get your words out } { leap day challenge - 12 drabbles
Fandom: Buffyverse/The Hunger Games
Pairing: Finnick Odair/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 510
Notes: For blytheandbonnie. Set in betenoire_rp. My brother tweaked my Finnick, so I hope he’s accurate, as I’ve never read the books.
“Do people actually fish with this thing?”
Bete Noire was having another one of those moments where it wanted to convince its constituents that the city could double as a tropical paradise. Buffy thought that no matter what the city tried to pull, it could never truly convince it’s citizens that it was a tropical paradise, but it was fun to pretend for a little while. Especially if this current bout of pretending involved standing sans socks and shoes in a pool of sinfully warm water, jeans rolled up around her knees, watching the fish swim ahead of her, while Finnick was attempting to teach her out to use a trident.
Plus, there were no magical side effects with this water. She double checked.
“It’s not as hard as you think,” Finnick smirked from where he was standing next to her. “Just-focus.”
“But they’re such pretty fish,” Buffy said with a bit of a pout as she turned the trident in her hands.
“You slay vampires for a living, and you have a problem with spearing a few fish?”
“Vampires are easy,” she protested. “They’re all ugly and grrrrr and eating people. As far as we know, these fish are pretty innocent.”
“I assure you that isn’t the case. These fish are devious, devious creatures.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. The cuteness is a mask for their dastardly plans.” He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face, and she rolled her eyes. “You said you wanted to learn how to use a trident. Fishing is a good place to start.” She sighed heavily, before turning back to the pool again. The fish continued to swirl around her feet as she felt Finnick’s hand on her shoulders, steadying her positioning slightly. “Now. Take a deep breath. Fishing like this is all about timing. Miss your mark, and you’ll spook them. So just relax, wait until just the right moment … ”
As he spoke Buffy closed her eyes, concentrating on the timing of the moment, before thrusting the trident down into the pool and not stopping until she hit bottom. She felt something catch, and she grinned as she opened her eyes and pulled the trident out of the water. She was sure she had to catch …
… something.
“That’s a boot,” Finnick quipped helpfully from behind her. “Not a fish.”
“I noticed that, with it’s distinctively un-fish like shape.” It wasn’t a large boot, but it was large enough, and as she reached to pull it off the top of the trident and take it back to the shore, she suddenly came face to face with a giant hermit crab as it came crawling out of the top of the boot. She shrieked, tossing the boot into the air and stumbling back, sending them both tumbling into the water.
Finnick came up laughing, and Buffy just sputtered, blinking the water out of her eyes. “That was a crab,” she said finally, before glancing back over at him with a curious look. “Do I at least get points for being close?”
Fandom: Everworld/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: David Levin/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 361
Notes: Written for lollobrigida. No set verse.
“I don’t bite, you know.”
David paused working on the sword he was polishing and gave her a look. It was a really, obvious look because he was not stupid. He knew that Katherine was lying when it came to that particular statement, and there was no way for her to get around that. It came with the territory of knowing what she was.
“Okay, maybe I bite a little. But only if you want me to.”
“What do you want, Katherine?” he asked as he went back to dealing with his weapons, and he heard her clipped footsteps as she moved across the room and slid into the seat next to him.
“You avoid me, you won’t talk to me. All I got out of you was a terse hello when we met and I haven’t gotten anything since. You do know I’m here to help, right?”
“That’s what you said,” he said quietly, not making eye contact with her and focusing on his work. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”
“But you won’t be nice to me?” He didn’t have to look at her to hear the pout in her voice.
“I’m not a nice guy.”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Not to vampires with mind control.”
“Ouch,” she sighed. “Didn’t think you were the type to judge a book by it’s cover.”
“I wasn’t. And it was stupid of me.” He got up once he was finished, putting his sword back in the weapon’s chest and turning around to face her again. “So it’s not going to happen again.”
Katherine eyed him carefully, before pushing to her feet and making her way closer to him. “I take it if you know what I am, you’re already on vervain. No worry about mind control then.”
“You’re over five hundred years old, Katherine. I’m assuming you’ve found your way around compulsion to get people to do what you want.”
“So you’re planning to just avoid me in order to keep yourself safe.” She smirked, reaching up and letting her hands smooth over his chest before giving him a wink. “Game on.”
David wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Bela Talbot
Rating: PG
Word Count: 229
Notes: For vermal. I … don’t even know with this one, this is just what came to mind.
They both sat quietly in the Impala, not saying a word to each other and just letting the silence build between them.
It wasn’t as though they didn’t enjoy it. But given they were who they were, and what had just happened wasn’t something they should have done. She should have known that this would happen eventually. It was bound too. Things like this happened when there was this kind of tension between two people but after it happened, the tension was gone. There wasn’t really anything left to say to each other.
Bela shifted uncomfortably in her seat, adjusting her jacket, and trying to figure out where to go from here. “Never speaking of this again, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he nodded quickly. “Never again.”
When Sam finally pulled up next to her in her car, she jumped to get the door open and get out of there as soon as possible. She pushed the door open, and was halfway out into the fresh air when Dean’s voice stopped her.
“Hey, Bela?”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before turning to face him again. “Yes, Dean?”
There was an uncomfortable look on his face as his mouth started to form the words until he finally spit it out. “Are you really a Zepplin fan?”
