A hodgepodge mix of drabbles from various 'verses, from an open drabble request line on my regular LJ a while ago...

X-Files || The Truth is Out There

Scully's lips quirk and she doesn't say a thing as Mulder squelches his way out of the water to stand before her. She would have continued to say nothing, were it not for the gleam in his eyes that just dares her to say it – that and his behavior during the investigation, she decides, has earned his ego a solid poke or two.

"I guess the truth really is out there," she says, laughter brimming in her voice as she reaches over to tug the clump of seaweed from his head.

"I'm telling you, she was there!" he insists, before breaking into a rueful, little boy grin as Scully's laughter finally spills out, bright and merry.

In the distance the mermaid laughs as well and relinquishes the last of her hold on him. There'll be other humans to claim, she knows, and most likely they won't be quite as odd as this one was. Honestly, who believes in little green men from space anyway?

~*~

Avatar || Madness, Fences, Foudations (Toph)

Toph stares sightlessly ahead as she reaches out with her earth sense, getting a feel for the city of Ba Sing Se in the only – and the best – way she knows how. There is something intrinsically wrong with the place she reflects after a moment. Something dark and twisted is lurking deep in the foundations of the city, warping the very earth it's built upon in countless ways.

While the others exclaim in victory now that their goal is in sight, she wonders if the high stone walls surrounding the place are meant to keep something out... or something in.

~*~

B5 || Sinclair, Valen, Thoughts

Zathras knew he was watching history in the making and the sight of it entranced him in ways nothing before ever had. Nothing during the years he's spent tending to his duties, nothing before and since – not even his very first encounter with The One could quite matched this particular moment. That first encounter had changed his life. But this... this was changing an entire species' destiny. This was going to change everything.

History. A pivotal turning point in time. And he was a part of it now.

"Greetings." The man's voice was warm and knowing, depths of emotion Zathras could not even fathom layering each word he spoke. "I am Valen." There was no hesitation in Sinclair's voice, no doubt as he spoke to the Minbari cautiously creeping within Babylon 4's command center. Zathras envied him this and wondered if it was a result of the triluminary's influence, or something Sinclair had always been possessed of. Or maybe it was something Minbari, but then again this lot certainly didn't seem confident just now... Zathras firmly stopped his wandering thoughts and focused on the moment at hand, on the crisp whiteness of Sinclair – no, Valen's robes. On the quietly authoritative and reassuring aura he exuded. On the one who had been Catherine Sakai as she stood nearby, a faint smile gracing her features as she nodded gracefully to the steadily increasing number of Minbari warriors crowding into the room and staring in awe, weapons held loosely in their hands.

"I've come to help."

Hope dawned in the eyes of those Valen addressed and Zathras smiled in glee. He was getting to take on the mantle of Witness instead of Caretaker. It was a role he intended to enjoy to the fullest.

~*~

Harry Potter || Waking up, Cup (Tom Riddle)

Tom Riddle watches the Gryffindor Seeker held along by his cheering team mates and knows, then and there, that Gryffindor's time is at an end. They may have won the school Quidditch Cup, this year, but they've already lost the a war they have no idea is soon to come upon them.

They wallow in their complacency and will never wake in time to ward off the danger that stalks them. It is a complicated, dark game, Tom Riddle plays. It is one he intends to win and the knowledge of exactly who will live or die by his will alone makes this bitter brew of childish defeat easily ignored.

~*~

Hellboy || Down, Dark Tunnels (Abe Sapien)

Each time he picks up an item for the specific purpose of reading its patterns, Abe falls a little deeper, a little longer. It's been a long process, this fall, and only now that he's stopped to think about it does he realize – each reading draws him in further and deeper into the history, senses and feelings with which the objects have been possessed by.

Upon first meeting him, Professor Bruttenholm had called him a gifted psychic, indentifying his particular talent at reading objects as psychometry.

Now, as he struggles to wrest back control of himself from the shade of a memory lingering about the stone he picked up but moments ago, Abe wonders if it might not be something else entirely... and if his talent might not in truth be a curse.

