
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/12102027.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Bastard!!
  Relationship:
      Kall-Su/Dark_Schneider, Kai_Harn/Kall-Su/Sheila_Metallicana, Implied_Dark
      Schneider/everyone
  Character:
      Dark_Schneider, Kall-Su, Arshes_Nei, Sean_Harris, Tia_Noto_Yoko, Gara_
      (Bastard!!), Rushe_RenRen, Sheila_Metallicana, Kai_Harn
  Additional Tags:
      Ficlet_Collection
  Stats:
      Published: 2009-12-07 Words: 3178
****** Bastard!! - Ten ficlets ******
by Asuka_Kureru_(Askerian)
Summary
     Archiving old fics still.
     --
     1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
     2. Write a fic of fifteen words or more for every prompt, using the
     characters determined by the numbers. Do NOT read the prompts before
     you do step 1.
Notes
     Heads up, one of the ficlets has implied child rape. Will be marked.
 First Time: 4 and 6 (Dark Schneider/Kal Su)
"D.S. ...You're drunk."
"Nmmmh."
"Dark Schneider," Kal says, trying to sound stern. He fails. Dark is breathing
in his ear and nibbling with the skill of a few centuries, and the wine doesn't
impair those skills much, though it seems to impair everything else. He's
heavy, too, making the teenager list under his weight. "Please, just... come
on. You'll just lay down and sleep it off, how about it?"
He promises himself he will never remind Dark about it. He can already see the
disgust on his mentor's face at the thought that he tried to kiss -- to bed a
boy. This is, after all, the man whose self-proclaimed motivation to conquer
the world is so he can claim all the women in it for his harem. At this point
"heterosexual" seems inadequate.
He'll never tell him. It would hurt too much. It already does.
"Wanna fff... fuuck," Dark whispers in his ear, and stumbles across the
threshold. Kal isn't sure how he manages to aim his fall toward the four-poster
bed, but the man's superior weight brings him down, and then they're both
slumped awkwardly on the edge of the high mattress, legs dangling and slowly
sliding back toward the floor. Kal braces himself and tries to shove Dark up.
For a few seconds it's like trying to move a dead horse, but then Dark flips on
his side and pushes with his long legs, and --
and. Hell. How did he end up here? This is... Dar Schneider's chiseled chest.
And usual lack of actually covering clothes.
He's warm.
He's also groping him.
"D.S!" Kal snaps, pushing himself up on his arms. Or trying to. Dark's arms are
around him and they're heavy. "Dark, damn you -- look at me!"
"Mmh." The man gives him a languid, heavy-lidded smile. "Pretty."
"I'm a man," Kal retorts, and stops breathing when a strong arm hauls him up
and a hand molds itself over his ass.
Dark looks less drunk than he did a second ago, suddenly, and then he's kissing
him.
Kal forgets to struggle for a minute or three.
"Pretty enough for me," Dark Schneider whispers in his ear, before flipping
them over on the mattress.
Kal would say something about wine goggles, but then Dark's mouth is on his own
again and his weight pushes him into the mattress, and there are hands on him
until he forgets everything he wanted to say.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Angst, 7 (Sean)
The thing about switching sides is that no matter how right she feels it is
(how right his body feels how safe she feels under his protection how much she
knows that General Nei and Dark Schneider's disagreement (enemity) is wrong
wrong wrong and should be, will be fixed) no matter how much she thinks there
shouldn't be a rift, shouldn't be a side to choose...
She chose.
She chose a man (so much more than just a man) over Arshes Nei, the woman who
found her on the battlefield and took her in and raised her to be strong and
powerful and a warrior, and taught her magic so she might make herself safe.
She chose a man (so much larger than life) over her foster sister Kai Harn, who
always protected her when other kids threw rocks, and allowed her to experiment
on her hair with amused patience, and cared, cared, cared.
There shouldn't be a rift. Sean knows he never meant to betray General Nei, he
never meant to die on her and then come back on the other side of this war Nei
wages in his name.
She wants them back together. The greatest sorcerer of the world and the
Empress of Thunder. Even if she never gets to be anything but the devoted
underling for either of them.
Her utter devotion goes to them both, and they're tearing her apart.
And she chose, and she knows it will be alright, it has to be alright, they
will all be back on the same side somehow, but she will always remember that
she betrayed.
 
