Chaos

The attack on the house was so sudden that I wasn't thinking. A goddamn rocket launcher had just shot through the living room and armed soldiers were swarming the place. Soldiers that were trying to kill the man I loved. He didn't want to give me the gun; I wanted it, wanted to protect him when I should've been letting him protect me, wanted to fight for my family that I didn't want to lose.

I raised that gun and I pulled the trigger. Three times. I saw the man in front of me and I saw the bullets go through his head. Everyone tells me that I was doing what I had to do; that I was acting in self-defense and I have nothing to be ashamed of. But I watched a man die because of something I did. For the rest of my life, I'm going to be a killer. And I'll never stop wishing that I had made another choice.

--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
165 words

Detached

I'm supposed to be detached from my work right now. Spending a week off at an expensive resort with just the man I love. No phone calls, no media, no obligations. But I can't stop looking forward. Thinking about how I could have been better - if I could've won one more race, or not crashed in Louisiana, or fought harder in Fontana. Worrying about if I can reach that same standard next year. I'm a champion and I'm still looking to be better. I don't know if that's aspiring to greatness, or sadness that I can't just be happy.

--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
100 words

He'd regretted the decision almost immediately after leaving the shop. His subject had gotten the call around three in the morning about her grandmother's passing. Lightly salted scrambled eggs sat untouched on the table as he watched her sit solemnly on the tiny love seat, clearly upset. Several phone calls were placed early that morning; both by himself and by her; including booking flights to Dallas. Last minute changes were never good, but clearly unavoidable in this scenario.

No, Lisa was off to Dallas that night and that meant Jackson was, as well. The funeral was scheduled for the day after she arrived and much to his relief, she'd be catching the red eye back to Miami. It wasn't ideal, but at least he wasn't going to have to avoid her mourning family members. Having her alone was paramount to the job. He'd make it work. That's what he did. His job.

But as he left the shop, he knew he'd stepped far out of line in his duties. He'd spent far too long on the Reisert girl. Knowing your mark was important and he made the excuse often, but he knew if his employer could see him right now, they'd terminate the contract with him and hand it off to someone else. Someone who wouldn't send a rather ostentatious bouquet of orchids to the funeral of his mark's grandmother. It was safe, he felt. She'd never know. He had used a fake name, left the sympathy card unsigned. There was nothing attaching him to the transaction. Nothing but his suddenly overdeveloped sentimentality.

Thank god it would be over soon. He needed to get as far away from Lisa Reisert as humanly possible.

Jackson Rippner | Red Eye | Canon

Nerves

Driver introductions. I can hear the pop song they're blasting over the PA through the wall. We're leaning against it, each of us waiting to be called. Me and the other twenty-two people who are my friends and my enemies simultaneously. I check the collar strap on my fire suit just to have something to do with my hands. Try not to think about how today will happen or how I want it to happen. Glance between Will and Scott to make sure they're still there. Take a deep breath to stop the rapid beat of my heart. Then go.

--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
100 words

Friend

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. There was a huge party, and I couldn't stop smiling. I got to introduce him to Frank. Meet a lot of his other friends. Have a reason to get dressed up and not hate it. Probably because I still remember looking up to him when I was a kid in ELMS. He was a three-time series champion and Indy 500 winner; one of the guys I wanted to be. Now I've called him a mentor, a colleague, a teammate, a rival and a friend. We're still competitors, but I'm lucky to have him in my life.

--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
100 words

NEW

Lisa distractedly re-tied the sash of her silk bathrobe while she debated if she had time to go make a cuppa while she waited. She was English, tea should be able to soothe any situation. It had to be better than the absentminded pacing back and forth in front of the toilet she had just caught herself doing.

( Instead, she paused to give herself a long, hard look in the mirror... )

Lisa Drake
Original Character

Isolation

Isolation had never been the way Connor did things. He was a manslut, and the life of the party anywhere he went. He liked to drink and dance and fuck and have a good time. It was literally the biggest part of who he was. His own sister had long since given up hope of getting him to settle down anytime soon, and had instead introduced him to all the gorgeous gay guys she knew that were just looking for a good time. Because Connor was a good time, and he knew it. It wasn’t something he was ashamed of.

But in the wake of what had happened before Christmas, Connor had become very good at isolation. If he’d been a sarcastic bitch before, it had doubled now. He closed himself off to everyone, even to his friends. But not to Chase. Chase was the one person he could go to and feel safe. It was nothing like what he’d had before – a mixture of guys who loved that he was a slut and a good lay and left it at that, guys who judged him for being a slut and literally told him he was the kind of person that gave gay guys a bad name, or guys who wanted to tie him down and own him.

Chase was none of those things. He let Connor be Connor, but when Connor needed someone who would fuck the pain away, hold him without holding him down, and let him keep right on being him without trying to change him, that would always, and without fail, be Chase.

