The Sunshine Award + Prompt Blurb

    Wow is this late. It's been a crazy two weeks playing pseudo-mom while real mom is out of town and blog posts just don't factor into running a house.

    So the various blog awards continue to go around and I got nominated for the Sunshine Award by Hannah from Sister Sketches.

    The Rules for the Sunshine Award:
    - Thank the person who nominated you
    - Answer the questions they asked you on your respective blog
    - Nominate another batch of bloggers (eleven being the standard)
    - Question them (evil chuckle)
    - Notify them that they have been nominated
    - And post the award image on your blog

    I highly doubt I will fulfill all the rules, as I don't intend to spend very long on this post so I can try and work on other stuff this evening. 

    Thank You to Hannah for nominating me for the Sunshine Award over at Sister Sketches. It really means a lot to me that you nominated me for this award!

1. Which number (1, 2, 3, etc.) is the best, based on it's personality and morals? (Example: 7 is best because of his wise and patient personality.) I honestly do not know what to do with this. Really don't. I like the number 62 but I've never tried assigning personalities to numbers.
2. Fruit-flavored candy or chocolate? Ehhh... perhaps dark chocolate. 
3. Under what circumstances would you jump on a shark's back? Very, very extreme circumstances involving either my siblings or small children.
4. Would you rather grab a handful of cow poop or drink milk straight from the cow? Grab the cow poo, because I have no idea what type of bacteria might be in fresh, fresh cow milk.
5. Batman or Iron Man? Iron Man, all the way. I don't really like anything related to DC.
6. Fantasy or sci-fi? Sci-fi, but I'm not adverse to fantasy.
7. Three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by your foes, or three days of the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of the land? Uh.... maybe the three months, but I don't quite understand what's being destroyed by my foes. So I'll go with that one.
8. Favorite season? Spring/early summer.
9. Is the Lochness Monster real? Not in my opinion, no, though it does make for really cool story ideas.
10. Death by fire or death by ice? Death by ice. 
11. Out of any animal, what would be your dream pet? Recently, it's been a German Shepherd, maybe even an MWD, because you can adopt retired MWD's and that sounds like a really special experience.

    And I think that's all I'm going to do of the Sunshine Award stuffs. Which I apologize for.

But I need to work on some other things tonight as well while I still have a brain.

    In the lines of those other things, Trinity, I am working on your prompt. And I even have a small blurb to prove it.

// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.

    Eliminate.

    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.

    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.

   

// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep.

    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.

    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.

    I went with a whole new setting in order to get everyone in the same spot more or less in the same time stream. Futuristic, almost sci-fi, with some inter-planetary travel going on. At least, Jandy and Dech are saving up to go elsewhere, and Jase and Jaydn have been everywhere. 

    With that, I believe I shall close.

    Thank you again for the nomination, Hannah!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulty.

Prompt Challenge, from You to Me

    Alright, so I'm trying something new and exciting. The title might give you an inkling of what it is, but I'll give you the ten pages of backstory before clarifying further.

    I was poking through Tumblr the other day and wandered across several prompt challenges on people's blogs. Usually, they're used as prompts for fan fiction. But I always enjoyed the thought of those alternate universe prompts, even though I don't write fan fiction. 

    This led me to consider, why not just collect a bunch of prompts of various types and then pose them to you guys, my awesome followers, to pick and choose from. Let you guys challenge me as a writer and have some fun while doing it. 

    I have no idea whether or not this'll take, but figured it couldn't hurt. 

    In that line of thought, everybody is game. Character-wise. Whoever you'd like to choose, with whomever. Then you can choose any combination of the prompts I've dug up. There's a few different types, so yeah. I'm actually quite excited right now, despite being rather exhausted.

    And as a disclaimer, none of the following prompts are mine. I found them on Tumblr and just did a little editing.


