dS snippet: "Sunlight and Superpowers"
Title: "Sunlight and Superpowers"
Fandom, Pairing: due South, pre-teen RayK/Stella
Rating: G
Challenge: Originally inspired by the "Superpowers" Challenge over at ds_flashfiction. Actually written for ds_snippet's Challenge 85, prompt: sunburn
Length: 300 words
Notes: Beta'd by the esteemed omphale23. These characters belong to Alliance/Atlantis, I just feed them when they follow me home.
Summary: Who wants to leap over a tall building in a single bound, anyway?
The sun beamed down on the playground like a death ray. The little kids' monkey bars were too hot to touch, never mind climb. Ray and his friends crouched in the shade under the trees, panting. The city’d shut off the hydrant, and Mr. Nowicki yelled he’d tan their hides if they opened it up again.
It was too hot to play, too hot to even think straight.
Petey kicked things off by wishing he could fly. Pretty soon all the guys were pitching in, coming up with superpowers. Super-strength. Invisibility. Mind reading. Chris topped them all by wishing for x-ray vision so he could see what was under girls’ clothes. Everyone took a minute to think about that one.
Ray found himself drifting in the sudden, sweaty stillness. He scratched at the peeling sunburn on his arm, remembering his last dance lesson with Stella, the way she smiled at him as they moved together to the music. The way her smile slipped away when he missed the turn and stepped on her foot.
So when Petey asked what superpower Ray wanted, he blurted out the truth.
“I wanna be able to turn into somebody else,” Ray said.
The silence that followed wasn’t the good kind; it was the kind where everybody was thinking he was some kind of freak. Ray covered up as quick as he could. “So if the bad guy tried to fly away, I could turn into Superman and catch him, or if there was some treasure hidden underwater, I could turn into Aquaman and swim to it.”
The guys agreed that was a cool power and let him off the hook.
Fred Astaire, John Lennon, James Bond, Joe Namath. He’d be whoever it took to put a smile on Stella’s face and keep it there.
Fandom, Pairing: due South, pre-teen RayK/Stella
Rating: G
Challenge: Originally inspired by the "Superpowers" Challenge over at ds_flashfiction. Actually written for ds_snippet's Challenge 85, prompt: sunburn
Length: 300 words
Notes: Beta'd by the esteemed omphale23. These characters belong to Alliance/Atlantis, I just feed them when they follow me home.
Summary: Who wants to leap over a tall building in a single bound, anyway?
The sun beamed down on the playground like a death ray. The little kids' monkey bars were too hot to touch, never mind climb. Ray and his friends crouched in the shade under the trees, panting. The city’d shut off the hydrant, and Mr. Nowicki yelled he’d tan their hides if they opened it up again.
It was too hot to play, too hot to even think straight.
Petey kicked things off by wishing he could fly. Pretty soon all the guys were pitching in, coming up with superpowers. Super-strength. Invisibility. Mind reading. Chris topped them all by wishing for x-ray vision so he could see what was under girls’ clothes. Everyone took a minute to think about that one.
Ray found himself drifting in the sudden, sweaty stillness. He scratched at the peeling sunburn on his arm, remembering his last dance lesson with Stella, the way she smiled at him as they moved together to the music. The way her smile slipped away when he missed the turn and stepped on her foot.
So when Petey asked what superpower Ray wanted, he blurted out the truth.
“I wanna be able to turn into somebody else,” Ray said.
The silence that followed wasn’t the good kind; it was the kind where everybody was thinking he was some kind of freak. Ray covered up as quick as he could. “So if the bad guy tried to fly away, I could turn into Superman and catch him, or if there was some treasure hidden underwater, I could turn into Aquaman and swim to it.”
The guys agreed that was a cool power and let him off the hook.
Fred Astaire, John Lennon, James Bond, Joe Namath. He’d be whoever it took to put a smile on Stella’s face and keep it there.