MIRRORMASK fic: One Perfect Sunrise
Title: One Perfect Sunrise
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean created these characters at Henson Studios' prompting. I merely borrow and play with their toys, and own nothing.
Rating: PG
Notes: This is a series of little ficlets that build on each other. In order, they are:
1. Shadow of a Doubt
2. Telling Tales
3. Underwater
4. Trust In Me
For aliaspiral.
Summary: The way from the Borderlands is easy. Helena dreams of the Borderlands, and she knows what she must do.
One Perfect Sunrise
Helena dreams of the Borderlands, and she knows what she must do. The way to the dark castle is easy to find, and there are no obstacles. All is well in the Dark Queen's realm; all is as she wishes it to be. The Princess is a little too quiet, but that is fine. The Dark Queen preferrs the quiet in her room to outright rebellion.
Helena knocks on the door, and the Princess opens it up right away, an expectant look on her face. It falls into a sullen moue as she steps back.
Helen. Her name is Helen now.
"Hullo," Helena murmurs. "Can I come in?"
"Here to poke fun? Watch the girl swan around her room with noplace to go?"
"No."
"Then you can come in."
Helena is dressed in her pajamas, and she feels distinctly humbled by Helen's outfit. She forgot what a dress like that feels like, and forgot the weight that it came with. "I wanted to see how you were doing, Princess."
"Helen," the Princess snaps. "Valentine named me." There's a shrewd look in her eye, and she considers Helena. "You're here because of that, aren't you?"
"I... I never knew your name before. Nobody told me."
"Valentine's mine, you know," Helen hisses. "He's mine, and you can't have him."
"I have my own Valentine where I come from," Helena replies, not put off at all. She remembers James' comments from her waking world. Don't you think you'd be lonely if you were locked up in your room?
Helen paces the length of her room. "So why are you here? If it's not Valentine, why?"
"I dunno. I guess... I wanted to meet you, really meet you."
"You got your life back. What do you need to know?" Helen snaps. She turns her back on Helena, arms crossed. Her hair is swept up, and she looks every inch a Princess.
"Well, you didn't do a good enough job of being me, you know. It's not fair to just take up someone's life. I was trying to change it to what I wanted, too."
Helen whirls around, angry. "You were not! You were arguing with your Mum, same as me. You did nothing with it. I had it, and I was doing something with it!"
"What?" Helena becomes angry, almost impossibly angry. "You were smoking and snogging strange boys and arguing with my father! You didn't do anything right!"
"I was living a life," Helen hisses. "I was doing what I wanted. They couldn't stop me, not like here, not like her."
Helena sits down on an overstuffed armchair. "You hurt them, you know. You hurt both Queens here, you hurt my dad, and you would have hurt my Mum. And I was doing a fine enough job of that on my own. I didn't need your help for that."
"So you're here to yell at me, then? I don't need that. Get out."
Helena looks up. "Have you found anything that makes you happy, Helen?"
The question throws Helen for a loop, and she does notice that Helena had used her name. Her lips open then close as she thinks. Finally, Helen's shoulders slump in defeat. "There used to be a lot of things. Now there's only Valentine. And he hasn't come for me yet." Her lip juts out, and her chin lifts. "He's mine. He belongs to me."
"People don't belong to other people," Helena says softly. "Not like that."
"Tell her that."
"That doesn't make it right," Helena insists. "It's something I realize now. You have to give them a good enough background, then let them go. You have to see them do things on their own. You have to let them try."
"I can't."
"Other than running away, have you tried?"
"Tried what?"
"Seeing if you could be on your own. Seeing if you could run the city."
Helen rolls her eyes. "That won't happen."
"But if you haven't tried, how do you know?"
Helen turns away again, and then moves to the peepholes in her wall. "She's always at a city meeting," she whispered. "She never has time for me. She just tells me what to do, then locks me up when she's done with me. I'm not a person to her. I'm just a thing."
Helena moves toward the holes, and Helen moves aside. The scene looks awfully familiar, and Helena pulls away quickly. "Have you ever helped her?"
"What?"
"Sit in on the meetings. Offer up ideas. Be a part of what she does. It's probably all she knows."
Helen sits on the bed, her skirt hiked up all around her. "I'll look stupid."
"It'll get better."
She shakes her head and looks down at her lap. "She doesn't listen to me, anyway."
"Think of it like jugging. Do you know how to juggle?" Helen shakes her head. "Have Valentine teach you. He's good at it. But there's steps to it. You don't get good at juggling right away. You have to go slowly, learn it bit by bit. And you never look good when you start out. The balls fly everywhere, or you smack your head... But after a while, it gets easier. And then you're doing it, and you can do tricks you never thought you could."
Helen looks up, her lip caught between her teeth. "He said the same thing."
"Valentine?"
Helen nods. "He said it won't happen at once. I'll be free of her in steps."
"He's a wise one sometimes," Helena agrees.
"He gave you to my mother," Helen reminds her.
