(no subject)
I have loads of these, so someone besides me ought to read them. The idea behind them is random pairings of my own characters, so some of the pairings mentioned may never actually exist. But my characters sometimes randomly fall for each other without telling me, so who knows?
4.
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Eve/Milo
Milo flapped and wittered and worried, always a panic, always doing five things at once and Eve just watched him with her head propped on her hands, iPod on, wondering why he didn't just stop and listen to the music.
When she leaned across and kissed him he dropped his tuner - it hit the Lazarus stone he was working on and sang off it with a high, bright, xylophone note - and stared at her, mouth open, for a full eight seconds. She counted by the beats in the song.
"Wh- what was that for?"
She shrugged. "Why not?"
14.
How Fucking Romantic
Sam. Summer/Jenna
Sam was a charmer, or that was how Caroline put it, and Chris let his breath out through his nose in a not-quite-snort not-quite-laugh. Summer just raised an eyebrow, and when she left the room and the bottle landed on Sam, Chris said, "I dare you to charm Summer."
Sam blinked, and looked instantly at Jenna - who just smiled and said, "Why not?"
"You can't-" Caroline began, blushing, quite obviously shocked not only by the suggestion but the breeziness of Summer's girlfriend in the matter.
"You've got until Christmas superhall," Chris said, picking up his bottle of beer. "That's this Friday, mate."
"Make it Thursday superhall," Sam said, raising his drink and clinking it with Chris. He looked at Jenna again, but she was still just smiling.
***
Mirroring was useful; sitting opposite Summer in the bar and subtly copying her gestures, or the shape of them at least - too obvious and you just looked like a pillock - but Summer was more interested in her pint and packet of cigarettes, even though she did laugh at some of his jokes. He winked at her and she shifted so her generous breasts pushed against her black T-shirt for a second and he thought, Hang on a minute, who's seducing who here?
They sat on the back wall of the college, over the Cam, the lights from the moon and the Jerwood flickering shards of brightness in the water. They shared a can of beer, and Sam kept trying to catch her eye but she met his gaze like it meant nothing, and he wasn't exactly sure what to do next anymore, because he was pretty sure Summer would never fall for any of his expansive catalogue of roguish grins.
Jenna said she was busy with essays so Sam could take Summer Christmas shopping, but Summer bitched all day about how much she fucking hated fucking Christmas and seemed impervious to the charms of scarfs and gloves and winter coats, to breath hushing away white, dusk falling early and misty so every Christmas light wore a halo.
For his most dangerous stunt yet, he sent her a suggestive anonymous email over the university dating website.
She sent him a reply that said Fuck off, Sam.
He stood underneath her window and sang her favourite Leonard Cohen, piling on the accent - English girls were suckers for Irish accents - but she just leaned out, a cigarette dangling between her fingertips and a grin on her face, while the girl who lived below her waterballooned Sam with frightening accuracy.
He hung mistletoe over her door and slept on her doorstep and woke up to a note pinned on his coat that said, 'For god's sake Sam, get a girlfriend, you loser.'
He offered her chocolate. She was too hungover to take it.
He made her a CD. She told him he had crap taste in music.
After Christmas superhall he realised why Jenna had just smiled, because she and Summer were standing in the doorway to the JCR, arms around each other, Jenna's cheek against Summer's chest, Summer's head on Jenna's, eyes closed, a world of their own and no admittance for anyone else, even charmers with Irish accents. Romance was never going to work on Summer, because she already had love - and it wasn't a flowers and chocolate and mix CDs sort of love, it was blood and sweat and skin and soul love.
"You gotta do a forfeit now, mate." Chris said, leaning on his shoulder, grinning boozily.
Oh god, Sam needed to be drunker than this.
38.
Long Forgotten Fairytale
Kirsty/Dani
"That's not true," Dani said, and licked around her fingers as her ice cream ran down the side of its cornet. "You aren't a 'total nerd' now and you never have been a total nerd. Who said that?"
