Three Dollhouse Ficlets
All were written for crickets impromptu multi fandom imPromptathon.
Title: Lunch Break
Pairing: Mag/Zone
Rating: PG
Words: 729
Warnings: Spoilers for “Epitaph One”. Also it’s kind of angsty.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Mag and Zone look for food.
A/N: For the prompt Mag/Zone, rushed.
Mag and Zone have been moving for two weeks straight and they’re just barely outside the city limits. They lost Caroline a week ago when they were running from the butchers. It’s just the two of them now, heading towards nothing at all but they keep going just the same.
They keep passing people on the street, some Actuals and some not, and they all look like they’re half-crazy and half-starved. Mag wants to pick up every damn stray they pass, but Zone tells her there’s no use taking home a dog if you’re just going to have to shoot in the head later. She calls him a bastard, he calls it practical and they leave it at that.
The need to eat is getting dire. Zone’s pretty sure he’s about two more missed meals away from seeing dancing, purple elephants march down the street. He thinks it might make for a nice change of pace. Mag’s no better off, hell she might be worse. She won’t say anything about it though. She just keeps her head up and walks around with that you can go screw yourself look on her face that drives him crazy, but he can see that her hands are starting to shake.
When they spot the convenience store Zone says a silent prayer that it hasn’t been looted. Then he backs that prayer up with one asking that it not be inhabited by someone looking to rip them to shreds. The place is empty, trashed out, and he tries not to meet Mag’s eyes.
“Let’s give it a once over anyway,” he says looking around doubtfully at the empty shelves. Mag nods and they split up, keeping their guns out while they poke through the wreckage. Mag heads to the back and after a moment he hears her squeal.
“Mag!” he calls out, feeling panic rising in his chest. She emerges from the back and she’s grinning. He’s not sure if he’s ever seen her do that before.
“Manna,” she says happily. “Manna from heaven.”
She holds out her hand to reveal two chocolate bars, still intact with about an inch of dust on the wrappers.
“Looks like we eat like king’s tonight,” he says sarcastically. She slaps his arm and pushes one of the bars into his hand.
“Food’s, food Zone, and chocolate is the best kind.”
He rolls his eyes and shoves his bar into his pocket. He glances around at the cameras mounted in the corners and feels his stomach twist. Mag is carefully unwrapping her bar.
“Oh God…” she groans, closing her eyes as she takes the first bite.
“Hurry up, tech’s making me twitchy,” Zone says.
“Relax, it’s busted.”
“I still don’t like it. Eat up and let’s move out. We’ve got ground that’s not going to cover itself.”
Zone moves over to the door and gazes out at the empty landscape. There’s too many windows in this place, he feels like someone’s watching them.
“We’re sitting ducks here and you know what happens to ducks that sit,” he says absently.
“They get dead?” Mag asks around a mouthful of chocolate.
“They get dead,” Zone agrees.
Mag licks the last bit of chocolate from her wrapper and stares lustily at Zone’s ass. Zone smirks, unless she’s had a change of heart he doesn’t think it’s his body she wants. He tosses her his bar without giving it a second thought. She catches it, but her eyebrows narrow ominously.
“Zone, you’ve got to eat,” she says and tries to push the candy back into his hand. He shakes his head.
“Sugar just makes you crash, one of us needs to stay sharp.”
“Cut the macho crap and eat the damn chocolate.”
He shakes his head again and tries to ignore the rumbling in his stomach.
“I’ll wait till we find something edible, thanks. Now come on, you’re going to have to take that one to go.”
She sighs and takes a vicious bite of her bar. Zone thinks she must have been starving or she would have argued about it for another twenty minutes at least. He tightens his grip on his gun as they head back out to the road.
Mag sighs and takes another bite.
“It’s manna, man. Delicious, sugar-coated manna.”
Zone smiles grimly and says a third prayer that they stumble on a steak, medium rare soon
.
Title: The Last Safe Place
Pairing: Adelle/Topher
Rating: PG
Words: 614
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Warnings: Spoilers for “Epitath One”. Also angsty.
Summary: Adelle and Topher get ready to turn in for the night.
A/N: Written for the prompt Topher/Adelle, “hideaway.”