AU!Setting Prompts:

• space au
• law enforcement au 
• historical au
• military au 
• bodyguard au 
• college au 
• supernatural beings are known au
• office au 
• high school au
• restaurant au 
• circus au 
• western au 
• sports au
• coffee shop au 

AU!Situation Prompts:

• pretending to be married
• game night
• handcuffed together
• snowed-in
• next-door neighbors AU
• fantasy AU
• apocalypse fic
• sharing a bed
• road trip
• kissing to save the day

AU!Who Does What Prompts:

• who controls the netflix account and what have they dominated the suggestions with by watching
• who snores
• who has an embarrassing ringtone that the other calls them in public just to get it to go off
• who sleeps on the top bunk if given the chance
• who plays the piano at 6 in the morning to wake up the other 
• who has accidentally set something on fire by attempting to cook a birthday meal 

One-Sentence Prompts from veiledinspiration.

1. Often times he would glance up, make sure she was still there, exhale a sigh of relief, then go back to work. 
2. She took one deep breath, accepted the fact that this party was going be a total train wreck, and walked in with a smile. 
3. He walked into the room only to find a dead body on the floor and two people sitting casually on the couch.
4. I turned the corner in my car and immediately slammed on my brakes as he was standing in the street, his arms crossed angrily.
5. Ordinarily this late at night, I would gently close the door so I wouldn’t wake anyone, but there was a psychotic killer behind me, so I slammed it. 
6. I reached under my jacket to feel what was wet and my hand came out from under my coat covered in my own blood. 
7. I would have said something different had I known it was going to be the last time I was going to see her alive.
8. In all the universes, in all the galaxies, on all the space stations, on all the docking bay substations, of all the gin joints on the promenade, she had to walk into mine.
9. Awkwardly enough, him tied and gagged to a chair was ALSO how they first met.
10. I was tired, had been tired for quite some time, and was going to continue to be tired until I killed that sick psycho.
11. If I had a nickel for every time I got turned into the feds by a bitter ex-boyfriend, I’d have 15 cents. 
12. In time, he, too, would come to hate her and loathe her very existence, but tonight she was a wondrous ball of light and happiness in a sexy, black, cocktail dress. 
13. After about three or four go’s at it, she gave up and went home, realizing she wasn’t destined for a life of crime. 
14. As I looked around the room, the smoke, the laughing, the cynicism, the lies, masks, I realized that I was in the wrong place.
15. Twisting off the cap, taking a deep breath, I leaned back and chugged, hoping to come out the other side in one piece.
16. Obviously, he was going to kill this man by the end of the night, but for now they had good brews, good ambiance, and he was good company. 
17. If I walked forward, I would walk out on stage, but if I stayed still, the man would pull the trigger. 
18. I didn’t see the attack coming, but I should have known it would come from her.
19. Somewhere along the road, at exactly what hour into the road trip I’m not sure, I began to realize how little I needed him in my life. 
20. Ostensibly, I would have to burn everything, kill everyone in the office, and and move across the country in shame if she said no, but I think it was worth it to ask her out on one date. 
21. Had I not seen him myself, I would never have believed he was alive. 
22. I read it over and over again until I was 100% sure that I just been given the order to assassinate myself. 
23. Obviously I was going to have to take matters into my own hands, and that involved a prison break.
24. "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other.
25. Over the course of the semester, she would come to love him, but right now she wanted to stab him in the neck. 
26. In that moment, I could see it all, I can feel everything, and I knew I was about to die.
27. As I glanced over, the road zooming by, I could see the train was coming, but instead of slowing down, I pushed the gas pedal to the floor. 
28. He was dead, but that didn’t seem to stop him from standing in front of me, waving awkwardly. 
29. If I stayed, I’d most likely die a painful and horrible death, but if I left, he would suffer that fate for me.

    And then that's all I've got stored up, but if you've got a preferred genre or some other alternate setting or scenario you'd like to see, I am glad to oblige.

    Any combination or any of the above. One AU setting with a single character or one item from each list with three different characters. Anything you've got, I will give it my best shot.

