(no subject)
Title: Not Quite a White-Picket Fence
Fandom: AtS/BtVS
Pairing: Angel/Lindsey/Tara chlare is the absolute queen of this pairing. You want the fantastic stuff, go check out her drabbles. ;-)
Prompt: 79 - Agony
Rating: Light R
Words: 824
Completely for Nora, who was in the mood for a happy ending. *mad hugs*
Even for Tara, who loved them both dearly, there were some days when it was difficult living with the two of them under one roof.
And there were other days when it was agony.
Something would set Lindsey off, and he’d just keep getting madder and meaner, and Angel would get that smirk… that one that could make even Mr. Devil-with-the-face-of-an-angel look pretty darn unattractive in its cruelty… and sometimes Tara just got tired of playing the peacemaker, blessed or otherwise. She wasn’t sure that they got it yet, just how much it hurt her when they hurt each other.
“Maybe I don’t like going to bed with dead people. You ever think of that, champ? You ever consider what that’s like after you’ve woke up in a half-assed mass grave and weren’t even sure for a minute if you were dead or…”
“Oh, please, Lindsey, tell us the wine cellar story again. I don’t think Tara’s memorized it word for word yet.”
Angel was her hero, like something out of a Grimm’s fairytale gone right for a change. He was the one who’d taken her in when she turned up desperate on his doorstep, no questions asked. He was the one who’d kept her safe with his unwavering strength and conviction, and who had given her another shot at a blank slate. But when his mouth tightened and curled like this, when he started baiting Lindsey like he couldn’t quite help himself, that was when the monster came out, fangs or no fangs. Sometimes she didn’t recognize him.
“I’d leave you, you know that? If she said she’d come with me, I’d walk right out into the sunshine without you and I damn well wouldn’t look back. You’re the bad part of this bargain.”
“You won’t leave. You haven’t got it in you.”
“Go to hell, Angel.”
Lindsey was her confidante. When he turned up on Angel’s doorstep not a week after Tara, all nasty bruises and empty-eyed exhaustion, it felt like an unexpected gift. Lindsey knew what it was like to come from a place that you mostly wanted to forget, and how it felt to get pulled hard and fast into something so dark that you had trouble finding your way back out again. And then there were times like this, when he went tight-jawed and venomous, and she had to wonder how he could breathe, so full of hate.
This was the part where Lindsey would reach out to shove and Angel would counter just a little too hard, and Tara would get to her feet to intervene before the men she loved managed to do each other any serious damage…
But, Goddess, she was so very tired of it. The words got stuck in her throat and curdled, turning into something different today.
“I’m going for a walk!” It came out kind of louder and higher than she had expected, and she turned to leave before she had to see their shocked expressions. “I’ll… I’ll be back in an hour.”
Things like the tangled mess of old hurt between Angel and Lindsey would take far longer than an hour to fix and even more than the threat of Tara leaving to catalyze. But when she came home from what turned out to be an uncomfortably rainy walk, feeling cold and a little silly, they both got to their feet to greet her.
“Hi,” said Lindsey with a sheepish smile, wrapping a towel around her shoulders.
“Sorry,” Angel added, brushing her wet hair away from her face.
“Did you clean up the blood already?” Tara asked wryly, surreptitiously trying to check them for injuries.
No, no, they were getting along now, they assured her, towing her off to the kitchen to make her some tea. Sometimes they both just got a bit stir-crazy… she knew how it was, right? Sometimes they just had to let off a little steam… she understood, didn’t she?
She really didn’t, but she smiled and nodded anyway, enjoying the temporary peace. They didn’t even bicker over who got to pour her tea.
But she had a bit of an epiphany later that night when, despite all that had been said and done, Lindsey did indeed deign to tumble into bed with them, and Angel stopped up his mouth with violent kisses until Lindsey could only make raw desperate noises and his nails mapped their territory on Angel’s white skin. There was plenty of room for three in Angel’s big bed, even when the sweat began to cool and Tara snuggled just a tiny bit closer to Lindsey for body heat and the usual bickering crept into bed to join them. The thing was, hate and love and even seriously unhealthy levels of competition… they were all just different shades of passion. Tara was okay with passion.
Sometimes it was difficult living with the both of them under one roof, but it hadn’t proved impossible just yet.
