Ficlets: DMOC, BWOC, and CSI
Because I am a dork like that, I'm putting up the mp3 I listened to on repeat while I wrote each of these. I don't always write that way, but sometimes I do, and sharing is fun and easy with yousendit.com, so what the hell.
Drabble #1, for minotaurs, who always knows just what to request. In this case, Josh/Cooper and first kisses. Written while listening to Pretty (Ugly Before) by Elliott Smith, which comes to you courtesy of gem225.
Everybody knew about them. At least he thought everyone did, but what he saw when he rounded the corner didn't look anything like Pickle expected it to.
He was okay with the fact that his roommates were into each other; he didn't want to see it, but he was happy for them. He knew better than anyone that you had to take your happiness where you found it, after all, and if Josh and Cooper found it with each other then he wasn't going to judge. So he was okay with whatever it was they did behind closed doors, and he figured the reason he never saw it was because they were just showing some respect for their friends.
Only Cooper wasn't exactly the type to worry about what people thought of him - Josh, definitely, but not Cooper - and when Pickle took a wrong turn down a hallway in the unfamiliar house and saw them leaning against the wall…well, he wasn't an expert or anything, but it definitely didn't look like two guys who'd been sleeping together for months.
They'd all come to the party together, but Josh and Cooper had disappeared awhile ago and Pickle just assumed they'd found somewhere to…do whatever. He tried hard not to think about specifics, but he figured it involved a dark bedroom and hopefully a lock on the door. It was a frat house, after all - at least he thought it was - so there would be lots of bedrooms, and nobody really cared who did what in them.
So he hadn't expected to see Josh and Cooper until tomorrow sometime, when they crawled out of their own room and made it down to the cafeteria in time for lunch. Sometimes dinner, depending on how much they drank and how late they'd stayed up to do…yeah.
His stomach tightened at the sight of his roommates, Josh's back against the wall and Cooper leaning into him, whispering something low that Pickle was pretty sure he shouldn't be hearing. He knew he should turn around, find the bathroom he'd been looking for in the first place and forget he'd ever seen any of this, but there was something about the awed look on Josh's face and the way Cooper was smiling that wouldn't let him look away.
And he couldn't make out all the words, but he heard a kind of awed why didn't you say anything? in Josh's voice. For a second he thought they might be breaking up, panic hitting him at what a mess that would be, but then Cooper smiled again and shook his head, looking - and this part was impossible - practically shy. He whispered something Pickle couldn't hear, something that made Josh swallow hard and slide a shaking hand under Cooper's blazer, and when Cooper looked up and started to lean in Pickle knew he had to leave.
Only he couldn't, because these were his friends, his roommates and he should know them better than anyone, but it turned out everything he'd thought was true just wasn't. He'd thought they were a couple, thought this started a long time ago when Pickle was still rooming alone and Josh and Cooper never talked to anybody but each other.
He was still pretty sure it had started way back then, but the way Cooper was kissing Josh definitely wasn't the way you kissed someone you'd been sleeping with for months. Not that Pickle had a lot of experience, but even he could tell a first kiss when he saw one. He could tell by the way Josh tried to follow when Cooper pulled back, by their goofy smiles and the way Josh tugged at Cooper's jacket like he wasn't sure what to do with his hands.
Pickle knew he shouldn't be seeing any of this, knew he should have turned around and walked away as soon as he saw them. But they were his friends, and seeing them like this…well, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. It was kind of sweet, really, and that didn't mean he wanted to see them naked, but he was happy they were happy, even if it took them a lot longer than everyone thought.
He was still trying to convince himself to walk away when something crashed somewhere at the front of the house, and he flinched and took an abortive step backwards just as Cooper and Josh looked up. His cheeks flushed and he knew he should say something, apologize for interrupting or for witnessing what was obviously a pretty big moment or something, but all he could manage was a feeble wave.
And they were his roommates, so he wasn't really expecting them to be mad. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but when Cooper grinned and Josh groaned and buried his face in Cooper's shoulder Pickle knew everything would be okay. He smiled back before he could stop himself, then gestured behind him in the direction of the party. "I'll…uh…leave you guys alone."
