clockworkpiz

A series of events

2013-08-19T17:52:24Z

It started as one thing and then evolved, very slowly, into something else. For redjaywrites. As of yet, incomplete.
Dominic would never say he had been a t-total man before he met Cooper, neither would he say he had cut down since he had met her. She was his best friend, his occasional sparring partner and always the first person he went to whenever anything was wrong.

When they had met, Dom had been soaked in blood and had soon after collapsed on the floor of an Edinburgh tat shop, which had perhaps been the proof that she needed that the blood was his own. She hadn't trusted him, even then, but had fixed him up and dragged him somewhere until he had woken up. He had been lucky he hadn't cut any deeper, since neither Cooper nor himself would have stepped into a hospital and anything much worse would likely have sent him into shock. Since Cooper had been certain that he was some kind of copper, sent to track her down, he remained to this day surprised that she had taken pity on him. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the way that he had panicked when she had turned up, reacting almost as badly as she had done. In his case, it was the delayed effects of pain setting in, as well as the nausea that set in every time he was around blood that he still had yet to tell Cooper about. It had taken more than three days before she actually spoke to him, possibly because of the arm that kept on bleeding and kept him from keeping anything down, let alone speak, but also more than likely because her feeling were still hurt from him trying to explode her. The little things.

Much to Dom's surprise, Cooper found something in him that nobody before or since seemed to see. It took her a remarkably short amount of time to trust him, although he was still not certain if he was pleased about it. They had grudgingly and unspokenly agreed to travel together, on a temporary basis. Dominic hadn't yet actively tried to kill Cooper and she, for her part, had decided that she needed to show him some sympathy, considering that she had been able to corroborate his story by following a trail of blood. Actions always spoke louder than words for the Irish woman, or non action, as the case may be. After speaking to Cooper for five minutes, he had needed a drink. After ten, he had realised it was time to start speaking to god again. Given half an hour alone with her, it was very clear that he needed to find a new god at the bottom of a very large bottle.

Three weeks of knowing her, Dom had begun to think of her as a cat. Partially from the way that she would jump at strange noises, but mostly because when she was shocked, he would find himself with a faceful of red hair while she clambered up his chest as though she could hide. Given that he was only an inch or two taller than her, it made for a few awkward conversations when they both ended up on the floor.

A night to remember 3/?

2013-03-11T21:29:31Z

"...Adam?" He tried, really tried, to keep the waver out of his voice, but only really managed to force himself into a whisper. Adam's eyes hadn't opened, but he had spoken. So he wasn't dead, so maybe he had found Marie and she had a husband? That would make sense, although it didn't explain how Adam had found himself in a normal hospital with a face that only a mother could love. Vinnie suspected that either Adam had seriously pissed somebody off, or he had got drunk and woke up in an alley missing his wallet and watching some malcontent youths running in the opposite direction with glee. From the fact that he could see Adam's wallet and watch piled up on top of the tiny bedside table beside him, he thought the latter.

The panic he had felt on arriving at the hospital melted, almost seamlessly into anger. How could Adam have possibly let this happen to himself? He was much smarter than that! Even worse, he was smart enough to never get into a situation like this in the first place! What had it been that had even brought them here? Some call out of the blue, from Marie, saying something about...well, Adam had never let Vinnie be privy to that information and Vinnie hadn't wanted to pry. Now he almost wished he had. More importantly, he wished that he had insisted more strongly that he accompany the ifrit into the belly of the beast. But no, he had decided it was more important to scout out possible places for the full moon, just around the corner, in case Adam had decided to extend the trip. Now look what had happened. Adam had got hurt and it was....it was...no. Vinnie blinked rapidly, in a way that was most certainly not trying to stop himself from leaking all over Adam's new hospital sheets.

"YOU Y-YOU..." The words exploded out of him at a volume even he wasn't aware he was capable of. Vinnie supposed it was partly the wolf in him and partly his mother's influence, but his response to fear had always been the same; disproportionate anger. Getting angry meant that he didn't have to think and if he didn't have to think, he couldn't panic. Panic caused problems, especially in a cockpit, which Vinnie had learned the hard way, back before he was turned, when he watched men, good strong men, panic and go down.

The nurse from earlier popped her head back into the room, with a concerned look on her face. Vinnie apologised, with an appropriately chastised look on his face- she seemed either to trust his face, or assumed that as Adam was clearly no worse, there was little to worry about. He took a deep, shaking, breath, watching the door for a moment before he turned back to Adam. "You idiot. What did you do?"

clockworkpiz @ 2013-03-11T17:25:00

2013-03-11T17:25:19Z

For redjaywrites. I'm sorry. It just happened.

Vinnie could never really be sure of anything, especially where Adam was concerned. Which was a shame, really, as Adam was Vinnie's closest friend, confidant and the only person who could really stand him when he got in a bad mood. Friends of that sort were rather hard to come by, in Vinnie's world and though he complained, he really was fond of the small blonde German man who made things just that little bit more interesting. What he didn't enjoy so much was being dragged to strange places in a city that he was not familiar with, with little to no idea of what to expect other than a somewhat vague note delivered by a confused teenager around fourty five minutes previously. Already he had crumpled it close to ripping, a nervous habit of fidgeting that he had never quite been able to be rid of. 'Come quick, Rue Henri-Huchard- Adam'.

It had only been when he had climbed into a taxi and held out the note in apology for his quite frankly god-awful French, and been asked to confirm if he wanted the hospital that Vinnie had really started to panic. There was no reason for Adam to be in a hospital, he was a d'jinn, he could heal himself even if he didn't want to (which Vinnie had seen several times when the man had wanted sympathy over some trivial cut or bruise) and even if he did, it would mean risking everything.

