New Fic!
So, apparently 3-Sentence Fics are my jam! They're essentially like writing drabbles, but without worrying about the word count. There was a Ficathon going on over at DW (prompting is over now, but fills can be done anytime!) and I really got into it. I'm posting up the first 25 I've got here in this post.
Ten Die Hard Ficlets
01. Die Hard with a Vengeance, John, Joe/Connie
Prompt: working late
He'd promised Holly that he'd give Lucy and Jack his undivided attention while he had them on his two week summer visitation, but he had shit on a stick on the Washington Heights homicide and if he didn't talk to his CI by the end of the week he might as well just throw in any chance of solving the damn case. So he left them sullenly stewing in the car while he dashed into the precinct and quickly snagged a few files from his desk, and was halfway back out the door before he heard the moans coming from the copy room; he backtracked, cocked his head, and smiled slowly when he recognized the voices. So that's what Joe and Connie meant by "working late."
**
02. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: holidays
The McClane Curse might encompass Christmas, Labor Day, and the 4th of July, but John assured Matt that he had nothing to worry about at the parade on Read Across America Day. That was, of course, before the giant Tribute to Lord of the Rings float exploded, sending bookmark-shaped projectiles and not a few elves and dwarves catapulting into the crowd of book-loving onlookers.
Matt hates holidays.
**
03. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: borrowing a sweater
It was frayed at the waist, too wide in the chest, too long in the arms, and it smelled of Brut circa 1988. Which basically made it his favourite sweater ever. When John wasn't home - out on another call, and he wouldn't keep obsessively listening to the police band, he would not - it was the next best thing to having John's arms around him.
**
04. Live Free or Die Hard, Lucy & Matt
Prompt: That's when the hornet stung me
"… and that's when the hornet stung me!" Matt finished.
"Do you know that you go off on these little tangents whenever you're trying to avoid telling the truth," Lucy said, cocking her head, "like, for example, how you're in fact not actually staying in my old room but have actually moved into my Dad's room because you guys are totally a couple?"
Matt's gaze flicked to John in time to see the screen door flapping behind him as he fled to the backyard, the bastard.
**
05. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: funny meeting you here
He'd tried "accidentally" bumping into John on the steps outside the precinct; on the bench outside the elevator at the courthouse; at physio (even though they were scheduled on different days), and even at the gym, all of them with no luck. So, it was probably ironic (but he might have to check with Alanis on it) that who should join the line behind him at the DMV but the very cop over whom he was having quite the exotic wet dreams. And when John's lip quirked and he rested a hand lightly on the small of Matt's back to ease him out of line so they could catch up, it felt like maybe those dreams had a smidgen of a chance after all.
**
06. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: frantically checking someone for injuries (they're not even scratched)
Matt's been out of the cast for weeks and doesn't even use the cane anymore, making it easily from the car to the front door with no trouble, so John should absolutely positively not be hovering like a mother hen. And then there's a spot of black ice and Matt is down, and John thanks Christ he was at Matt's elbow as he drops the grocery bags, a cucumber and some asparagus flying five feet past them in the air to land somewhere in New Jersey and the contents of the now-broken full-pulp orange juice container seeping into the snow, and his hands are slapping at Matt's leg and his chest as he's reaching for his cell to call 911.
And when Matt palms his cheek and leans up to kiss him, John figures it's about time he admitted he's over the moon for this damn kid.
**
07. Live Free or Die Hard, John
Prompt: (you have made it this far) it's time to end the story
The kid looks at him with those moony eyes through that shaggy hair, and John's fingers itch to swat the mess outta the way and... well, and do things that ain't exactly kosher in the state of Denmark. But his life is not an alternative romance, it's an action movie, and any daydreams he had about taking things further with Matthew Farrell belong right back at the Fire Sale, when he was baring his fucking soul in the car to a goddamn stranger and practically begging for the kid to tell me that all his cuts and bruises were sexy in that damn tunnel. Now it's time to go back to reality, and that means quiet nights in front of the tube, not Matt Farrell in his bed.
