Seven AB ficlettes.

[mhalachai]

A set of drabbles and ficlettes for fanfic100, all Anita Blake! Seven in all. The first four are serious, while the last three are rather fluffy. Enjoy (and let me know if you like them.)

Disclaimer on all below: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. Only the story is my own.
Fandom: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (master list here)

Title: Killer
Characters: Anita
fanfic100 Prompt: 051 -- Water
abvh100 Prompt: #41 -- Water
Word Count: 100
~~*~~

The pink water splashed in the sink as I dropped the washcloth. Bracing my hands on the counter, I stared at myself in the mirror under the harsh florescent light.

I'd killed five vampires tonight. They'd killed about twenty children between here and Alabama. They needed to be stopped, and stop them I did.

Before I killed them, one had hit me on the side of the face. The skin was already darkening into a mottled and bleeding bruise.

I swirled my fingers in the bloody water as I looked at my reflection. This was what a killer looked like.

Title: Look Away
Characters: Anita
fanfic100 Prompt: 065 -- Passing
Word Count: 151
~~*~~

I can see it on their faces sometimes, as I'm passing them in the halls of the Circus, or at Guilty Pleasures. Most of them can hide it pretty well, but the more time I spend with the monsters, the better able I am to understand what they're thinking.

Most days, the vampires and werewolves either forget or don't mind that I'm the Executioner, or Bolverk, whatever name you want to put on that side of me. Most days, I'm either Richard's sort-of girlfriend, or Jean-Claude's human servant. A lot of the guys down here may act all modern, but they still see a little girl when they look at me.

Other days, though, when I walk past them, they go past what I look like, and remember what I do. Vampire killer, werewolves' evil-doer, necromancer. On those days, as our eyes meet, they are always the ones to look away.


Title: Flames
Characters: Anita, Damian
fanfic100 Prompt: 052 -- Fire
Word Count: 294
~~*~~

I touched a match to the twisted paper under the wood in the fireplace, and watched as the flames licked up the paper to the kindling.

As the fire burned, I sat back on my heels and stared into its depths. It was a welcome warmth in the chilly room, but for some reason, it felt wrong. Fire had always felt wrong to me.

When I was a kid, my dad always built a fire on the wintry Sunday afternoons after church. Everyone gathered around in the living room doing family stuff, Judith and Andrea and dad and, later, Josh. I'd never felt comfortable in those times, and often ended up in my bedroom, reading alone. For years, I'd thought it was the family thing, but it wasn't that at all.

My grandmother Flores, my mother's mother, hadn't liked fire any more than I did. When I'd gone to her in Mexico, for her to teach me to deal with my budding necromancy, it had always been cold in her house. I liked it like that. Her house was the only one in the village that had electricity. Not even candles for the vaudun priestess.

The wood crackled and snapped, bringing my attention back to the fire in front of me. I held out my hand, feeling the warmth like an alien thing.

Sure, I liked fire fine enough when it was destroying rampaging ghouls or zombies, but it still felt weird.

Someone knelt beside me. I pulled back my hand and looked over to see Damian, staring at the flames with a frown on his face.

I wanted to say something, but the dull hurt of remembrance in his eyes kept me from speaking. Together, in silent unease, we knelt before the flames.

Title: Flashing
Characters: Anita, Edward
fanfic100 Prompt: 068 -- Lightening
abvh100 Prompt: #41 -- Water
Word Count: 100
~~*~~

The thunder rumbled ominously overhead, and I hunched down against the wind. "Don't you ever get cold?"

Edward never took his eyes off the flashing squall. "It's not cold," he said. "It'll pass."

Lightening flashed down as the rain picked up. "What chance to you think we have of catching those vampires now?" I asked. "They probably went to ground when the storm started."

"No, they wouldn't." Edward told me. His blue eyes reflected the lightening outside, and I started shivering again. "But they'll think we did. Then they get lazy."

"Then?"

"Then we find them, and we kill them."

Title: My Kingdom for a Shower
Characters: Anita, Jean-Claude
fanfic100 Prompt: 009 -- Months
abvh100 Prompt: #41 -- Water
Word Count: 200
~~*~~

I'd arrived at the Circus covered in dirt and zombie bits. Long story. Anyway, Jean-Claude wrinkled his nose and steered me to the bathtub. I wanted a long soak, but I'd only had time for a quick scrub.

Leaving the bathroom, I headed for the bed and Jean-Claude, sprawled on the sheets.

"How do you feel, ma petite?"

I flicked my hair at him. "How long has it been since I bugged you about getting a shower in there?" I asked.

He pretended to think about that. "At least two months."

"Well, I'm at it again."

"There are other showers, ma petite."

"I'm not going to slink through Jason's bedroom for a shower."

"Ma petite..."

"Please?" I poked my lower lip out. "Pretty please?"

"Anita--"

"You'll like it, I promise," I wheedled, curling up next to him.

He looked doubtful. "If it will make you happy."

"Trust me, there's stuff we can do in that shower that you'll like even better than the stuff we do in the bathtub," I promised, sneaking in for a kiss.

