Second time judge @verucadarling had eleven gorgeous entries to read this week.
Here are her winners:
FIRST PLACE... @katiewinkles
I fell in love with this one the second I read it. The description of the little moments that would've gone unnoticed by everyone else were really everything to these two people.
Theirs was a stolen moment beneath twinkling lights; eyes that met across the room for half a heartbeat.
Her brain said wait. His heart said look again.
A look was all it took.
The tiny space inside her chest could barely contain her heart as it took flight, a hand fluttering to her chest, her fingers meeting flushed skin and a trembling pulse between her collar bones.
Her lips parted, the corners lifting, and across the room the curve of his mouth answered; I know. I feel it too.
Nobody turned to look at them; no one even noticed a thing. But for them – time stopped. And in that moment it was like the world fell away, and all that was left was the burn of his gaze and the thunder of her heart.
Her feet said go, move, every cell of her body reaching for him.
But it was he who moved first, unable to stop his legs from carrying him to her.
It wasn’t epic. They would never write books about it. In years to come they would forget exactly how it happened.
In the end, a dozen heartbeats and two smiles was all it took.
Her brain said wait. His heart said look again.
A look was all it took.
The tiny space inside her chest could barely contain her heart as it took flight, a hand fluttering to her chest, her fingers meeting flushed skin and a trembling pulse between her collar bones.
Her lips parted, the corners lifting, and across the room the curve of his mouth answered; I know. I feel it too.
Nobody turned to look at them; no one even noticed a thing. But for them – time stopped. And in that moment it was like the world fell away, and all that was left was the burn of his gaze and the thunder of her heart.
Her feet said go, move, every cell of her body reaching for him.
But it was he who moved first, unable to stop his legs from carrying him to her.
It wasn’t epic. They would never write books about it. In years to come they would forget exactly how it happened.
In the end, a dozen heartbeats and two smiles was all it took.
SECOND PLACE... @CrackedFic
Nicely done conveying the scene strictly through dialogue. Not knowing anything about Scully and Mulder, since I"ve never seen a single episode of The X-Files, it didn't matter. The tone and imagery was set up perfectly through the characters' speech. Really loved the originality.
THIRD PLACE... @magtwi78
The cool breeze tickled her bare legs like the kisses that stole her sleep the night before. With her toes pressed into her party shoes and her shawl wrapped tighter, she stood, silent, under the artificial-starlit sky. In the open-ceilinged room full of people, she let the wall’s shadows hide her from the oppressive air of celebration that swam all around her—but never quite reaching her. She caught smiles from the party-goers, throwing an occasional one in return, and watched them tip bubbles down their throats.
Never had she felt so alone.
The fever in the air grew closer as the hour did. The twelfth chime and the falling of the sparkle-studded sphere this time would signify so much more than just a page turning on a calendar.
Twisting her own transparent stem between rose-tipped fingers, she held the glass aloft to see the shimmering lights distort through the golden liquid. The people around began to chant; the reverse mantra of a kindergarten class. She whispered a silent toast to herself.
When she lowered her glass, the cheer was rousing.
And there he was. Her next toast was lost in his kiss.
Never had she felt so alone.
The fever in the air grew closer as the hour did. The twelfth chime and the falling of the sparkle-studded sphere this time would signify so much more than just a page turning on a calendar.
Twisting her own transparent stem between rose-tipped fingers, she held the glass aloft to see the shimmering lights distort through the golden liquid. The people around began to chant; the reverse mantra of a kindergarten class. She whispered a silent toast to herself.
When she lowered her glass, the cheer was rousing.
And there he was. Her next toast was lost in his kiss.
HONOURABLE MENTION... @CallMePagliacci
Hot, freshly-wet asphalt,
Rubber and dust.
Sweet summer rain.
A dance and a drink.
Twirl me about and twirl me ‘round.
We smile, you laugh,
And you lean in.
Lean in.
Lean in...
Our lips touch.
We’re the only two people in the world.
We stumble through the streets
Drunk on spiked sweet tea and new love.
Mardi Gras swirls around us
Revelers
Buzzing cacophony.
I can’t get you back to my apartment fast enough.
Your hand is clammy, solid in my own.
I pull you down the sidewalk,
under the year-round Christmas lights
in a part of town where it’s not tacky.
My tipsy cottony mental fuzz
The lights unfocus and
Blur.
They shine
Like sparks
Like the sparks that fly when your lips meet mine again in my doorway.
“I love you.”
Rubber and dust.
Sweet summer rain.
A dance and a drink.
Twirl me about and twirl me ‘round.
We smile, you laugh,
And you lean in.
Lean in.
Lean in...
Our lips touch.
We’re the only two people in the world.
We stumble through the streets
Drunk on spiked sweet tea and new love.
Mardi Gras swirls around us
Revelers
Buzzing cacophony.
I can’t get you back to my apartment fast enough.
Your hand is clammy, solid in my own.
I pull you down the sidewalk,
under the year-round Christmas lights
in a part of town where it’s not tacky.
My tipsy cottony mental fuzz
The lights unfocus and
Blur.
They shine
Like sparks
Like the sparks that fly when your lips meet mine again in my doorway.
“I love you.”
Congratulations @katiewinkles!
I look forward to seeing the prompt you choose have chosen for next week's #fanficflashfic.
Thank you to @verucadarling for judging, and to everyone who participated.
See you all next week.
P.S. Speaking of... why not pester your friends to write for #fanficflashfic next Thursday.
"Fireflies?"
"Yup."
"Lined up like that? In perfect rows?"
"Yup."
"That's ridiculous."
"Yup."
"But how?"
"No one knows."
"No, I mean how do you know they're fireflies."
"It's obvious."
"Enlighten me."
"If you don't see it, you won't see it."
"You're infuriating."
"Yup."
"I'm staring at this thing and all I see are strings of Christmas lights."
"That's what you would see. You're you."
"Quit talking in riddles, dammit."
"I see a photograph taken on May 13, 2011, from a street in Melbourne, Australia. Look at the date imprinted on the back."
"OK. I'm looking. And?"
"Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury were aligned that day. It was visible only from the southern hemisphere."
"And?"
"You don't find it odd that these fireflies chose to align into ellipses nearly identical to those the planets travel in on the very day those planets were aligned?"
"You haven't proven this picture shows fireflies. It still looks like Christmas lights to me."
"That, Scully, is because you have no imagination. Zoom in on the picture. Keep going. More. That's it. Now what do you see?"
"Fireflies, Mulder. I see fireflies.”