Title: I'm Falling For Your Eyes (But They Don't Know Me Yet)
Pairing/Characters: Callie Torres/Arizona Robbins, Callie Torres/Owen Hunt, mentions of Teddy Altman, various other canon characters
Rating: PG
Summary: "I think you'll know."
Word Count: ~3000
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Spoilers: the recent, AU episode 8x13 If/Then, allusions to previous encounters between them
Author's Note: I just really enjoyed the idea of Callie and Arizona finding their way to each other, even if it wasn't in their original reality. Hence, this. Thanks to starbuck_river/starbuckriver and dealan311/dealanexmachina for looking over this.

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( There's something about Callie that Arizona can't put her finger on. )

Title: Little Bird Courage
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings/Characters: Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena Ravenclaw/Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin
Summary: She remembers the last war here: the man with the charming smile whose mouth suddenly turned the wrong way, the desperation in the eyes of the students, the fear in her mother’s voice, the way Helga’s grip felt so tight Helena was sure she was going to stop breathing eventually.
Word Count: ~800
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Spoilers: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author's Note: Okay, let me explain. This is based off a headcanon of mine, that Helena's name is Helga and Rowena put together. And I don't remember why I started writing this (me and starbuck_river did a fic swap, actually) but this is the end result. I make all the apologies in the world.

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( She remembers the last war here. )

I haven’t had to deal with this until tonight.

It was easy to pretend that he wasn’t actually gone. It was easy to chalk it up to my busy schedule - Oh, I’ll just see E tomorrow. I wouldn’t have been able to make lunch today anyway, I’ve just been so busy. It was easy to pretend that he went home for a weekend, or I went home, or he was probably out playing basketball, causing trouble somewhere. He always caused trouble, even when he tried really hard not to.

I think it’s because he’s loyal to a fault. Because he was loyal to a fault. Because we’d go to a party and someone would say something about a kid he knew once through some guy he met at a game one day and E was just that guy who didn’t throw the first punch but he sure as hell provoked it.

He was a good friend, the best kind. You couldn’t walk through the café without him being there, corner seat at the corner table, hollering at everyone he knew. He’d grab you by the arm and pull you over to the empty chair and tell you to fill him in on everything he missed since you talked last.

He was E, man. Everyone knew who he was and he tried to know everyone, too.

And I haven’t had to accept the fact that he’s gone until last night. I knew it. I knew this summer, when I got a call from a mutual friend. It’s bad, Kait. I knew that things like this happened, you know. The right person in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was turning his life around, getting out of his old crowd. He picked up a tutor and was emailing me his papers to look over and he played ball every day. Not just pickup, but ball, the way it was meant to be played – with heart and spirit and a love of the game that only some people have. I knew things like this happened, but I didn’t know they happened to the kids who deserved to live a long, long life. I didn’t realize it would happen to a kid with a smile so wide we all thought he must have had some kind of permanent crease in his face from grinning so much. I didn’t realize it would happen to a kid like that, with so many possibilities ahead of him, to a kid taking those opportunities and possibilities and doing something with them.

Tonight, I had to accept that he’s gone. That I won’t stumble upon him in the library, chair tipped back onto two legs, his earphones pulsating so loudly I can make out every word on the new Jay-Z album, tapping a pencil like a drumstick, homework open and half-done. That I won’t find him in the café, holding court over how the Celtics are going big this season. That he won’t show up at my work, press his face against the glass and tell me that I need to have a little fun. That he won’t be in the small gym, shooting foul shots until his legs are stuck, bent at the knee. I had to accept that he’s not a phonecall, or a facebook message, or a text, or a tweet away. He’s gone. He’s gone and all I’ve got left is a stupid, two-bit t-shirt he left me. Just a goddamn t-shirt that’s supposed to represent all he was and all he could have been.

Is that fair? A t-shirt? Just some fucking t-shirt? A t-shirt and a plaque on the gym door and that’s it? That’s all he is, now?

I know he’s more than that – he’s memories and late-night library sessions and one disastrous double date to the pizza place on Main Street – but all I have to hold in my hands is a t-shirt and a plaque and the burning sensation of his mom hugging me that I can feel everywhere, even though I showered twice tonight, just to make the feeling of her heaviness go away.

I didn’t have to deal with this until tonight and now I don’t even know how to deal with it at all.

Title: Somewhere There's a Place for Us
Pairing: Santana Lopez/Brittany Pierce
Summary: She knows she’ll make a good Anita. It’s inevitable, really. But when Brittany says it, Santana actually believes it in a way she doesn’t believe it when Artie or Shelby says it.
Word Count: ~2800
Disclaimer: i own nothing
Spoilers: 3x05 First Time
Author's Note: you have dealan311 to blame for this. it was kind of short but she asked all these questions that I just had to appease her.