Bela smirked just a bit, before shrugging. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
Fandom: Supernatural/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 345
Notes: For yourlivewire. Set in the tail end of Season 3ish for SPN and I’m not entirely sure when for The Vampire Diaries.
“Hi, Sam.”
He’s sitting in a bar just over the state line for Michigan. His plan for the evening had been drunk, drunk and more drunk because Dean had less than a week left, and he was tired of fighting. He hadn’t slept well in days, and his brother was dying. To say that Sam was starting to come apart at the seams was an understatement. The last person in the world he expected to find him was Katherine Pierce.
Especially considering that he hadn’t seen her since she left Stanford.
He knew what she was. He wasn’t stupid. But there had always been something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, which meant that he couldn’t quite kill her. Not until he figured it out.
“What are you doing here, Katherine?”
“Looking for you,” she said with a small smirk. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Katherine, I’m not in the mood-”
“To save your brother? Why, Sam-that’s surprisingly cold.”
Those words nearly bowled him off his barstool. “What?”
She held up a ring, pinched between two fingers. “A ring, spelled by Emily Bennett to revive the wearer after they experience a supernatural death.”
Sam’s eyebrows went up as he reached for it, feeling the weight of the ring in his palm as he studied it. “And you think it will work?”
“I have no idea,” she sighed. “Deals aren’t exactly in my line of work. But I figure if anything, it’s at least worth a try.” Her hand closed his fingers over it, giving him a small smile. “Take it, Sam. I owe you that much. And if it doesn’t work, use it to protect yourself.”
It had to work. Sam couldn’t see it not working as an option. He tightened his fingers around it before looking up at her again. “Thank you, Katherine.”
She shrugged as she started to back away. “Consider us even.”
Sam was pretty sure that this made them more than even in her mind, but he wasn’t going to bother keeping track of it now.
Fandom: Leverage/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester and Alec Hardison
Rating: PG
Word Count: 419
Notes: For alison_sky. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 7.
It started when he caught Sam’s face on CNN.
Granted, he didn’t normally watch CNN. CNN was for people who actually cared about the news, which Hardison did not. He got his news filtered through other sources, but today was a day where there was nothing else on TV, and he was forced to entertain himself.
And then he saw Sam Winchester and some short dude that he could only assume was his brother shooting up a bank vault full of people in Jericho, California.
“What the hell?”
Hardison would have been more than happy to think that these were just two random psychopaths on a mission if it weren’t for the fact that he knew Sam Winchester. He knew him. Tequlia and a back room of a Stanford frat house had a way of making two people bond, and not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter. Hardison’s point was that that night, he had looked into the soul of the man he still considered a friend, and that man was no killer. No ifs ands or buts.
The CNN report had him stumbling over to grab his cell phone, scrolling down until he found Sam’s number and hitting send. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon dude you better not ignore my call, or I swear on all that is holy-”
“Hello?”
“Please tell me you’re not on some kind of psychotic bank killing spree because CNN seems pretty convinced.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You saw that?”
That was then followed by an equally long pause from Hardison. “Are you telling me you-”
“No, no! No, we didn’t. We’re … ” There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “ … it’s a really bad case of mistaken identity, dude.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think your hacker skills are going to save us on this one,” Sam sighed. “But if I think if something, I promise, you’ll be my first call.”
“Okay. Okay.” Hardison slumped down in his chair, running a hand over his face. “This is bad, man. This is really bad.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. I’ll call you once we’re out of the woods.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you then.” As he hung out the phone, he took a deep breath, and shook his head as he continued to watch the news reports. “This is gonna end with somebody gettin’ shot. I’m callin’ that right now.”
Fandom: CSI:NY AU
Pairing: Michael Anderson/Lauren Mullvaney, Andrea Mullvaney
Rating: PG
Word Count: 391
Notes: For makeyourmoment, whom I love and adore.
Six weeks after Lizzie was born, Lauren’s mother staged an intervention.
It wasn’t her intention when she came down from upstate New York. He was pretty sure she simply wanted to spend some time with her new granddaughter. They had made the plans earlier in the week, and true to her word, Andrea Mullvaney arrived on her daughter’s doorstep bright and early Monday morning.
What she found was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.
Lauren was on maternity leave, but she looked more exhausted than she had been when she worked. The apartment was littered with clothes, toys and unpacked boxes, and Anderson was passed out on the couch instead of the bedroom. Lauren had actually forgotten she was coming, and looked at her mother with wide, tired eyes when she saw her standing at the front door.
“Mom! Oh my God, I totally forgot.”
“What happened?” Andrea said as she pushed her way inside, looking around at the mess. “It looks like a tornado hit.”
“I’ve just … the baby’s got me a little more overwhelmed than I originally thought,” she sighed softly, running a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to see-”
“Uh-uh. Don’t you start.” Andrea then crossed the room to shake Anderson awake, one hand on his chest gently. “C’mon, Mike. You’re going to sleep in the guest bedroom.”
“Hpmh?” he mumbled as he shook himself awake, blinking at her in confusion. “Am I seeing things?”
“No time for that. Up. Up!” She managed to get her almost son-in-law to his feet, and took her daughter by the arm, and led them both to the made up guest bedroom.
