Project Title: Flavour Challenge

Objective: To write three (3) one-shot fics about the Illusion guys – David, James, and Russell – using three classic coffee flavors as title and theme.

Guidelines and Rules:

1) Designate the following flavors for only the indicated characters:

David Caramel

James Irish Cream

Russell Hazelnut

These indicated flavors have to be used/integrated into the plot. Meaning… the characters have to use/eat/cook/drink/buy/etc each flavor assigned to them.

2) Each fic should either be lime or lemon (meaning no lower than PG13, should be NC17 rating or higher). Only hetero pairings are allowed. No yaoi, shounen-ai, yuri, group, bestiality, etc. allowed. Just keep the pairings straight and relatively canon-based. Non-canon pairings are allowed but not encouraged.

3) Each of the three fics has to be a one-shot deal. No sagas and novels please. Just short stories.

4) Fics should be AU (Alternate Universe). Think what-ifs scenario.

5) Guy’s (David, James, or Russ) POV all throughout the fic. (Of course as long as the POV doesn’t destroy the integrity of the plot). Other character’s POV is allowed but keep them as minimal as possible.

6) Do NOT discuss your fic idea with others. Don’t ask the other authors what their fics will be like.

7) Your favorite character – of the three guys – should be written last; so as not to lose interest when writing for the other two characters’ respective fics.

8) Characters have to/should be/ must be in character. Like was said before, stick to the canon as closely as possible, but be creative enough.

9) Disclaimers, Warnings, Ratings required.

10) If you have time and the inclination, you may submit a picture of a scene in one or all of the three fics you are to write. (This is optional, of course.)

This fic challenge was issued by anabarton at around 1-3:00 am of September 26, 2004 after being introduced to DaVinci Gourmet syrups. For further information about said syrups, refer to this

Furthermore, these one-shot fics are to be our gifts for each other for the coming Christmas and thus the challenge deadline shall be on: December 24, 2004

Entries must be uploaded to the IlluCorp ML File section inside a folder called “Challenge Entries.” Please do not read early submitted entries until December 25, 2004.

We are operating in an honor-basis. Please follow all the rules and guidelines. And thank you for participating.

Feifu

Site Moderator

Illusion

Flavour Challenge fic

ana barton

This is an original story that’s based on a dream I had some time ago.

ALL CHARACTERS, NAMES, and EVENTS are fictional in nature or may be based on personal friends and occurrences in my life. Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental.

Mention has been made of the DaVinci Gourmet Syrups, specifically the Irish Cream Flavour Syrup for this story. This is a very real company, visit their website if you will ). I do not claim any connection to the company, other than as a prospective consumer of their products.

I got the idea for this challenge when feifu mentioned the syrups in a chat session.

Rating: NC-17

Irish Cream:

Fix Me

“Mommy, Daddy, please stop!” JJ was crying.

“Go to your room!” James snarled. “And be quiet!”

Another city, another woman, another fuck… sometimes he loved his job in that it enabled him to travel a lot and meet a lot of people. And women of any place fell prey to his charms.

Sometimes he wished for permanency but then he’d remembered her and he firmly shut the door to that thought again.

Until the next time it would rear it’s ugly head, reminding him of how happy and content he was then, of how good their life together was…

It was dark but he found their bed. “James?” The light clicked on and he growled at the assault of bright light.

“Sorry,” Anna apologized while dimming the light. “Are you alright?”

He wasn’t in the mood to talk; without a word, he turned to her and pressed his lips to hers, the hand on her chin forcing her to open her mouth for his questing tongue. He pushed her onto her back and with a bit of fumbling, managed to get the necessary clothes off the two of them.

“James, love,” she breathed out. “Slow down; I’m not—”

He ignored her and pushed inside her roughly, his body weight keeping her firmly in place for his thrusts. He heard her pleas for him to stop but he resolutely disregarded them as he continued using her body for his own drunken gratification.

“Are you going to the hospital?”

He sneered but kept his eyes on the plans on his desk. “Why should I?”

“Your wife just gave birth to your son,” David replied through gritted teeth.

“Your point?”

“James! She’s your wife!”

