botherd: (skins: incest and illegal)
botherd ([personal profile] botherd) wrote2009-09-21 09:35 pm
Entry tags:

Ficlet: sewn to a tremendous shadow (Skins; Katie/Emily; PG-13)

Title: sewn to a tremendous shadow
Fandom: Skins
Pairing: Katie/Emily
Rating: PG-13
Words: 745
Summary: "No one will ever love you as much as I do, okay."
Notes: Written for the Fall Fandom Free-For-All. For [livejournal.com profile] twistomatic, who requested pre-S3 Katie/Emily. This turned out quite a bit shorter than I expected, sorry.



"It's just not nice, Emily. You have to understand, yeah," Katie says, turning once she reaches the front door and lowering her voice. Their parents are both heavy sleepers--their dad's always knackered after all his exercise in the day, and their mum wears earplugs because of his awful snoring--but James could wake, and it would take forever to bribe him not to tell their parents how late they were out.

"Sorry," Emily mumbles, even though she's not sure why she's apologising. She ought to be able to kiss whoever she likes without her sister interfering, and she shouldn't have to say sorry, especially when she's not.

Katie's expression softens. "It's not your fault, Em. She jumped you."

"No, but--"

"Don't fucking defend her, okay. I know what I saw." She turns the key in the lock and pushes open the door, and that's the signal to shut up and drop the subject. Part of Emily, the reckless part she's so good at suppressing, wants to tell Katie the truth--that she kissed Naomi, not the other way round, and what's more, she fucking enjoyed it. But even if they didn't have to be quiet right now, she knows she'd never actually say anything and risk Katie's wrath. It's not worth it.

Once they're upstairs, Katie sits on the side of her bed, eyeing Emily sympathetically while she undresses. "Look, don't worry, I know you're not like, some fucking dyke. But you have to make sure she doesn't try that again, yeah, 'cause I'm not always going to be there to sort things out."

Emily opens her mouth to say something, but instead she just nods.

"Yeah, so, next time she tries that just fucking shove her off, all right, don't be shy about it. And don't get like, confused and kiss her back, even if you're a bit drunk like tonight. Got it?"

"Yeah." It's barely a whisper, but it seems to satisfy Katie well enough. Emily switches off the light and climbs into bed, not even able to wait until she thinks Katie's asleep before she starts to cry into her pillow. She tries to be quiet, discreet about it, but it's not long before she hears the shuffling of a duvet and the creak of bedsprings and Katie's climbing into bed with her like she used to when they were little and Emily got afraid of the dark. She presses herself to Emily's back, wrapping an arm around her and holding tight.

"Don't cry, Em," Katie murmurs, the words muffled against Emily's back. "It's not your fault, what she did."

"It is," Emily says, somehow finding courage in the cocoon of darkness. "I mean, it was me."

Katie's grip on her doesn't slacken as she says, "Don't be stupid, Em. You're just mixed up because you're pissed."

"Katie, I--"

"Shush," Katie says, kissing the side of Emily's head, then brushes Emily's hair away from her face and kisses her jaw. "No one will ever love you as much as I do, okay." Emily knows it's meant to be comforting, but it fills her with foreboding, like a death sentence.

"Katie." Emily shifts round so she's facing Katie, can see her even in the dark, and she's about to say something else when Katie presses a clumsy kiss to her mouth. Startled into inaction, Emily does nothing, and even when she brain catches up with what's going on she doesn't pull away from the steady press of Katie's lips.

The kiss--ridiculously chaste compared to her kiss with Naomi earlier, yet somehow so much more intimate--ends naturally, and Katie sighs. Emily finally gets it: it's not that Katie hates Naomi, it's just that Naomi's not her.

They fall asleep and, afterwards, they don't talk about it ever.

---

"I don't get why your sister hates me so much," Naomi says later--years later, once everything's fallen into place and Emily feels like she might have her happy ending after all. The red marks on Naomi's skin, inflicted by Katie that evening, are barely visible in the moonlight. "I mean, doesn't she want you to be happy?"

Emily shrugs and place a soft kiss on Naomi's shoulder, then another. "I'm not sure I could explain."

She thinks of the words that have stuck with her since that night--no one will ever love you as much as I do--and tries not to wonder whether they'll turn out to be true.

[identity profile] old-wp.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Fucking hell, that's both COMPLETELY awesome and just feels dead on, you know?

♥ ♥ Babe, I wish you'd write ALL THE TIME.
Edited 2009-09-21 20:51 (UTC)

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 11:59 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks, dude! And, ha, I actually DO write a lot, I just suck at finishing stuff and posting it. But there should be more fic to come this week!

