An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It's been forever what with work and snow and writing myself in circles, but I've finally posted up the next chapter of my Hunger Games femslashy WIP, Like Wind on AO3. Hope y'all enjoy, and please feel free to share your comments! Special thanks to ninecrayons for the thoughtful and incisive beta support!
Excerpt:
Prim is still burrowed into me. She pulls away just enough to look up at me. “Maybe she can win. She could win, right, Gale?” she asks in a trembling voice.
Oh. Oh, God. I look at Mrs. Everdeen, but she’s looking away, not meeting my eyes. I look back at Prim, whose eyes are begging me to tell her what she wants to hear.
“I asked her to try,” Prim whispers, “and she said she would. She promised she would try.”
I can only imagine what that must have done to Katniss. Trying to put on a brave face for her little sister, making a promise that she has no idea if she can keep. I look down at Prim and smile. “Well, then,” I say, “If Katniss promised, then that’s all there is to it. It’s as good as done.” Please let that be true, I think to myself.
if you're gonna be the death of me, that's how I wanna go
Part 4 of the Les Mis Firefly!AU (Parts 1, 2, 3)
Eponine/Cosette
Minimal knowledge of Firefly recommended (basically just knowing that a Firefly is a type of spaceship, but if you know the plot you'll know some Plot/Backstory Things before they're explained in the next chapter) and you probably don't need to read the previous parts but I wouldn't mind if you did
PG-level descriptions of violence, blood, guns
Title from Collar Full by Panic! at the Disco
For kayfuckingbros, sorry it took so long
Sometimes Eponine hated the democratic process. Like now, when the rest of the crew had voted to take on the new passenger. There was something distinctly suspicious about him, about the way he held himself, upright like a soldier, the way he looked around, taking in everything, the way he was currently rummaging around in the cargo hold. “That's private property you're messin' with.” He stood up quickly and looked her over critically. Definitely a fed, probably a good one. “I suggest you git yourself back to your cabin where you belong.”
“I left some of my personal belongings down here, and I need to collect them.”
Not good enough.“No you didn't. I know the contents of this hold, and there wasn't a thing out of place til you started snoopin'. What is it you're after?”
The man sighed. “Very well.” He stepped toward her, flashing a badge as if that should intimidate her. “Inspector Javert. I am in pursuit of two fugitives believed to be hiding on this ship. Any information leading to their capture would be well rewarded.”
“No fugitives here. Whole crew's as honest as can be.” Except for the smuggling. And plotting treason.
“Is that so? Perhaps among the passengers then? A man and a girl, the man older, the girl in her teens. He's wanted for parole violation, petty theft, trespassing, theft of government property, is known to have gone by Valjean, Madeleine, and Fauchelevaunt, and the girl's Euphrasie, goes by Cosette, government property, wanted for murder. Her careful mask of ignorance slipped, just for an instant, at those words, and she knew he noticed. “Where are they?”
“I don't know anything.”
“You're hiding them.”
“I don't know anything, and you'll get out of here if you know what's good for you.”
He drew his gun, one of the new models issued only to Alliance officers, with incredible accuracy and a near-perfect silencer- what she wouldn't give to get her hands on a gun like that- and said, “I am an agent of the law, and I will not be threatened by the likes of you.”
“You don't scare me,” she said, stepping forward and closing the gap between them to less than an arm's length. That had been the best part of her old life, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, nothing to protect her but her wits and the element of surprise that came from doing something so obviously dangerous that no one would ever expect it. Nothing else could make her feel more alive.
(That was then. Now there was Cosette, the stars, and the patchwork engines of a beat-up old Firefly called Liberty.)
“You may be a lawman, but I am a woman, a demon, a daughter of wolves, and I ain't afraid of nothin'.”
“You-” he paused, listening to the voices echoing down the hallway.
“Cosette, I told you to stay in your cabin-”
“But Papa-”
“Cosette, please. Listen to me. Go back and stay there until I've had a chance to meet the new passenger. If he can be trusted, I'll return for you and then you may come out.”
