(no subject)
DRABBLE PROJECT, 1 THROUGH 32
Genre: SLASH
Fandom: CANADIAN IDOL
Pairing: EVERY PAIRING EVER
Notes: I started this in August, just before my wisdom teeth came out. And then I told myself I'd have them done before placement started in November, but that didn't happen. I haven't touched them in months, to be honest. I'm hoping that you'll be the motivation that I need here, and if not, well, at least you'll get to see these ones. Each drabble is exactly 100 words - something that I have trouble with - and they are based on the LJ moods (this set is Accomplished through Embarrassed). What I like best about this so far is the progression that you can see through my own life, if you squint your eyes and tilt your head. Enjoy!
Accomplished | Jacob/Kalan
Kalan holds the last note, listening to the combination of piano-cheers-heartbeat until the time is exactly right. He finishes with a breath, holding the next until the judges have laid their shining praise at his feet like Jesus’ wisemen. This time, he emerges successful. He floats off stage.
Jacob hisses in the dark as soon as he’s in the wings. “Good job, kid.”
Kalan feels the familiar jerk in his stomach and then the tingle that follows mingling with his pride - he’s invincible tonight, and he’s sure the success will follow him long after the stage lights have faded out.
Amused | Chad/Tyler
Tyler watches curiously as Chad adds the bow, curling the ribbon tips with scissors. “Perfect,” he says with a self-satisfied smile. Tyler moves to ask whom the immaculately wrapped present is for, but Chad just shakes his head. “Nu-uh.” He carefully places it at the bottom of his closet.
Finale night, the present reemerges. Chad hands it to Tyler after the confetti has fallen, when they’re alone. “For me?” Tyler asks, grinning. He rips it open. Inside, a shirt. If lost, please return to Chad Doucette, East Chezzetcook…
Chad’s giggles render his legs useless and he heaps at Tyler’s feet.
Angry | Shane/Jacob
“Goddamnit,” Shane mutters under his breath, unconcerned about taking the Lord’s name in vain. He closes his eyes and searches blindly for the remote, hitting the power button on memory alone. The song stops playing but the images still remain with him.
He just had to go and do this; this is exactly the sort of stuff that Jacob Hoggard lives to pull. Their song; Jacob all over a girl in the video. Not even Tammy.
He ignores the baby’s cries and Angela’s soft singing as he picks up the phone, dialing a number that he knows far too well.
Annoyed | Kalan/Josh
“You have to eat, Kalan,” Josh growls, taking the boiling pot of pasta off the hot element and slamming it down on the counter. “If you don’t eat, you die. That’s basically the way it works.”
Kalan shakes his head. “I’m okay. Not hungry.” Josh shoots him a glare over his shoulder as he stirs the spaghetti sauce, surveying his gaunt cheeks and protruding collarbone in one quick swoop.
“You don’t look okay.”
Kalan averts his eyes and shrugs, and with an annoyed groan Josh fills a plate and puts it in front of Kalan, storming out of the room.
Anxious | Theresa/Elena
Theresa frantically paces - up and down, up and down - until Elena mentions that she feels a bout of motion sickness coming on. She nearly expects to see a track worn into the floor when she glances down. “For what it’s worth, you’re not going to win, T.”
Theresa smiles lopsidedly, at least making an effort. “I know. I think it’s him that I’m worried about.”
Elena smiles back as if she’s sympathetic, but the one that she’s worrying about is still right in front of her, and with those eight words she feels any anxiety she might have slipping away.
Apathetic | Brandon/Craig
Brandon stares down at the stage, watching in mild interest as he traces the outline of the words - CANADIAN IDOL - with the toe of his chucks. It’s been an incredibly long day. Craig sits on the stairs, fingers spread wide against them and lazily darting a pen in and out of the space between each.
When Brandon tires of his game, he moves to sprawl out beside Craig and pulls on a tuft of his hair. “Hey, Craig?” Craig glances over his shoulder. “Wanna make out?” he laughs, partially meaning it.
“Yeah, okay,” Craig says, and then yawns as punctuation.
Aroused | general
His head hits the wall and he can feel the brick scratching the back of his neck. Rough hands scramble to undo his belt and grasp desperately onto denim, holding on for purchase. He can feel the moist breath on his neck in the chilly night air, and he moans lowly in response. The adrenaline from the show still pumps through his veins, everything is singing. When thick fingers finally wrap around his cock, he gasps. “Oh god, fuck, yes, don’t stop.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t until the world spins and the unseen stars glow ever bright in the Toronto sky.
