Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Donna had only the barest grasp on her composure, and its metaphorical knuckles went white as she took a deep breath.

"Okay, let me get this straight, Sadie... in the two weeks since we talked last, you've gotten engaged--"

Sadie clinked her titularly accurate ring finger demonstrably against her glass as if starting a toast, then skipped ahead to the inevitable end of a toast.

Donna pressed on. "--to a man you've known for eleven days who has no job--"

"Sometimes he fights ghosts."

"--who has a part-time job fighting ghosts and a terrible reputation as a drunk and a huckster and is in no way, shape or form a suitable husband for a bank heiress such as the one you totally are?"

"Oh absolutely. A terrible match by any yardstick."

"And you want me to be your maid of honor at the wedding?"

"That is what I am asking, yes."

Donna finally tossed aside the last shreds of her composure. "Oh, Sadie, of course I will!" She wrapped the other woman in the tightest hug in her arsenal--and got the remnants of a martini down her back for her trouble. Fortunately, but not surprisingly, the glass was almost empty.

"Oh, sweetie, we're going to have to have a last hurrah for your single days."

Sadie pulled back. "It's have to be a loud one. Both as a fitting tribute, and to scare them away so entirely that they never return."

Donna grinned wickedly. "When has that ever been a problem when you and I went out together, Sade?"

"Good point," she replied, her smirk a matching set with Donna's.

Chapter Text

It was pretty lucky that Amelia's required leave time just happened to align with Abby's. That particular stroke of fortune may or may not have have been supplemented by Abby calling in a favor or three, but a person makes their own luck when they can fiddle with the time stream.

Amelia, however, had relinquished neither her goggles nor her flight jacket and was clearly not ready to leave work in the interdimensional Lockheed Electra, as it were.

"How am I supposed to relax knowing there are Nazis unravelling the timeline at several of these very same moments in the multiverse?"

"How are you supposed to stop them if you don't take a couple hours to catch your breath, Ames? That's what separates the AVC from the dirty Krauts. Well that, and not wanting to take over the world."

"Still, seems like this would be the perfect time to get the drop on some Fritzes."

"Maybe. But I believe I was promised fruity rum drinks and a beach at some point," Abby said, gently pulling away the flight goggles that were holding back Amelia's wind-tossed locks. "That offer still good?"

"Oh. Well. Sure, Abbs. I'm a woman of my word, you know."

"Good. I'm collecting right now then." She moved her hands to the lapels of Amelia's jacket.
Amelia took the hint and kissed her soundly.

"On second thought, maybe forget the beach," Abby murmured when they parted.

Chapter Text

Sparks took the call while riding, but Pemily's voice came in loud and clear over the rocket din and pounding of hooves. "Hi, Marshal!" she said brightly, not particularly sounding like she was up against a problem she wasn't sure how to tackle, as was usually the case when she called.

"Kinda in the middle of something here, Marshal," he replied. "What's going on?"

"Oh... Nothing, really. Just thought I'd call and see how you were doing, 'cause of today and all."

"Er... Okay? Me and Croach are just riding out to check out a distress signal."

"Greetings, Pemily Stallwark," Croach called over.

"Hi, too, Croach! Well, guess I won't keep you then. Things are going pretty good over here. Cybercrimes're down almost 12%."

"Yeah? See, knew you'd get a handle on that. Tell me about it later, though. We're coming up on the ranch that called us."

"'Kay. Talk to y'all later, then." The comm link went dead.

After a few seconds, Croach spoke up. "Is there any particular significance to this date, Sparks Nevada?"

"June eighteen? I don't think... uh. No, definitely nothing. At all."

"Then why are you exhibiting increased bloodflow to the areas of your face and neck?"

"Ugh, I liked it better when you understood correlations less. Anyway, hey, we're here!" Sparks pulled up on Mercury's reins and tried to will himself to stop blushing as the rancher ran up to greet them.

Chapter Text

Saydi was not enjoying the celebration, but at least there was alcohol.

