First Five Stories

For this 25 days of fic thing I've been writing short stories. Here are the first five.

1.            Mistletoe

(Series: Ouran High School Host Club. Character: Kyouya)

It was December 8, and it was already Christmas. Fa la la la la ha ha ha ha. Where other people’s houses twinkled and smelled of gingerbread, Kyouya’s was boring, clean, and just a little bit cold.

It was kind of depressing, living in America. Back in Japan, Christmas was a day for lovers to run around being silly and the Christmas themed Host Club events would turn a profit, so Kyouya didn’t mind too much.

But ever since Haruhi came to Boston to study and it was decided that the entirety of the Host Club would be tagging along, Kyouya’s days had been much less profitable.

Mori and Hunny had their college classes to attend to, Tamaki was spending all his free time with Haruhi, and the twins’ excursions around different parts of the US were not all too interesting. Kyouya wondered why he had ever moved. He supposed his friends were important to him. But he could have easily communicated with them via email. Without his father or older brothers here, it was difficult to make business connections (most American businessmen did not see a teenager as an equal). So Kyouya had taken to being just a little bit lonely and wandering around town at night like an idiot with no sense of purpose. Something was missing…

On this particular night, Kyouya found himself wandering the aisles of a Wal-Mart, regarding all the cheap trinkets with an utterly unmotivated furrowing of the brow. Who would buy such a cheap shovel or such worthless gloves? He had found his way to the gardening department. Even the plants here looked cheap.

“Are you finding everything alright?”

Kyouya looked up to see a young woman, wearing a shirt that indicated her status as an employee. Her hair was dark brown, and her eyes showed a hint of nervousness.

He could read her like a book, and it was the kind that put you to sleep. He really had no need to make a good impression here, but it was a sort of habit by now, so he put on a cheerful smile and nodded.

“Yes, I expect I’ll be fine.” He said.

The girl’s hands were touching, and she fidgeted slightly. Clearly, she had been working up the nerve to talk to him. What silliness.

“Great, um… feel free to ask if you need help later.” With that, she dashed off, quite likely embarrassed that things hadn’t gone according to her plan.

What was she expecting, anyway? For him to ask for help he didn’t need just because she was cute? Ha. Try Tamaki. Oh wait, Tamaki had a girlfriend now. He was too busy for other girls. Even Hunny and Mori had girlfriends, and Kaoru too. Hikaru and Kyouya were the only single ones left. Hikaru had challenged that he’d get a girlfriend before Kyouya did. This in no way compelled Kyouya to look for love. It wasn’t the sort of thing one looked for, he supposed. Love would find him at the right time…

He shook his head violently. No need to think of such things.

The employee girl was still watching him. Usually, it wouldn’t bother him—he was used to girls sneaking glances and giggling—but right now it was really getting on his nerves. How dare she assume the right to think about him? With that timid nervousness all over her face? What right did she have to be so cute?! This was not going to happen. Before he did anything stupid, he’d leave a bad impression on her and forget that this trip to a commoner’s market ever happened. What a terrible idea; he couldn’t believe Tamaki liked these places so much.

Resolved to ruin both their nights due to his own flustered feelings, Kyouya grabbed a bundle of the ugliest plant he could find, and marched it to the desk.

“I’m ordering a bouquet.” He said.

The girl was obviously nervous that he was even talking to her, but she also had a look of confusion—and was that amusement?!—on her face as she rung it up. “S-strange choice for a bouquet, sir,” she said.

He could not decipher if she was trying not to laugh or trying not to appear ditzy.

He watched her as she walked around the counter to get the plastic sleeves. She had to hop a bit to get one. Much too short for his liking. Too cute. Too distracting.

He stopped that train of thought right in its tracks (where else would trains be, really?) and focused on the matter at hand, which was paying a trivial amount for this bundle of ugly weeds.

“Do you want to attach a message to this order, sir?” the girl asked, pen in hand.

“No.” Kyouya said, setting the bills on the counter.

“That will be all for you today?”

Holy cow, this girl talked a lot.

“That’s all.”

“Here you go, then.” The girl handed him the arrangement—how in the world had she made it look decent?!—and he handed it right back to her.

“Is it not good enou-“

“It’s for you,” he said, “thanks for your help.” There, it was done, he’d given her the worst kind of gift possible, she would never want to look at him again and okay, why

in the heck

was she kissing him?!

