1Sentence Challenge: Marco/Cassie
Fandom: Animorphs
Pairing: Marco/Cassie
Theme set: Delta
Rating: PG13
Note: Post-54, Marco and Cassie living together in Cassie’s house, the last two surviving Animorphs. Based on my 54-continuum Welcome Home, some sentences markedly so (those six are marked with a *). What else can I say? 50 sentences, some good, some… less than perfect.
#01 - Air
After their first night together, Cassie was awoken at dawn by a cold stream of air which found its way inside through an open window - she toed up to close it, and on her way back to the bed and to Marco, she paused, watching him in a mix of delayed wonder and surprise: as she crept down beside him, she felt as if a choice had been made, and there would never be any regret.
#02 - Apples
In the fall, they picked apples, turning it into a contest which she won by morphing - he called her a cheat and kissed away her protests with such eagerness that she suspected he did not mind, but was only happy for the excuse to thus silence her.
#03 - Beginning
The awkward shyness of their first days passed quickly: the passage from friends and comrades in arms to lovers sped by as the beginning of a new world, a world where everything had changed and everyone was gone and yet, somehow, they would survive well together.
#04 - Bugs
Bugs and spiders and dust had invaded Cassie’s precious barn - side by side they worked to restore what the years had taken - and it was not only the barn that needed restoring.
#05 - Coffee
If there was any part of Marco she loved more than the other, it had to be his eyes: he had the most beautiful eyes, almost black with the faintest hints of light, like a drop of milk being stirred into dark coffee.
#06 - Dark *
She hated that look on his face, that veiled dark, and that way he would reach for the tiara in his pocket, the thing the Elŷrrics had enslaved him with, that thing he still was not free of: the only thing that remained between them.
#07 - Despair
She had tasted despair like blood in her mouth, and he had taken it from her lips as he kissed her.
#08 - Doors
Through the first years, they rarely used the doors of the house - an excellent way to avoid the media and paparazzi was to simply fly away through a window.
#09 - Drink
Marco had never drunk as many cups of black coffee as the morning his son was born - thinking back, he knew pure nerves would have kept him awake as easily.
#10 - Duty
How wonderful was it not to sit side by side in a tall tree, free from the duties of saving the world, and with no greater concern than the two hour limit of their owl morphs, and no greater duty than their self-appointed common vow to love each other.
#11 - Earth
He returned to Earth for peace - he had ceased to hope for love.
#12 - End
In the end, she knew as she touched his face, one of them would die peacefully in their bed, and the other would cease to live shortly after.
#13 - Fall
He had reached for her hand and grasped it, and never more would he be afraid to fall, for her hand would always be there for him to catch hold of.
#14 - Fire
He sat with his back to a stone and she huddled in his embrace, between his outstretched legs: the fire in front of them burned bright and strong, but not near as warm as the content glow in her chest as he kissed her neck and promised never to leave her.
#15 - Flexible
They did have their arguments, and when they did it was fortunate that Cassie was still as much of a natural peacemaker as ever, for Marco had moods where he would be about as flexible as the Andalite War Council.
#16 - Flying
Cassie bought two brown mares and taught an at-first reluctant Marco to ride, to join her for long peaceful rides, and for the bubbly thrill of flying side by side over the lands, enjoying all the power that was a fresh horse.
#17 - Food
It never ceased to amaze Cassie how Marco could forget to feel hunger until food was served, and then eat as if he had been starved for days - quickly enough, she hoped, to never notice how bad a cook she truly was.
#18 - Foot
She had never imagined him to be ticklish, but he would giggle insanely if she brushed her fingers beneath the sole of his feet.
#19 - Grave
They visited Rachel’s monument, which now served more or less as a grave for all the lost Animorphs, and Marco told Rachel what had happened to the others in more words and more detail than he had until then described it to Cassie.
#20 - Green
She recieved a green dress for Christmas from Marco’s mother, and wore it for New Year’s Eve when, at Marco’s sly whisper in her ear of how she looked almost as beautiful with the dress as without it, she blushed scarlet and wished they had not invited any guests.
