From: "Livia Penn" Reply-To: "Livia Penn" To: sxf@list1.channel1.com Subject: SXF: Apology obsxf: re: ColdComfort.1/1 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:18:06 PST For those of you who may have been confused by my recent, inadvertent posting of two 1/1 messages... ^_^ * * * "Damn it!" Jim shouted. Blair looked up from the couch at Jim, upstairs in his room. Leaning his head back, he was able to see his roommate giving his computer a glare usually reserved for ax murderers, people who cut him off in traffic, and Blair himself when he left hair in the sink. "Hey, what's up, man?" Blair called. "Nothing." Jim growled. "I just did something stupid." "Like what?" Blair asked, standing up. "Nothing!" Jim snapped. "No, Jim, really. I mean did you delete something accidentally? Don't do anything," Blair said, hurrying up the stairs, "maybe I can still retrieve it for you." "It's not that." Jim said, and as Blair reached the top of the stairs, he saw Jim hurriedly minimize a screen. "I just-- I'm on this mailing list, for The Watchman?" "You are?" Blair raised an eyebrow. He was subscribed to one himself, but he somehow doubted it was the same one as Jim. No way Jim was into slash. "Right, well, I wrote this story--" Jim said, leaning an elbow on his writing desk. "You wrote a story!?" Blair interrupted. "Yeah, so? You're not the only one around here who can string words together, Darwin." "Hey, man, it's cool, I just didn't think fiction was your thing." "I know you've read my reports--" Jim said, "you type half of them-- what do you think I'm doing when I make up stuff to cover up the Sentinel thing?" "Oh." Blair said. "Well, fiction, I guess. So you wrote a Watchman story?" "Yeah, just a short one-- it sort of just came to me." said Jim, turning back to the computer. "But they have these rules, see, where you're supposed to send a synopsis with warnings and a rating first, and you're supposed to label it 0/1. But I accidentally labeled mine 1/1, so it looked like there were two 1/1 messages with the same title." "But only the slash list has that rule!" Blair said without thinking, and Jim turned around to stare at him. "I mean I heard... I have friends who..." He wilted under Jim's intent gaze, then rallied. After all, Jim was the one *writing* for the slash list, so there. "Okay, so I may have been... might be... subscribed." "Oh, great. Then you'll get to see my stupid mistake too. God." Jim groaned, and Blair laughed. "I don't know if it's going to be archived, I don't know if some people didn't read it, and the worst part is, the synopsis message even had the wrong rating, NC-17 instead of G!" "Oh." said Blair, vaguely disappointed that he wasn't going to get to read some Jim-authored smut. "Well, Watchfans are, like, totally nice people, I'm sure you'll be okay. So... anyway... you're into the whole subtext thing, huh?" "Well... like I said, the story just came to me. It was really short." Jim mumbled. "So what was it about?" Blair asked, crossing forward to sit on the edge of Jim's bed. Jim frowned at him, and Blair smiled, leaning forward. "Hey, man, I'm gonna get to read it anyway." Jim sighed. "Well, it was called Cold Comfort, and it's from the cop's point of view-- his buddy dies, and the cop wishes..." "What?" Blair asked. "Well, first he wishes," Jim said slowly, "that he'd told his partner. You know. How he felt about him." "Right." said Blair, his heart suddenly pounding. What was that look in Jim's eye? "And he wonders if his partner knew... but he hopes he didn't, because... Well, you'll just have to read it." Jim said, standing. "God, Jim." Blair said breathlessly looking up at him. "I just... I really... I can't believe you screwed up the headers on a *death story!*" He snickered. "I knowwwww!" Jim groaned, throwing up his hands. "God, why didn't I just marry the cop to some nice woman while I was at it. You know, piss off *everybody.*" "Oh, come on, man, you wouldn't do that, would you?" Blair asked, pretending to be shocked. "Nah." Jim said, sitting down beside Blair on the bed. He leaned back, lying down with his legs still hanging over the edge. "I wouldn't do that." "So why didn't the cop tell his partner?" Blair asked, half-turning to look down at Jim. "What?" "Why didn't he *tell him.*" Blair said, punching Jim playfully in the ribs. "Before it was too late." "Oh, well..." Jim shrugged, making eye contact with Blair. "Dunno, Chief. Maybe he was scared. Of risking their friendship. You know, partnerships like that don't come along every day." "All the better reason not to let the opportunity go by, don't you think?" Blair asked, lying down on his side next to Jim. He propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at his best friend. He smiled, hoping Jim could see the encouragement, the love in his eyes. "C'mon, Jim, think of this as research." "Research?" Jim said sharply, sitting up. "For another story." Blair said, pulling him back down gently. "This one about the partner. From his point of view. Like, with lots of hot sex. But you know, not *just* about sex. See-- you'll have to show how much he loves the cop." "Love?" Jim said, and took a deep breath. "Yeah." Blair said softly. "I mean-- you know what they say." Jim smiled. "No-- tell me what they say." "Truth is stranger than fiction," Blair said, and kissed him. (end) Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com