feather_qwill (
feather_qwill) wrote2008-10-25 10:38 pm
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Cheap Tea & Science Labs [PG - Papa D/Vesca - PSoH]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
cheloya!!!!
Title: Cheap Tea & Science Labs
Fandom: PSoH
Pairing/Characters: Papa D/Vesca
Rating: PG
Words: 543 - pretty well the longest ever, so feel special, birthday-girl.
Notes/Summary: Papa D and Vesca; how they met and how they were.
The professor, who does not like foreigners, will not give D a key to the laboratory.
This is a problem, but it is one that is easily enough remedied. There are many young and hormonal students with access, and the D have always been attractive to humans.
Father would be displeased to know his methods, to know that he is trading off on the genetic fluke that doomed their ancestor. He does not care. His way is efficient and it is easy.
It is easy to manufacture an accidental first meeting. It is easy to call upon a young man’s sympathy for an unfair situation. It is easy to get himself invited over for beer and pizza. It is even easy to take the young man to bed.
It turns out that it is not so easy to get the young man to actually hand over the key so that he can make a duplicate.
D grits his teeth as the young man natters on about responsibility and trust and how “Dee” can certainly “come with” to the lab any time he wants.
But no, he can’t have his own key.
———
D smiles and says thank you and then sticks the box of Tetley’s Earl Grey as far to the back of the cupboard as he can.
Tea. In bags.
The young man, whose name is Vesca-Howell-call-me-Vesca, has become a permanent fixture in his life. Not, he stresses, from choice.
He tries very hard to be nice to Vesca, the way that Father is nice to customers, because it is important that Vesca likes him and doesn’t take off and leave D without access to his special projects. He doesn’t always succeed, because Vesca is extremely irritating and seems to find it amusing when he’s rude.
“Don’t you want to have some now?” Vesca says.
D stares at him, blank.
“The tea,” Vesca prods, “It’s cold today.”
“Oh,” D says, “Yes, of course.”
He looks longingly at the small tin of golden monkey that he’d had imported from China and puts the water on to boil.
———
They’re sitting in D’s apartment, drinking more of the awful stuff that Tetley persists in calling tea, and Vesca has just informed him that they will be having dinner with his family.
“Why?”
“You’re my best friend, Dee,” Vesca says, “Of course they want to meet you.”
“If I’m your best friend, then you should let me copy your key.” D says, sour.
Vesca looks right at him.
“If I did that, I’d never see you again.”
D shifts uncomfortably on the couch. It is, of course, true; but he’d hardly intended Vesca to know that.
“So!” Vesca says, “I’ll pick you up at four.”
———
There’s nothing more to do, nothing more that he can do. His experiments yielded valuable data, but ultimately failed.
D doesn’t take anything with him except for his fish; he even leaves the plants behind. He moves to Arizona, which is hot and empty and dry. The house he rents is small and also empty.
It’s silly, but when he goes to the grocery store to fill his pantry, he picks up a box of cheap bag-tea: Tetley’s Earl Grey.
He doesn’t think about it too much.
end.
There you go! I hope it satisfies your birthday wishes.
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Title: Cheap Tea & Science Labs
Fandom: PSoH
Pairing/Characters: Papa D/Vesca
Rating: PG
Words: 543 - pretty well the longest ever, so feel special, birthday-girl.
Notes/Summary: Papa D and Vesca; how they met and how they were.
The professor, who does not like foreigners, will not give D a key to the laboratory.
This is a problem, but it is one that is easily enough remedied. There are many young and hormonal students with access, and the D have always been attractive to humans.
Father would be displeased to know his methods, to know that he is trading off on the genetic fluke that doomed their ancestor. He does not care. His way is efficient and it is easy.
It is easy to manufacture an accidental first meeting. It is easy to call upon a young man’s sympathy for an unfair situation. It is easy to get himself invited over for beer and pizza. It is even easy to take the young man to bed.
It turns out that it is not so easy to get the young man to actually hand over the key so that he can make a duplicate.
D grits his teeth as the young man natters on about responsibility and trust and how “Dee” can certainly “come with” to the lab any time he wants.
But no, he can’t have his own key.
———
D smiles and says thank you and then sticks the box of Tetley’s Earl Grey as far to the back of the cupboard as he can.
Tea. In bags.
The young man, whose name is Vesca-Howell-call-me-Vesca, has become a permanent fixture in his life. Not, he stresses, from choice.
He tries very hard to be nice to Vesca, the way that Father is nice to customers, because it is important that Vesca likes him and doesn’t take off and leave D without access to his special projects. He doesn’t always succeed, because Vesca is extremely irritating and seems to find it amusing when he’s rude.
“Don’t you want to have some now?” Vesca says.
D stares at him, blank.
“The tea,” Vesca prods, “It’s cold today.”
“Oh,” D says, “Yes, of course.”
He looks longingly at the small tin of golden monkey that he’d had imported from China and puts the water on to boil.
———
They’re sitting in D’s apartment, drinking more of the awful stuff that Tetley persists in calling tea, and Vesca has just informed him that they will be having dinner with his family.
“Why?”
“You’re my best friend, Dee,” Vesca says, “Of course they want to meet you.”
“If I’m your best friend, then you should let me copy your key.” D says, sour.
Vesca looks right at him.
“If I did that, I’d never see you again.”
D shifts uncomfortably on the couch. It is, of course, true; but he’d hardly intended Vesca to know that.
“So!” Vesca says, “I’ll pick you up at four.”
———
There’s nothing more to do, nothing more that he can do. His experiments yielded valuable data, but ultimately failed.
D doesn’t take anything with him except for his fish; he even leaves the plants behind. He moves to Arizona, which is hot and empty and dry. The house he rents is small and also empty.
It’s silly, but when he goes to the grocery store to fill his pantry, he picks up a box of cheap bag-tea: Tetley’s Earl Grey.
He doesn’t think about it too much.
end.
There you go! I hope it satisfies your birthday wishes.
no subject
NOW THAT I HAVE FINISHED THIS, I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE.
I love how shrewd your Vesca is, even as he is infatuated. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Oh my god. I love you so much. Thankyou.
*goes to work on your fic with renewed fervour*
no subject
*G* so it had the intended effect, then. <-- is [not so] sekritly V.selfish in all things.
Happy birthday, then, and glad you liked it.
no subject
This was a really beautiful, bittersweet story. I love how Vesca very matter-of-factly tells D, “If I did that, I’d never see you again.” And the final two sentences are so perfect, even though the ending breaks my heart. (Sometimes I think "D" stands for "Denial"!)
Thank you for sharing!
no subject