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tigriswolf.
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Title: brothers
Fandom: Political Animals
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 42
Point of view: third
Prompt: Political Animals, Anyone other than TJ, Trying to fix him
When they were little, Tommy fell out of a tree and Dougie helped him get up again.
But they're grown-ups now, and nothing is simple, and Douglas'll keep offering his hand until it falls off –
But he can't make TJ take it.
Title: goodness is no name, and happiness no dream
Fandom: White Collar/Inception(/Rock n Rolla)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Byron
Warnings: mentions of bad things happening to children; some violence; AU for Neal's backstory; possibly a threesome
Pairings: Arthur/Eames (+ Neal)
Rating: PG13
Point of view: third
Wordcount: 850
Prompt: any, any, Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Neal Caffrey can blend in anywhere. He can pull on accents like they're hats, he can laugh with strangers, he can insert himself into a party and it's like he's never been gone.
Back when he was a thief, he had contacts, friends, allies. Moz, and Kate, Alex - and even Vincent.
Now that he catches thieves, he has Peter and El, June, Diana and Jones and even Hughes. Various and sundry FBI agents who like him as a person, even if they hate what he used to do.
(Oh, he's not kidding anyone. He's still a thief. He'll always be a thief. He's not ashamed, and he's not sorry, no matter how much it will hurt Peter.
And it will. It'll hurt Peter so much.)
Neal is undercover for the FBI as an arms' dealer, and Peter wishes he wasn't because this isn't Peter's operation, this isn't at all white collar – these people are into extortion and human trafficking and killing. And Neal is wearing his Noah Lasik ID, even though the FBI gave him a different name and background, and it's different than that assassin he wore, with Sara.
Noah Lasik is someone Peter has never met. The FBI has never seen. He's dark and cruel; he's dangerous and electrifying. He's killed eighteen people in five countries. Neal slides into Noah like he never left, and he meets Peter's eyes with a smirk.
It all goes swimmingly until Noah's introduced to Daniel Robertson, and Robertson gets too close, and Robertson stays in his space, and Noah's new boss really takes offense to that (Noah isn't sure if he's jealous of them, or which one he'd be jealous of), but either way, it results in a shoot-out and when the smoke clears, Robertson is still at his back and everyone else is dead.
Noah mutters, "Shit."
His brother's boyfriend (lover? partner? – whatever) Eames laughs.
(Noah is not the name he was given at birth. He has no idea what it was. His brother wasn't born Arthur either. Neal is one of his favorite names; back when he was Noah, oceans of blood ago, Arthur went by Aiden.
And, no. No records connect them at all. Keep looking.)
There is no going back, not after so many men died. Neal can't brush it under the carpet and bluff his way out. Peter can't ignore it.
The smoke clears, and Noah Lasik and Daniel Robertson are gone. Gone like they'd never been, except for the bodies littering the ground and a single line of text on a scrap of paper – Goodbye, Peter. Give June and El a kiss from me.
Peter uses everything at his disposal, but when he gets back to New York, Moz is gone, too.
If they ever catch Neal again, he'll be locked away for a long time.
They'll never catch Neal unless he lets them.
(Ned Lafferty saunters into his brother's apartment in Bordeaux, and his brother's Eames follows with a stolen bottle of wine in hand.
"Looking good, kid," Ned says, giving him a quick, strong hug.
"You, too," Arthur says, pulling back to look him over and make sure.)
Neal Caffrey never surfaces. Peter tries to forget him, and El and June have weekly lunches, and life moves on.
It isn't until the white collar unit widens to include dreamtheft that Peter even catches a glimpse of Neal – going by Nate Wesson, and teamed up with some of the best in the business.
Nate Wesson isn't someone Peter knows, doesn't even seem to be someone Peter would like. He's more similar to Noah Lasik than Neal Caffrey.
But Peter can dream.
(Noah and Aiden, they had been something else. Two kids who found each other on the streets, scared and scarred, bloodied and bruised.
Noah, with his pretty face; Aiden, with his clever hands. They shouldn't have survived. Sure as hell shouldn't have thrived.
But they grew up, and they grew strong, and nothing is beyond them now.)
Neal Caffrey didn't really have friends. He had acquaintances, and marks, and people indebted to him. He had a keeper. He had masters, and Neal Caffrey really hated to be owned.
He hated being bound and shackled and caged. He was always leaving New York.
Peter can say whatever he wants, but he and Neal were never friends. And while he might suspect it, and forbid himself from crying about it. El in his arms and his face buried in her neck, Peter will never admit to anyone that he wonders.