When Jean-Claude finally let me come up for air, he said, "I will hold you to your word on that, ma petite."

"You'd better."

Title: Dismay
Characters: Anita, Richard
fanfic100 Prompt: 066 -- Rain
abvh100 Prompt: #41 -- Water
Word Count: 100
~~*~~

"It's raining."

Richard came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. "So it is."

I frowned out at the downpour. "I guess this means our hike is cancelled."

"We could do other things, you know."

I turned around in his grasp, no longer grumpy about the rain. "Like?" I asked suggestively.

Twenty minutes later, I was staring at a checker board in dismay. "No one's going to believe me if I tell them we spent the afternoon playing checkers."

Richard smiled wolfishly at me. He knew exactly what he was doing, the bastard. "I know. Your move."

Title: Bathtime
Characters: Anita, Nathaniel
fanfic100 Prompt: 077 -- What?
abvh100 Prompt: #41 -- Water
Word Count: 100
~~*~~

I nudged the bathroom door open with my hip. "I've got some fresh towels, Nathaniel," I called as I entered.

Nathaniel sat up in the bath in a hurry, slashing water and bubbles everywhere as he pushed something under the water.

I stopped dead just inside the door. "What?" I demanded.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right."

"It's nothing," Nathaniel repeated, pushing back his hair with a soapy hand. As he did so, something popped out of the water.

I stared at the cheerful yellow rubber ducky floating merrily around the tub. "Nathaniel, you never told me."

Nathaniel sank back into the water.

Comments

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

All perfect as usual. ;)

I particularly like the fire one . . though I'm not sure exactly why, it just feels right for the character, though I can't think of a canon basis for it. It just fits.

-Sonya

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

You mean for Damian? I think in ID we learned that What's-Her-Name used fire on her vamps to keep them in line. Either that or shoved them out into the sun.

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

No, I meant for Anita.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Oh. Yeah, I know what you mean (which is probably obvious, as I wrote the thing in the first place.... man, I'm even rambling as I type).

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

Hee hee .. well, it's possible for a reader to have a different interpretation than the author .. I mean, hence fanfic exists, right?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is possible, only here we have the same take on things! *sigh* it's been a long week today.

[remydesire.livejournal.com]

Hee. :) Nathaniel's so cute! He shouldn't feel embarrassed about a rubber ducky. I have three and I'm 21 too. :P

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

It just felt like the kind of thing Nate would do (and try to hide from Anita :)

[thekams.livejournal.com]

These were all awesome, but I like the last one the best. Nathaniel and a rubber ducky makes me smile =)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it. Yes, Nathaniel being cute does bring a smile to most everyone's face :)

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

I like them all -- and I notice that you've made a special effort to try to deal with those characters that you've said you have a hard time writing about. Good for you! (And Anita needs to tie Richard down and give him a severe tickling.)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I figured it had been a while since I'd written some Edward. He's pretty prominent in Switchback, so I should probably get back to him at some point...

[uforeah.livejournal.com]

Dismay was awesome.

I haven't commented in a while but I just wanted to say that as always, you are spot on and wonderful at this.
Thank you for sharing your gift.....and when do you get more Inevitable?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked Dismay. Richard seems like the kind of Boy Scout who'd play checkers on a rainy afternoon, no?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

And, um, Inevitable: Hopefully tomorrow, if I can find the time to write it. Tommorrow's a busy day, sadly. We'll see.

[eavling.livejournal.com]

*silent unease*

I have this

*silent unease*

running like a ghostly

*silent unease*

noise through my mind.

It's a brilliant wordplay.

I enjoyed all of them...and the rubber ducky cracked me up. All are absolutely wonderful. And how many times have we heard Anita say, "We find them, and then we kill them."; so this is where she got it from. It casts high suspicion that Edward is, in fact, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

As always, glad you enjoyed them.

Sometimes, silence is the only answer to a situation. As a writer, it's easy to forget that (as writing description is much harder than writing dialogue).

[eavling.livejournal.com]

For some, writing dialogue is much, much harder. Personal experience...for some reason, all the characters in that short story, written for English some odd years ago, talked like me.

For you, it must be the other way around. But, any difficulty certainly is difficult to see. You write like how a professional athlete performs; the end product is seemingly effortless.

(Mmm, is dialogue spelled dialog? I wouldn't think so, except for this LJ preview spell check.)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

The writing of dialogue is easy in Inevitable, because I have a firm grip on the characters (and spend long periods of time imagining what they will say). When Anita's all yelling, that's because that's what Anita does. When Harry's stuttering in annoyance because Anita just! won't! understand!, that's our Harry. When Edward's... well, we won't give that away just yet, will we? :P

Writing scenery and explaining what everyone's doing without having them say it, is harder for me. I feel as if I tend to get boring with the exposition, sometimes. I'm lucky in this story, because Inevitable is really a talking story. I think this might have something to do with how hard Switchback is right now, it being more a story of Anita's description.

dialog's the same thing as dialogue. One of those alternative spellings, which are the bane of my existence.

