Gin and Bitterness

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.

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.

Fandom: Chess
Rating: T
Characters: Anatoly Sergievsky, Freddie Trumper, Florence Vassy
Primary Pairings: Freddie Trumper/Florence Vassy, Anatoly Sergievsky/Florence Vassy, Freddie Trumper/Florence Vassy/Anatoly Sergievsky
Word Count: 411

General Summary: Florence never could stomach sleeping alone. 

Author’s Note: Another 'trying to write 100 words or more a day' piece from February 2017. This one was the prompt 'comfort.'


Florence Vassy had never, would never admit it aloud to anyone – not to the ragged remains of what little family she had left, and certainly not to anyone who found themselves in bed with her – but she hated sleeping alone. Not just because she was easily chilled, but the prospect filled her with a visceral fear that she had never quite conquered entirely. Nonetheless, she had done it more often than not, swallowing the fear like hot bile and gritting her teeth against the sudden sense of isolation.


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Fandom: Chess
Rating: G
Setting: Pre Canon
Characters: Svetlana Sergievskaya, Anatoly Sergievsky, Freddie Trumper, Florence Vassy
Word Count: 302

General Summary: A quick (more-or-less) background study of some of the major players in Chess.

Author’s Note: Just some Chess character sketches that I wrote up while developing my own ideas and feel for the backgrounds of different characters from the musical. I jotted them down at one point back in May 2015 while writing Chess fic but afraid to post any Chess fic because of the fandom.


January 1957
Florence Vassy is a stranger in a strange land at only five years old, the only thing between her and what’s left of the streets of Budapest is a widowed aunt, the never-spoken-of sister of Florence’s mother who married an English journalist in secret and left all that she knew behind her; “I’m a survivor,” she had whispered to Florence at the airport, “just like you’ll learn to be.”
 

Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: E
Setting: Modern au
Characters: Combeferre, Grantaire
Primary Pairings: Combeferre/Grantaire
Secondary Pairings: Implied queerplatonic Combeferre/Enjolras
Word Count: 3181 

General Summary: It's been two months since Grantaire woke up to Combeferre in his kitchen, a dark bruise still forming just under his jaw, and despite having avoided both Combeferre and Enjolras ever since, all it takes is a single text to send him into a panic.

A follow-up piece to "Hearsay."

Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: T
Setting: 1920s Prohibition au (dw tag)
Characters: Javert, Azelma 'Az' Jondrette
Primary Pairings: Javert/Azelma 'Az' Jondrette
Word Count: 429 

General Summary: For Javert, admitting that something makes you happy has always been like a jinx, and it is in this regard only that he is superstitious.

This is sort of a companion piece to "Minding Cues."

Author’s Note: sCan't remember what the prompting was for writing this. I think I just did. Written on 4 August 2013.


“Are you happy?”

The words brush over the back of his ear as the lips they slipped from graze his skin.

“What?”

Even to his own ears, his voice is slightly fuzzy and drowsy; he sounds “fucked out,” as the body laying against him in the dark would have put it.

“Does this make you happy?”

And the underlying follow-up: “Do I make you happy?”

He doesn’t answer

Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: M (whole series) / T (this chapter)
Setting: 1920s Prohibition au (dw tag)
Characters (in this chapter): Babet, Javert, Azelma "Az" Jondrette, Montparnasse, Éponine Thénardier
Warnings: Implied Transphobia
Word Count: 3672

General Summary: The ABC Group is a small organisation who operate purely on principle - a group of bootleggers who run a not-for-profit speakeasy known as The Corinth out of the upper room of the Musain Café, with all profits going to aid the finances of one Mr. Jean Valjean and his daughter.

Despite run-ins with rivals, including the notorious Thénardier crime family, the group has managed to thrive in the heart of the city, but things have taken a sudden turn for the worse, with the Feds slowly circling under the direction of BOI agent Javert.

[Note: There will be major character death in later chapters.]

Important note involving ages of characters: Most of Les Amis (as well as Éponine, Azelma, and Cosette) are between the ages of 23 and 30, with the exception of Gavroche, who is 14/15. Valjean is 60ish, but due to the way in which I’ve set up where his backstory intersects with Javert’s, Javert is around 39.

Chapter Summary: In which Special Agent Javert of the BOI receives a visitor, and the Thénardier twins prepare for their respective roles in the ABC - Thénardier negotiations the following night.

Author’s Note: I started this as part of a Les Mis Across History event and only got two chapters in before losing my confidence. I would still like to finish it someday but don't know if I could do it as well as I thought.


In her three years working as a secretary for what the office ladies called “the biggest stick in the mud the BOI has to offer,” Jeanette Delaney had become accustomed to all manner of people walking in and out of the central office to see her employer. No one claimed to understand his methods, but he was ruthless and he was effective, and so as long as the paperwork was filed at the end of the day, no one seemed to question the ways in which he chose to conduct his investigations. As a result she hardly even bothered to glance up when the front door opened, then thudded shut again, allowing for the harsh click of high heels on tile to reach the desk before looking at the person in front of her.