“Not,” he countered, “for long.”

Beep

Beep

Beep

James opened his eyes blearily as he tried to identify the source of that sound. It wasn’t their alarm clock that was for certain – that thing sounded more like a train wreck anyway and not this rhythmic beeping – but it was in his general vicinity. He attempted to turn on his side but found that he couldn’t because there was something attached to his arm.

He sat up with a start and looked around for the first time, identifying his location as not the bedroom he shared with his wife at their home but a hospital room.

“Wha—?!” He held a hand up to his head as he experienced belated nausea. At the back of his head though, he recognized that his voice was different, a bit more deeper than he was used to but still his voice.

The door opened and a nurse entered. She looked and blinked at him in surprise then she grinned. “Mr. Blanco, good to have you back. I’ll inform Dr. Rosales you’re awake.”

“Wait!”

But his call fell on deaf ears as she deftly left the room.

James growled in frustration and would have thrown something at anything if the room could have stopped spinning for a moment. Seeing as he wasn’t going anywhere for the time being, he just slumped back onto the bed with a sigh.

“What the hell am I doing here?” he asked softly, staring at the white ceiling.

“Mr. Blanco?”

He looked at the newcomer, presumably his doctor. At least they worked fast here. He sat back up but went slowly this time. “Dr. Rosales?”

“Yes,” he held out his hand. “We’ve been monitoring your progress and we’re glad you’re back with us.”

James grinned wryly as they shook hands. “The nurse already told me that. Why am I here? Where’s my wife? Did somebody already inform her?”

The doctor looked taken aback by something but he brushed it off as probably a trick of the light or something. The lighting in the room was set on dim for some reason although an aide was slowly brightening it up.

“I’d like to keep you here for a couple of days, Mr. Blanco, if that’s alright?” Rosales asked instead. “We just want to be sure that no permanent damage has been done, especially after that accident of yours.”

“Accident?” James asked sharply. “What accident?”

Rosales now definitely looked taken aback. He immediately took out a penlight and shone the light on his eyes. “James – can I call you James? – you were in a car accident—”

But James was already shaking his head. “You’re mistaken. My wife and I just came home from the theater and I distinctly remember going to bed with her that night before I woke up here.”

He frowned. “That’s the last thing that you remember?”

“Yes. We weren’t—” he shook his head “—I wasn’t in any car accident. What’s going on?”

“James,” he said calmly. “I’d like to run some tests, okay? We’ll find out what’s going on, don’t worry.”

Of all the things to happen to him…

Amnesia?!

And it wasn’t just the normal garden-variety amnesia either, but according to the doctor’s interpretation of the tests they’d run, he’d forgotten everything that had happened for the last ten years, like time stopped and his life during those ten years hadn’t happened at all.

Ten years… A decade…

“Ten years… And I’m what, 38 now?” he wondered softly.

It wasn’t that the prospect of growing old was daunting to him, but he’d like to know how he had fared in the growing old process. Was he a good father to his son? What of his wife? Had he been a good husband to her? Did they finally manage to have the second child they had been yearning for?

“That would be correct,” Rosales nodded. The doctor had opted to sit with him for the time being while he regained his bearings.

As it was, James felt like he was floating out of his body and that at the next second, Anna would tap him on the shoulder and reprimand him for gazing off into space while at the dinner table. And three-year-old JJ would industriously push his vegetables off his plate while on a sharp look out for his mother, who would inevitably notice what he was doing.

“And my wife?”

He shook his head. “According to your papers, you’re not married. Well, not anymore – you’re divorced.”

James sighed heavily as he leaned back against the wall behind the bed.

“Damn it.”

He’d suspected it was something like that the moment he became cognizant of the fact that he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring. He had to wonder though: what had happened to them?

Rosales’ pager went off. The doctor stood up and laid a comforting hand on his arm. “I’ve taken the liberty of informing Dr. Wesley that you can have visitors. He said he’ll be up to see you in a bit.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you sure he’s out of his coma already?”

“Positive. I asked to be informed the minute that happened.”

James woke up to the sound of familiar voices. They still sounded a bit faint and far away but he focused his mind on hearing them properly even as his eyes remained closed.

