for Writerverse!
Yeah, these probably aren't going to stop anytime soon. One day I'll write something where my icon is actually relevant.
Title: Secrets
Word Count: 812
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: f/m
The first time I saw Holden use his powers, I almost pissed myself. I mean, here I am, thinking I'm a normal twenty-something girl with a normal twenty-something boyfriend at the normal Sunday Funday thing in the Boston Commons.
And then there's some kid going toward the street and Holden's just there. Like it's no effort at all, there and then walking the kid back over to its parents (who don't seem grateful at all, because they weren't even watching) and he walks back to me wearing this shy smile.
"So that's your secret?" I asked, since it seemed like he wanted me to say something.
Holden laughed. "I didn't realize that I acted like I had a secret."
"Everyone has a secret," I told him playfully, winking. Hoping he wouldn't ask what mine was. "It's just not, um, whatever the fuck that was."
He looked distinctly uncomfortable, turning away, and then his stomach rumbled. Loudly. "Um, I kind of need to eat. Haven't had breakfast and using that..."
Ah, that would be the infamous balance, wouldn't it? I read comic books; there was always some kind of balance, the same way there were alter egos. Was Holden the alter ego, or was he just himself? I wondered, as I motioned to Einstein's Bagels. "C'mon, then. You can tell me more."
Holden's skin was really too swarthy to show blushes properly, but this one showed. "Sorry, I--I've never talked with anyone about it before, so I don't... I know what the doctors called things, and that's it."
"Ah." I made a motion for him to continue.
"Noel," he hissed, shaking his head, but he was smiling. "I'm not--can't I wait until we're home?"
"Considering we're not getting home until tonight? No."
Holden whispered a curse. His reticence to swear never failed to make me smile. "Please?" He turned on the puppy eyes, those big brown pitiful eyes, and even pouted a little.
I wavered for a moment, then shook my head. "No. Just--just give me the basics."
"Okay." He took a deep breath, and then started.
When he was two, his mother had been poor. Destitute, living in a shitty apartment in Dorchester that was the best she could afford with Holden and his sister Alece, who was a newborn at the time. She couldn't hold a steady job with a kid that young, so when she was pregnant she'd gotten into doing focus groups and studies and stuff, since it's almost a given that there's those kind of things going on.
One thing led to another--listening between his words, I heard that maybe she'd done something special somewhere that started the stuff--and there was an experiment where they would unlock the quantum potential of kids. It was something that they'd covered thoroughly in mice, monkeys, every lab animal possible and now it was time to do it with kids.
So she volunteered Holden, and now I knew why he had to go to the 'doctor' once, sometimes twice, a week and how he could afford the apartment without doing anything but odd jobs.
"I can--do things with my head, sometimes, but mostly it's just things like I can learn skills very quickly, and I'm good at moving my body."
"Tell me something I don't know," I said, my voice dropping to a low purr.
The blush that had gone away resurfaced beautifully. "Um, yes. That. We can--try things. If you want."
"Mmm. You'll just have to eat after?"
Holden smiled his shy smile. "Yeah, and maybe take a nap. I can go without sleep, too, kind of--force my body to... function. It's hard to explain. I have more control over myself."
That couldn't be a bad thing. "So I guess I shouldn't call you a superhero, huh?"
His laugh was always beautiful. "No, I--I don't have a vigilante bone in my body. You know that. I think--I think the quantum stuff makes me more mellow. More aware, so I regulate more. So I'm mellow. If that makes sense?"
It did, and I said so, laced my fingers with his, and leaned up to give him a brief kiss on the lips. "I think we should skip the movie," I said. Why go see Man of Steel when I had my very own Man of Steel right here? Yeah, he wasn't an alien, but that was a plus not a minus.
Holden hesitated, and then nodded. "I have some things I've wanted to try," he said, almost whispering.
So shy. I nuzzled him and gave him another kiss, and we took a left onto Beacon instead of the right that would take us to the movie theatre.
"Promise to tell me more?" I asked, sometime on the long walk from Boston proper to Brookline.
"You'll know as much as I do from now on," Holden said, and squeezed my hand.
Good, I thought, and kept walking.
Title: Stormy Shindig
Word Count: 303
Rating: PG/PG-13
Pairing: f/f
They called it the storm of the century, the storm to end all storms, the storm that would leave wreckage of everyone's lives in its wake. But down in rural Louisiana, it was just another reason to have a party.
Maggie couldn't properly call it a hurricane party, so she called it a Stormy Shindig, and she was fairly sure nobody really cared, but Liz said that it was clever and that was all that mattered in the end. What Liz thought. What Liz did when the storm approached, standing out on the second floor back porch and shouting at the storm, half-empty bottle of vodka in one hand and the other giving the sign of the horns to the sky as she yelled and yelled until she was out of breath.
"Oh, Mags," she panted, leaning back against Maggie, the hand not holding the vodka coming back to pull Maggie tighter against her. "This is gonna be a big one, isn't it?"
Looking down at her eyes--stormy eyes, the same dark blue-grey as the clouds, with the whites of her eyes bright like lightning in the fading sunlight--Maggie found herself smiling, nodding. This was going to be one hell of a storm; it had already killed over a hundred people in Florida and Alabama.
What if they died? What if the end of the world came and she'd spent all the time just lusting after Liz and never doing anything about it? That'd be horrible.
She'd missed the beat where she could say something and have it not be awkward, so she just leaned down and kissed Lizzie right there in front of everyone.
