damnfooltalk | October Wordcount Tracking (Reply)

Total October Wordcount: 4710 words

Posted: There’s a place I’ve seen where the soul burns clean, chapter 3

IN PROGRESS:

There’s a place I’ve seen where the soul burns clean: 4710 words + a BUNCH of editing holy fuck writing nonsequentially means so much follow up work you guys 0____0

Nothing on any other WIPs this month, but it was a crazy month so I'm satisfied that I made as much progress as I did.

Sneak Peeks:

>There's a place I've seen where the soul burns clean<

"You said it, not me."

"I said it, but you didn't argue," Izuna retorted, nabbing a snack from the plate Hikaku brought in.

"I don't see a reason to argue about your elder brother's hair care habits."

Struck by an idea, Izuna answered, "Or you could just say that he doesn't look like a walking haystack, we're playing, I'm not expecting a scholarly treatise here."

"How fortunate for me," she said dryly, and turned back to her reading.

"When your little brother said you can't lie - it would be more accurate to say that you can't say things that aren't true, isn't it?" Hikaku asked, returning with a tray of tea and snacks to go with whatever correspondence he deemed non-sensitive enough to have open around an outsider.

Just like that, Haruka's porcelain-smooth mask slotted back into place, seamless by the time that she had fully raised her head from the scroll she was reading. "That is the usual meaning of 'lying', yes?"

Hikaku didn't glance his way, but he didn't need to; he could read the sudden hunting tension in the air as well as Izuna (as well as Haruka probably could too, if she felt the need to withdraw so obviously). Hikaku took point, a quick, smug flick of watch and learn in his fingers as he spoke.

Hikaku gave her one of his terrifying smiles, the gentleness of the expression reaching nowhere near his eyes. "I think we both know that there is some flexibility to the definition, Haruka-san."

"This conversation is very philosophical for a joke about your clan head's hair."

Izuna smiled. That wasn't an answer, and the blatant dodge clearly implied...

Madara walked in just then, the perfect demonstration. Izuna choked down the budding hilarity and challenged her, "Say it, then."

Haruka's mask relaxed just enough to allow a scowl through without cracking her face, and she remained stubbornly silent.

Madara looked between them and Izuna couldn't contain himself any longer. "Don't mind us, Nii-san," he managed to choke out between snickers. "We're just confirming some points of intel."

"Madara-sama's resemblance to a haystack is hardly news," Hikaku said, earning himself a thunderous look from Madara that he returned blandly. "However, the parameters of Haruka-san's reported inability to lie may be of interest."

"And the fact that she agrees!" Izuna gasped, and then sat back and laughed until tears came to his eyes.

Haruka looked from the two of them in varying states of smugness up to Madara, standing there scowling and slightly off balance. "I would complain that I'm being bullied, Madara-san, but I see have nothing to complain about in comparison."

Madara snorted and stole Izuna's snack, ignoring his belated squawk of outrage. "I recommend throwing them in the koi pond."

Haruka looked over at Hikaku and Izuna, sizing them both up pointedly. Hikaku gave her another bone-chilling smile, and Izuna winked. It had been a while since he had gotten to tease Madara like this. It felt homey, in a way that their house seldom did with the day to day crises of this way. The armistice had been good for them for this much, at least.

"...I might have to make some modifications to that approach."