
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/5728306.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      Gen, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Fullmetal_Alchemist_(Anime_2003), Final_Fantasy_VII, Final_Fantasy_IX,
      Gundam_Wing, Kingdom_Hearts, Ranma_1/2
  Relationship:
      Axel/Roxas, Sephiroth/Cloud_Strife, Zack_Fair/Reno/Cloud_Strife,
      Sephiroth/Zack_Fair/Reno/Cloud_Strife
  Character:
      Maes_Hughes, Denzel_(Compilation_of_FFVII), Marlene_Wallace, Duo_Maxwell,
      Zechs_Merquise, Original_Female_Character(s), Heero_Yuy, Treize
      Khushrenada, Axel_(Kingdom_Hearts), Roxas_(Kingdom_Hearts), Sephiroth,
      Cloud_Strife, Zack_Fair, Chang_Wufei, Alphonse_Elric, Tendou_Nabiki, Reno
      (Compilation_of_FFVII), Vivi_Orunitia, Yuffie_Kisaragi, Edward_Elric
  Additional Tags:
      Light_BDSM, Alternate_Universe_-_Wings, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Sibling
      Incest
  Series:
      Part 1 of World_Glimpses
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-01-15 Chapters: 18/18 Words: 4124
****** ABCs of Fanfiction ******
by Skeren
Summary
     This was a set of challenges given to me by friends over on
     insanejournal and thus covers several fandoms. Those prompts relating
     to specific fic of mine have been put with said fic while the rest
     will be here under separate chapter headers.
     These were originally all posted Christmas of 2007.
***** A - Ambush: Maes Hughes *****
He just had to get one last thing in place, and this would work. He hadn't been
to war, hadn't ever wanted to be involved in anything like war, but that didn't
mean he didn't know how to defend his own. This idiot was fool enough to think
he wouldn't spot someone creeping up through his proverbial back yard! He was
intelligence, he picked up the mistakes, the problems, and dealt with people
who had to be told their loved ones were dead.
He'd learned not to make those mistakes, and he'd also learned that being on
the dealing end of an ambush was always best.
Honor be damned. He had a job to do.
***** B - Bullies: Denzel and Marlene *****
Denzel didn't trust Marlene's smile for a heartbeat. He knew her better than
that. She was cute and sweet for the parents, Tifa, Barrett, even Cloud counted
if he wanted to grudge the guy that much away from his cool factor. When
someone can tell you you're grounded and make you listen, that tends to mean
they're a parent.
Right now Marlene was giving the sweet little smile that meant she was going to
get him into trouble. And she was walking right for the bullies. Not that they
ever picked on either of them, but... Well, Marlene thought it was her job to
make friends with everyone, and she couldn't do that with bullies scaring the
daylights out of some of the little kids they hadn't really gotten to know yet.
Breaking into a run, he decided that he really needed to catch up to the girl
before he figured out what materia she'd "borrowed" from Cloud. He would be so
so mad if he knew she'd taken one without asking.
Again.
***** C - Contain: Duo and Zechs *****
He stared. It wasn't his fault he was staring, he hadn't ever seen the guy
without his mask on before! But oh wow, what he was hiding underneath... It was
enough to get any red-blooded man lover going, that was for sure.
Not that he was a man lover. Right. Okay, so maybe that would be more
believable if he wasn't gaping at him, but it wasn't his fault! Pretty was
pretty. And the guy was definitely pretty.
Though, maybe it wasn't right of him to envy the lack of split ends. Or to sigh
in disappointment when the hair was tied up out of the way in a braid. He
contained his own hair in just the same way after all, but, well, it never hurt
to look.
Or maybe it did. Coughing, he turned to continue down the hall in the
Preventer's building, putting as much effort as he could into forgetting the
small, knowing little smile that had crossed the guy's face when he'd spotted
him.
***** E - Elderich: Alice *****
Chapter Summary
     D is skipped because it's going to be posted over in This_Universe.
     This chapter is, I believe, using an OC.
The book was fascinating. Absolutely wonderfully fascinating. So much so that
when she fell asleep on it, she even dreamed the dreams of those most
fascinating things. Because of course it was a dream. Nothing really had such
appendages!