[identity profile] lazy-daze.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL I totally read this because I just read your BB OOPS LB, like, I KNOW MORE THAN NOTHING ABOUT THESE CHARACTERS NOW and also because I always 100% approve of incest in all shapes and sizes. \o/ \o/

ALSO FORGOT TO SAY this is awesome.
Edited 2009-09-21 20:58 (UTC)

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I APPROVE OF YOUR INCEST APPROVAL. \o/ Especially because it's kind of the redheaded stepchild of Skins fandom (even though it's SO canon, omg, HOW HAVE YOU NOT WATCHED THIS SHOW) and of the meagre amount of incest fic there is, like half of it's flocked.

And thanks! :D

[identity profile] keepix3.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I just love how Katie seems so protective and yet a little scary here. Really great!

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I think that side of Katie's really interesting - like, she loves Emily SO MUCH that it just crosses the line into creepiness.

Here via skinsfemslash, though I was also stalking that prompt on the meme /o\

[identity profile] tl--dr.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes yes yes yes yessss. I love how you took the conversation that they must have had, that they did have - doesn't matter that it was never shown onscreen, this is that conversation, you nailed it - and 'cested it up ever-so-slightly, but in a way where it still matches everything we know and see of the characters. Just, that extra sexual edge explains so much.

And that last line is just so powerful - we all know Katie loves Emily in an obsessive, weirdly more-than-sisterly way. That one line, the question of whether Emily will ever be as safe with anybody as she is with Katie, makes things believably two-sided, in the most fucked up kind of way. (Like, not so much that Emily has an incest crush on her sister, but that she's not immune to the 'cest herself, and knowing about Katie's crush is naturally enough to warp Emily's understanding of their relationship, too. To make her vulnerable to the notion of Katie as more than a sister. It just complicates things, not having Emily going around oblivious.) I also love how firmly pre-S3 this is, in that Katie can use the "you're too much of a doormat to have resisted, I understand" logic and have it ring true to who Emily was, back then - and the irony that the girl exploiting her through this trait is Katie, not Naomi, is just delicious. I don't know if I'm explaining myself well, haha, but the long and sort of it is: I fucking love this. :)

Re: Here via skinsfemslash, though I was also stalking that prompt on the meme /o\

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you leaving such detailed feedback (especially considering the fic is so short!). I think the Fitchcest is so textually obvious from Katie's side that I thought it would be interesting to see it from Emily's perspective, and I'm really glad you thought it rang true. ♥

[identity profile] immortality.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Bb, I don't care if it's short, because it's just so fucking lovely. Really. I can't even put into words properly how this made me feel. Just -- wow. I love Katie here, the possessive, dark side of her, how she is probably very much aware of the fact that the kiss is all Emily's fault, but forces herself to believe otherwise.

It's just perfect. Thank you so much! I really love it.

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so glad you like it! ♥ Really, it's just made me want to write more of them, because I love their fucked-up dynamic so much.

[identity profile] fab-fairy.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Well this was just amazing wasn't it?

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee, thanks! :D

[identity profile] violet4120.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, man, this is brilliant. Absolutely spot-on and kind of sad, really, in the best way. Oh, Katie. ♥

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, I'm really glad you liked it. ♥

[identity profile] pictureplaces.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
Brilliant! Just brilliant.

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! ♥ (And, unf, I love your icon.)

[identity profile] pictureplaces.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
thanks! Oh Katie McGrath how you tease us with your beauty. ugh. lol.

[identity profile] lovely-noise.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
I love the bit with Emily crying - it's just so right that Katie could take that the wrong way, y'know? Cause if Emily had been forced into it by Naomi then it'd make sense she was shaken up so Katie's just seeing things how she wants them to be, once again.

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! Yeah - I think on some level Katie knows that Emily was the one to kiss Naomi, but it's so easy for her to see things the way she wants.

[identity profile] summerstorm.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 10:41 am (UTC)(link)
All I know about these characters I know by fandom osmosis, but this reads so, so plausibly and true to them. And it's slow and a bit painful and just beautifully constructed.

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, I'm glad you thought so! (This is the part where I pimp the show, because it's just SO GOOD.)
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! ♥

[identity profile] flister.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Gah, I just realised that I forgot to comment on this! Love it rather a lot - really hope you write a (longer?) sequel!

My heart always breaks a bit for Katie, even more so when she puts it out there for Emily to really see.

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-23 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! The sequel (should it happen, and I'm hoping it will) will definitely be much longer.

[identity profile] alehxriotgrrl.livejournal.com 2009-09-30 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
this is amazing. spot on disloge and characterisations :)

[identity profile] botherd.livejournal.com 2009-09-30 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much! ♥

[identity profile] lizardwriter.livejournal.com 2010-01-02 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Really nice, interesting take on that kiss with Naomi. I liked how accurate the characters felt. Katie especially, so headstrong and just wanting to believe what she wants to believe. And Emily being overwhelmed. And you made the kiss just seem quite natural. Really liked it.

CHRIST THAT WAS BRILLIANT

[identity profile] carelescreature.livejournal.com 2010-06-13 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
Short and sweet is what that is...Wow I can really really see that happening I can't even quite explain why that was good cuz im so blown away