Drabble dump (1 HP + 9 Animorphs + 1 Bones)
Below the cut!
Title: That Time Again
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: James/Lily, Severus/Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Harry
Spoilers: DH
Words: 372
Rating & Warnings: PG, kissing & death
Prompt: mwpp_mischief #219: 3:44 PM
Summary: It's 3:44 PM and things can change so quickly.
It's 3:44 PM and Lily swings beside her sister, forward and back, forward and back. In the bushes a boy with a hooked nose and his father's shirt watches red hair shine in the afternoon sun.
It's 3:44 PM and they're halfway to Hogwarts. James and Sirius laugh at stories of pranks they've pulled, Peter laughing right along with them though he has no stories of his own to share, and Remus hides his scars behind a book in the corner. Lily and Severus sit side by side and she pries him for information, everything he knows about Hogwarts and the magical world, even though he doesn't know any more than he did in the forest yesterday, or on the train platform today.
It's 3:44 PM and Lily is helping Severus study for exams in the library. James trips on his way by and accidentally-on-purpose whacks Severus in the back with his bag. "Oops," he laughs, and walks away. Severus makes as if to follow but Lily pulls him back.
It's 3:44 PM and summertime again. Lily and Severus are fourteen and share their first kiss in the park where they met. It doesn't happen again. Halfway across the country Sirius is at the Potters' and James' mother has left them a tray of cookies as Sirius tells James about his own parents.
It's 3:44 PM and they've just finished another set of O.W.L.s. Lily tells James to stop bullying Severus and James asks her to go out with him. She shoots him down and moves to help her friend and Severus can't help it, his face is burning and the whole year is watching and the word just slips out. Mudblood.
It's 3:44 PM and they're on their way back to London for the last time. Lily is snogging James in the boys’ room and Severus sits with his fellow Slytherins, silent and sallow as they talk of death.
It's 3:44 AM and Voldemort is gone. Lily and James lie motionless in Godric's Hollow as a child cries in his crib with a mark on his forehead. Severus stands with the Death Eaters as they await their master and somewhere in the night a flying motorcycle speeds towards nothing but grief.
*
Title: Straight On Until
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Jake
Spoilers: None
Words: 354
Rating: PG
Prompt: Fill in the Blank: Any, any, second ____ to the ____ and straight on until ____ (Filled with Animorphs, Jake, second cage to the lions and straight on until tigers)
He lands behind one of those big fake rocks they put in exhibits to make them look real from above and demorphs, hunkering down so he won't be seen. Then he morphs again, a familiar morph, orange and black fur rippling up and down his arms and legs. A few moments later he pads out into the open, a fully grown male Siberian tiger. A little girl gives an excited shriek and points him out to her mother from where a crowd is gathered around the railing, and other exclamations follow. He flicks his ears in annoyance and doesn't stop, methodically searching out the tiger whose form he's taken.
The big cat is stretched out in the shade, tail swishing lazily back and forth. He has one eye open but doesn't seem to mind Jake's approach, as long as he minds his distance. Jake makes sure to do so, taking a seat a small distance away.
< I wonder, were you born in captivity? >
The tiger's ears flick once, as if discouraging an annoying fly.
< If you weren't you were probably captured young, right? So you've never hunted for yourself. > He isn't expecting a response, so he pauses only to think. < Never had a chance to use your claws and teeth, except to tear apart a frozen, long dead hunk of meat. Maybe shredded an ear or two.
< Silly, right? I mean, they're your weapons. Your teeth, your claws. Your natural defense. I'm only borrowing them. Thanks, by the way. But I use them more than you do. Bet Mother Nature didn't see that one coming, did she? Your body was never meant to fight Hork-Bajir and Dracon beams. That's why it keeps getting torn up, night after night after night. >
He keeps talking, in private thought speech, about Cassie and Marco and difficulties with the team. His family, school, nightmares. When he has nothing left to say he stands, sparing a final glance for the tiger whose body he shares for up to two hours at a time.
< Thanks, > he says, and vanishes back into the brush.
*
Title: Reruns
Fandom: Bones
Characters: Zack, Hodgins
Spoilers: None (set ~s1)Words: 156
Rating: PG
Prompt: Bones, Zack/Hodgins, watching reruns of Firefly
"Didn't I ask you to take out the trash?"
