Ten birthday drabbles
... because I won't finish a fic I'm writing for her in time. adventurepants!! THESE ARE SOMEWHAT RELEVANT TO YOUR INTERESTS; happy birthday!
1:High School Musical:Sharpay+Ryan
With Ryan in New York and Sharpay still in New Mexico, in dorms, its almost like she doesn't have a twin brother any more. And at first it was like, yay, no sharing the spotlight, but one week in she's calling, texting, even emailing tiny missives crammed with emoticons, because that space beside her?
It doesn't feel like an unobstructed view. It feels empty.
Ryan leaves her voicemails that she checks between classes, and when another girl in her drama class asks her about senior year productions, Sharpay looks up from her phone, grins, and says "My brother choreographed the whole thing."
2:Angel, The Series:Fred
Fred dreams in caves and monsters; Fred sees worlds that aren't her own and aren't Pylea, either. Fred's dreams are mutated into nightmares and they scare her, and some nights she wakes in the Hyperion stillness and
shakes from head to toe.
Some nights she slithers down the stairs in her nightgown and gathers in the daylight rooms, and she thinks - this afternoon, Charles sat right there, And Cordelia stood there, and Angel was in the doorway there - his shoulders taking up the whole space - and she takes a deep breath.
And when she remembers she isn't alone, she can sleep again.
3:Dead Like Me:George+Reggie
Watcing Reggie sleep, George figures, is probably really creepy. Like it makes her sound like a sicko, watching her eleven year old sister toss and turn.
But there's a real peace in it, she thinks. She can see her sister bare, without that mask she wears; she can see who her sister really is. George wishes she'd bothered to look when she was alive - George wishes she'd realised how special Reggie was when she could've shown her she knew.
She has things to do in the morning, but George stays all night, because she thinks Reggie sleeps better when she's there.
4:The Suite Life of Zack and Cody:London Tipton
When London is twenty-one she goes to New York to play Socialite; she smiles and names her way into clubs, is dripping with labels. She has a penthouse with a stunning view.
Everything is easy. A breeze.
Boys come and go, and so do gaggles of girls; nothing, no one is constant. Go with the flow, right? It doesn't matter, right? This the real world.
Still, when the social pendulum swings away and back again, when boy du jour has left without breakfast, London checks her emails from her Blackberry and there's one from Maddie - short, cheerful, just checking in.
And London feels grounded again.
5:Gossip Girl RPF:Blake Lively/Leighton Meester
It's not that they try to third-wheel her or anything, it's just fucking awkward sometimes to hang with BlakeAndPenn, because - nothing against Penn - she just doesn't feel the love in that particular configuration.
And Blake knows, she thinks, because there are moments - just tiny snowballs of moments in this giant-grid city, when they stand on a street corner and he's a little way ahead, lost in the crowd, and Blake takes Leighton's hand and squeezes. Gives her that look that says 'I know, but I love you more.'
And it helps. Hell, sometimes it's even enough.
6:Buffy the Vampire Slayer:Anya
When the nights are quiet - and that's not often, but it's never been often since Xander met Buffy - Xander finds himself in basements surrounded by boxes and dustballs and mothballs and accumulated crap.
He remembers a box that felt so strangely heavy in his hands. He remembers the end of the world, and he remembers a proposal. He remembers the way it felt to kiss her, and this is the only way he can remember it. The only way he can recall, vividly and without narrow/tunnel vision, exactly what it was like to love Anya.
Alone in basements, he misses her.
7:High School Musical:Troy/Gabriella
When she comes home for the summer, everyone thinks they've broken up - long over. Gabriella's a little tired of promising everyone that they still see each other a lot, and they're kind of even more serious now than they were in high school.
The year at college has opened her eyes. She knows - well, kind of - that your high school sweetheart isn't always your husband. She's also seen dumped roommates and frat-boy jerks and thinks, my boy is special.
In almost four years, he hasn't shown her a reason to leave - and she's not going anywhere until he does.
8:High School Musical RPF:Ashley Tisdale/Vanessa Hudgens
When Ashley breaks up with her boyfriend it's not even at all like the world is ending, and that's totally more upsetting than the breakup because, like, isn't she supposed to care?
"It's just... I didn't feel anything," she tells Vanessa. "You know?"
Vanessa nods like she gets it, even though she has Zac and she is a girl that feels everything with all her heart.
"Well," she says, "You'll always have me." She leans over to kiss Ashley's cheek smelling like vanilla and lilacs and a little like perfection.
And suddenly, Ashley feels everything she was supposed to feel with him.
9:The Suite Life of Zack and Cody:Maddie
Maddie has plans. And okay, so maybe plans take money and she seriously doesn't have any, but that's what time and jobs are for, right? She's fifteen, and somehow, she'll make things work.
She just has to.
Maddie goes to sleep at night and candy counters and heiresses are replaced by rows of quiet study carrels and Ivy Leagues; she sees dorm rooms and heavy books and sometimes, she thinks she can even smell the chalk dust.
She sees a law degree
When she sleeps, all Maddie sees is college. When she dreams, it's close enough the she can almost taste it.
10:High School Musical:Kelsi
Kelsi understands emotions the way she does music; they're like a language. Kelsi knows to expect time-changes and crescendos and all sorts of things. Kelsi knows how to write her feelings, her aspirations and breathe life into them.
Kelsi explains it all to Ryan once on a corner of Times Square, killing time before seeing a show. He grins at her when she's done so she'll stop worrying her lip between her
teeth and says "I understand, you know. It's how I feel about dance."
