Drabble Meme! Will/Skandar, Will/Skandar/Ben, Will/Ben, PG-13
I put off doing this challenge/meme/whatever for soooo long, seriously. It's been popping up over at narnia_slash a lot lately and every time I saw it, I would get so tempted, but oh my god, I was convinced it was going to give me a panic attack. I pretty much never write drabbles as it is, but having a time limit?!
But in the end, I was encouraged to give it a go, and I settled down with my iPod and my laptop and began.
And it really wasn't as hard as I thought. OKAY.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays.
You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble
You start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
Title: Drabble Meme!
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Mostly Will/Skandar, one Will/Skandar/Ben, one Will/Ben
Rating: It varies, but generally about PG-13 I'd say.
Warnings: Real person slash.
A/N: I was encouraged to do this by blueberinitrate, and I've been meaning to do it for ages, so, *hops on bandwagon* I was interrupted several times by an extremely rude fly and had to stop at one point to get rid of it, but other than that, I followed the rules. :D Also, dammit, thanks Girls Aloud for being the first band to come on shuffle...way to give people a good impression of my music taste. XD
1. Girls Aloud - Can't Speak French
"Is this," begins Skandar fearfully as he glances around the club, "Girls Aloud?"
Will grins, listening to the beginning of the song. "I think so," he says, laughing at Skandar's horrified face.
The barman slides their shots across the table, and Skandar downs his quickly.
"Want to dance?" Will shouts in Skandar's ear as the chorus starts up.
Skandar's eyes go wide and he shakes his head, and Will laughs again.
"I still can't believe you brought me here," Skandar yells back.
Whatever, thinks Will. It's only a tiny little gay bar in Paris. It's not as if anyone knows them here, and anyway, Skandar's the one recognising Girls Aloud from the first ten seconds of the song.
Two shots later, and Skandar's on the dancefloor.
Skandar will, of course, vigorously deny this later, but Will's pretty sure he's even singing along.
2. The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
Bed is probably Skandar's favourite place in the whole wide world.
Hotel beds are okay, and of course his bed at his parents' house will always be special, but nothing compares to the huge king-sized bed that he shares with Will in their new house.
When they move in, it's the only thing that Will gives him complete freedom with. Everything else is Will's choice -- the carpeting, what type of TV they get, the colour of the sofa -- but Skandar gets to choose the bed, and everything to do with it.
He picks the biggest one he can find, made of smooth dark wood, and then spends about a week picking out the sheets. He wants satin ones, and he knows Will is going to say they're impractical, but he doesn't care. This is the one thing he's allowed to choose.
In the end, he picks navy blue, and when he gets back from town he makes up the bed while Will is out.
And when they're lying there a couple of hours later, tangled naked together in the dark silky-smooth sheets, seconds from a long and blissful sleep, Will only has one thing to say about the sheets --
"I -- er -- I know you put a lot of thought into these, but...I think we're going to need to wash them now."
3. Athlete - Tourist
They're in New York (hardly exotic!) when Skandar gets the idea.
"I want," he says, "to do this in every country in the world."
Will gazes out of the hotel window, twirls his finger around one of Skandar's curls. "Really?" he says. "I mean -- are you serious? Or is this just another one of your schemes?"
"Schemes?" repeats Skandar. "Are we in a '50s detective movie?"
"Smart-arse," Will responds, pinching him. "We can't do it, anyway. We'd never be able to."
But they get close.
They're already well on their way thanks to all the places that filming takes them, and promotion on top of that. But when all of that is over, they keep going -- making love in a gorgeous villa in Italy, fucking in a slightly dubious motel in Denmark, trading blowjobs on a nearly-deserted white-sanded beach in Mexico. They have sex in a famous Ice Hotel in Sweden, laughing over the resemblance to the White Witch's palace, and they get off in a guesthouse in Greece, overlooking gorgeous mountains outside.
But when they come home to dreary old England, dazed from their travels, and settle down in their own warm, comfortable bed, that's when it's the best.
"Home's where the heart is," Skandar murmurs happily, unbuttoning Will's shirt, creased from the flight.
Will rolls his eyes; doesn't bother reminding Skandar that the travelling was his idea.