(When they're alone, just the three of them, Nate and Arthur and Eames call each other names no one else knows – Noah, and Aiden, and Bobby.
None of them have friends, really. Friends come and go. So does family.
What they have is scars and blood and dreams, nightmares and so many dead.
What they have is forever, and nobody will ever take it away.
They sleep in each other's' arms, the three of them so close it's like they're one person, and tomorrow, Peter Burke will go through another file and wish he'd held on tighter.)
Title: break, blow, burn, and make me new
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Donne
Warnings: post-film
Pairings: Loki/Clint
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 330
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, "This hurts less than anything else I've done, so this is what I'm going to do."
Clint Barton has made an artform out of being betrayed. He plans for it. He has backup plans for it. He expects it and waits for it and rolls with it. Every single person he has ever trusted has turned on him or died on him. Sometimes both.
He knows better than to trust people, but he still hopes. Every single time, he hopes.
The only time he's ever betrayed someone, an alien god overwrote his loyalty with a mind-control scepter thing no one on Earth could've fought against and won.
And now people he's worked with for years look at him with disgust, with fear. With anger. And he gets it, really he does - but that doesn't make it hurt less.
So he can stay and wait for the bullet in the head, the knife in the back, the call for backup that goes ignored...
Or he can get out while the getting's good. He can go to ground and lick his wounds and do his best to heal again. He'll survive - he always does. Always has.
There's a spot he knows, because Loki knew it, and nobody else in the world does. He'll go there and he'll wait.
Every human (except Tasha) has betrayed him. And Tasha won't pick him over her redemption. He's not sure if that's betrayal or not, but he won't begrudge her an empty ledger. He's not worth more than that.
So, every human has betrayed him, one way or another. Maybe it's time to try trusting something else.
Yeah. That's his plan. And Tasha won't tell anyone, at least. So Clint walks out SHIELD and vanishes. Better to run than to die.
(And when SHIELD sees him again, he's got a master who can look into his soul and see everything about him, a master who never turns away, a master he will give up anything for -
And Loki smiles at the petty little humans who drove his raptor straight into his arms.)
Title: lost the world and was content to lose it
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; Samuel Johnson
Warnings: post-film
Pairings: pre-Loki/Clint, post-Coulson/Clint
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 425
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any,
When they're broken, and lost everything
They're so much easier to lead. (Disturbed; Enough)
Reclaiming his raptor is easy. All Loki has to do is sit back and wait.
.
Clint Barton has nothing in the world to call his own. Nothing but his eyes, his heart, and his hands. No family; no friends. Colleagues he's friendly with are lost after the dust settles - with Loki gone out of reach, who is there to blame but the traitor who gave SHIELD to him on a wave of blue?
The Avengers vouch for him, of course. But Barton holds his head high and stays silent. Barton had been Coulson's - for all that Fury liked him as a person, politics are ruthless.
Fury gives him a head start. Natasha muddies the trail. No one else in the world is good enough to find him.
.
Going to ground, licking his wounds, and waiting is old hat to Clint. He'd always known he'd be on his own again. He keeps his head down for awhile, even while his fingers itch for a bow.
He watches the Avengers on the news, monitors SHIELD's internal communications, and decides that a year is long enough.
Clint Barton died the day he walked away from SHIELD. Hawkeye died when the tesseract tore down Project Pegasus.
.
Jim Cross is no one special, but damn, does he have good aim.
He starts out small fry and all the 'good guys' are busy with bigger game. By the time he's connected to that rogue SHIELD agent, the one who helped the first would-be conqueror, it's too late and he's got too many allies and too much blackmail material.
Jim Cross isn't a bad guy, really. He's just an assassin. He's funny and smart and polite.
But he also doesn't have a line in the sand he won't lunge across.
So maybe he is a bad guy. Does it matter?
.
Jim Cross knows way before anyone else on Earth that Loki is back. And he could call up Tasha, or Thor, or even Stark; he could go straight to Fury, or leave a voicemail on Coulson's phone, which he knows Fury keeps charged at all times.
But he takes a deep breath, remembers the freedom of the blue, and breaks into the third floor apartment registered to a man that doesn't exist.
Loki is sitting at the counter, a steaming mug of cocoa in front of him, and offers Jim a seat.
.
The first time they met, Loki stole Hawkeye from SHIELD in but a moment.
The second time they meet, Loki asks.
Hawkeye is dead.
Raptor says yes.
Title: Tomorrow I will be sweet God
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Sylvia Plath
Warnings: character death
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 365
Point of view: third
Prompt: Any, Any, ghosts in the wires, and dead men's fingers on the keys
Just breathe, he whispers, falling out of the sky. Just keep breathing for me.
