Imagine Your OTP
A couple of years ago on tumblr, I came across a blog called "imagineyourotp" -- full of prompts about putting your OTP in various different situations. Most of the prompts I simply reblogged as appropriate for Victor and Alice, but four ended up inspiring actual fics. Those special four are shown below. Hopefully you'll think they're as cute as I did when I wrote them.
Forgotten Nightmare
Prompt: Imagine Person A has gone missing. Person B looks high and low for them, until they stumble into them as they are running through the streets on their search. Person B hugs Person A tightly, telling them how much they were worried and how scared they were. When Person B pulls back from their embrace, Person A looks at them with a confused look before replying quietly, “Do I know you?”
Notes: I was in the middle of writing some of the ickier parts of the verse at the time, and this struck me as just the kind of nightmare Alice would have after all the shit had gone down.
Alice jolted awake, breathing hard. She could feel goosebumps prickling all over her skin, a mate to the shivers racking her body. That had been one of her worst nightmares to date, excepting of course those about the fire. . .or maybe not. After all, this one had dealt with the loss of one closest to her as well, hadn’t it? She closed her eyes in an attempt to calm herself, but that just brought back the image of Victor standing before her on the street, staring at her with baffled, blank eyes – no spark of recognition, of life within them –
She gasped, eyes snapping open again. Quickly she turned over, needing to reassure herself that this wasn’t the dream, that everything was fine.
A familiar head of black hair lay on the pillow beside her. Alice reached out and touched it, eliciting a happy murmur from its owner. She relaxed as the thick, soft, slightly-greasy strands tangled in her fingers. Victor was here. Her beloved was by her side where he belonged. And he remembered her, and everything about himself. The days of him being an empty shell were long gone. The nightmare was merely that, nothing more.
“Alice?” Victor’s voice was muffled, dulled by sleep. “Are you all right?”
Alice scooted closer to him, wrapping her arms around his fragile-looking body. “I’m fine,” she whispered, kissing the side of his head. “Go back to sleep.”
Victor turned over in her grasp, pulling her close. “You’re sure?”
Brown eyes full of warmth and love gazed upon her. The last of the tension dissipated from Alice’s stomach. “I’m sure.”
First Kick
Prompt: Imagine your OTP are expecting their first child. They’re five months into the pregnancy and lying across the sofa, Person A’s head resting on Person B’s growing belly, the couple simply relaxing. Suddenly the baby kicks for the first time and Person A is overwhelmed, sharing a tender gaze with Person B as they find themselves even more eager for the arrival of their child.
Notes: Written after I got sick and stalled out on the fics I was working on at the time. I remembered this prompt as being cute, and wanted to expand upon it.
It was a dark and stormy day. Thunder growled outside the parlor window, a sure sign that the weather wasn’t going to improve anytime soon. Victor sighed and pressed his head against his makeshift pillow. “How’s your book?”
“Poorly written and ridiculous – fortunately for the author, that’s enough to keep me reading,” Alice commented, idly laying her free hand on his hair. “How are you down there?”
“Fine,” Victor said, watching lightning flash across the sky through the rain-blurred glass. “Though rather tired of all this miserable weather. I wanted to have a picnic today.”
“You’re not the only one,” Alice groused. “I was hoping for a chance to enjoy the summer while it was still here. And while I was still small enough to fit through the front door.”
Victor allowed himself a smile at that, but didn’t comment. He’d learned the hard way that Alice could be a bit touchy about the subject of her expanding belly. Mrs. Winks had assured him such mood swings were a normal symptom of pregnancy, but it was really one he would have rather done without. Alice’s sarcasm was not something he liked having directed at him too often. “Perhaps it will be sunny tomorrow and we’ll get the chance,” he said instead. He grinned up at her. “Remember the summer we spent together in Houndsditch? When everyone said it was the hot–”
Something kicked his cheek.
Victor jerked his head up, eyes wide. Had he just – his fingers probed the side of his face. It hadn’t been particularly hard – barely a kick at all – but something had quite definitely kicked his cheek through Alice’s dress. He looked up to see his wife’s jaw hanging open slightly, her expression as gobsmacked as he felt. “Was – was that–”
“If it wasn’t, my stomach’s taken to rumbling in a most unusual manner,” Alice said. She seized his hand and pressed it against her belly. “Do it again. Please do it again.”
For a moment, Victor wondered what she was talking about. And then, plain as day, the kick repeated itself, as if in response to her plea. Alice stared down at her belly. “Well then. I – I think it’s actually become a baby.” She blushed and rolled her eyes at herself. “If that makes any sense at all.”
“It does,” Victor assured her in a rather breathless voice. Oh God, this was – he’d felt it moving a bit before, but those had been tiny flutters, like the proverbial butterflies in the stomach. This was clearly from a creature with arms and legs just like them. This was – this was a child.