    And because I just realized it might make life easier to have a short review of what characters I have written and posted in the past (collected by story):

• Breen and Garrett (concentration camp survivors, alternate verse)
• Cameron Armstrong, Ruusan Schaefe/Armstrong/Vhander (kids: Vivian, Ellora, Connor) Jaydn Schaefe, Jasen Drouais, Novarr and Sarris Schaefe (Zephron verse with Penny Kearney)
• Dechlan Scott, Jandy and Jane Sparks, Teagan and Gage Daxton (mentally linked dyads, Shattered Cage)
• Gil and Lorelai (sci-fi undercover)
• Jaz O'Haire, Haydn, other teammates (amnesiac black-ops captain turned leader of Busan)
• Ianthe and Isra (twin sisters, elder taken, desert land)
• Jaq and Alec (dragon-shifter, desert land)
• Kadin (futuristic professional fighter)
• Lane and Tess (amnesia, long-lived characters)
• Anastasia and Caesar (far more established long-lived characters)
• Sean and Lindsey (neighbor kids, her parents killed in a shoot-up of the house)
• Kelsey Delanie and Sergeant Alexander Marks (military verse; soldier and nurse)
• Nuada and Argyros Sylvester, Maggie, Carson, and Max (modern fantasy)
• Tatsuo and Shard (fantasy, dragon kind and elf)

    I added some taglines for what story the characters belong to, but if you're still confused, check the tag box off to the right for the name of who you're looking for. First name and it's alphabetized, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

    Well, then. I hope this makes sense and that it piques your interest as much as it has mine. If it does and you get this incredible urge to see Jandy and Jane Sparks in a college setting, drop me a comment (or send me a message if you're connected with me elsewhere) and I'll type you up something. I will be attempting to do five-hundred word minimums, but I never know when inspiration will strike, so there could be some long ones.

    As always, thank you for following my blog and taking an interest in my writing. See this as a way of my thanking you. ^_^ 

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Writing: Train Travel and Thrift Shop + Retake on the Locker Scene

    Ha. Look at me. Posting more scribbles before a full month had passed. 

    Nothing terribly long, but it is Jandy. The first portion is continuing off my last drabble challenge, with Jandy and Gage Continuing Escapee Adventures, and then I found that I had originally written that locker room scene with Jandy and Dechlan in a notepad. So I typed that up and am throwing it in here as a bonus.


    The train hummed and thrummed around Jandy in a way that was not as soothing as having Dechlan’s activities running in the back of her head, but it was getting there. Anything besides the dead silence that had been making it difficult to concentrate during her waking hours. 
    Again, almost without meaning to or even thinking about it, she searched for him, seeking relief from the echoing quiet that made a near-physical ache rise in her chest. 
    It wasn’t as bad as when she’d lost Jane—she doubted anything would ever be as bad as that. Dechlan was still alive; their connection was unharmed, intact, just weakened by distance.
    Lost in her thoughts, Jandy wasn’t prepared when a bump on the tracks below them made the car jolt and that motion caused her to slide on her make-shift cot enough for the pain to flare across her upper abdomen. 
     A quiet gasp escaped her before she could help it. Gritting her teeth as an afterthought, Jandy tried to breathe slow and even, lying still, her mobile hand fisted, in an attempt to keep from irritating any other portion of her injured anatomy. Not an easy thing to do, to say the least.
    Jandy was just quelling the urge to give in and voice a handful of choice words—a habit Dechlan had made a point of breaking her of and the only reason she underwent the effort to not—when Gage spoke.
    “You okay?” He sounded both weary and wary, neither of which were too surprising.
    She took a moment to get herself together before speaking, reminded of how little she actually knew about either of the Daxtons in those moments.  “Yeah. I would just give a lot for a bottle of some hard alcohol right about now. Or, you know, morphine or something.”
    There was a snort of humor off to her right, out of sight. Granted, most everything was out of sight as her position on her back only put the four sides of the train car and the roof within eyesight.
    Needing a distraction, Jandy gripped the crate under her with her useable hand and used that hold to elevate herself. Gage, sitting with his back to a near identical crate on the ground, watched her progress with a cautious gaze, but didn’t offer to aid her. Yet. Jandy was grateful. She would have to learn to deal with this new, unfamiliar pain and the sooner, the better for both of them.
    Once she was upright, nails digging into the wood beneath her, she forced out “What’s the plan then, chief?”, desperate for something else to think about besides the way her injuries seemed to be set on fire, her head pounded, and everything else ached like she’d been thrown from a bull.
    The man glanced at the expensive silver watch on his wrist, the long sleeves of his dress shirt from their op the prior night rolled up past his elbows. “We’re going to get off at the next stop, which should be a fair-sized hub. We need to figure out how far we’ve come, get a new set of clothes, and see if there’s anything we can do to make movement easier for you. We’ve got a long ways to go yet.”
    The promptness of his reply told her that he’d already been working out the different steps they needed to take in order to continue further for some time.
    His reminder of their clothing state caused Jandy to hazard a glance down at her own evening wear. Former evening wear. Now she wanted to be out of the torn, blood-stained, and uncomfortable dress as soon as possible. If she hadn’t been so familiar with Gage, the state of her disattire in his presence would have made her edgy. But she was at least comfortable having him around and she wouldn’t have put it past Dechlan to read the male Daxton his right when it came to her. Or, his lack thereof.
    Four months linked mentally to Dechlan had allowed her the chance to realize just how much protecting those he cared for was a part of who he was.
    Burying the ache that rose from the loss of her counterpart’s presence, Jandelyn moved to sit on the floor, favoring her side, diagonal from Gage, and let her head lean back on the crate. They would have a few more hours of travel in this unorthodox transport and then she would get to relearn how to walk with cracked—or broken, it was hard to tell—ribs. 

