Tag: sam writes

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday’s fic got me thinking– while I first intended Himeka to be a sort of stock child, everything with her so far exists (or at least, can exist) in the same universe. So I thought I’d do a masterpost of everything established in that universe. For funsies. 

We Could Pretend (optional, included because I wrote AHB as a sequel)

Things You Said When You Were Scared

The Night It Started

A Happy Birthday

Haruka Dies! Doc and Dreaming’s Angstober Fun (I suppose if anyone was reading the entire Himeka-verse collection, I’d recommend chronological order)

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

I FORGOT ABOUT MICHIRU’S BIRTHDAY. Since the first I’ve been like, I feel like there’s something in the beginning of March?? What is it?? And then I woke up today and remembered.

SO. I decided to be cheap and write fluff paralleling last year’s fic, set 18 years later.

A Happy Birthday
~900 words

The curtains were open to let the sunlight in. That should have informed Michiru, but in her still-sleepy haze all she could do was appreciate how the golden light sparkled on Haruka’s neck and arms. She watched her breathe for a few long minutes before propping herself up to kiss her cheek. “Morning, love.”

“Happy birthday.”

Haruka was never so aware when waking up. It was then that Michiru suspected she was being played. “Have you been awake long?”

“I’ve been asleep this whole time.” Haruka tried and failed to hide her grin.

“Is that so?” Michiru sat up. “I’d better go get some coffee started.”

“No!” Haruka threw her arms around her. “I mean, it’s your birthday, you should relax. Stay here awhile.”

“I suppose I could do that.” Michiru adjusted her pillow against the headboard. “Though I can only imagine Himeka will be up soon, one of us is going to have to make her breakfast.”

“No!” came a shout from behind the door. “I made you breakfast.” It swung open to reveal their little daughter in pajamas– the ones Michiru had picked out, even though she loved Haruka’s race car ones best. Haruka had cleverly pinned a Happy Birthday banner to the corner of the door and the frame so the green letters fell into the sunlight as it opened.

Himeka bounced onto their bed. “What do you want first?”

Michiru laughed. “Whatever you would like to give me first.”

“Okay.” She looked to Haruka for guidance, and Haruka nodded encouragement. Himeka ran into the hall and walked back in very slowly. Haruka had poured coffee into a travel thermos and shut it tight, but she’d clearly also imparted the dangers of it to Himeka. Her little face scrunched up; she stared at the thermos she held in both hands as though she was willing every drop to stay put. A big sigh escaped her body when she set it safely on Michiru’s nightstand. “Okay, now food!” She ran back out.

Haruka pulled a second thermos from the bottom shelf of her bedside table. “I couldn’t make her do that twice,” she whispered. “Even though she wanted to.”

“You always were a kind soul.” She slipped her a kiss before their daughter returned, plate in hand. A truly terrifying stack of waffles balanced on top, covered in berries and whipped cream.

“We can share!” Himeka assured her.

“You certainly went all out.” Michiru smiled as she cut off a small bite and Haruka shoveled a much larger one. “Thank you.”

“This is only the beginning, Mama. We have presents, and lunch reservations, and Papa’s gonna take you to a concert.”

“Hey, those were supposed to be surprises.”

Himeka covered her mouth, smushing her hands against the dollops of cream stuck on her lips. “Whoops.”

Haruka laughed. “We’ll just have to hope Mama forgets.”

“Forgets what?” Michiru asked with a smile.

“It worked!”

They ate their way through the waffles, Haruka and Himeka taking the lion’s share. Michiru took a moment to let their happiness wash over her. Thirty-four years on this earth, eighteen with Haruka by her side and six with their daughter, and it still seemed impossible sometimes. Most times. Happiness was never meant to be something she could hold, but here it was, sticky fingers and all. She set the plate aside when it was empty and kissed Himeka on the head.

“Do you want your presents now?”

“If you would like to give them to me, yes.”

Himeka was gone and back again as fast as her little legs could carry her. She set three bags on Michiru’s lap. “This one first, it’s from both of us.”

Michiru pulled away the tissue slowly, watching her girls lean forward in anticipation. They were practically on top of her when she finally revealed the slim jewelry box. Inside sat a simple necklace with three little stick people attached– one in an aquamarine dress, one in a garnet square Michiru assumed was meant to be a shirt, and a smaller one with a round diamond body.

Himeka threw up her arms. “It’s us!”

Haruka smiled sheepishly. “I know it’s a little tacky, b–”

“It’s wonderful.” She handed it over a lifted her hair. “Put it on me?”

Haruka clipped it on with well practiced fingers. Himeka poked at the people-charms and smiled. “It makes you extra beautiful.” She pressed the second bag into Michiru’s hands. “Mine next!” She did not wait for Michiru to sort through the paper, instead pulling out the painting inside herself. It was a rough, child-watercolors version of one of Michiru’s own works, with the addition of several smiling fish and a handful of well-placed stickers.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s gorgeous. We’ll have to get it framed.”

Haruka’s present was, of course, concert tickets, and Michiru feigned surprise for Himeka’s sake. It was a performance of her favorite suite by a touring orchestra, she had considered getting tickets herself but, thankfully, had thought better of it.