“So why is he still asleep?”

“I figure he’s taking a bit of a nap. After the battery of tests they’d run on him, I’d be taking one too.”

“What did they say was wrong with him?”

“Amnesia; a ten-year memory gap.”

“Is it permanent, you think?”

Maybe it was just him but James thought the tone sounded just a bit too sarcastically hopeful to be much of a comfort to him.

“I doubt it but it could take a while for his memories to come back.”

“I for one hope that they don’t.”

“That’s not a good thing to say and you know it.”

“It’s not like you’re not hoping for the same thing. Admit it – you’ve more than one time wanted to beat the crap out of him.”

Teasing.

“I’m a doctor, in case you’ve forgotten, you nitwit lawyer. I heal people, not beat them to death.”

“So you do admit to it.”

“Did not…!”

“Did too.”

“Not!”

“Too!”

“Not!”

“Too!”

Deciding that he’d eavesdropped enough, James turned on his side and opened his eyes. He smirked at the somewhat familiar site of his two best friends bickering – naturally Russell would have started it and David was starting to get red in the face. He must have let out a sound because the two stopped pushing at each other to turn to him simultaneously.

“James, how’re you feeling?” they asked him at the same time.

They frowned. “Don’t copy me!”

“You started it!”

James coughed to get their attention before they got into round two of the bicker-fest. “David. Russell.” He nodded at each one in greeting as he pushed himself up to a sitting position.

David glared at Russell for a time before turning his attention to him. “How are you feeling James?”

He lifted a shoulder listlessly. “Okay… I’m still alive if it’s any consolation.”

Russell had the grace to look bashful as they sat down on the chairs beside the bed. “So… amnesia huh?”

“Yeah.”

“At least it’s not a total memory loss,” he smirked. “Imagine the loss of you didn’t remember you’re bestest best friend in the whole wide world, right?”

David put his hand up to his forehead and massaged his head as he sighed heavily. “James, ignore him. He could be detrimental to your recovery.”

“I resent that!”

“Guys.”

Uncomfortable and awkward silence fell over the three of them. It went on for a few minutes before David glared at the other two and cleared his throat.

“James,” he began, “I know you’ve been through a shock of an awakening; it’s a lot to take in at one time. But we’re still your best friends and we’re here for you.”

He nodded gratefully. “Thanks David.”

“That was mushy but,” Russell held up a hand to stay any protest or glare that could be sent his way, “I agree with the sentiment. We’re still best friends, and we’ll help you in any way we can.”

“Thanks Russell,” he smirked. It was comforting to know that even though he’d forgotten a decade of his life, his friends still remained somewhat the same was he remembered them.

James looked away for a moment then faced his friends. “There’s just one thing that I’d like to know now.”

“Yeah?” It was just for an instant but he caught the wariness in Russell’s eyes, and David seemed to be bracing himself.

However much their behaviour was beginning to be suspect to him, he just had to know so he asked, “What happened to my life?”

“Can’t you be quiet for one bleeding minute so I can think?!”

The baby continued bawling as Anna hurried to him.

“James, please,” she scolded him lightly while rocking the baby in her arms. “That’s no way to speak to our son.”

“So you say,” he sneered.

“James!”

“I’m going out.”

The sound of the baby crying followed him out the door.

JJ watched him pack with a serious look in his eyes. “When are you coming back Daddy?”

“Not for a while.”

“How long is that?”

He ruffled the boy’s hair before he hefted his bag over his shoulders. “Longer that a bit.”

The day he signed the divorce papers was a bittersweet day but he ruthlessly tamped down on any burgeoning regrets. Instead, he gave the papers to Russell to process and he went out and got drunk and spent the night with a random woman.

He felt the adage “Work hard. Play hard.” applied to him perfectly. In two years time, the telecommunications network he and his business partner started from scratch was finally on par with the big leagues and their stocks were up. And in those two years, he’d probably bedded more than enough women to sate a sex addict.