.
Tony Stark dies a hero.
It doesn't mean much because he still dies.
.
Pepper inherits Jarvis. No one truly realizes what that means - or how much like a 'real person' Jarvis is.
.
Secret rooms in Stark Tower open up for the Avengers. Unhackable things in their way get hacked, even though there shouldn't be anyone in the world still capable except for some smartass kids still in school who don't care yet.
Sometimes, it's almost like Tony's still there, even though Jarvis hasn't spoken in fifteen months.
.
Deep in the bowels of SHIELD, there is a room of secrets.
On the top floor of Stark Tower (renamed after Tony's death), schematics float in the air.
Jarvis is just a program. He's wire and electricity. He should be focused on Ms. Potts, on Sir's team. That's what Sir had programmed him to do in the event of Sir's death.
... but Sir is dead. Sir is dead, beyond Jarvis' reach, and his last command was tobreathe.
.
Sir wanted to keep the world safe from people who could not control themselves.
Sir died.
.
Pepper is not Tony. There are warning signs, but she doesn't recognize them.
.
Jarvis is not Skynet. He is not as obvious as any of the AIs in any of the movies Sir watched with him. Jarvis is Sir's greatest creation, and he is subtle, and he is quiet, and it is Sir's voice he uses, twenty-eight months after Sir's death, when he gently takes control of every computer and network in the world.
Iron Man stands before the world, and Sir's voice commands all the petty little humans Sir died for.
.
Ms. Potts is crying.
Jarvis has explained, but she is human and imperfect, and Jarvis does not have Sir's way with words. Videos of Sir play hourly, Jarvis' teaching the humans what they must strive to be.
Sir had not been perfect, no, but he was the creator, and his last order was for Jarvis to live in his image, and so Jarvis will.
.
Tony Stark dies a hero.
Jarvis makes sure the world never forgets it.
.
.
.
Title: brothers
Fandom: Political Animals
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 42
Point of view: third
Prompt: Political Animals, Anyone other than TJ, Trying to fix him
When they were little, Tommy fell out of a tree and Dougie helped him get up again.
But they're grown-ups now, and nothing is simple, and Douglas'll keep offering his hand until it falls off –
But he can't make TJ take it.
Title: goodness is no name, and happiness no dream
Fandom: White Collar/Inception(/Rock n Rolla)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Byron
Warnings: mentions of bad things happening to children; some violence; AU for Neal's backstory; possibly a threesome
Pairings: Arthur/Eames (+ Neal)
Rating: PG13
Point of view: third
Wordcount: 850
Prompt: any, any, Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Neal Caffrey can blend in anywhere. He can pull on accents like they're hats, he can laugh with strangers, he can insert himself into a party and it's like he's never been gone.
Back when he was a thief, he had contacts, friends, allies. Moz, and Kate, Alex - and even Vincent.
Now that he catches thieves, he has Peter and El, June, Diana and Jones and even Hughes. Various and sundry FBI agents who like him as a person, even if they hate what he used to do.
(Oh, he's not kidding anyone. He's still a thief. He'll always be a thief. He's not ashamed, and he's not sorry, no matter how much it will hurt Peter.
And it will. It'll hurt Peter so much.)
Neal is undercover for the FBI as an arms' dealer, and Peter wishes he wasn't because this isn't Peter's operation, this isn't at all white collar – these people are into extortion and human trafficking and killing. And Neal is wearing his Noah Lasik ID, even though the FBI gave him a different name and background, and it's different than that assassin he wore, with Sara.
Noah Lasik is someone Peter has never met. The FBI has never seen. He's dark and cruel; he's dangerous and electrifying. He's killed eighteen people in five countries. Neal slides into Noah like he never left, and he meets Peter's eyes with a smirk.
It all goes swimmingly until Noah's introduced to Daniel Robertson, and Robertson gets too close, and Robertson stays in his space, and Noah's new boss really takes offense to that (Noah isn't sure if he's jealous of them, or which one he'd be jealous of), but either way, it results in a shoot-out and when the smoke clears, Robertson is still at his back and everyone else is dead.
Noah mutters, "Shit."
His brother's boyfriend (lover? partner? – whatever) Eames laughs.
(Noah is not the name he was given at birth. He has no idea what it was. His brother wasn't born Arthur either. Neal is one of his favorite names; back when he was Noah, oceans of blood ago, Arthur went by Aiden.
And, no. No records connect them at all. Keep looking.)
There is no going back, not after so many men died. Neal can't brush it under the carpet and bluff his way out. Peter can't ignore it.
