Where Wind and Water Meet - Prologue
Title: Where Wind and Water Meet
Artist: morph0fairy
Author: firefly_ca
Rating (art/fic if different): PG
Word Count: 24K
Warnings (if any): Major character death wrapped up in magic realism.
Fic Summary: Inspired by/loosely based on George MacDonald's At The Back of the North Wind. Blaine has never behaved the way normal children do and has always been too quiet and detached from the world around him. Everything changes the day he meets a strange boy named Kurt with the ability to change his appearance and who says he can control the wind. Blaine doesn't know why, but it feels like he's known Kurt forever. AU, but not totally detached from the Glee universe.
Prologue
In many ways, Blaine Anderson never was quite right. As a baby he was always too quiet, too happy to lie still and watch the world around him with large eyes; never crying, never laughing. It worried his parents and they took him to doctor after doctor, certain there was something wrong, trying to test his hearing and intelligence, even before he learned how to talk. But nothing out of the ordinary was ever found. He just didn't fit. It bothered his older brother, too, even though Cooper pretended he didn't care. Some mornings his parents would find him curled up on the floor beside Blaine's crib, where he had fallen asleep, watching, making sure his silent brother didn't need anything in the night, trying to protect the little body that didn't seem interested in protecting itself. For years Blaine was the first person friends and family wanted to ask about when they caught up with the Andersons, and the last one they asked after. No one knew what could be done for him. And then, when Blaine was five, everything changed. When Blaine was five, he met Kurt.
It happened one night during a terrible storm that was still raging after two whole days. It rattled the windows and screamed through the trees, and left Cooper shaking, although he'd never admit it. He'd never heard the wind sound so angry before, at times even thinking that the house was going to fall over. A crash, the sound of glass breaking from Blaine's room sent him running towards his brother. He knew that Blaine would never call out if he had gotten hurt, even though he had gotten so much better at talking lately. The wind had died down a little when Cooper reached Blaine at the same time as their parents, but it was still howling fiercely when they opened the door and saw him, sitting straight up in bed, looking at the window with a shocked expression.
"Blaine, are you alright?" Cooper demanded anxiously.
"That boy broke my window," Blaine spluttered, sounding more outraged and emotional than Cooper had ever heard.
"What do you mean, sweetie?" Their mother asked, cautiously.
"A boy grabbed that branch and pushed it through my window," Blaine spat out, as he pointed at the offending branch from the nearby tree that had indeed crashed through the window, sending shattered glass all through the room. Cooper felt his mother's hand on his shoulder, stopping him from walking any further in bare feet.
"No one could throw a branch through your window, Blaine," Cooper said. "Not so you could see him do it. You're on the second floor. It was probably the wind, right Dad?"
"No," Blaine insisted, his little face full of indignation. "It was the boy. He knocked on my window to come in and when I told him it was rude to come into a house through a window, he took the branch and he threw it. He ran away, and he is a bad boy and I never want to see him ever again."
"I think you were dreaming, sport," their dad sounded cautious, probably because he'd never seen Blaine so excited before. "Sometimes your mind thinks you see something when you're tired, but it's not there at all. It was just your imagination. Now stay in your bed and don't put your feet down until we've found a way to clean this up."
Blaine changed after that. Suddenly he fit in more with his family, more willing to interact with them, and Cooper didn't have to worry about him the same way that he used to. His eyes lit up more when people spoke to him, like he was finally able to recognize them as people. Sometimes he even laughed, and it was the nicest sound Cooper had ever heard, like a song that no one else has listened to before. He hardly ever laughed when other people tried to make him, though, and sometimes that made Cooper sad, because it meant that for as much as Blaine had improved, he still didn't really belong. When Blaine laughed, it was at the joke that no one else heard, or the wonderful moment everyone else always just missed seeing out of the corner of their eye. It was like there were things hidden in the air only he saw, his eyes shining and some unknown joy suddenly spilling out of him. Still, Cooper was always tried to be glad that Blaine was happy at all, that he stopped acting like a picture to be looked at and held, but only an imitation of something real. At least his brother wasn't just watching everyone else live anymore, which was all Cooper ever wanted. He soon forgot all about the strange boy Blaine claimed broke through his window in a fit of anger. Blaine never forgot. The boy never went away.