No matter what her sense of touch would say, and what odd things happened in
that place, it was just a terribly disturbing dream inspired by a most
fascinating book. Shame she wasn't waking up, and just who was that boy that
kept trying to take her somewhere? There was no telling, really, but she would
figure it out, one step at a time, of course.
***** G - Gavotte: Heero and Treize *****
Chapter Notes
     There was no prompt for F
"You know how to dance." The murmur was not quite surprised, but he nodded to
it just the same, turning his head to study the man who'd said as much.
"I learned a long time ago." When silence lulled out, he extended his hand,
only a beat of reluctance in his smaller frame. "I know both parts to it."
A smile was his answer, and as his hand was taken, he decided not to be
surprised that the man wasn't trying to lead. It wasn't as though he had an
image to maintain in his own room.
If they'd been in public, they wouldn't have been dancing at all.
***** H - Helpless: Axel/Roxas *****
"You can't understand. You can try, but you're..." The tone was aggravated, but
the eyes were empty, had anger that highlighted that emptiness just by
existing. It was pretty in a way.
"Eh, whatever. We're the same. You can sense your Somebody is out there. I
think it's weird, but it's what it is." Crossing his arms, he shook his head,
feigning a smirk, though he had the urge to act sad. Why, he had no idea. "Just
cause I can't doesn't make it different brat."
"But it does. I don't have a heart, but sometimes I feel things. I shouldn't be
able to feel things if the rest of you can't." The blond head shook sharply,
and he let out a frustrated breath. "They aren't like the memories show me they
are though, they're... they're pale in comparison and it sucks. You can't know
what that's like."
Sure he could, but if he said anything, Roxas would attack him. Wouldn't be the
first time. "Pfft. You just go on thinking that. I have better things to do.
See ya."
He heard the sigh when his back was turned, but the guy had brought it on
himself. It wasn't like he could tell him that he made him feel like he had
Somebody, now could he?
He wasn't all that sure he didn't prefer back when he didn't feel a thing.
Too late to hope now though. Way too late.
***** L - Leatherdaddy: Sephiroth *****
Chapter Notes
     I is Over_here. J and K went unprompted.
The first time he heard the term, it baffled him. Leather daddy. He was no
parent, let alone one of a piece of material. Well aware that such a term was
not meant to be taken literally, he listened. After that, he heard it more
often, and it seemed to be a city term, as in Wutai, the men tended not to make
noises about his attire, at least not in respect to anything aside from its
dubious protections.
Here though... people were making it sound as though his leather was a toy. He
couldn't fathom why, and delved into understanding the topic.
In the end, it simply made him curious. Very, very curious.
Thus he decided to find someone of like mind in the ranks. Discretely, of
course.
Just because he wanted to try did not mean he wanted to confirm rumors.
***** O - Options: Wufei *****
Chapter Notes
     There was no M prompt, and N is over on the Nations list again.
He could feel the sourness of his expression. These men took him for a
weakling, a fool! He was no child to need limited choices lest he hurt himself,
and he was fully aware of what he was doing. He was a man and deserved the
respect of one.
Unfortunately, money was the only thing that earned the respect of these
people, and he hadn't thought to flash it at them sooner. "I want the real
selection, not these toys."
"Like a kid like you would know how to use something better."
It was one of the goons that spoke, and he turned his hand, making it clear in
a gesture that the money they hadn't seen was going away as he flashed it at
them. "If you think that, you're in the wrong business."
The other man was smarter. "No, no, don't mind my friend, he was kinda late to
the life. This way."
After a show of sizing him up, he followed him to the other section. The
selection was better. Just as he'd wanted.
***** P - Pandering: Sephiroth/Cloud *****
Mortified was a good word. He had mentioned in passing, and passing only, that
the blond teen had caught his attention. He had not expected the poor boy to be
delivered to his rooms that evening by a well meaning, but far far too
exuberant comrade.
Now, he didn't know what to do with the boy. He couldn't very well tell him to
leave, not when he had that much of a hopeful look. He knew that look, at
least, among some others, but that did not mean he knew how to approach it.
Besides, it was his own fault he was here, in roundabout fashion.
His own silence seemed to be crumbling the hope more than anything else he
might have done however, and the blond's voice was tentative as he spoke.
"Sir?"
"Your name is Strife, isn't it?"
"Yes sir. Cloud Strife." There was a pause, blue eyes watching him for a long
moment, "Should I go sir?"
