Relationship meme!
May. 21st, 2012 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikkenekoI'm reviving this meme, but with a slight twist: Instead of asking me about one specific character, ask me about a relationship. It doesn't have to be a romantic or sexual relationship (although it can be;) any two people who know each other and have a history. Kurogane+Syaoran, Fai+Sakura, Yuuko+Watanuki, anything you like... and I will tell you my Thoughts On
Name me a pair of characters from one of my fandoms (GW, TRC, or FMA), and I will tell you:
* How I feel about their relationship
* The high point and the low point of their relationship
* My unpopular opinion about their relationship
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with these two in canon
* Something about them I consider true, though it's just head canon
* A ficlet (100~500 words) of them having a quiet moment together
Fire away, although as per usual I add the disclaimer that if I think you're trollin' me (say, asking about Muraki and Tsuzuki from Yami no Matsuei) I will decline to fill the prompt.
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Date: 2012-05-24 05:13 am (UTC)Fai started out not giving a fuck about any of the others, and with more justification for it than Kurogane -- but he wasn't able to stay aloof for long. And Syaoran's unhappiness and determination quickly won him over. Fai acted as a mentor, friend and protector for Syaoran -- not always as obviously so as Kurogane, but in very important ways. I think I best remember the moment from Piffle country where Fai gives Syaoran some very wise advice on changing the future that Syaoran really needed to hear.
2) Low point -- I'm gonna say the point where Syaoran ripped Fai's eye out and ate it.
High point -- when Syaoran died, and Fai's eye was returned, and Fai said "It would have been much much better if you had come home." After everything Syaoran has done -- and done to HIM -- all Fai wanted was to have their family back.
DAMN. I CRIED IRL. Kinda tearing up now ngl.
3) I don't actually know whether this is an unpopular opinion or not, but basically here goes:
Tsubasa is not Syaoran. His relationship with Fai, and vice versa, does not figure in to Fai's relationship with Syaoran. Although Fai seems to like Tsubasa well enough, I think he does so out of a feeling familial obligation -- wishing to look after the son of the boy he loved. He might have come to love Tsubasa in his own right given time together, but they will never be the same person in Fai's heart.
This is one of the reasons I honestly have trouble with the TRC ending, and it's a small source of misgivings when I read post-series fic which conflates the two of them -- having Fai treat Tsubasa as though he's an extension of (or the same as) Syaoran, referring to events that happened when Tsubasa wasn't present or likes and interests that Syaoran has that Tsubasa doesn't share.
4) Well, I'm not sure this counts because Syaoran did get a chance to make amends for what he did to Fai; he returned his eye and said he was sorry, and they got a chance to say goodbye as Syaoran died. I guess I wish that Fai could have met Syaoran has his adult, reborn self; so he could see the man that his foster-son would become, and the family he would build on his own. Maybe they still can, damn it, if Syaoran finds a way to restore his parents! But it doesn't happen in fanfic often. Or ever. :\
5) I don't really have any special headcanons for these two.
6)
In this world, Kurogane's Maganyan came in a series of hastily printed books on cheap paper and cramped typefont -- penny dreadfuls, the locals called them, and the name was fair. Kurogane had been disgusted to find that the story he'd followed from world to world was told here entirely in text, with hardly any illustrations at all -- but there were other ongoing stories, many serials bound together in a single volume in an attempt to convince people to buy each collection as they came out. And certain other members of their party, at least, were hooked.
"Waaaaaiii, waaaaaiii! New issue, new issue!" Fai cheered as he bounced off through the house, his voice floating back down the stairs. Syaoran shook his head in bemusement and followed, leaving the remainder of the shopping supplies on the table for the time being. None of it would spoil.
In this world it was common for whole families to sleep together in one room, and so they hadn't paired off into separate rooms as they often did. Instead Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai all shared the enormous wooden four-poster bed, and Sakura got the smaller truckle bed that slid out from underneath the furniture leviathan. It wasn't quite what Syaoran's propriety would have demanded -- he still felt uncomfortable to share a bedroom with Sakura, whatever the circumstances -- but a series of light folding screens at least afforded the princess some privacy.
Fai was in bedroom when Syaoran got there, bouncing on the big bed's fluffy mattress. Syaoran could understand the temptation -- the bolster was truly massive, and the wooden frame beneath more than sturdy enough to resist a little jumping. Still, Syaoran was struck again by the disparity sometimes between how old Fai looked and how old he acted.
"The Legend of Korra" picks up on page ninety-one," Syaoran said, pulling the heavy wooden chair around with a scrape so that his back would be to the window. "Should I just skip to there?"
Fai stopped bouncing and sat up in the bed, hair and feathers floating around him and a bright smile on his face. "Yay!" he cheered.
Syaoran cleared his throat, reached for a tumbler of water sitting on the bedside table, and took a drink to moisten his throat. He thumbed through the volume to find the desired spot, and began to read. Fai settled down as the story unfolded, his legs crossed on the duvet and his hands resting in his lap, back smoothly arched forwards. His eyes were half-closed, only a sliver of glowing blue showing in the afternoon light through the window, as he listened.
It was sad, Syaoran reflected as his voice continued on autopilot, that through all the worlds they'd passed through they'd never found one that spoke anything like Fai's language, nor any written characters he could read. Syaoran knew that Fai was a magician, and knew that he must have studied hard and read widely in order to achieve that status. But he rather thought that for Fai, reading wasn't just a method of study. The older man always had a slightly wistful look on his face when he gazed down at a page he couldn't read; the way his hands rested so lightly and lovingly on the book bindings spoken of a lifelong love affair, now broken.
Syaoran knew a lot of languages, but he couldn't teach them all to Fai; it would take a lifetime, and there wasn't much point when they changed worlds (and languages) every week or so. It felt strange to be reading fairy stories aloud, like a parent to a child. But at least -- he thought as he glanced up from the page, taking in Fai's half-entranced expression -- at least he could give this much back, to the man who'd been so much a father to him in return.
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Date: 2012-09-11 06:31 pm (UTC)