The atrium of the hospital was cold, brightly coloured and almost completely empty. Vinnie's feet seemed to be the only noise in the place, until he quietly and shakily asked to be taken up to Adam. The other man had apparently been asking about his arrival every time he woke up (woke up?!) and he was expected. In a flurry of starched white uniforms and lab coats, Vinnie was ushered up to a small, equally bright and starkly coloured room, only to be left with Adam and a tall, efficient looking nurse who was too busy taking Adam's vitals to do anything other than nod in agreement that yes, a visitor had indeed arrived. Vinnie lingered nervously by the door, unwilling to move much further in. Adam looked so small and pale against his sheets that Vinnie was worried for a second that something was really wrong with him.

“Please…might I…might I have a minute alone with him?”

The moment the nurse left the room, Vinnie planted a hand on Adam's shoulder and gave the man a firm shake. Adam's jokes were seriously starting to wear away on his patience. He gave a laugh, that was only slightly forced. Of course Adam would be all right. This was the type of thing he lived for and it was really getting to be a bit old. It was what, the third or fourth time he'd tried to pull this exact trick on Vinnie, only to be released later the same hour of his arrival. It was really getting a bit old.

“Come on Adam, you’ve had your fun. Get up now”

No reply.

“ADAM! I told you, it’s not funny anymore”

The insistent shaking ceased, only to be replaced by a sharp intake of breath that was attempting and failing to hide a sob.

"Adam...Adam, please...."

Archery lessons

2013-02-05T18:00:19Z

“And just ease the string back” She pressed her fingers against his arm, the tips just touching the material of his sweatshirt. It had been a long time in coming; while Lisa had learned her craft more than ten years ago and had spent the intervening time practicing and honing the skill, Felix hadn’t pressed her for the promised lesson since he had been twelve years old. There wouldn’t have been much point, with Lisa.

Even with his back to her, Felix could almost sense her hundred megawatt smile. They didn’t come all that often, but when they did, Felix was always completely unable to resist her. To date, he could only recall three occurrences of that particular smile that had been caused by him, one of which had been purely because he had been unable to release himself from a set of handcuffs without her help- she had gloated for weeks from the very moment she realised. Felix moved his arm backwards, sure that he was about to elbow her in the stomach, regardless of the slow, precise movements he was making.

He could hear Lisa letting out the breath she had clearly been holding in, from the moment he had touched her precious bow. Lisa Baker had never been a woman overcome by emotional attachment, but the bow was special. He had never been told the exact origin of her most treasured possession, nor had he tried to pry, but he was willing to hazard a guess that it wasn’t from her parents. Lisa had always been closer to Felix’s mother than her own and Felix had never tried to press for a reason why. He always suspected there was some kind of clash in personalities, but he knew full well that it was deeper than that. Again, he had never tried to press the matter, it would bring more trouble than it would solve. According to his sister, there were just some things that men were never going to get and he should stop trying to do so while he was ahead.

“That’s it” Lisa paused for a moment before she spoke again, her voice now slightly strained “Felix, you’re not going to go very far holding on to that”

Felix smiled and leant back into her arms. There was a very good reason why Lisa had never given him archery lessons and it always came back to the same thing. “Speak for yourself, darling”

Rainy Day Adventures with Cooper and Ben

2012-05-17T21:11:08Z

Words: 725
Characters: Cooper, Ben

Every time it rained, it would appear that Cooper and Ben’s ever close relationship would crumble and die, like so many before them. It wasn’t that either of them was heavily affected by the rain, by way of mood, but they did so enjoy board games. Ben had a particularly impressive collection, at Cooper’s insistence. Most of the games had been collected from second hand stores or charity shops and so were missing either half the pieces or were only a few games away from total destruction. The fact that games almost always ended up in fights really did not help the situation in the slightest. Monopoly had a hole through free parking, from where Ben had decided the game was conspiring against him and stabbed the board with a chopstick in a moment of anger and the less said about Cluedo, the better. It was only Twister that appeared to be unscathed, although that might have been because their version always ended up in giggles and a mess of arms and legs long before either of them was able to even touch the plastic mat.

They knew what had happened in the past, but both best friends were convinced, each and every time, that they would behave the next time it rained. This was how they came to be playing Battleships on what was their first time together in more than a month.

Ben was never sure if Cooper actually lived with him, or if she had her own place elsewhere, given the amount of time that she actually spent there. If he brought anybody back to his flat, he always had to be sure to check first, just in case Cooper was hanging around in her underwear again because she had a fight with the toaster and her shirt didn’t like the jam. He was running out of nice women to meet and he was really starting to miss toast. Even so, Ben didn’t want to have Cooper out of his life. He could remember what it had been like for the time that she was missing, it had been his fault then and he wasn’t about to let it happen again, so he had decided on a night each week where they would get together and do something, anything, that would mean he could feel less guilty about having her climb out through the window, next time he tried to bring somebody home to find her covered in jam.

The entire day had been planned. They were going to go to the park, eat ice cream and then walk by the river. And then it rained and rained and rained. By Cooper’s estimation, it had now been raining for twenty million hours and they were going to be stuck there forever. It had been Ben’s decision to break into the board games and Cooper who had gone immediately for Battleships.

“A9” Cooper’s eyebrows drew closer together in concentration. Like with everything she did, Cooper gave her all into playing the game. Even more, now that they had wagered who would complete all of the considerable pile of washing up on the outcome of the game.

“Miss…G5” Ben stared at her over the top of the game’s plastic casing, beaming in the glow of the certainty of his guess.

“HIT. Ugh, you sunk it. Come on Ben, you’re cheating and you know it!” The old argument was coming out again. “I shouldn’t play games like this with a psychic, you’re a cheating cheater who cheats and you know it!”