He turned before they could answer, but he was pretty sure they hadn't even heard him. Cooper was already turned back toward Josh, whispering something that made Josh's shoulders shake with what Pickle could only assume was laughter. And it really was kind of funny, only the joke was on Josh and Cooper, because the whole school had known for months what they were only just figuring out.
~
Drabble #2, for nekosmuse, who is as desperate as myself for some decent femmeslash. Unfortunately she's stuck with whatever I come up with; in this case, slightly schmaltzy romance. It was written entirely to Jack Johnson's cover of "A Pirate Looks At Forty".
Most little girls grow up dreaming about their wedding day. Becky knows the cliché, and it's not like she was any different. She pored through the bridal magazines and the registries, planned lavish ceremonies in her head that her parents would never be able to afford. She married her Barbies off to each other in as many ways as she could think of, and once she got to high school the fantasy groom at the end of the aisle necessarily morphed into Tommy.
He was the most popular guy in school, of course, and her brother's best friend, so it made sense that she'd choose him. It made sense, but it didn't take, and she can laugh about it now.
It's easy to laugh when she's stretched out on the softest sheets she's ever felt, balcony doors open and letting salt-scented air breeze into the room. There are even sheer curtains billowing out around the open doors, and the whole thing is way too much like a brochure photo to be real. She thinks about pinching herself to make sure this isn't some elaborate dream, but then the body next to her shifts and murmurs something unintelligible and Becky knows it's real.
A real honeymoon, a real vacation for the first time since she graduated from college, just her and Lori for a whole week. In paradise, and it's exactly what she's been dreaming about since she was a little girl.
She grins when Lori murmurs again and shifts closer, hand out to feel around on the mattress for Becky. When she doesn't find anything but a warm spot on the sheets she blinks her eyes open, squinting up at Becky and reaching out one hand to tug her back down onto the mattress. "What are you doing?"
"It's this crazy thing called 'getting up'," Becky says, smiling at Lori's frown. "Thought we could give it a try."
"Too early," Lori says, eyes closed again and face pressed into the pillow to block out the light. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine," Becky answers, hand sliding down Lori's bare back to rest at the base of her spine. She moves her fingers in slow circles, her smile growing as Lori makes a noise low in her throat and pushes back into Becky's hand. "And we're not spending the whole day in bed. It's beautiful out, let's go to the beach. I promise you can sleep all day and I'll only wake you up if you start to burn."
"There are people at the beach."
And she has a point, but neither of them has ever been to Jamaica, and they're going to regret it if they don't leave the room at least once. Besides, they have the rest of their lives to spend together, and Becky can't help smiling whenever that thought occurs to her. She leans in to press a warm kiss to Lori's shoulder blade, then another to top of her spine and finally the side of Lori's neck. "Fine, stay here if you want. But if you change your mind, I'll be in the shower."
One last kiss and she climbs off the bed, the breeze warm against her skin as she crosses the room. She stops in the bathroom door and glances back at the bed, grinning at the sight of Lori pushing the sheet back and rubbing her eyes before she stands up. And she'd feel guilty for knowing exactly how to get what she wants out of Lori, but she knows that's one of the reasons Lori fell in love with her in the first place.
~
Drabble #3, for cinderlily, who wanted fluff and ice cream. I swear to you I am not going to start writing CSI curtain fic, contrary to what my latest Nick/Greg experiments might imply. I tried to keep it angst-free, but I'm never sure if I succeed, so if it's angsty at all I apologize. Written to Big Indian by The Dandy Warhols.
Greg wasn't nervous about meeting Nick's family. He wasn't, and the fact that he could hear Nick laughing in his head every time he thought it wasn't going to change anything. They couldn't possibly be as scary as Nick made them sound, even if there were, like, a billion of them.
That was what it looked like from here, anyway, and okay, maybe he was a little nervous. It was his first family reunion, and the fact that he wasn't technically part of the family didn't help. If his own family wanted to have a reunion all they had to do was show up in his parents' living room, and now that his grandparents were both gone that left him and his folks.
Nick's family, though - there were tons of them, kids running everywhere and parents chasing after them, a whole slew of Nick's sisters that Greg would never be able to tell apart even with one of his famous charts and a whiteboard diagram. Forget remembering the kids' names, because there were at least two dozen of them and they all looked exactly the same. How their own mothers told them apart was a mystery, and Greg was starting to wish he'd taken the out Nick gave him and stayed in Vegas.