===============================================================================
 
 AU, 1 and 8 (Rushie and Gara)
"Hey kiddo. Your brother in?"
Gara watches the scrawny boy jump in surprise and whirl to face him. Rushie is,
of course, arms deep in a wooden tub full of clothes to be washed. Gara thinks
it must be his secret fetish or something. They could probably afford a washing
machine if they tried, but Rushie says he doesn't mind doing it all himself,
and his brother isn't going to give a shit as long as he's not the one who has
to do it.
"Ah -- Gara-san, hello. Yes, he's in his bedroom." He blushes, flustered. "Um.
Alone."
Gara snickers and ruffles the kid's short black locks as he walks past. "That's
pretty rare, huh. I'm gonna drag him out for a basketball game, when do you
want him back?"
Rushie looks sheepish. "Um. Eight? That would be alright."
"You should make him cook, seriously," Gara throws over his shoulder as he
disappears in the corridor. The idea of Dark attempting to cook is completely
hilarious, of course. He'd probably explode the kitchen.
"Why, if it isn't the biggest lump of all," Dark drawls from his doorway, arms
crossed lazily on his broad chest, bleached-white hair falling in tangles down
to his elbows. He's never going to reach Gara's height -- Gara doesn't think
anyone else will at this rate -- but he's shooting up like a weed. Gara slaps
his back in a friendly greeting, grinning when Dark stumbles and punches his
shoulder hard as a return greeting.
"Basketball?" Gara offers.
"I was gonna call Yoko-san for a date," Dark protests, scowling darkly. Gara
laughs in his face.
"Just come and train with me. How do you want her to say yes to you if your
arms look like noodles?"
"Your brain looks like noodles," Dark shoots back, but Gara knows he's going to
come anyway.
They shove each other around for a little bit, drifting back toward the front
door without Dark having said "okay, I'm coming" even once.
"Have fun, Darsh!" Rushie calls happily with his soft, high-pitched voice.
Dark rolls his eyes good-naturedly and waves back over his shoulder as he
strolls out. "Yeah, yeah. Seeya, aniki."
 