"Leaping to my defence so quickly? My hero." Kirsty tugged the flake out of her 99 with a worrying sucking sound, like a foot coming unstuck from six inches of mud, and waved it to illustrate her point. "Dani, everyone at school thinks I'm a total nerd. And we do live in a democratic society, so the majority wins." She shrugged, and bit the tip off her flake. "So I'll be a nerd. What do I care?"
"I care," Dani said hotly, and Kirsty laughed. "I do. And anyway, you haven't always been a nerd-"
"So I am one now."
"Shut up. In primary school everyone wanted to be friends with you."
"Oh yeah," Kirsty looked surprised - like she'd honestly forgotten - and offered Dani the end of her flake, which she took. "But still, primary school. Doesn't make me look too good if I only manage to be cool when I'm pre-pubescent."
"Some people never get to be cool," Dani said, brushing some loose dark-blonde curls behind her ear before eating the flake, and getting ice cream on the side of her face; Kirsty grinned.
"I'd completely forgotten that. God, there wasn't a kid in that school who wouldn't've given their baby teeth to be in my gang."
"You had all the best games. You always looked like you were all having so much fun."
"Yeah." Kirsty wrinkled her nose, and squinted across the beach below them, at the children busy in the rock pools and shrieking in the water, digging in the sand. "Growing up sucks, sometimes."
"Not everything about it," Dani said quietly, and Kirsty flicked her eyes to her with a little grin. The corners of Dani's mouth twitched. "You had . . . I mean, it was always you and Sophie and everyone even then, but . . . you were always with that Catherine Moore. I don't think I ever saw you two apart until she left."
"I guess not. She was my best friend when we were kids. I mean, she was a raving airhead and she's probably still never read a good book in her life, but she was my best friend."
Dani had gone quite still, playing with the end of her cornet. She rubbed the stickiness on her cheek without thinking about it properly, and said, "Did you - were you two - ?"
Kirsty put her head slightly on one side, watching Dani's downcast eyes. "Were we two what? Like you and me?"
"I just. Maybe I shouldn't have asked, I just-"
"Would it make a difference if we were?"
"No. Obviously not, it's just . . ." Dani sought for the words, and waved the very bottom of her cornet unconsciously. "You're so much more - more - you get things better than I do, you get everything better than I do, and I don't know, it'd just be one more thing that you-"
Kirsty put the end of her cornet in her mouth, then used her napkin to wipe Dani's cheek, and grinned at her shock. "You are the first person on this planet I have ever been in love with," she said. "And I don't 'get' anything, I just bullshit very effectively."
"You get me," Dani said quietly.
Kirsty let her hand rest over Dani's on the sea wall, feeling her bony fingers between Dani's plumper ones, sun warmed concrete underneath their fingertips. "I played with you once," Dani said. "In year four."
"Really? I don't remember that."
Dani smiled slightly, her eyes on their overlapping hands. "You came looking for me. You said you needed a princess and I had the right hair. Sophie was the prince, and you were an evil witch, and Clea - I don't - it was so long and complicated and involved. It was like living out a story. You always had the best games."
She raised her head and smiled at Kirsty, who was staring at her with a magical little smile, like she hadn't expected this at all.
"You still do," Dani said, and Kirsty raised her eyebrows as Dani tried to waggle hers and burst out laughing. Kirsty leaned in and licked Dani's still-sticky cheek, earning a yelp from her; Kirsty breathed against her ear, "Want to play?"
"Pervert." Dani hit at Kirsty's chest.
"That's not very nice."
"What if someone saw?"
"No-one saw. Anyway, it's the twenty-first bloody century. They can get over it."
"Idiot."
"Ouch. I bleed."
"Nerd."
"You bitch!"
Dani laughed until her sides hurt and there were tears in her eyes, and knew that this was going to be the best summer of her life, and then there were real tears in her eyes, and she didn't know why.
Growing up did suck.