As they got ready that night, Setsuna having come early to babysit, Haruka wrapped her arms around Michiru from behind. “You don’t have to keep it on, you know.” She kissed Michiru’s neck just above the necklace. “I know it doesn’t go with much.”

There was truth in that. Michiru’s skin and wardrobe fared better with silver; the chain was gold. And that was ignoring the gem colors. But she turned around with a smile. “I think this is the sort of thing that goes with everything.”

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

I’m having a really self indulgent day so HERE’S SOME SUPER SELF INDULGENT FIC. There is literally no point in this except I’m being a feelings blob and projecting it on Haruka. 

The Letter
~800 words

Haruka figured it was a blessing the box arrived when Michiru wasn’t home. She wasn’t exactly the best at hiding things anyway, and she knew there was no way she’d have controlled her face when she saw “C. Tennoh” in the return address line. Her first thought was to chuck it. Throw it out unopened, keep the happy distance she’d maintained these past several years.

But she was curious. The unopened box would loom larger in her mind than whatever demon was stuffed inside.

She did not need scissors to break it open. If Haruka used too much tape to wrap things– and she was assured she did by Mina every birthday– her mother used far too little. There was a note among the crumbled newspaper packing, distinguishable only because her mother had used a red pen.

Haruka

I saw your engagement in the paper. I thought you might like to have some of this.

Love

Mom

Haruka felt relieved she’d written nothing more. No questions, no requests for a reply. It was just the bare minimum for Haruka’s mother to feel she had Done Something, and then they could both continue with their lives. That was probably the best wedding gift Haruka could ask for.

Still, though, there was the question of what she’d actually sent. Haruka lifted the first newspaper slowly. Nestled beneath was a wooden car covered in dinosaur stickers– Haruka’s first racer. She smiled at that. She’d forgotten about it entirely. Beneath that was an item more carefully wrapped. Haruka pulled the paper off gingerly to reveal a mug, the last remaining piece of her grandmother’s china set, saved from sale by a broken and glued handle. Something caught in her throat; Haruka had not expected anything actually thoughtful. She set it on the table with shaking hands.

There seemed to be nothing left in the box, but as Haruka emptied the rest of the crumpled newspapers she spotted an envelope at the bottom.

TO: FUTURE ME (Haruka) was scrawled in big letters across the front. There had been some assignment in middle school, Haruka recalled, to write a letter to your future self. She could not remember when they were supposed to open them. Now seemed as good a time as any. The seal on the back was already ripped. Haruka chose not to think on whether it was a teacher or her mother who’d read it.

Dear Future Me,

I’m not really sure what to say. I hope you exist, I guess. They said we’re supposed to talk about our hopes and stuff, so I’ll do that.

I hope you I you have a really cool car. Maybe you spent a lot of money on it. I hope you have a lot of money to spend on cars. I also hope you have a really beuti beautiful wi handsome h beautiful wife. They said no one would read these so I can say that. I hope she is more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen and she loves you a lot. And you love her. That would be really cool. But if it doesn’t happen I hope I don’t make you feel bad. Maybe love’s not for us you me.

I think I can count this as two paragraphs. That’s the minimum. I think I’m also supposed to say I hope you don’t do drugs, but I don’t care.

Sincerly,

Haruka (age 12)

Haruka was caught somewhere between laughing and crying. She found herself with a pen and paper before she could think it through.

Hey little buddy,

You might not believe this, but love is for us me you. I promise you’re gonna have the most beautiful wife in the world. I’m gonna marry her in June. Hang in there.

Sincerely,

Haruka (age 26)

Haruka read it over and picked up the phone. “Hey, Sets, I uh. I have a really big favor to ask.”

—-

“Excuse me,” a tall, dark woman stood up from the park bench as Haruka ran past. She stopped. “Are you Haruka?”

“Uhm.” Haruka eyed the woman cautiously. She didn’t look like anyone from the school, which was a relief. There was something kinder in her eyes than what Haruka was used to seeing in teachers. “Maybe.”

“I have a letter for you.” She reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out an envelope.

“You what?” Haruka took it. TO: PAST ME (Haruka). “Is this a joke?”

But suddenly, the woman was gone.

There was, she supposed, no harm in opening it. She did, and read it slowly. It was a joke, it had to be. Someone read her letter and thought they’d have a laugh. They’d even mimicked her writing. Jerk.

And yet… she slipped it into her pocket instead of throwing it away. A little part of Haruka’s heart clung to the possibility it was real. She couldn’t deny, as she started running again, that she felt just a little bit lighter. Maybe, maybe, good things were coming someday.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

.Valentine’s Day doesn’t exist in space but I wrote a cheesy Star Wars fic to celebrate anyway.

A Night Off

~1470 Words, AO3 Link

General Organa gives Finn permission to take Rey on a date off-planet… on the condition that C-3PO rides along.

Rey is always early for meals. Normally it kills Finn a little to see her waiting, followed by the spark of surprise when food is actually put on her tray. Today, though, he can use this habit to his advantage.

“Hey.”

Deep weariness shows in her eyes, but her smile is bright. “Hey.”