“Mom, what are you going to-”
“Do not even worry about that,” Andrea replied with a wave of her hand. “Just sleep. Both of you. Now.”
They decided not to argue with her after that.
Six hours later, they reemerged to find a clean and unpacked apartment, dinner in the oven, and a note from Andrea on the table saying that she would swing back next week, and that dinner would be done at seven. The two of them just stared at the note for a moment, before Anderson wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders before flashing Lauren a grin.
“Have I mentioned I love your mother?”
“You and me both.”
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Alec Hardison/Parker
Rating: PG
Word Count: 171
Notes: For colormyspoon, and I think this is the first time I’ve written straight Hardison/Parker.
Everyone knew from the get-go that Hardison and Parker wouldn’t be like a normal couple.
No relationship Parker could ever be perfectly normal, but Hardison also didn’t really care. This was about Parker, and how she was so different from any woman he had ever met. He wanted to be a part of that, and he had been ever since he met her. He was the one who always disagreed with Eliot when he said that there was something wrong with her. There wasn’t anything wrong with Parker.
She was just Parker.
It was why he didn’t question when their first date was casing a museum or when things that he was used to, she had never done. He liked being the one with her for her first experiences. He liked being the one to introduce her to things, showing her the world from his eyes, and seeing what gets reflected back.
It’s not normal, and it’s not what anyone would expect-but it’s theirs. Hardison can’t really argue with that.
Fandom: Angel: the Series/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Lilah Morgan
Rating: PG
Word Count: 376
Notes: For superkappa, and I’m really excited if we ever get a chance to actually play them.
“Working late?”
Sam had never actually seen her dressed down before. If he could say anything about Lilah Morgan, she always looked more than presentable, but this is the first time he’d seen her sans suit jacket, hair pulled back and heels off. He ditched his jacket and tie long ago when he was working at his desk, and was currently leaning in her doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand.
Lilah looked almost amused to see him, placing her pen down on the desk before leaning back in her seat. “Have to, to keep up with you. Anyone ever tell you that you’re an overachiever, Winchester?”
“Once or twice.” He smirked as he started to make his way closer, placing the cup down on a clear spot on her desk. He then settled into one of the seats in front of her desk, taking a sip from his own cup. “But that’s never really bothered me much.”
“Of course it wouldn’t,” she sighed, before eying the cup suspiciously. Sam raised an eyebrow at that, and she raised one right back. “What? I wouldn’t put it past any lawyer in here to poison the competition in order to get ahead.”
Sam smirked as he lowered his own. “I could sip it first, if you want? But I’m not out to kill you, Lilah.”
“Then what are you after, Sam?”
“A partnership.”
At that, Lilah laughed. “Kid, you must be more delusional than I thought.”
“I’d team up with Park or McDonald, but let’s face it-Park’s an idiot and McDonald’s soft. You’re my only real competition, Lilah. Which means you’re my only real chance of actually getting somewhere in this firm.”
“Teaming up doesn’t happen at Wolfram and Hart, Sam,” she said with a look. “It usually ends in one of the partners losing a head.”
Sam shrugged a bit at that, before getting to his feet again. “It was an idea to get us both what we want. It can’t hurt to ask.” He turned and walked towards the door. “Just think about it.”
She didn’t say anything one way or another, but as he walked towards the glass doors of the opposite office, he could see her take a sip of the coffee.
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce, with implied background Damon/Elena
Rating: PG
Word Count: 309
Notes: For smokeandsong. Set in mud_andblood. I’m sorry, she went sad on me.
The first day, Elena won’t even let them take the body.
She ignored the blue hue of his skin and the smell of death in the air, and she was entirely convinced that she could fix him. She could fix him, and he would get better, and they would dance again. He had to. She was his, and if he was gone, who else would there be. Two hundred and fifty years of her life had been spent by Damon’s side, and her mind didn’t understand how to compute that kind of loss.
It was two days before Stefan and Katherine arrived, and when they did, Stefan finally managed to pry the body away from her so that they could give him a proper burial. After that, Elena didn’t sleep for weeks, staring out into the darkness like she was waiting for something. She wouldn’t talk to anyone, wouldn’t eat, simply waited. Their room stayed empty, and she sat in the living room, silent and still as a stone.
She didn’t cry, didn’t actually accept the death, until Stefan was gone, and she and Katherine were alone. It happened one morning, Katherine came in to give her some blood, to try and get her to eat, and as usual, Elena took the mug from her, but didn’t sip it.
“Elena, you need to eat.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Ninety-one thousand, two hundred fifty days.” Every day since she was turned, she had spent with Damon. She was surprised losing him hadn’t killed her. The pain felt like it was boiling under her skin, until the tears finally prickled over the edges of her eyelids and started to stream down her face. All that she manages to get out before Katherine pulled her into her arms and let her cry against her shoulder was this:
“It wasn’t enough.”
Fandom: Dark Angel/Marvel
Pairing: Alec McDowell/Wanda Lehnsherr
Rating: PG
Word Count: 394
Notes: For doesthemath. Set in singularityrpg, but not binding on the game, obviously.
“I got your message.”
Alec had heard her coming. He hadn’t gotten to know her well enough where her gait was distinctive enough yet. But her voice, that he already knew like the back of his hand, and he turned back to her to flash her a grin. “Glad you could make it.”
