I know I’m a loyal person. At least toward people who deserve my loyalty. After our first meeting in the lab at Barts, I didn’t consider that I’d be so committed to Sherlock as I became. Not to this extent. It frightens me sometimes, to be honest.
“You are quite loyal very fast,” Mycroft remarked when we first met. (When he abducted me, to be correct)
I puzzled him, and very few people were able to do that. Anyway, I passed the test and was “allowed” to move into 221B Baker Street.
God, I was so pissed off with him.
He was not the only one who irritated me, but he was Sherlock’s family, so mostly I let it slide.
When Sherlock brought me along to our first crime scene together, I was too stunned to speak my mind to the other yarders. Sherlock’s intellect had already amazed me profoundly, but when he listed all the things he observed from the pink clad woman on the floor, I was blown away, and there was no force in the world that could’ve silenced my praise.
“You know you are saying that out loud, yes?” he asked when I’d uttered the second ‘fantastic’.
I blushed and excused my behaviour; after all, we were standing around a murdered person. He brushed it away and said it was fine. It was evident that he’d never heard the words before. Not directed at him, at least, which I found incredibly sad.
So, when Sergeant Donovan warned me about him afterwards and referred to him as The Freak once more, I made up my mind.
***
As a doctor, I never believed in the label Sherlock put on himself as a sociopath. Granted, I am no psychiatrist, but I know he has empathy for (a few) people around him. Mrs Hudson is a good example.
When I first met her, she opened her arms to Sherlock, and he willingly hugged her as if she was a beloved family member. There was nothing artificial about it. It was genuine affection.
That said, he drove her mad fairly often, but the few details they both let slip about her past, told me that she was used to all sorts of ruckus and shenanigans. She needed excitement in her life just as much as we did.
Angelo is another one of Sherlock’s devoted fans, and Sherlock tolerates the gushing, and the teddy bear hugs admirably. It’s easy to discern that he feels relaxed in the Italian’s company, and his mask of indifference vanishes completely. I find it utterly fascinating to watch.
***
I was much more prepared at the next crime scene some weeks later.
Sherlock found nearly half a dozen clues in under one minute that had escaped the police. Both Anderson and Donovan mocked him and told everyone willing to listen that he made it all up to sound interesting. He didn’t bother to reply but kept the deductions coming. Luckily, Lestrade took notes and told the others to keep their mouth shut. They didn’t.
I decided to intervene and took a step toward them both, crowding them so they had to step back a few feet.
“What the hell?” they asked in unison.
I lowered my voice, which I knew was far more effective than yelling. By this point, my subordinates from the army would’ve realised that the best way forward was to keep mum and agree to everything I told them. Of course, Anderson and Donovan weren’t that clever. They both perceived me as non-threatening, a lap dog. Big mistake.
“If you two continue to call Sherlock Freak and to ridicule his deductions, you’d better watch your backs. The ice under your feet is about to crack real soon if this doesn’t stop.”
“Are you threatening a police officer, Doctor Watson?” Donovan asked in her normal condescending tone.
“That’s right, Sergeant.”
“We will report you to the Superintendent!” Anderson exclaimed in a high-pitched voice which hurt my ears.
“Please do. There are enough witnesses who have heard you two harass Sherlock every chance you get,” I said calmly.
“As if he’s not offending us,” Sally scoffed.
“Oh, I know he does. But he’s not the one starting it, is he? He only replies accordingly. I assume you’d done the same if you were in his shoes. Most people would. You should be ashamed of yourselves, acting like teenagers instead of adults. Grow up, for goodness’ sake!”
“But I – “
“Shut up, Anderson! He is summoned by your commanding officer, and he solves every case you lot are unable to. Surely, that should be enough for you to keep your thoughts about him to yourselves. Without him, dozens of criminals would still walk the streets of London. Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong.”
And with that, I walked away from them and stood a little closer to Sherlock than normal. He didn’t seem to mind one bit; he was practically beaming at me.
“Dinner?” he asked after he’d lifted the police tape for me.
“Starving,” I replied.
“Is Angelo’s, okay?”
“God yes!”
