comment_fic 416-420: Supernatural, Angel the Series/Leverage, Chuck
Title: When the painted birds laugh in the shade
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from William Blake
Warnings: pre-series, mostly
Pairings: Bill/Ellen, John/Mary
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 360
Point of view: third
Prompt: Ellen, Her maiden name was Campbell
When Ellen was little, knee-high and wearing pigtails, her best friend in the world was her cousin Mary. Mary knew all her secrets, her hopes and fears and dreams. She and Mary were only months apart in age, and they did everything together.
Uncle Samuel and Mama sometimes went on trips together, leaving Aunt Deanna and Daddy to look after the kids. Ellen and Mary made up all kinds of stories about what their parents did, but Ellen's favorites had Uncle Samuel and Mama as a prince and princess in hiding.
When Ellen and Mary were eight, Mama didn't come back from the trip. Uncle Samuel did, but he was bloody and crying and Daddy punched him in the mouth, so hard he fell down. Ellen screamed for Mama; Mama never answered, never swooped her up in a big hug and called her baby girl.
Daddy pulled Ellen into his arms and stormed out the house. Mary sobbed for her to come back, to stay, but Ellen never saw her again. When she was eighteen, Ellen went looking for her cousin Mary, her best friend from when she was too young to know what haunted the night, but Mary was gone. She couldn't find Uncle Samuel, Aunt Deanna, or the girl she used to think of as a sister. Daddy refused to tell her what he knew.
Her search led her to Bobby Singer, and Bobby introduced her to Bill Harvelle, and soon enough she had her own baby girl, named Joanna in honor of her mother.
When John Winchester blew in one day, Ellen offered him a beer and watched him leave with her husband. A few years later, when Joanna was still a tiny little thing, in pigtails and thinking the world was a bright place, John came back without Bill.
Joanna screamed for her daddy, but Daddy never answered.
And then John's boys, Dean and Sam walked into her saloon. And Dean, he looked so much like Ellen's cousin Mary. And the more time she spent around them, the more she saw her best friend, her sister, and she finally realized where Mary Campbell went.
Title: give the devil his due
Fandom: Angel the Series/Leverage
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: mostly preseries
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 425
Point of view: third
Prompt: Ats/Leverage, Lindsey, Eliot; fist fights and blood brothers.
Eliot hung out with the punks while Lindsey studied, determined to get far enough away to no longer be one of the hick trailer-trash McDonald boys.
Eliot was the trouble-maker, detention every week, barely passing (and even then, everyone knew it was only because of his brother; Lindsey knew it was just because school bored him even though he's plenty smart).
Most of the bullies left Lindsey alone, usually because of his brother, but also because he could talk rings around them until they didn't even remember what he'd done to annoy them in the first place. It helped, too, that while he didn't fight as much as Eliot, he could. A couple football players learned that their freshman year.
But then, their junior year, this new kid transferred in, some big-time jock who'd lead the football team to major victory. Problem was, he was dumber than a stump, and so Lindsey got tapped to tutor him.
Lindsey couldn't care less about football if he tried, and the jock didn't care about studying or raising his grades, but he needed to at least pass.
After three days, the jock just told Lindsey to take the tests for him, to do the homework for him, so that he got more time on the field.
The teachers wouldn't care, the jock said, and the bitch of it was, Lindsey knew that.
All the same, he refused.
(It wasn't so much his principles, just the jock's tone and attitude.)
And when the jock's grades sank even lower and he couldn't play the final game, so they lost... well, no one liked that, except Lindsey 'cause that was the bastard's due.
So the football team waited for Lindsey on the walk home, and a chill wind was blowing, and when the jock who refused to even try lunged for him, Lindsey didn't stand there and take it.
His brother rushed up and they fought back-to-back, and it wasn't exactly a victory, or even a draw-
But some of those kids never played football again.
And years later, when Lindsey turned his back on Wolfram and Hart because he finally found principles and Eliot joined up with a group that did the right thing instead of what was easy, and Lindsey finally found his way home to his brother, it felt like when they stood in the middle of a pissed-off football team, them against the world.
Except, this time, the white hats wouldn't betray their allies at the final hour, and Eliot said, "'bout time you showed up, Linny."