**
08. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt, Lucy
Prompt: accidentally falling asleep on each other
They don't share an ambulance but somehow they gravitate towards each other when they're waiting to be seen at the hospital. John ends up slouched in one of those two-seater chairs that really only fits 1.5 people, but somehow Matt still manages to squeeze into the gap, his head resting on John's non-wounded shoulder and John's arm wrapped firmly around his shoulders.
Lucy takes one look and stops mooning over Matt Farrell and starts hatching plans to make sure he ends up with her dad, instead.
**
09. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: origami
John watches Matt's fingers flip and fold the paper, surprisingly nimble, and imagines those fingers playing at his ribcage, sliding over the curve of his hip, dipping into the gap between-
"It's a seahorse!" Matt announces, holding the paper aloft.
John coughs and mumbles something about Matt still being high from the morphine, and carefully turns over in his hospital bed. For reasons.
**
10. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: coffee, tea or hot chocolate
Matt quickly swiped his palms on his jeans before opening the door.
"Daisy Duke?" John asked.
"Right. Because last time I said that whole-
"Yeah."
"Yeah. That's... funny. Come in!" He stepped back hastily to let John enter, shut the door as John looked around appraisingly. It was a bit of an upgrade from the last place; this one at least didn't have mice that regularly nibbled at the wires, and the fire alarm had only been erroneously pulled three times so far this month.
"Nice place."
Matt makes a face. Better than a trash heap is still a dump. But John's being nice, so he should be nice, which means he should wipe that weird look off his face and-
"Coffee!" he blurts out. "Or tea. I have milk. For the... I got it this morning so it's fresh. Or hot chocolate! Because yeah, Farrell, let's have hot chocolate when it's 87 degrees outside. That makes so much-"
"Matt?"
Matt focuses, visions of John passing out from heat exhaustion after being force-fed copious amounts of Granny's Best still dancing through his head.
"Ya wanna calm the fuck down?"
"Sure. Yeah. Absolutely," Matt says. It's just a date, he reminds himself. Just a date. He can do this.
Then John takes off his leather jacket and Matt gets a good look at the white T stretched over barrel chest, and he knows that all bets are off.
**
Ten Walking Dead Ficlets
01. The Walking Dead, Daryl (pre-series)
Prompt: I have no interest in learning the rest of the Greek alphabet
The teacher droned on, epsifuckincron or some such shit, and Daryl propped his head on his hand and ignored her as he stared out the window. First day of huntin' season and the old man promised to take him after school for his first lesson on the crossbow, and never mind that Merle said his chicken arms weren't strong enough for the draw. He was gonna kick ass with that bow, and Merle can Eta his ass if he thinks any different.
**
02. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: someone determined to be a background character
Beth kept her eyes down and her mouth shut (unless she was singing), taking care of the baby and doing her chores and minding her own beeswax. Then the prison fell and she was tired and lonely and wasn't going to spend another day eating mud snake; then there were fighting lessons and long talks and moonshine and standing back to back with Daryl while the zombies closed in and feeling alive like she never felt before. Guess she wasn't supposed to be a background character after all.
**
03. The Walking Dead, Judith
Prompt: Valentine's Day
Judith didn't understand why a blood-red heart was supposed to mean you loved somebody, but she shrugged and went to work. The zombie'd been lying out on the crossroads for a while, stewing in its own juices in the hot sun, so it came out without any trouble. She put it in a nice sturdy box with a ribbon and everything, so she thinks it's pretty rude that the new boy screamed the way he did when he opened it.
**
04. The Walking Dead, Maggie/Glenn
Prompt: their greatest fear
Sometimes she sits at the window of whatever house or barn or storefront they've managed to hole up in for the night, hidden from undead eyes by 2 by 4's or dirty curtains, and thinks about college, her friends, pub fries and a Scofflaw at Rocky Mountain Pizza, kicking ass at trivia, their greatest fear a defective condom and a decision to be made. She misses those days, that girl. But then Glenn grunts in his sleep and his fingers find hers even as he snores, and she doesn't want to be anywhere else.