"You sound like my mother. I'll do it later; I'm working on my dissertation."
"Uh huh." Hodgins eyed the laptop on the floor (closed) and the boy with his head hanging over the edge of the sofa (Zack). "And how's that working out for you?"
"Quite well, actually. I find the excess blood flow to my head while upside down to be very mentally stimulating. A purely psychological reaction, of course." Zack shrugged.
"And the episode of Firefly, that's mentally stimulating too?"
"Oh, yes. Completely scientifically inaccurate, of course. This man, for instance. The gunshot wound that supposedly killed him is at least two centimeters to the left of the nearest vital organ. If given time the blood loss would have killed him, but he died in seconds. And--"
"Don't ruin the show, okay? I'm only watching it for this Zoe chick."
"She is very attractive."
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel, Marco, Drode
Spoilers: Whenever they find out about Crayak, references to MM3.
Words: 309
Rating: PG
Prompt: Punching the Timestream; Alternate Timelines: Author's choice; author's choice; "Great. Thanks to you, the dominant species on the planet is now descended from lizards, not monkeys. You just killed all of humanity. Are you happy now?"
"So you're saying Crayak will allow us to change the timelines?"
"Yes."
"And we can do anything we want?"
"Yes."
"And there's no price, no repercussions, no Jake getting shot in the forehead crossing the Delaware with Washington?"
"Yes."
Rachel grinned. "Cool."
Marco sighed. "And the next words out of your mouth will be . . ."
"Let's do it."
"Do you think maybe we should talk to the others first?"
"Nah." And just like that, they were gone.
Marco shivered, glancing around at the pulsing web of timelines (and the back of his own head, apparently). "This place always gives me the creeps."
"It's not a place," the Drode's disembodied voice corrected from somewhere up and down and to the left. "It's a multidimensional transitive--"
"So what should we change, Marco?" Rachel interrupted smoothly, effectively ignoring the Drode. "Stop ourselves from going into the construction site? Kill the first Yeerk slug before it has a chance to crawl out of the slime? Or better yet, destroy that stinking prune over there." She jerked her head in the direction of where they'd last seen the Drode, which was disconcerting because Marco could see her vertebrae moving inside her neck.
"Wait, are you seriously asking me? You aren't just . . . doing something?" Marco stopped. "I think this is the most momentous day of my life."
Rachel paused, thinking (he could tell because he could literally see her thinking), and then said, "Yeah, you're right," and reached for the nearest time string.
"No, Rachel, I don't think that's-- Damn."
"Oops." She tipped her head, examining the thread she'd shifted. "I think I pulled the wrong one. My bad."
Marco performed a very transparent facepalm. "Great. Thanks to you, the dominant species on the planet is now descended from lizards. You just killed all of humanity. Are you happy now?"
*
Title: When You're Sober
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Marco, Jake
Spoilers: #54
Words: 237
Rating: PG-13 for language and underage drinking
Prompt: Titles: Animorphs, Marco & Jake, Call Me When You're Sober (post-54)
Marco frowns at the ringing phone. He's busy doing nothing and he doesn't like to be interrupted. But the caller ID says it's Jake and Jake never calls anyone these days.
He picks up the wireless and hits the call button. "He's alive!" he exclaims into the phone, trying to remember the last time he's actually talked to his best friend.
"Marco," Jake says, and his voice is off, like he's been crying, or . . . nah.
"Speaking," Marco says, and rolls his eyes to the heavens. "Who'd you think?"
"They're dead, they're all . . . Jesus, I killed them. Marco, Rachel's dead."
For once, Marco is speechless. "Dude, where have you been?" Then something occurs to him, and his face settles into a frown. "Are you drunk?"
"I think so?" Jake slurs. "I found some old wine in the cellar . . ."
"You're fucking seventeen."
"So? Not like you don't go out to clubs every night."
"Yeah, but that's-- How much have you had?"
"Um." There's a long pause, silence broken only by the sound of Jake breathing unevenly on the other end of the line. "Bottle and a half? Two?"
"Jesus. Do I need to call AA on you?"
"Not an alcoholic." He's almost chuckling, but a drunk laugh, not a real one. "First time drinking . . . Thought it might help."
"And has it?"
He's not laughing now. "No."
*
Title: Hitman
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Elfangor
Spoilers: None
Words: 147
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Author's choice, any, hitman AU.