4. Damien Rice - Cannonball
Maybe he'd seen it coming.
Yeah, he had. Of course he'd seen it coming. He would've had to have been blind not to.
It was little hints at first -- always hints, nothing too big and sharp and specific -- while they were filming. Sparks flying, getting on like a house on fire, all the usual. And that was all well and good, because it all seemed perfectly innocent, but when his GCSEs started and he had to go back home, and Will and Ben kept on with the promotion -- well, that was when it all started.
And it was his Mum, always coming into his room with newspaper clippings while he was revising, or telling him she'd just seen clips of some premiere or other on the TV. And it was seeing the two of them together -- the arms around each other, the sly little smiles -- that told him all he needed to know.
The worst thing of all of it was that there was nothing he could say.
He wasn't losing Will. He never had him in the first place. Will was free for Ben to take, and Skandar had no right to put a stop to it.
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Kiss Kiss
He'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about it, but it's true that he never thought it would actually happen.
But Ben just smiled, a little quirk of his lips, and murmured, "It's the perfect solution."
Will doubted him, at first. It could have been a disaster. Skandar was always so competitive (he didn't realise that when it came down to it, that was going to be a good thing) and so possessive -- there was no way he'd ever agree to something like this.
But he did, rather eagerly in fact, and when his lips were pressing kisses to Will's chest and Ben's head was disappearing down between his thighs, and they were sharing him, Will had to admit that maybe Ben was right.
6. Tiga - You Gonna Want Me
Skandar looks in the mirror. He looks himself up and down. No -- this green doesn't really suit him. Best to stick with blue. Sure, he wears it a lot, but it suits him, people have said so.
He pulls off the t-shirt, grabs one of his favourite blue ones instead.
It's hard to do this sort of thing when you've only got about four actual outfits, but it doesn't matter -- he's bloody well going to do it anyway.
He locates his hairbrush (which was probably last used several months ago when he had to go to that stupid wedding) under his bed, and runs it through his hair. No, that looks ridiculous. He messes it up again with his hands, licks his lips, blinks at his reflection.
He feels like a girl. No, he doesn't, he feels like the most pathetic person on the planet. But Will is coming round for tea, and it's been quite a while since they've last seen each other (nearly four weeks, not that he's been counting or anything) and Skandar's going to show him that he's grown up now, that he doesn't need to be treated like a kid anymore.
Yeah, he's still fourteen. Yeah, he's awkward and gangly and he's got these fucking braces, but he's determined, and that's what really matters.
He's going to make Will forget about that stupid girlfriend he's randomly aquired over the past few weeks. He's going to make Will want him instead.
7. Soho Dolls - Stripper
"Um," says Skandar, then realises he's going to have to say it a lot louder if he wants Will to actually hear him over the music. "UM."
Will's head turns instantly from the writhing, gyrating, half-naked women on the stage in front of them.
"THANK YOU FOR -- FOR THIS," Skandar shouts, wondering if he sounds even slightly sincere. He hopes so. "FOR ORGANISING THIS. IT'S, ER, IT'S REALLY GOOD?"
Will's expression brightens a little. (He hasn't looked particularly happy at all since they got here, now that Skandar thinks about it.) "YOU'RE WELCOME," he yells. "YEAH. IT'S NICE, ISN'T IT?"
William Moseley, Skandar thinks, is the only man in the entire universe who could ever describe a strip club as 'nice'.
"THEY'RE, UM. ATTRACTIVE," Will adds uncertainly.
Skandar glances back towards the stage, takes another large gulp of beer. They are, he supposes. If you like that sort of thing. A girl shimmies over to Will, and Will offers her a grin that, somewhere down the line, turns into a sort of grimace.
"DO YOU -- DO YOU WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE?" Skandar says after a few awkward minutes of the girl shaking her arse in their faces.
"PLEASE."
Outside, it is cold and windy and very, very quiet compared to the atmosphere of the club. Will stammers at him for a while, all I'm sorry if you didn't like it, Skan, I just thought it might be fun, I thought you might like it, and grinds a chewing gum wrapper into the pavement with the toe of his shoe.
Skandar waits patiently, wondering how to explain. When Will finally stops talking, it seems like the only way to adequately express his feelings is by kissing him.
