3 Oneshots and a WIP- Updates from the past few weeks

[feckyeslife]

Somehow I've missed posting four separate fics to my journal, one of which is my multichapter fic that has two separate chapters out! How did I manage that? Yikes!! Sorry, DW.

Title: The Sisley Job
Rating: T
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing/Characters: Parker/Eliot Spencer
Critical Tags: Season 5 AU, Slice of Life, Getting Together
Summary: “It’s stupid,” Parker cried. “Who just wants to go look at art that they didn’t even steal?”
---
Parker learns what she likes.
Originally posted for fandom5k
Excerpt:

“Get it? There’s capers in there to add salt.”

Parker took another bite without suspicion. When she finished swallowing her fork went down. “But what does this have to do with liking things?” she wondered.

Eliot blinked at her. It was so easy, after all these years of working together and being friends, to forget that this was still Parker at the end of the day. Something was wrong with the girl. No worse than any of them, depending on the day, but still. The fact that she had to ask Eliot just confirmed to him that she had a long way to go. “Makin’ food, sharing it with people, that’s something that I do to share a bit of myself with them. Connecting with… with people I care about. It’s important. It makes me feel good,” he tried to explain.

She lifted that eyebrow again. “A perfect lift makes me feel good,” she replied. Eliot had no doubt that she was being completely honest with him. Then she frowned. “But I just want to do another one after that. And it might not be perfect, then.”

Eliot speared another bite from the plate between them. If Parker wasn’t going to finish it, he wasn’t going to let it go to waste. He’d spent his lunch after the noon rush to work up the dish for her. “Sounds like you gotta find something that makes you feel good for more than a few minutes.”

“How do I do that?”

“Parker, you asked for my help. But even I don’t have all the answers.”

Title: Shoot from the Hip
Rating: T
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing/Characters: Parker/Quinn
Critical Tags: Guns, Established Relationship
Summary: Quinn just wants to make sure his girl knows how to use the tools she's got.
Excerpt:

"When was the last time you actually used that thing? And can you please get it out of my face? Honestly, Parker, I used the damn doorbell for christsake."

Parker let the pistol come back down to her hip. She frowned at the hitter standing on her front door step. "That's why I got the gun in the first place. Who uses doorbells?" she remarked. "Seemed suspicious."

Quinn sighed and shook his head. Once he wasn’t as concerned about the continued safety of his good looks he was able to relax more fully. He waited for Parker to give the sign that he was allowed to step inside. Respecting a woman’s boundaries had been finely ingrained in him by his mommas.

“When was the last time, anyway?”

Title: Nothing in Return
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow & Bone
Pairing/Characters: Alina Starkov/Aleksander
Critical Tags: Proposal Fic, Complicated Relationships
Summary: "How can you love me without expecting anything in return?" -- A prompt ficlet.
Excerpt:

"After everything that has happened, you would still ask for my hand," she said. It was barely a question, more a statement of fact. He had asked for exactly that and nothing less.

"And nothing else," he replied. She snorted at that, an indelicate sound.

"You collared me for my power." Aleksander’s eyes flicked from her face briefly to her throat. The kefta there was buttoned to the top, blue and gold armor over the skin there. Once, Aleksander had been able to feel the bone there that tied her power to him. Without the matched fragment in his palm, he could only fall back to memory.

Title: Where Hoofbeats and Hearts Thunder (2 / 10 chapters posted so far)
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow and Bone
Pairing/Characters: Alina Starkov/Aleksander
Critical Tags: Gift Giving, Horses, Drama
Summary: When Alina Starkov has a break from the grind of Grisha training there is always a bit of relief. Even if that “break” is just another kind of training. Apparently her lackluster horseback skills require attention in the form of some unexpected one-on-one time with the General.
Aka that fic where Alina spends more than just one afternoon riding pretty horses with pretty General Kirigan /chinhands/
Excerpt:

They brought the horses down to the water’s edge to drink and enjoy the cooler breeze that came across the lake. Alina passed the reins from palm to palm as she waited for her mare to nose at the water. The quiet between herself and Kirigan was getting to her. She was supposed to say something, right?

“I didn’t know the Black General was such an expert on horsemanship.” Alina blurted out the first coherent thought to come to her that didn’t amount to being tired or frustrated by what felt like inadequate level of success with her steed.

Kirigan tipped his head and there again was the wry cant to his lips. “I wasn’t aware that I wasn’t expected to have interests beyond the war. Is that an impression you hold for all Grisha or just for the Shadow Summoner?”

The undercurrent of teasing allowed Alina some relief that she hadn’t said something completely foolish. She replied after a moment’s pause, “I never put much thought about either before, to be honest. Grisha always felt so mysterious, so different than the rest of us. And no one knows what to expect about- about you.”

She fumbled with exactly how to address him. Enough time had passed since they had last spoken after the presentation in front of the King and Queen where Alina felt once again on the back foot. She let her free hand trail through her horse’s mane, keeping her gaze locked down at the ripples in the water that had made their way over from the other side of the lake.

“You know,” Kirigan said, “the more that you think about Grisha as being someone or something different, something other, the more difficult it will be for you to settle here.”