#21 - Head
Marco sat with Cassie in his arms, his chin resting atop her head, and the world seemed a perfect place.
#22 - Hollow
Once Cassie was away and their two-year-old son fell and had to be rushed to the hospital: despite the doctor’s reassurance that everything looked worse than it was, worry and fear ate at Marco until he felt only wide-eyed and completely hollow.
#23 - Honor
Marco’s father had reminded him that if he was about to be a dad, and he loved the child’s mother as much as he did, then marrying was the right thing to do, for even if the ceremony had little meaning to either of them, it would make relatives and friends and insurance companies happier.
#24 - Hope
She was the hope to which he was addicted: a comfort and reassurance, an enchantment he would not and did not want to escape.
#25 - Light
She would be up at first light, tiptoeing out to see to her barn, while he remained a-snooze, and as she returned to get properly dressed he would only give her a short look before sleeping on, although he would always pull her to him and hold her if she crawled back into the bed.
#26 - Lost *
She had lost all too much to bear losing Marco too, and as the tiara dug its greedy claws deeper into his mind, she was afraid like never before.
#27 - Metal *
For some reason, Cassie never told him how scared she had been upon creeping into the bed late one night and finding him sitting crosslegged, with his hands palms-up in his lap and a familiar gleam of metal and silver holding his eyes and attention: the tiara.
#28 - New
The old Cassie had dreamed of small things - her training as a vet and saving another cow or deer, having a small family - and the new Cassie had them.
#29 - Old
The old Marco had ever created a reason to laugh - the new Marco filtered such reasons carefully and laughed much more seldom.
#30 - Peace
Peace, decided Cassie, was a quiet afternoon on the veranda, reading a book in the sofa while resting her head on Marco’s lap and hearing his soft snoring as he slept.
#31 - Poison *
Cassie had poisoned her own mind with delusions, but the same antidote that had finally saved her would destroy Marco - if it had not already - and she felt as if she could only mutely watch, stranded on the other side of the vast distance he needed to fight it.
#32 - Pretty
The Andalite ambassador celebrated New Year’s Eve with typical Andalite grandeour, with Marco and Cassie as honoured guests: it was that evening that Marco learned that Cassie was more than ‘simply pretty’ - she took his breath away and he could hardly find a word to say all evening.
#33 - Rain
The rain beat at the windows and the baby was crying into the night, while Marco and Cassie each nudged the other hopefully, each wanting only to sleep.
#34 - Regret
What Marco loved most about Cassie, was how she could turn his regrets and painful memories into nothing more than old wounds, which she dabbed with a wet cloth, cleaned free of infection, and let heal.
#35 - Roses
She came home from the hospital with her infant in her arms and found their house filled with red roses - she knew at once it had been his mother’s idea, but she still loved him for it, and a dried rose hung from that day on the wall in their bedroom.
#36 - Secret
Cassie sat comfortable in an armchair with her knees drawn to her chest and her eyes lazily following his attempts to spark a fire in the fire place as she decided to tell him: there were to be no secrets between them, and this was something he had every right to know - no matter if the thought of becoming a father would most likely frighten him out of his skin.
#37 - Snakes
People were often afraid of snakes - so an excellent way to scare off paparazzi camping hidden in the bushes was Marco’s cobra morph.
#38 - Snow
”Who said snowball fights are just for kids?” he asked her - but he looked like a kid then, grinning broadly enough to make her laugh, his face shining like that of a seven-year-old with a new toy.
#39 - Solid *
He was never as relieved as when he woke from his tiara-induced nightmares - visions of horror and promises of rewards - and there was Cassie, close and warm and accepting, comforting and solid against ghosts of his past.
#40 - Spring
He would never forget their first spring together - the love in her voice, the life in her eyes, the joy in her laughter, and the willing abandon with which she responded to his every touch.