Soul

The general consensus was that you had one soul mate, but Lee knew he had two. To spoon and be spooned at the same time wasn’t something everyone would get to experience, but it was one of Lee’s favourite things. His lovers knew he could have a diva streak a mile wide, but they still loved him. The funny thing was, he couldn’t remember the last time they had an actual argument. They disagreed, they all had their moments of bad moods, but they didn’t fight. Not since that one time they had a three-way punch up when they were still in high school and swore not to fall into that trap again (or give each other concussions or bloody noses).

( Lee was sitting on the floor with piles and piles of wedding notes, samples, swatches, invoices, and lists for their friends’ wedding coming up on Valentine’s Day... )

lee mckenna
original character

Unexpected

It had been a hell of a long time since Caden woke up with someone in his bed. So much so that he got a fright when he first woke; jumping when he shifted and his hand brushed against a smooth, bare back beside him. In the first few moments of hazy wakefulness, it was unexpected. In fact, the whole turn of events the evening before that led to him waking with company had been unexpected.

He melted back against his pillow, taking a few beats to orientate himself with a sleepy rub of his eyes and a stifled yawn. He checked the clock for the time, always part of his morning ritual. Then it was a crossroads. He could get up and head to the bathroom, going about his normal daily routine as the early riser he was... or he could stay in bed. He reached and brushed the backs of his fingers over Casper’s bare shoulder. “You awake?” he enquired in a husky whisper, but all he was answered with was deep and even breathing, no sign of rousing at all.

The clock was checked for a second time, if only to buy him a couple of moments more to make the vital choice. But soon, he rolled onto his side and slowly, carefully, cuddled up against Casper’s back and slipped an arm around his waist. No thought was behind his next gesture, a soft kiss at the nape of Casper’s neck. For a morning person, it sure was exceptionally easy for him to doze back off again.

- caden drake -
original character

Breakdown

Sometimes you just needed to be alone. Sometimes you needed to stop and let yourself feel all the things you were trying to suspend up inside you to keep it together. People care, and they worried because they cared, but you couldn’t please everyone and do what was ultimately the best course of action.

He woke up way too early that morning after all of an hour or two of sleep which was broken and restless. Grayson was still asleep beside him, so he exited the bed carefully and quietly, pulling the bedroom door over behind him when he left the room. The tight coiled knot in his stomach could have been mistaken for nausea, but pent up emotion could cause even the most stable of souls to feel sick like you would never shake it.

Getting to the bathroom, he lent back against the door trying to catch his breath but instead of throwing up or fumbling for a glass of water, he just... broke down. All it took was one sob, and he crumbled, sliding down the door and curling up into a ball. It wasn’t like he hadn’t cried since the whole awful turn of events, but not like this. He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth in a vain attempt to muffle the sobs, but it was a pointless effort. The flood gates had opened, and he honestly had no idea how he was going to stop.

Riley Bryant || Original Character

"Here is the tragedy: when you are the victim of depression, not only do you feel utterly helpless and abandoned by the world, you also know that very few people can understand, or even begin to believe, that life can be this painful." - Giles Andreae


Ella Fitzgerald plays from an old record player in his front room. Down the hall passed the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, there is a spare room lined with paintings- some stacked to the side of the wall. Before an eisel with a fresh canvas stands Fabian. A black cloak splattered with paint drapes off his body, a cigarette hangs from his lips. To the side: a small table holds a bottle of red wine and a glass almost empty.

( He inhales and starts to mix paints )

Fabian Malstrom. Original Character. 278 words 1520 characters

Unexpected

It was a rainy, miserable day, and Nathan was trying not to take it as some sort of sign. He had worked a short shift at the hospital that morning, and now he was standing on the steps out the front of City Hall, huddled with Tyler by one of the large pylons. The fact that Tyler was even here again with him was unexpected. He never, for a moment, expected this would be an appointment they kept.

He was fussing, brushing the droplets of water softly off Tyler’s sleeves and pulling his coat tighter around him so he didn’t get a chill now the weather was cooling. “Are you sure about this, sweetheart? I think we should at least have Germ here– ”

“No,” Tyler cut him off with a shake of his head and looked to Nathan with a frown. “I don’t want anyone here. I’ll tell him after.”

Nathan’s eyes swept over Tyler’s face, a small, troubled frown on his own. He knew why. This was merely just trying to put one tiny thing right out of all the horrific things that went wrong. But Tyler needed it to not be remotely like it was back then; a big flashy white wedding poised to happen. He couldn’t let even the tiniest facet of this tempt fate for history to repeat itself. In his pocket, his hand was closed around a velvet ring box housing two identical wedding rings that he had kept in his drawer for many months.

He looked up at the dreary, drizzling sky, such a distinct contrast to the perfect weather that had been predicted for their planned wedding back then. This was not how he ever imagined it. But after everything that had happened, nothing in their life ever would be anymore.

