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May. 15th, 2005 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helsinkibabyI have fic! (Yes, I know, pick yourselves up off the ground, please!) Two fics, in fact! Go me!
Title: My Best Friend’s Mistake
Fandom: West Wing
Pairing: Leo/Ainsley
Spoilers: None
Notes: For the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tww100 Scrubs ep title challenge.
It still makes me ashamed to think of my reaction when Leo told me that he and Ainsley were dating.
I stood in the Oval Office and told him that he was crazy, that what he was doing was going to cause more scandal than even this White House could withstand.
He didn’t shout, or scream, just shook his head and told me that he loved her, before walking out.
I spent a long time thinking of her as my best friend’s mistake.
Now, years later, I see the truth.
She was the best thing that ever happened to him.
>*<*>*<
Title: Right There All Along
Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Natalie
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 871
Notes: For thewriters_choice “flare” challenge.
Natalie’s always had a flare for picking the wrong man.
Of course, she never thinks that they’re wrong at the time, is always too blinded by love to see what’s right in front of her. It’s only after they’ve stood her up, or cheated on her, or she’s walked into his apartment to find him in bed with someone else, that she realises she’s wasting her time with yet another loser.
She thought Jeremy was the exception to the rule, that she’d finally found herself a nice guy, someone who understood her, someone she could be happy with.
Meatloaf might have thought that two out of three ain’t bad, but Natalie slowly, over time, learned that song titles weren’t necessarily something to live your life by. Jeremy is a nice guy, and he understands her, most of the time, but for some reason, while they were happy together most of the time, they never quite managed to make it last long-term.
After the latest messy break-up, she swears that it’s over, that she’s never going back there again, and she means it. She also swears that she’s never again going out with a guy she meets through work, and she means that too.
So waking up beside Dan one morning comes as a hell of a shock.
Because he’s Dan, and they work together, and he’s her friend, and he knows her inside and out, and he’s Dan, and what they have is too precious to her to screw it up with a one-night-stand. Too important to have it fall apart on her, the way that all her other relationships fall apart, and she only realises that when she wakes up to find him looking down at her, his arm lying across her torso as if it belongs there, his eyes serious and thoughtful and – she realises this with a start – distinctly lust-filled.
She struggles to sit up and pull the sheet closer to her, but trying to do both means neither is done especially well, and she can’t look at him, but she hears him cluck his tongue. “Don’t do this Nat,” he says, and she tries to smile.
“Do what?” she asks, her voice cut off when his arm, surprisingly strong, pulls her back down to the mattress, turns her to face him.
“Freak out about us.”
His voice is completely calm, as if he expected this, as if he’s been planning what to say. Her voice, in contrast, is a shocked squeak. “Us? There’s an us?”
Dan chuckles, fingers tracing a path from her shoulder down to her elbow, leaving goosebumps in their wake. “There’s an us,” he says simply, and, in obvious response to her shocked look, continues, “Do you really think I’d have done this…risked our friendship… if I wasn’t here for the long haul?”
Which is very true, and ergo, very scary, because she’s Natalie, and she’s always had a knack for choosing the wrong man. “Dan…” she begins, shaking her head, picking abstractedly at the bed sheet, but he doesn’t let her get any further, lifts her head so that he can look into her eyes.
“I know you’re scared,” he tells her. “I know that this is a big step… and if you need some time, I’m ok with that. But I’ve wanted this for a long time Natalie… a long time. And after last night… I guess I thought you might feel the same.”
Memories of last night flash across her mind, heating her cheeks, her blood, and it takes every scrap of willpower she possesses not to pull him closer, use his body to chase any doubts, any fears she might have, away. “I do,” she whispers. “But Dan… what if…”
He silences her with a brief kiss, and when he pulls away, his lips are curled in a smile. “No what if’s,” he orders. “This is us, Nat… us.”
He speaks with such conviction, such utter faith, that she almost believes him, wants to more than she’s ever wanted anything. “I have really bad luck with men Danny,” she reminds him, because he deserves to know what he’s getting into.
“My luck with women’s not that great either,” he reminds her, and she’s just about to point out that maybe that means they’re twice as doomed when he shrugs. “So maybe one will cancel out the other.”
The words are so unexpected that a burst of laughter escapes her lips, and once she starts, she can’t stop. She collapses against him, feels his chest move underneath her as his laughter mingles with hers, and she laughs until she cries, until he reaches up and brushes her tears away, until he kisses her, moves on top of her, and then she’s not laughing any more.
A long time later, she gazes up at him. “There’s an us?” she asks drowsily, and he smiles, touches her cheek.
“There’s always been an us,” he tells her. “We just made it official.”
He looks and sounds like he means it, and she smiles, presses herself closer to him, and lets herself believe him.
