No one else could ever understand what it's like between us.

five acts meme

2012-04-14T17:03:12Z

+ Pick your five favourite kinks of right now and write them in a post
+ Follow that with a list of pairings/moresomes/fandoms you're into
+ Comment with your info here and check out other people’s posts here.
+ Write and enjoy!

WANTS

Banter: I’m a dialogue girl at heart so I love a good back and forth. Banter can be flirty or just generally snarky—up to you.
Siblings/Family: Prank wars, bickering, family bonding moments whatever the case may be. I want the family relationship. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be fluffy.
Trust Issues: This. Big time. I love it when characters don’t trust each other but have to deal with each other anyway.
Crack/Humor: Make me laugh. There is always win when people are making me laugh.
Domestic-ness: Just a quiet night at home, with all that that implies. Or just people being normal around each other (this especially goes for preternaturally based fandoms).

SHIPS
/ = romantic, + = friendship/familial

Leverage: Eliot/Sophie, Eliot/Parker, Hardison/Parker, Parker/Sophie, Eliot + Hardison + Parker
House MD: House/Thirteen, Chase/Thirteen, House/Cuddy, Wilson/Cuddy, Foreman + Taub, Foreman + Chase, House + Wilson
NCIS: LA: Deeks/Kensi
White Collar: Neal/Sara, Neal/Alex, Peter/El, Neal + Peter, Neal + Mozzie
Justified: Raylan/Winona, Boyd/Ava, Tim + Raylan
Psych: Shawn/Jules, Shawn + Gus, Shawn + Henry, Lassiter + Jules
Bones: Sweets/Daisy, Hodgins/Angela, Sweets + Hodgins, Booth/Cam
Smallville: Clark/Lana, Oliver/Lois, Jimmy/Chloe, Clark/Tess, Oliver/Tess, Oliver/Kara, Jimmy + Lois, Clark + Oliver
Supernatural: Sam/Jo, Dean/Jo, Sam/Bela, Dean/Bela, Dean/Tessa, Dean/Ruby, Sam/Ruby, Dean/Lisa, Dean + Ben, Dean + Sam, Dean + Sam + Bobby, Castiel/Ruby, Castiel/Jo, Bela/Ruby, Bela/Jo, Dean + Cas.
Fringe: Peter/Olivia, Licoln/Olivia Walter/Nina, Peter/Astrid, Walter + Astrid, Walter + Peter, Olivia + Charlie, Other!Lincoln/Other!Olivia, Other!Olivia + Other!Charlie.
Buffyverse: Angel/Cordelia, Angel/Buffy, Gunn/Buffy, Riley/Buffy, Wes/Cordy, Wes/Faith, Wes/Lilah, Willow/Fred, Xander/Anya, Buffy + Willow + Xander, Willow/Tara, Willow/Kennedy, Spike + Angel, Spike + Illyria, Buffy + Dawn
Dark Angel: Alec/Max, Alec/Asha, Max + Original Cindy.
The Vampire Diaries: Stefan/Elena, Stefan/Bonnie, Stefan/Caroline, Stefan/Rebekah, Stefan/Katherine, Damon/Katherine, Damon/Elena, Damon/Rose, Damon/Sage, Tyler/Caroline, Tyler/Elena, Elena/Rebekah, Matt/Elena, Jeremy/Anna, Jeremy + Tyler, Elena + Jeremy, Alaric/Jenna, Alaric/Meredith, Alaric + Elena + Jeremy, Stefan + Damon, Damon + Alaric
Crossovers: All of them. I seriously have too many to narrow them all down right now.

And have at me! Also, hi, I do live, I've just started a new job and haven't had a lot of time for writing and things, but I'm looking ot get back into that.

get your words out } { leap day challenge - 12 drabbles

2012-02-27T03:42:28Z

Fandom: Buffyverse/The Hunger Games
Pairing: Finnick Odair/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 510
Notes: For blytheandbonnie. Set in betenoire_rp. My brother tweaked my Finnick, so I hope he’s accurate, as I’ve never read the books.

“Do people actually fish with this thing?”

Bete Noire was having another one of those moments where it wanted to convince its constituents that the city could double as a tropical paradise. Buffy thought that no matter what the city tried to pull, it could never truly convince it’s citizens that it was a tropical paradise, but it was fun to pretend for a little while. Especially if this current bout of pretending involved standing sans socks and shoes in a pool of sinfully warm water, jeans rolled up around her knees, watching the fish swim ahead of her, while Finnick was attempting to teach her out to use a trident.

Plus, there were no magical side effects with this water. She double checked.

“It’s not as hard as you think,” Finnick smirked from where he was standing next to her. “Just—focus.”

“But they’re such pretty fish,” Buffy said with a bit of a pout as she turned the trident in her hands.

“You slay vampires for a living, and you have a problem with spearing a few fish?”

“Vampires are easy,” she protested. “They’re all ugly and grrrrr and eating people. As far as we know, these fish are pretty innocent.”

“I assure you that isn’t the case. These fish are devious, devious creatures.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. The cuteness is a mask for their dastardly plans.” He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face, and she rolled her eyes. “You said you wanted to learn how to use a trident. Fishing is a good place to start.” She sighed heavily, before turning back to the pool again. The fish continued to swirl around her feet as she felt Finnick’s hand on her shoulders, steadying her positioning slightly. “Now. Take a deep breath. Fishing like this is all about timing. Miss your mark, and you’ll spook them. So just relax, wait until just the right moment … ”

As he spoke Buffy closed her eyes, concentrating on the timing of the moment, before thrusting the trident down into the pool and not stopping until she hit bottom. She felt something catch, and she grinned as she opened her eyes and pulled the trident out of the water. She was sure she had to catch …

… something.

“That’s a boot,” Finnick quipped helpfully from behind her. “Not a fish.”

“I noticed that, with it’s distinctively un-fish like shape.” It wasn’t a large boot, but it was large enough, and as she reached to pull it off the top of the trident and take it back to the shore, she suddenly came face to face with a giant hermit crab as it came crawling out of the top of the boot. She shrieked, tossing the boot into the air and stumbling back, sending them both tumbling into the water.

Finnick came up laughing, and Buffy just sputtered, blinking the water out of her eyes. “That was a crab,” she said finally, before glancing back over at him with a curious look. “Do I at least get points for being close?”

Fandom: Everworld/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: David Levin/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 361
Notes: Written for lollobrigida. No set verse.

“I don’t bite, you know.”

David paused working on the sword he was polishing and gave her a look. It was a really, obvious look because he was not stupid. He knew that Katherine was lying when it came to that particular statement, and there was no way for her to get around that. It came with the territory of knowing what she was.

“Okay, maybe I bite a little. But only if you want me to.”

“What do you want, Katherine?” he asked as he went back to dealing with his weapons, and he heard her clipped footsteps as she moved across the room and slid into the seat next to him.

“You avoid me, you won’t talk to me. All I got out of you was a terse hello when we met and I haven’t gotten anything since. You do know I’m here to help, right?”

“That’s what you said,” he said quietly, not making eye contact with her and focusing on his work. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”

“But you won’t be nice to me?” He didn’t have to look at her to hear the pout in her voice.

“I’m not a nice guy.”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Not to vampires with mind control.”

“Ouch,” she sighed. “Didn’t think you were the type to judge a book by it’s cover.”

“I wasn’t. And it was stupid of me.” He got up once he was finished, putting his sword back in the weapon’s chest and turning around to face her again. “So it’s not going to happen again.”

Katherine eyed him carefully, before pushing to her feet and making her way closer to him. “I take it if you know what I am, you’re already on vervain. No worry about mind control then.”

“You’re over five hundred years old, Katherine. I’m assuming you’ve found your way around compulsion to get people to do what you want.”

“So you’re planning to just avoid me in order to keep yourself safe.” She smirked, reaching up and letting her hands smooth over his chest before giving him a wink. “Game on.”

David wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Bela Talbot
Rating: PG
Word Count: 229
Notes: For vermal. I … don’t even know with this one, this is just what came to mind.

They both sat quietly in the Impala, not saying a word to each other and just letting the silence build between them.

It wasn’t as though they didn’t enjoy it. But given they were who they were, and what had just happened wasn’t something they should have done. She should have known that this would happen eventually. It was bound too. Things like this happened when there was this kind of tension between two people but after it happened, the tension was gone. There wasn’t really anything left to say to each other.

Bela shifted uncomfortably in her seat, adjusting her jacket, and trying to figure out where to go from here. “Never speaking of this again, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he nodded quickly. “Never again.”

When Sam finally pulled up next to her in her car, she jumped to get the door open and get out of there as soon as possible. She pushed the door open, and was halfway out into the fresh air when Dean’s voice stopped her.

“Hey, Bela?”

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before turning to face him again. “Yes, Dean?”

There was an uncomfortable look on his face as his mouth started to form the words until he finally spit it out. “Are you really a Zepplin fan?”

Bela smirked just a bit, before shrugging. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?”

Fandom: Supernatural/The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Katherine Pierce
Rating: PG
Word Count: 345
Notes: For yourlivewire. Set in the tail end of Season 3ish for SPN and I’m not entirely sure when for The Vampire Diaries.

“Hi, Sam.”

He’s sitting in a bar just over the state line for Michigan. His plan for the evening had been drunk, drunk and more drunk because Dean had less than a week left, and he was tired of fighting. He hadn’t slept well in days, and his brother was dying. To say that Sam was starting to come apart at the seams was an understatement. The last person in the world he expected to find him was Katherine Pierce.

Especially considering that he hadn’t seen her since she left Stanford.

He knew what she was. He wasn’t stupid. But there had always been something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, which meant that he couldn’t quite kill her. Not until he figured it out.

“What are you doing here, Katherine?”

“Looking for you,” she said with a small smirk. “I come bearing gifts.”

“Katherine, I’m not in the mood—”

“To save your brother? Why, Sam—that’s surprisingly cold.”

Those words nearly bowled him off his barstool. “What?”

She held up a ring, pinched between two fingers. “A ring, spelled by Emily Bennett to revive the wearer after they experience a supernatural death.”

Sam’s eyebrows went up as he reached for it, feeling the weight of the ring in his palm as he studied it. “And you think it will work?”

“I have no idea,” she sighed. “Deals aren’t exactly in my line of work. But I figure if anything, it’s at least worth a try.” Her hand closed his fingers over it, giving him a small smile. “Take it, Sam. I owe you that much. And if it doesn’t work, use it to protect yourself.”

It had to work. Sam couldn’t see it not working as an option. He tightened his fingers around it before looking up at her again. “Thank you, Katherine.”

She shrugged as she started to back away. “Consider us even.”

Sam was pretty sure that this made them more than even in her mind, but he wasn’t going to bother keeping track of it now.

Fandom: Leverage/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester and Alec Hardison
Rating: PG
Word Count: 419
Notes: For alison_sky. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 7.

It started when he caught Sam’s face on CNN.

Granted, he didn’t normally watch CNN. CNN was for people who actually cared about the news, which Hardison did not. He got his news filtered through other sources, but today was a day where there was nothing else on TV, and he was forced to entertain himself.

And then he saw Sam Winchester and some short dude that he could only assume was his brother shooting up a bank vault full of people in Jericho, California.

“What the hell?”

Hardison would have been more than happy to think that these were just two random psychopaths on a mission if it weren’t for the fact that he knew Sam Winchester. He knew him. Tequlia and a back room of a Stanford frat house had a way of making two people bond, and not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter. Hardison’s point was that that night, he had looked into the soul of the man he still considered a friend, and that man was no killer. No ifs ands or buts.

The CNN report had him stumbling over to grab his cell phone, scrolling down until he found Sam’s number and hitting send. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon dude you better not ignore my call, or I swear on all that is holy—”

“Hello?”

“Please tell me you’re not on some kind of psychotic bank killing spree because CNN seems pretty convinced.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You saw that?”

That was then followed by an equally long pause from Hardison. “Are you telling me you—”

“No, no! No, we didn’t. We’re … ” There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “ … it’s a really bad case of mistaken identity, dude.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“I don’t think your hacker skills are going to save us on this one,” Sam sighed. “But if I think if something, I promise, you’ll be my first call.”

“Okay. Okay.” Hardison slumped down in his chair, running a hand over his face. “This is bad, man. This is really bad.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. I’ll call you once we’re out of the woods.”

“Good. I’ll talk to you then.” As he hung out the phone, he took a deep breath, and shook his head as he continued to watch the news reports. “This is gonna end with somebody gettin’ shot. I’m callin’ that right now.”

Fandom: CSI:NY AU
Pairing: Michael Anderson/Lauren Mullvaney, Andrea Mullvaney
Rating: PG
Word Count: 391
Notes: For makeyourmoment, whom I love and adore.

Six weeks after Lizzie was born, Lauren’s mother staged an intervention.

It wasn’t her intention when she came down from upstate New York. He was pretty sure she simply wanted to spend some time with her new granddaughter. They had made the plans earlier in the week, and true to her word, Andrea Mullvaney arrived on her daughter’s doorstep bright and early Monday morning.

What she found was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

Lauren was on maternity leave, but she looked more exhausted than she had been when she worked. The apartment was littered with clothes, toys and unpacked boxes, and Anderson was passed out on the couch instead of the bedroom. Lauren had actually forgotten she was coming, and looked at her mother with wide, tired eyes when she saw her standing at the front door.

“Mom! Oh my God, I totally forgot.”

“What happened?” Andrea said as she pushed her way inside, looking around at the mess. “It looks like a tornado hit.”

“I’ve just … the baby’s got me a little more overwhelmed than I originally thought,” she sighed softly, running a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to see—”

“Uh-uh. Don’t you start.” Andrea then crossed the room to shake Anderson awake, one hand on his chest gently. “C’mon, Mike. You’re going to sleep in the guest bedroom.”

“Hpmh?” he mumbled as he shook himself awake, blinking at her in confusion. “Am I seeing things?”

“No time for that. Up. Up!” She managed to get her almost son-in-law to his feet, and took her daughter by the arm, and led them both to the made up guest bedroom.

“Mom, what are you going to—”

“Do not even worry about that,” Andrea replied with a wave of her hand. “Just sleep. Both of you. Now.”

They decided not to argue with her after that.

Six hours later, they reemerged to find a clean and unpacked apartment, dinner in the oven, and a note from Andrea on the table saying that she would swing back next week, and that dinner would be done at seven. The two of them just stared at the note for a moment, before Anderson wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders before flashing Lauren a grin.

“Have I mentioned I love your mother?”

“You and me both.”

Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Alec Hardison/Parker
Rating: PG
Word Count: 171
Notes: For colormyspoon, and I think this is the first time I’ve written straight Hardison/Parker.

Everyone knew from the get-go that Hardison and Parker wouldn’t be like a normal couple.

No relationship Parker could ever be perfectly normal, but Hardison also didn’t really care. This was about Parker, and how she was so different from any woman he had ever met. He wanted to be a part of that, and he had been ever since he met her. He was the one who always disagreed with Eliot when he said that there was something wrong with her. There wasn’t anything wrong with Parker.

She was just Parker.

It was why he didn’t question when their first date was casing a museum or when things that he was used to, she had never done. He liked being the one with her for her first experiences. He liked being the one to introduce her to things, showing her the world from his eyes, and seeing what gets reflected back.

It’s not normal, and it’s not what anyone would expect—but it’s theirs. Hardison can’t really argue with that.

Fandom: Angel: the Series/Supernatural
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Lilah Morgan
Rating: PG
Word Count: 376
Notes: For superkappa, and I’m really excited if we ever get a chance to actually play them.

“Working late?”

Sam had never actually seen her dressed down before. If he could say anything about Lilah Morgan, she always looked more than presentable, but this is the first time he’d seen her sans suit jacket, hair pulled back and heels off. He ditched his jacket and tie long ago when he was working at his desk, and was currently leaning in her doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand.

Lilah looked almost amused to see him, placing her pen down on the desk before leaning back in her seat. “Have to, to keep up with you. Anyone ever tell you that you’re an overachiever, Winchester?”

“Once or twice.” He smirked as he started to make his way closer, placing the cup down on a clear spot on her desk. He then settled into one of the seats in front of her desk, taking a sip from his own cup. “But that’s never really bothered me much.”

“Of course it wouldn’t,” she sighed, before eying the cup suspiciously. Sam raised an eyebrow at that, and she raised one right back. “What? I wouldn’t put it past any lawyer in here to poison the competition in order to get ahead.”

Sam smirked as he lowered his own. “I could sip it first, if you want? But I’m not out to kill you, Lilah.”

“Then what are you after, Sam?”

“A partnership.”

At that, Lilah laughed. “Kid, you must be more delusional than I thought.”

“I’d team up with Park or McDonald, but let’s face it—Park’s an idiot and McDonald’s soft. You’re my only real competition, Lilah. Which means you’re my only real chance of actually getting somewhere in this firm.”

