FICTION: Apples Close to the Tree (You Are What You Hate)
Apples Close to the Tree (You Are What You Hate)
Fandom/Characters: Kyle Valenti (Roswell)
Summary: Kyle never thought he’d see her again but he didn’t think he’d turn into her either. (Post-finale.)
Rating: PG / Word Count: 644
Notes: One of these days I'll come up with a title that has less than 195,502 words and won't have parenthesis, but until that day you're stuck with ones like this. Overlooking that, I wrote Kyle!Fic! How exciting is that?! I have a feeling there will be loads more to come but, in the meantime, please leave me feedback, good or bad. I’m still a little unsure about the characterization. Feedback = crack, people!
- - - -
He sees his mom when they're living in Denver.
It's just another city on their quest to blend in and they aren't there long, but one day he's leaving a convenience store during his lunch break and sees her from across the street.
Her hair is dyed red and she's shorter than he remembers, or at least she looks that way from afar. There's thirty feet between them but he would know that face anywhere. After all the time that's passed, it's hard for him to believe that these are the circumstances in which their paths cross again.
He's on the run from the law with a fake name he's still getting used to and alien powers he doesn't think he'll ever get the hang of. She's with her new husband and has a small child to complete the picture.
He watches from his place on the sidewalk as they get into a minivan with smiles on their faces and laughs falling from their lips. They look like the ideal family, with her playing the part of the perfect mother. A casual observer would never guess that she had abandoned her first husband and son in a dusty place called Roswell, New Mexico.
It’s been more than a decade and a half since she left them but Kyle never thought he would see her again. He never tried to convince himself that she would come back, not even on the first night when he saw her missing toothbrush and found his dad sitting on the corner of their bed with his head in his hands. The fighting had been too loud for months and their love for each other had been growing fainter for years. He knew one of them would have to leave eventually and that it wouldn’t be his dad.
He didn’t doubt the fact that his mother had loved him once, it was just a given that she would leave to start a new life without him at some point. It was her style.
When things got rough, she threw out anything imperfect and started over from the beginning instead of trying to fix what she already had. The few times a year she cooked, she did it from scratch. When she cleaned, she cleaned the whole house from top to bottom and left boxes upon boxes marked ‘Goodwill‘ in her wake. She didn't do anything halfway and she didn't carry around reminders. So the night she left, he left behind the hope that she would ever come back.
After she drives away in the red minivan that matches her red hair that's new enough to match her new family, he gets into his car and leaves too.
He spends the day telling himself that he couldn't contact her even if he wanted to (he doesn't) and, three weeks later, Michael the Hothead gets them into trouble again. The six of them pack into their hippie van for another fresh start with just the clothes on their backs and a duffle bag each.
It’s the tenth or twentieth time they’ve done the dance but instead of it being an annoyance, Kyle takes comfort in the fact that every life he lives is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. It makes screwing up or embarrassing himself a little more bearable and gives him the courage to take yet another dead end job fixing cars or pushing a mop.
He actually likes getting to create a new identity and always makes up a big detailed back-story like he used to do with his action figures as a kid. Even when they’re only weeks into a new life, he finds himself thinking of new ideas and making mental notes to remember those for the next town. It’s his own way of making a wandering life a bit more bearable.
He pretends to not see the similarities between himself and the woman who stopped being his mother a decade ago.
Fandom/Characters: Kyle Valenti (Roswell)
Summary: Kyle never thought he’d see her again but he didn’t think he’d turn into her either. (Post-finale.)
Rating: PG / Word Count: 644
Notes: One of these days I'll come up with a title that has less than 195,502 words and won't have parenthesis, but until that day you're stuck with ones like this. Overlooking that, I wrote Kyle!Fic! How exciting is that?! I have a feeling there will be loads more to come but, in the meantime, please leave me feedback, good or bad. I’m still a little unsure about the characterization. Feedback = crack, people!
- - - -
He sees his mom when they're living in Denver.
It's just another city on their quest to blend in and they aren't there long, but one day he's leaving a convenience store during his lunch break and sees her from across the street.
Her hair is dyed red and she's shorter than he remembers, or at least she looks that way from afar. There's thirty feet between them but he would know that face anywhere. After all the time that's passed, it's hard for him to believe that these are the circumstances in which their paths cross again.
He's on the run from the law with a fake name he's still getting used to and alien powers he doesn't think he'll ever get the hang of. She's with her new husband and has a small child to complete the picture.
He watches from his place on the sidewalk as they get into a minivan with smiles on their faces and laughs falling from their lips. They look like the ideal family, with her playing the part of the perfect mother. A casual observer would never guess that she had abandoned her first husband and son in a dusty place called Roswell, New Mexico.
It’s been more than a decade and a half since she left them but Kyle never thought he would see her again. He never tried to convince himself that she would come back, not even on the first night when he saw her missing toothbrush and found his dad sitting on the corner of their bed with his head in his hands. The fighting had been too loud for months and their love for each other had been growing fainter for years. He knew one of them would have to leave eventually and that it wouldn’t be his dad.
He didn’t doubt the fact that his mother had loved him once, it was just a given that she would leave to start a new life without him at some point. It was her style.
When things got rough, she threw out anything imperfect and started over from the beginning instead of trying to fix what she already had. The few times a year she cooked, she did it from scratch. When she cleaned, she cleaned the whole house from top to bottom and left boxes upon boxes marked ‘Goodwill‘ in her wake. She didn't do anything halfway and she didn't carry around reminders. So the night she left, he left behind the hope that she would ever come back.
After she drives away in the red minivan that matches her red hair that's new enough to match her new family, he gets into his car and leaves too.
He spends the day telling himself that he couldn't contact her even if he wanted to (he doesn't) and, three weeks later, Michael the Hothead gets them into trouble again. The six of them pack into their hippie van for another fresh start with just the clothes on their backs and a duffle bag each.
It’s the tenth or twentieth time they’ve done the dance but instead of it being an annoyance, Kyle takes comfort in the fact that every life he lives is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. It makes screwing up or embarrassing himself a little more bearable and gives him the courage to take yet another dead end job fixing cars or pushing a mop.
He actually likes getting to create a new identity and always makes up a big detailed back-story like he used to do with his action figures as a kid. Even when they’re only weeks into a new life, he finds himself thinking of new ideas and making mental notes to remember those for the next town. It’s his own way of making a wandering life a bit more bearable.
He pretends to not see the similarities between himself and the woman who stopped being his mother a decade ago.