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 Hazelnut 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

Hazelnut:

Weekender

The man led the woman to the elevator banks of his apartment building. The woman with him was one of those belles who always seemed to grace the pages of the society section of the papers. She was beautiful, independent, and quite eager to explore under his clothes. He was just as eager as her, as the lust in his handsome face bore witness to.

As soon as the elevator doors closed on them, they pounced on each other in a hungry kiss. Hands traversed their clothed forms, trying with some limited success to have access to bare skin. She managed to pull up his shirt from his trousers and was raking her nails on his muscled abdomen.

She whispered something to him then, to which he responded by lifting her up by her hips and pushing her against the corner of the elevator. He planted himself firmly between her legs and he started grinding their clothed centers against each other while exploring her mouth with his tongue. He had just managed to squeeze his fingers in between their bodies to stroke her intimately when the elevator pinged, signaling their arrival on his floor.

Cursing at the horrendous timing, he stepped away from her and patted his clothes down into a somewhat respectable appearance, in case any of his neighbors were up and about at this hour of the night. She was doing the same but her hair was a lost cause. With a chuckle, she let the elegant up-do collapse and the waterfall of her wavy hair fell on her back. The doors opened and he thanked his lucky stars that the hallway was deserted.

He took her hand and they walked-slash-ran to his apartment. After unlocking the door, he pulled her in after him then he smirked at her as he kicked the door closed before pushing her against it. She responded with a quirk of an eyebrow and a knowing grin on her mouth.

Those ruby-red lips were just calling to him so he bent down and kissed her hard. He hitched her up the door, along with her pink dress, and her legs came up to wrap around his waist firmly. She moaned at the loss of his mouth on hers but she gave an approving groan when he trailed wet kisses down her neck.

Her hands came up to hold onto his head to keep him there at her neck, and he briefly thought about if this was how a vampire’s willing victim enticed the dark creature to feed on her. That thought was erased from his mind when his fingers came into contact with her very wet center sans underwear.

She shuddered in his arms when he pushed two fingers inside her with his thumb rubbing her clit in ferocious circles. His other hand grabbed onto her breast and clenched on the fleshy orb.

He licked up to her ear and he asked her, “You like this?” as he started an even pumping motion with his fingers.

“Oh gods, yes…!” she moaned. “More please…!”

He smirked then pulled his fingers out of her as he took a half step away from her. He caught her as she stumbled into him.

“That was cruel,” she told him huskily.

He slapped her bare butt. “Babe,” he whispered, “you have no idea.” He stroked her center one more time before completely stepping away from her. “Come on.”

“I would have already,” she groused good-naturedly as she followed him to the living room. “If you hadn’t left me hanging.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’ll be coming all night tonight.”

“That had better be a guarantee…”

He chuckled again then gestured to the couch. “Sit down while I make us some drinks first, okay?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Drinks when we could be making full use of your bed already?”

“Patience, babe,” he replied easily. “We have all night, remember?”

The woman rolled her eyes but did as he bid, toeing off her high-heels and curling up on the couch. She looked around the living room in quiet appreciation as he mixed their drinks. It was a well-appointed room that screamed classy and modern bachelor with no thoughts at changing his status anytime soon.

“Here we go…” He sat down beside her and handed her a martini glass, touching his glass with hers. “To what?”

“Screaming orgasms,” she replied promptly.

He smiled. “I can drink to that.”

She sipped at her drink delicately before placing the glass on the side table. She took his glass as well and placed it beside hers on the side table.

“I’m impatient,” she declared.

He raised an eyebrow. “I can see that.”

She lifted a leg over his lap until she was straddling him, grinding her center onto the large bulge in his pants, then she kissed him lustily, her tongue probing deep into his mouth. Her fingers threaded through his hair while his hands busied themselves with disrobing her.

She licked his lips. “You didn’t let me do what I wanted to do earlier in the restaurant.”

“We almost got caught as it was,” he reminded her.

“We’re not going to get caught now, are we?” she asked as she slid down to kneel between his spread legs.

He shook his head, his eyes tracking her every move. She deftly opened his pants and he lifted up a bit so she could pull it down past his bum along with his boxers. She admired his erect manhood for a bit, a naughty grin gracing her lips, then her tongue flicked out, tasting him a few times before going for decisive licks along his length.

