Many years after the series ends, Naoji returns to Kuchen.
He remembered the scent of this air; it struck him far more deeply than the clothes or colors or sound of the language. The scent of large, fallen leaves and cool, slow water—he remembered this.
Mizuki reflects on their defeat and has an epiphany.
Hajime leaned back in his seat on the bus, staring into the vanishing point of space, deaf to the murmurs of the St. Rudolph team around him.
They had lost.
Yuuta takes over the tennis club; he and Kaneda talk about club politics and their senpai.
This captain thing wasn’t nearly as easy as Akazawa-senpai had made it look.
Mizuki studies the opposition, looking for the things he missed last time.
He was starting to think that it wasn’t his facts that had been wrong, exactly. They just hadn’t been enough, and he’d been missing some pieces.
Especially some of those strange pieces that changed every time he looked at them.
Mizuki comes across Yuuta practicing and they have words; and a match; and maybe another epiphany.
Using a shot that wore so hard on his body, Yuuta would never last three more years at this rate! What was the boy thinking? How was Hajime supposed to draw Yuuta back, year after next, if he went on like this?
Yuuta tries to decide how it’s going to be between he and Mizuki from now on.
This was the feeling he remembered, the feeling of driving right up to the edge of his strength and endurance and staring the limit down. The feeling of advancing.
After watching Regional finals, Yuuta and Mizuki both have a new range on their goals.
Hajime smiled; observing the tournaments seemed to be doing good things for Yuuta’s awareness of the mental game. That would be useful.
Yuuta plays some with Fuji and they wind up discussing Mizuki.
And Mizuki-san looked at him differently, too, which Yuuta wasn’t going to say because he didn’t know how to describe the difference. At least not so that Aniki wouldn’t have a heart attack.
After watching the National semifinals, Mizuki wrestles with his ambitions and fears—at least until Yuuta gives him a push.
Hajime’s mouth quirked. What a spot to put himself in, a sensible, logical person agreeing to go forward alongside this firebrand and push both of them to the edge and beyond.
Yuuta puts some work into repairing Mizuki’s reputation among the St. Rudolph tennis club.
“I didn’t do that with any special skill or talent,” he said, flatly. “I could do it because I’ve been working my ass off, according to a training schedule Mizuki-san made.” He paused to let that sink in, and to catch his breath. “Now. Do you want to be able to do that?”
Yuuta and Mizuki train with each other over the winter and find their way toward an understanding.
Hajime’s hands were cold.
He didn’t bother telling himself it was because they were playing outside in the dead of winter. He knew better, and he did try not to lie to himself, at least.
Watari finally succeeds in becoming a woman, and Tatsumi finally finds out why he wanted to so badly. And why Enma is so upset about it.
Watari—and he rather liked Yuma’s suggestion of Yutako, it was cute—was charmed by how courtly Tatsumi was suddenly being.
Watari finally succeeds in becoming a woman, and Tatsumi finally finds out why he wanted to so badly. And why Enma is so upset about it.
He suspected he’d get a lot worse than a docked paycheck if he was found out, but the tightness around Watari’s eyes and the tension of her mouth were more than he could ignore. He liked most of his co-workers, even when they were being idiots or breaking expensive things, but Watari…
Watari was the only one who laughed at him.
Relena doesn’t like feeling helpless, and decides to do something about it.
Her earliest memory was of fire.
Mizuki comes to see Yuuta play; so does Fuji; a little silent competition ensues.
He’d never really taught Yuuta anything about managing people; he’d never had to.
Yuuta is down, after Nationals, and Mizuki prods him out of his end-of-the-world gloom.
Yuuta stopped short, looking out over St. Christopher’s courts, which they had come out at the back of. “Oh,” he said, very quietly, eyes wide.
Soi is worn out from work and Yoruichi comes to visit.
“Your hair will snarl if you leave it like that,” Yoruichi-sama told her, plucking the half-unraveled braid out of Soi’s fingers. Soi blushed a little, but sat meekly while Yoruichi-sama undid her hair with swift, warm hands. “What’s going on that’s got you so worn out?”
Relena is in training and Zechs is distressed. In the background, Treize and Barton plan.
Treize watched with some amusement as Zechs paced back and forth through his office, scowling at thin air, long hair fanning out at every turn. "I’d say you should check in on how her training is going and set your mind at ease," he offered, "but somehow, knowing you lovely sister, I feel sure she’s threatened you with a dire fate if you do."
"She told me she’d get a training suit and step on me if she saw me," Zechs confirmed, glumly. "I really don’t know where she got her temper from."
Loosely based on the Five Stages of Love prompt. Yukimura and Sanada, over the years.
Seiichi nodded toward the rest of the club. "What do you think?"
Sanada crossed his arms, gazing across the courts again. "I’m glad you’re here."
Post-canon. In the wake of revelations about Touda and the Yellow Emperor, Touda comes to Tsuzuki to begin again.
