"You want the short answer or the long answer?" This entire line of questioning had the gambler flustered; he was shuffling a deck of cards with quick, jerky movements.

"Short. You'll never shut up, otherwise."

"In that case, I'm only sleeping with you for your sense of humor."

"..."

"Fine. We saved the world. What do you do after you save the world? Not a whole fucking lot, really. I was bored, you were availible-"

"Availible?"

"In a manner of speaking. You were a challenge. Are a challenge. You're an asshole, but at least you're interesting. And- fuck. Nevermind. I needed something to do, and you happened to be convenient." There was a moment of pregnant silence as they both chose to ignore his unfortunate choice of words.

"Setzer, do you know what I do when I'm bored?"

"Read a good book?"

Shadow's grin was fleeting, the barest flash of teeth. "I kill people." The knife he'd been sharpening embedded itself in the wall beside Setzer's head.

"Well, then." Far from being unnerved, Setzer smiled sweetly and tugged the blade free without looking at it. "I suppose I'll just have to make sure you're kept sufficiently...occupied." The knife landed with a thwock in the table beside Shadow's hand.

"Indeed." The assassin returned to sharpening his knives.
------------------------------

So, I started this thing maybe two years ago- probably more, I don't really remember. It's been a while. I've no idea where I got the idea from, since there are exactly three fics with this pairing on the net, and one of them's mine, but is really just a fragment so it doesn't count. I'm not counting the crazy AU thing that I haven't read. When I started writing it, it had been at least three years since I'd last played the game and I wasn't giving a single thought to characterization or circumstance or plot or any of those necessary things.

Really, I do most things without have a clue as to what I'm doing. Anyway. I have 16000 words, not counting the bits and pieces on the blog and elsewhere, and no concrete plot, just loosely connected scenes. I think I've finally decided what to do with that lack of a plot, and to make it work, I'm going to have to discard nearly ten thousand of those words. That's twenty of my thirty-two pages. *weeping*

This will be known as the fic that was written by deleting itself. There's something very zen in that, but that doesn't change the fact that I like a few of those scenes and I'm going to have to drop them. *sigh*

Also, in order to write the original fic I had planned, I've now got to write backstory for the main characters and the prominently figured minor characters, which means side stories. Excessively long side stories, in some cases.

What was once one has become three, and I don't even like writing fanfic. However, it has become clear to me that these two idiots belong together, because otherwise they'd kill each other. ...Or something. (They bicker. That's my only reasoning behind it. They bicker, all the time, unless they're being sappy or angsty.) I've said logic has very little to do with my concept of a slashable pairing, haven't I?

Well, consider it said now.