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( knows she’ll make a good Anita. It’s inevitable, really. But when Brittany says it, Santana actually believes it in a way she doesn’t believe it when Artie or Shelby says it. )

In an effort to be on livejournal more, I decided to do this meme, and with the help of the great starbuck_river, I present you with this:

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

( Fic, Apples and Runaway Fridges )

Title: Between The Lost Boy and Tiger Lily
Pairing: Mike Chang/Quinn Fabray
Summary: It starts when Mike finds a Starburst wrapper in between the pages of Fahrenheit 451.
Word Count: ~2,350
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's Note: written for firecracker_x for the glee_rare_pairs challenge. The prompt was: Mike/Quinn - Nerdy bromance. It can be romantic or gen, as you prefer (no angst). This is what happened.
Author's Note 2: There might be slight spoilers for various books in this fic. Approach with caution.

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( It starts when Mike finds a Starburst wrapper in between the pages of <i>Fahrenheit 451</i>. )

Oh, hi, LiveJournal. It's been what? Two months? I think it's been two months, exactly. Which is so weird. And hasn't happened in a while. Real life has been... well, it's been all kinds of crazy. Between my senior year starting and trying to work out student teaching and thinking long term -  graduating and getting a job and moving on from college and stuff - things have just been so hectic.

Not that there hasn't been a lot of awesome in between. Like, to blow off some steam, the other night, me and my housemates got in my car, turned Beyonce up and drove. We ended up at a convenience store in Vermont (which isn't far from school) and came back with scratch tickets, ice cream and old fashioned root beer. Yeah, that's the life I lead.

The other night, we lay in the street, Notebook-style and waited until a car came. Actually, we waited until we couldn't feel our asses anymore, which was quick, because it's effing Fall in New England. (Yeah, it's that important that it needs to be capitalized.)

Well, in a few minutes, I'm gonna be posting the first story I've written in... longer than two months. It's for the glee_rare_pairs challenge. And it's het. But light. I don't even know. I just love Mike Chang and I want him to be happy. 

Oh well.

Here goes nothing.

So, this just happened:



And yeah, she totally responds to everyone, which is awesome in and of itself, but this just kind of capped off what seems to be a really good night.

So, there.

Okay, I'm better.

I've accepted that I didn't pass the MTELs and promptly signed up for the next test. The good news is, because the results of the first test came out after the deadline for registration of the second test (and was during the late registration period) I had my late fee waived. So that's an extra $30.00 saved. And my grandparents, God I love them so, paid for the test for me, on account of me having almost no money.

And work has been a lot better. After a seriously rough, rough day (where I could no longer comprehend the stupidity of humanity and had just about had it with my boss, who, bless his soul, honestly, is not doing well. And by that, I mean he's not even the same man who hired me six years ago. He's hostile and angry and yells at everyone about the smallest things and watching him deteriorate so quickly is heartbreaking), I decided that these last couple of shifts were going to be the best shifts ever. And then, I went into work that very next day and found that the afternoon shift had do nothing. They didn't clean anything, they didn't restock anything AND I was three minutes late to work, but by the time I got there, their cars weren't even in the parking lot. So, after ranting for a bit, I decided that I was going to make a sign and post it on the schedule wall. It reads:

ATTENTION
All daytime employees:
The afternoon checklist must be completed before you leave for the night.

One of the girls I work with goes, I thought you were going to be the nicest employee ever? I said, yeah, I am. That's why I'm making the sign and not talking to them about it.

I can't wait to get back to work in the spring. I have plans. I'm going to overhaul this job, for real. We're going to have daily goals and daily assignments until the place runs the way it used to, when I first started out. Because the employees my boss's son hired are shit. Half of them don't show up (and when half of them do, they're excellent workers, which is depressing for the rest of us when they don't show) and half of them are idiots. If he had taken the time to interview them, honestly, he would have realized why he shouldn't hire them.

I'm ranting. Bad ranting. Back to the good.

Me and my little brother went out last night, as sort of our final hang out night before we both go back to school. We went to this new hibachi place that just opened up and it was delicious. We sat with a family of six, whose elder couple was celebrating their wedding anniversay. So our chef starting cutting up zucchini and tossing it up so we could catch it in our mouth. Well, the youngest of the other family went, didn't catch a thing. Then the chef tried the other brother. Nadda. He went through the two girls with no result and finally, the dad caught it on his sixth or seventh try. The mom was a disaster. Then my brother goes - BAM! Caught it on the first try. The chef turns to me and I'm all, absolutely not, get out of here but he tosses it anyway and BAM! I caught it on the first try too. The family clapped for us and it was awesome. We also saw The Change Up. It actually had a lot more nudity and swearing than I would have thought but it was high-larious and I love Ryan Renoylds. And Olivia Wilde! I'd watch anything with her in it. (I have watched almost everything with her in it. Including that shit-tastic Year One movie.)

