The Dresden Files - Fic: Old news
Title: Old news
Author: Lara Beckinsale
Beta: the worderful strikske <3u
Fandom: The Dresden Files (bookverse)
Characters: Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Jim Butcher, I’m just playing around.
Summary: Harry and Murphy on a quiet night.
Spoilers: You don't need to have read Changes, but Proven Guilty at least. And there's a tiny reference about one of the short stories, Love Hurts.
Timeline: After Turn Coat
It was one of those evenings after a long day’s work chasing supernatural bad guys around the city. We ended up at her house. The plan was to have some dinner, drink a couple of beers and just hang around a little. We haven’t had that much time to catch up with life stuff in the past few months.
We settled in the living room with a couple of tuna and salad sandwiches and a couple of bottles from Mac’s, cold, a sacrilege I know, but it was a hot summer night. She was telling me about the latest Murphy reunion and how her sister was a pain in the ass, while I listened intently and watched her eat. There was a lot of bad blood there and it was really upsetting for her. But she looked so cute when she was pissed. She would punch me if she could hear that. I smiled a little to myself at that thought.
“What?” She asked.
“Huh, what?” I had gotten distracted.
“That’s what I want to know… You were staring and smiling.” Oh, oh. I got caught.
“Um… it’s nothing… This is a really good sandwich.” I said and took a big bite of the aforementioned.
She chuckled and I noticed she didn’t quite believe me, but still said. “Okay… I’m glad you like it. That was the only edible thing in the house.”
“A little too much green stuff in it for my taste, but still really good.” Like almost every male on the planet, my love for salad is not big.
“Well, you should eat more of the green stuff, your body will thank you one day.” Oh, that was so her; always worried about the healthiest options out there. For some reason she worried a little too much about her weight. I always thought she had a great figure. Well, I guess the salads and diet coke paid off.
“I’ll think about it.” I said and chuckled.
“Good.” She said. Again, she probably wasn’t buying that. She knew me and my love affair with meat all too well. She gave me a smile anyway; a very beautiful smile. A smile that could make me try to give the healthy life a chance. It was that lovely. Oh, I kept thinking about her in those kind of terms over the years. I had tried not to but I hadn’t had much luck. Even after our little conversation in the elevator a few years ago, it had been difficult closing the door once it opened. And that recent spell we had fallen victim to stirred a lot of feelings up again. I wondered more than once if she ever had second thoughts about all that.
We kept eating, and she kept on with her story. But I was lost in all those thoughts about her and me and what if’s, that when she took a pause to take a sip of her beer, I blurted.
“I love you.”
She looked up at that spot on my forehead, where she looked to protect us from the soul gaze, and said, without doubt, without flinching.
“I know… And I love you too.”
And then she kept eating. Ok… What the heck was that? Yes, we had exchanged a couple of I love you’s before, right before I ventured into probable death, and I also had admitted to it under that stupid love spell, but it was always under some sort of pressure, never just for the sake of it. Never because I just… well, felt it. It surprised me to get such a simple reaction from her to be honest, like what I just told her was old news. Did she think the words only came from more than a decade of friendship? Was our relationship so firmly cemented in that friendship, that nothing more could ever come from it? I felt like something already had. Would it never be like that for her?
We continued eating and talking about other subjects, but the rest of the night was a bit of a blur to me, all the conflicting thoughts and emotions kept me distracted. Finally, around midnight we called it a night and as she was walking me to the door I made up my mind.
“Drive safe, ok?” She said. I nodded.
“Karrin…” I said while I reached out with my right hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her left ear, cupping the side of her face after. I could count on one hand the times I had touched her in such a way. Our friendship was more about banter than it was about mushy. Apparently, it shocked her into immobility. Her big blue eyes moved about my face as I leaned down and drew her face to meet mine somewhat in the middle.
“Slap me later, if you want to, ok?” I whispered as we got a breath away from touching.
And I kissed her, my lips gently touching hers. They were very soft and tasted of the strawberry low fat ice cream we had after dinner. I moved my lips carefully over hers; I did it tentatively, not trying to force anything, just making a point, caressing them slowly. She let me do it without protest. When I pulled away, her eyes were closed.
“The I love you… I meant it like this.” I whispered, my heart thundering with nerves and anxiety. She was going to slap me, for sure. She didn’t feel the same way. She had told me no already, what was I doing? I was such an idiot! I just screw everything up.
She let out a deep breath, bit her lower lip for a second and with her eyes still closed said:
“I know… me too.” I rested my forehead against hers, relief flooding me, and closed my eyes while I wrapped an arm around her small frame.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She answered in a breathy voice.
So maybe it was old news, maybe she had been in the same place I was all this time: wanting, dreaming, and loving. Just below the surface, afraid to come out, or maybe so evident that it became a given between us, an unspoken truth. Either way, it didn’t matter, ‘cause whatever barrier we had put there, it was gone. So I kissed her again, and she returned the kiss more readily this time. I didn’t leave her house that night.
