Drabble Tree stories
Here is the promised (and late) drabble tree recap! Below are the stories from all our writers at the Drabble Tree Challenge and the banners they received. I'm fairly certain I have all the stories here. Let me know if I'm missing one of yours!
Law & Order, Michael Cutter/Jack McCoy, PG-13
Mike shivered in the cold as he stood outside on the steps of the courthouse, waiting for the media circus to draw away so he could feel that it was safe to leave. He hated scenes like that; and he'd discovered quite a while ago that he didn't handle them well.
He could still remember the first time he'd been faced with a microphone shoved into his face and a camera focused on him. He'd just lost a case, one that he had worked hard to win, and he'd been incensed that a criminal had been allowed to go free on a technicality.
He had said far too many things that he shouldn't have said on that day, he thought regretfully. And it had almost cost him his job, when it had barely started. He was just glad that Jack had given him the chance to prove himself and put that unfortunate incident behind him.
Yes, it was best to let Jack handle things like the media. His boss had much more experience with things like that -- and besides, Jack was good at it. He wasn't, and never would be. He'd learned that the hard way, much to his own chagrin.
What was taking Jack so long? Mike thought, a frown on his handsome features. This hadn't been a case that he would have thought would attract so much media attention. Yet Jack seemed to be having a hard time extricating himself from the myriad of questions that were being aimed at him like bullets from a handgun.
Ah, there he was now. He'd broken away from the crowd of reporters, letting them hound someone else as he headed towards Mike. He looked like a thundercloud; Mike knew that whatever had been said, it couildn't be anything good.
Jack was silent as he approached, shaking his head and shooting Mike a cautionary look. Without a word, the two of them turned and headed back inside, both hoping that they could make it to the office without being stopped. Tension seemed to make a tangle in the air around Jack; Mike knew that there would be an explosion once they got into the office behind closed doors.
"Let's get inside and get warm," Jack muttered. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."
~~~
Moonlight, Mick/Josef, PG-13
Mick blinked, looking down at Josef in amazement as the man in his arms murmured in his sleep.
Those words. The words he'd wanted to hear so often from his lover, the words that Josef rarely said even though Mick knew that he felt them. Words that meant everything to him, words that he knew he would never take for granted because it was so rarely that they were spoken. They might be only words, but those words were what he needed to hear from Josef to reassure him that the two of them were as close as they could possibly be.
He shouldn't need words. It should be enough for him to simply know that Josef loved him, enough to know that this man belonged to him. It should be enough to feel in his heart and soul that Josef was his, that the love they shared would go on for eternity, that it would never fade away or die.
That should be enough. But hearing those words could only add to the overwhelming intensity of the love he already felt for the man in his arms. Knowing that Josef felt what he said and actually hearing him say it were two very different things.
There was a power to words spoken aloud; and those words that Josef had just murmured in the throes of sleep meant even more because he was speaking them now. He wasn't just saying those words to Mick's face to let his lover know that he was loved and wanted. He must really feel them if he could murmur them when he was caught up in dreams and his subconscious mind wasn't telling him that he needed to put his feelings into words and speak them out loud.
As Mick watched him, Josef's lips parted again, those same words spilling out as hie head turned on the pillow. His name, followed by the words that Mick wanted -- no, needed -- to hear. The words that Josef always had such a hard time saying, but that Mick knew he felt. Those words that he himself had said so often, those words that bound their hearts and souls together, those words that brought a lump to his throat and tears to his eyes.
"Mick," Josef whispered, his voice soft and throaty. "I love you."
"And I love you, Josef," Mick murmured, leaning down and brushing his mouth against his lover's softly parted lips. "I always have. And I always will." Those words were echoed in his heart, and as he spoke them, he knew that he meant them more than any other words he had ever spoken.
~~~
Doctor Who/Torchwood, Tenth Doctor/Ianto Jones, PG-13
Falling in love was a strange thing, Ianto thought to himself with a smile as his gaze rested on the Doctor. The Time Lord was bent over the console, staring at it intently, as though he'd seen something that he wasn't sure about on the small viewscreen there and he wanted to look at it closely and carefully before he came to some kind of decision about what he was looking at.
After his breakup with Jack, he'd been so sure that he never wanted to get involved with another man. He'd been absolutely positive that Jack was the only man he could possibly be with, that there was no one else who could even come close to inspiring the same love he'd had in his heart for the immortal. But that vow had fallen by the wayside from his first glimpse of the Doctor.
There had been something about this man that had captured him completely from the moment their eyes had met; the Doctor had owned him from that second, heart, body and soul. He'd never such a strong emotion for anyone as the surge of desire that had sprung up within in when the Doctor had smiled, spoken his name, and shaken his hand for the first time.
How could it be possible that two emotions as complicated as love and desire had sprung to life within him at one glance, one touch? Ianto knew what it was like to be in love; the Doctor wasn't the first person he'd given his heart to. He knew what it was like to love and lose -- and he knew how to differentiate love from mere desire. This feeling had been both, in equal measure, yet stronger than he'd ever experienced.
This kind of desire shouldn't be possible. No one should want another being so much that they let that person seep into the very cells of their being, take them over in every way from the inside out. If he had felt this way about anyone else -- even Jack -- he would have pulled back, feeling that he was getting in over his head, afraid of a feeling that he wasn't sure about. But it wasn't so with the Doctor. With this man, he had simply known that he would never be alone, that the Doctor would always be right by his side.
He had simply known that he was doing what was right for him. Nothing could possibly have felt more right; Ianto had been convinced of that from the first moment their eyes had met and their hands had touched.
He loved the Doctor; he always would. This man was his destiny. He'd known it from the instant he'd looked into those dark eyes and seen the certainty that they would belong to each other etched in those fathomless depths.
Love and desire had both sprung upon him at once -- and he would always be grateful that they had.
~~~
Moonlight, Mick/Josef, R
Mick could remember what it had felt like when Coraline had turned him. He hadn't expected it at all; it had come as a complete shock to realize that the woman he'd married, the woman he had thought he was in love with, came complete with a set of fangs.
He could still remember how it had felt when she sank her fangs into his neck and all of the world went white with pain. There had been the sensation of swooning, of feeling that he was floating; he had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was going to die, but for some strange reason, it had felt good. He hadn't seemed to mind dying; it was almost as though some part of his mind had embraced the thought.
He hadn't wanted to fight that sensation until it was far too late. He had been too weak, too far gone, by the time he had realized what dying would mean. He would be far removed from the life he had known; he would never be human again. He would be completely different, forever changed, with no way back to what he had been before.
