BtVS and AtS drabbles - PG13, PG
Title: In the Chariot of the Sun
Fandom: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Disclaimer: Jesse, Xander, and Willow aren’t mine. Just for fun.
Warnings: spoilers for “The Harvest”
Pairings: mentions of Jesse/OMC
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: 580
Point of view: third
Notes: the title is a reference to Apollo’s son Phaeton who thought he could control the Sun Chariot. He was wrong and he died, after nearly destroying the world.
Kathryn Rochester has always loved the sun. So when her husband Marcus suggests moving to Sunnydale, California, Kathryn is all for it. She’s three months pregnant, just graduated college at the head of her class, and Sunnydale is prime real estate. Marcus has a well-paying job lined up and Kathryn can stay home writing her first novel or go to work at the school as a teacher-or both, if she feels so inclined.
She teaches senior English for a semester and then takes maternity leave, giving birth to a healthy son she names Benjamin.
Kathryn and Marcus are happy for a year, then she goes back to Sunnydale High. Their elderly neighbor, Eva Cenley, takes care of Benji-until the night she’s found dead in her backyard, drained of blood.
Marcus had brushed off all of Kathryn’s concerns about Sunnydale’s high mortality rate, but now she just stares at him in silence, clutching Benji close.
The day after Eva’s funeral, Kathryn learns she’s pregnant again.
-
Years pass. Someone is found dead every day. Kathryn doesn’t understand how everyone can turn a blind eye, can rationalize it all away.
She forbids Benji and Natalia from going out at night. Marcus tells her she’s overprotective. She asks him how he can be so flippant-but he’s at the office all the time, not at school, staring at the empty desks.
-
And then one day, Ben brings home a boy named Jesse. Softly introduces Jesse to her as his friend, but Kathryn can tell from how close they stand that it’s more.
Jesse is polite and shy, not often meeting Kathryn’s eyes. But he lights up whenever Ben smiles at him and Kathryn hides a grin.
Her boy is happy. She can’t ask for more than that.
-
At Ben’s sixteenth birthday party, Kathryn meets Jesse’s best friends: Xander and Willow. They’re both good kids, just like him-don’t like meeting her eyes or being the center of attention. She wonders, but it just cements her suspicions. Something about this town brings out the bad side in people.
She wants to pack up her kids and Ben’s boy and Jess’ friends. Get them all out of here before anything bad happens.
But a week after the party, Ben comes home crying, gasping for air. Kathryn rushes to him, grips his shoulders. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
He just looks at her, tears dripping down his cheeks, eyes bloodshot. He trembles and folds into her, wrapping around her. “Mama,” he whispers. “Jesse’s gone.”
She doesn’t understand, but the whole story pours out: the night before, at the Bronze, there was a gang fight. Jesse was a casualty-wrong place, wrong time, Xander told Ben.
“I love him,” Ben sobs on Kathryn’s shoulder.
-
The day Talia turns fifteen, Kathryn packs up her children and they leave Sunnydale in the dust. Xander is the only one to see them off.
Kathryn’s always loved the sun, but Sunnydale is a lie. No sun there-just shadows and shades, ghosts… monsters.
Talia’s angry about leaving, but Ben is silent. He just sits quietly shotgun and stares out the window.
Marcus remains in Sunnydale, but he hasn’t been the man Kathryn married in a long time. She isn’t sorry to leave him behind.
-
Kathryn moves back home, lives down the street from Dad. Talia fits in at school with ease, but Ben still doesn’t speak.
It’ll take awhile, she knows, but her bright, shining boy will return.
He will. Some day.
Title: end of the night
Fandom: “Angel”
Disclaimer: Angel, Lindsey, Russell Winters, and Cordelia aren’t mine. Just for fun. Title from “I Need A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler.
Warnings: AU for “You’re Welcome”
Pairings: smidge of Lindsey/OMC
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: 520
Point of view: third
He’s hated for so long he doesn’t see a way out. Ever since Angel stormed into that board room and kicked Russell Winters out the window, Lindsey’s despised him. Even when he asked the damned vampire for help, he couldn’t stand Angel.
Angel stepped in and became the Senior Partners’ favorite son, their golden boy. Anything he did, they just looked at him and smiled.
And Lindsey couldn’t stomach it, couldn’t let himself stay in Angel’s shadow after everything. So he left, traveled the world, learned from the best and taught himself things even the greatest wizards in the world could not comprehend.
Holland always said he had ambition to spare. Ambition and hate took him to the summit-and now they keep his wings spread as he soars straight into the abyss.