Nathan Mitchell | Original Character | 299 words

Inner Strength

Inner strength wasn’t something Justin ever had much of. When he was weak, he was weak in the mind, body and soul. Every fibre of him struggled to function. What he really wanted to do was track his biological mother down where she was staying in the City and just hurt her, to somehow match all the ways she hurt him over the years. The hardest part about his illness would always be the self-destruction. He held an empty glass in his hands, rolling it back and forth between his palms. He had really tried to wrap his head around the fact his mom had shown up to take him back to Chicago, but it just sent all his thoughts and emotions derailing into another proverbial trainwreck in his head.

( TRIGGER WARNING: Self harm... )

Justin Campbell
Original Character

STRANGE

It had been such a long time that Simon had woken up naked with someone that it was a strange phenomenon to be doing it that morning. He was too warm and too comfortable to jolt awake too quickly. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the small sliver of light coming in through a crack in the blinds right across his face, he would probably have kept right on snoozing contently.

He was lying on his stomach, face smooshed snugly into the pillow, and there was an arm hugged around his waist and a leg draped over his. He glanced over his shoulder very briefly to analyse the other person sharing his bed and smirked sleepily at Lance who was still dead to the world. This was probably the part where Simon should get up and call it an end to a one-nighter. But something was different this time. He didn’t know what, but it could wait. For now, he was just going to shuffle back into Lance a little more and close his eyes again. He was pretty sure he could get used to this feeling...

@ simon sinclair ( original chracter )

SPEECHLESS

( Cut for Teen Wolf 4x01 spoilers... )

Stiles Stilinski // Teen Wolf // + Progress Table

Rush

Rose had managed to get to her cell phone and text all three of her sisters, who had rushed over to help her when she had been sure she was in labour, because fucking ouch. It had been bloody painful and she was screaming at them to get Angel’s ass from bloody Boston, and all his fans could go fuck themselves. She might be small, but she certainly could have a big, loud, and colourful vocabulary when she needed to.

But it turned out to just be Braxton-hicks, or a ‘false labour’. Bullshit, there had been nothing false about that pain. Angel had cut his concert short with promises of doing another VIP concert at a date to be confirmed, and rushed back to New York, only to find Rose sitting sulkily and disgruntled after just being told she wasn’t going to have a baby that evening. Now she was left irked that she had destroyed one of her chocolate bunnies, made Angel ruin his concert, AND the knowledge that the pain she had just experienced wasn’t even anything remotely close to what real labour would be like.

Ultimately, she just gave Angel an annoyed whack in the arm, because half of this was his fault, and told him they were stopping at McDonalds on the way home for a sundae. When all else fails... chocolate.

Rose Gresham || Original Character

Unexpected

Corey just sat there in shock. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Cry? Throw up? Wet himself? Shout? Scream? Hit something? Instead, he just sat there on the sofa between his parents, dark eyes locked on the surface of the coffee table separating him from Euan and Julie sitting across from them.

It was like his ears were blocked, and all he could hear through it was an unusual ringing. Goosebumps prickled his skin and he was shaking, the unexpected news having hit him like a freight train. In the end, he didn’t do any of those things. He wasn’t even sure if anyone was waiting for his reaction, but after awhile of tuning everything out around him, he just got up off the sofa and numbly walked out without looking back.

Corey Fitzpatrick ♦ Original Character

Drabble #6: Massage

Stiles hadn’t quite been himself today, and he’d spent quite a bit of time outside trying to calm himself down so as not to say anymore hurtful things to the people that he cared about. Before he came back inside, Isaac had put on quiet, soothing music and brought a bag of Cheetos up to Stiles’ room.

When Stiles came into the room, Isaac met him with a soft kiss, hearing his apology, and assuring him that he loved him and understood. “Lie down, babe,” he murmured, before joining Stiles in bed to gently massage the tension from his shoulders.

[Progress Table]

Goodbye

It’s a rainy day when they head to the cemetery. Smith’s glad it’s a rainy day. It’s cloudy, no sun, just the way Jasper would have preferred it. Jasper could only go out on days like this, so he knows today is fitting. Smith hasn't said much all day but he knows no one minds, no one expects him to. He’s lucky to have the friends he does, who have helped him take care of all of this along the way. All of those friends are here now with him, holding him up, helping him keep it together. Without them, he feels like he might crumble right into the dirt below his feet, so he holds on. He holds on because he wants to live.

He doesn’t know how to say goodbye, doesn't even know where to begin, but when they lower the coffin into the ground, into the darkness, he knows this is it. This is real, and it’s time.

Smith//Kaboom
161 Words

Sexy

Waking up with a hangover naked in bed with an equally naked body beside you could either be good or bad. That morning, for Chase, it was probably about equal amounts of both with a side order of amused smugness... that lasted all of 7.5 seconds before the enormity of the situation hit him. He looked over his shoulder, double-checking that the body who was there was who he was assuming it was.

