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tigriswolfTitle: And I am a smiling woman
Fandom: Glee
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Sylvia Plath
Warnings: spoilers for up till 2.8
Pairings: Burt/Carole
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 120
Point of view: third
Prompt: For some reason (up to the writer) Kurt calls Carole 'mom'.
It just slips out sometimes, when he's beyond tired, when he's frustrated (at the world, at school, at himself), when he's been thinking about what he missed out on.
Carole will say something, or make something, or do something, and he'll call her mom.
Most of the time, he catches it, and freezes, and apologizes, and runs away, angry at himself for the betrayal.
But sometimes, Carole will just smile at him, and pull him into a tight hug, and caress the back of his head like she used to, back before. And Kurt will clutch Carole in return, and bury his face in her shoulder, and let himself think maybe it's not such a betrayal after all.
Title: where sundown cannot find us
Fandom: Highlander/Chuck
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Dickinson
Warnings: spoilers for season 2 of Chuck
Pairings: Bryce/Chuck
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 190
Point of view: third
Prompt: emergency
Bryce is dead again. For good this time, the Old Man says. Move on to a new identity, he orders. Bryce Larkin is dead and buried.
Brendan Lafferty spent all his life in Miami, Florida. Orphaned son of a couple who can trace their families to the Mayflower and Jamestown, respectively. Brendan Lafferty has never left Florida, so he sure as shit never went to Stanford or joined the CIA or fell in love with a geek named Chuck.
And Brendan Lafferty doesn’t keep up with the geek named Chuck. So there’s no way he hears about a black-op meant to vanish Chuck. So Brendan can’t ask the Old Man for help, because Brendan has never met the Old Man. Neither has Bryce, though he’d be of far more use than wimpy Brendan.
Borias calls up the closest thing to a father he’s ever had and says, Mathias, please. I love him.
And Mathias says, You foolish boy. I’ll see you in LA.
Brendan Lafferty takes a vacation. Bryce Larkin is still dead. And Borias catches a flight to Los Angeles, where he’ll change Chuck Bartowski’s life again.
Title: talk fades
Fandom: Glee
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Adrienne Rich
Warnings: takes place after 2.20
Pairings: Blaine/Kurt, unrequited Dave/Kurt
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 275
Point of view: third
Prompt: At prom, Dave asks Blaine/Kurt's permission to cut in for a chance to dance with Kurt. Could be fluff with a side of angst. (Klaine, one-sided Kurtofsky)
In Dave's dreams, prom goes differently.
Sometimes, Kurt smiles at him and takes a deep breath and walks across the floor and asks Dave to dance. Dave blushes, but it's a dream, so he doesn't look around and no one stares and Kurt feels so good pressed against him (it's always a slow dance), and Dave rests his chin on Kurt's head, and the song ends and they pull apart and Kurt smiles up at him, and Dave leans down, and this kiss goes so much better.
Sometimes, Dave mans up and cuts a swath across the floor and firmly taps the fancy-pants hobbit on the shoulder. Kurt still smiles, and they dance in each other’s arms, and it is the best moment of Dave’s life. Kurt (because it’s a dream, Dave figures) smells like the cookies Nan used to make, the ones Mom never gets right. And he kisses Dave first, pressing up and taking what he wants, what Dave wants him to have, and Dave never ever wants to wake up.
But he always does, and prom had been good, up until Dave ran away. He had his chance, but he watched Kurt’s boyfriend man up and dance with him in front of everyone, showing how much better he is.
In reality, Dave still escorts Kurt to and from class. Kurt still gives him little pep-talks and assures him coming out won’t be the end of the world. Kurt smiles at him, but not the smile he wants, the smile the boyfriend gets.
Dave wants to be Kurt’s boyfriend. And in his dreams, he is.
Maybe one day, he’ll be Kurt’s boyfriend awake, too.
Title: I will wait, unleashed and unheard
Fandom: Highlander (shades of Reign of Fire, maybe)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: spoilers for the Horsemen arc
Pairings: mentions of Methos/Kronos
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 445
Point of view: third
Prompt: Like hearing a growl in the dark, but [insert name here] is the only one who knows that isn't just a bear -- there really are dragons, and it's pure luck that it's in a relatively good mood and just growled a little...
Some stories have been around for as long as people’ve had language. Wolves weren’t called wolves then, and sheep didn’t quite exist yet, but the wolf in sheep’s clothing? It’s an old tale.
Methos told it the first time, and it wasn’t a legend then. Or a strategy that won wars, that trapped even the most wary. It was just an anecdote from three camps over. From a camp that wasn’t there anymore. From the camp that insulted a canny predator and didn’t even realize it. A dozen hunters, gone. History has no recollection of them at all. Even Methos doesn’t remember them anymore.
He wasn’t Methos yet, either. Kronos had yet to be born; Kronos, the child who named the ancient. Even then, Methos was old. He doesn’t know how old—he’ll never know. Sometimes he remembers great monsters, and the dinosaur bones in museums seem familiar, but if asked, he always says five thousand years. Five thousand, he thinks, watching schoolchildren on the playground swing, is so small a number.
There are things older than wolves. More dangerous than wolves. Pestilence, Famine, and War… were just schoolchildren on the playground, and had no idea what looked at them from Death’s eyes.