He'd opened his eyes to stare up at her, his vision going cloudy, knowing that he was failing more rapidly than he'd thought he would. He was dying, letting go of life, slipping away into a dark world that no one could follow him into. He was going to be left for dead, his life snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
Don't leave me for dead! he wanted to cry out. He wanted to protest, to stop what was happening, but he was helpless. He couldn't move a muscle, couldn't speak. He was completely at the mercy of a fate that suddenly seemed cold, cruel and implacable.
If only Josef was here. Josef would save him. Josef would have been able to stop this.
His last thoughts from his human life weren't of the woman he had just married, the woman who had turned him into a monster. They were of Josef, the man who had been the most steadfast friend he'd ever known.
The man he loved with all of his heart and soul.
~~~
Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor/Ten.5, PG-13
Jamie gasped as he floundered in the cold waters of the sea, trying desperately to keep his head above water. Why had he come out here, anyway? Why was he in the water instead of standing there on the beach, next to the Tardis, waiting for his ultimate fate to be decided as though he had no choice in the matter?
Oh yes, he reminded himself as he closed his eyes, gulping in sea water. He was being forced to go away to an alternate universe with a spoilt, bratty child who cared nothing for him except for the fact that he looked just like the Doctor, and had the Doctor's mind. He was being forced to leave the Time Lord behind, the one person in the universe who he most wanted to be with.
He wanted to die. He wanted to sink under the icy waters and expire, let his body float back up to the beach and make a statement to all of them that he wouldn't be treated as though he had no mind of his own and no choice in where -- and with who -- he was to spend the short span of his human life.
He was gulping in more and more of the salty sea water; it was getting colder. He couldn't feel his legs any more; soon, they would stop treading water and he would sink, going down into the depths before his body would float back to the surface and eventually wash up on the beach ....
Soon .... he could already feel his heart, that single heart that beat within his chest, slowing down, counting the moments until it stopped completely ....
Jamie woke with a cry, his eyes flying open as he sat up in bed. He wasn't drowning. He was here on the Tardis, safe beside the Doctor, the Time Lord sleeping peacefully next to him. It had been a dream. He hadn't been drowning under the icy water of a sea that he remembered all too clearly, hadn't been forced to live a life that he would never be happy in.
Just a dream, he told himself over and over, pressing his hand against his chest to feel the reassuring heartbeat there, strong and steady under his palm. Just a dream. He wouldn't be forced into that life, away from the Doctor. He was here, safe with the man he loved, where he belonged and where he would stay until the end of his days.
Only a dream, though it had seemed so real. Jamie slowly lay back down, closing his eyes and trying to shut out the disturbing images that kept playing through his mind. It would be a long time before he could fall asleep again -- and when he did, he wasn't so sure that the dreams wouldn't keep coming back to haunt him, slipping back into his mind as easily as he'd let himself slip under that icy water.
CSI: Miami, Tim Speedle/Calleigh Duquesne, PG
"Guess you love your gift."
Calleigh let the scarf drape through her fingers, as she said, "Yeah, I really do, but when am I going to wear anything like this in Miami?" It really was a nice scarf, in various shades of blue and green, and she had a feeling some salesgirl somewhere had been the one really behind the selection, earning a nice commission, but it was not something she foresaw wearing very often, if ever.
"You mean double-knit scarves aren't appropriate for a Miami winter?" Tim said with a mischievous smile. "Too bad, I would have gotten you something else."
"Like what?"
"Hope you know how to deal with freezing weather," he said, handing her an envelope, "because that scarf wasn't an impulse purchase."
She opened the envelope. "Plane tickets?"
"I thought we could get away," he said, arching an eyebrow, "I already have it worked out: no work, the two of us in a motel room somewhere far away from here -"
"Somewhere where scarves are necessary?" She interjected as she looked at the tickets closer, and continued, "I guess I've always wanted to see New York in the wintertime."
"Then it's settled."
Final Fantasy X - Braska & Yuna - PG
"Yuna, I have a gift for you." said Braska. His daughter looked up from her game, her innocent mismatched eyes, one green and one blue, staring at him. Her young eyes took in his appearance. He was wearing the robes he would wear on his pilgrimage, as he would fight Sin. It was the uniform he would wear as he went to his death for Spira. It was that face that gave him resolve. There would be a world where Yuna could be safe, could be happy.
At his beckoning hand, Yuna jumped up and scurried over to her father’s side. He held out one hand, the gift wrapped in his fingers. She put her own, small hands beneath his fist, ready to receive. He loosened his fingers and out dropped a small necklace. Auron and Jecht had helped him choose it. Jecht had thought him over sentimental, Auron had thought it was a waste of time. It didn’t matter to Braska, what mattered was that his daughter would have something to remember him by. The piece was simple, silver and very elegant. He watched as her face lit up with joy.
“Father! Thank you!” she said throwing her arms about his neck. He smiled and hugged his daughter back. A daughter that, after this evening, he would never see again.
~~~
Code Geass - Lelouch & Suzaku - PG
Those words. He had heard them so many times that it had made him sick since he was a very young age.
Britannian, Japanese, Eleven. Words that changed futures, words that would determine someone’s life. Suzaku was Japanese, that had been pounded into his head for days before he was sent to the small Pacific island with Nunnally in tow. They had been sent as hostages, as bargaining chips in their father, the Emperor’s, game. Lelouch shook with rage at the thought of his father, the man that had taken away his life from him. Because of words, he was a prince, he was a pawn. The Kururugi family were his prison guards.
Suzaku had earned another title as well. After their days of hatred, they had become friends. They looked past the labels and saw each other as people. Japanese or Britannian, it did not matter when it was just the two of them and Nunnally. They would take turns carrying his crippled sister through the woods seeking out adventures in the dense undergrowth. When it was just them, labels did not exist.
It was different in the town, where the other Japanese would give Lelouch hateful glances and act as Suzaku was being deluded by the evil Britannian prisoner. Little did the boys know that one day their roles would be reversed, it would be Suzaku receiving the hateful glares and Lelouch getting the strange ones. For in this imperfect world, labels existed.
On a day in the not so distant future, Lelouch and Suzaku would be standing together on a broken field filled with destruction. Britannia had taken Japan, Japan became area 11. The Japanese became elevens. Lelouch swore the he would destroy Britannia. He would make an end to the words that destroyed people’s lives.
~~~
Final Fantasy X - Yuna/Tidus - G
Yuna sighed. She did not know why she still came out to do this. Every day she would stand by the ocean and put her fingers to her lips and whistle just as he had taught her. Each whistle she tried to make louder than the last until she tired herself out and the sound from her mouth had become little more than whispers. Yet each time she blew she hoped with all her heart that he would come out of that ocean and be with her again. He had promised that all she had to do was whistle and he would be there. But he wasn’t, he couldn’t, because he did not exist.