Note: In this universe he's never been to Earth before, so no Tobias.
I was foolish enough to land in an inhabited area of Earth. The four children who witnessed my crash have returned home, with no recollection of the incident. Still, it was a mistake.
The crash was faked, of course. The Yeerks will find the remains of my ship within the hour. They'll assume that I perished in the battle, ejecting from my damaged fighter and leaving it to crash on the planet below. By then I will be long gone, hidden somewhere in the vast maze that is this planet's main Yeerk base. I will acquire several native morphs - I've heard that there are many different species, far more than on the home world - and wait for an opportunity to sneak aboard the Blade Ship to present itself.
Then, once I am in position, I will strike, and Visser Three, the Abomination, will fight no more.
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel, Marco
Spoilers: None
Words: 268
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Marco & Rachel, breaking and entering
"Remind me again why we're doing this?"
"It's just some fun, Marco. Don't tell me you're scared."
"Of course not," he protests, as she smirks at him. "But if we get caught I'm blaming you."
"If we get caught we can morph to fly and buzz right out of there." She produces a bobby pin from her pocket with a flourish and begins picking the lock, careful not to touch the knob.
"You realize they have cameras in interrogation rooms, right?"
"What are you, some kind of expert?"
"Oh, sure. Haven't you ever seen any of those crime shows? You know, NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami . . ."
"Good thing we're not in New York or Miami. Ha." She straightens, giving the door a light nudge with the toe of her Vans. "In."
He slips inside the darkened house, brushing past her with a mutter that sounded something like, "Haven't you ever heard of ladies first?" Flipping a lock of fair hair over her shoulder, she follows him inside.
"So, what are we looking for?" he whispers, though there's no one home. "A safe? Because sorry, I left my safe-cracking kit at home."
"Whatever you can fit in your pockets. Just pretend you're a normal teenager for once. Do what any other high schooler would."
"What, you mean you've done this before?"
"Nah." Light flashes off her grinning teeth in the darkness. "Now shut up and look for something cool."
"Ooh. Ice cream!" The light from the freezer lets her see his silhouette as he paws through its contents. She looks at him.
"What? Ice cream is cool."
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Naomi
Spoilers: #49
Words: 169
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Naomi, her daughter stole them out of their lives like a thief in the night
One moment things were fine. Normal. The same as ever. A crazy case that no one at the firm could believe she'd actually agreed to take occupying her briefcase and her time. She'd have to take a break to get the kids something for dinner, though. Rachel could probably cook the younger ones something but God knew when she'd be home. She was never home.
And then the world tipped over on its side. A grizzly bear in the kitchen. What? Oh God, Rachel's voice, inside the bear? No, Rachel is the bear. Aliens. A war. Her teenage daughter has been fighting a war for years. How could she not notice, how could she . . . Fuck.
And the next thing she knows they're in the hills, in hiding, God knows what's happening to her house . . . and Rachel isn't even there. Goddamn it, she comes in and turns them into fugitives and then she isn't even fucking there.
Naomi shivers and holds her daughters close.
*
Title: Happen in Threes
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Cassie
Spoilers: #54
Words: 162
Rating: PG
Prompt: Author's choice, any, bad things always happen in threes.
If there's one thing she knows, it's that bad things happen in threes.
The first is Elfangor. A shortcut, a spaceship, an alien. The end of childhood and the start of a war. Naivety turned to nightmares and homework to blood.
The second is Rachel. Gorgeous and brave and strong and young. God, she was so young. Sixteen, seventeen? It's hard to keep track. Doesn't matter now.
The third is everyone else. Disappearing into the blackness of space and God knows when (or if, she tries not to think) they'll come back for her. She's all alone, now. All alone surrounded by people who love her but don't know her. It's ironic. The people that knew her but no longer cared enough to take her with them are the ones that she lost, and the ones that she misses the most.
One two three, she counts off on her fingers, instead of counting sheep. Nothing more can happen now. One two three.
*
Title: Thief in the Night
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Naomi
Spoilers: #54
Words: 210
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Naomi, her daughter stole out of their lives like a thief in the night
They know it's bad and they know this is it. They know that either the kids will be coming back to get them or the Yeerks will. But that's all they know and none of the parents stop worrying for a second, from the moment those kids left the camp. Jordan takes Sara out to pick berries at the foot of the hills, away from the colony, and a small horde of young Hork-Bajir follow because this is an adult time.