//

    Jandy sat on the floor of the small thrift shop in Stoney Run, a decent-sized city with a larger train depot then anything much else, Gage had informed her, trying to recoup her energy. The not-so-stealthy walk from the far end of the train tracks had been a long, grueling excursion, even with Gage’s help. 
    Now he rifled through the racks of clothes with a focus reminiscent of Dechlan while she worked to not curl into a ball of pain. The proprieter was already eyeing them with the look of someone comfortable calling the cops on suspicious patrons. And boy, did they fit that ticket, between the visible bruises, the tangible injuries, and their attention-drawing clothing. Gage’s jacket was around her shoulders, shielding her immobilized shoulder and arm but doing nothing for the raw scrapes and deep purple marks on her legs.
    Pushing her loose hair, with only the remnants of its curl, out of her eyes, Jandy considered weighing in on what Gage was taking off the rack, but knew that whatever he got would be functional. Not pretty, but Jandy was done with dressy for a very long time. Not to mention, the fewer eyes they drew, the better for everyone. 
    Gage snapped his fingers, drawing her out of her thoughts with a jerk. “Hey. You should look at the jeans. I want to be out of here in ten minutes. Need a hand?”
    Arching a brow at him, Jandy got herself up using her good hand planted on the ground and making sure not to stretch out her damaged side. Coming to her feet brought her into the stream of burning daylight that was coming through the filthy front windows and illuminated the water-stained walls. Squinting against the light, the female turned to find the women’s pants.
    “Check for small sweatpants over there,” Jandy commented to her companion as she started rifling, looking for anything close to her size that wouldn’t be a pain to wear.
    She heard Gage pause in his own search, then resume a few beats later. “Copy. Look at the shoes, too.”
    Just what she needed—a reminder of her scraped and dirty feet, the cost of losing those admittedly-stupid heels sometime before they’d gotten on the train, while she’d been unconscious. Letting a silent sigh escape her and with her bad arm braced along her battered ribcage, Jandy settled into her seaerch, trying to keep from imagining that Decklan was nearby. 

//

    The sky had clouded over by the time they had found clothes, gotten changed, and straggled back to the rail depot. Gage left her out beside the building’s wall, the hood of her ratty sweatshirt pulled up to cast the bruises on her face in shadow. He wore a ball cap that would perform the same function along with a dark gray jacket that complimented her blue sweatshirt and faded denim jacket that was a couple sizes too large in order to accommodate both her bound arm and the sweatshirt that kept it from sight.
     Rain started to spit from the dark clouds overhead, staining the sidewalk and splattering on her pants. Jandy let her head fall back, protected under the roof’s awning. Everything was happening more quickly than she was almost able to keep up with.

    It’d been twenty-four hours since she’d stood in the bathroom back at base, feeling like she’d be ill to her stomach with nerves. Since then, she’d been a prize on Gage’s arm, had the snot beaten out of her, escaped from the organization that had killed her sister, and was now on the run with a man she knew hardly anything about. Without the man that she wanted most at her side right now.


    The only thing about Blogger is that I have to take my documents from Microsoft Word, transfer them to a Notepad, so that the format isn't totally screwy on here. Thus, it doesn't transfer over my italics, and I have to go back through and put them in and it's just a pain in general. Just to be random.