***
Neither of us made a big thing out of it when our hands brushed, and our fingers entwined a few moments later; it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Apparently, Angelo discerned that something had changed between us, but he didn’t remark on it. He just fetched a candle, lit it, and went to get us a bottle of wine on the house.
To my astonishment and delight, we reached for the other’s hand once we had removed our coat and jacket. A voice in my head told me I was on thin ice starting a romantic relationship with the slightly mad world’s only consulting detective, but I told it, in no uncertain terms, to stop bothering me. I was fine. It was all fine. More than fine, in fact.
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[#FFF363 On Thin Ice]
This prompt has been brought to you by someone who wishes to remain anonymous; thank you very much! Tread carefully now; one wrong move and you'll be in trouble. Just how exactly did you end up in such a precarious situation? What was your goal, what pushed you here? Is it still in your sight while the ice creaks with your every step? And here we are, waiting with bated breath to hear the whole story.
Okay!!!!! Hello! I'm not dead! I am, ironically, on thin ice when it comes to posting this fic on time, but!!!! I'm not late QUITE yet!!! I still have time! So, here I am with this week's @flashfictionfridayofficial
Words: 998
Ao3: Sharing Hot Chocolate
Leo hated being cold. Fortunately, his fire powers made it so that being cold wasn’t exactly a frequent problem for him. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d been genuinely cold, and each and every one of those had involved a god or a mythical figure or a monster or something. But not this time.
Well, technically speaking, it did involve a god, but Leo couldn’t really blame him. No, this one was one hundred percent pure, organic, cage-free Valdez Fuckery.
They’d been out on another one of Jason’s little God Quests, this time hunting down the Roman god of purification, a dude named Februus, who could only be found in, you guessed it, February. Granted, that didn’t necessarily mean he had to be somewhere cold – it was currently a balmy 76° in Australia – but Februus had, of course, decided to camp out in the Canadian wilderness. Because of course he did.
But that would have all been fine, genuinely it would have. Leo was no stranger to sleeping in unpleasant places, and, as previously stated, his fire powers kept him from getting cold. In fact, it was pretty great because Jason wasn’t designed for this kind of cold, so Leo got to share a sleeping bag with his darling boyfriend and be cuddled like a space heater with a libido. Februus was going to have his work cut out purifying them when they found his hiding spot.
However, right now Leo wasn’t thinking about any of that because he was cold. More specifically, he was cold and wet and he wanted to die.
It was a stupid mistake. Beyond stupid, really. They’d been walking across what Leo had assumed was a field when he got the bright idea to test and see how his fire would react in that level of cold. He wanted to know if he could heat his body up to the point where he genuinely started steaming, just for the hell of it. Then there had been a strange sound that Leo had never heard before like laser blasters in an old sci-fi movie, Jason’s eyes had gone wide and terrified, and Leo found himself up to his armpits in ice water.
Fortunately, the mistake wasn’t fatal. Between the fire, Nectar, and nature healing Gatorade Hedge made them pack, it was pretty much impossible for Leo to catch hypothermia. Unfortunately, none of that could save him from being absolutely miserable.
Jason had managed to drag him out of the water, then fly them to a nearby cave where he set up the fastest camp of his life, and Leo had been stripped of his damp clothes (in the least sexy way he could imagine) then bundled up in Jason’s spare outfit because Leo’s pack was soaked and even if it wasn’t, he’d just packed jeans and a hoodie. Then, once Leo was dressed and dry, Jason made the warmest camp fire he could manage, and slipped into the sleeping bag right behind Leo, nuzzling Leo’s ears and neck and rubbing his hands everywhere he thought could use a little friction warmth.
“Th-th-this ssssssssucks,” Leo whined through chattering teeth. “W-we’re nnnot even doing the sk-kin to skin thing.”
Jason chuckled and pulled him closer to his chest, which might have been hot if there wasn’t a puffer jacket separating them. “I know, sweetheart.”
“N-No you d-d-don’t,” Leo shot back petulantly.
Jason just kissed his forehead and tucked Leo under his chin. “It’ll be alright. We’ll have hot chocolate soon.”
Leo perked up. “H-Hot chocolate?”
“Don’t get too excited, it’s just a mix,” Jason warned. “Well, actually it’s one of those hot chocolate bombs Piper got us for Christmas, but it kinda got crushed in my bag. Plus, I don’t have any milk, so it’s just water.”
