Prompts and Drabbles

[scribblemyname]

I'm getting ready to read about 100,000 words of canon review for the collaboration, which is no small chunk, and before I do, I kind of wanted to write some drabbles. Any prompts?

1. fandom or canon - tagset of fandoms
2. character(s)
3. fluff or angst
4. one to three word prompt

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I saw the promise nothing and wanted to have the part where Zoya asks Alexei this. It actually ended angstier than I expected after his initial response.

---

After a few quiet minutes, she leaned over and poked Alexei in the side, and he frowned at her. “Why do you always have to do that? There are other ways of getting my attention even if I'm not looking at you.”

Zoya shrugged. She wasn't explaining about being nicer and how it was too far for them, a gap she couldn't allow herself to bridge. “I want you to do something for me.”

He blinked. “Since when do you want favors from me? You don't even like it when I make your favorite foods for you.”

She shook her head. “Don't do the funny teasing stuff right now. It won't work. It's just annoying.”

“If I offend you that much—”

She put her hand on his mouth. When he stopped talking, she pulled it back. “Need... If we do this, that if I do get more memories back somehow and we learn there really is a monster out there, one that didn't die when my family did... Don't tell me it will be okay. Don't promise me everything will be fine. It won't be. Khrystyn is going to say it will be, but you and I know better than that.”

“Zoya—”

“You said you knew what it was like to have hopes crushed, to be disappointed over and over again.”

He grimaced, but he forced a nod. “Foster care is good at pulling the rug out from under you.”

“So don't promise me it will be okay. Just don't.”

He reached for her hands, cupping them in his. “I won't promise you that it will be okay. I'll promise you that you will be okay. Not right away, not immediately, but you're strong enough to get past it, to keep going and stop this monster if he's out there. Not only that, but you have a strong person there to support you like Khrystyn.”

“Not like you?”

He snorted. “You know I'm not that strong. I'm just... not.”

“You are stronger than you think.”

He tucked her hair back behind her mangled ear. “No. I'm weak. I'm trying hard not to drag the rest of you down with me, but it could still happen.”

She sighed. “You frustrate me.”

“I can't promise you something I can't give,” he reminded her quietly. “You said you didn't want false hope. I'm not going to give it to you. Khrystyn is hope. Me... I'm not. I'm something else. I don't even know what that is. Comic relief, maybe.”

She looked at his eyes, at the pain and emotion in them, and she could have challenged that, but she didn't. She pulled her hands free and went back to her room alone.

[scribblemyname]

And very nice.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks. Zoya seemed like the perfect person to ask for nothing. She doesn't want help or pity from anyone and keeps herself at a distance. My other ideas were more like a one-off fling, but I don't write for characters like that. So Zoya and her refusal to let others close even when she secretly needs/wants them there.