I don't even know if this fandom is still alive, but I had always loved Rashel and Quinn. Their dynamic was beautiful to me and when I saw that they re-designed the whole cover of the Night World series, I fell in love with The Chosen and its stunning cover.
I re-read the book and it bought back a serious case of nostalgia and memories of a time in my life where everything wasn't plagued with negativity.
Fell in love with them all over again.
And so, I will mostly be writing short drabbles, or one-shots or whatever it is they're called about my favorite couple. They mostly will be following the canon verse or be slightly/completely AUs. Not going to lie, I was having trouble bringing my personal story ideas to life so I took some prompts I found via online.
My writing style differs, I don't really think I have a certain style so bear with me if you notice. I'm obviously rusty.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think or suggest prompts if you're willing.
Oh, the websites I used are literally all three first results that popped up on google when I typed; writing prompts.
Prompt: A bittersweet farewell: bitter for one person, sweet for the other.
Plot: Zombie AU/All Human AU; Rashel gets bitten and asks Quinn to kill her.
Rating: Strong T
"You're okay, its okay. Ash is coming, Thea is with him so she can help." Rashel glanced at Quinn, his usual expression was strange to her, foreign. His normal apathetic gaze was replaced with worry, with a vast amount of fear. "Rashel, hey kitten you'll be okay. You'll be okay you hear me?"
She wanted to laugh. What a beautifully veiled lie.
"Quinn," he shook his head. "Don't talk too much. We don't need you losing too much blood."
"Quinn," "Rashel please, just – just please." The strain in his voice made her heart throb. "Quinn,"
"Damnit Rashel! Can't you see I'm trying to help you? Thea is going to be here soon and she'll know what to do. I mean, sure she had to chop off Eric's hand off but now he's got a pretty useful weapon out of that stump of his right? Remember we called him Captain Hook the first few months? Ha! I'm surpr- "
"John Quinn!" Her green eyes blurred with tears, the warm tracks spilling onto her cheeks as she watched him grit his teeth, eyes downcast and hands pressed tightly into her hip. He stopped talking at least, but he wouldn't look at her.
Rashel lifted her arm and carefully cupped his cheek until he was facing her. His eyes avoiding her. In a softer tone she repeated his name. "John Quinn, please," she swallowed the lump in her throat, "please look at me." It took a few seconds before he finally lifted his eyes from the ground and looked into her bright green ones.
Her lips pulled into a soft, sad smile. She could see the utter fear he hid behind the false bravado of calm – the reluctant acceptance of what he knew she would say.
"John, you know they won't get here in time." He opened his mouth to argue but she shook her head to silence him, "And even if they did, Thea can't chop half my hip off. We both know what's going to happen soon John." He seemed to contemplate, his brain racking for something, anything to contradict her.
But there was nothing. Nothing he could find, nothing to prove her wrong with.
Instead he lifted his hands off her hip and encased her own hand on his face in a tight grip. He was not going to lose her, not this way, not today.
"Rashel – "
"I love you John Quinn."
The straw that broke the camel's back.
That was all she had to say for him to finally break down.
Quinn released a shout of anger and finally let the tears he's been holding back fall.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fucking fair! He needed her, he needed Rashel and he had her. He had her!
He had her . . . he had her and he hadn't kept her safe.
It was a simple mission, collect whatever food you could, anything useful and return to base.
A quick and simple mission that shouldn't have taken more then an hour, an hour and a half at most.
But then they hadn't counted on hostile looters to jump them, hadn't counted on them firing a shot and definitely hadn't counted on a small hoard of flesh eaters sprinting after them.
Nothing was supposed to happen. Nothing was supposed to go wrong. But when one of the snarling creature snuck behind an oblivious and distracted Quinn, he hadn't counted on Rashel to throw her self at it.
Weapon-less Rashel tried to rip its throat out with her bare hands. Tried and succeeded.
Until a flesh eater took her by surprise and bit down on her side.
Quinn had watched the scene with horror, everything fuzzy and in slow motion as Rashel grunted and threw the throat-less monster off of her. Watched as one who was obviously missing a torso found new vigor and rapidly crawled towards Rashel and suddenly threw itself at her.
It had missed her neck, but it had clamped down on her exposed hip.
He had tried to scream, to run past the twice dead bodies and ram the sharpened hunting knife into its skull, but he was a second too late.
Not fast enough.
Not focused enough.
Not good enough.
He was a second too late before the knife pierced through bone and the groaning became silent. A second too late as he picked up an astonished Rashel off the ground and into a safer area. A second too late before Rashel snapped out of her shock and gasped clutching her hip with trembling hands.
Everything had gone wrong within a second and he couldn't stop it.
"John, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you."