Ben snorted. “You’re just a bad loser and you know it!” He retorted. He was psychic, but he wasn’t good enough for that and he didn’t need to be one to be able to beat Cooper at any kind of game. She hadn’t yet learned that sitting in front of mirrors wasn’t a good thing in games of secrecy and even through all of the years that they had known each other, she had never quite managed to work out why Ben needed to use the toilet so often when they played games. She had always put it down to nerves and the amount of pop she always insisted he drink, because he needed a lot of liquids to aid his certain defeat. The defeat was coming one of these days, she knew it.

Show time

2012-02-11T23:10:47Z

A short to be extended at a later date.

He could feel her shaking with ill disguised terror. Not that he could blame her. Dominic knew more than most about what had happened with Cooper’s past and that was only because of the nights he had spent watching her, terrified while she slept. He still wasn’t sure if she knew that she talked in her sleep. He knew that the mere thought of being somewhere that mutants were even close to being caught shook her to her very centre. He couldn’t be having that. In one movement, he hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. It was the final nail in the coffin of his suspicions that she didn’t screech and push him away with a torrent of curses, but instead fell into the embrace and almost smiled. If he was honest with himself, Dominic wasn’t entirely out of the realms of terror himself and having Cooper so close was comforting.

To the world, it appeared as though the couple were the esteemed and yet wonderfully shy entrepreneur and his wife that the invitation that he held out presented them to be. New money, of course, but there was little to be done about that. In reality, Dominic and Cooper were as welcome at the exclusive and very likely human only party as a swarm of rats, but they had been asked to do a job as a favour and Dominic never passed up on a promise. He sincerely doubted his life honoured tradition of keeping promises now that he was faced with the full body scanner that faced them up close. There was no way of knowing whether it was just a metal detector (no guns allowed except on the hard faced armed guards, apparently) or whether it was one of those new machines that he had heard rumours of- the ones that could test for mutants without a sample of blood. Just one slip up and the two of them could be in a mess that he didn’t think he could get them out of again. It wasn’t an experience that he was used to and if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have been in it at all.

“Hi” He said, smoothly adopting his most favoured accent over his own. Unlike Cooper, to whom subtlety came to in only the smallest amounts, Dominic was convinced he could have been an actor, had his life turned out differently. If nothing else, he could affect many accents to a remarkably passable degree. His best and most convincing was a Londoner’s accent with a slight Bostonian twang, courtesy of his mother who had been brought up in London, before moving to the states as a child, before returning to Scotland. He didn’t think he could have forgiven her if he had been born and American. “I’m Dominic Xavier, this is my wife, Co- Coraline”

The moment they were out of earshot of the majority of the guests, Cooper pulled him down to her level. He didn’t exactly have far to go. While Cooper was small, Dominic was only a few inches taller than her, much to his annoyance. Being subtle for once, Cooper fingered the collar of his shirt, as though adjusting the line which brought her mouth close enough to his ear that she apparently felt comfortable enough to speak without being overheard. Even so, Dominic had to strain to hear her over the sound of the band that had begun playing behind them.

“Coraline? You’ve forgotten my name now? Jeez, Mac, I know you’ve not got much in there but I thought you knew that”

He dropped the fake accent for just a moment, giving the teasing laugh he knew infuriated her. A terrified Cooper wasn’t something that he could deal with. At least if she was annoyed, she would stop scaring him without even realising she was doing it. “These are toffs, Paddy, an’ Cooper is a strange name.”

She poked him painfully in the chest, while pretending to adjust his tie. “Let’s just get the kid and leave”

Short and sweet.

2011-12-13T20:31:05Z

A nice short one for redjaywrites because I needed to get this out of my system and she has de horrors of exams.

Felix wasn’t really one to go down the road of sentimentality, or at least not in public. Thankfully, Lisa’s reaction to such things was to snort and goad him into recounting just what they had done, in excruciating detail. It would have surprised her to see the photo that he kept in his wallet, at all times. Normally, the tattered piece of paper was lost beneath false credit cards (mostly dummies; Felix preferred to deal in cash and always had) and various bits of wallet accumulation. Still, it was there, ready for him to catch sight of it and smile fondly, before stowing it away into the leather covered land of no return.

The colour had nearly all faded, but the details were clear enough to see; Felix and Lisa, stood beside the van that they had bought for themselves and practically lived in for nearly a year. He had never been able to remember if they had managed to convince some random passer-by to take the picture, or if they had just balanced Lisa’s camera on a convenient style, but they had managed to capture both the very edge of the van that they leaned on and the sheep quietly grazing in the background. They couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen, Felix was smirking at the camera, his dark hair at the length where the curls became slightly too out of control to ever be considered acceptable by his mother and a pair of dark glasses over his eyes against the summer sun. One hand was gripping Lisa’s tightly, while the other was tightly clasped around her waist in a grip that was keeping her from dropping to the ground. He had very clearly just pulled her into the position and from the half laughing, half furious face she was pulling, she had not been expecting it.

He could remember just what they had done before and after the photograph was taken as vague hazy memories that blurred into other days. That moment, on the other hand, was forever burned into his brain; he could still hear Lisa’s snorting giggle and her annoyed reprimand, smell the farm land that had been behind them. He was even sure he could still remember the feeling of the sun on his skin, the last days of a warm summer that had lead them to attempting to travel upwards from Land’s end and see how far they could get on whatever money that had happened to have on them before they began the impulsive adventure.

Now he had Lisa half nonsensical on the last of the hipflask she had somehow smuggled into his flat (remarkable, really, considering what she had been wearing) and he could not sleep. All he would have to do would be to find a van on short notice...

Fools gold

2011-12-05T00:46:39Z

As might have been learned by this point, should redjaywrites write something dark and gritty involving characters I own/love, I have to write the counter light and fluffy version. This is mostly because I am in awe of her glorious writing skills, but also because I am incapable of writing anything that isn't either light and fluffy or just completely fucking creepy.

