Blurred Lines

Fandom: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / Smiley series
Rating: G
Characters: Peter Guillam, George Smiley
Primary Pairings: Peter Guillam/George Smiley (unrequited-ish)
Secondary Pairings: Peter Guillam/Marie-Clare Guillam, Peter Guillam/Molly Meakin (both referenced)
Word Count: 234 

General Summary: Peter is used to very defined relationships in his life - unusually defined for a man of his profession, and so one relationship in particular throws him off of his game. 

Author’s Note: Another piece from February 2017, this one for the prompt "Unrequited Love."


Peter was never in the habit of cultivating unrequited love.

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Impressions

Fandom: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / Smiley series
Rating: T
Characters: Bill Haydon, Jim Prideaux
Primary Pairings: Bill Haydon/Jim Prideaux
Word Count: 212 

General Summary: Impressions of Bill after sex, as recalled by Jim Prideaux. 

Author’s Note: Another February 2017 prompt, this one being 'Eros.'


After sex, Bill is somehow even more feline than usual, his whole body draped across the worn duvet, more a liquid than a solid, the curve of his spine the only indication of form as he stretches out an arm to retrieve his cigarettes and Jim’s lighter from the bedside table. There’s a brief moment as he takes his first drag and his eyelids flutter in which he very nearly looks otherworldly, but then he catches Jim watching and the old crooked smile is back, and he’s definitely just Bill (though even now, ‘just Bill’ seems like an injustice).

He laughs, and leans over, nuzzling his jaw before kissing him, the faintest hint of alcohol still on his breath. It’s not the first time they’ve kissed by a long shot, but it never quite fails to be intoxicating, and it’s easy to ignore the ash smudging on the pillowcase when his fingers are in Bill’s hair and they’re only pausing long enough for Bill to finish his cigarette and find the ashtray before he’s leaning back down, the smoke still in wisps around his head. It can’t last forever, and somewhere, deep in his gut, Jim already knows it for a fact, but he leans up to meet him all the same.

Flight Feathers

Fandom: Doctor Zhivago
Rating: T
Characters: Pasha Antipov, Lara Antipova, Viktor Komarovsky (referenced)
Primary Pairings: Pasha Antipov/Lara Antipova
Secondary Pairings: Lara Antipova/Viktor Komarovsky (referenced)
Warnings: Referenced Past Abuse and Sexual Abuse
Word Count: 347 

General Summary: For almost as long as she can remember, Lara's wings had been clipped - her ability to escape hindered by caution and the threat of something far worse than the imprisonment she was already under. Anything else was alien to her. 

Author’s Note: Another February 2017 prompt, this time for 'unconditional love.'


The concept of unconditional love wasn’t something that she felt she completely grasped, or at the very least, it took her longer than she suspected it should have. As long as she could remember, love and affection – and everything that came with them – had a price. Behaving, or smiling when she didn’t want to, or making herself look presentable enough – “Pull your stocking up!” – could buy her a measure of love and gentleness as a child. As she got older, she found it took considerably more effort for much less reward. Hold still. Don’t cry out. Slip out without waking your mother and don’t breathe a word to that boy who trails after you. The conditions were endless and stifling, but while she doubted, so much of her found it hard to believe that there was ever such a thing between people as love that didn’t come with stipulations.

With Pasha, things had started to change, and the doubts that had been there all along gained some measure of footing in her mind. If anything, the only conditions and stipulations were the ones that he placed on himself and that, for a time, she placed on herself as well. But there was no reservation in his willingness to love her, nothing he asked of her that she hadn’t offered herself. If she asked him to stay for hours and stroke her hair, and he was able, he did. If she wanted him to leave her alone for days at a time, he didn’t question her – even if some part of her wanted him to. So some form of unconditional love, she decided, did exist, and so for the better part of a year, the only thing keeping her trapped was a sense of uncertainty and fear that had been carefully instilled in her for the better part of a decade. She could, she thought, bear it for as long as she had to, provided that it kept their relationship safe from harm, but should anything threaten that – she didn’t have a plan, but she would form one.

Sleeplessness and the Raptor Brain

Fandom: Animorphs
Rating: G
Setting: Post-War
Characters: Ket Halpak, Tobias
Word Count: 444

General Summary: As has become a frequent reality for him, Tobias has been having trouble sleeping, but even he can't go without sleep forever - especially he can't.

Author’s Note: This particular piece was written over a year ago and is dedicated to my friend Sylvs for their birthday and as one of our been-around-for-ages fandoms in common is Animorphs, and we both adore Tobias, I wrote something with him even though I’d never written Animorphs fic at all before.


Tobias wakes up like clockwork at one in the morning out of habit. It’s deep winter, the coldest it’s been in years, and he’s not as resilient as he used to be so he’s resigned himself to abandoning his tree at night and taking refuge in the New Barn. The New Barn, wasn’t a barn at all, really, but a part of a wildlife rehabilitation facility that Cassie had built on the fringes of the Hork-Bajir settlement at Yellowstone. It’s safe and secure, and more importantly, it’s climate controlled, but old habits are hard to break, and he finds himself jolting awake as the hands on the clock click over from one hour to the next, his eyes quickly adjusting to the twilight produced by the emergency lights glowing in the darkness.


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