Seasonal Insanity
Title: Seasonal Insanity
Author: LaughtersMelody
Rating: PG
Fandom: Moonlight
Disclaimer: It's not mine, but Mick and Coraline followed me home. Can I keep them?
Genre: Friendship
Pairing: Mentions of Mick/Coraline
Type: One-shot
Spoilers: None really. Set preseries.
Characters: Josef
Secondary Characters: Mick
Summary: It happened every year. Mick and Coraline's rocky relationship in 1982, as seen through Josef's eyes. No slash.
A/N: Written for Moonlightaholic's Champagne Challenge #137, March Madness. Story had to include the theme, as well as the words bracket, rebound, court, and cheer. This is my first time writing from Josef's POV, so I hope I did him justice. :)
As always, I thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for His incredible mercy and grace.
~*~*~*~*~
Seasonal Insanity
It was March again.
To be honest, Josef didn’t really care. He’d been alive - and undead - long enough for March to come around exactly 383 times so far, and if you’d seen one, you’d pretty much seen them all.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
The ancient words rang just as true in 1982 as they had the day they’d been written.
Still, no two years were the exactly the same, and the month had certainly gotten more exciting in 1939, when March Madness, as a sportswriter had recently dubbed it, had first appeared. Josef wasn’t much of a basketball fan, but he never passed up the chance to make money, and betting on the bracket had quickly become a high-stakes game he enjoyed.
St. Patrick’s Day was another bright spot. Irish charm, plus lots of drinking - both from the bar and the freshies on tap - he certainly wasn’t going to complain. Not about that, anyway.
Unfortunately, March had picked up another annual event, one Josef could have done without.
He liked to think of it as seasonal insanity.
Every March, like clockwork, Mick would wind up back with Coraline.
It never failed. Mick would start out the year with a resolution to stay away from her, insisting it was over, for good this time. The rest of January meant “Coraline withdrawal” - the severity of the withdrawal depended on the reasons he and Coraline had split in the latest round of their doomed little saga. Mick would usually stick it out until the withdrawal faded, and then he’d rebound. For the first couple weeks in February, he’d throw himself into the PI biz. But, right around Valentine’s Day, his resolve would start to crumble.
Josef had tried various ways of distracting his friend, throwing freshies at him left and right, taking him out to clubs…he’d even tried getting him away from LA once by setting up a bogus case for him to work on. Mick had figured out the ruse pretty quickly, though, and an irate Mick wasn’t any more fun than a depressed Mick.
Lucky him, Josef had gotten to see both that year, because depression - sulking, brooding, self-flagellation, whatever you wanted to call it - always showed up for the last part of February. Attempts to cheer Mick up then, if just for Josef’s own sanity, led nowhere.
Of course, once the depression set in, and March began, Mick would slowly get drawn back to Coraline - they were like magnets, those two. Headache-inducing magnets. They took love/hate to a whole new level.
The trouble was, if you mixed those volatile emotions together, there was bound to be an explosion. It was only a question of when.
And since sparks weren’t a problem for Mick and Coraline, Josef would put his money on sooner, rather than later.
Maybe very soon, if this year was any indication. March Madness wasn’t even over yet, but seasonal insanity was; Mick had been back with Coraline for a couple weeks.
Josef sighed, and put his feet up on the couch, glancing at the TV.
He watched the players running up and down the court for a moment, then scowled a little when he saw the score. His latest pick was losing. Badly.
Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.
That’s what made the game exciting. It was unpredictable.
Other things, however…not so much.
He caught Mick’s scent before he saw him, heard the quick, angry footsteps as he strode down the corridor.
“Trouble in paradise?” Josef called out as Mick burst into the room
The other vampire stared at him for a moment, his eyes stormy. Bruises and half-healed scratches covered his face. He and Coraline had apparently skipped over the petty barbs this time, and gone straight to fangs, teeth, and claws.
Mick seemed to know what Josef was thinking.
“Save the ‘I told you so,’” he growled, and headed for the bar. He poured a tall glass of scotch, downed it in a few gulps, and poured another one.
Josef sighed again.
It was a good thing he’d restocked.
Then again, he’d known he would need to.
After all, it was March.
Fin
~*~*~*~*~
A/N: The Bible quote, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun," is from Ecclesiastes 1:9. A couple interesting notes, the tournament we call March Madness really did begin in 1939, (Wikipedia entry can be found here) but it wasn't called March Madness by the general public until 1982, when a sportswriter used the term (article here). :)
I hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think!