~*~

Transformers || Desert, Gun, Dog Tags (Lennox)

He listened to the creak of shoulder straps and gear and then to the sound of metal grating fretfully against metal.

"For having been here so long," he grumbled, "you're damned impatient, you know that?"

One of the men behind him, far up the slope and out of reach, swore quietly and Lennox fancied he could practically hear the man's grip tighten on his weapon. Guns twitched spasmodically though never – ever – pointed his way as he dangled his dog tags enticingly, the harsh desert sunlight reflecting on the metal too brightly, dots of light dancing crazily all around him.

Scorponok lunged from the sand, arcing high up over the soldier, sand spraying the entire nook of shade by the dune he'd claimed for himself months ago. Light danced and the drone danced after it, enjoying the newfound game and the human company he was free to seek out, now that Blackout was dead.

~*~

Naruto || Bad Day (Kakashi)

Kakashi was having a Very Bad Day. Three missions had landed on his desk in quick succession since he'd wandered into his office (there was a Reason he avoided the place like the plague) and he suspected a few more were tailing him, judging from the messenger birds fruitlessly trying to catch up with him. The two boys on his team had been stirred up atrociously since the first moment he'd been unfortunate enough to lay eyes on them and the bickering continued despite the worse threats he'd leveled upon them. Only Sakura showed any decency whatsoever, though her current mood almost felt like a taunt, it had lasted to steadily through the day's shenanigans. At least she wasn't holding the disastrous encounter with those very odd mud-slinging ninja against him, even though she'd been the worse hit. (Perhaps he shouldn't have sent her in to defuse that trap, after all. Object lesson about how unimportant looks were to a real ninja notwithstanding.)

Work wasn't something he was minded though, and none of that - nor the way the other jonin were snickering when they thought he couldn't see - truly bothered him. Even his team couldn't truly dent his reserve. The fact that the latest Make Out novel had been missing from his desk since he'd risen, however, the advance copy depressingly gone from its prize spot right next to his encryption tablets, was another story. Kakashi sighed, depression hanging heavy about him as he dragged himself on, hoping to find some unwary bandits to unleash the boys upon for a few seconds. Naruto and Sasuke followed and glared and bickered. Jonin seeing them run by smirked and snickered, and messenger birds huffed and puffed in the distance, trying to catch up. Kakashi glumly looked up, expecting the very heavens themselves to darken and threaten lightning at him, purely in punishment for his continued existence.

He was notbeing melodramatic in the least, he consoled himself.

Sakura smirked and hummed to herself as she skipped along merrily behind the boys, both of whom were busy glaring angry blue death at Kakashi for paying them so little attention whenever they weren't bickering. The book tucked away in her medical satchel seemed as light as a feather and her mood soared higher with each passing moment.

Revenge was such a wonderful thing.

~*~

Farscape || Curve, Hard, Blinding (Aeryn)

The white projectile heading his way curved again, against all known laws of gravity, and D'Argo swore as he lunged for the ground in a nearly vain attempt to keep his head from being separated from his body. The missile blurred by him, a blinding spot of white under the ship's lights and Chiana jeered at him loudly for his troubles, all the while laughing in her wild, cackling way.

Again.

Aeryn smiled, the look not unlike that of a crocodile about to pounce on an unwary gazelle, in Crichton's very informed opinion. Silent and impossibly smug, she waited until D'Argo was ready once, before winding up in for a perfect pitch that would have made any major league pitcher green with envy.

It was a good thing she'd taken to curve balls so quickly, he decided. Because he doubted Aerun Sun would have been able to play with anything else but hardball tactics. And even though aiming the ball at the batter would be entirely out of line in any official match back home, there was no way in hell he was telling her that now that he'd finally convinced her baseball could be fun.

"Bring it!" howled D'Argo, and Aeryn obliged with wicked glee.