Title: Fool's Gold
Characters: Dominic Hampton and Cooper Malone
Length:

Dominic rolled jerkily from the bed the moment the phone began to ring. He wasn’t naturally an early riser, or a morning person, but several false alarms and several more actual alarms had slowly but surely trained his body to be alert the moment there was some kind of noise around him. Perhaps ‘alert’ wasn’t the most accurate of words, but he was at least upright and able to grope blindly for the direction of the shrieking phone.
“H’lo?”

“Malone?” Dominic tensed at the accented voice on the other end of the phone. He should have known who it was, really. Other than the Chinese take away a few streets away, nobody else had their phone number. Only the Resistance knew they were there. Both parties had made sure of that. What made the voice worse was the hint of panic that the man seemed either unable or unwilling to hide. Worse, he was asking for Cooper- the one person in Dominic’s world who was…well, he couldn’t even describe it and especially not to her. She would never let him live it down, for one.

“What have you done?” He growled. The words were quiet, without the faked accent that Dominic normally put on around the leader of the Resistance. He was sure that the man saw through it anyway, but it comforted him to have at least a semblance of mystery. Now, however, he was more worried about what could have happened to Cooper if Woodstock Collins himself rang up Dominic’s flat with a panic that even Dom’s somewhat underdeveloped social empathy could pick up on. “Whisper…what did you do?”
He could hear the sound of murmured conversation at the other end of the phone, dropped as it was to his side.

“Coop?” He paused, listening for a reply, before he raised his voice “Paddy, you in?” Dominic had learnt fairly quickly that Cooper nearly always refused to sleep in a bed. He had tried and failed- even drunk, she somehow managed to worm her way onto the countertop or one especially surprising time, curled up inside one of the cupboards. That hadn’t been a pleasant morning; especially not after Dominic had automatically decided she was a demon who needed to be destroyed with fire. Cooper hadn’t taken the wakeup call well and she had taken it out on his last bottle of non-blindness inducing whiskey. Since then, Dom had taken to calling about the flat for her like a lost cat. It was equally as effective as it would have been on an actual cat and had yet to produce a result, but it was less likely to lose him the precious stash of good whiskey than trying to blow up his best friend, should he be surprised. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

When he entered the bathroom, he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a strangled kind of gurgling noise of horror. The room was a mess, with the entire contents of the first aid box strewn across the floor from what must have been her attempts to administer some kind of help to herself.

“When I get my hands on you…I…I…fuck you” Surprisingly, he was unable to raise his voice above a low whisper, but the sound of the phone exploding against the wall in a cascade of burning electronics was enough to raise Cooper from her coma like sleep. The moment he spotted the movement, Dominic was at her side. “Hey Paddy…”

Cooper was a mess. Her body was a mass of scrapes and rapidly blooming bruises and between the clumsily applied bandages, he could see the worrying bend of her fingers. He was no doctor, but he felt confident in his diagnosis of pretty fucking messed up.
“Yer not allowed to get hurt like this, I thought we talked about it”

Target practice is no good without a weapon

2011-11-10T17:12:41Z

Title: Target practice
Characters: Lisa Baker, Felix Evans
Length: 742

It was love, he had no doubt about that. There was nothing else, other than a disregard for his own wellbeing that would have him trapped behind a locked door, handcuffed to a shelf while watching the similarly encumbered woman opposite him sleep off the effects of three bottles of wine laced with sedatives. Both had been his doing, naturally, but he hadn’t expected the sudden arrival of a team who wanted both he and his partner for their own devices. Whether it was monetary gain or simply that they wanted to draw out the moments before they exacted whatever revenge they felt Felix deserved for some unknown crime, Felix didn’t know, nor did he care.

Felix glanced up at his wrist. The skin was chaffed, cracked and bleeding from his futile attempts at escape several hours earlier. Each carefully planned movement only served to further open the cuts, made worse by the cramp that was settling into his legs. Neither feeling was helped by the throbbing in his skull that was the ever so charming result of making good friends with the business end of a cricket bat. He noticed, with some annoyance, that he had been relieved of anything that could possibly be useful to him. With foresight that he hadn’t expected and a possible overestimation of his skills, he had also been relieved of everything that wasn’t the trousers he stood up in. They had even gone to the trouble of taking his shirt, which he would have been grateful of on the freezing concrete floor, although if he thought about it, the shirt had been done away with shortly before Lisa had felt the effects of his wine.

“It would be nice to say I’ve never woken up in handcuffs because of you before”

“You would?” Despite the situation, Felix couldn’t stop himself from giving the now fully awake woman a smirking grin “That’s not the impression I got from you, darling” Lisa took the moment to look over at his utterly impassive face and scowled. From his position, it only served to make her nose scrunch up in the adorable way that he was certain made him fall in love with her. It was the reason that he made her annoyed purposefully so often. All of the other times were just part and parcel of being Felix- he could irritate people just by sitting back and smiling at them.

“Charming” Lisa wasn’t a morning person, there was no way either of them would ever be described as such, yet she seemed to emerge into the waking world as though she had never been asleep. Sarcasm, for example, just turned on as soon as she did. As, apparently, did the realisation of the steaming pile of trouble that they had somehow landed in. “What the fuck have you got me into this time, Fee?”

Playtime was almost certainly over. Felix sighed and for a moment, his carefully crafted visage of calm fecklessness fell away. He had always hoped to keep Lisa away from anything that would ever hurt her, but she never seemed to be able to keep away. He didn’t even know if this was his fault or hers, or from one of those rare times that they worked together. “I don’t know” Lisa’s reaction was an understandable shock followed swiftly by a look of horror that was tinged with a desperate desire to comfort. All in all, it only served to make him feel worse. Lisa was only seconded by his sister in the list of women who could withstand emotional distress. Worse, he didn’t have a bottle of her favourite rum on standby, as he normally did for these kind of occasions. There was once a point in his life when he kept a hipflask just in case he happened to see her, though that was another story for another day. “I’m sorry, darling…I can’t do anything. I don’t know”

The moment of feeling sorry for himself passed, to be replaced with the smile that made so many want to punch him very hard in the face when they saw it. He couldn’t live with those horrible ‘emotions’ forever. It was much easier when he could smirk and let the whole world hate him. “Now what could we possibly do that would take all of this off our minds?”

