Completely stolen from prometheusrise

[changehistory]

Because there needs to be something fun among the angst...



Because kissing under the mistletoe is an ancient and festive tradition... and because I feel there can always be more kissing about.

Two ways to play:

Request kisses.
If there's someone you'd like a kiss from, repost the picture above in a comment. Please be considerate--tag the muse's in-character contact post, or an old meme post, something like that. Don't tag a prompt response, a fic, or an RP thread. You may also post the picture to your journal, and mark the entry locked to whomever you want the kiss from.

Offer kisses.
If you're feeling particularly bold or adventurous, post the picture in your journal, note that it's open to all, and let people ask for kisses from you. Give them at least a sentence or two in response, though--none of this "*kiss*" nonsense, that's no fun.

When you post, kindly either repost these rules, or link to this post of Shelley's.

Consider this an open offer for kisses to anyone who would like them from me, and utterly and totally meta with no binding on either muse without full consent of both writers involved.

Comments

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

You knew I'd ask.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

It's a moment, he knows, and it hangs there suspended though the fact that he's breathing means Hiro hasn't literally stopped time. Not yet at least.

His hand is on Adam's shoulder, though, and if Adam isn't quick, he knows they'll be gone and his chance will be lost. His fingers tighten on the vial, then get ready to drop it, as Hiro closes his eyes.

In a split second, though, he moves, faster than Hiro can stop him, dropping the sword and wrapping the arm that's holding the vial tight around Hiro, pulling him close. It's enough of a surprise move, that Hiro's eyes fly open, staring at him in shock.

"Kensei...?"

"Well, if you're going to kill me anyway..." Adam murmurs, then kisses Hiro. It's not soft; it's not easy. It's hard and demanding and punishing and 400 years in the making. There's longing and regret laced through, caught in the space between them, and then Adam tugs him closer, closing that space so nothing remains but heat and need. It takes a moment to realize Hiro is kissing him back, just as angry, just as punishing, but kissing, with fists balled in his jacket lapels.

There's salt water in the kiss and he's not sure which one of them is crying, but he loses himself in it anyway, taking what he's always wanted, even as he feels it being given. It's a noise, a soft sound from the door that pulls him back, startled, staring in Peter, Nathan and Matt's eyes. There's no way to go forward, not now, not with them all there, not if he hopes to stay, so he gently disengages from Hiro and holds out the vial to Peter.

"I believe you're the only one who can get rid of this safely," he says, straightening his jacket, cheeks heating in a rather real blush. He can't make himself meet Hiro's eyes, knowing that a word could tumble it all down.

"I thought...Nathan said..." Peter glances between them, and Adam feels Hiro move a bit away, and it's colder for a minute.

"Peter, I have a very deadly virus in my hand that could kill everyone in here besides me and you in no time." He thinks he manages to sound irritated rather than flustered, but the look Nathan's giving him says something else. "Will you please take it and get rid of it, before it slips out of my hands?"

Peter does, still frowning, still confused and Adam steps back. Hiro's still too far, and when Adam glances at him, his eyes are impassive. He's lost the hand, Adam knows, but there's a chance, maybe a small one, of winning another, and there's all the time in the world for his grander plans.

He can wait. Patience has its rewards, after all, and with his lips still tingling from the kiss, he's willing to behave to reap every single one of them.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

*Hiro grabs him and transports them to Oahu.*

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Hawaii?" Adam arches an eyebrow, still a bit wary. "I try to destroy the world, and you take me to Hawaii? Making friends with sharks, are you, carp?"



Mun: *laughing her ass off*

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"It's the first place I could think of away from there that wasn't Tokyo." He is staring at Adam intently. "What you did, was that truly what you meant to do or what you did because you had too many people against you?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

Adam shrugs, pulling away from him a bit. "Perhaps a bit of both."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

It's an honest answer and Hiro recognizes it as such. "Why did you have to kill my father? Was it because he was my father or because he betrayed you?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

That one is even more complex than the other, twisting around in him and making him question his own motives, his own reasons. "He locked me in a cell for thirty years, carp. He took everything I had built and everyone I had come to care for away. And he left me there to rot. I killed him for that."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Not because he was my father? You had to know the moment you heard he'd had a son." He looks sorrowful. "He knew it was going to happen. He knew you were coming for him."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I suspected before you were even born. He was....fascinated with who I had been. Though I've wondered, since, why he told you the stories anyway." Adam studies the ocean, not looking at him. "Yes, well. I did warn him. I gave him a fighting chance."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"He wouldn't let me stop you." Hiro crouches down, drawing kanji in the sand. His name. Others. "He believed in you. He believed in Kensei. Before any other heroes, I knew the story of Kensei." He writes "Kensei" in the sand. "I used to swing my little katana and tell people I was Kensei. I even did it to myself. So strange to see yourself that young. To see yourself with adult eyes."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"He knew what he had done. To me. To others. He understood there is a price for that sort of betrayal."

