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That Untitled Mina Fic Chapter Guide for story details including summary, warnings, etc.
Chapter One That Untitled Mina Fic
Chapter Two
'God, Mina,' she whispers, and her voice is so soft that I can barely make out the words. Arc's head falls back against the pillow as I kiss my way down her neck, licking and sucking the soft skin teasingly. She shudders under my touch as my fingers slide inside of her, curving up and pressing into that spot that I know will make her-
The front door flew open with a bang and I nearly jumped out of my skin, clicking the window closed just as Nancy walked into the room.
'What are you looking at?' she asked, that damnable grin on her face.
'I'm just validating some stories.' Trying to calm my rapidly beating heart, I opened the browser again and clicked back to Penn'd Passion, shooting her as innocent a look as I could muster.
Unfortunately, Nancy didn't appear to be convinced. 'Then why do you look so guilty?'
Rolling my eyes, I answered without missing a beat, 'It's not guilt, it's nausea. I never should have started this real-person fiction section. You know, not once in my life did I ever have any interest in the sex lives of my friends' children, and if I have to read one more story about James meeting up with "Josh" at a convention and bending "him" over a ta-'
"Heard enough!" she insisted, just a bit louder than was really necessary, and she hurried out of the room and thundered up the stairs. I swear, that woman makes enough noise to wake the dead, even when doing the simplest of things.
Opening the site admin panel, I warily eyed the first story in the submission queue and shifted in my seat uncomfortably. Really, this story was just…. well. It was something. Something I probably should just validate before someone I knew came along and read it. Of course, then it would be out there for anyone to read, and… well.
Rolling my eyes at my inability to deal with what, in all honesty, probably amounted to the fantasy writings of some middle-aged man, I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes, trying to clear my mind. Nancy came down the stairs, and I heard her bag drop on the floor by the door with a thud.
'I wish you'd wait until morning to leave,' I called to her. 'I don't like the idea of you driving so far by yourself overnight.'
'Too much traffic in the morning,' she answered. 'Besides, Val's party thing is in the afternoon tomorrow and I promised I'd be there before it started.'
I debated pointing out to her that she'd never once in her life been on time for anything and Val probably wasn't actually expecting her for a few days yet, but she seemed to have made up her mind already. If there's one thing I've learned about Nancy over the years, it's that there is no limit to her stubbornness.
'You know, Judy, you could come with me,' she offered, wandering into the room and leaning against the back of the couch so that the side of her face leaned casually against my own. Reaching one arm out, she closed my laptop so quickly I barely had time to move my hands, ignoring my annoyed glare.
'I can't and you know it,' I told her with a sigh. 'Between the cruise and those idiotic protestors, I've barely been in the library at all for a month. And frankly, I think my assistants were enjoying my time away just a bit too much. I found coffee rings on some of the tables upstairs.'
'Oh, the horror,' she said mockingly; I smirked in spite of myself.
'Nan,' I said after a minute, avoiding her eyes, 'what would you do if someone wrote a story about you and posted it online?'
She frowned. 'Why, has someone?'
'No…. I'm just curious.'
'Um…' She considered it for a moment, tilting her head to the side slightly and looking pensive. 'Don't know. Depends what they said about me, I guess. Why?'
'Someone wrote…' My voice drifted off, not entirely sure how to describe that story to her, and finally I did what I decided was probably easiest-opened the laptop and clicked on the story link. After all, she'd see the story eventually. Nancy had a rather irritating habit of always finding the one thing you hoped she'd never stumble across. 'Here, read this,' I said, tilting the screen so that she could see it, which turned out to be pointless because a second later she practically vaulted herself over the back of the sofa and agilely landed next to me with her legs tucked beneath her.
She took the laptop from me and read silently for a moment, her eyes dancing with ever-increasing amusement, until she finally laughed openly.
'It's not funny.'
'Yes it is,' she insisted, grinning over the top of the computer at me before her eyes darted back to the screen. 'Who wrote this?'