“Are you coming?”
Adelle turns away from the circle to see Topher hovering nervously outside of his door. It’s rare for him to venture this far out of his room these days, and she can tell he only did it because he’s exhausted. He won’t fall asleep without her anymore.
She smiles and crosses the room to take his hand in her own. She’s feeling tired herself, it’s been a long day. Then again she can’t remember the last time one felt short. She gives Topher’s hand a light squeeze.
“Let’s go, I’m a bit knackered myself.”
Topher nods absently and let’s her lead him back inside the room. It breaks her heart to see him like this, so lost in his own head. She shouldn’t have to read bedtime stories to one of the brightest minds of the twenty-first century.
He immediately slides down into the hideaway they’ve come to refer to as the bed. Adelle takes a moment to slip off her shoes and place her gun near Topher’s etch-a-sketch. She likes to keep it within grabbing distance just in case the butchers find a way in during the night.
Topher is busy scribbling on the wall when Adelle lowers herself in beside him. It’s a tight fit, but she’s gotten used to it. In fact curling up next to Topher is the most normal part of her day now. She feels safe here when it’s just the two of them. Out there with the others, there are too many stares and whispers. They look at her as if she doesn’t belong and they’re right of course. She supposes the big bad wolf shouldn’t expect to bed down with the piggies, not after she blew their house down.
She tucks her knees behind Topher’s and drapes an arm over his waist. She uses her other arm to prop herself up to get a better look at what he’s writing. It’s usually equations. Adelle can never tell if they’re brilliant or just gibberish. Topher moves his hand to block her view.
“What are you writing?” she asks. Her curiosity is peaked; Topher rarely hides anything from her.
“It’s nothing…” he says quickly.
“Then show me.”
She reaches out and pushes his hand away from the wall. She sighs when she sees the phrase “I am become death” printed over and over again.
“Oh, Topher,” she says sadly.
“I built a bomb…who builds a bomb and doesn’t expect it to go off? I made people into play things and the children tore them apart. The world stopped turning…I did that. I made it stop…I’m the monster under the bed…”
His voice breaks and Adelle pulls him closer.
“Listen to me, you are not a monster, you’re a man. A brilliant man that made something that was bigger than he could contain. It’s not what we did that matters, Topher. It’s what we do now. We are going to find a way to clean up this mess. I promise you.”
Topher turns and buries his face in her hair. She presses a kiss to the top of his head and reaches behind him to rub the words away. She doesn’t want him to look at them anymore.
“My fault,” he mumbles.
Adelle shakes her head.
“No sweetheart, it’s our fault and it’s their fault, but it’s not yours alone. There are far worse monsters out there than the likes of you and me.”
“I’m so tired…” Topher whispers.
Adelle reaches down to the end of the bed and finds their blanket. She pulls it around them, taking extra care to tuck Topher in before settling back down.
“Then let’s go to sleep,” she whispers back.
Title: I’ll be a Real Girl Someday
Character: Echo
Rating: PG
Words: 245
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Written for the prompt Echo, "dreams".
At night when she slips into the pod she dreams herself. She’s not supposed to dream at all, Topher will insist, but she does. She dreams and in them she’s not Ellie or Susan or Caroline. She’s just Echo and her dreams are her own.
Sometimes Victor and Sierra are there and they sit together and laugh about nothing at all. Sometimes she swims laps in a pool that has no end.
Sometimes she’s covered in red and there are people around her and they won’t wake up, no matter how much she shakes them. Sometimes she can taste the red on her lips and it’s warm and bitter on her tongue.
Sometimes a man is there and he’s strong and tall and sturdy and he says he wants to save her, but she knows if he had his way she would disappear. She runs from him through corridors that twist and turn and always end up in the same place.
Sometimes she dreams of Boyd. He watches her, standing just in the shadows while she paints flowers in a vase. These dreams make her feel happy and safe.
When the morning comes she wakes up with the others and eats breakfast before visiting Topher and his chair. She’s knows he’s going to make her someone else, but she’s not afraid.
She always comes back. Later she’ll climb into her pod and she’ll sleep and then she’ll dream and be Echo and no one else.