FEELING ELECTRIC: Easy Explanations and the Lack Thereof
Title: Easy Explanations and the Lack Thereof
Characters/Pairing: Natalie/Gabriel
Word Count: 400
Rating: Natalie/Gabriel
Summary: Some things, Natalie can find an easy explanation for. Some, she really can't.
Notes: Written for various writing_game prompts.
Disclaimer: I don't own Feeling Electric. God, how I wish I did.
i.
Natalie scraped bark delicately from the tree with the point of her knife, tilting her head to study the contrast between the bark and the paler wood underneath. Other kids scraped hearts and initials in the side of trees. Natalie carved pills into her trees.
She dabbed her finger against the carving, played with the sticky sap between finger and thumb, and jumped and nearly accidentally stabbed herself when a voice behind her said, "Mom'd be pissed if she knew you were playing with knives."
Natalie bristled, hearing the voice she hadn't since she was a kid, but didn't turn. "Mom's gone."
ii.
At first she'd only heard him, and that she could explain away as just... an overactive imagination, being high, whatever. But when she starts seeing him...
He's standing in the hallway at school, halfway down the hall so she can't see him clearly, except that it's him, she knows - the same imaginary brother she used to play with when she was little. He's standing on the corner when she's walking down the street, vanishes when a car passes between him. He's sitting on her bed when she comes home, cross-legged, smiling at her.
That's when she knows she's really come unhinged.
iii.
A chill ran down her spine, and Natalie jumped a little, almost tumbling out of bed as she came awake all at once. And then she rolled over to see that the chill hadn't been a chill at all, just Gabriel running a hand down her bare back while she slept.
She gathered her sheets around herself, pulling them up to cover herself. She noticed that even though Gabriel seemed to be sitting on the blankets, he didn't make a dent on them, and she could pull them out from under him without difficulty.
"What're you doing here?" she whispered.
"I got lonely."
iv.
It doesn't escape Natalie's notice when she's screwing Tweak, that he looks exactly like her brother. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe she really is crazy, and her brain decided subconsciously that Gabriel looked like Tweak. Maybe because her mother thought he was Gabriel once, she picked that up somewhere in the back of her mind.
It also doesn't escape her notice that sometimes this light enters his eyes that's not quite Tweak. It's softer, gentler, sweeter. It's almost like love, hard as it is for her to accept or believe that, and she can't come up with any easy explanations for that.
Characters/Pairing: Natalie/Gabriel
Word Count: 400
Rating: Natalie/Gabriel
Summary: Some things, Natalie can find an easy explanation for. Some, she really can't.
Notes: Written for various writing_game prompts.
Disclaimer: I don't own Feeling Electric. God, how I wish I did.
i.
Natalie scraped bark delicately from the tree with the point of her knife, tilting her head to study the contrast between the bark and the paler wood underneath. Other kids scraped hearts and initials in the side of trees. Natalie carved pills into her trees.
She dabbed her finger against the carving, played with the sticky sap between finger and thumb, and jumped and nearly accidentally stabbed herself when a voice behind her said, "Mom'd be pissed if she knew you were playing with knives."
Natalie bristled, hearing the voice she hadn't since she was a kid, but didn't turn. "Mom's gone."
ii.
At first she'd only heard him, and that she could explain away as just... an overactive imagination, being high, whatever. But when she starts seeing him...
He's standing in the hallway at school, halfway down the hall so she can't see him clearly, except that it's him, she knows - the same imaginary brother she used to play with when she was little. He's standing on the corner when she's walking down the street, vanishes when a car passes between him. He's sitting on her bed when she comes home, cross-legged, smiling at her.
That's when she knows she's really come unhinged.
iii.
A chill ran down her spine, and Natalie jumped a little, almost tumbling out of bed as she came awake all at once. And then she rolled over to see that the chill hadn't been a chill at all, just Gabriel running a hand down her bare back while she slept.
She gathered her sheets around herself, pulling them up to cover herself. She noticed that even though Gabriel seemed to be sitting on the blankets, he didn't make a dent on them, and she could pull them out from under him without difficulty.
"What're you doing here?" she whispered.
"I got lonely."
iv.
It doesn't escape Natalie's notice when she's screwing Tweak, that he looks exactly like her brother. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe she really is crazy, and her brain decided subconsciously that Gabriel looked like Tweak. Maybe because her mother thought he was Gabriel once, she picked that up somewhere in the back of her mind.
It also doesn't escape her notice that sometimes this light enters his eyes that's not quite Tweak. It's softer, gentler, sweeter. It's almost like love, hard as it is for her to accept or believe that, and she can't come up with any easy explanations for that.