Holiday Prompting Post
This is a Prompt Post for special events and holidays. Commenting is closed and will open on special occasions.
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Next Event: Undecided
If you'd like to suggest an event please do so here.
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Kida gives the signal - a blatant and aggressive battle cry, but then again their Captain has never been one for subtle - and they all charge.
Their ship might be considered more of a grey vessel - moral speaking - by some, but that didn't mean that that they didn't all have a strict code they stood by. And if one of their own was taken, they would do whatever it took to get them back.
It was just an added insult that it was Milo - their translator and the Captain's mate - who was captured this time.
The people of this would had tried to hold him ransom, tried to use him to take their wonderful ship (their home, their livelihood) Atlantis from them all - but Kida had been hard and unrelenting. (Milo, sitting clearly visible in the view screen - tied to a chair of course - was utterly calm as he watched the interactions. He had no doubts in his wife, no fear for his safety.) She had ignored their demands and told them to either let him go or their world would begin to crumble.
They hadn't believed her.
Audrey smiles darkly at the memory - she feels little sympathy for people who would try to take her home, who would kidnap her family. Feels no guilt over what happened next.
They started taking out bridges first - wonderful, huge explosions that she can tell Vinny had fun with, that she had been able to see from where the ship was costing amongst the clouds.
Then she had got to work on the main waterways - no use wasting good weapons when a bit of particular messing around with controls can completely screw system just as effectively.
Vin and her teamed up when they went after the power grid - Helga providing cover and taking out anyone who tried to interfere with their tampering.
It took only days before a white flag of surrender was waving over the town - the only means of communication people could figure out with so much confusion going on. And just as she was previously cold, Kida could be benign now. Was perfectly willing to take their surrender in return for her mate - and the populous was more than willing to point out where the hardliners were still holed up. Were eager to go with them to ferret them out, to do anything to appease this white haired, blue eyed, leader of this clan.
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But that was when the benign smile turned vicious - and after thanking them for their assistance she assured the people this was a matter for her people, her crew.
And Kida didn't even have to give them a talk, a look - she let out that loud battle cry and they were off.
It was an oddly specific happiness that Audrey gets in these moments - right before a fight, when she is able to run with such wild abandon. Their are such long stretches in space when Audrey feels cooped up inside the ship no matter how much she loves Atlantis. No matter how much it feels like her own child sometimes with the time and effort, blood and sweat, she has put into it's care and maintenance.
It is just so good to let loose sometimes - she sees Vinny to her right and gives him a quick smile before her mind settles back on the fight - hands tightening on her crow bar reflexively (much easier for her to use in close quarters than the gun strapped to her hip).
Ahead of her Sweet shoulders the door open for them all - and it gives way easily behind his massive frame. The first guy has a gun but seems wide-eyed and utterly surprised by the door opening so suddenly and isn't able to use it before Kida is right there to knock him out and away in two swift moves of her staff (a traditional weapon that might seem odd with anyone else - but their Captain was as unique as her crew).
The other guy's guarding the place are similarly untrained. Audrey has to admit, some are pretty big - but they're no match for a team who has been through space together for years and knows how to work in a group. Helga almost seems bored as she kicks a man twice her size in the head.
They seem finished far too quickly and Kida, Helga, Sweet, Vinny, and her scan the room (Mole and Packard were keeping watch of the ship) before moving on to the next. It's empty and so are many of the others - it takes calling out Milo's name many times (falling into an almost call and response game she remembers from her childhood) before they find the small closet that was being used as a makeshift temporary prison.
But Milo is alright - Sweet looks him over quickly and only finds a few bruises here or there and determines that he's probably a bit dehydrated. But mostly, he's fine.
As the group leaves, making their way back to the ship, Audrey watches the way Kida and Milo interact. The way Kida is simultaneously scolding and fretting over him, and Milo just smiles tiredly at her. The love so clear between them.