Cameron.

Shit, this couldn’t be good. They were divorced. And before that, their marriage had crashed and burned for a variety of reasons. Then before even that, they had slept together for the first time when Cameron had been high on drugs after a splash injury at work where she thought she might end up Positive. Their history was extremely tumultuous. So, why the hell did she have to look so goddamn fucking sexy lying there with her blonde hair strewn across the pillow and just the most teasing of hints of breast and arse cleft on display? Not fair.

He didn’t know whether he should stay or leave quickly before she woke up and things got awkward. If he left, she would probably be pissed. But if he stay, probably pissed and indignant that it should never have happened. That might be a conversation better had not in person. He carefully rolled onto his back and sighed, looking up at the ceiling of the hotel room.

If it was all so wrong, then why did it all feel so fucking right?

Dr. Robert Chase || House, M.D. || References THIS

Volatile

Xavier was only barely hanging onto his own shaky and volatile control. Greg was in their bed, weak and groggy, lying there while Wesley attended to the large, blooded gashes from his neck down to his chest. Xavier had been able to heal the smaller wounds, but the ones Trystan had caused attacking his brother when Greg made the terrible mistake of trying to pull him off Skye... they would take a lot longer to heal. Days, even. For now, they had to fall back on human remedy, and it was fortunate they had a doctor friend who could suture and dress the wound so Greg didn’t keep bleeding all over the place.

( Greg was weak, and therefore so was Xavier... )

♠ Xavier Louis Carlisle
Original Character // Kindred: The Embraced/Vampire: The Masquerade
- Follows THIS

Visit

As much as Skye loved her loft apartment in the city, it was often nice to come stay out at Xavier and Greg's estate to clear her head and be waited on hand and foot. That was one of the upsides of being a Kindred Vessel, even if her choice of that had been purely selfish because she got an epic pleasurable rush from being fed on. It was just an added perk that both her boys were fucking hot, and it usually led to her watching them get it on together. So, she was a kinky bitch. Sure. She had no fucks to give.

( She was at the manor now more as a favour, however. With Luka staying there in the wake of his suicide attempt, she was on-hand to help with any 'mortal' or 'human' things he might need, still being one like she was... )

✿ Skye Love { kindred: the embraced | original character }
- Jett is itsmylife, follows THIS

Life

Being a doctor in an Emergency Room was hard on any general day, but it was always that much more difficult when someone you knew showed up in your resus bay. It had been a crazy night and Riley had been run off his feet. He was at the tail end of his shift when the MVA was called ahead as being three minutes out. It was the third car crash of the night and by this point, he was running on adrenaline. He was tugging on some fresh gloves when the paramedics rushed their patient through the bustling corridors of the ER, Riley running along by the gurney with them as they started to give him handover.

( ‘Emilio Alvarez, twenty five year old male...’ )

Dr. Riley Bryant // Original Character

DESIRE
( contains supernatural themes )
Seamus had gone over a century without feeling the level of intense desire that Luka had triggered inside him. For so long, it had only ever been music that ignited any distinct sense of passion in him. He was a minority in his Kind, but that was always how it had been for him.

How it had been until now. He wasn’t ready to pause and try to analyse this yet, because there was a part of him that truly feared what he would discover if he did. Instead, in his dressing room backstage of the theatre, he had Luka pressed up against the wall and the passion had swelled so rapidly, that Luka’s shirt was already torn off and shed to the floor. Seamus was kissing him hungrily and Luka was returning it with just as much heat. The Aussie hottie’s hand were possessively on Seamus’ ass, which was soon squeezed with determination.

( Seamus pulled back out of the kiss, eyes now silver and fangs bared with an edacious smile... )

Seamus O'Reilly
- kindred: the embraced oc -
desperatebeliever used with love and permission

FAILURE

There weren’t any positive thoughts going through Noah’s mind right now. It was easy to let the notion of failure take over everything when you were feeling like you were so rock bottom, you couldn’t make it up again. Here he was, restrained in a hospital bed because he was classified as violence and suicidal. The room was bleak, no windows, no pictures on the walls – everything that could be classified as something he could use for self harm was eradicated.

Only now, he was too sick to fight or be violent. His chest was painful from coughing and throwing up, he couldn’t move even if he wanted to. He felt like a vegetable, and he felt like it was never going to stop. When he cried now, he barely noticed the tears they came so easily. This time, he was curled up on his side, arms wrapped around a little plush dragon that was a gift from Euan’s son, Ciaran. It was the only thing in the world Noah owned anymore, and at that moment, it was a priceless treasure for him where otherwise felt like he as losing his mind. Once again, more tears came and more painful nausea was engulfing him to join forces with the loneliness that was forever eating away inside him.