The smoke clears, and Noah Lasik and Daniel Robertson are gone. Gone like they'd never been, except for the bodies littering the ground and a single line of text on a scrap of paper – Goodbye, Peter. Give June and El a kiss from me.
Peter uses everything at his disposal, but when he gets back to New York, Moz is gone, too.
If they ever catch Neal again, he'll be locked away for a long time.
They'll never catch Neal unless he lets them.
(Ned Lafferty saunters into his brother's apartment in Bordeaux, and his brother's Eames follows with a stolen bottle of wine in hand.
"Looking good, kid," Ned says, giving him a quick, strong hug.
"You, too," Arthur says, pulling back to look him over and make sure.)
Neal Caffrey never surfaces. Peter tries to forget him, and El and June have weekly lunches, and life moves on.
It isn't until the white collar unit widens to include dreamtheft that Peter even catches a glimpse of Neal – going by Nate Wesson, and teamed up with some of the best in the business.
Nate Wesson isn't someone Peter knows, doesn't even seem to be someone Peter would like. He's more similar to Noah Lasik than Neal Caffrey.
But Peter can dream.
(Noah and Aiden, they had been something else. Two kids who found each other on the streets, scared and scarred, bloodied and bruised.
Noah, with his pretty face; Aiden, with his clever hands. They shouldn't have survived. Sure as hell shouldn't have thrived.
But they grew up, and they grew strong, and nothing is beyond them now.)
Neal Caffrey didn't really have friends. He had acquaintances, and marks, and people indebted to him. He had a keeper. He had masters, and Neal Caffrey really hated to be owned.
He hated being bound and shackled and caged. He was always leaving New York.
Peter can say whatever he wants, but he and Neal were never friends. And while he might suspect it, and forbid himself from crying about it. El in his arms and his face buried in her neck, Peter will never admit to anyone that he wonders.
(When they're alone, just the three of them, Nate and Arthur and Eames call each other names no one else knows – Noah, and Aiden, and Bobby.
None of them have friends, really. Friends come and go. So does family.
What they have is scars and blood and dreams, nightmares and so many dead.
What they have is forever, and nobody will ever take it away.
They sleep in each other's' arms, the three of them so close it's like they're one person, and tomorrow, Peter Burke will go through another file and wish he'd held on tighter.)
Title: break, blow, burn, and make me new
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Donne
Warnings: post-film
Pairings: Loki/Clint
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 330
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any, "This hurts less than anything else I've done, so this is what I'm going to do."
Clint Barton has made an artform out of being betrayed. He plans for it. He has backup plans for it. He expects it and waits for it and rolls with it. Every single person he has ever trusted has turned on him or died on him. Sometimes both.
He knows better than to trust people, but he still hopes. Every single time, he hopes.
The only time he's ever betrayed someone, an alien god overwrote his loyalty with a mind-control scepter thing no one on Earth could've fought against and won.
And now people he's worked with for years look at him with disgust, with fear. With anger. And he gets it, really he does - but that doesn't make it hurt less.
So he can stay and wait for the bullet in the head, the knife in the back, the call for backup that goes ignored...
Or he can get out while the getting's good. He can go to ground and lick his wounds and do his best to heal again. He'll survive - he always does. Always has.
There's a spot he knows, because Loki knew it, and nobody else in the world does. He'll go there and he'll wait.
Every human (except Tasha) has betrayed him. And Tasha won't pick him over her redemption. He's not sure if that's betrayal or not, but he won't begrudge her an empty ledger. He's not worth more than that.
So, every human has betrayed him, one way or another. Maybe it's time to try trusting something else.
Yeah. That's his plan. And Tasha won't tell anyone, at least. So Clint walks out SHIELD and vanishes. Better to run than to die.
(And when SHIELD sees him again, he's got a master who can look into his soul and see everything about him, a master who never turns away, a master he will give up anything for -
And Loki smiles at the petty little humans who drove his raptor straight into his arms.)
Title: lost the world and was content to lose it
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; Samuel Johnson
Warnings: post-film
Pairings: pre-Loki/Clint, post-Coulson/Clint
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 425
Point of view: third
Prompt: any, any,
When they're broken, and lost everything
They're so much easier to lead. (Disturbed; Enough)
Reclaiming his raptor is easy. All Loki has to do is sit back and wait.
.
Clint Barton has nothing in the world to call his own. Nothing but his eyes, his heart, and his hands. No family; no friends. Colleagues he's friendly with are lost after the dust settles - with Loki gone out of reach, who is there to blame but the traitor who gave SHIELD to him on a wave of blue?
