Wordcount: 500. On the dot.
Pairings: Susan/Talia
Spoilers: Up to Divided Loyalties
Rating: Uh, I think PG-13 ought to do it.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Sorry. JMS's. The lot of 'em.
A few notes: This one goes out to Diz who is my total muse. (Yes, babe, you so are.) And she helped. A lot. My first bit of writing since NaNo, my first fic in a while, my first B5 fic in a while longer. Here's to regaining old glories.
A Christmas fic for y'all. Merry Christmas. Hanukkah. Whatever.
Snake in a Box
White Star 2
"I've been thinking," Talia arched her back, her belly button reaching for the ceiling. Her hair draped off the bed and Susan sat on the carpet, her feet resting on the bed near Talia's head, and tried to keep the smile off her face. That was impossible to do. She smiled, and it tingled in her lips and cheeks.
"What about?" she asked.
Talia tossed away what little of the blanket was covering her and crossed the line between artistically nude and pornographic. "About your Christmas present."
"Hanukkah," she countered.
"Whatever," Talia said, and her voice dropped to the low registers. It made Susan feel, well, happy. She closed her eyes and felt her smile widen so much her cheeks were starting to hurt. Her thumb toyed with the strap of her nightgown.
"So what were you thinking of getting me?" Susan asked.
"I'm not telling," Talia answered, half laughing.
Susan pouted at her. "That's not fair."
"Who said anything about fair?"
Talia rolled over on her stomach, hands falling off the bed, one resting on the carpet, the other touching Susan's foot. She felt a shiver.
"I'm going to buy it tomorrow," she said.
"Then I'll have to trail you until I catch you buying it."
"I'll do it while you're at work." Her voice grated like sandpaper, like nails on her bare skin. "And I'll hide it."
"Your place is way too small to hide anything in," Susan said.
Talia lifted her chin an inch off the fabric of the bedcovers and said, "Fine, I'll hide it here."
In the top shelf of the closet, next to the spare bedsheets, she finds a box. It's almost the right size; she can't see a thing from down here. She pulls it down. It's smaller than the box of cards that she was looking for, and dark red. It's giftwrapped. She opens it.
"Give me a hint," Susan pleaded, and Talia made a mischievous face, just a hint of a smile breaking through. "Please?" Susan added. Not a word. "Is it antique?"
"No."
"Is it shiny?"
"Yes."
"Does it look special?"
"Very."
"Symbolic?"
"Of course," said the way that made Susan feel all tingly inside.
"What about it?"
She opens the wrapping paper, undoes the tape holding the corners. There’s a jewelry box inside. It opens on tiny hinges. The silver necklace is thin, nearly invisible. At the end of it there’s a pendant, a tiny snake wrapped around itself, the head right under the end of the tail, making an almost perfect circle.
"What's so great about snakes?" she asked.
"Snakes are a symbol of psychic ability," Talia said and reached for her robe.
Sitting on the floor of her quarters, Susan cries.