rules: share the first lines of ten of your latest fanfics (or up to if you have less!) & tag 10 people. (or as many as you're in the mood to.)
tagged by @whatsaboomlakalaka
frankly i don't have lots of fics, i just have a handful of fics that i squeeze a large amount of words into. and most of them are WIPs I've been updating so if i were to do this Fairly i should probably treat each chapter as a new fic i've published, but that sounds like too much hard work.
every time a bell rings (kate/anthony, bridgerton, wip, 203k+ words)
There was a long, banging silence as the front door slammed shut behind him, and it rooted Kate Bridgerton to the spot in the middle of their sitting room as it echoed around them.
Three pairs of eyes were on her, begging her to explain the terrifying, bewildering anger they had just witnessed; to soothe away the confusion and hurt that was pressing into all their skin like a bruise; to sweep away the mess, now left in broken, damaged shards across the carpeted floors of their sitting room, or to pick all the pieces up with the promise that all could be safely glued back together again.
And all Kate found herself able to do was stand perfectly still and stare after the closed front door.
2. bit by bit, putting it together (benedict/henry, bridgerton, collection of one shots, 4k words)
“At some point I’m going to have to stage an intervention.”
Henry, somewhat predictably, did not respond to this. His head was curved down over his phone, thumb working its repetitive motion as he scrolled through his camera roll. He was almost completely mesmerised, and did not at all appear to worry that he was making poor company for the others who were sitting with their drinks around the crushed table tucked at the back of a very busy pub garden.
“I really thought having a boyfriend would make this better,” Lucy continued, with a perfect little sigh for effect, “not worse.”
3. adagio for our own strings (francesca/michaela, bridgerton, wip, 4.5k words)
“What are the odds she’s going to come in here holding a stack of photocopied John Williams’ scores.”
Mid-twizzle on the fine tuner for her A string, Francesca’s deep, thoughtful brows smoothed back out into graceful arches. She turned her torso to peer at her friend and oft-time seatmate, chinrest still tucked under and violin sticking out at attention, which was only half-way tuned but as perfectly poised as the girl holding it. Francesca was, even just tuning before a rehearsal, the picture of effortless elegance.
Michaela had learned how to watch her out of the corner of her eye whenever they sat together; just enough to see her and sate that spark of want in her chest, but not so much that she might burn in direct sunlight.
4. in our perfect park (benedict/henry, bridgerton, complete, 28k) - written with @nudebabitz! and actually I think this first bit is actually hers:
Ben had never much believed in destiny.
How could he, when his entire existence felt wrapped up in the sort of randomised set of circumstances that seemed to prod and poke at his existence without meaning, no higher power to mediate the death of his uncle, and then father? There was no grand design in the way that he felt himself searching for meaning, even years after the tragic course of events that sent him ricocheting off course? Life was what it was - good, at times; terrible, when he thought about it too long during the odd hours of the day while blisteringly hungover - and he was who he was - the second son of a family and forever searching for his place amongst them.
5. operation: barista 2 (electric boogaloo) (benedict/sophie, bridgerton, complete, 39k words)
Anthony: Do you want to do me a massive favour?
Anthony: Can you pick up Colin on your drive down?
Ben: like from the airport?
Anthony: No, he said he could get the Express into central
Ben: is he allergic to trains to kent or something
6. shell-shaped mind (benedict/henry, bridgerton, complete, 17k)
Benedict Bridgerton has always been a little bit too pretty for his own good.
He’s the sort of far-off, unattainable pretty that can make a boy think far too much about things he really ought not think about; with his effortless dark curls and smile that always betrays how completely delighted he is, he leaves Henry Granville wondering about those lips in the hours before he finally drifts of to sleep. Sleep that, when finally achieved, is littered with glimpses and imaginings of what he might want to do with them if he ever really allows himself to think about him during daylight hours.
7. statistically impossible (simon/anthony, bridgerton, complete, 11k words)
In hindsight, Anthony probably should have realised something was up from the minute he arrived.
It wasn’t that his family weren’t ever excited to see him - sometimes, on rare occasions, some of them even smiled when he’d been avoidant for a little too long and reappeared at an unexpected juncture - but they’d never been quite this excited to see him.
8. insomnia (kate/anthony, bridgerton, complete, 8.5k words)
Kate had not anticipated that sleep would become her most significant enemy when she came to be with child.
There were a great many things she had come to expect - things she had been warned about, mostly, from the friendly faces of her mothers and sisters -
“My stomach rarely ever settled with Edwina,” Mary said softly, one evening. She had seen the colour drain from Kate’s face very rapidly as Colin walked by, cake in hand - it had been all she could do to politely hide a guttural wretch behind her gloved hand, and she was not altogether successful. It was comforting to only have her mother as her companion in moments such as these.
9. to die, to sleep (kate/anthony, bridgerton, wip [dare i say, abandoned], 11.5k words)
Somewhere between losing her knickers and being slammed into her kitchen counter, Kate began to wonder how she had managed to find herself here.
Granted, most of her attention was on Anthony’s mouth, which was dipping deliciously lower with every lick, kiss, bite, tease, all the way down her neckline - and at least thirty percent of her attention was also on his hands, which were gripping at her thighs and spreading her apart for him to take his place in between them, making her quiver like a swooning heroine in a romance novel. A lingering five percent of her waning conscious thinking couldn’t help but be occupied by the echoing pain from the handle of the drawer that had dug awkwardly into her back and was sure to leave a bruise, all thanks to how enthusiastically they’d thrown each other around the room while they made out.
10. Plan Bee (kate/anthony, bridgerton, wip [not abandoned!!], 99k words)
The conceit begins, as most things do, with mothers.
Neither woman could claim to have a sister through blood, but Violet Ledger and Isabella Trevelyan found in each other a bond that they never found an equal to in its nature. Theirs was a friendship that bloomed in childhood and blossomed through adulthood, and even as one became Bridgerton and the other Sharma, they strove to ensure it never lost its sacred tenderness.
tagging some usual suspects @nudebabitz @no-net-ensnares-me @collectionoftulips @tinacentury @personalmephistopheles if you care to join in!
