Drabble fulfillment!
Fulfilling this meme. And guess what? I actually stuck to a drabble format! I don't think I've ever done that before.
1. For atlashrugged, Lassiter/Juliet, Psych:
She admits that there are times when she’s thought about dating Carlton. You know, if they weren’t partners. When she sees him holding his gun with that twistedly delighted look on his face, she wonders if she would have found him a little sexy. Oh god, did she just think “sexy” and “Carlton” in the same sentence? These late night stakeouts must be screwing with her brain. But still… if they weren’t partners, if they had met at the policeman’s ball or the annual picnic or the shooting range, she wonders if she would have found him oddly charming. She wonders if he would have been attracted to her. She wonders if their competitiveness would have been in the bedroom rather than the interrogation room. But then she hears Carlton making that annoying sucking sound through his teeth, and she wonders why the heck she had been wondering what she had been wondering.
2. For oltha_heri, Uther/Morgana, Merlin:
Sometimes she hears him crying in his sleep. To be witness to such vulnerability in a man as powerful as Uther somehow makes her feel humbled. She wants to hold him, to trace away every line on his forehead, to kiss his temple and whisper soothing words… but she cannot. There is still too much bitterness in her heart when she hears his name, too much hatred in her love when she hears his voice, too much disgust in her pleasure when she hears him gasp her name beneath her, too much satisfaction in her sympathy when she hears his pain. So she lies awake, her back to him, and waits until the mattress stops shaking with his quiet sobs before she closes her eyes again.
ETA:
3. For tinted_glass, Michael/Ryan, The Office:
“How was your day, sweetheart?”
That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? Let’s see… his first day on the job and he already lost it. Kelly completely ignored him (which wasn’t exactly a bad thing when he really thought about it). He ruined his new pants when he had slipped in some mysterious red stuff on the carpet while he had been trying to impress the new receptionist. Oh, and Michael Scott, a man who still orders Happy Meals for himself and then complains about the toy, chose Pam over him.
That’s right. He got rejected by Michael Scott. The one person that he could always rely on but never really wanted to, the one person who thought he could do no wrong, the one person that he could intentionally hurt and at the end of the day still frustratingly have his undying love. He got rejected by that guy. It figures that it happened right when he started to love Michael back a little. Once, fleetingly, when Michael had had his arm around him and was ruffling his hair and telling him how valuable he was to the Michael Scott Paper Company, he wondered what it would have been like to have had Michael as a father. To have a father that was proud of him no matter how many times he screwed up, instead of a father that lectured him about adulthood and responsibility and how he wouldn’t be there forever to save his sorry cokehead ass. But Michael would be. Was. Until now.
He knew that logically the odds had been against him. In all his time at Dunder-Mifflin, he had never made a sale. He got fired and imprisoned for fraud when he was Michael’s boss. If it wasn’t for Michael, David Wallace would have never even let him back into the company as a salesman. For all intents and purposes, he was a failure. At everything. He even failed at going to Thailand. But Michael’s logic wasn’t like everyone else’s. Ryan knew in his gut that Pam was the better choice, but a part of him had truly believed that Michael would never do that to him. It was stupid. To care that much. He wasn’t sure when that had happened.
Maybe it was when Michael had been the only person other than his mother to visit him when he was in prison. Maybe it was the daily text messages when he was in Thailand Ft. Lauderdale, each one some annoying variation of “Missing U <3.” Maybe it was when Michael rescued him from the bowling alley. Maybe it was when he saw Michael kicking ass on his rolodex and making him want to succeed again. Maybe it was when Michael had enthusiastically told him that he was the right man for the sales position at Dunder-Mifflin. He wasn’t sure. But when Michael had started laughing, when Ryan realized that it was all some twisted joke, his heart broke. Michael Scott broke his heart. A man who wears thermal underwear on his head in the winter when he sleeps. That guy.
“Honey? How was your day?”
Ryan glanced at the building and saw Michael’s eager face peering out of his office window. He saw Ryan in the back of his mother’s car and waved a little unsurely. Ryan didn’t wave back.
