Prompt 075: Fiction (Cruel Intentions)

[starryseed.livejournal.com]

Hi there! First time submitter, and this is the second fanfic I've ever written...please go easy on me? I hope I followed all the rules correctly and put the right tags on. Feel free to let me know if I messed up somewhere. Thanks and enjoy!

Title: Pretenses
Author:  

starryseed
Rating: PG-13 for Adult Concepts
Word Count: 291
Prompt:075 Cruel Intentions
Characters/Pairing (if any): Lilah/Wes

 

At night, when they're not together, she knows where he goes.

He thinks she doesn't know about the woman in the closet. The woman he keeps tied and chained. But she knows. And pretends not to. Almost everything between them is pretentions. Even now, as her cheek rests on his shoulder and his chest rises up and down evenly under her hand, they both pretend to be asleep. Better sleep than to talk. That's what got them into this situation in the first place.

He thinks she can redeem herself. Or he can redeem her for her. He doesn't know about her contract, not yet. He doesn't know the web she's caught in with the firm, the plans she's made that never reach far into the future. Most of all, he doesn't know the reason it all started. How it began. Who started it all. The one person who's ever met anything to her, until now. Until him.

At night, when they're not together, he knows what she's doing.

Working against him. Working for him. Her actions contradict themselves every time she does something. If one accused her of doing something good, she'd laugh them off and point out the evil side of it.

He doesn't know she's been keeping the harbor patrol away from his ship, at night, while he searches. And she doesn't know that he goes to her apartment, when she's not there. And he keeps a picture of her as a little girl that he found. A beautiful, smiling, eight year old, in the arms of her mother, wearing a gold necklace that spells "Lilah".

Everything between them was make-believe. They each tried to make themselves believe that, even when the thought in itself was another pretention.

Comments

[angelus2hot]

Nicely done!

Great insight into Wes and Lilah.

[starryseed.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Ooooh - that's delicious. Very Lilah/Wesley, and I love the idea that Wes goes into her apartment and gets a picture of her as a little kid. Very nice job!

[starryseed.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!! It just seemed like a very Wes-like thing to do, as he gets a little darker/deeper in this period.

[dreamincolor.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this was wonderful.

It was full of so many lovely insights,("Better sleep than to talk. That's what got them into this situation in the first place.") and little twists, like Lilah keeping the harbor patrol away from his ship at night. Clever.

Nicely done, I do hope you write more. :) Especially in this pairing. There just isn't enough Lilah/Wes fic out there.

[starryseed.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment! It occurred to me, when I was watching season 4, that Wes wouldn't have easily been able to just scour the bay at night, on a boat that was probably darker than it should have been. That's where the inspiration came for that part.

And thank you! I'm going to attempt to write more, and I'm actually amazed that this, and my first piece (a Faith ficlet) have gotten such awesome comments. It makes me happy :-)

[ubiquirk.livejournal.com]

Really nice look at these two together. I esp liked:

Even now, as her cheek rests on his shoulder and his chest rises up and down evenly under her hand, they both pretend to be asleep. Better sleep than to talk.

I can just see them doing this so neither has to admit they want to hold the other too.