It's probably not what Will had planned, but hey -- it's definitely an eighteenth birthday to remember.
9. The Dandy Warhols - Love Is The New Feel Awful
"What's going on?", people are always asking him. "What's up? What's wrong?" He wasn't aware that it's apparently written all over his face, but clearly it is, or else how would they all be able to tell? He studies himself in the mirror, looking himself right in the eye, but it's useless. He knows how he feels, he can't judge as an outsider.
"What's wrong?" Ben asks one day, voice low as he leans in to ask the question during a break in shooting.
Will's all ready to give one of his stock answers -- he has a wide choice, actually, ranging all the way from things like nothing to I'm just tired.
But then Ben tucks his hair behind his ear, dips his head, and adds, "Is it heartache?"
Will's lips curl into a smile. "How did you know?"
Ben grins knowingly. "It's always heartache." And then he tilts his head to where Skandar is standing -- leaning against a tree a little way off, drinking from a bottle of water. "Plus, you've barely looked away from him for about three weeks now. It's a bit of a giveaway."
Will laughs, speechless.
"You could always do something about it, you know," Ben suggests. He says it like it's the easiest thing in the world, and Will starts to believe it. Anything's easier than this, anyway, it's got to be.
"You know," he hears himself saying, "I just might."
10. Coldplay - See You Soon
"Please don't tell me he's on the phone again," Andrew says as Georgie comes out of Skandar's trailer.
"The news ain't good, Adamson," she says, shaking her head.
Andrew groans and throws himself against the side of the trailer dramatically. "We've got to get this scene done!" he sighs. "I think we need to confiscate his mobile, Georgie."
Georgie nods solemnly. "It's for the greater good," she agrees. "I asked him how many hours he'd spent talking to Will all together since we got here, and he wouldn't even answer, so it must be bad."
Skandar smiles, sitting on his bed and listening to the conversation going on outside his window. He taps out another text to Will, sends it. They're plotting to cut our lines of communication, it says.
I'm sure you'll come up with something, Will responds, the text arriving almost immediately.
And he does. Georgie steals his phone later that day, but it doesn't matter -- he's got the number memorised, and he's sure that there are plenty of make-up artists and camera technicians who will be willing to lend him their mobiles
Especially, he thinks, smiling to himself, if he tells them it's an emergency.
But in the end, I was encouraged to give it a go, and I settled down with my iPod and my laptop and began.
And it really wasn't as hard as I thought. OKAY.
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays.
You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble
You start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
Title: Drabble Meme!
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Mostly Will/Skandar, one Will/Skandar/Ben, one Will/Ben
Rating: It varies, but generally about PG-13 I'd say.
Warnings: Real person slash.
A/N: I was encouraged to do this by blueberinitrate, and I've been meaning to do it for ages, so, *hops on bandwagon* I was interrupted several times by an extremely rude fly and had to stop at one point to get rid of it, but other than that, I followed the rules. :D Also, dammit, thanks Girls Aloud for being the first band to come on shuffle...way to give people a good impression of my music taste. XD
1. Girls Aloud - Can't Speak French
"Is this," begins Skandar fearfully as he glances around the club, "Girls Aloud?"
Will grins, listening to the beginning of the song. "I think so," he says, laughing at Skandar's horrified face.
The barman slides their shots across the table, and Skandar downs his quickly.
"Want to dance?" Will shouts in Skandar's ear as the chorus starts up.
Skandar's eyes go wide and he shakes his head, and Will laughs again.
"I still can't believe you brought me here," Skandar yells back.
Whatever, thinks Will. It's only a tiny little gay bar in Paris. It's not as if anyone knows them here, and anyway, Skandar's the one recognising Girls Aloud from the first ten seconds of the song.
Two shots later, and Skandar's on the dancefloor.
Skandar will, of course, vigorously deny this later, but Will's pretty sure he's even singing along.
2. The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
Bed is probably Skandar's favourite place in the whole wide world.
Hotel beds are okay, and of course his bed at his parents' house will always be special, but nothing compares to the huge king-sized bed that he shares with Will in their new house.
When they move in, it's the only thing that Will gives him complete freedom with. Everything else is Will's choice -- the carpeting, what type of TV they get, the colour of the sofa -- but Skandar gets to choose the bed, and everything to do with it.