Awake | Jacob/Kalan
The alarm blares for the third time, and Jacob reaches to hit “snooze” like the bad habit that it is. He rolls over, pulling the sheet bunched around his waist with him.
Beside him, Kalan watches the ceiling and squints against the harsh morning light pouring through the window. Somewhere outside, a mockingbird sings and his sleep-addled mind wonders what it’s mocking this time. Jacob starts snoring again, and somehow Kalan can’t bring himself to opt for the soft wake up call. He pinches his newly tattooed arm, and Jacob’s eyes open with a yelp.
“Okay, okay. Awake,” he murmurs.
Blank | Tyler/Greg
“Man. This is…man.” Tyler waves his hands for emphasis, flailing wildly in the hotel hallway. Greg frowns, a line materializing from the top of his eyebrows to the bridge of his nose. He looks around at the empty hallway before his gaze settles on Tyler again.
Tyler leans against the wall and stares back at Greg, possibly expecting something that Greg doesn’t understand. He shrugs to himself instead of asking; he probably doesn’t want to know. Tyler smiles, slow and easy, as if he’s thinking about something that he really (really) shouldn’t be.
“Dude,” Greg says, and then simply blinks.
Bored | Jacob/Josh/Kalan
“What the fuck?!?” Jacob screams, at nothing in particular. Josh glances up over the magazine that he’s holding - a Cosmo stolen from Manoah’s suitcase- and watches as Jacob begins to spin in frenetic circles. Rain pounds on the roof, and Josh knows that at this ungodly early hour it’s acting as a lullaby for everyone else.
“Shhh, you’ll wake everyone up,” Josh hisses, and Jacob stops on a dime.
“Want to wake Kalan up?” he asks, and the devilish grin that spreads across his face cues Josh into just what he means.
He nods in morbid curiosity. “Yeah, I’m game.”
Bouncy | Steffi/Ashley Coulter
Ashley tries not to use logic - as if there is any now - and opts to operate solely on wishes and a belief in magic and everything that Steffi would want her to be. They escape before sunrise, before anyone notices.
The taxi is expensive, but Steffi giggles the entire way. She attacks Ashley with chatter, intermittently pressing her nose to the window in an attempt to find out where they’re headed.
When the car stops, Steffi bounces out. She glances around and then squeals piercingly. “The zoo!”
Ashley grins before linking arms and insisting that they see the monkeys first.
Broken | Greg/Brandon
Brandon drags a hand over sore eyes before the flash lights, forcing the smile until the photographer indicates that she’s done. He’s the first one up and panicking; he searches for Greg as if he’s already been taken from him, like he’s disappeared without saying goodbye.
He spots him offstage - weary, miserable smile dragging his features down as he talks to friends from home.
Brandon is there before he realizes he’s moving, in Greg’s arms and crying again as Greg shushes and hushes, making quiet promises that he knows he can’t keep as he tries to superglue Brandon back together.
Calm | Keith/Chad
“So. This is it, then...” Chad comments, lack of surface emotion and brave smile on.
“Yeah,” Keith says, “I guess so.” Chad smiles softly, no more than fleeting.
“You want help out?” Keith glances at the one small duffel bag but nods anyhow.
“That’d be good.” Chad picks it up and Keith smiles, bemused, as they make their way to the street.
“Come back and visit sometime?” Chad asks, tacking on “if I’m still here, that is,” as an afterthought.
“You know it,” Keith grins, and for a second Chad thinks all of the birds on the street stop singing.
Cheerful | Barrett/Stephane
“So, this is Edmonton!” Barrett exclaims with a grin.
“Well actually, this is the airport parking lot, but yeah.” Stephane responds, digging through his pockets for his keys.
“It’s so clean here,” Barrett remarks gleefully, looking at the sky and the ground and everything that he can take in at once.
Stephane presses the unlock button on his starter, turning towards the sound of one shrill beep. “Over here.”
He opens the trunk and lifts Barrett’s suitcase inside as strong arms wrap around him from behind. “I’m happy to be here,” Barrett whispers.
“Me too,” Stephane says, and then laughs.
Chipper | Melissa/Ashley Leitao
Melissa talks a mile a minute, giggling and raking a hand through her ponytail as she does so. Ashley’s eyes grow wider as this encounter - little more than bumping into each other on Queen St, a “where’s Rex?” and “where’s Casey?” thrown in casually, and two comfy chairs at the corner Starbucks - continues. She’s sure that she looks like a cartoon now.
When Melissa pauses for breath, Ashley strains to think of something to say. Instead, Melissa reaches over and threads their fingers together, giving a gentle squeeze.
“It’s nice seeing you again, you know?” she titters with a grin.