#41 - Stable
To leave him to muck out stables was to risk his grumbling - and to risk him snatching her from her work and sweeping her off to the waiting hay in an empty stall... not that she ever minded much.
#42 - Strange
He never thought it strange that she fit so perfectly beneath his arm, and he never thought it strange that he had not noticed it before: she had been Jake’s girl, and he had been... waiting to grow taller.
#43 - Summer
He had arrived back on Earth at the birth of summer, but only as summer was conquered by autumn did he begin to relax and realise that, yes, he was truly home, and that had truly been the summer sun which had warmed him.
#44 - Taboo *
It seemed they could talk about anything, with no need for secrets - but Cassie was painfully aware that the slave’s tiara Marco carried was under an eternal taboo, and she could not find an angle from where to challenge it without the risk of Marco exploding.
#45 - Ugly
Marco seemed to have exchanged his whipping wit for an ugly temper: once he was provoked, he would frighten even Cassie, and he certainly frightened off the press and tabloids which had taken to the field in hordes upon his unexpected return to Earth.
#46 - War
The wars had taught Marco to take nothing for granted, expect and be prepared to lose everything, but despite himself he could no longer imagine life without Cassie.
#47 - Water
Sometime along the way, she had learned to use a stove or microwave without causing an international disaster, while he could still manage to burn water, and would curse each newly blackened pot vividly - but silently: Cassie might let his foul language pass with only a disapproving glance if he cursed aloud, but if he kept it to a murmur she would also help him with whatever he had been trying to do.
#48 - Welcome
Cassie’s entire face was bright through her grief as she said “Welcome home”, heartfelt, with those same words accepting that he was the only one who would ever return.
#49 - Winter
They spent that entire winter coming to terms with their new relationship - everything had changed, and yet nothing.
#50 - Wood
Marco loved the attic of Cassie’s house, from the smell of murky wood to the masses of family heirlooms and junk gathered or forgotten in that one place, family history such as Marco’s family had never had, a precious thing that - to Marco’s amazement - Cassie seemed to take completely for granted.
Pairing: Marco/Cassie
Theme set: Delta
Rating: PG13
Note: Post-54, Marco and Cassie living together in Cassie’s house, the last two surviving Animorphs. Based on my 54-continuum Welcome Home, some sentences markedly so (those six are marked with a *). What else can I say? 50 sentences, some good, some… less than perfect.
#01 - Air
After their first night together, Cassie was awoken at dawn by a cold stream of air which found its way inside through an open window - she toed up to close it, and on her way back to the bed and to Marco, she paused, watching him in a mix of delayed wonder and surprise: as she crept down beside him, she felt as if a choice had been made, and there would never be any regret.
#02 - Apples
In the fall, they picked apples, turning it into a contest which she won by morphing - he called her a cheat and kissed away her protests with such eagerness that she suspected he did not mind, but was only happy for the excuse to thus silence her.
#03 - Beginning
The awkward shyness of their first days passed quickly: the passage from friends and comrades in arms to lovers sped by as the beginning of a new world, a world where everything had changed and everyone was gone and yet, somehow, they would survive well together.
#04 - Bugs
Bugs and spiders and dust had invaded Cassie’s precious barn - side by side they worked to restore what the years had taken - and it was not only the barn that needed restoring.
#05 - Coffee
If there was any part of Marco she loved more than the other, it had to be his eyes: he had the most beautiful eyes, almost black with the faintest hints of light, like a drop of milk being stirred into dark coffee.
#06 - Dark *
She hated that look on his face, that veiled dark, and that way he would reach for the tiara in his pocket, the thing the Elŷrrics had enslaved him with, that thing he still was not free of: the only thing that remained between them.
#07 - Despair
She had tasted despair like blood in her mouth, and he had taken it from her lips as he kissed her.
#08 - Doors
Through the first years, they rarely used the doors of the house - an excellent way to avoid the media and paparazzi was to simply fly away through a window.