Wanda smiled back at him, before making her way over to sit on the bench next to him. “Your message was rather cryptic. I couldn’t help but be curious.”
“Well,” he said as he turned to face the piano again. “You did say you wanted to hear me play. I figured since I found the piano, I’d give you the opportunity.”
“I’m glad you thought of me,” she replied, settling a little more as he placed his fingers on the keys.
“Any requests?” he asked as his fingers tripped over the keys, quietly testing the tuning.
She pondered that for a moment, before shaking her head. “Play me something you like.”
He paused as he thought that over. He couldn’t say he had anything that he really liked. He never played pieces because he liked them, he played them because he needed to. So he simply closed his eyes and played whatever came to him first.
It was after the first few chords that he realized it was Chopin, and it took some time before all the memories flooded in that went with it. They weren’t easy things to remember-Rachel was never going to be an easy thing to remember-but Rachel made him a better player, even if he didn’t understand it then. With Rachel, he learned how to play with heart.
When he finished the piece, he opened his eyes, and glanced back over at her with a small smile and an eyebrow raise. “Well? What do you think?”
“You’re very talented,” she said with a nod. “Though I suppose that with your genetics, that’s not hard.”
“You’d be surprised, actually,” he smirked. “I’m not that creative. I can play it, but I can’t make it.”
She nodded. “So talents are selective?”
“There’s only so much tweaking they can do. Some things are just … natural.”
“Good to know,” she said as she turned to face the keyboard again. “Play another one?”
“Do you have an actual request this time?”
“I think I can come up with something.”
Fandom: Buffyverse/Justified
Pairing: Raylan Givens/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 356
Notes: For pensive1. Set nowhere in particular just a fun snippet that came to mind.
“If I stick around long enough, do I get my own cowboy hat?”
Raylan looked up at her from under the brim of his own hat. She had spent the past fifteen minutes glancing around his room, trying to find ways to keep herself occupied without touching the things that he told her not to touch. She was bored, but she needed to wait because until this ‘vampire business’ got cleared up, he wasn’t so inclined to trust her.
After all, as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as vampires, but he had just shot someone point blank in the chest who wouldn’t die, and then Buffy made him turn to dust. He had had a Day. And Buffy can respect the idea of having a Day to a certain extent.
It just got a little too much when it meant that Buffy was stuck inside Raylan’s motel room while he tried to think himself through this. It wasn’t easy, dealing with the existence of vampires, but at least he didn’t have her handcuffed to the chair.
“It’s not a badge of honor.”
“I didn’t think it was. But I could look good in it. Ooh! I could even get a matching pair of boots. Then I’d really blend in.”
Raylan sighed heavily, before holding up his hand to get her to stop. “Can we just get back to the-”
“Look. I get it. You’re tired. You’ve had a long night. But me rehashing it all over again right now isn’t going to make it any clearer.” She gave him for a sympathetic smile, before getting to her feet. “You sleep. I’ll go home and make with the sleeping myself. And in the morning, I’ll come back with coffee and try to explain everything again.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before nodding. “Yeah,yeah. Alright. Tomorrow.”
“Good,” she said with a nod, before starting to make her way towards the door. She paused once she hit the door knob, before turning back to look at him. “I’m one of the good guys, Marshal. Just … try and remember that.”
Fandom: Being Human (US)/Buffyverse
Pairing: Aidan Daniels/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 415
Notes: For me! Because I’ve been itching to write it for a while.
“So this is what you do all day? Lie around and get blood drunk?”
She was well aware that Aidan couldn’t miss the judgment in her tone. She made a point of making sure it was obvious. She had been a Slayer for a long time, but she had never seen such a mess of a city as she did in Boston. Bishop never really learned how to clean up after himself, and now that he was dead, the job fell to Aidan and Surren.
Buffy was not impressed. If she had her way, she would slay every vampire in this town, but that wasn’t her job. Her job was to take care of the vampire problems that none of them wanted to deal with. In the case of Boston, it was the orphans.
Aidan rolled his eyes back to look at her, black and glistening, with a blood soaked grin on his face. “Buffy. I should have known they’d send you.” He shifted over, pushing up to stumble to his feet. “Are you here to finally kill me?”
She didn’t flinch as he leaned over to her, the stench of blood filling her senses and making her want to reel back, but she didn’t. She held her ground and kept her cool, her face not giving anything away. “You know why I’m here, Aidan.”
“Right, right. The orphans.” He reached for the pole and swung around it slowly. He was drunk, and now wasn’t the time to be having this conversation, but apparently this was the only opportunity she was going to get. “I told Mother I would handle it.”
“You did. But the elders are not impressed so far. They sent me in to finish the job.”
“Well lucky me,” he said dryly. “Guess I’m off the hook.”
“Where can I find them, Aidan?”
“Believe me, Buffy, if I knew that, you wouldn’t be here.”
“See, I really don’t believe that,” she said. “You were the one who lobbied for mercy. Which makes me think that you know exactly where they are-you just don’t want to tell me.”
He was quiet for a moment, before sobering just slightly. “They don’t trust me. They don’t think I can protect them. I don’t know where they are, Buffy.”
She took a deep breath, before stepping away. “Then spread the word. The Slayer’s in town.” After she had gotten far enough away, she turned on her heel and headed for the door. “They’ll find me.”