To be fair, no one expected the Goddess of the Underworld to be a chipper wedding guest, but she was family (to both bride and groom, because... you know, gods) and all parties involved accepted her presence as obligation. She didn't particularly like leaving her realm, but she didn't particularly like staying there either, endlessly tasked with shooing souls onto their eternal reward and making sure no one left.

It was all so very dull after a few millenia.

She didn't look up from her drink as the commotion began. Most of the rest of her kin were hale and hearty types, ready to start a commotion at the drop of a helmet. The tenor changed to one more familiar to her, anger and fear, and she looked up briefly.

There were unknown creatures running wild through the banquet, hybrid animal men and lithe dangerous females, but she could tell at the merest glance that they were demi-gods, and immortal. No one could kill each other at the whole of the gathering, so there was still nothing for her to do. She dropped her gaze back to her cup.

Some of the intruders strummed nearly tunelessly on stringed instruments, which added an interesting dimension to the bellowing and wild laughter. Very avante garde, musically.

"May I have this dance?" a low, warm, and entirely unfamiliar voice asked her.

She looked up to an extended hand, then further up to the god extending it. He was red-cheeked and bright-eyed, with dark curls and neat facial hair, wearing a wreath of leaves and fine, flowing clothes in charming disarray.

Saydi fell in love so fast, she cast about for a moment to make sure the Goddess of Love wasn't somewhere nearby giggling about it. But no, the goddess in question was halfway across the hall in a spat with a goat-man. So she looked back at him, and set down her drink.

"You may," she said, talking his hand and standing.

"Ooh, cold!" he said of her touch, but didn't pull away, instead pulling her closer, into a dance as arrhythmic as the music. She was well lit enough that she couldn't have managed much else, anyway.

"Sorry. Goddess of Death. It's a bit unavoidable."

"Goddess of Death? I believe it. One look at you, and anyone's heart would burst. Mine did. Luckily, that isn't much of a problem for an immortal."

Saydi was used to people flirting with death, but not usually so literally. "Oh, stop, you..." A thought struck her. "Who are you, by the way?"

"How terribly rude of me! I am Fracas, god of libations, celebrations, mischief making, and I'm fairly sure a few other things but I was pretty drunk at the assigning ceremony. And I am infinitely pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I am Saydi, and likewise. You aren't from around here, are you?"

"I am not! I hail from the south."

"Technically, so do I."

"Ah!" He laughed genuinely. "I like a death goddess with a sense of humor. Ours lacks your charms."

"A pity. So what are you doing crashing parties outside your pantheon?"

"Seemed like a laugh. I have no complaints so far."

Nearby, a bolt of lightning flashed purple-white, with a earsplitting crash of thunder on its heels. Saydi rolled her eyes. "My sister. She simply cannot take a joke."

"Speaking of taking, I may need to do that with my exit, and fast. Getting charbroiled doesn't really fall under the purview of drunken whimsy." He drew back, still holding her hands, then brought one to his lips in a parting kiss. "Til next time, Saydi?"

"I'll hold you to that, Fracas," she said, her tone wry and bright despite her trembling heart.

And then he was gone, in a swirl of fine robes, and she stood in the middle of the room of upset gods, very much alone.

***

Back in the Underworld, Saydi sat upon her throne and sighed at intervals. Though her lot in the divine realms had never thrilled her, she had never been restless in it before. She had never pined before, and she wasn't taking to it well as a hobby.

With another sigh, she stood and wandered away, deeper into the halls of her castle. She moved without purpose, and found herself in the wine cellar. A taste only made her melancholy, so she shuffled away, bottle in hand.

Without quite meaning to, she found herself before her scrying pool. She rarely had business that needed attention in the upper realms, and had not ever tried to cast her gaze to lands over the ocean, but she supposed she could. She was a god, after all.

On a whim, she poured the rest of the bottle of wine into the crystalline water, and it billowed cloudy, then fully dark. When the rippling settled, an image resolved.