Cold | Brandon/Chad
They sit in the dark on the hotel carpet, watching old news reports and morbidly munching on popcorn. This is the kind of thing they say you remember - but when it happened, Brandon was only twelve and Chad thirteen. They whisper in between images of buildings falling, airplanes combusting and people jumping for their lives. They remember some -- maybe not enough. Brandon remembers a sunny day and basketball on the river court; Chad remembers a worn novel and the remnants of summer heat.
He pulls Brandon just a little bit closer - he’s so cold now. They’re both so cold.
Confused | Jacob/Kalan
Week one. Kalan is learning how to be wild; Jacob is perfecting that happy daze feel. It’s simple, as if it were somehow in God’s Master Plan or something. Kalan has the lone room, but at bedtime he finds himself anything but alone. Jacob sprawls on his bed, flipping absently through a spiral notebook. He’s unapologetic when he sees Kalan - even more unapologetic as he stands and presses an experimental kiss to his lips.
Kalan blinks. Breathes.
“I’m not…you know…” words evade him, but his eyes scream it anyhow.
“No, I know.” Jacob states, shrugging even as he turns away.
Content | Rex/Daryl
Daryl’s tears dry as soon as the cameras go out. He shrugs and gives a half smile, an “it was bound to happen sometime”, and then he starts to mentally repack his room. The van drops them off just before midnight, as the rain starts to fall. Two am finds Daryl with the living room television on mute, thinking it all over.
The footsteps disturb him.
Rex slides down onto the couch next to him, changing the TV to an old black and white movie without breaking the silence.
Three am finds them covered up, tangled together and sleeping peacefully.
Cranky | Kalan/Kaleb
Kalan storms around, boisterously closing cupboards and making his usually quiet presence known. Kaleb watches in a mixture of half wonder, half amusement.
“Who spit in your hair gel?” he asks with something not unlike a smirk.
Kalan turns and his eyes narrow into slits, accusingly. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know,” he spits out, all venom. Kaleb’s eyes widen and he holds his hands out in front of himself, surrendering.
Kalan sighs, breathing a silent oh. “Jacob, then. Red sock in with my whites, and now half my stuff is pink!”
Kaleb barks out a laugh; Kalan’s glare intensifies.
Crazy | Greg/Brandon/Tyler
Brandon lights candles, settling against the bathtub. Greg crouches by the toilet, Tyler leans against the sink.
In the middle, sits the shirt.
Initially, Tyler had said it was stupid. Brandon’s seen the movie because he baby sits sometimes, but Greg says that it sounds “sort of cool”, and Tyler thinks that Greg is sort of cool.
They each take turns touching the shirt, and then Brandon points out that they need rules. They steal them from a pilfered copy of the book, save for an eleventh one that Greg scribbles down when no one is watching: Greg iz hott.
Creative | Kalan/Josh
He scribbles hundreds and hundreds of words, trying to make sense of this sudden jolt of energy that he’s been handed. Everything he’s doing right now feels so simple, so obvious. Of course that metaphor fits there, goes with that melody, should have that bass line. It’s so obvious he doesn’t know how he missed it before. He lies sprawled on the floor, kept company by both guitar and violin as he muses and the music flows from pen to paper.
Josh watches silently from their couch, smiling. Kalan hasn’t looked this happy in as long as he can remember.
Crushed | Jacob/Shane
Jacob’s always liked flying. He thinks that this - Shane’s head pressed into the crook of his shoulder and the Alberta mountains below them as they head home - is even better than usual. When the plane lands, he wakes Shane in the least gentle way possible. Shane opens his eyes groggily, and then smiles. “Home?” Jacob nods.
When they exit the terminal, Angela is waiting. Shane doesn’t think twice before running to greet her, scooping her up in his arms and spinning her around.
Jacob has to look away.
He asks Tammy to marry him - for real, this time - that night.
Curious | Tyler/Rob
Steffi loves hide-and-go-seek. On day three in the mansion, when Craig suggests they play, she’s in. She’s so in that if she were any more in, she’d be out again.
When it’s her turn to be It, she stealthily hunts down idol after idol. She is the sniper of Its.
When she hears strange noises from the sauna, she figures she’s got Brandon. Instead, she sees Rob and Tyler - doing things that they make you pay to see on TV unless it’s Discovery Channel - and stands on tiptoe to get a better look before forcing herself to turn away.
Cynical | Nancy/Ashley Coles
Two things connect them now: their hatred and the phone lines.