She smiles back, and they swing companionable arms around each other's waists and walk into the theatre.
1:High School Musical:Sharpay+Ryan
With Ryan in New York and Sharpay still in New Mexico, in dorms, its almost like she doesn't have a twin brother any more. And at first it was like, yay, no sharing the spotlight, but one week in she's calling, texting, even emailing tiny missives crammed with emoticons, because that space beside her?
It doesn't feel like an unobstructed view. It feels empty.
Ryan leaves her voicemails that she checks between classes, and when another girl in her drama class asks her about senior year productions, Sharpay looks up from her phone, grins, and says "My brother choreographed the whole thing."
2:Angel, The Series:Fred
Fred dreams in caves and monsters; Fred sees worlds that aren't her own and aren't Pylea, either. Fred's dreams are mutated into nightmares and they scare her, and some nights she wakes in the Hyperion stillness and
shakes from head to toe.
Some nights she slithers down the stairs in her nightgown and gathers in the daylight rooms, and she thinks - this afternoon, Charles sat right there, And Cordelia stood there, and Angel was in the doorway there - his shoulders taking up the whole space - and she takes a deep breath.
And when she remembers she isn't alone, she can sleep again.
3:Dead Like Me:George+Reggie
Watcing Reggie sleep, George figures, is probably really creepy. Like it makes her sound like a sicko, watching her eleven year old sister toss and turn.
But there's a real peace in it, she thinks. She can see her sister bare, without that mask she wears; she can see who her sister really is. George wishes she'd bothered to look when she was alive - George wishes she'd realised how special Reggie was when she could've shown her she knew.
She has things to do in the morning, but George stays all night, because she thinks Reggie sleeps better when she's there.
4:The Suite Life of Zack and Cody:London Tipton
When London is twenty-one she goes to New York to play Socialite; she smiles and names her way into clubs, is dripping with labels. She has a penthouse with a stunning view.
Everything is easy. A breeze.
Boys come and go, and so do gaggles of girls; nothing, no one is constant. Go with the flow, right? It doesn't matter, right? This the real world.
Still, when the social pendulum swings away and back again, when boy du jour has left without breakfast, London checks her emails from her Blackberry and there's one from Maddie - short, cheerful, just checking in.
And London feels grounded again.
5:Gossip Girl RPF:Blake Lively/Leighton Meester
It's not that they try to third-wheel her or anything, it's just fucking awkward sometimes to hang with BlakeAndPenn, because - nothing against Penn - she just doesn't feel the love in that particular configuration.
And Blake knows, she thinks, because there are moments - just tiny snowballs of moments in this giant-grid city, when they stand on a street corner and he's a little way ahead, lost in the crowd, and Blake takes Leighton's hand and squeezes. Gives her that look that says 'I know, but I love you more.'
And it helps. Hell, sometimes it's even enough.
6:Buffy the Vampire Slayer:Anya
When the nights are quiet - and that's not often, but it's never been often since Xander met Buffy - Xander finds himself in basements surrounded by boxes and dustballs and mothballs and accumulated crap.
He remembers a box that felt so strangely heavy in his hands. He remembers the end of the world, and he remembers a proposal. He remembers the way it felt to kiss her, and this is the only way he can remember it. The only way he can recall, vividly and without narrow/tunnel vision, exactly what it was like to love Anya.
Alone in basements, he misses her.
7:High School Musical:Troy/Gabriella
When she comes home for the summer, everyone thinks they've broken up - long over. Gabriella's a little tired of promising everyone that they still see each other a lot, and they're kind of even more serious now than they were in high school.
The year at college has opened her eyes. She knows - well, kind of - that your high school sweetheart isn't always your husband. She's also seen dumped roommates and frat-boy jerks and thinks, my boy is special.
In almost four years, he hasn't shown her a reason to leave - and she's not going anywhere until he does.
8:High School Musical RPF:Ashley Tisdale/Vanessa Hudgens
When Ashley breaks up with her boyfriend it's not even at all like the world is ending, and that's totally more upsetting than the breakup because, like, isn't she supposed to care?
"It's just... I didn't feel anything," she tells Vanessa. "You know?"
Vanessa nods like she gets it, even though she has Zac and she is a girl that feels everything with all her heart.
"Well," she says, "You'll always have me." She leans over to kiss Ashley's cheek smelling like vanilla and lilacs and a little like perfection.
And suddenly, Ashley feels everything she was supposed to feel with him.
9:The Suite Life of Zack and Cody:Maddie
Maddie has plans. And okay, so maybe plans take money and she seriously doesn't have any, but that's what time and jobs are for, right? She's fifteen, and somehow, she'll make things work.
She just has to.
Maddie goes to sleep at night and candy counters and heiresses are replaced by rows of quiet study carrels and Ivy Leagues; she sees dorm rooms and heavy books and sometimes, she thinks she can even smell the chalk dust.
She sees a law degree
When she sleeps, all Maddie sees is college. When she dreams, it's close enough the she can almost taste it.
10:High School Musical:Kelsi
Kelsi understands emotions the way she does music; they're like a language. Kelsi knows to expect time-changes and crescendos and all sorts of things. Kelsi knows how to write her feelings, her aspirations and breathe life into them.
Kelsi explains it all to Ryan once on a corner of Times Square, killing time before seeing a show. He grins at her when she's done so she'll stop worrying her lip between her
teeth and says "I understand, you know. It's how I feel about dance."
She smiles back, and they swing companionable arms around each other's waists and walk into the theatre.