Brokeback Mountain - Average Man
Uh, this is not Cedric/Viktor or Ron/Draco. I suspect that you can all blame ethrosdemon for throwing me off my HP stride, but maybe this'll make up for it. She's writing Sawyer-fic people (Fate's All About Retrospect). Sawyer/Rusty actually! Johnny Cash Was the Real OG
There's nothing like trying to write a story based on an 18-page novella (that I've lost my version of) and a two-minute movie trailer. Yeah, I put my money where my mouth is. Yee haw.
Brokeback Mountain
Ennis/Jack; Ennis/Alma
Dedicated to obsessedmuch and oxoniensis. My apologies if it sucks.
Average Man
Ennis Del Mar is an average man. He's not rich, but thankfully, he's not too poor either. He can, at least, afford to buy himself cigarettes and keep food in the mouths of his kids, so he's doing good on that end.
Ennis isn't the smartest guy ever, but he's not as dumb as a sack of rocks, which makes him better off than his cotton-headed ass of a boss. He wishes he could've stuck out the school thing, but there were mortgages to pay, and crops and stuff.
People without parents don't really get to choose their lots in life.
People who drive beat-down trucks, and eat all kinds of dried beef and stone biscuits, probably aren't going home to silk sheets or whatever stuff fancy people get up to at night.
Ennis doesn't know a lot about how the other half live besides what he read about in school before his eyes got too bad with his vision and all, but he's got a good imagination, and that's good for a lot of entertainment sometimes.
Hell, Ennis knows that life could've been a lot worse than whatever he's got going right now.
Yeah, okay, working as a ranch-hand ain't exactly travelling the world and seeing the natives in Spain, but Ennis isn't the most ambitious guy on earth. He doesn't require a lot of expensive stuff and elaborate planning.
Ennis doesn't require much of anything three hundred and some odd days of the year. He only needs a week at a time, honestly.
*
There's nothing extraordinary about Ennis. Everything about him is pretty uneventful and plain; his hair, his face, his height. His legs are kinda scrawny, and he's got a scar on his temple from where he fell off a horse one time. Hell, even his dick isn't that big. Not that Ennis has been looking at a lot of dicks or anything; he's not that kind of guy, but he's not that thick.
All things considered, Ennis reckons he isn't swinging much more than anybody else out there. If Ennis had guy friends, he'd probably know more about this kind of stuff, as it stands though, Ennis is pretty much a loner, except for when Jack comes to town. Of course, without Jack, Ennis is just as regular as everyone else.
*
Ennis reminds himself of his regularness every time it rains. His lip swells up where Jack punched him that one time, and Ennis wound up sprawled to the ground, gravel embedded under his fingernails.
As far as Ennis can tell, all his memories off Jack Twist start with "That one time…"
*
Ennis gets up in the morning, yawns, scratches, and ambles into the kitchen to eat the breakfast his wife makes him.
The eggs are lukewarm, and more often than not the coffee is over boiled, but Alma makes good bacon; it's crispy, and that makes being married to her an all right deal. She's given him two daughters too, and that's -- that's real good.
Ennis' never gave much thought to being a father, but it's happened, and it’s turned out pretty good all things considered. Three hundred and fifty-odd days of the year, he's a decent father. Not below average, not above, just somewhere in the middle. The same can be said for his status as a husband, but Alma must've known what she was getting ahead of time, because she's no blue ribbon herself. She's not too pretty, but she's not too plain either. She's not real smart, and she doesn't get Ennis blood all hot and stuff, but she's passable.
Alma's just average too.
*
Alma doesn't like sleeping with Ennis; she says she gave him two daughters 'the right way,' and whenever he tries to touch her she goes to sleep on the sofa. Ennis doesn't apologize for what he does, because it's what he knows how to do, and Jack never complained. He knows Alma's not Jack, but Alma's what he's got, and he's doing what he can to make this work. He's not perfect; no one is.
If Ennis were perfect he never would've let Jack get away in the first place.
If Ennis were perfect, he never would've met Jack at all.
*
When you get right down to it, the only thing that makes Ennis different is Jack. Ennis doesn't do stuff with other guys -- just Jack -- he really only wants Jack, but Ennis does his best not to think about Jack too much, because Jack Twist doesn't fit in real well with his regular life.
Jack doesn't mix with work, or bills, or Alma giving him the dirty eye when he gets out his fishing box and makes like he knows how to use the stuff in there.
*
Sometimes, Ennis forgets that he settled for all this averageness.
Sometimes, he sits out on the porch late at night, rolls himself a smoke, closes his eyes, and feels the breeze seeping under his clothes and against his skin, like he's back up on top of Brokeback Mountain.
He thinks of Jack curled up next to him on the grass, his hand curled just over Ennis' hip as they sleep underneath thousands of stars, and Ennis will feel something so close to peace that his heart will skip a beat. And then a car'll pass by, or one of the girls will cry out in the middle of the night, and Ennis will remember the story of the guys with the tire irons, and he'll think he's glad that he chose this average life.