The odds of anyone being interested in these except me are slim, I do accept that, heh. Two out of three gay. Hm. I think on the whole the stories spread out fairly equally across the sexuality scale, so I guess this selection was just lucky ;)
4.
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Eve/Milo
Milo flapped and wittered and worried, always a panic, always doing five things at once and Eve just watched him with her head propped on her hands, iPod on, wondering why he didn't just stop and listen to the music.
When she leaned across and kissed him he dropped his tuner - it hit the Lazarus stone he was working on and sang off it with a high, bright, xylophone note - and stared at her, mouth open, for a full eight seconds. She counted by the beats in the song.
"Wh- what was that for?"
She shrugged. "Why not?"
14.
How Fucking Romantic
Sam. Summer/Jenna
Sam was a charmer, or that was how Caroline put it, and Chris let his breath out through his nose in a not-quite-snort not-quite-laugh. Summer just raised an eyebrow, and when she left the room and the bottle landed on Sam, Chris said, "I dare you to charm Summer."
Sam blinked, and looked instantly at Jenna - who just smiled and said, "Why not?"
"You can't-" Caroline began, blushing, quite obviously shocked not only by the suggestion but the breeziness of Summer's girlfriend in the matter.
"You've got until Christmas superhall," Chris said, picking up his bottle of beer. "That's this Friday, mate."
"Make it Thursday superhall," Sam said, raising his drink and clinking it with Chris. He looked at Jenna again, but she was still just smiling.
***
Mirroring was useful; sitting opposite Summer in the bar and subtly copying her gestures, or the shape of them at least - too obvious and you just looked like a pillock - but Summer was more interested in her pint and packet of cigarettes, even though she did laugh at some of his jokes. He winked at her and she shifted so her generous breasts pushed against her black T-shirt for a second and he thought, Hang on a minute, who's seducing who here?
They sat on the back wall of the college, over the Cam, the lights from the moon and the Jerwood flickering shards of brightness in the water. They shared a can of beer, and Sam kept trying to catch her eye but she met his gaze like it meant nothing, and he wasn't exactly sure what to do next anymore, because he was pretty sure Summer would never fall for any of his expansive catalogue of roguish grins.
Jenna said she was busy with essays so Sam could take Summer Christmas shopping, but Summer bitched all day about how much she fucking hated fucking Christmas and seemed impervious to the charms of scarfs and gloves and winter coats, to breath hushing away white, dusk falling early and misty so every Christmas light wore a halo.
For his most dangerous stunt yet, he sent her a suggestive anonymous email over the university dating website.
She sent him a reply that said Fuck off, Sam.
He stood underneath her window and sang her favourite Leonard Cohen, piling on the accent - English girls were suckers for Irish accents - but she just leaned out, a cigarette dangling between her fingertips and a grin on her face, while the girl who lived below her waterballooned Sam with frightening accuracy.
He hung mistletoe over her door and slept on her doorstep and woke up to a note pinned on his coat that said, 'For god's sake Sam, get a girlfriend, you loser.'
He offered her chocolate. She was too hungover to take it.
He made her a CD. She told him he had crap taste in music.
After Christmas superhall he realised why Jenna had just smiled, because she and Summer were standing in the doorway to the JCR, arms around each other, Jenna's cheek against Summer's chest, Summer's head on Jenna's, eyes closed, a world of their own and no admittance for anyone else, even charmers with Irish accents. Romance was never going to work on Summer, because she already had love - and it wasn't a flowers and chocolate and mix CDs sort of love, it was blood and sweat and skin and soul love.
"You gotta do a forfeit now, mate." Chris said, leaning on his shoulder, grinning boozily.
Oh god, Sam needed to be drunker than this.
38.
Long Forgotten Fairytale
Kirsty/Dani
"That's not true," Dani said, and licked around her fingers as her ice cream ran down the side of its cornet. "You aren't a 'total nerd' now and you never have been a total nerd. Who said that?"
