Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

I have to admit, this is one of my favorite fics that I've recently put together, and I'm glad I used the Write or Die widget to give myself the incentive to type it.

Title: “What Price Beauty?”
Author: matrixrefugee
Fandom: Crossover: “Yami no Matsuei” (aka Descendants of Darkness)/”Kushiel’s Legacy”
Disclaimer: I do not own Yami no Matsuei, aka Descendants of Darkness, it’s characters, concepts and other indicia, which are the intellectual property of Yoko Matsushita, Hiroko Tokita, Manga Entertainment, Viz Media, Hakusensha, Central Park Media, et al. I do not own "Kushiel's Legacy”, its characters, settings, concepts or other indicia, which are the property of Jacqueline Carey, Grand Central Publishing, et al
Pairing/Characters: The Steward, the Trader, possible analogues of two main male characters
Prompt: 3. 16 - a souk
Words: 1,066
Rating: PG-13 (thematic elements, including slave trading and sensual content, also brief language)
Summary: In an alternate version of the Book World, the Steward purchases the freedom of a pair of young men from a faraway land…
Author’s Note: The idea for this fic came about from a conversation among the carpe_ho_ras crowd about sorting one’s RP characters. I offered the Houses of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers as a possibility. Since I’m RP’ing both Tsuzuki and Muraki (and more or less managed to keep them apart for a month now), I couldn’t resist sorting these two gents from the Far East, which got me to thinking of writing a crackfic… and then I ran across the series of crossovers written by lynndyre. Though the plot and execution are all my own, I’ll admit, I borrowed the idea of setting all this in an alternate version of the book-verse of Vol 5 of the manga from them (and I think the book-verse arc has to be my favorite, after the Kyoto arc): It would not surprise me if Hakushaku has a Jacqueline Carey-esque model of the self-writing novel (I’ve even joked that he’s responsible for some of the very strange YnM fics I’ve run across).

( 'Whence come these youths?' the Steward asked the Trader..  )

This has, so far, been the most embarrassing -- and exciting -- to type. I've never written in this fandom before, and I've never really written this kind of relationship before, either, so I'm delighted to have had my boundaries challenged.

A red rose and a white rose tied together with a golden silk ribbon, for Henry and Monica Swinton;
A tiny pink rosebud and a thick thorny stem without any blossoms at all for Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru
A rose so dark a red that it is almost maroon, with heavy thorns hidden under its lush green leaves, and a brighter red rose with few thorns, tied together with a delicate silver chain, for the Merovingian and Neo
A twig of pink and a twig of white wild roses, with thick, brambly stems, bound together with a red velvet cord, for Phedre no Delaunay and Melisande Shahrizai.

"In Trutina"

by "Matrix Refugee"

Author's Note: This the first time I have ever attempted femslash and so I'm heading into virgin territory (hah!), and while I'm a little shaky about writing this fic, I love the pairing too much to resist writing it. Written for tomboy_typist and based on the prompt "caresses; every touch you give me steals my breath away"

Rating: R (knifeplay with some blood, tasteful BDSM situation)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "Kushiel's Legacy”, its characters, settings, concepts or other indicia, which are the property of Jacqueline Carey, Grand Central Publishing, et al

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( 'Which do you prefer, my pet: the touch of my hand or the bite of my dagger?' )