There was a story that Wakka had told her about him once. When he though the pain of Tidus’s disappearance had eased. Wakka had found him out in the ocean. He had invited Tidus to play blitzball with them after he had demonstrated a move that Wakka ineffectually tried to repeat. Yuna had smiled at that, she remembered watching him play for Wakka's team, he had been quite impressive. He had been impressive at many things, he was always there for her when she needed him. He had been more than just a Guardian to her. He was surprising.
She hoped as she would stand by ocean wishing, as the sun sank below the horizon, that he would surprise her again by coming back to her. That one day he would appear out of the ocean like he had for Wakka and come strolling up, all smiles and apologizing for his absence. Yet, he didn't come. Day after day, he did not come.
Yet, day after day, she did. She hoped that somewhere, sometime they'd be able to meet again. Perhaps not in this world, but in another, sometime, someplace. She kept that hope and the whistle became a silent promise that she would come when he would whistle, someday, even if it was far away.
~~~
Vampire Knight - Zero - PG-13
I am going to die.
That was the only thought that ran through Zero's head as the vampire woman came towards him, his eyes wide. He had run outside ahead of his parents, sensing something that should not be there. The Hunter blood in his veins ran strong. She was beautiful, she was elegant, she was walking death.
Tears ran down her face as she took him in his arms. In an almost motherly way she embraced his small body, putting her lips close to his neck. He heard his parents running out. His mother's voice calling for him, begging the vampire to stop.
She didn't. She sank her fangs into his neck and all of the world went white with pain. He vaguely felt himself being thrown to the side. Conscious enough to see his parents be killed, torn to shreds before him. He stayed conscious long enough to see his twin's smile, as Zero's world ended.
~~~
Black Bird - Kyo/Misao - PG
"Kyo! Pay attention." yelled his instructor thwacking him on the back of the head with the practice katana. The hit stung and he could feel that Ryo was giving him that look. The look that told him that he was not taking his mission seriously enough.
If you don't try harder you will never become head of the family, Ryo was telling him with his eyes. Kyo was half-tempted to roll his eyes and stick out his tongue at his friend and servant, but that would hardly be the proper behavior for the heir of the tengu clan. Not to mention he might get whacked with the katana again. He took a deep breath and tried to refocus on the task at hand. He needed to take his mind away from the girl he had left in the human world, and focus on the sword positions he may need one day to protect her.
Protecting her, being head of the family, having her, was all his dream. All of this was for her. First position. For a little girl he would dream about, wondering what she would look like when she was all grown up. Block. He dreamed that she would still love him, but would it be true? Thrust. Parry. Block. First Position. Second Position. Thwack.
Perhaps now was not the time for daydreams.
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
Eames’ stare burns a hole through Arthur’s back. “What is this?” he snaps as he picks up the envelope Arthur left on the bedside table.
Arthur doesn’t say anything but his shoulders tense up. Eames rips the envelope open roughly.
“Plane tickets,” Eames scoffs. “What did you think I was going to do? Come back to the apartment, find that you were gone, pick up the plane tickets and fly wherever you meant for me to go?”
Arthur sets his suitcase down and turns to face Eames. When he speaks, it comes out in a tired sigh, “I’m trying to look out for you.”
“Are you? Are you really?” He closes in on Arthur and sneers at him. “Or was it just easier to leave like this when you don’t have to even fucking tell me anything?”
“Jesus, Eames,” Arthur snarls, “we have no time for this. Listen to me, go, leave this place, and take the fucking PASIV with you.”
“You know me, Arthur,” Eames says with a short laugh, “I never listen to you.”
He pulls Arthur forcibly towards him and presses his lips against Arthur’s.
~~~
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
IP Address:(60.50.137.12)
“Where are you heading to after this?” Eames asks, getting off the bed on shaky legs. He is careful not to brush against Arthur but allows his eyes to linger on Arthur as Arthur dresses up, fastening up each button meticulously.
Arthur shrugs. “Venice, maybe,” he murmurs as he bends down to retrieve his tie from where it lay on the floor. “Or I might go back to Malaysia to take care of unfinished business.”
Eames snorts. “Don’t push your luck, love. You barely got out of there alive.”
“That was not my fault.” Arthur turns to scowl at Eames. “Just because you got me out of Malaysia unscathed doesn’t mean that you get to mock me.”
“I wasn’t mocking you,” Eames tells him with a roll of his eyes. “You’re being oversensitive.”
Arthur’s scowl deepens but he doesn’t say anything.
“Do I even want to know where you’re going next?” Arthur asks when Eames passes him his jacket.
“Depends,” Eames drawls. “Is it likely that you’re going to come over for a visit?”
Arthur is silent.
“Hawaii,” Eames tells him anyway. “I’m going to lie low for awhile.”
Arthur nods and brushes invisible lint off his suit jacket before he starts to walk to the door of the hotel room.
“Arthur,” Eames calls just as Arthur’s hand closes over the door knob.
Arthur stills but doesn’t turn to look at Eames.
“Don’t get caught,” Eames says, his voice rough with...something, “Don’t get killed.”
Arthur doesn’t say anything, just opens the door and leaves.
~~~
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
Before he’d even know that mind heists existed, before he got on board traipsing through people’s minds in search of their deepest, darkest secrets, Arthur -eighteen year old Arthur, minus the suits and the gelled back hair and the air of superiority- first met Eames in a diner.
It wasn’t that Arthur wanted to notice Eames or that Eames was particularly noticeable; Arthur just did because Eames was different. He wore a shirt two sizes too large in all the wrong colours, his smile was a bit too sharp and a bit too mocking, his accent was a bit too deep.
Arthur noticed Eames because he was surprising.
It took Arthur three minutes too late to realize that he was staring at Eames before he turned back to his breakfast but by then the damage was done. Eames was strolling over to him, his smile still a bit too sharp and his stance still a bit too relaxed.
“Hello, darling,” Eames purred and his accent was still too strong and something was still off. “Can I buy you a coffee?”
Arthur had raised an eyebrow and when he opened his mouth, he was going to say no. What he said instead was, “This isn’t your real accent, is it?”
Instead of being offended, Eames’ lips had quirked up into a grin, so wide that it seemed preposterous. “How do you tell?” Eames asked as he slid into Arthur’s booth, his voice considerably lower.
Arthur shrugged. “Everything was off.”
Eames’ grin widened still. “Tell me, pet, how would you like to learn how to forge?”
Arthur frowned. “Forge, as in produce fakes, as in you’re asking me if I want to learn how to be a criminal?”
Eames leaned across the table, his eyes intent. “Forge, as in I can teach you how to become someone else altogether,” he murmurs, “Forge, as in I can show you the world like nothing you’ve seen before.”
Arthur’s frown deepened as he considered Eames’ offer briefly.