“Felix, if you haven’t noticed, you’re handcuffed”

“Since when has that been an issue to you?”

A prelude to violence.

2011-10-23T21:16:04Z

Title: A prelude to violence
Characters: Rafe 'Ghost' Miller, Liz Miller, Woodstock 'Woody' Collins.
Warning, language.

I blame redjaywrites entirely for this. Will either be continued or improved at a later point. I read her newest short (written for yours truly no less) 'I fought the law'and had to write my own character's reactions. Rafe is not pleased.

“That isn’t FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH!” Rafe slammed his hand onto the table, which caused the entire congregation of mutants to jump as one. He glared at the assembled people around him. What were they doing? Talking calmly about numbers and times when one of their own was in the clutches of a man for whom rationality was a foreign concept. There was a reason Rafe had always avoided working with the other members of the Resistance team. It wasn’t, as many people suggested, that he didn’t play well with others or even that he was still sympathetic to Krumholtz and his psychopathic regime who he had admittedly been a double agent for, inside the Resistance team. In truth, it was the fact that one of the things that actually got Rafe angry was indecision and talks of plans when Rafe’s best (and at one point only) friend had been caught by the very man they were trying to remove from power. If Rafe had been left to his own devices, he already would have gone in all guns blazing and attempted to rip Krumholtz’s spine from his body with his bare hands for daring to attack one of Rafe’s friends. He was happy to admit, at this point, that it was probably better that he be halted by pointless talks.

“Rafe, sit down. We’re all worried about Woody, but we can’t afford to lose anybody else now” A matrimonial warning not worth ignoring, given the steel edge to Rafe’s wife’s voice. Liz, too, was struggling to keep calm. He could tell from the way she was apparently attempting to crush his thigh with her hand. Rafe would have ignored her, if he couldn’t hear the slightly wavering tone beneath the sharp edge, almost too faint to hear. He forced himself to sit and avoid all eye contact by staring fixedly at the wall.

It was unusual for Rafe to get angry; he doubted that anybody had seen him as anything other than the softly spoken Welsh man, especially considering many were convinced Rafe didn’t possess the ability to get angry. He was normally so softly spoken and often so quiet, it was easy to forget that he was there. He could only imagine that the sudden shift in character was shocking to them, but frankly didn’t care. Woody- Woodstock Collins was trapped underneath the Thames with an execution order hanging over his head and they were just talking.

Krumholtz had decided to broadcast Woody’s ‘trial’ to all of London on the Big Brother style screens that had been set up especially for the occasion. Woody had been all talk and confidence, or at least as much as could be expected given the situation, right up until the moment that Krumholtz had threatened Woody’s son. The moment Woody had been arrested; Rafe had sent Sammy and his own daughters to stay with his sister in Wales, far away from anything approaching technology or modern comfort. Anything to keep them away from any of this. Thankfully, all three children were young enough not to understand that they were essentially being evacuated from the city for their own safety- for them it was just a surprise holiday.

Rafe was normally the ideas man, who talked Woody down from his wilder ideas and suggested plans that were plausible. Well, not this time. He had the means and he had the beginnings of a plan and he was going to damn well succeed.

“I am going to get him out of there” Rafe began, in a low voice that was barely above a whisper that nevertheless carried across the entirety of the now silent room. His last outburst had stunted anything approaching conversation. “I’m just going to walk into the front door and ask <i>very nicely</i>. Lizzie, bring your knives. Drake, I’m going to need cover and a distraction” Nobody doubted that he could and would do exactly what he had implied. Rafe wasn't called Ghost for nothing; there were few places an invisible man could be kept out of. Without waiting for an answer, Rafe pushed himself away from the table. Whatever had been said before, his tone and posture was one of a man who would not be swayed. “Any questions? We leave in an hour”

In which the Evans children have family time

2011-10-21T23:15:05Z

Think of it as a companion piece to redjaywrites's 'If she's not dead, I'm going to kill her when I see her' This is actually verging on sweet for Mattie and Felix, I don't know what came over me. It's also very short, but I had to get it out of my system.
Title: Sibling rivalry got nothing on us
Themes: Fluff, family
Characters: Felix Evans, Mathilda Evans
Length: 791

“If I have to do this again, I’m going to find a dark room to lock you in where you can’t get yourself into trouble” She glared at him with a rage that was tinged with fondness. It didn’t matter to Mathilda Evans that both she and her brother were responsible adults (for a given value of responsible on Felix’s part) and that they were born only a few minutes apart, he was her baby brother and she had to protect him. It had been the same way for as long as he could remember, regardless of how much he resented it. Her attitude towards him had only gotten worse the older they got, when Felix’s sense of self-preservation was shown to be surprisingly under-developed for somebody who was apparently so fond of himself. She seemed to think that Felix would be dead now without her, which was entirely inaccurate while flirting very closely with the truth, or possibly giving it a seductive dance to get it into bed. Felix endangered his life more often than a healthy man normally would, but only when the reward was higher than the cost. Like trying to find Lisa when the world had decided that being near her should cause him trouble; so far as Felix was concerned, though not while Lisa was actually within earshot, she was worth it. Mattie had never been able to understand his almost fanatical devotion to the woman, though as he also had trouble understanding it, her confusion was likely understandable.

He could hardly blame her for being protective, even if it was slightly smothering at times. For the longest time, their entire world had been each other, with their father gone and their mother working long hours to afford even the necessities. Felix had been something of a late bloomer into confidence, being somewhat pessimistic and overly nervous by nature- which was later overshadowed by overconfidence bordering on constant smugness as he grew older. Mattie, on the other hand, had been naturally brilliant. They had a fierce rivalry that was nevertheless cemented in a deep seated respect, at least on Felix’s part.

