’s ballsy, but, well, Ryouta’s nothing if not that, Daiki supposes. (His words, about wanting only what’s here, that he could go somewhere else if he wanted what Daiki didn’t, what Daiki couldn’t give—are they both settling for less with each other, even though they want more, even though each other is the peak of that? It’s a little bit of a paradox, but it makes more sense than any of the rest of this shit.) And Daiki lets him, rolling over close enough to feel the heat of Ryouta’s body as he dozes off but not close enough to touch.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Aomine/Kise
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by fickle
Word Count: 416

***

Aomine remembers, vividly, like a bizarre kind of dream, the tail shining in the sun, the scales like a mermaid’s, and at the time he thinks that damn, he should have made the mermaid stay so he could feel up her boobs. He remembers the feeling of a head on his chest, of hands clutching his, large and warm, the hands that match to the beautiful boy who appears out of nowhere and has odd ideas, an odder understanding of the world around him.

The pieces fit like a fairytale, matching up so square they can’t be real, and Aomine's not going to ask if Kise’s the same one who’d save him; he sense Kise would rather not stay and that he’d probably dodge the question if Aomine did ask. And the memory that Aomine’s been pining over, the memory that’s a shade of nothing that he’s been loving—well, he loves it as much as Kise loves him, which is to say as much as you can love what or who you barely know.

Kise stays past the third day, and maybe Aomine’s wrong, but maybe he’s just not going to say anything about that. Maybe he’ll let the mermaid memory or dream or fantasy or delusion or whatever the hell it was drown, push it back underwater. Because even if that had been Kise, this is his Kise, the bright and vivacious guy who pulls him along, the hands that match up with his better than a memory can, the lightness in his step that’s got nothing to do with a knife through his soles even though the bottoms of his feet are suspiciously soft like the way a baby’s are, like those of someone who hasn’t spent an awful lot of time on land.

His Kise is the one who lays down his heart over again for Aomine, who offers himself, as he is in all his radiance, the quick way he learns and the quicker pace of his wit, barbed and biting like a barracuda or piranha, coming from somewhere deep and a little bit dark. The way he looks at Aomine in the low light, his eyes still glowing like a cat’s, like twin bulbs of two angler fishes, like stars or the digits on the alarm clock, like things that are impossible to describe they’re so beautiful even when Aomine lets them run through his mind over and over. But he’s got Kise with them; he doesn’t need a memory.

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Takao/Midorima
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by yrindor
Word Count: 401

***

After a while, Takao stops trying to categorize. It only makes his forehead wrinkle and makes his little sister parrot his mother that his face will stick like that and, after all, it’s simple when he stops to really think about it and not let anything else get in the way, like how things ought to be or how things have been. Because regardless of how they’d gotten here, Takao likes Midorima. An awful lot, and not just as a basketball player or teammate or friend.

It’s hard to judge Midorima’s own feelings; he’s changed so much, softened so much since they’d first met, like butter taken from the freezer and left in its dish to spread on toast in the morning. It’s hard to say whether Midorima reciprocates, or knows he does, even with vision like Takao’s (it’s hard to see feelings, even with someone as obvious as Midorima, when they pertain to him).

That’s why he goes ahead and takes the plunge, because he’s no coward. After he kisses Midorima, sinks back onto his heels, Midorima’s wearing the most beautiful awestruck flushed look Takao’s ever seen, and he knows he’d made the right choice.

*

After a while, Midorima stops trying to categorize. Not everything, just Takao, because he won’t fit neatly into the boxes everyone else does (even Miyaji, who protests; he is squarely in the annoying teammate category regardless of what he says). He’s giving it too much time when he could be studying, slowing his tempo while at piano lessons and he deserves the upbraiding from his teacher; he’s better than this. He can't even blame Takao, because it’s his own fault he’s getting worse. It’s not Takao; it’s the way Midorima feels.

It’s hard to judge Takao’s own feelings; he’s a little bit enigmatic still, the soft barbs of his teasing, the complaints that are more routine than anything else when he carts Midorima around on the rickshaw. He is so many things to so many people; he gives Midorima extra attention but that’s because Midorima’s the ace and Takao’s the support. And yes, they’re friends, but is that more of something they’ve fallen into than something Takao wants?

Midorima gets his answer when Takao reaches up to his shoulder and stands on his toes, touching his mouth to Midorima’s. A kiss, short but conveying all the meaning in the universe, or at least all Midorima needs.

FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, T

[mother_herbivore]

Ship: Kinjou Shingo/Makishima Yusuke
Fandom: Yowamushi Pedal
Major Tags: None
Other Tags: nudity, dfab makishima
Original Work: link
Word Count: None


***

Re: FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, T

[hatchbacks]

this is so beautiful...i love what you did with the light here, the way just a little bit of makishima's hand & kinjou's back are illuminated, the moon on the water, the expressiveness of the pose!