Pairing: Finnick Odair/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 510
Notes: For blytheandbonnie. Set in betenoire_rp. My brother tweaked my Finnick, so I hope he’s accurate, as I’ve never read the books.
“Do people actually fish with this thing?”
Bete Noire was having another one of those moments where it wanted to convince its constituents that the city could double as a tropical paradise. Buffy thought that no matter what the city tried to pull, it could never truly convince it’s citizens that it was a tropical paradise, but it was fun to pretend for a little while. Especially if this current bout of pretending involved standing sans socks and shoes in a pool of sinfully warm water, jeans rolled up around her knees, watching the fish swim ahead of her, while Finnick was attempting to teach her out to use a trident.
Plus, there were no magical side effects with this water. She double checked.
“It’s not as hard as you think,” Finnick smirked from where he was standing next to her. “Just-focus.”
“But they’re such pretty fish,” Buffy said with a bit of a pout as she turned the trident in her hands.
“You slay vampires for a living, and you have a problem with spearing a few fish?”
“Vampires are easy,” she protested. “They’re all ugly and grrrrr and eating people. As far as we know, these fish are pretty innocent.”
“I assure you that isn’t the case. These fish are devious, devious creatures.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. The cuteness is a mask for their dastardly plans.” He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face, and she rolled her eyes. “You said you wanted to learn how to use a trident. Fishing is a good place to start.” She sighed heavily, before turning back to the pool again. The fish continued to swirl around her feet as she felt Finnick’s hand on her shoulders, steadying her positioning slightly. “Now. Take a deep breath. Fishing like this is all about timing. Miss your mark, and you’ll spook them. So just relax, wait until just the right moment … ”
As he spoke Buffy closed her eyes, concentrating on the timing of the moment, before thrusting the trident down into the pool and not stopping until she hit bottom. She felt something catch, and she grinned as she opened her eyes and pulled the trident out of the water. She was sure she had to catch …
… something.
“That’s a boot,” Finnick quipped helpfully from behind her. “Not a fish.”
“I noticed that, with it’s distinctively un-fish like shape.” It wasn’t a large boot, but it was large enough, and as she reached to pull it off the top of the trident and take it back to the shore, she suddenly came face to face with a giant hermit crab as it came crawling out of the top of the boot. She shrieked, tossing the boot into the air and stumbling back, sending them both tumbling into the water.
Finnick came up laughing, and Buffy just sputtered, blinking the water out of her eyes. “That was a crab,” she said finally, before glancing back over at him with a curious look. “Do I at least get points for being close?”
Fandom: Everworld/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: David Levin/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 361
Notes: Written for lollobrigida. No set verse.
“I don’t bite, you know.”
David paused working on the sword he was polishing and gave her a look. It was a really, obvious look because he was not stupid. He knew that Katherine was lying when it came to that particular statement, and there was no way for her to get around that. It came with the territory of knowing what she was.
“Okay, maybe I bite a little. But only if you want me to.”
“What do you want, Katherine?” he asked as he went back to dealing with his weapons, and he heard her clipped footsteps as she moved across the room and slid into the seat next to him.
“You avoid me, you won’t talk to me. All I got out of you was a terse hello when we met and I haven’t gotten anything since. You do know I’m here to help, right?”
“That’s what you said,” he said quietly, not making eye contact with her and focusing on his work. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”
“But you won’t be nice to me?” He didn’t have to look at her to hear the pout in her voice.
“I’m not a nice guy.”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Not to vampires with mind control.”
“Ouch,” she sighed. “Didn’t think you were the type to judge a book by it’s cover.”
“I wasn’t. And it was stupid of me.” He got up once he was finished, putting his sword back in the weapon’s chest and turning around to face her again. “So it’s not going to happen again.”
Katherine eyed him carefully, before pushing to her feet and making her way closer to him. “I take it if you know what I am, you’re already on vervain. No worry about mind control then.”
“You’re over five hundred years old, Katherine. I’m assuming you’ve found your way around compulsion to get people to do what you want.”
“So you’re planning to just avoid me in order to keep yourself safe.” She smirked, reaching up and letting her hands smooth over his chest before giving him a wink. “Game on.”
David wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Bela Talbot
Rating: PG
Word Count: 229
Notes: For vermal. I … don’t even know with this one, this is just what came to mind.
They both sat quietly in the Impala, not saying a word to each other and just letting the silence build between them.
It wasn’t as though they didn’t enjoy it. But given they were who they were, and what had just happened wasn’t something they should have done. She should have known that this would happen eventually. It was bound too. Things like this happened when there was this kind of tension between two people but after it happened, the tension was gone. There wasn’t really anything left to say to each other.
Bela shifted uncomfortably in her seat, adjusting her jacket, and trying to figure out where to go from here. “Never speaking of this again, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he nodded quickly. “Never again.”
When Sam finally pulled up next to her in her car, she jumped to get the door open and get out of there as soon as possible. She pushed the door open, and was halfway out into the fresh air when Dean’s voice stopped her.
“Hey, Bela?”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before turning to face him again. “Yes, Dean?”
There was an uncomfortable look on his face as his mouth started to form the words until he finally spit it out. “Are you really a Zepplin fan?”