“Teaming up doesn’t happen at Wolfram and Hart, Sam,” she said with a look. “It usually ends in one of the partners losing a head.”

Sam shrugged a bit at that, before getting to his feet again. “It was an idea to get us both what we want. It can’t hurt to ask.” He turned and walked towards the door. “Just think about it.”

She didn’t say anything one way or another, but as he walked towards the glass doors of the opposite office, he could see her take a sip of the coffee.

Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce, with implied background Damon/Elena
Rating: PG
Word Count: 309
Notes: For smokeandsong. Set in mud_andblood. I’m sorry, she went sad on me.

The first day, Elena won’t even let them take the body.

She ignored the blue hue of his skin and the smell of death in the air, and she was entirely convinced that she could fix him. She could fix him, and he would get better, and they would dance again. He had to. She was his, and if he was gone, who else would there be. Two hundred and fifty years of her life had been spent by Damon’s side, and her mind didn’t understand how to compute that kind of loss.

It was two days before Stefan and Katherine arrived, and when they did, Stefan finally managed to pry the body away from her so that they could give him a proper burial. After that, Elena didn’t sleep for weeks, staring out into the darkness like she was waiting for something. She wouldn’t talk to anyone, wouldn’t eat, simply waited. Their room stayed empty, and she sat in the living room, silent and still as a stone.

She didn’t cry, didn’t actually accept the death, until Stefan was gone, and she and Katherine were alone. It happened one morning, Katherine came in to give her some blood, to try and get her to eat, and as usual, Elena took the mug from her, but didn’t sip it.

“Elena, you need to eat.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Ninety-one thousand, two hundred fifty days.” Every day since she was turned, she had spent with Damon. She was surprised losing him hadn’t killed her. The pain felt like it was boiling under her skin, until the tears finally prickled over the edges of her eyelids and started to stream down her face. All that she manages to get out before Katherine pulled her into her arms and let her cry against her shoulder was this:

“It wasn’t enough.”

Fandom: Dark Angel/Marvel
Pairing: Alec McDowell/Wanda Lehnsherr
Rating: PG
Word Count: 394
Notes: For doesthemath. Set in singularityrpg, but not binding on the game, obviously.

“I got your message.”

Alec had heard her coming. He hadn’t gotten to know her well enough where her gait was distinctive enough yet. But her voice, that he already knew like the back of his hand, and he turned back to her to flash her a grin. “Glad you could make it.”

Wanda smiled back at him, before making her way over to sit on the bench next to him. “Your message was rather cryptic. I couldn’t help but be curious.”

“Well,” he said as he turned to face the piano again. “You did say you wanted to hear me play. I figured since I found the piano, I’d give you the opportunity.”

“I’m glad you thought of me,” she replied, settling a little more as he placed his fingers on the keys.

“Any requests?” he asked as his fingers tripped over the keys, quietly testing the tuning.

She pondered that for a moment, before shaking her head. “Play me something you like.”

He paused as he thought that over. He couldn’t say he had anything that he really liked. He never played pieces because he liked them, he played them because he needed to. So he simply closed his eyes and played whatever came to him first.

It was after the first few chords that he realized it was Chopin, and it took some time before all the memories flooded in that went with it. They weren’t easy things to remember—Rachel was never going to be an easy thing to remember—but Rachel made him a better player, even if he didn’t understand it then. With Rachel, he learned how to play with heart.

When he finished the piece, he opened his eyes, and glanced back over at her with a small smile and an eyebrow raise. “Well? What do you think?”

“You’re very talented,” she said with a nod. “Though I suppose that with your genetics, that’s not hard.”

“You’d be surprised, actually,” he smirked. “I’m not that creative. I can play it, but I can’t make it.”

She nodded. “So talents are selective?”

“There’s only so much tweaking they can do. Some things are just … natural.”

“Good to know,” she said as she turned to face the keyboard again. “Play another one?”

“Do you have an actual request this time?”

“I think I can come up with something.”

Fandom: Buffyverse/Justified
Pairing: Raylan Givens/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 356
Notes: For pensive1. Set nowhere in particular just a fun snippet that came to mind.

“If I stick around long enough, do I get my own cowboy hat?”

Raylan looked up at her from under the brim of his own hat. She had spent the past fifteen minutes glancing around his room, trying to find ways to keep herself occupied without touching the things that he told her not to touch. She was bored, but she needed to wait because until this ‘vampire business’ got cleared up, he wasn’t so inclined to trust her.

After all, as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as vampires, but he had just shot someone point blank in the chest who wouldn’t die, and then Buffy made him turn to dust. He had had a Day. And Buffy can respect the idea of having a Day to a certain extent.

It just got a little too much when it meant that Buffy was stuck inside Raylan’s motel room while he tried to think himself through this. It wasn’t easy, dealing with the existence of vampires, but at least he didn’t have her handcuffed to the chair.

“It’s not a badge of honor.”

“I didn’t think it was. But I could look good in it. Ooh! I could even get a matching pair of boots. Then I’d really blend in.”

Raylan sighed heavily, before holding up his hand to get her to stop. “Can we just get back to the—”

“Look. I get it. You’re tired. You’ve had a long night. But me rehashing it all over again right now isn’t going to make it any clearer.” She gave him for a sympathetic smile, before getting to her feet. “You sleep. I’ll go home and make with the sleeping myself. And in the morning, I’ll come back with coffee and try to explain everything again.”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before nodding. “Yeah,yeah. Alright. Tomorrow.”

“Good,” she said with a nod, before starting to make her way towards the door. She paused once she hit the door knob, before turning back to look at him. “I’m one of the good guys, Marshal. Just … try and remember that.”

Fandom: Being Human (US)/Buffyverse
Pairing: Aidan Daniels/Buffy Summers
Rating: PG
Word Count: 415
Notes: For me! Because I’ve been itching to write it for a while.

“So this is what you do all day? Lie around and get blood drunk?”

She was well aware that Aidan couldn’t miss the judgment in her tone. She made a point of making sure it was obvious. She had been a Slayer for a long time, but she had never seen such a mess of a city as she did in Boston. Bishop never really learned how to clean up after himself, and now that he was dead, the job fell to Aidan and Surren.

Buffy was not impressed. If she had her way, she would slay every vampire in this town, but that wasn’t her job. Her job was to take care of the vampire problems that none of them wanted to deal with. In the case of Boston, it was the orphans.

Aidan rolled his eyes back to look at her, black and glistening, with a blood soaked grin on his face. “Buffy. I should have known they’d send you.” He shifted over, pushing up to stumble to his feet. “Are you here to finally kill me?”

She didn’t flinch as he leaned over to her, the stench of blood filling her senses and making her want to reel back, but she didn’t. She held her ground and kept her cool, her face not giving anything away. “You know why I’m here, Aidan.”

“Right, right. The orphans.” He reached for the pole and swung around it slowly. He was drunk, and now wasn’t the time to be having this conversation, but apparently this was the only opportunity she was going to get. “I told Mother I would handle it.”

“You did. But the elders are not impressed so far. They sent me in to finish the job.”

“Well lucky me,” he said dryly. “Guess I’m off the hook.”

“Where can I find them, Aidan?”

“Believe me, Buffy, if I knew that, you wouldn’t be here.”

“See, I really don’t believe that,” she said. “You were the one who lobbied for mercy. Which makes me think that you know exactly where they are—you just don’t want to tell me.”

He was quiet for a moment, before sobering just slightly. “They don’t trust me. They don’t think I can protect them. I don’t know where they are, Buffy.”

She took a deep breath, before stepping away. “Then spread the word. The Slayer’s in town.” After she had gotten far enough away, she turned on her heel and headed for the door. “They’ll find me.”

get your words out } { leap day challenge!

2012-02-24T19:52:22Z

So GYWO is having a Leap Day Challenge, where you have to write 2900 words in a single calendar day before February 29th. And I've decided to do it. I know I'm behind on requests and things I have to write, and I am working on those, but I can't guarantee that I'll get 2900 words into a single piece before I run out of steam, so I'm taking the 29 100 word drabble option instead.

Though narrowing down 29 things out of everything that I could possibly write for? Hard. So with that being said -- the first twenty nine people to comment to this post will get a drabble with a character pair-up of their choosing. It doesn't have to be shippy, I just have to be able to write at least a hundred words with it. I have a plan to do this on Sunday, February 26, and I will just turn off the internet and blow through these, so if you want one, they will get done. I promise. =D

It can be any character pair up you like -- ship, broship, hate ship, whatever the case may be. It can be fandom or original. Whatever you'd like to see, just comment and I will do this on Sunday.

01. blytheandbonnie ~ Buffy/Finnick or Bonnie/Elena
02. lollobrigida ~ David/Katherine
03. vermal ~ Dean/Bela
04. yourlivewire ~ Alec/Max or Sam/Katherine
05. alison_sky ~ Sam and Hardison
06. makeyourmoment ~ Anderson/Lauren or McCallahan/Rachel
07. colormyspoon ~ Parker and Hardison
08. superkappa ~ Sam/Lilah
09. smokeandsong ~ Elena and Katherine
10. doesthemath ~ Alec and Wanda
11. pensive1 ~ Buffy and Raylan
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Sam/Alexis - Just You and I

2012-01-21T05:22:31Z

Fandom: Castle/Supernatural
Title: Just You and I
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Characters: Sam Winchester/Alexis Castle, Dean Winchester, Javier Esposito, Kevin Ryan
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: Here’s the thing about Sam Winchester. Regardless of how long it’s been, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve thought about him, you can still pick him out of a crowd in five seconds flat.
Author’s Note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY alison_sky! Technically this was supposed to be a “MERRY CHRISTMAS” too, but my muse abandoned me halfway through December and I’m trying to catch back up again, so THIS IS BOTH. This has timelines smashed together to put Sam at Stanford when Alexis would be, so this is post-series for Castle and about Season 3 for SPN.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to the CW and ABC. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

Here’s the thing about Sam Winchester. Regardless of how long it’s been, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve thought about him, you can still pick him out of a crowd in five seconds flat. It’s the height. Alexis may have not had a lot of it, but Sam had a way of hovering over everyone. That, and the fact that she’d know the back of his head anywhere. It’s what happened when he’s always seemed to find his way in front of her in Paulsen’s Ethics course. And right now, that particular back of a head was making his way through the twelfth precinct, and Alexis is so shocked that she can’t stop herself from speaking.

“Sam?”

She’s working her way up in the DA’s office, which meant occasionally swinging by the twelfth to pick up things, but she usually didn’t mind that much. It usually meant she got to see Beckett and needle the woman who is practically her stepmother about various things, but this time she didn’t make it that far. She’s carrying a box of files that Esposito had requested, and she’s just making her way into the bullpen when she sees the back of that head. The shoulders tense, the head whips around, and she half drops the box, half shoves it off on Espo before she’s moving across the room and throwing her arms around his shoulders.

“ … Hi?”

His voice sounds hesitant and odds are he didn’t get a look at her face before she threw herself at him like a red haired bat out of Hell, but after a minute she pulled back and looked up, and recognition comes over his face just as easily.

“Alexis!”

Then there’s some more hugging. Lots of hugging. An embarrassing amount of hugging really until there’s a sound of a throat being cleared behind her and Captain Gates is standing there, looking at them as though this is the strangest thing she’d ever seen.

“Ms. Castle—if you’d like, I believe the break room is open.”

“Right. Coffee,” she says with a nod before turning back to Sam. “We should have coffee. Would you like a cup?”

“I would love one,” Sam smirks, before taking her hand and letting her lead the way.

***

Alexis and Sam met in the aforementioned Ethics class, and at first, it was the spirit of healthy competition, but the friendly kind. They drove each other, pushed each other further, and it slowly escalated into more than that. They didn’t last long as a couple—it burned out almost as quickly as it started, but in the end they were still friends, and stayed close because of that.

Then Jessica died, and Sam fell off the face of the earth. Sure, there were e-mails for a while with vague references to where he was and what he was doing but none of it was concrete. She didn’t see him, didn’t talk to him on the phone—it’s as though he didn’t want to be found and she really couldn’t blame him. If she had lost someone like that, she might have wanted to fall off the face of the earth too.

“So what have you been up to?” she asks as she sits across from him, cradling the cup of coffee in her hands. “We haven’t talked since the funeral.”

“Yeah, I know. My brother … took me on this road trip, and we kind of never stopped.”

“A road trip. For three years.”

“Yeah,” he says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “We kind of got carried away.”

Alexis might have questioned it, but it seems like something her dad would do. “See anything interesting?”

Sam laughs. “Different things here and there. I saw the world’s biggest ball of twine.”

“A must see for people of all ages.”

“Dean thought so as well,” he smirks. “So much so that we had to see it twice.”

She laughs a bit, taking a sip of her coffee. She’s quiet for a moment, before reaching out and squeezing his hand gently. “It’s really good to see you. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too,” he nods. “It took me a long time, but I think I’m starting to get there.”

Alexis could tell that isn’t really the whole story, but she’s willing to brush it off for now. “We should have dinner. You and your brother while you guys are in town. I’d love to meet him.”

“You think you’ll manage to find the time? I know being an assistant district attorney can keep you pretty busy.”

“I think we can manage to work it out,” she smirks. “In fact, I’m free tonight, if you are.”

“ … Yeah,” he says after a moment, a smile crossing his face. “Yeah, I’d really like that.”

“Good,” she nods, before they start to get to her feet. “Which means I should get back to work, so that I can get off in time to have dinner, and not have it be a midnight snack.” His smile widens a bit, and they got up to head to the door of the break room, when Sam spots something through the window.

“Oh, no.”

He moves ahead of Alexis, and she blinks, confused, before following him. As they make it to the door, Esposito and Ryan are manhandling a guy in a leather jacket towards the interrogation room while in handcuffs.

“Easy on the merchandise, boys. I bruise easily.”

“Is everything okay?” Alexis asks, peering over Sam’s shoulder and watching him as the man goes.

“Fine,” Sam sighs. “But we’re not going to be able to have dinner.”

“Why not?”

“Because that was my brother.”

Alexis frowns, before turning to look in the direction of the interrogation room. “That’s not good.”

“No,” Sam sighs. “No, it’s not.”

***

Six hours later, Sam and Alexis are sitting outside on a bench with their second cup of coffee. Dean’s been in interrogation since he arrived at the precinct and all Alexis could get out of the detectives is that he was trespassing on a crime scene. Given the fact that Sam didn’t seem all that surprised leads Alexis to believe that this is the kind of thing that Dean does often, but she’s not going to push. It gives her more time to talk to Sam, so she’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

They’re currently recounting one of their adventures back at Stanford when Alexis turns to face him, and suddenly Sam’s a whole lot closer than he’s been in a long time. She smiles a bit at that before looking up at him. “It feels like forever ago, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it does,” he nods, his head dropping a bit closer. “But not as far as you think.”

Her teeth rake over her bottom lip as she moves a bit closer, one hand resting against his chest when …

“Am I interrupting something?”

They both jerk apart, looking over at the precinct stairs, and there’s Dean, standing there with a really annoying smirk on his face. Alexis could feel the blush climbing her cheeks, and she can hear the eye roll in Sam’s voice as he speaks. “Dean, this is my friend Alexis, from Stanford. Alexis, this is my brother, Dean.”

“Nice to meet you,” Alexis nods, and Dean just grins.

“The pleasure is mine. Really.”

“Alexis invited us to dinner, but since you decided to get yourself arrested—”

Alexis straightens a bit at that, before glancing over at Sam. “It’s not too late,” she says quickly. “We could always grab a pizza? This is New York City, I’m sure there’s somewhere that’s still open.”

“A quick thinker. I can see why he likes you,” Dean grins. “And I am starving. How about you, Sammy?”

“Yeah,” Alexis says with a bit of a smirk. “How about you, Sam?”

Sam glances between the two of them uncertainly, and then nods. “Okay. Let’s grab a pizza.”

“Great! I’ll grab a cab.” Alexis bounces to her feet, and heads the curb, and as she walks away, she can’t help but hear the voices over her shoulder.

“Dude, you are so in.”

“Do you think that you could manage not to be you for this dinner?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” A beat. “A redhead. I always knew you had it in you.”

“That. That is what I’m talking about.”

The cab pulls up to the curb, and Alexis smirks as she glances back at them. “You boys ready to go or am I gonna be eating by myself?”

“See? That’s exactly what I love about redheads.”

Sam groans, before running a hand over his face. “Is it too late to apologize for him in advance?”

