CHAPTER TITLE: Flashing Lights
PAIRING: Astrid/ Walter, Astrid/Nina
CHARACTERS: Astrid Farnsworth, Walter Bishop, Nina Sharp
GENRE: Dark
RATING: NC-17
SUMMARY: "Want to come into my van? There's more candy," she offers sweetly, giving him the friendliest smile she is capable of.
CHALLENGE: dark!Walstrid
WORD COUNT: 1490
WARNINGS: Violence, Character Death, Sexual Situations
SPOILERS: Season One
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I didn't realise I hadn't posted this on FF until today!
DISCLAIMER: Obvious this isn't mine.
She sucks the last bit of smoke out of her cigarette before tossing it on the ground and crushing it between her high heels and the cement. She continues watching the hotel window from the shadows of the alleyway she's been hiding in for almost two hours. An ambulance passes by, its lights spinning and flashing wildly, but the siren isn't there. 'They aren't rushing to get anywhere,' she observes—the occupant is dead. Her attention returns to the hotel window and then stands up a little straighter when she sees the curtain rustle; Walter looks down at her, pressing his face against the glass and waves. She waves back and finds a piece of gum to chew quickly so that her breath doesn't taste like her cigarettes.
Her fingers rake through her hair, fluffing up the spiral curls, and then they move to her right thigh, readjusting the black sheer stocking she has on. Her trench coal is teal and belted tightly around her waist; the weather has been chill, which is a relief, because if it had been any cooler the two hours standing and waiting would have been a bitch. Last night was pretty cold and she had waited for almost three hours before Walter could come down to see her.
After all the time she spends in the laboratory with him, she learns he likes pouting lips covered in bright lipgloss, rescuing young ladies from ugly bugs like crickets, having his cake being feed to him while he worked so that he didn't have to set down the chemicals he was mixing. All of these little things pieced together help her figure out the best way to wrap him around her finger.
An inappropriate touch here, a vulgar word there, the seduction had reached its peak two weeks ago in the laboratory when she pulled open her shirt dress to reveal acid green lingerie. The mad scientist's eyes had bulged, he'd dropped the flask of liquefied hamster brains, and he'd given her a speechless,
"Oh my."
"You like it, Dr Bishop?" she had purred, pushing her chest out.
He had nodded, shuffling his feet over the goo and glass on the floor to study her closer. "Very, very much."
She had licked her lips before asking, "Do you want it?"
And now here she is standing in an alleyway across from the Bishop's hotel, waiting for Peter to use the shower so Walter could sneak down to see her. For the past two weeks she's been very carefully to get him back up to the room before Peter realises he's gone, but tonight is going to be different. Walter hurries across the street to her, grinning ear to ear.
"Hello!" he greets in the most giddy tone yet.
She nuzzles her nose against his. "Hi there."
She leads him a little deeper into the alleyway and he follows behind her like an obedient puppy. She smiles and tosses her hair, playing young and alluring.
"Do you have candy for me?" he asks, his eyes wide with curiousity.
She beckons with her finger, reaching her other hand into her pocket to pull out small dollops hand-wrapped in wax-paper. "Yes I do. Your favourite."
His smile is wild and childlike. "Cinnamon sugar!"
She had made the batch fresh before she came here, the sweets still warm from the oven. She hands him a few as they leave the other end of the alleyway and Walter pauses, obviously unsure what to do; they've never moved this far away from the hotel.
"Would you like to walk with me?" She gives him an innocent look and points to the alley away ahead of them. "Just across the street. They have a warm vent there and I thought it would be nicer than by a dumpster."
His mouth full of candy, he nods and together they head to the even darker space between tall, cold buildings. As they enter the shadows, his hands become curious with her hips. A good distance from the light of the streets, she stands near the hot vent she'd promised and leans back against the brick wall. She opens up the teal trench coat to show she's only wearing a honey-coloured slip underneath. Like all little boys, Walter enjoys unwrapping his presents. He giggles and smiles and feels her up with the most delightful way, his hands speaking of his concupiscence.
He leaves bite marks that will fade from her skin by the end of the night and she gives him moans that stay ringing in his ears until morning. His tongue is sticky and she laughs when she realises he's still wearing his slippers. While he's not competent enough to remember her name or wear shoes outside, he is definitely proficient with anything that has to do with his fingers. Finally she has to bury her face into his shoulder to muffle the noises she's making—after all, what good what it do her to attract attention to them?
Now done and both pleased with the results, Astrid rebelts the trench coat and offers Walter a handkerchief for his fingers. He's looking back across the street, obviously realising that Peter's finishing his shower and he should return back to the hotel room, but Astrid didn't lure him this far away to take him back. She grabs his hand and points to a black, windowless van parked at the back of this alley.
"Want to come into my van? There's more candy," she offers sweetly, giving him the friendliest smile she is capable of.
He looks a little hesitant, as if he is starting to remember the rules about getting into vehicles with strangers, but asks, "Cinnamon sugar?"
"Yes!" She climbs inside the back and turns to him. "C'mon. You don't want it to get cold, do you?"
He shakes his head, obviously convinced that cold sugar candy isn't something he wants and he follows her in. Quickly, the two men who've been waiting in the back pin him down the floor and while he squeals in fear, she finds the small case in her pocket that contains the sedative she needs to inject him with. He whimpers a bit more and then cries when she sticks it in his arm.
"Tie him up," she orders. "Nina won't be happy if any mistakes happen."
The two men nod and double zip-tie both his hands behind his back and his feet while she gets herself straightened up a bit. There's a small bench in the van and she sits down on it, reapplying her makeup with a compact and booklight. Walter now completely trussed, both men hurry to the driver and passenger seat, getting the van out of this neighborhood as fast as they can—the less attention, the better.
She finds the Vogue she's stashed and as the van begins it's bumpy ride back to Massive Dynamic, she looks at the latest wardrobe for summer and wonders if Nina will buy her the red dress on page 402. It would look amazing on her figure and—
Walter is making a lot of noise and she folds down the top of her magazine to narrow her eyes at him, a silent warning to shut up. But he doesn't take the hint, so she kicks him in the side and goes back to reading her magazine. She really likes that red dress—she can't wait to show it to Nina!
Twenty minutes later they arrive and Nina is waiting in the delivery bay where they back the van up to the waiting gurney. Walter's too out of it to realise where he is and she can't help running over to the older woman, who sweeps her up in her arms.
"I brought you something," she says, her heart pounding.
Nina plants a warm kiss on her cheek and purrs. "Have you, pet?"
Released from the embrace, she presents a heavily sedated mad scientist now lying on the gurney to be rushed off to a laboratory far underground. "Dr Walter Bishop."
Nina motions for a security guard next to her to hand over the gun at his side and in a swift motion shoots Walter though the heart. The older man slumps as blood starts to pool on the hard metal surface.
"Prep him," Nina says casually. "Those memories need to be transferred immediately into the Husk."
Walter is rolled away and Nina turns to her. "Well, love, I think this is the end of the line."
"End of the line?" she echoes, a little confused.
The red head smiles and raises the gun, pointed right at her chest. "What I mean is, I don't need you any more."
She balks. "But—"
Nina is still smiling when she shrugs. "Sorry, but you're just as expendable."
Two rounds enter her heart and Astrid doesn't even have time to think it's unfair before she hits the cool concrete of Massive Dynamics underground parking garage.