As soon as he thought it Nick appeared, grinning that smug grin of his that let Greg know his panic was showing on his face. He forced his features back to neutral and slid over to give Nick room to sit down at the picnic table piled high with food Greg mostly couldn't identify.
"I told you they were a little overwhelming."
"They're fine," Greg lied. "I was just trying to figure out how you tell which kid goes with which sister."
"A couple of them are my brother's," Nick answered. He slid something in front of Greg, grinning when Greg glanced down and then back up at Nick. "Trust me, it'll make you feel better."
"I'm fine," Greg said again, but he took the ice cream cone and caught a drip of melting chocolate with his mouth. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet. You still haven't met my father."
And Greg knew it was an apology of sorts, or maybe a bribe to keep him from running the first chance he got. Because he'd heard the stories about Nick's father, listened to him talk late at night about growing up under the Judge's iron fist and all the reasons he'd left Texas in the first place. And he knew what Nick wasn't saying, that his father probably didn't approve of their relationship and just bringing Greg here was huge.
Huge and possibly dangerous, but Nick insisted that Greg was part of his family now and that was the only real reason Greg needed to be right where he was.
"How bad can he be?" Greg asked, grinning when Nick let out a derisive snort. He held out the ice cream cone, chocolate dripping over his fingers and onto the table. "Have some ice cream. I hear it makes you feel better."
Nick shook his head, but his fingers closed around Greg's wrist to hold him there, gaze fixed on Greg as he licked the cone. Greg swallowed hard when Nick let go, reminding himself that they were surrounded by Nick's entire family and he couldn't push Nick backwards onto the bench and tear his clothes off. No matter how much he wanted to.
"You know," Nick said, reaching up to wipe at the corner of his mouth, "you're right. I do feel better."
And now Greg was nervous and frustrated, but in a few hours this whole family reunion thing would be over, and he'd get Nick all to himself again. A little family bonding seemed like a small price to pay, considering.
~
Time for me to go home and work on the dreaded term paper, but I promise I'll get to the rest of the ficlets soon. Yay study breaks.
Drabble #1, for minotaurs, who always knows just what to request. In this case, Josh/Cooper and first kisses. Written while listening to Pretty (Ugly Before) by Elliott Smith, which comes to you courtesy of gem225.
Everybody knew about them. At least he thought everyone did, but what he saw when he rounded the corner didn't look anything like Pickle expected it to.
He was okay with the fact that his roommates were into each other; he didn't want to see it, but he was happy for them. He knew better than anyone that you had to take your happiness where you found it, after all, and if Josh and Cooper found it with each other then he wasn't going to judge. So he was okay with whatever it was they did behind closed doors, and he figured the reason he never saw it was because they were just showing some respect for their friends.
Only Cooper wasn't exactly the type to worry about what people thought of him - Josh, definitely, but not Cooper - and when Pickle took a wrong turn down a hallway in the unfamiliar house and saw them leaning against the wall…well, he wasn't an expert or anything, but it definitely didn't look like two guys who'd been sleeping together for months.
They'd all come to the party together, but Josh and Cooper had disappeared awhile ago and Pickle just assumed they'd found somewhere to…do whatever. He tried hard not to think about specifics, but he figured it involved a dark bedroom and hopefully a lock on the door. It was a frat house, after all - at least he thought it was - so there would be lots of bedrooms, and nobody really cared who did what in them.
So he hadn't expected to see Josh and Cooper until tomorrow sometime, when they crawled out of their own room and made it down to the cafeteria in time for lunch. Sometimes dinner, depending on how much they drank and how late they'd stayed up to do…yeah.
His stomach tightened at the sight of his roommates, Josh's back against the wall and Cooper leaning into him, whispering something low that Pickle was pretty sure he shouldn't be hearing. He knew he should turn around, find the bathroom he'd been looking for in the first place and forget he'd ever seen any of this, but there was something about the awed look on Josh's face and the way Cooper was smiling that wouldn't let him look away.