Bela smirked just a bit, before shrugging. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
Fandom: Supernatural/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 345
Notes: For yourlivewire. Set in the tail end of Season 3ish for SPN and I’m not entirely sure when for The Vampire Diaries.
“Hi, Sam.”
He’s sitting in a bar just over the state line for Michigan. His plan for the evening had been drunk, drunk and more drunk because Dean had less than a week left, and he was tired of fighting. He hadn’t slept well in days, and his brother was dying. To say that Sam was starting to come apart at the seams was an understatement. The last person in the world he expected to find him was Katherine Pierce.
Especially considering that he hadn’t seen her since she left Stanford.
He knew what she was. He wasn’t stupid. But there had always been something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, which meant that he couldn’t quite kill her. Not until he figured it out.
“What are you doing here, Katherine?”
“Looking for you,” she said with a small smirk. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Katherine, I’m not in the mood-”
“To save your brother? Why, Sam-that’s surprisingly cold.”
Those words nearly bowled him off his barstool. “What?”
She held up a ring, pinched between two fingers. “A ring, spelled by Emily Bennett to revive the wearer after they experience a supernatural death.”
Sam’s eyebrows went up as he reached for it, feeling the weight of the ring in his palm as he studied it. “And you think it will work?”
“I have no idea,” she sighed. “Deals aren’t exactly in my line of work. But I figure if anything, it’s at least worth a try.” Her hand closed his fingers over it, giving him a small smile. “Take it, Sam. I owe you that much. And if it doesn’t work, use it to protect yourself.”
It had to work. Sam couldn’t see it not working as an option. He tightened his fingers around it before looking up at her again. “Thank you, Katherine.”
She shrugged as she started to back away. “Consider us even.”
Sam was pretty sure that this made them more than even in her mind, but he wasn’t going to bother keeping track of it now.
Fandom: Leverage/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester and Alec Hardison
Rating: PG
Word Count: 419
Notes: For alison_sky. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 7.
It started when he caught Sam’s face on CNN.
Granted, he didn’t normally watch CNN. CNN was for people who actually cared about the news, which Hardison did not. He got his news filtered through other sources, but today was a day where there was nothing else on TV, and he was forced to entertain himself.
And then he saw Sam Winchester and some short dude that he could only assume was his brother shooting up a bank vault full of people in Jericho, California.
“What the hell?”
Hardison would have been more than happy to think that these were just two random psychopaths on a mission if it weren’t for the fact that he knew Sam Winchester. He knew him. Tequlia and a back room of a Stanford frat house had a way of making two people bond, and not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter. Hardison’s point was that that night, he had looked into the soul of the man he still considered a friend, and that man was no killer. No ifs ands or buts.
The CNN report had him stumbling over to grab his cell phone, scrolling down until he found Sam’s number and hitting send. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon dude you better not ignore my call, or I swear on all that is holy-”
“Hello?”
“Please tell me you’re not on some kind of psychotic bank killing spree because CNN seems pretty convinced.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You saw that?”
That was then followed by an equally long pause from Hardison. “Are you telling me you-”
“No, no! No, we didn’t. We’re … ” There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “ … it’s a really bad case of mistaken identity, dude.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think your hacker skills are going to save us on this one,” Sam sighed. “But if I think if something, I promise, you’ll be my first call.”
“Okay. Okay.” Hardison slumped down in his chair, running a hand over his face. “This is bad, man. This is really bad.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. I’ll call you once we’re out of the woods.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you then.” As he hung out the phone, he took a deep breath, and shook his head as he continued to watch the news reports. “This is gonna end with somebody gettin’ shot. I’m callin’ that right now.”
Fandom: CSI:NY AU
Pairing: Michael Anderson/Lauren Mullvaney, Andrea Mullvaney
Rating: PG
Word Count: 391
Notes: For makeyourmoment, whom I love and adore.
Six weeks after Lizzie was born, Lauren’s mother staged an intervention.
It wasn’t her intention when she came down from upstate New York. He was pretty sure she simply wanted to spend some time with her new granddaughter. They had made the plans earlier in the week, and true to her word, Andrea Mullvaney arrived on her daughter’s doorstep bright and early Monday morning.
What she found was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.
Lauren was on maternity leave, but she looked more exhausted than she had been when she worked. The apartment was littered with clothes, toys and unpacked boxes, and Anderson was passed out on the couch instead of the bedroom. Lauren had actually forgotten she was coming, and looked at her mother with wide, tired eyes when she saw her standing at the front door.
“Mom! Oh my God, I totally forgot.”
“What happened?” Andrea said as she pushed her way inside, looking around at the mess. “It looks like a tornado hit.”
“I’ve just … the baby’s got me a little more overwhelmed than I originally thought,” she sighed softly, running a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to see-”
“Uh-uh. Don’t you start.” Andrea then crossed the room to shake Anderson awake, one hand on his chest gently. “C’mon, Mike. You’re going to sleep in the guest bedroom.”
“Hpmh?” he mumbled as he shook himself awake, blinking at her in confusion. “Am I seeing things?”
“No time for that. Up. Up!” She managed to get her almost son-in-law to his feet, and took her daughter by the arm, and led them both to the made up guest bedroom.
“Mom, what are you going to-”
“Do not even worry about that,” Andrea replied with a wave of her hand. “Just sleep. Both of you. Now.”