Felix smiled up at her from the nest he had made within his jacket and her shoulder. “Mmm. Love you too, darling” he muttered, already feeling exhaustion taking over. His body had taken everything that he had put it through over the past few days and chosen now to hand in a complaint. He grunted softly as he shifted, muscles groaning with despair. Nothing strained, nothing broken but a few ribs and his nose, but three days outdoors in the middle of a French winter minus anything approaching appropriate clothing without stopping had taken its toll. He was glad that he had made it as far as he had done before he had been forced to call in the cavalry, but even somebody as slippery to hold onto as Felix Evans had to draw the line somewhere.

Mattie ignored him and instead chose to glare out of the window. Felix noted the wistful look on her face and smiled. “With electrified doors” she said, after a while, apparently to herself. Felix had no doubt that, left to her own devices and given the right resources, she would achieve her goal. He had seen her do far more with fewer contacts and less power. He probably should have been more worried than he was- her words were likely more than a promise than a threat, but exhaustion was rampant throughout his tired body.

“Mattie?”

“Yes, Ollie?”

He squirmed slightly, even now uncomfortable with the name. Oliver Evans had become Felix many years ago and Mattie had been the only one who had resisted the change.

“Thank you”

“Shut up and go to sleep”

"But are the handcuffs really necessary, Mattie darling?" Felix raised his arm, which was halted in its movements by virtue of being securely attached to the seat. Overkill, in his opinion. It wasn't as though he was in any condition to try and get away from her, though he was probably lucky that she had come in her capacity as a sister than as one of the private police force whose ranks she had so quickly shot up in. Symon Gisbourne would likely kill for an opportunity like this.

She hooked her arm protectively around his shoulders, her long fingers stroking his hair the way their mother always had done when he had been ill or upset. He was sure he even caught the rare hint of a smile. It was unusual for Mattie to break her usual dour glower, even more so when Felix was around and not hindered from causing trouble in some way. "For you, baby brother, yes. Now sleep"

A strange kind of valentine

2011-10-11T21:51:12Z

“Hello Lisa...I missed you” Stupid small words. The start of a conversation that he never should have been having in the first place. They
never should have left each other, shouldn't have fought, shouldn't have ended up on different sides of the country, stealing from people in their own special ways. Lisa had stolen their money, while Felix had stolen their trust. Being legally non-existent gave him that advantage in so many ways.

“I'll bet there were tons of women between then and here, Felix, don't try and con me” It had been five years. Five long years, one hefty
fight and a van since he had last seen Lisa. But she hadn't changed a bit. He had been able to tell that from the way that her fist had collided with his stomach when he had emerged from his shadowy hiding spot. Her knuckles had always been able to find that elusive spot between solar plexus and rib that left the receiver reeling and winded.

He hadn't been sure which of them had planned the meeting, nor even if it was a trap planned by the Paladins to try and get the infamous
Modern Robin Hood into custody. The truth was, he didn't care. Just for once, he needed to do something without meticulously planning every second of what could go wrong. Even if it was for the last time, he needed to see Lisa again.

He hooked his finger underneath her chin, gently pushing upwards so that he could see her eyes. The mop of red hair that had become
dislodged from her mask in her hurry to make him feel pain cleared away from her face. For once, she hadn't resisted. He still loved those eyes, even now, narrowed as they were in anger at him, as they so often were. It wouldn't have been the same if she had the same expression of beautiful surprise all of the other girls had. “Sure there were darling. But they all had the same problem”

Lisa certainly didn't look convinced, her bottom lip stuck out ever so slightly as she pulled away from him. “And?” She turned away, as though she didn't want to hear what he had to say. One hand grazed the skin of her arm. She couldn't go. Not now. He wouldn't let her. He had too much to lose this time.

“They weren't you”

In which dresses are exchanged

2011-10-08T18:24:57Z

Title: I'm only trying to make a lady out of you.
Themes: Fluff
Characters: Felix Evans, Lisa Baker (redjaywrites)

She shrieked before he'd even had a chance to say anything. Felix gave a wide smile, moving his hand slightly so that the gauzy turquoise
fabric shifted and glinted in the dim light of the room around them. If Lisa was so certain they had to get into an expensive party to try and get more information about her precious diamond, he was going to make sure she at least looked the part. He already had his tux on, and cut a fine figure. If he said so himself, and he wasn't about to let Lisa's comment that he looked like a waiter to heart, was he?

“I'm just tryin' to make a lady out of you”

Felix held the dress out with one hand, his eyes focused on his best friend's face to see to her reaction. His own expression didn't change, even as he sidestepped Lisa's punch. She stumbled slightly under her own momentum and regained her balance by grabbing onto his belt. Or at least that's what she tried to do. In fact, the only thing she managed to do was to make Felix loose his footing. He wavered for a moment or two before Lisa's extra weight pulled him down.

“Well now...we haven't been in a situation like this since the Bordello job, back in '95” He unhooked his leg from hers as he spoke,
twisting quickly so that he could pin her wrists down with his hands. The look on Lisa's face was priceless, one that he constantly wished he could see there-though the fact that he knew that behind the anger was a deep burning hatred that was already planning revenge took away from his victory a little. He couldn't stop the smug smile from creeping onto his face- it was far out of his control by now, as Lisa well knew. It wouldn't stop her from making him pay for it, but little did any more.

