Love in Dark Settings

I should have known that my Muse would turn my little bit of prompt fiction into a full-blown novella. By the time I reached Chapter Two, he was demanding that I stop doing everything else in my life in order to spend a fortnight reading Muse-friendly fiction; only under those circumstances would he supply me with the rest of the story.

He's like that. This is why I usually only compose stories in the fall and winter, when I can give him my full service and devotion.

So I'm just going to post the first chapter now. It works well as prompt fiction on its own, and it satisfies half the prompt fic requests. The rest of the novella I'll work on in October and will post as my holiday gift fic for this year. Sorry that it can't be finished sooner than that, but I've got a heck of a lot of offline work to do before the end of summer.

(By the way, I forgot to mention that I've added a brief historical note to Rebirth.)

Parental supervision is strongly suggested. This story includes major spoilers for Rebirth.

He was weaponless. Or rather, not quite weaponless, for he knew what he was capable of doing with his body, but he bore no blade, nor any whip, nor any lead pipe with which to stun his victim, nor any rope with which to strangle the victim . . . The number of potential weapons he had deliberately laid aside was frighteningly high.