    Onto the retake! Just as a mild warning, this one could be seen as a bit more mature than the last one.


    Jandy was fairly sure that the ill-tempered European woman who’d put a day’s worth of time into her appearance would have an aneurysm—or at least a fit—if she threw up right now.
    Trembling hands gripped the edge of the locker room sink. Slow breath in, even longer out. Get it under control.
     Dechlan was detectable on the fringes of her thoughts, but he felt distracted and Jandy was fine with that because she couldn’t have handled his reaction at that moment. Anymore emotion than was already roiling in her and she really would be ill.
    The brown of her eyes had been covered with a pair of contact lenses that were an eye-drawing azure and it was that gaze that stared back at her in the mirror.
    The hard part was that Jandy knew what this was. She hadn’t been given any information on this job, but her appearance was telling.
    When she and Jane had been living in Akita, she’d juggled two full time jobs and a part time when she had the energy to spare. One of those jobs had been as a serving girl in a high-class night club—a position she’d procured by not being one of the women her age addicted to drugs—that would get crazy around two in the morning on a regular basis. 
    Right now, her attire and make-up could have rivaled that of any of the women who had walked into that club on the arm of a man who man a point of showing how deep his pockets were.
    The dark outlining to her eyes, the high pair of platform heels, the short hem and plunging back of the dress that matched her eyes. All of it had a purpose. Draw attention, intimidate lesser men, intoxicate those who thought they had a chance.
    Jandy shifted to stand up straight, ignoring her churning stomach and stepping into her shoes, all too aware of how their height had been chosen to further augment the image she’d been created to fill.
    Previously dark eyes flickered to the door, closed for the moment, then back to the mirror. Jandy wished she could say she had no idea how to be the type of woman who could fulfill this role, this… appearance. But she couldn’t, because this was who her mother had been, who her friends had been. This was the type of person she’d worked around for three years, day in and day out, and who she had learned to be when the moment called for it as a result.
    Jandy knew how to walk like those women, talk like them, smile like them. Seduce like them. That’d been the world she’d struggled to keep both herself and her sister afloat in, when everyone else had been content to drown. 
    In the back of her mind, she felt Dechlan’s focus shift to her, but knew she wasn’t ready to face his thoughts—not yet. Her ability to keep him out was far, far less impressive than his, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to drown him out for the precious few minutes that she needed.
    Finding a memory of a pounding beat, deafening lyrics, and the thump of her own heart, Jandy ran her hand through her loose hair. It, too, had undergone hours of treatment and the tousled look her short, brown locks now bore could easily have been hours of work or a happy accident, depending on the eye of the observer.
    She practiced smiling, the blood red lipstick on her lips stretching to accommodate the expression. It looked real because she’d had to learn to hide the exhaustion, the stress, the hopelessness that had weighed heavily on her shoulders as she worked to support her family of two. All for naught, as it turned out. 
    Her smile took on a sardonic edge just as there was a light rap at the door that echoed through the locker room. Then Jandy realized that Dechlan was very there in her head, despite her thoughts drowning him out, and that he was waiting for her to let him in—literally and figuratively. 


    And there we go. Scribbles! And now I need to go work on science and my parents and I are watching The Island with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. She's been kicking butt for a lot of years. 

    Thoughts, comments, and critiques are welcome, as always. Thanks for reading!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

(uber-late) Drabble Challenge: Day 31

    So. Guess who actually pulled together something to post over the last couple of days. I had hoped to post this either last night or this morning, but between my Tylenol PM (I had a multi-hour nap yesterday afternoon and wasn't taking any chances) and then having to chauffeur this morning, I didn't get it done until just now.

    Trinity, you will be pleased to hear in advance that this is Jandy and Dechlan. I sat down with Faolan and Serenity in my brain last night and ended up starting to assemble multiple short blips for these two instead. 

   At any rate. Maybe I will get a post a month this year, at this rate. 

    And, to be fair, maybe I didn't get the drabble challenge done until just now, but my last twenty-eight some posts have been good about increasingly long scrawls.