Vin, who has been walking beside her, casually reaches out for her hand - his gloves are off (stuffed in his back pocket) - and she can feel the smooth metal of his plain wedding band. It makes her smile. Hers' is on a chain under her shirt - working with grease and other even less pretty fluids on a regular basis made her wary of wearing it on her hand (and she had never gotten quite in the habit of constantly wearing gloves that her husband had).
She looks up at the dark sky, the unfamiliar consolations, and then over at the very familiar face - all bushy dark eyebrows and mustache. Audrey stops walking then and reaches out both hands to grab the sides of his face and pulls him into a kiss. Startled at first, Vinny is quick to reciprocate.
As they break apart, panting a bit, she hears Sweet catcall playfully, Helga sigh, and turns her head in time to see Milo blush violently and Kida giggle.
Vin just pulls her against his side and Audrey loops and arm around his middle feeling perfectly content.
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Vinny with dragons is so perfect! And your space AU made me realize how well the Atlantis cast would fit into the world of Firefly. Looking forward to the last two AUs! :)
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And your Firefly comment made me giggle because while I'm trying hard not to make them crossovers I can see influences of things that seep into AUs - I think it is unavoidable. I know last time I did a Space AU (for a Warehouse 13 fic), I noticed it had heavy Andromeda influences - especially in the tech. *laughs*
Oh, and I'm getting to the last to bits - they would of come sooner but my computer restarted itself when I left the room last night and ate most of one I hadn't saved. *shakes fist*
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“Sooo,” he drags it out “are you a good guy or a bad guy.”
“Well, I’m not a guy at all - as you very well know,” she tossed a smirk over her shoulder, and is rewarded for her efforts in flirtation with one in return from the darkly clad man slumped on a bench in her small, well stocked, workshop. “As for good or bad. Well, you see now - I would tell you….”
“Of course,” he interrupts her, with a sardonically raised eyebrow.
“…but I haven’t decided myself - the day isn’t over yet after all,” she finishes as if he hadn’t said anything. Then, since she has cleared enough space on her work table, she turns to face him, reaching out demandingly. “Now hand over those gauntlets - you dented them in that last skirmish, didn’t you? The Hudson Job. And it’s the left trigger that’s been giving you trouble, right?”
“No, the left,” he says as he takes them off and hands them over, and it is in such a deadpan tone that she has to look up and see that look in his eye, through the mask that covers his upper face (which she has never understood the effectiveness of when he has such a distinctive mustache and haircut), to know he is joking with her. She just gives a snort and pulls on her own “mask” - a far more practical thing, than the bit of fabric - her welding goggles.
And this is where her little “gift” is useful: fire ignites instantly to all five fingertips on her right hand but with just the slightest bit of concentration, she adjusts the temperature and narrows the focus until only her index finger has a white-hot thin bit of light as powerful as any welder on the market.
With practiced ease, concentration, and steady hands, she gets to work.
Vinny, like a handful of others, like her - is unaffiliated. It’s the reason they both have known each other’s real names from their first meeting - she doesn’t have a “superhero” name and he’ll take a new moniker for each new job anyway. And it’s also probably why he likes to tease her so much about whether she is “good” or “bad” on any given day, they both find the entire idea of having to choose sides ridiculous.
Neutral some call them, mercenary is the terms others use. But she has seen no reason to tie herself to any one group when she finds them all kind of silly and has found that there is decent money to be had from both sides for discrete, quick and competent work.
But unlike, Vinny - who, with the help of the gauntlets (which fine tune his control of his powers) can agitate particles to make explosions - hers don’t work at a distance. The flames, though capable of becoming extremely hot, only project right above her skin. Because of this, she had never gone out on “missions”, mostly she fixes things for people.
Audrey doesn’t particularly fret this - she’s made it work for her. It’s been great for delicate mechanical work and being able to get in area’s normally difficult for a torch. Plus, in a rather juvenile way, part of her has always found it very cool…because, hey, fire.
