Nine Empty Rooms!
Title: To Thine Own Self
Fandom: Detective Academy Q
Rating: PG
Summary: King Hades breaks out of his cell
He waited until he was sure the man was dead. He supposed that was a bit morbid but it was important. Important to watch his second jailor die. Important to him. Alone in a dark, empty room this long, no one could blame him for going a little mad, could they? It wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t chosen his fate. Who would chose years in the empty darkness? Mind you, he’d learned a lot. About people, about himself. Oh, it had taught him about himself, all right. Perhaps not what his father had had in mind.
That thought made him laugh. Possibly a little psychotic sounding. He’d have to work on that. When you were in the real world, appearances were much more important. His cheek would cause problems, at least for a while. When they healed, that would help. He could make up an excellent story. One that didn’t involve the dark and tearing at his own face with a chopstick before going insane …
No, no, he wouldn’t dwell on that. The room was behind him now. In front of him was a staircase, leading him to freedom. And he intended to take it.
Title: Gone
Fandom: Firefly
Rating: PG
Summary: Mal doesn't go and look at Inara's old shuttle.
It wasn’t exactly that Mal liked to go and sit in Inara’s old shuttle and think about her or anything. Not at all. That would be weird. And suggest that he cared a lot about Inara which wasn’t true. At all. Well, obviously, he’d cared a bit because she was part of his crew and he always cared about his crew but he didn’t care that much. Not enough to go and look at the old shuttle and look at that trunk with that stuff Inara had left behind. Not enough to feel sad and frustrated and just gorram pissed about how she’d just up and left without so much as by your leave and certainly without giving him any time to think about it or talk about it or anything like that.
At least, not when anyone else was awake and could see him anyway.
Title: Warm
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Will/Merlin
Summary: Will sits in his house and regrets.
His house seemed much emptier than it had before.
Outside, Will could hear the rest of the village. They were being more noisy than usual, probably because they were all terrified of the fact they were going to die tomorrow. Celebrating, pretending, telling themselves that they had a chance of life. Idiots. Why couldn’t they just run?
The room felt so empty. He’d packed things of course but surely the room shouldn’t be this empty because of that. He keeps looking around it and remembering things. His mother. His father. Merlin.
He almost wished Merlin hadn’t come back. Things had been easier before that. Things had nearly made sense again. And now … now it was complicated again. Merlin had always been bad for him. Made him think things he didn’t want to think, feel things he didn’t want to feel. All sorts of things.
The bed was still warm when he sat on it and Will felt a flush of shame. He stared at his knees and tried not to think about Merlin pleading with him an hour earlier.
“Will, stay with us. Please! We need you here, your father taught you how to fight, you’re good at it.”
“Thank you for the compliment!” Will snapped back bitterly. “You’re good at fighting so stay and die for us?”
“You know that’s not what I meant! I don’t want anyone to die, certainly not you!”
He wished Merlin hadn’t said that. It had set things off inside him, things he’d been thinking about since Merlin’s return.
“Do you care?”
“Oh Will …”
Merlin had sounded so sad, so desperate. He moved closer to Will, reached up his hand, cupped Will’s cheek and oh, the memories it brought back, everything came back and Will had kissed him. He hadn’t meant to do it. He’d told himself he wouldn’t do it. But somehow, he had and Merlin hadn’t stopped him, Merlin had been how he’d always been, pliant and happy and wanting him just how he always had.
“Will, I missed you, Will … ”
Will had missed him. More than he’d thought he could. Almost more than he’d missed his mother when she’d died. Merlin had been his best friend, his companion in mischief. His … something else.
“Stay,” Merlin had whispered in his ear as they curled together. “Stay, Will. Don’t go.”
“Like you did?”
“I didn’t have a choice, you know I didn’t. Mother … I had to go, Will. I missed you.”
“Did you? Or did you forget me the second your prince invited you into his bed?”
Why had he said that? Why? Merlin’s face had paled with shocked rage and he’d jerked away from Will like Will had been on fire. He’d yanked on his clothes without looking at Will. Will had pulled his own clothes on more slowly, shakily, trying to find the words to apologise and knowing Merlin wouldn’t want to hear them. Merlin was loyal and he would never hear anything against those he was loyal to.
“Take care of yourself, Will,” Merlin muttered at the door. “I don’t … just take care, okay?”
And now Will was sitting in an empty room, feeling shame and stupidity and knowing that there was a strong possibility that he would never see Merlin again and that his last words to him would have been fuelled by bitter jealousy.