It's the middle of the day when the kids return but everything is dark because there are only five. She counts them twice (and another time, just to be safe) but there are only five birds in the sky. Maybe one of them stayed behind to clean up. Maybe. Maybe.
They land, one by one. And demorph, one by one. Cassie, running to her parents. Jake, looking as dead as a boy can look while still breathing. Marco, and Eva goes up to hug him. Ax, his stalk eyes drooping, and Naomi will never get used to something so alien. And then Tobias, perching silently on Loren's shoulder, and she knows what it means.
"It's over," Jake says flatly. He doesn't say we've won because Naomi knows they haven't.
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Tobias/Rachel
Spoilers: None
Words: 264
Rating: PG
Prompt: Fluff: Animorphs, Rachel/Tobias, "We have very weird dates, Tobias."
The world paints itself in red and gold as the sun dips below the horizon.
An eagle and a hawk soar above on leftover thermals, their backs skimming the bellies of the clouds, and they fly side by side, ornithologists be damned.
They reach the forest territory and the hawk folds his wings, tilting his beak downwards and dropping like a stone. She follows, as perfectly in control as he is, and reaches the clearing to find him already perched on a log with a dead mouse triumphantly in one talon.
< Table for two? > he says, and lays the mouse down between them. If she'd been human she would have laughed. Instead she dips her head, her sharp beak tearing fearlessly at the flesh. They share and when it's done they change, back into the blonde boy and girl they really are.
She reaches for the tupperware containers she stashed in the bushes and tosses him one. Cracking open the lid, he peers inside. "Mac 'n cheese?"
"Mac 'n cheese," she confirms. "It's all I can cook without making a mess."
He laughs and takes a few pieces of macaroni between his fingers; tries to eat them but they fall back into the container. "Sorry," he says sheepishly. "It takes me a while to get used to eating like a human."
They finish their meal in the darkening woods and then lie back to watch the stars appear, one by one above their heads.
"You know what, Tobias?" she says, running a hand through his hair. "We have really, really weird dates."
Title: That Time Again
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: James/Lily, Severus/Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Harry
Spoilers: DH
Words: 372
Rating & Warnings: PG, kissing & death
Prompt: mwpp_mischief #219: 3:44 PM
Summary: It's 3:44 PM and things can change so quickly.
It's 3:44 PM and Lily swings beside her sister, forward and back, forward and back. In the bushes a boy with a hooked nose and his father's shirt watches red hair shine in the afternoon sun.
It's 3:44 PM and they're halfway to Hogwarts. James and Sirius laugh at stories of pranks they've pulled, Peter laughing right along with them though he has no stories of his own to share, and Remus hides his scars behind a book in the corner. Lily and Severus sit side by side and she pries him for information, everything he knows about Hogwarts and the magical world, even though he doesn't know any more than he did in the forest yesterday, or on the train platform today.
It's 3:44 PM and Lily is helping Severus study for exams in the library. James trips on his way by and accidentally-on-purpose whacks Severus in the back with his bag. "Oops," he laughs, and walks away. Severus makes as if to follow but Lily pulls him back.
It's 3:44 PM and summertime again. Lily and Severus are fourteen and share their first kiss in the park where they met. It doesn't happen again. Halfway across the country Sirius is at the Potters' and James' mother has left them a tray of cookies as Sirius tells James about his own parents.
It's 3:44 PM and they've just finished another set of O.W.L.s. Lily tells James to stop bullying Severus and James asks her to go out with him. She shoots him down and moves to help her friend and Severus can't help it, his face is burning and the whole year is watching and the word just slips out. Mudblood.
It's 3:44 PM and they're on their way back to London for the last time. Lily is snogging James in the boys’ room and Severus sits with his fellow Slytherins, silent and sallow as they talk of death.
It's 3:44 AM and Voldemort is gone. Lily and James lie motionless in Godric's Hollow as a child cries in his crib with a mark on his forehead. Severus stands with the Death Eaters as they await their master and somewhere in the night a flying motorcycle speeds towards nothing but grief.
