Something Old, Something New
Thanks @claire8216 for the tag!
Rules: Share something old - a snippet of a favorite fic you wrote, that you are proud of; OR share something new - give us a sneak peek of something new you are working on. Feel free to do both, if you want to. Then tag (or not, your choice) other writers!
Something Old: An excerpt from a Julie and the Phantoms fic I wrote (gulp) five years ago. Luke and Julie's first conversation in the TAs AU, Rearrange the Stars. One of my favorite versions of them I wrote!
She traces her fingers over the tips of his. And indeed, there are calluses on his four fingers. Thick calluses, the kind of leathered layers that only embed in the skin over years of playing. The kind of calluses that immediately remind her of her mother sewing a Halloween costume and joking that she didn’t need a thimble because her skin was too tough to feel the prick of a needle.
Julie peers up at him, and her head spins. Partially from the alcohol, but partially from his proximity. Luke makes a lot of faces—sometimes outraged, sometimes joyful, sometimes dismissive—but they’re always exaggerated. Like his emotions are too big to be expressed without the exuberance of a cartoon character. But right now, his face is smooth and his eyes wide. Unusually still and sincere.
Normally Julie would try to say something clever or coy, but her brain is dizzy with alcohol, and all she can get out is, “Liar.”
Luke snorts, but his nod is serious and honest. “Yeah.”
There’s an expression on his face that she can’t read, but she remembers having these conversations with people back in high school and not wanting to be pushed. So as she traces her soft, sensitive palm across his rough fingertips, she tries to reassure him. “I’ve been there.”
“Lying?”
“This kind of lying.” She pokes his thick calluses. “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”
A breath huffs out of him, like he wants to snort but doesn’t want to be too loud at this proximity. “You don’t know my secret.”
Something new: An excerpt from the next chapter of my Lockwood and Co. Buffy AU, That’s The Living (All Messed Up). The chapter has been torturing me for four months, but I keep returning to this scene to remind myself why I’m fighting through it, so have this zero context snippet!:
Lockwood’s hands jump to her cheeks and he rests their foreheads together, his breath trembling against her cool face. ‘You’re alright,’ he whispers. ‘You’re alright. You’re alright.’ Each time he says it, it sounds different: first a prayer, then a command, then a reminder. She’s not sure whether it’s meant more for her or for him.
His clammy skin is still warmer than hers, a stabilising comfort that cuts through the panic storming in her chest. She tries to steady herself with a deep breath, but that stabbing sensation radiates between her ribs again and she hisses with pain.
‘I’m sorry,’ he murmurs, thumbing the apples of her cheeks.
‘Figures that the only thing you’d ever apologise for unprompted is the one thing you don’t have to apologise for.’
He smooths her hair back from her eyes, his touch unbearably gentle. She risks a shallow inhale, letting sweet oxygen roll over her tongue, and he mimics her, their breaths slowly falling into sync. His soft nose rests against hers and his exhales puff across her mouth with a heated tingle. She’s all too aware of the mere millimeters that separate their lips, and if she wasn’t so very fond of breathing right now, she’d close the gap, consequences be damned.
‘Are you okay?’ she whispers, trying to look him over for injuries without separating their foreheads.
He chuckles wetly. ‘I’m not the concern.’
‘You are for me.’
His eyes meet hers, dizzying from this close. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I asked first.’
Tagging anyone who wants to do this (or wants to do it again, since I’m a few months behind). Consider yourself tagged!
annaxmalina
romaincrisis
janainaart
izzy806
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
