@boneandfur I've missed your writing! You have such a unique way with words. And although your fics are about known characters, the characters and stories stand on their own. You don't need to be into the story or pairing at all to enjoy them because they are their own thing.
Choices Flash Fic! DarkFic; Tobias x F!MC
Angels in Hell
@choicesflashfics #36. Uses prompt #2, "You’re allowed to fall apart a little."
A/N: I started writing this before I thought to grab a prompt, and it went to dark places. It was supplied to be a Harper x Ethan, but F!MC started talking... That's it. This fic is dark and I'm not sure why it came out, since it seems like the first chapter rather than a one shot. // Words: 1150 // Pairing: light f!mc x Tobias, acor MC x Antony (implied) // implied age gap relationship.
I always knew I'd end up working for the Outfit, from the time Uncle Tony caught me with a plastic stethoscope in my hands, to the day that Uncle Sam signed my soul over to the combat medical corps.
We need good people... like you, Chiara. You're the brains and Sy is the brawn. There will always be a place for the both of youse in the Outfit.
Is that because of Mama? I asked as I stood in front of Uncle Tony's desk and watched him swallow his grief along with his Campari, gold rings glittering. The shadow of two days beard was heavy on his jaw, and I yearned to reach out, to touch him, but instead crumpled the acceptance letter to Edenbrook in my pocket into a smaller and smaller ball, trying to keep my breathing steady as I watched him, the hero of my girlhood, the master of us all.
He set the glass down on his desk, the sound of it like the funeral bells that had gonged as the hearse pulled away from the cathedral steps in Little Italy, and I felt my throat tighten too. I swallowed my grief with my wine, clinking his glass in a toast. To her, then. I would always live in her shadow, until I could prove my worth.
Uncle Tony's eyes glistened wetly. Arin was a good woman. Bellissima... my tiger. You remind me of her, Princess. That blonde hair, and those eyes... Dio in paradiso, but she was a hurricane. And you are her very image...
Even though he'd married Octavia, I knew Mama had been the love of his life. Uncle Tony would have died for her, and nearly did. That was why I gave him my pledge of loyalty, right there in that room. A pledge for love, the kind that lasts beyond the grave.
And when I returned, I was no longer Chiara Valentine, Arin Valentine's little princess, but Chiara Valentine, combat medic and fast tracked through medical school due to all the strings pulled by Uncle Tony. It wasn't that I couldn't have done it on my own recognizance, but time was a luxury we didn't have after Doc Claudius had gotten his brains blown out by the Family, out in Drakovia. And Sy was in the clink. Again. For stealing cars from some gang in LA, connected to the Yakuza.
The Campari on the desk turned into the Negroni at the bar, and I was staring up into the golden eyes of my boss's and biggest mistake's biggest rival, the one and only Dr Tobias Carrick.
"Valentine." His upper lip curled, and I itched to smack the smugness right off his face, but I'd probably break a nail. After all, I was the Brains. I'd never fought anyone closer than fifty paces in my life, and we'd been in a tank. "Am I really that ugly, little princess, or do you scowl like that at all the plebs?"
If it were up to me, men like him would be six feet under, but I'd promised to hold my peace on mob soil, and the last thing Uncle Tony needed was a war with the Irish. Not that he'd do it for my sake -- it had been Mama who held his heart, and always would. So when I opened my mouth, what came out next surprised me. "I lost ... I lost someone. Today... it's the anniversary of her death."
"Bartender!" Tobias waved down the hipster serving white claw spritzers to the masses. "Get us a bottle of -- what's your poison, princess?"
"Limoncello." I didn't have to hesitate when the bartender slid the bottle down, and poured us two, on the rocks.
He prepared to knock back the entire glass when I caught him on the sleeve, for a moment looking thrown off his game, like he'd never seen a woman before. "Whoa there, Princess."
"Do you know what they say, Dr Carrick? They say that only the dead have seen the end of war. That's Plato. And don't call me princess." That's Antony's name for me.
"You’re allowed to fall apart a little." He touched my cheek gently, and it was only then that I realized I was crying. "Was it... a patient?"
What could I tell him? Of Afghanistan, and the starless desert skies that seemed to reach into the abyss, or of that single moment when my life changed forever? Or of how my life now seemed laid out before me in a single straight line with only a few stops along the way, Chicago to Afghanistan, to Boston and soon, soon, sooner than anyone could ever know, back again.
A pledge for love, the kind that lasts beyond the grave.
"She's been dead a long time." I wiped my cheek angrily with my sleeve, streaks of mascara coming away on it. "My mother. She died, and no one ever figured out what it was that killed her. That's why I'm here, really." I had never admitted the truth out loud before, to anyone.