Ashley mutes the TV as Eva sings, listening to Nancy’s breathing over the crappy reception instead. She swears that she hears Nancy murmur “fake”, but she doesn’t comment. After a moment, as she watches the judges smile as they praise Eva, she clears her throat. “You know, winning isn’t all that great anyhow. Just look at Melissa O’Neill and Kalan Porter. Eva’s not that fantastic, no gift from God or anything.”
“Yeah,” Nancy pauses, twirling the cord around her ring finger. “You wanna go to the show next week?”
Depressed | Kalan/Mister Sass
The finale is like - how would they say it? - oh, passing the torch. That’s it. Too much time with Sass again and his brain feels like it’s been scrambled in a succulently saucy skillet.
The new kids are happy. You can tell they’re high on music, on life, on each other. So unlike Kalan, who is high on just about everything else. He smiles at the girl - Mel - who is drunk on excitement. He’s happy enough about working with her, assuming Canada got it right - until he sees Kalan and remembers that he used to be the same way.
Determined | Jacob/Shane/Kalan
Shane locks them in the dressing room, turning his back on the door and trapping them like wild animals. Jacob paces angrily; Kalan just looks lost and scared.
“You two are going to work this out. Now.” No need to explain. Kalan knows why he’s mad, and maybe Jacob doesn’t know why he is, but that’s always been Jacob. The fire burning around Kalan’s water and Shane’s earth.
Kalan starts like a pupil that’s been called against his will, turning to the mirror and picking up Elena’s eyeliner. He leaves a mark on the glass in one fluid motion.
3.
Devious | McMaster/James
His life plays in these flashes.
Meeting Luke, touring with NSYNC, losing Luke, Julie, Canadian Idol. The thing is, sometimes he has these moments where things just clash.
The songs play while the top ten sits around the CD player, Brandon oohing over Bryan Adams while Steffi ahhs over Shania Twain.
When Rob is finally out on that stage for the first time, he looks directly at Julie as he sings getting drunk on torch songs, and fast food, and me and you.
It’s just not her face that he sees in his mind’s eye staring back at him.
Disappointed | Shane/Jason
Shane is the fifth, but he’s expected as much from the beginning. Middle of the pack, and if he’d been told to imagine the end three weeks ago, it would have been this.
A handful of stragglers watch from the audience as Shane, Jacob and Kalan sit in silence on the couch, connected only by their shared loneliness and the desperation of the situation.
What they don’t see is a battered Jason, watching from the protection of the wings as his heart sinks like a ship - reminding him of missed opportunities and SOS calls that still need to be placed.
Ditzy | Tyler/Kalan
Frosh week; kegger night. His fluorescent MHC BUSINESS t-shirt is his ticket, currently sporting the remnants of silly string along with his classmates’ signatures.
He is pulled aside as he leaves; he just stumbles where led. There, blue eyes. Dark, curly hair, and a lopsided smile. He smiles too. “You’re pretty,” the deep voice slurs.
“Thanks,” Kalan whispers, and the other’s eyes widen.
He starts to explain - “I thought you were a gir --,” and thinks better of it. “…whatever.”
The last thing Kalan remembers is neon orange clashing with his yellow shirt, tangled on someone’s dorm floor.
Drained | Anna Cyzon/Filomena Pasqua
Anna slips into the hot tub, letting the warm water engulf her completely. It’s been an awful long day. She closes her eyes as she slides lower, too tired to be concerned about bleached blonde hair and chlorine and television.
She opens them again only when he joins her, making polite (enough) conversation and hoping that he understands her need for solitude.
She is relieved when another girl arrives - with dark pigtails and a bright smile - slipping into the hot tub unannounced. When the boy - Joshua - leaves, she finds it surprisingly easier to take interest in her company.
Ecstatic | Greg/Chad
“You’re all safe,” is what Greg hears. Well, to be precise, it might not have been exactly those words. But the judge’s words contain the ever-important term, and that’s all Greg needs. In a characteristic display of excitement he jumps at the nearest body, and only upon landing does he realize it’s a now-squashed Chad.
He laughs unapologetically and eventually pulls himself up and off, offering Chad a hand up. Chad cocks an eyebrow for a split second before he bursts into laugher.
“Congrats, man,” he says with a smile that’s as much for Greg’s victory as for his own.
Embarrassed | Rex/Diego
Rex doesn’t know Montreal, but he wants to. A call and some strategic sneaking during Melissa’s sound check and he’s in a car; gone.
The address is in his pocket.
He drives aimlessly, but somehow he ends up there anyhow. He’s just turning onto his street (just to drive by and see, he thinks) when his foot slams down on the brake without permission and he hears metal on metal.
His eyes widen as he surveys the damage. He flushes when he sees the other driver’s shock become delight, despite the fact that his car is now minus one bumper.
