Not the new chapter some of you might have wished for but simply something I thought I had uploaded.
Title: Of Friends and Foolishness
Author: Terion
Disclaimer: Not. Mine. Well..sorta.
Rating: Caution for...some language.
Book or TV verse: Book verse, AU after Proven Guilty...part of my ongoing series.
Summary: 50 observations on Nick and Virg, alternating between the two of them commenting on each other at various points in their friendship and life.
#01 – Package - Nick
I told her not to open the package. But did Virg listen? No, of course not. And now there are a dozen pissed off pixies rampaging around her apartment whilst we hide under the couch.
#02 – Obscure - Virg
He used to be obscure when he talked to me, always nervous about saying something that could put me into danger. Now it's me being obscure, worried he's going to do something stupid and I won't be able to save him.
#03 – Skeleton - Nick
"Its just plastic," said Virg airily as we walked through a seemingly empty 'haunted house' someone had put together. When one of the skeleton's bones fell to the floor and turned into a powdery mess, I groaned and said, "Just plastic. You had to say it was just plastic, didn't you?"
#04 – Nurse - Virg
Sometimes I wonder why I play nursemaid to him when he gets injured. Then I sit and watch him sleep through the pain and I remember. I remember that I nurse him back to health every time he gets hurt because I don't want to suffer through this world alone.
#05 – Domino - Nick
All of the carefully laid plans and efforts cascaded into chaos like dominoes in that moment; she kissed me and I realized that I'd been in love with my best friend for years.
#06 – Thaw - Virg
He can be like so much ice when he's asked about relationships. Then I touch his hand gently and smile at him and that ice thaws just a little bit.
#07 – Waves - Nick
I think of my emotions like waves, sometimes still and sometimes frothy with anger. And then there's Virg, who's always a rock amongst the waves, taking their crashes and furies without worry despite how they wear bits of her away.
#08 – Burglar - Virg
I find it amusing that he can call up a firestorm and shield himself from harm…but he can't be sneaky to save his skinny ass. Thus I've come to the conclusion that a good burglar Nick does not make.
#09 – Frame - Nick
Carefully I pick up the broken frame, ignoring her question of if I'm okay. I look down at the picture within the frame and carefully take it out, letting the shattered bit of metal and cardboard fall to the floor. The frame doesn't matter; it protected what it held – the picture of what my family was once. Her hand falls on my shoulder then and I look at her; she smiles in understanding and hands me an empty frame silently.
#10 – Carpet - Virg
I told him we shouldn't try doing things on the carpet. So it's his fault that he has carpet burns on his ass.
#11 – Insect - Nick
The thug smirked at me and I punched him, smashing him like the insect he was. No one tries to mug Virg and gets away with it.
#12 – Mentor - Virg
I lie back on the couch and watch them fence, Nick and Ramirez. From the kitchen, Molly laughs and I smile as I watch this man mentor the man I love in swordplay.
#13 - Spirit - Nick
If anyone accuses her of not having spirit, they're blind. 'Cause she is the most spirited woman I have ever known besides my mother.
#14 - Wax - Virg
The wax from the candle drips for the hundredth time off the table and I watch from the door as he starts to pour over the information again, trying to find a way to fix things.
#15 - Trash - Nick
Here am I, left like so much trash at the side of the road. I said something stupid and she left me. God, I'm a fool.
#16 - Womb - Virg
As he sleeps next to me, I sigh and lay one hand over my stomach, wondering what it would feel like to have a child – our child – nestling underneath that hand in the womb.
#17 - Burn - Nick
"Burn, burn, burn!" I screamed, throwing my will and power into the words and my hands. Fire roared up in response, hot and furious as my anger, and the building around us blazed as I picked up Virg's unconscious form and walked out. The place burnt into its own funeral pyre behind us and killed every thing within that had dared touch her.
#18 - Flash - Virg
For one brief flash it seems like he's gone…and I feel like my whole world has fallen and shattered into a million jagged shards.
#19 - Anima - Nick
"What's 'anima'?" asked Virg, leaning over my shoulder. "Animal in Latin," I replied. "Crazy spell to turn people into animal's. Very dangerous and could get me killed if I used it." "But you have it," she said. "Well…you never know when something could be useful when you don't give a shit."
#20 - Gamble - Virg
"It's a gamble," I said, looking sideways at him. He puffed a breath out into the cold air then shrugged. I nodded then we both walked into the building, not knowing whether we'd live or die in this attempt to get information we needed.
#21 - Statue - Nick
I stand as still as a statue as she comes close to me, waiting for her to make her way there. Then I unlock my knees and let myself fall, knowing she'll catch me.
#22 - Perfume - Virg
We pass a woman wearing too much perfume and I enter a mild coughing fit in reaction to it all. And as Nick pats my back, I'm glad he doesn't care about those sort of feminine things.
#23 - Wine - Nick
I'm not sure how we ended up fighting in a wine cellar but in the aftermath Virg and I lie limply amongst the mess of the shelves and drink from a surviving bottle to celebrate being alive.
#24 - Reflection - Virg
I watch him duke it out with this reflection someone has created of him, waiting until they're both well into the fight. Then I come up behind it and cut off the head of that fucking monster imitating my man. It looked like him…but it had nothing of his soul.
#25 - Take – N
I carefully bend over her, very gently taking the ring I gave her years ago off her cold finger. Then I kiss her still lips one last time and leave before the funeral home employee's can wonder about the middle-aged man crying over the empty shell of an old woman.