**
05. The Walking Dead, Daryl
Prompt: And you're not even here, on the coldest night of the year
She promised. That's the one thing he remembers, as he curls up beneath the old horse blanket and watches his breath mist the air, and listens to the murmur of Glenn and Maggie's voices in the next room. She said they'd be together, take care of each other, and then they took her and he couldn't find her and he failed, and now he's all alone.
**
06. The Walking Dead, Daryl
Prompt: Let Tyrants Fear
The hospital looks deserted, nothing to indicate that it's inhabited by monsters that wear the face of men, worse than any goddamn walker. He's heard what they do there, to the women. The ground trembles beneath his boots and the air turns frosty as he takes the stairs, one eye focused on Rick and the kid but most of his attention on the landing, the door, the hall that will lead him to her.
**
07. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: No such thing as too many kittens
"No," Daryl says.
When Beth looks up at him with those big blue eyes he finds it hard to refuse her anything, even as the kittens tumble from her knapsack and pounce on each other, and he knows it's going to make the slog back to the camp practically impossible.
But still… the way them little squirmy things make her smile, maybe there really is no such thing as too many kittens.
**
08. The Walking Dead, Daryl (Daryl/Beth)
Prompt: "It could be worse. I'm just not sure how."
Daryl's eyes follow her as she moves around the camp; he hovers nearby when it's her turn to do the cooking; he sets up a spot to clean his arrows that happens to be right next to where she's helping Judith do her colouring; he even manages to be hovering around the general area of the bushes were she goes to relieve herself, 'cause you just never know what -- or who -- is lurking out there in the dark.
"She still hasn't noticed you?" Glenn says one night when they're sharing a log during dinner.
Daryl shifts his eyes away from Beth and shrugs. "It could be worse," he says. "I'm just not sure how."
**
09. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: "Drop your weapons." ... "All your weapons."
Crossbow, hunting knife, quiver with seven arrows, spare hunting knife; they all hit the ground at Daryl's feet.
"All your weapons," the voice behind the shotgun says.
Daryl shrugs and leans down to his boot, slides to the right, pivots, and the spare-spare knife is up against the motherfucker's throat; he don't give a shit about himself, but people gotta learn not to get in his face when Beth is with him.
**
10. The Walking Dead, Maggie
Prompt: dancing with ghosts
Maggie holds her son to her breast, moving in slow circles around the bare floor of the room they've allocated as a nursery. If she closes her eyes, she can imagine Glenn at her back, his warm arms encircling them both. If she closes her eyes.
**
Five Vikings Ficlets
01. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: no good plan survives contact with the enemy
Rollo's plan was to win her, take her, and wrest rule from her. He never intended to become bespelled by her slim hips or her sharp tongue or her honey-scented hair, thick and flowing between his clumsy fingers. He should have known that no good plan survives contact with the enemy.
**
02. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: if it's in you to climb, you must
Rollo watched the Frankish defenders rally beneath a waving banner and the words of a slim, unprepossessing girl. He'd thought that his fate was to breech the gates, raid the city, take what he wished, earn the respect of his people. It was when his eyes met Gisla's that the spark flared to stuttering life: that his fate may instead be twined with this slip of a girl.
**
03. Vikings, Gisla
Prompt: But demons can't feel love, can they?
The way he looks at her, the monster who scaled her walls, makes her shiver. Gisla isn't sure whether it's fear or desire that makes her insides quiver, but the longing and desire in his eyes is clear. But demons can't feel love, can they?
**
04. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: I am ready for the fight
"Do not!"
Gisla whirls away in a swirl of silk, her arm tingling where his fingers brushed against the flesh beneath her flowing sleeve. Her skim is aflame from the fire of their argument, and she wants to lash out with nails, with teeth, with words that scratch and bite. Her heart beats faster as she sees the same look in her husband's eye, and like that the passion flares, ignites, turns her anger into something more, something better.
"Do not stop," Gisla commands.
**
05. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: wishing on a falling star
Gisla rested against her husband's chest, watching the stars through the bedroom window as he drew pictures with words, stories of monsters in the deep and mighty warriors who rode the lightning. Blasphemy, all of it, but not if she pretended that it was just a story, something with which to entertain the children. She followed the arc of a falling star and tightened her grip on Rollo's hand; if wishing for the rasp of his voice against her ear and his strong arms around her always were a sin, then she would gladly bear it.