He picks the biggest one he can find, made of smooth dark wood, and then spends about a week picking out the sheets. He wants satin ones, and he knows Will is going to say they're impractical, but he doesn't care. This is the one thing he's allowed to choose.
In the end, he picks navy blue, and when he gets back from town he makes up the bed while Will is out.
And when they're lying there a couple of hours later, tangled naked together in the dark silky-smooth sheets, seconds from a long and blissful sleep, Will only has one thing to say about the sheets --
"I -- er -- I know you put a lot of thought into these, but...I think we're going to need to wash them now."
3. Athlete - Tourist
They're in New York (hardly exotic!) when Skandar gets the idea.
"I want," he says, "to do this in every country in the world."
Will gazes out of the hotel window, twirls his finger around one of Skandar's curls. "Really?" he says. "I mean -- are you serious? Or is this just another one of your schemes?"
"Schemes?" repeats Skandar. "Are we in a '50s detective movie?"
"Smart-arse," Will responds, pinching him. "We can't do it, anyway. We'd never be able to."
But they get close.
They're already well on their way thanks to all the places that filming takes them, and promotion on top of that. But when all of that is over, they keep going -- making love in a gorgeous villa in Italy, fucking in a slightly dubious motel in Denmark, trading blowjobs on a nearly-deserted white-sanded beach in Mexico. They have sex in a famous Ice Hotel in Sweden, laughing over the resemblance to the White Witch's palace, and they get off in a guesthouse in Greece, overlooking gorgeous mountains outside.
But when they come home to dreary old England, dazed from their travels, and settle down in their own warm, comfortable bed, that's when it's the best.
"Home's where the heart is," Skandar murmurs happily, unbuttoning Will's shirt, creased from the flight.
Will rolls his eyes; doesn't bother reminding Skandar that the travelling was his idea.
4. Damien Rice - Cannonball
Maybe he'd seen it coming.
Yeah, he had. Of course he'd seen it coming. He would've had to have been blind not to.
It was little hints at first -- always hints, nothing too big and sharp and specific -- while they were filming. Sparks flying, getting on like a house on fire, all the usual. And that was all well and good, because it all seemed perfectly innocent, but when his GCSEs started and he had to go back home, and Will and Ben kept on with the promotion -- well, that was when it all started.
And it was his Mum, always coming into his room with newspaper clippings while he was revising, or telling him she'd just seen clips of some premiere or other on the TV. And it was seeing the two of them together -- the arms around each other, the sly little smiles -- that told him all he needed to know.
The worst thing of all of it was that there was nothing he could say.
He wasn't losing Will. He never had him in the first place. Will was free for Ben to take, and Skandar had no right to put a stop to it.
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Kiss Kiss
He'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about it, but it's true that he never thought it would actually happen.
But Ben just smiled, a little quirk of his lips, and murmured, "It's the perfect solution."
Will doubted him, at first. It could have been a disaster. Skandar was always so competitive (he didn't realise that when it came down to it, that was going to be a good thing) and so possessive -- there was no way he'd ever agree to something like this.
But he did, rather eagerly in fact, and when his lips were pressing kisses to Will's chest and Ben's head was disappearing down between his thighs, and they were sharing him, Will had to admit that maybe Ben was right.
6. Tiga - You Gonna Want Me
Skandar looks in the mirror. He looks himself up and down. No -- this green doesn't really suit him. Best to stick with blue. Sure, he wears it a lot, but it suits him, people have said so.
He pulls off the t-shirt, grabs one of his favourite blue ones instead.
It's hard to do this sort of thing when you've only got about four actual outfits, but it doesn't matter -- he's bloody well going to do it anyway.
He locates his hairbrush (which was probably last used several months ago when he had to go to that stupid wedding) under his bed, and runs it through his hair. No, that looks ridiculous. He messes it up again with his hands, licks his lips, blinks at his reflection.
He feels like a girl. No, he doesn't, he feels like the most pathetic person on the planet. But Will is coming round for tea, and it's been quite a while since they've last seen each other (nearly four weeks, not that he's been counting or anything) and Skandar's going to show him that he's grown up now, that he doesn't need to be treated like a kid anymore.