Touda walked the halls of Tenkou wearing only his leather leggings and armlets, the long fall of his hair, and a collar and pair of stiff cuffs buckled snugly around each wrist.
Soubi’s pov when Seimei first claims him.
Warning: Contains mutilation and very questionable consent.
Did his Sacrifice want him to become… something else?
A final confrontation between Seimei and Ritsuka requires Ritsuka and Soubi to finally make their choices.
“I didn’t understand,” Ritsuka told him simply. “You surprised me. I didn’t understand any of this.” His wave took in the building around them and the pair behind him. “But I think… I think maybe I do now.”
Ritsuka won’t move out so Soubi moves in. Everyone involved has to readjust their lives.
"Ritsuka." Soubi touched his cheek, eyes dark. "I can’t just leave you here unprotected. I can’t. Don’t ask me to, please." He was perfectly willing to beg for this, except that didn’t always work with Ritsuka. A tiny part of him didn’t think that was fair.
Daisuke and Satoshi talk about painting and destiny.
Hiwatari-kun smiled slightly, fingers brushing the edge of the canvas. "No. You’re a true Niwa."
"But…" Daisuke looked up at him. "No Niwa has ever painted."
Hiwatari-kun snorted. "Niwas have always pursued beauty for the sake of beauty."
Alexiel finally returns, to the interest of all and apprehension of some—particularly Lucifer.
Belial’s estimation of Alexiel rose. Maybe this would fail to be a catastrophe after all.
Hisagi gets a chance to speak with Kensei after the final battle. Written for Porn Battle, with the prompt: Kensei/Shuuhei, second meeting.
Shuuhei flushed as Muguruma’s brows rose, and he glanced down. "I remembered you," he said, quietly. "I’m here because I wanted to live up to what I remembered."
After it’s over, Hiruma tries again to convince Kid of the value of wanting things. Written for Porn Battle, with the prompt: Hiruma/Kid, dreams.
Hiruma pushed away from the wall and glared. "It works if you fucking stay with it. Are you going to spend your whole life half-assed?"
Kid looked away.
Hiruma’s growl didn’t surprise him, but the hand in his hair did, pulling him around and down to meet Hiruma’s mouth on his.
Sohryu frets over Tsuzuki’s safety and does what he can to protect him. Written for Porn Battle, with the prompt: Souryuu/Tsuzuki, protecting what’s most precious.
He was a fool, Sohryu decided as he swept Tsuzuki up, folding his master in strong arms and soft layers of cloth, safe the way he always should be.
An outsider samurai visits, looking for a challenge. Echizen
gives it to him and comes a little closer to figuring things out.
They met in the training yard.
"The kid again, hm?" Akutsu looked down at Ryouma with cold eyes.
Ryouma shrugged. "We didn’t finish, last time."
Ryuuki is still pining for Shuurei and Ensei talks sense to him. In the wake of this, Seiran makes his final choice of loyalty.
"Of course she loves you." He leaned back on the pavilion bench and passed the sake bottle back over to his Emperor. "Thing is… you’re asking her to not love all of you."
Just after their arrival in Nihon, Tomoyo-hime prompts Fai to get his head sorted out about Kurogane.
"Since when…" he whispered, not expecting an answer even if Kurogane had been awake.
And so he started when Tomoyo-hime murmured, "Probably since the very beginning."
Post Future arc. Seven snapshots as Tsuna’s Family swear their loyalty to him.
“You need to kiss Tsuna’s ring."
"What?!"
On the anniversary of something that doesn’t happen, Tsuna’s Guardians gather around him.
Yamamoto was the first one who came, tapping brisk but quiet on the door and slipping inside, shadows falling across his face.
Filling in missing scenes of Hibari’s training with Dino, and how it might have convinced him to Tsuna’s side.
And just who did Cavallone think he was, to judge Kyouya’s skill? He wouldn’t even fight properly, all avoidance and evasion.
Still. The fact that he could evade and avoid spoke its own language, and a far more convincing one than the flowery nonsense about frogs and wells. As long as Cavallone showed up, Kyouya would fight him.
Now if he could just make the man fight seriously.
Tsuna gets taken off to Italy to get better acquainted with the Vongola. While he’s there, he has to come to some kind of terms with Xanxus. Kind of, sort of, mental Tsuna/Xanxus.
"I can’t believe you told Kaa-san this was overseas study," Tsuna grumbled as he was frog-marched to his doom.
Well, all right, not really frog-marched, his dad had his hands in his pockets and Reborn wasn’t tall enough, but the effect was the same.
"It is overseas," his dad said, cheerily. "And it’s definitely higher education."
Takes place just before Breaking of the Day: Omake. As Tsuna prepares to inherit the family, he comes to Xanxus with a condition.
"Do you plan on staying with the Vongola family?"
The hot eyes narrowed on him. "The hell are you saying?"
Hibari seeks out a rematch with Mukuro. Mukuro has his own agenda for this.
