Three Stories

[katleept]

Three more stories for the womenverse land comm pre-holiday gift giving challenge. If you join, be sure to tell them Kat Lee of Team Flips sent you!



Working Title: A Ghostbuster and His Catch
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Ghostbusters
Character/Pairing: Egon/Janine
Rating: G/K
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 701
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.



She's always loved reading. She enjoys even the trashiest of romance stories, but she especially enjoys a tale with a strong heroine who doesn't always need rescuing. In fact, that's why she came to the library today: to get the latest release from her favorite author, whose heroines and heroes never disappoint. Normally, she would've had to have pleaded with Egon to come with her for some companionship, but he readily came to the library -- and has been engrossed in the nonfiction section ever since.

Janine sighs as she waits for some one to come to the counter to check her out. She'll probably end up having to wait on him instead of vice versa, but at least he had come with her. She had gotten to see his wonderful smile a few times on the trip over, and their hands had brushed once. She sighs again, remembering, and pushes her glasses back up onto her own nose.

Idly, she taps a foot. The librarian still hasn't shown, and she's beginning to grow impatient. She pops the gum she shouldn't be chewing before looking down at her book. She starts flipping through a few pages before an excerpt catches her eye. She leans forward onto the counter as she reads about the heroine actually rescuing her man and wishes she could be more like that woman. If she could rescue Egon, maybe he'd finally realize she was a woman who wanted his affections, not just a coworker.

"Can I help you?"

She barely glances up at the nasal voice. "Yeah. I wanna check out this book."

"Sure. Just let me see it."

She starts to pass the book to the person she believes to be the librarian when a large ball of oozing slime drops onto the cover of her book. She screams, releasing the book and throwing herself backwards away from the ghost who smiles grisly at her. Laughing, the ghost rises over the counter and lunges at Janine just as she's caught by a strong pair of hands.

"Janine, are you okay?"

She nods, though physically pale. "Uh huh. G-Ghost."

Without any further thought or words, Egon pushes her gently behind him and lowers his gun. She watches as he braces himself, then fires. He misses the ghost twice but then grabs her as lunges at him. It takes Egon seconds to suck the ghost into his trap.

Then he's at Janine's side, clearly concerned. His hands roam her body, checking for injuries, and she hides nothing, leaning closer to him instead. Her book and its heroine are nearly completely forgotten now, but as Egon worries over her, Janine finds herself admitting silently that sometimes, it's better not to be a heroine and to just be a damsel in distress. At least that way, she thinks dreamily, your hero comes to you.

She glances up at Egon, her dreamy feeling clear in her eyes. "My hero," she breathes.

Realizing what he's doing, Egon drops his hands from her body and blushes deeply. "H-hardly," he murmurs, fumbling and unsure again of what to do with himself or his limbs. She wishes she was bold enough to grab his hands and place them back onto her body. "I was simply at the right place at the right time."

She starts to speak, but the words won't come. She's no heroine. She can't even tell him that his right place is with her, but she does smile at him when he offers her his hand and lets him pull her to her feet. "Shall . . . Shall I accompany you home?"

"Yes." There are a thousand other things she'd prefer him to do, but she doesn't have the courage to ask him for any of them. Maybe one day, she thinks whimsically. Maybe one day she'll have the courage of the heroines she reads in her books. Maybe one day she'll be bold enough to capture her own man. Maybe one day she'll have him exactly where she wants him and will never let go of him again. But for today, she satisfies herself with being the only woman bold enough to walk out the library's swinging doors with a Ghostbuster and his catch.

The End




Working Title: Return of the Storm
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: X-Men
Character/Pairing: Storm, past T'Challa/Storm
Rating: PG/K+
Warning(s): SPOILERS!
Word Count: 1,002
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to Marvel comics and Disney, not the author, and are used without permission.



She stands before her mirror and faces herself, a woman she barely recognizes this day. Memories of her past drift through her mind. She has been so many things throughout her life. She was worshipped as a Goddess by a people whom she believed herself to be helping, but then Charles found the lost child within her, the child who was still just trying to find a way to survive the wilds of Africa while desperately missing her parents.

Charles Xavier filled a void in Ororo's life that she had not been aware of until he had reentered her world. He gave her much more than just passage to America. With him, she learned so many things, including, or so she'd thought at the time, both the woman she wanted to be and the woman she actually was. She fought hard to be that woman, Ororo remembers, including the lives of many friends and the one chance at love she'd thought she would never have.

And when she lost that chance, she thought it would never come again. She has had many teasing relationships, but very men have actually come to hold her and care for her as the woman inside the Goddess. She's had very many more friends than boyfriends or lovers. Thunder rumbles outside as she remembers how she let them all down.

She got another chance for love, and she ran for it. She flew for it. She left behind her friends and family, the world in which she'd actually been making a real difference. She left behind everything for one man, who in turn hurt her and tried to control her. Lightning cuts through the darkening sky; winds rise, whipping at buildings, cars, and everything else they can touch that was made by the hands of man yet leaving the plants and trees alone and safe.