“I, uh, I had a question for you.” Finn pauses, but her only response is to nod with raised eyebrows. “Are you busy tomorrow night? I mean, you’re busy every night, but I mean with anything out of the ordinary. Any non-Jedi stuff going on? You have, I dunno, fun plans?”

To her credit, she doesn’t laugh, though it’s clear she’s holding it back. “What are you really asking me?”

“Well. I got permission from the general to take you off planet for a few hours. Not far, just into orbit for… for a little break.”

“A break.” She has a harder time keeping down the laughter. “Are you sure that’s the right word?”

Sometimes Finn wonders if these moments are Force-enhanced perception, or if he’s really that transparent. The general had caught on to the same thing.

“I think Rey could use a break, is all,” he’d said. “You know, a few hours without the fate of the galaxy on her shoulders.”

The General had looked up from a hologram of the latest battle plan. The glow only added to her wry expression. “If you want something, Finn, honesty is the best start.”

“I am being honest. I believe that, wholeheartedly, you can Force-read my mind if you need to. But I also…”

“Want to have a date.” Leia laughed, one of the few genuine smiles Finn had ever seen on her face. “The First Order could destroy us at any turn, and you want to go on a date.”

“Well.” It did sound ridiculous when put like that.

“I’m not saying no. I remember what it’s like in your shoes, believe it or not. But there will be regulations. Not too far out, and shields up the whole time. And…” Her smile took on an edge Finn wasn’t sure he liked. “I’m going to send a droid with you.”

Now Rey looks at him with some of that same wryness. “It, uh. It could be a date. If you wanted. I thought that we could maybe have dinner, something a little better than what they serve here.” The General had okayed that, told him who and how to ask for high quality goods.

“I’ve never been on a date before.” Her voice goes soft; she’s not teasing now.

Finn smiles. “Neither have I.”

“Tomorrow, you said?”

“Yeah. The General said we could take the Falcon.” Demanded, really. “My droid knows that ship well,” she’d said. “He’ll take good care of you in it.”

***

“Oh goodness.” C-3PO fluttered behind them in the cockpit. “Back in the Falcon after all these years. I can hardly believe it.”

Finn very pointedly does not look back at the droid. Rey bites back laughter as she pulls the ship off the ground. She has dressed in a tunic she must have borrowed from someone, though Finn is unsure who. The green fabric gathers around her shoulders and swoops below her collarbone in a way that keeps drawing Finn’s eye.

“Do be careful. This ship is quite old, you know.”

Rey glances over at Finn. There is an unmistakable glint in her eye. “Hold on, 3PO.” She maneuvers the Falcon in a fast but graceful loop.

“Oh my. I truly must advise against such–”

“Would you like to drive?”

“Miss Rey, you should must know I am not a pilot droid.”

“And you must know that I’m a pilot.” Her smile threatens more complicated flight paths.

“I can see why the princess likes you. You are just like Han Solo.”

Finn turns then. “3PO. The General said you would prepare the food.”

“Oh yes, of course, Master Finn. How could I be so forgetful? Perhaps there is a loose circuit, I will have to get checked when we land.” He shuffles off.

Finn puts a hand over Rey’s on the controls. She laces her fingers into his briefly as they ascend. C-3PO does not return until they have settled into orbit.

“I have served your dinner in the main hold. If we have reached a stable altitude, I suggest going while it is still hot.”

He follows them out to where they sit on the curved couch around the table. “I do hope this presentation is satisfactory.”

“Yeah,” Finn says, trying to convey C-3PO can go without saying it in so many words. “It’s great.”

C-3PO stands and watches as they take their first bites.

“3PO,” Rey says. “Could you go check the cockpit? I think I may have left some valves in the wrong position.”

“Oh my. That would be quite disastrous. I will go immediately.”

Finn slumps his shoulders as soon as the droid is out of sight. “I have to wonder if the General sent him for a laugh rather than our safety.”

“It was likely both.” Rey smiled and scooted closer to him. “But we’re here, and it’s very nice.”

“You think so?”

“I do.” She puts down her fork to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

It is none too soon– as soon as she picks it back up, C-3PO comes shambling back in. “Miss Rey, I do believe you sent me on a wild goose chase. I do not appreciate being teased in such a manner.”

She stifles a snort of laughter.

“Since you’re up, 3PO, could you check the shields? The General is very concerned about them staying up.”

“Oh yes, Master Finn. It would not due to be careless.”

“So,” Rey says once he is gone.

“So.”

“What would be a date-y thing to say right now?”

Finn chuckled. “I should have asked Poe about that. He would know.” He glances over at her. “You, uh, look very nice though.”

A little color rises in her cheeks. “I’ve never worn anything like this. It feels strange.” She runs her eyes over him. “You look nice as well.”

He had asked Poe what to wear, and had been given picks from his closet. Poe had insisted he wear a stark white shirt that opened at the collar. From the way Rey looks at Finn, he assumes it was indeed the right choice. He swallows hard. “Rey…”

“You will be pleased to know the shields are functioning fully. Everything is in perfect working order.”

Finn groans.

“Is something wrong, Master Finn?”

“No, nope. Everything’s fine.” Rey puts a hand on his knee beneath the table. He takes a very large bite of food to keep from reacting.