#09 - Drink
Marco had never drunk as many cups of black coffee as the morning his son was born - thinking back, he knew pure nerves would have kept him awake as easily.
#10 - Duty
How wonderful was it not to sit side by side in a tall tree, free from the duties of saving the world, and with no greater concern than the two hour limit of their owl morphs, and no greater duty than their self-appointed common vow to love each other.
#11 - Earth
He returned to Earth for peace - he had ceased to hope for love.
#12 - End
In the end, she knew as she touched his face, one of them would die peacefully in their bed, and the other would cease to live shortly after.
#13 - Fall
He had reached for her hand and grasped it, and never more would he be afraid to fall, for her hand would always be there for him to catch hold of.
#14 - Fire
He sat with his back to a stone and she huddled in his embrace, between his outstretched legs: the fire in front of them burned bright and strong, but not near as warm as the content glow in her chest as he kissed her neck and promised never to leave her.
#15 - Flexible
They did have their arguments, and when they did it was fortunate that Cassie was still as much of a natural peacemaker as ever, for Marco had moods where he would be about as flexible as the Andalite War Council.
#16 - Flying
Cassie bought two brown mares and taught an at-first reluctant Marco to ride, to join her for long peaceful rides, and for the bubbly thrill of flying side by side over the lands, enjoying all the power that was a fresh horse.
#17 - Food
It never ceased to amaze Cassie how Marco could forget to feel hunger until food was served, and then eat as if he had been starved for days - quickly enough, she hoped, to never notice how bad a cook she truly was.
#18 - Foot
She had never imagined him to be ticklish, but he would giggle insanely if she brushed her fingers beneath the sole of his feet.
#19 - Grave
They visited Rachel’s monument, which now served more or less as a grave for all the lost Animorphs, and Marco told Rachel what had happened to the others in more words and more detail than he had until then described it to Cassie.
#20 - Green
She recieved a green dress for Christmas from Marco’s mother, and wore it for New Year’s Eve when, at Marco’s sly whisper in her ear of how she looked almost as beautiful with the dress as without it, she blushed scarlet and wished they had not invited any guests.
#21 - Head
Marco sat with Cassie in his arms, his chin resting atop her head, and the world seemed a perfect place.
#22 - Hollow
Once Cassie was away and their two-year-old son fell and had to be rushed to the hospital: despite the doctor’s reassurance that everything looked worse than it was, worry and fear ate at Marco until he felt only wide-eyed and completely hollow.
#23 - Honor
Marco’s father had reminded him that if he was about to be a dad, and he loved the child’s mother as much as he did, then marrying was the right thing to do, for even if the ceremony had little meaning to either of them, it would make relatives and friends and insurance companies happier.
#24 - Hope
She was the hope to which he was addicted: a comfort and reassurance, an enchantment he would not and did not want to escape.
#25 - Light
She would be up at first light, tiptoeing out to see to her barn, while he remained a-snooze, and as she returned to get properly dressed he would only give her a short look before sleeping on, although he would always pull her to him and hold her if she crawled back into the bed.
#26 - Lost *
She had lost all too much to bear losing Marco too, and as the tiara dug its greedy claws deeper into his mind, she was afraid like never before.
#27 - Metal *
For some reason, Cassie never told him how scared she had been upon creeping into the bed late one night and finding him sitting crosslegged, with his hands palms-up in his lap and a familiar gleam of metal and silver holding his eyes and attention: the tiara.
#28 - New
The old Cassie had dreamed of small things - her training as a vet and saving another cow or deer, having a small family - and the new Cassie had them.
#29 - Old
The old Marco had ever created a reason to laugh - the new Marco filtered such reasons carefully and laughed much more seldom.
#30 - Peace
Peace, decided Cassie, was a quiet afternoon on the veranda, reading a book in the sofa while resting her head on Marco’s lap and hearing his soft snoring as he slept.
#31 - Poison *
Cassie had poisoned her own mind with delusions, but the same antidote that had finally saved her would destroy Marco - if it had not already - and she felt as if she could only mutely watch, stranded on the other side of the vast distance he needed to fight it.