Liz kissed back, and Maggie decided she'd be okay if the sky just collapsed right on top of them, as long as they got to die like this.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comments @ DW:
Title: Secrets
Word Count: 812
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: f/m
The first time I saw Holden use his powers, I almost pissed myself. I mean, here I am, thinking I'm a normal twenty-something girl with a normal twenty-something boyfriend at the normal Sunday Funday thing in the Boston Commons.
And then there's some kid going toward the street and Holden's just there. Like it's no effort at all, there and then walking the kid back over to its parents (who don't seem grateful at all, because they weren't even watching) and he walks back to me wearing this shy smile.
"So that's your secret?" I asked, since it seemed like he wanted me to say something.
Holden laughed. "I didn't realize that I acted like I had a secret."
"Everyone has a secret," I told him playfully, winking. Hoping he wouldn't ask what mine was. "It's just not, um, whatever the fuck that was."
He looked distinctly uncomfortable, turning away, and then his stomach rumbled. Loudly. "Um, I kind of need to eat. Haven't had breakfast and using that..."
Ah, that would be the infamous balance, wouldn't it? I read comic books; there was always some kind of balance, the same way there were alter egos. Was Holden the alter ego, or was he just himself? I wondered, as I motioned to Einstein's Bagels. "C'mon, then. You can tell me more."
Holden's skin was really too swarthy to show blushes properly, but this one showed. "Sorry, I--I've never talked with anyone about it before, so I don't... I know what the doctors called things, and that's it."
"Ah." I made a motion for him to continue.
"Noel," he hissed, shaking his head, but he was smiling. "I'm not--can't I wait until we're home?"
"Considering we're not getting home until tonight? No."
Holden whispered a curse. His reticence to swear never failed to make me smile. "Please?" He turned on the puppy eyes, those big brown pitiful eyes, and even pouted a little.
I wavered for a moment, then shook my head. "No. Just--just give me the basics."
"Okay." He took a deep breath, and then started.
When he was two, his mother had been poor. Destitute, living in a shitty apartment in Dorchester that was the best she could afford with Holden and his sister Alece, who was a newborn at the time. She couldn't hold a steady job with a kid that young, so when she was pregnant she'd gotten into doing focus groups and studies and stuff, since it's almost a given that there's those kind of things going on.
One thing led to another--listening between his words, I heard that maybe she'd done something special somewhere that started the stuff--and there was an experiment where they would unlock the quantum potential of kids. It was something that they'd covered thoroughly in mice, monkeys, every lab animal possible and now it was time to do it with kids.
So she volunteered Holden, and now I knew why he had to go to the 'doctor' once, sometimes twice, a week and how he could afford the apartment without doing anything but odd jobs.
"I can--do things with my head, sometimes, but mostly it's just things like I can learn skills very quickly, and I'm good at moving my body."
"Tell me something I don't know," I said, my voice dropping to a low purr.
The blush that had gone away resurfaced beautifully. "Um, yes. That. We can--try things. If you want."
"Mmm. You'll just have to eat after?"
Holden smiled his shy smile. "Yeah, and maybe take a nap. I can go without sleep, too, kind of--force my body to... function. It's hard to explain. I have more control over myself."
That couldn't be a bad thing. "So I guess I shouldn't call you a superhero, huh?"
His laugh was always beautiful. "No, I--I don't have a vigilante bone in my body. You know that. I think--I think the quantum stuff makes me more mellow. More aware, so I regulate more. So I'm mellow. If that makes sense?"
It did, and I said so, laced my fingers with his, and leaned up to give him a brief kiss on the lips. "I think we should skip the movie," I said. Why go see Man of Steel when I had my very own Man of Steel right here? Yeah, he wasn't an alien, but that was a plus not a minus.
Holden hesitated, and then nodded. "I have some things I've wanted to try," he said, almost whispering.
So shy. I nuzzled him and gave him another kiss, and we took a left onto Beacon instead of the right that would take us to the movie theatre.
"Promise to tell me more?" I asked, sometime on the long walk from Boston proper to Brookline.
"You'll know as much as I do from now on," Holden said, and squeezed my hand.
Good, I thought, and kept walking.
Title: Stormy Shindig
Word Count: 303
Rating: PG/PG-13
Pairing: f/f
They called it the storm of the century, the storm to end all storms, the storm that would leave wreckage of everyone's lives in its wake. But down in rural Louisiana, it was just another reason to have a party.
Maggie couldn't properly call it a hurricane party, so she called it a Stormy Shindig, and she was fairly sure nobody really cared, but Liz said that it was clever and that was all that mattered in the end. What Liz thought. What Liz did when the storm approached, standing out on the second floor back porch and shouting at the storm, half-empty bottle of vodka in one hand and the other giving the sign of the horns to the sky as she yelled and yelled until she was out of breath.
"Oh, Mags," she panted, leaning back against Maggie, the hand not holding the vodka coming back to pull Maggie tighter against her. "This is gonna be a big one, isn't it?"
Looking down at her eyes--stormy eyes, the same dark blue-grey as the clouds, with the whites of her eyes bright like lightning in the fading sunlight--Maggie found herself smiling, nodding. This was going to be one hell of a storm; it had already killed over a hundred people in Florida and Alabama.
What if they died? What if the end of the world came and she'd spent all the time just lusting after Liz and never doing anything about it? That'd be horrible.
She'd missed the beat where she could say something and have it not be awkward, so she just leaned down and kissed Lizzie right there in front of everyone.
Liz kissed back, and Maggie decided she'd be okay if the sky just collapsed right on top of them, as long as they got to die like this.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comments @ DW: