Guys, I really suck at the naming fics thing...
Drabbles written for the 'hidden talent' prompt at slashthedrabble:
Title: the day I got wrapped around your finger...
Fandom: Chuck
Pairing: Chuck/Bryce
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 500
Summary: (Also for this prompt at chuck_anonkink.) Chuck goes to Roan to finish his seduction training and Roan is surprised to find that Chuck already knows everything Roan could teach him. Chuck says he picked up a lot in college.
AO3
Chuck's nervous when he goes back to finish his training with Roan. Chuck has nothing to be ashamed of; he hasn't had a lot of lovers, but that's mostly because he's selective. Chuck's problem, since Jill, has been getting to the point in a relationship where sex might reasonably happen. Once he's actually in bed with someone, Chuck handles himself pretty well. The few lovers he's had since Stanford were more than happy with his technique. (And, to Chuck's chagrin, rather vocal about it.)
But all that Chuck knows about sex he learned in his fifth-grade health class or picked up in college. He expects spy sex techniques to be much more sophisticated. He expects Roan to be pitious of Chuck's stilted experience and lack of spy education. Except...
That's not what happens. Training begins, and it becomes clear very quickly that something is up. At first, Chuck thinks it's just a coincidence. But then he actually reads one of Roan's books (they have diagrams in them and everything) and, face burning, realizes why he's been passing Roan's class with a more or less unprecedented grade.
When Roan inevitably (mercifully) decides that Chuck doesn't really need training, Chuck can only shuffle his feet as Roan looks at him inquisitively and says, "You know, Chuck, I have to tell you. I've never met a trainee with such a natural talent. And I don't mean to offend you, but... I'm pleasantly surprised."
"Uh, yeah... I get that a lot."
Chuck can't tell Roan where he got this 'talent' - or, more importantly, who he got it from. So he just mutters something about experimenting a lot in college and flees home.
He doesn't know what to feel after that.
Every sex technique that Chuck has... Every smooth move he makes between the sheets, Chuck learned from Bryce. He didn't take notes or anything, but after you've had enough sex with a guy (especially if it's the first guy you ever had sex with) you tend to pick things up. And in college, people were having sex at every opportunity. Since Chuck and Bryce were roommates... they got a lot of opportunities.
Chuck doesn't know if he should feel humiliated that Bryce potentially used him as some sort of spy sex training dummy... or angry because maybe that's all their sex was to Bryce. Sad because Bryce told Chuck that he'd never been with a man either? (And maybe Bryce used his training because he was every bit as nervous then as Chuck was. Chuck didn't think so at the time.)
Or devastated? Because a lot of the things that Bryce told Chuck weren't true.
Chuck settles on 'uncomfortable' because the memories don't bother him as much as they should. He still believes that sex and love should come together with the person you're having sex with. So Chuck still can't regret being with Bryce, his first love, no matter the outcome.
[end.]
Title: Beautiful Stranger
Fandom(s): Tru Calling/Chuck
Pairing: Luc Johnston/Chuck Bartowski
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500
Summary: Luc Johnston has a gift. Actually, he would consider it more of a curse. But he's thankful he has it the night Charles Bartowski is murdered in a Los Angeles alley, execution-style.
Author's Note: Ahem. Yes, Luc Johnston as in Matthew Bomer's character on Tru Calling. You don't have to have seen any of that show to understand this. This is, in fact, an AU of the premise of that show. Luc has the gift of being able to do a day over instead of Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku).
AO3
He doesn't know how he does it, or why this "gift" was given to him. To be honest, he thinks that it's more of a curse than a gift, but the point isn't what Luc thinks; it's what he sees. When he raises his camera to shoot a crime scene, the odds are fifty-fifty... or maybe forty-sixty, by this point... that all he'll see is the scene just as it is.
The other fifty or sixty percent of the time, he sees the corpse - lying still and cold to every eye but that of Luc's lense - alive and in his or her last moments of life. He sees eyes wide open in fear or pain or dull resignation. He sees the dead pleading for a second chance.
And then Luc blacks out. When he wakes up, his day has begun again.
Most of the time, Luc doesn't bother deciding what he feels about his situation. It is what it is, and it saves people's lives. It's important, even if it's also a terrible burden to bear. But sometimes Luc can't stop himself from hoping. A really good day, reset, has an awful way of turning out to be not so good the second time around.
Today has been a very good day. Almost exclusively because Luc had to visit a BuyMore to replace his busted tripod instead of the camera shop he usually frequents. And because, when he went to the service desk to ask for help, the Nerd Herd associate on call made Luc wait for fifteen minutes while he finished helping a frazzled mother of three reboot her sons' virus-laden laptops free of charge.
Luc's never been so happy to get slow service in his life. Charles Bartowski - or "Chuck", as he tells Luc to call him - may be the single nicest guy Luc's met since coming to L.A. He's sincere, and funny, with warm brown eyes and a head full of curls. He blushes like crazy when he realizes that Luc is flirting with him and stammers charmingly when Luc asks for his number.
He is almost certainly the john doe under the sheet that Luc is standing over eight hours later, camera held in shaking hands, in some back alley in the city. A familiar pair of Converse poke out one end of the sheet and Luc recognizes the watch lying, busted, nearby.
Luc hopes hopes hopes that today is one of those days when his gift is exactly that, and is sure to put the camera between himself and Chuck's body before the ME pulls away the sheet.
Luc's knees go almost weak when Chuck looks up at him and silently screams, 'Help me!'
And Luc closes his eyes as he sees a muzzle pressed to the center of Chuck's forehead, clicking the shutter.
'I will,' he promises Chuck as the world fades to black.
[end.]
Title: it's just the dawning of our love
Fandom: Chuck
Pairing: Chuck/Bryce
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 500
Summary: Unbeknownst to many, Chuck has a beautiful singing voice. He and Bryce don't talk about it, but whenever Bryce is at his lowest, being sung to by Chuck is the only thing that can get him through it.
AO3
He wouldn't know if it hadn't been for pledge week. They were told that they would each have to take their turn serenading a sorority house, and Chuck began to fidget. This was hardly the most publicly humiliating task they'd been given as a part of their hazing, so of course Bryce wanted to know what gives.
When he asked, Chuck laughed - an awkward, nervous little laugh - and said that Bryce would need to get him really, really drunk before he could talk about it.
So Bryce did. Only, once Chuck got sufficiently inebriated, he didn't talk...
He sang.
He sang some random song they were listening to at the moment, and struck Bryce nearly speechless.
"Chuck... Chuck, that was-" Bryce couldn't even describe it.
"Awful," Chuck said. And lamented before Bryce could correct him, "Bryce, it is not cool to be able to sing like that if it's the only thing you've got going for you."
Even with more than a few beers in him, Bryce took offense to that, but Chuck held up a hand to stop Bryce from defending him. "How 'cool' were the kids in your high school glee club?" Chuck asked. "What was high school like for those kids? I don't need that here at Stanford, man."
Bryce stopped arguing. Though, when he suggested that Chuck sing badly the following day on purpose, it was with a selfish agenda. It was one thing to get hard listening to Chuck sing in the privacy of their shared room, Chuck too drunk and distraught to notice; it was another to do it in front of a more or less sober fraternity.
To this day, Chuck's voice is one of the few things that can touch Bryce, no matter what else is going on with him. And not just because Chuck's voice seems to have a hard line to Bryce's dick.
The first time Bryce killed a man, that night when he snuck back into his and Chuck's dorm room and crawled onto Chuck's bed, it wasn't to act on one of his by-then constant urges to just jump Chuck and burn off some of the sexual tension between them.
He wrapped his arms around the shape of Chuck beneath Chuck's blankets and buried his face in (he thinks) the crook of Chuck's neck.
When Chuck stiffened and questioned, "Bryce?" in a sleepy voice, Bryce just held him tighter and said, "Sing to me, Chuck."
Chuck must have thought- There's no telling what he thought. He laughed, but somehow the way Bryce said, "Please," shut him up and he sang bits and pieces of indie songs they both liked until Bryce fell asleep.
They never really talk about it. But Bryce crawls through the Morgan door at least once a month now. And when he curls into Chuck, Chuck just opens his arms - sometimes he pets Bryce's hair - and Chuck sings.
[end.]
Title: the day I got wrapped around your finger...
Fandom: Chuck
Pairing: Chuck/Bryce
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 500
Summary: (Also for this prompt at chuck_anonkink.) Chuck goes to Roan to finish his seduction training and Roan is surprised to find that Chuck already knows everything Roan could teach him. Chuck says he picked up a lot in college.
AO3
Chuck's nervous when he goes back to finish his training with Roan. Chuck has nothing to be ashamed of; he hasn't had a lot of lovers, but that's mostly because he's selective. Chuck's problem, since Jill, has been getting to the point in a relationship where sex might reasonably happen. Once he's actually in bed with someone, Chuck handles himself pretty well. The few lovers he's had since Stanford were more than happy with his technique. (And, to Chuck's chagrin, rather vocal about it.)
But all that Chuck knows about sex he learned in his fifth-grade health class or picked up in college. He expects spy sex techniques to be much more sophisticated. He expects Roan to be pitious of Chuck's stilted experience and lack of spy education. Except...
That's not what happens. Training begins, and it becomes clear very quickly that something is up. At first, Chuck thinks it's just a coincidence. But then he actually reads one of Roan's books (they have diagrams in them and everything) and, face burning, realizes why he's been passing Roan's class with a more or less unprecedented grade.
When Roan inevitably (mercifully) decides that Chuck doesn't really need training, Chuck can only shuffle his feet as Roan looks at him inquisitively and says, "You know, Chuck, I have to tell you. I've never met a trainee with such a natural talent. And I don't mean to offend you, but... I'm pleasantly surprised."
"Uh, yeah... I get that a lot."
Chuck can't tell Roan where he got this 'talent' - or, more importantly, who he got it from. So he just mutters something about experimenting a lot in college and flees home.
He doesn't know what to feel after that.
Every sex technique that Chuck has... Every smooth move he makes between the sheets, Chuck learned from Bryce. He didn't take notes or anything, but after you've had enough sex with a guy (especially if it's the first guy you ever had sex with) you tend to pick things up. And in college, people were having sex at every opportunity. Since Chuck and Bryce were roommates... they got a lot of opportunities.
Chuck doesn't know if he should feel humiliated that Bryce potentially used him as some sort of spy sex training dummy... or angry because maybe that's all their sex was to Bryce. Sad because Bryce told Chuck that he'd never been with a man either? (And maybe Bryce used his training because he was every bit as nervous then as Chuck was. Chuck didn't think so at the time.)
Or devastated? Because a lot of the things that Bryce told Chuck weren't true.
Chuck settles on 'uncomfortable' because the memories don't bother him as much as they should. He still believes that sex and love should come together with the person you're having sex with. So Chuck still can't regret being with Bryce, his first love, no matter the outcome.
[end.]
Title: Beautiful Stranger
Fandom(s): Tru Calling/Chuck
Pairing: Luc Johnston/Chuck Bartowski
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500
Summary: Luc Johnston has a gift. Actually, he would consider it more of a curse. But he's thankful he has it the night Charles Bartowski is murdered in a Los Angeles alley, execution-style.
Author's Note: Ahem. Yes, Luc Johnston as in Matthew Bomer's character on Tru Calling. You don't have to have seen any of that show to understand this. This is, in fact, an AU of the premise of that show. Luc has the gift of being able to do a day over instead of Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku).
AO3
He doesn't know how he does it, or why this "gift" was given to him. To be honest, he thinks that it's more of a curse than a gift, but the point isn't what Luc thinks; it's what he sees. When he raises his camera to shoot a crime scene, the odds are fifty-fifty... or maybe forty-sixty, by this point... that all he'll see is the scene just as it is.
The other fifty or sixty percent of the time, he sees the corpse - lying still and cold to every eye but that of Luc's lense - alive and in his or her last moments of life. He sees eyes wide open in fear or pain or dull resignation. He sees the dead pleading for a second chance.
And then Luc blacks out. When he wakes up, his day has begun again.
Most of the time, Luc doesn't bother deciding what he feels about his situation. It is what it is, and it saves people's lives. It's important, even if it's also a terrible burden to bear. But sometimes Luc can't stop himself from hoping. A really good day, reset, has an awful way of turning out to be not so good the second time around.
Today has been a very good day. Almost exclusively because Luc had to visit a BuyMore to replace his busted tripod instead of the camera shop he usually frequents. And because, when he went to the service desk to ask for help, the Nerd Herd associate on call made Luc wait for fifteen minutes while he finished helping a frazzled mother of three reboot her sons' virus-laden laptops free of charge.
Luc's never been so happy to get slow service in his life. Charles Bartowski - or "Chuck", as he tells Luc to call him - may be the single nicest guy Luc's met since coming to L.A. He's sincere, and funny, with warm brown eyes and a head full of curls. He blushes like crazy when he realizes that Luc is flirting with him and stammers charmingly when Luc asks for his number.
He is almost certainly the john doe under the sheet that Luc is standing over eight hours later, camera held in shaking hands, in some back alley in the city. A familiar pair of Converse poke out one end of the sheet and Luc recognizes the watch lying, busted, nearby.
Luc hopes hopes hopes that today is one of those days when his gift is exactly that, and is sure to put the camera between himself and Chuck's body before the ME pulls away the sheet.
Luc's knees go almost weak when Chuck looks up at him and silently screams, 'Help me!'
And Luc closes his eyes as he sees a muzzle pressed to the center of Chuck's forehead, clicking the shutter.
'I will,' he promises Chuck as the world fades to black.
[end.]
Title: it's just the dawning of our love
Fandom: Chuck
Pairing: Chuck/Bryce
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 500
Summary: Unbeknownst to many, Chuck has a beautiful singing voice. He and Bryce don't talk about it, but whenever Bryce is at his lowest, being sung to by Chuck is the only thing that can get him through it.
AO3
He wouldn't know if it hadn't been for pledge week. They were told that they would each have to take their turn serenading a sorority house, and Chuck began to fidget. This was hardly the most publicly humiliating task they'd been given as a part of their hazing, so of course Bryce wanted to know what gives.
When he asked, Chuck laughed - an awkward, nervous little laugh - and said that Bryce would need to get him really, really drunk before he could talk about it.
So Bryce did. Only, once Chuck got sufficiently inebriated, he didn't talk...
He sang.
He sang some random song they were listening to at the moment, and struck Bryce nearly speechless.
"Chuck... Chuck, that was-" Bryce couldn't even describe it.
"Awful," Chuck said. And lamented before Bryce could correct him, "Bryce, it is not cool to be able to sing like that if it's the only thing you've got going for you."
Even with more than a few beers in him, Bryce took offense to that, but Chuck held up a hand to stop Bryce from defending him. "How 'cool' were the kids in your high school glee club?" Chuck asked. "What was high school like for those kids? I don't need that here at Stanford, man."
Bryce stopped arguing. Though, when he suggested that Chuck sing badly the following day on purpose, it was with a selfish agenda. It was one thing to get hard listening to Chuck sing in the privacy of their shared room, Chuck too drunk and distraught to notice; it was another to do it in front of a more or less sober fraternity.
To this day, Chuck's voice is one of the few things that can touch Bryce, no matter what else is going on with him. And not just because Chuck's voice seems to have a hard line to Bryce's dick.
The first time Bryce killed a man, that night when he snuck back into his and Chuck's dorm room and crawled onto Chuck's bed, it wasn't to act on one of his by-then constant urges to just jump Chuck and burn off some of the sexual tension between them.
He wrapped his arms around the shape of Chuck beneath Chuck's blankets and buried his face in (he thinks) the crook of Chuck's neck.
When Chuck stiffened and questioned, "Bryce?" in a sleepy voice, Bryce just held him tighter and said, "Sing to me, Chuck."
Chuck must have thought- There's no telling what he thought. He laughed, but somehow the way Bryce said, "Please," shut him up and he sang bits and pieces of indie songs they both liked until Bryce fell asleep.
They never really talk about it. But Bryce crawls through the Morgan door at least once a month now. And when he curls into Chuck, Chuck just opens his arms - sometimes he pets Bryce's hair - and Chuck sings.
[end.]