"I- No. Stay. We should eat first, don't you think?"
When he got a nod in turn, he let out an inward sigh of relief. He wasn't
prepared to just jump the boy, but perhaps later, if he could lure him back
again, it would be an option.
***** R2 - Rugburn: Alphonse *****
Chapter Summary
     no Q, and R (the first) was another Nations Prompt.
He was still getting used to having a body. It was glaringly obvious. He was
too used to not fighting to catch himself properly when he landed, and now he
had rugburn every which way up his back and legs. His knees were the worst, and
the livid red ached to the touch.
He had a sincere doubt that his brother would let him spar for a day or two if
he got a good look at the marks. He was way too over protective sometimes,
especially now, and they both knew it. At least he was when he remembered not
to be completely negligent.
Sighing, he put some paste on the marks and wrapped a bandage around so he
could put his pants back on. Next time, Brother was the one that was going to
get thrown across the room.
***** S - Sanguine: Nabiki *****
Some of the people that Ranma dealt with were creepy. Ironically though, none
were as creepy as her sister's suitor. The older one, not the younger one. The
younger one was in a whole other ballpark. A very profitable ballpark. Kasumi
though, well, only one man really had his sights set on her, and he turned into
a bit of a crazy when he did.
It wouldn't be so bad, but she hoped if they ever got married, that the man's
sappy face wouldn't pass on to the kids. That color of red was just never meant
for human consumption.
***** T - Translucent: Zack/Cloud/Reno *****
They were a mix. Strong, weaker, weakest, with no telling which was which half
the time. Cloud wanted to be what he was when he wasn't sure that he even
wanted to be what he was at times. Reno was just Reno, loud, ostentatious,
feral in a way that he himself wasn't, even if all the rest was similar, and
that one there was on the path to being a fast track Turk.
That alone, hell, all of that alone, likely should have kept them out of each
other's beds. It didn't. If he was truthful, in some ways it made it more of a
challenge, something to do with them, bind them closer. Reno might have treated
it all as a fine game, but he didn't. He seemed to have had too much respect
for Cloud as a person before he even entered things for that, and he never
asked why.
Still, it made things like this moment possible. He, himself, the darkest of
the lot, Gongaga born and bred, black lines filled in with a nice bit of mud.
At least that's how he'd heard it described. He knew he wasn't dark, not like
southerner dark, but he was darker than people from the mountains, like Cloud,
and from Midgar itself, like Reno. Hell, there were times when he wasn't even
sure those two saw sunlight.
Between the two though, Reno won for absurdly intense levels of pale. They both
had blue eyes, but Reno's seemed starker, bringing out the blue in his skin in
a way that Cloud's didn't most of the time. Cloud had been a mountain boy, not
a city boy. It was a vital difference that most people didn't seem to get. It
meant that where Cloud had grown there had been sunlight and fresh air. He had
grown in a healthy place, was solid in more than one way, and he knew that for
the blond to have gotten this far, he had to have done some things right. Maybe
just roaming uncivilized land was what did it, giving the guy a taste for
something more.
With Reno though... Reno didn't have that. He was wild, but it wasn't Cloud's
sort of wild. It wasn't spooked forest animal wild. No, Reno was from this dead
city. He was reed thin, strong in his own way, but there was no doubting that
he hadn't learned to smell the fresh air for a long time. Too pale, too skinny,
he looked like he was city bred. He looked like he was from a place full of
glass and lacking air, on the edge of draining out everything nonessential. It
helped bring into focus what he himself lacked, a sense of feralness that only
a city could do to you.
And himself? Well, he was him. Beside those two, he knew he seemed tame, heard
jokes about how he was just a puppy with too big feet to fill. In a way, they
were right. He had big dreams, but those dreams weren't bigger than the dreams
of the pair curled up together next to him. He was dangerous, but in their own
ways, the two with him were much worse, willing to do things he wasn't, willing
to take chances that had never occurred to him. They shared things between each
other that he just didn't understand at all... and that was okay.
They shared things together that he wasn't included in, but then, so did he.
Only he and Cloud understood why SOLDIER was important. Why we needed to be
there, to make the world better. Only he and Reno seemed to understand why the
silence was often better filled, why seriousness was best left as a last
resort.
There were mutual things, of course, they all loved fire, materia, beating the
crap out of someone who deserved it, but- but it wasn't that important.
