Challenge response
21 Jun 2005 06:50 pmDone for line 36:
"Must you flirt?"
"Well, I don't have to, but I find it natural."
"Suppress it." – Ninotchka
Also done in about twenty mins, so concrit welcome.
[Set post Alias S3 Prelude]
*
She is horribly certain that she is going to lose her temper one of these days and ruin everything.
She should know better, she thinks. He taught her better. It is the one thing she feels grateful for, this ability to compartmentalise and lock up all the inconvenient little uncertainties and fits of pique that make her want to stab him with a salad fork. Although, clearly, there are a few things he has kept to himself.
(A waitress carrying a tray of champagne flutes to the main hall passes them, and she thinks of the eighteen different ways she could kill her companion with a sliver of crystal.)
Like an army of ants, his gaze crawls across her face and neck to settle at the hollow of her throat.
She resists the urge to shudder (she knows better).
"Sydney." He does not say, my dear, but she hears it anyway. Her teeth grit without any input from her brain. "I understand your reluctance to continue with this alias, but unless you have devised a better plan in the last fifteen minutes, I suggest that you smile a little. Our host is watching us quite intently, and I do not wish to be shot for not seducing my charming assistant."
He's wearing the requisite formal attire: black tuxedo, pristine white shirt, bowtie.
It's another
Years ago, she kissed him during a mission: a besotted young woman and her distinguished lover, out for a stroll. She had palmed a neuro-inhibitor from a terrorist cell; he had fed her wine.
Three months ago, they had another soiree in Beijing.
(She should really find a different job.)
The tuxedo and shirt he's wearing, she thinks, must be his own. The bowtie, however... the bowtie is evidently CIA-issue (though she does not recall Marshall providing him with anything other than standard op-tech) because it is slightly askew. When was the last time she saw this man in anything other than impeccably-pressed clothing?
(And then there was this other mission, back when she had been working at SD6 for only a few months, when he had taken her out for an orientation mission to judge her capabilities for himself. They had eaten Szechwan food and smuggled an informant out to safety. She remembers thinking, he's magnificent. She has had three years to convince herself otherwise.)
The faint scar across one forefinger catches the light as he flicks imaginary lint off one sleeve.
Sydney really should know better.
Almost without thought (habit, it's habit, that deadliest of deadly sins) she reaches out, nimble fingers adjusting the starched fabric, smoothing down the wrinkles in the shirt. She cannot bear to see his expression at this intimacy (weakness) and so turns her face away.
In the mirror, a besotted young woman is fixing her lover's tie.
Sloane's hands close over hers. "Shall we dance?"
*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 06:14 pm (UTC)she thinks of the eighteen different ways she could kill her companion with a sliver of crystal.
Or Sloane's scar across his finger. And of course the backstory. Because you just know that pre-dead Danny, with Jack being entirely emotionally unavailable, and Sloane attentive, full of praise and introducing her to this new world, it was like that.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:00 pm (UTC)Seriously, of all the relationships on the show, the Sloadney has always been one of my favourites--not an actual sexual one but the canon dynamics, the undertones and overtones and everything in between.
Excellent.
In a nutshell. Yes.
Hee! Frankly, I could quote the whole thing, but two more favourites:
Oh. Oh, yes.
::exhales slowly::
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:06 pm (UTC)Thanks. :) And - story? Where??? Did I miss this amidst exams&death?
Seriously, of all the relationships on the show, the Sloadney has always been one of my favourites--not an actual sexual one but the canon dynamics, the undertones and overtones and everything in between.
In the mirror, a besotted young woman is fixing her lover's tie.
Sloane's hands close over hers. "Shall we dance?"
::exhales slowly::
I wanted to add in Jack to the mix, but that takes Bad Wrong to another level.
...
Maybe next fic. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:12 pm (UTC)Hee. 'tis nothing, just a li'l OOC thing I wrote to make Anna S. happy. But I posted it in my LJ, still. Because I crave every tiny bit of feedback. 0 :-)
As she should!!
Seriously, more people should listen to her. And fall prey to the beauty of Sloane, Sloadney, Slack (*giggles*), and Jack/Nadia, too.
You and I? We're SO a match made in heaven.
Or what is that hot place far below called, again?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:13 pm (UTC)You have, in fact, corrupted me. I blame you entirely for this. *g*
Or Sloane's scar across his finger.
I'm thinking of that scar as... I don't know. You know how Peter Jurasik used to use "Meeester Garibaldi!" as his hook into Londo? I need that scar for Sloane. Because otherwise he
runs awayrefuses to cooperate. But it may be a constant thing in all my fic (ever) now.Because you just know that pre-dead Danny, with Jack being entirely emotionally unavailable, and Sloane attentive, full of praise and introducing her to this new world, it was like that.
I blame you for the Bad Wrong. *g* But I do agree, she would have had that inappropriate crush (because Sloane rocks), father-figure and all. *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:19 pm (UTC)Sloadney! Sexy, fucked-up, hating herself for doing it, Sloadney!
Thank you for this.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:26 pm (UTC)Just read it. OMGsoHOT! I am a sucker for "must kiss or the mission's over" fic, because, well, urgency+never thought about it before+jack=OMGsoHOT. Plus, you are a hell of a writer. Little details like:
"It's oddly, powerfully reassuring that Jack Bristow is with him--or, realistically, he is with Jack Bristow."
Made it really, really work for me.
Seriously, more people should listen to her. And fall prey to the beauty of Sloane, Sloadney, Slack (*giggles*), and Jack/Nadia, too.
And here I was thinking this would be a nice streamlined fandom; only Jack/Sloane and Jack/Irina to deal with.... *palmface*
You and I? We're SO a match made in heaven.
Or what is that hot place far below called, again?
Hee! Too damn right!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 02:48 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2006-05-04 10:12 am (UTC)There is not enough Sloane/Sydney fic, I hope you write more about these two intriguing characters!!
Well, I'll try, certainly!
Oh, I love your Sloane/Jack and did you write anything on Emily?? Love it all!
As far as I recall, the only Emily I wrote was a little Jack&Emily drabble for
Sorry for the rambling.
Not a problem! Rambling is good. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-18 10:17 pm (UTC)