[Fic] Reverberations from hiatus

[whitesin]

I've still been puzzling out stuff for the Boffins universe but the muses have been stingy. So here, have a Micro-fic meme that really isn't one about our favorite Boffin and Brute:

1. Angst

There was no sound to his ears but the slowing slowing beats of his heart as he stared up into her desperate eyes.

(He hoped that she would lose sleep because of him)

1. AU

There was a girl with a curl who “died”
when she opened her eyes, she found her fingers had turned to brass and iron.
A green-eyed sorcerer smiled with yellow teeth at her, holding the Devil’s Pact he had signed for her.

1. Crack

“‘Oh, we can hop over the flames hand in hand with no problem. It’s not as though it will stick or anything!’”

“Shut up, woman.”

“Bugger all to hell. We’re moving to America. I’ll be damned if I’m signing this all over to you.”

1. Cross-over (Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld)

Gilbert concluded that if indeed Europa would tremble and all would be remade, it would not be from military exploits, peasant revolutions, or madmen anarchists, but from two women bent over papers and tea in amiable, intense conversation. He shifted Tazza’s leash to his other hand and let the beast wander the peripheries of the greenhouse.

1. First Time

He caught her doing it fairly early on and he would always savor the dumbstruck look on her face. She caught onto him depressingly quickly and opted to ignore his presence in going about her business.

In the face of her indifference, he started stealing from her tobacco pouch.

1. Fluff

It was a badly made cup of tea. Over-steeped, too milky and the sugar left as gritty dregs. But she received it with grace and she silently passed over a wrapped parcel to him. Boxing Day was indeed tomorrow but… well, it couldn’t wait.

1. Humor

She wasn’t sure whether to be pleased that they would not have to go through the additional expense (to say nothing of potentially awkward and difficult questions) or to be perturbed at how well black lace and jet beads and her ruby lavaliere suited him indeed.

1. Hurt & Comfort

He asked her for the day off as August rolled around. She studied his face and not long after, she passed him an envelope with enough for airfare to Berlin and additional expenses for about a week. He never used it (and was there to stop herself from sending an electric current through her heart).

1. Smut

In his dreams, she is creamy-skinned, wild-haired, and smirking - the last is no different from her usual self but there is the promise of mutual pleasures at least. And she can’t smirk when screaming as she rides him. In the morning, she’s sallow, haggard, and surly - and he still needs to think of ice-cold rivers.

1. UST

His hand is curled at the nape of her neck. She raises her chin and bares a canine at him. He curses and turns away, letting her go. They ignore each other’s red ears and hitched breath.

Note:
2. I've contemplated an AU of this AU, where the gender flipping goes the other way. It's a LOT darker than the current Boffins universe, I can say that much.
3. Warning: law nerdery ahead - so England was governed with a rule of coverture, where a married couple is treated as a single unit under the law, the husband, to be exact. This meant that women had no property in their own name once they married, not even the wages they made on their own. The US had the rule of coverture, given that American law is based on English “common” law but in the 1800s established laws that protected married women’s property that was in their own name to protect women from wastrel husbands. Alana hates the very idea that she would have to sign her (fairly considerable in some respects) property over to Gilbert.
4. One of my favorite characters in the Leviathan series is Doctor Nora Barlow, based on an actual historical figure. Snarky, poised and absolutely, smashingly stylish.
5. If I weren’t clear enough - Alana smokes a pipe. It’s not her father’s, but a custom piece that’s easier to hold between her teeth.
6. Boxing Day - if you gave presents to the servants/staff, it would definitely be on Boxing Day, not Christmas Day proper.
7. lavaliere - a necklace with the pendant attached to the chain, instead of being a separate piece