It’s been more than a few weeks since he was released from the hospital and while James remembered bits and pieces of the “Lost Decade” as Russell had taken to saying, there were still major components missing. Talking with his friends about past events had been relatively helpful; he’d recalled his fair share of things but not enough to fill all the gaps.

When Dr. Rosales suggested that he immerse himself in the familiar, his first thought had been to go to Anna who he’d found out had moved back to the province with their children. But David and Russell had cautioned against that course of action – they’d been divorced for the past five years and had no contact for the same amount of time, except for the alimony and child support he sent them every month.

James wanted to forego their cautionary warnings and just claim his wife and sons but saner heads prevailed and he stayed put… that and a dire threat from David as well as a promise from him to talk to Anna on his behalf about his current situation.

Spending time with his family was an exercise in futility. His father had died six years previous and his mother followed soon after. While his older sister and her family had offered to put him up until he was fully recovered, they were living in another country and he didn’t want to leave.

In the meantime, he discovered baking calmed him down if and when he forced himself too much to remember. Well, re-discover really, since when he and Anna were married, he often assisted her when she baked… more of assist with ulterior motives. Thus he found himself one morning wandering around the aisles of the local supermarket, looking for ingredients for a cheesecake recipe he found in the Net.

Anna always did like cheesecake.

But this one called for an ingredient that he was having a hard time locating. Either it was an imported item that hadn’t reached this particular store yet or it was in small quantities that he couldn’t locate it yet.

“Argh! Why can’t I be taller?!”

He peered around the aisle and saw a young boy, around five or six years old, glaring up at the top-most shelf with a row of bottles. James glanced around and saw that their immediate area was empty save for the two of them. Seeing as he was going to investigate this condiment aisle anyway, he pushed the cart forward and towards the boy.

“Can I help you with something?” he asked casually.

The boy huffed out an annoyed breath and crossed his arms in a pout as he faced him. James gripped the handles of the cart so hard that his knuckles turned white. The face staring up at him could have been him when he was that age. The facial structure was the same, even if the eyes were different and yet so painfully familiar in their amber shade. The hair was darker than his, closer to jet-black than his dark brown but the nose was his. And so were the pouting lips above that distinctive chin.

“I can’t reach the flavour syrups,” he pouted. “And no one’s around to get it for me. There’s always someone around here before but I guess they already left.”

With heart pounding and a rising certainty in his mind, James approached and glanced up at the shelf. He allowed himself a grin – the boy was right by the darned thing he needed to get for his baking endeavor.

“Which one do you need?”

“Irish Cream,” the boy replied promptly. “Just the small one. Mommy always adds that to my hot chocolate for breakfast. It tastes nice. Do you like this flavour too?”

James got two bottles from the shelf, one big one for him and the smaller one for the boy, hoping that his arms weren’t shaking as much as he felt they were.

“Here you go.”

The boy beamed up at him as he accepted the bottle. “Thanks mister.” He held out his hand. “My name’s Jeffrey.”

“James,” he replied as they shook hands.

“Really? Coz that’s my other name too! Well, me and my brother and it gets kinda confusing whenever Mommy calls either of us JJ – coz my brother’s other name is Joshua – but when she uses full names…” he shivered dramatically. “Do you have another name too?”

He nodded. “It’s Xavier.” Before Jeffrey could launch into another anecdote, James asked pointedly, “Aren’t you with anyone in the store? I doubt your mommy would be too pleased to have you running around alone.”

The way he lifted his shoulder negligently was so vintage him that he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling too widely.

“One of Mommy’s students is around here somewhere. We were supposed to buy some stuff for class but she was too slow so I snuck away,” he replied impishly.

“That’s not a very nice thing to do.”

“And so it’s not,” an exasperated voice agreed.

They both turned to see a young woman bearing down on them. Father and son, albeit the former unsure and the latter unknowing, backed away at the same time that the woman paused before resuming her advance.

“Do you have any idea of how worried I’ve been, young man?” she demanded. Before Jeffrey could open his mouth to say anything, she turned her attention to James and smiled apologetically. “I’m so sorry if he’s been bothering you, sir. He’s normally so well-behaved—”

Both adults pretended not to hear Jeffrey’s sarcastic gagging.