“Yummy,” her eyes seemed to say to him before she used her tongue to roll his foreskin back as she took as much of his cock into her mouth as she could. Her hands held onto the portion of his length that her mouth couldn’t manage, jacking him softly in counter point to the bobbing motion her head was going at.

His eyes closed as he grabbed fistfuls of the upholstery as she continued moving her head up and down on him. She increased her tempo a touch and he felt the tightening in his groin. With a growl, he grabbed hold of her head and started thrusting into her mouth very eagerly.

It didn’t take him long after that to let go and he bucked up into her mouth with a loud groan as he released inside her mouth. Spurt after spurt of his come shot into her mouth and down her throat. She was moaning as she struggled with the flow to swallow it all and the vibration only added to his pleasure and he came again in her mouth.

A few minutes later, his hands and body went lax and she pulled back from him, panting. He opened one eye and he smirked down at her. She wiped at the excess dripping down her lips then she licked it off as she went up to her knees.

“Did you enjoy that?” she asked huskily, her hands working on his already stiffening cock.

His breathing was also ragged. “Immensely.”

“Good, coz there’s more where that came from,” she told him as she climbed up to his lap, unbuttoning his shirt and raking her nails over his chest. He pushed her away for a moment and reached into the pocket of his discarded pants, removing a small silvery packet from his wallet.

He smirked at her as he put the condom on. “Glad to know.” He held her by the hips then lowered her onto his hard length, keeping his hold on her light but firm enough that he could regulate her movements as she rode him like a pro.

His hands went up to her breasts and he fondled the bouncing globes as he met her thrust for thrust. Needless to say, the screaming started minutes later and continued on through the night and onto the early hours of the morning the next day.

BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNGGG!!! WAKEY-WAKEY!!! BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNGGG!!! WAKEY-WAKEY!!! BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNGGG!!! WAKEY-WAKEY!!!

“Goddamnit it all to bloody fucking hell!” Russell exclaimed in vexation as he was abruptly woken up. “Who the fucking hell invented this alarm clock anyway?! Some fucking sadist?!”

Still cursing fluently and frequently, he got up from his rumpled bed and searched for the irritating and blaring contraption that probably more than once saved his hide but was now once again quickly going up his personal list of annoying things to destroy.

His hand slammed down on the clock and immediate silence descended on the bedroom.

“Thank God!” he sighed heavily. There was no help for it now though, even if he wanted to maybe even catch an additional five minutes in bed – he was fully wide-awake.

Russell lifted his arms and stretched his limbs out, cracking his knuckles and some of his joints as he was wont to do in the morning as he padded his way naked over to the kitchen. He was in the mood for some homemade breakfast today and since he’d only just recently finished a short course on breakfast making, he was fairly confident on his abilities.

That and he remembered he made a batch of crepe batter yesterday and he still had leftover hazelnuts for the filling and raspberry sauce for his favorite breakfast-after-a-night-of-wild-sex.

It was all a matter of planning ahead and advance preparation anyhow, and that was something that he was discovering he could be really good at. Now, all he had to do was make the filling, take the sauce out of the fridge and warm it up in the microwave, and cook the batter.

Definitely the breakfast for someone who’d ravished and was debauched right back by that woman… erh, Rebecca? At least, he still had her contact details somewhere in his little black book.

“Second date material,” he said out loud as he donned an apron over his pajama bottoms. “As long as she plays by my rules.” He heated up a crepe pan with a bit of butter then ladled in some of the batter.

Heck, just remembering the things she could do with that mouth of hers was enough to give him a hard-on over his usual morning erection…

He looked down at his crotch and grinned. “Down boy. I thought last night would have given you pause or something…”

Before he could get into a full-fledged conversation with his penis, his landline rang. He flipped the crepe over to its other side then answered the ringing phone. “Marcus.” You gotta love speaker phones for hand-less conversation and you don’t get a crick on your neck either!

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Faye breathed out in relief.

He frowned. “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I was afraid I was going to wake you, sleepy-head,” she replied. “But anyway…”

“I’m listening…” Half-listening really as he was transferring the crepe to a warm plate and readying for another perfect crepe. Was he good or was he good?

“Frankie’s been ecstatic,” she was saying. “She can’t stop talking about the dress you gave her, but really Russ, a fairy princess dress with the gossamer wings and crown and wand?”