Title: You will live in vain
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Thoreau
Warnings: AU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 290
Point of view: third
Prompt: any/any, Crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good
l
i
He finally has the monster trapped, locked down tight with blessed chains, with a ring of holy water, with the righteous determination to save the world.
The monster just watches silently, liquid green eyes wide with shock and fear, and he unsheathes his sharpest knife.
"You understand, don't you, Sammy?" he asks gently. "The hunter in you knows I'm right."
But the monster still doesn't speak. It's calm, unmoving, in the center of the circle, waiting.
He'll have to get close, to make sure the monster is put down for good. And he'll have to be quick, because the monster's deluded brother should be waking soon.
"Sammy," he says, "just let me do this. Don't fight. You know it's the only way to keep the world safe from the evil growin' in you."
And the monster finally opens its mouth to say quietly, "The only evil I see is a good man giving in to fear."
He sighs and steps up to very edge of the circle, fingers tight on the hilt of his knife. "Let me put you down. It's the only way your brother won't die tryin' to save somethin' that just can't be saved."
And now the monster's voice is so gentle, so soft, when it says, "This is your last chance, Gordon. Break the circle and let me leave."
He scoffs and the monster's lips curl in a sad smile. "Remember," it says, "I gave you the choice."
"I wouldn't have even give him that," Dean drawls from behind him and he spins in place, knife raised.
Too late, though, because Dean's got a gun and the last thing Gordon sees is the monster's brother, eyes cold, and the last thing he hears is the monster, laughing.
Title: we discover ourselves inside the kingless kingdom
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Denise Levertov
Warnings: takes place during 5.10
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 245
Point of view: third
Prompt: Lucifer/Castiel: I want to be there when your hot black rage rips wide open
Lucifer studies him, this youngest of all his brothers, so sure and calm and still believing in Father while trapped by the Star of Morning.
Lucifer has stood where he stands and felt what he feels, and when he realized the truth, war broke out and angels were cast from the heavens to languish in the Pit.
Lucifer, though, can learn from his mistakes. Judging by the child before him, Father cannot. Father continues to do the same damn things, over and over, and now he has left. Gone elsewhere, leaving unprepared angels in charge, like that foolish Zachariah.
And Castiel has so much potential. So much pain, so much rage. Despair, pooling where his grace used to reside.
And soon enough… yes, Lucifer recognizes this child. He once was this child, except there was no one to guide him, no one who would dare stand beside him. He had followers, and he had enemies. Brothers who turned away, brothers who listened, but no one who was his equal. His only equal cast him low.
This child, Castiel, is not his equal. One day, perhaps, but not yet.
But when Castiel finally realizes what Lucifer learned so long ago, he will become a force to be reckoned with, stronger than anyone left in Lucifer's army, and Lucifer must have him on the correct side.
And so he is gentle with his brother, and plants the seed that will one day flower in his light.
Title: remember this moment
Fandom: Chuck
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: spoilers for up to season 2
Pairings: Bryce/Chuck
Rating: PG
Wordcount:195
Point of view: third
Prompt: Chuck/Bryce, "I'm only going to see Professor Fleming, buddy. Why did that feel like goodbye sex?"
In hindsight, a great deal of things make sense. The few times Bryce pulled away just before various trips for that weird company where he worked, how tightly he held Chuck after coming back home. The look in his eyes after Chuck missed a bank hold-up by mere minutes. How good he was at Gotcha.
And that day when Fleming called Chuck to his office, when Bryce pulled Chuck to the bed and proceeded to ravish him. When Bryce kissed him like they'd never see each other again.
It was just a stupid meeting. Something about Chuck's grades. Nothing important, nothing scary. And Bryce whispered in his ear, "Remember this moment."
Chuck did remember that moment. He learned why it felt like goodbye.
It still didn't make sense, not for the longest time. Not until he watched a video of Fleming and Bryce, of Bryce rewriting Chuck's future to delete himself from it. To keep Chuck safe. To keep Chuck from becoming him.
And Chuck wishes he could go back to that moment, to clutch Bryce close, to ward off their separate destinies.
He wishes, so much, that none of their goodbyes ever happened.