“It was fine, mom. Just drive.”
1. For atlashrugged, Lassiter/Juliet, Psych:
She admits that there are times when she’s thought about dating Carlton. You know, if they weren’t partners. When she sees him holding his gun with that twistedly delighted look on his face, she wonders if she would have found him a little sexy. Oh god, did she just think “sexy” and “Carlton” in the same sentence? These late night stakeouts must be screwing with her brain. But still… if they weren’t partners, if they had met at the policeman’s ball or the annual picnic or the shooting range, she wonders if she would have found him oddly charming. She wonders if he would have been attracted to her. She wonders if their competitiveness would have been in the bedroom rather than the interrogation room. But then she hears Carlton making that annoying sucking sound through his teeth, and she wonders why the heck she had been wondering what she had been wondering.
2. For oltha_heri, Uther/Morgana, Merlin:
Sometimes she hears him crying in his sleep. To be witness to such vulnerability in a man as powerful as Uther somehow makes her feel humbled. She wants to hold him, to trace away every line on his forehead, to kiss his temple and whisper soothing words… but she cannot. There is still too much bitterness in her heart when she hears his name, too much hatred in her love when she hears his voice, too much disgust in her pleasure when she hears him gasp her name beneath her, too much satisfaction in her sympathy when she hears his pain. So she lies awake, her back to him, and waits until the mattress stops shaking with his quiet sobs before she closes her eyes again.
ETA:
3. For tinted_glass, Michael/Ryan, The Office:
“How was your day, sweetheart?”
That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? Let’s see… his first day on the job and he already lost it. Kelly completely ignored him (which wasn’t exactly a bad thing when he really thought about it). He ruined his new pants when he had slipped in some mysterious red stuff on the carpet while he had been trying to impress the new receptionist. Oh, and Michael Scott, a man who still orders Happy Meals for himself and then complains about the toy, chose Pam over him.
That’s right. He got rejected by Michael Scott. The one person that he could always rely on but never really wanted to, the one person who thought he could do no wrong, the one person that he could intentionally hurt and at the end of the day still frustratingly have his undying love. He got rejected by that guy. It figures that it happened right when he started to love Michael back a little. Once, fleetingly, when Michael had had his arm around him and was ruffling his hair and telling him how valuable he was to the Michael Scott Paper Company, he wondered what it would have been like to have had Michael as a father. To have a father that was proud of him no matter how many times he screwed up, instead of a father that lectured him about adulthood and responsibility and how he wouldn’t be there forever to save his sorry cokehead ass. But Michael would be. Was. Until now.
He knew that logically the odds had been against him. In all his time at Dunder-Mifflin, he had never made a sale. He got fired and imprisoned for fraud when he was Michael’s boss. If it wasn’t for Michael, David Wallace would have never even let him back into the company as a salesman. For all intents and purposes, he was a failure. At everything. He even failed at going to Thailand. But Michael’s logic wasn’t like everyone else’s. Ryan knew in his gut that Pam was the better choice, but a part of him had truly believed that Michael would never do that to him. It was stupid. To care that much. He wasn’t sure when that had happened.
Maybe it was when Michael had been the only person other than his mother to visit him when he was in prison. Maybe it was the daily text messages when he was in Thailand Ft. Lauderdale, each one some annoying variation of “Missing U <3.” Maybe it was when Michael rescued him from the bowling alley. Maybe it was when he saw Michael kicking ass on his rolodex and making him want to succeed again. Maybe it was when Michael had enthusiastically told him that he was the right man for the sales position at Dunder-Mifflin. He wasn’t sure. But when Michael had started laughing, when Ryan realized that it was all some twisted joke, his heart broke. Michael Scott broke his heart. A man who wears thermal underwear on his head in the winter when he sleeps. That guy.
“Honey? How was your day?”
Ryan glanced at the building and saw Michael’s eager face peering out of his office window. He saw Ryan in the back of his mother’s car and waved a little unsurely. Ryan didn’t wave back.
“It was fine, mom. Just drive.”