Bonnie/Ruby - Mind Full of Wicked Designs

2012-01-03T06:26:43Z

Fandom: Supernatural/The Vampire Diaries
Title: Mind Full of Wicked Designs
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Ruby/Bonnie Bennett, Klaus, Rebekah, Damon Salvatore
Content Warning: Spoilers through S3 of TVD, character death, femmeslash.
Summary: Ruby’s never been her real name.
Author’s Note: Written for karahalliwell for xoverexchange. Okay, so this was a crazy fever dream in my brain, but I pretty much latched onto the idea and ran with it. This puts S3 of TVD around S2-3ish of SPN. Also, a lot of world blending.
Disclaimer: I do not own. They belong to the CW, and I’m just borrowing. I will put everything back where I found it.

Ruby’s never been her real name.

She’s been in and out of Hell so many times, she still isn’t sure what that name used to be, but it isn’t hers anymore. Ruby is a meat suit that she picks up somewhere along the way and adopts the name as her own. None of the demons seem to skip a beat—in fact, she’s fairly certain that none of them particularly care, and she simply becomes Ruby, sinking into the name and the persona like new clothes.

She still remembers sometimes. She remembers more about her humanity than she would like, and she remembers her death. She knows why she’s in Hell, and what the mistakes she has made—mistakes she was forced to make—have gotten her, but for right now, she simply needs to bide her time, and wait for the opportune moment. She waits for centuries to get the right traction to do what she needs to do, and when she finally has all the pieces in place, she decides to return home.

She hasn’t set foot in Mystic Falls in a very, very long time. As far as she’s concerned, it’s about time she returned home.

***

When she arrives in Mystic Falls, Mikael is already dead.

It does put a bit of a kink in her plan—she had been looking to do that particular job herself. Regardless, it’s one less thing stand between her and her end goal, which is wiping Klaus off the map. He’s been making this mess for far too long, and she’s done. If the rest of this group can’t seem to get their act together, then clearly she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands.

The last time she tried this, all it got her was a quick and dirty exorcism at the hands of a hunter, and a few centuries in the pit. This time she knows better. This time, she knows she has to get the witch on her side first. The problem with a town like Mystic Falls, however, is that new people tend to stand out. All it takes, really, is a bit of using that to her advantage.

She gets a hold of a young blond body, something attractive but still rough enough to mean business. Then she walks into the Grill like she owns the place, catching the eye of every person in the room. She knows that Bonnie can feel her as she moves through the room to one of the pool tables—she’s been at this game too long not to—but she doesn’t acknowledge her. She simply moves through the room to one of the back pool tables and sheds her jacket, planning on just starting a game with herself until Bonnie makes her way over. And she would make her way over. The girl is too curious for her own good, and likes to throw her non-existent magical weight around. It’s like taking candy from a baby.

Ruby is on her own for all of ten minutes before she makes an appearance, crossing the room to the opposite side of the pool table to where Ruby is standing. It takes her a minute to actually say anything, almost as though she’s searching for the words, but in the end she does speak.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

Ruby looks up with a eyebrow raise, before going back to lining up her shot. She always could admit—the Bennett witches always did have that little something about them that she never could explain. “I’m new in town. But that’s not why you’re here.” Bonnie startles, visibly. The girl’s so green Ruby could cry, but thankfully, she can work with that.

“What makes you think I’m not?”

Ruby gives her a placating look, and takes the shot before straightening up and moving closer. “Because you’re a witch. And you knew I was the minute you walked in the door.”

Bonnie squares her jaw, looking Ruby dead in the eye, and she has to admit—she’s impressed. Not many people are willing to stare her down, even without knowing what she is—and Bonnie didn’t even know the whole story. “You wanted me to come over here.”

“I did,” Ruby replies, matching her posture. “I need to talk to your boys.”

“My ‘boys’?”

“Damon and Stefan Salvatore,” she sighs. “You know where to find them, don’t you?”

“And what makes you think I should tell you?”

“Because you have a hybrid problem, and I’m here to fix it.” She pushes up, reaching for her jacket, and swinging the denim material around her shoulders. “Tell Damon that Ruby’s in town, and she’s here to clean up his mess.”

“If you know Damon, why didn’t you go to him yourself?” she asks as Ruby walks away, and as the material settles, and she smiles a bit, before glancing back over her shoulder.

“Why don’t you ask Damon that?” She then turns and keeps walking. “I’m at the bed and breakfast. He’ll know where to find me.”

***

It takes her three days. Three days for her to get up the nerve to mention it to Damon, and Damon to swing around to her front door. When Ruby opens the door to find the smarmy love sick idiot of a vampire standing there, she can’t help but smirk.

“Took you long enough.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Ruby?” he snaps, before pushing past her into the room. “Last time I saw you, I thought I made it clear that we were never going to see each other again.”

“Well, that was before you and your brother got up to your expressive little eyebrows in my business. Now, I don’t just have to finally kill the bane of my existence, I have to clean up your mess, which—bang up job getting Mikael dead by the way.”

“Okay, first of all? That wasn’t me. That was Stefan. Second of all, you wanted Mikael dead just as badly.”

“I want Klaus more,” she states evenly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Now, are you going to get Klaus here, or not?”

“And what makes you think I can do that? I can’t just snap my fingers and summon him.”

“No, but your brother has his family.” Damon’s face falters, and that’s when Ruby realizes that he hasn’t learned about that particular piece of the puzzles. Silly Salvatores, still keeping their secrets. Her eyebrows go up, and she looks vaguely amused. “And you didn’t know that.”

“Stefan isn’t that stupid.”

“Actually, I think it is kind of brilliant. It’s just the kind of ruse you need to get him to Mystic Falls. Get him here, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You’ll ‘take care’ of what, exactly? He still can’t be killed.”

“If a being is strong enough, it can rip his heart out. And I’m not your average witch.”

“No, you’re not, you’re a demon, which means I can’t trust a damn word you say.”

“Funny, I could say the same thing about you.”

“And what if you don’t get to Klaus in time? I’m not going to let my brother commit suicide for you.”

“Damon, without my help your brother is definitely dead.”

“Yeah, well, what if I don’t? What if I don’t loop Stefan in on your crazy grand plan?”

Ruby pauses for a moment, straightening with a smirk. “You know that girl of yours?”

“Elena? You’re going to threaten Elena?”

“No, shortbus. Not the doppelganger, though it is pretty tempting—without her Klaus can’t make any more hybrids, but no—that isn’t my end goal. I’m talking about the witch.”

“You’re going to kill Bonnie?”

“Not kill her,” she says with a smirk, moving closer to him. “I’ve been a witch for a long time, Damon. I know a little about a lot of things. Nasty things. Things that could get a good little witch like her into a whole lot of trouble.”

She waits for a moment, letting the implications of what she’s saying dawn on him a bit, and the next thing she knows, Damon has her pinned to wall with a hand to her throat. “You go near her soul, and I will tear you limb from limb.”

“But you and I both know that that won’t kill me. I’ll just come back in a brand new body and finish what I started.” She looks up at him with wide eyes, and gives him a slow grin. “So what’s it going to be, Damon? Klaus, or your witch’s soul?”

Damon’s eyes hold her gaze for a long time, before he backs off and lets her go, not even bothering to look back as he makes his way to the door. “I’ll call you once I get a hold of Stefan.”

“I also want to see Rebekah.”

Damon stops in the doorway, looking back at her in confusion. “You said it yourself, Stefan has her.”

“No, he doesn’t.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “She was here in Mystic Falls, up until she wasn’t. So where is she?”

Damon continues to stare at her for a moment, before he sighs and nods to the door. “Grab your jacket.”

A half hour later, she’s in the basement of the Salvatore’s house, staring into the open door. There, sprawled on the dirt floor of the basement is Rebekah, a dagger through her heart. There’s a part of her that drops to her stomach, and she just stares, fighting the urge to stride across the room and yank the dagger out herself, but she will have to save that for later.

“There she is,” he sighs. “We couldn’t take any chances with the plan, so Elena took care of it.” Damon glances over at her and raises an eyebrow. “Now she won’t get in your way either.”

Ruby steels her jaw, takes a breath, and nods. “Just get Klaus here. I’ll take care of the rest.”

***

It doesn’t take long for Klaus to get there at all. Two days, and he’s coming up the back of the Salvatore property, and Ruby is standing on the porch. She’s been waiting—fortunately, she doesn’t need to sleep. He stops just short of where she’s standing, studying her.

“Who are you?”

“Niklaus, I’m hurt,” she says as she slowly starts to stride down the stairs. “Are you saying you don’t recognize me?” She stops just short of him, before her eyes go black. “Then again, this isn’t how we last saw each other, is it?”

He sees the black eyes and his eyes widen, and he starts to try and back away. She doesn’t let him get far, using her demonic speed to appear in front of him, forcing her hand into his chest and sliding around the pumping muscle of his heart. He chokes on a bit of blood, and she smiles.

“Don’t be so surprised, my son. You’ve had this coming for a long time.”

His eyes widen in realization, and he manages one brief word before she pulls his heart out of his chest.

“Mother.”

His body drops to the ground, and as she tosses his heart to the side, Damon appears on the back porch. Her fingers flex through the stickiness of the blood, and then she rotates it slowly. “Told you I’d come through,” she says as she marches closer. “I’m just going to get cleaned up.”

“Are we going to pretend I didn’t hear that?” he comments, raising an eyebrow at her, putting himself partially in her way.

“Heard what, Damon?” Everything in her tone suggests that if he tries to make a big deal out of this, he would find himself joining Klaus. “Just clean up the body.”

“Whatever you say.”

***

A few hours later, Klaus’s body had been burned, and she’s getting ready to head out of town. There’s just one of little matter of unfinished business she has left. She appears quietly on the dirt floor of the room holding her daughter. She moves slowly, dropping to her knees next to the body, and trying to fight the rage flowing through her.

She never wanted to turn her children into this, but this doesn’t make her any less angry.

She brushes one hand over the soft blond hair, murmuring under her breath as she goes. “My beautiful, Rebekah,” she sighs. Her hand slowly moves lower, fingers curling through the handle of the dagger before pulling it out of her daughter’s heart. She slips the dagger into her belt, before leaning forward and whispering softly in her daughter’s ear.

“Destroy them all.”

With that, she makes her way to the front door. She’s pulling the door open just as Bonnie is coming in, and she can’t help the small smile that crosses her face as she does.

“See you around, cherry pie.”

However, with Rebekah’s temper, that probably isn’t likely.

fanmix } { before the fall of rome

2011-12-25T19:52:19Z

Made for betenoire_rp’s lovely lovesaroman. I was her Secret Santa this year, and I made her a fanmix! Amy and Rory are one of my favorite couples in my fandoms, and I love stalking them whenever I see them in RPs. Hopefully I’ll get to have more CR with you guys in the future. =D

1. Old Fashioned ~ Cee-Lo Green
My loves' old fashioned
But it still works
Just the way it is

This love is classic
And not just simply because
I say it is
It's right on time (right on time)
And it's timeless (timeless)
And it'll be right here, for always

***

2. Anywhere ~ Evanescence
We're leaving here tonight
There's no need to tell anyone
They'd only hold us down
So by the mornings light
We'll be half way to anywhere
Where no one needs a reason

***

3. With Your Love ~ Journey
With your love I'm not alone...
In your world: I'm never far away from home
A life I thought I'd never find...
In your eyes I see all that I am with your love
On my own... I searched for something more
In your arms... The kiss I've waited for
I was lost for words... To say what's in my heart
Just to be close... To the beauty that you are
If someone could see to the end of our lives
I know they'd find me there by your side

***

4. Steal My Kisses ~ Rutgers Deep Treble
Now I've been hangin around you for days,
But when I lean in you just turn your head away
Oh no, you didn't mean that
She said I love the way you think, but I hate the way you act

'Cause I always have to steal my kisses from you
Always have to steal my kisses from you

***

5. It’s All Been Done ~ Barenaked Ladies
I met you before the fall of Rome
And I begged you to let me take you home
You were wrong, I was right
You said goodbye, I said goodnight

It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

***

6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love ~ Queen
There goes my baby
She knows how to Rock n' roll
She drives me crazy
She gives me hot and cold fever
Then she leaves me in a cool cool sweat

I gotta be cool relax, get hip
Get on my track's
Take a back seat, hitch-hike
And take a long ride on my motor bike
Until I'm ready
Crazy little thing called love

***

7. Fire ~ Kristen Chenowith and Matthew Morrison
You had a hold on me
Right from the start
A grip so tight
I couldn't tear it apart
My nerves all jumpin'
Actin' like a fool
Well your kisses they burn
But your heart stays cool

***

8. Whisper ~ A Fine Frenzy
But if you keep real close
Yeah, you stay real close
I will reach you

I'm down to a whisper
In a daydream on a hill
Shut down to a whisper
Can you hear me
Can you hear me still

***

9. I Turned the Corner/I’m Falling in Love with Someone ~ Thoroughly Modern Millie
I turned the corner
And there you stood
Your smile like home to me
Your heart familiar
No use pretending, not that I could
I turned the corner when I met you

I turned the corner
Stopped on a dime
Like I remembered someone
Long forgotten
No mere flirtation, no marking time
I turned the corner when I met you
When I met you

***

Link to .zip.

iluvroadrunner6 @ 2011-12-22T22:27:00

2011-12-23T03:27:02Z

Just dropping a quick note to say that life has eaten me alive as of late, and because of that, Christmas fics are going to be a bit slow. I'm picking them up again starting nowish and will start banging them out again as soon as I can, but they aren't going to arrive on the dates they were promised.

But they are coming. I promise. You will have them if I have to start another Apocalypse to do it. =D