Title: Accident
Fandom: Ashes to Ashes
Rating: PG
Summary: Spoilers for Season 2. Chris sits by himself.
Chris sat very quietly in the flat and thought very hard about getting very, very drunk.
He quite like the idea of getting very, very drunk. Getting very, very drunk would at least make everything fuzzy. Things would be better if they were fuzzy. Much better. And then maybe he’d fall asleep. He’d done that a few times these past few months.
But he didn’t deserve them to be better. He deserved to feel this bad, didn’t he? Because he’d let them all down. Alex, Ray, the Guv. Shaz. She was supposed to come back with him tonight. She’d been staying in his flat loads lately. She had told him she believed in practise before marriage. He liked that about her. Liked so much about her.
She wouldn’t ever forgive him. No one ever would. He didn’t deserve it. He’d let down the team. He’d lost everything and he hadn’t even meant to. He’d just somehow messed everything up.
Chris put his head on the table and continued to deny himself anything to drink.
Title: Better Daughter
Fandom: Death Note
Rating: G
Summary: Sayu sits in Raito's room and dwells.
The room felt colder.
Sayu couldn’t work out why Raito being dead made such a difference. He hadn’t slept in his room for years, not even on a visit. They hadn’t even kept it the same. Raito had taken most of his things, their mother had cleaned it, taken out a lot of the things that Raito said he no longer needed, stored them in the attic or throw them the way. Really, now it was a guest room rather than anything else, although no one had really used it.
So why did it feel different now that Raito was dead?
Sayu sat on the crisp, unused bed and drew her legs up. Her mother was crying downstairs, she knew. If she was a better daughter, maybe she’d go downstairs and comfort her. Try to, anyway. But she wasn’t a better daughter. And right now, all she could feel was cold.
Title: In Time
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor always tries to fill his companion's rooms quickly when he can
He did his best to fill their rooms straight away. There was a risk of allowing them to become shrines otherwise. Little boxes filled with memories that mostly only caused pain.
Sometimes, if he didn’t do it fast enough, it was too late. He would find himself drifting into the room, staring around it, remembering things that they’d found together, the things they’d collected, the things they’d said. Then he often found himself closing the door and refusing to open it again unless he wanted to wallow. Which, depending on his incarnation, mood and current companions, sometimes happened more times than others.
Jamie’s room remained untouched. A jumbled collection, the remnants of a hundred adventures. He managed to clear out Zoe’s in the end, although it was hard. He never laid a finger on Susan’s. He was quite relieved that Jo and Sarah Jane both cleared out their rooms in general. That would have been painful.
He gave Turlough Adric’s room. Or rather, got Tegan to do it. He couldn’t do it himself. When Tegan herself left, he got Turlough to help him clean out her and Nyssa’s room. Turlough didn’t argue. Just raised one of his fine eyebrows and did as he was told. Turlough was good like that sometimes.
Rose’s room remained a shrine in a different way. After she was gone, he couldn’t even bring himself to open the door. He padlocked it and left everything to fade away with time.
Title: Trying
Fandom: Jyu Oh Sei
Rating: PG
Summary: Thor hates how every day, there are more empty rooms in the Ring.
One of the worst things about Chimera was how every day, faces you were used to disappeared. Thor often wandered through the Ring and every day, a seat was empty, a room unoccupied that had once contained someone. It made him sick to his stomach. Such a pointless waste. People he should have saved, maybe could have saved if he’d tried harder, put more effort in.
“You can’t blame yourself for all of them!” Tiz told him crossly when he made the mistake of saying this to her. “Thor, people die here. I keep telling you. You do too much already! You should have let Cal and Preasce fight it out, rather than separating them like that.”
“I didn’t want them to fight to the death,” Thor snapped. “They’re both good men. What’s the point of losing good men if you don’t have to.”
“Thor is right,” Third said quietly from where he’d slid up unnoticed behind them. “We need loyal people, Tiz.”
“Oh you,” she said. “You always agree with him.”
Third smiled innocently and patted Thor on the head. Thor shoved him off and headed down the corridor, knowing they’d follow him shortly. Tiz was right of course. One of the most painful lessons he’d learned and re-learned on Chimera was that you couldn’t save everyone.
But he would never stop trying.
Title: Empty
Fandom: Willard Price's Adventure Series
Rating: G
Summary: Mrs Hunt thinks about her sons and their dangerous career.
She’s not supposed to admit that she misses her sons. No good mother does, once they’ve reached a certain age. They go to boarding school, they go away from you. It’s the acceptable way.
