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100shipsTitle: The Wedding Cake That Never Was
Content Type: Fanfiction
Creator: Wallwalker |wallwalker
Prompts: #28 - Vanilla (100ships), #8 - Wedding (40sedoretu), Chemistry (Polyam Shipping Day @ polyamships)
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters/Relationship: Barret/Dyne/Eleanor/Myrna (Sedoretu)
Rating: Teen
Length or Size: 1069 words.
Content notes: No warnings.
Creator notes: Barret and Eleanor are one moiety ("flood") and Dyne and Myrna are the other ("ebb.") I went with tides in the Lifestream for the moiety rules, and if I write anything else with this sort of relationship in this fandom I'll likely do the same. Crossposted to the other comms above, for now.
Summary: Out of the four of them, only one of them was any good at baking.
---
Out of the four of them, only one of them was any good at baking. And anyone looking at the four of them from the outside never would've guessed that it was the tallest and burliest out of the group.
It was true, though. Barret had learned to bake from his mom; she was a good baker, but she hadn't always had the strength to stand up for long periods of time, and since she hadn't had a daughter and her husband was too busy in the mines, it had fallen to her son. So Barret would go and help her in the kitchen when she needed him, slipping him an extra treat or two as a reward. It was tough not to spend that much time helping out and not pick up a few things.
The others had tried to pick up the same, from time to time, but Dyne had been in the mines when he was younger; unlike Barret he'd been small enough and quick enough to crawl through the narrow tunnels as a kid, so his own dad had kept him busy. And while Myrna and Eleanor had known about the sort of cooking where you could throw a pinch of something and a cupful of something else into a pot and come up with something tasty, baking had been a trickier beast. You had to get the measurements just right to get the perfect sponge cake or the best cookies, and Barret's mother had taught him everything she'd known.
"You've missed your calling as a chemist," Eleanor had said to him once with a sheepish grin after one day in the kitchen. He'd had it coming - that had been when he'd started teaching her how to make chocolate-chip cookies. His batch had come out perfect; hers were puffy and too dry, and she'd looked so lost and confused that he couldn't help but go into a gentle kind of lecture about how packing flour down into a cup might look right and be easier than slowly sifting it out, but the cookies always suffered for it.
He'd grinned at her. "Did the same damn thing once. Mama believed in letting people make a mistake or two, long as it didn't harm no one."
"Well, it's a good thing you made yours too! I wasn't lookin' forward to tellin' Myrna and Dyne how I'd messed it up."
"Hey, your secret's safe with me," he'd said to her with a wink.
Those had been the best days, not long after they'd met. They hadn't made anything official, and they weren't sure they planned to. Not many people had relationships like theirs anymore, or cared much about when in the Lifestream's tide they'd been born. He knew people who'd been both born during an ebb or a flood who'd gotten married and had kids, and no one had batted an eye. Society was moving on; people were realizing that the world wasn't gonna crash or explode if people didn't follow the old rules.
That, Dyne had said one night after dinner, wasn't a bad thing in and of itself. "Rules ain't always great," he'd said. "I mean, rules said I had to crawl around in the mines for most of my childhood, and I would've loved not to follow that one."
Myrna had been so shocked and angry, the first time she'd heard that. "That's... that's horrible. Children need a chance to play, to learn!"
He'd given her a lopsided grin. "I'm not disagreeing. But when you're struggling to get by, and the only thing that can save you is in the mines... you do what you're told."
She had been so quiet for the rest of the night that Barret had almost been afraid to take her hand; when he finally did, he felt her nails hard against his skin, and he'd felt lucky as hell that his kids were going to have such a good mom. Eleanor had wrapped one arm around Dyne's waist as he'd spoken, too, and she'd watched him relax into her touch; she had a way of calming him down when he didn't even know he was worked up.
"So yeah, old rules... they're not always great," he'd said, leaning back against her. "I guess that sometimes people don't know which ones are good and which ones are bad, so they just throw 'em all out."
"Yeah. Feels that way sometimes," Barret said, looking around the house. This was technically Dyne's house, but both their homes were just as much a home as the others; they'd thought, sometimes, of letting one of the other new families have Barret's smaller place, and just expand this one a bit more so their entire family would someday fit. "Still, if you guys ever want, I'll make us a hell of a wedding cake. Make us some tiers - vanilla, chocolate, whatever kinda flavors you want. We can invite anybody you guys want to the house and play some music, and we can dance and party as long as you guys want."
Myrna relaxed at that, and Dyne and Eleanor both smiled. "It's a nice thought," Dyne said, "and to tell you the truth I think a bunch of people would be good with it, even if they thought it was old-fashioned. We need to have somethin' to celebrate around here lately, with..." He stopped, but Barret knew what he was going to say anyway, just like everybody else in Corel. Shinra Corporation had some new energy source that they were keeping under wraps for the moment; they weren't buying much coal anymore, and they'd been one of their biggest customers.
"Well, like I said. We can have the party whenever. Cutting the cake, playing some of the old records... just having a nice night at home with the people we care about."
Myrna cleared her throat, sounding much calmer. "It's a good idea. We should... think about it," she'd said.
Barret wished they'd managed it. It wasn't anyone's fault; everything got a lot more hectic when they found out Eleanor was expecting. Hectic in a good way, but it still meant that ideas about cakes and parties had to be put to the side. And then Shinra had come to them, and everything had gone to hell.
He still wished that they'd had more time, that they could've thrown their party. It would've been such a great memory, and a great story to tell Marlene someday about her family, when she was old enough to understand.about her family, when she was old enough to understand.
