2 Comment_Fic stories
It has been a really long time since I've posted something here. I promise to do better this year.
These are two recent stories I wrote for comment_fic.
Title: Used to Know
Fandom(s): Leverage
Rating: PG
Summary: He used to know he is a monster
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage. I've got even less than I had a year ago, so suing would be pointless.
Author’s Notes: Written for comment_fic This was the prompt: Leverage, Eliot (+team), He used to know he is a monster.
Eliot Spencer is a monster. He knows this. Other people know this too. Some of them found him when he was eighteen years old, knew that if they could train him they could make him their personal, captive, pet monster, a killing machine that did their bidding. That didn't work out as well for them as they had hoped. Monsters can't be tamed. They can't be pets.
Once people understood that his life worked. He was a monster. He was a monster for hire. He did the job and then he got paid.
He'd tried to maintain relationships outside his work, but people like Aimee couldn't know what he was. So he had to lie. He had to disappear for weeks and sometimes months at a time, and he had no explanations for her. When he came home and found her married, he realized. It was easier, better not to have relationships, not to have friends.
Then he took a job with two other thieves and a good guy. It should have been a disaster, and truthfully, it kind of was. They got screwed over on the first job, and their remedy had very little of substance for him to do. Nobody to kill or even maim. There should have been no room for a monster, but against the odds Nathan Ford turned them into some kind of team. Sophie helped, but mostly it was Nate. So he agreed to work with them, to let Nate pick the cases, then he left. He went back to his real life as a monster, but then his cell phone rang and called him back to the team.
It's been almost a year, and they've all long-since quit trying to pretend that they aren't coming back.
He's sitting deep in the corner of the couch, half-listening to Hardison ramble on about his new game, while Parker picks at a mayonaise sandwich with her feet resting in his lap and her back pressed against Hardison's arm. Nate is reading something, and Sophie is watching them all, warm and protective all at once. They know what he is, every one of them. He has always known what they are too. A thief, a grifter, a hacker, and the mastermind, an honest man in a dishonest world.
Eliot used to know that he is a monster. Now he isn't sure anymore. He isn't sure what any of them are anymore.
Title: Seven Years
Fandom(s): Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG
Summary: I broke a mirror the day we moved to Sunnydale.
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy. I've got even less than I had a year ago, so suing would be pointless.
Author’s Notes: Written for comment_fic This was the prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy/Angel, seven years of bad luck. I didn't really work much of any Buffy/Angel into it.
"Do you ever wonder how we all ended up here?" It's late, and the bus is quiet. Giles was driving the last time Buffy checked, and that was kind of scary. She'd retreated back to the back of the bus hours ago, and she was pretty sure that nobody had realized that she was still awake. She was pretty sure until Xander asked the question, anyway.
She pushed herself up to sitting and looked around the bus. Everyone else either really was asleep, or they were doing a better job of faking than she had been. She shakes her head. "Not really. I broke a mirror the day we moved to Sunnydale."
Xander just looks at her for a minute. "Okay." His brow crinkles and his lips are trying to quirk up into a smile. "And that's relevant?"
Now it's her turn to cause wrinkles, though she doesn't leave her forehead that way for long. "Of course it's relevant. Break a mirror, seven years of bad luck, you know the deal. At least the seven years are about done. I don't know if I could take many more like them. I don't know if the world could take them."
Xander scoots across the aisle, and sits next to her on the narrow bench seat of the bus. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and hugs her tight against him. "Breaking a mirror didn't do it, Buffy. Didn't bring you bad luck anyway."
Buffy isn't sure of the expression on her face, but she wants it to ask if he's insane. It's dark though, and she can't be sure that it's really projecting the right level of crazy even if he could see it properly. "Are you insane?" When he doesn't immediately answer she thinks that maybe, even though they're sitting here on a bus, the last refugees of Sunnydale, he's forgotten how much bad has happened in the last seven years. "I've lost my mother. We've both lost friends. My boyfriend tried to kill me. Actually a couple of them tried to kill me. The world has nearly ended on a yearly basis. You are sitting here missing an eye, and you don't think we've had bad luck."
Xander shrugged. "No. We haven't, Buff. Here's how I know. You're still here and Willow is still here, and Giles too. We all survived. The world didn't end. You gained an awesome little sister. We defeated a god. And tonight we saved the world again, and are somehow miraculously still here to talk about it, and not just us but more of the girls than I ever thought would be walking away from that. So, if that's the result of breaking a mirror, maybe we should all do it."
Xander hugs her again. "Get some sleep, Buffy." She's not sure where he's going, probably off to deal with one of the girls that isn't really sleeping. She's still not sure that she would say they haven't had bad luck, but maybe they've had some really good luck too. She wasn't going to worry about that mirror anymore.