-end-
There's nothing like trying to write a story based on an 18-page novella (that I've lost my version of) and a two-minute movie trailer. Yeah, I put my money where my mouth is. Yee haw.
Brokeback Mountain
Ennis/Jack; Ennis/Alma
Dedicated to obsessedmuch and oxoniensis. My apologies if it sucks.
Average Man
Ennis Del Mar is an average man. He's not rich, but thankfully, he's not too poor either. He can, at least, afford to buy himself cigarettes and keep food in the mouths of his kids, so he's doing good on that end.
Ennis isn't the smartest guy ever, but he's not as dumb as a sack of rocks, which makes him better off than his cotton-headed ass of a boss. He wishes he could've stuck out the school thing, but there were mortgages to pay, and crops and stuff.
People without parents don't really get to choose their lots in life.
People who drive beat-down trucks, and eat all kinds of dried beef and stone biscuits, probably aren't going home to silk sheets or whatever stuff fancy people get up to at night.
Ennis doesn't know a lot about how the other half live besides what he read about in school before his eyes got too bad with his vision and all, but he's got a good imagination, and that's good for a lot of entertainment sometimes.
Hell, Ennis knows that life could've been a lot worse than whatever he's got going right now.
Yeah, okay, working as a ranch-hand ain't exactly travelling the world and seeing the natives in Spain, but Ennis isn't the most ambitious guy on earth. He doesn't require a lot of expensive stuff and elaborate planning.
Ennis doesn't require much of anything three hundred and some odd days of the year. He only needs a week at a time, honestly.
*
There's nothing extraordinary about Ennis. Everything about him is pretty uneventful and plain; his hair, his face, his height. His legs are kinda scrawny, and he's got a scar on his temple from where he fell off a horse one time. Hell, even his dick isn't that big. Not that Ennis has been looking at a lot of dicks or anything; he's not that kind of guy, but he's not that thick.
All things considered, Ennis reckons he isn't swinging much more than anybody else out there. If Ennis had guy friends, he'd probably know more about this kind of stuff, as it stands though, Ennis is pretty much a loner, except for when Jack comes to town. Of course, without Jack, Ennis is just as regular as everyone else.
*
Ennis reminds himself of his regularness every time it rains. His lip swells up where Jack punched him that one time, and Ennis wound up sprawled to the ground, gravel embedded under his fingernails.
As far as Ennis can tell, all his memories off Jack Twist start with "That one time…"
*
Ennis gets up in the morning, yawns, scratches, and ambles into the kitchen to eat the breakfast his wife makes him.
The eggs are lukewarm, and more often than not the coffee is over boiled, but Alma makes good bacon; it's crispy, and that makes being married to her an all right deal. She's given him two daughters too, and that's -- that's real good.
Ennis' never gave much thought to being a father, but it's happened, and it’s turned out pretty good all things considered. Three hundred and fifty-odd days of the year, he's a decent father. Not below average, not above, just somewhere in the middle. The same can be said for his status as a husband, but Alma must've known what she was getting ahead of time, because she's no blue ribbon herself. She's not too pretty, but she's not too plain either. She's not real smart, and she doesn't get Ennis blood all hot and stuff, but she's passable.
Alma's just average too.
*
Alma doesn't like sleeping with Ennis; she says she gave him two daughters 'the right way,' and whenever he tries to touch her she goes to sleep on the sofa. Ennis doesn't apologize for what he does, because it's what he knows how to do, and Jack never complained. He knows Alma's not Jack, but Alma's what he's got, and he's doing what he can to make this work. He's not perfect; no one is.
If Ennis were perfect he never would've let Jack get away in the first place.
If Ennis were perfect, he never would've met Jack at all.
*
When you get right down to it, the only thing that makes Ennis different is Jack. Ennis doesn't do stuff with other guys -- just Jack -- he really only wants Jack, but Ennis does his best not to think about Jack too much, because Jack Twist doesn't fit in real well with his regular life.
Jack doesn't mix with work, or bills, or Alma giving him the dirty eye when he gets out his fishing box and makes like he knows how to use the stuff in there.
*
Sometimes, Ennis forgets that he settled for all this averageness.
Sometimes, he sits out on the porch late at night, rolls himself a smoke, closes his eyes, and feels the breeze seeping under his clothes and against his skin, like he's back up on top of Brokeback Mountain.
He thinks of Jack curled up next to him on the grass, his hand curled just over Ennis' hip as they sleep underneath thousands of stars, and Ennis will feel something so close to peace that his heart will skip a beat. And then a car'll pass by, or one of the girls will cry out in the middle of the night, and Ennis will remember the story of the guys with the tire irons, and he'll think he's glad that he chose this average life.
-end-