Antony had come to find me at the barracks. I'd been barely eighteen, and one year in the army already. We'd drunk Limoncello til midnight, Arin Valentine's favorite drink, and we'd held one another and wept. In the morning, he'd left me with blood still drying on the sheets and an ache in my heart that no amount of Limoncello would ever ease.
A pledge for loyalty, until I stepped out of her shadow and proved my worth.
"Do you want to get out of here?" Tobias rubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw and held out a hand. "We can just walk, Chiara. You look like you need some air. I won't talk about old business tonight, and it's not a trick, I... I promise."
I took his hand, Dio in paradiso, heaven and hell. Eyes as gold as the sunless desert sands. "You can talk about it all you want, Tobias." I don't care if we win, after all, a snap of the fingers, a pouch filled with thirty pieces of silver, a handshake in a back room, that grant will end up lining the pockets of Edenbrook instead of Mass Kenmore, whether Tobias Carrick likes it or not.
I'll be going back to the Outfit, my mother's daughter, back to Antony. For I owe so much more to him than blood. Life and loyalty, and a love that never dies.
"Valentine?" Tobias waited by the door, jacket thrown over one shoulder, looking at me with a troubled question in his eyes. If I slid off the stool now, I'd have to make that choice. I'd have to face the truth about what drove me to this place, to Boston, to Edenbrook, and to stare at my own reflection in a glass of Limoncello as I counted the stars like the drops of blood in a vein, all the way down the bloody years.
Blood on my hands, blood on the sheets, washed clean by my tears.
Demoni in paradiso, angeli all'inferno.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
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I'm not sure Bryce and Charlie know what kind of dog George is. This might just have to do a DNA test, so stay tuned! Lol
Serendipity - Part 5
Written for @choicesflashfics - Week 35
Prompt 1 — “Would you just shut up and kiss me already?”
Book: TRR/OPH
Pairings: Drake Walker x Ava Matheson, Bryce Lahela x Charlie Hawkins
Word count: 2475
Rating: M
TW: Profanity, Suggestive language, sexual situations
A/N: This is a collaboration between myself and @walkerismychoice using the weekly prompts provided by @choicesflashfics
As always if you want on or off the tag list, just let me know.
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I guess it should be no surprise our MC's get each other when the writers behind them are the same. I'm glad you're feeling better @deb-1106
Serendipity - Part 4
Written for @choicesflashfics - Week 34
Prompt 3 — “ I think I need to be drunk to understand this story ”
Book: TRR/OPH
Pairings: Drake Walker x Ava Matheson, Bryce Lahela x Charlie Hawkins
Word count: 1814
Rating: M
TW: Profanity, Suggestive language
A/N: This is a collaboration between @deb-1106 and @walkerismychoice using the weekly prompts provided by @choicesflashfics As always if you want on or off the tag list, just let me/us know. Deb usually posts to keep it consistent, but we were both kind of scrambling this week, so I’m getting this in under the wire for us.
Charlie gasped. “Oh my God! Congratulations! She tilted Ava’s ring from side to side, watching the facets twinkle from the glow of the pendant lights.I’m so happy for you!” But was she? Well of course she was, but why, on some level did she feel a twinge of Jealousy.
“Yeah, Congrats! You’re smart to be locking this one down already.” Bryce directed his words at Drake and then winked at Ava. “How long have you two known each other again?
Drake glowered at Bryce momentarily but then lightened up. “You know, in absence of all the Whiskey we’ve had, I might take your comment as an insult, but you’re right. I gotta make this thing legal before she realizes she’s too good for me, heh.”
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“Everything moves faster in Cordonia” - lol, I love it. Thanks for continuing on this journey with us @queenrileyrose!
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Serendipity - Part 4
Written for @choicesflashfics - Week 34
Prompt 3 — “ I think I need to be drunk to understand this story ”
Book: TRR/OPH
Pairings: Drake Walker x Ava Matheson, Bryce Lahela x Charlie Hawkins
Word count: 1814
Rating: M
TW: Profanity, Suggestive language
A/N: This is a collaboration between @deb-1106 and @walkerismychoice using the weekly prompts provided by @choicesflashfics As always if you want on or off the tag list, just let me/us know. Deb usually posts to keep it consistent, but we were both kind of scrambling this week, so I’m getting this in under the wire for us.
Charlie gasped. “Oh my God! Congratulations! She tilted Ava’s ring from side to side, watching the facets twinkle from the glow of the pendant lights.I’m so happy for you!” But was she? Well of course she was, but why, on some level did she feel a twinge of Jealousy.
“Yeah, Congrats! You’re smart to be locking this one down already.” Bryce directed his words at Drake and then winked at Ava. “How long have you two known each other again?
Drake glowered at Bryce momentarily but then lightened up. “You know, in absence of all the Whiskey we’ve had, I might take your comment as an insult, but you’re right. I gotta make this thing legal before she realizes she’s too good for me, heh.”
Keep reading
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