Content Type: Fanfiction
Creator: Wallwalker |
wallwalkerPrompts: #28 - Vanilla (
100ships), #8 - Wedding (40sedoretu), Chemistry (Polyam Shipping Day @ polyamships)Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters/Relationship: Barret/Dyne/Eleanor/Myrna (Sedoretu)
Rating: Teen
Length or Size: 1069 words.
Content notes: No warnings.
Creator notes: Barret and Eleanor are one moiety ("flood") and Dyne and Myrna are the other ("ebb.") I went with tides in the Lifestream for the moiety rules, and if I write anything else with this sort of relationship in this fandom I'll likely do the same. Crossposted to the other comms above, for now.
Summary: Out of the four of them, only one of them was any good at baking.
---
Out of the four of them, only one of them was any good at baking. And anyone looking at the four of them from the outside never would've guessed that it was the tallest and burliest out of the group.
It was true, though. Barret had learned to bake from his mom; she was a good baker, but she hadn't always had the strength to stand up for long periods of time, and since she hadn't had a daughter and her husband was too busy in the mines, it had fallen to her son. So Barret would go and help her in the kitchen when she needed him, slipping him an extra treat or two as a reward. It was tough not to spend that much time helping out and not pick up a few things.
The others had tried to pick up the same, from time to time, but Dyne had been in the mines when he was younger; unlike Barret he'd been small enough and quick enough to crawl through the narrow tunnels as a kid, so his own dad had kept him busy. And while Myrna and Eleanor had known about the sort of cooking where you could throw a pinch of something and a cupful of something else into a pot and come up with something tasty, baking had been a trickier beast. You had to get the measurements just right to get the perfect sponge cake or the best cookies, and Barret's mother had taught him everything she'd known.
"You've missed your calling as a chemist," Eleanor had said to him once with a sheepish grin after one day in the kitchen. He'd had it coming - that had been when he'd started teaching her how to make chocolate-chip cookies. His batch had come out perfect; hers were puffy and too dry, and she'd looked so lost and confused that he couldn't help but go into a gentle kind of lecture about how packing flour down into a cup might look right and be easier than slowly sifting it out, but the cookies always suffered for it.
He'd grinned at her. "Did the same damn thing once. Mama believed in letting people make a mistake or two, long as it didn't harm no one."
"Well, it's a good thing you made yours too! I wasn't lookin' forward to tellin' Myrna and Dyne how I'd messed it up."
"Hey, your secret's safe with me," he'd said to her with a wink.
Those had been the best days, not long after they'd met. They hadn't made anything official, and they weren't sure they planned to. Not many people had relationships like theirs anymore, or cared much about when in the Lifestream's tide they'd been born. He knew people who'd been both born during an ebb or a flood who'd gotten married and had kids, and no one had batted an eye. Society was moving on; people were realizing that the world wasn't gonna crash or explode if people didn't follow the old rules.
That, Dyne had said one night after dinner, wasn't a bad thing in and of itself. "Rules ain't always great," he'd said. "I mean, rules said I had to crawl around in the mines for most of my childhood, and I would've loved not to follow that one."
Myrna had been so shocked and angry, the first time she'd heard that. "That's... that's horrible. Children need a chance to play, to learn!"
He'd given her a lopsided grin. "I'm not disagreeing. But when you're struggling to get by, and the only thing that can save you is in the mines... you do what you're told."
She had been so quiet for the rest of the night that Barret had almost been afraid to take her hand; when he finally did, he felt her nails hard against his skin, and he'd felt lucky as hell that his kids were going to have such a good mom. Eleanor had wrapped one arm around Dyne's waist as he'd spoken, too, and she'd watched him relax into her touch; she had a way of calming him down when he didn't even know he was worked up.
"So yeah, old rules... they're not always great," he'd said, leaning back against her. "I guess that sometimes people don't know which ones are good and which ones are bad, so they just throw 'em all out."
"Yeah. Feels that way sometimes," Barret said, looking around the house. This was technically Dyne's house, but both their homes were just as much a home as the others; they'd thought, sometimes, of letting one of the other new families have Barret's smaller place, and just expand this one a bit more so their entire family would someday fit. "Still, if you guys ever want, I'll make us a hell of a wedding cake. Make us some tiers - vanilla, chocolate, whatever kinda flavors you want. We can invite anybody you guys want to the house and play some music, and we can dance and party as long as you guys want."
Myrna relaxed at that, and Dyne and Eleanor both smiled. "It's a nice thought," Dyne said, "and to tell you the truth I think a bunch of people would be good with it, even if they thought it was old-fashioned. We need to have somethin' to celebrate around here lately, with..." He stopped, but Barret knew what he was going to say anyway, just like everybody else in Corel. Shinra Corporation had some new energy source that they were keeping under wraps for the moment; they weren't buying much coal anymore, and they'd been one of their biggest customers.
"Well, like I said. We can have the party whenever. Cutting the cake, playing some of the old records... just having a nice night at home with the people we care about."
Myrna cleared her throat, sounding much calmer. "It's a good idea. We should... think about it," she'd said.
Barret wished they'd managed it. It wasn't anyone's fault; everything got a lot more hectic when they found out Eleanor was expecting. Hectic in a good way, but it still meant that ideas about cakes and parties had to be put to the side. And then Shinra had come to them, and everything had gone to hell.
He still wished that they'd had more time, that they could've thrown their party. It would've been such a great memory, and a great story to tell Marlene someday about her family, when she was old enough to understand.about her family, when she was old enough to understand.