The Bordello job had been the first and last time Felix had drunk tequila with Lisa. Toasting to a job well done, the details of which the
police are still baffled about, seeing as the owner of the hotel refused to admit that he had been seduced by a redhead and a boy. That had been one of the more interesting jobs they had done. Somehow, they had ended up at a bar just on the edge of town, looking over a lake. It had been picturesque, and after a bottle of champagne, Lisa had just ordered shot after shot of tequila, until the barmaid got bored and just gave them the bottle. She had been able to hold her drink well enough (she had the practice for it, after all), but the bitter drink had gone straight to his head, which meant he had listened to everything Lisa had said as though it was said by a prophet. Now that he thought about it, that was probably the reason she tried to get him to join her in a drink so often. It wasn't often that she got Felix listening to her, even if it meant it would save his life. He was difficult like that, as Lisa was so quick to tell people. Her suggestions had been alcohol inspired; moonbathing, skinny dipping. As both activities had been in the nude, they had been arrested. It had taken them less than an hour to get out of the tiny country jail, but the bathroom of their hotel had been more than adequate for the two adrenaline fused people to remind each other why they could never really be enemies.

Lisa struggled furiously beneath him, her face a mask of anger and promised death. “How 'bout you put the dress on and we see
those legs of yours again?” She asked, her words punctuated by shifting movements and grunts. At that, Felix grinned once more, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the nose. “I've told you this before, darling” He shuffled forwards, his knees drawing her shirt up “You show me yours and I'll show you mine” Lisa growled once more. Now that her dutch courage was gone, Felix had the upper hand and he knew it. He liked to say that he always had the upper hand...but even he had to admit that Miss. Baker was far more cunning than he gave her credit for.

“Now then, darling, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?” He stared down into her face, the same smug grin still playing about his lips, with him powerless to stop it. What he hadn't expected, was Lisa's knee to lurch upwards suddenly. He grunted, his arms giving way so that his head was on her chest. She squirmed again and tipped him over so that she was on the top once more. “Oh, the hard way, every time darling”

It was a dark and stormy night.

2011-10-08T17:59:08Z

Title: It was a dark and stormy night.
Characters: Felix Evans, Lisa Baker (redjaywrites)
Length: 1815

The knock on his door was loud enough to wake the dead, but it would only have needed to be a tap to get his attention. Felix Evans was much more cautious than most- it came from being legally non-existent and the leader of a highly trained group of thieves based upon the most famous social deviants of Nottingham. A narrow field of people that included Felix and only Felix, it was still a state of affairs that left him highly strung and more than a little bit paranoid about personal security. Nobody knew where he lived, not even his men. To most, it was just a large and draughty basement underneath a disused warehouse. Which it was, but for Felix, it was home sweet home. And still a bit draughty.

There hadn’t been any noticeable change between awake and asleep. Felix wasn’t a morning person at the best of times, only when his life depended on it could it be assured that he would be out of bed before pressing the snooze button more than twice. He shuffled out of the bed, tangled as he was in blankets and pillows, keeping as close to the walls as was humanly possible without actually sinking into them. It took far longer than it should have done to reach the door and there had been hardly any other noise from the other side. That in itself was strange. If there had been somebody desperate to get in, surely they would have been beside themselves trying to get in. It didn’t feel right, though he wouldn’t have been able to explain why.

Felix held his breath as he took a look out of the peep hole. Every ounce of composure and air in his body was then let out in a torrent of rage and emotion. Whoever it had been was now a jumbled heap of clothes on his doorstep, the knocking evidently their last effort to throw their body against the door to get his attention. If it hadn’t have been for the shock of red hair that protruded from between some of the sodden clothing, knotted with damp feathers, he wasn’t entirely sure what he would have done. Right now, it was all he could do not to tear open the door and kill the bastards who had hurt his Lisa.

The moment he had her in his arms, he let out a soft growl of anger. “Lisa…what have they done to you? Give me names, I’ll kill ‘em. They won’t know what hit them, you know it” He hissed the words in-between grunts as he levered her to her feet and then into his arms. Every ounce of his usual charm and grace had given way to emotion. If he had known who had done this, he would have killed them, there and then. Unfortunately, he had more important things to worry about. He took a steadying breath. He was sure that she could hear him, even if she wasn’t properly aware of it. “What did they do to you, Leese? How could you let them win?”

He moved through the building, slightly hindered by the weight of his best friend, occasional bed buddy and often enemy towards his ancient bed. With one foot, he moved his blankets from the bed before placing her among the ruffled sheets. All at once, his instinct took over as he saw the small smile that graced her slightly parted lips. That was all she needed to do to melt his heart and she damn well knew it, even if he would never admit it. Keeping her propped up on one arm, he fussed with the blankets and pillows until he could be sure that she was comfortable. He knew that he probably should have stripped her of her damp clothes, but if she was at all awake, he knew her enough to realise that would only result in a black eye on his part. It was going to be a long night. He turned to the cabinet beside his bed and pulled out a small bottle of whiskey. It had been a present from his sister from his birthday the year before. This was going to be a night for whiskey, if there was ever one. He drained the dregs from the tumbler by his bed; the ice cubes had barely had time to melt, though whatever had been in there (it had been a long night, he really wasn’t sure what he had been drinking while the work had piled up around him) was certainly not what he held in his hand now. He poured himself a generous helping and thankfully took a sip before he heard the voice behind him, that had quite obviously been watching the whole thing.

“That had better be for me, Fee”

Felix smiled. She was awake, that was good, but the way she was moving said more than she would ever admit. Her breathing was slow and punctuated by sharp intakes whenever she moved- probably broken ribs and she hadn’t moved from where he had put her, which meant that she was hurting. She would normally have taken the glass from his hand and be threatening him with death for even thinking about touching her while she was unconscious.

“What happened to you?”