Between the three of them, it was good. Sliding over, he settled back along
Cloud's back, arm sliding to wrap around Reno's waist. It was good, and maybe
he should leave it at that.
***** U - Urban: Vivi *****
Cities were wonderful things. He 'grew up' in one, so in a way that made him a
city boy, or was it man now? Either way, he wasn't the country sort, not like
some of the others, the young ones who just weren't sturdy enough to ever be
old. He never felt secure in those open places, the sensation of possibly being
gobbled up by some monster ever on his senses.
Too much time traveling likely did it. Too much time away from the city made
him worry to be anywhere else. Cities were their own life, and it was where he
belonged. Easy as that.
***** V - Vocabulary: Yuffie and Sephiroth *****
As the child scowled darkly and fell quiet, he resisted the urge to smile. She
had been a pain, intensely so since he'd caught her, but it was that or kill
her, and her approach to him had made him hesitate to strike her down. She had
tried, but she was not fast enough, nor strong enough, to do him any harm.
Physically or mentally apparently. Watching her try to come up with a reply to
the word he'd used, an old one, one he doubted she knew the meaning of, he was
pleased.
She'd done exactly what he'd told her to, for once, and didn't even realize it.
Tugging on the leash he kept her wrists bound with, he moved off towards the
mess tent. He'd been gone, so he doubted she'd eaten. Time to remedy that.
***** W - Wings: Cloud and Zack *****
"What are you doing?" The tone was quiet, slightly alarmed, and blue eyes
turned to the man he'd been keeping company with. He was comfortable to him in
a way he couldn't define, but he hadn't believed that had extended to physical
comfort as well.
Apparently, that was a presumption that was entirely wrong. "You have the
coolest things Spike. Why do you hide these things anyway? Pretty wings like
this, I bet that the cloth irritates them half to death."
He felt a palm smooth down the fine fur, and he shivered, shaking his head
sharply as he drew the fanned appendages back close with an audible snap. "They
aren't 'cool' and as I told you before, the name is Strife. Cloud, some
combination thereof. Not 'Spike.'"
He almost regretted his actions when he saw the sharp sadness in the man's
eyes, but all he got was a nod and a plainly forced smile. "Okay, okay. Cloud.
So, now that we've reestablished that bit, you never did say how you got here.
Care to share?"
"No." Again with the look, but this time he just turned so he didn't have to
see it. He didn't know what the man had been to him, or who he reminded him of,
if he even did, but the man clearly thought he knew him.
He wouldn't let him buy into that. All he would get from the bargain was hurt.
***** X - Xenophobe: FMA Al/Ed Elricest *****
He couldn't stand to let anyone else touch him. Winry would have been a perfect
candidate, but she wasn't an alchemist, and the thought of her hands on him for
anything more than his automail made his skin twitch. Most alchemists were too
old, too creepy, or even, unfortunately, just plain too different. He'd never
believed it made a difference before, but being in bed with someone was very
different.
Once, and only once, he'd tried something with one of the Tringhams. The scent
of him had ended up with him fleeing the room before he'd made it past kissing,
and he hadn't ever managed to mend the bridge he'd tried to burn on his way out
of town that night. Right up to the kissing, he'd been fine with it. They'd
been laughing, well, growling, getting along as they normally did, then the
scent of plants hit him and he'd panicked. He'd done something similar to
others as well. Always, always there was something jarringly out of place.
They didn't know alchemy, they weren't strong enough, they smelled wrong, they
looked wrong. All of it made him quail away from them inside at the approach of
intimacy. Al was the only exception. He let him touch, asked him to even, had
wanted him to try to relearn what he'd missed in the years he'd been without.
He had the right eyes, the right hair, the right smell. He was an alchemist, he
was strong. He was as close to himself as he could get, and he was, apparently,
a horribly narcissistic person if that was the only way that he could be
intimate.
He'd asked about it one day, but Al's answer had been quiet, eloquent. "They
don't understand us, but they never have Brother. I understand."
After he'd pushed him down into the bedding, he hadn't asked again, but then,
he hadn't felt the urge to.
He wasn't alone, and there was no guilt. In all, it was perfect.
***** Y - Young: Cloud/Sephiroth/Zack/Reno (Goes with Translucent) *****
There had been more than one reason he'd dropped the Plate on that damn city.