.
Ten Die Hard Ficlets
01. Die Hard with a Vengeance, John, Joe/Connie
Prompt: working late
He'd promised Holly that he'd give Lucy and Jack his undivided attention while he had them on his two week summer visitation, but he had shit on a stick on the Washington Heights homicide and if he didn't talk to his CI by the end of the week he might as well just throw in any chance of solving the damn case. So he left them sullenly stewing in the car while he dashed into the precinct and quickly snagged a few files from his desk, and was halfway back out the door before he heard the moans coming from the copy room; he backtracked, cocked his head, and smiled slowly when he recognized the voices. So that's what Joe and Connie meant by "working late."
**
02. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: holidays
The McClane Curse might encompass Christmas, Labor Day, and the 4th of July, but John assured Matt that he had nothing to worry about at the parade on Read Across America Day. That was, of course, before the giant Tribute to Lord of the Rings float exploded, sending bookmark-shaped projectiles and not a few elves and dwarves catapulting into the crowd of book-loving onlookers.
Matt hates holidays.
**
03. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: borrowing a sweater
It was frayed at the waist, too wide in the chest, too long in the arms, and it smelled of Brut circa 1988. Which basically made it his favourite sweater ever. When John wasn't home - out on another call, and he wouldn't keep obsessively listening to the police band, he would not - it was the next best thing to having John's arms around him.
**
04. Live Free or Die Hard, Lucy & Matt
Prompt: That's when the hornet stung me
"… and that's when the hornet stung me!" Matt finished.
"Do you know that you go off on these little tangents whenever you're trying to avoid telling the truth," Lucy said, cocking her head, "like, for example, how you're in fact not actually staying in my old room but have actually moved into my Dad's room because you guys are totally a couple?"
Matt's gaze flicked to John in time to see the screen door flapping behind him as he fled to the backyard, the bastard.
**
05. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: funny meeting you here
He'd tried "accidentally" bumping into John on the steps outside the precinct; on the bench outside the elevator at the courthouse; at physio (even though they were scheduled on different days), and even at the gym, all of them with no luck. So, it was probably ironic (but he might have to check with Alanis on it) that who should join the line behind him at the DMV but the very cop over whom he was having quite the exotic wet dreams. And when John's lip quirked and he rested a hand lightly on the small of Matt's back to ease him out of line so they could catch up, it felt like maybe those dreams had a smidgen of a chance after all.
**
06. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: frantically checking someone for injuries (they're not even scratched)
Matt's been out of the cast for weeks and doesn't even use the cane anymore, making it easily from the car to the front door with no trouble, so John should absolutely positively not be hovering like a mother hen. And then there's a spot of black ice and Matt is down, and John thanks Christ he was at Matt's elbow as he drops the grocery bags, a cucumber and some asparagus flying five feet past them in the air to land somewhere in New Jersey and the contents of the now-broken full-pulp orange juice container seeping into the snow, and his hands are slapping at Matt's leg and his chest as he's reaching for his cell to call 911.
And when Matt palms his cheek and leans up to kiss him, John figures it's about time he admitted he's over the moon for this damn kid.
**
07. Live Free or Die Hard, John
Prompt: (you have made it this far) it's time to end the story
The kid looks at him with those moony eyes through that shaggy hair, and John's fingers itch to swat the mess outta the way and... well, and do things that ain't exactly kosher in the state of Denmark. But his life is not an alternative romance, it's an action movie, and any daydreams he had about taking things further with Matthew Farrell belong right back at the Fire Sale, when he was baring his fucking soul in the car to a goddamn stranger and practically begging for the kid to tell me that all his cuts and bruises were sexy in that damn tunnel. Now it's time to go back to reality, and that means quiet nights in front of the tube, not Matt Farrell in his bed.
**
08. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt, Lucy
Prompt: accidentally falling asleep on each other
They don't share an ambulance but somehow they gravitate towards each other when they're waiting to be seen at the hospital. John ends up slouched in one of those two-seater chairs that really only fits 1.5 people, but somehow Matt still manages to squeeze into the gap, his head resting on John's non-wounded shoulder and John's arm wrapped firmly around his shoulders.