~*~

Vorkosigan || Avenue, throne, candy (Young Ivan)

Gregor practically gaped at the boy trotting up the red carpet leading up to the throne, the child ignoring the sudden silence falling upon the room with supreme indifference. Scrambling up the steps and pausing only a moment to offer both King and Queen a calm nod, the boy then leaned down to crouch by the slightly younger girl seated at Gregor's feet, looking up at the other child with wide eyes. After a moment of mutual inspection, both children straightened, solemn looks etched on their faces.

"Hi! Wanna be friends?" The boy stretched out one hand to seal the offer, a gesture he'd seen his father do countless times.

"M'kay!" Royal ceremony and rules entirely forgotten, then young girl nodded firmly and returned the gesture, both children shaking on it. A bright smile broke through the seriousness and the girl bounced up, settling carefully on her feet as the royal nanny nearly strangled herself from somewhere behind the throne, trying to restore some dignity to her charge. "The kitchen's just finished making a new batch of bug candy," she stage whispered, a small yet devious grin on her face. "Wanna go get some?"

Both children vanished (nanny in tow) within a heartbeat and standing in the doorway of the throne room, still looking entirely puzzled by how his child had yet again escaped him, Ivan could only offer Gregor a sheepish smile.

~*~

Naruto || Romance (Shikamaru, Temari)

Shikamaru squawked in a decidedly unmanly-like way, ducked and then ran for his life as a multitude of razor sharp fans descended upon him, buzzing hungrily for his blood. When Temari had said "I love you and I don't ever want to see you hurt by our enemies" he really should have known well enough to translate that to "if I can't manage to kill you, then they won't be able to either".

He really really should have known better.

~*~

XP verse ||Umlaut, basketball, kitchen (Winchester boys at the X-Mansion)

Dean had firmly ensconced himself by the poolside and was making googly eyes the likes had apparently never been encountered by any of the women (or girls) in the mansion, or so it seemed to Sam judging from the flock of females currently surrounding his brother. Sam thought his brother mostly looked like he had a pair of demented umlauts patched on his face, what with trying to look at every single one of them all at once.

More than a few of the men (and boys) had abandoned attempting to start up a basketball game and were scowling at the spectacle = but that was hardly anything new and Sam wasn't worried for Dean's welfare in the least. This kind of situation (super-powers included) was hardly anything Dean wouldn't survive – sometimes, Sam had to wonder if his brother didn't have temporary mutant survival powers that only kicked in when his life was threatened directly as a result of his rampant flirting with anyone that'd stand still long enough for him to lock eyes upon.

Sam, in the meantime, had determined that the kitchen was clearly the place to be and that good guys did win.

"Thank you, miss," he beamed at the smiling beauty giving him his choice of homemade cookies, tall glass of cool milk already at hand. "Best seat in the house," he murmured to himself contentedly, and was rewarded with an extra three cookies on the spot.

Green was the best color in the world, he decided.

~*~

Wall-e || Dare to fly

Earth - year 2102

Dr. Eugene Hubert Wall stared at the plans laid out before him, scratching his head every now and then. He walked around his desk, pencil tip firmly held between his teeth and after another ten minutes of scrutiny, he finally stopped and started to smile. Others might criticize his old fashioned draft-table work methods, and more even mocked him for his crazy ideas, but this once, they'd have to admit he'd done his work well.

The shape and function of his creation was clear, exactly what he'd been ordered to do by the government. Every single one of the Wall-e units would dutifully and monotonously execute their functions, and never ever swerve form their base programming. He's obeyed every restriction, every mandate that had been given to him, not allowing himself the slightest deviation during the entire designing and coding process.

Eugene patted the small chip tucked away in his shirt pocket, the case it rested in safely nestled between a data pad and a pencil.

For all of them, except one. This single logic chip would be his silent tribute to what humanity could – should – have been.

"Dare to fly!" perhaps wasn't the best of basic core routines to sneak into a trash compactor robot, but Eugene smiled to himself, and hoped it would be enough.