fic: Location (Faeries' Landing, Pain/Charon, PG-13)

[misura.livejournal.com]

Title: Location
Author: misura
Rating: PG-13 for setting
Warnings: None.
Summary: There was a time and a place for most things, in Charon's opinion, but when the place looked like this, the time ought to be 'never'.
A/N: A shortie. (Two days late, due to a loose wire.)


The room seemed to be decorated in shades of red and pink by someone who had utterly lacked taste or sense. Charon looked around and tried very hard not to lose his temper - losing his temper with nobody but Pain around tended to lead to only one thing, and it was the exact thing Charon had no intention of doing in a place like this.

"Nice, isn't it?"

It had to be a plot, Charon decided, feeling his resolve beginning to crumble already. No doubt Pain had chosen the tackiest, most tasteless room this place had to offer, knowing full well how Charon would react, or be tempted to react, at any rate.

"Charming," he said. The roses in the vase on the nightstand were fake. Strangely enough, someone seemed to have watered them.

"There's a bathroom, too," said Pain.

With heart-shaped bars of soap, Charon had no doubt; all the pillows on the bed (and there were quite a lot of them) were heart-shaped, in addition to being red, pink or something in between, of course.

"You seem to know your way around here." And he'd meant for that to come out a lot less prickly than it had. If Pain chose to dally around in places like this one while on Earth, it was nobody's business but his own; Charon had made it quite clear that he had no expectations whatsoever in regards to Pain's fidelity, and although Pain had joked about Charon having an affair with his Secretary (who was, if anything, completely smitten with Pain, the poor idiot), he'd seemed relieved at Charon's declaration.

"Oh, I've been here before, once or twice," Pain explained airily, not appearing to have noticed Charon's tone of voice, or perhaps simply choosing to pretend he hadn't.

Charon managed to bite back an inquiry as to the company Pain had been in those 'one or two' times he'd been here before. The curtains were red with a motif of little pink hearts.

"If you're a regular customer, you can save up for a weekend-special at a hot spring. Every time you visit here or in one of the other hotels of this chain, you get a stamp - collect twenty stamps and you can go soak all weekend at no charge at all, including all the food and drink you want. Pretty neat, isn't it?"

Hot springs were one thing one couldn't find in Avalon, and the main attraction that drew faeries to Earth. Several of the wizards were trying to figure out why, but it was expected that their investigations would take at least another decade, after which it'd probably be another hundred years before anyone would come up with an idea as to how Avalon might get a hot spring of its own.

"Indeed? How many more stamps do you need?" Charon was proud of the casualness of that question, and the way he'd phrased it so as not to ask how many times Pain had been here already, with someone not Charon.

"Oh, some." Pain set his staff to lean against a wall, frowning as it refused to keep standing.

"How many?" Charon snapped, then closed his eyes and counted to ten - a little too late, perhaps, but better late than never.

When he opened his eyes again, Pain was looking at him, not yet having answered Charon's question. For a moment, neither of them spoke, then Pain grinned and asked "Are you jealous?" at the same time that Charon felt obliged to point out that he was most definitely not.

"I'm not jealous," Charon repeated firmly. "I'm simply - "

"Nineteen," said Pain. "Nineteen more stamps to go before I can take a trip to an exclusive hot spring where nobody's going to look at me funny for wanting to wash my boyfriend's back."

Charon looked around the room one more time, trying hard to find something appealing in it.

"I think I still have that book with '101 Spells to Redecorate Your Bedroom for Just One Night' somewhere." Mainly, Charon decided, it was a matter of colour; if he got rid of the pink and red, and then did something about the heart-theme, the room might come close to being decent enough to spend a night in. The furniture would have to go, too, of course; maybe he could work out a way to teleport his own down here.

"Max is going to have a fit if he hears you actually used his gift for something."

Comments

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

I loved every little part of this. Loved how Charon was trying not to lose his temper (and what it would have lead to if he had - hee!), loved the overly tacky nature of the room. Loved how we see just a touch of vulnerability from Charon over Pain's flirty behavior with others and the way Pain totally plays on it. When Charon finally snaps out "How many?" it's the perfect conclusion of everything you've built up, followed by a very nice 'awww' moment. Although, I've got this image of Charon using that book with the intentions of creating perfectly normal rooms, only to find out that Max can be just as creative as Pain ...