“I can teach you how to build your own world, how to do things no one else can do. The question is, pet, do you dare to come with me?”
Arthur left his coffee untouched.
Merlin- Arthur/Merlin- PG
“Don’t get caught.”
Those words.
The only words he’d heard from the Prince when he’d woken up to find Arthur looming over him where he’d been sleeping slumped over Gaius’ workbench, his head pillowed on his magic book and Arthur's breeches mending themselves on the table in front of him. Then Arthur had turned and strode from the room, leaving Merlin with his heart pounding in his chest and a million explanations balanced on the tip of his tongue.
“There is no guarantee that I can protect you if any of the knights accuse you. So if you do anything, make sure that they don’t see.”
Those words.
The first not related to chores that Arthur had spoken to him in the month since he'd learned Merlin's secret, his voice low but intense and his grip on Merlin’s arm desperate with his anxiety. They had been just about out with a group of knights behind them to confront the latest to Camelot’s safety, another deadly creature that could only be destroyed by magic and they hadn’t been much but Merlin had clung to those words like a lifeline.
"Try not to get yourself killed.”
Those words.
The last words Arthur had said to him before he’d charged head first into danger, as he always did. If Merlin had had the time, he would have considered the grim irony of those words. But there hadn’t been time. They’d been separated from the group and Arthur had been bleeding out all over his hands, and there just hadn't been time. It was Arthur who had been dying, right there in Merlin’s arms, and Merlin was never going to get the chance to apologize for lying for all those years. He wasn’t going to get the chance to tell Arthur that he’d never wanted to lie to him but he’d just been scared. And then Arthur had started coughing, awful wet coughs that wracked his entire body, and Merlin’s magic had just ripped through him in a great burst, cloaking the Prince in shimmering gold before dissipating across the clearing. As he watched the pain wash from Arthur's sleeping face, not even the harsh "You will release him, sorcerer" could make Merlin regret what he'd done.
“You have bewitched my son and you will burn.”
Those words.
As the king, the swiftness with which Uther could end a life was something like its own kind of magic and if Merlin were a different man, hearing Uther Pendragon sentence him to death might have made him break down and tremble. But he wasn’t a different man. He was Merlin. And that meant he was Arthur’s. And Arthur’s words, shouted across the Great Hall as he struggled in the grips of two guards, had a magic of their own. So Merlin just sat back in his cell and watched the sun rise.
"I will come for you. I won't let him take you. Never you."
Those words.
Being Erica, Erica/Ethan, PG-13
She's had other dreams like this. For years, though she'd never let herself admit it before their reunion, before the kiss, she'd dreamed of him and what it would feel like to be with him.
She dreamed of him waking her with a kiss on her lips, long and lingering and slow. She dreamed of his hands on her skin, under her shirt, over her stomach, up to her breasts. She dreamed of his hands in her hair, stroking and tangling and twining.
Even now, even after she's been with him, finally been with him after fifteen years of refusing to admit she wanted him, she dreams of these things. She swears she feels his knees at her hips as he straddles her, leaning down to kiss her out of sleep after a demanding day at River Rock, his fingers on skin left exposed by the shirt she sleeps in.
She swears she can feel him.
But when she wakes up, it is to a pillow stained with salty wetness and smeared, day-old makeup. It is to muscles cramped from being curled into a ball all night. It is to eyes sore from crying and hands outstretched, as if to make him come back. It is waking up from a reality she knows she shouldn't want--everything she said to him is true; he is holding her back--but, irrationally, does.
She has to close her eyes, wanting, if just for a minute, that fleeting image of him. Wanting to pretend it's her reality. But it was only a dream, though it had seemed so real.
Leverage - Parker/Hardison - PG-13
The links of the chain that circled her wrist were cold as she stood out under the moon but Parker didn't care. She liked the way it looked when she held up arm, the light from the sky dancing around on the silver. While she'd stolen her share of very beautiful jewelry over the years, none of them were nearly as pretty as this bangle.
"Guess you like your gift."
She turned and smiled as Alec walked up beside her, trying not to giggle. It was harder these days, keeping those little sounds hidden inside. Every time she laughed or giggled, someone assumed she and Alec had just found some alone time in a hall somewhere. While that was true some of the time, she didn't like advertising it.
"I love my gift. It's the... best one I've ever received. Well, from someone else. I get great gifts for myself all the time."
Alec looked at for a moment, his eyes intent on hers as he tried to read to see if she was lying or not. "Didn't you get gifts for your birthday when you were younger? And I know for a fact that you got something from Sophie and Nate for Christmas last year."
"Little baubles. Nothing this pretty."
"Well, I'm glad you like it." He leaned forward, placing a kiss on her cheek. "How about we go inside and get warm. I'll even make you some cocoa."
All he could do was smile as she skipped back toward the lights of the building, her delight bubbling up and over in the laughter he loved to hear. In fact, he couldn't get enough of it.
~~~
Stargate Atlantis - John, Teyla/Ronon - PG-13
"You weren't supposed to get caught." John leaned back in his chair, irritated beyond belief that he was in this position of having to discipline one of his own teammates. "That's the first rule. Remember? Don't get caught. It's simple, really. Don't. Get. Caught."
"It was not meant to be a union that was witnessed," Teyla assured him, her chin lifted in the way she had when she knew she was right and the person she was talking to was wrong. John had to remind himself that he was the one doing the chastising this time, and not the reverse. "There was no one around."
"Yes, but that never means you'll be alone forever. There are several hundred people here on Atlantis. They have a tendency to wander about."
Ronon stifled a laugh before returning his face to the blank look he'd worn since entering the room when both Teyla and John turned to look at him and then away again.
"What will our punishment be?"
The smile that John suddenly flashed at them both wasn't pleasant. "You'll have to apologize."
"That is all?"
"To Rodney. You'll have to apologize to Rodney. He's the one who found you. He's the one you need to apologize to."
Both Teyla and Ronon groaned at the same time. There was little else that would have been worse.
~~~
Farscape - Aeryn - PG-13
The last thoughts that ran through Aeryn's mind as she died under the icy waters were simple. I'm going to die on land instead of up in the sky like I'm supposed to and I can't frelling believe that frelling John Crichton frelling killed me. She knew she should have been thinking something along the lines of how sad she was to be losing John after she only just realized how much she loved him, but she'd gotten that all out of the way with her last words to him.
Now she was just pissed. And cold. So cold. Her arms and legs weren't obeying her commands to keep moving. The chair was becoming saturated and all the buoyancy that she'd hoped to take advantage of was leeching away with every second that she stayed in the water.
This is the time for miracles, she reminded herself. The ship would come and save her. Zhaan would find a way to get her out of this or D'Argo would shoot someone or John would come to his senses and save her. John... would... save....