* * *
Fandom: AtS/BtVS
Pairing: Angel/Lindsey/Tara chlare is the absolute queen of this pairing. You want the fantastic stuff, go check out her drabbles. ;-)
Prompt: 79 - Agony
Rating: Light R
Words: 824
Completely for Nora, who was in the mood for a happy ending. *mad hugs*
Even for Tara, who loved them both dearly, there were some days when it was difficult living with the two of them under one roof.
And there were other days when it was agony.
Something would set Lindsey off, and he’d just keep getting madder and meaner, and Angel would get that smirk… that one that could make even Mr. Devil-with-the-face-of-an-angel look pretty darn unattractive in its cruelty… and sometimes Tara just got tired of playing the peacemaker, blessed or otherwise. She wasn’t sure that they got it yet, just how much it hurt her when they hurt each other.
“Maybe I don’t like going to bed with dead people. You ever think of that, champ? You ever consider what that’s like after you’ve woke up in a half-assed mass grave and weren’t even sure for a minute if you were dead or…”
“Oh, please, Lindsey, tell us the wine cellar story again. I don’t think Tara’s memorized it word for word yet.”
Angel was her hero, like something out of a Grimm’s fairytale gone right for a change. He was the one who’d taken her in when she turned up desperate on his doorstep, no questions asked. He was the one who’d kept her safe with his unwavering strength and conviction, and who had given her another shot at a blank slate. But when his mouth tightened and curled like this, when he started baiting Lindsey like he couldn’t quite help himself, that was when the monster came out, fangs or no fangs. Sometimes she didn’t recognize him.
“I’d leave you, you know that? If she said she’d come with me, I’d walk right out into the sunshine without you and I damn well wouldn’t look back. You’re the bad part of this bargain.”
“You won’t leave. You haven’t got it in you.”
“Go to hell, Angel.”
Lindsey was her confidante. When he turned up on Angel’s doorstep not a week after Tara, all nasty bruises and empty-eyed exhaustion, it felt like an unexpected gift. Lindsey knew what it was like to come from a place that you mostly wanted to forget, and how it felt to get pulled hard and fast into something so dark that you had trouble finding your way back out again. And then there were times like this, when he went tight-jawed and venomous, and she had to wonder how he could breathe, so full of hate.
This was the part where Lindsey would reach out to shove and Angel would counter just a little too hard, and Tara would get to her feet to intervene before the men she loved managed to do each other any serious damage…
But, Goddess, she was so very tired of it. The words got stuck in her throat and curdled, turning into something different today.
“I’m going for a walk!” It came out kind of louder and higher than she had expected, and she turned to leave before she had to see their shocked expressions. “I’ll… I’ll be back in an hour.”
Things like the tangled mess of old hurt between Angel and Lindsey would take far longer than an hour to fix and even more than the threat of Tara leaving to catalyze. But when she came home from what turned out to be an uncomfortably rainy walk, feeling cold and a little silly, they both got to their feet to greet her.
“Hi,” said Lindsey with a sheepish smile, wrapping a towel around her shoulders.
“Sorry,” Angel added, brushing her wet hair away from her face.
“Did you clean up the blood already?” Tara asked wryly, surreptitiously trying to check them for injuries.
No, no, they were getting along now, they assured her, towing her off to the kitchen to make her some tea. Sometimes they both just got a bit stir-crazy… she knew how it was, right? Sometimes they just had to let off a little steam… she understood, didn’t she?
She really didn’t, but she smiled and nodded anyway, enjoying the temporary peace. They didn’t even bicker over who got to pour her tea.
But she had a bit of an epiphany later that night when, despite all that had been said and done, Lindsey did indeed deign to tumble into bed with them, and Angel stopped up his mouth with violent kisses until Lindsey could only make raw desperate noises and his nails mapped their territory on Angel’s white skin. There was plenty of room for three in Angel’s big bed, even when the sweat began to cool and Tara snuggled just a tiny bit closer to Lindsey for body heat and the usual bickering crept into bed to join them. The thing was, hate and love and even seriously unhealthy levels of competition… they were all just different shades of passion. Tara was okay with passion.
Sometimes it was difficult living with the both of them under one roof, but it hadn’t proved impossible just yet.
* * *