Fics, Memes, and Drabbles

[wightknight]

A collection of all the writing I've done for my characters over the years in memes.  Also a place to request a fic.  Respond wih one of your characters, one of mine, and a one-sentence or one-word prompt and I'll write a short fic.

Fics by Character
Lucas | Mother 3 (9)
Yuki Nagato | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (4)
Susan Sto Helit | Discworld (17)
Grimsley | Pokemon (3)
Beast Boy | Teen Titans (1)
Ivan | Golden Sun (1)
Palom | Final Fantasy IV (1)
Miscellaneous | Characters Never/No Longer Played (2)

Comments

Susan/Ukraine | High School AU | AU Meme 7/25/11

[inthebones]

She had no friends.

Ukraine rolled this thought over in her mind a few times before nodding firmly. Yes. She had no friends. As far as she could tell, the girl spent all her time holed up in the library with textbooks, doing her utmost to pretend the world around her didn’t exist. Ukraine couldn’t recall ever seeing her sitting in a classroom, or doing homework, or speaking to any of the other students at all. No. When one thought of Susan Sto Helit, the mental image of a severe girl in black reading silently alone sprang solely and immediately to mind.

The curious thing was, she didn’t seem to care. And nobody else did, either. She wasn’t a social outcast, exactly, since nobody seemed to care enough about her to cast her out from anything, and ‘loner’ didn’t seem to apply, either. She wasn’t alone, more than she just… didn’t need anybody else. It was a bit difficult to put into words, but somehow, Susan Sto Helit was the only human being she knew who was absolutely and completely fulfilled simply by being Susan Sto Helit. She wouldn’t have minded at all being the last human being left on Earth.

Yes, Susan Sto Helit didn’t have any friends. She didn’t need any friends, and perhaps, she wouldn’t even be able to define the word ‘friend’ if she was asked.

That was about to change.

“Hello.”

For a moment or two, there was no response. She suspected the last time anyone had said hello had been two months ago after that fire drill in which Susan had been left in the library; somehow, everyone had forgotten she’d been in the same room when the thing had gone off. There was a brief flicker of confusion in the pale girl’s eyes before she lifted them off page one hundred and forty seven of Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations.

“Hello.” The voice was cool. Though stated firmly, the inflection of the tone was such that it was easy to ascertain her actual meaning. ‘Hello and is there a reason you’re talking to me’.

“I see you reading by yourself in the library every day. I thought you might want someone to sit with.” From the raised eyebrow, Susan had never even considered wanting this. “My name is Ukraine. Like the country.”

Though cheerful, Ukraine felt a vague sense of unease as the girl directed a rather hard gaze through her. She briefly expected Susan to stand and move to a different table, but the girl lowered her head back to the textbook soon enough. Susan flipped a page. She was at one hundred and forty eight.

“Yes. I know.” She didn’t say anything more. Taking this as some measure of acceptance, Ukraine smiled brightly and began to prepare for sixth period algebra.

The routine became well established over the period of the next few months. Ukraine would announce herself with a friendly ‘hello’, Susan would nod, and they’d get to reading. In late April, Ukraine’s older brother left his football equipment at home and forced his sister to run home for it, missing sixth and seventh periods. Before Ukraine could manage a ‘hello’ the next day, Susan had already begun to speak.

“Were you ill?”

Ukraine shook her head. “I needed to go home early.” And then, after a pause, it seemed appropriate to say, “Sorry.”

Susan accepted this with a nod. “Be careful. You wouldn’t want to fall ill so close to the end of the semester.”

Ukraine could only manage a slightly astonished, “You, too” before Susan returned to her book. That was the longest conversation they had.

On the last day of school, Ukraine approached Susan, who, apparently ignorant of the fact that it was time to begin forgetting everything she’d learned over the past year, still sat reading in the library. A gift was exchanged, Ukraine wished her friend a happy vacation, and Susan offered her library companion a thank you.

That summer, it spread over the grapevine that the Sto Helits had died in a terrible automobile accident. Susan, the poor girl, was to live with her grandfather in the South, and although Ukraine found the right phone number as soon as she could manage, the only response was an automated voice message. ‘This number has been disconnected’.

And that was the end of that.

Two years later, after collecting her diploma, Ukraine returned home to find her sister suspiciously examining a package that had arrived in the mail. The announcement that it was for Ukraine was made with some mock astonishment before it was passed off. Undeterred, she brought the box up to her room, unwrapped and opening it carefully. She blinked. It was a copy of Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations. As she flipped through it absentmindedly, two things fell out. One was a card.

Dear Ukraine,
Congratulations and thank you.
Susan Sto Helit

The other was a bookmark at page one hundred and forty seven. Penciled on the back in faded, two-year-old lead were the words

This is where I met my first friend.