Lucy takes one look and stops mooning over Matt Farrell and starts hatching plans to make sure he ends up with her dad, instead.
**
09. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: origami
John watches Matt's fingers flip and fold the paper, surprisingly nimble, and imagines those fingers playing at his ribcage, sliding over the curve of his hip, dipping into the gap between-
"It's a seahorse!" Matt announces, holding the paper aloft.
John coughs and mumbles something about Matt still being high from the morphine, and carefully turns over in his hospital bed. For reasons.
**
10. Live Free or Die Hard, John/Matt
Prompt: coffee, tea or hot chocolate
Matt quickly swiped his palms on his jeans before opening the door.
"Daisy Duke?" John asked.
"Right. Because last time I said that whole-
"Yeah."
"Yeah. That's... funny. Come in!" He stepped back hastily to let John enter, shut the door as John looked around appraisingly. It was a bit of an upgrade from the last place; this one at least didn't have mice that regularly nibbled at the wires, and the fire alarm had only been erroneously pulled three times so far this month.
"Nice place."
Matt makes a face. Better than a trash heap is still a dump. But John's being nice, so he should be nice, which means he should wipe that weird look off his face and-
"Coffee!" he blurts out. "Or tea. I have milk. For the... I got it this morning so it's fresh. Or hot chocolate! Because yeah, Farrell, let's have hot chocolate when it's 87 degrees outside. That makes so much-"
"Matt?"
Matt focuses, visions of John passing out from heat exhaustion after being force-fed copious amounts of Granny's Best still dancing through his head.
"Ya wanna calm the fuck down?"
"Sure. Yeah. Absolutely," Matt says. It's just a date, he reminds himself. Just a date. He can do this.
Then John takes off his leather jacket and Matt gets a good look at the white T stretched over barrel chest, and he knows that all bets are off.
**
Ten Walking Dead Ficlets
01. The Walking Dead, Daryl (pre-series)
Prompt: I have no interest in learning the rest of the Greek alphabet
The teacher droned on, epsifuckincron or some such shit, and Daryl propped his head on his hand and ignored her as he stared out the window. First day of huntin' season and the old man promised to take him after school for his first lesson on the crossbow, and never mind that Merle said his chicken arms weren't strong enough for the draw. He was gonna kick ass with that bow, and Merle can Eta his ass if he thinks any different.
**
02. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: someone determined to be a background character
Beth kept her eyes down and her mouth shut (unless she was singing), taking care of the baby and doing her chores and minding her own beeswax. Then the prison fell and she was tired and lonely and wasn't going to spend another day eating mud snake; then there were fighting lessons and long talks and moonshine and standing back to back with Daryl while the zombies closed in and feeling alive like she never felt before. Guess she wasn't supposed to be a background character after all.
**
03. The Walking Dead, Judith
Prompt: Valentine's Day
Judith didn't understand why a blood-red heart was supposed to mean you loved somebody, but she shrugged and went to work. The zombie'd been lying out on the crossroads for a while, stewing in its own juices in the hot sun, so it came out without any trouble. She put it in a nice sturdy box with a ribbon and everything, so she thinks it's pretty rude that the new boy screamed the way he did when he opened it.
**
04. The Walking Dead, Maggie/Glenn
Prompt: their greatest fear
Sometimes she sits at the window of whatever house or barn or storefront they've managed to hole up in for the night, hidden from undead eyes by 2 by 4's or dirty curtains, and thinks about college, her friends, pub fries and a Scofflaw at Rocky Mountain Pizza, kicking ass at trivia, their greatest fear a defective condom and a decision to be made. She misses those days, that girl. But then Glenn grunts in his sleep and his fingers find hers even as he snores, and she doesn't want to be anywhere else.
**
05. The Walking Dead, Daryl
Prompt: And you're not even here, on the coldest night of the year
She promised. That's the one thing he remembers, as he curls up beneath the old horse blanket and watches his breath mist the air, and listens to the murmur of Glenn and Maggie's voices in the next room. She said they'd be together, take care of each other, and then they took her and he couldn't find her and he failed, and now he's all alone.