---
Sometimes, Cosette thought, being telepathic wasn't an advantage. Sometimes you didn't hear anything at all, even when you wanted to, no matter how hard you tried, and sometimes you heard too much. Sometimes it overwhelmed you and you got so busy listening you forgot how to act on what you heard.
---
“Now go, and-” Fauchelevaunt rounded the corner and saw them, saw Javert, and his eyes widened with... recognition? “Javert,” he whispered, grabbing for Cosette's hand, and Cosette blinked as if awakening. Javert turned to face him, Eponine all but forgotten.
“M. Valjean, you are under arrest-” Eponine was watching his eyes, this man who claimed to be Cosette's father, and saw him look to the intercom button just out of reach. Unfortunately, so did Javert. “Don't even try to alert the rest of the ship. I will shoot you. You're not the one I need alive.”
For a long moment, no one moved. Eponine barely breathed, and a bead of sweat was forming on Javert's forehead. Then Valjean made a move toward the intercom, and Javert and Eponine reacted within milliseconds of each other, so that when Javert pulled the trigger and the noiseless shot was fired her hands were around his and his aim was thrown off and the bullet found its new mark almost instantly. She stepped back, swaying slightly, one hand wrapped around the gun that she had wrenched from his grasp, the other pressed against the gaping wound in her stomach.
She'd been shot at plenty, in her other life, but she never actually gotten shot. Not like this. A stray bullet grazed her on occasion, but never anything important. It didn't hurt as much as she'd expected at first, after the initial jolt of agony. Mostly there was a dull throbbing that grew sharper and more insistent, and her head felt fuzzy and the room was spinning and the ceiling was too far away. Then Combeferre was there- “hold on, mei-mei, hold on, you can do this”- and Cosette was holding her hand and Valjean stroking her hair and Enjolras's voice was harsh and cold and he had taken her gun, still painted in blood, and Javert was kneeling and Combeferre was cursing, a steady stream of whispers like the whistling of the landing gear, but Combeferre never cursed, and Valjean said something in his deep rumbling baritone and then his steadying presence was gone and her head was resting on cold metal floor and the light hit Enjolras's hair like a fiery halo and Courfeyrac touched his shoulder and how did he not get burned as he said, “Enjolras, no, please, not now, not like this, Enjolras, she's dying,” and Valjean was between Enjolras and Javert and Enjolras lowered his arm and the throbbing in her stomach was getting stronger and it hurt and Combeferre's hands were so cold and it hurt and Cosette was there and it still hurt and it hurt and it hurt...
---
The next time her eyes opened the light was too bright, and she decided she must be in heaven because the pain was gone, which was funny because there wasn't a heaven and anyway she was far too much of a sinner to be happy there. Maybe dying for someone else balanced out all the crimes she had committed, even though she only saved Valjean because of Cosette. Maybe that was enough, that she was willing to risk her life for Cosette's happiness, and what more noble cause was there than that? Enjolras could keep his crusade. She would fight for Cosette's smile.
She had to be in heaven because the pain was gone and an angel was standing over her, an angel silhouetted against the blinding brightness, the outline of her curls catching the light and glowing too hot to look at, and the angel had Cosette's face. But Cosette wasn't dead, and angels, if they even existed, didn't cry, and Cosette was crying and Eponine knew that she had survived, and Cosette threw her arms around Eponine and said, “Combeferre said he might've given you too strong a dose of pain meds, but he wanted to be sure. And everyone's fine and we've been so worried about you but you'll be fine now and- oh, Eponine!” As she held Eponine in a tight embrace, Eponine was struck once again by how strong she was, and Cosette's body against hers was real and warm and so alive that she knew this was the only heaven she needed.
Oh my god this avengers headcanons are literally making my life right now not to mention I've totally got to write some of them they're all so beautiful I just
*I know that I have not been on as consistently as I would like, but please, forgive me. I am in the midst of a strenuous and rather important project for school and it is absolutely devouring my time right now.*
Sidenote: please, please, please, help support me with it! This is the blog for it and like all that information should be there. There are surveys that I need people to take and also a facebook page and if people want to donate either books or money that hasn't been set up yet but both are welcome and needed. oh and if someone wanted to help me out with making sure things get posted and queued on this account I can dig that just send me a message if you want