What you see is never what you're gonna get.

Written for sighofthings , with the prompt "Love me, because love doesn't exist, and I have tried everything that does." I DID NOT WRITE SOMETHING VAGUELY SIMILAR TO THIS A MONTH AGO. YOU KNOW LIES.

Allison didn't love him.

She had words for it and love wasn't one of them, but they were both young and naive and it didn't really matter what it was called, just that they felt it. It was affectionate and rough and passionate and the sort of thing that made them both feel simultaneously older and wiser than their years and a lot like the kids they never were.

They kept it a secret, because they knew Irina wouldn't approve, but that just made it better, somehow. That feeling of rebellion, that taste of the forbidden. It always felt more intense to him than it did Allison, but she wasn't programmed nearly as delicately as he had been- the slightest hint of disapproval from Irina scared the hell out of him. It never stopped him though. This much was his and he intended to keep it for as long as he could. Maybe it was all just a game to her, but it was real to him.

It was real enough that he chose her over Irina and they both paid for it.

Muse: Julian Sark
Word Count: 605

daemonmuses : Shock and surprise are emotions we all feel. Write about one instance of complete out of the blue shock and awe that scared you and your daemon.

"I don't trust them."

Olya's fur had been bristled to the point that she looked more bottlebrush than ermine ever since the two of them left dear Lauren Reed to her shopping and had started back out to the car. She had very nearly bitten the dressing room attendant's daemon as they brushed past them to make their exit- the woman had stayed very near the door the whole time Sark and Lauren were conversing and if Sark suspected that the woman had actually heard anything, she probably would have suffered more than just having her daemon snapped at by his.

"You can't trust a woman like her," was Sark's response as he reached the car. Olya jumped from his shoulders onto the hood of the car and regarded him with a somber look in her black eyes.

"Can't you?" Sark arched a brow at her to indicate that she was going to have to explain what exactly she meant by that. "You're taking a rather big risk, Julian. They fooled us once already. You said it yourself, she's an impressive actress." Even her daemon had laid down and feigned fear when they cornered them in that parking garage months before. It left a bad taste in Olya's mouth- she didn't like losing and being fooled any more than Sark did.

He just shrugged casually, presenting a certain degree of nonchalance that made Olya bristle a little more- he thought he had Lauren under his thumb, but Olya wasn't so sure that was the case. She could read things off of the woman's daemon- things she couldn't explain, but didn't like all the same. "I have no doubt in my mind that Ms. Reed will be true to her word."

Olya slunk low to the hood dejectedly- a stripe of pure white on black chrome. "I hope you're right."

*
( They call you Lucifer's angel... )