Fic: In the Candy Store
Title In the Candy Store
Author Brutti ma buoni
Words 790
Characters Harmony, Lorne
Rating PG13
A/N: to celebrate one year of the Rulesverse, and for rebcake and snickfic, who wanted Harmony. It’s about 2008, give or take.
Mid-morning at the Slayer Support Officer HQ. Classes were well in session, students long out of the hotel. Lorne was catching up on the cleaning rosters when he was distracted by thudding from outside the office.
Harmony was sitting in the deserted Hyperion foyer, glumly kicking her crossed legs against the couch.
“Why so glum, sugar pie?”
Not that he needed to ask. But Lorne tried to soft-pedal the whole destiny-reading thing in the workplace. People need to be able to sing while they work. Even Harmony, who never harmonised, but whose aura was a whole lot cleaner these days now she was working on that redemption kick.
“Oh, Lorney-tunes. It’s so hard.”
“Redemption? Of course it is-” There was a whole comforting riff to come on ‘that which we fight hardest for is what we truly value’ and ‘every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better’ and whatnot, but Lorne didn’t get a chance to deliver it.
“Pfft.” Harmony waved her hand. “Redemption’s okay. Kinda long and boring, but, you know, I’m getting there.”
Which was true, if you didn’t count the occasional dastardly backstabbing attempt. But they had a constant watch out for that kind of thing, and she was always sorry after. Anyway, Harmony she was a lot better now that Cordy was around to keep cheerleading her journey into All That Is Good And Right.
“So what’s bringing you down, princess? I know for a fact your iUnicorn’s still the funnest thing in this whole neighbourhood...”
But Harmony wasn’t to be cheered by that today. Listlessly, she responded, “Yeah. But... It’s so hard Lorne. I just can’t find the right guy.”
Ah. Yep. That had been an issue.
“Wellllll...” How to put this delicately? “Maybe you’re just not looking in the right place for the right guy.” (Um, was that actually delicate, Krevlornswath?)
“But Kieron was so cute!”
“But, you know, evil, honey-bun. He was going to drag you down.” (Literally, since Kieron had tried to get Harmony to help with the raising of the Master. Not Angel’s Master, another one, from LA. Lorne kinda felt that any vampire calling himself the Master had to be major bad and needed extra person-power to slay him, stat. He was arguing for a whole policy change thing, when he got the time).
Sigh from Harmony. “And Ryan! Why did he leave?”
“I think he was a little shocked when you turned out to be undead, puppy-tail. You could have maybe clued him in before things got... sweaty.”
She hung her head. “But it’s so hard. It’s like, not the first thing you want to tell a guy. Maybe not even the second. And it’s really hard to drop it into conversation like it’s no biggie, so they always get all uptight if they’re human. And the demons are all tentacle-y and gross. You know how I got with Clem.”
That had been painful. Clem was such a nice guy, but Lorne would have guessed nudity wasn’t his best look even before Harmony started screaming.
“So who’s out there for me? Huh? I can’t turn myself a soulmate, not with the redemption thing. And no regular guys are interested so...”
Lorne sighed in his turn. Analysis and strategy were never going to be Harmony’s forte. (Thank the eleven gods she was a decent combat teacher with good hair and a sunny attitude.)
“Butterkist, have you thought maybe looking around the workplace?”
“You mean... Angel?”
There was a hideous pause while Lorne got his squawking horror under control.
“Um. No. I don’t think that’s an option, maple fudge.” Better be clear, here. “And obviously I’m not suggesting any of the the evil guys we’re supposed to kill, but how about one of the staff? Or even students, though obviously I can’t encourage instructorly inappropriateness in that direction. Maybe a seer, or a demon summoner? Someone who’s been around the block a little.”
She looked a little scared at that. “Really? I don’t want some guy who’s gonna be all self-righteous at me all the time. I do try to be good, but it’s hard.”
A lot of things are hard for you, aren’t they, Cacophony? Poor little lost semi-evil dead girl.
But Lorne was a giver. Always would be. “Naw, come on, cotton candy! Never say you’re beat! Our two male vamps on redemption arcs get to fall for Slayers. Well, one Slayer. And it worked out for one of ’em. Why shouldn’t you grab a piece of the good guys?”
Harmony beamed with hope as the message got through.
Lorne silently hoped he hadn’t just created the worst storm to hit SSO-HQ since the full moon blood sacrifice fiasco. Sometimes, you can give too much.