These are two recent stories I wrote for comment_fic.
Title: Used to Know
Fandom(s): Leverage
Rating: PG
Summary: He used to know he is a monster
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage. I've got even less than I had a year ago, so suing would be pointless.
Author’s Notes: Written for comment_fic This was the prompt: Leverage, Eliot (+team), He used to know he is a monster.
Eliot Spencer is a monster. He knows this. Other people know this too. Some of them found him when he was eighteen years old, knew that if they could train him they could make him their personal, captive, pet monster, a killing machine that did their bidding. That didn't work out as well for them as they had hoped. Monsters can't be tamed. They can't be pets.
Once people understood that his life worked. He was a monster. He was a monster for hire. He did the job and then he got paid.
He'd tried to maintain relationships outside his work, but people like Aimee couldn't know what he was. So he had to lie. He had to disappear for weeks and sometimes months at a time, and he had no explanations for her. When he came home and found her married, he realized. It was easier, better not to have relationships, not to have friends.
Then he took a job with two other thieves and a good guy. It should have been a disaster, and truthfully, it kind of was. They got screwed over on the first job, and their remedy had very little of substance for him to do. Nobody to kill or even maim. There should have been no room for a monster, but against the odds Nathan Ford turned them into some kind of team. Sophie helped, but mostly it was Nate. So he agreed to work with them, to let Nate pick the cases, then he left. He went back to his real life as a monster, but then his cell phone rang and called him back to the team.
It's been almost a year, and they've all long-since quit trying to pretend that they aren't coming back.
He's sitting deep in the corner of the couch, half-listening to Hardison ramble on about his new game, while Parker picks at a mayonaise sandwich with her feet resting in his lap and her back pressed against Hardison's arm. Nate is reading something, and Sophie is watching them all, warm and protective all at once. They know what he is, every one of them. He has always known what they are too. A thief, a grifter, a hacker, and the mastermind, an honest man in a dishonest world.
Eliot used to know that he is a monster. Now he isn't sure anymore. He isn't sure what any of them are anymore.
Title: Seven Years
Fandom(s): Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG
Summary: I broke a mirror the day we moved to Sunnydale.
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy. I've got even less than I had a year ago, so suing would be pointless.
Author’s Notes: Written for comment_fic This was the prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy/Angel, seven years of bad luck. I didn't really work much of any Buffy/Angel into it.
"Do you ever wonder how we all ended up here?" It's late, and the bus is quiet. Giles was driving the last time Buffy checked, and that was kind of scary. She'd retreated back to the back of the bus hours ago, and she was pretty sure that nobody had realized that she was still awake. She was pretty sure until Xander asked the question, anyway.
She pushed herself up to sitting and looked around the bus. Everyone else either really was asleep, or they were doing a better job of faking than she had been. She shakes her head. "Not really. I broke a mirror the day we moved to Sunnydale."
Xander just looks at her for a minute. "Okay." His brow crinkles and his lips are trying to quirk up into a smile. "And that's relevant?"
Now it's her turn to cause wrinkles, though she doesn't leave her forehead that way for long. "Of course it's relevant. Break a mirror, seven years of bad luck, you know the deal. At least the seven years are about done. I don't know if I could take many more like them. I don't know if the world could take them."
Xander scoots across the aisle, and sits next to her on the narrow bench seat of the bus. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and hugs her tight against him. "Breaking a mirror didn't do it, Buffy. Didn't bring you bad luck anyway."
Buffy isn't sure of the expression on her face, but she wants it to ask if he's insane. It's dark though, and she can't be sure that it's really projecting the right level of crazy even if he could see it properly. "Are you insane?" When he doesn't immediately answer she thinks that maybe, even though they're sitting here on a bus, the last refugees of Sunnydale, he's forgotten how much bad has happened in the last seven years. "I've lost my mother. We've both lost friends. My boyfriend tried to kill me. Actually a couple of them tried to kill me. The world has nearly ended on a yearly basis. You are sitting here missing an eye, and you don't think we've had bad luck."
Xander shrugged. "No. We haven't, Buff. Here's how I know. You're still here and Willow is still here, and Giles too. We all survived. The world didn't end. You gained an awesome little sister. We defeated a god. And tonight we saved the world again, and are somehow miraculously still here to talk about it, and not just us but more of the girls than I ever thought would be walking away from that. So, if that's the result of breaking a mirror, maybe we should all do it."
Xander hugs her again. "Get some sleep, Buffy." She's not sure where he's going, probably off to deal with one of the girls that isn't really sleeping. She's still not sure that she would say they haven't had bad luck, but maybe they've had some really good luck too. She wasn't going to worry about that mirror anymore.