“Did General Organa give you any instructions beyond serving dinner?” she asks between bites.

“Of course, Miss Rey. I am here to enforce her parameters of this outing. If you were to take this ship further than specified I would inform her immediately.”

“Is that all?”

“There were no further instructions.”

“Wouldn’t it be best for you to watch the cockpit, then? That would be the best place to sure we don’t fly any further.”

“I see the logic in that suggestion.”

“That was very clever.”

“Yes,” Rey says, pushing their mostly empty plates to the far side of the table. Finn is confused for a moment, Rey has never left so much of a drop of food uneaten. But then she turns and climbs to straddle him, back against the table.

“He’s going to come back.”

“Yes,” Rey says, “but I’m not sure I care.” She leans down to kiss him, and he is not sure he cares either. One of her hands cups the back of his head. The other slips along the v of his collar. In a small moment of daring, he slides his hands beneath her tunic, along her back and waist. She gasps and smiles against his mouth. Her body presses closer to his. He breaks from her mouth and kisses his way down her neck, reveling in the way her fingers press harder into his skin the further he goes. She reaches down to the bottom of his shirt and pulls it up, and–

“It occurs to me that you might– oh dear. Oh my.” C-3PO turns around in embarrassment. “Princess Leia is going to be so disappointed in me, thirty years and I haven’t learned. You want to be alone. I do apologize for the interruption.”

They break down laughing against each other. “That takes care of that then,” Finn says. “I didn’t think it would be quite that easy.”

“Neither did I. But we might as well take advantage of it.” She grabs the edge of his shirt again.

Finn rises to the challenge in her eyes. “Yeah, we should.”

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

Star Wars fic is becoming a weekly thing, it seems.

Touching the Stars
Finn/Rey, Hurt/Comfort of the self-esteem variety. 
~1000 words, also on AO3

There are nights, sometimes, when he can’t escape the weight of what he really is. Finn slips out of the barracks. He makes his way outside, as if walking will clear his head, as if walking will prevent them all from realizing they’ve been deceived. The sky is clear, awash with the light of a million distant suns. Finn thinks of Rey’s eyes. That makes it worse. He’s a Storm Trooper, just a Storm Trooper. Not a real resistance fighter, not a good man. He was never meant to touch the stars like this.

“Finn.”

He closes his eyes, of course she has followed him. She’s a terribly light sleeper, he’s noticed.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Just talking a walk. I like to walk.”

She moves in front of him to look him in the eye. “You’re very stationary for someone walking.”

Finn has to laugh. She has a way of doing that. “I guess that’s true.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?” There’s a challenge in her voice, but gentleness in her eyes. She takes his hands in hers.

“It’s nothing important.”

Rey merely waits.

“I’m nothing important.”

“Finn.” Her eyebrows draw together like he’d hurt her. He pulls away, makes good on his claim to walking and paces back and forth, never looking at her.

“I don’t—I mean, I’m just not like you, or Poe, or anyone here. Especially you, you’re a Jedi. Light of the galaxy. And I—I belong on the other side of that. Or, I don’t, but all I can do is run, Rey, I’m not—“

She grabs him from behind, tight around his middle. She presses her forehead to his shoulder, just to the side of where he still feels the tightness of the light saber scar. “Stop. Please.”

His hands find their way back to hers without him thinking about it. “Rey. I’m a Storm Trooper.”

Her fingers squeeze his tight. “You are much more than that. But if you weren’t, what would it matter?” She lifts her head to let it lean against his. “That wouldn’t change how brave you are, how kind.”

Finn lets out a self-deprecating chuckle. “I’m not brave.”

Rey slips her hands out of his and under his shirt. Her fingers trace the scar down his back so lightly he cannot help but shiver. “Many would beg to differ.” She lifts his shirt up to his arms. He feels exposed as she looks; no one but Doctor Kalonia has seen. “I would be among them.” She touches him again.

It’s a mark of failure. The physical manifestation of all he can never be. “Don’t.” He moves and she does not follow. “You’re going to realize, one day, that all these things you think about me are wrong. You’re going to se that the thing I’ve done—they aren’t… they aren’t these big brave things people think they are. I’ve only ever done what I had to do.”

“You didn’t have to come back for me. You didn’t have to fight Ren.”

“Yeah, I did.”

Rey is quiet for a long moment. “I don’t think I can change your mind. But Finn—“ She reaches to take his arm but stops short. “Even if you had never done everything I call brave, if all you had done was take my hand, you’d still be the dearest person in the galaxy to me.”

His smile makes him feel all the closer to crying. “You didn’t seem to like it at the time.” Finn dares to look at her. There’s more than starlight gleaming in her eyes.

“There isn’t much friendly touching on Jakku.” Rey tries to smile, but her breath catches in the middle. “You’re the first family I’ve had, Finn. I’m not going to leave you behind.”

He leans in and lets her hold him. She is warm; she is real. He finds himself believing that she believes he is something, even if he can’t conceive of it himself.

“Do you want to see it?” he asks. “All of it?”

Rey nods. He pulls his shirt over his head. Her eyes stay on his for a long moment before moving down to the jagged scar on the right side of his chest, and he realizes he’s showing her more than just his wounds. She walks around him to she the long swipe down his back.