Yeah, he's still fourteen. Yeah, he's awkward and gangly and he's got these fucking braces, but he's determined, and that's what really matters.
He's going to make Will forget about that stupid girlfriend he's randomly aquired over the past few weeks. He's going to make Will want him instead.
7. Soho Dolls - Stripper
"Um," says Skandar, then realises he's going to have to say it a lot louder if he wants Will to actually hear him over the music. "UM."
Will's head turns instantly from the writhing, gyrating, half-naked women on the stage in front of them.
"THANK YOU FOR -- FOR THIS," Skandar shouts, wondering if he sounds even slightly sincere. He hopes so. "FOR ORGANISING THIS. IT'S, ER, IT'S REALLY GOOD?"
Will's expression brightens a little. (He hasn't looked particularly happy at all since they got here, now that Skandar thinks about it.) "YOU'RE WELCOME," he yells. "YEAH. IT'S NICE, ISN'T IT?"
William Moseley, Skandar thinks, is the only man in the entire universe who could ever describe a strip club as 'nice'.
"THEY'RE, UM. ATTRACTIVE," Will adds uncertainly.
Skandar glances back towards the stage, takes another large gulp of beer. They are, he supposes. If you like that sort of thing. A girl shimmies over to Will, and Will offers her a grin that, somewhere down the line, turns into a sort of grimace.
"DO YOU -- DO YOU WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE?" Skandar says after a few awkward minutes of the girl shaking her arse in their faces.
"PLEASE."
Outside, it is cold and windy and very, very quiet compared to the atmosphere of the club. Will stammers at him for a while, all I'm sorry if you didn't like it, Skan, I just thought it might be fun, I thought you might like it, and grinds a chewing gum wrapper into the pavement with the toe of his shoe.
Skandar waits patiently, wondering how to explain. When Will finally stops talking, it seems like the only way to adequately express his feelings is by kissing him.
It's probably not what Will had planned, but hey -- it's definitely an eighteenth birthday to remember.
9. The Dandy Warhols - Love Is The New Feel Awful
"What's going on?", people are always asking him. "What's up? What's wrong?" He wasn't aware that it's apparently written all over his face, but clearly it is, or else how would they all be able to tell? He studies himself in the mirror, looking himself right in the eye, but it's useless. He knows how he feels, he can't judge as an outsider.
"What's wrong?" Ben asks one day, voice low as he leans in to ask the question during a break in shooting.
Will's all ready to give one of his stock answers -- he has a wide choice, actually, ranging all the way from things like nothing to I'm just tired.
But then Ben tucks his hair behind his ear, dips his head, and adds, "Is it heartache?"
Will's lips curl into a smile. "How did you know?"
Ben grins knowingly. "It's always heartache." And then he tilts his head to where Skandar is standing -- leaning against a tree a little way off, drinking from a bottle of water. "Plus, you've barely looked away from him for about three weeks now. It's a bit of a giveaway."
Will laughs, speechless.
"You could always do something about it, you know," Ben suggests. He says it like it's the easiest thing in the world, and Will starts to believe it. Anything's easier than this, anyway, it's got to be.
"You know," he hears himself saying, "I just might."
10. Coldplay - See You Soon
"Please don't tell me he's on the phone again," Andrew says as Georgie comes out of Skandar's trailer.
"The news ain't good, Adamson," she says, shaking her head.
Andrew groans and throws himself against the side of the trailer dramatically. "We've got to get this scene done!" he sighs. "I think we need to confiscate his mobile, Georgie."
Georgie nods solemnly. "It's for the greater good," she agrees. "I asked him how many hours he'd spent talking to Will all together since we got here, and he wouldn't even answer, so it must be bad."
Skandar smiles, sitting on his bed and listening to the conversation going on outside his window. He taps out another text to Will, sends it. They're plotting to cut our lines of communication, it says.
I'm sure you'll come up with something, Will responds, the text arriving almost immediately.
And he does. Georgie steals his phone later that day, but it doesn't matter -- he's got the number memorised, and he's sure that there are plenty of make-up artists and camera technicians who will be willing to lend him their mobiles
Especially, he thinks, smiling to himself, if he tells them it's an emergency.