'I don't know; it was submitted anonymously.' Annoyed with her reaction, I reached out to take the computer out of her hands, but she stood and backed away before I had the chance, still giggling to herself.. 'And just what is so funny about this?' I demanded, frowning when I realised that I sounded like a pouting child.
'It's… it's Mina. And you. That amuses me,' she said simply, shrugging. 'It's just a bit ridiculous, don't you think? I mean, she's so young.'
'She's not that young,' I replied, narrowing my eyes at her and getting just a bit annoyed.
'She's… what, twenty-four?'
'Twenty-three,' I admitted, feeling just a flash of guilt at the thought. 'Her birthday isn't until May….'
Nancy raised an eyebrow sardonically-she's always amazed me with her ability to say so very much with a single expression, but at the moment I was less than impressed-and said, 'Don't tell me you actually like her.'
I didn't answer, but, of course, I didn't have to; not with Nancy. My face turning what I'm sure was a very violent shade of red probably didn't do much to help matters either.
'Oh.' She sounded surprised, and maybe a little shocked, but at least she'd stopped laughing. I, for one, couldn't find anything even remotely funny about the situation. 'So that's why you were acting so quiet the other night. I swear, I've never seen you act so awkward.'
'Yes, and thank you for that, by the way,' I grumbled, looking away. 'I'd done a very good job of keeping a rather large distance between myself and Mina in the real world whenever possible, and you had to go and invite her for coffee. Now I can't get her voice out of my head.' I only received a grin in response.
Rolling my eyes and resolving to ignore her for the time being, I stalked past her and into the kitchen, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and pouring myself a glass of water. Between reading that story and then talking with Nancy, I was feeling more than a bit on edge, and I needed a moment to just think. Of course, with Nancy around, there is rarely much opportunity to idly stand around thinking, and she didn't disappoint. An instant later she followed me in, depositing the computer on the counter and instantly pulling cookies out of cupboard. I will never understand how she eats so much, really-it seemed like every time I turned around, she was nibbling on something-but decided that maybe chocolate was in order, all things considered, and grabbed one for myself.
'So are you going to tell her?' she asked abruptly.
'No!' I all but shouted, leaning back against the refrigerator and crossing my arms resolutely across my chest. Schooling my expression into one that I hoped didn't like quite as horrified at the thought as I felt, I finished, 'Anything but friendship between Mina and I would be a very, very bad idea.'
'Still not over me, huh?' she asked with a laugh, popping an entire-rather large-cookie into her mouth, and I grimaced.
'Of course not. How could I be when you do such attractive things?' I said sarcastically, shaking my head. 'Besides, if I recall, you were the one crawling into my bed every other night on the ship.'
'That's what you get for letting me drink too much.' She at least had the decency to blush, though she looked distinctly proud of herself at the same time, so perhaps that wasn't much to go on. 'And it's not like I heard you complaining.'
Rolling my eyes, I bit back impudently, 'That's what you get for letting me drink too much.' Grabbing another cookie, I muttered, 'She's a student; I'm a member of the staff. It wouldn't be right to even consider it.'
Nancy started at me for a long moment, then said, 'Judy, you do realise that not only are you her archivist, the one person whose opinion of her stories she actually has to care about, but that you've also spent a decent amount of your time over the last year or so running along behind her, cleaning up her messes like some sort of fandom fairy godmother, right? I mean, I would think that aspect of your relationship would make things awkward more than the fact that you might run into each other on campus two or three times over the entire course of her schooling.'
I glared at her. 'Thank you, I feel so much better about all of this now.'
'Just here to help,' she said with a shrug and a wink, laughing at herself-or maybe at me; I couldn't even tell at this point. Regardless, it was time for this conversation to be over. This was definitely not something I wanted to discuss with Nancy, of all people. Her biggest qualms over relationships were usually things like, "She's legal, right?" and "Does convention-sex count as cheating? I mean, what happens at a convention stays at the convention, doesn't it?" It was almost amusing-if you weren't dating her at the time, anyway.
