Chocolate Chip Mint #29, Sour Apple #1 - well-trained marionettes don't even see their strings.
Author: Thai
Challenge: Chocolate Chip Mint #29 - invisible, Sour Apple #1 - penny for your thoughts
Rating: PG
Story: blood princess
Timeline: Motherhood arc
Word Count: 367
There was something strangely comforting about having someone to come home to.
Whatever hour Asma stumbled in, scratched and bleeding and panting with exertion, covered with blood more often than not - Hana would be there. If she managed to get away during the day, the human would be sitting by the window, staring out (and Asma always knew it was because she was dreaming of home, or perhaps thinking of throwing herself off the balcony to get away).
If the sun had set before she was allowed to leave, though, then Hana would be sitting farther from the window, reading with a candle throwing light over her shoulder. It made an oddly captivating picture, her red-golden hair glowing in the firelight, her green eyes (how different they were from the blue she was so used to!) devoid of the loathing they filled with when she caught sight of Asma.
If it was nighttime then she could, for a while, watch Hana without feeling her ire. Her eyes would track across the page, lost in whatever she was reading (and once did Asma think of where she had gotten the books?), and every so often she would smile at something inside the pages, or her mouth would crumple down in surprise and sorrow.
Asma caught herself watching Hana more than once, thinking; Was she like that? Did she turn pages in that peculiar way, with her thumbnail beneath each new page? What did she like to read?
Then, always, after that; Why should I care?
Hana would notice her eventually, of course, and those green eyes would fill with her dangerous sort of anger again. She would snap her book shut abruptly, stand up without greeting Asma. She would give only the shortest answers in response to Asma's questions, would only snort in derision if Asma mentioned anything about her day. Nothing, in short, to suggest that they might be friends.
Yes. It was very odd to be so happy about coming back to a person who despised her.
But Asma was strangely comforted by that hatred of her - Hana would never pretend to like her, only for Asma to realize that it was a lie.
Challenge: Chocolate Chip Mint #29 - invisible, Sour Apple #1 - penny for your thoughts
Rating: PG
Story: blood princess
Timeline: Motherhood arc
Word Count: 367
There was something strangely comforting about having someone to come home to.
Whatever hour Asma stumbled in, scratched and bleeding and panting with exertion, covered with blood more often than not - Hana would be there. If she managed to get away during the day, the human would be sitting by the window, staring out (and Asma always knew it was because she was dreaming of home, or perhaps thinking of throwing herself off the balcony to get away).
If the sun had set before she was allowed to leave, though, then Hana would be sitting farther from the window, reading with a candle throwing light over her shoulder. It made an oddly captivating picture, her red-golden hair glowing in the firelight, her green eyes (how different they were from the blue she was so used to!) devoid of the loathing they filled with when she caught sight of Asma.
If it was nighttime then she could, for a while, watch Hana without feeling her ire. Her eyes would track across the page, lost in whatever she was reading (and once did Asma think of where she had gotten the books?), and every so often she would smile at something inside the pages, or her mouth would crumple down in surprise and sorrow.
Asma caught herself watching Hana more than once, thinking; Was she like that? Did she turn pages in that peculiar way, with her thumbnail beneath each new page? What did she like to read?
Then, always, after that; Why should I care?
Hana would notice her eventually, of course, and those green eyes would fill with her dangerous sort of anger again. She would snap her book shut abruptly, stand up without greeting Asma. She would give only the shortest answers in response to Asma's questions, would only snort in derision if Asma mentioned anything about her day. Nothing, in short, to suggest that they might be friends.
Yes. It was very odd to be so happy about coming back to a person who despised her.
But Asma was strangely comforted by that hatred of her - Hana would never pretend to like her, only for Asma to realize that it was a lie.