Their child.
His eyes met Alice’s again, now full of wonder and joy. She laughed faintly. “Funny time to realize we’re truly going to be parents, hmm?” she whispered, cheeks still a little pink.
“Yes,” Victor agreed, before capturing her lips in a kiss.
Newborn
Prompt: Imagine your OTP holding their newborn child for the first time.
Notes: Another one I just thought was cute. . .and yes, Victor stays with Alice during the labor. They literally cannot make him leave -- he wants to be with his wife, through thick and thin. By the time of their fourth child, the doctor just sighs and works around him.
He was – tiny.
Alice couldn’t help but marvel at that fact. Her newborn son seemed barely bigger than your average loaf of bread. Victor had told her that this was typical of his father’s bloodline – children starting out minuscule, than shooting up like weeds once they reached the growing years – but still. She cast her mind back to the intense pain that had wracked her body not a hour ago. Could something this small really have caused that?
A soft gurgle drew her attention back to her son. His size wasn’t the only indication that he took after the Van Dort side of the family – he was a very pale child, with a few strands of black hair plastered to his head and a nose that could only have come from his father. The only contribution she seemed to have made to his appearance was his eyes, which were the same bright green as her own. It was a bit disconcerting to have them staring up at her from out of a tiny copy of Victor’s face. Disconcerting, but also pleasing. She’d carried the boy in her womb for nine months – he ought to look at least a bit like a Liddell.
The bed creaked as Victor settled onto it. “How is he?” he whispered, as if frightened a normal conversational tone would somehow harm the fragile little life cradled in Alice’s arms.
“Quiet,” Alice replied. “I think he’s as exhausted as I am from all the mess and fuss of being born.” Indeed, the little one’s eyes were beginning to flutter. Alice began rocking him back and forth gently to soothe him further. “Poor little thing.”
“I’m not surprised. That was – q-quite the production,” Victor commented, shaking his head. “And I was only watching.” With a grin, he added, “And being asked why we thought this was a good idea.”
“You never did say,” Alice teased, smirking up at him. “Too busy worried I’d squeeze all the blood out of your hand?”
“A bit,” Victor allowed, chuckling. His eyes turned again to their child. “But now. . .well, I think he himself makes the perfect case for this being an excellent idea.”
Alice nodded as their son drifted off to sleep. “Yes, he does indeed. I say we keep him.”
Victor pressed his lips to her temple. “I agree.”
Peek-A Boo
Prompt: Imagine your OTP playing Peek-a-Boo with their baby.
Notes: Oh, this was just absolutely made of adorable and I had to write a fic for it. The ending refers to the spell "Imagination Into Reality," which allows one to summon pretty much any non-living object they can think of into the real world. . .for a time. Both Victor and Alice would know it by this point -- and hell, if you could get toys for free, even temporarily, wouldn't you?
“Where’s Daddy? Where’s Daddy? . . .There he is!”
Chester laughed, squirming around in his crib. Victor grinned and covered his face with his hands again. “Where’s Daddy? Where is he?”
“You’d think he’d know you were still there simply by the sight of your hair sticking up over your fingertips.”
Victor looked up to see his wife observing him from the doorway, smiling. “He seems to be enjoying himself regardless,” he replied, turning back to Chester and sticking his tongue out at him. Chester laughed, waving his little arms. “Who’s a silly baby? Who’s a silly baby?”
“All babies are silly,” Alice said, coming over to join him. “It’s all part of being a baby.” She waggled her fingers at Chester, who tried to capture them in his surprisingly-tight grip. “Lizzie told me she used to play peek-a-boo with me,” she added in a softer voice. “Until the day I managed to grab some of her hair in my excitement and nearly yanked it out of her head. She admitted it took her a day or two to want to come near me again – and even then, she always made sure she had her hair tied back.”
Victor chuckled. “Poor Lizzie.” His smile faded. “I – I don’t recall anyone ever playing peek-a-boo with me. None of the people looking after me were really the type.” He looked down at Chester, who looked back up at him with Alice’s wide green eyes. “Silly thing to regret not having in one’s life, right?”
“Silly, but understandable,” Alice told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “But we’re hardly going to let the same thing happen to Chester now, are we?”
Victor grinned again. “Not at all.” He reached out and stroked his son’s cheek with a finger, making the baby smile. “He really is wonderful, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Alice agreed quietly. “And all the more so for being so easily amused. You just wait until he’s grown up and demanding things from shop windows.”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it,” Victor said with a smirk. “That is, as long as he doesn’t mind his toys fading after a few hours.”
“Oh, we’ll only be able to get away with that for a year at most.”