(sorry for the late reply, I took a tiny little break from both reading and writing fan fiction to try and sort my head out a little bit)

[misura.livejournal.com]

Pain - I think we almost exchanged comments about this once already (well, about Charon's reaction to him, anyway) but in my head, he seems to swing between two kind-of opposites. In one version, Pain is basically a harmless flirt (he flirts with anything not wearing a skirt, but that's all he does) and Charon good-naturedly puts up with it, because they both know that when it comes down to it, Charon's the only person Pain truly loves. In another version, Pain does more than flirt, and Charon basically resigns himself to accepting that there's a beautiful friendship between him and Pain, with occasional sex (which Charon isn't interested enough in to want with anyone except Pain, while Pain's a bit more ... hot-blooded?).

Max ... he's hard to read, I feel - I mean, for all that he (pretends to?) freak out whenever Pain makes a pass at him, he's obviously fond of him, and I don't see Pain as the kind of person who'd deliberately make a friend uneasy by (pretending to?) hit on him. I definitely do see him as the kind of guy to provide the gag-gift at a party though.

This is the prompt that got written two times, because I didn't like the plot I came up with the first time around and so ended up writing something else.

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

I can see both options as well, however I have such a soft spot for them together that even under the second option I hope they eventually realise the error of their ways and end up together ^_^. Interstingly enough, I can't really see Charon being interested enough in anyone else either. I used to think that the series was setting up something (platonic or no) between Charon and Oreadia because they have a very interesting relationship. There is obviously a lot of respect there between them, which is strange given the fact that Ordeadia pretty much hates everyone and Charon's friendship with Pain (plus the fact that HE has very little time for anyone). I still hope we see something in the manga, because I think something had to have happened for them to have that level of respect for each other.

With Max, I think you've hit it on the head. It's a big game for them, I think Pain wouldn't flirt with anyone he thought didn't have a sense of humor to deal with it (unless he happened to dislike the person in question, because I can totally see Pain flirting with someone out of spite). Bringing this back to Charon and Pain, the fact that Pain DOESN'T flirt with Charon is one of those little things that fascinates me. While I think there is only a slim chance they'll end up together (as they're not the focus of the series), I think there is more of a chance of it happening canonically than any other pairing I've shipped before.

[misura.livejournal.com]

Oreadia ... I had this really weird plotbunny at one point where Charon knew about the prisoner in the Mist Mountains, deliberately kept that information from Pain and (as a result) had a big, Angst-filled falling-out with him when Pain found out in the end. (I never used it, firstly for being too dramatic for my usual tastes and secondly for being too wide-open to AU-ification by canon.)

Pain flirting with someone out of spite ... I'm slightly disturbed to find myself grinning at that idea. (As are, I imagine, the people around me, although for rather different reasons.) Non-flirtation as a kind-of come-on has a lot of appeal, too, though - and darn it, I was supposed to be thinking of a Yu-Gi-Oh!-plotbunny this weekend, not wander off into Faeries' Landing-territory.

Not meaning to give you false hope or anything, but the very fact that Pain and Charon aren't the focus of the series might mean the mangaka intends to throw them together; there'd seem to be a much better chance of a male/male-pairing 'on the side' than there'd be of one as the main couple.

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to wait patiently for you to get volume 18 before I really comment on your plot bunny. Still no sign of volume 20 coming out in Korea, by the way. I hope Tokyopop is putting pressure on her again (I am a terrible person).

Think Faeries Landing plot bunnies! Pain's flirting mannerisms are an interesting area of discussion just on their own, and I must admit the fact that he doesn't flirt with Charon is one of the things I adore about them (and secretely hope means something further down the line). Recently, my plot bunnies have been trying to convince me that Charon and Pain may have actually given it a go briefly in the past and it didn't work out.

I think if they were the focus then Pain would certainly end up with someone. Of course, if he was the main character he might have an established love interest that wasn't Charon, so it works both ways.