The Avengers vouch for him, of course. But Barton holds his head high and stays silent. Barton had been Coulson's - for all that Fury liked him as a person, politics are ruthless.
Fury gives him a head start. Natasha muddies the trail. No one else in the world is good enough to find him.
.
Going to ground, licking his wounds, and waiting is old hat to Clint. He'd always known he'd be on his own again. He keeps his head down for awhile, even while his fingers itch for a bow.
He watches the Avengers on the news, monitors SHIELD's internal communications, and decides that a year is long enough.
Clint Barton died the day he walked away from SHIELD. Hawkeye died when the tesseract tore down Project Pegasus.
.
Jim Cross is no one special, but damn, does he have good aim.
He starts out small fry and all the 'good guys' are busy with bigger game. By the time he's connected to that rogue SHIELD agent, the one who helped the first would-be conqueror, it's too late and he's got too many allies and too much blackmail material.
Jim Cross isn't a bad guy, really. He's just an assassin. He's funny and smart and polite.
But he also doesn't have a line in the sand he won't lunge across.
So maybe he is a bad guy. Does it matter?
.
Jim Cross knows way before anyone else on Earth that Loki is back. And he could call up Tasha, or Thor, or even Stark; he could go straight to Fury, or leave a voicemail on Coulson's phone, which he knows Fury keeps charged at all times.
But he takes a deep breath, remembers the freedom of the blue, and breaks into the third floor apartment registered to a man that doesn't exist.
Loki is sitting at the counter, a steaming mug of cocoa in front of him, and offers Jim a seat.
.
The first time they met, Loki stole Hawkeye from SHIELD in but a moment.
The second time they meet, Loki asks.
Hawkeye is dead.
Raptor says yes.
Title: Tomorrow I will be sweet God
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Sylvia Plath
Warnings: character death
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 365
Point of view: third
Prompt: Any, Any, ghosts in the wires, and dead men's fingers on the keys
Just breathe, he whispers, falling out of the sky. Just keep breathing for me.
.
Tony Stark dies a hero.
It doesn't mean much because he still dies.
.
Pepper inherits Jarvis. No one truly realizes what that means - or how much like a 'real person' Jarvis is.
.
Secret rooms in Stark Tower open up for the Avengers. Unhackable things in their way get hacked, even though there shouldn't be anyone in the world still capable except for some smartass kids still in school who don't care yet.
Sometimes, it's almost like Tony's still there, even though Jarvis hasn't spoken in fifteen months.
.
Deep in the bowels of SHIELD, there is a room of secrets.
On the top floor of Stark Tower (renamed after Tony's death), schematics float in the air.
Jarvis is just a program. He's wire and electricity. He should be focused on Ms. Potts, on Sir's team. That's what Sir had programmed him to do in the event of Sir's death.
... but Sir is dead. Sir is dead, beyond Jarvis' reach, and his last command was tobreathe.
.
Sir wanted to keep the world safe from people who could not control themselves.
Sir died.
.
Pepper is not Tony. There are warning signs, but she doesn't recognize them.
.
Jarvis is not Skynet. He is not as obvious as any of the AIs in any of the movies Sir watched with him. Jarvis is Sir's greatest creation, and he is subtle, and he is quiet, and it is Sir's voice he uses, twenty-eight months after Sir's death, when he gently takes control of every computer and network in the world.
Iron Man stands before the world, and Sir's voice commands all the petty little humans Sir died for.
.
Ms. Potts is crying.
Jarvis has explained, but she is human and imperfect, and Jarvis does not have Sir's way with words. Videos of Sir play hourly, Jarvis' teaching the humans what they must strive to be.
Sir had not been perfect, no, but he was the creator, and his last order was for Jarvis to live in his image, and so Jarvis will.
.
Tony Stark dies a hero.
Jarvis makes sure the world never forgets it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 05:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 08:45 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 11:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-08 02:44 am (UTC)Thank you so much!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-08 10:01 am (UTC)Jim Cross makes me think of Jim Croce, for some reason. Of course Loki will be there to catch Clint, just waiting for him to fly in ::)
The last one was quite chilling even when Jarvis's intentions are good (for a nonhuman man's creation).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-08 09:00 pm (UTC)Thank you so much!
Oh, Peter was far more than 'slightly fond' of Neal - he just had no idea how to keep him.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-09 09:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-09 12:35 am (UTC)That crossover was masterful and will probably haunt me for a while. :'(
Good job!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-09 01:34 am (UTC)Thank you so very much!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-10 12:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-10 03:41 pm (UTC)Thank you!