"Leaping to my defence so quickly? My hero." Kirsty tugged the flake out of her 99 with a worrying sucking sound, like a foot coming unstuck from six inches of mud, and waved it to illustrate her point. "Dani, everyone at school thinks I'm a total nerd. And we do live in a democratic society, so the majority wins." She shrugged, and bit the tip off her flake. "So I'll be a nerd. What do I care?"
"I care," Dani said hotly, and Kirsty laughed. "I do. And anyway, you haven't always been a nerd-"
"So I am one now."
"Shut up. In primary school everyone wanted to be friends with you."
"Oh yeah," Kirsty looked surprised - like she'd honestly forgotten - and offered Dani the end of her flake, which she took. "But still, primary school. Doesn't make me look too good if I only manage to be cool when I'm pre-pubescent."
"Some people never get to be cool," Dani said, brushing some loose dark-blonde curls behind her ear before eating the flake, and getting ice cream on the side of her face; Kirsty grinned.
"I'd completely forgotten that. God, there wasn't a kid in that school who wouldn't've given their baby teeth to be in my gang."
"You had all the best games. You always looked like you were all having so much fun."
"Yeah." Kirsty wrinkled her nose, and squinted across the beach below them, at the children busy in the rock pools and shrieking in the water, digging in the sand. "Growing up sucks, sometimes."
"Not everything about it," Dani said quietly, and Kirsty flicked her eyes to her with a little grin. The corners of Dani's mouth twitched. "You had . . . I mean, it was always you and Sophie and everyone even then, but . . . you were always with that Catherine Moore. I don't think I ever saw you two apart until she left."
"I guess not. She was my best friend when we were kids. I mean, she was a raving airhead and she's probably still never read a good book in her life, but she was my best friend."
Dani had gone quite still, playing with the end of her cornet. She rubbed the stickiness on her cheek without thinking about it properly, and said, "Did you - were you two - ?"
Kirsty put her head slightly on one side, watching Dani's downcast eyes. "Were we two what? Like you and me?"
"I just. Maybe I shouldn't have asked, I just-"
"Would it make a difference if we were?"
"No. Obviously not, it's just . . ." Dani sought for the words, and waved the very bottom of her cornet unconsciously. "You're so much more - more - you get things better than I do, you get everything better than I do, and I don't know, it'd just be one more thing that you-"
Kirsty put the end of her cornet in her mouth, then used her napkin to wipe Dani's cheek, and grinned at her shock. "You are the first person on this planet I have ever been in love with," she said. "And I don't 'get' anything, I just bullshit very effectively."
"You get me," Dani said quietly.
Kirsty let her hand rest over Dani's on the sea wall, feeling her bony fingers between Dani's plumper ones, sun warmed concrete underneath their fingertips. "I played with you once," Dani said. "In year four."
"Really? I don't remember that."
Dani smiled slightly, her eyes on their overlapping hands. "You came looking for me. You said you needed a princess and I had the right hair. Sophie was the prince, and you were an evil witch, and Clea - I don't - it was so long and complicated and involved. It was like living out a story. You always had the best games."
She raised her head and smiled at Kirsty, who was staring at her with a magical little smile, like she hadn't expected this at all.
"You still do," Dani said, and Kirsty raised her eyebrows as Dani tried to waggle hers and burst out laughing. Kirsty leaned in and licked Dani's still-sticky cheek, earning a yelp from her; Kirsty breathed against her ear, "Want to play?"
"Pervert." Dani hit at Kirsty's chest.
"That's not very nice."
"What if someone saw?"
"No-one saw. Anyway, it's the twenty-first bloody century. They can get over it."
"Idiot."
"Ouch. I bleed."
"Nerd."
"You bitch!"
Dani laughed until her sides hurt and there were tears in her eyes, and knew that this was going to be the best summer of her life, and then there were real tears in her eyes, and she didn't know why.
Growing up did suck.
The odds of anyone being interested in these except me are slim, I do accept that, heh. Two out of three gay. Hm. I think on the whole the stories spread out fairly equally across the sexuality scale, so I guess this selection was just lucky ;)