Nothing Could Be Heard (Avatar: the Last Airbender)
Title: Nothing Could Be Heard
Author: must_fear_harpy
Prompt: Midwinter Prompt #9 (words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer)
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters & Pairings: Kanna, Pakku
Rating: T
Word Count: 195
Summary: In this place of cold hands and cold hearts, nothing could be heard and nothing could be said.
“I want to leave,” Kanna said.
Maybe he couldn't hear her from his sheer, prideful refusal to listen, to understand, to accept something painful and unexpected. He would have to stop what he was doing and open his mind and open his heart and let her stomp on them, and who could really blame him for not wanting to do that?
Or maybe he didn't hear because the words were not as strong and clear as she intended, as she had practiced, as she had hoped. Her voice faltered and faded, swallowed up in the distance between them by the chilled night that no fire or affection could warm. She was afraid of his vicious reaction, of his wounded response, of the pain she might inflict and see in his eyes. She was afraid of herself, because why did she want to leave? What was she even thinking? What was wrong with her?
“I'm not happy.”
After a moment he looked over his shoulder at her, offered a smile, then turned back to his work.
In this place of cold hands and cold hearts, nothing could be heard and nothing could be said.
Author: must_fear_harpy
Prompt: Midwinter Prompt #9 (words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer)
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters & Pairings: Kanna, Pakku
Rating: T
Word Count: 195
Summary: In this place of cold hands and cold hearts, nothing could be heard and nothing could be said.
“I want to leave,” Kanna said.
Maybe he couldn't hear her from his sheer, prideful refusal to listen, to understand, to accept something painful and unexpected. He would have to stop what he was doing and open his mind and open his heart and let her stomp on them, and who could really blame him for not wanting to do that?
Or maybe he didn't hear because the words were not as strong and clear as she intended, as she had practiced, as she had hoped. Her voice faltered and faded, swallowed up in the distance between them by the chilled night that no fire or affection could warm. She was afraid of his vicious reaction, of his wounded response, of the pain she might inflict and see in his eyes. She was afraid of herself, because why did she want to leave? What was she even thinking? What was wrong with her?
“I'm not happy.”
After a moment he looked over his shoulder at her, offered a smile, then turned back to his work.
In this place of cold hands and cold hearts, nothing could be heard and nothing could be said.