get your words out } { tracking 2012

2011-12-15T19:38:09Z

GOAL: 200,000

*Month*	-	*Piece Worked On*	*Word Count*	*Running Count*
January	1	---	---	---
	2	Bonnie/Ruby - Minds Full of Wicked Designs	2166 - finished	2166
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	---	---	---
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	the talon } { now these towns, they all know our name	528 - finished	2694
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	Sam/Alexis - Just You and I	1464 - finished	4158
	20	beyond the rift } { i don't know what you've done to me but i know this much is true	594 - finished	4756
	21	---	---	---
	22	Alison's Challenge	2213 - in progress	6969
	23	Anderson and Rachel - Oh My Holiday	928 - finished	7897
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	two and a half cops } { it's emasculating holding a purse	881 - finished	8778
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
February	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	Comment!fic requests	1157 - finished	9935
	7	Comment!fic requests	679 - finished	10614
	8	Comment!fic requests	978 - finished	11592
	9	---	---	---
	10	Comment!fic requests	750 - finished	12342
	10	erase the pain } { can i handle the seasons of my life	326 - finished	12668
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	147 levels } { no blinding light or tunnel to gates of white	558 - finished	13226
	14	---	---	---
	15	Comment!fic requests	1275 - finished	14501
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	Comment!fic requests	405 - finished	14906
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	Comment!fic requests	1437 - finished	16343
	25	---	---	---
	26	GYWO Leap Day Challenge	4283 - finished	20626
	27	---	---	---
	28	warm witch's blood } { go find your spirit in the lost and found	337 - finished	20963
	29	---	---	---
March	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	beyond the rift } { pray for the day when my ship comes in, and i can sleep the sleep of the just again	379 - finished	21342
	5	counted stars } { every move and every breath	340 - finished	21682
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	counted stars } { sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood	565 - finished	22247
	8	beyond the rift } { the present is an empty space between the good and bad	461 - finished	22708
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	Alison's challenge	3657 - in progress	26365
	16	Paladin	1588 - in progress	27953
	17	Paladin	797 - in progress	28750
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	RP Posts	769 - finished	29519
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
April	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	Paladin	2295 - unfinished	31814
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	beyond the rift } { don't you know i can't sleep at night since you've been gone	349 - finished	32163
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	Paladin	1678 - in progress	33841
	15	all the roads } { it's time to say goodbye to turning tables	429 - finished	34270
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	---	---	---
	21	3 Prose posts	1447 - finished	35717
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
May	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	beyond the rift }{ keep right on to the end of your song	2208 - finished	37925
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	---	---	---
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	Paladin	6613 - not finished	44538
	12	Paladin	7276 - not finished	51814
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	project gemini } { pleading eyes that break my heart, so homesick and confused	481 - finished	52295
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	---	---	---
	27	paradisa } { a reflection of who i am and what i will be	933 - finished	53228
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
June	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	transitions our profession and we don't work nine to five	936 - finished	54164
	7	beyond the rift } { that one treasure of treasures, love from a heart of gold	477 - finished	54641
	8	destroy me completely then throw me away	1194 - finished	55835
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	i've lived too long on my knees	632 - finished	56467
	12	the vampire diaries } { tell me to appreciate, here and now	1451 - finished	57918
	13	---	---	---
	14	and i swear i may rest my head tonight	1649 - finished	59567
	15	beyond the rift } { what's the use in trying not to fall	907 - finished	60474
	16	---	---	---
	17	the very things that make you live are killing you	993 - finished	61467
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	---	---	---
	21	it's the price we pay to feel	582 - finished	62049
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	not canon } { i could have spread my wings and done a thousand things	1258 - finished	63307
	25	---	---	---
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
July	1	---	---	---
	2	another local legend and his long time lucky charm	1128 - finished	64435
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	---	---	---
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	---	---	---
	17	all you have to do is squeeze your little finger	832 - finished	65267
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	Voicemail/Text meme	1652 - finished	66919
	25	white collar } { to live a life where nothing's as it seems	442 - finished	67361
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
August	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	---	---	---
	9	there's something missing in us, we try to make it whole	1185 - finished	68546
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	Paladin	6553 - in progress	75099
	19	Paladin	4510 - in progress	79609
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	i'm gonna stick like glue	1613 - finished	81222
		no longer gasping for a breath	1249 - finished	82471
		should i choose a noble occupation	1144 - finished	83615
	26	my discarded heart has finally found a home	1200 - finished	84815
		a mark, a yen, a buck or a pound	949 - finished	85764
		then the sky opened up with the soil of the sun	1293 - finished	87057
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
September	1	Paladin	5362 - in progress	92869
	2	Teleios metaplot	3013 - finished	95882
	3	Paladin	3899 - in progress	99781
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	---	---	---
	8	kicking shouting dancing on the tables all night long	2120 - finished	101901
	9	Paladin	9217 - in progress	111118
	9	carefully, quietly, you took what's young from me	1734 - finished	112852
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	meme drabbles	2152 - finished	115004
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
October	1	---	---	---
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	Paladin	7629 - in progress	122633
		paradisa } { +110	383 - complete	123016
		paradisa } { ⇒ 67	947 - finished	123963
	8	---	---	---
	9	---	---	---
	10	---	---	---
	11	---	---	---
	12	---	---	---
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	---	---	---
	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	beyond the rift } { and this really isn't any way to say goodbye	232 - finished	124195
	21	not canon }{ is it just another children's story that's been de-clawed?	2308 - finished	126503
	22	the lucky ones } { i'm not ready for the darkness	566 - finished	127069
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	mud and blood } { and still i will search for her nightly	1660 - finished	128729
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	Paladin	14965 - in progress	143694
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---
November	1	---	---	---
	2	Lady of Sorrows	1009 - in progress	144703
	3	Lady of Sorrows	3339 - in progress	148042
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
	7	Lady of Sorrows	2480 - in progress	150522
	8	Lady of Sorrows	4282 - in progress	154804
	9	Lady of Sorrows	2433 - in progress	157237
	10	Lady of Sorrows	6612 - in progress	163849
	11	---	---	---
	12	Lady of Sorrows	3897 - in progress	167746
	13	---	---	---
	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
	16	not canon } { i've got nothing to prove for it's you i'd die to defend	1409 - finished	169155
	17	Lady of Sorrows	5529 - in progress	174684
	18	Lady of Sorrows	6065 - in progress	180749
	19	Lady of Sorrows	5434 - in progress	186183
	20	Lady of Sorrows	4482 - in progress	190665
	21	Lady of Sorrows	4244 - in progress	194909
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	---	---	---
	26	beyond the rift } { one day he pushed a broom, nothing in his news but gloom and doom	943 - complete	195852
		beyond the rift } { of memories that go unremembered and then	875 - complete	196727
		beyond the rift } { somewhere over the rainbow	597 - complete	197324
	27	---	---	---
	28	not canon } { we'll run away together	1824 - finished	199148
	29	music playing on } { i believe the storybooks i read by candlelight	1960 - completed	201108
	30	and light the path } { he's making a list and checking it twice	1019 - complete	202127
December	1	beyond the rift } { a bond with darkness	1614 - complete	203741
	2	---	---	---
	3	---	---	---
	4	---	---	---
	5	---	---	---
	6	---	---	---
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	12	---	---	---
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	14	---	---	---
	15	---	---	---
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	17	---	---	---
	18	---	---	---
	19	---	---	---
	20	---	---	---
	21	---	---	---
	22	---	---	---
	23	---	---	---
	24	---	---	---
	25	the vampire diaries } { if the fates allow	3235 - finished	206976
	26	---	---	---
	27	---	---	---
	28	---	---	---
	29	---	---	---
	30	---	---	---
	31	---	---	---

Running Word Count: 206,976 words

Rory/Amy - Let Your Heart be Light

2011-12-09T22:18:23Z

¬Fandom: Doctor Who
Title: Let Your Heart be Light
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Rory Williams/Amy Pond, the Doctor, Melody Pond
Content Warning: Spoilers for Season 6.
Summary: Of the many things that Amy Pond was good at, present wrapping wasn’t one of them.
Author’s Note: Merry Christmas, evenasiwander! This is my first time writing the Ponds in any shape or form really, and I’m a little rusty with Amy’s point of view, but I really loved this prompt, so—I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to the BBC. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

Of the many things that Amy Pond was good at, present wrapping wasn’t one of them. It just wasn’t her strong suit. She was trying to get the paper to fold without wrinkles or unnecessary creases, and it’s just not coming out the way she wants it to. It’s Melody’s first Christmas. She wants everything to be absolutely perfect.

And if anyone tried to tell her that Melody wasn’t going to remember it anyway, they better be prepared for a punch in the face.

She was aware that first Christmas’s were more for the parents than anything else. She was aware that to Melody this was only going to be pictures and fond stories from her parents, but Amy had this nagging sensation she was never going to get another moment like this again. She wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

“Amy. It’s three in the morning.” She heard Rory’s voice from the doorway, but she didn’t turn to acknowledge it yet. “What on Earth do you think you are doing?”

“The bloody wrapping paper won’t fold right,” she muttered, keeping her eyes on the paper in front of her. She heard him walking closer, settling down onto the floor next to her, and sliding an arm around her shoulders. “When did this get to be so frustrating?”

“When it got to be three in the morning, maybe,” he smirked. “You do realize that she’s—”

“Rory. If you like your nose the way it is, I wouldn’t recommend finishing that sentence.”

He laughed, before reaching over and taking the present from her before she did any more damage. “I was going to say have more fun with the torn wrapping paper than she will the actual present.”

She laughed a bit herself, before shifting to lean into him a bit more. “I just want everything to be perfect.”

“I know,” he sighed, wrapping his arms around her. “But it will be better if her mum is actually awake to enjoy it instead of sleeping through it, don’t you think?”

Amy made a small grumbling noise as she rest her head on his shoulder. Her eyes wandered over to the Christmas tree, looking up over the evergreen branches. “It just almost doesn’t seem real.”

“It is,” Rory replied softly, before turning to give her a kiss. “Promise.”

“It better be,” she sighed. Moving one hand, she reached for the box—not to take it from him, but to tape down the last of the paper sticking up. “There,” she nodded. “Finished.”

“Fantastic. Can we go to bed now?”

“Probably should. Doctor said he was going to be here early tomorrow. Which means he’ll be a few hours late, but still. You never can tell what he considers early.”

“You have a point.” They both got up and were about to head to bed when there was a sharp cry from the direction of Melody’s room, and they both groaned. “I’ve got her,” Rory sighed. “You go sleep.”

She smirked, before leaning in to kiss him softly. “Merry Christmas, Rory.”

***

The Doctor, for once, arrived on time. It was shortly after presents, but a bit before Amy actually started cooking dinner that the giant blue police box appeared on the front lawn. The Doctor greeted them all in his own way, bringing them presents from alien planets that they were probably never going to be able to use, but were still pretty interesting nonetheless.

She left her boys and her daughter in the living room while she went to the kitchen to finish fixing dinner. It wasn’t a big celebration with a lot of people, but the important people were there, and that was what mattered. She had her boys, she had her girl, and life was very, very good. There was still the small nagging sensation that this wasn’t entirely real, that it was too good to be true, but for what it was, she was going to take it.

Eventually, the Doctor had to run off to save the world, as he was wont to do on Christmas, which just left Amy and Rory, Melody nestled between them fast asleep. The house still smelled like the Christmas turkey, just a little, and that feeling of home made her nestle just a little bit closer to him. His lips rested against the top of her head for a moment, before he murmured into her hair:

“So. As perfect as you wanted?”

Melody’s small fingers slowly closed around Amy’s finger in her sleep, and Amy couldn’t help the smile. “Couldn’t have asked for better.”

Spike/Buffy - For Love and Joy are Here

2011-12-08T04:44:10Z

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Title: For Love and Joy are Here
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Spike/Buffy Summers
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: It’s very easy to have Christmas when it felt like you were winning.
Author’s Note: Merry Christmas, museofspeed! This is set shortly after 711: Showtime, because it seemed like a good spot in S7 to have Christmas. I also didn't mean for it to be this long, but once drunk!Buffy gets going, she doesn't slow down.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to Joss Whedon. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

It’s very easy to have Christmas when it felt like you were winning.

She had beat the Turok-Han. They got Spike back. Morale was up. Things were looking good. She knew that they hadn’t reached the end of the road yet—there was still a long way to go—but it was a tiny victory, and when there were tiny victories, you let yourself to take a break for Christmas. And when you had a house full of teenage girls, you did more than just take a break—you partied hard.

Buffy never thought she would be the girl to think that she had partied too hard, but apparently she had underestimated the tenacity of a house full of potential Slayers. There was egg nog—really strong egg nog—close quarters and way, way too many people. Buffy needed out. Buffy needed some room to breathe.

Buffy needed to steal the egg nog.

(Okay, she might have been a little smashed, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t been drunk before. Though it did mean that she had drunk a lot.)

Regardless, none of that stopped her. She stole the punch bowl from the kitchen table, snuck around the rest of the group and made her way down to the basement. She wasn’t sure why she went to the basement when she thought she needed air, but again, she was slightly tipsy. No one should expect her to be reasonable when she’s actually drank enough to be tipsy.

See: her actually forgetting the glasses.

She stopped at the landing, bowl of egg nog in her hands, and looked over at Spike. He was still pretty beaten up—better than he was, but not perfect yet. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen him like this before. She flashed back to Glory, where he protected Dawn with his life, and she had come as the Buffy Bot to try and find out if he had cracked, and he hadn’t. This wasn’t the same, though. This time, Buffy had rescued him because he was Spike and on some level, she needed him—whether she wanted to admit to it or not, and she was coming to him as Buffy. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she was coming as herself, and nothing else.

He looked up at her when he heard her footsteps come to a stop, and he raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Think you took that to the wrong place, Slayer. Party’s upstairs.”

She was quiet for a moment before holding out the bowl. “I brought you nog. Really strong nog.”

“Clearly, considering you forgot to bring my something to drink it out of.” He was teasing. She could tell, but that didn’t stop her from looking rather apprehensive about heading back up the stairs. That clearly only gave him room to tease her more. “Scared of your own kind, pet?”

“There’s just … a lot of them. More than I thought there were. And they’re very excited. Not that I’m entirely sure why because I’m pretty sure that when Christmas is over they’re going to either die or this house is going to explode from trying to keep them all in.”

“Buffy.”

“Yes?”

“Do I have to take that nog away from you?” She glanced down at the bowl in her hands, staring at the swirling cinnamon on top, before looking up at him and nodding. Spike smirked, before shifting on the cot and moving to give her more room. “Come on. They’re going to figure out where you are eventually—might as well get a head start.”

Buffy moved over to the cot, sliding up onto the seat next to him, before handing him the bowl. “We just don’t have an answer yet. Yeah, we beat the Turkey Ham, but he still kicked me around pretty well. I don’t know if I can keep them all safe, and they’re not me yet. They don’t deserve to die for almost being me.”

And that, in the end, was what everything boiled down to. They were possibilities, but they hadn’t been chosen yet. And she didn’t want them to die because they could be. Spike took the bowl from her, taking a long sip from the edge, before leaning back against the wall.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a rather depressing drunk?”

“To be fair—I only really get drunk when I’m depressed. And hey—the last time I rescued kittens.”

“You broke up a poker game.”

“I still don’t get why you play poker for kittens.”

“That’s not the point, pet.”

“Pet is such a weird term of endearment.”

“Focus, Buffy.”

“Fine. I’ll focus.” She shifted to face him a little more, her eyes wide and attentive. “Tell me, Spike. What is the point?”

He gave her a bit of a look before taking another long sip of the egg nog. “Way I see it is this. People are going to die. That’s what evil does, it kills people. And when it comes to evil, it doesn’t care if you’re chosen, or just a regular average person—it’s the end of life that it wants.”

She opened her mouth to speak, and he held up a finger.

“Not finished yet.”

Her mouth closed with the edge of a pout, and he continued to give her a look before continuing.

“But so long as you keep standing in it’s way, those girls are going to be safe. This is what you do, Buffy. Don’t forget that.”

He’s right. She knew he was right. This was what she did, and at the end of the day, she wasn’t going to stop, and she wasn’t going to slow down. But Christmas seemed to be the time for doubts, and at least she was taking the time to get them out now, before the First came back and these things started up all over again.

She didn’t acknowledge that though. She just let herself be distracted by the movement of feet above her, and then glanced back over at him. “Mind if I stay down here for a bit?”

Spike watched her for a moment, before giving her a small smile and nodding. “Course. Want some nog?”

She really shouldn’t. She’s clearly had enough. But if she hadn’t listened to her sense of reason so far, there was no reason she should start now.

“Sure!” She reached over to take the bowl from him, taking a long sip before handing it back to him, before there was a burst of laughter near the doorway. “They’re really having fun up there. We haven’t had fun around here in a long time.”

“And they’re right to. Not going to get too many moments like this for a while.”

She nodded quietly for a moment, before inching closer, and letting her head rest against his shoulder. “Merry Christmas, Spike.”

He glanced over at her for a moment with a small smile before nodding. “Merry Christmas, Slayer.”

Eliot/Lois - What Do You Say, Old Friend

2011-12-07T06:27:48Z

Fandom: Leverage/Smallville
Title: What Do You Say, Old Friend
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Eliot Spencer/Lois Lane
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: Lois wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing in Boston.
Author’s Note: Merry Christmas nas2439! They asked me for Eliot/Lois fic and I did my best to deliver. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to the CW and TNT. I’m just borrowing, and I’ll put everything back where I found it.

Lois wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing in Boston.

She knew that he was going to have no real reason to help her. This was a Hail Mary play if there ever was one, but she needed to at least take the chance. The small little out of the way bar that she had been directed to was just up Eliot’s alley, and as she made her way inside, she found that he wasn’t all that hard to spot. It had been almost ten years, but she had to hope that some parts of the past had been buried far enough for him to help.

He was sitting at the bar nursing a beer, but he looked up the second the door opened. He always looked up when the door opened, and when his eyes met hers, she wasn’t sure if he froze, or if he just didn’t know what to say. Due to the fact that Lois couldn’t keep her mouth shut, she felt it was only fair that she made the first move.

She wove her way through the bar, coming to a stop next to him, and giving him a half-smile as she tried not to betray how nervous she was. “Hey there, soldier,” she said softly. “Buy a girl a drink.”

“Lois,” he said slowly. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you,” she said, chickening out before she could even get started. “I figured we could have a drink, catch up—just like old times.”

“Last I checked you never wanted to see me again.”

“I was an eighteen year-old girl and I was pissed. You really gonna take that to heart?”

“And last I checked you were also a headline reporter for the Daily Planet.”

She straightened at that, raising an eyebrow as she smirked. “You’ve been checking up on me, Spencer?”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s not the point, Lane.”

“Then what is the point?”

“The point is I think that if you wanted to talk to me, you would have picked up phone and called. But instead, you took time off work, flew to Boston, and tracked me to a local bar. And don’t even say that you didn’t think I would have answered the phone. You know I would have.” He paused, turning to face her more. “What’s going on, Lois?”

She sighed, taking a deep breath and looking down at her fingers again. “I need your help.” He didn’t say a word—words were never something he had been all that big on—simply raised an eyebrow and waited for her to finish. “I think someone’s trying to kill me.”

His face hardened, just slightly. “Let’s get that drink.”

***

Two beers, two days and a lot of time later, the team had a lock on who was trying to kill Lois, but they hadn’t managed to track them down yet. Apparently, a branch of Luthor Corp had caught wind of the fact that she was getting ready to launch the story of the century regarding their backroom and inhumane tests with meteor rock, and decided to try and take her out before she could do it. They had answers, but they didn’t have the guy, which is why Eliot was camped out with her in her hotel room—which, by the way, couldn’t have less windows if they put her in a cinderblock cell—waiting for a sign from the rest of the team that the coast was clear.

On the bright side, this meant Eliot got to cook. And man, could Eliot cook.

“You know, of all the things I missed about you,” Lois said with a sigh as she chewed through her meal, before gesturing to her plate with her fork. “This? Definitely in the top ten.”

He chuckled softly as he finished cleaning off the stove, before glancing over at her. “There’s enough for a top ten list?”

“Everything has enough for a top ten list. It’s just a matter of thinking about it.”