Elsewhere in the world, Fracas sat at an honored seat among revelers. He raised his glass and the rest of them cheered and did likewise, but after he drank, when the worshippers had returned to their general merrymaking, he looked away, propped his chin in one hand, and sighed.

Saydi knew exactly how he felt. Unconsciously, she reached out to touch his image on the skin of the water.

It rippled, and the revelers dropped dead in union.

She dropped the bottle she'd forgotten she was still holding, and it shattered. Her other hand flew to cover her mouth in mortification. In the image in the pool, Fracas looked up, and their eyes locked.

He stood and stepped forward, and then he was in the room with her.

"That is one way to get a fellow's attention," he commented dryly, but his eyes were twinkling.

"You... showed up fast," she said blankly.

"Oh, I go wherever the party is." He gestured to the broken glass, the pool of wine. "My kind of scene."

Saydi, The Goddess of the Underworld, The Judge of Souls and The Queen of Death, giggled and blushed. "Sorry about... all that."

"Quite all right. I wasn't enjoying it much anyway. Too busy pining away over a beautiful woman."

"She must be something, that woman."

"I'm fairly sure she is, but I'd like to find out."

She surged forward and kissed him, wild, like gods kiss. The clash of their different divinities crackled and manifested like glimmering bands of aurorae, violet and pink and luminous black and rose-red, then filtered and faded away into nothing as the world reknit itself around the immutable truth of their love.

At last they parted, long after the need of breath would have stopped them, and rested their foreheads together.

"Ah, Saydi, my love," Fracas breathed, "I sincerely hope this will not be a long distance relationship."

She just laughed again, the sound of it brilliant in the halls of the Underworld. "We'll figure something out, darling."

Chapter Text

Martian sandstorms could get really nasty, so there wasn't much to do but lock down and close the shutters and wait for it to pass. Sparks had had a couple boxes of Treamain's old files in the corner of his living room for a while, because it turns out going mad with power makes a person real lax about collating, and he'd been meaning to get around to correcting that for ages.

Croach didn't say anything about it one way or another, curling up on the couch with his eyes closed, antennae twitching occasionally. He was possibly monitoring the movements of the storm, or eavesdropping on a conversation happening two miles away, or maybe he'd fallen asleep. Whichever way, it was peaceful, just the twack of paper on paper as Sparks started making an increasingly intricate web of piles around him on the floor and the distant windy slithery sound of sand against metal.

It stopped being peaceful when the power got knocked out. Then it was just really, really dark.

"Dang it. Is that just us or the whole town?" Sparks asked, standing unsteadily.

"The main solar generators have ceased functioning. Backup generators have already resumed power for vital systems." When Croach spoke, there was a glimmer of bioluminescence. Gross, whyyyyyy? But it did make it easier for Sparks to pick his way across the room in the dark so... whatever.

"Which this ain't one of, yeah. So we're still stuck until the storm clears." He sat down beside Croach and the depression in the cushions pushed them a little closer.

He wedged his handheld out of his hip pocket, mostly just for the light of the screen in the still darkness, but almost as soon as he turned it on, Croach reached over and plucked it from his fingers. The light caught weirdly on one of the nocturnal filters in his eyes so they flashed catlike for an instant.

"What?" Sparks asked petulantly, but he didn't look away from where Croach's eyes had caught his, and it wasn't a question he particularly needed help with.

"It will take up to an hour for the present state of this weather system to subside."

"Nothing else to do until then, huh?" The screen timed out in Croach's hand, and the dark had a bunch of neon afterimages that make him blink.

"Incorrect."

Sparks flinched a bit at Croach's fingers brushing against his neck, not because he wasn't entirely expecting it, because he hadn't been asleep for the last minute or so, but he wasn't expecting it that particular instant. The tableau stalled out for a beat.

Okay, fine. At least deciding to kiss someone whose teeth glowed in the dark made it easier to aim.