"Nobody's perfect," Helena replies with a shrug of indifference. "And it all worked out anyway. I can't hold it against him. He did what he could to make it better."
"Do you love him?" Helen asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
Helena hugs the girl that could be her twin. "I love the Valentine I have, the one in my own world. He's waiting for me now. I have to wake up."
Helen's head tilts to the side. "Will you ever come back?"
"Only if you want me to."
After a moment, Helen's head rights itself. "I want you to."
Helena smiles and moves to the door. "So I'll see you again. I'm not sure when, but I will."
She wakes with a smile on her face.
***
Helena met James at the edge of the fairgrounds, and tucked herself inside his embrace. They had set their alarms early so they could watch the sunrise together. "I went to visit her in my dreams," she began without preamble.
"Yeah? How did it go?" James turned to her with a grin. "I see you're here in one piece, so it must have gone all right."
"You were right. She's lonely."
He tightened his embrace. The sky was just beginning to lighten. "So you're going to visit her again, aren't you?"
"I suppose. She said she has Valentine as well."
"Well, it's good to have friends, then."
"I've decided on that computer thing you were talking about."
"Oh?" James turned away from the pink sky. "I thought you were set on going away."
"I can do this first, see if it's all right. I haven't gone to a proper school before, so why should I start now? I might not fit in, besides."
"Ah." He pressed a kiss to her temple and they snuggled in tighter. "I'm glad."
"That I won't fit in?"
"That you're staying here a bit longer," he clarified. "I'd miss you."
It had only been a few months that they had been together. Helena counted the day from their first kiss, but she wasn't sure where James counted it from. She suspected she would find out when he gave her something for their anniversary. He seemed the type to remember important things like that.
"I'm not going anywhere just yet," she murmured. The edge of the sun was just peeking over the horizon. "I like what I've done with my life here. It's gotten better."
James stroked her hair as the sun began to rise. "Because of me?"
"You're a large part of it," Helena said with a grin. She could hear the suppressed laughter in her voice, and she patted him just there. "Isn't that right?"
"Ah, Helena, you can be most cruel," James teased in his best dramatic voice.
They kissed as the sun rose, bright and inviting in the spring morning. "It's like one perfect sunrise," Helena murmured later. "Sometimes you don't see the beauty in it until after. The becoming sometimes is the difficult part to sit through. Sometimes it's the most important thing in the world."
James nuzzled her neck. "You're my sunrise, then."
Helena smiled against his neck, arms wound around him. She knew Helen would be Valentine's, and that was perfectly all right.
Everyone deserved one perfect sunrise in their lifetime.
The End.
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean created these characters at Henson Studios' prompting. I merely borrow and play with their toys, and own nothing.
Rating: PG
Notes: This is a series of little ficlets that build on each other. In order, they are:
1. Shadow of a Doubt
2. Telling Tales
3. Underwater
4. Trust In Me
For aliaspiral.
Summary: The way from the Borderlands is easy. Helena dreams of the Borderlands, and she knows what she must do.
One Perfect Sunrise
Helena dreams of the Borderlands, and she knows what she must do. The way to the dark castle is easy to find, and there are no obstacles. All is well in the Dark Queen's realm; all is as she wishes it to be. The Princess is a little too quiet, but that is fine. The Dark Queen preferrs the quiet in her room to outright rebellion.
Helena knocks on the door, and the Princess opens it up right away, an expectant look on her face. It falls into a sullen moue as she steps back.
Helen. Her name is Helen now.
"Hullo," Helena murmurs. "Can I come in?"
"Here to poke fun? Watch the girl swan around her room with noplace to go?"
"No."
"Then you can come in."
Helena is dressed in her pajamas, and she feels distinctly humbled by Helen's outfit. She forgot what a dress like that feels like, and forgot the weight that it came with. "I wanted to see how you were doing, Princess."
"Helen," the Princess snaps. "Valentine named me." There's a shrewd look in her eye, and she considers Helena. "You're here because of that, aren't you?"
"I... I never knew your name before. Nobody told me."
"Valentine's mine, you know," Helen hisses. "He's mine, and you can't have him."
"I have my own Valentine where I come from," Helena replies, not put off at all. She remembers James' comments from her waking world. Don't you think you'd be lonely if you were locked up in your room?
Helen paces the length of her room. "So why are you here? If it's not Valentine, why?"
"I dunno. I guess... I wanted to meet you, really meet you."
"You got your life back. What do you need to know?" Helen snaps. She turns her back on Helena, arms crossed. Her hair is swept up, and she looks every inch a Princess.
"Well, you didn't do a good enough job of being me, you know. It's not fair to just take up someone's life. I was trying to change it to what I wanted, too."
Helen whirls around, angry. "You were not! You were arguing with your Mum, same as me. You did nothing with it. I had it, and I was doing something with it!"
"What?" Helena becomes angry, almost impossibly angry. "You were smoking and snogging strange boys and arguing with my father! You didn't do anything right!"
"I was living a life," Helen hisses. "I was doing what I wanted. They couldn't stop me, not like here, not like her."