[misura.livejournal.com]

All right, got volume 18 and ... whoa. Yes, it would definitely seem safe to assume Charon was aware of where Fanta's and Pain's father was. Mmm. Nina surprised me, there at the end.

... It probably says something about my state of mind that the first thing I think at your bunny is: it didn't work out, of course because the Faerie King sabotaged it. (Incidentally, but not-so-accidentally, knowing me and my fluffy tendencies, that would also raise the odds of things working out well enough if they tried again.) Which reminds me though: has there been any hint of any romance between Faeries in Avalon at all? I mean, people get married, apparently, but babies grow from lilies, and sometimes, that just makes me wonder. In a world where babies come from lilies (with a considerable bit of help from Samsin), would the taboo on same-sex relationships be greater or smaller than on Earth?

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

When you first commented about Charon being aware of where Pain's father was, I thought your predictive powers were amazing ^_^. I love the volume so much for the way Charon goes around doing his job and saving others even when he's being hunted down and in fox form. And, of course, the chapter picture of fox!Charon and Pain together is the slashiest Pain and Charon moment in the series to date.

Nina's turn was certainly very interesting, although I'm also fascinated by the Nina/Charon parallel that the faerie king made as well. There are certain plots in my head for that which I'm trying to sort out. What I found especially interesting was the idea that Charon of all people could be classified as timid, when I first read it I went 'eeeh?!', but then the more I think about it the more it actually really makes sense. There's little things that Charon does (taking so long to act against the faerie king, then really going it mostly alone, those couple of moments when he's uncertain and he wishes Pain was there (eeee!), his doubts when he first became Prime Minister etc) that really fit quite well with the description. It's just something that only those who know him really well (in this case Pain and the Faerie King) would ever be able to recognize in him.

*grin* I think that was one of my favorite scenes in the series in general, actually. I really liked the whole Charon/Faerie King/Pain dynamic we got, and it was really nice to see that the faerie king was actually trying to protect Charon as opposed to dispose of him.

Hmm, romance and faeries ... we certainly see attraction between faeries, although you could argue that the Faerie King's attraction for Fanta and Medea's attraction for the Faerie King COULD be based on power as opposed to attractiveness. If it's power that's the main thing that attracts fairies to each other, that could explain why Max seemed so into fox!Charon, although not so much why fox!Charon reactions were described the way they were in return.

Faeries certainly seem to be able to have children the natural way if they sleep with humans, so I wonder if it's as much a convention for them to grow from lilies or if it's a necessity. Faeries aren't born socially independent of their parents (we’ve got reference to both Charon’s and Pain’s). As for whether homosexuality is more accepted, all we really seem to have to go on is Pain. He’s risen high up the ranks of Avalon and is very open about his sexuality which is a good sign, however on the other hand Max doesn’t react to it as though Pain’s behavior is exactly normal for anyone other than Pain. As my sexual histories lecture would say, you can’t apply terms such as homosexuality to different cultures anyway, so it may be more that society dictates that someone such as Charon shouldn’t be engaging in any sort of activity that pulls his focus away from doing his job, or same-sex practices are more acceptable for Pain than heterosexual sex because it means there (possibly, depending on how the whole faerie reproductive system/lilies really work) isn’t any chance of him creating ‘water-downed’ faeries. It’s actually a really interesting topic, and I think a hundred different stories could be written using a hundred different interpretations of how same-sex relationships could work in Avalon.

Oh! And ...

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

... does this mean we'll ever get to see the original version as well? Two for the price of one!

Re: Oh! And ...

[misura.livejournal.com]

Nope, sorry, never. Since I knew I'd have wasted an afternoon staring at it and completely failing to edit it into something more likeable if I'd left it lying around, I deleted the original ten seconds before I started the first draft for this one. And then I emptied my wastebasket. And then I fought off a minor panic-attack at having claimed a prompt for which I didn't have any ficlet ready. (Ahem.)

My memory's a bit hazy, but I believe it involved, among other things, a blow-up Charon-doll. (Trust me when I say it was nothing you'd have wanted to read.)