She even left her plants, Ororo remembers, a fire burning deep inside of her. It wasn't the first time she'd shirked her duties, but with the Morlocks, she'd had little choice. She had had to choose between them and the X-Men, and at the time, she'd readily chosen her family and left the one other woman capable of protecting the Morlocks in charge of them. She doesn't hold any special fondness for Callisto, but at least, she never ran from her family -- not that Ororo knows of.

A razor buzzes in her hands. She became a person she didn't like, a woman she didn't want to be, all in the name of love. She left her home and family again not to be a Goddess this time but to be a Queen, which was just as bad, especially as the King never treated her as she'd thought he would. She watches as locks of her ivory white hair fall and wishes it was as easy to make her past fall away.

Her past, she knows, will always be with her, from the time she was first orphaned and even earlier, those precious few memories she has of her time with her parents, to this most recent catastrophe, where she left her family to be with a man in hopes of finally having love again. But there are other parts of her past, she remembers, too. There have been times when she hasn't let down those she loves but rather raised them up and even saved. She has saved millions. She's saved her team, her family, and the world many times over.

She was once a proud woman, but underneath T'Challa, she almost completely lost herself. She remembers the true woman within, though. She remembers the woman who would not back down from any fight with a cause worth fighting for, the woman who protected her team and kept them as hers even when she was stripped without powers. She remembers the woman who would stop at nothing to protect her family. She remembers the woman who cried when Charles was lost from them and tried to shut herself away.

That woman is still very much alive, despite having buried many of her friends. She is still there, still within her, and as one lock after another joins the growing pile of her hair on the floor, Ororo begins to see that woman emerge once more. She looks at the bold, African woman who she knows many men, and even some women, would call beautiful. She looks at herself no longer underneath T'Challa's control. She sees once more the woman who will fight to the death to protect her family and save the future of mutantkind.

Her lips curve upward into a smile. "Welcome back, old friend," she whispers as she lays the razor down. At one time, she might have thought this silly, but she remembers what Jean told her the first time she helped her to dress up. A woman should never dress up for a man. She should always dress for herself. If she dressed the part she wanted to be, if she acted like the woman she wanted to be, she would inevitably become that woman.

She misses Jean. She misses every one from that time in her life for although several of them are still with the team, none of them are as they were then. The past can never fully return, but every one carries their past with them. She turns in her mirror, eyeing herself. Her mohawk is complete, but her length remains as well, a symbol of the past that always follows.

She misses them all, Ororo thinks, laying the razor back down. A part of her even misses T'Challa or, at least, the man she'd thought he was. But she is back. She is back where she belongs with her rightful people, with her family, with her X-Men, and although she may look back, she will never again go back. Thunder blasts her triumph. The Storm has returned and it is here where she belongs with her people where she will always stay.

The End




Working Title: The Queen's Tree
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Character/Pairing: Emma/Regina
Rating: PG/K+
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 1,380
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.



"Place your hands on it, Swan."

"Okay, now you're just being silly."

"Do you want to learn or not?"

"Of course I want to learn!"

"Then put your hands on it."

"Regina -- "

"Do as I say!"

"Why? Because you're the Queen?"

"No, Swan, because I'm trying to teach you."

Fire danced in each woman's eyes as she stared down the other one. "Unless, of course, as I said before," Regina amends her last sentence, "if you don't to learn. My time is very valuable, Miss Swan, and I have far better things to do with it than to teach some one like you."

"What's that supposed to mean? Some one like me? Some one good? A Savior? Henry's birth mother?"

"No." Regina scowls so darkly that Emma fully believes the sun has slipped behind a cloud just to hide from the wrath of the Evil Queen. Still, she glowers at her, stubbornly unwilling to budge. "A nonbeliever."

"What do you mean? Of course, I believe! I broke the curse, didn't I?" And yet, both women note that she has become defensive at last.

"Sure. You broke the curse. Henry helped you. It takes two for True Love's kiss to actually work. But you still don't believe in magic, not really. You believe there's some little inkling of it in this town, but you continue to refuse that it is all around us, as much a part of life, of us, and of our world as the air we are breathing."

"Whatever."

"Just touch it."

"I'm not going to -- "

"Fine," snaps Regina, dark eyes blazing. "Then we have nothing more to discuss here. Excuse me, but I need to pick up my son from school."

"Henry doesn't get out for another hour."

"An hour I am not about to waste any further with you, Swan."

"Fine. Fine. I'm touching it." Emma gasps suddenly and pulls her hand back. Tentatively, she reaches back to the object and again almost snatches her hand away when she feels something thrumming underneath her fingertips. She lift wide eyes to Regina, who smiles wisely, and more than a bit sarcastically, in response.