Of course, most women’s sons don’t travel to the farthest ends of the earth trying to capture horribly dangerous animals. And yes, she was used to that with John but there was a difference. A world of difference between your husband and your sons. They were both so young still. Not helpless, but young.
But then they would always be too young, wouldn’t they? Always be too young to be displaying the scars they had, talking glibly about the times they’d almost been drowned or poisoned or murdered. No one’s child could ever be the right age for that.
So she held her tongue, like a good wife and mother and as she glanced into empty rooms each night, she simply prayed that one day, they would be filled again.
Title: Rooming Arrangements.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Summary: Arthur decides to cheer Molly up. Arthur/Molly.
Arthur waited until Molly had sent Errol with the Howler before daring to approach her. It was usually best to allow Molly to fully expound on whatever had annoyed her before attempting to break in distractingly. Otherwise, she noticed what you were doing and got irritated with you and that could start the most alarming avalanches.
“Do you feel better now, dear?” he said hopefully.
She made an expressive sniffing noise. Arthur suspected that now the rage had been expressed, she was heading into her “What-if-the-stupid-children-had-got-themselves-killed-my-babies” phase. Which would be made more complicated by the fact that for the first time in so many years that Mr Weasley couldn’t actually remember how many, they were alone in their house again. He’d almost been glad that the car had gone - it had distracted her from the inevitable.
“She’ll be fine, Molly,” he said consolingly. “And we’ll be fine. This will all blow over, you know.”
Molly made several mumbling noises. Arthur translated a few of them into “how could he be so selfish?” and “leading poor Harry astray.” He decided that it might be wise to guide her from the topic before she sent another Howler.
“We’re alone in the house,” he said brightly.
“Yes, Arthur,” Molly said grumpily. “Except for the ghoul.”
“Mollywobbles,” Arthur said, still brightly. “We haven’t been alone in the house since Bill was born.”
She looked at him. Her annoyed expression was suddenly fading away. Clearly, she’d got his meaning.
“I think,” Arthur said “given that it is a sensitive and troubling time for us both, we should become, er, reaccustomed to every room in our house that does not belong to a child or currently house a ghoul.”
“Arthur,” she said. “I think you’re right.”
There were definite advantages to having a house which was empty of children.
Fandom: Detective Academy Q
Rating: PG
Summary: King Hades breaks out of his cell
He waited until he was sure the man was dead. He supposed that was a bit morbid but it was important. Important to watch his second jailor die. Important to him. Alone in a dark, empty room this long, no one could blame him for going a little mad, could they? It wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t chosen his fate. Who would chose years in the empty darkness? Mind you, he’d learned a lot. About people, about himself. Oh, it had taught him about himself, all right. Perhaps not what his father had had in mind.
That thought made him laugh. Possibly a little psychotic sounding. He’d have to work on that. When you were in the real world, appearances were much more important. His cheek would cause problems, at least for a while. When they healed, that would help. He could make up an excellent story. One that didn’t involve the dark and tearing at his own face with a chopstick before going insane …
No, no, he wouldn’t dwell on that. The room was behind him now. In front of him was a staircase, leading him to freedom. And he intended to take it.
Title: Gone
Fandom: Firefly
Rating: PG
Summary: Mal doesn't go and look at Inara's old shuttle.
It wasn’t exactly that Mal liked to go and sit in Inara’s old shuttle and think about her or anything. Not at all. That would be weird. And suggest that he cared a lot about Inara which wasn’t true. At all. Well, obviously, he’d cared a bit because she was part of his crew and he always cared about his crew but he didn’t care that much. Not enough to go and look at the old shuttle and look at that trunk with that stuff Inara had left behind. Not enough to feel sad and frustrated and just gorram pissed about how she’d just up and left without so much as by your leave and certainly without giving him any time to think about it or talk about it or anything like that.
At least, not when anyone else was awake and could see him anyway.
Title: Warm
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Will/Merlin
Summary: Will sits in his house and regrets.
His house seemed much emptier than it had before.
Outside, Will could hear the rest of the village. They were being more noisy than usual, probably because they were all terrified of the fact they were going to die tomorrow. Celebrating, pretending, telling themselves that they had a chance of life. Idiots. Why couldn’t they just run?
The room felt so empty. He’d packed things of course but surely the room shouldn’t be this empty because of that. He keeps looking around it and remembering things. His mother. His father. Merlin.