Sometimes, Methos thinks he remembers monsters in the cave of his earliest days, terrific beasts of fire and wing. It would be a long time before he could put a name to those shadows, but he watches the schoolchildren on the playground and thinks back. It was after the dark time, but before the next great creatures rose up, and dragons slept in the cave. And Methos shared their warmth, gazing up in wonder.
He called himself Dragon-Slayer for a time, but it was a lie. He never once hurt a dragon. Sometimes, he hopes they’ll remember that, when they wake.
And MacLeod and Joe and a thousand other children ask questions they wouldn’t like the answers to, and Methos is more than a man, more than a wolf, more than a predator. He has killed monsters and walked with monsters and slept safe in the talons of a dragon. (Or maybe that’s a story. He is a masterful liar, you know.)
Maybe he is simply a killer hidden in the hoodie of a graduate student, maybe he’s Death walking down the halls.
Maybe he first told the story of the wolf in sheep’s skin, with the blood of a dozen hunters still drying on his hands.
He is the only being alive who is not a child on the playground, and there’s a reason for that.
(And when they wake up… Death will smile, watching them take to the skies.)
Title: no child will ever call me Papa
Fandom: Glee
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton; lyrics from “How Do You Get That Lonely?” by Blaine Larsen
Warnings: character death; takes place after juvie but before 2.8; AUish relationship-wise, I think
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 415
Point of view: third
Prompt:
How do you get that lonely, how do you hurt that bad
To make you make the call, that havin' no life at all
Is better than the life that you had
How do you feel so empty, you want to let it all go
How do you get that lonely... and nobody know?
They don't understand why Puck did it.
-----
Finn doesn't hear from Puck over the weekend, but that's not unusual, not lately. They'd started hanging out some again, but nowhere near like they used to, and Finn is mostly fine with that.
On Monday, Puck's not at school. Nothing weird there, either. Finn overhears Santana ranting at Quinn, and Quinn's ruthless words in response, about Puck and the hook-up he missed. Maybe that's a bit odd, but Rachel demands attention so Finn gives it.
Puck doesn't show up for glee practice, and that's a little odd, because he's attended every session since he joined. Sometimes, in those dark days after the truth about Beth came out, he only ever seemed happy at practice.
Beth, and juvie, and stuff Finn remembers Puck talking about over the years, it all explodes in Finn's head, sitting in glee and watching Santana cuddle with Brittany (Artie looks sad, but Finn doesn't have time for that, not with the bad feeling in his gut).
"Did anyone hear from Puck this weekend?" he asks. (Noah talked about his dad, and his mom, and his mom's boyfriends, and his pool-cleaning business he started at thirteen. Noah quickly became Puck, and Finn loves Puck, he does. But Noah, man. Noah was something special.)
No one heard from Puck over the weekend. And Finn's been caught up in his own drama; they all have. Everyone has problems. It's probably nothing.
But it could be something. It could be something, and Finn is about to freak out, and now Quinn looks nervous.
She says, "I'll drive."
0o0
Finn doesn't understand, and Mrs. Puckerman hasn't stopped crying in Quinn’s arms, and Sarah lunged at Finn and won't let go of his neck, where she's buried her face and keeps begging, "Bring him back, bring him back, bring him back."
Puck left a note. It’s short and sweet and explains absolutely nothing, and Finn wishes he’d called Puck on Friday, like he’d thought about doing. Invited Puck to play catch or basketball or something. Anything.
What he wonders the most about, though, rubbing at Sarah’s back and watching Quinn try to comfort Mrs. Puckerman, is how he didn’t notice. Sure, Puck had been weirdly quiet since juvie. Since Beth, actually. And Finn let it go, because of Quinn and Beth and all that drama.
He wants to ask someone if it’s his fault, Puck leaving like this. But the one person he’d believe is the one he can’t ask. (Noah’s been gone a long time.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-22 10:25 am (UTC)2. *glee* heh! yeeeessss! they won't know what hit them! and how much do i love it that borias did call instead of going to handle it by himself :D
3. mmm. *sigh*
4. i had this image pop in my head of methos comfortably sleeping amongst dragon claws and it won't go away. i love your older and 'other' methos!
5. *stomach clenched* oh
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-22 05:04 pm (UTC)4. I love Methos, and I'm sure he's older than five thousand.
Thank you so much!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-22 10:44 am (UTC)And these Highlander stories make me all flaily, again, especially the latter one *hugs Methos*
The last story... even if Puck's not dead, the aftermath is somewhat similar to if he had killed himself. And poor Finn (among others) *hugs him too*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-22 05:04 pm (UTC)Thank you so very much for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-22 06:54 pm (UTC)4. Wow so freaking trajict, especially how long it took them to notice... in my mind he has become immortal and gone off to learn from Methwho by the way he os.
5- gah so lovely the way he thinks, I love how poetic everything is in his view.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-23 03:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-23 12:39 pm (UTC)Methos and the dragons is just amazing! I love the play with time, the different definitions of monsters, and the image of Methos sleeping with the dragons (and him hoping they remember he never hurt them when they wake again).
The Finn POV with Puck was so sad. Especially because he's supposed to be Puck's best friend and really didn't notice anything wrong. :(
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-23 08:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-31 01:49 am (UTC)Just yes :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-31 03:57 am (UTC)