“We were together for … ”

“I know,” she sighed. “I know, I think too much. But I can’t really help it.” She looked up at him. “And you already knew that.”

He smirked. “It wasn’t that long, but I got to know you pretty well.”

“Is there anything you don’t pick up in a week?” she sighed, bringing her plate back into the kitchen and placing it beside him on the sink. “New and improved fighting techniques, new recipes, people—it’s like there’s nothing you can’t do.”

He didn’t answer until he was finished washing the dishes. Normally she would be impatient, but she knew Eliot. He would get there, he just needed to find the words. “Took me a while to figure out you.”

“Please,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not that complicated. Half the time what I’m thinking comes right out my mouth anyway.”

“That isn’t want makes you hard to figure out, Lane,” he replied softly, before moving past her and back into the main area of the room.

She huffed a bit, before glancing over her shoulder to look at him. “I didn’t miss the cryptic though. That I learned to live without.”

He turned to look at her as he went to sit down on the couch. “What do you want me to say? That I regretted choosing what I did?”

“No,” she sighed, shaking her head as she slowly made her way across the room. Her hands idled on the different surfaces as she went, trying to buy herself a little time somehow. “Because I know you don’t. I want to know why you’re tracking me.”

“You’re on the front page of one of the biggest newspapers in the country.”

“And you and I both know that the media is one of your great big conspiracy theories,” she sighed as she finally sat down next to him on the couch. “So you wouldn’t pick up a mainstream newspaper unless you were looking for something.”

He smirked as he turned to face her more. “I could always trust you to get to the truth. It was one of the things I liked about you.”

“That, and I was the daughter of a general, so being on his good side meant kissing my ass.”

He chuckled. “You and I both know that that got me nowhere.”

“It got you further than you think. You kept me out of trouble.” She paused for a moment, before reaching for one of his hands. “You’re still keeping me out of trouble.”

He turned and gave her hand a small squeeze, before pushing up from the couch. “It’s getting late. You should get some sleep.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still doing that whole ninety minutes of sleep thing.”

He shrugged, offering her his hand. “It works for me.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, letting him lead the way. “I guess it does.”

Alec - A Turkey and Some Mistletoe

2011-12-03T01:33:23Z

Fandom: Dark Angel/White Collar
Title: A Turkey and Some Mistletoe
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Alec McDowell, Peter Burke/Elizabeth Burke, Neal Caffrey
Content Warning: Teeth-rotting fluff.
Summary: In which Alec finds himself with an unexpected Christmas surprise.
Author’s Notes: Written for the awesome fribbled, and her wonderful Peter. Merry Christmas!
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to FOX and USA. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

“So, Alec,” Peter begins as he’s sitting behind his desk, finishing up the last of the paperwork. “What are you doing for Christmas?”

Alec likes being in Peter’s office—or at least, the fact that he’s able to poke around in Peter’s office. Peter gives him a bit longer of a leash than his lovely NSA handlers, and so long as he doesn’t pick up and look through anything too explosive or work-relevant, he’s allowed to peruse whatever he likes. Mostly because Peter knows that he wouldn’t be able to stop him otherwise. He’s a bit like Neal that way.

Which, by the way—Alec really likes Neal. With the exception of when Peter looks like he’s going to explode because of something Neal did. He has enough self-preservation instinct for that, at least.

That question, however, makes it feel like a pile of ice is sloshing in his stomach. “Not much. Hard when you’re being held by the government and your family is across the country.” Holidays make him miss Seattle all the more, but he did the right thing. He’s protecting his family this way, and he just has to hope that they throw some extra lights up, just for him.

That seems to strike Peter quiet, however. “Nothing at all? Not even a phone call?”

Alec gives him a skeptical look at that. “Are you kidding? They’re way too paranoid about me to give me a phone.” The NSA still hasn’t learned that you apply enough of the right kind of pressure, and a person will do as they’re told without that much coercion. This is probably part of the reason why they never were able to really handle the X-series.

“Huh,” Peter comments dryly. “That’s a shame.”

He shrugs again. “Not like I’m accustomed to having it. Manticore wasn’t exactly big on encouraging the season of giving either.” He’s whining. It feels like he’s whining, when really he’s just trying to be clear. Christmas? Not that big a deal. He’s a big boy. He’ll suck it up.

Peter, on the other hand, just falls quiet and goes back to his paperwork. If Alec didn’t know better, he’d say the wheels in the man’s head are spinning. But he does know better—because as much as he may like Peter, he’s not expecting the man to go out on too many limbs for him. He is, after all, just a weapon. He doesn’t really expect to be seen as anything different.

***

He’s up at six AM on Christmas morning, and has a pile of books to read and TV privileges to abuse. The guards don’t want to be around him any more than he wants to be around them, so he keeps to himself, only really looking up at mealtimes when they bring in his food. It is bound to be a long day, with nothing to really break it up, but he isn’t going to let it bug him. Much.

In the end, though, he isn’t in the cell for that long. Around nine AM, the door to his cell rumbled to life, and he looks up to see Peter Burke standing in the doorway. He’s confused—he figured that Peter would be spending the day with his wife—but apparently there he is, standing in the doorway.

“We’ve got a case. Let’s go.”

“A case?” He doesn’t disobey. He pushes to his feet, and grabs his boots and jacket, but that doesn’t stop him from questioning what’s going on. “On Christmas.”

“Apparently crime waits for nothing—not even the holiday spirit.”

He knows this logic is flawed. Peter works white collar crime—those cases just don’t come up on Christmas—but he’s not going look a gift horse in the mouth. He follows him out the door without question and down to the bureau issued black sedan. He slides in the front seat, buckling up before speaking.

“Your wife must have pitched a fit.”

Peter smirks, Alec isn’t entirely sure why, and nods. “She just wants me to solve the case and get home as soon as possible.”

Alec nods. Solve the case fast—he could do that. Just because he is having a sucky Christmas doesn’t mean that he wants Peter to have the same. He sits in the silence of the car for a while until he realizes that they aren’t going anywhere near the FBI building. He frowns, before glancing back at him.

“Are we going to the crime scene?”

“Not exactly.” A few minutes later, they pull into a residential neighborhood, and Peter pulls the car to a stop in front of a house. He puts the car in park, before looking over at Alec with a small smile. “Elizabeth insisted, and I couldn’t really find the grounds to disagree with her.”

There’s a long silence. Alec is trying to process what’s happening because it can’t be happening. There’s no reason for logical conclusion to be happening. So he just stares at the house, before turning to stare at Peter.

“Huh?”

“We’re inviting you to dinner,” Peter says with a small smile. “Merry Christmas, Alec.”

Alec is quiet for a moment, before looking up at the window again. “I honestly don’t know what to say.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Peter laughs, before starting to climb out of the car. “Come on—the food’s getting cold.”

***

The food is good. Really good. So good that Alec eats too much of it and ends up sprawling on the couch, rubbing his stomach gently. He is almost content enough to purr, but he knows that Peter is weird enough about his catlike tendencies. He doesn’t want to freak out his wife as well. She seems rather pleased with the way he attacked her food though—that much is written on her face when she comes out to sit on the armchair near his head with her cup of coffee.

“I take it the food was up to par?”

His head tips back so that he’s looking at her upside down and he flashes a lazy smile. “Are you kidding? I’m basically living on prison food. Compared to that, that was the king’s feast.”

She laughs. “I hardly think it’s that good, but thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replies politely. “And thank you for having me.”

“It wasn’t any trouble,” Elizabeth sighs, waving a hand. “Peter mentioned that you were going to be spending Christmas alone, and I always make too much food anyway. I’m sure our refrigerator will appreciate the lack of leftovers.”

“Well, if you ever want Peter to fake another case so that I can come over and clear out your fridge, trust me—it won’t be a problem.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” she grins, before looking up as Peter appears in the doorway. Alec follows her eyes and flashes Peter the same smile on his face. “Neal kick your ass at chess again, sweetie?”

“We’re putting the game on hold for a little,” he sighs, before looking back at Alec. “Time to go.”

“Do you plan on carrying me? Because I don’t think my legs are going to work.”

“Don’t be a smartass,” Peter says with a look. “It’s almost curfew.”

Alec sighs as he pushes himself into a sitting position. “Yeah, I know.” He gets to his feet, before turning back to Elizabeth and extending a hand to her. “Again, thank you for having me.”

She squeezes his hand before nodding. “You’re welcome anytime.”

Alec nods, before turning and following Peter out the door. He makes it about halfway to the car with his hands in his pockets before he stops. “Hey, Peter?” The older man turns around, and all it takes is a few steps before Alec is wrapping his arms around the other man in a tight hug. He’s quiet for a moment, but eventually there’s a murmured ‘thank you,’ against his shoulder.

Peter tenses at first, before his arms come up and slide around the younger man’s shoulders. “Anytime, Alec,” he says softly. “It’s the least I could do.”

iluvroadrunner6 @ 2011-11-29T20:56:00

2011-11-30T01:56:33Z

There are still two spots open in my month for my holiday fic requests if anyone wants a go at them who hasn't claimed already. Just follow my rules and anything goes. =D

Micah - I Want to Break Free

2011-11-27T01:14:15Z

Fandom: Dark Angel/Heroes
Title: I Want to Break Free
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Micah Sanders/Molly Walker, Logan Cale
tamingthemuse Prompt: #279 ~ Rabble-rouser
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: For once, it wasn’t Molly who found someone, it was Micah.
Author’s Note: Written for karrenia_rune for xoverexchange. Not directly as a result of one of her prompts, but one of the things she requested at least. Also, I fiddled with the timelines a bit, but I liked the idea of Micah and Molly being the mentors as oppose to the other way around.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to NBC and FOX. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

For once, it wasn’t Molly who found someone, it was Micah.

Molly was usually the one in charge of recruiting. It was her thing—her ability, after all, which only proved to expand and grow as time went on, but it still was hard to do when you didn’t know who exactly you were looking for. She could work off a name most of the time, pictures were better and a personal object connected her loud and clear, but when it was just an idea of a person, a specific kind of person, Molly was all but useless. She still needed a specific person in mind—which was why Micah needed to be the one to find Logan.

In all fairness, he wasn’t really looking at the time. He was just pushing around in some government database, searching for a sign of experimentation on powered humans, when he suddenly wasn’t the only one paging through the files. He tried dodging around, blocking the person out if he could, but whoever this was, they were smooth. They dodged around Micah’s roadblocks, skillfully pushed through his firewalls, and wasn’t so much a hacker as a glider. If Micah didn’t know better, he’d think that someone else had his ability. But since he did have his ability, he pushed through the hacker’s own firewalls and failsafes until he had both a name and an address: Logan Cale, Seattle, Washington.

He leaned back in his chair with a smirk, before glancing over at Molly, who was lounging on the bed behind him.

“Pack your bags. We’re going to Seattle.”

***

After the Pulse hit in ’09, things got worse for powered humans, not better.

Technology crashed and a lot of discreet funding went out the window, but in the end, people stopped caring. A person went missing, and it was presumed that they just moved on, went somewhere else where they might stand a chance of finding a job. There was no way to track people, and when it came to that, the rest of the world took advantage, and it wasn’t the Company 2.0. It was more like Danko, but new and improved, and Micah and Molly weren’t about to let the same thing happen twice. Rebel came back in full force, and they took to the streets, warning those they could, spreading awareness, doing everything they could to get people to wake up and pay attention.

Most people didn’t. Waking up and paying attention would mean that they’d have to see the state that their world was in, and if Micah had learned anything about people over the years, they never truly wanted to face their reality. They just wanted to go on pretending. Either that, or they took that small amount of pleasure in someone else’s pain.

Micah was older. He didn’t have the child-like enthusiasm, that belief that everyone, at the core, was good and wanted to be a hero. He was starting to realize that while yes, there were people like Peter Petrelli in the world still, those people were few and far between. Molly tried to keep his faith in all that alive for as long as he could, but in the end, it only came down to two choices for him: either you were part of the revolution, or you needed to get out of its way. Maybe it was naive of him to think that he was that powerful a force, but it was the last bit of naivety that he had left, so for the time being, he was going to keep it.

They collected the Peter Petrellis of the world they could find, banded them together for a common goal, and while they were never terrorists—they didn’t do the things that were blamed on them just because they had powers and the world needed a common enemy to blame—they still caused trouble. They still were the force who wouldn’t accept the corruption that the world seemed to have succumbed to, and they wanted the rest of the world to stand up with them.

Which is why they needed Logan Cale. The movement needed a face. Rebel and his text messages couldn’t be the only voice forever, but if they could get a hacker, someone who could get into the cable news feeds and bring that message to the world. What they found though, wasn’t what they expected.

They tracked him to a small restaurant on the wealthier side of Seattle. They didn’t know what a rich kid was doing, hacking into government files, but this was their chance to find out. They crashed the party that his parents were throwing—easy to do when you’re on the guest list—and made their way inside to find him. This is when Molly’s ability really came in handy—it’s one thing to pinpoint someone’s location. It’s another entirely to pick them out of a crowded room, full of people. It takes her all of a minute, and she’s giving Micah’s hand a squeeze, leading him through the crowd of people until they were standing in front of a young teenage boy.

“ … Can I help you?” he asked, eyes narrowing a bit behind his glasses. Molly just did that friendly, reassuring grin she always did, before responding.

“Logan Cale?” He nodded, and the grin widened. “We have a proposition for you.”

He looked apprehensive at first, like he didn’t know what to say. Eventually, he adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “What kind of proposition?”

“Let’s take a walk,” Micah replied, nodding towards the door. Logan nodded, and after they got outside, a good distance from the restaurant, Micah slipped an arm around his shoulders before smirking. “How would you like to save the world?”

Clearly, that was a proposition Logan didn’t get every day.

***

Logan had only just graduated high school, but Micah was the last person on Earth to think that age was even relative. He had first joined Rebel when he was fourteen, and found something that fit for him so well that he never looked back. He was sure that there were members of his family who wished he would, but this was the right thing to do.

And now he was going to teach Logan to do the same.

It took time, as all good things do, but eventually, using his family’s money and some of Rebel’s resources, they managed to work their way around the corruption of Logan’s family and start to hack their way into the news feeds. The persona they came up with—‘Eyes Only’—was cryptic enough to get their attention, and Micah set up the servers so that the information couldn’t be traced back to him, no matter how hard they tried. They wanted their newest operative to be secure, if nothing else.

They stayed for three months. It was longer than they had ever stayed anywhere, and Micah heard the comments they made about this place almost feeling like home, but Micah knew they’d never be able to stay. They needed to keep mobile, if they ever wanted to stay out of the government’s hands, and she knew that. Especially with her ability—if the government ever got a hold of her, there was no end to the damage they could cause.

They set him up in an apartment on the other side of town, told him to make it his home. There was enough computer equipment there that moving was going to be impossible. They walked through the first few cable hacks, and then they said their goodbyes. As they walked out, Molly slipped a file into his hands, one containing information on a genetic engineering program that they thought might be operating in their area.

“Take it,” she said simply. “It might come in handy one day.”

Logan had no idea what she meant, and frankly, neither did Micah, but he stopped trying to make sense of Molly a long time ago.

***

It’s five years and change, by the time they’re back in Seattle again. Logan called Molly for help with finding someone for a favor to someone else, and while Micah didn’t think it was important, he seemed to convince Molly otherwise. While Molly and Logan were doing whatever it was they needed to do, Micah went to a bar, got himself a drink, and waited. It was nice to have some downtime. He hadn’t had any for a very long time.

He’s finishing his first drink and about to order his second when the picture on the television above the bar shorts out, and he hears a very familiar voice filter through the air.

“Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. This is a secure cable hack that will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in the city.”

And for a small, brief moment, Micah allowed himself to smile.

Bela/Jo - Feels Like I'm Falling Far Out of Sight

2011-11-14T23:21:25Z

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Feels Like I’m Falling Far Out of Sight
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Bela Talbot/Jo Harvelle
tamingthemuse Prompt: #278 ~ Rapid Eye Movement
charloft Prompt: 46. Endings
Content Warning: Spoilers through Season 3, femmeslash, angst.
Summary: The thing that makes dream root such nasty business isn’t the taste—it’s the timing.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme where I was given the prompt “Bela Talbot/female of your choice” and the lyrics to Mika’s Happy Ending. I thought about crossing this over, but I haven’t written Bela/Jo in a while and I miss it.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to Kripke. I’m just borrowing and I will put everything back where I found it.

The thing that made dream root such nasty business wasn’t the taste—it’s the timing.

You needed to get things exactly right. You needed the DNA of your target to be sure that your mind didn’t get lost in the ether. You needed to sip the brew just as they’re entering REM sleep, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to link to their subconscious. It was one thing when they were lying right there next to you, but factor in time zones, state lines—it made things a little bit harder. You sipped the drink while your target was still awake, and you could be lying unconscious for hours, waiting for them to fall asleep.

