Five challenge, by Luzula
Title: Five things Benton Fraser learned at the Depot
Author: Luzula
Rating: PG, gen
Length: about 400 words
Notes: This is the first due South story that I've posted. Thank you very kindly to nos4a2no9 for the beta and the encouragement.
1. He learned that some things were embarrassingly difficult. Sleep, that most basic and natural function of the body, eluded him at first. It was not the hard cot that kept him awake but the presence of the other cadets of his troop. The small sliding noises of sheet against skin distracted him, as did the slight snoring from two bunks over.
To sleep was to let go, and he found it hard to do surrounded by eighteen different rhythms of breathing.
2. He learned that some things were surprisingly easy. Many things had always come easily for him: learning poetry by heart, focusing his whole body and mind on hitting a target with a gun, performing complex calculations in his head. What he hadn't known was that these things were hard for others, something they had to work for.
He enjoyed the flash of pride he felt at being at the head of his class, but did not show it.
3. He learned to dissemble. It was not hard, after all, to apply himself to studying those around him like he would a book on anatomy from his grandparents' library. And it was the easiest thing in the world to ward off envy by obliviousness, and avoid unwanted interest with naiveté. In short, to slip into the image of himself as they saw him.
But he never lied.
4. He learned what home was, and what it was not. It was not the city of Regina, where the press of strangers made him shrink inside himself, and where the one-way messages of signs and commercials glared in his eyes. Home was finding your way to the doorstep in winter by dim starlight. Home was the fierce joy of seeing the sun break over the horizon for the first time in weeks, and the quiet bloom of the small flowers of the tundra in the sudden spring.
He remembered, but chose not to think about, his grandparents' neighbors shaking their heads dismissively over "that odd Fraser boy".
5. He learned that he was beautiful. Used to Inuit standards of beauty, the looks and comments of his classmates threw him off balance. He felt his body begin to respond to the kiss of a woman, soft and yielding, and felt confusion when he knew this was not what he wanted. He didn't know what to do with her tears.
When he learned what he did want, he knew he would pursue it with all that was in him.
Author: Luzula
Rating: PG, gen
Length: about 400 words
Notes: This is the first due South story that I've posted. Thank you very kindly to nos4a2no9 for the beta and the encouragement.
1. He learned that some things were embarrassingly difficult. Sleep, that most basic and natural function of the body, eluded him at first. It was not the hard cot that kept him awake but the presence of the other cadets of his troop. The small sliding noises of sheet against skin distracted him, as did the slight snoring from two bunks over.
To sleep was to let go, and he found it hard to do surrounded by eighteen different rhythms of breathing.
2. He learned that some things were surprisingly easy. Many things had always come easily for him: learning poetry by heart, focusing his whole body and mind on hitting a target with a gun, performing complex calculations in his head. What he hadn't known was that these things were hard for others, something they had to work for.
He enjoyed the flash of pride he felt at being at the head of his class, but did not show it.
3. He learned to dissemble. It was not hard, after all, to apply himself to studying those around him like he would a book on anatomy from his grandparents' library. And it was the easiest thing in the world to ward off envy by obliviousness, and avoid unwanted interest with naiveté. In short, to slip into the image of himself as they saw him.
But he never lied.
4. He learned what home was, and what it was not. It was not the city of Regina, where the press of strangers made him shrink inside himself, and where the one-way messages of signs and commercials glared in his eyes. Home was finding your way to the doorstep in winter by dim starlight. Home was the fierce joy of seeing the sun break over the horizon for the first time in weeks, and the quiet bloom of the small flowers of the tundra in the sudden spring.
He remembered, but chose not to think about, his grandparents' neighbors shaking their heads dismissively over "that odd Fraser boy".
5. He learned that he was beautiful. Used to Inuit standards of beauty, the looks and comments of his classmates threw him off balance. He felt his body begin to respond to the kiss of a woman, soft and yielding, and felt confusion when he knew this was not what he wanted. He didn't know what to do with her tears.
When he learned what he did want, he knew he would pursue it with all that was in him.