Title: Often It Will Bring You Good (When You Least Believed It Could)
Feedback: Any and all constructive criticism would be lovely, whether e-mailed or left in a review.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. 'Tis rather unfortunate.
Pairing: Neil/Todd
Notes: Written as a drabble request, this went a little over drabble length- it's about 260 words or so. It's not my best work, but it's something. The title comes from the moral of Charles Perrault's "The Fairies", to which I shamelessly allude.

Often It Will Bring You Good (When You Least Believed It Could)
By Angel of Harmony/Harmony/Jen

"Todd, I think you're..."

Neil can think of about fifteen different ways to end that sentence, and all of them scream of the sort of cliché that would rank a zero on the perfection part of the Pritchard scale. Each cliché is poised on his lips, threatening to spill out, and he feels like the girls in the fairy tale, cursed to spew vermin and gems whenever they opened their mouths: "Todd, I think you're wonderful." "Todd, I think you're the most amazing person I've ever met." "Todd, I think your parents are complete idiots who don't deserve to have you as a son, and if I could I'd wave a magic wand and make everything perfect in your world." (He's glad that he at least got to the "you're" part of the sentence, or he'd have to add, "Todd, I think I'm falling in love with you" to the list, and he doubts that would do either of them any good.)

So instead Neil babbles about desk sets, barreling on so the words are verbalized before he has a chance to think about them, because he knows if he doesn't the clichés will pour out and he's pretty sure that they're snakes, not jewels.

But as they watch the scissors and papers sail into the night air, the look on Todd's face tells Neil that, buried beneath talk of aerodynamics and unmanned flight, Todd hears the clichés, anyway. Even the last one. And maybe, Neil thinks, if that smile and that genuine laugh are any indication, they're jewels after all.