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It’s over half an hour later when she stops for a break. Standing she stretches her arms high above her head, hears her back crack, and lets both hands flare briefly before going out - a satisfied sigh leaving her at the feeling of it.
She still has a ways to go on the trigger but the dents are out and that makes it a good time to take a break in her book. And checking the clock, it’s dinner time anyway.
Pulling off her goggles she glances over to the side of the room, frowning when she notices Vin is gone. But then the smell in the air registers to her and she has to fight down a grin.
Opening the door from the garage led to a flight of stairs - and her apartment at the end. She took it at a slight jog, and when Audrey reached the kitchen, her delighted smile would not be suppressed when she saw him humming to the radio and stirring a saucepan.
Walking the last few steps, Audrey wrapped her arms around Vinny from behind (noticing absentmindedly that he didn’t startle - even a bit and must have registered her entrance, at least on some level).
She peered over his shoulder before asking, “Whatcha making, Vin?”
“Wasn’t much “making” to it,” she could feel the chuckle rumble in him. “You already had ravioli in your freezer and sauce in the cabinet.”
“Still,” she says, in a definitive tone and kisses the side of his neck before breaking her hold on him to walk over to the sink and wash up.
“And here I was afraid you wouldn’t remember,” she mutters, mostly to herself as she squirts soap onto her hands.
“Of course I remembered, Aude,” he says, in an odd tone of voice that makes her turn her head sharply and look at him across the small kitchen. The silly mask was gone now and his eyes were sharp. “It’s been a year,” he states with none of the blasé attitude normally common in his manner.
And it had. They’d had bad spells, during that time of course (all couples fought - and when powers were connected to emotions that was dangerous and both of them could be incredible stubborn) and their lives were sometimes impossibly chaotic but they had been making it work.
“It has,” she says, in solemn agreement, and their eye contact becomes an almost physical thing. But there is something about just saying it, so simply, acknowledging it in this moment - just looking at him with that spoon raised and dripping red splotches on the floor while she stands there, her hands (long since clean) getting cold under running water - that makes her feel almost giddy.
It’s a wonderful feeling made doubly so because she can see how it is shared - recognizes that mirrored look in Vinny and therefor has no fear whatsoever being the first one to say, “I love you.”
Because she knows, even as she makes that jump that Vinny will be there to catch her. That it isn’t really even a jump - nothing so dramatic - just reaching out a hand and having him reach back.
And he does, her declaration sits in the air only long enough for him to register it before he says, “God, Aude - I love you too. You know I do.”
And she had.
The water is finally shut off and the burners on the stovetop are as well…….but dinner is postponed until a bit later.
Quite a bit later actually - but they’ve had a year and, with luck on their side, they’ll have many more.
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The bell over the door jangles and, without looking up from the book he is studying intently, Vinny intones in a bored monotone, "Welcome to Santorini Flower Shop. How can I help you?"
And then there is dead silence - the sort of quite that makes him tense with odd expectation.
He looks up with trepidation, only to see his lovely (and heavily pregnant) fiancee glaring at him. Now that she has his attention, she ignores the flower displays and walks the rest of the way up to the counter and leans against it to talk to him.
"They sent me home," she mutters darkly, her arms crossed, still clad in grease-streaked, work overalls with "Audrey" sewn across the breast pocket.
"You are only about a month away now, Aude," he says carefully and she gives a harump. His eye automatically drop to the bump though, clearly visible despite her baggy clothing - the life they made together.
"Plenty of women work all the way up until their water breaks," she insists stubbornly. "Dad's just being overprotective."
Vinny doesn't say anything to this. He didn't feel he could insist - it wasn't his body after all, and he's always trusted Audrey to know herself, know her limits in the past. But watching her go to work each day as her stomach grew had started to worry him because he knows how ingrained it is for her to get her hands in whatever engine is there - even when the doctor has said to "take it easy". It's just not Aude's way to sit still when there is work that needs doing right in front of her.