Noah Cameron :: Original Character :: 215 words

Ridiculous

Emilio’s patience had been so short-lived, it was ridiculous. He was ashamed and knew that Cole wasn’t the only one who fucked up. This was going to be hard... very, very hard. He had given Cole his word that he wanted to help him with this, so responding to Cole’s drug and booze-soaked anger when he fell off the three-days-clean wagon, Emilio knew he could have had much better coping skills with it.

He now let himself into Cole’s apartment with the key Cole had given him at the start of all this. It had been Cole’s idea, and Emilio had appreciated the trust. It was a large apartment, but it was in a mess. He just stepped over whatever was lying down and went through to Cole’s bedroom. He was lying sprawled prone across his bed, with the remnants of a bender on his nightstand. A mirror with white powder residue, a spent bottle of black label Smirnoff vodka, an overflowing ashtray, and even a couple of used needles with a belt used to restrict circulation. Cole was shirtless and unconscious, and probably would be for some time.

( Emilio tiredly rubbed at his head, shaking it helplessly... )

Emilio Alvarez
{ original character }

Expectation

As far as Dillon was concerned, this jetlag bollocks was almost as bad as a hangover. As he filed off the plane with all the other bodies, not unlike herded cattle, his eyeballs felt like they were almost hanging out of their sockets and he had a dull headache that had been threatening for the last hour or so of his flight.

The airport looked just like any other. He didn’t know what was so fucking special about New York. Just because it was a bloody giant city, that didn’t mean everyone wanted to be there. He certainly didn’t. He was expecting it to be crap. He was an Irishman. He was used to fresh air, rolling green hills, and being a stone’s throw away from awesome pubs, no matter where you were.

( But he had fucked up, and he had fucked up royally... )

+ Dillon O'Leary // Original Character

Cuddle

The illuminated numbers on the digital clock beside Guy’s bed told Mitch it was 2.56am. It was one of those nights that there was so much going on his head, the past colliding with the present, and making the future impossible to understand. Maybe it would have been the appropriate thing for him to have gone to bed in Guy’s guest room, but when Ben left, it was really late and they just went to bed together in Guy’s room. Guy crashed out, sprawled on his stomach with his hand a loose fist beside his nose on the pillow.

Mitch had laid there for hours in the dark, sleep not coming, but listening to the deep, even breaths coming from Guy’s side of the bed. Soon, he got up and went to get a glass of water, figuring it might break the stirring of thoughts inside his mind and invite sleep. When it didn’t help, he padded up the hall back to the master bedroom and then just stood in the doorway, nursing the glass to his chest and watching Guy sleep bathed in the stream of light from the hall.

He didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, let alone anything in the future. All he knew was that he hadn’t been sure he would ever get the chance to hold Guy again, to watch him sleep, feel him close, hear his voice. He quietly flicked the hall light out and went into the room to set the glass of water on the nightstand. Without letting himself think twice, he pulled back the covers again and slid into the bed to lie up close behind Guy, who was now asleep on his side. There was a beat or two and then Mitch slipped his arm around Guy, spooning him and pressing a soft, tender kiss to the nape of his neck.

Now he felt like he was home.

- Mitchell Marcus ( original character )

Fear of the unknown

With the help of some painkillers, Rose had finally fallen asleep and Angel was sitting quietly in the dim maternity unit room holding her hand and watching her sleep. She had the fetal monitor strapped around her belly and embracing the barely visible baby bump there, filling the room with the soft but rhythmic thud-thud of the baby’s heartbeat. It was soothing and cathartic for Angel after the stressful and worrisome prior hours. They didn’t know what was going to happen, or if everything would be okay. All they could do was hope, and hope like hell.

He had a notebook open on the bed beside her and he was penning lyrics to a new song, pouring his feelings out onto paper. But he paused, and placed the pen down on the paper atop the messy scrawls. After a moment or two of hesitation, not wanting to wake her, he placed his hand on her belly just above the monitor and his fingers caressed the soft skin there.

“So, even if this is kind of crazy, I just want you to know that I’m your daddy, and if you can just hang tight in there, sweetheart, and get used to these... these hostile environments, I promise that I will do everything I can to fight for you. Once we meet, I promise I’ll be the best daddy to ever walk the earth, and I’m going to be there for everything. All the things that are important to you, your mommy and me are going to be there cheering you on. Even though you’re only about the size of an apricot, I just want you to know that I love you. I do. I can’t explain it, but I do. Please just be okay?” He was choking up then and just leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to Rose’s stomach. He would give up everything he achieved just to make this all okay.

Angel Shaw // Original Character

Shame

Corey was numb. It felt hard to move. It felt hard to breathe. It didn’t feel real. When his mom called him and told him that he had to meet her at the hospital straight away, the sick feeling in his stomach was already churning. He had tried to ask her what happened, was someone hurt, was someone sick, was it Ciaran, or was Bailey. She told him she just needed to see him in person straight away, and she would talk to him there.

