cats_mother

Title: Tower of Strength
Author: cats_mother
Fandom: Unnamed; any
Pairing: Unnamed; any
Summary: You want to cry; you want to scream. But there are Rules.
Rating: General
Notes: Written 6 August 2011; no prompt other than real life.



He folds and re-folds the letter in his hand. The creases are razor-sharp; it’s been opened, read and re-read, filed away then pulled back out again more times than he can number. He doesn’t know why. The words never change. They’re never going to change. This is what his world has become.

So small a thing, he thinks, to change so much: a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, a shadow no larger than a dime. Tiny, barely detectable, and yet, at the same time, so huge that it eclipses his entire life. It is his whole life now: just him, and the thing that’s growing inside him.

A hand touches his shoulder. His partner, moving close, arms reaching around his chest, cheek nestling against his own.

“So,” a voice murmurs in his ear. “Now we know.” The arms tighten, as if to give comfort, reassurance; as if they could. He hears a deep breath, a catch in the throat, and then comes the inevitable question: “What now?”

For an insane moment, he thinks of telling the truth. I’m tired, he’ll say, I hurt, I just want to lie down and have it all be over. But you can’t say that. There are rules. You have to be cheerful. You have to be brave. Right up to the end, and maybe even beyond, you can never let them see how scared you are. The disease is yours, and so is the responsibility.

So he reaches back, takes his partner’s hand in his own, squeezes it reassuringly when he feels its slight tremor. Only one of them’s allowed to break down at any one time; they agreed that long ago.

This time it’s not going to be him.

“Now?” he says, his own voice calm and steady. “Now – we fight.”

***

Title: Morning's Echo Says We've Sinned
Author: cats_mother
Fandoms: Sports Night/Dollhouse
Characters: Dan Rydell, Adelle DeWitt
Summary: Two strangers; one brief encounter. And nothing is as it seems to be be.
Rating/word count: PG-13; 3,570 words
Note: This follows on from the events in Make This Beggar a King and Too Late to Say You're Sorry.

( Morning's Echo Says We've Sinned )

Title: Make This Beggar a King
Author: cats_mother
Fandoms: Sports Night/Dollhouse
Characters: Dan Rydell, Adelle DeWitt
Summary: Adelle DeWitt recruits a new Active.
Rating/word count: PG; 2,500 words

( Make This Beggar a King )

Everybody Needs a Bosom for a Pillow

Casey's always been a breast man. He loves the way they look: pale flesh, blue-veined, blushing at the tip; round, softly swelling, or small, upright and perky. He loves the feel of them in his hands, their weight, the tender brush of skin; their taste in his mouth, and their texture, how they yield beneath his tongue. He loves to lie, spent, his cheek cushioned by that bountiful softness.

Danny has no curves, only planes, angles, hardness; he doesn't like to have his nipples touched, squirms away, moves Casey's head downwards. That's all right, too.

That's better than all right.

***

I'm just saying.