Natalie’s always had a flare for picking the wrong man.
Who knew that the right one was right there all along?
Title: My Best Friend’s Mistake
Fandom: West Wing
Pairing: Leo/Ainsley
Spoilers: None
Notes: For the
tww100 Scrubs ep title challenge. It still makes me ashamed to think of my reaction when Leo told me that he and Ainsley were dating.
I stood in the Oval Office and told him that he was crazy, that what he was doing was going to cause more scandal than even this White House could withstand.
He didn’t shout, or scream, just shook his head and told me that he loved her, before walking out.
I spent a long time thinking of her as my best friend’s mistake.
Now, years later, I see the truth.
She was the best thing that ever happened to him.
>*<*>*<
Title: Right There All Along
Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Natalie
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 871
Notes: For the
writers_choice “flare” challenge.Natalie’s always had a flare for picking the wrong man.
Of course, she never thinks that they’re wrong at the time, is always too blinded by love to see what’s right in front of her. It’s only after they’ve stood her up, or cheated on her, or she’s walked into his apartment to find him in bed with someone else, that she realises she’s wasting her time with yet another loser.
She thought Jeremy was the exception to the rule, that she’d finally found herself a nice guy, someone who understood her, someone she could be happy with.
Meatloaf might have thought that two out of three ain’t bad, but Natalie slowly, over time, learned that song titles weren’t necessarily something to live your life by. Jeremy is a nice guy, and he understands her, most of the time, but for some reason, while they were happy together most of the time, they never quite managed to make it last long-term.
After the latest messy break-up, she swears that it’s over, that she’s never going back there again, and she means it. She also swears that she’s never again going out with a guy she meets through work, and she means that too.
So waking up beside Dan one morning comes as a hell of a shock.
Because he’s Dan, and they work together, and he’s her friend, and he knows her inside and out, and he’s Dan, and what they have is too precious to her to screw it up with a one-night-stand. Too important to have it fall apart on her, the way that all her other relationships fall apart, and she only realises that when she wakes up to find him looking down at her, his arm lying across her torso as if it belongs there, his eyes serious and thoughtful and – she realises this with a start – distinctly lust-filled.
She struggles to sit up and pull the sheet closer to her, but trying to do both means neither is done especially well, and she can’t look at him, but she hears him cluck his tongue. “Don’t do this Nat,” he says, and she tries to smile.
“Do what?” she asks, her voice cut off when his arm, surprisingly strong, pulls her back down to the mattress, turns her to face him.
“Freak out about us.”
His voice is completely calm, as if he expected this, as if he’s been planning what to say. Her voice, in contrast, is a shocked squeak. “Us? There’s an us?”
Dan chuckles, fingers tracing a path from her shoulder down to her elbow, leaving goosebumps in their wake. “There’s an us,” he says simply, and, in obvious response to her shocked look, continues, “Do you really think I’d have done this…risked our friendship… if I wasn’t here for the long haul?”
Which is very true, and ergo, very scary, because she’s Natalie, and she’s always had a knack for choosing the wrong man. “Dan…” she begins, shaking her head, picking abstractedly at the bed sheet, but he doesn’t let her get any further, lifts her head so that he can look into her eyes.
“I know you’re scared,” he tells her. “I know that this is a big step… and if you need some time, I’m ok with that. But I’ve wanted this for a long time Natalie… a long time. And after last night… I guess I thought you might feel the same.”
Memories of last night flash across her mind, heating her cheeks, her blood, and it takes every scrap of willpower she possesses not to pull him closer, use his body to chase any doubts, any fears she might have, away. “I do,” she whispers. “But Dan… what if…”
He silences her with a brief kiss, and when he pulls away, his lips are curled in a smile. “No what if’s,” he orders. “This is us, Nat… us.”
He speaks with such conviction, such utter faith, that she almost believes him, wants to more than she’s ever wanted anything. “I have really bad luck with men Danny,” she reminds him, because he deserves to know what he’s getting into.
“My luck with women’s not that great either,” he reminds her, and she’s just about to point out that maybe that means they’re twice as doomed when he shrugs. “So maybe one will cancel out the other.”
The words are so unexpected that a burst of laughter escapes her lips, and once she starts, she can’t stop. She collapses against him, feels his chest move underneath her as his laughter mingles with hers, and she laughs until she cries, until he reaches up and brushes her tears away, until he kisses her, moves on top of her, and then she’s not laughing any more.
A long time later, she gazes up at him. “There’s an us?” she asks drowsily, and he smiles, touches her cheek.
“There’s always been an us,” he tells her. “We just made it official.”
He looks and sounds like he means it, and she smiles, presses herself closer to him, and lets herself believe him.
Natalie’s always had a flare for picking the wrong man.
Who knew that the right one was right there all along?