Helena sits down on an overstuffed armchair. "You hurt them, you know. You hurt both Queens here, you hurt my dad, and you would have hurt my Mum. And I was doing a fine enough job of that on my own. I didn't need your help for that."
"So you're here to yell at me, then? I don't need that. Get out."
Helena looks up. "Have you found anything that makes you happy, Helen?"
The question throws Helen for a loop, and she does notice that Helena had used her name. Her lips open then close as she thinks. Finally, Helen's shoulders slump in defeat. "There used to be a lot of things. Now there's only Valentine. And he hasn't come for me yet." Her lip juts out, and her chin lifts. "He's mine. He belongs to me."
"People don't belong to other people," Helena says softly. "Not like that."
"Tell her that."
"That doesn't make it right," Helena insists. "It's something I realize now. You have to give them a good enough background, then let them go. You have to see them do things on their own. You have to let them try."
"I can't."
"Other than running away, have you tried?"
"Tried what?"
"Seeing if you could be on your own. Seeing if you could run the city."
Helen rolls her eyes. "That won't happen."
"But if you haven't tried, how do you know?"
Helen turns away again, and then moves to the peepholes in her wall. "She's always at a city meeting," she whispered. "She never has time for me. She just tells me what to do, then locks me up when she's done with me. I'm not a person to her. I'm just a thing."
Helena moves toward the holes, and Helen moves aside. The scene looks awfully familiar, and Helena pulls away quickly. "Have you ever helped her?"
"What?"
"Sit in on the meetings. Offer up ideas. Be a part of what she does. It's probably all she knows."
Helen sits on the bed, her skirt hiked up all around her. "I'll look stupid."
"It'll get better."
She shakes her head and looks down at her lap. "She doesn't listen to me, anyway."
"Think of it like jugging. Do you know how to juggle?" Helen shakes her head. "Have Valentine teach you. He's good at it. But there's steps to it. You don't get good at juggling right away. You have to go slowly, learn it bit by bit. And you never look good when you start out. The balls fly everywhere, or you smack your head... But after a while, it gets easier. And then you're doing it, and you can do tricks you never thought you could."
Helen looks up, her lip caught between her teeth. "He said the same thing."
"Valentine?"
Helen nods. "He said it won't happen at once. I'll be free of her in steps."
"He's a wise one sometimes," Helena agrees.
"He gave you to my mother," Helen reminds her.
"Nobody's perfect," Helena replies with a shrug of indifference. "And it all worked out anyway. I can't hold it against him. He did what he could to make it better."
"Do you love him?" Helen asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
Helena hugs the girl that could be her twin. "I love the Valentine I have, the one in my own world. He's waiting for me now. I have to wake up."
Helen's head tilts to the side. "Will you ever come back?"
"Only if you want me to."
After a moment, Helen's head rights itself. "I want you to."
Helena smiles and moves to the door. "So I'll see you again. I'm not sure when, but I will."
She wakes with a smile on her face.
***
Helena met James at the edge of the fairgrounds, and tucked herself inside his embrace. They had set their alarms early so they could watch the sunrise together. "I went to visit her in my dreams," she began without preamble.
"Yeah? How did it go?" James turned to her with a grin. "I see you're here in one piece, so it must have gone all right."
"You were right. She's lonely."
He tightened his embrace. The sky was just beginning to lighten. "So you're going to visit her again, aren't you?"
"I suppose. She said she has Valentine as well."
"Well, it's good to have friends, then."
"I've decided on that computer thing you were talking about."
"Oh?" James turned away from the pink sky. "I thought you were set on going away."
"I can do this first, see if it's all right. I haven't gone to a proper school before, so why should I start now? I might not fit in, besides."
"Ah." He pressed a kiss to her temple and they snuggled in tighter. "I'm glad."
"That I won't fit in?"
"That you're staying here a bit longer," he clarified. "I'd miss you."
It had only been a few months that they had been together. Helena counted the day from their first kiss, but she wasn't sure where James counted it from. She suspected she would find out when he gave her something for their anniversary. He seemed the type to remember important things like that.
"I'm not going anywhere just yet," she murmured. The edge of the sun was just peeking over the horizon. "I like what I've done with my life here. It's gotten better."
James stroked her hair as the sun began to rise. "Because of me?"
"You're a large part of it," Helena said with a grin. She could hear the suppressed laughter in her voice, and she patted him just there. "Isn't that right?"
"Ah, Helena, you can be most cruel," James teased in his best dramatic voice.
They kissed as the sun rose, bright and inviting in the spring morning. "It's like one perfect sunrise," Helena murmured later. "Sometimes you don't see the beauty in it until after. The becoming sometimes is the difficult part to sit through. Sometimes it's the most important thing in the world."
James nuzzled her neck. "You're my sunrise, then."
Helena smiled against his neck, arms wound around him. She knew Helen would be Valentine's, and that was perfectly all right.
Everyone deserved one perfect sunrise in their lifetime.
The End.