Happy Valentine's Day!

Feb 14, 2008 07:54

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
Written for: ♥ Valentine’s Day drabbles, The Tin Man requests, all Glitch/Cain


Written for: taskir
Pairing: Glitch/Cain Prompt: ghosts

Refurbishment of the Northern Palace had been slow to get started. Glitch and Cain entered the place with caution, their only tasks were to make sure there were no intruders using the place as a hide-out, and to leave some boxes full of designs and plans for the architects due in tomorrow.

It was eerie walking around the chilly halls again, it seemed to Cain like every room was full of ghosts, every view out a window laced with a memory of ice.

Glitch seemed to feel it, too, his companion had been unusually quiet since they’d gotten out of the truck, although part of that might have been the cold.

He knew Glitch hated being cold.

As they piled all the boxes they’d brought onto a table, he decided now was as good a time as any.

“I picked up something for you in the city the other day,” he said gruffly, taking one of the packages and almost tossing it at Glitch.

Glitch caught it in spite of his obvious surprise. “What’s this?”

“You’ll know when you open it,” he returned shortly. “Which you can do later, when we…”

Glitch had already plunked himself down on a low stair step and was working at the strings and paper.

“I don’t know why I picked it up,” Cain muttered self-consciously. “I know you’ve got tailors at the palace, but…” Face burning, he glanced over to see Glitch smiling in plain delight as he pulled the folded coat out the box.

“It’s beautiful,” he said sincerely, running his pale hand down the black leather, in a way that was making Cain feel oddly shivery. “So soft.”

To Cain’s continued mortification, Glitch stood up to try it on, working out of the tattered red one he was wearing with two quick shrugs and letting it fall to the floor.

“It probably won’t fit, I had to sort of guess at the size…”

Glitch slipped into it gracefully and turned in front of one of the many mirrors that lined the room to see the garment from all angles.

“…and if it’s not the sort of thing you could see yourself ever wearing, I don’t mind taking it back, just….”

Glitch was striding over.

“… let me know, I’ve got the receipt somewhere….”

“Cain, will you shut up and let me say thank you?” Glitch laughed a little, coming to a stop in front of him. “It’s the best gift I’ve gotten since my mother gave me The Junior Scientist Chemistry Set when I was six. Maybe better.”

Cain finally relaxed into a laugh of his own. “Well, high praise that. I’m glad you like it. You look…”

Glitch arched a brow.

Cain stared into Glitch’s beautiful dark eyes, framed as usual by the two black curls that always seemed to escape the rest of the tangle, and decided if he didn’t have the courage to finish that sentence with the honest truth then he wasn’t worth his star. “You look good in it,” he said.

Glitch’s smile was slyer than the last one. “You know what the real test of a good coat is?” he asked. He reached up and put his arms around Cain’s neck effortlessly. “It’s how well you can move in it.”

As Glitch’s lips met his, Cain decided that coat was the best month and a half’s pay he’d ever spent.

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Written for: andrealyn
Pairing: Glitch/Cain Prompt: oil

“Oh, that’s right!” Glitch exclaimed angrily. “Track mud all over my nice clean floor!”

“Um, Glitch?” Cain pushed back his hat. “I think you’re taking this whole ‘mind the cabin’ business a little far.”

“Well, excuse me for not having anything else to do while you’re out doing the glamorous stuff.”

“Yeah, my side of this project is real glamorous,” Cain muttered. He started to drop his coat on the table, noticed Glitch’s rising eyebrow, and hung it on the back of the door instead. “Any trouble today?”

“No, it was quiet. Very quiet. I’m starting to talk to the cat kind of quiet.”

“We have a cat?”

“Occasionally. I’ve been feeding a stray.”

Cain set a small bag down on the table and eased into a chair. “Well, whatever you’re feeding it, can I have the leftovers? It’s been kind of a long day.”

“I’m making a stew. It’s almost ready. What’s in the bag?”

“You asked me to pick up oil, remember?”

“And why did I do that?” Glitch asked pleasantly.

“I kinda wondered myself. Figured you were working on something…”

“Oh, yes, now I remember! I was going to try a recipe for ….” he broke off when he looked in the bag. “This isn’t olive oil.”

“Glitch, you didn’t say you wanted OLIVE oil!”

“Well, why would I need MOTOR oil out here in the middle of nowhere? Nothing is MOTORIZED!”

“Well, write it down next time!”

“How am I going to make lemon poppy seed muffins now?”

“Glitch, if I come home and you’re wearing an apron, I swear I’m sending you back to the palace!”

“You wouldn’t dare. Who would wash your dirty SOCKS?”

“I never asked you to wash those socks!”

“Well, I made an assumption based on the fact you left them lying on the floor in the middle of the kitchen! ”

Cain reached out and tugged Glitch into his lap in one easy, practiced motion. “You, my friend, are coming down with what my grandparents used to call cabin fever.”

“I do feel kind of warm,” Glitch admitted.

“Forgive me about the oil.”

“And the socks,” Glitch muttered.

“And the socks.”

“I guess you’re forgiven. You know, speaking of socks, I’ve heard that knitting them can be fairly entertaining…”

“Glitch!”

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Written for: ceria_taliesin
Pairing: Glitch/Cain Prompt: papay

“Cain, as much as I appreciate your pistol-packing protection, it’s not necessary.” Glitch climbed out of the truck and slammed the door, a noise echoed on the driver’s side. “According to the treaty…”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’re willing to risk your life on a piece of a paper signed with a claw slash, but I’m not.” Cain’s gaze roamed across the slowly recovering orchard.

“Well, at least make yourself useful and help me unload these bags.” Glitch walked to the back of the truck and began wrestling one of the burlap sacks out. “Careful, they’re heavy…” he warned Cain as the man walked up. Cain calmly picked up two of the bags and headed for the drop off point.

“Are you sure you can only carry two?” Glitch called after him sarcastically. “Might be quicker if you just picked up the whole truck.”

“You, my friend, are out of shape.” Cain dropped the sacks, took out his pocketknife, and spilled a shower of grain and dried fruit onto the ground.

“I didn’t hear you complaining about my shape last night,” Glitch huffed, tottering up with his own bag and dropping it with a thud.

“Your shape is beautiful. What I meant was, you’re not fit.” Cain reached out and touched Glitch’s arm gently to show he meant no insult. “I’m going to start dragging you out of that workshop of yours every day for a nice long walk.”

“I hate hiking. As you may well remember from our slog across the O.Z.”

“Glitch, you were on the run for annuals, you said you spent a lot of time in the forests. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you with yourself all day if you weren’t walking?

Glitch hooked his thumbs over his belt for a moment before answering. “I slept a lot,” he admitted.

Cain nodded slowly. “Me, too,” he said quietly.

They stood there a while staring out over the faintly greening trees.

“Glitch?”

His friend… his lover now…. glanced over at him inquiringly.

“Thanks for waking me up.”

Glitch reached over and pulled him closer. “Ditto.”

Just before their lips touched, an eerie shriek pierced the air in the not too far-off distance, the call was answered by another high pitched wail.

“You know, why don’t I kiss you in the truck?” Glitch said quickly.

“Yeah, I'll meet you there.”

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Written for: blackletter
Pairing: Ambrose/Cain Prompt: logos

DG had begged him, with big blue eyes that had left him sympathetic but unmoved.

The queen had given the impression that he should yield simply because she was the queen and wished it, but he’d resisted her as well.

It was Ambrose, surprisingly, who had trotted out cold, hard facts, and they were much harder to refute than girlish tears or royal whims.

“It’s much more practical for you to live here,” he had said one evening at dinner. “If you’re going to be in such a position of authority, you need swift access to the royal court. You need to be available to not only Central City, but Finaqua, and both palaces. You need to be seen and known by dignitaries. They’re going to have to trust you.”

It had made sense to Cain. He decided to stay.

*

DG had implored him to stop killing himself on his relentless quest for justice.

The queen had let it be known she did not approve and believed his conduct unfitting for a leader of Tin Men.

It was Ambrose who had shown up in his quarters after he returned from an all night ride in the rain after a lead to Zero had proved false, Ambrose who had brought a heated towel and a cup of coffee, Ambrose who had pointed out that if he made himself ill doing a job that he had trained others to do perfectly well, it would be of no benefit to anyone.

It had made sense to Cain. He decided to let it go.

*

DG had told him that she was worried about him, and how happy it would make her if he would try to be more sociable and find someone to share his heart.