And yesterday, I picked up my new glasses. This morning I finally figured out what they look like. Section men, from the 40's and 50's. I AM ONE STEP CLOSER TO LIVING A LIFE RIGHT OUT OF A JD. SALINGER NOVEL.

AND! I used chopsticks the whole time we were out to dinner. Clumsily, I might add, but I used them. yesssirrr should be so proud.

EDIT: Oh, and yesssirrr made my day even better yesterday, when her mail finally got here. I love Kit Kats right out of the fridge.

Things have been going well. Better than well. Things have been so great lately, that I stopped always looking over my shoulder for something wrong. And I was so focused on how great everything was that I stopped looking over my shoulder and when I stopped looking over my shoulder, life kicked me in the ass.

I didn't pass my MTEL exam. I got a 238 out of the required 240, and that means I failed. I was off by 2 points. I almost wish I didn't know what my score was. No, scratch that. I definitely wish I didn't know what my score was. Because knowing that I failed is one thing. Knowing that I failed by 2 points? That's a whole 'nother punch to the gut that I just can't take. On top of that, my car went in for a checkup today and the mechanic called to tell me that I need to replace the entire exhaust system. The front exhaust had a hole, the muffler had a hole and the third piece of that puzzle was rotted so bad that it was crumbling. He had the parts and was able to fix it today, but for the wonderfully unaffordable price of $911.46. I mean, I pay 3 student loan bills - and don't even get me started on those - plus car insurance, monthly. I don't think my bank account even has money left, because of this repair. But it's necessary, because I need my car for the student teaching I can't do until I pass my test.

They say bad things happen in threes. I wish the third thing would just hurry up so I can be done with this already.

Oh, hey there, LiveJournal. Long time, absolutely no posting. Anyway, I was stumbling today (as I do, every night, almost) and I came across this list called "30 Books To Read Before You're 30" and it's actually a list I'd kind of be interested in completing. So, I'm going to post it here, too and maybe you guys could see if it interests you or not. I'd be curious to know if anyone else is going to make this a goal of theirs. The good news is, I've read a few of these and I own a few more but have never read them.

I know it's not any type of official list, but I still feel comfortably accomplished.

A user at perfectlyprompted.wordpress.com posted:

 I first saw this list a few months back on Marc and Angel Hack Life, (A great site full of useful information, if you have not already checked it out I highly suggest you do!) and I thought it would be fitting to share it here. Most writers share a love for reading and this list ‘30 Books Everyone Should Read Before Their 30th Birthday.’ Check them off, or check them out(of the local library) either way Here are some great books that every writer (and reader) can appreciate.

I'm going back to school relatively soon (and need to be sufficiently distracted - more to follow on why later) and even though I have a long, long list of things I need to be writing already, I'm also looking for something... fresh. It feels like all my to-do list is stale.

So, if you guys have a prompt for fandoms (I reserve the right to veto any fandom, though) or pairing (same fandom rule applies), then this is the place to leave it, right in the comments. That was so not... eloquent. I don't even know. But I am serious.

Think of a prompt.

Leave me a prompt.

We'll see how it all turns out.

I keep trying to write and all I end up with is a piece of paper more empty than what I started with.

Sigh.

Title: Of How You Ended Up Here
Fandoms: Legend of the Seeker/Game of Thrones
Pairing/Character: Cara Mason/Kahlan Amnell, Catelyn Stark, Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Robb Stark, mention of various other characters from both fandoms
Summary: Another name day passes before a Lannister is brought before Catelyn Stark on the charge of plotting to murder her son Bran.
Word Count: ~4000
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's Note: this is entirely the_girl_20's fault.

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( The name Mason is given to the bastard children on the West, born to the family of the Lions. )

Title: The Shoes We're Not Filling
Pairing/Characters: Santana Lopez/Brittany S. Pierce, Lord Tubbington, OCat (original cat)
>Summary: There has always been a plan to get out of Lima. They mended the plan to fit their lives.
Word Count: ~1200
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: based off the following request: OMG I need a ficlet or something where Santana gives Brittany a kitten because she’s sad she couldn’t bring Lord Tubbington or Charity with them to (NY, Chicago, L.A., don’t curr) because they were too old to make the trip.
Author's Note 2: posted this on my tumblr forever ago

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( Santana mends the plan. Again. )