[(Anonymous)]

I see...and (facetiously) am moved to tears! I think I understand. So, when you fully understand the character, when a character is complete with in your mind, you can almost, like, umm, step inside and write what they'd want to say? And the character descriptions are harder, because you don't want to write too much, on the off-chance of boring your readers? (Pshaw, like, yeah right! Though, of course what we read is the end result...) I suppose that when you reach a certain level of skill, you don't sweat the small stuff as much as the small fry do. (I'm a little food happy right now; please excuse the loopy statements. Hibatchi Grill! The food is so wonderful, and there's so much to eat!)

I had a very calm and peaceful moment when I read the word Switchback...almost as if the world had ceased to exist and all was Switchback, a very zen moment. But Mhalachai's too catty a writer to give us any hints...

[child-labor.livejournal.com]

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's all part of my master plan! (I have no master plan). I should add a disclaimer to this place, It's all part of the plan and yes, I know what I'm doing. hee hee.

You're never too old for rubber duckies, I agree. They make bathtime so much fun.

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

You are really developing a wonderful sense of humor with these characters that we no longer have the space to get in the books. These are the scenes that she writes but must edit out for length. I'm glad you're putting them back in. I love the rubber duck! You are the sole reason I went into the office yesterday to bring home my laptop. Just the thought of more fic from you made it worth the commute!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I think that Anita's life would do better with the humour in it. After all, what we see these days is her being so serious all the time, it's almost depressing. Even her life must have some up, yes?

You are the sole reason I went into the office yesterday to bring home my laptop. Just the thought of more fic from you made it worth the commute!

And this is the reason I spent an hour this morning working away at the next IN chapter. Such lovely comments are quite the boost to this humble fanfic writer's ego :) I hope to have the chapter done by this evening. We'll see how it goes.

Awesome

[stealthyshade.livejournal.com]

They're all really good. I love the fire one, but I LOVE nathaniel, keep it up!

Re: Awesome

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like them! To tell the truth, Nathaniel is one of my fave characters too :)

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me randomly commenting on your drabbles - I'm participating in fanfic100 too, and am also a big Anita fan.

I have to say most of the fanfic I've read based on the series doesn't ever quite capture her right, and while none of us are Laurell, may I say this is the closest to her tone I've ever read. You made me laugh out loud with the Richard and Chess one. It's totally something he'd do.

I hope you continue on, and good luck with your big damn table. I've only done seven. *sigh*

Cheers.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Oh, not at all. Welcome to the AB fic :)

I am just so fascinated with the whole world LKH has created. I think it's clear from my writing that Anita is my favourite character. I just find her so fascinating. The character's so complicated.

I hope to be done my table within the months. What is your subject at ff100?

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

Arthur and Lancelot from King Arthur, the newest version. :p I have *no* clue when I'll be done with mine.

I'll friend you, if you don't mind?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I really need to get off my duff and watch that movie. Have you read Cleolinda's movies in 15 minutes for that film? http://www.livejournal.com/community/m15m/4794.html

I digress. Sure, friend away. I'll friend you back, though :)

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

Ah! I love your Firefly icon too. :p Big fan of that show. I see you also like Buffy. That's actually how I started writing fanfic - I do have a huge collection of Buffy stuff too. I need to upload it to my journal as well.

Yes, I have read that 15 minutes. Hilarious. You do need to watch the movie - it's very ... not the best historically, but so full of slash potential (which I write) aside from being chock full of beautiful knights and lots of story fodder. :p

Good to meet you.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Buffy fanfic *and* an Anita Blake fan? Have I got fic for you! (At least some of it. Check out my list of links in my lj for a bunch of AB/BtVS crosses)

I need to watch a lot of movies, I admit. I've been slack in the movie department (recently, all I've seen are Narnia, Harry Potter, MirrorMask, Serenity, Batman Begins.... wow, what a sparse year)

Good to meet you too :)

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

Ah, Buffy. *sigh* I do miss that show badly. In the end, I think Angel was better, but my first love will always be season two of BTVS.

Damn, I think we have more in common than I first thought. A Neil Gaiman fan too? Wow. I'm a big fan of his work - I saw MirrorMask this year as well and thought it quite beautiful. Dave McKean is truly a genius.

Sandman was how I started reading comics in the first place, wayyyyyyyyyyy back in ... 90? *blush* I'm old. :p

I saw all those movies too and really enjoyed 'em. Are you in school? Or working?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I never got in to Angel as much as Buffy, even though I think I watched it more consistantly than Buffy. Not sure why... or maybe my fanfic facination with Dawn is making me rewrite my own history and believe that's how I viewed things. I have no idea.

I wanted to read the Sandman comics, but never had the time or financial werewithall to acquire myself a set, sadly.

I'm currently working (well, taking a brief vacation; back tomorrow). Got out of school... *counts* four and a half years ago.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

PS did you ever watch Kindred the Embraced? I have a Buffy end-of-season-2 fanfic crossover with that show. Even if you haven't seen it, it's not a bad read (Buffy centric, of course).

http://www.tthfanfic.com/Story-5895/Mhalachai+Masks.htm

and man, i'm just pimping my own fic like there's no tomorrow, aren't I?