"Rashel," he ignored the crack in his voice and forced the lump down his throat, "Rashel Jordan, I love you. Don't leave me, not like this. Not now."
"Oh, John. I – I don't want to, but I have to. I have to."
Quinn let her hand go and slammed his fists into the ground. She didn't deserve this.
She didn't.
"John, you remember what I asked you a few months ago? What we talked about after Poppy and James? Do you remember?"
"Rashel, no. Don't –"
"I don't want to die like this John." He watched as her eyes filled with new tears, her fingers pulling his shirt towards her until he was nose to nose with her. She threaded her fingers into his hair and closed her eyes letting her tears coat her lashes.
She's so beautiful, so wonderful he felt his heart break at what she was suggesting.
"I can't. Rashel I can't."
"Yes, you can John Quinn. You can because you know this isn't how I want to die, you know I don't want to see myself slow become them," her eyes opened and she looked at him. "You know because I'm scared. I'm so fucking scared."
Rashel searched his eyes and smiled when she saw him waver. She didn't want to turn into a flesh eater, didn't want Quinn to watch her with love in his eyes as she bit into his flesh.
She didn't want Quinn to end up like Poppy had. Letting a turned James bite her jaw with love in her eyes and arms wrapped around him lovingly while her brother shot a bullet into both of them to end it all.
She wouldn't let him.
She loves him, loves him enough to live with memories of her before this plague had hit them. Memories where it was sparing in the dojo and stealing spoonsfuls of his sundae when he wasn't looking. Days spent joking and being playful to nights wrapped in sheets and unfiltered passion only to repeat it all again with silly smiles and wordless I love you's.
Rashel could see the pain in his eyes. The broken, ugly realization that there really was nothing to do. Her heart thumped against her chest as she felt her body begin to heat up.
The first sign.
"John, it's happening. Please. I – I can't be them. I don't want to be them." Without another word she pushed his lips to hers and kissed him with all the love, tenderness and strength she had left to give. He returned the kiss with his own love, albeit – his was filled with sorrow and heartbreak.
When they pulled away, he had his gun by his side. He pressed his forehead against hers and ignored the heat he felt from her.
"I love you Rashel Jordan, I love you so much I hate myself for not having found you sooner. I love you so much that I sing that stupid kid song you love so much. In the morning, evening, afternoon and underneath the moon and whatever. I love you so much that I'm so happy I met you, later in life but I met you."
She couldn't hold her tears as she listened to him.
"I love you so much I asked you to marry me."
Quinn pulled away and smiled sadly. "Rashel, I love you so much I'd do anything you ask. Even if you asked me to kill you, I love you."
Rashel sobbed and gripped his hand tightly. She could already feel her body shutting down on her, her heart beating too quickly. There wasn't enough time, but she needed to say it, she couldn't go without saying it.
"John Quinn, I love you so much. I love you so much I let you tattoo your stupid name on me. I love you so much I ran away from home with you until Keller caught me. I love you so much I followed you to Boston even though I hate small towns. I love you so much I stood by you when your idiotic father tried to ruin you. I love you so much I'm upset I hadn't found you sooner."
"I love you so much I said yes when you asked me to marry you."
Rashel tried her best to control the sudden shake that had taken over her body. Just a few more seconds, all she needed was a few more seconds . . .
"John, I love you so much there is no other way I'd want to die then by your hands." She gasped and harshly breathed thru her nose.
If only there was more time. But there wasn't.
There never is.
They looked each other in the eyes, green and gray silently saying what else couldn't be said, what else had been missed.
Quinn smiled and Rashel felt herself return it despite the pain.
The gun came beside her head and she mouthed one last I love you before Quinn shut his eyes the same instant, he heard the last struggle for air before it fell silent.
Quinn didn't wait for the animalistic growl that would sound soon, he pulled the trigger and slumped against the wall.
He didn't dare open his eyes. He didn't want to see this Rashel. It wasn't his Rashel.
It wasn't long before he heard them.
"QUINN! RASHEL!" There was fumbling and panting before the light from the outside invaded the dim closet. He still didn't open his eyes, not even when he felt Ash roughly pull him up and shove him outside, not even when he felt a fist connect with his face as he heard the sobs of Keller or Thea's startled gasp.
He didn't dare open them until he was down on the ground and facing the opposite side of the building.
Finally, after being cursed and kicked around by Keller he simply shook his head and said, "Rashel didn't want to become them. She was – "his voice cracked but he trudged on, "she was scared and I love her."
A bittersweet farewell: bitter for one person, sweet for the other.
They're completely AU and I did tamper with their personality. It was rusty, I'll admit, but I kind of like it but I'm not completely happy with it.
Let me know what needs to be fixed and I'll write again soon! So whoo!