“k-k-k-k-kill me.”
Jason chuckled warmly, way warmer than the world around them, and kissed Leo’s forehead again. “Sorry, but no. You’re not getting out of quest duty that easily.” Leo whined into Jason’s chest, so Jason stuck his hands up the back of Leo’s shirt and started massaging out the tension he found there. “I know, sweetheart.”
“You k-keep sssaying that,” Leo accused. “B-bastard.”
“I keep knowing,” Jason said casually, and Leo resisted the urge to bite him on the tit. It was right there and waiting to be chomped in an un-sexy, punishing way. And also in a sexy, pleasuring way, but Leo was not in the mood. “Look, the hot chocolate is almost done heating up. As soon as you drink a cup to help get your core temperature back up, you can go to sleep, alright? I can already feel your fire waking up, I’m sure you’ll be back to normal come morning.”
Leo grumbled quietly under his breath, but just pressed his face into Jason’s chomp-able pec. “Kay.”
As promised, the hot chocolate was ready within just a few minutes, and the two of them awkwardly shuffled around until they were sitting up next to the fire, still in the sleeping bag, Leo still surrounded by Jason’s warm body. They passed the little pot of hot chocolate between them, seeing as they didn’t have any cups to put it in, and it was surprisingly good for a crushed hot chocolate bomb made with water, not milk. Leo even got to crunch on some chunks of peppermint, making Jason grimace at the noise, which Leo found almost as satisfying as the candy.
The best part of it was that it did actually work. At least a little. Leo was still miserable, of course, but his insides felt the tiniest bit warmer with hot chocolate sloshing around in his tummy. Plus, hot chocolate always made him sleepy, so he burrowed down into Jason’s hold, soaking up as much warmth as he could, and heaved a sigh. “G’night, Superman.”
“Goodnight, Leo. Love you.”
Leo couldn’t help but smile and pressed his face closer. “Love you, too.”
The bathing chamber was an entire mess when he returned to check on the children. Bumi and Kya were splashing each other as if they were down on the beach instead of inside the house.
Katara’s going to make me sleep on the roof if we don’t get this cleaned up!
But he could not pull their attention away from each other with the calm, gentle words Sister Yutung had recommended.
Learning parenting techniques from the former teacher accustomed to earth bending children had been an interesting adjustment. After all this time, his own memories of his own childhood were admittedly useless. He remembered playing with the other children, Gyatso telling him stories until he fell asleep, and precious little else. Yangchen’s childhood had been very difficult, and she had never had children of her own. The one or two times he had consulted with older air avatars, he had found their experiences to be too different from his own. Kyoshi had had a child, but she revealed little about that part of her life, now over three hundred years gone.
The splash from Bumi’s slide into the tub splashed absolutely everywhere, including the ceiling.
“Bumi!” Aang shouted.
The giggling from his first two children was infectious, and he had to wipe a hand down his face to muster a stern expression.
“You’re on thin ice with me, my little boomerang,” he tried.
“Kya! Make some ice!”
Aang managed to swallow his groan when Kya stood up and struck the form her mother had been teaching her recently.
Rather than interrupt the spontaneous practice, Aang just watched.
Kya snapped her right hand forward, and a wave of ice surged across the tub, catching Bumi around the waist. He cackled in excitement.
And then he tried to move.
With a few jerks, he wiggled his hips and pressed down against the frozen surface. Suddenly, he was not happy, at all.
“Dad! She froze my…”
The finger snap came from behind him, and all of the water in the room leapt up into the air. Aang and the children looked up to see a sparkling blanket of tiny droplets suffused across the room.
“Out,” came his wife’s controlled, but very angry, voice.
Bumi and Kya shared a glance before clambering out of the tub, rushing past their parents and disappearing into their bedroom.
Aang turned around and tried to wear an expression to tell her that he had been trying to keep things under control.
But above her very late-term pregnancy, her face was stormy.
“You’re on thin ice with me, Avatar. Get this cleaned up.”
He hadn’t finished gulping before she had turned, releasing all of the water with a splash.
Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial using the prompt #FFF363 ~ on thin ice. The moment I read the prompt I know I had to write something with YodaTsuka in it. This is an episode that hasn’t existed in the manga nor the anime. I am in the middle of writing about Tsukimi and Medalist and YodaTsuka and I have been stuck a little bit. Rioh Sonidori’s appearance feels like a breather. There are of course tidbits here that some manga readers know but anime-onlies don’t. Like the relationship between Rioh and Jun, and Rioh’s fascination with Tsukasa. Still, treat them as spoilers.
—
Fandom: Medalist
Characters: Tsukasa Akeuraji, Rioh Sonidori (mention of Jun Yodaka and Leonid Sorokin)
Word count: 595
—
One should believe half in free will and half in fate.
—Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
ON THE DAY Rioh gave him the invitation for moon-viewing party at his home in early September, he mentioned that during the Chubu Bloc Meet, Jun and Hikaru flew to Saint Petersburg to enlist the help of Leonid Sorokin.
As far as Tsukasa knew the Russian choreographer, who became part of Hikaru’s team, was not conversant in Japanese and never tried to learn it too, which suited both prodigies.
“Does Yodaka-san still speak Russian?”
“My dad said he could speak three languages,” answered Rioh, then stared at Tsukasa as if he grew two horns. Wait a minute…. “How did you know that, Coach Akeuraji?!”
Tsukasa scratched his head, embarrassed.
“Well… it was him who inspired me to do skating when I was 14 years old. So I searched all about him,” Tsukasa said. He watched the young skaters do their spins and turns on the ice and those who were still stuck and trying.
Reminiscing his failures and recognising his regrets. He knew first hand how uncertain it was to stand on a thin ice.
There are no absolutes when it comes to ice.
Rioh gazed at Tsukasa, his mouth opening and closing.
“I still admire him….” He let out a smile further surprising the boy.
“Coach….why?”
Tsukasa furrowed his brows, stunned by the question.
“Why what?”
“Why do you admire him? How could you admire him?” Rioh couldn’t believe his ears.
Is this the same Akeuraji who I adore and love?
Yes, love. He was sure of it.
“Rioh, what is that for a question? How could one not? He is a master on what he does.”
Of all the many things the teenage boy had hated in his entire life was the art of not knowing. Imagine his great surprise when his father advised him to call the gold medalist his uncle. To further explain why Schinichiro handed him a picture of Jun Yodaka holding him when he was a baby. This revelation was one of them. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw.
Tsukasa sensed Rioh’s irritation. His silence was the proof of it. He read the invitation in order to bide the time giving the boy a bit of space. He pulled out his phone to look at his calendar.
“Uhm, I will call Coach Sonidori to confirm my attendance. It looks like I am free on this date.”
Rioh’s eyes lighted up, hope in the midst. The world had become a better place.
“Yesss! Thank you Coach Akeuraji. I appreciate that very much. I have so many plans…”
Tsukasa didn’t have any idea what should one do during a moon-viewing party, except for watching the moon of course. All he knew was the events that he read in history books. They hanged out at the engawa, eat Tsukimi dangos and nibble chestnuts while the moon was up in the sky.
Tsukasa was relieved to see Rioh had recovered from his anger. How much he hated the medalist was deep-seated.
“Then I am off, Coach Akeuraji. I am going to build us a fort, you’ll see!”
“Ah! I haven’t slept in one. Tell me if you need some help, all right?”
“I will!”
Once the boy was out of his sight, Tsukasa slapped his head. Why didn’t he say no to the invitation? The inevitability that he’d meet Jun Yodaka again was 90 per cent sure. After all, he was a good friend of Coach Sonidori. He touched his chest, his heart raced.
He released a sigh that he was keeping for so long.
Greg sat at the table and grimaced, annoyed with himself.
He had bought the hot beverage from a cart after leaving a crime scene. The swill was labeled Colombian- but Greg was sure, if tested, it would be more liquid rust than actual coffee- and was going to taste any better than the last two times he sipped.
Why are you hanging on so tight?
Its sole saving grace was the heat, and that grace quickly waned.
It wasn’t the only thing.
He took yet another sip and grimaced again.
If the love has died, would that be the worst thing?
He remembered when things were different.
They used to brag as permanent as the glaciers.
So you could live out your picket-fence dreams.