    Drabble Challenge: Day 31 - future
    Word Count: 2,598    Minimum Goal: 1,860

    Jandy knew she looked leagues away from how she usually did – seductive, untouchable, breathtaking, even – but she didn't realize how much until Dechlan stepped into the woman's locker room and paused. Not just a heartbeat, but several full moments in which he stilled entirely. 
    If it'd been any other moment, she may have tried to crack a joke, but standing on the cold tile in her bare feet because she didn't want to put on the dangerously tall heels she's been provided with, Jandy wanted nothing more to be herself again. This was not her. The black dress, draping low across her chest and lower down her back while reaching just low enough on her thighs to hide the knife scar she had. The blood-red lipstick chosen specifically to draw attention. The smoky eye shadow that allowed her to cast almost predatory glances if the moment – or Warren – should call for it. None of it, not even the artful tousle that her hair had undergone following a treatment to make the soft curls shine, and she’d never wanted it to be.
    Dechlan was still frozen, both physically and mentally. His thoughts were turning circles and she didn't try to interrupt them, dropping her gaze and tucking her chin to her chest to try and find her own composure. 
    Shifting her footing and bumping the platform stilettos waiting to be worn, Jandy crossed her arms tight over her chest and cleared her throat to rid it of the tightness. "They did a real number on me, didn't they? Warren's got an incredible budget to pull off this sort of makeover. I have no idea what runway he pulled that lady off of, but it wasn't from back home."
    Her voice unstuck her partner and she felt as Dechlan regained himself and crossed the remaining distance between them. Jandy let her gaze flicker up to meet his when his chest was in her eye-line. As usual, his face was hard to read and he was utilizing his one-sided ability to keep any specific thoughts he might have from leaking through to her. 
   "Say something, Dech." She whispered at his continued silence, searching his green eyes for some indication as to what he was thinking, manicured nails digging into the skin of her arm. "Please."
   Dechlan drew in a breath, reigning in whatever his initial reaction was because she finally felt him let down the iron wall, his emotions spilling over. Tears filled Jandy's eyes that she struggled to blink away before her makeup got ruined because she hadn't realized how alone she’d felt until that moment.
   Managing a ghost of a smile, Dechlan lifted his hands, letting his fingers catch the ends of her curling hair. Jandy’s breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t help but lean into him, trying to shield herself from the cold in the unheated space with the proximity.
   We only have a few minutes. His comment was anything but focused, his thumbs brushing across her skin, fingers still tangled amongst her dark brown curls, as much absorbed in the moment as she was. 
    Jandy didn't care about how much time they did or didn't have, she just wanted to stay there. There, in that moment where the nightmare of their reality couldn't touch them, with her partner lingering close. She glanced up at him again, searching for a way to ask him to just get them out of there. 
    His grip on her curls tightened a fraction. It's going to be fine, Jandy. You just have to trust me. 
    It wasn’t hard to feel that he was holding something back. Not that it changed anything. I do trust you. It’s Warren I don’t trust. It’s what he has planned that I don’t trust. Reaching up, she found his wrists with her hands, not seeking to push him away, just to keep the tremors from settling in. Pain curled through her chest. Who knew what the night would hold, let alone their future. If they even had one, anymore.
    Imagination took over without much trouble and her grip on Dechlan’s arms tensed before she could help it.
    Hey. 
    Dark eyes flickered up to meet flecked green. The fear-driven pounding of her heart slowed under his touch, the feel of his fingers tangling in the ends of her tousled curls quieting her racing thoughts. She had enough forewarning of the kiss he pressed to her forehead for several lingering moments that it was a comfort, not a surprise or a shock.  It felt natural. Right. 
    I talked to Gage, Dechlan’s thoughts came across as quiet, calm, focused again. 
    Jandy found it difficult to match his mindset, not ready for this to end because that would mean he would have to walk away from her. His forehead was leaned against hers, hands cradling her face and probably crushing her hair, a fact she couldn’t have cared less about. 
    Despite his awareness of how her mind wandered, the man continued, We put contingencies in play. If things don’t go like they should, as they tend to with Warren. You’ll be safe and Warren will have Teagan and I nearby, so we can gather as much intel as possible from you two to pass on to him. Just stay calm and do what Gage tells you. He has all the mission details. Alright?
    She murmured her understanding, eyes closing with oncoming weariness. 
    “Jandy.”
    The switch to verbal communication confused her enough to get her eyes open again, searching Dechlan’s face to find out where his thoughts had gone now. 
    He smiled, a true one this time, not just the partial expression from minutes prior. “You look beautiful.”
    Jandy felt tears fill her eyes, because he didn’t say it because of the dress, or the creative styling of her hair, but because she needed it.
    “Thank you, Dechlan,” she whispered, tamping down her rising emotion and hoping their quiet exchange wouldn’t reach any prying ears outside the locker room.