And her lips press against its base.

Finn gasps as her soft motions move upwards. When she reaches his shoulder, he turns to meet her with an urgency he’s never expressed. One of her hands alights on the wound at his chest. He cannot fathom what to do with his own hands so he holds it there with both. Rey presses close. Her free hand holds him at the curve of his ribs, nearly as warm and soft as her mouth against his. It’s a warmth that spreads, burns, makes it feel like his heart is expanding in his chest. The light of stars scorches when held so close.

She pulls him towards the ground though her guidance is gentle, his balance is off and he barely catches himself in time to keep from falling on top of her. Rey smiles. She reaches up and strokes his cheek. If she minds being pinned beneath him, she does not show it. “Did you ever see the night sky on Jakku?”

“No, but I imagine it’s much more pleasant than the day.”

She laughs. “You’re not wrong. It’s beautiful, you can see more stars than you can here, arms of galaxies and moons bright enough to be small suns.” She presses her lips together. “It’s beautiful, but untouchable from the ground I knew I’d never leave.” Rey casts her gaze away from his eyes. “Sometimes I forget you’re not like that.” She traces patterns long his chest with her fingers. “It’s hard to believe I can touch you. That you’re here.”

Finn lowers himself to the ground next to her, pulls her close with one arm. “I guess a lot of things are pretty unbelievable.” He presses his forehead into her hair. “But I’m here.”

She snuggles into his chest. “We’ll just have to keep being here until we start believing.”

Finn closes his eyes and listens to her breathing. “I can do that.” He feels her smile against his skin, and he can feel starlight shining inside him.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAVORITE DORKY BUTCH.

My initial plan for this fic was to try and reconcile her manga/myu piano playing with my version of her. I ended up doing the opposite (and also borrowed some of Doc’s headcanons).

But here we go,
How She Plays
~1000 words, on AO3 and below.

Nana pulled Haruka onto her lap and put her hands over hers. “You’ve just got to think about the hops, see?” Their fingers moved together on the piano keys one by one. “Hop over the black key, and again. Now there isn’t anything to hop over. Hear how it doesn’t jump as high?”

Haruka nodded, but she wasn’t so sure. It was all sound to her, not like when Nana played by herself. That was music.

“Now we’ve played a whole scale!” Nana hugged her arms around Haruka’s shoulders, and Haruka felt proud even though she hadn’t done anything. “You’re going to be quite the little musician.”

“Can we play a real song, Nana?”

“Of course.”

Their hands moved together again. Haruka’s weren’t big enough to reach across all the notes, but even though it sounded emptier than Nana’s version, she recognized the tune. She kicked her feet out in delight, careful not to hit Nana’s knees. Her fingers stuttered on a key. Nana assured her it was okay. “If you keep going, the mistake is just part of the song.”

—

She’d meant to just go to the bathroom. Splash some water on her face, steel herself again for the rest of dinner. But the Kaioh house was large, and she was a little lost. And now, there was a piano.

It shouldn’t have surprised her. There were probably twenty seven pianos tucked into the nooks and crannies of the mansion, rich people always had pianos, even without musicians in the family.

The polish on the black body shone in the light that came through the windows. It was a much sleeker affair than the one Haruka’s mother had sold in the wake of Nana’s death, but she felt nostalgic all the same. As she lifted the cover off the keys, she could feel Nana’s hands on hers again. The smell of her perfume, tinged with tobacco and a little sweetness from whatever she had last cooked. Haruka’s fingers found the starting notes on their own. She hit some wrong keys, her fingers were much longer than they once were, but she kept playing.

Haruka forgot where she was until, at the end of the song, someone came up behind her. “Clair de Lune.”

She jumped. Mrs. Kaioh did not smile or reassure her. “I was not aware you played.” She was much smaller than Haruka, but she carried herself like a battle commander, cold and unyielding in her black evening gown.

Haruka swallowed. “I don’t. Or, I haven’t, not since I was very young.” She would not tell this woman she’d begged her mother to let her keep the piano, that her mother had sold it and used the money for things Haruka did not want to know about. “My grandmother taught me.”

Mrs. Kaioh raised an eyebrow, yet remained utterly unreasonable. “No formal training then. I see.”

Haruka was torn between running and standing to defend Nana. Mrs. Kaioh cut her off from either.

“Would you like formal training, Haruka?”

“What?”

Mrs. Kaioh sat down on the piano bench, crossing her ankles the same way Michiru always did. “We would be happy to fund your art. You are perhaps not untalented, merely untrained.” She adjusted her necklace with the pads of her fingers. “It is possible you could become an excellent partner for my daughter. Musically.”

It might not have hit her, if she hadn’t known Michiru so well. Without knowing how her family had cultivated her skills for show, she might have thought this was a genuine truce. But she did know. Haruka could see it now—Kaioh’s latest charity: Poor girl becomes piano prodigy.Michiru said sometimes that she was naïve, but she was not this naïve. “That’s alright. No thanks.”

“I see.” Mrs. Kaioh’s eyes seared into her. “You might consider, though, that without something to contribute, my daughter will bore of you soon.”