They decided not to argue with her after that.
Six hours later, they reemerged to find a clean and unpacked apartment, dinner in the oven, and a note from Andrea on the table saying that she would swing back next week, and that dinner would be done at seven. The two of them just stared at the note for a moment, before Anderson wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders before flashing Lauren a grin.
“Have I mentioned I love your mother?”
“You and me both.”
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Alec Hardison/Parker
Rating: PG
Word Count: 171
Notes: For colormyspoon, and I think this is the first time I’ve written straight Hardison/Parker.
Everyone knew from the get-go that Hardison and Parker wouldn’t be like a normal couple.
No relationship Parker could ever be perfectly normal, but Hardison also didn’t really care. This was about Parker, and how she was so different from any woman he had ever met. He wanted to be a part of that, and he had been ever since he met her. He was the one who always disagreed with Eliot when he said that there was something wrong with her. There wasn’t anything wrong with Parker.
She was just Parker.
It was why he didn’t question when their first date was casing a museum or when things that he was used to, she had never done. He liked being the one with her for her first experiences. He liked being the one to introduce her to things, showing her the world from his eyes, and seeing what gets reflected back.
It’s not normal, and it’s not what anyone would expect-but it’s theirs. Hardison can’t really argue with that.
Fandom: Angel: the Series/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Lilah Morgan
Rating: PG
Word Count: 376
Notes: For superkappa, and I’m really excited if we ever get a chance to actually play them.
“Working late?”
Sam had never actually seen her dressed down before. If he could say anything about Lilah Morgan, she always looked more than presentable, but this is the first time he’d seen her sans suit jacket, hair pulled back and heels off. He ditched his jacket and tie long ago when he was working at his desk, and was currently leaning in her doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand.
Lilah looked almost amused to see him, placing her pen down on the desk before leaning back in her seat. “Have to, to keep up with you. Anyone ever tell you that you’re an overachiever, Winchester?”
“Once or twice.” He smirked as he started to make his way closer, placing the cup down on a clear spot on her desk. He then settled into one of the seats in front of her desk, taking a sip from his own cup. “But that’s never really bothered me much.”
“Of course it wouldn’t,” she sighed, before eying the cup suspiciously. Sam raised an eyebrow at that, and she raised one right back. “What? I wouldn’t put it past any lawyer in here to poison the competition in order to get ahead.”
Sam smirked as he lowered his own. “I could sip it first, if you want? But I’m not out to kill you, Lilah.”
“Then what are you after, Sam?”
“A partnership.”
At that, Lilah laughed. “Kid, you must be more delusional than I thought.”
“I’d team up with Park or McDonald, but let’s face it-Park’s an idiot and McDonald’s soft. You’re my only real competition, Lilah. Which means you’re my only real chance of actually getting somewhere in this firm.”
“Teaming up doesn’t happen at Wolfram and Hart, Sam,” she said with a look. “It usually ends in one of the partners losing a head.”
Sam shrugged a bit at that, before getting to his feet again. “It was an idea to get us both what we want. It can’t hurt to ask.” He turned and walked towards the door. “Just think about it.”
She didn’t say anything one way or another, but as he walked towards the glass doors of the opposite office, he could see her take a sip of the coffee.
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce, with implied background Damon/Elena
Rating: PG
Word Count: 309
Notes: For smokeandsong. Set in mud_andblood. I’m sorry, she went sad on me.
The first day, Elena won’t even let them take the body.
She ignored the blue hue of his skin and the smell of death in the air, and she was entirely convinced that she could fix him. She could fix him, and he would get better, and they would dance again. He had to. She was his, and if he was gone, who else would there be. Two hundred and fifty years of her life had been spent by Damon’s side, and her mind didn’t understand how to compute that kind of loss.
It was two days before Stefan and Katherine arrived, and when they did, Stefan finally managed to pry the body away from her so that they could give him a proper burial. After that, Elena didn’t sleep for weeks, staring out into the darkness like she was waiting for something. She wouldn’t talk to anyone, wouldn’t eat, simply waited. Their room stayed empty, and she sat in the living room, silent and still as a stone.
She didn’t cry, didn’t actually accept the death, until Stefan was gone, and she and Katherine were alone. It happened one morning, Katherine came in to give her some blood, to try and get her to eat, and as usual, Elena took the mug from her, but didn’t sip it.
“Elena, you need to eat.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Ninety-one thousand, two hundred fifty days.” Every day since she was turned, she had spent with Damon. She was surprised losing him hadn’t killed her. The pain felt like it was boiling under her skin, until the tears finally prickled over the edges of her eyelids and started to stream down her face. All that she manages to get out before Katherine pulled her into her arms and let her cry against her shoulder was this:
“It wasn’t enough.”
Fandom: Dark Angel/Marvel
Pairing: Alec McDowell/Wanda Lehnsherr
Rating: PG
Word Count: 394
Notes: For doesthemath. Set in singularityrpg, but not binding on the game, obviously.
“I got your message.”
Alec had heard her coming. He hadn’t gotten to know her well enough where her gait was distinctive enough yet. But her voice, that he already knew like the back of his hand, and he turned back to her to flash her a grin. “Glad you could make it.”