By the time he learned glaciers weren’t as permanent as he once believed, the first cleave began.
Things seemed to solidify for a moment, but not quite.
Apologies from her tongue, never mine as the wronged one.
Then came the next cleave.
Maybe I’m a fool who loves you.
And the next, leaving him adrift on thin ice.
He had come home to change them and return to work.
Instead, the sounds of his wife’s passion, without him, cleave anew.
The silence that haunts my side of the bedchamber. It's not an act of love.
TEXT: I’m ready to file. Can you do that? Clean and fast. – GL
TEXT: I am sorry. Yes, I can. For you it will be. – MH
Now, sat alone in a dark hotel; the cup beside him as cold and empty.
TW/CW for mention of rape and part of a panic attack
Author's note: improvised a bit with this one, but I quite like how it turned out; this technically is put after They Know- Lacey; however it is a first draft of it, so won't fully be like this when it's in the Main Story canon
Lacey
Left.
Two rights.
Another left.
She was very happy now to have memorized every hallway and room of this place. Staring at the blueprint layout for hours was useful after all. Now she could lead her team back out without a word.
Once they were out, though, she felt her lungs begin to cave in.
Suddenly she flashed back to when she was little. Maybe six or seven? Skating with her friends on the lake during a party. Until she heard cracking under her feet. At least she'd known to stop, to wait for her dad to rescue her.
Faintly, she wondered why she was remembering that now. Maybe because it was winter again. Or she missed her dad.
She did miss her dad.
She missed her mom, too.
Lacey nodded, seeing them come in on her watch. She could do that. She could do that.
Liara's voice broke through her thoughts. "Aurora, they've found a place to land. Lead us to the coordinates?"
No one spoke as they trudged through the woods. The light snow made the grass crunch under their feet.
Crunch crunch crunch
Not cracking. No cracking. Why would there be? There was no ice to fall through.
Her breathing came a bit easier as she saw their plane in the field ahead, Miles waiting at the ramp for them. She hung back as the others went first. Then she trailed behind.
At least no one needed her. So she sat in the back of the plane while Iris tended to Duncan's leg as Miles took off. She felt Liara's eyes on her. But since her leader said nothing, she kept her gaze on the floor.
They know.
She was little again. Standing on cracked ice.
But her dad wasn't here to save her this time. Her mom wasn't waiting to wrap her into a hug.
She was alone.
"Lacey?"
Crack
She didn't look up, just softly hummed to indicate that she was listening.
Liara sat on the chair across from her. Leaned forward, so Lacey saw her hands folded in front of her. "Lacey, I'm going to ask you two questions, yes or no answers, point blank. And I want you to know that no matter your answers, no one here will judge you for them."
Crack
She nodded.
"When you went MIA, did the Piper rape you?"
CRACK
She nodded again. Her whole body felt cold. And she couldn't stop shaking. She started rocking. Maybe that way she could warm up. That felt good. She liked rocking.
She heard Liara hesitate before she asked the next question. "And you... didn't betray us, did you?"
The ice gave way beneath her.
She rocked harder, trying to stay afloat.
"Never." Lacey croaked, shaking her head. "I'd never...- Could never...- I didn't..." She felt cold. Why was she cold? Her lungs were tight, her chest like ice had been thrust into it like a spike. "You have to believe me, please, I-"
Warm hands wrapped around hers. Liara's hands. Then she was pulled into a hug.
"We believe you." Liara whispered, her hand cradling Lacey's head against her shoulder, her other hand a comforting weight on Lacey's back. "I'm sorry we doubted in you. You didn't deserve that. I'm so sorry..."
She couldn't stop shaking. Her lungs felt like thousands of tiny needles stabbing into them. "I- I..."
A blanket covered over her shoulders. The action made her look up. Up at Iris, who was looking down at her with a strange expression. Guilt?
"I'm sorry." Iris said with a sad smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm... yeah."
She went to leave and Lacey felt the panic built. She reached out, grabbed Iris' hand, still trembling. "Don't go. Please-"
A whimper burst out of her when Iris stayed, hugging her with Liara. Having them both there... it wasn't the same as Mom and Dad. Or Beth. But... she felt better. She wasn’t drowning anymore.