It was a thought that stuck on Haruka sometimes, but it seemed absurd next to how disappointed Michiru would be if Haruka sold out to her parents. “I, um, piano was something special between my grandmother and me, so I… it wouldn’t feel right.”

“Personal loyalty does have its charms. But they will only get you so far.”

“Mother.” Michiru appeared in the doorway, one hand on the frame. It struck Haruka sometimes that she could channel all the power and presence of Neptune while untransformed, and yet Mrs. Kaioh seemed unfazed.

“We are merely having a little talk, dear.”

“And now you’re done. Haruka and I are leaving.”

“Dinner is not over.”

“Something has come up.” She walked over and linked her arm with Haruka’s. “I have our car waiting for us.”

Haruka let herself be led away, but she felt Mrs. Kaioh’s eyes stay on her.

—

She had almost forgotten the incident when the truck arrived on her birthday. The delivery men wheeled a large box to their porch. Haruka knew immediately what it was. “There’s been a mistake. I didn’t order this.”

The man looked at his clipboard. “Are you Haruka Tennoh?”

“Yes, but—“

“I’ll sign for it,” Michiru said from behind her.

“Michi—“

She did not stop. Soon there was a piano in their living room. It was smaller and less grand than Haruka had expected. Though it was newer and likely better made, it was the same boxy shape as Nana’s.

“It’s not from my parents.” Michiru wrapped her arms around Haruka’s middle. “After what you said, I thought you might like to play sometimes. Just for yourself, and maybe for me.”

Haruka smiled. “I’m not any good, Michi.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. I am classically trained, after all.”

They sat together on the little bench. Haruka though too much, made more mistakes than she had on the Kaioh’s piano, but after, Michiru leaned her head on her shoulder. “I like the way you play. It’s not the way I play.”

Haruka gave a shaky laugh. “The way you play is good.”

“Technically. But there’s something very genuine in your style.” She closed her eyes. “I’m glad you aren’t taking lessons. Play more?”

Haruka did not know many songs, and remembered even fewer, but Michiru listened all the same. She felt sure, somehow, that this would have made Nana smile.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

HERE COMES MORE STAR WARS TRASH.

Take Care
Poe can barely handle Finn being injured. Rey can barely handle leaving him.
OT3, sort of.
~1150 words. On AO3 or below the cut. 

Maybe they should have been somber from the start, good people hadn’t made it back. But the high of having done the impossible, having saved entire star systems, was something no one, and certainly not Poe, could deny. Jessika clapped him on the back and another crew member hollered in victory. One of the younger members did a cartwheel. That got everyone laughing. It was, Poe was certain, what the fallen would want them to be doing. The victory, the joy, this was what they died for. It deserved celebration. The mourning could come later.

When the Millennium Falcon landed, Poe expected more of the same.

But then Chewbacca came out, an unconscious Finn in his arms.

Everything stopped. Or, it didn’t, but for Poe it did. He couldn’t hear what Jessika was saying, didn’t see what passed between the General and the girl who disembarked the Falcon before Finn. All he could feel was fear. It curled up in his abdomen and chewed at his heart, sent tendrils up to his ears, pounded at his head.

He followed Finn into the medical bay, where droids began taking vitals. A stern-face woman looked up as he entered.

“Out. You’ll get in the way.”

“What happened?”

“Lightsaber. Out.”

Leaving was the only thing he could do. Poe made his way to his barracks, thankful they were empty in the aftermath of battle. He’d lost good men before. He’d lost good men today. But Finn, he admitted to himself, was more than just a good man. Poe would laugh at himself if terror over what might be happening in the medical bay didn’t hang on him so heavily. Jessika always teased him, said he’d fall for any nice boy with a cute smile. Finn was certainly no exception.

Poe did laugh then. Finn was an exception in so many ways. A Storm Trooper who broke free. A man taught nothing but hatred and fear but chose kindness anyway. Who wouldn’t fall for someone like that? Poe pressed his hands to his face. It wouldn’t be fair for Finn to die now, the universe couldn’t be so cruel.

That was a juvenile line of thought, and Poe knew it. The universe could, had. But he hoped against all reason it wouldn’t now.

He couldn’t say how long he’d stayed there with his thoughts before Jessika showed up. “The General has called a meeting.”

Poe sighed. “Now?”

“No, she’s waiting with Rey for news on the Storm Trooper.”

“Don’t call him that.”

Jessika gave him a wry smile. “You could join them.”

“I’m not so sure.” Rey was something special, he knew, both to Finn and the galaxy. He supposed they were suited for each other, two extraordinary people.

“You should join them.” She sat down next to him. “It’s not like you to doubt yourself.”

He forced a smile. “Stranger things have happened in recent days.”

“Now listen here, Black Leader. I’m giving you a command this time. Don’t live with regrets.” She punched him in the shoulder, but her expression went soft. “I saw how you looked at each other. I can’t promise he feels the same, but I can promise he would want you there.”

“Thanks, Jess.”

She raised an eyebrow as she stood. “Thank me with action, not words.”

–

He’d promised himself he’d go after the meeting, but in the excitement about the map, Rey had beaten him there. She held Finn’s hand. Poe could hear the murmur of her voice though he couldn’t make out her words. He wondered if Finn could, if somehow that soft river of sound could make its way past the anesthesia and comfort him. He wondered if Rey could make it so. Jedi could do anything, couldn’t they?

