I love good guys

Back in 2011's fandom_stocking/fandom_stocking game, I ambitiously posted six little stories, one to every stocking that had wished for FK that year. Four of these pieces, I shared on fkfic-l and archived in the usual way. The other two went into a kind of purgatory; each had a unique challenge that I discovered through audience responses, and each I thought I should rewrite, recast, recreate to address its challenge. I never did.

leela_cat once advised me to formally tie off those two, the better to stop thinking of them as eternally to-be-done. I finally did that this weekend, archiving them to the AO3 with only a wash and wax, not a new transmission. I backdated both to Epiphany 2011:

• "Getting Involved" (1.2K words, PG, Janette and Erica, canon-divergent)
• "For a Song" (900 words, G, Lacroix and Janette, canon-compliant)

My thanks to the kind people who played Fandom Stocking that year, giving me an opportunity to explore these characters and learn valuable storytelling lessons!

This set of three flashbacks was my submission to the "Claire Rankin Characters Mini-Ficathon."  They're set in my "Fireweed" AU, in which Janette brought Fleur across, accelerating Nick's rejection of vampirism.  (No need to read the original. That's all the context.)

I have a soft spot for Nick's sister.  My 1998 "Fireweed" vampire Fleur differs from my 2008 "Starwort" human Fleur, I noticed as I revisited her.  Different lives made different women from the same origin.  Yoked to Lacroix, "Fireweed" Fleur's development was constrained.  "Starwort" Fleur grew further faster, living human.  One of these days, I will finish "Amaranth" Fleur, who goes farthest of all.

	•	Title:	"Three Fireweed Seeds"
	•	Length:	~3,300 words
	•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L March 5, 2009
	•	Rating:	PG-13 (gen, f/f, m/f)
	•	Summary:	"Reconnection:" Nick watches over Fleur.  "Responses:" Fleur tries to comfort Erica.  "Recoil:" Lacroix  has driven Fleur away.
	•	Setting:	1229 Paris, 1700 London, 1966 Bonn
	•	Characters:	Fleur, Nick, Erica, Lacroix
	•	Quotation:	"So then why, why, why had he burned the Abbarratt without letting her read it first?"

"Responses," the second of the three ficlets, replied to an f/f prompt.  It is my first try at such, and I suspect I failed the prompt's intention.  One lesson I'm taking is that a fully successful run at that prompt would require its own custom AU.