Genre: SLASH
Fandom: CANADIAN IDOL
Pairing: EVERY PAIRING EVER
Notes: I started this in August, just before my wisdom teeth came out. And then I told myself I'd have them done before placement started in November, but that didn't happen. I haven't touched them in months, to be honest. I'm hoping that you'll be the motivation that I need here, and if not, well, at least you'll get to see these ones. Each drabble is exactly 100 words - something that I have trouble with - and they are based on the LJ moods (this set is Accomplished through Embarrassed). What I like best about this so far is the progression that you can see through my own life, if you squint your eyes and tilt your head. Enjoy!
Accomplished | Jacob/Kalan
Kalan holds the last note, listening to the combination of piano-cheers-heartbeat until the time is exactly right. He finishes with a breath, holding the next until the judges have laid their shining praise at his feet like Jesus’ wisemen. This time, he emerges successful. He floats off stage.
Jacob hisses in the dark as soon as he’s in the wings. “Good job, kid.”
Kalan feels the familiar jerk in his stomach and then the tingle that follows mingling with his pride - he’s invincible tonight, and he’s sure the success will follow him long after the stage lights have faded out.
Amused | Chad/Tyler
Tyler watches curiously as Chad adds the bow, curling the ribbon tips with scissors. “Perfect,” he says with a self-satisfied smile. Tyler moves to ask whom the immaculately wrapped present is for, but Chad just shakes his head. “Nu-uh.” He carefully places it at the bottom of his closet.
Finale night, the present reemerges. Chad hands it to Tyler after the confetti has fallen, when they’re alone. “For me?” Tyler asks, grinning. He rips it open. Inside, a shirt. If lost, please return to Chad Doucette, East Chezzetcook…
Chad’s giggles render his legs useless and he heaps at Tyler’s feet.
Angry | Shane/Jacob
“Goddamnit,” Shane mutters under his breath, unconcerned about taking the Lord’s name in vain. He closes his eyes and searches blindly for the remote, hitting the power button on memory alone. The song stops playing but the images still remain with him.
He just had to go and do this; this is exactly the sort of stuff that Jacob Hoggard lives to pull. Their song; Jacob all over a girl in the video. Not even Tammy.
He ignores the baby’s cries and Angela’s soft singing as he picks up the phone, dialing a number that he knows far too well.
Annoyed | Kalan/Josh
“You have to eat, Kalan,” Josh growls, taking the boiling pot of pasta off the hot element and slamming it down on the counter. “If you don’t eat, you die. That’s basically the way it works.”
Kalan shakes his head. “I’m okay. Not hungry.” Josh shoots him a glare over his shoulder as he stirs the spaghetti sauce, surveying his gaunt cheeks and protruding collarbone in one quick swoop.
“You don’t look okay.”
Kalan averts his eyes and shrugs, and with an annoyed groan Josh fills a plate and puts it in front of Kalan, storming out of the room.
Anxious | Theresa/Elena
Theresa frantically paces - up and down, up and down - until Elena mentions that she feels a bout of motion sickness coming on. She nearly expects to see a track worn into the floor when she glances down. “For what it’s worth, you’re not going to win, T.”
Theresa smiles lopsidedly, at least making an effort. “I know. I think it’s him that I’m worried about.”
Elena smiles back as if she’s sympathetic, but the one that she’s worrying about is still right in front of her, and with those eight words she feels any anxiety she might have slipping away.
Apathetic | Brandon/Craig
Brandon stares down at the stage, watching in mild interest as he traces the outline of the words - CANADIAN IDOL - with the toe of his chucks. It’s been an incredibly long day. Craig sits on the stairs, fingers spread wide against them and lazily darting a pen in and out of the space between each.
When Brandon tires of his game, he moves to sprawl out beside Craig and pulls on a tuft of his hair. “Hey, Craig?” Craig glances over his shoulder. “Wanna make out?” he laughs, partially meaning it.
“Yeah, okay,” Craig says, and then yawns as punctuation.
Aroused | general
His head hits the wall and he can feel the brick scratching the back of his neck. Rough hands scramble to undo his belt and grasp desperately onto denim, holding on for purchase. He can feel the moist breath on his neck in the chilly night air, and he moans lowly in response. The adrenaline from the show still pumps through his veins, everything is singing. When thick fingers finally wrap around his cock, he gasps. “Oh god, fuck, yes, don’t stop.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t until the world spins and the unseen stars glow ever bright in the Toronto sky.
Awake | Jacob/Kalan
The alarm blares for the third time, and Jacob reaches to hit “snooze” like the bad habit that it is. He rolls over, pulling the sheet bunched around his waist with him.