And he couldn't make out all the words, but he heard a kind of awed why didn't you say anything? in Josh's voice. For a second he thought they might be breaking up, panic hitting him at what a mess that would be, but then Cooper smiled again and shook his head, looking - and this part was impossible - practically shy. He whispered something Pickle couldn't hear, something that made Josh swallow hard and slide a shaking hand under Cooper's blazer, and when Cooper looked up and started to lean in Pickle knew he had to leave.
Only he couldn't, because these were his friends, his roommates and he should know them better than anyone, but it turned out everything he'd thought was true just wasn't. He'd thought they were a couple, thought this started a long time ago when Pickle was still rooming alone and Josh and Cooper never talked to anybody but each other.
He was still pretty sure it had started way back then, but the way Cooper was kissing Josh definitely wasn't the way you kissed someone you'd been sleeping with for months. Not that Pickle had a lot of experience, but even he could tell a first kiss when he saw one. He could tell by the way Josh tried to follow when Cooper pulled back, by their goofy smiles and the way Josh tugged at Cooper's jacket like he wasn't sure what to do with his hands.
Pickle knew he shouldn't be seeing any of this, knew he should have turned around and walked away as soon as he saw them. But they were his friends, and seeing them like this…well, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. It was kind of sweet, really, and that didn't mean he wanted to see them naked, but he was happy they were happy, even if it took them a lot longer than everyone thought.
He was still trying to convince himself to walk away when something crashed somewhere at the front of the house, and he flinched and took an abortive step backwards just as Cooper and Josh looked up. His cheeks flushed and he knew he should say something, apologize for interrupting or for witnessing what was obviously a pretty big moment or something, but all he could manage was a feeble wave.
And they were his roommates, so he wasn't really expecting them to be mad. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but when Cooper grinned and Josh groaned and buried his face in Cooper's shoulder Pickle knew everything would be okay. He smiled back before he could stop himself, then gestured behind him in the direction of the party. "I'll…uh…leave you guys alone."
He turned before they could answer, but he was pretty sure they hadn't even heard him. Cooper was already turned back toward Josh, whispering something that made Josh's shoulders shake with what Pickle could only assume was laughter. And it really was kind of funny, only the joke was on Josh and Cooper, because the whole school had known for months what they were only just figuring out.
~
Drabble #2, for nekosmuse, who is as desperate as myself for some decent femmeslash. Unfortunately she's stuck with whatever I come up with; in this case, slightly schmaltzy romance. It was written entirely to Jack Johnson's cover of "A Pirate Looks At Forty".
Most little girls grow up dreaming about their wedding day. Becky knows the cliché, and it's not like she was any different. She pored through the bridal magazines and the registries, planned lavish ceremonies in her head that her parents would never be able to afford. She married her Barbies off to each other in as many ways as she could think of, and once she got to high school the fantasy groom at the end of the aisle necessarily morphed into Tommy.
He was the most popular guy in school, of course, and her brother's best friend, so it made sense that she'd choose him. It made sense, but it didn't take, and she can laugh about it now.
It's easy to laugh when she's stretched out on the softest sheets she's ever felt, balcony doors open and letting salt-scented air breeze into the room. There are even sheer curtains billowing out around the open doors, and the whole thing is way too much like a brochure photo to be real. She thinks about pinching herself to make sure this isn't some elaborate dream, but then the body next to her shifts and murmurs something unintelligible and Becky knows it's real.
A real honeymoon, a real vacation for the first time since she graduated from college, just her and Lori for a whole week. In paradise, and it's exactly what she's been dreaming about since she was a little girl.
She grins when Lori murmurs again and shifts closer, hand out to feel around on the mattress for Becky. When she doesn't find anything but a warm spot on the sheets she blinks her eyes open, squinting up at Becky and reaching out one hand to tug her back down onto the mattress. "What are you doing?"
"It's this crazy thing called 'getting up'," Becky says, smiling at Lori's frown. "Thought we could give it a try."
"Too early," Lori says, eyes closed again and face pressed into the pillow to block out the light. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine," Becky answers, hand sliding down Lori's bare back to rest at the base of her spine. She moves her fingers in slow circles, her smile growing as Lori makes a noise low in her throat and pushes back into Becky's hand. "And we're not spending the whole day in bed. It's beautiful out, let's go to the beach. I promise you can sleep all day and I'll only wake you up if you start to burn."