#32 - Pretty
The Andalite ambassador celebrated New Year’s Eve with typical Andalite grandeour, with Marco and Cassie as honoured guests: it was that evening that Marco learned that Cassie was more than ‘simply pretty’ - she took his breath away and he could hardly find a word to say all evening.
#33 - Rain
The rain beat at the windows and the baby was crying into the night, while Marco and Cassie each nudged the other hopefully, each wanting only to sleep.
#34 - Regret
What Marco loved most about Cassie, was how she could turn his regrets and painful memories into nothing more than old wounds, which she dabbed with a wet cloth, cleaned free of infection, and let heal.
#35 - Roses
She came home from the hospital with her infant in her arms and found their house filled with red roses - she knew at once it had been his mother’s idea, but she still loved him for it, and a dried rose hung from that day on the wall in their bedroom.
#36 - Secret
Cassie sat comfortable in an armchair with her knees drawn to her chest and her eyes lazily following his attempts to spark a fire in the fire place as she decided to tell him: there were to be no secrets between them, and this was something he had every right to know - no matter if the thought of becoming a father would most likely frighten him out of his skin.
#37 - Snakes
People were often afraid of snakes - so an excellent way to scare off paparazzi camping hidden in the bushes was Marco’s cobra morph.
#38 - Snow
”Who said snowball fights are just for kids?” he asked her - but he looked like a kid then, grinning broadly enough to make her laugh, his face shining like that of a seven-year-old with a new toy.
#39 - Solid *
He was never as relieved as when he woke from his tiara-induced nightmares - visions of horror and promises of rewards - and there was Cassie, close and warm and accepting, comforting and solid against ghosts of his past.
#40 - Spring
He would never forget their first spring together - the love in her voice, the life in her eyes, the joy in her laughter, and the willing abandon with which she responded to his every touch.
#41 - Stable
To leave him to muck out stables was to risk his grumbling - and to risk him snatching her from her work and sweeping her off to the waiting hay in an empty stall... not that she ever minded much.
#42 - Strange
He never thought it strange that she fit so perfectly beneath his arm, and he never thought it strange that he had not noticed it before: she had been Jake’s girl, and he had been... waiting to grow taller.
#43 - Summer
He had arrived back on Earth at the birth of summer, but only as summer was conquered by autumn did he begin to relax and realise that, yes, he was truly home, and that had truly been the summer sun which had warmed him.
#44 - Taboo *
It seemed they could talk about anything, with no need for secrets - but Cassie was painfully aware that the slave’s tiara Marco carried was under an eternal taboo, and she could not find an angle from where to challenge it without the risk of Marco exploding.
#45 - Ugly
Marco seemed to have exchanged his whipping wit for an ugly temper: once he was provoked, he would frighten even Cassie, and he certainly frightened off the press and tabloids which had taken to the field in hordes upon his unexpected return to Earth.
#46 - War
The wars had taught Marco to take nothing for granted, expect and be prepared to lose everything, but despite himself he could no longer imagine life without Cassie.
#47 - Water
Sometime along the way, she had learned to use a stove or microwave without causing an international disaster, while he could still manage to burn water, and would curse each newly blackened pot vividly - but silently: Cassie might let his foul language pass with only a disapproving glance if he cursed aloud, but if he kept it to a murmur she would also help him with whatever he had been trying to do.
#48 - Welcome
Cassie’s entire face was bright through her grief as she said “Welcome home”, heartfelt, with those same words accepting that he was the only one who would ever return.
#49 - Winter
They spent that entire winter coming to terms with their new relationship - everything had changed, and yet nothing.
#50 - Wood
Marco loved the attic of Cassie’s house, from the smell of murky wood to the masses of family heirlooms and junk gathered or forgotten in that one place, family history such as Marco’s family had never had, a precious thing that - to Marco’s amazement - Cassie seemed to take completely for granted.