*
Title: Straight On Until
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Jake
Spoilers: None
Words: 354
Rating: PG
Prompt: Fill in the Blank: Any, any, second ____ to the ____ and straight on until ____ (Filled with Animorphs, Jake, second cage to the lions and straight on until tigers)
He lands behind one of those big fake rocks they put in exhibits to make them look real from above and demorphs, hunkering down so he won't be seen. Then he morphs again, a familiar morph, orange and black fur rippling up and down his arms and legs. A few moments later he pads out into the open, a fully grown male Siberian tiger. A little girl gives an excited shriek and points him out to her mother from where a crowd is gathered around the railing, and other exclamations follow. He flicks his ears in annoyance and doesn't stop, methodically searching out the tiger whose form he's taken.
The big cat is stretched out in the shade, tail swishing lazily back and forth. He has one eye open but doesn't seem to mind Jake's approach, as long as he minds his distance. Jake makes sure to do so, taking a seat a small distance away.
< I wonder, were you born in captivity? >
The tiger's ears flick once, as if discouraging an annoying fly.
< If you weren't you were probably captured young, right? So you've never hunted for yourself. > He isn't expecting a response, so he pauses only to think. < Never had a chance to use your claws and teeth, except to tear apart a frozen, long dead hunk of meat. Maybe shredded an ear or two.
< Silly, right? I mean, they're your weapons. Your teeth, your claws. Your natural defense. I'm only borrowing them. Thanks, by the way. But I use them more than you do. Bet Mother Nature didn't see that one coming, did she? Your body was never meant to fight Hork-Bajir and Dracon beams. That's why it keeps getting torn up, night after night after night. >
He keeps talking, in private thought speech, about Cassie and Marco and difficulties with the team. His family, school, nightmares. When he has nothing left to say he stands, sparing a final glance for the tiger whose body he shares for up to two hours at a time.
< Thanks, > he says, and vanishes back into the brush.
*
Title: Reruns
Fandom: Bones
Characters: Zack, Hodgins
Spoilers: None (set ~s1)Words: 156
Rating: PG
Prompt: Bones, Zack/Hodgins, watching reruns of Firefly
"Didn't I ask you to take out the trash?"
"You sound like my mother. I'll do it later; I'm working on my dissertation."
"Uh huh." Hodgins eyed the laptop on the floor (closed) and the boy with his head hanging over the edge of the sofa (Zack). "And how's that working out for you?"
"Quite well, actually. I find the excess blood flow to my head while upside down to be very mentally stimulating. A purely psychological reaction, of course." Zack shrugged.
"And the episode of Firefly, that's mentally stimulating too?"
"Oh, yes. Completely scientifically inaccurate, of course. This man, for instance. The gunshot wound that supposedly killed him is at least two centimeters to the left of the nearest vital organ. If given time the blood loss would have killed him, but he died in seconds. And--"
"Don't ruin the show, okay? I'm only watching it for this Zoe chick."
"She is very attractive."
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel, Marco, Drode
Spoilers: Whenever they find out about Crayak, references to MM3.
Words: 309
Rating: PG
Prompt: Punching the Timestream; Alternate Timelines: Author's choice; author's choice; "Great. Thanks to you, the dominant species on the planet is now descended from lizards, not monkeys. You just killed all of humanity. Are you happy now?"
"So you're saying Crayak will allow us to change the timelines?"
"Yes."
"And we can do anything we want?"
"Yes."
"And there's no price, no repercussions, no Jake getting shot in the forehead crossing the Delaware with Washington?"
"Yes."
Rachel grinned. "Cool."
Marco sighed. "And the next words out of your mouth will be . . ."
"Let's do it."
"Do you think maybe we should talk to the others first?"
"Nah." And just like that, they were gone.
Marco shivered, glancing around at the pulsing web of timelines (and the back of his own head, apparently). "This place always gives me the creeps."
"It's not a place," the Drode's disembodied voice corrected from somewhere up and down and to the left. "It's a multidimensional transitive--"
"So what should we change, Marco?" Rachel interrupted smoothly, effectively ignoring the Drode. "Stop ourselves from going into the construction site? Kill the first Yeerk slug before it has a chance to crawl out of the slime? Or better yet, destroy that stinking prune over there." She jerked her head in the direction of where they'd last seen the Drode, which was disconcerting because Marco could see her vertebrae moving inside her neck.