***
Author Brutti ma buoni
Words 790
Characters Harmony, Lorne
Rating PG13
A/N: to celebrate one year of the Rulesverse, and for rebcake and snickfic, who wanted Harmony. It’s about 2008, give or take.
Mid-morning at the Slayer Support Officer HQ. Classes were well in session, students long out of the hotel. Lorne was catching up on the cleaning rosters when he was distracted by thudding from outside the office.
Harmony was sitting in the deserted Hyperion foyer, glumly kicking her crossed legs against the couch.
“Why so glum, sugar pie?”
Not that he needed to ask. But Lorne tried to soft-pedal the whole destiny-reading thing in the workplace. People need to be able to sing while they work. Even Harmony, who never harmonised, but whose aura was a whole lot cleaner these days now she was working on that redemption kick.
“Oh, Lorney-tunes. It’s so hard.”
“Redemption? Of course it is-” There was a whole comforting riff to come on ‘that which we fight hardest for is what we truly value’ and ‘every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better’ and whatnot, but Lorne didn’t get a chance to deliver it.
“Pfft.” Harmony waved her hand. “Redemption’s okay. Kinda long and boring, but, you know, I’m getting there.”
Which was true, if you didn’t count the occasional dastardly backstabbing attempt. But they had a constant watch out for that kind of thing, and she was always sorry after. Anyway, Harmony she was a lot better now that Cordy was around to keep cheerleading her journey into All That Is Good And Right.
“So what’s bringing you down, princess? I know for a fact your iUnicorn’s still the funnest thing in this whole neighbourhood...”
But Harmony wasn’t to be cheered by that today. Listlessly, she responded, “Yeah. But... It’s so hard Lorne. I just can’t find the right guy.”
Ah. Yep. That had been an issue.
“Wellllll...” How to put this delicately? “Maybe you’re just not looking in the right place for the right guy.” (Um, was that actually delicate, Krevlornswath?)
“But Kieron was so cute!”
“But, you know, evil, honey-bun. He was going to drag you down.” (Literally, since Kieron had tried to get Harmony to help with the raising of the Master. Not Angel’s Master, another one, from LA. Lorne kinda felt that any vampire calling himself the Master had to be major bad and needed extra person-power to slay him, stat. He was arguing for a whole policy change thing, when he got the time).
Sigh from Harmony. “And Ryan! Why did he leave?”
“I think he was a little shocked when you turned out to be undead, puppy-tail. You could have maybe clued him in before things got... sweaty.”
She hung her head. “But it’s so hard. It’s like, not the first thing you want to tell a guy. Maybe not even the second. And it’s really hard to drop it into conversation like it’s no biggie, so they always get all uptight if they’re human. And the demons are all tentacle-y and gross. You know how I got with Clem.”
That had been painful. Clem was such a nice guy, but Lorne would have guessed nudity wasn’t his best look even before Harmony started screaming.
“So who’s out there for me? Huh? I can’t turn myself a soulmate, not with the redemption thing. And no regular guys are interested so...”
Lorne sighed in his turn. Analysis and strategy were never going to be Harmony’s forte. (Thank the eleven gods she was a decent combat teacher with good hair and a sunny attitude.)
“Butterkist, have you thought maybe looking around the workplace?”
“You mean... Angel?”
There was a hideous pause while Lorne got his squawking horror under control.
“Um. No. I don’t think that’s an option, maple fudge.” Better be clear, here. “And obviously I’m not suggesting any of the the evil guys we’re supposed to kill, but how about one of the staff? Or even students, though obviously I can’t encourage instructorly inappropriateness in that direction. Maybe a seer, or a demon summoner? Someone who’s been around the block a little.”
She looked a little scared at that. “Really? I don’t want some guy who’s gonna be all self-righteous at me all the time. I do try to be good, but it’s hard.”
A lot of things are hard for you, aren’t they, Cacophony? Poor little lost semi-evil dead girl.
But Lorne was a giver. Always would be. “Naw, come on, cotton candy! Never say you’re beat! Our two male vamps on redemption arcs get to fall for Slayers. Well, one Slayer. And it worked out for one of ’em. Why shouldn’t you grab a piece of the good guys?”
Harmony beamed with hope as the message got through.
Lorne silently hoped he hadn’t just created the worst storm to hit SSO-HQ since the full moon blood sacrifice fiasco. Sometimes, you can give too much.
***