She wasn't drowning.
Ice still covered her bones, but at least... she wasn't drowning anymore.
My first time participating in this event! I just so happened to have the day off, so I figured it was as good a time as any to join in :)
Encased in red ice, all Ruto can do is wait to be thawed as Zora's Domain remains frozen over. (Word count: 780)
Also on AO3!
@flashfictionfridayofficial
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Ruto had been gathering fish for the great Jabu Jabu when Zora’s Domain froze over. Stuck how she knelt, her heart slowed to dormancy as she took her last look at her home, tinged by the red ice she’d been encased in.
⋆ ꙳ •̩̩͙ ❅ *̩̩͙ ‧͙ ‧͙ *̩̩͙ ❆ ͙͛ ˚ ₊ ⋆
Until a man burned away the ice with a blue fire that lapped at her scales, warming her to the bone. He was nearly as tall as she was, with a shag of blonde hair. Could her rescuer be Link? She’d missed him so much she could shake him by the shoulders until dusk.
“There’s no time to explain,” the man said, his voice too gruff to be the smiling forest boy she remembered, the one who carried her around the guts of a fish with only half a complaint. “In a few minutes, the monsters that are tracking me will have made it here.”
Ruto squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, anything to get her eyes to refocus. The man in front of her was completely covered by a skin-tight suit, save for red eyes and whatever blonde hair didn’t tuck neatly under wrappings. On his chest was a red symbol that looked like a lone, crying eye.
Sheikah. Ruto always thought Zelda's caretaker had been the last one. Perhaps not.
Perhaps this was an omen.
The ice glittered across every surface in a way that would’ve been beautiful had it not been so jarringly unnatural. Even frozen, Zora’s Domain was still breathtaking. Beneath her feet, she could barely make out the outline of fins, suspended idly where her people took their last, doomed swim.
Their last swim, but hopefully not their final. After all, if Ruto could be thawed, there was hope for them too. As their princess, it would be her duty to see everyone returned to the warm vibrancy they deserved.
“I need you to focus,” the Sheikah man said, sliding across the ice to be centered in her view once more. “I already said, there’s not much time.” He pulled a dagger from his belt, gripping it tight. “And we need to move. The Water Temple needs our attention now—”
“Do you think they don’t?!” Ruto snapped pointing down to the frozen depths beneath her feet. When the man didn't react, she turned on her heel and cursed how she almost slipped. It was doubtful, but hopefully, the man hadn’t noticed. At least she could pretend he hadn’t. “My people need me here!” When the man slid in front of her again and grabbed her wrist, she sat like a bag of bricks to be harder to drag. “They need someone to melt all this ice!”
Kneeling to her eye level, “I know how this ice will melt,” he said.
If fury burned hot, Ruto would’ve turned the main chamber into a sauna. “Then what are you waiting for?!” she snapped. The gall it took to thaw only her when he could’ve helped any number of people.
He stayed calm as an evening, spring breeze, his red eyes unflinching. “I am not the one who can melt it,” he said as the howl of wolfos echoed through the chamber, the reflective ice intensifying the noise. “But I know who can,” he said, rising to put himself ahead of her. “I plan to send him your way to the Water Temple, but I’ll need you there to guide him. He’s—“
“Link?” Ruto asked, not caring that she interrupted. She’d get some kind of explanation from the man, even if she had to yank it out of him.
“Yes, Link,” he said before moving immediately on. “The very heart of the temple has been corrupted,” he said, and Ruto didn’t care for anything else. “Only Link will be able to restore it.”
She’d see Link again. She missed him for all the years he hadn’t shown his face. She hated that he’d taken the Zora Sapphire and ran away from all it entailed. But she’d love getting to watch how he’d react to seeing her again. Would he smile at her again? Would he be ashamed he never visited? Would he run away again? He wouldn't get away this time.
White fur bounded from the gaping maw of ice, the frozen stalactites like the incisors of the beasts. White wolfos.
“I’ll hold them off!” the man hollered, holding that dagger out ahead of him as the first beast leapt in. “Go!”
Ruto hated to leave, but she took one last look at her domain and her people, swearing to them all that she’d not only thaw them, but would bring back a worthy Prince consort they deserved.