No one was coming. No one. She was on her own. The problem was that she wasn't going to be able to save herself this time.
Law & Order, Michael Cutter/Jack McCoy, PG-13
Mike shivered in the cold as he stood outside on the steps of the courthouse, waiting for the media circus to draw away so he could feel that it was safe to leave. He hated scenes like that; and he'd discovered quite a while ago that he didn't handle them well.
He could still remember the first time he'd been faced with a microphone shoved into his face and a camera focused on him. He'd just lost a case, one that he had worked hard to win, and he'd been incensed that a criminal had been allowed to go free on a technicality.
He had said far too many things that he shouldn't have said on that day, he thought regretfully. And it had almost cost him his job, when it had barely started. He was just glad that Jack had given him the chance to prove himself and put that unfortunate incident behind him.
Yes, it was best to let Jack handle things like the media. His boss had much more experience with things like that -- and besides, Jack was good at it. He wasn't, and never would be. He'd learned that the hard way, much to his own chagrin.
What was taking Jack so long? Mike thought, a frown on his handsome features. This hadn't been a case that he would have thought would attract so much media attention. Yet Jack seemed to be having a hard time extricating himself from the myriad of questions that were being aimed at him like bullets from a handgun.
Ah, there he was now. He'd broken away from the crowd of reporters, letting them hound someone else as he headed towards Mike. He looked like a thundercloud; Mike knew that whatever had been said, it couildn't be anything good.
Jack was silent as he approached, shaking his head and shooting Mike a cautionary look. Without a word, the two of them turned and headed back inside, both hoping that they could make it to the office without being stopped. Tension seemed to make a tangle in the air around Jack; Mike knew that there would be an explosion once they got into the office behind closed doors.
"Let's get inside and get warm," Jack muttered. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."
~~~
Moonlight, Mick/Josef, PG-13
Mick blinked, looking down at Josef in amazement as the man in his arms murmured in his sleep.
Those words. The words he'd wanted to hear so often from his lover, the words that Josef rarely said even though Mick knew that he felt them. Words that meant everything to him, words that he knew he would never take for granted because it was so rarely that they were spoken. They might be only words, but those words were what he needed to hear from Josef to reassure him that the two of them were as close as they could possibly be.
He shouldn't need words. It should be enough for him to simply know that Josef loved him, enough to know that this man belonged to him. It should be enough to feel in his heart and soul that Josef was his, that the love they shared would go on for eternity, that it would never fade away or die.
That should be enough. But hearing those words could only add to the overwhelming intensity of the love he already felt for the man in his arms. Knowing that Josef felt what he said and actually hearing him say it were two very different things.
There was a power to words spoken aloud; and those words that Josef had just murmured in the throes of sleep meant even more because he was speaking them now. He wasn't just saying those words to Mick's face to let his lover know that he was loved and wanted. He must really feel them if he could murmur them when he was caught up in dreams and his subconscious mind wasn't telling him that he needed to put his feelings into words and speak them out loud.
As Mick watched him, Josef's lips parted again, those same words spilling out as hie head turned on the pillow. His name, followed by the words that Mick wanted -- no, needed -- to hear. The words that Josef always had such a hard time saying, but that Mick knew he felt. Those words that he himself had said so often, those words that bound their hearts and souls together, those words that brought a lump to his throat and tears to his eyes.
"Mick," Josef whispered, his voice soft and throaty. "I love you."
"And I love you, Josef," Mick murmured, leaning down and brushing his mouth against his lover's softly parted lips. "I always have. And I always will." Those words were echoed in his heart, and as he spoke them, he knew that he meant them more than any other words he had ever spoken.
~~~
Doctor Who/Torchwood, Tenth Doctor/Ianto Jones, PG-13
Falling in love was a strange thing, Ianto thought to himself with a smile as his gaze rested on the Doctor. The Time Lord was bent over the console, staring at it intently, as though he'd seen something that he wasn't sure about on the small viewscreen there and he wanted to look at it closely and carefully before he came to some kind of decision about what he was looking at.
After his breakup with Jack, he'd been so sure that he never wanted to get involved with another man. He'd been absolutely positive that Jack was the only man he could possibly be with, that there was no one else who could even come close to inspiring the same love he'd had in his heart for the immortal. But that vow had fallen by the wayside from his first glimpse of the Doctor.
There had been something about this man that had captured him completely from the moment their eyes had met; the Doctor had owned him from that second, heart, body and soul. He'd never such a strong emotion for anyone as the surge of desire that had sprung up within in when the Doctor had smiled, spoken his name, and shaken his hand for the first time.
How could it be possible that two emotions as complicated as love and desire had sprung to life within him at one glance, one touch? Ianto knew what it was like to be in love; the Doctor wasn't the first person he'd given his heart to. He knew what it was like to love and lose -- and he knew how to differentiate love from mere desire. This feeling had been both, in equal measure, yet stronger than he'd ever experienced.
This kind of desire shouldn't be possible. No one should want another being so much that they let that person seep into the very cells of their being, take them over in every way from the inside out. If he had felt this way about anyone else -- even Jack -- he would have pulled back, feeling that he was getting in over his head, afraid of a feeling that he wasn't sure about. But it wasn't so with the Doctor. With this man, he had simply known that he would never be alone, that the Doctor would always be right by his side.
He had simply known that he was doing what was right for him. Nothing could possibly have felt more right; Ianto had been convinced of that from the first moment their eyes had met and their hands had touched.
He loved the Doctor; he always would. This man was his destiny. He'd known it from the instant he'd looked into those dark eyes and seen the certainty that they would belong to each other etched in those fathomless depths.
Love and desire had both sprung upon him at once -- and he would always be grateful that they had.
~~~
Moonlight, Mick/Josef, R
Mick could remember what it had felt like when Coraline had turned him. He hadn't expected it at all; it had come as a complete shock to realize that the woman he'd married, the woman he had thought he was in love with, came complete with a set of fangs.
He could still remember how it had felt when she sank her fangs into his neck and all of the world went white with pain. There had been the sensation of swooning, of feeling that he was floating; he had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was going to die, but for some strange reason, it had felt good. He hadn't seemed to mind dying; it was almost as though some part of his mind had embraced the thought.
He hadn't wanted to fight that sensation until it was far too late. He had been too weak, too far gone, by the time he had realized what dying would mean. He would be far removed from the life he had known; he would never be human again. He would be completely different, forever changed, with no way back to what he had been before.
He'd opened his eyes to stare up at her, his vision going cloudy, knowing that he was failing more rapidly than he'd thought he would. He was dying, letting go of life, slipping away into a dark world that no one could follow him into. He was going to be left for dead, his life snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
Don't leave me for dead! he wanted to cry out. He wanted to protest, to stop what was happening, but he was helpless. He couldn't move a muscle, couldn't speak. He was completely at the mercy of a fate that suddenly seemed cold, cruel and implacable.