===============================================================================
 
 Threesome, 3, 6, and 9 (Sheila, Kal Su and Kai Harn)
Well. If there's somewhere Kai didn't expect to be today, it's in the
bedchamber of Her Highness Sheila of Metalikana and her brand-new husband, High
King Kal Su of the Four Emperors of Havoc.
Political marriage, she knows that much -- the two of them never so much as
looked at each other before their wedding two weeks ago. Sheila is the heiress
of a kingdom centuries old -- and all-human from the start. Kal Su owes his
title to nothing but his status as the third -- second if you believe his
Generals, but Kai is faithful to Arshes Nei and says third -- most powerful
sorcerer of the world. Their marriage is supposed to bring peace between the
factions and end the war of conquest by what is really a softer, mutual
conquest. But oh, Kai heard the complaints about Kal Su's bastard status and
alleged inhuman blood polluting the Metalikana bloodline. Everyone did.
Frankly, she doesn't give a shit either way. She's Arshes Nei's first, and the
samurais' second, but only because of their friendship.
She's not too sure how she ended up here, save that Sean asked her to be. She's
not sure either how Sean and princess Sheila know each other or why Sean would
call on old favors on her behalf. (probably that perverted bastard Dark
Schneider introduced them to each other in his six-places bed. She really ought
to kill him for that, one of these days.)
"So," she says, crossing her arms lazily over her chest as she straightens up
from her perfunctory bow.
She watches them. Sheila sits in a sinfully comfortable armchair like it's a
throne of steel, posture perfectly straight, hands demure on her lap. Kal Su is
perched on the windowsill behind her, all the way across the bed and at the end
of the room, and doesn't look at either of them. They're... not exactly in a
state of undress, but Sheila's soft robe is a night garment, and Kal Su is in
silk pajamas and a thin, billowing shirt.
It's laced closed all the way up to his throat.
"What am I doing here?" Kai asks, blunt, because they should expect this of her
and she doesn't even know how to soften the question and she wants an answer
now and not in three years from now.
Sheila's cheeks color, though the elegant tilt of her chin doesn't change a
iota. "I was under the impression Sean Ari would have explained this to you..."
"She hinted," Kai admits. "I just want to be sure."
Sheila's cheeks darken some more. "... You -- you are right. I shouldn't... it
isn't right to ask this of you without telling you clearly..."
"I need to be taught how to handle a woman," Kal Su says from the windowsill.
He's still watching the castle grounds through the window, voice remote and as
frozen as his power.
Sheila's head dips in what is probably sympathetic shame. "It isn't..."
She falls silent. Kai prods, curious. "Isn't what, princess?"
Sheila hesitates again, and then, closing her eyes, still facing forward where
her husband isn't, she says, "You make it sound as if this -- problem -- is all
on you."
Kai's eyes go from the princess to the sorcerer-king. This is so much deeper
than a simple sexual dysfunction.
But then she heard about Kal Su's little problem with women, namely the fact he
tends to freeze them out on principle. Socially speaking, at least. She's heard
of him actually freezing people into statues, but hopefully they'd done more
than simply being born with breasts for it. She reminds herself he has changed
since then in either case. Yeah.
She's not sure what the issue is on Sheila's side, but anyway she knows the
woman isn't a virgin. It was the talk of the whole castle when Dark Schneider
seduced her...
Oh, hell, she probably hasn't known anyone since then, and a night with Dark
tends to mark people. Kai should know, damn the bastard, but the difference is
she has slept with other people since then. Also, she's not a sheltered
romantic. One of her earliest memories is the rape of her mother, and she saw a
lot more of them afterward. The battlefields are fertile grounds for all kinds
of horrors.
Alright, so she has to get a little princess who's in love with someone else
and a gynophobic half-ice dragon comfortable enough with each other to
eventually produce a heir.
Easy as pie.
Sean is going to owe her for the next century.
They both outrank her so badly. Kai isn't very hierarchically-minded, but when
it's the High King it's a bit hard to be irreverend. She breathes in, squares
her shoulders, and claps her hands hard, startling them both. "Alright. Your
highnesses. I am your official coach for tonight. I would not be here if you
didn't accept this already. Therefore, from now on until tomorrow morning, I am
in charge."
Kal Su looks away from the window for the first time to stare at her. His eyes
are such a pale blue the irises almost disappear.
She stands her ground. A challenge. "First things first, if you would close the
blinds." It'll be easier for them in the dark.
For Kai herself... Eh.
At least they're both pretty.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Hurt/Comfort, 5 and 10 (Abigail and Arshes Nei)
"They killed him," she whispers eventually.
It has been days since she last spoke. Since she ordered her sorcerers to
retreat, to break the trail, to carry the injured and keep the retreat from
turning into a panic. To settle down. To make camp.
Since she methodically took down her armor, and let it fall, and sat right
there in the middle of a hastily erected command tent.
High Priest Abigail nods slowly from the entrance, the cloth falling closed
behind him.
"They did."
"He's... not coming back this time."
He doesn't answer, but his expression is answer enough.
She lifts her head fast, like a feral beast, black hair everywhere. Lightning
crackles around her.
"You lie. You haven't looked hard enough, you--"
"Arshes," Abigail answers, slow and stern. "He might come back. He might not.
But his usual spells have failed. He isn't coming back this week. Or this
month." A pause. "Perhaps ever."
She shakes her head no, mechanically. But she can't deny it forever.
It's like a chasm in her soul. Her father. Her savior. Her teacher. Her lover.
Her everything.
He's immortal.
He's gone. Gone. Gone.
It rises inside her like a thunderstorm and she knows there are allies all
around, her own students and her own men and women and she is responsible for
them and she doesn't care, they can all burn, her Darsh is gone. Her Darsh is
gone.
Abigail stands there, and doesn't even bother to erect a shield to protect
himself from the lightning dancing on his skin, burning pinpoint holes through
his robes. He watches her. Cold. Remote.
"But you can continue the war in his name."
She freezes.
"Revenge, Arshes. A fitting memorial."
She looks up at him slowly. There's a little smirk on his face she doesn't
remember ever seeing before.
"Come. Let us discuss how to accomplish that."
 
