The Mad Hatter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} artisfashion) wrote,@ 2005-10-27 03:01:00 |
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Prompt #1: Dreams
Title: You Take More Than What You Get
Fandom: AtS
Characters: Darla, Angel
Prompt: Dreams
Word Count: 577
Rating: PG-13
Darla never visits Angel during the daylight hours. The reasons why are trivia; his minions are always rustling about, jumping at every little sound that they don’t make themselves - for instance, and Angelus doesn’t keep quite the same hours as normal vampires. That fact disgusts her immeasurably - each pathetically foibled attempt to fit in with the humanity of which he so desperately wants to be a part takes him one step further away from being her darling Angelus.
So she goes to him at night, haunting his dreams like the ghost he so eagerly believes that she is. Darla would hate him for that had he not plunged the stake into her chest himself - from the back, no less - and she admires him for that, in a way. Through her entire lifetime, Angelus never ceased surprising her. Of course, that doesn’t prevent her from climbing into his unconscious to torment him. Revenge pleases her, and she’ll take it any way that she can.
She’s consistently amazed by the circumstances - she is a participant only, a mannequin in tableaux his mind creates. More than once she’s heard his heart beat through the veil of slumber, and on one memorable occasion they were a normal and happy couple, spoon-feeding strained carrots to a fussing baby boy. There is warmth and tenderness that radiates from his dead heart inside his cold body, and Darla never knew that a soul could do this. Is her own soul somehow lacking?
This thought troubles her more than she’d care to admit - more than she’d ever admit to Lindsey. She might be human, in possession of a soul, but as far as she’s concerned it’s no more than an antiquity. Angel’s had nearly a century to buff away the rust from his, and he wasn’t without it nearly as long as she. Ensouled or not, she is still Darla and she’d bite him if she could.
Instead she waits, playing out a scene while Angel quietly rests. When she senses that he is about to awaken, she makes a careful (but hasty) departure, shrugging on a jacket because she’s human now, and she never realized that California air could become so chill at night.
Angel rolls over before she makes it through the doorway, and she freezes - but he makes no sound, and she doesn’t turn to see if his eyes are open. She is dead to him, as he should be to her, and if she’s given any thoughts to staking him whilst he dreams, she’s given no voice to it.
Lindsey would veto it anyway, or Holland, and her newly granted existence might be taken away from her in the time it takes Angelus to shatter into dust. Perhaps this new life might be paltry - and human, and inferior, but dying wasn’t half as unsettling as returning to life, and she’d rather not experience either again any time soon. So. She resists, and it’s not exactly difficult. His dreams are more pleasant than his life, and she can appreciate that - and she never needs to let on quite how much she enjoys it.
Not that Lindsey - or Lilah, or Holland, or any of those stooges at Wolfram and Hart would really care as long as she was keeping up her end of the bargain, but there are some secrets that Darla would like to keep to herself. Her untold feelings for Angelus are most of them.
Title: You Take More Than What You Get
Fandom: AtS
Characters: Darla, Angel
Prompt: Dreams
Word Count: 577
Rating: PG-13
Darla never visits Angel during the daylight hours. The reasons why are trivia; his minions are always rustling about, jumping at every little sound that they don’t make themselves - for instance, and Angelus doesn’t keep quite the same hours as normal vampires. That fact disgusts her immeasurably - each pathetically foibled attempt to fit in with the humanity of which he so desperately wants to be a part takes him one step further away from being her darling Angelus.
So she goes to him at night, haunting his dreams like the ghost he so eagerly believes that she is. Darla would hate him for that had he not plunged the stake into her chest himself - from the back, no less - and she admires him for that, in a way. Through her entire lifetime, Angelus never ceased surprising her. Of course, that doesn’t prevent her from climbing into his unconscious to torment him. Revenge pleases her, and she’ll take it any way that she can.
She’s consistently amazed by the circumstances - she is a participant only, a mannequin in tableaux his mind creates. More than once she’s heard his heart beat through the veil of slumber, and on one memorable occasion they were a normal and happy couple, spoon-feeding strained carrots to a fussing baby boy. There is warmth and tenderness that radiates from his dead heart inside his cold body, and Darla never knew that a soul could do this. Is her own soul somehow lacking?
This thought troubles her more than she’d care to admit - more than she’d ever admit to Lindsey. She might be human, in possession of a soul, but as far as she’s concerned it’s no more than an antiquity. Angel’s had nearly a century to buff away the rust from his, and he wasn’t without it nearly as long as she. Ensouled or not, she is still Darla and she’d bite him if she could.
Instead she waits, playing out a scene while Angel quietly rests. When she senses that he is about to awaken, she makes a careful (but hasty) departure, shrugging on a jacket because she’s human now, and she never realized that California air could become so chill at night.
Angel rolls over before she makes it through the doorway, and she freezes - but he makes no sound, and she doesn’t turn to see if his eyes are open. She is dead to him, as he should be to her, and if she’s given any thoughts to staking him whilst he dreams, she’s given no voice to it.
Lindsey would veto it anyway, or Holland, and her newly granted existence might be taken away from her in the time it takes Angelus to shatter into dust. Perhaps this new life might be paltry - and human, and inferior, but dying wasn’t half as unsettling as returning to life, and she’d rather not experience either again any time soon. So. She resists, and it’s not exactly difficult. His dreams are more pleasant than his life, and she can appreciate that - and she never needs to let on quite how much she enjoys it.
Not that Lindsey - or Lilah, or Holland, or any of those stooges at Wolfram and Hart would really care as long as she was keeping up her end of the bargain, but there are some secrets that Darla would like to keep to herself. Her untold feelings for Angelus are most of them.