Soon enough, it was over, but maybe not soon enough. Kyouya was for once dumbfounded.

The girl made a startled noise as she realized he had no idea what he’d done.

“M-m-mistletoe!” she stammered, and that train from earlier got un-stopped and slammed into Kyouya like a ton of bricks, or actually, like a train, because that’s what it was, just as he remembered that mistletoe had some stupid romantic connotation and so THAT’S what it looked like and that train ran Kyouya over because I don’t like Kyouya.

2.            Hot Chocolate

(Series: Doctor Who. Character: Martha Jones)

“Daaaaaanng, girl! That’s some HOT chocolate! I bet you’re really sweet, too.”

Martha ignored this idiot’s attempt to pick her up. While it was true that she was attractive and her skin was a rich brown, she did not particularly enjoy being likened to a cup of cocoa by someone she didn’t even know. Somewhere deep down, she felt a little complimented, but it was also late at night and the street was kind of empty. Come on, Doctor. Get here soon. Before this creepy guy tries anything.

Martha’s eyes lightened as the TARDIS began materializing. She took two steps toward it before it faded again. Her phone rang.

“I can’t land the TARDIS!” Martha noticed that the Doctor sounded like he was having a bit too much fun amidst his panic. “I have to do some repairs before I get you. Don’t wait up for me.”

Martha hung up, sighing. She had been planning to make some nice dinner for just the two of them. She let the grocery bags fall five inches to the ground and sighed again.

“Stood up by your date, darlin’?” That weirdo hadn’t left.

Just then, a pirate came and knocked him out.

“Name’s Jack Sparrow.”

Martha was quite taken with him and became a pirate too and traveled the world with Jack and forgot all about the Doctor forever.

3.            Snow

(Series: Case Closed and the character is Kaito with my OC if you squint.)

Matches fizzled in the snow for a short moment. Her yard was littered with them. White snow, black ends of burnt and now soggy matches. White cape, white snow, white hat, black shoes, black match, black braid. It was cold but there was a fire between them that never quite died in the winter.

4.            Candy Canes

(Series: Homestuck. Characters: Terezi and Karkat.)

TEREZI, PUT THAT AWAY. IT IS RIDICULOUS.

Terezi was testing a new cane. It was red and white like her usual one, but the delicious candy red twisted all the way to its handle. The best part was that it was actually candy. A candy cane! The concept! Apparently this was a commonplace item for humans in the winter, though traditionally much smaller. It was literally the best thing, why couldn’t Karkat see that?

TH3R3 1S NO W4Y 1’M PUTT1NG 1T 4W4Y, K4RK4T,

1N F4CT, YOU SHOULD G3T ON3 TOO. Terezi grinned in a way that would have seemed maniacal on anyone else, and maybe it was maniacal, but it was Terezi, so it was not unusual. She also gestured to a large bag of the candy canes.

I’M NOT USING A PATHETIC HUMAN SWEET AS A CANE. NO. I DON’T EVEN NEED A CANE.

Terezi wasn’t feeling like an argument with Karkat right now, so she didn’t reply and took a luscious, long lick of her new toy. It was minty fantastic.

Suddenly, there were urgent matters to discuss on the R41NBOW RUMPUS P4RTYTOWN. So Terezi left.

After she was gone, Karkat reached for one of the candy canes and took a little lick. No one would have to know…

5.            Christmas Tree

(Series: Phineas and Ferb. Character: Candace)

Candace gaped at the monstrosity in her own backyard. It was a two hundred thousand foot Christmas tree! (It was literally a Christmas tree made of two hundred thousand fake feet.) “Mooooooooooooooom!” The word rolled off her tongue quite instinctively. It was the same as every summer day. Candace eyed a particular spot where the colored lights caught one of the plastic toenails just right… This tree was actually kind of hypnotic. She walked, dazed, toward it, until her mother actually came.

“Oh, good heavens!” Her mother cried, dropping the bowl of brownie batter. But her horror soon wore off too, just like everyone else who saw it. Soon enough there were thousands upon thousands of people staring blankly at this enormous mound of false feet. It was so… so… moving.

It was literally moving. It fell over. It buried them. Each person got fifty feet of their own (there were 4000  of them there exactly), so they planted them and grew fifty feet and became the tallest group of people ever and were outcasts of society and Phineas and Ferb got back from the moon and were frightened because they had not been the perpetrators this time.

WHO HAD MADE THE TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOT CHRISTMAS TREE?!