If Zack was here, he'd get it. If Sephiroth hadn't gone three times around the
bend, fuck, even he might have gotten it. Cloud didn't, but Cloud never seemed
to remember a damn thing.
Not about any of it.
He didn't recognize him, or was damn good at pretending. He knew it shouldn't
make him mad, knew it from deep down, but what was a guy supposed to do? He'd
been one of, what, four of them? Five? Had Zack's not so secret girlfriend even
counted in this mess? After a moment he decided that no, she didn't. She was an
after the fact, someone he wasn't friends with, wasn't fond of, and overall not
a gal he wanted to spend all his time with forever and always.
Maybe he just liked dick. That could be it too, but if it was just that, he was
sure he would have gotten over it all by now. It seemed like Cloud hadn't. Made
him wonder if Cloud had been more awake back when he'd had to give him away,
had known that the last one left of their little niche had just done his job
when usually the job was nothing that came up between them.
He didn't know.
He knew Cloud didn't see him though, and those times, when there'd been fights,
Elena had wanted to fight them, but Cloud hadn't much seemed to want to get
them back. No, if anything, the utter dismissiveness stuck in his mind better
than any attempt to kill him would have.
When he'd been young, he'd once considered death attempts flirting. It's how he
and Sephiroth had gotten around to the tango, something that had stunned the
hell out of him then, but also something he'd held onto real well. Just like
he'd held onto Zack, and Cloud, in his own special breed of Turk Guardian-Angel
syndrome. He'd kept Cloud up to day on the whos and whats of his dream. He made
sure that Zack didn't land in jail for too long, when he could. Ultimately he'd
failed that test though, and that just plain wasn't what he was thinking about.
And Sephiroth... well, he'd been his escort. He'd taken the man from Hojo's
little hell-nest to Zack more than once, making sure he got there, making sure
other people didn't touch.
And maybe, his hands-off approach had fucked him royally. Maybe the gods had
turned him a blind eye because he wasn't as proactively mushy lovie dovie as
the rest of the lot. Okay, as Zack, none of the others could have been anywhere
near that, but he also knew that none of the rest of them he'd tried.
He'd thought that was okay, and he'd been wrong.
When he'd been young, he'd never thought he'd get to say he'd be young and
stupid, but he has, and he was.
Now though? Now he was just bitter. Rude had been around, had a hint of things,
but he hadn't known him so well back then. Not like now. He'd only really
gotten to know him since that timeframe where he'd hated the rest of them,
wanted to, and did, scorn them for turning on each other like they had.
Rude had only met him after the last of the soft edges had been filed into. If
there'd been any soft spots left, the man might have gotten them, but he'd long
since learned he was an expert at not moving on. He could have sex, but his
heart wasn't in it, so he didn't bother with repeats. If he was a little too
drunk, a little too wild, well, people were just used to that.
It still didn't mean that Cloud had to look through him like he'd never known
him. It still didn't mean he didn't remember watching Zack get gunned down when
the Turks were feet, no, inches from getting them both, giving him a chance to
unfuck what he'd fucked up. Zack had died likely not remembering him any more
than Cloud seemed to, but he'd deserved that. He hadn't had a chance back then
to try to make amends for that.
He'd had to agree to help take Sephiroth down, to give Cloud space to take the
silvery colored bastard into that little headspace with the two of them, dark
and bloody and miserable. Even after all that and a few years besides, Cloud
didn't know who the fuck he was, and didn't want to. Oh, he knew his name, knew
his occupation, but that was it.
He'd gotten more closure from the crazy than he had from Cloud. So really, he
had to wonder.
What did that say about him?
***** Z - Zygote: Heero *****
Pregnancy was a topic he'd never needed to research before. He couldn't get
pregnant, so it wasn't as though it had been something that was high on the
list of things he desperately needed to know as a terrorist. Now, that time was
past. Now, he was married.
Now, his wife was saying she was pregnant, and he was reading about zygotes to
fend off the inclination to ask her if she needed anything. He didn't want her
to kick him, and she had always kicked hard. She'd been a soldier after all, so
it wasn't a shock to know she knew how to hit.
Still, pregnant?
What did he know about child rearing?
Grimacing, he stared at the information in front of him. Clearly, not enough.
He'd just have to rely on Lu to make sure they didn't get it wrong.
However well that would work.
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