#26 - Magic – V
Every time he does something, I am amazed. Amazed by every little thing he does with magic, even if it is the simplest thing.
#27 - Fragment - Nick
For one slim fragment of time, I thought she was dead. And I went mad in that moment when it seemed she was gone forever.
#28 - Cats and Dogs - Virg
My druggie ex-boyfriend and I used to fight like cats and dogs. Nick and I have never really fought in all our friendship. I guess that should've given me a clue about how well we fit together.
#29 - Hum - Nick
Because I'm Listening like Dad taught me, I hear the hum of it. And I'm able to shield the both of us before the bomb goes off.
#30 - Flinch - Virg
After he rescues me and tries to touch me, I flinch back. The expression on his face is so much hurt and understanding that I want to cry. Its not his fault that a White Court vampire tried to take me as a thrall again and I fell faster than I did the first time.
#31 - Rush - Nick
I feel the urge to kill the sorcerer with his same methods thrum within me, a tempting rush of power that I almost can't withstand. Then Virg touches my shoulder and I realize that would make me worse than him. That rush of power isn't so tempting anymore.
#32 - Jester - Virg
The faerie in jester's clothes cocks his head at me and asks, "A bargain have we? Your life for your wizard?" I take a breath and close my eyes for a moment, feeling my age for the first time in a while. I'm dying already – the least I can do here at the end is save Nick from one of his father's enemies. "Yes," I reply, opening my eyes so I can see the end. And hopefully him one last time.
#33 - Haven - Nick
Her arms wrap around me as I lay in bed and shake, overcome by my Sight because of the returning menace of ThreeEye. I roll over and look at her, my battle-scarred lioness, then bury my face in her shoulder, seeking the safe haven she's always been for me.
#34 - Dusk - Virg
He finds me lying limply against the wall in Undertown where I made my bargain, the faerie I made it with long gone. He rushes to me, picking up my limp body and hugging me tightly to his chest. "NO!" he screams and I want to comfort him so badly. But all I can do is watch his pain through dying eyes as the dusk falls.
#35 - Chord - Nick
The power thrums in a never-ending chord like a single note of music as it swirls around me then I break the circle and loose it, letting it rush out to find Virg and lead me to her.
#36 - Indulgence - Virg
Ice cream is my major indulgence and Nick knows it too because he comes home constantly with a pint of Ben and Jerry's and just grins as I snatch it away from him.
#37 - Freezer - Nick
Despite everything, Virg's mother can be as frosty as a freezer towards me sometimes. I guess it didn't help for her to find out that her daughter has almost died several time from being associated with me.
#38 - Passage - Virg
While the passage of time marrs me in any way it can, it barely touches him after he turns twenty-five. It seems he stands still in the midst of it and I can only watch as I am dragged further away from him.
#39 - Coast - Nick
Virg always loved the coast. So every year on that day she died I go there and sit on the beach for an entire day, just listening to the waves.
#40 - Keepsake - Virg
When our son turned fourteen, Nick gave him one of the more precious keepsakes he has – his father's pentacle. I smiled as I watched them, sitting there on the couch, as he explained the magical significance of it and Erik sat there in awe as he held what seemed to be slowly turning into a family heirloom in his hands.
#41 - Morbid - Nick
I swear that girl has the most morbid sense of humor of anyone I know sometimes. But I love her no matter what.
#42 - Shipwreck - Virg
Sometimes I wonder if our relationship will end in nothing but a shipwreck, with one or both of us dead. Then he does something stupid to make me laugh and I realize it doesn't matter. Because I know that if our ship does wreck, he'll be right there beside me.
#43 - Socks - Nick
They say the men are the messiest of people in the world. But Virg's socks are mucking about on the floor whilst mine are sleeping in the clothes bin. So…either we're the reverse or everyone's been lying all these years.
#44 - Sand - Virg
"I've got sand in places I didn't even know existed!" I shrieked as we came sputtering out of the sea foam. Then Nick grabbed me and purred, "All of your places?" in my ear in a hot voice. After that I didn't mind the sand so much.
#45 - Coin - Nick
Somehow, someway, this man had gotten one of the coins – one of the same coins that my dad still holds. And he's offering it to me as the only way to save Virg. Fuck that. I'll save her on my own. 'Cause I know that not every Denarian is like Dad's.
#46 - Guile - Virg
Nick isn't so good at guile. He tried it once upon a time and after we still ended up having to kick a door in no matter how we tried not to, he decided that he was going to leave all of that to me from now on.
#47 - Eyelash - Nick
She batted her eyelashes coyly at my across the table as she slid one bare foot up my leg underneath it. I ended up choking on my drink because of it and my dad pounded me on my back as Virg giggled.
#48 - Drive - Virg
When I told him to put his foot to the floor and drive, I wasn't meaning for him to go 100mph and attract every cop for ten blocks to chase us. Though having that many cops chase him does make Nick able to get to where shit's about to go down really fast.
#49 - Net - Nick
She just came out of nowhere one day when we were twelve and hugged me, all elbows and knees with her hair still its natural brown. After that day, she entrapped me in a net of friendship and strangeness that brought me to love her.
#50 - Destination - Virg
I don't know where our lives our going or how long we'll be together. But I know that so long as we're together, Nick and I will always end up at the same destination.