"Wait, are you seriously asking me? You aren't just . . . doing something?" Marco stopped. "I think this is the most momentous day of my life."
Rachel paused, thinking (he could tell because he could literally see her thinking), and then said, "Yeah, you're right," and reached for the nearest time string.
"No, Rachel, I don't think that's-- Damn."
"Oops." She tipped her head, examining the thread she'd shifted. "I think I pulled the wrong one. My bad."
Marco performed a very transparent facepalm. "Great. Thanks to you, the dominant species on the planet is now descended from lizards. You just killed all of humanity. Are you happy now?"
*
Title: When You're Sober
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Marco, Jake
Spoilers: #54
Words: 237
Rating: PG-13 for language and underage drinking
Prompt: Titles: Animorphs, Marco & Jake, Call Me When You're Sober (post-54)
Marco frowns at the ringing phone. He's busy doing nothing and he doesn't like to be interrupted. But the caller ID says it's Jake and Jake never calls anyone these days.
He picks up the wireless and hits the call button. "He's alive!" he exclaims into the phone, trying to remember the last time he's actually talked to his best friend.
"Marco," Jake says, and his voice is off, like he's been crying, or . . . nah.
"Speaking," Marco says, and rolls his eyes to the heavens. "Who'd you think?"
"They're dead, they're all . . . Jesus, I killed them. Marco, Rachel's dead."
For once, Marco is speechless. "Dude, where have you been?" Then something occurs to him, and his face settles into a frown. "Are you drunk?"
"I think so?" Jake slurs. "I found some old wine in the cellar . . ."
"You're fucking seventeen."
"So? Not like you don't go out to clubs every night."
"Yeah, but that's-- How much have you had?"
"Um." There's a long pause, silence broken only by the sound of Jake breathing unevenly on the other end of the line. "Bottle and a half? Two?"
"Jesus. Do I need to call AA on you?"
"Not an alcoholic." He's almost chuckling, but a drunk laugh, not a real one. "First time drinking . . . Thought it might help."
"And has it?"
He's not laughing now. "No."
*
Title: Hitman
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Elfangor
Spoilers: None
Words: 147
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Author's choice, any, hitman AU.
Note: In this universe he's never been to Earth before, so no Tobias.
I was foolish enough to land in an inhabited area of Earth. The four children who witnessed my crash have returned home, with no recollection of the incident. Still, it was a mistake.
The crash was faked, of course. The Yeerks will find the remains of my ship within the hour. They'll assume that I perished in the battle, ejecting from my damaged fighter and leaving it to crash on the planet below. By then I will be long gone, hidden somewhere in the vast maze that is this planet's main Yeerk base. I will acquire several native morphs - I've heard that there are many different species, far more than on the home world - and wait for an opportunity to sneak aboard the Blade Ship to present itself.
Then, once I am in position, I will strike, and Visser Three, the Abomination, will fight no more.
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Rachel, Marco
Spoilers: None
Words: 268
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Marco & Rachel, breaking and entering
"Remind me again why we're doing this?"
"It's just some fun, Marco. Don't tell me you're scared."
"Of course not," he protests, as she smirks at him. "But if we get caught I'm blaming you."
"If we get caught we can morph to fly and buzz right out of there." She produces a bobby pin from her pocket with a flourish and begins picking the lock, careful not to touch the knob.
"You realize they have cameras in interrogation rooms, right?"
"What are you, some kind of expert?"
"Oh, sure. Haven't you ever seen any of those crime shows? You know, NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami . . ."
"Good thing we're not in New York or Miami. Ha." She straightens, giving the door a light nudge with the toe of her Vans. "In."
He slips inside the darkened house, brushing past her with a mutter that sounded something like, "Haven't you ever heard of ladies first?" Flipping a lock of fair hair over her shoulder, she follows him inside.
"So, what are we looking for?" he whispers, though there's no one home. "A safe? Because sorry, I left my safe-cracking kit at home."
"Whatever you can fit in your pockets. Just pretend you're a normal teenager for once. Do what any other high schooler would."
"What, you mean you've done this before?"
"Nah." Light flashes off her grinning teeth in the darkness. "Now shut up and look for something cool."
"Ooh. Ice cream!" The light from the freezer lets her see his silhouette as he paws through its contents. She looks at him.
"What? Ice cream is cool."