The queen had made it plain she felt accountable for his well being, and suggested it was time he turned his thoughts to settling down in a responsible fashion.

It was Ambrose who had slipped into his bed in the middle of the moonlight, lithe and smooth in his silk pajamas, and stated that neither of them would ever be fit for anyone else, that neither of them would ever have the patience for anyone else, and that neither of them would ever love anyone else, so what was the point of wasting any more valuable time?

It had made sense to Cain. He decided then that Ambrose’s logic just could not be denied.

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Written for: oddsbobs
Pairing: Glitch/Cain Prompt: hats

“I feel ridiculous,” Glitch complained from beneath Cain’s hat brim.

“No, sunburn would feel ridiculous, so quit complaining.”

“But …”

Cain ran his hand over his close-cropped hair, white blond in the bright morning. “If you and DG plan on spending the entire day out here fiddling with those gizmos...”

“They’re called hydro….”

“Whatever…. You’re going to do it in a hat.”

“But… it just isn’t ‘me’. I feel like I should be striding about and barking orders at people or something.”

“Is that how you see me?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean…When you do it it’s commanding and sexy, when I do it, it’s… ridiculous.”

“Is that how you see yourself?”

“When did you turn into the amateur psychoanalyst, anyway? Isn’t that supposed to be my little hobby?”

“Glitch, psychoanalyzing you would take some poor sod the rest of their natural life. All I care about right now is you keeping that hat on your head for the day. What’s it going to take? Name your bribe.”

Even from the shadows of his hat, Cain could see the gleam in Glitch’s eyes. “Anything?”

Cain sighed. “If it doesn’t involve public nudity or scarves, yes.”

“Mm. Well, then, my second choice would involve a box of truffles and the bath in the Green Guest Suite. You know, the one with the skylight and the square tub with the little glass tiles and the ferns all around…”

“Done.”

“Glitch!” DG called from across the orchard.

“Coming, DG!”

“You will be,” Cain promised dryly. “If the hat stays on. I will be checking throughout the day.”

“You know you really should do something about that rampant paranoia of yours,” Glitch smiled.

“One issue at a time, Sweetheart. One issue at a time.”

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Written for: csi_sanders1129
Pairing: Glitch/Cain Prompt: DG supplied candy hearts

“What on earth?” Cain remarked, venturing into Glitch’s workshop with more trepidation than usual.

“I was visited this morning by a princess bearing gifts.”

“You know, I’m not sure letting her bring all this stuff back from the other side was such a great idea.”

“Oh, hush, most of the gadgets ceased working by the time they went through the storm anyway, and the rest was food that’ll be gone in a few days. Like these.” Glitch took a little cardboard box out of his pocket and showed them to Cain with obvious amusement.

Cain could see a jumble of pastel candy hearts through the clear window. He couldn’t believe anything so brightly colored could be considered food.

“Are you sure those are meant to be eaten?”

“That’s what she said, and I trust our girl. It’s curious, but they have little messages on them,” Glitch noted, turning one of the tiny candies in his fingers like a jeweler examining a small gem. “All different. Here, have a heart, Tin Man.”

Before Cain could protest that he didn’t want one, thank you, Glitch was choosing one for him. “Here, I’m sure you’re much too manly to go near the pink ones, try a nice green.”

Stoically ignoring the rather blurry red exhortation to “KISS HIM”, Cain humored Glitch’s whim by putting the candy in his mouth. It tasted to Cain like sweet, green chalk.

“Gah!”

“I rather like them,” Glitch decided, having munched through one speculatively at the same time.

“What did yours say?”

“It said ‘KISS HIM’,” Glitch reported, with a playful, indulgent smile.

‘So did mine. I thought you said they were all different.”

“Huh. They were when DG handed them to me this morning.” Glitch poured some into his open hand, and they both peered down at the rainbow of tiny hearts, all of which were proclaiming wildly in every direction KISS HIM KISS HIM KISS HIM.

“Do you think she’s trying to tell us something?” Cain asked wryly.

“Well, I for one, would never turn down a direct order from a Princess.”

“And you’re saying I would?”

“Prove it, tough guy.”

And that was how Glitch and Wyatt came to share their first kiss. It proved to be the first of many, many more, and any time they had a quarrel, someone would write KISS HIM somewhere conspicuous, and everyone lived harmoniously ever after.

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tinman, ficlet, requests

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