Afternoon Queerditch Pub Ficlets
Only two for the afternoon session. The wound care nurse came in the middle of the session--which took about a half hour--and after that...well, my computer decided that it had been ignored for a whole half hour and decided to show me who was boss by crashing. Sigh.
The prompt today was "song lyrics." I didn't use the lyrics in either story--I just used them as a take-off for the writing itself.
(Do I really have to mention that this is probably the gennest slash ever written?)
***
Title: Disregarding Danger
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Regulus
Prompt: Well we all fall in love/But we disregard the danger/Though we share so many secrets/There are some we never tell
Word Count: 289
Disclaimer: The characters and their universe all belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I'm just borrowing them. And I'm not making any money off of this, either.
Summary: Desire can be dangerous. So can love.
Regulus, even before he joins the Death Eaters, is dangerous. Or so he seems to Remus.
There is something of all the Blacks in him-Bellatrix's fiery passion and icy vengefulness, the studied dignity of Narcissa, Sirius' thoughtful intensity. Despite this, he does not look much like his twin brother; his face is leaner and paler, with dark blue eyes that always make Remus think of a fox at bay. Unlike Sirius, who conquers at a glance, Regulus conquers by degrees.
Befriending Regulus is hard; the boy has spent too many years among Slytherins, both at home and at school, to trust easily now. Still, Remus tries, speaking in a gentle tone sometimes, but more often not speaking at all and listening to Regulus instead. Few people, he discovers, ever bother to listen to him.
For, like Remus himself, Regulus craves a great many things that he feels he cannot have: a loving family, acceptance for who he is, happiness. Sadly, Regulus's parents and kin have cookie-cutter minds, and they are doing their level best to knock the corners off of Regulus, so that he will be a nice round peg fitting neatly in a nice round hole.
Regulus hates it. The effort to be someone he is not hurts.
But trying to be who he is always seems to cost him more.
Remus isn't sure when his hand first brushes Regulus's, or when he first grips Regulus's shoulders in a tentative half-embrace.
All he remembers is the look in Regulus's eyes-a sudden blaze of happiness, and then the happiness seeping away as he mutely wonders what he will have to give in exchange for this joy, and locks yet another unspeakable secret in his heart.
***
Title Bent
Characters/Pairings: Sirius/Regulus
Prompt: Can you help me? I'm bent/I'm so scared that I'll never/Get put back together
Word Count: 286
Disclaimer: The characters and their universe all belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I'm just borrowing them. And I'm not making any money off of this, either.
Summary: Loving the wrong person can be torture. Trying not to love him can be harder still.
For Sirius, looking at Regulus is like looking at the negative of a photograph. He's the exact opposite of Sirius in every way--hating what Sirius loves, loving what Sirius hates--and yet he's the same. They're part and parcel of each other, and neither one can ever deny it.
It's the mirroring that frightens Sirius and that forces him to push his brother away, for there's something in him that draws him to his brother, something he can't explain. He finds some of the right words in Peter's science fiction novels--words like magnetic attraction and fusion of two bodies.
It's wrong. He may be a Black, but he does know that some things are wrong. And he knows that it would hurt Regulus. He's not sure how--he thinks that Regulus might suffer from the same agonizing ache--but he does know that his brother is far more vulnerable than he is. Regulus spends a great deal of time keeping silent and obeying others so as not to be hurt, one way or another.
The Blacks have hurt them both enough. He can't be part of that. He won't.
So he shoves Regulus away, hexes him, taunts him, derides him. Anything to keep Regulus at a distance, to save him from his hopelessly bent brother.
The only problem is, the more he strives to keep Regulus safe, the more lost he becomes. He feels as if he is a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.
And as time and silence build an unbreachable barrier between his brother and him, he wonders if anything--or anyone--will ever find the lost pieces, and put him back together again.
