#starter aus

[72-reasons]

★

You'll have to take my word for it: 4, Criminal!AU

"You're not law enforcement, are you?"

The man who had stumbled into his shack on the skirts of town with an impressive head wound seemed amused at the idea. "Not exactly," he replied, and Loki found it mildly impressive that the man could even talk, given most would have been rendered inert by such a wound.

"Then you are also on the run," he concluded. "So to speak."

Understandably, the man did not nod. "So to speak," he said, "I am. And I could use some tolerance until morning. I would rather not continue to run with a hole in my head."

Loki thought the prospect over for a long while. He was not used to company, but there was something off about the man. Something that rang of a different sort, the sort that he may enjoy. "We'll see how well I tolerate you," he replied. "Come morning if you're still alive, I might even propose we work together."

"I won't hold my breath."

[72-reasons]

★

You'll have to take my word for it: 5, Haunted!AU

The bloc of flats didn't feel any different when he returned from the funeral. In spite of that, he knew that without the man they'd all just buried, they would never quite be home again. Never be filled with the warmth of his laughter, or the tender thunder of his feet on the floor.

What Mirah would do he had no idea. He hadn't the slightest what he was going to do. But as the two of them sat on the floor in the drawing room, he knew there was one thing he didn't have any choice but to do.

Keeping both hands on their little adoptive daughter, who was not so little anymore and could only fit her great head into his lean lap, he took a deep breath. "I know you're still here," he said to the air, and the old house shifted. The air became quieter, drawn to a far corner of the room where an emptiness waited. "I know you don't want to go without saying goodbye..."

"Without saying you love me."

Scarcely keeping the tears to himself, Sherlock steadied himself as the tiger in his lap murmured warmly against him. "But I know, Khan. I've always known. Even when you couldn't tell me. And as long as you promise to wait for me out there, you don't have to wait here any more."

It felt like the turning of a season, all within the span of a moment. The warm light seemed to bleed from the room, leaving the dust to stand out and the air cold and still. Sherlock had never been a superstitious man, not until the moment he wanted eternal souls to exist. And he kept believing, no matter the illogic, because he wanted to believe his goodbye had meant something, to the man who had meant everything.

[72-reasons]

★

You'll have to take my word for it: 13, Sanatorium!AU

"You know, I always knew that these places were full of shit. But you're the biggest liar here."

Turning to face his somewhat startling intruder, he raised a brow at her. It wasn't a well-known fact that he resided in the facilities bloc at the sanatorium, in fact it was one that was well guarded. He'd sequestered himself there to discover the intricacies of his own existence, and had no intention of being disturbed.

Yet a simple "Pardon me?" was all he could manage, in spite of how avidly his mind wanted to expel the woman with no small amount of terse words.

"You," she said, motioning him up and down with her eyes as much as her hand. "This is a sanatorium. And you're eternally healthy."

That, at least, had him intrigued. "And how do you know that?" he asked, managing at least to get the lead out of his tongue. "I can't imagine you've been needling the people who know I am here. Because none of them know that."

The young woman set her hands on her hips, looking down her nose at him triumphantly. "Come have coffee with me and I'll tell you the whole story, right after you tel me yours."

"You must be out of your mind."

"No son, this isn't the asylum. Not yet."