===============================================================================
 
 Crack, 1 (Lushie)
"It's alright, I'm an angel!" he told her, before jumping out of the window.
Yoko spent the next month glaring at him and practicing her healing spells.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Horror, 10 (Arshes) (Warning for implied child rape)
she's alone because they left her because she's a bastard halfbreed spawn who's
a drain on their resources (she doesn't even get what that means apart from
that she's bad) and she's eating their food and useless. they tell her to wait
here and they leave. she waits even though she knows they won't come back,
because she's always tried to be a nice girl so they might love her anyway
despite her wrongness and her dark bastard skin.
there's red water and people bits everywhere and she's cold.
a man walks by and he's beautiful like a legend and she toddles to him to grab
his cape. her legs are short and she hurts her foot on a rock and trips and
when she gets up again he's gone.
she cries a tiny bit, just a little, because no one likes to hear a useless
bastard halfbreed spawn make noise.
when she looks up there's a green man with a huge belly and a wart-covered
hog's face, and he grins at her with his tusks bared and lifts his loincloth to
show her what's underneath.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Baby!fic, 5 and 9 (Abigail and Kai)
Abigail sighs in weary acceptance and takes the baby from Kai Harn's arms,
turning it on his lap to settle it comfortably.
"I am a priest of the dark arcanes, not the healing arts, I hope you realize."
"Still a priest," Kai counters. And to use corrupted white magic, you had to
know the normal kind first. "I'd ask Yoko or her father if they were here, but
they're not."
They both look down at the child. It's a boy. His newborn dark hair is already
falling, leaving fine, silvery strands behind.
It's funny how Princess Sheila's surprise bastard daughter has the exact same
hair color. She's two months old and it shows no sign of darkening into even
the palest gold.
When Yoko and her dad finish introducing Yoko's infant twins to their
grandmother from the countryside and come back, someone is going to die. Likely
someone silver-haired and male and very, very horny.
Hopefully for him, Yoko will come back before Arshes and Sean arrive at term as
well.
The baby kicks on Abigail's lap and the old man sighs again and after a little
prayer of apology to his dark god of carnage, starts the routine diagnosis
spells and blessings. Kai sits close by and watches, an amused smile on her
lips.
At some point the little brat pees on his embroidered robes. That's about par
for the course, really.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Dark, 2 and 8 (Yoko and Gara)
"Scared, girlie?" the big man says from his perch on the edge of the pit, with
a smile full of straight white teeth.
Yoko rattles her chains and glares up at him. "No," she says, and tells herself
it's not really a lie. So far he's done nothing but let that slime at her
clothes, and she's going to kill him for ogling her naked body. But nothing
else. Nothing worse. He's all talk, really.
"You'll be," he promises, and blows out the torch.
Something skitters out into the pit.
"I'm not getting off on this," he says, and he really sounds regretful. Mildly.
"I just want him to come for you, you know?"
Yoko closes her night-blind eyes and breathes and pretends she's alone in the
pit. She wants Lushie to come for her, too.
But she's not going to scream.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Romance, 4 and 7 (Darsh and Sean)
She loves him. She knows he doesn't love her. She didn't always know that -
- consciously at least -- but she thinks even as she fell to his seduction a
part of her was always aware. You cannot cage a man like that, force him to
belong to one person only -- force him to belong to anyone at all. Sean, at
least, cannot. She's too ordinary.
But sometimes before she falls asleep she feels his hand in her hair, and his
touch is so tender she's happy anyway, despite knowing she's only one of many.
He isn't hers. He will never be hers.
But she is his, and that might be enough.
 
===============================================================================
 
 Deathfic, 2 and 3 (Yoko and Sheila)
The hard stone dug into Yoko's knees. But she couldn't dislodge princess Sheila
from her lap.
What had she been doing in the last years? Learning a stupid sealing spell and
a handful of cantrips -- too busy babysitting and bossing people around and
washing socks.
Her father could have fixed this. Her father could have, could have --
She could have. She should have.
"The seal," Sheila mouthed, pupils blown so wide Yoko thought she must be
blind. "The seal."
"The seal resisted," Yoko lied, head bowed until her red hair fell all around
the princess's face. "They caught it as it left you and fixed it in something
else. It's still steady. My father will fix this."
"Oh," Sheila said, and smiled.
"I know it hurts, but if you'll just wait a moment longer, just a moment
longer. My father will heal you, I promise."
Sheila was still smiling.
Yoko combed long black locks away from the princess's face, and watched the
demon goddess turn their capital into ruins as Sheila's body cooled on her lap.
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