Wanda smiled back at him, before making her way over to sit on the bench next to him. “Your message was rather cryptic. I couldn’t help but be curious.”
“Well,” he said as he turned to face the piano again. “You did say you wanted to hear me play. I figured since I found the piano, I’d give you the opportunity.”
“I’m glad you thought of me,” she replied, settling a little more as he placed his fingers on the keys.
“Any requests?” he asked as his fingers tripped over the keys, quietly testing the tuning.
She pondered that for a moment, before shaking her head. “Play me something you like.”
He paused as he thought that over. He couldn’t say he had anything that he really liked. He never played pieces because he liked them, he played them because he needed to. So he simply closed his eyes and played whatever came to him first.
It was after the first few chords that he realized it was Chopin, and it took some time before all the memories flooded in that went with it. They weren’t easy things to remember-Rachel was never going to be an easy thing to remember-but Rachel made him a better player, even if he didn’t understand it then. With Rachel, he learned how to play with heart.
When he finished the piece, he opened his eyes, and glanced back over at her with a small smile and an eyebrow raise. “Well? What do you think?”
“You’re very talented,” she said with a nod. “Though I suppose that with your genetics, that’s not hard.”
“You’d be surprised, actually,” he smirked. “I’m not that creative. I can play it, but I can’t make it.”
She nodded. “So talents are selective?”
“There’s only so much tweaking they can do. Some things are just … natural.”
“Good to know,” she said as she turned to face the keyboard again. “Play another one?”
“Do you have an actual request this time?”
“I think I can come up with something.”
Fandom: Buffyverse/Justified
Pairing: Raylan Givens/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 356
Notes: For pensive1. Set nowhere in particular just a fun snippet that came to mind.
“If I stick around long enough, do I get my own cowboy hat?”
Raylan looked up at her from under the brim of his own hat. She had spent the past fifteen minutes glancing around his room, trying to find ways to keep herself occupied without touching the things that he told her not to touch. She was bored, but she needed to wait because until this ‘vampire business’ got cleared up, he wasn’t so inclined to trust her.
After all, as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as vampires, but he had just shot someone point blank in the chest who wouldn’t die, and then Buffy made him turn to dust. He had had a Day. And Buffy can respect the idea of having a Day to a certain extent.
It just got a little too much when it meant that Buffy was stuck inside Raylan’s motel room while he tried to think himself through this. It wasn’t easy, dealing with the existence of vampires, but at least he didn’t have her handcuffed to the chair.
“It’s not a badge of honor.”
“I didn’t think it was. But I could look good in it. Ooh! I could even get a matching pair of boots. Then I’d really blend in.”
Raylan sighed heavily, before holding up his hand to get her to stop. “Can we just get back to the-”
“Look. I get it. You’re tired. You’ve had a long night. But me rehashing it all over again right now isn’t going to make it any clearer.” She gave him for a sympathetic smile, before getting to her feet. “You sleep. I’ll go home and make with the sleeping myself. And in the morning, I’ll come back with coffee and try to explain everything again.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before nodding. “Yeah,yeah. Alright. Tomorrow.”
“Good,” she said with a nod, before starting to make her way towards the door. She paused once she hit the door knob, before turning back to look at him. “I’m one of the good guys, Marshal. Just … try and remember that.”
Fandom: Being Human (US)/Buffyverse
Pairing: Aidan Daniels/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 415
Notes: For me! Because I’ve been itching to write it for a while.
“So this is what you do all day? Lie around and get blood drunk?”
She was well aware that Aidan couldn’t miss the judgment in her tone. She made a point of making sure it was obvious. She had been a Slayer for a long time, but she had never seen such a mess of a city as she did in Boston. Bishop never really learned how to clean up after himself, and now that he was dead, the job fell to Aidan and Surren.
Buffy was not impressed. If she had her way, she would slay every vampire in this town, but that wasn’t her job. Her job was to take care of the vampire problems that none of them wanted to deal with. In the case of Boston, it was the orphans.
Aidan rolled his eyes back to look at her, black and glistening, with a blood soaked grin on his face. “Buffy. I should have known they’d send you.” He shifted over, pushing up to stumble to his feet. “Are you here to finally kill me?”
She didn’t flinch as he leaned over to her, the stench of blood filling her senses and making her want to reel back, but she didn’t. She held her ground and kept her cool, her face not giving anything away. “You know why I’m here, Aidan.”
“Right, right. The orphans.” He reached for the pole and swung around it slowly. He was drunk, and now wasn’t the time to be having this conversation, but apparently this was the only opportunity she was going to get. “I told Mother I would handle it.”
“You did. But the elders are not impressed so far. They sent me in to finish the job.”
“Well lucky me,” he said dryly. “Guess I’m off the hook.”
“Where can I find them, Aidan?”
“Believe me, Buffy, if I knew that, you wouldn’t be here.”
“See, I really don’t believe that,” she said. “You were the one who lobbied for mercy. Which makes me think that you know exactly where they are-you just don’t want to tell me.”
He was quiet for a moment, before sobering just slightly. “They don’t trust me. They don’t think I can protect them. I don’t know where they are, Buffy.”
She took a deep breath, before stepping away. “Then spread the word. The Slayer’s in town.” After she had gotten far enough away, she turned on her heel and headed for the door. “They’ll find me.”