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Naomi
Spoilers: #49
Words: 169
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Naomi, her daughter stole them out of their lives like a thief in the night
One moment things were fine. Normal. The same as ever. A crazy case that no one at the firm could believe she'd actually agreed to take occupying her briefcase and her time. She'd have to take a break to get the kids something for dinner, though. Rachel could probably cook the younger ones something but God knew when she'd be home. She was never home.
And then the world tipped over on its side. A grizzly bear in the kitchen. What? Oh God, Rachel's voice, inside the bear? No, Rachel is the bear. Aliens. A war. Her teenage daughter has been fighting a war for years. How could she not notice, how could she . . . Fuck.
And the next thing she knows they're in the hills, in hiding, God knows what's happening to her house . . . and Rachel isn't even there. Goddamn it, she comes in and turns them into fugitives and then she isn't even fucking there.
Naomi shivers and holds her daughters close.
*
Title: Happen in Threes
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Cassie
Spoilers: #54
Words: 162
Rating: PG
Prompt: Author's choice, any, bad things always happen in threes.
If there's one thing she knows, it's that bad things happen in threes.
The first is Elfangor. A shortcut, a spaceship, an alien. The end of childhood and the start of a war. Naivety turned to nightmares and homework to blood.
The second is Rachel. Gorgeous and brave and strong and young. God, she was so young. Sixteen, seventeen? It's hard to keep track. Doesn't matter now.
The third is everyone else. Disappearing into the blackness of space and God knows when (or if, she tries not to think) they'll come back for her. She's all alone, now. All alone surrounded by people who love her but don't know her. It's ironic. The people that knew her but no longer cared enough to take her with them are the ones that she lost, and the ones that she misses the most.
One two three, she counts off on her fingers, instead of counting sheep. Nothing more can happen now. One two three.
*
Title: Thief in the Night
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Naomi
Spoilers: #54
Words: 210
Rating: PG
Prompt: Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Naomi, her daughter stole out of their lives like a thief in the night
They know it's bad and they know this is it. They know that either the kids will be coming back to get them or the Yeerks will. But that's all they know and none of the parents stop worrying for a second, from the moment those kids left the camp. Jordan takes Sara out to pick berries at the foot of the hills, away from the colony, and a small horde of young Hork-Bajir follow because this is an adult time.
It's the middle of the day when the kids return but everything is dark because there are only five. She counts them twice (and another time, just to be safe) but there are only five birds in the sky. Maybe one of them stayed behind to clean up. Maybe. Maybe.
They land, one by one. And demorph, one by one. Cassie, running to her parents. Jake, looking as dead as a boy can look while still breathing. Marco, and Eva goes up to hug him. Ax, his stalk eyes drooping, and Naomi will never get used to something so alien. And then Tobias, perching silently on Loren's shoulder, and she knows what it means.
"It's over," Jake says flatly. He doesn't say we've won because Naomi knows they haven't.
*
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Tobias/Rachel
Spoilers: None
Words: 264
Rating: PG
Prompt: Fluff: Animorphs, Rachel/Tobias, "We have very weird dates, Tobias."
The world paints itself in red and gold as the sun dips below the horizon.
An eagle and a hawk soar above on leftover thermals, their backs skimming the bellies of the clouds, and they fly side by side, ornithologists be damned.
They reach the forest territory and the hawk folds his wings, tilting his beak downwards and dropping like a stone. She follows, as perfectly in control as he is, and reaches the clearing to find him already perched on a log with a dead mouse triumphantly in one talon.
< Table for two? > he says, and lays the mouse down between them. If she'd been human she would have laughed. Instead she dips her head, her sharp beak tearing fearlessly at the flesh. They share and when it's done they change, back into the blonde boy and girl they really are.
She reaches for the tupperware containers she stashed in the bushes and tosses him one. Cracking open the lid, he peers inside. "Mac 'n cheese?"
"Mac 'n cheese," she confirms. "It's all I can cook without making a mess."
He laughs and takes a few pieces of macaroni between his fingers; tries to eat them but they fall back into the container. "Sorry," he says sheepishly. "It takes me a while to get used to eating like a human."
They finish their meal in the darkening woods and then lie back to watch the stars appear, one by one above their heads.
"You know what, Tobias?" she says, running a hand through his hair. "We have really, really weird dates."