'Look, I don't think I want to talk about this anymore,' I finally said, leaning on the counter and resting my chin on my hands.
'Okay… so are you going to post the story?' she asked, turning the laptop back towards her and looking over the submission again.
I shrugged. 'I can't reject it. It's well written.' Very well written, I thought to myself, nearly shuddering at the thought-and not exactly in revulsion either, I noted guiltily. 'And I want to get it out of the submission queue before another editor stumbles across it. I already have no idea how I'm going to show my face around the site until the story falls off the front page update list.'
'Oh please, Mina and Jamie have hundreds of stories on there about them, and they don't let it get to them at all. I refuse to believe that you would let something as silly as fanfiction embarrass you.'
'You know,' she said after a pause, 'I wonder if the author has met you. They've got you described perfectly. Dark hair, dark eyes, glasses-'
'That would describe a third of the population, not to mention my Sanguinity avatar,' I pointed out.
'Coldly delicious,' she finished, smirking, and looked me up and down appraisingly. 'I like that. It's fitting.'
'Half of the people whose stories I've rejected have called me a cold-hearted bitch.'
'I don't think this author wrote it with that particular sentiment in mind.'
'Aren't you supposed to be leaving for Val's at some point?' I asked, shooting her an annoyed glare, and she grinned.
'I'm going, I'm going.' She gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before breezing out the door, yelling back over her shoulder, 'I'll call you when I get there. I'm sure I'll be back this way before too long!'
'I'm sure you will be,' I said to the now-empty room, frowning as the front door slammed shut behind her, and scooped up the laptop from the counter as I went back into the living room. Ensconcing myself into my usual corner of the sofa and shifting around into a comfortable position, I propped the computer across my lap and stared at the screen for a moment.
Well, I finally said to myself, I was distracted the first time around. I should probably read it again, from the beginning. For the sake of editorial fairness, of course. Trying not to think too much about the fact that self-deception was rather pointless, all things considered, I scrolled back up to the top of the page.
~
I'd spent the better part of the night tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep, but hadn't had much success. Jen was snoring quietly on the other side of the room, and the campus seemed to have fallen silent in the early hours of the morning. I wasn't usually awake at this time, and I was rather used to falling asleep to the sound of music playing somewhere in the building or the girls on the other side of the wall arguing over something silly, not my roommate's snores and crickets.
Finally deciding that I wasn't going to get any sleep at this point anyway, I slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the computer, turning on the desk lamp nervously and then glancing back to make sure Jen hadn't woken up. She didn't even flinch-not surprising, really, since she only seemed to sleep a few hours a night anyway. Living a double life must be ridiculously time-consuming.
I signed on and saw that Arc was still online, which was odd. Usually she disappeared long before I went to bed. I stayed invisible on the messenger, though. To be honest, things had been a bit tense between us lately. Well, not tense, per se, but… off. We'd had that coffee last weekend, and I think that was when it had started. I mean, she'd been friendly, of course-I had a hard time picturing her being anything but-but she had seemed quiet and almost… distant. Perhaps, though, that was just Arc. She never had been all that talkative, after all.
I'd ended up chatting with Xena-Nancy, I mentally corrected myself, though she would always be Xena to me, I think, just as Arc would always be Arc in my head-for most of the night, who never seemed to run out of rude gossip or outrageous things to say. I was no closer to figuring out what was going on in my head, but… well, it wasn't like I ran into Arc every day or anything. I had time to get it all straightened out. And in the meantime-
I clicked my bookmark for the Penn'd Passion homepage and scrolled through to the RPF section, fighting back a grin when I saw the first story on the updated list. Well, I thought, it's up, then.
In the meantime, I'd decided, it couldn't hurt to at least get the idea out there for Arc to stumble across. Just in case.
Chapter Three