He hung back, hoping she wouldn’t turn around. If he was honest, he didn’t think it was her rumored strength in the force was what would reach Finn. Even at a distance, even with Finn unconscious, he could see something between them, bright and burning and good. Finn needed her. It was her touch and her care that would pull him towards recovery.

So he left, but somehow, every route he took for any task Leia gave him took him past the medical bay, and every time he had to pause to look in. Rey was almost always there, but as the day of her departure drew nearer, more of her time was consumed with preparations. And so, when Poe passed, he could not bear to see Finn lying alone. That looked too much like he was dead. It wasn’t his place to take Finn’s hand, but he had to, if only for a moment. Poe needed to feel that it was warm, that there was still a pulse under the skin. He could live with whatever else happened.

He’d intended to leave right away, but he sat down. His errand had to wait.

Finn’s breathing was soft but steady. Poe watched his chest rise and fall under the weight of the lightsaber scars. The urge to trace them with his fingers tugged at his heart. Instead he pressed Finn’s hand to his forehead. “You deserve so much better than this.”

Poe closed his eyes. Finn was alive, expected to recover. It was enough, it had to be enough.

He gave a start when someone grasped his shoulder. “You finally came in.”

Poe expected Rey to be angry, to berate him for his intrusion. But her face was calm, almost relieved.

“I feel you look sometimes.” She looked down at Finn, her hand still on Poe. “He cares about you a lot. I heard as much from him as from BB8.”

Poe swallowed hard. “He thought of nothing but you when the First Order took you.”

She smiled, but her eyes were glassy. “I don’t want to leave him. I have to soon, but…” Rey looked at him with an expression he couldn’t place. “You care for him too, right?” An edge had entered her voice.

Poe set Finn’s hand back on the bed and stood.

Rey faced him fully. “I need to know.”

“I do. Very much like you do.”

She threw her arms around him. Poe stumbled from surprise.

“Take care of him. I can’t leave him alone.” She held him very tightly. “Promise me.”

He hugged her back, thinking about what he’d heard about the girl left on a desert planet her whole life. “I promise. I’ll tell Leia I can’t do anything else.” He’d meant it as a joke, but as it came out it no longer felt like one. “I’ll be here when he wakes up.”

She pulled away. “Make sure he knows I’m coming back.” A heaviness weighed on Poe’s heart, but then Rey continued, “I want him to know he has both of us.”

Poe smiled. “I will.” Finn would be the most loved man in the universe, he would make sure of it.

Haruka/Mina WORKING AT A DEPARTMENT STORE AU

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

Haruka appraised herself in the mirror one last time. She looked dapper, but not too dapper. A reasonable dapper, a personable dapper. Or, she thought so at least. She swallowed hard and left the locker room. She needed this job, however much she doubted she’d do well– there wasn’t even an automotive section here.

The customer service desk was a drab affair, and the worker behind it looked neither personable or dapper.

“Er, hi.” Haruka rubbed her palms on her pants. “I was told to look for a Ms. Aino? It’s my first day.”

The worker sighed and picked up the desk phone. “Minako to customer service.”

Minutes passed. The worker said nothing. Haruka thought it best to follow suit.

“You must be Haruka.”

Whatever Haruka had expected in her manager, Minako Aino was not it. She was younger than Haruka by the looks of it, with long blonde hair and a variation on the uniform that looked like it should be drawn in a pin up calendar.

“You’re gonna do well here, I can tell.”

Haruka did not ask why she thought so. Haruka couldn’t quite find the words to say anything.

“Here in this fine establishment, we have two rules. One. Sell shit. Two. No hitting the customers. We used to only have one rule, but then my predecessor made us realize the need for rule number two.”

Haruka could not tell if she was being serious. Minako led her to the jewelry counter. “This is our domain.”

“Um, this isn’t where I thought they’d put me.”

Minako smiled. “My buddy who interviewed you knew this was your place. He likes to send me the genuine ones. Balances me out.”

“I see.”

Minako gave her a playful punch in the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much. We’re gonna get along great.”

Whatever she had implied about being insincere, Haruka found she believed her.

Haruka/Michiru (quelle surprise) Emergency Room AU

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

“You’ve got to stop doing shit like this.”

Minako rolled her eyes and shifted in the little hospital bed. “Oh come on, you heard the nurse. It’s not even broken, just strained.”

Haruka opened her mouth to protest, but the ER burst into a flurry of activity and noise as an ambulance arrived. A mess of green hair spilled over the edge of the gurney as it pushed through the ER doors. The woman’s face turned as it passed. Even pale from blood loss, she was beautiful. Her eyes met Haruka’s. 

She recognized her, the famous heiress from the magazines.

But that wasn’t what sent a jolt down her spine.

“Car crash,” growled one of the suited men who’d followed the woman in. He drew a curtain around the bed.

“But this–”

“The Kaiohs want to be very clear, this was a car crash.”

“Yes,” the doctor said, an edge in her voice. “Tell the press whatever you want, we’ll agree, but I need to know what really happened.”

“The truth?” 

