Choco_cherries Challenge: After Midnight

[lirazel]

Gah.  choco_cherries is so addictive, I cannot even say.  And this week was my prompt!

Title:  After Midnight
Author: Lirazel (penny_lane_42  )
Fandoms:  Supernatural and Friday Night Lights
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Lyla Garrity
Wordcount: 300
Spoilers: All of Friday Night Lights, none really for Supernatural
Prompt: Yellow ([Unknown site tag]choco_cherries)
Summary:  There’s no case in Dillon; this was supposed to be a quick stop for gas and a meal.  But first there was the best pie Dean’s ever tasted, and then there was Lyla.

The light in Texas is a sickly yellow that floods everywhere, filling up the plains with harsh shadows.  The sun has no mercy, and there are no clouds to soften any edges.

His jacket is tossed into the backseat of the Impala as soon as he climbs out of the car, and ten minutes later, he’s stripped off the sweaty flannel and is down to his Metallica t-shirt.  Sammy starts complaining—there’s no case in Dillon; this was supposed to be a quick stop for gas and a meal.  But first there was the best pie Dean’s ever tasted, and then there was Lyla. 

She looks fragile and tiny, but there’s a survivor’s fire in her eyes and her chin is tilted imperiously.  She’s flipping through CDs at the music store, and as he combs through the ₵25 cassette box—there’s a little too much Patsy Cline and not nearly enough the Clash—he watches her.  Princess type, but the clock’s struck midnight, the carriage has turned into a pumpkin, and the glass slipper is nowhere to be found.

Dean Winchester is no prince, but he recognizes strength when he sees it, even if it’s masquerading as a lost little girl.

 They climb the fence and sit at the top of the bleachers as the sun sets.  He isn’t crude enough to make a pass at her—she’s better than that—but they talk.  Or she does (he never really learned how).  She tells him about football and her sleazebag dad, her crippled ex-boyfriend/fiancé and his best friend she cheated with.  She tells him about the colleges Mrs. Taylor is helping her apply to and the completely different person she’ll be once she has the chance to start over.

 And the dying sunlight, where it gathers around her, glows gold.

Comments

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm liking Lyla more and more as time goes by.