The End
Author: Lara Beckinsale
Beta: the worderful strikske <3u
Fandom: The Dresden Files (bookverse)
Characters: Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Jim Butcher, I’m just playing around.
Summary: Harry and Murphy on a quiet night.
Spoilers: You don't need to have read Changes, but Proven Guilty at least. And there's a tiny reference about one of the short stories, Love Hurts.
Timeline: After Turn Coat
It was one of those evenings after a long day’s work chasing supernatural bad guys around the city. We ended up at her house. The plan was to have some dinner, drink a couple of beers and just hang around a little. We haven’t had that much time to catch up with life stuff in the past few months.
We settled in the living room with a couple of tuna and salad sandwiches and a couple of bottles from Mac’s, cold, a sacrilege I know, but it was a hot summer night. She was telling me about the latest Murphy reunion and how her sister was a pain in the ass, while I listened intently and watched her eat. There was a lot of bad blood there and it was really upsetting for her. But she looked so cute when she was pissed. She would punch me if she could hear that. I smiled a little to myself at that thought.
“What?” She asked.
“Huh, what?” I had gotten distracted.
“That’s what I want to know… You were staring and smiling.” Oh, oh. I got caught.
“Um… it’s nothing… This is a really good sandwich.” I said and took a big bite of the aforementioned.
She chuckled and I noticed she didn’t quite believe me, but still said. “Okay… I’m glad you like it. That was the only edible thing in the house.”
“A little too much green stuff in it for my taste, but still really good.” Like almost every male on the planet, my love for salad is not big.
“Well, you should eat more of the green stuff, your body will thank you one day.” Oh, that was so her; always worried about the healthiest options out there. For some reason she worried a little too much about her weight. I always thought she had a great figure. Well, I guess the salads and diet coke paid off.
“I’ll think about it.” I said and chuckled.
“Good.” She said. Again, she probably wasn’t buying that. She knew me and my love affair with meat all too well. She gave me a smile anyway; a very beautiful smile. A smile that could make me try to give the healthy life a chance. It was that lovely. Oh, I kept thinking about her in those kind of terms over the years. I had tried not to but I hadn’t had much luck. Even after our little conversation in the elevator a few years ago, it had been difficult closing the door once it opened. And that recent spell we had fallen victim to stirred a lot of feelings up again. I wondered more than once if she ever had second thoughts about all that.
We kept eating, and she kept on with her story. But I was lost in all those thoughts about her and me and what if’s, that when she took a pause to take a sip of her beer, I blurted.
“I love you.”
She looked up at that spot on my forehead, where she looked to protect us from the soul gaze, and said, without doubt, without flinching.
“I know… And I love you too.”
And then she kept eating. Ok… What the heck was that? Yes, we had exchanged a couple of I love you’s before, right before I ventured into probable death, and I also had admitted to it under that stupid love spell, but it was always under some sort of pressure, never just for the sake of it. Never because I just… well, felt it. It surprised me to get such a simple reaction from her to be honest, like what I just told her was old news. Did she think the words only came from more than a decade of friendship? Was our relationship so firmly cemented in that friendship, that nothing more could ever come from it? I felt like something already had. Would it never be like that for her?
We continued eating and talking about other subjects, but the rest of the night was a bit of a blur to me, all the conflicting thoughts and emotions kept me distracted. Finally, around midnight we called it a night and as she was walking me to the door I made up my mind.
“Drive safe, ok?” She said. I nodded.
“Karrin…” I said while I reached out with my right hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her left ear, cupping the side of her face after. I could count on one hand the times I had touched her in such a way. Our friendship was more about banter than it was about mushy. Apparently, it shocked her into immobility. Her big blue eyes moved about my face as I leaned down and drew her face to meet mine somewhat in the middle.
“Slap me later, if you want to, ok?” I whispered as we got a breath away from touching.
And I kissed her, my lips gently touching hers. They were very soft and tasted of the strawberry low fat ice cream we had after dinner. I moved my lips carefully over hers; I did it tentatively, not trying to force anything, just making a point, caressing them slowly. She let me do it without protest. When I pulled away, her eyes were closed.
“The I love you… I meant it like this.” I whispered, my heart thundering with nerves and anxiety. She was going to slap me, for sure. She didn’t feel the same way. She had told me no already, what was I doing? I was such an idiot! I just screw everything up.
She let out a deep breath, bit her lower lip for a second and with her eyes still closed said:
“I know… me too.” I rested my forehead against hers, relief flooding me, and closed my eyes while I wrapped an arm around her small frame.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She answered in a breathy voice.
So maybe it was old news, maybe she had been in the same place I was all this time: wanting, dreaming, and loving. Just below the surface, afraid to come out, or maybe so evident that it became a given between us, an unspoken truth. Either way, it didn’t matter, ‘cause whatever barrier we had put there, it was gone. So I kissed her again, and she returned the kiss more readily this time. I didn’t leave her house that night.
The End