Beside him, Kalan watches the ceiling and squints against the harsh morning light pouring through the window. Somewhere outside, a mockingbird sings and his sleep-addled mind wonders what it’s mocking this time. Jacob starts snoring again, and somehow Kalan can’t bring himself to opt for the soft wake up call. He pinches his newly tattooed arm, and Jacob’s eyes open with a yelp.
“Okay, okay. Awake,” he murmurs.
Blank | Tyler/Greg
“Man. This is…man.” Tyler waves his hands for emphasis, flailing wildly in the hotel hallway. Greg frowns, a line materializing from the top of his eyebrows to the bridge of his nose. He looks around at the empty hallway before his gaze settles on Tyler again.
Tyler leans against the wall and stares back at Greg, possibly expecting something that Greg doesn’t understand. He shrugs to himself instead of asking; he probably doesn’t want to know. Tyler smiles, slow and easy, as if he’s thinking about something that he really (really) shouldn’t be.
“Dude,” Greg says, and then simply blinks.
Bored | Jacob/Josh/Kalan
“What the fuck?!?” Jacob screams, at nothing in particular. Josh glances up over the magazine that he’s holding - a Cosmo stolen from Manoah’s suitcase- and watches as Jacob begins to spin in frenetic circles. Rain pounds on the roof, and Josh knows that at this ungodly early hour it’s acting as a lullaby for everyone else.
“Shhh, you’ll wake everyone up,” Josh hisses, and Jacob stops on a dime.
“Want to wake Kalan up?” he asks, and the devilish grin that spreads across his face cues Josh into just what he means.
He nods in morbid curiosity. “Yeah, I’m game.”
Bouncy | Steffi/Ashley Coulter
Ashley tries not to use logic - as if there is any now - and opts to operate solely on wishes and a belief in magic and everything that Steffi would want her to be. They escape before sunrise, before anyone notices.
The taxi is expensive, but Steffi giggles the entire way. She attacks Ashley with chatter, intermittently pressing her nose to the window in an attempt to find out where they’re headed.
When the car stops, Steffi bounces out. She glances around and then squeals piercingly. “The zoo!”
Ashley grins before linking arms and insisting that they see the monkeys first.
Broken | Greg/Brandon
Brandon drags a hand over sore eyes before the flash lights, forcing the smile until the photographer indicates that she’s done. He’s the first one up and panicking; he searches for Greg as if he’s already been taken from him, like he’s disappeared without saying goodbye.
He spots him offstage - weary, miserable smile dragging his features down as he talks to friends from home.
Brandon is there before he realizes he’s moving, in Greg’s arms and crying again as Greg shushes and hushes, making quiet promises that he knows he can’t keep as he tries to superglue Brandon back together.
Calm | Keith/Chad
“So. This is it, then...” Chad comments, lack of surface emotion and brave smile on.
“Yeah,” Keith says, “I guess so.” Chad smiles softly, no more than fleeting.
“You want help out?” Keith glances at the one small duffel bag but nods anyhow.
“That’d be good.” Chad picks it up and Keith smiles, bemused, as they make their way to the street.
“Come back and visit sometime?” Chad asks, tacking on “if I’m still here, that is,” as an afterthought.
“You know it,” Keith grins, and for a second Chad thinks all of the birds on the street stop singing.
Cheerful | Barrett/Stephane
“So, this is Edmonton!” Barrett exclaims with a grin.
“Well actually, this is the airport parking lot, but yeah.” Stephane responds, digging through his pockets for his keys.
“It’s so clean here,” Barrett remarks gleefully, looking at the sky and the ground and everything that he can take in at once.
Stephane presses the unlock button on his starter, turning towards the sound of one shrill beep. “Over here.”
He opens the trunk and lifts Barrett’s suitcase inside as strong arms wrap around him from behind. “I’m happy to be here,” Barrett whispers.
“Me too,” Stephane says, and then laughs.
Chipper | Melissa/Ashley Leitao
Melissa talks a mile a minute, giggling and raking a hand through her ponytail as she does so. Ashley’s eyes grow wider as this encounter - little more than bumping into each other on Queen St, a “where’s Rex?” and “where’s Casey?” thrown in casually, and two comfy chairs at the corner Starbucks - continues. She’s sure that she looks like a cartoon now.
When Melissa pauses for breath, Ashley strains to think of something to say. Instead, Melissa reaches over and threads their fingers together, giving a gentle squeeze.
“It’s nice seeing you again, you know?” she titters with a grin.