“—I just turned around for one second and he was gone the next.”

James shook his head. “He’s not been a bother. No worries.”

“Thank you so much for looking after him in the meantime, sir.” She grabbed Jeffrey’s hand and frowned at him minutely before turning James again. “We still have a lot of things to buy. Goodbye.”

Jeffrey rolled his eyes good-naturedly but followed along willingly. “Bye James! And thanks!”

James smiled and waved.

He knew she’d entered the room; he could always sense her presence. He would have stopped doing what he was doing if he wasn’t so angry with her.

“Oh yeah… James…”

He heard Anna gasp behind him but he ignored her.

The woman underneath him threw her head back and let out a keening wail as her orgasm ripped through her system, her muscles convulsing on his shaft deep inside her. She collapsed face down on the bed but he held her up by her hips, thrusting a few more times before he released with a grunt into the already slumbering woman.

When he looked towards the door, she wasn’t there anymore.

“James, please…” she pleaded tearfully. “Let’s work this out. Please.”

“No.”

“Please. I still love you.”

“But I don’t love you anymore.”

James woke up screaming. Sweat poured off his body, making the sheets cling and making getting out of bed a trial. He flipped the wall scone on and subdued yellow light flooded his immediate vicinity. He placed a hand on his chest and gasped; it felt like his heart was trying to smash right out of his chest cavity with the way it was beating.

He needed air.

His legs were still weak from the nightmare and they almost buckled under his weight when he did manage to stand up. James made his way to the window of his bedroom in the apartment he was supposed to call home.

James breathed in the cool night air flavoured with just a hint of nuttiness from the pollution below. He continued deep breathing until he calmed down and it didn’t feel like his heart would be taking a vacation from his rib cage.

The nightmare had been more than a nightmare; he remembered everything, every single thing that he’d done and said and thought… they all came rushing into his head and he remembered all of it, all through to the accident that landed him in a coma.

He lashed out at her after receiving news of his father’s unexpected death. And he blamed her for the loss of contact between him and his father. He blamed her for him not having had the chance to say goodbye.

He was such a fucking idiot… And they hadn’t talked about it, because he was the idiot who wouldn’t talk, even when she tried numerous times to get him to open up.

Oh God, and he accused her of sleeping with his friends, and that Jeffrey wasn’t his but the product of her affair with David.

“James,” he said softly, “you are a stupid idiot. And you don’t deserve her.”

His vision blurred and he reached up, his fingers coming away with moisture from his eyes. Seeing no other way around it, James leaned back against the wall and slid down to the floor, unchecked tears running down his face as he relived each and every single thing that he’d done to hurt and drive away the woman he loved beyond life.

“Do you, James Xavier Blanco, take this woman to be your wife? To love and to hold, in good times and bad, through sickness and health, for all the days of your life?”

“I do.”

“Do you, Anna Flores, take this man to be your husband? To love and to hold, in good times and bad, through sickness and health, for all the days of your life?”

“I do.”

“Anna… agreed?” James looked at David in wide-eyed surprise. “She’ll meet with me? To talk?”

David rolled his eyes, amused and more than a little sad. “For the fifth time, yes she did, but only on the condition that I be there as well, as a chaperone of sorts. Is that alright?”

“Sure,” he nodded. “As long as it gets her to meet with me. Besides, I trust you.”

“Thanks James.” He looked at him sternly then. “Don’t mess this up or I swear on the caduceus, I will break every single bone in your body.”

“And I’ll let you do it, too,” James promised grimly.

25 December 2004

Author’s Notes:

Please be kind. As per usual, I was in charge of the Christmas menu and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. By the way, thanks for the recipe feifu!

Back to the point – this is a product of a tired and sleep-deprived mind running on some very cold water to keep awake. Well, the first few parts anyway… I really had to get some shut-eye as I was dozing in the middle of typing – thought that would not be too productive so off to bed I went.

Anyway, draw your own conclusions about the end of the story!

ana J

P.S.

I just noticed though, that I used Tin and David a lot more as supporting characters in Hazelnut and Irish Cream… Hmm… an apology of sorts for what I did to them in Caramel, maybe? J