Three Drabbles (Various Fandoms)
These are all pre-femmeslash, so please forgive if they're not actual "couples."
Title: Card Shark
Challenge: Play
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing: Abbey Bartlet/Debbie Fidderer
Word Count: 118 words
She was brilliant, and she dealt the cards like she lived her life-with confidence and a seeming understanding of her dominance in the world.
Debbie might have let that get to her, had it been anyone else. But she didn't mind, because she knew she could play through the night, lose her shirt, and hardly mind at all.
She was brilliant, and her eyes never let on how good or bad her hand was.
It was a great excuse to study her face. It was a great excuse to stare at Abbey Bartlet, intense and beautiful, without ever letting on what she was feeling.
Debbie Fidderer lost her shirt that night. And she just didn't mind one bit.
Title: The Weekly Game
Challenge: Play
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Petunia Dursley/Arabella Figg
Word Count: 155 words
It was odd how this weekly game eased her nerves. It was odd, because she never was much of a card player.
But Mrs. Figg, peculiar as she was, insisted, and Petunia could never seem to find the right words to say no to her. It was as if her very oddness was captivating, as if the characteristics that repulsed her actually captured her in their web.
So each Thursday at two in the afternoon, she would find herself making a fresh kettle of water for tea, and producing plates of biscuits to share, and laying out her second best cloth on the table.
And Mrs. Figg would come round at about ten after, smelling of cats as she often did, big smile and questions about the boys.
And if their hands brushed against each other, reaching for the biscuits, or if their eyes met over the cards, neither ever mentioned it to the other.
Title: Celtic Cross
Challenge: Play
Fandom: Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital
Pairing: Lona Massengale/Sally Druse
Word Count: 272 words (!sorry! A little over the word limit...)
She found that she worked too hard, and that she didn't seem to smile as often anymore. Dreams were her work, but Lona didn't seem to dream as often or as happily as she had before coming to Kingdom Hospital.
When she got to room 741 and found her there, with the cards spread out over her bed, Lona didn't know whether to laugh or to frown. For better or worse, Mrs. Druse was a fixture here, crystals and tarot cards and ghosts and séances and all.
Lona smiled at the older woman. She'd let her blonde hair down around her shoulders, childlike and wise beyond the ages, and she had placed the cards out in a cross-shaped formation.
"I knew you were coming," she said in that slightly accented voice, and motioned Lona to her side. "The Priestess," she indicated the card at the center of the cross. "You've lost touch with your sacred feminine, Dr. Lona." It wasn't a question or condemnation; just the words of a woman who seemed to see inside her with those charming crazy blue eyes of hers.
Lona tried to keep the blush from her face. She didn't know how this woman always knew what to say, or what she didn't want to hear. She didn't know why she was drawn to her, in this odd attraction that kept her always off balance when Sally Druse was in the room.
It wasn't like Elmer, all push and grab and ridiculously cute.
It was like water, lapping at her heels, throwing her off-balance.
She found she liked Mrs. Druse more than she wanted to let on.
Title: Card Shark
Challenge: Play
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing: Abbey Bartlet/Debbie Fidderer
Word Count: 118 words
She was brilliant, and she dealt the cards like she lived her life-with confidence and a seeming understanding of her dominance in the world.
Debbie might have let that get to her, had it been anyone else. But she didn't mind, because she knew she could play through the night, lose her shirt, and hardly mind at all.
She was brilliant, and her eyes never let on how good or bad her hand was.
It was a great excuse to study her face. It was a great excuse to stare at Abbey Bartlet, intense and beautiful, without ever letting on what she was feeling.
Debbie Fidderer lost her shirt that night. And she just didn't mind one bit.
Title: The Weekly Game
Challenge: Play
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Petunia Dursley/Arabella Figg
Word Count: 155 words
It was odd how this weekly game eased her nerves. It was odd, because she never was much of a card player.
But Mrs. Figg, peculiar as she was, insisted, and Petunia could never seem to find the right words to say no to her. It was as if her very oddness was captivating, as if the characteristics that repulsed her actually captured her in their web.
So each Thursday at two in the afternoon, she would find herself making a fresh kettle of water for tea, and producing plates of biscuits to share, and laying out her second best cloth on the table.
And Mrs. Figg would come round at about ten after, smelling of cats as she often did, big smile and questions about the boys.
And if their hands brushed against each other, reaching for the biscuits, or if their eyes met over the cards, neither ever mentioned it to the other.
Title: Celtic Cross
Challenge: Play
Fandom: Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital
Pairing: Lona Massengale/Sally Druse
Word Count: 272 words (!sorry! A little over the word limit...)
She found that she worked too hard, and that she didn't seem to smile as often anymore. Dreams were her work, but Lona didn't seem to dream as often or as happily as she had before coming to Kingdom Hospital.
When she got to room 741 and found her there, with the cards spread out over her bed, Lona didn't know whether to laugh or to frown. For better or worse, Mrs. Druse was a fixture here, crystals and tarot cards and ghosts and séances and all.
Lona smiled at the older woman. She'd let her blonde hair down around her shoulders, childlike and wise beyond the ages, and she had placed the cards out in a cross-shaped formation.
"I knew you were coming," she said in that slightly accented voice, and motioned Lona to her side. "The Priestess," she indicated the card at the center of the cross. "You've lost touch with your sacred feminine, Dr. Lona." It wasn't a question or condemnation; just the words of a woman who seemed to see inside her with those charming crazy blue eyes of hers.
Lona tried to keep the blush from her face. She didn't know how this woman always knew what to say, or what she didn't want to hear. She didn't know why she was drawn to her, in this odd attraction that kept her always off balance when Sally Druse was in the room.
It wasn't like Elmer, all push and grab and ridiculously cute.
It was like water, lapping at her heels, throwing her off-balance.
She found she liked Mrs. Druse more than she wanted to let on.