“What of it?” he protested mildly. “She’s my daughter and it’s her birthday.”

“Next month,” Faye told him with just a hint of exasperation on her voice.

“I know when her birthday is.”

“I know you do,” she said. “But all I’m saying is, don’t spoil her too much, okay?”

Russell rolled his eyes at the phone and hoped it transferred through the wires to her. “I know, I know. We have this conversation every two weeks!”

She snorted. “Funny. Anyway, just make sure that you don’t schedule anything for her birthday party, okay? I don’t want to have to make an excuse as to why her father’s not there with her when it’s time to blow the candles.”

“That happened only once!”

She ignored him. “She’s finally decided on a theme, by the way.”

“Let me guess,” he smirked. “Fairy princess, right?”

“However did you know?” Faye drawled out sarcastically yet playfully. “I’m just thankful she nixed the clowns. I don’t know how my nerves could stand another party like that.”

“Need help with anything?” The clowns on Frankie’s birthday last year were an unmitigated disaster when rival clowns crashed the party and they had a free-for-all rumble in the lawn. It went without saying that the clowns were sued royally courtesy of him and Frankie avoided clowns.

“Can you finish the castle-slash-tree house you’ve been building for her in time for the party? I know it’s a bit close but could you? It’ll be the central item for the theme.”

“Sure, that was my timeline anyway…” Russell trailed off then he frowned. “Hey, wait a minute! How’d you find out about that? It was supposed to be a secret!”

She sighed and he could swear that she was grinning over the phone. “I have my sources. Now—”

But he interrupted her, “David squealed, didn’t he? Or maybe was it James?” He thought for a while as to who of his supposed best friends could have betrayed him like this. That tree house had been a pet carpentry project for him to give to Francesca on her birthday – a surprise birthday gift in addition to the complete set of dolls she wanted – and he’d been building it with his friends at James’ shed, since he had more room and he had better tools.

“Of course not,” Faye snorted. “But you forget who their wives are.”

“…Crap.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t actually tell them to not tell me about it, eh?” She sighed “Clauses… they’ll always get to you if you’re not careful. But anyway, do you have anything planned for this afternoon?”

He’d finished cooking the crepes and was now adding the hazelnut flavor syrup into the food processor with the hazelnuts and butter. “Not really. Why?” He whizzed it up until it was smooth and spread-able.

“What in the world are you making?” Faye asked instead over the noise after sneezing mightily.

“Breakfast. Are you alright? What’s happening this afternoon?”

“Frankie has a fieldtrip with her class – they’re going to the zoo, planetarium, and a children’s museum – and parents and/or guardians are supposed to go along. I can’t go coz I think I may be coming down with something.”

And right on cue, she started sneezing.

“Bless you,” Russell said automatically. “That sounds nasty.”

She sniffed. “I got caught in a bit of rain last night…”

He was so not going to ask what she was doing out in the rain last night.

“What were you doing in the rain last night?” he asked casually.

Faye sighed and he could honestly say that if they were talking face to face that she would have rolled her eyes at him as well. “I went out with some friends and we got caught in a drizzle before we got to the club.”

“Clubbing eh?” He teased as he topped his plate of crepes with the warmed raspberry sauce.

“Shut up Russell.”

He chuckled. “Shutting up now. About the fieldtrip… Is there anything specific that I need to know?”

“Can you come by around ten? I’ll explain what’s going to happen.”

“I can do that,” he told her.

“Thanks Russell.”

“Anytime Faye.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Click.

He smiled if a bit sadly as he started on his breakfast.

“Frankie!” he called out in alarm. “Get down from there, young lady!”

His little girl, the baby he spent countless sleepless nights rocking to sleep, his precious fairy princess, his five-year-old wonder, was trying to climb over the fence to the lion enclosure.

She turned big watery eyes to him and stuck her bottom lip out for maximum effect. “But Daddy…”

He hurried over to her. “I mean it, Francesca.”

Her bottom lip stuck out even more but she obeyed and climbed down. Russell didn’t waste a second more and scooped her up into his arms immediately and he stepped away from the enclosure.

“What did we agree on?” he asked her in a firm voice.

“That I stay with the group,” Francesca answered softly. She looked up at him with wide eyes. “But Daddy, there’s a cub in the cage and it was so cute I wanted to touch it but there were bars and—”

The zoo attendant hurried over to them. “I’m so sorry about that, sir,” the guy apologized. “I was looking for the cub on the other side of the enclosure—”

“You should have been more vigilant,” Russell cut him off roughly. “If anything happened to my daughter…” He let the sentence trail off as he glared at him menacingly.

“Yes sir. So sorry again sir.” The attendant walked away with a last sheepish and apologetic grin, tail firmly between his legs.

Russell heard a hearty laugh behind him and he whirled around, finding Kristina with one of her new baby twins in her arms and his daughter’s contemporary Yvonne holding onto her hand watching him. “What’re you looking at?” he asked her, somewhat embarrassed.

“Nothing,” she shook her head at him in amusement then turned her attention to his daughter. “Hey Frankie.”

The little girl buried her head at the crook of his neck. “Hey Tita Tin-Tin.”

She smiled. “Why don’t you and Yvonne go on over to some of your classmates?” Tin gestured to their right where a group of uniformed toddlers were milling around in front of another enclosure. “I think they’re looking at raccoons over there.”

Her eyes lit up and Francesca wriggled down his arms. “Raccoons? Cool!” She grabbed Yvonne and dragged her along with her. “Come on Eevoe!”

“Don’t call me Eevoe!” the girl protested hotly as they ran.

Russell chuckled and smirked at Tin. “Where’s your other terror twin?”

She waved her free had vaguely around the area. “Somewhere around with her cohorts. So Kuya Russell…”

He flinched and glared at her. “Sheesh, I thought we were over that “kuya” business when you married David?”

“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” Tin chuckled and shifted her hold on the baby.

He peered over at the sleeping child. “Which one is that again?”

She rolled her eyes at him in amused exasperation. “Really, Russell, you’re their godfather! But this is Calypso,” she replied as she lowered the blanket around the sleeping baby’s face. “David took her brother Duncan to work today.”

“I thought he had a stricter policy regarding days off?” Russell held his arms out for his godchild and Tin gave her willingly.

“He’s just filling in for one of the doctor who got sick.” She smirked. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

“Very…” But Russell wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation anymore. He was more focused on the baby in his arms. Being an only child, he’d often dreamed of having a houseful of kids one day. They’d be totally underfoot and unruly and the house would be full of laughter and tears and screams and cheers and reprimands.

It could have happened but it didn’t. Instead he has one daughter and Russell knew himself well enough to know that he was definitely not contemplating further procreation with anyone else, ever, thus he took the necessary medical precautions; he was quite content with just having his little fairy princess in his life.

“You seem troubled,” Tin said softly. “Want to talk about it?”

He rolled his eyes. “Try catching one of your kids attempting to enter an enclosure with a wild animal inside,” he quipped as he handed the baby back to her mother.

She just looked at him without blinking as she accepted her child. Russell honestly tried to stare right back at her without fidgeting – he was a high-powered lawyer for chrissakes! – but he couldn’t hold it.

He looked away first. “Must you look at me like I’m a recalcitrant child?”

“Because you’re acting like one,” Tin sniffed in disapproval. “Honestly, Russell, you have to know that David and I are here for you if you want to talk about whatever’s bothering you. I’ll even go out on a limb and say James and Anna would welcome you with open arms into their home if you drop in on them.”

“Please don’t,” he winced. “James almost killed me last week when I went there unexpectedly.”

“What’d you do? Barge in on them?”

This time it was Russell giving her the look. He smirked when she realized that it was exactly that that had happened.

“Anyway…”

Seeing as she was a married woman with five children, it was still amusing how incredibly naïve she could still be.

Deciding that it would be better all around if he snipped the burgeoning conversation in the bud, Russell told her softly, “I know all that Kristina. But I’ll be fine; I’m just having one of those days. Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” he grinned.

Tin nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, but you know our door is always open to you, right?”

“Thanks Tin,” he replied gratefully. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Mommy!! Eevie poured grape juice over my head!!”

“Don’t call me Eevie!!” Yves protested hotly.

He backed a half step away and grinned at her. “Looks like your cue, Supermom.”

Tin shook her head in exasperation. “I swear, one of these days…” she trailed off but she went to answer her children’s summons anyway.

Francesca was a normally boisterous little girl who could talk incessantly if given half the chance to open her mouth and draw in oxygen. But now on the ride back from her very full day of fun and activities and lots of food, she was sitting in her booster seat very quietly. She couldn’t have been asleep because her eyes were wide open and focused on the scenery outside.

“Frankie?” Russell called out softly. “What’s wrong?”

She looked at him with her cute-as-a-button-face all confused. “Daddy?”

“Yes sweetheart?”

“Why do you live away from Mama and me?”

He flinched minutely. He didn’t want to have this conversation with his daughter in his car stuck in traffic but she had asked and he and Faye had agreed that they would answer any and all question their child had about their situation and anything else with as much honesty as was appropriate.

“Well, princess…”

She continued softly, “One of the girls said you don’t love Mama and me anymore. That’s why you don’t like living with us.”

…He’d like to have five minutes alone with the parents of that girl…

“That’s not true,” he told her firmly. Seeing as they probably wouldn’t be moving in the next few minutes, Russell turned and focused his attention on her. “Frankie, that’s not true. I love you and your mother very much, okay?”

“Then why don’t you live with us at home?” she demanded.

“…Princess…” He trailed off helplessly. What can he tell her? That the trial separation he and Faye decided on for some reason or the other after she was born just dragged on for the past four years? And that they’d gotten so used to the arrangement, so comfortable with it, that they maintained the separation? They weren’t married so there was no legal contract to bind them together, and even then, a piece of paper can easily dissolve such union anyway if they so wanted.

“Well?” she demanded.

“…It’s not that simple, darling…”

She scrunched her face up in a frown, clearly not happy with his evasion. “Why?”

Russell could feel cold sweat beading on his forehead and he itched to pull his shirt’s collar away from his neck. “You see sweetheart…”

“Thank God for traffic lights,” he praised silently as the light changed. He looked forward again and got the car back into motion with the rest of the vehicles on the road.

“Hmph.” Francesca turned her nose up and ignored him in favor of watching the passing scenery out the window.

Russell fell helplessly silent and father and daughter remained that way for the duration of the drive all the way to his apartment. Faye had suggested earlier that Frankie stay the night with him after the trip so they could further bond as father and daughter, but with Frankie so obviously miffed at him right now, he knew the night most probably was going to be difficult…

After a battle regarding bath and bedtime, Russell finally managed to get his daughter to sleep once he’d read her more than a couple of her favorite stories.

In a word, he was exhausted.

“What I wouldn’t give for a full body massage right now…” he thought to himself as he collapsed onto his favorite chair, a glass of red wine in hand.

And his day wasn’t supposed to stop yet. He had notes to review for several of his cases, some of which were nearing their trial dates, and he had to meet with his colleagues on some joint cases they were doing.

As much as he knew he had to open his briefcase and take out his case files, Russell wanted nothing more than to stay in his chair, finish his drink, then go to bed. He rarely took personal time from the firm as it was and he was going to sacrifice this free time to do that?

“I don’t think so,” he muttered out loud, placing his drink onto the side table.

“Daddy?”

Russell glanced at his daughter’s room and saw Frankie standing by the door rubbing her eyes. “What is it princess?” he asked as he immediately went to her.

She sniffled. “I had a bad dream.”

“C’mere baby…” He lifted her up into his arms and rubbed her back soothingly. “It’s going to be okay, darling…”

Russell continued murmuring soothing reassurances on her ear as he made his way back to his chair. He got her situated on his lap and wiped at the errant tears on her cheeks.

“Want to tell Daddy about it?” he asked her softly and he grinned encouragingly at her when she nodded.

Being a father – as much that he was – had changed his life. It was difficult yet simple. It was frustrating but rewarding. It was scary but easy. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

24 December 2004

Author’s Notes:

Erh… Hi…?

Got hit with a major case of writer’s block that lasted for about two weeks after I sort of finished this story – sort of finished coz I was still debating about how the ending was going to be – and began mentally outlining James’ flavour challenge story. The block I couldn’t do anything to dislodge it so I spent the past few days cleaning and rearranging my room.

And when the day came, like two days ago, that I was ready to approach the computer and open up the document to write James’ story, the darned thing blue-screened me, and it’s only now that I’m able to write properly.

Not an excuse I know since the challenge was issued months ago, so I’m not even going to apologize for it.

But I am going to say this – Happy Holidays!

ana J