Two days after the battles for the Vongola rings were over, Kyouya cornered Sawada and asked who that Chrome girl was, and why she carried what looked remarkably like Mukuro’s staff.
And then he went hunting Dino Cavallone.
This came out of me wondering how Hibari could have been convinced to identify himself with the mafia. Dino finally figures out a way to get through to him.
"He really would do well among us. It’s too bad he doesn’t know anything about our history, I think he’d actually approve."
Post-canon. Yukimura has recovered and Fuji has left tennis. They cross paths over art and weave a new acquaintance.
"What are you thinking?"
It was not the kind of question Seiichi expected to hear out of the blue, but he recognized this voice and so it surprised him less. "Fuji."
As Tsuna grows into his position, his conflicts with Xanxus escalate again and finally break.
Tsuna sat at an oval table with the advisors and lieutenants so newly inherited and tried to feel leader-like. It still wasn’t easy.
The Ninth helps Xanxus find someone he can bear to be.
It wasn’t that Tsuna didn’t trust the Ninth, because of course he did. And it wasn’t that he didn’t think the Ninth could handle Xanxus, even, or especially, now, because he did, really. It was just… well, his dad had made him solemnly swear he’d make sure the Ninth didn’t overstrain himself.
And that was really the only reason Tsuna kept just happening to pass Xanxus’ rooms or the balcony beyond them to check on them every couple days.
Xanxus finally hears what Tsuna means when he says Xanxus is one of his Family.
Gokudera leaned an elbow on the back of Tsuna’s chair and chuckled softly. "You sure have a way with people like that, boss."
As the new Strahl are inaugurated Nicholas watches the upsets among his fellows.
Nicholas had seen a younger student thrown from his horse, earlier that year. The boy’s leg had been broken. He’d sat and stared at it, face perfectly blank while everyone else ran around shouting.
He hadn’t screamed until they’d moved him.
Nicholas didn’t think Lui would ever scream. He respected that. But he didn’t like the way both Helmut and Camus were watching Lui lately.
Years have passed. Nicholas is a member of the Strahl, and finding that people simply don’t understand what’s between he and Ludwig.
He didn’t know why more people didn’t understand Lui. All you had to do was take everything he said and turn it thirty degress, but practically no one around here noticed. The best and brightest, in his considered opinion, could be pretty dim.
Nicholas has been appointed to a post he likes, with a uniform he doesn’t.
"I don’t care what our historical ties to the Magyar are. I don’t care how symbolically significant it is. I am not wearing that lavender velvet top hat!"
Nicholas corners Lui about his trust issues.
"Orpheus knows what to do with loyalty," Nicholas growled. "You could learn a few more things from him."
Lui looked away. "I doubt that."
"Hah! The problem isn’t even arrogance, or wanting all the control is it? Loyalty is the one thing that scares you, is what it is," Nicholas threw at him.
Crossover of Saiunkoku Monogatari and Fushigi Yuugi. Shuurei has a friend and advisor who is apart from the capital’s politics; Yui has a place for her abilities and a lover who reminds her of them.
Yui curled up on the bed, one hand propping up her head, and watched Shuurei pace the room, sleeping robe fluttering around her ankles.
"And then! And then! He said we couldn’t do anything about Haruki, even if he is taking bribes, because he has a patron from the Heki clan, and I should know that the Heki are going to be the deciding voice in the land redistribution this year!" Her brown eyes snapped like sparks; Yui felt she might warm her hands at that fire of Shuurei’s, melt the ice out of her bones, where it had settled years ago.
It is time for Timoteo to choose his Guardians, and he’s determined to do things his way. This project owes its inspiration to jetsam/thephoenixboy, who correctly guessed which fic was mine in the first round of khr_undercover, and requested a fic featuring Timoteo and his Guardians as her reward. I don’t believe she quite expected her request to spawn an entire humongous arc, but what can I say? It was a provocative prompt! *grin*
For a character guide, see the appendix (warning: spoilers for the arc!)
“Is it already time to be thinking of that?” Timoteo asked, to make time for his mind to race ahead and turn over the possibilities. “You’re still very young, Mother.”
“How kind of you to say,” she said, eyes glinting, not without humor. “I said that we were ready to confirm you as my heir, not that I was ready to step down. Don’t get too far above yourself.”
In which the Vongola Ninth’s Mist and Rain reach an agreement, and establish a pattern that will carry them forward. This is set about ten years before “Blood Will Tell.” Timoteo has been the Ninth for a little under a decade at this point. This is a sidestory for the arc, focusing pretty much entirely on two of the original characters, and is not necessary to the main thrust of A House Divided—but it may make some character motivations make more sense later.
Gianni may have been the Vongola Ninth’s right hand, and his Mist Guardian besides, but he wasn’t too proud to admit it when he was tired. And tonight, he was tired.
There comes a time in every young man’s life when he must seek his fortune. Sawada Iemitsu is off to seek his.
Sawada Iemitsu couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t known that he was—or could have been, if he’d wanted to be—the heir to a great mafia empire.