//

     Pounding bass and flashing lights were the only thing she knew for the first few minutes after they were allowed into the night club. That, and the press of bodies, perhaps too many, that filled the establishment. She stuck close to Gage’s side, hand tucked in the crook of his elbow to keep from getting separated.
     Jandy found she had to remind herself to keep her chin up. It’d been well over a couple of years since she’d last been in one of these types of places and when she had been, she’d been the one serving the drinks, instead of the role she’d been made to occupy now.
     “You do not go to them. You make them come to you. You are above them. If they want your attention, they must ask for it.” She hadn’t t liked that ill-tempered woman in the least, but at least her instructions for how Jandy was to act on this assignment meant she wouldn’t have to feign interest in any of the other patrons. 
    Yet, anyways. Gage had gotten his own orders. A mission and a target, no doubt. 
     What made fear twist in Jandy’s gut was not knowing what role she would be playing in this farce. The man at her side, shorter than she was used to and useless as a source of comfort, turned and the woman turned with him, past experience aiding her navigation in the death-trap heels. She let her gaze drift over the room, not settling on any one person for more than a heartbeat.
    In the back of her thoughts, Dechlan was a solid presence, not interfering, but remaining very alert to what was going on around her. It took some effort to remember to focus on the details of the club, the faces, so that he would be able to have enough facts to come to his own conclusions. Watching through each other meant that they only saw what the other took notice of. So Jandy paid attention to how many exits there were and where the private tables were, instead of on how many drinks would be easily spiked by even an amateur.
    “Wait here.” Gage had to lean close to get the message across, bringing with him an unfamiliar scent.
    Shrugging, Jandy moved to occupy a nearby stool, perching on the leather with her legs crossed, setting her clutch on the round tabletop at her elbow. She kept her features expressionless, not interested but not bored, either. Both would attract unwanted attention, which she felt she was getting too much of already. 
    
//

   The pain was unlike anything else, despite the time she'd taken a bullet from some acquaintances of her father’s, the slash of a knife across her stomach, even when Jane had died and it had felt like someone had poured acid into her head. 
    “Tell me who sent you and what you were sent to do, or she’s going to suffer more.” Easy, oily, entirely in control and comfortable that way.
    Their mark's bodyguard twisted her arm further at some unheard command, stretching the ligaments in her already dislocated shoulder further and causing the fiery pain spreading through her to burn hotter. Jandy screamed, unable to even think about quelling it. 
    She couldn't feel Dechlan, even on the fringes of her mind, as if the pain was blotting him out. She couldn't see Gage through the spots flooding her vision, even though she knew he had to be there, and the only sound ringing in her ears was her own cry of pain. 
    “I told you, I just wanted to see about making a deal. The girl’s got nothing to do with it.” Gage was on the verge of desperation; she could hear it in his voice over her gasped breaths.
   The pressure on her forearm was relinquished and Jandy collapsed on the floor, agony white hot in every nerve of her body. The tile of the floor was cold beneath her cheek, the dampness of tears on her skin collecting particles of dirt, and at first she thought someone had turned the lights off in the back room, but realization dawned a heartbeat before she blacked out, pain radiating from her right shoulder.