Her gaze slid up a pair of long, shapely legs, bare from just below the knee down; from there up skin was covered by a straight-waisted, dark green dress, the lack of sleeves remedied by a stylish black, silk scarf that wound around their throat and draped over their bare shoulders. Finally, she reached their face, and was stunned to find a face that was somehow both beautiful and handsome under a light dusting of makeup, dark hair done up fashionably with a series of small, silver filigreed hairpins, rouged lips twitching into a wry smile as their brown eyes watched them with something bordering on amusement.

“Can I help you, um,” darting her eyes back down to her desk, Jeanette began leafing through the scheduled appointments, “Can I help you, Mist–”

“Jondrette.” The visitor interjected smoothly, “Ms. A. Jondrette – I won’t be on the books, but I assure you, I am expected.” When the girl hesitated, she nodded towards the phone. “You can call and check if you’re worried – I won’t mind.”

Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: G
Characters: Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Jean Prouvaire
Primary Pairings: Combeferre/Jean Prouvaire
Word Count: 1373 

General Summary: Combeferre offers an at-his-wit's-end Jean Prouvaire the use of his private reading room, and Jehan happily accepts. To both men's surprise, everything else just sort of falls into place.

Author’s Note: My half of an art trade that I wrote in June 2013.


Combeferre had not planned on this when he first offered the use of his sitting room to Jean Prouvaire. They had been, as they often were, in the back room of the Café Musain when he had overheard the poet in conversation with Courfeyrac, complaining of too much noise outside of his rooms making it impossible to focus. He had, almost surprising himself as much as them, smoothly interjected and offered the use of his sitting room.

“It’s quite well-lit,” he had heard himself explaining, “and quiet – my rooms are very out of the way.”

He had ignored Courfeyrac’s questioning eyebrow in favour of the way that Jehan’s grin seemed to take up half his face, and the way that his delicate fingers played with his cravat as he thanked him and inquired as to the address and what times would be acceptable for him to visit. Combeferre had simply said that his door was open to him any time that he was home, and Jehan had beamed at him before leaving him and Courfeyrac to hold court with Enjolras as was the usual procedure after a meeting.


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Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: M (whole series) / G (this chapter)
Setting: 1920s Prohibition au (dw tag)
Characters (in this chapter): Bahorel, Bossuet, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Enjolras, Feuilly, Grantaire, Joly, Musichetta, Marius Pontmercy, Jean Prouvaire, Éponine Thénardier, Jean Valjean
Word Count: 2565

General Summary: The ABC Group is a small organisation who operate purely on principle - a group of bootleggers who run a not-for-profit speakeasy known as The Corinth out of the upper room of the Musain Café, with all profits going to aid the finances of one Mr. Jean Valjean and his daughter.

Despite run-ins with rivals, including the notorious Thénardier crime family, the group has managed to thrive in the heart of the city, but things have taken a sudden turn for the worse, with the Feds slowly circling under the direction of BOI agent Javert.

[Note: There will be major character death in later chapters.]

Important note involving ages of characters: Most of Les Amis (as well as Éponine and Cosette) are between the ages of 23 and 30, with the exception of Gavroche, who is 14/15. Valjean is 60ish, but due to the way in which I’ve set up where his backstory intersects with Javert’s, Javert is around 39.

Chapter Summary: Marius attends a Sunday night meeting at The Corinth, and discovers that something is amiss between the ABC Group and their rivals, the Thénardiers.

Author’s Note: I started this as part of a Les Mis Across History event and only got two chapters in before losing my confidence. I would still like to finish it someday but don't know if I could do it as well as I thought.

 

Fandom: Les Miserables
Rating: T
Characters: Courfeyrac, Marius Pontmercy
Primary Pairings: Courfeyrac/Marius Pontmercy
Word Count: 534

General Summary: Marius has been coping with what he thinks may be some embarrassing feelings towards Courfeyrac, who finds nothing particularly embarrassing.

Author’s Note: Written for a friend back in April 2013


He couldn’t shake it. No matter how much he tried to change things, to steer his imagination elsewhere, his mind always returned to the same places. To his back against a wall, a mattress, even a window pane once. To teeth scraping over freckled clavicles and kisses that were somehow at once chaste and anything but. He always, despite every effort, found himself squirming and haunted by the ghosts of soft, clever hands peeling his clothes away and skating over his hips, by the smile - amused, but indulgent - that inevitably appeared as he flushed at the breathlessness of his own voice.

It wasn’t until he realised that he had whimpered aloud that Marius snapped back to himself and realised where he was. He found himself in the corridor near Courfeyrac’s room, and swallowing hard, glanced around to ensure that he was alone, but when he turned his head to glance towards Courfeyrac’s door, his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.


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