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, M

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Aomine/Akashi
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by moetushie
Word Count: 407

***

http://saso-afterhours.dreamwidth.org/86478.html

FILL: Team Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, M

[marks]

Ship: Tsukishima Kei/Kageyama Tobio
Fandom: Haikyuu!!
Major Tags: Sexual content
Other Tags: broom closet antics
Original Work: Tic Tac Toe - In a Broom Closet by kazuyas
Word Count: 764

ah this got porny fast

***

Link to afterhours!

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Nijimura/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 408

***

They go through the act every time, but every time Tatsuya’s glad of it. He puts on his best shoes, laces them up right first and then left, ties them the opposite way. He picks his weapon, a crowbar this time, and goes to talk to Shuu in the corner office. It’s mostly an excuse for them to posture and look at each other, for Shuu to get what Tatsuya wants and get ready, undo the top button on his shirt because he knows what’s coming later and it’s hot out today (it’s always hot, but now it’s stifling, the mood that makes Tatsuya itch for the kill, like desire’s biting him, a mosquito that keeps nipping and leaving raised welts but he can’t seem to slap it away).

"Are you going to come and play as my minder?" Tatsuya asks.

Shuu’s looking at him like he’s thirsty, like he’s starting to feel the heat a little bit, watching Tatsuya’s rolled-up sleeves, but he pulls out his gloves from his desk drawer and sets down his notebook.

“Yeah, I’ll come along.”

The job is quicker than Tatsuya would like, short and blunt and too much blood when he bludgeons their heads, but Shuu knows how to clean and hide, how to get everything out and set it right, to give him time to calm down and for his hands to stop shaking, to start to feel drained from the exertion.

“Hey,” Shuu says, kissing him softly.

He’s still wearing his gloves, leather soft against his cheeks, even the groove of the seam of each fingertip. Tatsuya wants to lean on him, but he brings his hands around to rest on the small of Shuu’s back.

“Good work today,” Tatsuya says between kisses.

He knows what Shuu wants, and he’s not so tired as not to give it to him, as not to want it too, the excess energy rearing its head inside of him.He deepens the kiss, pulls Shuu closer, reaches down to grope his ass. He knows the next words out of Shuu’s mouth are going to be not here, not in a fucking warehouse with the bodies however many feet away and, okay, yeah. But he’s got to let Shuu play at being the voice of reason, the minder; he’ll play as the reckless one (and, well, sometimes it’s not playing for him, but that’s about as much as Shuu’s seriously reckless, too, so).

FILL: TEAM HIMURO TATSUYA/NIJIMURA SHUUZOU, T

[hatchbacks]

Ship: Nijimura/Himuro
Fandom: Kuroko no Basuke
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Original Work: link by kiyala
Word Count: 402

***

“Hey, wait,” and, oh, shit, no fucking way in hell.

Shuuzou turns; there's no mistaking that voice, Tatsuya’s voice, that had come from the beautiful stranger. What are the odds? That Tatsuya, Tatsuya who hates himself so unrelentingly, is this so seemingly confident, so obviously gorgeous person (then again Tatsuya had never said anything about his physical appearance, never about his style or his posture, about his strength and that stunning voice and his inability to hold relationships, or at least that’s what Shuuzou thinks he'd been talking about, it had been so vague and indecipherable at certain points even as Shuuzou had pored over it).

“Shit," says Shuuzou. “I have your voice recorder.”

*

Tatsuya never acknowledges that Shuuzou must have listened to it, what Shuuzou must have heard, especially to have recognized his voice that quickly. He doesn’t talk about it, any of it; he doesn’t show it on his face. It’s easy to find the cracks in his confidence if you know where to look, and sometimes Shuuzou feels as if he must have cheated. As if someone had handed him the source code to a game before compiling it, or a complete cheat guide from the developers, except Tatsuya’s not a game at all.

And he’s volatile anyway, rocking when his insecurities get hit, pushing Shuuzou away or pulling away himself, as if Shuuzou can’t see, as if he doesn’t know. There’s a lot he doesn’t, the root causes and the particulars, what any of it has to do with the way Tatsuya stares down an entire basketball court, risks those brilliant hands in a fist fight, the ring around his neck that’s maybe the root of everything, a dream catcher that’s taken ahold of Tatsuya’s ambitions and spat them back out like dark monsters with eyes that glow in the dark and hypnotize.

His voice is still beautiful, whispering the nickname that only he uses on Shuuzou, the extra familiarity that belies the distance he puts between them, the shape of his lips on that one syllable, drawn out when Shuuzou bites into his shoulder, possessive—that voice, that spirit, this body, Tatsuya will never be his completely. He’s too fierce, independent, spinning through the loopholes like a dragon, long body and rough scales, until he twists away in the wind, leaving behind only a ghost of words, reverberating in Shuuzou’s mind long after the echoes should have died.