"There are people at the beach."
And she has a point, but neither of them has ever been to Jamaica, and they're going to regret it if they don't leave the room at least once. Besides, they have the rest of their lives to spend together, and Becky can't help smiling whenever that thought occurs to her. She leans in to press a warm kiss to Lori's shoulder blade, then another to top of her spine and finally the side of Lori's neck. "Fine, stay here if you want. But if you change your mind, I'll be in the shower."
One last kiss and she climbs off the bed, the breeze warm against her skin as she crosses the room. She stops in the bathroom door and glances back at the bed, grinning at the sight of Lori pushing the sheet back and rubbing her eyes before she stands up. And she'd feel guilty for knowing exactly how to get what she wants out of Lori, but she knows that's one of the reasons Lori fell in love with her in the first place.
~
Drabble #3, for cinderlily, who wanted fluff and ice cream. I swear to you I am not going to start writing CSI curtain fic, contrary to what my latest Nick/Greg experiments might imply. I tried to keep it angst-free, but I'm never sure if I succeed, so if it's angsty at all I apologize. Written to Big Indian by The Dandy Warhols.
Greg wasn't nervous about meeting Nick's family. He wasn't, and the fact that he could hear Nick laughing in his head every time he thought it wasn't going to change anything. They couldn't possibly be as scary as Nick made them sound, even if there were, like, a billion of them.
That was what it looked like from here, anyway, and okay, maybe he was a little nervous. It was his first family reunion, and the fact that he wasn't technically part of the family didn't help. If his own family wanted to have a reunion all they had to do was show up in his parents' living room, and now that his grandparents were both gone that left him and his folks.
Nick's family, though - there were tons of them, kids running everywhere and parents chasing after them, a whole slew of Nick's sisters that Greg would never be able to tell apart even with one of his famous charts and a whiteboard diagram. Forget remembering the kids' names, because there were at least two dozen of them and they all looked exactly the same. How their own mothers told them apart was a mystery, and Greg was starting to wish he'd taken the out Nick gave him and stayed in Vegas.
As soon as he thought it Nick appeared, grinning that smug grin of his that let Greg know his panic was showing on his face. He forced his features back to neutral and slid over to give Nick room to sit down at the picnic table piled high with food Greg mostly couldn't identify.
"I told you they were a little overwhelming."
"They're fine," Greg lied. "I was just trying to figure out how you tell which kid goes with which sister."
"A couple of them are my brother's," Nick answered. He slid something in front of Greg, grinning when Greg glanced down and then back up at Nick. "Trust me, it'll make you feel better."
"I'm fine," Greg said again, but he took the ice cream cone and caught a drip of melting chocolate with his mouth. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet. You still haven't met my father."
And Greg knew it was an apology of sorts, or maybe a bribe to keep him from running the first chance he got. Because he'd heard the stories about Nick's father, listened to him talk late at night about growing up under the Judge's iron fist and all the reasons he'd left Texas in the first place. And he knew what Nick wasn't saying, that his father probably didn't approve of their relationship and just bringing Greg here was huge.
Huge and possibly dangerous, but Nick insisted that Greg was part of his family now and that was the only real reason Greg needed to be right where he was.
"How bad can he be?" Greg asked, grinning when Nick let out a derisive snort. He held out the ice cream cone, chocolate dripping over his fingers and onto the table. "Have some ice cream. I hear it makes you feel better."
Nick shook his head, but his fingers closed around Greg's wrist to hold him there, gaze fixed on Greg as he licked the cone. Greg swallowed hard when Nick let go, reminding himself that they were surrounded by Nick's entire family and he couldn't push Nick backwards onto the bench and tear his clothes off. No matter how much he wanted to.
"You know," Nick said, reaching up to wipe at the corner of his mouth, "you're right. I do feel better."
And now Greg was nervous and frustrated, but in a few hours this whole family reunion thing would be over, and he'd get Nick all to himself again. A little family bonding seemed like a small price to pay, considering.
~
Time for me to go home and work on the dreaded term paper, but I promise I'll get to the rest of the ficlets soon. Yay study breaks.