2 More Ficlets

[icarus_chained]

Again, none are mine.

Title:  Stark
Fandom:  DC/Marvel, AU
Characters/Pairings:  Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark. Past Bruce/Clark, Bruce/Lex, and Bruce/Tony/Peter Parker.
Rating:  PG-13
Wordcount:  251
Notes:  for slvrbld747
Prompt:  Bruce/Tony, old boyfriends, sunlight, sleep, warmth, cuddle, blanket thief, Clark, Lex, Spiderman.
 

Tony cuddled close in the sunlight. It had to be sunlight. The night was too dangerous for sleeping, now. But in the day, they could rest. They could curl close together in the bed they'd salvaged from the ruins, wrap their arms around each other, and wait for the night and the next battle.

It wasn't much of a life, Bruce reflected. Odd, then, how familiar it seemed to both of them.

Tony grunted in his sleep, an old pain tugging at him as he shifted against his lover, and Bruce leaned down to press a quieting kiss to his forehead. So unlike the others, he mused. Tony wasn't like Clark had been, back when both their worlds had been whole. His cuddles were warm and hard and needing, not the gentleness Clark had even in sleep. He was harsher than Clark had been, edged and glittering. Almost as Lex had been, back in those distant days in college, but Tony could never reach Lex's remote passion. Tony cared too much, too deeply for that, even as it tore him to pieces.

He certainly wasn't like the lover they had shared, before the night had stolen him once and for all. Peter had been a sprawler, a blanket-thief of the first order. Peter had laughed, despite it all, and quipped even as he fell. They neither of them could match that.

They could match so little, he thought, holding the sleeping man closer. So little left to give.

But they were all each other had.

Title:  Challenge
Fandom:  ST: TNG
Characters/Pairings:  Picard/Q
Rating:  PG
Wordcount:  314
Notes:  for sasha_anu
Prompt:  Picard?Q, snark.

Picard could feel Q's eyes on him as he wrestled with his suit, absently thinking it'd be easier just to have the whole thing in the holodeck and be done with it. As if hearing the thought, or at least admitting to having heard it, Q spoke.

"There are easier ways to do that, you know," his lover noted drily.

"I'm sure there are, Q" Picard said brusquely. Not quite snarling. He was frustrated! "Haven't you ever relished a challenge? Not everything is about taking the easy way!" Not everyone was a near omnipotent alien entity, either!

There was silence behind him for a second, before he heard a distinctive click of fingers. He had a half a second to think that Q was leaving, before light flashed around him and he was wearing a perfect suit, and a perfect Q. "You of all people should know I love a challenge, Mon Capitaine," Q whispered against his ear, grinning as Jean-Luc shuddered a little. "I love you, after all."

"And that's a challenge, is it?" he managed, quite proud of the dry calm of it. Q turned him, then.

"Oh, yes, Mon Capitaine," he answered, very seriously. "The biggest challenge I've ever had as a Q." And as Jean-Luc blinked up at him, uncertain and fighting the warmth of Q's hold, the entity smiled down at him, and leant in for a kiss. Short, sweet, feather-light. Perfect. "That's what makes it worthwhile," Q finished, gently, as he pulled back, and he had to smile.

"Glad to hear it," he murmured, and only Q understood how much he meant it. His lover smiled at him, deep and mischievious.

"Well, since we agree on that, I'm sure you'll agree that with such a large challenge in our lives, there's no need for you to bother with lesser ones."

Picard snorted, and very pointedly removed his tie so he could start dressing all over again.