(no subject)

[chelicerae]

Okay:

Give me a pairing and a prompt

and I'll produce a fic.

Help me squeeze out some creativity.

Comments

[eiremagic]

Todd Anderson's grown up, since the last time that Kenny saw him. He's no longer the shy, quivering boy, the hesitant young man whose words were stumbled and blurred and lost in whispers and behind closed doors. He smokes his cigarette, Neil watching nearby, and blows smoke out his nose. It's not cynical, it's confident, easy, smooth.

"Things have changed."

Even his voice is deeper, and he doesn't have to raise it above a whisper for Kenny to hear it. Kenny can't help but smile, softly, easily, and Todd returns the smile with grace. Neil nudges a little closer, clearly remembering words that Kenny said once. "I can see that," Kenny says in reply.

Todd leans over and blows smoke into the rim of his wine glass, and the smoke hazes off the liquid, curling up and out of the glass. It smells sharply of tobacco and something else, something that Kenny can't precisely identify. "here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart"

Kenny hears the words, and opens his mouth, but it's Neil's voice that replies, "I carry your heart."

"I carry it in my heart," Kenny adds, softly, and leans in over the table, and breathes in the smoke as if the taste of Todd's mouth is there, overlain with Neil's.