If only Josef was here. Josef would save him. Josef would have been able to stop this.
His last thoughts from his human life weren't of the woman he had just married, the woman who had turned him into a monster. They were of Josef, the man who had been the most steadfast friend he'd ever known.
The man he loved with all of his heart and soul.
~~~
Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor/Ten.5, PG-13
Jamie gasped as he floundered in the cold waters of the sea, trying desperately to keep his head above water. Why had he come out here, anyway? Why was he in the water instead of standing there on the beach, next to the Tardis, waiting for his ultimate fate to be decided as though he had no choice in the matter?
Oh yes, he reminded himself as he closed his eyes, gulping in sea water. He was being forced to go away to an alternate universe with a spoilt, bratty child who cared nothing for him except for the fact that he looked just like the Doctor, and had the Doctor's mind. He was being forced to leave the Time Lord behind, the one person in the universe who he most wanted to be with.
He wanted to die. He wanted to sink under the icy waters and expire, let his body float back up to the beach and make a statement to all of them that he wouldn't be treated as though he had no mind of his own and no choice in where -- and with who -- he was to spend the short span of his human life.
He was gulping in more and more of the salty sea water; it was getting colder. He couldn't feel his legs any more; soon, they would stop treading water and he would sink, going down into the depths before his body would float back to the surface and eventually wash up on the beach ....
Soon .... he could already feel his heart, that single heart that beat within his chest, slowing down, counting the moments until it stopped completely ....
Jamie woke with a cry, his eyes flying open as he sat up in bed. He wasn't drowning. He was here on the Tardis, safe beside the Doctor, the Time Lord sleeping peacefully next to him. It had been a dream. He hadn't been drowning under the icy water of a sea that he remembered all too clearly, hadn't been forced to live a life that he would never be happy in.
Just a dream, he told himself over and over, pressing his hand against his chest to feel the reassuring heartbeat there, strong and steady under his palm. Just a dream. He wouldn't be forced into that life, away from the Doctor. He was here, safe with the man he loved, where he belonged and where he would stay until the end of his days.
Only a dream, though it had seemed so real. Jamie slowly lay back down, closing his eyes and trying to shut out the disturbing images that kept playing through his mind. It would be a long time before he could fall asleep again -- and when he did, he wasn't so sure that the dreams wouldn't keep coming back to haunt him, slipping back into his mind as easily as he'd let himself slip under that icy water.
CSI: Miami, Tim Speedle/Calleigh Duquesne, PG
"Guess you love your gift."
Calleigh let the scarf drape through her fingers, as she said, "Yeah, I really do, but when am I going to wear anything like this in Miami?" It really was a nice scarf, in various shades of blue and green, and she had a feeling some salesgirl somewhere had been the one really behind the selection, earning a nice commission, but it was not something she foresaw wearing very often, if ever.
"You mean double-knit scarves aren't appropriate for a Miami winter?" Tim said with a mischievous smile. "Too bad, I would have gotten you something else."
"Like what?"
"Hope you know how to deal with freezing weather," he said, handing her an envelope, "because that scarf wasn't an impulse purchase."
She opened the envelope. "Plane tickets?"
"I thought we could get away," he said, arching an eyebrow, "I already have it worked out: no work, the two of us in a motel room somewhere far away from here -"
"Somewhere where scarves are necessary?" She interjected as she looked at the tickets closer, and continued, "I guess I've always wanted to see New York in the wintertime."
"Then it's settled."
Final Fantasy X - Braska & Yuna - PG
"Yuna, I have a gift for you." said Braska. His daughter looked up from her game, her innocent mismatched eyes, one green and one blue, staring at him. Her young eyes took in his appearance. He was wearing the robes he would wear on his pilgrimage, as he would fight Sin. It was the uniform he would wear as he went to his death for Spira. It was that face that gave him resolve. There would be a world where Yuna could be safe, could be happy.
At his beckoning hand, Yuna jumped up and scurried over to her father’s side. He held out one hand, the gift wrapped in his fingers. She put her own, small hands beneath his fist, ready to receive. He loosened his fingers and out dropped a small necklace. Auron and Jecht had helped him choose it. Jecht had thought him over sentimental, Auron had thought it was a waste of time. It didn’t matter to Braska, what mattered was that his daughter would have something to remember him by. The piece was simple, silver and very elegant. He watched as her face lit up with joy.
“Father! Thank you!” she said throwing her arms about his neck. He smiled and hugged his daughter back. A daughter that, after this evening, he would never see again.
~~~
Code Geass - Lelouch & Suzaku - PG
Those words. He had heard them so many times that it had made him sick since he was a very young age.
Britannian, Japanese, Eleven. Words that changed futures, words that would determine someone’s life. Suzaku was Japanese, that had been pounded into his head for days before he was sent to the small Pacific island with Nunnally in tow. They had been sent as hostages, as bargaining chips in their father, the Emperor’s, game. Lelouch shook with rage at the thought of his father, the man that had taken away his life from him. Because of words, he was a prince, he was a pawn. The Kururugi family were his prison guards.
Suzaku had earned another title as well. After their days of hatred, they had become friends. They looked past the labels and saw each other as people. Japanese or Britannian, it did not matter when it was just the two of them and Nunnally. They would take turns carrying his crippled sister through the woods seeking out adventures in the dense undergrowth. When it was just them, labels did not exist.
It was different in the town, where the other Japanese would give Lelouch hateful glances and act as Suzaku was being deluded by the evil Britannian prisoner. Little did the boys know that one day their roles would be reversed, it would be Suzaku receiving the hateful glares and Lelouch getting the strange ones. For in this imperfect world, labels existed.
On a day in the not so distant future, Lelouch and Suzaku would be standing together on a broken field filled with destruction. Britannia had taken Japan, Japan became area 11. The Japanese became elevens. Lelouch swore the he would destroy Britannia. He would make an end to the words that destroyed people’s lives.
~~~
Final Fantasy X - Yuna/Tidus - G
Yuna sighed. She did not know why she still came out to do this. Every day she would stand by the ocean and put her fingers to her lips and whistle just as he had taught her. Each whistle she tried to make louder than the last until she tired herself out and the sound from her mouth had become little more than whispers. Yet each time she blew she hoped with all her heart that he would come out of that ocean and be with her again. He had promised that all she had to do was whistle and he would be there. But he wasn’t, he couldn’t, because he did not exist.