To Masterpost | To Chapter 1
Artist: morph0fairy
Author: firefly_ca
Rating (art/fic if different): PG
Word Count: 24K
Warnings (if any): Major character death wrapped up in magic realism.
Fic Summary: Inspired by/loosely based on George MacDonald's At The Back of the North Wind. Blaine has never behaved the way normal children do and has always been too quiet and detached from the world around him. Everything changes the day he meets a strange boy named Kurt with the ability to change his appearance and who says he can control the wind. Blaine doesn't know why, but it feels like he's known Kurt forever. AU, but not totally detached from the Glee universe.
Prologue
In many ways, Blaine Anderson never was quite right. As a baby he was always too quiet, too happy to lie still and watch the world around him with large eyes; never crying, never laughing. It worried his parents and they took him to doctor after doctor, certain there was something wrong, trying to test his hearing and intelligence, even before he learned how to talk. But nothing out of the ordinary was ever found. He just didn't fit. It bothered his older brother, too, even though Cooper pretended he didn't care. Some mornings his parents would find him curled up on the floor beside Blaine's crib, where he had fallen asleep, watching, making sure his silent brother didn't need anything in the night, trying to protect the little body that didn't seem interested in protecting itself. For years Blaine was the first person friends and family wanted to ask about when they caught up with the Andersons, and the last one they asked after. No one knew what could be done for him. And then, when Blaine was five, everything changed. When Blaine was five, he met Kurt.
It happened one night during a terrible storm that was still raging after two whole days. It rattled the windows and screamed through the trees, and left Cooper shaking, although he'd never admit it. He'd never heard the wind sound so angry before, at times even thinking that the house was going to fall over. A crash, the sound of glass breaking from Blaine's room sent him running towards his brother. He knew that Blaine would never call out if he had gotten hurt, even though he had gotten so much better at talking lately. The wind had died down a little when Cooper reached Blaine at the same time as their parents, but it was still howling fiercely when they opened the door and saw him, sitting straight up in bed, looking at the window with a shocked expression.
"Blaine, are you alright?" Cooper demanded anxiously.
"That boy broke my window," Blaine spluttered, sounding more outraged and emotional than Cooper had ever heard.
"What do you mean, sweetie?" Their mother asked, cautiously.
"A boy grabbed that branch and pushed it through my window," Blaine spat out, as he pointed at the offending branch from the nearby tree that had indeed crashed through the window, sending shattered glass all through the room. Cooper felt his mother's hand on his shoulder, stopping him from walking any further in bare feet.
"No one could throw a branch through your window, Blaine," Cooper said. "Not so you could see him do it. You're on the second floor. It was probably the wind, right Dad?"
"No," Blaine insisted, his little face full of indignation. "It was the boy. He knocked on my window to come in and when I told him it was rude to come into a house through a window, he took the branch and he threw it. He ran away, and he is a bad boy and I never want to see him ever again."
"I think you were dreaming, sport," their dad sounded cautious, probably because he'd never seen Blaine so excited before. "Sometimes your mind thinks you see something when you're tired, but it's not there at all. It was just your imagination. Now stay in your bed and don't put your feet down until we've found a way to clean this up."
Blaine changed after that. Suddenly he fit in more with his family, more willing to interact with them, and Cooper didn't have to worry about him the same way that he used to. His eyes lit up more when people spoke to him, like he was finally able to recognize them as people. Sometimes he even laughed, and it was the nicest sound Cooper had ever heard, like a song that no one else has listened to before. He hardly ever laughed when other people tried to make him, though, and sometimes that made Cooper sad, because it meant that for as much as Blaine had improved, he still didn't really belong. When Blaine laughed, it was at the joke that no one else heard, or the wonderful moment everyone else always just missed seeing out of the corner of their eye. It was like there were things hidden in the air only he saw, his eyes shining and some unknown joy suddenly spilling out of him. Still, Cooper was always tried to be glad that Blaine was happy at all, that he stopped acting like a picture to be looked at and held, but only an imitation of something real. At least his brother wasn't just watching everyone else live anymore, which was all Cooper ever wanted. He soon forgot all about the strange boy Blaine claimed broke through his window in a fit of anger. Blaine never forgot. The boy never went away.
To Masterpost | To Chapter 1