Cold | Brandon/Chad
They sit in the dark on the hotel carpet, watching old news reports and morbidly munching on popcorn. This is the kind of thing they say you remember - but when it happened, Brandon was only twelve and Chad thirteen. They whisper in between images of buildings falling, airplanes combusting and people jumping for their lives. They remember some -- maybe not enough. Brandon remembers a sunny day and basketball on the river court; Chad remembers a worn novel and the remnants of summer heat.
He pulls Brandon just a little bit closer - he’s so cold now. They’re both so cold.
Confused | Jacob/Kalan
Week one. Kalan is learning how to be wild; Jacob is perfecting that happy daze feel. It’s simple, as if it were somehow in God’s Master Plan or something. Kalan has the lone room, but at bedtime he finds himself anything but alone. Jacob sprawls on his bed, flipping absently through a spiral notebook. He’s unapologetic when he sees Kalan - even more unapologetic as he stands and presses an experimental kiss to his lips.
Kalan blinks. Breathes.
“I’m not…you know…” words evade him, but his eyes scream it anyhow.
“No, I know.” Jacob states, shrugging even as he turns away.
Content | Rex/Daryl
Daryl’s tears dry as soon as the cameras go out. He shrugs and gives a half smile, an “it was bound to happen sometime”, and then he starts to mentally repack his room. The van drops them off just before midnight, as the rain starts to fall. Two am finds Daryl with the living room television on mute, thinking it all over.
The footsteps disturb him.
Rex slides down onto the couch next to him, changing the TV to an old black and white movie without breaking the silence.
Three am finds them covered up, tangled together and sleeping peacefully.
Cranky | Kalan/Kaleb
Kalan storms around, boisterously closing cupboards and making his usually quiet presence known. Kaleb watches in a mixture of half wonder, half amusement.
“Who spit in your hair gel?” he asks with something not unlike a smirk.
Kalan turns and his eyes narrow into slits, accusingly. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know,” he spits out, all venom. Kaleb’s eyes widen and he holds his hands out in front of himself, surrendering.
Kalan sighs, breathing a silent oh. “Jacob, then. Red sock in with my whites, and now half my stuff is pink!”
Kaleb barks out a laugh; Kalan’s glare intensifies.
Crazy | Greg/Brandon/Tyler
Brandon lights candles, settling against the bathtub. Greg crouches by the toilet, Tyler leans against the sink.
In the middle, sits the shirt.
Initially, Tyler had said it was stupid. Brandon’s seen the movie because he baby sits sometimes, but Greg says that it sounds “sort of cool”, and Tyler thinks that Greg is sort of cool.
They each take turns touching the shirt, and then Brandon points out that they need rules. They steal them from a pilfered copy of the book, save for an eleventh one that Greg scribbles down when no one is watching: Greg iz hott.
Creative | Kalan/Josh
He scribbles hundreds and hundreds of words, trying to make sense of this sudden jolt of energy that he’s been handed. Everything he’s doing right now feels so simple, so obvious. Of course that metaphor fits there, goes with that melody, should have that bass line. It’s so obvious he doesn’t know how he missed it before. He lies sprawled on the floor, kept company by both guitar and violin as he muses and the music flows from pen to paper.
Josh watches silently from their couch, smiling. Kalan hasn’t looked this happy in as long as he can remember.
Crushed | Jacob/Shane
Jacob’s always liked flying. He thinks that this - Shane’s head pressed into the crook of his shoulder and the Alberta mountains below them as they head home - is even better than usual. When the plane lands, he wakes Shane in the least gentle way possible. Shane opens his eyes groggily, and then smiles. “Home?” Jacob nods.
When they exit the terminal, Angela is waiting. Shane doesn’t think twice before running to greet her, scooping her up in his arms and spinning her around.
Jacob has to look away.
He asks Tammy to marry him - for real, this time - that night.
Curious | Tyler/Rob
Steffi loves hide-and-go-seek. On day three in the mansion, when Craig suggests they play, she’s in. She’s so in that if she were any more in, she’d be out again.
When it’s her turn to be It, she stealthily hunts down idol after idol. She is the sniper of Its.
When she hears strange noises from the sauna, she figures she’s got Brandon. Instead, she sees Rob and Tyler - doing things that they make you pay to see on TV unless it’s Discovery Channel - and stands on tiptoe to get a better look before forcing herself to turn away.
Cynical | Nancy/Ashley Coles
Two things connect them now: their hatred and the phone lines.