Nothing could have prepared him for the nightmare he walked into. It was like he was being dragged into the depths of Hell all over again and when he was barely feeling like he made it out in one piece the first time. And there, all-encompassing him, was knowing how awful he was to his uncle the last time he spoke to him. He was selfish, and he was petulant. He was an arsehole, and he made his Uncle Euan feel like he didn’t care about his happiness. Shame didn’t cut it. Corey was crushed.

Now he was sitting stiffly and numbly in the surgical waiting room while the trauma surgeons did everything in their power to save his uncle’s life. He wanted to try to think positively, but he was being drowned by memories of being told his grandparents had been killed, and he could not shake the fear that someone was going to come through those large doors and tell them Euan was dead.

Corey Fitzpatrick ♦ Original Character

SHAME

It was way too early to be at work, but Annalise had been there for hours already. From the hospital to here, in some shameful attempt at holding off an avalanche of shit that was already starting hit. There had been no time to batten down the hatches. It had come completely out of the blue.

She was standing in her office feeling numb all over, save for her head that was pounding so much it felt like it was going to explode. The morning papers were already out, and they already had the information. She hadn’t even held any press interview yet, and had staff staving off phone calls since the early hours of the morning. Shakily, she picked up the morning paper that had just been delivered to her office, and she put her hand over her mouth when the headline screamed back at her.

NYPD DETECTIVE SHOT IN CENTRAL PARK

She didn’t know why she was feeling like she was, like a failure as a Lieutenant. Maybe it boiled down to the fact that if she hadn’t taken the job, and he had, they wouldn’t be in this horrific nightmare right now. She didn’t want to cry. She really didn’t want to. But she managed to slam her office door shut and pull the blinds closed before it hit. How was she going to pull it together and keep a professional front when the blood of one of her own was dripping from her hands right now?

Annalise Beaumont // Original Character // 250 words

Relief

Sometimes, there was a relief that hit you so hard that it had the capacity to make you feel physically sick. One minute she had been sitting there at the hospital bedside trying not to snap at Euan while he paced restlessly back and forth at the end of the bed, and the next the little person in the bed was working like a trooper to open his eyes up. She knew Euan was battling the cravings again. Every hour that had ticked by without his cherished son waking, it was getting worse for him to deal with.

The first attempted word out of the boy’s mouth was asking for his dad. She had gotten up out of the chair so quickly, she knocked it over, and then nearly tripped over it backing away so Euan could get to his son. The Irishman hardly ever cried. He saw it as a luxury he didn’t deserve, to shed cleansing tears of heartache. But he broke down as soon as the little fingers closed around his with the revelation from the child that he really needed to pee.

She had felt like she was intruding on something then, and she was just about to pick up her handbag and make a quiet retreat out into the hall to give them privacy. But that was when Euan, not letting go of his son, reached behind him and took her hand tightly and pulled her close to him. That might have been the biggest relief of all.

Julie Gresham // Original Character // 253 words

Connection

Corey thought he was just accidentally getting another friend, and he ended up with a boyfriend in a very unusual turn of events. Although he had been with guys and been ‘out of the bi closet’ for awhile now, he had never officially dated a guy. He had dated girls, and being cheated on left him a little biter and cynical about the dating thing entirely. He hadn’t seen any of this coming, hadn’t anticipated it, but he also hadn’t letter his bitter cynicism sabotage it either.

( He wanted to share it with someone... )

Corey Fitzpatrick ♦ Original Character

"I Will Survive"

Beau hadn’t said much that morning. His appointment at the hospital had been for 8.30am, but he hadn’t managed to sleep at all the night before. When the alarm on Austin’s phone went off, Beau was still lying there in the bed with the covers half kicked off him staring at the ceiling. Austin had rolled over and gently cuddled him, kissing his cheek and asking if he was okay. Beau had just nodded, but didn’t say anything. That morning, he just didn’t feel like talking and everyone seemed to understand that.

( There was just something innately shit about being a patient in the unit you were supposed to be a doctor in... )

Beau Watson-Shaw | Original Character | 298 words

"Born to Be Wild"

Euan was onto his eighth cup of coffee. He was pretty sure that over the years he had built a tolerance for caffeine, because the fucker didn’t even put a dent in the brain dead exhaustion he was feeling now. He stretched back in the uncomfortable plastic visitors chair beside his son’s hospital bed in the pediatric ward at the hospital. Jesus fucking Christ, he hated seeing him connected to all these tubes and looking the colour he was. What he did know was that he sure as fuck had no intentions of leaving this room until they could at least tell him how long the kid would be in there.