If there was one thing Bela Talbot didn’t have enough of to waste, it was time. Actually, the fact that she had very, very little time left was the reason why she was doing this.

Bela Talbot was also a selfish woman, but that really wasn’t a surprise to anyone. She waited for as long as she could, put it off for as long as she could because she didn’t want to believe it either, but in the end, she had to say good-bye somehow, she just didn’t have the nerve to do it the right way. So she made an attempt to time it out, prepared the dream root, and waited.

Maybe in the in-between, she might get a chance at a little sleep.

***

Bela met Jo in the middle of a hunt, when she had two years left on the clock and opportunities were starting to slip through her fingers. Everywhere she turned she was finding dead ends, and this particular demon just happened to be another one—especially once Jo sent it to Hell. She should have known better than to go back to demons to try and find a way out in the first place, but she was starting to get desperate and she was running out of leads. Naturally, when her last one got evicted from the premises, she was a little miffed and took it out on Jo.

Jo was very quick to tell her that a demon was a demon. You couldn’t reason with them, you couldn’t negotiate—as if Bela didn’t know that one already. But there was something about her, and when they kept running into each other, more only seemed to develop and suddenly Bela had someone who was important to her. Bela had someone who’s well-being she actually cared about, and that was a scary thought—but she was still selfish enough to take it, to not be lonely for a little while, and in the end it made all the difference.

If she was going to take it, then she couldn’t do what Lilith was asking her to do, even if that meant losing it all the same.

If she was going to take it, then she was going to have to say goodbye.

The dreamscape is familiar when they arrive on it. It’s a small hotel room that they shared when they were working a job in Florida. Jo was sitting at the vanity mirror, wearing what was probably the only dress she owned, and her hair half up. Bela had helped her clean up for that event, where they were supposed to play distraction, charm their hosts while Sam and Dean snuck up to take care of the cursed object in question. It was for that job, and that job only that Bela actually lacked an alternative angle, which mean she had time to focus on Jo for a little while, whether Jo wanted her to or not.

But this wasn’t that time. This was just a memory, meant to hold a conversation that would never actually happen, but needed to happen nonetheless. Bela needed to say goodbye.

Jo’s eyes met Bela’s through the mirror, and she slowly turned to face her. “This isn’t how it happened.”

“No,” Bela sighed. “It’s not.”

“Am I—”

“Dreaming,” Bela supplied. “I don’t have a whole lot of time.”

“And you couldn’t pick up a phone?” Jo wasn’t buying this, and she wasn’t going to be happy with what Bela had to say either, but Bela didn’t know what else to do. This was what she had to do. She made her way closer, sitting down on the table next to the vanity for a moment.

“I needed to do this face to face.”

“Then drive out here.”

“I wouldn’t make it. It’s more than a two days drive.”

“Two days … ” The look on Jo’s face broke her heart, and she reached forward to grip Bela’s arms. “You said you had a way.”

“The price was too high.” Not for her, but for Jo. And she cared about her enough to not ask her to pay it. “I’m sorry.”

Jo’s eyes closed as she slumped back into the seat, turning to look in the mirror again. Bela knew that she was process, trying to find a way that they could get around this, to say that they had time, but she knew as well as Bela did that two days wasn’t time. It was simply a grace period. Time to get your affairs in order say your goodbyes.

“This isn’t how things are supposed to go,” she said. The defeated tone in Jo’s voice broke Bela’s heart, and she inched closer, reaching for her hand gently.

“I don’t think our world is made for happy endings.”

Jo nodded, before turning to face her again, one hand coming up to brush through her hair. “I wish it was.”

Bela paused for a moment, before leaning in closer to brush a kiss to her lips. It was soft and small, but still everything she felt needed to be said, and everything she never did. Bela Talbot wasn’t as good with words, after all. She would have to let this speak for her.

After a moment, Jo pulled back, tears in her eyes, and gave her a small smile. “Stay a while?”

Bela nodded. “As long as I can.”

You can only stick around for so long in a dream after all. But for right now, all she wanted to do was stay.

Shawn - Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

2011-11-14T21:56:11Z

Fandom: Firefly/Psych
Title: Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Shawn Spencer, Mal Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, River Tam, mentions of Jayne Cobb and Burton “Gus” Guster.
Content Warning: AU, world fusion, Shawn being Shawn, Author ignoring tragic events in one canon in favor of having awesome character interactions (aka setting this pre-Serenity).
Summary: Shawn Spencer’s Guide to Pretending to be Psychic.
Author’s Notes: Written for misura for xoverexchange. I … really had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to USA and FOX. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

Shawn Spencer’s Guide to Pretending to be Psychic

Lesson One: When pretending to be psychic to give you some kind of relief from the boredom of living on a cushy central planet, only pretend to be psychic at the right people.

Shawn may have been a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid. He acted like it, at times—in fact, there were occasions where he probably looked like the most idiotic person that you’ve ever met, but contrary to popular belief, Shawn was, in fact, very smart. He knew the rules of the game he was playing and he knew how to bend them just enough in order to get what he wanted, and that was what made him so good at what he did. He didn’t pretend to be psychic for money, or for the notoriety—though the money was very nice—he did it because he wanted to help people and because he was good at it. That seemed to be enough for most people.

It wasn’t enough for the Alliance.

He was borrowing Gus’s work ship to drop something off for Jules on one of the moons. It was just supposed to be a quick in-and-out thing when he was flagged by an Alliance cruiser that happened to be patrolling the planet. Shawn was prepared to handle this the way he handled most things—a quick little twist with the powers of observation, but it didn’t end up going as well as he hoped. One minute he’s explaining that he’s a psychic detective, and the next he’s being commandeered by Alliance troops, and being shoved into a holding cell for reasons he still didn’t understand.

This wasn’t good.

This so wasn’t good.

Turned out that the Alliance had been looking for psychics. Not in the public eye, of course, but under the radar when they happen to come across people with … talent. Due to Shawn’s somewhat mediocre reputation, the Alliance thought he had talent, and were supremely disappointed to find that he, in fact, had none. Not even a modicum.

Shawn was pretty sure that he was going to end up dead.

If there was one thing that Shawn Spencer was known for, however, it was his ability to get lucky.

They had taken him to Persephone to get rid of him. He figured their initial plan was to kill him and make it look like a mugging or something similar. With no evidence to link it back to the Alliance, odds were that most of Shawn’s family and friends would never know what happened to him. Jules would never know what happened to him.

Shawn needed to run, and he needed to run now.

He didn’t even think to where he was running, or how he was going to escape. He acted on gut and instinct alone, two things that have never failed him before. He grabbed the heaviest thing he could find, swung it at the first guard’s head, and took off running as fast as he could. He disappeared into the crowd, shoving his way through people, trying to find the nearest public access communicator. It wasn’t easy—there aren’t as many of them around as there are on the core planets, but he did manage to find one and quickly banged out the information to get in contact with his best friend.

Unfortunately, Gus wasn’t home to take the call.

“Damnit, Gus, you’re never around when I need you,” he sighed as the message started recording. “Look, the Alliance mistook me for an actual psychic, and when they found it I wasn’t … ” His voice faded for a moment and he looked serious. Or as serious as Shawn ever looked. “I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill me. If you don’t hear from me in a few hours come to Persephone. You should be able to find me there.” There was a pause as he glanced back over his shoulder, and then turned wide eyes back to the screen again. “I’ll try and get in contact soon.”

He quickly disconnected the call before he started running again. He needed to find a way out, a way off this planet where the Alliance couldn’t find him. He stopped in the middle of the docking area, eyes scanning the various vessels docked around him, before he spotted one that was starting to get ready for take off. He ran towards the closing doors, and then took a running leap through the doors, and skidded to a stop on the loading bay.

When the ship continued to move, he just took the moment, closing his eyes happily with the idea that he was safe, for now. At least until he heard the click of the safety of a pistol being cocked over his head, and he was forced to open his eyes. All he saw was three muzzles hanging above his head.

“Hi there,” one of them said. “Mind telling me what you’re doing on my boat?”

***

Lesson Two: Know your audience. And if that doesn’t work, make it up as you go along.

Eventually, they graduated from the guns portion of the evening once they determined that Shawn wasn’t all that viable of a threat. He wasn’t armed, and he didn’t have any other baggage—his only real crime was being a stowaway, and for that they hadn’t airlocked him yet. He was pleasantly surprised. But that didn’t mean he was counting his chickens yet. He sat on the crate they put him on, looked them over in his own unique way, and waited for the questions to start. There were two of them—one tall guy with red hair who looked like a reject from an old western, and the other was a woman with so much curly hair that Shawn was tempted to ask her if her hair came from a poodle, but given the look she was giving him, he decided it wouldn’t be a wise choice.

Shawn, apparently, was putting his intelligence to good use today.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Shawn Spencer. I’m from Jiangyin.”

“Fancy capital man,” the man sighed, crossing in front of his chest. “What were you doing on Persephone?”

“I was kidnapped. By the Alliance.”

“By the Alliance?” The guy seemed to be doing a lot of the talking, while the woman was mostly standing there looking terse. Shawn was pretty sure that she was the one that he didn’t want to deal with. “Why, pray tell, were they so interested in you?”

Shawn sighed. “Because they thought I was a psychic.”

“They thought you were a psychic. And why did they think that?”

“Because I’m really good at what I do. And I market myself as a psychic, but apparently this time around I did it to the wrong guys.”

“Prove it.”

“Prove it?”

“You say you’re so good at what you can do?” The captain crossed his arms in front of his chest. “What exactly is it that you can do?”

Shawn sighed. He didn’t like showing off—okay, that was a lie, he really liked showing off, but not in times like this. So he took a breath like ripping off a band-aid and rambled through it. “You are obviously the guy in charge, but she’s the one that everyone’s scared of.”

“You know that? She hasn’t even said a word.”

“She doesn’t have to. She’s clearly more badass by the fact that she doesn’t do all the talking. People who know how scary they are, don’t need to self-promote.”

The two of them exchanged a look for a moment. “He has a point there, sir,” she replied, and the captain gave her a look, before turning back to Shawn.

“It doesn’t take a ‘psychic’ to tell something that obvious. You’re going to have to try a little harder than that.”

Shawn sighed heavily, glancing around the room as he tried to see what clues he could pick up. It wasn’t a lot—the place was more of a mess than anything else—but there was just enough that he could glance back at them with a smirk. “The reason why I jumped on this ship? I knew you would never knowingly let a member of the Alliance set foot on it.”

“Oh really? I’ll have you know we are fine upstanding citizens. We love the Alliance. We even voted for Unification.”

The look Shawn gave him was skeptical at it’s worst. “Please. You are the browniest browncoats I’ve ever seen, and I haven’t even been here that long. Besides, even if you weren’t, having Alliance on your boat wouldn’t bode well for that cargo you’re smuggling.”

“So we’re smugglers now?” the captain glanced over at his first mate, and was clearly very amused by this whole thing. “That is quite the imagination you have.”

“Oh, I do have quite the imagination. It takes an imagination of that caliber to have come up with some of the amazingly delicious combinations with pineapple that I have over the years. But it is not my imagination that you two are definitely smugglers, and—” Out of habit more than anything else his hand came up to his temple, and he flashed them a grin. “—I know where to find it.”

Ten minutes later, he was digging out a pile of Alliance marked protein from one of the hidden compartments in the hold. It was probably the most physically exhaustive work he’d done in a long time, because man, those things were heavy, but in the end he stood triumphant over his box of smuggled goods, and he wasn’t sure if the people he was trying to impress were actually impressed or were about to shoot him. It’s gone both ways before.

The captain just looked pensive for a moment, before tipping his head to the side. “Where did you say you were lookin’ to go again?”

“I just want to get back to Jiangyin and my family.” At that, the looks on both their faces sobered, and Shawn frowned. “What?”

“If the Alliance knows you found yourself a ship, that’s the first place they’ll assume you’ll go,” the first mate replied quietly. “You can’t go home—at least not until the heat dies down.”

Shawn stumbled back at the revelation, unsure how to take it. There was only so much shock a person could take to their system, and this was a bit too much for his. He sat back against the crate, before shaking his head. “Then no. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

The two of them glanced at each other again, before looking over at him. “You stay on the ship,” the captain began. “You work for us, and when the heat dies down, we’ll see about gettin’ you home.” Shawn considered that for a moment, before nodding. The captain gave him a thin smile. “I’m Mal Reynolds, and this is my first mate, Zoe. Welcome aboard Serenity.”

***

Lesson Three: Never try to con an actual psychic.

It took a while for Shawn to settle in with the actual crew. His hijinks didn’t really fit in with most people’s sense of humor, and while there were some—mainly Kaylee—who would smile at anything, and they had a smile that would light up a room. But most of the men were a bit too surly to really appreciate Shawn’s particular brand of jokes, and most of them tended to fall flat. But in the end, he managed to find his place.

He was starting to learn about the ship, too. He knew that one day this was going to give him an advantage somewhere. But at the end of the day there was still one elusive crew member that was slipping through his grasp. And one day, he found himself face to face with her.

Well, it was more like face to upside down face, but Shawn liked to think that it still had the same effect. She was hanging over the edge of the catwalk while Shawn was walking through the cargo area with a box. He stopped, and smirked just slightly.

“Hello, River.”

“You really are psychic.” There may have been a touch of sarcasm to it, but he could tell from the lopsided smirk on her face that it was meant with affection. He smirked right back at her, before shrugging.

“Maybe I’m just really good at process of elimination.”

“I’ve heard it both ways.”

He waited until she swung around to drop to the ground, before placing his box to the side and giving her a grin. “You know, it’s not polite to steal people’s lines.”

“Not like you were using it,” she said. “You’re running. Like me and Simon.”

Shawn’s head tipped at that, confused at the wording at first, but then it dawned on him. “You’re running from the Alliance too?”

“They stick needles in your head and try to see inside your mind. Try to take it apart like an engine and put it back together to try and make it run better.”

Shawn’s face paled in horror for a moment, before staring back at her. “You’re the real deal, aren’t you? You’re what they were really looking for.” River turned her back on him, starting to ramble off something about the square root of pi and Bernoulli’s constant, and he shook his head, before taking her by the shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said softly. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Secrets are never safe,” she said as she gave him a small smile. “They just make more secrets.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said as he smiled back. “I’m famous for my ability to keep my mouth shut.”

The look River gave him was skeptical at it’s worst.

“I could try?”

“Don’t strain yourself.”

***

Lesson Four: All else fails, save their lives.

Most people wouldn’t have thought much of it. Then again, most people didn’t have Shawn’s observation skills.

It was a small gesture, something that on someone like Simon would have been innocuous, but on this particular wanderer that they picked up somewhere along the way was trying to pass themselves off as a farmer from a backwater planet, trying to get to Persephone. Problem was, this guy was a worse actor than Shawn, and while he didn’t seem to be setting off the rest of the crew’s radar, he was definitely setting off Shawn’s.

He followed the man back to his quarters, planning on coming up with a friendly yet meaningless ruse to stumble on him, but all that went out of his head when he saw the small communicator in the man’s hand, open to the Alliance channel all thought of that went out of his head.

“Oh my God.” That was all he had at first, and when the man looked at him, he finished that sentence. “Oh my God, you’re Alliance.” Then the man pulled his blaster. That was when he realized that he probably shouldn’t have said that out loud. Try to bring in those more badass than him. “Zoe! MAL!”

Shawn started to take off for the bridge, when he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning him around. This was Shawn’s moment of truth. This was his chance to prove that he was a big damn hero just like the rest of them. This was the moment to pull out his secret weapon.

Shawn went boneless.

He slumped forward onto the Alliance agent’s hands, forcing the man to take his weight. The sudden change was unexpected and they both went tumbling to the ground. Then Shawn pushed to his knees, trying to pin the guy down, before turning to shout over his shoulder again. “SOMEBODY HEL—”

Just as he was about to finish, the agent’s hands slammed across his jaw, and everything went dark.

When he came to in the medical ward, he looked a little dazed and confused, and everything was fuzzy. The last thing he remembered was knocking over the Alliance agent, and when he saw Mal, one hand flailed out to grab his arm. “Did I get him? Did I win?”

Mal chuckled. “Not exactly. But Jayne heard your flailin’ about and was there in time to capture your attacker.”

“Good. That’s good.” Shawn released Mal’s arm, before considering things for another moment. “Did we win?”

“Yes. Yes, we won.”

“Good.” As his vision stopped doubling and he started to come to a little more, he glanced around to make sure no one else was around, before admitting. “I probably looked pretty pathetic, didn’t I?”

“Not at all,” Mal said with a smirk. “You have been jumped and made to look like a fool by a common enemy and had to be rescued by the rest of the crew. You are now officially a member of the crew.”

Shawn smirked back as his eyes closed again. “Do I get a party as a welcoming?”

“No.”

“Do I get better quarters?”

“Nope.”