There was a story that Wakka had told her about him once. When he though the pain of Tidus’s disappearance had eased. Wakka had found him out in the ocean. He had invited Tidus to play blitzball with them after he had demonstrated a move that Wakka ineffectually tried to repeat. Yuna had smiled at that, she remembered watching him play for Wakka's team, he had been quite impressive. He had been impressive at many things, he was always there for her when she needed him. He had been more than just a Guardian to her. He was surprising.
She hoped as she would stand by ocean wishing, as the sun sank below the horizon, that he would surprise her again by coming back to her. That one day he would appear out of the ocean like he had for Wakka and come strolling up, all smiles and apologizing for his absence. Yet, he didn't come. Day after day, he did not come.
Yet, day after day, she did. She hoped that somewhere, sometime they'd be able to meet again. Perhaps not in this world, but in another, sometime, someplace. She kept that hope and the whistle became a silent promise that she would come when he would whistle, someday, even if it was far away.
~~~
Vampire Knight - Zero - PG-13
I am going to die.
That was the only thought that ran through Zero's head as the vampire woman came towards him, his eyes wide. He had run outside ahead of his parents, sensing something that should not be there. The Hunter blood in his veins ran strong. She was beautiful, she was elegant, she was walking death.
Tears ran down her face as she took him in his arms. In an almost motherly way she embraced his small body, putting her lips close to his neck. He heard his parents running out. His mother's voice calling for him, begging the vampire to stop.
She didn't. She sank her fangs into his neck and all of the world went white with pain. He vaguely felt himself being thrown to the side. Conscious enough to see his parents be killed, torn to shreds before him. He stayed conscious long enough to see his twin's smile, as Zero's world ended.
~~~
Black Bird - Kyo/Misao - PG
"Kyo! Pay attention." yelled his instructor thwacking him on the back of the head with the practice katana. The hit stung and he could feel that Ryo was giving him that look. The look that told him that he was not taking his mission seriously enough.
If you don't try harder you will never become head of the family, Ryo was telling him with his eyes. Kyo was half-tempted to roll his eyes and stick out his tongue at his friend and servant, but that would hardly be the proper behavior for the heir of the tengu clan. Not to mention he might get whacked with the katana again. He took a deep breath and tried to refocus on the task at hand. He needed to take his mind away from the girl he had left in the human world, and focus on the sword positions he may need one day to protect her.
Protecting her, being head of the family, having her, was all his dream. All of this was for her. First position. For a little girl he would dream about, wondering what she would look like when she was all grown up. Block. He dreamed that she would still love him, but would it be true? Thrust. Parry. Block. First Position. Second Position. Thwack.
Perhaps now was not the time for daydreams.
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
Eames’ stare burns a hole through Arthur’s back. “What is this?” he snaps as he picks up the envelope Arthur left on the bedside table.
Arthur doesn’t say anything but his shoulders tense up. Eames rips the envelope open roughly.
“Plane tickets,” Eames scoffs. “What did you think I was going to do? Come back to the apartment, find that you were gone, pick up the plane tickets and fly wherever you meant for me to go?”
Arthur sets his suitcase down and turns to face Eames. When he speaks, it comes out in a tired sigh, “I’m trying to look out for you.”
“Are you? Are you really?” He closes in on Arthur and sneers at him. “Or was it just easier to leave like this when you don’t have to even fucking tell me anything?”
“Jesus, Eames,” Arthur snarls, “we have no time for this. Listen to me, go, leave this place, and take the fucking PASIV with you.”
“You know me, Arthur,” Eames says with a short laugh, “I never listen to you.”
He pulls Arthur forcibly towards him and presses his lips against Arthur’s.
~~~
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
IP Address:(60.50.137.12)
“Where are you heading to after this?” Eames asks, getting off the bed on shaky legs. He is careful not to brush against Arthur but allows his eyes to linger on Arthur as Arthur dresses up, fastening up each button meticulously.
Arthur shrugs. “Venice, maybe,” he murmurs as he bends down to retrieve his tie from where it lay on the floor. “Or I might go back to Malaysia to take care of unfinished business.”
Eames snorts. “Don’t push your luck, love. You barely got out of there alive.”
“That was not my fault.” Arthur turns to scowl at Eames. “Just because you got me out of Malaysia unscathed doesn’t mean that you get to mock me.”
“I wasn’t mocking you,” Eames tells him with a roll of his eyes. “You’re being oversensitive.”
Arthur’s scowl deepens but he doesn’t say anything.
“Do I even want to know where you’re going next?” Arthur asks when Eames passes him his jacket.
“Depends,” Eames drawls. “Is it likely that you’re going to come over for a visit?”
Arthur is silent.
“Hawaii,” Eames tells him anyway. “I’m going to lie low for awhile.”
Arthur nods and brushes invisible lint off his suit jacket before he starts to walk to the door of the hotel room.
“Arthur,” Eames calls just as Arthur’s hand closes over the door knob.
Arthur stills but doesn’t turn to look at Eames.
“Don’t get caught,” Eames says, his voice rough with...something, “Don’t get killed.”
Arthur doesn’t say anything, just opens the door and leaves.
~~~
Inception - Arthur/Eames - PG-13
Before he’d even know that mind heists existed, before he got on board traipsing through people’s minds in search of their deepest, darkest secrets, Arthur -eighteen year old Arthur, minus the suits and the gelled back hair and the air of superiority- first met Eames in a diner.
It wasn’t that Arthur wanted to notice Eames or that Eames was particularly noticeable; Arthur just did because Eames was different. He wore a shirt two sizes too large in all the wrong colours, his smile was a bit too sharp and a bit too mocking, his accent was a bit too deep.
Arthur noticed Eames because he was surprising.
It took Arthur three minutes too late to realize that he was staring at Eames before he turned back to his breakfast but by then the damage was done. Eames was strolling over to him, his smile still a bit too sharp and his stance still a bit too relaxed.
“Hello, darling,” Eames purred and his accent was still too strong and something was still off. “Can I buy you a coffee?”
Arthur had raised an eyebrow and when he opened his mouth, he was going to say no. What he said instead was, “This isn’t your real accent, is it?”
Instead of being offended, Eames’ lips had quirked up into a grin, so wide that it seemed preposterous. “How do you tell?” Eames asked as he slid into Arthur’s booth, his voice considerably lower.
Arthur shrugged. “Everything was off.”
Eames’ grin widened still. “Tell me, pet, how would you like to learn how to forge?”
Arthur frowned. “Forge, as in produce fakes, as in you’re asking me if I want to learn how to be a criminal?”
Eames leaned across the table, his eyes intent. “Forge, as in I can teach you how to become someone else altogether,” he murmurs, “Forge, as in I can show you the world like nothing you’ve seen before.”
Arthur’s frown deepened as he considered Eames’ offer briefly.
“I can teach you how to build your own world, how to do things no one else can do. The question is, pet, do you dare to come with me?”