This was never where he could ever have seen his life going. He was a fucking recovering addict, clean for eight years and counting. His corpse should have rotted in a gutter years ago from either Hep C, HIV or OD, but now he was in the NYPD after graduating AA and cursing the F’ing C’s who raised spoilt brats to bully his illegitimate kid. Nothing like a bunch of crapshit anagrams to log your life under. Life was no longer about how many fucks or hits he could have in one day. It wasn’t about mapping his life by new ink to mark occasions. It wasn’t about taking a long, hard fuck in payment of a cellophane bag of badly cut crack. Now it was school schedules, medication regimes, Harry Potter, and Pepto Bismol. It was an eleven year old kneeing you in the ribs at night because he had a nightmare he woke up screaming from and didn’t want to be alone.

Somehow, blinking and missing it, Euan had stopped being a hardass bastard who would fuck himself and others up to get to a goal and had become an anxious father, where everything he did was about protecting a little person who was the only thing that ever came close to making his life feel complete.

Euan Fitzpatrick (Original Character)

"Everybody hurts."

Beau stood in the bathroom, hands braced on the edge of the sink, and just stared at himself in the mirror. He didn’t think he really expected to look different, but he did. Or maybe he just hadn’t wasted a whole lot of time looking in the mirror recently. He was trying to see what everyone else was seeing, but at the same time, he had no idea what he was really looking for.

Maybe it was just the harsh spotlights overhead that his husband probably worshipped for spotting any blemish or mark he wouldn’t want to leave the house without rectifying. Maybe it was just the fact that he was sick that he looked it now. If people looked at him, would they know? Would they know that, once again, he was about to start the battle for his life he didn’t know he even had the energy for a second time around? He wanted to hide it. He wanted to push it off to the side and not think about it.

But how could he hide it when he wasn’t even sure he recognised himself in the reflection? Could he even plaster on a fake smile and get on with it? Probably not. Could he pretend he was fine and okay? Unlikely. Did he want to be able to do anything he could so people wouldn’t treat him differently? Fuck yes.

There was no way you could run from pain. You can’t hide from anything that is conceived in your soul and reflected on your face. Not pain that was more than just physical hurt. As much as he wanted to shield the man he loved from sharing this pain, he knew he couldn’t. And that was probably the most painful part of all.

Beau Watson-Shaw | Original Character | 296 words

Hungry

Stiles was lying on his back, naked, and gazing up at the ceiling until he heard Isaac’s breathing even out accompanying the feeling of a curly head resting against his shoulder. Isaac’s arm was draped protectively around Stiles’ waist and after a moment or two more of silence, Stiles carefully lifted Isaac’s arm up, moving as slow as he could to slip out of the embrace so he didn’t wake him up. Isaac didn’t even stir. His just dropped down a little so his face was smooshed against Stiles’ pillow but he slept on.

( Moving slowly and softly, Stiles pulled on a pair of his track pants and crept out of his room to cross the hall into the main bathroom... )

Stiles Stilinski // Teen Wolf // 271 words
Isaac is icame2win

Exposed

There had been a brief moment of panic when Lydia had revealed to him that she had noticed something was going on between him and Isaac. It was supposed to be on the hush, considering the death and destruction going on around them, but Lydia had always been way beyond smart. It was probably why he had crushed on her as long as he did. Whether he liked to admit their relationship had been exposed or not, he hadn’t really wanted to deny it.

( The crush was well over now, though... )

Stiles Stilinski // Teen Wolf // 290 words
Isaac is icame2win and Lydia is imsomething, and referenced with love following THIS

Holding hands

This used to be a weekly thing for Nathan, but he had found it difficult to face of late. The coma unit was a sombre place to be, and visitors weren’t here for a friendly chat or to bring their loved ones grapes or flowers to cheer them up. He hesitated before he stepped up to the bedside and gently wrapped his fingers around the limp hand resting on the bed.

( The face was so familiar to him, but not for regular reasons a face would be familiar to you... )

Nathan Mitchell | Original Character | 286 words
- tearingloveapart & bringmebacktoyou referenced with love

Jason closed his laptop over in the wake of his quick chat with Tyra online between her classes. He let his hand rest on top of it for a moment, his brain ticking things over methodically for a moment with a small frown of concentration on his face. He had a spontaneous and stubborn streak that could kick in at times like this, but as far as he was concerned, now was the time and there was no need to sit and make a pros and cons list. It wasn’t that crazy, right?

He pushed his chair back from the kitchen table, and spun it around smoothly so he could wheel himself into the bedroom. The dresser was his destination and once he was there, he hooked his thumbs into the third drawer down and pulled it open. He rifled through some old Panthers t-shirts and jerseys of his and found the small velvet box tucked right in the back corner. This had been his home for about three months now, give or take. He was saving it for a rainy day, and even though it wasn’t rainy, it suddenly just felt so right. He pried it open with the edge of his thumb and looked at the diamond solitaire ring inside.

He was going to ask his favourite girl to marry him, and unlike the last time he had done this with someone, this time, there wasn’t a single thing about it that felt wrong.