He almost wished Merlin hadn’t come back. Things had been easier before that. Things had nearly made sense again. And now … now it was complicated again. Merlin had always been bad for him. Made him think things he didn’t want to think, feel things he didn’t want to feel. All sorts of things.
The bed was still warm when he sat on it and Will felt a flush of shame. He stared at his knees and tried not to think about Merlin pleading with him an hour earlier.
“Will, stay with us. Please! We need you here, your father taught you how to fight, you’re good at it.”
“Thank you for the compliment!” Will snapped back bitterly. “You’re good at fighting so stay and die for us?”
“You know that’s not what I meant! I don’t want anyone to die, certainly not you!”
He wished Merlin hadn’t said that. It had set things off inside him, things he’d been thinking about since Merlin’s return.
“Do you care?”
“Oh Will …”
Merlin had sounded so sad, so desperate. He moved closer to Will, reached up his hand, cupped Will’s cheek and oh, the memories it brought back, everything came back and Will had kissed him. He hadn’t meant to do it. He’d told himself he wouldn’t do it. But somehow, he had and Merlin hadn’t stopped him, Merlin had been how he’d always been, pliant and happy and wanting him just how he always had.
“Will, I missed you, Will … ”
Will had missed him. More than he’d thought he could. Almost more than he’d missed his mother when she’d died. Merlin had been his best friend, his companion in mischief. His … something else.
“Stay,” Merlin had whispered in his ear as they curled together. “Stay, Will. Don’t go.”
“Like you did?”
“I didn’t have a choice, you know I didn’t. Mother … I had to go, Will. I missed you.”
“Did you? Or did you forget me the second your prince invited you into his bed?”
Why had he said that? Why? Merlin’s face had paled with shocked rage and he’d jerked away from Will like Will had been on fire. He’d yanked on his clothes without looking at Will. Will had pulled his own clothes on more slowly, shakily, trying to find the words to apologise and knowing Merlin wouldn’t want to hear them. Merlin was loyal and he would never hear anything against those he was loyal to.
“Take care of yourself, Will,” Merlin muttered at the door. “I don’t … just take care, okay?”
And now Will was sitting in an empty room, feeling shame and stupidity and knowing that there was a strong possibility that he would never see Merlin again and that his last words to him would have been fuelled by bitter jealousy.
Title: Accident
Fandom: Ashes to Ashes
Rating: PG
Summary: Spoilers for Season 2. Chris sits by himself.
Chris sat very quietly in the flat and thought very hard about getting very, very drunk.
He quite like the idea of getting very, very drunk. Getting very, very drunk would at least make everything fuzzy. Things would be better if they were fuzzy. Much better. And then maybe he’d fall asleep. He’d done that a few times these past few months.
But he didn’t deserve them to be better. He deserved to feel this bad, didn’t he? Because he’d let them all down. Alex, Ray, the Guv. Shaz. She was supposed to come back with him tonight. She’d been staying in his flat loads lately. She had told him she believed in practise before marriage. He liked that about her. Liked so much about her.
She wouldn’t ever forgive him. No one ever would. He didn’t deserve it. He’d let down the team. He’d lost everything and he hadn’t even meant to. He’d just somehow messed everything up.
Chris put his head on the table and continued to deny himself anything to drink.
Title: Better Daughter
Fandom: Death Note
Rating: G
Summary: Sayu sits in Raito's room and dwells.
The room felt colder.
Sayu couldn’t work out why Raito being dead made such a difference. He hadn’t slept in his room for years, not even on a visit. They hadn’t even kept it the same. Raito had taken most of his things, their mother had cleaned it, taken out a lot of the things that Raito said he no longer needed, stored them in the attic or throw them the way. Really, now it was a guest room rather than anything else, although no one had really used it.
So why did it feel different now that Raito was dead?
Sayu sat on the crisp, unused bed and drew her legs up. Her mother was crying downstairs, she knew. If she was a better daughter, maybe she’d go downstairs and comfort her. Try to, anyway. But she wasn’t a better daughter. And right now, all she could feel was cold.
Title: In Time
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: G
Summary: The Doctor always tries to fill his companion's rooms quickly when he can
He did his best to fill their rooms straight away. There was a risk of allowing them to become shrines otherwise. Little boxes filled with memories that mostly only caused pain.
Sometimes, if he didn’t do it fast enough, it was too late. He would find himself drifting into the room, staring around it, remembering things that they’d found together, the things they’d collected, the things they’d said. Then he often found himself closing the door and refusing to open it again unless he wanted to wallow. Which, depending on his incarnation, mood and current companions, sometimes happened more times than others.