Ashley mutes the TV as Eva sings, listening to Nancy’s breathing over the crappy reception instead. She swears that she hears Nancy murmur “fake”, but she doesn’t comment. After a moment, as she watches the judges smile as they praise Eva, she clears her throat. “You know, winning isn’t all that great anyhow. Just look at Melissa O’Neill and Kalan Porter. Eva’s not that fantastic, no gift from God or anything.”
“Yeah,” Nancy pauses, twirling the cord around her ring finger. “You wanna go to the show next week?”
Depressed | Kalan/Mister Sass
The finale is like - how would they say it? - oh, passing the torch. That’s it. Too much time with Sass again and his brain feels like it’s been scrambled in a succulently saucy skillet.
The new kids are happy. You can tell they’re high on music, on life, on each other. So unlike Kalan, who is high on just about everything else. He smiles at the girl - Mel - who is drunk on excitement. He’s happy enough about working with her, assuming Canada got it right - until he sees Kalan and remembers that he used to be the same way.
Determined | Jacob/Shane/Kalan
Shane locks them in the dressing room, turning his back on the door and trapping them like wild animals. Jacob paces angrily; Kalan just looks lost and scared.
“You two are going to work this out. Now.” No need to explain. Kalan knows why he’s mad, and maybe Jacob doesn’t know why he is, but that’s always been Jacob. The fire burning around Kalan’s water and Shane’s earth.
Kalan starts like a pupil that’s been called against his will, turning to the mirror and picking up Elena’s eyeliner. He leaves a mark on the glass in one fluid motion.
3.
Devious | McMaster/James
His life plays in these flashes.
Meeting Luke, touring with NSYNC, losing Luke, Julie, Canadian Idol. The thing is, sometimes he has these moments where things just clash.
The songs play while the top ten sits around the CD player, Brandon oohing over Bryan Adams while Steffi ahhs over Shania Twain.
When Rob is finally out on that stage for the first time, he looks directly at Julie as he sings getting drunk on torch songs, and fast food, and me and you.
It’s just not her face that he sees in his mind’s eye staring back at him.
Disappointed | Shane/Jason
Shane is the fifth, but he’s expected as much from the beginning. Middle of the pack, and if he’d been told to imagine the end three weeks ago, it would have been this.
A handful of stragglers watch from the audience as Shane, Jacob and Kalan sit in silence on the couch, connected only by their shared loneliness and the desperation of the situation.
What they don’t see is a battered Jason, watching from the protection of the wings as his heart sinks like a ship - reminding him of missed opportunities and SOS calls that still need to be placed.
Ditzy | Tyler/Kalan
Frosh week; kegger night. His fluorescent MHC BUSINESS t-shirt is his ticket, currently sporting the remnants of silly string along with his classmates’ signatures.
He is pulled aside as he leaves; he just stumbles where led. There, blue eyes. Dark, curly hair, and a lopsided smile. He smiles too. “You’re pretty,” the deep voice slurs.
“Thanks,” Kalan whispers, and the other’s eyes widen.
He starts to explain - “I thought you were a gir --,” and thinks better of it. “…whatever.”
The last thing Kalan remembers is neon orange clashing with his yellow shirt, tangled on someone’s dorm floor.
Drained | Anna Cyzon/Filomena Pasqua
Anna slips into the hot tub, letting the warm water engulf her completely. It’s been an awful long day. She closes her eyes as she slides lower, too tired to be concerned about bleached blonde hair and chlorine and television.
She opens them again only when he joins her, making polite (enough) conversation and hoping that he understands her need for solitude.
She is relieved when another girl arrives - with dark pigtails and a bright smile - slipping into the hot tub unannounced. When the boy - Joshua - leaves, she finds it surprisingly easier to take interest in her company.
Ecstatic | Greg/Chad
“You’re all safe,” is what Greg hears. Well, to be precise, it might not have been exactly those words. But the judge’s words contain the ever-important term, and that’s all Greg needs. In a characteristic display of excitement he jumps at the nearest body, and only upon landing does he realize it’s a now-squashed Chad.
He laughs unapologetically and eventually pulls himself up and off, offering Chad a hand up. Chad cocks an eyebrow for a split second before he bursts into laugher.
“Congrats, man,” he says with a smile that’s as much for Greg’s victory as for his own.
Embarrassed | Rex/Diego
Rex doesn’t know Montreal, but he wants to. A call and some strategic sneaking during Melissa’s sound check and he’s in a car; gone.
The address is in his pocket.
He drives aimlessly, but somehow he ends up there anyhow. He’s just turning onto his street (just to drive by and see, he thinks) when his foot slams down on the brake without permission and he hears metal on metal.
His eyes widen as he surveys the damage. He flushes when he sees the other driver’s shock become delight, despite the fact that his car is now minus one bumper.