Jason Street || Friday Night Lights || 246 words || His Tyra is realfriendintexas

Well, that wasn't supposed to happen.

Patrick had run his proposition over and over in his head many times before he plucked up the courage to approach his husband with it. Each and every time, it had come out way more classily and effective than it actually had by the time the words made it out of his mouth. He never meant to just throw the desire in Aiden’s face and run. He had been going to just suggest it casually to him, and suggest they both take a little time to consider it, but as he had perched there on the edge of Aiden’s desk, breaking out in a small sweat of anticipation with his heart thumping wildly in his chest, it had hit him like a tonne of bricks just how damn much he actually wanted this.

He wanted a baby of their own. He wanted to be a daddy. He had everything else he never thought he would ever manage to get. A gorgeous husband, money, a career he had worked hard for. What he didn’t have was his health, and that was the biggest, most difficult roadblock he had continued to hit on his own. It was why he couldn’t go it alone any longer. He needed his soul mate and his partner in crime to try to get past this next bit; the bit he couldn’t shake for the life of him.

Fatherhood. And he wanted it with so much crushing yearning that it was now or never. And never suddenly seemed so much easier than now.

Patrick Preston | Original Character | for dreamlikenewyork musebox | 256 words

Kismet

Liam had built so many protective walls up around himself that a jaded outlook on life and the simple, beautiful things it could offer was inevitable. He witnessed love and happiness all around him, but convinced himself that it didn’t happen to people with the sort of luck he had.

But to meet one person by chance three times running in the biggest city in the world when the person was a stranger, could that mean something? He shoved the earbuds back into his ears and took off jogging again, but not before he paused for a moment, turning back to find the guy had turned in his direction at the same moment. He didn’t want to believe in kismet. Because he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready again to face what that truly meant, and how much of his securely hidden self he would ultimately have to expose.


Liam Morgan // Original Character
In the wake of this for dreamlikenewyork, references learnhowtoplay

022.3. "Sweets for my sweet" - A Valentine's gift your muse has given or received.

Teenage Dream had been the first song Blaine sung to Kurt, and Kurt knew he had been a goner. Blaine literally had him from hello, and he always considered it ‘their song’. He never thought it would end up being their break-up song, and Blaine’s teary face sat at that piano still haunted him when he let himself stop for long enough to think.

‘Every February, you’ll be my Valentine...’ Kurt reached over and roughly slapped his iPod off and sent the apartment into silence. Next to it sat a tiny little box with a red bow wrapped around it that would never reach its intended recipient. The one time retail therapy bit him in the ass, and it would teach him for buying any poignant gifts way, way too far in advance.


Kurt Hummel ( justbeingaqueen ) ★ GLEE // 133 words

013 (3) "I couldn't live without them..."

I couldn’t live without Finch. And it's not even because I would have bled to death in that parking structure if he hadn't risked everything to rescue me.

No. When he came into my life I had nothing left. He’s right, I was looking for something or someone to kill me -- the only reason I hadn't done it myself was because I’m just too damned stubborn to stop fighting. But he gave me a job. He gave me hope. He made me want to live. And I don't know if he'll ever truly understand how important he is to me.

---------------
Muse: John Reese
Fandom: Person of Interest
Word count: exactly 100
Also fills charloft 100 Drabbles of Summer #82 - Author's Choice

This entry was originally posted at http://shoots-kneecaps.dreamwidth.org/6816.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Slow dance

It was only by chance Dave was at the same graduation party as them. He had kept in touch with Kurt on the regular via email or the occasional Facebook conversation, but mostly he had managed to go things alone now that school was finally over and it was the end of a very miserable era. He had been more than content to close the book on it and move on. It was time for a fresh start now.

( But he sat at the table alone nursing a soda, and in the crowd of couples dancing together on the makeshift dance floor, his eyes inevitably sought Kurt and Blaine out... )


foundmywayout (GLEE)

Smile

She knew as soon as she saw him smile as they stood there watching their newborn daughter through the nursery window that she had never really seen him smile before. Not like this, not where it looked like he was smiling from the inside out with a heart that would probably have room for both her and the little pink bundle lying before them. She had seen him smirk and sneer and leer, but this changed his face, it changed his eyes... and it changed him.

Which is exactly how she knew that she had to give their baby to someone who could offer her the world, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars. It wasn’t a fairy tale or a fantasy. He wasn’t going to turn into Prince Charming and change her whole world with a kiss and a shiny glass slipper. They were two sixteen year olds who didn’t even know how to make themselves happy, let alone a tiny baby. She had to walk away, she had to sign her heart away on that dotted line of those adoption papers, and hope like that hell that the beautiful guy with the beautiful smile she had standing beside her would stay there for her, and love her, without the shroud of sunshine and happiness. She had to just know if it was truly him or just being stuck in a moment...

She should have known that was too good to be true.


usedtohaveabs ♥ GLEE (Canon)