From the beginning, Angel underestimated him. Should have killed him, all those chances the stupid vampire had.
Too late now.
-
He’d had the plan in motion from when Angel cut off his hand. Back up ideas and half-cocked ideas mingled in his mind, all those weeks and months he was gone.
He kept tabs on Angel, the vampire with everything Lindsey’d ever wanted, even from before he knew he’d wanted it. Altered the plans whenever needed, changed things up a bit.
-
The tattoos hurt, a searing brand-necessary, so he didn’t hesitate. Brother Theo asked if he were sure, right before the first needle pierced his skin, explained just what the cost would be.
Lindsey smiled up at Theo, raised himself to press a chaste kiss against the monk’s lips. “I’m sure, brother,” he drawled, and Theo smiled back.
-
Jecvar, a master swordsman, took Lindsey under his wing for a while. Shoved Lindsey into a pocket dimension and taught everything he knew-which was everything ever known about the blade.
For Lindsey, a handful of centuries passed. In the outside world, it was a hand-span of breaths.
“No matter who you fight now,” Jecvar growled, “you will always win.”
Lindsey bowed to him, an honor he’d never given anyone. Jecvar handed him a small knife with bared teeth and said, “Now have your vengeance on that scum”
-
It isn’t that hard to walk into the mouth of hell and pick up the still-warm amulet now containing William the Bloody.
Everything’s falling into place beautifully and Angel just became CEO of Wolfram and Hart.
That position should have been Lindsey’s. Would have been, if Angel had never shown his face in LA.
-
He preps the failsafe; Angel will figure it out, will find the entrance, will make it past the zombies. He’s fought worse and survived, after all.
Angel is a letdown after Jecvar, but that’s to be expected. Cordelia tries every button and finally hits the right one; Lindsey had expected that, too. A heartbeat after she makes the correct choice, electricity sears through her blood, halting her heart, and she falls.
“Cordelia!” Angel howls, taking his mind off the fight.
Lindsey swings his sword.
And the blade slices through Angel’s neck, his head arching away through the air. Lindsey stands tall and smiles.
He’s finally won.
Title: Phoenix
Fandom: “Angel”
Disclaimer: not my characters; just for fun.
Warnings: spoilers for season 5
Pairings: Wesley/Fred, shades of Illyria/Wesley
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 150
Point of view: third
When It wore Its’ magnificence, Illyria never dreamed. It never slept. It never grieved. It ruled the world, God-King of everything, and now-only remnants, shadows, memories of those days.
And now It wears the form of Winifred Burkle and feels things It has never felt before.
In the dark of night, Illyria dreams of Fred’s life, of Wesley and Gunn, of Mama and Daddy, of Cordelia and Lorne and friends from childhood. It feels how Fred felt for them, loving them all more than herself. It feels. And It grieves for the woman killed to bring It back into the world, the woman burned on the pyre of Its’ magnificent resurrection fire.
Wesley teaches It to live, but Fred-a shadow, shards, pieces never again to be complete-teaches It to feel, to empathize… to love.
And Wesley dies, so Illyria-in mercy-gives to him what he desires.
Title: Shreds of Armor
Fandom: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Disclaimer: not my characters; just for fun.
Warnings: spoilers for “Killed By Death”
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 100
Point of view: third
The boy stank of fear, but also desperation and determination. The three mingled together, straightening his spine. He stood before Angelus and did not tremble.
Despite himself, Angelus respected him for that. The boy made good points-and yes, Angelus could take them all, before they saw him coming. But something in the boy’s eyes, some dark presence hinted at only in his moments of rage, warned Angelus off.
There would be a time and a place to take this boy, after Buffy and the rest were dead, but not now.
So he smirked at the boy and strode out.
Title: Ashes and Dust
Fandom: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Disclaimer: not my characters; just for fun.
Warnings: spoilers for “The Harvest”
Pairings: Xander/Jesse
Rating: PG
Point of view: third
Wordcount: 100
He doesn’t think of it at first, how easily Willow moves on. She was never as close to Jesse as he was. Buffy’s another girl, someone she can giggle and gossip with, someone she has more in common with than she ever has with Xander.
He misses Jesse so much it burns. He has a hole inside, a gaping, empty place that Jesse’s laughter and Jesse’s smile used to fill. Long, slow nights in summer, full of secret touches and lingering glances are gone, vampires in their place.
Jesse became dust and Xander inhaled him.
Jesse’s gone and Xander’s alone.