***
The evening session of queerditch_pub starts at 9:00 p.m. EST. I hope to see a lot of you there. I'm going to try to do at least one more ficlet. After the Pub is closed for the evening, I'll get back to the other stories I've been working on--the crossovers and the challenges.
The prompt today was "song lyrics." I didn't use the lyrics in either story--I just used them as a take-off for the writing itself.
(Do I really have to mention that this is probably the gennest slash ever written?)
***
Title: Disregarding Danger
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Regulus
Prompt: Well we all fall in love/But we disregard the danger/Though we share so many secrets/There are some we never tell
Word Count: 289
Disclaimer: The characters and their universe all belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I'm just borrowing them. And I'm not making any money off of this, either.
Summary: Desire can be dangerous. So can love.
Regulus, even before he joins the Death Eaters, is dangerous. Or so he seems to Remus.
There is something of all the Blacks in him-Bellatrix's fiery passion and icy vengefulness, the studied dignity of Narcissa, Sirius' thoughtful intensity. Despite this, he does not look much like his twin brother; his face is leaner and paler, with dark blue eyes that always make Remus think of a fox at bay. Unlike Sirius, who conquers at a glance, Regulus conquers by degrees.
Befriending Regulus is hard; the boy has spent too many years among Slytherins, both at home and at school, to trust easily now. Still, Remus tries, speaking in a gentle tone sometimes, but more often not speaking at all and listening to Regulus instead. Few people, he discovers, ever bother to listen to him.
For, like Remus himself, Regulus craves a great many things that he feels he cannot have: a loving family, acceptance for who he is, happiness. Sadly, Regulus's parents and kin have cookie-cutter minds, and they are doing their level best to knock the corners off of Regulus, so that he will be a nice round peg fitting neatly in a nice round hole.
Regulus hates it. The effort to be someone he is not hurts.
But trying to be who he is always seems to cost him more.
Remus isn't sure when his hand first brushes Regulus's, or when he first grips Regulus's shoulders in a tentative half-embrace.
All he remembers is the look in Regulus's eyes-a sudden blaze of happiness, and then the happiness seeping away as he mutely wonders what he will have to give in exchange for this joy, and locks yet another unspeakable secret in his heart.
***
Title Bent
Characters/Pairings: Sirius/Regulus
Prompt: Can you help me? I'm bent/I'm so scared that I'll never/Get put back together
Word Count: 286
Disclaimer: The characters and their universe all belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I'm just borrowing them. And I'm not making any money off of this, either.
Summary: Loving the wrong person can be torture. Trying not to love him can be harder still.
For Sirius, looking at Regulus is like looking at the negative of a photograph. He's the exact opposite of Sirius in every way--hating what Sirius loves, loving what Sirius hates--and yet he's the same. They're part and parcel of each other, and neither one can ever deny it.
It's the mirroring that frightens Sirius and that forces him to push his brother away, for there's something in him that draws him to his brother, something he can't explain. He finds some of the right words in Peter's science fiction novels--words like magnetic attraction and fusion of two bodies.
It's wrong. He may be a Black, but he does know that some things are wrong. And he knows that it would hurt Regulus. He's not sure how--he thinks that Regulus might suffer from the same agonizing ache--but he does know that his brother is far more vulnerable than he is. Regulus spends a great deal of time keeping silent and obeying others so as not to be hurt, one way or another.
The Blacks have hurt them both enough. He can't be part of that. He won't.
So he shoves Regulus away, hexes him, taunts him, derides him. Anything to keep Regulus at a distance, to save him from his hopelessly bent brother.
The only problem is, the more he strives to keep Regulus safe, the more lost he becomes. He feels as if he is a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.
And as time and silence build an unbreachable barrier between his brother and him, he wonders if anything--or anyone--will ever find the lost pieces, and put him back together again.
***
The evening session of queerditch_pub starts at 9:00 p.m. EST. I hope to see a lot of you there. I'm going to try to do at least one more ficlet. After the Pub is closed for the evening, I'll get back to the other stories I've been working on--the crossovers and the challenges.