“Gisborne” She seemed a little reluctant, but took an obviously painful breath and continued “Shot…shoulder…fell off tower…but I got ‘em, Fee” she murmured, the familiar pleased grin on her face. Until it was wiped off by an altogether panicked expression. “Probably coming here…got to go”

Felix stiffened and pulled himself to his feet before pushing her back down onto his pillows with a forceful hand. Thankfully, she didn’t try to fight him more than was necessary, which was good. He had sedatives around somewhere, but he didn’t want to have to use them on her, but if she started trying to leave and cause more damage to herself, he wouldn’t have hesitated. “Oh no you don’t, darling” he said, calmly, pushing the blanket more firmly underneath her, after she undid his careful work. “Just how do you think you’re going to get away from anybody in that state? You’re hurt, you’re tired and you can barely string a sentence together and when was the last time you managed to get any sleep, huh?” He realised, at that point, that he had been pacing and had managed to pour a good deal of his drink onto his boxers and the floor with his gesturing. He drained the rest of the glass in one go, before dropping it back down onto the table. “If you even try to leave before I say, I’ll have you tied to that bed and sedated. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again” It wasn’t a threat. Lisa was a danger to herself when she was hurt. She liked to pretend that nothing had ever happened and she could carry on regardless. It was even worse when she was sick. The great and powerful Lisa tended to carry on until she was either collapsing or…

Felix sighed inwardly. Of course, this hadn’t happened just now, had it? He turned back to the woman who had nearly been his wife, ready to rant, until he saw that she had fallen asleep. Feigned or otherwise, it had stopped his anger in its tracks, another thing Lisa was certainly very good at doing to him. He knelt down next to her and ran a hand across her cheek, fondly. Anybody could see that she was feverish; she was clammy, she was deathly pale and even in the heat of the basement, she was shivering. Lisa had always said that he kept the place as hot as hell so that he didn’t get homesick when he got back there. It was true that Felix didn’t really deal well with cold, he was normally wearing two or three sweatshirts before he would even think of putting a jacket on.

First things first. He raised up the edge of the blanket. It wasn’t pretty underneath. Felix was no doctor, the closest he had to medical knowledge was gleaned off the internet and the various books he had hanging around the place. Her legs were bruised nearly all the way down, her left swollen around the knee while her right thigh was caked in dried blood from a deep and nasty scratch. They would have to be cleaned and he would probably have to put any number of drugs into her against tetanus. Tutting to himself, he moved onto her upper body, stripping her of clothing as he did so. She would kill him for it later, but he couldn’t leave her damp and cold, even if it did mean a badly aimed punch. Her shoulder was a mess. From what he could tell, it had missed the bone and anything important, but he would have to try and remove the bullet. Though he didn’t really want to do that until she was a little more stable. He had a few medical supplies around his basement home, but certainly not enough to do anything more than patch her up for the time being and he was loathe to leave her alone for longer than a few minutes at a time. She only needed to wake up alone to try and leave and he couldn’t have that.
He pulled a chair over to the bed and pulled his legs onto the mattress. It was going to be a long and uncomfortable night. Lisa always managed to fuck things up for him on a large scale. The last time they had met, if he recalled correctly, she had shot him in the shoulder- the same one that was now staining his nice clean sheets.

“Mattie? It’s Ol…I need you to do me a favour…yes, darling I know, I know…please. You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. I just need some medical supplies. Antibiotics…some gauze, a little antiseptic….I would, but I’m stuck right now…alright, yes, I love you too, darling, I’ll see you in a bit” Neither woman would forgive him for bringing the other into it, but he had done worse in the past. He turned to the unconscious woman. He spoke, mainly to comfort himself, rather than for her. He would make do for now, until Mattie turned up and freaked out about just who she was doing a favour for. Weapons of medicine in hand, Felix turned back to the unconscious Lisa. “Now, darling, it’s time for me to take a look at those little cuts of yours. You can trust me, I’m a doctor”

In which a Werewolf reflects on religion

2011-10-02T19:33:26Z

The boy was about 13 years old, with a look on his face that said (despite all evidence to the contrary) he had a better idea of what was going on than anybody else in the room. The girl, on the other hand, was the quintessential tomboy, with what looked like a perpetual scowl gracing what would otherwise be a pretty face. Lisa and Oliver, Vinnie’s godson and the boy’s best friend- or as a better fit; partner in crime. If only he could have been woken up from his post-moon coma by something that didn’t scare him to the very pit of his soul.

Vinnie shook his head. They were good kids, he knew from experience, but he couldn’t help but feel that something about them was a little…off. The fact that he was bailing a couple of 13 year olds from the local police station after they had been found in the museum accompanied by a set of wire cutters and a broken security system, for one. He had known them both since they were small children, Oliver a little longer than Lisa, but by the time both children were around seven years old, it was difficult to find one without the other for very long. That was because he was the boy’s godfather, which brought up issues of its own. From what he understood, he was meant to be responsible of taking care of Oliver’s religious upbringing, which was difficult seeing that he had no particular religious belief himself. He had been brought up a good Catholic boy, church every Sunday, rain or shine and several times with instances of both. When he had started to become a mindless beast once every month, his belief started to waver…when one particularly zealous priest had tried to exorcize him, he started to become sure that whatever church existed, it had no place for Vincent Stone within it. Although saying that, Vinnie was fairly sure that the church would have no effect on whatever demons had possessed the two kids that were staring moodily up at him.
“Are you going to tell mum?”

“No….” He thought for a moment. Jennifer Evans was not the easiest woman to deal with at the best of times, but when her son had managed to sneak out of Vinnie’s house when he was meant to be watching him, only to be caught by the police….it wasn’t exactly difficult to imagine what her reaction would be. Vinnie would likely be praying to the God that he didn’t believe in to be saved from the wrath of a mother scorned. “I think that Jen doesn’t have to be told about this one”

Characters: Vincent Stone, Oliver Evans redjaywrites's Lisa Baker
Length: 480
Theme: Fluff. Crime.

Might as well start as I mean to go on. I tend to write short stories of my OC's to cheer myself up. Vinnie is a werewolf in a semi-AU world. Oliver and Lisa are both characters in redjaywritess ongoing Nottingham epic. It cheers me to see their dubiously ethical deeds.