And so he feels almost stupidly thankful that Mr. Ramirez, as owner of the garage was able to lay down the law, in some small respect (that was almost entirely out of fatherly - and future grandfatherly - concern), and send her home.
Or he just sent her away from the temptation of mechanical tinkering - and she came to him. Which counts as home, really.
"You want to get changed in the back?" he offers instead. "Must be hot in your coveralls in here," he waves around indicating the rather warm controlled temperature of the room.
"Trying to get me naked, now? You know that's what got us into this mess," she teases, leaning even further over the counter towards him, her smile playful and just a tad seductive. And part of him wonders at the abrupt change in her mood, but mostly he has gotten used to it in the past few months.
So, he just rolls with it instead and enjoys kissing the wonderful mother of his child to be, before leading her into the back room and helping her take off her steel toed boots and then strip out of the heavy (and rather cumbersome) overalls. (It's a slow day and the bell will alert him to any customers - and Audrey comes first anyway.) She is more tired than she lets on and it takes much less coaxing then he thought it would to get her to take a nap on the couch in the break room.
Once she is asleep, Vin returns to the front - and his book. He glances at the cover for a moment, it's a simple book on pregnancy(one of many that he is sure have flooded the market) that he had picked up from the library - to very odd looks from the woman who had stamped the book. After all his taste were usually quite varied - but usually with a bent towards chemistry, not human biology.
But, Audrey was special - and he wanted to do this right.
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When they were growing up, since she was a few years younger than him and lived a few counties over their paths didn't cross - or shouldn't have really. Except she dated his friend for almost two years, what felt like forever back in high school. It was something Vinny hadn't understood back then, how something long distant like that would be worth it. But Sweet always said that Audrey was different, that she wasn't like the girls at their school. That she knew who she was, what she wanted out of life.
Vinny really hadn't gotten it then - but he hadn't known her, had only seen her picture - and Sweet always seemed smarter than him in some way anyway, so he had chalked it up to that sort of maturity. The guy had ended up getting his medical degree and joining Doctors Without Borders, after all. But (lucky for him) Sweet and Audrey had broken up in an incredibly amicable fashion when he was a Senior - they were even still good friends.
It was until years later that he had run into her again while she was in town for her younger cousin's Quinceañera. Deemed hopeless at cooking and decorating by her aunts, she had been put on errand duty - one of which had been picking up a rather large order of flowers from his family's shop.
And then, seeing her in person, he had finally gotten it. The way she talked, her sense of humor, her obvious strength and confidence. He had understood what Sweet had meant all along - why, even as a High School, a boy who could have had anyone, he had been willing to be in a long distance relationship with this girl.
But, she didn't know him then. They had never met - and that was almost better in his mind because it allowed him to introduce himself without all the weird baggage and rumor the town might attach to him. Because while Sweet had had it all together - and gone off to college and then to help people - most of the town saw him as a sort of burnout.
That Santorini kid who worked in his parent's flower shop and liked to play around with weird chemicals in abandoned lots.
The boy (although he was in his twenties) that had scared everyone half to death that one time when he blew up an old tree stump - and ended up making a huge crater and knocking out the electricity around half the block. Not to mention, the sound of the explosion, which set dogs barking and brought a few police cars around.
....that had been fun though - it had been an awesome sight.
But she hadn't known any of that then. She was just a beautiful woman in a tank top and worn jeans and he was just the guy in green-stained cargos helping her load her truck full of flowers, who had asked her out.
And she said yes.
When those parts of him were discovered later, he was astonished by her delight in his hobby instead of scorn. And she felt there was no shame in his working at the flower shop either - after all, she worked in her father's garage.
Over three years later, there is a baby on the way, an engagement ring on her finger, and a sense of contentment - a sense that he is whole when he looks at her (at them).
Vinny, carefully finds the place where he left off in the book and continues reading.
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