//

    “...Sparks...Sparks. Jandy!” 
    Unfamiliar voice, unknown surroundings, lingering memory of a burning pain and an operation that couldn’t have gone more wrong. Before she even got her eyes open, Jandy lashed out with one hand towards the voice, fingers curled back to use the heel of her palm as the impact point. The motion caused a fresh wash of liquid fire through her injured shoulder and arm, both immobilized against her chest.
    Someone caught her flailing limb with a protest of, “Hey! Come on, Sparks.”
    “Gage?” She managed, throat raw, trying to reach through the haze over her thoughts for Dechlan while blinking against the dim lighting of… wherever they were. “Where—“ Her question was cut off by a coughing fit.
    “Take it easy. I’ll explain everything.” He still had a hold on her hand, and now used that grip to pull her upright, the other reaching to steady her once she was up.
    Jandy focused on the man before her, the combination of dizziness and pain making her feel ill. “Water?” She croaked out, still trying to find her partner in their connection and the lack of his presence starting to cause fear to well up in her chest.
    A bottle was produced without comment and Gage opened it with a deft twist, offering it to her. A second glance at his face revealed some severe bruising and a swollen lip. He hadn’t gotten off scot-free either, it seemed.
    Her first instinct was to reach for the water with her right hand—the one that was wound tight with makeshift bandages from wrist to shoulder and bound against her torso—an instinct she didn’t find difficult to quell when even an attempt at movement drew a groan. Nope, she wouldn’t be using that side of her body for a while. Actually, if she focused, breathing hurt too, along her right side. That would have to come later, though.
    The Daxton twin pressed the water into her left hand when she failed to take it after a few moments. “Drink, then think, since you can’t seem to do both.”
    If Jandy had felt any better, she would expended the effort to find a comeback for that, but she was exhausted. So she lifted the plastic bottle to her lips, careful to make sure she could even get it that far, with the weakness that caused her limbs to shake.
    While the liquid settled, the woman took a moment to observe her surroundings for the first time, letting Gage take the water and put the cap back on it. 
    The air was still around them, but when she focused, there were subtle vibrations that passed through the… boxes she was sitting on. It wasn’t a large space, and the only light was coming from a small window up over their heads. The size of it reminded her of…
    “A train car? What are we doing on a train?” And where is Dechlan? And your sister?
    Gage shifted from his crouch to sit on the ground, setting the bottle of water in a nearby backpack that was tucked between two more crates. “We are taking the most expedient means away from Warren and his center of control. Which is this.”
    She settled her focus on him, taking in a breath to keep calm and steadying herself when the train swayed around them with her left hand planted on the box beneath her. The cost of a daring escape would no doubt be easy access to painkillers. And new clothes. It had taken a belated minute to realize she still wore the dirty and torn dress from… the prior day? “Things went south last night?”
    He nodded. “Yeah. Our mark was onto us from the start.”
    “And I suppose there’s a good reason that Teagan and Dechlan aren’t here right now?” Jandy aimed for nonchalant and failed, breath catching in her throat. She was already in too much pain to deal with what Gage would have to tell her about their missing partners.
    “They said—well, Dechlan said through my sister to just get out. He gave me a name to use against our mark—you’re going to have to tell me how he knows this stuff—and they let me leave with you. With a few death threats, of course.”
    “Of course,” she murmured, squeezing her eyes shut to combat a new pounding making itself known in her head. There still wasn’t great clarity going on upstairs and it was going to keep her from searching for Dechlan for the time being. No matter how much distance got put between them, she still should’ve been able to at least feel him. “What’s the plan, then?”
     “We’re going to the coast, to New Washington. Dechlan and Teagan are going to try and rendezvous with us, but is they don’t show up by the end of the month, we’re supposed to get out of the country.”
    Helplessness closed her throat. “I can’t do that, Gage. I can’t—“ ...leave him. He’s all that’s left.
    A similar emotion was reflected in the male’s hazel eyes as he managed a humorless smirk. She’d left behind her—her pillar and he’d left behind his twin sister. They were in the same boat and right now, it was hard not to feel like they were both going to sink.
    

    ...And yeah. I have no idea how this turned out. I got it written, and that's enough for me, so I will let you all decide on if it's pathetic or not. 

    I do have some idea of the next portion, so maybe it won't be another month before you see anything from me, but we'll see. It's all up in the air with me. 

    Happy March to you all and a fantabulous April, if I probably won't be posting again until then. As always, muchas gracias for the patience.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Happy Valentine's Day!

    I don't have anything to post as a gift (though I'll look into it later today) but I wanted to wish you guys, who are infinitely patient with me, a Happy Valentine's Day. ^_^

    Here's to hoping that somebody in your lives gives you a hug and maybe something sweet and thank you again for hanging in there!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulties.