Thankful
Title: Thankful
Fandom: Heroes
Rating/Genre: PG/femslash, romance, fluff
Characters/Pairing: Claire Bennet/Gretchen Berg
Summary: Claire is on a roadtrip with Gretchen. It is a quiet rainy morning and she is thankful.
Word count: 557
Spoilers/Warnings: Mentions some events of “Thanksgiving”, S4, but vaguely./No.
Notes: Written for day_by_drabble and the April Showers prompt #5 (window picture).
It is raining outside and the window is getting misted over. As a result, the world outside is blurry. Claire can see that it’s green outside but she doesn’t know if she’s looking at bushes or trees. There are no people out there, nothing is moving and everything is silent. Claire is thankful for the silence, for the absence of prying eyes.
It is still early in the morning and Gretchen is asleep. She needs her rest. Gretchen is not a fragile person but she is a normal person. Claire forgets it sometimes because she doesn’t even get very tired anymore. She still needs to sleep, though. She is thankful for that, too.
They have been on the road for so long. Always moving, just the two of them. Only Claire’s dad knows, more or less, where in the world they are because Claire can’t bear to hide from for too long and he would find them anyway, sooner or later. She sends him postcards sometimes, and he doesn’t ask for anything more, thankfully.
Claire puts the palm of her hand against the glass, thinking about going out in the rain. She wouldn’t go far, she doesn’t need anything, but sometimes she likes to be out in the rain, to get soaking wet, to feel her hair get stuck against her cheeks and her neck like moist seaweed. She never catches a cold.
But then she turns her eyes away from the blurry outside world and looks at Gretchen. Her brown hair is spread out like soft bird wings over the pillow and she looks indescribably sweet. Claire smiles, remembering the past night, and wonders, briefly why it is that she can still feel pleasure, even now when the sensation of pain is since long gone. Gretchen always touches her so gently, even when she asks Claire to be less careful, to stop being careful at all. Sometimes, Gretchen likes a hint of pain. So at least one of them can feel everything, she’s glad about that, and she will always do her best to protect Gretchen from real pain.
Claire remembers the night it started. First, Gretchen saved the day by walking in when she did, interrupting the awkward tension at Noah’s Thanksgiving dinner. Then she agreed to follow Claire to wherever the compass was going to take them. The look in her eyes then made Claire realize something: Gretchen loved and accepted her just as she was, Gretchen was ready to stand by her side and walk right into any danger. Claire was not afraid of danger, not for herself - but she was afraid of losing the girl by her side. The compass could lead them into danger. Claire realized that it wasn’t worth it. She returned the compass to her dad and instead, she went to a roadtrip with Gretchen.
Their roadtrip still isn’t over, more than six month later. Who cares about college anyway? It’s time for them both to finally just live for a while. This quiet little house in this green and rainy corner of the world feels like their own private sanctuary. It feels like home - a rare feeling Claire has almost forgotten. She is thankful that she can feel it now.
She looks at her sleeping girlfriend and she smiles. With Gretchen, every day will always be Thanksgiving Day.
Fandom: Heroes
Rating/Genre: PG/femslash, romance, fluff
Characters/Pairing: Claire Bennet/Gretchen Berg
Summary: Claire is on a roadtrip with Gretchen. It is a quiet rainy morning and she is thankful.
Word count: 557
Spoilers/Warnings: Mentions some events of “Thanksgiving”, S4, but vaguely./No.
Notes: Written for day_by_drabble and the April Showers prompt #5 (window picture).
It is raining outside and the window is getting misted over. As a result, the world outside is blurry. Claire can see that it’s green outside but she doesn’t know if she’s looking at bushes or trees. There are no people out there, nothing is moving and everything is silent. Claire is thankful for the silence, for the absence of prying eyes.
It is still early in the morning and Gretchen is asleep. She needs her rest. Gretchen is not a fragile person but she is a normal person. Claire forgets it sometimes because she doesn’t even get very tired anymore. She still needs to sleep, though. She is thankful for that, too.
They have been on the road for so long. Always moving, just the two of them. Only Claire’s dad knows, more or less, where in the world they are because Claire can’t bear to hide from for too long and he would find them anyway, sooner or later. She sends him postcards sometimes, and he doesn’t ask for anything more, thankfully.
Claire puts the palm of her hand against the glass, thinking about going out in the rain. She wouldn’t go far, she doesn’t need anything, but sometimes she likes to be out in the rain, to get soaking wet, to feel her hair get stuck against her cheeks and her neck like moist seaweed. She never catches a cold.
But then she turns her eyes away from the blurry outside world and looks at Gretchen. Her brown hair is spread out like soft bird wings over the pillow and she looks indescribably sweet. Claire smiles, remembering the past night, and wonders, briefly why it is that she can still feel pleasure, even now when the sensation of pain is since long gone. Gretchen always touches her so gently, even when she asks Claire to be less careful, to stop being careful at all. Sometimes, Gretchen likes a hint of pain. So at least one of them can feel everything, she’s glad about that, and she will always do her best to protect Gretchen from real pain.
Claire remembers the night it started. First, Gretchen saved the day by walking in when she did, interrupting the awkward tension at Noah’s Thanksgiving dinner. Then she agreed to follow Claire to wherever the compass was going to take them. The look in her eyes then made Claire realize something: Gretchen loved and accepted her just as she was, Gretchen was ready to stand by her side and walk right into any danger. Claire was not afraid of danger, not for herself - but she was afraid of losing the girl by her side. The compass could lead them into danger. Claire realized that it wasn’t worth it. She returned the compass to her dad and instead, she went to a roadtrip with Gretchen.
Their roadtrip still isn’t over, more than six month later. Who cares about college anyway? It’s time for them both to finally just live for a while. This quiet little house in this green and rainy corner of the world feels like their own private sanctuary. It feels like home - a rare feeling Claire has almost forgotten. She is thankful that she can feel it now.
She looks at her sleeping girlfriend and she smiles. With Gretchen, every day will always be Thanksgiving Day.