awanderingbard: (Default)
awanderingbard ([personal profile] awanderingbard) wrote2007-12-05 05:54 pm

Dresden Files: Sleight of Hand

Title: Sleight of Hand
Characters: Harry, Murphy
Rating: G-PG
Spoilers: Second City
Word count: 826
Summary: Hungry wizards cannot be blamed for their actions.
Author's notes: Written for [livejournal.com profile] donutsweeper's Hanukkah present. She wanted stories with donuts in them. Harry/Murphyish.



“Stop staring.”

“Staring at what?”

“The donut.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“You can’t even see me.”

Murphy turned in her chair from her computer screen and looked down at me. I was sitting on the floor, with my back against a file cabinet in her cubicle. “I can feel you staring at it.”

I moved my eyes to the aforementioned pastry. “It’s just a donut.”

“It’s not just a donut,” she argued. “It is a donut with white icing and sprinkles on it. It is my favourite kind of donut and every morning I come in and every morning Bunting has taken that donut. I always end up with the jelly donuts. I don’t like jelly donuts. Today, however, I have arrived earlier than usual and I have taken that donut for myself. I intend to eat it. So stop staring at it.”

I blinked at her. “Wow. I didn’t know you felt so strongly about donuts, Murph.”

“I’m a cop,” she said with a smirk. “They teach it to you at the academy.” She turned back to tapping on her keyboard. “How do you spell ceffyl dwf?”

“Like it sounds,” I said, tiredly. “Only with more f’s and w’s in weird places. You aren’t really putting it in your report, are you?”

“I keep a file of weird stuff,” she explained, tapping some more. “So that if I encounter it again, I know what it is and what to do. If I don’t get sent to the crazy house for having all this stuff on my computer in the first place.”

“C-E-F-F-Y-L D-W-F,” I spelled. I took a look at my shoes, which were sitting next to me on the floor, to see whether they were dry from the dip I’d taken in the Chicago River. Also to see whether they might have mutated and started to plot world domination. They seemed fairly inanimate still. “You know, I’m the reason you’re in here this early. Don’t you think that warrants at least half - “

“No. Get your own donut.”

I squinted at the box across the room and tried to decide if I had enough energy to get up. I didn’t. It had been 36 hours since I’d last slept and as soon as Murphy cleared me to go, I intended to take a very long nap. Once I’d taken a very long shower to get all the river water off. The quick one I’d taken in the locker room wasn’t cutting it. Growing a third arm might be useful, but I didn’t need anything else to make me stand out.

“...weird water horse,” Murphy muttered as she typed. “Likes to drown people. Welsh.”

“Related to the each uisge,” I added. “Which is spelled nothing like it sounds.”

I contemplated making a grab for the donut, which was now all the more appealing as a forbidden food. Murphy picked it up and moved it to the other side of the desk. So close, so far away. I sighed and banged my head lightly against the filing cabinet, closing my eyes.

“Dresden...Harry!”

Something bounced off my forehead and I opened my eyes with a start. A ball of rubber bands rolled along the floor away from me. “Wha?”

Murphy was grinning at me. “You were snoring.”

“Was not,” I objected.

“You’ve been asleep sitting up for the last fifteen minutes. It was cute until you started snoring,” she teased.

“I don’t snore,” I said, with dignity.

“You were scaring the dog.” She jerked her thumb towards Scuffle, the ancient police dog that nobody had the heart to make retire. He’d lifted his head from his nap and was eyeing me with suspicion. Presently, he lay his head back down and returned to his nap. “You can go.”

I hauled myself to my feet and stuffed them into my shoes. They didn’t try to kill me. I hoped I could get home before the mutation started. They squelched unappealingly.

“Get some sleep,” Murphy advised. “And stop looking at my donut.”

“I was just thinking it was a very pretty,” I defended myself. “...that all sounded sort of kinky, didn’t it?”

Murphy swatted at me. I bent down to give her a goodbye hug, which was surprising enough to her. She was even more surprised when I kissed her. She tensed all up and then relaxed. It went on longer than I had planned for. It’s really very nice kissing Murphy. I should do it more often.

I straightened up and, true to her word, she didn’t slap me this time. Always a good thing when you’re done kissing a girl. She gave me a dumbfounded look, and then quickly looked around the squad room to make sure nobody had seen. Just Scuffle, who looked unimpressed.

“See ya, Murph,” I said. “Thanks for all your help.”

“’Welcome,” she said, weakly.

I gave Scruffle a pat as I passed him and headed out to the jeep. I’d just made it out of the squad room when I heard Murphy’s ‘DRESDEN!’ ring out. I grinned and took a bite of the donut, feeling very triumphant. And, not even a little tired.

Author's Notes Pt. The Second: I know that it would be very hard to steal something from Murphy, even if you had dazzled her with a kiss. I did have a version where she caught him and made him give it back, but it didn't work as well. For the record, Murphy is kickass and I luff her.
larabeckinsale: (dw dresden 01)

[personal profile] larabeckinsale 2010-09-06 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi there *waves*
Found your fic doing a "dresden files" search. Glad I did, I enjoyed this very much :D

I luff Murph too.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2007-12-05 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I LOVE it! It's perfect for Harry and Murphy! And the bit with the possibly mutating shoes was hysterical. Thank you!!!

[identity profile] gusthemoose.livejournal.com 2007-12-05 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Harry you clever fox. Stealing a kiss and a donut, nice work. Very cute fic and very true about the river. I live in Chicago, I've seen some strange stuff in that water.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/ 2007-12-06 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, this is adorable. Harry the donut thief! His shoes didn't try to kill him! Murphy figuring it out before he got out of earshot, which of course makes the donut taste better... Yay for holidayfic!

[identity profile] fictionbya.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
OMG I actually, *literally*, really for reals... laughed out loud at the end :-D

Bad!Harry XD That was charming and wonderful. You get their chemistry so well.

[identity profile] sapphs.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
Eeheeeee!! That was so cute. I adore them :D Adding it my favourite fics memories XD

[identity profile] joonscribble.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
You can now add "donut" to the list of things Harry's stolen in his career. *G*

Great fic! As always I love the details you put in like Harry worrying about mutation via the water, the ancient police dog, the hard to spell Welsh words. They all add such wonderful colors to the story.

Awesome!

[identity profile] utah-yoda.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
I love the chemistry between the two. You actually had me looking the other way, thinking about Harry kissing Murphy, and I forgot all about the donut until he was safely out of her sight. This is great.

[identity profile] angiepen.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
ROFL! OK, the fic was cute throughout but the ending was perfect. :D

Angie

[identity profile] elvinborn.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
this is adorable!
I love the running concern that the boots might eat him
and the snoring sleeping while sitting up (I love that he can do that)
and I think that Murphy could believably have been flustered for at least that long if Harry just up and kissed her like that. esp if it "lasted longer than [he] planned" :D

[identity profile] let-it-linger21.livejournal.com 2007-12-06 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
This is absolutely amazing the way it is! I love it!

Perfect!

[identity profile] rodlox.livejournal.com 2007-12-08 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
clever, dresden, clever...but you really shouldn't mess with people who can pronounce Welsh -- particularly when that person is the lovely C.Murphy!

this is a teriffic fic. bravo!

[identity profile] hoperomantic.livejournal.com 2007-12-09 08:10 am (UTC)(link)
I really like the humor of mutating shoes. *grin* Thank you for sharing this.