Arthur left his coffee untouched.
Merlin- Arthur/Merlin- PG
“Don’t get caught.”
Those words.
The only words he’d heard from the Prince when he’d woken up to find Arthur looming over him where he’d been sleeping slumped over Gaius’ workbench, his head pillowed on his magic book and Arthur's breeches mending themselves on the table in front of him. Then Arthur had turned and strode from the room, leaving Merlin with his heart pounding in his chest and a million explanations balanced on the tip of his tongue.
“There is no guarantee that I can protect you if any of the knights accuse you. So if you do anything, make sure that they don’t see.”
Those words.
The first not related to chores that Arthur had spoken to him in the month since he'd learned Merlin's secret, his voice low but intense and his grip on Merlin’s arm desperate with his anxiety. They had been just about out with a group of knights behind them to confront the latest to Camelot’s safety, another deadly creature that could only be destroyed by magic and they hadn’t been much but Merlin had clung to those words like a lifeline.
"Try not to get yourself killed.”
Those words.
The last words Arthur had said to him before he’d charged head first into danger, as he always did. If Merlin had had the time, he would have considered the grim irony of those words. But there hadn’t been time. They’d been separated from the group and Arthur had been bleeding out all over his hands, and there just hadn't been time. It was Arthur who had been dying, right there in Merlin’s arms, and Merlin was never going to get the chance to apologize for lying for all those years. He wasn’t going to get the chance to tell Arthur that he’d never wanted to lie to him but he’d just been scared. And then Arthur had started coughing, awful wet coughs that wracked his entire body, and Merlin’s magic had just ripped through him in a great burst, cloaking the Prince in shimmering gold before dissipating across the clearing. As he watched the pain wash from Arthur's sleeping face, not even the harsh "You will release him, sorcerer" could make Merlin regret what he'd done.
“You have bewitched my son and you will burn.”
Those words.
As the king, the swiftness with which Uther could end a life was something like its own kind of magic and if Merlin were a different man, hearing Uther Pendragon sentence him to death might have made him break down and tremble. But he wasn’t a different man. He was Merlin. And that meant he was Arthur’s. And Arthur’s words, shouted across the Great Hall as he struggled in the grips of two guards, had a magic of their own. So Merlin just sat back in his cell and watched the sun rise.
"I will come for you. I won't let him take you. Never you."
Those words.
Being Erica, Erica/Ethan, PG-13
She's had other dreams like this. For years, though she'd never let herself admit it before their reunion, before the kiss, she'd dreamed of him and what it would feel like to be with him.
She dreamed of him waking her with a kiss on her lips, long and lingering and slow. She dreamed of his hands on her skin, under her shirt, over her stomach, up to her breasts. She dreamed of his hands in her hair, stroking and tangling and twining.
Even now, even after she's been with him, finally been with him after fifteen years of refusing to admit she wanted him, she dreams of these things. She swears she feels his knees at her hips as he straddles her, leaning down to kiss her out of sleep after a demanding day at River Rock, his fingers on skin left exposed by the shirt she sleeps in.
She swears she can feel him.
But when she wakes up, it is to a pillow stained with salty wetness and smeared, day-old makeup. It is to muscles cramped from being curled into a ball all night. It is to eyes sore from crying and hands outstretched, as if to make him come back. It is waking up from a reality she knows she shouldn't want--everything she said to him is true; he is holding her back--but, irrationally, does.
She has to close her eyes, wanting, if just for a minute, that fleeting image of him. Wanting to pretend it's her reality. But it was only a dream, though it had seemed so real.
Leverage - Parker/Hardison - PG-13
The links of the chain that circled her wrist were cold as she stood out under the moon but Parker didn't care. She liked the way it looked when she held up arm, the light from the sky dancing around on the silver. While she'd stolen her share of very beautiful jewelry over the years, none of them were nearly as pretty as this bangle.
"Guess you like your gift."
She turned and smiled as Alec walked up beside her, trying not to giggle. It was harder these days, keeping those little sounds hidden inside. Every time she laughed or giggled, someone assumed she and Alec had just found some alone time in a hall somewhere. While that was true some of the time, she didn't like advertising it.
"I love my gift. It's the... best one I've ever received. Well, from someone else. I get great gifts for myself all the time."
Alec looked at for a moment, his eyes intent on hers as he tried to read to see if she was lying or not. "Didn't you get gifts for your birthday when you were younger? And I know for a fact that you got something from Sophie and Nate for Christmas last year."
"Little baubles. Nothing this pretty."
"Well, I'm glad you like it." He leaned forward, placing a kiss on her cheek. "How about we go inside and get warm. I'll even make you some cocoa."
All he could do was smile as she skipped back toward the lights of the building, her delight bubbling up and over in the laughter he loved to hear. In fact, he couldn't get enough of it.
~~~
Stargate Atlantis - John, Teyla/Ronon - PG-13
"You weren't supposed to get caught." John leaned back in his chair, irritated beyond belief that he was in this position of having to discipline one of his own teammates. "That's the first rule. Remember? Don't get caught. It's simple, really. Don't. Get. Caught."
"It was not meant to be a union that was witnessed," Teyla assured him, her chin lifted in the way she had when she knew she was right and the person she was talking to was wrong. John had to remind himself that he was the one doing the chastising this time, and not the reverse. "There was no one around."
"Yes, but that never means you'll be alone forever. There are several hundred people here on Atlantis. They have a tendency to wander about."
Ronon stifled a laugh before returning his face to the blank look he'd worn since entering the room when both Teyla and John turned to look at him and then away again.
"What will our punishment be?"
The smile that John suddenly flashed at them both wasn't pleasant. "You'll have to apologize."
"That is all?"
"To Rodney. You'll have to apologize to Rodney. He's the one who found you. He's the one you need to apologize to."
Both Teyla and Ronon groaned at the same time. There was little else that would have been worse.
~~~
Farscape - Aeryn - PG-13
The last thoughts that ran through Aeryn's mind as she died under the icy waters were simple. I'm going to die on land instead of up in the sky like I'm supposed to and I can't frelling believe that frelling John Crichton frelling killed me. She knew she should have been thinking something along the lines of how sad she was to be losing John after she only just realized how much she loved him, but she'd gotten that all out of the way with her last words to him.
Now she was just pissed. And cold. So cold. Her arms and legs weren't obeying her commands to keep moving. The chair was becoming saturated and all the buoyancy that she'd hoped to take advantage of was leeching away with every second that she stayed in the water.
This is the time for miracles, she reminded herself. The ship would come and save her. Zhaan would find a way to get her out of this or D'Argo would shoot someone or John would come to his senses and save her. John... would... save....
No one was coming. No one. She was on her own. The problem was that she wasn't going to be able to save herself this time.