Jamie’s room remained untouched. A jumbled collection, the remnants of a hundred adventures. He managed to clear out Zoe’s in the end, although it was hard. He never laid a finger on Susan’s. He was quite relieved that Jo and Sarah Jane both cleared out their rooms in general. That would have been painful.
He gave Turlough Adric’s room. Or rather, got Tegan to do it. He couldn’t do it himself. When Tegan herself left, he got Turlough to help him clean out her and Nyssa’s room. Turlough didn’t argue. Just raised one of his fine eyebrows and did as he was told. Turlough was good like that sometimes.
Rose’s room remained a shrine in a different way. After she was gone, he couldn’t even bring himself to open the door. He padlocked it and left everything to fade away with time.
Title: Trying
Fandom: Jyu Oh Sei
Rating: PG
Summary: Thor hates how every day, there are more empty rooms in the Ring.
One of the worst things about Chimera was how every day, faces you were used to disappeared. Thor often wandered through the Ring and every day, a seat was empty, a room unoccupied that had once contained someone. It made him sick to his stomach. Such a pointless waste. People he should have saved, maybe could have saved if he’d tried harder, put more effort in.
“You can’t blame yourself for all of them!” Tiz told him crossly when he made the mistake of saying this to her. “Thor, people die here. I keep telling you. You do too much already! You should have let Cal and Preasce fight it out, rather than separating them like that.”
“I didn’t want them to fight to the death,” Thor snapped. “They’re both good men. What’s the point of losing good men if you don’t have to.”
“Thor is right,” Third said quietly from where he’d slid up unnoticed behind them. “We need loyal people, Tiz.”
“Oh you,” she said. “You always agree with him.”
Third smiled innocently and patted Thor on the head. Thor shoved him off and headed down the corridor, knowing they’d follow him shortly. Tiz was right of course. One of the most painful lessons he’d learned and re-learned on Chimera was that you couldn’t save everyone.
But he would never stop trying.
Title: Empty
Fandom: Willard Price's Adventure Series
Rating: G
Summary: Mrs Hunt thinks about her sons and their dangerous career.
She’s not supposed to admit that she misses her sons. No good mother does, once they’ve reached a certain age. They go to boarding school, they go away from you. It’s the acceptable way.
Of course, most women’s sons don’t travel to the farthest ends of the earth trying to capture horribly dangerous animals. And yes, she was used to that with John but there was a difference. A world of difference between your husband and your sons. They were both so young still. Not helpless, but young.
But then they would always be too young, wouldn’t they? Always be too young to be displaying the scars they had, talking glibly about the times they’d almost been drowned or poisoned or murdered. No one’s child could ever be the right age for that.
So she held her tongue, like a good wife and mother and as she glanced into empty rooms each night, she simply prayed that one day, they would be filled again.
Title: Rooming Arrangements.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Summary: Arthur decides to cheer Molly up. Arthur/Molly.
Arthur waited until Molly had sent Errol with the Howler before daring to approach her. It was usually best to allow Molly to fully expound on whatever had annoyed her before attempting to break in distractingly. Otherwise, she noticed what you were doing and got irritated with you and that could start the most alarming avalanches.
“Do you feel better now, dear?” he said hopefully.
She made an expressive sniffing noise. Arthur suspected that now the rage had been expressed, she was heading into her “What-if-the-stupid-children-had-got-themselves-killed-my-babies” phase. Which would be made more complicated by the fact that for the first time in so many years that Mr Weasley couldn’t actually remember how many, they were alone in their house again. He’d almost been glad that the car had gone - it had distracted her from the inevitable.
“She’ll be fine, Molly,” he said consolingly. “And we’ll be fine. This will all blow over, you know.”
Molly made several mumbling noises. Arthur translated a few of them into “how could he be so selfish?” and “leading poor Harry astray.” He decided that it might be wise to guide her from the topic before she sent another Howler.
“We’re alone in the house,” he said brightly.
“Yes, Arthur,” Molly said grumpily. “Except for the ghoul.”
“Mollywobbles,” Arthur said, still brightly. “We haven’t been alone in the house since Bill was born.”
She looked at him. Her annoyed expression was suddenly fading away. Clearly, she’d got his meaning.
“I think,” Arthur said “given that it is a sensitive and troubling time for us both, we should become, er, reaccustomed to every room in our house that does not belong to a child or currently house a ghoul.”
“Arthur,” she said. “I think you’re right.”
There were definite advantages to having a house which was empty of children.