**
06. The Walking Dead, Daryl
Prompt: Let Tyrants Fear
The hospital looks deserted, nothing to indicate that it's inhabited by monsters that wear the face of men, worse than any goddamn walker. He's heard what they do there, to the women. The ground trembles beneath his boots and the air turns frosty as he takes the stairs, one eye focused on Rick and the kid but most of his attention on the landing, the door, the hall that will lead him to her.
**
07. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: No such thing as too many kittens
"No," Daryl says.
When Beth looks up at him with those big blue eyes he finds it hard to refuse her anything, even as the kittens tumble from her knapsack and pounce on each other, and he knows it's going to make the slog back to the camp practically impossible.
But still… the way them little squirmy things make her smile, maybe there really is no such thing as too many kittens.
**
08. The Walking Dead, Daryl (Daryl/Beth)
Prompt: "It could be worse. I'm just not sure how."
Daryl's eyes follow her as she moves around the camp; he hovers nearby when it's her turn to do the cooking; he sets up a spot to clean his arrows that happens to be right next to where she's helping Judith do her colouring; he even manages to be hovering around the general area of the bushes were she goes to relieve herself, 'cause you just never know what -- or who -- is lurking out there in the dark.
"She still hasn't noticed you?" Glenn says one night when they're sharing a log during dinner.
Daryl shifts his eyes away from Beth and shrugs. "It could be worse," he says. "I'm just not sure how."
**
09. The Walking Dead, Daryl/Beth
Prompt: "Drop your weapons." ... "All your weapons."
Crossbow, hunting knife, quiver with seven arrows, spare hunting knife; they all hit the ground at Daryl's feet.
"All your weapons," the voice behind the shotgun says.
Daryl shrugs and leans down to his boot, slides to the right, pivots, and the spare-spare knife is up against the motherfucker's throat; he don't give a shit about himself, but people gotta learn not to get in his face when Beth is with him.
**
10. The Walking Dead, Maggie
Prompt: dancing with ghosts
Maggie holds her son to her breast, moving in slow circles around the bare floor of the room they've allocated as a nursery. If she closes her eyes, she can imagine Glenn at her back, his warm arms encircling them both. If she closes her eyes.
**
Five Vikings Ficlets
01. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: no good plan survives contact with the enemy
Rollo's plan was to win her, take her, and wrest rule from her. He never intended to become bespelled by her slim hips or her sharp tongue or her honey-scented hair, thick and flowing between his clumsy fingers. He should have known that no good plan survives contact with the enemy.
**
02. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: if it's in you to climb, you must
Rollo watched the Frankish defenders rally beneath a waving banner and the words of a slim, unprepossessing girl. He'd thought that his fate was to breech the gates, raid the city, take what he wished, earn the respect of his people. It was when his eyes met Gisla's that the spark flared to stuttering life: that his fate may instead be twined with this slip of a girl.
**
03. Vikings, Gisla
Prompt: But demons can't feel love, can they?
The way he looks at her, the monster who scaled her walls, makes her shiver. Gisla isn't sure whether it's fear or desire that makes her insides quiver, but the longing and desire in his eyes is clear. But demons can't feel love, can they?
**
04. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: I am ready for the fight
"Do not!"
Gisla whirls away in a swirl of silk, her arm tingling where his fingers brushed against the flesh beneath her flowing sleeve. Her skim is aflame from the fire of their argument, and she wants to lash out with nails, with teeth, with words that scratch and bite. Her heart beats faster as she sees the same look in her husband's eye, and like that the passion flares, ignites, turns her anger into something more, something better.
"Do not stop," Gisla commands.
**
05. Vikings, Rollo/Gisla
Prompt: wishing on a falling star
Gisla rested against her husband's chest, watching the stars through the bedroom window as he drew pictures with words, stories of monsters in the deep and mighty warriors who rode the lightning. Blasphemy, all of it, but not if she pretended that it was just a story, something with which to entertain the children. She followed the arc of a falling star and tightened her grip on Rollo's hand; if wishing for the rasp of his voice against her ear and his strong arms around her always were a sin, then she would gladly bear it.
.