"Did you really think I had nothing to teach you with my apple tree, Miss Swan?"

"It feels . . . alive."

"Of course it does, because it is alive. Everything in this land, every little plant, every tree, every animal is alive. Those of us who walk on two legs may be superior, but we are far from the only living beings in this world. Now reach deeper. Ask it how it felt when you severed its limb with your chainsaw."

By this time, feeling the bark almost seeming to breathe underneath her hand, Emma is quivering slightly inside, but she's not about to back down or let Regina know that she is shaken. If her mother had been teaching her, she might well have asked her if she had to do, but Regina's commands were firm. Still, she was scared as she asked, "How . . . How do you feel? This is stupid," she growls, angry at both Regina for making her do this and herself for placing imaginary feelings onto a tree.

A shock of pain flares through the tree's bark and into Emma's flesh. She yells as she jerks away from it, and her eyes widen again when she sees her hand becoming red and blistered where it had been touching the tree. "It burned me!"

"You cut off its arm," Regina wastes no time in pointing out.

"I didn't know it was real."

"Precisely, Miss Swan. You take for granted everything around us, just as you do with magic. Now you hurt my tree. What are you going to do about it now that you know it's a living, breathing creature?" It also hold more than a small amount of Regina's magic, and she had felt its pain when Emma had attacked it to get her attention. Of course, those are two more things Regina will never tell Emma just as the Savior will never admit her fear to the Queen.

"I . . . " Regina tries to ignore the way Emma's teeth toy with her bottom lip, but her eyes still trail back to her mouth. "I'm sorry?"

Regina snorts her derision.

"Well, that was very ladylike."

"I never said I was a lady, Swan." Her eyes narrow at her. "I'm the Evil Queen, in case I need to remind you. I'm not known for being a lady, but there are things I can do, even without magic, that would blow your mind."

Emma snorts this time. "Yeah, right," she shoots back, but then looks at the tree. She knows there are things Regina could teach her -- things much grander and more emotional than mere magic tricks. "What do you want me to do?"

"Join with me."

"Excuse me?!"

"Take my hand, Miss Swan."

Reluctantly, Emma slips her good hand into Regina's left hand. She watches as the Queen steps delicately around her tree and realizes her intentions a moment too late as she takes her other hand, despite Emma's sharp cry of pain, and wraps their arms around the tree. "Now look at the damage you created," Regina instructs, "and picture the tree whole again."

Emma's never felt sillier in her life than she does at times here in Storybrooke. This moment, hugging a tree with the Evil Queen, is the worst of them all so far, but when she tries to tug free, Regina holds her steadfastly to the spot. It's almost as though she's rooted her there to stay forever beside her tree. "You're not going anywhere," Regina tells her, "until you've at least tried to heal my tree."

"It's just a stupid tree," Emma shoots back, though the throbbing blister on her hand protests differently. "What's the big deal? You can get another one."

"Not like this one. This one came from the Enchanted Forest, but that's beside the point. It's another thing of mine upon which you have intruded and damaged, and this time, you're going to fix it." Regina's sharp fingernails dig into Emma's flesh.

"Fine, fine!" Emma rolls her eyes. "I'll try." It is the least she can do now that she has felt the tree's spirit and knows it to be alive. She just wishes she didn't have to do it with Regina. She'd rather not do anything with her, and besides, there's no way this is going to work.

"Hush," commands Regina. "Focus. Focus on the spot where you severed its limb. Picture it whole again."

A warmth begins to spread through Emma as she gazes at that spot and feels the tree's spirit moving between her arms. She glances at Regina. She's tilted her head back, and her eyes are closed. A warm light flushes her face. Emma watches as the Queen's lips lift into a smile, and for just one moment in time, she realizes that the evil woman can actually be very pretty and almost . . . yes, almost royal, too.

"Regina -- "

"Sh." She squeezes Emma's hands so hard that her mind is forced back to the tree between them. She looks up at the place where Regina told her to focus her concentration and gasps softly for a limb is indeed beginning to grow from the tree. Squinting her eyes, she does as Regina has commanded and tries to focus all of her attention onto that one spot. She is completely amazed as the limb grows to completion.

"Wow!" she breathes a moment after Regina has released her hands. "We did it! We really did it!"

"Of course." Regina turns from her. "Now I really do have to go pick up my son."

"Our son." Quietly, Emma corrects her.

Regina pretends not to hear her as she stalks away from her, but she pauses at only a few feet. "Oh, and Miss Swan?"

"Yeah?"

She shoots a powerful glare at her over her lithe shoulder. "Do try not to cut up anything else of mine."

Emma almost smiles as she answers, "Of course."

Regina's gone in a flash after that but not without thinking that it will be nice to be able to have a picnic lunch again with Henry sometime underneath their favorite tree. Even the Queen doesn't realize that one day a third person, a certain, blonde Savior, will make their duo a trio.

The End