“A jacket.”

“I’m afraid not. But there might be a very shiny pin in it for you.”

“I’ll take it,” Shawn said with a sleepy smile. “Thanks for saving me, Captain.”

“Anytime, Shawn. Anytime.”

repost } { Holiday requests

2011-11-09T00:51:52Z

... are still open here if you haven't already claimed one. There are about 5 spots left. =D

And that is all.

Buffy - Maybe the Children of a Lesser God

2011-11-08T05:17:18Z

Fandom: Buffyverse/Doctor Who
Title: Maybe the Children of a Lesser God
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Buffy Summers, Ten.
tamingthemuse Prompt: #277 ~ Innocence
Content Warning: AU’d to the teeth.
Summary: Buffy Summers was a soldier.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme—someone gave me the prompt “Tenth Doctor/Buffy Summers, won't be left behind.” This is probably not what they were expecting, as it was based off an AU world I’ve been working on with lollobrigida and risingfire, but it was what the prompt inspired me to write, so.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to Joss Whedon and Russell T. Davies. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

Buffy Summers was a soldier.

She’s been a soldier for as long as she can remember. Ever since she stepped onto the field for the first time, she knew that this was what she was meant to be. She was a soldier, and soldiers were sent to the front lines, without question—especially soldiers that were born from the Slayer gene pool. They were built to kill, to take down the vampires before the vampires could do the same to them, and Buffy was very, very good at that.

The blood on her hands wasn’t something that went unnoticed, but it was a purpose. There was a war happening, and people died during the war. It wasn’t good or pretty, but it was necessary. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a war, after all. She picked up her blade, went to the front of the lines, and did her job. It was what she did, after all. It was what a soldier was.

Buffy didn’t know how to be anyone else.

Then she met a man with a funny blue box that was bigger on the inside.

The people that trained her didn’t really give her much of a mind for the bigger picture. Sure, she could see the scope of the battle, the casualties, and the impact on the population as a whole. She had battle schematics downloaded into her head so that she can see every angle, but that’s only the angles for the people. She didn’t see what it would do to their little planet of Sunnydale, and how if someone didn’t do something, there wouldn’t be a planet left to live on, when the war was finally won.

The Doctor did.

The Doctor took her unit spun them on their ear, and opened their eyes, and while she could feel the distaste rolling off him in waves—she was a soldier, and she would always be a soldier—but she was always willing to learn. Always willing to try. Always willing to listen, and in the end, that’s what wins the Doctor over more than anything else. Even when it came to disobeying her orders. When someone saved the vampires instead of killing them, it made you wonder what else the rest of the world might be wrong about.

In the end, the Doctor saved her. He taught her how to be a human, a real human, not just a soldier, and he gave her a kind of innocence that nothing else could. If anything, he gave it back to her the moment he saved her life and placed her on Earth to be a person, to have a life, and that, she knew was an important thing.

Even if it meant her being left behind.

***

As an Earth girl, Buffy wasn’t the greatest.

She was too strong, too much of a soldier. She was used to just being told what to do, to throwing herself into the face of danger, and anything else just seemed … listless. She stayed in Lawrence, worked in Faith’s bar, and bounced around from job to job of her own, but there wasn’t anything that thrilled her, that made her happy.

The Doctor taught her that there was more to her than her purpose, and yet he left her somewhere where she had none. Not to say it wasn’t better than being left on Sunnydale, waiting for the planet to explode, but it wasn’t enough.

It was never going to be enough.

She was starting to give up hope that things were ever going to get better when she heard the familiar vrop vrop vrop of that lovely blue box behind her.

“Hello Buffy,” he said, poking his head out the door with a grin. “Care for an adventure?”

What person could say no to that?

Hardison/Claudia - Video Killed the Radio Star

2011-11-04T04:30:21Z

Fandom: Leverage/Warehouse 13
Title: Video Killed the Radio Star
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Alec Hardison/Claudia Donovan, Myka Berring, Eliot Spencer, Parker, Sophie Devereaux, Nathan Ford
tamingthemuse Prompt: #276 ~ A journey of a thousand miles starts with a quick stumble.
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: There are not many people who can trip up Alec Hardison.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme, with the prompt: “Myka (W13) & Hardison (Leverage), don't make me frisk you while you're holding an artifact.” I went hacker as oppose to technology when I was making the artifact, so I hope you like it anyway.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to TNT and ScyFy. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

There are not many people who can trip up Alec Hardison.

It’s not that Hardison isn’t awesome—well, no, that’s a lie, he is awesome, which is why tripping him up only happens every so often, and when he does get tripped up, he usually knows where it’s coming from. The answer is almost always in the code, and he knows most of the codes good enough to write him out.

The only reason he notices is because this job isn’t supposed to be that hard. The guy who they’re trying to steal from doesn’t have any kind of hacker credential at all, and while his systems are top notch, he’s Alec-freakin’-Hardison, and even the most top notch systems have their weaknesses, which he had been exploiting for the past hour. This code that is coming in now is new. It’s new and very different than anything Hardison has seen on the server so far, and it’s enough to make him put down his orange soda and start to pay attention.

It takes a little bit of poking and a quick game of cat and mouse, but in the end, he couldn’t stop the grin that crosses his face when he realizes the source of the code. All it takes is a few more key strokes before his phone is vibrating on the table next to him.

“Alec Hardison, what the hell are you doing poking around my suspect’s bank accounts?”

“I don’t know, Claudia Donovan,” he teases. “What the hell are you doing poking around my mark’s financial information?”

“That’s a much longer story,” she sighed. “Got a minute?”

“For you? I got all day.”

***

Claudia and Hardison met shortly after her parents died. She wasn’t in foster care exactly, but they had the same social worker, and occasionally wound wind up in the same place. They became friends before either of them ever dreamed of touching a computer, but at the end of the day, they’re both to blame for the other’s respective affinity to them. Hardison just went one way, while Claudia went the other.

Hardison never says that his way was better, but in the end, it gets both of them what they want—a family who would do anything for them, and loves them in their own special way.

Convincing the team to let Claudia and her partner in on this was a lot harder than it was for Claudia to convince her partner that he was worth getting assistance from. He knows it won’t be easy, but he at least had to try, and having Claudia there to do her hacker thing helps smooth the way a little, but it’s still not perfect.

Sophie’s the first to comment on Hardison’s attraction to her. That’s all it takes for him to get a glare from Eliot and this gem of a comment:

“You don’t let Vicki Vale in the bat cave, man.”

Claudia happens to be in earshot—not Eliot’s most subtle move—and she raises an eyebrow. “Does he even know enough about Batman to make that kind of comment?”

“He tries,” Hardison sighs as he settles in at the keyboard next to her. “Bless his heart, he tries.”

The only thing that really unsettles him about the whole thing is that Claudia and her partner Myka seem to know way more about this job than he does. There’s something that she’s keeping from him, and it nags at the back of his mind, but she told him not to ask too many questions, and he’s honoring that.

But as soon as the job is over, Hardison’s getting nosy in his own special way. That, however, is an issue for another time.

When it comes time for the con and getting what they need for their client, they use Myka’s secret service credentials to get them inside. Sophie is thrilled—it isn’t often she gets to play a secret service agent, while Hardison and Claudia sneak in with their janitorial garb, and go right for the server room. He heads in deep, trying to get the most direct connection to the server, but when he hits the center of the room, all he finds is …

“ … Is that a radio?”

Claudia isn’t far behind him, pushing up on her toes to peer over his shoulder for a moment, before reaching for her bag. “Kevin Poulsen’s radio—Mykes? We’ve hit paydirt.”

“Kevin Poulsen—Dark Dante Kevin Poulsen?”

“That’s the one.” Claudia is doing something behind his back, but Hardison isn’t entirely sure what, but he’s more focused on the radio at the moment. It’s the way that it’s connected into the server that’s entrancing him, and before Claudia can say anything, Hardison is reaching forward to pull it from the server.

“Hardy, no, don’t!”

When he actually turns around to face his partner, Myka is standing behind him with what looks like a gun in her hand, but he can’t entirely be sure. It looks like a phaser out of Star Trek more than anything else, and his hands go up into the air on instinct, one hand still clutched reflexively around the radio.

“Hardison, I like you, and I really don’t like shooting Claudia’s friends, but please don’t make me frisk you while your holding an artifact.”

“Arti-what?” he says, eyes bugging slightly. “What am I holding exactly?”

“An artifact,” Claudia explains, starting to make her way closer, hands in the air as well. She had purple rubber gloves on her hands and a silvery looking bag in her hand. “And I will explain what that means more later, but right now, I need you to hand me the radio, and not make any sudden movements.”

Hardison nods slowly, before moving to hand her the radio with a very wary look on his face. He watches, closely, as Myka moves forward to help Claudia get the bag open, before Claudia drops the radio inside. The bag sparks, and Hardison jumps back with a surprised noise.

“Ho, ho—hold on now. What was that? What just happened? What the hell kind of secret service agents are you?”

Myka smirks a bit, before looking at Claudia. “You wanna take this one?”

“Yeah,” Claudia says with a grin. “I’ll take this one.”

***

“So you’re working for a secret branch of the secret service that deals with items that just … come to life and go all Chucky on people’s asses.”

Claudia gives him a look like he’s had too much to drink, but in the end she shrugs. “Yeah, I guess that’s close enough.”

Hardison chuckles before shaking his head. “Man, I do not envy you right now. And I thought my job was crazy.”

She grins. “Yeah, it’s crazy, but I really love it a lot. It works for me, you know? Just like I think this works for you.” She tips her head to the side as she looks back at him. “It’s like the Supro Orzak to my Hendrix.”

“I feel you, I feel you,” he says with a nod. “And I don’t blame you. It looks good on you.”

“Yeah,” she says with a grin as she turns to face him and holds out her arms. “You too.”

He leans into the hug, and holds her close for a moment, before pulling back and looking at her. “But you be safe, alright? I don’t want to hear about some freaky ass thing blowing you up and getting Claudia bits all over the room.”

“Don’t worry,” she says with a grin. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” he nods, before starting to head back to his team. After a few steps, he pauses and turns back to her again. “And let’s not wait until we get in each other’s hair to call each other again, a’ight?”

“Please, Hardy,” she says with a grin as she continues to walk back towards her partner. “You always want me in your hair.”

He just grins as he walks away, because he honestly couldn’t say that he didn’t.

Clark/Tess - My Feet Never Touched the Ground

2011-10-25T01:14:07Z

Fandom: Smallville
Title: My Feet Never Touched the Ground
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Clark Kent/Tess Mercer
tamingthemuse Prompt: #275 ~ Tranquil
Content Warning: Spoilery for Season 10, kinda? Also, AU.
Summary: It was so quiet, on the roof of the Daily Planet at night.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme for the prompt Smallville, Clark/Tess, and the lyrics to “Heavy in Your Arms” by Florence and the Machine. Based off a pre-existing Clark/Tess AU I’m writing with smokeandsong.
Disclaimer: I do not own. They belong to Miles and Millar. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

It was so quiet, on the roof of the Daily Planet at night. It was the kind of silence that made you feel like you were alone in the world, even though you could see all the people filling the world around you at the same time.

The paper was one of the few assets that Tess had kept when Lex had taken over LuthorCorp. True, it was an asset that Lex himself had bought, but she knew better than to let him keep it. She had the paperwork done up to have the titles transferred over to her long before she came up with her plan to keep Clark safe. This was to protect the rest of the world from Lex. A person that powerful, with his ambitions, shouldn’t hold a piece of media like that. The paper would stop being what it was and turn into a mouthpiece for all of Lex’s interests. She loved the paper too much to let that happen. She transferred the deed officially, and after Lex tried to kill her, placed Perry White in charge as editor-in-chief and made herself more of a silent partner.

It was one small victory on the way to win the war. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

Hiding herself from the rest of the world was harder than recovering from the actual attempt on her life. Lex didn’t remember who she was, what he had lost, but that didn’t mean that if she made herself a visual target, she wouldn’t be found so that the job could be finished. She bought herself a small penthouse in Metropolis, managed her assets from the comfort of her own home, and gave Clark a place to come home to. It’s strangely domestic, and not the role she’s accustomed to at all, but it was nice, in it’s own way, and something she wanted to hold on to.

That didn’t stop her, however, from occasionally standing on top of the Daily Planet just to watch the sky. It was quiet up there. It was far enough away from the rest of the city that the cars and sirens almost didn’t reach her ears, and she felt the most isolated and alone. It’s a clear night, and if she paid attention, she might be able to see a streak of red and blue flying across the sky.

That’s not tonight, however. Tonight was the faint feel of a breeze coming up from behind her, and the feel of his arms wrapping around her waist. She leaned back into him with a smile, letting her arms rest over his before speaking.

“You’re late.”

“I’m never late.”

“You’re always late,” she says with a laugh as she turns around to face him. “You’re always getting distracted.”

Clark just grinned at her. “Not by something that doesn’t matter.”

“Considering you called this little meeting, makes me wonder what was so important that you’re five minutes late.”

“Armed robbery,” he smirked. “Police call came when I was on the way.”

She sighed. “I suppose that will have to be acceptable.” She pushed up on her toes slowly to kiss him, his arms tightening around her as he did.

“I want to show you something,” he said softly. He pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. “Do you trust me?”

She nodded. “Of course I do.”

“Good.” He scooped her up off the ground, and before she could say otherwise they were shooting up into the sky.

There’s a small shriek as she clung to him, surprised by the sudden movement. Not that she didn’t trust him to hold on to her, but the force was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. They shot straight up into the air, and then forward, and all she could really do was hold on for the ride. Eventually they came to a stop, just hovering over Metropolis. She could see all the lights flickering up from the city streets below them, and she smiled.

“This is amazing,” she whispered, leaning into him. It was so quiet, just the clear calm of being far away from everything else, and for a small moment there, it truly felt like they were the only people on the planet.

Clark smiled, pressing kiss to the top of her head. “Forgive me for being late?”

Tess smirked at that, before tipping her head up to look at him. “I thought you were never late.”

Dean/Hadley - She Has No Time

2011-10-17T00:21:37Z

Fandom: House MD/Supernatural
Title: She Has No Time
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Dean Winchester/Remy Hadley, Gregory House
tamingthemuse Prompt: #274 ~ Danseur Noble
Content Warning: AU from 718: The Dig (House MD) and 522: Swan Song (Supernatural), character death.
Summary: The hero of the story is supposed to be the one who lives happily ever after.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme, prompt “Remy Hadley/Dean Winchester - til death.” Not related to anything in particular.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to the CW and FOX. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

The hero of the story is supposed to be the one who lives happily ever after.

If Hadley hadn’t lost faith in fairytales a long time ago to begin with, they would have been gone completely the last time Dean shows up on her doorstep. The look on his face says it all. He’s got nothing left. She doesn’t have much either—six months in prison meant that she didn’t have much left either, but what she did, she gives to him. A roof over his head, a place to stay, people to be around. It isn’t much, but it’s something, and it’s more than he has.

The first night he stays with her, he doesn’t sleep. He spends the night warding it against everything and anything. By the time she wakes up to go to work the next morning, there’s a pot of coffee already made, her entire living room has been rearranged, and Dean is making a half-hearted attempt at breakfast. She knows he just wants to feel safe, so she lets him. She lets him get away with a lot of things, but he’s grieving, and that is enough to make her understand not telling her everything. She kisses him as she heads out the door, tells him to get some sleep, and doesn’t know if he’ll actually listen, but it’s worth a try.

The first week, he barely gets out of bed.

The first month, he drinks a lot. Not that Hadley is really one to judge, but he’s drinking so much that in the end she has to put her foot down and keep it out of the apartment. He never tells her how bad it was when he was gone, and she never pushes, but she’s not going to let him drink himself to death. It doesn’t help. He goes out instead, and she gets phone calls from him in the wee hours of the morning, asking her to come and get him, but at least he isn’t starting the morning with a scotch and having her be out a bottle by the time she gets home.

She wants to help him, but she isn’t sure how—until she can figure out that how, she just has to make sure he doesn’t kill himself, which in the end is easier said than done.

Six months in, he spills because he can’t hold it back anymore. The whole, ridiculous story that seems like something out of an urban fantasy novel, but she can tell he isn’t lying. He’s not stretching the truth by any sense of the word, and suddenly everything makes sense. He’s carrying so much, and she doesn’t know how to help him, other than listening when she can, and making sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. She has to try to convince him that living is what his brother wants for him, not wasting himself away to join him.

It takes a while for it to stick—for him to stop drinking so much and to actually look into finding a job, for him to fall asleep with her at night as oppose to sitting up awake for hours, but he does. It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction, and for now, that’s what matters.

***

He starts meeting her for lunch at work.

At first it’s a surprise. He shows up while she’s working the clinic one day, covered in grease with this awkward little smile on his face. Foreman had helped her find him that job at the mechanic’s, and once he had gotten settled in that, it’s like a switch is flipped. He’s not so lost anymore. He has things that he can do, that he can fix, and that keeps him focused for the time being. And one day, he decides to swing by for lunch.

The look on his face says that he’s pretty sure she’s going to kick him out on his ass, but she doesn’t. It’s an unexpected surprise, but not a bad one, and it’s a break from her day where she doesn’t have to worry about House, or the patient, or whatever office politics House may be stirring up. She doesn’t have to worry about keeping up her lies. It’s the most relaxing part of her day, and that’s more of a reason than anything that she doesn’t mind when it starts to happen every day.

She expects to feel smothered, or like she’s losing too much of herself, but she doesn’t. There’s a small fleeting moment where she wonders if this is what it was like to be married.

She doesn’t let that thought get much further than that.

***

She never marries him.

Her disease won’t allow for that, progressively getting worse as she gets older, faster than most cases would predict. Dean never leaves her side the entire time, and she sees how much it weighs on him, for as long as she can recognize it. Once her mind starts to go, she barely even recognizes him.

There are moments. Moments where she opens her eyes and looks at him and knows that he’s Dean and he means something to her. They’re fast and fleeting, and it usually isn’t long before she sinks back into her delusions again. Her mind is slowly turning itself into Swiss cheese, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

She hates seeing it every time she opens her eyes, the worry that she’s not going to he is, the toll that all of this is taking on him. But he never leaves her alone.

One time, she opens her eyes and it’s House that’s standing over her, checking her vitals. Her hand shoots out, lands on his arm, and grips with all the strength she has left. She waits until his eyes land on her, and then she speaks.

“You promised.”

She doesn’t remember much after that.

***

House is usually against euthanasia in most cases. He believes that people should fight for their lives because this is it. This is all they get. And they should try to live it for as long as it’s worth living. Remy Hadley doesn’t have much left of a life worth living.

Remy Hadley is his friend. Friends for House are hard to come by, but she was right. He had made her a promise, and he intends to keep it. Now all he needs is to get her ape of a boyfriend out of the room long enough to do what he needs to do. It isn’t that he doesn’t like Dean. He’s almost as much of an ass and a realist as House is, and he hasn’t left Remy’s side since she had been admitted. But Dean would kill him before he let him do what he’s about to do, which meant Dean had to be out of the way. And if that meant dropping a roofie in his coffee, so be it.

Dean knows what’s happening as the drugs hit his system, and he tries to struggle to his feet, before slumping back into the chair again. House knows he has at least a punch to the face coming to him by the end of the day, but he’s not one to back down. This is what Remy asked of him and he’s going to honor her wishes.

He prepares the cocktail, injects it into her IV as she sleeps, and waits for her vitals to drop. He calls the nurse when she starts to crash, but she had signed a DNR a long time ago.

The shrill BEEP of the monitors failing are enough to bring Dean through his drug induced haze, and the panic that crosses his face is unmistakable. He surges to his feet, trying to pull the nurses away to get to her and when House tries to pull him back, Dean’s fist hits him like a freight train. He’s on the ground before he can blink, and the nurses pull away to help him instead of attending to the dead woman on the bed.

House doesn’t bother to direct them back. He lets Dean have his moment to grieve.

Sometimes, the hero of the story is the one that in the end still loses everything.

Re ... posting?

2011-10-14T17:06:40Z

Just so people know, there are still some slots left for Christmas requests if you haven't already claimed one. There's about half the month left, so there's plenty of room. =D

Also, I've been making some progress on the Anon Meme requests, but I haven't posted all of them in separate posts, so if you want to go and check out and see if I filled yours, those are there too.

requests } { Christmas fic! Stolen from ... a lot of people at this point

2011-10-12T17:22:57Z

HOLIDAY FIC REQUESTS 2011

Comment with a day, a fandom, a pairing, and a prompt, and I will write at least 500 words for you, to be posted on the day you claimed. Any fandom you know I'm familiar with is fair game, though I reserve the right to ask for a different prompt if you pick something I'm not comfortable with.

Encouraged / suggested fandoms are:

Jossverse
CSI:NY
Whoniverse
House MD
Castle
Smallville
Supernatural
Fringe
White Collar
Leverage
Dark Angel
Any Crossover of the above
RP-based fic

You only get one day. So you can leave me multiple prompts if you're not sure which one you want, but I will pick which one I write and you will either get one long piece, or several small pieces using all the prompts you gave me. I'll try to accommodate everything I get as best I can.

~~December 1: Surprise! - The Twelve Days of L Christmas - for smokeandsong~~ here
~~December 2: Dark Angel/White Collar - An X5's First Christmas - for fribbled~~ here
~~December 3: Buffyverse/Supernatural - The Little Drummer Angel - for dolcissimo~~ here
~~December 4: Surprise! - Brandon's Grown Up Christmas List - for wayitcomes~~ here
~~December 5: Babylon Wood - Oh, the Fairies Outside are Frightful - for superkappa~~ here
~~December 6: Leverage/Smallville - Eliot the Snowman was an Angry Violent Soul - for nas2439~~ here
~~December 7: Buffyverse - Spike Wants a Pair of Skates, Buffy Wants a Sleigh - for museofspeed~~ here
~~December 8: Whoniverse - Have Yourself a Merry Little Pond Christmas - for evenasiwander~~ here
~~December 9: El Dorado - A Vampire Style Christmas - for chamber~~ here
~~December 10: Buffyverse/Supernatural - All I Want for Christmas is soulless!Sam - for arcesso~~ here
~~December 11: Counted Stars - I'll Be on Coruscant for Christmas - for dancinpenguins~~ here
~~December 12: Two and a Half Cops - It's a Downtown Flack Holiday Hullabaloo - for booknerdguru~~ here
December 13: Beyond the Rift - Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, I Hope the Rift Doesn't Eat You - for chaoticasphyxia
December 14: Leverage - The Power of a Leverage Team Christmas - for xfirefly9x
December 15: Warehouse 13/Whoniverse - Claudia the Red-Haired Reindeer - for darkmagic_luvr
December 17: Whoniverse - Aliens Stream From Heaven Above - for a_leprechaun
~~December 18: Behind the Hollow - Santa Baby, Slip a Transgenic Under the Tree - for throughworlds~~ here
December 19: Castle/CSI: NY - I Want a Mystery Novelist for Christmas - for ladyiapetus
December 20: Buffyverse/Supernatural - How Buffy Cured the Grinch that Stole Christmas - for yakshini
December 21: Castle/White Collar - How Neal Caffrey Stole Christmas - for kerrykhat
December 22: Counted Stars - Christmas Dinner Roasting on an Open Fire - for muggles
~~December 23: Castle/Supernatural - Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Castle Saves the Day! - for alison_sky~~ here
~~December 24: What You Wanted - Oh, Ho the Mistletoe, Hung Where Cas Can't See - for lollobrigida~~ here
~~December 25: CSI:NY AU - I Saw Anderson Kissing Santa Claus - for afteriwake~~ here
December 26: The Devil I Love - There's No Christmas like a Slayer Christmas - for risingfire
December 27: Bete Noire - Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Dragons - for blytheandbonnie
December 28: Bete Noire - It isn't Christmas Without an Averted Apocalypse - for demonologist
~~December 29: Beyond the Rift - Bela, It's Cold Outside - for varymydays~~ here
December 30: And Light the Path - Sammy Claus is Coming to Town - for colormyspoon
December 31: Leverage/Supernatural - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Winchesters - for miss_faith_hope

Claudia - Part of the Plan

2011-10-12T01:19:16Z

Fandom: Original – beyondtherift-specific
Title: Part of the Plan
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Claudia Blake, Robert Blake, Linda Herron
tamingthemuse Prompt: #273 ~ Ink / Picture Prompt
Content Warning: N/A
Summary: Claudia Blake is a thought in the mind of God when her mother leaves her father.
Author’s Note: Working on fleshing out another Riftverse OC, and the prompt spoke to me. That’s … pretty much all this is.
Disclaimer: All mine. Not yours. Don’t steal.

Claudia Blake is a thought in the mind of God when her mother leaves her father.

Linda Blake claims it’s because of false advertising.

To Robert Herron’s credit, he is upfront with her about his angelic nature from the get go—it’s not his fault she takes it the wrong way. When Linda finds out that Robert is an angel, she associates it with the fluffy little cherubs on a Hallmark card. She thinks it’s someone to spread peace and love. She’s a bit of a flower child, and more than a little naive, but that’s why she falls in love with Robert in the first place. She thinks that she’s on the cutting edge of the remaking of the world.

Then she sees what his Calling makes him do, and realizes she was very, very wrong. Robert’s an archangel. There is no peace or love in that Calling. Only power and death, and that is not the kind of angel she wants to be attached to. All she can see when she looks at him is not the gentle but strong man she knew, but the monster covered in blood so black it was like ink. So she runs, determined to never set foot into that kind of life.

A month later she finds out she’s pregnant.

She does her research, or as much research as she can, just enough to learn that she wants to know. She learns that there’s a chance that her baby could become what she had seen in Robert, and there’s a chance she might not. It’s on that slim chance that she decides to keep the baby. Linda believes in nurture, not nature, and even if this baby has something dark inside it, they could get around that. Maybe. Probably.

Regardless, seven months later she gives birth to a healthy baby girl, who she names Claudia, and presumes that she’s out of the woods. Claudia isn’t born with wings, so she thinks that the fifty percent chance of her being human has weighed in her favor.

No one ever said that Linda was all that bright.

***

Claudia doesn’t dispute the fact that your parents make you who you are. She doesn’t. She’s well aware of the fact that her mother has made her the person she is because there is no other person on the planet who could make her this neurotic.

Linda has always taught her that things will be what they are, regardless of whatever plans they make, and that her daughter should just go with it. Anyway the wind blows has been her mother’s mantra for as long as she could remember, but Claudia couldn’t live that way. She has watched one to many ideas and whims blow up in her mother’s face over the years, that at sixteen, she has a Plan. She’s had this Plan since she was twelve, and while her mother disapproved putting that much thought into what lay ahead of yourself, but Claudia couldn’t have managed her life without it.

Her Plan: Graduate valedictorian from the local public high school. Full ride to Georgetown. Bachelor’s in probably philosophy or English, and then graduate school for that same field. Master’s degree, Ph.D.—she is ready for it all, and she knows every step she has to take to get there. That’s the benefit of having a Plan. There’s no questioning what she should do. You follow the plan, to the letter, and you will get everything you want.

Becoming an angel is not part of the Plan, but it definitely is a roadbump on the way.

She spends two days in bed, in so much pain that sometimes it feels like she can barely breathe. Her mother does the best she can, bringing her herbal remedies and trying to take care of her as best she can, but when her wings finally sprout, large and pure white almost like a dove, and her mother disappears for a very long time. After that, the pain ebbs a bit, and she can actually sleep for a while, but when she wakes up, her whole world turns on it’s axis.

For one thing, her father is sitting in the kitchen.

Claudia and Robert have never met. She doesn’t even know if he knew about her before this point, because she’s never been inclined to ask. All she knows is that he’s sitting there, in her kitchen, and the only reason she knows who he is, is because she found a picture in her mother’s things once upon a time. She hangs back in the doorway, startled, her wings still out, trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

“Mom?”

“Claudia, honey, this is—”

“My father, I know. What’s he doing here?” Unexpected fatherly reunions? Not part of the Plan.

“Because—” Linda hesitates, looking over at Robert, and there’s an uncomfortable silence before Robert finally speaks.

“Because this is something I will understand more than she will. And in a way, it’s my fault.” He takes a deep breath, before looking over at his daughter. “You’re an angel, Claudia.”

“I know.” And she does know. It’s instinctive, just like she knows what her Calling is, and while it definitely doesn’t fit with the Plan, she can make it work. It’s not impossible. It’s just—daunting. Lots of things are daunting. Georgetown is daunting. That doesn’t mean she still can’t achieve it.

Is she telling herself a lot of this to make herself feel better? Yeah, just a bit.

“Do you know what your Calling is?” he asks, and she nods. He gives her a small smile, before getting up from the table, and gesturing to go back into the bedroom. “Let’s talk, alone.”

She glances over to her mother, and she nods. “It’s okay, Claudia. Go ahead.”

Claudia is reluctant, but she still goes with him. Whatever this is, she needs to learn. After all, if she’s going to work it into the Plan, she needs to know where to start.

Sam/River - River and the Light

2011-10-03T03:59:20Z

Fandom: Supernatural/Firefly
Title: River and the Light
Author: iluvroadrunner6
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Sam Winchester/River Tam
tamingthemuse Prompt: #272 ~ Bound
Content Warning: Spoilers through S5.
Summary: The Light still shines. It sits, somewhere inside Sam, and doesn’t go away.
Author’s Note: Written for the Anon Meme, with the prompt “Supernatural/Firefly, Sam/River, skin.” Kinda falls in line with some of the previous Sam/River pieces I’ve written before.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. They belong to Kripke and Whedon. I’m just borrowing and will put everything back where I found it.

The Light still shines. It sits, somewhere inside Sam, and doesn’t go away.

The brighter it shines, the more Sam remembers, but the more he remembers, the stronger the Light gets. The Light will never truly go away, never truly disappear, not unless Sam does, but they are bound together, like two sides of a coin, twisting in the air as it fell to the ground.

River wishes that Sam never remembers. The world is brighter without the Light, even if it may need it. There is always balance, always, and taking the Light away would break that. She knows the Light must stay but at the same time that she wishes he was gone. She likes Sam better. Sam is big and warm. Large hands for a large heart and he is good. The balance survives inside of him because he is good and that balances the Light.

Sam also isn’t the only one with a light inside him. Their new passenger, a funny man with dark hair and bright eyes has a light that burns just as brightly, but he isn’t empty, the way Sam is. He remembers and he knows—River can see it in the way he looks at Sam, and she wants to take Sam away from him, keep Sam to herself and not let the man who remembers be the one who takes him away. He watches her with the same intensity he watches Sam, and while most of the time she pretends not to notice, she knows that he isn’t stupid.

He knows, and that is not something to take lightly. Knowing never is.

She spends more time in Sam’s bunk, and Sam doesn’t seem to mind. He never does. He never looks at her strangely or says she’s wrong in the head. He listens in a way that no one ever does, like there’s a meaning to what she says. Most people know that there usually is, but they don’t bother to listen until it’s too late. Sam always listens, and that means something to her.

He’s reading this time when she comes in, sprawled out on the his cot and pouring through the pages with the intense interest of someone who truly enjoys it. His focus is on the page in front of him, but the rest of his body is relaxed, content to be where he is. She slowly makes her way over, barely making a sound, and crawls onto the space that he leaves, sitting and letting her legs dangle over the edge of the cot. He looks up and smiles, shifting so that he’s sitting more next to her.

“Hey, River.”

“What are you reading?” she asks, leaning in more so that she can peer at the words, see if they need correction. He pauses as he settles back against the wall, letting her lean against him.

“Just something I found in Book’s library he said I could read. It’s a great story, but—for some reason it’s really familiar.”

She peers at the title, and it takes a moment for it to register, but when she realizes it’s Book’s Bible, one of the supplements that were attached before Earth That Was, the part that involves the Light, and she reaches over and snatches it away, tossing it across the room. It will help Sam remember, and she doesn’t want him to remember. He gives her a look for that, a look she so rarely gets from him, and she rolls her eyes, taking on the air of the highly intelligent.

“It’s highly inaccurate,” she says with an eye roll, and he buys it. He smirks as he lets her lean back against him. “Even if souls weren’t more than a theoretical construct, placing two inside the same body is preposterous.”

“Maybe. But it’s just a story.” She takes her free hand in his, measuring the size of her fingers against his. She likes the softness of his skin and the feel of his hand against hers. “They don’t have to be accurate.”

“Better if they were,” she mumbles, stiffening as his fingers curled around hers, like he’s holding her hand. It’s not the same way Simon does. There’s an intimacy to it, something more than a simple hold between brother and sister. She turns to look at him, meeting his eyes and there’s something there, a familiarity and affection that’s not familiar at all. His fingers curl against her palm, pulling her in closer, his head dips, and his lips brush hers.

It’s her first kiss. Her first. And given the fact that River doesn’t react to things the way she’s supposed to, she’s sure that this is the wrong response. But it is very nice, and very sweet, and she’s sure that she should enjoy it, but instead of smiling and conveying that fact, River relies on instinct.

She punches him in the face.

She punches him and she runs flying over the corridors of the ship, finally hiding in the infirmary. It isn’t much of a hiding place, there are certainly better ones, but she ducks down behind the cabinets, hands tucked over her head as she waits for Simon to return to the room.

When he does, he frowns, tilting his head as he crouches down in front of her. “Is everything alright, mei-mei?”

She’s quiet for a long time before responding. “I didn’t turn into a princess.”