Take care and God bless!
-Laughter
Author: LaughtersMelody
Rating: PG
Fandom: Moonlight
Disclaimer: It's not mine, but Mick and Coraline followed me home. Can I keep them?
Genre: Friendship
Pairing: Mentions of Mick/Coraline
Type: One-shot
Spoilers: None really. Set preseries.
Characters: Josef
Secondary Characters: Mick
Summary: It happened every year. Mick and Coraline's rocky relationship in 1982, as seen through Josef's eyes. No slash.
A/N: Written for Moonlightaholic's Champagne Challenge #137, March Madness. Story had to include the theme, as well as the words bracket, rebound, court, and cheer. This is my first time writing from Josef's POV, so I hope I did him justice. :)
As always, I thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for His incredible mercy and grace.
~*~*~*~*~
Seasonal Insanity
It was March again.
To be honest, Josef didn’t really care. He’d been alive - and undead - long enough for March to come around exactly 383 times so far, and if you’d seen one, you’d pretty much seen them all.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
The ancient words rang just as true in 1982 as they had the day they’d been written.
Still, no two years were the exactly the same, and the month had certainly gotten more exciting in 1939, when March Madness, as a sportswriter had recently dubbed it, had first appeared. Josef wasn’t much of a basketball fan, but he never passed up the chance to make money, and betting on the bracket had quickly become a high-stakes game he enjoyed.
St. Patrick’s Day was another bright spot. Irish charm, plus lots of drinking - both from the bar and the freshies on tap - he certainly wasn’t going to complain. Not about that, anyway.
Unfortunately, March had picked up another annual event, one Josef could have done without.
He liked to think of it as seasonal insanity.
Every March, like clockwork, Mick would wind up back with Coraline.
It never failed. Mick would start out the year with a resolution to stay away from her, insisting it was over, for good this time. The rest of January meant “Coraline withdrawal” - the severity of the withdrawal depended on the reasons he and Coraline had split in the latest round of their doomed little saga. Mick would usually stick it out until the withdrawal faded, and then he’d rebound. For the first couple weeks in February, he’d throw himself into the PI biz. But, right around Valentine’s Day, his resolve would start to crumble.
Josef had tried various ways of distracting his friend, throwing freshies at him left and right, taking him out to clubs…he’d even tried getting him away from LA once by setting up a bogus case for him to work on. Mick had figured out the ruse pretty quickly, though, and an irate Mick wasn’t any more fun than a depressed Mick.
Lucky him, Josef had gotten to see both that year, because depression - sulking, brooding, self-flagellation, whatever you wanted to call it - always showed up for the last part of February. Attempts to cheer Mick up then, if just for Josef’s own sanity, led nowhere.
Of course, once the depression set in, and March began, Mick would slowly get drawn back to Coraline - they were like magnets, those two. Headache-inducing magnets. They took love/hate to a whole new level.
The trouble was, if you mixed those volatile emotions together, there was bound to be an explosion. It was only a question of when.
And since sparks weren’t a problem for Mick and Coraline, Josef would put his money on sooner, rather than later.
Maybe very soon, if this year was any indication. March Madness wasn’t even over yet, but seasonal insanity was; Mick had been back with Coraline for a couple weeks.
Josef sighed, and put his feet up on the couch, glancing at the TV.
He watched the players running up and down the court for a moment, then scowled a little when he saw the score. His latest pick was losing. Badly.
Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.
That’s what made the game exciting. It was unpredictable.
Other things, however…not so much.
He caught Mick’s scent before he saw him, heard the quick, angry footsteps as he strode down the corridor.
“Trouble in paradise?” Josef called out as Mick burst into the room
The other vampire stared at him for a moment, his eyes stormy. Bruises and half-healed scratches covered his face. He and Coraline had apparently skipped over the petty barbs this time, and gone straight to fangs, teeth, and claws.
Mick seemed to know what Josef was thinking.
“Save the ‘I told you so,’” he growled, and headed for the bar. He poured a tall glass of scotch, downed it in a few gulps, and poured another one.
Josef sighed again.
It was a good thing he’d restocked.
Then again, he’d known he would need to.
After all, it was March.
Fin
~*~*~*~*~
A/N: The Bible quote, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun," is from Ecclesiastes 1:9. A couple interesting notes, the tournament we call March Madness really did begin in 1939, (Wikipedia entry can be found here) but it wasn't called March Madness by the general public until 1982, when a sportswriter used the term (article here). :)
I hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think!
Take care and God bless!
-Laughter