His smile twisted. "He believed in the idea of Kensei. Not in me. He believed in you."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"At that point he had no idea of the part I would play. The fact that I had an ability came as a complete surprise to him. I think he was disappointed that his children seemed to have no ability whatsoever or perhaps he thought that Kimiko would be the one with an ability." He writes the kanji for "uragi" next to his own name. "I was a disappointment to him for so long."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"You all manifested so late," Adam murmurs, frowning a little. "We didn't expect that."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"I wonder why we did. Did the our parents - my father - manifest so much younger than we did?" He writes "yowamushi" next to "uragi". "Did they all manifest at the same time?"

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I didn't meet them until after," Adam says, eyes finally drawn from the ocean to the kanji. "But, yes. They were, for the most part, younger. Younger when they manifested. Younger when they came together. When I brought them together."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps none of us felt the need to manifest or perhaps we convinced ourselves that anything 'strange' that happened was caused by something else? Perhaps our parents kept us from understanding what was happening to us? Perhaps we frightened them?" He writes "baka" next. "Perhaps they didn't want us to have abilities."

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"Oh, they wanted," Adam whispers. "They wanted, very, very much. Though the first thought is likely. Looking back...I was never ill. I always seemed 'lucky' to not get hurt. But nothing major ever happened like that arrow to make me face that it was more than luck."

The kanji made him frown at the sand, wanting to run his foot over them to erase them, and yet wanting to set them in cement at the same time. Everything was in shambles and it is easier to scowl at Hiro than question his own part in that.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Truly? After what they wrought? After what they did to you? You think they may not have decided it was easier if we never knew our powers? They never brought us into their circles. I only met a few of that group and it happened only when I was young. I looked at a picture of you and them before they locked you up. I remember only a few from my past. I could not place who was who." He writes "bakemono" next to "baka". He hasn't looked up at Adam at all as he's written. The kanji are getting larger as he moves farther on.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"I was no longer in on their plans by the time you were born, Hiro. I was in the cage in the basement. But one of the goals...one of the dreams we all had, when I was one of them, was for a generation of powered children able to lead the world into the dawning of a new age." He's studying Hiro now, staring between him and the sand.

"Perhaps they thought it best to keep it from you, to prevent your becoming....me."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"So, you have no idea if I'm right or not. You frightened them and in their fear they suppressed us. It would not be the first time that parents did something they disguised as 'for our own good', but was truly only meant for their own peace of mind." He writes "aho" in katakana.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"No," he admits, looking away from words that might be self-incriminatory to Hiro, but strike a bit too close to home. "I have no idea how things changed."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Parents and children can be in such conflict over what helps them. It has always been so. When one makes plans to take over the world through their children, they need to be certain their children truly believe as they do." He writes "hitogoroshi" then stares at it. He reaches out and wipes it away. He looks at the sand he's cleared uncertain what to write now.

[changehistory.livejournal.com]

"It's up to parents to teach their children, instill beliefs in them, not let them run wild forming their own," Adam snaps. "The entire cohesive structure of any plan has fallen to bits and chaos as they each pursue their own agenda instead of working as a group toward a common goal." Scowling down he resists the urge to kick the rest of the words away as well.

"And you all, your generation, all of you are floundering for it, without anyone there to guide you or form you into any sort of whole."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"What of free will? Are we only meant to be the puppets of our parents' desires? Nathan was such a puppet and would have sacrificed his brother to do what his parents wanted. His brother! The person left to him when his parents leave him as parents inevitably do. I could not sacrifice my sister like that and we are not as close as they are. It would kill me to do such a thing. Their ambitions, their plans would have killed Nathan as surely as Peter's explosion would have killed him." He writes "killer" in katakana. Somehow English doesn't make it look quite the same as "hitogoroshi". It makes it look as alien as he feels about it.

"Perhaps we are, but at least it is our choice to do so."