Haruka could see the doctor’s shadow nod.

“Ms. Kaioh was in a terrible car accident.”

The man was soon escorted out. 

Haruka found herself determined to find out the real truth, what had happened to this poor woman with the beautiful eyes.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

And now we break from our usual programming for some Star Wars fluff, because I am Finn/Rey trash.

Summer Rain

~1000 words. 
Set after Rey returns with Luke. 
On AO3 and below the cut. 

Something warm on Finn’s shoulder breaks him from sleep. He shoots up. Touch still shocks him sometimes, when he isn’t prepared. Whenever he’s nudged awake by a person instead of ripped from dreams by a blaring alarm, a tingle of panic bursts in his stomach.

Tonight, though, it is Rey. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” she whispers.

“No, no, you didn’t.” A dumb lie, but he’s barely gotten to speak to her since she returned with Luke. She’s been in tactical meeting after tactical meeting, often behind closed doors. “What’s… uh, what’s up?” Ugh. It would be best to throw himself back under his blanket. She’d become a Jedi, General Leia’s new right-hand woman, and his first question is what’s up?

Rey, however, does not seem to mind. She takes his hand and leads him out of the barracks. “I have something to show you.”

“Is it a cool Jedi thing?”

“No, something much better.” She looks back with the smile he had not realized he’d missed quite so much.

They get to the outer hall and Finn begins to hear the taps and splatters of rain. She quietly uses the Force to open the door without the security code, and Finn almost protests going out. It is not a light rain. It pours from the sky in sheets, shaking the trees and drowning the grass. They will be soaked the second they step across the threshold.

Rey lets go of his hand and runs into it. Her clothes sink down on her body with the weight of water and her hair comes undone but she is spinning, smiling, laughing. She is so radiant that Finn cannot fathom that a rainbow does not form in her light.

“Have you ever seen something so wonderful?”

Finn cannot say that he has. He wonders how many times she has done this; if she made Luke put Jedi training on hold every time it rained. He hopes she has done it a hundred times and will do it a thousand more.

As soon as he joins her she takes him by the wrists and he is spinning and laughing too. The water is warm and the air warmer, thick with humidity and something much sweeter. He slides his hands so their fingers interlock. The moment stretches out; there is no war, no Jedi or Storm Troopers, just the two of them—two people, small and ordinary in the scope of the galaxy but miraculous all the same.

And then Finn’s foot slips on the wet grass. He lands on his back, not hard, but Rey’s face is full of fear.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Even as he sits up, her eyes are wide. “I only slipped.”

“I was so scared,” she says, and he realizes she’s talking about more than this moment. “I thought…”

He decides to match her honesty. “I thought you might not come back. Or that you would but not…”

“I never…”

“I always…”

They go quiet. She drops to her knees and wraps her arms around him. He holds on to her tightly. Muddy water is soaking through his pants, but he barely feels it alongside the way her chin presses into his shoulder.

“I didn’t want to leave you,” she finally breathes.

“But you came back. That’s what matters.”

He feels her smile. “Just like you did.” She pulls away, and he almost begs her to come back again. But she takes his face in her hands and kisses him on the forehead, as light as a breath of wind. He puts his hands over hers, a want filling his chest cavity with such weight he cannot move any more than that. She leans back in. They are nose to nose and forehead to forehead and the distance is too much and too little all at once. Finn has nothing to hide behind, no mask. He knows people do this, he has seen it all the time on base, but he had never imagined it could be so much and so terrifying.

Rey does not close the last bit of distance. Water runs down her face and sparkles in what little light comes from the base. “I don’t know what people say right now. There must be words I never learned.”

He wracks his mind for things he’s heard, but they are always whispers. “They don’t teach them to Storm Troopers either.”

The rain has clumped her eyelashes together, he notices as her eyes search his. “We’ll have to make our own.”

“Yes.” He closes his eyes and breathes. He can feel his pulse beneath her hands. “Rey.”

“Finn.”

When they kiss it is slow, shaky, but Finn starts to smile in spite of himself and Rey does too, until they finally pull away with small giggles. They each open their mouths to speak, but Finn doesn’t know what to say and neither does Rey, so they press their lips together again to voice the words they don’t have. It ends again in smiles. Finn cannot remember how to make his mouth form any other shape.

“We’re going to have to sneak our clothes into the laundry.”

Rey laughs. “I hadn’t thought about that.” She looks down at herself, at the water dripping from her shirt and the mud caking at her knees. “I’ve never tried sleeping in wet clothes.”

Finn laughs back. “It’s not fun, believe me.”

She takes his hand and helps him up. “Do you know the way?”

“The General has had me on laundry plenty.” Finn leads her towards the basement. “And knowing her, she’ll somehow feel it’s right to put me there tomorrow.”

“Is she being punished for something?” someone asks the General, shocked to see the new Jedi put on wash duty alongside the former Storm Trooper.

Leia looks down into the laundry room, where Rey and Finn scrub clothes back to back and fail to hide their smiles. “I’d hardly call it a punishment.” She feels a smile form on her own face. It was a pity, truly, that no one had ever had the guts to make a princess clean up the messes she and Han had made. From here, it looks to be half the fun.